#they watching the end of evangelion in the second couch | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lerr-writes-fic · 1 year

Text

8 Shows To Get To Know Me

thanks for tagging me @stephmcx!! I'm always so surprised when people tag me in these things 🥹🥹

8 of my favorite shows are M*A*S*H, Twin Peaks, Dynasty, Seven Deadly Sins, Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Witcher, Hawaii Five-0, and Gorl World YouTube Drama

you can read my unhinged ramblings below the cut ♥️♥️

M*A*S*H: this show was my absolute favorite in high school, and it took me so long to watch because I had to rely on re-runs. If I was lucky, I would catch 2 episodes Monday-Thursday and 1-2 episodes on Saturday 12-2am. The series finale completely destroyed me to the point that I have a hard time finishing any TV show these days.

Twin Peaks: yet another show where the then series finale really stuck with me until we got The Return finale which also really stuck with me. Special Agent Dale Cooper remains one of my all-time favorite characters. His optimism and work ethic are inspirational.

Dynasty: y'all haven't lived until you watch an 80's soap opera. The drama and wardrobe are phenomenal. Some of the craziest shit I've ever seen was in Dynasty season 2 and 3. The plot points to get to this clip... incredible.

Seven Deadly Sins: this is the first anime I really got into, and it changed my life. Ban was my first husbando, and the rest is history. The series finally ended in two parts last year, and I kinda wish the second part never happened. It's sad that the series was dropped from the original animation studio, so later seasons do not have great animation. It's a fun ride! Just don't want the second half of the last season.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: a lot of my favorite shows have endings that just rocked my world, and boy howdy is Evangelion one of them. At the end of the anime, I was very hopeful, but I was devastated after finishing End of Evangelion. Two endings that are supposed to be the same but different. I am Shinji. Shinji is me. I first watched this show in 2019 and then rewatched in 2021, and it hit different in the midst of a pandemic and after the Texas 2021 Winter Storm. Excited to rewatch again this year!

The Witcher: while I prefer the video games now, the show is so good that I ended up binging the first season in 1 day with a friend of mine and then I bought Witcher 3 on my PS4 the next day. The rest is history. I love Geralt of Rivia so much. He is my special traumatized old man with a praise kink who has seen some shit boy.

Hawaii Five-0: this is not a show, it is a gay fever dream. I started watching this show while visiting my grandmother last year because she had crime show re-runs on constantly, and I always hoped that Hawaii Five-0 would come on. I am continually amazed by how close Steve and Danny are that I sometimes don't believe it's a real show. How did they get away with it all and still not make McDanno canon? They lived together, went to couple's counseling, shared the same bed, cuddled on the couch, DANNY TOLD STEVE TO PICK A BASE. gay gay homosexual gay.

Gorl World YouTube Drama: I fell into Gorl World about 2 years ago, boy howdy I can't stop watching. I don't enjoy reality television, but I sure as fuck am down to watch hours uponhours of coverage on everything that goes down with Foodie Beauty, ALR, Nikocado Avocado, and others. FB in particular bc her life is so buckwild that it can't be real. i miss the nashie era. long live Queen BBJ ♥️♥️

#about me #tv shows i love #don't judge me for how much i follow foodie beauty drama #that woman is a hot mess #we're all wondering if she has covid or got MERS from hugging a camel on the side of the road #she recently uprooted her whole life to live in kuwait with a man who doesn't love her and her marriage to him isn't real/legal #i think this is all an elaborate plot on FB's part to get her ex back #the same ex who dated her publicly for 5 days and also smoked crack/meth live on youtube #which like how did that not get taken down from youtube #we still don't know #anyway #don't judge me #or my unhinged youtube watch history

3 notes · View notes

rosepetalsthings · 2 years

Note

halloween today! went to a friends house to watch a movie, 'ghost in the shell' REALLY gorgeous especially for its time period. we could barely squish everyone on the couch though so three people were on the floor and i was on the armrest. it was a super nice couch, even. one of the squishy ones so literally anywhere on it was super comfy. one friend brought a gingerbread house (halloween themed ofc) that was like $3 and we quickly found out why bc one of the walls was curved so it wouldn't fit and one side of the roof was broken off. we had to hold it together as we SLATHERED it with icing. guy friend got out a maid dress and played the guitar in the bg. vibing to 'hey ya' as we continue to hold the house together and slap toppings on it. counted down to 3 to see if it could stand without our support, it DID TO OUR SURPRISE, THOUGH ONLY FOR LIKE 10 SECONDS then the roof slid off. the gingerbread tasted like ginger cardboard and sugar. apparently the candies tasted like edible pennies LMAO. went trick ortreating after that, friend's angel wings were self-made, foldable, but still to wide to fit through most doorways so she was like, side-shuffling to doors and whacking people with the ends of it. their house had no cell service for my specific provider, became a running joke. got home and sorted our candy and put aside a pile for the friend who could'nt make it. lay around on the couch watching evangelion ep 1 while people were waiting to get picked up. 10/10 experience i loved her mom's sandwiches. hope you have a good day/night!!

Your Halloween sounds amazing!!

#anon #thank you anon <3

3 notes · View notes

pleasespellchimerical · 5 years

Text

the opening of that Good Omens/Evangelion crossover that I’ll never finish

Sometimes it’s a relief to admit I’ll never finish a fic and that’s ok

anyway, things that will never be:

Angels! Demons! the end of the world!

Heaven is responsible for this mess. Hell can’t figure it out, so all the demons get sent to infiltrate Nerv

Ryoji Kaji is a low level demon who hero-worships Crowley (and also falls in love with a human. Demons can, in fact, love)

Crowley and Katsuragi are besties. He hangs out at her apartment a lot, and they drink absurd amounts of booze together

Crowley feels really horrible for these kids, so he does his utmost to protect them from the psychological consequences of this war. His efforts are not enough, but they do make things a little better than canon NGE

Crowley steals an Eva

Everyone’s out of town to deal with the crisis with Sandalphon, Crowley’s alone at HQ, and oh shit another angel

So he up and steals one of the production units

Guess who this angel is! (no angels have been seen on Earth since the Second Impact. Until now)

Crowley doesn’t want to fight his old friend, but Aziraphale isn’t acting like himself

When defeated, Aziraphale’s soul jumps into the Eva and he possesses the unit. Humans can no longer pilot it, and Crowley’s in deep shit for stealing it in the first place, so Crowley is forced to pilot it as punishment (it’s not a punishment bc he’s got his old friend back)

Crowley and Kaworu are old frenemies. Crowley’s jealous of the whole “free-will” thing

The ending is very different, but humanity and love wins. Humanity and love always win <3

The piece of fic itself is under the cut. Enjoy!

London, AD 2000, September

It was raining that night.

In a worn-down bookshop in the Soho neighborhood of London, an angel and a demon had holed up with several glasses of wine while the rain poured down.

Until there was a knock on the bookshop door.

They both started, and glanced at each other.

The angel got up to answer the door. "We're closed—" he started, but stopped when the girl huddling under an umbrella held out a book to him.

He took it gingerly, as though expecting it to explode, and whitened when he saw the worn cover.

"What—?" was all he could muster.

The girl looked at him like he was holding her first-born child. "She said to. I don't know who you are or why this is so important, but Agnes said that you need to have it."

The angel took a small breath.

The girl hesitated. "It's a family heirloom, all right? I'm her last descendant. So please—" her voice cracked. "Take care of it."

"I—yes, of course." The angel cradled the book to his chest. "Do you want to come in? Out of the rain? I can get you a cuppa—"

She shook her head. "I need to go. And—" one last plaintive look. "—be careful."

And the girl vanished into the rainy night.

The angel slowly shut the door and made his way to the back room, where he'd left the demon and the bottle of wine.

"Wozzat?" said the demon as he sat back down.

The angel held the book out in front of him reverentially, fingers gently stroking the cover. He carefully opened to a random page, observing the centuries of notes scribbled in the margins.

"There's something sticking out," the demon pointed out helpfully.

The angel paged to where the bookmark was. One section of the text was circled in pencil.

He read it.

And then he read it again.

And stood up. "I think we need to call it a night."

The demon shrugged. "Sure. I take it this is one of your special books?"

"I've been coveting a copy for centuries…" the angel murmured. "And a girl just appears in the rain and hands one over. Here, take a look." The demon stood and peered over his shoulder at the circled section.

A pause. "Well," the demon said, "That can't be good."

Another pause. "I," the angel said, "need to do some research."

"Right, right. I'll leave you to it then." The demon shuddered, shaking the alcohol out of his system. "See you tomorrow? Don't lose yourself in this book completely."

"Of course." The angel waved a hand, pulling out some scrap paper and pens.

"Right. Night then."

"Good night." The angel was already distracted. The demon mentally shrugged, and headed out into the darkness and the rain.

Several hours later found the demon sprawled out on his couch with a half empty bottle of gin while the telly played late-night reruns. He was dozing, not really paying attention, while the light flickered in front of his face.

There was a click, and the power cut out.

The demon started, surprised by the absence of light and sound. He set the bottle down on a table, stood up, wandered over to the window, looked out.

Whatever had happened, all of London was affected. There was no light as far as the eye could see.

He played with the blinds for a moment, wondering. Thinking back to the bit in the book earlier that night…

And the world exploded.

That's what it felt like, anyway. More specifically, the floor heaved, the demon fell, there was a massive roaring sound, car alarms blared in the streets, and there was screaming.

When the shaking stopped, he got up and pulled open the blinds completely.

A few emergency lights had clicked on in windows and in the street. Where the water was rising.

His eyes widened.

He scrambled for an end table, where he kept an emergency radio. Had done, ever since the Blitz. He cranked the handle until static erupted from the speakers, then twiddled the dial, listening for something, anything…

CROWLEY.

"Fuck! What? I mean, what, my lord?"

SOMETHING IS WRONG.

Yeah, no shit, the demon thought to himself, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

THIS HAS HEAVEN'S STENCH ALL OVER IT. BUT THIS IS NOT THE PROPHESIED END TIMES. THEY HAVE ACTED WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE.

"Wait," the demon croaked, "you mean to say that Upstairs did this?"

THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT WE MEAN. WE NEED INFORMATION, CROWLEY. WE NEED YOU TO INVESTIGATE.

"What do you need from me?" the demon asked, mentally wincing. His plans, all his plants—he'd lived in a state of not-being-disturbed-by-work for a few years now, and had started to get rather comfy with the whole thing.

Complacent, more like.

WE NEED YOU IN JAPAN, CROWLEY. THERE ARE HUMANS INVOLVED. WE NEED YOU TO INFILTRATE THEIR ORGANIZATION, DISCOVER WHAT THEY KNOW.

"はい," the demon said.

A pause. WHAT?

"It's Japanese," the demon muttered, then shook himself. "Right. Of course. I just need to check one thing, then I'll be off."

WE'LL BE IN TOUCH.

And the radio clicked off.

The demon stared at it for another second, then sighed and tucked it into his pocket.

A few minutes later, he was wading through knee-deep water, the stench from the Thames hanging in the air. Some poor fools had tried to start their cars, which promptly sputtered out.

He hadn't even bothered with his car. Mourning its loss, he soldiered through the flood.

Back to Soho.

The rain hadn't stopped. His hair plastered itself to his face. He'd pulled off his sunglasses (omnipresent, even at night) and stashed them in a pocket as well, not being able to see through the water that beaded up on the lenses.

He finally stood in front of the store, mentally bracing himself for an angel very upset about the water damage.

But as he opened the door, the water swirling, all he could feel was a cold emptiness from inside.

"Angel?" he called.

No answer. He pushed further into the shop.

A few loose pages were floating in the water. He winced. Centuries of books the angel had accumulated, his precious treasures, now waterlogged, no doubt the ink running. "Aziraphale?" he called again.

No answer.

The demon started to panic then, looking around frantically, his dilated pupils having no trouble with the thick darkness inside the shop. No angel.

Not even a hint of him, no angel-y sense of old books and fresh ink and light.

The bookshop was cold, dark, and empty.

"AZIRAPHALE!"

Silence.

The angel was gone.

Like he'd never been.

Like the two hadn't spent hours in there, bickering and drinking and being friends—

The demon looked around one last time, and his eyes lit upon a book.

A worn-out old book, sitting on a table next to some notes and a lamp.

The book that the girl had brought, just hours (was it only hours?) ago.

The demon hesitated, then picked it up.

The gold-embossed title leapt out at him. The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.

And the words he'd read earlier echoed in his mind.

Heart sinking, he opened his suit jacket and slid the book into an inside pocket.

And then, not looking back, he strode back out to the street. Shook out his wings, and took off into the dark and rainy night.

He had a long journey ahead of him.

Tokyo-3, AD 2015, March

"Honey, I'm home!" Crowley yelled, shutting the door behind him and bending over to take off his shoes.

"And what sort of time do you call this?" a woman answered.

"There was a long line at the store!" Crowley grabbed his bag and sauntered into the kitchen, plopping it down on the table. "I wasn't gonna come over without your shitty beer now, was I?"

The woman poked her head out from a bedroom, and her face lit up. "You brought me beer? Everything's forgiven." She skipped over to him and stretched up to kiss his nose, then turned her attention to unpacking the bag.

"The things I do to enable your bad habits," he grumbled, secretly not minding.

They plopped down at the table together. Captain Misato Katsurgi passed over a more expensive bottle of wine to him, slid over a corkscrew, then popped the tab open on a shitty can of beer and proceeded to drink almost the entire thing.

Crowley watched in amusement, the corkscrew forgotten for the moment, then shook his head and stabbed the pointy end into the cork.

Although their tastes in alcohol were very different, Crowley and Misato had quickly become friends. He'd been cooling his heels in Japan for almost fifteen years now, grappling with the formality of the culture and the lack of good food available after the Second Impact. She was a breath of fresh air—extremely casual, quick to tease, and subsisting almost entirely off of cheap instant meals. They had a routine now. Whoever got off their shift first would pick up wine and beer, plus a few cartons for dinner, and they'd crash at her apartment. Either on the balcony or in the kitchen, depending on the weather. And they'd eat their cheap food, get extremely drunk, and blather on like schoolgirls.

It was a sort of friendship that the demon had very much missed.

Then at midnight, he'd say his goodnights, head back to his apartment, and crash until sunrise.

And then report to work, and repeat the whole thing again.

They never talked about anything personal. Neither of them ever asked or volunteered. Much to Crowley's disappointment, their discussions never got metaphysical either. He'd tried once, tried to emulate a million conversations he'd had a lifetime ago, but Misato had no patience for anything that she couldn't confirm with her own two eyes.

Tonight, they lounged out on the balcony, listening to the cicadas scream, and talked about the future.

When he'd first come to Japan, the cicadas had scared him almost to death. You never heard them in London. Dr Akagi had laughed herself almost senseless when he'd asked why the trees were screaming, and proceeded to tell him about the very large bug that would emerge from the earth after years of dormancy, climb a tree, and tell the world that it wanted a shag.

Crowley thought that it might be very nice to do a similar thing himself: climb a tree, and scream to the world what he was thinking. After that discussion, he'd become very fond of the buzzing that pervaded the listless summer days.

"It took ages to track him down," Misato said, dangling her arm over the balcony rail, catching the currents of wind with her hand.

"Where was he?" Cowley asked.

"Living out in rural Yamagata with his uncle. Took even more ages before his uncle would even let us speak to him. But we finally did, and he agreed. He'll be here in three days, so get ready for some excitement."

Crowley groaned. "I don't want any more excitement."

Misato shrugged. "Me neither. But we gotta do what we gotta do, I guess. It's 2015. The angels won't wait for us."

"Yeah, and that's the other thing," Crowley said. "How the fuck is the Committee so sure that fifteen years is the magic number? How do they know all this shit? They just give us cryptic deadlines and vague warnings, and we're expected to jump when they say so."

Misato's eyes grew hard. "I trust them."

Crowley's mind flickered back to the book sitting on his kitchen counter. The only obvious answer in his mind was that someone at the top of Nerv had a copy as well.

An idea that made him twitchy.

Aloud, he said, "All right," and raised his hands in mock surrender. And then to deflect: "I'm curious what this kid'll be like. Hope he fell far from the tree where his father is concerned."

Misato grinned. "I don't think you have to worry. He sounds like the complete opposite of Gendo."

"Good." Crowley did not like Gendo Ikari. As far as he was concerned, Hell had a lock on that particular soul.

Still it was one thing to look forward to in this hellhole. Which seemed kind of mild epithet. In Hell, at least you knew who you could trust, which was to say, nobody. In Nerv—well, fifteen years and Crowley still felt like he was swimming in a hole of scorpions, only he wasn't sure which were deadly and which weren't.

When midnight rolled around, they said their goodbyes, and Crowley sobered up and headed down to the streets, pausing to pat Misato's sports car on the way and spend a moment mourning for his Bentley.

Which was much easier than mourning the other things he'd lost fifteen years ago.

#good omens #neon genesis evangelion #good omens fic #nge fic #crossovers!#my writing #don't ask it's not gonna get finished ok #maybe I'll write a few more snippets if u give me a cookie tho

4 notes · View notes

stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

Text

Episode 91: Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

“That’s me, the nice one.”

Considering Steven’s entire personality revolves around putting others first, I’m amazed that it’s taken this long for a “it’s great to help out others, but remember to take care of yourself” episode to come along. The closest thing we’ve had so far is Sworn to the Sword, but even that was more about Connie learning the concept of prioritizing others too highly above herself than actually practicing it.

It’s a tricky subject, because we should be kind and helpful when we can, and taking time for yourself is something that can come across as selfish or unfeeling in a culture where selflessness is virtuous. Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service handles its lesson beautifully by leaning in hard on the importance of balance, rather than suggesting that focusing on the needs of others or the needs of yourself are the only options. And while I’m sure this is a moral that could be taught with the Crystal Gems (Pearl or Ruby in particular) I think our human protagonist is a terrific choice for two reasons.

The first reason is that Steven’s problem of overextending himself to help others usually involves helping the Gems, the people that should be helping him. This is a whole can of worms that will be talked about way more come Steven Universe Future, but if the Gems were able to see that Steven needs to cool it and take care of himself, they would’ve taught him that a long time ago. It isn’t until What’s Your Problem? that one of them realizes that they maybe shouldn’t be putting so much pressure on him to comfort them, and it’s sad but not surprising that this revelation comes from his sister instead of one of his moms.

The second reason is that giving this lesson to a minor character like Kiki allows Steven more leeway to ignore it. So he does.

I've been Kiki. I’m sure a lot of us have. My go-to instinct is to try to help people (I mean I ended up a librarian) but it took me a while to realize that it was exacerbating my own depression to put all the worries of others on my plate. It didn't mean I stopped caring about people, but I had to learn healthy boundaries to keep my own head above water. Having similar friends means I've also been Steven, trying to help others who don't know how to stop helping others, without realizing until later that we had the same problem.

In that sense, this episode about pizza dreams becomes monumentally important to the series, because it’s Steven’s entire problem in a nutshell. Kiki learns the episode’s lesson in a running sequence that evokes Stevonnie's joyous sprint in Alone Together, but the ending is undermined by cutting back to Jenny and Steven for one last joke. I hated that cut when I first watched Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service, because the episode was funny enough that it was okay to end on a sweet moment instead of shoving another gag in at the last second, but watching it again I'm struck by what it forebodes. Kiki is running free, but Steven is asleep on the boardwalk, because even though he helped Kiki figure out that she needs to stop overwhelming herself with the needs of others, he has overwhelmed himself with her needs. And he’ll continue to try and help everyone he sees no matter what. And the further we go, the unhealthier it gets. We see in the very beginning of this story that he understands the value of me-time, preparing a nice dinner for one in his room, but you get the sense that he stops thinking he deserves it right around the time he hears that his mother shattered Pink Diamond.

Let’s talk about Kiki for a second, because she’s such a perfect lead for this story. We don’t know much about her coming into her debut focus episode, especially compared to her twin. She’s nice, but a lot of people in Steven’s universe are nice. She seems to have a stronger work ethic than Jenny, which may or may not be why we don’t see her as often in social situations. She enjoys wordplay enough to not just tell puns but provide commentary on them, which makes her a winner in my book. And most recently, we saw she was willing to pretend to be in love with Ronaldo to help out in Restaurant Wars. I’m not quite mean enough to say feigning attraction to Ronaldo is a sign of true altruism, but I will say she’s way more open to doing whatever it takes to help others than he was.

It isn’t the deepest background of a recurring character, but it’s enough to make it understandable that she’d do Jenny’s work for her. From there it’s a simple matter of going overboard and bringing Steven with her.

It's a little weird talking so much about huge character arcs and intricate plotting in Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service, because the episode itself is super silly. The dream sequences leading up to the finale are hilarious, showing once again how good this crew is at capturing the wacky nuances of dreams, but this time without the tonal interruptions of Lion 3 or Chille Tid. Steven is an expert dreamer by now, and relishes helping his friend while being a huge dork. This is the second episode in a row where a distinct anime influence is felt, this time evoking more specific inspirations, from the title to the absurd Evangelion reference at the climax, with plenty of shonen gags in between. Steven is ostensibly a consumer of children’s media, and while I hope he hasn’t watched Evangelion at his age, it makes sense that his dreams would reflect that in the same way his story in Garnet’s Universe references the likes of Chrono Trigger and Usagi Yojimbo.

Silliness also pervades the editing; the early cut between Steven beginning his meticulously prepared dinner to snoring on the couch with pizza dripping everywhere is my favorite, but I like that we mix it up with actually seeing Steven immediately fall asleep after declaring himself a dream warrior. The dramatic music and intense closeup on Kiki as she explains that she has the same nightmare every night is a funny way to reveal how bad her problem really is while showing how she’s repressing it,.

Then of course there are the jokes. Steven Universe is no stranger to comedy, but rare is an episode with with this many jokes told by characters, rather than situational humor common to television. This is another reason why I appreciate Kiki’s presence, because again, she’s all about that wordplay, capping Steven’s series of pizza-based gags by pointing out that “time to cut the cheese” isn’t a pun (which is debatable; if you define puns as jokes that exploit homonyms, she’s right, but if you include alternate definitions of identical words in that definition, she’s wrong). The highlight, of course, is “pepperanhas.”

I actually think this much humor sort of hurts the message, though. I understand why it’s so prevalent in a dream episode like this, but Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service has a solid message that can be hard to absorb when there’s gag after gag to keep you laughing. The message isn’t hard to understand—the episode has subtlety, but the lesson itself isn’t subtle—and I don’t think any show should preachily value the moral over the plot, but it makes for a tonally imbalanced outing. I still like this story, but it’s just off enough that despite its many strengths and its surprisingly solid place in the overall story of the series, I don’t love it.

That said, I have no complaints about the character work: this is the second episode with just two voice actors (after Open Book), even if one of these actors is voicing for two, so it makes sense that we get a little extra focus on the characters than usual. I’ve already talked about Kiki’s people-pleasing and inability to quash her self-sacrificial tendencies, but this is also a fantastic snapshot of Steven at this point in the show. He's still a goofball, and he's still a good friend, but he's dealing with more nuance than he’s had to in the past. I love his instinct to panic and apologize for going into Kiki's brain without permission, considering his good intentions hurt another friend in The New Lars. And I love the tiny taste of teen attitude when he's exhausted and exasperated and snaps at Kiki with bitter comedy instead of childish anger (which he also apologizes for). For all the silliness, he’s maturing.

Plus, we don't even get that clean of an ending for Kiki, despite her running free in the last scene. After the big confrontation with Pizza Jenny (full name Pizza Jenny Pizza) clears Kiki's mind up, we see that her problem isn't fully gone. While looking around the landscape of her brain, she has to follow up "All the cheese is gone!" with "...well, most of it." You can't snap your finger and fix everything, and Kiki is bound to have lingering issues when it comes to helping herself versus helping others. It’s truly challenging to overstate how prescient this small townie episode ends up being to Steven Universe Future.

This is Jenny’s third episode in a row, and it finally addresses a strange character beat of hers that’s been mentioned, but never seen: that she’s “the evil twin.” She’s more social, a Cool Kid who bends the rules with the freedom that comes with her car, and she apparently conflates liking metal bands to being bad (come to think of it, it’s weird she doesn’t bring any metal influence to Sadie Killer and the Suspects’ sound), but none of those traits qualifies as “evil.” She’s dismissive of Lars at times, but who wouldn’t be? And remember, Jenny was the one who stepped in front of Garnet’s fist to save Steven in Joy Ride, and Jenny was the one whose instinct was to help Stevonnie when their car stalled in Beach City Drift. So it’s about time we actually get some evidence that she’s any sort of bad twin.

It’s pretty tame, which I appreciate given her consistent depiction as a good person. At worst, she’s taking advantage of her sister’s nature, but seeing how the situation resolves it’s more likely that she’s just being selfish and thoughtless than cruelly manipulative. Which isn’t great, but she’s a teenager, which explains not only her behavior here but her desire to exaggerate how bad she is to define herself, especially as a twin who’s bound to be compared to her kind sister. And when Kiki stands up for herself, Jenny is fine picking up the slack (despite the perfect teen reasoning that Kiki likes running so there’s no reason not to run and deliver pizzas).

Was Kiki named so that this episode’s title could eventually work? I have no idea. But I wish we saw more of her than we do: it took ninety-one episodes for her to get a focus episode, and she won’t have another speaking role until Pool Hopping, which is an absurd fifty-two episodes away. Townies in general are intermittent figures in the show’s balancing act of the magical with the mundane, but she’s a remarkably ancillary despite her similarities with Steven. They both work hard, care hard, and joke hard, and I feel like there are more stories to be told from their friendship. Kiki ends up going to the prom with Stevonnie in the non-canon comics, but I wish these kinds of stories had more room in the show. Do I prefer Gem shenanigans? Sure. But Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service is a fine example of how Beach City shenanigans are still worth exploring, and ends up being perhaps the most important townie episode in the series when it comes to sheer thematic resonance.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Again, the tone here is a little too varied for me to like Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service as much as I wish I did. There are a ton of great elements to it, but in terms of just being an episode I enjoy rewatching, this doesn’t quite make the cut. I obviously don’t hate it, but my feelings aren’t as strong as my gushing about its individual strengths might lead you to believe. Thematic resonance can only do so much!

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#kiki's pizza delivery service #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

22 notes · View notes

mvssmallow · 7 years

Photo

Cloudy With A Chance

Part 18: …of October sky.

Masterlist

It’s October. People probably think he’s mad but he can always feel a change in the air when it’s October. Or maybe it’s not as crazy as it sounds. October was the first thing he knew after he was born. He knows it’s different compared to all the other months.

October with it’s mild sky and intermittent sunshine, when leaves are turning shades of earth and trees are looking lonely. It doesn’t have the sharp sting of December’s Winter nor does it have the carefree warmth of June’s Summer. It’s not as optimistic as March’s Spring but he finds all that optimism overbearing after awhile anyway.

October just is. October lets him lay low and be who he wants to be. It lets him start to steal more of Jiwon’s clothes to wear underneath his jacket, like a hug he can walk around with when he goes and does errands by himself. Maybe it’s pathetic, he’s sure it is, but it’s nice having Jiwon so close to him, even if it’s just through an old t-shirt.

This is their first October together and he’s lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little bit irrationally anxious about it. He wants Jiwon to love October. He needs this to be good.

“How’s the book going?” Jiwon asks, fingers running through his hair as they sit on the couch watching late night Evangelion re-runs.

“It’s okay.” He sighs. “It’s a lot of research.”

“Are you ever gonna tell me anything about it? Or let me read it?”

He snuggles closer into Jiwon’s chest. “No. It’s not ready. And you haven’t won a mic night yet. You know the rules.”

Jiwon groans dramatically above him. “Seriously? But that might take months! Come on.”

He slides his hands under the soft fabric of Jiwon’s hoody and lets his fingers catch on the bumps and ridges of defined muscle. “Well, if you want to read it so badly, you should try to win the next one then. I told you, you’re better than him, it shouldn’t be hard.”

Jiwon chuckles softly. “Better than who? Mino?”

“Yeah. He’s too controlled and too handsome or something. It’s okay if you like that kind of thing.” He says with a slack shrug.

The fingers in his hair freezes for a beat. It always makes him smile, the way Jiwon reacts to some things and pretends it doesn’t affect him.

“You think he’s too handsome?” Jiwon asks casually.

“Well, he’s not ugly. Who cares what he is anyway. He’s not my type. He’s too clean or something. I’m not into that sort of thing.”

There’s a reflective hum. “Oh really? What’s your type then?”

“Dirty. Messy. Shreds everything I buy. Doesn’t let me touch his car stereo. And always forgets to turn the dryer on.”

“That’s weirdly specific, Hanbin. I don’t know anyone like that.”

His fingernails drag across Jiwon’s abdomen and he can feel the muscles flexing in response. “Hmm, I don’t either. Guess I’ll settle for you until he comes along.”

“Thanks, I feel so much better about myself now.” Jiwon says flatly. “Aren’t you going to ask me what my type is?”

“Okay, what is your type?”

“Not you.”

He bursts out laughing and turns over to hit Jiwon in the chest. “Rude!”

Jiwon lets out his dorky wheezy laugh as he dodges the punches. “Yeah I love guys who are really ugly, really dumb and bad at doing laundry. Know where I can find one of those?”

“Maybe on sale at the boyfriend store?”

Jiwon’s face turns serious then, smile softening and fingers brushing strands of hair away from his face. “Actually, if we’re being honest, I didn’t even know I had a type but I knew it was going to be you by the time we got to that cafe.”

He lays down with his chin resting on Jiwon’s chest and eyes him skeptically. “What?! Don’t lie. How could you possibly know? We met for like 15 minutes.”

“I’m not lying! I knew. I knew it’d be you.”

He stares at Jiwon’s face, trying to look for something that might be insincere or the start of a joke but Jiwon doesn’t back down and just stares right back.

“No way.” He shakes his head in disbelief. “No way you could’ve known we’d end up like this. No way.”

“Well, I didn’t know we’d end up exactly like this. But I knew it was going to be you.”

And right there, standing in the forefront of his mind, is the same insecure teenage that never even got a date in high school. He doesn’t want to ask but he knows the kid inside needs him to make sure. “Do you….still know?”

“Yeah, of course I still know….” Jiwon says defensively before trailing off.

He watches as Jiwon’s mouth opens and closes without anything coming out. It’s not because of a lack of thoughts. It’s because there’s too many.

“Don’t say it.” He cuts in, fingers sliding into one of Jiwon’s waiting hands. “Whatever you’re going to say. Just….save it for later. Okay?”

He rests back down, cheek against Jiwon’s rib cage, listening to the fast heartbeat underneath as his own thunders in his ears.

“Yeah…okay.” Jiwon replies, confused but not protesting.

Evangelion gets ignored for the rest of the night. He watches the pictures and hears the sounds but the only thing he can think about is if he’s really ready for the next phase of his life. He’s spent so long dwelling on the past that he feels totally unprepared for the future.

There was so much to think about all of the sudden. He doesn’t even remember falling asleep after that but he remembers arms carrying him to bed, tucking him into the sheets and a soft voice telling him to dream.

****

October 5th.

“HANBIN?!!!”

“WHAT?!!”

“HAVE YOU SEEN MY LUCKY BOXERS?”

He rummages through their drawers in a panic, like a storm blowing right through the streets of Hanbin’s neat town but this a DEFCON 1 situation. He can’t do a mic night without his lucky boxers.

A hand grabs his wrists. “Jiwon. Stop. You’re just messing up the drawers. Go shower. I’ll find them.”

“It’s the purple ones with the-”

“…yellow killer bees. I know.” Hanbin gives him a dimple grin as he kneels down on to pick up all the socks and clothes that littered their floor.

It’s always the smallest things that hit him right in the gut. The way Hanbin folds his t-shirts or writes him random notes or how he always seems to know exactly where everything is. Things that he almost takes for granted on his bad days but thanks God for on the good ones.

“Jiwon?”

“Huh?”

“Go shower. I’ll find them okay?”

By the time he’s done and wrestled with his hair, their bedroom is empty and the tornado of clothes has been tidied away. On their bed, he finds his lucky purple boxers folded next to a pair of jeans, his white shirt ironed and hanging from the wardrobe door handle. He could really go through the rest of his life sustained by all the small things.

Hanbin is sitting on the couch in their small living room, eating an apple and scrolling through something on his phone, hair slicked up to one side and dressed in a black jacket and black jeans that he didn’t even know Hanbin owned. Now that he’s working on his book from home, he hasn’t seen Hanbin dressed up in awhile. It still takes his breath away. Like his brain keeps wiping the memory so they have to re-live the moment like it’s the first time, every time.

“Hey.”

Hanbin looks up, apple hanging from his mouth as he types out a message using both hands. He looks ridiculous but somehow, still the most beautiful thing in any room, anywhere in the world.

“Youlooknice.” Hanbin mumbles around the apple in his mouth.

He shakes his head. The irony. “You look nicer.”

Hanbin pockets his phone, nibbles on the rest of the apple core and walks over to him. He’s seen Hanbin plenty of times. Every day for the past few months. But the way that thin frame walks towards him, all shy confidence with tight jeans and collar bones peeking out from the deep v-cut of his white t-shirt, still makes his stomach drop and his heart race out of time.

There’s a sweet and sticky kiss pressed against his lips but it’s gone before he’s had time to respond or demand more. As Hanbin walks into the kitchen to throw away the apple core, there’s a ghost of that cologne that always reminds him of the ocean for some reason. It’s ridiculous, he knows. The ocean smells like salt. The only other thing that reminds him of salt is the taste of Hanbin’s skin, especially down his neck. Maybe it’s not so crazy.

And then his mind does that thing that he sometimes loves and hates. It takes the smallest hint of a spark and roars into a fire, engulfing him with all the images he remembers from That Morning In Bed spliced together with all the dirty things that they haven’t even done yet.

He’s completely inside of his head as they ride the train to the club. Mental images of skin and hip bones and that pouty mouth he loves so much. He’s restless, frustrated and he knows it annoys Hanbin whenever he has to readjust himself. He’s grateful that his jeans are at least baggy enough to hide how hard he is. His hand searches out for something to touch, settling over Hanbin’s knee, where the rips in his jeans are large enough for his fingers to slide in and out.

It’s not until they’re stepping onto the platform and walking to the venue that Hanbin suddenly sighs loudly.

“Oh my god. What’s up with you? Are you actually high or just nervous?”

He forces himself out of his head. “What? Neither! I’m just thinking about stuff. I’m allowed think about stuff sometimes okay?!”

Hanbin stops walking and looks sternly at him. “Like what?”

He feels the warmth creeping up his neck. “Like….uh, rap stuff.”

There’s a exasperated groan and he really wishes he didn’t find that hot when Hanbin is clearly just annoyed at him for being a bad liar.

“What’s it gonna take?”

“For what?”

“For you to focus? You’re on stage in 2 hours. You can’t go like this. You look all spaced out. So what’s it gonna take?”

He bites his bottom lip and raises an eyebrow. He doesn’t know what he looks like but all Hanbin does is glare at him for a few seconds before rolling his eyes.

“You are so predictable.”

And that’s how he finds himself sitting on a wooden crate in the dark alley behind the club, jeans undone, soft hair between his fingers and Hanbin’s hot mouth between his legs.

He wants to say that getting blown right before mic night might not really help but then again, only an idiot would put a stop to something like this.

The bass thumps in the background, drowning out most of the sounds they’re making but he doesn’t need sound, not when he has sight. And really, if he died right then, he’d die happy.

It’s not long before he feels the familiar tight tension building, like waves of electricity rolling closer and closer every time Hanbin swallows him down into that wet heat.

Without warning Hanbin looks up at him with those big dark eyes that are soft and adoring one minute then dangerous and wild the next. It catches him off guard, something vaguely passing as fear makes his hair stand on end, and he knows Hanbin must see the surprise on his face because there’s a wicked smile and the light scrape of sharp teeth over the underside of his cock.

It’s enough to push him right over the edge. He leans back too fast, head colliding with the wall behind them and cums with a loud groan, fingers pulling Hanbin’s head forward by his hair to keep that mouth exactly where he needs it.

He can feel the startled surprise as Hanbin’s throat gags around him. He tries not to but he can’t help fucking into that soft pliant mouth, riding out the high and chasing the heat as Hanbin swallows everything down with a long satisfied hum.

Once he stops seeing stars, his body collapses against the wall, completely blissed out and only vaguely registering Hanbin’s fingers tidying him up. He opens his eyes just in time to see Hanbin wiping his mouth like a cat. He loves watching him do that.

It’s the same every time they do this. He feels invincible afterwards. Like a champion boxer ready for a KO in the ring. Like the luckiest guy on earth. Ready to destroy everyone in the club, if it means seeing Hanbin’s wicked smile again. If only his legs would work….

Fingers comb through his hair in some attempt to fix it. It’s gentle for a few seconds before there’s a sharp tug pulling his face forward until it’s inches away from Hanbin and his sharp teeth.

“You better fucking win tonight.” There’s a snarl in Hanbin’s voice, sharpness in his tone and all it does is send a jolt of electricity down his spine and shocks any remaining lethargy out of him.

“Okay.” He says obediently.

Anything.

I’ll do anything you want me to.

There’s a laugh then, the dimpley one that he hates for its manipulative effect. “Come on, let’s go get a drink. My jaw hurts.”

They walk back slowly to the club. His fingers unable to stop touching something, anything, attached to Hanbin’s body. He knows he’s pushing it but he doesn’t unhook his fingers from Hanbin’s jeans as he pushes them through the crowd. More surprisingly, Hanbin doesn’t complain and just holds onto the back of his jacket.

They find June and Yoyo at the bar, bickering about something as usual.

“Dude, your hair.” June motions to Hanbin’s head with a laugh. “You look like you just-”

Yoyo elbows him sharply and clears his throat. The blush that colours Hanbin’s cheeks gives them away.

“Oh….Jesus. Disgusting.” June gags in the background. “Don’t tell me you guys just fucked before you got here.”

“WHAT?! NO!” Hanbin splutters out, caught off guard by June’s bluntness. He doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t care if everybody knows.

Yoyo scrunches up his nose. “Was it on the train? Because that’s so …unsanitary.”

“Ahh, I really need a drink now.” He announces, ignoring the questioning stares from his friends and dragging Hanbin to the other side of the bar.

“It’s not that obvious is it?”

“What?”

“My hair. Is it obvious that-”

“-you just blew a guy in an alley way behind a club? Yeah it’s obvious.” He chuckles apologetically. “Sorry.”

Hanbin touches his swollen lips gingerly but makes no motion to fix his messy hair. He reaches across and tries to help but his hand gets pushed away.

Oh. Weird.

He’s learnt a lot of things about Hanbin at this point but right at that very minute, he gets an inkling of what might become his new favourite thing.

“Actually, I’m not sorry.” He says, leaning in with his lips barely touching Hanbin’s ear. “You look so hot like this. And you like it don’t you? You like people guessing who you’ve been with and what you just did.”

He sees something hungry and unhinged flashing across those dark eyes and he knows he right. It stirs the animal inside him, the one that’s only just gone back to sleep.

“But they can’t have you, can they baby? Because you’re mine. I want them all to know you’re mine.”

Those lips open to say something but the bartender comes over with their drinks then and he leans back, leaving Hanbin opened-mouthed, mid-thought and staring at him with the kind of intensity that is destined to get him committing crimes and walking through fire one day.

He pushes the glass of gin over. “Drink this. And stop looking at me like that. You’re gonna get me hard again.” He says with a laugh. “Then we’ll be in a whole lot of trouble.”

He watches Hanbin down the entire glass like a shot and lick his lips wet. He can feel it, the angry frustration humming around Hanbin’s body, like a lightning rod or live wire that’s just been cut. This was going to be a long night.

*****

3 drinks in and he’s still so restless. Nervous-excited energy causing him to bounce his legs up and down to the point where Jiwon’s hands clamp down on his thighs to stop him moving.

At quarter to 9, Jiwon takes off his jacket and rolls up his shirt sleeves. That doesn’t help either and things just go from bad to worse. He leans right into Jiwon’s space without really meaning to, head resting on a broad shoulder and fingers already finding the skin of Jiwon’s smooth back.

4 drinks in and Jiwon slowly loses the rest of his restraint. Calloused fingers are jammed underneath the holes of his jeans, drawing some kind of pattern across his leg. He knows what they must look like now. He can see it in the surprised and curious faces of fans and rappers who come over to their couch to meet Jiwon. If there was any doubt last time, there probably wouldn’t be by the time this night is over.

And he knows.

He knows he needs to worry about rumours spreading and his parents finding out but by the time his 4th drink arrives, those concerns just make less and less sense. If he stops, he gets less Jiwon. But if he keeps going, he gets more. And he definitely wants more.

It’s maths.

It’s logical.

So why should he stop?

He plays with Jiwon’s fingers as they bicker with June and Yoyo about cars and tattoos and how subconsciously possessive Jiwon gets whenever someone looks in his direction. He doesn’t remember a time when he felt this happy, this carefree, this drunk…..

“Honestly, cut this shit out.” June says with a grimace. “That last guy didn’t even do anything. Are you gonna get pissed off at every guy who looks at him?”

All it does is make Jiwon’s hand tighten across his thigh.

“Urghhh. Get a fucking room.” June groans.

“I would. But I gotta perform soon.” Jiwon replies with a poke of his tongue. It makes him giggle like an idiot.

“Aww, it’s kinda adorable.” Yoyo says, nodding in that happy way he does when he’s had one drink too many. “You both look so dopey. Good luck with the hangover tomorrow though.”

They look across at each other. They do look dopey. At least Jiwon does, with his big bunny grin and ugly laugh. He wonders if he looks the same. He definitely feels dopey.

At 9:30pm, the rappers get called and he frowns when Jiwon’s body stands up.

“Babe, it’s time.” Jiwon says with a smile, trying to tug his fingers free. “You gonna let me go?”

He shakes his head and his thoughts just slosh around all bathed in the warm glow of citrus alcohol.

“Fuck, you are so cute right now.” Jiwon kneels in front of him and kisses his fingers. “I promise I’ll come back.”

“After you destroy all those guys?”

“Yeah, after I destroy all those guys.”

He relunctantly lets go and watches as Jiwon leaves, disappears and re-emerges on the stage as Bobby. He watches as rappers come and fall. Even Mino gets caught out by the slower backing track coming through the speakers. But that slack bassline and the too-fast-too-slow-trap-beat is as unpredictable as Bobby. It takes a certain kind of crazy to ride that kind of rhythm.

It’s our kind of crazy.

He lets Bobby get eaten up by the crowd that loves him, calls his name, touches his face and shakes his hands. They can have Bobby. Just leave him Jiwon.

They make out all the way home on the train. It’s past 1am. There’s 16 drinks between them, a winners check in Jiwon’s back pocket and hands on skin everywhere. He doesn’t care who sees it. If this is how October is going to play out, he wants it to be October forever.

#CWAC #another 1 day re-write #i am so in love with jiwon #i mean gdi #he is just everything #double b #hanbin #bobby #ikon #text #Cloudy With A Chance

111 notes · View notes