#“I just think she's really cool and her guns are neat and her hair is pretty and her wings are soft and... and...”

[seulira]

My gf and I's d&d characters snoozing <3

[jerrythebug]

I took a break from BOP and returned to finish Booster Gold's first run. I screamed when Michelle showed up!!!!! Her outfit, her pose, her hair, the gun!!! Friendship ended with Michael, now Michelle is my best friend ❤️

I will put the rest of my rambling under read more though, cause I had a lot to say.

Trixie! I have to say, she's really cool! She doesn't want to be a heroine, good for her! But she did what had to be done to help her friend. And later had sort of a thing with Dirk the Manager? Weird, but okay, that mustache of his is kinda hot I guess? Still, I did not expect to love Booster's supporting Ladies this much! They were a delight!

I'm sad Michelle died, even if I knew it was coming. But also I know that she returns decades later in Booster's second run so I'm mostly okay with that. From what I've seen I much prefer her in the 80s art style, in comparison the 00's version looks kinda boring to me. Or maybe I'm just being weird and based towards more retro art. She should have kept the shoulder pads is what I'm saying! And the wild hair! And I wish she was around for longer in general, she seemed really cool! Too bad she had to die for her brother's character development. Hate when that happens to women...

Also! Ripley? My boy Ripster the Ripper? Doctor Rip Hunter? Hmm, that man looks kinda like Booster (he's blond), I wonder why. Was it his first appearance? I don't know, I have to look it up. And read his appearances too, just for fun. I wish Ripsteroo stayed blond, but also it's kinda funny that he's not blond now it makes him look like his other dad.

And doctor Jack casually fixing Booster's future suit like it's nothing made me remember that a decade later Ted won't be able to do the same when Doomsday destroys Booster's suit again. I wonder if there's an explanation for that. Teddy should've read Booster Gold vol 1 and called doc Jack from STAR, that man could fix a time sphere, made Goldstar outfit and fixed Skeets. Is he the smartest guy in DC????? Or maybe something happened to him in the decade that passed. I hope not, he was a chill guy. He and Rip seemed like nice friends. Maybe something did happen to Jackie and that's why Ripley Rippo is the way he is.

So overall, Booster's origin story was neat. I love that Superman doesn't like him. I love how messy his life got by the end of his run. I will miss Trixie and Michelle and even Rip and Jack. I will have to draw team Gold! I really enjoyed the way Max broke into Gold Mansion to recruit Booster, was that really the best way to do it? Idk, I think Max is a little crazy.

It was a nice comic to read, I love the bright colors and art, even if modern comic art often looks much better. Now that I've made my way through Booster's story I can start on Beetle's. And continue reading BOP. And then re-read JLI after I'm done with Ted's story. And make my way to Superbuddies. And next- And then I can read Mister Miracle. What, OMAC? What's a countdown? I don't know of them. I will postpone reading them as much as I can. But I will do it eventually, even if I cry. At least Ted's alive in the new continuity, right? So it's fine he died.

[kurenaicrush]

Death end re;Quest Concept Art

(Disclaimer, art not done by me. Credit goes to Kei Nanameda.)

Because of how obscure the game itself is, I might literally be the first person to release some of this stuff onto the internet, let alone in high quality. So this is character concept art from the DER White Rabbit Archives book. The book was included exclusively in the DER collectors/limited edition. I happened to find someone selling the book individually for a cheap price, so I bought it with the intent to use the book to help me with a potential Compile Heart fanart project. Here is the complete concept art section of the book. Everything else in the book is stuff we've already seen before, so it's not worth mentioning. I'd also like to give my personal thoughts on each of the characters.

Shina - There's not much to say about Shina, other than they tried different hair colors for her. It seems like they had a pretty good idea of what they were going for right from the beginning.

Lily - Just like Shina, there's not much for Lily either. It is worth mentioning that it can be seen on page 62 that they tried a longer hair style. That hair gives her even more of a princess look, but I like better the design they ultimately went with. In the beginning of the game Shina and Arata specifically mention Lily's NPC design having different hair, so I like to imagine this is what it looked like.

Al - The sketches show a bigger/older version of Al with different style ears. I really enjoy this look and like it equally as much as her final design. In the end though it's probably for the best we got the smaller/younger version, as it adds more variety to the cast of characters. I kind of like the bigger longer ears better though. She's also shown with a gun, but it was later decided to give the gun to Clea, and Al her lance/spear thing. The character notes next to the sketches imply that she could've been a catgirl before they decided to make her an ambiguous beast girl. There's also another sketch on page 62. This Al is almost the same as the final version, but she can be seen with a hat and different style of ears. I don't really like this look, but it's interesting to see!

(Here's some more for Clea)

Clea - Many different horn and hair styles were tried for Clea before one was finally settled on. There's a sketch with her having her hair down on page 62, she looks really good like that! One sketch in particular that I'd like to focus on shows Clea with a completely different style of horns. These appendages on her head seem more resemblant of animal ears than horns. Perhaps it was possibly considered to make Clea a beast girl instead? This sketch also shows her with an eyepatch which is a cool look. It seems like both Al and Clea have a couple design elements that crossover, such as the gun and animal ears.

(Here's some more for Lucil)

Lucil - Firstly I'd like to mention that Lucil's iconic chair seems to be absent from the concept art, except for her character page. I'm thinking her chair was an idea decided on later in development. Lucil went through a lot of different iterations and they all look really nice! I've never really been that big of a fan of Lucil's design, so a lot of these I'd honestly take over the final one. One really neat idea they had was for her eye being the part of her body affected by the bug. She had this really cool glitch effect flowing from her eye and her hair concealed it. This looks so awesome and I really wish they kept this. I really like the glitch eye Lucil's outfit too! It's a bit different from the final one.

(Closer look at a Celica concept)

Celica - It seems like most of her outfits are not too drastically different and she went through mostly color palette swaps. She did have a different buggy in one sketch. This is however one sketch for Celica that is a lot different. Her hair is completely different along with her outfit. She also has this big monster glitch arm that reminds me of Alice's blood skelter form from Mary Skelter, another game that Kei Nanameda worked on. This sketch almost feels like a completely different character, but she's still really cool!

Arata Mizunashi - Sorry to disappoint, but Arata really had nothing. Thought I'd still mention him though, since he's a main character.

Page 60 character sketches - So this is REALLY interesting! Here we have five unnamed and unused characters, that I can only assume were meant to be Luden ideas. All of these look really awesome and it's a shame we didn't get them as actual characters. My favorite is the bottom left one with the girl on top of the monster. Such a badass design! All of these designs feel very reminiscent of Mary Skelter, which once again it's the same artist.

Fun fact: some of the concept art appears in one of the visual novel backgrounds, accompanied by some other Kei Nanameda sketches of unknown origin, likely other random concept arts.

Thank you so much for reading! As a big DER fan, I'm honored to be the one to release this art and information! Normally with video games the material from art books eventually gets released online, but because of how obscure DER is, no one else to my knowledge has previously done so. Page 58 seems to be the only one that's been officially released. Most of everything else has been in the dark up until this point. If I find anything else, I'll be sure to post about it! I'd really like to get the DER2 book in the future!

[your-art-is-gay]

Vampire Knight Art Book (Part 2)

The illustrations in this art book are so gorgeous, and so detailed, that I just had to highlight some of my favourite to share with y'all.

Again, apologies for the phone camera photos. It really doesn't do these drawings justice.

I think it's interesting that it's specified that this is Zero's school uniform. Especially since it's kind of funny to me, picturing Zero taking enough care to meticulously hang up his uniform.

Ruka's butterfly pin, Akatsuki's necklace, and is that Kaname walking away from them in the background? Fascinating... Especially since Seiren seems to be following him, but is looking back, as if unsure of her actions...or of his.

One of my favourite pieces, hands down. The colours, the design of her dres, the cathedral windows in the background---ugh! So pretty. I have to highlight the rose detail on the hem of her skirt and the design of her gloves.

Another thing to note: the fang necklace. One thing I noticed throughout the book is that the fang symbol is associated with Zero, and yet he's never actually depicted in blue (at least in this art book). Yuki and Kaname are shown in blue or associated with blue several times, but never Zero.

The description of the image doesn't say who the mysterious blue-clad hand is, it does say that the image is "alluding to farewell." So is Yuki saying goodbye to Zero? Or does the mysterious hand belong to Kaname, and the fang necklace tangled around her hand is symbolically representing that she's thinking about Zero?

Speak of the silver-haired devil! The detail I wanted to make note of here with this illustration is the chain hooked onto his belt loop---the chain that's usually attached to his anti-vampire gun, Bloody Rose. Notably, however, Bloody Rose is missing, the chain broken. He's vulnerable. Defenseless.

I didn't take a close-up shot of it, but this is also one of the illustrations where Zero's tattoo doesn't look like a tattoo---it looks like a scar. I don't know if that's an intentional symbolic choice or not, because the way it's rendered is somewhat inconsistant between illustrations. Interestingly, unlike the anime, where it has the stark black appearance of a tattoo, most of the illustrations depict it as silvery, like his hair.

I just...love the details on this coat, holy crap.

Two things to note: the vampire skull shape of his ear cuff (fuck, I want one) and the blade motif on his shoulder.

The blade is another symbol very often associated with Zero, obviously referencing the fact that he's a slayer, and the dagger designs on his tattoo. In this particular drawing, it's also combined with bat wings, which are obviously associated with vampires (both in general, and distinctly in this book), symbolizing his duality as someone who is both slayer and vampire.

Interestingly, the vampire skull motif is seen elsewhere in the book---almost always associated with Kaname.

Lots of details with this one.

Firstly, if Zero's motifs are daggers and a single fang, Yuki is inextricably associated with roses. They're everywhere when it comes to her. I wanted to make note of this bracelet, just because I think it looks neat, and also her earring---a rose and a dagger, symbolizing the both of them. I think that's neat.

Secondly, the Cross Academy Crest. Yuki usually wears it as a necklace, but here she has a charm clipped to the sash at the waist of her dress---because we don't see her necklace? I dunno.

But what's interesting is that Zero also has one, so dark that it almost blends into his coat, and hanging from a bat wing decoration on his coat.

Thirdly, Zero's bat wing ring, which, besides being super cool, further pushes that connection to vampires---maybe because Zero has accepted himself as one? After all, he and Yuki are clearly sneaking away for a quick bite...

And, fourthly...does Zero have a belly-button piercing?!

This is one of my favourite Yuki outfits. It's amazing how it actually looks like velvet, and all of the detailing on the white embroidery and the pleats at the cuffs and neckline is just... *chefs kiss*

I could probably talk symbolism with the key on the rosary, or with her being behind a gate, but...I don't wanna.

This one is interesting, because it shows us details of the uniform that aren't present elsewhere! Like the silver tips at the collar corners, the tie pin,and the Academy crest on the shirt pocket.

[popculturebuffet]

Next up for Disney TVA, who is your favorite character from the cartoons in the second half of the Disney Afternoon era (1993-96): Marsupilami, Aladdin the Series, Gargoyles, The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show, Timon & Pumbaa, Quack Pack, and Mighty Ducks the Animated Series? Skipped Bonkers since you said in the last ask that you haven't seen it yet.

Okay so getting this out of the way again (And yup haven't seen bonkers) So in addition to bonkers Marsupliami (though ti looks good and snookums and meat . Aladdin the Animated Series: No faviorite as I've only seen maybe one episode in recent years , but I do hear it's a fun adventure show and remmeber it being okay as a kid. never realized as a kid the two dtv movies werne't their own movies but the pilot for the show and it's finale respectivley (both still stand find on their own and return has if nothing else I can remmeber your only second rate)

Gargoyles: I LIVE AGAIN! I really need to watch this series in full at some point.. honestly reviewing it might not be a terrible idea as it'd at least get me around to it. I'll figure it out. Faviorite is Xanatos. Even just READING about him I loved the guy, a villian so damn good at gambits tv tropes named it after him and whose clever as he is self serving. The show itself is again one I BADLY need to watch as i've only seen a few scattered episode but the one that sticks in my mind I Had on vhs in high school, Deadly Force sticks out. It handles gun saftey.. in a way that dosen't feel hackned or over the top. Elsa gets shot.. but she made the mistake of leaving her gun unmprotected and apparently the show is consitent in making sure she never does again. IT's a show with a deep intretsing mythos, voice acting royalty, and is worth a look. Again I wouldn't mind doing a retrospective at some point (Splitting season 2 up a bit ) covering the first two seasons, the slave labor graphics comics and the recent revivial comics following up on those. Not plugging there either I just think gargoyles is neat. It's disney's equilvent to batman the aniamted series in my mind and it's a shame they never really captlized on it

Timon and Pummba: Only seen some of this for a review, it seems.. okay. Not terrible by any means but nothing I really want to watch despite loving these two characters.

Quack Pack: Daisy whose redesign while attractive is also fun and is that nice sweet spot of being fed up with donalds shit sometimes but not you know cheating on him, abusing him or everything three cabs daisy did. Don't be three cabs daisy folks. The show itself i've only seen a few eps of, some for reviews some on my own time but honestly.. it's okay. It has a reptuation for being awful, for being garbage that brought down the whole disney afternoon.... but really.. it's fine. I think a lot of people raging against it forget that donald getting into domestic scraps is just as much a par tof his dientity as donald duck the greatest adventuerer who ever lived. most of his shorts come from some small incident such as his car breaking down, a raido cooking show or his cousin showing up to eat everything he has. So going back to that with a bit of advneture weirdness ocasionally thrown in seems fine. Some plots do sound.. insane but the show seems okay. The versions of the boys.. are a bit weaker but it's less for characterization (thier about the same as they were in ducktales just older) , and more for trying to make them sound cool and that despite giving them unique va's.. they didn't do much in the ones i've seen to actually defenrtaite them. And honestly the redesigns are solid

Daisy and Donalds are great an dth eboys are fine. Their hair and Louie's backwards hat are 90s as hell but honetsly they aren't half bad and now I think about it dewey's would perfectly fit the 2017's dewey's love of attention and need to be seen as a jock. The show is far from perfect and some episodes seem nuts again like Huey's dental surgery turning him into a super villian.. but overall it's just fine. Not super mediocre, but not as bad as it gets a rep for. Also the humans thing... eh why not. I prefer an all furry universe, but I get Donald has interacted with humans before.

Mighty Ducks: One I haven't revisited and don't really.. intend to. It's a weird piece of the duckverse, with aliens, 90's super powers and hockey. I might check it out for the novelty as I have gained a love of hockey due to certain canadian television series

But otherwise it's just kinda.. there. There are other 90's action shows to visit. Gargoyles is just down the block. BTAS exists. I just really.. dont' care.

[standardquip]

Heat Guy J Live Reacts

While watching Gungrave I remembered this show existed. Here are a compilation of discord messages I sent while watching the show over the course of ~2 weeks.

Key points: - This just might be an escaflowne AU - werewolves heck yes - better women than gungrave - surprise "tomatoes in anime" research

do I watch Heat Guy J (26 eps, similar to gungrave) or do I watch Black lagoon (29 eps, sexy guns starring a lady) I'm leaning toward Heat Guy J for my grey haired man quota I'm playing Heat Guy J ep 1 now so far the music is good lol kill bill inspired or kill bill was inspired bythis? I don't remember when either of those came out wow the voices are so much cooler sounding in japanese they just sound lame in english but english uses less brain power so I'll deal I'm gonna play all these at 1.5x speed because I'm on a strict schedule wow the cgi in this anime did not age well

I think this show shares a character designer with escaflowne … I might have to get this soundtrack damn this ost is all over the place but in a good way I'm only 12min into the first ep this is crazy ok alan schezar

hey look, it's Chid Freid all grown up

shut up, emo dildandau

also, they call the don of their mafia "vampire" (that's the title of the position) That's pretty neat

I'm pretty sure that's just a simplified bra design but this is the 2nd time she's shown up and all I can think of when I see her is "furry boobs"

this dude [Claire] seriously is dilandau straight up psychotic

werewolf or werecat? Hmmmmm

WHAT prisoners have their dna altered so when/if they escape prison, their faces are altered to look like beasts That is such an INSANE policy who puts sunflowers on a grave wtf

I started Heat Guy J I'm just starting ep 3 Here's my thoughts so far:

Surprisingly way more interesting than I thought it would be

The OST is god tier imo

Character design is very similar to vision of escaflowne

the android design is unique and cool bonus: at least one werewolf

ep4 it is a werewolf hecc yeah

"Have you seen my bunny?" I think I found Van

oh If we take personality into account This guy is actually folken

hot

this irish jig thing they have for the fight scenes is really entertaining

the russian roulette guy is the werewolf And I'm going back on the folken thing He's definitely Van ep5 I think this will be the last one for me tonight

fun times

[someone else says: Heat Guy J episode 1: October 1, 2002. Kill Bill Vol 1 premiere: October 30, 2003 ]

gonna try and get the next 5 eps of heat guy j done starting with ep 6 alright what's with the tomato symbolism in anime this didn't just come out of nowhere in new anime and now it's in heat guy j

[someone says: So Google has no idea why tomatoes I thought there would be like some sort of analysis on tomatoes as a symbolic device in anime ]

No it's probably not that direct like maybe japan exports a ton of tomatoes or something?

like if potatoes show up in some irish show There's a lot of history behind that (because of the potato famine) regardless of how they are actually used in the show There is a reason Just like how english is always saying "oh my god" or why they say "bless you" when you sneeze That seems benign but the reason for it is because english speakers are/were predominantly christian

Nobody's going to write an essay about why english speakers use "oh my god" or "bless you" in mass media It's something ingrained in the culture, so you'd have to look in a different context (different from its connection to why it shows up in tv shows a lot) to find the answer you're looking for

I guess ep 6 is "the stock market episode" oh boy they're really hamfisting the lessons in this one already oh boy they just explained the difference between stocks and commodities they also explained shorts (without calling them shorts)

J just caught a bullet with his BARE HANDS and it wasn't even a special scene or anything IT JUST HAPPENED

WHAT dilandau is like "I don't want you around anymore" to his butler so the butler is like "ok" AND THEN PUTS A GUN TO HIS HEAD FOR SUICIDE that's fucking crazy just leave the organization It was a free pass

ep7

cool he's got a scar now also it was just confirmed that THIS ONE is a cat

Back to tomatoes in anime: https://tasteofculture.com/2023/07/17/tomatoes-in-japan/ not as in-depth as I was hoping for

but my armchair guess is it symbolizes a gaijin making a big change to the culture and succeeding maybe an underdog story that also happens to look pretty

I wonder if this is why the tomato is getting spotlight in new anime https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Science/Japan-approves-gene-edited-super-tomato.-But-will-anyone-eat-it

why do japanese love the tomato so much? :skeptical fry.jpg: https://www.bbcspirits.com/gb/other-alcohols/729-liqueur-japan-la-tomato.html

ok so [person] might be onto something with the "it's just pretty" thing https://www.ishs.org/ishs-article/100_10 this abstract makes it more clear that tomatoes were grown primarily because they were pretty. They didn't start eating them until the 1920s!

starting ep 10 now

alright Let's see if I can get to ep 15 I want to start a different series

ep11 was about mind control You know, it's been awhile since we saw the werewolf guy I wonder if he'll be in ep12

Heat Guy J is way more entertaining than the trailer made it seem but there's no real over-arching plot so I'm kind of bored of it now But not bored enough of it that I am ok abandoning it without finishing HELL YEAH WEREWOLF GUY IS IN THIS ONE oh lame they reused the animation from the other episode 😔

ep13 (yay) if I could finish this series today, that would be cool idk if I can keep focused on it much longer though I actually kind of want to go to bed… :reigensweat: (it's only 6pm here)

Starting ep15 The last one for today oh damn they legit destroyed heat guy j they just gave the main character super lsd

… j will make a full recovery damn plot armor

damn MC's (Daisuke) got plot armor from the super lsd too what a letdown

well ep15 is over and nothing has fundamentally changed I'm going to bed I guess And by "Bed" i mean laying down and browsing reddit on my phone til I fall asleep

ok let's see if I can get through 16 - 20 of heat guy j tonight

ep16 MC's brother, alan with glasses, was shot and is in the hospital. I guess he doesn't have plot armor. Meanwhile, dildandau's organization tries to overthrow him because he's too psychotic I wasn't paying much attention, I'm not sure if it succeeded or not

ep17 continues this plot MC & J leave the city and MC smells clean air and grass for the first time He doesn't like nature smells one random side character is the voice of those toonami music video narrator's (outlaw star narrator?) and it's sooo weird

hell yeah werewolf is back werewolf guy aka van is actually just a deus ex He only appeared for 5 seconds to make plot armor for MC 😩 ep18 MC got fired from the special unit. So he and J are now no longer partners alan is out of the hospital I think MC is going after the gang organization that dildandau used to be head of. is currently head of? It's still confusing

ok looks like dildandau is uhhh not present mentally and is maybe on the run So I guess the coup succeeded lol dildandau's character name is claire rival crime gangs are all after claire because they need his eyes to defeat some retinal scanner to access a ton of gold

J has been re-activated to be the plot armor for MC, who happens to be in the same room as clair currently while this gang war is going on yadda yadda somehow MC got the special unit formed again ep19 MC trying to recruit werewolf to the new special unit oh werewolf history episode yay

werewolf joined them yay ep20 Probably the last one before bed tonight There's 26 eps total, so maybe I can finish it tomorrow ep20 today we learn lightsabers just casually exist in this universe oh There's also an evil clone of J apparently

the evil J is trying to kill the MCs but normal J is nowhere to be found I wonder why that is oh there he is finally J vs J battle has commenced J is so OP evil J is dead now ehhhh let's watch ep 21, then call it some random side character has lost his black cat, named juliet aaaand now he's dead

juliet sees it And with his dying breath, he reaches for the cat "I have to make sure that you get home" Sad surprisingly powerful for random side character who has never shown up before oh wait He has shown up before lmao his name is romeo of course he'd name his cat juliet poor juliet

ok ep21 done bed now finish heat guy j tomorrow hopefully

alright let's see if we can watch the last 5 eps of heat guy j today beginning ep 22 this time the killer machine is A WOMAN! you know, this show has more women than the last one (Gungrave), which is good, but so far every single "evil" woman has been mind controlled meaning apparently women don't have the power to be bad of their own accord So that's kind of weird that it's happened twice now

the mechanic for J is very obviously in love with him I mean it was obvious from the first ep she was introduced but now it's even more obvious This looks like it's going to turn into "the beach episode"

oh shit, the island's owned by sephiroth! 😂

ep 23 There's a reoccuring small girl photographer character. She sells photos from a carriage on the street with a mule. So we start this ep with her carriage (which is also her house) burning to the ground girl is stoic, mom is crying and sobbing Girl says "Darn. I forgot my camera. I bet I could've sold a photo of this to the news for some money"

monica (the girl) now lives with the special squad and she is spitting some straight facts J has agreed to pretend to be monica's dad She is using him as a stage performer so she can get money LOL Now she's using him to gamble haha

so you're telling me that in all the years MC has been carrying this bullet pendant around his neck, he never once tried to open it? give me a break Monica opened it and found a memory card inside which is a thing MC needed to solve a crime anyway, ep24 time woman assassin! is she acting of her own accord though? Let's find out

Turns out MC's brother, Alan (actually named Shun) was the evil one all along! Oh Female assassin is actually J's technician! womp womp and shun just killed her sad trombone.mp3 and now he's controlling J!

oh no.jpg

ep25 begins (second to last episode) claire/dildandau makes a triumphant return, to tell MC his brother is the one behind this! Because MC was too dumb to figure it out himself for some reason rather than MC fighting J, beautiful werewolf deus ex appears out of nowhere and forces J into sleep mode

something weird is happening with alan's voice I'm predicting he is actually an android as well Let's see if this bet pays off dildandau got his organization back

same face syndrome killed me the assassin was shun/alan's assistant, not J's technician time to start the final ep, ep26

this is dumb the anime is too episodic now what do I want to watch next? (even though ep26 is still going on in the background) - High Card - Link Click season 2 - Blood Blockade Battlefront - Grenadier - Noein - Black Lagoon

Currently I am interested in lots of guns and gray haired men idk which is more important so maybe a good 50/50 ratio is perfect 🤔 well if we go in download date order, I should do Black Lagoon next… MC to evil brother: "The only think I'm here to kill… Is your anger" 😂

plot armor is in full effect in this episode now there's fireworks because some random deus ex kills everyone that mattered to the coup evil brother tries to kill himself nothing matters evil brother is not an android sad evil brother does not die and decides to not be evil anymore they gave him amnesty This has less stakes than an MCU movie MC goes on a kino's journey without J series ends super lame I am going to make a very nonsensical decision and start High Card next oh no its japanese with subs only! 😩 I don't want to deal with that right now Guess I'll go with Black Lagoon

I finished Heat Guy J It's too episodic for my tastes Also the plot armor was super thick I have started Black Lagoon I'm on ep9 currently It's much better (Heat Guy J OST was still amazing though) the only thing black lagoon is missing is a silver haired guy

well there's 29 eps... More than enough time for one to show up

[lotus-mirage]

Trigun Stampede Episode 12 Liveblog!

I think the best way to express what I'm feeling going into this is just like *shaky thumbs up*

Oh that's funny they have Western style music in the background as they discuss the genre. Also what one of the genres of the show may or may not be. Speaking of characters applying themes to themselves lol.

Also wow! We get to look at the spaceships. I'm pretty sure that's more ships than crashed onto the planet?

"Maybe you two are gifts sent by God to act as a bridge between humans and plants." I honestly don't know how to feel about this? I think this is the first time we've seen a religious character that has practiced something presumably similar to something current rather than a space sci-fi offshoot.

...does the growing humanoid form of roots and flowers resemble Rem??

oh and there's Wolfwood. Hi, Wolfwood. What do you think is happening right now.

"It's the end of the world." Okay, question answered. I guess that's what Wolfwood thinks is happening right now.

"...he will connect directly with the plant core" okay so it is singular? And specific to Plants? Or are there multiple for different beings?

That's.... okay he's not actually giving souls to the pre-existing plants, he's using them to create new, separate Independents. That's worse?? Not only is he not doing anything for his existing "brethren" but instead forcing them to... give birth or the equivalent.

"Then he will wipe out humanity and create a new world." I thought your whole thing was preserving humanity?? Unless you think the human/plant hybrids accomplish that.

Sorry do we have to keep zooming in on the very pregnant looking plants? Incredibly uncomfortable rn

The effect on Vash's clothes and glasses is also a little uncomfortable tbf, but less viscerally so

Oh neat the score is echoing the singing!! That's cool.

Knives' vocals overlapping and being so dissonant emotionally is also really cool

very engrossed in the fight scene, but jotting down: he hesitated in reloading the gun. oof.

yeah actually I have no complaints about Meryl not being involved in action scenes the last few episodes. She is very outclassed in these fights. :0

Lmao Wolfwood shows up and immediately starts lugging her around. I love the constant physical comedy with these guys.

"You can bet they'll hunt us down in a frenzy!" meanwhile Wolfwood and Meryl are frantically scrambling away

also I didn't comment on it earlier but lmao Knives' single wing (wait. wait does that have actual biblical connections or is that just a ff7 invention. I'm realizing I have no idea. Oops.)

oh lol now Vash has one. Although it looks a little less traditional. I vote it still counts?

Oooh, they're blaming him. Understandable, but I bet that's gonna be a source of trauma in the future.

Oh wait note they're doing a white/black color scheme. Neat.

Nice and now their wings are framing their positions.

Oh and now they're falling angels. Okay I know these are very surface level observations but I'm having fun and don't have much to say about the fight otherwise haha

Oh nvm, "Nai is dead. You killed him." also gonna be very traumatizing for Vash sometime in the near future! Wonderful. Why are you traumatizing your twin further while actively being incinerated??

wgghhhhh I didn't expect to see the flesh like. melting. yikes.

(Knives' hair is incredibly resilient lol)

...okay I don't actually trust that he's not dead yet tbh.

Yup and there's the explosion.

Oh. Oh that's more of a 'and everybody got vaporized,' huh.

!! The top of the tower actually flew off! I kinda forgot about it in the fight. Huh!!

TWO YEARS!?

(also: titlecard! not as late as say last episodes, but still markedly later than standard)

"third city of JuLai" wait there's multiple?

huh. They changed Vash's arrest conditions. I'm honestly surprised that 'alive' is even still an option. also surprised that they know he was involved at all.

also yay echoing the first episode a little, nice.

:O "gaping crater" indeed

ah yet another cross huh. I guess this makes more sense as a gravestone for Roberto, though.

!! Zazie!?

"Very soon, they'll arrive, crossing over the wall of light." Okay!! Ominous! Both in subject matter and who the warning is coming from.

From EARTH??

eyyyy Milly (Millie?) finally getting namedropped

huh. That's a lot of blood. This isn't the same place as the first episodes, right?

Eriks, huh? <- suspicious and mostly sure of my assumption

Moon? Moon?????

Oh it's the credits backdrop, okay.

...end credits!

"Project Pieces of Earth now entering phase two." ...implying that this was a) according to plan and b) being monitored????

"drain gate" doesn't seem to fit with Vash's deal. interesting. draining from the gate, or something else?

Oh. Okay so they weren't monitoring the planet and the situation there, they were monitoring something else?? Okay that's more interesting actually.

End notes:

Okay well that was a ride! I'm having trouble trying to round this off so I guess I'll just categorize as usual.

The animation/visuals really impressed me for the most part! And to be fair, the times where it didn't could be chalked up to intentional choices, rather than lack of skill or technology. Background was also really cool! Stuck out a few times, but usually in a fun way.

I can't really think of anything to say about the characters or plot tbh, I think I kinda got everything in the liveblog section itself. Eager to see where both go, and thus kind of unsure whether or not I should unfilter the trigun tag yet lol.

Other than that, hmm. Don't really have a favorite among the characters, but I really enjoy Wolfwood's interactions with both Vash and Meryl. Moreso in the fun-to-pick-at dialogue for the former and the kind of goofy back and forth for the latter.

For other semi-core characters, I guess the only one I'm not really interested in is the doctor/priest guy. I think every episode we see him in I get more confused by him. Like. What is he doing? Why is he allowed to do that? How can he do it? Why does he think that's a good idea? It feels like the answer to those were in a state of constant flux near the end there.

On an overall/series level: had a lot of fun with this! Might try out the '98 series, but I don't know if I'll liveblog it (or at least the same way) given that I've seen a bunch of the plot already. Although I've heard it is rather different, so I guess that's subject to change.

[pompadorbz]

Do you have any thoughts on the Beta Distrust designs? Favorites, prefer those or the finals, good riddance, etc?

Overall I think I much prefer the current designs. They fit the game's style much more to me in the end, but that doesn't mean there aren't some gems in the concepts, so I'll go through some of the pages and talk a bit about some of my favorite concepts.

I really like the design of the hood on this beta makoto! I honestly think this would be cool to recycle with some changes made to it.

Chihiro with a cape is just. So fucking good. I wish she got to keep her cape in ANY capacity.

Get ready for me to have tons more to say about Taka and Mondo than everyone else but I actually kinda like the more sharp hair design. I like how it looks now but I think this sharper horn-like design could've worked well with some tweaking.

The fact that a GUN was considered for the shape tho. when people draw beta mondo I wanna see more of the gun hair.

For Taka my favorites are less design wise and more just. His expressions. I want him to have a dumb blushing sprite with a dumb anime nosebleed. Like this feels in character.

It's really too bad that celeste didn't get to carry around her weird bunny doll! I'm glad it was at least referenced in her execution!

I'm really fascinated with this art style on one of Kyoko's concepts... The hard black shading is really cool and it kinda makes me wish they kept it.

One of Toko's concepts also has a really neat style, although its a bit different than the Kyoko one.

This is less design stuff and more just. I wanna know how this would've played out...

These are just the things that stick out to me the most! Some character concept pages aren't as interesting to me, but it's interesting to see how much changed in the concept phases!

[caitimetravels]

she's insignificant

chapter 10: where you've gone

the umbrella academy x (fem) reader

disclaimer: i do not own the plot/storyline of the netflix tv series and i do not own the umbrella academy characters.

warnings: none

masterlist

with a sigh, y/n stood. five was still writing away behind her on the walls non-stop. she didn't dare interrupt him, simply leaving. she would be back anyways. all she needed was a nice walk. 

as she wandered down the street with no destination in mind she spaced out, eyes trained on her feet. suddenly someone knocked her shoulder and brought her back to reality. she raised her head, hoping they weren't someone looking to start a fight or argue with her.

"y/n?" instead she was met with allison. her technically older sister seemed frustrated.

"allison? are you okay?" y/n's eyebrows furrowed, looking up at the curly haired woman. 

"yeah.. i think so" she frowned, "i'm worried about vanya. she won't listen to me but her boyfriend, whoever he is.. i think he's dangerous. i couldn't find anything about him-"

"you went searching for his records?" y/n pulled back in disbelief, "allison! you know vanya doesn't like-"

"i know, she already got angry with me" allison sighed, shaking her head.

"why would you do that?" y/n tilted her head up at her, eyes narrowing incredulously. "where are you even going?"

"well, i found his address. i was going to see if anything's weird.." she earned a disapproving look, "i can't just sit around and do nothing y/n! please, help me, for vanya?"

y/n's expression only darkened, "why are you trying to ruin one of the only good things in her life?! she deserves to be happy for once and im not going to help you take that away from her!" she begun to shout, freezing as she realised her powers were getting out of control in the middle of the street. "just.. leave them alone!" 

she took off, hoping to get away, she needed to get away.

————————————————–

as the sweet melody came to soft halt y/n smiled up at her sister. vanya donned a similar grin, placing her violin down and joining y/n on the floor, cross legged and leaning back against her bed.

"one day, you're going to be amazing, v" y/n mumbled quietly, looking like she was in a slight daze, "more amazing than you are now.. you're going to be a famous violinist, i can see it now. 'vanya hargreeves, the world's best violinist'" 

vanya softly nudged her shoulder, shaking her head. "no way, the world? c'mon" 

"i'm serious!" y/n was adamant, sitting up straighter to see her better, "you're gonna be so cool! and everyone here is going to see you and say 'damn, wish i had seen how awesome our sister was back then' and you're going to have lots of fans!"

vanya snorted, shyly brushing her long hair to the side, "yeah, right"

".. you won't forget me when you're famous, right?" y/n leaned back against the bed to avoid direct eye contact, her voice was much softer now. "don't forget me.. okay?" she nervously side eyed her sister, trying to gauge her reaction.

"i could never" vanya shook her head, leaning into the h/c haired girl. both of them shared small content grins.

————————————————–

as she walked upstairs to five's room she heard a commotion, hopefully he hadn't gotten into a fight with one of their siblings again, right?

wrong.

"put her down" five snarled, holding a gun up to luther who held dolores' body out the window. y/n grinned at the sight, highly amused. who would have thought luther would ever threaten someone? well, y'know excluding their missions.. but five nonetheless? she leaned casually against the doorway, arms crossing and waiting for them to sort out whatever issue she walked in on.

"put the gun down, you're not killing anyone today. i know she's important to you so don't make me do this" luther paused, waiting to see what five would do. "it's either her or the gun.. you decide"

eventually five did decide that dolores was more important and dropped the gun before spacial jumping to catch dolores before she could fall. not that much damage would have occurred to the mannequin anyways, maybe a few scratches.

"i can keep doing this all day" luther spoke triumphantly, now holding the gun at his side. y/n snorted, catching their attention.

"you're such children" both glared at her in response, "c'mon, surely you have a better plan than whatever ended up in this-" she gestured vaguely between them, "squabble"

"we did not squabble" five hissed, placing dolores down and straightening his jacket. "but yes, i do have a one other plan" 

————————————————–

the three of them, five, luther and y/n, drove down an empty road before slowing to a stop. five unbuckled his seatbelt and sighed, looking around.

"you know, i never enjoyed it" he started and luther turned to him in confusion.

"what?"

"the killing. i mean i was- i was good at my work and i took pride in it but it never gave me pleasure" he took a deep breath, "i think it was all those years alone. solitude can do funny things to the mind"

"yeah well, you were gone for such a long time.. i only spent four years on the moon but that was more than enough. it's the being alone that breaks you" luther placed a hand on the briefcase, "you think they'll buy it?"

"well, what i do know is that they're desperate. it's like a cop losing his gun" he alluded, "if the commission finds out they'll be in deep shit, well not to mention that they'll be stuck here until they get it back"

"i should hold onto it" luther suggested, patting it with one hand.

"hm?" five's eyebrows furrowed,

"incase they make a move on you" he added to explain his point.

"okay, luther.. but be careful. i've lived a long life but.. you're still a young man, you've got your whole life ahead of you. don't waste it" y/n snorted and five turned to her, unamused.

"what?" they stared at each other for a moment before five shook his head, looking away with a small smile.

suddenly a car began to drive towards them and they all made to get out of the car. "here we go" five sighed again, he was doing that a lot, y/n realised.

the car continued to drive past them, stopping a few metres away.

"if this all goes sideways.. do me a favour and tell dolores i'm sorry" five turned to luther who nodded slowly.

as five walked away from them y/n leaned back against the car.

"i have a bad feeling about this" she nervously picked at her nails and luther frowned, looking over at her.

"why? what's wrong?"

"that.. i don't know yet" she looked down the road, "i just.. feel like something's off" she shook her head as five walked back, leaning next to her.

luther stepped forwards a bit, "what happens now?"

"now we wait" 

barely a moment later they heard the music of an ice cream truck. y/n squinted against the sun and wind, trying to work out who it was. she took a moment to focus, sensing klaus, diego and ben. uh oh.

as the car got closer luther turned to five, "is that her?"

"luther, you idiot" y/n shook her head, "it's klaus and diego" right on time klaus waved to them as they passed.

the two assassins begun shooting, thinking it was a set up and y/n raised her arms to cover her head as luther stepped in front of her and five to block any shots.

suddenly time stopped.. well, only for five.

he frowned down at y/n next to him, the girl cowering in on herself. he felt bad for bringing her into something like this but she was very persistent.

he slowly stepped under luther's arm, looking at everyone frozen in slight confusion.

"neat trick, isn't it?" a feminine voice called out behind him and he turned to face the woman he had asked to see. the handler. she stared at him, pulling the veil over her face up and onto her hat instead before pulling her sunglasses off.

"hello, five" she smiled, "you look good.. all things considered" she softly gestured to all of him.

"it's good to see you again" he nodded back,

"feels like we met just yesterday, 'course you were a little bit older then" she teased, "congratulations on the age regression, by the way. very clever, threw us all off the scent"

"ah, well, i wish i could take credit" five shrugged, looking away. "i just miscalculated the time dilation of projections and.. well, you know, here i am" his gaze met hers once again, throwing his hands up before putting them back in his pockets, casually.

"you realise your efforts are futile" the handler shifted so that her briefcase was behind her, "so, why don't you tell me what you really want?"

"i want you to put a stop to it" five moved his own hands behind his back. 

"you realise what you're asking for is next to impossible even for me" she shook her head, "what's meant to be is meant to be. that's our raison d'etre" 

"yeah?" five smiled sarcastically, pulling a gun from his shorts "well how about survival as a raison?" 

"i'll just be replaced, i am but a small cog in a machine" the handler waved it off, ignoring the gun pointing straight at her heart. "this fantasy you've been nurturing about summoning up your family to stop the apocalypse is just that.. a fantasy. i must say though, we'll quite impressed with your initiative, your stick-to-it-tiveness, really quite- quite something. which is why we want to offer you, a new position back at the commission, in management" the handler held a hand up, smiling like her offer was an obvious choice.

"sorry what's that now?" five scoffed as she stepped closer, hand tightening on the gun.

"come back to work for us again, you know it's where you belong" 

"well, it didn't work out too well the last time" he glared up at her, not liking the persistence.

"oh but you wouldn't be in the correction department any longer, i'm talking about the home office, you'd have the best health and pension and an end to this ceaseless travel" she laughed freely, "you're a distinguished professional in.. school boy shorts. we have the technology to reverse the process. i mean you- you can't be happy like this" she slowly pushed his gun down, stepping ever closer.

"i'm not looking for happy" he spat through gritted teeth.

the handler only tilted her head, eyeing him carefully before raising a hand to stroke his cheek, "we're all looking for happy. we can make that happen, we can make you.. yourself again"

five huffed a laugh, gesturing to his siblings. "what about my family?"

"what about them?" the handler raised an eyebrow, acting like she didn't already know he intended to save them.

"i want them to survive" 

the handler took in a deep breath, taking in the sight of luther protecting y/n who was still crouching against the car as well as diego and klaus who were in the middle of crashing the ice cream truck.

"all of them?" 

"yes, all of them" he narrowed his eyes at her,

the handler gave him a small smirk, moving towards the recoiled girl. five watched carefully, waiting to see what she would do.

"it's such a shame.. she would have done well with us. if only we could take her too" she reached a hand out, about to touch her but five moved first, spacial jumping in front of her and grabbing her hand. he held her away from y/n.

"don't touch her" he snarled, unmoving from his protective stance. 

"my my, five, i didn't expect such protectiveness from you" the handler merely smirked, stepping away. as they walked back she once again proposed her deal.

"well" the handler begun, reaching a hand into her pocket and pulling out her sunglasses before putting them back on her face. "i'll see what i can do from them.. do we have a deal?" she reached a hand out to him, awaiting his acceptance. he merely stared at her hand before sighing,

"one thing" five stepped back, putting his gun in his shorts again. he walked over to hazel's gun on the floor, taking out the ammunition and chucking it on one side of the road before chucking the rest of the gun to the other. he turned and walked back, noticing the bullet headed towards luther and y/n. he frowned, using his pointer finger and thumb to move it over so that it would hit the car instead of them.

as soon as he shook her outstretched hand they disappeared and time was restored.

y/n shivered, ignoring the bullet hitting the car next to her and the way her siblings scrambled around to get away quick. she allowed herself to be shoved into the car with klaus and diego, spaced out.

"you alright?" diego turned to her while klaus stuck the middle finger up at hazel and cha cha. 

"i felt someone else.. it was only for a moment but i felt someone.." she spoke solemnly, staring at her shaking hands. "and then five just.. disappeared"

tag list: (if your name is crossed i couldnt tag you) @rxses-and-reverie @lostgreekgod @on-yourmark-99 @bicyhot1 @navs-bhat @midnightmystic @shawkneecaps @baby-bi-bi-bi-yeah @velveticxyyy

[hydrangeawise]

Cool cool, only two days late to EP11 and let me tell you [screeches into a pillow] I love these sweet girls so much!!!

These days I get emotional when the intro starts running (and man, do I love the intro song) and story being so close to the finale - I have a lot of feelings. I loved that Mizuki and Kurumi were still a thread of the active story and not just out of the picture (I especially loved the "Your daughter who got seperated from you at birth"-part and "I don't know this child." Their dynamic really is *chef's kiss*.) although it surprised me a bit to see Kurumi do her Thing just out in the open like that (maybe people would not think too much of it because she is or at least looks a lot like a child, but doing everything by voice sure seems a bit careless to me, given that she's still on the run).

I also think it's really neat how the whole Lycoris reveal went, all things considered. Bloody, obviously, but neat insofar that the way it went was rather plausible. If you are not familiar with working guns and people using said guns is new to you, I imagine to the general population that was a really frightening experience.

And oh man, Takina. TAKINA! I could spend a whole hour just yelling and pointing and yelling and pointing at her and about her and !!! I simply adore how important Chisato is to her, how much she herself has changed, how her goals have changed! How she's instantly "Something's wrong, I need to check this out, bye!" when she was so focussed on getting back to the DA. (I also thought it was nice that Erika got her chance to talk to Takina, that was neat to see.)

And oh man, everything at the tower - just, I can't wait to see how the final episode will play out (I'm also terrified to see it play out, there's still a part of me that is afraid to get disappointed in some way). I don't know, I don't believe that Mika is just going to stand by - I'm sure he's giving Chisato the space to make her own decisions and that he's going to honor those, but I can't imagine that he's really going back to the café to drink tea. We'll see, I guess.

OH AND all the talk of Majima and Chisato being partners to take down the Alan Institute only for Takina to literally crash through the wall and the girls seemlessly working together? My heart, it bloomed. (Wet pathetic green haired man has some nice abilities though, I have to admit :D) Aah, I'm excited and terrified and hopeful for EP12!

[asleepinawell]

things to add partly based on a conversation I had with my friend about this dumbass:

for context, there is no emet/wol thing happening in this scenario. neither of them would enjoy that

the wol has zero understanding of the whole shard of azem thing and at this point everyone's given up trying to explain it. his response to hyth talking about the color of his soul was "thanks I work out"

also the first thing he said to hyth in elpis was "are you from lakeland?". within fifteen minutes of knowing him, hyth was like wow this kid is mega stupid I need to add him to my collection of idiots immediately

for some reason, he assumed that his role in elpis was being hyth's bodyguard and that emet was hyth's personal assistant (this was almost 100% something hyth told him). he tried to beat up a unicorn for looking at hyth funny, but he lost :(

he did eventually grasp that elpis!emet and shb!emet were the same person, though he remained confused about the time travel aspect. he didn't want to believe it at first because their hair was different and that was the main criteria by which he judged

showed up in elpis dressed like this (and did not change):

has sorta grasped the whole sundering and ancients thing and mostly thinks it's "hella sad". when shb!emet explained it the first time his response was the equivalent of zuko's "that's rough buddy"

venat was confused at first about why future her would choose this kid but then was like no you know what someone who "was sad this one time but it seemed like a drag so I stopped" and is known to spontaneously burst into tears whenever he thinks about how much he loves his friends or sees a cute animal is actually perfect for this. bonus points that he pisses off emet

venat beating his ass was the greatest moment of his entire life

shb!emet's take on him was wow this kid really got none of azem's admittedly limited number of braincells, guess I should clear my schedule and troll him. he also concluded that venat was completely off her rocker for choosing this kid and the whole thing was clearly just done to spite him personally (possibly correct)

the wol's initial take on shb!emet was: haha what a funny little guy. thancred had to be like okay but he killed a gajillion people. wol: oh that's totally not cool dude. does this mean I'm allowed to punch him? thancred, exhausted: yes, you're allowed to punch him. wol: rad!

the hyth/hades/azem thing went right over his head to start with. thancred, his perpetually exhausted dad since midgard left, sat him down and explained it to him. the wol was like aww that's really sweet I hope it works out for those crazy kids. thancred: uhhh...you know what, sure, let's just go with that

loporrits make him nervous. what do they want from him?????

misses his mom (venat) and his other(?) mom (hydaelyn) who he has...mostly figured out are the same person. he got there eventually

merlwyb is his role model. he has no clue about her politics (or politics in general), he just thinks she's the coolest for having buff arms and neat bang bang guns and the whole pirate aesthetic

complete fanboy for y'shtola. thinks it's so cool the way she dropped a meteor on that weird little dude at the end of shb. (also slightly terrified of her)

besties with alisaie. they share a love of swords and explosions

likes alphinaud but tends to zone out whenever he talks

jumped up on a table when they were talking to the forum to yell at fourchenault because disowning his kids was "like totally not cool, man". fourchenault is now in therapy for this

aymeric tried to ask him out once but not only did aymeric totally botch it but it went right over the wol's head. aymeric spent three days locked in his office having a nervous breakdown after this and lucia has been forbidden from ever mentioning it. the wol remained clueless but got that aymeric was not feeling great and sent him a really cool rock he found because who doesn't like really cool rocks

has never understood a single word that's come out of urianger's mouth but thinks he's a swell guy with great fashion sense

considers ryne his little sister

envious of krile's hoodie

bros with estinien now that he's calmed down and is "way less harsh, dude". they have "I never know what's going on and at this point I'm afraid to ask" solidarity

emotionally dependent on his carbuncle

he never had a single clue wtf was going on with zenos and actually forgot his name a few times, something which only encouraged zenos who found it "stimulating" that the wol considered him so beneath his notice. zenos gave at least three horny monologues about this. the wol remained oblivious to all of this but had a great time fighting him after that whole thing with the sad bird that thancred promised to explain to him when they got back

besties with sadu. if only zenos hadn't sucked so much he could have joined their fight bromance club (alisaie and estinien are in this club too)

once tried to carry his chocobo because he thought it was only fair they take turns. this may be related to why grani bit him

owns bootie shorts that say "hydaelyn's perfect idiot" on them

my background story for my himbo lizard boy wol has always been fairly vague and mostly along the lines of: he grew up in thavnair, his family were fishers who made him learn to fish even though he preferred fighting things, he attempted to fish by just jumping in the water and wrestling fish, and then a giant fish kicked his ass so hard he left home on a journey to grow into a better fighter so he could come back and get revenge (he never did. he got thancred to beat up the fish for him and now it lives in an aquarium in his house)

but I was thinking of elpis and the wol being told to relate the whole story from the beginning to the elpis squad and like...this boy cannot stay focused on a long story like that, he doesn't have a single braincell, if you tell him to relate the story from the beginning he's gonna go way too far back and spend half an hour complaining about the fish that beat him up back home

and there's hythlodaeus in the corner quietly making notes about this fascinating fish. notes he will find in his pocket after he returns home and turn into a concept leading to the creation of the fish ancestor of the wol's nemesis. the circle of stupidity is complete

other things that probably happened in elpis:

1) the wol almost definitely made some vague comment to hermes that hermes then recalled later as he looked down at meteion and inspired his decision to destroy the world. the comment would have been something you'd expect to find on one of those awful motivational posters that has some trite phrase over a stock photo of the ocean

2) the wol asked venat "have you ever wondered what the ancients really are?" (he probably read a conspiracy theory on tumblr) but he had a brain slip (without the brain part) and said "have you ever sundered what the ancients really are?" and venat was like hmmm while taking notes

3) wol told emet he looked "out of shape" and "not at 110%" in the future and offered to teach him his exercise routine. this would have happened in the middle of him relating how emet was going to have everyone he knew die and then murder millions of people. hyth prevented another murder from taking place but also took notes on the exercise routine and later built a home gym based on them. azem used it regularly. emet threatened to divorce both of them. soon after, emet unmade azem's favorite barbell in a fit of pettiness leading to them squabbling, a fight which started out serious and then drifted into more mundane topics like should we summon zodiark. azem took his gym and left

4) grani bit the wol. this didn't have any far-reaching consequences but it made him sad and he wants you to know

the legend himself:

[elstreem]

Taking a Look at Bedivere's Outfits

Why not, I want to do something silly and fun :b

Long post so I'll put it all under the cut.

Gotta start with his default outfit, of course! 100/10, I do so love his overall look. The silver and green color scheme is just so pleasant to look at, and it really fits his personality, somehow.

One little detail I appreciate now after watching the Camelot movie adaptations is that Bedi's sword is actually positioned so that his left hand draws it - makes sense, his left hand is his actual flesh and bone arm! It's a shame that in the game he holds his sword in his right hand regardless, but in the movies they show Bedivere often holds his sword in his left hand.

Butler outfit! He looks so sharp and dapper in this one, 100/10 would keep him as my butler forever. I also appreciate that in this outfit, Bedi's default expression is to smile. He deserves to look happy! Also the character art details his eyelashes and that's a neat detail, not a lot of other illustrations give Bedivere eyelashes the same color as his hair. The teapot he's holding is different from what's actually used in the battle sprite though, he uses a silver one.

I do enjoy drawing this outfit since it's a bit simpler than his armor to draw, heh. Also it's good practice to think about how to draw suits.

The "I'm forever salty if they don't ever release this outfit" summer hoodie. I know since Bedi got his butler costume he probably won't get another one...but I can dream. Or just give us a summer version! Let Bedi have his fun, Gareth apparently has a summer version, why not Bedi... Ahem. Anyway, ranting over, I really do love this outfit! I know the summer KotR is shameless fanservice lol but at least Bedivere's is a really cool look. I wish I had this hoodie in real life, the colors are so cute. I won't be able to pull it off shirtless though lol.

Specific neat details - the sectioning of the colors on his hoodie and the x-shaped threads on the shorts are reminiscent of his armor. For a mischievous AI that's a bit out of wack, BB has pretty good taste when she gave this outfit to Bedi.

And idk why, but I find it cute that Bedi wears sandals. And let's not forget, we have shades Bedivere because of this, too.

This dork (lovingly).

Also I remember joking with friends that Bedivere Alter uses guns and then the Summer Fest rerun happened and I remembered Bedivere does practice on the shooting range with you...so Gun-ivere is actually a possibility lol.

Now for some CEs! This is Festive Outfit Bedivere for one of the anniversaries. 100/10, so cute!!! This is one of my favorites actually, and I'm biased as blue is my favorite color, but the blues and oranges are so cute and pop in a good way. Also that cap is just adorable. Everything about this outfit is so cute. Love it to bits!

One of the Camelot movie release celebrations CEs! Back to being dapper again. He looks rather scholarly, with these glasses.

90/10, it's a good look and a bit different with the hat and glasses! But man Bedi sure loves his suits and coats doesn't he, haha. Altria's outfit is also really good in this one, it might be my actual favorite outfit of hers.

I think this one is the 5th Anniversary celebration, the one that's titled like Under the Same Sky? Look, any CE with Bedivere smiling and enjoying his life gets a 100/10 from me. His smile here is especially precious!

The outfit itself looks so cozy. Same as the festive outfit one, his outfit here has little touches of orange, which I really like.

Apron Bedi from one of the summer mangas. Simple, but super freaking cute. Please help him, he's probably the only responsible one in this household. He definitely cooks and cleans. 100/10, prime husband material.

Oh hey....I just realized that in this one, Bedi doesn't have a metal arm. Did Ritsuka and co. do that to separate their manga Bedi from Chaldea Bedi?

The formal craft wear! I wasn't playing F/GO when this released so I'll never have it in game :'''''). But I spotted it in the 5th anniversary video! I posted about it before, but I just find it funny that in this video they made Bedi's hair super long, it reaches past his hip when normally his hair falls to around the middle of his back.

This one is pretty fancy, and looks a bit busy with the cape and tassels. It's a good look, don't get me wrong, but I don't like this as much as his other fancy outfits. Idk, it doesn't feel as cohesive to me, I guess? Lancelot wears a similar outfit but I think his looks more suited to him. Though I do like that the sleeve is cut out on Airgetlam's side, I think it's more practical to not have any cover on it.

This one is from one of the promotional images for the Solomon movie! I do like this one a lot, I just really like the colors of it (enough for me to draw it as a chibi). Seems even Bedi got tired of wearing a coat though lol, he's just holding it here.

Here's from one of the Chaldea Boys' Collection CEs! Though we don't really see much of his outfit here, so it's a bit hard to comment on. The cap looks a bit silly though, it's just awkwardly sitting on his head.

This one is from the earlier Chaldea Boys' Collection, which I also didn't get since I wasn't playing the game at the time. I am tempted to get it on the Rare Prisms exchange though...

I do actually like the colors of this one, and it's a bit similar to the butler costume he ended up getting, though this one is in white.

While I do want to get it since Bedi is in the CE and all, is it just me or something is a bit off with Bedi's faces in both of these Chaldea Boys's Collection CEs? Idk why, but the way Bedi's face looks in these comes off a bit...creepy. I hate to say it that way since it makes me sound like I'm picking on the illustrators - I'm not, these are beautifully detailed, the way Bedivere looks is just not up to my preference.

There's a bunch more I didn't get to, a couple of CEs and some more promotional and product images released during the Camelot movie (like the Wendy's one, that still floors me to think about, knowing art exists of the Camelot cast in Wendy's uniforms lol). A lot of it involves him in suits though, so I'm gonna be repeating a lot of points if I collect more of them.

My top favorites aside from his default look are the festive outfit one, the Solomon promo image and the summer outfit (I'm still begging the devs to release a playable version). Special shout out to a super cute acrylic I saw though, the Cafe and Diner one which was also released as Camelot movie merch? That is also super cute.

[tohruhondaismydaughter]

Just had some headcanons about Machi pop into my head that I wanted to share with yall. So we know this poor girl struggles with "perfect"/neat things right? Well I was thinking about some healthy coping mechanisms she could develop to replace the whole 'breaking property/living in a dump' thing & here's what I got so far -

1. She always tries to wear odd socks (unless she's invited somewhere nice)

2. Ayame & Mine help her find cool asymmetrical stuff to wear, how to make clashing colours/patterns work for her & teach her how to sew up her old clothes in a more "punk rock" way (after Yuki & Kakeru explain some of her issues with perfection)

3. Tohru gently points out that she dosn't have to tie her laces the same way on both shoes if she dosn't want to

4. Haru & Rin (awkwardly on her part) teach her the power of acessorising (ie. wearing only one earing, putting on an uneven amount of bracelets/rings/necklaces, adding paper clips of different sizes & colours to your clothing & Machi later ends up adding stuff like buttons to her outfits/belongings as well which Haru & Rin are tottally surppotive of despite thier difference in style) & hair/makeup which (thanks to Yuki's advice) they make sure to keep slightly messy (Kimi laughed at it at first until Momiji made her feel bad after he told her that Machi had gone to the bathroon & wiped off all the make up & undid the hair style so Kimi bought her some limited edition Mogeta merch, after asking for Yuki's advice, in apolgey & started referring to Machi's new hair/makeup style as "punk chic" whenever anyone tried to mock Machi about her new look)

5. her & Momiji go on a crazy tie dying adventure (much to Hatori's grumbling & Mayu's amusement)

6. Kormaki gets her into collecting second hand fridge magnets which she then later uses in her work (my version of post-serise Machi is an artist) once the magnetism finally wears off

7. Kagura teaches her how to fix up old plushies (Machi likes creating Mogeta inspired characters) & gives Machi all her old cat ones to work on (Machi descides not to ask why Yuki's cousin was seemingly once obssesd with orange cats because she looks rather embrassed & a little sad when she hands over her collection)

8. Kyo reluctantly teaches her how to cook a few simple dishes (Tohru comes over as well & Yuki insists her food is better but Machi prefers Kyo's simple style of presentation so it's eventually descided that Kyo & her will do the cooking & Tohru & Yuki will deal with the cleaning which Yuki agrees to becuse cleaning is still difficult for Machi but Kyo says it's actually because no matter how much Tohru tried to train him rat boy knows he would never be able to do anything in the kitchen but burn water)

9. Kakeru teaches her the skills of 'excessive badge & sticker decorating' as well as giving eachother fake tattoos (Kisa congratulates Hiro on not saying anything rude to Yuki's girlfriend about her appreance after they first meet her)

10. Cuts her hair short (she delibretly makes it very choppy) once she enters university, where the rules are less strict about your apprence (at least it is if your at art college), & she also regulary wears diffrent coloured wigs (her favourites being a dark red one & a rainbow one) whenever she wants to temporarily change her appearance (beacuse she didn't want to commit to just one look, still wanted to have the ability to quickly "become invisable" again & she heard from Kimi that exsseive hair die-ing could permantly destroy her hair & scalp) it takes her until she's 30 to try out shaving all her hair off (she worried she'd look sick/crazy or not feminine enough) & everyone's really surppotive (though Kimi dose cry a bit, Rin & Haru aren't there when her hair is being shaved & Kyo is a slightly confused as he'd always thought women liked having longer hair then guys) especially Ritsu (who's growing out thier hair again) & they all throw her a big party (Haru & Rin are there for the party bit just not the hair removal bit because it brought up some bad memories) where Kakeru films it & posts it (with Machi's permission) & they give her cut off hair to a charity chosen by all thier followers (despite her disbelief Machi has manged to gain a small group of loyal fans from all her art stuff & her apprences on her loved ones social media), Kakeru also later uploads a video where they help Machi rainbow dye her buzz cut, (she later explores many diffrent types of buzz cut patterns such as flowers & geometric shapes but, at Kimi's insistence, gets them done by a professional)

11. She recycles & D.Y.I's like crazy (Momiji started singing Do Re Mi from The Sound Of Music after she told him that her new dress was actually made from curtains & Yuki cried when she gave him a little rat plushie made from felt, after he came clean to her about the curse)

12. She almost never wears an apron while working on her art because she likes getting messy

13. When her & Yuki go out to eat she loves things like fondoe (both the chocolate & cheese kind), eat N mess & is genreually just a fan of finger food & it becomes a tradition between her & Yuki (& later Mutsuki) to go on a stroll through the park after thier meal & (if it's autumn) look for piles of leaves to jump in (Machi & Yuki also like playing a game where they try to look for the weirdest looking leaf to give eachother & whoever wins gets to pick what they'll eat for dinner that evening & the looser has to cook it, Mutsuki is the "impartial" judge)

14. Machi is amazing at scrapbooking & collarge making (Tohru is more of a dream journal kind of girl)

15. When it's Summer her, Yuki & Mutsuki go down to the beach to see who can find the weirdest looking rocks (the less impressive ones often get used in Machi's art work, the coolest ones Mutsuki gets to keep & any that are too perfect get tossed back in the ocean & Mutsuki likes to score the splashes they make on how big/loud they are)

16. She loves helping Yuki out with gardening for lots of reasons (it's therapeutic & she loves seeing Yuki happy) but she can't deny it's also just fun getting muddy

17. Machi, thanks to Kakeru, devolpes a love of paint ball (but instead of using guns they just throw the paint at eachother like in 10 Things I Hate About You because apparently the gun pellets actually hurt) & will bring it up as an activity idea to her loved ones any chanse she gets

18. Decorates as much of her flat (& later her home with Yuki & Mutsuki) with Mogeta merchandise, random things she collects & her own art work as a big fuck you to her bitch "you have 0 personality/hobbies or talents" of a mother

19. Kisa (happily) & Hiro (reluctantly) introduce Machi to the magic of glitter

20. Machi & Rin eventually become proper friends due to bonding over being abounded by their asshole parents & one of the things they like to do together is work on thier seprete art peices while listening to music (Machi dosn't do any of her "aggressive" art, like plate smashing, around Rin though thanks to Yuki & Haru warnings)

21. When stuff gets to be too much & none of thier other coping strategies are working (like watching Mogeta stoned- which Kisa, Tohru & Momiji do not partake in) Machi & Haru bond by going to rage rooms together to destroy shit & scream (Haru obviously dosn't want Rin around for any of that though so Momiji, Tohru, Kagura or Hana will often take the opportunity to hang out with her, one time Yuki offered & it wasn't bad but it was definitely awkward as they had never really hung out without Haru before & Haru teases her for ages afterwards about her ending up liking Yuki once she actually spent some time with him which, like the precious tsundere she is, Rin will forever deny)

22. (I actually made a whole seprete post about this ages ago but now it seems to have vanished so in case other Machi fans are unable to find it l'll add it here) on the days that it's supposed to snow but dosn't Yuki takes her (& later Mutsuki) skating so she can enjoy scratching up the perfectly smooth ice (they would have gone on double dates with Tohru & Kyo if Tohru wasn't freaked out at the idea of having blades on her shoes & Kyo hadn't claimed to "not trust" ice, he's dislike comes from all the times Kagura had forced him to ice skate with her on the lake near Kazuma's place in the winter when they were kids, so they would instead go with Haru & Momiji - they had thought about going with Haru x Rin & Kakeru x Kormaki once but he proudly revealed that he'd been banned from thier local ice rink years ago for trying "perfectly safe" Olympic level stunts in he's attempt to recreate one of he's favriote episodes of Power Rangers, much to he's fiancee's anger, & Machi reminded Yuki that though Haru & Kakeru were fine with eachother Rin isn't reall able to stand Kakeru for longer than 5 minuites)

[thebadboyfanclub]

She Will Learn (Rio x Reader)

Look I will let y’all in on a little secret, the way this account is going to work is by me seeing your requests, making a mental note to finish them and then getting an idea for another imagine that wasn’t requested but can’t move on until I write it so.... Enjoy!

P.S I chose Greece cause I am from there and I never see us anywhere

(Y/n) had met Rio when she was about to graduate college, a business major that was striving for being the first millionaire in her family. She came from a lower middle class first generation immigrant from Greece, her parents were troopers for successfully raising her and her siblings, they never had things to spare yet they had enough to be respectful.

He saw her at a restaurant, completely overdressed and accessorized like she was dining in France, however she somehow made it look like she didn’t think about what she was going to wear, like this was her natural way of dressing, her nails were done and he noticed how... soft her hands looked. 

What intrigued him was that she was extremely kind to everyone, she smiled brightly at the waiters and she would often reach over to her friends for a touch of encouragement of just a simple caress, she exuded confidence that made you feel like you would never dare to touch her, still she carried herself with elegance and in a graceful manner.

“Excuse me, can you tell me who are the girls at the table over there?”

“Oh they haven’t been here before but I can tell you they are here to celebrate for the girl in the red dress, it’s her birthday”

“Oh is it? Send them a bottle of champagne please”

“Right away Sir”

He was never the flashy type of guy, he never cared for stuff that showed his status or economic achievements, people that had money knew to never flaunt it carelessly. When it came to her, he felt the need to show off, to woo her and catch her eye, she had this sense of luxury, she looked like she took care of herself way too much to let men not treat her anything less than that.

He watched her face switch into surprise when the waiter came with the bottle of champagne, a few seconds after that her gaze went to him, as the waiter pointed towards him and then proceeded to open the bottle of bubbly. 

She had noticed him when she entered for a few moments, although she decided that since it was her big night she wouldn’t waste time gawking at good looking men, she had saved money for months to be able to afford the finest for her big day, every year she wanted her birthday to be like the life she wanted. She send him a smile as her hand went to her heart to show gratitude for the gift. 

Except that didn’t feel like enough, she felt like she could push it a bit more, try her luck just a bit, she looked too good to worry about a man turning her down, he would have to be mad or blind to do so.

She walked to him with the glass of champagne in her hand, giving him the chance to take her in. Her legs were exposed as the dress went to the middle of her thigs, they shined and looked so smooth making him wonder how good would it feel to touch them. She had a figure of a dream, as her hips swayed with every step, her posture was proud and she walked like a supermodel, if he didn’t know the owner he would have thought she was the one that had not just the restaurant, the entire block.

“I don’t think we’ve met, I’m (y/n), I wanted to thank you for the champagne, you really didn’t have to”

“I wanted to darling, I’m Christopher but people call me Rio, how wonderful to meet you”

He said, taking her delicate hand in his and pressing a light kiss on soft skin. He could smell the lotion of vanilla she had chosen to moisturize her skin, settle yet unforgettable. His raspy voice made her flustered, trying to mask it with a smirk and confidence, he was intriguing to her, the cool, calm and collected exterior that suited him so much. 

“I wish I could stay and talk but I don’t like leaving my friends by themselves”

“I understand darling, we’ll be in touch”

-

It had been years since then, he had managed to not only stay in touch with you but make her the queen of his life. She was an asset that he so desperately needed, he trusted her with his life and knew she had the best intentions for him, her loyalty was iron made, her degree came in handy when he needed to handle business in a discreet manner, she was the master mind behind a lot of his negotiations, her brilliance on playing the trophy wife that didn’t know anything in front of others was the secret behind his success. 

She is his secret weapon, so secret that no one knew she even existed, the few that did didn’t even know her name and the people that knew were the most trusted ones that worked with Rio for years, she liked to be under wraps, walking in and out of the building with the men Rio had hire to protect her and the rookies wondered who was she, he only called her with pet names when others were around but they could only address her as “Miss”, she was the miss of the mister and his most trusted soldier. 

Despite that, (y/n) was no fool. She had broken up with Rio and called of the engagement several times, making Rio go wild every time. She wasn’t unreasonable, Rio was out of line a lot of the times, especially when Beth came in the picture, his men feared her just as much as him, maybe even more, so when she found out they had done such major damage multiple times but still took them back in, she would pack her stuff and leave without warning, leaving her ring and a note that wrote “goodbye” behind. That’s when he would hook up with Beth, make up for the loss of his queen, yet when he had manage to convince her to come back and buy her a new ring every time, he felt like he was on top of the world.

“Be honest with me Mick, who did this to him?”

“Everything points in one target, Beth”

“Of course. Thank you Mick, I got him”

She stood by him throughout his healing process, waited patiently until he was back on her feet, took care of his bullet wounds and had many sleepless nights to make sure he was alright. She was his wife to be after all, even kept in contact with Rhea and Marcus, made sure they were alright and taken care of in any way, shape or form.

“Are you ready mama?”

“Almost, can you help me with the necklace”

They were there when Rhea got the call from Beth, acting like there friends even though she caused Rios life and invited her for drinks. Rio knew (y/n) was boiling, wanted to take revenge for what Beth had caused and this time he understood, so they got dressed up to meet her instead of Rhea. 

As Rio approached and took the necklace in his hands he saw it was the necklace he bought her for their one year anniversary, her birth stone surrounded with diamonds. When (y/n) let her hair down he got a whiff of her scent, still making him feel weak in the knees, he got closer to her and wrapped his one arm around her, his lips found the nape of her neck and left light kisses. She closed her eyes for a second to enjoy the feeling of warmth and lust he brought her.

“You look beautiful princess”

“It’s my first time meeting her isn’t it?”

“What have you planned gorgeous?”

“That’s for me to know and for her to find out, let’s go daddy”

She knew exactly who she was. Seeing the back of her head made her want to pull out her gun and blast her right then and there, that wouldn’t be classy now wouldn’t it? She approached the clueless woman and sat on her left side, leaving the right seat empty for Rio to join later. 

“Can I get dirty martini please? Thank you dear”

She instructed the bartender before taking off the faux black fur coat to reveal a   Split Floor-Length Sleeveless Spaghetti Strap Pullover black dress. The first thing Beth noticed about the young woman that sat next to her was the big diamond ring that she wore on her ring finger, mentally thinking of what that girl had done to earn it

‘she probably hasn’t worked a day in her life’ she thought, making herself feel a little bit better, she had to admit that she looked really pretty, the jewelry she had on complimented her skin tone and the dress looked like it was custom made. (Y/n) waited for her drink to arrive before she looked at Beth and got ready to reveal her identity.

“You must be Beth, I don’t believe we’ve officially met. I’m (y/n)”

Beth looked at her puzzled. How did the young woman that looked like she was some old mans pretty young thing to show off knew her. (Y/n) was smiling as she took a sip of her cocktail, knowing damn well that Beth had already made up her mind about what type of woman (y/n) was and completely missing the purpose of this meeting.

“How do you know my name”

“Oh I know everything about you, where you live, the names of your children, your sister Annie and your friend Ruby. Rio has told me all about you”

“Rio? How-”

“I know he doesn’t talk about it, I like to be invisible to the public eye... his secret weapon as some would say. I also know you are waiting for Rhea”

“She ain’t comin”

Beth heard Rio’s voice and her eyes went wide with fear. (Y/n) let out a soft giggle and took one more sip of her drink as Beth turned to look at him like she had seen a ghost, judging by how pale she had gotten she was more of that vibe than he was. 

“Excuse me, can we get a glass of neat whiskey for the gentleman? Thank you so much”

(Y/n) ordered once more before hoping off her chair and joining Rio. He snaked his arm around her and brought her as close to him as he could before placing a kiss on her cheek.

“How you feeling mama?”

“Oh I was just having a chat with Beth”

“A-are y-you”

“His fiancé? Yes, we are planning on getting married on my homeland during the summer, aren’t we daddy?”

(Y/n) started rubbing Rios back as she smiled at him, she was super excited for her wedding, he had given her complete control to do whatever she wanted, it was her big day and he knew better than to object to anything.

“Oh we have to show her something”

Rio reached for his pocket and (Y/n) looked over at Beth who was in the verge of a mental breakdown. Rio pulled out his three bullets that the doctor had pulled out from his body, (y/n) wanted to throw them away but he insisted in keeping them, reminding him how he cheated death. 

“Lung, spline, shoulder”

He put each one down in front of her. Beth had terrible aim and for once (y/n) was thankful that one of their rookies missed the shots. Beth stayed silent, taking in all the information, not only was he alive he also had a woman he was planning to marry, calling him “daddy” right in her face, she looked like she was straight out of a magazine and even thought she was kind to her that terrified her more, her entire life was crumbling in front of her. 

“Now I think you understand that you are in a bit of a jam, Christopher has agreed that I should decide your punishment since he wanted to kill you-”

“Don’t, do that. I’m sorry babydoll, she will learn”

Beth had tried to leave in the middle of (y/n)’s sentence, making Rio grab Beth by the arm and restrain her from doing so. (Y/n) stayed stoic and just watched the scene unravel, she knew Rio would never allow anyone to disrespect her. As Beth sat back down Rio smiled (y/n) before taking her hand once more and placing a kiss on her knuckles. (Y/n) reached for his face and caressed his cheek with her free hand making Beth sick to her stomach, he had never looked at her like that, with such admiration and love.

“It’s alright, I will let it pass this one time”

“Go on mama”

“I feel like it would be too easy to kill you, such an easy way out. So now you will work for me”

“What?”

Beth felt her stomach twist at the statement. Working with (y/n), having to do daily tasks for her, a woman she had no idea even existed an hour ago, now she had work under her and take orders from her directly, for a second she thought that death would be better. (Y/n) left Rio’s side for a second and took Beth by the shoulders, standing right behind her, Beth’s eyes fell on her shinny ring, that only felt like someone was rubbing salt over her wound, he had probably spend a fortune for it. (Y/n) leaned closer to Beth getting next to her ear and causing goosebumps on Beth’s body. 

“Think of it as an assistant or maybe help Rio with anything he needs but mostly you will be on call for anything I need. Since you wanted to outsmart Rio and spit where you eat, I need some help to plan the wedding and also take care of our business. What do you think darling?”

“I think it’s an excellent idea”

Rio was pleasantly surprised. (Y/n) was one of the most intelligent people he knew, bring Beth so close to her and making her work for their wedding even though she knew she had slept with him was a very cruel and mentally humiliating way to punish her. 

She truly was one of the greatest choices he had ever done, no one could compete with her, she held such power that made Rio feel like he could not only trust her but also submit to her, let her take the wheel and not having to worry about anything going wrong. As he watched her look over at Beth there was no comparison, (y/n) had such way of carrying herself, that je ne sais quoi as some would say, she was the embodiment of female divine energy. 

Rio knew that her leaving him all these times was a game of push and pull, making him work for her and a mental slap in the face, yet every time he ran to her like an obedient dog and begged for her to come back and take her spot as his queen in the palace, promised her and gave her everything she wished for, every ring was bigger and better than the one before. It wasn’t like he did it because she wanted it, he was the one that wanted to spoil her, give her everything under the sun, she deserved everything and he was for sure not going to hold back for his sweet little princess.

“And then when all of that is done... Rio can take care of you, I feel like it would bring bad luck to our household if we killed someone before the wedding”

[pynkhues]

57 for the sensory prompts 💖

Ooo, I love this one, anon, thank you! I'm assuming you wanted Good Girls, so I'm sorry if you were after something else!

This is set in a vague, speculative post-4.16 world. :-)

-

57 rain on a metal roof

It’s the promise of rain more than the actuality of it that greets them at the house.

The thick, damp blanket of air weighing down on them as they climb out of his G Wagon and start towards the dilapidated building, gravel crunching beneath the soles of his boots and the heel of her pumps, and god, she should’ve worn something more practical. Would’ve, if he’d told her where they were going.

It's been almost a year since she’s even been here, since she pulled up in her minivan, Max a ball of anxious energy in the seat beside her, the gun too close, wrapped in an old hand towel and buried beneath loose tampons and old receipts in the belly of her purse. A year since she’d past on Rio’s lessons to him – a second-hand class in how to load, hold, shoot a gun that still didn’t feel right in her own grip – but she’s held guns since then.

She just hasn’t shot one.

Not since - -

Well.

Her gaze darts sideways to where Rio’s a few steps ahead, beanie pulled low over his ears and hands buried deep in his pockets to ward off the late fall chill. He doesn’t look right here somehow, not as he passes the weather-worn picnic table and not as his narrow body becomes a cut of darkness against the faded white walls of the bullet riddled house. She’s used to him these days in sleeker joints – at one of his bars, at the Country Club, at restaurants that don’t list prices – places that almost move like him; both effortless and tireless at the same time.

(That cool, like - - disaffected, kiss-you-kill-you vibe is totally fake, Annie had told her a few weeks ago while they’d cleaned up at Sweet P’s. Nobody who’s actually cool would be this hung up on you. No offense.)

The thought makes Beth snort, sniff, a cold drop of rain suddenly hitting her cheek, and she wraps her arms tighter around herself, trying to match Rio’s long stride as he gets to the house, rattling open the door and disappearing inside. Vaguely, the thought finds her that maybe she’s wrong. Maybe Annie is.

Maybe the kiss-you-kill-you vibe is exactly who Rio is, maybe he chose his brother-cousin after all, maybe last night, whatever it was, had been a lie.

(But god, it hadn’t felt like it, not with the way he’d touched her, the way he’d pulled her close, held her there against him until the sharp angles of his body left indents in the soft curves of hers; the way he’d moved inside her so deep and slow she was babbling, keening, scrambling at his back desperate for him to go faster, but he hadn’t. Like he’d wanted them both to feel every moment. A film slowed until you could see every frame).

She hadn’t expected it.

Not after she’d closed in on Nick. Not after she’d gotten enough to Phoebe and Dave to have him put away, handcuffed in his City Council office, his eyes wet in a way Rio’s never got, like he couldn’t handle his own façade slipping even after spending months trying to make Beth’s, a lifetime maybe, of trying to make Rio’s.

Still, it hadn’t taken long for Nick’s wobbly lower lip to stiffen and his arrest had lasted only as long as any of Rio’s – a flash in the pan of success – and Rio had come to her house and she’d thought maybe it was over, maybe this was it for her, only he’d kissed her, and it had felt like a new page in a book she hadn’t realised she’d missed.

“You comin’, Elizabeth?”

And right, Beth thinks, sniffing, eyeing off the dark doorway, before glancing backwards at the thick grey sky, the first spit of rain, the dry grass and tangled, crunching trees waiting for it, and she steps inside.

There’s not much to it really – cobwebs and rat shit, a few broken items of dust-coated furniture – a table slanted awkward with a missing leg, moth-eaten curtains bundled on the floor, a few beer bottles with ash broken apart in the dregs. If Rio cares, he doesn’t show it, grabbing the table instead to leverage up enough against the wall that it stands, before swinging his bag off his shoulder onto the top of it. He pulls out two guns, a clip, alcohol wipes for fingerprints.

“He might not come after me,” Beth tells him, and Rio doesn’t even turn around. The wind outside whistles through the bullet holes in the walls, and Beth shivers when a particularly damp breeze finds the back of her neck. “We were pretty publicly connected, he might just want - - ”

“You wanna risk that?” he drawls, hands making quick, neat work on loading the gun. “Ain’t got that husband of yours to take the bullet for you this time.”

Beth’s jaw clicks shut.

The memory finds her. The fingers Rio’s now using to test the trigger instead tracing her chin, Dean in front of her, tied to a chair, the look of betrayal naked on his face, Rio unloading the gun just once. The way he’d slumped forwards.

Rio had staggered backwards.

She inhales, the musty smell of the room darting up her nose.

He’s right though. Dean’s long gone, but - -

Her heart flutters.

“Should I be worried about my kids?”

(They’d stayed at Annie’s the night before, the night of the arrest, playing Mario Kart with Ben and eating too much candy. Annie hadn’t asked questions when Beth had asked if she could keep them one more night, but she knew that only meant the kids were close. The questions would come when Annie could speak freely).

“Not his style.”

“But you think a mother of four is.”

It’s the first thing she’s said since the car that’s made Rio look at her, actually look at her, and she finds herself more annoyed than anything when he greets her with a bemused, slightly exasperated look, as if to say - - well.

As if to say a lot of things.

Beth rolls her eyes, and Rio exhales a laugh, shakes his head, before starting back across the room towards her.

“I don’t know,” he says. “This is new land for all of us, darlin’. Nick ain’t ever been the one in the cell, and you and me - - ”

She waits, unsure of what he’s going to say, and his mouth does that funny thing it does, and he shrugs, a warm look on his face.

“Ain’t ever woken up together after, huh?”

Beth flushes, and Rio offers her the handle of the gun. It takes her a minute, gaze darting up to him, surprised by the ease in the offer, the openness of his dark eyes, and it’s only then that she hears the rain in full. The ricochet off the tiled roof, the thrum of it, the way the air seems to gasp in relief – no longer pregnant. She thinks her hair is frizzy. She thinks Rio’s nose is red, his eyes tired. She thinks she lets her fingers brush his when she takes the gun. She thinks she wants to kiss him again.

From the way his gaze holds on her lips, she thinks he wants to too.

But he doesn’t. Not yet. Now, he takes a step back, and he says:

“Now, show me what you remember.”

Send me a sensory prompt (Good Girls, The Umbrella Academy or Succession)

[hrtiu]

Would you consider writing something super short, like a couple hundred words, about Tech helping Brit'ni integrate that really tough problem you had trouble with a few days ago? 😅 (sorry, I'm trying to make you laugh lol)

Ah! You're the greatest! Ok, I think I can manage to put something together. for you <3

"Argh!!" Brit'ni let out a primeval scream and threw her stylus across the room. It landed against the dull durasteel wall with a pathetic plink, the sound not equal to Brit'ni's rage.

Tech looked up from the servos he was soldering and lifted his safety visor, eyes blinking at her in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"It's this stupid assignment," Brit'ni said, gesturing to the datapad she'd been staring at for the past two hours. She'd come to Tech's apartment to study--he had the perfect, no-frills setup and even just being around him focus pressured Brit'ni into being more productive--but so far she'd made almost no progress.

"Ah, the economics of past cultures class?" Tech said, pressing a finger to the bridge of his nose to lift up the goggles that weren't currently over his eyes.

"Yes," Brit'ni said with a scowl. "I don't understand why I have to learn any of this to study history. When am I going to need to find the expected value of a random variable curating a museum exhibit?"

Tech set his soldering gun down and pursed his lips, like she'd insulted him personally. "Just as your understanding of history and cultures can inform the way I program this computing system," he said, gesturing to the servos on his work bench, "so too can statistics inform the way you evaluate and interpret history."

"Ok, ok, you can get off your high fathier. Just help me, please?"

Tech's eyebrows raised and he nodded. "Certainly."

He got up from the workbench and headed over to Brit'ni. With each step she wondered if she was making a huge mistake. She'd never asked Tech for help on this sort of thing before because she had a sneaking suspicion he'd be absolutely insufferable. And she liked kissing Tech. She didn't want to mess that up.

"What seems to be the problem?" he asked, leaning over her datapad.

She took a moment to answer, letting herself enjoy the warm feeling of him looming over. "It's this integral." She pointed to the tortured s-loop on the screen, even just the sight of it twisting her brain into knots. "I know we're supposed to use a change of variable, but the new derivative just doesn't fit."

She'd looked at it backwards, frontwards, sideways, and upside down. She'd stared at this problem for thirty minutes straight without writing so much as a single calculation. But the harder she stared the more inscrutable it became. She was convinced that only a true genius could solve it, and even then only after considerable effort.

"Substitute in u equals w over pi sin of x," he said.

"What?"

"Substitute in u equals w over pi sin of x. This is a normal distribution, and that will become obvious once you take that substitution."

Brit'ni stared at him blankly. It had taken him less than five seconds to find the solution. Five seconds. Five seconds to solve this thrice-blasted problem. "Seriously?"

"Yes," Tech said, his brows gathering together in confusion. "Are you having trouble hearing me? This question is a bit tricky, but quite solvable. From your outburst earlier I was worried it might take longer to help-"

Brit'ni stood up fast from her seat, her chair scraping noisiliy against the floor beneath her. "I'm going to get some air," she said, as if there was anywhere you could get fresh air on Coruscant.

"Brit'ni, did I do something wrong-?"

"No, you were very helpful."

"It was no problem at all, the question was elementary-"

"I'm getting some air!" Brit'ni reiterated with more force, slamming the door shut behind her as she stalked from Tech's room.

She ended up going for some jwa bing--a tasty fried dough snack sold by a vendor just outside Tech's apartment. She walked around his neighborhood, slowly consuming the greasy disc as she let herself cool off. The area was a little tough, but during the day she felt safe enough.

About a half hour later and Brit'ni was filled with regret--both at the heavy, greasy feeling settling in her stomach and at the childish way she'd reacted earlier. She knew Tech wasn't the most tactful with how he expressed himself--it was one of the things she liked about him. She'd need to be patient with him if she wanted him to be patient with her.

She walked back to the apartment and Tech buzzed her in without question. She entered the keycode to his room and was already composing an apology in her head when the door whooshed open to reveal a flustered Tech, his goggles resting haphazardly atop his head and a stack of flimsi--flimsi--in his hands.

"Brit'ni, I wanted to apologize-"

"You shouldn't have to apologize," Brit'ni said, almost angry with the contrite lilt to his voice. "I was being childish. You helped me, and I'm grateful."

"I appreciate that, but I still need to apologize. I spoke with Echo and he helped me understand that by answering your question so quickly and with no explanation, I may have implied a shortcoming in intelligence on your part. That I trivialized the difficulties you were having with the assignment by suggesting that it should have been easy."

He was right, of course. That was exactly how he'd made her feel. Most of the time Tech's staggering intellect didn't intimidate Brit'ni. She knew she was smart too--maybe in different areas, but smart all the same. And she knew that Tech's brilliant mind sometimes kept him from seeing the bigger picture. But every once in a while it hit her just how much better he was than her at certain things--a lot of things, if she was being honest. And sometimes it hurt.

Tech took a step towards her and held out the short stack of flimsi like a peace offering. Brit'ni took it and looked down to find neat lines of scribbled calculations filling the flimsi, Tech's consistently-chaotic handwriting unmistakable.

"I wrote out a detailed explanation of the integration--each step as well as the underlying theorem supporting them," he said, taking a step back as soon as she had the flimsi securely in her hands. "I also tried to build in an explanation of the kind of intuition that makes problems like these easier. When I said this problem was simple, it is because I have seen others like it before. The next time you see a problem like this you will see what to do next just s easily. It is only a matter of experience."

Her eyes scanned the first page of notes, and already the impossibly tangled problem she'd been slaving over for several hours seemed to slip loose. His notes were thorough, straightforward, and easy to understand. She could do this.

For some reason, hot tears filled her eyes. She clutched the papers to her chest, the stress of her coming exams and the frustration of the assignment hitting her all at once.

"Brit'ni?" Tech asked, his voice quiet. "Is this acceptable? I can offer an alternate apology-"

"It's perfect, Tech," she said, raising a hand to wipe the moisture from her eyes. "Thank you."

Relief flooded his expression and he stepped up to her, wrapping his arms around her in that oddly precise way of his. "I think you are very intelligent, and especially knowledgeable in your field," he said into her hair. "And I want to be able to help you when you need it."

"I want that, too," she said, her voice muffled by his chest. "Just... try not to be a condescending ass about it."

He chuckled, the sound resonating across each unit of surface area they shared. Then he coughed. "I'll, eh, do my best. I'm sure you will always let me know if that is the case?"

"Deal."

"Deal."