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wososcripts · 5 months

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I've Been Getting Lost in Translation (Part Two)

(these kits are god awful but you didn't hear that from me)

stina blackstenius x reader; part one can be found here

Summary: You finally get to meet your girlfriend’s parents, but you aren’t sure they’re aware the two of you are more than just friends.

A/N: Here's part two finally! I hope it's worth the wait for you all lol, make sure you read the first part as well as that author's note for clarity! As usual, nothing I write is intended to speculate or infringe upon player's personal lives, it's all 100% fiction and done in good fun.

Word Count: 4.5k

Warnings⚠️: very very slight mentions of anxiety and self-harm behaviors, but it really isn't featured here more than a passing mention

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You could feel Stina's eyes on you as you came down the stairs and joined the group in getting ready to go, you felt them on you in the car, and once you got to the skating rink. She never seemed to not be looking at you, sending worried little glances your way that you just couldn't interact with right now if you wanted to keep it together.

"Here are Linnéa's extra skates." Stina's mom held out a pair of ice skates for you to grab. "I'm not sure they'll fit, but Stina said you were around the same size as her sister… otherwise you can rent a pair here."

She gave you a warm smile and left you to try them on, already lacing up her own and taking off on the ice.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and cold with a thick layer of snow on the ground from a couple of days ago. And the rink was amazing. It was well maintained, but still had the feeling of a pond you'd have skated on as a child.

Stina's sister came to sit down next to you, explaining some of the quirks with the skates. You had to pull the laces hard to get them to fit in the clasps at the top before you could tie them, she showed you, yanking on your ankle a little roughly for your liking.

"Linnéa, be careful with her foot!" You heard Stina call from the ice.

Linnéa waved her off, turning to you.

"Does it hurt?"

You shook your head.

"That ankle is just a bit sensitive. I broke it in June."

"Well the laces being tight will make sure that doesn't happen again," she laughed, then glanced to make sure Stina wasn't looking at you two and said something lowly to you. "How is she doing in London? I mean she says everything is going well, but it's hard to know when we're not there to see her."

You smiled, genuinely for the first time in hours.

"She's doing great. Everyone loves her, she's been playing fantastic this season, she gets along well with the coach and the players. I really don't think there's anything for you to worry about."

"It's good that she has you and Amanda there. She seems reserved but without a few good people around her I know she gets lonely."

"What are you two slow pokes waiting for?" Stina's father skated by, gesturing for you to come on.

Linnéa followed him, starting a conversation with him in Swedish you could hardly grasp onto. How this family managed to speak so quickly, you were lost on.

You joined the rest of them on the ice, trying to ignore your poor mood from earlier. Moping around was no way to make a first impression. So you tried to suck it up and let the joy of the moment overtake you. You hadn't skated in years, having played in Italy for a bit before moving to London. There never seemed to be enough time, or good rinks close by. And when you were back in Germany you mostly wanted to see your family and Laura.

You ended up skating with Stina’s nephew, a boy around seven. He was already impressively steady on his skates, something you would not have been able to say at his age. But still, he held your hand and talked your ear off in Swedish you only partially understood.

"Did you come with aunt Stina?" He asked, to which you nodded.

"We play for the same football team in England." You explained in your slow Swedish.

"Did you come here on a plane?" You nodded again, smiling.

"We flew here yesterday, from London."

The boy considered you for a moment.

"You speak funny," he proclaimed, letting go of your hand, "watch what I can do!"

And with that he skated in front of you, circling around you playfully as you stood still. You grinned at him, giving a round of applause when he was done.

“Hey,” you heard Stina come up behind you, placing a hand on your shoulder as to not startle you.

You gave her a smile which she softly returned.

“What are you two up to?”

“He’s showing me his incredible skating skills,” You replied.

Stina’s nephew nodded and twirled around again, clearly looking for more praise.

Stina cheered him on, catching one of his hands and spinning him once more.

“Very impressive,” she praised, “Unfortunately we’ve got to go eat some lunch. It’s getting dark out.”

You looked up at the sky, having not realized that she was right, the sun was setting already. You checked your phone and saw it was barely one pm.

Stina’s nephew nodded and shot forward ahead of you two, rushing back to where his parents were.

“How are you doing?” Stina asked.

You could tell she was still unsettled by what had happened earlier in the bathroom by how careful she was with you, how she treated each interaction tentatively. You felt badly for making her worry, for turning this visit with her family into yet another stressful situation rather than the relaxing break you both needed.

“I’m doing all right.” You gave the hand on your shoulder a squeeze and started to skate in the direction of the exit, a little further away from her than you would normally.

You felt the distance seemingly in every stride you took, agonizing over your choice to move further from her. You were upset by the lack of any physical affection, and yet here you were removing even the chance that she might initiate it. It was self sabotage, you knew. Yet it was still difficult not to indulge in it. Whether she felt the distance as much as you did, you couldn’t know.

“Why does Aunt Stina’s friend speak so funny?” You heard Stina’s nephew ask his mother, to which you couldn’t help but chuckle as she scolded him lightly.

“She’s still learning Swedish, baby, she’s from Germany.”

“You’re from Germany?” The boy asked you once you were in front of him, skates in hand. He said it as if it were some far away land, not in the same continent.

You nodded and ruffled his hair a bit, giving him a smile. You sat down on the bench, unlacing your skates and indulging the boy as he asked you several questions about Germany and what it was like there. You noticed Stina had a firm watch on you as you started to take your left skate off—the one that Linnéa had tugged on. It was aching a bit, that was true. But you simply massaged it for a moment and stood up like you couldn't feel a thing.

“Thanks again for lending me the skates,” You said to Stina’s mother, giving them back carefully.

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The eight of you decided to eat at a small restaurant not far from the rink. Sunset was already in full force, vibrant orange and pink staining the sky around you.

Stina had borrowed her sister's car that morning, preferring not to be squished in the back seat all day. The drive over gave you a bit of privacy, which you spent in relative quiet, Stina's playlist playing softly through the car speakers. Her hand was on your thigh innocently, and every once in a while she glanced over. Maybe she expected you to say something. But you knew if you started now, you wouldn't be able to stop.

You were thankful for your sturdy sneakers as you stepped out of the car, a twinge in your ankle rippling up your leg. It was more sore than you would've expected, but nothing you were overly worried about. The doctor had warned you that some days might give you more trouble than others, and that was normal. You would just have to take care to ice it this evening before you went to bed.

And by the looks of it, Stina would be making sure you did anyway.

She was robbed of her chance to ask if it was bothering you by her nephew, who seemed to have taken a real liking to you. He came barreling at you, arms open for you to lift him up. You weren't all that tall, and he certainly had inherited his family's height, so lifting him was a bit complicated. Eventually the two of you decided on a piggy back after some awkward maneuvering.

"He likes you," Stina's brother commented, tickling his son lightly. "He's normally quite reserved around new adults."

You smiled at him, feeling your heart soar. This, this was what you wanted from the trip. You wanted Stina's family to love you, for her not to have to worry about you fitting in or being accepted.

"She's going to sit next to me!" The boy announced once the waiter had shown you to your booth.

"Do I need to be worried?" Stina joked, to which her nephew stuck out his tongue.

She returned the favor playfully.

"No need to fight, there's plenty of me to go around."

The booth wasn't all that big, which was how you explained Stina's closeness. Most of your right side was pressed right up against hers, something you initially tried to rectify, only to receive a strange look from her. You cursed yourself for how unsure you were being. You'd spent months like this before the two of you had started dating and it nearly drove you (and your teammates) crazy.

You let Stina order for you since she had been here before and she knew what you liked. The tiredness was beginning to hit you. It was dark outside now, and between skating for a few hours, entertaining a seven year old, and worrying over your relationship, you'd had quite the day. Thankfully you had ibuprofen in your bag in case of one of your headaches.

Whatever Stina had ordered you looked delicious when it came out. You dug in, realizing then how hungry you were. Usually you had a snack in between breakfast and lunch particularly on training days.

You were surprised to feel a hand on your knee a little while later. You were listening to a story her nephew was intently explaining to you as he colored in one of the books his mother brought for him, and suddenly it was there. It was something so completely normal you couldn't believe how much it shocked you. If anything, that was proof of how much you had gotten in your own head. Back home it would be impossible to imagine sitting next to Stina without her hand resting lightly on you somewhere. It helped ground her, she said.

But now, your thoughts were racing with every move she made. Stina's fingers drummed absentmindedly on your thigh, the rhythm of them distracting you slightly from her nephew. She didn't usually tap unless she was feeling fidgety, which meant she was anxious. Was Stina feeling something similar to what you were? Was it out of anxiety that she was keeping things secret? The idea of your relationship inspiring such emotions in your girlfriend made the lump in your throat that much bigger. Maybe she was picking up on your mood. Stina had always been very perceptive (because she spent so much time quietly watching, you often teased) and seemed to pick up on your moods without issue. But you’d been trying to hide this.

You caught her eye and sent her a quick smile. A piece of hair had fallen into her eyes and you wanted desperately to push it behind her ear as you normally would. But the gesture seemed too intimate now. It was as if you were in a glass cage, every move observed with the chance of exposing your feelings. But what was the problem in that, you asked yourself. You loved Stina, openly. Why were you letting this affect you so much?

Stina's sister declared that she wanted to do a bit of shopping after lunch, which the rest of the group was perfectly amicable to. It wasn’t all that late, and you’d get a chance to see the Christmas market all lit up. Stina's nephew certainly hadn't taken much convincing once Linnéa mentioned stopping at the toy store to look at something.

"Am I your favorite now?" Linnéa asked him, looking at you with a sly grin on her face.

"Yes!" The boy cried, smiling wide.

"You can't buy true connection, Linnéa," you teased, still helping to color.

"Can't buy connection." The boy repeated wisely. "I still like Stina's friend too."

You smiled and ruffled the boy's hair, suggesting quietly in his ear that you move to another page and make a drawing for Stina.

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Linnéa joined you and Stina in the car on the way back to their parent’s house, adding to the tension that had been building since the eight of you had gone shopping. Stina had stuck close to your side, and you’d done your best to act normally while keeping some distance. You needed to sort your head out, and being close to her wasn’t helping. Thankfully her nephew provided a good excuse to be tugged in all sorts of directions—he had decided you were his favorite once more, leaving Linnéa to hang behind with her siblings.

Once you had reached the Christmas market, after a short detour in the toy store where you had agreed to get matching dragon plushies for you and the young boy, each of you wandered off on your own. You, Stina’s brother, and her nephew headed first for the big tree that had been decorated in the square while the rest went to get something hot to drink. You had managed to sneak off under the guise of having to find the toilet, Stina’s brother covering for you if you needed. You wanted to get a small gift for Stina, something in addition to what you’d already purchased. Most of it was back in London since bringing it all on the plane was a hassle.

You’d found a perfect gift at a small stall tucked away near the edge of the market where an older woman was selling vintage jewelry. You picked through it slowly at first, not sure you would find anything. Most of it was too gaudy for Stina, and too impractical. But then you found a simple pendant with two stones in the middle—an amethyst and an opal, each of your birth stones, set in a complex circular pattern that reminded you a bit of some of the celtic designs Katie had shown you. You had purchased it immediately, no matter that it was overpriced.

Now you were sat listening to Linnéa’s music quietly as the three of you drove, trying not to nod off. You were unsuccessful, because the next thing you remembered was being jolted awake by Linnéa’s door falling shut. You heard Stina chuckle next to you and put a hand on your shoulder, likely amused by how suddenly you had shot up. You chuckled along with her and patted her hand, putting your coat back on to brave the cold once more.

“Is your ankle bothering you?” Stina asked you quietly as you all began to walk back to the house for dinner preparations.

You thought that you had been hiding the slight limp in your walk well, certainly nobody else had noticed, but nothing escaped your girlfriend apparently.

“Only a bit. I’ll ice it later and it’ll be fine tomorrow.”

“You should’ve said something if it was hurting, I told Linnea to be careful—” she was beginning to ramble, but you cut her off.

“Stina, it’s fine. I said I’m fine. I know what I can and cannot handle.”

It was a lie, and the both of you knew it. You were a stubborn bastard. Stina had been with you through your recovery, through every incident where you pushed yourself too hard only to have to face the consequences. She’d found you on the kitchen floor, comforted you after a physio session, seen you train with the team for the first time again. It was insulting to allege she didn’t know when too much was too much.

“Sorry,” You mumbled, already feeling bad for snapping at her. It wasn’t fair, she didn’t even know what was wrong and you were what? Punishing her?

“I just don’t want to see you hurt again. Do you know how horrible that was? To see you in that much pain?” Stina’s eyes were glossy with just the memory.

You weren’t sure what to say to that. You and Stina didn’t talk much about your injury and recovery. It was still too fresh, barely more than a couple months old. The crack of your ankle, the blood, her tears, her gentle shaking hands, it was all still at the front of your mind.

You were saved from having to formulate a response by Stina’s mother calling her to the kitchen. She left you, only looking back once to give you a slight smile, showing that the two of you were okay. But you knew the time to confront what was going on needed to come quickly.

You sat with Stina’s brother on the sofa and watched some Swedish Christmas program mindlessly. Mostly you were thinking about how to go about talking to Stina later. “Directness is key”, Laura's voice reminded you. You just had to say it, without blaming anyone. Just focus on yourself, your feelings.

It wasn't clear how long you sat there quietly before dozing off again, but Stina’s nephew was the one to wake you for dinner, doing so by climbing into your lap.

"It's dinner time." He said, poking at your shoulder.

You forced your eyes open, giving him a drowsy smile.

“Okay, Prinzi” you replied, picking him up off your lap so you could stand. He managed to hang on to your side though, and you ended up lifting him onto your hip anyway.

Fuck, you cursed silently as you noticed your ankle was even more tender than when you had fallen asleep. You’d have to check for bruising later and keep off it for the rest of the night. But still, you carried Stina’s nephew to the table with ease, setting him in his seat next to his mother who shot you a sheepish smile.

“Tired, aren’t you?” You heard a voice behind you, and then a gentle hand at your back.

It was Stina, who smelled of something sweet in the kitchen. You wanted to lean back into her and not move for the rest of the night. Instead you just nodded.

“Sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”

“You’ve been playing babysitter all day, that might be part of it.” She smiled.

You nodded in agreement, a smile on your face as well.

"You're so good with him," she whispered into your ear, "it's adorable."

You had caught her taking pictures of you with her nephew a couple times throughout the day, and now, as you briefly as her phone light up with notification, it seemed she had set one of them as her lockscreen.

"I try my best. He's a good kid."

"Well, he's in good hands."

Dinner was delicious, but relatively uneventful. After an entire day together everyone was happy to sit quietly and enjoy the food. Stina’s nephew joked with you a couple times, still wanting all of your attention, but even he seemed to be winding down for the night.

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After the table was cleared and the dishes had been washed (a task delegated to Stina’s brother this time), the group splintered off. Linnéa was going out to meet with a few friends, Stina’s brother and his family had to go home before it got too late, and Stina’s parents had settled in the living room. The two of you were welcome to join, they offered, for a nightcap. But it was clear that maybe you and Stina needed some alone time.

So you bid everyone good night, thanking them for a wonderful day, and giving Stina’s nephew a big hug goodbye (even though you would be seeing him the next day). You tried to prepare for what you knew was a difficult discussion coming your way. In and out, you tried to remind yourself.

“Go ahead, I’ll be in in a minute,” Stina told you when you reached the bedroom door.

You nodded, thankful for the extra minute to think. The room was quiet around you. You felt the quilt beneath your hands, taking another deep breath. You didn’t need to overthink this. It was simple. And Stina loved you, you reminded yourself.

There was a knock at the door, after which Stina slowly opened it and slipped inside. She had a bag of ice in her hands, presumably for your ankle. Already you felt tears spring to your eyes.

“Here, for your foot.”

She lifted your leg, grabbing a chair for you to prop it up on, and pressed the ice to it.

“So,” Stina paused, still standing before you, “What’s wrong?” You opened your mouth, but were cut off before you could say anything. “And don’t say it’s nothing, I can tell it isn’t. And I want to know, I want you to tell me, whatever it is.”

You chuckled internally at the similarity to Laura’s demand earlier. Stina knew you too well for you to hide from her either. That made your heart ache a little bit.

Your lack of response seemed to signal to Stina that you needed more convincing because she knelt down in front of you, taking your hands in hers.

“What were you doing in the bathroom earlier? Why did you look so upset? All day, I can see you trying to hide it, but I know you’re hiding something. It hurts me too, to see you like that. It’s like a thorn in my ribs.”

Your lip trembled, and you bit down hard on your cheek until you could feel blood in your mouth. It rushed onto your tongue, the metallic taste distracting you from the urge to cry. Stina had caught your gaze, and you couldn’t bring yourself to look away.

“Do your parents know we’re together?” Your voice held steady as you asked.

Whatever she had been expecting, it certainly wasn’t that. Stina let out an airy chuckle, looking relieved. You brought your gaze to the floor, eyes wetting rapidly, which Stina quickly noticed.

“Hey, hey, hey,” She brought a hand up to your face, brushing the hair away from it. She sat next to you, moving up from where she was kneeling, and pulled you into her. “Look at me.” She put a finger under your chin, drawing your gaze to hers. The sight of your eyes nearly broke her heart. She hadn’t seen your face crumple in on itself like this since you were injured. The idea that something she had done could have caused you pain like that made her feel indescribably awful.

“Of course they know, of course they do.”

You let out a sigh of relief, putting your head in your hands. You felt a hand on the back of your neck, rubbing the skin there tenderly.

“Then why have you been so…distant all day? And yesterday? This morning at breakfast, I couldn’t even hold your hand. It seemed like you didn’t want your family to see us together. I thought maybe you… I don’t know, that you were unsure of us, or afraid, or—”

“That’s not it, I promise,” she said, wiping a tear away that had fallen from your eye. Fuck, you hated crying this much. “It’s just odd for me to be affectionate in front of my parents. They never were very touchy with each other in front of us, so it just feels like some unspoken rule. And then when my brother married his wife, they were the same way. But I promise, tomorrow I’ll try—”

You shook your head. You could tell Stina was upset too now, and you didn't want that. That wasn't the point of this. Tears continued to stream from your eyes, and you continued to swipe harshly at them.

“No, no. It’s all right. I don’t need you to be affectionate in front of them, I understand. It just seemed strange when I didn’t know the reason. I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.”

Stina seemed at a loss for a moment, truly shocked. She pulled you into a kiss, pressing her lips firmly against yours once, twice, three times before pulling back.

“You’re in this house too. And we’re a team: you don’t just have to do things the way we do. I’m supposed to meet you in the middle, okay? We’re in a relationship—if something hurts you, or is important to you, I want to know.”

You nodded, squeezing her hand as a small thanks. The taste of blood trickled through your mouth, reminding you of the wound. You did your best to swallow it down.

“Come on, let’s get you into something more comfortable,” Stina said, helping you up.

She opened the dresser, looking for some of the pants you had brought. When she turned around, in her hands were a pair of grey sweats and one of her long sleeve Swedish national team shirts.

“Sit,” she requested, pointing at the bed.

You followed, sitting and allowing her to help you undress. It was totally non-sexual, Stina was wholly concerned in caring for you. Once you were dressed in the casual clothes she had picked out, Stina returned to your side, your ankle in her lap as she massaged the skin gently.

“Was that what made you think I hadn’t told them?”

“It seems silly… but I also overheard them talking to your aunt in the kitchen last night.” You took a breath, trying to banish the tears for good. “I know my Swedish isn’t that good, but I was doing my best to keep up, and they kept referring to me as your friend, your friend, Stina’s friend.”

Stina looked at you, confused.

“They did? What did they say?”

You did your best to repeat the word, cringing at your own pronunciation.

“Väninna?” She repeated, and you nodded. “Who told you that means friend?”

“Amanda.” you replied, “She said it was like a female friend.”

Stina shook her head, laughing.

“What?” You asked, a bit indignant.

“It does mean that. But it also means girlfriend. I don’t think Amanda thought you’d ever run into the word. It’s a bit old fashioned.” Stina explained.

“Oh…” you said, feeling very stupid, and very relieved.

“Come here,” Stina said, leaning back against the headrest and gesturing for you to settle against her. She grabbed the bag of ice on your foot and shifted it to lie comfortably again. “I’m sorry you had to go through the day thinking I’d invited you here under friendly pretenses.”

You could tell she was making fun of you, just a little, but that there was sincerity in her voice too. One of her hands crept under your shirt, resting comfortingly on your stomach.

“I hope you don’t treat all your friends like you did yesterday morning.” You replied, snuggling closer to her. For the first time in days your head wasn’t full of doubts, and you could relax wholly. You just wanted to enjoy her warmth around you. You had faith that tomorrow would be great, that you could finally enjoy your time here the way you were meant to.

She chuckled, hugging you closer to her and pressing a kiss to your upward-turned lips.

“No, definitely not. I usually have better decision making skills around most people.”

“I guess I’m just special then, huh?”

#hope you all enjoy !#and happy new years eve-ish #arsenal x reader #stina blackstenius #stina blackstenius x reader #woso community #woso imagine #woso fanfics #woso x reader #laura freigang #stina blackstenius imagine #my writing

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zilabee · 1 year

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Just stumbled on this brilliant post over on Meet The Beatles For Real. It's a german article in Bravo Magazine interviewing the women that worked at Apple. The wonderful keeper of mtbfr then typed the whole lot out and google translated it into english - all love to her for the wonderful work she does on that site.

I've not copied all of it over here, just my favourite bits... but that is most of the bits.

Janet Lumley - Kitchen maid (16) I have been cooking for the Beatles for half a year. It is fantastic. I cook just as carefully for the four of them as I do for my own family. John is the pickiest, he is vegetarian. Paul is the hungriest and has even brought his plate back to tell us how good it tasted to him.

Sally Burgess - Press Secretary (21) John, Paul, George and Ringo only have young, funny and talented people around and it flatters me to be a part of it. Although we work hard, the atmosphere is casual and fun, better than any other company in the world. And every day something new happens. You must learn to quickly adapt to any situation. Once however, it even became too much for me and I just crawled under my desk.

Debbie Wellum - Receptionist (20) I have decided that I have the most exciting Apple job. I have to catch all the teenagers who want to speak to my bosses. Recently, a group of Italian scouts were here, all of whom claimed to be cousins of George Harrison. But I didn’t fall for such a dirty trick. I wouldn’t trade in my bosses for anyone else in the world, even if they had really had so many cousins!

Sally Reed - Secretary (20) I've been a Beatle fan before I started here eight months ago. The four are no longer for me, but I've learned to respect them as businessmen and superiors. I work in the production department; the Beatles are always nice and easy going, even if everything else is wobbling around them. They have a professional attitude which is a very different attitude to these things than a normal human; sometimes I wish I could have some of that.

Dee Meehan - Assistant (25) I have to listen to all the tapes that are sent to the Beatles from people who want to make a career out of music. A tough job, but whoever has worked in the pop industry, knows what is going on, especially if you have the Beatles as bosses. Paul is the best; he always knows exactly what he wants. George and Ringo are always nice and polite, but sometimes John gets on my nerves. But he has improved a lot recently.

Amanda Hull - Tea cook (39) I am responsible for tea and coffee, which is used a lot with us, because Apple is a hospitable house. In a little chamber, I have a two burner stove, on which is always a pot of water and a pot of coffee standing. The tea is always fresh, otherwise it will be bitter. With Paul, I make sure that he does not get too much sugar. This is not good for his future children.

Linda Bristow - Assistant Publisher (22) I work for Apple music publishing. Of course I'm a Beatles fan, but I do not fall into a swoon every time they come through the door. Just to be a fan is not enough for a job at Apple. There is plenty to do and you have to know something too. But as for us, we are paid well and have the best bosses in the world. My favourite boss is George. He is for me the most beautiful thing. But I cannot tell him - because he would be pissed.

Carol Padden - Press Secretary (23) Of course, I'm a Beatles fan. Who isn’t? It's easy to work for such pleasant, young handsome men instead of old thick, bad-tempered men who are constantly, trying to flirt with you. Such a thing does not exist in the Beatles. I have never heard any girls complain that one of the Beatles had flirted with her!

Barbara Bennet - Secretary (24) My best experience with Apple was when Paul gave me a little Yorkshire terrier. He had heard me gushing to a colleague about this breed, and a few days later he had one in tow. But once when I visited my friend Colin Peterson the terrier ran into the city by himself. I never saw him again, although I'd put up a lot of ads.

#I love Sally Reed - “the four are no longer for me...”#(I love that she respects them as businessmen)#I love Sally Burgess - “I just crawled under my desk”#I love Dee Meehan - “John gets on my nerves”#I love Amanda Hull - “Apple is a hospitable house”#(I love her being weird about Paul)#everyone here is fantastic no criticism well done and long live #bravo magazine #the beatles #meet the beatles for real #beatles #apple

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dellalyra · 8 months

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Hello! Goodmorning/afternoon/evening! This is my first time sending a request to someone here in this app and i hope i'm doing it right:')) AGHGHH I'M NERVOUSS. But, i've always loved your family formations au and i always anticipate new chapters of it^^

For the past few hours i've been having brainrots of Itafushi and i miss them so much:'))

I'd like to see Megumi's reaction at Ozawa's confession abt Yuji in that restaurant. Would he be jealous or akward? Like, imagine him getting a bit shy to tell her Yuji and him are dating😖

You could write this when you're in the mood to write ff again^_^

I just love you and your stories so much^^

𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗮 𝗸𝘂𝗴𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗸𝗶’𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 - ꜰᴀᴍɪʟʏ ꜰᴏʀᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ʙᴏɴᴜꜱ

pixie says: this was just what i needed - some fluff and sweetness and itafushi in family formations goodness, ily nonnie <3

Megumi couldn’t help but scowl at a smirking Nobara.

She was seated beside him - both across from the tall, pretty brunette smiling sheepishly at them both.

“So, Fushiguro, you’re closest with Itadori. Does he have a girlfriend?” She said, arched eyebrow raised.

Little shit-stirrer.

He should have known it would be something like this when Ijichi turned the car around at her behest - she lived for the drama. Nobara’s logic probably went something along the lines of: oh, why tell this girl my best friend has a boyfriend when I could get his boyfriend here instead?

“I think you’d know best - considering how close you guys are, and how much time you spend together - does he have any photos of a girlfriend in his room? You seem to spend a lot of time in there.” Her pale pink nails drum on the table.

He tries to come up with a sharp retort - but flusters at Kugisaki’s insinuation.

He’s not quite sure how to respond.

He’s not exactly the type to say “Oh, Itadori? The boy I’ve been in love with for months? The boy who had his arm wrapped around my waist when I woke up this morning? Sorry, BITCH, he’s taken.”

Plus - the B-word (boyfriend, not bitch) had never come up. The revelation of mutual romantic interest was only several weeks old - Megumi hadn’t though of a label until now, it hadn’t seemed necessary.

So - what he settled on had Kugisaki snorting.

“No. Itadori doesn’t have a girlfriend.” H

He sure as shit wasn’t going to give this nightmare classmate beside him the satisfaction of seeing what she wants to see.

Jealousy.

Ozawa was pretty, very pretty in fact. Dainty features with a fantastic physique - pretty much exactly Itadori’s type in a person. Sure, he was tall too - and a lean physique came with the job as a sorcerer. He had delicate features too. Itadori said he loved his eyes - so that’s a point in his corner. He’s not sure if he has the big butt Itadori said he likes, but it’s gotta at least be toned from all the running he does with the dogs.

Ozawa however, she was soft. Smoother around the edges. No sullen nature or manical frenzies, no shadows (Ten or otherwise). Maybe, Yuuji would prefer…

No. Fushiguro Megumi was absolutely not going to allow that train of thought. He puts a pin in it by imagining what his mom and dad would say.

“Megumi! You are the son of the world’s strongest sorcerer, and underneath layers of sullen ‘oh I’m a grumpy teenager and I like weezer’ is a very sweet baby boy!” Says imaginary Gojo. Annoying even in fiction.

“You stop that right now young man! Do we need to do our morning affirmations? ‘Toru! Get me the mirror!” Imaginary Y/N announces.

During the time he zoned out - he hadn’t noticed Nobara making a phone call.

That was, until a large figure stood at the table.

“Kugisaki? What do you want?” His head snaps up - when the hell did Yuuji get here?

Ozawa was staring up at him with stars in her eyes.

Truth was, he couldn’t blame her. When Yuuji walked into the room - it always felt like the sun had come out on a rainy day, banishing all the cold and damp. The eternal warmth of his presence permeated through to even the most frigid parts of a persons soul until they could no longer imagine a world without Itadori. His smile was wide as he greeted Kugisaki, and his honey brown eyes looked like home.

Plus - Yuuji had always been toned - since he first saw him on the athletics field of his school he could easily see that, but the past (almost) year of sorcery training had filled him out even further. Biceps straining against the seams of his uniform - holding on for dear life (Yuuji refused to get a new uniform, he said the fact that Gojo-sensei designed it for him made him happy), plus - he’d grown too. Now standing at only an inch or two smaller than Megumi. Nobara had dragged him to her hairdresser too, insisting on a proper haircut because in her words ‘you might not look as bad if you don’t cut your hair with a kitchen scissors.” Megumi knew she just liked spending time with him, but he’d let her pretend.

Fuck, he loved that boy.

Silly, selfless, beautiful and brave boy.

Yuuji’s head turned to the other side of the table, eyes looking straight at Ozawa. Even Megumi - in all his possessiveness - hoped he’d recognise the girl.

“Oh, hey Ozawa!”

Thank every potential god.

“Hello, Itadori-kun.”

“It’s so good to see you! How have you been? Why are you in Tokyo? I see you’ve met my boyfriend, Megumi!” He rattles off as he squishes in beside Megumi, slipping an arm around his waist and ignoring a protesting Nobara.

Wait -

Boyfriend?

He introduced him as his boyfriend.

He smiled to himself. How very Yuuji - he didn’t even ask, didn’t need to. He was his, completely.

Who needs jealousy when you’ve got a boy like this?

“O-oh, boyfriend? Oh no - I’m very sorry, Fushiguro. I meant no offence.” Ozawa floundered.

Yuuji looked very confused.

Megumi just shrugged and nodded at the girl, muttering that it’s fine and she didn’t know - adding in the Kugisaki was a shit-stirrer.

Yuuji still looked confused. Megumi squeezed his hand under the table three times, a signal he’d copied from Y/N and Gojo. 3 squeezes means I love you, 4 means I love you too. He smiled at the table when he got 4 squeezes back.

Ozawa and Itadori caught up for a while, reminiscing about old times until eventually it was time to go, signalled by Yuuji forgetting his own strength and pulling Megumi by the hand out of the booth and rambling about Popcorn and Human Earthworms.

Megumi nodded, agreeing to go.

The things he did for this boy.

“You coming, Kugisaki?” Yuuji asks as they stand from the table.

“I’ll catch up with you guys.” She says, shooing them away.

“Okay! Bye Ozawa! It was really nice to see you!” Yuuji says, waving as he walked away.

Once they were sat in the movie theatre, Megumi looked at Yuuji.

He felt really grateful.

So, his long fingers found purchase on his boyfriends chin, turning his face toward him and pressing a soft kiss to his lips.

“Eh? What was that for?” Yuuji says, smiling and holding the hand.

“Can’t I kiss my boyfriend without the third degree?” Megumi smirked, and rejoiced in the flustered Yuuji.

“Of course you can! Here, do it again! So I can show you how okay it is!” Yuuji said, hair threading in Megumi’s thick black locks, and kissing him deeper.

They remained that way, soft kisses passing back and forth whilst the trailers played until a gagging sound came from beside them.

“Get a room, fucking hell. I’d expected more of you, Fushiguro.” Groaned the freshly arrived Kugisaki.

“Go to hell.”

“Shut up, ‘Bara!” Yuuji retorted.

“Where were you, anyway? Movies about to start.” Megumi asks, settling in with Yuuji’s arm around his shoulder.

“Exercising the power of my unending rizz. Wasn’t letting Ozawa leave the diner without a date for next weekend now, was I?” She smirked, wiggling her phone displaying the other girls Instagram.

“What about Zen’in? Are you suddenly not crazy about her?” Fushiguro questions.

“Well - a little jealousy never hurt anyone did it? Plus, Ozawa knows it’s for the pursuit of a certain girlboss martial artist - I reintroduce her to Yuuji, she helps me get Maki.” She shrugs, stealing a handful of popcorn.

“Why are you the way that you are?” Was all the two boys had to say in response to their cackling best friend.

Megumi had never been more glad that the King of Curses was the only complication in his relationship.

#family formations extras #jjk #gojo satoru #jjk x reader #gojo satoru x reader #gojo x reader #gojo fluff #dad!gojo #jujutsu kaisen megumi #itafushi #itadori x fushiguro #megumi fushiguro #megumi x yuuji #itafushi fluff

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johnnysuhbmarine · 3 months

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My Favorite English Line for each NCT Member

Okay, this is something that has been on my mind for a while, but I think I've finally sorted things out enough to finish the complete list, so now I'm sharing it with the world (cause ya know, to the world, nct)

Before we get started: this is my opinion, and not what I'm claiming to be their most iconic or best line (because then we all know what Jaehyun's would be and it has to do with queso), but these are just my favorite lines to listen to because they make me transcend or something.

Also, I did not include solo stuff when compiling this because otherwise, some line from Horizon would beat out every other Jaehyun line and that's too much personal bias to feel like including - I just really love Horizon.

Now, it's time to share my most ambitious project yet:

Taeil: "oh, your birthday" (make your day)

talk about transcending. him singing this is so pleasing I can't it's so soft and perfect I love Taeil.

Johnny: "ice on with no lights on, but you're still shining yeah" (faded in my last song)

you guys, you guys. the way he sings this is crazy. I love Johnny Suh

Taeyong: "multicolored diamonds like the rainbow yeah, yeah, yeah" (regular)

it's just so addicting I don't think you guys understand. especially with his little choreography, it's perfect

Yuta: "baby we go wild. 127 squad" (kick it)

nothing gets me pumped up like how this Yuta line gets me pumped up. it's so good. he's so good!!

Kun: "it was all out of my control but I really want you to know the truth" (on my youth english version)

the way this is sung, I could listen to it on repeat forever. fantastic job, Kun. wish I could give him a pat on the head for this.

Doyoung: "so stay" (promise you)

Doyoung biases don't come at me for my favorite line of his only being two words. Doyoung is my son, I love him with everything in me, and this is so soft and perfect of him that there's no way it couldn't be my favorite. he's the reason this song is so amazing.

Ten: "oh baby, give it to me" (baby don't stop)

yeah this absolutely raises me from the grave it's so aurally pleasing I can't even begin to describe it.

Jaehyun: "it's a cruel game, I cannot lose" (sit down!)

everyone go listen to this song right now I'm not even kidding. this Jaehyun line is so addicting and perfect and hot wow.

WinWin: "we should be together, you should know" (king of hearts)

I have ALWAYS loved this part, so finding my favorite english line for him was pretty easy because wow. what a pre-chorus this man gives us. thank you, WinWin.

Jungwoo: "hey, I see you" (ay-yo)

back to absolutely transcending this line is crazy. very good, Jungwoo. wow.

Mark: "skrrt pull up in the coupe beep beep. girl, I got your lovin' on repeat" (highway to heaven english version)

I actually cannot explain how much I love this line. my mom even listens to this song with me specifically because she also knows how FANTASTIC and addicting this part is.

Xiaojun: "can I be honest? I so hate to be controlled" (take off)

wow. everything about Xiaojun is just wow, including this line.

Hendery: "falling for a stranger, good gracious" (love talk english version)

you guys. you guys. it's the "good gracious." why is it so addicting and perfect? I love Hendery so much I cannot even begin to explain, but this line is surely one of the reasons why because wow. I am asexual, but when Hendery sings this...

Renjun: "I go round and around like a merry-go" (SOS)

again, if I was going for iconic, I would've put his bridge in ISTJ, but this line of his is so perfect and aurally pleasing that I physically couldn't not put it in this list. this one line is the reason I love SOS as much as I do.

Jeno: "you owe me sleep" (broken melodies)

CRIESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. that is all I have to say about that.

Haechan: "you see my hope was all but gone" (superhuman)

okay this one is a very iconic line but can I be blamed for it also being on my favorites list? no. because this line is the definition of transcendental. everything about it, including Haechan, is perfect.

Jaemin: "let it in my system" (poison)

this Jaemin line is crazy I really don't know what else to tell you.

YangYang: "she's a keeper, but I just can't keep her" (low low)

you guys. you know it's good when I pull out the "you guys" as my only coherent thought at first. YangYang eats here.

Chenle: "guess I finally get back to you" (broken melodies)

is my favorite line for my bias and bias wrecker in NCT Dream both from my favorite NCT Dream song? yes, but the fact that I am in love with how Chenle sings this line has nothing to do with the fact that it feeds into my delusions. I promise.

Jisung: "hate this distance cause I'm just left here singing" (broken melodies)

okay, Jisung isn't my bias nor bias wrecker but my favorite line of his still comes from Broken Melodies because NO ONE sings this part like he does and I have to make sure you all are aware of that. this line was made for Jisung.

Okay that- that's all twenty members. I have no clue what to do with myself now.

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dukeofriven · 11 months

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So I haven't watched Spy Kids for probably 20 years? It came out in 2001, I never saw in theatres, but my stepbrother had it on VHS. I remember watching it several times when my step-mum and father first started dating but never after they moved into a house together, which I think cannot have been any later than 2003. The podcast How Did This Get Made just got me to watch 2004's Sleepover staring Spy Kids' Alex Vega, and it had me going 'man, I should rewatch Spy Kids, a film I used to love—hell I should watch all the Spy Kids movies because I've only ever seen the first and Robert Rodriguez is a director whose work I want to dive into' and since its 2023, with a little bit of effort I can easily do that. (Also, I always thought, based on a vague knowledge of their similar poster design, that Spy Kids 3D and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl were the same movie, but apparently not! Also, Sharkboy et al. had a 2021 sequel? That was popular? And is getting its own sequel? Will have to investigate.) Thoughts on the opening ten minutes of my Spy Kids rewatch:

This production logo is so ugly it causes me physical pain. I hate this boy with his Kate Moss arms (Miraculous Ladybug arms, for you youngsters out there), his ugly beanie, and unbearable smirk.

Also, the telecine weave on the production logos is very noticeable, they're bouncing all over the place and it got me idly musing as to when more modern image stabilization techniques simply took that away. Not that we really noticed in 2001 because even with auto-tracking, gate-weave and other playback artifacts were just accepted as a given on your eight hundred pound convex CRT TV with 480 Ps of resolution that output enough radiation to kill grandma with a Jeopardy marathon. Do young people know about VHS tracking, auto or otherwise? Does the above paragraph make any sense to them at all? Do they know the pleasures of laying your hand on a still-warm television screen and having your whole body shiver as the static discharge runs through your unresistant flesh? Kids today with their big pants and their blue-tooth hula-hoops and their fancy PSPs just can't understand.

The opening shot of the movie is so under-exposed (or, more likely, over-exposed and then over-corrected in post) that Rodiguez's 'written and directed' credit is unreadable. You can see its blur to the right of the red 'FILM' there. It's so bad I thought there was something wrong with my copy so I... uh... found a new copy with a larger file size and it turns out that, nope, it actually just looks like that. Even in fancy 1080p this is just a terrible ærial shot. There's some fantastic shots and cuts in this film so to open with such a stinker is bizarre. Was it bad coverage that day, only one good shot in the can, did somebody fuck-up the film in the lab? I am curious.

Carla Gugino is so cute in this movie it's criminal. Not to be a lesbian but oh my god oh my fucking god. 12 year-old me was all about Carmen but adult me just wants 90 straight minutes of Carla Gugino in casualwear wandering around her lovely home smiling coyly. I would buy a BluRay player to own that movie on BluRay. I'd not picked-up that she played the mom on The Haunting of Hill House because she had long styled hair instead of this absolutely flawless textured pixie cut. 10/10, no notes.

I would like to spend an hour talking about the incredible tilework in that bathroom and nothing but the incredible tilework in that bathroom. I will update you if the film has any further shots of the incredible tilework in that bathroom but I fear it does not. As as an aside, kind of furious that this film was not more influential in the field of home decor. Two decades of effing shiplap and cold grey suburban blandness—what if we'd given up on bloated cookie cutter micro-mcmansion shitboxes and instead gone all-in on brightly coloured Andalusian rough plaster and stonework? What if we all had great tilework in our bathrooms, like the kitchen sink in Howl's Moving Castle?

You know what I mean, you depraved tile nerds.

I don't want you to think Antonio Banderas is not also a total smokeshow in this movie. Because boy howdy. He's a goddamn hunk.

There's a four-second long shot of Banderas flicking this ring box along the coping of the Eiffel Tower balustrade, and all I can think of how hard it was to get to get that box to stay in a straight line, how completely frictionless the box must be (did he shellac it?), and if his marriage prospects would have been ruined had it—in all rational likelihood—gone flying off the railing and smashed into the Champs de Mars.

You know you're in for a rollicking good time when the helicopter perfectly slices-off the stone heads of the two statues, but it's the padre giving the benediction while attack choppers go roaring over head that gives you chills.

A particular shout-out to this lovely unnamed bridesmaid on the left here who not only takes 'putting a parachute on the bride' in stride but looks gleeful and fabulous doing it. Where's her movie?

In 2001 we really thought computers were going to be cool and fun instead of machines that sold our personal lives to corporations and gave children crippling anxiety disorders.

Carla Gugino has a track built into the floor so that her vanity-computer chair can slide backwards across the room so she can have face-to-face chats with her husband. From this we learn two things: 1) she does this so often she's automated it for maximum efficiency, and 2) Banderos, in an ordinary desk chair, never attempts (or knows better than to attempt?) the reverse. To be continued?

#spy kids #spy kids rewatch #antonio banderas #carla gugino #robert rodriguez #alexa vega #shiplap #interior design #andalusia #tile work #howl's moving castle #miraculous ladybug #telecine #films #weddings #spies #kate moss

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bunbunbillion · 1 month

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THE BUNBUNBILLION Q1 2024 MEDIA THREAD EXTRAVAGANZA

i've been recording everything i consume for the past few months to do a media thread at the end of every quarter. and now april is over... so its time to talk about stuff!! forever!!!!!!

01/13 - Homestuck (Re-Read)

I finished re-reading Homestuck for the... 4th? 5th time? I've lost count. It's a good way to start the year though. This time around I read it with my girlfriend, who you should give all of your money too (@yinkybaginky), and it was very fun to see someones reaction to it for the first time. She knew literally nothing about Homestuck, not even what a Vriska Serket was. A truly great experience, especially thanks in part to the Unofficial Homestuck Collection. I'll probably have more to see about Homestuck in depth on a later date, so I won't bog down this post with that. It's my favorite piece of media ever, and that's all there is really to say on the matter.

01/24-01/25 - The Trolls Movies

I've been surrounded by gay people who love Trolls for the past like 5 years so I finally decided to give them a watch on a whim with my girlfriend, after catching some of the first movie in a streamers server.

They were fun! I really don't think I have much to say on them. They're kids movies, sure, but they're also just very visually great and made me go "yeah you know what some of those old pop songs WERE pretty good". I think when it came to stories I liked the first one the most just because I liked the Bergen's a lot, I thought their whole world was very well designed and all that. Don't have the most care for Branch, and Poppy is OK as a protagonist, but otherwise I had more fun with the other characters. Creature design is absolutely excellent and is what stood out to me the most of anything, though. The animation in the 3rd movie is also top notch, I really do want to see the series continue. If they do, I like the third movies approach of finding a niche to make "the thing" for the whole movie, it's a fun way of doing stuff.

We thought this shot was really funny.

1/20 - Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio

I was gonna watch this when it came out awhiiile ago, but just put it off forever. I saw Jacob Geller had uploaded a new video about Pinocchio, which talked about the movie and was like. Man. I wanna watch that video. Guess I'll go watch this entire movie. So I hopped into VC with Netflix on and just watched it.

It was Fucking Good!!!!!!!!!!! Every good thing you've heard about the movie is absolutely true. Do yourself a favor and just watch it. That being said, I also don't have too much to say about it! It's been a few months and it hasn't totally stuck around in my head, but that just means I get to rewatch it sometime, and I can look forward to that. It mostly made me want to watch more stop motion movies.

If I were to highlight anything, its that I love to make the movie all about death. Pinocchio as a story seems to constantly get turned into this thing all about freedom and living and how great life is and all that, but this movie completely nailed that yea. Pinocchio works so much better as a movie about death. A puppet living on a blessing against the laws of nature being used as a vessel to explore acceptance of death. It's really great.

the demons are such baddies btw

01/29 - Earthbound USA

Not the game, but the documentary put together by Jazzy Benson through Fangamer. It was absolutely fantastic. Easily my favorite game documentary I've ever watched... Because it's not really about the game.

To put into words, because I imagine 90% of people reading (not including the people I watched it with) haven't seen it or even heard of it, Earthbound USA is a documentary about specifically starmen.net and Earthbounds western fanbase.

The doc highlights basically every aspect of Earthbound in the west. They talk to the people who translated the game, who made the marketing campaign, the fans who bought the game day one, the translator of the MOTHER 3 fan translation, they talk about Earthbound Zero, about the virtual console releases, the quest to get MOTHER 3 officially localized and every single defeat that came with it, I mean Shigesato Itoi is just here too. It's everything you could ask for all combined with home videos from the early 2000s, an outstanding soundtrack that gives me goosebumps from Robbie Benson, it's just... So good.

I bought the DVD for the movie and streamed that to my friends, which you can get here on Fangamer, whenever they plan on restocking it at least. Or, you can watch it on streaming services listed on their website! If your a MOTHER fan, I'd say this is like, essential viewing. It may as well be official with how good it is.

01/29 - A Brief Retrospective of The Simpsons' Golden Age

I finished this the same day. I recorded this mostly as a joke, but hey if your insane and have watched every single Simpsons episode like me and want whats basically a Simpsons Summary Podcast, I recommend this 11-hour video.

youtube

02/06 - MOTHER

A week later I couldn't get Earthbound USA out of my head, so I decided to finally sit down and go where no MOTHER fan has gone before. To the first game in the series.

It was really really good. Like, man, I don't know why I slept on it so long just because it was an NES RPG. Ok, I mean, I know why I did, it's because it's a NES RPG, but still.

This game really highlights everything that went into its two sequels to make them so good, and has so many little unique novelties about it that make it just so so memorable. The music, the writing, the places you go, it's just... So, so good. I still think the best way to get into MOTHER is to start with Earthbound, just due to how approachable it is, but if you like it and/or MOTHER 3, do not sleep on MOTHER/Earthbound Beginnings. It's just so good.

Probably use an emulator with rewind or save-states though.

i'll be fine with not hearing magicants music anymore though

02/17 - Yakuza Kiwami 2

I started this game probably years ago, and never got that far. Yakuza 0 is definitely one of my favorite games ever, and I was kind of mixed on Yakuza Kiwami, but I was enjoying the start of Kiwami 2 for sure.

How did I feel by the end?

I mean it's not BAD, per say, it's just... Not very good, either. The gameplay never really felt like it evolved much, the writing really felt like it never picked up and just kept ADDING stuff, but at least the side quests were probably the absolute best the series has given me so far. That definitely saved it for me, but man the story. It just wasn't very good.

I had a lot more thoughts after playing it, but I think think in the end it just comes down to;

Ryuji did not get nearly enough time to shine to be an impactful villian

The bastard cop was a character I was given no reason to care for, and the focus put on him did not feel earned in any way

Kiryu really did not feel that involved with everything going on

Sayama did not get nearly enough agency in this story

As for the twists, I didn't like how many there were at first, but I think by the end there were just so many twists I was like. Yeah nvm this is so fucking stupid it owns. So good on them for that!

I don't think I'll ever replay the main story for this game, but I will absolutely come back to those side quests, they're so good I don't want to spoil a single one. I am also really enjoying Yakuza 3 so far, so that's a we might just be back regardless.

the selfie feature is really funny. you really feel like your some 40 year old dad.

02/22 - Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: The Hidden Treasures of Area Zero - Epilogue

I have a lot of thoughts on Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. I am a HUGE Pokemon freak, like omega huge freak levels of such. I will claw and bite tooth and nail defending Sword and Shield any fucking day of the week. I think Scarlet and Violet are like, painfully mid games in such a disheartening way. I still enjoyed a lot of it, but man it's so held back by... everything, really.

And the DLC fixed I'd say about none of it. In fact, I'd go as far to say the 2 DLC stories only highlight and strengthen every single problem scarvi has as a game and it disheartens me, so, so so much. Unlike the Sword and Shield epilogues, which expanded upon the best parts of the game and experimented with brand new formats as prep for the next generation, scarvi kinda just does. Nothing. It's more Scarlet and Violet, slime grease and all.

Kitakami is... Ok, I guess? It's an exceptionally uninteresting region with absolutely no landmarks that stand out in my mind. The story in it is pretty subpar, it's a really annoying kind of "player has no control over a misunderstanding" narrative in a really obnoxious way and by god I'll say it I never really get a reason to care about Kieran. He's not bad by any means, I mean he's just a kid, but really I don't feel like I'd ever call him a friend. The story with the Loyal Three and Ogrepon is really cute though, I do love that they completely flipped the story of Momotaro on its head in such a fun and unique way.

Blueberry Academy I was looking forward to much more, thinking that while Kitakami was really rushed and pretty bad, it must mean more resources were just put towards the second DLC. I was pretty wrong, it was basically just as under baked... But also still better, regardless. They introduce a lot of characters you won't really remember with this DLC, and it feels weird because it feels like there SHOULD be more to these characters, but it's all confined to a pretty short campaign.

The story is pretty ok, and I like what they did with Kieran here, but the second you beat him in the champion fight the story like, immediately halts the breaks and everything stops mattering. I really thought Drayton might've been set up as an interesting antagonist, someone subtly bullying Kieran and egging on how he is, but in the end he's just a well meaning friend who's just eccentric. All the other trainers basically disappear as well, and Kieran reverts back to how he was before all this for the most part. Then the story with Terapagos has to happen, and you get the return to Area Zero, except with your new friends you've barely built bonds with and Briar instead.

Similar to Drayton, I thought Briar might've been getting set up to be a bit fucked up. She's pretty obsessed with Area Zero and proving that Heath was right, and that feels like obvious easy set up for a villain right? Obsession is kind of the text book villain motive, especially in a series like Pokemon. But, no, like Drayton, Briar is actually exactly as she seems, and there's nothing underneath.

Unfortunetly, Area Zero itself was also not as interesting on revisit. I imagine it was the far lower budget, but it ends up mostly just being a very basic crystal-cave environment, without that really fascinating hollow-earth vibe Area Zero has in the base game. You're also mostly just traveling alone going on fetch quests to beat mini-boss Pokemon to open up gates, so that feeling of traveling an unknown place with friends is also completely lost. In the end, Terapagos isn't much of a character at all, like Ogrepon (or Miraidon/Koraidon) are, and is just kinda There. I'm sure the anime is doing a lot more with them, given they're a main character, but man they are NOTHING in this game and it's really disappointing with how incredibly hyped up they are.

In the end though, the thing I really came out loving with the second DLC was something I didn't actually know about until after finishing the epilogue, which was the brief interaction with the Professor in Kitakami once you have Terapagos. I won't spoil it, I'd recommend going to the crystal lake in Kitakami with Terapagos in your party to see it, but it was a moment where I was really like... Damn. This story really could've been something special.

NOW WITH ALL THAT OUT OF THE WAY, it was the Epilogue that I beat this year, which acts both as a bonus to the DLC, and a Mythical Pokemon event similar to ones from the DS games. And, I gotta say.

It's easily the best thing in the entire DLC, bar none.

Despite just being a revisit to Kitakami, the Epilogue is not only better written then both of the DLC chapters, but actually shows that promise for future games like the SWSH DLC did years ago. I had a smile on my face basically the entire time.

First off, hanging out with the three friends again after they basically disappear once you beat the game is so incredibly refreshing. Just having them over to your house is the first time in a Pokemon game I've actually felt that like... Oh, I'm a kid hanging out with my friends, kind of feeling. That original inspiration the Pokemon series had was just completely captured with that, and I love it, and it continues through the entire DLC. On top of that, the DLC does a lot of very small things with its cutscenes that I felt were really missing from the main game that actually completely caught me off guard. Seamless transition between overworld cutscenes, cinematic cutscenes, and battles mainly. It feels like Pokemon games have always struggled with taking you out of the story for loading screens or transitions or letting the player wander off or something. It's hard to immerse, but with this DLC just through the most simple methods they really catch you off guard with the cutscene framing and battle starts in a way I absolutely adore, especially since your with your friends who can actually Talk for you too. Helps that all of the writing is just really funny too, I had such a good time.

Overall, I think this is where I want the Pokemon series to go. The segment of Area Zero where you travel with all your friends already stood out to a lot of people, but didn't have the most writing to back it up. Similarly, this DLC has all of the writing, but it can feel like you aren't actually traveling with your friends, as they don't follow you. I think having a Pokemon game where you travel directly with other people in a bit of a party is the way to go with expanding on Pokemon as a series, and this DLC combined with base scarvi really proves How it can work. It makes me so excited to see where we can go from here, and I can only hope they learned from all these mistakes.

wow i had a fucking lot to say about scarlet and violet dlc and i didnt even mention this thing. whatever.

02/26 - Splatoon 3: Side Order

Funny story, I actually beat Splatoon 3 on a friends copy, but on my own switch, so when this DLC came out I ended up buying an entire new copy of Splatoon 3, with DLC, and an already completed save file. So was the DLC worth 80 bucks? I mean, no, not at all, but it was extremely good!!

It came out while I was out of town with my girlfriend, so we had a lot of fun playing it together, and I think it's just overall a genius idea for a Splatoon mode. It makes me like, viscerally crave an even bigger Splatoon roguelike, but I'm also like an extreme roguelike freak. The story was super cute (my big "I <3 PEARLINA" shirt notwithstanding) and basically everything it introduces is great. I haven't actually beaten the Agent 8 locker yet, because I'm Bad At Splatoon </3, but I everything else was just so good.

im actually extremely biased, btw

02/27 - Ponyo (Rewatch)

I rewatched Ponyo with my girlfriend while I was over for the first time since I was a wee little amoeba. It was so fucking cute!!!! I really do love Ghibli movies a lot. I don't think there's a lot I can say about Ponyo, per say, at least not as much as other Ghibli movies I love like Spirited Away (my fave movie evarr), but I think this movie combined with like. Finding Nemo, Animal Jam, and going to the Houston Aquarium combined are probably why I love marine biology so much now.

02/29 - Death Note

The anime, to be specific, for the first time. Yeah, I can see why this became such a big thing with fujoshis. I get it, I understand now. I'm sorry L, I didn't know your game.

Death Note is overall both an anime of its time, and an absolute classic you should be watching. It's engaging, it's dramatic, it's funny, and there's so many points where your just like "damn are they gonna bone" about the two characters the authors 100% had no intention to be seen in that way.

It's only real problems come from the authors also having no fucking clue what to do with women in the story, and making pretty annoyingly shallow characters that get sidelined really hard. The final arc is also a bit head scratching, but it makes for good drama, so I can't really complain, even if I remember a lot less of it. Great show, great ending. Where's my Misa & Rem yuri manga series.

he really is just fucking jeff the killer huh

02/29 - Promare

Watched this with my girlfriend on a whim, cus we wanted to watch a movie together. I've been a very lowkey TRIGGER studios fan since I was a kid, watching Kill la Kill when I was way too young to be watching shows that crazy boobed, but it did definitely contribute to my transgender-ness, so you can't fault it there (you can fault it for a lot of other things though). No matter what though, when TRIGGER just randomly came out with a full feature length movie released in theaters, I was pretty interested. Which is why I didn't watch it for years.

After watching it though? Yea, that was really fun. It's not much in the way of story, very basic Minority Allegory story I think, but it's all to make way for extremely crazy action scenes and homages to all their favorite mecha anime, which like, yea props they did a great job. Character design is extremely fun, environments are super colorful, animation is what you'd expect from TRIGGER (good), and there's a lot of man tits this time around. I recommend it!

03/04 - 2001: A Space Odyssey

I'll be so fucking honest I watched this on my phone on a plane ride and I don't fucking know anything that happened. I think it was good?? I think it made sense??? I really wanted to fall asleep but I really wanted to watch the movie. It felt like it was simultaneously 4 hours long and 30 minutes. I think I should probably watch it again. I don't know why I chose to watch it on a plane. But hey, I did!

watching this shit while half awake on a dark plane felt like i was in another fucking dimension. what the hell happened

03/08 - Fortnite Chapter 5: Season 1

Hey Fortnite, I play that game! Sometimes.

I've been pretty consistently "playing" Fortnite since Chapter 2: Season 5, and I do really like the game. I love the gameplay, I love all the stupid crossovers, I loved the story, it was just a really fun time!

Well, up until like half way through Chapter 3 at least. The problem with Fortnite is that, no matter what, in the end of the day, it's still owned by Epic Games, and that means at some point, shits gonna get sloppy. I won't go over my whole history with how I feel Fortnites been on a decline since Chapter 3, but I can at least say i was pretty fucking checked out most of Chapter 4. I really didn't like it.

So, coming back on for Chapter 5? Oh shit this game is actually fun I forgot. Played a shit ton that season, actually finished the main battle pass for once, had so much fun with all the new things they added, it really feels like Fortnites back.

Oh... and there's that LEGO mode... and that rockband mode... and there's racing I guess... I didn't really touch them much but they're neat... They were pushing those modes pretty hard, I hope this isn't a sign of something to come... I'm sure they'll keep up the momentum for the next season right? Battle Royale is totally back, right?

i ended up staying up till like the last day grinding in creative to get this emote. im so glad i can make perfect cell do the bird is the word dance now.

03/12 - King of Crusher

I beat this game over on my twitch, you can catch me live playing obscure games every so often each month!! Check it out and give me money! I said mostly everything I wanted to say about it on stream, but this game was just a really fascinating little art project that was both really frustrating and really funny to play. I really wanna find more little gems like this to play, it's so ODD but fun.

03/15 - Animal Crossing (Movie)

Watched this movie as apart of a movie night with my groupchat and it was adorables so cutes! I don't think there's really anything I COULD say about this movie, but it does really make me wish Nintendo was more willing to make more stuff like it. Just a really well animated fun anime movie that's not trying to be this big thing.

the ending caught me completely off fucking guard though

03/17 - Unpacking

Similar to Animal Crossing, I don't really have a lot to say about this game besides so cutes! The story told through the environment was super adorable and I really do think back to this game a lot in a very emotional way.

That being said, I wish it was a tad longer for how expensive it was, as great as the art was lol

If you can find it on sale though, go play it!!

i was playing with my girlfriend and we ended up interpreting the main character as really hating her boyfriend. my fucking Pig of a husband wont let me put my posters on the wall. my Pigly husband. i need to Kill my Meat Pig of a Husband.

03/17 - Pizza Tower (The Noise Update)

In complete tonal contrast to Unpacking, I beat the Noise Update in Pizza Tower right after. It was, like Pizza Tower, really good, but not without its flaws.

In the time since I've played Pizza Tower, I've reflected a lot on what I love about the game and what I honestly don't care much for. I've been playing demos since the very first public one, and I've loved watching it evolve, but if there's one bit of context I've gotten that shapes how I look at the game, it's that the games creator has a really big issue with having a lot of ideas for stuff, and not really thinking about how they fit in together.

Pizza Tower is like, a REALLY good game, don't get me wrong. The movement is borderline perfect, the level design is consistently fun and flows well, the graphics are unmatched in how expressive they are, the music is some of my fave from the entire medium, but if there's one thing really holding back Pizza Tower it's that lack of focus, and I think you can boil that down to the core game design of levels.

Pizza Tower is easy to compare to Wario Land, given that's its primary inspiration, but I think it's much more akin to Sonic, which is also a major inspiration for it. The problem is, it definitely tries to apply Wario Lands brand of "wario can be anything" to sonics "levels can be anything". Sonic levels are all about super quick flashy levels you can blast through, each one having a gimmick unique to the level that you learn, master, and then use throughout the multiple zones. On the other end, Wario Land presents you with these large winding interior-like levels that you slowly (or somewhat quickly in the case of entries like WL4), navigate and solve puzzles throughout for treasure, with your main solution typically landing on how Wario himself can be controlled using various gimmicks unique to him. Your presented a gimmick, and then you remember that gimmick for the future so you can use it to solve a future puzzle. In many ways, these two games can almost feel like the opposite kind of game, only linked by being sidescrolling platformers where you can bust through walls. Pizza Tower, despite that, tries to be both, and in many ways succeeds, but cant avoid the problems that inherently comes with trying to be these two very polar ends.

Basically, I just feel theres a lot of really forgettable levels and an overall problem with gimmicks getting absolutely no chance to be explored so you can never really be rewarded in basic play for mastering a gimmick, other then replaying a level multiple times. I think less gimmicks but more places to use the same ones would be really great.

Talking about the Noise update specifically, it was just a fun retake on the main game, and made for a fun replay after not playing Pizza Tower for about a year since release. I find it really fascinating how even after changing how the entire game controls, the levels still work with minimal changes. I'm looking forward to see if they decide to change it any more in the future, and I hope whatever comes after Pizza Tower can be a much more focused experience.

03/17 - Hiveswap Act 1 (Replay)

See; Homestuck Reread. Been here a billion times, here to show my girl this time. I'll probably scream about this one later. <3

03/20 - Rescue Shot

See; King of Crusher. Another stream game! This one I liked even more, though I Really wish I had a lightgun (or could fix the mouse controls on my emulator). Incredibly adorable game with insanely good music, check out the VOD if your interested!

03/25 - Super Mario Bros. (1993)

I feel like in recent time, people have been hyping up this movie as like, secretly a really good film that people only hate because it's not a Mario movie. I'll be real, after watching it for the first time, I don't see it at all, I think this is just an incredibly funny bad movie.

Beyond not being Mario, which really doesn't matter at all, it kind of just felt like a fever dream of a script. Things kept HAPPENING there wasn't a single second to break I felt like I was in a nightmare hell dimension being blasted with insane plot beats and I couldn't keep track of anything. Without the Mario branding this would be like 10x LESS comprehensible, but good lord.

Maybe this is like, an arthouse film, and I need to watch it 12 more times and be high at least half those times, but idk I think it might actually be bad guys. Big Bertha a baddie though.

03/29 - The Croods

Another movie night with friends, we got the PRIVILEGE of watching The Croods. I saw it once when I was a kid, but I didn't really remember anything about it other then there was a character named Grug.

I now realize that the reason I remember this character is because this movie literally lied and he's the main character. It really tries to set up that the conventionally attractive main teenage girl is the protagonist but no this movie is 100% about Grug and it's so fucking Particular. Why pretend it's not about him when he becomes our sole point of view for half the film? Why pretend its about the teenage girl when she basically doesn't have any dialogue for the last 25% of the movie? What is this movie trying to say, politically? This movies a thinker. I think its a bigger thinker then 2001, honestly.

04/12 - Police Story

The first Jackie Chan movie I've ever seen and damn what a fucking good one to start with. Insanely entertaining, incredibly funny, and just a really great film! I don't think I have much else to say about it other then gush about each and every scene and how well made it is, but it really makes me wish we could get movies like this more. Just a practical effect wonderland where the main guy is just having fun with people on set. It's great.

hes kind of a babygirl

04/13 - Con Air

Actually the first time I've seen this movie, surprisingly, given my attachment to the media that has essentially co-opted this film. It wasn't good, like at all, but it was very very entertaining with friends. I didn't expect it to get so much into like, weird racism stuff?? Characters just keep appearing and getting named it's so fucking weird. What was the deal with Steve Buscemi's character, I feel like scenes were cut or something. Nick Cage was incredibly funny as the lead. It's the thing you watch with friends on 4/13, what else can I say.

why did he do this

04/19 - The Princess Bride

Honestly, I thought this one was a rewatch when we put it on in the GC, but I think I just remembered watching clips of it or seeing half of it on TV as a kid, so I'll just consider this a first time watch. It's really good! Just a fun simple movie full of extremely witty jokes. It's kind of like watching a Simpsons episode for the first time and getting to a part where they say something and you go "oh i've heard this quoted like a fucking million times, i get it now". If you haven't seen this movie, whattarya doin, go watch it!

i feel like were it not for andre being basically irreplaceable we would have a netflix reboot about these three right now. maybe that does exist already.

04/21 - PokeRogue

Half this thread is Pokemon and as I already said, I'm a roguelike freak. This game is like crack for me. That being said it's just alright. I think I'll be willing to judge it more once it's more finished and not just Pokemon in the most barebones form imaginable, coding wise. It's the basis for an extremely addicting game, and I plan on sinking even more hours into it soon. Extra points for using PMD music as well <3

im only just now finding out the rival is gendered. hey cunts let me play as a girl and get the girl rival or you hate me ok?

04/22 - The Mask (2023)

Now you may be wondering, The Mask? The movie from ten TRILLION years ago staring the homunculi known only as Jim Carrey? You'd be a fool to assume this. I am talking instead about Connor O' Malley's current best work, THAT The Mask.

There's not much I want to say about it, because I just think it's good, but if there's one thing I can say it's that Joker (2019) should be fucking embarrassed in how hard it was stood up by this short film.

Content warning for pretty heavy themes and a lot of crass jokes.

youtube

04/23 - Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) & Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) (Rewatch)

In preparation for the Knuckles show (which I still haven't finished), I decided it'd be nice to rewatch these two films for the first time. I haven't seen the first one since I watched it for the first time before Sonic 2, and I haven't seen Sonic 2 since I saw it at an early screening. What do I think of them now in retrospect?

Yeah, not very good films. Very fun! But damn, yea wow, I think with enough time to look back on them, there's a lot I really don't care for in them, and I'm not just talking about the human scenes.

I've been having a lot of conversations about adaptations lately, so I'll mostly summarize my thoughts here. In making an adaptation, your one mission in my eyes is maintaining what made the original loved. Not good, because that's not really a quantifiable thing. Not faithfully, because I feel you can make a good adaptation without being faithful. All you need to truly keep is the Reason people came to that piece of media originally, in my eyes. Whether that means going as hard as you can with something like The Last of Us, which essentially 1 to 1 recreates an entire video game, or be much more out there like with One Piece (Netflix), which essentially tells the same story but with wildly different circumstance and aesthetic.

The Sonic movies, in my eyes, simply don't capture that. In the first movie alone, Sonic and Eggman are essentially our only ties to the games, which is fine as long as they can nail them right, right? And, as many before me have really pointed out, no they don't really at all. Sonic isn't really like Sonic at all, he's a much younger, innocent, and hyperactive "version" of the character, and I say version in quotations because I don't really feel like with those adjectives removed he'd be all that similar to Sonic still. This is basically a new character, and that's fine, but I'd be hard pressed to say it captures what brought people to Sonic. Similarly, Eggman is very much not really similar to any iteration to Eggman at all (except maybe AoSTH?) A lot of people love Jim Carrey Eggman, and I totally get why, but man he really has never clicked with me. I think I like canon Eggman too much to let go, it's over for me.

But I'm sure anyone who's been around Sonic long enough has heard a trillion complaints about the first movie. In rewatching the second movie, I found that it moved way faster then I remembered, and just had way less.. character? Tails is so incredibly shoehorned in, which is a common complaint, but it really felt like at times Sonic was too?

In Sonic games, Sonic isn't exactly a character we put ourselves in the shoes of. Sonic is like this cool older brother we're just along with for the ride. If anything we insert ourselves (as kids) in Tails' shoes. Sonic doesn't really have an internal monologue, nor does he really tend to need a big shonen arc to overcome in his games. He's very much this vessel to explore other characters, to see how people respond to his brash and cocky personality. In that way, Sonic works really well, but can struggle really hard when he's placed all alone. He needs people to not only bounce off of, but to do the emotional side of the story in his stead. With the Sonic movies, we get this very very diffrent form of Sonic being put into this scenarios the canon Sonic wouldn't typiclaly find himself in, and see how he acts. It can work for original stories, because it's basically an original character, but that's the struggle with Sonic 2, and I worry Sonic 3 as well. They aren't fully original stories. Sonic 2 is a loose adaptation of Sonic 3 in most ways, with Knuckles being the true second character, and Tails being mostly to the side. Knuckles acts basically perfectly, like yea that's Knuckles, no notes there outside of maybe not taking his heritage seriously enough, but that's him. So how do you write this movie sonic into this adaptation with a Knuckles whos playing it basically straight like the games? Well... I mean, you kind of just... You, don't, really? Sonic is really just There sometimes, to say quips and to move the story forward. With exception to the scene where he's having a feeling jam with Knux, which I like, Sonic is very much Just There, and it feels really odd. In the games, this works because of his aforementioned status as this guy your along with for the ride, a dude whos too cool to even be the protagonist, but Sonic Movie Sonic IS the protagonist. He's meek and still learning and is far from the asshole we know in the games and comics, but implanted into a games storyline, he just doesn't have much he can do. He can't be that too cool guy that let's his friends do the talking, because he's already been set up as this superhero esque main guy who needs to learn a lesson by the end of the film, or overcome some kind of arc. It's just all odd in retrospect, and I really wonder how they're gonna tackle it in Sonic 3, especially without all the characters that make Sonic Adventure 2s gears go.

i also couldnt stop staring at his teeth in the movie. i really dont like the teeth idk why im just now noticing them.

04/25 - Pseudoregalia

Knocked this game off my backlog and I'm really happy I did! Beat the game with all the time trials done and I really do love it. I want to call it the perfect length, but really I think it was just a bit too short and I hope we can get more content in the future, I'm definitely itching for more levels and maybe even more time trials.

I can't think of much else to say about the game. I don't think I picked up on the story much at all, I'll probably have to ask my girlfriend about it sometime, but it's not exactly a big part of the game. The music was absolutely fantastic, and I adore all of the costumes for the main character. I like her design, for many obvious reasons.

For further criticism besides length though, combat feels pretty useless. There's really no point in the game where I ever feel like I have to or even SHOULD fight, and the final boss ends up losing a lot of impact because of it. Enemies just become a hazard in navigating the world in a way that isn't particularly fun. Similarly, there were a few upgrades that had maybe one use ever and I don't even know why they're there. I think this game could benefit a lot from playing even harder into it's all too obvious inspirations and just getting a bunch of RPG mechanics and more RPG inspired elements in here. Give me Symphony of the Bunny-Cat-Goatgirl, full on.

I also watched madagascar 2 with friends, but i don't even feel like counting it. watch this fucked up compressed video instead.

THAT'S IT FOR Q1 2024!! I'm really trying to look at a lot this year, and I hope to have EVEN MORE TO TALK ABOUT in 4 months! maybe ill do it even earlier because damn this was a fucking lot to write. If you read this far thank you, I'll be sending you a giant mettalic muscular butler sir in the mail as thanks.

#bunny post #2024 media thread #Youtube

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draconscious · 3 months

Text

NAME : dan!!

PRONOUNS : he/him

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION : tumblr im. discord. passenger pigeon. I'm very slow sometimes but you should plot with me!!

NAME OF MUSE(s) : clair, cynthia, barry, jupiter/eris + so many mooore (how did it come to this? LMAO)

BEST EXPERIENCE(S) : dedicating this section to both ash (@analuein) and aya (@distortsverity)! ash and I have been writing together for infinity years right here on tumblr. no matter the muse, it's always a blast spinning up plots and watching the magic unfold from there with her. from thorton to violet, to noland and clair. from wildencounters to indie. it's been a fantastic ride. day one. 😎

I transitioned from group rp to indie a few years ago and--at the time--I was all alone. I had no connections, just a lonely barry blog to my name. I wrote drabbles by myself in the dark for two weeks until aya came across my blog with her hikari, and everything just clicked. aya made me feel included, reached out with ideas, plots and feedback, and showed love to barry and all of my muse(s)--and to this day, I still feel TREMENDOUSLY grateful for the helping hand when I felt so isolated. I definitely would not still be writing here without her.

since then, I've had an amazing time here. writing with so many different people, muses, and groups--it's all so good. my best experiences happen when I'm writing (or even plotting) with someone, and everything just works, flows, and fits together and I can just feel that shared excitement. that feeling that we're building a great story together. that's magical. that's why I'm still around, trying new muses, diving headlong into amazing plots/dynamics, letting my imagination run wild, and--as always--writing a lot. much love to EVERYONE who has helped keep that fire burning over the years, but especially ash and aya for giving that flame a chance in the first place. tysm. ❤️

RP PET PEEVES / DEALBREAKERS : it's been said, but--on a personal level--I wish private communication would happen more, specifically when it comes to interest levels. my time is becoming more and more limited here (sad as that is) and I have always written at a slower, longer pace. so, given how fast this place moves, I would appreciate knowing if a thread has grown stale, or if something's off.

I'm flexible. I'd like to think that I'm pretty laid-back. I want you to have fun, and you need to drop or backburner our thread because life, interest, etc. that's okay. I promise. I also don't mind reminders about cold threads or overdue replies on my end. if that's the case, please let me know right away, and I'll pick it back up or let you know my thoughts. we can try new things, or not. just let me know what you'd like to do, and we can adjust from there. that being said, lack of time or muse =/= lack of interest. I get that. you never need to rush a reply with me, and I will always (for better or worse) assume interest is still there unless told otherwise by you. I'm no herlock sholmes. (I wish I was...)

so, as a courtesy, I'd ask to please talk to me if something's wrong. if you feel the need to drop our thread or aren't interested in an interaction and/or want to start fresh. I won't be upset (quote me on that.) I just want to make sure that the writing vibes are still good, and I want to spend my time here writing things that you (and others) are still into. and in the end, it's not really a big deal--this place is great and I adore my past/present/future thread partners--but it's something that I would appreciate!

(also since I haven't made it clear before: no AI with me, please. let's meet at the same level.)

MUSE PREFERENCES: strong women and brash, sunshiney dudes. (I'll really try anyone, but I certainly have types 😊)

PLOTS OR MEMES : whatever's easier for you to get in the door with--c'mon in!! I don't find myself with the time to reblog many memes lately, but my inbox/IMs are always open for spot interactions, and I'll do a lil' starter call here and there!!

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES : I don't mind receiving either, but I always tend to lose myself in the sauce and write a lot oops. you never have to match my length. as long as we're writing together, that's chill enough for me!

BEST TIME TO WRITE : my healthcare job is killing me. I'll try to sneak on for some stuff here and there, but I'm most active during evening/nighttime CST US. confirmed night time scrawler. 🦉

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S) : some common threads linking all of my muses to me is the fact that we always want to be active, we have (too) high expectations of ourselves, we grew up and are still growing up, and we spend too much time working (and loathe it LMAO)

#ooc #(got carried away but this just felt super good 🥰 tldr lets keep having fun!!)

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getvalentined · 11 months

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How is Pillowfort these days? I joined back in 2017 but decided Tumblr was still usable so I haven’t touched it since.

I'm not gonna be one of those people who overhypes PillowFort, but it's genuinely a good platform. It's not very good for me specifically, but I am one user in a sea of void only knows how many, so my personal gripes are fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Negatives (YMMV): To be completely honest, PF is basically dead for me, because my main fandom has no foothold over there. It's genuinely very difficult for me to keep active because of how long it takes me to get their image uploader to behave and the lack of a post scheduler. There are some really weird behaviors in their text editor that have been there for Literal Years that have yet to be addressed in any way and I've kind of accepted that my half-dozen bug reports will never get a response. HOWEVER—

Positives (objective): The platform itself is solid, if slow, and there are a lot of pretty active communities over there! The new UI is a huge improvement, the a la carte features in PF Premium are genuinely good (200 icons and double the standard filesize upload limit for less than $6 a month), and the privacy options are fantastic. User interaction is super easy to track, blocking is fairly robust, and they take user input on features and standards pretty seriously—tricky bug reports notwithstanding. The dev blog is extremely transparent about what they're working on and why, using clear and understandable language that shows they understand what needs work from a user perspective. (One of their major goals right now is literally "Make the posting interface more good and less bad," so they know it's rough and they're not pretending otherwise, which earns them a lot of respect in my book.)

Even though I get basically no engagement over there at all, I still believe it's an excellent platform; once the post scheduling feature goes live, I'll definitely be more consistently active! (I know this could theoretically make a difference in the kind amount of interaction I get, but I have been consistently active in the past with no difference, so I'm not holding my breath. This is not the platform's fault.)

For now it's a good fallback for me, and I do pay for Premium because I want to support such a solid and still entirely independent platform, I just don't really think I'm the kind of person who will get the most out of it. I'd still love to see it succeed, and that seems much more possible now that it has a consistent revenue stream via PF Premium.

My list of invite keys is here, if someone wants one!

#pillowfort #pillowfort.soc

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starry-eyed-extraterrestrial · 2 months

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How would Dracula mick find a soulmate

Anon! I've been thinking about this for a while and it makes me think of a poly!Crue soulmate AU, something that I've always had mulling about in my head but never really wrote. I might have a short tidbit in my draft's somewhere but nothing substantial.

Throwing in the vampire element however makes this far more interesting.

Warning poly!Crue below the cut, if your not comfortable with that then I'm so sorry then you can totally request I reanswer your qeustion to your liking :)

Like just spitballing here but Mick has been alive for generations and not once has he been given a soulmate.

He goes years and years thinking that he just isn't a creature meant to be loved and then one day in the 80s he wakes up to the most fantastic set of scents he's ever smelled in LA. It takes him a while to figure out what the smell is and where it came from but when he does he's in shock. This meant that he finally didn't have to be alone anymore. Somebody was going to love him.

And luckily for Mick being a vampire made his job of seeking out his soulmates a far easier job then it would make it for a human. Vampires can track down a human for miles with only a single whiff of their scent, unlike humans who couldn't smell their soulmates scent at all.

Being the hermit vampire he is however he doesn't really know what's considered socially acceptable anymore (he hasn't really been outside of the house in decades, except for when he goes to the music store or …to hunt) so when night falls he sniffs out where his mates are and it leads him to a shitty apartment in LA where he lays eyes on the people that the smell is leading him to and he turns into a bat and spies on them through the window through their (very dirty) balcony.

He's immediately inthraweld by the boy sitting behind the drums boundless energy that he could practically taste, by the base players gorgeously damaged aura and the blonds siren like vocals and deliously confidant energy. These were his mates.

And they where absolutely perfect.

The guitar player however is no good at all, and to top it all off his disgusting scent is mixing with the lovely scents of his mates, and he was lucky he was a bat right now otherwise the audible snarl that came out of him would have given him away.

So Mick desides to to remedy that. He couldn't have his talented mates playing with such a dud of a guitarist afterall. The band is confused as to why their guitarist has suddenly gone missing the next week and why nobody can get in touch with him.

Mick is convenientally there at the Roxy the next night, “desperately in need of a band”, and who has taken a very keen interest in Nikki Sixx’s new band project which everyone at the club finds...odd, as Nikki has a reputation for being a terrible bandmate.

Luckily his mates don't seem to find this strange at all and dig his weird, creepy vibe alot and after hearing him play they hire him on the spot. How wonderfully convenient, he's so glad their old guitarist just "suddenly disappeared", tragic what happened to him though, with the animal attack and all...

Oh well, the band is much better with Mick in the lineup and his bandmates seem to agree.

Now all he has to do is explain to them why he can't do daytime gigs without raising suspicion. He doesn't like to lie to his mates but until he can safely (and consequently) turn them, he can't tell them his deal quite yet.

#starry rambles #starry answers #sorry this is long #also don't ask me where vamp Mick lives #cause i have no idea there are like no castle's in LA as far as i know #poly!crue #crue!slash

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icharchivist · 7 months

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You should rate all of Dante's cats >:3

on one hand it's a challenging task, on the other, i could never rate a cat lower than 10/10. that's a cat. it's cat shaped. it will be 10/10

but as a small run down:

Lord Rivera. 20/10. So shapped. Extremely wise. The smartest of the bunch and the one who knows how to take the time to think. Voiced by Keiji Fujiwara (aka Eugen's va) before he died, which means i will forever be crying about it.

Lord Mukuta. 30/10. He was one of my favorite ones when i read the Many Lives of Cats. He's definitely the coolest of them. a good head on his shoulders, wise, but not overbearing. Voiced by Reinhardtzar's VA which brings me so much joy.

Lord Vapaus. 12/10. This one mainly stood out to me for having the funniest lines in the localizations (like "rat got your tongue?" and stuff like that). Curious and Direct, but he didn't leave as much of an impact on me as the others.

Lady Aselia. 15/10. she's so sweet and kind. Very considerate and calm, even if her anger can be a sight to behold. She is so elegant too. Look at her. isn't she perfect.

Lady Afaka. 14/10. Most out of touch of the kitties. Laid back and easy going. I remember firmly that one scene in The Many Lives of Cats when all the cats are in crisis because they've been kidnapped and she is like "i've found something!" and everyone turns to her thinking she has found a way out or something, but instead she lies in a hole and purrs because that's what she found. "that's such a good hole." cut to the others cats, jaded, wondering why they even thought Lady Afaka would actually focus for two seconds. She's fantastic.

Lady Mew Mew. 10000000/10. She's the best. She's a mew mew. She means the world to me. She's so tiny. She has 0 understanding of what's going on around her. Head empty. Who needs thoughts when you can get pats. Will never forget how she got mad that others cats were clinging on Sen while trying to escape a certain water death bc "wtf are you all doing on MY Cuddle buddy èwé" like miss Mew Mew the room was easy to read but she can't fucking read. She's so baby. I adore her.

Lord Young Cat. 25/10. He's so cute and great. Feral little buddy who's learning to enjoy love and care. truly THE Meow meow, the rebel, the hero.

Freiheit. 11/10. I admit i didn't read Dante's SSR FE so i don't know him, but he's shapped, he's a battle cat, he looks fun. He seems amazing so he deserves good pats and praise.

BONUS not a Dante's Cat but one of the cats from The Many Lives of Cats that deserve mention:

Lord Torajiro. 17/10. he's a good cat. He's so so good. Like he committed atrocities, but it's because he loved his owner so much, and it makes him the ultimate Poor Pathetic Little Meow Meow. I cried so hard because of him. I hope he can enjoy the rest of his days with his owner just fine.

.....

And because i feel like otherwise i might get choked to death in my sleep:

The Cat. The Myth. The Legend. She's not Dante's cat, she's no one's cat, everyone is just one of the worshipper of Lady Ewiyar. But it would be illegal of me to not include her in this list. (aka she would actually kill me.) 20000000/10. The one true Queen. I'm not saying that under threats. I swear. Maybe.

This is the Cat notes. Hope i've done my duty o7

#ichareply #ichafantalks gbf #anonymous #ichablogging gbfcats

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londonspirit · 7 months

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Well then...

It's been two weeks since the final episode (HOW?) and i have finally sorted my thoughts enough to write little about it (mainly for myself - as always).

First of: I fucking LOVED it!!! Yes, it wasn't perfect but that's only the studios fault and nobody else's.

(although I do have a few issues with the editing of especially the last episode: there's too many things wrong to ignore it. There's tiny bits not lining up before which is fine because one can overlook them; Ed going in for the kiss at the beach from the left and the close up is from the right, things like that. In the last epi there's too much of that: the crew behind them when Izzy dies, that's just bad editing; although once again, I'm pretty sure that's the studio's fault, if they could've done it like they wanted to, there would've been reshoots for it *sighs* It's a shame, because that scene is beautiful otherwise; sad as hell but incredibly well done. Taika and Con are really going for it, and it's amazing!)

Edit: knowing now that they cut FORTY fucking % I only keep my 'critics' because this is mainly for me! Knowing that, I am even more in awe about what they managed to make with that!!! They are all fucking MAGICAL for making this show as beautiful and amazing as they did!!!! And I really hope ONE DAY we can get a Director's Cut or something that's gonna make it all more smooth and just that more coherent, just like DJ would've wanted it to look!!!

Anyhow, i loved it. Im so happy to now have 8 more episode to obsess over again, to rewatch whenever I want and revel in the fucking MAGIC they gave us! The writers have really outdone themselves this season! It's tight and fast-paced but it still works fantastically well!

Personally, I've never been more in love with Taika - his acting was outstanding this season!!! Absolutely NO notes on that!! That man's soo fucking talented that whenever he says otherwise I wanna smack him over the head and shake him. I REALLY hope he does more of this because it was insanely good and I want more. (also: he's never looked more gorgeous!! the HAIR! the BEARD! the fucking EYES!!! GUH!! I wanna give him all the awards for this role alone but that's just me!!! So yeah, much much love for him!!) Same goes for Rhys - they're both soo fucking good together, and I cannot wait for them to do more drama because they'd fucking smash it! And not to forget the rest of the cast: every single one gave their absolutely best and I loved every single second of it!!!

What else? The fucking LOCATIONS!! God, I've always wanted to go to AoNZ but this season made me so much more needy!!! (not happening anytime soon but yeah, ONE DAY!!). Sooo stunning, sooo damn beautiful!! GUH!!!

Also: Guest stars!!! First and foremost: FAMILY!! Say what you want about that, but I fucking LOVE when shows do that!!! Taika's kids made me squeal soo much in the BTS vids already, but having DJ's wife in it as well??? With a rather substantial role? And her absolutely smashing it?! Totally made that episode even more amazing!!!

VERY much in love with Ruibo!!! Her Queen was incredible and I loved every second she was on screen!! Her character was so nuanced and wonderful and perfectly balanced. I REALLY hope we can get her back for a 3rd season - she fucking rocked it!!!

And we got ALL THE KISSES!!! I mean, I was hoping to get some more, and something a little more passionate than in S1 (don't get me wrong, I still love that one but yeah...) And we got soo many!! And soo many wonderful ones!!! And no I can't pick a fav: I love them all. The moonlight one had me losing my shit all over the place (at work no less) - the callbacks, Ed's fucking EYES and Stede's shy glances!! GUH, that was just soo delicious!!! The Calypso one was just hot as hell and I may have cursed them for not making that longer!! And the beach one was just utter perfection! Their faces, their smiles, Ed's 'I love you' still makes my stomach all gooey!!!

And then there's Izzy. *sighs* My little angry raccoon man. Our indestructible little fucker. Con motherfucking O'Neill. UGH!! I hated him (Izzy, not Con) all the way through S1! There was not one redeeming feature on that bastard. BUT... when you've read all the Ed/Stede fics and you start to look for something new and then find some beautifully written Izzy/Roach ones and then start to like him and eventually read more and then end up reading (and writing) some SteddyHands and you're like 'yeah, I can see it now'. It also helped A LOT that Con's such a darling man and so real for it all, and you have too much time to fall in love with him after all... So naturally you start to like S2!Izzy. And then you start to love him, and you fucking ADORE the SASSINESS he's got this season. (Still not over the morning after Izzy - the SASS was through the fucking roof!!!) AND THEN THEY LET HIM SING!!!! DEAR GOD!!! I would've loved for a full on musical episode (I mean, that talent show would've been such a GREAT opportunity for that!) The ENTIRE cast is freakishly talented and they all could've pulled that off. So naturally I was VERY HAPPY that at least they let Izzy sing!!! I'm still not over that!! (And Im highly amused that even some of the crew had no idea that he could do that!!! I mean... he got a fucking OLIVIER award to prove it!!!) (but then again, I spend way too much time on YT to find his stuff so that's probably just me!) AND DID HE DELIVER!!! The whole party bit, with the make-up and the shyness at first and then just BURSTING it out was just sooo fucking beautiful!!! Every damn frame of that was a bloody masterpiece and I'd KILL for the bits they cut - I'd pay a very good price for a DVD with ALL the deleted bits because I KNOW that DJ had to tighten that baby down massively!!! I NEED THAT!!! *exhales*

So yeah, S2 made the impossible possible and made me LOVE Izzy fucking Hands! Which im certain was their plan all along - otherwise his death wouldn't have been this devastating!!! Which is fucking WAS!! I cried at work (thankfully there was nobody there!)! And im still not over it!! I totally understand WHY they did it. Doesn't mean it doesn't still hurt. (here the strange editing sort of took away from the PAIN of it all a bit but if you concentrate on Ed and Iz it can be ignored).

*sighs* I'm just so sad that some people went and attacked our beautiful writers like they did. I know it's only a small part of an otherwise amazing fandom but I HATE that they're soo fucking loud - i can only hope DJ and his writers know that most people love what they did! (and NO, I do NOT wanna discuss it. you can be sad, yes, and you can be mad too but you do NOT go and shit-talk the writers or send them death threats - that's an absolute no-go! And no, in a show that's all around queer and has a lot of disabled character, it's not homophobic or ableist - it IS after all just a tv show. If YOU put too much of your own wants into it, that's on YOU! Ugh, sorry, didn't want to get into this but it makes me soo mad!!!) Once again, I'm very glad that I follow only the right people, no need to block or unfollow anyone on here or on Twitter! *blows kisses*

So yeah, despite some small flaws and scenes I KNOW have been cut, I love the second season just as much (if not more) than the 1st one. I can only hope that the studios decide to let DJ finish it. Im so happy with what we got - fanfiction can totally work with that. But I would love to see more Ed and Stede (trying and probably failing) to run their Inn, see the crew of the Revenge get into insane adventures, maybe even meet some more new characters (JC and BM still need to make a cameo!) - there's still soo much story to tell and I would LOVE to actually SEE it on screen!!!

I also would LOVE for the cast and crew to be able to finally talk about it, promote it, share stories and pictures and everything during a 3rd (and last) wave of MADNESS surrounding the show. Everyone deserves to bask in the love we have for them and our show. S1 had barely any promo. S2 aired during a strike. S3 could make up for all of that and get cast and crew the love, recognition and adoration they soo very much deserve!!!

#our flag means death season 2 #ofmd s2 #our flag means death #ofmd #personal #just something for myself to read in a few years #loving S2 even more now!!! and i will defend it until my very last breath!!!

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crabknee · 5 months

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Just watched the entirety of Centaurworld today, and my thoughts are kind of split

The show in general was fine solid 6 to 7 out of 10, but there were some parts that I absolutely LOVED so it will stay on 7/10

Spoilers under the cut if you care

Now listen, I love rider, top 2 favorite characters, but I don't like their fake-out death, I think they should have died, otherwise what even was the point of their dying scene, and it's not like there's any story left that would need her to be alive

But everything before the timeskip in the ending I really liked, especially the end of the nowhere king

I think the show in general was fine, the messages were nice and written in a fine way, but most of the time wasn't anything special. But everything involving the nowhere king was aboslutely fantastic, definitly the best part of the show

It's very refreshing that a childrens comedy show with a vibe like this has a villain that is not only terrifying, well written, but also taken seriously by the show and the wacky characters in it, like the zaney characters don't joke around about the villain and actually treat him as the horrifying presence that he is

My three favorite characters in this show are as follows

1. Nightmare king, I've already mentioned him a couple of times, but I will never get over how genuenly terrifying and awesome this guy is. AND HIS BACKSTORY OH MY GOSH HIS BACKSTORY THEY ACTUALLY WENT SO HARD WHEN THEY WERE WRITING THIS CHARACTER AHHHHHHH

Also, his lullaby is hauntingly beautiful and a very good descriptor of him

2. Rider, gotta be honest, this is mostly because of the design, but I do also really like her calm and collected personality, it's a nice break from the insanity that can be centaurworld sometimes. I really like the duality of choosing bewteen your best friend and the person you've been idolising you're whole life, but barely know. Her lullaby also has a very nice vibe that makes me feel safe and calm, great voice. But come on!! Just look at her!!!! How can you not love her!!!!!!!

3. Woman (yes that is what she is referred to, they never day a name, an ocurring theme in the show for humans), I like her mostly because of her relations and interactions with the nowhere king, the general and their shared backstory. Also love the fact that she always hesitates when attacking the nowhere king but does not hesitate to kick the general of the cliff, and then still hesitates against elktaur at the end but still ends it while crying, it is a magnificent way to show what kind of person she is and her connection and feelings towards the entirety of nowhere king/general/elktaur. Someone help the traumatised lady please

Oh theres also the chubby gay tigertaur with a beard, he was also cool

Anyway, 7/10 for the entire show, but with an absolutetly imaculate villain. Overall, do recommend, if only for the nowhere king

#for those that didn't read the spiler section #I do recommend the show #crab reviews #don't have a centaurworld sorting tag #probably not gonna post about it much more anyway

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arty-ffxiv · 1 month

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Five Songs I'm Into Now (International Edition)

Tagged by: @riftdancing thank you lovely! I love a good excuse to discover and share music ✨

I've recently done one of these on my main blog here, so it's been great to highlight more songs that I've been vibing with of late!

This time, I've challenged myself to pick international songs since I listen to a wide variety; some of these have been long-time favourites of mine, while others are more recent. I discover a lot of new songs and genres using Radio Garden. (I highly recommend Transistor FM in Thessaloniki, Greece!)

I've also added a bonus song- my favourite from a band local to my hometown ✨

1. Frío Frío Live Version - Juan Luis Guerra 4.40 & Romeo Santos

From the Dominican Republic This one is a long-time favourite of mine- I've been listening to Juan Luis Guerra 4.40 since I was ~16ish and this is my favourite song of his. This live rendition with Romeo Santos is just *chefs kiss* and the whole live album is fantastic. It's also funnier if you watch the live recording of this song and realize that the reason the crowd goes so batshit when Romeo comes out is because he pops out of of a hole in the stage, it's so wholesome

2. T'Asteri Mou - Despina Vandi & Foivos

From Greece Something I used to do when I was playing Assassin's Creed: Odyssey was listening to Greek music. Since then I've become addicted to Greek pop songs. This one popped up on the station I'd picked in Radio Garden and I fell in love. I was learning Greek a few years back now, but only remember the basics + some random phrases from Duolingo - did you know 'soup' is considered feminine in Greek??

3. Qefs Milion A - Martin Mkrtchyan

From Armenia This popped up on a random Armenian radio station while I was browsing Radio Garden, and it always makes me want to get up and dance! I have nothing interesting or informative to say here, aside from that this song slaps.

4. Invoke - T.M.Revolution

From Japan My partner and I recently watched all of Gundam SEED (my... fifth? sixth? time watching, his first) and I was reminded just how much I not only love this series but the music. Choosing which opening/ ending theme I'd include in this was a challenge! I studied Japanese from middle school right through to my first (and last) year at university. I still remember a bit, to the point of still being able to hold basic conversations/ ask basic questions.

5. Klefi / Samed (صامد) - Hatari & Bashar Murad

youtube

Icelandic & Palestinian Collaboration **warning for flashing lights in the video!** I discovered Hatari from their appearance in Eurovision in 2019 and the song they performed (Hatrið mun sigra) is a favourite of mine. This one has been on repeat more frequently now, for reasons I'm sure are obvious from the tumbnail. While in Israel for the competition, Hatari joined forces with a Palestinian artist, Bashar Murad, to create this song of resistance; the band also got a harsh response from the audience for displaying the Palestine flag during the competition's grand final. The video filmed for this song is very powerful, which is why I've added this link from YouTube instead of Spotify. I highly recommend watching it and having captions on for translation. Timestamp 2:48 is truly breathtaking. "After all this torture I'm steadfast, I won't bow down." From the rivers to the sea, Palestine will be free 🕊️

Bonus; Yoke - Teenage Joans

From Adelaide, Australia A new home grown favourite that I recently discovered, this song take me back to my emo/punk days. This song has been on repeat- in my headphones, my car and my home stereo. My poor husband and cats are probably sick of hearing it. Did you know Australians normally sing with a different accent, otherwise we sound ridiculous? Examples here: 1/2

Thanks for coming on this chaotic trip with me!

Tagging: @thefreelanceangel, @ishgard, @zenmai--jikake--no--komoriuta, @ooc-tau, @nozomikei & anyone else who feels like doing this!!

#laurel speaks #ooc meme #music meme #music #non ffxiv #Spotify #Youtube

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moorishflower · 9 months

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Trope Game

Thanks for tagging me @sleepsonfutons! :D

There's honestly not TONS of tropes that I'm an extremely hard 'no' on but let's see

Rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic?

-10 -> very dissuaded

0 - don't care either way

+10 -> very enticed

nope -> if it's a hard no and you'd never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you'd insta click out of the fic if it wasn't tagged

Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it's conditional.

Age gap: +2

It depends on the fic, honestly. I rather like the sugar daddy dynamic sometimes, but it's not something that I go out of my way to look for. And you have to be careful about where the line is. A 22 y/o and a 45 y/o is acceptable (everyone is a consenting adult), but a 16 y/o and a 25 y/o isn't. Like, even in places where 16 is the age of consent, there's fundamental differences in expectations of the relationship, in brain development, in power dynamics, etc.

Codependency: +1

Meh. I like my characters in each others' pockets, but capable of LEAVING said pockets, you know?

Obsession/Possessiveness, jealousy: +10*

With the caveat that the possessiveness is ENJOYABLE to one or both partners.

Opposites (grumpy/sunshine etc): +10

Listen I'm a simple person with simple desires and it becomes infinitely better when the sunshiney one is the one who's fucking INSANE and feral and dangerous

Enemies to lovers, Enemies with benefits: +5

I used to like this trope a lot more when I was younger, but these days I prefer the chemistry to start out in a positive light! Still a good, solid trope though.

Friends with benefits: +4

I don't seek it out specifically, but I've seen it written VERY well. Especially combined with...

Sex to feelings: +4

...this one!

Fake dating/relationship: +10

Absolutely. Yes. Give me 5000 fics where the characters have to meet each others' parents because they lied and said they were engaged. Give me all the oneshots where they're both in a club and pretend to be together to avoid being hit on. YES.

Friends to lovers: +5

A good, dependable trope. I'm less interested in childhood friends to lovers, just because I find the way it's presented sometimes boring? But whatever insane shit Neil Gaiman is doing with the characters who are "friends" for centuries, I am ALWAYS there for it.

Found Family: +10

I mean I'm a queer millennial how could I NOT like found family stuff.

Hurt/Comfort: +7

I enjoy a good hurt/comfort fic BUT I am picky about the ratio of hurt to comfort. I...actually get bored if there is TOO MUCH comfort, lol. They have to be equal, or very slightly more one than the other.

Love Triangle: 0/+8

Like for so many others, it's a 0 if the love triangle resolves with only two of the three getting together, but becomes a solid positive if it resolves with poly.

Poly, open relationships: +8/0

I like a good poly fic, I just read for the want of a jewel by @formlessvoidbeast and REALLY enjoyed it. I'm neutral on open relationships, though! Read some good smutty oneshots, haven't really read as many like, plotty long things with that dynamic.

Mistaken/hidden identity: 0

Neutral! Could go either way.

Monsterfucking: +10 +10 +10 +10 +10

Listen I don't know what you want me to say here

Pregnancy: -5/0

Yeah this is such a weird one for me. A few years ago this would've been a solid 'nope' no matter what. Biological pregnancy is VERY weird to me. I'm not against children or babies! I don't care if other people wanna get pregnant! But I am very much not mentally wired for it. Even mpreg or other forms of like otherwise fantastical pregnancy makes me feel a little off. On the other hand, non-biological methods of baby acquisition are pretty neutral to me, and to go with found family, I love when characters ADOPT kids.

Breeding kink is totally separate from actual pregnancy don't @ me

Second Chance: -4

Breakups and divorce make me sad so I don't tend to read fics that use them as a plot hook.

Slowburn: +10

Looking at my AO3 account, I also don't know what you want me to say here like

I have simple needs

Soulmates: +8

I really like when the soulmates trope does some absolutely wild shit. Whoever invented the soulmate goose was on my level. Give me more fic where they don't have their soulmate's name on them but they have like, their soulmate's scars or they share tattoos and so there's a whole culture built up around having unique tattoos in obvious places in the hopes that someone will recognize it. I like the worldbuilding okay?

I'll tag anyone who sees this and feels like interacting! Always fun to see what people are into most <3

#tag meme

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kamenstranger · 1 year

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So, over the next few days I plan on archiving some older reviews to have them available here. These are going to be selections of my favorite reviews and by extension, some of my favorite pieces of art and media. First up is my favorite Showa Ultra: Ultraseven. The review was originally written Dec. 27th 2019 and is presented as is, with some exceptions to the images used due to limitations and such. I'll also be cutting the presentation section that went over the case, discs, and episode guide because I don't really think it matters much.

Well now, this was a surprise even to me. I didn't expect to be reviewing Ultraseven this soon, but I received a Christmas present from my lovely friend, Rosy. This is one I've been looking forward to a lot- as Seven is a fantastic series with a notable reputation for being among the best. However there's never been a particularly good release of the show outside Japan, with the Shout Bluray A:Not being a proper transfer due to those shady as fuck dealings with Chiyao. and B: Having questionable subtitles.

But now, just like with Ultraman, we can finally have a proper release with approval from Tsuburaya. One interesting thing to note about the series before going in is that this did not start off as another Ultra show, that happened very late and lead to some interesting tidbits that you'll notice throughout the review. It's also worth noting that even after becoming an Ultra series it was not treated as a sequel to the original. There's no mention of Ultraman, the SSSP, past monster etc. The closest connection is that there are references to the M78 Nebula. Otherwise this was originally a stand alone series.

Our primary protagonist this go 'round is Dan Moroboshi. Right from the start Dan is very different than Hayata. Rather than already being a member of the primary defense force of the show, he presents himself as a wander and ends up joining after providing useful information and assisting with an alien threat. Dan also isn't a host to Seven the way Hayata was to Ultraman, he's just Ultraseven in disguise. This also means that any injuries Seven suffers also gets reflected upon Dan.

Unlike his predecessor, Dan has access to and makes liberal use of powers in his human guise. X-ray vision, the ability to see things that are invisible, keen hearing etc. He's also very observant of his surroundings, similar to an amateur detective in some respects- noticing when a things are out of place. We hear his inner monologues as he pieces things together in his head or struggles in various scenarios. His alien knowledge proving most useful.

Over the course of the show more is revealed about Seven and his past. About midway through the series it's shown that when he first came to earth he rescued a rock climber after he cut his own rope to save his partner. Admiring the act, Seven modeled his appearance upon him. We later learn Seven was part of a wider force in the M78 nebula, but he isn't a fighter. This is even reflected in his fighting style which is looser than Ultraman's Greco-Roman wrestling. Seven instead relies best on beam attacks and even telekinesis.

Even the Ultra Rise is very different.

I think the oddest difference is that sometimes there isn't even an Ultra Seven form appearing in some episodes, just Dan. That would almost never happen today- but it's oddly refreshing to see how it all plays out. Granted, that doesn't mean there aren't giant monsters or even monster battles in those episodes. Dan carries several capsules that summon kaiju to battle in his place:

Miclas, Windom and Agira. Usually this happens when the key device used for transforming: the Ultra Eye, is taken, or Dan is in some way incapacitated where he's incapable of transforming.

Even then, episodes that do have Seven don't always feature a giant Ultra Seven. Seven will just be regular sized to fight smaller threats, which is really surreal. Hell, at least two episodes have him shrinking down to a miniature size.

But the single most notable divergence is that Seven doesn't have a time limit like Ultraman did, more so he has an energy limit. The less he does the longer he can maintain his large form, but using various beam attacks will drain it much faster. The Beam lamp upon his head more or less functions the same way as the color timer did, although interestingly enough it's not explained until I believe episode 39 and a few episodes prior is when I first noticed it began blinking after long battles.

Left to Right: Amagi, Dan, Anne Yuri, Soga, Shigeru Furuhashi, Capt. Kiriyama.

Speaking of notable difference, the main organization that Dan joins, the Terrestrial Defense Force, is a stark contrast to the SSSP. While the SSSP was more scientifically focused- at least in concept, the TDF and by extension their elite sub section: The Ultra Guard, are far more militarized with much larger numbers. While the focus remains on the elite Ultra Guard unite comprised of six members, the show predominately features background characters making the show feel much broader in scope. Here we have various guards, men in uniform, scientists, medical staff, freaking PR people, etc. A number of them are even named. They even have a major space station with various staff members. It feels like an actual organization- or at least a well funded one.

The cast of characters for the Ultra Guard aren't that much more defined than the SSSP members were and once again I don't have much to say, but they do try by giving some of the characters more focus in certain episodes. Shigeru Furuhash (who is played by Arashi's actor Yoshi Ishii from the original series) serves as this shows comedic relief and gets his own dedicated episode involving a bit of family history with his mother that, at the very least, gives him some backstory. Funny enough the episode that focuses on him is also very dramatic, must be a thing with their comedic characters. The same can't be said for everyone though. What is there to say about someone like Amagi beyond he's played by Bin Furuya the original Ultraman suit actor? Not much.

What the show does do is a better job with the camaraderie. The characters interact more and in general just have more personality, allowing them to work off of Dan during missions, they're just fairly shallow elsewhere. However one sticks out above the others and that is the Medic on the team; Anne Yuri.

Played by the very lovely Yuriko Hishimi, Anne has a good chemistry with Dan- and I don't mean that in a romantic way. They just function really well in the episodes they're paired together, more so than any other of the cast. She has a magnetically charming personality that simply can't be ignored. I found myself wanting to see more of the character as she had a lot of potential shown off.

Another thing that helps the cast is that the TDF aren't quite as limited as the SSSP were in terms of operations. Ultraman's strongest point plot wise was variety in it's format, which you think would be come more of an issue for a series like Ultra Seven with a much more focused area on defensive measures. However I believe Seven to be even more varied. The show regularly has a number of different conflicts and ways of going about handling them. For a show that has an alien invasion scheme every other episode, it does a great job of never being tiring. Some episodes involve conspiracies like TDF members being assassinated or the UG having to go undercover and trail a suspected Alien like a 60s spy thriller, or there's aliens hypnotizing children to use as soldiers. Of course there's plenty of other none invasion type episodes as well, ranging from experiments gone wrong, strange alien diseases and almost twilight zone-esque otherworldly divergences.

Seven also deals with a lot more morale complexity than it's predecessor did. Whereas in the original Ultraman there would sometimes be episodes which presented a monster in some fashion as to make them sympathetic or that their demise was bittersweet, it never became a major sticking point of morality. Ultra Seven isn't like that, the show will often raise the question if the actions taken are justified, and Seven's own choices sometimes weigh upon him. This was done in an attempt to appeal to an adult audience.

A lot of the conflict comes from ignorance, arrogance, and plain misunderstandings rather than just a desire for conquest. Perhaps a simple satellite being mistaken as a weapon causing a panic, that sort of thing. One most notable of these is episode 6 when a massive space colony looses control of their gravitational force and begins a course towards earth, the alien Pegassa simply assume humans are capable of controlling Earth's own gravitational rotation like they and many other races are with their own planets. But when they learn humanity hasn't advanced that far, they begin thinking of them as simpletons lacking in technology. Faced with the colony colliding with earth, the UG sends a rescue for the Pegassans with an offer to stay until they're capable of building a new home. The Pegassans refuse to answer- perhaps believing humans lack the adequate weapons technology to obliterate their base. Faced with looming impact, the UG has no choice but to destroy the fleet with the inhabitants still on board. The Pegassan species becoming a victim of their own hubris. While aliens were sometimes used to illustrate humanity's own flaws reflected back, the Ultra Guard themselves were not above being shown as foolish. Tapping into late 60s cold war cynicism, episode 26 has the UG building a new super weapon that's the equivalent of 8,000 H-bombs meant for destroying small planets, with plans for a MK 2 and 3 to go further, which horrifies Dan and leads to a lot of inner conflict with his fellow UG members.

It's not the only time either, and while the UG are of course meant to be a force of good, they're not at all clean.

Intentional or not, it's interesting to note that as soon as a military organization entered the franchise is also when the stories first began having more complexity with the heroes' actions. Frankly, the TDF engages in much more questionable acts than the SSSP ever did. Sure, they had a few missions that would cause the viewer to raise an eyebrow, such as removing a kaiju from it's natural habitat. But the TDF have quite literally wiped out entire civilizations. Some unavoidable such is with ep. 6 being very grey- but others, not so much. ep. 42 in particular has quite possibly the most horrifying example of this when a race of pre-human ocean dwelling beings called Nonmalt begin retaliating to what they view as an invasion by humans. They're woefully ill-equipped, having only a single monster and one captured British sub as a means of attacking a nearby harbor, the UG having no trouble taking it out. Up to that point it seems like your standard issue group of creatures becoming overzealous and impulsive- they never try to even talk to anyone about coming to an agreement or the fact that they weren't even known about by the humans, they just start making threats immediately. Then things take a turn. After their sub and giant monster are taken out, their underwater city is discovered. The captain of the UG, Kaoru Kiriyama, fearing possible future attacks obliterates the entire city without a second thought. The show never outright calls it the genocide that it is, but it sure as hell doesn't frame it as good either. Dan and Anne are horrified at the aftermath of the episode, clearly conveying all that needs to be said with their behavior. In the end, the audience is left wondering if the results were necessary and how truly just the UG are when, as far an anyone could tell, it was a defenseless civilian population.

There's a lot one could get into with colonialism with this episode. The TDF&UG are better equipped and prepared than the SSSP were- and more happy to use their weapons. They're not outright villains and they're certainly shown to have admirable qualities. But they've engaged with reprehensible actions. At the same time I'm not sure if I can say it's a nuanced presentation so much as different writers having very different stories they want to tell and the results being accidental when looked at as a whole. But it is interesting none the less. Stuff like that makes Seven far more intriguing than the prior series and the show challenges its audience more by having them.

Once again the effects are a fantastic aspect of the show and far more advanced than even Ultraman's sets were in detail. The first episode alone flaunts it's higher production standards with some truly astonishing displays. Everything just looks a ton better. The Ultra Guard base and gear is drastically more intricate than the SSSP ever was.

The level of detail and scope of these dioramas is gorgeous for the time, and even now in some instances.

The Kaiju and Seijin are of course still fantastically designed and iconic. Eleking, King Joe, Alien Metron, Pegga, Alien Guts, Pandon. Every single one of the above has a great appearance that immediately make an impact.

Seven also experiments a bit by having some none suit creatures, smaller puppets handled by wire work. They… are interesting to mix things up but none stick out to me. I honestly couldn't even recall he first alien in the series. It's clear their bread and butter is still suitmation.

Speaking of the Kaiju, the fights are sometimes shockingly violent. Ultraman had a few that got a little messed up, like ripping Jirass' frill off and taunting him. The second Baltan also got split in half, but was little more graphic than splitting Play-doh. Seven on the other hand can get bloody.

People talk about Leo being violent, but Seven has it's moments. With all that said, there are however a few oddities with the effects. As lovely as a lot of those sets and creature designs are, there are a couple pieces that feel out of place. One is the backgrounds having noticeable seams. To some extent the original series had this as well but they were more often hard to make out and very few, usually a single vertical line. Seven on the other hand has much larger and extravagant sets and the caveat is noticing when the walls for the background connect since they're much larger.

I'm not entirely sure what it is, but Seven does feature a noticeable uptick in image quality- though it's not a massive leap over the prior series, it is sharper looking and a lot more sticks out because of it. How much they stick out is going to rely on how you view the series. On my computer they're not as bad in most instances, my 42" TV on the other hand was another matter- the backgrounds often appearing as a mass of blocks with thin lines except during wide-shots.

The final issue I believe to be rear projection and it's not just typical rear projecting like when someone is driving in a Bond movie, there's this excessively odd look to the whole thing. It's muddy, there's spots, and there's lines like they either didn't have a single large screen or it was wrinkled to hell. It looks like shit quite frankly and is probably the worst effect I've seen in the Ultra series.

Regardless of a few growing pains, by in large Ultra Seven excels in the visuals and often improves on the ones that don't, with an unfortunate exception to the rear projecting which never really looks any better. Their endeavor with super imposing on the other hand is shockingly impressive. I only saw one egregious example, but every other was stunning for the time.

I've seen movies made in the 70s and even 80s that didn't blend stuff this well.

Likewise, the aircraft are more grandiose and as such need more wire. I get the feeling that they had perfected a lot of things with Ultraman and wanted to branch outward to more challenging and by extension more impressive effects, and I appreciate that endeavor. Aircraft move far more fluidly, are more complex and they even have the flagship craft of the series: The Ultra Hawk 1, separate into multiple aircraft and then re-combine, it is marvelous to gander at.

But by far the pinnacle of the visuals is with returning Director Akio Jussoji on a select number of episodes. If there is one defining thing in Ultra Seven from a visual standpoint, I would say it's the gorgeous sun sets and Jissoji is largely responsible for that iconography with his first contribution in episode 8- which is an absolutely gorgeous entry. He was hardly the only one to use it, as other episodes would often incorporate the orange glow. But there is little doubt in mind that Episode 8 set the precedent. But that is only a tiny part of it, as that episode features so many fantastic scenes and Japanese pop culture owes so much to the cinematography of this Jissoji directed episode in particular.

It truly is a collaborative effort. The impressive work of the set builders and the masterful capturing of those sets on film.

Jissoji also wasn't the only one to create some truly fantastic shots. Other directors like Toshihiro Iijima, Toshitsugu Suzuki, and Kazuho Mitsuta also contributed greatly to the series.

There is one more thing, and it's something I wondered a lot about before the set came out and that was if episode 12 would be included. It sadly is not. There's a lot to get into when discussing that infamous episode that I'm not going to get into here. There are plans for the episode to be re-fansubbed so I'll be doing a spotlight on it and talk more about it there. (note from 2023: still waiting) What I will say is the included episode guide completely avoids talking about it and I find it really strange to not even acknowledge why there's an episode missing. It's even worse on the Moviespree site because it appears as an unavailable episode on the site.

Lastly, I want to end this review on something I wanted to do for Ultraman but never got around to it and decided it wasn't necessary at the time. That is to give recommendations on my favorite episodes with a short synopsis.

Ep. 6 Dark Zone. D: Kazuho Mitsuta W:Bunzo Wakatsuki. This is the one I talked about in the review. It does a good job captivating you with the aliens and their plights, they're fairly friendly but things slowly turn over the course of the episode and the aforementioned hubris kicks in. This is also a good episode with Dan and Anne, showing that they two are willing to bend rules, if a bit too trusting.

Ep. 8 The Marked Town. D:Akio Jissoji W:Tetsuo Kinjo The famous Akio Jissoji directed episode with Alien Metron. I've already shown plenty of screen shots for this one in the review and I think that speaks for itself. The story is also wild with Metron experimenting with how Space Poppies affect humans by lacing cigarettes with the drug. Yeah, it's a space drug trip episode.

Ep 14 & 15 The Ultra Guard Goes West. D:Kazuho Mitsuta W:Tetsuo Kinjo. The first two parter of the series and the first time Seven struggles against an enemy: the robotic King Joe, all while the UG work on a new weapon to combat King Joe as he's completely immune to most of their conventional armaments and even Seven.

Ep. 26 Super Weapon R1. D:Toshitsugu Suzuki W:Bunzo Wakatsuki. This is where that morality really comes into play. Again, another episode I've talked about in the review and it is one I highly recommend. One of the things I didn't mention was the monster, because the test for the new weapon on an uninhabited planet- wasn't. It pretty much causes a Godzilla scenario with a radioactive monster spewing it's toxic fumes all over the place. The horrifying prospect of this is contrasted with some beautiful scenery. I brag on Jissogi a lot, but Toshitsugu Suzuki does a good job in this.

Ep. 37 The Stolen Ultra Eye. D: Toshitsugu Suzuki W: Shin'ichi Ichikawa This is a very somber episode. Dan gets his Ultra Eye stolen (No shit) by an alien who then sends a signal for pick up which the UG intercept but allow to go through. A reply comes back from the girl's planet only to reveal they've abandoned her as they launch an interplanetary missile toward earth. This one has a bittersweet ending and examines Seven's more alien nature and his relation to living on earth. Really great shot at the end of the episode of late 60's Japan and all the lights.

Ep. 39 and 40 The Seven Assassination Plan. D:Toshihiro Iijima W: Keisuke Fujikawa Another two-parter. These episodes primarily focus on the TDF and UG, one of the few episodes that really show off their full force against an alien threat. Seven gets captured by one of the most memorable creatures, Alien Guts, and is set to be executed. It's up to the UG to figure out how to save Seven. These episodes almost feel like a finale and probably were written as such before the series got extended.

Ep.43 Nightmare of Planet No. 4 D: Akio Jissoji W:Takashi Kawasaki & Shozo Uehara This episode has Dan and Soga on a journey in a new test rocket, but after being put in the state of deep sleep, the rocket heads off course and is drawn to an earth like planet ruled by Robots. The robots treat the humans of the planet at best as slaves. Segregating them to their own community and disposing of them at a moments notice, even using them as extras in crime shows and using live ammunition, regularly executing them for minor offenses. The entirety of the episode is cold and disturbing. The interior shots are often surreal and plain while outside is nearly lifeless. At one point Dan and Soga escape the robots by hiding in the back a truck full of fresh human corpses that were shot dead just moments ago. And yet the end of the episode is also incredibly fun, mainly because Seven gets to go absolutely ape shit, outright growing inside the robots' main HQ and then wrecking everything around it.

This episode hits basically every high point there is for me and very well may be my absolute favorite.

Ep. 48 & 49 The Biggest Invasion in history. D: Kazuho Mitsuta W: Tetsuo Kinjo These are the last two episodes of Seven and they're a really great send off. I don't want to get into spoilers too much, but I will say they do a much better job than Ultraman's Finale which frankly felt very flat and rushed. This really shows Dan struggling and going through absolute hell. A nice touch is the Seven Suit is falling apart by this point which actually works really well with the plot. There's a bit of closure with his team as well, something Ultraman never exactly got with the SSSP due to circumstance. Also, shout outs to Kazuho Mitsuta who directed these two episodes, they contributed greatly to the iconography of this series with that fantastic shot of Dan and Anne.

My overall feelings toward Ultraseven is largely similar to Kamen Rider V3. It keeps what worked in the prior series, builds upon that which worked, trims a lot of the fat and adds some new. Seven keeps enough of the core concepts and ideals of Ultraman to still be viewed as part of the same franchise, yet it's unique status as not initially being developed as part of the franchise or at the very least not a direct continuation. I believe allowed it to have the many differences that assisted in making it feel fresh. Familiar, yet not overly so, different, but not completely alien. A lot of franchises struggle with that balance, either repeating what's already been done or it's so different you can't even recognize it. Seven pulls it off beautifully and in doing so created an incredible nuanced entry. I highly suggest picking this up because it is absolutely one of the very best series and my favorite Showa Ultra.

#tokusatsu #ultraman #ultraseven #review #kaiju #tsuburaya #tsupro

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