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fountainpenguin · 5 months ago

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Riddle watches New Wish - Post #15

Work Her Magic

There is some seriously cruel irony in posting the episode where Hazel's mom clearly wants to engage with her, but can't right now because she's busy (and thus Hazel's upset about how her mom is always working) IMMEDIATELY after the double-length episode where Dev was unable to get his dad's attention whatsoever. What the heck, Hazel? Did you learn nothing?

I love Hazel's parents so much. They're adorable. Marcus being a little jealous about how his wife's always talking to her publisher / coordinator when he wants to plan a date night is fantastic.

-> Assistant, that's her role.

omfg, the title card was grown-up Hazel?? I was multi-tasking on these notes and thought that was her mom. She's ADORABLE.

What the fliiiip? I'm not sure I've ever loved a design more... This is so good. Her color scheme is the same. She's still predominantly blue and those pink bits resemble her shirt stripes, and she's still got green shoes. That's impeccable. A+ thoughtful design.

I love her... I have no 'fic ideas for her at this exact moment, but I like her a lot.

Is the silverware at this school made of wood? Wanda has a funny texture on her disguise.

Hazel is gossiping about herself with her mom at lunch. I'm bracing for Hazel to find out info she'd rather not hear, but so far everything is just Angela gushing over her. I love that.

-> She didn't have a bad word to say, only how much she loves her daughter. Pure...

Antony!! And it was indeed a hand-me-down shirt!

I have some questions about these posters.

Terrible brand name.

I enjoy how Wanda has consistently put on shades this season. I was going to make a joke back in the dinosaur episode about how she did that in the OG series too. I think it was only twice, but those scenes are some of my signature memories of her (The Musical & trying to get her son out of Crocker's house during "Fairly Old Parent").

This was Cosmo as Rice President of Pixies Inc. (to me).

omg, ceiling sprinklers. The detail! Very curious to learn more about how these environments were rendered.

Return of the Meerkat-adjacent voice! Daran Norris!

???

Date night is back on!!

"So, you're probably wondering how I got here..."

Crock to the Future

Crocker?? Huh. Can't say I'm surprised.

-> I've always headcanoned Crocker with witch genes due to the Alden Bitterroot connection. I wonder if he's aged or looks the same (In "Secret Wish," he looked the same after aging 50 years and claimed it's because he was altered to look like that even when he was 10, so it prevented further signs of aging).

-> My theory is that he'll resemble Jorgen and have a patch around his mouth. No justification for this beyond "That seems to be the style to symbolize an older character from the OG series." I still want to know if Doug Dimmadome is dead.

-> If this Crocker turns out to be Kevin, I'm gonna lose my very last marble. Doesn't look likely though due to the freckle placement in that title card. But can you IMAGINE...

Marcus only has 9 toes... Wh- Why does he have more than 8? I thought everyone had 8. Did he cut it one in half with the weedwhacker and count it separately?

The Galax Institute is celebrating its 96th annual event. If that's an in-city location, Dimmadelphia is at minimum 96 years old.

-> He's 100% meeting Crocker at this parascience convention. If he meets the Fentons with that ghost machine, that'd be great.

A.J. NAME CONFIRMATION!! ... I don't love it because I headcanoned him as Archimedes Junior and I think that's cooler than Anthony James Jr., but I'll accept it! Curse my slowness in getting my A.J.-centric multi-chapter out.

-> A.J. founded the Galax Institution at age 10 and is Marcus's hero. First of all, I love that, and second of all... good to know. I was pretty sure Dimmadelphia was still close to Dimmsdale, but it's always nice to have confirmation.

Also, I am once again asking people who have strong feelings that Chloe is a Mary Sue to give me their opinions on A.J., who ends world hunger in Season 2, works with the government at age 10, can build a time machine in 10 seconds with paperclips and string, and who apparently founded the Galax Institute as a child. They would be friends, I think.

Don't actually give me your opinions, but I do think about them a lot.

-> I'm sad my Happy Peppy Betty plotline has her moving to Brightburg instead of Dimmadelphia. It's not like I knew this was coming, but... SHE.

Angela (to me): This is my super hot husband. I love him very much and anyone who calls his interest in parascience dumb will get a high heel to the eye.

I can't believe Mark is banned from the institute. A.J., I have some questions.

Oh, there he is! Baby face...

Huh. I don't have anything to say.

I'm unclear as to why Cosmo and Wanda aren't trying to avoid the magical detectors? Why can't they just leave? I feel like this plot would work better if they'd been sleeping inside Hazel's bag.

I like how Mark, his ship, and Dark Laser's ship are in the mural.

Oh, he has aged:

I'd LOVE to see Crocker interact with A.J. I don't think we'll get that lucky, but it would be fun.

-> I've been thinking this since Episode 1, but I'm starting to seriously debate changing all the times I had Crocker say "cryptozoology" in 'fic to "parascience" instead.

I am super puzzled that A.J. went into parascience after all the time he spent with Crocker. He certainly seems to believe it (unless there's a plot twist that he just wants to give people the opportunity to discover things but he doesn't personally believe in it), but like... that's a STORY. Are we gonna talk about that?

-> This dovetails so nicely into my "Norm & A.J." AU and my head is in my hands but there is nothing I can do about it right now. help.

Oh, I didn't clock that he was a janitor here. Either I was typing and missed that or it was said off-screen. Also I enjoy him crawling without using his hands.

/blinks. Wadjet dying in Age of Mythology sound effect, is that you? Usually in shows, I just hear the donkey sound (I think it's the same one Minecraft uses). This is a surprise.

It is the same sound; I looked it up. I don't know what to do with this information.

Is Crocker going to take Hazel's bag, but open it and ignore Cosmo and Wanda on the outside?

-> Wanda, why don't you just leave? I don't understand.

Wanda: Crocker used to terrorize our last godkid. Cosmo: And before that, he WAS our godkid Roy, Viv, and Chloe awkward monkey puppeting somewhere:

I mean, Chloe was also terrorized a little, but...

Okay, so... Cosmo and Wanda have clearly explained the godparenting basics to Hazel. She's aware she'll lose her memories. But... why didn't we get to see that?

The miserable godkids plot and the memory loss haven't been explained well in this series and I'm a little surprised, seeing as that's one of the biggest pieces of worldbuilding in the OG show. Since Hazel seems to have a loving home life, I wasn't sure if either rule was still canon until Poof-Peri showed up.

Wanda: Crocker would have to cover the entire building in a butterfly net to catch us. Which is impossible! Me: /"Viral Videots" flashbacks

Oh, please give me a sequel to one of my favorite jokes in the entire series...

Eh, I'll take it. I'm disappointed Cosmo and Wanda can still float, though. Hey, you guys aren't supposed to do that!

Hazel: I wish Crocker stopped trying to reveal fairies! Wanda: Oh, we can't do that, squirt. As long as the building's covered by a butterfly net, we're powerless!

W... Wanda? What exactly are you saying? You wanna run that by me again?

I like how A.J. came prepared for Crocker to interfere so he brought a back-up award to give to Marcus, haha.

... Hm. I feel slightly unsatisfied, but I'm not sure I could put into words why. I didn't really have expectations and yet I feel confused.

#Riddle watches FOP #New Wish spoilers #Dragonfly parents #Pending Hazel tag #Big Crock #FAIRIES!#screenshots #Tag for AJ #<- I know he has a blog tag but I don't remember it rn #EDIT:#Brainiac bestie

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mooncaps · 11 days ago

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In the shorts? We're doing ciphers in the shorts? And that was barely more than a frame to spot it.

(What do you mean I can just choose not to solve the ciphers? Nonsense!)

So there's a string of numbers there, but they come up gibberish every which way, so I'll assume unless I see numbers with dashes between them, they're not ciphers, but something else.

The cipher clearly has "wkh" again, so I'll assume that's just regular Atbash, and...

"from the first until the last search the"

Ends on a "the." Presumably the other shorts will tie in.

Dude, it's summer. Just turn it off and you'll get the same result.

Okay, no new cipher, but more numbers. And the way those brackets close around some. Hrmmm... Maybe by the end of these shorts I'll be able to make some kind of sense of it. (takes notes)

Also wondering if the numbering of the anomalies will matter. For now I'll assume it doesn't.

These numbers officially count too high to be standard ciphers, which saves me the trouble of trying to translate them six different ways.

This show really got me like:

Did not have "tiny creatures committing suicide" on my bingo card.

Ooh, here we go.

"them all welcome to gravity falls"

Mid-sentence again, but not in a way that lines up with the other. Also part of that is from the first episode's cipher. And we did have that bit about "first to last." Hrmmm...

"codes of credits past one means one so search"

from the first until the last search the codes of credits past one means one so search them all welcome to gravity falls

It's coming together. Still probably more to piece together. Also I'll bet those images can line up with all those red lines. Hrmmm...

Seems like there should be more text, but maybe not. Now let's see if I can piece this image together and maybe figure out what the numbers are for. If we're searching the codes of credits past then maybe the parentheses numbers indicate episode numbers. Would some of those have been over 40 characters long? Are we doing the OG FF7 library puzzle? Hrmmm...

Okay, the ciphers line up in the order I assumed they would. Some of the cursive scribbling almost looks legible, but I don't think I have the energy to attempt to read it. I see a tiny bit of binary code, but I don't know how to read that. What looks like ancient letters in a couple of different languages probably. And some math formulas or something over by the hour glass. The eye seems familiar, but I'm probably just thinking of The Owl House. Or maybe it's supposed to be Bill's eye.

And then we have our numbers, 1-20 with a few skips, lined up in order with the image like this. I'll try it like the FF7 library and see what comes up.

Getting "I was so" from the top left image. That's promising...

i was so blind he lied to me the darkners is near

I assume that was meant to be "darkness," but I counted it thrice and kept coming up with "R" as the thirteenth letter. There were a couple of eights that I thought were threes, but this one is clearly 13. And 18 wouldn't fix it anyway. I can only assume they done goofed. Or I'm gonna be introduced to a creature called "the darkners."

I think I actually know what this message is about, but only because I've unfortunately caught site of memes about a certain someone getting divorced from Bill. I'm guessing Bill is the one who lied to him. Not sure about the darkness though...or darkners.

#Gravity Falls #my first thoughts on this

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misc-obeyme · 2 months ago

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Hello again CC! I suppose I'm becoming a regular anon now. (In hindsight, not particularly shocking as I have found your posts and answers to asks delightful for awhile now. I was also vaguely suprised when I realized your blog isn't more popular because of that.)

I've been playing the latest event to get more devil points and demon vouchers and I had some thoughts about the events that have happened since I started playing. (I am a relatively new player of a few months.)

Some of the events seem to try to hard to appeal to fans of every character and in that, they lose focus and quality. My personal favorite events have been the ones focused on a smaller cast of characters with one character they more primarily focus on even if they aren't my favorite character(s), I think they tend to have better, or at least more enjoyable, writing and storylines.

Coincidentally, many of these events tend to be the shorter ones with the linear pop quiz rewards from my observations. Those are generally better than the two part box events... which are my beloathed. If only they ditched those... I hate getting stuck on box 1 for the entirety of an event because random chance is not in my favor.

That being said, I enjoyed this current event as Barbatos is a character I rather like, (although certainly less than a lot of others in the fandom). I'd love to have a friendly chat with him over a nice cup of tea and I cannot believe the event's objective is making him cry.

Anyways, I am going back my mission of obtaining more Satan cards as a free player. I hope my rambling was not too lengthy and you have a good day/night!

-🦇🪐

Hello there, 🦇🪐 anon!

Oh? What is the measurement for popularity? I feel like the blog has gotten a bit quiet in the last few months, since I've stopped writing fics. Unchained doesn't count because it was already finished for the most part and it was an OC story, so there wasn't a lot of interest in it. But I haven't written a fic featuring the canon characters for two and a half months. So perhaps that's why? I know my semi-hiatus had an impact, too. But! These are just interesting things to think about lol! I am always pleased to have anyone interacting with me, so I'm glad you've been enjoying the blog!

Yes indeed, the evolution of events is quite interesting. You see, back in the OG they didn't do the character focused events for a long time. So every event attempted to include every single character. In the very very beginning, I believe it was just limited to the seven bros because the side characters weren't dateable initially. But when they made them dateable, suddenly there were eleven dateable characters and Luke that they had to fit into every event.

People rightfully complained because it was like you'd get a single line from each character, making the stories extremely bland. There were a few I remember playing in OG that I only remember because of this lol.

So then they decided to do character spotlight events. The way they label them has always been iffy. Sometimes they say an event is featuring a specific character and sometimes they don't. The first one was in OG and featured Satan with Diavolo as a secondary character. Ever since then, most of the events have had this format. They choose one or two characters to be the main focus, then a few more characters to be background characters, then leave out the rest.

The need for this was mitigated somewhat by the birthday events in OG. Because we used to get entire events for each character's birthday that focused solely on that character. But then they added the three new characters (although still undateable), so when Nightbringer came about, they dispensed with the birthday events. It made a bunch of people upset because really it's not the same to have a spotlight event. We liked having events that were fully focused on each character. So they kinda brought them back with the current version of the bday events, which are separate from the ongoing events.

The Celestial Blessing events are often the ones that don't have a spotlight character. (Though sometimes they do.) This is because they used the CB events for outfits for Majolish and Ruri Tunes. Due to the amount of outfits there are (two for each character), they have to put some in cards and some in each set of Celestial Blessing boxes. And even then they usually put some in Akuzon too.

Anyway, the evolution of the event format has been really interesting to me. I feel like they've been trying to balance player preference with what's feasible and makes them money. It's a bit of both, you know? Personally I have no problem with the way it is now, but I haven't been playing every event through like I used to.

I did play this one though because hello Barbatos. Not only was I gonna get that card of his, I wanted to read the story. Not that we got to kiss him or anything. They never give us Barb kisses in events. But I still enjoyed it.

Personally I found it quite funny that the goal was to make him cry. Because this is Barbatos. They are all delusional if they think they can send MC to try to get Barb to cry without him realizing it. And as I predicted, he figured it out immediately. He even knew why they wanted him to cry.

I also didn't think that if they succeeded, it would be because they made him sad. I figured it was gonna be some kind of onion type situation. Not tears of anguish, you know?

But historically, they always give Barb weird event story themes. I don't think we've ever had a tea party with him. And I'll never forget the Fangol themed one. Like what even was that about huh?

Anyway, you need never worry about rambling because as you can see, I can out-ramble everybody lol. I wish you luck in obtaining your Satan cards!

#I accidentally wrote way more than I thought I would a;dslfkj #obey me #obey me barbatos #🦇🪐 anon #misc answers

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thelovelyghostwriter · 4 years ago

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Ranking the HxH guys in my Simping Tier: Countdown

Note: This is just for fun and lame-ass humour. You are free to like anyone in hxh and this tier doesn’t reflect how great the character is. It’s just a ranking based on how much I simp for them.

14. Meruem

Okay. There’s a reason why Meruem is at the last list. He’s an ant. He’s not even fully human FML. Can’t believe people wanna fuck this teenaged mutant ninja ant. Can’t even say those people are a furry because this ant has no fur. It’s a no for me.

13. Illumi

The Illumi simps are gonna hack me for having him too low. I find him cute and has really nice hair that can be for shampoo ads... but his eyes... it covers 70% of his face. It’s guppy eyes. It’s like he wore those coloured contact lenses that enlarges the eyes.

12. Shalnark

OKay. Shalnark is cute. He’s really one of the most good looking guys in the series. However, I don’t know why but his personality is kinda “ehh”. He’s a little psycho who controls people with his phone, but somehow his personality is overshadowed by a lot of extreme characters with Hisoka. Also, I try not to get too attached to him because of what happens in the current arc.

11. Kite

Okay. This is weird but... I find Kite more attracted when he’s a red-headed female ant right now. Okay. I know I went all like “MERUEM ISNT EVEN HUMAN” but female Kite LOOKS human. She has freckles and all that. It’s real cute. But I’d say he’s a little lower because he doesn’t really have that “oomph” personality so-

10. Pariston

Now, talk about a character with FABULOUS presentation of himself. Pariston shows himself off with extravagance. NOW, that’s a personality. He’s like one of those celebs that are just so extra like Lady Gaga that it’s amazing. I know he’s underrated in the simping world, but he’s essentially kinda like Hisoka (who has a big simping fandom), only he prefers to play with people’s minds rather than fight people.

9. Tserriednich

You might be wondering, why the fuck is he here? Okay, first of all, he reminds me of Hannibal who is by the way, charming. And yes I mean it in the Mads Mikkelsen AND the Anthony Hopkins way. Makes me wanna his Clarice but I’d rather have Theta have that spot. Secondly, he’s a prince so being his bride is literally a dream come true. Thirdly, yeh, Tserriednich is actually very handsome. Nice blond hair and that facial beard.

8. Gon

He’s quite low on the tier because I had always seen him as a cute green mini-Ging. Personality-wise, he’s really sweet and I can see a lot of girls liking him because he knows how to treat women respectfully. He can even handle the crazy ones like Palm. His alpha side came out during the Chimera Ant arc and his adult form is hella attractive.

Jokes aside, this character is really amazing as an MC. It’s sad that he gets overshadowed but I believe he’s a pretty unique shounen MC because most of the time, a shounen MC doesn’t kill or has a pretty much black-and-white morality. Gon Freecss breaks that stereotype and he’s truly appreciated.

7. Leorio

Listen to me. This man is supposed to be the type of man you’re supposed to marry. Doctor, loyal, caring and funny. This man is the total package. I think the reason why he’s a little lower in my simp tier is because well... he’s the type of guy that I will go for in reality. In fiction, that’s where all my crushes for crazy guys should be. My simp tier is based on my heart, not brain.

6. Killua

Okay. I was down bad for Killua when I was younger. DOWN BAD. So down bad that it was scary. I sort of got over him now. But what can you do? Killua is simped by a lot of teenaged girls or women who had a crush on him since the beginning of time. He’s fiercely loyal, has white hair and pretty blue eyes, is a fun mixture of mischief and seriousness. He’s the type of guy you can count on to get out of trouble and one to always treasure you. I do think that if I ever meet Killua though, that he’d bully me to oblivion.

Okay, we’re at the top 5. From here onwards, some real NSFW simping words.

5. Hisoka

I kinda do understand Hisoka stans, but at the same time, I do not get them. Like him or not, he’s a very flamboyant character. He stands out of the crowd and he just have that unexplained charisma.

He’s actually a really well-written character. He’s the balancing factor in the narrative of HxH. He’s like the joker in the deck of cards. Back to my simp tier, he’s very attractive ESPECIALLY with his hair down. There’s a certain aura that is addictive about him that I can’t pin-point. And for that, he earns my top 5 spot.

4. Feitan

I swear. This simping phenomenon actually manifested from Hiei. Yes, Feitan’s character blueprint, Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho. (The real OGs will know that Hiei is the character blueprint, not Levi). I know a lot of people compare him to Levi but let me explain why Levi and Feitan are alike: it’s because their character blueprint is Hiei.

Anyway, Hiei is HOT. And to me, the hxh equivalent is Feitan, with a huge addition of sadism and emo-ness. Okay, that makes it even hotter.

I have read some Feitan/Reader on AO3 and BOI. I enjoyed reading certain stuff that I never thought I would enjoy. I read a fic about Reader-chan getting whipped and basically all sorts of BDSM and OMG it’s heaven.

“They say all good boys go to heaven, but bad boys bring heaven to you”

3. Chrollo

At first, I didn’t really care about Chrollo until he wore that tuxedo and let his hair down (Is it just me or a lot of hxh boys look good with their hair down?). HE LOOKS SO GODLY HOLY FUCK.

I’m 100% sure that his character blueprint for the hair-down is Koenma. He also gives me Tuxedo Mask vibes. Overall, such chivalry and handsomeness all in one man. Not to mention, that sexy sexy voice when he recites his fortune-telling. I would say he has the sexiest voice among all hxh guys. He is just that HOT and charismatic. I wanna see where he hid that Spider tattoo and scratch his back.

2. Ging

Okay. Ging is hardly simp by girls. And I do not understand why?? He is motherfucking attractive. Even now. GAWD. I love him.

I think my attraction to him pre-started because he looks and acts SO much like my childhood crush Yusuke Urameshi from Yu Yu Hakusho. I know he’s an asshat but he’s a CHARMING asshat. Yeap, I said it. He is actually highly intelligent and just acts like a total haggard because he can.

It’s not just when he’s young. I STILL think he’s hot even in his 30s. He’s not that old for me to me honest. I don’t care if he’s a decade older than me because I think that’s the appeal of it. I

It’s kinda sad that he’s not that popular because I need some Ging/Reader smut content. Like, I envisioned a smut fic where the reader is like in her 20s and is strangely attracted to Ging. He’s wildly confused over this but he’s seriously considering of tapping it because his old ass haven’t had any action lately. The other Zodiacs are also confused and are convinced that he must have given some sex pollen to the reader because who the hell is sane enough to be attracted to him? (But it’s just that you need some acquired taste to actually find this man alluring). He’s one of the most fuckable characters ahhh.

And... for the last one...

Drumroll please....

1. Kurapika

Seriously, was there even a surprise.

THIS MAN IS THE AKAKU GOD. He’s beautiful, he’s sexy and fucking dominant (yes, I say he’s domineering because do you see the way he throws a hot tantrum during the whole YorkNew arc, demanding shit from his enemies, taking charge of everything?) His chains drives me nuts. I love it when he gets angry. I know he’s kinky on the inside. When he wore that tuxedo... ooof. He looks hella fine. He’s the only guy in hxh that fulfills my ala Michael Corleone mafia boss kink. I want him to ^&*(%%%*%^ (to save myself from embarrassment, I self-censored) as we attempt to repopulate the clan and produce more scarlet eyed babies, as he whispers some real degrading and possessive shit in Kurta while he tells me what to do. AHHHHH. *bye gotta go write some kuraneon porn now byeee*

#hxh #hunterxhunter #sorry im just down bad during quarantine #kurapika #akaku #kurapika akaku akaku #akaku god #ging #ging freecss #chrollo #chrollo lucilfer #feitan #this is a shitpost

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woahitslucyylu · 5 years ago

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NSFW Alphabet - Angel Reyes.

GIF is not mine, credit to OG creator. I’m back with the resident sasshole of the MC. Here’s Angel’s alphabet. Beware: Smut beneath the cut.

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NSFW Alphabet

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

It depends. Angel is broody and his emotions wreck him daily. Sometimes, he cuddles and whispers sweet nothings in your ear, but other times, he is closed off and getting dressed before you can catch your breath. He isn’t intentionally distant, but he struggles with the noise and the constant feeling that he just isn’t good enough.

B = Body part (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Angel loves his arms. He loves how they flex when they grab you tight, pulling him close to you. He takes pride in being fit and looking the part - his machismo oozing from his pores, and his arms are the product of that hard work.

Angel is an ass man - he loves to touch and rub on you alllll the time. At club parties, his hand is glued to your hips, pulling you close and keeping you right up against his muscular frame. He loves smacking your ass - both playfully and otherwise. He loves watching it bounce against his hips as he fucks you from behind. He’s an ass man.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum)

Angel will finish anywhere. Inside you, in your mouth, on your tits - he loves to see you covered with him. He seeks ownership and being covered in his cum definitely says ownership.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

You like to sleep in Angel’s shirts. He likes to keep your panties in his cut. He doesn’t do it often, but on long runs, he has been known to slide his favorite black lace boy shorts into his pocket for nothing other than to feel closure to you.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

Angel’s charisma and charm have never left him lonely, and if he were to compete with EZ in anything and win, it would be bedding women. Adding the cut, Angel’s bed has never been empty. He loves all women and uses the experiences to meticulously work your body and shower you with affection.

F = Favorite Position (This goes without saying)

He’s an ass man, so doggy is his favorite. He loves the feel of your hips bouncing against his as you fuck yourself at his request. He loves holding your hands tight as he pushes you into the mattress - refusing to let up until you are crying his name. He loves feeling dominant and craves to be in control, and taking you from behind - his fingers wrapped through your hair, pulling you closer, is just the way to do it.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

Angel is playful and that spills into the bedroom. He teases and taunts you with a flirtatious attitude - pushing your buttons and embarrassing you for the sake of foreplay. He loves to make you blush with dirty talk. He teases you in the most intimate moments.

“Look, you made such a mess, querida.” He mumbles as you gush on him - coming so hard you’re dazed. He is painfully flirty and teasing, yet you melt with every mild insult and sexual suggestion.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

Angel is trimmed and neat and smells heavenly. He takes such pride in his appearance, you won’t catch him slacking.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Angel feels most alive when he’s buried inside of you, whispering how good you feel and how it’s his pussy. He thrives on sensations, both physical and emotional, and there’s nothing more intimate than watching you come undone underneath him.

Although he loves it rough and hard, Angel will pour out the romance and make you feel like a queen. He loves soaking in a bath with you - bubbles covering you as he massages you with expert hands. He will surprise you with a road trip for dinner - flying through the desert with you holding tight, finding the perfect place to picnic and watch the sun set. Angel is a man who was made to love.

J = Jack/Jill Off (Masturbation headcanon)

His hand will never measure up to you, but he tries - especially when he’s buried with club business. FaceTiming you late at night and listening to you get yourself off makes it easier to take care of himself. He loves listening to your moans as you try your hardest to make it feel like him.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Angel. Is. A. Whole. Daddy.

This man will pamper you and punish you in the same breath. He gets off on dominance. He may feel like he isn’t the first choice in other areas of his life, but with you, he is the boss and there is never a doubt that he is in control. He will bend you over and spank you till you’re dripping and ask you “Do you deserve this dick, mami? You were so rude in front of my brothers. I don’t even think I should give it to you.”

L = Location (Favorite places to do the do)

Angel will take you anywhere, and the thought of discovery turns him on more and so does the chase. Rumor is you’ve been found in the back hallway of the clubhouse more than once, and poor EZ has walked in on you in his trailer more times than he can count.

When you first started dating, you had so many reservations, but with Angel, you’re pulling your skirt up as he slides into you in the club bathroom while his brothers are laughing and drinking right outside the door - fully aware that you’re fucking in the bathroom.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Angel’s motivation is to be your first choice. He craves the dependency - it makes him feel valued and important. When you slide your arms around his waist and whisper how much you love him, he melts into you. The validation gets him off and even more so, when you beg for his physical attention. When you walk into the living room wearing his t-shirt and slide into his lap and ask for Daddy’s attention, he is more than happy to give in.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Angel doesn’t share. He spends his whole life dealing with an inferiority complex, and when it comes to you, he isn’t going to play around.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Angel will shamelessly beg you to ride his face. He loves when you use him for your own pleasure. With your hips rolling back and forth across his thick beard, he feels like a king. He will gladly bury himself in your thighs to remind you how much he loves you - “You’re my favorite flavor, chula. Did you know that?”

BUT,

Watching you sink to your knees and choke on his dick electrifies him. You may or may not be the queen of spontaneous blow jobs, and when Angel is on the receiving end is one of the moments he knows you’re the one. He will slide in and out of your throat as saliva slides down your chest and tell you how beautiful you look stuffed with his dick.

“Can’t talk shit now, mami. You look so pretty like this.”

P = Pace (Are they fats and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

Pace is determined by location and occasion - if you’re squeezing in a quickie on his lunch break, he’s fast and rough - pulling your hips against his as he fucks you against the sink in the service office. If you’re at home and you have hours to make love, he’s thoughtful and gives you orgasm after orgasm with more than just his dick.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

If he can have you, he takes you, which means quickies are a staple in your relationship. He loves taking you in any way he can have you.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

There is no reward without a risk, and with Angel, he will lead you into temptation without asking. You’ve never been more embarrassed than when Bishop found you in the kitchen, pressed up against the fridge, as Angel buried himself in you. Angel was smug and unfazed at the presence of the president as he zipped his pants and smacked your ass - walking out of the kitchen so nonchalantly.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

You will beg for mercy as he prepares for round 4918353. Angel will go for as many rounds as you let him and each time, his goal is the same - for you to scream his name.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

Angel’s toys are whatever he finds around him - his belt, a scarf, a shirt made into a blindfold. He’s spontaneous and whatever feels right in the moment is what he uses. He isn’t one to browse through Adam + Eve, but he is always okay with whatever you bring. He thinks sex should be fun and limitless.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Angel will make you beg just because he loves to hear it. He will slide into you so slowly that you are sure you will die from anticipation. He will run his thumb over your aching clit and watch you raise your hips for more.

“What do you want? Use your words, mami.” He will whisper in your ear knowing that you can barely respond as you wiggle under him.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

Angel speaks three languages - English, Spanish, and filth. He isn’t loud. He is dirty. Angel’s beautiful mouth says the dirtiest things as he fucks you in any position. He will tell you how good you feel as you clench around him. He will remind you his dick is a gift and you should be grateful. He will pull your hair and smack your ass and order you to beg for more from Daddy.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Angel didn’t sleep with women he had sex with until you. Surprisingly, literally sleeping with someone was his intimacy line - reserved for women who earned the trust of the Mayan. Sleeping leaves him vulnerable and that requires trust that a simple hang around or hook up hasn’t earned.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants)

Angel has big. dick. energy. It’s thick, it’s veiny, and it’s all yours.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

He is ready to go at any point. A stolen glance, an accidental bump into him or a sweet kiss - that’s all it takes to get him going for you.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Angel will only sleep right after if he feels comfortable and, with you, that’s every time. Club business keeps him in a perpetual state of exhaustion, and after he works you over, he is ready to sleep.

#angel reyes #angel reyes x reader #Mayans MC #mayansmc fanfiction #mayans fanfic #mayans fx #mayans headcanons

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parachutingkitten · 5 years ago

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Which Ninja Has Really Had The Most Focus Seasons? Let’s Find Out!

I am not here to end the focus ninja debate, I’m here to perpetuate it. We tend to squabble over the little things when we talk about this. Who gets to open their eyes in the beginning of the episode? Who’s on the set boxes? What counts as a real season? Well, I’ve come up with a system to try and quantify some of this. Now, it’s not perfect, and you might disagree with what I put where, or even the structure of my system, but I think the results are a fair estimate of how much time the writers actually spend with each character. And also, there are some pretty interesting conclusions to look at, so if you want to know more, join me under the cut :)

(Fair warning, this is a lengthy one)

How Does This Work?

I have 4 tiers of points. Focus, half focus, sub focus, and misc. Focus is worth 4 points, and is for ninja who are the sole focus of a full-length season. Half focus is worth 3 points, and is for focus ninja of split seasons, or seasons that share focus ninja. Sub focus is worth 2 points, and is for ninja who have a large, season defining plotline, but aren’t important enough to be the sole focus. I use this category to settle a lot of the debatable seasons. Misc. is worth 1 point, and is for the focus ninja of a short/special, sub focus of a half season, and other little things like that. Whatever ninja earns the most focus points has had the most focus time dedicated to them (theoretically).

I will be including all of the seasons, along with the pilot episodes, Day of the Departed, and the Prime Empire shorts, because these are pretty solidly essential viewing when watching the show. I’m not including stuff like Wu’s Tea, and those original ninjago shorts cuz… well, first off, I don’t think anyone really cares about them, but also, they’re not essential, and don’t really have focus ninja anyway. For the record, I am counting March of the Oni as a special and not a season. And no, I’m not including the movie. Duh.

I’m awarding points to any character I feel earns one, but not villains. Of course, villains are going to get decent screen time, that’s how basic plot structure works. In addition to characters, I will also be awarding points to an ensemble category, for any seasons that do not have a focus ninja. Though, the ensemble can only earn points at the focus and half focus levels. The ensemble earning points for sub focus just… doesn’t make sense. Like yeah, the rest of the cast is there… in every season. That’s how having a cast of characters generally works.

I would also like to add that this does not take into account the quality of the seasons. There’s always a debate to be had that the highest scoring ninja deserves another season, cuz the ones they’ve had are bad. I’m just interested in quantity. Alright? And again, this isn’t an end all be all answer, it’s just a set of numbers based on my perception of each season. I just want to start some more informed discussion.

And last but not least, spoilers.

The Breakdown:

(if you don’t care about my reasoning in assigning points, feel free to skip to the results)

Pilot Episodes

Kai is the focus character in these. I don’t know that anyone’s gonna fight me on that one. This is a special, so 1 point for Kai.

Season 1

Now, this one’s a bit trickier, because Kai is still noticeably the main character, but compared to the pilots, his role seems pretty equal within the cast of the OG 4. The season is about all of them growing as individuals and as a team together. Kai serves more as an insider POV than a real pure focus. I’m going to dub this an ensemble season (4 points) with a sub focus on Kai (2 points)

Season 2

Lloyd is definitely central to the plot this season, and does do the whole final battle thing, but again, the season is more about the ninja training Lloyd than Lloyd himself. Additionally, Kai serves as narrator this season, and gets himself some pretty sizable speeches etc. Again, I’m going to give ensemble 4 points for focus, and Kai and Lloyd both get 2 points each for sub focus.

Season 3

This is a Zane season. He gets the final battle, and the big realizations, and the love interest, it’s his season. There are some sizable sub plots this season, but none of them big enough to give anyone sub focus points. 4 points to Zane.

Season 4

This is a Kai season. He has the angst and love interest; he gets the points. Now, some people might think Zane earns sub points because the plot focuses on finding him, but that doesn’t mean he got more screen time than normal. That’s a plot device, not character time. He has a good little mini arc, but like… so does Garmadon, and Lloyd, and pretty much everyone. Kai gets 4 points.

Season 5

This season doesn’t have a focus ninja. Lloyd does get the intro, but he’s possessed half the season. Again, that’s a plot device, not character time. I’m labeling this as an ensemble season, so 4 more points to ensemble. The two arcs that really define this season are Nya becoming the water ninja, and Cole becoming a ghost. 2 points each for sub focus.

Season 6

This is a Jay season. This is undebatably a Jay season. 4 points for Jay. In fact, this season focuses on Jay to such an extent that they actively kick other characters out of the show in order to focus on him more. That’s getting him an extra point, cuz it’s kinda ridiculous, and this is my thing so I can do what I want. Now, this season focuses a lot on his relationship with Nya. He shares his title card with her. That’s not nothing. She has a sizable arc, and noticeable presence. I’m giving her 2 points for sub focus.

Day of the Departed

This is a Cole special. Do I really have to explain myself on this one? 1 point for Cole.

Season 7

Our first split season! This is a pretty clear-cut Kai and Nya season. I wouldn’t say one overpowers the other. They share the spotlight pretty well. 3 points each for half season.

Season 8

This is a Lloyd season. It’s his dad getting brought back, his angsty drama, his love interest, his season. 4 points for Lloyd. There are some other noticeable plotlines, but none of them big enough to award points for.

Season 9

Another split season, this time taking place in two separate locations. Season 9 in Ninjago is pretty much just season 8 continued. Same tone, location, conflict, everything. This half is still a Lloyd Season. 3 half season points to him. The half in the first realm is harder to pin down though. It’s mostly an ensemble season, but I do feel Wu and Cole’s relationship plays a big enough role to earn them some points, especially since it’s a multi season arc. I’m going to use the misc. category to award them both 1 point.

March of the Oni

This is a Lloyd special. I mean, they had some pretty good ensemble stuff, and them giving the intro to Cole was cute and all but... It’s Lloyd’s special. He dies and talks to God before being resurrected. Classic main character stuff. 1 point to Lloyd.

Season 11

It’s a split season again! But I would like to award full focus to the ensemble. Both chapters either focus way too much on side characters or split the time pretty equally between the core cast for it to be anything else. 4 points to the ensemble. But I would like to single out Kai and Wu as both having significant arcs. The first chapter spends a lot of time on Wu’s past, mistakes, and guilt. And Kai’s arc is put noticeably center, resolving in the last episode of the season. I’d like to give these two 1 misc. point each. To those who would argue that Zane needs points for his ice chapter… no. First of all, he was gone for the majority of the ice chapter, and was being used, yet again, as a plot device rather than a character. And also, technically, that would conflict with my no points to villains rule.

Prime Empire Shorts

These are weird, but most of them focus on Jay’s experience in Prime Empire, so 1 point goes to him.

Season 12

Now, this is, at least as of right now, a half season. It’s 16 10-minute episodes, that’s one chapter’s worth, so I’m going to award points accordingly. Now, a lot of people might think this is a Jay season, but the story doesn’t follow Jay’s perspective. That’s what the prime empire shorts were for. The story follows the ninja going to find Jay. And yes, based on episode descriptions, there is an episode where Jay fights a boss all by himself, but it’s not the final boss, and it’s only one episode where he’s on his own. I mean, Okino had his own episode this season, and this isn’t an Okino season. So, though I will award him 1 point for being a sub focus in a half season, I’m awarding 3 half focus points to the ensemble.

Results:

Chart version of the points awarded in my explanations above

Total points gathered by each person

Number of times a person was awarded any number of points

Number of times a person was awarded 3 or more points

Conclusions:

Well, there are several things I got out of this. Obviously, Kai scored highest in most categories. He was the main character of the pilot, so it’s really not surprising that the writers have ideas for his character. That being said, I do find it funny that, even though we would all agree that Lloyd is the series’ overall main character, he does not appear in the pilot. People watching the pilot to get a feel for the series would be missing the most important character. That’s just really funny to me. Additionally, the main character of the show did not score the most focus points. He was in the double digits though, so he really can’t complain too much.

The Times High Ranking Points Were Earned data refers to times a character got points for being the focus ninja of a season/half season. For all of the fuss people give about Kai and Lloyd having like 5 seasons, it’s really only 2 each that they have an undebatable hold on. And on top of that, they both only have one all to themselves. Kai having season 4 and sharing season 7, and Lloyd having season 8 and sharing season 9. They do have an absurd amount of sub focus on top of all that though, which is definitely what trips everyone up.

I was surprised Nya scored as well as she did, especially for joining the team late. In fact, if you take off the bonus point I gave to Jay, she would actually score higher than him. Even though she doesn’t have a solo focus season, she has a decent amount of focus in 3 consecutive seasons. Also, Wu made it on the board, which is good for him.

Again, unsurprisingly, Cole scored lowest in almost all categories. There’s a reason the Cole fans are pissed. The 0 high ranking points stat is really telling and seriously stings. But, the one thing he did score well on was times points were earned. Though he has little personal focus, the focus that he has is recurring and spread across the series. I would also like to add that he didn’t even score any points for his ongoing friendship arc with Jay, which did put his character fairly center stage for a while. I mean, though Cole doesn’t have any big focus areas, I would still say he’s got some decent development with several multi season arcs. He’s definitely not being totally ignored by the series or anything.

On the opposite side, one of the saddest things to me personally is that Zane was not only tied with Cole for focus points, but also was ranked lowest (lower than even Wu) in times points were earned. That means season 3 is the only point in the series when he held any meaningful and sustained focus. There are no shorts for him, or larger important plot lines, it’s just season 3. I mean, he was supposed to have more focus than Cole, right? We always rag on the fact that Cole doesn’t have a season, so he must have the least focus. Zane had his own season, surely he would have scored higher! But when you look back you realize that even though he’s had presence, the amount of meaningful stuff he actually does is pretty minimal. Seriously, writers, time to get this droid some sub focus.

Speaking of droids, I would like to bring up something I’m sure no one else was thinking about while doing this, and that’s Pixal. Pixal has been a part of the show since season 3 and has technically been working on the team ever since Season 4. By the looks of season 11, the writers want to include her as part of the main cast. They gave her a plot with Kai, Cole, and Jay where she basically led the defense of the monastery. She got her first solo episode in the ice chapter. Though the episodes aren’t out yet, season 12 episode descriptions seem to have her taking on a more active and offensive role and operating on equal footing with Zane. She is a member of the core cast now. Although she did join recently, it is interesting that a full-fledged member of the team didn’t score any points. Both Lloyd and Nya officially joining the team earned them some sub focus points. I just find it interesting that Pixal’s joining the team didn’t get her the same. Maybe there’s a more formal ‘joining the team’ arc for her coming in the future, but as for right now, she remains in this strange focus-less limbo.

My favorite finding though is that the ensemble category just dominated pretty much everything. Ninjago at its core is an ensemble show, and I honestly think it’s at its best when it just functions as one. What are some of the fandom’s least favorite seasons? 3, 6, and 7, right? These are all very clear-cut ninja focus seasons. I really think the fandom needs to stop forcing ninja labels onto every single season, cuz it really doesn’t do them any real service. It just makes you disappointed that X ninja is getting yet another season, or this X ninja season isn’t focusing enough on X ninja. Just enjoy the show for what it is! An ensemble show! The ninja shine best when they interact off of each other, not when they’re left to process their troubles alone.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Feel free to comment any other cool data connections I missed! I hope this did a little bit to enhance your perspective on focus seasons, focus ninja, etc. It also probably made focus sound like a non word, so I’m sorry about that one. I know this is a long one, so seriously, thanks for reading!

#ninjago #parachuterants #focus ninja debate #is that a tag?#I used excel for this #it took forever #help a girl out here

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unabashedrebel · 5 years ago

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Three Characters Like Kirollis

Lord okay

1) Vash The Stampede

This one is digging deep. I can tell you all about how Vash the Stampede was my original character design for like one of my very first characters in City of Heroes. He’s the OG inspiration to this final product of Kiro.

I’ve always tried to play Kiro on the thin rope of being an extremely serious and capable character when he needs to be. But when he’s not? He’s a fucking goof. He’s not a person you’d expect everyone trying to kill. Most characters, at first, see him as this cheeky fucking rogue, the same kind that seem to infest the Row.

But Kirollis, as Vash does, kind of uses this goofiness as a mask. It disarms people. There’s no reason for him to mention his kill count or pedigree, and most characters wouldn’t know it right off the bat. It’s always been something I’ve tried to weave into this character (And several of his past iterations). That just because he can kill you seven different ways from sunday doesn’t mean he’s just this massive edgelord. He’s actually someone, for the most part, who’s enjoyable to be around.

2) Deadpool I said this a lot. It’s not true. Jason Todd/The Red Hood

I’ll be honest. I used to try and encorporate a lot of Deadpoolian elements to Kiro. It sort of fit the bill. There was a lot in how he actually viewed himself that ran very close to some of the arcs I’ve seen in Deadpool. But when it comes down to it? Kirollis quips more like The Red Hood then he does like Deadpool.

Come to think of it? The whole sort of demeanor is there. The devil may care attitude, unless he’s with his closest friends. The constant stream of jokes that he doesn’t seem like he can help. And again, like the above character, another one that uses humor rather then edge, while still maintaining the capability for serious arcs and situations.

Not to mention being the Black Sheep of the Batfam is Big Kiro Energy with his own family.

3) Han Solo

For literally this image alone. This is enough.

Nah really I guess that sort of gets into the scoundral side of things. It also kind of puts Kirollis’ issues a bit on display when I bring Solo into the mix. He does tend to get caught up on small things, and even if he means well, will get into his own way about it. But other then that? He’s charming, personable, and a bit of a snake. All things that really line in with Kiro.

Plus they’re both smugglers.

BONUS) Dean Winchester

This one’s sort of a gimme so I didn’t want to slap him up there with the three. But Kirollis and Dean are... very very similar. I promise I didn’t just watch Supernatural and go ‘hey how can I throw Dean into WoW?’ though I’m sure sometimes it seems that way. To be honest, I think they’re so similar I’ve even got people who watch the show going ‘I really can’t get Kirollis out of my head whenever I watch this now. They’re just so similar.’

It’s true. It wasn’t intentional or anything I signed up for when I was picking FC’s. As a matter of fact I noticed how similar they were after I had already picked it out and started watching Supernatural. Which, hey, if you’ve ever heard me talk about FC’s? I think one of the MOST important things, hands down, is that the FC you’re picking should have plenty of gifs that aligns with your characters own mannerisms. Which, yeah Dean kind of does in spades. He picks up a lot of the slack when it comes to some body language that I just can’t for the life of me write in a good way. Which, lets be real if you don’t have an FC from a popular show you definitely know the struggle of trying to make your gif or image fit whats actually being talked about.

Thanks to those who tagged me: @card-slinger @mynaethashadowsun I’m like 99% sure more people tagged me, too. But it’s way too lost to my activity to get to it.

Tagging: @safrona-shadowsun @valarin-sunstorm @crowsaerie-rp @kavtari @videtur-existentia (Any of yours) @sanasunbringer @asharinhun @lukelxiv @smokingveil @samantha-bradford @nixalegos @wildname @leholana

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ashleyspinelliburnbook · 5 years ago

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S1E4: First Name Ashley/To Finster With Love

Had a brief internal crisis about whether to just end this blog after “First Name Ashley,” since, you know. Fortunately, I’ve decided to keep going, because this is one of my favorite episodes of the series.

First Name Ashley

This episode was so important to me as a tomboy who hated “girly” things in a big way. Formal dresses? Absolutely not. Pink anything? Throw it out. Wearing my hair down? Never. My name ending in a feminine suffix? Disappointing!

It got to the point where I had so embraced my anti-femininity that others began to embrace it too, except they used it to hurt me. In middle school, my friend told me that claiming my participation on “Gender Bender Day” didn’t count, because I “always dress like a guy.” That same friend took me shopping for “girl clothes” a year later, and when I wore them and was inevitably made fun of for leaving my (and everyone else’s) comfort zone, she said nothing. I once spent two hours straightening my hair in high school and posted a photo on MySpace, and the very first comment was from a girl who said my hair “looked like a wig.” I deleted the photo and didn’t straighten my hair again for five or six years. Anytime I tried to leave the box I’d put myself in, someone tried to force me back into it. Controlling my own narrative felt out of the question.

Now, I was seven years old when this episode came out, still figuring out my relationship with femininity and masculinity. But even through those moments in middle school and high school, I thought about Spinelli.

The thing about Spinelli is that she doesn’t hate being an Ashley — her great-aunt Ashley was the first woman to win the Iditarod, after all. She just hates what being an Ashley means at this school. Here, being an Ashley is a sign of status, and it means being initiated into the Ashleys (per the playground constitution section on cliques), a group of girly-girls who gossip and watch My Fuzzy Unicorn and play with dolls.

And that’s the part she hates. The Ashleys (and the school at large, thanks to Randall the snitch spilling her secret) have ripped Spinelli out of her comfort zone, not to mention taken her pride in her name, and put her into the impossibly limited sphere of being an Ashley.

That’s why it’s such a smart move that instead of having Spinelli change her name, the gang decides to rescue her from the Ashleys’ clutches by changing their names to Ashley, too. Hustler Kid hooks them up with fake library cards, school IDs, and social security cards with “Ashley” written on them, and Ashley S. proudly invites them to join. As soon as the OG Ashleys are overwhelmed by the presence of so many Ashleys, TJ offers them a deal: let Spinelli go, and they’ll all go.

There’s so much power in Spinelli getting to keep her name and do with it what she wants! She’s now living in full defiance of the expectations of the playground, and it’s now because of her name — not in spite of it.

In this way, TJ wraps it all up so succinctly: “There’s a lot of Ashleys out there, but there’s only one Spinelli.”

Takeaway: *annoying kid in class voice* Less a takeaway, more a comment. Gus says “it’s just a name” when Spinelli is lamenting her secret getting out. The kid with the most drama surrounding his name so far (episode 1: gets his name taken from him; episode 3: is jinxed until someone says his name and is given a new nickname in the process) has the least to say about this? Come on, writers.

To Finster With Love

A nice contrast to the kissing episode. This time, it’s adults!

So as usual, the gang is goofing off at recess — today, TJ and Mikey are racing down the hill in garbage cans. Unfortunately, their fun is interrupted when Miss Finster (tipped off by Randall, naturally) stops TJ’s garbage can in its tracks. She’s just about ready to take him to the principal’s office, when all of a sudden...

New character alert! It’s Hank, the janitor, who arrives with the immortal words, “Trash receptacles are made for trash, not for little boys to ride in.” And Miss Finster has the BIGGEST crush on him.

Unsurprisingly, Mikey is the only one who notices that love is in the air. The rest of the gang recognizes that she “turns nice” whenever he’s around, but can’t quite figure out why. Gus offers the explanation that it’s just professional courtesy, but no, it’s love, Mikey says — “like Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver!” (Hi, this episode came out the year Arnold fathered a child with his and Maria’s housekeeper, though that didn’t become common knowledge until almost 15 years later.)

Anyway, once this particular nugget is out in the open, TJ decides to take full advantage of the situation. He tests the waters by insulting Miss Finster repeatedly, but she’s too immobilized with love to realize. “Too bad he’s not around all the time,” Spinelli says of Hank, which gives TJ another idea: what if Hank was around all the time?

Mikey protests, saying they’re messing with people’s feelings, and worse, messing with fate, but TJ isn’t having it. The gang goes to the library and comes out with a couple of boxes of romantic music. “They’re called records, or albums, depending on your generational affiliation,” Gretchen explains when Spinelli asks what's in the boxes.

The gang lures Miss Finster and Hank to the cafeteria as what seems to be an impossibly long recess continues, and they play the music (“Do you hear music?” “Whenever I look at you.” — an iconic exchange).

Things are going so well between them, in fact, that the school is, well, falling apart without Miss Finster there to rein things in. TJ tries his garbage can racing again, but some older kids steal the hill they’re on, taunting, “What are you gonna do, cry to Finster?” The gang goes to see King Bob, but a kindergartener tells them a “big coup” has left them in charge of the playground.

It’s a somber scene as the gang breaks Miss Finster from her lovestruck stupor and shows her the chaos outside. After letting out a primal scream, she and Hank realize they must break up — their calling is the school, not each other, and they were letting their responsibilities get away from them.

In a beautiful “welcome back to reality,” TJ throws another insult Miss Finster’s way, and the gang rejoices as she reacts appropriately.

Takeaway: Roses are red / Violets are blue / “Do you hear music?” / “Whenever I look at you.”

#recess

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miyoron · 5 years ago

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Miyo’s Anime of the Decade though Actually Just 2019

***Before I start this list, I would like to continue to send out good vibes and hope to all those affected by the Kyoto Animation arson attacks this past summer. It still hurts and I hope things can get better for everyone affected by it, even though I'm sure some things will take a long time to heal, if they ever will. Just know that you will always have me wishing you the best I can and sending out hope for you to recover at your own pace.***

I like writing these things every year. Whether it lets me know if my tastes are changing or staying the same, or if I'm just sentimental, writing about things I like is fun. Anime is good and I like watching it. I watched a good amount of stuff this year even if some seasons I couldn't find anything I say would fit this list.

For example, I started watching the Symphogear series and it's fun but I wouldn't say I liked it as much as any of these shows. Anima Yell is a very cute show but I didn’t have much to say about it, same for Aggretsuko again. I liked the main characters of JoJo part 5, but I wouldn't say I liked watching that, especially as the villain was revealed more and more. Fire Force was fun for me for like 5 episodes or so but then I bailed so take that as you will.

But I don't want to sound too mean here. No, this is for stuff I liked a lot and I wanted to write about things I enjoyed. This year I actually kept track of shows I liked as opposed to figuring out what I'd go on this list at the last moment. Crazy, I know, but this could be a good idea. Don't worry, I didn't take TOO many notes so this will be pretty off the cuff of my head like normal though I'm sure. As always, I will be using whatever title is easier for me to write/preference.

With this bit of text out of the way, let's la GO! In no particular order (as always)...

Mob Psycho 100

This entry counts for both season 1 and season 2. I kind of sped through the first one a little so I could catch up in time for the second one. I feel it stuck with me just as much though. Mob Psycho is a solid action series with very silly things going on in the background of it...and foreground honestly). I suspect ONE is very good at making this sort of series. Honestly though, every character in this show is great and there's so many feel good moments. Mob himself is a wonderful character. The most powerful psychic force in the universe but he just wants to get buff to go out with his crush.

There's a lot to like about this series. The humor is on point and anything with Reigen is going to be hilarious, especially if it takes a while. Animation is consistently top notch, especially in season 2, and I love the psychic effects. They end up looking like an old 90's video filter or trapper keeper or something. However, the most impressive thing this series does is show that maybe fighting isn't the way to do things all the time and that the most important thing you can show isn't just sympathy, but empathy.

Mob is a really good show and both of the OVAs are fun as heck. I dunno why I originally slept on Season 1, but I'm glad I came aboard.

Kaguyasama: Love is War

You probably know this one from that one ending with the pink haired girl dancing, that was going around for a while even though it was only for one episode. This series actually took me a little bit to get into mainly due to being WAY too tired to keep up with it. The set up being that the smartest boy and girl in the most elite high school both want to ask the other out. However, being the one to ask the other out would be to give up all power and admitting defeat. Basically it's a battle of two love struck idiots trying to get the other to ask them out.

As dumb as that sounds, the setups are often hilarious. Seeing the main characters trying to out scheme each other and keep a straight face while watching is a challenge in itself. It's like that 4th dimensional chess but the end result is seeing who will hold the other's hand first. Then throw in the wild card of Chika who seems to both not know what's going on while understanding how easy it is to end up on top in these battles and...look it's very funny ok? Even if sometimes the joke is just "weiner".

Shows that made me tear up count: 1

Kemurikusa

Similar to the Kemono Friends and its big gold star award, I felt like Kemurikusa deserved a shoutout this year. It's still janky like Kemono Friends before it, but after everything that went down with that series, it was definitely telling when this was the better of the two. This is a weird series and only some of that is due to the animation. The studio does a wonderful job of making a world that's both interesting and haunting at the same time. Everything that happens all ties to a big mystery that isn't revealed for quite a while.

The characters are fun enough. From the serious Rin to the caring Ritsu. From the voracious Rinas to the dweeby Wakaba. It's a fun cast going on a road trip throughout the apocalypse as they try to find good water for their big plant friend that drives around their husk of a bus. It can get pretty dark at times even with the neon bright colors the titular kemurikusa shimmering softly in the background. Oh also there's a roomba friend and a girl with sharp teeth so I mean, it's got something for everybody.

Hitoribocchi

This series is a cute little show with a setup which is potentially mean if you think about it. Bocchi's best friend is afraid she won't ever be able to make any other friends since they're going to different middle schools. Because of this, she says they can't be friends again until she befriends everyone in her class. The biggest hurdle to this challenge being Bocchi is horribly shy and socially awkward which just makes things seemingly impossible for her to overcome. Luckily, this is a cute comedy series.

The show is basically about Bocchi trying to make new friends so she can hopefully one day reunite with her bestie from the past. As I said before though, she's kind of bad with knowing how to communicate with people so she has a bad habit of say following friend making tips she read in books or online to a t and not deviating from them. Thankfully she is able to meet with lovable weirdos like blunt Nako, pitiful Aru and ninja girl Sotoka. It's a cute little series that also has a lot of heart, especially if you've ever had to overcome your own social anxieties to interact with others before. It's also funny too so there's a bonus even.

Shows that made me tear up count: 2

Carole and Tuesday

Shhhh. Don't let Netflix know I finished this before they did. Carole and Tuesday is a fun show from the creator of Cowboy Bebop, as evidenced in the fact it takes place on Mars and uses the same currency. It's a fairly simple plot, two girls meet up one day on the streets and start playing music together. One's an orphan who's basically lived alone for most of her life, the other is a rich girl running away from her politician mother (whose politics are a little too close for comfort these days). They just wanna make music man, and with a former big time agent with them, how can they lose!

Carole and Tuesday are fun characters and the show has a fun future sci fi vibe while still being grounded in reality. One of the biggest highlights is definitely the music though with lots of new songs in every episode and a good number of them being certifiable bangers. There's an overarching plot that also hits too close to home at times but the big finale at the end made it all worth it in the end really. This is an easy show to recommend and I am doing so to you right now. Go see these girls trying to make it to the big time!

Shows that made me tear up count: 3

Fruits Basket (2019)

I skipped out on Fruits Basket the first time around. I always told myself I'd go back and check it out but, knowing how I do things, this never actually happened. Part of me is kind of glad I waited to check it out though since I really like the style of the new show compared to the one from the early 00s. What I'm saying is I should have checked this out a lot earlier than I did but I don't feel visually bad for doing so.

Fruits Basket is a show featuring Tohru, the most helpful lovable girl, and a cast of characters who all start to love her because she is the most helpful lovable girl. This might sound like a bad thing but it's not. All of the characters are really fun, save one who I don't know WHY they don't just beat up, and I love seeing all their interactions. I just grew really invested in all of them and keep hoping everything will end up ok for them in the end, while in some cases waiting for a really big shoe to drop and biting my nails in the process.

I dunno if I have a super bunch to say about it other than my favorites are Uo-chan and Hana-chan and I can't wait until part 2 shows up. I am ready to see more of these Zodiac weirdos get hugged by Tohru and become animals and have her solve their problems in that order.

Shows that made me tear up count: 4

....Now, as usual, I will take a break to talk about the Precures I watched this year...

Futari wa Precure

This year, my friend Cheapsteaks and I decided to go after the OG Precure scene by watching the series that started it all. School girls run into fairies being pursued by weird monsters from another dimension/world/whatever and have to become legendary warriors to help them out. It's a story we all know well, just with lots of dropkicks and judo tosses.

As much as I like Honoka and Nagisa, and the opening theme...Futari wa has a lot of growing pains which is to be expected. Being the first one, it feels more like other magical girl series of the time compared to the style of later Pretty Cure series. From the rather uninspired villains, including one named Pissard, to the bland crush of Fuji P-senpai, and especially the obnoxious fairies, this is definitely one of the weaker series in my eyes. Again, it's probably not fair to judge it though since they didn't know what they were doing yet with this series.

That being said, there is a dumb fun to watching the Crunchyroll subs for a nostalgic taste of hard yellow subs and often not great audio. Again, the best parts of this are Honoka and Nagisa and I can see why they still get to be super popular today.

Smile Precure!

The other older series we checked out this year was Smile Precure which is much more my speed. The characters are all really good and they're all super good friends and it just makes me feel good. Like just in general they'rea really good and strong cast and I love all of them. Reika/Cure Beauty is the secret funniest character just by being the straight man on a team of doofuses and it works so well.

Miyuki's desire to make everything around her "Ultra Happy" just makes you feel good seeing a character who just wants others around her to be as happy as she is. All she needs is a smile and that makes me also smile. Akane is fiery and powerful, Yayoi is a big sweetie whose artistic trials and tribulations I SUPER identify with, Nao is a super cool big sister and I already brought up Reika being great. This is really one of my favorite Precures I've watched so far and I'm going to be sad to see it go in a few weeks.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that I love the stupid villain trio. Especially Akaoni. I love you big red oni doofus. (Please see oni times in the link below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXA5jfSJz_c&feature=youtu.be

Shows that made me tear up count: 5 (ANY NAO EPISODE AAAA)

Star Twinkle Precure

The newest Precure series! One we also dragged fellow anime friend Metalray into and I feel like it was a fun enough one. Cute alien encounters trying to help space zodiac princesses with a fluff unicorn and a tentacalien? Sign me up my dudes. Star Twinkle is a fun series and has a lot of things going for it, while also having weird similarities to Smile sometimes like soccer related attacks from good big sisters and prim and proper arrow girls.

The characters as always really make the show I feel when it comes to Precure and Lala is adorable enough to carry it entirely herself? But the enthusiasm of Hikaru is always fun because it usually just involves her being really into outer space and everything in it. Hey there's even Elena who is Mexican-Japanese and the show even explores a bit of her growing up being different from others so like, that's pretty cool I think? If it helps little kids learn to accept others and be cool through lil hermit crabs and dog space police officers, I think that's a real good thing.

...Now Precure time is over but I'm looking forward to next year's offering and seeing what old ones we go after next. (Spoilers, we will probably do Max Heart and Fresh!)...

How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift?

So this series has some problems in that like...wow sometimes during the exercise segments of the show, it just gets way too horny like...I dunno if I needed to see sensei in nothing but a bedsheet to show off how she worked her lats fellas. But I digress.

The main reason this show is on here is because it affected me enough to actually look at myself and start wanting to become healthier? Like the show is just a framing device for jokes and showing off exercise routines but the characters are all really sincere and the translation of the opening is even moreso? Like I feel this show helped me out a lot and I'm gonna let you all know about it cuz maybe it can help you out too if you need it.

I don't have a whole lot more to say but I will leave you with the opening I mentioned. Turn on the captions for this banger and remember that you can do it too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxi2Y4-NNXY

Wasteful Days of High School Girl

Hey, so can I say something amazing? Much like Asobi Asobase last year, this series was a very weird comedy that I absolutely ended up loving a lot in the end. The cast is full of delightful idiots, one aptly named Baka by her friends being the standout moron of the cast. The title pretty much says it all but you will find all sorts of high school girls here just wasting their youth away in their favorite ways.

You want a girl who draws BL doujin while listening to vocaloid tracks? We gotchu. What about a girl who is more invested in micro organisms in Petri dishes than her friends? Yo, we're set. A dipshit chuuni who climbs on top of absolutely anything tall and regularly needs to be rescued/leap out of trees because of it? Yea, that's here too. The show is not afraid to be weird any chance it gets and there's something I can respect about that. This series also had one of my number one laughs in an anime this year in one of the last episodes too and it still makes me laugh as I recall it right now.

Also like Asobi Asobase, it has the plus of having a lovable witch girl who is as pure as she is into weird occult shit. Majo you're a sweetie. Even if your room is creepy.

The Demon Girl Next Door

This show feels like something that should have come out about 5 years ago in terms of animation style, story set up, characters and even the jokes. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing though because not only is it pleasant and cute, it also knows when to step back from teasing its unfortunate main character. Shamiko, the demon girl formerly known as Yuko by everyone who isn't her family, is a kind of pitiful character and this series could easily just make jokes that punch down and humiliate her way more than it did.

Thankfully, the show actually does it's best to show that she is comic relief but also that she is genuinely a good person. She's not very good at being a demon as she is still learning so maybe she gets easily tricked by resident blase magical girl Momo more than she should. However, she will go out of her way to make sure her rival is eating more than the crappy instant food she frequently microwaves. Like I said, it's ultimately a silly, kind of dated feeling series but the character interactions are nice and it's just genuinely good

hearted to see these girls become friends, even if sometimes it's due to trickier. The show makes sure not to be mean at all times to Shamiko compared to say Satania in Gabriel Dropout's treatment, or the snake girl in that Dropkick show I dropped after one episode. Shamiko is good and hopefully one day she will be able to use her demon powers to rule the world so her family can have a bigger, non cursed, budget to live on.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season

Puberty is hard. Puberty is also maddening, wanting to drive you up the wall with new urges you are not used to. Simple joys like trains are replaced with weird videos you order off websites or somehow get from the back of a video store. Puberty is an inherently frantic time but it's also kind of funny if you think about it enough.

Maidens explores the tales of the Literature Club members as they go through this important stage of life and that's the fun of this series. All of the girls are each trying to find out exactly what it is they want out of a relationship. Is it just friendship? Is it Ess Ee Ecks? There's a lot of fun to be had as the series goes on. Whether it be Kazusa trying to get a bit further with a childhood friend, President Rika questioning her stance on relationships being even proper to have in high school or the writing adventures of HItoha going to sex chatrooms, there is a lot of different things going on in this show.

It's got a very good sense of drama as well; there were more than a few episodes where I found myself worried about what would happen next and hoping things would be ok. Niina's arc is very intense and gave me creeper vibes any time her old mentor appeared. The show is very good in general at just showing emotions and none of it felt like it was shoehorned or phony. The writing is top notch and I love all these girls. Puberty is a weird time but...they got this I'm sure.

Here are a couple of other shows I watched that didn't come out this year but enjoyed a lot!

SSSS.Gridman

Thank God Trigger was able to come back from its previous offering to give us Gridman. At first I was afraid that all of its Transformers color scheme easter eggs were just trying to lure me in with a mediocre show. This was not the case because Gridman just rules hard. A sequel/spinoff to the old 90's series, localized here as Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, this show was a love letter from the creators to the show and other tokusatsu shows in general.

Kaiju appear to devastate the city, shown from low angles that just make it seem even more like you're watching an old toku show. The toyetic nature of Gridman's various powerups and the design of Gridman himself just further pay homage to this. There was one Kaiju for a moment I swear you could see a string operating it (for the record, it was not a string but was in fact part of the Kaiju). It's not just a cheap nostalgic trap though because the animation is superb, the action is top notch and the main theme song just kicks ass. This is a really cool series and if you have any passing interest in toku shows, are a Trigger fan, or like seeing Actionmaster Thundercracker's color scheme, go and check this thing out!

Other highlights include another version of Inferno Cop and Rikka's mom who is always fun and good.

Dirty Pair (TV series)

Dirty Pair is a series I watched a good chunk of before but never actually finished. Thanks to the #DirtyDecempair hashtag though, I finally went and did it and well...Dirty Pair is still really good y'all. It's got space babes who kick ass and are not afraid to go after hunks along the way. Seriously, it's great when you watch a show older than you and it lives up to its hype.

Kei and Yuri are really good characters because they will snipe at each other but in the end, they are still besties and will mess up anything that gets in their way. I appreciate that they always try to get more PTO and pay out of their boss. Even more, I appreciate that the chief will put up with all their shit, whether it be the aforementioned blackmailing for vacation or the sheer amount of destruction they leave in their wake, and still is 100% behind them. He knows they're the best he has and nothing will get in their way.

So yea, Dirty Pair. Still a good show over 30 years later. You should check it out next December! Or sooner, whatever!

That abut wraps up my list of anime I watched this year, but I'm also gonna throw a little bonus round on you! Some anime movies I watched and liked! Lightning round go!

Promare Good fucking movie, good fucking soundtrack. Good Trigger things this year. It lives up to its hype for sure. Go see this when it is out on DVD and Bluray!

Sound Euphonium - Our Promise: A Brand New Day This was a nice movie that felt like a good third season condensed into about 2ish hours.

Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow I actually like the music from this one more than the movie itself but seeing Ruby's arc gaining confidence is good and I love it.

Bonus Saint Snow Track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUNNWxK2Dfs

Redline A movie I kept meaning to see and finally did thanks. Stylish and cool as hell, and the dub is really good too.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly They made Broly a compelling character finally, holy shit. Also some good Frieza comedy.

KonoSuba! Legend of Crimson Imagine a village full of dipshit chuuni wizards. This movie was fun and funny as shit. Warning: It does have one awkward joke related to gender but it thankfully passes by it real quick.

So I think this is my list. I hope you enjoy it. The next time you'll see one from me will be in the distant future of 2020! Hopefully things will be cool by that point to go with the good anime.

#MiyosAnimeListISatItAgain

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years ago

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Zi-O 44: A Wild Plot Appeared!

Watched live. Had a lot of lag while it streamed. Very little idea what I’m getting into re: plot because I couldn’t understand.

Let’s do this.

––

We open with some rando track athlete losing a race because he tripped… and getting. Surrounded by a bubble version of Decade’s Dimensional Walls… Well then. That can’t be good.

Even worse is that he turns out to have been one of Sougo’s high school classmates, named Nishimura. Coincidence? Mayhaps. But he’s one of multiple people who’ve recently disappeared.

Geiz, naturally, blames the Time Jackers. He’s incredibly valid in that, as Woz agrees. After all, Swartz did just steal both Tsukuyomi’s and Tsukasa’s powers. Painfully on both counts. You know, because we really needed to see said power stealing again. Which we did. Because I definitely wanted to see Tsukuyomi screaming in pain and Tsukasa dropping to the ground again.

Junichiro, bringing out breakfast, mentions that Tsukuyomi hasn’t gotten up yet… and Sougo says that he hasn’t seen her since last night.

––

Okay, so. Serious question time. How long has passed since the last two arcs? Because the Den-O tribute was one day, June 9 or so, and led directly into the Another Zi-O II arc, which was… the first episode was June 30 and ran until July 14. Now, normally, every arc is two episodes or so – some of the plot arcs have been three. Each story is usually one, maybe two days, and they have two weeks of downtime between arcs. We just had two arcs take five weeks. So, ostensibly, it could be June 10 in-universe. This is why timelines for shows get confusing, and seasons of Kamen Rider usually end in-universe at least a month before the final episode airs.

Please let there be a time skip during this episode. I watched raw, but I couldn’t tell how much time goes by.

Alright, serious plot and chronology wondering aside. Sougo says he hasn’t seen Tsukuyomi since last night, and everything begins to shake. The three Riders run outside.

––

…That. That sure looks like a black hole. Or a wormhole. Neither is exactly unprecedented.

Oooh, and a big ol’ circle opens up, with circuitry patterns racing up. Wormhole it is. With a very blue-and-white Time Mazine dropping down out of it.

According to Woz, it’s an early model, from the 2050’s. So, good continuity nod. I mean, the title alone made it clear that Kamen Rider Aqua was showing up, even if the previews hadn’t shown him. And Aqua’s single appearance was in “Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max”, which I will be referring to as “Mega Max” because movie titles in this franchise are too danged long.

In Mega Max, Miharu Minato was said to be from ‘40 years in the future,’ aka about the year 2050.

And here he is! The good water boy! I mean, I’m not found of his armor – never have been – but his concept was always cool. He draws from the OG Showa riders using power from wind to transform, except in his case, he uses water. All we need now is someone to use earth in an old-school Showa Style belt and we’ll have a complete set! (No, I’m not forgetting fire. It’s implied in ‘Kamen Rider 1’, the Ghost spring movie, that Hongo can now use wind and/or fire for his transformation. Area cyborg is basically a literal phoenix.)

Turns out, the best water boy is here to bring Geiz and Tsukuyomi back… to… the future… Huh. Geiz has no idea who he is, so that’s interesting. He also has no idea why Miharu’d be bringing him back.

Cue Woz pausing time to narrate-

Wait hold on.

If the time powers are an inherent ability that Tsukuyomi and Swartz’s family have, and Heure and Hora got their time powers from Swartz… then where did Woz get his? We know he can at least manipulate time to some degree – not just for the recaps, but if I remember correctly, he’s been shown to at least be able to cancel out time stops.

Woz, whomst the heck are you?!

Okay, I’m just going to put that on the back burner for now and keep going.

––

Woz’s recap today shows the clock advancing again. And, I mean, it’s always at least been ticking in the background in his recap vault, but we don’t usually see the hands move. It always feels really ominous when they do that…

Basically, Woz says that Sougo has met many Legends, and taken their powers for his own. However, the enemy has effectively been doing the same. Now, Sougo’s journey is leading to the final battle.

We’ve only got a little over a month left, folks. Zero One starts September 1. That gives us… 6 episodes, including this one, and the Over Quartzer movie. …We don’t have time for this. Why were the ‘future riders’ necessary?! We could have gotten more plot back then, instead of how Shinobi and Quiz were basically filler! Okay, so Shinobi did establish Sougo’s future dreams, and Kikai established a little more of both Sougo’s backstory and powers… although I don’t think we’ve seen the dream thing since, so it winds up being a moot point anyway.

Hmph.

––

I absolutely love the Zi-O opening. Over Quartzer is a great song, and the sequence has actually bothered to update. My issue with Ex-Aid and Build’s opening sequences is that they just. Didn’t. The home releases included the actual sequences, as opposed to the movie-promotion versions that were in the aired episodes. But it made it apparent that they never finished updating them. Ex-Aid never included Taddle Legacy – the final form for the advertised Secondary Rider. (I still say that Taiga’s clearly the actual secondary plot and development wise, and Kiriya’s the secondary motivation wise. Hiiro is just there.) Build never updated with Cross-Z Magma, either. That opening kept freaking Cross-Z Charge through the end, even though he stopped using it like halfway through the show. You know. The form for the other Main Character. (Sento and Ryuuga are co-leads – they share the Main Rider spot, and you will never convince me otherwise.) Incidentally, Wizard never updated to include Beast Hyper… OR INFINITY. No, it kept the All Dragon form through the OP for the rest of the show after it’s debut, instead of. You know. The Main Rider’s ACTUAL FINAL FORM.

Yes, I’m bitter about that. If you’re going to do an updating opening sequence, then you ought to keep updating it!

Like, most of the phase two seasons are fine – they either didn’t make major changes to the sequence at all, as in OOO and Gaim, only minor changes when new Riders came in, aka Accel joining W, or kept up with the changes. That’s your Fourze, Drive, and Ghost. But Wizard, Ex-Aid, and Build didn’t.

Zi-O has! Each of Sougo’s new forms came and went – except Decade, I think, but that was more just a different Legend Rider power than an actual new form in itself. Zi-O II, Trinity, and Grand have all replaced each other as the show’s progressed. Geiz has always been in, and eventually got upgraded to Geiz Revive. When Hat Woz showed up, Kamen Rider Woz entered the sequence, and Scarf Woz eventually took over – his spot now shows Ginga’s three variants.

So yeah! The Zi-O opening’s done a way better job than the last two.

––

Heure’s running, but we don’t know from what. Or from who. Who seems to be a more likely option, seeing as he’s been deemed unnecessary by his boss.

Although, we can get a pretty good clue as to the ‘who’ as he climbs a set of stairs – because everything gets very slow.

It’s Slowdown.

Time for Another Drive.

Another Drive’s design is pretty neat! Roidmudes had… well, they had finger guns. There’s no way around phrasing it that way, they had finger guns, not unlike Deneb’s. Drive had a gun that was based on a car door.

Guess what Another Drive has on their arm. Go on, guess.

…Okay, it’s a car door. A car door with ‘keep out’ tape on it, which is hilarious. And – ohhhhh I couldn’t see this in the raw, but Another Drive’s ‘belt’? It’s a dashboard panel, the bit with the gauges. There’s a wheel hub sticking out of their shoulder, y’know, the part a tire attaches to. This is nice.

We waited literally the entire season for Another Drive and this beautiful literal car wreck was worth it.

Oh-hohoho and the face underneath what would be the helmet looks like a Roidmudes basic form, which is a great touch. Especially as a nod to the fact that Proto-Drive, the person partnered with Krim before Shinnosuke, was, himself, a Roidmude. This is a continuity nod in more ways than one, actually. The Drive and Mach equipment could still produce slowdown. Shinnosuke never did it, because he never would, and Gou only did it once, in his first arc. But they were able to…

And Another Drive can produce Slowdown in a Roidmude manner. The Another Riders are copies of their season’s enemies, after all.

With someone who can slow down the movement speed of everything around them…

It only stands to reason that they could cancel out Heure’s time stop.

In a COMPLETELY TERRIFYING MANNER, by the way! As in, Heure freezes Another Drive when they go to punch him, and runs off. Another Drive is still stopped for a moment…

Before their headlight eyes light up, and their mouth opens in a sort of a roar. One eye is white – the one that still has the headlight lens – and the other is red – presumably a busted taillight.

ALSO I’M NOT KIDDING ANOTHER DRIVE’S MOUTH ACTUALLY OPENS AS THEY BREAK THE FREEZE.

Facial articulation, be it CG or practical, is creepy. We had it with Another Build, and now we’ve got it with Another Drive. …Oh. And those are the first and last standard MOTW Another Riders. I mean, this is technically 19 down, Decade to go, but. Well. Decade.

––

Having made his escape, Heure runs to Hora, where they’ve presumably been hiding since Swartz pulled his ‘you have outlived your usefulness’ card. Hora’s surprised that an Another Rider would be chasing Heure. After all, Zi-O’s already got Grand Zi-O, so he should have all of the powers already. Why would there be an Another Rider at all? Heure suggests that it’s here to take the two of them out. Which, yeah, seems pretty likely. Swartz isn’t usually one to do his own dirty work.

Hora’s powers were taken from her, so what could Heure possibly do?

Hora, dear, I need you to stop putting Heure down constantly. Yes, he’s younger than you. Yes, he’s a little troll. Yes, he definitely should have booked it out of there after Swartz and yourself forced him into being Another Kikai. But he’s still good at this.

––

Back to 9-to-5, where Miharu’s saying that it’s a bad idea to interfere in the past, so he’s here to bring Geiz and Tsukuyomi back to the future. Geiz looks like he hadn’t even thought of that happening. In his defense, I’m pretty sure Geiz just sort of assumed he wouldn’t exist anymore after taking out Sougo before he could become Oma Zi-O, given that neither he or Tsukuyomi had an answer to the ‘and then what’ question.

Also, Miharu isn’t exactly one to talk about interfering in the past, given that he debuted via time travel last time. In his defense, it wasn’t exactly voluntary, and he was a bit ‘possessed’ at the time via a distinct overload of Core Medals.

…So, Aqua is in Woz’s book, but Geiz wasn’t? That’s just rude to the soldier boy. Although, all Wozes seem to be chronic liars, so he may have just been pulling one over. (More on ‘All Wozes Lie’ later.) But the book gives us a glimpse back at Mega Max – specifically; Miharu, his appearance as Aqua, and the shot of him leaving on his jetski into a time vortex identical to the one from earlier in the episode. That one has back-shots of the main OOO cast, because it’s archival footage. It’s nice to get that reminder that there were more characters in OOO than the Main Trio of Eiji, Ankh, and Hina. Date, Gotou, and Satonaka are all there, too, in their ass-kicking gear. (Toei please bring Ankh back we are begging you this movie was such a tease because that Ankh was from the future and disappeared immediately after this shot to go follow Miharu back and you are breaking my heart by reminding me of that and yes I am intentionally breaking everyone else’s hearts by reminding all of you of that so BLAME TOEI FOR NOT BRINGING ANKH BACK.)

So, yeah, Miharu acknowledges his own time travel incident, saying that he’s met past riders, too, and they shaped who he is. (Eiji I miss you!) But what Geiz is doing is different – he’s actively changing the past. Geiz says that’s what Swartz is doing, not him. But really, Miharu has a point. Both teams are basically just doing what they want. At this point, Team Zi-O is doing it out of necessity – they’re a bit stuck in this path, since it’s not like Swartz was going to stop, and would you want to leave Sougo as the only one fighting around here? No! No, you would not!

Geiz is pissed, as he is prone to being, when he gets compared to Swartz, and grabs Miharu by the jacket. All it takes is Sougo calling his name and a single shake of his head to get Geiz to let go.

Geiz please the Tsun-tsun act isn’t fooling anyone at this point. You like Sougo. I mean, I kind of ship it, but time travel plots make shipping a difficult task, so at least admit that you’re friends. Or, you know, use Sougo’s name. It’s been 44 episodes, and you’ve called him by name once.

…Oh no what if they’re saving that for when the time travelers are leaving for good. Because that’s almost definitely what’s going to happen at the end – they’re not going to be able to stay in 2019. They just… can’t. Causality won’t allow it, I’m certain. What if they’re saving Geiz finally calling Sougo by name, maybe even with a smile, for when he has to say goodbye.

Whoops I went and made everything sad.

Miharu also has something he’d like to talk to Tsukuyomi about.

Sougo: Where is she, anyway?

Seriously, how much time has passed?

––

Ah, here’s Tsukuyomi! And Tsukasa! They’re in the rain, on some sort of pedestrian bridge, which looks familiar for reasons I can’t quite place. I love that Tsukasa’s umbrella handle matches his outfit perfectly – it’s half the same black as his suit, and half magenta. Nice.

But anyway, she wants answers. Did he know that Swartz was her brother or not?

Turns out he’d figured it out, but not long before the others. When was the last time we saw him again? Because that was when he and Tsukuyomi went to her childhood home… Oh, right. That was Kabuto Arc, which… was the one right before Den-O. That would be about May 26, and since we’ve established that Den-O was June 9… if we assume that we’re still early June via episode-based time differences, he’s known for at most two weeks.

Tsukasa’s not lying, exactly, when he says that he and Tsukuyomi are the same, in that neither of them are from this world. He’s just not mentioning the assorted other ways. The innate spacial-distortion powers. The sibling with a variant on the same powers. The amnesia. Aforementioned sibling being jealous of them, and turning dark. The leadership role. Admittedly, I can’t exactly blame Tsukasa for not acknowledging his days as Great Leader Tsukasa, because it’s not exactly going to help his case right now.

Anyway, Tsukasa says that he wasn’t originally from this world, and that he came here to look into the space-time distortions. Tsukuyomi assumes he’s accusing Swartz – who is very definitely to blame – but Tsukasa is ‘leaning towards it being the Overlord’s fault,’ saying that Swartz is using it to his advantage. Which… isn’t wrong, exactly, Sougo’s definitely being used by Swartz just as much as everyone else has been, but it’s hardly fair to say it’s his fault. …Aside from the fact I don’t think Tsukasa has used Sougo’s name, either. Always ‘Maou.’ Always ‘Overlord.’ Almost as if the Overlord might not be Sougo.

And if it’s Swartz under the helmet, pulling the strings and, say, having swapped out for Older Sougo when they ‘saw’ Oma Zi-O transform when they met…

After all. We never actually saw Oma Zi-O transform. It was obscured by the explosions from Sougo’s attack.

Back to the show.

I was lying when I said I couldn’t place the bridge. I was pretty sure, but I didn’t want to say anything until I was certain. There was a whole lot of lag when I watched live, so I couldn’t be positive. But this is the same bridge that Tsukasa and Tsukuyomi were on when they watched what happened to Sougo after the bus ‘accident’, when Swartz did something to him. We still don’t know exactly what, but that purple light looks an awful lot like what he used on Daiki and Hora a few episodes ago. Not quite like what he did to Tsukuyomi, though – that was a little different, but I can’t put it into words.

According to Tsukasa, it’ll all become clear soon enough… that is, it’ll become clear whether or not he’ll destroy this world. Tsukasa, please, we all know you don’t know jack of what’s going on here, and that you weren’t actively destroying the worlds. That was just a side effect of something that was never made clear, some biology thing or power leakage or something like that. Narutaki’s just a tool who never explained anything, least of all what was going on. And it was implied that the whole… thing that happened W & Decade fixed that little… issue.

(Kamen Rider needs to stop with people getting stabbed, because I’m never okay with it, even watching things again, because it’s not okay and I’m pretty sure someone’s just into it or something on production staff. Like, I get it, a lot of people have swords, but that doesn’t mean they have to be used like that!)

Okay, Decade lore discussion being put off to the side…

According to Tsukasa, it’ll all become clear soon enough… that is, it’ll become clear whether or not he’ll destroy this world. But Tsukuyomi protests that – not because of the whole ‘why the heck would you do that’ aspect that most people would give, but because he’s had his powers taken. He says that doesn’t really matter. I mean, for all we know, the world thing wasn’t because he was Decade at all. He could go between worlds as a child, although he needed someone else to open the walls back then. Namely, his younger sister. Oh, look, the similarity thing comes back with his sister, who took over Dai Shocker from him. He could go through the walls she made, but she couldn’t, and she became bitter because of that. Sounds a little familiar, eh?

(See how I brought that back around? I said ‘off to the side.’)

Tsukasa, however, thinks that his power deal doesn’t matter right now. Tsukuyomi is a much bigger deal – just the fact that she’s here is a time distortion in and of itself. Neither of the two of them are supposed to be here.

––

Junichiro wants to know if it’s black tea that that one lady friend likes. This confuses the heck out of the three Team Zi-O boys – what lady friend? They haven’t had any women come, due to the overall lack of female characters in Rider except… for…

All three run out of the dining room, to find Heure and Hora in the main shop.

Heure’s asking for refuge, but Hora doesn’t seem to have realized that was his plan. But really, Sougo did promise to defeat Swartz, so it’ll just be for a little while, until then.

Geiz is basically all ‘Nope, not having this, you’ve made our lives hell, get out.’

But Sougo stops him, with a very good point. He’s being rash. After all, they’re not so different from him.

I’m pretty sure that Sougo’s not referring to the time-meddling that Miharu was talking about. I’m pretty sure it’s that they have nowhere else to reasonably go.

Sougo is such a good lad.

––

And then there’s a short scene with Junichiro… having conscripted Woz and Hora into making what appears to be okonomiyaki? Sure, why not. Also, he’s chastising Miharu for using a knife and fork to eat his. Hora wants to know why she has to be the one to do this. She didn’t even want to be here! Where the heck did Heure go?!

––

Heure and Sougo are overlooking the river.

Also FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. It’s evening now… on the SAME DAY WE STARTED THE EPISODE. I was hoping there was a time skip somewhere in here, between them taking Heure and Hora in and the okonomiyaki scene, but NOPE! Junichiro and Sougo are wearing the same shirts!

Anyway, this is a really touching scene. Heure’s kind of broken right now. He’d thought he could do anything, and looked down on everyone else, including Sougo and co. But it was all just a lie, wasn’t it? He and Hora, they were just being used, weren’t they? And now here they are, the time jackers looking for help from the person they were trying to dethrone.

Sougo says that it’s okay. After all, they’re working together now, aren’t they?

Heure thinks Sougo is either a complete idiot… or really does have what it takes to rule. Because they were bitter enemies, and now he’s helping them. Now he’s accepting them. Why would he ever do that?

Well, as Sougo says, it’s not that he’ll forgive them for hurting people – for hurting his subjects. But they were just trying to make a future in their own way, and he can understand that, at least.

According to Heure, it wasn’t even that in the end. He and Hora were just pawns, both brought here… from… different time periods. By Swartz.

Huh.

Sougo pauses, while Heure looks away. Maybe he was wrong, that the former Time Jackers and Geiz weren’t quite alike. Geiz has somewhere to call home, and they don’t.

They didn’t.

They live with him now. It’s not like Junichiro’s going to turn them away – he’s way too nice, too. So, let’s go help him out!

Heure, shocked that Sougo’s being so stinking nice, gets basically dragged off by Sougo, who’s wrapped an arm around his shoulder and is running off, ignoring Heure’s sputtered protests all the while.

Geiz watches from the bridge up above.

––

We come to a track meet. The same one we opened at. Nishimura doesn’t trip this time. He wins the race.

The faces of everyone else present are blank – in a censored manner, a skintone oval covering them, with little sparks of time-static every now and then.

Nishimura is estactic at having won.

Swartz is in the center of the track circle, watching, and saying that ‘this is his world’. His meaning Nishimura, not Swartz, for the record. I just can’t quite phrase it right. He’s speaking as if talking to Nishimura, but he’s not actually talking directly to him, just doing one of those observation things.

––

Back at 9-to-5, Geiz is on that couch in the dining room, pondering things, such as Miharu saying that ‘they can’t just keep changing time, so he’s here to bring them back’ and Sougo saying that Geiz has a home. He says Tsukuyomi’s name. It sounds like she still hasn’t come back yet.

Heure runs in, distressed.

Hora’s gone.

Sougo and Miharu – who, apparently, is also staying here for the time being – run downstairs, as Heure takes off, wondering what Hora could be thinking.

This house is getting crowded.

At least Sougo’s in a different shirt, and it’s daytime now, showing that we’ve had at least one day go by. So, that’s something, anyway.

––

Heure’s searching, panicked and panting. Where could she be? He sees her out of the corner of his eye, walking past him and out of side.

He turns around…

And Another Drive is there.

I didn’t notice this before, but the missing headlight lens? That’s sort of stuck on Another Drives jaw. It’s weird and I like it – Another Drive is, as I said, quite literally a mangled car wreck version of Drive, all dented and crunched metal, with visible wires and underbody elements. This is such a good design.

Panicked, Heure tries to run – he likely already knows that his time stopping isn’t going to be very effective, he probably saw from a distance that Another Drive can break out. Blaster shots impact on the door-arm. Tsukuyomi’s finally shown up, Faiz Phone X armed and ready.

Tsukuyomi tells Huere to run, and he books it out of there. She’s ready to keep fighting – and Miharu steps in front of her.

“You’re Tsukuyomi, right?” Another Drive’s advancing, and Miharu is starting to panic. “Ah, uh, hang on! I have to get these out-” He. He pulls out a pair of patterened boxers.

EIJI. Eiji you have never been a good influence. I mean, you’re a good influence in some ways, but also a terrible one in others.

Okay, for context on why Miharu would be calling a pair of colored boxers his ‘Brave Briefs,’ we have to go back to 2011, during Mega Max. (For the record, I can’t wait to see how O-T and TV-N translate that. I know that it’s basically a literal translation, but I just wonder what spins they’ll put on it.)

You see, Miharu is from 2050. He transforms using the power of water.

He is afraid of water. (Ankh, who is a literal fire bird and thus probably has no right to talk, thought this was hilarious. He got a t-shirt thrown over his head to shut him up.)

Eiji, being Eiji, told Miharu that he just has to do what he can today in order to see tomorrow. He’ll be fine as long as he has a good outlook and underwear for tomorrow. He also, helpfully, gives Miharu a package of new boxers, all in very eiji-like colors.

One of these is what Miharu has just pulled out. This is ridiculous and I love it. I also love the little guitar riff version of the old TaToBa jingle from OOO when he pulls them out to freaking look at them and gather his courage, and the medal coin-flip sound effect when he’s gotten said courage and starts to transform. And then he uses a very Showa-style pose as he transforms, with the same sound effect, or at least a very similar one, to Ichigo’s Typhoon belt, when his Aqua Driver activates.

Sougo and Geiz arrive on scene, and Geiz is confused as to why there’s an Another Drive at all. They’ve already gotten all of the watches, haven’t they?

Ah, right, Sougo probably hasn’t had a chance to tell them that summoning Drive didn’t quite work when he was in the future. He reminds Geiz now, anyway, that they technically haven’t actually obtained the Drive watch. Geiz admits, that’s fair, they kind of don’t have the correct Drive watch.

Time For Grand and Revive Typhoon!

Aqua is very, very confused. “This is Zi-O? Oh, man, time has changed way too much!” He’s just stuck watching as the guys have basically elbowed him out of the fight against Another Drive, and asks if he can just leave it to them. They barely even answer him, just basically telling him to go do whatever. So, he basically just takes Tsukuyomi and runs.

And then Another Drive summons a whole bunch of duplicates of Midnight Shadow’s and a few of Max Flare’s tires and whoops, now I’m really missing the Shift Cars.

––

Quick cut to Miharu and Tsukuyomi, where he tells her he’s come to pick her up from the future.

––

Back to the fight, where it turns out that even Revive Typhoon can not stand against Slowdown. Geiz is still moving faster than most people, but he’s still not making any progress.

Also the door is still a gun.

Suddenly, as Another Drive is about to beat the tar out of Geiz, who’s still stuck in slowdown, it’s Another Drive who’s frozen. Turns out that Heure’s not fond of being rescued, or maybe just not fond of owing.

Another Drive breaks out of being stopped just in time to be hit by Geiz’s finisher and one from Grand Zi-O’s use of the Steering Sword.

Hora stands up from the flames.

––

With Miharu and Tsukuyomi, we get some lore. Tsukuyomi’s family apparently ‘rules over time.’ Since she’s from the future where he exists, her being here is locking Sougo into the future where he becomes Oma Zi-O. You know, the thing she’s been trying to prevent.

Her and ‘her brother’ absolutely should not be in this reality – they’re from a different one, and as per what Tsukasa said, them being here is a distortion in and of itself.

Interestingly, Miharu is here to take Tsukuyomi and Geiz back to the future. I can’t tell, but I think that he thinks they’re siblings. WHICH HOO BOY PLEASE DO NOT.

It’s her and her powers he has to bring back most of all – but that’s going to be a little difficult. Swartz – her brother – stole her powers after all.

Miharu is very, very confused again.

––

Hora doesn’t answer when Heure asks what’s going on, just turns and walks away… as Swartz walks up.

He’s going on about how Heure’s been naughty, and asks what on earth Sougo – a pale imitation of Oma Zi-O – can do against him. And then he says that he’ll show them all the power he’s obtained.

Swartz pulls out a watch, and puts it against his chest.

Introducing: Another Decade.

I don’t have much to say about Another Decade’s design, honestly. It’s not exactly that great, just… y’know, a basic Corrupted Rider design. …Why does he have teeth? Like, regular bared teeth? And why is the driver basically a mouth? The green bits on the sides of his head – those are the lenses on the mask, just extended out – and they glow, too, along with the actual eyes.

Actually, he has the Decade transformation sound effects playing underneath the Another Rider transformation, doesn’t he, to go along with the cards flipping away and back over onto him from Decade, and the sort of after-images fading off in the distance as the transformation completes.

…Okay, I guess I had some things to say, after all.

Swartz – Another Decade – you know what, I’m just gonna call him Swartz, because it’s a little shorter. Swartz opens a dimension wall, and moves himself, Sougo, and Geiz to what looks like the same quarry from the Rider War, all the way back in Decade. It’s doing pretty well, honestly. It’s got some nice greenery coming in.

Well, up until Swartz started setting off all of those explosions, anyway.

Then, because apparently they were being too boring to fight, despite his having just set off no fewer than seven explosions, he decides to summon up some Dark Movie-Exclusive Riders.

Everyone, say hello to G4, Fuma, Dark Ghost, and Rey, from Agito, Ex-Aid, Ghost, and Kiva respectively.

All of whom are doing a pretty good job of beating up Grand Zi-O and Geiz Revive Typhoon.

And then G4 feels the need to pull out a MISSILE LAUNCHER. Wh- Where did he pull that from!? Why does he HAVE that?! What was going ON in Agito’s movie?!

We end the episode with our boys getting blasted by, I feel the need to emphasis, LITERAL MISSILES.

––

As for the preview, it opens with Aqua versus ETERNAL. You know. The guy from the W summer movie. Who, like several people we’ve met this season, is supposed to be very, very dead.

And it’s not even just a summoned version of him, either. It’s straight up Kasumi Daido. In person. Somehow. Thanks Swartz it’s not like this guy isn’t off his rocker at all. It’s not like he was willing to kill the entire city of Fuuto just to see if any of them would wind up in his weird undead state. Not like he was going to use Philip as a conduit for the program to do it or anything. Nooooo, not at allllll.

FFS we could have had proper Double rep, and you give us him.

We’ve also got shots of Another Decade holding Tsukuyomi up by the neck, and Heure looking very very injured while being cradled by Sougo. KID YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN OUT A LONG TIME AGO!

The second to last shot is Grand Zi-O and Drive punching Another Drive… while moving in the exact same manner. As if one is just mirroring the other. …Dang it, it’s not actually Shinnosuke in there, is it? We’re just dealing with the same thing as Decade Complete, where he summons a copy of the Rider and they attack simultaneously, with the summon just copying his movements.

The last shot… is Geiz, silhouetted against the window of 9-to-5. Saying “Let’s go back to our timeline.”

––

Okay, so… @Miyukomatsuda and I were talking earlier – we watched the livestream together, and earlier tonight we got to talking… and. Uh. So, Swartz can pull people out of other timelines and realities, yeah? Because that’s what he’s done with multiple people. That one athlete in this ep, and now we find out both Heure and Hora, and, of course, he dropped Tsukuyomi into the Oma Zi-O timeline. Which… may not be the original timeline.

But there’s another timeline involved in all of this, too. Or so we’ve been lead to believe. See, one idea in an AU that Miyuko had was having Hat Woz pulling her characters AR counterparts out of their worlds and dumping them in the main line.

Turns out she just had the wrong guy… the guy who I then suddenly remembered something about.

––

Miyuko: I WAS FUCKING SO CLOSE

Miyuko: I HAD THE WRONG BASTARD

Cressy: Y'know. the guy who called Swartz 'sir swartz' OH SHIT HAT WOZ IS THE WOZ FROM SWARTZ AND TSUKU'S TIMELINE

Miyuko: BUT HE FADED AWAY

Cressy: IRRELEVANT

Miyuko: BECAUSE REVIVE DIDN'T HAPPEN

Miyuko: oh GOD

Cressy: GOT YANKED OUT BY SWARTZ. REVIVE WAS A PLOY

Miyuko: FEAR

Cressy: JUST LIKE CHOOSING A KING

Miyuko: HE LIED

Miyuko: WE KNOW ALL WOZ'S LIE

Cressy: I MEAN HE DID SAY "NOT NECCESARILY SALVATION FOR EVERYONE"

Cressy: oh shit 'a peace like time has stopped.' aka swartz and tsuku's main power

Miyuko: HOLY SHIT

Miyuko: ZI-O if you bring back hat woz

Miyuko: also so. Swartz's just spiriting away people huh

Miyuko: i uh like none of this

Cressy: i mean we never DID find out if Tsukasa and Daiki are summoning duplicates or the riders themselves

Cressy: so whomst the hell knows

Cressy: we're fairly certain SOUGO'S yoinking the actual riders, so Another Decade could really be going either way

Miyuko: Yeah

Miyuko: Eternal is apparently the real dude

Cressy: THIS IS FINE

(see, told you i’d get back to ‘all wozes lie’ at the end.)

#kamen rider zi o #kamen rider decade #kamen rider aqua

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theonceoverthinker · 6 years ago

Text

It’s Nice To Meet You

Summary: An unorthodox use of Henry’s cellphone makes for an unexpected first meeting between Ella and Emma.

Featured Dynamics: Glass Believer, Ella and Emma, Captain Swan, Ella and OG Killian

Links: AO3 Fanfiction.net

A/N: This was a fantastic request for my 300 follower spectacular by @latinacinderella. This lady gives me very chill requests. Like between this and “Talk Tales Over Cocktails” (Which I consider something of a counterpart to this), the fics that come from her requests are just nice and breezy. And I like that! Besides, Ella’s had a hard life! She deserves some chill moments, am I right?

Anyway, she requested to see Ella and/or Lucy encounter Storybrooke, Emma, and/or OG Hook in some way. I did something a liiiiiiiiiittle outside of the parameters of that request, but in a way that still holds to the spirit it so, I hope you enjoy it!

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

When Henry Mills started his journey across the realms, he didn’t pack a lot. In the small bit of storage space his motorcycle and his single satchel provided, he packed a dagger with his initials engraved on it, two changes of clothes, a few Apollo bars, and his single most prized possession: his cellphone.

But this cellphone, like much of Henry’s life, was far from ordinary.

As a last gift from his mother before he went to explore the worlds, the phone was magically enchanted with a battery that would never die and a digital album filled with gigabytes upon gigabytes of pictures and videos of his family so that no matter where he went, they’d be with him.

Once Henry and Ella’s friendship took off, Henry showed Ella both that phone and its digital library of his family’s history. No matter how much of the library she was shown, there was always a new story to tell about the adventures of his very extended family.

Ella loved the album. She liked its convenient feel in her hand, its impossibly smooth shape and surface, and the clarity of the pictures and videos the device held.

But mostly, she loved the family that it contained.

Henry Mills was indeed a gifted storyteller. When he spoke of his parents, grandparents, and all of the other going-ons of his family tree, his very words painted the idea of home for Ella. She could practically smell the lasagna at Granny’s, taste the cookies from Snow White’s oven, and see the hundreds of antiques at Gold’s shop as Henry made them real for her with the power of his words.

Fate really hit the nail on the hammer with his role as The Author.

A just as fate had led him to that title, it had led Henry and Ella to each other.

Every morning, Ella was reminded of that by the feeling of the locket against her heart and the feeling of her beloved next to her.

Today, though, only one of those things was where she expected it to be.

As Ella woke up -- before even her eyes greeted the day -- her hand reached for Henry, expecting to feel a soft blanket that leaned against his muscles.

But when her hand fell, the only thing on the other side of the blanket was the hard floor of their tent.

Ella finally opened her eyes and formally greeted the day, sad to see that she was indeed alone. That sadness was short lived however, as she noticed a piece of parchment atop her beloved’s pillow. Scrawled upon the parchment was a small note that Ella could recognize as hosting Henry’s handwriting. She picked it up and as she read it, she felt a blush flourish against her cheeks.

Dear Ella,

I’ve gone fishing with Hook and Jack and didn’t want to wake you. Besides, I know you like a little bit of alone time every now and then, so I figured you could take some time off from the resistance and enjoy a morning to yourself. We should be back by midday, but rest assured I’ll be thinking of you until then.

Love,

Henry

Romance wasn’t something that Ella ever expected to be in the cards for her. Thoughts of vengeance for her stepfather’s death and a hopelessness that came with spending years as a servant for her stepfamily had put the idea far out of her head. A future free from all of them was the best outcome she thought she could hope for.

But just as he had challenged the notion of revenge being her destiny, so had Henry changed her mind about that too. Now, the sweet words and gentle touches she had gone her so much of her life without were things she could hardly part with any easier than the air in her lungs.

In a way, she supposed that wasn’t surprising. After all, Ella knew plenty about the family he came from and for the most part, love was never too far from them.

And soon enough, that might apply to her too.

It made sense. Ella was already well acquainted with one of Henry’s mothers, and with a family that was just a magic bean away, it was reasonable to assume she’d encounter the rest of them before long. Additionally, if things stayed as good as they were now -- and Ella had a locket pressed up against her chest that gave her a strong impression that they would -- they might one day consider settling down in the same town as them.

What would that be like?

In truth, Ella hadn’t afforded the prospect much thought beforehand. The resistance and the newness of their relationship had prioritized living for the moment, and that’s exactly what Ella did. But the fact was that the revolution against the plights of their kingdom would one day end, leaving a future that needed to be accounted for -- one that could feasibly lead them to a cozy house nestled in the heart of Storybrooke.

But that begged the question, an inquiry that was just as interesting as it was somewhat daunting: How would it feel to live in Storybrooke?

If Ella was honest with herself, perhaps a bit too overwhelming for her liking.

Ella had never been good dealing with large groups of people. Throughout her time with the resistance thus far, she forewent growing closer to the movement at large, preferring the smaller bits of company provided by Tiana, Regina, Jack, Henry, and Hook. The few occasions where she did need to interact with the other members was kept to a minimum. That was more than fine with her and the sentiment seemed to be reciprocated. It wasn’t unheard of for those in the camp to keep to themselves outside of their own personal circles and otherwise mind their own business.

But from how Henry described life in Storybrooke, Ella had a suspicion that that wouldn’t necessarily fly there. Storybrooke was a small town with not a small amount of people there who not only liked but deeply cared about being involved in each other’s lives. They never let an occasion to get together and throw a party pass them by and polite conversations tended to run longer than they ever did in this realm. Even though Ella knew they were likely all lovely people, the thought of just an afternoon of that, let alone a potential lifetime was a lot to take in and maybe more than Ella felt herself able to handle.

And it’s not like she didn’t want to be able to.

Just as Henry’s stories had somewhat freaked her out with the family’s closeness, they had also charmed her in the other side of that particular coin. In the same vein that said closeness was borderline suffocating, it was also a means of support. While Ella felt uncomfortable opening up to so many people, she didn’t want to dismiss the possibility of finding new friends and pseudo family members. After all, had she not done so for Henry, she would have denied herself the happiness she now reveled in.

There was a feeling of guilt in the matter -- something Ella knew Henry would never want her to feel and that only served to make her feel even more guilt. It was a frustrating cycle and one Ella genuinely wanted to move on from. She wanted to open herself up more and she wanted to want to take to Storybrooke as easily as Henry did, but she just wasn’t there yet.

And she wondered if she would ever be…

No. She wouldn’t allow herself to fail so easily. Just as she was doing with her stepsister’s threats, here had to be a way to combat this.

Perhaps, all it would take was to view Storybrooke’s many denizens in the same way that Henry did.

Suddenly, an idea struck Ella for exactly how she’d spend her morning off. She leaned over to Henry’s things and felt around until she felt what was always to her an unbelievably thin surface, especially given all that it held. Once the device was in her grasp, Ella pulled it out and placed it on the blanket in front of her.

Henry once told her that his phone was only one of many pieces of technology from his world. Ella personally found that hard to believe. In addition to the odd-looking and somewhat violent games he had on there, his phone had collections of pictures far more numerous than Ella could possibly count. In her time playing around with the device, she had never once reached the bottom of the assembly of family memories.

Maybe today, that could change.

Delicately, Ella picked up the phone. On what Henry called, his ‘lock screen,’ there was a picture of he and Ella on his motorcycle that Regina had taken not long after they started dating. Upon seeing the picture, she softened, all thoughts of distant anxieties abandoned. It hadn’t been there the last time she checked, and the spot that formerly held a picture of characters from this movie Henry told her about, “Star Wars,” was now held by them.

How could her Henry make her fall in love with him so much, even when he wasn’t around?

Ella looked forward to finding that little secret of his out throughout the rest of their lives.

After staring too long at the picture of them, the screen went dark. It sometimes did that when Henry went on long tangents about that movie or when...they occupied themselves in other way -- namely, with each other’s lips -- so Ella wasn’t too surprised to see it happen now. Ella made a move to press the button that would bring the picture back when suddenly, the screen turned entirely light blue.

Speechless, Ella tried to make sense of what happened. Had she broken something? All she had done was brought up the lock screen. She hadn’t even tried to put in the combination, one she knew quite well, even once.

Nervous, Ella picked up the screen, looking closer. The power blue that covered the front surface of the phone was still there, but Ella, no longer as plagued by her immediate shock, noticed that the color was...swirling. The contents of the screen slowly spun, like a vortex of the sky on a perfect day.

Ella watched it. The thought had just occurred to her to get Regina’s help when suddenly, the blue screen had begun to be overtaken. Slowly from the center, the image of a woman began to push out the blue, soon overtaking it entirely.

Before Ella could move a muscle or take in the woman on the screen, a sound came from the phone -- though not its speakers like it usually did when Henry showed her a video. No, the noise was just there, as if another person was in the tent with her.

Or rather, as if the woman was in the tent with her.

But that wasn’t the strangest part.

No, the strangest part was what she said.

“Henry?” she called. The voice wasn’t panicked as it searched for Henry, but called casually, as if calling someone in for dinner.

And then the woman noticed Ella. For a second, she paused, taking her in. The woman’s eyes bulged, as if she had just had a big realization about Ella.

“Hey,” she said. This time, she was more in a state of surprise.

Ella blinked, and in that fraction of a second, her mind caught up to her and like pieces of a puzzle, clues came together to fill her in about exactly who she was talking to.

For but a single second, Ella studied the woman in front of her -- the long blonde hair that reached well below her shoulders, the green eyes that held an inquisitive stare, the light bump in her belly, and the leather jacket that was the color of a juicy pomegranate.

Who else could it be?

“You’re Emma Swan,” Ella said. There was an essence of disbelief in her voice as she said it, mirroring the one Emma had when she seemed to realize who she was.

Emma, now apparently over her shock, nodded and smiled, her finger offhandedly aimed at Ella in a pondering fashion. “And you’re Cinderella, right?”

“I actually go by Ella now,” Ella pointed out, not the least bit upset about Emma’s mistake.

That didn’t stop an apologetic look from overtaking Emma’s features.

“I’m sorry,” she said, a meekness in her voice that was a far cry from the confidence Henry’s tales had painted her with.

“It’s okay,” Ella eased. “But yeah. I just started going by Ella again recently.”

“Ella,” Emma repeated, smiling once more as the word comfortably settled in the space between them. “Well, Ella. It’s nice to meet you.”

Ella returned the grin. “It’s nice to meet you too. Henry’s told me so many stories about the Savior of Storybrooke.”

“Hopefully good ones?” Emma teased.

“Well, he wasn’t too happy when you confiscated his X-Box -- whatever that is -- a few years ago,” Ella retorted, smirking. “But apart from that, he’s got nothing but good things to say about you.”

Emma snorted. “Did he tell you that he failed his math test before I confiscated it?”

“No he did not!” Ella said, gasping in mock scandalization. “Looks like he has some explaining to do!”

Suddenly, Ella realized something.

This impromptu meeting with her beloved’s mother was just that: impromptu.

She hadn’t called for her, but for Henry.

“Oh! I’m sorry! I forgot to tell you: Henry went fishing and won’t be back until later today.”

Emma frowned and snapped her fingers. “Damnit,” she muttered. “I always seem to miss him by just a bit. And I’ve got to go to work soon, so I won’t be able to call until basically midnight, and I’m pretty sure midnight for us is also midnight for you guys.”

Ella was about to say that she’d have Henry call her back tomorrow, but a thought struck her.

“Emma, how exactly did you reach us here?”

Just like that, Emma’s frown disappeared, replaced with a proud grin. “Magic,” she replied, with a casual wave of her hand. “Regina taught me a long time ago how to communicate with mirrors. And a few weeks ago, I had a thought. I figured that since a phone screen can reflect your face like a mirror, maybe I could use Henry’s phone screen to talk to him. I’ve been trying it out lately, but Henry either doesn’t have his phone on him or he does, but can’t hear me talking over his motorcycle.”

“That thing is so noisy,” Ella cosigned.

“Tell me about it. And I thought it was bad when Henry was revving it up all night in the garage back in high school. But, at least now I know that this actually works, and as a bonus, I get to meet you!”

“I guess we could call it a happy accident.”

“I like that. So, considering that you have Henry’s phone, I take it that you two are...close?” Ella giggled at Emma’s expression. There was a hopeful smirk where a simple grin had been but a moment ago. She could tell how Emma was trying so hard not to be too nosy, but was also looked too excited to expect Ella not to think that that’s exactly how she felt.

“Yes,” Ella confirmed, her grin now wide enough to show teeth. “We’re together.”

Emma looked at Ella, positively beaming with happiness.

“That’s great!” Emma nearly shouted. “I’m so happy for you two!” As soon as she was done speaking, she blushed, clearly embarrassed at her over excitement at the news.

But in truth, Ella loved it.

“Thanks!” Ella said, finding herself beaming as well. “I guess I don’t have to worry about a disapproving mother?” she teased.

Emma tapped her chin, smirking. She released a wicked hum before speaking. “Nah,” she dismissed with a wink. “You’re a good kid, and you’re good for my kid.”

“You think so?”

“Definitely,” Emma answered, not skipping a beat. “Henry’s got a good heart. You must be pretty amazing if it lead him to you. And honestly, you seem amazing. I mean, sword fighting a prince’s army, riding a motorcycle after a minute-long lesson, and joining a resistance movement, and all in the same day? That’s impressive.”

Ella felt her cheeks redden at the thought of all that Henry had told her. “I guess Henry’s had his own stories to share about me?”

“You have no idea, Ella. Henry’s always been an passionate kid, but when he told me how you two met -- that look in his eyes -- it was like magic. And trust me, I’ve become quite the expert on the subject these days. So yeah, like I was saying -- I think you two are gonna be great together.”

Ella felt her heart warm at that comment. Regina had taken to her presence in Henry’s life rather quickly and now, Emma had too. On some level, she knew that winning over anyone from Storybrooke wouldn’t be an obstacle -- they seemed too kind to ever make themselves come across that way -- but the validation was still very much appreciated and it felt nice to be welcomed into Henry’s family with such ease.

Or at least part of what was a very big and extended family.

Now that that thought had made its way back to the forefront of her mind, Ella mused on Emma for a moment. Emma had a story of her own, one that Ella felt a kinship too, especially in her current situation.

Henry’s tales always illustrated Emma’s story in particular as something more complex than just some badass woman with a leather jacket and a gun. No, there was also the story of a woman who found her family, fell in love, and became a leader after a lifetime of wondering if she’d leave any impact whatsoever on this world at all, or if she’d even want to. It was a a journey of taking comfort in one’s connections and learning how they can be empowered through them, rather than things to be feared or avoided. And now, just judging by the gentleness that surrounded her through her posture, smile, and eyes, Ella could tell that Emma was happy beyond all belief with her life in Storybrooke.

Maybe with Emma lied the key to getting the same thing for herself.

Perhaps there was more Emma Swan could offer than just a sweet first encounter.

“Emma,” Ella started, admittedly more than a touch nervously. “Can I ask you something?”

Emma seemed to be able to tell that Ella’s question was more subdued than previously and settled herself accordingly from her former state of sheer giddiness. “Of course,” she answered. “What’s up?”

“How did you settle into Storybrooke life?” Emma raised a brow, clearly confused by the inquiry.

“What do you mean?”

Ella bit her cheek as she sought words of clarity. “What I mean is, Storybrooke’s a really social place and I know you weren’t when you first arrived…” Before Ella even attempted to further her sentence, she groaned. “I’m sorry. I’m bad at this. And that’s what I mean.” Emma raised a hand, as if asking her to settle down.

A look of realization and understanding overtook Emma’s features. “I guess Henry’s told you about the rest of his family.”

“Yes,” Ella responded. She was so tempted to place her hand over her face, but held back as not to further embarrass herself.

But Emma looked calm and better yet, understanding. With her eyes, she encouraged Ella to keep on going.

“It’s just a lot,” Ella continued. “And don’t get me wrong: you all seem great and kind. I guess I’m a bit more reserved. I want to fit in, but I know myself and I know that I tend to not do great with large crowds, especially if they’re as involved as Henry’s stories make them out to be.”

Emma shrugged. “Unfortunately, he’s not wrong.” Another groan was working its way up Ella’s throat, but she stifled it.

“I guess what I’m asking is if we end up in Storybrooke, how am I going to manage there? I don’t want to come off as rude, but I can’t see myself being as open as everyone else there is. And I figured since you weren’t always like that, according to Henry, you could give me some pointers.”

Looking through the screen, Ella saw Emma biting her lip, seemingly contemplating what she said and nodding as a likely chugging train of thought rode through a lifetime’s worth of experiences. “I get it,” Emma consoled. “In this realm, we call it being introverted. I’m like that too.”

“Then how did you get...unintroverted?” The snort that Emma seemed to only barely able to stifle told Ella that her word choice was incorrect. Ella playfully rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

Emma gave her a soft smile. “I do. Can I tell you a little secret?”

“Sure.”

“I’m still freaked out by it -- the whole social thing. I look at Henry and my parents and even Killian and they’re so much better at this than me. They’re the ones who initiate all of the conversations. They’re the ones who extend invitations to hang out. They’re the ones who remember everything about everyone. I don’t remember what the spices were in the deviled eggs at the last Doctoberfest! How do they? Who pays attention to that stuff?” At those last statements, Ella instinctively felt her face scrunched, confused. Emma looked to catch onto that. “Sorry, that’s another story for another day.”

“Why would anyone eat eggs from the devil?”

“They’re not actually from the devil. It’s just a weird name thing,” Emma dismissed. However, Ella wasn’t just about ready to drop the matter just yet.

“Who name things after the devil?”

Emma smirked. “Do you want my advice or not?” she teasingly chided.

Ella returned the gesture. “Fair enough.”

“What I mean is it’s a struggle for me. I get the feeling it always will be. I’m like you -- an introvert. It doesn’t go away, at least for most people.”

Another groan escaped Ella. “So am I doomed?”

“I never said that,” Emma assured. “It’s just different for people like us. But here’s the thing: People in Storybrooke get that. The town’s a lot of things, but more than anything, it’s understanding. If you talk about your limits and you’re nice about it, the people here will get it if you need to take a step back every now and then.” Emma snapped her finger, as if recalling something. “And trust me -- neither of us are alone. Regina’s more introverted too and so is Henry’s other grandfather.”

“Rumplestiltskin?” Ella clarified. Emma nodded. “Yeah, he seems the type.”

That seemed to surprise Emma. “You’ve met him?”

“Yeah. I haven’t talked to him yet, but apparently, he came to this world recently.”

Emma nodded. “Noted. But,” she continued, “I promise you, Ella, you’ll be just fine if you and Henry end up here. And if it helps, even if I’m still struggling with the social stuff, I have learned a lot too just by being here and getting close to the people I love. It all builds, so just let yourself take it one day at a time. Start things off with a simple ‘it’s nice to meet you,’ and follow your gut for the rest. Sound good?”

Ella took a moment to absorb her advice. It certainly made Storybrooke seem a lot less scary. It was still a bit nerve wracking, but Ella now felt a surge of determination that hadn’t been there before. Besides, if a fellow introvert like her could find happiness there, Ella had a feeling that she could too, especially given the start that her family in this realm had given her. And by the time that she and Henry might move to Storybrooke, Ella knew she’d be even stronger and more capable.

“It really does,” Ella said, her smile wide with the very confidence she knew Emma had in herself as well.Thank you, Emma.”

“Happy to he-”

“Emma! Were you able to get in touch with Henry this time?” It was a man’s voice that called and subsequently interrupted Emma. A series of increasingly loud footsteps followed, leading to what was clearly the sound of an opening door.

“Killian,” Emma said, a surprised bliss clear in her tone. Ella felt her heart warm at it, thinking of how Henry’s presence so often gave her that exact feeling. “No, I wasn’t able to get him today. He’s out fishing.”

“My apologies, love. It’s my fault that he’s so drawn to the sea’s call.” Killian’s shadow was now visible on the screen and Emma must have been able to tell. She looked at Ella in a way that seemed to be asking her if she was comfortable meeting Killian like this.

And Ella -- ready -- nodded.

“But I did meet someone else.” Ella saw the screen twist in Emma’s wrist so she was now facing Killian. “Killian, this is Ella, Henry’s friend!”

Killian beamed upon seeing her and hearing her name. “Ella! How nice it is to meet you!”

“And it’s nice to meet you too, Killian!”

“So you’re the woman my boy’s had his eye on! How are you two getting by?”

“Very well,” Ella answered. “But, we have got to talk about your sword fighting lessons. I thought you were a pirate, Captain Jones, but Henry doesn’t exactly fight dirty.”

Killian laughed heartily. “Don’t blame me! Blame his goody two shoes grandfather!”

“I don’t know about that, Mr. Good Form,” Ella shot back, earning herself a similarly hearty laugh from both herself and Emma.

For the next half hour, the three of them exchanged stories and updates about life in their respective realms. Emma asked if the resistance needed their aid, and while Ella told them they’d be alright, she stressed that she wanted to see them when things finally quieted down.

At the chime of a clock in the distance of Emma’s side of the phone, Emma frowned.

“We’ve got to take off,” she said. “We’re already late as it is and while I don’t have to worry about anyone signing my paychecks, I’d rather not get an earful from who or what ever might be at the station when we arrive.”

“Two doubloons says it’s about Granny going on another drunk crossbowing spree.”

“It’s okay,” Ella assured, laughing all the while at the image Killian so kindly painted her. “I’m going to take a bit more time for myself before Henry gets back.”

“You definitely deserve it. And tell Henry that we love him!”

“Of course!”

“It was nice to meet you!” Emma and Killian chorused.

“It was nice to meet you, too! And Emma, thank you for everything.”

KIllian placed an arm around Emma’s shoulders and Emma gave her a final appreciative grin at Ella from the other side of the phone.

After that, the swirling light blue appeared once more briefly before dissipating back to the blackened screen. Ella checked the phone to make sure that everything was back to normal and when the image of a happy couple holding each other upon a motorcycle appeared, she knew that it was.

Content, Ella laid back in her bed and as she had initially planned, went through Henry’s phone. The light bit of tension that had been in her belly whenever she looked at the collection of memories was still present, but lessened. It was especially so when she encountered pictures of Emma. Within her gazes as she decorated trees and carved up pumpkins in a room filled with people -- through Ella had no idea why she would be doing either of those things -- Ella saw not only hope for herself, but a friend who would help her realize that hope’s full potential.

An hour later, Ella heard shifting sounds outside of her tent, though she knew immediately just who it was on the other side of it.

True Love was funny in that way.

As she expected, the folds of the tent soon split to reveal a joyful Henry from the other side.

“Hey!” he called. Ella felt her heart swell as she looked at her lover. The bottoms of his pants as well as his shoes were dirty and he had an odor that she could definitely say was reflective of his morning’s activity.

“Hey! How was fishing?”

“Pretty good, but don’t ask Jack or Hook. They’re a bit...jealous.” Giggling, Ella gestured for him to come lay by her side once more. Henry didn’t hesitate before joining her and colliding their lips in a satisfying and hungry kiss. When they finally broke free after a few minutes, they held their stare as their heavy breaths rhytmically pulled their chests up and down.“And how was your morning alone?”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly a morning completely alone.”

Henry’s face fell. “I’m sorry,” he cooed, his head tilting sadly. “Resistance stuff?”

“No, and it was fine,” Ella assuaged. “I actually had a really nice chat with your mother.”

“Really? I thought she went to go visit my grandpa today.”

Ella smirked at Henry’s bewildered expression. “Wrong mother.”

If Henry’s face looked taken off guard before, he now looked like a child lost in the middle of the woods without so much as a compass to guide him. “Wh-what? You talked to Emma?”

“Yes, I did! And tomorrow, Regina’s going to help us call her because she loves and misses you.” Ella then smiled as she finished talking.

Henry softened, clearly still bewildered, but just as clearly happy about the implications behind that very smile. Just as Killian had done to Emma before they ended their conversation, he looped his arm around Ella’s shoulder.

“I knew you guys would get along. You two are a lot alike.”

“More than you could imagine.” Ella pulled Henry closer, contently cradling her head in his neck as she beamed. “And Henry?” she whispered.

“Yeah?”

“I know about the math test.”

#ella mills #glass believer #emma swan #henry mills #captain swan

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kookmint · 8 years ago

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Hey it's the og anon here from the whole house of cards thing and I'm here to RANT MORE bc like it's 5 am idk what I'm doing with my life but tbh it didn't feel like a bts fic bc those characters obviously had nothing to do with bts besides their names and I feel like if the fic was published with different names it could literally be a novel???? And it's so beautifully written there's legit no cringe moments and the plot is so complex and unique ugh I'm deceased

Anonymous said: RANT PT 2 it's the same og anon here and I just can't believe how the fic deals with stuff like underground monsters and the stigmatization of LGBT people and toxic masculinity and drug abuse and polyamory so beautifully and there's fucking SYMBOLISM like the chess set and all that shit fucked me UP and like no one in my life irl knows that im into kpop or whatever and the army label is so embarrassing no offense but I want to share this with the world

I agree tbh, this could definitely be it’s own novel. Everything about the fic flows so well. It feels like it was carefully planned out--every sentence, every symbol, character, connection. It just made so much sense! I had no questions in the end, I could only sit there with my mouth dropped like a fool haha! I actually read it about a year ago by now and it’s crazy that I’m still talking about it.

You know, there was a comparison of word count of famous books such as the Hunger Games, Twilight, and Harry Potter--most of them under 200k words... House of Cards was 6k short of being 400k words. Please don’t think I’m comparing the novels, I’m just talking about their factual length. I just remember looking at the physical size of books like those and thinking I could never read something of that length. And here we are binging 400k fics in two nights 😂

#i like the discourse i'm having with you guys lately #its nice :)#anon #ask

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Marvel’s Avengers Review: It’s No Spider-Man

https://ift.tt/3mebTlm

A developer assumes a measure of responsibility when making a superhero game. These characters typically have a longstanding fanbase that is oftentimes overprotective and overly precious about how their favorite heroes are portrayed. So when it was announced that Crystal Dynamics and Marvel Games were working on an action-adventure, narrative-driven, loot-based Avengers game, I was skeptical because a) it sounded like an overly ambitious game to make regardless of licensing, and b) this isn’t just any superhero license—these are the most popular, beloved superhero characters on the planet right now. How could the developers possibly meet Marvel fans’ lofty expectations?

My takeaway from Marvel’s Avengers after completing its story campaign and playing through hours of its online multiplayer component is that the game will not meet your expectations. It’s ultimately a bit of a letdown. Certain aspects of the game are even extraordinarily good, but there’s a lack of consistency that runs throughout the game on several levels as well as fundamental flaws that keep it from standing alongside the likes of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series in the superhero game pantheon.

Marvel’s Avengers as an experience is divided into two big modes. The first mode is a story campaign, which is designed as a mostly solo experience and focuses on the hero’s journey of would-be Avenger Kamala Khan (voiced wonderfully by Sandra Saad). Upon completing the campaign, the game transitions into its Avengers Initiative online multiplayer component, which continues the story through largely standalone single- and multi-objective missions you can take on with up to three teammates. If you want to get to playing with your friends right away, you do have the option to skip the campaign entirely, but then you’d be missing what for now is the stronger half of the experience.

The story itself is pretty standard fare for comic book fans. It sees the Avengers disassembled and then slowly reassembled in dramatic fashion before they ultimately save the day. The inciting incident is A-Day, an event in San Francisco in which the Avengers, along with scheming scientists George Tarleton and Monica Rappaccini, were meant to unveil a new mineral called Terrigen as the key to a clean energy-fueled future. But when terrorists led by Taskmaster attack, most of the team rushes to the rescue while Cap tries to secure the volatile Terrigen crystal fueling the Avengers’ helicarrier, the Chimera.

After defeating Taskmaster, the ship unexpectedly explodes, claiming the life of Captain Rogers and spreading Terrigen mist across the city, imbuing normal people with extraordinary abilities. The world comes to refer to these new superpowered citizens as Inhumans. Fearing for their own safety in an Avenger-less world, humanity quickly begins hunting and persecuting these Inhumans, who are forced to hide their powers or risk imprisonment — or worse.

Years later, young Kamala Khan, who met the Avengers on A-Day as a participant in a fan fiction contest and is now secretly an Inhuman with incredible shape-shifting powers, embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about what really happened on that fateful day. Along the way, she reassembles the Avengers and joins the Inhuman resistance and what’s left of SHIELD in their fight against Tarleton’s evil tech organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM). Like Kamala, Tarleton is also going through his own transformation, morphing before our eyes into the grotesque MODOK, who’s never been one of my favorite Marvel villains but is serviceable here.

What sets the game’s narrative apart from other Avengers stories and pretty much every video game story out there is that Kamala is at the center of it, which is cool not only because she’s a great character from the comics, but because she’s a Pakistani American woman starring in a AAA video game. I can’t overstate how much decisions like this mean to underrepresented communities. Best of all, Kamala’s storyline is handled with care, as we watch her grow into a powerful hero that inspires the rest of the Avengers to get back to work. She’s truly the heart and saving grace of the game’s story campaign.

The game’s larger storytelling is far from perfect, however. Kamala is a great protagonist, and the mentor/mentee relationship that develops between her and Dr. Bruce Banner (Troy Baker at the top of his game) is perhaps the title’s best storyline. But the other Avengers—Iron Man, Thor, Cap, Black Widow—aren’t nearly as compelling. They feel like shallow versions of what we’ve seen before in the comics and movies, which would be fine if you only saw them from Kamala’s point of view…but you don’t.

At different points throughout the campaign, you take control of each Avenger, turning the game into more of an ensemble piece meant to explore all of the heroes individually. But other than Kamala and Bruce, none of them has an interesting character arc. Larger than life Marvel staples like Tony Stark and Thor are woefully underwritten here and even their Iconic Missions, hero-specific side stories that tie back into the main plot, leave much to be desired. While these missions are each meant to highlight a specific character and their powers, they mostly play out like every other mission type. More on that in just a bit.

It doesn’t help that Marvel’s Avengers doesn’t do enough to distance itself from its movie counterpart. All I see when I look at the OG Avengers in the game is “Store-Brand Avengers,” lesser versions of their MCU counterparts (don’t get me started on the atrocious Tony character model). And since their individual stories are underwritten, we virtually have no choice but to reference the MCU to fill in the blanks. The game just doesn’t have a strong identity of its own.

Fortunately, combat is pretty solid all around. Crystal Dynamics has done a good job making each hero feel different from the next, from Kamala’s stretch-based powers to Iron Man’s high-flying maneuvers to Hulk’s environment-shattering smashing, and the combat feels smooth, with timed dodges, parries, and ability gauges adding depth to what is essentially traditional beat-em-up gameplay. There are imbalances here and there (like when a dozen off-screen enemies attack you all at once and you have no choice but to, well, die), but it’s generally fun to punch and shoot your way through AIM’s robotic and human goons.

That said, the combat is sometimes hindered by a camera that can’t quite keep up with the action. Things can get so hectic during intense combat sequences that it’s very possible that you’ll lose track of what’s happening on screen all together. I also experienced pretty severe framerate drops at points when there were too many enemies on screen. And although you can tackle multiplayer missions by yourself with three AI companions—which is a nice touch for those who don’t particularly like playing online—expect to grow frustrated with the AI at times.

All of this is compounded by the uninteresting enemies you’ll face throughout the game. No one really thinks of AIM when counting down the best evil factions in Marvel history and the shadowy organization isn’t made any more spectacular here. You’ll mostly spend your time in Marvel’s Avengers fighting bullet-spongy robots, drones, mechs, and jet pack-wearing soldiers, with almost no hint of an actual recognizable Marvel villain in between. How is it possible to have this much access to the Marvel license and include pretty much no fan-favorite villains in the game? Sure, you’ll face one or two, including Hulk villain the Abomination, who was revealed in the beta, but don’t expect to see any A-listers in this game.

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Marvel’s Avengers also puts a big emphasis on loot and character progression. Each hero has their own skill trees, gear to equip, and unlockable cosmetics. Skill points you earn by completing missions and taking down enemies can be redeemed for new abilities on the skill tree, while cosmetics (new costumes) can be purchased with in-game currency at different vendors, bought with real money, unlocked by progressing through the story, or earned through each hero’s Character Card, a progression system structured like a traditional battle pass. As you complete challenges in the game, you’ll earn challenge points that unlock new items on the Character Card.

The gear system is a bit more involved. You’ll need to do a lot of grinding to outfit your character with the best gear and raise their power level, the most important number in the game. Your character’s power level, which is an amalgamation of each piece of gear’s individual power level, defines how strong your character is and whether they can take on increasingly difficult missions.

Each mission has a recommended power level, and it’s in your best interest to heed that warning. If you’re even five below the recommended power level, you’re likely to get annihilated on the battlefield. Unfortunately, this means that you’ll find yourself grinding levels for more powerful gear quite a bit in the game, replaying War Zone missions at higher difficulties in the hopes of getting better item drops. All that said, loot isn’t represented cosmetically, and while there are seemingly countless perks and customization options tied to the pieces of gear you find, at the end of the day, the combat kinda feels the same no matter what loadout you’ve got. There’s a severe lack of variety here.

As we wrote in our preview of the game back in August, War Zone missions get old very quickly. They’re repetitive, are largely set in surprisingly uninteresting environments, and usually involve one of only a handful of mission structures, from attacking and defending control points to destroying AIM tech to simply taking out enemy waves. This is all fun at first, and playing with others online does add dimension to the experience. Coordinating attacks, watching each others’ backs, performing devastating combos on giant robots–the combat is definitely conducive with online co-op.

But the recycled mission structures and environments just aren’t enough to keep me going for as long as the devs want me to. There are some storytelling elements bookending the War Zone missions, especially in the case of the aforementioned Iconic Missions, which is appreciated. But after breaking into the umpteenth AIM lab and destroying the three valuable pieces of tech or holding down the three important control points or destroying another giant mech, you begin to wonder what you’re actually working towards in the game.

As far as I can tell at launch, you grind missions to earn better gear in order to take on tougher missions that feel exactly like the last batch of missions…but more difficult? All in all, repetitive missions make it so that you want off the gameplay loop as soon as possible. I certainly don’t feel the impetus to keep playing now that I’ve finished the story campaign and written this review.

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Another annoyance I have with online play is the matchmaking. It often took forever to find other players and launch a mission. I ultimately enjoyed playing solo with AI companions much more, which really says something about a game that’s meant to be played with others, especially since the AI heroes almost never help you actually complete objectives. They just kind of follow you around the stages.

I’m looking forward to the Hawkeye DLC that’s on the way for Marvel’s Avengers, as well as the PlayStation-exclusive Spider-Man content coming out next year, but I’ll most likely give the game a rest until then. I wish that Crystal Dynamics had focused more on the campaign because, man, some of the set pieces and Kamala moments show signs of life in a game that mostly feels dead on arrival. I would have loved to play 10 more hours of a Kamala single-player campaign. But alas, I’m left with the bitter taste of a middling, Destiny-like action-looter that unfortunately undermines the truly great things that the game does have going for it.

The post Marvel’s Avengers Review: It’s No Spider-Man appeared first on Den of Geek.

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murasaki-murasame · 5 years ago

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Since the Christmas event/banner should get announced any day now, I might as well post my predictions for what we might get out of the new Christmas units [and from the New Years units afterward].

I’m in a bit of a weird position with the Christmas banner where I want to skip it in order to save for the New Years banner, since that’ll probably be better to summon on, so I’m caught between wanting units I like to get Christmas alts, and wanting them to instead go to units I don’t care about so it’s easier to skip them, lol.

Either way, that one leak/rumour that’s pretty much been proven correct after the official reveal of The Agito Uprising said that we’d get a Christmas alt for Phoenix, so I’m just gonna assume that’ll be the new dragon on the banner, but I think that’s the only thing the leak said about the banner, so I can only guess about the new adventurers. But going by how regular Phoenix works, I have a feeling that she might be a light element skill haste/HP dragon, like Halloween Maritimus. Which would kinda suck because with how good Freyja and H-Maritimus are, that’d be a really tempting dragon to get, but I specifically want to skip the Christmas banner. Welp.

In terms of the new adventurer alts, I’m gonna guess that it’ll be like the Halloween banner we got a little while ago, and that there’ll be one 5-star, two 4-stars, and that all of them plus the dragon will be a different element to the old units on the banner. So I don’t think any of the new units will be water element, like how none of the new Halloween units were light element. We haven’t really gotten many light or wind units in the last few months, so I think we might get two light units and two wind units. I can’t really tell if Christmas Phoenix would make more sense as a light or wind unit, but I’d probably prefer it if she’s a light unit since then the 5-star adventurer would probably be a wind unit, and since wind is my most fleshed out roster at the moment it’d probably make them less tempting to pull for, which would work out better for me. But it could be the other way around.

I’m gonna just go ahead and assume that the 5-star adventurer is probably gonna be another 5-star alt of one of the main female characters, since we get one for basically every new banner like this, lol. I’m guessing it’ll probably be Alex or Sarisse. I could see Alex working pretty nicely with a 5-star light dagger alt, or something like that. But I feel like Cygames might keep ignoring her for a while longer. Who knows, maybe we’ll get Christmas Ranzal as a 5-star instead, lol. I don’t think we’ll get a Christmas Luca one way or another, though, if only since we’ll probably get Gala Luca in January.

For the 4-star adventurers I think there’ll be one wind one and one light one, and I think it’ll be like Halloween where they’re both alts of regular characters from the summoning pool. I think we’ll get one female and one male 4-star alt, and I have a few guesses/hopes for male characters, I’m at a loss as to what female characters might get alts here. But anyway, for male characters, Xanfried still needs an alt and I think a Christmas one would be really fitting for him, but it’d kinda suck to see him get a 4-star alt. I also think that Waike could work really nicely in a Santa get-up since he’s already basically Robin Hood. But realistically I think that the most likely male character to get a Christmas alt would probably be Elias. Summer Celery opened up the doors to us getting alts of event units, and Elias as a Christmas caroler is just too perfect to not happen, lol. Also he just desperately needs a good alt.

I’m at a loss as to what female characters might get alts, but for some reason Sinoa keeps coming to mind as an option. I don’t really have any specific reason why, though. I think we also got an illustration of Sarisse and Hildegarde in Christmas outfits last year, but I don’t know if Hildegarde would get another seasonal alt this soon. If they give Elias an alt, though, it might be nice if they also gave Pia one, since they’d go really well together, and she’s also a bit of a meme unit who needs a good alt.

In terms of their kits and stuff, as I said, I think Alex could get a 5-star light dagger alt here, if she gets one at all. If it’s Sarisse, she’d probably be a 5-star light/wind bow. And I could see Christmas Phoenix basically being the light version of Freyja.

If we get Christmas Elias, I could see him being a light wand. But I wouldn’t want him to have a kit like Noelle’s, since that’d be too important to lock behind a limited banner. If Xanfried gets a Christmas alt, I think he’d be a light/wind lance, with a similar kit to his OG version, but maybe with some energy mechanics thrown in if he’s a light unit. And then Waike could maybe get a light/wind bow or dagger alt.

I could also see Sinoa still being a wand if she gets a Christmas alt, but we probably wouldn’t get both that and Christmas Elias as a wand unit at the same time.

If we get Christmas Pia, she could maybe be a light lance, or if she stays as a wind unit, maybe she could be a sword or dagger or something. No weapon types except for wand and staff really make sense for her, but she’s already a lance unit as it is, so anything’s possible.

Also part of why I’d be on board with Elias and Pia getting alts is because they’d be easy for me to skip, lol. But I do feel like they’d make a lot of sense in general.

As for the New Years banner, it’s a fair bit further away, but I still have some hopes and predictions for it. I’m trying to hoard my resources for it at the moment, so I’m a lot more invested in having it turn out nice, lol.

Like with the Christmas banner, I think the New Years banner will be either light or wind element [with maybe one wildcard off-element unit]. Personally I’d want it to be light-based, just because my light roster’s weaker and that’d make for a more exciting and tempting banner. But either would be fine.

If it’s a light-based event/banner, then I think the datamined Tsukuyomi dragon might be the equivalent to Shishimai, which could work since, like with most event dragons, Shishimai was the opposite element to the old New Years units, so having a shadow event dragon with light units would make sense. I could also just see her design working nicely as a raid boss in addition to a playable dragon. And since she was datamined around December last year it’d make sense if she ends up being related to the upcoming New Years event. She might be the banner dragon like Marishiten, but that’d imply it’d be a shadow banner/event like the last one which would be kinda lame. Also her design doesn’t really seem inspired by the year of the rat, unlike how Marishiten had boar familiars floating around her and stuff.

Like the Ieyasu banner, I think the new zodiac banner will have one 5-star adventurer, one 5-star dragon, two 4-star adventuers, and then an event welfare adventurer and dragon. I think they might also put Ieyasu and co back on rate-up during the banner but who knows.

If they’re light units, I’d want the new 5-star to be a blade or a wand unit. We really need some more good light units of those weapon types. B-Zardin, Lucretia, and Amane are all kinda meh and don’t really have a place in end-game content, and from what I know Yachiyo is the weak link of the HZD meta group who just doesn’t have a better alternative to replace her with. So we really need something new there, though it’d also kinda suck in it’s own way to lock a good light unit behind a limited banner. Personally I’d lean towards wanting a light wand rather than a light blade, since they’d probably end up being less ‘essential’ in the long run than a light blade, and also I have B-Zardin but I don’t have Lucretia so I want a light wand more, lol.

If they’re wind units, I’d probably want the 5-star to be a dagger or lance since those are probably the weakest parts of the wind roster at the moment.

I dunno what to expect from the new banner dragon, mostly because I don’t know very much about the Japanese mythology they’re drawing from with them, but from some quick wikipedia searching, maybe we could get Benzaiten as the new one. Either way, regardless of the element it is, I think they’ll be a strength dragon like Marishiten was.

For the 4-stars, if they’re light units, I could see us getting a wand and/or a lance. I don’t think we’d get a 4-star light dagger or bow out of the banner, though, since we’ve got several options for those already. Same with staffs. We also only currently have one [non-limited] 4-star option for light blades, swords, and axes.

If they’re wind units, then I doubt we’d get a 4-star blade, lance, or staff, since those options are pretty fleshed out already. In particular i doubt we’d get another 4-star wind blade when we got Addis in the last New Years banner. So I’d prefer to get a sword, axe, dagger, or bow instead.

And in terms of the event welfare adventurer, If they’re light then I at least wouldn’t want them to be a bow, sword, or staff, so they don’t overlap too much with past event units we’ve had . I think a light blade event unit could make sense, but we’ll see. If it’s a wind unit, then we’ve only really had Su Fang so far so anything other than a wind dagger would be fine, but if you want to count Ranzal then it might be best if they avoid having it be a wind axe either. And same as the stuff I said above, I’d prefer it if they avoided having them be a wind blade/lance/staff unit either. So I’d prefer a sword, bow, or wand.

If we get a wild-card unit like Addis then anything’s possible, but we still haven’t gotten a 4-star flame blade at all yet so that’s an option.

On top of my personal bias, one reason why I’d like it to be light-based is so that we can get more light units with energy mechanics. There’s nothing stopping them from making a wind banner with energy mechanics, but I feel like it’d work better to have an energy-themed light banner, since light has way more in the way of existing units who also have energy mechanics in their kits. If we just got a set of wind units with energy built into their kits then I fear it’d end up like the Valentines/Christmas units, or Pia, and they’d have too little energy support from the rest of their element’s roster to really work well.

Also the new banner will be based around the Year of the Rat, and since we’ve already had one light unit with a lightning theme, I can’t help but think of Pikachu, so it’d be kinda fun to get a lightning rat dragon and stuff, lol. I also feel like a lightning-themed light wand unit could also make sense.

So yeah my best case scenario hope would be if the New Years banner ended up with a 5-star light wand, a 5-star strength HP dragon, a 4-star light lance, a 4-star flame blade, a 4-star event welfare light blade, and Tsukuyomi as an event welfare shadow dragon. But who even knows.

I’m fully prepared to be proven totally wrong with both of these banners, but we’ll see how it goes. I mostly just want the New Years banner to be worth hoarding for, lol. But it’d be worth it even if they just bring Ieyasu back since I still don’t have him.

Also I’m hoping that we’ll get some free daily tenfold summons during both the Christmas banner and the New Years banner. And maybe even some log-in bonuses. Anything to make it easier to hoard my resources would be nice at this point after how much I pulled on the gala, lol. [And on that note I did in fact end up caving in and summoning more on the last day of the gala, and even though I didn’t get Gala Elly I did get Cupid, so that’s nice]

#dragalia lost #in which I say a lot of words that might get almost immediately invalidated if I end up being wrong with my guesses :v #but it's fun to speculate and I need something to keep me occupied since there's been a lack of new content lately lmao

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