#it was either forever or el dorado
Note
Ohi there!
I made this u/n forever ago so ill probably keep it no matter the answer to this, but I've always wondered if it should be 'chic@ con pelo rosado'? Or maybe better 'de pelo rosa(do)'? It just feels... awkward to me, but I can't place my finger on it.
I know there are words for the 'hairèdness' of someone (e.g. moren@, rubi@, etc.), for lack of a better term, but since it's not a natural color (on hair or in general), I'm not sure how that would work. I've always wondered how accurate it was lmao
(Also side note, which article do you use for gender neutral lmao is it 'l@'?)
First, it could be either
chico con pelo rosa / rosado is "boy with pink hair"; and chico de pelo rosa / rosado is "the pink-haired boy"
Both are acceptable, but the de kind of makes you think of using a hyphen
Note: You may also see el cabello used for "hair" when it's specifically hair on the head
But you're right that there are certain words for hair colors:
rubio/a = blond
pelirrojo/a = red-head, "ginger"
moreno/a = dark-haired / brunette
de/con cabello/pelo castaño = brown-haired
de/con pelo/cabello caoba = auburn-haired
cano/a = white-haired, gray-haired [as opposed to pelo cano or pelo blanco / gris]
de/con pelo/cabello negro = black-haired
pelinegro = black-haired [less common still used sometimes]
This also applies to hair texture/length... corto/a "short", largo/a "long", liso/a "smooth/straight (hair)", rizado/a "curly/wavy", and calvo/a "bald"
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Two options for gender neutral - the @ makes the most sense in writing when you're including everyone not specifically talking about a particular person like tod@s is "everyone (male and female)", or el/la chic@ maybe
The way a company might do it is to include both: un/una alumno/a "a student" for example, or se busca un/una empleado/a "looking for an employee"
The other way a company or someone official might do it is to include both options; damas y caballeros "ladies and gentlemen" or todos y todas "everyone"
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Less official but still used especially by the younger generation and for times when you are really talking about one person in particular: the general idea for gender neutral is the use of -e
So it would be le chique "the young person" gender neutral
For non-binary groups, it would probably be les chiques or saying todes "everyone". I would tend to assume it works like feminine does that nosotras "we" is for only women in the group, nosotros is either a mixed group or all men... so nosotres would be like everyone NB, but in a mixed group I would expect to see nosotros
And so it would be rubie, pelirroje, morene, cane etc.
But be really careful because depending on where you're saying/using it, it might not be regarded as correct or you might be mistaken for using French or Italian
The "default" way to talk about someone non-binary or gender neutral is either to assume masculine until proven otherwise, or to use gender neutral language that's a bit impersonal... such as la persona que tiene (el) pelo/cabello negro "the person that has black hair", or alguien con (el) pelo/cabello azul "someone with blue hair"
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Side Note just in case you were confused rosa can be used as "pink", rosado/a is more explicitly the adjective form "pink" or "rosy". They are both correct as adjectives, just that rosa doesn't change for gender so it could confuse some people
I know in my textbooks for colors they wrote anaranjado/a "orange" [lit. "orange-y"] instead of naranja "orange", and they wrote rosado/a "pink" instead of rosa
When using an actual noun as an adjective, they don't change gender; so la rosa is "rose", el rosa is "the color pink", rosa is just pink
You can also see this with caoba "mahogany" or "auburn", plata "silver" [as opposed to plateado/a], oro "gold" [instead of dorado/a "golden"], bronce "bronze" [instead of bronceado/a "bronzed / tanned"]
And some other words like márfil "ivory", ébano "ebony", castaño "brown/chestnut", café or color café "coffee colored" aka "brown", or something like lila "light purple" and turquesa "turquoise"
All colors are masculine when talking about them; all colors taken from nouns will not change as adjectives - la camisa turquesa "turquoise shirt" vs. el abrigo turquesa "turquoise coat" for example... And la turquesa means "turquoise" often the gemstone, and el turquesa means "the color turquoise"
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DreamWorks4Me
If you've seen the news, DreamWorks as a studio is going through a huge change. They're going to start outsourcing every movie from now on and laying off almost 50% of their staff.
This makes me really sad for them and their legacy, so I wanted to share with you my fondest memories of their movies. Feel free to do the same!:
I didn't have a The Road to el Dorado copy while growing up. My best friend and neighbor had one and we would have an afternoon snack in her home, watch The Road... and then play. This was one of the two movies we rewatched the most.
I've always loved Chicken Run. I had this huge poster of it, but threw it away when I had a nightmare where the chickens started jumping from it. I still think it's Aardman's best movie and the one with the best soundtrack (which was also my introduction to both Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell!).
I sort of remember how Shrek knocked it out the park. There was a before and an after in animated movies.
While a lot of people say it's a bad movie, I kinda like Sinbad. The adventure, the character design, the places and Eris, of course.
I like Puss since his first appearance in Shrek 2.
I really like Over the Hedge. The music is great and the concept interesting. I remember reading the actual comic strips in the Sunday newspaper and I still have some of them.
While Shrek the Third is not that good, I really liked Artie for some reason. That's why one of the characters from my book Gotxinka is called Artii!
I wasn't much interested in Kung Fu Panda at the beginning, but it grew on me. One afternoon, the second and third movies were on TV, so I watched the first one and then put the other two on TV, binge watching the three!
How to train your dragon was the movie that helped me out of my depression and got me into cosplaying, drawing fancomics and writing fanfiction. And also got me into watching almost everything in English.
I love Megamind and will be forever mad I couldn't watch in on cinemas.
I know people don't like it much, but I find the Puss in Boots movie enjoyable.
I really liked Rise of the Guardians and it's a pity they didn't make more stuff with those characters. I almost cosplayed Toothiana, but did a casual version of her instead.
I couldn't watch The Croods in cinemas either, but I watched it in English a while after and fell in love with it! It's so creative and the relationship of Guy and Eep is so sweet.
I did my hair like Astrid to watch HTTYD2. That version of her outfit is my favorite cosplay of her.
And, of course, Riders of Berk were the first series I watched in full English. I didn't have Netflix when Race to the Edge aired, so I would get up early to watch someone streaming it and I had a blast. I didn't know if I should watch Trollhunters, but I saw a video with Kelsey Grammer and I'm so glad I gave it a try! The show helped me in one of my lowest moments (like HTTYD had done years before).
#dreamworks#me#personal#the road to el dorado#chicken run#shrek#sinbad legend of the seven seas#over the hedge#kung fu panda#httyd#how to train your dragon#megamind#puss in boots#rise of the guardians#the croods#riders of berk#race to the edge#trollhunters
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9pm musings: if you think about it Ina11 areori timeline where Tenma never gets passionate about soccer would make perfect sense.
By "if you think about it" I mean, I thought too hard about it and spent like 2h typing all this, so here's my ideas under the cut. Maybe someday I'll make a fic with this?? Who knows
With Orion Foundation being a thing I think the adults would try a lot harder to make sure No Evil Organization tries to take over soccer again right under their noses, so Fifth Sector, reasonably, wouldn't get to exist, or at the very least gather as much power as it did in GO.
No Fifth Sector means no promise of money for Yuuichi's surgery, which means Tsurugi probably straight up gets obsessed with becoming a top tier famous striker who can make enough money instead. Raimon will still be the most prestigious jr high school for that so it's safe to imagine he'll end up attending there.
(If the accident even happens, that is. If we go the 'everything is fine' route the way areori fixed Atsuya and Hiroto's deaths, both Tsurugi and Yuuichi would enroll in Raimon due to their admiration of Gouenji and become an amazing striker duo.
Because yeah might as well bend Yuuichi's age so they can play together if we're fixing everything!)
The rest of GO Raimon started playing soccer for their own reasons, as far as we know, so the team would be formed normally, with or without addition of Yuuichi. Holy Road can work without Tenma, especially without any need to make a revolution.
Now, CS, it gets a bit messier but it can still work. It's mentioned in the season that Tenma was a bit of the 'beginning' of the Second Stage Children genes, but surely there are other talented players that caused it, so Feida vs El Dorado conflict would still end up happening.
Rather than Tenma, at the start of CS Fei would end up saving either Shindou (he's the captain, he has good head on his shoulders) or Tsurugi (probably has the strongest passion for soccer). Either of them can reasonably work as protagonists — I'm leaning towards Tsurugi because I think he'd be able to bond with Fei more closely, with both of them being somewhat loner/aloof type.
The real problem comes with gathering Chrono Storm. Would the timeline simply adjust to Tenma's absence and make someone else able to get King Arthur's miximax, or would they be forever missing that single ideal player...? In a meta sense it's tragic, but fitting, if he just gets replaced (since he was never there to begin with).
With how strong the Chrono Storm lineup is, I think they would be able to win, even if they really were missing a player. They'd just train extra hard to overcompensate that fact.
Which brings us to Galaxy. Literally the ONLY point in history where it would actually make sense for Tenma to develop any kind of liking for soccer. He's the right age for the tournament, he's got a Soul in his body. Heck, he even still attends Raimon, since his parents would send him to Inazuma with Aki because they're swamped with work in Okinawa.
Coach Kuroiwa needs him. There's a reason he picked the specific members he did, so Tenma has to be part of the equation, whether he's played soccer before or not.
But what kind of person would a soccer-less Tenma be? Let me tell you, probably not the chirpy guy we know.
In GO timeline, it's shown he practiced soccer alone with Sasuke, so it's safe to assume he honestly didn't have any friends who wanted to play with him. He's a bit of a "weird kid". The one friend we know he made in elementary was Aoi, and she got interested in him after she caught him playing soccer and grew to admire his passion.
No soccer means no close friendship with Aoi right off the bat, which would make adapting to Inazuma feel more lonely. No soccer means he's got nothing to show his parents that he's doing well while they're away and paying for all his expenses, either.
In the soccer-less world he's part of the /calligraphy/ club of all things, clearly roped in by Aoi, so it's not far-fetched to assume that a soccer-less Tenma just kind of... wouldn't know what to do with himself in the grand scheme of things.
He might've tried things here and there. I mean, he's Okinawan, so he might've liked swimming or surfing when he was a kid (sorry for the stereotype, but hey to be fair Tsunami did it too!). He looks like he'd generally be an athletic person, even if he doesn't dedicate himself fully to anything.
And that's realistic, too. It's a situation many teenagers go through. Seeing everyone be enthusiastic or passionate about something, while you don't even know if there's anything that you want to be doing in life. In this case, with no close friends and without your parents' reassurance or presence, on top of that.
So his condition to join Inazuma Japan could be something as simple as "I want enough money to be able to try out every activity/career/etc. that could interest me". What he REALLY wants is to find something that makes him passionate and lets him make friends — but he doesn't know yet that soccer will become exactly that for him.
The Moment he sees Shindou and Tsurugi do a Hissatsu together, though, completely in sync and with full trust in each other, is when he would think to himself that 'soccer can make people grow /that/ close, huh...' and inevitably get attracted to the idea of playing the sport.
Except, you know. In early Galaxy Shindou fucking hates everyone and he would be no exception. Any attempt to make friends with them and play real soccer with them would be met unkindly.
However, there's also the fact that Shindou can only rely on himself & Tsurugi for scoring this time around — and you need at least 2 players to pass the ball, so he can't hang back and play defensively like in normal Galaxy.
With 3 out of 4 of InaJapan's DF having never played a sport at all, and the 4th one being an injured ex-boxer, Tenma is the least irritating person to trust with defending. As much as it still irritates Shindou to have to trust anyone from this team.
And... you know Shindou and Ibuki's arc, with Ibuki trying to prove himself to Shindou? Yeah, in this BOTH Ibuki and Tenma would be trying to prove themselves to him askskdkdkfkf. I could imagine them ending up having some sort of rivalry to see who can become useful to the Raimon duo faster.
I don't know but the idea of Tenma just... getting to develop a close friendship with Tsurugi and Shindou way later than usual, but it ending up feeling completely natural for all of them, would be so sweet and sad at the same time,,,. almost to the point they feel there was something "missing" in their lives before getting to meet each other 🥲
I have no idea how the season as a whole would develop, especially regarding the Tsurugi kidnapping and 'betrayal' stuff, since Tenma plays a key role in it originally, but... that's for future me or someone else to figure out
Either way: my point is that I still think Tenma wouldn't grow to like soccer itself to a crazy degree like his GO self. Rather, he loves the connections that it lets him make, and thankfully fate allowed him to get to play the sport :>
#idk what possessed me to type all this but I've been having Thoughts about areori timeline go cast#matsukaze tenma#inago#inazuma eleven#long post#.txt
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The GUTS Mike Carrera had to look into his daughter's eyes and say "they're good people they're not gonna hurt you" AS TWO GROWN MEN ARE PUTTING THEIR HANDS ON HER DRAGGING HER AROUND WITH FULL FORCE.
I never hated Kie's parents before this season 'cause it's understandable for some parents to not be down with the illegal shit they do but they went full on abusive and tone deaf this season, your daughter believed her best friend died in front of her eyes, saw a man blow himself up on a boat, went missing for a month, she tells you she got kidnapped and saw someone get shot in front of her while being kept hostage AND WHAT DO YOU DO? Ambush her at her in her house to get sent away by strangers who are gonna lock her up in an unknown place!!
I HATE that they were sitting there in the final scene smiling at Kie, clapping for her, pretending to be the proud parents of their little girl, THEY FULL ON DESERVE TO LOSE THEIR DAUGHTER, FOR HER TO LOOK AT THEM IN THE EYES AND SAY "DONE, MY TRUST IS FOREVER DEAD"
I know JJ was biting his tongue so much this season in front of Mike ‘cause he was dealing with his own insecurities and didn't wanna gave into temptation of being exactly how they expected him to be in front of their eye but I hope once he starts to realize "you know what? I am enough for Kie and we're all we need" he has a big VERBAL fight with Mike, to just throw all of the truth in his face and leave him speechless while the realization of how they lost their daughter BY THEIR OWN ACTIONS slowly sinks in, for him to feel like shit realizing how much they let Kie down, I want to tell him “I might be my father son but you ain’t far from it either” DRAG HIM JJ!!!
Right? How did they not think there was a better way to go about that? Even if they had their mind set on Kitty Hawk why have some strange men grab her and throw her in a car? SICK! Also, maybe just get your daughter some therapy or something before sending her away from her support system. It's so wild that they get her back after probably thinking she was dead and decide to send her away again.
I have to hope that we will get more exploration of their current relationship in S4 and that them being at the ceremony was a bit misleading. There is no way Kiara went back to that house after El Dorado.
I love a good Mike vs JJ showdown and would die for another. Not just to have a moment where Kie has someone to fully go to bat for her but also because what amazing character growth for JJ to say "all I have to offer is unconditional love and loyalty but I know that's enough
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knowing your partner can potentially make writing together a lot easier.
– BASICS.
✧ NAME: Aspie
✧ PRONOUNS: she/her
✧ SEXUALITY: forever questioning whether it's female-leaning bisexual or lesbian - either way, girls pretty <3
✧ TAKEN OR SINGLE: single (and not planning to change it anytime soon)
– THREE FACTS.
✧ on the autistic spectrum (diagnosed asperger's syndrome); anime manga games literature and mythology are some of my special interests
✧ used to have bad anxiety problems until recently but therapy's working wonders nowadays
✧ my heart beats slower than normal (60 beats per minute rather than 65), my walking speed is slightly faster than normal and i can walk for a long time without getting tired if i keep my rhythm, but if i try to sprint i collapse in 0,000001 seconds flat
– EXPERIENCE.
✧ HOW LONG (MONTHS / YEARS?): since december 2016 sooooo almost 8 eight years???? time sure flies asdfghjkl
✧ PLATFORMS YOU’VE USED: tumblr and discord
✧ BEST EXPERIENCE: just all the wonderful people i was lucky to meet and befriend, some of them have been around for years and i adore all of them <3
– MUSE PREFERENCES.
✧ FEMALE OR MALE: based on all the muses i've had over the years i'd say male ones, though gender has little to do with my choice, i just like characters with a snarky personality or side
✧ FLUFF, ANGST OR SMUT: i'm too weak to write full-blown angst (hyper-empathy is a bitch), i'm more of a hurt/comfort kinda gal, that's my jam. Fluff and smut are a-okay too
✧ PLOTS OR MEMES: *inserts road to el dorado miguel & tulio meme* both? both. both is good. I like memes, they're easy for me to answer and good ice-breakers and i adore plotting dynamics ooc, nothing makes me happier
✧ LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: depends on my mood, inspiration and focus but usually i try to write semi-long replies
✧ BEST TIME TO WRITE: usually in the evening after i've had dinner and settled in bed so i can chill for a few hours before sleep time
✧ ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S): it depends i guess? Which is both a good and bad thing depending on the muse since *gestures to muse roster* i'd kill to have maurice and georgette's confidence, irl i'm shy and bookish like murasaki and a little introverted but also curious like ted, and i'd say my mood can sometime swing like arthur's (again, hyper-empathy and hypersensitivity are bitches, one moment you're happy as can be, the other you're angry with the world because of some minor inconvenience orz)
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A Summoner Birthday
Here's a link to the previous post:
https://pof203.tumblr.com/post/718336387878912000/a-summoner-birthday
Battle ahead.
Enemies:
Red Bodyguard
Blue Bodyguard
Green Bodyguard
Hakumen
Xototl
Preselected characters:
Lupin
Wakan Tanka
Alp
Bigfoot
Boogeyman
Selected character:
Goemon
Story (Chapter 1 Part 3)
You feel a little groggy at first, but you get over it quickly... You open your eyes.
Candyland, it's been a long time.
You spot your friends closeby.
So this is the land of dreams! It's a foodie's paradise!
You haven't seen anything yet, Ryota. They have stations were you can make your own sweets.
Really? I should give that a try. What about you, Shiro? I heard you made wonderful sweets last Valentines.
...
Let's save that for later. We should take a look around here.
Maria: Alright.
Shiro: (happy and whispering) Thank you.
Hey, did anyone see where Mr. Boogeyman and the others went?
You're right. Weren't they just with us?
Look out! Here I come!
Everyone: Holy shoot!
Ha ha ha ha ha! I am sorry. I couldn't resist.
Y- You idiot! You scared me half to death! What kind of teacher are you?!
Boogeyman: (still laughing) An elementary school teacher.
Kenta: No doubt about that.
Now that we're all here, shall we get started. (takes out his staff) Since we're all in a virtual world, the App is pretty much already open. So we can do the spell right here and now.
I'm ready, Bigfoot.
Lupin: And me. And the rest of us.
Bigfoot: Then let's begin.
Role of the Wanderer, Rule of Guidance, engrave mine name, Bigfoot of the Snowy Mountain Tribe, unto thee.
Begin my spell!
Like before, Bigfoot strikes his staff on the ground and Wakan Tanka Infinity is wrapped in a glowing green cocoon. After a short time, the cocoon vanishes... and Wakan Tanka emerges.
(gasping a bit) Wow, it's so good to be this form again. I almost forgot what it's like.
Lupin: (very happy) Same here.
Shiro: It's so good we could be here today.
And what a day it'll be since it'll be forever to us in this world. So, what do you guys wanna do first?
Boogeyman: I suggest fighting a dragon in the forest. Or maybe swimming with the merfolk.
Lupin: I think just a nice picnic in the valley should be fine.
???: Just a picnic? Now that's not very exciting.
You are all shocked by some mysterious intruders that suddenly appear.
We're in a world of magic and wonder where aging practically doesn't exist. You have to do something way more spicy.
Maria: (upset) Hakumen?! What are you doing here?
Hakumen: Oh, just a little game for your little birthday party.
I'm sorry, Itzamna, Quetzalcoatl. Though we are from El Dorado, my loyalty is first and foremost to Lady Hakumen. The same to you, Lady Maria. Men, onward!
Many guards started marching through the gingerbread village and began taking sweets and treats from the visitors saying that if they want them, they either have to pay up or swear loyalty to Hakumen.
Boogeyman: This doesn't look good. If this keeps up, there's no telling what will happen. We need to put a stop to this before things get out of hand.
Alp: You put so much work into this world, Boogeyman. We can't let the Tycoons ruin it. I'm in.
Bigfoot: I'll lend a hand, too.
Lupin: And me.
Wakan Tanka: (laughing) That's My Lupin. Always wanting to help... Alright, I'll fight, too. Not a bad way to show everyone that even in this form, I still got it.
Lupin: I'm so happy we can fight side-by-side again.
Wakan Tanka: Then let's do it!
Kick-Off!!
The battle begins.
To be continued...
#my birthday#birthday#tokyo afterschool summoners#housamo#wakan tanka infinity#wakan tanka#shiro motoori#kengo takabushi#ryota yakushimaru#choji iimori#maria (housamo)#kenta inukai#moritaka#boogeyman#bigfoot#zabaniyya#alp#hakumen#xototl
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Find the word
Sorry to @justnerdy15. You tagged me forever ago and I'm just now getting to it.
My words were Run, Eye, Danger, Moon, and injury. Most of these are from a first draft, straight from the dome so please bear with me.
Im tagging @aohendo @sergeantnarwhalwrites @ezestreet @marinesocks and anyone else who wants to participate. Your words are: grab, taste, scent/smell, fight, soft
Run
Tazer runs towards Boss, her arms retracting giving her more momentum. At the end of her run, just before getting in bosses range, she jumps, digging both of her heels into his solar plexus. The attack loosens his grip on her wrists. She lands on her back and shoots an uppercut. Boss is quick so she only finds his beard.
Danger
Geoff laughs. "Damn. El Dorado was right." His two right fists smash into my side. One hits my tit, the other just below my ribs. "I gotta take you seriously." Two hands grab my my waist, dangerously close to grabbing my ass. The other two find the back of my skull and brings my head to Geoffs. Its enough to break my nose first try. All of the hands release their grip, letting me fall to the floor.
Eye
Boss isn't gentle putting me down. He doesn't drop me, but he has no reaction when I let a cry out as my back touches the table he sets me on.
"Wow" a voice says "He did a number on her" I feel latex touch my skin. "Contact dermatitis, broken nose, swelling around the eyes, damage to the esophagus. That last kick mightve broken her back." I hear the snapping as the disembodied voiced takes off their gloves and puts their hands on me.
I havent used the word moon so in doing Night
"So how long does it take?" The blonde girl asks.
"Depends. It’s a slow night, then one or two. On a good day? I've gotten six guys in one night." Tazer says. "I've gotten at least one every time I've gone fishing though."
The fuck are they talking about?
Fishing?
Injury, despite having a story about an underground fighting ring, i haven't used the word injury. Instead, this is an excerpt from something my GF wrote that takes place in the fighting ring. Its about an injury
“Looks like you have two options. Either you play along for a bit, and help me learn more about your affliction. You know, offer some value to the medical field.” I explain as I unlock it and snap open the clasps. “Or, you can be an uncooperative punk ass. I’ll fix up those stains, of course, and you’ll still get your money, but you’ll have to blow all of that- and then some- at the ER. You’ll be broke and in agony for months, when you could’ve had it fixed here instantly. So, what’ll it be?”
“You’re a doctor, you can’t do that.”
“Nurse. Was.” I say gently. “I can’t even remember the Hippocratic oath. But, hey, if it makes you feel any better, neither do any of those fuckers over in Baylor. So, what’ll it be?”
If you made it this far, thank you.
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Book 67, 2023
Lloyd Alexander is best known for his coming-of-age Welsh-inspired Prydain Chronicles but one of the great things about older children's authors is if they weren't shackled to a ghostwritten forever series, they could just follow their bliss. I read one of Alexander's French revolution inspired books earlier this year and "The El Dorado Adventure" is from yet another series which has nothing to do either either of those.
The Vesper Holly books are historical fiction about an orphaned Philadelphian heiress in the 1870s.
Who goes on wild film serial and pulp novel adventures with her anxious guardian.
And has a evil genius arch nemesis.
It's everything a ten-year-old girl could want.
"The El Dorado Adventure" finds Vesper the inheritor of mysterious land in made-up-central-American-country and there's roguish riverboat captains and daring train escapes and untrustworthy land developers and a VOLCANO and feminism and how if your choice is between white guys and Indigenous people with firearms you should support the Indigenous people AND A VOLCANO.
It's a fast little book, almost every chapter ending in a cliffhanger, with an attitude towards Indigenous people that are nuanced and respectful, considering this is a children's novel by a white American published in the 1980s.
You know what else was a popular children's novel in the 1980s (and into the 1990s because I know I read it)? "The Indian in the Cupboard".
Vesper's enthusiasm and openness to the native-people-of-made-up-central-American-country, her instant empathy and certainty that their land belongs to them and shouldn't be taken from them by anyone, feels like a big deal, even if she does end up saving the day. I think some of the edge is taken off the potential white saviour vibe by the fact that it's made clear that Vesper exists in a society where she's constantly underestimated and her opinions aren't taken seriously by most people. She brings up the idea of women being equal members of the tribe with the chief and she's very frank about the fact that America hasn't figured equality out yet either.
Alexander also lets Vesper have the children's novel version of worldly/exotic love interest that the hero gets to have in the male version of these stories which feels incredibly progressive for, well, now, although I see that Alexander published a Vesper Holly novel in 2005, just a couple years before his death. Maybe Vesper has acquired a token boy companion and love interest by then.
It's just nice when a children's author lets a girl have wild and dangerous adventures with a devil-may-care attitude without any kind of moral or instructional subtext.
Let girls break windows and smash people over the head with random items of furniture.
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no pressure to answer rn but What r those opinions on representation in the experimental era owo
YESSS okay well if i went through each film individually i think id be here for a good few days. so i'll try to keep it brief as possible. also since we're talking about people of color im probably only gonna mention emperors new groove, atlantis, lilo and stitch, and brother bear since everything else was either exclusively white or about like. animals or something. though im sure something can also be said about coding john silver to be considerably darker than the other characters in treasure planet but i'll have to think about that a little more
a very general trend, i would say, is that since a lot of experimental era stories are characterized by NOT being based on public domain content or fairytales, so the decision to make the characters be of color seems less like an obligation as it did with their older films like mulan or aladdin. and i think that sort of lends itself to how pretty much NONE of these four movies seem like classic "disney" movies or even by the same studio when you put them side by side. there was a looot more experimentation with style instead of disneys sameface so a lot of the characters actually seemed to HAVE ethnic features instead of being the same cgi template that sort of just looks like elsa or rapunzel but Brown. i really love this era in general specifically because all the movies seemed to be doing their own thing stylistically. id argue that creative freedom also ended up bleeding into showing different cultures in their stories too for this era at least
ohhh man okay well im gonna talk about atlantis first because it is SHIT when it comes to representation its a horrible white savior narrative. i do still like the art style, a lot of the side characters are interesting but they are all ultimately just that. side characters. kida herself is horribly sexualized and reduced to a plot device + love interest DESPITE initially showing hints of a personality before turning into said plot device but you know. anyways representation-wise atlantis is a white savior story through and through but i think what makes that sting more is that an INSANE amount of thought was put into literally every other aspect of the film. they literally got the guy who invented klingon for star trek to make up the entire language of atlantean for their 90-something-minute movie, only to have it barely show up or even get mentioned in the final thing. the first two acts of the movie and original script were 2 hours and 150 pages long, respectively. but they didnt give a shit researching about any specific culture for the atlanteans it makes me so mad. BUT i think atlantis is important to address talking about representation in this era of disney because its just a really good lesson on what not to do lmao especially in the sense of making a character ambiguously brown.
OK emperors new groove. i could go on forever actually. especially considering the original version was supposed to be kingdom of the sun which was this huuuge fancy traditional disney-style musical about kuzco falling in love with some peasant girl (if youre curious about that btw definitely check out the documentary the sweatbox! its on youtube), and i think ultimately turning the movie into a comedy is what saved it. i think there would have been a lot of issues with representation had it actually tried to be a renaissance-style story. but INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH. this movie actually sparked a debate on indigenous land rights, because the original ending had kuzco raze a rainforest to build kuzcotopia, and sting, who worked on the soundtrack, ended up pointing out how insensitive that is particularly because the story features indigenous south americans even if the movie's not a "serious" one. i absolutely hate when this movie gets compared to el dorado just because they came out the same year and feature indigenous south americans and theyre both "haha funny" because emperors new groove actually Did end up sparking a meaningful discussion on indigenous portrayals, surprisingly, AND it doesnt have a horrible white savior story or sexualize any brown people. that being said though it does still have the trope of a person of color becoming an animal. i think its like...easier to forgive here given the story context but like. still a tiring trope. -_- SO YEAH while this movie is obviously NOT a pinnacle of representation i find it really interesting how it basically set the stage for turning to cultures that arent white for their stories even before lilo and stitch ended up truly opening the gates for that in mainstream animated films.
and lilo and stitch i believe ive already sort of given a rundown on hfkjghkj but i do always contrast it with brother bear in the sense that lilo and stitch had a story that was built around the culture they decided for the movie, while brother bear quite LITERALLY had the inuit culture slapped onto the story. like would you believe me if i said the original story for brother bear was based off king lear. and it was about actual bears, not a guy who turned into one. one thing especially that i compare with these two movies is that lilo and stitch had an actual hawaiian chorus for their songs, while brother bear had phil collins and a BULGARIAN WOMEN'S CHOIR for the transformation sequence. because they thought it sounded "mystical" and "foreign" enough it makes me sooo mad. and of course the trope of a person of color becoming an animal again. yeah i dont have tooo too much to say about brother bear's rep mostly because of how last minute a lot of the movie's decisions regarding it were. i also need to point out this is michael eisner's fault as well. he wanted more films about animals because he wanted to relive the success of the lion king, so we ended up with something that was made even worse in context because it was supposed to be about Just Animals and then the idea of putting people of color in there was added in afterwards.
UMMM so my general consensus of representation in the experimental era is that i think emperors new groove actually surprisingly opened up the idea for it but then lilo and stitch ultimately ended up bringing it more mainstream. but atlantis and brother bear are both important to look at too because they show how ultimately, this era was about disney trying to relive its renaissance glory INCLUDING the racism from that era. but more creative freedom in the 2d departments because of the supposed "death" of 2d animation ended up allowing for some freedom in storytelling too even if it wasnt always necessarily Good representation. okay hopefully this all makes sense bye <3
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On Agartha
Been a while since I’ve written a long text post, most of all one about Fate.
It honestly inspires a lot of rambling in me, after all. But I don’t think, this time, it’s due to its good writing, the emotions it makes me feel, or anything good.
This, my friend, is about Agartha.
I should probably prelude that this contains a metric shit ton of Agartha spoilers. If you haven’t seen Agartha, and you’re actually wanting to see the story -- scroll past. But, having played through Agartha completely and rested on the story for a bit, I think I want to repeat what everyone else has for ages lol.
Agartha, on paper, is incredible.
A subterranean world built off fantastical story off fantastical story, made by a woman known for her ability to weave story after story, within stories, on the fly, and from a database of every possible Arabian Nights tale.
Where the fear Scheherazade has due to Shahryar's endless abuse and fearmongering has stretched even to men as a whole due to literal years of having to survive Shahryar. Where the only leaders were queens, where the only rebellion force was a man so horrifically corrupt that he'd easily fall for the tricks she played.
Her intent -- to reveal magecraft forever, removing any power magecraft has, saving her from ever having to fight and face kings -- and die -- ever again.
That... sounds pretty good when I describe it that way, huh?
Now if only it were executed with any modicum of sense.
From the beginning, Agartha's writing struck me as remarkably odd. It was like I was watching someone desperately try to emulate Nasu's writing style -- but had absolutely no idea what made Nasu's writing so good.
Its exposition dumps, rather than being interesting, ended up being thoroughly boring -- as they focused on the mundane, like the fact that moss glows to light up the landscape -- instead of the magical implications of a world like Agartha even existing to begin with. Albeit, with the mystery of Agartha at that time, we can safely assume that there wasn't much to focus on, but then why spend so damned long talking about this stuff?
The worldbuilding, while passable, feels fairly flawed in execution. The idea of a world made the way Agartha was could've made for some interesting commentary about the way men treated (and still do treat) women in modern society, but Agartha not only misses the point, but tumbles head-over-ass into the uncanny valley and makes the whole thing sound like a continent-wide BDSM session. There's barely any actual subtle or well-done symbolism to showcase misogyny in this way -- and while hyperbole can serve a good point at times, the hyperbole combined with the strangely sexual writing of these segments makes it feel less like commentary and more like a badly-done doujin.
For example -- El Dorado was as simple as it gets. Men are slaves/breeding machines/whatever. The whole 'breeding machine' thing is played off extensively, even with Penth -- a minor at this stage, mind you -- comments on using the protagonists as such breeding machines. I'll come back to this later, because this serves as another point.
Ys was a fucking cool concept -- a world ruled entirely by rampant consumerism and chaos. Men, in this world, are still second-class citizens, pretty much the playthings of the women around them. I say that Ys is the best kingdom comparatively, as it was at least more bearable than its other kingdoms, but it still felt weirdly sexual in its writing tone. Of course, following tone, Dahut (who I'll get back to later) smashes men constantly, and is very keen on fucking Guda as well, following a trend. It's played for comedy, mostly, but it's still uncomfortable as all hell. Even so, I note it's more bearable because it's a very slightly more subtle take on the whole 'misogyny' allegory -- these people are using men for basically whatever they want, and tossing them away after. I'd compare it to a few true crime cases of people who murdered, or assaulted women for no good reason at all, purely out of a want that was either denied (for good reason), or that the want itself was to inflict harm. While the allegory still does feel unintentional here, it's at least slightly less unintentional. It was probably mostly just by accident due to Agartha's generally uncomfortable writing style, but the allegory here feels a little more potent when it's not so blatantly a BDSM fic.
I hate the Nightless City, despite it again being a cool concept. A 'utopia' where speaking out at all means death -- where men are in concept free citizens, but in practice fall victim to the law if they look at someone funny. Again, in concept, great allegory. The law does not treat men and women the same -- and while it differs depending on the case which is preferred, the vast majority of the time, women are pretty much shafted by the legal system (see Brock Turner), especially in very conservative areas. Cases can be made for both genders being shafted, of course -- but for the purpose of this allegory, picking out the prejudices of the legal system against gender is a fair critique. But, like everything else Agartha does, these neat ideas fall flat in practice.
They barely touch at all on the allegory, and nobody seems to even realize it in the cast, making me further believe the allegories aren't intentional at all. In due fact, it's as if the writer didn't even realize that this could be read as an allegory. The men's plights make some sense, as they were yoinked out of nowhere into a world that hates them. But the Servants and Guda don't think about it at all past the 'wow men are slaves that sucks' -- barely even considering that this could be an allegory the world's creator made due to their own horrific circumstances. They do point this out, but to my knowledge, it's very late -- when Scheherazade's called on her bluff, only then is it ever mentioned, and only in passing at that. If anything, the fact they point this out so close to the ending makes the ending itself that much more insulting.
But before I get to the ending, I think there's something else about Agartha that sets the scene for just how awful it is -- and that's the way the characters are written, and the dialogue that comes of it.
For this, I'll split it up into the characters who portray this the most. I'll even describe their personalities in Agartha's context.
Guda: Crouching pervert, hidden Mash stan. A few non-sequiturs of Guda complimenting Mash despite the mood being completely broken by it. Guda's incapable of taking a situation seriously in Agartha, even when the world's basically due to be changed forever. They keep cracking jokes, creeping on Astolfo/d'Eon, and other such things even when people are literally dying all around him. For that matter, I clearly recall the scene where -- for no real reason -- Guda just changes gears with Mash in tow, and starts trying to decipher d'Eon's gender. There's absolutely no real context to this, nor any reason for Guda to do this. Further noted is the fact Guda has worked with d'Eon before, and should've probably realized d'Eon's situation by this point. The Nasuverse has always been a bit, er, behind on gender norms and such, but it's so prevalent in any scene with d'Eon it hurts -- especially in that particular scene.
Astolfo: Oddly enough, the most tolerable person here (sans one other person). Agartha's refusal to take itself seriously works remarkably well for Astolfo. And while Astolfo isn't exactly written well here either, the fact that Astolfo's always been a bit loopy makes them seem, well, more in character. They're responsible for some of the funnier moments in Agartha, with their input composing approximately 3/4 of the, like, seven or eight funny moments in Agartha proper. Even so, Astolfo's appearance sometimes hurts Agartha as much as they help it, probably since Astolfo is a bit of the reason Agartha won't take itself seriously.
d'Eon: Deserved fucking better. The previously mentioned scene was the worst offender by far in my eyes, with it coming out of fucking nowhere. d'Eon's paired with Astolfo as a buddy and fighting partner, which itself could've made for good material -- instead, d'Eon is constantly dragged into Astolfo's fanservice-y gimmicks, and d'Eon themselves are pretty often creeped on by Guda. I'd go out on a limb to say that d'Eon's implied dislike of gendered clothing (see the maid outfit) made their scenes wearing such outfits far more uncomfortable, especially with how distinctly sexual the Agartha humour is. I just hated it.
Columbus: I can't fucking believe I'm saying this, but Columbus was the funniest character in Agartha. And I don't even think that was intentional. Something about how unabashedly horrible he was caught me completely off guard -- I thought he'd end up sort of like Napoleon at a glance, someone whose Spirit Origin was completely changed due to Europe's collective worship of the dude -- but holy FUCK was I wrong. Something about the hilariously cursed faces Columbus pulls, combined with his loud-and-proud irredeemable evilness, made him a blast to watch -- and an even bigger blast to beat the shit out of. His, uh, toothy grin still cracks me up even a few weeks after playing it.
Penthesilea: One of a very large amount of people who really deserved better. She barely ever shows up -- and when she does, she voices her desire to turn Guda and co. into a breeding machine/slave (recall she's like. 16?), and pretty much throws the whole 'reasonable-ish zerk' thing out the window instantly, because Agartha decided to forego decent writing in favour of 'funny berserker hates achilles haha brrrrrr,' therefore losing pretty much all the characterization they could've given her. The lack of 'alternate views' that show her in greater detail make this far worse, which I'll go into later.
Dahut: God, wasted potential out the asshole! A woman who made an entire world that fucked around and needlessly consumed stuff, she's the epitome of such a belief. But that's all she is. I'd be able to forgive this awful writing if Scheherazade, who 'implanted' Drake onto Dahut, was a bad writer -- but she's fucking Scheherazade! Dahut's a completely flat character, who constantly tries to bed (and kill) Guda, and generally likes the idea of needless consumption. That's literally it. Again, could be explained if Dahut had difficulty keeping control of Drake's body and conscience -- but this isn't explored either! She's just a walking, talking missed opportunity.
Wu: God, look at her design. Do I even need to say more?! She falls under the same problem that the other rulers do -- shallow characterization, no opportunities to flesh them out, etc.
Scheherazade: She could've been so fucking amazing. Scheherazade's story is one ripe with interpretations the Fate series so loves to utilize -- and on paper, her character is amazing. It'd only be natural for someone like Schez to be this deeply traumatized after so many days on death's door -- not many could really get through that okay. The incredible storyteller who fears death, kings, and unconsciously, men as a whole -- creating Agartha as a subtle way of ensuring none of them harm her while she prepares her ultimate plan of revealing magecraft to the entire world. However, as with the other Agartha characters, she becomes cripplingly one-note. Bringing her fear of death above all else, she comes off as an unreasonable asshole, constantly freaking out about death and preserving exclusively herself to a fault. While one could argue it's partially due to a Pillar's influence, Phenex doesn't seem to have a hold on her at all -- it's a basic alliance, and nothing more, as the ending shows us. It just leaves her as a one-note death avoider, with no other character traits at all. I'd go into further detail, but I'm saving that for later.
Fergus: God fucking damnit, man. A literal child version of Fergus, who the entire cast constantly expects to sexually harass every woman in sight. He's a one-note flanderization of Fergus, just without the one character trait Agartha gave Fergus. It just makes him... boring, a character whose only character trait is his refusal to hit a woman. Like... Come on. The fact the entire team is so sure this literal child will start trying to hit on women is just uncomfortable to witness, and the fact he slowly starts gaining these traits feels less like him 'meeting his fate' as Fergus, and more like Agartha wants an excuse to sexually harass more of the cast.
The Fucking Ending
I'm giving this its own category, because of just how much of a punch to the face it was.
In short -- the plan to reveal magecraft is revealed, more jokes are made, bla bla bla. Agartha can't keep a serious mood at all.
...But the final few scenes take it to a whole other extreme.
Wu Zetian comes out of nowhere despite being squashed by Megalos earlier, stuffing Phenex into a pit of her weird water shit, placing Phenex in a state of 'life and death.' Child Fergus then sac's his own Spirit Origin to summon Fergus inside himself(???), thus gaining the power of Caladbolg to weaken Phenex enough for the player to destroy.
...However, Child Fergus just summoned Fergus inside his own body.
So, what happens when you put Agartha!Fergus, a one-note sexual harasser, into the body of a child?
You get the final scene of Agartha.
For some reason, I guess you need more help from others to take out Phenex. To this end, Fergus decides to convince Schez to join their side.
I'd like you to recall that FGO!Scheherazade is implied to have the trauma of Shahryar's abuse, sexual and physical, burned into her memory -- not just the whole death thing. In every form of the story, Shahryar abuses her in such a fashion almost nightly. It's to the point where Schez' first line of defence, and much of her skills, are as much oriented around storytelling as they are charm and seduction (moreso the former than the latter, albeit), because her defence mechanism was that as much as it was storytelling, to keep her abuser happy. This is a part of why Agartha is the way it is -- to keep such men away from her. Hell, there's not a single King in sight, save technically Fergus, and Chaldea's d'Eon and Astolfo.
Fergus knows this. Hell, he heard this being called out. He's well aware how terrified she is.
So, what does he do?
SEXUALLY HARASS HER.
He claims she has to live to have kids. That men and women have to live to have kids.
He claims that she should live, because he'd smash her.
...Now, that's insulting enough -- moreso, that it's played dead serious. Nobody even as much as calls him on such a shitty persuasion tactic, and nobody even mentions how awful it is to sexually harass a woman who'd been sexually assaulted at best for the better part of almost three straight years.
AND IT. FUCKING. WORKS.
SCHEHERAZADE. IS IMPLIED. TO BE INTO IT.
And because of this, she's swayed to join the heroes and seal Phenex away for good -- giggling about how Fergus' worldview was partially correct even as she fades away.
The epilogue features Fergus, sexually harassing Scheherazade ON SIGHT -- calling out 'tits on my 12:00' or whatever, as Scheherazade darts off. However, Schez isn't avoiding him due to trauma.
She's avoiding it because, while she's into it, she doesn't want to 'die' so fast.
This fucking ending highlights among the biggest issues with this damned Singularity. Even Blavatsky coming out of fucking nowhere to Deus Ex Machina a grail and help into Guda's hands -- despite seemingly being slaughtered by Columbus in a (admittedly a bit funny) way to get the base of the Resistance -- means nothing to me compared to the blatant slaughter of two characters at once.
Fergus is a total horndog even outside of Agartha's reach, but he even notes he respects his partners' consent, and doesn't overstep his bounds if he makes them uncomfortable.
Scheherazade isn't exactly trusting in the slightest, least of all in Agartha - she barely even begins trusting Guda due to Guda treating her with actual respect. Even then, she isn't actively prostrating herself for Guda in that sense, very likely due to the fact that's more of a defence mechanism to her rather than something she'd enjoy, due to extreme trauma. Albeit, Fate writing does leave the possibility in the air for Guda specifically, but that's very likely just due to Guda being Guda and being careful to treat her properly and help her than anything else (and also the whole 'self insert harem' thing, I guess, but that's a hell of a lot easier to ignore esp in contrast to Agartha)
And yet, we see that epilogue, that butchers both of them in one fell swoop so badly that I almost ended up hating both of them.
Agartha's biggest problem is that it tried to be deep and intriguing, while having the writing quality of the goddamned Valentine's events. It picked all the right characters to have an incredibly intriguing storyline, and fell flat because the author decided that playing sexual harassment, d'Eon's everything, and even the most serious scenes for comedy was more important than telling a story even half as meaningful as the chapters before it.
Lo and behold -- to my knowledge, Minase wrote it. Of course he did.
He chose the best, the most interesting characters he could find, and made them so fucking one-note that the story lost all its charm in moments. He chose to emulate Nasu without understanding what made Nasu's writing so good. He chose to make Agartha a laugh fest despite simultaneously trying to make it 'deep.' He chose to fall head-over-ass over a possibly interesting allegory into misogyny and fall right into sexualizing it to the point of feeling like a femdom BDSM fic. And go figure the only character he did decently was Christopher fucking Columbus.
I have a hatred for Agartha I can't reasonably place anywhere else. Prillya was just as shitty, but I ignored it, because Prillya itself wasn't great, so of course the crossover sucks too. Valentine's events written by him weren't great, but whatever, it's a Valentine's event.
Septem, written by someone else, was similarly not great. But it wasn't insulting. It simply wasn't great, and had a lot of wasted potential.
But its ending wasn't out of character to the point of being insulting. Its story didn't make incredible mythological and historical figures too infuriating to like anymore. It didn't almost ruin entire Fate characters for me.
Not the way Agartha did.
I should probably contextualize that Scheherazade is among my favourite mythological figures. I introduced myself to her through Magi (lmao) due to further research into the base stories -- as well as a favourite Magic: The Gathering card, Shahrazad, which forced you to play a game within your game, like how Arabian Nights featured stories within stories.
Even in Fate outside of Agartha, I liked her. Her design didn't make much sense to me considering her character, but whatever, I didn't need to think too hard of it. It's just a design, and despite my hatred of Penth's design, I still love Penth as a character, so I can handle Schez.
But Agartha painted her in such a way that all the subtlety and interesting parts of Schez went completely out the window. No longer was there any hidden references to the aftereffects of her life beyond 'i dun wan die,' and there was hardly an ounce of sympathy or kindness in her bones at all. While her being an anti-hero made some sense, especially as she was only a normal person with far above-average storytelling prowess, there was a point when she stopped being a 'good, but terrified person' and started being a complete asshole. And Agartha was that time. If it weren't for her Interlude, which redeemed her considerably, and Ooku, which did wonders for her character despite being written by Minase (as I believe Nasu was overseeing him at that point), I very likely would've never gone for her at all, despite my love of the myth.
In Conclusion
This rant is just to say that Agartha is bad. Horrific. Insulting, even. At every step where it could've been good, it tumbled head-over-ass into the most insulting, uncomfortable shit you could imagine. It failed to take itself seriously, and paced itself like a comedy event, but simultaneously acted as if it expected its audience to take it seriously. Like a clown brigade deciding to take on Les Mis, it loses all of its punch when every few lines is interrupted by a jab at Fergus, sexual harassment, or something that comes close to being cool before suddenly turning into a badly-timed joke, or suddenly becoming laden with dialogue so sexual it feels straight out of a porno.
It's aggravating, awful, and with only brief reprieves of bareable comedy in between long, long lengths of hellish text and awful characterization.
The only good part was the gameplay -- which, laden with interesting mechanics not seen elsewhere, was legitimately fun.
My take? Avoid all Agartha cutscenes and plot, and just play the gameplay. The gameplay's fun, and if enjoyed on its own, would probably make for a far better experience than observing the story surrounding it. But good gameplay doesn't make up for a horrible story, especially in a game where plot is as important as it is in F/GO.
Agartha's a pile of shit in my eyes, but that's ultimately only my opinion, and nothing more. If others have an opinion counter to mine, that's completely fine -- and don't let this analysis ruin your fun with Agartha if you enjoyed its plot. To be frank, I'd be happy if you enjoyed it where I could not. And if you think my takes are misinformed, or if I missed a spot (or overreacted to a spot), that's what the reblogs and comments are for! I'm definitely not the kind of dude who has the final say in matters like this -- this is only what I picked up.
Thank you for reading!
#fate grand order#fate#f/go#fate/grand order#mash kyrielight#agartha#agartha fgo#tldr i hated it lol#agartha spoilers#rape tw#rape cw
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Mini Discography Discussion: Age of Peace
While H.O.T officially released five albums, they had other projects they did as well. One of these side projects was a movie called Age of Peace.
The Movie
Considering that H.O.T has had space/alien references since the Wolf & Sheep album promotions, it doesn’t seem that strange for them to do this - especially since futuristic space themes were big around the late 90s to 2000 - think of Zenon or Futurama.
Age of Peace was a movie starring H.O.T. It was basically the plot of Space Jam, but with soccer, a princess, and (allegedly) a dinosaur. It was released on July 15th, 2000 as Korea’s first 3-D movie and had a run-time of about 27 minutes. (Source) The film was only in select theaters for less than a week before it was pulled for being so bad and all film reels were destroyed. As you can guess, it never made it to home video, so that’s why there haven’t been any copies of this movie that have appeared anywhere online. Trailers and behind-the-scenes clips can be found on YouTube, but not the full film itself.
Even though a lot of money was sunk into this film and it involved top idols, it is surprising how poorly it was put together. We know this because recently Heejun and Tony talked about it and gave us the most comprehensive explanation for it to date. However, even though it was a train wreck, I’m sad that it wasn’t preserved and spread like Sechskies’ film Seventeen was. I know I would have loved to see Kangta fighting a dinosaur.
youtube
The Soundtrack
While the movie is probably lost, the soundtrack for it wasn’t. Surprisingly, when SM put H.O.T’s discography on streaming and digital download sites, they included this album as well. This is especially shocking considering that when SM wants to pretend like something didn’t happen, they make sure it’s gone forever.
The soundtrack for the film gives us a good idea about what the film would have sounded like. There are 10 tracks on the album, but H.O.T themselves only appear on 3 tracks (two of which are the same song, but one is shorter). I assume they didn’t appear on more tracks this is because it was such a short movie and they were probably also working on Outside Castle around this time.
Unlike other Discography Discussions, I’m going to be talking about the tracks in the order they’re listed as in the album. The reason why is that since this album was for a movie, these tracks are probably in the order they appeared in the film.
(And I’ll also to attempt to try to figure out what the movie would have been like. If you see a sentence in italics, it means I’m talking about what I think would have happened in the film when that song was playing. I have nothing to base it on, it’s just me thinking of what a movie in that time period was usually set up like. >.>)
Age of Peace - Instrumental
The opening track for the soundtrack is a very high-energy dance song. It definitely sounds like it would be at the start of the movie to set the tone for it.
I assume that this would be when opening credits were going on while showing off the setting.
OP.T (Operation Takeover)
This is the title track for the album and one of the tracks H.O.T appear on. It is also high-energy, but unlike “Age of Peace - Instrumental”, it doesn’t sound as dark. It talks about having to will to hang on and not give up. There’s a bit of a challenge there, as one of the lyrics says, “Get out my way huh what ya gonna say y′all punks?”. The word protect is used twice in this song, and two parts of the song seem to refer to a relationship:
I've always been waiting, I was where you weren't
I had to live in your last tears
Now I can breathe from the long longing. Help me
I am, I am alive in your heart
Also, I think it’s interesting how it ends with a garbled noise that sounds like it could have been from an alien.
Finally, for those of you who are big SM Conspiracy fans, you might be interested to know that cloning was mentioned as well: “Are you in a life that has been cloned now?“
(Lyrics Source)
I think this song would be going on when H.O.T is playing soccer to set up characters and that they’re good at soccer or something else that would be referenced later. It could also possibly be when the princess (played by Dana) would be introduced and a small connection to Kangta would be made. However, considering the title of the song, this might be when the bad aliens arrive. OP.T was probably the alien’s code name for their conquest.
OP.T, Pt. 1 - ‘사투 (死鬪)’
This track is purely instrumental and sounds like it’s meant to be at a crucial pivot to the story. 사투 means a desperate struggle or a fight to the death. Fun fact: 死鬪 is the Hanja for that, and “死” means death (if you see this character in Japanese or Mandarin, it means the same thing too). So basically, the title wants to make sure you understand that it’s not just a regular fight, it’s a rumble with serious and deadly consequences.
I think this would be when the stakes for the game against the aliens would be introduced. This would be when H.O.T would find out that if they fail, not only they would die, but also the princess and whoever else was around.
OP.T, Pt. 2 - ‘ZEUS’
This track is also instrumental and sounds kind of cool. The title of this track is probably referring to the alien’s soccer team that was called Zeus (which we know from the trailers).
This might be when Zeus was introduced and H.O.T finally saw their opponents for the first time. I also think this might have been when they received more information about how to win and save everyone.
THE BEST
This track features H.O.T and is probably aimed towards Zeus. It’s really upbeat and reminds me of EXO’s “El Dorado”. Part of the lyrics are about how they’re gonna win and there’s a feeling of hopefulness. However, some of the lyrics aren’t so sweet (for example: I'm gonna send ya straight to hell where you lose your soul).
I think this is during the first part of the soccer match. I believe this because the lyrics reference Tony and we know that at one point he gets injured during the match, so maybe him being down would put a fighting spirit into H.O.T or this would lead to Kangta running off. I think this would come towards the end of the scene when they’re ready to fight back considering the lyrics, “I can't withdraw anymore as much as the courage inside me, starting my own brilliant rebellion.”
TTTrack, Pt. 1 (Techno Time Track, Pt. 1)
This is an instrumental track that sounds very digital.
Considering the title, I think this could be when Kangta goes back in time to rescue the princess. I mainly think this way because the title makes sense when you think about the (supposed) dinosaur Kangta had to fight. On another note, it would make more sense for Kangta to go back in time to fight a dinosaur than for the aliens to bring one with them, to be honest. The only actual antagonist we know about is Zeus, but it’s possible that there were other aliens involved schemed beyond the soccer game. We also know the princess was in trouble at some point and Kangta had to defend her, so it was probably during this. Kangta/Dana’s scenes were probably between showing what was going on to the rest of H.O.T during his absence.
TTTrack, Pt. 2 (Techno Time Track, Pt. 2)
This track sounds very similar to the first part.
I think this could be wrapping up Kangta’s little adventure and him returning to H.O.T to help save the day. I assume there’s only so much time you can spend time traveling before it gets old.
OP.T (From ‘3D MOVIE Concert’ Scene)
This is the shortened version of “OP.T” from earlier. There are multiple videos on YouTube that claim to be the official MV for this, but they’re all cut differently. It’s possible that SM released multiple different ones, but I think it’s possible that at least one of them is just a fanvid.
From the clips and the title of the song, it appears like at some point H.O.T actually did have a concert during the movie. To me, the clips make it look like it was at the beginning of the movie, so it’s possible that this was during the beginning of the film to introduce H.O.T instead of the soccer game theory I had earlier. If that’s the case, then it means H.O.T are singers who get roped into playing the soccer game for some reason. Either way, this is hilarious. Imagine your favorite idol group or sports team getting dragged into playing a game to decide who wins a war between two countries. This reminds me of that kid president book, haha. However, it’s also possible that this was at the end to celebrate their win. We know for certain that this whole song appeared somewhere in the film, but just not when or why specifically.
OP.T - Instrumental
As you can guess from the title, this is the instrumental version of “OP.T”. It’s over 3 minutes long, so it’s the long version, not the short “OP.T (From ‘3D MOVIE Concert’ Scene)” one.
Considering that it’s an instrumental track, it probably came up either at the end of the film or as part of the ending credits. However, it also might not have made an appearance at all and is just for the soundtrack.
THE BEST - Instrumental
This one probably has a similar situation to the other one, so I’m not going to repeat my comments.
Secret Videos?
As I was doing research for this album, I noticed something interesting on the Naver Music page for it.
On Naver Music, it lists four additional tracks that aren’t on the digital album I own. These tracks aren’t available on iTunes or Spotify either. However, these aren’t MP3s, they’re mpg and avi files. Which means that they were video files. Interestingly, the titles of the clips mention 2D and 3D. Naver doesn’t have a link to them, so you can’t download or stream them. My theory is that they were short clips of the movie on the physical copies of the album. Especially considering that I remember getting CDs around this time that did something similar, where a player would come up with images, music from the album, and a clip of the MV for the title track. However, this is just a guess unless someone with an actual physical copy can say for sure.
Conclusion
Age of Peace the movie was basically a fever dream right before the release of H.O.T’s final album (Outside Castle). While the film itself is probably lost to time, we can at least be grateful that this soundtrack still exists. Also, unlike other SM blunders, this one is harmless and fun to speculate about.
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Songs
Song Emoji Key
🍵 = Comfort (This can include dealing with mental illness)
💫 = Fan (Songs that are either dedicated to the fans)
🥳 = Happy (just having a good time or about happy feelings; Celebrations)
😈 = Haunting (kind of crypt or tormenting; can mean Mischief)
💔 = Heartbreak (Losing love)
💘= Love (Love in general)
💥 = Power (Motivation or empowerment)
💧= Sad (Dealing with sad topics; depending on the context could also deal with mental illness)
🌶 = Spicy, (more XXX based songs)
‘Groups & Songs will be added as They Come out
Male Group
Ateez
Desire
From
HALA HALA (Hearts Awakened, Live Alive)
Intro: Long Journey 💥
Light
My Way 💥
Pirate King
Promise
Say My Name
Stay
Treasure
Twilight
BIG BANG
Flower Road 💫
Loser
Block B
Yesterday 💔
BTS
Blood, Sweat, & Tears
Boys with Fun
Converse High
Dope
Fake Love
Hold Me Tight
I Need U
Moving On
Outro: Love is Not Over
EXO
Artificial Love
Beautiful
Call Me Baby
Can’t Bring Me Down
Cloud 9
Don’t Fight The Feeling 💥
El Dorado
EXO 2014: Promise
Exodus
First Love
Heaven
Hurt
Ko Ko Bop
Lady Luck
Lotto
Love Me Right
Lucky One
Monster
My Answer
Obsession 😈💧
One and Only
Playboy
She’s Dreaming
Sing for You
Stronger
Tender Love
They Never Know
Transformer
What If...
White Noise
Tempo
GOT7
Back to Me 💔
Before the Full Moon Rises 🌶💘
Just Right
Nice 💘
Mine 💘😈
My Reaction 💔
Highlight
Plz Don’t be Sad 🍵
IKon
Love Scenario
Rhythm Ta
Mark & Xiumin
Young & Free
NCT
127
Angel 💘
Cherry Bomb
Baby Don’t Like It 🌶💔
Back 2 U (AM 01:27) 💔💥
Good Thing 🌶
Heart breaker
Limitless 💘💥
U
Baby Don’t Stop 🌶
The 7th Sense
Nu’est
Face💧💥
Hello
Nu’est W
Where You At
Sechskies
Be Well
Seventeen
Don’t Wanna Cry
Very Nice
Shinee
Body Rhythm 🌶
Close the Door
Colorful
Destination
Everybody
Lucifer 😈
One Minute Back
Queen of New York
Symptoms
View
Stray Kids
God’s Menu
Hellevator
Super Junior
Sorry Sorry
TXT
Anti- Romantic
Blue Orangeade
Cat & Dog
Crown
Nap of a Star
Our Summer
Wanna One
Spring Breeze
Winner
Really Really
Xiumin & Mark
Young & Free
Female Group
2ne1
I am the Best 💥
Come Back Home 💔
4Minute
Crazy
AOA
Good Luck
Apink
Mr. Chu
April
Tinker Bell
Aspea
Black Mamba
Forever
Next Level 💥😈
BLACKPINK
Bet You Wanna
Crazy Over You
How You Like That
Ice Cream
Love To Hate Me
Lovesick Girls
Pretty Savage
You Never Know
Brave Girls
Rollin
CLC
Hobgoblin 💥💘
Cosmic Girls
Dreams Come True 💘🍵
I Wish
Love O’Clock 💘
Renaissance
Starry Moment
Tick-Tock
Thawing
Dalshabet
Joker 🌶😈
Someone Like U
Dreamcatcher
Chase Me 😈
Everglow
Bon Bon Chocolat
D+1
Moon
EXID
Up & Down
F(x)
Red Light
Gfriend
Rough
Girls’ Generation
All Night 💘🌶
Baby Maybe
Bump It
Check
Dancing Queen
Express 999
Fan 🍵
Fire Alarm
Green Light
Gee
Girls are Back 💥
Holiday 💘🥳
It’s You 💫
I Got a Boy
Light Up the Sky 💘💧
Lion Heart
Look at Me
Lost in Love
Love is Bitter 💔
One Afternoon
One Last Time 💔💧
Only One
Paradise
Party
Promise
Romantic St.
Show Girls
Sign
Sweet Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk (2013)
You Think
Tears
XYZ
Girls’ Generation-TTS
Baby Steps 💘
Gugudan
Wonderland
I.O.I.
Downpour
Very Very Very
Itzy
Wannabe
KARA
Step
Mamamoo
You’re the Best
MINX
Love Shake
Miss A
I Caught Ya 💥💔
Love Song 💘
Melting💘💧
One Step 💧
Only You
Stuck 💘
Orange Caramel
Catallena
Red Velvet
Bad boy
Bing Bing
Carpool
Eyes Locked, Hands Locked
In & Out
Jumpin’
La Rouge
Ladies Night
Love is the Way
LP
Milkshake
Parade
Power Up
Psycho
Red Flavor
Remember Forever
Sunny Side Up
Umpah Umpah
Zimzalabim
Refund Sisters
Don’t Touch Me
Sistar
Lonely
Shake It
STAYC
ASAP
T-ara
Sugar Free
The Ark
The Light
TWICE
Chillax
Dance the Night Away
Deja Vu 💘
Ho!
Knock Knock
Say Yes
Shout Thru the Heart
Stuck
Sweet Talker
What is Love?
Weeekly
After School
Weki Meki
COOL
Wonder Girls
Why So Lonely
Co-ed Group
SSak3
Beach Again
Male Solo
Baekhyun (EXO)
Bambi
Kang Daniel (Wanna One)
Flash
Movie
Night
Runaway
Waves
Who U Are
Taemin (Shinee)
Ace
Danger
Experience
Play Me
Pretty Boy
Wicked
SUGA (BTS)
Intro: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life
Female Solo
BoA
Over Across the Time
Lee Hi
Blues
Breathe
Fxxk Wit Us
Hold My Hand
I’m Different
Missing U
Official
Passing By
Up All Night
Video
World Tour
IU
Autumn Morning 🍵💧
By the Stream 🍵
Everyday With You 💘
Last Night Story 💔
Secret Garden 🍵
Sleepless Rainy Night 💔💧
Sunny (SNSD)
Collar
Taeyeon (SNSD)
11:11
Cover Up
Curtain Call
Eraser
Feel So Fine
Fine
Fire
I Blame On You
I Got Love
I’m Ok
Lonely Night
Love in Color
Make Me Love You
Sweet Love
Time Lapse
Time Spent Walking Through Memories
Weekend
When I was Young
Seohyun (SNSD)
Hello 💘
Masterlist
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Winter rolls along! No baseball! That means catching up with more classic movies everybody’s seen but me!
The Sugarland Express (1974)
This is Steven Spielberg’s first big-screen feature (1971′s Duel was made for TV), and it’s amazing to think it arrived just a year before Jaws, which would change American movies forever.
It’s impossible to watch The Sugarland Express without analyzing it in terms of Spielberg style, which is too bad, because it can be enjoyed perfectly well if you don’t know who the director is. Yes, there are some trademark long takes and inventive camerawork -- the most famous bit is a tricky 360-degree shot inside the getaway car that’s particularly impressive because it’s so easy not to notice -- but this is also a great character movie.
Goldie Hawn’s Lou Jean is simultaneously conniving and childlike, ruthless and clueless, and Hawn brings a frantic intensity to the part. Her husband Clovis is doomed the moment Lou Jean puts her half-assed plan in motion, and William Atherton (of Die Hard fame) does a superb job with an understated role, in which Clovis’s real tragedy is how timidly he navigates the constrained possibilities of his life. They’re joined by Michael Sacks as a kidnapped state trooper, and the three make for a compelling ensemble -- people who understand each other and grasp that their circumstances could easily have been switched around by a chance here or there.
The movie’s ambitious and thoroughly modern -- it’s a chase movie and a marital comedy and a slice of social commentary, and it switches lanes with skill and self-confidence. Maybe it doesn’t quite stick the landing -- there’s a little too much movie blood and the sun-soaked last shot feels like a stylistic departure -- but the ending is gripping even though it unfolds the only way it could, and that’s a hard trick to pull off.
Extra credit because even a relatively uninformed movie fan like me will have a blast moving both forward and backward from The Sugarland Express -- it wouldn’t exist without Bonnie & Clyde, but Raising Arizona wouldn’t exist without it, to identify just two beads on an intriguing string.
Rio Bravo (1959)
Westerns are my comfort food -- give me the right proportions of dusty streets and swinging doors and cacti against sunsets and I’ll overlook a fair number of cinematic/narrative sins. And Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo whips up the classic ingredients with the nonchalant skill of a veteran short-order cook in a beloved diner -- a tumbleweed even rolls into one of the leads in the first reel, as if to say, “What? It’s a western!”
Rio Bravo is usually framed as a rebuke to High Noon and 3:10 to Yuma, which Hawks and John Wayne despised because those movies dared to depart from the western tropes of flinty-eyed, self-reliant sheriffs and frontier folk banding together. The film Hawks and Wayne made in response is rock-ribbed in its values, unfolds at a languorous pace, and is often mawkish. (It also jerks to a halt for back-to-back duets with Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson, while Wayne stands there and smiles.) It shouldn’t work -- and, to be clear, I don’t think it’s nearly as interesting as the movies it’s arguing with -- but it does.
For one thing, there’s immense skill brought to the storytelling and filmmaking. There’s a self-confidence behind that languor that draws you in, and while the characters are hoary stock figures, their interactions rarely if ever ring false. The actors are solid, too: Martin is a lot better than you might guess as Dude, the deputy with an alcohol problem; Nelson holds his own as a young gunslinger who doesn’t want to get involved but of course eventually does; Walter Brennan has a grand time bouncing off Martin and Wayne in their shared scenes; Angie Dickinson brings some shade and nuance to the role of a gambler’s widow trying to extricate herself from a checkered past; and the bit players are all threatening, comedic, hapless and helpful in the proportions you expect and want.
But unsurprisingly, Wayne is the secret weapon -- the story treatment for Rio Bravo didn’t bother giving his character a name, just calling him “John Wayne.” Imitations of Wayne focus on the swagger and the tough-guy talk but miss that his performances turn on the moments when his characters’ weaknesses undermine their strengths. Wayne’s Sheriff John T. Chance is gentle with Dude’s struggles, knowing well-chosen nudges are the best way to keep his troubled deputy on the right path, and he’s utterly at sea navigating his feelings for Feathers, Dickinson’s character. The Wayne-Dickinson pairing is yet another of those May-December romances that movies of the era were always foisting on actresses, but Wayne wisely leans into the problem, letting Chance be tongue-tied and awkward as the more confident Feathers steers him through uncharted emotional terrain.
Wayne became more cranky and reactionary as he aged, but he never lost the insight that strength is only interesting if paired with weakness. That dynamic sells Chance and Rio Bravo wonderfully. And hey, the Martin-Nelson duets are actually pretty good.
Hawks and Wayne would essentially remake Rio Bravo two more times, first as El Dorado and then as Rio Lobo, and while I’ll tell you now that I don’t feel the need to see either one, jump ahead a couple of years to a late night where I think, “a western would be fun right now,” and I’ll probably wind up watching one of them. Because I bet they’ll work.
That Thing You Do! (1996)
The story of a one-hit wonder band, written and directed by Tom Hanks. The cast is terrific, particularly the luminous Liv Tyler; the title song (written by Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne) is not only good but also pitch-perfect for its era; and the giddy whoosh of the Wonders’ sudden rise to fame carries the movie along effortlessly for quite a while.
There are only two problems -- but unfortunately, they’re pretty big ones.
First of all, the movie jumps the track completely in its last 20 minutes or so. Tyler’s big speech to her self-obsessed boyfriend feels completely out of character; Tom Everett Scott’s drummer hangs around the most accommodating studio in music history and has a miraculous chance meeting with the jazz musician he idolizes; the hotel’s magical concierge uses the same gag twice and then breaks the fourth wall ... and all of this happens in such rapid succession that I thought I’d hit my head. The movie’s humming along pleasantly enough and then WHAM! everything stops making sense and it never regains its footing.
Second, after a couple of hours it’s already fading from memory, leaving behind the title song, the fun of life on the road and Tyler. I think that’s because while That Thing You Do! is invariably pleasant, it’s also utterly bloodless.
Nothing is played for any stakes. Giovanni Ribsi breaks his arm and loses his spot in the band to Scott, but never seems bothered that he missed out on his friends’ rocket ride. The Wonders’ first manager excuses himself with nary a peep once Hanks arrives to take over. The veteran bands on tour with the Wonders brush the newcomers off at first, but pretty soon they’re all friends. The Wonders’ bassist is infatuated with a Black singer, which would have raised eyebrows in 1964, but the relationship barely makes a ripple. Despite ample warnings that it’s coming, the conflict in the band is mild at worst. Even the love triangle involving Tyler is resolved simply and with no particular fuss -- the Wonders’ lead singer breaks up with her, the drummer takes up with her, and all is well.
The movie presents an attractive surface -- despite all of the above, when I heard there was an extended cut I thought, “I’d hang around with these characters for 40 more minutes” -- but there’s absolutely nothing underneath it. Given the talent on both sides of the camera and the obvious care with which it was made, that’s a shame.
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idk if u still want requests for this but “we can’t do this” kisses and holsom?
I ALWAYS WANT REQUESTS FOR THIS.
so uhhhhhh we got a fast and loose Holsom Road to El Dorado AU here where they're still criminals who wind up in this situation but instead of looking for El Dorado/an indigenous civilization they're looking for a mythical ice kingdom/treasure and guess the fuck what they definitely find it and end up in a poly situation with a Helpful Local named Alexei Mashkov while grim hockey prince Jack Zimmermann looks on in concern
i don't know much but i do know that instead of the mayan ball game it's hockey and instead of an armadillo buddy there's a wolverine and Holster has a melodica instead of a mandolin (I will pay someone real monetary currency to draw this but with holster in this verse) but i'm getting way ahead of myself anyway here's the thing
The sky is endless, and ridiculously blue, and annoying as fuck because it won't. Stop. Moving.
Ransom's not sure how long they've been in this lifeboat. He knows it can't be more than three weeks because they don't have any food. The water lasted until yesterday or - no, the day before yesterday - or, wait, no. Ransom's not sure. They're still alive, though, inexplicably, but Ransom's not sure how much longer that will be true.
Not long, probably. They both know that. Holster's a realist and Ransom understands the biological limitations. They're con men, not idiots. Well. They're going to die in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean, so they're definitely idiots. Ransom sighs, tips his head back to take in more of that big, beautiful, infuriating, nauseating sky that's drifting above them. He's back to back with Holster, head cushioned on his partner-in-literal-crime's big shoulder. They've sat like this a thousand times; back to back is the safest way to sleep on the abandoned buildings and sketchy taverns they frequent. Holster's back is a little bonier than usual, but still comfortable (Ransom doesn't think about how they've always fit together, even when they were gangly teens huddling for warmth, or when they're sharing a hiding spot that's only big enough for a normal sized human and they have to squeeze together in order to fit, or when Holster had grabbed his hand when they were fleeing the Law Abiding Xenacious Brotherhood all those days? weeks? ago. Even while they were sprinting through side streets and jumping over roofs, their hands had fit together perfectly).
"Holtzy, did you ever imagine it would end like this?" Ransom asks suddenly, desperate to keep himself from thinking about Holster's hands, because if he thinks about his hands he'll think about his arms and if he thinks about his arms he'll think about his chest and if he thinks about his chest he'll think about his heart and if he thinks about his heart he'll -
"The horse is a surprise," Holster cuts in, his flat, sarcastic tone breaking through Ransom's increasingly panicked thoughts. Ransom laughs, just a soft burst of air, but it's real, and for their present circumstances, that's almost a miracle. Then again, Holster always makes him laugh.
They're quiet for a long moment, the waves and the horse's heavy sighs filling the background with a steady stream of white noise. He can feel Holster breathing; it's second nature to sync their breaths so they move together. When Ransom closes his eyes and focuses he can almost convince himself they're safe.
Being with Holster always feels safe, even though they're in danger more often than not.
"Rans?" Holster murmurs, deep voice soft and raspy. It's amazing how one syllable can fill Ransom's chest with warmth and joy and make him feel like a lifeboat is home. He hums, just a quick up-down sound so Holster knows he's listening. "If I do something, will you promise not to hate me?" Holster's voice is small, unsure. Holster's voice isn't ever small and unsure. It sets Ransom on edge, tension creeping up between his shoulder blades.
"Only if it's not something stupid, like abandoning ship." Ransom replies honestly. He doesn't know what he'll do if Holster gets any ideas about sacrificing himself. Holster's quiet for a moment. Ransom can feel his muscles shift as he tips his head to side the way he always does when he's considering his options. Ransom half expects him to say We can make a play out of this -
"It might be stupid," is what Holster says instead. At least he's being honest. There's another stretch of silence.
"But it might not be?" Ransom says, because he knows Holster is thinking it. He wouldn't have brought it up if he wasn't. Holster nods, hair brushing against the back of Ransom's neck. it's just a wisp of contact, but it fortifies Ransom's nerves. He trusts Holster. It's the one constant in his life besides inconsistency. For the first time in a long while he isn't sure what Holster's going to say or do, but he trusts him enough to sigh, press back against Holster's shoulder, and say, "Okay, do it."
It's quiet for a moment, which Ransom expects, but then Holster twists around, which he doesn't. He reaches over Ransom, propping himself up with a hand by his hip, the other hovering between them for a long moment before it settles, feather light, on Ransom's cheek. Holster leans in and - fuck, it's happening, it's happening, Ransom's only fantasized about this a million times and sure, not a single one of those fantasies came anywhere close to their current situation but Ransom can't even care because the man he's been in love with for years is about to - scratch that, he's kissing Ransom so, so sweetly, and it's somehow exactly how Ransom imagined it. Holster is big and loud and obnoxious but he's always been quiet and soft and gentle when Ransom needs it and right now he needs it more than ever.
Holster tilts his head, slotting their lips together just so, and Ransom's pretty sure he stops breathing when he nibbles on Ransom's bottom lip. Ransom always knew it would be good, if it ever happened, but he didn't expect it to build the way it does. Neither of them pulls away, neither of them backs down. They surge together, pressing closer and closer as the kiss grows deeper and deeper. Ransom tugs on Holster's shirt, his hips, his hair, turning him around and pulling him down until Holster's entire body weight is pressing down on him and his tongue is behind Ransom's teeth.
Ransom's not proud of the sound he makes when Holster suddenly pulls away with a ragged gasp. It's a groan that tapers into a whine - or maybe it's a keen? What's a keening sound, anyway? He needs to kiss Holster some more, do some more research to see if either of them makes it, but when he tries to pull Holster back down he doesn't come. His cheeks are red, thick eyebrows drawn together, swollen lips turned down in a frown. Ransom can’t bring himself to look away. They're both breathing hard, one chest rising when the other falls. When he pulls Holster again he falls forward, but he tucks his face under Ransom's chin.
"We can't do this," Holster gasps, the words muffled against Ransom's skin. He's holding onto Ransom so tightly, hands trembling, but he makes no effort to move away or untangle their legs. "We're going to die, we - "
"Adam," Ransom breathes. He cups his partner's face in his shaking hands. Holster tilts his head, pressing a kiss to his wrist, his thumb, his palm. Ransom's wanted this for so long and it might be the worst possible timing but he's not going to look a gift horse (or the real horse directly to their left) in the mouth. He pulls Holster closer and presses their foreheads together. "If we're going to die, we can do whatever we want. And I've wanted you forever."
"Me too," Holster gasps, and the next time he kisses Ransom, deep and full and somehow perfect, he doesn't stop.
Ransom's not sure how long they kiss before he pulls back to catch his breath, his head hitting the bottom of the lifeboat with a quiet thunk. Holster's above him, gorgeous and flushed and real. Ransom's imagined this a million times and there might be a hoof digging into his back and Holster's cheeks are hollow from hunger and his face might just be red from the sun but he's staring down at Ransom with so much love, eyes as clear and blue as the still sky above him and -
The sky is still.
"Holtzy," Ransom rasps, hands scrambling over his partner's back. He thumps over Holster's ribs, legs jerking as he jolts upward. "Look - the sky, Holster, look." He pleads, desperately trying to untangle their limbs so he can see over the edge of the boat. Holster tips back, over, narrowly avoiding a knee to the stomach, twists, stands, sputters, and falls, almost kicking Ransom in the face when he topples over the edge of the boat, ass over teakettle, knees still hooked over the lip of the lifeboat. Ransom scrambles up and launches himself over the side of the boat to follow him (he's followed Holster into gambling dens and poorly constructed get-rich-quick schemes and jail cells and stunningly intricate escape plans and hungry nights and desperate winters and if he's honest with himself, if he's really, truly completely transparent then he knows he'll follow Holster anywhere and, well, that's how he ended up on the road to a mythical treasure in a lifeboat with a horse) and he lands face first on wet, solid sand.
"Fuck," Holster groans, somewhere to Ransom's left. There's a soft pressure between Ransom's shoulder blades as Holster pats him once, twice, then smooths his hand down his back in a quick once-over. "You okay?" "Yeph - fhuck," Ransom spits out a mouthful of wet sand. "Yeah. You?" He asks, and Holster pats him again, humming a quick affirmation. Ransom opens his eyes, and all he can see is muted shades of graygreenbrownredtan overlapping over a vast, open space dotted with mossy rocks and low, scrubby plants.
It looks desolate, and unwelcoming, and foreign, and Ransom has never been happier to see rocks in his entire goddamn life.
The boat creaks as the horse stands. He huffs, blowing a quick burst of air through his nose, and whinnies softly. Ransom rolls, tearing his eyes away from the tundra to confirm he makes it out of the lifeboat, then continues rolling until the horizon shifts and all he can see is Holster and the vast, dark ocean behind him.
Holster's knees are still hooked over the edge of the lifeboat and his arm is still stretched out towards Ransom, fingers now curled into the fabric of his ragged shirt. Ransom can feel the warmth of his knuckles on his stomach through the thin material. His other arm is flopped on the sand, his entire palm enveloped by the wet sand, fingers digging deeper into the earth. Holster likes to anchor himself like this: one hand on Ransom, the other on something solid and safe and his.
The earth is solid. The tundra is safe. And Ransom is his.
Ransom scoots closer to curl around him. "We need water." He murmurs against Holster's shoulder. "Firewood. Food. Shelter." Holster opens his eyes, gaze sweeping over Ransom's face. "Are we still...?" Holster trails off, but his eyes settle on Ransom's lips. The reality of the situation is still grim. They're not trapped anymore, but they're in a new place with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a disgruntled stallion who's quite frankly an asshole, but for the first time in days they have hope, and while they've always had each other, now they have each other.
"Hell yeah," Ransom says, and he kisses Holster's smile until the horse starts munching on the back of his shirt.
Like I said, he's an asshole.
#noel writes#holsom au#road to el dorado au#omgcp au#adam holster birkholtz#justin ransom oluransi#holsom af#I'M GETTING THROUGH YOUR PROMPTS I PROMISE#kiss prompt#omgcp fanfic
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4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 36, 39, 40, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60 [Which do you prefer between Knb and Haikyuu?] for the ask you recently reblogged please?
4. what are you looking forward to?
I'm looking forward to school starting again, even if it's just a weird hybrid of online/flipped classes, I miss my teachers and like, being productive. also if I'm in class I can't be worked borderline inhumane hours right…. right??
5. is there anyone who can always make you smile?
yeah, my roommate. she always either knows how to cheer me up, or blunders around trying to find the right method to the point that it's funny and I end up smiling anyway. she's really awesome like that.
7. what was your life like last year?
it had a lot of ups and downs. I had a great job, but the people I worked with eventually made it toxic and awful. I was doing really well in school, but stressed all the time, had an awesome relationship but kind of ruined it w my anxiety, and had serious roommate issues that made me afraid to leave my bedroom or even come home, sometimes. I remember a lot of very high highs and very low lows especially in the fall/winter of that year.
10. are you good at hiding your feelings?
well, yes and no… I don't tend to show a lot of emotion to begin with, but what I do show, I'm basically incapable of hiding, and apparently I'm a terrible liar bc my face gives me away.
13. how do you feel right now?
I'm pretty alright… kind of anxious, kind of tired, but that's just been the status quo lately tbh.
15. personality description
already answered, so I suppose I'll elaborate. I'm simultaneously like, the most confident and the most self-doubting person I know... like there are certain things I'm super certain of and times when I feel no shame, and there are others where I'll just shrivel into a ball of anxiety and mortification and never come out. in the same vein, I'm simultaneously very trusting and open and very wary and cautious with people… it really depends on the situation and the person I think, I'm a very "you get out what you put in" person.
16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn't?
yeah, I’m still holding onto things I’ve wanted to tell certain people tbh… I used to be a lot more forthcoming and not worry about the consequences of what I had to say, but now that I’ve seen what power words have to ruin relationships and impact people I tend to hold back quite a bit.
17. opinion on insecurities
I have… many, but I understand that I shouldn't and am working on the ones I do have. I think feeling insecure can lead to some of the most ugly, toxic emotions and responses in certain people, so I'm trying to be conscientious of that.
23. fear(s)
um let’s see… jump scares, the dark (sometimes), corners I can’t see around, drowning/suffocating, pain, failure, losing control...
27. things I hate
wet socks, sunburn, acne, willful ignorance, bigotry, excessively negative people… uh… idk hate's a strong word that's all I've got
28. I'll love you if…
if you are genuinely, authentically yourself. if you’re the kind of person I can feel comfortable and at ease with. if you show me patience and compassion and make an effort to know me and let me know you… then yeah you’re never getting rid of me.
29. favorite film(s)
The Road to El Dorado, Into the Spider-verse, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirit, Life of Pi, The Truman Show, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
30. favorite tv show(s)
Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke, Avatar, Bojack Horseman, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Beastars, Dragonball Z
31. 3 random facts
already answered so here's three more
1. lately I've been carrying a fanny pack with the trans flag (there's an unfortunate but very tempting pun in there) and it's still got the security tag bc they forgot to take it off in the store so now every time I walk through the doorway to like, a drug store, I set off the alarm. I would get it taken off but it was sent to me from Chicago lol.
2. I've got a lot of outdoorsy skills bc of my gym class in high school, like rock climbing, kayaking, building fire, etc. I'm not super adventurous in my daily life but while I was in that class, I did all kinds of things.
3. for awhile I worked at a cat cafe, and helped take care of the 12-15 rescue cats we'd have there at any given time. I stand by that it was the best job I've ever had, but the people I worked with, not so much.
33. something you want to learn
I really want to learn to skateboard or surf. it's been a dream for a long time and I have (suspiciously acquired) both, but my balance is shit and I have no patience for new skills lately, so...
36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?
already answered so here's three more
1. someday I want to have a pickup truck, I've been looking at, like, bright orange Tacomas and stuff, but of course I'd need a license to be able to drive one
2. I'd like to have a garden again, or maybe have a plot in a community garden. I've been growing nasturtiums and things on my balcony while in school but it's not quite the same
3. still waiting on the day I can get top surgery tbh. I just… want to be able to be shirtless at the beach and wear tank tops with nothing underneath, okay?
39. favorite sport(s)
ahahahaha… favorite sport you say. to play or to watch? 'cause I generally don't like to do either, tho I do like watching the folks who play volleyball on the beach. and considering one of my favorite shows is about volleyball and it was the sport I sucked at the least in school, maybe we’ll go with volleyball? but in general I’m not a sports person.
40. favorite memory
I have a vague memory… of helping my mom in the garden of my old house when I was a little kid, mostly just digging in the dirt in the spring and being outside with my family… it's not very clear or specific but I think those days were some of the happiest of my life.
52. something I'm talented at
I'm good at learning the lyrics to songs, I've got over 1000 downloaded in my spotify library and I'm pretty sure I know the words to at least most of them. in a similar vein I'm good at learning the scripts to movies, and just… memorizing things in general especially audio.
53. 5 things that make me happy
already answered so here's some more!
1. songs with a light, strummy acoustic feel and creative lyrics… I've got a whole playlist for that vibe there's just something about songs like that that make me really calm
2. I really like being hugged or cuddled by my friends, just being in close proximity and hanging all over each other, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside tbh
3. I love driving with the windows down (I can't drive so I mean riding passenger lol), especially in the canyon by my house, through the forest and by the beach.
54. something that's worrying me at the moment
I’m so afraid things won’t go back to the way they were. ...that applies to multiple aspects of my life, not just with this pandemic but school, work, friends, relationships… it seems like I’m always chasing the past and dreading the future, so much that I can’t ever be satisfied in the present moment, and that’s something that’s been on my mind a lot.
55. tumblr friends
@hadenxcharm, @spaztictwitch, @kurokonobaka, @taigainside, @hybristophilica and you could be too! all you gotta do is message me tbh I'm easy
56. favorite food(s)
strawberry cheesecake, fried shrimp, key lime pie, tuna steak
59. why I joined tumblr
I joined in 2012 bc my friends told me to, had a brief recession where I didn't use it at all, and a pretty lengthy sidetrack through the RP community, and then I came back bc of the friends I'd made here, and the unique-ness of the platform that I kinda can't find anywhere else. I'm stuck here just like the rest of y'all.
60. ask me anything you want (which do you prefer between KNB and Haikyuu?)
now this is a tough one… bc I really love them both a lot, and tbh in terms of quality of writing, art/animation, thematic music, character development and general story, I think Haikyuu!! has KNB beat, buuuuuut…. in spite of its flaws, I have such a soft spot for KNB and I keep coming back to it over and over again even as it falls into relative obscurity. It's the only thing I write for anymore and I'm still, somehow, utterly obsessed with the characters I first fell in love with over five years ago. KNB has problems, for sure, but the things it gets right (like setting a mood, strong emotional beats and character relationships) it knocks out of the park. I don't know if I could ever choose one over the other in terms of like, "you can only read/watch one of these and have to give up the other forever", but in terms of which has had the biggest impact, and still hits me the hardest, I'd probably have to go with KNB… but it's not by any means an easy choice. ��
#shin speaks#answered#sorry this took forever it was... a lot of questions and I've also been working pretty insanely lately#thanks so much for asking!!#<3
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Meet LYSANDRA ALIGHERI. They are UNKNOWN years old and hail from UNKNOWN LANDS. Lysandra embodies the star, PROXMIA CENTAURI. They use she/her pronouns. Their faceclaim is KEIRA KNIGHTLEY.
Proxima Centauri reminds me of the joy of italian summertime; the theory that earth is purgatory, for is it so laughable? selective memory ( because sometimes your midas-touch brings wrath in your wake as you saunter away ) but some things you can’t remember even if you want to. a new name whenever the old one isn’t you anymore. sapphic desire. a woman scorned like which fury hell hath no. never wanting for anything material but that isn’t all that matters in life, is it? still being half-empty but piling high on privilege. an encyclopaedic knowledge of books and written things .
BIOGRAPHY
Lysandra Alighieri grew up somewhere that no longer exists, that was decimated by the most ruthless of forces: time, and that is all that she knows of it; that Lysandra is not her birth name, and that she is not related to the author of Inferno even if that is why she picked the name from the bunch. There is a gnawing void within her being, a hunger that demands more even when it knows not on what it wishes to feed, only that it commonly craves deadly sin.
Leaves her swinging like a pendulum: envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, wrath, what is the matter of the day to damn her closer to hell? — unless this is hell, and she must drag herself out by her fingernails or spin there forever as the devil intends? But surely Hell would not be a place so comforting, since it is directed for people to abandon all hope? — but perhaps who can blame a woman given the ability of a Midas-touch, to forge enviable magnificence from even the droll and dull?
How could she not be ostentatious, be opulent; how could she, narcissist that she was, not bask in the attentions of so many? Not use the gift she was given to become a woman powerful in a world of men, a woman who ignited wars where she went and left without the guilt of it, exploiting a technicality: is it your bloodshed if you did not so much as pick up sword at war?
Lysandra appears by many names in history; indeed, so often has she been associated with conflict that she was sometimes hailed a deity of war alongside the likes of Bellona or Enyo. But the real truth is that she would go wherever offered her the most comfort; the confidences of royal families and rulers ( as corrupted by riches as humans truly are ) and then to high-society when she tired of politics.
Her memory of events throughout her life are not necessarily consistently clear — the effects of time, and selective memory when it comes to the devastation she could sometimes cause — but she has never through time failed to thrive; she has been known as a patron of arts, of music, of literature, of all such enjoyable things, as a student of Epicurean persuasion. She does indelibly remember the name-drops she can make, however, as though the pure narcissism breaks through the barrier of memory.
And even still she flashes a grin and encourages the hedonistic way; live to excess, smirk as you read like it makes you superior, write your life to carve it into the centuries and so that you can’t forget anything. Always adapt to what makes you impressive in the times, never allow yourself to fade because there’s two types of death — neither of which she has experienced — the first time is when they put you in your grave, and the second time is the final time that somebody mentions your name.
So Lysandra is determined to never allow either if she can help it, but particularly not the latter. In the present day she has settled herself into life as one — if not the — of the world’s richest, centuries of time to build a business conglomerate working in her favour. And the town certainly benefits from that, even if it does mean that its people have to put up with her.
INCLINATION
Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun, is known for their abilities in metal transfiguration. Throughout the millennia, Proxima Centauri has been known to be extremely wealthy, not of their own ambition or success, but the fact that they are most known to transfigure any metal into gold. The cause of several wars throughout the centuries, as well as the creator of El Dorado, or the City of Gold, Proxima Centauri absolutely enjoys and takes great care to divulge in the finer aspects of life.
CONNECTIONS
Filling the role of Katrina Winters’ Object of Affection
Filling the role of Darcy Allen’s Book Club
Oh My God, I Think its Karma: someone that lysandra’s actions in the past have royally fucked over, and finally — after an incredibly long time — it’s all coming back to bite her, in the form of this muse rolling up to town.
Penned by Shannon ★
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