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holylulusworld · 6 months ago

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BFG (9)

Summary: He’s new to town and just your type…

Pairing: Reacher x Plussized!Reader

Warnings/Tags: pregnancy, fluff, light smut (unprotected), love confessions

Catch up here: BFG (8)

BFG masterlist

He watched you move on top of him with adoration in his eyes. Reacher carefully held your hips in a soft grip to help you guide your movement.

With your knees spread wide and your hands flat on the mattress, you slowly rocked forward and back while moving your hips down onto him on the downstroke.

“Fuck, peach pie. You look so beautiful on top of me,” he watched you place your hand on his wide chest to peck his lips. “I want you to take what’s yours.”

“You’re already mine,” you kiss him again, “aren’t you? You came back to me.” You whined feelings his cock twitch inside of you. “I want you to come inside of me, my big friendly giant.” You purred against his lips. “Please, baby.”

You already came twice and wanted nothing more than to feel him fill you up again.

“I could cum only by watching you ride me like the fiery woman you are,” he rumbled close to his release and dropped his hands from your hips to cup your face. “Peach pie, you fuck me so good.” Reacher purred as his warmth filled you.

“Wow,” you stopped moving, and carefully laid down on his chest to catch your breath. “That was…amazing.”

“You are amazing,” he whispered while running his big hand up and down your back. “I can’t believe you took me back after I left.”

“We didn’t part on bad terms, Reacher. I knew about your hobo lifestyle before you left,” you sniffled. “I just missed you so much. It’s crazy that I fell for you so hard in such a short time. You gave me the best thing ever happening in my life.”

“You gave me something I haven’t had in a long time,” his voice shook for a second, and you lifted your head from his chest to look him in the eyes.

“Food and a bed big enough for my giant?” You giggle. “Or mind-blowing sex.”

“A family,” he softly said, “and a place I want to return to. I was a hobo all my life, but now I found home in you, and our baby.”

“Reacher,” you sniffled and struggled to push the tears away. “You…I love you.” Before you could cry and ruin the moment, you hid your face in his neck.

“I love you too, peach pie, and, yes, the bed too,” he chuckles while you shed a few happy tears. “It’s very stable. I think we should test its quality some more in the morning…”

“I see you kept him,” Frances dipped her head to watch Reacher sit on his seat at your diner. He smirked the moment you placed a plate with a slice of peach pie in front of him. “I guess you came back because she feeds you well.”

“You’re still around. Why?” Reacher glanced at Neagley and furrowed his brows. “I thought you said you’d leave town after I arrived.”

“I only made sure that you do not chicken out,” she replied and shrugged. “You know, to find out if I must hunt you down.”

“You stayed to get more cereals out of Y/N,” he smirked at her for a second before turning his attention toward the peach pie. “I came back for my peach pie.” He looked at the pie in front of him. “The pie is only a bonus.”

“Was that a dirty joke from you, Reacher?” She glanced at him, smirking. “Seriously? Major Reacher made a dirty joke.”

“I can be funny,” he grumbled. Reacher didn’t want you to believe that he’s a grump and has no sense of humor. If you believe he’s only good at repairing things and hurting people, you could change your mind and chase him away.

“Uh-huh,” Frances nodded slowly. “Sure, you can be funny, Reacher.”

“So, you two know each other from work. Have you been in contact for the whole time or,” you watched Reacher tense. He didn’t stay in contact with the rest of his former team. The only one he stayed in contact with was Neagley.”

“Reacher is not the kind of guy sending Christmas cards,” Frances hastily explained. “But if you need him, he’s there. You don’t have to explain anything. He jumps into a bus or airplane and comes to your rescue.”

You placed your hand on Reacher’s, giving him a soft smile. He was tense after your question, and you regretted opening your mouth. Sometimes you just can’t stop yourself. “He’s a protector, and I couldn’t be happier having him around.”

Reacher visibly relaxed at your words. He knew by now that you’re not the kind of person who tells lies to make other people more comfortable.

“I love me a man who can eat too,” you gently ran your fingertips over Reacher’s hand while looking him deep in the eyes. “Especially when the person is willing to give something up to make another person happy.”

Neagley nods. She’s happy for Reacher, even if he’s sometimes a big and grumpy Klotz. – Or rather, most of the time. He holds a special place in her heart and knows that somehow, she wormed her way into his heart too.

“You should reconsider your decision,” Frances laughs. “He’ll eat all your food, and did you see his size? You’ll never have enough space in your house again.”

“He can keep me warm in winter too. I like it cozy,” you smiled at him while squeezing his hand. “I think Reacher made my grandmother’s house a home."

Part 10

Tags in reblog.

#reacher #reacher x you #reacher x reader #reacher x y/n #plussized reader #chubby reader #female reader #tw: pregnancy

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accirax · 3 months ago

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Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 15 Dissection

FINALLY, I have a Friday night with few enough plans that I can watch and give my initial thoughts on the episode on the day that it aired >:D

... why am I celebrating being all alone on a Friday night? (/j)

Dissection time! This will be a Part 1 because I finally actually ran out of images. Please check the reblogs to see my further thoughts on the episode!

SPOILERS for Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 14. Brief mentions of eating disorders and suicide.

Of course, it's also the first week where I probably won't have as much to say, not because there isn't stuff to comment on about the episode, but because the main thing that ate up my time/word count was assessing all of the evidence to talk about who the killer might be. Now that the killer has seemingly been revealed, there isn't really any "Chapter 2 murder" left to theorize about... that's insane.

Starting the episode off with Teruko saying that accusing Ace was her "judgment" was wild. She made it very clear that it wasn't just that she was humoring Eden or haphazardly starting with Ace first, but that she thought it over and decided that Ace was the more-likely-to-be-guilty party because of seeing Eden break down like that. She paid attention to Eden's emotions and let Eden into her heart! That's awesome!!!

(Not to say that you couldn't pay attention to Eden's emotions and still think that she was the culprit-- I'd be a pretty big hypocrite if I tried to argue that. And I just don't think that it's true.)

This is a really random point to bring up, but I remember from drawing my J-to-Xander secret santa exchange that one of J's main complaints about Xander was also that he was loud. I guess J just really hates loud people.

... David, put down the megaphone--

Now this surprised me. It really made sense to me that Arturo would be the one stalking Eden, given that we first heard about the stalking on the day that Arturo and Eden had their chat!

Although, it also makes sense that it wasn't, given that the Arturo/Eden conversation probably happened after the event where J pulled Teruko into that closet (just based on Arturo's vibes). That event was the last thing that Teruko did before the nighttime announcement rang. Thus, Eden talking to Arturo probably happened pretty late in the afternoon, not giving Arturo much time to have been following Eden. To be fair, I deemed that it could still very well be Arturo anyways, because it's not like Eden said anything such as "you've been following me all day" that truly indicated a time period. But it does make sense.

Seems like everyone who thought that the culprit could have been tailing Eden was correct! A round of applause for everyone who put those pieces together 👏 (/gen)

Now, this one, I don't believe I saw ANYONE speculate. Therefore, as an idea I'd never even heard tossed around, this really took me out. It makes sense, though: Eden is small and semi-canonically the weakest character in the killing game. Therefore, if you're looking for someone who you can near-guaranteed overpower, it makes sense if you were to target her.

On one hand, thinking down this line of logic makes me worried for Eden's survival prospects beyond Chapter 2. On the other, now that this has been directly addressed in canon, I find it less likely that someone will use that again down the line. The best place to do so would be at the next Class Trial, so that the logic can be "well, looks like someone tried to execute on Ace's original plan" when it's at its most relevant because Ace's crime would be at its most recent. However, I don't really think that Eden will be a victim at the next Class Trial, so I'm leaning towards saying that she wouldn't become a victim for that reason.

(It feels so unnatural to write out "Ace's crime" and be, like 95% certain that it's canon. This case is just one of the unsolved mysteries of history, the fuck??? (/j))

This was ALSO insane to me. I know that thebadjoe cited Ace claiming to have been in the Gym the day after he nearly died in there as a reason why Ace might have been lying about what day he overheard Arei and David on (the logic is probably somewhere in here), but I think I and many others just figured that he didn't want everyone to think he was a coward, or that his eating disorder would compel him to go back to the Gym anyways.

However, going back to the Gym to sus out how exactly Nico's contraption works makes perfect sense! J was right, if Ace was suffering through being killed when he awoke, he shouldn't have had the presence of mind to figure out the crime then and there. However, if he could combine the flashes he got of what happened while he was swinging from the fan, whatever he was able to make out when he ran out of the room to chase Nico, and being able to inspect the Gym after the fact, I think it's totally reasonable that he could have figured out what happened with enough clarity that he could replicate its essential elements elsewhere.

As it turns out, despite my crack at trying to figure out what happened, the Gym murder method wasn't actually all that complex.

Teruko: One. Given that you were stalking Eden before the Nico incident, you were already planning a murder beforehand. You entered the Gym with the pre-existing intent to take the tape for some different, unspecified murder plan, and changed your mind on the details later. Two. You were pretending to be unconscious for longer than we thought. And three. You took the tape for first aid.

Dammit, fellow "but it wouldn't have made sense for Ace to take the tape right after the attempt" truthers... I think she may have cooked us. (/j)

But hey, we love to see Teruko representing the "let me explain out various theoretical options by listing and discussing them numerically" crowd! It's always great to see yourself represented in media ;P Even if I never came up with any of these theoretical options.

My guess is probably that, of the options, the first is the most likely. I also think that Teruko probably agrees with that, given that it was what she went to first and it had the longest explanation. It's not really important, though, and I don't think there's any way to truly know, so I don't have much else to say about it.

Teruko noooooooooo :(

Whit FINALLY gets a new sprite and THIS is the expression and context?????? I love him.

Speaking of, I think that, thus far, the characters to have received new sprites in Chapter 2 Part 2 are Teruko, Ace, Arei, Hu, David, Veronika, Whit, and Nico? I'm not certain about whether Eden, Levi, or Rose had any, but I don't think they did. If true, I can't believe that Eden got through such a major role in the story without picking up any new sprites. It's probably because she already had a bunch to begin with, but, still.

Oh hey, he got one too. Protag/antag/support/chapter killer, boom.

Teruko: That's why Arei's wrists were bound-- because you didn't want her to wake up mid-murder to claw at her neck.

Definitely not what I was expecting from this piece of evidence, but I guess it tracks? My only question is why it would have been a problem if Arei had scratched at her neck. Like, it's not like both of them having neck scratches would have implicated Ace as the killer, right?

I guess maybe he was afraid that Arei would be able to escape his murder contraption much like he broke Nico's, even though the rope is probably much more sturdy than the wire. Or, maybe he was worried that it would work against the idea to stage it as a suicide? Either way, it's also convenient for just restraining Arei in general, so it's not like the evidence doesn't make any sense at all.

Nico, in audio: (Sorry.)

SO creative to contrast the voice lines and the spoken dialogue to really imply that Nico is saying it under their breath, or so quietly that nobody can hear.

However, let's not forget about the actual content of what Nico says whilst focusing on the cool media-specific presentation. Nico actually apologized to Ace after traumatizing him! Nico is very much characterized as a straight-shooter (or at least, when they're not trying to avoid conflict by saying whatever they think will help accomplish that), so I believe that when they said that they wouldn't say sorry to Ace because they didn't feel sorry for Ace, they meant it. However, that means that at some point between when Nico said that and now, something changed that made Nico feel genuine remorse towards Ace.

I think it's probably just seeing how much of an effect attempting to kill Ace truly had on his psyche and decisions. I don't know at what point Nico started fully believing that Ace was the one to kill Arei, but it's possible that it was around here. Obviously, at least at one point, Nico had no qualms with the idea of Ace dying, so it's not like seeing that their actions will actually manage to kill Ace would probably be that missing piece.

However, making Ace into a blackened is different than Ace just straight up dying as a victim, a difference which Ace acknowledges later in the episode. If Ace had died as the victim, Veronika wouldn't be toying around with him right now and making him humiliate himself. Nico might see that Ace is being bullied, and therefore, have more of a reason to feel sorry for him. Furthermore, Nico was forced to truly grapple with the reality of how hard it must be for the blackened to survive the Class Trial earlier in the chapter. Knowing now that they essentially passed the mantle on to Ace might make them feel bad.

Basically, I think that, for the first time, Nico might actually see a bit of themself in Ace, and that made it easier for Nico to sympathize with his plight.

Speaking of seeing yourself in Ace, Miss Near-Victim-to-Accused-of-Killing Pipeline...

KING

Okay, I do kinda take issue with this line of reasoning, not because Ace isn't strong-- or at least stronger than Eden-- because he absolutely is, but because Arei is also one of the nation's top performing athletes in her sport of choice? I mean, jockeying feels like more of a full-body sport than bowling, so it probably requires more strength training, but looping her in with Eden and Nico feels unfair. Justice for Arei... 's muscles. Anyways, carry on.

I THOUGHT SOMETHING LIKE THIS MIGHT BE POSSIBLE!!! I just never said it because, given that Arturo said that it seemed like there wasn't any other damage to the body, it didn't feel like it was supported by the facts. (Although, obviously, this Trial has proven that Arturo's autopsies are not infallible.)

I've researched before that punching someone in the jaw seems to be the most trustworthy way to knock someone out and have a low chance of killing them then and there. However, that would likely leave a bruise, so I didn't think it would happen. Strangling someone to the point of unconsciousness, however, is possible (it just might be harder/more likely to be lethal), so this totally makes sense!

Yup, unless Eden was trying to frame Ace by "framing" Nico, it really makes much more sense that Ace would have the incentive to copy Nico's crime down so closely.

I mean... this certainly makes it sound like Nico wouldn't attempt to be a blackened ever again...

It's always good to have a frame plan set for your frame plan. Nico wouldn't just do it without thinking about anyone else to blame, so you can't just blame Nico without establishing who Nico would have blamed!

Then again, this plan does require people to think that Nico didn't think about the rules enough to realize that they could easily rule out suicide as a bait. Then again x2, they already said that they didn't think too much about the reality of going to a Class Trial when they initially tried to kill Ace, so it's not so much of a reach as it would have been for other people.

I can't tell if this is somehow suspicious or just an indication that Eden is nice and thinks about others over herself. Ugh, now I have to decide whether I'm being suspicious of Eden as a mastermind candidate or not, and people are going to get mad at me for continuing to suspect her of foul play...! (/lh)

Shoutout to SomniaVA here for doing an excellent job of voicing Veronika. The line read on "too weak, too stupid, and too incompetent" especially was phenomenal. We stan Veronika in this household.

Man, I feel so bad for Ace in this part. Also shoutout to Seth Raffield for voicing Ace this entire time; if you ever read this, you 100% made Ace who he is and overall have some of my favorite voice acting in DRDT. Not being to hear any more voice lines from Ace will honestly be one of the parts of his upcoming death that'll make me the saddest. We haven't heard the very end of it yet, but thanks for all your hard work :)

(Dude I am NOT going to cry before the execution even happens--)

Charles, internally: (FUCK i made Whit sad BACKTRACK BACKTRACK BACKTRACK--)

I love them :,)

Levi: Charles is right. It really is no simple task to control a horse going over 40 miles per hour on a regular basis. It requires physical strength and endurance. Intense training 6 days a week is standard. And the physical tests that jockeys have to go through are grueling, to say the least.

How the fuck do you two know this

Charles: Not what it's called.

Thanks to Charles' comment, I was easily able to determine that this was a reference to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which Wikipedia describes as "a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities." Or, in simpler terms, believing that something is easier than it is either because you don't know enough about the field to know about its intricacies, or because you don't know enough about being talented to realize that there's an entire world of skill above your personal ceiling (ouch).

Sorry if others already explained it or if people just knew this already, but I didn't, so I thought I'd share!

Also, Whit definitely has an interest in science/psychology or something. Or he just gets really, really bored.

Notably, we now know that this is something that DRDTdev will take into account when planning a murder going forward. Therefore, unless the culprit is one of our more athletic folks (of which there are a dwindling number-- mostly just Levi at this point), crimes in the future likely won't require any impressive feats of strength to accomplish. Much to think about.

See, the tragic thing here is that I don't actually think that Levi was trying to say anything ill of Ace by pointing out that he was the more likely of him and Eden to commit murder. After all, he doesn't give a damn about any of the murders he's committed. The worst Ace is probably getting is now being considered as a "bad person" on Levi's list (because "good people" don't kill people), but I don't think that this is the declaration of malice that Ace is taking it as.

Acevi doomed yaoi :,(

DRDTdev never fails to get silly with it and I appreciate that so much.

Just in case anyone is confused about what Teruko's talking about, I actually learned more about clothing starch since I started theorizing about the Chapter 2 murder case, because I worked at a dry cleaner for, like, a week. Suffice it to say, that now makes me an expert B) (/j)

Starch can be added to laundry when it's being washed to make it stiffer and less likely to wrinkle when it comes out to dry. It also makes them easier to iron, and easier to remove stains from. It's often used on dress clothes, just because those are the ones that people more often care about whether they're wrinkled or not. Seemingly, it can come in solid, pre-made liquid, or spray forms. All that is to say, this is absolutely something that could reasonably have been stored in the Dress-Up Room.

And this "evidence" was alluded to ahead of time-- not super far ahead of time, but when Teruko first touches the ball, she says something like, "is that starch?" I think DRDTdev probably included that line so that we wouldn't have to theorize about what could have possibly kept the ball together, but since apparently none of us theorizing last summer (or at least no one I remember talking to) dressed fancily enough to know what clothing starch was, it didn't help out much. As Arturo would say, "how disgusting." (/j)

... DAMMIT!!!

I thought about including the fitness band as a piece of evidence on my A Piece of Evidence That Lines Up With Them Only section, I really did. I just thought that including a minor detail from early in the Daily Life that would clearly only apply if the killer was Ace would be unfair territory, much like if I said, "well, we know that Eden is good at sneaking around because of how she snuck up on Teruko; that could be a killing blow so point to Eden." However, given that the killer is only Ace, it was totally within fair grounds for it to be used as the final piece. Mannnnnn :,(

Fun that he's literally riding a dark horse though. I know he was certainly a dark horse candidate for many of us.

Oh no. 30 images. I'll be back to finish my thoughts in a reblog either later tonight (in my timezone) or tomorrow. Hopefully later tonight. Until then!

#danganronpa despair time #drdt #drdt spoilers #drdt chapter 2 part 2 spoilers #fanganronpa #teruko tawaki #ace markey #eden tobisa #nico hakobyan #charles cuevas #whit young

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roxxiies · 7 months ago

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HALLO!! i was the anon that asked the recent fredrinn question that you answered ( I was shy to follow you sorry )-

I hate it when people sexualise Fredrinn and only see him as "handsome" BUT I LIKE HIS PERSONALITY AND THE WAY HE'S LOYAL TO HIS LOVED ONES!!

I'M REALLY SORRY FOR THE WAY I SPEAK, ENGLISH ISN'T MY NATIVE LANGUAGE 😭

Maybe some headcanons about fred? I love fluff/sfw a lot but I can't say the same things about nsfw

THANK YOU FOR GIVING YOUR TIME ILY SM I LOVE YOUR WRITING I'M KISSING YOUR HANDS (not in a weird way plspls) ♡´･ᴗ･`♡

𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐍 𝐗 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑

FLUFF, GN!READER, GENERAL HEADCANONS

a/n: HELLOO HII!! AND ITS OKAYY and I really really love how you like Fred!! man needs the attention he needs, I also added tiny tiny angst 😭 btw thank you for requesting!! arg. I had this scheduled but it didn't come through

Fredrinn will most likely know many languages… to may or may not gain the upper hand during negotiations

He may have this serious demeanor but he's really wit and might light up the mood with his dry funny humor.

Harley: We need to make a comeback! Fredrinn: Good thing I brought my lucky socks. Harley: … Fredrinn: deadpans What? They haven't lost a fight.

He enjoys teasing his friends and allies with his funny jokes and playful banter in which often catches them off guard 😭

He thinks he's funny. Tell him he's funny!!

He is undeniably loyal. He has this really deep compassion for his loved ones.

He's got an impeccable memory. Probably knows every value any artifact holds.

He really fears failing those he cares about

He's so determined that it's almost like he's obsessed.

Sometimes he's haunted by the memory of that day.

He keeps pushing himself really hard to reach his goal, even when it seems impossible. Let him rest :(

I don't think he'd be that greedy… being a master treasure appraiser and all. And that's why many respects him

At one point, he'd have a massive collection of valuable artifacts that he refuses to sell. He says the stories they hold are more valuable.

Eventually, Fredrinn would learn the ins and outs of Los Pecados.

His mysterious and calm demeanor would keep people intrigued which makes them keep on guessing what's actually happening inside his head.

Fredrinn has a great sense of loyalty so obviously betrayal shouldn't be in your to do list.

but when you're his trusted friend and you betrayed him?

you obviously don't want some big guy behind you telling how much you're worth, do you?

just the other way around though…

Fredrinn: Oh, don't worry. If you die, I'll make sure your tombstone is appraised for its historical value!

That man: …

back to all my work . . .

#roxxiies #mlbb #mobile legends bang bang #📋 :: r’mail #fredrinn mlbb #mlbb x reader #mobile legends bang bang x reader #fredrinn x reader #rox’ works

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sgiandubh · 2 years ago

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It all starts with a smoke alarm

This wasn't supposed to happen like that, of course. It was supposed to happen with an ”allow me to introduce myself”, at the least. But hey, I am playing the cards I've been dealt, and since an anonymous ask on Tumblr does not allow pictures or links, this will have to do. We'll have plenty of time later.

Yesterday, I said that reading that Single Report reaped benefits. I have screen capped and summed up all the things that made me rise an eyebrow, to make things easier. Hopefully, this is going to be short: who would wax lyrical about a septic tank, after all?

I did not use my superpowers to do this, but simply the link provided by a very active Anon on several shipper blogs, in order to properly stir shite, I presume: https://corumproperty.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/HomeReport-31.pdf

Armed with my wits and a virtual highlighter, I started to carefully read the whole document. Ownership details aside - this, I discussed yesterday -, I remind you that it should give any prospective buyer a good, detailed idea of the available fittings and current condition of the house put on sale.

In Europe and elsewhere, I guess, inspections of this type are rather a dull and thorough affair. And these people did an excellent job: they checked every single nook & cranny, used binoculars to have a closer look at the roof tiles and listed it all on these papers a good researcher should read, before dropping to conclusions.

This is how we know, for example, that the inspection happened on a rainy day:

.. and that the guttering was overflowing. Does that sound like a well loved, lived-in house to you?

Thought so.

This brought a smile. And the image of a Christmas tree left near a London dustbin in June. Home, sweet home?

Like all properties, this also comes with burglar and fire alarm systems. However, apparently not much has been done, in this respect. Or at least, not recently. Not since February 2022, to be accurate: otherwise, they would have been upgraded. Yet, no such thing: it's up to the buyer to do and pay for the upgrade.

Lived-in? Certainly not after February 2022 and probably even earlier, would be my best guess. But lived-in at some point in time, most certainly.

You see, since I was on the real estate agent's webpage, I also took the virtual tour of the house. It is available to everyone, here: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=AFKibrk8QiD

Now, I don't know about you, but when I visit somebody's house for the first time, I always check the bookshelves: yes, I am a shameless nerd. I am also well aware that the rest of the furniture was staged, it looked that sad, clinical way it does all over the world. Did not expect to find any books in there, to be honest. And yet, there they were.

I didn't bother with the fashion coffee table books, although I thought they were a nice nod to Ms. B's past, and totally the kind of things she might have on her credenza.

A built-in bookshelf in the basement caught my eye. That did not look staged. It looked as she might have left some of her own books in there, like an afterthought, if you want. And people's choices of books are always speaking volumes to me, about who they really are.

It did not disappoint.

More fash-un. And yeah, Tiffany & Co! I knew it!

A Tina Turner bio or memoir. Awww:

Bette Davis and some feminist literature. Her books, I am pretty sure of that:

And, to save the best for last, lo and behold, what do we have here?

Bear Grylls?

That Bear Grylls?

Hahahaha. Of course. I have all the reasons in the world to believe the music producer/PA/whatever is into masculine thrillers written by a world-renowned survivalist, haven't I?

Not a chance in hell, to be honest. I grinned like the Cheshire cat because, ladies, we do know WHOSE book is this, don't we?

Judging by its jacket, well-read. Not a prop.

Belonging to someone with a dry, wicked sense of humor who apparently also left this gem:

A Captain's Duty. At this point in time, I wasn't grinning anymore. I was laughing like an idiot, of course.

Slàinte mhath, ladies. We'll have time for a proper introduction later.

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theside-b · 3 months ago

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Spoilers for the novel (and my review for the Live Action) ahead :

The boys do get together, but that act ends with their break up when people find out that Tian and Wang are romantically involved, unlike in Unknown where everyone was ok with Qian and Yuan getting together in A Certain Someone the fact that they are 'brothers' plays a huge role at that stage of their relationship and the eventual demise of their first attempt at a romance. Their break up lasts 6/7 years, don't remember exactly, but its a long time...

A lot more happens, but the show made some fundamental changes to both characters. It takes A LONG time for Tian to come to terms with his own feelings, that scene where he sees his father with another man in bed tints his whole worldview from a very young age — he develops quite the internalized homophobia; he is fine with other's queerness but it's his own that he cannot accept since he sees his father sexual orientation as the reason for the destruction of his family.

There is a tense moment between Tian and his father, where his dad says "we are more alike than you care to admit" hinting that he knows of what its happening between the boys and mind you Tian is still trying to sort out what he feels for Wang. The show sugarcoats quite a lot, novel's Tian would never initiate a kiss with Wang or even play along like he did in the show, at least not at that stage of their relationship.

Speaking of which, Wang is also different in the books. In the show he reads as pretty open minded, curious about anything and everything. In the novel he's pretty straight (at first), the journey really begins as a bromance until the feelings start to change. There is a lot of push and shove between the two of them, and is veeery slow.

The show pretty much burns bright the part where Wang tears Tian's emotional walls. Which I don't mind, otherwise it would take 50 episodes to wrap the first act. I honestly thought they were going to draw an original route for the show, but they are slowly adapting elements they left behind so they can follow the book.

Now for the review:

All in all, I think the show did a good job all things considered: production began in mainland China where Liu Dong was cast, but censorship hinders lgbtqia+ productions there so pre-production moved to Taiwan and there the rest of the casting was done. It's hard to tell how much of that interfered in the script but I assume Tian's father core plot was removed in the first draft and got re-integrated once production moved to Taiwan (Chris Lee's casting was one of the last to be announced which probably means he was also one of the last to join filming). Considering that productions like The Spirealm got pulled for much less is understandable that they would avoid the more thorny subjects under China's homophobic gaze.

(Educated guess here: considering all the publicity push, I imagine either Andy Cheng or Stan Huang were the choices for Wang, but since Liu's casting was an order from one of the financial backers they got smaller roles — it's a common move in taiwanese productions — by the way, there is a 'love triangle' later, is a sad thing since there is no-way you can split the main couple, but the show made me wonder who is going to be playing the third party in the live action).

As I always say about taiwanese shows: you have to watch the live play. The On1y One is much like it's local peers, it works wonders in small doses, but as soon as you see the whole picture you start to see the cracks. It reminded me a lot of Kiseki: Dear to Me in the sense that the main couple story is the emotional backbone, with a somber approach with brief moments of humor but everything surrounding it is slightly unhinged.

Everything that happened at that school was insane. The amount of crimes committed in the school grounds was ridiculous, the fact that Qi Jia Hao didn't ended up behind bars after ordering thugs to attack Wang and assault the english teacher is crazy. The whole side-plot involving the teachers was head-scraching by the way, much like everyone else I assumed that Zhao Xi and Benny were married when they were introduced.

Imagine my surprise finding out that not only they were not married but at one point Zhao Xi thought Benny could be interested in the english teacher (speaking of her, why the hell did she sounded dubbed? Is that not her real voice?). This whole story felt so disjointed from everything else, and it came at the tail end of the season(?), so not only it took some much suspension of disbelief for me to buy that these 40-year old gays were that emotionally impaired but also demanded patience since they spent very valuable screen time which could've benefited the main couple.

That is all to say that while I was having a blast while watching, the more I stop and think about it critically the more problems I see in this show. And again, that usually happens with taiwanese productions, experienced the same with Kiseki and Unknown, two shows that I adore, flaws and all, and now the same happens with The On1y One.

#the on1y one #I had a lot to say and didn't even noticed lol #i shared the caard with the novel the other day #you guys can check it out #it's huge #and I read a long time ago so might be misremembering stuff #but thats the general gist #bl review #long post

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jgmartin · 1 year ago

Text

THE TALL THINGS ARE WATCHING

We can’t leave the house.

They’ve boarded up our doors and windows, started shooting people trying to break free. There are things in the streets. Tall things. I see their shadows sometimes as they run past the wooden boards. I hear the rumble of their feet.

I don’t know what they are. None of us do.

They cut our access to television and the internet when the lockdown began. They even took out the cell tower. Anne said they didn’t want us communicating with the outside world, telling them about what’s going on out here. I think she’s right.

It’s been two weeks since the men in suits came by. They said they worked for government intelligence and that they were looking for a terrorist. They didn’t strike me as government types, personally. They looked distracted. Spaced out. More like Scientologists than CIA agents, but then I’ve never met a Scientologist or a CIA agent, so who was I to tell the difference?

Either way, they said it would be over soon, and they sounded official. More importantly, they had guns. “We’ll need to search every household,” they explained. “We can’t have anybody leaving before we’ve cleared their property, so we’ll have to board you in.”

It made sense, I guess. In a twisted dystopian nightmare sort of way. It made sense all the way up until the end of the fourth night, when the Tall Things started roaming the streets. They were dressed in long raincoats. Hooded. The way they moved gave me the chills, all jerky and snapping, so I stayed away from the windows.

Anne didn’t mind though. She was fascinated by them. Her and our gun-nut neighbor, Old Ty, exchanged theories written on pieces of cardboard, holding them up to the glass of our windows. GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENT, she wrote on hers. ALIEN INVASION, he wrote on his.

At first, it seemed to just be a bit of innocent, morbid fun. Finding some humor in a bizarre situation. Then Anne watched one of the Tall Things kill somebody, and everything changed.

It was an elderly man in our cul-de-sac, Mister Douglas. Anne watched him open his door, hammer down the boards as one of the Tall Things walked by. He shouted at it. Told it to get over here so he could see just what kind of unholy bullshit his tax dollars were being used to fund.

Next thing you know, there’s sirens in the streets. Soldiers rushing his home. There’s a megaphone shouting at him to get back inside. All of it is useless. All of it happens far too late, because the moment Douglas starts yelling at the Tall Thing, it starts to twitch and jerk like it can’t control its own behavior. Like a predator hungry for a meal.

It snaps its head toward Douglas, then tears across his lawn and snaps him up in its long, spider-like hands. It lifts him off the ground. Then, he screams. He screams and he screams until the Tall Thing lowers the hood of its rain jacket, and then Douglas goes pale as a ghost. Silent.

According to Anne, that’s when the skin of his face started to bubble and pop. That’s when he started hissing out steam, smoking as his flesh sizzled beneath his clothes, as if he were boiling alive from the inside out. Next thing you know, he’s dripping onto the pavement. Dripping and dripping until there’s nothing left of him but a puddle of flesh and clothes.

Nobody tries to step in. Not any of the soldiers, not Anne, and not even Old Ty and all his guns. Everybody watches in stunned silence as the Tall Thing finishes its execution and saunters away.

The soldiers roam with them. The soldiers and the people in long white clothes. Anne says they’re lab coats, and the people are researchers studying the Tall Things as experiments, but I think they look more like robes– like clergymen. All of them wear helmets with tinted visors. It’s as though they don’t want to get a good look at the things.

After Mr. Douglas, more people on the block decided to make a break for it. Maybe they realized this was worse than they thought. Maybe they started wondering what the point of keeping us locked away like this was– were we food for these creatures? Were they trying to turn us into them?

None of us knew. All we could say for certain is that the killing didn’t stop with Mr. Douglas. I woke up one morning to see several of my neighbors shot dead in their yards, their lifeless eyes gazing back at me from the grass. Nobody came to pick them up. They were left there to rot, picked apart by birds and stray dogs.

Soon, gunshots were ringing out at all hours of the day. People wanted out, but the soldiers wouldn’t let them leave, and so the bodies began to pile up. Eventually I think Anne and I were the only two left alive in our cul-de-sac. Even Old Ty had seemed to vanish. Probably shot dead in his backyard.

I’d rarely known death in my life, and now the sheer volume of it was numbing me. I couldn’t process it. I didn’t know how. But then, almost out of the blue the government had a change of heart. Or maybe they just shifted tactics. Suddenly they began letting people leave.

I saw it first with a house at the very end of the road. I watched the woman who lived there break out with a baby tucked in her arm and a grade-schooler holding her hand. The three of them darted across their lawn, jumped over their father’s corpse and piled into their minivan on the street.

The entire time, a soldier and white-coat stood only meters away, quietly observing. It didn’t take long for the rumbling to begin– that telltale sound of approaching death, of one of the Tall Things coming to claim its prize. The van started up, backfiring a plume of exhaust into the air. I listened as the woman shrieked for joy, but I knew the joy would be short lived.

See, from my vantage point at the end of the lane, I saw something that she never could. The boot locked around her rear tire. The van rode forward as she pressed the gas, and then clunked to a stop. My heart broke. The look on her face, the desperation wasn’t for her– it was for her children in the back.

The rumble reached a crescendo, and in the blink of an eye a Tall Thing crashed into the van and knocked it over like a diecast toy. I couldn’t make out much beyond that. Nothing but the sound of the monster tearing into the roof of the van and pulling the crying children out one by one while their mother begged for mercy.

If I were a better, stupider man I may have kicked down my door and tried to save them, but I wasn’t. I was a coward. Instead, I fell to my living room carpet and cried. I laid there and listened as their flesh popped and sizzled, as their skin fell to the pavement in long, heavy drips.

It’s a sound I’ll never forget.

The next day, things got worse. The soldiers no longer cared about enforcing the lockdown or even keeping people safely indoors. Now they were breaking them out. Like hungry wolves, they tore down boarded-up doors and kicked in living room windows, dragging families out onto their lawns for slaughter. If the screams were horrible before, now they were unbearable. You couldn’t ignore them. Anne and I cranked our sound system to the max, but it only served as background static. The dying cut through everything.

That night we barely slept. Anne tossed and turned beside me, while I stared blankly at the ceiling fan above. There was an understanding between us. We had been abandoned. There was nobody coming to help us, nobody coming to arrest these monsters and save the day. We were alone.

How long until her and I were dragged out of our home? How long until we became the next experiment chained to our fence, waiting to be attacked by one of those creatures? Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week. Neither of us knew, and somehow that made it all the worse.

I woke up to sunlight peeking through our boarded-up bedroom window. Anne was missing. I looked all over the house for her before I found her note on the kitchen counter, scribbled quickly.

I know you’re afraid, the note read, but I have to leave. You might think we’ll make it through this, that once they’ve had their fill of guinea pigs they’ll let the rest of us go free, but I promise you they’ll come for us soon. This might be my last chance. Since you won’t come with me, I’m going alone. I wish I could have said a proper goodbye, but I know you’d try to stop me.

Love always,

- Anniebear

She left through the basement hatch. I know this because I spotted her corpse some five feet away through our kitchen window. She gazed back at me, a look of shock painted across her pale face, with a small red dot where the bullet pierced her skull. I couldn’t even muster the courage to step out and bury her. Instead the racoons and dogs took care of her, one piece at a time.

She was right, though. Eventually they did come for me.

It was over a week later. By then I didn’t have the will to resist. I waited patiently at the kitchen table, drunk with a glass of whiskey as soldiers and white-coats dragged me from the house. When I’d seen it happen to other people, it seemed to occur so quickly. Now, it happened in slow motion.

I heard every word from the soldier's mouth. Every command. First, he patted me down and ensured I was disarmed, then he told me this was all routine and nothing to worry about. Together they took me out into my yard. The white-coat asked me if I had lived a good life, if I had been a man of faith. I didn’t know what to say. Maybe I was simply too drunk, or maybe I truly didn’t care anymore.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” the white-coat assured me. “You’ll be at peace once it’s over, brother.”

In the distance came the growing rumble of the monster’s feet. Of the Tall Thing coming to claim its bounty.

“How many more after this?” the soldier asked the white-coat, his hand painfully gripping my shoulder.

“Sixteen.”

“Then us, sister?”

“Then us.”

The rumbling deepened. The Tall Thing was getting closer, and soon my heart was beating in sync with its stampeding footfalls. Memories flashed in my mind. Memories of Anne, of my dead neighbors, of the mother who lived at the end of the road and her children, now puddles of flesh on the pavement. My hands became fists. Indignation and fury grew inside of me, stoked by whisky fumes.

“Why do this?” I growled. “Why not just put a bullet in my head?”

“Because we love you, brother,” said the white-coat. “You waited patiently. You had faith, and for that you will be rewarded with salvation. You will be raptured.”

The Tall Thing rounded the corner, its legs slapping against the ground in great strides. Its frame eclipsed the moon, casting a shadow across me and stealing the breath from my lungs. It slowed down as it reached my lawn, sauntering this way and that.

“What are they?” I whispered.

“The ones that made us,” the white-coat replied. “Those that gave us life.”

I shrank away as the Tall Thing neared, but the soldier shoved me forward. “Be strong, brother. Show it your conviction. We were brought to this planet long ago, but now our time is served and we’re finally going home. Don’t you want to go home?”

The Tall Thing reached up to its hood. As it did, the soldier’s grip loosened and both he and the white-coat stepped to the side, away from the creature’s view. I would not scream, I told myself. No matter what, I wouldn’t give these monsters the satisfaction of my terror.

It pulled back on its hood, and something grotesque looked down on me. It was as if a hundred different faces had been stitched together, fused into an abomination that seemed to smile from fifteen mouths. “We come in peace,” it said.

My teeth bit into my cheeks, clenching them closed. A whimper escaped me, a whimper and a groan as my stomach filled with a soup of boiling horror. I would not scream. No matter the pain-- I would not scream.

Its long, spindly hands gripped my face. It cocked its head to the side, a hundred different eyes blinking back at me. Then it tugged at the bottom of my mouth.

But I wasn’t going to let it have its way. I clenched my jaw, holding it closed. The creature blinked at me. Then it repositioned its grip.

Crack.

It snapped my jaw like cardboard. I roared in agony, my lower mouth hanging limply from my face. Tears fell from my eyes in a torrent.

“Shh,” it whispered, slipping a finger down my throat. I choked and gagged. It fished its finger around as a hundred different eyes rolled back, and fifteen mouths began muttering an alien language.

I struggled against it, pulling at its arm but it was useless. The monster was too strong. Then a gunshot rang out.

And another. The Tall Thing wheeled around, dropping me onto my lawn as the soldier began shouting into his radio. The next second, a bullet found the soldier in the head. The white-coat shrieked, fleeing around my fence as a round caught her in the shoulder. The Tall Thing shot up to its full height, standing level with the street lamps and then sprinted toward the shooter.

Toward Old Ty.

He’d set up a killzone on his roof, surrounded by rifles and ammo. He’d waited for a moonless night to do his business, and now he was raining lead onto the creature like a blizzard of death. “What are you waiting for?” he bellowed. “Get moving, dipshit!”

I did. I stole away, hiding in shrubs and behind sheds, watching as Tall Things came roaring down streets, jumping over houses and knocking over cars as they tried to reach Old Ty. He only lasted a few minutes. That’s when the shooting stopped, but it was enough time for me to get away.

Maybe enough time for others, too.

It took me three hours to hike through Debby Forest and make it to the next town, and once I did I breathed a sigh of relief. There weren’t any soldiers. No white-coats. Most importantly, there weren’t any Tall Things melting people in their clothes. Just quiet stillness, the thing early mornings were meant for.

I made my way to the sheriff’s department to blow the whistle on what was going on. To explain that people were being shot, that Tall Things were melting people on the street and that we needed to get our ass in gear and call in the National Guard– no, scratch that. We needed to call in fucking NATO.

But as I got to the door of the precinct I stopped. Something gleamed in the corner of my eye, catching my attention. It was there, at the edge of the curb. A puddle.

Strange thing was, it hadn’t rained in weeks.

#creepypasta #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writerslife #writers #writing #creative writing #writing community #original writing #horror #writblr #writer things #short fiction #short story #sci fi horror #jgmartin #the tall things

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mystreet-liveblog · 5 months ago

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Its not even the voices Aphmau needed to do in early seasons. I just have troubles where I take shows really seriously, so the no warning / no consent kissing or the people trying to find out everything about Aphmau's love life is just frustrating for me.

Autistic people taking things too seriously, what else is new?

I hear that, I too have the “tism”

But on the rewatch I kind of read it differently. It makes sense that Aph’s friends would be concerned about her love life since she hasn’t been interested in anyone since high school, her mom is notorious for hating boys, and half her male friends have crushes on her and she doesn’t reciprocate any of them. It’s an interesting situation and I know I’d be concerned, especially if I was Katelyn or KC

Katelyn sees Aph as a sister and knows that she’s had bad experiences with boys in the past (Gene and Ein, though I haven’t gotten to Ein in the rewatch yet so I may be misremembering some details) so of course she’d be suspicious of Laurance and the others across the street, Aaron who’s super suspicious and used to be a bully, and Zane who is literally Zane hahah

Meanwhile, KC is obsessed with shipping and she stands as an outlier who actively analyzes relationships and pairs them together in her mind as possible relationships, with her favorites being expressed more openly and verbally like a hyperfixation. It’s problematic but also not unheard of, and I can relate to analyzing your friends and deducing their compatibility (though not so much pressuring them into pursuing that compatibility :/). In the end she just wants to see all her friends happy, and she projects her own love of romantic love onto them

(KC actually reminds me a bit of Nepeta from Homestuck but that’s a conversation for a different day)

I do think the lack of consent coming from Laurance and his roommates is very weird and disturbing, but the conscious narrative seems aware that it’s problematic while the subconscious narrative plays it off as a joke. It’s not really that funny, but I guess that’s just part of the anime tropiness of the season.

The entire show, or at least the first seasons of MyStreet and PDH, was made to feel anime tropey and unfortunately that kind of nonconsensual humor is very anime. It’s a little nuanced tho that the rest of the show explores the “after they get together” situations rarely seen in romance anime, though, as well as abandoning the nonconsensual humor in favor of villainizing it and using it to characterize antagonists (sorry Laurance fans your fav is problematic <3)

I actually kind of realized through my rewatch that Laurance was the main instigator of these inappropriate actions and it’s really his own problem to work through. The rest follow him with the frat boy mindset and only come to their senses when actually thinking on their own lol

Like, I remember as a kid there being so many jokes about Travis touching peoples butts, but as far as I remember from my rewatch they were all accidents! That’s kind of funny actually! But the normalization of predatory behavior is very weird in S1 and I’m glad it’s gone in S2

In PDH S1, it’s only slightly justified by the students all being literal children who are working through their hormones and poor coping mechanisms. Both Laurance and Garroth kiss Aphmau without her consent and then swear her to secrecy, which is toxic as hell and its protrayed as such. Gene even threatens to kiss her in front of Aaron which is a whole other thing we don’t need to discuss at length cause I’m sure you get the point by now

But PDH-Aaron notably asks permission every time he does anything romantic with Aph and it’s sweet. In S1 of MyStreet, he does kiss her after the play without verbal consent, but it’s implied she did at least nonverbally consent in later episodes when discussing what happened. Regardless, that sort of content in S1 isn’t touched upon as the story goes on which makes it a lot better to me, and it shows the growth of the author alongside her characters

WOAH— SORRY FOR THE LONG RESPONSE!!!! I just found this topic interesting!!!! Hope you have fun reading this MOUNTAIN wow—

#mystreet liveblog #irene newsletter #aphblr #mystreet #aphmau #aphmau mystreet

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jackrabbit-fandom · 8 months ago

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Hi hi hi!!! I saw you write for one piece and was wondering if I could request something for luffy thats probably a little too specific..????

I headcannon luffy is somewhere on the aro/ace or gray spectrum and would just be so interested in reading about reader having feelings for him because hes like just you know luffy our boy😭 and luffy considers reader as practically oul mate type thsts how close they are.

Maybe like he feels just a tiny bit of something but decides to leave that until after he becomes king of the pirates but if its too hard you dont have to do this😭😭

Like doesnt have to be anything long or too grand and its okay if you dont want to write it🙏but thank you so much in advanve if you make it! ^^ (also hopefully no events that happen after sabaody because thats where i am right now im sorry but you dont have to if yoh dont want!😭💔)

AroAce Luffy headcanons (sorta)

So I'm not super versed on the aro part of the spectrum, but i am on the ace side, so i know more given that. Ether way, luffy is one of my favorites, and this is one of my own headcanons for him. More so, headcannon style then "story" cause im still trying to figure that part out, lol

Firstly, I'll say that to make this work, im going more so in the demi-romantic/sexual side. I am of the opinion that while he is slightly oblivious, and let's be honest, kinda dumb at times, luffy isn't completely clueless to these things.

Nothing too big here, gender neutral pronouns, fluff/tiny bit of angst, It's a tiny suggestive, but it's not really anything bad, Mabye, a bit of crack cause luffy

Sorry if this wasn't exactly what you were looking for. Like i said, I've never done this before, but hopefully, you liked it anyway

~Jack

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Having feelings for this guy would be kinda hard, mainly because he's very obvious when people do like him. Hed likely just assumed your best buds for a while unless you get the courage to just tell him. This can get frustrating when he's constantly hugging you and hanging around you.

If we do go fully on aroace luffy, it'd probably hurt a bit. He'd probably fully ignore your feelings for him or just not notice. It would be more so a one-sided pinning. If you're part of his crew, he likely clings onto you like he does with the others, which could also make things worse

If you confess to him now, he'd just straight up tell you he's not interested, or he doesn't care about that kinda thing

However, if we go more of a demi route and you confess, theres a few outcomes:

The first one is that he just bluntly says he's not interested, just like in the aroace one, which is kinda harsh but not fully unexpected. I don't think he'd mean it to actually hurt you, but he does mainly seem to tell the truth with these things

The second would be where he misunderstands your confession somehow? And it ends up as a kind of "i love you." "i love you too, buddy!" Thing which just gets awkward....

The third is where he's known you for quite some time and has been able to get close enough to develop some feelings. With him, he's a very loyal friend, but in terms of relationships, he's not used to feeling that kind of love, i guess? So it'd likely take him a bit of time to get used to the feeling and figure out what to do with it. It likely does come with confusion and a few questions, but as i said, he's not COMPLETELY clueless. He knows what a relationship is, at least. You'd have to essentially be his soulmate, which in his mind is likely someone who has his sense of humor and can cook. Obviously, he has a bit more to that, such as he'd prefer someone who doesn't manipulate or hurt ithers for their own personal gain

If he were to start a relationship, i do think it would have to be after he became king of the pirates. He doesn't really want many distractions in his adventure when it comes to that kind of relationship. Plus, like i said, he'd have to be very close to you, so assuming you a strawhat as well, I'd give him plenty of time to grow attached. So once his goal was reached, he may be willing to try a relationship. I still see him as a very goofy person even then, so he'd probably still just treat you like his best buddy but with a new title.

Like i said, i dont think much would change when it comes to how he treats you. He's already very affectionate with his crew, so he likely acts the same with you. If you asked, though, i think he'd try to give you a bit more than the others, but it still wouldn't be a big difference. Though if you asked for a kiss... you might end up with the sloppiest wettest smooch in the world right on your cheek.

Given that he's inexperienced, he might ask the others for some advice which likely wouldn't end well, its ether zoro giving him the dumbest awnsers sense they share a brain cell, sanji attempting to give luffy 'gentleman lessons" and getting frustrated, usopp acting like a expert just to not be that, or him finally getting to nami and robin and getting actual advice. That would somehow backfire anyway.

On the side of Ace, i don't think he'd be very interested in that kind of stuff. It's been confirmed that he reacts towards the bath scenes and such due to usopp being there. He just doesn't strike me as the type to be overly active in that area, again i dont think hes clueless,i doubt makima never gave him and his brother 'the talk' he just doesnt care for it. It's just never been something he's been interested in. He likely overheard Shanks talking about it at some point but didn't really care.

One piece and luffy are not my own characters, though the headcannons themselves are mine

Sorry for any grammer or spelling errors.

#one peice x reader #one peice #luffy x reader #monkey d. luffy #one piece luffy #luffy #straw hat luffy #x reader #monkey d luffy x reader #luffy x you #luffy headcanons #relationship headcannons #aroace luffy #kinda?#demi luffy

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ooglywooglies · 8 months ago

Text

FINE, LILY ORCHARD DUNGEON MESHI RESPONSE POST I GUESS

im just going through all the video points and making oppositions to them based on what i think, thats it.

laios useless in the red dragon fight: this is setting up the premise of the story where laios is spacing out because he cannot strategize on an empty stomach which is why the party loses.

there is no urgency to rescuing falin after everyone escapes the dungeon: thats to show that all the adventurers are so used to the dungeons immortality that theyve forgotten about the consequences of death (and also they are not thinking straight bc they are hungry)

dungeon meshi is not slice of life in the traditional low stakes way a slice of life set in the real world might be. the entire premise is about making a fantasy dungeon crawler and its heroes more grounded and showing things that aren't shown in video games, eating, sleeping, bathing, etc. a major theme is life and death, what is needed to sustain life and how death is a necessary part of it.

the tone of the show is not meant to be serious/silly/serious/silly, its not supposed to be wholesome, fun, and heartfelt, though it can be those things, its supposed to be weird and demystifying because its about real life (though a fantasy lense) and real life doesnt adhere to tone either.

resurrecting falin, having a bath and dinner, and then thistle coming to collect her happening in two episodes is not crazy thats almost an hour of runtime

MISGENDERING THISTLE

some of the problems with this video are just the anime format which i cant completely fault, i think the manga is better paced and the humor lands better ill probably ignore those points going forward. but i feel like if you dont watch anime very much you probably dont really know them the common genre tropes, like i certainly dont.

the reason marcille is "infinitely more popular than the rest" is a) lilys girl bias b) everyones girl bias and thats it, a lot of people like decently written generically good looking female characters. but thats not even true laios is probably equally as popular as marcille is and senshi is VERY close behind both of them.

laios is literally only generic in looks and if youre going to bring it up you might as well mention how marcille is therefore EXACTLY as generic as laios is, they are some very regular white people. in terms of looks.

laios only cares about monsters and is an asshole: this is an intentional mischaracterization the OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE STORY make about laios, which is a result of his real flaw which is struggling to connect with other people. this is a character flaw, which is intentional and something laios himself is aware of and tries to overcome, it is part of his character arc. laios is also heavily autistic coded, im not sure if ryoko kui is even aware of it or if she herself is autistic and just wrote a bit of her own struggles into laios's character but this reading is widely recognized by people who are autistic so. like its hard to argue with a mass of people who see their disability in a character. (me included)

comparing his deadpan affect to lloyd (i dont know him tbh)s intentional controlled one makes no sense bc i assume lloyd is yknow a super secret agent who IS a super secret agent because of his self control or whatever. laios is just a guy. literally just a dude, who is autistic.

marcille and laios react to falins resurrection differently because they are different characters, showing different ranges of emotion are part of their characterization. having a limited range of expressed emotion in serious situations where emotion is expected of you is also a commonly recognized autistic trait (see me not crying at the airport when my now husband had to go back to his side of the planet when we were dating)

falin is also autistic coded and shares a lot of traits with laios because its supposed to be funny that everyone thinks falin is so talented and brilliant and lovely when she yknow picks up a bug or something but they think its annoying when laios presents the same traits.

refer to point 10 again

they are literally moving through the dungeon as fast as they can. it gets brought up, laios feels guilty about it but hes not indulging in his special interest as opposed to rescuing his sister, the adventure is enabling it. whats he supposed to do brood the entire way? do you think anyone would be physically capable of doing that? see points 1-4 again if not.

just because a different character would do something different doesnt meant the story would be better, the point of THIS story is an exploration of THESE characters

this is retreading a point but "marcille is the only character who feels like a human being" .... girl the ableism - it can be argued that marcille is a bit ND herself but she is laios's neurotypical foil, the entire point of their dynamic is she is the normal person to compare him to, to act like shes the only character that matters because shes the only one thats normal has some nasty implications.

"you or i would-" thats making some assumptions

marcille is tormented the most by the show because the show is about exploring a dungeon, a major character trait of hers is her inexperience, shes squeamish shes young and naive because she has EXCLUSIVELY studied dungeons in books she has only seen the dungeon in person for like a year or two (i dont remember the time frame but we know how time works for marcille anyway). senshi by contrast has been surviving exclusively off the dungeons resources for like 60 years. you mention that marcille grows a lot by the end but its not just about eating food she learns survival skills, she learns ecology.

sorry i need to take a break to just rant, isnt this woman a writer? i feel like all she can only see characters through common media tropes and so dungeon meshi is just breaking her brain because all of these characters are written from a strong foundation they all have roots that inform all of their flaws. i feel like she isnt willing to see them that way because she assumes that because this is an anime the author didnt put any thought into the characters beyond their designs and gimmicks, thats just speculation obvs its just the impression im getting

but like i see the way people talk about kui on here how she feels like one of us because the dungeon meshi characters are her ocs. how theyre not just characters for a story. its like imagine someone talking this way about YOUR OCS, your babies, the characters you put your heart and soul into and especially for someone like kui who has created so much depth for her characters for someone [who also calls herself a writer] to brush it all off bc it got an anime adaptation and anime has tropes.

i really dont like people who approach media from "ive seen this before" and i mean im a little guilty of it but its kind of a useless thought isnt it, for the most part things get made because someone wanted to make it not because it needed to exist. i guess its a hard thing not to think when theres just SO MANY shows and stuff out there but idk, i dont think its a healthy perspective most of the time.

chilchucks a bitch you cant listen to what he says and be like "the narrative is bullying marcille" chilchuck is bullying marcille, chilchuck is a bully

(oh it seems the numbers have reset, oops)

shes talking about why anime sucks again, i havent seen spy x family and i dont care to it doesnt appeal to me

retreading points but i forgot which ones laios thinking falins dragon form is cool is another example of how laios's character essence is that he doesnt think like other people. and i have to imagine that if not for the mind control aspect falin wouldnt be horrified by her dragon form either. neither of them care about the "obvious" socially expected reaction of "horrified" theyre thinking about a) what they like to think about which tends to be ooh monsters are cool and then b) whatever is most practical at this moment - i think its not just lily that struggles with this i think its a lot of people who follow social scripts tend to follow what the main cast of dungeon meshi is thinking so theyre horrified/confused by whatever laios is doing but he just intuits what actually materially matters and what doesnt. him thinking falin getting to have a cool dragon form has NOTHING to do with his feelings about saving her.

"your experience with autism isnt universal" neither is yours???? isnt that kind of the thing about autism (this is from her comments not the video but thats kind of her point about this point in the video is that she doesnt relate to laios's autistic traits) - guys shes saying sheldon cooper gets called out on his shit and grows as a person but laios doesnt... guys i dont even know what i can specifically say to make someone stop believing that because i dont know why anyone could believe that in the first place.

i dont want to write this point bc i dont want anyone to think i dont have any concept of like pervasive preferential trends in media but i think she specifically hates laios because hes a white man with autistic traits. i think if laios was a woman those traits would be not as bad (which is kinda funny bc i was talking about that being a joke with falins autistic traits earlier)

laios is funny to me :) (in the manga mostly)

i think she shouldve read the manga instead of watching half the anime but i guess thats it. if you (anyone reading this) see this out in the wild please dont make assumptions about me based on this post, it doesnt really tell you anything about me or my wider opinions.

i guess you can assume im autistic i did say that part, go ahead and assume that i suppose.

i think i have some clarifications i was gonna make but i got tired so i cant remember where they go or what they are, this isnt really meant to be a discussion its just me writing down some thoughts indirectly bc i didnt want to comment on her video. but its in response to a video so its only fair i guess if anyone wants me to clarify i can try my best to do that

#dungeon meshi spoilers

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jade-kyo · 5 months ago

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RvB 20th rewatch: s3

And we’re at season 3. The point where I feel like the show really starts to find its identity!

I was trying to remember what the zealots were called and I accidentally called them faggots…

For me season 3 is really when the humor kicks into high gear

It really feels like this is when the characters identities found their footing and solidified

The O’Malley/Doc/Lopez/Vic/Wyoming evil team up is so brilliant, it cracks me up so much

“What was your code name?” “Nevada” Tex’s willingness to just fuck with people is great

This is also the season where Caboose became Sarges favorite blue

“So I guess if I’m not on the team and you’re not on the team then nobody’s on the god damn team! The team sucks” another heavily quoted line for me

I love that the guy named Wyoming has the most comical British accent

Tex calls Tucker her friend and I start frothing at the mouth

Allison name reveal from freaking Wyoming of all people

You know early on it really does seem like Grif wants to gain Sarges approval

The crackpot retcon time travel arc here makes more sense than the actual time travel arc in the shisno trilogy

Man Tucker really is the one who worries about Church the most

The domestic evil lifestyle with O’Malley, Doc, and Lopez is such a good bit

Ah yes grimmons parked in the shade for two hours…

Super strong Caboose introduction!!

“Well can we at least rule out the gay stuff?” Grif you’re the one who brought up gay me thinks you’re projecting

“I miss the old days when we didn’t risk our lives and you were all a bunch of nameless assholes I’d yell at with Church” THEY DONT KNOW THE HORRORS THAT ARE TO COME SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP

THE SWORD!!!!!!!

I think it’s really interesting that Tucker doesn’t try to hype himself up about finding the sword- he just says it how it happened… idk I think it’s a good reflection of his character and what he’s actually like

Friendly reminder that Blood Gulch was an elaborate torture session to get the alpha to fragment more

CAPTAIN FLOWERS!!!!!

Since the time travel stuff with Church was a simulation does that mean Flowers actually had a heart attack or did the dude fr die from aspirin somehow unrelated to Church? Or was the time travel actually real and they were using Wyomings time distortion unit?? But like that was the only time travel that actually happened???

“Man first I kill myself then I realize I’m a honking dork” bro just like me fr

Requesting that Caboose speak at my funeral

“Mechanized… Americans” I cannot emphasize enough how much I love that line delivery it is one of my biggest vocal stims

Also a great example of how rvb has this sense of realness to its dialogue because people actually stutter and ramble on about a whole lot of nothing like that! It just makes the characters feel so relatable and real!

Church apologizing to Tex for getting her mixed up in everything and not being better for her and OH MY GOD THEY MAKE ME FERAL I AM ALSHAKBSKSHDKDH GOD HE HAS NO IDEA HE DOESNT KNOW WHAT THEYVE BEEN THROUGH!!!! HE DOESNT REMEMBER!!!!!!! YET HE STILL KNOWS SHE DESERVES BETTER AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Tex loves being part of the shenanigans omg she’s so silly. It’s what she deserves.

SHISNO!!!

Chex divorced but still in love vibes are immaculate man I love them so much

DONUT SCREAM LIKE A WOMAN

I love how O’Malley understands Lopez yet didn’t know he was being told to say stuff about his butt by Lopez

Donut discovers his bloodlust

I don’t really have a ton to say about the blood gulch seasons cause they’re the silly goofy seasons but I always enjoy rewatching them. They’re such a blast!

#jadey speaks #rvb #red vs blue

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popbloganddropit · 8 months ago

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7 days until THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT makes its debut and I wanted to make a little predictions post. I’m so excited to hear the devastation Miss Swift seems to have in store for us and I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like. There’s often a song on the previous album that is an early edition of the subsequent album’s sound. I have 4 guesses that may be a peek at what’s in store next Friday. Since it seems like it may be relevant, these songs are also thematically on trend, however we should always remain alert to Taylor loving a bait and switch.

1) Dear Reader/You’re Losing Me: I think these songs might be a thematic trend for what’s in store. A look at her own faults and things she may have kept hidden to put on a brave face. A breakdown of why a break up happened. However, I suspect that she will have sonically moved on from these two. I do not think she would put out Midnights 2.0.

2) The Great War: an advancement of Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights’ sounds while still being on theme.

3) Hits Different: I’m not 100% sure what to call this genre. Sort of a late 90’s/early 00’s adult contemporary-alt-pop-singer-songwriter Alanis/Natalie Imbruglia/Michelle Branch/vanessa Carleton vibes. Maggie Rogers has really started exploring this space and Olivia Rodrigo’s dipped her toes in a bit as well (anyone else an immediate Girl I’ve Always Been stan?). However, is there enough variety in sounds here for 20 new Swift songs to explore? Maybe not, but a biased me hopes she might dabble a bit more as it’s a really great genre for her to fire off a bunch of killer lines with a bit of sass or sense of humor. There’s also the artifacts/evidence lines in Hits Different and those words have made their way into some of the small amount of information we’ve gotten prior to the albums release.

4) The Alcott: while not from Midnights, this is still in the right time period so it fits in my opinion! Midnights maybe started off with a few songs written with Aaron Dessner before a pivot to full Antonoff based on an interview Aaron gave where he talked about when they worked on Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve. Maybe there were some more things she kept in the drafts for later. A heavier emphasis on the piano (perfect for acoustic surprise songs!), heavy and melancholy vibes, and vague lyrics that might still be protecting some identities seems like an easy pivot for her.

5) Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve: a surprise 5th option I thought of writing number 4! Raw, angry, a bit more rock-influenced, many people were expecting this direction based on the aesthetic of the Midnights photoshoot. Taylor’s in tune with her audience and is certainly aware this is a sound nobody would be sad to see from her. It fits with the emotional space she might have been in, and is another genre pivot she could dominate. She is strategic though, and an Album of the Year nom is pretty unlikely back to back with her record-setting win in a very stacked year. Knowing how successful these full pivots have been for her, she might hold off until a more advantageous time. Although I think post-pandemic cancelled Lover-fest (with possibly Cruel Summer as a single attached?) and the adoration for some of the vault songs has made her not want to hesitate to put out good music. You never know what’s around the corner and it’s easier to stay on top than claw your way back up.

Which vibes are your favorite and what are you hoping for from TTPD? Cowboy Carter review is imminent and I hope to fire off Maggie Rogers’ before next Friday too!

#taylor swift #ts11 #ts11 theories #pop music #swifties #swift theories #the tortured poets department #ttpd prep #ttpd #ttpd predictions #ts ttpd #ttpd era

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jmdbjk · 2 years ago

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2023 predictions (humor me)

So now I’m gonna make my predictions for 2023 the best way I know how. Armed with bare bones basic facts fueled with rumors and gossip and hearsay and sprinkled with a few social media posts! Yeah! All you overthinkers gather ‘round!

I know perfectly well trying to predict the future is futile. But these are all the different scenarios rolling around in my head. Their solo music releases and their military enlistments are the two big things happening in 2023 and hold the most meaning to us.

So remember I’m just wingin’ it, these are just my thoughts based on nothing except my overactive thinking and my need to lighten up the mood because gawwwd... 2025 is so farrrrr away... ...

The solo albums:

Y’all, all they’re gonna do is toss up some pieces of paper with their names written on them and they’ll get someone to pick them up one by one and read the names... that’s the order. Yep. Random. They don’t know. We don’t know.

Ok, changed my mind because I was just kidding... this will be the order of solo releases... maybe:

1. Yoongi

...because he’s basically started up a Youtube channel (even though its still on Bangtan TV) where he drinks alcohol and chit chats with different people. And he’s showing us he’s got a Yoobooty and smooth moves now. The only thing that makes me second guess myself is we haven’t had any teasers of actual solo musical work happening except maybe one or two pics on Insta of his studio. But we know he’s the Magic Man when it comes to working on music. Drops whole albums like “oh, I did this... here it is.” Maybe the album is ready, its just waiting for the random pieces of paper toss up.

Actually, the real toss up is whether it will be Yoongi first or....

2. Jimin

...because the man has been clocking into work every day at 9:00 a.m. like he’s on a mission to be employee of the year or something. He sort of freaks me out when he goes to bed by 10:00 p.m. or is up and moving before 9:00 a.m. What happened to my sexy little vampire who sleeps all day? Everyone... EVERYONE... wants to show off they’re working with him and they keep saying Jimin is amazing, the song is amazing, etc. That’s mostly how we know something is coming. Soon. I’m sorta scared. I feel like its gonna hit like a freight train. Hopefully a freight train loaded with tight fitting pants and loose shirts that won’t stay on him.

That being said, we actually have some pretty good evidence that Jimin will be on a song by BigBang member Taeyang. In January. Which begins today. That would be a great lead up to his solo album. Not that we need any more anticipation (see comment above about freight train).

3. Tae

...because he just said he’s been working on his fo-fo for two years. I know that has nothing to do with new music but it has to do with his warped sense of time. We know he’s been making songs for longer than that. JUST DO IT! PULL THE TRIGGER! THE SONGS ARE IN THE CAN! I don’t know though. I think we’d be seeing some teasers like we’ve seen with Jimin. I mean, Tae has had a pfp on his Insta from his fo-fo collection for quite a while now. Most of the year. And we had no idea it was from the fo-fo. Tae would tease his own music like that. What have we missed that could have been teasers? Just that he “threw away” those snippets he’s shared...but seriously... I think we’ll see some acting before music. Or maybe the acting will coincide with promotions for his solo release. That’s my prediction for Tae...sort of a maybe/maybe not situation.

4. Jungkook

....What can I say? He told us there’s a lot of things he wants to do in life and now he has a lot of time on his hands. So he’s out there riding his Harley and snowboarding, fueling those fanfics. However. This tour of meat restaurants that we’ve observed...he’s made that conspicuous on purpose. Signing autographs. He doesn’t have to do that. I am beginning to wonder if that will have something to do with promotions for his solo work. Hear me out: Hobi did some interviews on a radio show and IU’s show, Joon did some interviews on Youtuber channels and KBS news, Jin did some interviews with TV personalities/Youtubers... I can’t really see Jungkook doing any of that, being interviewed like that. JK is our free spirit who likes to hover in the background. Our little Gen Z’er thinking out of the box. So my prediction is JK is gonna walk us through an album of some sorts, song by song but be at a different meat restaurant while doing so. Along with showing us which restaurant has the best soju selection. Win win! Except we’ve not heard a single pin drop about whether he is working on something. So there’s that. Actually, strike that. JK is not gonna share his deepest inner thoughts on the songs he may ever release. He’ll just say, “they’re about Army” or “I was thinking about Army when I wrote that”... while stuffing his face with a wad of meat and radish. Sigh.

Military service (ugh):

This only requires common sense. Which there’s been very little of that on all sides regarding this topic. We were so delusional, including moi. Anyway, here I am carrying on with the delusional only armed with my bare bones basic facts and all my reconnaissance efforts regarding hearsay (see what I did there?) ...

Everything we’ve been told points to a 2025 comeback. They said so. There is also a contract renewal in this timeframe. We already know Jin will be discharged on June 12, 2024. So here’s my irrelevant and wildly guessed at predictions for the others... whups, I meant here’s what my reconnaissance tells me:

Namjoon, born in 1994, is 28 years old and will enter the military by March 2023. Joon will be going so soon in 2023 in order to get back and start preparing for a BTS comeback. That puts his discharge in September 2024, three months after Jin is discharged. Joon himself said he will do his best to get them ready for 2025.

Yoongi, born in 1993 will turn 30 years old soon (international age) and will enter the military by May 2023. He has no choice but to submit his paperwork due to his age. That would put his discharge by November 2024.

Hmmm. Second half of 2024 now not sounding quite like the wasteland of radio silence I previously thought it would be...

Hobi, born in 1994 will turn 28 in February; Jimin, born in 1995, is 27 years old and they will both enter the military by September 2023. Just like entering in the dead of winter, I suspect the dead heat of the middle of summer is not a desirable time to enter military boot camp training so they will delay until the heat of summer has faded. This would put their discharge dates in March 2025. Spring Day indeed. However, this would make September 2023 blisteringly heartbreaking for two to go at the same time.

Tae, also born in 1995, is also 27 years old. Tae going or not going with Jimin and Hobi will be based on the timing of his solo release. He’s really sort of a big question mark for me as far as timing. Tae may go with Jungkook.

Jungkook, born 1997 just turned 25. I think he will be enlisted before November 2023. This would put his discharge date in May 2025. Barely in time for Festa June 2025. Festa 2025 would be a great time for them to gather around the table again and share their military stories with us.

Or...

Jungkook will not enlist in 2023. SAY WHAT? He does not have to enlist until 2027, I believe, if he wanted to wait. But that would mean another interruption for BTS as a group which makes me already go, yeah, naw, he’s not waiting. Except things will be very different by 2025. They will be established solo artists. They can slow the roll on BTS and balance it with solo work. Between 2025 and 2027 they could have a very long and successful comeback world tour. That would set them up for another break (JK’s military duty). And the others could fill the gap with solo work. When JK gets back in 2029 it will be time to prep for the Busan World Expo (if Busan is chosen) as well as another BTS comeback.

But, shit happens. Right, 2022?

Other predictions:

Yoongi has a “really” “big” “something” that he is gonna try and he is “nervous” about it but will be a step toward his “dream”... which is... I have no idea so I will use my imagination: He is establishing a plum orchard and will produce his first fruit wine in 2025.

Also, Yoongi will not cut his hair until it’s time for enlistment.

Hobi will release some more music and/or have more collabs. I think he may do more live performances like at festivals and stuff through the summer. I think there is a chance he might be a fashion ambassador...for who? I have no idea.

Jimin will be riding out the wave of his solo release through the summer and I hope (for his sake) doing performances too, and some of them will be in the United States or other parts of the globe, joining the artists he’s collabbed with during their concerts.

Jungkook...honestly...it would not shock me if we do not get a full album from our bunny. Some collabs, maybe an EP? He will surprise us with something else. I don’t know what.

BTS as a group: when they “reconvene” in 2025 they will not be the same BTS as we know it. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

Ok, I will check back on all of this in say... six months... and we’ll all laugh together at how stupid everything is that I just said. I mean, assuming I’ve survived PJM1 and all...

#me just being delusional #me also rambling #jimin #jungkook #yoongi #hobi #taehyung #namjoon #my clairvoyance is non-existent #pjm1 is coming

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sassasafreeaction · 1 year ago

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While The Resurrectionist minisode gives us a lot of different things, one of the most important things that it gives us is the concept of plausible deniability and how important it is for Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship.

In the episode, Crowley drinks literal poison, and while he gets to be very silly, he also gets to be a more honest and genuine version of himself. He gets to do good, and when Aziraphale points this out, he immediately throws in the rebuttal - "Not kind! Off my head on laudanum."

Now, the next time he sees Aziraphale, he asks for holy water, so it's hard to say how much deniability the laudanum actually gave him. At the same time though, Crowley is still around and not eliminated.

The only real effect that a supernatural being seems to experience with poison is drunkness, which in a way I guess makes sense because alcohol is its own poison. However, it's also a poison that the two of them regularly partake in.

A lot of the more serious and genuine conversations that the two of them have happen while they're drinking, when they have that level of plausible deniability. It would be so easy for one of them to say something and take it back under the ruse of being drunk and not knowing what they're doing or saying, even though they both know that it takes an extraordinary amount of alcohol or a strong poison for them to actually be drunk.

The first example we see is in the bookshop after Crowley has delivered the Antichrist, and he's trying to convince Aziraphale to help him. When they had met up initially, Aziraphale had adamantly refused to help him, but once they're safe in the bookshop with several bottles of wine in their system, Aziraphale is honest for the first time about his feelings on the situation. "I don't like it anymore than you."

Sure, they sober up shortly after that, but it isn't until there is that liquid courage/plausible deniability in their system that he's even willing to dare to start to humor the thought.

(In Hard Times, you do have them sharing a drink together in Rome. It's the first time where they seem to genuinely indicate that they'd be interested in actively pursuing the other's company. There's less to pick a part because it's so short, but worth mentioning, especially because the entire time the two of them talk, they have a drink in their hand.)

The next time we see either of them drinking is right after Crowley has left the bookshop fire. A lot of people drink when they're sad, so that's not the most exciting, but he is drinking because he's sad about Aziraphale, his "best friend," and while Hell probably doesn't care because they have bigger things on their mind, it still gives that placebo level of protection.

Side note, there's a strong chance that if Crowley does remember the Fall that this is probably the most accurate description since he's the most open we've probably seen him in the show here- essentially talking crap at the Heavenly Watercooler with the boys and then ending up in a boiling pit of sulfur.

The Script Book has a line that I think is super worth mentioning as Crowley says, "Aziraphale? I'm trying to get drunk. Failing." It emphasizes how much of a cover drinking has become for them, and that the act of pretending is more important than genuinely being drunk. Also, Crowley doesn't try to hide from Aziraphale. He doesn't specifically say "I thought I lost you," but he looks absolutely wrecked. The way Aziraphale pauses in return makes me feel like he has to know, but also, they're idiots.

The two of them also share a drink before the Swap, and they get rather philosophical in regards to the Almighty. This is also the first and only time that Crowley uses the phrase 'We're on our side' and Aziraphale doesn't have a rebuttal.

At the end of Season 1, they're at the Ritz, drinking of course, and it's here where both of them tease at how they genuinely feel about the other. The drinking is on the light side though, so we don't get anything more concrete than 'To the World'. (Although the way that Aziraphale looks at him and says that phrase still makes me weak.)

Season 2 sees Crowley offering Aziraphale his first drink. The angel refuses but Bildad still gets his drink on. This is the first time that Crowley introduces the concept of not being on Hell's side.

(Also, he just watches Aziraphale pleasure himself enjoy some ox ribs which is freaking wild. I'm pretty sure everyone has analyzed the undertones of this scene to death, but there's drinking involved so it makes the cut.)

After speaking with Heaven and Hell, Crowley and Aziraphale get together at the pub to discuss their new plan. They both have a single drink, but you have the chest touch and Crowley talking about falling in love in the rain (ya know like he did).

In 1941, following the magic act, we have them drinking again. Crowley asks Aziraphale to retire the act, and then there is an important beat as they get ready to start a more serious conversation. As soon as Aziraphale decides to take them toward more serious territory, he tops off Crowley's glass. They again tease at the concept of 'our side' by discussing the morally grey.

Now, in S2E6, Crowley mentions to Muriel about taking Aziraphale for an extremely alcoholic breakfast at The Ritz, which to me suggests that even without Maggie and Nina talking with him, Crowley likely would have confessed.

However, in Episode 5, when Crowley is sitting at the restaurant, the first thing he does after getting Aziraphale's attention is ask if he wants a glass of wine. Aziraphale tells him "I'm at work and I have a meeting". I feel like this was almost the original confession from Crowley. Forgive me because I can't find the post, but I know someone has pointed out some of the other parts things that indicate this (Crowley's is the only table with a rose, him walking right into the 'smitten' phrasing because he thought that might make a good transition, etc. I'm really sorry I didn't find it right away when I scrolled and I gave up.) I think the wine speaks a lot to it though because it allows for the same song and dance of if this doesn't work out, I can always blame it on the alcohol.

Now you could say that the two of them just really enjoy alcohol and its a coincidence, but there are an angel and a demon who also happen to meet a pub. Gabriel gets himself and Beelzebub a beer, but the two of them never drink them.

Unlike Aziraphale and Crowley, they have the luxury of power to protect them. They don't need to have the plausible deniability because as far as they're concerned, they answer to no one.

Maggie, a human, also turns down alcohol while she's with Nina. Nina needs the liquid courage, but she doesn't. She has no interest in alcohol. However, Nina is in a sticky situation with her partner. Maggie carries a torch for Nina, but she's also brave enough to be the first one to offer a gift and indicate how she genuinely feels about her. They're both human, so they can be honest with one another.

I'm sure drinks will probably still be important in Season 3, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have a scene where either Aziraphale or Crowley actively turns down a drink because they no longer need to hide.

#i spent entirely too long on this #i forgot to eat dinner. I'm gonna do that now I guess.#I wanted to contribute to the meta i guess #this makes me feel like I'm in a college english class again and i fucking love it #I missed this shit so much #if anyone can think of scenes I'm missing please feel free to add them #good omens #good omens 2

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yurisorcerer · 10 months ago

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God.

OK. So, this requires a little context. In a Discord server I'm in, they're groupwatching every KyoAni show. Starting today, they got to Haruhi Suzumiya and are going to be watching an episode per day until we finish it. I'm not gonna write about every single episode of this show---I've seen it several times at this point so while I have a fair bit to say about most episodes it's just a lot of effort for a series I don't think many people here on tumblr specifically care about anymore---I do wanna write about this one

because, like can you fucking IMAGINE opening an anime like this in 2024? It'd be impossible. When an anime in the present day wants to make a big impact it'll go for laser focus, trying to present its absolute best foot forward, or a grandiose overlength premiere like Oshi no Ko or Frieren or something. The idea of opening your anime with *this* is just....I mean, even at the time it was baffling. I watched Haruhi a couple years after it aired and I remember being SO confused. What was this? Why is the first episode of this show---a show that aired deliberately out of order, by the way. I'm calling it the first episode here but if you're going by DVD order it's one of the last---some weird, deliberately bad student film that has a snarky narrator CinemaSins-ing over top of it?

The short answer is just that from the very beginning, the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has a somewhat antagonistic relationship with its audience. Haruhi herself, as we'll learn in upcoming episodes, is kind of a really unpleasant person before eventually getting better. And I'm not going to claim that this show invented the idea of having your title character be a complete jackoff---it did not---but at the very least, it felt new at the time. (Contrast that to nowadays where every two-bit isekai has a total fuckboy who you're clearly supposed to love from episode 1 anyway.) So the first episode is kind of a....I hate this term, but almost a troll move I guess? More than anything, it's supposed to be *confusing.*

Improbably, this worked, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya became, for both better and worse, one of the defining anime of its era. It's been nearly 20 years and I have no idea how this happened.

Some amount can probably be attributable to the charisma of Haruhi herself---she sucks, but she makes an *impression*---but none of that is really present here since she doesn't show up until the end of the episode for the big mic drop moment, a moment where we get slightly more of an idea of what this show even actually is.

I think honestly the charm of the deliberately bad film might have been a factor. The thing is completely nonsensical; we have Mikuru running around in a bunny outfit doing plugs for random local businesses while vying for the affection of Itsuki. Itskuki himself plays a character best described as "on-screen" and "present." Mikuru's big rival both in love and for the fate of the Earth (?!?!) is Yuki, who wears a fucking awesome witch hat throughout most of the episode. At one point, in scenes that seemed utterly baffling without the context that later episodes would provide, Mikuru's eye appears to actually change color and fire a beam from it, and Shamisen the cat talks like a person. This shit was weird! Even at the time.

Also the bit where she fires a gun and goes "aaaah!" as the recoil gets out of control is still funny to me 16 years later. Many things about me have changed since I first watched this show but apparently my sense of humor isn't one of them.

Haruhi Suzumiya as a series is really important to me in that it was one of the first things I watched that was REALLY OBVIOUSLY "anime." There wasn't the plausible deniability you got with something that aired on Toonami (and thus was visible to anyone with cable TV) or one of the common entry-level access points like Cowboy Bebop or such, which are considered classics not just of their medium but of their *genre* and thus didn't carry the same stigma. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an anime-ass anime, with its bunnygirl outfits and improbable high school antics and psychic powers and aliens and yadda yadda. When I first started watching the series I was vaguely embarrassed about my interest in Japanese cartoons, by the time I'd finished it, I had an actual fucking SOS Brigade patch on my jacket. No less a figure than Tatsuki Fujimoto said that the series was responsible for turning his generation into otaku, and, anecdotally, he's pretty much right about that; most otaku I know of my age had a Haruhi phase at some point. (That's part of why Aya Hirano playing Makima in the Chainsaw Man stage play was such a big deal. It's not just that she's an incredible actress---although she is---that's fucking Haruhi playing Makima, man.)

Its success is also partly responsible for the light novel adaptation hellscape we now live in, so I'm not going to shy away from criticizing it either. Right off the bat there's a really uncomfortable kind of semi-"ironic" sexualization of Mikuru, helpfully lampshaded by Kyon as the film's narrator. This does not let up at any point throughout the show and is probably the worst thing about the series (although it doesn't reach its nadir for a while, if I recall). I'm not a fan.

Other than that element, I think as far as first episodes go, I wouldn't mind if more shows went back to this approach. There's something to be said for just baffling your audience into submission.

#the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya #yurisorcerer talks about media #yurisorcerer rewatches haruhi #<-this gets its own tag

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tea-with-evan-and-me · 10 months ago

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"Should I order us a bottle of wine?"

I'm sitting across a small table from Evan. He is soft-spoken and raises his eyebrows as he asks me. The waiter is standing patiently at our side, looking to me for the final decision. The waiter is dressed in a tux, a cloth napkin hanging over his arm. I told Evan it wasn't necessary to take me somewhere this fancy. I'm not fancy by any means. In fact, usually I would roll my eyes at the thought of it. Me,? At a fancy restaurant? Yea, fucking right. I'm classy but I'm not fancy. I apparently can't get the word fancy out of my head. The waiter clears his throat and it pulls me out of my daydream. Patience waining.

"Sure, but white wine please. The sulfites in red make me sick."

Evan knits his eyebrows and starts to say something when the waiter interjects.

"Ma'am, our red wines are authentic to Italian recipes and do not contain sulfites. Of course they are more expensive than other types, that we do serve, that you may want to stay away from."

"Oh, that's cool-I mean, ..lovely.." the waiter looks at me strangely and I shake my head. I hear Evan snort. I make a mental note to give him shit for it.

My eyes snap to his and I playfully glare at him. He chuckles and orders us some red wine that is friendly to my stomach. The waiter takes our food order as well and walks away, leaving us to resume our conversation. This is our first date. I know him a bit, but not well. The air between us actually is quite comfortable.

"Dude, I told you that you didn't have to bring me somewhere fancy. If you're looking to impress me, that ship has sailed" I smirk.

"Ouch, that stings" he jokes

I roll my eyes "I mean if I accepted a date with you, that means you've already impressed me" I smile at him. He smiles back and nods his head.

"Really, I just wanted to get in your pants..." He can't keep a straight face as he says it.

"Oh, yea? Well my muffin shop isn't open for first dates, mister can't keep it in your pants" I chuckle cause I know he's at least half joking. I mean he's a guy, but at the same time he would never want me to be uncomfortable. He knows I can take the joke. We've joked about far worse already. We share the same sense of humor, which is what I think we are both attracted to. He laughs out loud at my response.

"Muffin shop? That's fucking funny"

"Thanks, I'm here all week" and I pretend to take a bow.

"When does your shop open, exactly?" He says with a sultry look.

"Wouldn't you like to know" I respond, batting my eyelashes at him.

"I get the feeling you like to tease"

"I guess that's something else you're going to have to find out about" I give him a sexy look.

Our wine makes its way to the table. We cheer each other and take a sip. "Mmm, that's good" I say

"I really don't mean to be an ass about it. I would never pressure you. I just have to say that so you know" it takes me a minute to realize what he's talking about.

"No, I don't think you're being an ass at all. I trust you. And, ya know, I can take a joke." We are suddenly serious and staring into each other's eyes.

"Sometimes I think that people think I'm weird. I'm kinda socially awkward. The last thing I want to do is offend. But, you seem so cool and not easily affected by things. It's nice. I feel like I can be myself and I'm not being judged" his eyes go soft.

"Well, I am not judging you at all. I happen to think you are an amazing person. Not weird at all. Kind, thoughtful, sweet, funny. Those are better words to describe you. And I know you're just joking around. So, no worries, ok?" I cock my head to the side and smile reassuringly at him.

"You're food ma'am" I move my arms out of the way as our waiter is placing my plate on the table in front of me. It smells delicious and looks even more so.

We dig into our food. It's so good, neither of us talk while we eat. Finally, fat and happy, we lean back in our chairs.

"Was your food good?" I ask

"Amazing, yours"

"It was delicious"

The bill is silently left in the middle of the table

I joke "One, two, three fast hands!"

Evan laughs "Ha! You better leave that alone" wagging a finger at me.

"Are you sure?" I ask him softly. Sincerely.

"Yea, completely" he smiles

"Thank you so much for all of this. I have had a great time." I reach my hand across the table and Evan instinctually puts his hand out to mine. We stay like that for a long minute. I squeeze his hand gently as he looks into my eyes.

"It's been completely my pleasure" he answers. "Ready to go?"

I nod my head and sigh. Is it really over? At least the car ride is fairly long. That's something. We get our coats from the coat room, say good night and Evan helps me into mine. I thank him. He opens the door for me and we walk outside. It's a chilly LA night. To us at least. For the second time tonight he opens my car door for me. What a gentleman. My heart skips a beat as I realize I don't know many men like him. I decide to tell him so.

"Evan, can I be honest with you?" He looks a bit apprehensive, as if he thinks the let down is coming. He nods his head yes anyway, ready to take it like a man. "I've never had a man open a car door for me before. You're a bit of a rarity as far as men go these days. Don't ever lose that. It's so amazing" I lean over and kiss his cheek. I pull back and smile at the look on his face. "What's that look for?"

"I honestly thought you were gonna say, 'it's been nice but I'm not feeling it' ,or something" he looks away and blows air out slowly. He starts the car. I just give him a reassuring smile.

He starts driving towards my house. He asks what music I would like to listen to and I tell him it doesn't matter. He searches and finds a rock/alt station. Perfect. We stay pretty quiet. I make comments about the landmarks we pass and we talk about some places we would like to check out. Restaurants and shops. We make rhetorical plans to go to these places together. Finally, he pulls into my driveway. We aren't awkward with each other, but right now our hearts are racing. Our minds are racing. Do we kiss? Shake hands? Hug? Evan clears his throat and it hits me how incredibly handsome and adorable he is.

A sly smile "So uh, does your muffin shop serve any mini eclairs or petit fores, by chance?"

"What?" I chuckle and a snort escapes. We both laugh at that.

His eyes go soft again. Serious now. "Can I kiss you?"

"Oh..." I smile and nod my head, giving permission

He smiles and his dimples knock the wind out of me. He leans towards me. Keeping his eyes on mine. When we get close enough, his eyes flit to my lips and my stomach knots in a sweet coil. I close my eyes and wait for the feeling of his lips on mine. When I feel his mouth wrap itself on my top lip, I follow suit. He suckles a little and then repeats the same on my bottom lip.

He pulls away only slightly. All either of us can hear is our combined unsteady breathing. Our eyes remain closed. I lean my head towards him a bit and he meets my forehead with his. He brushes his nose against mine a few times and then plunges back in. This time urgently and open. He waits for me to initiate tongue. When I start it, we can't stop. We tease each other. Pulling away from one another. Licking lips. Each time the other is not there to meet our mouths we whimper. The passion we feel is a little bit unexpected. Finally, we have to force ourselves to take a break. Neither of us wanting to. Wanting to stay in our little piece of heaven for a little longer. Our foreheads are touching. I speak, my breath in his face. My question surprises him.

"Would you like to come inside for a bit?" I whisper to him.

His eyes flutter open. "A-are you you sure? You don't have to-"

I interrupt him "It's ok, Evan. Do you want to?"

"More than you know.." he whispers.

"Come with me sweetie"

He shuts off the car and we get out. He lets me lead the way to my door. Once inside, we both have no idea exactly what's about to happen, but we can't wait to find out.

(to be continued)

#fics

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