#“creepy” is kinda part of his aesthetic so OH WELL

[greedbent]

Kaz took this as a good excuse—apparently becoming more and more of a norm for him, when it involved Spring—to further prolong their walk together, for when he caught her hands going into her pockets out of the corner of his eye, producing what could only be these samples she’d mentioned, his strides became shorter. Slower. He tested something here, moving in close enough that his sleeve brushed her arm as they walked. It shouldn’t have made his breath catch, and yet, the fool, he sensed a dwindling grip on reality from that alone.

Distracted, again. She was a distraction. One he couldn’t claim was unwelcomed.

Because, while the easy explanation for stepping into her space would be to get a good and respectful look at her drawings, what it really did was give him a proximity to look at her. And Kaz noticed something new from this angle, from the dim lantern light that flashed across her face rhythmically as they walked along the street: something sparkled in her eyes, like a field of flowers dancing and weaving in the wind, their colors cascading, merging, flickering against a green canvas. He caught traces of goldenrod he hadn’t before seen, melting into a bronze hue as it neared her wide, expressive pupils. Kaz had never needed to wonder what it meant to be “lost in someone’s eyes.” Before, it had been sheer lack of interest—or maybe just convincing himself it was something he’d never have. Now, it was because he suddenly understood.

Just as suddenly, he had to bite the inside of his cheek to force himself out of a nonsensical stupor. He snatched back the reality that had slipped through his fingers, and as Spring fervently expressed a desire to pay him for his services, he expelled a breath indicative of a laugh. “If we do our job correctly, you won’t even know we’re there,” Kaz illustrated. “You want to throw away your kruge to some ghosts . . . ?” He arched a brow, impishly challenging, just as they rounded a corner and a new wash of color from a streetlamp offered a perfect opportunity—

“Over here.” Kaz used his free hand to usher her under the pool of light, fingers lingering—hovering mere threads away—at the small of her back. “Let me see what you’re showing him.” But he had to remove that hand for the purpose of taking her art, and he tucked his cane under one arm as he began flipping through the pieces. Unsurprisingly—she was nothing if not overly modest—they looked about as good as if she were studying at the college to become a painter. (He silently mused even Wylan would be impressed.) But he was no expert in the field, himself.

No, what he could glean from this was worth sharing to settle her nerves. —even more, he supposed.

Kaz didn’t say much while he examined them, poring over the notes as equally as he did the visuals. Then, after carefully folding them up and passing them back, he claimed, “Felix will like these.” He set his cane back on the pavement, continued their walk. “I’d suggest starting with the middle one. The more outlandishly extravagant, the better.” His own steps faltered for a moment, though, and as he angled his head back, Kaz added as an afterthought, “But all of them are well executed.”

"Oh!" The observation caught her by surprise, even though it shouldn't have. Of course he hadn't seen her paintings—Kaz had only ever been inside the shop, and there was hardly space to hang them among the displays and merchandise. "It is nothing much; I am far from a professional," she confessed. "It is simply something I like to do in my free time. But it is rather helpful for situations like this, when bringing sample arrangements would be especially cumbersome."

Naturally then, thinking of the artist's renditions she'd brought as an alternative made her realize their helpfulness in this situation, as well!

She withdrew those pocket-sized paintings and carefully unfolded the stack: three in total, each bearing a watercolor version of one of the arrangement designs. Writing littered each page, from labels beside the different types of flowers, to pricing estimates at the bottom for various sizes. "They are not quite the same—I usually do not write on them, of course, and it is different on paper than on canvas—but I do have these, if you would like to see."

But just as she was about to offer them, Spring's pace faltered moments after her companion's. Shock once again painted her face. And if a bit of that pink tinge still lingered? Well, there was nothing she could do about that. "Really? Are you sure?" It was her own fault for not considering this consequence; the last thing she wanted was for her problems to become Kaz's problems, too. He may have "been in the neighborhood" this time, but every time? She couldn't see any way for that not to become burdensome.

"It is very kind of you to offer, but you do not have to do that..." Then again, if this deal did go through, she'd likely have to hire bodyguards anyway; wouldn't it be better to give that money to someone she already trusted? "Though, I would certainly pay you for the trouble!"

Her fingers toyed with the edges of the papers she held, fluttering the stack around in a dismissive gesture. "A-and besides, this is all theoretical. I do not know if Felix will even like my designs. I have only spoken to the man once; I did my best to adhere to his specifications, of course, but I cannot claim to know his tastes."

[thethronezone]

Oh, don't mind me, I'm just imagining which monsters from Monster Hunter would serve as the best companions for each individual Primarch. Tried to avoid Elder Dragons but some were just too perfect.

Konrad would definitely have a Nerscylla because come on. Creepy giant spider that wears the skins of its victims as a cloak? That screams Night Lord to me!

Jaghatai definitely has a Kirin since he's all for speed and loves horses. You try and look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't be all for this lightning unicorn. Maybe a Valstrax.

Fulgrim gets a Mizutsune. They are very beautiful and he's all about the aesthetic. He'd probably name it some super pompous name and give it a diamond collar.

Corvus would have a Nargacuga. It's stealthy, got wings and is covered in black fur. It would also serve as his emotional support animal.

Lion would have a Barioth. Partially because, yes, it's a fucking cat, of course LION would have a cat monster. But I really do believe it would fit him.

Leman would have a Zinogre. Just like how Lion would have a cat monster, Leman would have a wolf one. That and it is very ferocious. He would ride that thing into battle.

Angron... well, I have to go with Odogaron. At first I considered a Deviljho but then I remembered that gladiator Angron artwork where he's got a dog beside him and... yeah.

Horus has a Nergigante because that thing hunts Elder Dragons and Mr. Horus "I almost killed the Emperor" Lupercal wouldn't settle for less.

Alpharius and Omegon shares a Nakarkos. It's a cephalopod that looks like it has two tentacles it pretends to be dragon heads, it is an actual fake hydra.

Ferrus is a bit hard (no pun intended) but ultimately I think a Bazelgeuse would fit him. I think he would be absolutely fascinated by its exploding scales.

Perturabo could probably have a Diablos. I can mainly see him with one because they dig underground lairs and I could see him use one during a siege.

Sanguinius' monster would be a Legiana. It is very beautiful, can fly and I dunno, I just think it fits his vibes. Not to mention I see some potential with different patterns on its wings.

Rogal would have a Gravios. It has tough stone like armor which makes me kinda associate it with Dorn's fortresses. I can see it sleeping on the fort walls.

Roboute gets the Arkveld. It is considered to be part of an extinct species and... well, there aren't a lot of Primarchs around anymore. He'd probably feel a kinship to it.

Magnus has a Malfestio. Because he's a wizard. And that's a big fucking owl. I'm so sorry, I can't get it out of my head. It also looks very magical.

Vulkan gets a mf Zorah Magdaros. Is it unfair to everyone else? Yes. Do I care? No. That's his baby! His giganitic, magma covered, living mountain baby. He would have a forge near one of its cores.

Lorgar has a Rahian. A golden one, to be precise. Because this bitch loves the Emperor (at least before the Heresy and falling to Chaos) and we all know Big E loves gold.

[ghostlspirit]

|| male!Yandere x gender neutral!reader ||

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tw: yander tendencies (but still pretty tame, this is basically how it all started), awkward moments, embarrassment, low-key stalking (?)

Note: My first ever Story/writing!! hope it's not too long! This is the story on how you met Fabian! You can consider this part 1 and maybe there will be multiple more, depending on how this will work out! Hope you're ready for him ;) Oh, and English is not my first language, so sorry for any spelling mistake or errors! Hope you enjoy ~

Masterlist

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You met him on the train.

Well...not really "met". You see him there nearly every day while going to work. You both were just strangers taking the train, like everyone else. At first, you didn't even notice him, as it was still pretty early in the morning and you just wanted to listen to your music.

You don't really know when it all started. Looking back at it, it all seems so silly...Was it that one day when you randomly just noticed his sloutched form, barely keeping himself awake in his seat, and you thought "hell yeah, same bro."? Was it that one day when he took the last seat available and you cursed him in your mind? Was it that one day when you awkwardly made too much eye contact with him, because you were still salty for the other day?

Or maybe it was the day when you both sat across from eachother, knees barely touching eachother as you try to keep to yourself in your comfort zone. You notice he does it too, trying to make space so his legs doesn't bump into the stranger sitting across from him. "This dude has way too long legs...". Or maybe it was the day you notice his hair, somehow always styled and nearly sitting on his head. "I wonder what shampoo he uses...I want fluffy hair like that..."

Nonetheless, you notice him more. It's not in a creepy way, you say. You're not attracted to him or anything, you just go to the god-awful place you call work and notice him on your way. It's not like you always notice him, just sometimes when you both take the train. Sometimes he's there, sometimes he isn't. He's still a just some stranger after all.

You bet you're not the only one that does this - I mean, it must be pretty common to compliment somones style in your mind, right? When a stranger has a cool backpack, or an aesthetic outfit, or a really cool hair colour - You just appreciate somones style quietly. Nothing wierd about that. It's not like you judge them - they can wear whatever they want - not your problem.

Maybe you're just too shy, too anxious to say anything or strike a conversation. The mere though of complimenting some stranger you never met out loud is making you cringe in embarrassment. You'd rather down a whole soap bottle than embarrass yourself.

So imagine you, and "Train Guy" (you started calling him like that in your mind), sitting across eachother one morning, and he got that one jacked you always wanted. It looks so new and it fits him perfectly. "He could become a model..." you thought, as you feel a little bit jealous that you don't have the money to spoil yourself like that.

Your glances were noticed by him, to your horror. Well, you were pretty obvious, admiring the jacket and looking at it like some gourmand steaky. He thought you were wierd, he felt a little self conscious under your gaze, honestly. He guessed you know the brand and how expensive it is. Still, he felt your staring is a little rude.

As you met eyes, you both kinda...stare? You have a suprised look, brain probably short circuited because it's still too early and you were just cought red handed. He on the other hand has a kind of glare, also too tired to deal with social interaction, trying to read you with his gaze so you stop staring. Yet you both just have a small... staring contest? You both don't blink. You're freaking out on the inside. "What is this situation??? oh god ohgodohgod- this is so embarrassing-" You look away but still feel his gaze on you. You take out your phone to distract yourself but as you glance back up, you see him still staring. "OHGODOHGOD-"

He notices your flustered state, your red face and how you fiddle with your phone. "ah shit" He thought. "Now i was being rude...god damnit" He let's out a yawn as he finally spares you and starts to be on his phone too. "sorry about that" he apologiesing to you in his mind, hoping he didn't look too intimidating. "they were just looking...oops" he thought to himself, he probably traumatized you.

After a minute, you both accidentally look up and made eye contact again, and simultaneously looked away instantly. You both cursed in your minds as you feel embarrassed with yourselfes. This interaction will haunt you for the rest of the week.

You don't even know if you're ready to face him the next morning, the incident still fresh in your mind. You thought, maybe you should skip the train and take the next, but your boss will probably gut you alive if you arrive late one more time. Sighing, you try to grow a backbone and forget the incident. Surely he doesn't remember?? I mean, you just made eye contact, right?? Just a staring contest that lasted nearly a minute with a stranger on the train, nothing too strange, right??? hahahaha....

Wrong.

"Oh, it's that wierdo again", Fabian notices you. You probably haven't seen him yet, maybe you don't even remember him? "Ah, we're talking the same train...? Have they always been there?" He thought.

You check your phone and change the playlist, something to calm your nerves, while looking up to see the sun barely rising. You absentmindedly glance around the other people waiting on the station, hoping, praying, he's not there.

God must hate you in this life.

You met eyes again, and by dear god you needed a goddamn break. "HE'S HEREEEEEE OH GOOOODDDDD, NOOOOOOOO". It took everything in you to not bolt and jump into the fastest driving car available in that moment. "HE DEFINITELY REMEMBERS AAAAAAA" Your social anxiety screams.

Based on your reaction, Fabian guess you do remember, and you do recognise him. He just hopes you don't start to stare at him again, he'd hate for that to become a habit. Yet you didn't. You did the opposite.

He guesses you're the type of person that holds a grudge, or something like that, as the next few weeks it seems like you go out of your way to avoid him.

Yeah, he did start to notice you every time, and yeah, he did start calling you "wierdo" in his mind. (just like you call him "Train guy") He did kind of judge you, you could say. The way he sometimes stares is as if he's trying to read you. You kind of cougt his interested...

especially after you gave up your seat so two little kids could sit with their mom and play with their stuffed dinosaurs. The mother apologized and wanted to make one kid sit on her lap so you could sit down again, yet you reassured her it was fine, even though Fabian notet you looked pretty exhausted. He nearly wanted to offer his seat, instantly scrapping that idea in his mind.

Another time would be where you absentmindedly trapped your leg to the rythym of the song you were listening to. You were looking at your phone and smiling a little bit, probably looking at something that you enjoy. "You're probably in a good mood, huh?" Fabian noticed that day how your hair was a little messy...and there were bags under your eyes.

There was also times you would meet eyes and you would instantly look away. Did he impact you that much?

It got more bearable after some time, you stopped being petty and anxious. After weeks, you kind of moved on from the incident, trying to just forget about it. You still cringe at the memory, but because of the current workload your boss put on you, you have other things to worry about than the Train Guy. For example: your sleep schedule.

The stress got to you, and after a whole all-nighter, you felt like passing out. You only got about one hour of sleep, involuntarily, as your body gave in. Because of that you were about to miss your train. You sprintet to the station as fast as your body allowed, without throwing up your last meal you had from yesterday. Your heart was racing, your legs hurt and you feel a headache incoming.

Right before you, you see the train, it was right there. But you were too late, as the doors start to close. With the last willpower and strength you could muster in you, mostly driven by fear from the wrath of your boss, you try to still catch it, stop the doors from completely closing so you could still hop on.

You didn't made it, but Fabian did, as he held his arm to the doors so the sensor activates and opens up again. The train was stuffed, but you didn't care as you hopped on, taking a much needed breath, and giving the strange that helped you a quick "thank you". It was stuffy and you could barely freely move, having a backpack right in your face to your right. You move yourself to the left, facing the stranger that helped you, as the doors close.

After a few more breaths, you lean yourself onto the door for stability, trying to not pass out as the headache finally kicks in. You kept your gaze down and stare at the ground. "Wait a minute..."

You recognise those expensive shoes!

You look up slowly, dreading the face of the stranger in front of you. But alas, it's him. Train Guy. In all his glory as he too, looked up and made eye contact with you. You actually never were this close to him. You notice a beauty mark and "Blue eyes..."

"What?"

...

Oh.

You said that out loud, didn't you?

Your brain must be as slow as a snail this morning as you still stare at him wide eyes. He thinks you must be crazy or something. Why must you be so cursed? This is the worst morning in your life.

"N-Nothing!" you choke out after a few moments. You look like a mess. And feel like one too. What's even worse is that you got nowhere to hide. "sorry..." is all you could muster.

After your apology he takes in your appearance. He gives you a whole one over before contemplating his choices. You look terrible, to put it midly. You definitely saw better days. He noticed this week, day after day, you seem to be more stressed, more messy. Its not his business though, never was and never will be. So why....

"Are you...okay?"

So why did he ask?

You look up again, even more suprised than before. In Fabian's eyes, you look like a fish right now. Your brain is turning it's gears as you blink multiple times at him. "Is he.. striking conversation?? Seriously?"

"Uh...uhm- Huh?"

"Are you okay?"

He repeats himself, fully doubeling down. He's committed to this, huh?

"Uh...yeah...?" You gulp, wanting this to end, desperately. You're definitely not prepared for this right now.

"Are you sure?"

"God, please spare me!" your mind screams. Why does he care? Do you really look that terrible?? You could cry to be honest.

"...Yeah...? Uh- just...just stressed, I guess? uhm..."

He narrows his gaze as he takes your whole appearance in again. You look down yourself, hoping you didn't accidentally go out in your underwear. Nope, just the same outfit as yesterday.

The train stops at another stop and you go out the door, making space and waiting outside so people can leave. As the last person exists, people start going in the train again. It's a little less crowded, but you still end up in front of Train Guy. Fate really hates you. Atleast you got more space?

There's a silence between you two. You're not really sure if he's gonna say anything again or if you should say something. Is the conversation over? What even was that? After a few moments, you take a breath and collected you last pice of sanity. "If he can play this game, so can I"

"...What about you...?"

"Huh?"

"How...Uhm-How are you? Are you okay?"

Now he's the one flabbergasted, looking at you wide eyed. In your eyes, he looks like a fish right now. Fabian honestly didn't expect you to ask that. He's stunned for a moment, furrowing his brows. "...You care? While looking like...this?"

"Uh- yeah, I guess. Just a little tired."

He gave you a small, confused, and awkward smile. You notice his beauty mark again. You gave him a small, exhausted smile in return, trying to strike the final blow to the painful conversation.

"Glad to hear... And uh, thank you again, for keeping the doors open. And for... asking."

You could say you gave up at this point, giving him a genuine smile while thanking him. Your shoulder relax, as you headache slowly leaves. Only your legs are hurting now, besides maybe your pride.

Fabian feels his worlds move a little slower while looking at you smile. His breath catches in his throat, as he notices how the morning sun wraps around your messy clothes, hair and face, giving you a slight glow, and making you look less terrible than before. "Wow...that smile suits you"

"Y-You're... welcome..."

He can't help but smile too, feeling proud of himself. He hopes he made your day a little bit better. After a nod, you start too look out the window in the door, finally letting yourself rest. Fabian kind of doesn't want to look away, yet he forces himself, as he looks out too, trying to find something to distract him from the strange feelings growing in his stomach.

"Maybe you aren't such a wierdo after all..." he thinks, stealing another glance at you.

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Part 1 done! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Trust me, this is only the beginning. If you want more, feel free to say so! I would love to make more if people enjoyed this! Have a nice day now!

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[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals - Be Prepared

Voiceplay's full-length cover of Be Prepared was released on the 28th of September (or the 27th depending on your timezone, same deal as always), and in fact it's still the 28th for me as I type this! Yes, I'm getting this ready at least a couple of days in advance of when I plan to post it, 1 because I've waited long enough already, and 2 because VoicePlay's next release (their Halloween video) is meant to drop on Patreon before the end of September and I wanna get this done before it happens!

Anyway, this features Mykal Kilgore, who's an OG member, not technically of VoicePlay, but of "4 The Love", which consisted of Mykal, Geoff, Layne, and Earl, back when they were about 17 I believe? Then at some point they added Scott Porter as a beatbooxer and became 4:2:Five. Mykal appeared a little bit in Just Sing, but otherwise this is the first time he's properly reunited with Geoff and Layne and gotten to meet Eli and Cesar! He was definitely a great contribution to this video.

There's a lot to unpack visually in this video, and again, I've been dying to make this post, so let's! get! into this!!!

Honestly I can't even think of much to say about the overall set design right now other than yoooooo look how cool this is!!

They absolutely nailed the vibe/aesthetic of the original scene, while still keeping the set "simple" enough for plenty of movement and use of space!

Layne was in charge of the arrangement, creative direction, and video editing for this video, shocker to no one (a Disney song cover that places Geoff front and centre? Gotta be Layne's doing 😂 (and we love him for it!))

Oh yeah also I'm pretty sure the aspect ratio is a bit "narrower" than it often is for most VP videos? (Like the screen is more noticeably wider than it is tall.)

There he is!!! (It was at this point on my first watch-through that I had to take a moment to steel myself because I was like "nope nope nope hang on wait I don't think I'm actually prepared for this" 😅

As to be expected, Eli is credited with lighting, but he also helped out with the fog machine things shown here in this image (the one on the left is more visible here). VoicePlay hadn't worked with these things before, but they worked amazingly, and it's another thing to give the video similarities to the original movie scene. However, these things were actually Quite Loud

Not the clearest image but look at Layne and Cesar being all sneaky/creepy here! (Layne does a little skip-step thing in this shot here that's brief but kinda reminds me just a touch of his little run in This Is Halloween)

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Rick Underwood the man that you are, please, let me shake your hand, I love you (whether I'll still love him after the Halloween video remains to be determined, but anyway)

I mean honestly this is a Whole Look and I adore every part of it. The "facial scruff", the eyeliner, the freaking awesome jacket, the hair... I'm gonna stop myself from rambling too much too early ^^;

"I know that your powers of retention... are as wet as a warthog's backside."

A couple of things here:

1, You would probably expect Layne to just be another hyena (after all, there's many more than just Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed in the original scene), but it's possible that he might have intended to be a warthog, given this moment here (and also at the end of the BTS there's a clip of Layne messing around with one of the smoke/fog machines in a very Pumbaa-esque manner, lol).

And 2, credit to @ambular-d who first noticed this and pointed it out in the Discord server: Layne dips his shoulder here, "like Geoff's casual disdainful little swipe has some strength behind it." (directly quoting them here)

Okay now let's pay attention (ayyy) to our "main hyena trio" for a moment

There is no real style coordination here and yet somehow it works (well they're all in black/dark grey so they've got that in common). But like Cesar's got a grey leopard-print jumper/sweater (kinda cute ngl), Mykal's got a black fluffy (fringed?) shirt/sweater thing, and Eli's got a black leather jacket on (he looks very cool in it though - definitely suits him)

Mykal's the only one of the total five who isn't wearing some sort of necklace, but I guess he makes up for it with the bones hanging from the top of his head (and for all I know that actually might be a necklace that he just wrapped around the base of his hairbun)

ALSO I just went to go check my post for Friends On The Other Side because I was wondering if Cesar's necklace here was one of the ones worn by Geoff or Layne in that video, and I don't think it is (too short), but I'm 90% certain that Eli's necklace here is one of the same ones that Geoff was wearing!

Dramatic lighting flash! Low-key similar to Hoist The Colours (another video featuring scruff, guyliner, and heavily colour-tinted lighting), and also Geoff's recent Song Of Durin video!

(Also man I'm gonna hit image limit aren't I, lol rip)

"It's clear from your vacant expressions, the lights are not all on upstairs"

It's a blurry image, but I couldn't help but be tempted to do a Screenshot Comparison for this moment (plus another one a bit later in the song) because Layne absolutely understood the assignment and I was quite pleased that this bit got recreated!

(Also yes, Cesar is Ed, lol)

This moment in the video with Geoff and Cesar (including the second half of the line) got turned into a meme gif on the Patrons Discord server to represent VoicePlay and the audio distributors that they've been having issues with 😂

"And where do we feature?" "Just listen to teacher"

I don't remember it looking like that in the original scene! 😝 (but seriously, I love how Geoff and Cesar can't help but be cute together here - you should see their dynamic in some of the BTS videos, it's the best)

Pfft, this moment also got memed in the Discord server XD ("ask me to sing a G-1 one more time!" (credit again to @ambular-d) or alternatively "I said there are ants in the coffee again!" (that one's a reference to one of the BTS videos))

I'm honestly a little jealous of how cool Geoff looks while doing the sort of lifting motion he does in this moment here

Oh yeah that's definitely one of the Friends On The Other Side necklaces that Eli's got on

Also it took me an embarassingly-large amount of watches to realize that Cesar had painted nails for this one (in my defence, I was very distracted 😂)

Sure go ahead Eli, have your moment, stare into my soul, go on (affectionate)

"Of course quid pro quo you're expected, to take Certain Duties on board"

Again, not a great screenshot, but again, another moment recreated (at least in a general sense) from the original scene!

This is also a good place to point out how the lighting has changed from green to yellow, just as it does in the original scene, and it changed at the same spot as well (right on or just before the "it's great that we'll soon be connected..." line)

Oh rip it is tough to get good screencaps for this one (probably at least partially due to all the fog)

Anyway I wanted to point out that Layne's a little over an inch taller than Geoff (possibly two inches if you count the hair, lol), but in this one he mostly stays at least a little hunched, at least when Geoff's next to him, making Geoff look equal height if not taller (and from a storytelling perspective, it's great!)

"YOU WON'T GET A SNIFF WITHOUT ME!"

A quick shift to red colouring, again just as the movie scene (and also now the video looks crystal clear as well!)

(Also goddamn Geoff is really working the crazy evil villain look... like man 👀)

Mykal and Eli vibing, I love it

Cesar, Mykal, and Eli's reaction to the growl/roar 😂

Cesar is shook! Literally! XD

Nothing much to say here, just that Geoff looks amazing and is amazing

(Also shoutout to his white-grey hair, which was looking wonderfully-prominent in this video and I adore it)

(woof) HELLO THERE GOOD SIR 😳👉👈

This is a rare case of me not having a "he's so pretty" moment with Geoff in a video, but that's because for this one, it's more a case of "he's so hot" 👀

*insert evil laughter here*

And that's Be Prepared! Man, what a video!

Next on the list is of course VoicePlay's Halloween release for 2024, whatever that turns out to be. I'm both excited and nervous (or scared, even), but hey, I have no doubt it will give me plenty to talk about! Until next time!

[atypical-artisan]

Can I ask you for Aran Ryan x Glass Joe hc's? (Aslo thanks again for those Hondo x Sandman earlier)

Oh my god ily (platonic) so much for asking this!!!! (Also ur welcome :P)

Anyways, on to the hcs!!

How it happens:

Okay so first thing's first, Joe is terrified of Aran before they get to know each other. Granted, he's scared of the whole world circuit cause he doesn't know them but Aran is defo the scariest because of the violent cheating.

When Joe finally bridges the gap between the minor, major, and world circuits, he's still hesitant to talk to Aran cause, again, violent cheating plus bursting with energy… but there's something about him, something Joe can't quite put his finger on, that's just fascinating about Aran. Aran ends up approaching first and they get on really well.

So they get to talking and find out not only do they have a lot of interests in common (Love for horror media, generally alt/gothic/darker music, love of edgy aesthetics, interested in creative hobbies, etc.) but they also share many similar life circumstances (Both having been denied high school, having to work very young, poverty, disability, being trans, etc.) and end up bonding.

Aran already had a bit of a crush on Joe, but it only deepens with the new friendship. Joe on the other hand has Aran slowly wrap around his heart and he's drowned in love before he even realizes.

The confession always ends up being kind of chaotic and dramatic but overall very sweet and perfect for both of them :)

When everyone else finds out holy shit there is chaos. Kaiser's upset cause he had a crush on Joe and now is pretty bitter towards Aran (They all talk it out its fine). Sand also had a crush on Joe but lets his feelings go and is supportive along with the rest of the world circuit. Hippo, disco, and bear are hesitant about it but Hondo ends up making them chill. Don tries to get in on dating them and is rejected. And tiger is busy comforting kaiser but he's honestly kinda happy for both of them cause kaiser is now free.

The relationship goes pretty smoothly from there with little to no major hiccups and both influencing each other to be better though not entirely different people.

Other random hcs:

Pet names all the time

Aran has a habit of staring at people he likes very intensely and creepily. It's like that one scene in the shining.

Any normal person would not like this. Joe is not a normal person and enjoys it a lot, feeling like he's being showered with praise and affection whenever he feels Aran's creepy stare on him.

Aran also has a thing where he draws whoever he's dating all the time- its especially intense with Joe as he has at least a couple sketchbooks entirely dedicated to him.

They ended up accidentally learning each other's languages- Joe mostly from Aran talking to the dog and writing in Irish and Aran from Joe's fancy french films and books

They wake up close to the same time- early in the morning, though Aran wakes up closer to sunrise.

Aran picks Joe up and carries him around all the time- both love it.

Love getting into wild shit together and going for drinks. Going to shows or scenic moped rides/walks is another good contender for their dates.

Aran and Joe are both big dancers and musicians, so dancing and singing together is a favorite pastime at their apartment

These two RUSH to move in together- it leads to a lot of chaos with their pets but things cool off quickly

They often do house chores and cook together

Joe doesn't care about Aran's cheating for the most part, that's Aran's choice to do- he's in love with the man outside the ring after all, but he does tell Aran to never do the horseshoes and flail thing again

Both have a lot of self worth issues- Aran believes he can't be loved romantically no matter what he does so he chooses to embrace his ugly side to push people away while Joe believes that he must hide himself to even be fit for society and serve everyone to no end

In turn, Joe likes being spoiled and doted on (From being forced to serve past partners to get affection) and Aran enjoys being able to serve and unambiguously show his affection (From being denied the ability to show past partners he loved them and told he should be grateful when he was)

They do a lot of work on each other. Joe helps Aran feel safer around people/being loved as himself and not cheat as much while Aran helps Joe become more willing to embrace his weirdness and stand up for his own well being, especially to people he cares about. Joe also helps Aran get help for all his mental issues and helps him feel safe going to a damn therapist.

Aran is super supportive of Joe's love for dark/macabre things and eventually convinces him to embrace being goth. From then on its all punk/goth solidarity

Joe constantly steals Aran's clothes and Aran tends to wear Joe's pants (Even if they're a little short on him)

They also take care of each other after matches a lot

Joe keeps track of things like appointments but Aran does all the math and date-keeping in the relationship

Cuddling is a must for both of them

Joe really likes when Aran grows his hair out, he love rubbing up against his beard like a cat, especially cause he can't grow much facial hair of his own

Aran has been trying to convince him to get a shared tattoo, to no success (So far)

They have a habit of making each other clothes- Joe repairs and embroiders things for Aran and Aran knits for Joe

They've babysat Joe's niece and nephew a few times and Aran's younger sibling and are DEFINITELY both thinking about kids

[chronicbeans]

Idk about you, but personally I like Wally because of his hair. I mean come on! He's clearly put a lot of effort into his appearance and I respect that.(But it was mainly because of fan fiction and fan art I'll be honest...and probably because he's kinda mysterious at the minute)

But in response to the writing for the whole thing, I respect the heck out of that! I love how welcomed I feel here and I honestly hope the best for you in regards to being able to having your writing recognized more, you definitely deserve it :)

Thank you so much for the compliment! I try my best to make people feel comfortable and accepted here! Oh, yeah, it is true that he is mysterious rn! If I had to make an educated guess as to why I like him so much, it is because he seems to either be evi/antagonist or in danger. At least, that's what the fandom seems to believe. I won't get into speculation though, for Clown's sake. I just tend to love characters that are horrible, sympathetic, go through absolute torment, and/or fit a certain aesthetic!

Putting a read more because I think I started ranting about the types of characters I love. Also, SPOILERS FOR A COUPLE OF GAMES/SHOWS I AM SORRY AHH-

Wally is just so out of left field in comparison to a lot of the other characters. Like... imagine going from uh... I think it was either Victor Frankenstein or Dr. Takuto Maruki, to a small little muppet man. (OH WAIT NO I JUST CHECKED. I actually went from Sunny's dad from Omori. I just lived my Smol bean interpretation of him. Everyone thinks he's evil or cruel but I don't really believe it, personally).

I also tend to love the characters that are not well liked (Like Sunny's dad omfg I love him-). An example is Dr. Daniel Dickens from Angels of Death. Everybody thinks he's really weird and creepy, which he is, but I find his character to be extremely intriguing and, as such, loveable! Same with Reverend Gray from Angels of Death. They both fit the villain/antagonist role, as well as fitting a certain aesthetic (mad doctor/scientist and evil priest).

Takuto Maruki fits the more sympathetic part, but he is also considered an antagonist. I wouldn't consider him evil, due to his plans being to try to make the world a place of eternal happiness in response to his own grief (kinda like "if I can't be happy, I'll make sure everybody else is"). I also don't believe I love him the exact same way everybody else does. Like, you either love him or hate him, but I haven't seen many people be like "I have a HUGE CRUSH on this man" besides the characters in the game.

Maison Talo, the character I mentioned in my post, is also kind of (not that much) in the same boat as Maruki, but in a more disturbing way. He isn't trying to help the world, he is just trying to survive, and it seems like he might've been on the brink of dying when you got there from the way I interpret some of his dialogue. He's GOTTA eat people, and depending on your choices/ending he seems to feel genuinely bad for having to eat you. So, at least for me, I can't help but feel a little bad. Kind of like when you see a lot of people calling a vampire or something a monster for trying to drink blood, but then you think to yourself "wait... Don't they HAVE to drink blood? They kind of have no choice."

OMG AND I ALSO LOVE THE OBSESSIVE CHARACTERS! I have never really been into romance, but I LOVE yanderes. I don't condone their actions, of course, and needless to say I would PROBABLY be horrified if I ever met one in real life. It is more like... the psychology of what would make a character a yandere that I like. Then, I can't help but get just as obsessed with them as much as they are with their love! I even kind of try to imagine what would make the other, non-yandere characters I love become a yandere, or if it might just be impossible.

The last kind I can think of right now are characters I relate to. I have a crush on Lewis Finch, from What Remains of Edith Finch, because I can relate in a small way to getting dragged into your daydreams. I have seen others interpret him as hallucinating, but I got more of a daydream vibe from him. It was the first time I saw a character that I can relate to in that aspect, so I really liked him! Then, like turned to a crush, overtime, as I investigated his room more in an attempt to figure out more about his personality.

I am so sorry this is so long! I just like to explain why I love certain character types! I kind of have a passion for it, maybe because I love writing characters, myself. It was a lot of fun to write this, too! YIPPEE!

If anybody got this far and want to talk about the types of characters they tend to like I will be more than happy to read the comments. I am very passionate about this sorta thing (ofc, not in a "YOU HAVE TO AGREE WITH ME ON THIS" but more of a "I love to talk about this" sorta way)!

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Midoriya's Harem and Adult Supervision

Welcome to: Midoriya’s Harem and Adult Supervision

Midoriya Izuku: WHY DID YOU NAME IT THIS?

Ashido Mina: AM I WRONG?

Midoriya Izuku: Mic is laughing at me right now as is Aizawa and Eri!

Sero Hanta: Eri knows about harems?

Midoriya Izuku:...

Midoriya Izuku: Given Eri chatted earlier and will spill around the school probably: Eri can kinda see/feel/remember stuff that hasn’t happened yet. She’s already talked about several time lines. 

Kaminari Denki: Oh cool.

Midoriya Izuku: ID, my work studies hero, says it’ll either be permanent or temporary. 

Ashido Mina: Will you help us figure out who good work study heroes would be? Pleeeeease?

Togata Mirio: Hey, firsties! Coming from us: don’t pick Uwabami unless you want to have media training.

Yaoyorozu Momo: Oh? Why not?

Togata Mirio: Oh, well- Neijire picked her the first year and got drafted into doing commercials. She asked why and it turns out Uwabami picks girls who either a) need a confidence boost or b) said red flags during media training class that need to be talked about.

Yaoyorozu Momo: Oh, well I was nominated and we received notes. Apparently, she thinks I could use a confidence boost… 

Togata Mirio: yeah don’t. She has her heart in the right place but she kinda hamfists it a bit you know? 

Ashido Mina: I got nominated to… and yeah it says ‘comments during media training were noted’. Oops.

Togata Mirio: yeah. She has a point, but she really needs to tell her interns it. She likes to play long games. 

Sero Hanta: You mean logical ruses.

Amajiki Tamaki: Yaoyorozu, I know Fatgum mentioned to me he was offering you an internship. I suggest you take it.

Yaoyorozu Momo: Hmm, he would help me out greatly. I will take his offer then! Thank you senpai.

Midoriya Izuku: Togata, how are you?

Togata Mirio: Dealing. That’s all I’ll say.

Midoriya Izuku: Okay.

…

Togata Mirio: So, after that awkward pause: random question to start us off: what is everyone’s sexuality?

Asui Tsuyu: I assume we’re all into men given the future. But you’re right: who is fully straight or even gay among us?

Kaminari Denki: You guys are right. Though why didn’t we do it in our old class chat?

Jirou Kyoka: Mineta

Kaminari Denki: Huh? He’s bisexual to?

Jirou Kyoka: why didn’t he creep on you guys then?!?

Kaminari Denki: that I don’t know. Maybe he prefers women. I know he likes guys cause we talked about it once. He’s just not AS fond you know?

Sero Hanta: I suddenly want to shower. I mean all of us like guys but like he was creepy.

Kaminari Denki: True. So is everyone else up for sharing?

Yaoyorozu Momo: I suppose. We might as well to inform each other and because I am curious. How common is it for everyone in a single class of 20 to be part of the LGBTQ? Assuming Bakugou is I mean.

Iida Tenya: I believe as well clarifying if we are poly may help as I overheard Sero and Ashido speaking of it and the future. Not to pressure anyone however.

Midoriya Izuku: Well I’m bisexual. I supposed I’m poly of sorts? I wouldn’t seek it out on purpose but I’m open to it? I’d prefer everyone in a relationship though. My mom has a horror story about some friends of her who did a V style poly that ended badly. 

Kaminari Denki: Ditto! Bi disaster and open to it but eh about trying to have it happen.

Sero Hanta: Pansexual and very poly. Open to monogamy though. 

Kaminari Denki: what’s the difference with bi and pan anyway?

Sero Hanta: I like the flag more.

Kaminari Denki: ha, nice.

Ashido Mina: Bisexual and poly! Or at least open to it! Thought like Midoriya I’d want to be in a relationship with everyone involved.

Sato Rikkido: Gay, and monogamous. 

Ashido Mina: Valid!

Togata Mirio: Bisexual and poly! 

Amajiki Tamaki: Gay and monogamous…

Tokoyami Fumikage: I am demisexual. Desires of the flesh take long to form though I do find people attractive aesthetically which draws my soul in.  The female and male body does this, while due to my curse of companionship I am poly.

Uraraka Ochako: I think most of us are poly or open to it. I am. I am also bisexual!

Asui Tsuyu: I am bisexual as well. However I am Monogamous. I have thought on it and do not like the idea of more then one partner.

Kirishima Eijiro: SO MANLY EVERYONE! I’m bisexual and monogamous to! My dads tried to be poly a while back and the train wreck sadly just solidified my thoughts on me not wanting that. It can work out! I have some aunts who did it! But I prefer to not risk it!

Jirou Kyoka: Oddly enough: I’m a woman leaning bisexual who is poly. 

Ashido Mina: Wait, really?

Jiro Kyoka: Yeah. I thought about it for a while but frankly guys rarely turn my head. It’s Midoriya and Aoyama in our class so far.

Aoyama Yuuga: Ah! My friend, I am bisexual and poly as well~ though I am the opposite and prefer men.

Ashido Mina: and your thoughts on Jirou hmmmm?!

Aoyama Yuuga: Ah, I like twunks and emos or goths so I am quite pleased. 

Midnight: Ohho! What’s this I have been added to?

Jirou Kyoka: Midnight is the adult supervision?

Midnight: well I am the sex and gender specialist at school and am very well versed in Queer relationships. Plus I am firm about consent in personal lives! So it makes sense. For those interested in my own life: I’ve been openly bisexual for years ❤️ continue on~

Iida Tenya: I am bisexual and open to poly as well

Jirou Kyoka: we’re just ignoring that?

Iida Tenya: Yes

Yaoyorozu Momo: Understandable. I am demisexual like Tokoyami, and not to sure about the poly question. 

Shouji Mezou: I’m gay and open to poly.

Kouda Kouji: Umm… I’m kinda just into people? Labels are weird. And monogamous. I don’t really wanna date so many people 😖

Ashido Mina: VALID.

Sero Hanta: yeah! Don’t worry dude.

Todoroki Shouto: I believe I am like Aoyama. I have been attracted to women and men but prefer the male form. As for multiple relationships I am unsure. Perhaps I am into it. I do not know.

Ashido Mina: your dad sucks. I mean I assume its why.

Kouda Koji: not everyone really knows though.

Todoroki Shouto: actually Endevaour might be a bastard but he’s very supportive of that stuff. I think he threatened my grandparents when they pushed my sister to marry a man despite her being a lesbian.

Ashido Mina: (meme of the Worst Person You Know has a Good Point)

Todoroki Shouto: what’s that?

Yaoyorozu Momo: Todoroki I’ve known you since we were children: don’t. 

Todoroki Shouto: But I get so much mileage…

Kaminari Denki: … ARE YOU TELLIBG ME THIS HUY KNOWS MEMES AND JUST FUCKSNWITH US?!?

Yaoyorozu Momo: Yes he does.

Todoroki Shouto: It’s fun.

Shinsou Hitoshi: huh, sounds like the hero course is really just full of assholes but funny ones.

Shinsou Hitoshi: Pansexual and poly btw. For me pan means I really just do not see gender. 

Hagakure Toru: guess I’m the token straight here! Only into men, and also I’m monogamous. Kinda boring I know.

Ashido Mina: What are you talking about?!? That’s not boring girl!!! 

Hagakure Toru: ♥️♥️♥️

Ojiro Mashiro: I won’t lie: I'm currently thinking about it. I thought I was straight until the sports festival. Gotta think about that now.

Ashido Mina: Midoriya is so cute he transcends sexualities!!! 

Monoma Neito: Obviously Midoriya is superior then you all. For those wondering I am gay and polyamorus though I doubt any of you can draw me in.

Ashido Mina: you literally were with Shinsou in one future but go off I guess.

Hatsume Mei: Sapiosexual and open to All!

Ashido Mina: Sapiosexual?

Yaoyorozu Momo: attracted to intelligence 

Hatsume Mei: Yep! If you aren’t smart I don’t care about you. Gotta have someone to help make my babies after all!!

Hatsume Mei: Midoriya! We need to get together to work in the support labs!! I want those baby making books!

Midoriya Izuku: How about after work studies? 

Hatsume Mei: Fiiiiiine. 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

-The Uwabami bit is kinda also from my ‘Izuku has multi soulmates’ story. I wrote it purely due to annoyance at a hundred Endeavour redemption fics, but like only one time having something nice for her. So here: she purposely goes after those who either need some confidence or need a lesson. She hides it to try and see reactions/if they figure it out. 

-... did this chapter do anything? Yes and no- it made it clear who’d potentially be in poly relationships… and also was just fun. If you guys want to see more of the future pairings, check bits and bobs.

-Ojiro would term himself ‘Queer’ in general. He considers himself straight mostly but he’s got a few exceptions such as Izuku and even Kaminari (though he doesn’t know that)

-Hagakure being straight was only cause I wanted one straight person and I have ideas for the others. I nearly made Tsu straight to but she gives off bisexual vibes so… yeah

[ikeromantic]

hiii don’t know if requests are still open but if they are can we get some Jonah during his route with an s/o (she or they pronouns are fine) who’s goth with a kinda creepy cute aesthetic and is very like, takes no bs from him? lmao like she’s not afraid to be defiant and argue and has a very “okay then fight me about it, scrub” attitude.

This was a cute idea! I picked the first date Jonah and Alice go on in Chapter 3 of the route. Approx. 2100 words.

Jonah ignored the queasy uncertainty that churned in his chest. This was not his first date, not the first woman that would surely swoon at his attention. Even if Alice was nothing like the women he’d gone out with before. She had none of the graces of a Cradle-born noble, and she had a certain defiance in her that was . . . surprising. But he was sure he could overcome it. Of course he could. He was, after all, the Queen of Hearts.

He met her in the Central Quarter at the square. He studied her for a moment. The arrogant tilt of her head, the tension in her jaw. She looked angry. The expression was oddly beautiful on her, with her cotton-candy colored lips and dramatic eyelashes. At least today she was wearing something other than the black lace she’d arrived in. 

The top was brightly colored, with cute little bears at the hem. Well, he thought they were cute until he realized they were all flipping him off. Cute little angry bears then. A bit like her. The skirt she wore was short by Cradle standards, but her stockings covered her legs well enough. They had little paw prints up the sides, leading his eye up her calf to her thigh to her - Jonah cleared his throat. 

“Hello Alice. You look well! It’s a beautiful day, don’t you think?” The casual small talk rolled from his tongue with perfect diction as he walked over to greet her. He could not help but notice she stood taller than he today in the heeled boots she wore. 

She shrugged and gave him a once over like she couldn’t care less.

Miffed and a little intimidated, Jonah drew himself up as he got closer to her. “Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you so rude that you won’t even greet me?”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Should I curtesy too?”

“It wouldn’t hurt.”

That got a laugh out of her, a sweet sound at odds with her fierceness. “Fine.” She gave him a little wave. “It’s not good to see you but you’re here! Is that better?”

Jonah took a breath. This was going to be harder than he thought. “Well, at least I can see you tried.” He decided to pull out advanced tactics. He took her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it, looking up at her through his eyelashes with a never-failed sultry expression.

Alice looked either surprised or angry, her eyes wide and her lips parted.

He decided to go with surprised. After all, no woman had ever been angry over such a romantic gesture. “I bet I know why you forgot to say hello.” Jonah gave her a sknowing smile. “It happens all the time. Don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of time to gaze longingly at me today. Our date has only just begun.”

She snatched her hand back and glared at him. “I wasn’t staring longingly. I was checking you for weapons, you scrub. And don’t touch me without asking first!”

Jonah felt a moment’s confusion. That was not how this scene went. She was supposed to look flattered. Flustered. Infatuated with him. “It’s a standard kiss of greeting. I don’t need permission for that.” He studied her face and then smirked. “You don’t need to blush over it.”

“I’m not blushing.” She rubbed the back of her hand as if to remove any trace of his lips.

“Oh? Then why are your cheeks flushed?”

“Because I’m pissed.” She narrowed her eyes. 

“Pissed?”

Alice made a hiss of annoyance. “Mad. Angry. Get it?”

Jonah took a step back. “Why would you be mad that the Queen of Hearts has taken a special interest in you?” He genuinely could not understand her. This was every girl’s dream. He was the most handsome, the most charming noble in Cradle. 

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides and she mumbled a few things Jonah was glad he couldn’t quite catch. Then she looked at him again, faintly grimacing. “Look. You can say hello without touching. No grabby-hands, no kisses.”

“I can try to remember that, if it’s not too much of a bother.” Jonah decided her strangeness lay in more than just her choice of clothing and makeup. She was odd, all the way through, and he found that intriguing. He’d expected to be bored today, but it seemed Alice would keep him entertained. 

He smiled at her and offered his arm. “I’ve ordered us a carriage. It should be here soon.”

“Why? Where are we going?” She did not accept his arm. She crossed hers just under the rise of her breasts and stared at him with suspicion.

“Someplace you’ll like.” Jonah let his arm fall back to his side. So far, his usual charms were ineffective but this next move was a guaranteed success. Alice would be swooning in no time. “I want you to put yourself in my capable hands from now until nightfall, Alice.”

The carriage pulled up a moment later, and they got in. She didn’t say anything on the ride to the shopping quarter. Her gaze stayed on the passing scenery.

Jonah watched her as she watched the city go by. She was rather pretty in profile, he thought. Her features were interesting, and her style accentuated them as if she were proud of those differences. She was bold and arrogant and infuriating, moreso than he expected. But he found himself looking forward to the challenge.

They arrived at the shopping district and got out. Alice looked around as if nervous. 

He pointed to one of his favorite couturiers. “Let’s start there.”

“What are we doing here?”

“Pardon?” He tilted his head, unsure if this was more sarcasm or genuine confusion. “Do you really have to ask?” 

Her lips thinned to a line. “I already did, didn’t I?”

Jonah sighed. “I’m taking you shopping. I’m buying you a whole new wardrobe.”

She looked up at the shop window. Lacy gowns in red and blue, yellow sundresses with flower patterns, and other expensive items were draped on display. “I guess we can take a look.” Alice pushed the door open and went in without waiting. 

“Queen Jonah! It’s a pleasure to see you.” The shop owner hurried over, hands fluttering in the air at his sides. 

Alice gave them both an eye roll and continued on to peruse the hangers. She plucked at one dress made from a pink fabric with little bunnies stitched into the hem. “This one.” She walked a little further and picked another, a confection of shiny silvered tulle. 

Jonah smiled. He knew it. Every girl fell for gifts. They couldn’t help it. 

The shop assistant took each item she picked and carried it to the fitting room. They would try each gown on, making notes and adjustments, and then create a dress tailored to Alice. 

After making several interesting selections, the two women disappeared into the changing area. 

Jonah waited impatiently without. He would need to assist Alice in making the right choices for her coloring, shape, and current fashions (of which he was certain she was ignorant!). But on the bright side, she would look fit to walk beside him now. Not that she looked bad in her choice of clothing but . . . unusual. He was interested to see if she looked as pretty in other clothes.

Giggles came from the dressing room, and other distressing sounds. Rustling fabric, a hissed ‘ouch’ and several thumps and bumps. The shop owner exchanged an uncertain look with Jonah. 

Finally, the shop assistant came out. She was grinning from ear to ear, her hair and clothes mussed from the work. Alice followed.

It took Jonah a full minute of silent study to understand what she was wearing. Alice had just the bodice on from the bunny dress, turning it into a - a delicate pink bra with little bunnies running under her breasts. Her belly was bare, save for the glimmer of a small crystal skull at the bellybutton (and when had she gotten that, he wondered). The skirt was some amalgamation of two other dresses in shades of blue and grey, with an uneven hem that drifted behind her. One leg was practically bare and that was when he realized her modest legging were thigh high stockings with little kittens on the clasps. And the tulle she’d chosen was reworked into a fluffy capelet that stood out from her back like a little silver wing. 

“Left you speechless, hm?” She sauntered forward, still wearing her heeled boots. 

Jonah licked his lips. “It’s ridiculous!” She was gorgeous in it. “You can’t be serious.” He wanted to buy it for her. Not just to seduce her, which was the job, but because it suited her. 

Alice rolled her eyes. “What? Should I wear a fussy suit instead, blondie?”

“My hair is not blonde!”

“Fine. Silvie. Better?”

He cleared his throat, feeling flustered. “No. You should address me as Queen, Jonah, or Queen Jonah.” He smoothed his vest. “And my uniform is not . . . fussy. Now. If that’s the outfit you’ve chosen I’ll arrange-”

“Oh, I’m not buying it. I told Jane we just wanted to play around a bit.” She poked at one of the gleaming bodice clasps. “It was fun, but I’m not taking it home.” Alice turned on her heel and went back to the changing room with the shop assistant - Jane - in tow.

Jonah realized he’d never asked for the shop assistant’s name. That didn’t matter though. What did matter was that this first attempt failed. Next up was a jewelry shop. She didn’t want to buy anything there either, though she and the jewelry designer had a good time talking about belly rings and - and nipple piercings. Jonah blushed just thinking about what he overheard. 

Then there was the shoe shop - less blush inducing but no less frustrating. She didn’t let him buy a single thing. Worse, she acted almost offended at the idea. And now he found himself back in the carriage with no progress to show, despite all his efforts. “You turned down all my amazing presents. What’s wrong with you? You’re not reacting the right way!”

“I think I’m reacting exactly the way I should.” Alice crossed her arms and glared at Jonah. “I don’t accept expensive gifts from people I just met.”

“What? Why not?” He felt completely confused by her reaction. She made no sense and he absolutely took back every nice thought he’d had about her that day. “I was only trying to make you happy. I don’t understand you at all.”

“Stop pouting.” Alice tapped his nose. 

Jonah tried to slap her hand away but missed. “I’m not pouting.” He sighed. “Anyway. There’s one more thing I’m not pleased about.” 

“Pffft. What?”

He frowned. “You haven’t smiled at me a single time today. Only at the shop assistants and the clerks and every one else. But not for me and I’m the one you’re on a date with!”

“You must be joking.” She leaned forward as if waiting for the punchline but when none came, she went on. “Why should I be happy about being coerced to go on a date with you?”

Jonah smirked. “That should be obvious.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “You should smile because I want you to. And look me in the eye when I -” He didn’t get to finish. 

Alice pushed him away with a curse. “What did I say about no touching without asking? Are you thick or what?”

For a moment he was stunned. No one pushed him away. He was the Queen! He was - he was - was sorry he’d pissed her off again. The expression on her face was positively dangerous. “I . . . got carried away,” he said stiffly. 

Something in her expression softened. “Ok. Just don’t do it again. You want to put hands on me, you have to ask.”

Jonah swallowed. “Alright. May I take your hand then?”

She thought about it for longer than he liked, but eventually she nodded. 

He took her hand. “As I was trying to tell you . . . I want you to look me in the eye when you talk to me. I want you to look only at me and I’m going to make sure you don’t have a chance to look away.”

“Then you’ve got your work cut out for you.” That was when Alice finally smiled. At him. It was a challenging grin, wicked and sweet all at once, and he felt as if, for just a moment, that he could not breathe.

[purplekoop]

oh yeah if they put Witch Kiriko in the Credits shop for Halloween then. well uh. RIP to her mythic skin as far as I'm concerned.

I mean I'm not like a super frequent Kiriko player, I'll usually just pick her in my rotation of not getting bored playing the same support too many matches in a row, but uh... yeah her Mythic is kind of the worst one so far by a decent margin in my book.

Also while the rest of the Season 7 pass from what we've seen so far looks kinda... mneh, gonna be honest the western gothic creepy theme isn't really landing with me, at least the (kind of unrelated besides "dark and spooky") Hanzo Mythic actually looks pretty solid. Bad news is that it's... uh... Hanzo... so uh. huh.

I'm so mad I'm not missing this one but I missed Cyber Demon Genji and Knight Tracer AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I'm so so eternally enraged I missed that one. Genji's is just cool and Tracer combines my favorite DPS character with an awesome fantasy knight theme, while Hanzo is. one of the few characters in this entire cast of nearly 40 that I don't like all that much.

I guess to get out my other Mythic thoughts (since I have all the others):

Zeus JQ: Grinded the hell out of Season 2 to just barely get this one in time and it was vaguely worth it. Gonna be stiff competition replacing this one, the effects are cool but to be honest the main appeal is just the big muscley lady getting to show off. Not a fan of the red/pink coloration but that's my only complaint.

Amaterasu Kiriko: Again, the worst Mythic so far imo, and honestly one of my least favorite out of Kiriko's skins in general. Better than her Season 1 BP skin at least, but really this one just doesn't play into Kiriko's design in any interesting ways for me, it just makes her generically fancy. The options don't really do anything for me either, all of them just slightly change the amount of "meh" it makes me feel.

Emperor Sigma: A bit mixed on this one honestly. Still like it overall, but it's got a few shortcomings that make it my second least favorite. The overall design is slick, but it's another one where the variants are a bit of a letdown. The ugly beige color option just does nothing for me, but the default black and purple is a combo I don't have much issue with sticking to. The shoulder armor options are kinda whatever, and while I love the M Bison hat plus eyepatch head, the other options are just... eh. Also, while the overhauled visual effects are fantastic, especially the tractor beam ult, there's a change I'm oddly not super fond of in this skin, that being his voice lines. This is petty, but like... I don't like how mean this skin makes him. I mean, I get that's the point, the space dictator isn't meant to be friendly, but Sigma being a calm, likeable goober most of the time despite being on the bad guy team is part of why he's such a fun character to me, so the flattened characterization is kind of jarring. let me be the silly floaty space man without all my voice lines telling my teammates to get on their knees. Overall great skin, but I have enough reasons to unequip it sometimes. Sigma's got some phenomenal skins, and even some of his Epics like his OG Talon skin are fantastic, at least to me.

Wargod Ana: Of the ones I own, this is definitely my favorite. Just in concept I adore it, of all the options to make the Null Sector mechanisation gimmick into a Mythic skin, Ana was such a cool choice. She's not a super "grandiose" character normally, but the subtle theming of this "ultimate war machine" makes her feel so cool and plays with her aesthetic in such a distinctly cool way. Shoot, the dubiously canon lore for the skin is cool too. The idea of a Null Sector bot that was made in an attempt to copy Ana's combat skill, but got corrupted because of her memories is such a cool way to reflect on Ana as a character that I'm almost a little mad Wargod isn't her own character?? This shows in the voicelines too. While Sigma's personality deviation put me off there, for Ana it feels a bit less... conflicting? Instead of taking a morally complicated but friendly character and turning him into a simple bad guy, this takes a slightly jaded but thoroughly good-hearted and good-acting character, takes her good parts away, and leaves the ruthlessness that was still there in the original. Plus, the voice lines aren't as outright mean, but feel effectively menacing. The change to "You're powered up, destroy them" is so simple and almost goofy, but feels so cool in practice. But that's not even going into the skin itself. While some other Mythics have some neat reference point for their style, Wargod Ana is just a perfect medley of the Null Sector suite of aesthetics. Each of the color variants is something used by existing PvE enemies. The designs also just feature bits and pieces of Null Sector bots too. Not only that, but the armor variants also serve as iterative upgrades. The first variant looks almost like a slicer that grew into gangly human proportions, with exposed, primitive-looking limb mechanisms. The second variant meanwhile, while my least favorite, now actually looks like a Null Sector mini-boss unit. The third one meanwhile feels like a proper character on par with Ana herself, with actual cloth over her legs and a more complex and organic-looking design overall, almost like a bride of frankenstein counterpart to Ramattra. Speaking of, her rifle options also directly reference the man himself, with the first variant having the claw-and-orb part of his Void Accelerator towards the back, while the second has a ribcage-like design reminiscent of his torso. Also points to this one for being arguably the highest percentage of variants I'd actually consider using, the middle body design is a bit meh, and looks actively kinda bleh with the third color option, but aside from that they look great. It's hard for me to swap off the default purple and white, but combining the red color with the third body variant is a hell of a combo too. There's even more great details! The audio effect changes are great as ever, especially for Nano Boost, but her gun also just sounds super satisfying to shoot too. And like!! With her beach ball emote, the beach ball is replaced with a Null Sector bomb guy's bomb!! Come on, how is this not the best Mythic yet.

...this post was just me hoping I could get Witch Kiriko without paying money and turned into an essay about Wargod Ana. oops.

anyways the next mythic skin should be King Dedede Reinhardt.

[vanehernandezblog]

Project 6 - Idea Developement (PITCH)

Bad Omens Album Narrative

Like I said in my previous post, I will explore my main ideas through a fictional scenario using the band Bad Omens as an example; or kind of a case study; of what I have in mind. Both of my ideas are ideas to improve or innovate things that already exist in the market, like live shows, immersive experiences and brand activations, but I want to redirect the way they have been made and used until now; the goal is to upgrade those experiences and create a new way for artists (and brands) to implement marketing strategies, promote their music and create engagement with the fans.

So for me to make this pitch/example, I have to set the background of what the band has been doing with it´s current album and live shows.

The band has created a whole apocalyptic narrative around the album, not only are the songs and music videos following this narrative and aesthetic, but this is also implemented during their live shows. I will show some examples below.

Music Videos

Live Show Visuals

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The band even dresses as characters of this fictional world, like some kind of soldiers or gangsters for the apocalypse; they even created like some clips emulating a movie to complement the narrative told during the live shows.

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Fandom Background.

For me to explain my idea, it's also important that I mention that this band just blew up recently thanks to one of their songs going viral on TikTok. We know by now that social media has a really great impact in everything we do today and they are also a vital part of well, everything we consume nowadays. The reason I mention this is because the band grew up their fanbase significantly because of this, and they now have a pretty big and many times crazy fanbase. Since the band mainly blew up on TikTok, their fanbase is basically interested and obsessed with the vocalist and his looks; really, if you don´t believe me go search 'Noah Sebastian' on TikTok, haha; cause he is 'handsome' and obviously very talented, and as we know by now, sometimes fans can get a bit creepy around the artists they idolize. Even at live shows you can see that many of the attending fans are just interested in recording the viral song; when they play that song you can only see phones up in the audience; but oh well, I guess that it is an unavoidable part of any live experience from any artist nowadays. As an example of this sometimes crazy fandom, the vocalist not so long ago struggled with some crazy online rumors started by a fan about a non-existent relationship between Noah Sebastian (the vocalist) and said fan. This obviously blew up on social media and was kinda sad seeing people talking about this and speculating about the private life of the artist, even insulting him at the beginning before the rumors were proved to be false, all of this just because some fan decided to have an imaginary relationship with him.

Another example of the crazy behaviour is that during the pandemic Noah Sebastian used to make Twitch streams to keep in contact with fans during quarantine, but somehow fans figured out where Noah lived, just by these streams, and started sending him gifts to his house and leaving things on his doorstep... creepy right?

It makes me so sad that not only Noah Sebastian, but many artists have to go through things like this just because they are famous, at the end of the day they are just humans like all of us, and they don't deserve to have their privacy violated like that.

As part of the band's recent success, they started doing VIP meetings with fans before their shows, or at least they used to have them until recently. During this experiences, the fans that payed for the VIP Upgrade could meet the band members, have a quick chat with them and take a picture. But as you can imagine, sometimes this were also kind of weird interactions for the band cause many times the fans didn´t have limits or overstepped a little. I imagine it can even get annoying for the band at some point, having to interact with so many people just before performing must eventually take a toll on you, but I also understand that fans obviously want to meet them cause they admire them so much and it's part of being in any fandom having this dream of meeting your favorite artist one day. I think this is a very complex subject cause at the end of the day, the record label and artists are obviously interested in making money and selling and promoting the band´s music, and this VIP meetings are a huge part of the ecuation, but in my opinion this kind of fan events can get out of hand and even represent a risk for the band members per-se, not just because of potentially crazy fans but to their health as well; just recently over their last North American Tour, Noah Sebastian got sick and could not perform the last shows of the tour cause he couldn't sing. Almost immediately after this they cancelled their future VIP Meetings for their European Tour next year. The speculation was that this was because of Noah getting sick from interacting with fans during the VIP's but also because there were some weird interactions from fans during these. Obviously fans were pissed and dissapointed, and I totally understand them, but I also understand the possible reasons from the band to do this. We don´t know exactly what the reason was, but whether it was this or that, I can argue that this experiences have their pros and cons, but there´s definitely room to improve them or even create something better where the artists and fans both have their needs met, cause at the end of the day, they both 'depend' on each other, but it´s important to find a middle-ground to all of this.

So, now let me explain why I tell you all of this and how it is relevant to both of my ideas.

Idea 1: Pop-up Store - Immersive Experience to promote the album

For my first idea, I had the idea to create this kind of pop-up installation that follows this aesthetic of the album and creates this 'apocaliptic world' immersive experience using things from the band's narrative and general lore. (similar to what Stranger Things does for their brand activations). This experience is obviously targeted to the current fanbase but is also intended to bring new fans to the fandom, and it is intended to "upgrade" the existent VIP Meetings formula that is always used by artists: pay, make a queue, have a 1-2 minute chat with the artist, take a picture, have some free gifts and an autograph, and bye.

Like I said before, artists and fans depend on each other, but it's important to create a healthy 'relationship' where both parts are safe and satisfied. Cause let's be honest, this VIP upgrades are sometimes too expensive for what they are, many times the experiences don't turn out great for the fans and they are dissapointed or just feel like they spend so much money for nothing. So my idea's goal is to change that and try to find a middle-ground for this type of experiences so it can benefit both the artist and the fans.

During this immersive experience, the room would be decorated with all the aesthetics from the music videos, kind of easter eggs all around the room; and since the general theme is very futuristic-like I would like to video project some glitchy futuristic visuals all over the room, or maybe even project the music videos on the walls, kind of what is done in the Van Gogh Alive Experiences. With this fans will be immersed in the Bad Omens Fictional World and will feel closer to the band in some way.

I was very inspired by the holoraphic technologies we saw on class, so I had this idea that I think could maybe replace the VIP in person meetings but will still create this engagement with the fans, kind of what Imogen Heap did with her VR concert to connect with fans all over the world mixed with my example of the Holographic Class. During this immersive experience, the band members would be there in the room as Holograms and they would kind of interact with the audience in some way. This not only will follow the futuristic aesthetic but it's also a great way to keep artists safe but still engage with their fans. The whole idea is to bring the Fictional World they've created to life, and make it an immerive experience for the fans that can also serve as a marketing stunt to attract new fans.

Idea 2: AR App for Live Shows to create an Immersive AR Experience

For my second idea, I would like to create this AR App for live shows.

We know by now that cellphones and social networks are a huge part of how we experience life nowadays, it´s very common today to see people recording everything, everywhere, all the time. It is how people nowadays 'prove' their experiences to the world. I honestly don't like that we have become so dependent to our cellphones and that we live and experience everything through a screen, but what can I do, I think we are more into the rabbit hole than out, so all that's left for now is to take advantage of that.

If during a live shows people are experiencing the performance through their phones anyway, why not make it fun and turn it to the advantage of the artist?

The visual and design part behind every album, artists and live shows is very important and it plays a huge role in their success and wether it becomes memorable or not. It is very important to create a connection with the audience in all ways possible and through all the senses, not just with the music alone.

My idea is to create this app where the audience can, yes record the live experience, but they not just see the artist throught their cellphone screen but they see their fictional world come to life and interact with the venue, artist and audience, or even see the background visuals coming to life through their phones in a 3D sort of way; kind of what Gorillaz did for their Live Performance in Times Square but targeted to live shows. Maybe even depending on the song that is playing the app shows specific visuals and makes it a more tailored experience.

I think I still have to think this idea better cause I don't know how viable it would be during live shows, maybe it can just be a complement for the Immersive experience in my first idea.

References

[cherry-interlude]

Lana Del Rey Songs Categorised

I didn't include a few but that's covers/demos / sorted by vibe/lyrics / there are other versions of this that could be made

Bad Girl - Lana's bad girl songs that make you feel cool af

Scarface

Summer of Sam

Making Out

Put Your Lips Together

Dum Dum

Kinda Outta Luck

Children of the Bad Revolution

Dangerous Girl

Girl That Got Away

Maha Maha

Hangin' Around

Catch and Release

Queen of the Gas Station

Gramma

Smarty

St Tropez

I Learned How To Make Love

Teen Romance

Prom Song (Gone Wrong)

Paris

Puppy Love

Television Heaven

Love

Back To Tha Basics

Brooklyn Baby

Me and My Boyfriend

Sweet Romance - Somewhat gentle and cute romance songs

Starry Eyed

When I'm With You

JFK

Because of You

Daddy Issues

Tulsa Jesus Freak

Bartender

Groupie Love

Lust For Life

Lucky Ones

American

Joshy and I

Dreamgirl

For K Part 2

You Mister

Coca Cola

How Do You Know Me So Well?

Stoplight Delite

Serious Romance - They have a more serious tone but they're genuinely romantic

Yosemite

Swan Song

Cinnamon Girl

Living Legend

True Love - Deep and romantic

Let Me Love You Like A Woman

Young and Beautiful

Life Is Beautiful

Venice Bitch

Love Song

California

Old Money

Off To The Races

Video Games

Never Let Me Go

On Our Way

Heartbreak - Songs for feeling all kinds of sad romantically

Thunder

Hallucinogenics

Fine China

French Restaurant

Hollywood's Dead

Your Band Is All The Rage

Afraid

Some Things Last A Hard Time

Happiness Is A Butterfly

White Mustang

Norman Fucking Rockwell

Terrence Loves You

The Blackest Day

Cruel World

Dark Paradise

Summertime Sadness

Blue Jeans

Pawn Shop Blues

Westbound

Methamphetamines

F You - Aimed for people who kind of suck

Tired of Singing the Blues

Noir

Playground

It's Not You It's Just Me

Damn You

In My Feelings

High By The Beach

Flipside

In The Sun

So Legit

Seduction - Sexual songs generally

Trash Magic

Us Against The World

Marilyn

Meet Me In The Pale Moonlight

Paradise

Playing Dangerous

Behind Closed Doors

You Can Be The Boss

Party Girl

Pussycat Kittycat

BBM Baby

Big Bad Wolf

Be My Daddy

Ooh Baby

Push Me Down

Delicious

Freak

Salvatore

Daddy's Girl

Burning Desire

Mermaid Motel

Yayo

Disco

Hey You

Body Electric

Kill Kill

Jimmy Gnecco

Wolf T-Shirt

Sad Romance - Kind of toxic romance or the darker side of romance

TV In Black and White

I Talk To Jesus

Colour Blue

Put The Radio On

My Best Days

Resistance

Velvet Crowbar

Breaking Up Slowly

Fuck It I Love You

The Next Best American Record

The Greatest

Cherry

Summer Bummer

Tomorrow Never Came

24

Shades of Cool

Black Beauty

Is This Happiness?

Million Dollar Man Pretty Baby

Drive By

Hey Blue Baby

Greenwich

Hawaiin Tropic

Axl Rose Husband

Butterflies Part 1

Heartshaped Chevrolet

Bellevue

Ben

How To Disappear

Dreamy - Aesthetically pleasing songs sonically, and a lot of Lana's songs are but these stand out the most

Yes To Heaven

Angels Forever Forever Angels

Ave Maria

Wayamaya

Roses Bloom

Honeymoon

Art Deco

Religion

West Coast

Guns and Roses

Bel Air

Cherry Blossom

Dangerous Love - Jealousy and obsession

Your Girl

Is It Wrong?

Jealous Girl

She's Not Me

Serial Killer

Caught You Boy

Roses

Criminal and Gangsta Love - The bad romances

Queen of Disaster

Backfire

Beautiful Player

Crooked Cop

Hundred Dollar Bill

Gangsta Boy

Live or Die

Hit and Run

Ghetto Baby

Every Man Gets His Wish

Live Forever

Bad Boy

Match Made In Heaven

Bops - They're good for bopping

Roll With Me

Motel 6

Florida Kilos

Brite Lites

Diet Mountain Dew

Boom Like That

Starlet - A lot of Lana's songs feature starlets but these are the songs that let her shine as a star

Hollywood Dynamite

Fake Diamond

A Star For Nick

Radio

Strong - Being the stronger one in the relationship

Lift Your Eyes

Serene Queen

Break My Fall

Big Eyes

I Can Fly

Get Free

Mariner's Apartment Complex

Ride

All You Need

Junky Pride

Move

There's Nothing To Be Sorry About

More Mountains

In Wendy

Wild One

Wait

Weird Vibe - They either sound creepy or just have an unsettling feel

Bentley

C U L8r Alligator

Strangelove

You and Me

Let My Hair Down

Get Drunk

Betty Boop Boop

Jump

Raise Me Up (Mississippi South)

Jesus Is My Boyfriend

Hmm - They could go into other categories but they are songs that have darker, disturbing elements

Baby Blue Love

1949

Roller Derby

Heavy Hitter

Boarding School

Ultraviolence

Lolita

Put Me In A Movie

Sad Girl - Songs with a sad vibe

Last Girl on Earth

All Smiles

Wait For Life

Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have - But I Have It

13 Beaches

Heroin

Music To Watch Boys To

God Knows I Tried

Pretty When You Cry

Carmen

This Is What Makes Us Girls

Without You

Oh Say Can You See

Born To Die

Valley of the Dolls

Stripper - Pure stripper theme

Go Go Dancer

Dance For Money

Midnite Dancer Girlfriend

Other Woman - Pure other woman theme

Other Woman

True Love On The Side

Sad Girl

Cola

Next To Me

Money/Fame/Materialism - Songs that revolve around those three things

Money Power Glory

Fucked My Way Up To The Top

Gods and Monsters

National Anthem

Breaking My Heart

Makes You Think - Deeper songs

Coachella

God Bless America - And All The Beautiful Women In It

When The World Was At War We Kept Dancing

Beautiful People Beautiful Problems

Change

Money Hunny

Looking For America

Songs That Sound Like Diary Entries - More personal tracks

I Must Be Stupid For Being So Happy

My Momma

Wild At Heart

Dark But Just A Game

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Blizzard

Elvis

White Dress

Aviation

Run Motorcycle

Out With A Bang

Dance Til We Die

Bad Disease

Fordham Road

I Don't Wanna Go

For You

Try Tonight

You're Gonna Love Me

Outliers - They're more happy

Come When You Call Me

Birds of a Feather

Driving In Cars With Boys

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E121 (Jan. 19, 2021)

Aaaand we're back! The epic pet montage at the start is still the greatest thing ever.

Tonight's guests? Matthew Mercer and Marisha Ray!

We begin with an extensive discussion of waffle farts. As you do.

Matt is asked what it's been like to get to build out the characters in the Tombtakers. Lucien is Matt's favorite, but they've all got some fun traits to them. "It's one of those rare experiences as a dungeon master where you get to watch your players combat with the necessity of playing along. The instinct is: fuck these guys, I want to fight them, we'll take their shit... or I guess we have to play nice. And they begrudgingly grit their teeth and I smile internally."

On the Lucien accent: "You guys are all so mean to Taliesin!" Matt knew his own take would be a "weird mutation" of Mollymauk's accent anyway.

How's Marisha feeling about a lot of her predictions panning out? "Aw, I mean, gee, me? What? Noooo. It's definitely vindicating, I'm not gonna lie, and rewarding, but I also know that I write a lot of shit down in that notebook that's never relevant ever again. It's definitely a good feeling to know that I didn't go on that fifteen-minute deep dive and was utterly wrong about everything I said." Matt: "I was super proud. I was just silently cheering you on as you went on these long tangents."

What does Lucien think of the Mighty Nein? "Lucien is definitely curious about why they're getting involved in his shit and what they're planning alongside them. One, he hates Beau because he doesn't like people who challenge his authority. He gravitates towards Jester to an extent because she's the most open, which from his standpoint makes her easiest to manipulate. He loves toying with curiosity, and so between Jester and Caleb, those are the two people that he's the most comfortable interacting with. Caduceus makes him feel a little weird. He's amused by them. Fjord to Lucien is one of the more guarded and less accessible at the moment."

Is Beau enjoying getting under Lucien's skin? "Beau's picking and poking still kind of stems from her defensiveness and guardedness and her feelings, in a lot of ways, and the way that she's coping with things. It's a few steps removed from her default and what she often resorts to when she starts throwing up those barriers. She still has in the back of her head that she's looking at her dead friend. It's her way of protecting herself if she can go, fuck you, I don't care about you. This isn't too dissimilar to the way she reacted when Yasha was brainwashed." Matt: "It's a unique social sparring match the whole time they're traveling side-by-side. It's unique to have an antagonistic force that you're--" Marisha: "That we're going camping with."

Navigating the Tombtaker/M9 relationship as a DM is "challenging. At any given moment, a wrong statement could escalate matters one way or the other. It's having to pay attention to a lot of things at all points in time to be ready for how those chain reactions can happen and where it might go." He likens it to trying to follow and participate in two different conversations simultaneously at a party.

On the note from Yasha: "Oh man, you guys. Oh, it was so sweet. I don't think Beau was expecting Yasha to be so forthcoming with everything, and so complimentary and eloquent. Beau is awkward with healthy relationships, so she doesn't know how to handle them. She's still processing that and wants to not ruin it. No, it was magical." Ashley told Marisha after the episode that she was trying to think of what to say and wound up basing it on what she would say about Marisha.

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Vax (by stormfeather_cosplay, photograph by travi_b, both on Instagram)!

On using variations on the Wild Magic table: "I wanted to give it some variation to consequences. They took some of the tooth out of it from earlier editions. I knew it would be fun once I gave them the specifications of when these things would happen - players are just waiting for someone to roll a 20 or a 1 at all times."

Why is it so important to Beau that she and Yasha have a proper date? Part of it is a fresh start. "So much of Beau's past relationships have been rooted in some toxic behavior. Beau feels like, well, maybe we should just start from the beginning in the most us way possible: fighting through the tundra with our dead-ish friend."

The sci-fi-ish theme came toward the end of developing Aeor, but it mostly comes from rationalization. Matt is intrigued by how all these different societies want to usurp the gods... which has parallels with modern society. He notes that focusing more on the science of the magic means the aesthetics pull away to "instead facilitate the utility or the most direct route to the answers you want. You streamline as opposed to focusing on the aesthetics."

Beau’s reaction to all the weird magic stuff? “I think Beau’s just so focused on the pragmatic aspects of it all right now. There are greedy people with motives and the will and want to corrupt across all spans of cultures and times. She’s trying not to get lost in the magic, both proverbially and literally, of it all, and just trying to focus on the motives of these people at hand.”

In some ways, Matt was surprised by Caduceus’ strong reaction to the creepy woods. “It was the first major reveal that there are some other sides to the coin that he hadn’t learned about. I had no idea how he would react. It pushed him away more in ways than I expected.”

Fan art of the week: an amazing Lucien! (by oratorkayla on Twitter)

What’s Dagen’s motivation? “He’s definitely a man of his word when it comes to fulfilling a contract and getting the other half of his pay, but it’s not hard to see they’ve grown on him a little bit. He’s really good at getting around the tundra unseen and unnoticed.”

Brian: “In true Sam fashion-” Marisha, instantly: “OH MY GOD.”

Marisha: “Here’s the thing. Here’s the tea, okay? If I ever hear one more fucking person trying to claim that I’m ruining things by metagaming, I’m going to point to Sam. I’m expected to respond accordingly to Veth being a Sam troll. Gods damn him! Raven Queen curse upon him! Let chaos reign! He made me pull out my earphones, I can’t hear anything you’re saying. It’s frustrating because I’d be mad at it if it wasn’t so god damn funny.” Matt notes that at a different table this wouldn’t be great behavior, but they all know each other well enough (and check in with each other enough) that it’s comfortable teasing.

With a bit of a deeper pull, Matt is asked whether he knew Avantika would return someday? “I knew she was a fun, interesting option out there. The M9 still have in their grasp the single most important artifact, in Uk’otoa’s opinion, at the moment. As long as they carry that artifact, his eye of Sauron is upon them.” Matt notes that he has more encounter tables going, so a lot of the time even he’s not sure what’s going to happen.

Caduceus suggested contacting Essek, but Beau and Caleb nixed that idea. Does Beau trust him? “Gods no. Absolutely not. She can like Essek personally. As a person, he’s fine, I guess. But I think a lot of people might be forgetting that he’s kind of a war criminal and kind of set off a lot of bad things in motion with this war with the Empire and the Dynasty, because he wanted power and to know things. So now here he is, also in Aeor. Yeah. Just kinda putting two and two together there. It is another one of those things of, you’re walking that line on trying to keep him on your good side and having a mutually beneficial relationship before it could easily go completely south.”

On the Star Razor being a Vestige: “I don’t want this to be--- the Vestiges aren’t always a thing where it’s like, you get a Vestige and you get a Vestige! I want them to be still considered special and rare. This is one that had to be earned, it had to be reforged. I didn’t know the circumstances that would involve it coming about.” He based it on the circumstances of Fjord’s evolution into a paladin. “In essence, not only did he finish the creation of the sword, but he Awakened it at the same time as he made this transition. It is Exalted at this point, it’s in its final form.”

What does Beau think might lie ahead? “I have no idea. I am trying to abandon expectation when it comes to that. I know what we don’t know, and that’s it. Beau is trying to compensate for the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. I hope we can keep this tenuous relationship through to Aeor, because we need more answers before it explodes in our face. Beau, and Marisha, is hoping for a little more information before shit hits the fan.”

[lilsocksiswriting]

Table of Contents

Chapter 4 II Chapter 6

Warnings: No Beta

Tendo sniffs the air as the two of you walk to practice. "It smells like it's going to rain."

You stifle a laugh. "What?"

Tendo thinks that you just didn't hear him. That you're in that little world he sees you writing about all time that you won't let anyone, not even him, into.  He repeats himself, "I said it smells like it's going to rain."

"Yea I heard you but how can you smell it? That's some wicked sense of smell if you do. Oh! do you think you can smell if a cat broke a vase or not?"

"If only," his shoulders drop. "Tanjuro has such a freaking cool power."

"It's not really a power, is it? I always thought he just has a wicked sense of smell."

"The dude had the nose of blood hound."

you open your mouth and a loud boom of thunder rings out.

"run."

"Wha-"

a little drop of water plops on your head, followed by another,  then another, then what feels like a hundred more. Suddenly Tendo's wrapping a lanky arm around your shoulder, tucking you as close as he can to his side under his school blazer. A shriek of laughter bubbles past your lips as you dash along with him. You have no idea where you two are heading. You just know that Tendo smells good and his maniacal laughter draws out even more laughter from you. You are only able to catch your breath when you make it into the lobby of the nearest building

"That," you huff.  "That came out of nowhere."

"I told you I smelled it!" he was panting as well. Faint laughter under every deep breath.

"Couldn’t you have smelled it sooner!"

"I'm not Tanjuro Y/N!"

Your laughter finally dies down when both of your phones go off.

You look up from your phone and  ask, “That's it?”

“I don’t want to scare you with all the gory details.”

You scoff then remember that Tendou has no idea about the things that you write let alone that you are a horror writer.  And you’re not sure that you want him to know.  Tendou was important to you. You didn't want to ruin the friendship you two had or present a chance in ruining it because you were the girl who stayed up research and write 'concerning' things. it's happened before and no matter how much Kuroo and Kenma would reassure it's bound to happen again.

So you do what you do best and talk about something else. “So what building is this?”

“The auditorium. I really think we are all alone. The whole theater club went of some big retreat this week.”

“Really?”

Tendou nods. “The guy I sit next to in the homeroom was really excited about it.”

“I mean it does have that empty theater at night vibe to it. OH!”

The redhead jumps at your sudden outburst. You grab his hand and Tendou swears his whole body heats up a few degrees.

“You think that the control booth is unlocked.”

“What? Like a mission command?”

“Like the best seat in the house!”

You had never been inside a control booth but you had seen videos taken from a control booth. Those videos panned over vast rooms of rows upon rows of empty seats facing an empty stage. They were dark videos, not just in their aesthetic and contents but the way that the theaters were only lit by dim lamps hung low along the walls or built into the stairs.  There was an eeriness to these videos that you had always wanted to see in person. Videos were great at helping you describe a scene, but not so much describing the feelings of being in an empty theater.

Tendou lets up pull him along not wanting to sully this hopeful mood of yours. He wonders if you know who cute you're being right now. He wants to know why you're so hyped about a creepy theater. He wants to know more about you in general.  It was like you had this secret that he could never figure out. Ushijima tells him that you're new and it’ll take some time for a shy person like yourself to open up. But the thing is you don’t seem like a shy person. You seem like a girl who’s hiding something,

Through a set of double doors that lead into the empty theater then up a set of side stairs, you are surprised to find that the door to the control booth was unlocked. Someone's forgetfulness has made the two of you lucky. The long open window that looked out over the theater was a lot like the ones you had seen in so many videos. Tendou searches for light while you take in the vast space below, straining your eyes for any shadow that seems out of place.  You had known from the welcome packet that the school was old, too old not to have a few ghosts. 

“Creepy.”

“Right,” you agree without thinking about it.

Tendou sets back a rolly chair and checks the weather on his phone while you soak in every detail of the view. Once you're done you set down in another rolly chair.

“So how long do you think the storm will last?”

He wanted to say something along the lines "hopefully forever" because he likes this private moment you two get to have due to the rain. But he also doesn't want to do a single thing to make you feel uncomfortable. 

“About half an hour. “

“Great,” you tell him and reach over for your book bag you had plopped down on the floor. “I wanted to read more of that manga that you lent me.“

“Reading In a Creepy theater. Sounds perfect.”

And that's what you two did for the next half hour, well Tendou tried. He just couldn't focus on his manga when there was you sitting beside him.  You look so content and beautiful in a place like this. You don't seem at all bothered by how creepy it was. Shiratorizawa was an old school, so Tendou assumed that there was bound to be a ghost or two around here. 

Ushijima was right, he had feelings for you, and that scares him. He knew how this worked out. He knew that when people got closer to him they realized he was a freak and push him away. Sometimes he still didn't believe that Ushijima hadn't thought about ditching him. Having romantic feelings made the whole process a lot scarier because it would hurt a lot more being called a freak by you.  But was that worse than just sitting here and pinning after you? 

eventually, you feel someone staring at you and you look up to meet Tendou's gaze. "You good?"

"Kinda," he shrugs, his whole body language seeming tense. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

Tendoou closes his manga kicks his legs out that his chair rolls into yours. shoulder to shoulder now you can feel how warm he is and the light hue of red in his pale cheeks.  This close you can make out a lot of features of his face. The shape of his hairline, the tiny wrinkles around his eyes, and the long line of his mouth. It all looks nice. Nice enough that you don't only study his face further. It makes you very aware of every body part from the way your tongue rests between your teeth to the inch on your toe. 

Tendou speaks to you in a quiet tone as if he was afraid someone might hear him. "About a really stupid question, I wanna ask you."

"Yea?"

"Y/N....can I-"

The sudden dings from your phones have the same effect as getting caught. You pull away from each other both as red as can be. 

[its-monster-mash]

Wild Thing: Part 2

Paul (The Lost Boys) X Michael’s Ex!Fem!Reader Imagine

Content Warnings: She/her pronouns, Canon Typical violence/weed/Alcohol/Lite Vampiric Manipulation/Blood

Part 1

This is really long so it’s going under a Readmore

• It’s a miracle all of you made it in one piece; the boys had played a nasty trick on Michael; and he damn near went over the edge of Hudson’s Bluff. Normally it took a lot to rattle you, but in that split second before Michael was actually able to stop, you practically felt your heart stop. It wasn’t every day you watched your best friend nearly fall to his death. You can feel Paul’s abdomen tighten beneath your arms as he laughs. It’s a cruel sound, and you’re not sure if it’s at Mike’s expense or yours. David nods toward him, and he turns to look back at you, grinning like the fox in the henhouse. “Oh come on babe, lighten up.”

• As soon as he catches his breath, Michael lunges at David, understably furious. You’re pissed as hell yourself, but when you try to climb off of Paul’s bike to give them all a piece of your mind, he grabs your thigh, keeping you in place. You open your mouth to tell him off, but he interrupts you. “Shhh girlie, just look, s’all cool.”

• You’re about to argue with him when instead of knocking David’s lights out or storming off, you notice Michael talking to him, Star looking entirely uncomfortable between them. “How far are you willing to go, Michael?” Your jaw practically drops in surprise when you see Mike nod, getting back on his bike. It worries you, this is so unlike him.

• Paul smiles down at you, no trace of his cruelty from earlier. He jostles your leg playfully. “See? It was just a little joke, everything’s cool.” You can’t help but lose yourself a little in his beautiful blue eyes, there is just something about him that makes you want to relax. “Cool,” you repeat back to him, sliding your arms around his midsection again. “Atta girl.”

• The rest of the ride is pretty uneventful, and you come to a stop at the mouth of a cave, with no shortage of signs warning of the dangers within. “Oh please tell me we’re going in there,” you say with a grin; this is absolutely up your alley, and Michael shakes his head at you with an exasperated smile. How many ill-thought-out adventures had you dragged Mike on growing up together? You can’t help but recall the time you found that creepy old military bunker and accidentally locked yourselves in...the two of you ended up finding an alternative exit that opened up into the library basement of all places...

• Paul helps you off the bike, tugging you against his chest so he can whisper in your ear. “It’s your lucky night babe.” You can’t help but grin like an idiot as your heart races. He presses a teasing kiss to the side of your head and you feel yourself begin to melt.

• “We’re not seriously going down there, are we?” Mike pipes up, catching your attention much to Paul’s annoyance. “Mike wants to know if we’re seriously going down there,” Marko repeats, circling the cavern. “I dunno Marko, are we seriously going down there?” Dwayne asks, joining him. “We understand if you can’t hang, Michael,” David mocks with a false tone of sincerity. Paul wraps his arm around you, pulling you tight against him. “Yeah Michael, you don’t need to worry about (Y/N), I’ll keep her nice and safe.” “Stop it!” Star scolds him, taking Mike’s arm. “Don’t listen to them Michael, you can still back out if you want.” David stalks toward the edge of the cavern, his expression foreboding and mischievous. “It’s time to make a decision, Michael.”

• “Well, Either way I’m going in,” you say, getting a little impatient. You were never one to wait around while everyone else danced around a decision. “I’ll help you down,” Paul chimes in a bit too eagerly. He slides his arm around your waist, holding you tightly hip to hip before he jumps down into the cave.

• You gasp, very much expecting to break an ankle or something with the way Paul just leaped down in, but are surprised when your feet touch the ground almost feather light. “How did you DO that?” You whisper in astonishment. “Baby, I am all kinds of magic.” “What are you, the fucking Goblin King?”

• He laughs, watching you squint in the pitch darkness of the cave. “Hey I’ll take that as a compliment, Bowie’s hot as fuck.” “So are you,” you say, trying to reach for where his voice came from, but he leans away from you with a smirk, watching you stumble. “You know what the difference between me and Jareth is though?” You turn around to face him, gasping when he presses you into the cold cave wall. “I’m gonna get the girl.”

• You wrap your arms around his shoulders in excitement. It’s too dark for you to see him, but you part your lips and let your eyes fall shut, expecting a kiss. He doesn’t kiss you just yet though, holding back a moment to drink in the sight of you, beautiful and ready to give yourself to him. His lips only barely touch yours before you’re startled by the sound of several more pairs of feet hitting the ground. He groans with disappointment. “Guess we’ll have to put a pin in this,” he whispers, grazing his teeth ever so delicately against your ear. You shudder.

• Your eyes sting a bit as the cave is suddenly illuminated as Dwayne circles the room, lighting improvised trash bin braziers as he goes. Your jaw drops as you admire the sheer aesthetic of the place. Paul smiles with pride at your positive reaction.

• “What is this place?” Mike asks, climbing down from the ladder you probably should have used. David claps a hand on his shoulder, before moving to circle the cavern. “It was a Hotel once,” David says, gesturing to the now faded and ruined wallpaper. “The Jewel of Santa Carla, really.” He sounds wistful and nostalgic, almost as if he had seen the hotel in its heyday. He goes on to talk about the events leading up to its destruction, but you can hardly pay attention with the way Paul’s fingers trace little patterns against your exposed skin.

• You notice Star staring at you, almost like she’s worried...about what? Michael looks down at her, brow creasing as he follows her concerned gaze to see you standing all cozy with Paul. His eyes widen and he looks away, swallowing awkwardly. David seems to notice, and he looks straight at the pair of you. “Paul, it’s your turn to pickup dinner.” “But-” He protests, squeezing your arms just a little too tightly to be comfortable, but is cut off by the look of finality on David’s face. He sighs in deep frustration, releasing you for just a second before he startles you with a deep and forceful kiss. You barely have a chance to actually enjoy the kiss before he’s pulling away, looking at you with just the sweetest smile that makes you melt. “Wait up for me, okay?” You nod in agreement, blushing furiously. You hardly notice him side eyeing Mike as he turns to leave. “I’ll be back soon.” Just as he sets foot on the ladder, he suddenly turns around, jogging back to place another quick peck to your lips. “Okay, I can go now.”

• “Why don’t you go with him, Star,” David says, causing both Mike and Star to stare at him. “Or else we’ll end up with nothing but fortune cookies and chinese doughnuts.” Star looks at Michael apologetically, staring David down while she moves to exit the cave.

• You look over at Mike, smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of your neck. “Friendly guy,” he teases you, trying to cut through the awkwardness. David laughs, moving to clap a hand on Mike’s shoulder and yours. “What are the odds, huh? The two of you ending up lured into our little family.” Mike cracks a grin. “(Y/N) never could pass up an adventure.” David’s own face splits into a wide grin. “And what about you, Michael? What made you decide to follow us after all the crap we gave you?” “I go where she goes,” Mike says, crossing his arms defensively. “Really? Kinda looks like she’d be entertained plenty without you,” David nods toward you. “Paul’s taken quite a liking to her...that bother you?” “No,” Mike says a bit too forcefully; he never was very good at lying. “Hey, back off.” The words come out of your mouth before you even think about it. David looks at you with stunned amusement. “Yeah, back off David,” Marko mocks you. Dwayne shoves him a little.

• You take a deep breath; Mike tended to close himself off, but you were never very good at holding your tongue when you got upset...still, you didn’t want to overstep your boundaries in the boys’ own territory. “Look, Mike and I were together for a lot of years. Of course it’s weird to see each other with new people-” “You don’t seem too bothered to see him with Star,” Dwayne says from his seat on the old moth eaten couch. David grins, looking between you and Mike. He claps his hands together. “I think maybe these two could use a minute to talk things out, what do you boys think?” Dwayne nods in agreement, and Marko makes kissy noises; Dwayne gives him a light smack to the chest, before the three of them go chill in the other side of the cave to give you and Michael a little space.

• You and Mike stare at each other awkwardly; you gesture to the floor by the fountain. “You wanna sit?” “Yeah,” he agrees, his voice a little hoarse as the two of you take a seat leaning against the fountain. You sit quietly for a bit, awkwardly picking at your fingernails, before Mike breaks the silence. “I’m not upset that you’re moving on.” You turn to face him, and he continues. “I’m trying to move on too...it’s just-” “What?” “Him? (Y/N)? How did you even meet these guys?” You scoff, a little offended by the contempt in his voice when he mentioned Paul, it’s the same way his dad’s family talked about you when Mike first started bringing you around as kids. “He saved me. I was being harassed by a group of guys off the boardwalk, and Paul scared them off.” His gaze turns to his feet, partly ashamed at pre-judging Paul, and oddly ashamed of himself. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.” You scoff humorously, patting him on the back. “Mike, it’s not your job to protect me, I can look after myself.” “What would have happened if Paul hadn’t shown up?” You laugh, flashing him the knife tucked discreetly into your boot. “Like I said, Mike, I can look after myself.” He lets out a deep sigh, smiling at you sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

• You give him a friendly smack to the shoulder, lightening the mood a bit. “And what about you, Mr. Badboy, with your leather jacket and fancy earring,” you tease. “What happened to the goodie-two-shoes I grew up with?” It’s Mike’s turn to scoff, he grins at you. “Wow, it’s almost like having my first love leave me for being too much of a Goodie-Two-Shoes right before my parents get divorced fucked me up a little, huh?” “Mike...I-” He laughs, giving your arm a playful shrug. “Hey, no, in all seriousness you were right. I never really pushed the envelope growing up unless I was following you. I just thought with the move that maybe it’s time for me to reinvent myself, you know? Explore what I want for a change.” He’s smiling, and you smile back at him. “She’s beautiful,” you say. “I think she likes you too.” A blush creeps up on his face, and he can’t keep himself from smiling. “Well I’m not sure if Paul likes you,” he teases, trying to draw the attention away from himself. “He might just kiss everyone like that, we don’t know.” You can’t help but laugh, shoving Mike. He decides to be dramatic, falling over onto the floor like you actually pushed him. He sits up on his elbows, smiling at you like he used to when you were kids. You return the favor.

• Unbeknownst to you, Paul stands in the entrance of the cave, his chest tightening as he watches you laugh and smile with Mike. He walks over to you quietly, so he can startle you when he drops to the ground to sit next to you. “Easy there, Mikey. You had your chance,” he says with thinly veiled contempt as he throws his arm around you. He hands you a carton of takeout. “You seem like a beef and broccoli kind of girl, hope that’s alright.” You smile up at him, cradling the hot container carefully in your hands. “It’s my favorite, thank you so much.” He smiles back, very pleased with himself.

• Star calls Mike over, handing him a carton of plain rice. She apologizes, saying she wasn’t sure what he’d like. She doesn’t quite believe him when he insists that it’s fine. “He means it Star, he hates chinese food, the rice is all he’ll eat,” you clarify. David perks up, stirring a carton of noodles. “You hate Chinese food? Jesus Michael, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?” “Guess not everyone likes flavor,” Paul taunts, skewering his General Tso’s with his chopsticks. “‘Least I know how to use chopsticks,” Michael spits back, earning dramatic ooos from the boys. “He’s always been shit at it, doesn’t have the patience,” Dwayne says. “Not me,” Marko pipes up. “I can catch a fly midair.”

• “Oh fuck off, (Y/N) doesn’t care if I can use chopsticks or not, do you babe?” He asks, leaning in for a kiss. You take advantage of his momentary distraction to snatch a bite of his chicken...with your chopsticks. He gasps in mock offense at your sneakiness, and you quickly press your lips against his to make up for it. “Nope, I think it’s cute.” He’s smiling ear to ear, his big blue eyes locked on you, and your smile.

• David makes an exaggerated gagging noise, staring at the two of you and thoroughly ruining the moment. “Mind wrapping it up? Some of us are trying to eat here...Speaking of which, how are your maggots, Michael?” “Excuse me?” “Maggots, Mike, you’re eating Maggots.” Mike rolls his eyes, humoring David and looking into the cartoon. His eyes go wide and he instantly drops the carton, spilling rice all over the ground as he gags. The boys all laugh, and you look at Mike with concern. “What the hell Mike? It’s just rice.” He looks at you like you’re crazy, pointing frantically to the carton. “(Y/N) are you crazy? Look, it’s-” He looks down to see nothing but rice...certainly no maggots. “It’s...rice.” He looks up at David. “What the fuck did you do to me?” Paul laughs, pulling a positively ancient altoids tin from his jacket. “Take it easy, Mikey, you need to calm down,” he says, popping open the tin to reveal a collection of hand rolled joints.

• Your eyes light up, it’s been a while since you’ve smoked, and it’s always good with Chinese food. You look at Mike, being consoled by Star. “Could be the stress, Mike. When was the last time you even slept well since...” You don’t mention his parents’ divorce in front of the guys. That’s Mike’s business, not yours. He nods, catching your meaning. “...Yeah, yeah I’m in.” Marko jumps down from his perch, smacking Mike on the back. “Atta boy, Mikey!”

• Paul tosses Marko a joint, pulling out another and slipping it between your lips. “This one’s just for us.” He lights the joint, and you inhale deeply. “Romantic,” you say, blowing smoke at him. “I try,” he says, leaning in for a kiss as he takes the joint from your fingers. He pulls away just far enough so he can press the tip of his nose against yours. He takes a long drag, holding the smoke in as he leans in for another kiss. You inhale the smoke from his lungs, trying hard not to cough and ruin the kiss; this was the first time you were on this end of the shotgun. Your chest begins to heave, and he pulls away with a grin so you can cough in peace. “Wow, you take my breath away,” you squeak out between heaving coughs. He laughs, not a mean sound this time, but with genuine delight. “Damn babe, I think I might end up falling for you,” he jokes, hand on his heart.

• You planned on sassing him back, but you find yourself lost in his big beautiful eyes. You swallow, hard. Maybe it’s the weed, maybe it’s the excitement of the night, but you can’t help but think that sounds...kind of nice. You glance around the cave, at the guys, and back at Paul. Would it be so bad to stay here forever? You’re broken out of your trance by a musical tinging sound, you and Paul both look up to see David clinking an old spoon against the gaudiest decorated wine bottle you’ve ever seen. Oddly; Paul tenses beside you, his hand on your knee almost trembling.

• David turns to Mike with the wickedest look on his face. “Join us, Michael.” Star grabs onto Mike, looking even more tense than Paul does now. “You don’t have to do it, Michael. It’s not too late to back out,” she urges. “What is it?” “Blood,” she says. You laugh at the obsurdity, and Mike shakes his head at her, knocking back the bottle and drinking deeply. The boys cheer, and David turns the bottle to you. “(Y/N)...drink, and be with us forever.”

• Before you can reach for it, Paul holds his hand out to David. Unfortunately, it slips out of his hand, the bottle shattering at your feet, spilling wine over your shoes. David shoots him the nastiest look, and Paul puts his hands up in apology. “Fuck, shit, I’m so sorry; I’ll clean that up,” he says, dropping to his knees. You drop down beside him, and his eyes go wider than you’d ever seen them. “(Y/N)-” “I can help.” “No, You don’t need-” Suddenly he winces, and you instinctively grab his hand. “Fuck,” he grunts, watching the blood well up in his palm. He puts his hand to his mouth, trying to cover the bleeding. “Shit, Paul, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” “Maybe you should kiss it better,” Marko taunts. “I’m fine, (Y/N), really.” He gazes at you soothingly with those eyes of his, trying not to wince as you blot at his bleeding hand with your shirt. “You’re bleeding like crazy-” you start to argue, before noticing that his hand is hardly bleeding anymore. How could that be? He flexes his hand gingerly. “See, I told you I’m fine,” he smiles at you, his eyes sparkling. “Wouldn’t mind that kiss though.” You smile back at him, taking his hand to your lips. You taste the blood still wet against his hand, and strangely, it tastes almost sweet. You wonder if maybe it’s the weed smoke on your tongue, or maybe the chinese food, that’s making his blood taste so strange. You stare up at him sheepishly, thankful he can’t tell what you were thinking just now. He caresses your face softly in his hand, and you melt into the tenderness of his touch. “You’re so cute when you’re worried about me.” He presses his lips against yours, and you’re immediately hit by the sweet taste of his blood again. Part of you is horrified with yourself; you know you should pull away, but it’s just too good. You think you might die when he slips his tongue into your mouth. All too soon he pulls away, looking more than satisfied with himself, a breathless glee in his eyes. He strokes his thumb across your mouth, coming back bloody. “Looks like we made a mess.” He leans in to whisper in your ear. “And it looks like you liked it.” Your body tenses, mortified at being caught, but he runs a comforting hand down your back. “Don’t worry babe, it’ll be our dirty little secret.”

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Whole Cake Island

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano

sanji is such a self-sacrificial idiot. and i know that’s not exactly a ground-breaking statement, but it does define the entire first half of whole cake island, so it may as well be reiterated here: sanji does not value his own life as much as he should, and fails to grasp that other people care about him outside of what he can offer them, which is why he’s so surprised when luffy later comes charging headlong into big mom’s territory.

zou is a really good little arc, and it also mirrors the themes of whole cake island in miniature. the minks collectively make a massive sacrifice and risk absolutely everything to protect raizou, and wci is essentially all about loyalty and sacrifice, whether its sanji giving himself up to protect the strawhats and zeff or luffy and the strawhats facing impossible odds to rescue him to pedro giving up his life to get them all out of there safe.

huge fan of this panel partly just because it’s cute and partly because it’s a great visualization of just how dysfunctional the heights are in one piece.

zou is one of my favorite settings in one piece just for the sheer creativity of it. zunesha is so massive and so mysterious and so strange. and she really looks unspeakably old just from how she’s drawn, looming over everyone and everything, eyes hollow and empty, an entire forest and an entire people growing on her back that have been there for thousands of years. it’s just so neat and so wildly inventive.

this applies to zou as a whole, but i think it’s really cool how all the little threads that will become important during wano are set up so effectively even before whole cake island starts. we get this shot here of kidd beat to shit and then forget it because so much happens between here and when he shows up again in wano, but then oda punks us into caring about him and killer so much and this retroactively becomes very important.

ever since his introduction sanji’s always been a character basically defined by his adherence to his principles: always feeding the hungry, never wasting food, never hurting women, never using his hands in combat. he’s probably the most firmly principled person on the crew, and that’s more obvious in whole cake island than in any other arc except maybe baratie.

sanji is very stubbornly good, which puts him in acute contrast to his siblings and their general cruel apathy. it’s something i really like about him.

i’m a huge fan of big mom’s introduction, which is also our introduction to tottoland in general. it’s cutesy and colorful and musical while simultaneously being deeply creepy, with lyrics about killing people for ingredients and making jam out of blood, which is a great summary of the core of big mom’s character. she’s an old lady all in pink who lives in a cartoon fairy-tale land- but she’s also a deranged cannibal, and all those singing trees and flowers are animated by the life she steals from her citizens as tax.

whole cake island draws on a lot of fairy tale motifs (especially with brulee), and the contrast that saccharine appearance creates with how fucked up the actual content is is super effective and memorable, i think.

honestly i find most of the content of sanji with the vinsmokes just plain upsetting, which i’m sure is intentional, so i’m not going to go into it a lot here, but i am including this panel of him kicking niji in the face.

sad as this scene turns out, luffy’s absolute thrill at finding sanji and the corresponding bafflement of the vinsmokes as to how the fuck he even got there always kinda makes me grin.

i always love seeing people’s underestimations about luffy get thrown right the hell out the window- because let’s be honest, he’s easy to underestimate, he’s like a five and a half foot tall rubber teenager and not very physically intimidating and all, and then he goes and pulls off the impossible without blinking.

the thing that makes luffy unique as a captain has always been his willingness to rely on his crew, and his willingness to openly admit that reliance, like he did all the way back in arlong park. most of the other contenders for the pirate king’s crown we’ve seen- big mom, kaidou, crocodile once upon a time- have been stubbornly individualistic people who explicitly shown not to care for their crew and allies, generally seeing them as disposable.

luffy is the opposite of all of them, because his crew are everything to him, to the point of being willing to sacrifice his dream for them. and the loyalty he wins from them in return is unmatched, as opposed to big mom and kaidou, who both get cheerfully betrayed not just by their own crewmates but by their own children.

brook is really cool in whole cake island, and honestly it comes at just the right time for him as a character. ever since his introductory arc in thriller bark until this point he hasn’t gotten a ton of focus, so it’s great that he gets to be the mvp here and demonstrate exactly why he’s a strawhat pirate and how much he’s grown over the timeskip.

oda is generally really good at introducing and handling characters contained to a single arc/saga, but i do think he absolutely knocked it out of the park with pedro. he has an interesting backstory, compelling motivations, and basically an entire sub-arc ending in his death that never distracts from the main plot, but only ever adds to it.

pedro really feels like a fully realized character who’s had a whole life offscreen, who we just happened to catch at the very end of his story. i think that’s super impressive.

i really love this moment, because for me, this is the moment where whole cake island becomes a tremendous arc, and where the tides begin to turn and the dominoes begin to fall, one after the other. this is sanji hitting absolute rock bottom. the one ray of light he pinned all his hopes on was a lie, and he can’t even light a fucking cigarette.

but one piece is, very often, a story about picking yourself up even when you feel like you can’t.

i think there’s something lovely about how much one piece emphasizes the value of honestly asking for help. luffy waits for nami to ask for help, and for robin to say she wants to live, and for sanji to admit he just wants to go home, and then says, “okay, i’ll make that happen.”

it just makes me so happy how happy the stawhats are to know sanji’s back with them. it reminds me a lot of how they all brush off robin’s thanks after enies lobby. sure, they’re going to have to crash the wedding and confront big mom directly and might all die, but who cares? they’ve got sanji back. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, i love how much they love each other.

i think the gangster outfits are super fun, and i love that oda is committed enough to his aesthetics to come up with an excuse to put them all in formalwear. it pays off, they all look extremely snappy.

i know i just said it in the dressrosa posts but i’m reiterating it here because this is my favorite example of it by far: i love when oda does this split-screen thing with his panels. the contrast between the two halves of pudding is so severe and yet they’re so clearly the same person i honestly just find this pair of panels fascinating to look at.

this panel also kind of gets at my favorite thing about pudding as a character, really. i know she’s a little controversial in fandom, but i’ve always found her entertaining (at least post-reveal), especially in the contrast between her unhinged evil side and her genuinely sweet romantic side and her post-wedding tendency to randomly ping-pong between the two.

i just always like reminding people that sanji is fast enough and his observation haki good enough to dodge a surprise attack, while thoroughly distracted, from katakuri.

sanji in this arc tends to get shit from a certain side of fandom for being ‘useless’ since he doesn’t have a big climactic fight despite being the focus of the arc, which i think is thoroughly missing the point. sanji is still plenty capable in combat, as demonstrated both here and later, with chiffon and oven. it just happens that his strength isn’t what saves the day ultimately, because combat ability isn’t everything, which is the entire point of the vinsmoke backstory/subplot. sanji saves the day just by being kind.

i’ll admit big mom’s flashback isn’t one of my favorites, taken in isolation- there are some parts of it that kind of unresolved (at least as of now- i still suspect they’ll be followed up eventually), and in general, although there is a tragedy to it, it doesn’t quite hit the way many of the other more effective flashbacks do. that said, i do think it does a really good job of succinctly explaining why big mom is the way she is in the present: she’s a child who was never told no, who never grew or matured past the disappearance of her adopted mother. that’s it, and that’s enough.

i’ve always been a little bit in love with how seriously and consistently one piece handles its themes of found family, and sanji outright disowning judge in whole cake island is maybe the most outright they ever get: family is found, not made. you owe nothing to your blood and are never beholden to your abusers.

and i just like that a whole lot.

i do think the tamatebako is one of the best uses of chekov’s gun i’ve ever seen. we’re first shown it at the end of fishman island, it’s revealed it got sent off to big mom rigged with explosives which is a minor “oh fuck” moment, and then it gets forgotten about, because the entirety of punk hazard and dressrosa happens in between! which is a lot!

i remember when i reached the moment in whole cake island where we’re reminded that that bomb still exists and is still waiting to explode, i just started laughing hysterically out loud, because i’d completely forgotten, and now that i remembered i was just delighted to know it was going to definitely go off at some point, almost certainly in a very satisfying way.

pedro is, if i remember right, the first time the imagery of the coming dawn that will become quite important in wano really has attention drawn to it in-text- the recurring motif is there before this, of course, dating all the way back to the names of the first chapter (romance dawn) and first island (dawn island), but this is the first time it’s actively addressed in-story.

in doing so, oda essentially presents a fresh mystery for us, but one that has been set up so consistently ever since chapter one that it feels like it fits perfectly into the world and story.

luffy’s been punching way above his weight class ever since crocodile all the way back in alabasta, fighting enemies who clearly outmatch him but always managing to win anyways, but his fight with katakuri is maybe the clearest the sheer differential in strength ever gets, because katakuri’s powers are similar enough to luffy’s that he can pull off pretty much all of luffy’s techniques, but better. so luffy has to fall back on the two things that have always been his greatest strengths, again all the way back to crocodile in alabasta: innovation and sheer fucking stubbornness.

one thing i love about one piece is how no character is immune to being clowned on. absolutely nobody. everybody looks like an idiot sometimes, and it makes everything so much more fun than if the series took itself more seriously. katakuri basically actively tries to avert this by building up a fearsome, flawless, and utterly no-nonsense persona, but it winds up failing hard because it actually only makes the contrast and surprise of his actual personality and vices that much funnier.

i’ve always loved this one panel of carrot going sulong, because she just looks so monstrous, like a true werewolf. the same goes for the shift in big mom’s design when she starts going truly mad with starvation and gets even more threatening-looking (below). i just think oda should let women be monstrously scary more often.

i do really love that the entire climax of whole cake island hinges on the degree of trust and faith the strawhats, and sanji and luffy specifically, have in each other. they’re all facing massive challenges that would seem insurmountable to an outsider- luffy facing down a yonkou’s commander with a bounty of over a billion and sanji remaking a massive cake that took months to plan and make in just a few hours, the others evading big mom’s full forces and big mom herself for a full night- but none of them have even a shred of doubt that the others can manage it.

i wrote a meta post awhile back about one piece’s concept of ‘honor in a pirates’ fight, and what it came down to is this: honor can never be expected between pirates, but the best of them will show it anyways, and it can be a very telling judge of character. nobody would expect katakuri to do this, and luffy even calls him an idiot for it, but he has enough respect for luffy as a strong opponent to do it anyways, and that’s how we know for absolute certain that even though he’s an antagonist, he’s also a good, honorable person.

i really like the gesture of luffy leaving his hat over katakuri’s mouth, especially because until this point, we’re never even given any indication that he’s really noticed it, let alone that katakuri is insecure about it. he never reacts to or comments on it (which is in itself kind of unusual from someone who tends to nickname opponents by their appearances as often as luffy does) one way or another.

and then he does this, confirming all at once that he did fully notice and understand, he just doesn’t care. which i think sums up one of the more under-appreciated aspects of luffy’s character- he’s generally way more observant than people give him credit for, especially when it comes to people, it’s just that he has a very different sense of what’s important and what’s not than your average person.

i love the sheer contrast between big mom’s delighted, rapturous singing as she devours the wedding cake against the violence taking place on screen as her army rains fire and hell down on the thousand sunny. it parallels her initial introduction at the start of the arc perfectly, and is just an excellent way to close out the arc with a bang.

i said it earlier but it bears repeating here, for a different reason: luffy is not very physically intimidating. he’s shorter than most of the other main characters, he’s a lanky teenager, he dresses casually and his most identifiable accessory is a farm hat.

but then there are times when he looks like a captain, like a future pirate king, and it just looks so natural on him. i can never get over it.

i really like that, after spending a whole arc demonstrating just how different (and how much better) sanji is than the vinsmokes, it ends like this- showing us just how similar he’s grown up to the man he’s chosen as his real family, and just how proud zeff would be of him.

[named-jiang-or-wang]

SHANG-CHI (2021) Fan Revision

In my previous posts in @welcome-to-the-cafe I posted multiple rants about the movie itself. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). For such a great movie, there were still some flaws, which I will attempt to correct here.

Large fish first.

I hated the final CGI fest. Not the Ten Rings battle between Wenwu and Shang-chi, the one with ugly CGI monstrosity. "Dweller in the Darkness", for a name so mysterious, the result sure was a pretty generic bat-winged western dragon-shaped bastard. Really, as soon as it popped out of the cave, it stopped being scary; it stopped doing the one thing that made it more frightening than Wenwu, which was telepathically manipulate Wenwu using his dead wife's voice. That shit was creepy! Why stop it for the climax?? We need to involve the Ten Rings themselves in its creepiness. They should be empowered directly by the Dweller and dark feelings, and the Rings should partially transfer to Shang-Chi at his lowest, most-rage filled moment.

Plus, for all of the Chineseness of the rest of the movie, the Dweller in the Darkness looked incredibly Western. I can't think of one thing it references in Chinese mythology, which was strange since Morris does! It's a Hundun （混沌）, one of the Four Perils (四凶), why not use another one of them, like the Qiongqi (穷奇）. Especially the Qiongqi, since it supposedly eats people, so we can keeping the soul-sucking mechanic.

The little bat-spawns are also poorly-designed, and not fun to watch the martial artist army fight. Martial arts are meant to fight other people, by the Heavens, not weird flying tentacle things. Why is Ta Lo's training anti-human instead of anti-monster? Because anti-human training looks cooler. And we can keep that, with a solution I'll explain after complaining about the Dragon.

The CGI Kaiju battle between the dragon and dweller was cinematic, but it eliminated the kung fu from the final fight, reducing both Shang-Chi and Xialing to boring dragon riders. The dragon wasn't really something that deserved to be a character. I get that Shang-Chi is supposed to have his 'awakening' moment, where he embodies the dragon his mother teaches him about at the beginning of the movie. But the dragon doesn't have to be "real", it should be more of a spirit that goes into him, or comes out of his heart and empowers his body. Either way, it should be more of an internal instead of external dragon. This better reflects the internal emotional conflict of Shang-Chi, his guilt over not saving his mother and then doing terrible things to get revenge; he has to let that go, accept her loss, and with that, he can let his inner dragon out. Just like...shit, just like in Kung Fu Panda 3 lmao.

So what are my solutions to the climax?

1) Make Dweller in Darkness possess Wenwu. Or suck his soul, and then take his shape. Maybe even take the shape of the mother as well at first!

2) Make the little soulsuckers transform into shadow martial-artists. They still can only be killed by dragon weapons.

3) Make the dragon a spirit that rises out of the water that goes into Shang-Chi and Xialing, enabling them to fight Wenwu/Dweller more evenly.

Here's my altered sequence of events.

The 5 humvees still arrive, the small skirmish between the Ten Rings and the villagers still happen (without the giant lions). Wenwu and Shang-Chi still duke it out, and Wenwu knocks him away. Wenwu makes the big leap to the sealed cave, and Xialing and the aunt notice. The aunt activates a magic thing that raises a giant bridge from the depths of the water and Xialing crosses over to fight her dad. Wenwu pounds the door a bit more, and the Dweller's minions shoot out in black mist, forming into humanoid shapes that begin fighting the villagers and Ten Rings.

Meanwhile, Shang-chi is having a flashbacks in the water of killing his mother's murderer, in the process, one of the Ten Rings that is knocked away during Xialing and Wenwu's fight finds its way into the water and revives Shang-Chi. He joins the fight just as Xialing is knocked aside, apparently over the cliff. Shang-Chi loses it, and fights his father more brutally, until 5 of the rings transfers to him. They whisper to him to make his father pay, and he knocks his father into the door, shattering it, and seemingly killing Wenwu. Shang-Chi is appalled at what he's done, and he collapses and drops his 5 rings. He hears his sister calling for help, and he rushes over to see her hanging off the edge of the cliff. He can't reach her, and he cries to her that he's sorry for everything. Xialing forgives him for abandoning her before, saying that him coming to Macau meant a lot, and that their mother would be proud of him. With effort, he pulls her up, while the 5 rings to his father who rises from the rubble. Shang-Chi said their mother wouldn't be proud after what he's done for revenge, but Xialing tells him that he needs to accept what has happened.

Wenwu looks triumphant at the open gateway, but a dark mist spills in front of him and take the rough shape of his wife. He is about embrace her, but she grabs him around the wrist and possesses him through the Rings. Dweller uses Wenwu's and Ying Li's voices to taunt Shang-chi and Xialing.

Shang-chi finally lets go of his guilt and stops "running away". The spirit of the dragon rises from the sea and goes into him and his sister, empowering them. They double-team the Dweller/Wenwu until he blows them back with "Enough!". The little soulsuckers return with their spoils, strengthening the Dweller, and now he has the advantage. He defeats both of them, holds Shang-chi down, trying to steal his soul. Xialing is trying to pull him away. Shang-chi looks his father in his eyes and tells him he forgives him and he is still a good man. This awakens Wenwu inside the Dweller, and in one dramatic moment, transfers the Ten Rings to his son. With this, Shang-chi knocks Wenwu/Dweller back, and Xialing restrains him with the ropedart. Shang-chi performs exorcism, deleting Dweller forever, but Wenwu is mortally wounded. He tells Shang-chi and Xialing that he loves them, and he will tell their mother how proud he is of them, then dies.

Rest of the movies is the same.

Oh, we do need to deal with the secondary characters.

Katy shouldn't be good at archery, but could save Guan Bo/Razorfist/Death Dealer in a key moment, maybe just by tacking. She could do more to counsel Shang-Chi and Xialing before their big moments.

Death Dealer was wasted. Unique, memorable design (if kinda half-assed), only to be ignominiously soulsucked first by CGI uglies. He is basically Shang-chi's primary martial arts tutor, so should know a variety of martial arts styles. To incorporate his opera mask (a full-faced one), and add even more mystery, he should be a bianlian (变脸), a Chinese facechanger, and for each face he has a different kungfu style. This could be used to semi-humorous effect, with mocking faces and angry faces. And a Monkey King face when he's using a staff! We should not see the glint of his eyes. Before Xialing runs across the bridge to fight Wenwu, she should have a showdown with Death Dealer to show she did learn kung fu even without him. They fight to standstill, until the aunt steps in and they kick his ass together. I think he should live too, and have a team up with the aunt to delete soulsuckers.

Oh I know now, Katy, Morris and Slattery should have a comical chase/fight with Razorfist. He screams "You! I recognize you from the bus! And you stole my car!!!", and he charges at them, ignoring everyone else. They find a way to beat him up, and think they've lost him, but he gets back up and almost has them, until the soulsucker bois nab him. Katy, being a good person, fires and arrow and saves his ass.

These, and some aesthetic changes, like giving the young mom a thin flowy cloth mask instead of her noisy bamboo one, would bring the movie up from a 7.5 to a 9.5 for me.