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lust444men · 2 months

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someone asked for more thoughts on spencer reid but I fr posted it before I was ready. so to the person who said "I need more of your thoughts on spencer reid", here ya are! <3 fluff, thas it.

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

he likes loves sitting with you on the plane, teaching you chess if you don't already know it, playing with you in chess, simpling his moves so the game lasts longer, playing poker w u and folding with a four of a kind in his hand knowing you only have a two pair, purely just so he can see your cheesy smile as you scoop all the pretzels and m&ms into your bowl, giggling and boasting that you "once again beat the spencer reid at poker" and teasing him that he shouldn't be banned from casinos in Las Vegas if he always plays as bad.

I feel like when he's around u, his world just completely stops and he drops everything if he can. you work with him? he's always trying to get hotch to team you guys together, just so he knows your safe. he'd hate for anything to happen to u!! he'd simply blame himself.

you look tired with all your paper work? he's bringing your exact coffee order he obviously memorised, and he's taking half of your files when you're not looking so he can help!! he an act of service and quality time kinda guy - I mean, he works in the fbi, that's so obviously acts of service.

Spencer is suspicious for a moment but he will always turn back to you, trying his hardest not to smile at your happy face as you eat your winnings, playing the sore laser and grumbling a "I'll win next time", simply hoping you don't see the crack of a smile as he boxes up the cards.

whoevers next to him(usually Rossi or derek) will give him a little "I know what you just did" smirk, glancing between you two.

when spence goes "??what?" upon seeing the look, they'll just shrug and say a small "nothing." and go back to doing what they were before, subtly smiling still at your chemistry.

if you don't work with him, he's always texting you during cases, calling you whilst the team sends him on a coffee run or late nights at the hotel. he enjoys your routinely scoldings you give him when he calls you late at night, telling him "you should be asleep! you're gonna damage that boy genius brain of yours and what good is that to anybody? sleep, spence!!"

god, he just smiles at your grumpy grumbles. he always says he's gonna go to sleep after - but you both know that's never true. he always stays up, trying to figure out the case, but God you make it so hard for him to focus! your pretty face, room-lighting smile - you ruin his focus in the best way possible.

if an unsub targeted you, he'd never forgive himself. even if you didn't get hurt! it'd be his fault, he brought you into his world. anyone he had in his world, ended up hurt. the minute they went after you though, the case became personal. hotch obviously did try to stop him, but spencer didn't care. he'd walk in line of fire for you, and that just might be the case.

he'd desperately try to talk down the unsub and once he was arrested(or shot), he'd hold onto you and never let you go, mumbling soft apologies into your hair as he rubbed your back, feeling it tense from the adrenaline of having a gun to your head.

if he missed dates, or god forbid anniversaries because of a case, he'd be filled with dread and guilt. sending you flowers, favourite foods, bringing your coffee by your house every morning, and if you didn't want to see him, he'd leave it outside your door with a little note.

when you finally forgive him, understanding it wasn't his fault, he's thanking you like his life depends on it.

he gives you his scarves on cold nights, buys you a matching one.

"hows your wife?" when she sees her son, a big grin on her face. eventually spencer just smiles with her, nodding.

he's nervous about introducing you to his mother, but she absolutely adores you, grabbing and smooshing your cheeks and saying "where have you been my sons whole life?!" sometimes due to her illness, she'll forget you're just his girlfriend, and she'll always ask

"my wife is good, mom."

#lust444men⋆ ˚ ᡣ𐭩 /ᐠ ˕ マ #christi rambles #christi's shit posts #christi's posts #spencer reid smut #autistic spencer reid #spencer reid x oc #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid #but daddy i love him #hes so cute #hes so silly #aaron hotchner smut #aaron hotchner #derek morgan smut

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muninnhuginn · 20 days

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In Defence of Qiao Ling

I've been musing on several threads relating to Qiao Ling in the last few weeks and have seen a few posts going around that have pushed me to actually try and put all my Qiao Ling thoughts into words and in one place.

Despite the title, I don't fully agree with the show's handling of Qiao Ling, but I do think she has been provided with a clear ongoing arc and so that's what I'm going to be focusing on here.

This got quite long so most of it is under the cut, but shout-out to @lizzieonka and @oceaniche for their previous posts on Qiao Ling, which definitely ended up inspiring some parts of this.

So, let's start with: what do we actually know about Qiao Ling?

Qiao Ling's Background

She's first introduced as the "landlady", for all it quickly becomes apparent that her relationship with Cheng Xiaoshi isn't quite that simple. Her family "took Cheng Xiaoshi in" but there's always been some distance and that's reinforced by the whole "rent" deal. (The fact that Cheng Xiaoshi is still adamant his parents will return likely also factors in to this.) Still, Qiao Ling herself clearly sees Cheng Xiaoshi as her younger brother and is willing to stake her claim on him as family to near-strangers (we've seen it both when she met Lu Guang and Li Tianxi).

Qiao Ling's social life is clearly contrasted with that of Cheng Xiaoshi. Where Cheng Xiaoshi's first "proper" friend was Lu Guang, Qiao Ling has her own circle of friends and is fairly sociable in general (she literally found a client by befriending a stranger when she came to learn martial arts). Xu Shanshan, for instance, is very much Qiao Ling's friend despite hanging out with the collective group at uni. Qiao Ling also spoke of Cheng Xiaoshi's childhood as something that happened to him specifically, implying that she herself was spared the bullying (which makes sense considering the fact that she wasn't the one with missing parents) and so had a more "normal" upbringing. Whether she spoke up back then or stayed quiet isn't fully clarified (not speaking up against adults is one thing but what about classmates?), but Cheng Xiaoshi doesn't seem to hold it against her either way.

Nowadays, Qiao Ling's role in managing the photo shop's side-business has her interacting directly with most clients. She's the most customer-facing of the three, relaying information between clients and shiguang. This is despite her not actually knowing the full details behind shiguang's diving process until season two, which in retrospect makes it more impressive. Qiao Ling taking on the managerial role (and what is also implied to be social media advertising) also has the (unintended?) effect of obscuring shiguang's roles in the business from the public, as it's Qiao Ling who earns the nickname of "witch". It took until Xiao Li saw Cheng Xiaoshi in the CCTV footage during the Doudou case for anyone to see through this.

Key Character Moments

In terms of Qiao Ling's key moments, we have four main ones.

In Doudou arc, Qiao Ling admits she saw Doudou being taken three years ago;

In season two, at the hospital, Qiao Ling asks for some trust and to not be shut out anymore;

Qiao Ling bonding with Li Tianxi and using their shared aspects to bring her out of her shell so she would help the investigation;

The revelation that Qiao Ling did, in fact, receive some form of Lu Guang's memories from Tianxi and her dismissal of their implications.

The main thread behind all of these scenes is that they are about information and what you choose to do with it.

My thoughts are two-fold here. First, how these scenes connect with Qiao Ling's arc specifically, and secondly, how they connect with the broader themes of the series.

Qiao Ling's Arc

Doudou

Let's begin with Doudou arc. In this arc, Qiao Ling reveals that she saw the kidnapping of a child several years ago. She hadn't told anyone about this for three years and likely would have continued to have kept it to herself if not for Doudou's father approaching the photo studio. In this arc, there is the following exchange:

Qiao Ling's main regret is that she didn't do something or say something as she saw Doudou being taken away. That her inaction may have ensured that Doudou's kidnapper was able to get away with him. And she specifically says "I didn't even have the courage to step forward and provide any information." (Tangent: Funnily enough, Lu Guang is the "star of courage" in the Star Warriors later in the episode, not Qiao Ling. Qiao Ling is "star of wisdom" who is meant to "light the way". Still fitting, but in a less straightforward way.)

Now, to me, this is clearly setting up an arc, not resolving one. Qiao Ling wouldn't have offered the information if not for the circumstances. And it tells us that for all Qiao Ling has friends and is sociable, she still holds certain cards close to her chest. She doesn't want to confront the past so instead she will hold her guilt tight and not say a word. Though, as this exchange shows, she does want to have that courage. And I'll get onto this later, but this ties in very clearly with the information she later holds regarding Lu Guang.

Hospital confrontation

Throughout this entire scene, even before it becomes a "confrontation" Qiao Ling is clearly feeling guilty. She runs after Cheng Xiaoshi when he tries to leave to help the police so that she can *do something*, make up for it the best she can. Guilt and avoidance are key traits for her and they both manifest here. They're still holding her back.

And, of course, there's her statement to Cheng Xiaoshi: "You're always trying to protect me. I really appreciate it. But what I need more is your trust." Qiao Ling knows what it's like to be locked out of the loop. She didn't know the specifics of diving for months (possibly years?) and it didn't really seem to bother her (or at least she didn't give the impression it bothered her when "Xu Shanshan" asked her about it). But she has her limits. And being locked out when the situation is actively dangerous? That's clearly past those limits.

Li Tianxi

Grouping together the final two scenes, because the first Li Tianxi scene is more a demonstration of character traits as well as digging in those sibling parallels between LTC-LTX and CXS-QL. Anyway, the first scene adds more evidence to the idea that Qiao Ling is more sociable and a people person. That she could could get Li Tianxi to open up by taking a more understanding approach and showing that she gets it to some extent. She's in the same boat.

Which means when we get to the final scene, this is what ties it all together. Qiao Ling has inherited the memories Li Tianxi saw from Lu Guang. She has seen Cheng Xiaoshi's "death". She has information now. But her first instinct is to dismiss it. To avoid it and refuse to confront it because the implications are too much.

But, see, she's been in this situation before with Doudou. She's had information and done nothing with it and regretted. She wanted to have the courage to do better. This is her goal.

And the implications of these memories? Do they mean Cheng Xiaoshi is in danger? Wasn't danger her red line in the sand? Didn't she tell him that "protecting" people and "trusting" them aren't mutually exclusive?

And finally, Lu Guang isn't Li Tianxi, but isn't the scenario here at least somewhat similar? Isn't Qiao Ling in the same boat as him here, wanting to keep Cheng Xiaoshi safe? Hasn't Qiao Ling shown she can connect with people through their shared experiences?

Qiao Ling isn't a confrontational character. She's avoidant. She will wallow in her guilt and not let on until it gets too much. But she wants to do better and isn't this her chance to do something? Say something? To not just be a passive observer and be left with regrets? I don't think it will be immediate by any means, but I think for her arc to conclude properly, she will have to conclude for herself that she needs to be open with the information she has and share it. If she's pushed into it, then it's just Doudou again. But if she chooses to share the information, then that's the pay-off set up back in season one.

Broader Themes in the Show

Broader themes regarding information and withholding of it. We see time and again in this series, that characters withhold information from others.

Liu Xiao and Lu Guang with Li Tianchen and Cheng Xiaoshi respectively, both holding more information than their "partner". Refusing to share it so that they can control them. Their reasons may differ, but the dynamics mirror each other in that respect. Unhealthy dynamic number one.

Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi, never addressing what Li Tianchen is doing with their powers. It allows Li Tianchen to pretend to himself that he is protecting Li Tianxi and carrying out justice. Li Tianxi is heavily implied in her telling of their backstory to know more than she lets on with regards to Li Tianchen's actions. But the refusal of both siblings to broach the topic eventually leads to Li Tianchen going where Li Tianxi cannot follow in his pursuit of vengeance and puts Li Tianxi in the very danger Li Tianchen wanted to avoid. Unhealthy dynamic number two. (There are more than this but I'm just sticking to these to keep this from getting any longer)

To go back to the hospital confrontation, when Qiao Ling says: "You're always trying to protect me. I really appreciate it. But what I need more is your trust." When she says this? It's a direct hit against the idea that protection should involve keeping people out. And in this case, Cheng Xiaoshi does start to let her in. They do manage to have healthy communication here now that Qiao Ling has been let in on the dives and is allowed to do something to help. She doesn't want to be passive.

She knows what it's like to be locked out, to be "protected" without having her own agency respected. But now, as of end of season two, she's on the other side. She has the information and Cheng Xiaoshi is locked out.

When Qiao Ling was assigned as the "Star of Wisdom, to light the way" in the Doudou arc, that's because it's her role in the show overall. Lu Guang certainly isn't going to push forward with healthy communication; he's too committed to his path for that. Cheng Xiaoshi meanwhile doesn't have the information needed to even start a confrontation. Qiao Ling is the only one in the position to lead the way with her knowledge. To provide the route to healthy communication once more.

She is the catalyst.

#ikik catalysts speed up reactions (not cause them) and are used up in the process so pls don't take this metaphor literally #link click #shiguang daili ren #shiguang daili ren spoilers #also my bolding is so eclectic but I tried to just go for the parts that were most important to what I was trying to say #also sorry im too lazy to make this more screenshotty so it's just full on words without many images to break it up #hopefully the formatting helps a tad but yeah sorry

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zoeykallus · 10 months

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Hi! I’m not sure if you’re accepting requests at the moment so if you’re not feel free to disregard this haha but I read your post about the bad batch telling their brothers that they’re dating someone and I was wondering if you’d be willing to do a drabble? One shot? I’m not sure of the term but like a mini fanfic of Hunter introducing his s/o to his brothers? Hope you’re having an awesome day!

Aloha!

Sure. Let me see what I can do for you 😊 I'm a nervous bean in cases like this, so I took the nervous approach, hope that's alright.

Hunter x Reader One-Shot - Introductions

Mostly Fluff

Today is the day you are supposed to meet Hunter's brothers. You are a little nervous. You don't know why exactly you are so nervous, but according to Hunter, you have nothing to worry about. But he talks so much about his brothers that you're sure Hunter cares a lot about his brothers' judgment. Of course, you want to make a good impression and hope you get along well with each of them. The two of you are on your way to the Marauder when Hunter looks at you and says gently but reprovingly, "Sweetie, would you please relax. We're not on our way to a tribunal, you're just getting to know my brothers today." You sigh softly, smile apologetically and say, "I can't help it, I just want to make a good impression and I don't know if I can" Hunter laughs softly. "Of course you can, I'm sure you can". You look into his striking handsome face, the smile on his lips adorable as always. You sigh softly, dreamily. You love this man so much, right now you can't imagine anything worse than being rejected by his family. His expression becomes gentle. He strokes your cheek with one finger and says, "They'll like you, I'm sure of it. Except Crosshair, maybe, but you can't take that too seriously. Crosshair hardly likes anyone and even if he does, he never admits it."

You blink nervously. He has warned you about Crosshair before. Hunter sees your look and adds, "He's not a bad person, just very introverted. But I bet even you can thaw him out after a while." The Marauder approaches, and you already see two of them outside working on the ship. At first glance, you guess, from what Hunter has told you, that they are Tech and Echo. You see a couple of benches and a camping table standing outside on the landing pad, and upon closer inspection, you notice the two men are not working on the ship, but setting up some sort of homemade grill. The tallest of them looks up first and spots you. "Oh, you're here already. We were expecting to have a little more time to get set up" Tech straightens up, and his lean figure is even taller than you expected. Behind the yellow lenses of his goggles, two large amber eyes gaze at you. Not sure how to greet him, you shyly raise your hand to wave. At first, his brows twitch upward, and he tilts his head to the side barely noticeably, but then he returns the gesture with a small, "Hello."

You know right away you like this one, he seems so calm and gentle. The other one, Echo, on the other hand, seems a bit snappier, more military, but definitely polite. "Miss," he says politely, nodding at you and smiling barely noticeably, "Pleased to meet you." "The feeling is mutual" Tech eyes you unabashedly and says matter-of-factly, "You seem nervous. Is something wrong?" At first, you don't know what to say, but Hunter steps in for you and takes the weight off your shoulders, "She's a little nervous about meeting you all today" Echo laughs softly, "Well there's no reason to be, we're all very affable and, if I may be so bold as to presume, open and easy going. With the possible exception of Crosshair." You chuckle nervously and say, "Yeah, I've heard something like that". Tech makes the last few adjustments and finally the grill is up. "You guys didn't go to all this trouble just for me, I hope" you say sheepishly. Tech answers you, "Well, yes and no. Being together like this is something we rarely enjoy, and we take advantage of the opportunity" Hunter asks, "Is Rex here yet?" "Rex?" you ask, surprised, because you haven't heard that name before. "A clone brother who is not directly part of the squad. He'll come later," Tech explains. Just now the nervousness had subsided a bit, now it sets in again. You feel Hunter's hand on your back. "Easy, love. It's all good." You smile nervously as you see the scrutinizing looks of Tech and Echo watching this small gesture. Echo explains, "Rex is a very good friend, a close brother of mine. It was through him that I eventually ended up on this squad." You nod and say, "I'm excited to meet him." "Hey Hunter!" Calls a voice rumbling behind you. You turn around, and you see, the giant that clearly must be Wrecker. Next to him, you see the tall, lean one with the serious face, a toothpick between his lips, whose grumpy look, tattoo aside, clearly looks like Crosshair to you. Wrecker is carrying a huge backpack that also seems to be full of stuff. He comes closer beams at you, leans down a little and says cheerfully, "Hey you, heard a lot about you! Nice to meet you!" His grin is infectious, and you grin back. "Nice to meet you too, Wrecker." He reaches out his hand and yours disappears into it for a moment. His handshake is very gentle, contrary to your expectations. Then your eyes fall on Crosshair, for a moment he looks as rigid as if he were set in stone. Then the toothpick in his mouth moves from one corner of his mouth to the other, and he hums, barely audible, "Hello." You say quietly, nervous again, "Hello" You'd like to say more to him, a few pleasantries, but you get the distinct feeling Crosshair doesn't want you to, so you leave it at hello. Hunter has a hand on your shoulder, or your back, the whole time, always close by, as if he's giving you silent backing, mental support, because he senses exactly how unsettled you are.

He never leaves you alone for long, always stays in sight when he has to do something or helps his brothers with the rest of the preparations, so you can see him. Occasionally he flashes you his adorable smile and makes your heart beat faster. Gradually, the nervousness subsides as you all sit together and the food sizzles on the grill, the air filling with the delicious smell of grilled goods. Wrecker cracks a few jokes, the men joke with you as well as with each other, and you take part in this togetherness with fascination. Corellian ale is flowing, but you keep thankfully refusing, the brew is not quite to your taste. As expected, Crosshair is rather reserved and quiet, but to your surprise he unexpectedly offers you a glass of delicious cherry wine instead of the ale the men drink, saying, "That's probably more to your taste". You thank him, but he is already back at his place, leaving bottle and glass at your place. Since then, however, he has not said a word to you.

By the time Rex shows up, you're so relaxed in this round that even his arrival doesn't throw you off your game. Rex greets you politely. He has the same, somewhat stiff, military manner as Echo at first, but after a while he also thaws out a bit and joins in the jokes of the others. However, he keeps calling you "Miss" instead of by your first name, as the others have come to do. Hunter has put an arm around your waist and is hugging you gently. He's really happy about this evening, about how great you are with everyone. You really like his brothers, they all have their characteristics and each one of them is special. Wrecker snaps you out of your thoughts as he stands up, raises his glass and says, "Let's have a toast, to a new member of our quirky little family." Touched, you raise your glass, heart beating joyfully, and toast each one. Crosshair rolls his eyes briefly, but toasts with you as well.

Hunter leans in to your ear and whispers, "See, no need to be nervous," before kissing your temple.

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

@rintheemolion

@andyoufollowyourheart @clone-whore-99

@brynhildrmimi @kaliel2310

@misogirl828 @tech-deck

@meshla-madalene

@chxpsi

@thebahdbitch

@nahoney22 @ladykatakuri

@darkangel4121

@ttzamara

@arctrooper69

@padawancat97

@agenteliix

@allsystemsblue

@palliateclaw

@either-madness-or-brilliance

@ortizshinkaroff

@andy-solo1

@hunterssecretrecipe

@heyitsaloy

@greaser-wolf

@extrahotpixels

@hated-by-me

@hunterxcrosshair

@malicemercy

@bebopsworld

@echos-girlfriend

@cpnt616

@dangraccoon

@jediknightjana

@pb-jellybeans

@antishadow2021

@sleepycreativewriter

@starwarsnerd111

@bandnerdlevel43

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ownedbythescribe · 10 months

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Teyvat — Overture Teaser (Fontaine)

🌱 This is a bit late post, but I’m just really happy and quite overwhelmed to get a teaser from Hoyo for Fontaine! It is so surreal how last year, we just got Sumeru, and it possessed quality stories most particularly the Archon Quests. They improved with their writing considering that Inazuma was not expounded properly.

The side quests such as the Aranara, Golden Slumber, Dirge of Bilqis, and Khavarena of Good and Evil were also notable. Although not voiced, for lore enthusiasts, the stories enlightened missing portions of lore read only through books or articles scattered around the region. I particularly like the Aranara Quest despite its lengthy missions.

🌱 Moving on to Fontaine, we get a glimpse of the characters who will play major roles in the quest.

💧Freminet — Cryo Claymore — Automaton

Hoyo introduced this character first, and we see that he’s a diver of some sort based on his appearance. Lyney also mentioned that he is his older brother. Whether it would be by blood or not, we will know in the future.

💧 Lynette — Anemo Sword — Felis Alba

Next we see are the twins, Lyney and Lynette. Lynette appeared to be more robotic in a sense, and on the drip marketing, she was mentioned as Lyney’s assistant who seemed to prefer keeping to herself. She preferred Lyney to do the talking than anything else. For what reason? Still unknown to many.

It’s interesting really because Lyney seemed to care for his siblings a lot, and others may have already known but they were from the House of the Hearth headed by Arlecchino “The Knave”.

💧 Lyney — Pyro Bow — Felis Fuscus

As for Lyney, he was the narrator for the teaser, and he has been hinting about the current situation in Fontaine. I’m really excited to see how things will go from here on out especially since Sumeru was a blast!

Other notable characters we see in the trailer are:

💧Navia — Geo ???

💧 Charlotte — Cryo ???

💧 Sigewinne — ??? And Wriothesley — ???

By the way, they look so cute here! Wrio looks like he’s teasing her with choosing the tea instead of the other drink! It’s still unsure what their relationship is, but they look like siblings huhuhu

💧 Clorinde — Electro ???

As I’m looking at her, I’m also desperate for Hoyo to have a gun shooting character. Like a gun weapon type, but I’m not sure if they’ll ever introduce another weapon type because Mika has cross-bow, and not even a new type. A big sigh of disappointment leaves my lips.

She’s so cool though! Aaah! I’m so excited to see what’s her relationship or occupation in the Court of Fontaine!

🌱 Arlecchino — The Knave

Then we got Arlecchino looking so hot and ominous at the same time! The way she talked about Lyney and Lynette as well as the traits of a good actor makes me wonder if she’s treating the situation in Fontaine as nothing more but a trivial play.

🌱 Last but not the least, we get Furina and Neuvilette.

💧 Furina — ???

💧 Neuvillette — ???

If others may have remembered, we already heard of Neuvillette from Nahida’s drip marketing. He’s the Chief Justice in Fontaine and the one to head any cases in the court. He also mentioned once how he admired the Dendro Archon unlike his, but I think he has some sense of respect to his archon.

He also has some theories already speculated by the mass such as him being a Khaenri’ahn because of the eyes while others think he’s an oceanid in human form. Whatever he may be, we’ll know soon. I’m definitely pulling for this daddy man 😋

As for Furina, one thing that comes to mind is she’s definitely the Hydro Archon. This is not coming from leaks or whatsoever, but from pure reasoning alone. Nahida mentioned that the Hydro Archon loved to immerse herself in the feeling of the courtroom but not engaging in it. So it means that she’s usually seen just hanging around the court and never interacting with anyone. In the trailer, she’s seeking a surprise to finally come her way. This makes me think that maybe that surprise she’s looking for will involve the Fatui and Traveler. Whatever conflict it may be, Furina wanted to find delight in that.

🌱 Anyways, that’s all! I just really want to talk about it. I may not be making sense at some parts, but I try. One more patch, and we’re finally seeing our fifth region. I’m so excited!

#genshin impact #genshin #fontaine #lyney #lynette #freminet #clorinde #navia #neuvillette #furina #arlecchino #just one more patch before fontaine #please come home daddy neuvillette

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ten-cent-sleuth · 10 months

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A Galling Yoke, Part 4

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for the “Where did you get this?” square on my July Break Bingo card

See this post for main info, including a masterlist and synopsis. See this post for warnings.

Word Count: 2.8k

Pairing: Sherlock Holmes x f!Reader

Rating: Teen

Plagued by thoughts of Sherlock, you did not find the peace you thought you would once he stopped coming around to Voss House every day. Fortunately, Rogers had kept the calling card from his first visit. As you made your way down London’s bustling streets to the address on that card, you replayed the arching of your butler’s eyebrow at your request for Sherlock’s information and cringed for the impression you must have left.

But it wasn’t how it looked. You didn’t miss Sherlock, at least not so strongly you couldn’t last a sennight without seeing him. No. That wasn’t what was happening here. Only, you couldn’t stop thinking about how lovely that conversation in the guest bedroom had been; with a few days’ distance, you could even appreciate the first half of it, the serious half.

You pressed your lips together to not break into a mad-looking smile in public. Talking to Sherlock had been…had been… Oh, who cared what the word was? The material point was that upon reflection, you would retract your decision to keep to yourself your suspicions of Edmund’s infidelity. Getting them off of your chest was an appealing prospect, and getting them off of your chest to Sherlock could only be a relief.

Right?

You paused on the doorstep of 221 Baker Street. Yes…what if he wasn’t as supportive or as understanding as he had been when hearing about your injury? What if—

The sharp clack of a hackney wheel knocking a cobblestone loose behind you made you jump. Watching the groom slow and calm down the horses as he argued with his passenger about where he was supposed to stop, you chuckled away your doubts. The last few days had shown you that you would not get anything done until you’d cleared your conscience of keeping something from Sherlock, and if he didn’t care after that, it wouldn’t matter. Your heart didn’t rely on his steadfastness.

At least, not anymore.

You knocked on the door and waited. If nobody was in now, you could come back in an hour, but surely—

“Hello!”

Turning, you recognised after a moment the passenger that had just been gesticulating at that hackney driver. You frowned now that you had a closer, better look; with her light curls and rosy cheeks, she looked entirely too young to be taking a cab by herself.

“Hello,” you returned with a healthy dose of hesitation. A glance around easily told you that there was nobody who could properly perform introductions for you two, and you had never been made to introduce yourself before. “Do you… Do you live here?”

With a flourish, the girl pulled out a key and squeezed around you. “No, but my brother gave me a key in case I ever needed to stop by. Which I do today. Well, clearly.”

She laughed, and you found your wariness seeping away. “You would trust a stranger to let her into your brother’s flat, then?” you teased.

“Certainly not,” she retorted as she pushed the door open. “I’m simply letting you into the building, see. And if you’ve nefarious business for anyone else, that shall only increase business for my brother—or, even better, for me. So as long as you’re not to rob 221b, then feel free to…”

You gasped and took the old calling card out of your pocket. “But that is— You are—?” Regathering your wits as you followed her up the stairs, you said, “Miss Holmes, I presume?”

The girl whirled around on the top step, her eyes wide. After giving you a once-over, she guessed your name and title, though a grin was spreading across her face even before you confirmed her deduction. “Oh, I had hoped to meet you!” she exclaimed, unlocking 221b and ushering you inside. “Sherlock’s told me all about your case—well, okay, not really. Sherlock’s told me all about you and how you were the best of friends at Ferndell and how he’s been helping you recently. He was quite eager to seize this opportunity to renew his acquaintance with you, you know. Fifteen years apart! How horrible! Is it true you were married within months of your coming-out?”

You smiled wanly. “Unhappily, yes. I had not realised that was my father’s plan, else I would not have come to London with such little protest.”

Miss Holmes returned your smile with sympathy. “Sherlock told me that you both thought you would return to Shropshire within a six-month, and that was all that soothed the pain of separating at all.”

“Indeed?” You paused to raise your brow at her. “He certainly tells you a lot, Miss Holmes.”

Reddening, she waved away your words. “Well, he told me the first part; I could deduce the second. In any case, you must call me Enola! No one calls me ‘Miss Holmes’, even that nincompoop Tewkesbury.”

Your brow rose higher, but she paid no mind as she went on—

“It is splendid you two have reunited. You are here to visit with Sherlock, then? Oh, I am pleased—no one should be alone all the time. A friend would do him well.”

“Enola, I am happy to see him today, but…,” you chuckled awkwardly. “We are only working together on a case, see, and, well…”

You shrugged, and with a thoughtful hum, she disappeared into the kitchen asking how you liked your tea. After answering her, you took the chance to take in Sherlock’s living space. You brushed your palm across the back of a chair and smiled, endeared by the familiar atmosphere of the refined comfort and organised chaos that had always clung to Sherlock at Ferndell and that had evidently followed him to London. The only difference that left an impression on you was the addition of a heady masculine scent, still entirely Sherlock in quality but a facet that had been underdeveloped when you had left Shropshire all those years ago. Breathing it in, you lowered yourself onto the chair and dispelled the heartache that Enola had unwittingly brought back to the fore. You had not yet forgiven your father for his deception, but that was no reason to be gloomy in such cheerful company.

Re-entering with a tea tray, Enola resumed the discussion of her brother’s isolation: “Sherlock does not even like to talk to me about his concerns, although he is frustratingly ready to discuss anything troubling me. Well, anything professional troubling me, of course—surely I do not need to tell you that he avoids talk of feelings and personal thoughts as one avoids the plague.”

You stifled a chuckle with a sip of your tea. “No, indeed, you do not. Is that all your sibling relationship comprises, then? Crime and mystery?”

“I’m working on it,” sighed the poor girl. “I came today to ask him for advice about an issue that is not exactly a crime or a mystery. See, at the market I overheard Mr Ramsbury of Marylebone Road talking about his daughter’s broken engagement with a Mr Gibbon, and I could not resist looking into it when he sounded so vexed. Unfortunately, now I am in quite the pickle, as I do not know whether to share my findings with him. Mr Ramsbury did not hire me—I’m still having trouble getting somebody to, I confess—but perhaps he would want to know. He is quite exasperated with Miss Ramsbury at the moment, but if he knew that Mr Gibbon used to strike her, surely he would not blame her anymore.”

“Has Mr Gibbon interfered with Miss Ramsbury?” you asked.

“No,” she answered with a set to her jaw that you had never seen before in someone her age. “Apparently, he was only interested in her for her dowry, and he recently came into an inheritance that can take care of him for life; he has made it clear to his acquaintances that he desires no woman encumbering him at all now.”

You nodded. “Has breaking off the engagement harmed Miss Ramsbury’s prospects?”

“Oh, not a whit,” said Enola, her countenance lightening. “I had plans to check in on her main current suitors after seeing Sherlock—” She broke off with a blush. “Er, only perfunctorily, of course; I wouldn’t want to violate anyone’s privacy.”

“I am certain Miss Ramsbury would be grateful to have a guardian angel, if she were to know,” you said. “Though I do not think the family need know. If she has not told Mr Ramsbury, she does not want him to be aware; if the only problem that telling him would solve is his frustration with her, doing so is not necessary for her safety and happiness. Should he find out, he may exacerbate the situation by quarrelling or brawling with Mr Gibbon. Fathers, and brothers for that matter, tend to do that, do they not? In this affair, I would follow Miss Ramsbury’s lead—she knows her father’s character and their familial dynamic, not to mention her own needs, best.”

Enola’s eyes were round and bright as she listened to you think aloud, and once you concluded, she pried open her reticule and pulled out an ivory pocket notebook. “That is excellent advice,” she muttered. “I shall do as you instruct.”

You leapt to your feet and hurried to her side. “That was by no means an instruction!” you cried. “I was merely thinking through the problem. You have yet to ask your brother, you recall, and—” You froze as you saw the embroidered ribbon threaded into the notebook’s hinge. Your sense of propriety overcome by awed surprise, you lifted the ribbon. “Where did you get this? This notebook?”

Enola furrowed her brow for an instant before realisation smoothed it back. “Oh! I had forgotten this was originally yours.”

“Yes,” you said, wading through memories you had not thought of in a very long time. “Your mother gave it to me as a birthday gift one year, as a matter of fact. I did not think to bring it with me when I came to London. This ribbon though, it was Sherlock’s. I was trying a new pattern, and while it turned out well, I did not quite like the look of it. Your brother offered to take it so it would not be wasted. I never knew what he did with it.”

Enola shrugged. “Perhaps he used it as a book-marker originally? I know not; by the time he gave the notebook to me, these two were attached. He said you carried it around with you everywhere, so I might find it useful for my investigations. I have, by the way,” she added. “Being able to erase my notes after I’ve transferred them to a permanent journal or no longer need them so I can reuse the same pages over and over is rather handy for a detective with a minimised budget. Oh,” she gasped, “should I give it back to you?”

“No, no, that is quite all right,” you reassured her, letting go of the ribbon and stepping back to carry your point. “I am glad it serves you well. I am only surprised that Sherlock had them!”

“From what I have gleaned from Mrs Lane’s and Mother’s stories of the time before Sherlock and Mycroft left, your brother—Lord Pashbroke, is it?—ensured any of your effects that he did not want getting lost or ruined in your absence were spirited away to Ferndell. Sherlock must have decided what to keep at home and what to bring with him here.” Her eyes flashed with a certain glint that you had not witnessed since you fared the Holmeses well for the last time; that spark of mischief must run in the family. “You know, I suspect I know where he hides that box of keepsakes here, for I glimpsed it when he gave me the notebook. Would you like me to—”

The squeal of door hinges cut her off.

“Enola, I know you are here. What have I told you about being in my rooms when I am not—”

You had shot to your feet at the sound of his voice, and now that he finally noticed you, you curtsied. “Mr Holmes, I apologise for—”

“No, I— You are welcome here, of course, my lady.” He blinked. “That is, so is my—so are you, Enola. I only meant that I trust you, my lady, to not move everything.”

His eyes cut to his sister, who scoffed in outrage.

“I do not move ev—”

“How are you?” he asked you, his soft gaze entirely at odds with how he pointedly ignored Enola’s grumbles. “Is your”—he paused to glance at your knee—“all right?”

You smiled, hoping he would understand your gratitude for his discretion. “The weather has been warm enough recently for the walk from Voss House to 221 Baker Street.” You, perhaps, should not have stood up so sharply at his entrance, but you need not worry him with that knowledge…though you did not begrudge yourself a gentle return to your seat once he had also claimed a chair. “Enola and I have been discussing you and your…field of work, sir.”

The girl giggled at how Sherlock’s face fell. “We’ve enjoyed each other’s company very well!” she told him. “I’ve only been in London with you for a few months, Sherlock, but it’s lovely how our circle is already growing. The three of us shall be a merry group, shall we not?”

You looked away from watching him closely, unprepared to see how he would take that question.

“Isn’t it amusing?” she went on. “For a whole year, we lived quite closely, yet this is the first time we’ve been in the same room after such a separation that I don’t even recall the last time.”

“I do,” you couldn’t help but laugh. “You were sick all over my dress. Eudoria said it was salvageable, but I elected to consign it to the fire anyway.”

Enola flushed. “I…feel as though I should apologise?”

“All is forgiven. After all, you were a very dear girl even at that age. I regret not having witnessed your childhood and adolescence.”

“I as well,” interjected Sherlock.

She beamed. “Well, we can be the best of companions now.” Her smile turned sly as she glanced between you and her brother. “I’m happy you’re even sharing your workload with someone, Sherlock.”

“I work alone,” he reminded her with a frown.

You opened your mouth, some inexplicable instinct compelling you to argue against that, but you paused—what argument did you actually have?

Enola jumped over your hesitation: “Oh, come now, Sherlock! She may not have the sensory processing and extended reasoning skills that you do, but she is quite proficient at understanding social implications and personal consequences.”

“And how, pray tell, have you come to be so certain of that?” he griped.

“Why?” she demanded. “Do you disagree?”

“No, but—”

“Excellent!” she said, clasping her hands. “Perfect, even, since she came here to discuss her case with you…yes?”

You nodded at her inquiring look. “Yes. I… I had a thought about what might have factored into Mr Sulyard’s murder, if he did indeed die as my father believes.”

“I suppose that is fortuitous timing,” sighed Sherlock. “I have just received the report from the coroner, anyhow—he was quite put out by my request for papers so old and took his time finding them for me. We may discuss both developments.” He glanced at Enola. “Later, that is.”

Waving a hand, she climbed to her feet. “No, no, you see that I am off now, so you may discuss sensitive information at leisure,” she said as she shut her reticule and adjusted her clothes. “It has been a pleasure to meet you once more”—she smiled and nodded at you—“and an absolute delight to see you again, Brother, as always.”

He rolled his eyes. “Good day, Enola.”

“Wait,” you said, “did you not have your own business with Sherlock?”

His gaze darted to you, and you realised—too late—that you had let his Christian name slip out in his hearing for the first time in a decade and a half.

Enola grinned. “No, I have gotten precisely what I was looking for.”

With that, she was gone, and you and Sherlock were left alone in his flat. He huffed and shook his head, but the corners of his eyes and of his mouth were soft with fondness.

Perhaps…it would not be such an unthinkable thing, being Sherlock’s friend again. Perhaps he had changed—grown—more than you thought.

“Shall we begin, my lady?”

For once, you allowed your smile to be without constraint. Shall we begin, indeed. “Yes, I believe I would like that, Sherlock.”

Thank you for reading. Please let me know if you would like to be tagged for updates. :) I hope I didn’t screw up my first attempt at characterising Enola haha. Feedback is always welcome!

#sherlock holmes x reader #sherlock holmes x you #henry cavill sherlock x reader #enola holmes #a galling yoke #the erasable ink

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uwoo97s · 2 years

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⁺ ೃ࿔ the girl with the pink glasses - Nishimura Riki

poc reader ! she / her pronouns used ! anyone can read honestly.

“this is y/n , she’s a foreign student here at bighit high. please treat her with the upmost respect!”

the teacher seemed nice, notforcing you to speak up and introduce yourself, which you honestly didn’t really enjoy doing. she spoke for you instead.

“since we have assigned seats.. you can sit at the back in that desk next to the window, since it seems empty for today!”

you nodded your head at the teacher, giving her a small smile in which she returned. pushing your baby pink glasses a little bit. (a nervous habit you had.) up the bridge of your nose.

once you were seated down, you didn’t pay much attention to the people watching you, you were more focused on the cute little blue bird right outside the window.

murmurs could be heard, though they mostly sounded like girl voices. even though now you had in headphones the volume wasn’t too loud, you wanted to be able to hear in case something important was going on.

“he’s here..” “i know.. he’s been gone for a while” “he’s kinda hot though..”

was all you could make out through your headphones before you sighed, turning up the volume of your song.

meanwhile, while you were in lala land, listening to music and drawing a portrait of the blue bird you’d previously saw, ruckus was happening in the classroom.

“riki!” a boy with red hair called out, whose name happened to be jungwon , niki’s older friend but also upper classmen.

ruffling the hair of the black haired boy, causing him to scoff and let out a chuckle. “hey jungwon.”

“you know you’ve been gone for quite a while right? me and the boys had started to worry about you..”

what his upper classmate was referring to was the amount of days niki had missed, niki wasn’t a bad kid of course, he just wasn’t too passionate about getting up and coming to school everyday, which had started effecting his grades along with his spot on the schools sport teams.

“but seeing as your back.. i hope you’ll actually start coming to school again? or else you can kiss going to the soccer tournaments goodbye!” jungwon, nudge his shoulder a bit when saying the last part, causing niki to look at him with a strange expression, making the older male laugh.

when niki had finally made it to his seat, which happened to be the one you were in. the seat the teacher assigned to you a few minutes ago before making her departure.

niki flew confused gazes towards jungwon, who was busy talking with another one of his friends sunoo, who also happened to be niki’s friend and classmate.

“she’s a new student.. foreign actually.” sunoo budged in, stating only the facts. before going back to taking selfies on his phone (that he would soon post on instagram) and pretending to listen to whatever it was jungwon was rambling about.

niki thought to himself for a few minutes before he decided to speak up. “excuse me?” no reply. so the boy tapped his finger against the desk, grabbing your attention. lifting up your head and glancing at the person in front of you.

“this is my seat.” the males voice came out strong, to you he sounded a bit rude but you don’t believe he did it intentionally. nodding your head you got up from his seat, which cause niki to get a better view of you. his cheeks turned a light but bright shade of pink, a blush really, when he saw those big pink glasses of yours, they made you look so.. pretty

he watched as you grabbed your things and walked away, finding another empty desk where you had went back to doing whatever it was you had been occupied with before he interrupted you.

niki couldn’t help but feel, bad he made you move, but also couldn’t help how even though he’d just met you, and didn’t even know your name he thought you looked absolutely adorable in your big pink glasses.

#enhypen #enha #kpop #nishimura niki #niki scenarios #enha niki #jungwon #sunoo #x reader #kpop x reader #kpop x poc reader #poc reader #x black!reader #enhypen scenarios #kpop ff

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fredfilmsblog · 2 years

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BTS w/B&PC Part 5

Click here for the other posts of ‘Behind the Scenes with Bee and PuppyCat’

Now that Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space has dropped on Netflix, I thought I would share some of my recollections as to how this special series of Natasha Allegri’s came to be. –Fred Seibert

Taking a break from the BTS chronology I’m going to take a minute for some thank yous. Of course, I’ll forget to include some people, but you shouldn’t take it as more than swiss cheese brain.

Some say that filmmaking is a collaborative art, and in my case, that’s been totally true. Yes, for me, that’s an understatement. Getting to a series like “Bee and PuppyCat” is a collection of experiences where I learned from hundreds of people, and then worked directly with hundreds more. In cartoons alone, I’ve had 30 years of a lot of ups, too many downs, some great successes and greater misses.

It was clear to me right at the beginning that American cartoons suffered greatly from relegating women to support positions rather than primary creative ones. Within weeks of starting at Hanna-Barbera I’d voice the lament to anyone who’d listen. It was a long time before anyone even pitched, but by 2006, with Random! Cartoons, we had more women coming in with their ideas than ever before, and in the end nine women created finished cartoons. And during Too Cool! Cartoons, for our Cartoon Hangover channel, almost half the shorts were by a new generation of creative women, including Natasha.

Onto the thanks. Please remember that these posts are about the “behind the scenes” of what makes B&PC. None of us miss the plain truth that it’s our fans that makes everything worth it.

I’m not sure if there’s a way to thanks Natasha Allegri enough, is there? An amazing artist, a deep storyteller, a lovely person with a stunning vision.

Eric Homan and I were colleagues for 27 years, the last 15 or so, heading development at Frederator Studios. It was Eric who, for us, spotted what a special talent Natasha had. He was the person who saw her web comic that kickstarted the Fionna and Cake phenomenon. And, of course, he invited Natasha over to show us the cartoon she’d been working on in 2013.

Carrie Miller has been another indispensable presence during my Frederator years. She ran our New York operation, produced our first original cartoons for Channel Frederator, and by the time Eric sent over the PuppyCat storyboard for a second opinion (”Greenlight this cartoon right now!”), she was running the entire New York office and our YouTube channels.

Don’t think I’ve ignored Pendleton Ward. Because it was Pen’s and Natasha’s friendship, built around the web comics that they traded over years, that inspired Pen to convince her to join the Adventure Time team, her first foray into professional cartoons. Without Pen, I’m not at all sure that any of us could have become her great followers. And don’t think he didn’t help B&PC creatively whenever possible.

Kevin Kolde and I met during my time at Hanna-Barbera, and during his pre-cartoon and SPüMCø lives I did everything I could to bring him over to my side of things. Eventually he succumbed, and while he was developing what has become the ”Castlevania” universe, he patiently worked with dozens of the creators –almost none of whom had ever run a professional cartoon production– I foisted upon him during various shorts productions. Natasha was definitely a mature artist and storyteller who had relatively scant experience in production, and over the decade that Bee and PuppyCat has lived it’s Kevin’s subtle hand that has made all the productions possible.

Efrain Farias and Hans Tseng have been key creative collaborators with Natasha throughout the decade of the B&PC saga. Both of these folks are talented artists, but that doesn’t begin to catalog their contributions to the shows.

Larry Leichliter has worked on everything. As far as I’m concerned, Larry Huber introduced him my way to direct on ChalkZone; Eric and Kevin suggested him for the Adventure Time short, and he eventually became the series’ original supervising director. He served on Bee and PuppyCat the same way where set the directorial vision.

Actors, we’ve had a few. You’re undoubtedly familiar with Allyn Rachel, Kent Osborne, Pretty Patrick Seery, but I think if you peruse the who cast you might get a few surprises.

Didn’t Will Wiesenfeld do an amazing job? Just check out Baths too! Natasha really scored here.

The entire Frederator Studios production team, small as it was, kept things on track, particularly Sylvia Edwards and Steve Worth, who had a lot going on at the same time. The editors, sound department, special and visual effects, Garrett, they all did incredible work. Thank you!

Meredith Layne has voice casted and directed both series (among a whole lot of others for us). And if you look at the credits closely, these shows do not in any way tread the expected paths when it comes to actors.

Heather Kenyon and Junichi Yanagihara really made the difference when we moved the animation to OLM in Tokyo, and kept it up during “Lazy in Space.”

Matt Gielen had recently joined Frederator Networks when we started looking at storyboards for Too Cool!. Though “influencers” were already flooding YouTube, which de-emphasized scripted, character based programming, Matt became an industry leader understanding how to help us build a loyal community of viewers who became the backbone of the Bee and PuppyCat fandom.

We heard from Nate Olson in Part 4 of this BTS series, but as I said there, a Bee and PuppyCat series might not have existed with his sweat, blood and smarts he brought to bear in shepherding our community of viewers-turned-fans into a group of committed supporters, first with the Kickstarter, then with the product companies that came aboard. Maybe more than anyone else, Nate was the loud voice representing the community, keeping all of us in line, understanding that without that special audience all our work would be for nothing.

Making a show like B&PC should be enough. The Cartoon Hangover crew in New York –Cade Hiser, Nicky Fung, Zoe Barton, and all the interns– lost a few years of their lives helped our fans stay fans. No, it’s not as easy as it looks.

Tom Pickett had bought my company, Next New Networks, for Google and YouTube to help them find audiences. And when he started Ellation (owner of Crunchyroll) and VRV to work with independent streaming networks, he reached out to see if Cartoon Hangover might be interested. His programmer, Arlen Marmel and business development head, Eric Berman, were particularly interested in “Bravest Warriors” and “Bee and PuppyCat.” Without these intrepid entrepreneurs we couldn’t have made “Lazy in Space.”

Michael Hirsh, Canadian animation innovator, saved Frederator when we ran into some tough times. “Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space” probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day without him.

Brian Gucciardo was in the law department at my other company, Next New Networks. He’s been around the block, and then some, in almost every facet of the entertainment business. Let me tell you true, doing the kind of agreements we have with first time creators for “Too Cool! Cartoons” (home of B&PC) and “GO! Cartoons” (throw Sony Pictures Animation in that mix) is no easy rolling. Not to mention our arrangements with Netflix and everything else we through at him (thousands –thousands!– of Channel Frederator Network members!).

Fred Pustay and I have worked together for decades, starting at MTV. He's saved my bacon more often than I can say. And he kept Frederator on an even keel no matter now hard I tried to screw it up. We couldn't have gotten through the treacherous waters to get Bee and PuppyCat made without him.

Like I said, it takes a village. And any villagers I’d neglected will be added as they yell at me.

Wow! On Netflix now. Finally.

More to come in BTS w/B&PC Part 6. Catch up here.

#Bee and PuppyCat #Thank you #Behind the Scenes #BTS w/B&PC #Natasha Allegri #Eric Homan #Carrie Miler #Kevin Kolde #Matt Gielen #Nate Olson #Cade Hiser #Nicky Fung #Zoe Barton #Will Wiesenfeld #Hans Tseng #Efrain Farias #Meredith Layne

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boysplanetrecaps · 2 months

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Build Up, Ep 5: The First 3x3 Death Match Performance

Welcome back to your favorite recap series that you’re currently looking at: My Build Up Recaps! In the previous one, we covered all the setup for the next round of performances, the 3x3 Death Match. In this one, we’ll finish off episode 5. We’ll check in with the judges and see a performance. Let’s go!

(By the way, I am not going to spoil who is in any of the performances above the read more link, post elimination, so that if you’re behind on the show, my page will always be safe to visit.)

It’s performance day -- time for some banter between the judges.

Alas, Seungkwan from Seventeen won't be here today since he was a one day judge. I’ll miss him, and I’ll miss Team Pledis.

Both the female judges are dressed to the nines. Solar looks especially gorgeous in a black dress with gathered spaghetti straps and perfectly wavy hair, kind of a Veronica Lake look.

Wendy has gotten extensions since we saw her last, and she looks beautiful in an off the shoulder ruffly white dress.

Meanwhile, the male judges showed up in whatever they found on the chair next to their beds.

What is Baekho wearing?? Does it say Fart? It can’t say Fart. What does it say and why does it say Fart? What is happening? He still looks hot, though.

The guest judge arrives, and it's Lim Seulong of 2am.

I admit, I'm not really a fan of 2am -- not to say I dislike them, just that I don't know them. Originally they were part of a group called One Day, which split into two halves, 2am and 2pm. You may know of 2pm as the original performers of “My House” of Boys Planet fame. Unlike their poppy, dancey brother group, 2am is a vocal group that mostly sings ballads.

Seulong says that he's been watching the show and knows how talented the guys are. He seems especially impressed that they can dance and rap as well as sing. VCG says, “well you can dance too,” and Seulong reminds him that 2am is a ballad group. But the MNET editors have dug up some past footage of Seolong in a real 2nd generation looking outfit, dancing uncomfortably. The judges laugh together about how bad balladeers can be at dancing, which reminds them that apparently recently VCG was seen somewhere dancing to Baggy Jeans by NCT. “I think you dance the most of anyone here,” teases Baekho, and everyone laughs.

Dahee comes out and introduces herself, and everyone claps and cheers for her. Backstage, some of the guys -- led by Woong -- do a cheer for her.

You guys, I don’t know WHAT Dahee is wearing. I mean, I’m here for it, I’m here for whatever she does. But it appears to be a thin, long sleeved white shirt under a pink spaghetti strap corset dress with large external pockets, made out of textured fabric or jacquard. Or maybe it’s not a dress? Maybe it’s a top and a skirt combo? What are those long white things hanging down? Is she wearing only one earring? What is happening? Still here for it though.

Everyone applauds the guest judge Seulong, and then Dahee reminds us all that this is the Triple Death Match, in case we haven’t been having nightmares about it for weeks. Dahee says, “The judges will watch both teams perform and then pick the team of three that is well built. All winners will survive and all losers will be disqualified.” This seems to be news to Solar, who gasps and says, “Ohmo!”

Allow me to theorize here: Though Dahee doesn’t say anything about this, I think the judges will save one person from the 15 losing contestants. Otherwise, they’ll have 15 remaining guys, and then what? Have them perform as 5 groups of three, or 3 groups of five? Doesn’t make sense. But if the judges save one person, then they’d have 16, which is is four groups of four, and I think that’s ideal. So, I’m holding on to that idea for now. I guess we’ll find out.

The judges talk about how high the stakes are, and that they’re looking for harmony among the teams. That gives them all an excuse to flatter/tease Solar about how amazing Mamamoo’s harmony is. “They even greet in harmony,” Baekho exclaims, and Solar is obviously pretty flattered. It’s cute.

Mama, mama, moooooo…

Dahee asks the judges what they’ll be looking for. Eunkwang says that, unlike the first two rounds when he evaluated everyone separately, this time he’s going to judge the team as a combined whole.

Jay, Wumuti, and Hayoon, backstage, bring their fingers together to symbolize their union.

Based on how they’re dressed, I wonder if they’re going to sing Blooming Day by Exo-CBX.

Guest judge Seulong talks about how important it is for a team to really get along and sing as one entity on stage, because whenever 2am had fights with one another, it led to poor performances. This does seem to match up with what we frequently see on Produce/Planet style shows -- the team that gets along better often wins. Jaehwan adds, “So, you guys listening in the green room, if you’re not getting along, make your amends before you come to the stage.”

Backstage, Wumuti turns to Jay and says, “We’ll just have to hide it well.”

Ok, I know I said the guys got dressed in whatever they found on the chair by their bed, but I take it back: Jaehwan has been raiding Park Jihoo’s closet and stealing the ugly clothes he wore for the Nitro comeback.

I will never stop being angry about the clothing in this video. I’ll be recapping Boys Planet season 53 and still complaining about this.

Why is he wearing a leather vest and a bolo tie? I guess a better question is, what else did you expect from Jaehwan but utter chaos?

Dahee says the death match starts… NOW! Everyone is nervous, including me! Including you!!!

The first teams up are Jeup’s team and Bain’s team. Oh no! This is the match up I’m most sad about.

Jeup’s team comes out looking great in suits and ties.

Jeup has a dapper three piece pinstriped suit on that looks great, and Seunghun has altered the shade of his hair a smidge, I think -- it looks much nicer. Choi Suhwan has decided for some reason not to wear a tie, and I wish he had, but they still look great overall. My guess of their song, based on their outfit, is Hey Mama by EXO-CBX. That would be a great choice, too, btw.

Bain’s team comes out looking… I don’t know, like motorcycle cowboys.

Bitsaeon has on a shiny leather suit with I think no shirt underneath, just a red tie. Bain’s hair is darker, which suits him better, and he has shiny pants and a short sleeved blazer with a wide lapelled white shirt and a bolo tie. Why? Why this? And Minseo is wearing shiny leather pants, a shiny leather vest, and a big cross necklace over his white shirt. Maybe they’re doing Unforgiven by Le Sserafim? Or Cowboy by f(x)? I mean obviously it’s not Cowboy by f(x). But imagine if it was. I can’t think of any other Kpop song with a slightly “country” edge besides Bad News by Kiss of Life, which they wouldn’t be doing. So my official guess is Unforgiven.

Sunyoul is like, “this feels like the semi-finals!”

Everyone has these huge reactions to the match up, which is silly since they’ve known who would be matched up since their encounter with the Moodboard of Doom.

We head into flashback most. First, we're reminded of how well everyone did in the previous mission. Referring to the stacked matchup, Wumuti says, “We made this happen. I feel bad.” And then we get a flashback to the whole Moodboard of Doom moment, which was like, five minutes ago in this same episode. Yeah, we didn't have time to watch Lee Hwanhee sing but we did have time to watch clips of stuff we already saw, and time to watch Wumuti move things around on the Moodboard *twice*.

Anyway, we get it, it was smart of Jay’s team to make sure that for sure one of those two teams would be eliminated. But I'm still sad about losing either of these teams.

Neither team is happy about the match up, but they both promise to do their best, and nod at each other respectfully.

Jeup is already nervous, because he knows how important song choice is going to be here. Strong agree!

We get a flashback-within-a-flashback montage of Jeup’s experience so far. He was praised by judges, but not chosen as top tier. He got a standing ovation, but his team came in fifth. He’s disappointed at not doing even better than he has been. “Now I need to show something else,” he interviews, as his cheekbones shine in the stage lights cheerfully. “If not I might get eliminated.”

He, his cheekbones, and his s w e a t e r all are extremely stressed out, but he’s thinking clearly enough to suggest a song that might work: Prayer (I’ll be Your Man) by BtoB. You might remember the song from when Stray Kids covered it on Kingdom (they swapped songs with BtoB).

Anyway, Jeup explains that it’s a risky decision to tackle Eunkwang’s song, but “in order to win, I wanted to pick one of the judges and do a face-to-face match.” I get it -- you can’t play it safe here because there is no safe. It’s win or go home. So a “nice” performance won’t do; you’ve got to shoot for the moon. I’m not a huge fan of the song -- it’s a “I’ll never let you go” kind of dealie that actually kind of sounds like IPV to me but like, I get it, it’s “romantic” because it’s in the form of a song. I’ll let you read the lyrics and decide for yourself.

Oh, Seunghun is wearing a s w e a t e r too! Nice. Suhwan, you’re dead to me. Dead! Imagine. A sweatshirt. ::grumbles::

They’re meeting in… a basement? A carpeted basement with wheely office chairs, but no table…? I feel like I’ve seen this room in my dreams. My boring, boring dreams. No, but seriously, we can tell in another scene that they’re at Suhwan’s agency, Lynna. The editors blur the name out but it’s still perfectly visible. The editors also sporadically blur out a logo on Jeup’s hat, and it makes me feel like I’m having a stroke.

Anyway, the guys are worried about the high-speed rap section, and with good reason -- it doesn’t sound like you can leave it out of the song, and also it sounds like it would be challenging to do, partly just because it’s so fast, and partly because a lot of it is straight up in English. (Peniel, one of their members, is American and mostly just rapped in English for his entire tenure with BtoB.)

They pretend to debate who is going to rap, even though it’s clear they already know and are just recreating this discussion for the cameras. Jeup says that his own rapping is bad -- they’d kick him off the stage. Seunghun says, as if it has just occurred to him, “Shall I try it?” He says he used to listen to the song a lot and sing along, so he already knows it, and he can practice a lot. They try it through once, and he struggles a bit, but promises to get better.

Wow, Seunghun looks great. He must be glad he got his braces off.

Seunghun vows to work really hard, because he wants to pull his weight in the team while the other two hit those high notes. We see a montage of him practicing, and he is really getting into it, to the point that he’s wearing beanies down over his eyes.

This is what a rapper looks like!

We also see him working with his CIX teammates to help improve his rapping. And it really works!

Jeup is wearing glasses and I thought you might like to see.

Jeup is leading the team in this endeavor, and his team is working hard. I wish they weren’t going up against my other favorite team. Sigh.

We cut back to the performance stage. Eunkwang says he isn’t really on board with them doing the song, because he feels like it’s a bit boring without dancing. (Here’s a live performance of BtoB doing the song, if you’re curious how it looked on stage.) The judges all seem to want them to do well.

Solar gets into the praying spirit.

The performance begins.

Full version without reactions

My thoughts:

They did a really good job. This isn’t a song I particularly like -- I’ve never been a fan of this kind of super-serious-rapping-over-a-ballad thing that you sometimes get in kpop (and western pop). It’s just not my thing. But I can still tell that they did really good job.

Seunghun has really mastered the art of the soft, gruff intro notes. I don’t really speak Korean, but I trust everyone else who says his pronunciation in the rap was good, and it sounded good in terms of tone and rhythm to my untutored ears. He strained a bit on the high notes, though, making faces that shows how hard he’s working to hit those notes, and his vocal color isn’t quite as pretty as the others. When Jeup harmonized first with him and then with Suhwan, the transition was stark -- it sounded much nicer with Suhwan. That said, he did a good job, a better job than I would have guessed. I believe that rapping is a subset of vocal skills, and that if you can rap well, you have half the skills of a good vocalist (at least), so good for Seunghun for getting this mastered.

Suhwan was sort of the all-round guy in this performance, doing main vocals, harmonies, and a fair bit of rapping. He is so good at harmonies, I really have to give him props for that. There’s a moment when Jeup had the lead and it almost sounded like there was some sort of playback of harmonies, but no, it was just Suhwan singing more softly and sounding like a full on backup track. That isn’t easy to do. There were one or two slightly pitchy notes, but they wouldn’t have been noticeable to a casual listener, I don’t think. He also is obviously straining a tiny bit on high notes -- he hits them well, without closing his throat or anything, but I still feel like he’s hurting his voice when he hits them. That’s a minor quibble. Overall, excellent job.

Jeup’s was the MVP here. As charming as I find his shoulders, I do sometimes not *love* his vocal color, but here it just works. He can match his tone to whoever is harmonizing, and true to his brand of Cheekbones N’ Chest Voice, he hits high notes without bothering with falsetto. He just is a vocal powerhouse. I don’t like this song much, but I think this was his best performance so far on the show.

If this three became a vocal trio, and sang songs I *liked*, I’d certainly enjoy listening to them.

The staging was good here, too. The suits worked, the dry ice fog worked, the background images of lightening and whatnot worked, it was all good.

In the MNET edit, they go to a commercial right before the guys perform, so the editors obviously believed that this is compelling.

When the guys start singing, the judges have faces that are tough to read.

Eunkwang is definitely affected by this performance. Is he enjoying it? Not sure yet.

Wendy is so engrossed she forgets to make a pretty face.

I mean she’s still pretty but you know what I mean.

I think Solar is engrossed?

After one of Jeup’s effortless high notes, Solar and VCG both let out a WHOA! We also get a bunch of shots of the judges and the other contestants expressing surprised approval of Seunghun’s fast rapping.

When the guys fall to their knees, everyone reacts as if they never saw anything like this before in their lives. BtoB does the same thing in the original choreo! Sigh. Anyway.

Side note: We get this shot of some on-deck guys being surprised, and I was like, wait, who the fuck are these people?

I only recognized Kim Seohyung at first, but then I realized that that’s Geonu on the left and Soomin on the right. I guess I really connected Soomin to his slightly frizzy/curly look and didn’t recognize him like this. I approve of the color change in Geonu’s hair, but I do wish he’d consider restyling it. He has a kind of round jaw line that makes him look a bit like Suho from Exo (that is a big compliment!) and I think he’d look better with a haircut a bit like this:

Is this just an excuse to put a picture of Suho in this unrelated recap? YOU be the judge!

I also think that Geonu could pull off the controlled mullet that Suho rocked in Hurdle.

Are you ever just happy that Suho exists? Because I am.

Basically Geonu needs to have his hair bigger on top to balance his rounder jaw. That’s my entirely unexpert opinion as someone whose hair is down to her mid-back at the moment because she so fears haircuts.

Ok, back to the performance. Where was I? Oh yeah, the part where they fall to their knees. Everyone is so amazed by Seunghun’s rap that we have to have multiple instant replays.

The judges say…

When the guys are done, Jaehwan is on his feet, while the others are just sort of quietly muttering, “Wow.” Baekho gets to his feet too, and VCG just sort of repeats, “Wow, that was so good. That was SOOO good.” Backstage, Inhyuk says that this is the first time a performance on this show gave him goosebumps.

Backstage, poor Bain’s team is like, well, we’re screwed.

The judges banter a bit, and tease Eunkwang that he shouldn’t even try to critique them -- he should just tell them they did a good job. Eunkwang agrees and says that he almost cried.

Dahee asks the judges for their feedback, and the trio looks anxious.

The three faces of terror. LTR: Jeup, Seunghun, Suhwan

Eunkwang goes first. The translation here is bad, so let me paraphrase as to what I think he was saying: “As I was watching, I almost cried. So thank you for doing such a great job. It’s harder to do it without choreography or anything like that, but you did great. If my group, BtoB, were to sing it like this, all stripped down and without choreography -- I don't think we could. Your youthful energy carried you through, and I found the performance refreshing.”

Solar says, “We’ve seen many performances so far, and I liked this one the best. I think it was the most perfect performance so far. I got chills toward the end. I have no words. It was really good.” And Baekho points out that Solar was so engrossed in the performance that she crumpled her note-taking paper without noticing.

Bain’s team backstage is like, well, we’re screwed. And BRP-unnie, watching on an airplane, is like, well, I’m screwed.

Jaehwan compliments Seunghun’s rapping, and everyone talks about what an all-rounder he is.

VCG talks about how they can be moved even hearing lyrics in English (that they don’t understand) because of the song’s mood. Hey, man, us Western k-pop fans know that feeling well! He also compliments Jeup’s amazing high notes that he hits without using falsetto. Jeup really is an amazing singer.

Then Dahee announces the next team, whose performance we won’t see until next episode.

They’re obviously pretty nervous after what they just saw. Bitsaeon compliments the other team but says that they came here to do their best, and that’s what they’re going to do.

Baekho says, “This song isn’t easy, either!” Wendy says, “But I think it suits these three.”

What is the song? I still think it must be Unforgiven from the outfits…

But we hear a tiny snippet of it before the episode ends and it’s just enough for me to identify the song as

BAD NEWS BY KISS OF LIFE

I’m dead, I’m officially dead. I’ll have to save some of my talk about KIOF for the next post but omg I love them soooo much.

Man, if Team Bit-bain is eliminated on Bad News, I’ll be bummed. But I’m so glad that Baekho and Wendy know the song and have an opinion about it. Kiss of Life is getting to be known!

Ok anyway we’ll talk more about it in the next post, when one of these two amazing teams is going to be eliminated, and I have a theory as to which one and I’m already bummed about it. But that’s what we all signed up for when we decided to watch this show.

See you in the next one!

#bpr recaps build up #mnet build up #build up mnet #build up #suho #cix #imfact

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sergeantsporks · 1 year

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The post hoot - i actually read the post about it on your blog, i think, that the writers wanted to explore how darius achieved his abomination transformation by doing dark sacrifices.

I reay don't think the shortening is an excuse for darius' treatment- just a meaningful mention of him by hunter, or a 10 seconds moment of him helping civilians in the background in the DoU flashback would have worked without taking much time. Like, bump is also puppeted, but it is clear he is important to others, so i stay bitter.

and it's not like it is the case of the bat queen where her story was hinted before the shortening, almost all darius stuff is after, so if there was never any plans for the conclusion of his and hunters development they should have made raine connect to hunter instead, and actually show darius and ebers friendship, instead they used darius to move hunters plot forward and then completely dropped him, which is both a sloppy writing choice, and unfair to the character, imo.

Hmmmm I don't remember that. Oh, well, I reblog a lot of stuff. I mean, we know that Darius is chillish with making sacrifices, you don't get to be coven head by NOT stomping on a few people. So I don't think that's exactly contrary to his character. He was willing to sacrifice the world for Eber, even knowing that Eber would die anyway, which is to say, Darius does NOT always make the most nonselfish choices. Even though ultimately he wants a good thing, he can stumble or do wrong things along the way, or do self motivated things rather than what's necessarily right or best for the collective good.

Yeah, I mean. Like I said, I'm keeping the clown makeup ON and hoping for a dadrius reunion, but in general. Idk about helping civilians, he was pretty passed out last we saw him, and I'm not sure he would have BEEN puppetified in the first place if he had been awake (he has a warping ability, after all, and he's a powerful witch), so I can see why they might not have gone there. But yeah, I would have liked for more from him.

Idk, I don't think he was ever a main enough character to really BE sidelined. I get what you're saying, why would they introduce these character dynamics and use him to push Hunter's character along only to not go anywhere with it, but, well. He's a side character, much as I love him. You don't ask why Adrian isn't showing up more despite this dynamic that was created between him and Gus, now do you? Or Steve, Steve pushed King's character development (and Lilith's, too), but I don't think anyone expects King to talk specifically how he misses Steve and hopes he's okay, no, he's focused Eda and Luz, and that's expected. Eda and Lilith haven't mentioned their parents ONCE, despite the huge role the two of them played in shaping them and how much is still unresolved between Dell and Eda (I mean, there's a whole plot point with Dell and that seed!) Similarly, Hunter's been way more focused on Flapjack, and Luz, and Belos, people who ultimately played a MUCH larger role in his development than Darius did. Sometimes side characters are THERE to push development for a more main character and then slink off gracefully. We've extrapolated that maybe Darius and Hunter hung out more, but we don't technically have any canon confirmation that they did. Hunter expressed concern for him at the DoU, which is probably most of the conclusion we're getting from that. Yeah. They care about each other. Moving on.

Much as we would LIKE to have more Darius, he is, at the end of the day, a secondary antagonist turned extra rebellion member. He's gotten about as much screen time as characters like that get. Not every single character has to be fully fleshed out on screen. sometimes things have to be left to interpretation and implications, because otherwise, your story can get too crowded/busy, even with all the time in the world.

#toh #asks #the owl house #darius deamonne

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komotionlessqueenmm · 1 year

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Okay so....

This was a post I probably should have made a few days ago...

But we're here now...

So let me explain a few things that are happening right now in my personal life, things no one on this site knows.

❌Dark topics ahead, readers discretion is advised.❌

Firstly I should "introduce" you two the individuals I'm going to be talking about.

The first being my mothers mother, who we'll call K, and the woman I currently live with.

Then we have my father's mother, who we'll call T.

My grandmother's, my biological grandmother's.

Well a little over a year ago (maybe a year and a half or so, I'm terrible with time, it always escapes me.) they were both diagnosed with lung cancer within a few months of eachother.

K being the first to receive her diagnosis.

They both seemed to be doing pretty good for a while, they'd done radiation, and immuneotherapy, surgery was never an option for either of them.

K's cancer even went into remission near the end of fall in 2022 or so. Even after she refused more treatment, as she felt more miserable doing it, and she'd come to terms with it.

Then in January of 2022 K's husband. Who we'll call R, and the man I had grown up calling my grandfather, despite him not being my biological grandfather. Suddenly died of a heart attack, right in front of K, who while in the hospital had to witness first hand as they tried to resuscitate him.

It was two days before her birthday, and after they called it, my father called me to tell me the news, I was at work when it happened.

They made his funeral plans on K's birthday.

Despite having Covid and Strep throat, I attended his funeral anyways, sitting in a far back corner away from everyone so as to not get anyone sick.

Things were strange for a long time, and hard on everyone, but we took it one day at a time.

And for a while things were going good, well considering.

Up until about two weeks ago... K's cancer is no longer in remission, and it's spreading into her throat.

She's doing radiation again, but it's really only delaying the inevitable, as horrible as it is to say.

And T... Well yesterday the doctors informed the family that she only has a few days left...

And my family is afraid that when T passes, her husband B, will just completely give up on life, and do something drastic.

He's been with her since he was 19, he doesn't know how to be on his own... And he's known for making terrible choices when he's distraught.

Christ it's such a fucked situation...

I'm crying as I write this...

For the past two years I have had to watch as my grandmother's are dying, and at least one of my grandfather dies.

These passed two years have been some of the hardest years I've been through so far in life.

And I'm not writing it because I want sympathy, or pity or anything like that. That's why I've not talked about it until now. I'm writing this because I need to get it off my chest.

And I wanted you all to know why I suddenly go AFK for days at a time.

I know you guys will understand, and I know you'll give me the time I need, but I just needed you all to know.

Cherish your loved ones, as cheesy as it sounds, because you never know when you've said your last goodbye.

I love you all, and I appreciate you all more than you'll ever realize.

And I'm so sorry to just drop this emotional bomb on you all.

Sometimes life is just to fucking real... And god it hurts so much...

----

@l0vel3ss-l1nds3y @dearest-painter

(I wanted to tag you both in case you guys would miss it on your dash. And I really thought you both ought to know as well.)

#update #quick note

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coffecake-andcats · 2 years

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I realized by bio says I write fanfics but I like never post about them here, so I probably should. So here are some of the things I’m working on!

Bluebird

Link to ao3

Bluebird was my first... foray into Death Note fanfiction. I wrote it late last year and finished early this year, it took forever, it’s very long.

Rating: E

Wordcount: 100k+

Summary:

Light Yagami had always found his day to day life menial and mundane. He was startled out of his boredom by the sudden appearance of the supernatural mass murderer, Kira. Light had certainly not expected his last year of high school and first year of college to be so convoluted and stressful as the greatest detective in the world suspects him of being the greatest mass murderer in history. Light must work with L to catch the real Kira before it's too late.

I humbly consider Bluebird to be the best fanfiction I’ve written so far. I’ve been writing fics on and off since I was about thirteen, but this one is my favorite. It was my favorite to write, it’s been my favorite to re-read. Creating it was a very personal and healing experience. I hope my readers get as much enjoyment out of reading it as I did out of writing it.

El Pajaro Azul

link to ao3

When I was writing Bluebird, I noticed I was getting several comments in Spanish. I learned Spanish throughout school, and continued taking classes in college. However, I still don’t really consider myself fluent. So even though I really wanted to translate Bluebird for my Spanish speaking readers, I knew there would be some things I would miss or lose in translation. But, luckily, one of my wonderful readers made me some absolutely beautiful fanart for Bluebird. And while we were talking, they mentioned in passing that they were a native Spanish speaker. So together we’ve been working on a translation and it’s been a long process, but I’m so proud of our work so far and I'm incredibly thankful for all of their help.

All that to say, if you’re more comfortable reading in Spanish, or if you want to share with someone but you know they’re more comfortable reading in Spanish, that is now an option lol.

Bird of Paradise

link to ao3

Did anyone ask for a sequel to Bluebird? No. Did it really need a sequel? Not necessarily. Am I writing one anyway? Abso-fucking-lutely!

Rating: E

Wordcount: TBD. Very long.

Summary:

L is finally bringing Light along to see where he grew up. But this is no ordinary ‘meet the family’ trip. Light will have to contend with L’s three curious and meddling successors while trying to process and cope with the fact that he almost died. Will Light prove himself when the kids take things a step too far?

Towards the end of writing Bluebird, I wanted to bring Mello, Matt, and Near into the story. But the main events were winding down, It was already nearing 110k words, I didn’t want to introduce another arc just for the sake of it when I knew the story could be wrapped up right there and be satisfying on its own.

In my opinion, you shouldn’t have to read a sequel to enjoy the original story. The original story should be able to stand on its own whether you’ve read the sequel or not. And that’s the case with Bluebird and Bird of Paradise. BOP is a continuation of the events, but you don’t have to read it for things to feel complete or satisfying.

I hope to write many more fics for this fandom. I really enjoy being here and contributing to a community that feels fairly small and relaxed online!

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bookoftheironfist · 2 years

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youtube

In case anyone missed it last week, we got an EL AGUILA cameo in She-Hulk! I will be posting more about this later, because El Aguila, who was introduced as a recurring minor character in Power Man and Iron Fist volume 1, is one of my favorite Iron Fist-adjacent side characters and it was a huge delight to see him (well, a version of him) in live action.

#I've been freaking out about Leap Frog over on my other blog and realized I had never posted about my other guy!#MCU #Disney+ She-Hulk #El Aguila #Alejandro Montoya #Video

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xprojectrpg · 10 days

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This Day in X-Project - April 17

Garrison Kane's birthday. PHASE 2

2015: Matt and Tandy meet for the first time and Wade makes an awkward appearance. Miles posts about his enthusiasm about the new Star Wars trailer. Tandy posts about going home for a few days and asks if anyone would like to join her. Clint runs into Rachel and they have a nice chat. Matt meets Quentin on the roof and self proclaimed radical and reluctant corporate suit don’t get along. Matt texts Clint about having a massive case of the munchies. Jean emails Scott and Angelo about leaving for a few days due to a situation in Ireland. Alison Blaire arrives at the mansion and Wade is the one that meets her at the door. Wade texts Marie-Ange about the meeting with Alison. Alison has a meeting with Charles and officially becomes a student at the school. Tandy discovers Julian unpacking from a trip he is no longer taking and their relationship changes. Bobbi and Adrienne go to the gun range and then work on a stakeout together. Alison literally bumps into Tandy while exploring.

2016: Miles wonders why Crunchyroll keeps recommending he watch Sailor Moon and Jean offers to introduce him to the show. Amanda posts to let people know she and Garrison are having birthday drinks at Harry’s. She also sends a message to Megan and Wanda thanking them for their gifts.

2017: Miles texts Warren to let him know Maya thinks he owes her a job. Reed loses time on the NASA photograph website. Amanda finds a stone in her tea mug and thinks it’s a prank. Lorna finds the perfect wedding dress and lets people know she and Alex have picked a date.

2018: Jubilee makes a journal entry to share a video. Poor Unfortunate Souls: Scott makes an xp_teams post asking for help to check out his father’s distress signal; Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Wildchild, Hawkeye, Bevatron and a reluctant Namor arrive in Florida, borrow a boat (Clint is great at them), and make their way to the Starjammer; not at all surprisingly, Namor has opinions about the disappearance of the Starjammer's crew; below the surface, Marvel Girl and Namor encounter cephalopods smaller, and rather more personal than the giant one attacking the ship and are brainwashed; Scott makes a communications post asking for help in the Bermuda Triangle, especially from Daytripper and the magic set; Clint attempts to text several people seeking help in the Bermuda Triangle; Wallflower and Blink are too old for this crap; Topaz learns a valuable lesson - when you skip school, you get stuck going with the Sefton siblings to fight a giant squid; Cloak catches Scarlet Witch and Synch by surprise to drag them off to the Bermuda Triangle; the Bermuda Triangle is a popular vacationing spot, not that Clea, Darcy, or Ty want to go; the magic ladies gather to talk, and Daytirpper has a most horrendous idea - a spell to turn them into mermaids; Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Daytripper discuss the ritual, which they will probably never discuss this again; Wallflower and Blink prep for a very quick medical exam; Topaz, Wildchild and Synch comment on the disgusting aspect - and taste - of magic; Scarlet Witch and Darcy do the worst shots in the world as the transformation ritual takes effect; Topaz, Bevatron and Blink participate in the worst potions and transfiguration class ever; Wildchild did not go over the rail when the magic started; Daytripper's the last to go, and Hawkeye gets to make sure she gets to the water okay; with all fishies in the water, Cyclops and Blink take point on scouting ahead; Rainbow Britefish (Topaz) and Synch track our missing phoenixes, pirates and princes; Daytripper and Wildchild are beset upon by Lemurians and an Atlantean bearing (wait no, WEARING) squid; Bevatron and Darcy-Still-Needs-A-Codename fight guards with a compelling voice and conductive voltages - and discover just what has happened to Scott's father; Scarlet Witch and Nightcrawler are attacked by a regally and terrifyingly transformed Marvel Girl; on the boat, Hawkeye, Wallflower, Cloak and Clea discover they have a few ocean animals to contend with themselves; Topaz (refuses a codename) fights Marvel Fishgirl on her own territory - the mind; Synch takes over fighting King-Squid-Namor, and discovers surprising facts about the Atlantean when he tries to sync to his powers; Synch helps Topaz and Marvel Girl double-team Namor; Cyclops and Daytripper team up to take on the Starjammers and start breaking them free of the mind control; Wildchild and Nightcrawler work off some frustration on Lemurians; Bevatron and Synch face off against some guards… and Warlord Attuma of the Enormous Ego; Darcy and Blink get rid some of the supply of mind-controlling parasitic squidthings; Daytripper(swimmer), Cyclops and Corsair release more kidnap victims; Topaz and Marvel Girl finish the job or de-squidding Namor, and he has emotions that aren't anger or disdain; the magic that turned the volunteers into merfolk will end easily, however the involuntarily besquidded require some more work; Hawkeye distributes towels and has the officially Worst Idea Ever (tm).

2019: Amanda and Marie-Ange discover Topaz asleep on their couch.

2020:

2021: Jubilee needs someone to validate her existence. Arise, X-Man: Laurie apologises to Jean and they discuss her future as a doctor.

2022: Terry goes on a cooking extravaganza for the big Spring Holiday Weekend.

2023: Jean takes Kane out for a birthday brunch.

#this day in xproject #xprpg #xproject #x-project #rp #rpg #plots #plot

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thezanyarthropleura · 1 year

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March 20 (2 of 2: 1980)

(This post covers Gamera: Super Monster, look out for a separate Gamera vs. Viras post earlier today)

Happy 55 years to Gamera vs. Viras, the fourth film in the Showa era, and happy 43 years to Gamera: Super Monster, the eighth and final film in the Showa era. Two movies that use extensive stock footage, but that use it to very different effect. Also two films that feature alien spaceships, and scenes where Gamera is mind-controlled by said alien spaceships.

Ah, Super Monster. The film I imagine quite a lot of fans either loath entirely or dismiss as not a real Gamera film. So, I’ll begin with something in this film that is genuinely relevant to the other films and to the franchise as a whole:

Gamera: Super Monster presents a significant and oft-missed stepping stone between the first Gamera film in 1965 and the last film thus far, Gamera the Brave, in 2006. All three films feature a child who believes his pet turtle has become Gamera, and most who’ve seen the other two films will know that in the earliest film, this is shown explicitly not to be the case, and in the most recent, it’s shown to be the case. In Gamera: Super Monster, however, the question of whether Keiichi’s turtle has become Gamera is left ambiguous, granting the situation a new, perhaps mocking or teasing sense of mystique but not quite committing to telling the story Gamera the Brave would 26 years later.

…Well, that’s quite long enough avoiding the real reason I’m here, so let’s talk space lesbians!

While this may be a film that copies some of its most exciting elements from popular Hollywood films of the time, Gamera: Super Monster is automatically braver, bolder, and more ambitious than any of those movies because it actually has the guts to make women the main characters. We’re introduced to Kilara, Marsha, and Mitan very early on – three superheroine alien refugees hiding out on Earth. Spacewoman Kilara is a lovely femme-butch seven-foot-tall amazon and the one who does just about everything important, the others are mostly there to give their partner moral support. But it barely matters because Mach Fumiake gives the best performance of anyone in any Gamera movie. She could really carry the film on her expressiveness and enthusiasm alone, but likely in part from just being in her presence, the others step up to the plate and give it their best. This film is like if an A-list cast made one of those zero-budget parking garage movies, and it’s the best thing of all time.

With clever cover identities as a pet store owner, a Mazda car saleswoman, and a schoolteacher, the three spacewomen share a home base of Kilara’s apartment and spend their nights in the pet store’s van, which houses a cat-carrier, which is actually a miniaturized living environment they apparently sleep in. The box’s interior appears to have just one three-person-wide lounge chair/couch with one decorative throw pillow, so I guess they must be sleeping in a sitting position and all leaning on each other’s (or let’s be real, the other two on Kilara’s) shoulders, which is adorable, but probably uncomfortable in the long run.

After they’re given a stern warning not to interfere in the plans of the invading starship/alien species/pirate warlord Zanon, they get drawn into a plot involving a young boy named Keiichi and his connection with a giant flying turtle called Gamera, all while being pursued and targeted by Zanon’s agent and fellow spacewoman Giruge (I’ll talk about Giruge more below, because her entire character arc is both the best and worst, most heartwarming and most upsetting part of the movie, and comes with a serious content warning). Kilara especially, despite being the take-charge leader of the group and the one to consistently shoulder the weight of responsibility, shows a warm and encouraging side as she easily befriends Keiichi and treats him as a member of the team. She also gets to fight Giruge in hand-to-hand combat, and I’m gonna make a point to avoid thirsting over the characters because this is a very wholesome movie so that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

The special effects in this film… well, some of them are an acquired taste, and you have to roll with the cheesiness. The rest are fairly top-notch, at least for the series up until that point, because they’re scenes from all the other Showa era movies, re-used. Stock footage, stock footage, whatever. The fights in this film are cut down to be faster-paced and set to great music. So what if you’ve seen them before? If you’ve ever watched a Showa Gamera AMV on Youtube (and if not, why haven’t you?) then you’ll probably enjoy watching the monster fights in this film too. And these movies have always been about more than the monster fights, anyways.

This is one of two Gamera films that made me legitimately tear up, and as a warning as much as it is a statement, after my first viewing of Super Monster, I found myself in a moderately distressed state where I had difficulty concentrating on anything productive other than watching it three more times over the next three days and writing a fix-it fic. The next section of this post (marked by ~ dividers so it can be skipped over if needed), will discuss two suicides that occur in this film.

~~~~~

I was prepared for Gamera. I think anyone who knows at least two things about this movie knows that Gamera sacrifices himself at the end to destroy Zanon. And it hits differently, but probably even less surprisingly, after Gamera the Brave, because now, sacrificing himself in a huge explosion to defeat an enemy is just an established part of Gamera’s character.

What struck me deeply was how the film handles Giruge, I think in part because I wasn’t expecting it and also probably because she’s human and not a giant turtle represented by a flying prop. It’s clear the film was setting up Giruge’s death the same way, as a sacrifice for the greater good, which is a common trope in media and doesn’t always directly involve a character being suicidal, but whatever outs this film could’ve taken to soften the blow… it didn’t.

To begin with, Giruge is suicidal, as established after her fistfight with Kilara, when after briefly holding Giruge at gunpoint, Kilara refuses to kill her on principle and gives back her blaster. At first, Giruge takes cruel advantage of this mercy and has a clear shot to kill any of the heroes she wants, but after seeing them all interact as one, happy family, she ultimately can’t go through with it, and points the gun at herself instead. Her reasons for doing this are different across film versions, with her either ridiculing herself as a compete failure, or expressing her fear of the punishment Zanon has continually threatened to inflict on her.

Kilara, the other spacewomen, and Keiichi all spot her attempt in time, and rush over to stop her. And I think that’s what endears me so much to this film. Everyone shows immediate concern, there’s no cynicism, no conflict over whether to offer kindness to her, it’s treated as a universal fact that Giruge needs help and everyone is willing to lend it. Even Keiichi’s mother, who up until this point has been dismissive of Keiichi’s stories and could care less for his love of turtles or monsters, apparently has a reality check when (in an offscreen event later relayed) he and his new friends bring home an unconscious, suicidal woman who needs a place to stay.

Giruge wakes up to find Keiichi having fallen asleep while watching over her, an injury from the fight having been carefully bandaged the night before, and Keiichi’s mother coming in to check on her and explaining the situation. (the English dub all but directly states Keiichi is there acting as her suicide watch). Keiichi’s mother invites her to stay as long as she needs to, mentioning that Keiichi has always wanted a sister (something built up for the entirety of the Japanese version, as Keiichi refers to all the spacewomen with a term of endearment meaning ‘older sister’).

But then we get the film’s finale, where a still-injured Giruge is contacted once more by Zanon, and gives him fake coordinates for the spacewomen while, in actuality, putting herself in the line of fire instead. In the English dub, the first version I watched, this comes off as entirely avoidable, and certainly appears more like a successful suicide than any legitimate heroic sacrifice.

It’s slightly better in the Japanese version. In one version of the subtitled original dialogue, Zanon states that he already knows the spacewomen are still alive, explaining why Giruge couldn’t just lie and report her victory like the English dub suggests she could’ve. She also doesn’t mention the signal being targeted to her watch in the subbed version, just that she’s relaying the Spacewomen’s coordinates to Zanon, explaining why none of the others tried to stop her this time – she intentionally left them with some doubt as to whether she was actually betraying them.

It's not over there, she does get a tearful death scene in the arms of her new family, where she thanks them for their kindness before disintegrating into motes of light, but she’s forgotten shortly after – as is Gamera, whose own sacrifice was just moments away when Giruge made hers. Kilara dries Keiichi’s tears for them both and the last shots as the credits roll are upbeat and hopeful.

In my view, this is a clear mishandling of an explicitly suicidal character, though I have to imagine that in the time the film was made, fully redeeming a villain might have been something there were restrictions on. If that was the case, and if the other option would’ve been cutting out the scenes that made her character arc so compelling, than I can allow myself some understanding for why it needed to be presented the way it was. Still, the hurt I feel every time I watch it can probably account for at least 30-40% of why I’ve been slacking so much in getting content out on-time.

(If you need that fix-it fic now, it’s here)

~~~~~

In my haze of emotional hurt and fixation on this film, I picked up a copy of Constantine Furman’s The Unofficial Tokusatsu Fan’s Handbook for GAMERA, SUPER MONSTER, which I kinda felt like I was required to own as someone who actually likes this movie. I highly recommend it as a read-along commentary and a window into the production history of not only this film, but (in part due to the matter of the stock footage and the fact the commentary continues over said footage) the history of the Gamera Showa era as a whole.

And, if there’s anyone out there who absolutely CANNOT watch Showa Gamera without the aid of a certain spaceman and his robot friends, I find this book an acceptable substitute for that as well, entertaining as much as it informs. Comedy is always a matter of taste, and one or two jokes didn’t land quite right with me, or were just puzzling (one remark about Barugon’s rainbow seems a little sketchy, but I’m assuming I’m just reading too much into it), but just like MST3K’s goes at Gamera, it’s all done in good faith by someone who genuinely loves the film, and I can respect that, enough that I’ve read along with the book for two of the eight times I’ve watched Gamera: Super Monster since mid-February.

…I may have a problem.

So, in conclusion, how much do I love this movie?

In truth, I struggle to know where to rank Gamera: Super Monster among the other films. With how emotionally attached I became to the characters, there’s no question it ranks among my absolute favorites, and with a different ending, it might’ve even earned the top spot, but I hesitate to place it that high due to the mishandling of the subject matter described above. If nothing else, it’s my definitive favorite Showa era film, easily surpassing the first six of the mainline seven and narrowly clearing the dorsal fin of Gamera vs. Zigra, a film I like for many of the same reasons as Super Monster but that, in many subtle ways, feels like a narratively cheaper and less earnest alternative. As for shipping… it’s a movie about three alien women who live and sleep together, and who express immediate concern and worry for a fourth woman of their species who has never known love or kindness. It is by far the most lesbian Gamera movie out of all the lesbian Gamera movies.

#gamera #gamera super monster #kilara #giruge #kilara gamera #marsha gamera #mitan gamera #giruge gamera #keiichi gamera #gamera march #hamburgerlunch #cw sui #cw sui attempt #a lesbian reviews all the gamera movies

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streetlightdiaries · 1 year

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A note from the author:

Streetlight Diaries is not flawlessly designed. It is, after all, a real diary. Its words are often snap reactions to bold feelings; paragraphs I wrote in the moment that got a light edit before being transferred onto the page. Fall Out Boy once projected, “I hope you sing along and you steal a line,” and I suppose that lyric is my mission statement, although I will admit that it’s not the best system for readers who are after more than a pretty phrase, or readers who think this might be written about them. But after early years of cringey confessions, we like a bit of mystery on this page. If you think I like the idea of you reading my thoughts, believe that the idea of you second guessing their meaning sets me on fire. However, I do want to reach you. So let’s practice, and pick one apart together:

Skanking in the spare bedroom -- I did that.

When I was younger, I thought the line sung, “This fucker has been playing since the day you’ve been with him,” and I felt that. This opening line is a reference to the circumstances surrounding the last time I was in the position of feeling this way for you. Oof, coming out swinging. I miss the veil of mystery already. Figure out what the line means, figure out when we were in that circumstance.

I do this thing where I think ahead, get myself ready for what could be coming. “This time next week,” I’ll say, “They’ll be gone. I will have seen them one last time, and I will have made it count.” I do this thing where I practice getting my heart broken so that if history repeats itself, I won’t be quite as crushed. See the post “More than you notice I wrote this for you,” for further explanation. It’s the next one down--yeah, I had a lot to say . . .

A long-since buried love has been zombified just long enough to trigger a playlist. I am not talking about some high school crush, you incredible dork. October 16, 2008: hey listen--I can’t promise you that I’m going to forget about you, but I’m going to pretend that I have so you can have space and we can still hang out.

And in case somebody besides cr is reading this, here’s how things have gone down up until now:

• “Barbed Wire”

• “All Downhill from Here”

• “My Friends Over You”

• “Trainwreck"

• “Stay (I Missed You)”

• “Hit or Miss”

“Previously on Streetlight Diaries…” I’m using the themes of the songs to represent the general phases of my well-recorded tragedy in an effort to catch readers up on the storyline. A pop punk Spark Notes, if you will. Listen to the songs, guess my eras—“this is when she went to Patent Pending!”—it’s fun.

Now (or, again) (repetitions are always hints, look back to previous posts. I link my posts together, so if this one is about you then the one I’m repeating must be as well), I sit alone on the floor of my apartment (his ghost against my neck). For a series of reasons, I can’t be the one to call him (we were supposed to be phone friends, but I’m so afraid), so as New Found Glory slips through the wires, I secretly hope it will trip some cosmic line that connects him to me (it worked too). I’m not really sure how else to proceed (October 16, 2008: I feel all of that, plus the fear that I’m not supposed to feel it). I am often reminded to trust those more mature, wiser, and even older than me (it’s not a phase, mom!), but I think—if anyone knows what to do, it’s her:

At 17, I walked up and kissed him before we’d been introduced (my first love). At 20, I skipped classes to stand around a playground with him (Arnold Palmer and a Pack of 27s) and 2 years later, went and saw for myself (skip surgery, go on tour!). At 27, I listened to the overwhelming need to stay close (Sea Cliff), and last year, I followed my feet back home (Will you be around?). These previous versions of me were absolute disasters, but their reasoning (or, lack there of) led me here. If there’s anyone I need to trust, it’s her. (I’m decidedly taking cues from the younger versions of myself; they were pretty bold, huh?) “I told you I’d call,” he says (The last song of 2022).

Lovers lie. We change (Nostalgia is fun, but I want more. I don’t care what happened, show me what’s next). The butterflies in my stomach are nauseous to theirs. (How exciting is it, to be nervous to see someone again? I’ve had so many chances, turn my back and I ran away. Have I waited too long? We’ll see. Back to the Island I go. Spoiler: my grand return went nothing like I planned, hence backtracking to better explain myself before continuing forward.

“Hit or Miss” New Found Glory. The song is a clue, the title is a clue, the way I sign off is a clue. They are ephemeral addictions that I’m using to wrap around my lower back.

I realize there are post far more confounding than this. I also realize that I left clues inside of my explanations. But you know me, you know this diary. “The girl made me trust myself, man.” Copy and paste into Google, follow the yarn lines, figure it out! Any clarifications you need, please ask.

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