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intoloopin · 4 months

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AN INTERLUDE: IN UNITY.

TWS: A rapist and drugs are very briefly mentioned. The boys are fighting. And I believe that's all. characters (starring): Na Seungsoo. Woo Gyujin. word count: 2,457 words. time stamp: January 21th, 2024 (the day Dylan released his mixtape). author's note: not exactly super beated because I am literally dying! But anyways! Transitionary piece to get this plot going! Productivety! Hell yeah! *passes out*

January 21th.

Seungsoo doesn’t miss LOOPiN’s old dorm because he can’t miss it.

So every time he gets close to airing a complain about their current house, he instead makes a point to remember that their former two story apartment came straight out of Jiahang’s pockets, rented with a fraction of one of his many, many trust funds set by his millionaire parents for when he grew up and decided to go to college to study rare plants, or be a nepotistic model, or move to Monaco and do nothing forever. It becomes very easy to cultivate a vendetta against it that way.

But right now what Seungsoo can’t help but miss is having a bigger balcony, one that won’t cramp him when he tries to have a peaceful and quiet meltdown in his own goddamn home. There's a breeze hitting him right on the face while he’s staring at the goddamn sunset but he still feels suffocated. And he’s only sharing space with Taesong’s outside plants, their leaves a depressing shade of sick green, and Haegon’s brand new bike, which he only bought because he wasn't allowed to get a haircut after leaving Sunyoung for the nth time.

From behind him, Seungsoo hears the sound of the balcony’s door being quietly pushed open, and of a series of steps growing closer. The living room’s light has been turned on and it’s painting his body in yellow light.

“Haruki, look–” Seungsoo breathes, turning on his heels quickly, ready to raise his arms high in rendition.

Who he finds behind him is someone else, tough, someone worse – or maybe not. Haruki hates him now, romanticizes the living Hell out of Dylan now, so he would have certainly been way worse to look in the eyes now than Gyujin.

Gyujin who, with his brand new eyebrow piercing and wet hair from his one hour long shower, greets him with a smile then says, as if he’s queued to deliver a joke, “You wish.”

“Great,” Seungsoo mutters to himself, turning his back to him, getting back at supporting his elbows on the wall. For a second, he marvels at how nasty the fall would be if he jumped to the backyard. “Get out, Gyujin, seriously. I’m not in the mood.”

“Boo-hoo. I didn’t ask.”

With that, he comes close. He sits on the thick wall in the little space the plants give him, both hands holding on the concrete while he bends dangerously backwards, dangling his feet.

And Gyujin just stays there, barely moving and not talking, only whistling like a goddamn cartoon. In retaliation, Seungsoo frowns harder at the horizon and begins to fidget on his sleeping clothes, fingers anxious to hold onto something.

He never picked up on smoking and he kind of regrets it now, can’t remember the reason why. Maybe because he likes to smell like cologne too much, or because he hates the thought of being unable to kiss someone without it tasting bitter.

It takes a mere minute or so for him to break, because that’s what Seungsoo does best: he can’t hold back an impulse, can’t swallow a single word down. He needs a collar, he’s realized recently, a muzzle, and no one ever gets him one – no one ever gets him.

“That was just so damn childish,” He mutters through his teeth. “Releasing all the songs like that.”

“Oh?” Gyujin tilts his squared chin down. He’s almost looming over Seungsoo, with the way he’s set – taking him from up above, an angle Seungoo’s had a problem being perceived from ever since he was the youngest of his mother’s kids. “And unfollowing Chihoon on Instagram wasn't childish?”

“I don’t like when any of our private business gets exposed, no matter how vague. He knows that.”

“Didn’t you just make it more public now with your little show? Or do you really think no one will connect the two, that the timing isn’t obvious, that you aren’t raising tension?”

Seungsoo suppresses a little scream by pressing his knuckles hard against his lips.

“You didn’t think that far, did you? Tsk, you just never do,” Gyujin lets out a laugh. “So what is it, Seungsoo, really? Why did you do that? What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me?!” Seungsoo breathes, straightening up quickly, viciously – he almost hits Gyujin on the forehead with his head by doing so. “What is wrong with you?! Do you really think it’s okay for him to make something like that and release it without checking with us first?! When it’s mostly about the team?! We’re not illiterate! We can understand all his goddamn English!”

“Hm. Little League’s mean, I never said it wasn’t,” Gyujin agrees, but his relaxed posture lets it clear to Seungsoo that he does so only partially, half heartedly, even – always so comfortable with the possibility of a fall, he thinks, eyeing his horrible posture. “It’s a mock song made to piss Haegon off, and it got the job done. He’s justified in everything he chose to do about it. I just don’t get why you’re so offended. Is it because Chihoon didn’t write about you?”

“Are you insane? It’s not about getting a song or not, or Dylan doing things on his own or not, I just don’t–” Seungsoo shakes his head, searching for the right words, any other words but–

“You don’t like remembering we’re not friends,” Gyujin completes – spot on like fucking always. “That he doesn’t feel like he owes us secrecy anymore.”

And to think there would be a time, not even so long ago, where Seungsoo would immediately jump to refute him, banging on his chest and saying with real pride, “We’re all friends! We’re all close!”

But saying it now would just make it sound like a blatant lie; a joke with an awful punchline. So he bites his tongue and goes back to being quiet.

“Na Seungsoo, I need you to listen to what I’ll say to you,” Gyujin tells him, his voice set on a tone deeper than his usual, making the full name ring off his mouth like an intimation. Ungrundly, Seungsoo listens. “You need to start processing the things you do before you do them.”

Seungsoo scoffs, forced and loud, and looks away from his face quickly – runs from the ice underneath his setting jaw.

“We have problems, alright? All great groups do,” Gyujin keeps up, bumping their shoulders together once, then not again; Seungsoo recoils more against the wall and lightly grates his arm all to escape his follow up attempt by a matter of millimeters. “Sometimes things get sour and they spill over, and that’s just how it is. You get around, you know I’m right. No one has it easy. Idolmaker is in the middle of a PR nightmare with all the Hosung freakout, we’ve been seeing it first hand, and you won’t find Gayoung or Jeonghun getting petty in public because it isn’t smart.”

“So what can I actually do, Gyujin, about our situation?” Seungsoo asks him. A spot on his jaw is hurting from how hard he’s clenching it.

Gyujin gives him that awful, awful look of his that always tells him ‘You’re an idiot’. “Seungsoo, please. Dylan’s vent album is not a situation–”

“C’mon, Gyujin, I know it’s not!” Seungsoo says, too close to yelling. “And I know your little speech isn’t really about the goddamn unfollow! It’s you trying to get inside my head and control how I’ll act now that I know the group’s ending!”

The words make Gyujin pause. He almost fully freezes. It’s all the confirmation Seungsoo needs, the mute answer to the question that’s been eating him alive since Christmas.

“You’ve heard the fucking rumors, you– Gyujin, you know! I know you know! The March shareholder’s meeting has been canceled, Minwoo hasn’t sat down to write a real song since October, and Jiahang’s fucking dad called him back to China last month. For what?! He’s backing out, isn’t he?! He’s selling his shares because New Wave is dying. They’re going to debut the girls and just– fate out with us in it!”

Gyujin takes a defeated breath. Finally, he makes his way down the wall. “Sony hyung–”

“Don’t you Sony hyung me, man!” Seungsoo exclaims, angling his head up to fully face Gyujin, round eyes on round eyes. “Look, I know I talk even when I shouldn’t, I know my brain is goddamn slow, that it makes me do stupid shit, but why is everyone keeping things from me now?! I’m a producer too, aren’t I?! I’m a part of LOOPiN just as much as everyone, maybe even more than some people we got! Isolating me is fucked!”

“No one is isolating you, Seungsoo. Things are just complicated when it comes to giving you confidential information,” Gyujin counters, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His voice is again different, hitting at him cutting and terminal. It infuriates Seungsoo more. “And you know why that is. You put yourself in a hard position. Face it: you broke the trust. This is your own doing.”

Seungsoo’s mouth hangs open, stays open. “I broke the– what?! Why?! Because I pushed Jiahang once when he was about to do cocaine off an Inkigayo sink?! Because I took Dylan with me to haunt down a serial rapist?! I don’t regret any of those things, and I never will!”

“Was that all you did, really? Because the way I see it, the way it came across for everyone, was you going all vigilante over the members' private business,” Gyujin stresses. “And what good did any of these things do for anyone? You almost costed Jiahang his eye, Seungsoo. You almost got Chihoon arrested–”

“So now it’s all my fault?! We’re sinking, we’re doomed, and it’s all my fault?! Fuck you! You have no idea how or why– what do you even know about anything, really?!” Seungsoo spits at him, infuriated. “You just fucking got here, and– and you’ve been with us for a year and some fucking weeks, max! And it seems like everyone forgot that, that they all forgot that there was a time without you, but I didn’t! Do you even know what Haegon said, when he came with the idea of unfollowing Dylan?! ‘No matter what we do now Gyujin’s gonna fix it in the morning, so let’s do something dumb and tiny, so he won’t kill us!’ Like you’re in control or something! But news flash, this is New Wave Music, and you’re not in control, no one is! And if someone was, that someone would be me! Minwoo, Jimin, and me!”

“Or maybe not, now!” Seungsoo’s mouth keeps on going. He’s griping at the concrete of the balcony with one hand, pointing one straight at the center of Gyujin’s chest, and just letting a whole torrent out. “Maybe you do deserve trust more than I do! You– You know everything because everyone tells you everything, and you songwrite too, you can still play the tuba, why don’t you just take my fucking place, uh? If I get it all wrong and you do it all right?! Go be an executive producer, go on! Fuck writing all over just Beomseok, end me too! Minwoo likes you better anyway, maybe you can make his slump go away! Jimin fucking likes you better too, he won’t even mind me being gone, you might even get him to stop hiding Nicola from everyone, who knows!”

Seungsoo takes a shaky pause to breathe, his chest rising. He’s sure his face is red, that there’s a line of sweat on his forehead.

Gyujin remains too close and unmoving, his eyes semi close, analyzing.

“And what else?” He asks. He’s still grinning like he knows something Seungsoo doesn’t. “C’mon, go on. Spill it all out. I wanna hear it.”

“You sick–!” Seungsoo grunts, then takes another deep inhale, ends up almost choking on his own spit.

Coughing, he dismangles his grip off Gyujin’s shirt and forces himself to fall silent – they both do. Somewhere down in the street, a million cars honk and make out a disastrous symphony, and it pierces through Seungsoo’s ears like he’s in the middle of traffic. He’s minutes away from developing a killer migraine.

“So this is what comes out of you when you’re scared, yeah?” Gyujin eventually notes, quiet. Seungsoo can almost hear the tiny smile on his face stretching and growing warmer, showing just a flash of front teeth, white like a goddamn grain of salt. “Pretty animalistic reaction, although highly entertaining–”

“I’m not scared,” Sengsoo fires back, even though he is. He knows it deep in his bones, by the lack of good sleep: he’s terrified of blinking too slowly and missing any more warning signs, more sunny days; fearing they’re already all long behind him. He turns his head down. “Just, just– Tired of feeling– Tired.”

And feeling like I don’t belong, is what he thinks but doesn’t say: Like I’m not good at my job. Like no one will ever forgive me.

He feels one of Gyujin’s warm hands setting over his shoulder, offering it a squeeze. This time Seungsoo leaves it there, allowing it to linger. “Hyung, I can see that. We all can. You’ve been putting on some crazy hours in the studio lately. We appreciate how hard you’re covering for Minwoo hyung. I might not have thanked you for that yet, so–”

“Spare me the prase shower, Woo Gyujin,” Seungsoo grunts, running a hand over his face, onto his hair. “Just tell me to fuck off now so I can go to sleep with at least one argument settled.”

“And make it that much easier for you? Ha, of course not,” Gyujin laughs, amused. “Besides, we’re not fighting, have never fought, and never will. You have nothing to settle with me. But I’ll give you space to gather your courage to face who you really should.”

“Fuck you,” Seungsoo says, just to be the one to get the last words as Gyujin’s walking back and away. It comes off sounding tiny and defeated, a little ashamed.

He doesn’t get that: as soon as Gyujin gets a hand on the door, he calls back, “And in the meantime…”

Seungsoo takes an annoyed peek over his shoulder to glare at him. “What?”

“Follow Dylan back, you fucking drama queen,” Gyujin says, rolling his eyes, grinning like the Devil he pretends he isn't. “And relax, okay? We’ll be fine. We always are.”

And he disappears behind the glass, pulling the curtains inside and turning off the light.

On the tiny balcony only Seungsoo and the never quiet city remain, looking as the sun goes down and down.

#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ writing .#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ development .#&& ⠀ [ . . . ] hound on a hunt ⠀⸻ seungsoo .#fictional idol community #fake kpop group #kpop fanfic #kpop au #kpop oc

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allycat75 · 2 months

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What is bothering me about "Red One".

Terrible movies are about as common as the lies our former president spews from his cracked and diseased face, so why is this one so different? I think when you start looking at something, you start seeing things you can't unsee. Kind of like when Brad Pitt decides to make a movie about the two women who helped bring down Harvey Weinstein, even though Mr. Pitt not only knew for years what he did after confronting him in the early 90s for harassing his girlfriend, ran straight toward him to produce his movies even though his wife at the time was traumatized and requested he not do it. But that is a rant for another day.

Overall, this movie just doesn't seem warm and Christmas-y. I almost feel forced to participate and enjoy it.

The Rock is a flim flam man, as many are in Hollywood, but the fissures are starting to show in his "nice guy" image. He is vulnerable to his fragile male ego and can't admit a failure, which only makes it worse. He created a real life villian of himself with the whole Black Atom/DC controversy that is so convoluted, the only thing I know is that if a woman had attempted these hijinks she'd be branded a hysterical, compulsive liar who should not insert herself in matters that don't concern her.

The marketing for this movie has already started with a lie- that it has tested "through the roof". Just the irony of being dishonst about a Christmas movie- maybe because they know this is already a big steaming lump of coal.

Here, the Rock's describes this gem of a movie:

Or I can just watch any of those movies individually and get sick of Dwayne Johnson playing the same character over and over in every movie, and enjoy Harry Potter and It's a Wonderful Life on their own. Truthfully, is that meant to sound good? (He also referred to it as a "joy bomb", and like most things he says I can only believe about half of it).

You know what also doesn't sound warm and Chrismas-y? This:

The film has been described as "a globe-trotting, four-quadrant action-adventure comedy, imagining a whole new universe to explore within the holiday genre." If you're wondering, "four-quadrant" refers to the four major demographics Hollywood is always looking to win over — males, females, people under 25, and people over 25. And Amazon evidently feels "Red One" will appeal to all four quadrants.

Yeah, let me take my four-quadrant family on opening weekend! So welcoming.

Also, both leads are over paid and need a hit as they have had some major, I mean major, debacles to overcome. And it is not great being known as profit poison at a time when there is much more scrutiny of the bottom line. I can sense the desperation of this cash grab oozing off of them.

Interestingly, only a few years ago CE was named one of the best bang for your buck actors. Now he can barely get work and no longer has an audience (he alienated his fans and the general public either doesn't know him, doesn't care, or thinks he is hella creepy). But he has said he wants to quit and smoke pot all day, so maybe Hollywood will call his bluff this time. Besides, I doubt they were able to get the best performance out of him, considering his life was beginning its implosion while filming, even if he might not have known the full extent of the eventual destruction at the time. The mindset he displayed wasn't conducive to authenticity and Christmas-y-ness.

Ok, I know we all want original content, but maybe I should have been more specific and added that it needs to be sincere, too. I hear nothing sincere when someone tries to describe "Red One". It doesn't help that this is home grown from 7 Bucks, Dwayne Johnson's production company. They probably looked at the material in an echo chamber and lost perspective. And as we have seen, The Rock isn't know for his humble acceptance of criticism. The following official description sounds like a nerd wanting to show up all the popular kids who made fun of him in high school ("See, I wrote a Hollywood script that is now a movie. Bet you wish you went to the prom with we now, Courtney!"):

Red One is a fire-breathing Christmas action movie that completely reinvents the holiday genre. […] Red One is a really fun original action film for both Johnson and Evans, and it’s a world building piece of IP which lends itself to potential sequels set around different holidays

Boy someone thinks highly of themselves! Already on the make to ruin other holidays. I saw somewhere they claimed this could be a franchise comparable to the "Lord of the Rings". Whoa, Nelly. Pump the breaks on that male privlege. You are embarrassing yourself!

It's this need for empire building, I believe, is what will crush "Red One". This forced joy, what many of us feel at this time of year, has takes away the true spirit and fun of the holiday season.

Well, we know CE can ruin Valentine's Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Looks like he is well on his way to doing the same for Christmas.

This has about 7 more months to play out and maybe I am wrong, but right now it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, like egg nog left out from last Christmas. So, I think the two leads better get their measurements in now for the suits they will be wearing at the 2025 Razzie Awards. Here are some ideas for their rapist-supporting stylist:

PS- And, by the way, what the fuck is with the name- "Red One"? Sounds like a horror film about an itchy rash that will destroy the world. The Rock is the only one that can save us, but decides there is too much division right now and isn't going to support the President, played by a sad, hollow Chris Evans.

#don't piss on my leg and tell me it is raining #liars suck!#do better #check your privlege #Is there a woman any where or is this a complete sausage fest?

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saffronapplemanga · 1 year

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Recent Read Manga Recommendation Round Up - Part 2

More manga I’ve been enjoying recently! Part 1 recommendation list here. Twitter link to this post here.

~Links to my other manga posts~ My personal favs/ones I super enjoyed will have a ✨ on them :)

Got more new titles and shorter reads this time around!

Some of these don't have official (or unofficial) EN translations since I read a lot of JP-only manga and I’d like to make people aware of those titles too! My hope is that bringing awareness to them will help get them licensed :) I guess if any sound interesting, ask publishers to license them! I’ll link any dedicated posts I have for each title.

PLEASE LOOK UP ANY TRIGGER WARNINGS!

HISTORICAL, DRAMA

✨Tenmaku no Jadoogar: A Witch’s Life in Mongol by Tomato Soup

(3 volumes, ongoing)

JP only. The first 5 chapters are up for free in JP here. English summary in this post

A learned Irani slave girl is taken captive by the Mongols in the 13th century and has to use her knowledge to survive. Well-researched historical fiction about Fatima, who was a real person in history. I wrote a long detailed post about it, so check it out!

DRAMA, ART

✨Untitled Blue by Natsume Yukiko

(3 volumes, ongoing)

JP only - English summary in this post

I fell for Untitled Blue SO HARD, and I need the next volume immediately. A suicidal boy who just wants to make art uses the name of a burnt-out prodigy girl to sell his works in anonymity. The found family vibes and feels are strong in this one... And there are some absolutely SICK pages in this.

DRAMA, PSYCHOLOGICAL, ROMANCE

Haru’s Curse by Konishi Asuka

(2 volumes, complete)

Available in English

A woman falls for her dead sister's man and we follow a story about guilt and grief. This is a well-written short manga that tackles touchy topics in a thoughtful manner.

PSYCHOLOGICAL, DRAMA, SCI-FI

Takopi’s Original Sin by Taizan5

(2 volumes, complete)

English available to read on mangaplus

A short manga that was quite popular in Japan by the same author of the currently publishing Jump series The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins, this title is a good intro into Taizan 5's work. The art is expressive, the page turn is used well, and it takes a look at human psychology through three children with complicated relationships and living situations.

LGBTQ, SLICE OF LIFE

Kawa yori mo Nagaku Yuruyaka ni by Yoshida Akimi

(2 volumes, complete)

JP only

From Yoshida-sensei of Banana Fish fame, this short manga predates her more well-known work and you can see her explore some of the themes and ideas that you'll often see in Yoshida's works. I didn't relate to the characters (Which is actually nice sometimes! Different perspectives are good!) and it's kind of a weird manga, but it got a few laughs out of me and it was cool seeing Yoshida experiment.

This is how he introduced himself to an American working at the base - WILD

COMEDY, SLICE OF LIFE

✨Let's Go Karaoke! by Wayama Yama

(oneshot)

Available in English

I've been eyeing this title for YEARS and almost bought it so many times. Finally read it and idk why it took me so long. A charming, quirky, silly, wholesome story about a yakuza getting singing lessons from a choir kid. There's a sequel that's currently being published, ファミレス行こ/Famiresu Iko/"Let's Go To a Diner," but it seems to have a slow release schedule and hasn't been released in volume form yet. I don't see it available to read digitally either so I guess we'll just wait for a tankobon release.

COMEDY, SLICE OF LIFE

✨Captivated, by You by Wayama Yama

(oneshot)

Available in English

A wholesome quick read that left me with a smile on my face. The characters in this manga are just sweet kids and it's delightfully mundane. I mean that in the best way. It was just so nice to read.

COMEDY, SLICE OF LIFE

✨Onna no Sono no Hoshi by Wayama Yama

(3 volumes, ongoing)

JP only

More of Wayama Yama's infectious brand of humor and fuzzy feelings that I'm completely in love with at this point. Read what I said for the last two titles - same good stuff.

DRAMA, SCI-FI, MYSTERY

✨Gene Bride by Takano Hitomi

(3 volumes, ongoing)

JP only - English summary in this post

Sci-fi title that slowly unfolds its mystery and features two incredibly charming characters with a hilarious dynamic and tons of personality.

DRAMA, SLICE OF LIFE

✨Ikoku Nikki by Yamashita Tomoko

(11 volumes, complete)

JP only

My current read!

15-year old Asa's parents passed away in a car accident and her aunt, Makio, who works as an author has taken her in. This series is so human and makes me feel too seen and it's too relatable... Gives me the warm and fuzzies but also makes me want to cry. I need Makio in my life tbh.

Just gonna leave this here...

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comicaurora · 2 years

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May I ask why exactly season four is so bad?

Oh man. Caveat that I watched ReBoot season 4 only once and I was so crushed I repressed a lot of it, but as I recall the big problems that made it suffer were:

Season 3. Season 3 is so goddamn good and has such a beautiful, satisfying resolution that any follow-up would need to be transcendently good to measure up, and the first half of season 4 is just Fine. It doesn't successfully justify its own existence and it undercuts some of the best parts of season 3, a masterpiece that should not have been tarnished.

Idiot plots. Many key moments in season 4 hinge on intelligent, compassionate characters being remarkably stupid and cruel to their loved ones, most notably an entire arc where a second Bob pops out of a web portal with his pre-season-3 design and every single one of his friends and loved ones sides with Other Bob over the Bob they went to hell and back to rescue in season 3 who fought alongside them and saved the day over and over again. Bob is also sick all season with Heroic-Sacrifice-Induced Plot Pain and nobody notices or cares, and it is truly distracting how little this makes sense for any of these people to be that callous to the Best Boy. Bob is at least pretty in-character, but that just makes his pain and isolation that much more painful to watch, including a crushing moment where it looks like even his guardian keytool, Glitch, has chosen Other Bob over him. It does not feel good to see that happen to our hero, and there's not enough time in the season to give him an emotional resolution or reconciliation with the others for what happened!

Sidelining Enzo Matrix. Plucky kid hero Enzo is the arguable secondary protagonist of the first two seasons with a lot of focal episodes, upgrades to the full hero in season 3 and undergoes a brutal timeskip-induced redesign and arc, and then in season 4… is replaced in the spotlight by a brand new fresh copy of Original Kid Enzo, who becomes the focal protagonist while Grown-Up Matrix seethes and fades into the background. It feels like a jarring betrayal, and the show does not explore the existential nightmare of the theme it introduces with both Kid Enzo and Other Bob - being supplanted by a perfect, unscarred copy of yourself before your trauma reshaped you, a copy that your loved ones explicitly find easier to love. The show doesn't know what to do with the characters it spent season 3 changing so much, almost like the season shouldn't have happened at all. AndrAIa has it worse and gets sidelined even more, and if I recall spends most of the first half of the season brainwashed.

No villains. After season 3, Megabyte is defeated by launching him into the Web and Hexadecimal gets a full-on redemption arc and is recompiled as a sprite, not a virus, which is a problem in and of itself because it really defangs their most fun villain, but ehh. Season 4 needs to lean on new villains, starting with Daemon - a very cool-looking virus with an evil Joan of Arc vibe but unfortunately no personality and too much power to be fun to spar with - and then the back half of the season is all about the aforementioned painful-to-watch Other Bob arc that appears to have no villain but turns out to be a surprise Megabyte Is Back reveal.

No ending. Season 4 ends on a cliffhanger in a play for a fifth season. It didn't get one. If you want a satisfying ending to ReBoot, your only possible option is the Season 3 finale.

#asks #not aurora #reboot

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streamafterlaughter · 2 years

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New Kid

Summary: It’s December 1985, and it’s your first day at Hawkins High School after moving to Indiana from Massachusetts for your father’s new job.

Tags: reader is a punk new senior in Hawkins, slow burn, use of y/n, switching povs, gn!nb!reader

T/CW: some bullying mentioned (we all need some angst)

a/n: i’m so excited for this series, i expect to update weekly from now until i inevitably hit a block. Let me know if you’d like to be added to the tag list for this story! (constructive) criticism and feedback is always welcome! enjoy!

disclaimer: i do not give permission for my work to be posted on other sites. Please inform me if you see my writing posted anywhere besides my own blog (unless otherwise stated.)

SERIES MASTERLIST || chapter ii

Chapter I: Moving In

The newly fallen snow crunches under your feet as you make your way to the trunk of your family’s caravan. You grab your suitcase, and trek up the walkway to your brand new duplex, on 17 Cherry St, Hawkins Indiana.

Your father had just gotten promoted, which meant another move in the books. You never minded, you were getting sick of Massachusetts anyway. Everyone was always angry about something, and though you could sympathize, it was starting to kill your vibe.

“[Y/N], your room is the one on the left upstairs! Get cozy, we’ll call for pizza in about an hour.” Your mom shouts to your back from the car.

“Okay!” You call, heading up the rickety staircase to your new home.

The house is small, old, and barely standing, but it has a lot of character. In your new room, for instance, there’s a fist shaped hole on the far wall, stains on the popcorn ceiling, and a massive window facing out toward the overgrown backyard. Your furniture had already been moved in, consisting of a small wooden dresser, a full size mattress and bed frame, and your old work desk.

You sigh, flopping down on the naked mattress, your suitcase falling to the floor in front of you. The eggshell walls stare back at you, their emptiness a sort of taunt. Usually, you don’t fear the mystery of a new town, but this time you’re letting the anxiety get the best of you. To move during high school, especially in your senior year, opens someone to a world of social whiplash. You have no idea how the kids will treat you, what kind of cliques there will be, who you should create alliances with and who to keep your distance from. In a way, the only constant in your life has been change.

After you’ve finished brooding, you busy yourself unpacking. The closet is small, but fits your two pairs of jeans, your favorite dresses, and your three pairs of combat boots with room to spare. In your dresser, you stuff folded Iron Maiden, Joan Jett, The Clash, and Blondie t-shirts, socks, underwear, pajamas, and sweatpants. You tack your polaroids to the wall behind your bed; pictures with old friends from many moves ago, your family on Christmas, and one of you holding your first acoustic guitar with a smile plastered on your baby face. You still have that guitar, sitting somewhere in the moving truck waiting to settle in yet another new bedroom.

“Are you excited for your first day of school tomorrow?” Your dad asks you between bites of pizza. He asks this every time, and the answer is usually something like “I guess, sure.” Tonight is no different, as you see no reason to be excited to meet hundreds of new people you’ll probably forget in another six months to a year. In all honesty, you can’t imagine meeting anyone worth sticking around Hawkins for. The town gives you the creeps, regardless of you trying to have an open mind. You promise yourself you’ll give it a chance, though, seeing as you’re stuck here indefinitely.

——

Your first day at Hawkins High School is Wednesday, December 4, 1985. You don’t really give a damn about impressing your peers, so you choose an outfit you’re comfortable in: heavy combat boots, shredded and patched black jeans, your faded Bad Brains shirt, and an oversized denim jacket with even more patches. Your hair today is Cyndi Lauper inspired, teased and sprayed all to one side, bigger and rattier than ever. The ring in your nose is silver, matching the spikes in your ears. You know people are going to fuck with you for these choices, but you decide this outfit choice is the easiest way to determine who to give the time of day to.

“Alright, parents! I’m heading out!” You call to them as you clomp down the stairs, attempting to sneak out without their first day words of wisdom. You fail, though, when you are greeted by your father standing with his arms crossed at the bottom of the stairs.

“Didn’t even wanna try toning it down today?” He asks, but it’s in good humor. Your father had been a rebel himself, or so he likes to tell you when he’s drunk.

“Absolutely not, how else is everyone gonna know to leave me alone?” You smile as he pulls you in for a hug goodbye. “Good luck,kiddo, give‘em hell.”

“Have a wonderful day, sweetheart!” Your mother calls from the kitchen, unpacking the cardboard boxes labeled “Pots ‘n’ Pans.”

“Love you!” You call back, stomping out the door. You get to take the car today, your father’s job doesn’t start for another week, and by then you hope to have made at least one friend with wheels, or someone nice enough to let you sit next to them on the prison bus.

You get to Hawkins High School around 7:30, enough time before the first bell to get a lay of the land. You park the creaky caravan in a far off spot, close to the exit, giving you an easy escape route from after school traffic. You have enough time before needing to head to the counselor’s office for your schedule, so you pull a cigarette pack from your vest pocket, and your lighter and walkman from your backpack. You bring the filter to your lips as the first chords of Minor Threat’s Look Back and Laugh blast through your headphones. It isn’t long, though, before your own music is drowned out by that coming from an almost dilapidated van barreling into the parking lot. Out of morbid curiosity, you pause your tape to watch the scene in front of you unfold.

The van pulls into a senior parking spot, screeching to a halt. When the car shuts off, a figure exits along with a distinctly smelling cloud of smoke. From the haze emerges a tall man, dressed in white trainers, jeans that look about two sizes too small, and a Dio battle vest layered over a leather jacket. As he turns around, you can see he has shiny silver rings on his fingers, a pair of handcuffs clasped around his waist, a faded Metallica t-shirt, and a guitar pick hanging off a chain around his neck. The guy has unruly brown hair that lands at his shoulders, and a cigarette behind his ear. You realize you’ve been staring like an idiot when he turns his head in your direction, and you avoid his eyes as he brings himself to look at you. Who is that?

You don’t have time for an answer, though, so you turn on your heel and head for the building to seek out the guidance counselor.

—

Eddie’s POV

“Who is that?!” Eddie finds himself wondering aloud, watching the new kid walking away. It had been awhile since he’d seen someone in Hawkins with the balls to wear clothes like that, outside the likes of his friend group at least. He was still watching them walk away when he was greeted by one of his favorite people.

“Hey, Eddie! Whatcha starin’ at?” Dustin Henderson, a Hawkins freshman and fellow Dungeons and Dragons player, approaches his friend from the quad, trying to follow his gaze.

“What? Oh, nothing, looks like we’ve got some fresh meat is all.” Eddie crosses his arms over his chest, still staring into the distance as the new kid disappears behind the doors.

“What kind?” Dustin jokes, playfully elbowing Eddie’s arm.

“The freaky kind.” He replies, his cheeks tugging his mouth into a grin.

“Isn’t it a little early to tell?”

“Not if you saw what I just did, kid.” It was a little soon, but Eddie was already determined to make the acquaintance of this mystery person, judgment be damned.

—

Your POV

You turn another corner, following the secretary’s directions to the counselor’s office. You knock, and are greeted with the friendly face of Ms. Kelley. “Hello! You must be [Y/N]!” She says a little too enthusiastically, then gestures to her desk. “Please, have a seat, we have a few things to go over before I send you off to swim.” She smiles brightly, and you gingerly sit in one of the chairs adjacent from her own.

“It looks like you have quite the rap sheet from your old school.” Ms. Kelley begins, mulling over your records. “What are all these absences about?”

You sigh, remembering the dark period of your junior year. “I was getting these awful headaches, they’d last for days, sometimes I’d throw up or get nosebleeds, I couldn’t sleep. I made all my work up, though.” You rush to finish, embarrassed at your sickness. In truth, it had been more than a headache. There were vivid nightmares, dark and daydreams, and sometimes you’d feel like you were watching your own body from above. You felt like that was probably too much to share on your first day, though.

Ms. Kelley only nods thoughtfully before saying, “Well, if anything is going on, my door is always open. Until then, though, I have your schedule right here.” She pulls a sheet from your folder and hands it to you. Your first class is Calculus, followed by AP History, AP Biology lunch, English, Psychology, and Photography II. She hands you another sheet and says, “Here is a list of the clubs we offer, feel free to audit any of the club meetings this and next week, if you’re at all interested.” She smiles at you again, only this time you return it.

“Thank you, Ms. Kelley.” You say sincerely as she walks you to the door. When you exit, you nearly smash into someone speed walking in the other direction.

“Oh, God! I am so sorry! I didn’t see you there, of course I didn’t I was going way too fast for a hallway, I should have put my sirens on!” The girl spills out before you can get a word in. She has short, strawberry blonde hair, a face full of freckles, dark eyeliner, and big white teeth. She’s dressed in an oversized flannel, a plain black t shirt, high waisted jeans, and black converse. “You must be [Y/N]! I’m Robin.” she extends a hand to you expectantly.

“Hi, Robin. Um, I’m [Y/N], but you already knew that somehow.” You give a small laugh, trying not to let your nerves get the best of you.

“Yeah, everyone knows about your dad moving to town for the new construction project, everyone’s really excited for the new movie theater, ours has been in shambles for awhile now. Anyway, where you headed? I’m on my way to Greely’s Calc class right now, if you need help getting around.”

“Looks like I’m actually headed there, too.” You say, looking down at your schedule.

“Great! We can walk together. Oh, there’s an empty seat right behind me, too, we can share notes and gossip about pretty uh,” she pauses a second too long, “boys.” she falters.

“Or girls.” you shrug, and her smile grows again.

“Or girls! Or people!”

“People! Gotta love ‘em.” you let yourself laugh, and Robin hooks her arm through yours before you both start off to class.

——

The first half of day one is mostly a blur. You sit through your classes trying to understand as much as you can without the context of being a student all year. Some stuff was repeated, in which case you’d stare out the window watching the gray clouds inch across the sky as you tried not to fall asleep. After every class, you meet with your teachers to get caught up on work and more formally introduce yourself.

Finally, the senior lunch bell rings, and you gather your things and hope to god Robin is waiting for you in the cafe.

“Hey!” Robin greets as you approach the lunch line. Your family has yet to go grocery shopping, so you’re taking the risk that is school lunch this week. “How’s your first day in Hell going?” Robin asks you as she picks up a bruised apple.

“So far, a lot less Hellish than I imagined.”

“Oh, just you wait, there is plenty of Hellishness to go around at Hawkins.” you laugh with her, and the two of you make your way to the table, where a bunch of kids with instrument cases sit, engulfed in conversation.

“Everyone, please welcome [Y/N], who will be sitting with us until they inevitably find someone cooler to sit with and leave us wondering what love is.” Robin announces to her clan of band geeks, who respond with waves and hellos meant for you.

“I have a hard time believing I’ll find anyone else worth sitting with.” You say, and you mean it. It’s only been a few hours, but no one besides Robin has made the effort to introduce themselves to you. In fact, you’ve noticed a lot of ugly looks in the hallway, and you figure this town must be a lot more closed minded than you thought. You begin to mourn for Boston, but your train of thought is interrupted by a loud bang.

You whip your head around to see the same kid from this morning standing on top of a lunch table. You can hear him over the noise of the cafeteria, and he’s shouting something to his gaggle of teenage boys. “Of course, being a fan of metal makes you an easy target. We like music with loud guitars, banging drums, and screeching vocals. Regardless of what the music means, we’ll be seen as satanic.” You can’t help but be mesmerized by him, his expressive voice egged on by cheers and laughs of his friends. He continues on, gesturing to what looks like the jock table, “They will never accept you, will never see you as their equals because of this one difference we have. How utterly insane is that?!” He lets out a cackle that lingers in your ears.

Robin notices you staring. “That’s Eddie Munson. He’s hard to ignore, but you’ll definitely get used to that.” You snap out of your trance, and bring yourself to look at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he’s not really a town favorite. I’ve never minded him, he comes into my work sometimes to rent horror movies, and he’s always been pretty nice, a little weird, but who isn’t? People think he’s kind of a freak, though. It’s his third time repeating senior year, which might have something to do with it.” Robin shrugs. Eddie, you think, and turn your head back to his table, where he’s now sitting at the end, laughing loudly with a kid in a baseball cap and extremely curly hair.

Before you can say anything, the lunch bell rings and everyone rushes to get to their next class. “Hey, where’s O’Donnell’s room?” you ask Robin as the two of you exit the cafe.

“Second floor, right wing, last door on your left. Hey, if you’re not busy this weekend there’s a party at my friend’s place, kind of a pre winter break blowout, it’ll give you a chance to get to know everyone!” Robin beams, then looks at you expectantly.

You ponder this offer for a minute, unsure whether you’re ready to expose yourself outside the realm of school just yet.

“Let’s see how this week goes first, yeah?” You reply with a chuckle, and she nods.

“Oh, I totally get it. Let me know when you decide! Oh, and good luck in Mrs. O’Donnell’s, she’s pretty tough.” She raises her hand and waves as the two of you part ways.

——

You’re one of the last to arrive to class, spotting only two empty seats both in the back of the classroom. You choose the one closer to the door, ready to bolt as soon as the bell rings, as the air is stiff with tension caused by the uptight woman sitting at her desk at the front of the classroom.

Seconds after the final warning bell, the door bangs open, turning the heads of almost everyone, yourself included. The boy you now know as Eddie Munson strides in, placing a cafeteria apple on O’Donnell’s desk. “I’m not late today, Ms. O, I hope you’re proud.” he sings mockingly, before making his way to the only other empty desk. After throwing down his nearly empty backpack, Eddie turns to you, a stupid smirk plastered on his face. “I’m Eddie.” He extends a hand to you. You pause, taking him in finally at a closer angle. You can now see his eyes are huge, the color of melted chocolate, surrounded by lengthy lashes. His frizzy bangs hover over his eyes, and he has a dimple in his left cheek. Pretty is the only way you can think of describing him.

“[Y/N].” you deadpan, taking his hand with your own. His grip is tight, and he holds yours one second above what you’d consider a normal amount of time. He nods, then turns to face the front of the room, offering nothing else to you.

Unfortunately, the pains of being perceived by your peers don’t stop there. Mrs. O’Donnell stands from her desk and saunters to the front of the class. “We have a new student joining us today, everyone please join me in welcoming Y/N Y/L/N.” She motions to you, waiting for you to stand from your seat. Public speaking didn’t bother you per se, but having the entire class forced to listen to you when you know they couldn’t really care less is enough to get your blood pumping.

You stand from your seat, raising one hand in an awkward greeting. “Hi, everyone, I’m Y/N.” You glance down next to you, and Eddie’s got his chin resting in his hand like you’re the most interesting thing he’s ever seen. Mrs. O’Donnell motions for you to continue. “I, uh, I’m from Boston, I moved here when my dad got hired to oversee the movie theater construction. My favorite book is Catcher in the Rye…” you trail off, unsure what else to say.

Luckily, O’Donnell can sense your discomfort and takes over. “It is lovely to have you in our class, Y/N, I hope we are making you feel welcome so far.”

“Something like that.” you say under your breath as you sit down, and you hear a snort to your right. Eddie is chuckling to himself, and you can’t help but let a small smile of your own slip through.

You spend the rest of class trying not to stare at Eddie, who restlessly bounces his leg under his desk while working, humming to himself as he writes his notes. For someone that’s been held back so many times, he didn’t seem stupid. Maybe he just had trouble focusing, like you, right now, because you were trying not to look at him. It was so bad, if fact, that you didn’t even notice class had ended until you looked up to find the desks in front of you empty, and Eddie standing next to you.

“You must really like this book, huh.” You look up to find him smiling again. “C’mon, I’ll walk you to your next class.” Eddie doesn’t wait before sauntering out of the room. Without realizing it, you’re stuffing your books in your bag frantically, in a hurry to catch up with him.

“Where to?” He asks, pushing himself from the doorframe.

“Uh, room 207, Psych.” You have your schedule memorized already, but you pretend to read from the paper to avoid looking at him. Something about him makes you nervous, not in a bad way, but your guard is up. You got lucky meeting Robin, but there’s no way everyone at Hawkins is part of the welcoming committee. you want to believe he’s kind, though, considering the two of you are probably more alike than either of you would ever care to admit, at least in the fashion department. You’ve since noticed he wears shiny silver rings on his fingers, in the shapes of a cross, a pig head, and what looks like a vampire. A red guitar pick hands on a chain around his neck, and you can see what you think is a tattoo peaking from under his rolled up sleeve. But you’re not, like, staring.

“Oh cool, I’m going that way anyway.” Eddie responds, and then it’s quiet. You want him to keep talking, mostly so you don’t have to, but also because you’re suddenly so curious about the kid in front of you. Before you get the chance, though, you’ve reached your destination. “Here we are.” Eddie gestures lamely to the door labeled 207. “It was nice to meet you, Y/N Y/L/N.”

“You too, Eddie Munson.” You’re about to turn away from him before he stops you with an “Oh!” You pivot, looking up at him.

“Uh, I know it’s a little soon, but my buddy’s throwing a party this weekend, if you’re interested in getting drunk with the losers of Hawkins, or just have no plans on Friday.” He scratches the back of his head as he speaks, eyes glued to the floor.

“Y’know, it is kind of soon to brand myself as a loser, but that sounds like fun. Maybe I’ll see you there.” You are not a party person, but for some reason you feel like you’d go anywhere that would mean seeing Eddie again.

He snaps his head back up to meet your eyes a little too quickly, and tries to recover with a single nod of his head. “Cool. Cool, cool. Maybe I’ll see you first.” he says, and makes his way down the hall. You shake your head as you enter the classroom.

——

Eddie’s POV

Y/N… Y/N L/N… it repeats in Eddie’s head like a mantra. You were just so cool, he thought, so much so that he didn’t even think before inviting you to Gareth’s party. He had always been one to round up the outcasts at Hawkins High, whether that meant inviting them to play Dungeons and Dragons with his club, Hellfire, or offering to show them around school as a sort of anti-tour guide. He felt you were different, though. More intimidating, and more visibly comfortable in your own skin. Whatever it was, it kept you on his mind for the rest of the day.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Eddie said to his friend after explaining what he’d done.

“Of course not, man, the more the merrier! Especially if they look like that.” Garett chuckles, nudging Eddie on the arm. “You gonna take a swing at ‘em, by the way?”

Eddie only shrugs. “If I do, I gotta do it right.” He means to joke, but even he can sense the realness of what he’s saying. Even though you’d barely spoken, Eddie could sense you had a lot else going for you besides a pretty face. Admittedly, though, he was glad that was part of the package.

Eddie spent the rest of class zoned out, wondering if maybe he should have offered to pick you up for the party, or maybe get your drink order. Do they smoke? He wondered, Would they wanna smoke with me before the party? He shook his head to banish the thought from his mind. Too ambitious, Eddie.

—-

Your POV

The rest of the day droned on, as you sat through your elective classes. Finally, the dismissal bell rang and you couldn’t get to the parking lot fast enough. Something in your gut fluttered, like a flock of birds trying to peck their way out of your stomach. At the front door, you’re greeted by Robin, who beams when she sees you. “Hi!” you say, jogging up to her. “I'll definitely go to the party.”

“Yeah? What gave you such sudden ambition?”

“Ah, well,” you shrug, trying to be nonchalant, “I mean, I’m here. I might as well have some fun!”

She quirks an eyebrow at you, but eventually says, “Great! I’ll pick you up at 8, we can get ready at my place! It won’t get too crazy, just some fellow band geeks and the like.” The two of you make your way to the parking lot.

——

“How did your first day go, pumpkin?” Your mother asks as you all sit down to christen your new home with the first family dinner.

“Surprisingly well, actually. I, uh. I got invited to a party on Friday.” You pretend not to notice the nervous glance your mother shoots to your father. “Nothing crazy, just the band kids, I think.” Your parents know they can’t exactly prevent you from going out, but they worry about you. Kids in Boston weren’t nice, inviting you to things only to give you the wrong time to be there, or asking where you got your shoes so they could say, “Now I know where NOT TO GO!” and titter away while you sit there, humiliated. You didn’t blame your parents for worrying, but you also can’t live your life fearing everyone that’s nice to you.

“I think it’ll be good for you to hang out, meet some new people. But you can obviously call us if there’s any trouble.” Your father breaks your train of thought before stuffing a bite of baked potato in his mouth.

“Of course I know that. Thanks, Dad.”

The rest of dinner consisted of your parents’ adventures in unpacking. “We left your boxes by your room, for you to go through whenever you have some time.” Your mother loosely gestures to the stairs with her fork.

You nod, and excuse yourself from the table, loading your plate into the dishwasher before heading upstairs to procrastinate your homework. Instead, you unpack your record player and six milk crates’ worth of vinyl. You stack your books on the shelves against the wall, and place your DnD dice on your desk in a glass jar.

It takes longer than it should, with you going through your childhood memorabilia, but you finally retire for the night at 2am, your body too tired from the day to keep going. You fall asleep remembering the details of Eddie’s face, and fantasize about the things you’d like to do to it.

Chapter Two

——

tag list: @beebeerockknot @children-of-the-grave @five-bi-five || send a message to be added!

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #robin buckley #dustin henderson #stranger things fan fiction #st #willow writes sins #stranger things #stranger things 4 #st4

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literaticat · 9 months

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I've heard people say that the best way to sell books is to write a new one. Is this true in your experience? Does an author coming out with a new book usually see that much of an uptick in their backlist sales?

It IS very often true. (That's why I've probably said it on here 9,000 times!) Though how much of an uptick is anyone's guess.

Here's the thing: Your brand-new frontlist book has a limited window in which it's going to likely be appearing "buzzy" -- there are just too many new books coming out vying for people's attention! Months after release date, when you are sick of talking about it, any marketing efforts from the publisher have moved to newer books, ten thousand new books have come out to replace yours on displays at the bookstore -- at that point, it becomes backlist.

(That's not an insult AT ALL -- that's the literal term for books that are no longer "frontlist" -- the term comes from how products are listed in a catalogue. If you open a Widget Catalogue, the brand-new widgets that are about to come out have flashy looking placement in the front of the catalogue -- last season's widgets, and older, tried-and-true widgets are toward the back of the catalogue, probably with smaller and less flashy looking placement -- this is the nature of the widget catalogue, and so, too, is it the nature of how books are sold. BUT it's important to remember that flash-in-the-pan frontlist looks cool, but A STRONG BACKLIST KEEPS THE LIGHTS ON, for widget-makers, as well as publishers, booksellers and authors. BACKLIST IS IMPORTANT!)

So maybe your backlist sales are already robust, maybe they are meh, but either way, at a certain point, they have probably reached some kind of equilibrium where they aren't really GROWING anymore.

There are a few things I can think of that can cause an uptick in backlist sales at that point. (And that may mean a little bump to sales for a short time. Or maybe a BIG bump. Or maybe an improvement that lasts for years to come. Who knows?)

But you notice how there's only one of them that you have any kind of control over? Yeah.

-- Timeliness / Virality: Something happens in the world that brings this topic / book back into the public consciousness, or influencers "discover" it and revive interest in it. (Like, one of my client's decade-old backlist book originally published in 2008 all of a sudden started taking off out of nowhere, presumably because it has a similar theme to a popular Netflix show except less problematic and with queer characters, and it sold enough copies that they redid the original book with a new cover, and asked him to write a sequel, which comes out tomorrow!)

-- Word-of-Mouth: This is similar to "virality" except it usually has a slower build and it's with regular people IRL instead of influencers online. In the world of kids books, I've seen this happen where, maybe an author randomly does a school visit, and suddenly one classroom of kids in Michigan gets obsessed by that particular author -- they start asking the local bookstore for the books, so the books get brought into the store and put on display, and then another classroom at another school gets hold of it because Artie Cohen's cousin recommended it, and suddenly all of Ann Arbor is reading this book, and wouldn't you know it, the Cohens have extended family they are visiting in New Jersey, they bring the series with them to gift the kids, and an outbreak starts in Weehawken, and so on. (Yes, I have really seen this happen in my role as a bookseller!)

-- Awards / Curriculum tie-ins / State lists: If your book is lucky enough to win an award, particularly one given by librarians, that can give a big boost to sales for a good long time. If teachers start to use your book in connection with their curriculum, and/or it gets put on summer reading lists at schools, state reading lists, etc, that, too, can help sales for a good long time. These things may happen over the course of years, not instantaneously, which is why they are helpful for backlist.

-- You write a new book. The new book is buzzy! During the buzz window there's fresh marketing, you are talking about it, people are talking about it online, it's visible, on displays, etc. People are interested in the new book, they buy it, they like it, they look for your other books. Or, people are interested in your new book, they search for it online, your other books pop up in their algorithm, etc.

(There are probably other ways I can't think of, but I bet they sorta fall into one of these buckets!)

#frontlist #backlist #publishing

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idealisticrealism · 3 months

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(Warning, spoilers) Okay so I feel like I need to rant to someone about The Cleaning Lady because I'm sick and have just binged the whole series in I think 24 hrs( So l spoilers included here ). First of all, after S3 E1 decided to then google somethings and then find out Adan passed away and I'm just gobsmacked, he was waaaaay too young and had young kids and a wife? :( But I also have some thoughts about the series. S1 - loveeeeed! Like there was somethings that was a bit too much but the chemistry between Thony/Adan and Thony/Fi was great and for me that really made the show. I'm going to be honest and say I found S2 a bit too all over the place.But I do feel like Adan was the shining star in this season. I think they could have had a bit less of the Luca plot line and I wasn't a super big fan of Thony developed in this season. I just sort of wished as well, that Thony and Adan at some stage after their kisses or at least in S2 would just talk about their feelings for each other. I was so sure the S2 was going to end with Nadia turning Adan to Kamdar to show that she was still "evil" while Adan wanted to turn good because he meet Thony. Because honestly, I just felt so confused to his feelings about Nadia, and they didn't grow the Thony/Adan bond either since they didn't even kiss even though both were at one point both available. Like when he came to her house, I 100% thought they would finally hook up. Sorry for my rant, just needed to write some thoughts off. Not saying they are right just my opinions.

Haha hi anon. I am always happy to receive messages about this show, rants or otherwise, so welcome :)

First off, I really feel for you with how you found out about Adan-- being right in the middle of a brand new obsession and then suddenly being hit with the knowledge that we'd lost such a vital part of it? That must have been really tough. Most of us had a couple of months to adjust to the news before the show came back, and honestly that was hard enough.

As for your feelings about S1 and S2, they're pretty normal! I think most people loved S1 and the amazing Armony chemistry, and found the "My son is dying!" situation a tiny bit repetitive. Lots of people would also agree with you about S2 and the physical distance that formed between Thony and Arman. I think we were all desperately hoping for a kiss scene or two (myself included), though I'm one of the few that actually felt that not getting an S2 Armony kiss made a lot of sense, and that their bond was actually still beautifully developed and built upon in S2 even without them getting more physical. In general, I feel that the way the characters were written in S2 was actually very well done, particularly Thony, who made realistically irrational decisions in high stress situations, and then had to deal with the consequences. If you scroll back on my blog you'll see a bunch of posts with many many words about my feelings on the subject lol, or you can check out the TCL tag which certainly has posts with less positive perspectives- but like you said, I'm not trying to say that either take is right or wrong! We all have our opinions and that's okay. Mine enable me to get the most enjoyment possible out of something that I already love, so I'm sticking with them.

Anyway I hope that you will continue to watch and enjoy the show, but if not, at least there'll always be Thony and Arman slowdancing by the firelight to look back on....

#the cleaning lady #Asks #I'm so happy to see new fans coming to this show #Sorry for the heartbreak though #We'll get through it together

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theorist-influencer-untitled · 9 months

Text

9.25.23 Monday

8:16 am

Hope to see the one that I wanted to see...

I feel heavy and I'm sick I just realized this am...

I like him when he's on his shirt... It is just weird that I don't like to wear my eyeglasses or contacts... I like him when I see his arms...

My wavemates 468 as well need to wear eyeglasses... or there is twinning??? It is our final today,later night.... Hoping for a positive result. Alver, he is really a brotherhood I met there in wave 468... Strange character but all I know we both raised as spoiled but many things happened on that 16 years... Alver met a wife and got 2 kids...His family owned a family business somewhere in paranaque then it was gone during pandemic ( furniture business )... He is00 something mysterious but all I can feel that he changed himself I feel that he is a doctor but he said no I'm not a doctor... We talked about us as brotherhood there and sisterhood. I just said what future can we give to our kids and most specially me? There is something more that I have to keep... Coz we were spoiled but our kids will never be spoiled... It is just sad...

I really wanna have sex... I really like your arms... I really wanna bite those arms...Is it my dread-locks guy...?

youtube

I really wanna have sex, just hold my hand... I want to be with someone sensitive... I really like his arms...

youtube

Since our final tonight... We don't know what will happen... Hoping and praying for positivity... Tonight is the actual survey and metrics and everything...

Ramil is a political science graduate... I told him to continue to be a lawyer but he said he is not yet ready. In fairness Coach John ( though I don't trust him ) but being a mentor inside the room of Montana about our main theory, I know he tried to train Ramil to experience the journey of how to be a lawyer... So, funny everyone in wave 468 became a lawyer somehow.... We learned guts and to put some callous on our faces.It is the way of going to the road of becoming a lawyer.

Mia is a college graduate married to her high-school professor, but they met again during college and after college they got married.

Champi was a church of christ or Iglesia Ni Cristo where I was a choir member as well... She was broken-hearted to a guy and chose to end up with a girl. Leave the church of christ but I can still see her heart as Iglesia Ni Cristo.

Raine I just realized,it is just her natural character, strong and somehow tactless but kind-hearted... Her husband is also working in Iqor,they transferred from Cebu to here to have a brand new start coz they almost wanting to give up their love for each other, time that her husband had an affair with other girl in Cebu.

Lexa we started good and we started bad ,but I don't actually took it seriously the time that we almost supposed to be on a suspension coz of our childish fight in the room....There is something in her eyes that in a way asking help and mysterious.... I saw her crying on Coach John but I never actually asked... Coz me I also have my own baggage in life,it seems I don't have but I have. Then, a day came Lexa said let's be friends and our mini-grouping including me, Mia, Ramil and Champi. I love making friends, I love treasuring friendship though friends come and go... I love putting foot prints on people that I met along the way of my journey,while I'm still here on earth...Who knows? But hoping for a reverse?... I haven't seen the world... I haven't touch dread-locks arms... I haven't got the chance to buy an expensive cheese cake in SM and so many things and blah2x...

Ariel is an another strange person for me, I feel that he is lying but what can I do? If he also keeping something that he is a doctor or just simply a decent person who stayed in this call center industry for 10 years now and still staying here... He left his previous call center coz of the fact according to him that he got the position of being a manager or supervisor and everyone hated him for that... He was not comfortable working anymore with people around him knowing that they hated him for getting the position. I told him,don't worry if it happens here, I can be a friend all through out... I wonder if Ariel is still around... Coz lately,I'm so damn busy managing my own emotions coz I'm shaking... I'm losing confidence and I don't know bad callers smashed my self-esteem.

Bella? Bella used to call me Mommy Peachy and I was somehow shocked but I accepted it... But lately one time, Bella suddenly called me on my real name which is "Phyllis" that Bella somehow saying stop it Phyllis! I was somehow surprised but I told her just call me Peachy not Phyllis. On few weeks last last month, we became partners on one of our activities. Bella looked sad and I saw something in her that she looked like a suicidal person. I just asked her if she was ohkay and she said I'm not! My bf committed a suicide in the province but I forgot the province. Bella said my bf is in comatose....

Melinda Go, is a child but wanting to be a mature person and we let her and I let her but somehow tactless, when the time that she said that I had a split personality. Still, a child... The first time I met her was on the chatroom of wave 468 that she posted that she got a car...I said hi as a double-check if this child is kind-hearted or religious or warm or genuine but then I figured out she is still a child... But one time we accidentally talked about her life that she is recently a college graduate from QC that her father gave her a gift a house somewhere here along the way of De La Salle road... She got her own house already. A car and a motor...

Melinda Go didn't know me... I heard that Melinda was saying something behind my back that I'm just trying to be near her coz of the car...

But I was not mad on Melinda coz she is still a child...

Gio I met her on the first day of training and I figured out that he got a wife in Iqor and team leader on other wave... He just wanted to try this industry, I think it is his first call center. His closeness on Melinda is somehow weird but we don't know...

JR is a Tau Gamma member got a child on his xwife and owning a business now, a hardware if I'm correctly remembering everything..He is also mysterious to me, he doesn't want to make a call....Can be a doctor perhaps but strange he said I've been here for 10 years already in this call center industry.

Ashley is a fanatic of a doll looking image that she actually applied on herself. She is a tattoo artist and loving her for that....

Jen is from Bacolod, somehow mean for actually asking me if my nose is real and I said yeah! My nose is real...She is a child as well for asking that from a distance... as if shouting? Is your nose real!???

This boobs is real... hahaha...

I flatten my nose with them angels...

Harvey I just knew that he loves me... He's been on industry for 10 years and he is actually the master of navigating of tools. He doesn't have fear to put some protection on me against Coach John...He is sweet.... One time while discussing something in the room of Montana, Coach John is sometimes saying indirectly things that shows that he doesn't like me but he is still professional. Harvey suddenly made a joke or a comment that if Coach John has a car? Then we laughed...

Robbie is from BGC he doesn't like me that much but our friendship inside the wave of 468 is professional... He is rewave....

Gabriel is a rewave our relationship is just chill and cool.

Tin2x is a child, living with her cousin and owning dogs as well... Close on Jen...

Last but not the least, Rodel 10 months in call center plus this Iqor... Spoiled by his seaman bf... Soon they will have their quality time. He needs to maintain his losartan ;)

10:45 am

I need to keep a job and I need money....Tonight is our finals... Hoping and praying for positivity...

I still wanna have sex ....

12:34 noon

I feel sick and a bit burning....Headache and some pinkish on my nasal discharge....Congested and dry... Argh....

I still wanna have sex ....hahah...

12:49 noon

I have frustrations from the past years... I always wanted to buy a white christmas tree but I don't have enough budget... I feel self-pity...

1:13 pm

2:05 pm

Dell and coach Vangie can't make it tonight... Get well soon as well...

I'm a warrior... I need money and job so I need to work....

Nose bleeding is due to me having stress... It is just stress,my blood vessel burst out.

I still wanna have sex angels!

2:35 pm

Argh! I still wanna have sex... I wanna see him...

Still, resting... Having windblow windblow... Hope they can extend my life.

youtube

4:23 pm

Someone took my key on the padlock on my bag... is it Uncle Jun?

Early in the am someone open this beside me...

Opps... Someone put it again under the sofa...

Weird!

#Youtube

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the-blue-brand-wrestling-blog · 9 months

Text

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #3

Some random thoughts (11th September RAW Preview, MJF & Samoa Joe)

Hey there guys & girls,

I’m Andy Mac, AKA The Blue Brand owner and creator (@The_Blue_Brand) on X / Twitter. I thought I would delve into the world of blog writing and what better thing to write about than my favourite pastime Professional Wrestling.

Today I thought I’d discuss AEW Dynamite’s segment between MJF & Samoa Joe and do a brief preview for WWE RAW tonight (11th September 2023) Let’s get started –

WWE RAW – 11th September 2023 – Brief Preview

Women’s World Championship (Dominik Mysterio banned from ringside): Rhea Ripley defends against Raquel Rodriguez – I’m assuming this will be the final match in this feud. I’m also assuming even with Dom banned from ringside that Rhea will get the win and retain her Women’s World Championship. Either she retains clean, or a present or new member of the Judgment Day might get the assist. Regardless, I’m happy for the reign of Rhea to continue. She’s a megastar for this company.

Cody Rhodes returns – Quite a few members of the wrestling online community are assuming that Cody Rhodes will be the member of the WWE RAW roster to be traded to SmackDown in return for Jey Uso’s switch to the red brand last week. Maybe we’ll find out more tonight? If he is moving to SmackDown maybe we’ll get a final match tonight or maybe a series of matches across the next few week before he makes the jump? I could be way off, and he might just start a new feud tonight with no mention of a move, we’ll have to wait and see!

Gunther’s Record-Breaking Intercontinental Championship Celebration – Congratulations to Gunther on becoming the longest reigning and record-breaking Intercontinental Champion in WWE history. The celebration tonight should be interesting, I always feel like these segments work best for a comedic and whiny / scared heel champion – All of which does not describe Gunther at all. So, I will be interested to see how WWE approaches this. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to see Gable get involved with another rematch for the title then being booked for WWE Fastlane? I never get sick of these two working together, I really enjoyed their match last week!

AEW Dynamite, 6th September 2023 – AEW World Champion MJF & Samoa Joe –

So, I like many of you checked out AEW Dynamite last week. Nothing in particular was standing out to me during the show. Orange Cassidy made a brief appearance, gave a tiny promo, and left before Jon Moxley defended his newly won AEW International Championship in a decent opening bout. Kris Statlander then defended her AEW TBS Championship in what was another decent match, nothing special here. Le Sex Gods defeated Aussie Open in another average bout – Not sure about everyone else, but I don’t care about Sammy Guevara falling out with Chris Jericho.

So, as the show went on, I was beginning to wonder “What is going to make me keep watching this?” I was close to turning it off when the graphic came up announcing we would be hearing from the ROH Tag Team & AEW World Champion, Maxwell Jacob Friedman next! I thought, I’ll watch this, if it isn’t interesting then I’ll call it a night.

MJF made his way to the ring and in his usual style captivated the crowd immediately and had them in the palm of his hand straight away. He’s arguably the best thing about AEW, he’s got the look, oozes charisma, character and personality and can be a heel you detest or a babyface you pull for. On top of that, he’s 27 years old. AEW should be looking to give him whatever he wants financially and building their company around this guy.

MJF stated how unhappy he was with Samoa Joe pushing him on the ramp at AEW All Out the previous weekend. If you’re aware of Joe’s run in WWE NXT, you’ll remember the infamous spot when he’s being accompanied to the ring by security backstage. One of the guards is a young MJF. Samoa Joe, carrying the NXT World Title at the time pushes the ‘kid’ into the wall. So of course, all these years later Joe doing this to MJF again is going to hit a nerve.

Samoa Joe comes out and proceeds to call MJF ‘Kid’ numerous times which clearly gets under the champ’s skin. Further insults are traded (Jokes at the expense of Joe, shots at William Regal etc…) before Samoa Joe states that he will win the AEW Grand Slam tournament and go on to defeat MJF and claim the AEW World Championship. Joe called MJF a bitch which in return for he received a slap, Joe said he wasn’t going to take the champ’s bait and allowed MJF to leave. Once MJF tried to leave Joe attacked, MJF rallied and attempted a comeback, but with an underlying ‘neck’ injury Joe got the upper hand and took control. Adam Cole then made the save and Joe retreated.

The reason this segment caught my interest in an otherwise bland show up until this point was due to a multitude of reasons – The crowd were hot for this segment, MJF and Samoa Joe deserve credit for this due to telling a story that went back years. They showed no respect for one another and despite it obviously being a storyline you could genuinely believe and understand both MJF and Joe’s viewpoints. MJF is the young champ, the future star who feels like a veteran he looked up to disrespected him whilst trying to make a name for himself in the business. Joe is the veteran, a killer in the ring who doesn’t respect anyone, especially a cocky and brash ‘kid’ like MJF.

I think we all know that Joe will be winning the AEW Grand Slam Tournament now, wouldn’t make sense for him not to. Hopefully between Joe and MJF fighting for the title we get to see the challenger Samoa Joe become even more ruthless – Let him get under the champ’s skin even more by savagely attacking Adam Cole. Anyway, that’s me starting to fantasy book how we get from A to B… That’s not a bad thing though, AEW and this feud have clearly caught my attention and pulled me in.

Final word on this segment is regarding some of the backlash I seen online regarding the WWE references. I think one person noted eight mentions of WWE terms, talents etc… Usually I wouldn’t be a fan of them using WWE as part of their feud, it would feel cheap (TNA used to do this and I didn’t like it then) but doing it to further a deep feud makes sense. Just don’t keep rehashing it over and over again AEW!

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling on now. Thanks for checking this third blog out. I’m a self-confessed WWE fanboy, always have been since I started watching WWE as a child. However, as you can hopefully and probably tell I’m trying to broaden by Professional Wrestling palate and horizons. If there is anything else you can recommend, I’m open to suggestions. I’m taking a break from my 9-5 office job at the moment and trying to fill my time!

Please leave feedback, if it’s constructive then I’ll always appreciate it. I’m always happy to learn and to become better. Please keep it respectful though, everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Take it easy guys,

Andy

#aew #aew collision #aew dynamite #aew rampage #all elite wrestling #tony khan #wwe #wwe raw #wwe smackdown #smackdown #mjf aew #samoa joe #rhea ripley #raquel rodriguez #cody rhodes #gunther wwe

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itzz-phoenixxx · 2 years

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Why I don't like All Might: An Analysis.

Don't get me wrong, he was a GOOD hero, but he has a FUCK ton of shortcomings and I'm sick of everyone looking over them. So I'm breaking things down in somewhat chronological order because he's the ONE character in MHA I absolutely cannot stand

His and Izuku's first meeting.

There was no way to know that he had been told to kill himself only hours earlier, but still. Jesus christ dude.

The entire interaction with the sludge villain. He didn't do ANYTHING to make sure Izuku was okay except for smack tf out of him to wake him up. I don't know how shit works in that world, but I think at the very LEAST if someone is attacked by a villain, you should notify authorities and maybe, idk, make sure the kid gets checked out by medical professionals.

He tried to push Izuku off his leg in mid-air. You could argue its for comedic relief, but if you're a pro hero in your late 50's (he's been a OFA holder for 40 years, and I'm assuming he got it when he was about as old as Izuku) you should know better.

Crushing Izuku's dream and leaving what could be a suicidal kid by himself where ANYTHING could've happened. Like what if he had done something??

OH not to mention, he's a pro hero ffs, telling him to "be more reasonable" is terrible. You could argue that Aizawa said the same, but Aizawa also guided Izuku during the first training exercise. Yeah, he told him he should never be a hero, but he also gav3 his quirk back and gave Izuku a chance to prove him wrong, and several times now Izuku has.

The passing of OFA

For One, he completely backtracked. Like he didn't even consider Izuku's feelings before tossing the "You can be hero and here's how" bomb on him. I fully believe he took advantage of Izuku's vulnerability in that moment.

It seemed like he put Izuku in a position where he couldn't say no. All Might asking Iuzku to take his quirk, would be like your favorite artist asking you to perform in a show with them because they liked your voice. You just can't pass up that apportunity.

He failed to inform Izuku about the baggage thay came with OFA. Not only the bone breakage in the first episode, but about All For One, his fated enemy. He didn't give Izuku the option to back out or change his mind, because I feel as though Izuku would've DEFINITELY reconsidered if he knew (but I'm in no way saying he wouldn't take the quirk regardless)

He took advantage of Izuku's adoration of him, as well as his dreams in order to pass along his quirk. Of course, he also saw potential in him, I won't argue about that. He wasn't wrong about the kind of person Izuku was/is, but the fact fhat he just so happened to run into his biggest fan (who was quirkless and dreamed of being a hero) you can't tell me he didn't take advantage of that.

He's a horrible teacher.

It's not only Izuku who has realized this. Most of 1A as well as the staff at UA have realized this. He had flashcards ffs. You could argue that he's brand new to teaching, but he also had time to put lessons together. Even Tsu pointed out during the first training exercise that they had no prior combat training.

He wasn't able to properly teach Izuku how to wield OFA. Everything he learned he picked up from Gran Torino, and the other staff at UA. It took him 2 seasons to regulate OFA, and an additional season to realize he had legs. The only good teaching moment he had was introducing the concept of Air Force.

His blatant and obvious favoritism of Izuku has put the other students in danger too many times.

Seriously, he puts so much faith in Izuku in crisis situations, that he doesn't even worry about the other kids who aren't as capable.

MANGA SPOILER!!! -He fully supported Izuku's vigilante era, knowing it was unsafe. He also followed the boy around and in his state could've been a liability. Even on the brink of death, AM said "here's lunch, good luck." And wasn't involved in bringing him back, even if he would've had the most influence.

That is all for now, thank you!

#mha #all might slander #boku no hero academia #izuku mydoria #bnha #all might

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dippedanddripped · 3 years

Link

Old Nollywood aesthetics and fashion may be considered trendy today, but the films were not always so well-regarded. In the 90s and early 2000s, when these movies were made and watched in parlours across Nigerian homes as they were shot, straight-to-video, they were considered as bad entertainment, or ‘low culture’. To watch and enjoy Nollywood films was to celebrate mediocrity. But today, nostalgic young Millennials and Gen Zers are overlooking the jarring audio, grainy pictures, and sometimes hammy acting, to appreciate not only the grooming and style of the actors, but the original and diverse stories that reflect unique Nigerian experiences.

It was for this reason that sisters Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu started Nolly Babes, a nostalgic Instagram account dedicated to celebrating the cinematic period’s women. Started in December 2017, their first post was of Nollywood’s biggest star Genevieve Nnaji; a still taken from 2004 film Sharon Stone In Abuja, directed by Adim Williams. Nnaji plays the titular character, a sexually liberated young woman who uses her beauty and charm to ensnare unassuming men into doing her bidding.

The account is an ode to the female characters of old Nollywood who were often portrayed as warning examples. The storylines were steeped in moral principles rooted in the patriarchal culture and the dominant Christian religion of Southern Nigeria. A large number of the female characters were considered immoral because they kissed other women, challenged men, smoked and drank, or wore mini skirts. Today, Nolly Babes and similar accounts are reimagining these women, taking their scenes out of the moralistic context of the films, and turning them into iconic feminist personas.

The first time Nollywood content seeped into the mainstream internet consciousness can be traced back to 2017 when videos of Nollywood’s favourite comedic duo Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme, better known as Aki and Pawpaw, rose to popularity due mostly to the influence of a now-defunct Twitter account @nollywoodroll ran by Nicole, a woman based in Brazil.

Their memes became the go-to reaction videos for expressing a wide range of emotions: joy, disappointment, sadness, frustration. The appeal was in seeing children making mischief or in adult situations – drinking beer and smoking cigars, wooing bigger women, or in oversized suits shouting instructions at people twice their size. Although both Ikedieze and Iheme were in their 20s in the early 2000s when most of the films were made, they mostly played children because of their body stature. By 2019, the memes had achieved such virality that brands like Rihanna’s Fenty would use them for social media clout.

Theodora Imaan Beauvais is the curator of Yung Nollywood, another archive of clips and stills from old Nollywood paying homage to its controversial female characters, after screenshotting moments from Nollywood she found “appealing or inspirational”. Yung Nollywood is remarkably distinct from Nolly Babes for its subtitling of the films’ stills from Nollywood films, something she attributes to Tumblr. While the idea to give witty captions to the actors’ facial expressions came from watching Netflix. “I thought, ‘If someone could describe Nollywood reactions in short phrases it’d be an art form on its own,’ and I became that someone.’”

In December 2019, Tochi and Ebele hosted a Nollywood-themed party in Lagos. Nollywood actor and musician Nonso Bassey attended the party dressed in a two-piece jean set and bucket hat, a signature look of the bad boy/alpha male archetype, and a role reprised multiple times by older actors such as Hanks Anuku, Emeka Ike, and Jim Iyke. Since that party, Nonso has attended social functions and premieres in outfits that make a nod to the fashion choices of that era of Nollywood. He insists, though, that he isn’t cosplaying Nollywood characters of that era. “I’ve always been attracted to the idea of merging old world charm with a new school approach,” he said.

The party caused a cultural stir amongst Nigerians and Africans both at home and in the diaspora – every other week, there seems to be a Nollywood-themed party held either in Lagos or London. Take for instance friends and business partners Imani Okunubi and Aseosa Uwagboe, two Nigerian-British kids who grew up in the UK. Nollywood was one of the ways they could connect back to their roots. That experience informs their event brand, Lasgidi to London, targeted at Nigerians living in the UK. “We wanted to create events that were reminiscent of the Naija hall parties (Owambe) we attended as kids, as we don’t want to see that culture die,” Aseosa said. Their next owambe is a Nollywood-themed party and guests are expected to come dressed in their “best nolly Y2K aesthetic”.

Below, the Nolly Babes sisters talk about creating and hosting the first Nollywood-themed party and the cultural moment it has inspired.

How did that first event come about – please take me through it, from the planning to how it turned out?

Nolly Babes: From the inception of Nolly Babes, we knew we had to throw a party. Fashion is a huge part of what makes Nolly Babes different from other Nollywood-themed pages and we knew we were the only ones that could set Nolly Babes as the dress code and have people commit as they did. There are many iconic Nollywood scenes and scenarios. The daughter meeting her evil mother-in-law, the ominous visit to the Babalawo, the campus stroll – just the mere mention of these scenes evokes images that have been embedded in the minds of our fellow Nollywood enthusiasts. The party scene is probably the most iconic of them all. Whether it’s in a club, a mansion while mum and dad are out of town (but coming home early to crash the whole thing) or poolside, the Nolly Babes party scene has its staples: mad music, dancing, and sick outfits.

December in Lagos is notoriously hectic. On each day, there are day parties, beach hangouts, concerts, and we just knew we had to be a part of it. Our flyer was the first thing we made sure was done right, and that has been replicated (but never duplicated) many many times. We went through at least six drafts of that until we got the flyer to be a realistic replica of the home video covers from the golden era. The DJs Kemi Lijadu and vIVENDII Sounds understood the assignment and played music from the Nolly Babes era. We’re talking Tony Tetuila, Mo Hitz, Wande Coal, Plantation Boyz… We curated a special cocktail menu: Genny Colladas, Jim Iyke’s Hard Lemonade, MargaRita Dominic, and our Lagos Island Iced Tea, in tribute to Nollywood stars Genevieve Nnaji, Jim Iyke, and Rita Dominic respectively. We had a video projection on the famous red wall at Nok showing a mashup of emblematic scenes. We were partying while seeing images of a young Jim Iyke dressed just like many of the attendees were dressed. It was magical! We have an event we’re planning in New York for the summer – it’s going to be a madness.

Did you envisage it becoming the cultural movement it’s now become?

Nolly Babes: We really didn’t. We hosted the party because we knew people were taking inspiration from our page for styling jobs and music video treatments, and wanted to give everyone a chance to recreate some of their favourite looks. Now every week we see people planning Nollywood-themed parties and sending people to our page for references. It’s awesome. Toke Makinwa even recently attended a Nolly Babes-themed party and she was dressed as a character we have immortalised – Regina Askia in President’s Daughter. She killed it! Even though the character wasn’t referenced, it was clear as day and it was awesome to see that she pulled it off! Honestly, when we see people really pay attention to detail and execute the theme well it’s so, so dope.

How has TikTok helped grow Nollywood's influence? You posted a scene from Girls Cot, the famous “you stink with poverty” clip on TikTok and it went viral and birthed these recreations even by non-Africans.

Nolly Babes: We’re just happy to see that another aspect of Nollywood that we champion – the iconic scenes and one-liners – is also resonating across the world. We see Nolly Babes as an archival work and as much as we focus on beauty and looks on Instagram, it’s nice to be able to point people in the direction of the scenes that are forever embedded in our brains. These are scenes we recreated in jest ourselves before there was even a Nolly Babes to begin with, so to see it catching on TikTok is exciting and a new frontier for us to fully explore. I think what distinguishes Nolly Babes from other Nollywood pages and what contributes to our TikTok success is that we really watch Nollywood movies. We grew up watching these movies and continue to do so now so we can capture those moments in films that the casual consumer or poster of Nollywood content might not.

What are your thoughts on Nollywood’s influence on the Alté scene? Music videos of artists such as Lady Donli and Odunsi nod to the aesthetic and fashion styles of that era.

Nolly Babes: Nollywood, and specifically the aesthetic we have shone a spotlight on, is probably one of the biggest influences in terms of visuals in that scene right now. I have never seen so many Eucharia (Anunobi) eyebrows on TV and we love it! It’s awesome to see our images and scenes being used in treatments and storyboards. If we’re being candid, we think it would be great if we got the chance to step into our stylist/creative direction bag and help with the execution of the aesthetic.

“The bottom line is really that Nolly Babes has brought what was already an international cultural influence to the modern social media realm with a new lens” – Nolly Babes

How far do you see Nollywood's influence on pop culture, beyond Nigeria and Africa?

Nolly Babes: When we moved to New York we found our Dominican and South American friends had also grown up watching Nollywood films. The bottom line is really that Nolly Babes has brought what was already an international cultural influence to the modern social media realm with a new lens. Nollywood clips were online everywhere – but it was always in a comedic way. Aki and PawPaw are meme gods now, and that’s because their expressions transcend cultural boundaries. Black Twitter eats that stuff up.

Nolly Babes chooses to center the beauty, style, and iconic imagery, even the home decor with our #NollyDecor hashtag of the golden era of Nollywood. We share the makeup, accessories, fashion, iconic phrases, and scenes in a way that isn’t just comedic but inspirational and aesthetically groundbreaking. I see Nollywood being at the centre of this Y2K resurgence that is happening all over the world, from TV to runways and fashion collections. That era is coming back around and, this time, the Black experience is being revisited and centered in a way it wasn’t back in the late 90s and 2000s. (Black people) were always the originators of the trends and this time they’re tapping into the source and Nollywood, particularly the era we celebrate as Nolly Babes, is a great resource for that.

Follow Nolly Babes on Instagram

#nollybabes #nollywood #late 90s fashion #y2k fashion #womens streetwear

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yumeka36 · 3 years

Text

Analysis on the absence of Elsa and the Northuldra in post-Frozen 2 stories

If you've been following post-Frozen 2 storybooks and comics as closely as I have over the past year and a half, you've probably noticed that the majority of stories take place in Arendelle and focus on Anna partaking in adventures with Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven. While Elsa has appeared alongside them in a few stories, as well as a couple of her own stories taking place in the forest with Olaf and Bruni, the ratio of "Anna stories" vs "Elsa stories" is pretty one-sided. And, while new characters introduced in Frozen 2 like Mattias, Halima, Bruni, and Nokk, have had some appearances in post-F2 stories, the Northuldra have had zero…not even mentions or cameos. I’ve been pondering on this topic quite a bit and finally got around to writing all my thoughts. This is a long and thorough analysis so sit back, enjoy, and put your thinking cap on...

The lack of Elsa in post-F2 stories is puzzling since both Anna and Elsa are fairly even when it comes to post-F2 content in general; all the post-F2 merch I've seen has both of them in equal amounts, and pictures of Elsa are always all over the magazine covers and paper craft pages that the comics come from. So it's not like she's being excluded from post-F2 merch overall, she's just noticeably absent from most of the comics and storybooks. Again, this is puzzling because post-F2 marketing gives the impression of "Anna's doing her thing in Arendelle" and "Elsa's doing her thing in the forest," so an equal number of stories for each sister, as well as a few where they do things together, seems like the most logical way to go. Yet the ratio of post-F2 stories currently looks something like this:

Stories featuring Anna in Arendelle with other characters (no Elsa) - 56%

Book & Comic: Anna getting a gift for the queen of Chatho

Book & Comic: Anna getting an official portrait as queen

Book: Mattias getting accustomed to Arendelle again

Comic: Anna and Mattias visit Halima

Comic: Anna and Kristoff make a bicycle for Olaf

Comic: The gang helps Olaf find a new nose

Comic: The gang celebrates the spring festival

Comic: Olaf minds the kingdom when Anna is sick

Book: The origin of Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven's epilogue outfits (this one is technically not post-F2, but I'm counting it since it's so close to the end of the movie. Also it’s an upcoming book, so no link yet)

Book: Arendelle celebrates the cloudberry festival

(out of these, Mattias has featured in about 17%)

Stories featuring Elsa with Anna and the rest of Frohana - 27%

Book: Anna awaits Elsa's visit after their initial parting

Book: Explore the North (this isn't a storybook but a collection of isolated scenes during and after F2; since some scenes are post-F2, I'm counting it)

Comic: Elsa visits Arendelle for charades

Comic: Anna and co. visit Elsa in the forest to help Bruni

Comic: Elsa visits Arendelle for the snowman competition

Stories featuring Elsa in the forest with the spirits (and Olaf, no Anna) - 17%

Book: Bruni's Big Adventure

Book: Elsa, Sven, and the spirits help Olaf find a unicorn

Book: Elsa helps restore balance in the forest that resulted from the misguided actions of some travelers

(out of these, Yelena, Honeymaren, Ryder, and/or other Northuldra have featured in 0%)

*Major shoutout to @chileanon and @bigfrozenfan for translating many of these stories that aren’t available in English*

(my percentages are based on the number of post-F2 stories released thus far, to my knowledge, in the form of comics or books. Some stories have both a comic and book version, as well as two different book iterations with only slight differences. In these cases, I'm counting them as one. Since comics are released sporadically and only in a few European countries, my number may be slightly off if there were any not brought to my attention on social media. I'm very active with finding information about post-F2 content, so I feel my numbers are fairly accurate. And again, I'm only counting stories that take place post-F2, or at least within the timeframe of the epilogue, not stories that take place during or before)

(I'd also like to point out that Olaf is the only character who has appeared in every single post-F2 story so far. It makes sense since he's a very marketable character for the kids and simple to write for. Though this probably wasn't the intention, I'm seeing him as a connection symbol between Anna and Elsa as they go about their new roles).

So what is the deal with these ratios? As I said, both Anna and Elsa have been evenly highlighted throughout all of Frozen 2's marketing, and continue to be to this day (and Elsa is arguably the more financially successful of the two and Disney knows it), so why is Anna so much more prevalent when it comes to post-F2 stories? And why are the Northuldra so left out? Obviously they wouldn't feature in a lot of stories since they're not main (and marketable) characters, but if Mattias can appear in a story or two, why can't the Northuldra at least get a mention? If someone hadn't seen Frozen 2 and read these post-movie stories, they would think the only residents of the forest are Elsa, the spirits, and some animals. Is there a reason for this? These are the kinds of questions I will examine and attempt to answer in this post.

But before I get to the meat of this analysis, please take note of the following disclaimers (I apologize for the length of the disclaimers, but they're important things to keep in mind):

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Disclaimers

- All of this is my own speculation based on the facts made public; namely, the content of the post-movie stories themselves. Since I have no insight into the coordination, publishing process, or other planning/logistics behind the creation of these stories, theorizing is all I can do. I don't know to what extent executives at Disney dictate what authors can and can't write in these stories, whether the authors actually have a lot of creative freedom yet choose to write the stories this way, or whether these outcomes vary depending on factors like country and story format. So I'm purely going off the limited knowledge I have and what I feel is most logical.

- Continuing from my previous point, unless you have some insider knowledge about the inner workings of Disney Publishing Worldwide, Disney Press, or whatever branch of Disney creates these post-movie stories, exactly who is responsible for the way they are is unknown. I could be wrong of course, but I doubt that Head of WDAS Jen Lee has the need to personally green light 6-12 page comic stories that get printed in a foreign language magazine read by, like, 1% of Frozen's worldwide audience. Even though Jen Lee and Chris Buck created the story and characters of Frozen, the franchise is owned by Disney firstly, and it's very likely other people at Disney provide approval for things like this in lieu of the filmmakers. It’s doubtful that the Frozen 2 filmmakers had any input into the creation of these post-movie stories, or even know that they exist. While the Frozen 2 filmmaking team is responsible for how Frozen 2 ended, they ended it in a way for post-stories to easily expand on the Frozen-verse like how I previously described; some stories featuring Anna as queen and interacting with the people of Arendelle, some stories featuring Elsa in the forest interacting with the spirits and the Northuldra, and some stories with them doing things together. And technically this is exactly what post-F2 stories have been doing–we have stories featuring Anna as queen, stories with Elsa in the forest, and stories of them doing things together…it's just that the proportion of "Anna stories" vs "Elsa stories" is surprisingly off, plus the complete absence of the Northuldra. And again, whether it was someone's decision that the stories should be this way, or whether it's just a weird coincidence, is unclear. Is there a particular person or persons from Disney's publishing branches pushing for the stories to be the way they are? Or is it the individual authors' decision? Or some combination of both…or some other factor entirely? Yes, higher ups at Disney have to provide approval for every official piece of media that gets released for their IPs, but who is "Disney" in this case? A manager/supervisor at Disney Press? Is it the same person who approves every new story or just some? Is it just one person who approves or is there some long chain of approval? And if so, how far up does it go...all the way up to someone who actually worked on Frozen 2, or does it stop before then? Does it vary by country? Does it vary whether the story is in comic or book format? There are a lot of unknowns in terms of how these stories come about, so please be mindful of that fact before assigning blame to any one person or group of people.

- And lastly, again, I'm only focusing on post-F2 stories–stories that take place after the events of Frozen 2. I know that comics and books have come out after Frozen 2's release that take place during or before the events of the movie, such as a comic about Ryder helping Kristoff with the proposal and a book showing Frohana having a family game night prior to the movie. For this analysis, I'm only focusing on how the characters and franchise are presented post-movie, in brand new ways not yet explored in the actual canon of the movie. I'm more interested in seeing how these stories are shaping the franchise going forward in anticipation of new official canon content whenever it comes.

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So with all this in mind, let's keep analyzing…

Lack of Elsa

First I'm going to examine the main reasons I have for why we don't see Elsa as often in post-F2 stories:

Arendelle stories are easy and familiar: Personally, I think this is the most likely reason, especially for the comics. The comics are made as part of magazines released in a few European countries. They're simply extra selling points for the magazines, which contain other items that appeal to kids, like arts & crafts activities, and Elsa is always all over those even if she's not part of the comic. I would also venture to guess that the authors and artists who create the comics don't have a ton of time, or incentive, to weave together interesting stories. After years of releasing Frozen 1-based comics that almost always involve adventures in Arendelle, I'd imagine it's very easy for current Frozen comic writers to simply follow that formula, since it worked in the past and is easy and familiar. Sure, they could include Elsa in more of those stories, but if you look at it from the perspective of a comic writer with deadlines, if I could get away with writing an acceptable story without including an extra character to draw/write for, I would do that as much as I could. If Elsa is still in, like, 80% of the magazine, I think little kids would still be enticed to buy them even if she's absent from the comic stories. Obviously with Frozen 1, all the characters lived in Arendelle, so it wouldn't make sense to have a lot of stories without Elsa (though there were some). But now that Elsa is living elsewhere, her absence in these stories isn't as questionable, especially when she's still part of the magazine in general. While this logic applies more to the magazine comics than storybooks, I would still argue that the storybooks are also niche and are simply made to bring in a little extra revenue to small markets rather than a serious attempt to expand the canon.

So then the question becomes, why not show more stories of Elsa in the forest with the spirits and/or Northuldra? Those stories could be simple too, like a story about Elsa and the spirits helping Honeymaren find a lost baby reindeer or something like that. The reason for this could again boil down to Arendelle simply being an easier and more familiar setting to work with. If excluding Elsa from the comics has no affect on magazine sales, since she's already present in the rest of the magazine, why not just stick with a formula that works and takes less effort to write? Even if coming up with simple stories for Elsa in the forest isn't too difficult, Arendelle is a more recognizable and "glamorous" setting, especially for the magazine's target audience of little girls. Another key point is that Elsa's exact role in the forest was left much more open to interpretation at the end of the movie than Anna's role as queen. Being the queen of a kingdom is something easily identifiable, and again, easier to write for. Why risk depicting Elsa's activities in the forest in a way that could conflict with Disney's expectations (assuming someone with clout at Disney green lights these stories) when you can just stick with safe adventures in Arendelle?

Disconnect between stories and canon: This is more of a general statement about fandom interpretation of the comics and storybooks as serious depictions of post-movie canon: it's best to keep in mind that these stories are, again, simply made to bring in a little extra revenue for the franchise, as most of Frozen's earning are either from box office sales or toys/dolls and other merch. Most of the books and comics aren't made with a large, worldwide market in mind, so I'd hesitate to think that a lot of effort is put into creating stories that are true depictions of post-canon content that would perfectly align with a potential Frozen 3 or other future official releases. Many of the post-Frozen 1 stories released in books and comics contradict each other in minor ways, as well as the actual canon movies and shorts as well. This is unfortunately what happens when you have a franchise like Frozen that's owed by a company (Disney) and not an individual director, author, etc. Unlike, say, Harry Potter or Naruto, where the work is owned firstly by the original author who has say into practically every new media piece that's created for their franchise, lots of different people at Disney contribute to various pieces of Frozen media and bring their own interpretations into it…interpretations that could end up not aligning with each other or future canon content from the filmmakers. A few different authors write the post-F2 storybooks, and still different authors write the comics, and I doubt they collaborate to make sure everything in their respective mediums match up exactly, nor do they check in with the Frozen 2 filmmakers to make sure every story released is a clear representation of whatever vision the filmmakers have for not-yet-conceived post-F2 content. This might not be the case for a bigger production, like the Frozen novels such as Dangerous Secrets, and shorts like Olaf's Frozen Adventure, but it is for these little kiddy books and comics that a very small portion of the market even knows about. Even if someone at Disney has to approve them, as I mentioned in the disclaimer, we have no idea if it's the same person always approving, different people depending on country/format, or if there's some chain of people who provide approval. This spreading out of the Frozen-verse across different media formats and Disney branches unfortunately spells frustration for fans who are constantly trying to build one, coherent view of the franchise's world through the alignment of the comics, books, shorts, and movies. This is unavoidably the nature of the kind of franchise Frozen is–something that's owned by a multi-faceted behemoth like Disney rather than a single author, so there's going to be a disconnect between its media formats that are conceived by a variety of different minds at the company. In the end, everyone is free to decide what they do and don't consider canon, but don't be surprised when the image the storybook writing team has for Frozen ends up being different than what the filmmakers create years later.

The pandemic: While I don’t think the covid pandemic is the sole reason here, it could be a possible contributor. Manufacturing was compromised across various industries in 2020, and magazine/book publishing could have been one of them. Maybe Disney did have plans to create more post-F2 books in early 2020, but had to change those plans (among many other things) when the pandemic hit. Some possible evidence for this is that, for some of the storybooks at least, the European translations are based on the English versions, which means the English versions came first, and yet the English versions weren’t released until several months later, most not even in hardcover form. This could indicate a slowdown in this branch at Disney in the US, or at least a portion of it. The US did get some hardcover Frozen 2 books in 2020, like Explore the North, Bruni’s Big Adventure, and the Frozen 2 manga, but not as many as Europe, which is strange if these books started off in English first. Again, without any insight into the industry, I can only theorize, but I do believe the pandemic should at least be considered.

Disney restrictions for future canon: This is an optimistic reason, but one that I think is important to mention. A possible reason that Elsa is noticeably absent from post-F2 stories, but not F2 marketing in general, could be because Disney has future plans for exactly what her role as the fifth spirit is and they don't want to risk anything that portrays that role in a contradictory way. They might not know exactly what that role is yet, but they'd rather not risk retconning anything that's shown in official content, like the comics and storybooks. Since Elsa's role was left open to interpretation at the end of the movie, focusing too much on what she's doing everyday could inadvertently reveal things about her role that could be portrayed as expanding the canon, something that these stories aren't allowed to do. So perhaps the authors are told to downplay Elsa's activities in the forest as much as possible, so often they'd rather just exclude her altogether to make things easier. Of course, this is complete speculation, but I'd like to hope it's true if it means Disney has future plans for Frozen!

On that note, the only story released thus far that has a direct depiction of what Elsa does in the forest is Tales of Courage & Kindness, a digital book that was recently released as part of Disney's Ultimate Princess Celebration campaign. I feel like this book is slightly closer to canon than the other books and comics because it was promoted on various official Disney social media outlets (and was released in English, while many of the books and comics aren't). It depicts Elsa's role (one role she has at least) of helping the spirits protect the forest from outside influences that could throw off its balance. Again, this book is still pretty niche and we don't know if there was any collaboration between the filmmakers and the author of this story, so this depiction of Elsa's role could be downplayed in favor of something else in future canon content. But what I found most puzzling about it is that this book, which seemed to be written for slightly older children than most of the post-F2 storybooks, had a perfect opportunity to feature the Northuldra, since it takes place exclusively in the forest. And yet, there wasn't even a mention of them at all. Which leads to the next portion of this analysis…

Lack of Northuldra

Even though Elsa doesn't appear in as many post-movie storybooks and comics as Anna (for possible reasons I just discussed), she still features in some of them. The Northuldra, however, have not appeared in any post-F2 stories, even the few that take place in the forest. This is strange since the epilogue of Frozen 2 very clearly shows Elsa with the Northuldra at their camp, as well as with the spirits. But as far as post-movie stories, the most we've gotten is one line from Elsa in one of the comics (English version from the official UK magazine):

(thanks to Snow on Discord for sharing this with me)

We can assume the "anyone" she's referring to are the Northuldra who live in the forest (unless she's referring to the animals of the forest, lol. Also, why the heck are they calling Bruni an "it"? This is a prime example of what I mentioned before about the disconnect between the various branches at Disney. In the Bruni's Big Adventure book and other official content, Bruni is referred to as "he/him")

As a matter of fact, Olaf, who lives with Anna and the others in Arendelle, is more prevalent in the forest stories than the Northuldra! I feel like he's been added to these stories to give Elsa someone to talk to, since Bruni and the other spirits don't talk. But why not have her talk to Honeymaren, Ryder, or Yelena? I know all the kids love Olaf, but you'd think they could get away with having one story where Elsa interacts with the Northuldra, just like Anna has a couple of stories where most of her interactions were with Mattias. And like Elsa, the Northuldra aren't excluded from post-F2 overall as they're still seen occasionally in other merch. They're just not in any stories that are set post-F2. This exclusion of the Northuldra is very bizarre, so let's see what we can analyze for why it's like this…

The Northuldra aren't marketable characters: This would be a likely reason if it weren't for the fact that Mattias, who is also arguably not a marketable character, has appeared in a few post-F2 stories. In fact, many minor Arendellian characters often appear in the comics and storybooks…Halima has gotten more attention in these stories than the actual movie! So I think it's more than that, which leads to my next point…

The spirits are more marketable: This is probably why stories that feature Elsa in the forest aren't focused on the Northuldra. Again, assuming the stories in the books and comics are created just to bring in a little extra money and not as serious depictions of canon content in collaboration with the filmmakers, it makes a lot of sense to keep the focus on what sells the best. We know that (in terms of merch at least) Bruni and Nokk were the most popular new characters from Frozen 2, so why not have stories with Elsa in the forest focused on them? This doesn't contradict the ending of Frozen 2 after all. However, this doesn't explain why there's literally no mention of the Northuldra. Even if the stories focus on the spirits, they can at least show the Northuldra in the background or mention them here and there. Which then leads to my next point…

Few stories in the forest, so few chances: In conjunction with my previous two points, I think this is the main reason for the lack of Northuldra in post-F2 stories…there just hasn't been enough opportunities. First off, most post-F2 stories take place in Arendelle, so no reason for the Northuldra to be seen there (unless they wanted to depict Arendelle and Northuldra mingling with each other, but that concept is probably beyond the scope of the kiddy books and comics!) And as of now, there have only been four post-F2 stories that take place in the forest…

-Bruni's Big Adventure: this one gets a free pass because it's aimed at very little kids and literally just shows Bruni and Olaf goofing off, with Elsa making brief appearances at the beginning and end. The more descriptive European version does mention about Elsa living in the forest with the spirits and no mention of the Northuldra. But again, this book seems aimed at an even younger audience than the others, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the author needed to keep things very simple and only mention what’s important for the story at hand.

-A Day With Bruni comic: this one could have definitely shown some Northuldra in the background, or even mentioned them in Elsa's dialogue. I guess the idea was for the group to meet Elsa in a secluded area, since the story was about helping Bruni get his fire going again, which could be dangerous at a camp site. I still don't know why they weren't at least acknowledged in Elsa's dialogue, but that could have just been a conservative choice by the comic writer.

-A Unicorn for Olaf: while this book could have shown the Northuldra, since it features Elsa, Olaf, Sven, and the spirits travelling all around the forest, I kind of see why they didn't; the theme was that each spirit Olaf encountered helped him get closer to finding the unicorn–it's a simple and easy narrative for a little kid to follow, no need to complicate it by including extra characters (I know it's hard sometimes, but we have to keep the target audience for these stories in mind...it’s much more narrow than the movies!)

-Elsa's story in Tales of Courage & Kindness: out of all these stories, this was definitely the one where the Northuldra should have at least been acknowledged. The story features the forest getting disturbed/thrown off balance, so you would think Elsa would mention the Northuldra, the people living there, perhaps to ask if they know what's happening or if anything was wrong. Really strange that this wasn't the case…only reason I could think of is, again, insistence on simplifying Elsa's role in the forest as much as possible, which includes downplaying anything going on in the forest besides just her and the spirits. Maybe the book author wanted to include mention of the Northuldra, but then was told to edit that part out for simplicity's sake. In Anna's equivalent story in this book, Mattias is absent, which I found strange too. Maybe the author was instructed to keep things simple and not include extra characters if it's not necessary for the story (again, the target audience for this story is the general audience of little kids, not hardcore adult Frozen fanatics). But still more possible reasons for the Northuldra's exclusion from this story, and perhaps the others, could be as follows…

Disney restrictions on depictions of indigenous people: I'm not sure how valid this reason is, but we do know that the filmmaking team consulted with the Sami people about how the Northuldra were depicted in Frozen 2. So when it comes to depicting them in anything post-F2, perhaps Disney's being super sensitive. Maybe the image they want to avoid is "we got your approval to depict the Northuldra in Frozen 2, but as far as anything after that, we can do whatever we want." It wouldn't pay to consult with the Sami on all these little niche storybooks and comics, so why go through that hassle when it's very easy to just exclude the Northuldra from them? There are some flaws with this idea though, like where does Dangerous Secrets fit into this (it's not post-F2, but it's still content featuring the Northuldra in ways not shown in the movie). Then there's the fact that Disney doesn't have this restriction with their other movies that feature indigenous cultures, like Moana for example. But the argument there could be that Moana is a main character, so they literally couldn't have any post-movie stories if they had this restriction, so maybe different coordinating/negotiations took place in that case compared to Frozen 2.

The Northuldra are nomadic: This is a reasonable argument for why Elsa seems to often be alone with the spirits in the forest. But I feel like the movie tried to convey that the Northuldra live in the forest. They might travel around the forest to forage for food and set up camp at different locations, but they don't stray too far. In the movie's prologue, Agnarr does say that the forest was "home" to the Northuldra, and I don’t recall Dangerous Secrets giving any indication that they leave the forest for extended periods of time. But this is something that could definitely be addressed in future canon, I just don’t think there's enough evidence for it as of now.

Coincidence/author's choice: This applies not just to the absence of the Northuldra, but lack of Elsa in the post-movie stories as well…it could all just be a coincidence. Maybe the authors of these stories have freedom in terms of how they portray Elsa and whether or not they include the Northuldra, yet they simply are choosing not to. Their reasons for doing so could be what I've already discussed–stories in Arendelle are easier and more familiar, so why not stick with that when there's no consequences for it? And likewise, why continually include Elsa, an extra character to draw and write dialogue for, in the Arendelle stories when there's no need to anymore? Maybe tomorrow a new story will be announced that features Elsa in the forest interacting with the Northuldra and what I've said here becomes way less relevant? But I feel like it's not a total coincidence…like, maybe some countries are more restrictive than others, or some Disney branches are more restrictive, like the comics vs the storybooks. It's hard to say, but some of this could be coincidence for sure.

Conclusion

To summarize, there could be several reasons for why Elsa and the Northuldra aren't as prevalent in post-F2 stories, or it could just be a weird coincidence. I'm of the opinion that the authors of these stories keep the focus on adventures in Arendelle out of convenience and familiarity, since the books and comics are made just to bring in a little extra revenue from small markets. Elsa is still all over other Frozen 2 merch like dolls and toys, and that's where the bulk of the franchise's sales come from. The authors could be restricted by Disney in some way with how they depict Elsa's role in the forest, or whether or not they can include the Northuldra, so they often opt to just not have them in the stories, or just stick to the more marketable characters like Olaf and Bruni. Without any inside information about how Disney's publishing branch makes these stories, we can only speculate. But what I do know is that viewing these stories as an accurate image of what all future content for the franchise will be like is very premature. It's only been a year and a half since Frozen 2 (and only seven months since new animated content with Once Upon a Snowman). Even though that seems like a long time for fans, it's an extremely short time in terms of how long Disney takes to create new content for their animated films. Just look at how many years it took to announce new series’ for Princess and the Frog, Zootopia, and Moana? Monsters Inc. just got a new series ten years after its last movie, and Lion King, one of Disney's biggest hits, didn't get a series (The Lion Guard) until nearly twenty years after its sequel movie. Even if Disney seemingly abandons a franchise, they often come back to it in time, especially one as popular as Frozen. Unlike a franchise such as Star Wars that has a whole studio just for it, Frozen has to share resources with other Disney movies, which is why new content for their animated movies is spread out across so many years. And if we do get a Frozen 3 or a series on Disney+ however many years from now, there's a good chance it could portray the current status quo differently from these storybooks and comics, just like how the post-F1 stories feature a different status quo than now. Whether another change like this is good or bad has yet to be decided, but until it happens, I'd like to imagine it's something like this page from the Explore the North book (one of my favorite post-F2 images)

We see Anna and Elsa having fun together while Arendellains, Northuldra, and the spirits are learning to get along again...and honestly, nothing in these post-F2 stories I’ve discussed contradicts this scenario. Even if we don’t see the Northuldra in the stories that take place in the forest, that doesn’t mean they’re not there. Even if there’s fewer stories featuring Anna and Elsa together, that’s no indication of how often they get together in canon. As I discussed, there could be a number of reasons for why the post-F2 stories are as simplified and one-sided as they are...they’re only meant to extend the ending of the movie in minor ways, so that if Frozen 3 or other official canon content is released down the line, nothing will have to be seriously retconned. As I mentioned, a lot of hands at Disney touch these stories without paying mind to the fact that the filmmakers could conceive something different in the future, which is why I don’t take the post-F2 books and comics too seriously. I simply enjoy them for what they do offer and don’t get hung up about what they don’t offer.

#frozen #frozen 2 #frozen2 #disney frozen #frozen analysis #frozen comic #frozen books

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athetos · 2 years

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now that i’ve beaten the main game of pokemon insurgence and have made headway into the post game, heres my mostly spoiler-free review:

Pokemon Insurgence has a TON of content, and in some cases, it feels like it’s bitten off more than it can chew. But altogether, it’s an extraordinary package if you’re sick and tired of playing the official games over and over.

The plot of Insurgence... doesn’t really make too much sense. Pokemon fangames tend to fall into the “edgelord” territory, and this is no exception, although it’s still not as dark as a lot of other ones, and has it’s shining moments. You play as an amnesiac kid who wakes up in a cult’s headquarters, and is able to escape with the aid of Mew. You come to realize that you were just one of several trainers chosen by mythical pokemon as their avatar of sorts, and that it’s up to you to save the world (as always). Instead of laughably villainous teams, you will frequently clash with cult members. Yes, there’s not just one cult, but several, and they all have their own goals and headquarters. Each cult is centered around a specific legendary pokemon, and while it’s confusing to keep track of them all, their outfits (which are basically cosplay) are cute. The plot snowballs and gets convoluted VERY quickly, and often my friend and I had no idea what was going on plotwise, and would forget who’s side each character was on. Seriously, the narrative is ambitious, and I suspect it will go over a lot of people’s heads - but hey, nobody plays Pokemon for the plot, right?

So let’s go over the things people DO play Pokemon games for.

The region, Torren, is massive, and a real treat to explore. There are all the biomes you’d expect for a Pokemon game - lakes, deserts, snowy mountains, volcanos, etc. - but there’s also some new and interesting locations, like a city in the clouds, a haunted library, and a heavily polluted swamp. One of my favorite parts of the game was just interacting with NPCs in new towns. There are hundreds of people to talk to, many with funny or lore-heavy dialogue. A lot of thought was put into the lore of the region, and I honestly wish that the official games were this fleshed out. It really feels like the townspeople actually live there, taking pride in their city or even openly bashing it. Almost every town has something for you to do, or check out, whether they’re familiar attractions (game corner, trainer school, museum) or brand new (a black market, pokemon races, a giant gachapon game). The game goes out of it’s way to show how pokemon and humans coexist, and it’s wonderful. The routes are also interesting, with tons of landmarks, like ancient ruins, spider-filled forests, and stormy islands. The one gripe I have is that some of the HM replacements - like rock climb and waterfall - aren’t found until the post game, so you’ll have to do a lot of backtracking to find items you previously couldn’t reach (although, half of them aren’t all that worth it, to be fair).

As for the Pokemon - every creature from gen 1-6 is here, including legendaries. In fact, this game very prominently features legendaries, and don’t worry, you’ll be able to battle and catch all of them, in time. But the game doesn’t stop there - while there are no new completely original ‘mons, one of the main gimmicks is that of delta pokemon - mutated pokemon that are very much like regional variants in gens 7 and 8, but a lot rarer. In addition, there are also new mega evolutions. Like most fakemon, these new forms are kind of hit or miss. Some feel a bit uninspired, but others are really creative. Regardless of your taste, I’m sure there will be at least a handful of ‘mons that you’ll love and want to have on your team. Most deltas (and megastones) can be found by completing side quests, or going far off the beaten path, encouraging you to explore every area thoroughly. Some of these guys have brand new abilities that will make them more than worth your while!

And you’ll want to have megastones, and the strongest team you can, because this game is hard. Well, it’s harder than the official games, at least. There are three difficulties, and I played on normal the entire way through. You will fight a LOT of legendaries, and really brutal team compositions; the computers actually use strategies. If you just coasted through the games before without using stat moves, or held items, well, you’re gonna have a tough time. Thankfully, the game lets you have a secret base, and you can hire EV trainers, and EXP trainers, to help you grind and get the perfect team. Instead of each gym being based around a single type, the gyms here revolve around two each - for example, the first gym specializes in fire and grass types, and the second with bug and poison. By the time you even reach the first gym, your pokemon will probably be level 20+. Yes, by the time you take on the elite four, your pokemon will probably be level 90+. But don’t worry! The level cap has been extended to level 115!!! There’s just so much content, they had to increase the cap, I guess.

The game also features a lot of quality of life features, which makes things at least a little easier. There’s the aforementioned secret base, where you can grind, as well as hire move relearners and other helpful npcs. Each Pokemon Center has a move deleter and a name rater. HMs are no longer required, as their functions are either replaced by items (the flashlight replaces flash, for example) or there are multiple other moves that can be used in its stead (I could move boulders by using Psychic instead of Strength). The battle UI helpfully tells you your stat percentage changes. Move tutors and trainers willing to trade ‘mons are in almost every city. You can find X stat items that are even more effective than normal to use in battle. There are over 100 TMs, and a few of them are brand new; while some of them are ultra specific and would need an entire team built around them, I thought they were pretty neat. I especially liked the weather effect that darkens the sky, increasing the power of dark and ghost type moves.

If you finish the game and still want more content, you’re in luck, because it has a very meaty post-game. There are multiple quests you can undertake after becoming the champion, and while I won’t spoil them here, they’ll involve a lot of new environments, and tons of deltas and legendaries. So far, they haven’t been as difficult as the main campaign, either. And of course, there’s a battle frontier. I haven’t gotten far enough to open it yet, but it looks to have all the expected battle frontier modes, as well as rental factory, my favorite, so I’m pretty hyped.

All in all, this is a fun and challenging game, and I’ve had a blast exploring and taking down trainers. The plot is really convoluted and relatively dark, but if you don’t mind being confused, I definitely recommend this to anyone who wishes Pokemon games were harder, or had more quality of life features. If you’re curious about the deltas and new megas, hop on over to the wiki and give them a look, and see if you like them. I’m sure there will be at least a couple that stand out to you.

#saving... do not turn off power #pokemon insurgent

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in-class-daydreams · 3 years

Text

The Splash Zone - Tsukishima x Reader (Oneshot)

Jurassic World! AUPairing: Son of Park CEO!Tsukishima Kei x Mosasaur Trainer!Reader

- Word Count: ~9,000

- Genres: Fluff, angst

- CW: Mentions of death, objectification of main character, sexual harassment-

Mango’s Introduction: Tsukishima the younger is a bit… prickly. Don’t say that to his face, obviously, because he’s technically your boss, but for all his personality flaws, he’s definitely excellent at his job and he cares more about the people around him than he lets on. He’s snarky with that mosasaur trainer more than anyone else, but you can tell he’s sweet on her. I guess you could call it the adult equivalent of pulling a girl’s pigtails on the playground. Uh, don’t tell him I said that, he’s my boss too.

(A/N: For all of you who were interested in this series, y'all waited nearly a year for less than 10,000 words, and I apologize, haha. It's been sitting 95% finished all that time, but I moved onto some other projects because I wasn't confident in my writing abilities. After a year's worth of writing exercises via different projects, I'm now okay with putting this out for all of you. I hope my next few projects (AoT and KnY) knock your socks off, but for now, here's a little journey about following your own convictions, featuring our favorite salty blonde.)

Tsukishima had it all. Money, looks, brains, and sure, his personality could use a little work, but he wasn’t completely insufferable. Most of the time. But if you asked him, his sour attitude was hardly his fault. After all, he was the heir to a multi-trillion dollar theme park, so it’s not like there were any consequences for him talking to people the way he does. For all he cared, he could be as snarky as he liked, considering he didn’t work with many people that were willing to speak their mind to him.

“Bite me, Tsukki.”

Well, except for a certain mosasaur trainer that was really grating on his nerves. Said trainer sat across from him from her seat in his office, arms crossed and jaw tense. Tsukishima tapped his fingers on his desk.

“Are you done throwing a tantrum like a six-year-old?” he asked. (Y/N)’s hands balled in her lap. She kept her mouth shut, glowering at the desk in front of her to keep her temper under wraps.

The blonde rolled his eyes. About fifteen minutes ago, he watched her kick in the door to the employee lounge and make her way over to the mosasaur staff supervisor. All eyes were on her as she moved towards him with murderous intent rolling off of her in waves. While (Y/N) was the one with the most control over the aquatic dinosaur itself, the supervisor was the one who hired staff, had them trained, made their schedules, and completed the other overall administrative duties. Their position was a catch-all and they were meant to do the primary inspections that made the mosasaur shows run properly.

Company policy encouraged open communication between colleagues, of course. Jurassic World Theme Park prided itself on proficient employee cooperation, as per the employee handbook and what the marketing team insists they say. Tsukishima just wished (Y/N) had opened her statement with something a smidge more polite than, “Are there any grooves in your fucking brain or is it all just smooth in there?”

After that hell of a conversation starter, she and the supervisor verbally ripped into each other. If Kei hadn’t grabbed (Y/N) by the windbreaker and dragged her into his office, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they ended up ripping into each other physically, too. To her credit, (Y/N) most definitely won, but that would have been a bigger pain in his ass.

“(Y/N), you can’t speak like that to people you work with. I heard what you said about him keeping an eye on his interns, and that’s his business, not yours,” he sighed. It was too early for this crap, especially since his assistant called in sick and hadn’t made him his morning coffee, and there were a million things to do in preparation for the board meeting today. He had better things to do than settle this stupid argument.

(Y/N) looked at him with disbelief, “You think I went in there to yell at him for fun? You have no idea what happened, Kei, how are you already taking his side?”

Tsukishima looked into her fiery gaze for a moment. He leaned back, brushing down the front of his navy blue button-down.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“But it’s what you said,” she shot back.

He pursed his lips. “Alright, I’m sorry,” he muttered.

(Y/N)’s mouth dropped for a moment, then the corner quirked up ever-so-slightly, “What was that, Tsukki?”

“Just explain before I lose my patience,” he snapped. His ears felt hot.

She laughed, “Because you’re the picture of patience right now.”

“(Y/N).”

Although the anger in her posture returned, she was able to remain more composed than she had earlier.

“One of the interns came up to me about an hour ago to ask me about the coding for the hydraulic lift.” (Y/N) threw her hands up and leaned back in her chair, as if that was the answer to everything.

“I’ll need some more details than that.”

She groaned in frustration, “There’s the mosasaur tank and the stadium

surrounding it, yeah? And partway through the show, the hydraulic lift lowers the stadium to the underground viewing area, right? Well, for all that to happen, the codes on the control panel have to be specific,” her hands moved fervently as she got deeper into her explanation. “The codes never change, but every morning, the supervisor makes sure they’re correct and I double check before the show. If the codes are incorrect, the stadium might lift too fast, too slow, too much, or not at all.”

Kei nodded for her to continue, to which she gave a grateful nod before going back into rant mode.

“Interns don’t have clearance into that area. He gave her his fucking badge so she could go in and do the checks without him. She shouldn’t have been down there and she definitely shouldn’t have been checking the control panel. Look,” she ran a hand through her hair, “I don’t want to tell the guy how to do his job. If he wants to train the interns how to run the control panel, then fine, it’s not in my job description to police that. But that brand-new, inexperienced, fresh-out-of-college kid was all by herself down there doing that idiot’s job. She could have gotten hurt. She could have gotten other people hurt. It was her supervisor’s job to train her better and to take better care of his interns and if I don’t raise hell about this kind of stuff now, then who will? So fuck that guy, he deserved to get yelled at.”

(Y/N) heaved herself out of her chair, “And now that everyone thinks I’m a raving lunatic, I’m going back to my office to change. Try not to need me.”

As the son of the owner of Jurassic World Theme Park, Tsukishima Kei was raised to do two things: work with dinosaurs and obey his father. When he was younger, he thought he would get to work with the dinosaurs as a trainer, regulate their feeding schedules, train them, and educate the masses about the wonders of science. But he was wrong. The future his father had in store for him involved dinosaurs, yes, but more along the lines of determining the cost of developing a new dinosaur or what characteristics are interesting to the general public so that the park can turn a profit.

Several years ago, when his father originally had her brought to the island, Kei had been skeptical. Out of all the candidates for the mosasaur trainer, (Y/N) had been particularly young, but for some reason, his father was insistent that the new mosasaur trainer be her. (Y/N) later proved and continued to prove that she wasn’t just qualified, but born to work with the mosasaur, Dolly, she called her. She cared for her with a deep passion that transcended interspecies boundaries.

(Y/N) was amazing at her job, and it was unfair of Tsukishima not to hear her out initially. There was a fine line between teasing as a result of mutual pining and just being a dick, and it seemed like Kei had crossed that line.

(Y/N) knew he was coming. That was one of the things she really appreciated about Tsukishima. He was a snarky asshole who liked to rile her up, and in the beginning, he was garbage at apologies, but over time, they’d apologized to each other so often that he no longer dragged ass over it. Once he realized he was in the wrong, he would find her immediately.

Tsukishima let himself into (Y/N)’s office, where he found her and the raptor trainer in deep conversation.

“Kei! Seriously, I could’ve been changing!” she yelled. She’d told him a million times to knock before coming in, but he rarely listened.

“Don’t worry, even if you were, there’s nothing to see,” he said teasingly.

(Y/N) scowled, “You wouldn’t know.”

Tsukishima scoffed.

“Anyway, Hajime, what else did that guy say?” (Y/N) said.

Kei frowned at the two cups from Tiki Smoothie in front of them. He wondered if Iwaizumi had brought her one as a surprise or if she’d asked him to bring her one. Both possibilities put him in a bad mood. Supposedly, they were just close friends, but (Y/N) forced him to watch enough Hallmark movies for him to know the friends-to-lovers trope quite well. It ranked just below childhood friends-to-lovers and just above enemies-to-lovers. He must have been staring at those cups for some time, because by the time he zoned back in, Iwaizumi had already finished his explanation.

“--train the raptors for the battlefield,” Iwaizumi finished.

(Y/N) raised an irritated brow, “Like dogs?”

The raptor trainer shrugged, “Apparently.”

“Did you tell him that’s not how raptors work?” she asked.

“I didn’t bother. He-- Sorry,” Iwaizumi fished his ringing flip phone from his vest pocket. “I gotta go, (Y/N), I’ll tell you more at dinner later,” he said on his way out the door.

“Okay, but I wanna hear about your thing with that pretty P.O. Manager later!”

The taller man stopped and gripped the door frame in surprise.

“Wha-- There’s no ‘thing’!” Iwaizumi sputtered.

“Whatever keeps your blood pressure normal."

As (Y/N) waved her friend off, Tsukishima rested his weight on the back of the vacated chair.

“What was that all about?”

(Y/N) sighed, making her way over to the wardrobe next to the door.

“Some military guy had a talk with Hajime about using the raptors for war. He said they’re better than drones because they’re not hackable and blah blah blah.”

“Does he realize that-- what are you doing?!” Tsukishima choked when (Y/N) dropped her loose gym shorts. Underneath, she wore plain navy blue bikini bottoms.

“Relax, Kei, you’re the one who invited yourself into my office. Besides, it’s not like you haven’t seen a girl’s bare legs, right?” she teased as she stepped into her dive skin. The tall young man moved to sit behind the desk. Forcing down his blush, he took on a snarky tone once again.

“Obviously. I didn’t think you had time for that kind of thing, since you’ve been cooped up with Darby for the last few years.”

(Y/N) shook her wetsuit at him, “Her name is Dolly! It’s always been Dolly and you know it, you little shit!”

“Language, (Y/N),” he smirked. What would my father say if he knew you spoke to me like that?”

“Oh, trust me, Malfoy, your father knows exactly how I speak to you, and he couldn't care less,” she snarked, looking pleased with herself..

The teasing glint in Tsukishima’s eyes wavered at the comment, though he knew they shouldn’t have. ‘Don’t dish it if you can’t take it’ he always said. He knew his father loved him the way any man loves his son, but Kei’s rank in his father’s heart in relation to money had always been questionable.

“Sorry. Too much,” (Y/N) said quietly. She pulled up her dive skin and removed her windbreaker, revealing a matching bikini top.

“It’s not your fault,” the blonde mumbled back. (Y/N) made her way around the desk. Leaning her weight on the edge facing him, she said, “Really, I’m sorry. That was in bad taste.”

Tsukishima waved dismissively, “It’s fine, you didn’t mean it. Just caught me off guard… Actually, I came to apologize to you for earlier.”

She grimaced, “I’m sorry for freaking out so hard. I didn’t mean to make trouble for you the same day as a shareholders’ meeting.”

“You’d be okay with making trouble for me normally?”

“That a serious question?”

With a light chuckle he said, “Right, right. It’s fine... I’m sorry for not

hearing you out. For what it’s worth, that guy is as good as fired.”

“Fired!?” she yelped, making him jump. “Wait, you can’t fire him!”

“Actually, I can--”

“Fine. As his boss, you legally could fire him, but I’m saying don’t. One, we can easily get him to clean up his act. Two, his wife is preggers. Gregnant. Pregante.”

“I got it the first time.”

“Just making sure.”

Tsukishima huffed, holding back a smile, “Worrying about someone whose head you were about to bite off two hours ago. That’s just like you.”

There was a gentle knock at the door and Yamaguchi, a paleo-veterinary intern, poked his head through the doorway.

“(Y/N), are you ready for the show? We have 20 minutes until start time,” he informed her with a sweet smile.

“Yup!” She stuffed her arms through the tight neoprene sleeves, “Are you the specialist on standby this time, Yama?”

The shorter girl turned around and moved her hair to the side in a silent request. Standing to his full height, Tsukishima pinched the sides of her zipper with one hand and pulled the tab up with.

Yamaguchi couldn’t help but laugh. His two friends stopped, (Y/N) with her hands holding up her hair, Tsukishima with his hands tugging on her suit zipper.

“What’s so funny?” his childhood friend asked. Yamaguchi just shook his head and confirmed that, yes, he would be on medical standby for the upcoming show.

“Close the door when you leave, okay, Tsukki?” (Y/N) shot over her shoulder on the way out.

“Good luck with your show,” he said simply. She frowned in confusion. Before she could comment, Yamaguchi rushed her out the door.

“--near the surface of the water, where it preyed on anything it could sink its teeth into, including turtles, small fish, even smaller mosasaurs, but don’t worry, that’s not why Dolly here doesn’t have any siblings.”

The crowd chuckled. Tsukishima always enjoyed when (Y/N) did the demonstrations herself. The guides did the jobs they were contracted to do, and maybe it was that he already knew how much she loved Dolly, but whenever (Y/N) did it, it always felt less like a show and more like the introduction of a close friend of hers. That was the truth, after all.

“You see, when Dolly was born, I was the first thing she saw. This caused something called imprinting, and if I just made you think about that freaky Twilight baby, I’m so sorry.”

Another wave of laughter rippled through the crowd. “And what that means is, Dolly and I share a special bond. She feels a special connection to me that she doesn’t feel for any other creature on this planet. When she was growing up, we communicated with this,” she held up a silver whistle.

“You can’t hear these sounds, but Dolly can. She knows the sound of the whistle, and that makes her think, ‘Oh, that’s my handler! Yay, she’s gonna feed me!’ Which is something I thought whenever my mom called my name during my teenage years.”

“She’s entertaining, isn’t she?” one of his father’s associates commented. Rather than sitting in the wide open arena seats under the beating sun, Kei’s father, the elder Tsukishima, sat up in an air-conditioned glass box high above the regular seats. Today, a group of shareholders and potential investors were performing their monthly assessment of the park’s assets. After going to every single one of these meetings since he was twelve, Tsukishima was more or less used to these meetings, but he was getting irked by the way a particularly sweaty, sleazy-looking businessman two and a half times his age was staring not at the tank itself, but at the trainer on the platform above it. If it weren’t for his father, he would have nastily told all of them to never take even a single breath in her direction.

“The girl’s gotten real grown up since we first saw her,” the man said, rubbing his chin.

‘Don’t look at her like that,’ Kei growled internally.

“Good eye, Yamada-san. She just turned twenty-one,” his father replied.

‘But that doesn’t concern you,’ Kei thought.

“Really? She looks young, but she seems so mature for her age,” another dirty businessman observed.

“You always did like the young-looking ones, you creepy old man!” laughed Yamada. Tsukishima bit down on his tongue so hard he had to remind himself not to bite it off.

“Ah, yes, I took her age into account from the get-go,” Tsukishima-san said. “By nature, the mosasaurus would only accept one trainer, and I brought her to the island at such a young and impressionable age that she would only listen to me.”

“And then you have a safe way to control the dinosaur,” one of the shareholders concluded.

“Exactly. And you’re right, Yamada-san, she’s grown up to be quite attractive. Shame she ended up so strong-willed, else she might have made a quality match for my son. Perhaps if Kei here can reel her in, he’ll make a wife out of her yet, right, son?”

The younger Tsukishima’s skin crawled as every pair of eyes in the room landed on him. He could just imagine opening his mouth and ripping them all a new one. What would Yamada say if he called him out on his predatory behavior? Or he could say, ‘Ah, Mr. Kawasaki, how’s that custody battle with your wife going? I hear she’s winning because the kids would rather live with her. Oh, Chairman Yang, I didn’t see you there! Have you beaten that nasty gambling addiction of yours? Goodness, from the looks of those eye bags and how badly your ‘designer’ suit is frayed, my guess is no.”

But Kei can’t say any of those things. He has too much to lose, should he compromise his position as his father’s heir and future CEO. The blonde glanced briefly out the window at the smiling girl talking animatedly about her most treasured friend. He mentally sends her an apology for being unable to defend her yet again.

Kei grit his teeth and finally replies.

“Yes, father.”

If he were born as anyone else, he could romance her properly, instead of passing glances, not-so-subtle flirting, and raging sexual tension. They wouldn’t have had to play the whole ‘will we or won’t we?’ schtick. But he was still Tsukishima Kei. He was destined to take over his father’s company, and by design, his partner would have to attend board meetings and brunches and wine and cheese parties. Kei had no desire to drag (Y/N) into that kind of life, but what’s more, (Y/N) would never agree to it. At one time, he considered asking her about it. Ask her to consider making that sacrifice for him. But at the end of the day, he never did bring it up to her because he was scared of the answer he’d receive.

Her enthusiastic voice faded back into his consciousness, “Enough of me talking. Is everyone ready to meet Dolly?”

They all turned back to the window at the sound of (Y/N)’s voice.

The crowd cheered in affirmation.

“What was that? I can’t hear you?”

The cheers transitioned into a deafening roar.

“Alright, for those of you in the splash zone, expect to get soaked in about ten seconds and counting.”

(Y/N) pressed a button, and the feeder crane slowly moved to dangle a heavy shark over the mosasaurus tank. The trainer leaned against her platform’s railing. She put the whistle to her lips, but no one heard any sound.

“You hungry, girl?” she asked the tank. There was no prior indication of any movement before the leviathan reptilian dinosaur leapt out of the water and easily snatched up its prey with its rows of hundreds of teeth. Its great mass seemed to linger midair for what felt like forever before sliding back into the water with a giant splash that had the crowd squealing with delight.

“Hold on tight,” (Y/N) spoke up as the stands started lowering under the stadium, “We’re gonna get to take a little closer look at our girl, Dolly the Mosasaurus.”

“How was your meeting?” (Y/N) asked upon her arrival in Tsukishima’s own office, finally free of her restricting wetsuit and hair still wet from her shower. Not looking up from his paperwork, the blonde grunted, “Fine.”

(Y/N) smiled and sat on the edge of the desk beside him. Both hands came up to zip her windbreaker.

“That bad, huh?”

“You sit in a glass box for 45 minutes with a group of men over fifty, and tell me you had fun,” he grumbled. Giving him a sympathetic look, she slid off the desk to place her hands on his shoulders. She gently massaged the tension from them. Lately, Tsukishima Senior had been giving his son more responsibility to “prepare him to take over the company,” which would have been a more believable excuse if the older man wasn’t relaxing by the pool and golfing with his friends 4 days a week. Kei leaned into her touch.

‘You are nothing like your father, though, Kei,’ she internally mused. Dragging her hands down from his shoulders to clasp in front of him, she hugged him from behind. Soothed by her presence, he wondered if he even needed to tell her how he felt about her. It seemed like she already suspected. Though, if she already knew and wasn’t saying anything, what exactly were her feelings on the matter?

“Today was so tiring, Tsukki,” she rested her chin on top of his blonde head. “This family was asking me questions, but their two irritating ass kids kept climbing on the primary railings, and the mom got mad at me when I told them to knock it off! Like, do you want your kids to get chomped by a genetically engineered dinosaur, Brenda? Then, she asked for my manager, and I’m like, ‘Bitch, I will literally throw you in the damn tank! There, that’s my manager, you entitled piece of-- ughhh!!” (Y/N) buried her face in Tsukishima’s shoulder in frustration. “I hate customer service! Fuck her! Fuck them kids!”

“You said that to her?” he teased. Secretly, he was happy that she was tired today. A Tired (Y/N) meant a Sweet (Y/N), and after those creeps were leering at her in the box today, he was just glad she was somewhere he could keep an eye on her.

“Suck my dick, Kei, you know I wouldn’t actually say that. I still enjoy getting paychecks,” her words were muffled by his shoulder. ‘Sweet’ is a relative term for her.

“I’d pay good money to see you cuss someone out.”

“You would, wouldn’t you,” she replied.

Tsukishima desperately wanted to tell her how he felt. It was getting really irritating that they could do stuff like this, but he couldn’t tell those sweaty old men in the box today to keep their perverted stares off of her.

Tentatively, he turned his head towards her, lips ghosting along her jawline. His heart sped up as her fingers tightened into his dress shirt.

When his arm slid around her waist, she was like putty in his hands.

“You-- You’re kinda giving me mixed signals here, Kei,” she said breathlessly. The taller male placed his forehead against hers. His eyes stared down at her lips as he debated the long-term consequences of giving into his desires.

“I know,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”

(Y/N) brought her hand up to cup his face. They both leaned in slowly, as if moving any faster would ruin the tension.

“Don’t be…” she whispered.

The office door slammed open with a bang.

“Sir?” (Y/N) jumped back from him like she’d been burned.

“What?” he snapped at the intruder.

“Your father wants you and Miss (L/N) in a meeting right away.”

“Tsukishima-san, I don’t see why--”

“Of course you don’t, (Y/N),” Kei’s father cut her off, “You have a personal connection with the animal. That was the one oversight I made when I brought you to the island as a trainer.”

They sat in a boardroom, surrounding a large table with Tsukishima senior at one end, (Y/N) at the other, and the board members on either side. The blazing sunlight of Isla Nublar that shone in through the large floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side of the room contrasted heavily with the dark tension permeating throughout the room. Kei tapped his fingers against the table from his spot on his father’s right side.

Of all the ‘strategic investments’ his father made, this was definitely not one Kei could have predicted.

The girl took a deep breath, “With all due respect, sir, it can’t be a good idea to reinvent a new species of mosasaur. I think--”

“See, that’s the problem, sweetheart,” the sweaty man from before chimed in. “You’re not here to think, you’re here to look pretty, and to tell the dinosaur what to do.”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, Yamada.”

“I don’t appreciate your attitude, little girl,” he shot back.

Tsukishima Senior cut in, “Try to understand, (Y/N). The Indominus Rex has been a huge hit. The numbers say that these new hybrid dinosaurs are the next big thing. We can’t pass up an astronomical amount of money just so you can keep your pet.”

“My pet?” (Y/N) spat.

“Now, (Y/N), there’s no need to get hysterical.”

“Hysterical? My reaction is perfectly reasonable considering you want to euthanize the creature I’ve raised since birth, which, may I remind you, is something you people wanted me to do.”

“Doctor Wu and the rest of the genetics team is already engineering the genetics for a new mosasaur. Bigger, more teeth--”

“But they couldn’t engineer any more brain cells for all of you?!” she interjected.

“That’s enough!” CEO Tsukishima slammed his hand on the meeting table. “You’re like a daughter to me, (Y/N), but I won’t take this level of disrespect from you.”

(Y/N) rested her hands atop the table and leaned in, meeting his glare head-on.

“If you want to do anything to Dolly, you’ll need my help, and I will not do anything that can compromise her.”

“What a mouthy little thing,” one of the shareholders muttered.

“Give her to me, I’ll shut her up,” another said loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Tsukishima took a deep, stabilizing breath from beside his father.

“I chose you because I saw something in you. I never expected you to be this selfish,” the elder snapped, “You’re being unreasonable. Kei is barely older than you, and he understands that there’s profit to be made by replacing the damn dinosaur. Tell her, Kei.”

The room went silent. (Y/N) stared deeply into her friend’s golden brown eyes.

‘Don’t do this, Kei. They want you to become your father, but you are not your father. You are so much more.’

The younger Tsukishima felt like he was being crushed by an incredible weight. Whatever he did now, it would be nearly impossible to take back. If he chose her, his father may never forgive him. The problem was: If he chose his place as his father’s heir, would he ruin his relationship with (Y/N) forever? Which one of them could he live without? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them. His steady gaze met with (Y/N)’s intense stare. He hoped he sounded more sure than he felt.

“Yes, (Y/N). My father’s right.”

(Y/N) first looked surprised, then immensely disappointed. Realizing there was no one on her side, she sighed.

“I came to this island because I thought this company might be different. When you asked me to train the mosasaurus from birth, I was overjoyed at how much you cared for her development,” she made sure to stare into the soul of each and every dirty scoundrel in the room. “But I made a mistake, too. All of you are cowards. Selfish, soulless, money-grubbing cowards.” Blazing eyes finally landed on Kei’s wide golden brown ones. She aimed her final statement at him.

“Every last one of you.”

Kei’s heart squeezed so hard he thought his chest would collapse.

“Tsukishima-san!” a mousey-looking secretary burst into the boardroom. CEO Tsukishima clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“What is it now?” he snapped.

“It’s the Indominus! She’s escaped!”

Deafening alarms and flashing red lights resounded throughout the control room. Kei could barely hear his father barking orders to the security team. One of the technicians pulled up a giant map of the park on the main screen.

“She’s still on the outer edges of the park, but she’s moving fast, sir,” they said.

“Have the Asset Containment Unit get this thing under control. Make sure they use non-lethals.”

“Non-lethals!” (Y/N) yelled, outraged.

“We have 26 million dollars invested in that asset,” the elder Tsukishima growled.

Exasperated, (Y/N) threw her hands in the air. She avoided Kei’s eyes as she

turned and sprinted out of the control room.

Kei hesitated. Before he could chase after her, his father ordered him to stay put to help in the control room. Though it made him feel like he wanted to vomit, he obeyed.

Several hours passed and Tsukishima’s mind felt like it was at its breaking point. The monitors flashing red in the dimly lit control room strained his eyes to the point where he was convinced he’d need a stronger prescription after this. The beeping of the ACU team’s EKG monitors flatlining rang in his ears so loud he wished he would just go deaf. The Indominus was picking off their security team with ease, sometimes several members at a time. The young man rubbed at his temples.

“Tsukishima, we’re evacuating the rides on the outer edges at the park,” the lead Park Operations Assistant slid a map over to him. Taking a red marker, she circled a few attractions directly in the escaped dinosaur’s projected path.

“But I think these preparations insufficient,” she said, nervously twisting

the pen in her grip.

“We’d evacuate the whole park if it were up to me,” Tsukishima said under

his breath.

The assistant pursed her lips, “It’s a shame we’ll definitely be shut down

after this. You would have made a great CEO.”

“Are you flirting with me?” the blonde joked.

“Please, you’re so whipped for (Y/N) it hurts to look at you,” the assistant snorted in reply.

Before Tsukishima could make a snarky retort, both of their attentions were drawn to CEO Tsukishima, who had a large, middle aged man at his side.

“Kei, come over here!” the older man called.

Tsukishima handed the map back over to the assistant, “This is fine for now. If the situation escalates or if it doesn’t improve in an hour or so, close all the attractions on the west side of the park. I’ll be right back.”

The assistant grabbed his arm, “Tsukishima, that’s Vic Hoskins, the head of the private security force.”

“My father introduced us not long ago. What about him?”

“Commander Hoskins isn’t just a brute, he’s an ignorant one, and that makes him dangerous. If your father is listening to him, be careful.”

Tsukishima nodded gratefully.

“I will. I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t wait for the assistant’s reply before making his way to his father’s side, who pulled him off to the side. Hoskins had apparently taken his leave.

“The helicopter will be here in 10 minutes, make sure you’re at the helipad by then,” he told his son.

The younger Tsukishima’s eyes widened.

“What? Where are we going?” he asked.

His father turned to him, “Commander Hoskins has strongly advised us to get off the island. We can do our part in containing this crisis remotely.”

The younger man blanched, “We’re just going to leave? We still have people to evacuate, not to mention medical teams to coordinate, personnel to--”

CEO Tsukishima placed a hand on his son’s shoulder, “We can do all of these things remotely. Our first priority is maintaining our safety, and besides, the situation is in good hands with our employees here. It’s as good as contained.”

The CEO smiled and turned to leave. Kei didn’t move.

“Come on, Kei,” the older man urged.

Tsukishima took a deep breath.

“If the situation is ‘as good as contained,’ then why are we leaving the island?” he asked.

His father sighed, “I understand your concern, Kei, this is a safety issue--”

“So, you agree? You do think that evacuation is the correct safety measure?” Kei looked his father directly in his familiar amber eyes.

The elder shifted, “What are you implying, Kei?”

“I’m saying as long as we choose not to actively evacuate the island, we have a responsibility to our employees and to our guests to stay and control the situation the best we can.”

The flatlining EKG monitors were still ringing in his ears. If he left the island now, he’d never stop hearing the beeping of those monitors. They’d exist in his nightmares forever.

“Stay here, then, Kei,” his father’s voice broke him out of his thoughts.

He raised a brow, “Just me?”

“There’s no point to being in power if you refuse to reap the benefits of it. The helicopter is leaving soon. Join me, Kei. Don’t try to play hero when you’re not.”

(Y/N)’s face flashed in his mind. He couldn’t be sure where she ran off to after she left, but if he had to guess, it would have been to the main hall or to the infirmary to care for guests. Either way, she’d never dream of leaving the island with so much at stake. Neither could he, and the thought of leaving her behind made his answer clear.

“No, I’m not going. Have a safe flight.” He turned on his heel and marched back to the central console. To his horror, Asset Containment Unit Alpha had been almost entirely wiped out. Only 4 members of a 12-person team remained.

“They’re not gonna make it, Tsukishima, we need to tell them to pull back,” the P.O. Assistant insisted.

He nodded, “Do it.”

The woman quickly gave the order. “Has your father finally--”

“My father is vacating the island with the board members and other investors as we speak,” Tsukishima said.

“Why am I not--” the assistant’s phone went off. “Hello? ...You what?”

“What happened?”

She snapped her phone shut, “It’s--it’s Takeru, my nephew. He was visiting the park today, but my assistant says he got separated from her, and-- and--”

“Hey,” he grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t freak out. It’s not like you, and it won’t help.”

“You’re right,” she said shakily, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes. “I know I have work to do here, but I have to go find him, Tsukishima. I can’t--”

“I get it. Just go.”

The assistant nodded gratefully, sprinting out of the board room. As she

left, yet another assistant came for his attention and he was plunged back into the thick of things.

Meanwhile, (Y/N) stood at the doors of the underground lab. Her eyes were wild and her face flushed from exertion. The pristine, white lab was a stark contrast to the sweaty, panicked mob she passed by on her way here. It was as if the panic of the Indominus’s escape had no effect, save for the swarm of people in lab coats quickly packing up their equipment into thick armored suitcases. With the move in full swing, the lab doors were set wide open. In the chaos, she managed to slip into one of the adjoining storage rooms, where she found a large computer monitor. The bright blue screen was blinding in the dimly lit room. A profile displayed on the screen read “Indominus Rex.”

The young woman scrolled down the profile. She had to find out what the dinosaur was made of. The ACU would never survive without that information. They may not even survive with it. Finally, under the section titled “Genetic Makeup”, she found what she’s looking for. Before she could react to her findings, there was a sharp pain in the skill and she dropped to the ground unconscious.

Back in the control room, Kei gripped his cell phone tightly. Eighteen missed calls and (Y/N) still wouldn’t pick up. He couldn’t fight it anymore. He had a tech trace her cellphone and he hastily exited the room.

Once he left the building, Kei was greeted with what he expected hell looked like. There was a swarm of panicked park guests, sweaty and fearful. Several were injured from the sudden panic. Some had a haunted look in their eye that suggested they’d seen something that would haunt their nightmares for years to come. And where was his father? Safe on a helicopter, leaving all these people to fend for themselves simply because he could.

Kei was disgusted with himself. The Indominus had escaped hours ago. All this chaos could have been avoided by simply evacuating the park. But who cared about people’s lives when there was still profit to be made? Sure, he hadn’t actively supported his father’s selfishness, but he definitely didn’t object to it either. In all his indecision, ultimately, he was siding with his father. He was equally to blame for all this.

As Kei entered the underground tunnels, the screaming and cries of the panicked went silent. He realized he could hide away in the tunnels until the situation had blown over. Instead, Kei chose to press forward, knowing it wasn’t fair that he had that luxury.

The Mosasaur Stadium sat in the middle of the underground tunnels. From his view from the glass, Dolly, like her trainer, was nowhere to be found.

By the time Kei made it to the lab, it had been picked clean of equipment and personnel. All that remained were sterilized lab benches and pristine white walls. He found (Y/N) on the floor of an empty storage room. There was a nasty gash in the back of her head.

Kei kneeled and gently put two fingers to her pulse.

“Wake up!” he snapped at her. To his relief, her eyelids fluttered open. “Thank god. What the hell were you doing down here?”

“Ouch, my head,” she moaned. “I thought… the ACU… If they knew what the Indominus was made of…”

Kei nodded in understanding. He removed his tie to apply pressure to her wound.

“And? What is it?”

(Y/N) shook her head.

“I dunno. I think they hit me right as I saw.”

(Y/N) sat up, slowly regaining her strength.

“How much of the park has been evacuated?” she asked.

Kei checked his messages, “Almost everyone has been moved to secure locations or off the island completely.”

“What’s left?”

“The control room.”

She looked at him meaningfully and he nodded in agreement. Quickly dialing a number, he raised the phone to his ear.

“Evacuate the control room,” he said.

“Sir, are you sure?” the voice on the other end replied.

“Positive. I’ll take care of everything when I get there,” Kei reassured.

“...take care, sir,” the voice said reluctantly.

“You too.” Tsukishima ended the call and looked at (Y/N), who was already standing. She steadied herself against a wall, her balance wavered slightly, but her eyes were resolute.

“Let’s see what we can do.”

The underground tunnels were expansive. As the mosasaur trainer stalked down the hall ahead of him, Kei forced himself to speak up.

“I couldn’t, you know,” Tsukishima said.

“If you have to talk to me, say shit that makes sense,” (Y/N) snapped.

“My father. He wanted me to evacuate with him, but--”

“What? You could’ve gotten out of here! Do you have any idea how hard shit’s hit the fan?”

“I needed to know you were okay.”

(Y/N)’s expression softened for just a moment, then she ripped her gaze from his face. She retorted, “Why? You don’t seem to have a problem with hanging me out to dry.”

“(Y/N), I was--”

“Would you have left if not for me?” she demanded, stopping and facing him with her arms crossed.

It took Kei a minute to find an honest answer.

“No. I wouldn’t have. I’m rich, I’m an asshole, but I wouldn’t have left all these people. Not when I have the kind of clearance to help them, and especially not since all this is my fault.”

(Y/N) looked at him, bewildered.

“Your fault? How on Earth is this your fault?”

Kei shrugged, “I knew evacuation was the only safe bet, but I was too much of a coward to tell my father so. At least my father is blinded by money. Me, I don’t have an excuse.”

(Y/N) walked on silently for a while, opening her mouth a few times to speak, but shutting it each time. Eventually, she gave into the silence.

They came to the underground stadium, where the massive fiberglass panes housed the park’s biggest attraction.

(Y/N) placed her hand on the glass.

“Dolly… You okay, girl?”

Something enormous splashed into the water. When the bubbles cleared, there was Dolly, swimming around the bitten carcass of a pterosaur, as if she was celebrating her catch. The reptile’s handler smiled weakly.

“Good girl.”

“(Y/N).”

Tsukishima took her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him. His tired eyes met hers. The blonde watched as the only person who really mattered to him glared back with a look of sadness, frustration, and betrayal.

“You would have supported them?” she asked sharply.”

“Look, I’ve been trained to follow orders my whole life--”

“And I’m sorry for that. But you can unlearn what you’ve been taught, Kei. You know how much I love Dolly! You knew, and-- and,” she gripped his shirt. The trainer hung her head in defeat.

“I thought you weren’t like your father.”

“I’m not, I promise. I’m sorry,” he whispered. This was it. He had to tell her. If he didn’t do it now, he never would.

“(Y/N), I lo--”

“No!”

Kei looked stunned, “No?”

“No! Dammit, Kei, I can’t do this with you right now. First, this is not the time. Second, you stabbed me in the back, like, two hours ago!

“I said I was sorry!”

“I get that, Kei, but for important shit like this, sorry just isn’t good enough, okay? Now, let’s get to the control room and get this dinosaur under wraps, then maybe we can have this conversation.”

Tsukishima pursed his lips, “Okay. Okay, I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

(Y/N) kept walking down the corridor, “Don’t be. Let’s just deal with the situation at hand.” The trainer produced a flip phone from her pocket. The person she was calling picked up on the third ring and she put the call on speaker.

“(Y/N)!” the familiar voice called in relief.

“Yama! You’re still doing okay?” she asked. The line went quiet for a while,

“Yams?” Another pause before the intern responded, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

She and Tsukishima looked at each other, “Yama, what happened? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m not hurt, I just… Oh god, (Y/N), it’s Hinata,” Yamaguchi’s voice

cracked at the end.

(Y/N)’s breath caught in her throat, “What happened to Hinata?”

On the other end, she could hear Yamaguchi choking back a sob.

“He went to the aviary to check for survivors and I saw his vitals monitor. He’s flatlined, (Y/N), he’s dead.”

Tsukishima closed his eyes. The whole situation was snowballing so damn fast and there was so little anyone could do about it.

“No…” (Y/N) whispered, “Jesus, I’m sorry, Yama.”

“Me too,” he replied. Yamaguchi sniffled, then his voice stabilized, “Anyway, keep making your way to the control room. I’ll get into the database somehow and we’ll figure out how to stop this thing.”

“Got it. Please be-- ...careful,” she said softly.

“(Y/N)?”

She clutched her head, “It’s coming back to me now… Yamaguchi! The Indominus! I saw it on the database, could it be part raptor?”

On the other side, Yamagichi gasped, “They never let me see the file, but now that I think about it, it’s highly likely! I’ll contact Iwaizumi and see if there’s anything he can help with! Let me know if anything changes!”

“I will. Please be careful,” she begged.

“I will, and you, too, (Y/N). Tell Tsukki I love him.”

“I love you, too, Yamaguchi,” Kei replied. With that, the call clicked off.

(Y/N) inhaled deeply, “Hinata’s dead.”

“I heard.”

She shook her head, “Let’s just keep moving. I--”

Her eyes fixed on the tank where Dolly had just leapt out of the water for prey again. Bubbles flooded their view as the massive dinosaur crashed back down into her tank. (Y/N)’s mouth dropped open.

“Holy shit.”

“What is it?”

(Y/N) started sprinting down the corridor towards the control room, “I have an idea!”

‘You better know what you’re doing, (Y/N),’ Tsukishima thought. He paced the floor of the control room nervously as he waited for the signal.

Their plan was well underway, and it had gone surprisingly well, which was all the more reason for him to feel like something was going to go horribly wrong.

When (Y/N) originally told him what the plan was, his response was, “Fuck no,” but after Yamaguchi and Iwaizumi both agreed that it was their best bet, Kei relented, though not without voicing his displeasure extensively.

That girl was really lucky he L-worded her. Through the security monitors, he could see the T-Rex and the Raptors were tag-teaming the Indominus. They seemed to be making progress, but the whole group looked like they were losing steam.

The radio beside him crackled to life, making him jump.

“Kei? Can you hear me?” (Y/N)’s voice came through the machine.

“Loud and clear.”

“Okay, on my signal, cut the power to Security Fence 4.”

The button was red, marked with bold black letters, and had a plexiglass case over it. Kei pressed the “disable” button, making the screen read, ‘UNAUTHORIZED COMMAND: Please enter credentials.’ He typed, ‘Tsukishima Kei,’ placing his hand on the biometric scanner when prompted.

‘MANUAL OVERRIDE: Accepted

All the previously red buttons turned green.

“Okay. Ready when you are.”

“Good. Now, listen to me, Kei,” she said grimly, “You have to cut the power the moment I tell you to. The system has a backup generator that will kick in within 30 seconds. If it's electrified when we hit it, the jeep will explode and our whole plan is shot. That fence can NOT, I repeat, CAN NOT be electrified when I get there, do you understand?”

The male nodded weakly, then, realizing she couldn’t see him, said his affirmation aloud. The radio went quiet. On the screens, the Indominus dug it’s rows of razor sharp teeth into the T-Rex’s neck, throwing the creature as far as it would go. The T-Rex lay there and did not move.

The Indominus Rex roared in victory and went in for the kill. There was a bright flash of red further away as someone offscreen lit a flare. The light became brighter as the person neared (Y/N) and they tossed it into the jeep, catching the Indominus’s attention.

Turning away from it’s prize, the hybrid screeched in rage and took off towards the light. (Y/N) hopped out of the driver’s seat, placing something on the gas pedal and diving away from the vehicle.

‘It might be better if I stay in the jeep and drive it myself,’ he remembered her saying back in the control room.

‘Better for you dying. If the impact with the fence doesn’t kill you, you’ll either drown or Dolly will eat you,’ he’d snapped.

‘But what if--’

He cut her off, ‘But nothing. Put a brick on the gas and move out of the way. There’s no reason to put you in any further danger.’

Amazingly, Kei was the one who won that debate and that’s what brought them to the present moment, with (Y/N) scrambling up off the floor and sprinting out of the Indominus’s path.

The hybrid dinosaur sprinted after the jeep that was speeding towards the mosasaur tank. The distance between the two was closing at an alarming rate.

Just before the vehicle made contact with the security fence, the radio crackled to life, “Now, Kei!”

Tsukishima slammed the button.

‘SECURITY FENCE 4: Disabled’

Just before it made contact with the fence, the jeep’s metal frame crunched under the Indominus’s powerful jaws.

“Fuck!” Kei yelled at the sight. A few seconds later, the buttons turned back to red and the screen read, ‘SECURITY FENCE 4: Enabled.’

“Well, what now?” he yelled into the radio.

“Uh, I don’t--! Fuck-- I don’t know, I’m out of ideas!” she cried in response.

Having been given a break, one of the raptors jumped in, ready to finish the fight. The creature leapt into action to subdue the murderous hybrid, but with that size difference, she wouldn’t last long.

On the verge of panic, (Y/N) said, “If the jeep broke through the fence, Dolly would have noticed the prey, but the Indominus by itself hasn’t gotten her attention! She must be too deep!”

“Well, then, get her attention!” he shot back.

(Y/N) gasped, yanking her whistle out from inside her windbreaker, “Hold me up to the main PA.”

He reached over and jabbed the button.

(Y/N) looked up when she heard his voice over the speakers spread throughout the park, “Whenever you’re ready.”

As Kei keld the radio up to the PA, (Y/N) put her whistle to her lips and blew as hard as she could, the sound undetectable by human ears. They waited with baited breath as the Indominus flung the raptor aside, where the smaller reptile did not get up. The Indominus stopped and let out another bloodcurdling roar.

When nothing more happened, all Kei could think was, ‘We failed.’

Just then, quicker than Kei could comprehend, an incredible volume of water overtook his field of view. Water droplets obscured the CCTV cameras giving him a view of the action, and when they cleared, it took him a moment to register the massive aquatic dinosaur protruding halfway out of its paddock. It held the silver, spiny-backed hybrid in its ginormous maw of thousands of teeth. Crushed by a predator honed by millions of years of evolution, the Indominus writhed in pain and panic, but its struggle only opened more wounds in its flank. It screeched in pain or terror or frustration, Kei wasn’t sure. The only thing that mattered was the slick sound of Dolly sliding backwards into her enclosure, taking her prey with her. All that was left was dark purple blood, soaked pavement, a broken fence still sparking, and a crushed jeep.

“Holy shit,” Tsukishima whispered.

“Holy shit,” (Y/N) murmured in agreement before her knees gave out and she fell to the floor unconscious.

With the Indominus gone and the pterosaurs having been hunted down by the military, park guests were being reunited with their friends and family. Rescue teams were sent to canvas the park for survivors, though they were advised not to get too close to the mosasaur tank. Tsukishima shuddered, knowing that the mosasaurus was always fully capable of leaping halfway out of its tank, she simply chose not to, perhaps out of respect for (Y/N). If, by some miracle, the park survived, he’d have to enforce some serious regulations.

“Tsukishima-san?” one of the surviving guards came to collect him. Conveniently, Kei’s general demeanor kept him from flinching at being addressed the way he heard everyone address his father. The guard led him to a private section of the infirmary, where he saw (Y/N) sitting on a cot looking like she’d spent the last 10 hours in a ditch, though her injuries otherwise looked far from anything life threatening.

“Oh, relax, I’m fine,” she said when she saw the look on his face. “I just got myself all scratched up jumping out of the jeep. I’m not even that hurt.”

Kei scooped her up in his arms in relief.

“Okay, owie, owie, I’m not completely unharmed, stop, stop, stop,” she whined.

The tall male pulled back and stared down at her. The left side of her face has several cuts and she held an ice pack to her ribs on the same side. She had heavy bags under her eyes, but those same eyes shone with relief and delight now that the whole ordeal was over.

“I’d ask if you had brain damage, but you must’ve already had some to come up with such a reckless plan,” he scolded.

(Y/N) gaped at him, “Reckless? It worked! Don’t be mean, Kei, I did good today.”

“You would have done great today if you hadn’t come back to me injured.”

“Again, it worked, didn’t it?”

“I suppose,” he rolled his eyes. “But it would really do wonders for my blood pressure if the person I care about most didn’t have such self-destructive tendencies.”

She grinned at his choice of words, “What was that you called me just now?”

“Self-destructive.” Chuckling, he took her hand in his, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of it. “Are we gonna be okay?” he asked, not making eye contact with her.

Content, the girl smiled and nestled against her pillows. Her eyes slowly drifted shut.

“We’re gonna be just fine, Kei,” she replied. For a moment he thought she didn’t quite understand what he meant until she squeezed his hand gently. Tsukishima smiled in relief, squeezing her hand back.

“Kei?”

“Hmm?”

“I feel the same way.”

@delicious-peaches-blog

@unusproomnibusomnesprouno

@mac-the-oregonian

#tsukishima x reader #tsukishima kei #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x you

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