#throws vague content at you. I needed to work on a cartoon style again and then I didn't
Noceda Glyph Lessons
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Nah bc yall are CRAZY where did yall come from!??!? I woke up to 100 likes and like a bunch of reposts!! Thank yall sm 😭 now here's the full chapter you guys probably want
Strings of their hearts💕 FULL chapter 1
You bursted from your dream, flying up to sit up in your bed. Cold sweat practically dripping from your face. It was that dream again.. you couldn't stand that dream, the uncanny silence always followed by you falling to the ground and wondering what was happening, or what happened really. You never fully understood why you started having that reoccurring dream, you never did anything in the waking world to even cause the dream. You didn't watch horror movies alot, and you haven't been to a forest since you were a pre-teen. Even then, your memories about that summer were blurry and you couldn't remember what happened.
Looking to your nightstand you read your clock "5:00 AM" You sighed, 'time to get up' . You and your friend group had an entire weekend planned out, you all had been planning this for a few weeks, you all would take 3 of your vacation days off of work and go do fun stuff. Fun stuff as in go out on the town for 2 days and regret it all on the third and go back to work on the 4th, today you all were gonna go shopping, you all had very decent jobs so it wasn't very hard to save up alot of spending money.
So not wanting to be late you got up and trudged to your bathroom, flicking the light on you slightly jolted at your appearance 'damn I look like shit man..' you sighed, your hair an absolute mess and your shirt had a wet spot of drool on the collar. Getting ready was the easiest part of most of your days, as you usually knew exactly what was going to happen in the day, so you knew how to dress. But as this days only objective was to "go shopping" it was to vague to know exactly how to dress, but going casual should be good enough. Getting in and out of the shower was a simple task other than the undying fear that you'll slip and break your neck.
You dried your hair with a towel, you wouldn't brush it till you went downstairs. Throwing on your grey button up and torn jeans you shut the lights off and headed downstairs to do your hair and eat breakfast "alexa play don't worry be happy" you stated nonchalantly, it was your favorite song to play in the mornings to calm the nerves.
Humming along to the song, you shuffled to the kitchen in your socks. 'Hmm cereal or eggs...cereal...or....nah cereals easier' you moved over to the cabinets, opening them and pulling out the generic unhealthy colorful marshmallow cereal. You only had a few dishes in your kitchen as you lived alone, unlike your friends who had spouses and kids already. You preferred to live alone, it was more peaceful this way, you had less to worry about. Though you didn't hate the idea of a family, you just didn't really have time to go on dates, you hadn't even had a vacation since you first got your new job. Shaking your head you brought your thoughts back to the task at hand : 'find a bowl and spoon and eat already dude!'
As soon as you got your bowl of cereal ready you moved to your large living room, with black leather couches and dark rugs that complemented the rest of your homes dark pallette. You turned your large mounted TV on and immediately changed it to cartoons, not really wanting to bother watching the News, you already knew the world was going to shit you didn't need another reminder while you where trying to eat your color bombed cereal.
You sighed in content when you settled on spongebob, the joyful sponge making you forget about it all. You finished eating and reached to your brush that was laying on the couch from the previous day of you being to tired to put it up, sighing you brush through all the tangles of your messy hair and half styling it, as in you just brushed your bangs out of your eyes and called it a day.
You pulled your phone from your jeans right pocket, seeing it was already "7:45 AM" you smiled, it was time to go pick up some of your friends!
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You got in your car, it was the biggest out of your friends, the most seats and room. So it was the favorite of the group, in total your friend group would be riding in two cars, to make it easier to go from place to place. In your car, you had : Mark, Jamie, Clara, Anita, and Fry. You were close friends with Clara, Anita, and Fry, Mark and Jamie being mutual friends you met through the group. Your friend Claire was driving the second car, in their car they had: Gary, Moose, and Wendy.
You and Wendy used to date, you remember. But you both knew it would've never worked out, neither of you could imagine a future with eachother, but you two were still very good friends. You were the ring carrier at her wedding, she had a very kind wife, always smiling and always caring for others.
Smiling you drove the half hour to pick your first friends up, Mark and Fry. They lived next to eachother, everyone in the group knew they had it bad for eachother but themselves, you shook your head, they were so oblivious to eachother. You tried turning your radio on, but to your dismay, all that played was static. You tried connecting it to the Bluetooth but that wouldn't work either 'Huh...weird, might have to take it to the shop already.' You slightly grumbled, you really didn't want to take it to the shop. You had just gotten this car barely a year back, it was only a few years old itself, it really shouldn't be having problems yet.
It was 8:20, you were daydreaming and drumming on the steerwheel to a made up tune in your head, waiting for your friends to come out already. Smiling as soon as you saw you blonde haired friend Mark, he was always worried about being late to things, he was generally anxious alot either way, but being late was like life or death for him. "Hey buddy! Ready for the day?" He said with his raspy voice, he was the eldest of the group and used to be a singer until his last show that ended in an accident that costed him his voice. It took him years to be able to talk again, the entirety of those years you and your friends worried for him so badly. He fell into a deep state of depression, his deepest passion was gone forever, and he could do nothing about it.
"Course I am bud, how about you? You ready to tell Fry how much you love him?" You smirked, looking at the rear view mirror to look at him. He burst into a fit of embarrassment "Don't say that! He could be here any minute!!" He whisper yelled at you, looking around like Fry would appear out of thin air at any moment. "Fine fine..you gotta tell him at some point Mark." You said, smiling at him after finally turning your head to fully look at him "he's on his way out right now, he just texted me" He nodded, scooting to the seat behind the driver's.
You two only had to wait a minute before Fry was clumsily running out the door, struggling to pull on his coat and walking at the same time. His long red hair falling all over the place, coffee in hand, he really looked like a disaster waiting to happen today. He scooted into the middle back seat next to Mark, already red and embarrassed for how foolish he must've looked.
As soon as they both buckled in, you pulled out immediately. You had to pick up Jamie, Clara, and Anita next, which is absolutely god sent because they were siblings and still lived in the same house.
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Arriving at the mall wasn't the easiest thing in the world, no matter how simple it seemed, you and your friends argued for half an hour over which mall to go to and whether to stop for food first or not. In the end, you got some quick fast food and ate on the way to the south mall center and waited in the car till both parties were done eating.
You were already tired, you could feel a headache starting to pull at your head and you wanted to be done and go home already. Your entire body was tired and you couldn't understand why you were so exhausted already, at this point if they just left you in the car to sleep you'd be fine with it.
The triplets were sitting in the back row of seats in your car, all rough housing and making the car shake, fighting over food. You shook your head, you would've said it was to early for this already but it really wasn't with how long they took to pick up. "YOOO WHAT ARE YOU TEXTING YOUR BOYFRIEND???? THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE?" Jamie practically screamed, they really had no sense of an inside voice, and it didn't change that you all were in a car. "NO DUDE SHUT THE FUCK UP YOUR HURTING MY EARS" Clara shoved Jamies face away from her phone, she was always on it, it was like her prop that was glued to her hand. "Was that a rat in the parking lot just now?? Oh nah you aren't getting me out of this car now." Anita, the quietest of the trio, but also the most clean freak of the entire group. She was a neutral hard to hate person, because she was just calm, unless you were dirty then may God have mercy on you.
"Guys, we were supposed to be in the store YESTERDAY. Jesus fuckin' christ man" you passive aggressively told them
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You had already been to countless stores, its been hours and if you were exhausted before? Your starting to lay down in the grave now. And the worst part was that they hadn't let you go to a single store you liked yet, and you knew for a fact that you, Fry, Jamie and Moose, wanted to go to the same type of store.
Finally...FINALLY, one of the three spoke up and said they were going to one of the game stores. And just as you guessed it, not only yourself tagged along, the other two did as well. As you and your group walked to the exit, where the game store was at, you all decided it was gonna be the last store you visit for the day as it was already getting dark and the store was closing already.
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As you guys all separated inside the large gaming store, filled with anything and everything possibly related to game stuff, from game boards to games to decoration. You knew it would be the shortest trip in the entire store as everything was overly priced and the majority of everyone has spent the most of their money for the day.
Sighing you looked through the games, new, old, demos, it was crazy! They had everything in here. Choosing a few random titles that looked fun and interesting you were nearing the end of the aisle, all the digital games being located in the back corner of the store, it was creepy and poorly lit strangely but to you it was magical. The closer you got to the end of the aisle the more uneasy you felt, the more dirty the floor got and dusty the shelves became. It felt like you were being watched despite no one being near where you were, so finally just speedwalking to the end instead of taking your time and becoming more creeped out.
Then. Something caught your eye, shiny, very shiny. Somehow shining through the cobwebs and dust thats built up over clearly a very very long time, you used one of the cases to wipe it off and looked at it... 'weird...I didn't know they sold dating sims..they really do sell everything I guess' you hummed while looking it over. The characters looked silly and colorful, though it was clearly worn as the colors were fading, the title in jumbled colorful letters spelling "Strings of their hearts" with little glittery hearts surrounding it, those must've been the things that caught your eye. To say you were intrigued would be a bit of an understatement, you slipped it between your other cases of games, not wanting to be teased for getting it.
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Dropping your friends off was the most relieving part of your day, as you dropped the triplets off it felt like a pressure had been taken off of your head.
Driving to Mark and Frys residence was the second to last thing left to do today, you looked in your rear view mirror to watch as they both smiled and giggled while talking to eachother, you smiled, they were so happy together and the day they finally tell eachother about their feelings they will be even happier. It is almost a toothrotting sweet thought, you slowed your car into a stop at the curb near their home, you let a breath of relief out as their neighborhood was hard to locate in the dark, even with your headlights on.
It was 10:55 and you still had time to pick fast food up on the way home, you waved to your to friends and your smile widened as you saw they were holding hands as they walked eachother home.
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Okay nevermind, the trip to your local Wendy's was already proving to be even more stressful than your mall trip, the lady in front of you yelling at the cashier over a coupon that had been expired for atleast a year. You decided to just walk out and go through the drive thru instead, it was quiet and more peaceful, though the line was long and you were fourth in line you decided to make yourself less bored by trying to see if your radio was still broken, turning it on and turning to a random station that would play at late hours you waited..all that came out was static but you felt like you should wait longer, and then you heard it
... A garbled sound of someone trying to talk through multiple different voices and sounds, you immediately got freaked out and shut it off, 'if Satan wants to take my soul he can do it later when I'm not in a Wendy's drive thru..talk about embarrassing'
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After getting your food and it already being 11:40 you were semi-speeding home, you already didn't like being out this late no matter how much it looked so beautiful. You would keep remembering your dream, as the moon hung overhead, and it didn't help that your neighborhood with very large gaps between houses was filled with trees, it was like a forest. You hated it. It made you feel sick and like you didn't belong there.
Stepping on the gas and slowing down as soon as you got home, you grabbed your paper bag of food and plastic bag filled with games and stuffed animals among other things and raced into your home, not bothering to lock the car until you locked your own houses door. If anyone..anything..was out there it couldn't get you in the safety of your home..right? You didn't spend an arm an a leg getting the best security system in the country for nothing.
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You ate your food on the couch while watching more cartoons, but something wouldn't stop biting at your brain. That game, it was dusty, old, and was extremely underpriced, so much so that the employees were slightly agitated on how little you spent at their store. You looked at the bag, and jolted as the case was slightly falling out of the bag, 'weird..I thought it was buried in there??' You were slightly unnerved, but having nothing to do, and not being tired enough to sleep, combined with having finished you food..
You turned the TV off, taking the case and the bag upstairs to your room, throwing the bag to the bed as soon as you entered into your room, locking your door you turned to your PC. You didn't know if it was a download code game or a disk, but it did say it was a PC game, so putting the case on the desk and sitting down while your monitor and pc booted up, you read the back.
"Wow! Thank you so much for getting the game! Your just the most aren't you?
Well, welcome to the neighborhood neighbor! Its so nice to have a new face around here, and a very good looking one at that! And say..I think a few of your new neighbors think that too! Find out who likes you and what happens! You have two months to get a date! Have fun!" With a crayon designed smiley face under it. Though it was weird that they knew you bought the game, maybe it was just an oversight? You turned the case back around, looking at the characters again. They were colorful and some of them were attractive to you but then again you were attracted to the weirdest things, but one of them stood out to you, the yellow skinned puppet with blue styled up hair. He looked like your opposite, calm, charming, he actually had his hair styled unlike you...you started laughing at yourself, of course you would degrade yourself and compare yourself to a Muppet lookalike, it was a very you thing to do.
Shaking your head you opened the case, unlike the outside the inside was black. That was extremely weird for a game case, like..really really weird but you shook it off and popped the disc into the slot on your PC.
The game immediately started booting up, and very catchy music that your positive would be stuck in your head started to play, the screen fading from white to a colorful scene of all the characters on a picnic blanket looking at you, as if inviting you to sit down and join them. So joyful, you already loved it, it seemed you were gonna become obsessed with yet another game again
And this...was going to be a long night.
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HOOO BOY THAT TOOK ME AN ENTIRE TO DAY TO WRITE OUT. I'm EXTREMELY sorry that its kinda short, as I've said before I'm very sucky at writing, BUT I'm determined to see this out through the end. My thoughts tend to drift alot and overdetail pointless things like the side characters though they won't really contribute to the story much
SO IM SORRY 😭😭
Im working on the date outfits as I write this, and they are literally turning out better than my writing itself, so you guys will probably enjoy those more than the fic. As I'm going to be making short comics to go with these!
Anyways see you next chapter!
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The Legend of the Three Caballeros: Dope-A-Cabana Review (Commissioned by WeirdKev27)
Salduos Amigos! Since i’m covering a full series, i’d like to welcome any newcomers to the first part of the epic final stretch of THE RIDE OF THE THREE CABLLEROS! For those of you just joining us, a few months back WeirdKev27, easily my biggest supporter as the only one who comissions any reviews from me, asked if I could do a big project for him: a comission of EVERY major american apperance of those three happy chappies in matching serapes. Give i’ve ALWAYS loved the boys ever since house of mouse and had been sitting on Legend of the Three Cablleros for far too long, more on that in a minute obviously, I happily agreed. Plus the rather nice influx of cash from the comissions was very welcome. If your intrested in comissioning your own, hit me up via my direct messages. It’s 5 dolalrs an episode, though I do do discounts on orders of 3 or more, and 10 for a movie, with again discounts for orders of more than one. And yes that plug was very shamless, but again I have no other job than this.
Back to the point these reviews have taken me on a wonderful journey: I got to rewatch the movie and revel in the fun songs, acid trips and super horny Donald Duck, got to both revisit one of Don Rosa’s best story and read another all time classic from the man I hadn’t before, took a trip back to the house of mouse to hear some great songs and see some great cartoons.. and some not so great ones, took a small detour to Mickey and The Roadster Racers to be baffled and annoyed though I am proud to say it was my first review back after I came down with Cornovirus and lost a week of work time. And finally I covered the town where everyone was nice, and got to see the boys have a joyous reunion with Donald and be lushly animated while.. Dewey jackassed around in a B-Plot and Webby resisted the urge to throat chop him. It’s been a long ride and you can find all of it is so far RIGHT HERE IN THIS CONVIENT LINK ! CLICK IT NOW IF YOUR CURIOUS. Point is while this was well paid for.. it’s easily one of the projects i’ve been most proud of and while i’m sad to see it winding down, i’m proud of what i’ve done so far, and I just wanted to heartily thank Kevin for the ride and for being so generious as to fund the whole damn thing. Your a good dude man.
Which brings us here, to the grand finale. The Legend of the Three Caballeros! As the boys first starring roll as a group since the movie, there was really no other way this retrospective could end, and since I have a terrible problem with procastination and really hated this series version of daisy I just kept pushing back watching the series until now. I’m not proud of it but I am happy to correct it and hope you’ll all come along with me.
Before we get started I could not find much background on the show. It was directred by Matt Danner who was the character designer for the utter classic Xiaoilin Showdown and currently works on the Muppet Babies reboot, so i’m happy he’s still getting work. Otherwise I couldn’t find much. The most I could was on tv tropes, claming the series was orignally meant for Netflix.. and while I have no proof and this could easily be conjecture.. i’m inclined to belivie it. The series was apparently done long before the Ducktales reboot, to the point Frank Angrones was only vaguely aware of it and it didn’t even remotely impact the series, with Panchito and Jose only debuting in Season 2 because the original idea for bringing them in was scrapped. So while I don’t have proof.. I’m inclined to belivie it since it makes sense: Disney DID have a healthy relationship with Netflix once, setting up the MCU shows and likely being happy there.. but eventually they wanted their own corner of the sky, and likely didn’t want one of their shows bolted to the network like all their marvel shows were.
The problem this created though is Disney was CLEARLY left with a show they no longer had a place for. But even with that the show was still done, they COULD have put it on the Disney Now app or just aired it on the Disney Channel. See if there was any fan intrest in season 2 or throw one into production to at least beef up the episode count. I mean the Cabs have a built in fanbase, kids would likely love it... it’s the logical choice.
But this is Disney. They’ve had to be drug kicking and screaming into representation, to the point they had to be fought for the gay romance subplot in owl house to happen, try to hide that the Sparkshort “Out” is about a gay man struggling with coming out despite having you know reams of content on the service with either gay subtext or out and out gay characters, and their attempts at doing representatoin to score points in other little ways.. have been pathetic, easily missable bits in movies that could , and have been, edited out in more homophobic countries. My point is yeah i’m still sore about how they and a LOT of the animation industry have to be dragged into doing the right thing over profit, and they often make very stupid decisions for seemingly no reason. They are a good company a good chunk of the time.. but Disney has done fucked up quite a bit. This is one of those times.
Instead they dumped the show on the Disney Life app in the phillipines and slowly some other countries, basically the Disney Now equilvent over there, and then just sort of forgot about it until Disney Plus launched. And given how many shows they HAVEN’T put on the streamer for again, seemingly no reason, it is a nice suprise the show finally got a release on there in the US. But before that, and proving what a massive mistake just abandoing the show was, the show did gather a massive fanbase via people uploading the episodes online. So yeah the show was treated REALLY shittily for stupid reasons, but thankfully it still has a fanbase to this day and said shabby treatment, as it always does, just encouraged fans to support it harder. So naturally i’m more than happy to give the series some spotlight as fanbase or no, it badly needs it and Disney sure as hell dosen’t want to do it. So if somebody’s gotta do it, might as well be me. This is the Legend of the Three Cablleros.
We open on some narration from Xandra, Goddess of Adventure. Granted she hasn’t been identified yet, and won’t be till next episode.. buuuut it’s easier on me to not have to dance around her name so your learning it now. But Xandra narrates that long ago there were epic battles against the good and the evil and all that by epic heroes, and it’s all cumilated in the Legend of the Three Cablleros. Post title drop we’re treated to the boys, in cool looking armor and with neat weapons, fighting a purple monster man as you do in an really beautiful and epic sequence As this scene illustrates the animation for this show is GORGEOUS, a lavish update of the standard disney style with nice use of shadows. It feels almost film quality in it’s work, and it’s an utter treat to watch and opening at the end was a good call: it both ratchets up excitement and allows the first ep to have some action since this one, as part of a two part premiere, is mostly setup. It’s eyecatching, exciting and makes you want to know what the hell is going on. And since Xandra realizes MAYBE starting the story at the climax was a bad idea, she takes us back a bit.
Okay maybe not that far. No we open properly at Donald’s house, where it’s his birthday! And like the movie, it’s Friday the 13th, an excellent call back. Donald’s making his breakfast, boliling some tea and.. talking with the weird foced warped refelection in the kettle who can apparently only say “right back at you handsome, wink”. Seriously I have so many questoins and all of them are about what this guy is, why is Donald so calm about all of this, and is he still alive after Donald destroys his tea kettle later.
Donaldo gets a call from Daisy, whose visting to spend the day with him and is waiting patiently int he bad part of town. I didn’t know Duckburg had a bad part of town but given Glomgold has to get his sharks and bombs somewhere, i’m not surprised. Unless he special orders them, but even then what if he needs a shark or a bomb in a hurry? He’s gotta get them somewhere and now we know where. So there’s that. So all’s going well until Donald’s asshole boss calls and forces him to come in despite Donald having the fucking day off and it presumably being on the schedule. So Donald rushes to work, and we do get some great gags but as you’d expect for Donald it goes poorly and he botches a kid’s haircut despite the mother being very rude.. and also a female version of pete. LIke.. did he remarry after the divorce from peg or is that his sister? Does that mean PJ and PIstol have a cousin I never knew about? I want answers dammit.. and picutures of spider-man. Not for any slander job I just really like spider-man.
Eh it’ll do.As i’m doing a full series this time i’m stopping to talk about the main cast as we go soooo.... Tony Anselmo is naturally Donald, even pitching in to consult the crew on Donald’s characterization here, as really what better expert is there? He’s voiced Donald since the original Ducktales and has stuck with the roll since, only taking a break for Mickey and the Roadster racers and that’s likely because between finishing up this series and the Mickey Mouse shorts, and moving on to Ducktales 2017, he likely simply didn’t have the time for it. Granted given how little he was used in the first season of the show, he probably still could’ve done it but regardless, he’s a legend.
Daisy is voiced by Tress Macneile, who not only has voiced the character since House of Mouse and is easily the best voice for her, but is also one of the most storied and legendary va’s in the buisness, having been at this since the 80′s with zero signs of stopping. Just to name a few of her more notable roles, in chronological order; Gadget Hackenwrench, Babs Bunny, Agnes Skinner, Charlotte Pickles, Dot Warner (Which as of last year she’s picked up again and will do the same for Babs, just in case you thought i was exagerating on the “zero signs of stopping” thing), Pookie from Hey Arnold, Mom, Hoodsey Bishop, and Queen Oona among MANY, MANY smaller rolls. I didn’t even realize Charlotte or Hodsey were here, she’s that talented and deserves all the praise.. and way better rolls as Daisy than this one but we’ll both get to that and thankfully much like with Tony, the reboot’s giving her character some depth to work with so she gets to reallys tretch her chops. The woman turns 70 here, will likely keep going until she dies, and is wonderful and deserves more respect.
So because this is Donald, life wont’ stop punching him in the face and it turns out his house burned down, the fire people are destroying everything because their assholes, seriously they destroy both a family heirloom and a picture of his parents despite not being on fire. I’d be genuinely suprised if their general strategy wasn’t scremaing “fire, fire fire” and then going “rock rock rock” while they throw rocks on it. Super brucey bonus prize for the first person who gets that refrence and comments on it. I’ll get back to this in a second but SOMEHOW, beisdes loosing his home, all his possesions and his job... it gets even WORSE and Daisy calls, refuses to listen to him despite him having VERY valid excuses and breaks up with him. Oh and then the fire fighters gladly talk about going home to their in tact houses and partners.
So yeah let’s talk about this. This first 6 or 7 minutes.. is why I didn’t return to the show for a while. My brain has a bad habit of glomming onto certain parts of things, so it remembered the rough to sit through and not very funny first act.. and not the rest of the episode which is very good and likely more indiciative about how good the series is. Thankfully it does get better but this first act .. frames things like it’s DONALD’S fault somehow. I mean yes he did burn his house down.. but even that really isn’t his fault. He was called away suddenly, wasn’t thinking and made a mistake. Hell he proabably woudl’ve had more left if the fire department hadn’t gone crazy with the axes. His being called into work? He took the day off, and his boss was just a dick. His screwing up at the job? he was genuinely trying his best and doing his best and the client was just wholly unresonable. Donald did nothing wrong but the episode WANTS to frame him like some sort of screwup.. which he is, it’s Donald.. but not in this case. It was just a string of uncomfortable to watch bad luck that cumilates in him having nothing left. It’s not funny, it’s jsust really sad and it’s REALLY hard to tell the tone their going for as they seem to awkwardly bounce from jokes to Donald being utterly devistated and alone.
And the worst of this.. is Daisy. Daisy is EASILY the most infamous part of the show, as their portryal.. is pretty bad and apparently gets worse. We’ll see as we go but yeah.. her screaming at and breaking up with her boyfriend without listneing to his side and giving the claim we only have HER word on that he’s always screwing up, ON HIS BIRTHDAY no less, when he’s done nothing wrong, does not make a good first impression nor the fact the show seems to AGREE WITH HER. And look Donald is a trainwreck, this is true.. but the show dosen’t remotely portray him as one until AFTER this scene. As I said nothing that happened was his fault. Donald isn’t irresponsible or a screwup or dating a high schooler or anything. He isn’t Scott Pilgrim. He just has really bad luck. Again, we do see some foibles in the scenes to come.. but we don’t see any that would justify her claims, especially since she seemed perfectly happy earlier with him. Now if she’d say brought up some screwups in the first scene, and gently at that, then this would’ve worked.. but as it stands she just comes off as MASSIVELY unsymapthetic.. especially since Donald later calls her nieces over for help, which is objectively weird not gonna lie.. so she now KNOWS he had to move to a new house and his likely burned down.. yet still apparently has nothing good to say about him.
It didn’t help this rubbed me the wrong way in a very special way. As i’ve made plain before I don’t like THIS version of Daisy, the nagging, selfish, vindictive asshole who will gladly try and cheat on donald, dump him at a moments notice and you know PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE. Which just in case you think i’m exagerating...
She fucking upercutted him..and like here for something that isn’t his fault. I mean this Daisy isn’t physically beating Donald.. but that’s a VERY low bar to clear. And emotional abuse is just as bad, so there. My point is too often in the comics when written poorly, Daisy is a pretty terrible person and I REALLY didn’t want a screen adaptation of this form of Daisy. It took a WHILE to recover from not liking daisy over this version, with help from remembering house of mouse, some good barks story with her and the AMAZING Ducktales version and the suprisingly good Quack Pack version.. I did. But yeah.. this is not a good sign of things to come for the character in this show.
So yeah Donald’s heart is in the basement and his week is at an all time low when a post man shows up and gives him a letter.. well puts it in the box for a good gag but semantics. But the letter turns around as his ancestor Clinton Coot left him an inhertance for his 3Xth birthday: a house of some kind in the swanky neighboring town of New Quackmore. And i’ll also say.. it’s REALLY nice that for once, we focus on the Duck side of Donald’s legacy, or rather the coot but semantics, instead of the McDuck part. Don’t get me wrong, I fucking love the clanmcduck, always will and I love Ducktales exploration of it.. but it’s still nice to acknowledge Donald comes from two sides and while one of those may be humble farmers, they still accomplished a lot, including founding Duckburg in most continuities including presumably this one. It’s also a good way to seperate thigns from other properties including the reboot: focusing on a part of Donald’s lineage that isn’t usually touched on and making THEM just as badass as the other side.
So we get a quick montage as Donald takes a cab there and takes in the rich and fancy sights. It’s also a brilliant way to set up New Quackmore and it’s attached instutite as a fancy, upperclass place.. and thus perfectly clash it with Donald. Donald ends up getting dropped off at a big mansion.. which is not his , but belongs to the insittutes head, Baron Von Sheldgoose, played by WAYNE KNIGHT.
Hell. Yes. I freaking love Wayne Knight. In case you don’t know who the man above is, or at least don’t recognize his face, Wayne Knight is a very funny and talented actor and voice actor with a lengthy career primarily in side rolls, with the rolls that he broke out with being loveable asshole and Jerry’s enternal nemisis Newman on Seinfeld and Dennis Nedry, aka “that guy who got sprayed acid in his face by those horrifying frilled dinosaurs that will never not haunt my nightmares”. Seriously that scene fucked me up as a kid and I could not watch that part of the movie. For the most part he’s been a side character man but he has done a LOT of voice work, most notable Zurg in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Dojo for the aformentioned and excellent Xiaolin Showdown, and Mr. Blik for Catscratch and I wish he’d do more. He also recently voiced the penguin in Harley Quin so when I get to that you better belivie i’m looking forward to it. Point is while he may not always get the glory, and had to settle for starring in a mediocre tv land sitcom to get a steady paycheck once, the man is VERY talented, very funny and perfectly cast here.
So Donald makes himself home, finds out it’s not HIS home and gets thrown out by the snooty rich asshole’s bodyguards. As you’d expect. Donald does find HIS home, a run down cabana next door to the mansion with caution tape all over. Still Donald takes it best he can as it’s better than no home at all> What he doesn’t take well is finding out from the executor of the will that he’s not the only one inheriting the house... which is absolutley fair. The guy just had the worst day of his life, and this lady didn’t bother to put in the letter to any of them that they were sharing the house. The Sheldgoose thing was just an average Donald screw up. This is just this lady going...
But yes we meet our boys.. and the introductions are naturally given this series is about them the best we’ve gotten so far: Jose is thrown off a bus, having ran out of fair, and having wooed all the ladies on board, and quickly charms the executor and is perfectly cordial to Donald, while Panchito parachutes out of a plane and marvels at how he went from nothing to having two new best friends, a run down shack and a sleezy lawyer! In short the two make a great first impression, helped by wonderful casting.
Jose is voiced by Eric Bauza, a talented voice actor whose had WAY too many roles to list here, but two of the most notable are being the current voice of Bugs and Daffy, and his most notable role outside that recently has been playing Splinter in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But the guy is endlessly talented, seems really nice, and is easily one of my faviorite Jose’s so far after just one episode. He just.. gets the character perfectly and is thankfully NOT another white guy stepping into the role, so that’s nice. He easily oozes the charm and layabout nature Jose and was a natural in the role and i hope he gets to take it up again at some point.
Speaking of naturals we have Jamie Camil as Panchito, who easily steps into the guys boundless energy and the sterotpical bits are swapped out for making him a cloud cuckoolander instead, which I genuinely love and fits the character perfectly. He’s best known for CW Soap Jane the Virgin, where his charcter Rodrigo just sounds like a delight, but has recently picked up a pretty good voice acting career, vocing Don Karnage in the Ducktales reboot, Globgor in Star vs the Forces of Evil and Todd’s Stepdad George in Bojack Horseman. I only hope he gets more voice work as he’s really damn great at it and it’s wonderful to get to see him in a role that’s not limited to a few episodes at best for a change.
So Donald’s less than happy about this, again it’s hard to really be that mad at him when he’s had a really, REALLY bad day and wasn’t told about this, but it’s kept to just the light level of grumpy as to not make him unlikeable. Granted after that intro it’d take a LOT to make him unsympathetic, but after their version of Daisy I really dont’ want to test this series.
Our boys also find out they have a groundskeeper, ari, aka THE ARCUAN BIRD! He’s just a delight any time he pops up, doing his usual “ya ta ta ta” bit, and being adorable and hilarioius as always.. and also hilariously failing to fix the boys door. So Donald ends up just accepting he has roomates now, nothing he can do, and the three explore the house finding all sorts of cool old artifacts, feeling they’ve stumbled onto something specail. And you know what that means: YARD SALE!
Seriously it feels like a bit out of Wet Hot American Summer or Stella, a series from the same creators you really should check out and that is high praise, trust me.
I wish this series was streaming somewhere.. I mean we finally got Clone HIgh streaming Viacom, get on that. Anyways, it’s just.. fucking hilarious, and a LOT of this episode is once we walk back from the writers kicking donald in the junk and acting like it was his fault. Once Donald gets his inhertiance, the episode picks up immensley and we see the shows real charm and hilarirty fly, with jokes coming at a rapid and wonderful pace. The show really did impress me with the second half and made me utterly excited for tommrow.. or I guess today’s, look at the follow up.
But we’re still in this episode and being a rich asshole, Sheldgoose isn’t happy about a yard sale, though given this series standards, we not only get some great deliveres from Knight of an outraged “A YARD SALE?!”... but a wonderful gag where Sheldgoose out to white guy it up and yell at them over this..accidently takes a wrong turn in his massive house, and turns around, not loosing how upset he is once.
Meanwhile, we meet.. April, May and June. Yeah apparnetly Della isn’t dead or lost in this continuity, so the boys are MIA, and are instead replaced by Daisy’s Nieces, who I hope show up in the reboot before it ends. Especially since the show makes them WAY more tolerable than classic huey dewey and louie and instead enjoyable like Ducktales HDL. While not as indvidual as those three, the three are still idendtical outside of outfits, their voice actress Jessica DiCicco uses her consderiable talents and experince to give each one a unique voice, so while they all share a voice actress, none of them sound alike.
And to round out our main cast for now, as our last members will be joining us fully next time, let’s talke about Jessica DiCicco. Jessica is a very talented and increasingly prolific voice actor and if you haven’t heard of her, and you probably have, you’ve defintely heard her voice. Starting out with Disney, hence why the probably called on her for this, she did the voices of Maggie for the Buzz on Maggie and Melina for Emperor’s New School before breaking out as Flame Princess on Adventure Time, whose both one of my faviorite characters from the show and one we’ll be digging into starting next month. And not one to rest easily she picked up a second set of iconic rolls vocing Lynn and Lucy Loud on The Loud HOuse, and funnily enough using those voices for two of the girls here. And along with Loud House she’s also currently starring in it’s Pony and is int he main cast of Close Enough as Candace. My point is she’s exceedingly talented.. as is this whole cast, as it’s a DAMN excellent cast and just further sells that this series deserves better.
We’ll get into the girls more next time as they don’t do much here other than get called in by Donald for help, with what I saw of episode 2 fleshing them out more. Point is Sheldgoose offers a million dollars for the cabana and all it’s stuff and the boys are glad to sell.. they just have to find something Sheldgoose desperately wants, a mysterious golden atlas encrusted with Jewels.
Our heroes head in to find it with Panchito finding it, and being very specific about it. We also get a nice call back to Ari destroying the door as Jose cleverly calls on him to destroy the lock. So our heroes open the book... and a goddess pops out and threatens to kill them all.
Final Thoughts:
Dope-A-Cabana is a decent intro the series, but as i’ve said it’s heavily hampered by a weak and mean spirited first act. But once it gets going it REALLY gets going and as part 1 one of a two part pilot, it does it’s job well once it does get going: introducing our three boys and one of our antagonists well and setting up the side cast and preparing for our last to major additions
Next Time: The Boys go on their first adventure, Sheldgoose finds a boss and the girls find their voice. Thanks for Reading, Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye.
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Ranmaru is a musician down on his luck and out of inspiration who got taken in by a sweet old couple running a gardening/flower shop, so while he pulls himself together, he’s grouchily helping out and making bouquets and doling out plant care advice. M is a tattoo artist with not enough clients, confidence in her art, or skills in keeping succulents alive, but maybe the toughie at the store across the street can help her with all three!
and because I’m Like That I got tied up and uh....wrote a little (a lot) of something, focusing on the artistic funk part of the equation. But if you’ll let me have one more indulgence, the headcanon I have is that it eventually Happy Endings into becoming roommates and business partners, starting an indie label to support other artists!!!
anyways here’s this excessively indulgent/serious fic that came outta this LOL
He was here, folded among big green leaves for much longer than he’d intended. The owners heard he was down on hard times and didn’t have a safe place to call home, so he holed up in their guest room. Before he knew it he was stepping in for them at every heavy mulch bag, every wheelbarrow piled high, every crouch that was too much for their aging bodies.
It wasn’t a bad life. It was an improvement, sure. He was alive and fed every day, and he’d never known a home so warm. But it still wasn’t his. He felt like a houseplant, tended to and placed in warm sun, but just as easily fading into the stillness of quiet moments and the background of everyday. He’d never wanted a life like a plant. He hungered deeply even though he was eating regularly again, and he felt more like a bored tiger, pacing in its cage but nowhere to go.
******
He’d been there long enough to start noticing the regulars. The first was that friendly guy who always got idioms wrong and bought the store out of all their cat grass. The second someone was even friendlier, and he’d bug him for what kind of flowers to get a florist. He kept asking even if Ranmaru never gave him an answer past ‘I don’t fucking know’ as he arranged bouquets that used as many herbs and broad, bold leaves as traditional flowers.
The third was someone who looked like she walked in from his past life (or the one he wanted back, anyway). The shaved head, the denim and patches, the ink peeking out from under her sleeves. She was friendly enough but nowhere near as ready to ask for things or will information about herself as the other two regulars, so he only knew her from her purchases and the name on her card.
It wouldn’t have been remarkable in itself if he weren’t so hungry. He’d burned bridges he shouldn’t have while he was ablaze, and now the only people who thought of him kindly were through this stupidly quaint little shop. He was too ashamed of his bullshit to be ready to show his face in those places right now, but he also craved chasing the stage and the dream he’d stayed alive for.
It was just a made-up story he was attaching to someone, he knew this. Maybe she went home and did everything she could to fade into pleasant background like a houseplant. But he’d rather pretend she went to the shows he wished he were going to, that her fingertips were callused in the places his were going soft, and pretend like he still could smell that stuffy, stale sweat from a venue. Maybe he hadn’t burned it away completely from his life and future.
Occasionally, he still wished he was starving, but he’d bury his hands in mulch and dig space for a new plant before he gave in to dumb thoughts like that.
*****
The first time they had a conversation, it was because she forgot something. A big something, big enough that Ranmaru wondered how someone could have a head on their shoulders but forget this.
It was a long, flat portfolio bag. He flipped through it to figure out what it was and tried to not look past that. It was tempting, though, because the contents made him feel the tiniest bit sated for the first time since he’d started working here.
They were flash sheets for tattoos. It had to be hers, right? There was energy to them that he’d ached for but turned his back from. So when she came back, he brought it up very plainly.
“You forgot something here,” he said when she came up to the counter. He produced the portfolio bag.
“.......Oh.”
“What, is it not yours?”
“No, no, it is! I just didn’t realize I’d even lost it!”
“How the hell did you manage that?!”
“A swiss cheese brain full of holes,” she laughed. “...Also, I’ve been really busy.”
“What would make you so busy you forget a giant stack of art like that?”
“Uh…”
“....Whatever. It’s none of my business.” He started to properly ring her up before something occurred to him. “You bought the same succulent last week,” he commented, furrowing his brow. “And a few other times before. What’s so great about it, anyways?”
She made a face of discomfort and surprise, and he felt the same distant shame that he messed this last (even if imagined) connection to that life, too.
“...maybe you can help me, because I keep killing it.”
“You killed a succulent in a week?!”
“No! I mean. I don’t know, is that even possible?”
“First time for anything,” Ranmaru snorted.
“Okay,” she said, putting hands on the counter challengingly. “Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not one of those serial plant killers.”
Ranmaru just looked back at her incredulously. “You sure about that?”
“If it’s not a succulent, I know what I’m doing! I got a whole brood of chili plants and herbs and spiderplants…”
“You’re overwatering it.”
“You haven’t even seen the plant.”
“Yeah, I don’t have to. Everything else you mentioned doesn’t shit the bed if you water them too much, and succulents are stupidly sensitive to that kind of stuff. Are the leaves falling off if you barely even poke them?”
“......Yeah…” She looked apprehensive, almost resentful for a moment.
Ranmaru knew he shouldn’t, but he just kept talking. “I can’t tell you what you wanna do with your plants, but it sounds overwatered. Don’t water it at all for a couple weeks. Make sure the drainage is good, repot it if it isn’t. Bring it in if you’re still fucking it up.”
“You sure are rude as shit when a plant buddy’s life is on the line, huh?”
“What’s the point of buying a plant if you’re just going to kill it?! You’re just throwing away your money that way,” he grumbled, embarrassed. Him, caring about plants passionately. That didn’t feel right for his image, but it felt more wrong to just let people uselessly throw away their time and money just to give a living thing no future.
“I mean, I’m also buying dupes right now to spruce up my workspace, it’s not like I just have a graveyard for my cash and failed succulents.”
Ranmaru grunted. “Just bring ‘em in if they’re still giving you trouble. I can give you some cartons to make carrying ‘em easier.”
“Ahhhh, nah, don’t worry about it. I work across the street. It’s no problem.”
“Where?” He had a feeling he knew already.
“Oh, the tattoo parlor. I’m actually headed back there right now.”
“....Guess I could just as easily go over there.”
“Hey, and you could get a tattoo from me while you’re at it!” she laughed. “Here, hold on.” She fumbled a little before handing over her business card. Ranmaru studied it briefly before pocketing it gratefully.
When she tried to hand him money, he held a hand up.
“...Pay when you stop killing ‘em. I should’ve checked in sooner, and you get so much from here already, anyways.”
“...You’re sure.”
“If you feel guilty, then take my advice seriously.”
“....Weird business model, but I like it. I can’t give you a discount on ink, if that’s what you’re after.”
“Hell no. Go back to work. Come back when you stop watering them so much.”
“Alright, fine, fine. You drive a hard bargain,” she said with a laugh, scooping the plant into her hand. “I’ll see you next time I fuck ‘em up some other way.”
She left, and Ranmaru realized she forgot her portfolio bag again.
******
He didn’t do much of anything except sleep, eat, take care of the neighborhood strays, and work anymore, but he thought about practicing bass again. He didn’t have amps, pedals, or much of anything anymore, either sold in desperation or lifted by former bandmembers in spite, but his actual basses he couldn’t let go of. Sentimentality or some promise to himself this arrangement was temporary, he guessed.
He studied the business card a lot. Something about the style of the art on it felt right, beyond it being the dose of the studs, sweat, and tears he missed. He didn’t bother trying to describe it to himself further than that; it just felt right, and that’s all he needed to know, but it didn’t stop him from lying awake in bed, staring at it as he struggled to sleep or get out.
Eventually that led to the temptation of looking through the portfolio more thoroughly. He gave in after washing his hands so thoroughly he wouldn’t get the dirt of potting soil or the grease of human hands on it. Not out of secrecy, more out of respect.
Not all of them were things he’d say he was interested in -- science fiction, cartoons, dinosaurs, other stuff he didn’t recognize -- but so much was riffing on images, bands, lyrics, album covers that built his tastes in rock. Even models of bass guitars he’d tried to save up for, once upon a time. It didn’t match the tattoowork he was used to seeing, the lines and compositions feeling more like they belonged in a comic book or a gig poster.
It felt good. It was a small vision of the kind of future he’d wanted. Art and energy like that, paired with his music. He’d forgotten how the excitement of chasing a good future felt, much less feeling like it was even vaguely within grasping distance.
His eyes fell on an image that wouldn’t leave him. A severed, snarling wolf head, out of which winding leaves and vines and stems grew, blooming into orchids.
*****
She didn’t come back for weeks. He went about this life as usual, but some days he’d find his fingers sliding over the smooth neck of one of his basses, missing their calluses as the strings dug into them. But the motions never left him, at least, and they hit notes like barely any time had passed.
He should give that portfolio back to her already. But he’d found himself looking at its contents more and more when he missed the stage so much he physically ached. He couldn’t be imagining this feeling this art made him have, not after this long.
At one point he made a copy of the wolf with orchids growing out of it. He cut it out, unbuttoned his shirt, taped it over his heart, and looked at himself in the mirror, and for the first time since the old couple took him in, he didn’t feel like a houseplant.
*****
He came to the parlor with the portfolio in hand on a lunch break soon after that. She looked uncomfortably unoccupied, her area empty of clients while the other tattoo beds were occupied. He didn’t bother with the receptionist before calling her name. She practically jumped out of her skin from surprise.
He just presented the portfolio bag.
“...Whoops.”
“Do you just not want your art back?”
“...It just slipped my mind.”
Because you’ve been busy, Ranmaru thought to himself as he looked at the empty tattoo bed.
“Did you kill your new plants yet?”
She straightened up and her whole demeanor changed, from the moon to the sun. “Now that I can rub in your face. Look, look, come see.”
She had a small planter of succulents, nestled among spideplants and a red prayer he remembered selling her. The spiderplant and red prayer looked healthy. The succulents didn’t look amazing, but they certainly weren’t on their way to meet their maker.
“Not bad. I’ll rec you some better succulent soil next time you come in. Whenever that is.”
“I figured I’d wait more than one watering cycle before I came in parading like a pageant queen.”
“Too many and I bet you’d be holding another plant funeral,” he said with a wry smile. “But take your shit back already. I’m tired of all your art being at my place where I’m the only one looking at it.”
“...Wait, hold on. Did you look through it?”
“....Sorry. It’s been weeks. I liked your business card and curiosity got the better of me.”
“Oh…” She looked not disappointed, just surprised. “So...you mean, like. Thumbing through the pages looking at it, not just staring at the bag look at it.”
“Is it a secret project or something?”
“No, no. Just…” She hesitated. “Some flash sheets that didn’t do well is all.”
“Really?” Ranmaru was surprised. “These?”
“...Yes? Did I forget something else in there?”
“No. Just. Surprised they didn’t do well. I like ‘em. There’s a good energy to them.”
“Well, that makes you the first,” she said with a hollow laugh.
Ranmaru barely considered with his head what he was about to ask. He’d already chewed it over so much and knew in his heart his answer that he didn’t need to hesitate.
“If nobody else claimed it, I want one of them,” he said resolutely. “The wolf with the orchids.”
“...What, like, now?”
“I’m on lunch, I can’t do now. But….when’s the earliest you got?”
She laughed grimly. “When do you get off work?”
“Six.”
“Then I’m available at six.”
“Then I’ll be here.”
She looked at him in disbelief.
“...You really want it that bad?”
“Don’t tell me what I want,” he growled. “I saw it and it felt right, thinking about it on me. Orchids are a part of my name, anyway.”
“....Okay, you know what? Let’s do this properly. We’ll do a consult at six. I’ll edit the design so it’s more personalized to you, then we’ll schedule an actual appointment you’re actually prepped for so you don’t pass out on the table. And don’t -- “ She caught him about to insist before the words could come out of his mouth. “-- I’m sure you think you’re real tough, but you can’t just tough guy your nervous system into taking more pain unprepared.”
“Fine. See you at six.”
Ranmaru wanted to tell her the hurry was less because he thought he could take it, and more because he was so ready to have it on him. He didn’t, though, and just left, head buzzing with hazy, overwhelming excitement he didn’t know how to express.
*************
Consulting with her on the drawing was more fun than Ranmaru had had in weeks, maybe months. She stayed past her coworkers to do the consult, so they had the parlor to themselves to discuss edits. She played doom metal in the background, sludgy and slow enough that they could properly have a conversation, but the energy as she discussed the drawing with him, drew in edits, and made conversation was exhilarating like a concert.
It was so easy to talk. Even if he was short or blunt, it didn’t seem to stop her from continuing the conversation, and every development they pushed it in just felt good. He didn’t feel invaded, but he didn’t feel insignificant, either, and the way the drawing was going, he felt a kind of known he had lacked.
“I still can’t believe you want your first ink on your pec like that,” she remarked as she refined linework. Ranmaru enjoyed watching how her pen moved.
“It’s over my heart. Not just my chest.”
“That’s, uh.” She hesitated before capping the pen. “.......Are you really sure about this?”
“...” Ranmaru felt himself recoil at the thought of telling her the depth of what this drawing made him feel, but he wanted to communicate, somehow, that he couldn’t imagine regretting this. “I’m absolutely sure.”
“.......” She hesitated again. “This isn’t….a pity thing, right?”
The thought to hold his tongue actually managed to occur to him in time. The doubt she expressed pissed him off in so many different ways. That she was unsure enough to tell him, and that it was there to begin with. The thought of throwing away this connection just to be pissed made his stomach twist, and he thought of the person he saw in the mirror with the drawing taped to his chest that first time.
“This isn’t a pity thing,” he said stiffly as he forced his voice down. “....I saw that drawing and imagined myself with it. And I liked that vision of myself more than the current me.”
“Oh god,” she said, her face bright red. “That’s so goddamn deep. My dumb fuckin’ wolf really made you feel that?”
“It’s not dumb!” he barked. “Why’re you calling it dumb to me? I’m about to get it tattooed on me, aren’t I? Be prouder of your work!”
She took a deep breath after a moment of being totally taken aback. “....You’re right. Thanks. I should be more professional about this. So….my absolutely majestic, heaven-sent fuckin’ wolf really made you feel all that?”
Ranmaru felt his mouth crook into a smile. “Yeah. I want it to be mine, and I want that better me to be mine, too.”
She smiled back widely. “I’ll do your tit justice, then.”
***************
The appointment was that weekend. When she pressed the stencil against his bare chest, he felt the hunger in him sated for just a moment. Not in a carnal urge sort of way, but more like the path forward felt brighter. Possible. Changes and connection and a future was possible again. He wanted more ink from her already, but he also wanted it to not just be that. He wanted a friendship.
“Okay,” she said as he laid on the table in front of her. “Ready?”
The whir of the machine and needles started and stirred a nervousness in his gut that he hadn’t expected, and he hesitated and gasped for a sec.
“...You OK?”
“Yeah,” he grunted. “Just…nervous.”
“Take a deep breath. It’s not too late to rethink or reschedule if you need more time.”
“No.” He was resolute. “I want this.”
She paused. “....I can’t do this the whole time. But just to get you comfortable.”
She offered her left hand to him to squeeze. He hesitated for a moment before taking it, folding each finger over hers. He can’t remember the last time he touched someone like this.
“...Okay. Deep breath. Let out out slowly…there we go. Ready?”
“Ready.”
The needle plunged into him, and while it hurt, he felt excitement and renewal spreading through to his fingertips.
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Seven Years | LMH (1)
genre: fluff, slight angst, singleparent!reader
members: lee minho x reader
warnings: vomiting, mentions of a shitty ex-husband
a/n: lots of time skips in this one as well
16:11 (haon’s dinner time)
“haon!” you shouted, “haon! dinner’s ready!”
the seven-year-old looked back at you from where he was on the climbing frame. he quickly got down and ran across the road when he heard your call.
“what’s for dinner?” he asked, walking in the house, trying to see if he could smell it.
you chuckled, “you’re not a dog, haon, stop it. and it’s kimchi jiggae.”
“yes!” haon cheered, throwing his bag down and running to the kitchen table.
you smiled, scooping the rice out into a bowl and placing it in front of him before placing the steaming pot of kimchi jiggae in the middle of the table, kissing your son’s head, “eat a lot, okay? you need to grow big and strong!”
“so i can protect you, mama!” haon cheered.
you sighed, “haon, we’ve spoken about this. mama doesn’t need protecting.”
haon paused, “but what if someone like daddy comes back? you said he was a horrible man.”
you nodded, “he was a horrible man. but, we don’t think about him anymore, do we?”
haon grinned, shaking his head so vigorously his brown hair flopped about on his head.
you smiled, “good boy. now eat. mama’s gonna go and tidy up.”
“mama, you need to eat too!” haon exclaimed.
“i will, baby, later,” you reasurred him.
haon shook his head, a pout on his lips, “lets eat together, then when i’m doing my homework, you can tidy.”
you sighed, looking at his saddened expression, “okay. but only cause i didn’t have any lunch.”
haon smiled, going back to his food as you scooped out a bowl of rice for yourself before sitting opposite your son, watching as his hamster-like cheeks filled up with rice and soup, some of the red liquid escaping his lips.
you chuckled, wiping it with your thumb.
“ah, mum!” he whined.
“fine, fine, i won’t.”
11:17 (time for haon’s second lesson of the day)
“how much for the white radishes?”
“250 won for 100g.”
“i’ll take 200g please,” you smiled.
“mrs y/l/n!” her son shouted, running out the store.
you gasped, looking at the little boy, “hey minwoo, why aren’t you at school, huh?”
“i don’t feel well,” minwoo shrugging, coughing slightly, “but is haon coming to the arcade after school?”
“maybe,” you smiled, “it depends how much homework he gets today.”
“oh haon gets no homework,” minwoo nodded.
you chuckled, “really?”
minwoo nodded, “yeah. really.”
“okay, i’ll keep that in mind,” you nodded.
“500 won please.”
you handed over the money, taking the bag of white radishes and bowing before continuing on down the market street.
at the end there was a convience shop, one you were very familiar with, and just like every day, you stopped in to pick up some melon-flavoured milk and a choco pie for haon.
you walked along, picking up two bottles of melon-flavoured milk before going to pick up the choco pie. but as you laid your hand on the small brown packet, so did someone else.
you looked up to see a man. he looked vaguely familiar, but not so much that you knew him immediately, you thought he may have just had a common face, but looking now, he was far too handsome for that.
he had dark brown hair that fell perfectly despite not being styled. his eyes were cat-like and there was a mole on the end of his nose.
“sorry,” you said, bowing as you took your hand off the pie.
he bowed back, not saying anything as he took the pie and went to the cashier.
“what?!” you muttered, watching him casually buy the pie and walk out the store.
you sighed, paying for everything and piling it into your bag before walking out the store and back home, ready to start work.
“who does he think he is? didn’t even say thank you, or pretend to offer it to me. tssk. i’m gonna have to make something for haon no—“ you muttered, breaking out of your angry haze when you walked into someone, “watch where you’re going!”
“sorry, but i think it was you who was looking at the floor,” the man said calmly.
you looked up to see the same man from the convience store.
“you!” you exclaimed.
the man looked around before pointing at himself, as though it was a question.
“yes, you,” you scoffed, “you’re welcome, for the pie.”
he smiled, bowing slightly before he bent down, helping to pick up all your shopping.
you sighed, “so you’re not going to thank me?”
he stared up at you for a moment, blinking, “thank you.”
you chuckled, “are you always like this?”
you took your shopping from him and began putting it back in your bag.
“i think so,” he said before shrugging, “how am i suppose to know, though?”
you tilted your head to the side.
“i have never met someone as strange as you,” you said.
the man pulled a face, “is that supposed to be a compliment?”
you shrugged, “a backhanded one, yes.”
he smiled, chuckling slightly, “then, thanks. i guess.”
you nodded, “you’re welcome.”
you turned around to walk away, but were stopped by the man once again.
“wh-where are you going? maybe i can walk you there?”
your heart raced and you could only hope your face wasn’t bright red.
“i-i’m just going home,” you said, “i work from home.”
he nodded, “i’ll walk you then. as a thank you.”
you chuckled, turning round to face him, “okay, then. let’s go.”
15:01 (the end of Haon’s school day)
“ah, it’s three o’clock, i should get going,” minho sighed, checking his watch.
“three o’clock?!” you exclaimed, “oh my god, i- i need to go.”
you apologetically smiled at minho as you crossed the road, unlocking your car as you did so, “it was so nice to meet you, minho! i-i hope we can see each other again but i—“
“wait! can i have your number?!” minho exclaimed.
“i really need to go!” you exclaimed, “i-i’ll see you tomorrow okay? same market!”
minho sighed, but nodding, waving as you drove away, “bye y/n.”
he just couldn’t help but think of you all night.
03:18 (the time when haon should be in bed)
“mummy! mum!”
“coming!” you called, eyes still closed as you got out of bed, “haon? you alright?”
“i think i’m gonna–“
haon’s sentence ended prematurely as he covered his mouth, running out the room and to the toilet, throwing up all the contents of his stomach.
“it’s okay, shh, shh, it’s okay,” you soothed, rushing over and rubbing your son’s back as he started to cry, “it’s going round, huh?”
“mummy i don’t like it,” he sobbed, leaning his head on the toilet bowl.
“i know, i know it’s not nice,” you pouted, “now get your head off of there, it’s dirty. look i’ll help you brush your teeth.”
you helped him stand up, pulling off his t-shirt before going to his bedroom and getting a new t-shirt out the drawer. when you went back to the bathroom, haon was back over the toilet, retching.
“shh, it’s okay,” you hummed, pulling him up and sliding the t-shirt over his head before you helped him brush his teeth, “i think someone should stay at home today, huh? go back to sleep and when you wake, mummy will make you some nice soup, yeah?”
08:11 (the time haon should be at school by)
“coming!” you called, drying your hands as you ran to the front door, “o-oh! minho!”
“i couldn’t wait until the market,” minho blushed, “i’m sorry, i know this is creepy but i like you a lot y/n. and it doesn’t happen to me often.”
you smiled, “i like you too minho, but... i don’t think that it’s good for you to get involved with me.”
“what? you a member of the mafia or something?” minho laughed.
you chuckled slightly, looking down at the children’s shoes in your doorway, sighing, “we can be friends though, minho. i do like you. a lot.”
“why don’t we just get to know each other?” minho offered, “i’m better than you may think.”
suddenly, as if it were a sixth sense, you could hear haon getting out of bed, “mum—“
“i’ve got to go!” you exclaimed, shutting the door in minho’s face as you went to haon’s bedroom, “sweetie! you’re awake!”
“who was that, mummy?”
you sighed, “no one, no one. do you want to go watch some cartoons? i’ll bring you some soup.”
09:43 (saturday - time for shopping with haon)
“mum! can i get some melon milk?” haon asked.
you hummed, looking around at the mostly empty store, “go and grab it and come straight back here okay? i’ll be waiting.”
you sighed, watching him run out the aisle before turning back to the freezer, deciding what type of meat to buy for dinner tonight.
it had been two days since you last saw minho, and although you were sure saying that you should just be friends was the right decision, you just couldn’t shake the thought of him out your mind.
maybe you were wrong. maybe you and minho should be more.
“mum?”
you were snapped out your daze, turning to face haon’s slightly confused face.
“oh, yes?” you asked.
“i got strawberry milk for you as well,” he said, putting both the bottles in the trolley.
you smiled, “thanks, bub. let’s go get some snacks for school next week, yeah?”
haon giggled, grabbing onto the end of the trolley and running down the aisle, “hurry up, mum!”
“coming!” you chuckled, running to catch up.
13:19 (haon should have eaten lunch by now)
“mum. i’m so hungry, when are we going to be done?” haon moaned.
“now,” you sighed, letting go of the flowers and walking in the direction of home, “come on, i’ll buy you some dumplings.”
haon cheered, skipping ahead, already heading in the direction of the dumpling store.
you glanced back at the flowers– orange roses –they weren’t your favourite, but you liked appreciating their beauty.
they were often forgotten about, and maybe that’s why you liked them. many people enjoyed red roses, or pink roses, maybe even yellow roses. but orange weren’t appriecated as often as the rest.
maybe that’s why you liked them.
“mum, hurry!”
19:57 (haon’s bedtime)
you sighed, lining up haon’s shoes neatly in the shelf where they should’ve been all day.
as you finished with the last pair, the doorbell rang and you sighed again, getting up slowly before walking to the door.
you opened it to see minho, looking bashfully at his shoes.
“you never know how to give up, do you?”
“i’d call it enthusiasm,” minho said.
you smiled, chuckling slightly.
“i just– i haven’t seen you for the last couple of days when you said you’d be there and you shut the door on me so suddenly and i don’t know why that’s not pushing me away because surely, those are signs that you don’t like me but i really, really like you and i have this weird feeling that you might like me too?”
you sighed, nodding, “i do. i really like you, minho.”
“then...” minho paused, “why—“
“there’s something you need to know,” you said, taking hold on minho’s wrist, “come in.”
minho walked in, taking his shoes off quickly as he pulled the door closed behind him.
“wow, your shoes,” minho chuckled, pointing to haon’s school shoes, “wait.”
“yeah, that’s um...” you trailed off, “yeah. minho, i have a son.”
minho’s eyebrows raised as he nodded.
“i’m sorry. i know– i know this is gonna deter you but he– i—“
“why would it deter me?” minho asked, “i like you, a lot, y/n, i just said that. also, i have three cats so i kind of know how you feel.”
you laughed, “wow. wow, minho you’re really something.”
“so... how... is he?” minho asked, “wait.”
you shook your head, laughing again, “no, no i understand. his name is haon y/l/n and he’s seven years old. born 19th of february. pisces. um... he likes sports, melon milk and chocopies.
“oh that’s—“
“yeah, you took my son’s chocopie,” you nodded.
minho tried not to laugh, standing up and bowing, “i’m so, terribly sorry.”
you laughed, smacking his shoulder, “stop it!”
minho laughed, sitting back down, “so um... so, does he have a...”
“a dad?” you asked, minho nodding awkwardly, “well of course he does.”
minho rolled his eyes.
you took a breath, “he doesn’t know his dad. i was never married but i had this boyfriend when i was younger and haon was conceived back then. but he wasn’t a great person. long story short, he wanted kids at that time and i did not.”
minho nodded, “i’m sorry to hear that.”
you shrugged, “it’s nothing much. he just thought that women should have several children and stay at home bearing him while he went out and worked and at the end of each day there should be a clean house and a nice home cooked meal and– god he was just a bit of a dick.”
“well, i’d love to meet haon,” minho smiled, “if you let me.”
part 2
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fast cartoons are the easiest for me to do without a clear goal in mind. to be honest, being able to make myself laugh when i look back through a sketchbook is a lot more important to me than “proper” drawing, so quick cartoons with interesting context or dialogue make up the bulk of my work. it’s satisfying to put more time into a piece sometimes, but it does require a different mindset, and one that i’m less likely to be in on any given day, especially if i’m busy. it’s much easier to get frustrated with planned and drafted pieces.
i’m glad that many of the styles i put out on this blog are well-received! i’m glad that you see this as range in my art! but my “scribble” cartoons are the most fun and accessible to me on a regular basis, and i’m proud of them. i don’t put anything up on this blog that i wasn’t at least a little proud of when i made it, even if all i was proud of was the dialogue. i guess what i want you to take away from this is that i’m frustrated with the language of “just little scribbles” and “proper” art, even if you’re kind of poking fun at yourself while you say it.
you can find more planned and cleaned-up klapollo art that i’ve done recently here (which is the most stylistically similar to what i just posted) and here. i don’t know whether you’re interested in the more structured art in general, or the very cleaned-up digital look. if you’re just interested in the more structured stuff, like the second image set i linked, you can find it by browsing through my klapollo tag. i don’t tend to do very cleaned-up digital work often because, historically, it doesn’t actually get that much attention on the blog. this doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing, but it means that it has to be a project that i’m willing to commit that much time to for myself.
the six-shooter piece didn’t get nearly as much attention as some of my quick-and-rough cartoons have. i was incredibly proud of it at the time, so that kind of sucked. but i hadn’t done it to get validated on the internet; i had done it because i had imagined the image composition and i thought “that’s fun, i want to make that real.” part of the reason i’ve been updating this blog much, much more frequently than i used to lately is that i’ve reached the point where i draw what i want for me, and if i think other people might like something i post it, but if they don’t--disappointing, but i’m still happy to have made it. the oocc + aa series of cartoons is completely self-indulgent. some of them are really well-received, some of them aren’t. but they make me really happy to draw, so i keep investing the time in them.
i want to be really clear that this isn’t personal, and i’m not sitting here going “man, this jerk doesn’t respect me or the effort involved in art,” but you’ve stumbled across a pet peeve of mine. very clean digital work is usually a solid time investment for me. as it says in the caption, i spent at least three hours on the fluri picture. i don’t remember how much time i spent on the six-shooter piece, but i’d definitely guess upwards of five hours. just about everything i post is something that i’ve made for myself in my free time, and i’m happy to share them with you at no cost. i’m thrilled that people enjoy them. sometimes in the tags or the replies, people will have comments or ideas that i like enough to explore more, and that’s great! but it’s much more likely to be as a quick cartoon than a carefully planned and refined piece. high-effort, clean digital work is, for me, a bigger commitment to make for a little bit of validation on the internet that isn’t even a guarantee. does this mean i’m never going to post refined digital works? of course not. i’ll throw them into the mix sometimes just like i have been.
tl;dr- you’re always going to see a lot more cartoons than extremely clean pieces from me. this is because i’m an amateur artist producing content for free. you can find some cleaner pieces for klavier and apollo in the tags on my blog. i think all of my tags should be pretty straightforward, although i would be happy to clarify or point you in the right direction.
i get some really nice comments on my work, and i really, really appreciate that. you guys make my day a little brighter. this isn’t a cry for validation. but i’ve been gaining followers at a baffling rate recently, and i wanted to establish some boundaries. sorry you happened to be the one to catch my attention!
to be completely honest, i wouldn’t be comfortable producing high-effort work on request + for free on a regular basis even if i could, because i don’t want to undermine professional artists. my peers deserve to have their professional time and commitments respected. if there’s a lot of interest, i could get ko-fi and/or patreon going, and i would be more than happy to compensate people for their support with some cleaner pieces. i have a vague idea of how i would set up my price scale for commissions, but again, i would need to know there was interest if i was going to go through the work of setting that up.
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