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capesandshapes · 3 years

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All You Had To Do Was Stay (Adrienette) (2/4)

Summary:

Three years ago, Marinette revealed her identity to him. Three years ago, he promised to wait in a hotel room for her. Three years ago, she opened the door to find it empty.

Now she's expected to play nice with him, since she's the maid of honor and he's unfortunately the best man. But old habits die hard, and old feelings die harder.

"This is a wedding, not a death march, Marinette."

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They had gone overboard.

Marinette had one job, and they had gone overboard.

Okay, she had five jobs—but at the moment it felt like only one, and at the moment, that job was completely and utterly failed.

Every single surface of the bakery was covered in cakes. Every godly combination of cake, every possible frosting, every style of decoration, every type of vanilla—And that wasn’t even the end of it.

No! Because what if, at the very last moment, Alya and Nino had needed cupcakes or a pie or a tarte. Were they sure they didn’t want cookies? They could include them in the gift bags! And savory cakes weren’t off the table either, Marinette’s father reassured them that he could stay up the whole night and bake enough for Paris if they needed.

Not to mention the eight boxes on the counter behind Marinette—She’d been looking thin! This past week Tom had been worried that she’d been depressed—Never mind the fact that she was—and his little girl needed her favorite treats… Which meant every sweet she had ever so much as smiled at, and so many dumplings that Marinette would have to freeze them and eat them for months to come. Nino and Alya had similar offerings behind them.

Nino and Alya also had strained looks on their faces.

The cake tasting had gone over an hour later than it was supposed to, and there was no possible way out. Nino checked his smartwatch a thousand times, but every attempt he made at opening his mouth found his plate refilled.

“I just love weddings,” Marinette’s father proclaimed, tears in the corners of his eyes.

Marinette couldn’t miss the soft mumble of her mother trying to calm him, “someday, Tom.” She did her best to eat then, if only to soothe the two of them.

Her parents didn’t know what had happened between her and Adrien, only that one day he was there and the next day he jetted out of Paris. It was better that it stayed that way, god forbid they found out. She didn’t want to be there the moment that her father realized; she didn’t think she could stand to have him look at her afterwards.

He always wanted the world to be good to her, and she didn’t have the heart to tell him that it hadn’t been. That she’d faced monsters he couldn’t imagine and had skirted the line between life and death as a hero of Paris. That was one secret he would never know.

“I really do have to go, Mister Dupain,” Nino tried for the hundredth time as her dad placed four more slices on his plate. “There’s this thing and I… I mean, I can’t leave my dude waiting.”

“You could invite them here,” Tom said, serving Alya a slice of spiced rum cake. The young woman teetered between blissful and concerned. “Like I always say, the more the merrier.”

“Yeah, that’s like, a completely valid statement in some cases but…” Nino trailed off, flinching. Her dad frowned. “I mean, it’s not you! Definitely not you guys, you’re amazing—Marinette is amazing!” He quickly added. “It’s just one of those things…”

“We’re not hip anymore, or they don’t like cake?” Tom pushed. “Because I have croissants, croquettes, even a quiche or two! If they’re gluten intolerant, I have a whole spread!”

“No, no! He loves your stuff!” Nino immediately flinched the moment he said it.

The gears began to turn in her father’s head at the same time Marinette nearly choked on her slice of cake. “Adrien!” His face lit up with familiarity, making the obvious guess since the blond’s return was the talk of Paris. “It’s been so long since we’ve seen him, honey!” He immediately turned to her mother, and Marinette could see him quickly begin to recall the young man’s order.

“Three years,” Marinette finally butted in, supplementing the information her father would no doubt demand to know. “It’s been three years.”

“He must have gotten so skinny,” her father said with an edge of concern, “Sabine, we should make a box!” Her mother was already ahead of him.

Alya butted in, swallowing the remainder of her cake in one bite. “I mean, he’s still a model, maybe he shouldn’t come. I mean, the temptation, the…” She looked to Marinette to supplement, all the woman could do was vigorously nod her head, “carbs.” Alya winced.

“Nonsense, everyone knows those diets aren’t healthy,” Sabine began.

“He’s really into them,” Alya insisted.

“Well,” Sabine continued, fully dedicated to the idea of helping such a poor, starving model, “we’ll fix that. Call him up.”

“That’s…”

“—I’m sure Marinette wants to see him,” Sabine finished.

Oh, how utterly wrong she was. “Call him,” Marinette said, trying to make the strange way that she pulled back her lips look more like a smile than a wince of pain, “what’s the worst that could happen?”

****************

The worst that could happen was that he could show up. And he did.

And suddenly, there he was. Adrien. Standing in her parents’ shop door, a familiar blue scarf around his neck tied almost as tightly as her father’s arms were wrapped around him. Laughing, smiling, acting like nothing had happened and like he hadn’t been gone for three years.

Until he saw her.

“You sit next to Marinette, Adrien,” Sabine insisted, “we don’t want to break up the lovebirds.”

She swore she saw him swallow.

He looked different in real life compared to his Instagram posts, she was pleased to see. They’d erased the small bags underneath his eyes, the creasing beginning to form between his brows, and that persistent memory of a smile that hung on his lips even when he was meaning to look stoic and thoughtful. She was a little thankful for it, because that meant that the man she sometimes looked at in the middle of the night, that she spent far too much time on, was fake. She wasn’t crying over the real Adrien Agreste while he was lounging on a beach somewhere with flawless skin and a perfect smile.

“It’s been a long time, Marinette,” he said as he settled beside her, his voice soft and almost inaudible. She couldn’t place the tone of it.

“Whose fault is that,” her response was sarcastic and the smile she put on for her parents’ sake was fake. She’d rather he sat in a dumpster outside.

He winced.

“So,” Tom carried on, loading up a plate for Adrien to the point that Marinette was almost afraid of it cracking, “New York, Berlin, Rome, Moscow, and Sydney! You’re really well-traveled now, Adrien, I’m a little jealous! I’m afraid to say that I didn’t pin you for a globetrotter, but maybe I was a little wrong in that! You’ve done some really impressive things these past years.”

“Yeah,” he said, accepting the plate from Tom with a gracious nod, “I’ve really gone out there, but I’m happy to be home. I always tell everyone that my heart is in Paris. I was sad to leave it.”

“So, you’ll be staying around then?” Sabine perked up.

“For a few months, maybe if I’m lucky a few years,” he said. “It really depends on how things go.” Looking down at his plate, Adrien said, “I sort of left a lot of things up in the air when I left Paris.”

If there was a word for the look Marinette shot him out of the corner of her eye, it was poisonous.

It was Tom’s turn to speak again, he continued his interrogation of Adrien as Sabine shot her daughter a questioning look, and Alya gave Marinette a warning kick from her seat a few inches away. “So, what’s on the checklist while you’re here? Any sights you have to see, things you have to do, friends you have to check in with?”

All anger melted away, dissolving into the utterly terrifying sea of embarrassment. Alya’s eyes widened in mock horror as the color left Marinette’s face, the way he said friends let there be no mistake, her father was going to try to wingman for her.

“I think most of his friends are gone by now—” Marinette quickly interrupted.

“Well, I have my father’s house to sell, I’d like to check in with a few victims of akumatization, and—” he paused at her statement, his eyes quickly looking over to her and catching her gaze for a split second. “I had some friends I wanted to check in,” he said, his tongue wetting his lips in an awkward show of unease.

“Had,” Marinette emphasized, drawing the line.

“Had,” Adrien repeated, a flicker of curiosity in his eyes. He sat up a little straighter, looking back to the Dupain-Chengs. “It’s been a long time.” Indeed, it had been.

*****************

Somehow they made it through all the cakes, her parents sending each home with an additional box of their favorites so that they could be absolutely sure of their selections. Alya and Nino went home together, and there was an option for Marinette to stay at her parents, but one look at her mother’s eyes roaming over her like a crime scene and Marinette knew she wouldn’t take it.

She always liked the walk home anyway, and her parents wanted to speak to Adrien a little longer. So, giving the slightest of waves, she walked out.

She only realized what an awful choice that was minutes later, when she heard the pounding of pavement behind her and a familiar voice calling her name. “Hey, Marinette, wait up!” Adrien.

Maybe if she pretended not to hear it, he would go away.

He did not go away.

“Marinette!”

“I should have just stayed home, I should have just slept in my childhood bed,” Marinette mumbled, cursing the fact that she didn’t live near a tourist destination where she could easily vanish into the crowds. No, instead she was walking down a quiet, empty street; one where it was impossible to ignore him.

“Hey,” he said when he finally caught up to her, and she clenched her eyes shut as tightly as possible as if that would somehow make him go away.

Hey, that was what he had to say? Three years and she gets a hey? “Hey,” she said back, her voice dripping with unenthusiasm. What on earth did he think he was doing?

She opened her eyes to see his hand at the back of his neck, a sheepish expression on his face. “I, uh, just wanted to say hi.” Right.

“Of course,” she said awkwardly, “that’s all you want to say, right. Thank you,” she paused. “Hi,” she reiterated, echoing the statement back at him. As if they hadn’t just spent four hours trying cakes together, as if he hadn’t sat right beside her in her parents’ shop, as if she wasn’t freaking Ladybug and he Chat Noir.

They were on hi terms now. What even were hi terms?

He quickened his pace to keep up with her. “Listen, uh,” he tried again, “I want this to work out.”

He caught the look on her face.

“The wedding,” he quickly clarified. “Their wedding, not ours. Because, you know, there won’t be an our wedding, there will be a… their wedding. And that’s uh…,” he was trying not to ramble, she could tell. “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” she parroted back.

“I just want to get through this,” he started quickly, and his eyes immediately widened as he realized what he said and how it could be misunderstood. He tried to open his mouth again, but she stopped him before he could get more words out.

“We will,” she said.

“Right, because we’re…” A team? He’d ended that. “Good at working together,” he said, and even Marinette had to flinch at how lame it sounded.

“Yeah, I’m sure we are,” Marinette replied, letting her eyes drift down to the sidewalk. She didn’t want it to last too much longer, she didn’t want him to see that she still lived in the same place. She didn’t want him to have another part of her life.

She couldn’t afford for him to.

And yet there he was, and she could tell that he wanted it. That he wanted another part of her life, that he wanted—god, what did he want? To ruin her again? To make the fact that it wasn’t going to happen completely clear?

“I missed you,” he said suddenly, his voice low and almost croaking.

“Go home, Adrien.”

#marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #adrienette #miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic #miraculous fanfiction #my fanfic #part two

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thefloatingstone · 4 years

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Last time I made a playlist of recommended youtube channels to enjoy while in lockdown or self quarantine, I focused on individual videos while also recommending other videos from the same channel.

I thought I’d make another list only this time I’m going to be recommending playlists or series on youtuber instead of just individual videos.

This is gonna go exactly like last time, so check out any of these that might seem interesting to you, and hopefully I can give you something to look into if you want something to watch but don’t feel like watching a Netflix or Crunchyroll show.

Last time I tried to put this under a read more break but it didn’t work and I ended up posting this long-ass post on everyone’s dash. Well I decided to do so again here. hit J to skip to the bottom of the post if you don’t feel like reading this whole thing. If you’re on tumblr mobile; why?

In no particular order;

Cinemassacre movie reviews and topics

All of you already know James Rolfe as the AVGN. I started watching him before Youtube was even a thing, before he was even signed on with Screwattack. Back when his videos could only be seen on his own website (or for some reason included on the free DVD you got with the local video game magazines). However, I eventually outgrew the outrage style humour of the AVGN episodes... but then James started doing Monster Madness where he would talk about his love for horror movies, and this where I learned about his vast knowledge about movie history and even films I had never even heard mention of before! I think it’s safe to say, he got me to be interested in movie history just as much as movie production and film as a viewing experience.

I recommend this playlist which is a hodgepodge of James talking about old horror movie franchises, talking about his first experience with Power Rangers as someone who didn’t grow up with it, or how Bob Ross is a childhood hero of his. It’s an excellent play list that’s really laid back but you learn a lot of stuff from it. James is very informed for the most part and it leads you to wanting to check out a lot of these things too, just because he’s so passionate about it.

If I ever get over my weird hang up about speaking out loud, these are the kinds of videos I’d like to make.

Vinesauce Vinny: The Neverhood

Vinny is by no means a new Let’s Player, having been on Youtube for over 10 years now, but I only started watching him a few months ago. I started with this playlist when I saw he was doing The Neverhood, a game I had heard about but never seen played before. The Neverhood is a bizarre game, as a point and click PC game from the 90s where the entirety of the video game was made with stop motion and clay. Something that sounds so insane you would say it’s impossible if not for the fact that it exists. The claymation itself is extremely well done, and the game has a really weird and absurd sense of humour. Just the strangest things happen in this thing. Now couple that with Vinny’s very dry and straightforward delivery and you have probably one of the funniest Let’s Plays I’ve watched in a long time.

This is also “short” for a Let’s Play series. With only 4 parts to it, the longest video only being a bit under and hour and 30 minutes. It’ll still take up a good chunk of your time, but it’s not as daunting as some of the other Let’s Plays I’ll mention on this list.

Team Four Star: Pokemon Shield Nuzlocke

Exactly what it says on the tin. The guys from Team Four Star play Pokemon Shield with Nuzlocke rules. They’ve done several Nuzlocke runs in the past, but I find the Pokemon Shield is the best one they’ve done. Especially since a lot of the needless fluff and grinding has been edited out. So unlike some of their previous series you don’t see a lot of Kieran and Grant running in a circle for an hour trying to catch a specific pokemon or trying to get to a certain level.

It’s also hilarious as they have a lot of “house rules” for the Nuzlocke often involving the exercise bike they.... have..... for some reason.

It’s very good and the gym battles become SUPER hype with the Nuzlocke rules and the music.

Baywatching

Having been going to a few years now, watch Allison try her very best to go through and do a video series where she talks about summarises every episode of Baywatch.

.... Ever. Single. Episode.

She’s not even close to done yet (and now she’s introduced Baywatch Nights AS WELL) but her trying to explain the batshit insanity of this show, it’s over the top characters, it’s insane plots and behind the scenes weirdness with all the enthusiasm and love for this slice of 90s is amazing. Please enjoy a good thick chunk of inside jokes, silly character voices, and a whole lot of ?????

Brutal Moose: Shenmue

Probably one of the most chill channels on all of Youtube, Brutal Moose aka Ian, prefers playing games you wouldn’t think would make for good Let’s Plays. And maybe they don’t, objectively. A collection of playlists covering Truck Simulator, Nancy Drew, Hidden Object games etc etc, spliced in with old commercials from drive in theaters from the 50s,60s and 70s. Ian’s Let’s Play channel is great for just putting on and letting play for company while you’re drawing or grinding in a video game or playing Stardew or something.

I recommend his Shenmue playthrough as Ian completely fell in love with the game and went on to play both the sequel and the newly released third game. Ian genuinely adores the weird voice acting and all the menial tasks and mini-games you can do. I watched this a lot in 2018 when I was going through a rough time, and it really helped me in a strange way to just put Ian on and listen to him talk to the chat and drive a forklift around for like 4 hours straight before going to Tomato Mart or wasting all his money on the gacha machines.

A Measured Response to “In Defense of Dark Souls 2″

At some point, big name youtuber Hbomberguy made a video called “In Defense of Dark Souls II”. I’m not subscribed to Hbomberguy but I enjoyed his video on why Sherlock (the BBC show) is trash. (come to think of it I should have added that to the first list). And it seems the video on Sherlock was really good and well argued.... and it seems his “In Defense of Dark Souls 2″ video... was not.

Using subjective language, bad representation of facts, or simply outright getting certain information wrong, Hbomberguy′s video on Dark Souls II is, at best, a man trying to argue that he likes Dark Souls II because it is “Objectively good”, rather than simply accept he likes it... because he likes it.

MauLer is kind of an asshole, but I have learned more about dissecting someone’s argument and deconstructing what they have said watching his response series than I have in any english or debate class I have ever had.

The response is over 10 hours long, but this is because MauLer takes time with each and every statement he takes umbrage with, discussing what is being said, discusses why it is false or dubious, and then compares with actual facts and research.

If you ever want to know how to to distinguish subjective opinion from objective fact in someone else’s argument regarding... ANYTHING really, I highly recommend this series.

I may not like MauLer as a person, but DAMN if he doesn’t know how to deconstruct an argument in a logic, emotionless way.

John Wolfe: Maize

Maize is a stupid game. a Stupid stupid game.

It involves sentient corn, and underground secret genetics lab, a Russian bootleg teddy bear that hates everyone, sentient corn, and a crumpet.

This game IMMEDIATELY went on my wishlist after watching this playthrough. Please watch John try and figure what the actual fuck is going on in this Monty Python-eque weird black comedy. It’s stupid, it’s weird, it’s bizarre and it’s honestly one of the funniest games I’ve seen streamed.

Hollywood: a Celebration of the Silent Era

This is not a youtube playlist. I mean it IS, but what this actually is, is a TV series released in the UK in 1980 covering the Silent Film era. As it was made in 1980, it includes interviews with many of the silent film stars who were often still alive during this documentary’s production. Each episode covers a specific theme of the silent movie era. One episode is about comedies, one is about WWI, one is about Westerns etc etc.

It’s a fascinating series, because it focuses on the silent era which, in modern day, I think many people unfairly think of as “those first few years of movies before movies really became a thing.” And that’s such a shame and really not true. The artistry, camera tricks, and raw nature of this early era of film making is so important and produced films which can still be watched today easily, possibly even easier than a few modern movies as often the very fact that the films are silent means they are universal, regardless of what language you speak.

I think an episode or two might have been turned to private or copyright claimed in this playlist, but I know if you do a search on youtube you can find the episode uploaded by someone else.

Diamanda Hagan: Bonekickers

Bonekickers is the show Mathew Graham made before he went on to work on the new Dr. Who. It is about archaeologists and it is God-fucking-Awful.

It is.... look. Ok. I like Archaeology a lot. But this isn’t a show that’s bad “if you like history” or “if you know things about archaeology”. This show is bad because it doesn’t make a single fucking lick of sense, all the characters are awful and terrible, and even if you understand what’s going on in the story you’re still going to be screaming “WHY????” at the screen as each new baffling stupid piece of the puzzle slots into place.

Diamanda Hagan has 0 time for this garbage and she’s going to walk you through each episode to show you how truly horrible this piece of garbage is.

Cry Plays: Ori and the Blind Forest

With Ori and the Will of the Wisps releasing recently, now is a great time to go and watch Cry playthrough the first Ori game. an absolutely gorgeous piece of work with a beautiful soundtrack and really likeable character designs and a sweet story, Ori is a great game to put on, sit back, and just let it wash over you. Cry’s playthrough is also great because although its a Metroidvania game, Cry fast forwards the parts where he backtracks for a long period of time, so you don’t get stuck watching him run back and forth as he tries to figure out where to go next or anything like that.

Cry also recently started playing the sequel as well!

If you enjoyed this list at all, please consider tipping me for a coffee

☕️ Ko-fi ☕️

#self isolation #Quarantine #Youtube #Links #Recommendations #Recommended #ask to tag #long post #No editing we die like men

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steve0discusses · 5 years

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Yugioh Season Zero: Yuugi Gets a Tomagachi Pt 2

So because I spent like...weeks away from Yugioh I recently decided to kinda review what was even going on in this show, and so, as I was quickly going through my own recaps this week while putting this Season Zero episode together, I was reminded about this observation I made so innocently so long ago.

I keep making jokes with this show and then the jokes end up being real. Like it just keeps happening, so I don’t know why I bother trying to dive so far into the hypothetical thinking “Yugioh would never possibly do this” but...I’ll keep trying.

So, lets see just how dangerous a Season Zero Tomagachi can be. (v bad)

So about 3-4 days have passed since Honda left school for maternity leave despite the fact he is a 14 yo biological male and was never pregnant. I’m glad he’s here to break gender norms and I’m glad that the teacher has just accepted this.

Anzu has decided it’s time for an intervention and thinks, “if I can talk sense into Yuugi occasionally, maybe I can talk some sense into this purple haired alien that we’re also friends with?”

Miho, I swear.

(read more under the cut)

Yuugi has decided to show off his digital pet, which looks a whole lot like the Olympics mascot from 1996.

Izzy. That was the name of the Olympics mascot from 1996. I got the stuffed animal of him for my birthday and that’s the only reason I remember this weird ass 90′s fact.

I do not like the weird bangs that are Tomagachi arms, and it says a lot about the volume of Yugi’s bangs that they could have tiny arms attached to all those little bangs and it would...match up.

Now I watched a dubbed version done by English voice actors (hence why I’m getting all these names wrong) and I figured, I may as well take you on the same journey I went through watching this episode, starting with the name of Yuugi’s pet here.

Some of you, who know every single thing about Yugioh, are right now like “oh girl, do you not even see how you’re getting played all over again? Do you not realize what you JUST walked into?” and don’t worry, we’ll get there. But first, I have to go through this entire episode. Don’t worry, I’ll address the elephant in the room shaped like “the Joshua Tree” but with bangs that are hands.

(if you are too young to know about the lore behind U+Me=Us, then please look it up and listen to their entire discography and know that we were so hardcore about U+Me=Us that, for a very little while, they topped TRL over Destiny’s Child and Britney Spears)

And so they decide to do the very awkward fusion thing where you slap the butts of these Tomagachis together, but Jounouchi’s tomagachi is way too tsundere to date.

Anyway, in walks this boyman who I think gets bigger and bigger every scene he is in, like Violet Beauregarde. I mean...the door is...only so big. One of y’all brought up in the comments (I think gingerninja) that his name means “whale” in Japanese. Indeed he is.

He decides to show us his shiny golden pet, and remember this is 1999, so here’s some...1999 technology alright.

Dear lord, never draw these nips again.

Just...never again.

This is just...

How is this the only post I’ve made in months that hasn’t been flagged?

...Anyways, Kujirada’s monster, instead of going on awkward play dates, just kind of devours whoever he goes up against in a battle. It’s sort of confusing though because like...the same process for battle is the same as for this weird social network/dating scene.

Like there was absolutely no battle system until just now, when this thing started eating other people’s little monsters.

RIP Johnny and Somomo, who we knew for like all of 4 seconds. Truly one of the most devastating blows of Yugioh lore to see the death of these little monster assholes that have consumed all the time that these kids should have spent studying/actually attending school.

And then, our hero arrives and he’s a freakin mess because he hasn’t slept in 3 days.

And I was fully expecting for Honda to also lose and gain a valuable lesson in how to better use his time. I was waiting for Yuugi to pull out his little pet and go through a whole transformation sequence right here and now. But, something impossible happened.

I can’t believe the episode is already over and it was Honda that won. You heard it here first, kids, always skip school for video games, the Yugioh way.

I mean...kudos to Honda, I guess. I’m just really surprised he won something. I mean, the last time I saw him play a game he full on died by being tossed into a pit of lava and then he got turned into a robotic monkey for like 12 episodes.

Haiyama, meanwhile, did not take this very well, since he was the one from the bathroom who was being coerced into giving money to Kujirada in order for Kujirada to buy the golden pet, who just lost within a day of buying it.

As Haiyama leaves, we kind of assume that Haiyama is about to get his ass kicked in, because he’s small and cute and wears glasses, and this is Yugioh Season Zero, and those are all the things required to get your ass kicked in.

When just...everything starts to get really, really weird.

Also, this happened,

And FYI whenever I do these Season Zero episodes, I also look into the other translations on Youtube and the one I looked at seems to have also noticed that the Warehouse situation in Yugioh has gotten a little bit out of hand.

Ah, I see what you did there, random Youtube guy. I mean I love the abandoned warehouse, personally, he’s a core actor in this show. But yes, I do see how it’s turning into a little tiny bit of a meme.

Hilariously, Kujirada makes sure to run directly past Yuugi on his way to the abandoned warehouse district while carrying this girl in a sack over his back.

It is the middle of the freakin day.

So you’ve probably guessed the main twist by now, mostly because of the lack of characters, but as Tristan comes to the end of this warehouse, out steps our very large 3 Stooges boy who keels over and is...entirely covered in bloody lashes????

For your consideration--Haiyama has the yellow glasses and this face type, yes? and Kujirada has the hair? You stick the two together and remove entirely the problematic whipping sequence and you have yourself a

Of course I say this and maybe Weevil is also in S0 and Haiyama is just his own type of nut.

With a whip for some reason. OMG why does this child have a bullwhip?

Also how on EARTH did he manage to get Miho all the way up there???

So Haiyama explains, while pulling out a photo album of just tons of people in it, a comically large photo album of people that I guess he just keeps in his butt pocket, that these were all the people who were doing dirty deeds for him in exchange for money. No idea how the hell Haiyama got all that money, but he likes to blow it all on what is essentially slavery because apparently once you get money from Haiyama, you’re stuck with Haiyama for life.

Like really there is so much gang imagery in this show, it’s like a big PSA of “Don’t Join a Gang, Kids! Or Your Classmate Will Whip You With a Bullwhip Until You Pass Out In an Abandoned Warehouse” and it’s like damn Yugioh fine, I wont, damn.

But like the whole murdery photo album was certainly something because uh--there were more people in there than Kujirada so it’s like...did they die? Did all those people die? Did you in fact murder all those people, Haiyama? Did you manage to kill all those people at age 14 like you’re some sort of Bakura? Like, it’s Yugioh, so I really am just assuming they died but like...can’t add it to the death count until they outright say, right?

And then Yuugi’s timing was pretty excellent.

colorist kinda messed up on Yuugi’s teeth here. It happens. Cartoons are hella hard to make so we’ll give it a pass.

The TRAJECTORY.

Haiyama then decides to point out to Honda that Miho is essentially using Honda like he uses Kujirada and that was...kind of cathartic for me, actually. Thank you, villain, for recognizing that this whole Miho obsession thing is uhhhh kind of wrong. I guess we’ll see if the fact that Haiyama pointed this out to Honda will actually stick or if Honda will forget it by next episode.

Although, in Miho’s defense, she may be too stupid to know that she’s actually using Honda. She may just be that stupid. I honestly can’t tell what her deal is at this time.

But then Haiyama decides to try and extend the great offer to Honda of being whipped and manipulated for the rest of his life in exchange for keeping Miho alive, which um. Wow Yugioh, this is a 14 year old kid. Wow, that’s some dark stuff wow, this basically serial murderer has just been hanging out in the back of their class for their what we assume is their whole lives, and NO ONE NOTICED?

Like again, this entire class is just...they gotta be plants. There’s gotta be at least 3 people in this class being made in test tubes underneath Domino by Gendo Ikari, there’s just no way they aren’t.

And what’s crazy about Zero vs the rest of Yugioh is that in Zero they just happened upon a freakin maniac. They didn’t like...search this guy out, or enter a contest that they knew was freakin cursed. No, they just wanted to play with a Tamagachi. That was it. Instead, they found out that their one classmate has been abusing their other classmate to the point of hospitalization for the past several years.

They just wanted to play with a Tomagachi.

After that, Yugi had a fun intro sequence into Yami Yugi where a beam of light expanded across his face from the middle and that was actually a very nice effect 10/10 I can’t actually cap the animation but you can trust me. For a low budget thing that this season appears to be, that was a nice low budget way to do a good effect.

(seriously, if Yuugi lived a normal life would he have ever known he was cursed? Would Pharaoh have ever woken up at all?)

Honda at this point passed out due to the constant whipping, which is very surprising because I’m so used to Tristan, who once threw Double Spike Mullet Man over his shoulders. Honda is kind of a weakling in comparison.

So, Yuugi looks down at this device with a little monster in it and is like “yo I have a great idea, lets make the monsters fight eachother” and so we got like...a Yugioh meets Pokemon aesthetic, and FYI Yuugi’s monster still has the weird hand bangs. It’s...it still looks like that.

And, turns out the kick that Jounouchi’s monster gave to Yuugi’s monster made Yuugi’s monster learn how to hate, enough to gain a new power.

...so, in the end, Yuugi spent a really long time making his monster just a very nice guy, and would have absolutely lost if Jounouchi’s tomagachi hadn’t kicked Yuugi’s tomagachi’s ass. I guess that’s symbolic.

PS never forget that these are Tomagachi’s with a 20-50 pixel screen.

and there you are, Haiyama eaten by his own Tamagachi.

Yuugi was like “and THAT’s why you don’t whip the people who are your pets. You treat your pets with love.” and it was like wtf that guy was devoured by his own Tamagachi.

And then you think about it a second later and it’s like “WTF YUUGI. Yuugi. That’s still not a very good message.” And like I figured...this is probably a translation error that they accidentally made Yugi seem like he was cool with using people so long as you’re nice about it, but it was in the other version I watched as well so I think the real desired meaning just...didn’t quite make it to the final draft. I hope.

Straight up, this episode would have scared me absolutely to death while I was still in the Tomagachi craze and feeling very guilty about not taking care of them. Like can you imagine just killing your Tamagachi over, and over when you’re 10 and then watching this episode? Like Gremlins did irreparable damage to me as a kid, can you imagine what this episode would have done?

This guy was devoured by a Tomagachi and Yuugi just watched.

Don’t worry, Miho says “momma” here so she is still about as blase towards Honda as ever.

They did pan down to show us that Haiyama is still alive after this whole event. Of course he’s...passed out so he’ll probably just end up in the hospital wing in Domino they’ve reserved for Yuugi’s classmates.

...Eaten by a tamagachi.

Now, a little bit of story time, in the process of putting these caps together, I figured well after the fact that I should, youknow, go and check on the spelling of all of these characters (because again, I watch the dub so I have no subs to tell me how things are spelled) and the sub version had omitted quite a bit of the episode, including the parts where Yuugi says his pet’s name.

...so I was like...is Yuugi’s pet named Yuutou or Yuutsu? And surprisingly enough, when I typed into Google “what is the name of Yugi’s tamagachi” ...

DAMN IT, YUGIOH.

HE REALLY DID CANONICALLY NAME HIS PET U2!

Freakin U2. SPELLED LIKE IT LOOKS LIKE.

That makes no freakin sense, whatsoever. Yuugi is the type of person who listens to weird grungy alternative from whatever local show his weird anti-establishment cousin tells him about and would just--I mean he has so many accessories and eyeliner, he does not put in his Mom’s CD of U2 and drift off, no, he puts in a burnt CD of early Radiohead while he spends 2 hours dying his bangs in the sink. There is no universe, let it be Season Zero or Season whatever where Yuugi acknowledges U2.

I can’t believe this is Canon.

I just...Wow. U2.

U2.

Y’all I am shook that Yuugi is a closet U2 fan.

FYI, I have been listening to U2 for the entire time I’ve typed this. I mean, Pride is a good jam.

Anyways, I know none of you that are too young to know 2gether looked this up when I mentioned it earlier, so here you go, one of the best worst songs ever made. In case you were wondering what I was busy doing as a young tween instead of having a Yugioh phase.

youtube

#Yugioh #ygo #Yugioh season zero #tomogatchi #yuugi muto #jounouchi #honda #anzu #miho #U2 #this episode was mad effed up wow #I mean damn that was um #that whole thing with the freakin whip just came out of nowhere huh #tw blood #tw whipping #I mean you don't really see the blood but even so it's...it's cuts youknow #2gether #U + Me = Us (calculus)#So sad that this song was lost in time youknow the kids these days they know about backstreet they might listen to N*Sync but 2gether? No.

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melacka · 4 years

Note

2, 4, 8, 9, 16, 28 for the fic writers meme :)

Well hello there! Thanks for the ask! The answer got a little long, you chose some really great questions! Keep reading below...

Fic writer’s meme

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Sooooooooo many. I’m a real sucker for soulmate AUs or royalty/historical AUs but have never had the right idea (or the stamina, tbh) to pull it off. I would love to write a classic fake dating or huddling for warmth/bed sharing fic as well.

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Let me put it this way. I have a notebook dedicated to my future fic ideas that is ALSO packed with random pieces of paper I have written ideas on, and then there are the notes written in my phone and the random fic plans I’ve saved on my computer. But, in terms of actual ideas that I plan to write in the near(ish) future? I’d say about 15. One of the fics I really want to write is an Everlark fic where Katniss passes through the five stages of denial while realising her feelings for Peeta. I’ve also got a vague fic idea for a Lizzington S4 fic featuring quite a bit of angry smut. And a Ginny/Hermione fake dating idea. And a Buffy/Angel five things fic based around going for coffee. Or there’s the Nine/Rose Teacher AU...

I have too many ideas, can you tell?

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Wow, you’re really testing me with this ask, huh?

So, one of my fav fics I’ve written is a Lizzington AU called Chance. Liz was stood up for a blind date and was rescued by Red and there’s just something about this scene that I enjoy. I frequently try to have little callbacks to the fic title or a conversation had earlier or something from canon in my fic, and this is a good example of that. I also like to write characters being playful with each other during conversations, where there is some nice banter between them. Flirtatious banter is just about my favourite thing in the world, but I think it’s the positivity of Red coming up against Liz’s cynicism that I like here:

“The colour of your dress caught my eye as I passed the first time,” he explained with a chuckle. “Red looks marvellous on you, did you know?”

Liz gaped at him, a little stunned.

“And as I said before, when I saw you looking so absolutely devastated as I came back again, though clearly trying to hide it, I thought that I should take a chance.”

“Take a chance? With a complete stranger?”

“Isn’t that what you were doing tonight? You hadn’t met the gentleman you were supposed to have a date with before, had you? Weren’t you taking a chance?”

“Well, I—” she stammered. “That’s different.”

“Yes, but only by a matter of degrees. I saw you and was intrigued by you. A beautiful woman like yourself is bound to draw notice, but I happened to notice—”

“That I looked miserable, I remember.”

“No, that’s not what I was going to say. I noticed that you were still here. Still willing to take a chance, even in spite of the difficulty.”

“You realised all of that as you passed by the restaurant?” Liz scoffed incredulously. “Just how long were you lurking about out there? My date could have been in the bathroom for all you know.”

He laughed again and shook his head, looking at her in a way that she could only describe as warm.

“And that was a chance I was willing to take.”

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

Honestly, the hardest would be a terrible Snape/Hermione fic I left unfinished over a decade ago, but that feels like a whole different life and different person to me now. So the hardest since I’ve started writing again would probably be Just for tonight, which is a Buffy/Angel fic I wrote for the IWRY marathon in 2018. It was surprisingly tough for me to write because it was the first time I was attempting anything for BtVS but I had been reading BtVS fanfiction for over fifteen years, so it was just weirdly intimidating.

Also, any multi-chapter fic I have ever attempted ... they’re all just ridiculously hard. One-shots are more my thing.

16. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

You know, I actually thought about this question when I reblogged the ask meme and I genuinely didn’t know what I would say. The obvious choice would be Lizzington, purely because that has been the pairing that I’ve written the most for. And I guess as long as I was still able to READ other pairings from other fandoms, I’d be quite happy to stick to them.

28. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

This is a really tough one because I have at least five fandoms I read a lot in and I would be able to name at least 10 favourites in each ... So, instead I’m going to try to choose one each from three different fandoms that I have recently been reading.

TBL: Lady of the Refrigerator. I mean, I’m pretty sure that anyone who reads Lizzington fic is aware of their work. It’s just marvellous. Well-written, wonderful plots, excellent characterisation, humour, angst, smut, communication between characters to resolve their god damn issues... I mean, who could ask for more?

BtVS: Maquis Leader, this is the author I go back to when I’m feeling nostalgic. I would reread their Buffy/Angel fic over and over and over again. Good storylines, sprinklings of smut and a whole lot of happy endings that were never achieved in canon. Everything I’m looking for when I’m looking to go old school.

Dr Who: Caedmon, a master of Doctor/Rose fiction. I’m a Nine/Rose shipper, myself, and love the way they write this pairing. A mix of longer stories and short one shots, all with excellent characterisation, interesting plot lines, good humour, enough angst to satisfy my desire for hurt/comfort and plenty of fluffy fic for when I’m in the mood for something sweet. Just lovely. A real pleasure to read.

Thanks for the ask! This was fun to do! :D

#asks #fic writer meme #thanks for the ask!

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lunawings · 5 years

Text

King of Prism SSS episode 7 commentary (Leo)

So this episode is the opener for what I know as the theatrical “Part 3″ ... and boy what an opener.... By the time it was over I was like “T-That was only the first one... BUT IVE ALREADY FELT SO MANY THINGS..”

Having this as the first episode of the three has been pretty difficult because it’s just such a rollercoaster. I’ve actually been hesitant to see go Part 3 more just because I know I have to get through this episode right off the bat. And not because I think it’s a bad episode OH NO ITS JUST... SO MANY... FEELINGS..........

I got to go to the midnight showing for Part 3, and I honestly think that has an unfairly high influence on how I feel about the episodes. Part 1 and Part 3 I saw at the midnight showing and I loved them. Part 2 and Part 4 I saw at 8 am when I was exhausted and miserable and I ended up thinking Part 2 was weaker than the others, and Part 4....................... uhhuhh we’ll get to that later, anyway--

So when I translated the original story about Over the Rainbow crossdressing for Miss Kakyoin, I honestly did it just for that two second reference in episode 3. I had no idea this was also going to happen. So when the first second of Part 3 opened on the theater screen with this I was like OH. MY. GAWD. YES. YESSSSSSSSSSSS. I’m gonna cry already. (Little did I know what was coming up later in this episode....)

Also this was the point where I began to realize some of these episode are taking place in the past/out of order. Because SSS starts off in the summer, but the Kakyoin Fest usually takes place in May. So either this is a Rainbow Live retcon, or this episode is taking place in May. (But I suppose there’s no particular big reason that can’t be possible. Well one small one maybe...)

So this is Rinne’s first appearance in SSS, right? (Outside of her silhouette in the OP.)

So... I don’t really think it’s a spoiler to tell you she will appear again, under.... vErY DiFfeRent CircumStanCes........

And I just wonder if like, when we get to that moment, someone who is watching only SSS who has never seen Rainbow Live or Pride the Hero is gonna be like “Oh that’s the girl from the beauty contest.... wait..... WAIT WHAT IS HAPPENING.... “

Oh lord.

Anyway.

This scene is a whole lot of fun in cheering because we all have our green out and are cheering to Freedom, then it... stops.... then it starts again ahahah....

I love Taiga in the background here. It’s clearly intentional.

I wonder if he actually believes what Kazuki says here or not. But you know what. I don’t think it matters because I think this scene has about zero influence on how he reacts next. I mean, if Taiga actually realizes Kazuki’s just doing this to save face, well then.... hell yeah he’d want to help defend Kazuki-senpai’s honor! And if he believes him and thinks crossdressing and winning a beauty contest is an honor for Edel Rose.... hell yeah he’d want to follow in Kazuki-senpai’s footsteps ahah ha.......... yeah see it literally doesn’t matter........... For Kazuki-senpai!!!

Yeah see this is definitely post-episode 3 Taiga. He definitely changed in that episode after becoming honest about his feelings for Kazuki. So this is the only stupid little thing that makes me question when this episode is taking place since the Nebuta Festival is in August ahahah ha.... (Well maybe he realized long ago.)

Wait woah woah what’s going on here with the subtitle. I thought I saw someone else’s screenshot of this and it was an upside down “A”? Is it just my computer? Is it really like this?

BTW I actually never had any idea what they were saying here before, neither did I pick up that it was probably a reference to μ's because in the theater you just cannot see anything on that newspaper because it’s on screen for like half a second.

If I had, maybe I would have realized that.....

......Both Kakeru and Shin’s outfits seem to be a reference to the original Love Live! I had a little subconscious inkling in the back of my mind that I knew where Kakeru’s outfit was from and it probably wasn’t Pretty Series. But Shin..... Shin..... for the longest time I kept trying to think what coord this was. Because it does look like it could easily be a PriPara coord, doesn’t it? But after other folks started pointing it out, yeah it does look like they were trying to rip on the “Bokura wa Ima no Naka de” outfits goddamn it hahaha.... Well, it makes sense because there are people who worked on both Love Live! and Rainbow Live.

But yeah I swear if they had only made the skirt plaid I would have gotten it. The plaid skirts are such a big point of that outfit for me.

But still anyway, if anybody can think of a Pretty Series coord which is similar to this (or can make one on the 3DS).... um.... hit me up................ now..........

OH COME ON MINATO you can do so much better than this.... For Miss Schwartz you actually found a look that worked for you....

I mean sure he looks like someone’s mom but isn’t he.

The moment when I was like “Welp, maybe Taiga’s straight after all.” Such a mystery, this kid.

MINATO AND YU OMG

This moment goes by so fast I literally missed it my first two showings but OMG it’s my favorite joke in this episode and one of my favorite visual jokes overall I crack up uncontrollably every single time. Ahhhhhh you poor boys....

Welp someone hasn’t watched PriPara but I think we already knew that from Kakeru’s “Glowstick Cage”. Still, I really think you’d be able to figure out this is clearly a catch phrase but WHATEVS

I think my reaction echoes most of the community’s reaction as being “are they gonna say the thing--THEY SAID THE THING”

As much as I want to feel bad that Leo feels like he has to do this, it’s just too funny. And not to mention adorable.

How “masculine” Leo somehow ends up being EVEN CUTER than natural Leo, I will never be able to explain but OH LORD HE IS. (I guess just, the more he tries to fight it the stronger it is....)

He’s not lying.

................ no..... noooooo.......... *buries face in hands*

So. Okay. Okayokay. Sorry we gotta pause here oh boy.

Ever since the Pride the Hero era, Tsurugi was always my favorite member of The Shuffle. Especially since I realized that even though we could see him failing the training machine in the first movie, he still made the group. It was my headcanon that it was because Kokoro, Mondo, and Mitsuba helped him rise up and overcome his challenges until he finally made it. I saw him as the Otoha of the group. A sweet lovely boy who somehow got mixed up in all the corruption of Schwartz Rose AND SOMEHOW he survived.

And then this happened.

His feminine personality. It was all an act. IT WAS A LIE. Just created to add the right appeal to The Shuffle. AND I FELL FOR IT.

...............

I guess Joji isn’t the only liar in Schwartz Rose. I guess, Schwartz Rose just naturally attracts that kind of people huh.

Well, from this moment on Tsurugi was not my favorite anymore.

For the record, my favorite member of The Shuffle nowadays is Ace. And probably subconsciously has been since episode 5? But I actually didn’t come to realize that for.... a few more episodes...... So we’ll talk about it then.

Right now we have to talk about.... wait... wait no no no no no no no

You ever have one of those moments when time just kinda stops and everything just kinda... spins around you........... that was this moment for me at the midnight showing....................

Sorry I have to interrupt again to mention this. They revealed here Leo’s dad supposedly designed all these characters.

Well OK, but the thing is in this universe supposedly PairChams and stuff are actually real.

So how can they be designed by Leo’s dad?

Welp, my theory on this is Leo’s dad either was a prism star, or just has a lot of prism sparkle in him, and he secretly just draws exactly what he sees.

I think the phrasing is a little weird here. It’s more like Leo didn’t even particularly realize he was a boy. (Or what his gender was at all.)

(Yes they are wearing mini-Fortune Party CRs.)

(Yes this is also our Young of Prism reference.)

.......I really like this episode but...... this part is just so hard for me..... it’s just...... a bit too real............. but I applaud them for it the same time but.... it’s just.... it’s hard.............

People take out yellow and cheer for Otoha here, but at first I was just so distraught after the proceeding scenes it took me until maybe my 4th or 5th cheering show to actually join them.... just trying to get the energy and to come out of it and like oh it’s Otoha.... oh where are my concert lights.... oh where is yellow..... oh it’s over...... ................. (ahh it’s just.... so sad........)

Okay so now that we’ve gotten this far, I can finish my train of thought about the order that the boys joined Edel Rose.

I think it’s safe to assume Yukinojo was probably first. His episode revealed that he liked prism shows since he was really little, so he probably entered his first year of junior high? I think Kakeru was already in junior high when he found out about prism shows so he probably transferred in anywhere from 2012 - 2014.

Yu and Minato I think probably joined at the same time in April 2015. Because when we meet them in the first movie they are both 1st years (in junior high and senior high respectively) and we know from Minato’s episode he was never in the junior high division.

Then Leo joined sometime not too long after that, and finally Shin.

Taiga is the only mystery, because his flashback only features Kazuki and there is nothing to particularly date it. In my head I’m gonna throw him in there after Kakeru but before Minato/Yu though.

......Anyway.

Leo’s reactions as he meets each of the boys, and vice versa, are just... SO INTERESTING to me and reveal so much about him and the other characters. So I’m sorry but. We’re basically gonna take this frame-by-frame....

Oh gosh oh no oh to think that because of his experiences in life, Leo is just so conditioned to the point where this is the first thing he says directly to any of his new friends I just I.... *chair squeak* excuse me I need a moment.

*walks out of the room*

*comes back after several minutes*

Oho gosh okay okay sorry where were we

AND HIS FACE when he realizes Kakeru called him cute and clearly meant it as a compliment I just I *chair squeak* I may need another minute we’re like ten seconds into this scene and it’s already just--

OHHHH MANNNNNN

I’m pretty sure Leo’s extreme reaction here isn’t because he’s upset at not being called cute. It’s because, once again, Leo is just so conditioned because of everything he’s been through. He took one look at Taiga and probably saw him as the exact archetype of a person who usually bullies him.

But he was wrong.

Taiga, the actual purehearted softie that he is, had absolutely no idea his words would have such an effect on Leo. And once he realizes, he PANICS, and says absolutely anything he has to in order to fix it as fast as possible.

TAIGA

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

I’d also like to note what makes this scene even funnier is that Taiga is using a Tohoku slang word for “cute”. (This is a younger Taiga who hasn’t quite lost his northern dialect yet. Also sort of a northerners bonding moment for the two of them maybe?)

So Taiga being attracted to Leo is a thing I guess. But.... but does it really count as being gay with Leo, like I mean.....?

Well.... Taiga being asexual is probably ruled out at least.

Anyway.

Out of all of them, Leo’s encounter Minato might just be my favorite.

First, Minato reaches out his hand intending to shake Leo’s.

But Leo, probably being just.... so desperate for human contact at his point, sees this and actually reaches up and grabs Minato’s hand with both his hands instead.

If you remember, Leo being too touchy-feely with other boys was one of the reasons he was bullied. Probably moments exactly like this.

But Minato....

He doesn’t flinch. His expression never changes. Instead he’s just like, oh you remind me of my sister. Like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

And he probably thinks that’s kinda nice that it will be like having his beloved sister around.

shfsfshl;dsaSDJGSOGSAG+J

Yu doesn’t care who Leo is as long as he thinks he’s cool.

Sounds about right.

Gonna say the obvious here but YUKINOJO WHAT ARE YOU DOING

How he just immediately powers down and goes into kabuki practice mode when nothing has been happening for 30 seconds.....

I have things to say about this encounter too but we’ll get to it later.

My favorite comedic line in the episode.

Yukinojo is somewhat oblivious about gender norms himself eheh.

I love the juxtaposition of this line with this scene. It’s not a coincidence surely.

Leo kind of just made a fool of himself here, but the other boys had almost no reaction. They were all just kinda like “huh”, and instead of “this Leo kid is a weirdo” it’s “Yukinojo what did you do” hahahah. That, is acceptance. That is Leo finally finding a place where he can belong.......... Until.....

Oh boy I’m sorry we gotta go on another tangent here. A dark one.

Throughout SSS it’s pretty clear that Shin’s arrival had a big impact on everyone, but it probably had the biggest impact on Leo.

Edel Rose was the first place in his adolescence where he was able to find acceptance.

And I think it’s safe to say, that without Shin to bring everyone together, Edel Rose probably would not have survived.

And if that happened.....

Leo would have nowhere to go.

I really shudder to think about what might have happened.

And I don’t think it’s a huge exaggeration to think that Shin joining Edel Rose... may have actually saved Leo’s life.

So when you really stand by and take all of this into perspective.

All of a sudden how attached Leo is to Shin. His over-protectiveness, his jealousy. It.... it starts to make a lot more sense.

So from this moment on I decided I won’t fault him for it anymore. I can understand.

Oh gosh okay I know it’s hard to come out of that with this, but....

Y.. yay Christmas Party! This is going to come up again in SSS, but since people are going to be talking about it now I’ll talk about it now.

The Christmas Party is an event which happened in detail on the Prism Rush Main Story and was the first time the boys all performed together as a group and debuted Dramatic Love.

And yes, at the same time it is also an analog to the real live Music Ready Sparking concert, which was the first time the voice actors all performed together in real life. Those are the outfits they wore in the real concert, and the same pose they used for promotional materials.

They actually re-drew it for the anime in the performance outfits instead of the concert T-shirts.

(The outfits aren’t a secret anymore, and no need to sell T-shirts ahah....)

WHAT. THEY FIXED IT. Okay I SWEAR in the theatrical version of this there is a continuity error here where Leo has his pigtails in this back shot, but his hair is down from the front. I paused here to take a screenshot so I could mention it then I was like wait whaaaaaaaaa. This is the only time I have noticed a blatant change between the theatrical version and the TV version. (Other than the new endings.) It makes me wonder if there’s anything else I missed.

PFFT.

I guess “yes” isn’t the worst translation, and who am I to talk since I don’t translate “IIZE” at all. But it drains the flavor out of it whenever I try.

If you’re not aware, “IIZE” was the scoring system in the boys’ PriPara from Idol Time, DanPri. The joke is that it’s like a masculine version of “iine” which was the scoring system in the regular girls PriPara, and still is in PriChan. Probably the most literal translation of “iine” is “likes” since that’s what they call the like button on Facebook/Twitter. But yeah it’s a bit of a journey to understand this I suppose.

Iize = burly likes

? ? ?

He’s just.... he’s just so weird........... Tsurugi why...............

(Yes, Mirei hair and Bunny Magician coord from Prism Tours. Sorry I’m skipping over pointing out some of the PriPara references on purpose since this post is just so long as is.)

PFFFFFFT okay okay. Okay. OKAY. Okay.

I know this is probably just in here for a throwaway joke but OHHHH lord.

We saw Alec compete in a beauty contest on Prism Rush before in the Street Beauty No. 1 event, but not on purpose as Louis basically tricked him that time. To think he’d come this close to doing it on purpose, and in his Mom’s clothes?...... ohhhhhhhh wow

If this really almost happened, then I guess Alexander’s riding the same train as post-episode 3 Taiga nowadays isn’t he ahah.

And finally we get to the prism show. But oh gosh, I have to say I do not like his initial outfit. First of all it’s supposed to be a boys’ outfit but it’s.... not.... I guess they were trying to go for a Peter Pan thing or something, but it just registers strongly in my head that Peter Pan is usually played by a woman and like. I just wish they would have made this outfit a bit more masculine to highlight the change that’s gonna happen. The least they could do is take off the earrings.

Not to mention form-fitting stuff does not work for Leo. It highlights how small and child-like his body is, and they even do a butt shot and just NO no please no why. STOP. Okay, my only criticism against this episode is that. Had to say it.

When you need a character to clarify this you’re doing it wrong.

But anyway, moving on.

This.

When we got to this moment, I just.... I felt.... such a great vicarious weight lifted off my shoulders. It just felt so good to finally, finally see this. It’s been a long time coming.

Okay, let’s go back. Way back.

During the first movie, when we first met Leo. In the bath scene he introduced himself using “boku” (a male pronoun). He was presented as wanting to be more boyish, and Yukinojo’s little protege. And I said OK, and I accepted this for face value. For a while.

But then about a year passed, and this CD came out.

And I went woah. This was the first point when I began to realize things might not be quite as they seemed. Leo is just straight out wearing girls’ clothing here. As oblivious as he is, nobody can be quite that oblivious.

So the whole theme of their duo song is mutual respect, and it clearly introduced for the first time the irony of Yukinojo and Leo’s relationship in that although Leo looks up to Yukinojo, in truth Yukinojo wishes he could be more like Leo because Leo is the feminine ideal he’s striving for as a kabuki actor who does female rolls.

Well okay, but the thing is.

Leo supposedly wants to be more masculine, but... but....

When he first meets Yukinojo, that’s not the reason he attaches himself to him.

Leo picks the most feminine member of the group to model his ideal after. Not someone rough like Taiga, or built like Minato. He picks Yukinojo. Yukinojo.

And that’s when you start to realize.... Nothing Leo has said has ever matched up with what his actual actions are.

Sure, he talks a lot.... but....

What has he actually done to try and become more masculine since King of Prism started?

Even when he purposely sets out to dress masculine in stories on Prism Rush (like in his initial PR story for one), he always ends up picking out feminine clothes somehow.

Although he once introduced himself using “boku” to Shin, it’s pretty much exclusively become “watashi” over time hasn’t it?

His Pride the Hero subplot was enjoying his (arguably) feminine hobby of clothing design. No masculine quest subplot there.

And we even got to the point where SSS opened with him wearing a frilly pink shirt in one episode and pigtails in the next.

The more time Leo spends at Edel Rose, a place where he is accepted, the more he slowly opens up and starts acting like himself again.

So if you’re thinking this came from nowhere, you haven’t been paying attention.

Still, I was really worrying about what was really going on inside him a lot before this episode came up. And then. Finally. FINALLY.

This episode should be seen by not just King of Prism fans. Not just Pretty Series fans. This episode should be seen by everyone.

GAHHHH I’M JUST.... SO HAPPY..............

I LOVE YOU TOO

I think just looking at these screenshots and taking it all in is making me tear up more than in the theater.

Okay so. When I saw Leo’s coord for the first time, my immediate thought was Laala’s first PR....

If you think maybe something else is a better fit though let me know.

So I actually think this score for Leo is fair. He only did two non-connecting jumps, and as this episode revealed he is the least experienced member of Edel Rose. (...Like I said before Shin... Shin is a special case........) I really like how their shows are actually accurate to what their skill level would reasonably be.

But it also just makes Minato’s higher score more of a mystery.

I love, love how this contest has progressed from year to year. Rinne -> Kazuki -> Leo -> ???

It may take us until we get to the next generation to get another winner, but someday I hope we see one....

YES this is obviously PriPara ahah but in canon it might be “Prism Land”? Ahah.

Okay, the end!

The post is over!

The end!

Why are you looking at me like that?

It’s over!

Thanks for reading!

.............

.....................

Okay. Since you’ve somehow stuck with me THIS FAR, I’m going to talk a little more about how this episode effected me personally and why it’s important to me.

The depiction of bullying was just so frighteningly accurate, and I feel like other people who have been through something similar would probably agree.

5th grade really is the year.

It’s right around that time when gender rolls really seem to solidify. All of a sudden lines are drawn. The girls become more girlish and the boys become more boyish.

It was around that time that I also noticed, that I didn’t like the same things that other girls my age liked. Other people noticed too.

My gender issues weren’t as profound as Leo’s, but I just wasn’t interested in things like clothes or boys yet. I still wanted to watch cartoons and play in the dirt and stuff.

Going into middle school, I also tried to pretend. But it didn’t work.

And I didn’t have any friends for a long time.

But then something happened to change that. I got more involved in music. Specifically marching band. Music and performing brought me together with a rag-tag group of people from different grades who didn’t know my past, all working together to put together a performance. That sort of activity (music, sports, etc.) builds bonds between people that surpass normal friendship. And eventually, through those sort of bonds, I found myself around people who accepted me even though I was a bit different. Gradually, I learned it was okay to be myself.

So just watching Leo make friends though prism shows.... just oh my god.... that’s me.

I kinda joked about Leo being my self insert character in King of Prism before, but man. Watching this episode. It just got so... SO much more real.

*deep breath*

*exhale*

Wow. Okay.

#king of prism #king of prism sss #leo saionji #writing this took so much out of me you won't even believe.....................#even when we get to the shin/louis episodes i don't think i'll have quite as much to say about them as i did this one

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asterinjapan · 5 years

Text

Back in time

Good evening, this time from the train from Osaka to Okayama! It's a little past 8:30 pm now, and since I'll have to get up early tomorrow for my trip to Tokyo, I'll be typing most of today's report on my phone. Just a heads up in case you spot any weird typoes, haha.

Anyway! Today was indeed a busy day, although very much fun in a lot of senses. You see, today I was meeting up with a friend to go to Universal Studios Japan, and then to a concert by KOKIA, my absolute favourite artist. So that's 3 great things in one sentence already, haha.

I'll be splitting the report so that one half just concerns the concert, because I tend to do very detailed reports on those. Seeing KOKIA live is such a treat, I don't want to forget a single detail! So below follows the report on the rest of the day.

I had to get up early to catch my train, so of course I woke up wayyyy to early at 4 am, pff. I went right back to sleep and woke up a little before my 6 am alarm, which was still too early, because breakfast starts at 6:30, haha. Oh well, plenty of time to get dressed in peace!

After breakfast, I made my way to the station to catch the shinkansen to Shin-Osaka station. The train goes past Himeji, though sadly I wasn't in a good position to take a picture of the castle. I did however notice that you can see Okayama castle from the train as well, be it from quite the distance. The views weren't really superb today, which was to be expected, since there was rain forecasted for pretty much the entire country. Oh well, not much I can do about that but take an umbrella, haha.

The trip was smooth and I met up with my friend at the station. We were going to Osaka station from here, a mere 5 minute ride, but it was quite tricky to even make it through the shinkansen gates. It was really busy for some reason, though they had just announced a train further south had stopped running due to heavy rains. Uh oh... but so far so good in Osaka, no rain yet and we eventually made it to Osaka station and from there, 2 quick trains bound for Universal Studios Japan!

We first caught up a little over drinks, with matcha latte for me of course, before we made it to the park entrance and got tickets. Since it was a Saturday I suspected it would be busy and we'd need to draw a number for the Harry Potter part of the park, but apparently the weather forecast worked in our favour, because there were no numbers needed to enter today. Yaaay! I went to Universal 4 years ago as well and mostly spent my day in the Harry Potter part, haha, so I wasn't complaining about starting here. Actually, this part of the park only has two rides proper and they're both a bit wild for us, but just looking around here is an attraction in itself. I got all nostalgic over the music and the scenes, and after shop browsing for a while and having our picture taken in front of the Hogwarts Express, we went into the wand shop to experience some magic happening as a random audience member was picked to be chosen by a wand. Sadly this wasn't me, haha, although I have a great wand at home I bought here last time. It was a fun little show (this time Ollivander spoke both very good English and Japanese, haha), after which we ended up in the wand shop, but we passed through it in favour of the castle.

You can go into Hogwarts castle for a pretty intense adventure (I did it back in 2015, my stomach wasn't very happy), or you can choose to take a stroll inside and look up on awe at all the amazing detail they put on here, haha. We opted for the latter, and I definitely made use of the invitation to take pictures by going wild with my current camera. Much better quality! Ah, I love this camera so. The castle has a ton of talking and moving paintings as well as some projections and a ton of replicas from the movies. Aside maybe from the last bit, where we first had to wait for a while for unknown reasons and then were rushed through, it was really great.

Once outside, we spotted some performers coming out dressed like the students from the wizarding schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang from the fourth book/movie, so we stayed to watch. I think i read somewhere that this was a limited time show, and they were really good, very athletic. (I'm personally not a big fan of the movie approach of "the French students are only girls who dance pretty dainty ballet and the vaguely Russian students are only manly guys who grunt and stomp with sticks", but hey, that says nothing about the performers here! And the costumes were lovely. )

After some more shop browsing, we were in for a surprise once we were outside: the sun was shining bright! Absolutely not according to the forecasts, absolutely not complaining, haha. I took some very pretty pictures of the castle if I do say so myself, and then we went for lunch here. The salad served at the Three Broomsticks was pretty big, plenty enough to share. After this and of course some butterbeer (non-alcoholic), we left the wizarding world behind us and moved into the rest of the park.

This mostly ended in sightseeing, since the rows were too long to consider queuing up with the concert time getting closer, but that was a lot of fun too. They put in so much detail, and since it is almost Halloween, a lot of people had come dressed up.They do in the Disney parks too, but Disney has pretty strict rules about which characters you're allowed to dress up as, while here it seems to be "anything goes". I saw a guy dressed up as a piece of corn, quite some elaborate costume dress ups, a surprising amount of guys in Sailor Moon outfits, a lot of fancy gothic dress up, and a surprising number of uh, nuns. Alright! And of course, there was the usual mix with outfits from the Harry Potter part and uh, Minions. They have their own spot here.

We also went into the Jurassic park area, which was closed for maintenance last time, although sadly we didn't see a lot of dinosaurs roaming around. There was a scarily realistic Velociraptor animatronic inside the gift shop though! (I think it might have been Blue? Look, I only saw Jurassic World once.) But well, I still love dinosaurs, so this was still cool, haha.

Once we were getting closer to the time of the concert, we went back to the station to catch the train to Osaka station. Luckily the concert venue was very close and actually within the same building in which they have the big Broadway musicals here, currently the little mermaid. It was the lion king last time I went here and got lost at Osaka station, haha. (That station is like 5 different stations all connected, so it's a bit of a maze.) We got seated, got ourselves a drink (it's kinda like a jazz bar here, so you sit at a table and you can order food and drinks), made a quick trip to the merchandise shop, and then sat back to enjoy the performance.

I'll save those details for my next post, haha, but rest assured I had a great time. KOKIA had two performances tonight, so it was a little shorter than a big hall concert, but she did make time for an autograph session! Naturally we queued up with our newly purchased albums, haha.

Ah, such a good time! It was around dinner time now, so my friend introduced me to akashiyaki, which is "sort of takoyaki, except not", haha. Akashi is a city in the nearby Hyogo prefecture, and these are dumplings made of egg rich batter and octopus you need to dump into thin fish broth before eating (thank you, wikipedia). Although takoyaki, also balls with octopus, is more popular and better known, akashiyaki apparently came first. It was really yummy! We shared akashiyaki and then had a takoyaki gratin, which sounded kinda odd, but ended up being delicious as well. We eventually had some desserts at a nearby tea shop that sold SO MANY matcha things, I nearly had a crisis deciding until I opted for the matcha roll cake, incidentally the best roll cake I've ever had.

It was time to part ways with the promise of reunion, and I made it to Shin-Osaka alone. Familiar territory after last year, haha. I caught a shinkansen for Okayama and I have just arrived in my hotel safe and sound, very tired but very pleased.

Tomorrow will be tiring without a doubt, as I'll be in a train for 4.5 hours straight (I did this to myself, I know). But then I'll be in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, my home away from home at this point, haha. I guess I'll ditch my things at the hotel and then rush to Shibuya for my favourite little shrine there, because I must owe some deity something for how lucky I've been so far. Did I mention it was dry the whole time we were outside? Yeah.

I love Tokyo, so I'm very excited about going back there, but it also means saying goodbye to Okayama and entering my last week already. Time really flies, huh...

Well, stay tuned for pictures and the concert review while I go pack my suitcase (the title will make sense after that review, haha, although Harry Potter and dinosaurs are both things I grew up with) and then see you tomorrow from Tokyo!

#report #japan 2019 #report: japan 2019 #places: universal studios

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jade4813 · 5 years

Text

A Lie, Told Often Enough, Chapter 4

Author Notes: Inspired by @fallinginloveinaflash‘s AU prompt. All credit for the idea goes entirely to her.

Title: A Lie, Told Often Enough

Rating: NC-17

Synopsis: Iris just landed her dream job at a PR firm and her first assignment is reforming the bad boy image of celebrity artist Barry Allen. He’s overly cocky and well-known for being a playboy, but Iris has never met a challenge she couldn’t handle.

Chapters: 4/?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

“All right. You ready for this?” Iris asked as she adjusted his tie.

He grimaced. “To pretend that I’m desperately in love with a near-stranger? As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

She smiled encouragingly at him. “Just do what we talked about, and you’ll be fine.” Pausing, she left her hands on his chest as she said in a soft, earnest voice, “I know this is strange, but I believe in you. And I’ll be right there with you the whole time. Okay?”

Blowing out a deep breath, he smiled down at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he studied the lines of her face. He wanted to memorize this moment – how beautiful she looked in her pale champagne dress. The way the bridge of her nose crinkled a little when she grinned up at him. The warmth of her hands against his chest.

But he couldn’t tell her that. With that reminder, he cleared his throat and stepped back. “Thank you,” he said gravely. “Remind me what the plan is again?”

With a soft cough, Iris turned and grabbed her coat. “Okay. I’m going to head out in just a minute so I can arrive first. I went by and talked to the staff earlier today, and I’ve got everything worked out. I’ve spoken to Patty, and she had something to do first, but she promised to meet you there. Hopefully we can time this right, and you can meet up outside first so that everyone can get pictures of the two of you together. All you have to do is give her a kiss and walk with her to the table, and you should be fine.”

He nodded. “Okay. And what happens if something goes wrong?”

She pursed her lips. “Hopefully nothing will. But if you need my help at any point during dinner, all you have to do is drop your napkin on the floor and excuse yourself to the restroom. I’ve been assured I’ll be seated at a table where I can watch what’s going on. If I see your signal, I’ll excuse myself and head that way. The restrooms are down a long corridor and around the corner, so we’ll be able to touch base without anyone seeing. It’ll be fine. If we hear anyone coming, the door to the kitchens is just off to the side, and they promised we could duck in there if need be.”

“Yeah?”

Iris nodded firmly. “Yeah. I promise. That said, I should probably head out if I’m going to get there before you do. Don’t forget, if you get there first and you don’t see Patty, you can stop and answer a couple questions if you want. Just make it look natural. I’ve been assured by Patty’s PA that she’ll be there on time, so you should only have to kill a couple of minutes. If all else fails and she’s later than that, go ahead and head inside. The press will have plenty of opportunity to catch the two of you at the event itself. All right?”

He nodded, and with one more encouraging smile, Iris sailed out the door and headed to the restaurant.

Barry’s stomach clenched as his driver pulled up in front of the hotel. He didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to pretend to be in love with Patty Spivot. But he also didn’t want to let Iris down, so he didn’t have much of a choice. He had faith in her, that this would help rehabilitate his image. That was all that mattered, wasn’t it?

As he threw open the door, he scanned the crowd, looking for a glimpse of Patty’s blonde hair. He’d read up on the actress after Iris proposed this scheme, and to a good segment of the country, Patty Spivot was America’s Sweetheart. Wholesome and charming, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes, she had been described more than once as a living Barbie doll. But after falling down twice on the red carpet at award shows and sharing embarrassing personal stories during late night television interviews, she had also developed a reputation for being approachable and down-to-earth. The girl next door. Someone the public could idolize, but also someone they could imagine as their best friend.

In other words, she was the perfect person to play his romantic interest in this little scheme. If only he could muster up an ounce on enthusiasm about the prospect.

Pasting a smile on his face, he stepped out of the car and onto the red carpet. Years of practice helped him hide his wince when dozens of flashbulbs went off in his face, and he let the sea of questions from paparazzi and journalists wash over him. Acting casual, he scanned the crowd one more time, but there was still no sign of Patty. Remembering Iris’s advice in case of just such an eventuality, he smiled at one of the reporters nearby and paused to answer a few questions.

Already inside the front doors, Iris glowered down at her phone and sent yet another text. “ETA?” She’d been trying to get a hold of Patty’s PA for the past half hour, but her texts had received no response. It was enough to cause a foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she didn’t know how to fix the problem until she knew what it was.

With an irritated huff, Iris glanced around the foyer again, as though there was a chance one of the most recognizable faces in the country at the moment might materialize there on the spot. The knots in her stomach loosened slightly when she felt her phone buzz in her hand, and she glanced at the screen. Word at last?

Iris felt all the oxygen leave her body when she read the text on the screen. She had finally gotten word about Patty Spivot’s whereabouts, but it was the last thing she expected. The text wasn’t from her PA; it was from Linda.

“911! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS ASAP!” Below the text was a link to an article that had just been posted. Her stomach sinking, Iris clicked on the link.

A second later, a picture loaded on her screen – Patty Spivot dressed in a bikini, cavorting on some beach in the Bahamas with her co-star in her current project. Her married co-star. More than one photo showed them in an intimate embrace. Butterflies ricocheting in her stomach, Iris glanced at the timestamp on the story. It was from less than fifteen minutes ago, and according to the article, the pictures had been taken earlier that day. She had apparently chosen another path to tarnish up her image a little.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she muttered, her hands trembling as she hurried to text Barry. She was going to have to fix this, to figure out how to regroup and salvage her current assignment. But first thing first, she had to stop Barry from making an announcement that evening that would only make the situation worse.

“Barry, it’s me. Whatever happens, DO NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT PATTY. I will explain later. Come meet me inside.” She hit send, and then raced to the doorway. She knew Barry was already on-site, so she might already be too late. Even if she wasn’t, with the chaos of the red carpet, she knew the odds were slim that he would even notice he had a message until he made it inside.

Bursting through the front doors, Iris only took a second to locate Barry in the crowd. He was talking to reporters, just as she’d suggested, but this was one time that she wished he had ignored her instructions. She thought about jumping up and down and waving to get his attention, but that would only draw more attention to herself. So, instead, she pasted a smile on her face and walked casually towards him, hoping she could discreetly pull him aside to explain.

As she approached, she heard the question she’d been dreading the most. “So, Barry, everyone’s been speculating for weeks about this mystery girl you’ve fallen for. Any chance you’ll give us her name?”

Iris picked up the pace, and she saw the moment his gaze drifted towards her and he noticed her there. His reaction to the question appeared so genuine, Iris would have believed it herself if she didn’t know better. A slight brush staining his cheeks, he ducked his head sheepishly. “Well, I guess I can’t keep it a secret forever. I’m dating –” Her eyes wide, Iris shook her head in a small, quick gesture, silently pleading with him not to finish what he was about to say. Smoothly, without even the slightest hesitation to indicate he had been about to say anything else, he finished, “Iris. Iris West.”

Her sigh of relief caught in her throat when she heard her name, and her wide-eyed look of panic changed to horrified shock when he stepped forward and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Hello, Princess. I was just looking for you,” he said in a warm voice that caused the butterflies in her stomach to go into hyperdrive – this time, for an entirely different reason. Bending down to brush a kiss against her cheek, he murmured in a voice just loud enough to be overheard, “Miss me?”

The next half hour passed in a whirlwind. The moment Barry announced her as his girlfriend and bent to kiss her cheek, dozens of flashbulbs went off in her face. Though she was normally calm and capable in stressful situations, she didn’t know what to do this time. She was used to being behind the scenes. Away from the camera’s eye. She needed to pull Barry aside and strategize what they should do next, but his announcement had ensured that she wouldn’t get a moment alone with him.

It had also ensured she wouldn’t get a moment’s peace, to get her thoughts in order and decide what to do next. Barry’s announcement may have solved one problem – temporarily – but it had caused at least a dozen more. Not least of which was what she was going to tell her boss when the entertainment sites ran with this little story in the morning.

We’ll explain it was a joke, she thought desperately as she sank down into her chair at dinner. The papers are always speculating about who Barry’s next girlfriend will be. He was just playing with them, since his girlfriend couldn’t make it tonight. Everyone will believe it. Right?

But even as she formulated the idea, she knew it wouldn’t work. If only he would behave with her as he had with Patty at the party. Instead, all through dinner, Barry sold the part entirely too well. He was kind and attentive. He teased conversation out of her when blind panic would have kept her mute. He laughed at her jokes, complimented her dress, and in every other sense, he was the picture of the perfect date.

When she finally got the chance to lean in and explain in an undertone what had happened to Patty, he took advantage of her closeness to sell the lie even more, brushing a lock of hair off her bare shoulder with one gentle fingertip. Barry stared at her lips when she talked, appearing every bit like he had nothing on his mind except kissing her.

At this point if they tried to tell the world that it had all been a practical joke, nobody would believe it. Worse, they’d likely believe that she and Barry were having an affair – emotional if not physical – and his attempt to clean up his image with some other actress would backfire. He’d come off even more of a villain than he ever had before, and Iris would be along for the ride.

It was only after desert – a heated pot of chocolate and bowl of fresh strawberries – was served that Iris felt they had lost enough attention to have the conversation they desperately needed to have. “This is a bad idea,” Iris murmured, staring at Barry’s hands as he slowly stirred the bowl of melting chocolate so that it wouldn’t burn.

“If you have any better ideas, I’d love to hear them,” he remarked mildly, reaching for a strawberry. He didn’t seem particularly perturbed by the hitch in their plans. In fact, she would have thought he was pleased by recent developments, except that there was no reason for him to be so.

“You’ve been teasing my secret relationship for weeks, and even you said we couldn’t keep that up forever. Everyone was expecting to see me out with my date tonight. I could tell you didn’t want me to mention Patty, but we didn’t have a backup plan in place. If I said my girlfriend couldn’t make it tonight, there would be speculation of trouble in my supposed relationship, undoing all your good work so far.” He dipped the strawberry in the melted chocolate, rolling it around as it cooled. “We were out of options, so I improvised.”

With a half-smile, he held the strawberry out for her. “Here. Eat this.”

She didn’t move. “But there must be something else we can do. The whole point was that you were supposed to be dating someone wholesome. Famous. Able to clean up your image. Someone like Patty.”

He was unruffled by the reminder. “Well, Patty isn’t here. According to you, she’s on a beach with her married co-star instead, doing what she decided was best for her image. You may not be famous, but wholesome? Have you seen you? You’re so wholesome, I’m pretty sure birds help you dress in the morning. Now come on, Princess. The cameras are waiting, and our friends are going to think something’s wrong if you don’t take this bite soon.”

Her eyes flickered to his and then to the strawberry. She held no illusions about what would happen if she ate it. It would be the final nail in her coffin. The paparazzi would take a photo of him feeding her and run with it. Every entertainment news outlet would have it on their front page before she’d even finished her bite. By this time tomorrow, the entire world would know her as Barry Allen’s mystery girlfriend. And until she finished rehabilitating his image, she would have to play the part.

Licking her lips, she took a deep breath and met his eyes. “If we’re going to do this, you have to do what I say. Everything I say. This is going to complicate matters, but you hired me to clean up your image, so that’s what I’m going to do. I can only do it if you listen to me.”

“Of course. Everything you say.” He moved the strawberry even closer to her mouth, his eyebrows raised in silent challenge.

Her eyes locked on his, Iris leaned forward as though about to eat the strawberry. Then, at the last moment, she grabbed it from his hand and sat back, a blush staining her cheeks as she lifted it to her mouth and took a bite. “Like you said,” she pointed out, ducking her head with a small embarrassed smile for the benefit of their audience. “I’m wholesome. Remember?”

Before she realized what he was doing, Barry grabbed her hand and pulled her palm to his lips for a kiss before licking a smear of chocolate off the fleshy part of her thumb. His eyes were silent challenge and wicked promise when they met hers. She felt his smile against her palm as he murmured, “Yeah. But don’t forget…I’m not.”

#a lie told often enough #fanfiction #my fanfiction #westallen #barry allen #iris west #rock star au

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b-random · 5 years

Text

Survey

Taken from @fiaspice

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? Cereal.

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? No. Not much of a fan of cold weather.

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? Usually the receipt.

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? Cold, with ice, without the coffee.

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? Yes. Getting self conscious about a lot actually.

6: do you keep plants? Just planted some tonight in fact.

7: do you name your plants? no, but I might.

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? Not much anymore. But I really want to try acrylic paint pouring.

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? Yes. Or to my cats. Or steering wheel.

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? sides

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends? If I catch my employee at work not using her safety gloves, I ask her where her hand is and she responds by singing “IT ISN’T IN MY GLOOOOOOVE” (to the tune of Shawn Mendes’ “In My Blood”) That’s the only one I can think of that doesn’t require ridiculous amounts of explanation.

12: what’s your favorite planet? Earth. Couldn’t live without it.

13: what’s something that made you smile today? Christy and Fraser on 101.5 Today Radio had a contest called “Chereoke” to win Cher tickets and some of the contestants’ attempts at singing Cher was hilarious.

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? Hopefully it would be a rustic/industrial combo style loft with at least one exposed brick wall, exposed duct work, metal and wood finishes.

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!: Halley’s comet won’t orbit past Earth again until 2061... I’ll probably be dead.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish? Tortellini with a creamy rosé sauce.

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? I’m bald so this question is just cruel.

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. After a friend of mine told me he had unprotected sex with his ex girlfriend on a booty call, I arranged for a bouquet of fruit to be delivered to his work on father’s day with a sonogram attached to it. He’s a darker skinned guy but his face went white as snow. It doesn’t sound like much, but his mom heard about the prank at her work several blocks away.

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? I don’t. This blog is the closest thing I have to that.

20: what’s your favorite eye color? Blue.

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. I don’t have a favourite bag.

22: are you a morning person? I would say so. I’m not so much of a night owl anymore.

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? I literally sit on my couch all day and do nothing but watch netflix and dick around on my phone.

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? Don’t think so.

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? Can’t say I’ve ever broken into anywhere. At least, not anywhere memorable.

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit? I don’t have an exciting answer for this, but I have a pair of Puma shoes that have been around for 4-5 years.

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor? Watermelon

28: sunrise or sunset? Sunrise.

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? One of my friends makes it a point to build her other female friends up at any and all costs.

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? The only thing I can think of is when I was probably 5 years old I was at a water park and I was supposed to go down the water slide but I was so scared that I couldn’t do it. My family went down before me so I was stuck at the top screaming and crying.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? I mostly wear white socks because I wear pretty heavy duty shoes at work and so anything else gets ruined. But if I’m going out or doing something, I usually like a bit of colour.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends? I'm told that one time at about 4:00 in the morning I went to my neighbours house and was knocking on their garage door for about half an hour singing songs, but I don’t remember that.

33: what’s your fave pastry? Creme puffs.

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? I had a Popple. (Remember Popples?! The Popples still make me smile.) Well, I had several, but my favourite was PC - specifically Sports PC. I don’t still have him anymore and I’m pretty sad about that. But his tail did fall off at one point and oddly enough, I still have his tail!

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? I usually end up buying stationery items that I never use.

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now? My mood has been 100% Carly Rae Jepsen since Dedicated came out last Friday.

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? My room is often messy, but that doesn’t mean I like it that way.

38: tell us about your pet peeves!? People who use incorrect phrases like “Once and a while” or when people say “should of” instead of “should’ve”

39: what color do you wear the most? Probably black.

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you? I have no jewellery.

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving? Hunger Games. I haven’t really enjoyed too many books since then. I’ve been trying to read the Harry Potter series but I’m only moderately enjoying them.

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? I do not.

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? Frick it’s been so long since I’ve done that. Probably a guy who I hooked up with several years ago. I don’t even remember his name.

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? The last time I went to the mountains. It’s been close to a year.

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? Sometimes to a fault.

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.? Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? Seafood.

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? Heights. I’m still afraid of them, but now I’d say I’m more scared of things like the ocean and space.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? I really do. Especially the ones I really like. Most recent was Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Dedicated” album.

50: what’s an odd thing you collect? I don’t collect much anymore. I used to collect Coca-Cola memorabilia, though.

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? "Your Type” by Carly Rae Jepsen. I swear I listen to other artists and bands besides CRJ, but she seems to be fitting a lot of the questions here.

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? Those comics on Instagram with the aliens explaining everyday human activities.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? Beetlejuice is the only one of those that I’ve seen in full. Haven’t seen it in probably 20 years so it’s time I give it another go.

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? My mom after my sister did some stupid things last week and was super cruel to her after.

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point? I can’t remember

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? Selflessness, genuine dorkiness.

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? I didn’t reenact the lyrics, but I did sing and reenact the scene from Wayne’s World.

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? Neither of them.

59: what’s your favorite myth? I still find the whole Bermuda Triangle thing to be interesting.

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? I don’t know any poetry.

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received? Oh god, I’m a terrible gift giver so I couldn’t possibly narrow it down to just one. Stupidest gift I’ve ever received was a Starbucks gift set. I don’t drink coffee.

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? Well, I usually put fruit juice into my smoothies, so I guess yeah. And whatever is available.

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? I have to keep them alphabetical except for my collections which are sorted by size of the collection.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? Grey. Like it has been for the past week.

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with? Yes. I’ll call him K.

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? Ideal flower crown is not a concept that is even remotely familiar to me.

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? depressed.

68: what’s winter like where you live? Fucking long and unbearable.

69: what are your favorite board games? Scategories, The Game of Life, etc.

70: have you ever used an ouija board? yeah

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea? Iced.

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? I could probably benefit from jotting more things down than I do.

73: what are some of your worst habits? Laziness.

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. Sassy and spunky, but equally kind and compassionate.

75: tell us about your pets! My babies are not babies anymore. They’re feline brother and sister and I’ve had them for more than 15 years. He’s black and my bestest little buddy. She cost me an invitation to my sister’s wedding and I have NO REGRETS about it at all.

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? The dishes from dinner.

77: pink or yellow lemonade? pink I guess?

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? I find them entertaining, but I wouldn’t put myself in either club.

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? Can’t think of anything right now.

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? C2 Coconut. Essentially they’re a soft white. I did not choose that colour. It was the builder’s choice and I just haven’t gotten around to painting it yet. Soon one wall is going to be a metallic denim-like blue.

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. Crystal ball reflecting tropical waters.

82: are/were you good in school? ish.

83: what’s some of your favorite album art? Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Social Code’s Rock N Roll or Spice Girls Spice.

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? I have a concept in mind that combines Spice Girls, Power Rangers and LGBT pride. It’s just a matter of designing and getting it done.

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? Don’t read comics.

86: do you like concept albums? which ones? The only concept album I can think of is Green Day’s American Idiot. That one wore thin on me quickly.

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? Kingsman: Secret Service, Jurassic Park, Twister, and it’s not a movie but I’m going to say The Haunting of Hill House.

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? Acrylic Paint Pouring

89: are you close to your parents? yeah

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. Ehh... Haven’t really explored many places recently and I’m feeling less enthusiastic about Calgary these days. I’ll pass on this one.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? I’ll be in Massachusetts this time next week. Boston and Provincetown. I’m excited as I’ve never been there.

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? Out of those two options, drowns in cheese.

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most? Shaved.

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? My friend Ashley’s birthday was on Saturday.

95: what are your plans for this weekend? Packing and working.

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? Only once it is forced upon me.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? INTP-T, Libra, Puffnstuff

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? Last May. Need to change that very, very soon.

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. I couldn’t even begin to name those songs right now.

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? I’d probably go back 5 years. Whether I’m happy with my life or not, I don’t want to miss any of it.

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years

Text

ASM Annual 2018 rant

There will be spoilers for this and I’m going to presume you’ve already read it so I’m not going to give you a synopsis.

In short it was at best mediocre and at worst a waste of your money.

First of all maybe this is just me but the art was not that great. Overly sketchy, under detailed and it failed to capture the time period. If you wanna see a throwback story with art that at worst nods towards the style of the time, check out Untold Tales of Spider-Man or even better ASM Annual 1996, with art work by Ron Frenz and Romita Senior himself!

I already complained about how Black Cat was written out of character in regards to her attitude to the black costume and how her costume was inaccurate too.

But miraculously both things come off as WORSE in the full context of the story.

Going back to the art, Garry Brown directly references Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 where Spidey first got the black costume. So...he is CLEARLY checking the old artwork and using it as reference and yet...he screw up Felicia’s costume.

And despite what I’ve seen some people say, that it was just an art flub on like one panel of one page no, he draws Felicia multiple times and the costume design is the same, Brown genuinely believed her outfit looked that way or else DGAF and drew it how he wanted. He wasn’t even entirely consistent with his own error because he draws her with white books in one panel of the comic.

Then we get to the story itself.

First of all in terms of judging this story purely in isolation (which you shouldn’t do in general, but ESPECIALLY when it bills itself as an untold tale meaning it’s entire premise rests upon how it fits into the history) it’s at best okay.

Honestly my biggest take away was like...what was the point of this story?

Okay, I grant you a story set in the Alien Costume Saga from the symbiote’s point of view diving into its head could maybe be interesting. But you’d have to have something really interesting involved because the symbiote itself was a simplistic animalistic creature back then, it wasn’t the more evolved and twisted entity we saw in the 2000s or in more modern stories. It learned emotions FROM Spider-Man himself.

Like what was there really worth exploring from the symbiote’s POV. It didn’t change by the end of the story beyond the ways we already knew about because again, this is a flashback story.

So basically we got an extra length story where we learn that the symbiote briefly befriended some kid.

Wow. That was worth over $4.

Looking at this story in the context of the time it was raising a million questions for me in terms of how the hell it fit.

In the story Peter visits Aunt May, but it was in literally the second issue during the ACS that Aunt May and Peter had a huge falling out over his dropping out of grad school, something not resolved until AFTER the ACS wrapped up.

The impression given by the overall story heavily implies Peter has had the costume for a little while and that the symbiote’s night time joyrides have been draining his energy by the time we get the Aunt May scene. This doesn’t add up because there wouldn’t have been time for that.

Another arguable problem was Felicia referencing Peter taking the costume to Reed Richards. Peter does do this but much later on and I don’t think Reed’s name ever cropped up between Peter and Felicia back then. Granted, I double checked and Reed had offered Peter the chance to check out the suit from the beginning of the ACS, meaning it’s possible for that he mentioned it to her off panel. But again her attitude doesn’t add up.

There are a few other Felicia problems too.

Peter says he was unaware that he and Felicia were on a date, which is weird because they spent MOST of their time together fighting crime and it was made explicit that that was to them what going out to the movies or for dinner was for a normal couple.

This is literally one of Peter’ problems with their relationship, they spent so much time doing that and not just being a normal couple. Hence he broke up with her!

Later Felicia reprimands Peter for being 2 hours late and tells him he’d have to put in more of an effort if he wanted her to stick around.

There is no single moment that explicitely calls this out as OOC for her, but in context this is BS. Felicia was so devoted to her relationship with Spider-Man that she not only gave up her criminal ways (twice) and risked her life but went behind his back to get powers from the Kingpin and lied about it afterwards. She is very obviously not going to say something like that unless she was ribbing him and that was not the impression given off by the scene.

Finally there is a scene where she enters Peter’s bedroom via his window to just...watch him in his sleep I guess? Then Peter is slightly weirded out but otherwise chill.

Putting this stalkerish moment aside, it doesn’t jive with either of their characters back then.

On Felicia’s part she had a problem with Peter’s civilian side and preferred to minimize time spent in Peter’s company rather than Spider-Man’s.

On Peter’s part he had a major problem with Felicia coming into his apartment like this because she was being cavalier with his secret identity. A good example can be found in ASM #258 which just so happens to be the conclusion of THE ACTUAL ALIEN COSTUME SAGA FFS!

Then we have the main story itself, the symbiote’s night time activities.

This is a tiny thing but the story explains that the symbiote itself is inducing sleep and controlling what Peter feels during it’s joyrides. This makes sense and is fair enough, up until the point where Peter’s body is being physically injured.

Now, as a lover of the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, I will admit my second favourite episode is where the symbiote hijacks Spider-Man’s body and defeats the Sinister Six, only for Peter to wake up with some bumps and bruises he was unaware of. So I feel somewhat hypocritical criticising the story from that angle.

I do not however feel bad at all about asking how the Hell did the symbiote manage to keep Peter asleep when it was literally being put through immense pain and partially slivering off Peter’s body!

Isn’t the whole POINT of symbiosis that two organisms are one so if the symbiote feels pain shouldn’t Peter as well?

If the symbiote is feeling pain and literally losing it’s grip on Peter’s body, how is it still so in control of what he feels that it’s keeping him asleep?

How does that even make sense from a pure instinctive survival POV?

Moving on the symbiote gets overly aggressive with the criminals it fights to the point where only by taking advice from a kid in it’s immediate company does it help rescue people sans any form of gbh.

I dunno what the point of this was beyond I guess making it more explicit that the symbiote wasn’t JUST swinging around but also fighting crime. Maybe to foreshadow the symbiote when it and Brock went full lethal protector?

Anyway one aspect of the story which is inconsistent is whether anybody even recognizes Spider-Man. Now yeah in the ACS people DIDN’T recognize Spider-Man in his new black costume at first so this lack of recognition could be excused depending upon how early in the timeline this story is supposed to take place. Problem is the story doesn’t occur over like one or two days it’s obviously unfolding across various nights in which the black costume has been joyriding Peter. Peter himself is feeling the fatigue which if this was one or two nights wouldn’t add up.

In the first scene of the costume going out crime fighting a woman recognizes Spider-Man immediately, implying that there HAVE been at least some photos in the papers showing the new suit and confirming this as the same guy.

However later when we meet the kid the suit befriends in that scene the kid is seemingly unaware this guy even is Spider-Man referring to him as a new hero.

That same night the kid gets abducted by Hammerhead who explicitly calls him Spider-Man. But when the suit rescues the kid he says he doesn’t know who he is but that he could be a good hero someday.

I honestly tried to consider that the kid was referring to Spidey’s civilian identity. But the fact that in their first and last meeting he is talking about how the symbiote could be a good hero someday and told it to be less aggressive and more caring for civilians, implies that the intention was for the kid to STILL not realize this was Spider-Man.

This gets even dumber in the context of Marvel’s timeline. However you slice it if modern Spider-Man stories happen in 2018, then the ASC should’ve happened at the biggest of pushes like 10-12 years ago in 2006, probably even more recently.

How in the Hell does anyone, let alone a kid who’s likely consuming more media than older people, in like 2006 or later NOT hear about how this new dude in black is Spider-Man?

Even if he doesn’t follow the news that’s one of those things you’d pick up via osmosis.

Especially since the media doesn’t shut up about fashion and celebrities and in this case a celebrity bigger than any real life ones has massively changed his costume (and now more closely resembles notorious vigilante the Punisher).

Now let’s talk about the symbiote’s violence.

The story implies the symbiote is trying to help Peter by fighting crime for him as he sleeps. Except the symbiote is violent in a way Spider-Man never is, maiming and killing people.

This makes sense...for Venom. But the symbiote itself is not inherently violent beyond bestial instincts. It committed immense violence in the company of Brock because Brock himself was a violent disturbed individual.

If the symbiote wants to serve it’s host, it’s ‘friend’, by doing what he routinely does why does it go so much further than he does?

In fact if it’s bonded to him and knows his inner thoughts enough to induce images of Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy then surely it is aware that Peter doesn’t act like that?

A far bigger problem is the general public’s reaction to all this.

Again, people obviously know that black costume Spider-Man is the same guy as the dude with the red and blue suit.

So...why is NO ONE reporting that Spider-Man is maiming and killing criminals?

Spider-Man had been demonized for YEARS by Jameson and framed/blamed for various crimes including the murders of George Stacy, Norman Osborn and IIRC Gwen Stacy too!

If Spider-Man was now acting this way it’d be MAJOR news!

In fairness I guess the implication is that the symbiote did this stealthily enough that not too many people found out about it. And every witness that did either forgot about or shut up about it.

Which seems...kind of difficult to believe. It’s difficult to believe, especially if this story took place in the CCTV laden 2000s, that NO ONE saw this happen or else forgot or else kept it quiet. In Hammerhead’s case I do not understand WHY he never spoke about it and why he never ever brought it up to Spider-Man ever again.

Then we get the biggest ‘You really didn’t put much effort into this at all did you’ moment of the story right towards the end.

Okay so the implication is that this whole adventure with Hammerhead and the kid might’ve happened during ASM #258 itself when the symbiote took control of Peter’s body in the middle of that issue. I say this because the page immediately after the symbiote tucks peter back into bed is Peter taking the costume to Reed Richards.

I do not know why but for some reason the idea that the climax of this annual transpired specifically during ASM #258 just bothers me for some reason even though I can’t seem to find any explicit contradiction or problem with it doing so.

The same cannot be said of the actual scene involving Reed.

The scene plays out differently in various small but noticeable ways and one big egregious ‘This is the laziest lack of editing and research ever’ kind of way.

I’ll list them out in a second but it’s easier to just to a side by side comparison of ASM #258 and this annual.

· The ‘choreography’ (for lack of a better term) of the scene is different. In the annual Reed and Spidey are sitting down and in the middle of examining Spider-Man’s suit when Reed delivers the news that it is alive. In the original story Reed had already conducted all his tests and Spidey was waiting around to hear the news which Reed delivered to him and Johnny whilst all three of them were standing upright.

· Reed’s dialogue explaining the symbiote is alive is totally different and far more blasé, whereas originally it was longer and ended with the reveal as a shock, Peter reacting accordingly

· Peter is casual about learning his suit is alive and about removing it only getting distressed when it starts clinging to him.

· Reed wasn’t wearing a lab coat in the original annual

· Reed was accompanied by Johnny

· The Sonic Blaster is totally different, resembling a gun you could hold in one hand whereas in the original issue it was shaped more like a rifle

· The annual implies Reed busted out the Sonic Blaster almost immediately after the symbiote tightened it’s grip on Peter when there was several panels depicting Peter’s struggle and Johnny and Reed’s attempts to help him and retrieving the Sonic Blaster

· Oh yeah and there is the teeny weeny fact that in the original story, unlike this annual, PETER DIDN’T HAVE HIS MASK OFF!

I’m sure there are some who will be like “Oh get over it it’s a tiny little mistake from a comic over 30 years old”.

NO!

This is not a tiny mistake.

When your series is about a superhero with a secret identity who knows that identity and when is a HUGE deal innate to the narrative.

But what makes this mistake so transcendentally lazy on the part of the writer and/or artist and definitely the editor(s) is that Reed NOT knowing Spider-Man’s identity is a plot point for the rest of the story!

You ever see a video game, info book or collage of Spider-Man’s costumes and see that one funny looking outfit where he was wearing what looked like a lame blue Fantastic Four outfit and a paper bag over his head?

Yeah, this is where that came from!

Spider-Man didn’t want Reed or Johnny to know who he was so he covered up his face, necessitating Johnny provided him with an old suit and lieu of a mask gave him a paper bag.

Spider-Man is the Amazing Bag-Man for 6/22 pages of the conclusion to the story this annual is directly referencing!

It’s a fairly well known piece of Spider-Man history, being one of the more famously funny moments of Spider-Man lore and one of the great examples of the Parker Luck.

And it was all part of a historically VITAL story. Not just for Spider-Man but think how much of Marvel history has involved one symbiote or another, there were three EVENTS built around them across the last few years alone FFS!

And the people behind this comic book blatantly didn’t bother to re-read the damn issue, let alone the over all arc!

And the most ironic part about that?

The very last page of the annual includes a message from the editor talking about how interested he was in this era of Spider-Man, how it was one of his favourites and he even recommends trades collecting the story arc!

Like fucking take your own advice maybe?

Two final points to end this rant on.

The impression given by the editor’s message and the over all story was that they seemed to think that they were the first or only people to do a flashback tale about what the symbiote was doing whilst joyriding Peter’s body.

They were not.

In fact it seems like every damn decade someone decides to tell that story.

In 1995 as part of the ‘Planet of the Symbiotes’ Super Specials Dan Slott, in his very first canon Spider-Man story ever, used that idea. And whilst it didn’t shit on the ACS in general it did shit on the character of Jean DeWolff by pretending she never had romantic feelings for Spider-Man.

Because even in his formative days as a young intern cheating his way through Marvel’s door Slott had to fuck up characterization I guess.

In the 2007 as part of ‘Back in Black’ Sean McKeever (he of ‘Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane’ fame) did another storyset during the ACS. It wasn’t wholly about the symbiote’s night time activities but it did more subtly with just a few moments get into the symbiote’s head, depicting it’s loneliness and homesickness. Whilst that story also screwed up Black Cat’s costume there were no other egregious continuity errors, the story fits pretty neatly into the histories of Spider-Man and also the Sandman.

It was infinitely better than this story which I don’t think anyone should ever regard as canon going forward.

P.S. How poorly produced was this annual?

So poorly produced that no one considered that despite it going against the literal meaning of the word this comic is the second Amazing Spider-Man annual for 2018!

#Spider-Man #Amazing SPider-Man #saladin ahmed #Garry Brown #Peter Parker #alien costume saga #venom #Venom symbiote #black cat #The Black Cat #Felicia Hardy #Aunt May #May Parker #Tom DeFalco #Ron Frenz #Sean McKeever #Dan Slott

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dr-gloom · 6 years

Text

I’m Sorry

((decided to write a drabble based on this post because ive decided to write at least one - ideally two - a day))

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

Fandom: Sanders’ Sides

Pairing: Moxiety

Warnings/Tags: angst, angry Pat, arguing, Human AU, mentions of abusive ex, mentions of past abuse, implied/referenced non-con

A/N: I haven’t written anything angsty yet so here you go. And I realize Virgil is in literally all my fics? Oops? Fic under the cut to save space.

Read it on AO3

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Virgil has no idea how he got here. In the middle of his and Patton’s shared apartment, Patton standing across from him and conveniently blocking the door. Patton is mad. No, not just mad, livid. He can’t remember ever seeing Patton this angry. He’s seen Patton frustrated, annoyed, vexed, pretty much every emotion, negative or positive, but never so angry that his face was red, his voice seeming deeper, his words cutting into Virgil like knives, his eyes glaring. He didn’t mean for any of this to happen, he never wanted to hurt anyone. He thought Patton out of everyone would understand.

Virgil had been taking a walk down to the local park, as part of a suggestion from Patton to get out of the apartment more. “Fresh air and sunshine helps chase away bad feelings!” He’d said. So here Virgil was, hands in the pockets of his hoodies and head down, earbuds blocking out the noise from the other park-goers.

“I didn’t want it to be like this, but I had no control!” Virgil’s fists clench, his nails digging into his palms. His hummingbird heartbeat makes him feel light-headed. Or maybe that’s the growing panic. He doesn’t want to lose Patton.

He’d found the nearest bench and parked his ass on it, relaxing in the shade and people watching as he listened to music. He listened to all of Folie A Deux before someone had sat on the bench next to him, and he had every intention of ignoring the other until there was a hand on his leg forcing him to look up, fully prepared to rip this creep a new one. When he saw who it was though, his blood ran cold. Him. Oh god, what is He doing here? He practically leers at Virgil as he shrinks into himself almost instinctively. “Hello, Virge.”

“Yes you did! Quit playing the victim, Virgil, and take responsibility for your actions!” Patton’s shoulders were squared, his brow furrowed and mouth twisted into a frown. It honestly scared Virgil to see him like this. He took a step back, legs meeting the couch but he stayed standing. “What is that supposed to mean?” Patton cards a hand through his hair, mussing it a bit. “Look, I get it, you- you’re messed up. You’ve had it bad, but at some point you have to stop blaming the world and what happened to you for the way you act and take some responsibility for yourself. You’re not a child anymore.”

Virgil felt like he wanted to scream. Or vomit. Or cower in a corner. Suddenly months of reassurances from both Patton and himself meant nothing and he was right back where he was a year ago, a timid flea under His thumb. He squeezes Virgil’s thigh, His eyes making him feel naked. “I’ve missed you so much. How have you been?”

“B-better, without you.” Virgil tries to sit up straight, to seem more confident, because He can’t control you, Patton’s told him that dozens of times. He laughs. “I know you’re lying, Virge. You miss me, admit it.” It wasn’t a request, or a question. It was an order.

Virgil can’t help but scoff at that. “Oh, really? Because you sure act like I am. Calling me ‘kiddo’ and babying me all the fucking time like I can’t do anything for myself!”

Patton throws his hands up, turning and taking two steps away before turning back on Virgil and coming even closer. “You were hurting, and I was helping you! I’m so sorry if that was inconvenient for you! Was I smothering? Did you think I was clingy? Were things so bad you felt like you had to- to- just to get a break?” Tears had formed in Patton’s eyes, and Virgil felt his heart shatter in his chest. No. No no no no no!

“I-I don’t!” He tsks softly. “Careful now, you’re going to draw attention to us.” That warning tone that He always used when Virgil was doing something He didn’t like was still there, and it still make Virgil shudder. “I-I don’t. I don’t miss you...” The hand on his thigh leaves, and he’s just about to sigh in relief when the hand returns to grip his chin and forces Virgil to look Him in the eyes. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I- I’m sorry-”

“Pat, please! I’m sorry!” Virgil takes a step closer to Patton, his hands out in front of him but too afraid to actually touch the other. Patton just shakes his head.

He grimaces, standing and grabbing Virgil by the wrist, hauling him to his feet as well. Virgil tries to pull his wrist back but He’s always been stronger. Virgil gives in, afraid to cause a scene and make Him angry. They make it back to His place, what used to be their place, and Virgil feels cold. He can’t go back in there. No, not again. He won’t do it. Virgil plants his feet as they’re crossing the front lawn, refusing to take another step. When He feels resistance He turns to glare at Virgil and pulls on his arm hard, making Virgil gasp in pain. “Do not make me angry, Anxiety.” And just like that, all fight had left Virgil. Anxiety was a nickname He had given Virgil since, as He put it, ‘That’s all you are’. He drags Virgil through the doorway and shuts the door loudly behind them, making Virgil jump. He doesn’t even get a word in before His mouth is on Virgil’s.

Patton starts heading for the door, and that’s when Virgil moves. He’s shaking from head to toe, weakly grabbing at Patton’s sweater still around his shoulders. He’s still afraid to touch him. Or does he think he doesn’t deserve to? Virgil’s eyes burn as Patton stops, but doesn’t turn to face him. “I- I just-”

Virgil hadn’t fought back. He knew how much worse it would be if he did. When He’s done, He sneers down at Virgil who’s blankly staring at the wall with tears running down his face. “You’re such an easy slut. You don’t deserve love, or happiness; you taint everything you touch. You’re not a person, you’re an object to be used and passed around.” He gets dressed, speaking over His shoulder as He leaves the room. “You have five minutes to get the fuck out of my house.”

“You just what, Virgil?” Patton’s voice is strained, and Virgil can’t see his face. He rubs at the hickey poking out over the collar of his shirt; what had started this whole mess. “....I’m sorry.” Patton grabs his keys and wallet off the table by the door before leaving, and it’s the broken silence that follows that finally has Virgil breaking down, crumpling to the carpet and sobbing openly into his hands.

A/N: I’m evil. If this gets enough interest, I’ve thought about continuing it (through prequels/sequels and backstories and the like) so I guess if youre interested in seeing that let me know!

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #patton sanders #virgil sanders #moxiety #tw: rape #tw: non-con #tw: abuse #sanders sides fanfic

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darkspellmaster · 5 years

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All Anon Asks as of 10/29/2018 in my in box.

1. One thing to point out about these “leaks” as opposed to the two real leaks in the past, the new leaks are on purpose and posted with the intent to cause drama and hype. And as for DW not making a statement, why would they? They are getting free marketing and with such a huge gap between the last press event and the last season why not let it fester and create that hype, they know people will still watch. People are gonna want to tune in to find out the truth, DW knows that.

You know the saying about “No news is good news” well in regard to management in a lot of cases to draw in hype, and also to pretty much not have to deal with the legal nightmare of finding all the images and getting the fakes taken down they go with the idea of “Any publicity is good” because that means that they’re getting hype as you pointed out. As you said Anon, the point of these leaks is to cause drama and create issues between fans and then sit back and laugh at all the shocked kids that are freaking out. They probably are already planning round two or three of this.

2. Voltron is set in the super fancy future why would anything ever be sepia tone? Especially something that’s happening in a flash forward.

So the basics here is that it’s supposed to feel “Nostalgic”. Like “Oh look at that memory we shared together of a wonderful time.”

Again typically sepia is used to make things look or feel aged. Old photos, memories, etc. Sepia is not a color you use willy nilly because it doesn’t always look good on screen in large dosages in filter. The color brown in general is typically used, or at least that color, for sunset like moments to make the viewer feel melancholy that time is ending. You never use that color when you’re showing something triumphant. Also if you do use it for a happy occasion you tend to use it for a photo in a memory book.

Look at Coco, and the photos on the alter, you have several that are black and white and a few that are a brown color because they’re supposed to invoke a certain feeling in you. You want to feel warm and welcome and like everything is in the past and nostalgic. And the leakers got people to feel that way with the colors. And Flash forwards tend to be brighter and blurred in some cases with frosted edges. Or something to depict that it’s not in the present. And if it is just a time skip, there would be no need for the color change.

3. I think it’s weird that in the second wedding photo Shiro is leaning away from Roy as he leans in. Odd???

It’s something that normally happens in some anime. The less, shall we say dominating person leans back embarrassed by the attention and more aggressive actions by the more dominate person who is initiating the kiss. By the body language this means that Roy here is the more aggressive figure in their relationship going in for a kiss though still acting a bit shy about it, while Shiro is less aggressive and is being more shy and then decides to go with it. This sort of action usually happens with a girl in Shiro’s place, as in Japan the girl is seen as less aggressive a figure and why certain female characters over the years have been seen as very different than most of their counter parts.

4. Don’t know if it’s been pointed out yet but in the kiss pic Roy’s arm just randomly disappears through Shiros chest. That’s not how it works.

Correct Anon. The arm should be either around his waist or on his shoulder or chest. As per the kiss with Hikaru (Rick Hunter) and Misa (Lisa) from Macross. Roy’s arm is blending into Shiro’s side and that’s not a good thing. I know Mir makes some small mistakes here and there, but man this would have the art being sent right back to the studio if it was blurring that badly. Unlike Hasbro in the 1980s this sort of thing isn’t tolerated as much anymore because digital means it’s a quick fix rather than hours of reanimating the scene.

5. so, since you're the go to person regarding the legitimacy of the Voltron leaks, I just saw the [SPOILER] photo of the paladins grown up projected on a screen with people in front smiling [/SPOILER] the person that shared this with me said this is a photo of the french VA team finishing dubbing. Thoughts? Comments? Tumblr doesn't let me link the image, but if you're interested I can share it with you some other way.

Holy hell, um. Not sure what to think of that. But okay. XD Yeah I discuss that in the main blog post about it.

http://darkspellmaster.tumblr.com/post/179532344635/update-and-edit-and-master-post-to-the-fokker

So as I said before I think the photo of the cast is real, and more than likely taken on another date. The thing that jumps out to me about the photo after examining it more is where they are looking. Everyone is staring off to the center of the screen, but the camera that took the photo is off to the right. This means that this was probably a photo being taken because of the man in the center, who I’m betting is a famous and well known voice actor.

These sorts of pictures happen from time to time, even here in the states, when a cast gets someone that is famous and they want to take a photo with them. Remember actors are fan boys and girl’s too.

When I went to Anime Midwest a few years ago Sonny Straight (Lupin the 3rd, Krillen, a number of characters in anime) mentioned how he was sitting next to the late VA of Speed Racer, Peter Fernandez, who was signing small cars of the Mach 5. He was talking to him, while geeking out in his mind, and Mr. Fernandez gave him a car with his autograph on it. Sonny basically was playing with the car when Mr. Fernandez wasn’t looking making the noise of the Mach 5.

Nolan North just recently confessed to chasing down Sir. Anthony Hopkins on to an elevator and talking to him for a while, because he didn’t want to miss a shot to meet the famous actor who was recording lines on Retro Replay. (Also watch the show it’s funny.)

So more than likely the picture was being taken with a well-known French VA and that it was for posterity sake for the studio and the actors. Studios will sometimes do this if they have a named actor in the cast doing a voice.

6. I've gone back through Bexs likes and I don't see any of the leaks. What's the source on that claim?

I’ve only been told about this, I haven’t seen anything of it either. I do not have an Instagram so I can’t tell you about that stuff.

Either Bex liked something that was similar, or someone thought that they liked it, or something. I really can’t say for sure. But regardless, unless it’s in their contracts and the NDA states they can’t like fan art, actors typically do like art.

7. Watching your post about the whole studio thing I thought about something, I didn’t know about Ezor’s va leak but maybe when she did it she simply didn’t think the fandom would immediately jump on it and spread it, then is it possible that the french studio ‘leak’ is real too and that the same thing happened?

Most actor’s don’t think that what they say is important. I think in Kimiko’s case she really wanted to just give the fans the okay that Shiro was going to show up again because of all the freaking out on Social Media about it and trying to be a good person. Lionel (I think that’s how you spell his name) the French VA seems like he was thinking of just showing that they were recording the show again. Maybe getting people excited, since, most people that follow Voltron aren’t following the dub actors save for those that are following in France right now. And I don’t know how many know of the actor due to the fact that he’s more a live action actor like Steve is so this is his first dubbing job for a cartoon.

The thing is that the second picture was a personal one that was taken at some other point in time, because of the change that Lionel’s hair has gone through it seems. Also, as I said before this was taken from the side meaning that they’re looking at another camera, so it’s not a case of them taking a “Last hurray” photo, and more likely that they were taking a picture with a well-known actor that had visited the studio to do a voice.

The “leak” is real in that it is a legit photo of the cast, what’s fake is the stuff behind them.

8. I reported the violations to the French company but they haven’t got back to me :/ surely over something this serious they would?

I wouldn’t expect them to be getting back to you regarding this. The photo that was taken wasn’t their property in this case, it’s owned by whoever took it from the side of the editing booth. If it was a professional photo, then yeah they would want to know info. It could be that too, much like DW here in the state’s the legal department isn’t seeing anything huge to go after and would rather people just ignore it.

After all they have only a month and a few days here states side for it to come out, also in France too, so more than likely they are more worried about the promotional stuff they need to do after She-ra comes out.

You’re right, if it was serious we would see things about it all over the place, not just on Tumblr but on other sites that cover this sort of news. Like with the Mir incident. This is not serious to them and probably isn’t even registering yet for them.

9. One of the most glaring things for me is that Roy isn't even on the poster. Even the most minor characters are in it and yet you're going to tell me Shiro's future husband isn't? Yeah, no way. Also in your post debunking the leaks you forgot to mention how the background characters are weirdly static (especially Pidge) in the wedding edits, but Shiro and Roy are moving.

Yeah having Roy on the poster would be a legal nightmare waiting to happen, as rsasai said in one of their other posts, since the show is airing in Japan and Japan worships Roy and Macross, you would have to deal with Studio Nue, Tatsunoko and Big West for any rights to be used. Not to mention that fans of Macross would want to know what the hell was going on since Roy is a big deal. As I said above reminds me way to much of a Newtype magazine static illustration that was traced over.

10. I commend you on your impeccable taste in TV shows, my good comrade. Also, whomst else misses the 80s & 90s where people would just watch and enjoy the shows they watched, and didn’t ruin them or the experience for other fans? Ahhh the good old days!

Maybe I’ll list all my favorite shows. XD And thank you, I like to think I have good taste in shows. At least I hope I do.

Well it depened on who you watched the show with, but over all, for the most part, people genuinely weren’t as worked up over shows. Or at least I never noticed save for a Lisa is better, Lynn is better fight I once saw between two girls on the playground about Robotech, but other than that…it was mostly quiet. Not sure about at offices in the day though over shows like Dallas or Dynasty.

11. To the people who say “The staff having not said anything about the leaks yet means they are true!”. I am almost sure they didn’t say anything about the “Klance voiceline leaks” either, and it was fake.

O.O What? Wait…is that like a dialogue line that was said? OR are we talking about those old telephone call lines where you paid like 9.95 and a dollar or something every minute after a few minutes to talk to your favorite character? Because if it’s the latter, hell yes it would be fake since no one does that anymore. Well save Cdawg who does it for Black butler calls but those are free.

12. An anon sent to you said "maybe DW just doesn't care anymore since the show is almost over" but it's really not about VLD anymore. Like I said before in a previous ask, this sets a very bad precedent. DW is a business, which means they have to look to the future. By not taking this seriously, they're implying they won't take any of their other licensed shows/IPs seriously either. No company would want to damage their reputation so badly just because a contract is almost over.

But see, the thing is, it’s not that they don’t care it’s a question of how the legal wants them to handle it. If you kick up too much of a fuss, then it’s “Well they are real” if you don’t then you have people saying you’re not doing enough. Ultimately it’s not up to DW to chase things down since they are not the main license holder, that is WEP, and the other studios are not owned by DW or WEP they are only licensing the series to dub via Netflix. Then throw NBC Universal on this, and you have that factor in play here…you’d have a lot of people involved. Does it look bad, kinda. But most studios have the same response. It’s easier to let things die on their own than interviene as it becomes making a mountain out of a mole hill. Or to put it in a better way. Let’s take a real case that recently happened. There’s a famous artist that likes to take images and do a little change then say they are his own works of art. He’s been doing this for years and artists hate him because he’s taking their copyrighted works and screwing with them only a little and calling them his own. Recently, like a year or so ago, he went on Instagram, found cosplay and other pictures of female celebs and non celebs, commented on it. Took the photo and the comment, put it together as a larger picture and called it his own. This is considered art appropriation and can be seen as a legal way of doing art. Richard Prince, the artist in question, has been getting away with it for years. And someone who’s cagey enough probably could use that as a defense in a lawsuit. https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/30/8691257/richard-prince-instagram-photos-copyright-law-fair-use

13. in the french va video, who is the guy in the middle? the director?

That guy in the middle may be Patrick Borg. Reason the cast may be taking the picture with him is he’s the voice of Son Goku in Dragon Ball and has been since the start of Dragon ball Z, and is a well-known in VA in France. Or It’s Jerome Wiggins who does a main character on Zagtoonz Zak Storm. My guess though, it’s probably Patrick, and since the crew is pretty much younger actors who grew up around the hype of Dragon ball Z, wouldn’t surprise me if they were taking a picture with him because he was doing a voice for them.

14. No, it's the opposite now. All the evidence in the Universe prooves that the leaks are real but you all choose not to believe in it. And I'm okay with it and I'm more than okay If I'm wrong but if the leaks are real almost everyone who believes that the are fake would be greatly dissapointed and will feel betrayed

As I said before Anon, if you want to believe it, fine. That’s up to you. I have no horse in this race, I’m only presenting facts as I find them and having two graphic designers and other people look over the images and such, to them they seem doctored or created. I’d rather people make the call themselves, but as other’s have said well before me, it seems insane that two studios decided to risk their careers to leak this stuff. You do realize that in doing so they will have cost the trust of several other clients they have and it would probably put them out of business with Netflix, and cause BTI Studios to lose the deal with Altor and Shamrock that they recently made this past year, and for Netflix to pull out of it’s vendorship with VSI and probably make other networks, like CN, and Nick, pull out of the deal. No one, in their right mind, would put themselves or their careers in danger over a cartoon show. No one. It would cause them to be blacklisted and not have work in the VA community ever again. The sheer level of WTF that would have to run through someone’s minds to do this if they were a professional in this field would be astonishing. Honestly, no I wouldn’t feel betrayed or disappointed. I would be more worried for the studios and wonder if they would be able to continue to run as they are, or have to close due to the fact that most of their clients would bolt knowing their intellectual property wasn’t safe. Then there would be the lawsuits from WEP, NBC Universal and probably Mir for putting out copyrighted material that they don’t own. Would I be upset about the show, no, honestly I wouldn’t. Allura dying would be a mirror and parallel to Ryou dying and taking Lotor with him from Go lion, something Voltron the original didn’t do. Shiro being married, awesome. Roy Fokker getting his name out there and getting people to watch Macross to know who the hell this hottie is, okay in my book. The crew taking a picture together, nothing wrong there.

The only thing that could disappoint me is no ending or a cliff hanger, since, well I got that with Force from DiC and this would be the first show to have a real ending outside of the original.

I don’t get why people are worried about me or others feeling disappointed when there are four other variants of the show that exist that we can watch. That’s just silly. I’m more surprised that people don’t care about the well-being and lively hood and careers of the VAs internationally being wrecked by all of this. That’s where my concern lies. Shipping and all the other things, I don’t care about. My care was that the characters were happy and got along, and that the robot fights were cool.

15. You list Roy's arm/hand as vanishing on 13 but they're both still visible, I've redlined it for you: i(.)imgur(.)com/2UHctWY(.)png

Side note. you can’t send pictures that way. And if you mean where the arm seems to blend down around the waist area. I can’t tell for sure if that’s his right arm or his left. Also that would be a weird way to hold someone if you’re going to kiss them like that in genera.

#ask darkspellmaster #anon questions #voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #voltron leaks #fake voltron leaks #fake leaks #false leakes #Chinkel studio cast #patrick borg #i've learned about some cool new vas #thanks leakers #roy fokker

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kristallioness · 6 years

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21 Questions about ATLA

I was tagged by @atypicalkataangist. Wow, thanks for including me in this quiz! I've seen others reblog a list of numbered questions similar to these, expecting to receive some asks that they could answer in return. But now I get to do them in one go.

1) Who's your favourite male character?

I'm unoriginal and gonna say it's Aang. Not only because of him being the main character, but also because he was the first boy in the show who I immediately started to like (Sokka was second, Zuko was third in the beginning since he was a villain and I grew to love him more and more along with his character development), the way he balances his carefree, childish personality with his more mature, responsible side, his back story and peaceful culture.. Most importantly, without him, there wouldn't be the second half of such a lovely couple like he and Katara are.

2) Who's your favourite female character?

Katara. She's not only my favourite female character, but favourite character of them all, right from the start and until the end. The moment I saw her I fell in love since she looked really pretty and she wore a braid, just like me. Seeing what a caring, motherly, fierce personality she had (like mine) only fuelled my love for her.

3) What's your favourite quote?

Since Katara's my favourite character, then my first choice would be: "I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!" Because that's sort of who I am and what I'm like, too. It's almost like a motto that I live by without thinking about it twice. I'm self-sacrificing and try to help my friends whenever they need it and as much as I can. I just remembered another good one, a quote that affected me on a more personal level. I'm pretty sure that only 0.0000000001% of the fandom would choose this one: "I don't care what I look like. I'm not looking for anyone's approval. I know who I am." The best part is, this is something that Toph says to Katara after she's been made fun of for her appearance by a bunch of prissy Upper Ring Earth Kingdom girls. How did this affect me? I started crying when I first saw this scene. Why? Because this was something that I'd been struggling with for years. I'd been bullied for my appearance at school. It used to make me feel worthless, unlovable, alone, probably also the reason why I turned into such a quiet person who doesn't know how to be around real friends. Hearing a blind, tomboyish, badass earthbender say what I needed to hear all along made me understand that it's not true - my appearance does not define my worth or who I am inside.

4) What's your favourite fight?

I knew you answered Katara and Pakku's duel @atypicalkataangist (and that one came to my mind, too, since it is one of my favourites because of reasons), but since I recently rewatched "The Serpent's Pass", I'm gonna pick Aang and Katara beating up that huge serpent. That was some awesome bending teamwork there! I went through all of the episodes in my head, and I gotta say that I also really like the duel between Aang and Zuko in "Bato of the Water Tribe". And one of the first ones where Haru and his father Tyro, along with the rest of the earthbenders, fight their way to freedom in the prison. The ending of that episode always leaves me with such a powerful feeling.

5) What's your favourite episode?

The big finale, "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang". I sobbed practically throughout the entire episode when I first saw it. The soundtrack playing in the end is so beautiful to listen to and it still brings tears to my eyes. This episode concludes everything the show set up in the most unexpected ways possible. I mean, did any of us foresee Zuko being crowned the new Fire Lord (after you watched the first episode)? Did our hearts break into a million pieces when Katara and Aang kissed and became a couple in the end? Enough said.

6) From which nation would you like to be?

I'm not sure whether this is cheating or not, but since the story of ATLA continues in the comics and during Korra's time, I'd really love to be from the United Republic of Nations. I just love how it's a nation of mixed cultures, I am in LOVE with Republic City (as well as its 1920's aesthetic) and the capital reminds me of my own (Tallinn is also near the sea, has a marvellous silhouette, 4 seasons). Or if not, then my choice would definitely be the Water Tribes. I've explained it pretty well under the description of this drawing of mine.

7) Which element would you like to be able to bend and why?

Easy, I'd pick water since my 2nd choice when applying for university 5 years ago was to become a doctor. I'd like to use my healing abilities to cure people and my graceful waterbending to battle bad guys like Katara!

8) Favourite animal in the Avatar Universe?

I'm probably unoriginal, but I'm torn between the sky bison or the dragons. Oh, and the ostrich horses!

9) Who would you like to be your teacher and why?

I'm thinking it could be either Katara, Aang or Zuko, in this exact order. Katara and Aang would both be really supportive and I consider Zuko to be really wise (remember what he said to Korra before departing? he learned so much throughout the years).

10) What was the saddest moment in the show?

I have an entire list of the scenes/moments that made me cry, let me check.. *reads* Which sad moment made me cry the most, I'mma pick that one.. Okay, I can't decide because there are a few, let me name them: * the ones that stand out the most are all 3 finales * when Katara thought that her mother was alive in the swamp * when Aang enters the Avatar State and wants to kill the sandbenders, but Katara doesn't run away and instead grabs his hand and pulls him back down into her embrace and they cry together * Iroh singing the lullaby to his deceased son on his birthday (my parents have always said that one of the worst things a parent can live through is the death of their own child, so when I saw this scene, I understood what they meant and started crying) * Jet's death * Aang unlocking his heart chakra * almost the entirety of "The Awakening" (because everything seemed so hopeless and going the wrong way, when Katara and Hakoda talked), seriously, this is the most depressing episode in my book and that's why I love it so much * Sokka talking to Toph about how he's forgotten what his mother looks like and Katara is the one who's taken her place * when the invasion fleet was defeated on the Day of Black Sun and Katara knelt down beside Aang to comfort him * Zuko and his uncle Iroh's reconciliation and his speech to Team Avatar before they departed

11) What was the most shocking moment in the show?

You answered the same way: Aang getting shot with lightning. It came out of nowhere. When I saw Katara's face full of hope I thought that now they were going to make it since Aang had the power to face the Dai Li as well as Zuko and Azula. In a split second, everything changed and took a turn for the worst.

12) What was the funniest moment in the show?

There are so many good jokes, how do you expect me to pick just one??? Okay, umm.. when Sokka tried to fight against the villagers who believed too much of Aunt Wu's fortunes with logic and rational thinking (I can relate to him, poor Sokka).. How Aang messed up and unintentionally made Katara upset by insulting her instead of giving her a compliment when they were lost in the caves. Or the time Sokka and Katara had to pose as Aang's parents to go to the principal's office after school.

13) What was the most unforgettable moment in the show?

Maybe the whole scene before Zuko's coronation starts, "Peace" playing in the background, we see friends and family reunited, happy, alive. We witness something few of us could've predicted: the last person we ever thought, who went through and learned so much, is crowned the new Fire Lord. It's such a victorious moment and never leaves me without emotion.

14) Which one is your favourite book?

I have a weird system concerning this. Book 1 was sort of like the start of their journey, the world was slowly being built and introduced to us. Book 2 became much more serious, the characters gained more depth and the stakes began to rise. When I thought it couldn't get any better, I was proven horribly wrong. Book 3 became far more emotional than I ever could've imagined. So it's like my love grew with each book, and I kind of love the last one the most for this reason.

15) Who had the greatest character development in the show?

Everybody developed so much, but I'd definitely say it was Zuko. At first, I didn't really care much about him. Just another villain trying to capture someone for his own personal gain, I figured. But that all changed when I saw his back story in "The Storm". I started to look at him from a completely different angle. I began to understand where he came from, why he was doing this. I saw how much he struggled, how many wrongs he committed. The climax was when he faced his own father and told him: "No! I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own. Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history and somehow, the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was! The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation! They don't see our greatness, they hate us! And we deserve it." This is what he learned by spending time as a refugee in the Earth Kingdom, by witnessing firsthand what his nation, what this war was doing to others. And he was determined to set things right by joining Aang and his friends, teaching him firebending and stopping his own homeland from going down this path.

16) What do you love most about Avatar: The Last Airbender?

The story that Bryan and Michael came up with. I have NEVER cried so much, laughed at so many original jokes, heard such gorgeous instrumental music made by Jeremy Zuckerman, the raw emotion behind the voice actors.. every little bit is what makes this story and this series so amazing, fulfilling and perfect.

17) What do you hate most about Avatar: The Last Airbender?

I don't hate anything about the show per se, perhaps more about the way the fandom can act sometimes.

18) With which character do you identify most?

Like I answered in question 2, Katara. Her personality reflects mine the most, we share similar values in life, I love her family (Hakoda and Sokka) because they have such loving relationships with each other (Katara and Hakoda made me emotional several times, and they only had a few scenes together!).

19) Is Avatar: The Last Airbender your favourite cartoon/anime?

Ever since I discovered it, and I think it'll remain as my favourite cartoon for the rest of my life. Nothing can ever impact me as much as Avatar has.

20) Would you want to be the Avatar?

Thinking just how messed up our own world is right now, how my aggressive eastern neighbour has occupied parts of 2 independent countries, how helpless and angry I feel that I can't do anything about it - Y E S. I want to bring peace and balance back to our world, too. And if I had my own loving, supportive partner (like Aang) by my side, I'd do it again in a thousand lifetimes.

21) What's your favourite ship?

I personally ship everything that has been or is currently canon. My OTP is obviously Kataang, though I'm also one of the few friendly multishippers out here. Which means that I don't mind seeing beautiful stuff about Zutara either, for instance. (Seriously, you should check out my tag, there are so many lovely gifsets there, be it romantic or platonic.)

To sum up, thank you once more for tagging me! I'm not gonna tag anyone specific, but if any of you would like to do this, too, then go ahead! It was really fun to reflect back on why I love this show so much.

#personal #shards of Kristal #ATLA

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clemwasjustagirl · 6 years

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Writing Tag

I was tagged by @linkslipssinkships for this writing tag thingamajig. So when I haven’t actually written and I’ve just talked about myself, y’all should blame her ;)

Post-doing this note: If you’re a writer and see this, you should totally do it. I don’t often spend time being particularly thoughtful about why I write what I write.

1. How long have you been writing? Did you dive in or did it take awhile?

I dove in pretty hard just over a year ago into the rhink fandom stuff. I’ve been writing stuff that only I ever saw for a very long time before that. I also studied writing in college.

2. What’s your favorite genre? (for writing or reading). Is there anything in particular that draws you to it?

I really like reading dystopian fiction. I fell in love with Margaret Atwood’s books in high school (a decade ago…) and have since been pretty obsessed with reading and writing stories about women. Which has made the whole almost exclusively writing men thing sort of weird for me. My writing (when I do it, I haven’t been good about it) that’s not about rhink is about women.

3. How many projects do you have currently? Are they connected or do they stand apart from each other?

Oh gosh. So many. I’m still working on Do You Wish It Was Me and True Blue. I have at least one outstanding almost-written one shot. @mythicalseries and I are GOING TO work on A Country of Two, and I have so so many other things I’m constantly wishing I could write. Alllllll the plot bunnies.

Also one book(?) idea I’ve done some work on that’s not related to a fandom.

4. Do you have a favorite “type” of main character to write with?

copy/paste that answer about writing women from above, I guess. When it comes to writing rhink, I find myself connecting more with pining!Rhett than with Link for whatever reason. I think it has something to do with his personality seeming less like myself. Link seems like a very complicated person, and after all this time I’m still not sure I’ve ever nailed him.

5. What kind of scenes do you enjoy writing most? Do you find them harder or easier to write?

Fights! They’re both hard and easy, I guess, in that I almost always start writing a fight scene with an idea of how the two characters will handle it. They also leave a lot of room for all kinds of feels.

6. What comes first when you first start: characters, world, or plot? A combination? Or are they a package deal?

I haven’t written a lot of rhink AU, but when I have, it’s been the characters that came to me first. I think that’s mostly true in writing non-rhink, but my project right now was very much a world that came to me. Still working through what the plot looks like, and it’s a little scary.

7. How much do you know about the worlds you create? Do you plan everything down to the finest detail or make it up on the fly as it becomes relevant?

I do a great deal of making things up on the fly, but, especially when I write rhink, I research pretty extensively. “What’s that building they’re standing in front of?” has turned into searching for decades-old property records for me. Especially with True Blue.

8. What kind of characters do you usually have front and center? Humans? Elves? Aliens? Dragons? Dogs? Sentient trees?

Just humans for now. And for the foreseeable future.

9. If you could pick one OC to drag out into the real world with you, who would you pick and why?

I don’t think he counts, but definitely Link from Comin’ On Strong. Mannnnn he was hot and he would be so much fun to go to bars with.

10. What is your current project? Tell us about it.

Do You Wish It Was Me and True Blue are my focus right now.

11. Do you have a writing group or community? Any place you go to plot or share ideas?

@linkslipssinkships and @mythicalseries! If I have an idea about True Blue lately, LLSS has been forced to hear it. It was sooo much fun brainstorming ideas in person with MS! <3

12. Do you have a favorite OC? Like, someone you have to give some happy ending or that you dislike being mean to?

I tend to write a lot of stuff trying to make it realistic, so I don’t have many OCs… I guess I’d have to say Beverly, from my fic Freedom to Stay. She was really into Rhett, but she knew Rhett needed a chance to see what would happen with Link. That’s actually one of my favorite fics I’ve written.

13. Do you write in short bursts or sit and type out a lot? Do you think your method helps or are you just happy to even get words down?

It really depends. There have been some days where I sit down and write most of a fic and times when I add a few words and walk away. Anything in between. I think not having a method certainly doesn’t work, because getting words down is a big thing for me these days.

14. Do you have a project that you just abandoned, or one that you put on the back burner because you wanted to wait until you’d cultivated your skills more?

True Blue, I guess. Not put it on the backburner to get better so much as to make sure when I’m writing it I do it how I want it. That fic is my baby, and I liked how the first couple chapters turned out, and now I’m terrified to add things to it and screw it up.

15. What is your favorite character trope? Do you use it in your own writing?

Pining, for sure. Especially for rhink fics. I don’t know that I’ve written any fics that don’t have some level of pining in them. For the person the character doesn’t have or for more certainty with them or for more of a commitment. Writing rhink really brings that out in me.

16. Any writers/authors you look up to or who have influenced your writing style?

I certainly hope so. Without any insinuation that my writing is *anything* like theirs, I’ll say that I love authors like Margaret Atwood and Kurt Vonnegut who can say a whole lot in a very small number of words. My favorite comments ever are about one word saying a lot.

17. Do you find it more difficult to write short stories or novels?

I love writing short things, for the same reason as above. I’ve never written a novel, but I think the length and the extension of long plots would inherently make them more difficult.

18. Have you ever imagined your ideal cover art for your writing? What does it look like?

Not really! I’m someone who deeply appreciates the visual arts but has a very limited ability to create any. Anatomical hearts, perhaps, for much of it.

19. What style of writing do you like reading or writing more? Simple and to the point? Descriptive and prosey?

Yes to both? Simple and to the point that is also descriptive and prosey is the ultimate challenge and the most beautiful when done right.

20. Would you rather see your story produced as a film, mini series, or musical/play?

The way TV is going lately, give me a mini series any day.

#writing tag #about me #linkslipssinkships #this was fun!

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steve0discusses · 5 years

Text

Yugioh S3 Ep 19: Seto and Mokuba are Turned Into Inanimate Objects...Again

Last we left off on the world’s most awkward family reunion, Moki was being used to take advantage of Seto again, which happens at least 2 times a season.

What’s kind of wild about this, is that everyone jumps to the conclusion that Seto is absolutely going to murder his little brother. Seto. The guy who 2 seasons ago was willing to absolutely jump off a ledge for his little brother.

And then suddenly, Duke makes his feelings known about just life in general at this point.

Duke in the background just spiraling deeper and deeper into his IDGAF apathy. And to be honest, Duke might not be fully aware of who Mokuba even is. It’s not like they’ve ever had a conversation, other than maybe “ah, you work for Pegasus, he locked me in a tower for weeks and then killed me by turning me into a little paper card and then tried to seize control of my company. Nice. Nice that he isn’t in jail.”

In fact, since Duke does work with Pegasus who probably is still doing his best to compete with/work with the Kaiba business...Duke actually has a lot to gain, business wise, by killing Mokuba. Like, I’m pretty sure Duke isn’t a mole but he could be. He has...a lot of motive, actually.

If bro hadn’t straight up told me that Duke isn’t a mole like I suspected, than I’d still be waiting for that other shoe to drop. But it won’t. A shame.

Anyways this shows up:

All I’m saying is that a black hole is an astronomical region in space and a dark hole is very often a butthole, but youknow...maybe that’s just a very particular English language thing that no one will ever teach you from a textbook and it just didn’t quite get translated over correctly. But yeah, in my eye, Noah's just up there holding up a sphincter. It’s very fitting, he is an asshole. Congrats, Noah Kaiba, you’ve found your card.

Meanwhile, Yugi is doing his very best to try and backseat, even if Kaiba instinctively slaps it out of his hands at every opportunity.

So I figured that he’d mention that both of these boys carry these card lockets around their necks with a little picture of the other brother inside--a little thing they carry for no other reason than to remember eachother. Which makes sense, because Kaiba forgets things SO OFTEN. The necklace around their necks is almost like those bracelets you wear to let police and medics know if you’re prone to narcolepsy--it even has a nice picture inside to indicate “please return this boy to this pictured person in case you find him wandering about completely lost.”

I kinda figured that necklace would be used at some point but nah, we’re gonna talk about cards. Which is fine, because we get to see this good drawing Mokuba made once.

Which, PS, it was sort of hard to pick up on the first time Kaiba talked about this period of his life, but this time when he talked about this incident it like...left quite a bit highly implied there by what Seto meant when he said Mokuba “saved me.” It’s some pretty heavy stuff that kind of gets blown over by the massive magic dragon that shows up in the next scene and then just flies Mokuba, who is wearing very cute fuzzy socks, up into the sky and into the moon like ET.

Nowadays they do this by hanging off of Helicopters, but flying on dangerous things to escape their horrible childhood has been their Fantasy for a very long time. These kids and their obsession with heights and dangerous ledges.

And apparently it was this moment in his youth that Seto decided he wanted to be “worthy enough to hold a Blue Eyes.” And like...I remember S1 Seto. That was the worthy Seto?

I guess “worthy enough” doesn’t really imply any sort of moral code, just if you have enough money and can like play cards pretty OK.

Anyways, it was a lot of new stuff applied to this card that I just only recently accepted as a GF and so it was like “All right show, I see what you’re doing, I guess we’re going to walk slowly out of the paper romance realm and into...some sort of card-honor brother realm.”

So, using the Blue Eyes, Kaiba destroys a bunch of Gradius ships, which Noah was like “These Gradius ships represent our Father’s company!” in case you’re a child and didn’t see the symbolism. And, along the way, he destroys what he thinks is Noah’s Game Master card but like...it’s this show, so apparently inside the Boat was another dude and the game is going to keep on going, fml.

Ah buckle up this...this is going to be a long one. This is going to be a lot more cards, huh?

Anyway, when I saw this card that is clearly based on a couple of Gods I was like “so um...isn’t that a...God card?” so I looked it up, also because it was BS and I was frustrated that it was even here after the boat thing ended, and this card is a...get this...a Fairy card.

Cuz it has wings? Like a Seraphim? Everything about this looks like a conglomeration of different Gods but--I guess since God Cards can only have the 4 God Cards, this is a...Fairy card. Interesting. That is a huge ass Fairy. Yugioh biology really eludes me.

Anyway, First thing Noah does as a fairy is destroy his younger brother who is also older than him, don’tthinkaboutit. He’s again sporting the poorly photoshopped glowing romper that the dub gave us in order to spare us.

Hey!

Question!

So when Noah’s wearing the game Master outfit, he’s ass naked underneath--but the Big 5 weren’t? Like wouldn’t the Big 5 have had the same issue of Noah here where they have no body, so whatever they’re wearing is just whatever they’re in?

Meaning that when they were all shoved in Tristan’s body wouldn’t they have just been 5 naked fat old guys hanging out like a European sauna?

Or is this just Noah’s preference? To be ass naked when no one’s looking? Because he’s been here all alone for 6 years, so why the hell not? Like, no one cares. No one’s looking. You can’t get splinters or whatever. Just let it all hang loose, man, it’s not even a real body.

Like, if you look closely, Noah only has ... one outfit he’s had here for 6 years. I’ve noticed this maybe more than most because...it’s not a great outfit. He had that same suit and shorts combo right after he woke up and got out of his jammies from the accident all those years ago. He also wore a space suit once, but that was a Birthday present from Dad and I haven't seen the suit since.

Did Noah recognize that People Are Coming and was like “oh dammit, dammit, I have to cover the goods” and just throw on literally the only thing in his closet? The office shorts combo from 6 years ago? Is that why? Is that the big secret of the baby boy suit shorts? That he, in reality, never really wears them?

Questions about nudity aside, out of freakin no where Noah just turns the Kaibas into this:

Noah spent like 20 episodes saying no one is ever allowed to cheat and then just flippin does this and is like “What? It’s almost legal enough.”

I mean, it’s not like there’s any official rules for Duel Monsters anyway but apparently you can just turn each other into statuary and it’s like...fine. That’s fine.

Also, fun fact, about Yugioh statues, they come with eyeliner built in.

So much dedication to the guyliner in this show, mad respect.

And yes, I have sort of thought that Moki’s been sporting a teeny tiny Adam Lambert line this whole time. Like most our cast, honestly. But not Joey. I feel like Joey would never have the patience to learn how to waterline.

I mean the Kaiba’s are essentially brain dead, yes? Their brain functions have been removed and uploaded to the cloud to never be downloaded back into their vegetable bodies? That counts enough for me.

Seto Kaiba just 2 corpses away from 169ing the Hell out of that death scene. A shame.

Bro was like “well at least this crying statue stuff is more like something that normally happens in a kid’s show.” and I was like “THIS? So this ever happened in Pokemon?” and bro was like “It did actually, Ash Ketchum was turned into stone and then cried as a rock statue, and then Pikachu hugged him to make him all better” And as you may be aware my bro is full of spicy headcanons so I’m not sure if that’s actually true but it was like

“Bro, was Ash Ketchum ever turned to stone because his abusive Father’s secret son, who has been turned into an evil computer, wants to kill his brother and then take over his body to run the Patriots from Metal Gear? That happened on Pokemon?” And Bro admitted “Ok, maybe not so much.”

Anyway, Pharaoh awakens to put a stop to this nonsense by bringing up the long list of things that Noah did just now that is absolutely cheating.

Anyway, this is Noah now.

He’s just this...huge 100 story tall person with very bored judgy eyes just floating in the sky with vaguely religious iconography going on and bunch of wings like that one character design that we all have in our portfolio. Yeah, you know the one. It’s this guy. We’ve all drawn this guy. Anyway, it’s going to be very hard to take him seriously when this guy has Noah’s voice.

Again, he is not, he is ass naked in there, though the dub did try and cover it up.

Anyway, next episode we get to basically start this entire duel over.

That’s nice. That’s nice of them to do to me. At least these kids finally got a chance to do some duel prep for the actual tourney they’re supposed to be doing later this season. Yeah. Remember that apocalypse? That’s still going on somehow. Maybe by the time they’ll get to it, most of the competitors will be dead?

Here’s a link to read the recaps in order from S1 Ep1

#yugioh #yu gi oh #episode recap #photo recap #S3 Ep19 #tw suicide #seto kaiba #noah kaiba #yugi muto #joey wheeler #duke devlin #Noah is now a giant 6 winged angel #The Kaibas are rock statues #unfortunately this time they are in a much harder to transport state #you can't put a statue into your pants pocket so rip

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tsuede · 4 years

Photo

Change of shades

Tripunithura is a temple town much obsessed with it's past - a town in perpetual rumination. The place takes on the persona of that old lady who talks about her ancestral home's 'pathayam' full of rice reserves when she was young. The thin, pale, peripheral branches of a kshetreya legacy - the town's favourite residents. Vestiges of this aristocratic legacy are preserved in structures of brick, blood and society.

Towards the end of November is 'vrishchikotsavam,' the temple's anniversary, a week of chaos. The whole temple compound gets a golden glow at night, yellow luminance invading into the privacy of the black night sky. Camphor soot and dust, disperse the yellow light from the sodium vapour lamps propped on bamboo poles. Everything, and everyone, becomes beautiful in that light. I spend the nights near the wooden stairs of the West gate. They're relatively less crowded. It's not easy, you know, existing as the omnipresent like me. It's very distracting, and also, you don't have as much freedom. Everything becomes decided for you, you are restricted by the imagination of the dumb few who made you up - your shape, name, mobility, sexuality, where you exist, who you can see, who can see you - everything. It's hard. On the third day of utsavam I saw him in his favourite black tee and 'kaavi mundu.' His goatee is catching up since the last year I saw him. He knows I don't exist and hence doesn't bother visiting, except for these yearly visits. He's here for the 'panchavadyam' - the orchestral drum music. He stands away from the rush, in a clear patch, looking down at the sand moist with elephant pee, cross-armed, taking in the rhythmic beats of the chenda. But, today he's disturbed - too conscious of his presence. She is the reason. She's there standing by the gallery wall, with an ease which he can only dream of, and she's beautiful. Her sharp nose with a bump at 1/3rd the length, her exotic pale grey eyes, bony fingers with closely cut nails and her lilac chiffon churidar with floral patterned baggy salwaar. She waves at her sister who along with the rest of her family is watching the procession from the gallery reserved for the royal families. Privileges of your ancestors being fucked by some Aryan. Maybe it's these privileges that let her exist at ease in this crowd and maybe the lack of which makes him conscious of his presence in the same crowd. The space itself is new to his ilk. They are strangers, at least in the broader sense of the word. For her, he is just another face illuminated in yellow. But he knows her face a bit more thoroughly, maybe a bit too well, well enough to sketch it on a Monday morning from memory. He used to enjoy his bus rides back home from Palarivattom, after those wretched classes, with a curious sense of achievement. It was his reward for sitting through 8 hours of depressing lessons in cramped classrooms - his way of unwinding. One day she gets on his bus and sits a few seats ahead of him. He observed every curve on her head's silhouette. Next morning he woke up at 4 and started sketching it down so that he wouldn't forget how it looked. This was 5 years ago. He hasn't seen her since, until today. That face he sketched from memory, the only one he could - the bump on her nose, the grey in her eyes, everything was before him again. The chenda beats were muffled. He watched her as she sat down on the moist sand, cross-legged, leaning back on her hand propped on the ground. Then she closed her eyes, raised her head up and tried to read the beats. ..... Day 5, he came early. The panchavadyam wouldn't start in another 2 hours. He went to the koothupura to see the kathakali. 'Baali-vadhanam' is playing today. She is sitting at the back, in a corner. She recognizes his face from a dream she once had. The boy who painted her in the light of a kerosene lamp. Every stroke on the cotton rag canvas gave new colours to her skin. She got maroon hair, grey skin and yellow eyes. She loved how she'd changed, she wished she had maroon hair, grey skin and yellow eyes. She believed it was the light from the soot-covered glass shade of the lamp that gave her her new colours. She saw his face in the flickering glow of the 'aatavillaku,' and she felt the joy of having a chance to get the colours she never had. She relished the possibility in all its absurdity. The handheld curtain is let to fall and the music became louder, a few hurried stomps of the feet, and he looks back over his shoulder. Two beats skipped, two breaths stuck half-way, and two pairs of eyes averted. The first set of sticks fell on the chendas - panchavadyam has started. The Kathakali crowd started shrinking. She stood up, dusted her bottom and walked to the front. She introduced herself, 'Durga.' Two wide-opened eyes met the outstretched hand. 'Hey, I'm Tejus,' he shook the hand. 'You wanna sit?' She sat beside him. He's amused by Ravanan's face patterns, a bit of extra black and red, violent and threatening. This is the part where he abducts Sita to the forest confinement in Lanka. What if Sita wanted to be with Ravanan and the whole Ramayanam is a distorted version of the story - an elope rather than an abduction? The panchavadyam beats were getting intense, but neither of them felt like leaving. 'Do you draw?' Durga asked, noticing the black-bound sketchbook jutting out of his satchel. 'Yes... I like to sketch, yeah.' He was always reluctant to acknowledge his taste in art. I bet he felt noticed and exposed. 'What kinda things do you sketch?' 'I like doing portraits, illustrations, ...that kinda stuff.' 'Can you draw me?' Durga asked. A question that he's heard an umpteen times before, and yet, this time it was different; for both of them, both knew he already had. 'Yes... sometimes,' he replied with a shy nod. Tejus' phone rang, True caller tab popped up red, 'Bsnl telemarketing,' it read. 'Wow, Yumeji's theme? From "In the mood for love?" Are you a Wong Kar Wai fan too? They gushed over their love for Wong Kar Wai movies. They both thought they were the only ones to see all 10 of his features. Tejus' favourite was 'Chungking Express' and Durga's was '2046.' They talked about the omnipresent elements in his movies: the rain, mirrors, unrequited love, stop printing and catchy pop songs. When the nuances of Wong Kar Wai movies were exhausted they bitched about almost everyone who was sitting there - the GoPro techie who had brought the whole product box with him, the aunty with jasmine flowers on her head that had started to rot, the bald guy who ironically had scored most number of mosquitoes circling his head, the butt crack guy with a fluorescent 'Jockey,' the over engrossed mom whose kids they planned to murder, the sorority of princesses with matching blouses, and the oldie, who for some reason kept calling me, only interrupted by the periodic scoffs of disappointment at the mumbling two. They hardly cared anything about the grieving Ram(easily an 8) who just lost his wife to the dark evil Ravanan( a 5, at most a 6). The Kathakali performers bowed and left the makeshift stage. A few of the audience had come with bed-sheets to sleep on, which they spread over the floor and slept. Durga and Tejus left the koothambalam. It was 3 in the morning, the panchavadyam was over long back, and the temple grounds were deserted except for the footprints from the night. They decided to sit and talk for some more time before they went home. They sat at the west gate, on the black rock platforms on which people, and I, usually sit. It'll glisten ever so lightly in the moon, the oil from the lit lamps would mix with the dew and give a greasy coating to it. Durga started, 'Have you seen ''Begin Again?" Yeah? So, there's this scene in which they talk about how you can know so much about a person from their playlists.' Durga looked at Tejus intently, waiting. '...Oh, you wanna know my playlist? Okay cool, how about we play one song each from our playlists, alternatively. How's that?' 'Cool, works. You wanna start?' 'Yeah, sure.' Tejus started with 'Angela' by The Lumineers. They played Angela. I liked that song. Something about tree logging. 'Wasteland baby, by Hozier.' 'Okay,...Hero by Family of the year.' 'Coastline by Hollow Coves.' 'Cherathukal...?' ... Tinges of orange spread in the sky and suddenly there were rays of sunlight creeping in from behind the silhouette of the clock-tower. Savithri had started sweeping the stone pavements. She's a friend. We talk often about her grandkids. Pigeons stirred from under the clay-tiled roofs. Durga rubbed her eyes and took a few deep breaths of the cold morning air. She looked at Tejus sleeping on her calves, waited a moment, and then woke him up. A bit embarrassed by the drool on her salwaar he gave her an awkward smile. He lazily sat up. 'Oh, shit..! We're back in real-time.' 'Do you hear a Harpsichord playing? We can dance maybe,' She asks with an animated face of sarcasm. Tejus spurts out a laugh, 'It's funny you said that. I've always had this fantasy of having a sunrise-esque moment. You know, in some foreign city, walking around the streets - connecting with a person...Oh, and then I want the sequels too. I really love them, Jesse and Celine. They put everything good in those movies, and now, that's my scale, you know what I mean?' 'Yeah, I guess so. Yeah...But, you're gonna be disappointed my child. I don't think it ever works that way. Probably why the movie is special, right? I mean - you'll probably be perpetually disappointed in whatever you'd have - I guess...' 'Yeah...I guess. Anyways it'd be something I'd be looking for I guess.' Durga jumps down from the platform they were sitting on, 'well, this was close, right?' They shared a smile. They and I knew it was; the closest. The sand was cold - pleasant to walk on. They got a morning tea from the stall at the gate and decided to leave for their homes to sleep the day off. As they parted and Durga walked to her home, she looked down at her feet - there was a patch of grey on her skin - like a brushstroke. I watched on as the maroon at the ends of her hair glistened in the sun.

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