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captainsspnanon · 8 months

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C2E72 - Clay and Dust - reaction

Alright, let’s see how many months it’s gonna take me to watch THIS episode. I am SO desperate to get to next episode, aka livestream of all time. (not long at all, luckily!)

Matt what the fuck is up with your mic quality??? I’m assuming that’ll get fixed shortly.

I adore this ad bit so much. First of all, Sam pretending that he can’t remember his kids’ names and how many he has??? This guy is the most loving father! But honestly, it’s all Liam’s monologue. We all know it’s all Liam’s monologue! SO GOOD. (I still have not seen the movie, but I think I watched the clip from it)

I’m so hyped for ‘please don’t kill me at a liveshow’ and ‘fuck it I’m a mammoth’ that I legit forgot that this was the episode where Fjord is a badass.

Honestly I’m surprised we still haven’t gotten the new art yet. I keep seeing Fjord without his beard and I’m like – wait that’s wrong. It’s a plus side of the pre-recorded, we get the art pretty much right away.

MAP MAP MAP MAP MAP I will always and forever love this group getting a map they are SO excited! Also it’s so weird that they are sounding out Uthodurn and not recognizing it (until Travis suddenly remembers EVERYTHING without even glancing at his notes). Oh hello little note that says Ruins of Molaesmyr. (….I literally just saw it and already forgot how to spell it. FUCK the name of that place, omg, I get it wrong every time.)

Knowing how this turns out, it’s fun to watch them all get very tense about the ghosts. Even Caduceus goes to ‘punch first’, with his whole aversion to undead. Travis definitely has a point though, C2 definite has a lot more of the ‘spooky’ combats as compared to C1. I also appreciate that Travis/Fjord is the first to point out that the ghosts aren’t messing with the Nein or acting aggressive.

(I just realized this is a very good episode to be watching on October 1st)

Is there ANYTHING more Mighty Nein than them walking along a lake packed full of ghosts and reading Tusk Love to them? I love it so much!

I am surprised that Matt nitpicked that Eagle!Caleb and Eagle!Jester can’t understand each other. I do get where he’s coming from, as Polymorph only changes the form to the animal and who knows if two real world eagles would be able to communicate such complex ideas as ‘take our friend and show her the smoke that we’re seeing so that she can communicate it with our other friends who we can’t currently talk with’, but I also feel like in a magical world where you can become a giant eagle through a magic spell, that intelligent creatures of the same form would be able to communicate with each other.

Sometimes it’s really the small quiet moments that are some of the best RP moments. Nott offers to help Caduceus do something alchemical with her residuum wholeheartedly, Caduceus turns and quietly asks Caleb what alchemical means, and Caleb gives a gentle simplified (maybe not fully accurate) explanation. It’s a small beat and doesn’t take it’s time or distract from the main conversation, just a little additional life for the PCs.

Unsure if Caleb/Liam is reacting to them talking about refined residuum, or if that’s just standard Caleb face. XD

Aaagh, Mom wants to watch CR together, which’ll be the liveshow. Guess I’m doing my rewatch SLIGHTLY out of order, as I still have two hours of this left to go, but I want to watch with her. XD Also means that next episode’s rewatch post is gonna likely be limited, as I won’t be sitting down and constantly pausing to type.

I appreciate that Taliesin/Caduceus asked if Whitestone was the closest place to get the refined residuum and Matt was able to say no. As much as the players clearly would have been down for it, Matt was still trying to keep things more separate. And I really appreciate the fact that, aside from Allura really, C2 is able to stand on it’s own feet. Even Artagan is so entwined into C2 that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know him from C1.

LOL at Marisha’s sheer excitement over Beau being able to read Dwarvish.

CORE ANVIL!!! Unsurprisingly, I was actually able to understand in my first watch through that this was a reference to C1. Knowing now that it’s where VM forged the trammels is a fun shoutout, but again, me not knowing for my first watch really didn’t have impact.

……...look I’m still trying to hold my resolve about not typing anything about C3 during these writeups, but oh it’s so fun to hear all sorts of hints dropped for stuff that we now know from C3.

Love the little tidbits of Jester writing smut and Caleb being so happy from just being able to read something new.

I completely forgot that Fjord asked Jester to message Vandran!

I’m guessing Matt rolled to see either if Vandran would be willing to answer, or rolling insight or something similar.

Travis is such an amazing role player oh my fucking god. Seriously *insert he’s got the range meme here* it is pure chefs kiss. I’ve loved all his PCs, main campaigns or one shots, but the introspective Fjord moments, the moments where he is insecure and freely accepts comfort from Jester (or later from the whole team), it just tugs at all the correct places of my heart. Caleb and Beau might be my favorite PCs (of all three main campaigns, actually), but I think Travis has steadily moved to be my favorite player at the table. (though that’s actually really hard because it’s actually all of them just depending on what moment I’m watching)

HE TOLD JESTER ABOUT HIS LOSS OF POWER!!!! Oh my god I completely forgot about this. This episode, despite being something that you’d think would be 100% Caduceus, is just FILLED with amazing Fjord moments, and we haven’t even reached The Part yet! Travis really made the decision that Fjord would be having a turning point here, with Vandran, sharing his fear, talking about his loss, and then The Part! I forget if we ever find out what triggered the change in behavior.

Fjord’s panic when Jester starts raising her voice when talking about bringing him to the Wildmother being their new mission, and his FACE when she keeps talking and promises to keep it quiet. I can’t pinpoint the moment where he starts to fall for her, but he’s definitely in the thick of it now.

I forgot about the dream too!!! I don’t think Fjord would have broken his pact the way he did if not for that dream, on top of all the conversation he had earlier. It was the exact right impetus to get him moving immediately, versus trying to puzzle out a way. It makes me wonder if Matt was prompted to make the dream because of the conversation Jester and Fjord had, or if Matt already planned for this to happen this night.

YOU. NEED. ME. MORE. THAN. I. NEED. YOU. GIVE. IT. BACK.

ONE OF THE BEST LINES OF THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!

No thoughts, no analysis, just me freaking out over one of the best moments EVER.

Fjord revealing all the truthes to the group, Caduceus being a great support, Nott making the greatest joke about Fjord’s strength EVER.

What an amazing second half of the episode, SO GOOD.

Gonna go watch the live show now with Mom, so who knows how that write up will be.

#cr c2 rewatch #critical role #mighty nein

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alolanroy · 11 months

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2023 Media Thread Pt2

it got too big to edit :(

The Cat in the Hat (2003): I’ll admit I don’t really have any special attachment to this movie. I missed it as a kid, just right past me. I’ll give it props for dedication to bonkers production design and commitment to cartoon logic, but this really didn’t work for me. The uncanny makeup and constant screaming children was consistently grating. The peeks of the world outside of the main story was great whenever we go to see it though. -3/10

Barbecue Showdown S2: They sure did cook that meat. Most of the cast was polarizing, but not necessarily in a fun way. 4/10

Andromeda S2: Once again a Sci-fi show ups its quality in the second season. I think what I appreciate is that when it does a standard episode that you’ve seen before in another show, instead of trying to one up the moral dilemma, it instead ignores it altogether and pursue character interaction. A steady progression of both the characters and the state of their world kept me well engaged. 7/10

Gravity Circuit: [At time of writing I am struggling against the last boss] At some point I yelled ‘NOW THIS IS KAMEN RIDER!’ Some of the tightest shmoovment in a 2D game of thsi type and visually stunning. Taking the GBA megaman X approach to monochrome sprites really lets the artwork flourish without diminishing readability. 9/10

DOOM 64: A fascinating iteration on the main DOOM entries. It plays clean and has fascinating level design. I won’t finish it, but I see myself coming back to it from time to time. 7/10

Avataro Sentai Donbrothers vs. Zenkaiger: In this episode of Zenkaiger, the gang gets up to some villain of the week shenanigans. In this episode of DonBrothers, the gang grapples with the emptiness of unearned success and the negative power dynamics from leadership. In other words its a pretty normal episode of both that end up in the same quarry at the end. 8/10 I miss these goofs

Geats Extra: Kamen Rider Tycoon meets Kamen Rider Shinobi: I think we all know who should’ve been the real series this season (its shinobi) 7/10

HALF LIFE MOD ROUNDUP PT 2

Amalgam: A pretty underwhelming mod with some pretty good combat encounters in a few occasions, but too long methinks. 4/10

Half-Life 2: Downfall: Pretty solid content focused on Gravity Gun playstyles, but seeing as it was made in 2017, I don’t think the other episodes are happening. 5/10

Resistance Element: This one is pretty out there. Didn’t really establish its setting and ending on ‘the Vortigaunt fleet’ is certainly a choice. 5/10

Transmissions: Element 120: Pretty good overall and the gravity gun variant was intriguing. Too bad it’s too short to capitalize off of the unique ideas. Though a surprising few mods have the confidence to end on a strider encounter. 7/10

Thunder’s Leaves: They get points for effort. An interesting twist on the setting that made it feel fresh, though it comes at the cost of the new weapons being decidedly less fun to use. The gunplay just feels...off. A lot of the ideas feel rough like this. The combine shield drones take a weird amount of damage and rocket turrets ended up doing more splash damage to me than the enemies. Still, seeing a world in the process of picking up the pieces was oddly satisfying, and more desperate combine gave their less curated technology a certain charm. 7/10

Gundam Evolution (7/22): At a some point I joked ‘This will be Gundam gaming in 2023′ and paused, ‘2023 and 2023 only.’ Yes, Gundam Evolution was announced to be shutting down in a few months, not having lasted a whole year. It’s almost like live service games with off-putting monetization strategies might not be an optimal business practices. The balance seems to have improved and The one additional unit I was able to unlock (Heavyarms) was pretty neat. Perhaps if the timing was different it could’ve worked out with Overwatch hemorrhaging as badly as it is. Honestly the lack of any worthwhile brand synergy kinda dampens it. With G-witch over for now, it only is represented in a few player icon, which is especially disappointing considering a lot of the nothing picks for new characters they did. Naturally they saved the Kampher for the day after they announced they were shuttering. maybe by the end they’ll unlock everything for everyone, but I doubt it. I still had fun, but there's no soul here. 6.5/10

Rocky Blaboa (2006): Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, this is a good movie and Stallone can Direct. It understands the mechanics of how the filmmaking made Rocky so sympathetic in the first one and wont hesitate to hold on his awkward mannerisms. I appreciate how the match was shot like a real sporting event, and for once the quick cut style that became overused in this era works as an escalation of the previous lingering. The emotional core of the movie works like a charm, and it really makes it feel like he is brightening up the world in his small way. It directly parallels the first, but especially by the end you can’t help but smile. 9/10

Bloodfist: A pretty average canon movie, but I won’t lie, the twist got me and a couple of the fights were neat. Couldn’t tell if the Filipino woman who doesn’t have any lines was neat choice or lazy production. 6/10

Airplane Mode (2019): Abyssal media. It’s racist, homophobic and shallow in that way only late 2008′s comedies did. Theres a reason it killed the comedy genre. I didn’t recognize any of these celebrities for 12 year olds besides Logan Paul which made the relentless sex pest energy of the movie worse. The worst part is that very rarely, enough crassness and lame humor piles up that just one joke can take it far enough to make me laugh like an idiot. I hated myself for it. -4/10

Deadly Spygames: Bafflingly bad but funny with a good group, though it loses momentum when it ends up just being a framing device for a worst christmas themed horror failure. -4/10

Force of Execution: Man what happened to Stephen Seagal. -2/10

Suicide Squad 2016: This movie deserves the microscope of analysis it garnered. It has all the ingredients, just put together...wrong somehow. It was better than expected, especially once someone pointed out that the Joker isn’t consequential to the plot at all. He could be removed and nothing would change. I see why there was an immediate turnaround on a remake. -6/10

Andromeda S3: I felt there was an odd drop in quality. I chalk it up mostly to not really having a clear idea of what the state of the commonwealth is and if its still only the senior staff running the ship or not. It just felt kinda disconnected and disconcerting, like I was watching out of order. 5/10

Gundam I rewatch: A friend wanted to watch this with the rest of the players in a OYW tabletop I’ve been running for a year and a half. Theres a lot of ink spilled on the subtlety of the character writing, but this rewatch I brought a new eye to spotting Yas’s style in the character design. I really appreciate how much of the legwork into nonverbal expression it pulls off with the limited resources. 8/10

Iron Man (2008): Tight as hell, stylish, confident and gorgeous. It is everything the MCU had lost by the time they removed the character. 8/10

Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island: It’s cute and whimsical and all, but I wouldn’t call it particularly fleshed out. A lot of cross pollination between this and G-witch. 7/10

Swelter: Playing this during a heat wave was just about perfect. This setting felt fresh for the Half-Life modding scene and fit in seamlessly. While the new puzzle mechanics were simple, they were clean and were a lot of fun to do under fire. The rebalancing was unusual, but I had a great time with the original weapons. Disappointingly, I would’ve liked more opportunity to use them in new contexts. It was over pretty fast and left me wanting more both conceptually and mechanically, which in this case is a good thing. 7/10

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning part I: Tom Cruise’s Quest to have a new dark brunette love interest in all of his movies has now lead to a double event. Cynicism aside, this movie was a blast and the more sci-fi villain led to lots of tense mind games. This less serious tone reminds me of my favorite era of Bond villainy. High points include a Lupin the 3rd car chase, a samurai sword fight and a batman villain tier riddle bomb. I had a great time. 8/10

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: It may not have been great, but this was MY Avengers. Plus 5 points for having a visibly Indian Captain Nemo but minus 5 for having him even slightly receptive to saving the British Empire. 7.5/10

Matrix Resurrections: Upon second watch I did notice a few clever touches I didn’t pick up on initially, but the only thing it really has going is being the most maliciously compliant film I’ve ver seen. -4/10

Kamen Rider Saber: The phantom of missed opportunity looms large in this show. It has moments where the writing works and the characters are endearing, but most of the time it just comes out...weird. The fights feel stagnant, the CG is laughably bad at times and the theming is all over the place. It comes across as childish and poorly executed. But I’m just beating about the bush here, the real issue is that the main character and the lost childhood friend come off as...really really creepy. The visuals of him trying to rescue a child are...lets just say the optics are awful. Doing my best to put that aside, this might be the weakest Rider I’ve finished. 4/10

The Fugitive (1993): While I cannot speak to how it stacks up to its predecessor, I enjoyed it as a tight thriller. I loved seeing Andreas Katsulas, I loved seeing the infamous Harrison Ford dummy. 8/10

An American Werewolf in London: Interesting, but I wouldn’t call it particularly funny to me. 5/10

Yukikaze: Damn, this really was the Evangelion of Ace Comb----*gets shot in the head*

Jokes aside, while I wouldn’t call it particularly narratively deep and the final episode was a bit bad at communicating, it was a stimulating watch. From a technical standpoitn the dub I watched had interesting sound design that heightened the stress of the airborne encounters, though the voice mixing felt odd at times. I’m also pretty sure this was supposed to be BL at some stage. Anyway, wow, cool post-eva digipaint plane thing! 8/10

Thankskilling: The apex of cheap garbage. Exploitation nonsense at its finest and most self aware without overplaying its hand. The line between good and bad cringe was walked like a tightrope. I’m a big enough man to say that I laughed my ass off, though I can’t recommend it. I later came to a greater respect upon seeing that their long defunct website encouraged people to use the footage as public domain and even had a fan-edit contest. -7/10

Conan the Destroyer: Bummer the whole party couldn’t make it to the session this weekend. I wouldn’t mind the weaker effects and production if it maintained the distinct style of the original. It lacks the Kino factor...without it...just kinda dull. 4/10

Ninja Assassin: Rewatching this with a Rain fan made this a lot more fun the second time around. I kinda wish we could’ve seen more...ninja assassinations? but as it is it has style and action I can’t say I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. Boy, I could tell this was MJS now that I knew what to look for. 7/10

Lupin III: Prison of the Past: Absolutely sauceless. It has the wonder bread plot of a Pokemon DVD movie, but animation so budget it wouldn’t cut it for TV anime at its worst. It's just bafflingly cheap looking. Its colors are so muted and its compositions so static it feels at once 10 and 20 years out of date. This was made worse by an uninterested dub. How do you make a char clone with a sword dull? If this is the bar for modern Lupin, I think I might pass. 2/10

Kamen Rider Saber side material: only a blanket note and no individual ratings on these. These really showcase how much the cast was underutilized in the main show. With room to breath I was able to be more endeared to that cast than its nearly 50 episode main run. It just goes to show how much of a weird compromise Saber was...

Kamen Rider Geats: Somehow this season felt way longer than the 49 episodes it ran for. It jumped around and became so many different shows. As a result I can hardly wrap my mind around it. Every positive has either a negative cost or a feeling of missed opportunity, which is thematically appropriate...

-Conceptually it never capitalized on the ‘battle royale game’ concept. It sped through so many formats and games that I never felt the tension and intrigue of the reality shows it emulates. I understand the production reasons they can’t juggle tons of riders, but Ryuki proved this is possible, and it didn’t have the advantage of only needing to make half of a new helmet for a new character. This kinda comes to a head with Neon’s bodygaurds only having forms slightly off camera and punkjack being sidelined to play Pikmin since his helmet was un-re-colored. Occasionally we got to see now formats that iterated the concept in interesting directions, but some reboots just felt pointless, or the final one that speedruns a typical season in like 10 episodes.

-The character writing was a bit all over the place, but I felt attached to the cast for the most part, and we got enough charm to make it work. However Ace’s gimmick of pulling clever plays never really gelled for me.

-The broader mystery and mechanics of this sci-fi world really grabbed us. We were properly speculating about the mechanics of their world and the nature of the future viewers. It taps into the kind of classic sci-fi concepts I eat up, like the addled sadism of the future people. It’s never fully explained, but left with plenty of room and ambiguity that you can read a lot into their behaviour.

I think it pulled it off in the last quarter, but that might be recency bias. 7.5/10

Stargate Origins: This would’ve benefeited from being a two parter. The result is drawn out, not terribly exciting and marred by stilted dialogue. At the end of the day, I still like stargate and some of the talent they got for this. 5/10

Andromeada S4: Wow, it just got so much worse. I had to force myself to pick it up a few times and have been actively procrastinating adding it to my watch list. Most episodes felt less like they were regurgitating stock episodes of sci-fi shows and more like I accidentally put on one of the worse episodes I had already seen in a previous season. I got the distinct feeling that something must have been wrong with the episode order on Tubi. It would account for why the serialization makes no sense, but alas, its just bad. After a few underwhelming show-running decisions, my heart sank when I realized there was a fifth season.

I tried the 5th season. 3/10.

Maids II Deception: Don’t judge me for speaking this highly of a skyrim mod without hearing me out first. I saw this recommended as a story mod and assumed it would be a paper thin, cringy excuse for some mild titillation and weeb armor. Turns out the only thing I was right about was the silly looking samurai armor (Todd Howards greatest mistake was giving the Blades samurai swords). Instead I got an epic campaign between a dozen factions and hundereds of years of lore that lured me in before plunging me into intrigue, groupthink and a harrowing ending that left me crushed and empty inside. Spoiler alert, there isn’t any tittilation. This thing dwarfs Skyrim in terms scope and ambition. It has varied mission types, all types of crazy mechanics that it isn’t afraid to drop and just when you thought you had a good bead on things it drops a new DLC scale open world island I can’t even begin to explain in the FINAL CHAPTER. Even the title is an outright lie, you only really get to interact with the maid mechanic in the endgame, potentially dozens of hours later.

Since this was released in chapters over the course of years, the quality of the game, writing and voice acting improve as it goes. By the end I think it could go toe to toe with a lot of the upper eshelon of RPG writing. While some of the voice acting (and mic quality) felt relatively amateurish I couldn’t help but grow attached to the cast and feel crushed when even minor spear-bearers met their fate. However in the final chapter I could feel the scope might have grown too large and some of the gameplay and area design suffered. For example the ambitious mechanics in the wizard tower just didn’t work for me and the final hours were a painful slog of fighting my way to the end. Some of that could’ve been easily cut. It is a shame I have no idea if we will get a third entry, it sets up so much... 9/10, despite its flaws

Sand Shark: Half the run time is just a retelling of Jaws, the other half is repeating the sequel hook trope where another jaws appears at the end like 3-4 times in succession -4/10

Wild Hogs: It made me laugh out loud a few times. Does that make up for the homophobia and awkward old man wish fulfillment. *shrugs*. 5/10

Dragonball Evolution: High school angle: check. Women being paired off to have cat fights during action scenes: check. yep, this is a 2000s anime adaptation. It really is clear they had no interest in the source material, but the odd part is that if they made it a bit campier in a few places it might’ve worked, but perhaps that is One Piece 2023 talking. -4/10

Cats 2019: It somehow looks worse in motion than I expected. Once the novelty wore off about halfway through I just felt bad for the effects artists. Can you tell they had no kind of motion tracking when they filmed it and it all had to be done by hand? I can!. -5/10

The Expendables: I was expecting a cheap looking ego trip for over-the-hill action stars, but this is probably the best version of that that could exist. The only part that looked outright bad are the blood squibs (or whatever effects plugin they were using). The dialogue was well acted and natural feeling enough that it threw me a bit off balance, specifically mickey rourke. In an odd way, the part I feel the most nostalgic for is the gasoline explosions. I really miss that stuff. 7/10

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fakesorbet · 2 years

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okay wait actually ur?? so right?? genuinely curious abt your take on pastry ive always seen her has a very very extreme case of religious trauma [not that that excuses some of the things she does] but also i am looking??? /gen

OHHH I have so many thoughts on pastry cookie and how the fandom sees her and pomegranate

i think we all r aware of pastrys backstory , basically faithful to the order until she faces the tower where she is shown the truth then traumatized .

that backstory is similars to pomegranates !

pommy , like pastry , was faithful to her village and devoted to the tree . i know ovenbreak and crk lore aren’t exact , but pom’s candy lore states

and in addition she was the high priestess , she had a destiny to lead her people and follow the sacred tree

so , my point is pom was / is manipulated by dark enchantress . there is no doubt in that and if u can’t understand that you lack comprehension skills . someone doesn’t immediately go from being a devoted leader to burning their village down .

pommy is also religiously traumatized, to believe in one religion so faithfully u were destined to lead it then learn the awful truth . [ huh wonder who else had that happen to them ]

however , de doesn’t do this to show pom the truth , it’s to manipulate her to joining the cookies of darkness.

Pomegranate shows Pastry the truth to actually show her the falsehood of her religion, something she understands and had to witness. That’s why I say Pomegranate and Pastry have similar backstories , Both are faithful to their religion until they are shown the truth. However, the difference comes from their behavior, which I think isn’t treated fairly by the fandom.

Pastry and Pomegranate are still both being lied to. Both are still under false pretenses and believe in their authority, the Only reason why pastry is seen as more redeemable than pom is because she does show more remorse [ barely ] , and because of her interaction with red velvet.

It’s so annoying [ to me ] how the fandom clings onto the one scene where pastry shows slight hesitation to shooting redvel . Had Pom not stepped in and shown Pastry the truth, pastry would have most likely finished her mission , returned [ maybe regretfully ] back to the order and moved on. While it does show Pastry has more of a chance of escaping the church , whose to say she won’t be like pomegranate and become devoted to dark enchantress ?

In addition, the fandom woobyfies pastry and redvel . like some of u guys cling to ships because of 1 moment [ which is fine , but sometimes it becomes just hypocrisy when u judge other ships / characters ] people make pastry to be this poor victim who doesn’t know the consequences of her actions , when while slightly true , she still is complacent . it’s trauma , she’s being lied to , and the same can be applied to pomegranate. But the fandom treats pom differently because she doesn’t hesitate in her actions , and she isn’t shippable with men .

like i get if u don’t like pom , she is irredeemable and does fucked up things but I think weird y’all completely ignore ones trauma and solely call her derogatory terms like ??? yes trauma doesn’t excuse actions , but you’ll ignore poms and then call dark choco a giant soft boy even tho he was willing to kill kids [ gen ]

also the fact that affogato has no redeemable quality and is selfish , but it’s okay and even ‘ fun ‘ because hes hot gnc man . the same could b said with licorice he has no moments of hesitation and was willing to poison the entire hollyberry princess contest , but because he isn’t a threat it doesn’t matter that he too is morally grey that learns toward black . And same for other characters with trauma , their actions r excused because of slight moments of what they could be but they still always end back on the villain side .

ANYWAYZ THIS IS SO LONG !!! sorry i have so much i can say and idek if this makes any sense / answered ur question . basically pommy and pastry have similar back story but because pastry gets woobified [ idk how to spell it ] , and is shippable , people forget it was pom who saved redvel .

#THIS IS SO LONG #writing a whole essay to defend pommy #cookie run #pomegranate cookie #pastry cookie #again idc if you like or hate pom i just think some of u just lack comprehension skill #/nm #pastry and pomegranate are both spectrums of religious trauma #that’s it that’s the post

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 2 years

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Okay, I finally did it. Watched the first episode of Meet the Richardsons. It immediately made me think a whole bunch of things, very much including “fuck I should have watched this sooner”. As I knew it would.

I’ll say off the bat, and I almost feel bad for admitting what my expectations were, that purely in terms of quality of the show, it’s better than I thought it would be. In that I didn’t have huge expectations of a show that’s a mockumentary about a couple of famous people who are married and wrote a sitcom about their lives (actually, as I recently learned while actually looking at the show’s credits, it seems that Lucy Beaumont wrote it with someone else named Tim Reid, which surprised me because I’d always thought Jon and Lucy wrote it together).

I mean… the concept does sound a little bit reality TV-ish. Or even just sort of YouTuber family-ish. I know it’s not those, because they don’t claim that it’s unscripted or actually “real”. Though YouTuber families and reality shows, while they do officially claim to be unscripted, are still pretty scripted and everyone (or at least most people) watching knows that. So even that doesn’t create as big a divide between Meet the Richardsons and those other shows as it could. It’s a clear difference – there is a clearly defined difference between a sitcom that someone sat down and wrote and then people act it out, even if many of those people are playing themselves, versus a reality show. But it might not be a huge difference.

I think Meet the Richardsons falls somewhere between The Trip and Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive, in terms of how fictional it is. More fictional than The Trip, because The Trip was full of improv and I assume Meet the Richardsons is not. Less fictional than Annually Retentive because that show had a lot of comedians playing themselves, but those comedians played completely fictional versions of themselves acting out a completely fictional situation. Like This Is the End, a movie I have not thought about since I saw it eight-ish years ago but it just came to my mind when I tried to think of another example. No one thinks the celebrities playing themselves in that movie are like that in reality. While Meet the Richardsons claims that the celebrities involved are like that in reality, but they’re still acting out fictional scenarios in these scenes. Sort of. I think that’s the idea.

I expected to like it because I like this particular family so much, but to not much like the format because it’ll feel like a reality show. But it wasn’t like that. I like the mockumentary format, and the whole thing has a much less tabloid-y feel than I expected. I also like that the kid wasn’t in it much. She appeared a bit, and that’s fine. And I’ve only seen one episode, so maybe she’ll be in it more in the future. But I hope not, because putting their actual child all over the screen for the sake of a TV show would definitely feel tabloid-y, in addition to just being a genuinely bad thing to do. But they seem to be avoiding that, which makes sense, because they are actually decent people and not unethical YouTubers exploiting their family for money. The adults are acting out the scenes and the kids runs around sometimes but that’s it. And that’s good.

So I now know that I really like this show, just from a format perspective. It feels more like a fun mockumentary of a couple of comedians making fun of their own lives, rather than feeling reality TV-ish. My other concern before I started the show was about whether it would be weird to see Jon Richardson all grown up and functional and having a family, when I am used to Jon Richardson being a person I can relate to as someone who would not be able to do any of those things.

And so far… well, in the very first episode they showed some footage of Jon Richardson drinking a beer in his car (key out of the ignition, to be clear) while watching cartoons on his phone, just because he needed some time away from his family. This wasn’t staged for the show, it said it was footage that Lucy Beaumont had recorded on her phone in 2018 of something Jon was actually doing, just to have a recording of how her husband is the sort of person who will drink a beer in his car to get some alone time.

I feel a bit guilty about how pleased I was to see that, because I suppose I should want Jon to grow and become the sort of person who doesn’t need to do that. But I mostly felt weirdly relieved to see he hasn’t changed that much. I have sat in so many cars, and under so many stairwells, and in so many corners behind buildings, and wherever I can find space, to escape being around people. So I very much had a sense of… oh, there’s the Jon I know and understand. He still exists. He’s still mad about everything. I’m pleased about that.

For example, I am currently sitting in my bedroom, wanting to go downstairs to grab a snack, but I can’t because I can hear my room and his girlfriend down there, and I don’t want to deal with people, so I will hide in my bedroom until I hear them go out, or hear them go to bed, and then I will go get my snack. And when I go do that, I will clean up after them as much as I can, because they will make a mess and not care, because these things don’t bother them. It’s actually bothering me now that I can hear them moving things around and I know they’re not going to put it all back in the right place. Most of my eating schedule is based around when I can run into the kitchen and try to get everything I need and clean up and then get out without having to have a social interaction.

It is very comforting to sit here, listening to my roommate and his girlfriend and feeling really annoyed at them for existing, while watching this TV show about Jon Richardson still being like that after many years. Obviously not as bad as me - I would be completely unable to raise a kid or to function in a living situation in which I don’t have my own bedroom, because I would have a breakdown pretty fast if I didn’t have the option of escaping to my own bedroom for significant periods of time. But it’s sort of nice for me to see someone who’s functional enough to be a husband and father, but still quite interested in escaping to alone time when that’s feasible. I think the part of me that projects way too much onto Jon Richardson will be quite happy with this show.

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queenofthefullmoon · 4 years

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An exhaustive list of Dark Souls 3 bosses I would or would not date

Iudex/Champion Gundyr

We’re starting off this list with a strong yes. Our boy Gundyr has had a hard, difficult life, and he deserves some good company. He’s tall, strong, and I trust him to protect us as we set a lovely camp site outside of the fire link shrine.

Vordt of the Boreal Valley

Vordt is big and he is feral which are truly the only two qualities I look for in a man. Together we’d be unstoppable. I mean, think about how easy it would be to go around with him: just climb on his back and let the rodeo begin, baby. This argument alone should be enough to convince you that Vordt is a suitable boyfriend, but here’s another one: if you get too hot in the summer, worry fucking not for your gigantic man can hold his equally gigantic hammer over you and cover you with snow like an italian man covering his pasta with parmesan.

Cursed Rotted Greatwood

Now while I’m certain it would be a perfect partner for some people, the Cursed Rotted Greatwood isn’t for me. For one, I am not fan of curses, or rot, or weird sticky balls, or strange orange acid, or pale white and slightly viscous hands bursting through a living tree. Secondly, I feel like the crowd of Hollows who group up around the tree would be a big impediment to our intimacy, and I’m not ready to be the mother of 20 Hollows.

Crystal Sage

No offense but you’d be an idiot for not wanting to date the Crystal Sage. All wrapped up in one package, you get a super competent sorcerer bf, who wears the coolest hat in the galaxy and an equally cool cape, and who overall looks like the upgraded version of a plague doctor. In addition to that he also has a pretty rapier so you can both engage in some sparring (which we all know is the most romantic couple activity).

Deacons of the Deep

Probably one of the worst options on the list, they’re all crusty, rotting men moaning around a biggass coffin. There are many technical questions. If I dated a deacon, would I have to date all of them? Can we go out on dates or are they obligated to stay next to the coffin at all times? Can I even date them at all?? Not that I would, because I have standards. The only pro to entering this relationship(s?) would be that I’d probably get one of their robes for free, but the cons are so numerous that I’d rather buy it myself.

Abyss Watchers

Let’s be real and honest even if it hurts. Would I date an Abyss Watcher? Yes. Maybe I’d even date two. However, would an Abyss Watcher date me? No, because they’re all in love with Artorias, and I can’t blame them for that.

Old Demon King

At first I considered dating the Old Demon King like a Russian Instagram model dates an old, rich American man: with a great deal of fake love but above all great patience in order to be the only person on the will. But then I thought about it more, and what does the Old Demon King have to offer, really? A big firework show that will leave him exhausted like the old creature he is, and maybe some pyromancies. Truly, it is not worth it, especially since I’d have to take residence where he lives, in a big old room filled with the corpses of his kin.

High Lord Wolnir

I’ve got nothing against Wolnir personally, but I have no interest in skeletons, nor in his army of skeleton children. As stated above I’m not ready to be a mother. I feel like if we got in an argument and he sighed, he would poison me with his awful breath and I would die a horrible death. Also, living on the brink of the Abyss doesn’t appeal to me that much. However I would like Wolnir to be a good friend I can talk jewelry with because let’s be honest, the man (skeleton?) is blinged the fuck out even in death and I respect that.

Yhorm the Giant

Yes, I would date Yhorm. He was nothing but a sweet, misunderstood giant who always tried to get people to trust him and he convinced me. I would put my life in his big hands. Think of the possibilities. Just like with Vordt he could carry you everywhere but in a less reckless way if you prefer proper manners. You’d never have to worry about not seeing anything at a concert. Also, may I add that waiting for you to show up while sitting on his biggass throne is an absolute power move? Yhorm is a Lord of Cinder, but above all, a Lord of this heart.

Pontiff Sulyvahn

Would I date him because of his appealing aesthetic? Yes. Would I date him for anything else? No. Sulyvahn is absolutely terrifying, completely unhinged in the most frightening way, which is that he doesn’t look bat shit crazy. I could be thinking that everything is going well in our relationship then suddenly he’d lock me in a dungeon then would feed me to his weird friend because I put a fork in the knife drawer. He could pretend to propose and give me a weird fucked up ring with his eye in it and the next thing I know I’d be running in a field on all fours. I don’t trust like that.

Aldritch, Devourer of Gods

I’m so sad about Aldritch because literally everything about him is completely unappealing, unacceptable, unnatural, unholy, abhorrent, but he has the delicate and beautiful face of Gwyndolin. While our lovely Gwyndolin looks gorgeous as ever it doesn’t make up for the fact that Aldritch devoured people and probably wouldn’t find love to be a good reason to not eat his partner. The only reason I can find to have a friendship (not even a romantic relationship) with him is if you really like experimenting with cooking and you really, really need someone to taste your inventions.

Dancer of the Boreal Valley

I feel attraction, which means that just like any other being who feels attraction, I would date the Dancer. She is beautiful, graceful, a bit feral, and would not hesitate to put a flaming knife to my throat, which is the description of my dream woman. Imagine walking the streets with her, trying to hold her hand while it dangles 3 feet above you and she insists on holding her sword, actually, so she might slay anyone who tries to approach you, which she communicates through icy breaths and murmurs. The date of a lifetime.

Oceiros, the Consumed King

Another awful choice on this list, Oceiros is RABID and also, as far as we know, still a married man. You really want to date a man that hasn’t even gone through his divorce but already looks like this? Me neither. I’m already not big on dragon fucking but the fact that he’s all viscous and has weird growths all over him is not helping. Also, he has children, and we know how I feel about that — although, given how he treats them, he probably won’t have kids very soon (too far?).

Ancient Wyvern

So I’ve stated that I’m not very big on dragon fucking. With that said, do I think the wyvern is sexy and beautiful? Absolutely so. You’re probably like « Blue you’re sending mixed signals, are you gonna date the lizard or not? » and to that I say, date? Perhaps not. I would however like to form a lifelong bond with this wonderful force of nature and fight by its side, live a long and fulfilling life travelling along with it, only to die at the same time atop the tallest mountain in the world, where our skeletons will be discovers hundreds of years in the future by brave explorers, who will confirm that the legendary songs that were written about us were in fact not just a myth.

Nameless King

You’ve just read what I said about the wyvern. I feel like the Nameless King really understands me and would respect me for that. We could bond over our love of dragons and other flying scaly beasts and perhaps share some chaste kisses while soaring the sky on our companions. It’s nice to date someone who loves pets as much as you. I feel like he would be a fun guy to hang around in general, maybe he’d let you braid his hair or try on his crown. He can arrange personalized fireworks shows for you with his lightning powers. I don’t think you’d ever be bored around him.

Dragonslayer Armor

Dating an empty suit of armor has never bothered me (see: ds2 Ruin Sentinels), however I have beef with the dragonslayer armor. Is it a beautiful armor? Perhaps a bit worn off, but the reply remains affirmative. However, it is controlled by Pilgrim Butterflies, which basically means I’m dating one to multiple of these things in the shape of an armor, and I’ve gotta confess that I’m not down for that.

Lorian Older Prince and Lothric Younger Prince

Here comes the delicate moment where we have to make a choice without offending anyone. I personally, speaking for myself, in my own opinion, would rather date Lorian. Reason: he is big, strong, and a bit rabid, which I’ve made very clear is my type. I don’t dislike Lothric, but I feel like we’d be better off as best friends who have a really snarky group chat where we shit talk the entire kingdom. That’s pretty good because if I even just slightly disliked Lothric I’m pretty sure Lorian would sense it and would not hesitate to murder me on sight.

Champion’s Gravetender and Champion Greatwolf

Well the full name is just a formality here, I’m not completely insane so I don’t want to date this rabid wolf. I feel like the Champion’s Gravetender is just a normal dude who’s a bit in over his head and it’s not his fault but he just seems a bit boring compared to all my other options. Instead of a date I think he’d be more of an awkward flirt I had when I was bored and then I came to my senses but didn’t know how to disengage, but in the end it worked out because he was more interested in his work anyway.

Sister Friede and Father Ariandel

Again a choice has to be made and I will have to be predictable and say I’d date Elfriede. Just like Dancer she’s what the woman of my dreams is made of. She’s graceful and could easily take my life and I think it’s awfully sexy of her to be like that. I think I’d be accepted into the family pretty easily, which is important since Father Ariandel cares about Friede so much. I’d go visit him sometimes, play chess with him, bring him his flail, normal interactions with your girlfriend’s dad.

Soul of Cinder

I’m gonna be a tiny bit freaky here and say I’d date the Soul of Cinder. Dating it is just like opening a Kinder Surprise egg, you never know what you’re gonna get (sorry Americans for excluding you here). That makes life exciting and doesn’t let routine stall your relationship. Every day you can wake up with the question « What weapon will my darling walk around with today? The flaming sword, or the sorcery staff? » and be surprised by the answer. Truly ideal, but I understand it’s not for the faint of heart.

Demon Prince

I’m gonna go with a maaaaaaybeeeee? leaning towards no. I mean yes, the Demon Prince is a weird fleshy flaming demon, and that may be a bit gross, but I’ve gotta admit I admire his style, the drama of it all. The care he puts into his entrance, the attitude in his moves. If we don’t date I’d at least want to be friends so he can teach me his ways.

Darkeater Midir

I have very intense and contradictory feelings towards Midir. In one hand, holy shit, absolutely epic dragon, the spirit of companionship is growing in me. On the other hand, this beast is RABID and pretending I could tame him is foolish, and pretentious. I guess in the end the answer remains that I don’t date dragons, I just want to adopt them as my extremely exotic pets.

Halflight, Spear of the Church

Yeah I’d date Halflight, I know it’s the easy answer but look at him. I mean shit he’s walking around like a little thotty with his shirt open and you mean to tell me I’m not supposed to wanna date him because he looks pretty much like a regular dude? My boy Halflight WANTS me to date him or else he would not show up with his tiddies out to a sword fight, which as an activity already has enough erotic implications on its own.

Slave Knight Gael

I’m gonna say it unashamedly and I’ll say it again: I would date Gael. He’s been nothing but helpful and when he tries to attack you it’s to help his little lady that he’s adopted as his niece. We love a chaotic parental figure. Maybe he’s a tad bit old and dirty but there’s nothing a good bath can’t fix and I’m sure he’d appreciate having someone taking care of him for once. Again, he’s got that slightly unhinged quality to him that makes him delightful. When I walk around with my partner I want us to instill both fear and fascination in people which we would be able to accomplish perfectly well.

Dark Souls 1: Remastered date list // Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin date list

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thegoodgayshit · 3 years

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Luz’s mother really doesn’t want to send Luz to camp. She knows once she leaves, there is no going back. But Luz has a knack for getting into trouble, and one day she stumbles into the same type of people her mother would have preferred she avoided. After helping Luz dissolve her high school bully into dust, Eda and Lilith know right away that this kid is just like them - a child of the gods. So Luz hops on a Pegasus and heads to Camp Half-blood, where she embarks on a dangerous quest that makes her both friends and enemies... and she might even save Olympus along the way.

Chapter Eighteen: We Crash Hexside High’s Junior Prom

Amity left the café in a more than sour mood. She practically stomped the whole way back to the hideout. Luz watched her warily, not really knowing what to say. She had thought Aphrodite had been really nice, all things considered. She had no idea why Amity was so upset.

Eventually, she tried to talk to her. “Your mom was pretty cool, Amity.”

Amity spun around, her anger now directed onto Luz, and she flinched. Her eyes were murderous.

“Uh…” Luz held up her hands, terrified. “Or not?”

Something changed in Amity’s face, and she deflated. “Sorry, Luz. I’m not angry at you. I just… I didn’t realize how much my siblings were like my mom. That whole conversation was a little overwhelming.”

“It’s alright, Amity,” Luz said with a smile. “You haven’t seen your mom in like seven years. It makes sense that you didn’t know what to expect.”

Amity scoffed. “That’s an understatement.”

Luz nudged her with her shoulder, unable to keep the grin off her face. “But hey, on the bright side, this could be a pretty fun side quest.”

Amity looked at Luz with something that read somewhere between disbelieving and amused. “A side quest?”

Luz nodded eagerly. “Yeah! Like Azura and Hecate. They go on side quests all the time. It’s what makes an adventure an adventure!” She leaned lower to the ground, waggling her eyebrows playfully.

“Luz and Amity, joined by their fearless demigod friends tackle another impossible mission: The Heist of the High School Prom! Will they succeed, and continue on their great quest to save Olympus? Or will they be unable to recover the artifact and be forced to continue their quest empty-handed?”

Amity rolled her eyes, but she was unable to keep the smile off her face. “You’re ridiculous.”

“But am I wrong?” Luz teased, and Amity laughed. Luz felt her stomach swell as she watched Amity chuckle to herself. But then she was reminded right away of how similar Aphrodite’s laugh had been to Amity’s.

Luz swallowed nervously. She had a feeling she had missed something really obvious during the chat with Aphrodite, and she was starting to think she knew what, but every time she started to consider them she was painfully reminded about what happened last time. Clearing her throat nervously, she felt relief wash over her when she realized they were back at the workshop.

“Guys!” Gus greeted them gleefully as they entered. He was holding up a suit bag, his face split into a wide grin. “My mom sent us formal wear!”

“Not your mom,” Luz said, unable to mask her own excitement. “Aphrodite. We’re going on a heist!”

“What?” Willow asked, frowning. She had opened the fridge and had been working on fixing up some dinner for the four demigods, (it looked pretty good: she wondered if being the goddess of the harvest boosted the quality of her cooking, those sweet potatoes looked fantastic) and waved for them to sit down at the table. Luz popped the top of a lime soda, sitting down next to Amity and Willow while Gus practically threw the suit bag on the worktable to sit down.

Luz launched into the story about meeting Aphrodite while they ate, skipping over a few details, like how she wasn’t able to focus, or the weird things Aphrodite said about Amity and Luz. She wouldn’t even know how to start that conversation normally, and since she was still trying to piece it together herself, she just cut to the mission.

“Awesome!” Gus said when she finished, “Peleus’ shield is supposed to be magical as well. So if that’s what we’re going after, then Luz’s sword is probably the other magical item that Aphrodite said goes with it.”

Luz blinked. She hadn’t thought of that. Her hand reached over to hover over Aletheia. While she loved her sword, she had never been good at using a shield at camp. Maybe it would be different when they found the sword.

“We’re going to need a plan, and Aphrodite gave us a good cover story,” Amity said, her face pinched in annoyance at the mention of her mother. “But that’s not going to be enough to get to the shield.”

Gus hummed. “I’ll work something out when we get there. Until then, everybody should just pretend this is a normal prom.”

“Gus is right,” Willow added, reaching into the wardrobe to pull out a dress bag. It had a sticky note that was labeled with her name. “Blend in, mingle, act like the other kids. It’s our best shot at keeping our real mission discreet.”

“Alright!” Luz cheered, pumping her fist in the air. “We’re going to prom!”

The four of them broke off on their own to get ready. Willow and Amity called first dibs on the bathroom, which suited Luz and Gus just fine. Luz walked toward the wardrobe and picked up the garnment bag that was labeled “LUZ” and tentatively brought her hand to the zipper.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Aphrodite to pick out something good for Luz, after all, she was the goddess of beauty. And she had seen what Luz always wanted to wear to a dance. Luz had just always struggled to pick something to wear that she liked. Her style was pretty hard to shop for.

When she peeked inside the garment bag, she practically squealed in delight. It was perfect. She couldn’t wait for her turn to use the bathroom to change. Like, well, magic, a changing curtain appeared immediately around her, with a full-length mirror and end table to her right.

Gods bless Athena.

Luz didn’t think she had ever changed so fast in her life. Once she buttoned up her clothes, Luz used the conveniently placed workshop mirror to get ready, her back to Gus, who got ready on the other side of the room. She used her brush and some gel to slick her hair back and she rummaged around the drawers until she found an unopened mascara and blush. She didn’t love makeup, but she figured this was just the right amount for her to wear to a prom.

Taking a deep breath, she looked in the mirror. Once she caught sight of her reflection, she couldn’t look away, a huge smile spreading across her face.

At first glance, she had thought her suit was black, but now that she looked at it she realized it was actually a midnight blue, that had been altered to fit her like a glove. Her dress shirt was silvery-white, and she had a dark maroon suit vest button up and paired with a matching bowtie. Aphrodite had even given her an additional matching set of black leather oxfords (with a bit of a heel to add about an inch of height) and a belt. She did a spin, her heart hammering in excitement. She looked so regal and mature… she easily could have passed for sixteen or seventeen.

It was so, so, perfect. Aphrodite was right: she hadn’t needed the tutu after all. She could get used to this.

She looked over to the garment bag to make sure she didn’t miss anything when she saw something at the bottom and frowned. She reached in and pulled out two little boxes, and gently opened them. She gasped, her eyes widening.

A matching corsage and boutonniere, in the same dark maroon as her vest and bowtie. The flower She opened the boutonniere and carefully pinned it to her jacket. Aphrodite must have made a mistake, there was no reason she needed both. She stuck it into the pocket of her suit pants, deciding she would worry about it later.

Once she had decided she was done, the makeshift changing room melted away around her, disappearing. She turned around to see Gus dressed and ready as well. He was wearing a perfectly fitted deep green suit with a silver dress shirt, and he had tucked his camp necklace under his shirt collar and was fiddling with a bow tie around his neck. His tongue was sticking out of his mouth in focus, but when he saw Luz he stopped in his tracks and whistled.

“Woah, look at you.”

“Look at you!” Luz replied, but her face was pinking in delight. She fiddled with the cuffs of her jacket, and Gus chuckled.

“Aphrodite must have known our sizes because these are practically tailored to us.”

Luz couldn’t help but agree. She wondered if Aphrodite could size a person’s… well, size… just by looking at them.

“Guys! You can use the bathroom now… oh, never mind,” Willow popped her head out of the bathroom, and her face split into an ecstatic grin when she saw them, and she made her way towards them. “You two look fantastic!”

Aphrodite had given Willow an off the shoulder green mid-length dress that puffed out at the hips, the waistband wrapped in a color that was an elegant gold. She had never seen Willow wear makeup, but she was wearing dark green eye makeup and pink lipstick that Luz thought suited her well. She had kept her camp necklace on, and had been given a pair of small gold hoops that matched the gold band. She was also wearing gold flats, with a supportive band at the bottom. Perfect footwear for a heist.

Luz’s grin returned, “Thanks! I love your dress. Green really is your color.”

Willow blushed, waving her hand embarrassingly. “Aw, shucks.”

“She’s right, Willow,” Gus said with a grin. “Look, we’re even matching.” He snapped his fingers like he had just figured out a puzzle, and reached into his garment bag. “Here, I have a corsage that matches our outfits. We must be each other’s prom dates as a cover story.”

Willow awed and took the corsage from him. It was a green and white flower that matched both their outfits perfectly. Willow put hers around her wrist, and Gus pinned his right where Luz had pinned hers. When they finished, they beamed, giving each other a thumbs up.

“Looking good!” Gus cheered, and Willow laughed.

Luz, however, had been frowning and watching the whole interaction, one hand reaching up to touch her own boutonniere, the other touching the corsage in her pocket.

“Wait, I don’t understand… why did I get both-”

“Luz? Gus? Are you guys not going to use the bathroom?” Amity’s voice called from the door, and when Luz looked up her heart just about leaped out of her chest.

She had changed into a deep maroon off the shoulder dress that came to just around her knees. It had lace sleeves that came to just above her elbows, and Luz saw her amethyst pendant hanging around her neck, sitting right between her collarbones. She had leather heeled shoes to go with her outfit, giving her at least two inches of height. Her mint hair was pulled up in its usual style, with a couple of loose pieces framing her face. She had even done her makeup, like Luz and Willow, but it was a lot more neutral. Though she did have eyeliner wings so sharp it could cut glass and dark lipstick that was a perfect match for her dress.

For a couple of moments Luz couldn’t do anything but stare, and she was painfully aware of the awkward tension growing around the as Willow and Gus exchanged a confused look. Amity was blinking at Luz as well, her cheeks pinking as she took in Luz, and she realized she was probably making a scene and should definitely look away. Or at least answer her question.

But when she tried, all that came out was “Uh… your dress… wow.”

Amity’s cheeks reddened, somehow making her look even prettier than she already did, and Luz swallowed hard.

Willow started laughing hysterically.

“What?” Gus said, turning to her in annoyance. “What’s the problem? Did I miss a joke?”

Luz pinched the inside of her arm hard. Tearing her eyes away from Amity, she forced herself to look at Willow and Gus instead. “Right, so I think we’re all good here. Everyone looks… prom-ey. Should we start making our way to the university?”

Willow, who was still chuckling to herself, nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Gus and I were checking the map earlier, it should be a thirty-minute bus ride.”

Amity scoffed, “my mom would come down from Olympus and murder us if we voluntarily took the bus in these clothes. She gave us money earlier for a cab there.”

“We should bring our stuff,” Gus said seriously, finally managing to tie his bowtie (even if it was a little crooked). “We don’t know if we’ll be able to come back here after we take the shield.”

“That’s true,” Amity added. “The local authorities will probably be looking for us.”

Something moved next to them, and when Luz looked over, she saw their backpacks, fully restocked and sitting ready to go. One had even been added for Amity, a maroon one that when she saw, she winced.

“I guess I know for sure now my backpack got destroyed by Achilles,” she said with a grumble, slinging it over her shoulder. “I’m going to kill that guy.”

“What about our weapons?” Willow asked, holding her kopis in her hand. With her dress, she didn’t really have anywhere to put it.

“My spear is here,” Gus said, opening his jacket to reveal the retracted spear strapped to his side.

“I have my ring…” Luz said unhelpfully, her hand hovering over it.

“Mine’s under my skirt,” Amity said causally, and Luz’s mouth dropped.

“It is?” She asked, shocked.

The demigod blushed, and she crossed her arms. “Yeah, it is. Your sword is shorter than mine Willow, it’s not totally comfortable, but it’ll fit.”

Once that issue was sorted out, they were ready to go. They left Athena’s workshop, and Luz pulled out her phone and called a cab. Willow and Gus walked down the street to patrol the area for monsters and make sure they weren’t going to be followed.

While she got the chance, Luz checked her phone for texts from her Mami, finding one from the day before.

How is your field trip, mija?

Luz typed back a response.

It’s great, Mami. I’m going to a dance tonight with my camp friends.

“Who are you texting?”

Luz jumped, turning to Amity who was watching her with interest.

“My Mami,” Luz admitted, feeling terrible for using her phone. She stuck it in her pocket and felt it brush against something. The corsage.

“You don’t need to feel guilty,” Amity said slowly, running her hand up her arm nervously. “I’m glad she wants to make sure you're ok. It’s sweet how much you care about her.”

Luz felt that thumping in her heart again while she listened to Amity talk. She found herself starting again, and Amity’s cheeks pinked at the intensity of it. Luz mentally hit herself. She had to stop freaking her out like that.

“Luz, there’s something I wanted to ask you…” Amity said, her blush deepening. “I… I know this isn’t a real Prom… but since we’re using it as a cover story and we want it to be realistic… would you want to maybe… I don’t know…”

She had no idea what compelled her to interrupt Amity, but she reached into her pocket and pulled out the corsage, extending it to Amity slowly.

“I found this in my garment bag. Would you want it?”

Amity blinked, taken aback. “What?”

“It’s a corsage, and it matches your dress,” Luz said stupidly. What was she doing? Why did she need to interrupt Amity like that to say something so dumb?

Amity reached out slowly and took it. “Oh, thanks.”

She opened it and put it around her wrist, and Luz realized with a jolt that Amity was disappointed. Why was she disappointed? Had Luz done something wrong?

There was that jolt in her stomach again. It was getting stronger and stronger every time it happened around Amity. She didn’t want to disappoint her. She racked her brain, trying to think of why she would have hurt Amity’s feelings just now.

Then, she remembered what Aphrodite had said to Luz, and the fluttering got so strong she was amazed she didn’t pass out.

“You'rere affected by my charms. This is good news for you, daughter.”

“I’m sorry, my lady. I don’t understand.”

“You will, daughter of Hermes.”

Oh. Oh. Oh.

Luz understood, and the weight of it almost flattened her. GODS, how was she so dense? Amity hadn’t been uncomfortable around her. Well, maybe she had, but it wasn’t because Luz was scaring her off. It was the exact opposite. And she… well. She hadn’t gotten off on the best foot with Amity when they’d met, but they’d come such a long way and Luz was so confused. Her tongue tied in knots, and she was starting to sweat. But she couldn’t mess this up. She wasn’t going to give herself the opportunity to. So, she hesitantly smiled at Amity who wasn’t looking at her.

“It… it matches my suit too,” she added awkwardly sticking her hands in her pockets nervously. Amity looked up quickly in surprise, her gold eyes widening. That was a better response than disappointment. Luz figured she should just go from there.

“Maybe we could be each other’s like… dates? To help with the cover story and everything.”

Amity blinked for a couple more seconds in shock, and Luz felt herself begin to panic.

“I mean… we don’t have to if you would rather just stick to the original story-”

“No!” Amity said quickly, and Luz jumped at the volume of it.

“Sorry,” she added, lowering her voice. Despite the awkwardness of the whole conversation, she was beaming. “I mean, yes. That sounds perfect.”

Luz laughed nervously, but she was also smiling. “Alright, great. You’re my date then.”

“Yeah,” Amity said, her cheeks pinking. “I’m your date.”

Luz wasn’t quite sure what she was going to say next, but it didn’t seem to matter because the cab was suddenly pulling up, and Willow and Gus were back at their sides.

“Ready to go?” Gus asked them, and Luz nodded, letting gesturing for him to get in the cab. Willow turned to look at Amity and Luz suspiciously.

“Why do you two look like that? Did you get into a fight or something?”

“No!” Luz said quickly, and Amity also shook her head. “No, of course not.”

Willow hummed, unconvinced, but shrugged, getting into the cab next. “Okay.”

After she got in, Luz gestured for Amity to go next. “After you.”

Amity pinked, but slid in after her, and Luz got in last, shutting the door with a bang. The cab driver looked at them in his mirror.

“Where are you kids headed dressed so nice?”

“The University of Denver,” Luz said, “for our Prom.”

The cabbie raised his brows. “What, you can’t afford a Limo?”

The four of them looked at each other, and Luz wasn’t really sure what she was going to say next.

“We had one,” Amity replied, feigning a look of hurt. “We paid our deposit but the driver never showed. We won’t let that stop us from enjoying our prom though.”

“That’s terrible customer service,” the driver said with a gasp, tisking. “What kind of company scams kids? Tell you what, I’ll take you there for free.”

“You don’t need to do that, sir,” Amity said quickly, “we appreciate it, but it’s a long drive.”

The driver shook his head. “No, I insist. You’re only teenagers once. Here, I have an aux cord for customers. Play whatever you’d like.”

So Luz plugged in her phone (he’d already offered, and why not?) and the driver blasted her guilty pleasures playlist all the way there. When they were about ten minutes away, Luz heard her phone buzz, and it was a reply from her Mami.

A dance? How fun! I’m so happy you’re making friends, mija. Do you have a date for this dance???

Luz usually would have gotten upset at this question, especially since her Mami knew what had happened at the last dance she went to. But instead, she smiled. Because she did have a date, even if it wasn’t exactly a real one.

“Guys, could we take a picture to send to my Mami?” Luz asked, and everyone around her nodded, and Gus even whooped in excitement at the idea of a group picture. Making sure she didn’t get too much of the cab in the background (her Mami would ask way too many questions) Luz and her friends huddled around and smiled. Luz snapped a couple, before humming and shaking her head.

“Cute, but it’s not really us. Let’s do a group hug!”

Willow and Gus laughed and reached around to hug everybody’s shoulders. Luz extended her left arm around Amity, pulling her close. Amity’s cheeks pinked furiously, but she was laughing too when Luz grinned and took the picture. When she looked at it, she couldn’t help but let herself enjoy the moment. It was perfect.

She showed her friends the picture, and then she sent it to her Mami, along with a follow-up text.

I do :) This is Amity, and my two friends Willow and Gus.

When the cab pulled up, and the driver let them out, Amity discreetly slipped the cash Aphrodite had given them into the passenger seat. The driver wished them goodnight, and then they were there, outside the hall at the university that was hosting the event. It seemed to be one of the main buildings, and it was decorated outside with flowing magenta and silver balloons. Above the door was a huge banner with the words “Hexside Highschool Junior Prom”. All around them, teenagers just a little older than them were making their way inside, but nobody seemed to pass them any kind of look.

Perfect, they were blending right in.

Gus lead them to around the side of the building, away from the prying eyes of the prom guests.

“Right,” Gus said, and the four of them got into a huddle. “I used the workbench earlier to plan our heist and I have a plan. Right now, we’re two buildings over from the classics department where they keep the shield. We should stay here for a little bit, keep up the face, and then as pairs leave inconspicuously out the back exit and head across the yard to the building. We break inside, take the shield, and regroup at the prom entrance.”

He took off his backpack, pulling out a black cloth from inside.

“There are masks to hide our identity. The place has cameras everywhere except the back exit. The second you leave, put them on. We don’t want to get followed by mortal police.”

They each took their masks out, and Luz and Gus stuffed them into their pockets. Amity and Willow frowned, holding onto them.

“I can take that,” Luz said, extending her hand out to Amity. “I’ll give it to you later.”

“But we haven’t decided how we’re splitting up yet!” Gus said, and Luz frowned.

“What do you mean? It’s obvious to split ourselves up by our prom dates. It’ll look less suspicious. You and Willow go together, and I’ll go with Amity.”

Next to her, Amity flushed and handed Luz her mask, and Willow’s eyes lit up in excitement. Gus just shrugged.

“Alright, that works. Let’s ditch the rest of our stuff here in this bush until we come back for it later.”

Once they’d concealed their backpacks, the four of them walked up the steps and tried not to draw any attention to themselves. When they walked inside, Luz’s heart sank. It lead to the main room, clearly where the party was, but there was a security guard outside checking tickets. Luz’s heart sank.

“What are we going to do?” Luz hissed to Willow and Gus, who shrugged their shoulders helplessly. Next to her, Amity sighed, and Luz turned to look at her. Her eyes were narrowed in determination.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

The three of them shared a confused glance, but they didn’t have much time to question it before the couple in front of them walked in, and they were next.

“Tickets?” The security guard, a buff dude with blond hair, asked.

Amity’s shoulders slouched, and she ducked her head. “I’m so sorry sir, but we left them in the limo and don’t have them anymore! I swear we bought them though. Can you please just let us in?”

Luz bit the inside of her lip. There was no way that was going to work! Security guards had to deal with kids like them all the time, there was no chance-

The guard’s shoulders slouched to Amity’s level, and his eyes grew watery. “Oh, how terrible is that! On the night of your junior prom and everything… that’s no problem, miss. You and your friends head right inside.”

“Thank you so much, sir. You really are too kind.” Amity said quickly, grabbing Luz by the arm and dragging her inside with Willow and Gus trailing them. “Have a fantastic night.”

Luz struggled to pick up her jaw. “How did you just do that?”

“I didn’t know you could use charmspeak,” Willow added, looking quite surprised herself.

Amity sighed rubbing the back of her neck. “I can’t. It’s not charmspeak.”

“It’s Aphrodite’s Passion!” Gus said gleefully from behind them. Once they had walked inside the dark room lit up by flashing lights, they headed to a corner where they could talk privately.

“Aphrodite’s what?” Luz exclaimed, shocked.

“It’s a skill some of my mom’s kids have. It’s not as overpowering as charmspeak.” Amity explained quietly.

“Aphrodite’s Passion is when a person is inclined to listen and sympathize with the user. It doesn’t force anybody to do anything they wouldn’t otherwise do, but it does incentivize the target into acting out of empathy,” Gus added.

“How is that different from charmspeak?” Willow asked, confused.

“Charmspeak is foolproof and often results in loss of memory or confusion. It comes from the more manipulative side of Aphrodite, and is superficial at heart” Gus added, and then grimaced, turning back to Amity with an awkward smile. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Amity said with a shrug. “I can’t use it all the time anyway, I have to be in a certain mental state to get it right… I just had a feeling it would work today and well, I guess I got lucky.”

“What mental state do you have to be in,” Luz asked curiously, and Amity cleared her throat.

“I… It’s hard to explain…”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Willow said quickly, regaining everybody’s focus. “What matters is the mission.”

The four of them nodded.

“Right,” Luz said seriously. “Let’s split up and enjoy the party.”

“I’m going to the free food,” Gus said excitedly, and Amity laughed.

“I wouldn’t mind some free stuff. I’ll go with you.” She turned to Luz with a smile. “Do you want me to get you a drink?”

Luz grinned. “Yeah, sure!”

The two demigods walked away, leaving Luz and Willow to themselves. Willow turned to Luz with a wide grin.

“So you finally asked Amity out then? Good for you, Luz!”

Luz’s stomach clenched hard. “What do you mean asked her out?”

Willow’s brow furrowed, and she frowned. “Well, she’s your prom date isn’t she?”

Luz felt her cheeks heating up. “I… I mean yeah…”

“And you gave her the corsage that matched the boutonniere?”

“Yes…”

“And I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. You like her, right?”

What a question. She wasn’t sure she wanted to answer that just yet. Not when something else big had pushed itself to the surface.

“Willow, what is Aphrodite supposed to look like?”

Willow blinked in surprise. A small smile started to pull on her lips. “Well, there are lots of rumors about what gods and goddesses look like by those who’ve seen them. They’re supposed to encompass the things they are known for and reveal secrets to demigods about things they may not have previously understood. So Aphrodite, who stands for beauty, passion, and love… well, you would see those qualities in yourself reflected in her.

Luz swallowed hard. Aphrodite’s smile… her laugh… gods, she’d even smelled like Amity.

Luz knew she thought Amity was beautiful, she’d accidentally told her enough times. But did Luz… love her? Luz certainly felt a lot of things about Amity. With everything between them going on, and the way this prophecy had intertwined them, was there something more to them than Luz had even realized yet?

As much as she refused to acknowledge it, the prophecy did call for something tragic. Could this be what Aphrodite had been talking about? The passionate story fueled by love in Luz’s heart? Was this love more than just her new love for camp, and for her friends? Luz's face was getting so hot, she was sure she was sweating right through her new dress shirt.

Who was Luz kidding? She had never been this important, or this special. She had certainly never warranted any kind of attention from somebody as incredible as Amity. In fact, people like Amity had been the reason she was hurt in the past. Was this worth trying? Worth pushing just to see what happened? Every fiber in Luz wanted to run, to protect herself.

But this… this wasn’t about Maya. This was about Amity. And they had already been through so much together, she had to at least try. She had to at least take the leap of faith.

Willow smiled, nudging Luz with her shoulder. “Luz, if you ever want to talk, I’m always ready to listen.”

Luz turned to Willow gratefully. “I know, Willow. And I’m probably going to take you up on that soon.”

“I figured,” Willow said her eyes training onto something behind Luz. “But how about for right now, you just focus on making the magic happen?”

Luz turned her head and saw Amity coming back towards her, with two cups in her hand and a big smile on her face. Luz’s breath caught in her throat. Gods, Amity was just so pretty when she smiled. She felt that surge of panic come back, and the realization that this was happening hit her like a truck.

For whatever reason, in the middle of her panic, she remembered Eda, right before she accepted the prophecy.

“ You do have a choice. You’re allowed to look out for yourself if you need to. If this seems too much, you can take a moment to breathe.”

“Here you go,” Amity said, handing the cup to Luz. “They had lime soda. I saw you drinking it at the workshop so I figured it was a safe bet.”

Luz felt her heart jolt with affection, and the combination of that and Eda’s words in her head filled her with the same rush she had felt back when she’d accepted the prophecy.

Luz knew what she needed to do, and she was going to make sure she made the right choice. The sound of upbeat music filled the room, and with that so did her courage.

She reached over and took Amity’s cup from her, and handed them both to Willow. She turned back to a surprised Amity and extended her hand, smiling as confidently as she could.

“Amity, would you like to dance with me?”

#the owl house #Percy Jackson AU #lumity #luz x amity #shelby speaks

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maddiicake · 4 years

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Why Both FMAB and FMA03 are good and should be treated as Independent Stories:

I will go on the record of saying that Appreciate and Love FMA as a whole and love both series for what they are. And while it may sound like a broken record saying things like this... there’s still hateful words against those who like one over the other. So, I’m here to make this post addressing that both FMA2003/03 and Brotherhood are great in their own way and should be respected as their own individual stories.

Also warning there will be obvious spoilers.

What I liked about the Original (FMA03/2003) Series:

I watched 03 before delving into Brotherhood, and even before reading the manga. Now, I know Brotherhood and Manga fans are the small minority of the fandom, while 03/2003 fans make up the majority. That being said, many of these people simply can't get used to 03 after watching Brotherhood.

However, for me, I was happy because: A) I got more FMA to watch, and B) The differences in 03/2003 simply made it even more fun to watch, so for it was no trouble getting used to this anime.

But if I were to be specific of what I liked, I’d say I liked the following about FMA03/2003:

Characterization of the Protagonists and all the 'good' guys: The show heavily focuses on the relationship and tragedy of Elric Brothers, and 03/2003 portrays it much better with such a deeper level. The relationship between both brothers is intimate, and it feels like a genuine sibling bond. I also enjoy the fact that the anime shows that even if Ed follows his ideals, he, like any human, can break away from them under severe pressure, which was beautifully shown in the 5th laboratory arc. As for other characters: Scar in this version is a total opposite of his Brotherhood counterpart. He is written realistically in the 2003/03 anime. His absolute hatred for the military is more legit, and he feels morally grey in this anime. Izumi Curtis for me was also portrayed better in this version. Meanwhile, other Characters like Roy, Winry and Alex felt the same to me throughout both versions--so, not much change there.

Worldbuilding: The 2003/03 anime does a fantastic job at portraying the widespread effects of war and politics, Alchemy, etc. and how it has affected the people of the FMA World. For example, in Episode 16, “That Which is Lost”, Ed meet, a guy who had lost his limb while working as a soldier and was reluctant to use an automail prostetic because he wanted to “retain his wound”. Now, this episode itself was more so filler and didn’t really matter to the main plot of the story in itself; however, I feel that it was added to series to portray the depth of the FMA World, and how everyone has different reactions to the events that happened in the 2003/03 anime. Also, many of the events and how they unfold in this anime seem to parallel the middle east, which just makes all this feel realistic and provides some occasional social commentary which is quite nice. I also like how the first few episodes take their time to slowly and, with great subtlety, develop their world.

Thematic Depth: FMA2003/03 is dark, grim and kind of realistic--more so compared to Brotherhood. While, both versions of the anime deal with some important and mature themes, FMA2003/03 takes it to the next level. The 2003/03 series focuses on the Law of Equivalent Exchange, and shows how putting blind trust in it is a terrible thing to do. The show also focuses on how obsession, a denial of reality, and the inability to move on can be a bad thing. Moreover, sometimes life just simply isn't fair, and we should accept it; however, always try to improve what we have. All in all, we have to understand the consequences of our actions. That life is uncertain, and sometimes we don't get everything, and even we pay a price for it. All of these themes mixed in with the meaningful dialogues and the dark tone, made me appreciate this anime. For example, in episode 48, when Roy and Ed talk for the last time, that’s the pivotal point that brings all these themes together.

A Good Start: The Show had a better start than Brotherhood, simply because 1). We have more time with Maes Hughes and Shou Tucker, and 2). The Liore arc. Despite BONES studio and it’s tendency to create anime too early *when the mangaka is barely halfway through their series), they made it work, and, with the material they had, the 2003/03 series was given enough time to bloom. The 2003/03 series was simply immersive and very emotional, especially during The Curtis Arc, as an example.

Soundtrack and The Art Direction: I feel like both are equally good. However, I will go on the record of saying that I don’t think “art style” is what makes a series, nor is it an important factor. It’s nothing more than glorified “eye candy” However, for the sake of argument (especially since the “art style” is the first thing that “03 Stans” mention) I’ll be adding it in here. Both the 2003/03 and Brotherhood series have some amazing and beautiful orchestral OSTs in their respective soundtracks; thus, it added to the immersion of their respective series. In FMA2003/03, the color palette is very unique, sometimes it feels dull but it just suits the dark tone of the series.

All in all, I am impressed by a lot of aspects of the 2003/03 anime series, but as much I love and respect it, there are lot of things this anime messed up and I will note that as well.

The antagonists were... Meh: While I really love and enjoy the direction and depth BONES Studio added to the Homunculi... some of the other antagonists could have been better (or just not added at all imo). For example, Frank Archer... he has no reason being there except for convenient plot device to the point it feels forced. Though, him becoming that weird cyborg always makes me laugh just because of how dumb of a character he became because of it. Speaking of which, him becoming a cyborg was just... weird. It was like the Studio staff were trying to make him “cool” by making him into some crossover of The Terminator and Two-Face from Batman, but it just failed. As for Zolf Kimblee... He is still sadistic and likes making things explode, much like his Brotherhood Counterpart. But... that was it. Other than that, he was just boring. Him and Archer were both just the staple 90s Kids Cartoon Villains; not much to them except “Muahahaha I’m evil”. Now Dante... I’d say that she’s a good villain to an extent. Her as a villain is very subjective within the fandom, depending on who you ask. While I believe that she could have been just as great a villain as Father, her character was rushed and her goals were a bit vague and unexplored. I like how, like with Father, she had ties Hohenheim; however, that backstory and those connections were introduced a little late. So, in the end, she just came across as more of the generic Vindictive Ex-Wife, and just a generic female villain. As for the Homunculi... I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I LOVED their portrayal in 2003/03. They were the “saving grace” of the entire team of the villains within the 2003/03 series. My favorite of the bunch were Lust and Greed--namely Lust, because of her ties with Scar. Envy came at a close second, but only seemed so because of a way to back up Dante as a villain, and the other Homunculi seemed a bit more underdeveloped as characters.

The Plot's quality drops after episode 35- Okay don't get me wrong. The first 35 episodes for me were 100/100. After that? a 60/100. Why? Because everything after that point feels contrived and feels forced. It's as tho, they are trying to do everything they can, even if it doesn't weave in, to make the brother's life miserable. Archer doesn't die and pops up, with his automail? Alphonse is there to be turned into a bomb, and become a philosophers stone. Okay, but why does this feel so forced? Also, can we talk about Nazi Shit? Now, I feel the brothers being separated is the perfect ending to this anime thematically and I have nothing against it, but A Nazi gate? Why? It was so sudden and pointless. It was never foreshadowed. They just showed it to make it as tragic as possible, because they didn't know of any other way to twist the plot, without convenient and totally forced plot devices. Also, How can Dante make Gluttony Mindless? Why is Juliet Douglass's Secret so obvious, when it can be fatal if leaked? Plot- Holes, Also, why are the Homunculli named the way they are? It just doesn't make sense. Also, FMA's Plot has an air of mystery to it, but it doesn't execute properly. I don't hate the end, I just felt disappointed, because the buildup towards it was terrible.

Now, I give a bit of grace concerning how the plot sort of dropped off and felt rushed halfway through, as well as the characters being underdeveloped and rushed. After all, Studio Bones was making up the majority of the material and took it in their own direction. Some factors to all of these cons in FMA2003/03 could be because of the Studio’s lack of a budget to flesh the characters and plot out more. Or, they had created so much additional material for this series that it became overwhelming.

As a writer, I can attest to the fact that “Character Overload” or “Element Overload” can either make or break a series, depending on how you handle it. That being said, there need to be a balance when it comes to these factors.

However, FMA2003/03 ended around 2004-05, So what we got is what we have.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s get on to the analysis of FMA: Brotherhood:

Characters: There isn’t a single character in this version of the series that I can choose as a “favorite”. Because, honestly? I lile them all. They’re all well developed and lovable in their own way, and have their own demension of depth to them. No, they’re not as deep as they aare in FMA2003/03, but from a writer’s perspective, that helps keep a balance with the overall plot of the stories. Now, some minor characters were just outrageous, but not to the level of boring (like 03!Kimblee and Archer), for example... Darius and Heinkel. There isn’t a vast difference in Brotherhood’s and 2003/03's cast of characters. However, if I had to note a difference, FMA2003/03′s characters were are more on the edge of realistic and Brotherhood’s were just... Loveable. However, that doesn’t mean that one counterpart of a character is better/worse than another. Both are quite memorable in their own way. Of course, in my opinion Brotherhood's villains are just better than 03's villains. Sure, the Homunculi aren’t given as much depth, but, they have redeeming qualities near the end of their time (i.e. Envy, and GreedLing). When Father was first introduced... his character made me think of how Dante started out, and I was worried that his character would end up just as rushed and he would just be the generic cliche Shounen villain. By the Promised Day Arc, however, I was surprised. Yeah, Father was still very shounen-y villain, but still a pretty darn good villain. I feel his backstory, and how he discarded all his human qualities which led to the creation of Homunculi was well put together, and I felt the concept how he created Alchemy in Amestris, while Hohenhime helped build Alkahestry in the east was well put together, and helped build the world of FMA (literally). To put it simply, his character was much more interesting than Dante, because it was fleshed out more. The Homunculi were awesome as well, Lust did her job, Pride and Wrath were simply awesome, GreeLing's development from an anti-villain to anti-hero was exceptionally well written and not the cliche anti-hero, which I can appreciate. Envy is the character you love to hate. And Gluttony and Sloth did their Part as Well. While I enjoyed 03′s portrayal of the homunculi, I felt like they only fleshed out some for that series (i.e. Lust) while others were just left to fall flat. With Brotherhood, all the Homunculi were evenly balanced out in their characters, not too much depth and not too little. Solf Kimblee was still the sadistic baster, but at least his entire personality was more explored this time, and I liked how they portrayed his psyche as an added affect to why he has his views.

Plot: Bortherhood’s plot was more fluid and weaved in seamlessly. As a lover of all things continuity... Brotherhood did it right, and every time I find an analysis of a teeny tiny subtle continuity detail (i.e. Ed’s gash on his forehead that lasts a few episodes), I get a writer-gasm! Sure, there were few plot devices and filler here and there. But the plot in gneeral wasn’t rushed or choppy, nor did it leave any holes in it. The way Brotherhood portrays it’s plot is to keep you as engaged as possible, adding some silly comic relief here and there to balance out the dramatic intensity every so often. Unlike 2003/03 where is was just one depressing and dark element after another, Brotherhood added in the comic relief points not and again to give it’s audience a break. And, that’s what I really appreciate, and think is a great story writing technique. All in all the Brotherhood series is literal binge-watch material

A Great Shounen: Many Shounen anime have their Arcs for the purpose of portraying the progress of a character, and keep introducing new villains; however, depsite this, there is rarely a sense of mystery, intrigue or a moving plot in a Battle Shounen Anime. What Brotherhood did was just that, except make it more digestible (and not super long like Naruto or One Piece), and added a great thematic exploration. For a shounen it was quite deep, the plot structure was more like seinen, and characters were awesome. In a way, we got everything we could in a Shounen anime that only lasted a little over 50 episodes: Depth, plot, characters in a shounen.

Thematic Exploration: Both FMA 2003/03′s and Brotherhood’s themes are the same, but Brotherhood makes it a bit more lighter. All the while, it also manages to raise questions on additional themes: revenge, truth, knowledge, sacrifice, worth of a human life, and many other things.

Soundtrack and Animation: Same as the analysis in the part of FMA 2003/03, and, once again... I will restate that I personally don’t believe that art style is what’s important to a series. It’s nothing more than glorified “eye candy”. However, for the sake of this analysis, I will be adding it in here. While Brotherhood’s art style and animation is more simplistic, it’s much easier to create those dynamic poses and expressions on an animation level. While FMA2003/03 did have it’s dynamic moments, it was mostly only during battle scenes or the really heavy moments in the series. Brotherhood maintains it’s art style through the series and keeps it a balance, so that some scenes aren’t too much animation but also not too little. And, both FMA2003/03′s and Brotherhood’s OST Soundtracks are beautiful orchestral pieces that really add additional effect to a scene that the respective series are trying to portray.

A sense of conclusion: A lot of Shounen Anime get prematurely cancelled, most Seinen end in a bittersweet manner. That’s why FMA2003/03′s ending with the fate of the Elric Bros was a bit more preferable for those who like a more realistic ending. But, I enjoy a story with a more conclusive ending that wraps all the plot points up together without leaving too many holes. Yeah, the “happy ending” of Brotherhood is cliche, but “happy endings” wouldn’t be “happy endings” if they weren’t. Not to mention, those types of endings are rare, because people really don’t want to write them, and, when they do, they’re rarely done well. Ed’s entire charcter arc wrapping up to where he swallows his pride as an Alchemist and gives up his Alchemy to bring his brother back is both wholesome and satisfying, because, through the show, it shows his progression and growth from beginning to end. And, having an arrogant character obsessed with Alchemy give it up and learn to humble himself because of it.. it’s really uplifting.

Now let's talk about the Cons within the Brotherhood series, they aren't a lot, but still, they did affect my experience quite a lot.

Overuse of Comic Relief: While the use is a nice balance to the already dark and dismal atmosphere of the series, it felt a bit overused. So much so that some emotional moments were inconvenienced by the use of that kind of humor. It was a bit much and created dissonance with the tone the scene was trying to portray. Now, it worked more in the Manga, because of the more visual gag of it, but, sometimes the visuals within the manga don’t translate as well to an animated one.

A Rushed First Half: While FMA 2003/03 began “In Media Res” with it’s first episode and then started a “flashback episodic arc” with the next handful of episodes.. Brotherhood just jumped right into it. While, yes, it was a better balance to not have the characters’ depth right at the beginning (slowly revealing it as the show goes on), the first half of Brotherhood was 0-100 through just the first few episodes. To the point it feels like the audience has to catch it’s bearings. But, once you get on the same page, it’s enjoyable from there.

So what’s the Point of this Ted Talk-esq FMA Post?

I’m sick and tired of seeing 03 Stans and MangaHood Stans fighting each other over just the smallest detail, especially when 03 Stans decided to bring leftist politics into it for no reason.

Personally, I just appreciate the fact that both series exist, ever since I've got in the franchise, it has become a part of my life, and still to this day is part of my life. Sure, I’m forever going to be part of this fandom.. but, I still see the beauty that peeks through the ruins and ashes of destruction now and then. I appreciate both series. Sure, I do prefer Brotherhood more, and get called a “Nazi” just because of it (ironic considering FMA: CoS was the movie sequel to 03... -__- ) , but 03 was excellent as well in it’s own way. It was very involving while FMAB was engaging. Both shows are something which you can learn something from and get attached to.

All in all, comparing both shows is okay, that's what I did here, but having a debate over which one is better isn’t just inherently bad... it’s TOXIC. Both series have their pros and cons, and they’re starkly different from each other. They’re two sides of the same coin. But, most importantly they are extremely important and impactful, so Pls don't have death battles over which one is better, don't say bad things about any fanbase, be respectful, and most importantly watch both and try to appreciate them. Because trust me liking both is a pretty darn good feeling.

#fullmetal alchemist #fmab #fma 03 #fma 2003 #full metal alchemist brotherhood #madiis musings

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hanzajesthanza · 3 years

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angouleme’s four years of banditry

[using the fan-translation of ttos and lotl because it’s easier to copy the quotes over and also it’s more accurate in some cases]

so when angouleme left the ‘orphanage’ that she was placed in when the war with nilfgaard broke out [likely referencing the massacre of cintra, not the battle of sodden hill], she was 15 y.o., and left to form a company of seven orphans: two girls and five boys in total. (this was approximately four years ago, as during the massacre of cintra, ciri was around 10 to 11 y.o., and in baptism of fire and tower of the swallow (august - september 1267) she is 15 years old.)

“How old were you then?” “Fifteen. I got to know a girl and five boys, my age and slightly older. And we came to a unanimous agreement (...) And we went on Robber’s Road. That’s how it went for us, sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes we dealt it, and sometimes we took it. Sometimes we were tired, sometimes hungry. Ha, hungry more often. I caught and ate more of what creeps and crawls than I ever had in my life. And of what flies - I once even ate a kid’s kite, because it was stuck together with glue made from flour.”

she spent a while in nightingale’s gang and robbed him when she left approximately more than two weeks before the autumn equinox (around the beginning of september). she left for unknown reasons (speculative reasons listed by artevelde), but when she was caught she tried to mitigate her sentence by giving information.

“I’ve seen people who have had worse done to them, only so that the robbers could have their fun. Angouleme, whose fate moved you so, has committed these kind of jokes, that’s for sure. She was in the gang long enough. And if the pure coincidence that she’s run away from the gang had not come to pass, no one would have heard of the ambush in Belhaven and you would have met her otherwise. Perhaps it would have been her that shot you in the back with a crossbow.”

“Those are Nightingale’s men. They’ve come to collect the protection money. They’ve already seen and recognized me... fucking shit! Now we’re sitting in the soup...” “Can you deceive them?” murmured Cahir. “I don’t think so.” ‘Because?” “I robbed Nightingale when I fled from the Hansa. They do not forgive... But I’ll try. You stay silent. Keep your eyes open and be ready. For anything.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s been over two weeks since I ran away from Nightingale’s Hanse.” (...)

“Our Angouleme has no chance to save her life,” Fulko Artevelde interrupted. “But she can save her skin if she wants to. For me, this is an absolutely credible motive. What Angouleme? You want to save your skin, don’t you?” The girl pursed her lips. And paled visibly.

“If you want to be kind, then confirm that I am telling the truth. So they keep their word. Hang me, damn it!”

“Homer Straggen, called the Nightingale, is an exceedingly dangerous criminal. Cruel and bold, crafty, lucky, and not stupid. The fact that he gets away with impunity incites others. I must put an end to it. That’s why I got involved in an agreement with Angouleme. I promised that if, as a result of her confession, Nightingale and his gang were taken and broken, we would hang Angouleme.” “I’m sorry?” The witcher said in amazement. “So this is the establishment of a witness? Cooperation with the authorities gets you - the noose? And what do you get for refusal to cooperate?” “The stake (...)”

“Do you know why she fled from the gang?” “I confess I am vague on this issue, and neither did my people get bogged down with it. But everyone knows that Nightingale is a man who, I would say naturally, reduces women to their primal role. If he could not otherwise succeed in persuading the woman to the role, he would force her using violence. In addition, generational conflicts have certainly developed. Nightingale is a mature man, but the rest of his cronies are greenhorns like Angouleme. But that is all speculation, basically I don’t care."

She paused and vigorously ran her hand through her straw-blond hair. “But what’s in the past is in the past. As far as I can tell you: Of those who escaped from the home with me, no one lives. The last two, Owen and Abel, were done in a few days ago by the soldiers of Lord Fulk. Abel even dropped his sword like me, but they cut him down anyway. They spared me. But don’t think it was out of loving kindness. They already had me stretched spread eagle on the ground when an officer came and forbade them the pleasure. Well, then you came and saved me from the gallows...”

but inbetween 1263 and september 1267, a lot has happened. what did angouleme do during this time?

she’s been to toussaint before, hiding from pursuers:

“True, they won’t.” added Angouleme. “It’s weird, but Nilfgaard respects the boundaries of Toussaint. I hid there from pursuers once. But the knights there are no better than the blacks! The talk nobly and politely, but they are quick to use their lances and swords. And they patrol the border constantly. They are called ‘knights-errant’. They ride alone, in pairs, or in threes. And they destroy the rabble. Which is us.”

she worked up a significant debt to golan drosdeck, the pit foreman:

“What do you suggest?” “We go around the city to the east, near the mouth of the Sansretour Valley, where there are iron mines. I have a friend in one of the mines. We will pay him a visit. Who knows, if we’re lucky, perhaps this visit will be worth it?”

“But the fact that you’re alive and safe makes me happy, ha, that makes me glad! Maybe you will even pay your debt to me?”

“P’raps. Who knows?”

“What does...?’”Angouleme wrinkled her nose. “It means that you owe me money, Flaxenhair. Instead of returning it, you want to add new debt. Significant debt - because what you ask can get a person a blow to the head, and not with bare fists, but with a pickaxe. What do I get?”

she’s been in taverns and bars (is there a legal drinking age in the empire?):

“They are, ugh.” Angouleme contorted her face. “Particularly by learning the hard way to check if some rascal of an innkeeper hadn’t poured us one of those famous wines by chance instead of the usual cider, because then you might have to leave your horse with him, so costly Castel or Est Est. Yuck. I don’t understand, it might be quality gear to those great lords, but we, ordinary folk, can get plastered just as well on the cheap stuff. And I’ll tell you this, because I’ve experienced it: you puke after Est Est just the same as you do after scrumpy.”

all while 16-18, she originated from cintra and cintrian lands, then ran across the north case at the base of the amell mountains, at the mouth of the dol newi valley, around the mines of belhaven, into toussaint, and back. and she started out in cintra, near cintra, near the mouth of the yaruga. well. i suppose geralt’s company travelled from brokilon to angren in 24 days, and 60 miles from brokilon to brugge in 12 days. but this is still quite a distance.

#i wonder what her accent is like since she was raised by cintrian distant nobility #the orphanage MUST have been in an area not yet claimed by nilfgaard. because why would cintrians run to nilfgaard #sorry this post isnt much im just trying to think out wtf she did and how did she have time for it all #the witcher books #c: angouleme #excerpt

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thetravelerwrites · 4 years

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Geyarajan (Part 3) Lemon

Rating: Explicit Relationship: Female Human/Male Gandharva Additional Tags: Exophilia, Gandharva, Childhood Sweethearts, Puppy Love, Sex, Attempted Murder Words: 6252

The finale of @floral-and-fine‘s commission! After finally finding Geyarajan, he pushes the reader away, still believing she betrayed him. It takes the failure of a spell for Geyarajan to realize his true feelings. Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Traveler's Masterlist

You rushed forward to embrace him as best you could with your arms bound, but he jumped back as if you were diseased, his wings flaring.

“Don’t touch me!” He spat. His voice had deepened tremendously, giving him an authoritarian quality. You knew he’d be angry, but you didn’t think those would be the first words you’d heard from him in over a decade. You swallowed back your tears and the lump in your throat.

“I’m sorry,” You said in a small voice, backing up and shrinking in on yourself. “I’m sorry.”

“Why have you come here?” He asked in an accusatory tone.

“To pay for my mistakes,” You said, looking down at your feet. “If I hadn’t been so careless, your people wouldn’t have suffered so much.”

“It’s rather late to come to us with your apologies,” He snarled.

“I’d have come sooner, had I been able,” You replied, continuing to look down and not meet his eye.

There was a moment of silence. “Why aren’t you looking at me?” He asked. It was the first time he sounded curious rather than incensed.

“Because I don’t deserve to,” You said. It was getting harder to hold the tears back.

Another silence. “This isn’t like you. You weren’t this… demure or… soft-spoken when last I knew you.”

“I was a child when last you knew me,” You replied. “I’m a different person now, a person that you don’t know anymore.”

“Hmm,” He mused. “Fair enough. I didn’t know you then, either.”

A tear slipped from your eye and fell to the ground. “I never lied to you, Rajan. Not once.”

“Don’t call me that,” He said sharply. “That’s not my name. It was never my name. We’re not children anymore.” With that, he walked out, throwing your tray to the ground. His parents followed him, locking the door behind him, and you fell to the straw and wept.

The entire point in coming here was to atone, even if that meant dying for it. Besides, there was nothing to go back to. Your parents didn’t understand you. You had no friends besides the ones in the city who were imprisoned, like yourself now. Raja--Gaveshan hated you. You had a few people among the gandharva who you might call allies, perhaps even friends, but whether the recall spell failed or succeeded, there was no telling if they could help you in any way.

You fell into despair and stopped caring for yourself, insomuch that you could in a cell with your hands tied. You no longer ate the food that was brought. You didn’t even look to see who brought it. The bindings were cutting into your wrists and you could feel the rub burns starting to blister, but you didn’t fuss about it or tell your guards. You had resigned yourself to death, so there was no sense in it, really. There was no point in anything anymore.

The next day, around lunchtime, the door opened and stayed open. You were lying on the bare ground, facing the wall, and couldn’t see who it was. You didn’t care who it was.

“They tell me you’re not eating,” Gaveshan said. “Why?”

You didn’t answer or acknowledge him in any way.

“Hey,” He said, prodding you with what felt like one of his clawed feet. “Are you dead?”

“Stop it,” You said flatly, not moving.

“Are you sick? What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing’s wrong with me,” You told him. “I submitted myself to your people fully expecting to die. I’m just preparing for the inevitable.”

“Die?” He echoed. “Why would you die?”

“Several of your people were murdered by humans because of me,” You said. “Why wouldn’t you kill me?”

“You admit that you told the humans about us?” He said, his voice hardening.

“No,” You said, finally cajoled into sitting up and looking at him more out of annoyance than any other reason. “I told you, I’ve never said a word about your people. I don’t remember anything.”

“Liar,” He said, his face tight with distrust.

You sighed. “Think what you want to, Gaveshan, but go think it somewhere else. I’m tired.” You laid back down.

He was silent for a moment. “You really came here thinking you were going to die? Why would you do that?”

“People died because I couldn’t climb a tree properly,” You said. “There must be penance for that.”

“Wait,” He said, his voice changing abruptly. “You think you’re responsible for all of this because you fell out of the tree?”

“If I hadn’t fallen, I wouldn’t have broken my leg, you wouldn’t have had to carry me to your home, and people from my village wouldn’t have followed us there. I was careless and your people paid the price.”

He sat down on the ground next to you, staring at you as if trying to figure out a puzzle.

“So if you didn’t tell the humans, why did you run?” He asked.

“What are you talking about?” You asked, looking up at his face from where you lay.

“I came back to confront you again about a month later and you were gone,” He said. “You ran.”

“You think I had any control over that?” You retorted. “I was a kid and subject to my parents wishes. And, might I remind you, my leg was broken. I literally had no way to stop them. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to find you and try to get you to listen to me, but they wouldn’t listen to me, either. No one was listening, so I just stopped talking. I think that’s part of why I went to the arena to talk to the fighters. They were the only ones happy to talk to me.”

“You found Aashiyana there?” He asked.

“Yes,” You replied. “I pulled every string I could to get her out of there. People with wings should never be in cages.”

“I got a chance to talk to her this morning, finally. The council has been interrogating her for a day and a half. She told them of your rescuing her. She believes your story.”

“It’s not a story, it’s the truth, and I’ll keep saying that until you believe me, too,” You said.

“Why is my belief so important to you?” He asked, looking away.

You took a big, deep breath and sighed sadly, rolling back over to face the wall, fighting tears. “You know why, Gaveshan.”

He was quiet for a few minutes, and you could hear him shifting and shuffling. You wished he would just leave.

“There’s blood on the floor,” He said with a voice that was hard to parse. “Are you injured?”

“Oh,” You said, looking at where your hands were tied. “The bindings have cut into my skin.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He said, standing up and coming around to inspect the wound.

“Because I didn’t think you’d give a shit,” You replied.

He sighed sharply in irritation. “Here.” He gently took your hands and began to untie the bindings. “Don’t be so stubborn.”

“You’re one to talk,” You said.

He snorted. “Hold on, I’ll get some salve for the blisters.”

“Why? Why do you care? Just leave it.”

“Don’t be stubborn,” He said again as he ducked out of the hut.

You were feeling… very confused. Why was he treating your wounds? Why did he care that you weren’t eating? Why was he even talking to you?

He returned shortly with a pot of salve and bandages and began gingerly applying it to the wound. You watched him do it, watching him carefully wrap your wrists with the bandages, and it reminded you of when the two of you were kids, how kind and sweet he was. Your heart felt like it was drowning for what you had with him, and what you lost.

“You’re crying,” He said. “Am I hurting you?”

“No,” You said, your voice breaking. You didn’t attempt to stem the flow.

“Are you scared because you still think you’re going to die?”

“No.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“I don’t know.”

His hands stilled, holding your wrists. “What happened to you? You’re so… sad now.”

“I’ve had people’s deaths on my conscience for the last ten years,” You replied. “That might make most people a little bit sad.” You shrugged, not looking at him. “My best friend hates me. People think I’m weird and poke fun at me. My parents think I’m crazy.” You shook your head and sighed. “Maybe I am.”

“Aashiyana told me you helped her escape,” He said. “That you risk imprisonment if you return home.”

“I left with no plan to return,” You said. “I accept whatever fate the council decides, even if the decision is death.”

“Are you so eager to die?” He asked softly.

You didn’t answer right away. “What do I have to live for?”

“You… you shouldn’t… just… give up,” He said haltingly. He grabbed your arms, gripping them so tight that it bordered on painful. “This isn’t like you! You never gave up when we were kids! You would race me even knowing you’d lose! You rose to any challenge I gave you!”

You pulled you hands out of his. “It’s like you said, Gaveshan. We aren’t children anymore.”

“So you won’t even fight for yourself?” He asked, his voice rising. Did he sound anxious?

“Fight for what?” You asked in return. “I came here to submit to judgment, not to argue. I’m guilty. I deserve punishment. It doesn’t matter that I never said a word about the colony, it was still destroyed because of me. Your people deserve justice and I’ve delivered myself for that reason. Now please just leave me alone.”

He was quiet for a long, long moment, his breathing drawn out and even.

“I could swear,” He said quietly, as if to himself. “I could almost swear you really believe what you’re saying.”

You rolled your eyes and sighed heavily. You lied back down and turned your back to him. “Go away.”

“I brought you a carrot stew,” He said, getting up and heading to the door. “I know you like carrots. You should eat it.”

“I don’t like carrots anymore. And I’m not hungry,” You said.

“Don’t be stubborn, Primrose,” He said as he walked out.

The sudden use of his old nickname for you felt like a stab to the heart, like he was using it as a weapon to hurt you, stinging your eyes to tears again. Did he really hate you enough to hurt you that deeply with such casual indifference?

You didn’t eat the stew.

The next morning, the council reconvened to watch the recall spell to be performed. Elder Pashanda wasn’t happy about having to perform the spell in the first place, but he had been overruled.

You were directed to sit in a chair in the middle of the council room with only the council members in attendance, observing the spell. Other observers had been barred for this phase of the interrogation. Elder Mari examined you prior to the spell, noting that you’d lost a little bit of weight and asking if you felt well enough to conduct the spell. You replied that you were fine and that you just wanted to get it over with. She eyed you shrewdly, but allowed the spell to commence.

Before it could, however, the door to the council room opened and Gaveshan strode in.

“Gaveshan!” Elder Pashanda exclaimed, his face surprised and angry. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“The spell isn’t necessary,” He said. “She’s not at fault. I am.”

There was a murmuring from the council as your jaw dropped, turning in your chair to as best you could to gawk at him.

“What the hell are you saying?” Elder Pashanda said. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I goaded her into climbing the tree,” He said, coming to stand next to the chair to which you’d been tied. “She fell because of me. I carried her back to the colony on foot. They followed me, not her. Hell, I decided to stay and befriend her that day in the woods when I knew it was our law that I should have run away. It’s my responsibility. You shouldn’t punish her. Punish me instead.”

“Nonsense!” Elder Pashanda said. “Gaveshan, leave here at once! You’re disrupting the council.”

“You understand that if you’re found guilty, the sentence is banishment,” Elder Mari said.

“I do,” Gaveshan said, bowing his head. “I am prepared to accept that, if it is the ruling of the council.”

“What are you doing?” You whispered up to him.

He looked down at you and smiled, a real, true, beautiful smile. The first you’d seen on his face since you were children. You felt the tears again, but this time, they were happy tears. You smiled back up at him.

“No!” Pashanda said. “It is her fault! She is to be punished!”

“We haven’t come to that decision yet, Beast Elder,” The speckle-feathered man said. “In fact, I think it’s best if you sit this one out, as it now directly involves your son.”

“That’s absurd!” He said, his face contorting.

“Father, please,” Gaveshan said, putting an arm on his shoulder. “Be reasonable.”

“Reasonable?!” He spat, rounding on Gaveshan. “Do you know what you’re saying? You’re talking about potentially never seeing your family or people ever again! Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Of course it does!” Gaveshan shouted back. “But I have just as much culpability as she does! It could be argued that I’m more responsible, since I was the one who brought her back to the colony in the first place!”

“You were a child!”

“So was she! She was even younger than I was, and she was injured because of me!” You shot back. “Why are you holding her to a different standard? Because I’m your son? Or because she’s human?”

His pale father got very red in the face. He filled his lungs to bellow something, but before he got the chance, speckled-feather Elder stopped him.

“Pashanda,” He said authoritatively. “This is now a clear conflict of interest. You are removed from the council for this trial.”

“I refuse!” He said. “We haven’t even voted on it!”

“It’s not up for debate,” Elder Jaya replied. “It’s the law.”

“You can’t put my son on trial just because he’s been bewitched by this woman! I should never have agreed to let him speak to her privately!”

“It was the council’s decision to let him do so in an attempt to jog her memory, since you have been so opposed to doing the recall spell,” Elder Mari said, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Though, I must admit your reluctance has given me many questions.”

“Please,” You said, speaking up. “Just do the spell. Then you’ll know if I’m telling the truth or not. I want to know the truth. There are four days of missing time that I lost, and I want to know what happened in those days.”

“No!” Pashanda said. “I will not do the spell if my own son plans to take the blame regardless of the result.”

“Luckily, I know how to do the spell myself,” Gaveshan said. “You taught me your craft well, didn’t you, Father?”

Pashanda went from very red to very white.

“Elder Pashanda,” Elder Jaya said in a tone like an iron vice. “I suggest you sit down and stay silent, unless you’d like to find yourself in that chair under interrogation in her place.”

Her fellow elders murmured agreement. Pashanda took his seat at the head of the council, gripping the table with white knuckles.

“Alright, Gaveshan,” Speckled-Elder said, sitting back down. “Conduct the spell.”

Gaveshan nodded. The first thing he did was untie you.

“Why?” You asked him as he did so. You were having trouble processing what had just happened and it was the only word you could verbalize.

“I thought a lot about everything you said,” He replied. “I just couldn’t understand why you’d come here and submit to judgment but still lie about telling the humans about the colony. I mean, if you came believing you were going to die, you had nothing to gain from lying. The only thing I could conclude is that you were telling the truth. You always had been.” He smiled sadly. “I’m sorry, Primrose. I should have had more faith in you.”

The tears fell freely down your face. “I forgive you. Of course I forgive you.”

“I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I am grateful.” He took your hand and squeezed it. “Let’s begin. Don’t be afraid. It’ll be uncomfortable at times, but I’ll be here.”

You wiped your tears and nodded.

A table was set next to your chair, and a tray with different components was placed upon it. Gaveshan poured a fruity smelling drink into a simple wooden cup from a decanter.

“This is blessed ritual wine,” He said. “I made it myself.”

“You make wine?” You said, smiling.

He smiled in return. “Just for rituals. Drinking wine for pleasure is prohibited within settlements. Inebriation and great heights don’t mix.”

You nodded understanding. “So is this designed to help me feel spiritual?”

“Partly,” He said, smiling. “It’s also partly to calm your nerves and occupy you while I get the ritual ready.” He dipped a finger into the wine of the decanter and drew a sigil on your forehead. “This is really the important part, as far as the actual spell goes.”

“Ah,” You said, sipping the wine. You weren’t much of a drinker, but this was really good. He placed herbs into a censer and lit it, letting the scent of the burning spices and flowers fill your nose. As you continued to sip the wine, you began to feel sleepy. You weren’t sure if this is how it was supposed to feel, but you didn’t want to interrupt Gaveshan while he was working.

Few more minutes passed, and your heartbeat began to surge. You felt hot, like you should be sweating, but you weren’t. Your mouth had gone dry and your vision was tunneling out. Before you could say anything, you felt yourself slip out of your seat and everything went black. The last thing you saw was the entire room rise to their feet, several of them rushing toward you. Gaveshan dropped what he was holding and fell to his knees to catch you before you hit the ground.

The next few days were a haze of pain and visions. You couldn’t tell what was real and what were dreams. You could hear screams, and it didn’t occur to you that it was your screams. You saw Gaveshan there beside your bed whenever you opened your eyes. At times he was the grown Gaveshan, and sometimes he was Geyarajan, the friend of your childhood. Both versions held your hand and talked to you. You couldn’t tell if the conversations were real or not.

“I’m sorry,” He said mournfully one night. He kept vacillating between the older and the younger versions of himself. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I never meant to hurt you, I swear.”

“I know that,” You said, your voice raspy from the dryness. “Don’t be sorry.”

“I would never forgive myself if you died because of me,” He told you. “You’re my best friend.” He clutched your hand and kissed your knuckles, tears streaming down his face. “I love you, Primrose.”

You touched his cheek with your fingertips. “I love you, too, Rajan.”

Blackness took you again and you slept.

When you were finally back to true awareness, you woke up in a hut. From the light coming in through the door, you guessed it was either late evening or early morning. Gaveshan was sitting propped up on a stool, sleeping. A little bit of drool was dripping from the corner of his mouth and he snored a little. You smiled at him fondly. It reminded you of the night the two of you went swimming at midnight, and he fell asleep in the moss waiting for his feathers to dry. You two may be grown ups now, but it seemed not everything had changed.

Elder Mari entered the hut with a bowl in her hands and a towel over her shoulder.

“Ah, are you awake?” She asked.

“I think so,” You said. “What happened?”

As she stepped in, Gaveshan woke up. He peered around him groggily, but came to alertness as soon as he saw you focused on his face.

“Are you alright?” He asked, taking up your hand. “Are you yourself again? You’ve been having fits for days.”

“What happened?” You asked again.

“You were poisoned,” Elder Mari said grimly. “Belladonna. The inside of your cup was lined with it. It didn’t help that your stomach was empty, so there was nothing to dilute it.”

“They thought it was from the wine at first,” Gaveshan said. “They suspected me. I was close to being locked up before my father confessed.” He grimaced. “I guess that’s is how you must have felt when I accused you.”

“It doesn’t feel good, does it?” You asked softly.

He shook his head and avoided your eye. “Apparently he had done it before when you were a child but miscalculated the dosage and didn’t give you enough to kill you. It’s why you couldn’t remember anything.” He scrubbed his face and groaned in aggravation. “I can’t believe my father tried to kill you. Twice!”

“Why?” You asked, shocked.

“According to him,” Mari said. “It was because he perceived you as a threat, both to his family and the colony. He told us that he was taking you back to the humans, but his real plan was to poison you and drop you somewhere in the forest where no one would find you. Apparently he hadn’t given you enough and you started hallucinating, screaming and becoming combative. He didn’t know what else to do, so he dropped you at the edge of the forest and fled. How you got to the village is still a mystery. You may have walked there, unable to feel the pain of your leg in your delirium.”

“Gods,” You breathed. “What will happen to him?”

“Well,” Mari said. “Our culture doesn’t believe in the death penalty, so he will be banished, which for our kind is a sort of death sentence. We’re not sure of the extent of Hemakshi’s involvement, but we know she was at least aware of his actions. Her punishment is still being determined.”

Gaveshan’s face was as hard as stone. “Is it my fate for everyone I love to betray me?”

“I didn’t,” You told him softly, brushing your hand against his cheek.

He leaned into your touch and wrapped his fingers around your wrists gently. “No, you didn’t. And I’m sorry I spent almost half my life believing you did.”

“It’s alright,” You said. “It’s in the past.”

He sighed and kissed your palm. “I’m ashamed of the damage my family has caused, to you and to the colony. How can I show my face after this?”

“It’s not your fault,” Mari said. “You are not responsible for their misdeeds.”

“Even still,” He said. “Life has changed for me. Again. I don’t know what I’ll do now.”

“You could take your father’s place as master sorcerer,” Mari said.

He shook his head with a frown. “That was never my calling. And I don’t want his title, either way.”

“Whatever you decide,” Mari said. “The council has cleared both you and the young woman here of any wrongdoings. She is free to leave. Or to stay.”

Gaveshan looked at you pensively. “Would you like to stay here?”

You weren’t sure. “I’d like a nice hot bath, honestly, before I go making any decisions. I’m so sore and I feel awful.”

“I’m sure,” Mari said. “You spent a good amount of time screaming and thrashing and talking to no one. You wouldn’t eat or take water. You nearly died.”

You stared at her. “That’s not comforting.”

“It’s the truth,” She said. “I figured, after everything, that would be something you could appreciate.”

“True,” You said, sighing.

Mari bathed you privately later and helped you relieve yourself since you were too weak to go on your own, which was a little embarrassing. Afterward, Gaveshan came back with your meal. You were surprised to learn he had cooked all of your meals while you’d been on the island.

You spent a week in recovery, and Gaveshan was with you the entire time. Now that he believed you, it was as if the two of you had never been apart. You just talked; talked to each other as if no time had passed between you. You told him about the city and the arena, and he told you about the aftermath of the colony’s destruction. It was natural an effortless.

“So, what will you do now?” He asked, sitting next to your cot and toying with a strand of your hair. “Will you go back to the city?”

“I can’t,” You replied. “I’m a fugitive.”

“Won’t you miss your parents?”

“My parents are good people, but we’ve never been on the same page, really. I honestly think this would be better for all of us.”

“You could stay here,” He ventured. “Stay with me.”

“It’s sort of my only option,” You said. “It’s not a bad option, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to stay with you no matter what. But… I don’t know if I could feel at home here. I have a few friends among your people, and I’m sure most of the folks here would treat me kindly, but… I don’t know.”

“Hmm,” He said, stroking your hair away from your face. “Maybe there’s a third option.”

“What is it?” You asked.

He sat back and studied your face with a smile. “Do you feel up to taking a short trip with me?”

“Where to?”

“One of the smaller satellite islands,” He said. “I want to show you something.”

“Okay,” You said. He stood and held out his hands for yours. You took them and followed him out of the medicine hut.

He took you out to the edge of Beast Island, where you could see three other small islands about a stone’s throw away. He pointed to the closest one.

“That’s where I grow the fruit and make the wine,” He said. “It’s my own little safe place. I go there for the quiet and to be alone. I’ve never let anyone come near it.” He picked you up bridal style and said, “Do you trust me?”

You rolled your eyes and bonked his shoulder. He laughed.

“Silly question, I guess.” With that, he launched himself off the cliff and let his wings unfurl, sliding effortlessly over to the island, settling down on the ground before you could count to ten. “There. Made it in one piece. Nothing broken.”

You climbed down and gave him a sour look. “Not funny.”

He grinned. “Sorry.” He took your hand and led you into the brush. After a few minutes, the grass and shrubbery opened up into a clearing full of grape vines on trellises made of whippy branches, along with young fruit trees, berry bushes, and crates with wine that was aging. There was also a smallish hut where you surmised Gaveshan stayed when he was tending his crops.

“You did all this yourself?” You asked.

“Yes,” He said. “I really enjoy it. It’s the only thing that’s brought me contentment since the colony’s ruin and our people’s division. And…” He cleared his throat and looked away. “After you disappeared.”

“I didn’t disappear, I moved,” You said. “It wasn’t my choice.”

“See it from my perspective,” He said. “My family, my people as a whole, are in the midst of a tremendous upheaval, grieving and homeless, our lives turned upside down. The only constant I had left is suddenly gone, and it was as if I had lost the last thread holding my entire world together.”

“But you hated me,” You said.

He shook his head. “I was upset and didn’t know what to believe. I only knew what my parents told me. They forbade me from going back to see you, and we had to relocate, so it took time before I could get away. When I finally did, I went to talk to you, but you were gone.” He paused and looked out over the crops. “Do you know what Gaveshan means?”

“No.”

“The Searcher,” He said. “When I couldn’t find you, even though I was angry, I looked for you. I went to every human and non-human town I could, looking for you. I went to every settlement, every family cluster, every small out of the way place, hoping I’d find you. I never thought to look in the city. Even if I had, it was too far to fly. I was angry, but…” His voice broke. “I wanted to know you were alright.” He stared at his feet, his lip trembling.

“Gaveshan, look at me,” You said, putting a hand under his chin. He looked at you with sorrow and regret, his eyes swimming with tears.

“Would you… could you call me Rajan?” He asked quietly. “Please?”

You pressed your forehead against his and smiled. “Only if you’ll sing to me.”

He laughed self-consciously through his tears. “It’s been some time since I last sang anything. I may not be very good anymore.”

“I don’t care,” You said. “I just love the sound of your voice.”

He chuckled and pulled you in, wrapping his arms around your waist. You threw your arms around his neck, and while he sang, the two of you danced in place. He pulled you close, singing sweetly into your ear, the warmth of his body radiating into yours. His voice was every bit as beautiful as it had been when he was a boy.

When he was finished, you kissed him. It was natural and wonderful and as sweet as you remembered. Except… it wasn’t as innocent as it used to be. It was deeper and searching and testing. His grip on your body intensified and his breathing became faster and shallower. Whatever chemicals that were rushing through his body, you could feel them coursing through your veins as well. His hands roamed your body, looking for a way to free you from your clothes. He grunted in frustration.

“These things are highly impractical,” He said, tugging at your bodice.

“Not when it’s cold out,” You said with a laugh. “Come on.”

You took him by hand to the hut and opened the door. It was small and cozy, with a cooking pit in the middle of the room and a pile of furs that he slept on in the far corner.

“I suppose you’re used to something far grander than this,” He said, but not in a haughty way, just stating a fact.

“Grand is overrated,” You said. “This is perfect.”

He smiled and kissed you again, leading you to the furs. You instructed him to sit and began to undress. You made a little bit of a show of it, not sure if he would get anything out of that since his entire culture didn’t wear clothing.

You shouldn’t have worried. Halfway through, his cock was standing to attention from a slit in his groin and he gazed at you hungrily. When you’d shed all of your garments and stood naked before him, he held out a hand for you. You took it and knelt down where he sat, pressing your lips to his. He grabbed you suddenly, making you giggle, and placed you underneath him. Your heart began to pound with instinctual fear, but you tried to push it down.

“I can feel your heart trying to escape your chest,” He said, kissing your neck. “Are you alright?”

“Just nervous,” You told him. “First time and all that.”

He perched up on his hands and looked down. “You waited for me?”

You chuckled. “I was the weird kid. It wasn’t so much that I waited than no one would have me. And I wasn’t looking, honestly.”

You didn’t ask if he had waited for you. It didn’t matter, he was with you now. The past was the past. It was time to begin considering the future, which was something you hadn’t thought possible before.

You felt his length nudging you from below, and a stab of nervousness hit you again, but you wanted this badly. You opened your legs wide and ran your fingers through his hair. He kneaded and massaged your breasts with one hand while propping himself up on the other. His head bent down and his tongue came out, flicking over the nipple and you sighed, gripping his hair tighter.

He sucked your nipple into his mouth and reached down with his free hand, slicking it down with your natural lubricant. You didn’t realize how wet you had gotten until he touched you and two of his fingers slipped right in. You gasped at the unfamiliar sensation, but it wasn’t painful.

“Are you alright?” He asked, studying your face.

“Yes,” You replied breathlessly.

“Have you touched yourself before?” He asked.

“Not like this,” You told him.

“I’ll be careful, then,” He whispered, kissing your ear, cheek, and corner of your eye. He sat up and slowly moved his fingers in and out, watching your expression for discomfort. You pet your fingers down his chest and stomach muscles, biting your lip. He moved to sit beside you so that you could touch him, while using three of his fingers to circle your pearl, rubbing back and forth slowly, but gaining speed as he went on. You reached across and took his organ in your hand, stroking it experimentally. He seemed to like it, biting his own lip and smiling at you.

A few minutes of teasing each other passed quite nicely, and you reached for him, more than ready. He laid himself on top of you and slicked himself down with your wetness, positioning himself and sliding slowly inside you. There was a pressure from the width of him that was slightly uncomfortable, but it didn’t hurt. His body was flush with yours as he pulled himself into and out of you. You enjoyed the weight of him on your body, the friction of where the two of you were joined slowly wore away at the discomfort until a swelling pleasure took its place.

He kissed your lips and neck and chest as he thrust, carefully at first, but as your body became less tense and more receptive, he sped up and thrust with more confidence. He listened to you, encouraged by the little sounds you made. You wrapped your arms around him, gripping his back, your fingers curling, threading through the feathers of his back, his wings unfurled behind him.

You felt a gush of fluid flow out of you, and you looked down, frowning. That had never happened before.

“Sorry,” You said.

“No, no,” He said. “That’s good. It happens, usually when you’re enjoying yourself. You are, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am,” You assured him. “It feels nice.”

“It gets better,” He said, pushing deeper. He put an arm under your knee and pushed it up, allowing him to get a better angle and rub against that sweet spot much easier. You moaned in surprise pleasure. Spurred on, he quickened his pace.

It took no time at all in this position for you to reach your peak, and you screamed out loudly as it came. Bless this island for being so far away from the main one.

He hadn’t finished yet and was going at a frenetic pace. He managed to pull another one from you before he gritted his teeth, grunted over and over, and released inside you, his entire body tensing and jerking.

Finally, he collapsed onto you, flapping his wings weakly to fan your overheated bodies. The breeze was actually very nice. He moved to the side of you and pulled you close to him as the two of you caught your breath.

“So,” You said eventually. “You said something about a third option. Is this little piece of heaven what you meant?”

“Not exactly,” He said. “I started making wine for ritual purposes, but there aren’t nearly enough rituals for the amount I make. I was thinking of maybe going to the mainland and opening a vineyard. Maybe actually sell it for a profit. I’d still send some to the colonies for ritual purposes, but it’s a shame to let so much of it go to waste.”

“Whoa,” You said. “That’s… a really good idea. Do you have any idea where you’d go?”

“I made some friends on the mainland in my search for you,” He said. “A family that’s mixed, humans and non-humans. I mentioned it to them once in passing when I was visiting and they said if I was ever serious, they’d help me get started.” He sat up and looked down at you. “Is that something you’d like to do with me?”

You smiled at him. “I’d follow you anywhere. Should you change your name again, since Gaveshan doesn’t suit you anymore?”

“I think I’m going to go back to Geyarajan,” He said with a grin. “I have a feeling I’ll have a lot to sing about from now on.”

Since my work is no longer searchable, please do me a favor and reblog this story if you enjoyed it. Help me reach a wider audience! To help me continue creating, please consider buying me a Kofi, becoming a Patron, or donating directly to my PayPal!

Thanks for reading!

My Masterlist

The Exophilia Creator’s Masterlist

#Exophilia #Gandharva #Monster Boyfriend #Shelter Forest #The Towns

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simtrospective · 4 years

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~Makeover time! [4/?]

A series 🙄 in which I take three sims from the first round of TS4 sims I ever made–created before I had every CC slider and skin detail in existence and prior to the (relative) refinement of my sim sculpting abilities–and fix ‘em up only by tweaking, pulling, and pushing; no preset-swapping here! Changes to skintones, skin details, hairstyles, and makeup are allowed where doing so would further bring the sims’ appearances more in line with my original intentions.

"[4/?]” because maybe there will be more some day :P

So I feel like I have to say that I’m not doing these makeovers to make my sims better looking, just in case you’re side-eyeing these.

This is the last round for now, three more brothers: Rocky (whose original version was in my recent 50s lookbook); Ace; and Jimmy.

Why does Jimmy not look at all like his brothers? Well, in their save, that very question was one of the ~continued issues~ in his parents’ tumultuous marriage.

Why does Jimmy now--and hear me out--why does the new Jimmy look vaguely like a young Tom Hanks? ikr!?

(I’ve played a full save with these three dummies so the writing beyond the cut is A. LOT. There are more pics there, too.)

Rocky is a favorite of mine but like so many of my early faves, his face... As you know, I am an incurable default skin swapper-outer and because of that he never looks consistent + he always looks a little unformed, a little cartoonish, on top of having a very unmanipulated, MM-style face to begin with. I think his makeover settles him somewhat so for right now I’ll take it. I can see myself returning him to his original form down the line, however, because it’s the one I know + he looks a bit too mature in his new version.

The day I made him, the first thing he did as soon as the lot loaded was fire up his gaming console and the second thing he did was rage quit the game he was playing; I was hooked. I wish him the best in my new save but I think he’s gonna have another hard road on account of being the uncontrolled emotions king! Shirking off work and then getting fired and then having the audacity to claim unfair treatment king! King of coming on too strong to women out of his league! King of letting his immaturity and meddlesome parents keep his romantic entanglements from progressing past a single night. King of having his mother barge into his bedroom while he and a lady friend are in bed and then king 👏 of 👏 fighting 👏 with 👏 his 👏 mother 👏 in 👏 front 👏 of 👏 half 👏 dressed 👏 said 👏 lady 👏 friend!

Why those clapping hands look like feature-less hen heads... I just--

* * *

In the pictures on the left, Ace doesn’t look that bad!, so you’re going to have to trust me that he’s just really... um... reallllllllllllly unattractive in-game. Generally I don’t care about that (#allsimsarevalid) but the issue for him was his proportions and if I’m the one crafting those proportions, like, there’s some missteps I cannot abide. I said in this very post that I didn’t start these makeovers to make a bunch of supermodels but I felt like I owed Ace something more so yes, it was a goal of mine to make him kinda cute. I feel that I retained his Ace-ness while making him a total qt 3.14. Look at those dimples. Look at those lashes! Lil lamb. Weird little angel statue. Little garden cherub.

Ace's life... man, idk. Struck out with the ladies. Never found his passions. In denial, even as a young adult, about the extent of his parents’ fractured marriage. He took to programming and worked on it autonomously but never achieved greatness because he ended up with some custom trait that caused him to want to sleep, like, twenty-one hours of the day? and that kind of put a wrench in things, never mind that he came from a family that thought computer stuff was for nerds lololololol

All that was bad enough but Ace’s lowest point came when the mother of his children (yes, he found love!) seduced his dad and abandoned the kids to start a new family. But that’s a story for another time. Now, all that happening with his original face? Pathetic and maybe deserved. All that happening with his new face? Um, it wouldn’t and it won’t! Dimples, lashes, lamb.

(Additional fun fact: the mother of Ace’s children was Bridgette, from this post.)

* * *

When I created Jimmy he was a teenager. Here, he is a young adult. Like his brothers, he was a hot mess, but a cool version. He was the neighborhood heartthrob even looking like a baby-faced adult gangster who disguised himself as a newsboy. He’s forty-four but he acts sixty-four and he looks nine! Extra, extra, he says sardonically before pulling a tommy gun from his satchel of newspapers and riddling the facade of your hideaway with a couple-a rounds, see?

My original plan for Jimmy was to not necessarily be “good-looking” but to have all the qualities of someone who the neighborhood/town accepts is good-looking. Oh, that hair! Oh, cheekbones and freckles! Oh, those light eyes. And on and on. 🙄 The first Jimmy could get by as a teen, but his appearance didn’t translate to any older life stage; through elder-hood, he continued to look like a small doll, a child star past his prime. Embarrassing! Now he’s better. When he doesn’t come back after being the sim version of drafted to fight in the sim version of the Vietnam War during the sim version of the year 1969 it’ll be all the more tragic because, you see, it’s just so much worse when someone pretty dies!

(Wow, not me spoiling a plot point I’ll never work through from a story I’ll never write/share!)

Original Jimmy was a real dog and a cheater to his sweet little girlfriend and a jerk to his brothers and thanks to me not checking off the proper settings when I first started using MCCC, he--again, as a teenager 💆‍♀️--entered into an on-and-off affair with Paola (from this post) and they had two kids that her cuck husband pretty much raised while Jimmy kept flitting around town sowing his seed all the while having the gall to force his sweet little girlfriend to end her (surprise but wanted) pregnancy and then dumping her for her troubles. Guess those promise rings meant nothing. If any sim deserves a smirk it’s him so I gave him one.

For the record, Rocky and Ace and Jimmy did in fact all have the same parents because I set it up that way in CAS. To think their mom and dad fought about this when there were so many other things they didn’t like about one another...

#sims 4 #ts4 #makeover time #(mine)#sims 4 makeovers #ts4 makeovers

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tuff-and-fluff-archives · 4 years

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Okay I am hyperfixating HARD on Tom and Jerry and all my emotions from childhood have FLOODED forth, so now that I’ve finished watching (almost) all 161 original theatrical Tom and Jerry shorts from 1940 to 1967, I would like to force you all to endure my insane ramblings about this franchise. Although before I begin, I’d like to share where I’ve been watching all these! Here’s a Dailymotion playlist of all 161 shorts, put into the correct order by yours truly :3 OKAY NOW THE INSANITY BEGINS 💖💖💖

1) The Messy Formative Years: Shorts 001-017 (1940-1944)

So obviously, when a series is first created, especially an animated series, the first few episodes will always be a bit odd as the directors and writers find their footing and establish the rules of their own universe, and Tom and Jerry is no exception! In fact, these episodes can be a bit weird and even jarring to watch because the designs of the titular characters are so drastically different from how they look even ten years afterwards. In fact, in the very first episode, they don’t even have their official names yet and are instead named “Jasper and Jinx.” Also, there’s a LOT of talking in these beginning shorts before they decided to make Tom and Jerry almost entirely mute. Shorts 010 and 013 stand out the most, as they feature characters regularly speaking full sentences and it’s just... ohhh it’s SO weird to watch and it feels almost wrong 😅 Of course that’s not to say these shorts are bad, far from it actually! They’re still super fun and fascinating to watch and I think it’s quite interesting to see how such an iconic franchise got its start!

2) The Golden Years: Shorts 018-097 (1945-1955)

Oh. My. GOD. THESE ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST. I guarantee that when you just think about Tom and Jerry, THESE are the shorts that come to mind. By now William Hanna & Joseph Barbara fully had their formula down and were just pumping out hit after hit afTER HIT HHHHH I LOVE THESE SO MUCH. I’m not kidding when I say that these shorts still make me laugh really hard and I absolutely adore nearly every aspect of them: the fluid and extremely expressive animation, the excellently timed music paired with each short, and the humor that’s constant and lands almost every time. My absolute favorite ones are around 040-080 but really all of these are just sooooo good. I know that this is stating the obvious but one thing that I especially love is just how VIOLENT these cartoons are, even more than the Looney Tunes shorts that were coming out at the same time. Characters are constantly picking up knives or axes or straight up GUNS and ngl I feel like half of the humor comes from that shock factor of the insane absurdity of that violence. Okay I’m starting to sound rly dumb, I know explaining the joke is never fun, but the directing and animation just NAILS every joke; I think the secret behind it is that there’s always a buildup and anticipation before the impact, and that buildup just makes the impact all the more intense! I was going to list my top 5 favorites but it’s impossible to choose so lemme just recommend a random five out of all of them: 026 - Solid Serenade, 048 - Saturday Evening Puss, 067 - Triplet Trouble, 069 - Fit to Be Tied, and 076 - That’s My Pup!

Also, I don’t know where else to mention this so I’ll just say it here: there’s a gradual change that Tom’s design goes through where he’s slowly drawn to be less and less fuzzy. At first his outline was drawn with a lot of points to emphasize his fur, but over time they abandoned doing that, my guess is because it was harder to animate. I’d say that they fully transitioned to Smooth Tom around short 030. That’s just a little detail I noticed and wanted to share! ^-^

3) The Slow Decay: Shorts 098-114 (1956-1958)

*heavy sigh* Well... a good thing can’t last forever. What’s kinda strange is that I can’t really nail down a specific reason caused a decline in quality after 1955; short 096 was the last to be produced by Fred Quimby, with Hanna & Barbara being given the producer credit as well as director credit for the remaining 18 shorts, and MGM animation studios had major budget cuts in the late 50′s and was shut down in 1957, and perhaps the studio shutting down had also taken the joy out of the crew, which would certainly have an effect on the cartoons. Now that doesn’t mean that these last 16 shorts are bad- they’re still quite entertaining, but they just don’t have the same energy as the shorts made in the Golden Years. They’re also nowhere near as cartoonishly violent as the past shorts had been; weapons are almost never used anymore and there are barely any efforts from Tom and Jerry to straight up kill each other, and more often than not they’re working together and even acting like close friends. I think that’s pretty fair evidence that even if these later shorts were much tamer and friendlier, that meant that they were lacking the same chaotic energy that made the other shorts so hilarious.

Also I just need to vent this here cuz this era also contains the two most absolutely infuriating shorts in the Hanna-Barbera era, that being 100 - Busy Buddies and 114 - Tot Watchers. These two shorts consist of Tom and Jerry attempting to stop a baby from accidentally dying cuz it’s just a dumb baby that doesn’t know anything, while the babysitter is just totally ignorant to everything happening. Now I can’t quite explain why and I’m probably just making myself look like an asshole but these shorts are just... so frustrating to me??? Like its bad enough that this stupid baby whose face NEVER changes from that stupid little smile just keeps wandering into dangerous situations (in Tot Watchers it straight up crawls into a CONSTRUCTION ZONE) but every time Tom rescues the little bastard and puts it back in its crib, the babysitter thinks he’s “bothering” the baby (probably because of that one myth about cats laying on babies and stealing their breath) and so poor Tom is just punished for doing literally nothing wrong!! It’s just... very frustrating to me for some reason I’m sorry... (Although I have to admit that it is interesting and kinda cute that Tom knows how to change a diaper, like wif the safety pins and everything. Why does he know that...?)

4) The Gene Deitch Shit Shorts: 115-127 (1961-1962)

OOOH BOY. I don’t think... that I can really describe how purely and utterly I dislike the Deitch shorts. Okay so, to explain, in 1961 MGM decided they wanted to revive the Tom and Jerry franchise, so they contracted an animation studio based in Czechoslovakia to create 13 new original shorts. All of these shorts were directed by Gene Deitch, who before being commissioned for these cartoons, was open about his disdain for the original Hanna-Barbera shorts that he described as “needlessly violent.” After he was assigned to the series, he did come around to somewhat realize that the violence was intended to be overly cartoonish and humorous, but his initial opinion still had an influence on his directing decisions. In addition to these facts, the foreign team behind this series had only collectively seen a handful of the original cartoons, and each short was given a budget of only $10,000, compared to the $50,000 that the Hanna-Barbera shorts had all been given.

SO. To recap, these 13 new shorts were being made by a foreign team who had barely seen any of the source material, directed by a man who had disliked the original cartoons, and being made on 1/5 of the budget that the Hanna-Barbera shorts were given. Needless to say, the end results were a DISASTER. I’m not kidding when I say that watching these shorts feels almost like a fever dream with how completely baffling and surreal they are. I honestly don’t think they could be any more different from the original series; the music and sound effects are extremely minimalist and usually completely absent, the animation is so jerky and totally lacking the fluidity of the originals, and the character design is also drastically different and, in my opinion, kinda ugly too. These are universally considered to be the worst of the theatrical shorts, and Deitch himself has even stated that he and his team “hardly had a chance to succeed” and he fully understands the negativity directed towards the shorts he directed. I have to confess that when I rewatched all the theatrical shorts, I only got through two of these before outright skipping the rest of them. These 13 shorts are a complete disgrace to the majesty of the Hanna-Barbera series, and while I don’t hold anything against the people behind them, I can’t lie when I say that I hate these shorts.

5) The Chuck Jones Era: 128-161 (1963-1967)

I have an odd love-hate relationship with these shorts. I don’t think I need to explain to you the legacy of the great Chuck Jones, the creator of Marvin the Martian, Pepe Le Pew, and the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote whose name is nearly synonymous with the Looney Tunes cartoons of the 30′s, 40′s, and 50′s. He’s an absolute legend in the animation industry, and yet... the Tom and Jerry shorts that he directed are still significantly weaker than the original series. Let me start with the things I like though! The slight changes in the character design to match Chuck Jones’ signature style are super appealing (I especially like how at times, Tom will almost resemble Jones’ design for the Grinch) and the animation is of course very well done and a joy to watch, but despite these positives, the humor is sadly lacking. There are still quite a few jokes that land, but they’re more restrained and just don’t have the same high-energy oomph! of the impactful gunshot sound effects and violent screams of the original cartoon. I’ll always have an appreciation for this era of shorts and the man behind them, but they sadly didn’t even come halfway close to the Hanna-Barbera series.

WELL. ANYWAY, THAT’S MY RANT!!! Thanks for reading this far, all two people that did. It just felt good to get this outta my system! 💖💖

#long post #💜: you're the cat's meow!#ruby rambles #i implore you i am begging you PLEASE interact wif this post #legit it will make me SO happy if someone leaves a little comment or ask for me and a reblog would actually kill me 💘💘#JUST PLEASE TALK TO ME ABOUT THE CARTOON I LOVE IT SM #maybe if people wanna talk about their favorite episodes and stuff!!! im more than willing to respond!!!#i just have so much to say im sorry jhfsjhd 🥺🥺🥺

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venus-says · 4 years

Text

Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo Episodes 01-12

Roses are red, but roses are also blue.

Are you all ready for a precure overload for the next few weeks?

Yes, I'm back rewatching the previews precure series and reviewing them, and gotta be honest I'm so glad I'm back to doing these. Obviously, it would've been better if I had done the right thing and got back to doing these while Healin' Good was on hiatus and not now only 2 weeks before the show is back on TV (if the information we all have is correct), but I'm still suffering from the abstinence of my weekly precure dose anyway so this will fix the problem and give me an overdose for the next month or so.

Coming back to GoGo was a funny experience. Back in March I had watched about 10 episodes or so and I was HATING the show, I don't remember what was exactly that was making me feel that way but I seemed very aggressive in my notes, but for writing this post I decided to rewatch the episodes I had already seen, take new notes and everything, and in the second way around I liked this show WAAAAAY more. Like, if you compare my notes from March to the new ones I made this time around it's like two different people talking about two different shows.

Does this mean I think GoGo is perfect? Not really. I still have some problems, most of them were carried over from the first season, but after some more thought, the things I actually dislike are more or less related to a single character rather than the show as a whole. In fact, I think I liked these 12 episodes more than the first 12 of the first season and probably I like them more than the entire season as a whole? I think that because this is a sequel, I already know most of these characters, the dynamics they have, and the show doesn't need to take its time to explain those details to us leaving more space for them to work with the new characters for the season, also another thing that helps is that there are not many new characters outside the villains which gives the new additions to the cast even more space for them to shine.

I also like this season more on the thematic level. While on season 1 the themes were hopes and dreams, the theme for this season (at least from this starting point) is conveying/delivering your feelings which I feel works better for this cast than the theme of season 1 does, especially seeing how they really want us to buy in the romantic element for these two seasons. It is a bit on the nose, yes, after all, they have a delivery boy, a mailbox mascot, and a whole lot of letters going around, some of them even being sent by animals, but I like that. It's actually very charming seeing so many letters when we live in the era of e-mail where even e-mail is becoming "obsolete".

The plot of the season is, so far, pretty much the same. It's the Evil organization wants a Magical item related to Another world, that Magical item falls in the Precure hands, and the Evil organization starts to target them. The plot is so similar to the first season that they even have those useless little fairies that have no purpose at that all need to be collected on their transformation devices, this time around they at least have the excuse of looking for the monarchs, but still is a pretty bland part of the formula. But even taking this into consideration, as mentioned, I really liked these episodes by themselves, you know? The first episode was a really strong one, they have an episode focused on Urara that is also pretty good, and there's the one who's probably one of my favorite episodes ever where they're going to eat a cake but the cake goes missing and Komachi starts acting like a detective and they go on this very fun accusation game that later gets tied in with the villain of the episode and is just very absurd and also a lot of fun.

Another point I absolutely love for this season is the upgrade the girls got in terms of designs and powers. I love their new look, it's like they're wearing uniforms of different colors and it's just a new sleek design that in my mind really works well as bringing new air to the show. I also love how the new transformations look, much like what happened with Max Heart they got more vibrant and dynamic, and the new group roll call is also gorgeous, one of the most iconic of the franchise for sure. I also love the new attacks, especially Lemonade's, Mint's, and Aqua's that are very different from their season one attacks, I also like how despite not having an incantation/spell the animations aren't so long, they hit the sweet spot perfectly. And despite being more generic, I like the new phones they use as transformation items, if I wasn't so broke I would try to get one for myself because I really dig the design.

And speaking of powers, the action in this season has been SO GOOD??? After how much Yes relied on stock footage spam I wasn't expecting the jump in quality for the fight scenes would be this big. I don't know if they changed the art director or whoever is responsible for this part in the show in-between seasons but in these episodes, it has been awesome, the animation is very fluid, the fights are exciting, and even though the attack spam has been an element for some of them because the stock animations are shorter it doesn't feel as bad as in other seasons. It's sad that the show can't have everything so in a lot of cases whenever there's a fighting scene that is more detailed it means the other points in the episode will have drawings that are off-model (the most common thing I've noticed was Eyes in weird positions), but I think it's a fair trade.

The last part of this review will be to talk about the characters, and I'll start with where I have more problems just so we can end this up on a positive note.

So, it's not a secret my least favorite characters from the Yes cast are Coco and Nuts, and well that hate from season 1 comes back here but with some aggravating factors. Starting by the easy one, Nuts so far has been useless, if he had stayed in the Palmier Kingdom I wouldn't have made any major difference, at least not for these first 12 episodes. He's just there because the team needs a hub and for some reason, Karen can't use the storages of her family that aren't in use for herself, and that's it for Nuts.

Coco on the other hand... oh gosh. Do you know when during the first season I complained that Coco and Nuts human forms seemed like different characters than their fairy forms? So what happens with Coco here is something similar but is not really related to their form change and more with the character himself. Like, in the "prologue" in episode 1 fairy Coco is pretty much the Coco we left at the end of the last season then the butterflies appear and they have to go to the human world and getting there Coco assumes a sulky personality, thinking he alone is responsible for everything that is happening, and he starts to avoid the girls because he doesn't like that Nozomi is having to fight again, and yadda yadda yadda, and then Nozomi gives a speech to him and he's back to normal AND THERE WASN'T EVEN AN ENTIRE EPISODE OF HIM BEING LIKE THAT!!!!!!!! Like, I wouldn't like it if they had kept going on this line, but I think is much worse that they put in something that seems like it could be something deep, serious, that could bring interesting things in the future, and just drop that IN EPISODE FREAKING TWO. And then after this, he also loses his purpose, because Nozomi's infatuation(?) with him only comes up again in Episode 12 where they use it to make Nozomi feel jealous (which as we saw in the first season is a great plot, am I right?). All he does is be awfully dismissive to Milk and her letters, which yeah is in-character with what was shown in season 1 but it doesn't make it any less awful.

And probably the part of the plot I like the least is the royal drama that goes on with the Four Monarchs and Coco and Nuts. And the reason why I hate this is because when you stop to think the Monarchs are right to doubt from Coco and Nuts, but the show is obviously on their side so they wanna make the Monarchs seem like pricks that don't trust in CocoNuts despite they being such good guys. But like, they're two monarchs that rule over a kingdom, and they left their people unattended during a time of crises where the kingdom is rebuilding itself when it's pretty obvious that a certain brown squirrel could've been left behind and do the things people in power should do and lead their people. And the worst thing of all is that this could've been avoided if instead of making a shot of them looking at the Kingdom in the "prologue" they could just have them in whatever reunion they were having with the monarchs because then we could be in CocoNuts defense since in the first time they were absent from the kingdom was because everyone else had been taken and in the second time they would be in a much similar situation to the monarchs that also left their people without a leader to follow because they were under imminent attack. And I know this is a kids' show, I shouldn't be complaining about this since this is a thing kids would miss anyway, but well, I'm not a kid, I'll look at these things as an adult, and I could come up with a way to make them have the same results, without major alterations, but with a better justification for everything they were trying to do, and if even I, a nobody, can think of this, they most definitely could've come with something better.

Leaving the rants behind (just for a little bit), we have probably the most important addition to this cast, Mimino Kurumi, Milky Rose, also known as our favorite butt in the ass fairy, Milk. Speaking first about Milky Rose, I love her, I've always had, her design is great, her transformation item that doubles as a weapon is a lot of fun, and she's powerful as hell. I also like how we saw the process of Milk finding the Blue Rose seed and taking care of it as the episodes would go so it wasn't something that came out of nowhere, which I appreciate. My problems here come with how they portray Kurumi because while with the other girls she still acts the same, with Nozomi is like they reverted her character to the way she was back when she was first introduced and I don't like that. It's a cheap way to introduce a conflict that shouldn't even exist. And speaking of things that shouldn't exist, why is she keeping her identity secret anyway? Like there's no reason at all for that, is just to keep the secret vibes but even that doesn't work because while the show didn't tell our protagonists he information so they are in the dark and living the mystery, we as an audience already know Kurumi is Milk so it's a secret that it's not a secret thus it's not interesting.

But here's where the positives start to appear again because we also have Syrup's (and Mailpo) addition to the cast and I really like him. We don't have much info on him yet other than a few flashes of his past/thing he's looking to find in the Cure Rose Garden, but these episodes served to establish how he'll interact with these characters and the things he has learned with them that help in building the base for his development. Another aspect of him that I like is that he's very connected to the "delivering your feelings" theme of the show, and not just because he's a delivery boy. He's something that sees the emotional value of things and these are things he wants to protect, and judging by his actions I feel like the only way he feels so keen on this is because he probably lost something or someone important to him and that will connect with his backstory somehow, and I'm very excited to see more of him (and to know if my theory is correct too).

I wanted to have a paragraph for our heroines but not a lot changed for them, they had good character-focused episodes in this first batch but none of them actually was developing anything, at least not anything that was new so there's not a lot left to talk about them. And I kinda feel the same way about the villains, the Eternal is pretty much like a museum and I like their concept as villains, but Scorp wasn't very interesting as a general, and Bumbee became Team Rocket (which is not a bad thing) so there wasn't much out from the villains just yet for me to be able to give them any more elaborated opinions.

All in all, this was a very good set of episodes and I'm feeling that the journey with GoGo will be a good one.

So, that's it from me for now, what are your thoughts on GoGo? Are you also in the team that thinks this OP slays and it's one of the best of the franchise like I am? Did you also felt compelled to buy one of those rose-scented aroma diffusers after this show? Let me know what you think in the comments down below. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thank you so so much for reading until this far, and until the next time, see-ya~

#Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo #Yes! PreCure 5 GoGo #precure

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secondhand-trash · 5 years

Text

Freddy Freeman(Shazam!)- Art Exchange

A/N: Nobody asked for this but here is another fic I wrote out of impulse. This is inspired by something similar that happened to my friend and the biggest struggle I had when I wrote this was probably the fact that I have no idea how American schools work lol

Description: Drawing exaggerated pictures of your teachers is a part of high school culture and you had fully embraced it as a part of your school life. You just didn’t expect someone to actually see it, let alone replying to it with an even more comedic doodle.

Wordcount: 2166

Playlist:

Young Volcanos//Fall Out Boy

Check Yes Juliet//We The Kings

Something You Want//Against the Current

You couldn’t help it. Mathematics was boring and the teacher’s monotone lecture did not help keeping you awake at all. Scribbling on your desk was your last attempt at trying to stop your eyelids from closing and to your surprise, it worked. From that moment onwards, you always mindlessly dribble on the corner of your desk in class, occasionally looking up to pretend that you are actually listening. By the time you leave class, half of the wood surface would be covered in graphite strokes, most of which consisted of portraits of your maths teacher.

Sorry Mr Martin, but your round head and goatee was too cartoonish and easy to visualize.

Normally, you would make sure to erase all the doodles on your desk before leaving the room. But your friend had been rambling about this new movie and as you two continued with the conversation after the bell rang, you completely forgot about the markings on the school property.

Your mistake ended up being a delightful surprise for another poor kid who was stuck in the exact same situation as you did.

Freddy tried, he really did but he hated this subject with his whole heart. Why did the school think it was a good idea to ask you to calculate the volume of a pool when no person in their right mind would purchase a goddamn pool without knowing its measurements?

He was quick to notice that something was off about his usual seat the moment he walked pass the door. Taking a more careful look at the patterns on the desk as he sat down, he instinctively pressed his hand to his lips to cover up the snicker that would have drawn too much unwanted attention as more pupils started entering the room. On the corner of his desk was a figure that somehow resembles an egg but with a goatee. He didn’t have to take another glance to know that said egg was their beloved teacher, completely unaware that he had been immortalized in his student’s masterpiece as he handed out the new assignment.

Whoever did this was a genius, Freddy thought to himself as he scanned through the other amusing doodles on the desk. He reached into his bag and scrambled for a pencil, scribbling away while trying to surpress the large grin on his face.

“Mr Freeman? Mr Freeman, are you listening?”

Shit. “Yes Mr Martin?”

“Tell me, what is the answer to this question?”

“Oh crap.”

“What if he saw it?” You nervously said to your friend as you two made a turn down the hallway.

“It’s gonna be fine,” your friend said, clearing annoyed after hearing you went on about how much trouble you would be in if Mr Martin found out about the little artwork you made of him in class. Drawing in class, on school property AND making fun of your teacher? God knows how many days of detention this could cost you.

You sighed in relieve as Mr Martin did not even turn to look at you when you walked in. You walked straight to your seat to see that all the doodles were still there. Picking up an eraser to remove all hints of your crime, you noticed something that wasn’t there before. Right next to the egg(aka cartoon Mr Martin) you drew was the figure of a man being tied up. The corner of your lips tucked up into a smirk as you saw that the man was tied up by his very, very long facial hair. Whoever left this here clearly paid more attention to the teacher’s goatee more than they did to class like you did.

“Nice drawings, bought me more fun than maths ever did. Hope you don’t mind my little addition:)”

Looking at the scrawled handwriting below the figure, you grinned. You erased the existing drawings on the table and started making another one, all while thinking of a message that you could leave for the person who would be sitting there later on.

Needless to say, you were thrilled when you got back to the seat the following day to see that you actually got a reply.

You never thought that you would ever say this in your entire lifetime but you started really looking forward to maths class. Every time you walked into the classroom, you checked the table for new drawings and messages immediately and you were never disappointed. Your anonymous friend always pulled through and the stuff that appeared on the wooden surface only got weirder and weirder, so weird that you found yourself smiling uncontrollably when you look at them in class. (”What exactly are you smiling at?” “Oh, nothing. Just my love for algebra, Mr Martin.”)

Your friends teased you about it, saying that you looked like a fool in love when you grin at your desk. To that, you shrugged. You never showed them the doodles and you weren’t planning to, much to their curiosity and annoyance. Somehow, you wanted the whole exchange to be a secret between you and the other person involved. The idea that you had an unspoken bond with someone you had not met gave you an odd sense of excitement.

That was until one day you entered the classroom with your usual anticipation and found nothing but your own handwriting, not even a single word next to the lines you made.

You tried to continue leaving little drawings and notes here and there on your desk everyday but you were met with the same disappointment when you check in on the markings the next day.

“I don’t get it! What happened? They didn’t say anything, they just vanished like they fell of the surface of the earth! Are they ok? Are they angry at me for anything I might have done? Are they still alive? What if-”

“Can you please calm down?” You friend yelled, throwing the fork down onto the tray and earning the both of you a few glances from the people sitting near your table, “That person does not even know who you are!”

“Well, I know!” You snapped back, “But there must be a reason as to why they suddenly stop replying! It makes no sense!”

You friend rolled their eyes and continued munching on their food, deciding that letting you express your frustration might be a wiser idea than putting any form of rationality in your head.

Little did you know, the same conversation was unfolding in the far corner of the cafeteria.

“I should have left my number!” Freddy sighed, “And now there’s no way I would ever find out who my art buddy is!”

“I mean, I get your frustration but maybe don’t take it out on your food? The mashed potato is innocent, ya’know?” Billy said in amusement as his brother let out another muffled groan, “Mr Martin wouldn’t have forced you to sit in the front row if you at least tried to pretend that you were paying attention, just saying.”

“You are no help.”

“Have you ever thought of waiting before class starts to see who’s the one in that seat?”

“First of all, that sounds creepy.” The shorter boy folded his arms in front of his chest, “Second, what am I supposed to do after that? Walk up to that person and be like ‘Hey, I’m the weirdo who you had been bonding with through our mutual mocking towards our teacher, wanna be friends?’”

“I thought you want to know who the person is?”

“Well yeah,” Freddy said, "but the thought of actually being around them in real life kinda scares me. Can’t we just go back to how things used to be? When I can pretend to be cool by hiding under the facade of my excellent art?”

“How so very confident of you, if only you have as much confidence when you are facing real people.”

“What class are we having?” You friend asked, desperately trying to change the subject. Your rambling carried on after you two finished lunch and they were slowly losing patience.

“History.”

“Damn it! Really? I forgot about the essay we are supposed to hand in! I’m so fucked...”

You mockingly laughed, “Same, but the difference between me and you is that I was smart enough to check my schedule when I got to school this morning so I managed to finish it in maths class.”

Reaching into you bag, you search for your paper and your smirk slowly fade as you realized that it was no where to be found. “Shit, I must have left it in the drawer.”

“Ha ha, jokes on you. Now we can both get into trouble together.”

You glared at your friend, “I’m gonna go get it back.”

“Are you sure? I think class is about to start.”

“I’ll just say that my stomach hurts and I was at the bathroom. With the quality of the food they are serving here, I’m sure that no one will suspect a thing.”

Freddy mindlessly flicked his pen as he sulked in his new seat. Class was no fun and he could not get away with drawing in class anymore with the teacher right in front of him, watching his every move. He was bored out of his mind when the door opened, he looked up to see an unfamiliar figure standing under the frame. Was this person in his class?

“Sorry Mr Martin, I left something here and I need it for class.” The person quickly entered the room and walked pass Freddy after gaining a nod of approval from the teacher. His gaze followed them and his eyes widened in shock as the person stopped in front of his previous seat, pulling a few sheets of paper out of the drawer. He took a quick glance at the paper when they passed his seat again and felt a comforting sense of familiarity when he saw their handwriting. Freddy smiled, earning him a look of confusion from the maths teacher. “Honestly,” the man thought to himself, slightly regretting putting this kid in the front, “why did I decide to be a teacher in the first place?”

“Hey! Wait up!”

You turned around, the voice stopping you in your track as you were walking out of the school building. Not far from you was a boy walking towards you with a crutch in his hand, clearly trying his best to walk at full speed.

“Do you know him?” Your friend whispered in your ear and you slightly shake your head. As he walked closer, you recognized him as the person who was sitting near the door when you went to get your homework in Mr Martin’s room.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I know you?”

The boy scratched the back of his head, realizing that he might have confused you. “Oh, of course. I almost forgot that you don’t know yet,” he said, not looking you in the eye as he speak, “I used to sit at your seat in maths before I got put in the front.”

You beamed as you finally gathered what the boy was trying to say, “That’s you? So that’s why you suddenly stopped replying! Thank god, I thought you were dead or something.”

“No, not dead, just observed by ‘Mr goatee’ 24/7.” he said and you laughed. He reached out his free hand to you, “I’m Freddy.”

“(y/n).” You said and shaked his hand, “I can’t believe I’m actually talking to you in person. I’ve missed you... I mean, talking to you... Like, drawing ‘talking’...” You felt your face burn as everything you said sounded so creepy and you gave your friend a sharp glare as you heard the snickering.

“I missed that too.” Freddy looked right at you and you took the first proper look at him. With the sun and the grin on his face, it looked his eyes were twinkling. You cringed as the thought went pass your head and you felt like such a cliché. But this kid actually got unfairly pretty eyes.

“Now that we did the whole ‘awkward first encounter thing’,” He said and darted his gaze away from you again, “maybe we can hang out sometimes? I know this really nice comic book shop in town, if you’re interested that is.”

You smiled, “I love comics.”

His face lit up and you cursed yourself for being so quick to notice that. “So is tomorrow good?”

“Tomorrow’s good.”

“Cool, I’ll see you then.” He gave you another bright smile before leaving and joining another group of people that you assumed to be his family. Still grinning from ear to ear at what happened, you didn’t notice the sly smile on your friend’s face.

“Ooooooooo someone’s got a date.”

“Shut up.”

#freddy freeman #freddy freeman imagine #freddy freeman x reader #shazam imagine #shazam fanfic #shazam #dc #dc imagine #shazam!#shazam fanfiction

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