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leavesfallensparse · 13 days

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Cigarettes & Wine | M. Healy | 1

'I want a photo of you in my bed, to carry with me when I go out west.'

In which Sadie and Matty have a very brief, very awkward, and very anxious encounter, Sadie gets very flustered but quickly finds herself fitting in with the group of rowdy boys and too many feelings are felt for her teenage brain.

warnings: drug use, implied alcoholism, implied parental neglect, my sweet angel sadie being a sweet angel.

word count: 8.5k

a/n: soo .. hiiii! i am juniper and im begging you guys bear with me i have Never posted on here before. BUUUUTT i am vvvv nervous and excited to be posting this but it's been in the works for tooooo long. begging and screaming to be let out of the word doc its been confined to. so here we are i guess. pls enjoy sadie and matty they are my Children. if the title wasn't hint enough.. this is only part one.

Sadie has had the most stressful morning of her entire life. Her tie is untied around her neck and the only thing she cares to grab hold of is her camera. Her entire life is on that thing, and although she may be merely 14, her camera is her child. She hears her mother huffing at the bottom of the stairs and straightens up to catch a look of herself in the mirror, a mess, as she suspected. Her shirt is buttoned up wrong, her skirt is half tucked into her tights, she has on one Mary Jane and her backpack’s contents are strewn messily across her bedroom floor. With some swear words muttered along the way she is in the car within five minutes and her mum is chewing her out for being late to her first day of Year 10, which she couldn’t really care less for.

“I’ll see you tonight, mum! Love you!” Sadie slams the car door before she can hear her mums reply and heads into the school she’s grown to know quite well. She’s fallen into a friend group with some girls that she thinks will do for her high school endeavours, but Sadie already knows she’s destined for bigger than the small town of Wilmslow. Somebody else who thinks this way is Matty Healy, the boy who’s just gone into Year 11. Sadie has noticed him before, they both tend to frequent the music department, Sadie finds it visually appealing for her photo collection, whereas Matty finds it appealing to the ears, especially his own guitar strumming. Any time their paths cross Sadie bows her head and pretty much runs in the opposite direction, face as red as the wine her mum drinks when the sky gets dark.

As Sadie enters the front of the school she signs in late at the front and heads to her class, putting her camera in her backpack as she approaches her English class. She sighs and opens the door with stuttered apologies for being late, Sadie might be confident and come across as such but that doesn’t mean her 14 year old brain isn’t scared of high school teachers and their strictness. She stumbles to her seat and sits down, accidentally throwing her bag at her feet once she gets out the book the class are in the middle of silently reading. Even though she doesn’t know why the class is reading on the first day she’s thankful for it because it lets her mind wander, her dreams of being a famous photographer is what her mind favours over ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’, Sadie finds Dickens to be boring. She prefers the Brontë sisters.

When lunchtime finally rolls around Sadie is where she can normally be found, the music department. Her camera is lazily slung around her neck, her backpack having been left with her friends in the library. She favours avoiding the gossip for finding inspiration in the usual practice rooms, the ones she hasn’t found inspiration in for a while now. She spent every day before the Summer holidays begging whoever might be looking down on her for something to take a photo of. Somebody else had been wandering the same corridors as Sadie. Everyone in her year talks about Matty Healy, “the boy in the year above with a natural affinity for the guitar he’s always carrying around the school carried a naturally mysterious air.” Sadie can’t think of a single girl in her year who wasn’t utterly obsessed with every move of Matty Healy. Including herself, even if she’s very hesitant to admit it, an admirer from afar per se. She likes to think of him more in the sense of ‘his appearance is inspiring to her camera’. Sadie was looking down at her feet, frowning at the scuffed shoes she wore for the entirety of Year 9 when she felt a larger figure bump into her. As she looks up and sees Matty with a guitar case in his hand she can’t help the pink tint that rises on her cheeks.

“Oh! Erm, sorry!” Sadie somehow manages to force the words out of her mouth. She seems to have the same shyness about her when talking to Matty that she does when looking her English teacher in the eye. An interesting discovery. She loses herself in overthinking the tone she just took with Matty when she hears him reply to her, something she wasn’t expecting in the slightest.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t paying attention, my bad.” He meets her eyes and genuinely seems like he couldn’t care less about her mistake, he seems to take more notice of her camera, his head tilts and his eyes squint in the direction of it hanging limply on her neck. She seems to grow more confident in herself when she realises he’s looking at her camera, she knows she’s good at photography, that’s something she could talk about endlessly. Matty lifts a finger and points to said camera. “You any good?”

Her eyes widen slightly at the question, and she clears her throat at the same time her head begins incessantly nodding, she is acting crazy. She then begins to overthink her nodding. Why is she overthinking so much? Maybe she’s just having an off-day. She decides that she nodded like that because she knows she’s a great photographer, why would she not be overconfident about it? Seems normal enough.

“Cool. Can I see any?” This is when Sadie’s heart rate picks up. She doesn’t know why; she doesn’t want to know why. She also does not want to know why he is asking her this. Matty’s question has sent her brain into full blown panic mode, maybe she does want to know why he’d like to see her photos. What could possibly intrigue him about her? The squint tie around her neck? Her incredibly dirty Mary Janes? In her 14-year-old brain she decides he fancies her. She’d come to find out in many, many years that she was, in fact, right.

“If you want? I’m bringing my hard drive tomorrow for my art class, they’re letting me use my photos this year, meet me at the library?” She says this with a coy smile on her face, in her head she is feeling a lot less coy because of the way Matty is smirking at her. What she doesn’t know is that he is looking down at her with a smirk because her face is so red that he thinks there’s something wrong, maybe it was something he’d said? After a beat of silence, he blinks down at her with a nod, and they bid their goodbyes. Once Sadie is sure Matty has turned the corner she lets out a silent squeal before quickly bolting to the school’s library and sitting down at the table her friends are at, she might not view them in any light, but they do love gossip. She takes a moment to catch her breath before turning to her friend sat beside her, “Matty Healy wants to see my photos. I have no idea why.”

Suffice to say Sadie didn’t sleep a wink that night. She sneaked through to her dad’s office to edit photos on the family computer at midnight when she was sure everyone was sleeping and when she was sure the photos were on her hard drive she went back to bed and tried to sleep. Unsuccessfully. She then had to drag herself to school the next morning, early, to meet Matty before classes. She had no energy to even be nervous, the eyebags on her face spoke for themselves. She all but flopped down on the seat next to the boy who held in his laugh at the sight of her. “Don’t laugh! I had to edit some of these photos before you saw them, and my bloody dad wouldn’t get off the computer last night, so I had to do it after he was sleeping! Anyways, wanna see?” When Matty nods with a smile she rifles through her backpack for her hard drive.

After silently looking through her photos for, like, three whole minutes, Matty turns to Sadie with a single nod. “So, I’m in a band. I think they’d love these. How about you come to our next practice and take some photos of us? See if they like what you do?” Sadie is now a mere puddle in her computer chair. She doesn’t speak in fear of her mouth betraying her, what would she even say? She nods for a while; she doesn’t know how long she nods for, but she knows it’s been a while.

“Yup, sounds good. Yeah, cool. Cool. Where do you guys practice?” Sadie doesn’t know what the fuck is coming out of her mouth. She is word vomiting all over Matty’s shoes. She wants to apologise but she isn’t sure she remembers the English language. Why is she so nervous? Oh, probably just because the guy that every single one of her peers fawns over is currently asking her to make him and his bandmates her next subject of inspiration. Her next muse. What even is her life.

“At my house. I’ll write the address down for you, hang on.” Sadie’s mouth has gone dry. Now she’s truly forgotten the English language. This can’t be real, and this certainly can’t be happening to Sadie. Matty Healy is writing down his home address for her to have. Not to even mention his literal famous mum and dad. She reaches her hand under the computer desk and pinches her thigh over her wool tights, it doesn’t hurt but she’s now sure this is actually happening. Sadie takes the paper from Matty and tries to process the date and time he’s reciting at her. They’re interrupted by the morning bell and when Matty holds the library door open for her she waves goodbye, bows her head and speedwalks away from him.

Sadie really tries to focus in her classes that day but it doesn’t work in the slightest, all she can think about is Matty Healy and she curses him for it. She tries to read some romance novel when she gets home but she starts picturing the characters as her and Matty and has to put it down. He has unknowingly taken over her brain, and she resents him for it. Can’t a girl even read in peace?! She took pride in being the only girl in her year who didn’t have a crush on Matty, now she can’t even hold that above his head.

By the time Friday rolls around Sadie is already over school, she never tended to like school, but she already knows that Year 10 is going to be dreadful. The one saving grace might come in the form of a boy in the year above. She leaves school and runs home to get changed before she heads to Matty’s address. She has cherished the crumpled piece of paper that held his address since she got it on Tuesday morning, she taped it to her mirror and that is where it will stay. It isn’t like she hasn’t come home every night from school and studied it, she knows exactly where she’s going.

Her shaky hand knocks on the door of said address about an hour later, she biked over from her house and actually enjoyed the ride, the early September sun was shining on her face and lighting up the bumpy country road she took to get here. Her thoughts are interrupted by a lively woman, quite aggressively, swinging the front door open. Sadie smiles up at her with squint eyes because of the sun attacking them, making the blue of her irises look probably insane. “Um, hi? I’m Sadie, Matty invited me to watch his band practice and take some photos of them.” Sadie lazily points to the camera around her neck with an awkward smile. She is coming across very poorly. But alas the woman opens the door wider.

“Oh! He never mentioned, he doesn’t tend to tell me these things though, typical teenager! I’m Matty’s mum, just call me Denise though, sweetheart. They should be in the garage.” Denise walks Sadie to the garage door where she can hear the loud laughter of teenage boys and obnoxious drumbeats. She smirks slightly and thanks Denise, accepting her offer of a can of coke. Once she takes it she enters the garage, and the laughter dies down. “Sadie’s here, boys, she’s very lovely so I don’t want to hear of any teasing or making fun.”

Sadie looks down at her feet as Denise defends her, even though the boys haven’t yet uttered a word. She hears the garage door close behind her and Matty gestures her over to him. He very casually, like it’s nothing, throws an arm over her shoulder and begins introducing her to the three other boys in his garage. She already knows George from a couple of her classes due to them being in the same year, but she lets Matty speak at her anyways. “So, Sades, this is Adam, he plays guitar and he's in the year above me, basically he’s old. That’s Ross, he does the bass, but I think he just pretends to know what he’s doing. And that’s George, obviously he plays the drums, but he just makes a fucking racket.” Sadie flushes at how casually he gestures, how casually his arm is around her, how casually he swears, and how casually he calls her ‘Sades’. That’s a new one.

“Um, hi, I’m Sadie it’s nice to meet you guys. Matty was singing your guys’ praise on Tuesday morning. Been looking forward to this since.” Sadie’s forearm has suddenly become very itchy, and she busies herself in looking around the garage in an attempt to avoid eye contact with any of the aforementioned boys. She notices a few posters on the exposed walls and a couple of guitar cases strewn across the floor, the last thing she notices is a battered leather couch against the wall, facing all of the boys and their many instruments and poor cable management. Sadie leaves Matty’s side and takes a seat on it, placing her coke on the floor and taking the lens cap off her camera.

The practice is well under way and Sadie’s mind has been racing with thoughts of how she’d shoot the band at an actual show. She finally gains the courage to stand up and has failed to notice Matty’s eyes on her the entire time he’s been singing. None of the other boys seem to notice either, Matty doesn’t even realise what he’s doing. When they finish up the last song they wanted to practice (for probably the tenth time), they start chatting about things they should do differently, and Sadie busies herself by looking at her photos on the couch. She gets caught up in them and doesn’t feel the sofa sink next to her, she looks up and sees George looking over her shoulder. “Any good photos of me?”

Sadie can’t help the pink on her face as she nods and turns her camera to him, showing him the few photos she got of him. She found it difficult to get good angles of George considering the size of the garage they were practising in, him being shoved into the back corner. As George was flicking through photos Sadie couldn’t help but study his face, his brows were slightly furrowed as he fiddled with the buttons on her camera, not knowing how to work it. He smirked at a few photos and his eyes scanned over the rest, when he looked up Sadie was suddenly very interested in the opening of her can of coke. She has no idea why she can’t look at any of the boys without her heart rate picking up and her face going bright pink. Maybe because she thinks they’re actually quite cool and she has no idea why she would possibly be sitting in Matty’s garage with them all. But she is.

The next time she has a run in with the band is a week and a half later when they all spot her in the lunch hall and wildly gesture her over. She had spotted them first and tried to look around to avoid them. She really wishes she knew why her subconscious was forcing her away from the boys. (She’s terrified she’ll embarrass herself. That’s why). She gets herself together and heads over to the table they’re sat at, awkwardly placing her bag at her feet. She murmurs something that could be perceived as a “hi” but honestly it could have been anything. “Have you edited the photos yet? We are highly anticipating them.” Sadie nods her head excitedly, glad that the topic is on her photos, something she actually is passionate about.

“Yeah! Yeah, they’re on a hard drive that you guys can have, I forgot to bring it with me today though. I’ll bring it tomorrow?” Matty nods and falls into conversation with the boys, who also include Sadie, sitting there helpless, unsure if she should get up and go to her friends. She dares to glance in their direction and when she sees them blowing fake kisses because of the curly haired boy she’s sat with she rolls her eyes and turns back around. She reminds herself that they are her surface level friends, they have nothing in common whatsoever, they’re too caught up in gossip. Sadie is too caught up in her camera. They don’t gel.

Sadie manages to fall into a conversation with Ross about English and their mutual enjoyment for the subject, she finds it incredibly random but she’s glad to have something in common with one of the boys. She relished in the conversation not being surface level drama that brought a yawn out of her throat, she also relishes in her slight ranting about her passions actually being listened to. Sadie likes Ross and his listening skills. When the bell rings she finds herself bewildered at the fact she doesn’t want to get up from the table, she’d quite like to stay and timidly laugh at the boys’ jokes and general noisiness. But, alas, she must head to the aforementioned English class, she makes a joke to Ross about how she’d rather go anywhere else. They share a hatred for Sadie’s teacher, him having had her for the previous school year. She finds herself falling into step with George, they’re already five minutes late.

They wave a goodbye to the rest of the boys who all disperse into different classes and walks silently with George. They pass by a few people that make them share glances to each other, grimaces present on their faces. Anytime this happens they both laugh and shove into one another until they reach the fated English hallway and George reaches into his bag and pulls out two sheets of handwritten papers. Sadie’s face basically turns into a question mark. “What? It’s the homework?” Upon seeing Sadie’s heart basically fall to her toes George can’t help but let out a baffled laugh. “Don’t tell me you haven’t done it.”

“Shit, George.”

The colder the weather gets the more Sadie begins to feel like an integral member of the group. She’s the one to tell the boys to shut up when they’re talking too loudly. She’s the one to shove Matty anytime he makes another member of the group the butt of his jokes. She’s also the one to tell him when his singing sounds shit. Sadie has been quite the talk of the town recently because of this, her old friends are spreading all kinds of rumours due to her gradually dropping them in favour of the boys. Although anytime Ross catches wind of these in the school corridors he’s quick to shut it down, whether it be defending her or physically getting involved… at least he's there!

The band are meeting up for their last practice before Christmas Day and Sadie is beside herself with excitement, she hasn’t seen the boys since the school broke off for the holidays on the 17th. She wakes up that morning already excited but when she opens her curtains and sees snow she swears under her breath, she couldn’t possibly drag her bikes weak tyres through the thick snowfall. So, she slides her panda slippers onto her feet and heads downstairs, finding her mum in the kitchen with a cup of tea and a cigarette in hand. “Morning, mum! Would you be able to give me a lift to Matty’s later? I was gonna bike over, but it must’ve snowed pretty hard last night.” When she hears the sigh escape her mum’s mouth and the slight thud of her palm on the counter she knows she’s not getting a lift.

Denise was expecting Sadie, she’d grown to expect the young girl’s presence around the house at any given time. But what Denise wasn’t expecting was to open up the door to Sadie, bike in hand, tears staining her bright red cheeks, and no hat on her head. This just wouldn’t do. “Oh! Sadie, sweetheart, what happened? Come in, out of the cold now, just dump the bike, that’s fine. Why did you bike here?” Sadie tries to speak but her brain seems to think that letting a sob rack her body is the smarter way to go about this.

“Mum wouldn’t give me a lift, said she had more important things to be seeing to. Had no choice.” Denise immediately puts the kettle on and wraps the girl up in a blanket, rubbing her shoulders after forcing her to take a seat at the kitchen island. Sadie can hear the boys upstairs and is glad of Denise calming her down and talking to her before she has to face them. After Denise gives her a telling off for not, at least, putting on a scarf, she turns to Sadie with an eyebrow raised. She just sighs. “She does this all the time. Feel like a nuisance at that house. Always in the way.”

Upon hearing this Denise circles the kitchen island and crowds her into a hug which she can’t help but accept. After a beat of silence occasionally broken up by Sadie’s sniffles, the two part, Denise keeping her at arm’s length. “You shouldn’t feel like a nuisance. Listen, any time you come here I’m delighted, probably because you balance the testosterone levels a bit, but not just that, you’re the kindest young lady I’ve ever gotten to meet, and it’s always a pleasure to have you at the house, you keep my boys in check. Now, if you ever feel like this again, phone my number from your house phone, and I’ll come pick you up, can’t have you biking in the snow anymore.”

Sadie nods her head at Denise’s words, letting out a slightly weepy laugh anytime she makes a dig at the boys. She feels strangely warm inside, despite the subzero temperatures she was just faced with, and she doesn’t know why. She’s never felt safer than when Denise took her hand on the kitchen island. Matty’s house is now her safe space she’s decided. Speak of the devil, Sadie hears a clatter from the stairs behind her and when she turns she sees Matty’s eyes light up. “Sades! You made it! I thought you weren’t gonna come because of this snow, glad to see you though, George is chatting shit about your English teacher again. Something about holiday homework, help me take some juice up?”

Sadie takes the blanket with her and with a smile in Denise’s direction she waddles over to the fridge. She makes sure to finish her tea before grabbing a can of coke. Another thing she likes about the Healy house is the constantly stocked fridge, anytime she needs a drink there seems to be one on hand. Almost akin to Mary Poppins handbag. She takes one of the cans Matty is juggling with a giggle and bids goodbye to Denise before heading up the stairs. Matty entertains this journey by telling her that his dad had taken Louis, his younger brother, out to build a snowman a half hour ago and Sadie laughs at the image of his rosy cheeks and tiny hands grasping at snowflakes. She dotes on Louis, always having wanted a younger sibling, she treats him like her own brother.

When the door to Matty’s bedroom opens she smiles at the sight, three boys strewn across the room in one big, lazy mess. They all seem to perk up at the sight of Sadie, George especially. “Thank fuck you’re here, need help with this homework, my mum told me to have it finished before Christmas. And Ross, miserable bastard, is refusing to help me. Have you done it?” Sadie sets down Adam’s can of coke on the desk, cracking her own open before sitting criss-cross on the floor beside George. She nods at him over the can, and he can’t help but cheer and push it towards her, struggling on the carpet. “You’re so much better than me at English. Read what I have.” She sets down her can and skims over what George has written.

“Oh dear, I’ll help you after practice.” At this the boys all glance at each other and the room falls silent. Did she say something? I mean, they’re here for practice, right? Right. Sadie has just missed it, her treacherous journey to the Healy house took longer than usual, and she left late. “Have you already practiced?” When faced with four nodding boys, Sadie sighs and nods too. “That’s okay, we can just hang out, then.” Matty looks at her with a sympathetic grimace. He overheard more of her conversation with his mum than he originally let on.

Matty decides that changing the subject entirely is the best thing he can do in this situation, he doesn’t want to force her to talk about why she was crying to his mum. “We liked the most recent photos you took, really cool. Think you left some of your ones for art on the hard drive, there was a random shot of some leaf in the middle of Ross’ closeups.” Sadie shakes her head, feeling her eyes roll involuntarily. “I mean it was a good leaf photo, I just don’t think it’s our vibe.” Her head is thrown back in a giggle as she takes another sip of her coke.

“You should consider yourself lucky, getting to see my leaf photos. They are very close to my heart.” All Matty can do at this is scoff, he is now the one rolling his eyes. Sadie’s attention is diverted by a sheet of paper being waved in her face. She turns to George with a slight glare, and he backs into himself a bit. “Fine. What do you not understand? It’s just English.”

“I just don’t get it. English doesn’t make sense, I think you’ve forgotten that I am a well-travelled man, Sadie. I’ve been all over the place.” Sadie fixes the boy with a sigh, a straight-faced sigh. She lets his sentence linger in the air as she readjusts on the bedroom floor. She lays on her front as she reads what George has written. It’s not bad, but it’s also not great. And so, she tells him such.

“I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s not great. You could maybe, I don’t know, sprinkle in an adjective here or there, don’t think that would hurt.” Is all she manages to get out before a pillow is lobbed, quite forcefully, at her head. In retaliation she throws the paper back at George. “Well, you can do it yourself then, can’t you?”

“No, no, no! Sadie I didn’t mean it! My hand slipped!”

As the day turned to night the boys gradually left until it was just Matty and Sadie left sitting on his floor, sharing chips that Denise had cooked for them. Sadie put one in her mouth and glanced out the window, noticing it was snowing again, the sigh that came out of her mouth wasn’t meant to sound quite as pathetic as it did. Matty stopped strumming on his guitar and turned to her with furrowed brows, at the sudden silence she met his eyes. “I can’t bike home in this weather.”

“Why did you even bike here in the first place? And why were you crying?” Sadie shakes her head and breaths out a laugh. How does she even answer this? She could be honest, lay her cards on the table, and tell him all about her mum. Or she could be partially honest and tell him that her mum just doesn’t make time for her. Or she could blatantly lie, she’s on her period or something like that. As she weighs up her options she lets out a barely audible hum and Matty cocks his head at her.

“It’s just my mum. She never makes time for me. Refused to give me a lift and I didn’t want to cancel so I biked here. That’s all, I’m okay now, spending time with you guys makes me okay.” Matty’s head falls to rest on Sadie’s shoulder silently. He doesn’t know what to say to her, so he just starts strumming the guitar again. A smile rests on Sadie’s slightly pink cheeks as she hums along to the song Matty is playing, she doesn’t know it to name, but she definitely knows it. “I didn’t think I’d actually make friends in high school.” Matty doesn’t say anything for a minute, processing Sadie’s words.

“Of course you were gonna make friends. I think you’re too good to just be our friend, frankly I’m shocked you put up with our bullshit.” Another beat of silence falls upon the pair. “Just come here if your mum’s being a pain, we’ll cheer you right up.” Sadie smiles at this and feels tears brimming her eyes, and she doesn’t know why. At the sudden sound of the door opening Matty lifts her head and Sadie rubs at her eyes.

“Right, Sadie, I’ve just tried phoning your house phone three times to no answer, so the spare room is set up for you, let me know when you pair decide to sleep.” Sadie doesn’t hear much of what Denise said after hearing that her house was phoned three times, and nobody answered. What if something had happened to her? She sighs and smiles up at Denise from the floor, thanking her before picking at the loose pieces of carpet on the floor. When the door shuts, the tears flow. Matty has never been more panicked in his entire life, he thinks. How the fuck do you comfort your crying best friend?!

“Hey, hey. Come here.” He wraps an arm around her shoulder and all she can do is sigh. She knows if she speaks it’ll end in even more tears, her voice will refuse to work. She gives in and leans into Matty’s touch, the weather outside is a stark contrast to how she feels under his arm. After a few minutes of her silently crying, she dares a glance up at him and sees him staring at the wall across from him with slightly widened eyes, the sight makes her giggle, breaking him from his trance. He looks down at her and joins in the laughter, not knowing why they’re laughing but glad she’s not crying as hard anymore. Yet his eyes widen again when she stops laughing and opens her mouth.

“I want to know why they don’t care about me. I haven’t done anything.” Matty sighs at this, a sick part of his brain wishes he could relate just so he’d know what to say. He looks down at Sadie who is now lying on his floor, upside down from where he sits. He lays down next to her, top and tail, both teenagers looking up at the ceiling, feeling things too big for them to even comprehend, things they shouldn’t have to feel. “Sorry, I feel like the mood is ruined.”

“What mood? You’ve been off all day, making me feel sad. I wish I could make it better.”

“I wish you could, too.”

Sadie has no desire to celebrate her 15th birthday that following Summer. But she’s been faced with no choice. In George’s words they “had to because you only turn 15 once.” George had turned 15 earlier that year and didn’t seem to share that sentiment on his birthday, all they did was go to Matty’s house after school and sit in his living room for six hours. But he was insistent that the group had to go out for dinner, he’d gotten Denise on his side which ultimately led to Sadie agreeing. Her mother wasn’t best pleased, but she’d grown to not care, and her mothers grown to know she can’t fight her anymore.

She got dressed in rapid speed, desperate to get out of the house and reunite with her best friends. She hadn’t even gotten as much as a card from her parents and that says more to her than any words could have, she isn’t even sure they know her birthday is today. Pulling on her jeans, probably quicker than the speed of light, she grabs her jacket and runs down the stairs, she shouts a bye to anyone who cares and hops on her bike to Matty’s house. They’re all meeting there for some big surprise before they go out to dinner.

The August sun is beaming down on her face, she pauses and squints up at the sky and notices how blue it is, she smiles and looks back down at her bike. She decides that draping her jacket over the handlebars is a better idea, her backpack is half on her back because she was in such a rush. When she bikes the familiar back road she takes note of how the trees have turned from pathetic twigs to bright green scenery, she shuts her eyes for a second and let the Summer air infiltrate her lungs. She is grateful to be alive.

When she biked round the corner at the end of Matty’s road she could see all the boys engaged in a water fight, her urge to turn right back around grows stronger the closer she gets, George’s pathetic screams and Matty’s maniacal laughter grow louder, and she can’t help but laugh to herself. She hears Denise scolding Ross for going too rough and shakes her head as she throws her bike down on the driveway, climbing off and running away from all the boys who immediately turn on her with their water attacks. “Hey!! Stop, it’s my birthday!”

George laughs louder than Sadie had ever heard someone laugh before, probably because the boys weren’t targeting him anymore. She squeals and tries to run into the house, but Adam blocks the door, and she feels more water shooting at the back of her head. She hits his chest and tells him to move at least fifty times, but he doesn’t budge so she runs. She runs round the house to the back garden where she knows Matty keeps the water guns, just as she suspected there’s a pile of them, half-full, on the grass. Sure, they’re the shit ones, but they’ll do the job.

She hears a gasp behind her. “She’s found the pile, run.” She laughs and whips herself around, gun in each hand, to the pathetic squeals of four boys who run back around to the front of the house. There’s a knock on the kitchen window which distracts Sadie for a second, she sees Denise waving wildly at her, she waves back and sees her saying “Happy Birthday!” She laughs and runs round the house to get the boys back.

A half hour later Denise calls out the front door for them to come in. They all race into the house, Matty being shoved by George and Sadie laughing so hard she stops in her tracks. She gets stopped in her tracks even further when she sees the pile of gifts under the TV. She gasps quietly and barely hears everyone wishing her a happy birthday in unison, the tears pricking her eyes are stinging the back of her throat. This is the most anyone’s done for her birthday. George puts an arm round her shoulder and shakes her slightly, then slightly shoves her to the presents. “Save the one with the pink wrapping paper for last.”

Sadie’s bottom lip wobbles and she lets out an exasperated laugh. “Guys, this is too much. I don’t even know what to say.” She moves towards the gifts as if they’re going to jump out and scare her. She sees the three cards on the top and picks them up, sitting down on the floor in front of the TV. The boys, Denise, Tim, and Louis are all scattered across the couches and the floor too, just watching. She opens the one from Denise, Tim, and Louis first and smiles through teary eyes at the kind words written on the page. She has the same reaction to the other two cards, one from all the boys, one from just Matty.

After a while Sadie’s face is wet with tears, she’d laughed at some of the funny gifts, and with her new necklace round her neck she looked at the last gift, the pink one, cautiously. “Is it alive? Am I gonna be scared?” Matty laughs and shakes his head. She lifts it into her lap and looks at the tag, it reads that it’s from the boys. Before she opens it Denise cuts in.

“They all saved up for this on their own. Came up with the idea and everything.” Sadie looks to the group of boys on the other couch who all look very smug, she rolls her eyes at their faces and turns back to the gift. She carefully unwraps it and can’t help the sob that comes out of her mouth. The new Sony camera is sitting in front of her. When she gets hold of herself she opens the box and gasps at the sight of it. “Guys, oh my god. I can’t take this, you’re kidding.”

“Well, none of us know how to use it.” Sadie tackles the four of them into her arms, jumping on top of them all on the couch, muttering a hundred thank yous under her breath. She doesn’t even know how the boys managed to afford it, maybe some of Matty’s odd jobs he was doing helped, or Ross’ job down at the shop. She didn’t know, but she knew she would never forget this. Sadie felt that same feeling again from earlier. She was grateful to be alive.

By the time Matty’s 18th rolls around, the rest of the group have a plan. They’ve all saved up enough money to buy tickets to Leeds festival, and they’ve all chipped in to get one for Matty’s birthday. Sadie wasn’t allowed to go before, but Denise gave in this year and let her tag along with the group. She makes all of the parental decisions for Sadie now, since she pretty much lives at the Healy’s house. Denise’s reasoning was that it would be after her 17th birthday, deeming her old enough to go. Matty, Ross, Adam and Jamie had gone last year but all they had talked about when they came back to Sadie and George was how excited they were to go next year, the full group.

Ross, George and Sadie were currently sat in Matty’s back garden, waiting for Matty and Adam to get home from work. Sadie and Ross were sharing a cigarette and talking about the lineup for Leeds. More like arguing. George was observing with a cigarette of his own, he’d only spared one to the duo because he’s stingy. “No, Sadie. Nine Inch Nails are more exciting than the fucking Smashing Pumpkins. Think of it, you’re in a muddy field what would you rather listen to.”

Sadie looks at him like he’d grown a second head. “The Smashing Pumpkins.” Ross just groans, George laughs loudly. “What?! I would!”

“You’re actually fucked in the head, Sadie. George, please back me up.” He passes the cig back to Sadie who takes it and looks at George with a raised eyebrow. He takes a sip of his coke and looks away from the pair, whistling at the sky. Sadie laughs and passes the cigarette back to Ross. He tells her to finish it, so she does.

“No, to be fair to both of you, I’d rather be at Paramore. If I had to choose.” Sadie and Ross both share a look and collapse into each other laughing.

“Okay, one, Paramore is on Sunday, we’re talking about Friday. And two, they weren’t even in the equation to begin with.” Ross nods at Sadie’s words and George just sticks his middle finger up at the pair, who laugh at him again. They hear the back door opening and turn to see Matty, they shut up about their prior argument quite quickly. The trio share a look and have to hide their laughs.

“Hello boys. And Sadie.” They nod up at Matty who cracks open his coke and pours it over the ice in his glass. He looks at the three that have gone silent and squints his eyes slightly before taking a sip of his coke and lighting a cig. Sadie looks at the other two who are giving her looks as if to say, “Say something.”

She turns back to Matty, who turns to her. “How was work?” George lets out a barely audible groan and she looks at him incredulously. Matty nods around his glass and then kind of shakes his head.

“It was okay, not busy, boring. I like it there, though.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome for getting you that job. I’ve been there for like a year now. Remember when I walked in one day and George was just standing in the kitchen? That was stupid.” George laughs at her and she turns to him. “No, I was so confused.”

“I was working, where did you want me to stand?”

“It would’ve been nice to know you were working at the fucking place?” George shakes his head.

“Wanted to surprise you.”

“Some surprise that is, George!” He, yet again, sticks his middle finger up at her. This time she does it back. Matty scoffs and leans his head back with a sigh, he stretches his arms and one of them comes to rest on the back of the bench behind Sadie.

She points up at the sky, the sun is setting behind the clouds which cast a pink hue down on the group of four. They stay outside until the sun is probably in the middle of the sky in Australia. Adam arrives not long after Matty and Sadie gives him a subtle nod and thumbs up, trying to tell him that they got the Leeds tickets today. He looks confused at first, but he gets it after a minute. When Matty goes inside the four speak in whispers about how they have to tell Matty, because George is unable to keep it a secret. The back door swings open again and the four sit up straight. “Right, you guys are hiding something from me.” Sadie can’t help herself.

“We’re going to Leeds.”

Leeds was a fucking nightmare. Everyone fought. Everyone made up. Then they fought again. They all got so high they probably couldn’t see. Ross and Sadie ended up seeing Nine Inch Nails together after losing everyone else, and despite being in the clouds, Sadie remembered to act like she didn’t want to be there. Until she actually started enjoying herself. And George got to see Paramore. Almost. He passed out and Sadie shouted at him in the medical tent after he just came to because she was missing out, she was forced to take him to the medical tent.

Sadie was sick on some girl’s shoes at the Kings of Leon set. It was her, George and Adam having the time of their lives until some older girl started flirting with George, obviously he was loving it, but Sadie was already having a bad high and when she saw the way that girl was looking at George she just couldn’t help it! It all kicked off when George and the girl teamed up and tried to fight her. George was forced to take her to medical and as she was thrown over his shoulder he was yelling about how she’d ruined the weekend.

Safe to say the drive home was silent. Matty had the biggest hangover behind the wheel and Ross was cradling Sadie in the backseat as if she were his child, George was practically hanging out the window on the other side of Sadie. The one memory she has in the car is when they were all sat on the grass, ages away from any music, when Matty turned to the boys and said, “Reckon we’ll be on one of these stages soon?” The question was ringing through Sadie’s mind.

A few days later the group were all sat in Matty’s garden (like usual) with drinks in hand, reminiscing on the festival after they’d all taken some much needed time away from each other. Anytime Matty’s eyes caught hers she felt her heart stop. She isn’t sure he remembers but the day after they got back Sadie jolted awake with a vision of her kissing Matty. She doesn’t know when or if it actually happened, but it seemed too real to be something she conjured up in the middle of the night. Ever since, she’ll wake up in a cold sweat with visions of Matty’s lips on hers. She remembers it being a life-changing kiss, though, so there’s that at least.

Sadie makes a point to be the last to leave Matty’s house, she’ll probably end up sleeping here tonight, like usual. It’s a rare sight to see Sadie sleeping in her own bed these days, it probably occurs once a month at most. When Adam shuts the door behind him, Sadie feels her heart fall out of her ass, the silence is less than comfortable. If she can feel the shift in energy surely Matty can. He sits down beside her and turns to her. “Do you remember?”

Sadie feels like she’s died in her seat. Her eyes have practically fallen out onto the dining table. She spins her glass on the table awkwardly, thinking of what to say. What would he say if she lied? Would he pretend it never happened? She decides not to lie, because when his face is as close to hers as it is right now, she thinks she’d like to kiss him again. “Yeah… Do you?”

“Wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t, hmm?” Sadie feels like her 14 year old self, meeting him for the first time. Her face is flushed pink, she’s picking at the tracksuit bottoms on her thighs, and she’s avoiding eye contact. She wishes the ground would eat her alive, because one thing about Sadie is she doesn’t know how to flirt. “Hurt me seeing you kiss that other guy the next day.” As he says this his hand has come up to play with the loose strand of hair that had fallen out of the front of her ponytail. She looks up at him through her eyelashes. Her voice is no louder than a mutter.

“Sorry, didn’t know what I was doing, don’t even think I knew where I was.” Matty laughs softly at this and looks down at his lap, but his eyes catch Sadie’s nervously picking at the loose thread on the seam of her tracksuit. He feels his heart skip a beat as he grabs it. This makes her face him, looking into his eyes. The silence around them is suffocating and Sadie feels like she might pass out on the floor. When he makes the move to shuffle slightly closer, she smirks at his face. She doesn’t know where she grew the confidence but when she mutters, “Just do it.” He breaks the distance.

The butterflies in her stomach feel cliché, the way the kiss picks up in pace feels even more so. His lips on hers feels like coming home to your own bed after you’ve been abroad for a week. It feels like the smell of your own house after being away for a while. She knows that when her hand comes up to the back of his neck that it holds an ulterior motive, this is confirmed by his hand on her hip, guiding her closer. She wants to consume him in this moment. When they break away for a breather, Sadie doesn’t open her eyes, she doesn’t want to face this moment, but when she feels a squeeze on her hip she can’t help but open one eye. Matty laughs and leans his forehead to hers.

“Sleep in my room tonight.” That’s all that Sadie has ever wanted to hear.

The slight fling between Sadie and Matty didn’t really last for very long. The group all moved into a flat together and the flame between them just kind of flickered out. George noticed the change in Sadie’s demeanour ever since. He was the only other person who knew about Matty and Sadie, but because he was the best friend of both he had to be there for both. It was eating him alive. He was laying in Sadie’s bedroom, joint between his lips. They were sharing it.

“He fucks anything with legs. But I can’t move on. What’s with that?” Sadie plucked the joint from George’s mouth, and he rubs his eyes his face with a groan. He watches the smoke leaving Sadie’s lips intensely, staring at the way it clouds up in the air and dissipates into nothingness, this is how Sadie and Matty’s relationship felt. He sits up slightly on the bed with an indignant sigh.

“His way of coping, I suppose. He didn’t exactly get an explanation as to why you stopped sleeping in his room. Now he just needs someone sleeping there to fill that void for him.” It’s Sadie’s turn to sigh now. She knows George is right, but she doesn’t like the answer and she doesn’t want to hear that he’s suffering. He’s being a bitch and he should just come and speak to her. Silence falls over the duo and George stubs out the joint gently before opening his arms for Sadie.

She isn’t feeling very grateful to be alive.

#my babies !!!!!!#they're free in the world.#matty healy x reader #matty healy imagine #matty healy #the 1975 #the 1975 fanfic #writing #matty healy fic

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splatooshy · 4 months

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tvdu headcanons

yes these are completely correct, no i do not take criticism. either compliment me and my clever thoughts or walk away.

damon

- pretends his initials stand for ‘damon fucking salvatore.’

- Humanity isn’t something Damon lacks. He ignores it sometimes, but he did that when he was human too

- shy. so PAINFULLY shy. that didn’t change until post 70s.

- fav colour is jade green.

- born in italy, then lily had multiple miscarriages over 5 years and giuseppe decided they would move to america for better prospects, and stefan was born in mf.

- giuseppe despised anything ‘foreign’, and would lock damon in the cellar when he slipped up. never mind that damon didn’t really know any english.

- named his first horse (a shetland pony) sir handsome. loved his horses. hated people, loved animals.

- bibliophile. brains over brawn.

- gets banned from new orleans every few decades. marcel HATES him. also was in nola in 1914, freya and kol both took pity on him/ befriended damon after he managed to piss off the witches AND marcel in one day.

- always had the most inconvenient crushes as a human. the first was the daughter of some middle class storekeeper when he was eight. the second was emily bennett (his secret bff) and the third was a dude with a horse when he was a teenager. stablehand/riding instructor/ young gent passing through, named sebastian. giuseppe caught the boys fooling around one day and promptly shot sebastian in the head, before beating damon within an inch of his life (WOAH I WROTE THIS SO CASUALLY). damon never fully recovered.

- finds grimoires to bring to his favourite witch at the time. often the spells are super wacky and mostly useless.

- chatty and clingy drunk.

- after augustines, physically cant sleep alone, and half the time wakes up only to realise he’s killed his bedpartner (strangling, decap., suffocation etc.)

- in the 30s, he became a professional dancer.

stefan

- fav colour is an icy, glacial blue.

- nobody knows what his first language is. His first few words were either Italian or French, but it’s not certain which one. of course, giuseppe locked damon in the cellar for that.

- first horse was sir handsome, a hand-me-down from damon. loved both people and animals, but most of all loved when damon was introducing him to the animals.

- actually the cutest little child ever. big green eyes and floppy blonde-ish hair. looked like a five-year-old until he was 13? 14? and then suddenly shot up really quick.

- bull in a china shop. brawn over brains.

- the ‘ripper’ was created by lexi. she isolated and abused stefan, manipulating him into whatever she wanted.

- chronic migraine sufferer.

- as a human, he physically could not eat when nervous, which just so happened to be 80% of the time.

- rarely gets drunk but is a very outgoing and slutty drunk.

- lizard brain blood lusty ripper stefan only speaks italian.

- model aeroplane / train / car kind of guy.

- tumbled down into a well twice as a human.

- built the engine for the first automobile, passed it onto henry ford.

enzo

- likes the challenge of getting his way without resorting to compulsion (which is cheating.)

- has the stickiest fingers. he didn’t become a little street urchin in london without picking up some skills.

- turned by jack the ripper in 1888. approached him mid-murder.

- physically incapable of hating damon. and believe me, he’s tried.

- after augustines, physically cant sleep alone, and half the time wakes up only to realise he’s killed his bedpartner (strangling, decap., suffocation etc.)

klaus

- went to college a few times to study art. ended up stabbing the teacher [with a paintbrush] because they critiqued his work.

- was tsar nicholas 2 as a joke, purposely ended the dynasty.

elijah

- slipped ecstasy into klaus’ drink in the 80s just to see what would happen.

rebekah

- had a habit of accidentally wandering as a kid.

- clairvoyant / clairsentient.

- very partial to throwing knives.

kol

- bffs with charles 2, gets knighted (inspired by that episode of parks and rec where ben and andy meet the rich british guy)

- refers to stefan as klaus’ estranged paramour

- mixes vervain and wolfsbane into joints and such to get klaus to chill the fuck out. and mixing vervain into other drugs and stuff so that they’d affect him - damon joins the operation in 1914.

- was jack the ripper in 1888, saw a man drowning in his own blood in an alleyway, just watching as kol disemboweled a prostitute, before approaching him like ‘please sir, can you spare any change?’ and kol was delighted.

- damon pissed off marcel in 1914 and kol decided at that moment they were best friends.

- BIG fan of the ottoman empire. it only collapsed because kol was daggered.

- has grimoires full of odd spells.

alaric

- owns vervain coated knuckle dusters

- basically begs damon to talk history with him.

elena

- pre-accident: queen bee and she knew it. at her core, she is self-centred and used to getting her way. this only changes with her parents’ accident, but eventually elena reverts back into her old self.

- refers to katherine as her identical grandmother

[ - bitchy stares. not even an rbf, her face is just super expressive and you can tell when she’s judging you ]

caroline

- was second to elena all her life, and elena knew how to fuel that envy of caroline’s. but then elena’s parents died and caroline was finally #1, except stefan shows up and it’s back to the elena show again.

[ - well-meaning but tone deaf ]

both elena and caroline are just those bitchy popular girls.

[ bonnie ]

[ i have so many for her but a lot are completely against canon so here’s the ones that could be ]

[ - best cheerleader on the squad // the older girls adopted her as their flyer from day 1 ]

[ - because she’s tiny, yanno? ]

[ - known as the ‘i dunno her but she seems nice’ one, the ‘quiet, seems really sweet but i think she hates me’ one and ‘elena’s minion’ ]

[ - but she’s actually more popular overall ‘cause she does all the volunteering / xtra curricular stuff with caroline and she’s not in your face about it ]

[ - has very weirdly specific daily rituals as to what she eats and when on which day (waffle wednesday), what pyjamas she wears, how her pillows are arranged, etc. ]

[ - she didn’t even notice she did all of that until she was at a sleepover and the other kid’s mum made a different breakfast to what she would usually have on that day and bonnie was like ‘hmm. i seem to be uncomfortable with this. why is that?’ but sucked it up and ate her breakfast without saying anything ]

#tvd #damon salvatore #denzo #elijah mikaelson #tvd fanfiction #bi damon salvatore #elena gilbert #stefan salvatore #caroline forbes #klaus mikaelson #enzo st. john #kol mikaelson #rebekah mikaelson #headcanon

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reptil-enjoyer · 10 months

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Everything that Heath has ever done in all of the G1, including webisodes, movies, videogames and comics

This is a VERY long post, a 20 page long document, containing 9400 words of information, kinda like a masterpost but it doesnt have links to other posts

also this can and probably is weirdly writen, english is my second lenguage (Spanish version here)

(Blinkie taken from here)

Heath Burns

The document (Because i am insane)

Wiki and extra facts

Heath Burns is a 2010-introduced and all-around character. Being a young fire elemental, Heath still is in the process of learning to control his powers and he suffers no less for it than his environment. Fear, excitement, or just a moment of absentmindedness is enough to pass his flames on to where he no longer controls them. It does not help that Heath himself is impulsive and impatient and has limited regard for others' wellbeing, meaning that his fire isn't even required for him to be the cause of chaos. Students and teachers alike are on guard if Heath is involved, which is necessary, but nonetheless hurts him because it means any effort to grow out of his habits is met with demoralizing skepticism. Heath likes to think of himself as the "guys want to be me, girls want to date me"-type, neither of which he actually is.

Age: 15 years olds

The following things are wrote in first person as if Heath had written it

Freaky Flaw: I have a slight self-control issue, causing me to accidentally burst into flames at the worst possible times. My dad also says that my attention span is so short that, Hey! What was that?

Favorite Activity: I love playing video games because I always get to be the hero, and if I make a mistake, I can hit the reset button.

Favorite subject: Physical Deaducation. I can show my crazy athletic skills in front of the ghouls. But in another bit of info he says that his favourite subject is Music, since he’s an “avid guitar player” (He isn’t)

Least Favorite Subject: Mad Science. It's not that I don't like the subject, but there are many distractions in the classroom. But he also says that “Any class when I don’t get to sit next to a scary-cute ghoul” in another bit of info

Favorite color: Red and Yellow

Best Friends: Clawd Wolf & Deuce Gorgon

Extra-scare-icular activities: Track team

He also considers as friends, and therefore spends time with them: Manny Taur, Slo Mo, Gil Webber, Hoodude Voodoo and Kjersti Trollson (online).

Despite the fact that Heath is a pain magnet and Hoodude(15) is the same, except that he transmits pain to other people close to him, Hoodude and Heath get together from time to time and get along well.

Kjersti Trollson(14), met Heath online, through the internet and through video games, and the two have been close ever since, despite Heath's surprise to discover that she was a girl, which is a delicate matter for Kjersti. Despite this, he respects his loudmouth personality and recognizes him as a skilled player. She considers him one of her best friends during her time at Monster High.

Slo Mo (17) doesn't seem to have much of a problem with Heath's antics

Manny (16) had no friends during his bully days, but today he considers Heath his best friend.

Deuce (16): Best Friends (below is when they first met, written from Heath's perspective)

Buddies for Life

Mom’s always telling me to clean up the mess in my room, and I always answer that there’s a place for everything, and everything’s in its place. She says it’s only true when the said place is the floor. While tidying up, I found an old picture of summer camp. I don’t remember these holidays being exactly fun until Deuce came along. I guess it’s because I only ran into trouble. It was harder back then than it is today to control my flames. I don’t if it was being expelled from archery practice for setting the arrows on fire (I still shot the target with them) or maybe because I set the rope on fire while practicing knots, but I manage to scare away the instructors as well as the other campers from day one. I was wondering what to expect from the rest of my stay. That’s when the new guy walked into the cabin. He had snakes instead of hair and weird sunglasses attached to his head, so they didn’t fall off. He said, “Hey dude! Wanna give me a tour?”. From that moment on, Deuce and I became best buds. I did run into more trouble after that, but Deuce was still there once the smoke cleared out.

Jackson (16) doesn't have him as a friend, neither does Holt, just as a family member (I mean, Heath doesn't have them as friends either, but come on man)

Clawd (17) says that he doesn't have best friends directly, but he does mention that he usually spends more time with Heath because of different sports activities since they're both on most of the school teams

In the Monster High books, Heath is not related to the Jekylls/Hydes at all; however he does have an older sister, Harmony Burns.

In 2020, it was confirmed that Heath may be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community as Garrett on his Instagram account stated that he likes/flirts with anyone (HE’S PAN I SWEAR TO GOD) (I am projecting there)

Heath usually prefers to dress in a way that isn't too showy, thinking he might envy the other boys and students at Monster High, but he still likes to look cool (Even if that means using the same outfit in the entire series lmao)

“Attention Chaperones!

Thank you for volunteering your Valentine's Day to watch over our student body ball. While our students are known for displaying exemplary behavior, select monsters should be given an extra caring eye to prevent any mischief.

Watch List

Heath Burns – known for heating up. Chaperones will be issued a fire extinguisher in the form of a corsage to help douse any situations that flame up.”

During a recent Creative Conjuring Class, we were challenged with writing a personal essay exploring inner thoughts of self. Heads turned towards me instantly. No one thinks I can be serious; Ghouls laugh at me when I try and ask them out; teachers always blame me for pranks. Well, the truth is I am a very serious monster, with a lot of deep feelings. To set the record straight, so to speak, I decided to publish my essay (which got an A by the way). Breathe fire all you want, because I'm proud of who I am.

WHO AM I? The Monster Inside.

By Heath Burns

It's hard out there for a mildly funny prankster. Most monsters deal with the same questions of self – who am I? What do I want in un-life? Even some of my closest monsters wonder who I am, and to be honest, many times so do I. It leads me to ask, can one ever truly know the real monster inside? Or is un-life just a continuous hunt to find purpose to feed the soul? I know that one thing that truly feeds me is my passion for fun, but no one seems to get the humor in my punch lines. The hardest part is being tormented by the feeling that no monster will ever truly understand me.

Most times, I just feel completely misunderstood. On the outside, I'm Heath Burns – class clown and UHHHn-defeated prankster! It's an external personae – everyone has one. Don't get me wrong, I love to laugh and practical jokes really are my forte, but occasionally a monster just wants to mellow out and have a serious convo with the pretty ghoul from Biteology class. Unfortunately, most monsters don't let me express my sensitive side, because they expect a joke at every turn. Since I’m a pro, I always give my audience what they expect – but sometimes it can be a total buzz kill.

That being said, the Heath Burns lifestyle is one awesome ride! I am who I am, and that's all I want or need to be. Monsters may think they have my personality pegged, but they're dead wrong. I am strong, unique and totally the beast guy to have around when you’re in need of a gut busting laugh. But I'm also caring and creative – so don't forget you should never judge a clown by his worst joke.

I am myself, I am unique and I am a freakishly awesome monster!

Abbey and Heath to Slice Out the Competition

December 03, 2012

Winter sports season is finally in full swing now that the Monster X-Games championship is set to take place in less than a month's time. With student bodies Abbey Bominable and Heath Burns preparing to freeze out their opposition as a fierce duo this year, the competition is bound to heat up quickly.

Given Abbey's fervor for snowboarding, we imagine we'll see some wickedly good tricks on the monster pipe while Heath is expected to melt the ice during the Beast Trick round. Rumors are also spreading about a synchronized ski competition for the pair. How did the two get wrangled into sharing the competition? Gil says Heath practically burst into flames at the chance to spend a little one-on-one time with Abbey.

No matter what the reason for their matchup, monsters everywhere are screaming in excitement over the possibilities. These super athletes are sure to put on a creeperific show this winter.

Heath Burns: I have a burning crush on the coolest ghoul in school, but I'm not sure she knows I'm alive. I don't want to declare my love if she doesn't feel the same way. How can I get her to notice me?

C.A. Cupid: Love is worth the risk. You must tell her how you feel. Even if her initial response is icy, your re-hot feeling may melt her heart

Series/Webisodes

Volume 1

This would be the first time we see him (I think his actual presentation would be New Ghoual @ School, the first movie). He´s shown talking to background characters mostly, first year in high school maybe? Or second year of highchool but he just moved to Monster High, I say this because Draculaura calls him “new guy”.

He’s trying to give a good impression, but in a “hey guys I’m cool” way

He´s immature, at least compared to the other manster, he´s a year younger than the rest

He´s shown trying to flirt with Frankie one time (This does not work for him btw)

Draculaura flirts with him first, I would guess they have a date that went really wrong off camera, because in later episodes Draculaura is shown to really dislike him lol

He has a really big ego when it comes to sports, like, he truly believes he´s the best in them (I like to think that this because they´re one of the only things he´s always been good at, compared to his other classes). He even says that some sports shouldn’t be for girls (BY THE WAY, WHAT THE FUCK WITH THAT?? LIKE??? HUH??? THIS IS LITERALLY THE ONLY SUBJECT HE ACTS LIKE THIS)

Volume 2

He really wants to go with Draculaura to that prom, dance?? (I don’t know what’s it’s called honestly), but Draculaura doesn´t want to go with him. If you think about it, this may be because she was the only person who first approached him in a good way; so maybe Heath thought Draculaura wouldn't turn him down. The way he insists her isn't cool tho, and it takes calling Clawd to threaten him so he stops.

He isn´t angry with Clawd afterwards tho, Heath actually doesn´t appear in the “prom” later in the episode, so he really didn´t have anyone else to go with

He´s good friends with Gil! He helps him get the courage to tell his parents what he has with Lagoona.

He doesn't have the best relationship with Jackson?, he doesn't treat him badly in front of him, and he even is shown to repeatedly spend time with him, but it's quite clear that for some reason he doesn't want Jackson to be in Monster High (Heath only acts like this during this volume tho)

He’s included in the friend group of the ghouls, but I think this is mostly because he´s spends time with Deuce, Gil and Jackson, since the ghouls constantly don’t want to spend time with him

By the way, this is important to me, but Heath has only been shown to be attracted to the physical appearance of people, and tends to act quickly on those feelings, trying to flirt with the background girls (They don’t like him tho). I like to think he’s in some part of the aromantic spectrum because of this (Demiro maybe?)

Volume 3

He’s shown spending waaaayy more time with Manny ( :/ )

The times he's rude with others it’s really because he's like really honest. This guy does not realize that what he is saying is rude to others and may hurt them

He flirts with Abbey like a lot, and Abbey is shown to at least find him funny

Saying this again, but every time he develops a short crush with a girl its purely a physical attraction and not a romantic one, I think the fisrt time he actually wants to be in a more serious thing is whith Abbey, but he also takes a lot of time to even realize this

All of his friends would blame him for any type of fire related accident, like they wouldn’t even think about it

He really helps Frankie in that New Year episode where she stops time, like totally platonic, friend helping another friend thing

HE’S A GAMER, I KNOW THIS IS SAID BEFORE IN THE WIKI PART, BUT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THIS IS SHOWN IN THE SERIES

He really cares about his friends lives (yes, I am talking about the ghouls in this), and he tries to warn them thay they could be in danger, but literally nobody takes him seriously

He’s scared by Jhonny Spirit lol

Talking about Hoodude he’s shown to be rude with him in a singular episode, but I suppose he apologized afterwards. Since later in the volume they’re shown to be on good terms and Heath does not get angry with him if he accidentally hurts him

HE’S SCARED OF AN OLD TYPREWRITER???? I DON’T KNOW (Yes this was funny enough for me to type it)

Volume 4

He’s shown way less

He’s a fan of Catty Noir lol

He tends to get lunch with Hoodude x)

He’s in more sports than before, Maybe he just signs up for every sport in the school (except swimming)

He spends more time with Manny :(

He helps or is in the art club as a model!

Volume 5

He almost never appears in this volume

He’s speaking with Manny in the interchange episode and he doesn’t appear much during that arc, so I guess went to Greece with Manny?? Completely guessing here

He wants to be a vampire in the Casta Frierce episode lol

When he goes to that party he doesn’t go with a formal outfit or anything, he just shows up with his normal everyday outfit, this thing he does it in almost every single party episode btw. He’s shown dancing with Jinafire btw!

Volume 6

He appears three times literally

In the arc of the circus thingy, he appears in the background with a different t-shirt and cooking some sausages with a stick, he literally doesn’t do anything more

And the other time he appears it’s when he some books fall on top of him when he’s searching for something in his locker

Extra episodes

He’s actually cheering on the casketball team instead of playing with them

And he went to the beach, he’s shown to spend time with Hoodude talking together, and he also plays with Clawd a bit.

Movies

New Ghoul at School

Appears using his cellphone in the background

HE TRIES TO FLIRT WITH FRANKIE AS HIS FIRST INTERACTION???

When Deuce tells him to stop he ignores him and keeps trying to flirt with Frankie

Deuce Stones him for not stopping and he takes his statue with him as he leaves

And the end he appears dancing with Draculaura

Fright On:

He's at the mall with this half-goat guy, those from Greek mythology, I think they’re called satyr?? Faun Boy??? Whatever

He likes Iris and Scarah for their appearances

He sits beside Jackson in one scene, I think he waves hello to Manny

He doesn´t like the science class, maybe because it’s more of a wait around class than anything, He invoked a small version of a Cthulhu thingy

He tried to flirt with two different vampire girls

THEY SHOWED HIM INSIDE A WATER TANK? DUDE? AS A GAME FOR THE PARTY??

He was looking at the fight between the werewolves and vampires, HE FAINTED???

At the end he tries to flirt with Gory, but a zombie ends up splashing him with water

Why do ghouls fall in love?:

They invited him to Draculaura's birthday, he was dancing with these vampires from the previous movie (it's a dream from Draculaura btw)

Trying to pay attention to Mr. Rotter's class as far as it seems (he's struggling with the book)

Ok this doesn't make sense, but Ghoulia's computer bug makes her "perfect match" appear as Heath

HE IS SO HAPPY THAT GHOULIA IS SUPPOSEDLY HIS PERFECT MATCH; he goes and tells some friends at lunch, Gil and Lagoona tell him not to be crazy and to take the date more calmly and Heath tells them "but I'm her perfect partner, right? I should act like always". Deuce seems interested in seeing how Heath treats this situation, but more in a way of waiting for Heath to fuck up

He accidentally burned a book while trying to flirt Ghoulia :(

He went to look for Ghoulia to hang out with her I guess (inconvenient at the moment but it's not his fault)

Heath made a song for her :3

Heath listens to the radio show of Cupid thing but it’s because they are throwing more “hard” tips because Abbey is the one who is talking. He was in the library with Ghoulia to accompany her, he accidentally burned a book again for wanting to give it to Ghoulia

Ghoulia wasn't very happy with the things they tried so she wants to tell him to stop this thing they were doing later

Heath ends their thingy with Ghoulia first, seeing that a serious relationship is not for him (and that it wasn't working out), but he still asks Ghoulia if she doesn't get mad about this or anything, because she still worries about their friendship. Ghoulia tells him that there is no problem, Heath then goes to go with flirt again with the girls

Escape from skull shores:

He’s back in those water tanks from attraction parks

Why is he so egocentric in this?? He just told this skeleton guy to use the muscles when he clearly doesn't have them (mocking him) and telling Howleen that girls can't throw? What the hell? He didn’t act like since Volume 1

He deserved that Howleen threw him inside the water, but why the hell did the water had piranhas inside of it????

Heath laughs at the destruction of public space (arson win) lol

Heath runs off to recess along with Manny

He is afraid of the circus performer

He’s standing there watching each other kill each other on the roof lol

I think he was talking to operetta??? On the island at the end

Friday Night Frights

He's on the skating team

previous season of the sport as of now

Substitute for the team along with Manny, calls the gargoyles fools

Makes fun of the other team as he skates too

They lost the thing? I don’t remember right now. Manny almost kills him because he pushes him. Heath is really sad about their team losing. He's disappointed when Clawd says he's canceling the next season of the sport

He’s watching at that thing to see who could make the new players for the team

He doesn't pay much attention when a werewolf says that a girl shouldn't be teaching guys about the sport, but he does laugh at another's guy joke about the same thing

Surprised by Lagoona's abilities!

He doesn't say anything to Lagoona when she says he wants to join the team, but he seems confused. When Frankie asks why Manny doesn't want to play with girls, Heath replies "because it's a man's sport, it's sacred! It's tradition."

Manny says that they are not going to make the team then, Heath goes along with the idea, and he says "well see ya! Wouldn't wanna be ya!" And then if tells them good luck putting together a team without men

He went to see (along with Clawd and Manny) the first tournament of the season, obviously to make fun of the ghouls; he’s carrying a camera to record them lol

He laughs at the Ghouls the next day (along with literally all the other guys)

Do I have to keep saying that he continues to make fun of the girls along with Manny? He’s still carrying the camera by the way. Operetta tells them to like, get lost or something

He went to watch the games together with Manny, obviously to record when the girls lost, but when he sees that the girls are using other strategies and are going ahead pf the other team, he is surprised and applauds them (puts the camera down)

He doesn’t appear in the next game

In the next game he’s cheering them on with the rest of the school

Heath and Manny apologize to the girls, admitting they were jerks

He’s was talking to Rochelle about the matches I guess :3

Next game/final game he’s on the cheer squad to cheer them on :3 (He accidentally burns the pompom)

He was about to kill the gargoyles for/because of the shield (I don’t remember what this refers to)

He was going to record them when they were celebrating, Manny then pushes him and Heath ends up crashing into Clawd

Passage of time to the next season of the sport this (aka the time when the movie starts)

He’s playing in the team again <3

Ghouls rule:

He fell asleep in the movie that they’re playing in class for Halloween :3

He said he failed history once, saying it was because he accidentally burned the book and couldn't study. When he says this he accidentally burns his book, Abbey puts out the burned book before anything else catches fire (for some reason everyone laughs at him?)

He was going to laugh at the pumpkins set as a threat, inadvertently activating the trap. Abbey shields him from being hurt and Heath thanks her.

They make fun of him (Manny and the rest of random guys) because Abbey saved him??? He gets really sad about this. Especially because the first one who laughs at him is Manny

In the Ms. Bloodgood room he sits next to Frankie, separated from Manny

He seems happy or interested with the meeting for Halloween that Cleo organizes

He tries to help Abbey not to drop a book on her head, it goes wrong and he ends up colliding with the locker, the book falls on his head and he sets it on fire. ABBEY AND LAGGONA DON'T EVEN ASK HIM IF IHE’S OKAY?? UH????? I GUESS??????

He takes some time to even recognize the secret greeting for the thing that Cleo is organizing, frustrating (I think) Clawd and ending up saying out loud what the greeting was for. He ends up crashing into another locker

He’s really interested in like, pulling a prank on the humans

He looks confused/concerned at Jackson when he shows up

Follow the rest with the idea that Holt should go instead of Jackson :(

He's super interested in pulling this prank on the humans (repeating myself here), He’s even carrying one rotten egg for the prank, I think he's the only one who took something like that? I have to say that he's probably good with basketball tricks because he does those kinds of tricks with this egg and he does it really well.

Manny gets mad at him for this?

Clawd tells him to be careful and Heath looks at him somewhat disappointed, telling him to have some confidence in him.

Holt bumps into him and makes Heath drop the egg, he tries to catch it but trips over a stone and can’t, he gets really sad about this

CLAWD TELLS HIM "I TOLD YOU SO" YOU SON OF A BITCH IT WASN'T HIS FAULT (Sorry I got angry in here)

Holt flashes a flashlight into Heath eyes/face to get him to hurry up

Disappointed that someone already did a graffiti in the human school before them, but says it's a much better job than what they were going to do

He runs fast! (Although it is obvious, in the series he was part of the track team)

He hides with Manny in a place of dishes/pots, when he sees that they weren't caught he gets excited and sets himself on fire, I think it's Manny who ends up breaking the place because Heath doesn't move from where he was sitting

Confused when he joins the rest to see that they are accusing Holt

He does not put up much resistance for this human party idea, he seems surprised actually

He wants to dance with Abbey at the party but he couldn’t.

He doesn't even want to be close to that blonde girl, he makes a scared face when she talks to him

When eating a spicy food (Abbey stops him before, telling him that they are too spicy, but he eats it anyway, saying that he was going to resist) he doesn't resist?? I guess?? For comedy factor?? He sets himself on fire, revealing that he is indeed a monster and inadvertently so are his friends. Abbey tries to put it out but Heath keeps running until he can put out the fire with a bucket of water.

Seems ready to fight with the humans when discovered

He tries to "protect" Abbey when they have to escape from the police, but while running he slips on a puddle and Abbey ends up helping him

He’s biting his nails when the Ms. Bloodgood is scolding them, maybe he does it when he is nervous?

He’s laying on the desk during detention until Frankie talks. He replies that he thinks it's cool that Holt had done the graffiti.

Has a “the fuck” face as he listens to Cleo complaining

I think he was talking to Toralei?

I think he's saying "awesome" when Cleo lies about Holt pulling those pranks

Tells Cleo the she should tell Holt everyone has his back

Tries to get Abbey out of detention, obviously doesn't do anything of what he says when the professor swings a dagger at his face, saying he has to go (Abbey seeing this says that Heath is "obviously" not part of the plan)

I'm saying it now, but Heath has no reaction when Holt takes the punishment of being killed. WHICH MAKES NO SENSE BECAUSE HE'S HIS FUCKING COUSIN MAYBE HE SHOULD REACT??? LIKE DUDE

Help with the plan to get the humans into the hall, to get their attention he taunts them and makes sure he's set on fire to light the way for the humans; I think he laughs nervously

He's really happy about the things that Abbey can do. When he sees that the ice statue is going to fall on top of him, he throws a ball of fire at it to melt it (I think it's one of the few times he does something like that?) He ends up going out dancing with Abbey thanks to this

After dancing with Abbey help the bullies (those blonde guys that look like jocks) to roast some marshmallows in his heads, I DON'T KNOW WHY BUT HE'S SITTING IN A BABYGIRL POSE OK I DON'T KNOW (gay?!¡?????!?!!!)

He’s good at sliding down rails?? With only his feet?? Cool??

Scaris City of frights:

Had a turn at the fashion show that Clawdeen organized at school, He’s so excited to participate (along with Deuce and Clawd)

Toralei's (fucking asshole) wants to humiliate Clawdeen (and Heath) changing the outfit he had to wear for the show

He is quite nervous about going out with the dress, he still does what he can (as he himself says) to wear it

Heath helps Ghoulia carry her scooter, which he has a hard time carrying, but manages in the end. Clawd and Deuce laugh at him for this??

He is so happy to be able to spend time with Deuce and Clawd! He literally says that "there is no better fun than with friends" and wants to high-five Deuce and Clawd, they look at him confused/disgusted and leave him standing there. Heath is confused as to why they left him hanging/ignored.

Heath tells Clawd that well, Draculaura is in the city of love, and in his case he would be jealous (Heath is always this very sincere without really wanting to hurt his friends feelings) he asks for a high five back to Clawd, and Deuce freeze him for this (Since Clawd gets sad and Heath doesn’t notices)

He’s so glad that for once he’s told that he was right about something. He literally tells Clawd not to worry, that it's not going to happen like last time (Valentine) and that Draculaura wouldn't left him for another dude.

He doesn't seem very convinced that Clawd is going to ask Cupid for help.

Clawd just says thanks to Deuce for going with him to Scaris. He then SARCASTICALLY says thanks to Heath for coming, literally telling him afterwards "I didn't want you to come though" (I think at least that what he says in Spanish)

Heath tells him that he wouldn't miss an opportunity to skip school. I KNOW HE’S IGNORING THE OTHER COMMENT I KNOW; that or he doesn’t understand sarcasm?

He was almost killed by a gargoyle on the airplane

Says "I miss girls who speak my language" when he arrives in Scaris lmao (in difference as Deuce and Clawd say that their miss Cleo and Draculaura)

I think he stopped for a second to see the mural that Ghoulia was doing

Doesn't stop Clawd from talking to a mime lmao

Gives money to Ghoulia's monkey!!!

He’s tired of looking for the ghouls; He does not seem very convinced to go to the catacombs to look for them as indicated by Clawd

Heath is lighting up the way for the boys to go through the catacombs

He's not like, very happy to see/find the girls compared to Clawd and Deuce

He kicks down a door!! He took it out from melting the sides from where it is connected to the wall; and did this only using one finger like a blowtorch!!

Clawdeen slams the door on him AND DOES NOT APOLOGIZE

He doesn't even complain about being squashed with the door :(

He asks sadly if anyone missed him, no one answers him, except Abbey with a "maybe me, very little" AND HEATH GETS TOO HAPPY ABOUT THIS; respects Abbey when she tells him not to push

HE FIXED ROCHELLE'S CAR BY THE WAY I DON'T WANT TO SAY ANYTHING BUT HE FIXED A FUCKING CAR. He's really proud of this by the way

I don't know why but when he goes with Abbey on a scooter he cannot accommodate/sit well on it

TRALEI DID THE SAME THING AGAIN, TO HUMILLIATE HIM IN FRONT OF THW CROWD AND UUUAHUDSF

KING, KING SLAY, COME ON HEATH GOD I LOVE YOU, KNOW IT IS HARD FOR YOU TO WEAR MORE FEMININE CLOTHES BUT YOU DID IT KING. By the way, he accidentally falls at the end of the catwalk.

He is so proud I adore him

He tells Clawdeen that the speech she made was beautiful, and asks for a high-five, Clawdeen is the only one who returns it, when he does, he says "about time! :D"

He falls off the catwalk again and they laugh at him

In the photos he accidentally burns a bird lol

Uh that weird end part of the movie

He says that girls do magic to fit all the clothes they wear in their baggage

He was talking to Deuce when Frankie gives him a bag. He says "I don't want to be seen carrying this girly bag like this" Which ok doesn't make sense because he says this after walking a fashion runway in a skirt??

He wants to flirt with Jinafire??

In Heath's defense, he didn't know the book was alive.

He asks Deuce if Jinafire is interested in him and Deuce literally replies that "you're imagining things" and he's goes to flirt with her anyway

HE WAS RUN OVER BY ELEPHANTS???

In the hot air balloons, he accidentally burns the rope for trying to flirt with Jinafire

He is not used to cold places and is shown to be almost freezing, unlike dragons like Jinafire he is capable of generating fire at any altitude/temperature

He says "that's amazing" when the book goes away again lmao

He is the only one helping to move the car

He’s also not good in desert places? He’s itchy

Help Ghoulia flee in Transylvania

Is he the only one paddling????? In the middle of the ocean?? They were eaten by a sea serpent

He has a confused face with what Jinafire says about the book.

(I just realized that he is wearing flip flops lmao)

THE BOOK THROWS ITSELF INTO HIM AND I THINK PUSHES HIM?

He accidentally set the balloon on fire but it worked anyway

HE HAS A CONCERNED FACE WHEN CLAWDEEN TALKS TO THE BOOK LMAO

13 wishes:

He wants to participate in "Die Trying" along with Clawd and Manny; Right now he's recording what Clawd was doing. The camera breaks because water fell on it but it's not his fault

The next time he accidentally burns the camera because he got excited

Seems confused that he's being put on the show because of Howleen's wish but doesn't complain or anything

He presents himself as flirtatious in the show

Happy/excited to be able to participate!

The next time you see him, he's already half worried about the feat they have to do, but he's still happy

He's the first to notice and tell Manny and Clawd that he's tired of the show (he seems nervous that they'll call him a coward for this but they don't).

He doesn't even want to participate anymore but he is obliged by the one host of the show

He gets to the point of hiding in garbage cans so he doesn't have to participate, saying it's humiliating; although he says "no, I swear I'm not afraid of the contest" although he is literally hiding so as not to participate, just like Manny and Clawd

Deuce asks them what the hell they are doing in the garbage cans, when he answers Deuce he ends up being found by the host of the show

In the next feat he doesn't even want to be there anymore, half-jokingly says that "we could do it with our hands tied behind our backs" to encourage Clawd and Manny but the host takes this as recommendation and does exactly that to them

The next time he is seen, he looks like shit, with a broken or sprained foot and using a medical crutch and a bruised right eye. He slips on garbage, catches fire and accidentally throws Manny and Clawd on top of him, with this he says "I should be used to this by now".

He looks surprised and confused at the host of the show, I repeat again that he doesn't want to participate anymore; Manny helps him get up btw

The next time he is seen is in the last feat, they were going to be the first to complete it until Howleen refunds (?) the wish. He was excited to be the first to win (this time they are seen they’re no longer hurt)

When they fall they end up in Monster High again, since they were shown to be almost in the middle of the ocean or something similar

He’s seen again at the party

Spectra asks them how the show went and like little assholes they lie that it wasn't a problem, Heath specifically says that "I fell asleep for most of it". Although when they see the light that illuminated them throughout the competition, they hide again

Frights camera action:

He went to the movies with Hoodude (and Jackson I think)

He likes the protagonist of the movie hehe. When Draculaura stops to complain about the movie, Heath tells her to sit down because it's blocking his view.

Jackson gets worried when Heath sets himself on fire for saying he likes the star of the movie lmao

He doesn't seem very interested in hearing Draculaura tell the story of vampire royalty and is currently leading the way along with Clawd and Gil

When Hoodude falls it hurts Heath, this is interesting because it indicates that Hoodude must have something from Heath (I discard the idea that it was because he was closer to him, since the girls were closer to Hoodude). Heath doesn't get mad at him anyway

The next time he appears he is waving goodbye to Draculaura from the balcony along with the rest of her friends who didn't go with her

I guess when Hoodude leaves he returns what he had from Heath; or before it directly hurt only Heath for comedy factor

He's at the opening of the second movie (In universe)!! I think he was supposed to go and see it with Abbey (he's mad that Abbey sat with an actor)

Freaky fusion:

He appears the first time at minute 53 how do you feel about that huh

He’s watching this uh theatre show, greets Frankie happily

btw his hair is on fire during the whole scene

He gets scared when this monster of Victor appears alongside the rest

HES FLABBERGHASTED??? HE THOUGHT THE MONSTER WAS PART OF THE SHOW, I???

Just when something gets thrown at his head is that he runs away and his hair burns off

He’s the first one to think "save frankie??". then he does say "lets save frankie"

in the last theathre show his fair is on fire again and he is very happy at the history/performance and :3

Haunted:

He went to see the swimming team, apparently he says something to Clawd while they cheer

He celebrates much less than the rest of the group/school

He appears way more excited to cheer on Lagoona

When the opponent's team fails, he celebrate

He’s one of the calmest if nothing is happening

Is he sitting next to Hoodude?

He sat down next to Clawd again, he seems bored

He has Spectra blog notifications turned on

He asks Clawd if the rumor/thing it's true and goes away with Deuce before hearing an answer

He is talking to Manny and Deuce the next time he appears

He almost falls asleep on the stairs with Manny and Deuce, Manny kicks him to get him to listen to him

He kept a 😦 face when he saw the ghostly boat

He disappears I don’t know bro, runned too fast or something

He’s dancing at the end :33

Boo York Boo York:

He likes Catty Noir as an artist! When he hears that she is going to compose another song he tells her that it’s going to be great

HE’S DANCING WITH JINAFIRE IN CATTY'S MONTAGE??????????

He’s in the background talking to Manny

Somehow he found Ghoulia's lab in the catacombs?? Along with Manny

Think that what Ghoulia is doing is a video game, he is playing with whatever progam Ghoulia was using

He is afraid that Professor Rotter will punish him for playing videogames but he doesn't and he ends up giving him a high five lmao

When Ghoulia needs the big screen Heath doesn't interrupt her or anything, he seems worried until Ghoulia plays the piano, where he starts to dance a little bit

When the meteorite is about to fall, he has a confused and worried face

Celebrates because Ghoulia made it

HE’S DANCING AT THE END

HE’S DANCING ABOVE A TABLE WITH CLAWD AND MANNY???? Supporting Astranova (this is at the very end)

Great scarrier reef:

HE’S PLAYING CASKETBALL WITH DEUCE :3

He looks worried at Lagoona :(

He was talking to Slo Mo and a mantis kid when Lagoona takes the phone from him, says "hey wait!" When she takes it and Heath then seems to complain

He's dancing with Clawd hehe

HE’S CHASING CLAWD??? I think they were playing something with throwing the stick?? Since Clawd was running with a stick in his mouth

Then he was talking to Clawd while they were eating the cupcakes.

HE SEEMS HAPPY WHEN LAGOONA SAYS HE DISINVITED TORALEI, he is literally the only one happy in this lmaooo

Eating the cupcakes with Clawd when Toralei and Lagoona start fighting, he seems excited at the idea of them fighting with each other.

He got more worried because he dropped a cupcake lol

Helps so they don't all fall into the whirlwind, surely he did it desperate since he's lying grabbing Abbey's legs

He has a 😥 face when the girls fall into the whirlwind

He’s having lunch with Clawd when the Kraken comes to school, he had already finished lunch. He’s confused when he sees the Kraken

Has no problem fighting someone when the ghouls ask him to

Says "she doesn't look so tough haha" when Cala appears, but he gets scared when he sees the Kraken and runs

Helps or wants to help in the plan

Does not appear after??? I don't know what he was supposed to do????

HES SLIDIN’ DOWN ONE OF THE KRAKEN ARMS AT THE POOL PARTY

He’s dancing later hehe

Lost Movie

Apparently the first time he would appear he would be talking to Clawd and Deuce

Comics

Hopes and Screams

the first thing that appears about him is "Heath is a good-hearted boy, but he is very clumsy and irresponsible, and always tends to cause chaos when things get a little heated"

He’s helping/supporting Clawdeen with her trendy monster segment at Monster High :3

How can I explain that he only wanted to dress fashionable to impress Abbey, BY THE WAY WHEN ABBEY APPEARS, HE GETS EXCITED AND STARTS BURNING THE POSTER BY ACCIDENT, but just a little bit

Funnily enough, these comics is the only time Heath wears another outfit outside of the circus and beach episodes and the happy 2014 one I think, he's always in his school jacket

BTW, he asks Howleen for help with the outfits so Clawdeen puts him on the blog!

This comic makes me angry against Clawdeen by the way, like she tells him he ia a “fashion disaster” AND THAT’S NOT TRUE HE LOOKS GOOD (that or I don’t have a fashion sense at all) AND HEATH REACTS LIKE IN A “:(“ WAY. YOU DONT UNDERSTAND THAT HE TRIED 4 MORE TIMES WITH DIFFERENT OUTFITS EACH TIME

“I don't want to have this kind of rejection Howleen!” AUAUUAGHHHHHH By the way he's having some soda I guess with Howleeen at I guess where Clawdeeen leaves the clothes

HE DOESN’T LIKE THAT OTHER PEOPLE KNOW THAT HE LIKES ABBEY LIKE NOT IN A ANGRY WAY BUT IN A AWKNARD WAY

IN FACT, IT GIVES HIM SO MUCH SHAME THAT HE CATCHES ON FIRE,

On top of that, obviously, later he's upset because what they were drinking I don't know what the hell it is but it was something thick and green and everything stuck to him and his clothes

YOU UNDERSTAND THAT HOWLEEN LOCKS HIM IN A LOCKER SO THEY CAN'T SEE HIM AND HEATH HAS TO YELL AT HER THAT HE'S CLAUTROPHOBIC AND SHE LEAVES HIM THERE AND he IS OBVIOUSLY ANGRY

"You and Heath should stay away from fashion for a while!" SHUT UP CLAWDEEN SHUT UP I BEG YOU

ABOVE THAT WHEN HEATH LEAVES THE LOCKER HE IS SO WORRIED

OVER LITERALLY EVERYTHING I JUST SAID, HE JUST DID ALL OF THIS TO IMPRESS ABBEY AND WHEN HE COMES OUT AND GOES TO TALK TO HER HE IS LIKE “hehe do you like my outfit?” AND ABBEY IS JUST LIKE "Heath, you're wearing the same thing as everyone else" AND LITERALLY HE’S JUST LIKE "UH??? EH??? WHAT"

At the end Clawdeen actually gives him a spot on the fashion blog

In the end he goes out with Abbey

Also appears in “These Boots were made for Rolling”, the story centered on Robecca

Why the fuck the skating team don't wear a uniform, how the hell do people know they're on the same team, dude???

He is surprised with the skates that the zombies have, saying "I can't believe I'm actually jealous of zombie's moves!"

Says that in general the school team should buy new skates because the ones they have are falling apart.

He goes “:0 :(“ when the zombies are so fast that they beat them before they even leave the starting line lol

They have a fair to earn money to buy the skates, and Heath asks Draculaura if she didn't make any of the food, and Draculaura replies “you put a spell on someone once and they mark you for life!” DRACULAURA??? DID YOU PUT A SPELL ON HEATH OR ANOTHER RANDOM???

SAYS THE PHRASE “with our player’s HOT skills and these scary-cool new skates, we can’t lose!” As a mean of cheering on the team/Rochelle

Spoilers! The gargoyle passes them and automatically his reaction is to go to catch up with him.

Robecca hits him

He obviously helps carry Robecca off the track after they crash with Rochelle's help, he gives her a worried look when Robecca half-snaps out of his grip and leaves all frustrated.

Apparently what happens is that a part of Robecca's boots/legs/skates broke and to buy a replacement it cost A LOT, and Heath stays as “:0” when he sees how much it cost but more worried. When Clawd proposes to sell the new skates to pay for Robecca's replacement, Heath thinks it's a great idea.

He’s literally like this “:D” When Robecca gets really happy and auaughsi

I Only Have Eye For You

In a Flashback it is shown that he went to the beach with Slo-Mo and Gil and they were playing Frisbee :3 (He accidentally hits Slo-Mo and apologizes) (End flashabsck)

Goes to greet Abbey and asks her what she is doing. he literally just wanted to spend some time with Abbey, he makes a joke and Abbey, who is busy, tells him that she doesn't have time right now (completely understandable) and Heaths stays like "wow, I don't understand women"

I swear that this kid has autism (Like me!)

I don't know how to explain it but, in the 3 panels between when Abbey leaves and Manny and Gil come to talk to him, he changes his mood three times, first he is “:(” because Abbey doesn't want to spend time with him, then he goes like “heeeyy guys how ya’ doin’” like super confident in himself, and then he's back :( when he notices the thingy is in his head

"It would be pathetic if I'm the only one that no girl asks him to the dance!" Spoiler, no one invited him yet, followed by "No way, I'm a loser!" when Manny and Gil tell him they've already been invited

He REALLY wants Abbey to invite him or something, on top of that he says "The only thing that would make her invite me is if I were as cute as these things are" (My life noooo :( ) And with that he has the idea of making himself cute as those thingies by changing his minds with one

The machine tickles lol. I hadn't noticed before, but as he transforms into this thing I guess he gets excited, because his eyes go blank like when he catches on fire

While Heath is literally transformed, he just wants to give hugs and kisses to his friends <3. HIS PUPILS ARE A HEART OH MY GOD

He kisses Manny and Gil on the forehead, who respond with "How humiliating!" and “Uuuhhhggg”

When he notices Abbey he goes to give a kissy too, but immediately stop when Abbey tells him to sit. Then they go to revert Heath back to normal

He gives Ghoulia a little kiss on the forehead when they are going to return him to normal <3

Automatically apologizes to Ghoulia, telling a joke when Ghoulia tells him that she should put up a security system.

When Ghoulia leaves, Heath asks Abbey how she knew it was him, and Abbey tells her that she knows how to recognize monsters by the kindness they have (auaughh <3)

Abbey ends up inviting him to the party!!

Later (or before???) when he is seen with Clawd, Heath is just accompanying him, Clawd asks him if he saw the tickets he just had and Heath tells him that "no idea, didn't pay attention to that" (he’s just like me…)

when Clawd doesn't have the reservation he had put, Clawd asks Heath if he's being pranked or something, and Heath quite defensively tells him "don't blame us (me) for the fact that you forgot today"

When Clawd leaves angrily Heath says "Luckily his howl is stronger than his bite!" but I don't know if it's like a wish or if it's an affirmation

HE DID NOT EVEN PUT ON A SUIT, HE WENT WITH THE SAME SHIRT HE ALWAYS WEARS

when Valentine comes in and says what he's been doing (which was helping everyone but things went wrong for him) Heath is upset but not directly angry at him, I don't know, like, literally 2 panels later he's really happy so

“And I kissed everyone!” Yeah Heath, yeah

He is one of the first to support Valentine telling him that they will be his friends

I THINK, I THINK HEATH TELLS VALENTINE ABOUT "Rest assured that we are all enjoying this, everything worked out in the end" Since he is the last one he spoke to and it does not appear on the panel so

Who Are The Fright-Mares?

I mean, technically he appears because he’s where Flara Blaze comes from, one of these centaurs combined with a random monster nightmare, that she just comes from Heath's nightmares, which I don't even know how to take because she is represented as super chaotic because she likes to be, saying that this is how she represents the element of fire, but Heath isn't chaotic because he likes to be, he is unintentionally chaotic. On top of that, Flara actively gives him bad dreams if it seems funny to her at the moment

Videogames

Monster High: Ghoul Spirit

Omg heath hi, he is standing next to a locker

Clawdeen asks you to meet Heath (the kid has been standing in the middle of the hall for about an hour) saying that he has a plan to distract Mr.Where

Apparently they also ask you to get Clawd's cell number from Heath lol

Obviously he flirts with you when you ask him for the phone number

HIS PLAN IS TO LIGHT SOMETHING ON FIRE SO THE FIRE SPRINKLERS WILL START WORKING??

I think he does that I'm assuming, it's not like the game is very understandable anyway

Apparently Heath has a hair curler lol

Ok maybe I got lost because I was like 1 hour without paying attention to the lore of this game but, Heath is helping Draculaura :3

I think it’s cute that Heath specifically knows Clawd's favorite color

HE IS JUST STANDING THERE IN THE FINAL SCENE

Monster High: Skultimate Roller Maze

YOU CAN PLAY AS HEATH

COCKY ASS “After I win- You want me to autograph your skates?”

“Of course! The Heathster is the only choice!” when you pick him

Monster High: 13 Wishes.

Doesnt appear

Monster High: New Ghoul in School

The first time he appears he’s at the robotics club, He has shown that he has mechanical skills before (the kid repaired a whole car) but I don't know, maybe he helps to make the external type parts of the robots

When the robot's legs light up, he says “Aw Man, that's so scary-cool!”

IN THE DAY IN THE Level 1 west hall HE IS DANCING WITH HOLT

HEATH SPENDS HIS LUCH TIME TALKING WITH MANNY AND CLAWD

You understand that Heath would rather be in a robotics club with Clawd, Robecca and Catty than be playing CasketBall (something we know he likes to do) with Deuce, Manny and Slo-Mo???

On top of that, he is super interested in the subject

Basically he is more in the robotics club to learn than anything else, at least on the subject of how a robot works, maybe he would say something more if the one who makes the videos spoke to him outside of the missions but hey what do I know

He doesn't seem so enthusiastic when they finally finish the robot, since the robots has to learn things from scratch, and I suppose that half disappoints his expectations??? Idk, Heath seems way more serious in this game than in any other content from G1

Or is he talking to Skellita, Sirena and Manny in the foyer?????? DOES NOT SUPPORT MANNY WITH HIS STUPID JOKE

After talking with them he goes back to dancing with Holt

Now that the robot does speak, he seems much more excited.

OOOOH THEY WERE NOT A CLUB, IT WAS LIKE A PROJECT FOR SCHOOL???? SINCE ROBECCA MENTIONS THAT EVERYONE WILL GET AN A WITH THIS PROJECT

HE IS AT THE AUDITORIUM?? LOL??? Ok I know it's for one of the missions from Elissabat. Is to see as a solo performance of Elissabat that Heath goes to the auditorium. When she finishes giving his mini speech Heath goes to Elissabat to tell her that it was really good and that for him these issues (Reason for existing and life itself) are important issues for him too

DISSAPEARED AFTER HE SAID THAT?? BRO THIS GAME

I don't know if Heath is cursed (the plot of the game) or not when they're in the meeting since he doesn't appear, or if it's because the writers didn't care about him, lol

HE DOESN'T EVEN APPEAR IN THE FINAL SCENE???? HELLO???

#remd original #monster high #heath burns #long post #i am so fuxking autistix for this #this has more information than the entire wiki i think #also i left out 2 interactions he has with his friend group

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achairwithapandaonit · 6 months

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20 questions for writers

tagged by @aobawilliams ! (thank you!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44 (that's a lot!)

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 212,262

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I've written for quite a lot of fandoms but I think currently I'm only writing for One Piece and Black Butler. I used to write quite a bit for my hero academia, but the hyperfixation passed a long time ago. And I think no matter how much time passes I'll always be up for writing for detective conan/magic kaito.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Villain? Gamer? Why not both? (4803 kudos)

Shouta's Guide to House-training Two Idiots (2178 kudos)

Two Weeks (1191 kudos)

Accidental Kidnappings and Semi-purposeful Hostage Situations (1084 kudos)

The Wake-up Call (1082 kudos)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to, but I don't anymore. I can take things very personally and I'd posted a fic where someone didn't agree with my characterisation of one of the characters and told me this in the comments. I didn't take it well and argued with them, and now that kind of embarrasses me (though, tbh I'd be embarrassed myself if I commented on someone's fic without being asked for feedback in a way that was critical to their approach to a character. Sometimes fanfic just isn't for you and you should leave others alone and let them do their thing).

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

it's probably The Stranger (Mob Psycho 100 fic)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hmmm i mean, the thing is, my fics rarely end. so i don't really know...

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got a proper hate comment once. it was really funny. they didn't mention anything critical of my writing and just told me it was shit and that i'm too old to write like that (i doubt they knew hold old i am?? i don't put my age online anymore). i assume i made them mad on tumblr so they decided to try and make my day bad?? but i just found it funny.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. Sometimes I think it would be fun to write smut just to try something new but then I realise I don't enjoy writing about sex and don't have any ideas unless they're funny crack treated seriously ones.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

@aobawilliams and I have a shared bnha/detective conan crossover we were planning to write maybe a couple years agonow. we never got round to it tho cause aha writing hard :')

i did have a dream where ciel phantomhive got yeeted into the one piece world tho and that was fun. only problem is i think it'd be VERY hard to write something like that. very funny tho. he would hate every second of his forced one piece holiday

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think I've had a couple people pop up in dms to ask to translate my fics before. I've never seen the supposed translated fics tho (not that I'd be able to read them).

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

aoba and I have several co-owned wips that likely won't ever see the light of day cause writing is hard and we are very very tired.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I don't really have a favourite. I just have ones I think are funny or interesting to explore.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

ughhh too many. idek.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told my character dialogue is quite good?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Actually having to write ):

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don't really like it cause I have no idea what's being said and am too lazy to look up a translation, but to each their own.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I have this very old very embarrassing memory of writing tsubasa chronicle/tokyo babylon crossover fanfic for my english class homework as an 11 or 12 year old. i think they got ice cream.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I'm not sure. Maybe The Ceiling of the World (black butler) just cause I've wanted to write black butler fanfic for years and never finished any other wip. Otherwise it'd probably be one of the bnha wips I never finished (there was this time travel one that made me go insane. now that I'm thinking about it I REALLY need to finish it) and uploaded or Permanent Membership Guaranteed (bnha)

not tagging anyone but if u want you can take this as a go ahead to do it.

#tag game

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exit-path · 1 year

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Tumblr Post Compilation: A Masterpost

First of all, let me tell you what you're about to see.

This is a list of 118 "funny tumblr posts" taken from YouTube compilations in 2016. I tracked down all these posts on tumblr myself in Nov 2021. The post is broken up into two parts, and is available under the cut. Each of the links is named after a snippet from the actual post (effectively the "punchline"), and clicking on it brings up the full post, which you can reblog and interact with.

These posts are nostalgic to me because I watched these YouTube compilations before I came to tumblr. I recommend you scroll through these posts, as they bring up a form of humor that's rarely seen today which, I think, has almost been lost to time. Also, if you want to learn how to do this, there's some insight as to how I did this at the end of the post.

(This masterpost is a revision of this post, necessitated because the hyperlinks don't work anymore.)

1. outrageously angry man returning a lawnmower and it was our dad

2. Italian exchange student said “Look, the compressed horse.”

3. “im eminem!” “and I’m skittles?”

4. I JUST MISTOOK ANOTHER STUDENT FOR A TRASH CAN

5. he ate the reeses cup then stabbed himself with the epipen

6. “GODDAMMIT, MR. NOODLE.”

7. school on lockdown because someone put weed in the vents

8. Can’t cheat with those big ass galaxy phones

9. weirdly self-conscious about wiper blade speed

10. My brother told me not to slam the door and yell “Guess who’s home, motherfuckers”

11. drove by traffic camera 6 times thinking it was funny

12. drill sergeant made kid carry around potted plant to replace the oxygen he wasted

13. A list of things that do not offend people:

14. kid grabbed seagull out of air, all his friends were like “again tyrone?? really??”

15. “LOWERCASE LETTERS ARE FOR THE LOWER CLASS”

16. drunk man proposes to tree, gets rejected

17. “i’m on my way, the traffic is just slow, i’m coming” “mom i called the house phone”

18. a kid’s phone started siri, TEACHER STARTED EXPLAINING IT AGAIN

19. “watch my stuff” what if someone comes and actually tries to steal it

20. our goats think that now whenever they pee they get a treat

21. “it’s for your own good”, mom deleted the internet explorer icon from my desktop

22. a girl called me a lying slut because I was with her bf a lot. we’re siblings

23. I watched an old couple set off their car alarm and drive away… now that i think about it-

24. Rules to learning English: their our know rules

25. a kid got expelled for pretending to be russian for 8 months

26. a girl said she had two moms and a boy started crying, he said it wasn’t fair she had two

27. when a girl changes her clothes in front of you, she hasn’t spotted you in the tree yet

28. my mom is telling me “get a good job” but my heart is telling me “marry rich”

29. my parents split after they made me. i am a volcano. follow for more geological humour

30. I’m saying “excuse me” but I really mean “why the fu-”

31. nun goes “I’m allowed to look at the menu I just can’t order”

32. Hospitals are so weird

33. handed their BLIND SON a menu and he’s like “ah… thank you… I’ll just… read this”

34. on April Fool’s his mom called to say she was in labour, dad laughed and hung up on her

35. “why do I fear bears? because Chester Zoo is 30 miles away and bears can smell fear”

36. dropped her ipad but held tight to her pizza

37. her parents faked a british accent in front of her until she was 7

38. really religious girl who told people off if they swore, gets sworn at

39. he took her to the supermarket to watch the lobsters fighting in the lobster tank

40. so i was the official shia labeouf myspace but i was in fact a 12 yr old canadian kid

41. subway thief told suitcase has “a bunch of laptops” ends up stealing a dead dog

42. “I guess working in fast food just wasn’t my cup of tea”

43. I waited until the professor handed back the papers and angrily asked where mine was

44. so i started trying to kill classmates with my mind

45. my favorite thing is ask 14/15 year old kids on dates if they want a kids menu

46. I blacked out in Disney World, woke up with Mickey Mouse putting a cold towel on me

47. “wanna date me? yes: smile no: backflip” and she did a backflip

48. “do you wanna kiss” “excuse me” he pulled out a bag of hershey’s kisses

49. when beyoncé asked all the single ladies to put their hands up I looked at my bf and

50. 7th grade, his world of warcraft friends threw him a virtual birthday party

51. “she’s the bro and y’all bitches are the hoes”

#exit talks #tumblr culture

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akallabeth-joie · 1 year

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Les Mis 1.2.2

Following up from Pilf’s post, because clothing is the topic I have stuff to say about. [Also the rest of the action feels very natural follow ups from the previous 15 chapters: the people and house we met in 1.1.1-14 are about to encounter the guy having an awful day in 1.2.1, and this is Hugo’s set up for that.]

Caveat: my main research area is the mid-19th century (right around the time Hugo was finishing Les Mis, not the years it is set), and my working language is English. The US in 1860 is not France in 1815-1832, but I think some elements here do transfer over, or at least offer insight into how Hugo’s readers might have interpreted the text.

Main observations re: Baptistine Myriel’s clothing:

9 years is a very long time for a dress in active use. Washing and non-washing dresses will have different trajectories, but in contemporary non-fiction, making a silk dress last 7 years is a feat of clever planning and care. Five years is noteworthy. One to two years is more typical, and 3 months isn’t necessarily a frivolous waste (wearing a silk dress only once would be). Much like with the soup thing, the Myriel household is taking ‘practicing good economy’ to an extreme, almost absurd degree.

Also, the fact that Mlle Baptistine is still wearing her silk dress “in the style of 1806″ in 1815 is notably weird. Fiction and non-fiction sources of the 1850s/60s show economically-minded women remodeling their silks every season in order to keep up to date. Magazine articles give instructions for turning last year’s flounced skirts into gored ones, or adding puffed overskirts to update narrow gored skirts. Advice books recommend getting an extra yard or two of fabric so that you can update the sleeves of your dress when it’s taken apart for washing. Trousseaus should have some of the dresses left “unmade” (as lengths of fabrics) in case fashions change over the year. A missionary woman writing from not-yet-Seattle in the mid-1850s opines that the dresses she made for her wedding less than a year earlier are too “rusty” to be worn at home (in New York) but are sufficient for living in the woods.

So my impression of Baptistine is that she’s meant to be The Superlatively Economical gentlewoman, and also Not At All Vain About Clothes. She’s not spending her time or money on fashion, but the fact that she is still bothering to wear a silk gown for dinner is signalling that she’s still performing (her class’s) respectability. From this, and her letter about re-doing her room, I expect that her whole wardrobe and all the house’s domestic interiors are scrupulously clean and mended, but also old and likely inharmonious. The two women will do the work to live respectably, but will not spend any unnecessary money on their own comfort or aesthetics.

Hugo taking the trouble to describe Baptistine’s dress (”short waist, a narrow, sheath-like skirt, puffed sleeves, with flaps and buttons”) just reminds me of how much crinoline-era Victorians do not like the Neoclassical look. All of these specific elements are basically the opposite of early 1860s fashion--waists are worn just at/above the natural waist, skirts are about as wide as they can get, more fitted coat sleeves are replacing the wide-open sleeves of the late 1850s. It’s a bit different from how most modern folks seem to view the 1810s style (Austen! Romance! Bridgerton?): I’ll need to dig through my notes, but there’s at least one 1850/60s cartoon and one article I recall which amount to ‘yikes, the fashions of 50 years ago were awful’, and another article from the late 1860s which holds that the crinoline is a great improvement on the raised-waistline silhouette. I think we all prefer to ignore the weirdness of the c.1865-9 Second Empire style, but there were absolutely pairing high waistlines with fitted sleeves and trained skirts over elliptical or half-hoops (transitioning from the rounder cages of the late 1850s and early 1860s into the bustles of the early 1870s).

#Les Miserables #1.2.2 #les mis letters #overthinking it #I have a long-running research project on just how long people expected clothing to last in the period 1855-1865 #it's pretty fragmentary still #but the 1870s-1890s sources will give you exact timetables of what you should buy and when to maintain a ladylike wardrobe on a budget #most run a 3-year cycle in which you buy the highest quality fabric you can #remake your old best garments to be your next year's second-best #and rotate items seasonally #even so you're looking at a quality winter coat is used three years as the longest-lived garment #bonnets get retrimmed for each season and put away when the weather turns #dresses do one or two seasons before you put them away then get refreshed when they're agian in season and discarded or remade after that

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alittlefrenchtree · 3 months

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Get to know Me!

I'm a bit late but I've been tagged by @lfg1986-2 and @meraki-yao. Thank you, lovely people, for giving me a chance to talk about me (my favorite subject 🤓) 💜

Part 1:

Last song: Spotify says Lips on you - Maroon 5

Last film: High Strung, sadly 🥶

Currently reading:

Books : A biography of George Villiers and a French novel called Le dit du Mistral by Olivier Mak-Bouchard.

Fanfic : just starting the poem you make of me

Currently watching: a twitch stream on Lethal Company

Currently consuming: there is half a cup of cold black ‘winter granola’ tea to my right.

Currently craving: for old straight white men to do their job and do it correctly. And a rwrb sequel. And 3 to 5 post-canon fics in which Henry is forced to become King and he has to navigate his relationship with Alex at the same time.

Part 2:

1. Were you named after anyone? I don’t think so. I should have been named something else but friends of my parents had a child before I was born and named it that way so they changed their mind for me.

2. When was the last time you cried? Every time Alex and/or Henry is/are even slightly unhappy in a fic these days, so all the fucking time.

3. Do you have kids? I’ve adopted a 22-year-old Timothée Chalamet back in 2018 who has giving me enough headaches since then to feel legitimate to call myself a parent. (No, and I don’t want any).

4. What sports do you play/have you played? I’ve played basketball for 7 years between 7 and 14. And Muggle Quidditch a few times as an adult 🤓

5. Do you use sarcasm? In French, all the time. In English, it’s more delicate.

6. What’s the first thing people notice about you? How terrifying I am.

7. What’s your eye color? Brown

8. Scary movies or happy endings? I still don’t get the point of most scary movies so I’m going to go with happy endings for now (ugh). But one day, I’ll understand scary movies. That the only thing about cinema that remains mysterious to me.

9. Any talents? Being terrifying. I can write. And cook ok.

10. Where were you born? Val-de-Marne, France. (Stayed there less than a week)

11. What are your hobbies? Reading. Writing. Playing video games. Watching people play video games. Watching tennis. Spending too much time on Tumblr.

12. Do you have any pets? My family has a cat who answers to no authority but mine (sometimes)

13. How tall are you? 159cm which apparently means 5’2” (I’m pocket sized)

14. Favorite subject in school? Depends on the year I guess. In middle school/junior high probably Maths, Biology and Sports.

In High School probably Biology but then I kind of dropped it so German class because I was good at it at the time (I forgot everything tho) Literature and the idea of Philosophy.

In college— I took a course where the thing to do was writing profiles and I love it so much it has kind of floated as a possible career for a while. Still does sometimes. I also took a course in a psychology department about social psychology I liked a lot. I had a lot of courses I liked actually but I remember more about the professors than the actual subject.

15. Dream job? A writer living in Paris? Not in Paris actually, but I’m a basic bitch and and writing is like breathing to me.

Thank you again 🩷

#about me

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jonghyuns-husband · 1 year

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(CW // Dec 18th, suicide, victims of harassment, violence, mental health talk)

Since I want to spread this hashtag more, I would like to talk about the Shawols that I lost over the years and bring their voices up.

Clem was a friend I met on Wattpad back in 2015 when I was 11 and she was 14. She was one of the closest and the first online friend I’ve ever had. She loved to make SHINee stories for fun and she also helped me to write better. She was an amazing writer who took great passion for her work as well as her being a big advocate for the LGBTQ+ community according to her sister who came out as lesbian a year before we met.

Unfortunately, Clem was bullied at her college and her workplace, including on her online accounts. This would occur about 1-2 month after the death has been announced. On the 15th of December 2018, 3 days after Jonghyun’s first anniversary, she couldn’t take it anymore and took her own life. She was 17.

Sam was a girl in the secondary school who was 2 years older than me. I remembered talking to her once and that was it. She also really loved Jonghyun and Onew and was a BIG fan of the group.

One day, she stopped coming to class. There was a rumour going around saying that Sam took her own life after being hate bombed for posting about Jonghyun positively to cope with the pain. The last time she was in class, a guy mentioned his passing without warning which triggered the girl to stand up and leave. Ever since then, she was never seen again. The guy thought that it was his fault, but it turned out that she was going through a lot recently and couldn’t take it anymore. If it was true, then she died on the 9th of January 2018 aged 16 years old.

Ayami was a close friend of mine since Year 1. Interesting fact, she was actually born in Japan and then came to the UK when she was only 4. That summer, she enrolled in my school where we met on the first day. She didn’t speak much English, but luckily I knew a bit of Japanese so we were able to have a connection together. She was a sweet girl that would look out of anyone who looked like that needed help. She even loved to cook and wanted to start her own sweet shop one day where she would make sweet treats such as cakes, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, etc. Fun fact, my blog @yutassweetshop is actually based on her childhood dream and yes NCT bias was also Yuta! It’s a sweet (no pun intended) tribute to the one I called noona, and yes I’ll never stop calling her that until the day I die. Never mind, she’ll still be my noona anyways.

Although yes she had been harassed around his passing when we went to school together, there were other stuff in her life that really pulled the trigger on her head. I could make a separate post talking about Ayami and what she had went through so you would know, but to keep it simple, her father did some horrible things to her as a kid that when she found out, she took her own life out of fear. She was 14.

The reason why I mentioned her was the fact that Jonghyun’s passing was one of the chain of events she had to go through in her life, and you never truly know what someone has gone through already. Even though she didn’t die over it, that still doesn’t make it ok regardless. It’s still an awful thing to do to someone who is grieving by acting like they are complete strangers and treating them like they had never once seen the man before.

Those 3 girls didn’t took their lives because they were obsessive fans, they died because they were HARASSED to suicide. I know a friend’s friend who was also a blinger that took her own life and her family thought it was because she was sad over the passing of Jonghyun. That wasn’t what happened. She was beaten up at school and was told to kill herself ever since she came back from the Christmas holidays. She ended up doing so in her room and she was so close to celebrating her 16th birthday. It was the same as Jonghyun’s. She took her own life 2 days before at age 15.

There were some people in my cousins’ lives that killed themselves too, but I don’t know them very much, but all of them will be missed. Any Shawols that I’ve missed, please leave their names below and tell me one thing you loved about them. You can even talk about their favourite song or albums.

This tormenting K-Pop fans thing needs to stop. I don’t care if you think teenage girls screaming about their BTS biases are cringe, this needs to end. It’s not funny anymore and it’s claiming lives. I could of lost my friend that I met last year just because of the dumb messages of them saying that he was disrespecting a “deadman.” It just seems so tone deaf that really, they’re actually doing the disrespecting and not him.

This is already a difficult month for all of us and I just beg, PLEASE DO NOT HARASS ANY SHAWOLS. Not just in this month where it’s his anniversary, but WHOLE FUCKING YEAR. Please treat us like human beings and stop making us change for someone who barely even knows about the guy until the news broke and now you want to be the fucking hero when you’re not.

Why don’t you do all of us a favour and just fuck off. I’m sure most of us would want that now. This is why some Shawols like me haven’t yet stopped grieving because of how badly people treated us over the years. It has been 5 years, instead of telling us to “let him rest in peace”, how about you let us “grief in peace.”

It’s like what they say, “don’t give his family condolences if you aren’t going to respect his fans.”

Never mind, I did.

Rest in peace to Clem, Sam, Ayami and everyone else who took their lives due to these kinds of people either in real life or online. Rest in peace to the main guy himself, Kim Jonghyun. Thank you so much for taking care of those lost souls for us. Trust me, this was never your fault. Don’t ever blame yourself for any of this. Disgusting pricks like them (the people who harasses Shawols) has always existed since the beginning of time.

Please don’t cry because of the Shawols that went your route but be happy since you made their dreams come true.

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fireliit · 9 months

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LOGAN, THIRTY-ONE, CST; SHE/THEY. | if you’re hearing I MAKE MY OWN SUNSHINE by ALYSSA BONAGURA playing, you have to know SEONHO JONES (HE/HIM; CIS MAN) is near by! the TWENTY-SIX year old GIG WORKER (MULTIPLE JOBS) has been in denver for, like, ELEVEN YEARS. they’re known to be quite RESTLESS, but being BUOYANT seems to balance that out. or maybe it’s the fact that they resemble CHA EUNWOO. personally, i’d love to know more about them seeing as how they’ve got those WARM HONEY EYES THAT ARE ALWAYS CRINKLING UNDER THE WEIGHT OF A SMILE, AN ELASTIC HEART THAT ENDURES AGAINST ALL ODDS, A VIBRATING ENERGIZER BUNNY THAT RUNS AROUND IN CIRCLES IN A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO MOVE FORWARD AND IS IN NEED OF REST vibes. and maybe i’ll get my chance if i hang out around the LAKERIDGE DISTRICT long enough!

Full profile under the cut! APPLICABLE TRIGGER WARNINGS: non-descriptive mentions of abandonment, death by brain aneurysm, degenerative cognitive illness, homelessness

STATS Birth Name: Seonho Ryu ( 류선호 ) Legal Name: Seonho Jones Occupation: Uber driver / Maintenance worker at Empower Field / miscellaneous contract/manual work, etc. (if any part-time jobs are available at specific places, please let me know!) Age: Twenty-six Date of Birth: February 28th, 1997 Ethnicity/Race: Korean Gender & Pronouns: Cis man | he/him Orientation: Bisexual Social Class: Lower class Languages: English (fluent), Korean (fluent) Height: 183 cm / 6’0" Tattoo(s): musical notes on his right ankle with ‘keep moving forward’ written next to it, an arrow heart on his chest with birthdates of his family inside, purple and burgundy forget-me-nots on his shoulderblades, korean idiom across his spine which translates roughly to "at the end of hardship comes happiness" (고생 끝에 낙이 온다) Piercing(s): ears (double lobe, double helix, snug, conch), left eyebrow Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri, USA Current Residence: Denver, Colorado, USA Parents: Mina Park-Jones (mother), Jalen Jones (step/adoptive father, deceased), Seongmin Ryu (biological father, absent) Siblings: Unnamed sister (younger sister, wc posted), Unnamed sister (younger sister, wc posted), Sam (younger gnc half sibling, age 17), Hana (younger half sister, age 14), and Melody (younger half sister, age 13) Traits: Buoyant, steadfast, enthusiastic, self-sacrificing, generous, escapist, humble, restless, stubborn MBTI: ENFP - The Campaigner Eanneatype: Type 2 - The Helper Moral Alignment: Neutral Good Temperament: Phlegmatic Intelligence Type: Musical / Intrapersonal Astrology: Pisces sun, Scorpio moon, Leo ascending Habits: Gesturing when speaking, pointing, wears mismatched socks, randomly bursts into song, nicotine addiction (vapes), in general poor self-care habits Hobbies: Listening to music, writing music, producing music, dancing, sending memes, playing musical instruments, scrapbooking, papercrafting Likes: Music, romantic comedies, socializing, sunflower seeds, humming, smiling, cuddling, tteokbokki, adult coloring books, thunderstorms, trying new things even if he’s bad at them Dislikes: Conflict, waking up early, traffic, most academic things, balancing a checkbook / anything financial-related, folding clothes, humidity, being overheated, wasting food, feeling like he’s not doing enough BIOGRAPHY

Seonho was born the eldest child to two immigrant parents, Seongmin Ryu and Mina Park, who moved to the United States of America from South Korea when Mina was pregnant with Seonho after she was disowned by her parents who disapproved of Seongmin. His biological father walked out on Seonho, his mother, and two of his younger siblings when he was five years old and Seonho has always believed that they were better off without him.

After being homeless and hopping between the streets and halfways houses after the abandonment, his mother remarried three years to Seonho’s stepfather, Jalen Jones, who would become the only Dad that Seonho acknowledged in his life. Jalen adopted the three eldest children upon his marriage to Mina and they all took on his last name. Three more children would enter the fold throughout the years.

Early on in his childhood, Seonho fell in love with music thanks to Jalen’s side-gig playing the saxophone in a jazz band. He would sing along to every Disney movie and musical and tried to groove to the beat. While he was initially clumsy on his feet, his mother fondly nicknaming him Bambi, he was determined to learn how to dance. He had a talented ear for music, picking up musical instruments and mastering them with an ease. His parents encouraged his passion as best they could, ensuring that they budgeted well enough to afford sending Seonho to his music lessons. While performing at the city market, he was scouted by a Korean entertainment agency at the age of thirteen.

However, he was still a trainee when he flew back home and prematurely ended his contract due to his stepfather dying suddenly of a ruptured brain aneurysm as a result of overworking. After losing their home to foreclosure, the fragmented family relocated to Denver, Colorado.

As the oldest child, he assumed a great deal of responsibility in the household. While he wanted to drop out of school, his mother insisted that he stay enrolled and graduate. He earned money any way that he could to help keep the household, mowing lawns during the summer and working manual labor in the evenings. Sometimes, he would resort to not-so-legal methods if need be.

His music became all the more dear to him, filling the gaping holes in his chest that were created from his dream continually slipping through his fingers. He could never catch a break after that.

A year before Seonho graduated from high school, his mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. After it came to the point that his mother could no longer properly take care of them or herself, she was admitted into a longterm care facility by order of the municipality. At that point, Seonho was eighteen and filed for guardianship of his siblings who had been sent to foster care, which he would eventually be granted after a months' long battle with the courts. He also became the conservator of his mother’s well-being.

It's been hard, yet Seonho kept going anyway. See, he’s a hopeful guy, despite everything, resilient at his core, and even if it meant that he had to work at least 80 hours a week and juggle too many bills and loans, he was going to do it with a smile.

There have been hard days, of course. Days where he would visit his mother and she would call him by the name of a man best left forgotten.

Seonho insists that he provide for his family and ensure that each of his siblings focus on their studies, graduate from school, and are afforded opportunities that he did not have.

Seonho often distracts himself by throwing himself into helping people as a by-product of measuring his self-worth by what he can do for other people (thanks, capitalism). This makes him a bit of a doormat, yet not a naïve, unaware one. He just has decided it’s not worth ruffling feathers, and he can’t take risks like he otherwise would out of fear of disrupting what little stability he has been able to achieve for his family.

#chq;intro #► — concentrated honey in his smile / seonho jones

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female-malice · 1 year

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Cristian works a construction job instead of going to school. He is 14.

Carolina packages Cheerios at night in a factory. She is 15.

Wander starts looking for day-labor jobs before sunrise. He is 13.

Oscar Lopez, a ninth grader, works overnight at a sawmill in South Dakota. On this day, he skipped school to sleep after a 14-hour shift.

Children being processed by the U.S. Border Patrol in Roma, Texas. In the past two years alone, 250,000 unaccompanied minors have come into the country.

Cristian, 14, has been working in construction in North Miami for two years instead of going to school. Federal law bars minors from a long list of such jobs.

A detention site in the Rio Grande Valley in March 2021. The Biden administration has faced pressure to move unaccompanied children through the system quickly.

Migrant children were among the day laborers who gathered on a school day in Homestead, Fla., to find roofing, landscaping or other work.

A handwritten ledger, in Spanish, of Nery Cutzal’s debts to his sponsor, including money for tacos and clothes. The child owed more than $4,000, plus interest. Court information has been redacted for privacy.

Jose Vasquez, 13, photographed at the church he attends in Grand Rapids, Mich. He works 12-hour shifts, six days a week, at an egg farm outside the city.

A selfie taken by a 17-year-old at a Hearthside facility in Grand Rapids. She said older men at the factory sometimes harassed her.

From left: Oscar Nambo Dominguez, 16, was crushed last year under an earthmover near Atlanta. Edwin Ajacalon, 14, was hit by a car while delivering food on a bike in Brooklyn. Juan Mauricio Ortiz, 15, died on his first day of work for an Alabama roofing company when he fell about 50 feet.

Young workers exited an overnight cleaning shift last October at a JBS pork plant in Worthington, Minn. Their employer, a sanitation company, was later fined for violating child labor laws

Carolina Yoc, back right, worked on math problems after a night shift at a Grand Rapids food plant. The 13-year-old girl sitting next to her said she also worked nights at a factory.

It has been a little more than a year since Carolina left Guatemala, and she has started to make some friends. She and another girl who works at Hearthside have necklaces that fit together, each strung with half a heart. When she has time, she posts selfies online decorated with smiley faces and flowers.

Mostly, though, she keeps to herself. Her teachers do not know many details about her journey to the border. When the topic came up at school recently, Carolina began sobbing and would not say why.

After a week of 17-hour days, she sat at home one night with her aunt and considered her life in the United States. The long nights. The stress about money. “I didn’t have expectations about what life would be like here,” she said, “but it’s not what I imagined.”

She was holding a debit card given to her by a staffing agency, which paid her Hearthside salary this way so she did not have to cash checks. Carolina turned it over and over in her palm as her aunt looked on.

“I know you get sad,” Ms. Ramirez said.

Carolina looked down. She wanted to continue going to school to learn English, but she woke up most mornings with a clenched stomach and kept staying home sick. Some of her ninth grade classmates had already dropped out. The 16-year-old boy she sat next to in math class, Cristian Lopez, had left school to work overtime at Hearthside.

Cristian lived a few minutes away, in a bare two-room apartment he shared with his uncle and 12-year-old sister, Jennifer.

His sister did not go to school either, and they had spent the day bickering in their room. Now night had fallen and they were eating Froot Loops for dinner. The heat was off, so they wore winter jackets. In an interview from Guatemala, their mother, Isabel Lopez, cried as she explained that she had tried to join her children in the United States last year but was turned back at the border.

Cristian had given his uncle some of the money he earned making Chewy bars, but his uncle believed it was not enough. He had said he would like Jennifer to start working at the factory as well, and offered to take her to apply himself.

Cristian said he had recently called the H.H.S. hotline. He hoped the government would send someone to check on him and his sister, but he had not heard back. He did not think he would call again.

(continue reading)

#holy shit #cc

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samasmith23 · 11 months

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Evangelion: You Can (Not) Marathon — (Part 8)

Neon Genesis Evangelion, “Episode 8: Asuka Arrives in Japan/ASUKA STRIKES!”

Continuing my Evangelion re-watch marathon with NGE, "Episode 8: Asuka Arrives in Japan/ASUKA STRIKES!" For my thoughts on the previous episode, click the link to the post below:

With that out of the way, let's dig in! And I'm looking forward to revisiting this episode since it introduces the character of Asuka, who was my best friend's personal favorite character in all of fictional media when I first met her back in university!

Considering what the specific contents of Gendo’s shipment are revealed to be by the end of the episode, why do I have the feeling that he’s lying when discussing having “already made the arrangements with the [Human Instrumentality] Committee” to have it shipped to Tokyo-3?

Lol! Kensuke truly is the embodiment of the stereotypical military otaku given both his earlier cosplaying as a soldier back in Episode 4, and his current geeking-out over the site of the United Nation’s fleet of aircraft carriers! What a dork!

And he acts like this throughout the entire episode BTW, even during the middle of an Angel attack!

Also, while it was certainly a thoughtful gesture of Misato to take Shinji’s classmates on basically a site-seeing tour of the Pacific Ocean given how confined their lives in the post-apocalyptic Tokyo mountain terrain must be, I’m curious if she got military clearance to bring two civilian minors on board a military aircraft carrier?

And here she is! The one and only Asuka Langley Soryu! These introductory shots of Asuka do an incredibly effective job in communicating the major defining aspects of her character through primarily visual cues. The first image of her silhouetted by the blinding sunlight as she looks down at NERV’s helicopter landing in the aircraft carrier’s deck helps informs the viewer that Asuka is an individual who thinks very highly of herself, has a superiority complex and wants to stand tall above everyone else.

These facets of Asuka's character are further communicated through the second shot of her brashly stepping onto Toji’s baseball cap as he frustratingly attempts to get it back on while on his knees. Asuka’s prideful personality is further reinforced through her first lines of dialogue, as she barely gives the struggling Toji beneath her any attention, instead immediately shifting focus to Misato when the latter states how much Asuka’s has grown since she last saw her, replying that, “Not only am I taller, but my figure has filled out as well.” This serves as an early indicator that Asuka wants to perceive herself as a fully-mature adult despite being a 14-year-old teenager just like Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke are. Essentially, Asuka places herself on a pedestal high above her peers, whom she looks down upon as mere “children.”

Anno is definitely a master-class when it comes to conveying important character details through visuals!

Shifting focus away from visual direction for a moment, I want discuss some behind-the-scenes trivia in relation to Asuka's voice actresses from both her original Japanese and English incarnations:

In the original Japanese version, Asuka was voiced by Yuko Miyamura, who has had a very complicated and strained relationship with the character over the past couple of decades. Rather infamously in a 2010 interview with SMASH (one year after the release of the second Rebuild movie, which Miyamura reprised her role for) she stated that, "At one point in time, I thought to myself that I would never act as Asuka again. For a very long time, I wanted to erase Evangelion." While in the interview Miyamura stated that this was largely due to the unwanted amount of fan attention her role as Asuka brought her (to the point where she was unfortunately repeatedly stalked and harassed at several international fan conventions), she later provided additional reasons in the back-up material for Volume 12 of the official Neon Genesis Evangelion manga adaptation by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. According to Miyamura, she found voicing Asuka to be an emotionally painful experience that "was close to bullying, [that] acting the part of Asuka was lots of fun at first," but by the end of the series the character psychologically torn down and denied a happy ending in The End of Evangelion (which is part of why Miyamura said that Anno was "finally an adult" during the production of the final Rebuild movie in 2021 since he finally gave all of his characters, including Asuka, a happy ending). But it was through meeting Asuka's original English VA Tiffany Grant that Miyamura developed a newfound love and appreciation for the character, now viewing her like one of her own daughters (Miyamura is currently a mother of two IRL). Speaking of Tiffany Grant however... her performance is one of the major reasons why the original ADV dub of NGE still holds such a special place in my heart despite its flaws! You can tell that Grant was having an absolute blast in the role since she perfectly nails Asuka’s boastful arrogance and sense of pride through her vocal performance! And Grant herself has openly confirmed this, stating in that aforementioned manga back-up material that, "When I started recording this loud, assertive character who often swore in German, I knew I was having a great time in the role and that it was enjoyable for me as an actor." While I’ve seen a few fans point to Grant’s performance in the old dub as a major turn-off, feeling that it overly emphasizes Asuka’s more rude mannerisms to the point of making her too "mean-spirited" or "unsympathetic" (although to be fair, Asuka is already pretty divisive among fans in general...), I personally felt that Grant’s performance helped make the character all the more memorable and interesting for me. And unlike Miyamura, who's historically had a strained yet improved relationship with Asuka's character, Grant has openly embraced her "'inner Asuka,' [realizing] the many ways that [she] related to this complex, flawed character," since she first voiced the character back in 1998. So much so that she was reportedly deeply heartbroken when she learned that Netflix openly refused to invite her along with the original ADV cast to reprise their roles for the new English dub in 2019.

On the subject of Tiffany Grant's frequent ad-libbing of German words & phrases into Asuka's dialogue, this is one of the more notable creative liberties that the ADV dub took that I honestly feel works to the show’s advantage! Despite the Asuka’s half-Japanese & half-German heritage being another defining aspect of her character, she only spoke a limited amount of German in the original Japanese version due to Miyamura’s knowledge of the language being incredibly limited. Conversely, Grant was already fluent in German as a second language, and therefore decided to swap out several of the original Japanese text with their German equivalents when ADV dubbed the show into English. And I personally feel this additional emphasis on Asuka’s German heritage serves to further flesh her out!

For instance, when Asuka understandably slaps Toji clean across the face after he flashes her in retaliation for slapping him (along with Shinji & Kensuke) when a strong wind briefly exposed her panties to them (the slap was the “viewing fee,” lol!), Grant angrily shouting the German equivalents to “you insolent dork!” or “what the hell do you think your doing?!”, leave a much more memorable impression on the viewer in contrast to the Netflix re-dub, where Asuka’s new VA Stephanie Mckeon instead delivers a more shrill, “How dare you!”

No disrespect to McKeon, as the Netflix re-dub was apparently one of her first voice-acting roles, but the script and direction for the new dub sadly leaves much to be desired…

Also, Toji totally deserved that second slap (and to be cursed at in German) for basically committing an act of sexual harassment. Still, his one-liner of “Here’s your change!”, as a comeback to Asuka’s “viewing fee” line makes me chuckle from a pure word-play perspective. It reminds me of Spidey’s joke during the bank fight with Doc Ock in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man 2!

Also also… dang! Asuka slaps are so powerful that she actually cracked the lens on Kensuke’s video camera with just a single strike! Lol!

Asuka’s first meeting with Shinji is absolutely perfect! I love how she’s so unimpressed, summarizing him as, “Not much to look at.” It honestly gives me a similar vibe to when Kakashi first met Squad 7 in Naruto after he had an eraser fall on his head as part of one of titular character's childish pranks!

I love how Misato initally keeps herself incredibly calm and collected when dealing with the UN Navy Officer’s impatience and intolerance with NERV’s overreaching authority while dealing with the transfer orders for Asuka’s Evangelion Unit-02. Heck, Shinji even compares Misato’s composure and demeanor in this scene to that of Ritsuko, which is quite a contrast to how he’s characterized her as both immature and slobbish in the previous episodes.

It’s also incredibly interesting to see the international politics of this universe at play, as the naval officers are understandably frustrated by the ridiculous amount of military privileges that NERV has been granted. So much so that their authority supersedes that of the UN during times of emergencies (i.e. Angel attacks), even outside of Japan’s national borders and jurisdiction. We saw similar themes at play during the previous episode with the Jet Alone incident, so it's cool to see these ideas further fleshed out in order to make EVA's world feel more alive and authentic!

Sadly though, Misato’s cool-headed professionalism is cut-short by both the UN officer’s increasingly insulting remarks, along with the sudden appearance of her ex-boyfriend Kaji.

Yup, in addition to Asuka, this episode also introduces the character of Ryoji Kaji.

Oh boy, Kaji... Kaji, Kaji, Kaji...

The way I’ve witnessed other people’s perceptions about Kaji's character evolve over the past couple of years has been incredibly fascinating, since a lot of modern EVA fans have admitted to really disliking this character, possibly even more so than FREAKING Gendo "Worst Father Ever!" Ikari! Now I’ll admit that learning about this initially shocked me at first since I personally remembered liking Kaji’s character perfectly alright when I first watched the anime and read the manga. His relaxed & cool demeanor made him significantly stand out in contrast to the rest of the troubled main cast. Additionally Kaji also served multiple important roles in EVA's narrative, ranging from his reemergence into Misato's life serving to graudally push her Elektra Complex back up to the surface, to serving as somewhat of a mentor/surrogate-father figure to Shinji by offering him some seemingly helpful wisdom, to him understandably brushing off Asuka’s childish crush and inappropriate advances towards him as a counter to her unhealthy obsession with wanting to grow-up too fast. Plus, there was that whole intriguing double/triple agent game Kaji was playing between Gendo, SEELE, and the UN. Heck, back when the Internet annoyingly thought it was in-vogue to constantly dismiss Shinji’s character as nothing more than a “whiny b*tch,” I noticed that a lot of these detractors seemed to conversely prefer both Misato and Kaji’s characters (describing Kaji as the least psychologically-damaged of the entire cast). However, I’ve recently discovered that a lot of more modern EVA fans tend to be rather creeped out by Kaji’s womanizing behavior, with some even going as far as to describe him as being borderline to outright predatory, citing two scenes in particular from future episodes which I'll definitely discuss when we eventually get around to them. The critical reevaluations of with womanizing characters from older media are not uncommon, especially in the Post-#MeToo era. We've already seen it with other beloved fictional characters like Han Solo in Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and James Bond throughout his entire filmography, and Kaji is not immune to these criticisms either. Personally speaking, while I do still think that Gendo is a far worse scumbag due to being both a neglectful father to Shinji as well as him openly manipulating female characters like Rei & Ritsuko to fullfill his own selfish-desires (even up to the point of heavily implied sexual abuse), I can definitely understand and even agree with a lot of criticisms directed at Kaji. I will at least argue that Kaji's behavior doesn't come across as creepy in hindsight as Han's or especially Bond's (seriously, there's a scene in Goldfinger that is downright disgusting in just how blatantly misogynistic & homophobic it is...), and that he does have his more noble and redeeming qualities when it comes to his relationships with Misato, Shinji and Asuka.

I love how from the moment Kaji first appears on screen, we start getting hints about his and Misato's past romantic history together! This is evident through not only Misato’s embarrassed reaction upon seeing Kaji in the command deck, but also by them awkwardly playing footsie underneath the barrack tables (implying that they’re physically in synch with each other).

And if that weren’t enough, Kaji drops this bombshell of a question when he learns that Shinji is currently Misato’s roommate, asking him if Misato is "still wild in bed" shortly after asking Misato if she's currently seeing anyone else (which does lead to one of my personal favorite Misato moments ever)!

I've honestly lost count of how many times I've used that quote of Misato's as a reaction gif on Twitter, I love it that much!

As someone who was already pretty invested in Misato's character so far when first viewing the series, this revelation made me want to learn more about Misato's past and what exactly happened between her and Kaji which led to them eventually breaking up. And the answer was certainly one which I was not expecting at the time!

Still though... while the fact that Kaji feels comfortable asking this question to Shinji, who is still 14-years-old, is really inappropriate on his part, it does at least underscore Misato's struggles to form meaningful non-sexual relationships with other people due to both her love/hate relationship with her deceased father, and her stunted childhood development & trauma as a survivor of the Second Impact.

Also, this scene in the barracks gives us some early foreshadowing to not only Asuka's obsessive teen-crush on Kaji given her horrified reaction to his earlier bombshell drop, but also to the mentor-role he'll later provide for Shinji when he rebukes Shinji's downplaying of his EVA piloting experiences as "simply luck," informing him that luck is a talent that will get him far in life. AndShinji can't help but find this to be a somewhat reassuring thought given how incredibly low his self-confidence is...

I love the contrasting impressions that Kaji leaves upon Shinji and Misato respectively. Shinji can't help but find Kaji “pretty interesting” due to his cool-headedness and wisdom, whereas Misato’s angrily replies, “He hasn’t changed at all that chauvinistic pig!”

Lol! Misato's words there are unintentionally reflective of how a lot of modern viewers feel about Kaji’s character nowadays. Also, she'd fit right in with Black Widow & Valkyrie on the classic cover of Avengers (1963) #83!

I love the re-occuring visual motif throughout this episode of Asuka constantly standing on higher ground in contrast to Shinji, as it perfectly plants the seeds for the complicated rivalry and relationship between these two characters. While the opening silhouetted shot of Asuka was incredibly effective in regards to conveying Asuka's inflated ego in relation to everyone else, she sets her sights on proving her alleged "superiority" to Shinji specifically as soon as she learns from Kaji about Shinji's unnaturally high-synchronization ratio with his EVA Unit.

Yup! Asuka definitely took Obi-Wan Kenobi's famous words from Revenge of the Sith to heart!

Also, although she tries to hide it, you can tell that Asuka can't help but perceive this news as a significant challenge to her pride, which leads to her commadering Shinji in the escalator so that she can show off her own EVA Unit to him. I love how she attempts to desperately excuse away his high-synchronization status as the result of a "design flaw" due to EVA Unit's 00 & 01 being test-types while her EVA Unit-02 is a combat-oriented "final production model!" It's mostly implied through body-language and mannerisms, but you can definitely tell that Asuka is overcompensating or trying to mask some hidden insecurities whenever she's attempting to show-off or boast about her skills as an EVA pilot!

I love the contrast in Asuka's reactions when she discovers that the 6th Angel, Gaghiel, is attacking the Pacific Fleet. When she first sees the Angel sink several battleships she gives a sneaky smile and head-turn while in close proximity to Shinji, excitedly proclaiming "Now's my chance," in German. However, when she's alone changing into her plugsuit inside the stairwell, she's a lot more quiet and reserved, whispering to herself, "Let's go... Asuka," inferring that Asuka pilots her EVA not only to prove her talents to others, but to herself as well! Excellent bit of character development and foreshadowing on Anno's part there!

And Asuka immediately deciding to commandeer EVA Unit-02 without asking Misato permission first is another nice touch in emphasizing how far Asuka is willing to go in order to prove herself (although Misato does inevitably approve in a hilariously childish confrontation with the obnoxious admiral)!

Speaking of the plugsuits though, I feel this is a good opportunity to mention how while many other fans have commented on how form-fitting these flight-suits for the EVA pilots are (especially for Rei & Asuka), one thing I only recently just noticed in relation to this fact was how Shinji's plugsuit has these weird rectangular-protrusions which somewhat resemble breast-plates. And considering that this episode also famously has Shinji being forced to wear Asuka's spare Unit-02 plugsuit when she forces him to hop into the Entry-Plug to watch her fight Gaghiel up close, I can't help but wonder if these factors have help contributed to the popular fan-readings of Shinji actually being a closeted trans-femme egg?

Returning to Gaghiel however, I love how in addition to this Angel having a really awesome hybrid design of a white whale, a shark, and a sting-ray, Gaghiel also represents a suspicious change in the Angel's pattern of behavior. Whereas all of the previous Angels directly targeted Tokyo-3 and more specifically the GeoFront and NERV HQ underneath the city, Gaghiel instead appears in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is destroying several battleships in what appears to be a random yet systematically targeted manner, which Misato speculates means that it's actively searching for something. Is it EVA Unit-02 onboard the fleet, or something else entirely? And questions are further raised by Kaji's suspicious behavior, since he not only calls Gendo about this sudden attack, but Gendo sounds like he expected such an occurrence and even shipped "a spare EVA pilot" to support Asuka as backup support (once again reminding me of why I hate Gendo's guts so much as he treats his own son like cannon-fodder)! Also, Kaji fleeing the aircraft-carrier mid attack by hitchhiking a random fighter jet to Misato’s annoyance is an excellent way of allowing the viewer to begin questioning Kaji’s true allegiance…

Additionally, according to Wikipedia "the name Gaghiel (Hebrew: גגיאל), also called Gagiel, Daghiel or Dagiel, in Judeo-Christian folklore is the angel of the fish. Its Hebrew name can be translated as 'roaring beast of God', and has been interpreted by writer Will Raus as a possible allusion to its appearance, which is similar to that of a beast fighting in the water." So this Angel's whale-shark appearance is definitely fitting in that regard!

Also, Misato’s sarcastically condescending, “Hello, NERV delivery! Would you like to order data on this enemy and countermeasures to use against it,” come-back retort towards the rude Navy admiral when Gaghiel begins sinking battleships is absolutely priceless! Allison Kieth is an absolute treasure, and it’s a darn crime that neither she or Tiffany Grant were offered a chance to return for the Netflix re-dub…

Lol! The scene of Asuka scolding Shinji for his "thought-noise" interfering with Unit-02's signal, him hilariously trying and failing to think in German, and Asuka calling him a "dummkopf" before switching the EVA's language patterns to Japanese is yet another iconic gag in this series that NEVER... EVER... gets old!

Holy crap, did I almost forget just how epic and badass Asuka's entry into battle is! There's a reason why these two images of EVA Unit-02 both posing in the tarp on the battleship deck and pulling out its progressive knife have become so iconic!

I love the progressive insanity of the fight with Gaghiel! We start with the most dangerous game of hopscotch ever conceived as Asuka jumps from deck-to-deck over the Pacific Ocean to plug in her umbilical cable within the short span of one minute whilst avoiding the Angel ramming into ship after ship! And then the battle transitions to a literal fishing sport as the Angel drags Unit-02 down into the water while it's still attatched to a ridiculously long umbilical cable!

The attention to detail as Gaghiel drags Unit-02 underwater and repeatedly bounces off the sea-floor admits the sunken ruins of an abandoned city is amazing! I love how you can still see all the various submerged buildings and streets here (I wonder which city this was prior to Second Impact?)!

I like how as soon as Asuka realizes that Unit-02 is completely immobile underwater as Gaghiel is swimming directly towards them, she immediately defers to Shinji for help due to him being “the famed Third Child” (even letting out a suppressed shriek of terror when the Angel opens its jaws wide open to try and devour them)! For all of Asuka’s boasting she’s way in over her head, which continues to be a reoccurring character flaw that she struggles with over the course of the series!

And the madness of this fight is not over yet as Misato conceives of another ingenious yet ludicrous plan to defeat the Angel as she has the navy deliberately sink their remaining two evacuated battleships and time their downward trajectory just right so that that they'll land face-first into Gaghiel's maw after Unit-02 forces it open, firing a barrage of missiles via-remote directly into the Angel's core and forcing it to self-destruct! Just like the fight with Ramiel back in Episodes 5 & 6, this plan is absolutely bonkers and is a thrill to watch unfold!

So… this moment where EVA Unit-02's eye's briefly glow as Asuka (along with Shinji) desperately struggle to gather the stregnth to open the Angel's jaws before the battleships arrive at their position! While Misato later comments to Ritsuko that this was an unusual high-burst of synchronization between the EVA's and their pilots, I can't help but wonder how much of said-ratio boost was due to Shinji or Asuka? I ask because a major defining element of Asuka's character development as the series progresses is that despite her prideful and boastful nature she never actually wins a single Angel battle solely on her own, only doing so with the assistance and teamwork of others (which consequently causes her to gradually descend into a depressive downward spiral).

Also, was this an example of EVA Unit-02 almost entering bersker mode? If so... that's a neat bit of foreshadowing there!

Oh boy! Our official introduction to the Seed of Life for all the other Angels, the 1st Angel… Adam!

I honestly remember getting some serious chills when I first saw Kaji unveil Adam as a cryogenically-frozen fetus-like creature to Gendo & Fuyutsuk, although his description of it as “the first human” in some translations always confused me (the ADV dub simplifies this to instead have Kaji refer to the Adam fetus as, “the key to the human instrumentality project”).

Also, interestingly the “Fly Me to the Moon” ending credits segment has a red filter overlaying the usual animation this time around! That feels like a neat extra detail to signify Asuka’s arrival into the show!

So that was NGE, "Episode 8: Asuka Arrives in Japan/ASUKA STRIKES!", and overall it was another solid banger and a powerful introduction to Asuka’s character, establishing important traits about her character while setting up for future developments for her as the series progresses! And with that we finally have our main ensemble cast for NGE in the form of Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Misato, Ritsuko, Gendo & Kaji completed!

Next up is Episode 9!

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