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kerakitty · 3 years

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Hugo Lives AU Headcanons

Just wanted to share some headcanons from my Hugo Lives/Best Music Teacher Scarlemagne AU. Some of these might become fics at some point (a la A Gentler Night), but most are just fun little ideas. This post is pretty long, so headcanons are under the break.

Hugo spends season 3 in a more humane cell. The cell used in the actual show is nothing short of a literal torture chamber. No bed, no toilet, no privacy, no enrichment, no access to water. US solitary confinement cells still provide access to bedding and hygiene facilities, and even those are deemed inhumane by human rights groups like Amnesty International. In my HC, he instead is housed in a converted studio apartment style dwelling in Timbercat Village. The windows are covered with the same (presumably plexiglass) material that the cell in the show was made of. There’s a bathroom, a bed, and access to fresh water. There’s a sort of visiting area at the front of the cell with more plexiglass providing a barrier between the visitor side and the interior of the cell. There’s seating on each side of the barrier and a table on the visitor side. The barrier has a slot like the one in the show, but instead of being used solely for food, visitors are allowed to also transfer small items (e.g. books, puzzles, clothing, a certain star blanket). Items too big for the slot require approval from at least 2 out of 3 of the following individuals: Kipo, Lio, and Yumyan (Molly inherits Yumyan’s vote after he’s cured). The first large item to be approved is the electric keyboard Song gave him in It’s a Trap. In my HC he gets it a lot earlier. Kipo points out that he was more open to communicating when they played the piano together, so it’s given in the hopes that it’ll help with rehabilitation. He also has sound cancelling headphones to plug into the keyboard because having to listen to banjo makes him extra irritable and harder to deal with.

The Oak family spends way more time together. The family dynamics shown in the first 2 seasons are mostly put aside in season 3 in favor of the cure plotline, and I think this was a real loss. We got a little bit in Song ReMix and Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing, but I wanted a lot more. Inspired by @editoress , Hugo and Kipo jam regularly. She brings a guitar and they play and compose together. For Hugo, it’s the one bright spot in his incarceration. For Kipo it’s fun, but also how she tries to reach him. He’s more willing to talk when there’s music involved, though he still shuts down at certain topics. They also play board games with Kipo moving his pieces for him. Kipo has suggested he play with others as well, but he doesn’t trust anyone else not to cheat. Song listens in all the time. Both when Hugo and Kipo are jamming, or when one of them is playing on their own. She and the rest of the Oak family slowly build up an informal sign language for her to use. Some of it is based on ASL, but much of it is unique to them given their rather unique situation and Song’s extra limbs. The first thing she signs is ‘I love you’. Lio visits Hugo in the hopes of patching things up. I won’t go into too much detail on this one as I’m already writing the fic, but Lio goes to visit and they start to hash things out. The process long and difficult, but they make progress. Lio and Song both take an active roll in reining Kipo in when she tries to take on more responsibility than she can handle. Kipo is all too eager to play savior, even when doing so puts her health and safety at risk. Lio runs interference when the mutes are asking too much of her and Song has been known to pick her up and place her in front of her room then sign ‘sleep’ when she’s been awake too long.

Hugo is injured the crash. I already wrote a fic about this, so again: not going into detail. He survives with a few busted ribs then spends his recovery with the rest of the Oak family. He initially stays in the hospital, but eventually moves with the rest of the family into a restored house.

The Oak family finally gets to live together. After the series’ end, the humans (and any displaced mutes) pick out houses on the surface. These houses are then fixed up by the Timbercats. Song and Kipo choose the family’s house together. Wolf really only cares about having reliable shelter and Lio is just happy to have the whole family together. There’s 3 bedrooms, so initially Wolf and Kipo share out of necessity while Hugo’s using the third room. He moves out a couple months after recovering and into a Victorian-style mansion in what used to be one of the wealthier neighborhoods of Las Vistas. As much as he enjoyed spending time with the family their tastes just aren’t as refined as his and he needs room for his baby grand and a proper art studio. After Hugo moves out, Kipo and Wolf still share a room. Lio and Song make it clear that they can have their own rooms if they want, but they both express that they’d rather stay together. Until they decide otherwise, the 3rd bedroom is used as guest room/informal music studio.

The family has weekly game nights. Friends can come too (Benson and Dave are regulars), but the core group is the Oak family. When they have too many players, they’ll pair up in teams. Wolf and Hugo are not allowed to be on a team together. They did that once while playing RISK and not only utterly destroyed everyone else, they started acting like supervillains. They took it way too far.

Lio and Hugo reconcile… eventually. Even after the progress they made during season 3, things are still rough between them for a while. Hugo remains somewhat antagonistic towards Lio for much of his recovery. He does try to be better, but his default reaction to emotional discomfort is to verbally lash out at others and, given their history, Lio makes for a tempting target. Over time, and with a lot of work, the antagonism fades into good-natured ribbing. Hugo still crosses the line at times, but isn’t as slow to admit to fault and apologize. Every now and then an argument will break out. While Hugo isn’t as obstinate as he used to be, there are still times when he gets defensive and escalates rather than accept that he may have gone too far. The relationship is still pretty strained by the time Hugo moves out, but having his own space allows him and Lio to find a sort of balance. They can see each other whenever they want, but also have distance whenever they need it.

Hugo becomes a music teacher. The idea was Kipo’s. Given his love of music and how good he was with the mute kids, it just made sense to her. In a rare moment of agreement, Lio and Hugo both point out that most parents in Las Vistas would probably object to a former dictator (who may have mind controlled them) teaching their children. Song eventually comes up with the suggestion to start out giving private piano lessons. The parents of the mute kids he played with back at Timbercat village have formed a grudging trust for him, so they might be willing. Hugo exclusively gives private lessons for about a year. His students love the lessons (even when he gets a little manic) and their parents come to see him in a new light. Over that year, word of mouth reaches most of Las Vistas, and the idea of him teaching at the school becomes less and less objectionable. The school initially hires him on a part-time basis to test the waters, and he’s okay with that as it leaves him plenty of time for his private lesson students. Music and band rapidly become the most popular classes among students, and the school offers Hugo full-time hours. He accepts, but only at the start of the new school year. He adores his private lesson students and doesn’t want to just drop them. He gives extra private lessons in the months leading up to the new year, making sure each kid is confident in their abilities before they ‘graduate’ from his tutelage. At each kid’s final lesson, he lets them know that they can come by every now and then if they have questions or just want to jam. Every single one of them takes him up on the offer. The whole Oak family is immensely proud of Hugo, but none more so than Lio. Lio was the one who taught Hugo to play, and it was their favorite way to bond back in the old burrow. Seeing Hugo pass along the gift of music and get so much joy out of doing so makes Lio happy and proud in a way that makes his heart feel so full it might burst.

Wolf and Hugo bond. Neither one of them is initially thrilled to have the other as an adoptive sibling, but during Hugo’s recovery they begin to realize they have a lot in common. Mostly a pink-haired sister and taste for violence, but every relationship starts somewhere. After the RISK incident, they’re thick as thieves. They both still prefer Kipo over each other, but they’re partners in crime now. They continue to bring out the worst in each other.

That’s it for now! I have more, but I’ll save them for another post. This one is already super long.

#kataow #kipo and the age of wonderbeasts #hugo lives au #best music teacher scarlemagne #kipo headcanon #kipo oak #hugo oak #scarlemagne #lio oak #song oak #kipo wolf #wolfatha christie the fourth #kipo benson #kipo dave #oak family #happy oak family

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passivenovember · 3 years

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If Snow Loves the Trees and Fields.

Billy's job at Willowbrook Elementary is the only reason he puts up with this weather at all.

His hatred for winter, a season which hardly existed when he taught in the Valley, morphs and becomes something violent on the first Monday after Christmas break.

He wakes up feeling like his toes have gone missing, frozen black and blue with the cold, and after his phone tells him it's below zero outside, with wind-chill, his heart stops beating.

Hawkins is -10 degrees, to be precise.

And it leaves him feeling like that's gotta be illegal, or. He could for sure call all the scientists on Earth and have a law passed that clarifies: those born and raised in a Southern climate get a free pass on days when Hell is actively freezing over.

But it's not snowing today. And all the ice on the street has been scraped into terrible, disgusting drifts that block his driveway, and Hopper would immediately call bullshit. All, gonna have to suck it up if you wanna live here, buttercup.

So Billy decides to be an adult, or whatever. He spends another five minutes on his phone definitely not stalking his ex Instagram before rolling out of bed to get dressed.

And, like.

Even his underwear drawer is stiff from the cold so Billy decides to bundle the fuck up--a trick he learned from Max last fall, during the coldest year Indiana had ever seen. He manages to stack five layers in total; one pretty pink thermal set just brushing his his skin and a button down shirt to stave off the goosebumps. A sweater and jeans for professionalism. One Grateful Dead hoodie, because it makes him feel like he's not a total sell out, and a thick winter coat, sent special from the snow capped mountains of California this Christmas.

It still smells like his mom's pikake lei perfume.

Billy tries not to think about that, of home, on a day when he'd give his left nut for a ray of sunshine.

Instead, he spends ten minutes filling his thermos with coffee. Boiling the rice milk more than once so it'll stay warm on the ride across town. He sticks his pinky under the lip after his third go, and fuck that shit is so hot it will burn his mouth tomorrow, before checking the weather app again for closures.

Hoping against hope that something has changed in the last five minutes.

Of course, nothing has.

The superintendent believes that everyone in Hawkins is somehow used to temperatures that makes their eyelids freeze shut in the thirty second walk to the car in the morning. Billy jams a knit cap on his head and seriously considers calling in.

A last ditch effort to quell the rising fury in his veins, that like.

He's gonna have to scrape his windows, and freeze his dick off, and deal with the neighbor.

The one who looks like he doesn't mind the cold so much because he carries the sun with him, fucking asshole.

People shouldn't be wandering the streets when their eyelids could freeze shut, right?

Billy checks his phone one more time, frowning at a text from Joyce to pick up some coffee on your way in, and tosses his bag over his shoulder before he can change his mind.

It's so much worse than expected.

Billy's lungs seize up on his second intake of fresh air because no one should be huffing sulfur or gaseous ice or whatever the fuck this shit is first thing in the morning. On a Monday. The first one after Christmas break, and.

"God damn, holy shit, holy shit," Billy bounces the whole way to the Camaro, breath coming in short, comical bursts of steam that make his nose run. He swipes dramatically at his face, struggling to get his keys into the lock while balancing his thermos on one arm and his messenger bag on the other.

Billy's in the middle of forcing the door open, its hinges are frozen solid with ice goddammit, when Steve fucking Harrington appears like a cloud on the wind.

"Howdy neighbor," Steve says. Like they're cowboys in a shitty film from the 1970s. The wind kicks a lock of brown hair into Harrington's face and he shivers. "Wow, it's really blowing out here, huh?"

Midwesterner's love doing that.

Pointing out the obvious.

Billy grumbles a response, flinging his car door open and jamming the keys into the ignition.

Steve's saying something.

Talking like always, about his cat or maybe the beer they keep saying they'll have together, and generally Billy puts up with it but not today. He isn't going to freeze to death for a pair of legs.

The Camaro roars to life, clearly pissed at having to work on such a disgusting day, and. Alright. Letting your car "warm up," is something so Midwestern Billy can't even talk about it.

It takes him all of two minutes to scrape his windows, electing to carve holes in each wall of ice rather than clear the whole thing. The metal handle of the scraper Max got him feels like the ninth circle of hell against the peachy skin of his fingers.

He should've bought some mittens.

Joyce is always saying he needs mittens, he should've asked for some--

Billy tosses the scraper into his back seat and climbs in, slamming the door shut behind him and cranking the heat up to high. Steve's watching from next to the fence in a fucking pea coat, and a scarf with care bears on it and.

Nothing else.

Fucking asshole.

Steve waves at him, like; hey I'm talking to you. Frantically, like the mouse Mr. Bane caught last week is important.

But Billy's too busy trying to back out of the driveway with five layers of shit restricting his movement. He cranks the music up and cautiously pulls onto the street. Nice and smooth like he's seen Steve do effortlessly, even with three inches of ice on the ground. Fucking asshole.

Billy makes it halfway before he hits something.

The wind kicks hair into his face as he assesses the damage.

"You should've scraped your driveway last night." Steve says helpfully.

He's got a cigarette hanging from his lips, stark in contrast to the weird home made scarf he's got folded around his neck. Billy tries not to think about Steve's lips as he makes his way to the back of the Camaro to see that, yup.

Of course.

His baby is stuck in the snow. Billy kicks the tire. Like that'll fix anything.

"That's not gonna fix anything." Steve says, leaning against the fence.

"Jesus, fuck. I know, Steve." Billy scrubs a hand across his face, gesturing to the Care Bear scarf. "Why the hell are you wearing that thing, you look like a fruit."

"I am a fruit."

"Well you look like the whole goddamn bowl, pretty boy." Billy digs around for a cigarette. "My kindergarteners don't even fuck with the Care Bears enough to own scarves." Billy squints, assessing Steve from head to toe, delighting in the awkward squirm of his limbs. He clicks his tongue, disappointed. "Couldn't look any fruiter if you tried."

Steve shrugs his shoulders, like. Don't yell at me, this isn't my fault.

And okay.

He's cute.

Billy gets struck by that every time he sees the guy, all over again, like. His profile is perfect. Sharp nose, pretty eyes. Thick lips.

Steve holds out a cigarette.

Billy takes it.

"One of my residents made it for me. He's learning how to flat pattern." Harrington says shyly. "Well, he made it for his grand daughter, but. It turned out worse than he expected so I offered to take it."

Billy squints. "The fuck does that mean?"

"Just means I was trying to be nice--"

"No, the." Billy grins in spite of himself. "The flat patterning, what's that?"

Steve shrugs again. "I'm not sure, I think it's like. A sewing term. Or something." A pretty blush the color of Steve's scarf spreads across the bridge of his nose. It looks like strawberry ice cream and Billy.

Has to look away.

"My mom sews," Billy says gruffy. "I've never heard her say that."

"Well, maybe she drapes?"

Billy squints again. "What?"

"Draping. That's another thing people do--"

Billy stamps the cigarette out and kicks his tire again. Steve jolts, like. Billy tried to kick him or something, which just makes the situation worse.

"God, they should've cancelled classes." Billy states. Well, screams, to no one in particular. "Who wants to go to work in the snow, who fucking. Likes this white bullshit?"

Steve leans against the fence and looks thoughtful. "I love the snow."

"You're not helping."

"You asked."

"No, I didn't." Billy shoots back. He digs his cellphone out and shakes his head. "Why are you still here, Harrington? Don't you have old people to take care of?"

Steve chuckles again. Light, like Christmas bells. "Don't you have screaming brats to teach?"

"My car's kinda stuck in the snow, you fucking dick." Billy's so focused on trying to order a lyft that he doesn't waste time on pleasantries. He expects that to be the end of it, when the wind picks up and he swears again, but. Steve just moves closer.

"Let me drive you." Steve says.

And.

The moment sort of hangs there.

In the two years that Billy's lived next to the guy, they've never hung out. Never house sat for each other, never spoken outside the occasional could you make sure your idiot friends don't block my driveway, and empty promises to grab a beer sometime.

So the offer catches him off guard.

Billy glances up from his phone, confused, to find Steve looking everywhere but at him. Harrington's shifting his weight, like. He's fucking nervous, or something.

Or maybe hoping Billy will say no because he's just being polite.

Billy glares.

Of course he's just being neighborly. Charitable. That's what Midwestern assholes do.

Billy waves his phone in the air, like, "I'm ordering a lyft." And it comes out sharper. More aggressive than he means it too, but Steve doesn't seem to notice.

"Just ride with me, it's on the way."

Billy points at the screen. "Jason will be here in ten minutes."

"What's Jason got that I don't have?" Harington quips, and.

Billy just wants shit to go back to normal. He shakes his head again, "Nah, 's okay, pretty boy. Thanks anyway." Before turning back to his phone like he's got important shit to worry about.

Steve stands.

Stares.

Waits, for longer than is necessary, before clearing his throat. "Okay, well. Happy first day back." He says.

And if Billy didn’t know any better he'd say Steve sounds almost.

Disappointed.

When Billy gets off of work that night the snow is gone from his driveway.

Billy still has bad days.

They always start before dawn. With the claws of his nightmare leaving scratches down the lining of his throat. It's like Billy's carrying an anchor around his neck, or his veins are filled with playdough the color of the sun on those afternoons. He feels lazy and sluggish and like if someone looks at him for too long he'll break. Snap and crackle, like an open flame against fresh skin.

Billy still has bad days but they don't come unless he's been slipping for a while. Like forgetting to take his medication, or not writing his letter every night before bed.

The one to Neil, that his therapist says will help him work through the last of the road blocks that stand in the way of, "ultimate healing."

Billy used to think it was horseshit.

But Neil. Everything that happened, everything that still happens--when Billy goes home for Christmas, or when Susan calls and he can hear the slur of hate on the other end of the line--is standing in the way of something.

There are so many letters.

So much he wants to say.

Written on anything Billy can find, like. Napkins and the backs of take out menus--old drawings that the kids send home with him after Art class on Fridays.

The pages are kept in a binder.

His therapist says it's important to decorate the binder with, like. Stuff that makes him feel good. Words and phrases, stickers, pictures of the people he loves and drawings of all his favorite things. The folder is supposed to act as a visual reminder of the blanket of love that surrounds him, or something.

Melvalds only had brown folders when he went to pick his up, so.

The folder is brown. Disgusting.

And so far the only decorations he's been able to stomach are one of those fancy stickers from Redbubble that depicts his favorite episode of Daria, and a picture of him and Maxine with underwear on their heads.

Billy thinks it could be sad to some people.

That a poor, little abused boy only has two things in life that protect him from the shadow which falls with the setting sun, but it's the truth. Life is hard and fucked up. Billy has trouble letting people close, letting people in, so he sticks with the basics. The tried and true.

Maxine and his gravity bong.

Billy Hargrove is a simple man.

So it's two weeks after Steve shovels his driveway and Billy tells his therapist, like. "This fucking guy just. Did something nice for me."

And she clearly wonders what's wrong with him. "Did you say thank you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because," Billy tries not to get defensive about shit these days, because. It's only a hop-skip-and a jump from defensiveness to downright aggression and Megan, his well meaning shrink, doesn't deserve that even on her most annoying days.

His leg bounces under the table, thwacking against its mahogany edge loud enough that Megan can hear it over the fucking phone, so she says, "Billy. Stop."

Because they have a deal about nervous ticks.

Billy is supposed to say his safe word when he starts to feel anxious, but.

He fucking hates that shit. Hates being babied. Hates feeling like he's a goddamn basket case that needs to be rooted in reality when his trauma rears its ugly head. Billy smiles, the whole thing falling flat against his face. "I'm stopping."

Megan sighs. "Why haven't you thanked Steve for his act of kindness?"

"Because, like." Billy's shaking his leg again. Softer this time; it's a secret. "How do I know he isn't trying to, fucking. Get information out of me. Or out me to the community, or. Make fun of the way I'm a grown man who can't shovel his own driveway after a snowstorm--"

"I think you're internalizing your fears, Billy."

"Yeah, no shit." He snaps. Billy feels bad for half a second but then she's giggling, like she always does, which makes him feel less like the big bad wolf and more like one of the three little pigs. The guy with the straw, maybe?

Billy sighs, scrubbing at his face. "What does that even mean?"

Megan makes a noise on the other end of the line, like. In the six months that Billy's been in therapy he should've learned this by now.

Dude's got a short attention span, sue him.

And, sure enough. "Twice a week we meet over the phone and you don't know that internalizing your fears means you're trying to write the ending to a story you haven't even read yet?"

"Like, uh," Billy says intelligently. "What's that shit you're always saying? About seeing a book on the shelf and--"

"Guessing the ending. Yup, that's right." Megan sounds pleased. Billy ignores the bloom of happiness in his chest, because like. He doesn't really deserve it. She doesn't give him time to dwell, though. "Steve did something nice for you. Maybe he has suspicious intent--"

Billy sucks in a breath, like.

Dramatic. Loud enough that Megan snorts and says, "Hold on, you're jumping to conclusions again."

Billy really fucking.

Hates how perceptive she can be.

Megan keeps talking and Billy listens, because he pays her after all. "If you're really worried that his intentions are cloudy, do something nice for him in return."

"Something nice," Billy repeats. Like he's never heard of such a concept. "Something nice, like. Buy him flowers?"

Megan snorts. "Do you want to buy him flowers?"

"No, why would you think that?"

"Because you--" His therapist sighs. Billy embraces the feeling it gives him, yanking her chain a little bit. "Listen. I don't know this Steve person, and I've never heard you talk about him beyond this beer you're supposed to have together, like. Never. But has he ever given you a reason to think he's out to hurt you?"

Billy thinks back over two years and a million one-dimensional interactions.

Steve never loses his temper.

Not when Billy calls to have the cars that block his driveway towed, not when Billy bitches about the daisy bushes shedding into his yard in the fall, and Steve always picks up Mr. Bane's cat shit from Billy's front porch when the Gremlin actually goes outside.

Always with a smile and a sweet little, I think Mr. B likes you.

And, like.

It was pretty nice of Steve to offer Billy a ride that morning.

And shovel his driveway after work, just because he knew Billy probably wouldn't do it.

The whole thing, it. Fills Billy with something he can't quite express, a warmth he only ever feels when Max calls a dozen times to remind him to eat dinner when he sends a few intense messages.

Megan takes his silence, as always, like a breakthrough.

"So," She says, clearly satisfied. "Same time next week?"

Billy spends three days waiting for Steve to make it easy for him.

Because Harrington's a home owner, and there's always something, right? A problem he needs help with, like. A leaky pipe that needs fixed, a cup of sugar for a recipe that he didn't account for, ghosts in the attic. Typical HOA bullshit.

Billy stares out his window at the lovely split level next door and decides he'll take anything, do anything, to get this fucking anchor of guilt off his back for the whole driveway situation. The opportunity never presents itself.

The ducks never fall in a row.

Steve just leaves the house every morning, same time as Billy, same as always, with a gentle Howdy neighbor. And a smile tugging at his pretty pink lips, hair perfect and windswept because he's a fucking asshole and it only takes two days.

Forty-eight hours before Billy's hatching a plan to pay Harrington back and inventing problems to solve, like some sort of demonic Bob the Builder.

He calls Max on Thursday and comes up with a list. Something tangible, like breaking Steve's garage window with a ski ball. Or trapping Mr. Bane in a sweater and pretending like he's gone missing so Steve will have to round up a search party, but.

Billy knows Megan would call that instigating, antagonizing, and causing trouble, which Billy's trying not to do anymore.

So he brings up flowers again, because.

Fuck it--maybe he's wanted to see Steve behind a bouquet of Lilies of the Valley for months now.

And Max goes all soft.

And quiet, too, before whispering, "I'm really proud of you, you know? For getting better."

Then suddenly Billy can't breathe because there's a lump in his throat.

Because he is trying to get better. To live honestly, to lead with love--whatever hippie-dippie bullshit Megan is always spoon feeding him, so.

With Max's blessing, Billy's about to, like. Knock on Steve's door with a plate of pot brownies and a shitty thanks for being a decent human card when Mr. Bane leaves a dead bird on Billy's porch, the third one in a month, and Billy hatches an idea.

Steve's front door is yellow.

Like. Sunshine yellow. Valley girl yellow.

Which Billy used to think was charming but now thinks is kind of annoying, when coupled with Steve's perpetually sunny disposition. And okay. Maybe it sort of pokes and prods at that piece of him that's always missing home.

Maybe it makes him a little bit sad, like. He'll never really feel at peace anywhere else.

But before Billy can dwell on it, or raise his fist to knock on the door, Steve's opening it and preparing to step through. He's using his foot to stop Mr. Bane from running out into the yard so he doesn't see Billy right away, which.

Also means he's going somewhere.

Which inherently means Billy's caught him at a bad time. Billy holds the paper bag closer to his chest and feels the words bubbling up before he can practice his breathing, or. Stop them. Because this is his third biggest fear after arguments and spiders.

"I've caught you at a bad time, I'm sorry, I'll just come back la--"

Steve breaks out into a grin so big. So bright, that it rivals anything Billy's ever seen before.

"Howdy, neighbor!" Steve says.

And Billy shifts nervously from one foot to the other, like. "Is this a bad time?"

"No, it's not a--"

"Because I can come back later." Billy nods, already turning on his heel to escape, and like. Fly into the sun. "Or not at all. I can just mail it to you, that's. Yeah, I'll just stick it in the post or something."

Steve grabs his elbow.

Billy looks at the hand on his elbow, and down at Steve’s feet. There aren’t any shoes or anything, so.

Billy's overreacting.

Fuck. He swallows, raising his eyes with caution to see Steve smiling again. Even wider than before, if that's possible.

Harrington licks his lips. "Whatcha got there?" He says, nodding to the bag, and Steve.

He's wearing glasses today.

Billy feels like someone hit him on the back of the head with a ski ball. Steve looks so soft, in white stripped overalls and a green sweater, that Billy doesn't know whether to fluff him like a pillow or fucking.

Punch him in the face.

Billy holds out the paper bag. "It's for you."

Steve looks at him strangely but he's still smiling, which.

Is good.

Billy thinks it's good but then he knows its good when Steve giggles. "I gathered that. What is it?"

"It's a, uh. You know." Billy tries. "You know one of those things? Where it's, like, a thing but you aren't supposed to know what it is?"

Steve blinks at him, cheeks turning pink like they always do. "A surprise?"

"That's the one." Billy snaps his fingers, like. Ah-ha. Except it isn't a surprise, it's just. "It's a way to say thanks. For the whole," Billy concludes, gesturing vaguely to their front lawns, to. "The driveway."

Steve blushes even harder. "You didn't have to get me a present--"

"It's not a present."

"That was just me trying to be nice." Steve leans against the door jam, eyes searching. "It doesn't call for a--"

"It's not a present." Billy says again. Steve doesn't look like he believes him, so Billy, like. Shoves the paper bag to his chest. "Look, open it now or don't. Fucking, throw it away for all I care, it's fine."

Billy turns on his heel because fuck this.

Fuck trying to pay back nice with nice and fuck Steve for starting this whole debacle to begin with. Billy makes it down one step and then Steve is laughing so hard he can't stand up straight.

Which just makes Billy feel worse, because.

"You're laughing." Billy gapes. "I bring you a present to say thanks for not being an asshole, and you're laughing."

Steve doesn't answer, he just.

Keeps on laughing, and okay.

This is Billy's third greatest fear. After abandonment and fighting. Fists covered in blood--his or someone else's, it doesn't matter. He frowns, turning to leave again when Steve straightens and coughs once into the palm of his hand.

"Thought it wasn't a present," Steve quips, and he's looking at Billy with, like. Sparkly eyes. He shrugs. "I'm not sure what it means."

Billy doesn't get it. "It doesn't have to mean anything--"

"No, like." Steve peers into the bag again, clearly holding back tears. "Why did you get me a bag of dead mice?"

"You can get them at the pet store." Billy says, because. You can, alright? He fiddles with the sleeves of his winter coat. "They're for Mr. Bane."

Steve just stares at him, eyes twinkling like two polished diamonds in his head.

And he's not saying anything, or. Laughing anymore, he's just. Watching Billy fall to pieces on his walkway as he tries to defend himself.

Billy focuses on the clouds that inch across the sky. "Mr. Bane, he's. He's always catching shit, like. Dead shit and leaving it on my porch. I just thought if he wants to eat dead things I can just. Buy him a pack or whatever. Like a normal person."

Steve grins. "You know they do that because they think you can't feed yourself."

Billy wrinkles his nose. "Well I fucking appreciate it, but I don't want to eat dead mice and birds and shit."

Steve chuckles once before staring again.

Like he's memorizing Billy's face, or like. They're having a competition that Billy doesn't know about.

Billy gestures to the bag again. "Would you just accept it, Steve? Please?"

Harrington looks down at the mice in his hands and nods slowly, like the decision is really requiring some thought.

Billy feels stupid.

This was so fucking stupid--

"Sure, Billy." Harrington says. Soft, and. Sweet. "No one's ever given me such a thoughtful gift before, so. Thank you."

And Billy feels like the tin man getting oil on his joints after a year of rusting in the forest, when Steve accepts his weird ass gesture. He nods, mouth lapsing into a thin, unamused line. "Okay, then. See ya 'round," Billy says.

And then he's turning, and.

Leaving.

Before Steve can say anything else.

The clouds inch like caterpillars across the bright winter sky and Steve's walkway seems so much longer on the journey home.

#harringrove #i'm sorry aaaaah #I wanted to post the first chapter here too #because I'm fucking proud of this one alright #and I feel like I need a little fluff #and maybe you need a lil fluff too #cmon man #let me fluff you like a pillow bro

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botanyshitposts · 4 years

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Hi! Given that we're all in quarantine mode, what is your favorite houseplant? Also, do you have anything fun and plant themed to pass the time at home (since you seem like you spend like 70% of your time at your uni/in the lab, and I'm sure both of those are shut down now)?

actually, the seed lab is still up and running!! what happened was that my uni cancelled classes and ordered everyone to evacuate the dorms, and only let people stay who had nowhere else to go, which immediately forces like, 80% of us student workers (who handle a LOT of the menial labor on campus) back to our hometowns. from a quarantine perspective i see how this is a smart move, but from a seed perspective i am terrified and in awe; so far, a week in, it’s kind of prompted me to start reevaluating what this means for like, how plants interact in our society on a broader scale, ngl.

like, this is a seed lab, funded partially by the state and partially by the (public) university. it is based in iowa, as i have mentioned before, which is one of the largest producers of maize in the world; 95% of our state is farmland, and it is completely possible to go to another country overseas and purchase feed made from iowa field corn. for further context, sweet corn is grown in iowa, but is deemed a ‘specialty crop’ (along with popcorn) due to the specialised labor needed to harvest it, and the bulk of it sold in grocery stores is grown in california (where a ton of wild botanical stuff seems to happen on a regular basis). most of what’s grown in iowa is field corn, which in turn is used for cattle feed (biggest use), ethanol, and production of more seed. i learned in a class about world food security last year that iowa produces so much food, in the form of animal production as well as corn and soybean production, that if you were to put a glass dome over us we could theoretically produce food sustainably for the entire population without altering our average consumption rate at all.

farmers in the midwest and iowa often own their own land, due to the homestead act back in 1862; compare this system to the agricultural systems in third world countries, where single wealthy people own huge swaths of farmland and equipment that they then pay workers as small a wage as possible to farm it for them. personally i think there’s something to be said about how corporations in the US have driven prices of equipment up so high that farmers are having to resort to renting it, putting them in debt to large companies, which is REALLY just :eyes:, but that aside, farmers who own their own land and equipment tend to work harder and produce larger yields; this is actually a trend throughout the world that the US benefits from due to how the land is historically dispersed.

BUT. going back to the entire reason i’m writing this, corn ultimately drives the economy in iowa. all things come from corn; soybeans too, but mostly corn. seed is still needing to be planted here at the beginning of the growing season, and corporations that have harvested their seed are now sending it in to seed labs to get it verified to be shipped and sold in other countries (or sold in the united states at all; you need to have certain statistics and a grading on your seed to be able to sell it here, which prevents companies from selling shitty seed to farmers at incredibly high prices as was the case back when government seed labs were first established in the early 1900s). it becomes clearer to me, with that in mind, why the seed lab i work at is still staying open, but it also raises some other questions; for instance, are all public seed labs still open throughout the US? are private seed labs still open? how will the drop in labor in these labs effect the agricultural industry? (i’m assuming the answer to the last one will be ‘not much’, but i have no idea how it is at other labs, and if they have more full time workers than part time and all that).

like, considering the wider scope of things, it’s wild that essential public services also include niche public services like seed testing. it makes sense that the seed lab will remain open. it makes sense that the amount of samples coming in hasn’t slowed down, and they’ll probably have a major delay on getting sample results/documentation and all that to companies ordering them. as long as meat is being produced, feed is needed, and as long as feed is needed iowa will keep producing corn at an incredible rate. it’s just like. seeds, man......what a world

as for your second question about botanical entertainment, i’m pretty preoccupied with classes rn but the digital flowers site from the university of Illinois is a resource we use in plant systematics a lot that’s fun to poke around; also, the KEW digital herbarium, and, of course, the famous in defense of plants podcast. oh, the crime pays but botany doesn’t youtube channel is a great time, too!

#this is A Long Post but lmao yeah #asks #plont asks #seed job #long post #Anonymous

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signor-signor · 4 years

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A message for the WOY fandom

I speak to you all for the sake of Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, Noah Z. Jones, Alex Hirsch, Daron Nefcy, Matt Youngberg and Francisco Angones, Chris Houghton, Shane Houghton, Matt Braly, Dana Terrace, and all the other creators of shows that get/got plenty of respect from Disney.

Here’s what happened 5 years ago, at least in my imagination and in accordance with what I learned about the cancellation...

EXECUTIVE: Gravity Falls is an absolute mega-hit! I wanted to give it a third season, but Alex insisted on ending it after two seasons. Oh well. Anyway, it's time for me to decide if Wander Over Yonder should continue. Let's see, counting the one-minute shorts that are going on as one full episode plus the 40 episodes from the second season that starts next week... that makes a total of... 80 episodes... hmm... No one ever did tell me if Craig had a third season in mind... I mean, I gave Fish Hooks three seasons without a second thought and it surpassed 100 episodes before it ended... It wasn’t as popular as Phineas and Ferb, but still... Maybe I could do the same for Wander...? Then again, viewers seem to love Gravity Falls and Star vs. the Forces of Evil even more - their ratings are the best I've ever seen. Wander, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have a lot of attention after the move to Disney XD. Also, it takes them a pretty long time to make even one episode. Y'know what? I think two seasons of Wander are enough. We have more cartoons in the works and we're on a time crunch here. Let me just pull out the cancellation stamp and note and we'll be ready. I’d hate to break the hearts of Craig and his colleagues, but that’s the business of television. Well, here goes nothin'...

(Wander stands outside, looking through the soundproof office window and trying to get the Executive's attention.)

WANDER: YOU'LL BE SAAHHH-REEEEEEEE!!!

Now, what is the takeaway?

Disney “didn’t see the need to make more” WOY for a reason. I always felt it involved the time spent making one 11-minute episode, the number of DTVA cartoons in the pipeline, and how well it fared in its first season on DXD when compared to GF and SvtFoE (at least in my opinion). Ever since the uncalled-for cancellation, I’ve been ambivalent about Disney’s television business and uneasy about the way the overrated shows are treated, but let’s get real here.

Lately, Twitter’s been getting some abusive posts that talk smack about Disney’s shows with SaveWOY tagged. This is all wrong. The shows Disney likes/liked best are not to blame for WOY’s misfortune, the “higher-up bosses of bosses of bosses” are. Believe me, I know. Did Hey Arnold fans aggravate fans of Nick’s most popular shows to get The Jungle Movie? No. Did Samurai Jack fans jeer popular CN shows and their fans to get one more season? No! Changing the bosses’ minds is all that matters. The cartoonists’ job is to make shows to entertain, not outclass each other, so dissing those shows won’t get us anywhere. By refraining from doing that, we’ll have a better chance at getting S3 for WOY. Be a Wander, not a Hater.

@crackmccraigen, whatever you’re up to, I hope you’re doing all right in these complicated times. I don’t know how long you plan to keep Kid Cosmic going, but I’m sure it’ll be a hit. That shouldn’t preclude the fact that Disney’s bosses will rectify their mistake and let you work on Wander’s third and final season, though, especially not after all the world has endured since the pandemic began. With so much effort the most dedicated fans have put in, they must be entitled to know just a little more about that third season, right? Who are you to leave your fans in a state of perpetual uncertainty? If you’re not in a position to give us more details, I understand. Whatever your plans are, I’m positive they’ll help make the 2020s more bearable. We don’t mind the delayed gratification.

What I’m trying to say is, we have a right to be bitter about the bosses’ actions, but as true Wander fans, we should know better than to deface the fan base. I am willing to check out the shows, but because of the bosses’ rash decision to cancel WOY after S2, I choose not to at this time. When you’re expressing interest in WOY, do it from the heart and think about how the people from all fandoms will feel when they discover your content. If anyone talks smack about WOY, just shun them, just like we learned from The Troll.

Be smart. Be logical. Be respectful of others. In time, you’ll gain more like-minded followers who’ll look up to you and find the inspiration they need to come up with their own meaningful ways to change the bosses’ minds. Someday, Wander will find proper closure on Disney+ as long as we keep our cool, ask nicely, have patience, and not lose our heads.

As the lyrics go, “all your helpful, friendly, good deeds will spread across the land!”

Man, that took a lot out of me.

#Wander Over Yonder #Save Wander Over Yonder #SaveWOY #SaveWOY 2020 #Long Reads #The Walt Disney Company #Disney TV Animation #Disney Television Animation

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foolsiwillshowthemall · 4 years

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Rayla doesn’t do slow burn.

Random thoughts on Rayllum, heavy with TDP Season 3 spoilers, following.

Rayllum has been the most likely endgame ship among the main characters for a while, which is ironic considering that it wasn’t even planned from the start of the series. The writers just realized midway through Season 2 that the chemistry between the two of them worked out really well. For me, it clicked when Callum was reading the letter from his father, who advised Callum to seek a narrative of love instead of power. It’s not clear if this line was written before or after the writers decided that Rayllum would be a thing, but it does fit perfectly with the love of a human prince and an elven assassin/Dragonguard helping bring peace to the two sides.

However, while I was expecting them to get together, I was expecting it to happen a lot more slowly than it did. Usually in these kinds of shows, they’ll string along the will-they-or-won’t-they dance for as long as possible to build tension, and only resolve it in a season or series finale. We were all expecting a slow burn situation. But in a brilliant bit of character-driven storytelling, just as the existence of the relationship was driven by the chemistry between them, the pace of the relationship was also decided by the characters.

Because Rayla is just not a slow-burn kind of person.

Callum could do a slow burn, easily. At the start of the show, it’s implied that he’s been pining over Claudia for some time. Years, maybe. He just doesn’t have the confidence or any idea on how to progress that relationship. In an alternate universe where the Moonshadow elves never attack, he and Claudia could spend years dancing around each other before finally ending up together. He’d probably also end up apprenticing to Viren to become a dark mage in that alternate universe, so it’s just as well that didn’t happen.

But Rayla isn’t the kind of person to do a slow burn relationship. Rayla makes sudden, life-changing, emotionally driven decisions. Deciding to not kill Marcus after he discovered the assassin team, or deciding to take the Egg to Xadia along with the human princes, or to go and save the downed red dragon from Soren and Claudia. And when she makes these decisions, she acts on them, immediately and decisively. So once she realized that she’s in love with Callum, she’s not going to sit around pining for him or wondering if he feels the same. She’s going to immediately start courting him, Moonshadow elf style.

Admittedly, we have no idea what Moonshadow elf courtship looks like. But we do know that they keep their feelings secret, they’re not supposed to admit to fear or apparently anything else openly. So Rayla’s not going to be ready to openly declare her love just yet. But a lot of her behavior in the first few episodes of Season 3 makes more sense when interpreted as attempted courtship.

Episode 1: Sol Regem. When all else fails, Rayla makes a heartfelt speech praising Callum’s virtues to try and convince Sol Regem to let hum accompany her and Zym into Xadia. It’s totally wasted on Sol Regem, but really we know this speech was meant for Callum. It’s Rayla’s way of letting Callum know how much she likes him, without actually admitting anything.

I suspect that praising someone you like to a third party, where they can overhear, is a common courtship method among Moonshadow elves, as it lets them know you like them without you having to admit any feelings of your own. “I don’t admit to personally having feelings for them, I’m just stating how amazing they are as a fact” is a distinctly Moonshadow-ish behavior, and something that both Rayla and Callum have done for each other.

Also, she keeps his scarf, although unfortunately not past the end of the episode. This comes after they’ve established how strongly it smells of him, because apparently Rayla likes the way he smells.

Episode 2: The Crown. Moonshadow elves are all about concealment and secrecy, so showing somebody a secret place where you played alone as a child is an incredibly intimate and personal step. Rayla might as well have stripped naked in front of him for all that she’s laying her life bare. Fortunately, Callum has responded positively to her courtship so far, although at this point he doesn’t realize that this is what she’s doing. As incredibly empathic and perceptive as Callum is, he’s fairly clueless at figuring out matters of romance, and has no idea that Rayla likes him that way yet.

Episode 3: Ghost. Courtship is going well, so Rayla takes the next step of introducing Callum to her one remaining parental figure and showing him where she grew up. Unfortunately, things don’t go well, as she’s been magically banished and is reminded of how she’s disappointed everyone and was more or less responsible for all of the other members of the team being killed or sealed in coins. Callum tries to comfort her, and we might even have proceeded to the scene we do eventually get in the next episode, but Ethari interrupts them and gives them the means to start seriously traveling onwards again.

Episode 4: The Midnight Desert. Enter Nyx. Nyx is a conman (Con-woman? Con-elf?) who is skilled at reading people. She figures out pretty quickly what’s going on with these two, which is why she makes that teasing comment about whether they need one blanked or two. She’s also smart enough to realize that Callum and Rayla will, given the chance, provide enough distraction to each other for her to slip away with Zym.

It’s in this episode that we get the continuation of the emotional moment interrupted by Ethari. Rayla is wallowing in self-loathing, but Callum comes along and starts praising her virtues. At last, Rayla thinks, the big dumb human has caught on and is reciprocating my courtship. So she kisses him.

Unfortunately, Callum wasn’t actually trying to court her, at least not consciously, so things get all awkward and stuff. Poor Rayla is very confused, as what seemed to be fairly clear signals weren’t what she thought they were. It turns out that Callum does actually like her like that, he just didn’t even realize that it was an option so far, and they probably would have resolved things with a little more talking, but Zym’s been abducted and they have to put the courtship on hold to deal with that.

Ironically, if Callum hadn’t backed down and had been kissing her back right away, Nyx would probably have gotten away freely. Emotional awkwardness saves the day.

Episode 5: Heroes and Masterminds. Zym has been rescued, Nyx has been defeated and then also rescued, and Callum get the opportunity to praise Rayla to someone else in front of here. You can see the surprise and hope on her face as she’s trying to figure out the meaning of this gesture, not wanting to mis-interpret his intentions again. You can also see that Nyx figures out pretty quickly that this speech isn’t for her benefit, as she turns and walks away halfway through it. Rayla still isn’t sure what Callum’s intentions are, but he makes them more clear when he kisses her.

He then gets flustered and tries to back down again, but Rayla knows what the deal is. If she wants the relationship to proceed, she has to take the initiative. Fortunately, she’s more than capable of doing so, and Callum is willing to let her.

So where do things go now? At the moment, we don’t know if there even will be a Season 4. Netflix likes to cancel shows after 2 or 3 seasons, and the internal drama among the creative team at Wonderstorm still might tear the company apart. Personally, I’d be satisfied with the story as it is if it ended here, since the third season wrapped up the initial plot very nicely, but I’ll also happily watch season 4 and any more that they make.

It’s rumored that there will be a timeskip before the next season, and if so then presumably the relationship between Rayla and Callum will only develop further during that time. Although she won’t be able to actually show him around the Silvergrove until the banishment is lifted, and it will probably be a while before they can free her parents from the coins they’re probably trapped within. I think that I speak for many in the fandom in hoping that the writers don’t split Callum and Rayla up for cheap drama, since they’ve been pretty good about not doing that kind of thing so far, and since Rayllum wasn’t even planned for part of the story initially it’s probably not going to be a major driver of the plot. Which is actually kind of a relief, if they can just be a stable couple together while the rest of the plot is going on around them. There’s enough drama happening in the world of TDP as a whole, they can just be the rock that keep each other stable and safe.

It’s also been really amusing seeing the fanfiction sites react to season 3. So many slow burn stories that are now just completely AU compared to how quickly things went in the canon story.

#the dragon prince #tdp #rayllum #tdp season 3 spoilers #rayllum meta #rayla #callum #slow burn #fanfiction

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imaginingsoftly · 4 years

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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time Pt. 8 - Morgan Reilly

Type: roommates to lovers, Y/N insert shorts

Requested: No

Warnings: drinking, mentions of CPS

(Y/N = Your name, , Y/N’s POV to Morgans back to Y/N, POV changes marked with a line)

A/N: I’m thinking this is coming to an end, but I’m not entirely sure where I should stop. Should I stop at the whole “yay we kissed” part, or do you guys want to see some actual dating?

Christmas came and went, and with the new year came the worst of the North Carolina winter. Y/N and Morgan were sitting on opposite sides of the small couch, a game of UNO on the cushion between them and news on in the background. Morgan laughed at the “snow” forecast and insisted there was no way Y/N would get the day off from school, until the phone call came and then she was the one laughing.

“I don’t understand why they’ve cancelled school if you haven’t even gotten any snow yet.” Morgan was still staring at her in disbelief, and Y/N tried not to laugh at him any more than she already had.

He was still staring as she turned on the Caps game, waiting for some kind of explanation. “We don’t have the resources to clear the roads. We might not get a lot of snow, but we do get some ice, especially in the more rural areas that don’t get salted.” Morgan still didn’t look satisfied. “It seems stupid. Trust me, most of the time we could totally go to school, but they panic. It’s a little ridiculous and sometimes aggravating, but they do have the kids’ best interests at heart.”

She didn’t say that she was worried about the safety of one of her students while they were out. The calls to CPS weren’t enough, and the social worker assigned to the district was more interested in how he could do the least amount of work possible rather than help the kids. She was relying on daily records to build a case to bring to the state for some of the kids. They began cleaning up the UNO card silently, and Y/N bit at her lip absently.

Morgan must have noticed how worried she was, because he reached over to squeeze her hand. “They’ll be okay. They’ll be there when you go back on Friday.” Y/N smiled at him gratefully. It was amazing how close they’d come since September, that he knew what she was thinking about just from her facial expression. “I was thinking,” he said as he stood suddenly, “what if we made them a little video to get them through tomorrow? You could do a little morning thing tomorrow about the weather, and I could read a story? You could email it for the parents to show the kiddos just as a little something for them to see your face.”

It was perfect. “I think they’d love that, Morgan.” Y/N smiled up at him gratefully, and she could have sworn Morgan turned a little red. “Would you mind reading a story?” He shook his head. The kids had loved Morgan when he’d come to visit before winter break. They’d had a holiday celebration in the classroom to celebrate the end of the calendar year, and Morgan had a day off, so he’d brought in some snacks and a couple of books to read. The kids had gotten him to promise he’d visit again, so a virtual visit would mean a lot to them.

______________________________________________________________

“Okay,” Y/N said, “we were just about to start a group lesson on the water cycle. Maybe you and I could do a little pre-lesson intro to it, maybe do an experiment to get them excited to do the actual lesson once we get back.” Morgan smiled as she moved around the room, following as she headed over to her desk in the corner of the living room. “So it’s perfect, because this aligns with one of the state standards, and we can do a little intro beforehand that I wasn’t going to have time to do in the classroom. This is perfect.” Y/N kept talking, the Caps game long forgotten in the background, but now her sentences were full of acronyms and words he didn’t understand. Teachers had their own language and he hadn’t managed to learn all of it yet.

Watching Y/N when she was in teacher-mode was one of his favorite things. Her eyes lit up in a way that only happened when she was watching sports or talking about her kids, and Morgan was beginning to realize he would do anything to get her to look like that all the time. It was kind of scary, really, how much he was coming to rely on her company. She was just about the only thing that got him through their losing streak at the beginning of December, and she was his favorite part of coming home from the road.

The line between friendship and relationship was beginning to blur in a way that told him he needed to back off, to stop touching her just because, but he couldn’t do it. The guys chirped him endlessly for it, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to care. Y/N was a touchy-feely person. She hugged everybody, it’s not like it was just him, though she was definitely touching his arm or grabbing his hand a lot more than she did when they first met.

“Morgan?” Y/N’s voice snapped him back to the present, and he realized he’d been staring.

“Sorry, Red Sox. I spaced out there for a second.” She smiled at the nickname, and held up a book.

“Is Magic School Bus okay? It’s about the water cycle, so it’s about the lesson but it’s fun.” He smiled and nodded, and the grin that Y/N threw his way made his heart hurt. “I figured we could record it tomorrow? If that’s okay with you, obviously.” Morgan nodded again.

“As long as you promise not to stay up all night to get it ready. Teachers need sleep you know, even on snow days.” Y/N laughed and nodded, shaking her head at him goodnaturedly.

“I promise. I have it all ready right here. I promised you a night to hang out, and we’ll have a night to hang out.” And she had. They’d both been busy in the last week, and it was the one night that Morgan had to be able to just sit and enjoy her company. Y/N had made pierogies, and they were going to watch the Caps and Pens game together. He couldn’t remember a time before this season that he’d sat down to just enjoy a game, but he found himself joining Y/N on the couch to watch whatever game she had chosen more often than not.

They settled onto the couch together again, and Morgan sat right next to Y/N instead of on the other side of the couch like usual. She looked up at him questioningly, and he just smiled. “I wanna cuddle.” Y/N shrugged and pulled her legs onto the couch and across his lap. His hands found their way onto her calves, and Morgan felt the tension go out of her body as she relaxed into the cushions to watch the game.

They sat in comfortable silence for the rest of the chippy first period, but when intermission began Y/N stood abruptly. “This is gonna be one hell of a game. We could make a drinking game out of it?” Morgan shrugged. It wasn’t like either of them was going to work tomorrow. “Whiskey good?” She didn’t wait for a response before walking into the kitchen, snagging the bottle of whiskey and a couple of glasses. This side of Y/N was rare, her drinking usually kept to a couple of beers at most, maybe a glass of whiskey if she was cooking and Morgan was drinking wine.

“So,” Morgan started as Y/N settled in again, “what kind of shot rules are we thinking here?” He twisted the top off the bottle of whiskey as he spoke, pouring a heavy shot into each glass. Y/N shrugged. The NBC feed showed a particularly rough borderline hit by Tom Wilson right as he looked up at the TV again, and Morgan laughed. “How about a shot every time Wilson takes a penalty?”

Y/N nodded. “A shot every time someone gets in a fight. A shot for every goal Ovi or Crosby scores.” Morgan laughed at the first suggestion, but nodded. All things worthy of being on there.

“A shot every time there’s a post-whistle scrum?”

“Jesus, Morgan, you trying to get me hammered before the second period is over?”

“Maybe.”

“Fine. Make it two shots if they have a line brawl.”

Morgan laughed. “No chance, Red Sox. That shit doesn’t happen anymore.” Really, though, he wasn’t sure. They were out to get Wilson tonight, though the Caps had plenty of reason to be pissed. That Vrana kid had taken a pretty dirty chop from Malkin in their last game. Maybe a line brawl wasn’t out of the cards.

It wasn’t. It took until the third was almost over before the game got out of control, Morgan and Y/N more than a little drunk already, but there they were. Even Samsonov and Jarry were fighting, though Jarry definitely had an edge on the Russian. Y/N was cheering as the brawl erupted, yelling for Wilson to “beat the shit out of Malkin”, and Morgan had to take the glass of whiskey out of her hand before they were both wearing it. Somewhere between the second and third she’d fallen almost completely into Morgan’s lap, and he wasn’t keen on moving her. She’d spent most of the third leaning her head on his shoulder and mumbling under her breath. Watching games with Y/N were always fun, but drunk Y/N was something else entirely.

Wilson did indeed get the better of Malkin, and Y/N enthusiastically took her double shot in celebration. “Okay, Mo,” she slurred slightly, “I don’t think I can drink anymore. I wanna be coherent for my kiddos in the morning.” Y/N sighed like it was the hardest decision she’d ever made, and then settled her head a little heavier onto his shoulder. Morgan twisted his head without thinking and kissed the top of her head. He froze after he did it, realizing his mistake, but Y/N just snuggled deeper into his side. It felt so domestic, and for the second time that night Morgan contemplated telling Y/N he wanted a relationship.

His thoughts were interrupted by the end of the game, and he was ready to stand to go to bed when he realized Y/N hadn’t moved. “Red Sox?” She didn’t answer him, and he looked down to see her out cold. Morgan smiled, shifting so that he could stand without disturbing her too much. “Okay, sweetheart. Let’s get you to sleep, eh?” Y/N’s only response was to shift slightly, and he sighed. It looked like he was carrying her to her room.

He picked her up gingerly, though it probably didn’t matter. She looked like she was completely out, and nothing was waking her up.

Morgan maneuvered Y/N into her room without issue, and he couldn’t resist pressing another kiss to her forehead as he slid her blankets up to her shoulders. Y/N smiled slightly, and that smile chased him through his dreams. _______________________________________________________________

“Thanks again for doing this, Morgan.” Morgan was in the kitchen when Y/N had come out of her room the next morning. His head snapped up at her words, and she met the smile he sent her without hesitation. “I know that it’ll mean a lot to the kids, especially since we’ll probably be out tomorrow as well.” They had gotten almost 3 inches of snow the night before, a layer of ice right underneath it, which usually meant they’d have at least two days off.

Y/N took the coffee Morgan offered her gratefully, and he joined her standing in front of the sliding doors to the balcony. “Two days, huh?” Y/N laughed and nodded.

“Ice and the South, bud, remember?” She knocked Morgan’s arm with her elbow gently, and he elbowed her back with a laugh. “I was thinking I could make us some breakfast and then we could make the video?” Y/N leaned into Morgan’s side as she spoke, and he slid his arm around her shoulders without hesitation. She found herself wanting to stay that way all day.

The moment was ruined by a knock at the door. “Breakfasts’ here!” Morgan announced as he hurried towards the door. He paid the delivery woman with a smile and a hurried thanks, and Y/N slid into one of the barstools at the kitchen counter. “Lucky Tree delivers. Scones for the two of us, a black iced coffee for you, and a latte for me.” Morgan slid the food out of the bag as he spoke, passing Y/N a scone and her coffee with a lopsided grin.

“Morgan you are an angel,” Y/N moaned, and he just laughed as he passed her a metal straw from the drawer. Their scones really were heaven, and the coffee was one of her favorite local brews. Morgan took an appreciative sip of his coffee before devouring half of his scone in one bite, and Y/N almost fell off her chair as she snorted.

They ate peacefully, the silence only interrupted by Bogey’s unwelcome appearance on the counter to investigate the bag. Morgan threw the bag down onto the floor without hesitation, and they spent the next several minutes watching Bogey chase the bag around the apartment. “I think Bogey deserves to make an appearance in the video, what do you think?” Morgan’s suggestion was a good one. The kids had wanted to meet Bogey for ages, but Y/N’s school wouldn’t have taken kindly to her just bringing her cat to work with her.

Having Morgan read a book to the kids was really just too much. Y/N’s heart was about to explode watching him read the story, and she grinned at how much he seemed to be enjoying himself. He read well for kids, with just the right amount of inflection and exuberance. Their lesson/good morning video/storytime came out better than Y/N could have hoped, and she was practically bouncing out of her seat by the time she got it sent out to the parents.

She took a second to look up from her desk and appreciate Morgan after she hit send. He was sliding around the kitchen in his socks, making god-knows-what for lunch. She’d been right the first time they’d met, when he’d quite literally swept her off her feet. She was in for trouble. Morgan was acting like last night was just another night, but she remembered the two forehead kisses. He was never that affectionate, and Y/N was going to need him to not be that affectionate ever again if he wasn’t gonna kiss her for real. Morgan looked up as she was thinking it, meeting her eyes with a smirk.

“I know I’m just too hot to handle, but you could admire me from here too. Your lunch is ready.” He was holding out a plate of what looked like Kraft mac and cheese like it was something worthy of Iron Chef. “I made mac. It’s a cheat day and I’m taking full advantage.”

Y/N laughed. “I’m sure you are. Kraft and Harry Potter?” Morgan ran into the room before she could finish speaking, a plate of the mac and cheese in each hand.

“You know I’m totally a Gryffindor, right, Red Sox?”

#good idea ML #morgan rielly imagine #nhl imagines #nhl imagine

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artificialqueens · 4 years

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At last we find each other (Branjie) - Thorpe

A/N: Long time, no see! So basically I’m staying on brand. It was “Those long van rides”’s first birthday on the third, and the best way to celebrate fics is with more fics, don’t you think? So here it goes, my 5+1 story, that would not grace your screens for a couple months more if it wasn’t for Pinkgrapefruit, Freyja, and, most importantly, Dane. Neither it would without the most amazing beta this fandom knows, Meggie. I’m so excited to be able to show you my work again, so without further ado - enjoy xx

Five times Brooke Lynn and Vanjie didn’t meet, and one time the did

In fairytales, if two people are meant to be together, their paths will cross eventually. That’s how fate works.

But life is not a fairytale.

They were at yet another pageant. Vanjie still couldn’t believe how many of them could be organized in the span of a single month - all mixing into one feast of colours, sequins, and foundation too orange to match anyone’s skin tone. They used to be busy before, but with Alexis’s career taking off, “busy” was an understatement. It was only for the good, though. More bookings meant better money and people catching interest in him as well - two things no young queen would complain about. He was enjoying a brief moment of a break before they had to get ready for their performance, all the hustle and bustle of the contest beginning to wear his ever-so-cheerful persona off.

The talent show segment had just begun and Alexis was going in as one of the last girls. Good - they’ll end it with a bang. Vanessa felt a rush of excitement just at the thought of what they had prepared, jumps and twirls and drops he was ready to slay. He was backstage of the venue, peeking through the slit between the glittering silver of the curtains from where he was leaning on the wall. It was hotter than concrete probably should be, but then again - with strong lights everywhere, poor air conditioning, and pressure so high it was clawing at the ceiling - everything there was too hot for comfort. He didn’t have the time to get a good look at the other contestants since their arrival - there were way too many of them, and he was hungry, so once he clapped and whooped as his drag mother charmed the jury, he went on to look for the buffet. Judging from what he could see now, he hadn’t lost much. The curvy redhead on the stage did have some good moves, Vanjie had to admit that, but watching her struggle with her wig constantly getting tangled up in the embroidered material of her sleeves was far more entertaining than the performance itself. Yeah, Alexis had this title sewn up, whichever it was. He chuckled under his breath. Almost on cue, one of the other back-up dancers came looking for him, gesturing to follow her.

“Alexis wants us to go through the routine once more,” she said over the high pitched voice of the host announcing another contestant, her expression reflecting the exasperation Vanessa felt. He rolled his eyes.

“Hoe’s crazy, she a drag queen or cardio instructor? Hope ya have that mug all set, I tell you that! Mama gon’ whoop your ass if you get on that stage looking busted.” Cackling louder than he should, he uncrossed his arms and used them to push himself off the wall to stand straight. As he was following her down the corridor, he heard the audience cheer louder and more enthusiastically than before. Curious, he tried to look back, but was already too far to see a tall blonde entering the stage in pointe shoes, so he simply shrugged and rushed to keep up with his companion.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Brooke sounded more than skeptical, brows furrowed, as he took in the sight of his friend. Steve was sitting on the bathroom floor - body sluggish against the wall and face the shade of pale that borders on greenish.

“Yeah, must have eaten something off. You and your damn seafood,” he mumbled, probably aiming for a querulous tone, but coming off tired at best, his eyes closed and temple resting on the cool tiles.

“Oh, hold on, bitch, don’t blame me. It was you who came up with the idea!” His mocked offence was soon alleviated by gentle hand coming to rub one of the sickly looking man’s shoulders as he crouched next to him. “You want me to get you anything? Water or something?”

A small ’Water would be nice’ was directed towards his back, as he got up not waiting for the answer, determined to come up with something that would help his friend. He frowned at how weak it sounded and tried to remember some the home remedies his mum used to prepare. Citrus, maybe, or was it for cold? Muttering to himself, he looked at the cabinets with puzzled expression, trying to figure out where the glasses could be. He found them on his first try, realizing Steve’s Chicago apartment was organized just like his old one back in Toronto. He smiled at the memories of all the evenings they spent there, only to wake up in a state similar to Steve’s present one on the next morning.

“I didn’t find anything with ginger, but this will do.” Coming back to his friend’s misery den, he used his chin to point at a mug of chamomile tea he was carrying on a small tray. “And water with lemon, it should help… I think.”

“Won’t be worse than it is now, eh?” Steve lifted the corner of his lips in a crooked, but warm smile. Brooke let out a little laugh and sat by his side, carefully placing the tray on the floor within arm’s reach. “Don’t get all comfortable here, you better start getting ready if we want to make it to the show.”

“Actually, I thought we’d pass on Roscoe’s tonight, you know? You’re not quite killing it on the dance floor right now.” Canadian queen bumped shoulders with the shorter man, raising an eyebrow at him with a smirk when he huffed.

“With a little help of my lovely nurse Hytes here, I’ll be back in shape in no time.” Not bothering with a response, he just glared at the still awfully pale face. “Don’t look at me like that, Brock. You didn’t come all this way to sit in my bathroom. We’re going out.”

“Listen up, bitch. What I came all this way for was to see my best friend. If I cared about clubs I might have just as well stayed in Nashville.” Both his voice and eyes were unusually stern, warning against raising any protest. Soon his face softened as he placed a hand on top of the other man’s one and squeezed it. “I’ve missed you. And if freezing my ass out on those hideous tiles means spending time with you, you can bet I’m down for it.”

“You really are the best, B, you know that?” Steve turned his palm around and squeezed Brooke’s in return, looking up at his friend.

“I do,” the blonde followed back quickly, sly smile widening to an amused grin as the bearded man shoved him playfully. They both leaned back in comfortable silence, Steve sipping his tea, and their hands still interlocked loosely. After a bit, Brooke remembered something. “Who’s performing tonight, anyway?”

“Uhm, some of the local girls, regulars mostly. But there’s someone new, from Florida, I think. Heard she’s a great dancer, really turning it out.” Steve noticed his friend’s sparking interest at his words. “You’re sure you wanna miss out on that?”

“Positive. If she’s really that good I’ll probably get to see her somewhere else, too.” Brooke nodded before helping himself up. “Now, I wasn’t joking about freezing out. We’re either moving to the couch, or I’m building a pillow fort here, you decide.”

The bouncing of his own leg started to annoy him, but it’s not like he had much else to do. For what felt like the millionth time, and probably was pretty close to that in reality, Vanessa let his eyes wander over the departures hall of the Tampa Airport. Children playing tag - or another game that required running around the two huge metal flower pots and screaming like little banshees - on his right, an older woman lifting her crossword to the harsh white lighting and squinting her eyes behind big glasses before writing in another answer, black plastic of the three empty seats, a teenager in headphones tapping to the rhythm on the handrail, young, dog-tired couple with a baby - or just a bundle of blankets from his perspective, a blonde dozing off with her head on another girl’s lap, and a row of windows on the left. He studied the dirt in the corners of the frames and the pattern on the hackneyed green carpet, not even hoping to notice something new, having spent almost two hours on memorizing every spot and abrasion. Slowly, he transferred his gaze to one of the screens, his usual Duracell Bunny attitude long worn out, to once again discover that nothing had changed. Father rocking the baby in his arms, young boy’s fingers twitching to the slightly faster tempo, another crossword solved, and the same red letters arranged into the word ‘DELAYED’ next to the number of his flight.

The Puerto Rican squirmed in his place - another futile attempt to make himself more comfortable - thinking on a way to convince RuPaul to speed up the season premiere. He needed big gigs with bigger tips to start coming, so that he could pay for the VIP lounge and not deal with those cheap-ass plastic fuckers anymore. Did she have a dog? Or a cat? Maybe he could kidnap it and demand the tapes as a ransom, smuggle it into his bag or something. The sudden scratching of the loudspeakers interrupted his inner contemplation of whether Riley would take to their potential hostage. The voice of a bored woman didn’t sound sorry at all as it was sincerely apologizing for the inconvenience (inconvenience his ass, it was a hell of fucking disaster) and regretfully informing that the delayed flight to Nashville was canceled . Just like that, Vanjie was back at 10, jumping from his seat, ready to throw hands at the first airport worker he saw. He had to settle for muttering curses in two languages, as complaints and grunts took up all the air in the hall. He unlocked his phone and angrily tapped on one of the contacts.

“Miss Vanjie.” He rolled his eyes at the greeting Kameron chose, exasperation fading slightly. “Shouldn’t you be on a plane right now?”

“Child, don’t even tell me.” There it was, anger back to its full form. “Been here for hours, waiting for my gate to be announced, all patient and shit, and now they go sayin’ the bitch won’t fly!”

“Wait, what? Nah, girl, you have to be here!” The Nashville queen whined. They wrapped up filming not even two weeks earlier, but all of the season 10 girls already wanted to meet up, and Kameron’s belated birthday party was a perfect occasion for them to catch up and try to get all of the details out of the top four.

“Lemme go find that plane, Imma go there like ‘Hey, Captain Mateo’s on board, where we flyin’?’ Or ain’t it a pilot? Pilot Vanessa ready to take over!” He heard cackling on the other side and felt himself smile a little as well. With a sigh, the tanned man sat down and started playing with loose threads at the hem of his shorts. “I’m sorry Kammy, it cancelled. Won’t make it”

“No way. When’s the next flight?” Bodybuilder Barbie insisted, but seemed a bit distracted, and he could hear some muffled voices coming from the other side.

“Tomorrow. No connecting flights or whatever.” The way regret sounded in his voice brought back the still bitter memory of his elimination, making him feel even worse. Maybe it was better if he harassed Ru into not airing the season at all? “Can’t do that, gotta be home in the evening, ya know she’s a werkin’ woman, baby.”

“Ow, such a shame, we’ve…” Kameron trailed off and he could hear her talking to someone else. “Sorry, Brooke’s helping me set everything here. I haven’t even unpacked all of my stuff yet, she’s a lifesaver.”

“Who dat?” The name sounded familiar, woke up some faint memories of a crowd cheering and anger boiling behind Alexis’s practiced smile as she waved in a runner-up sash. He recalled green eyes catching him staring in the changing room, but he wasn’t sure - maybe it was someone else.

“Brooke Lynn Hytes. You’ve never met her?” Kam was genuinely surprised. “Girl, you’d love her. I bet you’d hit it off- What? Shit, no, I forgot. Uh, sorry, Vanj, I have to go. Talk to you soon, girl!”

“Sure. You guys have fun.” His friend hung up with a final goodbye, and he rubbed his eyes, trying to remember which one of those identical counters he was supposed to go to to get a refund on his ticket. Stepping in the direction of a long queue he noticed a familiar old lady standing in, he tried to shake off the pressing feeling of missing out on something important.

He didn’t act on impulse, he didn’t. He planned his every move and word and decision, instinct to always strive for precision etched into lean body with tired muscles, judging eyes of strict choreographers, and ribbons tightly wrapped around his ankles. Impulsiveness was uncertain ground, and expectations growing heavier with every title and crown needed a solid foundation. And yet, there he was - comfortably seated against his headboard with Apollo curled next to him, hitting the blue icon and opening an empty conversation against his better judgment, not allowing doubts and what ifs to change his mind. The last notes of “To the Moon” still played in the background as his fingers started typing.

Watching past seasons, realistically he had known he wouldn’t make it in the casting because of the green card, but seeing all of the queens that got in - he couldn’t help looking for other reasons that wouldn’t get him through, every single thing they had and he didn’t. Maybe it was the fact he finally got the call himself, his life becoming a frenzy of alterations and toning Courtney’s excitement down, or that he kind of knew Vanessa - saw him performing, stood dumbstruck with eyes struggling to follow impossibly quick movements, relishing in the energy and pure joy his small body radiated - and knew how much more he had to offer, but this time, instead of spotting differences, he found a connection.

‘I don’t wanna get emotional with a lot of people,’ the Latino man had said, unwilling to let his resolve crumble for everyone to witness, but breaking down in a lonely corner with Eureka, and the Canadian felt his heart fall a little with bitter wave of understanding. He listened to the crushed voice talking about his fears of letting his family down, disappointing his mum - fears Brooke Lynn knew all too well; saw him holding a silver statuette and winced at the image of himself being in the exact same position in a couple of months - clutching the cold metal like it could prevent his dreams from shattering down on the floor, dreading the thought of all the sets of eyes trained to the screen at Play Nashville.

But, obviously, he couldn’t have written that, so he set for a short and nice message showing his support, nothing too personal or potentially embarrassing. They didn’t know each other that well and, actually, maybe even reaching out to him after his elimination in the first place would come off as overstepping. After all, it must have been close to a year - Vanjie had surely gotten over it months earlier. For a second his finger hovered over the little arrow, weighing the arguments for and against, but he hastily sent the message before he got to think on it too much. I probably won’t see him anytime soon, anyway, he reassured himself with a deep breath, but once in a while glanced to check if the message was received, imagining short fingers sliding over the screen and plump lips curling in the corners.

Two months later, when his apartment looked more like a Samsonite shop than his usually organized space, he set up three alarms to make sure he got up in time to get to the airport and hesitantly opened his Messenger app, scrolling down to one particular conversation.

After checking if the alarms were turned on, he rolled over. And if his smile was a little sad, it was too dark to tell.

DragCon was fun. He was having fun, it was great. He had his booth dripping with flowers, his silhouette snatched, pink and sparkling - all Barbie fantasy that would not get knocked out the first episode, if he could have gotten his hot glue gun on Cazias’s level (or himself on the sewing machine’s level). There was a line of people who came to support him, waiting to take a photo, gagging on his merch and his lovely mama selling it, and he couldn’t have been more grateful. Even if it all was a bit tiring.

“Hi, gorgeous. Look at that, you look great. Come on, do a twirl. Yes!” He laughed and clapped as a short girl made a turn, long, black braid attached to her hat spinning with her. He pointed at the pentagram sewn on the hat’s brim. “What’s that? You some witch? Mary, if ya lookin’ for Miss Sharon, try again. Ain’t no bobbidi-boo here.”

“I’m in a some sort of a coven, yeah,” she laughed. How excited she seemed didn’t fit with her edgy look - all back and revealing, a crop top with a logo Vanessa didn’t recognize - but it matched her sweet voice and bright smile perfectly. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m here. I’m running to the show, but I saw your booth and just had to stop by. You’re amazing.”

“You so sweet, thank you. Let’s get a photo. A nice, pretty photo with that mug of yours.” He led her to the pink wall and posed. As the girl got her phone back from the photographer and checked the time, she suddenly started gathering her bags in hurry and apologized, adorably rambling about the fashion show she was heading to. Vanjie didn’t catch most of it, just that her friend, B-something, was walking in it, but he cackled regardless, amused with the girl’s babbling, before going to give her a usual hug goodbye. “Say hello to that model friend from me, won’t ya? Bye! Have fun!”

Soon the commotion started to die out a bit, and as he could see the end of the queue approaching, he couldn’t say he wasn’t relieved. His fans always hyped him up, but after hours of feeling the tape pull, laces squeeze, and bottoms of his feet prick from standing in heels, he’d have taken every break he could get.

“Vanjie! Can we talk with you for a second?” Vanessa sighed at the sight of WowPresents’s crew approaching him. That’d be it for his break . “We’re interviewing queens for the promotion videos, and we’ve been asking them about you.”

“That’s why everyone saying ��Miss Vanjie’? It’s just my fucking name. I ain’t mad, though, I love it.” Ever since he appeared in the convention centre there had been people screaming his iconic quote at him at every turn - the crowd providing better acoustic than freaking Grand Canyon, two words constantly echoing in some part of the room.

“Guilty.” The young man holding the microphone laughed. “Could you tell us more about who Miss Vanjie is?”

“Miss Vanjie is a wild, ghetto bitch from Tampa, Florida. Puerto Rican background. And got eliminated first, and is legendary. That’s what Vanessa Vanjie is. With a lotta’ flowers an’ a lotta’ Barbie. They didn’t like it, though, so it got a boot.” He said it like nobody’s business, all cheeky - the nerve everyone loved brought up for the camera. He had had a hard time dealing with his elimination, felt like a failure, and when the ‘Miss Vanjie’ thing blew up, he first thought he was a joke. But as the love and support around him grew, he came to rebuild his confidence. And with season 11 popping up, he felt just that, legendary. “What did those other hoes say ‘bout me?”

The cameraman exchanged a meaningful look with the interviewer. “Actually, why won’t you ask them yourself?”

They were walking through the convention centre, music blasting and people bustling around them, looking for his sisters that hadn’t been interviewed yet. He kept waving to people and screaming through the megaphone in his hand - the sound guy regretted having given it to him after five minutes - as they were approached by a smiling couple and a little boy wearing a feather boa and looking absolutely dumbstruck. He leaped to greet the boy with a bright smile before his mother finished introducing the boy - Noah - as his ‘biggest fan’.

“Ya wanna be a drag queen, little man?” he asked, and the boy eagerly nodded. Vanjie noticed the ballet shoes on his little feet. “Oh, you a dancer? Show me some moves.”

Noah took a step back and stood on his toes to make a turn, ended with a bit shaky arabesque. Vanessa eagerly started applauding him, motioning for the crew to do the same. Noah looked a bit shy and reached for his mum’s hand before speaking, but he smiled back at Vanjie. “I do ballet.”

“A drag queen ballerina? Ya know, someone’s gotta be first,” he smiled warmly. Kids were his favourite part of DragCons, so passionate and creative, and so, so cute. “Gonna keep my fingers crossed for ya. All of ‘em, just watch it.”

Drag queen ballerina , he thought to himself as he bid his goodbye and got the last hug. That’d be something to see.

+1.

Back straight. Shoulders back. Head high.

Breathe in. Hold it. Breathe out. Repeat.

Smooth out the wig. Is that a tangle? No, he brushed it out perfectly, breathe in.

Maybe he messed it up checking? Is there a mirror somewhere? Don’t think, hold it.

Remember your lines. They’re stupid. And boring. He should have thought about something funny. He’s going to make a fool of himself at the very beginning, and now it’s too late to change them, and- Calm down, breathe out.

It’s going to be fine, it’s all going to be fine. It’s not going to be fine, it’s-

A man with headphones, whose name he had heard, but forgot immediately, approached him and gave him a last minute warning, bringing him back from the verge of falling into the spiral. Brooke shook his head - it wasn’t the time to get distracted. He stood at the red line painted on the floor and forced his hand to stay still at his side, despite nervous itching to make sure his hat wasn’t tilted.

“And… you’re on. Come on, good luck.” He opened his eyes, losing the image of smiling Farra, but the encouraging words she would always tell him before every pageant still rang in his head as he started walking towards the streams of bright lights slipping through the pink door frame at the end of the corridor. With every step the screams and laughter got louder, but he couldn’t pick up anything because of the erratic beating of his heart. Breathe in. Hold it. Breathe out. He was almost there, red sequins on his costume glimmering like perfectly cut rubies in the first bits of light already reaching him - making him feel regal, confident, right. Ducking his head a little - just in case - the Northern queen put on his well-practiced smile.

“Is she international?” A loud voice cut through his adrenaline-induced haze, and Brooke automatically turned his head to the left, looking for its source, taken aback for a second upon catching the sight of a smile he knew as good as his own. Without thinking, he rushed to Nina’s side, matching her grin, and fell into familiar embrace. It can’t be that bad with her here, he thought to himself, eyes roaming over heavily painted faces surrounding him, taking in curiosity, furrowed brows, amusement, and- oh .

At the end of the table he saw a short man covered in glitter, though he guessed his skin would have a golden glow even without it. He was clad in red - the shade loud and summoning attention, suiting him perfectly - tight dress hiding toned muscles that had had his gaze lingering a tad too long on Instagram. Full lips curled into the brightest smile he’d seen, showing rows of blindingly white teeth, lighting up the pretty features Brooke knew for a fact weren’t painted on, and bringing a glint to his eyes, which managed to seem playful even behind blue lenses as he returned the Canadian’s ogling with equal interest.

There wasn’t a flutter in his heart, a pang in his chest, or a rush of warmth in the pit of his stomach. It didn’t feel like coming home, like two pieces of puzzle fitting together, or like never having to wonder if he’s enough.

Not yet.

But there was a spark, electrifying the air between them more and more with every quick glance across the room and quirk of lips sealed with a shared secret none of them fully knew, but guarded regardless. And it felt like a promise, like a long time coming change they didn’t realize they had been waiting for until then.

In fairy tales, if two people are meant to be together, their paths will cross eventually. That’s how fate works. But life is not a fairy tale.

Except sometimes, sometimes it is.

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #branjie #fluff #canon compliant #the pre-origins we know nothing about so I made them up #thorpe #concrit welcome #submission

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tippitv · 5 years

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RECAP: Supernatural 15.03 “The Rupture”

Watching episode three and I finally understand the warding logistics better now. Note that just because I understand it better doesn’t mean I think it makes any kind of sense.

So it seems the “mile wide salt circle” encompasses both the town and the cemetery. Like the entire town and entire cemetery and the space in between them is somehow less than a mile wide as seen in the shitty map I made in MS paint last week.

This is poppycock of course. It’s also bizarre that somehow all these demons and ghosts didn’t manage to spread any further out than that in the hours in took the Winchesters et al to evacuate the town and for Belphegor to perform the spell.

I’m so distracted by this that it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief.

Rowena tries to reinforce the warding but there are too many ghosts attacking it. More ghosts keep spewing out of the ground. I think it’s weird that Hell is an actual physical place somewhere under the Earth’s crust while Heaven seems to be some kind of otherworldly dimension that looks like an Apple store.

Rowena’s feeling very defeated. Ruth Connell is doing a much better job than the crummy ghosts we've seen so far would seem to warrant. Her acting makes them seem scary and the situation desperate, whereas the writing for the actual ghost characters is...meh. Dean wants to go fight the ghosts but like… there’s really nothing to be done. Shooting them with iron or rock salt only works for a few minutes at most. To make any dent, you'd need all the salt in the Hannibal fandom after NBC canceled it. Shout out to my Fannibals!

I still think somebody needs to be thinking about contacting Billie. Reapers take souls to their great reward or their eternal punishment, I feel like they’d have some useful input. Plus I just want to see Billie again because Lisa Berry is dreamy.

Also Belphegor is such a weaselly jerk about the whole thing. I won't miss that guy. He's the Martin Shkrelli of demons. Shout out to everyone who hates jacked up pharmaceutical prices!

Sam says they're out of ideas. That's because y'all haven't sat around reading books out loud to each other for half an episode!

Jack mentions something called "Lilith's Crook." Ah, Martin Shkrelli again. He has to explain it's that curved stick thing shepherds use while everyone is being ignorant. "Thing's actually more of a horn," he says. She designed it to control demons on Earth while she was in Hell. You'd think that kind of thing would've come up when Lilith was topside but no! Also there really should've been a call back to that. "You know Lilith... you killed her to let Lucifer out?" That kind of thing.

They work out a plan for Belph to summon the demons and ghosts back to Hell and the Rowena can heal the big spewing fistula in the earth. She wants Sam to assist her, which makes me

Dean coolly volunteers Castiel to accompany Belph. "You've been to Hell before." Cas should've been like, "Yeah to grip your ass tight and raise it from Perdition!" Also how's he supposed to get out again?

Aw jeez here's Ketch in his hospital room. I hope the only reason he's in this episode is to die. The nurse doesn't want to clear him for discharge so a pretty doctor walks in and kills her with a telekinetic neck snap. And that's why we have a nursing shortage in this country! Oh the doctor is Ardat, the demon who hired Ketch to kill Belph.

Fisticuffs ensue even though she could just pin him in place with demonic power. When he refuses to give up the Winchesters, she rips out his heart and shows it to him. He Pikachu faces at her.

I mean, did she really need to ask him? Wouldn't the most likely place be the mile-wide anti-ghost dome? She texts Dean pretending to be Ketch.

Belphegor goads Castiel about his friends sacrificing him, so Cas pushes him down into the ghost fistula. Lol. It doesn't shut him up for long, though. As they wander around Hell, Belph continues to sow the seeds of doubt. Anyway, opening the chest that contains the Doohickey of the Week requires Castiel to sing an Enochian song of praise, but we cut away on the third note. BOO.

Also, having now met Lucifer the whiny petulant manbaby, it's really hard to understand why Lilith or anyone would be so devout for so long. Maybe it's because he was locked in the cage so they didn't actually experience a lot of his pouting. It's all I can think of.

Before Castiel can hand over the Doohickey, Ardat knocks him out of the way. She looks like Joanna Gaines. Maybe she IS Joanna Gaines!

Castiel and Ardat fight. She tries to warn him about Belphegor, but he pops up behind her and kills her with Cas's fallen angel blade. Now we'll never know what she was gonna say! I bet he ends up just blabbing it out himself in the time-honored tradition of villains talking too much.

Indeed, he goes on about how the crook/horn is actually a leash/siphon. This thing is the Swiss Army knife of Doohickeys. He's going to blow the horn and suck all the demons and ghosts into himself to gain their powers. "I'll be a god!"

So while Belph is blowing and sucking, Sam and Rowena and Dean are dirtside working the spell. Ghosts are zooming back down the hole like the Indiana Jones Ark of the Covenant scene in reverse. Castiel tackles Belph and punches him in the face a lot which seems like the equivalent of flicking a dandelion at a law mower to stop it.

Improbably, it hurts jazzed-up Belphegor enough that he pretends to be Jack again to get Cas to stop beating him. Castiel screws up all his angel power and somehow kills him even though there's a buttload of evil spirits in him. Jack's empty body burns like a Thanksgiving turkey left on broil all day.

The ground starts sealing up but something's wrong. Rowena uses a knife to gouge out a "resurrection sachet" she's been keeping buried under her skin. It's why she came back after Lucifer killed her, if you'll recall. It takes Sam a minute to catch on that she intends to sacrifice herself in one final spell. He has to be the one to kill her because prophecy and she can't bring herself to to it for a lot of good reasons.

Now, I don't understand here. She says she's going to absorb all the demons and ghosts, throw herself into Hell, and they'll be trapped. But... didn't Belphegor absorb them? Or a lot of them? I hate that Ruth is doing such a great job and this just feels like forced drama.

Speaking of forced drama. Castiel returns to the surface and tells Dean he killed Belphegor. This could be cleared up with a five second explanation but he makes a lot of pained faces while Dean berates him for ruining their one chance. Forced drama.

Sam reluctantly stabs her in the lower belly... you know, in the uterus area... and she becomes a vessel... with her uterus absorbing all the evil...

"Goodbye boys," she says as she Last of the Mohicans throws herself into the abyss.

Well, it's better than Charlie's death but I still don't like it.

All the surviving team members return to the bunker for the denouement. Sam is taking things pretty hard, which is to be expected, so Dean goes to check on him. "God threw one last apocalypse at us and we beat it," he says to baby bro. Oh honey.

Anyway we're all pretty sure Rowena's going to be running Hell now, right? RIGHT??

Now we come to the part where Dean and Castiel act out a bad soap opera scene. It's just a thin reason to get them to break up for a while. Maybe in the final season they couldn't work Misha into the budget for every episode or maybe the writers couldn't think of more for Castiel to do. So he's gotta go off and it couldn't just be because "you know my surrogate son just died and I need time."

No it's gotta be all "you always screw up our plans!" and "you don't trust me!" and "are you hearing that romantically sad cello music or is it just me?" and "it's not just you but now I must leave GOOD BYE!"

Onward and upward, readers! Stay tuned for the next recap.

In the meantime, please reblog if you enjoyed this recap and drop by my Ko-Fi tip Jar if you're able. Henry Hound and I are perpetually trying to make ends meet and appreciate your help!

https://ko-fi.com/A4017DA

#supernatural #spn recap #my recaps #tippitv #the rupture

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mikewheelerr · 5 years

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Fairy Lights ♡ Hanzier

a/n: This is my @itfandomprompts Secret Santa Gift for @boopboopbichie, you asked for some cute christmassy fluff, specifically the whole “decorating the house for christmas” theme; have a cute first date AND first kiss, too. This wouldn’t be half as cute as it is now without my best friend’s @hypnoidvoid amazing work on editing this for me, thank you so much I love you to death. EnJOY!

warnings: ...Richie curses in spanish

“Come on, Richie, everyone has a crush on Mike.” Stan said, looking up from his raspberry milkshake. The straw was still resting on his plump bottom lip, and his eyes were playful, hiding a fond smile. “But I can help you with asking him out.”

Richie ran a hand through his curls, and stared at him. They were at the college diner, a tuesday afternoon before the holiday season, and more importantly, before finals. “And you’re gonna help me with asking him out after he dumped you?”

“Well yeah, dipshit. We’re friends,” Stan sipped on his milkshake.

Richie did the same, still looking at him, “Mike is the only guy who can turn you down and still be your best friend. Also he didn’t dump me, he was with someone else when I asked him out, just so you know.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.”

“So…” Richie muttered, “he had a boyfriend?”

“Jesus Richie, no! A girlfriend.” Richie’s eyes widened at that, almost choking and spilling out his banana milkshake. He widened his eyes at Stan, the latter curly haired man holding back a laugh, his dimples deeply creviced within his cheeks.

“Stan the traitor man! Does he still have a girlfriend?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to see for yourself,” Stan said, analyzing one of the books he had on the table. Richie’s messy handwriting was around all of the texts and images among various messily drawn penises all over the pages.

“You wound me.”

“I don’t know why I let you write on my books, honestly. You haven’t stopped drawing dicks since third grade-‘’

“I counted on you. Un corazón a menos.”

“Richie, what?” Stan looked up, smiling at him.

“My heart’s in shreds, Stanley. Or something like that. Thinking of finally asking the hot cashier out was what kept me going during these finals all this time,” Richie huffed, leaning his chin on his hand, glasses askew on his face.

“Now I gotta make some field research, since UCLA’s most unreliable jew who’s also my best friend since I was a kid, didn’t want to fill me in on the fact that he might not even like the forbidden fruit!” Richie said, not even losing his breath after talking so much in such a short amount of time. Stan checked for any signs that indicated Richie actually had to breathe, and there were none. Impressive.

“Christ, so dramatic. Forbidden fruit? Richie,” Stan laughed. Richie looked up at him with a huff before smiling and retrieving a second paper straw from his fanny pack, and sipping more of his milkshake.

“How many straws do you even have. I’m pretty sure you’ve been using this red one for three days. It’s all… shrunken.”

“Recycling is the key, Stanny.” Richie tapped the purple fannypack across his chest. The accessory carried straws, pens, Richie’s ID, his phone and countless packs of gum and mints and the trash he produced with them during the week: it demanded a decluttering at the end of every day, however. Richie only actually did it when Stan dragged him in front of a dumpster outside random classrooms around campus.

“Richie on a more serious note, I don't think he still has a girlfriend. From what I’ve gathered, he’s a pretty open guy. Stick to the plan and ask him out on Christmas. It’s gonna be fine. Mike’s a nice guy,” Stan assured him, holding Richie’s gaze.

They kept on studying, Stan rewriting Richie’s messy notes and Richie tapping on the diner’s table every so often. It no longer bothered Stan how fidgety Richie was. As the time passed by, he learned to separate the obnoxious sounds Richie would start to make after about five minutes of silence. He didn’t mind it one bit, he knew Richie couldn’t control it. If anything, it was fun to watch other people get bothered about it. It made them leave after some time and that left the whole place for him and Richie.

Richie woke up the next day to the sound of slamming on his door. Initially, he considered pretending he wasn’t there, which wouldn’t be a surprise. When Stan had told him he would spend the night at Bill’s dorm, it was almost too hard to believe.

“No way!”

“Yes. It’s our third date.”

“You’re sleeping over at his place? Staniel… Woo Hoo!”

“Yes. I am,” Stan chanted, neatly packing a change of clothes. He eyed Richie, “Mike will probably be there, you know. I could try and get you in his good graces before you ask him out.”

Richie hugged Stan as he cried out, “Stan the Man!”

“I will not be there for Mike, though. I’ll be there for Bill. If he still thinks I’m not gay I will, respectfully, throw a fit,” Stan huffed, packing one of the books he shared with Richie into his bag.

“He still didn’t get the hint?” Richie laughed.

“Well after today if he needs any further indication that I’m gay, I think all the dicks you draw on my books will be good enough,” Stan admitted.

“Richie!” Stan said behind the door and Richie opened one of his eyes. Did he forget his keys?

“Finals have been canceled!”

That made him open the other eye, surging up on his bed.

“What?!”

“Open the door-“

“WHAT?”

“Yeah! Open the door, dude!”

He heard Bill. Bill was there too?

Richie jostled out of his bed, the blinding light inside the room making him reach in front of him with his hands, using his muscle memory to feel his way towards the door. He opened it with a creak, and Stan and Bill stepped inside to shut the door behind them. They looked at Richie amusedly.

“You forgot your keys?” Richie mumbled at Stan.

“I went straight here and left my bag at Bill’s, we already passed this semester. Our teachers came down with chickenpox.”

“Wahh?” Richie blindly blinked.

“Yeah. One of Mr. Hill’s children passed it on to all of them,” Bill expressed with a snide smile on his face.

“We t-thought substitute teachers would do it, but turns out none of our teachers…. I talked to some of the teachers, including Stan’s chemistry teacher, cause he- has fi-finals and you too,” and Richie noticed the blush creeping up Bill’s cheeks as he mentioned his talk with Stan’s teacher. He shot a look at Stan, who was already looking at him with a proud look on his face, “L-Like as soon as I heard it, they said they didn’t even have the exams ready. And I have no idea if they’ll decide to do something else when we get back, but we got lucky for now at least. The grades you have now will be your final grades.”

“Oh?” Richie chirped, looking at Stan to continue, “Wait..”

“There’s probably a new rule or something. They really talked about not applying the exams at all.”

“What!?”

“Yes. We already got 75% of our grade. A+ for me, A- for you.”

“But wait, what happened exactly?” Richie asked in a haze of his own waking trance from sleep. Stan figured Richie didn’t hear anything except that finals were canceled.

“They said Mr. Hill’s son, or I think it probably was Mr. Hill himself, had the chickenpox while he was here. Our teachers and Bill’s came down with it. I don’t know about all of the teachers but ours at least canceled exams.”

“Christ,” Richie mused. Bill perked one of his eyebrows up at that, noticing how Stan’s saying showed off to Richie. Stan sometimes would draw dicks around the ones Richie drew, so Bill could only imagine they were… learning from each other. Richie looked at Bill for the first time, truly noticing that they was actually in his dorm. Bill had a backpack strung across his shoulders.

“Well good morning to you man,” and Richie looked at Stan and winked, “You’re going home today?”

“No, but good morning Rich,” Bill said, following Stan and sitting on his own bed. They sat very close together, and the smile on Stan’s face warmed Richie’s heart. He smiled.

“Yeah Stan and I are going back to Derry, you can come too and stay with us! But, Mike— he’s still there.” Bill gave Richie a sympathetic look.

“Oh my god,” Richie squeaked, peering at Stan.

“Now is the time, Rich,” Stan said. He looked at Bill and he quickly retrieved his keys from his pockets and gave them to Stan.

“Here: one, five, three. Red opens the door, and if Mike isn't there, will you get my bag?”

“Okay okay okay,” and Richie grabbed the keys and scurried out of his dorm, going on a messy and strange strut to where he could only imagine the 153th dorm was located at. He found it pretty quickly too, to his surprise. The knock on the door came out as a bit of a slam.

The door opened, and Richie’s eyes widened comically as he saw Mike Hanlon standing there.

“Good morning,” Mike smiled. “How’s it going, Richie?”

“Hi,” Richie said. He stared at Mike, biting at his inner bottom lip. So Mike remembered him?

“Oh, sorry. Were you looking for your friend, Stan? He left a while ago with Bill. It’s just me.”

“No it’s you. It’s you I’m looking for,” Richie rushed out. “Fuck, this sounds creepy. But Stan told me you might be heading out since finals are- might be canceled for you, so I came here now.”

“Oh! Do you want to come in?” Mike stepped back, opening the door further. Richie gave him a nervous smile before entering his dorm and turning back to him, delving his hands into in his pant pockets. Except there were…. no pockets? He looked down only to see his pajama pants printed with cartoon ducks. Oh.

Mike was already looking at him and he let out a grin. “Those are great PJ’s.”

Richie laughed, “Thanks my dude.” He was already there in his ridiculously ugly pajamas instead of minimally presentable clothing like Mike was wearing, so he might as well just deal with it. They were, after all, his favorites.

“They’re my favorite. It says Trashmouth on the back. See?” Richie turned, craning his head to the side and looking back at Mike as best as he could.

It was a cute thing to do, Mike thought.

“I see it, it’s uh… it’s awesome. I have a few pairs of duck pajamas too,” Mike said jokingly. “So… everything okay?” His tone was slightly serious now, but still warm.

“Yeah… Everything is fine,” Richie said, looking up at Mike, “Iwaswondering if…. a date…. with me…. you, yeah maybe you, go… Jesus,” Richie garbled.

“I—”

“Sorry. I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me sometime, man,” Richie said, with a nervous laugh. He analyzed his feet, but then he looked up.

This was Mike.

“I’ve been thinking about asking you out after finals, it really motivated me to study and carry on with it, and I’ve been noticing you all year so…. figured I should give it a try,” Richie further explained. Mike’s eyes were as warm as ever, yet, he still seemed a little shocked. Maybe.

He continued, “But it’s cool. I’m already really fucking crazy to ask you out, respectfully. I’m doing this out of the blue and I don’t even really know if you’re gay, I thought Stan knew, but I just found out he doesn’t and he just said you’re kind, and yeah you are, but I’m still sorry, like it can be a no homo thing. No homo. Only-if-you-want homo thing. Or not. A thing, uh, I don’t know Mike I’m so sorry dude I promise I’m not this creepy I’m just ramblin-” Richie inhaled, the blush on his cheeks making his whole face warm. His fingers were slightly trembling and he forgot how all this had felt this year. It kinda sucked.

“You’re not creepy, Richie,” Mike chuckled. Richie couldn’t fully understand it, but even he would notice the difference of mood. Out of all the smiles, the Mike Hanlon smile was the brightest.

“Yes, I’ll go on a homo date with you. I have a crush on you too, dude.”

“Oh? Okay okay, really?” Richie perked up at that, staring at Mike.

“Yes, I’ve had my eye on you since you had green hair,” Mike laughed, and Richie started to cackle.

“Oh my God, Mike, wowowowow,” he laughed, eyes bright at Mike. Richie Tozier may have been the strangest, yet cutest guy Mike had ever met.

“Why did you wait until finals were over?” Mike asked.

“Why didn’t you ask me out when I had green hair?” Richie countered.

“I guess fair is fair,” Mike said. “And that was way before my girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend,” Richie’s face fell.

“Yeah. Oh, well, we’re not dating anymore,” Mike assured him. The butterflies creeping up in their bellies was the best feeling they both had in a long time.

“Yet,” Mike corrected. Richie perked up one of his eyebrows at that, and smirked.

“Misión cumplida. Éxito. Aí carajo,” Richie cheered. “So um… When can we go on our date?”

“I’m going to Derry soon with Stan and Bill, are you going there too?”

“Nah, my parents are in Boston for the holidays. I’ll go there for Christmas and New Years,” Richie said, frowning.

“Okay… Well if you don’t mind seeing a place you’re more than acquainted with... do you like decorating for Christmas?” Mike asked. The way Richie’s eyes brightened at that could only be accurately interpreted by the unevenness of his contact lenses; the film on his left eye suddenly popped out of his iris, falling down on Mike’s flooring with a small, lewd pop.

“Oh!” Mike laughed as Richie stared down at the floor. There was no way he would find it without his glasses, or one contacted eyeball. Mike walked over to him and easily picked up his contact lens from the floor, “I was wondering how you were seeing me.”

“Now I’m seeing you barely at all,” Richie said with a somewhat shy smile as he opened his hand for Mike to drop the contact lens on it. “I was only wearing one.”

“Brave!”

“Unprepared,” Richie looked up at the blur that was Mike now. “When can I come?”

“Today, if you want. I still gotta take my last exam in a few hours but I already have the decorations here.”

“It’s a date!” Richie smiled. “See you at…”

“Seven?”

“Neato, see you at seven,” Richie said and added, “Oh, is Stan’s bag here? You know, vintage, brown, boring?”

Mike walked to the corner of the room and retrieved Stan’s bag from the wardrobe, “Here it is.”

“Thank you. See ya,” Richie said and felt his way to the door. Once Mike closed the door, his excited ‘WOOOOO’ was heard by the whole building, but he did not care at all, and neither did Mike.

It was precisely 6:30 when Richie arrived at Mike’s door: glasses, damp hair, a pair of black jeans, vans, and bomber jacket. He didn’t even have to knock for Mike to open the door. Mike quickly revealed himself, wearing grey casual pants and a plain white shirt under a warm dark sweater. The giddy smiles they shared when they first saw each other stayed for the whole night.

“Hello Richie.”

“Hewwo,” Richie said walking in.

“Woah!” He halted his feet, turning back to Mike, “...a Christmas tree?!”

There it was, right in the middle of the small room. It barely fit the room, standing tall and proud and green. “Oh my God. How did you fit this in here without getting caught?” Richie asked, grinning and caressing the tree, “Holy shit, is this tree real?”

“Got it after my final exam,” Mike proudly explained, standing beside Richie and smiling at him. “I got an A, and even with the A I still got caught.”

Richie turned to him and raised his eyebrows, “You did?”

“Yeah, I talked them out of snitching by giving them some chocolate pudding. It wasn’t hard.”

“When you say ‘them’ you mean…”

“The monitor and Mrs. Spinoza,” Mike said, laughing as Richie began to cackle.

“Amazing.”

“Shall we begin?” Mike asked and Richie nodded, rubbing his hands on the front of his jeans. His palms hadn’t stopped sweating since he left Mike’s dorm earlier, and he didn’t feel like it would ever stop. And, strangely, he didn’t want it to.

There were two big boxes sitting in the corner of the room and they opened them together. They were filled with fairy lights, ribbons of assorted colors, stringed candy, candles, sparkled garlands, colorful ball ornaments, and, “Pom Poms?” Richie asked, cradling three red pom poms in his hands.

“Time for you to discover one of Richie Tozier’s many hidden talents, chap,” and he started juggling them, gleaming at Mike with a prideful grin.

“They’re really fancy— you can juggle?” Mike asked, perplexed as Richie kept going.

“Uh huh,” Richie said, “they get my hands tired though, I’m only doing it to impress ya.”

“Well, I’m impressed. Good job.”

“All according to plan,” Richie smiled, stopping his movements.

He went to the second box after Mike opened it, and it was full of more ball ornaments and a star topping. Only these were… “Rainbow ornaments?” Richie asked, excited. It was time for Mike’s cheeks to get warm.

“Yeah. Hope it’s subtle enough,” he said, fake-shuffling through the box. Richie was staring at his profile at that, a dumbstruck smile on his face. The Christmas lights were hung first, and Richie was eager to flip them on to illuminate the tree.

“It’s magic, Mikey,” Richie sweetly smiled, his eyes beacons of blue light.

They talked about school, family back in Derry, and about their friends. Conversation flowed perfectly between them, and at some point none of them hesitated to talk about how they felt. Their giddy smiles grew exponentially, there was no embarrassment in saying how much both of them dreamt of something like this, and with each other above all other things.

It was the perfect Christmas, early as it came.

By the end of the night, the Christmas tree was perfectly (their kind of perfect) decorated with rainbow colors, ribbons, pom poms, and lights spurted out where the room solely sparkled with the fairy lights.

Under those lights, they shared their first kiss.

Mike could still taste the warmed chocolate pudding on Richie’s lips. Richie could feel the candle wax he accidentally splashed across Mike’s face earlier when he reached up to touch his own lips to Mike’s soft ones.

It was perfect.

Their families were too far apart for them to actually spend Christmas together, but they had certain friends in common that would do anything they had to, to make that happen.

And above all, they had each other.

#hanzier #writing #rarepair secret santa

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jbuffyangel · 6 years

Text

The Weekly Rundown (10/07/18-10/13/18)

Sorry so late! I’m getting caught up on articles. Almost there :) Time to rundown what I’m watching, loving, hating and everything in between! Spoilers ahead!

God Friended Me (”The Good Samaritan”)

Confession time: I didn’t pay very close attention to this week’s episode, but Miles and Cara continue to be adorable. Pretty sure I ship it.

Manifest (”Turbulence”)

I’m not really feeling the chemistry between Josh Dallas and Athena Karkanis. However, the chemistry between Melissa Roxburgh and JR Ramirez is smoldering.

Josh Dallas is my blue eye baby who makes me feel all the things. He conveyed so many emotions without saying a word in the scene where Ben and Grace discussed the man in her life. WOW!

I want to believe Grace is in love with Ben and not Danny (because it's Josh Dallas and that's all the reason she needs), but I'm not buying it... yet

The whole twins being different ages is a never ending mind bender.

Seriously though what did Ben do for a living?

The Gifted (“coMplications”)

All I want is for Marcos to hold Dawn forever and snuggle with Lorna. Why can’t I have the things that I want?

But seriously though these Marcos and baby scenes are killing me.

Marcos fighting the Frost sister’s mind control was amazing. He was ready to tear everything apart to get his Lorna and his baby. SO HOT.

Andy, buddy what are you doing? Sure, they gave you a better hair cut and cool clothes, but Reeva is crazy. Tell me you know that boy!

I’m having trouble understanding why Reed didn’t want to tell his wife and daughter his powers were coming back. He has two mutant children! They tried to equate Lauren’s fear of “coming out” to Reed’s but it’s just not the same. He was her parent and he hunted mutants. She legitimately feared her father’s rejection. Reed isn’t in the same situation at all and I see no reason to for him to be lying to everyone for months.

Kate hugs Reed once he tells her the truth, which is nice, but were we really expecting her to reject him? Did the writers forget they have two mutant children?

The Gifted blew past all the build up to Clarice and John’s relationship and now they’ve sewn the seeds for the break up - in the third episode. This whole “Clarice is a spy for the Erg and lies to John about it” storyline is only going one place. John is doing his fair share of lying and pushing Clarice away. Needless to say I am unhappy with how this relationship is being handled.

F.B.I. (“Green Birds” and “Prey”)

Finally got caught up on F.B.I. I thought “Prey” was a much stronger episode than “Green Birds.”

I am so glad they cast Sela Ward! I love her. Her character is much more likable as Maggie and Omar’s boss.

I’m here for Omar doing hot things because Omar is hot. I feel warm every time he talks about his military experience.

Still a little iffy about this show, but I’ll stick with it for now.

This Is Us (Katie Girls)

The depth of my hate for Jack's father knows no bounds.

"Or you can stay and I'll kill him." Honestly, I was okay with that option too Jack.

Randall is a mess watching his brother's movie and I stan this bromance so hard.

I am really freaking glad Randall is taking Kate on because I AM SO MAD AT HER.

Well that conversation swerved quickly. Stay on point Randall.

Okay well now we're off on a whole other thing and Kate is crying. Good grief children.

Not sure how Randall & Kate's discussion became a fight about adoption. The point was to discuss Kate's insensitivity regarding her remark about being the only person able to pass on Jack's genes. How did she turn it into Randall's insensitivity about her miscarriage?

Beth, Miguel and Toby having a group text to discuss their messed up in laws is AMAZING.

Randall is terrible at apologizing but also WHY IS HE APOLOGIZING?

I'm trying to hang with my girl Kate here. I've had a miscarriage and it's devastating, but your personal pain is not an excuse to be hurtful to others. Understanding where Randall was coming from was not a long bridge to cross.

I am so relating to Kevin putting the pieces together regarding Jack's service.

Beth got fired? NOOOOOO. My Beth!

Toby's reaction to Randall showing up was gold.

KATE AND JACK ARE DREAM SEQUENCING AND I AM NOT OKAY. Btw Jack could you advise Kate to stop being such a jackass to Randall? Thanks bro.

Awkward Rebecca and Jack is the worst. You are soul mates kids. Get it together.

Jack wants to marry you Rebecca and have lots and lots of babies. You are his dream.

I hope Randall and Beth have 9 months of savings. Suze Orman says you need 9 months of savings.

Marriage is never 50/50. But I think Beth and Randall have been going 90/10 for awhile and it's time for that ratio to shift.

I love how the writers find commonality in their characters in ways you never thought of before. Randall and Toby sharing their struggles with depression and anxiety was such a beautiful way to bond these characters

Kate wanted to marry Mark Paul Gosselar. Same girl.

"You came across the country to say you are sorry. That's the most Dad move ever." HELLO KATE. NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN. You could have added that he didn't need to apologize and you are the one who is sorry but I don't want to editorialize too much. Carry on.)

Rebecca pulled a Jack Pearson on Jack Pearson. EPIC.

Marry you the man who does dishes.

A Million Little Things (”Save The Date”)

HOLY. FREAKING. CRAP. THEY. ALL. FOUND. OUT. That was fast y’all! Wow!

If we’re blowing past the big affair secret does that mean we’ll find out the reason John killed himself? It’s an annoying mystery. Cough up the answers, show.

All the awards to Grace Park. She’s been sadly under utilized on this show until now and boy did she come out swinging. The scenes where she confronts Eddie and Delilah were amazing.

I cheered when Grace slapped Eddie. I have no sympathy for him. He’s cheating because his wife is gone at work all the time? It’s called a mortgage jackass. Guitar lessons aren’t going to get it done.

It irritates me when people act like they have no choice in who they sleep with. Eddie is walking around like falling in love with Delilah was an accident. Listen pal you are a grown ass man. You made choices. Own it. Cheating is such a mean thing to do. Nobody is forcing anyone to stay in these marriages. Get a divorce before you go hopping into bed with someone else.

I’m only slightly less angry with Delilah but that’s only because her husband jumped off a building. Her scene where she screams to friends to ask if she was the reason John killed himself was gutting. Guit is a bitch.

By the way, even if Jon made his peace with the affair it doesn’t make the affair okay. Also, nobody asked for Katherine’s opinon. Pretty sure she’d tell everyone where to stick if if they’d did though.

I feel like Gary is representing the audience in this episode, i.e. me. I don’t think the writers needed to muddy the water with Gary’s issues with marriage, his parents divorce and his birthday. I understand Jon and Delilah were his shining example of marriage bliss, but we didn’t need to make this about his childhood trauma. His anger was warranted by itself. Delilah and Eddie did an awful thing.

We need to move it along with Maggie’s storyline. She’s the friends-with-benefit-rando-friend-everyone-just-met-but-pretend-like-they’ve-known-her-since-always. Her impermanence in all of these people’s lives makes the level she’s included in things... odd. Let’s get the cancer out in the open and solidify her relationships - particularly with Gary.

Blindspot (“Hella Duplicitous”)

Jane's hair is long. That's how ya know she's evil again

Seriously how do they not know Remi is back? She's so cranky. Jane is much more cheerful. Also, I feel like her voice is three octaves lower.

Remi can fight with samurai swords. Who knew? A list of all of her skills would be great.

Do I call her Remi or Jane y'all? I'm going with Remi for now.

Remi's impression of Jane being worried about Kurt was pretty spot on. Well played evil one.

Anyone else enjoying Remi looking all murdery every time anyone mentions Roman is dead? Same girl. Except I'm sad Luke Mitchell isn't on the show anymore not murdery because that'd be weird.

Jane's dying except she's Remi so like that's a double dose of suck.

Oh score. Cure. This is like Elena being vampire. They'll fix it. I ain't worried. Imma gonna get Jeller babies. Or should I say PLEEEEEEEEEASE give me Jeller babies.

OH MY GOD SHE'S HALLUCINATING ROMAN. Luke Mitchell IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so here for Roman being the crazy voice in Jane/Remi's head.

Sorry Remi. Your super evil terrorist group is canceled. Sorry not sorry girl. Watch Season 1-Season 3 and catch up girl.

Two Sandstorm operatives is more like a club than a terrorist group, but okay Remi. Gotta start somewhere I guess.

It's weird that the cure is re-erasing Remi's memories but also let's re-erase Remi's memories. I ain't a fan.

Damn. Blake is dead? That... was unexpected. Okay so now I'm imagining that Blake and Roman are happy in heaven together. Leave me to my dream.

Kurt is scared... I love you my cupcake.

Wiping her memory and meeting Kurt Weller was the best thing that ever happened to Remi because she's not nice and Jane is awesome. Kudos to Blindspot for reinforcing their central love story while also wreaking absolute havoc on it.

Is Zapata evil now? Is everybody evil now?

Weitz is director. Ugh.

"You can't keep watching me all the time." Girl, he does that when you are totally healthy. Kurt Weller giving Jane fuzzy bunny stares is the show. Seriously, someone show Remi S1-S3.

Haha. She squeezed Kurt too hard to hurt him. What a bitch. Also awesome.

Zapata's smile when she sees Reade on TV. Girl go home.

Rich and Patterson are gonna cure Jane using Santa magic and it's gonna be friggin awesome.

Reciting the wedding video is creepy Remi.

Noooo.... don't break out Mama Shepherd. She be crazier than you Remi and at this point that's saying A LOT.

#manifest #this is us #a million little things #FBI #god friended me #the gifted #blindspot #the weekly rundown review #weekly rundown reviews

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spacegaysss · 6 years

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Evolve

Chapter 5

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

All these years I've been searching

Of who I'm supposed to be

All that time I've been wasting

It was right in front of me

Ella wakes up feeling like she hasn’t slept at all, but she still makes her way out of bed quickly. Somehow, she’s terrified that she might be late on this crucial day. It’s a bit silly, but she’s paranoid when it comes to being tardy to important events. So Ella hurries into the kitchen to prepare a quick breakfast and look for the biggest cup of coffee she can find.

Just as she’s about to take the first tentative sip of the life giving brew though, Ella gets interrupted by her phone ringing. Slipping and sliding to her bedroom quickly on her fuzzy socks – she cannot sleep without them, especially in winter- she plucks her phone from the nightstand to answer it.

“Hi, Ella, do you have a moment to talk?”, greets her boss from the other end of the line. “Uhm, sure, what’s up?”, Ella asks hesitantly, feeling a sense of dread coming over her. Did she do something wrong? Is she not going to the game after all?

“I’m not calling you at seven in the morning to reprimand you or anything, Ella, so don’t worry. But there’s been a – very minor- complication and I need your assistance. I’m sure you know about the dinner tonight after the game, yeah? It’s for UEFA’s new anti-discrimination campaign. Well, I actually planned on taking Paulina and Sebastian with me, I don’t think you’ve met him yet, he’s been a part of the team for over two years now. Well, he had to cancel at the very last minute, in fact, I just got off the phone with him. Sebastian fell while walking his dog earlier this morning - the streets are wickedly slippery- and he twisted his ankle quite badly. Now he’s at the ER and he probably won’t be able to walk for a while”, Mr. Wolf sounds erratic and his explanation is all over the place. This might be the first time Ella experiences her boss lose his calm and positive attitude since she first met him.

“So, why I’m calling: Ella, could you please accompany Paulina and me to the charity dinner tonight? I know it’s a lot to ask of you and that it’s only your second day, but there’s no need to feel overwhelmed right now, ok?” The dread that befell Ella when she picked up the phone comes back in full force. Mr. Wolf is still talking to her and tries to calm her and to tell her that the whole thing is going to be a cake walk, but she feels like she’s underwater and can’t hear or say anything at the moment.

“Ella, are you still there? Please tell me you didn’t spontaneously collapse or anything”, Mr. Wolf tries to joke and chuckles quietly, snapping her out of her stupor.

“Yes, yes of course I’m still here. What does going to the dinner even entail? Is there a dress code? What would we have to do there?”, Ella fires all of her questions at her boss in rapid fire succession.

“How about we talk about all of that when you come into the office. You should probably come in earlier if you can make it. I’m actually on my way out right now. Listen, there’s no need to panic, all right? It’s all going to be fine, I promise.” And with that, Mr. Wolf hangs up and leaves Ella in the eerie quiet of her bedroom.

It only takes a second for her to kick into overdrive though, hurriedly grabbing clothes from her closet, getting dressed and doing her makeup as fast as she can. She fills her coffee into a travel cup, grabs an apple and a banana from the fruit bowl – she’ll have to get an actual breakfast later- and storms out of the door.

Ella makes it to the office in record time and barges through Mr. Wolf’s door at exactly eight o’clock. He looks up from his computer when Ella makes her noisy entrance and motions for her to sit down on one of the chairs in front of his desk.

“Ella, I’m genuinely sorry to put you through so much stress this early in the morning, but my hands were tied. I needed to replace Sebastian and I know you can do it.” Well at least he believes in her because she’s not exactly confident that she can make it through this day and even worse: this night.

“Alright, let’s get to business. The dinner starts at nine, that’s why the game starts at six, by the way. There’s nothing to really do before that. You and Paulina are obviously going to be at the stadium anyway. It’s best if you prepare everything- your dress and whatnot- now, so that you can just go home, get ready and get to the Four Seasons straight after the game. At the dinner we’ll obviously have to coordinate the content that’s going to be released, which includes our social media channels as well as the press. Does that answer all your questions?”

“Sure, thank you. There’s a dress code, right? It needs to be formal?”, Ella inquires, just to be sure. “Yeah, but not too much, I guess. It’s a formal dinner, but try not to look like you’re walking the red carpet at the Oscar’s.” Mr. Wolf’s instructions are terribly vague but Ella doesn’t want to ask again and look like a moron. So she just makes sure yesterday’s plan hasn’t changed and goes to her office to prepare everything for the game.

About an hour later, Paulina almost flies through the door and towards their joined desks. “Ella! Mr. Wolf just told me you’re coming to the UEFA dinner! That’s amazing! We’re going to have so much fun!” She’s obviously a lot more ecstatic about the change of plans and Ella can’t help but to feel a little giddy herself. But there’s still one thing that needs to be done.

“Is there something urgent you need to get to right now, or do you have an hour to spare?”, Ella asks a little hesitantly. She doesn’t want to hold up her colleague from any important tasks, but she really needs her help.

“Not that I know of, I think we’re well prepared for tonight”, Paulina has a knowing smile on her lips when she answers her question. “Well, I’m glad to hear that, because I need to buy a dress like yesterday ”

About one and a half hours later, the girls are back from their shopping excursion. Ella bought a dress that’s hopefully appropriate for the occasion while still being fun and even found a pair of matching heels. Now they need to go downstairs to take a couple photos while the team prepares for tonight. After that, they’ll change into their jerseys - Ella still needs to go and try hers on- and make their way over to the Allianz Arena so that they can meet the professional photographers and talk things through.

The time just flies by and before Ella can work herself up too much, her and Paulina are in front of the stadium in their club issued puffer jackets and Adidas shoes- Ella didn’t even know that she needs to wear sponsored clothing to a game- and watch the team’s arrival. Everything is going smoothly. Paulina is filming the players leaving the bus and Ella is waiting in the catacombs with another camera. Fortunately, that’s all the filming and picture taking they have to do since there are professional photographers that cover the games.

After everyone’s passed by Ella, she is supposed to meet Paulina out on the pitch, but unfortunately no one told her where to go exactly. So she looks around and tries to find signs or maybe a plan of the stadium to figure out the way. Ella really doesn’t want to be in anyone’s way and she’s also pretty sure that she’s not supposed to walk through the player tunnel, right?

After 15 minutes of helplessly looking around, she just takes the first corridor that leads away from where she came and makes her way further into the catacombs. She walks for about ten minutes, but Ella has the feeling that she’s not really getting anywhere, so she takes a few turns.

After the third dead end she hits, Ella stops for a moment to take a deep breath. There’s no need to freak out now, she tells herself over and over until she’s not feeling like she’s going to start crying any second. After a minute of trying to calm herself like that, she walks back the way she came but takes a different turn this time.

Just as she walks around the corner, she bumps into someone. Well, actually it’s two someones. Ella hurries to apologize for not paying attention to where she was going, but when she sees who she just ran into, she freezes in shock.

In front of her are the captains of Real Madrid- one of her favorite teams- locked in a passionate embrace. Though as soon as they fully realize what’s going on- that they’ve so casually been found out- they take a hasty step apart.

Iker Casillas blinks at Ella a little owlishly while he tries to get his hair in order. Sergio Ramos- the destroyer of Casillas’ neat hairstyle- jumped back towards the other side of the hallway and is now talking in what sounds like rapid fire Spanish. Ella’s not sure if it’s directed at her or his captain.

Trying to make sense of the situation, Ella starts talking in English. They have to at least understand that, right? “I’m sorry I bumped into you, I should’ve been paying attention to where I was going.”

Casillas also seems to have snapped out of his paralyzed state, because he’s quick to answer her: “Don’t worry about it, we were… clearly in the way.” He actually smiles at her a little sheepishly. Ramos on the other hand doesn’t look like he’s calmed down.

Luckily, his captain seems to notice his agitation and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder before he keeps talking. “What are you doing here anyway? There’s really nothing but kit rooms and a janitor’s closet down here.”

Oh right, Ella still needs to get to the pitch somehow. “I’m working for Bayern München’s PR department” she points to her badge “and was actually looking for the way out onto the pitch. It’s my first time down here and I… well, I got lost.”

Ramos chuckles at that, looking a little more relaxed. “We can show you the way out if you want.” Ella nods and thanks them. But there’s still a heavy tension in the air. Ella did just walk in on them making out after all.

Should she say something? Maybe that she’s completely fine with it and that she won’t tell anyone? Now that she thinks about it, the situation doesn’t really surprise her. Everyone knows that the two captains kiss before every game, Ella just didn’t know to what extent.

She has to giggle at her train of thought, it’s actually quite funny. Casillas looks at her questioningly while he leads them down the hall. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even ask for your name”, he says apologetically. “Don’t worry about it, it wasn’t the first thing on my mind either. I’m Ella. It’s nice to meet you.” Now that the situation seems somewhat resolved, she’s getting really giddy. She’s actually meeting the captains of one of her favorite teams!

“It’s nice to meet you too, Ella. I’m Iker, the idiot over there is Sergio. He talks a lot more, usually.” Ca- Iker is shaking her hand, ever the gentleman. When Sergio shows no intention to repeat the gesture, he punches him on the arm.

“Ow, that hurts”, pouts the center back, but he shakes Ella’s hand as well. Then he turns to Iker and puts a 100 watt smile on, which makes the captain roll his eyes. But he still can’t keep the smirk off his face. As the odd trio continues on its way outside, Ella tries to pay attention to where they’re going, she really doesn’t want to get lost a second time.

It actually just takes a few turns and in about three minutes, the three of them step out onto the pitch. Ella’s relieved to have finally made it and turns to thank her companions for showing her the way. But before she can do anything else, a bit of a flurry starts around her. Confused, Ella watches on as James, who must’ve already been out here warming up, is cheerily jumping into Sergio’s arms. Well, he did mention that he misses his old teammates.

Since Ella doesn’t want to disrupt their little reunion, she turns around and looks for Paulina. Her colleague is sitting on the bench and is furiously tapping away on a tablet. Ella sits down next to her to figure out if there’s anything they need to do before the game starts, but Paulina assures her that she’s got it so far. The photographers have already started taking pictures of the warm up and the two of them will just have to go through them later to upload a few to Twitter and Instagram.

It’s a weird feeling to be right next to the pitch while everyone is getting ready for the game, Ella thinks. The stadium looks even more huge in this perspective. Her and Paulina have just uploaded all the pictures to the official social media accounts when the bench next to them fills with more staff, the trainer team and the players who aren’t in the starting eleven. Ella didn’t even realize that it’s almost six already, but the game’s actually about to start.

Hey y’all! Finally some Madridistas, am I right? I just couldn’t help myself, I had to squeeze some Seriker in there ;) Well, I hope you all enoyed this chapter coz the next ones are gonna be dripping in drama and pining. Feedback is always appreciated!

#fc bayern münchen imagine #real madrid imagine #soccer imagine #football imagine #football fanfiction #soccer fanfiction #fanfiction #james rodriguez fanfiction #marco asensio fanfiction #james rodriguez imagine #marco asensio imagine #my writing

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canaryatlaw · 6 years

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okay. so today was pretty good. I woke up at like 12:25ish I think? naturally, I texted Jess and asked if she wanted to get lunch, citing a lunch special that was posted at one of the restaurants we went to last week. she said yes and we said we’d meet in 15, so I got dressed and headed out. Once we got there we couldn’t actually see the lunch special where it was posted so we were kinda just like fuck it we’ll get whatever we want lol. I ended up getting a burger, which I kinda got meat-fatigued with (I don’t care if that’s not a real thing, I’m making it a real thing) but I ate like two-thirds of it before switching to my tater tots. they also like, fully cooked it when I said medium rare, so that may have contributed to my feelings there, lol. but mostly it was good. So we got the check and paid, I later would discover I accidentally left my credit card there and would have to deal with that later. but for now we headed home. For a while I just did random computer stuff, namely ordering a bunch of stuff off amazon after looking at recipes I wanted to make that I needed some specific ingredients for (some of which you couldn’t really find at a grocery store) and I wanted to get better tips for my piping bag for making macarons because the ones I have now aren’t big enough to properly pipe the shells so I end up having to pipe them using a circular motion instead of just doing dollops like you’re supposed to. I had gotten a reply email from the one I sent yesterday regarding the kitten for adoption and they said to call for a short phone interview and set up a time to visit, so I gave them a call but it went to voicemail and nobody’s called back yet, I may try them again in the morning because we were hoping to be able to go get the kitten tomorrow, so we’ll see how that works. I was on their website and they didn’t list a specific address for their location because apparently it’s a primarily a private home but they listed approximate coordinates by street numbers, which I tracked down to actually be really close to both of our apartments, so that should be easy hopefully. After that I decided I wanted to make oatmeal raisin cookies which had been on my mind for a few days now, so I set about doing that. I always fuck up with remembering to take the baking sheets out of the drawer below the oven before preheating the oven, because if I leave them in there they get really hot and are just generally harder to deal with, so I had to put up with that which was annoying. I tried to see if I could get my broken cookie dough to work if I used a certain technique but it was not in fact successful, so I just ended up using a spoon and rolling them into balls with my hands. I later went back on Amazon and bought a new cookie dough scoop, so I really went a bit Amazon crazy today 😂 oh well. The cookies came out pretty good, the only thing was the ones that were put on the bottom rack, which I hadn’t scooped out until after the first tray was already in, ended up being a little dark on the bottom, not burnt except for a few small areas but definitely getting there, so I’ll have to be careful about that in the future. But I was mostly satisfied with them. I went back on my computer and did nothing in particular until Jess and I decided to go get ice cream, and as I was heading out I looked at the clock and realized it was like 6 pm and not like 4 like I thought, so when we met up I suggested we get some actual food first since it was actually dinner time, so we went to one of the restaurants on the main street that I’d been to a few times before and it was pretty good. we didn’t want to fill up too much because ice cream, so we shared two appetizers: fried mac and cheese balls, and poutine. they were both super good, but the poutine was like, freaking amazing lol. I knew I was going to get sooooooo much acid reflux for eating it (and I did) but it was totally worth it. When we went to pay I saw that my credit card was suspiciously missing from its spot, which was concerning of course but I figured I’d probably just left it in the restaurant we were at for lunch (which was conveniently just across the street from where we were), so I tried to not panic and paid with another card, then we went across the street and asked about it, they told us to talk to the bartender who said to give him my ID, and I did, and he went to a little like flash card box (I forget if those have an actually proper name or not) and flipped through a bunch of pages (apparently a lot of people have left cards there before, but I guess that’s the case with a bar sometimes) before finding mine and bringing it back to me, which of course I was very relieved about, I had to deal with losing my wallet last year and getting fraudulent charges on my cards almost immediately and had to cancel and reissue all of them and then there was this ongoing problem with the bank and it was really just a nightmare, so I’m glad I don’t have to do that again. We continued down the street to the ice cream place (we have like a ton of food places in like a two block radius), where we ordered our standard choices and sat and ate them before parting ways. I got home and decided I was in the mood for some more game of thrones, finishing season 3 and starting season 4. I gotta say that I’m finally actually getting really into it. like for a long while I just was not following it, but now I know who (most of) the characters are and how they fit into everything, and just how crazy things get. I know a ton of people come back from the dead so I’m kinda just waiting for that to happen with some of the recently “deceased” characters (cough Starks cough). Poor fucking Sansa man. She’s just getting tortured from every angle. At least Tyrion is a decent human being and tries to protect her, seems he’s really the only Lannister that’s not completely terrible. and OF COURSE I left off at the end of the episode where Joffrey met his tragic end, and I have to see while actually watching it was kind of gross, it was still a beautiful sight to me because THAT LITTLE SHIT IS DEAD and I’m so happy about it. When everyone was going on about there being peace I knew that couldn’t last long, so something was going to happen, and it did. I suppose they’ll further investigate who actually poisoned him, because as much as Tyrion hates Joffrey I don’t think he would go to straight up homicide in such a public setting where he would very easily be found guilty for it. My money right now is on Tywin honestly, he was pretty done with that little shit lately. So like, who gets to rule the throne now?? does Margaery get to be queen now because she was technically married to the king when he died? Does it go to Joffrey’s sister (I think he only has one sibling? would they actually allow secession to a female at this point?) Would it go back to Stannis if Robert has no more viable heirs (assuming Joffrey’s sister can’t take on the throne)?? so many questions, and I’m sure they’ll be answered in like, the next episode, but I have many questions about them now. also when is Robb gonna show up again?? we all know he’s not really dead, and I’d like Catelyn back too for that matter. Also, I continue to adore both Daenerys and Arya as two (completely unrelated but still) total badasses who do not bow to others and do what they think is right. My girls, love them. Sigh. Anyway, when I finished that episode I started getting ready for bed and here we are. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow being that I once again have nothing to actually do, we may get breakfast and then if things actually work out cat wise I may end up bringing one of those home, so stay tuned for details on that subject. But yeah, that’s it for tonight, it’s almost 2 am so it’s definitely time for bed. Goodnight sweeties. Stay awesome.

#daily journal #August 2018 #Jess tag

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woodchuckvirus · 6 years

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Already really said my piece on the whole Change the Channel bit, but I guess I can also offer my thoughts and impressions I had as a fan of TGWTG throughout the years.

The first TGWTG video I saw was the Hook review. I remember thinking “Oh, cool, I love this movie!” But rather than just basking in the nostalgia of the film, it was just this lengthy video of a guy ranting about how bad the movie was. I kind of felt put off by that. Why would I watch a video of some dude shitting all over a movie I loved? But morbid curiosity and lack of anything else better to watch at the time led me to watching some of NC’s other videos. And then I started to get it, that it wasn’t so much an authentic review of the movie as it was a Mystery Science Theater type of riffing. Comedians will often roast their colleagues, but they’ll do it as an, albeit odd, form of affection. So I understood. It was really just roasting these films, and years later I’d hear Doug comment here and there about how much he actually loved the film (and Dante effin’ Basco making cameos much later!).

So, I watched his videos. Naturally, the very next contributor I noticed was Nostalgia Chick, who is currently one of my top faves to this day. I gradually discovered Lupa, Phelous, Linkara, MarzGurl, and pretty much the whole posse eventually. Everyone from Film Brain to Diamanda Hagan.

I enjoyed the videos from all of these producers, even though 80% of the time their videos didn’t really fully touch my interests (I know so very little about comics, B movies, and some of Diamanda Hagan’s stuff takes a bit of a strong stomach to watch...!).

But I loved their personalities and what they brought to the table. Each of them unique and distinguished, and they had me laughing quite a bit the whole way. In fact, one great experience I had was catching them all at MAGFest. I just happened to hear that they were all there, and luckily I was only about an hour away from the place. So I hopped in my car, drove over, and found them in clusters or one by one in the halls. Got to take photos with Linkara, chat with Lupa and Phelous and a handful of others. Even got to hug Diamanda Hagan. It was awesome. But no Doug. In fact, although I watched for which conventions he would appear at, they were all just too far away, and to me it wasn’t worth it to drive that far out just to see one dude. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, or telling, that I got to meet nearly all the producers in person, but never Doug, himself.

Now, I’m not going to lie... I actually really enjoyed To Boldly Flee. I got a kick out of Spoony as Terl and Dr. Insano (taking back all of his stuff that the crew stole from him by the end of the movie and leaving them stranded, that cracked me up).

Even the end with Doug encountering his own character face to face and asking him how the story should end. I’ve had that experience with my own characters and writing so many times before, where it starts to become the character that’s leading the story more than it’s me writing them. I loved that idea of speaking to my characters in person.

So I did like the movie. What’s more, I really enjoyed seeing all the producers together, playing off of one another and adjoining all their distinct dynamics.

When Lupa was booted and other folks followed along with her, that was a huge disappointment. Hearing that they left on bad terms was disheartening. But ultimately it seemed as though it was just an unfortunate situation. And the show went on.

After Demo Reel failed and NC was reinstated, my interest in Doug’s videos really did drop. I watched, still, with that same kind of sad, loyal hope you get when you keep seeing a new season of your favorite show coming out. Perhaps THIS season will be better---nope... Okay, surely THIS season---nope... okay, third time’s a charm---nope... I kept watching NC’s videos because I liked Rachel, Malcolm, Tamara, and Jim. But the humor in the videos was just sort of flat-lining. Almost seemed kind of pandering and predictable. I haven’t really laughed at a single NC episode in a long while. In contrast, I’ve laughed myself to tears over Brad’s videos and a few of Lupa’s and Phelous’s, and Bennett’s. But NC’s humor is just kind of stagnant, now. There isn’t even anything clever about it anymore. Just a one-trick pony kind of deal.

So I was already losing interest in NC. I just kept watching his videos because they were there, in my YouTube subscriptions and suggestions, and so were convenient enough to click when I was winding down at the end of a workday. I had stopped visiting the CA website because it had been flooded with a bunch of contributors whom I didn’t know. And the website itself was a bit tricky to navigate.

So when the Change the Channel stuff began to gain momentum, I started to see that what happened to Lupa and Phelous wasn’t just a fluke. This was a chronic issue that was rampant throughout the site’s inner workings... When MarzGurl, Linkara, and even Lindsay started to chime in, that was eye opening... When producers started leaving, it was clear how serious these issues really were. When CA issued their non-apology, that just reaffirmed everything.

Though I enjoyed the To Boldly Flee movie, knowing that so many of the producers had such an awful time working on it really sours the whole thing. They’re not proud of the work, and it was an essentially exploitative project.

So, in truth, it was pretty easy for me to drop CA, unsubscribe, etc. NC had already lost my interest a while ago. In the meanwhile, finding the personal channels of all my favorite producers has left my YouTube feed a little fuller these past couple of weeks. I’m glad to be able to support them more directly, now.

Seeing the most recent mass exodus of contributors leaving the site really shines a dreary light on the state of CA. I have a feeling, though, that they’re not going to let themselves be bothered by it. They are probably just going to circle themselves around their central NC crew and just leave it at that. I think it does say something, though, that they had to cancel their next anniversary movie. That does indicate that this Change the Channel movement has left an impact. Even cost them money. So while they may just cut their losses and consider themselves “better off,” they were still stung pretty hard by this whole thing. I hope that leaves SOME kind of impression in their minds. And I hope that impression doesn’t eventually just amount to Rob and Doug rolling their eyes at each other while grunting “Those annoying children and their complaints.”

#channel awesome

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xtremedespair3d · 4 years

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HajiKo Anime: Winter-Spring 2020 + Summer First Impressions

I wasn’t willing to return to Tumblr to keep making these posts about my anime reviews which they’re the only thing I make because I was burned out on making them and I wanted to commit on writing my novel but I ended up abandoning it now because I was frustrated with everything about it, from harsh criticism I didn’t ask for to not figuring out the story well enough.

Then I tried to keep my reviews going by making threads on Twitter, but later I wasn’t satisfied with how they turned out nor like writing them because I was feeling limited, and I was even debating on whether to keep the Twitter thread format going, returning to Tumblr or just simply tweet my tiers of every anime I watch, so what better way to keep this review series going? It’s to return to Tumblr because I really like reviewing anime and Tumblr has been the most comfortable space to make my reviews and giving it a new name, HajiKo Anime, as in my name I go on Twitter as Hajime Komaeda.

So, kept you waiting, huh?

I had a lot of stuff to do in my life to the point that it drives me totally insane to the point of questioning my will to live, and then there’s also the pandemic which everything gets delayed and cancelled, even upcoming anime!

The biggest problem with making my reviews is sometimes I have to force myself on commenting on other shows I don't have much thought on, only like few I have tons of feelings I want to express, so I really hope things will be any better once I’m back on Tumblr to make these reviews I liked doing.

By continuing to make these reviews by including my new tiers, let me remind how do I interpret the ranking tiers:

S: 10-9

A: 8

B: 7

C: 6-4

D: 3-1

E: 0

Let’s keep in mind that I wouldn’t give full reviews on literally everything I watch because sometimes I don’t have much thought on so I’ll just skip them, I make lengthy reviews on some shows because I genuinely have feelings on these shows, that was one of my struggles with my other reviews, some of them were forced but I promise I will only do lengthy reviews to some shows I have lots of thoughts to talk about.

First off with Winter which is looking qutie strong even for the beginning of the decade:

Winter 2020

(Higher resolution)

Ishuzoku Reviewers: Perhaps one of the best ecchi series I've ever watched in years to the point where the ecchi really gets near-hentai level... so much so it caused controversy for Funimation and Japanese television alike, with Funimation removing the license and cancelled the English dub due to its content, and the series being removed on Tokyo MX. Though I might say that I wouldn't go that far to consider this as the best ecchi series of all time because there are a couple of things I really hated about the show, it can be a little too biased on some fetishes, includes fetishes I’m not a fan of, etc. But still, I admire the show for taking risks by going beyond the limits of Japanese television.

ID: INVADED: This is the most surprising show I've ever seen this season, it may also happen to be somewhat underrated. How can a dying studio like NAZ produce something really well-animated for once? All thanks to Ei Aoiki. I'm not really much of an animation expert but I really hope there might be someone who will make an article saying "How Ei Aoki saved Studio NAZ with ID: INVADED."

BanG Dream season 3: This third season of Bandori is THE BEST Bandori season ever, this made me like RAS (RAISE A SUILEN) even more.

Eizouken: This was an interesting series about making anime that may or may not compete with SHIROBAKO, though even if they have the same theme of making anime, they're completely different in terms of setting. The animation, even from what I've seen with Masaaki Yuasa and Science Saru with Devilman Crybaby, surprisingly looks like the series was actually fully hand-drawn instead of Adobe Flash, though Adobe Flash is still present in the opening.

Isekai Quartet 2: This second season of Isekai Quartet was a huge letdown compared to its predecessor, my biggest deal breaker is how they wasted the Shield Hero characters into minor roles, they straight-up overhyped them. The last few episodes seemed like they were slowly redeeming themselves on making the Shield Hero characters have some more screentime. Now that the series got a third season, let’s see how they will handle the Shield Hero characters this time if they’ll truly become main character status to be shown on the OP and ED, or they continue to be minor characters on the classroom where most of the supporting and minor characters from the main isekai properties attend to. Also, at one episode there was this cameo of these two characters from a series called Cautious Hero, if they end up becoming actual main characters or something, I’m not even gonna bother binging the series just like I did with Shield Hero.

Nekopara: I was skeptical about this series, but upon watching the first episode alone, this is a very comfy series, but its existence and inclusion of original characters will always baffle me.

Honorable mentions:

Azur Lane The Animation: As of July 2020, I think I might have accepted the fact that a lot of people (At least the Western side of the AL fanbase) hate the anime and they say it sucks, I’m really spoiled about it and it sucks to feel that way. I’ve always been hype as hell when I was watching the series from the very beginning, it had all kinds of easter eggs and references I couldn’t stop pointing them out since I’m an avid Azur Lane player (JP version only), and the best part is that at one episode, it had a bath scene where in the Blu-Ray version, the whole scene happens to feature official animated nipples! Official Azur Lane nipples in official media! I wish this could happen very often, even official artists would occasionally draw their characters in full R-18, such as Sirius and Ark Royal. (NSFW, CLICK WITH CAUTION)

Sure, sometimes the series had some quality, especially at the end of episode 4, but that doesn’t make the series automatically garbage or anything. The Azur Lane anime is NOT GARBAGE, PERIOD. Got that?

If I had the time, I’d seriously love to rewatch the series (Using the BD rips of course) to prove everyone wrong.

In terms of the future of Azur Lane anime, as much as I’d love to see this get more seasons and even movies to beat Kancolle to the punch, we’re now getting an anime adaptation of the Twitter 4komas, well, at least that’s certainly something cool. With that being said, I bet people are gonna be like “This is way better than the main anime” which I won’t condone it like hell. Let me say it again, the main Azur Lane anime is not garbage.

Fate/Grand Order Babylonia: Long after watching the series when it was on the air, I’ve been thinking that this was probably okay, Babylonia is not my most favorite singularity throughout FGO because the previous ones deserve some respect and I’m biased to the Shinjuku singularity for obvious reasons. I do wish they would adapt pretty much every singularity but they’re tediously long that they need to make hundreds of anime of each, so they just happen to skip all that and decided to make a Babylonia series and the upcoming Camelot movies because they’re the most favorite. I don’t really buy it on why are they the most favorite, but okay.

My Hero Academia season 4 and My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising: Heroes Rising was probably the last movie I’ve seen going to the theater before the pandemic happened.

Castlevania season 3: For some reason I didn’t like this season as much as the first two (Unpopular opinion).

Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle: I was very skeptical throughout the first half of the season, but this second half was making me in high spirits, although I would still prefer the original PSO2 anime over this.

Moving on to Spring:

Spring 2020

(Higher resolution)

Fruits Basket: Fruits Basket continues to be an excellent series, balancing comedy and drama the way I like with the comedy always making me laugh and the drama always making me tense. (I don't wanna see or talk about EP9 ever again.)

Shin Sakura Wars The Animation: Sanzigen continues to deliver quite a lot even after BanG Dream! season 3, not only we get one but TWO shows this season. My main problem with Shin Sakura Wars The Animation is that they really must have abused the hand drawn parts so much, and this was a really frustrating problem that this should be A tier instead, but it was still quite good regardless, I love Sanzigen to death.

Watanuki-san Chi To: This was a neat second season and this makes me strongly believe that the Watanuki-san Chi series are the future of VTuber anime, or dorama as what the series is, and I’m still mad that there are still no subtitles for this, neither official subs nor fan subs.

My few complaints for Watanuki-san Chi To is that Ikuko's role that kinda takes Futaba's place a little too much since Futaba was working at a karaoke bar most of the time and Ikuko and Futaba had interacted on-screen like twice (or three if that ending from episode 3 counts) on episodes 5 and 12 (the final one). I'm hoping that we'll get more of the Watanuki sisters and Ikuko interacting together on-screen some more but I think things will be the same with Futaba continuing to work on the karaoke bar.

Then there’s episode 12 which was the episode where Ikuko leaves the Watanuki house after finding her real parents, the episode was kind of predictable as Ikuko returned and decided to stay with the Watanuki sisters afterwards. This is one of the few, if not, the first time that something definitely made me say and feel something was actually predictable, but not that I would hate on it or anything.

Another complaint I have for this entire season is that it lacked the crowd laughs the first season had, the first season felt like it was true a comedy and having no laughs this season gave an entirely different atmosphere and I wasn't very comfortable with it.

Despite the flaws, I give huge thumbs ups for what they did with the world and the characters, they finally happen to bring the characters from the audio drama played by various other VTubers, and we finally happen to explore outside of the world for a little bit between shots of the streets where Ikuko walked through at the beginning of the series and the karaoke bar, not just sticking to the Watanuki house over and over.

The best part of introducing the newer characters is that they finally showed male characters for once, one of which was Futaba's boyfriend, Kenji, who's sort of a recurring background character frequently mentioned in the first season, he happened to finally have his body revealed, but still no face reveal. And there was also this other male guest character in episode 3, he was interesting to say the least. Finally, something to make the series not sexist.

I wouldn't really consider myself as the most dedicated Western Watanuki-san Chi fan. As much as I'd like to call myself that, I don't really speak Japanese to understand the series some more and I would have to be a badass to actually make fansubs, some events happened in Japan, which I don't live in Japan, and I don't buy the merch, let alone the Blu-Rays and the audio dramas. The worst part about the audio dramas is they're purchasable on Pixiv Booth, which Pixiv doesn't really let me use my debit card (or might if I were to use my Wallet app or something). I for one wouldn't really consider myself as the ONLY person who watches the Watanuki-san Chi, I wouldn't be watching the series if it wasn't for the people who have been uploading torrents of every episode on Nyaa, there's a very niche amount of people who do watch the series.

(I probably shouldn’t talk too much about piracy related things and sites like Nyaa, and I try to make my review posts as formal as possible to stay away from such things, but I’m just an independent reviewer who makes these posts as a hobby, I’m not a big anime news site or anything and I can say whatever the fuck I want, so who cares?)

BanG Dream! Garupa Pico Ohmori and Welcome to the Japari Park season 2: These ones are definitely the absolute surprise and looks like things are definitely gonna get absolutely better. They both premiered between late April to early May, so they're kind of a special case.

Kaguya-sama season 2: I didn't get the first season as much, but this second season is finally making me feel better about the series. (Probably because when I binged the first season, I multitasked and get occasionally distracted, that's why I didn't get it at first)

Argonavis from BanG Dream: This one's quite an interesting series. Not as good as the mainline female-centric series, but as a self-contained universe, it's pretty good on its own. It even handles topics that the base series won't even do, like music industry and money. Although Chuchu is probably the closest thing we experience when she's a music producer character of sorts but she's more entitled to her own band, money is a far more important issue the series doesn't want ot tackle, and Argonavis does it right.

The only thing that almost ruined the series is the unnecessarily dark final episode where the entire episode was basically Banri passing out after doing their debut performance in Destiny Rock Festival and Argonavis were having a hard time about what to do if something were to happen with Banri and they made a song dedicated to him afterwards. Episode 12 should have been the final episode, we didn’t need to see a rollercoaster episode, this should be played out more as an OVA, but I digress. This isn’t the weakest or the worst finale but it’s seriously unnecessary.

Now I just hope the second season makes the other bands teased in the last few episodes become regulars, just like how the first season of the female Bandori where they teased a lot of the other bands, and then from season 2 onwards, the other bands have become regulars. I just really hope they'll make the other bands from Argonavis be full CG because they were all hand drawn for some reason, and I also need season 4 of main female Bandori series so bad so they can introduce Morfonica which in anime format they're introduced in the Garupa Pico Ohmori series.

Brand New Animal: It partially is because BNA starts with B, but he main reason is that I thought it was alright, and as a Netflix series that I can binge in one run, it's easily forgettable. Not the weakest of TRIGGER, but I feel rather indifferent with this.

Princess Connect ReDive: This was my absolute least favorite of Spring, I couldn't stress enough on how much of a Konosuba wannabe this is, it's such a poor imitation and I wish the actual game wasn't this ridiculously bad. From the over-the-top wacky tone to goofier background character designs and a very retarded MC. I don't know why but I thought this would be a simple way to get into Princess Connect without getting into the game because I see fan arts a lot, and Japan apparently seems to like this, as evidence with the fan arts and as much as I would like to like this more because of it, it just didn’t work for me, the animation is alright, though. At least this is way better than the NOT Shadowverse anime.

I got a comment from someone saying that the Konosuba influence comes from the director of the Puriconne series and this series serves to introduce the game as an original story for non-Puriconne players without touching any major plot points.

And finally let’s talk about my first impressions to all the shows I’m watching this Summer season:

Fire Force season 2: I was hoping this season can be a little bit better animated than the first, but upon the first episode of this season alone the terrible pacing is still there, but then the second episode, things get really interesting. The story is the main thing that will keep me intrigued for the rest of the series.

Dokyuu Hentai HxEros: The first time I heard about this series was when I retweeted and saving a Suketto Sanjou-related picture by artist Rakko where he hid a reply where someone posted a link to the Amazon page of the upcoming volume of the manga of HxEros (which the manga is not by Rakko and this is totally unrelated, what the hell was the guy who made the reply thinking?), that was a little while before I heard that this was getting animated.

At first I was 50/50 on watching it or not, but I saw the news that there’ll be this “H Energy Unleashed” version, which is the “uncensored” version and that sold me, but I continue to be unsure on watching it, that is until the day of the premiere where I was randomly seeing screenshots of the episode on my timeline, particularly scenes where the girl Kirara was completely naked, and I was absolutely sold on it and decided to watch it, and after doing so, I kinda dig it.

However, I dislike Kirara because of how she is. It makes me feel bad for how she used to be when she was a kid during some flashbacks where she was a dirty minded girl to present day where she’s a hardcore tsundere hiding her horniness, the way she is, it really makes me hard to empathize with her. She’s pretty cute and hot too.

Re:Zero season 2: It feels weird having a second season of Re:Zero considering it’s been 4 years since the first season came out, and after watching the first episode, now I just feel unprepared.

Oregairu season 3: While I was watching the episode, I was randomly reminiscing some memories and characters I remember from the first two seasons and who do I like, which I kinda like most characters, but Komachi is my least favorite because she constantly says “gross” to poor Hachiman, geez.

Uzaki-chan: This was a pretty solid series and this is definitely being AOTS. However, recently I found something very hilarious that I’m dying to talk about.

Remember the time when there was a controversy from an SJW where they criticized the Uzaki-chan Japanese Red Cross poster because of her big boobs? Well, that’s a separate story, but things with Uzaki-chan gets more laughable, as I stumbled upon this tweet a few days ago and...

Anime News Network gave the first episode a 1.5 star review?!

Holy jesus... What is that?! What the fuck is that?!

Yikes, Anime News Network are a bunch of clowns!

I’m really glad ANN is getting the hate it deserves, I just don’t like ANN when they do reviews, I never liked them since their discussion post on Netsuzou Trap and then episode 0 of Saekano season 2.

All that aside, this series is going to be quite a fun ride.

This Summer season could have been strong if only Akudama Drive and Danmachi season 3 weren’t delayed, but that’s for the better as Fall 2020 is looking like it’s the strongest season of the year, and you’ll find out why in September.

And that’s it for all my reviews! I really hope you enjoyed my biased reviews and I can’t wait to continue to make these reviews just like I used to. Also, let me address that I don’t make money from making these reviews, I only write these posts for fun.

Anyways, see you in Fall 2020 for my review for this Summer season and what am I gonna watch in Fall!

Check out my Carrd.

#HajiKoAnime #anime #review

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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The Weekend Warrior Home Edition April 10, 2020 – Trolls World Tour, Sea Fever, We Summon the Darkness

Yeah, there isn’t a ton of stuff coming out this week that I’m particularly excited about, but lots of stuff to watch at home.

The world is still reeling with the decision by Universal and DreamWorks Animation to release their animated sequel, TROLLS WORLD TOUR, directly to digital and home download (although it might play in the dozen or so drive-in theaters still open nationwide, presumably). The original movie made $348.9 million nationwide, so it’s an odd decision to release the sequel in a format that almost guarantees piracy and little chance of further international expansion later. It’s also a choice that has annoyed a lot of theater owners who had been expecting for the movie to do well over this coming Easter weekend. I wasn’t considered one of the “chosen ones” that were allowed to see this movie before its release on Friday to review it, so this will probably be all I write about it.

Other limited releases that didn’t get a fair shake in theaters before the rolling nationwide lockdown include Sally Potter’s The Roads Not Taken, starring Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning, will be available digitally this Friday. I wrote a little about it in my last full Weekend Warrior column.

Before we get to the new movies on Digital and On Demand, I just want to mention that this Saturday, April 11, will be the first ever “Film Festival Day” with the participation of 30 film festivals associated with the Film Festival Alliance (including my beloved Oxford Film Festival). They’ll collectively be premiering Gary Lundgren’s Phoenix, Oregon, starring James Le Gros and Jesse Borrego as two friends experiencing their midlife who find an opportunity to reinvent themselves by restoring an old bowling alley and serving “the world’s greatest pizza.” Lundgren’s film was supposed to open on March 20, but a lot of film festivals were cancelled due to Covid-19 and weren’t able to get a proper theatrical showing, so you can buy a ticket to Film Festival Day here, and it will start on Saturday at 12AM Eastern and be available for 48 hours with a special QnA (hosted by Oxford’s executive director, Melanie Addington) on Saturday at 5pm PT/8pm ET.

The movie hitting digital airwaves this Friday I would probably recommend is Neasa Hardimann’s at-sea thriller SEA FEVER (Dust/Gunpowder and Sky), starring Hermione Corfield as Siobhán, a marine biology lab-rat, who has to spend a week on a fishing trawler with a tightly-knit crew, including Connie Nielsen. When something very big attaches itself to their boat, each of them begin to get infected with nowhere to go but the open waters. I generally like claustrophobic creature features like this, with Ridley Scott’s Alien and John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing being two of the best. I might need a few more years before I decide if Hardimann’s film is quite on par, but it’s pretty solid. I definitely like the way things build slowly as you try to figure out what is happening. Sure, there’s a few bits that are a bit too much like homages to those other two films, but Hermione Corfield is a great find, and Hardimann does a fine job with her second feature that really uses the environment quite effectively. I kind of wish I had a chance to see this in theaters but like Saban’s other films, it was always gonna be a VOD special.

There will be a very special live stream premiere of the movie on Thursday night at 5pm Pacific that you can watch for a fee here.

Just two short weeks after his last film Human Capital hit digital, director Marc Meyers is back with his second movie of the year, WE SUMMON THE DARKNESS (Saban Films). This one stars Alexandra Daddario as Alexis, a young woman attending a heavy metal concert with her friends where they meet three guys who they invite to party at the estate of Alexis’ fire-and-brimstone preacher father (Johnny Knoxville). That party quickly turns dark. The movie also stars Keean Johnson, Amy Forsyth and Austin Swift.

I really wanted to like this more, because it was nice seeing Meyers doing something different, and it once again shows how good he is with younger actors -- okay, Daddario is 32 now, so I’m not sure why she’s still playing girls nearly half her age -- but the first thirty minutes feels very by the books in terms of it being a ‘80s movie. Yes, this is Meyers’ third period piece in a row, so he gets to play with lots of fun references, but he didn’t write this script (as he did with the excellent My Friend Dahmer), and it’s such a straight-ahead premise that you can kind of know where it’s going at any time. I guess I just don’t like movies like this where it seems violent for the sake of violence, and you never really like any of the characters much or understand their motivations. I mean, I’ve seen worse, but this is just kind of bleh compared to Sea Fever (and Meyers’ previous work). This movie just wasn’t for me, and the worst part was that the Johnny Knoxville role that seemed so promising? He doesn’t show up for an hour into the movie.

There’s also Sonejuhi Sinha’s Stray Dolls, a mix of cultures (oddly similar in terms of premise as Netflix’s Tigertail – see below) as it follows Geentanjali Thapa’s Riz who arrives in the United States to take a housekeeping job at the Tides Plaza Motel. There, he must contend with Cynthia Nixon’s Una, who hires other people who need help including Oliva DeJonge’s Dallas, Riz’s new roommate. Oh, she’s also the motel’s resident drugdealer. I haven’t watched this yet, so I’ not sure if it’s a comedy or a drama, but it’s another movie available digitally this weekend.

There’s also the documentary, The Mindfulness Movement (Abramorama / Mangurama) from Rob Beemer and exec. produced by Deepak Chopra and my mortal enemy, Jewel. It looks at how the use of “mindfulness” – a type of meditation that makes one focus on the present moment in a non-judgmental way – is the root to creating a happier world. There’s a lot of talk now about using meditation to deal with the stress, pressure and fears that go along with the current pandemic, so this doc couldn’t be better-timed! It will be available to rent via VOD starting Friday.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This week’s Netflix premiere film is TIGERTAIL, the new film from Alan Yang, who some may know from his collaboration with Aziz Ansari on their Netflix show, Master of None. This one stars Hong-Chi Lee as impoverished Taiwanese factory worker, Pin-Jui, who decides to leave his homeland and the woman he loves in the ‘50s to seek opportunities in America. Decades later, the older Pin-Jui (played by Tzi Ma) has been worn down by his work, a loveless arranged marriage and a daughter Angela (Christine Ko) who he can’t connect with. This will debut on Netflix Friday but unfortunately, I’ve been embargoed until then, so nope… not reviewing.

Also on Netflix is the debut of THE MAIN EVENT, the network’s first collaboration with WWE Films, which I couldn’t get a screener quickly enough to include in this column. It stars Seth Carr as 11-year-old Leo Thompson who discovers a magic wrestling mask that gives him super-strenth, which he uses to try to become a WWE Superstar. Directed by Jay Karas (Break Point), it also stars Adam Pally, Ken Marrino and WWE Superstars, Kofi Kingston, The Miz and Sheamus. Should be a fun kids’ movie, but I’m not so sure about The Big Show Show, a new sitcom starring Paul Wight, aka WWE Superstar The Big Show, because it looks pretty stupid. Remember when The Big Show (once known as “The Giant”) was absolutely intimidating? (To be fair, this also seems to be meant for kids.)

Now playing on Amazon Prime is Hanan Harchol’s About a Teacher (Amazon Prime), following the journey of an inner-city high school film teacher (Dov Tiefenbach), who starts the job not realizing what is demanded of him as a teacher. Many of Harchol’s own former students are a part of the cast and crew of this film, which looks at the difficulties of being a teacher in New York City.

I’m super-excited that Sunday is the third season of Killing Eve on BBC America, but I still have to watch all of Season 2… plus most of Season 2 of Westworld… and rewatch Season 4 of Better Call Saul. So yeah, I’m glad there’s lots of stuff to watch, but I still just don’t have the inclination to watch all or any of it.

I guess Amazon Prime premiered the first season of the sci-fi series Tales from the Loop last Friday, and that’s another thing I’m hoping to get to soon.

Next week, more movies not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or send me a note on Twitter. I love hearing from readers!

#Streaming Cable Movies Reviews TheWeekendWarrior SeaFever WeSummonTheDarkness TrollsWorldTour

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