#2 people have offered to pay for my flights

[sparklehoard]

So far. 2024 is the year of learning Korean food recipes and all my family members asking me to fly to come visit them

[demelzathemer]

Rewatching Dead Boy Detectives for the 6th time and I STILL have so many thoughts, so let's do this

Episode 1

1. That's everything Crystal has on her for the rest of the season, right?

She must have had some money and her passport on that bag because she did change clothes and traveled half-way round the globe. But Jenny talks like Crystal doesn't have a credit card, so how much cash did she carry on her on a random day in the tube??

Well not enough to pay rent for the cheapest room in town when they arrived. (She wears a borrowed Tongue & Tail t-shirt from Jenny later, that's cute.)

I like how her original look is much darker and more mature, reflecting her mean girl personality. The long jacket later is still purple, but a light color with a colorful floral patterned turtleneck underneath.

(If she had her passport she has her full legal name and social security number to identify herself though-??)

2. I REALLY want to know what happened during those "two flights, one ferry ride" - where did the boys sit? Did Crystal buy a whole row of seats so they could sit together? (And was seen talking to herself alone the whole time lol)

Have the boys ever been on a plane (they haven't been on a ferry)? HOW DID EDWIN REACT... Please I want a fanfic

3. When they start investigating, Charles says to Crystal "I know you don't fancy this part, deep-diving into someone's brain. We can figure out another way if you'd like." Which is sweet, so Charles, but also, how did he know what she prefers? (They must have talked about it on the ferry ride.)

4. I thought it odd that Edwin would stumble out of the mirror, when he's always so careful and carries himself with such poise? But then I saw Kassius and Jayden, they both have the biggest grins on their faces just short of laughing. It's definitely a blooper, but George stayed in character so perfectly they left it in.

(George did confirm in an interview that due to Ghost Rules, the boys don't trip on treestumps etc, they would just phase through. So definitely not a scripted move.)

5. "Not exclusively my internet. (Charles laughs) I'll explain again later."

Crystal was the one that taught Edwin the concept of internet?? Did this happen on the ferry ride too??

6. THE VISUAL STORYTELLING. I'm obsessed how the costume department specifically adds visual cues to the boys' wardrobe depending on their emotional state.

We all know Charles' polo darkens when he goes through tough times, only returning to his original bright red after they're back from Hell. We understand that Edwin being in his Edwardian undergarments in the confession scene makes it so emotionally raw and vulnerable.

We don't see Edwin without his coat after they arrive in Port Townsend. There's the scene in the beginning when it's just him and Charles at home in their office, where we can see him without it. He can be his real self there, because he's safe and comfortable.

The heavy coat is Edwin's armor, a visual metaphora of the emotional walls he puts up against the world. He always wears it around Crystal.

Here, in the upstairs, where the topic of David upsets Edwin and he storms off.

Yet right after, we see him without it! I believe ghosts appearance may change to reflect their emotional state (or maybe Edwin just shucked it off, who knows)

It's a fantastic scene altogether but just by his clothes we can see that's he's being vulnerable with Crystal for the first time. I only noticed this detail now and I love it.

(In the next scene of making their plan together Edwin is still wearing this look. We can see they're not enemies anymore, but a team.)

7. When Crystal agrees and offers peace, Edwin actually *looks at Charles* for confirmation. He's out of his element here and needs his support. Charles is the one who knows how to hande people, so Edwin doesn't make any decisions before checking with him. Edwin only forgives Crystal when he sees Charles had approved of her.

(After he does, he glances back at Charles again, like he still needed that last bit of validation that he did the right thing.)

Their bond is so strong. There's always consideration for the other, whatever they do. The acting is also incredible.

Nonverbal communication has a huge role in this series, as much as the dialogue does. So many things are conveyed with just looks and sighs and the many close-up shots that make us emotionally connect with the characters.

8. Charles having beef with Monty right at the start will never not be funny. "Everyone likes me eventually." It's just a bird.

Even on top of the list of his day's heroic feats is "smack-talking a crow." I love him sm

+ As a bonus, look at this gorgeous shot of Charles with the neon light reflecting on his earring. Chef's kiss

[gunsandspaceships]

Did Tony really like to party?

We'll list every party we know Tony has attended in the MCU (including deleted scenes and What If? S2 E4, since that Tony is a copy of the main Tony from the MCU) and see what he was doing there.

MIT

When Tony was 17-18 he went to parties with other MIT students. Here's the main post, but I'll quote the MIT alumni again:

“I remember him at after-parties on Thayer Street. He was up later than anyone else. But you could always get a ride home with him, because he always had a car.”

“No one really knew him, he was just a rich kid. Everyone wanted him around, though, because he'd always bring something fun for the party.”

What he was doing there: entertaining others. Didn't really communicate with them, didn't drink, helped them get home.

Bern (New Year Eve, 1999)

Two questions: 1) Does he look drunk? 2) Does he willingly communicate with people other than Maya and Happy? My answer to both questions is no.

What he was doing there: separately from everyone else quietly communicated with Maya; avoided people except her, to help with this task took Happy with him; if it was not possible to avoid interactions, reduced them to a minimum; despite Yinsen's words from IM1 he didn't seem drunk, while people around were; happily left the party to spend time alone with Maya. Wearing sunglasses in darkened rooms at night.

Jet (on the way to Afghanistan, 2008)

What he was doing there: sprawled on the couch, sipping champagne and looking at his flight attendants, while drunken Rhodey tried to convince him that he's a good person. The party didn't last long - one of the flight attendants blindfolded him and took him to the bedroom.

Dubai (2008, alternative trip to Gulmira)

As you can see it was either a VERY fun party or not at all.

What he was doing there: creating an alibi for himself to fly to Gulmira to save people from the Ten Rings. Wearing sunglasses at night. Avoiding interactions, visibly uncomfortable with those he couldn't avoid. Left immediately with two girls ordered for conspiracy. Having reached the bedroom, left them and flew away on the mission.

P.S. He also asked a third girl to join them on the way to the bedroom, leaving the guy who was with her alone. I imagine that incident potentially could create another Marvel villain.

Charity Ball (IM1, 2008)

What he was doing there: showing the public and the board of directors that he's fine. Avoiding people, had unwanted interactions with Coulson and Christine just because they caught him. Basically ignoring Coulson, staring at Pepper. Drank a little. Enjoyed time only with Pepper: slow dancing with her, joking around, paying attention to her feelings and needs, asking if he makes her uncomfortable, and offering to go outside for some fresh air when she needs it. Together with Pepper, left for a secluded place on the balcony. Quietly talking to her there. Went to get drinks for Pepper without question when she felt the urge. Told Christine that he is feeling uncomfortable there. Actually showed signs of discomfort. Immediately left after talking with Stane.

Birthday Party (IM2)

Another super fun alibi party. This time to "pass" the armor to Rhodey and push everyone away from himself so that he can die alone and so that no one will mourn for him.

What he was doing there: acting. Pretending he is dead drunk and enjoying the party. Wearing sunglasses at night inside the house (in the deleted scene with Natasha). Destroyed the ice statue of himself. To Natasha's question "What about those people around?" said "That's why we are doing it. It's for them. It's my party, it's my friends. They like this sort of garbage". What kind of "friends" are these for him, you can find out from Jon Favreau himself here. Kicks everyone out of the house by yelling during the fight with Rhodey. Just lying exhausted in a destroyed house after everyone left.

Age Of Ultron Party

What he was doing there: greeted Rhodey and Sam. Spent some time in the small company of Thor, Maria Hill and Rhodes. Was quiet - listened and smiled more than he spoke. Drank a little, perhaps less than the others. Quietly played cards with the team after most people had left. Became active only at the stage of attempting to lift the hammer. Encouraged others to try.

To summarize: he was quiet and attentive overall. Was just hanging around his house like a stranger while people other than the Avengers were at a party. Seemingly felt more comfortable when most of the people left and he stayed with the team, just playing cards and drinking beer.

Indian wedding (Spider-Man Homecoming)

What he was doing there: Tony attended someone's wedding in India. Apparently he didn't know the language, so he couldn't communicate and kept away from other people. Looked busy with Peter and something else. Showed no interest in the event. Didn't really drink and left quickly.

Grandmaster's Birthday (What If?)

"I've put my party days behind me".

What he was doing there: Grandmaster forced Tony to stay to celebrate his birthday by threatening him with his Melt Stick. Tony settled on the couch away from the others and was not very pleased when the Grandmaster joined him. Showed no signs of enjoyment throughout the event. Just wanted to get home pronto. Chose to save the people first instead.

Victory Celebration with Val and Korg (What If?)

What he was doing there: enjoyed their little company, but thought about Pepper and Earth.

Conclusion:

As you can see, the common characteristics of all or most of his party visits, except those when he was in a small group of close friends, were:

avoidance of people

sunglasses (if available) when they don't make much sense except covering his eyes from others

focusing on quiet calm interactions with people he knows

leaving the parties at the first opportunity/running away from them

focus on entertaining others, not himself

no alcohol consumption or consumption in small quantities

showing signs of discomfort

looking and acting like he is out of place

At the same time, at quiet parties with a small group of close people, he seemed to feel more comfortable.

You can already draw your conclusion. Mine - he didn't like parties at all. He sometimes enjoyed spending time in the company of people he liked, and it had nothing to do with enjoying parties per se.

His own words here.

[disneyprincemuke]

glorious happenings * milo+rocky vault

notes: haha this isn't canon in the current timeline btw i just miss mocky and if you come to my inbox again, just know that i will ignore you so leave me alone before i seriously consider unhinged my jaws to be extra deranged

also, this was supposed to have their first kiss, first date and first fight but well... i got lazy so pls just take what u can get ty

(series masterlist) | (📁 the milo + rocky vault)

the first airport pickup

she chews on the inside of her cheeks, tapping her phone against her palm as she cranes her neck, trying to look past the sea of people significantly taller than her. for a person she barely knows.

a person she’s only spoken with over the internet.

how absurd that a man would fly from the us just to be able to take her out on a date. and how absurd that she didn’t even think twice about offering her apartment up for him instead of making him pay for a hotel.

he’s only in london for her, after all. at the time, it seemed fair — looking back, she’s actually asking to get murdered.

“you know, you’re a lot harder to find in a crowd than i’d expected,” a disembodied voice speaks into her left ear, a looming presence making her jump up and away from this said person. “and you’d think that it wouldn’t be this hard to find one of the cutest girls in an airport in london.”

a laugh fills their bubble as she looks up at him distraught and a hand on her chest. “normal people start with hello to the other person’s face, by the way.”

milo hums, scrunching his nose. “i’ve already flown to london with 2-day’s notice; it felt like we were past acting within the norm.”

“well, a warning would have been nice.” she clenches her jaw, a soft sigh passing her lips as she closes her eyes momentarily. she takes in another deep breath to open her eyes, meeting a wide grin. “how was the flight? are you hungry? i know this really good diner right by my apartment — i reckon you might like it.”

he coos, a pout carving his lips with a hand on his chest. “you’re getting soft, rocks.”

“don’t call me that,” she rolls her eyes, though there’s still a small grin playing on her lips. she grabs the handle of milo’s luggage and starts pushing it. “you’re not at that level of personalised nicknames yet. rocky or my name.”

he gapes at her with a small grin before he picks up his feet to walk with her. “anyway, it’s pretty early. i can drive if you want.”

“no can do,” she whispers, shaking her head, “i’m using my roommate’s car.” she lifts her head to look at him. “i don’t have a car. yet.”

“yet?”

“yeah, i’m actually supposed to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. so i’m going to have to leave you in the apartment with my kids for a little while.” she presses her lips together, suddenly realising that she’d sprung this on him. “if that’s okay, of course. i shouldn’t take more than an hour and–”

milo’s laughs cuts her off. “it’s okay. i’ll make you breakfast.” he snatches his luggage back from her. “thanks for picking me up. i thought of where we could go on a date tonight, actually.”

the first crash

“i told you,” she sighs, holding the phone up to her face, “there wasn’t a need to send me flowers. it wasn’t a serious crash.”

“well, you disappeared on my for 2 days, so i’m guessing it’s serious by some degree,” milo mutters, disappearing from her screen. “how come you’re in oxford and not london? did something happen?”

she gapes wordlessly at the camera, tilting her head. she hasn’t really spoken about the crash to anyone but blythe. “right… you know i live in london.”

“i do. i’ve been there before.” milo’s laugh fills her room as he comes back to the camera. his eyebrows furrow at her frown and slightly teary eyes. “is everything okay, rocks? did something happen?”

she sighs. “yeah. i crashed out during the race and retired — hospital and everything.” milo hums with a nod. “logan and i crashed out during the race.”

“oh.” he wasn’t expecting that. well, he did, but not that she’d crashed out with someone she’s spoken very highly of in the past couple of months they’d known one another. “are you okay? how do you feel?”

“i’m not on painkillers anymore and i finally got the energy to go downstairs by myself,” she rambles, resting her head back on her pillow, “blythe made me breakfast.”

milo blinks. “i mean about your crash with logan. are you guys okay?”

“i guess,” she squeaks, quickly avoiding his stare through the screen.

“so why aren’t you staying in your apartment with logan right now?” she blinks right back at him. the explanation is simple, really, but she doesn’t want to talk about it. “you don’t have to go into detail, but at least don’t say it’s okay when it’s not.”

she nods and clenches her jaw. “we fought, and haven’t spoken since we crashed.”

“ah, alright.” a moment passes. “well, do you wanna watch a movie together if you’re feeling better?”

“that sounds fun. do we get to watch one of your movies?”

“please don’t make me do that.”

“fair.”

the first ‘i love you’

“that was an amazing race, rocks.”

“i can’t believe you made it.” her squeak is high-pitched as she glances over her shoulder, sneaking out from the paddock gates. she wraps her arms around milo’s torso and squeezes him before pulling away. “sorry i didn’t give you my passes. you know, i can’t possibly say ‘no’ to my dad when he wants to watch my race.”

“it was genius asking me to come and watch you — what do you mean? i don’t need the passes,” he grins, swaying in the hug and nuzzling his face into her neck. “my friends and i had fun even if we weren’t in the paddocks.”

she sighs. when she’d put out the idea of him coming in and watching her home race (because she grew up here), she hadn’t actually thought that milo meant it when he said he’ll convince his friends to come along with him.

perhaps she should have expected it from someone who flew to london just to take her out on a date.

“i’ll tell my friends soon, i promise. it’s just–”

“rocks,” milo laughs, shaking his head, “it’s okay. you can tell your friends that whenever.”

she grins, pulling away slightly to look up at him. “so you’re coming to oxford with me tomorrow, right? to meet my parents?”

he grins, a blush creeping up his cheeks. “of course. i’m so excited — came bearing gifts for everyone and everything.”

“that’s so adorable!” she coos, pulling away with a hand on her chest. “i love you, miles, but you really didn’t have to do that.”

a deep chuckle freezes her where she stands, eyes widening as the weight of her words gets to her head. she looks up at milo and shakes her head. “i mean–”

“i love you too, rocks. i wouldn’t be here if i didn’t.” he cups her cheeks, giving her a tender kiss on her lips. “i’ll pick you up tomorrow from your apartment, alright? i’ll drive us to your parents’.”

the first gossip

“rocks, you’re never going to believe what i just heard.” the door creaks open and the young man steps back at the unexpected pairs of eyes he meets. he grins sheepishly. “sorry. should have knocked.”

logan shrugs, shaking his head. “i was just about to head out.”

milo shakes his head, arms spread to block the door. “you’re gonna wanna stay for this, dude. it’s hot, juicy gossip that was relayed to me.”

the girl sits in her beanbag and tilts her head. “who in the right mind would give you gossip willingly? you’re such a blabber mouth.”

“doesn’t that remind you of someone, rocky?” logan turns around sharply to look at her.

she points a finger at logan. “i’m a changed woman. i don’t do that anymore.”

“okay, good for you,” milo scowls. “do you want to hear the gossip or not? it’s pretty interesting.”

“sure?”

“mick’s seeing someone.”

she drops her phone on the carpeted ground of her driver’s room, lips parting in shock. “mick’s what? he told you that?”

“i’ll give it to you this one time, manheim. you were actually right about it being hot and juicy,” logan grins, leaning on the wall behind him with an impressed smile. “did mick tell you anything else?”

“okay, okay,” milo giggles, walking deeper into the room. he drops himself in front of the beanbag that she sits on and places his hands on his knees. “so it’s crazy–” he twists to look at logan. “what are you doing standing there? get in here so i can tell you all that he told me.”

logan lifts his eyebrows and pushes himself off the wall. “oh, i’m included. alright.”

the first night over (at his)

“rocks?”

milo walks out of his bathroom, ruffling his hair with a towel to dry it off. the girl lies comfortably in his bed and a mean glare is thrown his way. “don’t make me get out of bed.”

he points at the bathroom behind him. “i thought you said you wanted to brush your teeth before bed and put on your retainers.”

“i don’t know if you actually need glasses,” she glances at the dog sleeping on her stomach, “but i have a dog sleeping on my stomach.”

he points at her, “i see that. but what about your retainers?”

she sighs. “could you just help me grab them? they’re in the front pockets of my backpack — little pink container with a mclaren and williams’ sticker on it.”

his laugh fills the room as he makes a sharp turn to where her backpack rests in the corner of his bedroom.

“don’t ask about the stickers. i woke up hungover one morning with it on there,” she rolls her eyes. “if you turn it over, there’s a mercedes and a red bull one on the other side. courtesy of mick and liam.”

“do any of them get an andretti sticker to rep you?” milo teases, shaking the retainer’s casing in his hands to show it to her. “and may i get one so everyone knows that my girlfriend is that super cool, super sexy and super beautiful driver?”

she hums, pressing her lips into a thin line. “if you play your cards right, you might even get a special edition rocky hoodie from her merch line.”

“how generous, rocks.”

he hands her the pink casing and she smiles. “still like me even with the retainers on?”

milo kneels on the bed with a smile, pressing a kiss on her cheek. “like?” he snorts. “love you even if you didn’t have teeth.”

“oh, don’t put that image in my head.”

“you’d still look very cute.”

“how would you know that?”

“just imagined it in my head.”

“just shut up, milo.”

the first dnf

the safety car comes to a stop right by the paddocks. the girl mutters a soft ‘thank you’ before immediately pushing the door open to leave.

she has her helmet in her hands as she walks with her head low, jaw clenched as she tries her hardest to contain the sob she feels threatening to come out of her.

if she could, she’d tear down all of the walls around her and scream. but she can’t. because around her are cameras pointed at her with fans gawking as she passes them. it’s not their fault her car couldn’t handle the heat.

she makes a sharp turn for the andretti racing home, head hung low until she opens the glass doors.

“aw, rocks.”

she lifts her head from the ground and sighs heavily, shoulders slumping at the sight of the familiar green eyes she’s been hoping to see when she got into the safety car. she lets the door close behind her, throwing her head back as she closes her eyes. “miles.”

“come here, rocks. i got you.”

she lets out a soft whine as she finally lets out the sob she’s been holding in for the past 10 minutes, running over to where her boyfriend stands by the bottom of the stairs, expecting her.

she sighs exasperatedly as she takes large steps towards him, tears starting to fall out of her eyes. she chokes on her sob as she stumbles into him.

milo wraps his arms protectively around her smaller frame. “it’s okay, rocks. i’m here.”

“it’s so unfair,” she cries into his chest, the material of his shirt bunched up in her hand. “the weekend was doing so well, my. why is it always me?”

“i know, love,” milo hums, resting his cheek on the top of her head. he sways slightly, looking around the room with a mean stare. “it’s not your fault, okay? you have to remember that.”

immediately, all whispers halt and prying eyes are torn away from them. he lifts his arms to shield her face away from the cameras — ones that are very clearly pointed at them through the windows — and huffs.

“that’s the second retirement in a row.” she leans into his body and wraps an arm around milo’s torso. “that’s so fucked up. you should have seen what they were saying about it last week.”

“i know,” he hums softly. “come on, let’s freshen up in your room and i’ll get you some ice-cold pepsi, okay?”

she shakes her head, wiping her nose. “i think i need to be back at the garage to watch the race.”

“let’s get you freshened up first, okay?”

i'm only tagging my #1 mockynation vault @angsthology because i dont wanna be annoying lolsie xoxo

[kayesfanfics]

The Forgemaster’s Assistant

Pairing: Hector x GN! Reader

A/N: Takes place in season 2 before our boy gets put THROUGH it-

You were a human magician, you learned magic at a young age and continued to build up your powers as you grew up. You were persecuted for practicing magic, called a witch that lain with the devil, and given to the church by your own parents. They attempted to execute you, but you used your powers to escape and run far away where nobody would know you. Humans always feared and killed that which they did not understand, causing you to grow up despising people. If you were caught practicing magic, you’d have to flee yet another home and find a new one by yourself. One day, Dracula visited you in need of your powers of telepathy and telekinesis, and after learning more about you, considered you a great ally to his cause. You happily accepted his offer to help him, and you were loyal to Master Dracula. Alongside two human forgemasters, you were the only humans in a castle full of vampires that sneered down at you like you were a rat scurrying past their feet. So naturally, you stuck by the two forgemasters sides, or in your study where Dracula gave you a space to practice your magic and research old spells to aid him.

You didn’t really speak much with the forgemasters, Isaac being rather antisocial while Hector seemed a bit shy and wrapped up in his work. You couldn’t blame them, due to your shared trauma from humans, you too lacked the want or need to socialize with others much, perfectly content spending your day alone with your spell books. Sometimes Hectors undead puppy, Cezar, would wander into your quarters and run up to you, barking at you to pet him. Today was one of those days.

You were reading a book by candlelight, so engrossed in it you didn’t notice your door creak open. You jumped when you felt two little paws on your leg, and you looked down from your book to see Cezar panting and wagging what was left of his tail. You smiled softly, reaching down to pick him up and pet him. He jumped on your chest and licked at your face, causing you to let out a laugh as you pushed him down.

“What are you doing here, Cezar? Hector not paying enough attention to you, Hm?” You asked the dog, holding him away from your face as he attempted to lick you once more. “Slobbery little bastard. Go on, go back to Hector.”

You set the dog down and tried to shoo him away, but he only sat down and looked up at you with wide eyes. You sighed, getting up and guiding him out of your room before you shut it properly behind him. This cause the half dead pup to whine and scratch at your door, barking for you to let him back in.

“Oh for gods sake.” You muttered, opening the door again and picking the dog up. “Fine, I guess I’ll have to escort you back to Hector.”

You carried the dog down the halls, going up a flight of stairs to reach where Hector had set up shop. You heard the familiar clanging of his hammer on the metal table, at work resurrecting humans to turn into night creatures. You cleared your throat, to which he turned around mid swing of his hammer.

“Um…can I help you?” He asked after a moment of staring at one another.

“Oh, uh…your dog. He keeps bothering me while I try to work.” You said, setting Cezar down and watching as he ran to Hector.

“Ah, yes. He was bothering me as well, which I why I locked him out.” Hector set the hammer down and kneeled down to pet the energetic dog.

“Well, he’s been whining at my door, I can’t focus.” You crossed your arms.

“He likes you.” He shrugged, smiling softly up at you. “He’s just a being who wants love and attention, like you or I.”

“Yes but he is annoying as well.” You said, walking around the room, examining all the tools and foragers equipment. A searing hot fire crackled in the corner of the room, hot coals in another metal tin. Various books were stacked near a pile of tools, tools you would see in a morgue or hospital.

“Would you like to help me?”

“Pardon me?” You looked away from the equipment.

“Would you like to help? I can teach you a thing or two about forgemastery as well. I understand you are working to expand your knowledge on magic.” Hector said as he stood up and walked over to you.

“Well, yes, but Dracula doesn’t need me learning forgemastery. He’s having me study things like protection spells and weaponry spells, I’m not needed for necromancy.”

“Oh, this is much more than necromancy, Y/N.” He smiled, going to pick up his hammer again. “Would you like me to show you?”

“Well…” you gazed into his beautiful blue eyes, feeling drawn in by them and his kind demeanor. “I suppose I could help you out for a little while…but only if you promise to keep your dog away from my study.”

“Deal.” He smiled, holding out a hand for you to shake. You took it, his warm hand held yours softly as your eyes were drawn back to his kind eyes.

You hovered over him for a few hours that night, listening as he explained what forgemastery was exactly and how it worked. You loved learning about different forms of magic, so you were happy to let him ramble to you as you watched him work. He’d slam the hammer swiftly to the table, watching the corpse carefully for sighs of twitching and reanimation. You had to admit, seeing it up close for the first time exceeded your expectations, and watching him calm the creature and show it kindness made your chest flutter.

The next day Hector followed his dog to your study, where you asked him to help you with a spell. He held the book open for you and watched curiously as you chanted and objects around the room began to levitate, his beautiful blue eyes focused on you with awe. You explained to him the spell you were attempting to cast and it’s origins, to which he gladly listened, asking questions and genuinely being interested.

The two of you would study and read together after that, sitting in silence but with each others company. If either of you found something interesting or something the other could use, you’d alert the other and explore the subject together. Your hands would linger when handing each other books, you’d sit closely as you read over his shoulder, so close to him you could feel him breathing. Isaac would side eye the both of you, raising an eyebrow but nothing more before continuing on his way about the castle. He didn’t care much for either of you, seeing you as just coworkers, but even with the little attention he paid to the both of you, he could tell you were both falling for the other. He’d roll his eyes when your hands brushed up against each other or you’d giggle at some dumb remark Hector made while helping him in his workshop.

You’d slowly fallen for the silver haired man, his mind was as beautiful as his face. He wanted to learn more about you and what you were passionate about, and he’d actually listen to you. Nobody ever sat down to try and understand you before, so the attention you received from him was flattering and refreshing. His eyes always looked at you with kindness and curiosity, almost with a childlike wonder as you talked about the old magicians and their knowledge passed down in these books. He would talk about his own studies to you as well, he spoke with such confidence and intellect, he was proper and polite no matter what.

“Y/N!”

“Yes?” You looked up at him, snapped back into reality from your thoughts.

“Could you hand me the pliers, please?” Hector asked, his hand busy with holding a wound open on a corpse.

“Oh! Yes, sorry!” You grabbed the pliers from the opposite end of the table, handing them to him.

“Are you alright? I’ve not known you to daydream.” He asked as he used the pliers to dig a bullet out of the corpses chest.

“I’m fine, just…thinking, is all.” You shrugged.

“About?” He asked, not looking up from his work.

“Nothing, just…the war.” You made up, crossing your arms and looking away to hide the blush in your face.

“Ah.” He said simply, focusing on his task. His brows furrowed and his lips pursed slightly as he worked the bullet out of the man, finally getting it out and setting it on the table.

“Hector?”

“Y/N?”

“We’re friends, right?” You asked, and he looked down at you, tilting his head slightly.

“I would say yes. Why do you ask?”

“I just wanted to know. I’ve never really had a friend before, you know?”

“Nor have I.” He smiled, his eyes softening as you fidgeted under his gaze. “But don’t tell Isaac, he wants everything to remain strictly professional, the hardass.”

“Of course.” You giggled, smiling back up at him.

You subconsciously placed your hand on top of his before you could stop yourself. His breath hitched in his throat, looking down at your hand. You were about to pull away when he took your hand, placing it on his chest to pull you closer to him. Your eyes widened as you gazed up at him with innocent eyes, face surely the same color of the blood on the work table by now.

“May I…kiss you?” He asked sheepishly, his own face coated with a light blush across his cheeks. You nodded slowly, before your lips connected with his. You’d never even held hands with someone before, let alone kissed anyone. But you knew his kiss was amazing, his lips were soft and his hold on you gentle as you relaxed in his arms as the kiss deepened. Your hands found his chest as his held the small of your back, pulling you up to reach his lips. Both of you were so focused on the others touch, you didn’t notice someone enter the room.

“Ahem.”

Hector broke the kiss quickly, and you shoved him away as your face turned impossibly redder. You turned to see Isaac standing in the doorway, and unamused look on his face as he judged the two of you mentally.

“Isaac! What brings you here?” Hector asked, fixing his shirt awkwardly.

“Apparently, making sure you two don’t fuck right next to the corpse.” He raised an eyebrow and looked at the poor dead man on the table.

“What?! We wouldn’t-“

“That’s not what was-“

“Oh, save it.” He raised a hand to silence you both. “Y/N, Master Dracula required your presence. Hector, I suggest you get back to work.”

“Cockblock.” Hector muttered, only loud enough for you to hear. You laughed, Isaac’s head turning to glare at the both of you.

“Let’s continue this later, perhaps in my quarters?” You asked Hector bashfully as you backed towards the door.

“Deal.” He smiled deviously, ignoring Isaac’s noise of disapproval.

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Flight of Icarus Review

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews. Like, Reblog, and let me know what your thoughts are regarding the show or the upcoming season! :)

Stranger Things Comics/Graphic Novels:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and ��Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Stranger Things Tie-In Books:

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 1 of 2)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 2 of 2)

Stranger Things Hawkins Horrors Review

Stranger Things Episode Reviews:

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Season 1, Episode 1)

Synopsis: Hawkins, Indiana: For most, it’s simply another idyllic, manicured all-American town. But for Eddie Munson, it’s like living in a perpetual Tomb of Horrors. Luckily, he has only a few more months to survive at Hawkins High. And what is senior year, really, but killing time between Dungeons & Dragons sessions with the Hellfire Club and gigs with his band, Corroded Coffin? At the worst dive bar in town, Eddie meets Paige, someone who has pulled off a freaking miracle. She escaped Hawkins and built a wickedly cool life for herself working for a record producer in Los Angeles. Not only is she the definition of a badass—with killer taste in music—but she might also be the only person who actually appreciates Eddie as the bard he is instead of as the devil incarnate. But the best thing? She’s offering him a chance to make something of himself, and all he needs to do is get her a demo tape of Corroded Coffin’s best songs. Just one problem: Recording costs money. Money Eddie doesn’t have. But he’s willing to do whatever it takes, even if that means relying on his dad. Al Munson has just stumbled back into Eddie’s life with another dubious scheme up his sleeve, and yet Eddie knows this is his only option to make enough dough in enough time. It’s a risk, but if it pays off he will finally have a one-way ticket out of Hawkins. Eddie can feel it: 1984 is going to be his year.

Observations:

Ordinarily, when I do these reviews, I sum up the synopsis in my own words to convey my experience reading it. This time, I took the synopsis word-for-word from the book cover because I found it unintentionally hilarious and teeth-grinding that the publishers at Random House Worlds would try to bait Stranger Things fans like this. They had to have known most people who bought this book already saw the fourth season and were aware of Eddie's eventual fate. Even if they hadn't seen it, a.) It's pretty much an open spoiler at this point, and b.) You can figure out real quickly from the title (Flight of Icarus) and your basic knowledge of Greek Mythology exactly how this story is going to go. Giving both the audience and Eddie a Hope Spot in thinking things might improve for him was a cruel joke.

I know that prior to this books release, there were fans accusing Netflix of trying to milk Eddie's popularity with the audience despite his eventual fate in season 4. Having finally read the book myself.................it's a little more complicated than that.

Yes, the book does bait the audience with the idea of things getting better for Eddie when we already know that's not going to happen. At the same time though, it wasn't a book devoid of substance. There were themes and character interactions that left a lot to chew on, and might even play an upcoming role in season 5. Just like with Rebel Robin, there were aspects of the book that struck a personal nerve with me because of how they related to what's gone on in my life and what's currently going on in the world right now.

I'll discuss the book in detail here (Spoilers Ahead!) and let you decide for yourselves if this is a book you want to read.

Part 1: Eddie's relationships to other characters

The synopsis covers the majority of the plot. Eddie's in senior year, failing school, and coasting by on the Hellfire Club, his band, and his dead-end job at a bar. Unlike his friend Ronnie, he has no future prospects ahead of him until he encounters a girl from Los Angeles named Paige, who overhears Eddie playing one night and invites him (and Corroded Coffin) to record their music for a studio called WR Records. The hopes are that her boss, Davey, will be impressed enough that he'll invite Eddie and the band to later fly out to Los Angeles for an audition with the executives. Following them recording for Davey, Paige reveals to Eddie that Davey's more impressed with him than his band and only wants him to come out to LA to become a rockstar. However, Eddie still needs the money to make this dream a reality. So when his dad shows up with an illegal job that involves stealing weed from a Kingpin's truck so they can sell it for money, he reluctantly agrees despite knowing things could go wrong.

And just based on where Eddie is by the time season 4 starts, you already know how this is going to turn out.

Eddie on the show was already established as being an outcast who gets blamed for the murders committed by Vecna, but this book further explores that he was the town scapegoat way before any of this happened. Part of it has to do with his low socioeconomic status, part of it has to do with the bad reputation the Munson family has in Hawkins as crooks and lowlifes thanks to the behavior of Eddie's father (who is a loser and a sorry excuse for a dad), part of it has to do with the Hellfire Club and all the pearl-clutching parents did in the 80s about D&D being linked to Satanism (which, as Erica puts it in season 4, was bullshit), and the rest are people in Hawkins projecting their issues onto Eddie. They want to believe the worst in Eddie, and don't care about creating a self-fulfilling prophecy with they way they treat him.

Wayne Munson also gets fleshed-out more in this book, which I appreciate because he's one of the few adult characters on the show that I like. Unlike Al, who is constantly absent from Eddie's life unless he needs something from him, Wayne is a parental figure to Eddie who made sure he was being fed and taken care of when he needed it.

He's also one of the only people who treats Eddie like a person and believes in him when no one else does.

On top of that, Wayne is shrewd and able to put the pieces together just by reading a situation. He's the kind of person who can look at someone and figure out if they're being honest or not. When Al comes back into Eddie's life, he knows Al is up to no good, and he puts together pretty quickly that Eddie is going along with Al's con to get money. He allows Eddie to make his own choices, but he also warns Eddie that he's lying to himself if he thinks this is going to go well for him.

On a semi-related note, the way Wayne is depicted here gives more context behind why he was willing to let Nancy interview him when Eddie went missing after Chrissy's death: Unlike other reporters , who were either gearing up to paint Eddie as the villain before anything was confirmed, or else were trying to get their big break with this story, Wayne could tell Nancy wasn't just there to advance her career. She genuinely had an interest in what happened, and Wayne likely suspected something else (i.e. the death of Barb) was motivating Nancy to look into this case.

Another relationship that gets more context as well is the one between Jason and Eddie. There were hints in the fourth season that these two had a history with one another before Jason wrongly suspected Eddie of killing Chrissy and led the basketball team in hunting him down. This book confirms that history. I will admit I had a headcanon for a while that Jason and Eddie used to be friends before falling out (which is also something Mason Dye joked about), but this book blows that out of the water by revealing they've been enemies since they knew each other. Jason was a part of a jock group led by Tommy Hagan (Steve's former best friend) who bullied students like Gareth who were either outcasts or part of the Hellfire Club. But because Tommy and Jason were valued basketball players at the high school, they were able to get away with their behavior whereas Eddie would get punished simply for trying to help out his friends.

This puts the cafeteria scene between Eddie and Jason in a whole different light: Eddie's disdain for Jason in that moment wasn't because Jason did basketball, but because he knew Jason as a bully and had nothing but contempt for him:

Just like with Lucas on the Line, this book doesn't paint Jason in a good light. Not only is he associating with Tommy (who is just as loathsome as he was in season 1), but the book also hints at the darker, zealot side of his personality that's going to be on display in two years following the events of this book:

Chrissy also makes an appearance, and she's just as nice of a person as she was on the show. She actually intervenes (unsuccessfully) on Gareth's behalf to stop Tommy and Jason from bullying him, and we get to witness the flashback to the talent show when Eddie first encountered Chrissy and she showed him empathy and compassion in a moment when Eddie was feeling vulnerable after his dad didn't show up to watch him perform.

While I'm not an Edissy/Hellcheer shipper, I understand the appeal of that relationship, as well as why the Duffer Brothers later regretted killing off Chrissy when there was more that could have been explored with her character. I'm also deeply sorry Grace Van Dien was harassed by immature Stranger Things fans because she liked the Eddie/Chrissy ship (to the point Joseph Quinn had to speak up in her defense). No actor or actress should ever have to put up with disgusting behavior like that. I wish people in this fandom would grow the hell up already, and stop treating the actors as if they're props to project themselves onto. 😒

We also get to know more about Eddie's parents in this book. Eddie's mom is dead by this point (though her love for music is a big reason why Eddie was inspired to take up guitar) and Eddie's dad is a contender for one of the worst fathers in the series. He isn't as awful as Neil Hargrove, but he makes little to no effort to raise Eddie (to the point Eddie is often fending for himself), is constantly engaging in illegal activities and ending up in trouble with the law, only comes back for Eddie when he needs something from him (something that Eddie is painfully aware of), and straight-up abandons his son to the cops the moment his heist plan lands both of them in trouble and results in a police officer getting shot. He's a selfish man who's good at lying to everyone around him, and even to himself. The sad thing is, because Eddie is so desperate to get out of Hawkins, he willingly believes his dad's plan to get them rich so they can move to LA and fulfill his dream, which makes it more of a gut punch when everything eventually goes downhill.

Given Eddie's death in season 4, I seriously question if his dad is going to show up at all if he ever hears about what happened to his son. Somehow, I doubt it.

The final character with any real significance is Gareth. In this book, he's a freshman who's up-and-coming in the Hellfire Club, and there's a whole subplot dedicated to Eddie helping him to craft a perfect D&D character that resembles who Gareth is rather than having him borrow someone else's character. Also, as noted before, Eddie is one of the few people who defends Gareth from high school bullies, which is why Gareth has a lot of loyalty towards Eddie. I know Gareth became an Ensemble Dark Horse for many fans when Season 4 premiered, and I would be thrilled if he, along with the rest of the Hellfire Club and Corroded Coffin, got significant roles in season 5. Maybe they could team up with the Party to defeat Vecna.

The rest of the new characters are by-the-numbers. Ronnie is Eddie's lifelong friend who has a future at NYU, and they both have a falling out due to disagreements with Eddie's choices. Paige gets into a romantic relationship with Eddie for a while (which also falls apart later), but she isn't really memorable and doesn't stick out the same way that other characters from tie-in materials do (i.e. Mr Hauser from Rebel Robin, Joey Kim from Zombie Boys, etc). Mr. Higgins, the principal who has it out for Eddie, is the embodiment of Mr. Vernon from The Breakfast Club, and his interactions with Eddie are pretty similar to the ones Vernon has with Judd Nelson's character (John Benson) in the movie. Officer Moore is a stereotypical asshole cop who harasses Eddie because he sees him as a future criminal who will grow up to be just like his dad.

There are a few brief cameo's from the main characters: Hopper appears towards the end when Eddie is arrested, and is one of the few people sympathetic to Eddie's plight. Will and Jonathan also make an appearance when Eddie defends Will from jocks who make fun of Will for being "Zombie Boy," gives Will some encouragement about being who he is and embracing his love for D&D, and even offers to sell Jonathan some weed (which is cheeky foreshadowing for Jonathan's drug habit that develops in season 4).

Out of all the interactions with the main characters, the one between Will and Eddie was my favorite. Even though Will never joined Hellfire Club due to moving to Lenora, it's nice seeing these two get to interact and bond over something they love.

So that sums it up for the characters and main story. Let's talk about the main themes:

Part 2: Eddie and "Forced Conformity"

Just like with El in season 4, and even Steve, there's always been this stigma that because Eddie did badly in school, it meant he was dumb. However, unlike El, who struggles to catch up with her peers because of the way Brenner raised her (but is keenly aware of concepts even if she doesn't have the words for them at the time), or Steve who was more interested in chasing popularity at the expense of his grades (but has demonstrated his intelligence and ability to make connections that other people miss), Eddie doesn't put effort into school because he doesn't care to. School and homework doesn't interest him. D&D, Corroded Coffin, playing songs on his guitar, and even the works of J.R.R Tolkien do, which is why he invests more time into those things:

There was a GIF set last year with bits of trivia about Eddie, and something that was noted in it is that Metallica's album Master of Puppets was released on March 3, 1986. Given the night Eddie performs their song "Master of Puppets" in the Upside Down was on March 27, 1986, this means he had less than 3 weeks to learn how to master the song on his guitar. Some fans will probably dismiss this as "lazy writing" (which I notice gets thrown around a lot these days when people don't want to think critically), but I beg to differ. Eddie is invested in music. It speaks to him. That investment, combined with doing something he loves, means he's going to put time and effort into learning the song. I can buy he learned "Master of Puppets" in less than 3 weeks because he's that good of a guitarist, and he was passionate about the song in the same way he's passionate about D&D and Tolkien.

The problem though is those kind of interests aren't considered "acceptable" by the school system, which is more interested in churning out "productive members of society" and punishing those who don't get on board with the program (This is a theme that's also explored in both Rebel Robin and Lucas on the Line). It doesn't help that Hellfire Club, D&D, and the music Eddie loves to play constantly come under fire due to the Satanic Panic at the time, which only causes Eddie's resentment towards Hawkins and his school to fester.

You'd think things would have changed in the 4 decades since this series took place, but given how we're still living in an era of "concerned parents" wanting to ban specific books from being read by kids, or else enforce a conservative viewpoint in schools that prevents any kind of critical thinking, it's fair to say we haven't. In fact, there's an argument that things have gotten worse in recent years.

We can talk all day about the problems with the education system and school curriculum in the United States until the cows come home, but the point is Eddie is aware of the "forced conformity" schools impose on students, and is having none of it. As a result, he's punished for rebelling against the system.

It doesn't help that none of the teachers, nor Mr. Higgins, are remotely interested in trying to reach out to Eddie. They have decided in their minds that Eddie is a waste of space, and are either condescending or dismissive towards him. Even Robin, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will had teachers like Mr. Clarke or Mr. Hauser who were interested in bringing the best out of their students. Eddie has been written off as a lost cause, and aside from his uncle Wayne (who's limited in what he can do for Eddie), no other adults believe in him. That just makes his eventual death later on harder to stomach.

I hate teachers and school authorities like Mr. Higgins. I get they have to put up with a lot of crap, both from kids and from the stress their jobs can bring, but I have no respect for teachers who either go to the lengths of bullying their students, or come up with preconceived notions about a student and then unfairly project that onto them so they can feel justified in treating them with contempt.

I had two teachers like this when I was growing up: One of them was from fifth grade. The second was my English Teacher from my senior year of High School.

The former was a straight-up bully who had a reputation for making kids cry (I was one of them) and was a Bitch in every sense of the word. I do not have good memories of her class, and I know several students who had their lives impacted by her for the worst: One of them was someone I went to the same church with whose mom later pulled him out to be home-schooled because he was frequently targeted by that teacher. The second was a former friend who had a rough time in her class, and later forfeited going to college entirely (and now works in retail) because of the impact she left on her. I make no secret that I DON'T miss her, and I hope she's no longer teaching.

As for my English Teacher, she was a condescending twat. She presented herself as an expert in literature, but I later found out that A LOT of her so-called "discussions" and "lessons" were taken straight from SparkNotes. I remember her going out of her way to publicly humiliate me in front of the class because I did a presentation that she didn't like, and then she later got patronizing with me over a different assignment several months later, saying she could see how I was struggling and then said "Allow me to give you some advice: Try harder." This was when I was also juggling 4 other AP classes and a Spanish class, along with my extracurricular activities, so this wasn't like I was half-assing my work. Once again, I was not the only person she treated like is. Multiple students despised her, and there was even a rumor for a while that she was a misandrist, which is why she treated the girls better than the boys. I can't confirm if this was true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. My brother (who's one of the smartest people I know) was fully aware of her reputation prior to his senior year, and specifically took a different English class just to avoid her. I still maintain that was the best decision he ever made.

I should briefly mention that, despite the two examples I just listed, I had some wonderful teachers growing up. Ones that not only encouraged me, but made their classes engaging to the point that I took an interest in topics I hadn't before. The entire reason I later pursued a degree in History is BECAUSE of my teachers in High School.

Regardless of whether people want to admit it, teachers are some of the most important people next to parents in a kid's life. They can either be the ones to elevate a student and set them on a good path, or they can be the ones to tear them down and dismiss them as a lost cause. It's a big reason I feel strongly about who teaches in schools and how our education system is structured, and why I get angry whenever teachers or school authorities either abuse their power, are apathetic about their jobs and their students, or else project their issues onto kids. I'm not saying there aren't kids out there without major behavioral problems that need to be dealt with (I literally had one such kid yell "Fuck You" at me two weeks ago from a speeding truck for no discernible reason, so I'm not advocating that all kids are sweet angels), but it infuriates me to see characters like Mr. Higgins who are smug in their belief that they have teens like Eddie figured out, and don't want to hear anything that contradicts that. People like that shouldn't be teaching in schools, period.

Part 3: The Evils of Society

Back in 2005, there was a horror movie called Chaos that was released, which got negative reviews and a scathing response from film critic Roger Ebert, who proceeded to call the movie "ugly, nihilistic, and cruel." The film's writer and director didn't take this well, and posted a letter to the Chicago-Sun Times where he condescendingly told Ebert that the movie was supposed to be ugly, nihilistic, and cruel as a way of conveying what evil was like in the 21st century, and smugly asked Ebert if he preferred the movie was sanitized of violence. Ebert later responded in a very classy and intelligent manner, where he not only called out the director for his sanctimoniousness, but also deconstructed his whole argument of depicting evil in a movie with no meaningful point or catharsis:

"I believe evil can win in fiction, as it often does in real life. But I prefer that the artist express an attitude toward that evil. It is not enough to record it; what do you think and feel about it? Your attitude is as detached as your hero's."

"Your real purpose in making "Chaos," I suspect, was not to educate, but to create a scandal that would draw an audience. There's always money to be made by going further and being more shocking. Sometimes there is also art to be found in that direction, but not this time. That's because your film creates a closed system in which any alternative outcome is excluded; it is like a movie of a man falling to his death, which can have no developments except that he continues to fall, and no ending except that he dies. Pre-destination may be useful in theology, but as a narrative strategy, it is self-defeating."

I've seen fans who've complained about the direction season 4 took in its tone and it's depiction of bullying and the Satanic Panic, with people complaining about it being "trauma/torture porn," which............I strongly disagree with. Trauma/Torture porn is (as Ebert points out) the kind of thing that has no point beyond indulging in meaningless suffering. Season 4 was dark (probably the darkest season they've done so far), but there was a message the Duffer Brothers were making with it; Not just in depicting how and why bullying becomes a pervasive problem, or how Vecna acts as a metaphor for depression and trauma driving people into despair, but also how the current social systems and attempts to force people to be "normal" cause long-term problems.

Bullies like Angela and Jason didn't suddenly decide to become awful overnight. Their behavior was enabled, not just by their peers, but by the adults around them who did little to nothing to stop the way they acted. Look at when El gets publicly humiliated at Rink-O-Mania by Angela and her friends, and how the adults there either participated with the other bystanders in it, or did absolutely nothing to stop what was happening to El (yet were conveniently available for Angela's benefit when El smashed Angela's face in with a roller-skate). Look at how Jason was able to turn a room of adults into a lynch mob to go after kids who were a part of the Hellfire Club by appealing to their fear of the Satanic Panic, as well as their fear of all the terrible things that had been happening in Hawkins.

Adults play a major role in whether kids become spoiled, entitled brats, and that was absolutely the case with Angela. As for Jason, he was a star basketball player who made Hawkins High look good, which is why Mr. Higgins and other teachers always looked the other way at his behavior (as depicted in both this book and Lucas on the Line). It's also why both Angela and Jason felt justified in their awful behavior: Angela was able to convince herself that El had snitched when she hadn't, and therefore deserved to be punished for it. And when El finally had enough and lashed out, Angela twisted the narrative in her head to make it out like she was the innocent victim and El was the bully. Same thing with Jason in regards to how he treats Eddie: Jason sees himself as the perfect "All American Boy" and Eddie as the freak who may one day become a criminal and gives Hawkins a bad name. And while the deaths of Chrissy and Patrick (combined with witnessing how Patrick died which he chalked up to Eddie being in league with Satan) played a major role in Jason's actions, he already had preconceived notions about Eddie without truly getting to know him first. There's an argument to be had that, even without Chrissy's death, he would have looked for any reason to go after Eddie if he felt justified in doing so.

Even isolated areas like Hawkins Lab weren't exempt from this: Dr. Brenner specifically fostered a culture among the special kids where he would put them at odds with one another to fight for his approval, and allowed El to be viciously bullied by Two and the others in the hopes it would unlock her potential and get him the results he wanted. Brenner established the institution where El grew up in, and was the main person who benefited from it. Two was a vicious bully similar to Angela, but the reason he became that is because Brenner and his cronies enabled his behavior (only punishing him as a means of building up resentment among the other kids towards El and making her more of an outcast as part of his plans).

Likewise, there's an interesting parallel between Eddie and Vecna: Both are "outcasts" whom society tried to force to be "normal." However, while Eddie still maintained compassion and empathy for others, as well as making it his mission to look out for other outcasts like Mike, Dustin, and Lucas so their lives wouldn't be miserable, Vecna internalized the rage and resentment of "performing in a silly terrible play, day after day" until it consumed him and turned him into the monster everyone feared. Now he intends to destroy everything and everyone so he can create the world he wants.

It's the Harvey Dent quote from The Dark Knight:

Eddie, despite being treated badly for most of his life, died as a hero, protecting those he cared about. Vecna lived to become the villain, and has abandoned his humanity in pursuit of his goals.

Tying this all back to Roger Ebert's letter: While Season 4 may have been dark, there was meaning to be found in the darkness: The season hit on the theme that, in spite of how Hawkins looks like a perfect suburban neighborhood, there's a lot of rot underneath, and NOT just from the Upside Down. There's an inherent bigotry in the town (and others like it, such as Lenora), of institutions trying to mold students and teachers into "productive members of society" at the cost of their happiness and well being, of punishing anything that's considered abnormal or against the status quo, of how ostracizing "outcasts" can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy where the person either becomes the monster (Vecna) or is scapegoated and can never escape those stigmas no matter how hard they try (Eddie).

The Duffer Brothers aren't apathetic in their attitude about how they depict characters and themes on the show. If anything, they care deeply. It's why they wrote the character of Eddie in the first place, and based him off of Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three who was wrongfully convicted in 1994 of the murder of three boys in Arkansas, with a lot of bias directed at them due to the three of them being "delinquents" (as well as how the police pressured them into giving false confessions), which resulted in their lives getting ruined. Likewise on the show, Eddie is accused of killing Chrissy when he didn't (simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time), and his life got destroyed because of it. Even if he was a delinquent with his own personal issues, he didn't deserve what happened to him. Neither did Damien Echols. Society failed both of them, and allowed the true killers to go unpunished.

There are a lot of problems in our society today that have carried over from the 80s: From cultures that enable bullies and punish their victims, to attempts to control what kids learn in schools and how they should act, to bigotry and biases that aren't just rooted in people but in the institutions and laws that uphold the social structure, to people like Jason who take the law into their own hands regardless of the collateral damage it will cause, to government corruption, to people dehumanizing others because it's more important for them to be right over being nice, and so on. Stranger Things may be a love letter to the 80s, but it does not shy away from deconstructing the uglier aspects of that decade, and conveying how some of those issues had carried over into today's culture.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this book is a mixed bag. It gives interesting details about Eddie and his life, and provides better context for certain scenes in season 4. Given that Caitlin Schneiderhan (the author of the book) had talks with the Duffer Brothers and other Stranger Things writers prior to penning this, it's likely this book can be considered canon. It's also a book that inspires discussion (as you can tell from what I've written), which is always a plus.

However, if you're a fan of Eddie, and you were upset over his death, this book isn't going to give you any catharsis. Unlike others, I'm not going to claim it's milking off of Eddie's popularity. At the same time though, it is hard to read when it teases that things might get better for Eddie and you already know what Eddie's fate is going to be.

In other words, you have to decide for yourself if this is a book you want to read. I hope my synopsis and this review gives some idea of what to expect.

[1-800anklebully]

Mood - Trent Alexander Arnold x black female reader

Summary: In which you and Trent were sneaky links at one point in life and he got sick of you. You’ve now returned back to Liverpool and old feelings resurface.

Warning: Angst, fluff, Asshole!Trent, swearing, smut if you squint a little,Toxic!Trent, and probably more that I can’t think off the top my head.

Excuse any errors!

—

The second you touched down in Liverpool and was met with the icy breeze weather, you instantly wanted to turn your ass around and go back on the next flight to San Francisco. Where the sun was out and you could where booty shorts freely. Now if you tried wearing shorts now you would surely freeze of hyperthermia.

Anyways; back to San Francisco. It’s where you now resided. 4 years ago you received a new job offer to work there. It was extremely more excellent pay than Liverpool could do for you. So you took the chance and couldn’t have did a better option.

And top of that life had gotten to the best of you, the freedom you had yearned and craved for years was finally granted. So you took every opportunity you could and never looked back.

You can only imagine the priceless look on your families face when you come back after disappearing. As you can imagine your parents never really liked the idea of you being out there.

All alone without them. You had relatives down there so you were chilling.

But they wanted to shield you from anything and everything. Quite frankly it was quite overbearing and now their overprotectiveness and strict attitude has shaped you into the woman that you are today.

“Agnes, where are you? I’m freezing my tits off I didn’t know Liverpool was so cold like this. Call me.” You hung up and could feel a piercing stare on you, finally you glanced up to see a couple staring at you funnily. They were middle aged and looked like the type to spend a grand on Louis Vuitton.

“What?” Your bitchy face must have scared them off because they instantly scurried off and you just shook your head. How are you gonna gawk then get scared when confronted. You never liked when people stared at you it made you uncomfortable.

Unfortunately for you, Agnes was a slow person so it would take her a good 10-20 minutes to get to the airport. Even though she lived a good 20 minutes away, she was a princess when it came to taking time. That’s why you knew that in a crisis shes the wrong person to call. However she’s your only ride.

“I’m here, I’m here.” She rushed over to you as you stood up from the chair. Bottom sore from how long you waited for her. Agnes engulfed you in a tight hug, the both of you screaming loud in the packed airport.

You guys hadn’t seen each other in 2 years since she came down to the Bay Area for a vacation other than that, she remained in Liverpool. She begged you to not go to the Bay Area. But being the strong minded woman you were no one was able to convince you.

“Girl look at you. You look so good.” She says pulling away, her hands still interlocked with yours, she spun you around seizing your body. Eyes capturing every detail of you.

Your oufit consists of a blue puffer jacket with some leggings that hugged your curves in all the right places, a black champion shirt with some boots. However you took them off due to them hurting your feet, so you stuck with crocs.

The way your body use to be was extremely petite. Once upon a time you were a picky eater but on top of that Trent was stressing you out. So you failed to look after you health. However once you surrounded yourself with the right food and started working out. Going to the gym from once a week to 4 times a week.

It was game over for everyone. You weren’t on the slim side but you weren’t on the thick side either. Slim thick would be you. You also turned to a sport. Volleyball. Ironically enough you use to do Volleyball in high school.

You never really took it seriously until your neighbour who was a professional volleyball player got you into and you haven’t stopped since.

“Stop it. I’ve just been hitting the gym you feel me.” You shrugged as she eyed your behind.” I can tell.” This made you laugh at how she wasn’t hiding the fact that she was checking you out at all.

“Whatever your eating did miracles. Because now we Twinems.” She then began explaining how she also started hitting the gym and basically caught you on up on her life.

Until yous arrived at her apartment. Her apartment was cute and petite and matched her entirely, she was still obsessed with her anime. Album’s of summer Walker and Kendrick Lamar on her walls. You adored the set up of her house.

In a way it resembled you accept your apartment was full of Frank Ocean and Adele.

“So how’s your family?” You ask her getting comfortable on the couch. You crossed your legs putting your braids into a bun and wrapping it up.

The Arnold family was like your second family. You always came to them when you were dealing with difficulties in your own houshold. At times when your father had became verbally abuse you always go to them for help and guidance. They practically raised you.

Dianne was like the mother you had but wished for, she was angel and was supportive of your decision of you choosing to move to San Francisco. Didn’t humiliate you or laugh at your decision unlike your actual mother who was cackling for a good hour when you informed her.

Sure it broke her heart to see her daughter’ leave her but it had to be done in order for you to escape your parents. You needed that break and god made the way

Now Trent, the two of you guys always had a love and hate relationship. Sometimes it could go from you cussing and dissing each to him falling asleep on your shoulder while family guy played on the tv.

The two of you were confusing, you knew that you had developed feelings for him unintentionally but to him it was a game. He knew deep down he liked you but he was a player. Never had these feelings before so he hid it by avoiding any questions about a relationship.

Instead of addressing you about his fear of rejection. Sleeping around was what he kept doing. He didn’t wanna shoot his shot unless it ended with you being his girl. If not then he didn’t wanna hear it.

He didn’t wanna settle down and it pissed you off but you learnt to accept that and move on. Or at least you tried to. Trent was posseeive and wanted you to himself. Like for instance, you went on a date with a guy and he dressed up as waitress’s and spiked your dates drink. Causing him to get alcohol poisoning.

And he was in the hospital for a good week or two thanks to your jealous- possessive ex sneaky link that was greedy and didn’t wanna share you.

You could never forget the look on his face as he watched you board on that flight to San Francisco never to return again.

It was like seeing a lost puppy.Of course you reminded him that you weren’t moving because of him more so because of your job offer and he completely understood hopefully. But knowing Trent it probably all went out the other ear.

He was too busy clenching his jaw at nobody in particular and sucking his teeth while chewing gum every 5 seconds. Didn’t even probably greet you goodbye.

Due to how grumpy he was.

Although, Trent he never reached out again and it was like all of a sudden the once upon a time friendship or intimate relationship never mattered. And that high key fucked you up when you came to that realisation.

“My family is good. Trent’s just been so involved with football it’s almost as if he doesn’t even live with my folks.” Your face instantly changed at the mention of his name. These so called scars were meant to be healed. But they weren’t.

You didn’t expect her to bring it up so soon. You have avoided his name for 4 years. It was only until that the ice breaker was broken.

“Have you and Trent even spoken?” She shifted so that she was facing you and you shook your head. Even talking about him made you miss him. He was just so memorable.

But you doubt that even knows that you exist anymore. He has way more important things in his life now.

“Nope. He doesn’t know im here. And besides it would be strange to reach out to someone that doesn’t wanna be spoken with.” You reasoned biting your lip. You admit you were being petty right now but it was all for the accurate reasons.

Agnes sent you a strange look almost as if you were speaking alien to her.” What do you mean? You’re telling me that Trent hasn’t constantly reached out to you claiming you never answer his phone calls or texts.”

Now it was your turn to scrunch your face up.

“Is Trent mad?! That dickhead never messaged nor called me once since I went to the bay. He blocked my number as if I was some side piece that he got sick of. So I don’t know why he’s going around telling fibs that aren’t true.” You projected your voice and it was prominent that Trent had awoken the bear inside of you.

It drove you bonkers knowing that he was telling his family complete lies and a whole different story to the original plot. When in reality he just couldn’t grow the balls to contact you because he knew he was in the wrong. So he stuck with his story of you ignoring him which everyone had eat up.

Classic Trent.

Lying to cover up his own ass. He’s always been a liar since you guys were “together.” First it started off with little thing like him forgetting about your sneaky link dates. But being the naive girl love sick girl you were at the time.

You payed him no mind and never questioned him. That was until the following event had occurred that drove you to the edge. And you had wished that you hadn’t been so naive in the past.

“Oh.” Agnes scrunched up her face in discomfort. To think that her younger brother was feeding her entire family with false accusations made her blood pressure skyrocket. Especially since you’re so near and dear to her family. He caused such a bad reputation on your name.

She spent months hating your guts for causing unspeakable damage to her younger brother. He almost left his whole career behind because his mental health just took a turn for the worst.

“My brother is such a liar.” Agnes spoke in disbelief flabbergasted but what she had been told.

“That he is.” You chimed taking a sip of your wine glass.

It was about 6:40 pm. And it was just becoming dark outside thanks to now day light savings. The neighbours were silent as if they aren’t even present.

And the birds had paused their exasperating chirping. Agnes and Y/N had paused out on the couch modern family played on the tv. Agnes was hanging off the couch with her mouth wide open. Meanwhile you laid there asleep facing the couch. You two very opposite.

Agnes slept like a child and you slept like a old woman. Something that Trent use to constantly pick on you about. The sound of a phone dinging multiples times made the two groan. You guys decided to ignore it but when noticed that it wasn’t gonna stop.

Agnes blindly grabbed her phone, her eyes sour than lemon as she attempted to read the messages on her phone. But it was all blurry and a bunch of words on a screen.

“Who was it?” You faced her laying on your side as you rubbed the sleep from your eyes. That had to be best nap you had in years. You were all alone in your flat in San Francisco.

Just having knowing that you have someone on your presence is so reassuring. Whether it was a friend or a loved one.

“My mum.” She says still scrolling through the texts. Her eyes had scanned through the paragraphs. Her mum loved speaking in a such big paragraphs.

You instantly tensed completely forgetting that Dianne knew everything and she possibly knew that you snuck back to Liverpool. Without telling her and there was no way she was going to let that slide without you coming to her home to visit her and her husband.

That’s the only reason why you go to her house. Not because of her son Trent. But because you love her enough to respect her.

“What does she want?” Your heart hammers against your ribcage like crazy and your breathing had quickened so rapidly.

“Just checking up on me. And she knows that you’re here and she said to tell you that you aren’t getting away that easy and basically she invited you to dinner.” Agnes non enthusiastically explains. Because she knew her mother was big on family time. Which meant that everybody was going to be there.

You groan grabbing a pillow and screaming into in frustration. Why out of all the days did she have to choose tomorrow. She could’ve found out a week but nope.

God was definitely not on your side as of right now.

“Can I cancel?” You meekly peer up at Agnes from the pillow and she had a un impressed look on her face.

“Be so for real.You know my mother Y/n. She’ll murder the both of us if we don’t attend. So you’re gonna have to put on your big girl panties and suck it up.” She stands up closing the tv and stretching her achy limbs.

Agnes knew the reason why you were all worked up was because having dinner with the Alexander-Arnold family meant that all the brothers were expected to attend.

Yes including the 5’9 right back that plays football for England and Liverpool team. Trent Alexander Arnold.

“But I don’t wanna see him. I’m not ready!” You nagged chasing Agnes up the stairs. However she ignored you slamming the door in your face. Leaving you stand there hopelessly like a child that just got declined a treat.

You spent the rest of the night yapping Agnes’s ear off about how unhappy you were that you had to face the devil himself. After years of no communication quite frankly you felt like you were going to explode.

Fuming was not even the word that could describe how you were feeling you were beyond fuming. But you should’ve known better than to think you could visit Liverpool without having to see him.

Let’s just see how it all plays out I guess.

_

This is my first Trent imagine/ actual imagine that I’ve taken the time to write that Lonzo one doesn’t count. I know shocker so if it’s not the best please don’t mind me. 😭

Also my knowledge of football is so little so don’t come at me alright I just got into it late last year.

I’m new to all this I just started getting into tumblr like since 2021, but only started writing last year, but enough about me rambling.

Hope you enjoyed this and stay tuned for part 2! 🤎🫶🏽

[swedishtrickster]

Hey, so, I’ve seen that there’s quite a few people who doesn’t know about this in the Käärijä fandom space, and because I’ve seen comments about this recently I figured I’d explain something -  Don’t claim that Käärijä is lying about not having that much money, living in a small apartment, or things like that. Just because you see him goofing around on a chartered flight to perform at a show DOES NOT MEAN HE HAS MONEY NOW. Also him living in a tiny apartment is clearly not a lie, he has made enough tiktoks and IG stories from there for that to be a confirmed thing.  Booking a show normally works one of two ways - 1) if you’re a small, relatively unknown, artist and want to play a venue, you normally have to front the venue for a certain amount of tickets sold, and pay for your own transport and crew to set up before the show and clear out after the show is done. You’re only hoping to make that money back in selling more tickets than you fronted, and potentially selling merch etc at the show. If you’re a small artist and have a contract with a label, the label might be footing the bill to start, but there’s normally a clause in the contract on how the artist is to reimburse the label for any costs.* 2) if you’re a bigger artist, venues reach out through either your label, agent, or some other official way of contact if you’re independent. They then offer travel, accommodation, and performance fee for you and potential crew to play the gig. Thus you as an artist don’t pay out of pocket to go perform in this scenario.* At this point, it is safe to say that Käärijä has moved into “bigger artist” area, and thus a chartered plane is 100% not something he paid for himself. Of course I can’t be sure, since I don’t work with the event in question, but my guess is that the event he’s flying to wanted him badly enough to offer these things to make sure he could come and do the show. However, a lot of his other gigs this summer are still at small venues, where the first scenario for this probably still applies. So please don’t call him a liar or claim he’s “playing a role trying to pretend to be like everyone else”. He’s genuinely one of the most down to earth artists I’ve taken note of in the past few years. Also yes, he will probably get some money from all the streams and sales on different platforms, but please remember that since he’s under a label he likely doesn’t get all of that money directly into his own pocket. It will get split down into smaller chunks that will go towards paying for things like studio spaces, mixing, producers, live crew, etc. And even if he gets money from independent streams, remember Who The Hell Is Edgar - 0.003 cents per stream is a normal rate and it takes a lot of streams to get a livable wage from that. *Source: I studied “experience production” for 3 years, with a focus on event and festival planning, and also worked stage bookings for a convention for 2 years. I was also close with a bunch of indie bands in my early twenties and learned a lot from them.

[love-little-lotte]

Hamilton Manila 2023!

As a musical theatre girlie who lives far away from the capital city, it's a bit hard to catch artists and musicals when they tour in my country. It can also be quite expensive since I have to pay for my flight and book Airbnbs. But when Lin-Manuel Miranda announced that Hamilton would have its Asian premiere in the Philippines early this year, I promised myself I would not throw away my shot.

I first discovered this musical in the summer of 2016, probably a month before it garnered big awards — including Best Musical! — at the Tonys. Having only heard of Breathe from LMM's other show, In The Heights, back then, I was surprised to hear rap and hip-hop in a Broadway musical. Nevertheless, I was hooked! Every song was catchy, and the lyrics were smart and informative. Satisfied and Helpless became my favorite songs, with It's Quiet Uptown making me cry whenever I hear the four words: "Forgiveness, can you imagine?"

After watching The Phantom of the Opera back in March 2019, I was so excited to go back to Solaire and watch another musical. This time, I was able to enjoy my second theatre experience with my college friends. It seems very fitting that I get to share this moment with them. Back in college, we used to sing songs from Hamilton during breaks and enact the dance from The Schuyler Sisters. We even made a parody of the song Alexander Hamilton when making a presentation about Confucius for our Asian Civilization class!

While Solaire didn't have many different backdrops for photo ops for Hamilton like they did for POTO, my friends and I were still able to take cute pictures!

As a partnership with UnionBank, they also offer free holographic souvenir cards for the first 140 people (150 on the weekends, iirc), so coming to the theatre four hours earlier is definitely worth it! Here's my card with my friends:

My friends and I also enjoyed complimentary drinks from Solaire since it was our first time signing up for Solaire Rewards. Don't throw away your shot for free drinks!

Okay, now for the show itself! Although most of my friends were hoping to watch the show in the orchestra seats, we ended up on the balcony. After a while, I realized that Hamilton is certainly best viewed on the balcony since we're able to see the rotating stage more clearly, as well as the incredible choreography and lighting design.

Here's the main cast we saw on October 31:

Like most Filipinos, I was hoping to see Rachelle Ann Go as Eliza. "Pinoy Pride" is something of a cheesy inside joke in our country, but hell, I'm so happy to see Rachelle thriving in West End productions, from Les Misérables to Hamilton. Seeing her portray Eliza live was one for the books. She was playful and giddy in Helpless, but she completely broke everyone's heart during Burn. And not to mention, her voice! Her singing highlights include Burn and the last part of Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story. She also shared wonderful chemistry with Callan Purcell, who played Hamilton in this production.

I was so looking forward to seeing Jason Arrow as Hamilton, but I still liked Callan's performance, even if his interpretation was completely different from other Hamiltons I've seen in slime tutorials. I especially liked him the best in Act 1. His "mature" Hamilton may not be that convincing at times in Act 2, but his energy was so infectious as the "ambitious" young Hamilton in the first half.

Another surprise was Kirrah Amosa's Angelica. I've read some comments in the Pinoy Hamilton FB group about her "lacking" portrayal of Angelica, but you know what? I thought she was great! Yes, she's giving more of an "empathetic Eliza" energy instead of the "fierce Angelica" we usually see, but that's what made her performance of Satisfied even more impactful to me. As for the third Schuyler sister, Peggy/Maria Reynolds, Elandrah Eramiha has a honey-like voice, which she completely showed off during Say No To This.

As a Burr apologist, I'm torn with Winston Hillyer's portrayal of Burr. Eliza's my overall favorite character in the show, but for me, Burr is the most relatable and grounded. I wasn't completely disappointed with his performance, but I just didn't think his character was able to "grow" in the second half. He has a very wonderful, crystal-clear voice, though!

Darnell Abraham as George Washington was also a main highlight of the show! Maybe it's because of his rich baritone voice, but I loved his father-son relationship with Callan. His Washington was thoughtful and deeply caring. (And dare I say I like him more than Chris Jackson from the OBC?)

Brent Hill was hilarious as King George, but I can't help comparing his performance with Jonathan Groff's. They both have brilliant comedic timing, but Jonathan's a much more menacing King George, whereas Brent is sassier and maybe even crazier!

Meanwhile, Hamilton's comrades: Marcus John and Trey Curtis, who played Lafayette/Jefferson and Mulligan/Madison respectively, also had so much chemistry with each other and stole the show so many times! Marcus reminded me so much of Daveed Diggs' little quirks in the show, but he was still great in his own way. I've read somewhere that Trey is also a standby for Hamilton and that he's amazing. Sigh... What I'd do to watch the show again and catch him as Hamilton! Julian Kuo was also very sweet as Laurens/Philip Hamilton, which made his death scenes twice as heartbreaking as usual.

Overall, I'm very much satisfied with this Hamilton cast!

Of course, Hamilton will not be complete without merch! Just like last time, I bought a boat tote bag because, like other Gen-Z kids, I'm obsessed with tote bags. We just can't help it! I also bought a lapel pin, so I can pin it to my other tote bags. I initially wanted to buy the button pin set, but unfortunately, it was sold out. I'm still pretty happy with my purchases, though!

Four days later, I'm back at home, and I still have post-show blues. I just listen to the OBC recording and the mixtape to keep me company. Maybe I'll rewatch the Disney+ pro-shot again!

Watching Hamilton was a dream come true and an experience I'll never forget anytime soon. I can't wait to watch my next musical again!

[dailytomlinson]

Hi! If you’ve been wondering “what the fuck is going on?” due to most things being posted with a huge delay or not at all, I just wanna share what’s been up on my end of life. Last year was a rollercoaster on it’s own and towards the end of year, I felt the urge to visit a side of my [exchange student host] family I hadn’t really visit in 7 years (in the U.S.) and we’ve had some losses early in 21/22 and I felt like it was time to take time (and money) to pay them a visit and get to mourn our losses, spread some good ol positivity and love to people that quite literally saved my life when I first moved in, back in 2012. I hadn’t told them I was going to visit during the holidays and 3 days after I bought my flight, my grandmother received the news that the illness she had been feeling all October had a name and a due date: cancer, 3 months max. I was devastated and knew the worse would probably happen over the holidays or right after I left there to come home and I was right. On December 30th, 2 weeks after I got there and had the chance to seat down with her, say a lot of the things I wanted and listen to a lot she had to say, she just... You know. It’s been really emotionally hard for me (well, to our entire family), because I never really got along with my biological family and she embrace me as her own, and been this grandmother figure for me that I desperately needed and when I needed it the most; I was vulnerable, lonely and couldn’t really speak the language, but she treated me as her own from day one and changed my life, changed how I perceived love and family altogether. I left my home there and spent some time travelling because a girl needs a vacation after an intense year. Anyways, that aside, I knew that on my return home, I’d change job titles due new laws and in a good twist, the place I work at decided to let me keep my current job (because I’m ✨too fucking good✨) and I got a second job offer which sent my current boss into a spiral thinking I was going to drop her (LMAO) and etc etc etc, so, all this said, it’s safe to say December/January have been CHAOTIC, with my feelings all over the place and I genuinely haven’t had the time to keep up. It’s just me. Clau @tomlinsun helps when she can and Ingrid, @delicatepointofview, bless her heart, does LITERALLY the most and she’s not even part of the team officially, it’s just her, all my e-mails, passwords and her insomnia against the world. I haven’t stopped caring about Louis, haven’t changed into whatever you clowns seem to think, I just been alive and living. I’m trying to organise my semester ahead so I can have some more time and etc. Louis still means the world to me and this blog was, is and will always be my baby!  That being said, let’s hit the road, hopefully we finally get guitar!Louis this time around! 🎸🎤

[newtthetranswriter]

Kalecgos Soulmate Au Part 3

Word count: 825

Summary: While waiting for a meeting in Valdraken the blue Aspect finds himself face to face with an important someone.

Warnings: Again none that I can think of.

A/n: Welcome back for part 3 of my Kalecgos soulmate au, this is really just part 2 but from Kalecgos’ point of view but I thought it would be nice to include. I hope you enjoy and as always Remember to hydrate or diedrate.

Prologue - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4

    It had been a long few days since arriving on the Dragon Isle, and Kalecgos had dealt with quite a bit trying to get the home of Blue dragons liveable again. Having to get rid of different mana creatures that had gone feral in the time the dragons were gone. Kalecgos just wanted to take a break, but Alexstrasza wanted the Aspects to meet in Valdraken and get updates on how cleaning everything up is going.

    Having arrived in Valdraken an hour early, Kalec decided to take a walk around the Sapphire Enclave and check in with any blue dragon who may have made their way back to the Isle. Checking with the various dragons and Dracthyr that have decided to call the enclave home led him to the Azure Archive Annex. A relatively smaller building that looked fairly similar to a Library. Being as fascinated with magic as he was, Kalec decided to step inside and see what books may be inside.

   Taking notice of someone browsing the shelves, Kalec placed himself at the end of the opposite end of the shelf to give the stranger space. Now completely focused on the old magic books, Kalec did not notice that he and the stranger had moved towards each other. Only realizing he had moved when he felt the stranger bump his shoulder. 

    Turning, Kalec was met by the stunned look on the stranger’s face, assuming they knew who he was, Kalec decided to apologize. “Sorry for bumping into you. I was just focused on this book and not paying attention to those around me.” He tilted his head to the side offering a kind smile to the admittedly attractive stranger.

     He watched as they snapped out of their frozen state before they spoke. “No, don't worry about it, it's completely my fault. I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t realize anyone else was here.” Somehow the informality of how they spoke to him made Kalec realize that maybe they had no clue who he was. After all, most people tend to treat the Aspects like royalty, so he thanked his past self for choosing to look more presentable in his visage than many others of his flight. He focused back on the conversation when he noticed the stranger had offered him their hand to shake while introducing themself. “Anyway, I’m Y/n. It’s nice to meet you.”

     Before shaking Y/n’s hand Kalec couldn’t help but notice the small blue dragon resting on Y/n's wrist, its face matching the surprise and curiosity he was currently feeling. Not wanting to scare off his potential soulmate, he brushed it off and shook their hand. “I’m Kalec, it’s a pleasure to meet you as well. May I ask, what brings you to the Sapphire enclave?” He used his visages pseudonym, wanting to keep the conversation light without the wait of his official title.

     Both people had turned back to the book shelf to keep looking at the books while they spoke. “Oh, I was just exploring Valdraken before I have to attend a meeting later and just got distracted by the beautiful books here. What brings you here Kalec?” Y/n explained.

     Thinking for a moment, Kalec realized they were probably both here for the same meeting. He had heard from the other Aspects that Merithra was busy in the plains and was sending her advisor to fill in for the Green Flight. Making the connection that Y/n was likely a green dragon, confirmed to him that they were most likely soulmates. Still not wanting to rush into anything because who knows this could just be another green dragon who also happened to be soulmates with a member of his flight, Kalec kept the conversation the current topic. “Coincidentally, I also have a meeting to attend later. As for being in the enclave I just wanted to check in with the other members of the Blue flight who returned. There aren’t many of us here but it’s always good to make sure they’re doing well.” He figured Y/n had already pieced together that he was at least a blue dragon as half-elves aren’t extremely common, and definitely not with deep blue hair. Looking out the door of the building Kalec realized it was getting close to time for the meeting and decided to part ways. “Well, I’ll be seeing you, Y/n.” With that he nodded to them, before leaving.

     After leaving the Library Kalec decided to check his wrist, hoping that it would likely confirm his recent suspicions. Pulling his sleeve up slightly he could see the little green dragon with a look of happiness, but he could also see the shock and surprise in its eyes. If he was right, Y/n probably just realized who he really is, maybe not the part about them being soulmates, but that they had just had a super casual conversation with an Aspect that wasn’t Merithra.

[calicomarie11]

Chat 2

DartKing: Someone just asked me for a dick pic and it reminded me of you. Why are men like this?

GrimmReader: Unless I’m reading your profile wrong, you are a man so I don’t know what to tell you.

DartKing: What’s wrong with wanting a little romance? At least ask my favorite color or dinosaur before you try for a glimpse down my pants.

GrimmReader: What’s your favorite color?

DartKing: Ha, ha. Yellow, by the way.

GrimmReader: Hunter Green

DartKing: That’s very specific.

GrimmReader: I prefer precision. If I just said green, you might think I’m the type of person who likes lime green or avocado green or pea green.

GrimmReader: Favorite dinosaur? I haven’t heard that one before.

DartKing: My son went through a dinosaur phase and that was always the first thing he asked new people.

GrimmReader: My daughter has been obsessed with skeletons lately, so she’d probably ask what your favorite bone is.

DartKing: Now that is a loaded question.

GrimmReader: And now that I read that back I realize how that could be misconstrued. I really didn’t mean that to be dirty.

DartKing: No worries, I know you didn’t. So how old is the little princess?

GrimmReader: She’s 4 and more of a warrior queen than a princess. Your son?

DartKing: Turning 10 before I know it. He lives in the states with his mom.

GrimmReader: I’m sorry. My daughter lives with her mother most of the time and that’s hard enough. I can’t imagine her being on the other side of an ocean.

DartKing: Thanks. We FaceTime everyday and text. I go back whenever I get the chance. It’s not ideal, but I don’t have a lot of good options right now.

GrimmReader: Must be some job to keep you here.

DartKing: I’ll say. It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before. The people make it worth it and the money’s not bad either. Not that money is the most important thing, but it is nice to be able to fly first class when I go back to the states. And to be able to afford the big LEGO sets for my kid.

GrimmReader: I can’t say I’ve ever flown first class. My job typically books the cheapest travel options available or makes me drive myself.

DartKing: To be honest, I feel weird about it. I keep wanting to offer my seat to the flight attendants and go serve drinks so they can have a break.

DartKing: I didn’t exactly grow up in a first class family. I keep thinking I should find some charities to donate to, but I also don’t know how long this job will last and I want to bank enough to not worry about college tuition. Plus, alimony and child support.

DartKing: That I’m happy to pay, no mistake.

GrimmReader: I get it. I felt so guilty over my divorce I let her keep the house.

DartKing: Same. Although moving to London did factor in to the decision.

DartKing: so…your ex is a woman and you have a 4 year old but your profile says gay.

GrimmReader: is there a question in there?

DartKing: seems like there’s maybe a story there …

GrimmReader: A story for another time. It’s getting late and my daughter will be waking me up all too soon at an indecent hour.

DartKing:Got it. night, night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite.

GrimmReader: Don’t even joke about bed bugs. Good night.

DartKing: Good Night. Chat again soon?

GrimmReader: Sure.

Read on AO3

[direbeastrex]

If I was to offer digital-only goods for sale on Ko-Fi, with a Pay What You Want or <£5/$5 price, what would you like to see?

Fandoms/IPs I'm familiar enough to work within:

World of Warcraft

Final Fantasy 14

SWTOR

Elder Scrolls

Guild Wars 2

The Isle

Path of Titans

Beasts of Bermuda

Draconia

Day of Dragons

Ark: Survival Evolved

Assassin's Creed

Spyro the Dragon

Valheim

Flight Rising

FNAF

Dungeons and Dragons

Pathfinder

Vampire: The Masquerade

(And the rest of the World of Darkness, gimmie your werewolves to draw!)

How to Train your Dragon

Like Every Animated Disney Movie

Most of Don Bluth, Rankin Bass, Ralph Bakshi, and other Non-Disney Studio 2D animated feature films (The Flight of Dragons, The Last Unicorn, Primal, Balto, Wizards, Fire and Ice etc)

Homestuck (yes I am genuinely at that point of desperation how could you tell)

Watership Down

The Complete Works of Shakespeare (i am 100% serious)

Goncharov (lmao)

Bear in mind this list isn't exhaustive, and I have absolutely certainly forgotten something, or I am always happy and willing to do research ahead of time!

I am also of course open for commissions for fan art within these fandoms and IPs too- check my pinned post for my prices, and my full info and ToS can be found at direbeastrex.carrd.co

And of course, please give my Ko-fi a follow to see what goodies i might be putting up for sale!

Let me know what you'd like to see more of- or what you wish got more love in general- I'm really curious to see how best I can serve y'all with my art!

[friendofthecrows]

Had the most terrifying but in hindsight hilarious dream. So we were in Naples, filming the Goncharov remake, and somehow someone must have managed to arrange a meeting with Martin Scorsese because he shows up with a couple other people in tow.

And keep in mind in this dream we're like. on location. in Naples. and I had no prior warning whatsoever bc I guess someone else arranged it without talking to me. So either he traveled pretty far or he just happened to be in the area but like this is THEE guy and I am NOT prepared but I have to act like I am, and he's talking to me like I'm a professional filmmaker who Knows What I'm Doing when in actuality I'm just like a business and project management person who's been researching film stuff as I go and Char, our film director, is actively out with most of the crew filming a Katya and Sofia scene (I think it was boathouse?) so at this point, I'm already trying to suppress fight and flight.

Scorsese says he has some questions to ask, obviously trying to gauge whether this project is something worth getting involved in/supporting or if we're completely wasting his time. I offer to show him around while we talk, which he says sounds great. So we're walking around the grounds of the place we rented to be Mario's mansion, which also doubles as where everyone is staying so we don't have to separately pay for hotel rooms or equivalent, and while most of the crew is out along with the actresses playing Katya and Sofia, the other actors are here, which is important, because the actor for Goncharov insists on only sleeping outside, and just as Scorsese asks "Why do you think you're the right person to lead this production," we round a corner and I see Goncharov asleep like face down in the grass, still in the overcoat and everything. And I know he just sleeps like that, but Scorsese doesn't, and I'm worried (irrational dream logic) that Scorsese thinks he passed out while filming or something and that we're running a horrible sloppy production and overworking everyone and not paying attention to the actors' and crew's needs or that we didn't arrange space and are making actors sleep outside or worse that Gonch is DEAD, but Scorcese just steps over Gonch like it's no big deal and is like "well?" waiting for my reply. And I remember the question and am internally like "fuck, I DON'T think there's any particular reason(s) I'm the best person for this, I have no idea what to say." So I kind of bullshit an answer and definitely ramble a bit too long on it trying to justify, which is objectively not the best way to handle a question you don't know how to answer. Scorsese asks some more really difficult questions and I answer the best I can and he seems to receive the answers in a sort of lukewarm way like he's not particularly impressed.

Then it's dinner, and we've gotten Subway (i know) and the people who left to film earlier are back and eating with us, etc. Scorsese pulls out several small decks of cards, and hands one to each person at our table (about 7 of us). He explains that in his free time, he made a little card game based on Goncharov. The cards have a character card and then some others that cover have effects, items, and things like that. He's explaining to the others how to play, but all the stuff he's saying clearly does not line up with what's on my cards. I ask, and he goes "oh that's Magic The Gathering." This raises two issues. 1. I don't know how to play Magic The Gathering, never mind on my own like solitaire or with people who are playing an entirely different game. 2. These are clearly not Magic The Gathering cards. I admit that I don't know how to play Magic The Gathering. He seems kind of disappointed and then says that he's very busy and should head home as soon as dinner is over. I interpret this as me completely blowing it due to not knowing how to play Magic The Gathering, but I don't say anything about it, I just thank him for his time. BUT THEN he says he's available to meet again on Thursday at 2pm.

The dream immediately transitions to Thursday at 2pm and I'm in his office, presumably in America, which in hindsight I have no idea how I got from Italy to there but in the dream, this was Completely Normal. It's quiet and he has another set of the game from last time sort of discarded on a table, and while I'm trying to anticipate what he's going to ask and what to say I'm mostly staring at it thinking "what the fuck was I supposed to do with that." And all the sudden Scorsese breaks the silence by saying, "I have some advice for you. Have you ever studied martial arts?"

And then I woke up.

[kohakhearts]

so two weeks ago my kneecap spontaneously dislocated. no one really knows whats up with that. i get raised eyebrows and “but what did you do”s every time someone sees my splinted leg and asks what happened. so the orthopedist says this stays on for six weeks. then, you can do physiotherapy and we’ll hope this never happens again.

ok, great. so the good news is i CAN put weight on it. the doctor in the hospital gives me a pair of crutches, smiles at me like it’s not 6am and i haven’t been sitting in the er all night, says Just In Case. that’s great too.

the bad news?

i live on the third floor of a building with no elevator.

the building i work in has three floors and one elevator on the opposite side from where we’re located, which can only be accessed with a special key anyway. oh, and there’s construction going on this summer - so actually, the elevator isn’t even going to be accessible. plus, it doesn’t go to the third floor anyway, which is where my classroom is, at the end of the hallway.

that’s fine, though. i take public transit to and from work every day. at least the metro stations have elevators, right? well…14 out of about 70 stations in the city have them. i’m lucky that my local one does - the station i transfer at for work doesn’t have one to the platform i have to transfer to. the one i leave work from has three flights of stairs from the platform to the terminal.

so, keeping in mind i have to go up and down the stairs at work by the whims of my children and supervisors, and the staff room where i have to eat my lunch is on a different floor than my classroom, i’m averaging 20+ flights of stairs every single day. and cannot bend one of my knees, which is at the end of each day about as swollen as it was the day i dislocated it. my doctor prescribed me a month’s worth of naproxen, which my pharmacist was shocked by. she said, usually you only need this for a week. until the swelling goes down.

but the swelling is managed with some ice here and there anyway. so i’ll live. what really hurts is when i’m on the bus - because my commute to work involves two busses and two trains each way - and people trip over my leg because they just aren’t paying attention. i am at the mercy of kind strangers who notice and stand protectively over my leg, when i am lucky enough that upon boarding a bustling bus someone even gives me their seat. otherwise, i’m forced to stand on one leg to avoid putting too much force on my injured one each time we hit a bump.

(three times since my injury i have been the only person to offer my seat to another person with limited mobility on the bus, which every time the person in question has denied while everyone else’s eyes remain down and mouths remain shut.)

and lets not forget - i live in a city where everything is built atop huge fucking hills. at the top of one is the hospital. just below that, my university’s campus and student clinic.

am i just complaining for the sake of complaining? a little bit. but mostly i am thinking about how the inaccessibility around me is actively making it more difficult for me to heal from what is, spontaneity aside, a fairly common injury. i can’t quit my job. i need to attend my appointments. were it not june, i’d have to go to class. i am incredibly lucky to have friends who are willing to help with groceries and laundry, which would be particularly difficult for me due to the number of stairs i’d have to climb with my hands full, but if i didn’t - those are not things i could stop doing for myself and expect to survive for six weeks either, especially when i’m working 40 hours a week with 2+ hours of commuting a day.

anyway. maybe there’s not a lot the average person can do to help people with limited mobility. but giving up your seat on the bus is a pretty good first step and always has been.

[ehalslrk]

#1 flight tickets and visa

As I mentioned in my last post, the application process for gks is quite long and stressful. As you wait for the results of the first, second and third round, all you wish is to know the final results: Whether you're going or not. And you kind of expect everything will be fine once you know that all the effort and money was not in vain. In reality you only have a few days to celebrate the achievement before another stress period starts. It can be very individual depending on the country you're from and university you will attend but there are probably very few awardees who would consider the following process easy or unproblematic. (I decided to write down the whole process including dates in case it can help anyone in the future.)

After the final results were out on 30.06. it took about a week for NIIED to send us the Invitation letter (NIIED was sending out the emails in an alphabetical order so some people received it in 7 days and some later. Mine came on 10.07.). Following that the procedure depends on your uni. I know that many universities sent out CoAs (Certificate of Acceptance) very promptly and students could start their visa application process almost right away. For me, it took almost a month. But we will get to it later.

First, I received a survey asking me for details regarding my flight ticket. The school you're going to attend first is responsible for buying your ticket, so if you're attending language institute first and it's different from your uni (I think that after 2023 it's the case for only 5 universities), they will be the one to contact you. The survey came on 04.07. and there we questions such as prefered date of departure, prefered airport of departure, etc.

Important thing to note is that you have to depart from your home country, otherwise, the ticket won't be covered. There are also some other rules determined by NIIED such as that the "itinerary must be a direct flight or a flight with the shortest route to Korea (and if there is no direct flight available, the layover should be limited to 30 hours)." Except this, there is a price limit. The costs cannot exceed 1,2 million KRW. These rules can get very illogical in some cases. For example, I come from a very small country that offers no direct flights, but there are two big foreign international airports near our borders (1-2,5 hours by car from my house). No exceptions were allowed in my case, so the ticket I got is from a city that is 4,5 hours away from my home by car (but in my country) and I have to transfer 2 times to board a plane in an international airport that is just 2 hours from my home. The flight will take about 26 hours in total. That means that it will take almost 2 days for me to get to my dormitory. This is not all. I could get a flight from my country with 1 transfer but it was about 500 thousand KRW above the limit. As they refused to make any exceptions, 26 hours with 2 transfers flight was chosen over 14 hours flight with 1 transfer. Funny, right? I find it quite unfair because I know that there were people from countries from which the cheapest flight is way above 1,2 mil KRW and school got them very good tickets (great airline and good transit) ignoring the limit while I got a lowcost airline with 2 transfers. But since I decided to accept the situation rather than make a big deal about it, let's end my rant.

To tell you the truth, I'm okay with taking longer to get there but I'm worried about the transfers and since I'm also taking checked baggage it highers the chances of my baggage getting lost. Please wish me luck. ^^

I know I'm not the only one in bad situation regarding the rules. Some people have troubles with the transit visa and even take much longer than me.

To make it clear, before the university staff purchased the ticket, I got an email for confirmation and only after my failed attempt to compromise did they pay for it and sent it to me. I heard people from a few universities didn't even have a choice. Or there were cases when they asked them to purchase the ticket themselves with a promise to reimburse when they open their account in Korea.

Okay. Enough about tickets. Let's talk about visa.

Because we are a scholarship awardees, NIIED does their best to make the process simpler. We don't have to pay the usual visa application fee nor prove our financial ability to support ourselves. People doing the language programme apply for D-4 visa, exempted apply for either D-2-3 or D-2-7. Documents you need will therefore differ (and can be different also depending on the country you are applying from so check with your embassy), but you generally need the following:

Passport and passport photo (3,5x4,5cm)

NIIED invitation letter

CoA

Document indicating the final level of education (Diploma)

Visa application form

One thing to note, if you come from smaller country, chances are that the visa staff won't know about this scholarship at all. In case they ask you to pay the fee or don't cooperate, print out the Important Notice/Guidelines and show them. Fight for that fee exemption! XD Just make sure you are polite please.

The reason I couldn't apply for visa right away in July was that I didn't yet have CoA. Korea University informed us that we can only get this document after the tuition payment period (although as scholarship students, we technically don't pay, just do so called 0 won registration). After the registration, I got my CoA on 27.7. You need to keep in mind that you have to schedule your appointment for visa application at the embassy in advance. There is a website where you can register online but it wasn't open for my country and I could only schedule the appointment by calling them. I was informed by our embassy that it's okay to call them only 2-4 days in advance so I waited and called them when I received the CoA.

Fast forward, I was left speechless when they told that I should come in 2 weeks with less than 14 calendar days to my departure. That stressed me out so much. The usual period for visa issuance is 14 working days. I contacted the embassy several times to ask for explanation but they repeated that I will get my visa on time and don't have to worry. To give you some background info to understand what was going through my head, I have experience of not receiving my Korean visa on time and having to deal with consequences so this didn't quite help. My ticket was non-refundable and my arrival very tight with the beginning of semester on September 1st.

But whether it was my stubborness that made me contact them several time or they were really that sure that I can get it on time, I got my visa issued in only 3 working days. Yayy!

To not make this article very long I will continue tallking about the Course registration and Orientation in the next article.