#*also. crying in inconsistent colorings.*

[aprilblossomgirl]

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y SATANG KITTIPHOP SEREEVICHAYASAWAT 16 November 2001

Satang's list of dramas/series:

Bad Genius (2020) [Lin's student] - Guest Role

The Gifted Graduation (2020) Bom - Guest Role

Fish Upon the Sky (2021) James - Support Role

Bad Buddy (2021) [Pran & Pat's high school bandmate] - Guest Role

Star and Sky: Star in My Mind (2022) Sean - Support Role

My School President (2022-2023) "Sound" Saran - Support Role

Double Savage (2023) Pea - Support Role

Our Skyy 2 Star and Sky: Star in My Mind (2023) Sean - Support Role

Our Skyy 2 My School President (2023) "Sound" Saran - Support Role

Wednesday Club (2023) Pheem - Main Role

We Are (2024 ?) Q - Main Role

[unearthly-doting]

Heyyyy could you possibly do

Finding their soulmate: creepypasta edition

any creepypasta characters you want (including Jeff the killer & Homicidal Liu pls 🙏)

finding their soulmate: creepypasta edition.

notes: crying i miss my colored text :( i got another two soulmate posts coming ur way soon guys bc that's in high demand it seems so!! also im on my tablet writing all of this and tumblr mobile sucks so if there's any mistakes blame them not me. anyways send requests for things if u want. love u all !

includes: jeff the killer, homicidal liu, eyeless jack, nina the killer, the bloody painter, and ticci toby.

warnings: not proofread and written while i was super tired so, yandere content, mdni, inconsistent length, reader injury in jeff and toby's parts, stalking, mild poly content in liu's part bc he and sully r a package deal here, kidnapping, breaking and entering, murder, this is all actually pretty tame, obsessive behavior, possessive behavior, overprotective behavior. i think that's all??

JEFF THE KILLER — didn't have a soulmate. He didn't have any soulmark, there was no name on his wrist or a string around his finger. The universe had destined him to be alone, it seems. When he was younger, this had been crushing. Why did his brother get to have a soulmate but he didn't? What was so different about him that he didn't deserve a destined love?

Though, after he became the man he is today, Jeff found that he didn't care about soulmates. He probably would've killed his soulmate, if he had one. If anything, he found himself developing a burning hatred at the very concept of soulmates.

Everyone had always played it out to be something wonderful, something people were lucky to have. But he's seen otherwise. He's killed soulmates who have turned on each other just to try and save their own life. It's all a bunch of romanticized bullshit.

And he thinks you're a dumbass for believing that your soulmate would be a good person. Jeff doesn't understand why he hasn't killed you yet, you're just some nobody that he for some reason enjoyed the company of. Maybe it's because you never try changing him. Or maybe it's boredom, who knows.

But he hates when you talk about your soulmate that you've yet to meet. You speak as if you're already in love, and it leaves this suffocating feeling in his chest each time. It didn't feel like anger or annoyance, but he was too prideful to label it as jealousy. Why would he be jealous?

Why do you want to meet your soulmate so badly anyway? You have him. He may not be your soulmate, but does it really matter? You better really hope this man never realizes he's in love with you because you're actually fucked if he does, like…

The moment he comes to terms with his feelings for you, you're never meeting your soulmate. He's crossing out their name on your wrist with his knife and replacing it with his own. You wanted to meet your soulmate so badly, so there. Now he's your soulmate. His name is forever carved on your skin, after all.

He may even force you to carve your name into his arm as well to further solidify the whole ‘soulmate’ thing you so desperately craved. You're stuck with him now, like it or not. No amount of screaming and crying will change what's happened.

Jeff doesn't understand why you're so upset. You wanted this. You were practically begging him for it, always telling him your dream life with the one you're destined with. Seriously, you should've expected this from him.

But it's okay, he'll be the soulmate that you've always wanted.

He'll stay by your side. He'll kill anyone who dares to even think about you. You said so yourself, you don't need anyone so long as you have your soulmate.

Really, he's just giving you what you want. Though he won't lie, he can't help but feel a sick and twisted pleasure at having you depend on him. He likes having you around, even if it's with your mouth taped shut to keep you quiet.

Maybe this soulmate thing isn't as bad as he thought it was.

HOMICIDAL LIU — had always dreamed of meeting his soulmate when he was younger. Something about soulmates always fascinated him, and he absolutely loved hearing stories of soulmates meeting and falling in love.

He learned from a pretty young age that whoever his soulmate was, he shared scars with them. This was something he discovered when he felt a stinging sensation on his arm one day and he could see the scar manifest on his skin. He had been so fascinated by it, and even excitedly showed it off to his parents and Jeff as if it were some sort of reward.

Though, after nearly dying at the hand of his little brother, Liu had become… terrified at the thought of meeting his soulmate. He knew that you shared his scars now. You probably got weird looks from people on the street because of them, right?

And it must've been a horrific experience, waking up in the middle of the night to blinding pain all over your face and neck and arms, unable to stop the scars from forming, not knowing what was happening. You probably hated him. He wouldn't blame you if he did.

But when Liu met you, there was no way he'd be able to let you go. At first, he had just seen you in passing, He knew you were his soulmate the moment he laid eyes on you because you weren't even trying to hide the scars you had. You wore them proudly. He had followed you home that night, just to make sure you were safe.

He felt bad about it, but he couldn't help but come back the next day. His mother must be yelling at him from her grave, scolding him for stalking his soulmate instead of just talking to them like a normal person. A simple mistake on his end (aka Sully literally forced the man in front of you) led to the two of you actually meeting.

You had been so concerned, asking him if he were okay. It had been years since he sustained these injuries, but you still asked. You had always wanted to ask, ever since that night. Your pain was dull in comparison to what he must've gone through, and Liu nearly cried experiencing your kindness because he simply did not deserve it.

Liu tries really hard to have a normal relationship with you, he really does, but he's so utterly paranoid about your safety almost constantly when he's away from you. It makes him sick to his stomach imagining the danger you could potentially find yourself in without him around to keep you safe.

It didn't help that Sully only amplified these thoughts and good lord, how would you react to meeting Sully? Liu had always been very careful making sure that he never fronted when you were around, but Sully was starting to become ansty, eager to meet you.

When Liu wasn't hunting Jeff, he was with you. Sometimes you knew, but most of the time, you didn't. Stalking you was second nature at this point, and he doubts it's something he'll ever stop doing. Besides, it's not like he's hurting anyone by stalking the person he loves. Is it completely wrong and a violation of privacy and respect? Yes. Does he feel guilty? Absolutely. Will he stop? No chance. This is for your safety, after all.

Sully thinks he's a fucking fool behaving this way all for one person just because you're his soulmate (which he also thinks is dumb, by the way.) but then he actually meets you for the first time. You had immediately clocked in on the fact that he wasn't Liu, even though Sully prides himself on mimicking the man fairly well. Looks like you have two soulmates now! Yay!

Unfortunately for you, Sully is a lot more direct than Liu. Liu keeps his possessive thoughts to himself whilst Sully makes it very clear that you belonged to them. Liu's affection was hesitant, scared that he may hurt you if he's too eager. Sully's affection was almost suffocating, the way he'd cling to you and refuse to let go.

And if you ever decide that being with them is too much, trust me when I say they will go to great lengths to keep you with them. Liu isn't above locking you away somewhere if it means keeping you safe, and Sully won't hesitate to kill someone just to keep you in check.

Liu just wants to keep you safe. You can't protect yourself, so let him do it for you.

EYELESS JACK — was confused by the blackened, withered string connected to his pinkie. He knew what soulmates were, though he's not sure why the remnant of one was still tied to him. After his… changes… he shouldn't have a soulmate at all, not even the remnants of one.

Even the smallest string around his finger meant the bond was still there. It made no sense, it defied nature itself just by existing. He didn't understand, but he couldn't deny that he was curious. Whoever was on the other side of this string was destined to be with him, how could he not be curious?

It took time, but Jack had plenty to spare. He followed the string as best he could. The poor thing was so fragile, the smallest tug could tear the bond apart. He's not sure what he'll do when he finds the one he has a fragile bond with, to be honest. Soulmates aren't really… useful, to him. His only driving force is survival. Food. Nothing else is important.

Yet this was, oddly enough. There was just something deep inside of him telling him that he needed to find his soulmate.

And when he found the end of his string, it was connected to you. Now, Jack has no memory of who he was before becoming a flesh-eating demon. He was human once, he thinks, so maybe that's why there's something so familiar about you. A long forgotten part of himself was craving you.

And you? You were utterly horrified to find someone that resembles your missing best friend in your home one night. This was Jack, and yet… he wasn't. You didn't know this man. You didn't want to know this man. But he didn't care. Jack was dead set on having you.

He wouldn't leave you alone. He showed up every single night just to watch you. It was unnerving. To you, it felt like he was waiting for the right time to strike. You were waiting for him to kill you, to devour your soul or whatever.

To him, he was protecting you.

You were his mate. That's what he recognized you as. And as your mate, it was his duty to protect you. He didn't see his behavior as odd. To him, he was just providing for you. He saw no harm in breaking into your home every night to make sure you were safe.

Jack may not understand fully why he's attached to you like this, but he can make an educated guess. It's clear that you knew him. Or, you did, at least. You look at him as if you're looking at a ghost. Clearly, you were someone he's always been attached to. Though, it seems his demonic traits have amplified that attachment.

He won't hesitate to hunt you down if you try running away.

There's nowhere you can go where he won't find you. He'll follow you to the ends of the earth, if he must.

Jack doesn't need you to love him back. Hell, he doesn't need you to like him. He just needs you, in any way he can have you. His entire being aches when he's not with you.

So here you are, stuck with the creature. You're haunted by him, really. And, to be honest, you're not sure if you wanted him to leave.

NINA THE KILLER — wrote literal fanfic on how she wanted her first meeting with her soulmate to go. All she ever wanted was for someone to love her, so when she learned that the inner voice that all of her thoughts was in belonged to her soulmate, she was utterly ecstatic!

This was the only thing in life that mattered to her. Nothing else was important. Everyone in her life thought she was strange, how obsessed she was over someone she hasn't even met.

But if they could hear your voice, they'd understand. Whenever she needed comfort, she would just think random thoughts so she could hear your voice.

And when she finally meets you, it's like something out of a fairytale. To her, at least. She had just broken into your home to kill you, but when you begged for your life, it was like everything clicked.

She looked at you as if you were everything she could ever need, and it made you feel sick to your stomach.

Nina had no plans of letting you go now that she finally had you. One moment, you're in your home, and then the next, you're waking up in a cabin deep in the forest, decorated to seem like a cozy home.

She acted as if she hadn't kidnapped you. In her mind, you two were pretty much married already. You're her soulmate, after all! That's better than marriage in her eyes. And if you don't play along with her, she won't hesitate to remind you just exactly what she could do to you.

Not that she would ever actually hurt you!

No, Nina could never do that. You're the only thing that has kept her sane all these years. Your voice is the only thing that keeps her going these days.

You just gotta understand that Nina can't live without you. She'd never hurt you, but she's not above scaring you into compliance if it means you'll play along with her fantasies.

But if you ignore the fact that she kidnapped you and is holding you hostage in a cabin so deep in the woods that your chance of escape is slim to none, she's actually probably the best soulmate you could ever ask for. When you actually play along with her, that is.

She doesn't force too much affection on you. If she wants to cuddle you, she will, like it or not. But she never takes it any further than that. She respects your boundaries in her own sick and twisted way.

There's no escaping her love now that she finally has you. She'll drown you in it until it's all you'll want.

THE BLOODY PAINTER — had no real interest in meeting his soulmate, even if it meant his world lacked color. The lack of color in his world didn't deter from his passion for art, and he didn't need to see color to create a masterpiece. If anything, the black and white world he lived in seemed to fit him perfectly.

Sure, he had a few passing thoughts on what his soulmate might be like, but it's nothing he ever really entertained. And if he ever met his soulmate, he sincerely doubts he'd want any real connection with them. Rather, he doubts they'd want anything to with him.

So imagine his surprise when he bumps into you one day and color suddenly bursts into his world. It's dizzying, for the both of you, but all Helen can focus on is the red you were wearing.

Red is a beautiful color on you.

It's an awkward start to your relationship, mostly because it was so sudden. Neither of you really knew what to do, and in the beginning, it honestly seemed as if you two just weren't meant to be. But somehow, it seemed to work out.

Helen really didn't want you finding out about his whole serial killer thing. He wanted a normal relationship with you. Something that would separate him from the whole ‘Bloody Painter’ title the media had given him.

He could spend hours just drawing you. You invade his every thought most days, and he can draw you from memory. He has numerous sketchbooks just filled to the brim with drawings of you. And almost all of them feature the color red in some way.

Art was his main way of expressing his love to you. His expression was always apathetic and his words never felt like enough to him, so what better way to show his love than by painting you masterpieces? Almost every piece of art he made these days were dedicated to you. Even his murders.

It was only a matter of time before you learned about his side hobby, unfortunately. You were smart, something he loved very dearly about you. He's not sure when you started to suspect him of being a killer, but he knew you were starting to become wary of him. Whenever the news talked about a recent murder, he could always feel the way your gaze drifted over to him, even if for a moment.

To be honest, he didn't see any reason to confirm nor deny your suspensions. He was curious to see whether you'd stay with him or if you'd try to leave the longer you suspected him. Not that he'd let you, of course. Helen couldn't lose you, you were his muse. If he lost you, how could he ever create art?

Helen would only do something if you tried telling someone about your suspicions. Maybe your friend or family member was a detective, but whoever you try telling is going to end up a bloodied corpse in front of you, your boyfriend standing over their corpse with a look of mild disgust.

Their blood smearing onto your skin when Helen gently cups your cheeks, telling you how careless you had been, how you left him with no choice but to kill that person. You were freaked out by the entire situation, but Helen wouldn't let you go.

Red truly is a beautiful color on you.

TICCI TOBY — genuinely had no idea he had a soulmate, simply because he couldn't feel pain. Truth be told, he didn't even know what soulmates were until he was already a proxy. Kate had been kind enough to explain it to him, when he questioned the mark on her neck.

It was a concept that he found interesting because the idea of meeting someone who would finally understand him was too good to pass up. At the same time, he couldn't help but think it to be bullshit. Toby had always been disillusioned to love, even if he couldn't quite remember why. It just seemed too good to be true.

He wasn't even sure if he had a soulmate, truth be told. He didn't have any marks on him as far as he could tell, and there were no words or names or anything like that. He just assumed he was one of the rare few that didn't have a soulmate.

But then he met you.

You, the newest proxy. Fresh meat, dazed and confused and in need of training. He was like you once, years ago. He trained himself, too stubborn to listen to anyone else. Because of that, Slender always made him train any new proxy it brought. It annoyed him beyond belief, but he didn't have much of a choice.

There was something strange about you. He's not quite sure what it was, but he found it strangely difficult to look away from you for too long. There was just… something drawing him to you. He only understood why when he cut himself on his hand when he retrieved one of his hatchets he had you throwing.

You had gasped. It was a pained one, so of course he had to check you for injuries. When he found the cut on your hand, you had pointed out the fact that he had a similar one on his own. It was… weird, truthfully. And maybe he was being dumb, or whatever, but Toby couldn't help but wonder if… were you his soulmate?

The very thought was enough to drag his hatchet across his arm, watching as the very same cut he had given himself tore into your skin as well. It had left him speechless, to say the least. He felt conflicted in so many ways, and to be honest, he avoided you in the beginning. He had nobody for the longest time, and now he suddenly has a soulmate? It was just a bit much for him, and he needed the space.

But trust that once he's accepted that he has someone in his life now, you're stuck with him. Toby isn't a physical person, so you don't have to worry about him actually sticking to you, but he always seems to be keeping an eye on you. For Toby, he's always been hyper aware of his surroundings because if he's not, he could get hurt without realizing it and then bleed out and die, so sad. But now he has to make sure you don't get hurt as well, already becoming increasingly protective over you.

Any missions tasked to you, Toby will always join you. Doesn't matter how simple the mission is, or if you or Slender try to argue with him, he's going.

He's so protective over you that it borders on possessive. He hates when you get close to anyone, and the moment you leave his line of sight, he's hunting you down. Friend or foe, Toby doesn't want you near them. You have to understand that everyone has bad intentions. Hell, Toby himself acknowledges his behavior to be bad as well, he's well aware of that fact. But to him, it's for your own good. You can trust him, but you can't trust anyone else.

And there's literally no chance that you'll be able to leave him if you tried. As a proxy of Slenderman, you're stuck with him. Slender doesn't care about your comfort, it only cares about you completing the missions it gives to you. Sure, it finds Toby's behavior strange and mildly annoying, but it's not causing you any physical harm, so it simply doesn't care.

But Toby would never, under any circumstances, hurt you. That's something he will vehemently refuse to do no matter what, so you could use that against him if need be.

Just… just let him have this. Let him have you.

[kabuki-draws]

I watched Ridley Scott's NAPOLEON yesterday and it was a complete Waterloo.

Yes, I am a big history nerd with a giant heart for movie adaptation of historical topics. But when I watched NAPOLEON I sat there... and tried not to laugh. It was not only so historical inaccurate, that I wanted to cry, at the same time it was filled with cringe dialogues, red flags and terrible color grading. This whole movie made me so sad yet so angry, that I HAVE to write this review:

(Disclaimer: This review is based on my own opinion. If you enjoyed the movie, it's completely fine. Btw. in that case or if you agree with me, feel free to tell me your opinion. I would love to know!)

First of all: Don't get me wrong, the medium film has its own rules and you can't put as much historical accuracy into a big scale movie as you would into a documentary - sometimes the story needs to be altered to be a good movie. And that is fine. Even if Gladiator is a complete fictional story set in the Roman Empire, I can still enjoy this movie for what it is: A good-written story with great characters, a beautiful score and iconic scenes. With Kingdom of Heaven it's kind of the same - and while the movie cut was very inconsistent, I still kind of liked it. But then the Directors Cut made it a a masterpiece for me.

Funny enough, both of these movies are made by the same person: Ridley Scott. So naturally I thought: Well, Napoleon won't be a historical accurate film, but I surely will enjoy it anyways. Well, ...no. It is not only historical incorrect, it's also a bad movie overall.

To start it short: NAPOLEON clearly lost itself in all the various topics it wanted to tell within a runtime of two and a half hours. It made the whole storytelling very weird and inconsistent, causing the problem, that the audience even loses itself in the questions of when and where. Where is that scene located? When did that happen? And then comes the question: Why is this even happening?

Ridley Scott wants to depict Napoleon as a lover, a military genius, a big political figure, a revolutionary and more. But in the end he tells all of this in the most shallow way possible, which waters down Napoleons personality traits and achievements to a series of small scenes. You never get a glimpse of the "true" Napoleon, who was described as a highly intelligent and charismatic man. In fact, you never really feel ANYTHING about him except that he was a cringe red flag in front of his wife. He just stands there, stares and has very limited dialogue scenes to get a picture of that man. What are his overall motivations? Only Josephine? If so, why is this motivation only vaguely explored?

The whole love story between him and Josephine feels so unnatural and got to the brink of being disgusting. This is particularly sad because I deeply respect Vanessa Kirby and Joaquin Phoenix, they're both stunning actors. I don't know if they just couldn't fit the role or if it was rather a problem of the script (the last one is my guess). Yet whenever I saw Josephine and Napoleon on screen, I felt like acted very stiff and forced. Napoleon seemed more obsessed with her than actual love and that can be a character trait, but there wasn't a chance to explore that deeper. Before the movie entered the cinema, the lovestory between these two was marketed as intense, obsessive, deeper than you could imagine. What the audience got was a few scenes without real conversation, much staring and a bunch of cringeworthy s-scenes. And seriously, these "sexy" scene were the worst. I was so disgusted by them because they were SO DAMN WEIRD. There are no scenes that undermine ANY deep love between Josephine and Napoleon. It felt therefore so off, when they still longed for each other after their divorce.

And let's not start to ramble about the fact that they depicted Josephine ONLY in a somehow sexual way. Yeah, there is that scene where she says to Napoleon, that he is nothing without her. BUT SHOW, DON´T TELL! You never see her doing something instead of sitting there, talking with others or when the plot needs her to have sexy time with someone (not only Napoleon). As a woman myself this makes me so freaking furious, you have no idea. I don't need a marvel-coded super-strong woman with unlimited talents - I just need a female character that is written GOOD and plausible! Make me CARE for her plot and for the plot of Napoleon! Both of them don't even feel like normal human beings because they're like blank pieces of paper with their names written on it!

And don´t make me start to talk about the historical inaccuracies. At first I didn't want to draw that card. Actually, I don't need a historical movie to present 100% facts. If the movie is still enjoyable, it's okey. But even if many people say that the war scenes were awesome, I can only partly agree. Yeah, we have that cool ice-lake Austerlitz battle, but it took me a couple of minutes and a better look on the uniforms to know that Napoleon is now at war with Austria! You get nearly ZERO context to Napoleons battles. Yeah, nice, the scenes look cool - but there is nothing more to it? Is that all you need to show for the audience to care? For me at least, I just didn't care at all and I was very happy when I got out of the cinema. Overall this movie is full of messy non-sense choices that don't contribute to the story. Many moments just confused me and it left me with the question why Scott couldn't simply hire some historians to put together a consistent story. Everyone who read about Napoleons life knows that there are so much cinema worthy moments in his career that would've been so much better than what we now got.

I could ramble about that movie for hours if I´m honest, but I hope this little TED talk was enough to make my statement clear.

In the end, it just makes me sad. I wanted to like this movie, I wanted it to be good. For months I hyped myself up to this, read books about Napoleon, watched the trailer all over and over and talked with friends about how great this movie will be. Now I am just disappointed and frustrated. Oppenheimer was such a great biopic of a historical person that became a great success at the box office - even without great battle scenes. I hoped that Napoleon would push a cinema revolution, that shows people want big scaled films about historical personalities and history topics. But now I just want to forget this Napoleon movie to be honest.

[brucebocchi]

Winter 2024 anime, Pt. 2: Mixed reactions, the bench, and the gems

hey y'all, this is also up on my ko-fi! it's free to read both here and there, but i'm struggling financially rn so i could appreciate if you'd throw a few bucks my way if you liked it! part 1 can be found here.

And we're back for part 2! Here's all the new stuff I finished this season, and one more I'll get back to later. As with before, these are sorted alphabetically within each category and are not ranked as of yet.

Also as before, the OP for each series is linked in the title. Check them all out if the header images aren't giving you the right feel for each show, but also check them out because most of them were actually pretty damn good this season.

[Solo Leveling OP voice] LET'S GET IT!

Mixed Bags:

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

Your standard, quasi-harem “easily flustered Regular Guy wins over hot girls just by being really nice” shonen romcom. I really don’t have much to say about this one other than if you’ve seen My Dress-Up Darling, you’ve basically seen this already. The only thing that really sets it apart is the setting.

Tsubasa (voiced by Nobunaga Shimazaki, in a FAR cry from his turn as Mahito in Jujutsu Kaisen) is a straight-laced Tokyoite whose family situation lands him in a small city in the frozen boonies of Hokkaido. While looking for the bus to his new house, he runs into a gyaru in the snowy wild, the underdressed, hilariously-proportioned Minami, and they hit it off. It turns out they go to the same school, there are other cute girls there who take a shine to him as well, it’s nothing new.

I ultimately don’t have much to say about Hokkaido Gals, but I do have a soft spot for series like this, and after reading ahead in the manga I felt obligated to see it through. This is all junk food, but it’s all stuff you’ve seen done better in other series. I also have a soft spot for gyaru in anime and manga, and while I do like Minami just fine, she isn’t Marin Kitagawa or Rumiko Manbagi. I don’t really have it in me to recommend this show to many, though, at least not until another season rolls around, if that ever happens. The manga genuinely does get a lot better as it goes on, but the really worthwhile stuff may not happen until a third season, and I just don’t see that happening. 

The manga has issues that the anime isn’t willing or able to solve, chief of which being the visuals. The art style of the manga is wildly inconsistent, and getting a mediocre animation team on this didn’t help matters at all. While the colors often pop nicely against the pretty, snowy backdrops, nobody looks all that great overall. The characters are recognizable, but they just plain don’t look great a lot of the time, nor do they look consistent from one cut to the next; I said that Minami’s proportions are hilarious, but just as hilarious is how wildly they vacillate from one scene to the next for the sake of trying to titillate the viewer.

My biggest takeaway from both the manga and anime was everything I learned about Hokkaido in the process, and if the series is taking subsidies from the island’s tourism bureau, then it’s a job well done. I want some goddamn jingisukan now. The OP is a great time, though. I’m shocked it took over a decade for us to get a proper “Uptown Funk” knockoff in an anime.

Metallic Rouge

I’ll be upfront in saying that this was my biggest disappointment of the season by far. This show had so much going for it, and what we got was… ugh.

There was an unbelievable amount of promise from the outset: This was Studio Bones’ commemorative 25th anniversary production, and coming from the studio that gave us all-timer adaptations like Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Mob Psycho 100, not to mention later works from Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe (including the Cowboy Bebop movie), you can’t fault anyone for having high expectations. It looked to be a fitting production as well: Watanabe’s influence shines through immediately in the gorgeous, lived-in cyberpunk off-world locales and racially diverse cast. Action takes the form of dope robo-tokusatsu transformation fisticuffs, and it’s entirely in 2D animation to boot. The first couple of episodes were killer, too; everything looked and sounded amazing, and there were just enough plot threads teased out that I just had to see how they’d unravel.

It brings me no joy, then, to say that Metallic Rouge collapses into a jumbled mess. I don’t even want to bother talking about what happens in the show because I don’t fucking care anymore. There are few media experiences more sobering than to have it dawn on you over a span of several weeks that “oh… this isn’t actually all that good, is it?” Episode after episode piles on with sloppy lore, weak worldbuilding, warring factions whose names you immediately forget, pointless double-crosses, and the most predictable twist you’ve ever seen. For a while I was willing to accept the fact that I didn’t know what was going on half the time and expected things to become clearer, but now I’m not entirely sure the writers knew either. The stakes apparently kept rising and everything just kept getting more claustrophobic. I’m glad it’s over, if only because if I had to hear “Clair de Lune” one more fucking time, I was going to go ballistic. 

There are several attempts at emotional beats, as the story is rife with tragedy and sacrifice, and every single one lands with a wet thud. Nobody gets enough time, motivation, or characterization for any of these things to feel like they actually matter, and that’s especially a shame because the finale might have been able to stick the landing if the previous episodes were less dense and better paced. Emphasis on “almost,” though, because just before the season ends, we get the absolute most pointless fakeout I’ve seen since The Rise of Skywalker, which is the lowest point of comparison you can make for any work of sci-fi.

This is especially frustrating because on paper, there is so much to like here. Rouge and Naomi are likable-enough deuteragonists with a fun dynamic, and they’d make easy yuri bait in a better show. The characters are all pretty and uniquely designed across the board, and the overall aesthetic, almost a pastiche of late-90’s anime futurism, is undeniable. The toku suit designs are neat and several of the action scenes are gorgeous. The score and soundtrack are outstanding (except for the aforementioned Debussy indulgence). I have few complaints about how the show looks and sounds; the style is great! All of my issues lie with the substance.

Metallic Rouge may have had all the ingredients, but it just needed more time to cook; whether that would have been by doubling the episode count or by more carefully planning the pacing and trimming some of the fat from the lore, I’m still not sure. Probably both. It probably needed better writers, too. Maybe it just isn’t as smart as it acts and there was no way to satisfyingly resolve the clumsy civil rights allegories that bring it uncomfortably close to the likes of Detroit: Become Human. So all of the above, I guess. I tend to adore stories that involve artificially-intelligent beings developing their own wills and emotions and learning to cut their own strings (the likes of Blade Runner, Nier Automata, even a couple of character arcs in the Persona series), but this ain’t it. I’m not even mad anymore. I’m just disappointed.

If there are two positives that will stick with me, though, they would be the absolute banger of an OP and, of course, Naomi Orthmann herself (pictured above, left). Outstanding character design. I’m mildly obsessed. She deserved a better show.

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

This one isn’t even worth talking about, so here’s a brief synopsis, then I’ll add some commentary, and then we’ll all move on with our lives. 

Rentt, a beloved but mediocre adventurer in a fantasy town, gets lost in the mysterious labyrinth that all adventurers explore for personal gain, gets waxed by a dragon, and awakens as a shitty-looking CGI skeleton. He notices, though, that he’s able to level up better as a skeleton than he did as a human, and with the more monsters he defeats, the more he evolves into something closer to human. The rest isn’t really worth discussing.

If I’m being honest, I should’ve dropped this show much sooner. It looks kinda lousy most of the time, the plot (inasmuch as there even is one) is boring, character designs are forgettable (except for Rentt’s closest ally, Lorraine, holy hell) and it seems wholly uninterested in actually building its own setting. If it returns for a second season, I won’t be there, nor will I feel like I’m missing anything. Each episode felt like a chore to watch. I probably only saw it through because 1) I liked looking at Lorraine, I know what I’m about, and 2) I didn’t want to lump it in with the shows I did drop. The Unwanted Undead Adventurer isn’t as patently upsetting or frustrating as those three, but it just plain isn’t a very good show.

The Witch and the Beast

This show could have been so much more. I was drawn in by the gorgeous character designs and intriguing blend of Victorian gothic aesthetics and architecture with modern infrastructure, and very quickly disappointed by just about everything else. The first episode is an exceptional proof of concept, and almost everything that follows is an upsetting showcase of what could have been.

The story centers around Ashaf, a languid, chain-smoking agent of the governing church with a big-ass coffin strapped to his back, and his partner Guideau, a snarling hyena in a young woman’s body, as they investigate abuses of magic across the continent in search of nefarious witches. Guideau in particular has a bone to pick with witches, as the body they presently inhabit is the result of a witch’s curse, and they remain in furious pursuit of the one who cursed them. The curse can be temporarily undone by a kiss with a witch, allowing Guideau’s true body, a hulking brute confined to the coffin, to escape and wreak havoc. Meaning that on a few occasions we get a girl-on-girl kiss followed by a big dude wrecking shit. There’s also other investigations of serial killings, necromancy, and a cursed sword, and here’s hoping you like those, because the coffin breaks are few and far between.

This wasn’t great! By the third episode I had the sneaking suspicion that the animation talent on hand just wasn’t enough to support the aesthetic. While the character designs are exceptional, almost everyone looks awful in any shot that isn’t completely focused on them. This is especially true of Guideau, who looks so inconsistently off-model from one shot to the next that I’m still not entirely sure what they’re supposed to look like, and that’s kind of unforgivable when we’re talking about a main character. Everything looks too dim and too shiny at the same time, and action scenes look like shit more often than they look interesting. I can see so many flickers of something excellent (or at least really good-looking) in Witch and the Beast, and everything else that keeps those flickers from actually igniting makes it so much more frustrating to watch. Maybe just read the manga instead; the panels I've seen from it were uniformly gorgeous.

Actually, yeah, you should probably just read the manga, because for a season of anime, the pacing is atrocious too. It’s clearly trying to angle for a monster-of-the-week format, but each of these mini-arcs is a little too dense for a single episode, so multiple episodes are dedicated to these one-off curiosities, most of which do nothing to advance the plot or show off what the show does best. And if one of them isn’t particularly interesting, you’re saddled with it for the next two weeks like you've been stuck munching on a mealy apple. And I know you can only adapt so much in a 12-episode season, but the decision to end the season on a flashback arc and a lore dump was baffling. That’s not world-building, that’s lazy, and it made the show’s existing pacing issues feel that much more inane.

I feel like I was sold a false bill of goods. I can only imagine how the mangaka feels about this. Dull and uninspiring all around. What a waste.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

Isekai, unassuming high school boy gains a unique power, impending war with the Demon Lord, yadda yadda yadda. The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic isn’t anything new or special by any means, nor is it particularly well-animated or -paced, but at its best it’s silly and charming enough that it made a nice, brainless palate cleanser on Fridays.

Usato, your standard quiet high schooler, ends up walking home on a rainy evening with the popular, attractive student council president and VP, when an isekai portal happens. It turns out that it was just the seito-kai that was invited along for the ride (and President Suzune, as it turns out, is fucking psyched to get to be in an isekai), and Usato got caught along with them. When tested for magical aptitude, Suzune and VP Kazuki hit the jackpot with electric and light affinities, respectively, but things go awry when Usato’s reading turns up with healing magic. Terror strikes the palace as the intimidating dommy-mommy Captain Rose barges in to spirit Usato away from his new friends and into her squadron of goons to train him as a combat medic.

As character comedy goes, this one is actually pretty solid at times. Shogo Sakata is plenty of fun as the put-upon, lippy Usato (a much louder role than Chainsaw Man’s Aki Hayakawa), and Atsuko Tanaka (Major Kusanagi herself!) is a blast as the terrifying Rose, an uncompromising slave driver of a drill sergeant with a secret soft side. The dynamic between them is great, too; Usato is over Rose’s shit from the beginning and isn’t afraid to talk back to her, but before you know it, this transforms into friendly banter as Rose clearly takes a shine to Usato and knows he can handle any punishment she doles out. Suzune’s also a bunch of fun now that she’s broken away from having to be the competent, popular girl at school and gets to fully lean into being a complete dork.

Wrong Way also works decently as an isekai, because it makes an effort to stay rooted in high fantasy rather than fall back on JRPG mechanics, meaning there are no stat screens! It also avoids the trappings of wish-fulfillment isekai series by having Usato start out as a regular-ass guy; he’s not a Kirito type, just someone Rose sees as a rough gem in need of cutting. There are no cheat skills or OP weapons or anything, just a kid training every day to get stronger so he can protect the people close to him, and that’s the kind of anime protagonist you should want to be.

For better and for worse, I get serious mid-00s vibes from this one; watch the OP if you don’t believe me. Some of the colors pop uncannily in that early-digipaint-era way, and the animation is pretty middling; the most fluid animation we see is whenever Suzune is acting like a creep. Much like those mid-00s anime, though, Wrong Way may have benefited from being weekly (or twice as long) rather than seasonal. There’s a ton of planting with very little payoff, and it doesn’t feel like the actual scope of the story has even been addressed yet. We don’t even learn why the series has the name it does until someone literally says it aloud in the 11th episode. I may have to reevaluate this season after a possible second, if we ever get one, because this doesn’t stand too well on its own.

Of the anime in this “mixed bags” segment, I’d say I enjoyed Wrong Way the most, but it still had enough problems for me to keep it here. It’s not a particularly bad anime, but it’s not especially good either. I guess we can slot it into what Hazel refers to as “good mid.”

On Hold: 

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (three episodes watched)

Man, what a title. That was the main draw for this BL series, which on paper is basically a gay version of the Mel Gibson vehicle What Women Want. 

Adachi (a surname that will always make me laugh thanks to Persona 4), a gloomy salaryman, has hit the big 3-0 without getting any, and now he can somehow read anyone’s thoughts just by making physical contact with them. Just as he laments that this is his life now, he accidentally bumps into his handsome, popular coworker, Kurosawa, whom he learns has been harboring a massive crush on Adachi this whole time. Well dang, what now? Kurosawa’s a really nice, thoughtful dude, but Adachi’s never even thought about being with a man before! And isn’t there something wrong with already knowing this secret? How can he even go into the office and look Kurosawa in those big, handsome eyes… every single day…

What I’ve seen so far has been pretty solid, if not particularly well animated. The visuals are really my only gripe here; I just put it off for way too long and didn’t have it in me to finish it on time to actually get this thing written and published. Yaoi isn’t my forte, which feels like a shortcoming on my end as a fledgling bisexual, and I’ve already remarked on the solid LGBT representation this past season, so I do plan on hopping back on this one.

I gotta say, the co-leading voice actors put in serious work this season. Adachi is voiced by Chiaki Kobayashi, who continued his role as Stark in Frieren, returned to Mashle as Mash Burnedead, and contributed to Metallic Rouge’s cluttered cast as Noid. Kurosawa’s seiyuu, Ryota Suzuki (of whom I’ll always be a fan for his masterful turn as Yu Ishigami in Kaguya-sama), also held down leading roles in Bang Brave Bang Bravern and The Unwanted Undead Adventurer. They’ve been great in the few episodes of Cherry Magic! that I’ve seen so far, and they’ll be a huge part of what brings me back.

The Gems:

Bang Brave Bang Bravern

I feel like the mark of a perfectly audacious piece of media is in the moments where I find myself incredulously shouting “WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING” at the screen, and Bravern made me do that at least once per episode. I have so many things to say about what makes this show great but all of it can be summed up as “it fucks so goddamn hard.”

A joint military exercise in Hawaii between Japanese and American mech pilots goes south as a sudden invasion by metalloid aliens portends certain doom for humanity. Just in the nick of time, though, a bombastic, autonomous mech named Bravern arrives from space and insists that ace pilot Isami Ao take his reins. Isami reluctantly agrees, and to his consternation, Bravern goes full tokusatsu on everyone’s asses, complete with fully-diegetic theme music, and keeps the threat at bay. With Bravern continuing to pester him to act as a pilot, Isami is forced to take up the mantle of a reluctant hero as everyone rallies around Bravern to save Earth. Tagging along is blond-haired, blue-eyed American pilot Lewis Smith, who gets to live out all of his Top Gun fantasies, right down to the latent homosexuality.

That last point isn’t a projection or anything: This show is legitimately gay as hell, and it rules. Bravern’s feelings towards Isami feel far more romantic than what you’d expect from a literal robot, and his description of how it felt to have Isami pilot him for the first time, as relayed to a grim-faced military council, is riddled with hilarious innuendo. Isami struggles not only with shouldering the burden of needing to be a hero to all of humanity, but also being beset on both sides by a loud, insistent mecha and a dewy-eyed gaijin, both of whom very well seem to want to get in his pants. Intricate rituals punctuate Isami and Lewis’ angsty relationship as these broad-shouldered, muscular men grow ever closer. It’s also worth reiterating that Isami is voiced by Ryota Suzuki, who also voiced Kurosawa in Cherry Magic!, and that may not have even been his gayest role this season. I’m not super well-versed in mecha as a genre, but I do know that there’s a lot of Warrior’s Bond-type stuff in these series, and Bravern lays it on thick. And hard.

This show looks killer, by the way. CGI implementation in 2D anime is still a touchy subject, but Bravern features some of the best I’ve ever seen. Simple cel-shading goes a long way to the point where, outside of some uncanny motion, Bravern himself feels perfectly blended into the hand-drawn animation. Mecha designs range from realistic military-style tech to otherworldly sentient robots, and battle sequences run the same gamut as the stakes rise. As goofy as all of the above may sound, it’s committed to being a grandiose, big-time mecha showcase.

This is as good as camp gets in anime; Bravern does for the mecha genre what Akiba Maid War did for yakuza film pastiche (I have also heard positive comparisons to Samurai Flamenco, which I’ll have to get on ASAP). It’s an excellent mecha show in its own right, and wildly hilarious to boot. Bravern himself is very genre-savvy and seemingly a bit of an otaku himself; he loves acting like a mecha hero, to everyone else’s chagrin. Several of the villains (also mechanical beings, voiced by an all-star seiyuu roster that includes Kenjiro Tsuda, the aforementioned Atsuko Tanaka, and Rie Kugimiya) are total dorks themselves. A CIA interrogator tries to waterboard a mecha at one point. Bravern is a deeply silly show, but its heart is planted as firmly on its sleeve as its tongue is in its cheek: For as wacky as it can get, the story still unfolds with a straight face and excellent emotional beats. 

This show also has the most unskippable ED of any anime since Chainsaw Man dropped a new one every week. I will not say what happens. You cannot predict what it is. Just watch it. One of the top YouTube comments on that video says “When I saw this ending after episode 2, I thought I was going crazy.” That’s a ringing endorsement.

Chained Soldier

On the heels of 100 Girlfriends completely rewiring my brain, I was raring for some more good old-fashioned anime trash. I was told that there would be plenty this season, but you can consult the “dropped” section to see how well that worked out for me. Chained Soldier came with some significant hype, and soon enough into the first episode I realized that I’d actually skimmed through this manga before (don’t ask why), so I was on board immediately. Now here’s some nice trashy fun.

The world is in peril thanks to creatures called Shuuki that can advance on our world via portals from another dimension. Women primarily lead the charge against these monsters, as this dimension produces a special fruit that can lend them (and not men) otherworldly powers to help them in the fight. Yuuki, a perfectly normal young man, ends up in grave danger as he stumbles into a portal, where he is saved by the beautiful Kyouka, a commander who is able to subjugate Shuuki at will and use them to fight others. In a bind, she asks Yuuki if she can subjugate him, which he agrees to by licking her finger and transforming into a monster himself, at her beck and call. Because of his utility in battle, Yuuki is enlisted into her squad of baddies (and also an 11-year-old), living in their home as a caretaker and answering directly to Kyouka as her “slave.”

I know. Hear me out.

I put “slave” in scare quotes because Chained Soldier fortunately isn’t going full Shield Hero on us; this arrangement has a give-and-take baked in. See, every time Yuuki completes his service, Kyouka (or whomever else takes advantage of this anomaly) is compelled to carry out whatever suitable “reward” springs from his unconscious, and this is where the ecchi kicks in. Sometimes it’s a kiss, and sometimes it’s something a little more; the reward corresponds to the length and intensity of Yuuki’s contributions to battle, so the heat can turn up in the form of, say, clothed face-sitting, a good scrubbing in the bath, or some nice, casual CBT. All of this is to say that “slave” is a bit of a buzzword here: It’s more of a dom/sub situationship with a lot of extra steps.

Yes, just about everything that isn’t an action setup is full-on harem trash, and Chained Soldier lays it on thick, right down to full-on nudity. Nothing about this show resembles high art, but I can’t help but admire such a high level of commitment to its aesthetic, including the sleaze. It fully commits to the bit and doesn’t even bother lampshading its own trashiness. Chained Soldier knows what it’s about, and I respect that. It also has the good sense not to sexualize the youngest girl, which is a point in its favor that I can’t award a couple other shows previously discussed.

And while this show is plenty fun, the action sequences often excellent, and the character designs usually delightful, there’s not actually a whole lot going on here. As I said with Mashle, I know that battle manga like this can take a minute to really get cooking, and as I said with Witch and the Beast, 12 episodes may not always be a sufficient runtime to adapt enough to break ground, but the debut season feels more like a proof of concept than anything else. That being said, Chained Soldier’s manga has a very effusive audience, and its praises don’t seem to entirely be about the boobs and butts, so I’ll wait patiently for the second season. I think it’s earned that much.

Delicious in Dungeon

This is the one I’m having the hardest time writing about because it so confidently and so completely speaks for itself that anything I could add would feel like scattering sawdust at the beach. Dungeon Meshi (I refuse to call it by its official English title) is a widely beloved manga among those who’ve read it, and for Studio Trigger to do an honest-to-goodness manga adaptation for the first time might as well be front page news among anime fans. 

The story follows Laios, the deeply weird human hero, as he delves back into a bizarre and mysterious dungeon to rescue his sister Falin from the belly of a dragon, along with his misfit party: The neurotic half-elven mage Marcille, the temperamental halfling rogue Chilchuck, and the dwarven warrior-slash-chef Senshi. The party is frequently low on supplies, so to survive the trip they’ll need to subsist on the most abundant resource in the dungeon: Monsters. Senshi’s aptitude in the kitchen helps ensure that everything is edible and sufficiently tasty, regardless of how nasty the monster it came from may have been. With monster obstructions out of the way and their bellies filled, our party delves deeper into the dungeon as the mysteries deepen in kind.

I love the character dynamics in this so goddamn much. Marcille and Chilchuck are frequently put off by the dubious monster food presented to them, but their consternation is worsened by the fact that Laios’ fascination with the monsters it came from annoys the shit out of them. I referred to him as “deeply weird,” but that doesn’t begin to describe his absolute galaxy brain, and I mean it as a term of endearment. Laios is deeply knowledgeable and curious about the fauna in the dungeon, and not just how they taste: He is vocally curious about how certain monster attacks may feel, sings along with siren songs, and even keeps a hardcover bestiary inside his breastplate. He’s one of those people you turn to if you have a question on a hyperspecific subject, but you have to be careful how you ask it or else you’re trapped for the next two hours. And I love him for it.

Even putting the comedy aside, there is a fascinating human element at play in Dungeon Meshi, and I can tell that that surface has barely even been scratched yet. Marcille is just as dogged in her pursuit of saving Falin as Laios is, maybe even moreso (remember what I keep saying about LGBT representation this season?). Chilchuck continues to convince himself that he’s only in the job for his own personal gain, but you can see that mask slipping. And I still wanna know what Senshi’s deal is. Even with the five major players I listed, there’s an increasingly deep roster surrounding them—showcasing a broad spectrum of races and ethnicities, both real and fantastical—each with their own histories and motivations, and I cannot wait to see how they play out and interact with one another. There seem to be much deeper themes at play here as well as we learn more about perceptions and grudges between differing races, oppositional magics, clashing ideologies, and the monetary incentives that drive both the dungeon’s exploration and its very existence. I’m here for it.

I’ve been holding off on reading the manga until the season is up in June (though I could crack any day), but I know a loving adaptation when I see one. Not that Trigger ever slacks off in the animation department, but they absolutely brought their A-game here. Everyone looks bouncy and cartoony in the way only Trigger can pull off while still looking as close as possible to Ryoko Kui’s source material (as far as I can tell). As with Frieren, the action sequences aren’t frequent, nor are they entirely what the show is about, but they look incredible every single time. And the food, of course, looks incredible, no matter how weird. This is practically a cooking anime and a fantasy dungeon anime at the same time, and both aspects are visually on point at all times.

I’m obviously speaking from my own bubble as one of the six people who still use Tumblr in 2024, but I rarely see new anime make a splash like this on social media every single week, and the ones that I do are usually the monster shonen hits like Chainsaw Man or Jujutsu Kaisen. Dungeon Meshi deserves the exposure and success it’s attained, and I’m excited to see it continue. I’d easily slot this right up there with Bravern as one of the best new anime of the season.

A Sign of Affection

I’ve seen a hell of a lot of shonen slice-of-life romances in the past year and change, so a nice fluffy shoujo like this was an excellent palate cleanser. There were a hell of a lot of Big Action Setpieces and panicky teens and grim dungeon crawlers this season, and at the end of the week I wanted to unwind with a bunch of pretty twenty-somethings falling in love with each other.

The show centers on Yuki, a young woman living with congenital hearing loss, making do at a public college after growing up at a school for the deaf. Though she’s able to get by with LINE messages and lip reading, she’s unprepared when a foreigner asks for help, but she’s saved by a handsome and mysterious young man named Itsuomi. He’s able to help out, and takes an interest in her when he realizes his fellow undergrad is deaf, and Yuki takes an interest in kind because he’s really goddamn hot. It turns out that he’s a polyglot and an avid world-traveler, but sign language is not in his purview. This mutual interest sparks the concern of her childhood friend, Oushi, one of the few people in her life who already use sign language, who wants to be sure that nothing untoward is happening. And it isn’t, because this is just a really lovely, low-stakes romance story.

This is pure, unfiltered shoujo at its best. Yuki’s internal monologue is peppered with flowery prose, and everything and everyone looks soft and beautiful. Fashionable, doe-eyed women and pillowy-lipped ikemen abound (seriously, holy shit, the lips on these boys) as the scope widens and the main love interests’ friends explore their own possible love stories. Itsuomi is very much of the “mysterious boy” archetype you’ll find in romance stories in this demographic, but he’s not hiding any sort of dark past like you’d typically expect; he’s just an interesting guy who keeps his personal life close to the vest. He’s a self-appointed world citizen who loves learning about how people of all cultures live their lives, and in Yuki he sees someone within his home turf who happens to live in her own world entirely. And it’s easy to see his forward behavior with Yuki as infantilizing at first (Oushi sure does, and I’ll get back to him in a second), but as they grow closer Itsuomi quickly becomes much more considerate of her boundaries and learns to accommodate her as he studies sign language and gestures that help ensure her comfort. This is a story about Yuki’s horizons broadening just as much as it is about Itsuomi wanting to be let into Yuki’s narrow world, and that sort of synergy makes for some exceptional romance.

A Sign of Affection deserves some credit for refusing to shy away from Yuki’s disability and making a point of depicting her world as one that does little to accommodate her. Very few people in her daily life ever bothered to learn sign language, she relies on a friend to take notes during lectures, and work is hard to come by. It’s an honest depiction that makes an effort not to be exploitative, which is a breath of fresh air. Not only that, but there’s some interesting meta-commentary in there: The only major conflict in the story stems from Oushi’s jealousy, and his reservations about Itsuomi possibly “taking advantage of” Yuki almost feel like he believes that he’s the only one who knows what’s best for her just because he’s done the bare minimum to accommodate her. He thinks he’s coming from a good place, but he winds up accidentally infantilizing her in exactly the way he thinks Itsuomi might. That’s a particularly interesting bit of irony!

I’ve seen enough shonen-oriented romcoms where an unassuming Regular Guy gets flustered as a way-too-casual girl pushes his buttons (hell, I’ve already reviewed two of those this season), so it’s nice to see the formula flipped for a shoujo as Yuki and her best friend Rin blush and squee over Itsuomi and his coworker Kyouya, respectively. A Sign of Affection isn’t afraid to get a little silly with it, either; plenty of these moments are punctuated by characters’ faces going low-detail or full chibi, and they are cute as shit every single time.

This one was just cozy as hell. If you’re into this sort of thing, swaddle yourself in it and bask.

Solo Leveling

I let this one collect dust after the third episode and didn’t pick it back up until the season was almost up, and honestly, I was kinda dreading it: The trailers didn’t look too promising, the show was slow to start, and it looked like yet another derivative JRPG-style dungeon crawler that managed to get popular. Turns out, nah, this show actually kinda fucks and the web novel series and webtoon it’s based on are popular for a reason. The story is nothing special, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a perfectly serviceable turn-your-brain-off action spectacle with a bit more lying beneath the surface.

In a modern-day South Korea where portals to mysterious dungeons open up and threaten the populace, those who can brave the dungeons, known as hunters, are an invaluable human resource. Once someone is assigned a grade as a hunter, they have that grade for life, barring some rare occurrences. Sung Jinwoo is at the lowest rung on that ladder as an E-rank, incapable of improvement, assigned the epithet “the weakest hunter of all mankind.” He mostly shows up to portal raids as a warm body to fill a quota, and one such job goes haywire as most of the raid party, Jinwoo included, is brutally slaughtered in an arcane secondary dungeon within a portal. He somehow wakes up in a hospital, unharmed, and able to access a digital menu before his eyes that exhorts him to do the One Punch Man workout every day, lest he incur punishment. He gets hilariously chadly in the span of a few days in the hospital, including an inexplicable haircut, and finds access to dungeons only he can enter and levels up within this new system.

This one gets off to a slow start and may have benefited from a longer premiere like Oshi no Ko or Frieren, but once the table is fully set, Solo Leveling really starts to cook. Jinwoo’s titular leveling process is a blast from one fight to the next, and as he moves to work in the dungeons that other hunters can access, it turns out he’s been training with the weights on. He’s suddenly fighting way above his pay grade, and after staving off attacks from hunters taking advantage of portals for nefarious ends, he is recruited by an ambitious corporate scion to make some real coin and establish an independent association of hunters.

While it can feel like there’s a whole bunch of table-setting between portal sequences, it’s some smart worldbuilding on Solo Leveling’s end to establish how portal hunting became a central pillar of this society, and doubly so how political and capitalist interests can leave a wide berth for corruption and bad actors. If there’s money to be made in hunting, of course people will find ways to make even more at the expense of others, both at the corporate and individual levels. There’s a lot of talk in there about “survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” and that… makes me nervous.

Those are terms that can be used to justify immoral actions in the name of money, sure, but Jinwoo also uses them to justify his own process. To what end is he constantly improving himself? Sure, he's doing what he can to provide for his younger sister and their ailing mother, but I see less and less humanity in him as this goes on. There are constant hints at something far more sinister at play than just a dude getting stronger for himself, not the least of which being “the system,” the UI that implores him to keep taking on these “quests.” Something, or someone, seems to be guiding him. Whenever another hunter turns on Jinwoo, of course his self-defense instincts kick in, but system pop-ups instruct him to defeat X number of hostiles like it’s a normal video game scenario. There’s something eerily depersonalized about these encounters, despite them being full-on mortal combat, that gives me serious Ender’s Game vibes. Consider me intrigued.

I’d heard that the Solo Leveling manhwa’s main draw was its visuals, and though I had my doubts early on, I'm sold now. This is a pretty solid presentation! Hiroyuki Sawano turned in yet another banger soundtrack to punctuate all the action setpieces, helping to stitch together a fairly complete tapestry. Said setpieces are exhilarating and almost impressively bloody, and while the animation is nothing impressive in the day-to-day, it goes absolutely batshit when the gloves come off. Movement is inhumanly fluid and the visuals can go into the same loose, psychedelic territories we’ve seen in the likes of Mob Psycho and the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen. If this is the new meta for shonen action, I’m not complaining.

By all rights, this is a pretty decent show, but if I’m being honest, this one just hasn’t stuck with me much. And that’s fine! Sometimes I just wanna see some nutty action stuff and move on with my day. Solo Leveling hits that spot perfectly, and I'll be right back there when it returns for its next season.

‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess

I was surprised to learn that the gag manga this is based on, with such a seemingly simple premise, has been running for well over 200 chapters and counting. As the anime progressed, I was far more pleasantly surprised to learn that it actually works.

In a standard anime fantasy world where the forces of good are fighting the demonic Hellhorde, an unnamed warrior princess and her talking enchanted sword are taken prisoner and subjected to torture as they’re squeezed for intel. Said “torture,” as the title’s scare quotes would suggest, is mildly unconventional, as the demon baddie inquisitor, aptly named Torture Tortura, attempts to ply the princess by presenting her with tantalizingly delicious-looking food that she can only partake in if she coughs up some info. Naturally, the princess caves every single time, but her intel is often inane and useless, so the “torture” continues. It’s not all food, though: The princess is soon held out of arm’s reach of adorable baby animals by a gyaru beastgirl, pampered into submission by a spa-loving giantess, and is faced with a tsundere vampire faildaughter, who… tries. 

And you’d think that would be it; the joke wears thin and you move onto something else. Before you realize it, though, something’s changed: The princess and her captors are quickly becoming friends. The premise almost feels perfunctory: These inquisitors are actual people just doing their jobs, and whatever happens after the princess’ myriad confessions is fair game. There’s no malice or animosity, even during the “torture” sessions themselves: Everyone will have a blast and grow closer as friends, and then the princess will voluntarily go back to her bedless cell. It’s like Sam and Ralph after they clock out, except they’re almost always off the clock. Everyone is genuinely looking out for each other in all directions, and the only thing that keeps the torture going is the need for a status quo to return to, even as it grows more elastic. If anything, Time for "Torture" is a good example of committing to the bit without having to necessarily rely on it.

The real irony in all of this is that it becomes increasingly apparent that the princess is having her needs met in captivity far better than she ever did back home. In her proud proclamations about how she’ll never cave to the temptations before her (shortly before she does just that), the princess often talks about her upbringing and her time as the head of an imperial legion, but these stories often betray her lack of friendship or any of the little things that make life worth living. Her life as royalty was one of isolation and deprivation, to the point where she finds more freedom and fulfillment as a prisoner. She truly lives in a society.

Hellholm, on the other hand, has a surprisingly healthy approach to things like work-life balance, food, and leisure, and its most valuable prisoner is no exception. The Hell-Lord himself is a surprising exemplar of this; for as much as he looks and talks like your standard terrifying JRPG demon king, he’s a surprisingly good dude! He looks after his family, employees, and even the captive princess as if they are all one and the same; he exhibits strong principles and an aversion to conflict, sees to his employees' needs and wants alike, and is a supportive, loving father to his unbelievably precious little daughter (who also serves as a “torturer,” to the princess’ delight). He’s also a big time anime dork, and even bonds with a knight attempting to rescue the princess over their shared otakudom before sending him off peacefully. As “villains” go, he’s top tier.

Time for "Torture" is nothing groundbreaking by any stretch, but it’s a cute, silly time and it plays with anime fantasy tropes in the same way a six-month-old German shepherd “plays” with a cheap stuffed toy. How long the premise holds up is entirely up to you, but I had a lot of fun with it. I have no idea how this ended up being one of the better shows this season, but I guess it just scratched the right itch for me.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

By all standards and definitions, not only has Meghan had a "revenge dress", she has not even had a revenge dress "moment" yet. With the way she operates and everything she has done, she is quite unlikely to have her own "rising from the ashes" situation. She is the sorts who just can't quite trying to make fetch happen. So she won't really go away even if or when she is cancelled by the social media mob for some dumbfuckery. (The way her friend messica was).

And if she doesn't go away, can she really come back?

It would be more like some fashion moment she would try to have, the way amber Heard did at the trial. (Not that we are ever likely to see Meghan in court on trial like amber was).

She has, for the longest time, trying to make her bare shoulders happen. And everytime she does a public event (or collects awards) wearing something bare shouldered, she is trying to have her iconic moment. I would call it her take on the iconic bond dress moment. She did it at the catestrophic car chase awards. The Invictus event where she wore the seaweed green recycled plastic tube dress. Nigeria. Etc etc.

I think she is trying to associate that style as the iconic Meghan markled fashion. But she is inconsistent. We have previously had similar seasons of her with the giant pantsuits, the giant grandpa pants, the skort-suits+Bermuda pants seasons, and now the tube dress season.

Rumours were that she had her heart set on dior and had even commissioned a white dior gown for the coronation. Maybe that was intended to be her revenge dress. Thankfully, we never got to see it.

It is my guess that she would eventually, someday, quite unexpectedly have her revenge dress moment. It would be the day she gets papped, accidentally on purpose at a car park, crying, the day after she files for divorce after Harry's affair news breaks. Just like amber Heard was papped exiting the court after filing her divorce. It is also my guess that would be 2 days before her op-ed in NYP goes viral - How I survived leaving everything for the man who left me for his brother.

(I am guessing, obviously. All of this may or may not happen. But it may)

Someone once told Meghan that her shoulders were her best feature and it doesn't take a genius to know that, because (as you've pointed out, anon) that's all Meghan wears now: dresses that show off her shoulders.

It's like those pageant girls who get their color theories done when they're 14, and then they wear only that color for the rest of their lives.

[eldritch-nightmare]

celebrating the holidays.

a/n: hi here's my short replacement for the eyeless jack fic. that one is still gonna get posted!! just may take a while bc it's getting longer than i intended it to be lol. anyways i tried to keep the holiday relatively vague but since i personally celebrate christmas, i may slip up a bit. couldn't decide who to write for so i just spun a wheel six times and went with the ones selected.

includes: the bloody painter, nurse ann, jane the killer (arkensaw), eyeless jack, kate the chaser, and homicidal liu.

warnings: not proofread, very brief mention of helen's childhood, literally just fluff, also inconsistent length but that's to be expected atp, reader consumes meat in jack's section so sorry if u don't, nsfw elements in jack's part my hand slipped guys, blood, lotta kissing.

THE BLOODY PAINTER

He never cared much for the holidays, even when he was a child. Honestly, it was the one time of year that he dreaded the most.

He's an artist, so you know what that means. Every year, without fail, he would always get some art-related gifts. Not that he was complaining about that or anything, it was really, and still is, the only thing he had much interest in.

He just... found it to be draining. Apparently, at least according to his parents, he was supposed to find the holidays to be a fun, exciting time of year. And he was supposed to be oh so thankful for getting yet another sketchbook or paints from his relatives or whatever.

That was just too much work, honestly. So he grew to dread the holidays, even long after he became the killer he is today.

He's... not quite sure how he feels about the wrapped gift you're holding out in front of him. A part of him wants to reject it, and he almost does, but the barely contained excitement in your expression made him hesitate.

Your excitement only seemed to grow when he took the wrapped gift from you. While he didn't necessarily want or need a gift, he couldn't help but indulge you, especially since you seemed genuinely excited over whatever gift you had gotten him.

Honestly, he wasn't sure what he was expecting when he unwrapped the gift. Something art-related, no doubt. And it was art-related, just not in the way he was expecting.

It was something similar to a scrapbook, but it was really... neat. And more so a collection of art rather than an actual scrapbook. The thing that caught his attention the most was that it was just any old collection of art.

It was his art. You... you took or had his art professionally photographed and you put it in this book. It wasn't every single piece of art he's ever made, but it included a lot from different points of his life. It even included pieces from before he had met you.

He does not cry, no. But you do catch the tiniest smile forming as he flipped through the pages. It's... the nicest gift he's ever gotten before.

Helen's not sure how he'll repay you for getting something like this, so for now you'll just have to accept the tighter-than-usual hug and soft kiss.

NURSE ANN

Ann isn't too sure if she's ever celebrated any holidays before. She has no memories of her life before her... death? Is she dead? Well, she certainly doesn't feel alive.

She's rather indifferent towards the holidays, and honestly she probably won't even realize it's that time of year unless you or someone else point it out to her.

If you want to celebrate with her then she certainly won't stop you, just don't expect her to be the life of the party or anything like that.

You will have to guide her through how to celebrate because she simply will not know. But once she gets a hang of how things work it'll be something she retains for the future.

Ann stares blankly at the... tastefully atrocious sweater you were sporting. There were so many colors and the design clashed in a borderline unbearable way but you somehow made it look good.

Her gaze then drops down to the matching sweater you were holding out for her, an expectant look in your gaze. She thinks she understands, though she still glances up at you in confusion.

You explain that while it's not necessary to do in order to celebrate the holidays, you thought it would be fun to wear matching outfits with her. It's something couples do sometimes, apparently.

After your quick explanation, she silently takes the sweater from your hands and puts it on over what she was already wearing.

It certainly looks odd on her, no doubt, but the fabric is actually pretty soft, and the bright smile that lights up on your face makes it hard for her to care about whether or not the sweater looks good on her.

JANE THE KILLER

Jane hasn't celebrated the holidays since all the shit that's happened to her. She's been so focused on hunting Jeff down that it never even crosses her mind. Hell, she hasn't even celebrated her own birthday in years.

But then you come along and you insist on doing something for the holidays. Not because you necessarily enjoyed the holidays, but mostly because you just wanted her to take a break for once.

It'll take a lot of convincing. You'll have to get her to promise you months in advance, if we're being honest.

And if she didn't have such a soft spot for you, she probably wouldn't even humor the idea you had to celebrate. But alas, she loves you, and she finds it hard to say no to you more than she would like to admit.

She huffs in mild annoyance, sticking close to you as you guide her down the streets. She wouldn't normally be in such a crowded place but everyone was so caught up in their own plans for the holidays that no one spared her a single glance.

You wanted to go ice skating. It's not typically a traditional way to celebrate the holidays, at least not for her, but it seemed as if it would be fun. And it would give her an excuse to be close to you, so.

When you guys finally reach the ice skating rink, you're bouncing in excitement and eagerly pulling Jane along to go and put some blades on. She lets you, because your hand is oh so warm in hers and the way the lights shine in your eyes makes her feel... peaceful.

Now, there's no denying that she has never gone ice skating before. Hell, she's never been roller skating. So the moment you two were out on the ice, she was clinging to you to keep herself from falling.

It was embarrassing, and she almost wanted to storm off out of frustration but you never laughed at her. You would help her catch her balance whenever she slipped. You only laughed when you slipped.

You were even fine with sticking to one side of the rink, always keeping Jane behind you whenever another person would skate too close.

And when the two of you decided you had enough, she couldn't help but pull you close right as you go to step out of the rink, planting a deep kiss on your lips and leaving you dazed as she goes to take her blades off.

EYELESS JACK

Similarly to Ann, Jack can't remember if he's ever celebrated the holidays before. However, unlike Ann, he does have a vague idea on how people celebrate the holidays. He's not isolated like her.

He's definitely indifferent towards the holidays. He doesn't care much for them, but he's probably willing to celebrate if you really want him to.

Gift giving is not his specialty, dear lord. You will have to sit him down and tell him bluntly what you want so he can find some odd most certainly illegal way of obtaining it.

Jack is, however, an amazing cook and there is nothing that could change my mind on this, so he will definitely be willing to help you make any holiday meal you may want to try out.

Jack is silent as he watches you cook some meat for the meal the two of you had been spending the past few hours or so making. You had family coming over, and you needed dinner to be done before they arrived, so you had enlisted the help of your demonic, cannibalistic boyfriend.

His nose scrunched up in slight disgust at both the sight and smell of the cooking meat, and he grumbled silently under his breath about what a waste it was to cook it.

His mild disgust only seemed to grow more evident when you cut a piece of the meat off and pop it in your mouth to taste test it. He just couldn't understand how you could eat such a thing. Then again, he can't really judge considering he only consumes raw meat. Typically coming from a human.

You hum in delight at the taste, and perhaps it's an instinctual thing humans do, or maybe it's something else, but you cut off another piece and hold it out for him to eat. He just stares, and it takes a moment for you to realize what you had done, letting out a small, embarrassed laugh.

Before you could eat the piece of meat yourself, he was grabbing your wrist and bringing it back to his mouth, eating the cooked meat and biting your finger in the process. You hissed at the feeling of his sharp teeth pricking your skin, but you don't pull your hand away from him.

The meat was disgusting, no offense. You're an amazing cook so it isn't your fault, he just literally cannot consume cooked meat (or really anything that isn't raw/human) and he's going to feel absolutely awful tomorrow but that's for future Jack to worry about.

Present Jack thinks he deserves a reward for putting up with both the smell and taste of cooked meat, and he licks at your bleeding finger like your blood is the best thing he's ever tasted. To him, it was. It certainly helped to erase the taste of cooked meat.

Once he was satisfied, he was pulling you closer to him and kissing you deeply. He bit at your bottom lip until it was bleeding as well, and he couldn't help but groan as your blood invaded his mouth once more, relishing in both the taste and the little gasp that came from you.

He wanted more. Needed, if we're being honest. He found himself craving for you as his hands fell to the hem of your sweatpants, gently tugging at them. A clear sign of his intentions.

You grabbed his wrists before he could continue, breaking the kiss off and smiling slightly when he chased after you. The two of you were breathing heavily, the air in the kitchen feeling a lot thicker now.

Later, you promised. You still had a meal to finish cooking, and your family would be coming by in just a few hours. You sealed the promise with a quick, chaste kiss before taking the meat off the stove and setting it aside to focus on the next part of the meal.

And he helped you. He was patient, and he knew you could keep your promise.

KATE THE CHASER

Considering her sensitivity to light, it's not exactly easy for her to celebrate the holidays since bright lights seem to be a staple in them.

She's not really much of a holiday person anyway, so it's not something that bums her out.

She's probably the only one on this list that's least likely to indulge in celebrating, and will more than likely turn you down if you bring up the offer.

But she does feel a certain fondness in her heart when she sees you getting excited over something in relation to the holidays. While she doesn't enjoy that time of year, she's glad that you do.

Kate keeps her eyes covered as you carefully guide her through the forest. You had a surprise for her, apparently. Something to celebrate the holidays without actually celebrating.

She wasn't immediately thrilled, but you had promised that there would be absolutely no bright lights involved and that she didn't even have to consider it something for the holidays. That was enough to make her willing to indulge you just this once.

Even with her eyes closed, she could practically feel the excitement radiating off of you as you brought her closer to wherever it was you wanted to take her.

You told her to open her eyes shortly after, and she found the two of you standing in front of one of the many abandoned cabins within the forest. She didn't even hesitate to enter the cabin when you motioned for her to. Kate trusted you.

The sight she saw when she stepped inside was... it was breathtaking, honestly.

The walls and the ceiling were covered in glow-in-the-dark snowflakes and stars, illuminating the cabin in a faint green hue. It wasn't a grand gesture or anything of the sort. It was... it was nice.

The glow of the stars and snowflakes was bright enough to illuminate the cabin but dull and dark enough that she didn't have to shy away from it.

That wasn't the only thing you had planned either. She's not sure how much time and effort you put into doing all of this, but you had set up a little space in the cabin. There was even a small projector set up, as well as some food that you knew she enjoyed.

It's definitely the most romantic thing she's ever experienced. And if this is how you want to celebrate the holidays with her, then she definitely won't mind doing this sort of thing again next year.

HOMICIDAL LIU

Similarly to Jane, Liu hasn't really celebrated the holidays since everything that happened. He knows when that time of year comes around, and it makes him feel nostalgic, but he always found it hard to celebrate alone.

He's the one on this list who'll be most excited to celebrate the holidays with you if you ask him to.

It doesn't matter what you wanna do. If you wanna decorate your home, if you wanna give gifts, if you wanna make a meal, if you wanna just stay in and watch some movies and order takeout then he's down.

Sully doesn't care for the holidays and he finds the whole time of year to be annoying, to be honest, so you'll only be celebrating with Liu.

And you decided that you wanted to decorate your home a bit for the holidays. It was a simple way to celebrate the holidays, and you didn't even have to leave your home to get any decorations since you had some stuffed away in a box in your closet.

When you had told Liu that that was your plan, he was eager to join you. It's been so long since he's been able to do anything for the holidays, and he was just... really excited to finally have someone to spend them with.

You made sure to put on some music to play in the background while the two of you got to decorating, and you'd tell him where to put certain things if he didn't know what to do with them.

You two chat with each other as well during all this, sharing random memories and stories from your childhoods. Some were happy, some were sad. Sometimes, Liu would trail off mid-story and you'd have to change the subject to something lighter.

At some point, when a particularly romantic song played, you set down the decoration you were holding and pulled Liu away from the one he was setting out so you could take a break and dance with him.

It got the brightest smile out of him. The brightest one you've ever seen.

The bitter sadness and nostalgia that comes with the holidays lingered. It would always linger, honestly, but it was easier to deal with when he's with you.

And he was excited to make new memories with you. Ones that'll make him smile when the holidays roll around again.

[missionkitty]

Feeling Safe - My Adventures With Superman

i am a big sap!!! i love romance and i love fluff and i lois and clark!!! i just needed to write something soft and fluffy (and a little handsy) and low stakes because we don't always get moments like that in the series proper (more episodes for season 3 please????)

---

Lois let out a low sigh as she watched the darkening city through the window of her apartment, stars poking their way into the night and lights from buildings and cars flickering on.

Clark had flown off right as he arrived at her place, hearing a cry for help in the distance. He looked guilty as Lois opened the door, but she could only smile and wave him off. He didn’t seem too worried, just apologetic that their evening together had already hit a snag. She would find out who needed his help once he got back.

Clark being Superman was almost as normal as anything in Metropolis. Helping him maintain his lives as the gentle reporter and the powerful hero was kind of like getting groceries now.

Before Lois could find herself too lost in her thoughts, she opened her window to allow Superman’s easy, swift entry to her apartment. She wasn’t too sure when he would be done, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t be too much longer before her boyfriend would be back.

And with a whoosh, there was a rush of wind and the sound of her window closing again.

“Sorry about that,” Clark said gently. “It was a purse theft…”

She turned around to see him, hand still on the window. He also still had the apologetic look on his face.

Lois smiled and gave him a small chuckle, walking toward him. “Just another moment in the life of Superman.”

“Oh,” he looked down at himself, dressed in his now-iconic blue and red. “Let me change.”

Something quickly welled up in Lois’ chest as she saw Clark move to whiz past and she let out a quick noise to stop him, putting up a hand to get his attention.

He looked back at her, tilting his head curiously.

Lois felt her cheeks heat up, her mind now putting words to the sudden feeling she had.

The suit made it clear just how powerfully-built Clark was, and being alone with him dressed this way…Lois felt her ears start to burn now. She saw him like this all the time, it wasn’t anything new, and with his hair pushed back the way it was, it suited him perfectly somehow.

She could see Clark’s cheeks start to flush now too, and she let out a loud sigh, vigorously shaking her head. This was a silly train of thought to follow right now–they were going to settle down and watch a movie together, Lois doing her best to point out inconsistencies or potential plot holes and they would have a nice, quiet evening together, snuggled up next to him. Now was not the time to ogle him, body built by hard, honest farm work…

“Lois?” Clark’s voice shook her out of her once-again-racing thoughts.

She looked up at him, his smile as kind and sweet as always.

“Sorry, I just…guess I realized that I…” She paused as the heat in her face was becoming uncomfortable. She stepped even closer to him, gently running her hand across the emblem on his chest. “I don’t really see you dressed in your suit unless you’re flying me somewhere or catching me in midair.”

“Oh, uh, well, I can put off getting changed for a little while,” he replied with a low, nervous laugh, his voice shaky.

The feeling of the suit under Lois’ fingers was mesmerizing. There was no danger and nothing to run from or investigate, so her hands carefully traced back out from the emblem and onto the rest of his chest. It was smooth, somehow simultaneously hard and soft, unlike any material she had felt before, but Clark’s warmth underneath made it feel familiar.

Lois was caught off guard by the feeling of Clark pulling her closer into him, gently resting his hands on the small of her back.

“How does it feel?” His voice was quiet, blush still coloring his cheeks. Lois could see the sincerity of his question in the way his eyes darted along the ground.

“Like nothing I’ve ever felt before, honestly.” Lois let her hands wander from Clark’s chest to down his sides, solid like the rest of him.

Suit and person, Lois admitted to herself.

Would the suit feel the same without Clark underneath? Or did he make the suit special, feeling the way it did? She smiled, feeling him tuck some of her hair behind her ear.

His bright blue eyes were focused on her, his gaze soft and somehow intense.

Maybe this wasn’t the time to get philosophical about a superhero’s identity, much less someone she already knew the answer about.

He made it special. He made everything special.

And she had him all to herself right now.

Lois smiled, taking Clark’s hand in hers. It was large, soft, and warm–much like the rest of him.

She pulled him along to the couch, his steps quiet and careful. As if he had read her mind, Clark laid himself down on the couch, now gently pulling Lois down on top of him.

Lois rested herself comfortably on his torso, pressing her cheek to his chest. The material had its strange, alien-yet-familiar sensation on her skin. But it was warm, and she slid her arms to wrap around his chest as best as she could.

She felt safe. That was the best word to describe the feeling.

She knew it wasn’t an adjective you’d necessarily use to describe fabric, but that’s all it could be to her. Anytime she had felt it against her hands, she felt safe.

Pressed against his wide, strong chest, his warm hands holding her close…

Lois chuckled, snuggling herself further into his chest–soft and gentle in this moment. She could feel Clark running his fingers through her short hair, tenderly tracing a line down her neck and resting on her back.

“Did you…still want to watch the movie?” Clark asked, his voice resonating from his chest into Lois’ cheek.

She smiled, shaking her head.

“Not yet. I like what we have going on right now, Smallville.” Lois moved her head to look up at Clark’s face. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach. “Still enjoying the way you feel.”

It was a bold way to answer, but something about the way she rested on him gave her courage. He gave her a bit of a surprised, bashful look, but his eyes softened on her again. She closed her eyes and let out a content sigh, rubbing her cheek on his chest.

Clark let out a low laugh, his hands gently rubbing her back.

“I’m glad.”

[paper-gold-theories]

*spoilers for those who have not read Chapter 10 - 14 of The Risky Heist*

Villainous Arenque News | Last Minute | EXCLUSIVE | Miss Heed victim of a cruel attack by a mob of villains seeking to silence her

[Translation]

Arenque news where we bring you the impartial and safe truth. This is Melissa Lead with breaking news. Yesterday, the superheroine Miss Heed was attacked by a group of villains who broke into the recovery institute where she was hospitalized. The villains in question were trapped and taken to the maximum security prison. Fortunately, the superheroine was unharmed. However, the authorities indicate that this was an attempt to silence the heroine from exposing new evidence that will completely change the false accusations of which she was accused of. The superheroine will be released and will give a live statement next Friday in which she will reveal the injustice she was subjected to. I think I speak for everyone when I say "Sorry Heed. We miss you".

Here are some observations I noticed from the video:

- Unlike the previous two Arenque News, P.E.A.C.E appears to be acknowledging the other people Miss Heed's mind controlled instead of just focusing on the villains.

(Part 1)(Part 2)

- But it looks like instead of saying Miss Heed's mind controlling Villains is good they instead paint the image of Miss Heed actually innocent of mind controlling people. Showing the inconsistency of the once sided news.

- There will be a live interview with Miss Heed next Friday 🤩 so stay tuned everyone!

- Looks like these are some of the Villains who were arrested in The Risky Heist. I wonder if we will be seeing more of them. I remember Black Flame from the orientation videos 😂 and he was seen in Noctis in The Shrunken Rescue.

- The photo in the video and thumbnail below is obviously faked to make it look like Miss Heed just got out of rehab and was traumatized after being attacked by Villains, in order to gain sympathy from the public and even putting up a sympathy sad act with her quivering bottom lip and opening one eye as if to check if people have fallen for her lie.

In reality in Chapter 10 Miss Heed was in her private yacht while everything is being taken care of her to clear her image so that she can be a hero again. And seeing as how she looked different from how Flug saw her, she probably got a makeover, redyed her hair and got contacts to keep up the image that her eye color and hair is natural and also look good for the image being taken.

(In her Q &A she lied and said that the hearts in her eyes are natural, so I assume she also wants to keep the image that hair color is natural as well, a hint about her wanting people to think her hair is pink is mentioned in her description in Chapter 10 which says "her hair is not naturally pink.")

And perhaps she is also using eye drops to make it look like she is crying and basically "in tears" because of the traumatized attack and the unfair injustice she faced of being wrongly accused of mind controlling people.

- The false image of Miss Heed seeking a comforting hug from Captain Estrada being traumatized also paints a picture that the attack was prevented due to the brave efforts of Captain Estrada and the other police defending Miss Heed from the villains.

- Also The Coach is still supporting Miss Heed despite being mind controlled in Shrunken Rescue, which I theorised, like other heroes he must be bribed by P.E.A.C.E. or be considered a villain by P.E.A.C.E. if he does not side with them)

- Looks like Miss Heed's Suivez Moi perfume is still cancled after her arrest. Seeing as Flug is the only one who knows how to make the perfect perfume for her, I wonder if she will go after Flug again. 👀

Compiling all the news at the bottom of the screen (and my notes and theories in brackets.)

LIVE - THEY SEEK TO SILENCE HEED

LIVE - HEED DECLARED INNOCENT AFTER NEW EVIDENCE

The supervillaness Chimera is at large leaving destruction in her wake. The heroine Van Klampp swears this will not go unpunished.

(Looks like Chimera escapes from being captured by Vanity Bolt and P.E.A.C.E. at the end of The Risky Heist.

Van Klampp is the heroine that appeared in Miss Heed's Instagram where she is seen doing a ribbon cutting for the opening of The Rainy Hills Mall with a mind-controlled Chimera and is referred to by Miss Heed as her friend. I theorised that she might be her and/or her mother, Dr. Rapture's Arch Enemy I wonder if either of them will request a Hero Extermination Service and the Villainous gang will have to fight Van Klampp)

There was a sigting of the heroine "Fortissa" fighting the supervillainess "Mimeniac" on the roofs of a diamond bank near Rockefeller street and Narrow-Row.

(Fortissa means "In The Fort" in Finnish, so I wonder if that relates to her powers and Mimeniac seems like the combination of "mime and maniac" so I wonder if this villainess has mime powers and a costume. I wonder if Mimeniac will request a Hero Extermination Service to defeat Fortissa)

More than 50 villains were captured after the attack against Heed at the Rehabilitation Institute for Heroes.

(In Chapter 5 of The Risky Heist, V.I.R.U.S mentioned only making a deal with 17 people, so there were more villains involved in the heist that didn't make the deal with V.I.R.U.S)

Porccini remains at large, authorities are making arduous efforts to locate him.

(He's probably dead after being dragged away by you know who...👀)

GoldHeart is supporting demonstrations against SHI-BO Inc laboratories, Medtrox pharmaceutical and others companies that use defenceless animals for their results.

(I believe he is only doing this to make himself look good and because SHI-BO Inc is a company with ties with Black Hat Organisation and Medtrox, as mentioned in the previous Arenque News that there was a bust in a merger with Medtrox Corp and Genet Inc, given GoldHeart's defamation Medtrox, it might be a possibility that Genet Inc is a P.E.A.C.E. owed company and after the rejection of the merger, P.E.A.C.E., decides that Medtrox Corp is a more of a competitor instead of a useful ally and exposes them for their animal testing through GoldHeart's stated support for protests against them, despite Genet Inc initially wanting to merge with them in the first place and probably twisting the story that they stoped the merger because they found out about Medtrox Corp's animal testing and making the Genet Inc look like the hero)

P.E.A.C.E. has called on volunteer donors to raise $5 million to finance a rehabilitation campaign for victims with super-powers who were effected by a "component" in Miss Heed's perfumes.

(I theorised previously that P.E.A.C.E. might have paid the heroes off to keep them silent about being mind controlled. This is probably the way they funded it. P.E.A.C.E. basically pushed the problem of compensating the heroes who the mind controlled to their donor supports instead of getting the money from their own organisation from the problem they caused themselves. And basically used labled the donation cause as "rehabilitation campaign" to hide the fact that its a bribe. But there is still no mention of support to the civilians that were mind control.

I also theorised in that during Miss Heed's live statement next Friday, she will probably blame the Villain scientists, mainly Flug, which she mind controlled to work on the formula, for putting the "component" in her perfume which mind controls people and plays the innocent victim saying that she had no idea there was such an evil component in her perfume and felt absolutely betrayed by the evil scientists whom she gave a second chance of redemption to do good and help people with their evil scientific knowledge instead of using it for such a horrendous evil act as mind controlling heroes and civilians.)

[beevean]

If NFCV were a well written show, I would praise the design of N!Hector's Styrian uniform, and what it conveys.

N!Hector's original uniform is a simplified version of Hector's, but due to them being very different characters, the details don't fit him.

Every detail of this uniform conveys something precise. The armor on his chest and boots make him look combat-prepared, as well as the arm guard and the single glove on the hand he uses to wield weapons. He wears dark colors and a general bat motif to tie him to Dracula. Then, there is the sash, a bright spot of red that breaks his dark palette: not only that is Isaac's color, tying the two together, but it can be seen as symbolizing Hector's brash, emotional personality. He's not a "true" Blue Oni like his appearance would suggest, after all. A nice visual cue.

The sash was kept on N!Hector, and for some reason, it was made a very important part of his design. While N!Isaac also has it, suggesting at first that it's part of their not-uniform, N!Hector is nevertheless seen with it in the past:

No matter what, he has to wear that bright spot of red.

Why so? N!Hector has very little of Hector's personality. He certainly isn't nowhere near as belligerent as our Hector in CoD. But more than the blues, more than the bat motif, he has to be associated with the sash.

The Devil Forgemaster uniform ill fits N!Hector as a character: he's not a fighter, he's not combat ready, N!Isaac wears a completely different and even darker uniform which makes N!Hector look only messy. However, I'm willing to salvage the sash for this reason:

While being naive, Hector is stoic in the face of hardships that befall him. Lenore found it nice that even "beaten down a dozen different ways," Hector doesn't give up on himself.

It was... terribly, awfully, incompetently conveyed, but there is a kernel of truth in Lenore's manipulation here. N!Hector has the spine and moral compass of a wet sheet of paper, but he doesn't cry or wallow in misery, and there have been very rare times where he fought back. In S2, while N!Dracula and N!Isaac were so close to dropping the R-slur on him, N!Hector was working with Carmilla behind their backs to pursue his goal: sure, he was being manipulated by her, but he was the one who decided N!Dracula wasn't good for him and he would rather save himself. And, of course, his background is that he set his own parents on fire as revenge for their abuse, and he accepted to put humanity into pens as more or less punishment for how he was treated.

Again. Too inconsistent to be seen as an intended character trait. But very generously, one can see N!Hector as being smarter and more willing to fight back than people assume of him. And it can be seen in the choice of him wearing a red sash ever since he was a child.

All of this preamble to finally reach his Styrian uniform in S4:

That is a very nice, elegant uniform, that keeps the original silhouette (look at the pointy shoulders) but removes all the clutter that doesn't fit N!Hector. He has two gloves! He looks protected, but also looks like a smith, not a knight!

But notice the palette.

He's black, with dashes of blue and silver. Silver? Well, Styria's livery is black with white trim. It fits, but silver doesn't quite stand out like gold did.

He also lacks any sort of red on him now.

Red is a bold color that represents strength and vigor, and for how nice his uniform looks, N!Hector is still supposed to be a slave - or worse, a pet. He's meant to look meek, demure, blending in. Professional, but lacking any sort of personality: the role N!Hector was tricked and beaten into. A subtle humiliation in his comfy living conditions.

Which, of course, works to the advantage of someone who is once again plotting behind his jailer's backs :) N!Hector still holds onto that splash of red inside him.

... But I'm putting way too much thought into this. We all know how rushed and slapdashed S4 was, and how N!Hector at the end of the day has zero personality and his plan wasn't even for himself, and how the writing refuses to remember how N!Hector was abused into slavery. The idea was that N!Hector is stronger than he seems, but the reality of the writing is that he's a weak-willed victim who did everything in his power to crawl back to the people who hurt him.

Let's be honest: we all know the real reason he wears blue and black without red now.

In S3, Lenore wore a full black dress with blue trim and white fur, which was meant to make him look like a "winter princess" or a "princess in mourning", but really didn't fit her at all, much like her character is basically three concepts stitched together. For S4, she changes into a quite cute blue and black dress that better goes with the idea of her being a melancholic princess.

You don't need a master in cinematography to get the Symbolism™. Lenore is N!Hector's only characterization, after all.

(funnily enough I could also point out N!Isaac dressing in bright blue in S4. But it's a completely different symbolism, for him: get it, he has found peace.)

[o0mellowdramatic0o]

Author's note: This is probably super cringe, but my sister had a dream, and it inspired me to write this for her.

Pairing: Hobie brown x reader

Enjoy!?!?

Inconsistent

The party had been.... loud. She could feel the bass in her chest, and in any other situation, with any other song, she would have been okay with the feeling.

She should have never let her friend push her into coming to this party. It was a mistake. She knew she would just be sitting on the couch, playing on her phone (which died), and petting the tiny dog someone had brought. She wouldn't even touch the food or drinks, not trusting it. She was what people would call boring. She preferred staying home, listening to her music, and playing games, hanging out with her friends, not strangers. Said friend had disappeared ages ago, leaving to most likely hook up with some hot Brit.

She was exhausted, her social meter having drained hours ago and then some. She probably would have cried when she saw that it was two o'clock in the morning if it weren't for the host shouting that they had to end it early. 'Early?!!? Two in the morning is considered fucking early,' she thought to herself as the crowd whined and groaned. The host looked worried as hell, in turn, making her worry too, maybe something happened.

It was about an hour before everyone was gone, with everyone either saying goodbyes or just not wanting to leave. Until it was just her, waiting on her friend, just waiting on her friend.

As she looked around nervously, she noticed just how big of a mess had been made. Beer cans and bottles littered the ground. Suspicious substances and trash are scattered everywhere, making her cringe as she realized that what she was smelling wasn't the party-goers. She wanted to throw up, she had a headache. Why did people enjoy this? Where the hell was her friend?

'Best thing to do would probably be to clean up. While I wait,' she thought to herself, heading for the kitchen. She hoped they wouldn't mind if she used their cleaning supplies.

"Stealing stuff are we," she jumped at the sudden voice coming from behind her. All she let out was a gasp at the surprise, spinning around to meet the culprit in the eye. He leaned against the counter with a grin, his punk attire and incredible hair and piercings immediately screaming out to her. When he raised a thick brow at her, she realized that she, in fact, hadn't answered him yet.

She was quick to shake her head then, motioning to the cleaning supplies and then back to herself. "O-oh n-no! I was just going to clean up," she whispered, holding up her hands in surrender. He chuckled at that, making her confused in the process. "You didn't even make this mess, love. I saw you," he accused her, pushing himself off the counter to stand to his full height. Even with her crouching down like she was, she could tell he was tall, even without the platforms he was wearing. He was easily  6'3 without the shoes. She also didn't fail to notice the color choice for his laces. Yeah, he was definitely punk.

"And sorry to say, but I think your mates ditched you," he added, watching her face fall a little. As quickly as it fell, her face formed to that of anger just as quickly. She spun around, snatching the cleaning supplies from under the kitchen sink and trying not to cry in front of this random stranger as she muttered angrily to herself. "Of course, fuck," the man could just barely make out between it all.

When she stood up, he was quick to grab her arm, making her spin around and stare at him in surprise. "Let me help you with that love," he encouraged, taking the roll of trash bags from her elbow. She was even more surprised now. From his laid-back attitude to his entire get-up, she had assumed he wouldn't even care if someone had taken a shit on the tables. "You really don't have to. I just wanted to do something nice for this guy," she insisted, shuffling things around in her arms and using her now free arm to try and take the roll from his hand.

He was quick to lift the roll above his head, earning a slight furrow of her brows in agitation. "And what if I want to do something nice for this gal right in front of me," he questioned with a raised brow and a smug grin. She raised a brow in confusion as she looked him up and down, 'maybe he's a little drunk.' "Really, I assumed you wouldn't care about any of this, most people who come to these parties don't," she responded, motioning to the case in point surrounding them both.

He hummed and nodded at the fair point before grinning again, "It's a good thing I don't believe in consistency then, yeah?"

His quip made her snort in amusement, a grin spreading across her own features. Eventually, she relented, shaking her head almost fondly, "Fine, just- be safe when you head outside. Wouldn't want some bum with a knife to get ya. Yeah?" She mocked, obvious fake accent shining through. "I'll be fine, love," he insisted, ripping off a bag and opening it.

~~~

So it began, silently between the two they both cleaned the rooms. She tossed suspicious substances down the toilet while he tossed beer cans in the trash bag.

The whole thing took almost an hour, but before they knew it, they both stood next to each other, admiring the living room and kitchen. "I think it looks clearer than before. You clean up well," the man complimented, eyeing and nudging her as he did. She looked up at him and grinned before looking back. "Yeah, wish there was something I could do about the smell, though," she responded, grimacing at the reminder.

"Honestly, I don't think there's anything you could do," he shot back, jingling his keys in his hand. "Regardless, thank you for your help," she spoke as she gathered her things and yawned. "Wait, where're you goin'," he stopped her as she headed for the door, earning a confused look from her. "Home, my friend left, remember, I'll probably have to catch a taxi," she explained. He shook his head, "Nah love, it's the middle of the night. I can't let you do that."

She eyed him suspiciously at his statement, glancing at the clock as she thought it over. He hadn't really given her any reasons to not trust him, and she wasn't really getting any bad vibes from him. In the end, she agreed, hoping her intuition wasn't wrong this time.

She followed him to his van, shocked as he opened the passenger door for her. Not only was he fine as fuck, but he was a gentleman too, maybe her intuition was correct.

She told him the address, and he nodded knowingly as he pulled out of the driveway. She nodded to the music as he drove, not recognizing the song but enjoying the beat regardless.

"I know it was probably a bit strange for someone like me to be at a party like that," she spoke over the music, breaking the silence between them. He glanced at her, telling her that she had his attention. She cleared her throat before continuing, "but thank you for playing along with it." He scoffed and shrugged his shoulders, "Don't even say that. It was different. Most of these twat's don't give a rats ass anyhow." She smiled, humming in response. That was, before a yawn ripped itself from her.

She was quick to apologize, but he simply waved it off. "Nah, just rest. I'll wake ya up when we get there," he assured her lowly, turning down the music to the point where it was simply background noise. She shook her head with a smile, mumbling a small, "I'll be fine."

~~~

One minute, she was saying that, then the next, she was in her apartment, in her bed. She gasped once she realized what that meant. She fell asleep in a stranger's van. How stupid could she be. She sat up and looked around. He was nowhere to be found, and nothing seemed to be missing or out of place. Hell, she was still in the clothes she was in last night.

She sighed in relief, sliding out from under her covers and letting her legs dangle off the side of the bed.

That's when she noticed a sticky note, sitting on her bedside table. She picked it up and snickered at the chicken scratch before her. Though the more she read, the more she couldn't deny the fluttering feeling growing in her chest.

'You really need better friends. XXX-XXX-XXXX'

Author's note: I hope you did enjoy!!! Pls let me know what you thought!😊

[kartana]

[People I'd like to get to know better]

thank you tagging me @weepycat !!! I remember first getting on tumblr and seeing these all the time and wanting to do them so bad but I was too shy. I hope ur doing well!!!

Last song: Misty Mauve by Tatsuro Yamashita. I found a clean rip on SoundCloud and it's been my one song I repeat on there so I avoid ads. I've memorized phonetically 85% of the song since spanish and Japanese have the same sounds. I've played this song for years now it's crazy but also it's so good I highly rec it

Favorite color: there's a specific shade of yellow orange that just really brightens my day like what a sunset looks like right before the sky turns to night. Between Mandarin peels and Neon orange climbing rope. Specifically when it's like the splash of color in an otherwise muted scene idk. I feel like my answer changes a lot tho

Currently watching: I guess the last thing I watched was Dandadan with a friend of mine, I saw the first episode and ended up reading the entire manga so it's likely going to be the series I keep up with. Very excited to see turbo granny soon

Currently reading: I just fixed up my nook and downloaded all of Brandon Sandersons stormlight archive books, I've just finished part 1 of his first book The Way of Kings. I'm reading since my friend really wanted me n other friends ti read it so she could start a book club so I'm reading it partly for her and partly because I haven't bitten into a fat fantasy book in a while and I know I'd like it. I was starting his other book mistborn but was told off and instructed to read the way of kings first so im doing that. I'm also reading the manga Gachuakuta as it comes out chapter by chapter with one of my close friends it's been really fun being able to follow a manga as it releases and the art style goes hard.

Last movie: took me a second but I think it was Doctor Sleep at a friend's movie night. I have not watched the shining. Which I feel adds to the experience in a sideways unique way. Rebecca Ferguson's hat in that movie is so funny. I liked it but it felt kinda insane. Like it could've been weirder but it had some shining Hollywood ropes to jump thru. Very fun otherwise very silly.

Sweet/spicy/savory: Sweet I'm sorry to my spicy and savory lovers I'm right there with you but I've recently embraced and accepted I have a sweet tooth and it's been wonderful. I can still throw it down spicy style with only a little crying and savory is soooo close too but sweet. The grip honey in my tea has on me.

Relationship status: I'm dating someone rn 🫣 it's been about 2 months since our first date and it's been really nice🥰. It's been really helpful since in August I needed to get rid of a friend crush which is now back to being a good friendship and today I'm gonna introduce my date to a lot of friends so I'm half nervous half very excited for people to meet. Every day I thank God for Bi women. Bi4Bi baby

Current obsession: Competitive Pokémon TCG. It's truly taking over my life in a good way I love it so much. I want to get to worlds next year. I have like 4 decks rn and I'm making more. My strongest deck and most consistent(despite it being by nature an inconsistent deck) has been playing Lugia Archeops I love those two pokemon and I love how the deck plays. It's a joy to look at new cards and try and game theory new innovations or strategies against other met decks and I have been really good about not buying packs and gambling away money. I will buy singes and b happy. Please talk to me about this I will happily explain and help you get into it.

I will tag @hoth-damn @lieblingsfags @theflyingsealion @stantler @infernape @reptilepolice @poochyenas @kumatora @rexroads @ainawgsd @stylesheet @ava-stuck @castellla @shimptank @tzuyusgf @151 @vivillon @ithoughtitwasbroccoli @beleth

🎃!!!

[stone-stars]

if you ever wanted to talk about the usage of growing pains, i would be all ears. obviously no pressure or expectation tho

oh boy DO i want to talk about the use of growing pains! (also called drained.) (actually, more often called drained, but i like growing pains as a name better, and if murph's going to credit names inconsistently i'm going to take liberties. sue me, brian.)

so, growing pains is used in two places: the shadowfell arc in bahumia, and sirenloch in eldermourne. no c3 uses yet* (small disclaimer about that under the cut, along with timestamps of the uses)

there's a reason i like "growing pains" as a name. growing pains is this song that comes up for... the pain of change. growth and love can be good, but it also hurts.

growing pains is for trying to find a way to save vampire!hardwon, it's for rosa's urn being broken (and deadeye saying he'll help rebuild the church), it's for deadeye fading away, lydia being missing when scrying on her (and moonshine lying to hardwon about it), and moonshine breaking down after she learns about her father from erdan (and hardwon/bev/paw paw finding her).

it's for henry realizing that he was looking at his past with rose colored glasses, and for zirk cutting stella off with a final goodbye and a rope trick.

growing pains is a song that says love can't change things. y'know, deadeye's help can't bring rosa back. and he was going to die the moment he was freed. moonshine lying to hardwon doesn't make lydia okay. there's nothing moonshine can do to change jolene being turned away by erdan. henry loved izzy, and she loved the idea of him. zirk can care for stella, and know she's bad for him.

but... it also says that the love matters. like. choosing to care, choosing to love, choosing to offer kindness, it matters. hardwon's friends don't give up on him when he's turned. deadeye remembers how to be kind, and then dies feeling more love than he's felt in decades. hardwon knows moonshine cares; moonshine doesn't have to cry alone. izzy and henry didn't work out, but there's hank jr. stella takes to the road, not the scales.

it can't change everything. but it's worth something.

perhaps my favorite use of growing pains (and the one that i think describes the song best) is the one that starts as deadeye fades: "yeah, i know i'm down a hand, and an eye, and a life, but i got a soul, and a family, and i finally know which is worth more."

(as a side note, it's interesting to me that the eldermourne take on growing pains is... more bleak than the bahumia one. like, izzy and henry. stella and zirk. as much love as henry and zirk give, it's a two way street. izzy wasn't forced into divorcing henry, she chose different priorities. and if stella doesn't choose to change, zirk can't force her. but the thing about it with those two is... it still matters to zirk and henry. that they loved. that they tried. so yeah, it's still worth something.)

(a secondary side note is that growing pains has a best friend (song it's often used with) called gutless. which, despite the name, is actually much more optimistic than growing pains. i'm not going to get into all the uses here, but it is used a lot in the shadowfell especially for deadeye and vampire!hardwon when they are letting themselves love and be loved-- like deadeye coming around, or hardwon having a heart to heart with the boobs where moonshine offers to reincarnate him. it's also used for zirk in early eldermourne, as he remembers the kind of person he was around stella and the flashback to that little girl when he knew it needed to change.)

(*c3 disclaimer is that, while there's no credited uses of growing pains/drained in c3, it's possible that there is an uncredited one that i haven't gotten to yet, since i'm not done going through and taking music notes on c3)

growing pains uses:

61 - 1:16:21 - Talking about ways to save Vampire Hardwon

63 - 1:00:56 - Rosa's urn is broken / Deadeye agrees to help rebuild the church

64 - 2:31:08 - Deadeye starts to die / fade

68 - 17:51 - Scrying on Lydia, but not seeing her

68 - 1:22:56 - Moonshine cries after learning about her dad and gets a hug from Erdan and Bubbles

68 - 1:24:07 - Paw Paw, Hardwon, and Bev find Moonshine crying

-

28 - 44:23 - Henry remembers his relationship with Izzie (the rose-colored glasses he's been using)

28 - 46:54 - Henry remembers his jean jacket (the rose-colored glasses he's been using) -- (this is a joke use. i'm including it for completion's sake but i want to be so clear this is a joke.)

29 - 43:32 - Zirk says goodbye to Stella

[horizon-verizon]

I'm YOU but I'm crossing my fingers that the Alicole thing is a lie. I can't take the crazy writing decisions of this show anymore!! Can someone in the writing room give consistency to TG?! Certainly the blacks were robbed and diminished but they are also moderately consistent in their writing

I swear I'm crying and pulling my hair, hitting my head to see if a concussion makes any of this make sense. Alicent "you are the threat Aegon", Alicent "OMG they planned an usurpation?!" Alicent "she will kill my children", Alicent "UPS my son killed hers", Alicent "I want his eye", Alicent "Aemond be good to those guys ❤️" Alicent "extramarital sex is bad", Alicent "Cole is the exception". What do you want Alicent?! What do you really believe in?! This goes beyond being hypocritical and using patriarchy to her advantage, What Alicent believes from one chapter to the next changes according to the need of the script. Just give that poor woman some consistency, the cognitive dissonance can't be that strong 😭

If I have to grab Show!Alicent and analyze her motives, what she wants and what she is... I'm left blank. She is a plot device that instead of allowing her to move the plot they kept her locked away and untouchable. She's not nuanced, she's inconsistent.

I can't be bothered, I've long given up on the show. I'm here for memes, article links, the dragons, and enjoying being proven right as obnoxious as that seem or is. To me, this show and its writers have been obnoxious, sexist, and condescending. Sure the dragons will be entertaining if maybe not as colorful as they should be--which might just be a trailer-specific dilution to otherwise make the preimeire that much more visually stunning--but I have a sneaking suspicion the writing will fall too short for other characters or contradict itself again.

Alicole will be just hilarious to me.

But to get into Alicent's character (bc I can't resist):

"OMG they planned an usurpation?!"

I believe it wasn't that they planned a usurpation, but that she was left out of their plans and those plans being to murder Rhaneyra. About the murdering Rhaenyra part, I do look 👀 at her, bc...this is a usurpation and you have already tried to get this women/her kids' lives ruined on multiple occassions or put those kids' lives in danger! Clear inconsistency. However, the fact that these men planned without including her at all is definitely a good thing in terms of her hypocritical characterization--the leopards have eaten her face. It's just her immediate desire to save Rhaenyra out of "love" is some crazy ass bullshit.

Alicent "she will kill my children", Alicent "UPS my son killed hers"

By the 2nd I take it you meant her surprise in how Aemond could have ever killed her kid during an envoy mission before Rhaenrya could try to any of them, thus immediately proving herself/Otto wrong. I'm fine with this actually. Again, describes and paints her hypocrisy, and the problem is that she then continues (by the trailers) try to diminish it as Aemond wanting semi-righteous revenge. To me, despite the whole kin-slaying being a huge cultural no-no, Alicent is also betraying Viserys' and going against his word before Aemond kills Luke. She has always been this way.

Alicent "extramarital sex is bad", Alicent "Cole is the exception".

Same as above. Alicent may make herself-Criston the exception bc she is at least "hiding" her relationship and (MAYBE, if it began after Viserys died) it was not while she was married...as if this would matter to the Andal-Faith patriarchal authorities of womanly behavior and totally save them from their condemnation?! Think of Otto's reaction if he were to know? He would either be as horrified and shocked, or he already knows and keeps mum bc it is towards his benefit but he'd still resent & be disgusted with her or accuse her of being sluttish privately as if he's the paragon of sexual ethics. Again, perfectly shows her hypocrisy.

Really, it's that she doesn't have her bk!counterpart's ruthless politicking except in one episode out of 10 (the 6th one). It's ruined by the implication that she cannot really think or reason bc she was SAed for most of her married life and pimped out, which spells some disturbing, oversimplifying implications for SA victims and esp those who are femme, female identifying, or women/girls. From the already-there notion of femininity being innately "irrational", creative, and nonintellectual.

But I also ultimately agree with you abt her being more a plot device than a character who does what the script of the day requires her---once more, bc she's forced to delusionally see possible friendship in Rhaenyra AND bc she doesn't have a clear, steady, personal motive separate from the stuff Otto-the-individual imparts on her and that guides her actions aside from blind envy and a need to see everyone conform towards the "peace for the realm" that she herself doesn't even follow. Not like with Rhaenyra's desire to find some sort of functioning and the least self-erasing compromise b/t duty and happiness/autonomy when we see her w/Aemma.

We never truly established what Alicent wanted at the core--in the bk, that was the highest rank, prestige, etc. possible for a woman. In the first season, all the possible possibilities and things you can see in Olivia's portrayals show a woman wanting to find final validation within the system...but we needed a more concrete aim aside from her jealousy and other than fear of her kids dying, which is what we were left with. Show!Alicent went wherever the wind took her (the wind here Otto, perceived expectations of her, and her own resentments). That's the heart of the grand inconsistency, I think. The void that is this character.

They never replaced Alicent's loss of ambition with something just as self-serving than just "she should suffer like me" that guides and justifies that inner feeling into the real world. Something that would keep her interesting and engaged with the war players.

Rhaenyra still has huge issues in her characterization that I already went over in other posts. This article by some Substack writer also gets into it, but overall, Rhaenyra is more steady & concrete than Alicent.

[stoopystuppy]

crippling heathers headcanons 😭

this is just mostly the Heathers + V & JD ueueueue some of them may be OOC ueueueue

Artistic side

 ▪︎ McNamara:

- she'd be the type to have a cute cartoony and vibrant artstyle, and if it were the modern days, she'd definitely be an animation kid

- artstyle is very inconsistent, one second she’s doing an anime artstyle then the next she suddenly know how to draw semi-realism 

- uses pen, paper, markers and colored pencils but eventually switched to digital 

- isn’t afraid to try other mediums but she’s super comfortable with digital

- doodle!! doodle!! doodles!!

- vents via art

 ▪︎ Duke:

- she’s defo a painter kind of artist (more comfortable with oil painting), draws whatever she sees; objects, old pictures (she sometimes draw her gfs but hides it from them)

- experiments with different mediums

- she’s the type to say “lol yeah this is just a sketch” to a finished-looking output

- hates her works and probably burns them (the others cry for her but she’s like “lmao”)

 ▪︎ Chandler: 

- isn’t really the artistic type but since she’s surrounded with artists she kinda has those amateur artstyle that doesn’t look messy but has no knowledge in anatomy and such

- draws a lot of clothing designs (likes to draw floral designs)

- her gfs support her and they try to make her designs real and they wear it for her

- she just draws for fun or if she’s bored

 ▪︎ Veronica:

- can’t draw for shite, very messy and shaky hands because of coffee and little to no experience

- the type to draw pp for fun

- but fr, she would attempt to do realism and loves drawing with graphites

- does scenery artworks and portraits

- combines traditional and digital (linework in traditional, colorwork in digital)

 ▪︎ JD:

- the type to draw small edgy stickmen but when he draws seriously its like he's a facking god 

- draws in a monotone color (usually black)

- comfortable with using only charcoal and graphites

- throws his art away (the only thing he and Duke bonds over /j) 

▪︎ Martha:

- SHE HAS THE ANIME ARTSTYLE!!!

- loves drawing animals (especially ponies)

- she and McNamara do collabs together

Playing instruments

 ▪︎ Veronica: 

- plays the acoustic and electric guitar, maybe some drums but she likes playing the acoustic guitar more 

- plays the ukulele time to time

- she's also learning to play the bass (being taught by JD) 

- ironically plays the clarinet 

 ▪︎ McNamara: 

- just likes playing the recorder and drums, had lessons for both

- she also plays maracas and harmonica bc she likes annoying her gfs

- is being taught the guitar by Veronica

- loves learning different kind of instruments, although they don’t get used anymore once she finds a new instrument to play (tho if there are similar functions, the skill will go over it)

 ▪︎ Duke:

- was most likely forced to play the violin

- is learning other instruments via her gfs’ and recently fell in love playing the drums

- being taught the drums by both Veronica and McNamara :] 

 ▪︎ Chandler:

- more on vocal but was forced to play the harp or/and piano 

- does duets with Duke <3

- LITERALLY THE ONLY ONE THAT DOESN’T PLAY THE DRUMS BETWEEN THE FOUR OF THEM

- and also the only one that doesn’t have any plans on learning or hoarding other instruments because she’s burnt out with playing the two

▪︎ JD:

- pianist and a self-taught bassist 

- his mom was supportive of him playing the piano and he had piano lessons when she was still around but he stopped learning when she’s gone because he didn’t want to be reminded of her for the longest time

- bought his own bass with his own earned money to distract himself and learned it instead

- good thing for him too because it wasn’t as loud as the piano so his dad doesn’t scold him

- every single time he sees or/and touches a piano, he feels his mom around and would be emotional, he doesn’t have any plan on coming back but gets sentimental when he gets a chance to play it

Texting/Chatting style

 ▪︎ McNamara:

- loves using tone indicators and often uses them in her messages

- she types really fast and would make a lot of typos but fixes them 

- doesn’t care about punctuations and would elongate her words

- loves loves loves using emoticons because she thinks its cute :D especially these ones; ٩(＾◡＾)۶ , (ᗒᗣᗕ) ՞, (づ ◕‿◕ )づ , (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄) , (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

- loves using (yellow) emojis like; 💛✨🎉👑🧀

- enjoys keyboard smashing and using caps lock because she thinks it shows her excitement on things or shows how upset she is; "DHMJDKWODUQKOSHWJISJSJZ!!!!!!" and "hdjsksjnsnsnkz"

- laughs in either keyboard smash or “hehe”

- ex;

  Mac-a-: Guysssss i splled milk n the bed :((( /srs

  Mac-a-: spilled* on*  sowwy ╥﹏╥ fnkfianmkf /lu

—--------

  Mac-a-: UWUWEUUWEUWEUWUEWUEWUU✨✨✨✨✨✨

  Chandy: ????

 ▪︎ Veronica:

- uses tone indicator a lot for McNamara, Martha and JD 

- has good punctuation and grammar but does not give a damn about capitalization nor does she put periods at the end of her messages (unlike a certain someone)

- uses "lol" "lmao" and etc in a lower caps

- sends copypasta bc she thinks its funny

- the only time she uses caps lock is when she's screaming or laughing

- ex; 

  -Ronnie: is anyone up for pizza? /genq

  -Ronnie: no? well, that's alright /nm

—--------

   -Ronnie: cum

   Chandy: y am i dating u

 ▪︎ Chandler:

-  she isn’t really up to date with tone indicators and one time someone was ranting and she’s just “ok what the hell is a /neg” and then everyone just screamed at her (via chat form) and told her to shut up (only V and M did that) and that JD was venting lmfao

- she later was then taught about tone indicators and uses it sometimes (only with McNamara)

- uses emojis a lot and laughs with emoji; 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣

- T A K E S   H O U R S  TO RESPOND but expects you to respond to her quickly 😭 

- she’s too lazy to type so she either uses auto-correct/predictive text thingy to continue her sentences or she literally just have missing letters in her words and go like “wht u doin??”

- her texts are literally either “r u hre? ive been waitin 4 u🙄😒😪” or “Are You Here? I’ve Been Waiting For You 🙄😒😪” (auto-correct/predictive text)

- followed by that is 3791874218 missed calls from her

- IRONICALLY SENDS THOSE “GOOD MORNING” GIFS FHIWAINFISAF and McNamara’s the only one who hearts it and replies with a “GOOD MORNING!!!”

 ▪︎ Duke:

- talking to her would literally be like talking to a bot or reading a research paper, bc of that she’s such a dry texter

- girls got proper punctuation, proper grammar and capitalization, EVERYTHING

- often gets annoyed when she sees grammar mistakes and would fix it for the person

- will literally type a whole paragraph scolding you to type better 

- doesn’t laugh in “haha’s”, just uses “lol” in lowercase, uses "lmao" after every offense towards others or herself

- barely text/chat and would rather just vc and send vm instead and then McNamara and Chandler join her and they all just started sending vms (V: w..what?)

- ex; 

  Dandy: Don't forget, we have an assignment due later at 4PM.

  Mac-a-: waIT WHAT??!?!

—--------

  Dandy: I hate myself lmao.

  Chandy: dont 😐😘💞

  Dandy: K.

—--------

  Dandy: I want to kill someone.

  John Doe: same.

  Pony Martha: You guys are /j right? 😊😊

  Dandy: *seen*

  John Doe: *seen*

  Mac-a-: aRE YALL /J OR /SRS!??!!??!?!?!??!

▪︎ JD:

- types slowly and somehow still makes typos and he doesn't fix them

- he just lets other people interpret what he's typing because he doesn't give a damn about them

- nor does he give a damn about proper punctuation and grammar although he adds a period at the end of his messages

- just uses tone indicators for Martha, Veronica and McNamara

- uses emojis but only the edgy looking ones; 🖤💔🔪🔫⚰🥀

- laughs in “haha’s” and doesn’t use acronyms

- ex;  

   John Doe: wnns sese my hmsrerz.

   Chandy: what

   -Ronnie: sure

   John Doe: *sends pics of his hamsters*

—--------

   Chandy: istg ur worse than me

   John Doe: slay.

[multiplicationdivision]

Pairing Up

Chapter 1: The Beginning

A drunk college kid fumbled with his key in the darkness, struggling to get into his old countryside rental.

He could hear his friend’s truck rush away, headlights already distant, leaving no light to give him any clues of where his front door exactly was. A stray thread of logic fought through the mixture of alcohol and weed filling his brain, suggesting his phone.

It was a thought immediately pushed aside. Both of his hands were full, some heavy mass in plastic in one whilst the other wilding jabbed at the door, hoping dumb luck would eventually strike.

His brain was already struggling to comprehend his current position in time and space, memory stuttering to place his timeline up to this point. The door denied him, the key making a tearing sound as he scrapped it against the cheap paint, searching mindlessly for the keyhole.

He stunk, but not like he should’ve. It was there under the nausea inducing reek, the familiar scent of vodka and marijuana ghosting his long night. The disgusting scent was new, like pond scum or seaweed muck. He couldn’t remember its origin, probably a wild story he’d hear later about his own antics. Maybe he jumped in a sewer or something else impulsive or stupid.

He’d done worse under less.

Finally, the key jammed into place, the door creaking open with some effort. It gave way to Cole’s home, worn and dimly lit. A stray lamp in the back giving off its dim flickering light, something drunk Cole was ever thankful for sober Cole for forgetting to turn off. Allowed him to skip the attempts at finding the light switch in the absolute darkness, the blasted thing being awkwardly placed somewhere on a distant wall, mis-planned like most things in the house.

It was deeply worn down, outside and in. But these nights he was thankful he’d found it, avoiding being a nuisance to some poor roommate as he barged in at 3:00 AM every other weekend, shitfaced and loudly confused. The heavy scars left by this trend on the front door also left him thankful that there was barely a safety deposit to lose on the rundown house. The gashes left by the frantic drunken jabbing of the key were barely indistinguishable from the warped wood.

He stumbled into his humble abode, his shoes slick on the linoleum. His red vans having become grey with miscellaneous that also climbed up his joggers, staining their brown into a sickly green. Even his black shirt seemed irreparably caked in it, the ooze bleeding over the black with a rainbow of moldy colors.

He’d liked this outfit, but he could cry about that later. At the moment though, the shower beaconed him. He dropped the mass he’d been holding, hearing it softly plop by the door as he kicked off his shoes and smartly stripped before getting anywhere near his carpet. The collection of soiled clothes wetly dropped on the tiles, far from anything they could corrupt.

Everything was thankfully compact in this house, and the shower was a merciful couple steps away. It turned on with a groan, the water quickly sobering him up with inconsistent pressure and wildly varying temperatures. It was familiarly shitty, functional enough. The rest of the house was the same, everything patched together with cheap Youtube guided repairs. A fixer upper left to one busy twenty something, whose weekends were mostly dedicated to going out on Saturday and having a hangover on Sunday.

Didn’t leave much time to mess with plumbing, alongside work and school.

He tiredly toweled off as the shower head sputtered whatever water was left in its system. Sober Cole could deal with that tomorrow.

He probably wouldn’t though.

It was his fatal flaw, putting things off for later and never doing them. A classic move, one he deeply despised in this moment, realizing his last clean outfit had been the one that was probably dissolving on the floor by the door, possibly melting some of the tile along with it.

He crouched up next to it after quickly brushing his teeth, his wet curls dripping more water in the puddle of scum on the floor. Its smell seemed to worsen as time went on, curdling in on itself. Made Cole feel sympathy for poor Mason who’d been the designated driver for their sorry crew. Probably left another permanent mark on the rusty truck’s seats.

He would’ve felt actual guilt for not just walking home in his filth, but Mason was convincing in his attractiveness and amazing hair. Also judging from the guy’s constant apologies during the drive, he was probably the cause of this shit getting all over him.

Cole grieved for the outfit, debating on whether he could risk going outside stark naked just to throw this biohazard in the can. He’d liked those shoes, something he remembered drunkenly complaining to Mason as the guy tried to placate him.

Cole remembered them stopping for something shortly after that, the stuffed plastic bag drawing his attention away from the pile that he’d started to prod with a pencil.

The logo returned some of his memories, him lazily walking into a dim store behind a guilty Mason, the man promising things that Cole had just nodded to in response, trying to give the impression of him understanding the guy’s ramblings.

Studying it now, it was absolutely stuffed with clothes, more than a single outfit in mass. Fabric and packages pushed until the plastic was fit to burst apart, especially with the outline of shoes stretching out the bottom.

Sober-Cole would definitely bring this up with Mason later, another conversation among many of his habit for overcompensating. Right now, he didn’t care, and just smiled to himself as he dug out the clothes that Mason had picked out between babying his drunk ass.

God that guy was cute.

The bag exploded safely away from the puddled mess, clothes falling out as the bag indeed burst, leaving Cole with a mess of clothes that seemed to be entirely suited towards the clothes Mason kept bugging him to buy for work. Whilst he would typically roll his eyes at the shit the guy loved, his drug ridden brain instead was happy to wear a Mason recommended pair of brown overalls with a new simple black long sleeve shirt, over the underwear that the man had also interestingly added. The guy really accounted for everything.

Or just knew Cole too well. Again, his laundry pile a room away seemed to mock him, holding literally all his clothes in its large domain.

A package of socks lay down beneath the explosion, resting atop the new pair of black high-top converse that were the first shoes Cole didn’t almost throw up on. A fuzzy memory of the store came back to him, Mason standing in front of the clearance section holding the socks as if studying it. He’d seemed confused by the packaging, shrugging before handing it to Cole as he tried to ask his opinion. Cole had just nodded as he was distracted by the man’s amazing eyebrows and Mason had moved on.

Now he sort of understood the sentiment, the package chaotic and colorful for what seemed to be a normal variety pack of socks. It was covered in a mess of indistinct writing, half faded or smudged, stray rainbows of color bleeding into each other with graphics that seemed to attempt to demonstrate the action of putting a sock on one’s foot.

Strangest was the art on the front, two identically drawn figures held close together. The colors all seemed to converge on their monochromatic bodies, traveling down towards their feet where they differed in their separate footwear, each having a single identical sock and a single shoe on opposite feet, a sneaker on one and boot on another. It was all tied together with the only legible writing, written in 90’s graphical font screaming the “DOUBLE VALUE” of it.

Weird.

But probably just some shit that had been stuck in clearance for far far too long.

The cardboard was easily torn apart, its pieces falling flat on the floor as Cole pulled out a pair of white crew socks, their color almost luminescent despite their assumed age. At their top, two red stripes shone somehow brighter in cleanness than even the white, making his eyes reflexively squint when it caught the light.

To the touch the fabric seemed almost impossibly soft and warm, a siren call for his very cold post-shower feet. Slipping them on felt right, comfortable fabric like a second skin, fitting with a perfect tightness.

Getting up he glanced at the mirror sat leaning against the tiny hallway, looking at the image of him, damp hair and a pretty nice outfit, a stinking pile of waterborne disease leaking next to him. The image of the sock packaging still visible below him, next to his still unworn converse.

A very unsober thought traveled like molasses through his head, the packaging’s art in his mind’s eye as he looked at himself.

Wouldn’t it be funny if he tried to mimic the art, then send that to Mason. He had his number and it would be like an inside joke. Mason had seemed intrigued by the packaging. Cole’s high brain said he looked attractive right now and Mason could stand to see that.

As like thanks or something…

Logically speaking that was strange and impossible. The art was of two people, wearing separate shit, but Cole’s brain opposite logic-ed that he could just wear two different shoes. It would make no sense to a normal fucking person but Cole wasn’t thinking that right now. In his head this would look hilarious and attractive and maybe he could kiss that hot face by sending the guy cute pictures at 4 am.

Something in the back of his mind demanded he do it, gently fitting a compulsion through his empty alcohol laced brain.

It was a fantastic and well-reasoned plan.

He stole the left of the pair of converses before snatching up one of his steel toed work boots from hall, his body on autopilot as shoved his feet in the two, robotically tying them both up. He felt a twinge of off-ness in the action, his motions unusually fluid despite his still lingering cross-fadedness. It was ignored in the face of the building sense of satisfaction at the sight of his reflection, a feeling of perfect anticipation, like the moment before you finally push the first domino over or the second before the rollercoaster falls.

He stood there, looking at the mirror at his sort of off-balance stance, his worn boots with a slightly higher sole than the flat converse. It added to the feeling of him on the precipice, staring off as if expecting something to happen before his small list of things to do once more fought their way back into focus.

He grinned as he swiftly snapped a picture of his reflection and sent it to Mason, before shifting his fuzzy mind back to the garbage. His cleaning supplies were haphazardly scattered on his kitchen counter, a place that he felt made them easiest to find. He was absolutely right, clumsily picking out some gloves and a trash bag to contain the festering rags, sloppily wiping up the leftover liquid with a towel that he chose to throw in with the rest of it.

The clean up was done on autopilot though. The strange feeling remained, distracting as it steadily rose more and more.

It felt tensely uncomfortable, winding up in a way that pressed on his brain. Like he was stretching a rubber band more and more, waiting till it would randomly snap.

As he lugged the tightly tied trash bag to his garbage can, it continued to rise. It was almost indescribable, whispering a promise of perfect release through his skull at every movement. A tingling in his arms and legs like the kind you’d get after a good workout, aching yet somehow pleasant.

He’d had to take a short rest leaning on the trashcan as the sensation grew. It filled him, his body feeling heavy and clumsy, thoughts difficult to form as his nerves raced.

Was this his high? He’d never had something like this, even with his quite heavy “experimentation”. It all felt too potent of an effect, especially for what he knew his friends could get. It felt solid and real, far removed from the distant trips that his most illegal shit would give.

If this was from the weed he’d taken hours ago, it was a strain he needed again. The euphoria of it drowning any nastiness he’d felt minutes ago, stripping away the nausea born of the alcohol and scummy clothing.

He stumbled back inside, barely managing to tear off gloves that felt far too small and awkward now, resisting him as their rubber stretched unnaturally. They tumbled to the floor in his hallway, lit up in a way that was definitely impossible. It seemed to emanate from somewhere near him, but it definitely could not be from the shattered hall light.

He couldn’t find it in himself to question it when he could barely stand, working his way to his bedroom as his thoughts repeated and echoed in his head.

Taking off his shoes was forgotten as he collapsed on his covers, the feeling of stretching overpoweringly good as he squirmed to relieve or increase it. He couldn’t tell which one he wanted more.

The sensation peaked, his brain overloading with loud thoughts, straying and merging and parting in ways he’d never felt, rising tension that felt better than sex ever had. It was the feeling of anticipation that had risen before but now promised to finally finally drop, sending the dominos to topple and the roller-coaster speeding down in a moment of true catharsis.

It came like a crashing wave over his body, a feeling of relief that beat any orgasm he’d ever had, combining the feeling of release with another of closeness. In fact, he was pretty sure he’d come during it, his boxer slightly wet under his overalls.

Cole closed his eyes and relaxed better than he had in years, his mind quickly plummeting into unconsciousness as he cuddled, his arm wrapped securely over something. Comfortable and perfect, like matching puzzle pieces.

Two identical bodies, tangled around each other, differing only in their mismatched shoes.

[augustheart]

hooty and charlie drawings Rated

first i came for the live action hawkman and hawkgirl wings... then for their comic book counterparts... now without further ado, i introduce you to an extensive rating of hootie and charlie illustrations done by comic book artists who have seemingly never seen an owl in their lives. i will be using the spelling "hootie" even though comics are very inconsistent about whether it's spelled with a y or an ie.

this post is going to be pretty long, so everything is under the cut.

this hootie is a 4/10. we're starting off strong with a golden age contender. despite the low rating, i really like the care that went into illustrating this little guy. is it possible to tell what kind of owl he is? not really. but you know, that's okay. he can be greateasternscreechhorned. he's got the spirit. and i love how talkative he is. however, seeing this makes me wonder what went so wrong with hawkman's wings in the same era...

this hootie is a 4/10. just a little guy! not sure what's happening with his beak but that's okay because he's just little. once more i am fond of the golden age's owl illustrations.

this hootie is a 5/10. he is extremely Eyes. here we have a rare interpretation of hooty as an owl that is clearly not in the bubo genus and is instead... i dunno. strix? maybe? i can't tell what species he is but you know what i'll let it slide because he is So Eyes.

this hootie is a 8/10, despite being from the same issue as the one above. clearly a strix owl now, probably a barred although the coloring is more similar to a tawny. i won't hold coloring choices against them quite yet though. we've got the right proportions, we've got some chest barring, we're doing good.

this hootie is a 1/10 but it does make me cry laughing every time i look at him so that's gotta count for something.

this hootie (XIV) is a 2/10. just an assortment of lines that runs around charles' office. points for being beth's friend.

this charlie is a 8/10. not much detail going on but we can put that down to the stylization. the eyes are the right color for a great-horned owl and i can see a female being that size. her plumicorns being in a relaxed position is cute. i do think that the method of summoning her with a piece of raw chicken was a terrible idea, but i guess no worse that charles feeding hootie lobster off his fork.

this charlie is a 5/10. hey man What is going on here. the white under the bill is like someone saw the white chest patch great horned owls have and went "awesome, that's all the photo reference i need to see" and then went at it. why is the wing partially white. is that the wing? at least the eyes are still the right color even if they should Not be angled considering owls famously cannot move their eyes at all.

this charlie is a 8/10. the anatomy is solid with a nicely defined facial disk and the expression without the eyes being able to move is adorable. also realistically huge feet--nobody ever seems to remember how big owl talons are. not much of a defined pattern but i like it.

this charlie is a 4/10. this looks like an owl i would draw. that's not a compliment. the shape is just a Suggestion. it's close to being good but it does not sell me.

this charlie is a 2/10. who the Fuck is that. why are they tiny and white.

this charlie is a 4/10. all the right pieces are there but we could do with some better assemblage, and there's not really any markings. unlike the charlie above that i ranked a 7 there's not even a suggestion of them. could be worse though.

this charlie is a -1000/10 i fucking hate this thing every time i have to look at it. the longer you stare the worse it gets. utterly abysmal.