#I have a problem with circus themed stuff- I just love it too much

[bloos-bloo]

MEBSKBDKDBD??? THANK YOU FOR THE PLUG JOFFY BUT HOLY CRAP THIS CIRCUS AU?? IM IN LOVE??? NARINDER- OH MY GODDD SNDBDJBDKDBDJS-

What if, cotl au where instead of cults it’s all circuses an stuff

Circus of the Lamb

[iamespecter]

TADC OCs: "The Die Quartet"!

"Oh but Ziku, who are these very handsome die?"

Well I'm glad nobody asked, because that would ruin the joke!

The Die Quartet are OCs of mine that I created for TADC, and for what purpose? Well, they're the minds behind show's music!

Hidden just behind a corner or two, or four, These obliviously mischievous and enthusiastic quartet play whatever music they can, one that certainly matches the current "mood" of what the cast is going through. Meet Cuba, Dodeca, Tetra, and Octa, The Amazing Musical Performers, for The Amazing Digital Circus!

LORE AND BOUNDARIES UNDERNEATH THE CUT!

When the Circus was initially created, it was feeling too barren for a place that's meant to be "lively". And so, Caine went and copy-pasted himself four times, while replacing the heads with some die props he found on the floor, retexturing and adjusting their bodies, to fit their new roles.

A little bit of a code rewrite to make them able of producing any sounds all on their own to be musically intertwined, and the quartet was basically ready to go: but there's only one problem.

Caine completely forgot to remove the admin privileges from their code.

So once the four spawned, they immediately began floating around, dancing and creating the main theme for the circus, and did it all perfectly. So Caine decided that as long as they don't interfere with anything major in the circus and did their job as the musical minds behind the show/game's soundtracks, he doesn't really care about fixing this error and would rather let these four run rampant to create more songs.

Ever since then, the Die Quartet has been messing with every circus members, most of the time playing obnoxious music that fits the "current mood". You'll even see their canes dance to the tempo they've set, like some backup dancers.

Think of it like: You now have x4 Caines with dice heads, flying and snooping around, so that they can "improve the mood" with their music! Ain't that swell??

(But really, all they do is just annoy the Circus members just like Caine does, for the better or the worse. Probably the latter.)

Fun facts about the Die Quartet!

Even though they've all been created at the same time and share the features of a die, they do not consider themselves as "brothers", and only see one another as colleagues instead.

Their names are related to the type of their die: Tetra (yellow), Dodeca (purple), Cuba (red), and Octa (green).

Despite being reused assets of Caine himself, they have distinct personalities that separate them from each other: Tetra is more joyful and playful, Dodeca is a more dramatic/theatric and over the top, Cuba is the natural lead and more stern than anybody, and Octa is the more closed off of the gang but willing to provide his best.

Yet, they all still lack awareness of personal space and boundaries just like Caine, and WILL be intrusive towards anyone they set their sights on, with the intent of predicting their mood and setting the current situation perfectly in musical form. (ex. if a character is sneaking, all four will follow "cautiously" behind while one imitates/pulls out a tiny piano playing to the theme of "tip-toeing". You know, like a cartoon gag.)

Although they can perfectly imitate ANY sound or instrument imaginable, They'll still pull out a "physical" instrument if the gag calls for it.

BOUNDARIES!

You can pretty much draw fanart of them! In fact I would REALLY love to see it and I encourage it! Really, just don't claim them as your own, or steal their designs.

NSFW of them is accepted, but please keep in mind that I have an SFW blog. Which means THERE ARE MINORS. Show them to me privately instead, I'd still love to see it <3

While NSFW is accepted (privately), please make it a morally decent one, because I don't really wanna see some disgusting stuff. This pretty much includes: non-con, scat, etc.

Aside from that though, I hope you all enjoyed these four! I really love how they turned out, and would love to draw them more. I was initially hesitant on showing my TADC OCs because I don't think people would like 'em, but fuck it.

My boys, they deserve to be seen even if just by a few people on the internet.

[coupleoffanfics]

How would Batsis! y/n become a villain?

I found this while trying to clean up my writing drafts. Not sure when I wrote this, but I decided to post it because why not.

Jerome Route

If she had no friends, that connection with Barbara, or relationship with Jeremiah then Jerome would have a considerably easier time charming y/n. The emotional neglect from the family makes her desperate for any sort of contention leading her right into the hands of Jerome.

The family would believe that y/n can be saved, but she sees them trying to save face. Trying to stop her from telling Jerome all the big bad Batman's secrets by saying they're sorry and that they care. She doesn't end up telling him about their identities because someone has to keep Gotham safe. She's with Jerome, but she doesn't agree with everything he does.

y/n might purposefully sabotage Jerome's schemes. It's not because she cares for the family, no. It's for Batman and his Robins to keep innocent people safe. She keeps the family and their personas separate. At least she'll try to see them as separate.

Her logic is backwards and hypocritical, but frankly she doesn't care enough anymore. All that matters is Jerome's love. Who needs friends or family when you can have Jerome?

y/n and Jerome probably argued over wedding ideas.. Jerome wants a circus theme with a replica of his mom as a pinata. While y/n wants a traditional, elegant wedding. They compromise by letting y/n have that traditional vibe with the ceremony and Jerome can go batshit with the reception.

Jerome never put so much thought into something before and he never wants to do that again.

The Batfamily was not invited of course. The family most likely hears about it or even sends wedding photos. y/n probably has Joker or some other villain walk her down the aisle. Bruce sulks about it for months.

Post-Spray Jeremiah Route

If y/n had no one else besides Jeremiah and her moral compass was cracked. Then of course she's almost going to believe everything he tells her.

There's no denying that Gotham is a modern day Babylon. Yeah, the world would be better without it. Maybe it would be a good thing if we do get rid of it. Yeah, we could rebuild it!

But she'll run into the same problem of not fully following Jeremiah's ideology. At least how he goes about obtaining the goal of cleaning up Gotham. The cult stuff freaks her out a lot. When his followers bow down to her and praise her, she'll tell them to stop but he orders them to do that.

After expressing her discomfort over the cult and the followers' behavior, Jeremiah will distance her from it. Having her become sheltered in the bunker or a manor hidden away in the woods. Meaning the only relationship she can have with anyone who isn't Jeremiah is Ecco. Even then Ecco is  just another follower that was trained to be a guard dog.

This version of y/n wouldn't be too involved compared to the Jerome route. But if Jeremiah was caught and sent to Arkham, y/n is sneaking in to break him out. It could be by disguising herself as a guard or forcefully entering it with full confidence.

The family would try to reason with her if only they could actually talk to her. Again since she's not hands on it's a rarity for them to see her.

The few times they've met face to face was when their hero personas. Jeremiah and Ecco were busy fighting off the others, giving them time to talk. If they try to convince her to leave him, she'll either ignore it or tell them about how he's all she ever had. The only family member that could possibly break through to y/n would probably be Jason or maybe even Barbara.

Jeremiah and y/n get offended when they're compared to Joker and Harley. They'll clearly be different because they have a healthy and loving relationship. People probably come up with the comparison because of his physical appearance and he hates it. They're not wrong when they say their relationship is loving, but it being healthy is debatable.

y/n is more than willing to kill or torture someone if they were to do anything to Jeremiah. Though once again her hands are off, but doesn't mind getting her hands dirty.

y/n is the type to write like love letters and put them into Jeremiah's pocket before he leaves. He's in the middle of fighting Batman and suddenly a pink paper with a red heart border falls out of his pocket. Seeing it makes him scramble to grab it and shove it back into his pocket. He'll read it later.

This y/n might live a more semi-normal life, but probably struggles with loneliness and depression. Since Jeremiah is often working and Ecco is Ecco.

Sprayed Route

The moment y/n realizes what is happening she goes to Jeremiah and contacts Barbara who informs the family. They'd probably find a cure, but for the sake of story and angst let's say they can't.

Everyone is just forced to watch y/n become what essentially a Joker lookalike. Or she could look completely the same, doesn't really matter because they'll all be horrified by the drastic change.

She'd use the knowledge of their identities against them. Dangling it above their heads, but it isn't long before they realize that she isn't going to say anything. Oh, but she's definitely telling Jeremiah all about this. Of course he swears to never tell anyone and he might start working with the family to lock y/n up.

Not only was she endangering herself, but others as well. The best thing for everyone is to lock her up.

If she learns about Jeremiah working against her. She'd be so heartbroken. Violently throwing and smashing everything in the room she was in before coming up with an idea. 'He'd never be against me, they probably forced him to work for them. It's all their fault. They always ruin everything, but I won't let them take him.'

Out of all of the other possible routes this y/n would be the most vindictive. She'll guilt trip the family with her sob stories of their neglect, their personas won't won't react. But she knows they'll be thinking about what she said hours later. She'll spit out insults and won't hold back fighting.

Her once passive and defensive fighting style has completely flipped to almost recklessly aggressive. The only way she'll stop fighting back is if they restrain or knock her out.

Arkham isn't hard for her to adjust to. She'll explain to her few visitors (Jeremiah, Barbara, and Alfred) that it reminds her of Wayne manor. But less lonely.

Barbara and Alfred are the only family members she'll allow to visit her. As she still has a bit of a soft spot for them. Will not admit it, but she's always pleasantly surprised when Babs visits her or Alfred sends her some of his cooking. It almost makes her tear up and feel immense sadness. Just almost.

Probably besties with Riddler or something. Most Arkham inmates know of the name Jeremiah Valeska by how much y/n will mindlessly ramble about him. They also know not to mess with him because they'll be put on top of her shit list.

Masterlist Here

[velvette-hussle]

VELVETTE X FASHION

I love Velvette, don’t get me wrong, but for a fashionista character her outfits (& especially the second hairstyle she has in “RKTVS”) are UGLY even by early 2010’s standards, since that’s the decade I’ve heard theorized that she died during.

Her outfits are also far too boring and plain for a character like her who’s got such a big ego and who’s social media personality and appearance should inspire tons of envy. Even the last dress she picked out for her fashion show when she was magically dressing Melissa looked pretty boring on its own.

Like, I can’t say I miss the more childish aspects of her first design but I do miss the “fun” of it.

I also don’t mind some of her fashion sense still having remnants of the late 2000’s & early 2010’s since that’s when she died and it would make sense that there would be some lingering feelings of nostalgia for those trends, but I do think her style should largely be disgustingly on trend outside of that. I ALSO THINK THAT SHE SHOULD HAVE MORE CULTURALLY BLACK (BRITISH) FASHION TRENDS IMPLEMENTED INTO HER DESIGN & HER HAIRSTYLES.

ALSO SHE SHOULD BE ANIMATED WITH TEXTURED HAIR MORE OFTEN! I’m truly so tired of running into human!fanart of velvette that depicts her as a white woman; I really am. If the show would just buck the fuck up and make her coding more explicit we really wouldn’t be having this problem as predominately.

Regardless, there is no one overriding theme that Velvette’s current design has, but there also isn’t only one theme in her character type or skill set, which is why I love the prospect of her constantly changing outfits so much. Her visual identity on the show is still not dominating enough for my tastes though, which just leaves the impression that someone either couldn’t decide what Velvette should be so just threw everything at the wall or that someone didn’t care enough to be definitive.

There’s only subtle hints at her clown/jester influences in the striped things she wears, the pom-poms on the toes of her shoes, the heart motif throughout her clothes, the ruffle accents in some of her outfits, and her lip art. All of which are fairly subtle and don’t automatically clock her as “clown-like” in a way similar to how you can see the circus influences in Blitzø’s and especially Fizzarolli’s designs. It’s still her strongest design influence though.

Then the hints at the more “witchy” characteristics within her design are even more sparse. She wears a little fedora-ish hat in s1ep8 that could be considered a little witch hat, and maybe the skull earrings she always wears are supposed to be a hint at her being magical too, but that’s pretty much it. Her fangs don’t readily even factor into either of those aesthetics either so they confuse her design even more outside of being a vague reminder that she’s demonic; I will note however, that if any of her other aesthetics were more pronounced in her overall design that her fangs wouldn’t clash or cause confusion as to what exactly she’s supposed to be. Her vests are just kind of there (furred or not). There’s also the aspect of Velvette’s character that’s supposed to be “doll-like” to some extent but that’s barely showcased, and something I plain wouldn’t know if I wasn’t looking through stuff like tumblr or wiki. At most her changing outfits and hairstyles constantly could be seen as her being like a fashion doll, but that’s it.

Velvette just has a very mild visual identity, which fucking sucks and, unless you’re already familiar with her character, picking up on the practically nonexistent (imo) characterization influences in her outfits are nearly impossible.

Another issue that gets brought up because of her lack of a distinct visual identity or design theme is that I’ve seen multiple artists and writers who form descriptors for, or make fanart of, the Vees’ “true” demonic forms end up skipping on Velvette because they can’t fully grasp what she is and so aren’t sure how exactly they want to expand upon those design and ability influences in order to make them scarier. I imagine like a scary clown or giant marionette that can turn the strings onto her audience to puppeteer them (in like a Dream Warriors “tendon string” type of way) or her being able to multiply into multiple dolls and kind of being like the nurses from Silent Hill or something (like how dolls have doll lines so you can have multiple dolls of the same character, just in different outfits), but those ideas aren’t the most creative so I can definitely see why some artists unfortunately just end up leaving Vel where she’s at.

I still like that Velvette has multiple different aspects to her character (witch: bcs she uses magic/potions - or even mad scientist: bcs potions = science experiments, doll: bcs fashion designer/model, clown/jester, & influencer: bcs demonic personification of social media), I’d just like for them to be visually represented more clearly. And I think her constantly changing outfits is a great way to not have to settle for shoving all of her different traits into one outfit/main design too!

— NOTE ALSO THAT: As far as I know, only her jester and witch-y elements are 100% canon(?), the doll theme I’ve just heard mentioned in fandom spaces.

— EDIT (11/23/24): It has roughly been kind of confirmed, since I started writing this on March 25th of this year, that Velvette is a living doll of some sort via a picture of pins (that were official Hazbin Hotel merch) of the Vees that showcased a picture of Velvette with doll joints/points of articulation. I want to note that I do love this direction if it’s true, as it allows for much more opportunity and variety in the outfits she wears, but I’m just not entirely sure of its truthfulness as of right now.

I have also been collecting so many outfit references for both outfits I think Vel should wear herself and what I think her runway designs would look like, and just— if I could draw, I would be. Velvette is such a versatile muse, I can’t get over her, and I hope the show pinpoints her visual identity more succinctly next season (fingers crossed, there’s still time). Her color scheme is well established though, so that’s something. Also, I plan on making a more in-depth post about what of her canonical sense of fashion I can gleam from season one later so…yeah.

[kkusuka]

HQ poly Headcannons  pt. 2

Poly Headcannons <3  part 1 

pairs: Oikawa & Ushijima, Hanamaki & Matsukawa, Suna & Osamu, Kita & Aran, iwaizumi & Kyotani, and Oikawa & Kageyama

nsfw and sfw

Oikawa Tooru & Ushijima Wakatoshi

Sfw

This was an interesting match up

Considering the fact that Tooru can barely stand sharing you sometimes, they seem to make it work!

You were most likely Ushiwaka’s girlfriend, and Tooru just couldn't stand for that

Well at first he didn't really know that fact

He met you in the stans after an Alders game that he 100% wasn't there to spy on Toshi or to see how much better he got, no way

But luckily, you the beautiful angel of light, sat next to him to cheer for Waka’s team!

So after the game when Tooru was flirting with you and you completely ignored him to go to your boyfriend, Oikawa was more than let down

And you ignored him for the brick wall???? He just didn't understand.

Now he wanted you more than he did when he saw you, even more so that you belonged to the bastard Ushiwaka.

After almost 8 months of befriending you, he finally weaseled into your relationship! And Ushiwaka was so whipped for you he let it happen!

But at that point, he was so whipped for you that he didn't even care that they shared you!

Your guy’s dynamic is a bit twisted and hard to get a good understanding of.

Where Tooru makes it painfully aware to everyone that the two of you are dating, Wakatoshi is like a silent predator

He’s silent but deadly, and you’ve known him for far longer. That means he knows what you really like.

It's simple, he let’s tooru take you on extravagant dates and all that meaningless stuff.

But Ushiwaka is always there waiting at home to cuddle and watch a ton of movies with, he even lets you climb on him and cuddle him like a big teddy bear

Nsfw

This is one of the pairs that I think you're fucked in

It’s a silent competition of who can wreck you worse

Unlike some other Oikawa pairs, I truly believe that Oikawa would top

But Wakatoshi is also a top, a big man who has big needs

This ends up with you most likely with a two cocks one hole situation

If not that, it's the classic split roasts or Eiffel tower!

Oh to have Ushiwaka reaming you with Tooru in your mouth, yeah it's not as peaceful and soft as it sounds

But it’s still worth it

It starts softly! Then they go harder to try and beat the other! Then they really just treat you like a fleshlight.

Thankfully Tooru knows good aftercare techniques

But you still can’t walk for a while

“You can cum for me, show Toshi why you like better, go ahead”  

“You stretch so good for me, even after Tooru’s turn, you're always so tight”

“Look at her little clit, did Ushiwaka not pay enough attention to it? That’s ok! Tooru’s gonna make it all better for you!”

Hanamaki Takahiro & Matsukawa Issei

sfw 

Let's be real here, you met them at a spencers or a sex shop in a mall.

But it was a cute meetup!

After that, you guys just seemed to keep bumping into each other and became close friends

The initial relationship was started by Makki, he was the more open of the two so it made sense

And it’s been smooth sailing from then on

The amount of inside jokes you guys have is almost ridiculous, everywhere you go in the city you have a joke

You guys spend almost every waking moment with one another

One of their favorite things is to take you shopping, so you can do a little fashion show for them with anything you want to try on!

As in them make you try on revealing outfits for them

Dates normally would include random dinners at restaurants them a movie night/ sleepover

Like you guys would just stay up an fool around for hours on hours

They literally have no problems sharing and are always making sure you're perfectly ok with everything they do.

Nsfw

As expected you guys are very adventurous

Daddy Matsun got you and Makki covered

Well that's when Makki isn't trying to ream you into the couch

They both like toys, like a lot, a lot

Punishment is where the toys really shine, but you can't really call the toy punishment, punishment because you feel really good during it.

And it the most repeated thing you guys do

Mattsun’s the punishment dealer, so he’ll give you the biggest dildo that you guys have, no lube, he’ll tie your arms up and make you try to get down on it

BUT if he’s feeling a bit more punishing, he’ll set up a vibrator and set it to your little clit and turn it ALLLL the way up

But if that isn't enough, he will either let Makki in your ass, or the fuck machine will come out

They really love watching you try to get off, it does two things

1-  it gives them new ideas

2- it shows how much you need them, and their cocks in your little aching holes

This lead to them having you wear plugs in public, which moved to wearing a vibrator

Sometimes, they make you wear a mask, but under the mask

(come here)

(closer)

(closer)

They make you wear a ball gag under your mask

Good babies do what their daddies tell them too <3

“Look ‘Kawa, her hole is so tight she can barely fit both of us, just relax baby. They’ll get in, we’ll make sure of it”

“Makki, spread her legs wider, don't let her his from this”

“Don't make me gag you brat, you’re lucky Makki is in good mood, huh?”

Suna Rintaro & Osamu Miya

The way you got together was like love at first sight  

For both of them too

You met Osamu first, you were seated next to him at an Italian cooking class

You guys had joked around and he was so impressed by your cooking that he got your number!

(he won't tell you but he had already sent pictures of you to Suna, and he was doing it allllllllll night)

He immediately invited you to Onigiri Miya, where you met Mr. Rintarou

Who was already practically in-love with you just from pictures.

You were clearly drawn to them, they were so cool!

They made a big scene of asking you out too

They both took you to one of the best restaurants in the city and had a private balcony dinner

After dessert they took both of your hands and asked you, in sync nonetheless, you do wonder how long it took for them to figure out how to do that

Clearly, you said yes, and that was the first of the many great memories you have with the two!

Since they both have pretty busy schedules they can't always come to you, so you go to them!

Even if they assured you that you didn't have to work, that never stops you from taking up shifts and Onigiri Miya on Monday and Fridays, (sometimes on Wednesdays if Osmau relents)

Even when you do work, you make time to make and bring Suna lunch every time he has all day practice

(you make them both lunch every day, but they can get it themselves, they are grown men, and you serve no one)

Traditional dates are less common, you guys mostly just like to hang out with each other

Like 3 am cooking challenges and asking to get ice cream from the shop down the road

You guys also, when you can, just spend hours cuddling in your bed or on the couch just in each other's arms

(can you tell i’m uwu-ing)

Nsfw

For having a busy schedule you guys sure do have time to fuck

A common theme is having Samu fuck you when Suna watches

God, watching you fall apart around his best friends dick will never get old, so so pretty when you're all fucked out and begging for him too

Sometimes hell have you suck him off, but he isn't unstable he can wait his turn~

Osamu works just as hard as he does, he has to let oust some stress and, you're just so good at making them feel better

Remember the cuddling?

Yes, that's a guise to cockwarm you, let them relax you always feel so good and today was s stressful

I can tell you saw this coming but, Suna likes to put whipped cream all over you, it gives him an excuse to eat you out for hours and Osamu and excuse to have you naked and able to eat as much whipped cream as he wants

Do they like double penn.?

Yes, very much so ma’am.

Just know that you are stuffed at any available moment they can manage

*cough*  whipped  *cough*

“look she’s grinding into like a circus whore huh ‘Samu? go harder” 

“look into the camera baby, tell them all the things you’d love for them to do to you” 

Iwaizumi & Kyoutani

This was an interesting one for sure

A senpais pretty girlfriend thing too

Iwaizumi knew Mad Dog had a crush on you before he did, and he did everything in his power to deny the accusation

The entire team could see how the second year was calm and behaved when you were around, so taking the high road

Iwaizumi came a with a plan: bring you and Kyotani as close as possible

All with consent firm you and knowing he was ok with anything that would happen

Suddenly inviting him to hang out with the two of you

Then it was letting him have you in his lap while you watch movies

And that progressed into letting him cuddle you after bad days, never  without Iwa of course

Everyone on the team could tell the effects that it was having on him, he was calmer and easier to get along with.

He even started listening to Oikawa when he spoke, it was like a miracle.

And k\Kyotani finally got enough courage to tell you!

(you had pretty much known, but wanted him to say it himself)

Thus began what I would call that “Kyotani learns how to love” saga

Dates were first, they both took you to a small field of flowers to have a picnic and when it got dark out you guys set up a sheet and watched a movie!

For the both of them being temperamental, they got along really well

(mostly because Kyotani hangs off nay words you or Iwaizumi say)

You also make the both of them lunch and some afternoon snacks for practice!

(and if anyone who sees you guys, they’ll never mention how odd the two angry boys look next to their sweet little princess)

Nsfw

Sir Iwaizumi holds the torch

He’s the main dominant force, though Kyotani tries oh he does

Yeah, hate to say it but you bottom for them, every time.

A big thing is when he lets Kyo get you alone (while he watches)

Yeah maybe he lets kyo take over every once in a while, he’ll let him have you

Iwaizumi love having you under him, putting you in the mating press while Kyo watches from a chair a vibrator tied to him, just watching until Iwa finishes and leys Kyo try and breed you

You guys have also dedicated hours to getting you stretch enough to take both of them in one hole, but if not that then one hole for each of them will do

As you could imagine, they both love marking you up

You always come out of sex looking beat up

Most of the bruises are on your neck and inner thighs, but the bites on your nipples and the curve of your ass beg to differ

Now the real question is when Kyo is being bad!

Feathery kisses all over him, that's not where he wants your mouth, lower go lower

Don’t leave him!

He always learns his lessons after hours of waiting Iwa breed you

You being bad?

No cumming for a week, they can play with you but unless you want the time to get longer you don’t even think about orgasming.

“Calm down Kentaro, it’s too early to break her, we just got started.”

“Yeah i let Hajime have you but you still belong to me too, don’t forget that”

Kita Shinsuke  & Aran Ojiro

This was the perfect girl next door story!

Middle school aran was so thankful to have you calm him down after yet another Miya twins episode

So as the two of you grew up it was natural that you became friends with his friends!

Namely his bestfriends- Kita!

Who was practically at your feet the second you met

From first to third year, they both grew to REALLY like you

They were both ready to spend the rest of their lives with you and were prepared to share if you wanted that.

The day you guys all got together was when they lost to Karasuno at nationals

You guys went back you the hotel room and just sat, cooing how well they did and how great they were no matter the outcome

It wasn't out of the normal for them to be all over you, both of them got a hand, but Aran was nestled into your lap and Kita was snuggled into your chest

Nothing was planned either, at that moment they knew that it was their chance!

The look on their faces when you said that you felt the same!

From then on you were treated even more like a queen

Every Monday before school one of them gets you a bouquet of flowers for the week and the other comes up with a date idea!

You're involved in the dates cycle and that now have a pile of stuffed animals that you got them from things like festivals or the mall

Since your relationship started with a cuddle, it's a favorite between you guys

A movie and some take out. Making fun of the Miya twins, and when Kita won’t admit it, you guys watch a rom-com, where you and Aran laugh at Kita's confused face when he doesn't understand the joke

Even with all of that, the real favorite between you guys is staying after practice and just having fun while cleaning up.

They just wuvvv uuuuuuuuu <3

Nsfw

Even if Kita is the commanding voice, Aran id the driving force

Kita likes when you two put on a show for him

Not that it's hard, even if Aran wasn't half as good as he was, your faces could satisfy him until his dying days.

Speaking of shows, Kita is a dictator, which means punishments

One of his favorites is having you finger fuck yourself in front of him and Aran until you can't move

Another is tying you up at having you watch the both of them jerk off to seeing you try and get off by grinding on the sheets (which does not work)

Aran, whether he admits it or not, he took a page out of Suna’s book

His entire hidden photo album is of you either being fucked by him or sucking Kita off

He also has an entire recorded version do you guys fucking that he and Kita watch when you aren't home

When Kita does have you to himself he takes on the Dom/Sub kinda thing

Aka borderline pet play

You sit and listen to him and what he says like a good pet, and you get a reward!

He dresses you up in little white dresses and he has you kneel in front of him and cockwarm him while he works

When Aran has you alone he takes the chance toooooo

….

…

…

..

Breed you!

Like a good little girl!

You take his cum so so well, don't you!

Yes yes, you do!

“Don’t let her walk all over you Aran, breed her like a good cow” (i had to, I really did)

“You look so pretty stretched around my cock, you're a good breeding whore, right? Yes, you are!” 

Oikawa Tooru & Tobio Kageyama

This was a classic “in love with my senpais pretty girlfriend” kinda thing

Kags didn't mean to

He had known you from middle school and had a huge crush on you, but he knew that was as far as it would go

But when you came up to him after the game with seijoh and told him that he would have better luck next time

It was the hug that got him and in true Kageyama fashion he just couldn't help the words that fell from his mouth

“Thank you, you're still really pretty, and I've always loved you!”

Silence………………………………….

He couldn't even apologize because Oikawa was already on you yelling at him about never letting you near Kageyama again.

Yeah you had calmed both of them down, telling Tooru that he was overreacting and Kageyama was harmless to your relationship

After a few days of silence, you had invited Kageyama to have a “talk” with you and Oikawa

It was really just talking about feelings and ultimately Oikawa admitting that he was willing to give it a try, but you were his first and foremost and that won’t change

But you were quick to realize that they were actually really good together

The rivalry between the two always kept you on your toes and fueled both of their superiority complexes

Dates were always happening all the time, anther constant competition for you to like one of them better than the other

It's mostly movies and take out but its a date nonetheless

One thing they love to do is try to teach you how to play, all the time they try to get you to hit their sets

Even if you're awful at it, they appreciate you trying to learn more about their greatest passion.

You also try to go to as many of their practices as you can manage, they really love having you there to cheer them on!

Nsfw

Ok so at first Kageyama had absolutely no idea what to do, so some exploring was mandatory

Finding out he was a switch was a happy surprise!

That leads to things going two ways!

You could have Tooru taking his throne in the bedroom and he commands his two peasants to do exactly what he wants them too

This can include just regular soft sex with your little tobio gazing and longing for him, while tooru watches

Or

Tooru will have the two of you grinding, Tobio with a cock ring and you a strict order to no cum until told.

Or maybe he’ll have the two of you ride dildos, tied up and making a pretty show for him

Or you could have Tobio dictating both of you

This is mostly having you ride him while Toru watches, but he can't touch

It also might be Tooru eating you out and kags in your mouth, fucking your face. <3

Whenever either of the boys wins something you take all the time in the world and worship him as he deserves!

“Aw! Tobio I know you can go faster than that! Oh ho ho, ~ y/n I know you aren't about to cum! I didn't give you the go-ahead! Hold on, baby!”

“Tooru you look so weak. You haven't even touched her and you're ready to cum.”

“You look so pretty under me, Tobio~ let me and Tooru take care of you!”  

[fnaf-a-palooza]

First of all, I like your stuff! Not a lot of people write for FNAF (Understandably tbh) - Anyways, what do you think the funtimes would be as yanderes? they are quite a few characters so you can just do Baby if it's too much, no pressure!

Thank you for your kind words! It means a lot. Yeah, I've noticed not many people write for FNAF as well which is a little unfortunate,,, but it's okay.

Again, thank you; you're very kind! Also, I have already done some writing for what Funtime Foxy, Bon Bon, and Bonnet would be like as yanderes, so I'll just do the rest of the funtimes! 😊

Warning: Yandere Themes

Circus Baby is an extremely cunning yandere who manages to fool her darling for the longest time before you can catch on to her unhealthy behavior. Also note that she is aware of these not so healthy habits and behaviors, but thinks that they're necessary and she's in the right. She can turn the tables in her favor, should anything come out of place to ruin everything. Manipulation and guilt tripping are the most common methods she will use against you to have her way. In her mind, she believes that she is the only who knows what's best for you. It's not that she thinks you aren't capable of such a thing; she just knows better and loves you so much. Just let her do this for you. Baby won't go too far unless necessary, but she isn't exactly merciful when it comes to people who try to harm you. Oh, don't worry; no one will figure it out it was her. Why would they? Baby has always put up a polite and charming facade towards others, so it wouldn't make sense she would behind this. It'll be difficult to escape a grasp like hers.

I wouldn't say Ballora was completely delusional, but she does have the tendency to have delusions every now and then. Especially when it comes to her darling. She does not start obsessing over you immediately, but it is a slow process that gets quicker once she sees how good of a person you are. You're such a kind soul, constantly surrounded by those who could probably taint you. Knowing you are out and about in a world full of such vile people; it deeply concerns her. Ballora is not the type to try and control you and your life because she knows how it feels to be trapped behind the walls of solitude. It's suffocating. She would never want you to feel that sort of pain. So, in order to keep her mind at ease, she does her best to drive away any problems and steer you away from anything that could harm you. Ballora is on the tamer side of the yandere spectrum and does not use violence as an option; knowing other ways to deal with obstacles. It's so... Chilling in a way. How she manages to make it seem like you're making these decisions, even though it's her intention.

Nothing is too subtle when it comes to Funtime Freddy and his emotions. You'll already know that he has taken a liking towards you in the beginning, but you probably won't figure out that it runs deeper unless you look more into it. He gets so excited when he spots you anywhere and it will always seem like he's clinging to you in some way. He can't help it though, you're someone special to him. Everyone usually reminds him to settle down once in a while because his over excitement can seem aggressive and too forward to some; maybe to the point where it drives people away. This is something that Freddy fears the most and will constantly have a need to ask if you will truly stay by his side. Please say you will. He can't take it anymore; being so alone. You have to promise or he'll just whisk you away from those who are being a bad influence on you.

Funtime Chica can be a bit smothering when it comes to loving you and she truly does love you so so so much! She knows it's selfish to keep your attention on her when you have family and friends, but the creeping fear of you pushing her to the side is too much for her. It takes up her thoughts and clouds any judgement. Chica finds a way to keep an eye on you whenever she can, just to ease her mind, but at some point that won't be enough. Sooner or later, she'll start taking things and maybe... Even make herself the only person you can rely on. She has to, or else it'll get ugly and she desperately does not want it to go that direction. There is a good chance she will kidnap you. It is a way for her to make sure she's the center of your attention. Again, she knows it's selfish, but in all honesty, she doesn't care. Chica feels like she has a right to be after everything that was taken from her. Now, she has you; someone so perfect and she can not let anything or anyone take you away from her.

Like Springtrap, Ennard is also a dangerous yandere to have on your trail. He is somewhat delusional but also clingy once he has gained an obsession over you. By that time, he won't reveal himself until he deems it's okay. Till then, he will be stalking you wherever you go and observe your every movement. Sometimes he'll even play with the chance of you finding out, but he always backs out when you're getting close. It's almost scary to think about it. Going back to him being clingy; it ties in with the insecurity of others being afraid of him or not accepting him. Over the course of time Ennard has stalked you, he grows very protective of you to the point where you notice some people are going missing. Most notably people you have either known or just encountered, but you don't get to try figuring that out because you have suddenly been snatched away. Ennard had grown impatient and paranoid to the point where he believed it was necessary to take you. Don't worry, he won't hurt you, but he will lash out to those who try to take you. He just wants someone to love him, so why don't you just stay with him forever?

[death2normalcy]

a (possibly controversial) post about my opinions on which hair styles/colors i love and don’t love on the boys

disclaimer - i am one person. this is just my opinion. my opinion does not matter, at all, in the grand scheme of things and affects nothing. i think the boys are beautiful and gorgeous, no matter what. i’m just bored and procrastinating doing life stuff, so i wanted to make a random list. thank you for your time, lol.

another disclaimer - this started as one post, as they always do, but now each boy gets their own post and i’m just going to randomly rate some of their hair styles/colors

bang chan

most favorite

the easiest one, since his dark brown hair in it’s natural curly, fluffy state is his peak hair style and color. 100/10

his bright orange hair. it’s not my favorite, i think it’s just too orange, lol. but i love how bright it is, at the same time. i can’t explain it, honestly. 7/10

blonde and fluffy, with curls. another peak look, honestly. it suits him so well. 11/10

silver hair. honestly, i love it. i just wish it wasn’t straightened. that’s gonna be a common theme with me though. his hair just loses points when it’s straightened, i’m sorry. 8/10

his 3 colored hair for In Life. a top tier look, but i bet it was a bitch to keep up with, lmao. but stunning. 10/10

this look. we didn’t see much of his blue hair in it’s natural curly state, which is a crime, because i love this. i also love how faded it is here, giving it this pastel/soft look. 10/10

this color and styling from red lights. i don’t hate it. it’s just not a top look for me. i do love the color though. 8/10

this look was so good. i love that dark red over his dark hair. i love that his hair isn’t completely straightened. 9/10

this look and color. it’s so soft and pretty, i love it. we should have gotten more of this. 8/10

this hair from their my pace era. how much of this is his natural curls and how much is styled that way? i don’t hate it, but my thoughts are complicated 7/10

the blue hair with the dark roots. there was so many different variations of this, as the blue faded, was reapplied, faded, etc. it’s not my favorite bright color from him, since the red was top tier. but it’s still a great color. i preferred it with the darker roots showing. 8/10

least favorite

listen. whatever this is. it’s not even the color, necessarily. its the styling. it just doesn’t work for me. 3/10, because i don’t hate the dark blonde

this look from the circus promo. again, the color isn’t the problem, nor are the dipped ends. it’s the style. i just don’t think this style looks good on him. 3/10

listen. this one has two things against it. the color is my least favorite on him. i don’t hate it, but it’s the most boring of all his hair colors and it doesn’t nothing for him. and i also hate when his hair is straightened. so, 2/10

[headcans-oneshots-and-stuff]

Club ‘Illusion’

Fandom: DC x Marvel Pairing: Avenger x Batfam | Reader x Loki Word count: 3k (yes I can still write things over 1.5k words) Summay: With your hero work taking up most of your time you decide to find an outlet - that outlet turns out to be your own soon to be opened club. On the V.I.P. list for that evening? Two of the most important groups of people in your life. The only problem: they have yet to meet each other, not to mention the little fact that you’ve been keeping not just the club a secret... Requested by a universal fantastic Anon: If requests are still open, can I request a BatBoys x reader x Avengers where both teams meet through reader and fight because they were talking about which team reader likes more? Pairing would be your choice.

“Where does this go, boss?” a man in a dungaree holding a box full of musical equipment, chords and the like asked you and interrupted the conversation you were having with the DJ. “Bring it up these stairs there and then set it onto the black clothed table, Marianne will be there in a minute, could you help her set it up? “Sure thing boss,” the man nodded and trudged over to the direction you had waved him to. You turned back to Marianne - the mentioned DJ - who had been your friend for years and she was the first person you had hired when you had decided to take the advice of your Avengers issued therapist and find an outlet for your creativity and passion outside of your time-consuming hero work all over the planet and the universe. So you decided to use your funds from years of getting paid by Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne (even though you continued telling them you didn’t want their money) to do something fun and - in the spirit of a certain green-themed archer - open a nightclub. You had kept everything under wraps, the only people knowing about it were the contractors, decorators and Marianne and they all pledged secrecy, but tonight you would lift the metaphorical curtain. With the Avengers and Waynes (including non-Wayne-named) invited and the news about this new club opening all over social media doing the rest you were positively sure that tonight would be a great night. “Y/N?” Marianne’s voice ripped you out of your daydreams and you had to shake your head free of other thoughts and focus back onto the matter at hand, with last touches still having to be made. “Uhm- yeah, sorry, I was lost in thoughts.” “Don’t worry, I’m sure everything will go just fine. Look around you, this place is amazing, everyone did such an amazing job,” she complimented and you couldn’t help but follow her advice and actually take a look around.The room was very spacious and even though it was almost empty except the worker getting ready for tonight and a few others who helped set some stuff up. In the middle was a lower dance area with small sets of steps leading up, the floor in a chess pattern, but neon techni-coloured instead of black and white, all around that area were booths to sit in and on the far end of the room, a bit off of the dance-ground were two circular bars that were fully stocked with every drink you could ever need or want. On the other end was a stage for life-performances and ten feet above that was a sort of balcony that served as the DJ-booth with a view over the entire club. And yet again on the other side, above the bars, was a V.I.P. room which was a bit more soundproof and where a conversation could be actually held, with a one-way-mirror facing the club. The way the lights reflected off the surfaces and the sound carried through the space really confirmed what Marianne had said, the place was pretty amazing. “You’re right, you’re right, I’m sorry,” you took a deep calming breath and smiled. “Yes I am, but now we gotta get going, I’ll be up in the booth if you need me. You better give the final briefing to the staff,” she instructed before turning around and walking away. Deciding that taking her advice was the best course of action you went to go to the staff room, when Marianne called out to you yet again, shouting after you: “Don’t forget that you gotta be getting ready in an hour, your special guest should be arriving around then.”

The evening was starting to greet the people and the sun had started to disappear a few minutes ago when a group of five and a group of six gathered before a clearly newly constructed building - a club - with the name ‘Illusion’ in enlightened letters on the front. A long line of interested people, mostly young adults around 25, stretched before what seemed to be the entrance, but it seemed to still be closed. Both of the groups looked around a little bit confused, but they didn’t notice each other, or at least found nothing suspicious about the other. Now, if you were to take a very close look at both of these groups beside each other you’d find a lot of similarities, like - for example - the redeemed ‘bad-guy’ who now acted as professional sarcastic commentator, the goofball with a history in circus, the genius, philanthropist, playboy billionaire and the bad-ass tech-savvy red-head. Not to mention all of their past-time ‘hobbies’. And yet, with all these great intellect and talent collected in front of the club, they did not seem to be able to figure out what they were doing there or that there was another group in just about the same situation. The doors to the club opened and a bouncer and two servers walked out, the bouncer stationating himself before the entrance and starting to check people in, and the two servers looking around for a second before catching sight of the groups. They exchanged a few words before each of them walked over to the collection of people. The group from New York was brought over to the front entrance, allowed to skip the line and enter the club, while the Gotham-group was brought in through the back-entrance, but even though the place where they entered the club was different, they were yet both stil led to the same room, up above the bars behind a one-way-mirror.

You had changed into your sparkle-y, y/f/c outfit with make-up that would glow in the ultraviolet light that would shine all over the club later and your hair in a fashionable hairdo, perfectly prepared for your great night, with Marianne’s outfit mirroring yours just in different colours. With a clipboard you made your last round through the different areas, checking in with your staff and manager to make sure that everything would go flawless and that they could come to you with questions or if they needed help - if necessary you yourself would change into the gender-neutral uniform and start serving people. In the end the last area you had to check before meeting your special guests in the V.I.P. area was the DJ booth. “Everything good?” you asked, enjoying the last moments of relative silence before the booming music would start as you leant over the balcony railing and eyed your own little business. “Yes, I tried it out during soundcheck earlier while you were getting dressed, it’s some sweet equittement you got here, a Dream,” Marianne sighed in bliss and you could see how happy she was to be able to work with this equipment that had certainly cost enough to deserve that demeanor from her. “You know, if you like it this much, I could use a full-time DJ,” you tried to mention as nonchalant as possible, but you could feel her piercing, unbelieving gaze in your neck. “Are you serious? I thought you had employed one over a month ago. I thought tonight was a one-time-thing.” “Oh well, I did talk to one but then I listened to some of his stuff and compared to you it’s like a ten years old project on garage band. But don’t worry, I get it, you’re right. I’m sure you have way better gigs lined up left and right, I’ll find someone,” you shrugged, a little bit disappointed that Marianne didn’t seem even remotely interested in working full-time, only to be stopped when she grabbed your shoulders and began to almost shake you. “Are you kidding, I would love to work here full-time!!! This job would be a dream: the equipment, the atmosphere, my employer! DJ’s would kill for an opportunity like this. That’s why I was so confused, I thought you’d have plenty of better DJs lining up for this job,” she gushed before hugging you close and almost sobbing with happiness and thanking you for this opportunity. You agreed that you’d talk the details over later before telling her to start the music since people started to walk in and you could see a certain group of Heroes being led by one of your bar-women walking towards the left stairs to the V.I.P. room and another group of vigilantes led by one of the security-members being brought to the elevator on the right side to exactly the same room. “Okay, I gotta go, Got me some guests waiting,” you winked at Marianne who just waved you off, too immersed in her element. With quick steps and a happy smile you walked along the side of the room and followed where you saw the Avengers walk up, a little skip in your step. Honoring your word, both groups had been brought into the V.I.P. area which was big enough for them to both sit inside it without having to sit together, with the security guard taking position at the wall and the bar-women at the small, private bar. Another calming sigh later you opened the door and walked into the room immediately catching the eyes of all occupants of the room and as you nodded at your two employees in thanks, both groups of superheroes had stood up to greet you, seemingly only now realizing the presence (or rather the reason of the presence) of each other. “Hello guys, it’s so nice to have you here,” you greeted all 11 with a big gesture before mentioning to the window, “So, what do you think?” Confused eyes found you and they looked between each other and you, only one pair standing out, but seemingly not ready to reveal themselves properly yet. “It looks amazing,” Stephanie, who somehow managed to look perfectly club-fitting even in her casual clothes with her blond hair laying over her shoulder in a braid, and jumped towards you and engulfed you in a sisterly hug like she always did, “How did you get us in? I saw the adverts for this place all over social media and the line was enormous. Do you know the owner?” You held back a chuckle and laid your head to the side. “You could say so,” you gave her a cheeky smile that she couldn’t quite decipher, before turning to face the complete group, “But first things first, introduction.” Since both of the groups were still standing separately enough to be distinguished between you motioned to the Waynes. “May I introduce my somewhat-adopted-not-legally-but-emotionally-family. This is Bruce Wayne - I bet you all have heard of him - these are his sons, Richard Grayson - you can call him Dick - and Jason Todd, and his daughter Stephanie - or Steph - Brown and close family friend Barbara Gordon,” you motioned to each of them in turn with their names and they nodded in greeting at the others, still unknown to them. Then you turned to the others and said: “And may I introduce to you my first ever superhero team slash found family group also known as the Avengers - or rather a view of them anyways. Here we have Tony Stark - I’m sure you heard of him too, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton, our two super soldiers Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes and the trickster god himself - Loki.” “Wait, Loki-Loki? The ‘battle-of-New-York’ Loki?” Jason asked in a surprised, but also amused manner and you could almost hear Loki roll his eyes. “Oh please, get over it Mortal,” he answered sarcastically, but before you could intervene Stephanie took her turn. “Oh you’re one to talk Jay, let’s not forget that.” You couldn’t help but giggle a bit at that and even though the Avengers seemed confused at how easily that shut Jason up, they accepted it as the end of that part of the conversation. For a few minutes the gathered people - a few of your favorite people in the world - started making their own introductions and you were happy that you saw them get along well. Waiting for a good opportunity to get into the conversation and get back to what you wanted to tell them, you were stopped from taking it when Dick motioned at Loki’s outfit. A deep-green suit, black dress-shirt under it, a golden tie, black hair slicked back and black asgardian armor boots - putting that certain touch to it - adorned him and you couldn’t blame Dick when he stated: “How comes none of us got a warning that we’d need to wear something fancy, but he did?” It was only now that the people who had come there with Loki had noticed his outfit and it was Tony who raised an eyebrow. “What happened to the grey jumper you said was ‘nice enough’ to be seen out with when you have to be out with us annoying mortals?” “Well, I can’t let Lady Y/N be the only one who shows that she has a sense of elegance and fashion in this despicable planet, can I now?” Loki answered sarcastically and now you wanted to roll your eyes at him calling you ‘Lady Y/N’, something you had told him to stop ages ago. “Loki isn’t actually wearing this,” you tried to clear things up, ignoring Loki’s remark, only to receive even more confusing looks, causing you to sigh. “Loki is a trickster god, he uses Illusions, he’s probably still in his Pajamas, he just makes it seem like he is wearing this.” Before anyone would start bombarding the god and you with questions, you took hold of  the conversation and used your stern hero voice to gain the attention. “Now I’m sure you’re all wondering why I invited my favorite people to a newly opened nightclub and like Stephanie has already mentioned, one that is hard to get into nonetheless. The reason is-” you made a pause to emphasize, “-that it is my club.” A wave of confused ‘what?’s hit you and you quickly explained: “Well, I needed to find another outlet than hanging around with other heroes and busting bad guys and after a talk with Oliver - he’s a friend from Starling city,” you explained for the Avengers, “I decided that opening a club was just what I needed. That’s the reason I was so absent the past few weeks, I was busy planning and employing and stuff, but from now on everything should run itself. I will be able to perfectly split my time into three for the club, hero work and friends and family.” “That’s so cool!” Stephanie squealed and gave you a high five and the others joined in congratulating you, telling you how amazing everything looked and that they were proud of you. “Boss?” a voice interrupted from behind you and you turned to see one of your staff members, “Could I talk to you for a second?”   “Excuse me for a bit, I gotta go and run my business,” you cheekily smiled and left your two favorite teams to make conversation as you and the women left through the door that lead to the stairs. “So what’s the matter? What can I he-” you were rudely interrupted when the women’s form morphed into a taller, sleeker one of a certain trickster and promptly continued to press you against the door you had just left through. “Well, well, look who’s getting impatient,” you giggled as he pressed a kiss to your jawline. That was another secret that you had kept from your teams and even from Marianne. Loki and you. If you were being quite honest you were not sure how the two of you became a thing, but somehow you did and now the two of you were waiting for the right moment to tell the rest of the team that you were a lot more than just colleagues. “Can you blame me? You should’ve told me about this, beloved, then I’d known that you were not growing sick of me. I was all worried when you kept on disappearing,” he muttered as he relished in the closeness with you. Slightly shocked at this you grabbed his broad shoulders and pushed him back slightly. “How could you ever think that, Loki? I love you, I could never grow sick of you,” you assured him and pressed a loving kiss to his lips. “That is very good to know, beloved, and I’ll make sure to remind you of that whenever you need,” he winked and you couldn’t help but giggle. “Okay, okay, but I think I have to go back now, we can pick this up again later.” You turned around and opened the door again only to catch what was being said. “We’re obviously her favorites, I mean this club is in New York, not Gotham, why do you think that is?” “Oh shut your mouth, that means nothing. You heard what she said, we’re her family, we’re her brothers and sisters. The Demon is the best proof of that.” “Which Demon?” “Oh please, she called us her family too. After all we got all the appeal of you, but we also have gods.” “She has dinner every second weekend with Superman, an amazonian goddess, the king of atlantis and a world-class magician.” “Well with us she has the world's strongest AI, a world class witch AND the sorcerer supreme, two timeless soldiers, the world's fastest man and the god of thunder.” “Oh please, our fastest man could beat your fastest man in his sleep, not to mention that we have multiple of them.” “Well then bring it on” After having heard enough you looked at Loki, back at the group - and the illusion Loki that was standing bored beside them - and back at Loki, before closing the door again. “You know what, I think I’ll just let them talk that over for a bit.” “Yeah, I think that would be best,” Loki agreed, but he was clearly amused. “What do you think they’ll do when they find out that I am actually your favorite?” he asked teasingly and snug his arms around your waist. “Honestly I’m not sure you’d survive that…”

[animeyanderelover]

I saw the immortal s/o ask for Sebastian and undertaker and I was wondering if you could do that but with Wendy and Peter (together) and dagger

Wow! I wrote some stuff about Dagger, but never about Wendy and Peter before. How exciting!

Warnings: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, delusions, paranoia suicidal mention, suicidal try

Immortal s/o

Wendy & Peter

🤸‍♀️It is definitely an advantage that you have Wendy in here. She’s the more caring and empathic than her partner here. She cares for your happiness and was worried when noticing how down you always looked. Peter was a bit different. Being the more harsh and possessive Yandere he acted like he didn’t care. But he did deep down.

🤸‍♀️Wendy tried to get their darling to talk to the both of them, being gentle about it. With her partner it looked a bit different. Peter was a lot more forceful with it, ready to use fear and a bit violence to get their s/o to just finally talk. He was fed up with their behavior. If it wouldn’t have been for Wendy he might have actually hurt them.

🤸‍♀️Peter is someone who prefers to keep you somewhere locked up, it makes him feel at ease. But Wendy was someone who wanted to be near you and wanted to go somewhere out with you. For that reason she sneaked into the circus wagon to get you out. And only seconds later the whole circus suddenly heard a terrified and shrill scream. Peter, instantly knowing that this was Wendy, knew that something must have happened and rushed towards the direction of the scream. As soon as he reached the wagon he already knew what Wendy had tried to do and stormed angrily in with the intention to yell at her and you. But his thoughts were thrown out of the window the moment he stepped in.

🤸‍♀️Wendy was crying and sobbing, sitting with their darling in her lap on the floor which looked nowhere near alive. Dark marks on their neck telling Peter instantly what had happened. At first he didn’t even know how to react. Wendy was a mess, in denial, crying and begging for you to wake up. And as soon as Peter snapped out of it he instantly ripped you out of Wendy’s arms and started shaking you and yelling at you to stop pretending and waking up. Wendy was clinging onto him, sobbing at him to stop. It took Peter a few seconds before the information that their darling was gone finally reached his brain. And that’s when he started crying as well.You were dead. At least for a few more seconds. That’s when it happened. The bruises on your neck started suddenly to pale, more and more until they were completely gone. And that’s when you suddenly shot up, coughing and gasping for air. Wendy and Peter on the other hand jumped startled back and let both a short scream out in progress.

🤸‍♀️The next moment Wendy was already hanging around your neck, crying and stuttering that she couldn’t believe that you were still alive. You on the other hand looked...sad and disappointed. Wendy was in that moment too overwhelmed with the fact that you weren’t dead. But Peter was more composed and the fact that you had just rises from the death told him pretty much everything.

🤸‍♀️Both of them are rather clueless about how to act that. You are immortal and they aren’t. And you still want to die? Especially Peter would has problems with this situation since he isn’t the most sympathetic guy. Wendy on the other hand will have an easier time here. She’s rather soft with you. Their past wasn’t very pretty. But they could die if they wanted too and you can’t. So both of them will have a hard time to try to at least try to understand you.

🤸‍♀️Wendy will keep Peter’s actions under a close watch. You’re immortal, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t nearly have a heart attack when seeing you once again. And given Peter’s rather impulsive nature she’s afraid that he will use that to his advantage or say something wrong to you which might trigger you to try again. Peter is sadly really someone who might use that to his advantage if he’s angered enough. After that incident he will try to hold back with his temper. You can’t be left alone anymore. That’s something both of them agree with. Wendy will get to spend more time with you after this because she really doesn’t trust Peter with you. And as frustrating as it is, Peter understands that. Whilst Wendy focuses more on helping you getting mentally at least a bit better, Peter focuses more on getting rid of everyone who makes you upset.

Dagger

🗡Dagger is sadly a delusional one and it is rather easy to trick him into believing that his darling is happy. When they look sad he’ll be sad too, but if his darling is good at pretending he’ll most likely remain oblivious to what is really going on.

🗡If he ever noticed that his darling seemed empty he instantly took it as a sign that he hadn’t given them enough attention and love which would most likely end in him smothering his s/o even more in affection.

🗡You might think that you’ll be able to do it with a knife? You’re wrong. Dagger keeps every sharp objects out of your way, scared that you might accidentally cut yourself. He was sure nothing would ever harm you. That was at least until he came one day home and didn’t find you in your room. He freaked out and instantly started searching for you. Maybe you were in the bathroom? He slammed the door open and instantly noticed how the whole bathtub was filled to the brink with water. But no sign from you. Only when he stepped closer he saw you. Completely motionless laying on the ground of the bathtub. You looked so awfully peaceful.

🗡Dagger on the other hand freaked out, instantly pulling you out of the water and trying to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But it didn’t work. You weren’t breathing, nor had you a heartbeat. And he had only been gone for less than an hour! He just bursted out in tears, not wanting to accept it. A world without his darling was not a world he wanted to live in. He just sat there, crying whilst rocking with your corpse back and forth. That was at least until he suddenly felt you shifting inside his arms.

🗡He pulled surprised away. You on the other hand were startled that he had seen all of this and tried to get away. But that wasn’t anywhere in Dagger’s plans. Overjoyed would be an understatement about how he felt when he saw that you were still alive. In that moment it wouldn’t even come to his mind to what had just happened. Only later on he would realize that you had been dead only to come back to life shortly after. And that’s when things will get really bad.

🗡Dagger is a delusional and sees his darling already as perfection. So when finding out that you’re immortal? You just gave him a reason to obsess even more. You must be some kind of angel. Dagger doesn’t even understand why you would ever think about doing something like this. Someone perfect and beautiful like you deserves to live more than any other human on this planet.

🗡Dagger is one of the most terrible to deal with this. He still adores you, but his paranoia will increase after this and he will chain you to the bed in order to prevent you from trying this again. If he frees you from the chains he won’t let you alone anymore and even follows you to the toilet. He’ll feed you, bath you, dress you up. He does everything. He wants to make you realize how beautiful and perfect you are and thinks by doing this he’ll reach that goal. He already didn’t let you under other people before, but now it has just gotten worse. He views them as the fault why you even became this way and can’t see how amazing you are. An increased paranoia like he’s makes quite the high body count. One wrong glance is already enough to trigger him.

[nightcoremoon]

it's evident people haven't watched enough kids media to adequately understand just what constitutes a kids show as opposed to a show that kids can watch and be entertained by

when I was a kid I watched king of the hill and blues clues (among other things). king of the hill is NOT a kids show by any stretch of the imagination; it is an adult animation, replete with fairly heavy subject matter, sexual themes, political humor, cultural references that kids won't understand, discussion of religion in the modern day, depression and suicidal thoughts, adultery, puberty and sexual awakenings, body image, propane, propane accessories, and ultimately above all else what it means to be family. and blues clues is a show about a man who plays with a shovel & pail, talks to his condiments and mailbox, and sometimes he teleports into the felt dimension, all while playing Sherlock Holmes hercule poirot with his dog, and teaching kids how to count and draw and recognize colors and learn their ABCs. do you see the fucking difference? no? then I'll make it more clear.

dora the explorer & go diego go, mickey mouse clubhouse, handy manny, octonauts, bob the builder, super why, wild kratts, zoboomafoo, jojo's circus, wow wow wubbzy, stanley, doc mcstuffins, max & ruby, wonder pets, bubble guppies, ni hao khai lan, backyardigans, little einsteins, caillou (ugh) and p*w p*trol (double ugh), these are all undeniably kids shows. their audience is children (and the occasional adult by age with severe intellectual disabilities) and maybe the parents whose brains are too fried to care what's on the tv. these shows main purpose is to educate while entertaining on subjects one would encounter in preschool and kindergarten. counting 1-10, ABCs, basic color, basic language, basic intrapersonal skills, basic emotional literacy, problem solving, using your imagination, what sounds do animals make, breaking the fourth wall to ask the audience to answer what's 2+2 or tell them a lesson they learned today like I LEARNED TO NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER or some simple message like that. it's always light, there's no edgelord grimdark "what if they were dead the whole time" bullshit. it's just good clean simple wholesome [except for paw patrol] programs for kids to be distracted for a little bit of time, while also letting them walk away having said they learned something. at least half of the time dedicated to every single one of these shows is devoted to the same shit over and over again. I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map WE FUCKING GET IT YOURE THE MAP! backpack backpack I'm the backpack loaded up with things and knickknacks too, anything that you might need I've got inside for you. we did it we did it we did it HOORAY! come on vamanos everybody let's go, come on let's get to it, I know that we can do it,

WHERE ARE WE GOING

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

THESE SONGS ARE BURNED INTO MY BRAIN AND THEYLL BE STUCK IN MY HEAD UNTIL I DIE

say click take a pic, the hot dog dance, CAN HE FIX IT???, pizza! spaghetti!, THE DOC IS IN AND SHELL FIX YOU UP, max & ruby ruby & max max & ruby ruby & max MAX & RUBY RUBY & MAX MAX & RUBY RUBY & MAX, wonder pets wonder pets we're on our way to help the friend and save the day, we're not too big and we're not too tough but when we work together we've got the right stuff, goooOOO WONDER PETS YAAAAY~, yoooour backyard friends the backyardigans (weve got the whole wide world in our yard to explore, thATS WHY EVERY DAY WEEEEERE BACK FOR MOOOORE), were going on a trip in our little rocket ship SOARING THROOOOOUGH THE SKY!!! little einsteins!

I swear to god I've been forced to watch so much children's television in my life it's no wonder there's no room left for serotonin executive function or the ability to speak to morons

point is I know my way around kids shows. my sisters were born in 98, 02, 05, 06, 10, and 18, I think, I don't even know because they're all a blur, I'm literally closer in age to my parents than to my youngest sibling, I never stopped being exposed to kids shows. I know what is and is not a kids show.

adventure time? not a kids show even though kids watch it. it's a "for everyone" show. it's got a target audience of 100% of the planet. steven universe? not a kids show even though kids watch it. miraculous ladybug? not a kids show even though kids watch it. scooby doo? not a kids show even though kids watch it. I'm not discussing the history of adult acceptance of animation, adult animation, or anime, so don't ask. dexter's laboratory. the grim adventures of billy & mandy. codename kids next door. teen titans. fairly oddparents. kim possible. invader zim. AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER. totally spies. courage the cowardly dog. the proud family. SPONGEBOB F*ING SQUAREPANTS. powerpuff girls. foster's home for imaginary friends. oh yeah you know what's coming next. my little goddamn pony friendship is mother fucking magic is not. a. kids. show. even though kids can watch it. it is a cartoon. it is an everyone show. that's why it's disingenuous and fucking stupid to decry any fan over the age of 7 as a pedophile and a weirdo creep; it participates in the infantilization of femininity. why is it ok for 20somethings to keep watching aang and squidward and finn & jake and zim and "return the slab" and everyone's totally fine wth that but when it's twilight sparkle suddenly everyone's like whoa you're a huge fucking loser for watching this girly wussy baby show for girly wussy babies. oh some bronies are sex crazed perverts? I'm sorry have you seen just how much porn there is for spongebob? oh some bronies are cringe? I'm sorry have you met half the steven universe fandom? oh some bronies are fascist rick sanchez kinnies with fedoras and katanas? BREAKING BAD FANS, HELLO!?!?!?

this is such a stupid tiring boring argument. maybe magic talking horses being friends and turning their friendship into magic rainbow nuclear fucking arms and blasting the evil out of a demon and turning her into the coolest fucking half-unicorn biker lesbian in the world is something that brings me, and adult, pure wholesome joy, in between bojack horseman and dark souls and breaking bad and deftones and fallout new vegas and jojo and cannibal corpse and other bleak depressing edgy shit that also brings me comfort. and MAYBE me at 16 starting to watch MLP:FIM becoming finally comfortable with the outward public expression of "traditionally feminine" interests is the main reason why I realized I was a girl when I did, and MAYBE I just like how pretty the colorful ponies look, AND MAYBE I KIN WITH ONE OR TWO OR EIGHT CHARACTERS, WHAT OF IT?

AND MAYBE ITS LITERALLY THE BEST LONG RUNNING FANTASY TV SERIES ON THE MARKET RIGHT NOW* SINCE GAME OF THRONES FUCKING SUCKS

but whatever, kids watch it sometimes so it's illegal for anyone who's not a kid to enjoy it, but only if it's something girly because liking girly things is bad because girliness is inherently bad, and the only things that are good have predominantly male casts*. right? right??? wrong, fucker. g4mlp has so much more in common with adventure time & atla than with blues clues or dora the fucking explora...r.

but keep in mind I'm saying this while hugging a blues clues plushie my grandma gave me for valentine's day because it reminds her of when I was a baby because I may not watch blues clues but it still means a lot to me for nostalgia and is 50% of the reason why I love ray charles. kids media isn't necessarily bad. I still do enjoy watching it with my little sisters. all this is is me being anal about categorization because I'm autistic and I LIVE for categorizing everything.

*besides atla obviously

[carlajuanascribbles]

WHY MEN LOVE BITCHES by Sherry Argov

CHAPTER 5: JUMPING THROUGH Hoops LIKE A CIRCUS POODLE (When Women Give Themselves Away and Become Needy)

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #43

If you allow your rhythm to be interrupted, you’ll create a void. Then, to replace what you give up, you’ll start to expect and need more from your partner.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #44

Most women are starving to receive something from a man that they needto give to themselves.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #45

A woman looks more secure in a man’s eyes when he can’t pull her away from her life, because she is content with her life.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #46

The second a woman works overtime to make herself fit his criteria, she has lowered the standard of that relationship.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #47

You jump through hoops any time you repeatedly make it very obvious you’re giving your “all.”

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #48

You have to keep from being sucked down into quicksand. Unless you maintain control over yourself, the relationship is doomed.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #49

Jumping through hoops often has a negative outcome: He sees it as an opportunity to have his cake and eat it, too. But when you stay just outside his reach, he’ll stay on his best behavior

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #50

The nice girl gives away too much of herself when pleasing him regularly becomes more important than pleasing herself.

SUMMARY

The 5th Chapter in Why Men Love Bitches' Jumping Through Hoops Like a Circus Poodle by Sherry Argov discusses about how a nice girl becomes needy as well as the differences between a nice girl and a bitch; she also included how a bitch becomes the boss herself. Argov elaborated the topics by giving accurate examples and situations to every principle she tackled about.

When A Nice Girl Becomes Needy

The chapter largely focused when a woman gives herself away becomes needy. She emphasizes when a woman (nice girl) becomes being wanted un the relrionship, it could be a problem to the man. It started when a woman gives her "all." It means when she surrenders herself from the stuffs she likes and she normally do just to give some time for her man. She cancels her appointment just allocate time for date or she ends her career just support his. A nice girl thinks that pleasing him will sustain her the fanstasies and expectation she build. And in the end, when he fails to set those expectations into reality, she demands more of him. Most females are starving to receive from a man that they need to give themselves. When gives up everything and expect for a return.

"The Nice Girl" VS. "The Bitch"

• The nice girl dismisses what she used to value and what used to be important in her life. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch values her priorities, her values, and her preferences. Always. - (Bitch)

• The nice girl searches for a sign from him to see when the closeness is “too much." - (Nice girl)

• The bitch acts as her own guide. She doesn’t allow him an opportunity to be bored. - (Bitch)

• The nice girl senses how happy he is, paying close attention to his approval of her. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch doesn’t obsess over his opinion or need his approval. - (Bitch)

• When he’s “into it” with the nice girl, she feels good; when he snubs her, she feels bad. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch has more confidence, so someone else’s mood doesn’t have much impact. Instead she plays tennis. - (Bitch)

• The nice girl treats her interests as “little things” or secondary. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch doesn’t treat her interests as minor little things. They are her things. - (Bitch)

• The nice girl gives too much first, and then negotiates reciprocity later. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch gives only when it is reciprocal. - (Bitch)

• He is the boss … of her. - (Nice girl)

• She stays the boss … of herself. - (Bitch)

The Bitch Rules Her Life

She also states that when a bitch enters a relationship, she does not stop doing her things just to please her man unlike a nice girl does. A bitch runs her life without interrupting her routines like seeing her friends, goes to gym and gives a me-time. She prioritizes herself more than anything else. She does not abandon her usual routines and that's what makes the bitch remains the boss of herself.

Sherry Argov's gave us, women, the idea more of how to handle ourselves. This last principle in the Chapter 5 strucked me the most, "ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #51: A woman looks more secure in a man's eyes when can't pull her away from her life, because she is content with her life." Restrain from being a needy nice girl, be the boss bitch yourself.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE FOUND IN THE BOOK

Why Men Love Bitches presents some characteristics of the contemporary literature. The most visible is that it was published in 2002 (written after the World War II). It has a theme which is based in reality of the women. The literature has well-defined reality-based stories of the characters which it tackled some social matters and personal issues. The topic is very realistic and it clearly reflects to the author's perspective and the lesson she wanted to convey to the readers. It properly laid present issues which is generally relatable in today's society.

APPEAL OF THE STORY

There is much the literary piece of Sherry Argov appeals to its audiences. First, the title of the literature itself is uncommonly intriguing. It activates the curiosity of the reader's mind not to mention that the whole topic pulls attractions on its own. Why Men Love Bitches gathered such recognition especially to the female audiences who wants to know how men think of women. The idea of on how men prefer bitches than a nice girl eyed the literary work to the public.

One vital reason why the book is appealing is that each chapters have an engaging title with corresponding significant matters to point out. To mention the chapter I have chosen to read and the entire book, its content is very entertaining and humorous that I did not think much of time reading it. The topic is generally practical and very relatable at the same time. The relevance of this work is that it sets as a guide to every women out there. Not just on how it gives idea the way men treat and perceive us but also on how should women see and motivate her own self to stayed dignified in life.

[nadziejastar]

Imo Kingdom Hearts could have been a lot different if Disney was never involved or if it was it's entire own francise with no crossover with FF or Disney, imo that would have been great. Since KH1, the Disney-worlds had barely to no connection or revelance to the main-plot anymore, Sora just travels to the worlds because he can, in KH1 there was more at stake in those worlds too, now they just feel like filler, as much as SE has tried up untill KH3.

Well, “Quadratum” means “Square”. It’s possible that Nomura wants to move away from Disney worlds and focus more on Square worlds. Although I like the Disney worlds, and think they help give the series a unique identity, I can understand that Disney is a is large, powerful, greedy corporation. And Nomura’s relationship with them has changed over time.

It’s telling that instead of coming up with a new plot that gives us a good reason to travel to the Disney worlds again (the real ones, not data worlds, memory worlds, dream worlds, etc.) he’s sending Sora and Riku off to a new alternate dimension based on Versus XIII—a Square property. It may indicate that he’s tired of Disney worlds and they will be getting less focus from now on.

KH1

As the series has gone on, the implementation of the Disney worlds has become worse and worse as Nomura has struggled to come up with reasons to travel to them. I think you’re right that KH1 did the best with incorporating the worlds into the plot. Sora was trying to seal all the Keyholes, giving him a good reason to be in each one. He was looking for Riku and Kairi, which was a more personal goal. And then you had the seven princesses and the villain alliance. And each world contributed to the overall theme of the story.

KH CoM

Pinocchio: Gee, Riku, don’t you have a Jiminy like I do? He’s my conscience. He’s taught me all kinds of important stuff. Maybe you just need somebody to show you what’s right and wrong.

Jiminy: Sure. You can’t shoulder all your problems alone, ya know. You must have somebody–a friend you can talk to?

In CoM, the Disney worlds were pure filler. Only existed for gameplay. On Sora’s side, the story within them was almost the exact same as it was in KH1. Even on Riku’s side, the Disney worlds were pointless. For instance, the whole Monstro level in KH3D could have happened in Re:CoM, since it’s basically reliving Riku’s memories from KH1, but having him make a different choice that time.

KH2

Iago: I wanna be a good friend, like Genie, but I can't do anything to help you. What kind of a friend is that?

Sora: Oh, no---it's not like that, Iago. Friends don't have to "do" stuff. As long as you have fun hanging out together, that's all that matters.

In KH2, the worlds are a mix of new and old. But they’re not really important to the plot. Sora’s just looking for Riku and the King, they’re not there, you participate in the movie’s plot, then move onto the next one. All the actual story happens in Twilight Town, Hollow Bastion, or TWTNW. Each world usually has a theme and a moral lesson, but it doesn’t always relate to Sora that much, so they feel filler-ish. In the second half, the organization appears in the worlds, which makes them a little more relevant to the story. But not much. They were still fun levels, though.

358/2 Days

Roxas had a good reason to go to the worlds, to collect hearts for the organization. I don’t mind if the Disney worlds aren’t directly plot-related, as long as there’s character development in them. I like that they took certain worlds from KH2 that felt like filler and expanded on the main theme of them, contributing to character development, particularly for Axel. For instance, in KH2′s Agrabah, the moral lesson was: best friends don’t have to be “useful”. This idea doesn’t have much to do with Sora, though, so it felt kinda pointless to his quest.

If you didn’t need me, then I no longer held meaning. However, reality is different. It wasn’t about whether I was needed or not. If I could just connect to others’ hearts, that would be enough.

But it was implied that this idea was very relevant to Axel’s memories of his past and his best friend. 

“Because they copied my powers, the Keyblade’s power, and then they didn’t need me anymore— is that it?” Roxas spat. 

He couldn’t bring himself to confirm it. 

“I guess you felt the same way, huh, Axel?” 

At those words, something wrenched in his chest, and he could hardly breathe. No, not me. I wasn’t thinking like that. I would never. “That’s not true. You—you’re my best friend.” The words spilled out of him.

The story of Days was all about how Roxas and Xion help Axel remember his past and what it felt like to have a best friend (an idea that connects to CoM). And the Disney worlds at least contributed to that idea in a meaningful way.

“Set in a circus and playing off the story of Pinocchio, a puppet with a heart, and the Nobodies who possess no heart, we planned for a sad episode with Roxas and Xion looking for hope for themselves”.

I would have preferred Prankster’s Paradise as a world, though, instead of, say, Halloween Town. It sounds like Roxas and Xion would have developed more in that world and it would have been more relevant to the story. Plus, it would have been new. But I think Days did a decent enough job with the Disney worlds. At least Roxas learned something new when he went to them, spurring on interesting discussions with Axel about friendship, love, the heart, etc.

KHBBS

Bagheera: It was bound to happen. Mowgli is where he belongs now.

Three new characters. In each world, the character learned something new and developed slightly. The worlds were mostly new, too. I don’t have a problem with BBS’s Disney worlds. I do wish they would have kept the Jungle Book worlds in, though.

“Riku… Do you think Nobodies have a home? Somewhere we belong?” Naminé wondered.

Having a home, somewhere to belong, was one of the main themes of the Xehanort Saga.

Master Xehanort: Darkness that you channeled.

Terra: No, I succumbed to it. Just like when I stole Princess Aurora’s heart of light. I can never return home now. I’m a failure.

Terra felt like a failure, and that he could never return home. And Aqua was tasked with bringing Ven home. This world could have been really good in BBS.

Coded

Mickey: Yen Sid… I think we’re finally close to figuring out where Ven’s heart is.

Here’s where things start going off the rails. In Coded, Disney worlds are yet again retreads of KH1, only this time they’re data instead of memories. The whole purpose of the plot was to explain why Mickey sent Sora, Riku, and Kairi that letter at the end of KH2. But you didn’t really need a whole game of travelling through virtual Disney worlds for that, especially involving convoluted ideas like data Namine implanting bug blocks in the journal or Jiminy’s Journal embodying itself as Riku (WTF?). You could have just added a scene into KH2FM+ like the above one from the manga. When Mickey saw the photo of Roxas, he recognized him as Ventus. Then he tells Master Yen Sid about it later, leading to Coded’s ending and him writing the letter. 

KHUX

Ephemer: The worlds we visit—the worlds of fairy tales—are nothing more than holograms. You know, projections. The light we collect there is actually this world’s light. To put it simply: There are lots of worlds, right? And they’re all connected by land. But it’s impossible to go around all of them. That’s why there’s a mechanism that projects those worlds here and allows us to collect Lux from faraway lands. I’m gathering information, trying to figure out how the whole thing works. My hunch is that the Book of Prophecies held by the Foretellers is what’s creating these holograms.

The Disney worlds were extremely boring to play through. More than any other KH game, they have scenes that are just copy/pasted straight from the movies. Your main character, since they are mute, has little involvement. They do not grow, change, or develop, after any of these worlds. They have nothing interesting to say and they can barely interact with anyone (Chirithy does it for you). 

And all, except for Wreck-It-Ralph, are just retreads of plots that we already experienced in other games. The worlds are digital holograms of the future generated from the Book of Prophecies. It’s all a VERY convoluted excuse to have you play through the same old plots from the Disney worlds. AGAIN. Only with a FAR less interesting main character. Since this was supposed to be just a F2P gacha with little story, it could have been excused. But since KHUX has become so important to the main story, it is inexcusable how poor of a game it is.

KH3D

Sora: I get it now. After this, Pinocchio and Jiminy’s world gets dragged into darkness, and they end up cast into the sea between worlds, along with Monstro. And then…they end up in Traverse Town, and the belly of the whale. That’s when we meet for real. It’s like Master Yen Sid said–I’m in the dream Pinocchio’s world is dreaming. And that world will never be right again until it wakes from sleep.

I don’t have any real issue with a game focusing on the mark of mastery exam, where Sora and Riku travel through Disney worlds. Riku develops along the way in a satisfying way. It’s the first time you actually go to new worlds as him. The test was for Sora and Riku to acquire the power of waking, so they had to go to dream worlds. Fantasia was perfect for this idea.

But the concept of Sleeping Worlds is convoluted and confusing. They’re dream versions of the worlds? Who is dreaming them? The Dandelions? They’re stuck in a time loop of the past? But visiting the Sleeping Worlds doesn’t rewrite the present. So, are they connected to the datascape? Again, it’s so convoluted, because there really is no reason that Sora and Riku would have to go on another adventure in the REAL world. Again, I would have preferred Prankster’s Paradise in Days. Pinocchio would be a human, it’d be set in the present timeline so no awkward dialogue, and Honest John and Gideon would be involved, giving it more of a plot.

KH3

The game’s worlds could have been okay if Sora wasn’t just wandering about aimlessly. And if they had developed the power of waking better. The power of waking is essentially the power to wake a sleeping heart by connecting with it. It’s the power of love, basically. Most of the Disney worlds are about love. And also, a member of the organization appears in each one.

Dark Road

In BBS, it’s revealed that Xehanort wants to open KH to create a new world. But in KH3, he wants to reset the world. How is this different?

Nomura: The most essential part is that he thinks the current world is a failure, and wants to remake it.

I’m interested to know why Xehanort came to think that way (that the world should be remade).

Nomura: Initially, I wanted to dive deeper into the naive, untainted Xehanort who we see playing chess in the next installment (before KH3 was made), but if I did that, the dark seeker arc wouldn’t have ended (lol), so I decided to shelve it for now.

Wonderland is the only Disney world that has had a plot so far. But this was still the most interesting usage of Wonderland in the series, IMO.

Envy (Latin, invidia): Invi Gluttony (Latin, gula): Gula Lust (Latin, luxuria): Luxu. Anger, or Wrath (Latin, ira): Ira Greed, or Avarice (Latin, avaritia): Ava Sloth, or Laziness (Latin, acedia): Aced

The Foretellers are named after the seven deadly sins.

Nomura: As I was writing the scenario for Kingdom Hearts Back Cover, I was careful so as to make each character look neither like a hero nor a villain, however in the end it seems that only Ava was received as a good girl (laughs). At any rate, if you think of the story progression as a gun, where Ava is the only one with the capacity to pull that gun’s trigger, I’m not so sure about how devoid of sin she really is…

I think there were a lot of parallels between the age of fairytales and the Book of Genesis.

Pride (Latin: superbia) is considered, on almost every list, the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins. Out of the seven, it is the most angelical, or demonic. It is also thought to be the source of the other capital sins.

The MoM is probably really Darkness, the original sin, Superbia. And Xehanort has his Keyblade, becoming his successor. Pride was his deadly sin. He could never admit that he lost to Eraqus at chess because of his pride. In the Bible, the source of sin was the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. After acquiring knowledge of good and evil, he developed a god complex. Pride is the ultimate sin, where all the other sins originate from.

I need only play the role of a fool desirous of the Keyblade’s power.

Luxu is lust and Braig lusted for Xehanort’s power (as Luxu probably did with the MoM). The story in Dark Road is actually interesting. Xehanort is a FAR more interesting protagonist that the Avatar in Union X. As a wielder in training, he actually has a good reason to travel the worlds, and develops as a character along the way. I think Dark Road deserved to be its own real KH game, released on the Vita or 3DS a long time ago. It’s a shame it’s only a mobile game.

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

Pride is excessive belief in one’s own abilities, that interferes with the individual’s recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.

Envy is the desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

The story of Dark Road will likely be Xehanort encountering the seven deadly sins as manifested in Disney villains and coming to the conclusion that the world is too corrupt and needs to be reset. That is actually a decent enough plot and good justification for travelling through the Disney worlds. It’d be cool if they added new worlds. Maybe like Pocahontas, and Governor Radcliffe could be Greed, etc.

[cruecifymesixx]

Love and Leather /part fifty/

Word Count: 14.7k

A/N: y’all, it took so long to update because the chapter is long as hell and I’m sorry if it’s too much reading but it’s a good one!!

Warnings: angst, language, Nikki’s mom, booze, some drug talk, smut

Taglist: @brideofdraculana , @xstarryeyes , @aryssav , @miserablecunt  @dangerous-like-a-loaded-pistol , @inthebackofmycarlaytheirbodies, @fandomshit6000, @anntheboneless, @venus-calum, @justjodeye, @supernaturalvikingwhore, @are-we-real, @hi-my-name-is-riley, @extremesadnerding, @thatbandchick39, @awkwrdcait, @countrygirlswonderland, @baiabouk @awesomealmostdopestudent, @romanticvengeance , @tashy-bear, @krazykatkay456, @terror-triplet, @shouttatthedevill @beachystars, @rodriguez025, @kickstart-myheart-sixx, @s-outhie, @anxious-diabetic, @awkwardblackgirls, @rockersbox, @brooklyn-antiques, @shamelessobsessions, @jerseytaint, @lilytalebi, @criminalyetminimal, @motley-queen, @trapt-in-a-dream, @lunamadhatter99, @broke-n-bitchy, @thanks2pete, @slowandangry, @lovesick-heart0, @keepcalm-and-beyou, @miriampraez, @teenwolflover28, @lilyhw1, @swoopygorl, @motherloovebone, @random-internet-user-4471, @falcon-arrows, @talranocchia2001, @wheresmyvodkabitch, @waywardprincess666, @malibubarbievince, @iluvmesomemarvelndc, @zoenicoles, @vamprlestat, @supersoldierballerina, @primal-screamer @electradestiny, @marshbev, @n0-sh0rtage-0f-faults, @cruebaby, @ggorehorror, @valentines-in-london, @miss2001babe, @nassauartist @emmaelizabeth2014, @cmft-jr-winchester, @bokkie92, @notworthyofyou1120 @xrosegoldwolfx, @cranberribread, @lauravic, @mgkobsessed, @chaoticvybe,  @kellysimagines @thoughtsoftheantagonist @marvelismylifffe, @missysixxter, @love-struck-aries, @lavendersoundbarrier, @i-want-to-shoot-myself, @unknownoblivion, @minxtruck, @idumpyourgrass

December 1989

I rubbed my eyes as I woke up, face buried in the dark blue pillow sheets. I turned over seeing Nikki was still sound asleep, his hair covered up the majority of his face as he snored a little bit. I laid back on my elbows when I heard the doorbell. I yawned, seeing the clock read eight in the morning. I heard the doorbell again. I sighed heavily before discarding the blankets and grabbing the shirt Nikki was wearing last night, slipping it over my shoulders before leaving the bedroom with Anarchy in tow.

I walked down the stairs, seeing two figures on the other side of the door through the glass. I rubbed my face, walking over to the door and opening it. My eyes widened when I saw my mom standing there with luggage and another woman with brown curls and a very dark shade of red on her lips.

“M-mom what? What are you doing here?” I stumbled over my words, confused as I stared at her, taking a quick glance at the other woman.

“You said you needed help planning Nikki’s birthday party, didn’t you? Vanity, this is Nikki’s mo-“ My mom replied before being cut off.

“Deanna Richards. I’m Nikki’s mother, he had called me a few days ago and suggested I come and help.” I stared at her before turning back to my mom.

I’m sorry? What?

“Mom, it’s only eight. And the party isn’t for a few more days. I...I just woke up and Nikki is still sleeping..” I said, combing my fingers through my hair.

“And you wanted it to be big right? So that’s gonna take a few days to plan and all the calls and picking things out, we have to figure it all out before hand.” I stared blankly at her as she continued. I moved to the side allowing mom to come in her suitcase in tow as Deanna followed in after her, a suitcase being held by her as well.

I was confused as I closed the door, “Good to see you honey.” Mom said as she pulled me a hug, I hugged her back as I saw Deanna looking around the house and at the picture frames hanging on the wall.

“Thank you for wanting to help me, I want to do a big party for him since he’s never really had one...plus he was always to strung out on his birthday..” I said, glancing over at Deanna as she sat down at the kitchen table.

I started brewing a pot of coffee, letting Anna out into the backyard before getting her a bowl of food ready. I turned back around to see both of our moms mingling. I felt uncomfortable, “I’m uh...I’m gonna go wake him up...maybe put on some pants...” I mumbled but they didn’t acknowledge me.

What the fuck is going on? Why is she here? Why didn’t Nikki tell me she would be coming to the house? I walked into our bedroom seeing him beginning to wake up already.

“Morning princess, surprised you’re up before me .” He said with a smile as he rubbed his face, stretching as he did so.

“And you’re making coffee? What’s the special occasion?” He jokes as he opened his arms up for me, signaling for me to come back to bed. I crawled into the bed and sat on his waist, “Sixx, we have a huge problem.”

He laughed, attempting to take off the shirt I was wearing, “Yeah, we’re gonna have a huge problem in just a few minutes.” He grumbled, giving me a kiss as he tried pulling me closer to him.

I pushed on his chest, “No, like an actual real life problem. My uh...my mom is here...and so is yours? Why didn’t you tell me you were communicating with her?” I asked him as he sighed, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at me.

“I-I’m just taking it slow with her. I was going to tell you eventually once I knew if something was going to happen. My therapist suggested I make a last ditch effort with mending things. It’s been mainly phone calls...up until yesterday when I picked her up from the airport...” He explained, running his fingers across my hand.

I shook my head, “So she just shows up here? And you don’t even give me a heads up? And on top of that, you tell her she can help with the party I’m planning for you? Baby, you can’t just leave me in the dark when it comes to your mom. I need to know these things so I don’t answer the front door half naked.” I voiced my concerns as he groaned.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just didn’t want to get my hopes up in case she flaked. I was going to tell you last night that she would be here today but you fell asleep and I didn’t want you upset before bed.” He replied, giving me a light smile as he kissed my hand.

I huffed before getting off his lap, “Just come downstairs when you’re ready.” I told him before leaving the bedroom.

“Oh yes, they’ve known each other for a very long time. The first time I met Nikki, he was hiding in her bedroom closet after sneaking into the house.” I heard mom explaining as I walked back into the kitchen seeing the two of them chatting over a cup of coffee.

“He actually uh...broke into the house..” I said quietly, sitting down next to them. Mom instantly glared at me, “Sorry?” I laughed a little bit, reaching down to put Anarchy as she sat next to me.

Deanna reached to pet her, but Anna began growling at her, “Hey, none of that. What’s that about?” I said, nudging her away from the table as Nikki came into the kitchen.

“Good morning Frankie.” I stared at Deanna with wide eyes as he stopped walking, “Nikki, I mean Nikki. I’m sorry, I’ll have to get used to that.”

“So Nikki, I have a lot of ideas for the party. Vanity mentioned the theme and I think it’s wonderful.” Mom stated as he looked over at me.

“Babe, I said I didn’t want a theme.” He groaned as I rolled my eyes, “You need a theme, it will be fun. Lighten up, Sixx.” He shook his head as he leaned against the counter, “What’s the theme?” He asked, forcing himself over to the table and sitting down next to me.

“I thought a carnival or circus theme would be fun. We could get a whole bunch of cool decorations and have fun little games maybe a live act, Mom already has a few ideas we’ll discuss later.” I explained as he nodded, wrapping his arm around the back of my chair as he kept looking in the direction of his mom.

“Well how about we ask him what he wants?” I glared at Deanna as she raised an eyebrow at me.

“Do whatever you want for me princess, I’ll just show up.” Nikki sided with me as I looked over at his mom, smiling.

“You’ll enjoy it Nikki, just let me and Vanity and your mother take care of it.” Mom pointed out as she patted his shoulder, “If you can excuse me, I’m going to put my stuff away and freshen up a bit.” Mom said as she got up, Nikki sending a confused look towards me.

“I told her she could stay at the house while she’s in town.” I explained as he gave me a stern look.

“I can still stay, right Nikki?” Deanna questioned as I gawked at her. Oh, hell no.

“Yeah, we have enough bedrooms that aren’t being used. There’s one right down the hallway, you can use that one.” Nikki explains, pointing his finger down the walk way.

“Great, thank you. I’m gonna take my stuff.” Deanna said, smiling at me as I forced one right back. We both waited until she was out of ear shot.

“What the hell are you thinking? You’re mom staying with us? c’mon doll. She’s gonna turn the place into something out of a catalog.” He muttered, rolling his eyes as he did so.

“My mom? What about your ‘mom’?” I questioned, putting air quotes around the word as he glared at me, “We don’t know her, Nikki!” I shouted quietly.

“You don’t know her, but I know her and-“ I quickly cut him off, “Oh that’s total bull and you know it. You barely know her either.” I rolled my eyes, shaking my head as i rubbed my face.

“Okay, fine. But I’m getting to know her, aren’t you happy about that?” His voice was softer as he rested his hands on my hips, “She’s actually here Van, wanting to try and fix things with me.” I sighed as I looked up into his eyes. Seeing that hope he’s had since he was a kid when it comes to Deanna.

“Baby, I just...she’s a stranger coming into our home.” I aired my worries as Nikki nodded.

“Vanity, just trust me alright? Everything’s gonna be fine. If she starts acting up I’ll tell her to go, okay? Can you deal with that? Just for me princess?” Nikki said, lips tugging into a smile which only made me a smile.

I chewed on my bottom lip, “Only cause it’s you. but I’m telling you Nikki, if she does even one thing to make you upset I’m dragging her out of the house.” I warned him as he nodded.

“Now, is your mom really staying...” he asked, scratching the top of his head, “Yes, and then Greyson and Sage will be here in like two days as well.”

“Doll, you’re killing me.” He groaned, leaning his forehead against my collar bone, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I shrugged, giving him a smirk, “Must’ve forgot, kinda like how you forgot to tell me Deanna would be here.” I tilted my head to the side, watching his soft expression turn into a scowl.

“Do not start with me this early in the morning.” He stepped closer to me as I giggled.

“Or what? It’s not like you can take me upstairs while everyone is here.” I said, lightly patting his crotch as he jumped, “Keep it in your pants while my family is here.” I mumbled, moving away from him but he grabbed my arm tightly.

“I don’t give a fuck if the royal British Queen was here, I will take you upstairs and fuck you.” He placed his lips by my ear before gently nibbling on the skin.

I exhaled deeply, glaring up at him as he smirked down at me. My mom had came back into the kitchen as Nikki took his hands away and sat down at the table.

“Nikki, your mother seems nice.” Mom said as he smiled a little bit.

“Yeah, I hope so. Haven’t seen her in a few years or heard from her...” Nikki explained, noticing how moms facial expression changed. I noticed it too

“Oh...well...glad she’s here.” Mom forced out as I rolled my eyes.

Nikki cleared his throat, “well, if you ladies don’t need me, I’m gonna change and then head to the studio to meet up with the boys.” He said as I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Hope you have a good day, Van.” Nikki said, trying not to laugh as I glared at him. He came over, trying to kiss me but I turned my head. He forcefully grabbed my jaw and pressed his lips to mine.

“Call if you need me.” He whispered in my ear before kissing the top of my head and heading up the stairs.

Bastard.

“So, I was thinking maybe we can start looking for music? Maybe food? I know you want to stick with the carnival theme for him so we should stick with food that is served at those things.”

I nodded as I watched her write down things in a planner, “It doesn’t need to be huge-“ mom cut me off as she raised up her hand.

“It’s going to be big. Start making a list of people who would come, maybe we can get some photographers, or maybe MTV-“

“Whoa, okay stop! It can be big but no photographers and no MTV! If anyone’s taking pictures it’s gonna be me with Nikki’s camera.” I clarified as she sighed.

“But honey, he’s a rockstar.” I furrowed my eyebrows as I stared at her. So fucking what if he was a rockstar?

“Okay so that means we need alcohol and drugs and a whole bunch of strippers right?” I rolled my eyes as she huffed.

“So no open bar?” She raised an eyebrow as I sighed.

“Yes, I want an open bar...” I smiled as mom wrote it down. My eyes moving over to Deanna as she came back into the kitchen.

I didn’t think Nikki looked like her. Maybe the eyes or the jaw. Maybe the natural brown hair. She smirked at me as we made eye contact. Ah, there was the resemblance.

“You are very pretty Vanity.” Deanna spoke kindly as I smiled, nodding at her words.

“Oh...thank you. So are you.” I returned the compliment as she eyed me. I couldn’t tell if she was checking me out or judging me. But all I knew is that I felt uncomfortable.

“How did you meet Frankie?” She asked as I winced at her words. I turned my back and started getting a bowl of cereal ready.

“I met Nikki-“ I put the emphasis on his name, “...at the diner I work at. Back in eighty one I believe it was. I was his waitress, it was the same night he met Tommy. It was also the night he left his old band, London.” I said before taking a bite of Frosted Flakes.

“Another band? I didn’t know he was in another band.” Deanna seemed genuinely surprised.

“Yeah...bet you didn’t.” I rolled my eyes, “...it was when he first started. Just with some guys he knew I guess. Then him and the singer got into a fight on stage, Nikki was sitting at the booth with a bloody nose.”

“How about balloons?” Mom asked, I nodded, “Blacks and reds, maybe silvers or gold.” I suggested as she nodded.

“So how did he get into Motley?” Deanna questioned as she made a fresh cup of coffee.

I tilted my head to the side, wiping my lip of cereal crumbs, “Shouldn’t you be asking him that?”

She nods, “just...just trying to figure out what to ask. Im sure you know our relationship.”

What relationship? There isn’t one!

“Yeah, he’s told me..” I said, glaring at her before taking another bite.

“So how was Motley created?” She asked again as I sighed, “Something about finding mick in a news paper ad and Tommy knowing Vince from high school, and then they met and started playing, pretty basic.” I shrugged, seeing Nikki wall down the stairs behind her.

“I’ll be back later, dinner tonight with everyone?” He asked, walking into the kitchen as I nodded, “love you.” Nikki said, coming over to kiss me, taking a bite of my cereal before hand, “love you too.” I muttered before kissing him again.

I watched as he turned around to give me a thumbs up before walking out the front door. My eyes met Deanna’s again, “Cake? Or cupcakes? If so, which flavor?” Mom questioned as I laughed.

“Don’t worry about that, I already had Nikki pick out the cake he wants. It will be ready on Friday.”

“You know, I tried calling him a few times a couple of years ago, it never ended well.” Deanna had a facade I could read write through.

“Yeah, I remember you leaving a nice little voicemail for him too.” I said, arching a brow as her facial expression became serious.

“That was the first time I ever seen him cry, second time being after he came home when he pretty much died and came back to life. Did you call then? To see if your son was still alive?” I asked as mom cleared her throat. Deanna’s glare followed me as I put my bowl in the kitchen sink.

It was gonna be a fun couple of days.

*later that evening*

“Sooo....How was it?” Nikki asked as I pulled up my jeans and fixed my shirt, “How was what?” I asked, glancing over and seeing him putting his boots on.

“My mom? Your mom? Being together with them today.” He laughed, looking over at me, I shrugged as he let out an amused grunt.

“It was fine. Your mom...she seems a little...I don’t know, bitchy?”

I saw an eyebrow raise through the mirror, “Bitter? Desperate? Fake? Two face-“

“Enough!” He yelled, startling me as I turned around and glared at him, “That’s still my fucking mom, Vanity!” He shouted again, as I rolled my eyes, putting on my leather jacket.

“Sorry...” I mumbled, “she just, I don’t know. She seems...” I tried choosing my words carefully as he continued to glare at me.

“I mean, she’s not mother of the year...but I’m tolerating her. I should get brownie points for trying because I could just tell her to piss off.” I expressed as his expression didn’t falter.

“Be nice to her, take her shopping or something. Make her feel included in everything.” He rambled as I nodded.

“I have been. Her and mom and myself decided on a color pallet for your party and the food too. We’re still deciding on the music, I figured a DJ so we could get a little of everything.”

“Okay, so maybe take her shopping. Bond with her a little bit. It doesn’t have to be all business.” Nikki suggested as I rolled my eyes.

“Nikki, no offense. But she could not afford the stores I shop at, I can take her to like...I don’t know? A thrift store?” I said as he let out a boisterous and amused laugh.

“Baby, I love you.” He said, guiding me towards him as he pulled on my hand.

“I’m trying Nikki. I’m trying for you, but I can only hold back for so long when she’s making smart little comments towards me.” I said, watching him kiss my exposed mid drift.

“What did she say?” He asked, hazel eyes staring up at me.

“Okay, well she hasn’t said anything-“ he rolled his eyes as he laid back on the bed, “-but she just looks at me, like she’s judging.”

“Well, how do you know she’s judging? She’s probably just trying to figure you out.” He said, rubbing his face before glancing at me.

I shrugged as he sighed, “Van, I’m sure it’s nothing okay? Just relax, alright? Let’s go to dinner with our moms and then we can come back home and watch a movie or something.”

I nodded, stepping away from the bed as he tugged me towards him again by the back of my thighs.

“I love you. And I’m happy you are trying.” He mumbled, standing up as he gave me a kiss before pulling me into a tight hug.

“Thankful you are more willing than I am. I’m still trying to figure it all out.” He muttered into the crook of my neck as I nodded again.

“Are we read- oh sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Deanna spoke as she stood at our door frame, “Clarissa asked me to come check, if you two need a minute we can wait.” She smiled, looking back and forth between us.

“No, no Deanna. It’s fine.” Nikki said, quickly pecking my cheek as he grabbed his jacket.

“You know, Nikki, you can call me mom if you want.”

I rolled my eyes as I followed behind them both. I exhaled deeply, it wasn’t going to be a fun week. It was going to be long and tortuous.

*Dinner conversation*

“So, Vanity.” I glanced over at Deanna, wine glass pressed to my lips as she said my name. I stared at her, just seeing the wheels turning inside that head of hers.

“Your mother was telling me earlier about the way Nikki has treated you in the past.” She stated, feeling Nikki’s hand tense up as it rested on my thigh. I glanced over at my mom, seeing that she was nose deep in her glass of white wine.

“I’m sure Nona and Tom didn’t raise you to be like that.” My eyes widened as I noticed Nikki glare at her. I grabbed his hand, squeezing it lightly.

“It’s, it’s okay. It’s in the past, he knows what he’s done. And I’ve forgiven him for it. It’s fine.” I expressed, grabbing my wine and taking a sip.

“Did you ever meet Nona?” I shook my head, telling her no, “just know about her from what Nikki’s told me. Wish I could’ve.” I said, leaning my head against his shoulder as he kissed the top of my hair.

“What about Tom? I’m assuming since he’s met your family you’ll start meeting his.” Deanna said as I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Not yet, but I’m sure I will. Maybe I wanted to meet you first. See if everything he’s said is true.” I spoke, feeling Nikki’s fingers lightly pinch me.

“Van.” He said my name sternly as I shrugged. Deanna let out a light scoff as she focused on me, “And What has he said?” She questioned, looking at me with utter disbelief.

“Oh, well. Maybe it isn’t dinner conversation, but we can sure as hell have it if you want.” I suggested as mom glared at me.

“Vanity, knock it off. Now.” Mom demanded as I glared at her.

“It’s your fault! Don’t tell her mine and Nikki’s business!” I shouted loudly at her, as Nikki gripped my thigh.

“Calm down.” He said, as I shoved his hand off of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw people looking over at us, and Deanna smirking as she brought the coffee cup up to her burgundy lips.

Oh, that fucking cunt.

*After Dinner, back at home*

“Let’s just relax. let’s watch a movie-“ “I don’t want to watch a god damn movie!” I yelled at Nikki as we walked into our bedroom. I immediately started stripping and went to the bathroom to wash off my make up.

“I mean, your mom wouldn’t have said anything if you didn’t run home every time something happened.” Nikki pointed out, making me glare at him in return.

“Oh, shut up nikki.” I groaned, rolling my eyes as I started brushing my teeth. I watched as he huffed before leaving the bathroom and then slamming the bedroom door shut.

I shook my head, glaring at myself as I stood in the mirror. I’m not gonna be made out to be the bad guy. Deanna is not going to walk into my house and try to disrespect me or make me look like some self centered, high maintenance brat, because I’m not.

Okay, high maintenance maybe but I am not self centered.

I finished brushing my teeth, and then plopped down face first on to our bed. I sighed deeply when I heard a knock on the door, “Yeah?!” I yelled as it opened and I sat up, seeing mom giving me her stern, motherly look.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” I mumbled as she sighed and sat down next to me on the bed.

“I…I just, I don’t want her to hurt him. Deanna has done enough to him and she’s came at such a bad time, he’s more sensitive around his birthday and Nikki’s just going to buy into her bullshit.” I explained as my mom listened to me.

“Vanity, Nikki is a grown man who can make his own decisions. He made the decision to call her, he made the decision to invite her into yours and his home. He tried with grandma and grandpa, now it’s your turn to try with his mother.”

I sighed as I ran my hands through my hair, “I don’t trust her at all.”

“Vanity, you don’t even know her. How can you not trust her? She seems to be a really nice lady.”

I shook my head, “She just gives me a bad feeling and I can’t tell nikki that cause he will get upset and say I’m not trying, but I am trying mom.”

Mom nodded, stepping off the bed as she smoothed out her dress, “We will see tomorrow when we take Deanna shopping.”

I groaned loudly as I laid back onto the bed, “Mom!!”

I didn’t want to spend more time with her then I already did. Shopping was my stress relief, it was what I did when I needed a moment of peace and quiet.

“Quit complaining and get some sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow.” Mom warned before leaving the bedroom.

I rubbed my face as I sat on the edge of the bed. I crawled up getting on my side as I got under the covers. I saw Nikki enter the room again as he closed the door. He walked over pulling off his shirt as he got in bed besides me.

“You done being a brat?” He questioned with a laugh in his voice as he draped an arm over my waist.

I rolled my eyes, pushing his arm off of me as I turned on my side. He groaned as he scooted closer to me and wrapped me up in his arms, “Come on, baby. Just relax I’m only playing with you.” He cooed, kissing my cheek softly before resting his cheek on top of my head.

“I’m trying for you Nikki.” I mumbled as he then kissed the top of my head.

“I know princess. I know you’re trying, that’s all I ask for.”

*next afternoon, Nikki’s POV*

In all honesty, when the fuck did I become so domesticated?

I was currently outside cleaning leaves out of the pool because Vanity said it was dirty. She said to hire someone, why would I hire someone when I could just do it? It’s like the same thing with the leaky faucet just a few weeks ago, she said to hire a plumber, so I went out and bought a book on how to fix household shit and I did it myself. Her car needed an oil change, she was going to take it in and get it done. Granted, it took me almost two hours to do it when in reality it should only take about thirty minutes tops. But I did it for her.

Is it because I love her? Maybe so. I don’t mind doing the little things for her when she asks. It made her happy, and it made my ego boost knowing I was being the man she wanted. Or the man I wanted to be for her.

My thought were interrupted when I heard the back door open, seeing Deanna walk outside. They must be back from shopping. I smiled at her as she walked over, arms crossed over her chest.

Vanity must of said something. I put down the net as I glanced over at her, “Hey Mom, what’s up? How was shopping?”

“Why does Vanity always seem to have an attitude? Is she like this with you.” Deanna questioned me.

Yes, however I’m not afraid to get in her face and tell her off. And when that doesn’t work, I drag her up to the bedroom and I make her get rid of it.

“I am being very nice to her. Helping her plan the party, helping her find the present. I even went out of my way and carried her shopping bags. Yet, she still wants to act like a brat, I don’t understand.” Deanna continued as I stood there listening.

I laughed a little bit, “Deanna, she’s just…I don’t know, she’s weird when it comes to having help. She’ll allow it but she doesn’t like too much of it, if you’re smothering her she’s gonna freak out and she just…she’s getting to know you. She knows our history and she knows our relationship. But trust me, she is trying.”

Deanna sat down in the poolside chair as she lit a cigarette, “Well, it’s none of her business what goes on between you and I.” My eyebrows furrowed as I sat down next to her.

“…I guess you’re right.” I rubbed the back of my neck as I agreed with her. Even if I didn’t truly agree with it…

I shook it off, “did you get anything from the stores? I know Van goes ape shit when she goes shopping.” I laughed a little bit as she nodded.

“Clarissa had boughten me a nice jacket and a purse and Vanity…well she picked out a dress, a nice pair of heels and beautiful necklace to go with it. I think I’m going to wear it to your party.”

I smiled, “See, Vanity is trying. She doesn’t normally do stuff like that. How come you didn’t buy anything yourself?” I asked, sitting down next to her as I also lit a cigarette.

She sighed, flicking away the ashes, “They shop at very expensive stores. Vanity spent three grand in just one store today.”

I groaned, I’ll have to talk to her about that later.

“And..and all the money I have on me is to get back home.” She explained as I nodded, trying to understand, “I have a job, but it doesn’t pay all that well, this was just some savings for a few months.”

I frowned, scratching the top of my head as I looked at her, “Do you need some money?” I questioned, fidgeting with my water bottle.

“Oh Nikki, I couldn’t take your money. You’ve worked so hard for it and have done so well for yourself. I am very proud of you.” She said as I nodded.

“Mom, how much? I have enough to at least let you enjoy yourself here and at home. Believe me, it’s not gonna hurt one bit. I have more money then I know what to do with.” I explained as I put my cigarette out. I tensed up when I felt her hand rest against my cheek. She guided me to look at her.

She smiled, brushing her thumb over my cheek, “always been such a sweet boy…” Deanna spoke softly as I became an absolute puddle to her motherly touch, “How about you name the price and I’ll be happy with it. Deal?”

I nodded, grinning like a little boy again, “Alright, I’ll cut you a check. I’m glad you’re here, mom.”

She took her hand away and nodded in agreement, “So am I, I’m glad it’s working out for the both of us.”

“Baby!” I peered over, seeing Vanity come out in a little yellow bikini. Fuck me.

“Hi princess.” I smiled at her, seeing her come over and give me a kiss before sitting down on my lap.

“Sixx, is the pool cleaned yet? I’ve been dying to swim all day. Shopping really wore me out.” Vanity said running her nails through my hair as she let out a deep, but dramatic sigh.

I nodded, wrapping my arm around her waist as my hand rested on the side of her thigh, “Yes, Princess. I got rid of all the leafs, treated it with the chlorine too. I gotta get the tree branches trimmed next week.”

She looked around, “We should have them trimmed into different shapes. Daddy and Theo use to do it on the ranch. It looked nice.”

I heard Deanna chuckle, “that would be tacky, dear.” She spoke to her as Vanitys expression changed in instant.

“I have to agree with her babe, we shouldn’t do that. It wouldn’t look good.”

She pouted, “Yeah, stupid idea anyways.” She muttered as I sighed.

“Maybe we can do a few trees shaped how you want them, okay?” I spoke softly, pecking her cheek as she leaned into my chest.

“Deanna, can you give us a minute so I can talk to him…alone.” Vanity asked as Deanna excused herself and went back inside.

“Shopping was dreadful.” I laughed as I held her, moving her legs so they were draped over mine.

“And whys that Princess? Not have the color you wanted?” I teased as she shoved my shoulder.

“And what did you buy that was three grand? Hm?” I asked as she smiled before kissing me.

“That doesn’t matter Nik. It was dreadful cause you’re mom was nagging me saying ‘that’s too short’ ‘that’s not pretty’ she even said I looked fat in a dress I tried on.”

My eyes widened, “well…uh…you’re not, you just got all these curves and I love every single last one of them.” I moaned, kissing her neck and feeling up and down her body.

She scoffed and pushed my hands off of her, “that’s not even the worse part! She then cornered me when my mom was looking at jewelry and asked if she could have some money.”

I looked up at her, “What? Did-did you give her any?” I questioned as she shook her head.

“No! Of course not! I told her I didn’t have any loose cash on me or any checks, which was a lie I always have cash in my wallet. I just don’t feel comfortable handing over money too her.”

I nodded, running my hand up and down her back, “Its fine doll, don’t worry about it. I’m gonna write her a check.”

She tilted her head to side as she stared at me, “A check? Nikki, have you gone mad?! Do not write her a check!”

I was beginning to get frustrated with her, “Vanity, she’s my mom. You’d do it if it was your mom. And honestly, don’t tell me what I can and can’t do with my damn money.”

She scoffed as she got off my lap, standing in front of me with her arms crossed against her chest, “Okay, so when she runs out money and asks for more you’re just going to write another check? And then one after that? And one after that and so forth.”

She rolled her eyes at me when she continued her monologue, “babe I am just looking out for you. She’s gonna keep crawling out of whatever hole she came from and she’ll keep asking for more of your money that you’ve worked so hard for. But just think about if you want to give her money….cause that’s all she’s ever gonna want from you.”

My eyes locked on hers when she mumbled that last part, thinking I wouldn’t hear it, “What did you just say?” I asked, standing up and stepping closer to her.

“I am doing what you and the stupid god damn therapist asked me to work on!!” I shouted as I threw my water bottle down on the ground, “You’ve been pestering the whole mom thing and now I’m fucking doing it and you want to throw a fit over it!!”

She looked up at me, seeing the anger in her eyes the more I yelled at her, “I said, that’s all she’s going to want from you if you give her money every time she asks for it.” Her voice was stern as she cackled, “Oh don’t even give me that bullshit Nikki. You didn’t even bother to tell me you were talking to her again. So don’t.”

I was about to throw her ass in the pool if I didn’t leave, “Enjoy the pool.” I grumbled, attempting to walk away from her but she grabbed my hand.

“What? You really want to argue more?” I asked as I pushed her hand off of me. I wasn’t in the mood to be affectionate with her now.

She shook her head, “Baby, don’t get mad at me. I’m just calling it how I see it. She comes and goes as she pleases, she’s done it you’re whole life. I don’t want you to give her money and she leaves and you end up hurt. I don’t want to see that.”

I shook my head, “Yeah, well seems like you don’t even want me to try at all, Vanity. Unlike you, I don’t have a family. She’s actually here for once and wanting to be here, don’t you get that?”

Van rested her hands on the back of my shoulders as she spoke softly, “I do want you to try Nikki, but I think using money is going in the wrong direction.”

I stepped away from her, pushing her hands off of me, “Why are you so fucking concerned about my money?! You aren’t concerned when you’re spending it yourself! Just fucking back off, alright!?”

She nodded as she sat down on the poolside chair, bringing her sunglasses down to her face as she picked up a magazine, “Shit…” I mumbled to myself, “Van, I’m so-“ she waved me off as I sighed.

“Don’t worry about it, babe. It’s all good, I’ll back off.” She looked up at me, smiling before she continued reading the magazine.

I spewed muttered curse words as I walked back into the house. I was too rough, and not the good kind that she likes. I exploded on her and she didn’t deserve that. She knows how sensitive the mom thing is for me. Why can’t the two of them just get along? Why do I have to be the middle man and make sure Vanity is happy and make sure my mom is happy as well?

Can my birthday hurry up and get here?

*next afternoon Vanity’s POV*

I yawned, looking over as I saw Deanna come outside with decorations, before relaxing into the poolside chair as I continued to catch some sun rays. Nikki’s birthday party was tomorrow evening and everything is pretty much all ready for him. The caterers would be here tomorrow to serve Carnival style food. Mom even found a guy that specialized in funnel cake and cotton candy making. I found an amusement company that specializes in parties like these, so they will be coming with real carnival stands for games like ring toss, shooting darts at balloons, as well as a full sized strongman attraction. I even booked fire eaters and sword swallowers.

Was I going overboard? Yes, definitely.

Was I doing it because I love Nikki and wanting to make it a wonderful birthday for him, as the last birthday he was stuck in rehab and even before that he was so fucked up to function? Also a yes.

“I do hope you plan on coming with us to pick up the cake at least.” I glanced from my magazine and at Deanna who was standing at the foot of the chair, hands placed on her hips.

Maybe if I kicked her hard enough she would fly into the pool?

“No, because I told my mom to just take my credit card and go get it, she left about an hour ago.” I explained, going back to reading my magazine. I let out a sigh, putting it back down as she hasn’t moved a muscle, “Any other questions?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, “Me and your mother are bending over backwards to make sure this party happens. Shouldn’t you be doing some of the work? Or will you break a nail?”

I rolled my eyes under the black sunglasses I was wearing. She seems to always take a shot at me whenever Nikki isn’t around.

“Well Deanna, the cake is ready a day early because I picked it out with Nikki a few days ago. I also got all the party favors for his guests, music, entertainment and food together. I created a guest list and gave it to Fred already. And, I didn’t even break a nail, maybe a sweat, but not a nail.” I smirked, looking at my white French tip nails that just got done yesterday.

She stared down at me, “Then you should help with the decorations. We still need to put up the lights, blow up some balloons, and need to figure out where you’d like the photo booth to go.”

I shrugged, “Nikki said he’d help with the lights when he gets back. I’ll help when I finish tanning, it doesn’t take that long to blow up balloons.” I shook my head, before reaching down and taking a sip out of the Corona bottle.

I tried reading the magazine again, seeing some new band from Seattle released their first album. Apparently, they’re gonna change the world of Rock. Wonder how Nikki-

“With him recovering, don’t you think it’s rude to drink around him?” Deanna questioned, seeing her lips tug into a smirk. I sighed again, putting the magazine back down as I pushed my sunglasses up to the top of my head.

“We’ve already discussed it and it doesn’t bother him. He’s fine with it.” I said, holding up the bottle before finishing it off. I added a dramatic, “Ah” when I put it down.

She scoffs, shaking her head at me, “And I’m sure your cocaine habit doesn’t bother him either, right?” I furrowed my eyebrows as I stared at her.

He went and told her about my business, our business?

“It is not a habit, Deanna. And quite frankly, it’s none of your god damn business.” I growled at her, moving to a sitting position as I glared at her.

“Well, seeing that he nearly died it would teach you a lesson about morals.” I laughed at her statement.

“Morals? Okay, mother of the year. Oh wait, you’ve never been a mother to him.” I quickly snapped back as I watched her eyes scowl at me. Hey, the bitch had it coming.

“At least I didn’t just hand him everything like some brat you are.” I laughed again at her statement, her eyes left mine for a quick second before coming back to me

“Yeah, because you didn’t have anything to give him except for years of bad feelings that resulted in him almost killing himself with a needle.” I spewed my anger at her, seeing her shake her head at me.

“Vanity.” I jumped in my chair when I heard Nikki’s strong voice, before seeing the smile on his mother’s face.

“Sixx, Babe. You’re home early.” I said, turning around in the chair. Seeing he had a white bag in his hand, as well as noticing the glare he had on me. I turned back around and faced the pool.

She set me up!

“Deanna, there’s a bag of food in there for you on the counter.” Nikki told her as I shook my head, muttering under my breath as I watched her leave.

Nikki came and sat down next to me in the other chair, a stern look across his face, “She started it…” I mumbled, watching him put a bag in front of me.

“Don’t be a brat, Van. Don’t go with it even if she did start it. Eat, I got Thai.” He explained as I rolled my eyes. I put the bag of food on his chair as he groaned.

“I’m not hungry due to all the coke I shovel into my nose-“ I paused, looking over at him as he shook his head, “You really went and told your mom I came home high? That is none of her business, Nikki.” I spoke, becoming more annoyed with the whole situation.

He let out a laugh, “Don’t even start that shit with me Vanity, okay? You tell your mother my business all the damn time.”

I scoffed, “That…that’s different.” I couldn’t think of anything to say as what he was saying was true. But fuck, this woman hardly knows me! And hardly knows him too!

“Yeah? Everything’s different so you look less of an asshole.” He instantly responded, causing me to look away from him. Just don’t do it, Vanity. I bit down on my tongue, pulling my sunglasses down as I started to read again.

“Thanks for the food, I’ll eat later.” I mumbled, seeing him stand up before kissing the top of my head and going inside.

*Nikki’s POV*

Chicks equal trouble. I’m gonna keep saying it until the day I actually fucking die. This whole week has been a complete shit show. If Deanna’s not in my ear talking about Van, then Vanity is in my ear talking about her. It’s giving me a god damn headache, I can’t wait until this party tomorrow.

I rubbed my face, walking through the glass doors as I saw Deanna eating at the island bar, she smiled at me, “I’ve never had…What is this? Thai? I’ve never had this before, it’s good.”

I gave her a light nod, “Yeah, we go a lot…it’s one of the few things Van will eat, she’s picky.” I explained, walking over and grabbing my food and water bottle.

“Speaking of Vanity, please don’t get her going. Because once she starts she doesn’t stop. It’s her idea for the party, just…just let her be.” I asked kindly as she looked at me, sipping on her cup of ice tea.

“Nikki, she hasn’t done anything but lounge around the pool all afternoon, getting day drunk. She’s making me seem like I’m the bad guy when all I asked is if she was coming with her mother and i to get your cake.”

I chuckled, “Vanity is no where near being drunk, trust me. Mom, she knows what she’s doing. She has a lot planned for me. She is fine.” I explained, looking out the doors and seeing her play with Anarchy.

“Honey…” I looked over at Deanna, “Are you happy with her? She doesn’t seem to be supporting your sobriety by drinking and still doing drugs…”

I furrowed my eyebrows as I stared at her. What a stupid fucking question.

“Her coming home high was just a one time thing. The drinking doesn’t bug me as much as you’d think it does. I love her, okay? She’s my whole world and she put up with me for a very long time when I wasn’t doing alright.” I explained as she nodded at me.

“One time? I’m sure you should know better than that.” She talked back, causing me to grow irritated with her at a rapid pace.

“And I’m sure you know to keep your mouth shut about her or you can see your way out the door.” I was quick to snap at her, watching her blink a few times before looking away from me.

She cleared her throat, “Of course, I am sorry, Nikki. I didn’t mean to upset you.” She was quick to apologize, almost as I was quick to accept it.

“It’s fine, just lay off of her, okay? I’m gonna go spend some time with her, she was still sleeping when I left this morning.” I explained as she nodded.

I excused myself as I went up to our room, quickly getting changed into red swim trunks as I pulled my shirt off. I walked back downstairs, seeing Deanna eating and reading some book. I walked back out the glass doors, seeing Vanity laying on her stomach with her bikini top off. Her hand was brushing over Anarchy’s back as she laid in front of the chair.

Vanity turned her head to look at me when I got into the pool. I swam over to her, perching my elbows up on the side of the concrete, “Come to join your favorite brat?” She teased, holding her chin in the palm of her hand.

I smiled, petting Anarchy as she walked over to say hello, “Only if you want to join your favorite boyfriend in the pool.” I retorted, raising an eyebrow as she smirked.

“You’ve came with a very tempting offer, but it’s all about tanning today, Sixx.”

I pretended to pout, “But baby, it’s my birthday.” I knew under those sunglasses she was rolling her eyes.

“Nik, your birthday is tomorrow, today doesn’t count.” She huffed, running her nails through her hair that was still wavy from her curls the night before.

“But we celebrated yours almost the whole week, Princess.” I pointed out as she giggled, blowing a pink gum bubble at me before she popped it. She was being a tease without knowing it.

She licked her lips shortly after, “That’s because I’m me, your princess.” I grinned widely, “Yes you are, doll.”

“I’m also giving you the coolest party ever. You want the details?” She asked. I knew she has been itching to tell me since her big fat mouth can’t ever keep anything to herself sometimes. Her mother made her swore up and down in front of me that she wouldn’t ruin the surprise. All I know is that it’s a carnival theme and that a lot of people will be here. Oh, and I have to help hang lights up. That’s all I know.

“No, No. I want to keep it a surprise.” I said as she groaned, “But I’ve planned so much, regardless if your mother thinks I’m not doing anything. what if you hate it all?” She questioned me, her voice becoming timid.

“Baby girl, love of my life, I don’t care if it’s a cake mix package with a candle on top. I’d still love it.” I expressed as she gave me her million dollar smile.

“Y’know Sixx, I’d sit up and show you my tits but all the curtains are open.” She teased as she took off her sunglasses, pushing them to the top of her head. Her face had a light hue of pink and her hazel eyes looked golden against the suns reflection of the pool.

“And Deanna is here, so let’s save that for later after everyone’s sleeping.” I suggested as she smirked.

“All the more fun.” She teased, cupping her chest as she sat up straight with a shit eating grin. I groaned as she got up from the chair, still holding herself as she sat on the edge of the pool in front of me.

“Shouldn’t be mean to me before my birthday.” I mumbled, pressing my lips to her knees as I looked up at her.

“And if I am?” She asked, lowering her face mere inches from mine. I shook my head, trailing more kisses up her thighs. I gently bit down on her soft and warm skin, causing her to grab a fistful of my hair to pull me away.

She looked back at the house before letting go of her tits and slipping into the water in front of me, “Don’t start something you won’t be able to finish.” I warned her as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pressing her bare chest against me.

I lifted her up, legs wrapping around my waist as I pinned her against the edge of the pool. I pressed myself into her, making a little moan escape. I put my lips on hers, deepening it as I slipped my tongue in. Tasting the residual alcohol plus the strawberry gum she was chomping on. She cupped my jaw, brushing her thumb over my cheek as her free hand loosely gripped my shoulder. I broke the kiss, grazing my lips across her jawline, before moving down to her neck. I kissed that sweet spot of hers that lays right under her earlobe. I felt her shudder in my hands as I left a deep red mark on her skin only to suck harder as she let out a sweet little whimper of my name.

“Quit defiling my daughter.” I quickly pulled away from her when I heard Clarissa’s booming voice. Vanity chuckled as she leaned her head against my shoulder.

“Mom, you’re in my house that I share with my boyfriend. What do you expect?” Van questioned, glancing over at her mom.

“I expect you to be considerate of your guests, Vanity.” Clarissa responded, sending her deadly mom glare at me.

“Yes mother, how very sorry I am for wanting to make out with my boyfriend, my apologies.” I pinched her hip as she tugged on my hair.

“Don’t pull my hair!”

“Don’t pinch me, then!”

“Oh enough, you two! Vanity get out of the pool. You’re siblings will be here soon. And would it kill you to keep your clothes on?” Clarissa shouted, throwing a beach ball at Vanity’s head.

“Mom! Would you stop it!” Vanity groaned as she pulled away from me, holding her tits as she got out of the water.

“You’re no better, Nikki.” Clarissa said, pointing at me as I pulled myself out of the pool, “Sorry.” I spoke, grinning like a naughty school boy as I followed Vanity inside the house.

I grabbed her hips and pulled her to me, her back resting against my chest. I placed my lips on the side of her neck, “Where do you think you’re going? Hm?” I mumbled in her ear as she laughed.

“I am going to shower and get ready before my siblings get here.” She said as I started untying her bikini top and throwing it on the floor.

“Nikki! Can you come here a moment!” Clarissa yelled for me as I groaned.

“Yeah! Just give me a minute!” I yelled back, as Vanity pushed me away, “Babe, no, no c’mon.” I pouted trying to pull her towards me.

She put her hand on my chest, “Go on. I have to get ready.” She stood her ground as she gently shoved me, “Later, I promise.” She said before closing the bathroom door in my face, locking it for good measure.

She knew me to well.

*next morning, Nikki’s POV*

I woke up, hearing the blaring of the fire alarm and seeing Vanity’s side of the bed a mess. I kicked the blankets off, quickly going downstairs as I heard Anarchy barking.

“Jesus Christ! What did you do!” I yelled, seeing Vanity pouring water over a hot pan in the sink, her mother and Deanna just sat at the kitchen table watching her, trying to hold in their laughter.

“And nobody bothers to turn off the alarm?!” I shouted, getting irritated more and more. I groaned hoping up onto the counter before reaching to turn the alarm off on the ceiling.

I stepped down, seeing Van’s, well my band shirt covered in white powder, “Are…are you trying to cook?” I questioned as she smiled, lip between her teeth as she nodded.

“Happy birthday, Sixx!” She cheered as she walked over and gave me a kiss before handing me a cup of coffee.

“I’m not sure if it’s even edible.” Clarissa teased as Vanity scoffed, “She said she didn’t want any of our help so we’ve just been supervising.” Clarissa continued as I looked around the kitchen.

“I made pancakes and bacon and scrambled eggs and I even cut up fruit!” Vanity showed me as I eyed the bacon, it was burnt to a crisp.

“But uh….you don’t know how to cook…” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. I would have preferred waking up to her sucking me off.

“Well….I tried….look! They have chocolate chips in them!” She said, showing me a plate of misshaped pancakes. I forced a smile, trying to hold my laughter in. It was cute she was trying.

“I’ll make you a plate!” She was cheerful and being too nice. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her no so I nodded and sat down at the table with our moms.

“Happy birthday, sweetie.” Deanna said with a smile, reaching over and touching my arm softly.

“Thank you.” I muttered, eyes being brought to a plate of so called food Vanity out in front of me and then followed by a plate to Clarissa and Deanna. They side eyed each other before glancing over at me, “Just eat it…” I whispered to them as Clarissa poked around at the food.

“Honey, we could have just went out for breakfast.” Her mom spoke as Vanity sat down with a plate of pancakes before passing the syrup to me.

“Well I know, but I thought it would be more special for Nikki.” She explained as she started eating her pancakes. I would have also rather gone out to breakfast.

I digged into the pancakes since she didn’t spit them back out. They were actually good.

“Vanity, you don’t know how to cook?” Deanna questioned as she picked at her plate, choosing her cup of coffee instead.

“I know how to cook some stuff…I’m learning.” Vanity said proudly as she took another bite. I tried eating the eggs, but spit it back out on the plate when she wasn’t looking.

“Good, I don’t want my grandchildren eating Thai take out every night, i’m sure Clarissa feels the same way.” Deanna spoke as my eyes widen, I accidentally dropped my fork on the table.

“Deanna, were taking it slow..” I explained, noticing Vanity become quiet as she moved her food around the plate.

“We’ll make sure to get you cookbooks Van.” Clarissa teased as Vanity rolled her eyes.

“I’m not gonna be Betty god damn Crocker.” She muttered, taking her plate before dumping her food into the trash can. She placed her utensils and plate into the sink with a commotion as I watched.

I grabbed her wrist when she tried walking past me, “Thank you for breakfast baby.” I reassured her as she nodded, giving me a smile as she glared at our mothers.

“Oh honey, we are just playing with you, there’s no reason for you to get up-“

“You have a lot of room to talk when you never made a home cooked meal once, it was always Loretta.” Vanity snapped at her mom as Clarissa had an unamused look on her face.

It was going to be a long day.

*a few hours later*

Vanity plopped down on the couch next me, “Be careful!” I shouted, quickly grabbing my bass as I put it on the other side of me.

“I swear, you love your basses more then you love me.” She retorted, getting comfortable as she laid her head on my lap, looking up at me.

I snickered, brushing my knuckles against her cheek, “Well you see sweetheart, they don’t talk back to me.” I muttered as she scoffed and pinched my arm.

“Are you excited for your party tonight?” She asked as I nodded at her words.

“Yes Princess, I am. It will be fun, I’m excited for everyone to be here. It’s..it’s gonna be good.” I smiled, leaning over as I kissed her lips. She placed her hand on the back of my neck, deepening it.

I broke the kiss, resting my forehead against hers before pecking her lips again, “I love you.” I whispered as she smiled at me.

“Nikki?” I leaned back up and looked over my shoulder seeing Deanna standing behind the couch with her purse over her shoulder.

“Oh yeah…get up for a moment.” I told Vanity as she moved away as I dug into my pocket for my wallet. I stood up walking over to her as I pulled out a folded up check, handing it out for her to take.

She smiled, as she looked at it, “Honey…this is…this is a lot.” Deanna arched her eyebrow as she looked up at me, surprise written all over her face.

“Don’t worry about the amount, it’s all good.” I smiled as she quickly wrapped me up in a hug. I held my breath, stiffening up before relaxing and putting my arms around her. When I finally got comfortable she pulled away from me. I cleared my throat, smiling with closed lips.

“I will be back later, okay? I’m gonna run to the mall and pick up what I found you.” Deanna promised as she held my cheek in the palm of her hand.

“Okay mom.” I nodded before she kissed my cheek and left out the door.

I sighed, going to sit down on the couch as I glanced over at Vanity, “Nothing to say?” I asked as she chuckled. She came back over and leaned against my chest as I wrapped my arm around her.

She mumbled, “It’s me backing off.”

I rubbed her arm, kissing the top of her head, “Sooo….how much was it? One? Five? Ten?”

Curiosity killed the cat. Vanity glanced up at me, waiting for my answer. I scratched the top of my head, “One of those…maybe more.” I replied as she stared at me.

“More?” She questioned, I didn’t have to say anything for her to know but she knew already that it was more than what she had listed prior. She sighed, leaning back into my chest as she flipped on the tv.

I wonder what Deanna picked out for me…

*Nikki’s Party, third person POV*

Vanity walked through her house, greeting the guests and making sure everyone was alright. She was wearing a black, skin tight dress that was semi see thru that stopped a little bit above her mid thigh. So far the party was wonderful. Everyone enjoyed the food, music, entertainment acts and the carnival games. Greyson even volunteered for the dunk tank. Vanity stepped outside seeing her brother getting pelted by balls from Nikki and Tommy.

She rolled her eyes, before sighing. Yes, everything was wonderful but Deanna hasn’t been back since she left this afternoon. She could tell Nikki was trying his hardest to keep it together.

Vanity saw Nikki glancing down at his watch, before looking around, he seemed nervous before pelting another ball at Greyson, now striking the button to drop him into the water.

Her heels clicked against the cobblestone walkway as she walked over to Nikki, reaching for his hand as he forces a smile. She frowned at it in return, “You almost ready to cut the cake?”

“Did-did you try calling her? Maybe she’s stuck in traffic?” His nervousness was out on display as she nodded, before glancing at T-bone. She had asked him to keep him busy so he wouldn’t think about it. Clearly, that wasn’t the case.

“Yeah, maybe it’s traffic…I’ll call her babe.” Vanity responded, leaning up to kiss his cheek as he quickly nodded.

She cursed under her breath when she turned away from him, knowing she’s already tried calling three times before he asked. She walked inside and to the kitchen before picking up the landline and dialing her number.

She stood there impatiently, getting more pissed off the longer she heard the mindless ringing. She slammed the phone down, not bothering to leave a voicemail.

Nikki watched as Tommy was trying to impress Heather with the strongman game. His eyes kept glancing towards the back doors, feeling like a kid again and expecting his mother to just walk in with presents or even holding a cake for him to blow out the candles. Instead, the familiar disappointment settled heavily in the pit of his stomach. He frowns when he sees Vanity walk out, already noticing the reddened cheeks, and it wasn’t from the the booze she had been sipping on. She was pissed off for him.

Tommy dragged him by the arm over to the cake after Greyson came up and whispered in his ear. Clarissa shoved one of Nikki’s cameras into Vanity’s hand, telling her to take pictures and not miss a single second of it. She’d rather miss this whole thing and not have to remind Nikki that his mom didn’t show up. Vanity takes pictures, seeing him force laughter and a smile. She cursed Deanna out mentally in her head, wishing to slap the shit out of her for doing this to him…again.

After Nikki blew out the candles, he quickly excused himself, “Enjoy the cake, everyone.” He smiled, giving a few people a hug before heading inside the house.

Vanity chugged the rest of her cocktail before she went inside herself. She found him sitting on the couch, lightly plucking the strings of the bass with a cigarette hanging from his lip.

Vanity stood by the coffee table, not even knowing where to begin, “Nikki, are you okay?” She asked, watching him exhale cigarette smoke as he glared up at her.

“I’m fine. I’m great.”

Vanity twiddled her thumbs before sitting down beside him. Her hand ran over his shoulder as he shifted away from her touch. She sighed, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Nikki continued strumming, from the sounds of it he was playing ‘Smoke on the Water’, “She acted so damn happy about coming…she said she wanted to be here and wouldn’t want to miss it.” Nikki shook his head, blowing out cigarette smoke before stubbing out the cigarette butt in the ashtray.

“Maybe…maybe something came up. I thought she was happy too, even if she kept pissing me off…I’m sorry Nikki.” Vanity said softly as he shook his head, blinking repeatedly as he felt his eyes burn, fuck, he did not want to cry over this like some little kid. Not now. Not in front of her.

He took the sunglasses off the top of his head, placing them back on as he kept playing his guitar. Vanity rolled her eyes, quickly taking them off his face while putting her hand on the fret board, holding it so he couldn’t play, “Stop trying to be the tough guy in front of me. I know you’re hurting.” Vanity demanded as he glared at her in return, gently pushing her hand off his instrument.

“Van, just give back my sunglasses.”

She shook her head, “No, it’s dark out. You don’t need them-“ Nikki cut her off, “My eyes are bugging me! Just give me the damn things, Vanity!” He shouted quietly, eyes brimming up with tears

“Your eyes aren’t bugging you. You just don’t want to cry in front of me.” She muttered, handing them over to him. He quickly puts them back on, wiping his cheeks right after.

“Baby, just go entertain our friends okay? I just need a moment.” Nikki begged as he laid his head on the back of the couch. Vanity looked over her shoulder, seeing everyone was content and having a good time.

“Everyone’s fine Sixx, I’m not leaving you….maybe she’ll call..give a reason why or something…”

Nikki shook his head in anger. He wanted so badly to just storm right over to that open bar and drain a bottle of Jack. Then break that said bottle to pieces and scream and tear everything in his path apart. But he couldn’t. He’s worked too hard to stay sober. Nikki suddenly let a sob escape as tears poured out of him. His fingers gripping his knees tightly, trying to stop the crying but the rage and emotions came out of no where. He gripped the neck of the bass, quickly shoving it off his lap and to the ground.

Vanity frowned, picking the bass off up and noticing the scuff marks on it. She sighed, holding him right after as he rested his head against her chest. His tears soaking into her dress, “Nikki…” she muttered, running her nails through his hair as he sobbed, “Baby, relax. You’re okay.”

Nikki clutched the material between his fingers as he cried, “I asked-i asked for one thing, just fucking show up for once! Just fucking do something for me once! But she can’t fucking do that. No, just use Nikki for some cash and a place to linger awhile before running off!!”

Vanity kissed the top of his head, arms woven around his body as he continued to vent his frustrations, “I don’t know what I was thinking! Or expecting! I shouldn’t have trusted her, I’m getting mad at you for just telling me how you feel about her while she’s off telling me bullshit!! What the fuck was I thinking?! What the fuck was my therapist thinking!” He yelled, moving away from her touch again as he had his elbows perched up on his knees, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. He felt his face heat up, his chest aching, the dull ache that always appeared whenever Deanna was around.

“Nikki, I think he was just wanting you to try. See if it would be better. No one had any clue she would do this.” Vanity explained as Nikki shook his head.

He glanced over at her, wiping his eyes, “I just…” he felt his throat tighten and voice crack, “I just wanted my mom, Vanity.”

Vanity felt her her heart break for him, seeing tears run down his cheeks, “Baby, I’m so sorry. I wish I could make it better…I-I wish I knew what to say.” She said, trying to pull him in for a hug but he quickly got off the couch as she looked up at him.

“Don’t-please, just go outside. I just, I need a moment.” He said, picking up his pack of cigarettes and lighting another one.

“Why can’t you just let me be there for you! Your friends are here for you. Nikki, my mom did all of this because she loves you.” Vanity questioned, becoming frustrated with him. She didn’t want him in here sulking over his own thoughts. She didn’t want him getting stuck in his own head.

Nikki threw the pack of cigarettes down, turning around and glaring at her, “Because I’m thirty one years old and I’m crying like a bitch over his mom not showing up!!” He yelled, “Just give me a fucking minute, Vanity!!”

*Vanity’s POV*

I sighed, getting off the couch and leaving him to himself. Oh, when I see that fucking woman again I am going to kill her. It is so fucked up of her to do this to him. Do this to him on his birthday and do it to him while he’s still in recovery. I know he wouldn’t just disappear and go shoot up, he’s worked to hard. But still, I worry.

I went back over to the bar, ordering another beer. I took a sip before leaning my head on the makeshift counter. Everything was going fine. I was tolerating Deanna even if she was being a royal bitch to me. I hope that cunt is happy with herself…and happy with his money.

I turned around hearing Nikki’s laugh, seeing him and Tommy throwing cake at one another, “Hey! What the fuck man! That’s perfectly good cake!” Tommy shouted, wiping frosting off his face before grabbing a chunk and smashing it into Nikki’s.

I saw mom motioning for me to stop it. Why? They are having fun. Nikki cracked up again, smirking as he throws another piece right back.

I put down my beer bottle, walking over to them as I took the plates of cake away from them, “Would you two stop acting like children for once!?” I asked before smashing it both smashing it both in their faces. I laughed as they stared at me before Nikki grabbed another piece and threw it in my face.

“Babe! My make up!” I whined, quickly wiping it off only for Tommy to smash another piece in my face, “T-bone!!” I cried, seeing both their shit eating grins. I started grabbing fistfuls of chocolate cake and throwing it at them repeatedly.

“Vanity! Nikki! Thomas! Knock it off!!” My mom yelled, face red as she stormed over to us. I quickly hit Nikki with another piece of cake as Tommy tried throwing a piece at me, only for me to dodge it and it land on my moms dress.

“Oh, whoops…”

*after the party*

I glanced over at Nikki, hiccuping as I tasted whiskey. Gross. He was strumming and tuning the new bass all three of the guys had gifted to him. It was a sleek black, brown and white one. It shined in the light and Nikki ruined it by putting a tacky punk sticker that said “fuck” on it.

I stood up and grabbed a small red gift bag I had tucked behind the couch. I smiled, putting it behind my back as I walked over to him. He looked up at me, smirking as he already knew I was up to something.

“Whatcha got there Princess?” He asked, reaching out for me and pulling me into his lap. I handed him the gift bag as he groaned.

“Now, I know you said you didn’t want me to get you anything, but when have I ever listened to you?” I questioned, eyebrow raised as I wrapped my arm around his shoulder.

“Mmm, never.” He laughed a little bit before smiling at me and beginning to open up his gift. I bit my bottom lip, seeing him give me a look when he pulled out a long black velvet box.

He shook his head, opening it up, “Oh..whoa..” his eyebrows were raised in surprise as he held up a necklace in his fingers. It was a simple, bulky sterling silver sterling chain with a padlock hanging from the middle. It was black, with a few gemstones but the middle was a skull and crossbones.

“Babe, this is actually really fucking cool.” I smiled at his words as I watched him put it around his neck and clasp it shut.

I was wearing the bracelet Nikki had gotten me that Christmas, I raised up my wrist showing him that I had a little black key charm that had the same skull and cross bone design.

“Thought you didn’t like the cute little couple things.” He muttered before kissing the side of my neck.

“Only for you Sixx.” I said as I felt him sigh. He nuzzled his head into the crook of my neck as he wrapped his arms around me, “Thank you for everything you’ve done this week princess, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve appreciated it.”

I smiled, kissing the top of his head before he tilted and looked up at me, “I’m sorry about Deanna.” I mumbled, running my hand over his hair as he nodded.

Nikki rested against the couch as he ran his fingertips up and down my back, “Me too, but it’s fine. I had a wonderful birthday with you and my friends and your family. I should send your mom flowers when she gets home.”

I smiled, wiping a piece of missed frosting away from his head, “I meant what I said Nikki. Even after everything that’s happened between us, my mom loves you. This was her way of showing it. Though lavish parties and fancy things, she did it with me and my siblings.”

He chuckled, “Well I love her too, not as much as I love you though.” He said before leaning forward and giving me a soft kiss. I laughed into it, “Well I hope so, because that would be kinda weird.”

I got off Nikki’s lap, holding out my hand, “I have another gift for you, but I have to change into it.”

His eyes widened before he grinned, “Oh?” He quickly got up, holding my hand as I led him up the stairs. When we reached the top, he grabbed my hips and pulled me towards him as he peppered kisses down my neck and shoulder, “You’ve been nothing but a tease all week. It’s been killing me.” His breath was hot in my ear as it sent shivers down my spine. I felt his hands wander a bit, feeling him unzip my dress as we walked into the bedroom.

I had him sit down on the bed as I stood in front of him, gripping his shoulders as he fumbled with the bottom hem of my dress.

“You gotta close your eyes, no peaking or maybe you’ll be the one receiving birthday spankings this time.” I said, cracking up in a fit of laughter as he watched me, a huge smile on his face.

“Keep dreaming doll. that’s reserved for you and you only.” He chuckled, pulling up my dress just a tad bit I pushed his hands away.

“I’m joking, but please close your eyes.” I asked nicely before he nodded and closed them.

“Okay, okay, no peeking. I can’t see, happy?” He sighed dramatically as I went into the closet and pulled out a black bag, “More clothes? Vanity, c’mon.” He groaned as he heard the crinkle of the bag.

“Shut up, or I can just go straight to bed.” I snapped back.

“No, no, baby….it’s fine.” He whined as I chuckled.

I had picked out some lingerie the other day. It was a light pink silk fabric with black lace. It had thigh high stockings with garters to match. It even came with a matching robe.

“What the fuck are we doing? Having a god damn fashion show?” Nikki spoke as I quickly grabbed one of our pillows and smacked him in the back of the head with it.

“Van! Don’t be a fucking brat.”

Don’t be a brat? I smirked at his words and walked over to the nightstand, taking out his black handcuffs.

I twirled them around my fingers as I stepped over to him and quickly locked them on his wrists, with an attempt of him trying to fight me.

His eyes snapped open, looking down at the cuffs and then at me before they fell down to the robe that was tied and not exposing anything.

He laughed, “Baby, okay. You’re cute and all but take these off.” I shook my head, “Vanity, take them off.”

I smirked as I fumbled with the thin black material that was keeping him from seeing everything.

“Baby, I get it haha good joke. You win. But come on, princess. Just take them off, these are meant for you not for me.” Nikki spoke as he tried getting his wrists free.

I untied the robe, letting it fall from my shoulders and too the floor, “oh fuck.” He muttered as his eyes trailed down my body, taking in the pale pink and black lace of the matching lingerie set.

I stood in front of him, feeling his constricted hands run over my body as best as they could. He let out a little moan, as he pressed his lips to my abdomen, “So god damn beautiful, how did I get so lucky?” He asked as I ran my nails through his soft hair, gently tugging on it as his teeth nipped my hips.

“Baby, please take these off.” He ordered, grabbing the garter that was connected to the stockings and my underwear, snapping it against my skin. I hissed, shoving his shoulder as I took a step back from him. I motioned for him to stand up as he quickly did so.

I pressed my chest against his, running my hands through his hair again before placing them around his neck, “Happy Birthday baby.” I whispered, standing up on my tip toes as I pecked his lips.

I dropped down to my knees in front of him, unbuckling his belt before undoing the button and zipper. Pushing his pants down, my nails grazed up his thighs with fingertips diving into the waistband of his boxers before pulling them down too.

“How does it go again? She goes down, she goes down, down, down.” Nikki laughed as he sang his song. I looked up at him, rolling my eyes at the shit eating grin he had going on.

I wrapped my hand around his cock, slowly stroking him and massaging the bead of precum around the tip with my thumb. He sucked in a deep breath of air when I lowered my mouth on him, the tip first and then more as I went. His hand gripped my hair into a ponytail motioning me to take more of him. I bobbed my head up and down his long shaft, taking as much as I could before pulling back for a breath.

I continued sucking him off, moaning onto his shaft as he let out a moan of his own, “God, just like that Van.” He muttered, his finger tips resting on the back of my neck as he guided me.

“You take my cock so well baby girl, look at you.” Nikki upped the dirty talk as I glanced up at him, locking eyes with him before sending a wink. He groaned, taking his bottom lip between his teeth as the threw his head back in pleasure.

His hips began to slowly buck into me, “Fuck, that mouth is perfect.” He whimpered, looking down at me but all I saw was shaggy black hair covering his face.

I pulled back, wiping the spit from my lips as I sat on my knees in front of him and watched as Nikki stroked his cock. That was such a wonderful damn sight.

“Get me those damn keys already.” He growled, gripping my arm and pulling me up to my feet. He gave my ass a slap as I walked away from him. I grabbed the key, holding it out for him. When he reached for it, I quickly took it back, “Oh, gotta be quicker than that.” I giggled as he only glared at me.

“Vanity!! I’m not fucking around!!” I jumped at his yelling, “Okay, okay…” I mumbled, grabbing his wrists and unlocking the cuffs.

The handcuffs weren’t even off him yet before he had me on the bed underneath me, “Think you’re just a damn comedian, hm?” He said nipping the side of my neck before trailing rough and wet kisses down my abdomen.

His hands reached behind my back, unclasping the bra before throwing it across the room. Nikki’s hands engulfed my tits as his tongue swirled around my nipple before moving to the other one. I whimpered against his touch, feeling his teeth gently bite them.

His lips came back to mine, stealing a hot deep kiss as he invaded mine with his tongue, “Mmm, vodka cranberry?” He asked, pulling away as he kissed my chin.

“And jack and coke and a few Heinekens.” I added as he laughed before kissing me again. I wrapped my leg around his waist, pulling him closer as I felt his cock rub against Me. His hand went between my legs, pushing my panties to the side as his fingers brushed against my clit. I moaned against his lips when Nikki pushed a finger inside slowly, and then adding another one. There’s no doubt in my mind that this man was meant to play bass.

I broke the kiss with a loud moan as his fingers started curling faster, followed by his thumb rubbing against my clit. I slid my hand down my body, reaching for his wrist as I felt like I was about to come undone at any moment way too fast. Nikki quickly grabbed my hand, holding it tight as he pinned it to the bed with a cocky smirk plastered across his face.

“Something the matter?” He questioned, lips brushing over my chest as he stared at me all while his hand was between my legs.

“I’m…i’m-.” I was interrupted by a loud moan as Nikki lowered himself down, tongue swirling around my clit as those blown with lust hazel eyes gazed up at me.

“Oh my god Sixx!!” I yelled out, grabbing a fistful of his hair, fingers digging into the back of his head as I felt my release. Nikki grabbed my hips, keeping me still as he didn’t stop. I roughly grabbed more of his hair as I felt him groan against me.

He sat back on his knees, my legs draped over his as he marveled at my body. He wiped his mouth clean, “I fucking love making you cum.” Nikki mumbled as he then unfastened the clips connecting the garters to the panties. He quickly dragged the material down my legs before throwing them on the floor.

I reached into the nightstand pulling out a condom before handing it to him. He groaned, rolling his eyes as he took it, quickly discarding the wrapper as he rolled the rubber onto his hard shaft.

He kissed my calves as he rested my legs against his shoulders, lining himself up with my entrance.

He guided his cock into me slowly, making my lips part as his eyebrows were knitted together tightly. I wrapped my hands around his biceps as he gave it to me nice and deep. Nikki took out his cock all the way before thrusting back into me. Harder this time.

I let out a moan, scratching my nails down his chest and abdomen before he took my hand in his and held it over my head, “I love you.” He whispered, leaning down and giving me a kiss.

I rested my hand on the back of his neck, deepening the kiss as his thrusts became rough into me. The sound of his hips smacking against mine bounced off the walls of our bedroom with the added mixture of his name being whimpered by me and his low grunts.

Nikki wrapped my legs around his waist, gripping my thighs as the newfound angle allowed him to fuck me deeper, and he took advantage as I started to become undone all over again.

“Nik-Nikki don’t stop.” I breathed out, holding onto his shoulders as my nails dug into his skin. His hand went between our bodies feverishly rubbing the already sensitive bundle of nerves.

My body tensed up underneath him when my breath got caught in the back of my throat as I felt my orgasm rush through me. Nikki worked me through it before he pulled out, roughly grabbing my waist and turning me over on my stomach.

Nikki quickly entered me again as he started fucking me even harder. He brought his hand down for a stiff slap against my skin before wrapping my hair into a ponytail around his fist.

“Jesus Christ, Nikki.” I groaned, feeling his fingertips digging deep into my hips.

“I’m just taking what’s mine.” He moaned into my ear, teeth gently nipping as his free hand found its way to the front of my neck. He squeezed gently at first, my hand gripping his as his hold tighten before he let go.

He laughed in my ear and kissed my shoulder, “So good for me darling.” He whispered, placing his lips on my shoulder for a sweet kiss before replacing a kiss with a bite.

Nikki’s moaning became more prominent beside my ear as his thrusts started speeding up. He angled me by my hips, gripping them tight still as he brought his fingers in between my legs and started rubbing my clit once more.

“C’mon princess, one more for me. Just for me.” He moaned, resting his head against mine. I soon felt myself release around his cock again as a drawn out moan of his name slipped off my tongue. Nikki continued to fuck me through it as I felt him hit his own breaking point.

He slowed down, pressing kisses to my spine and the back of my neck, “Mhmm, fuck…” Nikki whimpered, pulling out of me as he slapped my ass one more time, making me jump before going to the bathroom.

I heard him start the water of the shower. I slowly got up, groaning as my ass brushed against the sheets and stung just a little bit. I checked my mirror, only to see his welted hand print across the tattoo.

I walked into the bathroom seeing him already in it as he smiled and held open the glass door for me. He gently grabbed my hand, pulling me in and under the water that was just the right temperature.

Nikki held me in his arms, pressing soft kisses across the bruises he had given me on my neck and shoulder, “I wanna marry you.” He mumbled into my skin as I chuckled, pushing my wet hair out of my face.

“Is that a proposal?” I questioned as he glanced at me with a smile.

“No Van, it’s just me telling you. You’ll know when I pop the question.” He muttered, lowering his head down and pecking my lips.

“Well I want to marry you too.”

[morningsound15]

For the fic writer ask game: 3, 11, 31, 39

3. Are there any fics that inspired you to write what you do?

actually yes! maybe not to write WHAT i write but definitely HOW i write

i don’t think i’ve ever talked about this but my first real fanfic fandom like the first time i got INTO fanfic in a real way was through skins (uk). do y’all remember skins? i was obsessed in early high school. so it’s not the FIRST fic i read (that was probably harry potter, i finished the books & did not want the story to end & through that desire to continue reading those books found fanfic way back on ff.net in like 2009) but the first time i like sat down and read every fic for a certain show/couple, it was skins.

there was one writer on ff.net called HyperFitched - now this was in like 2011 or so that i found these fics, so keep in mind i was young & haven’t re-read them so i’m not sure how they hold up! - but they would put out these unbelievable multi-chapter skins fics, like hundreds of thousands of words each. and i would gobble these stories up! like i couldn’t stop reading them. i remember sneaking my ipod touch into freshman year gym and reading these stories while i pretended to work out, because i just could not put them down. i will link to some of the ones below that i remember devouring in case anyone is interested, but these stories absolutely were what first got me thinking about things like subtext, shipping non-canon couples, the ability of fans to take source material and expand upon it & (in my mind) improve it, the idea of a slow-burn, of miscommunication, of pining, of sex in stories (oh the way i reacted when i realized people wrote these characters having semi-explicit sex!! what a game-changer). so it kind of was the precursor to pretty much everything about how i write fic! i wonder where this author ended up & if i can ever find them & send them a message... would love to do that lmk if anyone knows

but anyway - i fist came to AO3 because of skins! i ran out of skins fanfic to read on ff.net & wound up at AO3, and that’s how i got into tumblr, etc. etc. etc. but the fic that impacted me the most on AO3 is one i always recommend every time someone asks me for ficrecs because it’s just unbelievable, it was published over a decade ago, almost 100k words, like under 400 kudos (a crime!!) and i still reread it a couple times a year

transatlanticism by thememoriesfire it’s a katie/effy post-skins fic that sends me into the stratosphere like i am obsessed with the way this story is written & the way it unfolds & how the characters interact & how so little happens! the entire story revolves around basically just two characters talking to each other & trying to figure each other out & it’s one of the best things i have ever or will ever read! changed my perspective on fic length, on character development, on dialogue, helped me understand consistent tone of voice & characterizations etc. maybe none of y’all care about this stuff because you don’t care about skins but you don’t need to know that show to love this story! you really really don’t

anyway here are some HyperFitched stories i loved in 2011! fanfic styles have come a long way since the ff.net days so these might seem a little dated but they were very impactful to me. also people don’t write fic like this any more! kind of makes me nostalgic for simpler times

99 Problems - there’s a companion fic to this but basically all the skins characters are part of a circus & effy is losing her mind but katie helps her recover, there’s drugs & sex & sexy circus shenanigans, photography & love & aerial silks?? maybe i will re-read this actually because that’s all i remember of it but again, this consumed every waking moment of my life for as long as it took me to read it (which was probably like 4 or 5 days)

I Hold a Force I Can’t Contain - this is the emily/naomi companion piece to 99 Problems but i always liked katie/effy more tbqh

The Bend In The Wave

The Explosive Heart

11. How do you come up with your fic titles?

lame & not unique but mostly song lyrics / stuff from poems / bits of prose. i have a lot of difficulty coming up with titles, but i like the idea of a song or poem tying a story together it helps me nail down tone & themes a lot more easily.

31. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

my favorite character to write for is faith lehane (buffy), & after her lena luthor (supergirl). i like characters who have been hurt in impossibly difficult ways & who are trying to work through that hurt, characters who need to overcome their traumas, & the compelling thing to me about faith particularly (but lena too) is how her base instincts are violence & chaos; she’s been hurt so badly, so when she’s threatened she lashes out & causes more hurt. but she still wants to be good, & it’s just a matter of making herself accept that she is/can be good, that other people CAN see her that way. i am so drawn to that kind of character & it forms most of my writing.

most of my followers who follow me for my writing are bechloe stans! some harry potter folks too (there’s not a ton of really good f/f harry potter stories so people are always asking me for recs & stuff but it’s hard - there definitely are amazing works in that community but there’s not a huge breadth of non-smut fics & weirdly? a lot of them are about pansy parkinson? idk how that happened in fandom how the lesbians just decided pansy was their gal but i don’t like her so i never read those fics :/ sry rip). anyway all that to say is no my followers don’t really influence who my fav characters are to write for, because if it was up to them i would only write for like 1or 2 fandoms lol

lmk if you’re here for other fandoms! might help me in terms of which story i should work on finishing next

39. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

i think that i don’t (usually) take the easy way out in stories! i like to let the characters breathe & grow, i like to let the story move in the direction it needs to move in, even if that means i have to change or scrap what i previously planned out, even if that means i have to increase the word count from a 6k word one-shot to a 20k word one-shot (aka that korra story i just posted). perdition was originally supposed to be a 4-6 chapter story that only took place over their college years! but then it turned into a monster

thank you so much for these questions!

Fic Writer Ask Game!

[tentpoletrauma]

Transcript of our Wolfman 2010 Podcast

Unknown Speaker  0:12   Welcome to Tentpole Trauma, the podcast where we look at movies that came with hype and high hopes, but left with crushing disappoint either critically at the box office are both. Free from the weight of expectations, we seek to examine these underperformers under a new light parsing through the good, the bad and everything in between the hopes of gaining a better understanding as to why they failed to find their audience.

Unknown Speaker  0:43   Warning, there will be spoilers. So if you haven't seen the movie that we're discussing today, I suggest you stop the podcast and go watch it. Then when you come back and listen, you'll get more out of the discussion. This episode we examine the 2010 remake of The Wolf Man.

Unknown Speaker  1:23   I've been a universal horror fan for as long as I can remember. So I was pretty excited back in 2010 when the Wolf Man remake got rooms I've been following the production I knew Benicio del Toro was playing the Wolf Man, which I thought was great. I knew the original director left and was replaced with Joe Johnston, who I liked but didn't think was that inspired of a choice. But still, I was really excited to see it even after numerous delays. The first signs of real trouble were the extremely tepid reviews and tepid is a kind descriptor, but I maintained my enthusiasm and on opening weekend dragged my pointedly disinterested girlfriend to see it. The movie started promisingly enough with a pretty cool werewolf attack. But as the stilted drama set in, I could feel the audience snickering and turning against the movie. And more importantly, I could feel my girlfriend turning against me for dragging her to see this thing. We didn't last much longer. Still, over the years, I've maintained a certain affection for the film, even buying it on blu ray to have it as a, as I call put on in the background kind of movie, something that's visually pleasing that you can just look at not really pay attention to it. Over the years, I've even tried to get friends and family to watch it with me and perhaps reevaluate the film. But usually I'm just met with a healthy serving of side eye and skepticism. So am I insane for liking this maligned movie? I guess that's a question we'll have to address today as we deep dive into the 2010 remake of the wolf, man.

Unknown Speaker  3:19   All right, this is Sebastian, and I'm here today with Jennifer Hello, and Chris.

Unknown Speaker  3:25   Hey, how's it going?

Unknown Speaker  3:26   And we're gonna be talking about the Wolf Man remake from 2010. Directed by Joe Johnston, who did Captain America The Winter Soldier, and he did the Rocketeer and Jurassic Park three, and written by Andrew Kevin Walker, who wrote seven and some other stuff. So you know, there's kind of a pedigree there. I already in my intro talked about my experience with this film. Jennifer, do you have any previous experience with this film?

Unknown Speaker  3:57   Yes, I do. My first exposure to this film was through you insisting that I watched this film, I think it was probably around 2012 or 2013. Does that sound right?

Unknown Speaker  4:10   It sounds right.

Unknown Speaker  4:10   Yeah. And I remember just not really, not really getting that into it. I was just kind of I wasn't, I didn't hate it by any means. But I just was kind of like, okay, that's, it's that was fine. But then watching it for the podcast. I had a different experience this time, which we'll go into also watching, both theatrical and the unrated version made a big difference. So But yeah, I did not see it in the theater. I it's not really I'm a horror person but, and I like universal monsters. The creatures more my guy, but I'm not you know, not super

Unknown Speaker  4:58   Wolfie Okay, Chris.

Unknown Speaker  5:01   Um, yeah, so my experience with Wolf Man was, I saw Dracula in high school loved it thought it was great. I thought it was like a great goth movie that everybody seemed to be into. And goth was a big thing. And then Frankenstein came out, which was, I guess, and unofficial sequel to that it still had the same vibe had a good director and a bunch of golf production design. And that was not

Unknown Speaker  5:32   just to be clear, we're talking about the Coppola Dracula and the Kenneth brown a Frankenstein.

Unknown Speaker  5:37   Exactly. And so I was kind of following that thread. Because I love Dracula, even though I it's flawed. And then Frankenstein came out, which I didn't love as much, but it was still a good time. And then Wolf Man came out. And I believe it was touted as like the third of a trilogy of, you know, the same type of pedigree we're gonna make, we're gonna give this treatment to these three monsters. And I believe, I don't know why I didn't see it at the time that it came out. Maybe because the reviews were bad or I was busy or something like that. But it took until now that Sebastian was doing this podcast that I was like, Oh, I guess it's time to watch it. And, and I've seen it for the first time.

Unknown Speaker  6:22   All right. Well, before we get into your feelings on the movie, let's just kind of dig in. This movie had a troubled production. It was originally going to be directed by Mark Romanek, who's a pretty cool director. Yeah, one one hour photo. Mm hmm. And

Unknown Speaker  6:38   lots of great music videos, too.

Unknown Speaker  6:41   That's right. And I was working at cinephile at the time and Benny not to name drop but Benicio del Toro would come in. And he was a huge Wolf Man fan. And he was really excited that he was going to get to play the Wolf Man. And I'm a huge Wolf Man fan. I love the 1940s original, so I was excited for him to play it. But it took a long time for the movie to come out. Because there were just you know, Mark Romanek, ended up leaving at the last minute, and there were like delays, Joe Johnson took over and had to just work with whatever they had. And you know, then it ended up with the release ended up being delayed, for whatever reason, so it ended up like taking two years for you to come out. But that's a little background on the movie. So let's just get into it. It starts with the universal logo. So this is definitely they're setting it up that this is a universal monster movie. In the the theatrical version. Yeah, it's cool. And the theatrical version. It's pretty easy. It's just black and white, but in the unrated version, you get a sort of more old school like 1940s universal logo.

Unknown Speaker  7:51   Yeah, I love that. It's really up. It's updated, but feels old school and it's like, it's really the right way to go iPod.

Unknown Speaker  7:58   Yeah, it sets the tone. I don't know if they intended this to be the first of the quote unquote, dark universe that they were trying to do. A few years back, they would keep saying, you know, they, they I think they set it with this movie. Then they set it with Dracula Untold. Then they set it with the Tom Cruise mummy. They were really hoping to do a marvel universe of universal monsters, which I would have been game for. But they

Unknown Speaker  8:23   shouldn't that should have been the tagline.

Unknown Speaker  8:27   But they couldn't seem to get that going. Anyway. So this isn't really the beginning of the dark universe because there is no dark universe. It starts off with some Danny Elfman music, which reminded me a lot of the 1979 Dracula that came out in the disco era with Franklin gela Mm hmm. It really borrows some themes. for that.

Unknown Speaker  8:48   To me the score just sound doesn't sound like Danny Elfman at all it very it to me, it just sounds like they're ripping off the score of the Coppola Dracula, you know, with that sort of luxurious string arrangements. And it's a strange like, I remember thinking like didn't then I think he is he a Czech composer for the Coppola Dracula, and he had died. So I was like, who composes because it sounds exactly like him. So and I was shocked to see that it was Danny Elfman because it doesn't sound like his trademark, you know, score at all.

Unknown Speaker  9:22   It doesn't sound like a kooky circus.

Unknown Speaker  9:26   Not at all.

Unknown Speaker  9:27   No, I think he was intentionally trying to evoke that apparently, he was originally hired to do the score. And then they tried to go with another score, I think and then they went back to his score. Anyway, it just sort of typical of the sort of troubled production of this, this movie. And anyway, moving on, it opens with the quote from the original the, you know, man becomes a wolf when the wolf Bane bloons that's straight from the original and it's pretty stylish in a sort of computer generated way. Yeah which is a which is a thing I think this movie it can either be a plus or a minus to you like it's very you know they're going for that really God thing but it's pretty computer CG golf.

Unknown Speaker  10:14   Yeah, agreed 100% I think

Unknown Speaker  10:17   that's the problem. That's what that's something that makes the Bram Stoker Dracula standout is that they went with a lot of old school visual effects and just you know, the feel of the whole thing was purposely sort of antique whereas this the production design works but the filmmaking techniques are very modern and in their hidden Miss You know, sometimes they work and then sometimes you see Oh, that's just a Morph cut that just, they just put in there because they could.

Unknown Speaker  10:46   Okay, so we get the opening attack, which is, you know, we later find out is Larry Talbots. I'm gonna call him Larry just because I think that's funny. Larry Talbots brother getting attacked on the Moore's there's sort of a voiceover from Emily Blunt, which didn't feel added anything to it really. And you know, we get this whole attack, which is pretty cool, but I feel like it It feels very rushed.

Unknown Speaker  11:13   The whole beginning feels rushed. Like, well, the voiceover from Emily Blunt in the theatrical version is she's writing a letter to Larry. Right. Yeah. So she's and you know, we're getting this this backstory. And that was, like the beginning. I just felt like, Is it me? I don't know what, what just happened? What is going on here? Like is it just it felt it feels like we just, it zooms by and not in a good way. Just wait way too much too fast. And it just feels like it's just kind of thrown together. And that Yeah, I was completely just baffled at that some of the things that were going on,

Unknown Speaker  11:56   well, in the unrated cut, you get a little more of the attack, and we get this whole scene of Larry acting. He's supposedly on stage in London, he's performing Hamlet or something. And Gwen does not write a letter to him in this version, she actually comes to the theater and he's backstage and he sort of got a cool bathrobe on he sort of rock starring out and she floors him to come check because I think his brother is missing at that point. But he sort of puts her off but she kind of gives him a guilt trip. I felt like compared to the theatrical version, where all you get is this voiceover from Emily Blunt. And you're suddenly right at the right at Blackmore Manor, I felt like the unrated version was an improvement.

Unknown Speaker  12:49   Yeah, I see, having watched both of them, I definitely can see how the pendulum swung hard both ways. You know, like, the Extended Cut is way too long. There's way too much intro, you know, it'll take like half an hour before like that Gypsy attack happens. So I understand why they cut a lot of that stuff, because it's just needless exposition. But now hearing Jen's reaction to it, I think, you know, they obviously cut maybe too much, because they're, they're really just, you know, trying to keep it tight and compress everything so that it gets going. But I will say having watched the Extended Cut that man, it's kind of a slog and a drag to, to get to where the movies going,

Unknown Speaker  13:30   you're sort of coming at it from the opposite end of Gen where you felt like the extended was taking too long.

Unknown Speaker  13:35   Definitely. And in you saying that it's a troubled production and that the you know, the director got swapped out at the last minute totally makes sense, because this feels very, you know, made by committee where nobody had a strong vision. And they were like, Okay, well, it's too long. Well, now let's make it too short or whatever. And, you know, no one actually said I understand the story. We're gonna make this happen. This is you know exactly what it's gonna be like, it definitely feels that way where there's not a strong vision hand at the helm.

Unknown Speaker  14:06   I wouldn't want more. This was like, in this case, it just for me, I was like, I felt so much more like, Oh, this is what they're doing. Because I remember even being like, is Larry an actor? like is that what he was doing? Because it's like literally like just like a quick flash of him on the stage or something. And I'm like, wait, and setting up also with Emily Blunt. Like, because throughout the film, I was like, Okay, I know she's supposed to be you know, it's complicated, but she's, you know, supposed to be kind of a love interest. And I just wasn't really feeling it. But then with this at the beginning with her coming there, there was this more to their relationship, and I actually was more invested, so to speak, but yeah, so anyway, the the unrated worked worked for me, especially in the beginning.

Unknown Speaker  14:51   I wouldn't say that in any version, their relationship is is a strong point of the movie, but in the theatrical cut, you get nothing zero, you're like, I don't care at all, at least in the unrated cut you you have some reason to care. They've had some scenes that are meaningful. Yeah, in the in the theatrical, there's nothing.

Unknown Speaker  15:15   Um, well, this is just kind of a general note on just about the action and how the wolf, you know, plays out in his attacks. Like, it's something, there's movies like Jurassic Park, or, you know, other werewolf movies, which gives you that sense of, you know, a wild animal attack. And, you know, if you've ever been around, like, you know, an angry dog or anything like that, you get that sense, where it's like, oh, my God, like anything can happen. But when he attacks it, it feels more like a bus hit. And then an animal attack, you know, because he just comes in out of nowhere and just slams. It's like, half jumpscare, half bus hit. And it just, I don't know, I just feel like it doesn't, it doesn't work. It's not a unique way of, you know, having him attack and it just doesn't feel scary to me.

Unknown Speaker  16:02   It feels more like a superhero thing. Yeah. And I feel and I think that a lot of this movie has that kind of feel where it's almost more of a superhero movie, even though the superheroes, you know, killing people. It just has a more modern superhero vibe to it in a weird way. If that makes any sense.

Unknown Speaker  16:21   Absolutely. This is relates to a point that I have with just the story in general that I feel like they set up a lot of things that never pay off. Like, why haven't be an actor, why, you know, have the meet backstage at the beginning. It's just, there's, there's so many weird threads in this story that just don't seem to pay off. And, and I feel like I feel the story being stretched. And like we were saying, the right amount of information is somewhere in the middle between the theatrical and Extended Cut. But there's just so many ideas in this story that never pay off that they were trying to, like, give love to some and then not enough for the others. It's just kind of a mess. I think

Unknown Speaker  17:07   with the him being an actor, I totally know. There's definitely things I agree with you Chris that never come to fruition, but I feel like part of the him being an actor is like they're trying to paint this picture also, which I think again, is more represented in the unrated version, is that he is such an outsider to the town, as at this point, like he's totally like a fish out of water. Like, you know, and I think like even at one point Anthony Hopkins is this you know, kind of says something along the lines of like, oh, coming back to the you know, small town or something along the lines of that, you know, so I think they're trying to make him like just as uncomfortable they're like not wanted there you know, even without even before all the other stuff happens that that's I mean, but yes, there's so many things that are set up the door really pay off but that's that's all I could gather from from going into his acting career.

Unknown Speaker  18:02   Maybe it's also to say that his Mid Atlantic accent is because he's an actor and has been away for so long. That's right. Oh, he's in New York. That's where he picked up this weird accent. Like, I also

Unknown Speaker  18:12   think that's what it how it was in the original, which didn't really play into anything in the original film either. But I think they just that's why because that's the character gotcha as as known from the 1940s film, you know, in the unrated cut, we get a scene on a train with the great Max von seido like why do you cut Max von side obviously, Larry is looking at a picture of his mom and then Max von seido sitting across from him and Max von seido. Has this silver wolf cane, which to your point Chris doesn't end up paying out in any real way in the movie. And it's only in there and I think this might be the the overall answers your question as to why things don't pay out and why they're in there is because in the 1940s movie, he's the Wolf Man is killed by his father with a wolf head cane just like that. Okay, so it's

Unknown Speaker  19:13   a setup without payoff as like a twist to the old be the people who knew Okay,

Unknown Speaker  19:20   yeah, the cane is not the strongest point of this movie. Okay, so we get to Blackmore Manor, which is the Talbot estate, we find out at that point that his brother's dead. You know, I think the production value whatever you feel about this movie, I think the production value is pretty great. All the locations are really cool. I love the look of the manor. It looks like a you know, kind of like a rundown Downton Abbey. Yes. With lots of leaves in the interior and my squeaking, lots of squeaking. We get Anthony Hopkins and he's you know he's doing you're pretty much like standard late period Anthony Hopkins performance. But it's one of those cases where he's Anthony Hopkins and he, he's totally watchable. It's you know, it's he's not doing anything. He seems kind of half asleep in a way. And he's not doing anything spectacular, but he's just great because he's Anthony Hopkins.

Unknown Speaker  20:16   totally true. Totally agree. Yes. I just Yeah, he's just kind of being creepy and just yeah, doing doing his thing. And it's a great I think opening scene to having him come in there looked up. Definitely rundown Downton Abbey. Lots of spider webs just kind of in disarray. But yeah, it's that I was happy, happy just to spend some time with with Anthony.

Unknown Speaker  20:42   You know, Anthony Hopkins at 50% is still better than most people's on 100% Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker  20:48   Yes. Yeah, the productions that design is definitely stellar. I mean, it's got that golf feel and it's definitely the I think the best thing about it, you know, I mean, the cinematography as well with the high contrast lighting and the smoke everywhere, everything looks right. You know, they they definitely spent the right amount of money and, and have the right fuel going. It's the other stuff. It's the story and the acting that to me don't work. And Anthony Hopkins can do no wrong. Of course, he's definitely phoning it in and like you said it, his phoning it in is already better than most people's full throttle. But can we talk about Benicio for a second? Like I feel like he is not giving me much of anything. And I'm also trying to think of what other lead roles he's had where he's knocked it out of the park. Like he's always great as the crazy sidekick. And I think maybe he's not capable of pulling off the lead in a movie like this where there's not a lot to Larry. I mean, he's just this mopey guy. He's supposed to be an actor, but like, I feel like I get nothing from his character.

Unknown Speaker  21:53   He's definitely trying to, I believe, especially with his haircut and everything, which is not terribly flattering on him. He's got a sort of like almost bowl cut,

Unknown Speaker  22:04   like a Caesar cut. Yeah, that was was that the style at the time? Was that cool?

Unknown Speaker  22:08   Or it was? I don't think so. He looks a little puffy. And he's kind of looks a little overweight. So I think he was trying to actually invoke Alon Chani Jr, who played the Wolf Man in the original. I mean, he was a huge, huge fan of that movie. But I also think he might be a little checked out because I think he was very supportive of Mark Romanek. And when I think he was a little upset that, you know, they switched out directors, and, you know, he may have been sort of checked out. We need

Unknown Speaker  22:45   to have a term for that, like, you know, like Marlon Brando with Island of Dr. Moreau when an actor gets ditched by the director, and then just phones in the movie, like, Can we call that something? Well, but I don't know.

Unknown Speaker  22:56   I don't I wouldn't compare those two because Brando and Island of Dr. Moreau is crazy. Right? Right. Like, does whatever

Unknown Speaker  23:04   you want. Well, he Benicio should have done that, you know, that would have been more interesting.

Unknown Speaker  23:08   Yeah. I think he's got his moments. I think we know when he's getting ready to change and stuff. I think he does good. But I agree, when we're doing the sort of straightforward stuff and he's just trying to be sort of, you know, mysterious romantic lead. It doesn't really work. And I don't think that that's his, his wheelhouse. No,

Unknown Speaker  23:28   I was fine with it. I just I think but also, I'm just like, such a fan of his I really like him a lot. So I'm, I'm just giving him a pass. Like, I don't know, I was fine with it. I wasn't looking at him and his performance that critically, especially once I got to see the unrated version and got to spend some more time with Larry lots and lots of more time with Larry so I knew what was uh, what was really going on with Larry. But yeah, I thought I thought his performance was was fine for for what it is.

Unknown Speaker  24:01   Okay, so moving on, he goes to the village to see his brother's body which is being kept in a slaughterhouse. I don't know if that was common for the time or if they just thought it would be a kind of a cool touch. But we get sort of a you know, quick shot of the body and I feel like the gore effects are good. Overall, in this movie, they make a real attempt to lean into the our rating, which I appreciate a lot of the times it's sort of CGI gore and violence, but you know, they don't hold back which I like about the movie.

Unknown Speaker  24:36   I thought that scene was gross like I in my notes I wrote yuck because it was just that's how I felt because I mean, it's our I yeah, I had the same question. I was like as this is how it was done. I was like are they just really hate Ben and they hate the tall but family and they just throw them in here and that the slaughterhouse because this is this is gross. I mean, and they're like you really feel it because it's like, Benicio is like just covering His face and I'm like buying it I'm like, this place stinks. This is this is nasty. And I thought also when they pull it back it was it was good good like it may be the first time it made me kind of jumps is like oh, like it wasn't ready for for that like, though there was some serious wolf chowing down on Ben.

Unknown Speaker  25:19   Well, and I think you might have a point about the town's folk, because in the next scene, we go to the pub, and the town's folk are sort of talking about the brother's death. And you know, Larry's there at the, in the corner at a table and he's, you know, hearing them talk. He looks a medallion that he found on his brother, which isn't very well explained. The townspeople are blaming the Gypsy, and we you know, we get a werewolf story. You know, a lot of this reminded me of the pub scene and American Werewolf in London. Absolutely. Now in the unrated version, one of the guy starts talking smack about the family, you know, talk smack about his mom going crazy. And Larry, the scene ends with Larry throwing a drink on the guy, which, again, I felt this made the scene better in the theatrical cut. It's just the scene. He doesn't interact with him at all. He's just sort of sitting there. So I felt like the unrated cut at least shows you Oh, he doesn't get it. He doesn't like the villagers. They don't like his family. This is probably why he left and puts a nice button on that point.

Unknown Speaker  26:26   Yes, I agree. Because Yeah, and the theatrical he's just sitting over there kind of just sulking and listening. And the townspeople are also alluding to the fact that it might you know, it might not have been a beast it could it like they're kind of talking about seems like they were I think they're talking kind of about like jack the Ripper or something like that. I do remember they're kind of talking about that there's there's a mentally unstable, you know, man that could have done this or something.

Unknown Speaker  26:52   Right. And wasn't a Hugo Weaving, like was his last case was the Ripper. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  26:57   yeah, he was. Yeah, he was on the Ripper case, which Yeah, Larry kind of needles him with because obviously, they never caught jack the Ripper. So

Unknown Speaker  27:06   and I think like they were also kind of alluding to Larry's mental state, which we learn more about later.

Unknown Speaker  27:13   So this this whole pub talk, and you reminding us that you know, this happened in American Werewolf in London. And how it's, it's pretty much the same scene, same beats, you know, beware don't go out and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, trying to be spooky warning. But I feel like it there's no twist on it. You know, in Frankenstein, and in Dracula, the mo was, let's go back to the book. Let's go back to the source. Let's let's do it really was in the book that in because it's never been done. beholden to the book, The way we're gonna do it. And that was what they were thinking. Whereas with Wolf, man, what was the mo here, you know, to be beholden to the old movie, because they're just retreading all these cliches without adding anything new to them. I feel like they're, they're just, you know, are here's the tip here, we're gonna do the Wolf Man story, the way it would be as if it were a cliche. And you're like, well, so why All right, I guess we get some better special effects. Get some good actors get some good lighting and production design, but there's no imagination, there's no umph to it to me.

Unknown Speaker  28:21   Well, they're I think they're just trying to update the whole thing for a modern audience who don't want to go back to the 1941 and watch it. But to your point, they're kind of taking from just werewolf movie history and kind of throwing it all throwing it all in there because they don't have a book source. They do. You know, there is no novel of the Wolf Man. The 1940s movie was the original version of it. So you know, I kind of see what they're doing. I feel like they're just trying to sort of update Yeah, Gothic werewolf movie as an abstract, not as a specific thing. Got it. Now in the unrated cut, we get a dinner scene with dad, Gwen, Larry and the Kim fail sheet See, doesn't get introduced at all, or he gets really barely introduced at all in the theatrical version. He's just sort of standing in the background. And they dine on baked eel, which is just about the grossest thing I can imagine. I can't think of anything that I'd like to eat less baked eel. And they talk about the superstitious villagers. And we get a real sense that there's tension between dad and Larry here, which I like and it gets really uncomfortable for Gwen and she leaves. I appreciated the scene because it set up more of the dynamics dramatically.

Unknown Speaker  29:46   Yes, I appreciated this as well. Also with his, I believe he called him his manservant, the Kim Valle. Seek. I that was another thing we're like in the future. conversion. I was like, when did we meet this guy like it happened so fast with him and that the electrical version I was like, Wait, what? What's going on here? And you

Unknown Speaker  30:09   want to know who he is yours that guy?

Unknown Speaker  30:11   Yeah, no, you definitely want to know who he is. So yeah, I appreciated more of him. The seek is another thread that just never pays off.

Unknown Speaker  30:20   Did you see in the unrated cut when he picks up the guitar and starts ripping on some Soundgarden,

Unknown Speaker  30:26   I would have loved to have seen that.

Unknown Speaker  30:28   Now, in the theatrical version, they cut right to the manor. And, you know, there's this sort of awkward scene where Larry goes to Gwen's door and he's like, Hey, I'm here. And I know, when you've seen the unrated, you can see that this is a scene they threw together to sort of set it up that they've met. Yeah, at this point, because, you know, she's in the theatrical she's only written him a letter. But there is this weird thing where the letter she wrote, keeps coming up, again, in the unrated version, which didn't happen in the unrated version. So when a mess, yeah, like as an editor, I think it's interesting to have you on this conversation specifically, Chris, because you are an editor. And you've probably been involved in some projects where they've had to sort of cobble things together from different versions definitely

Unknown Speaker  31:21   obviously just left in and they're like Foghat who cares. And you know, I'm sure it made sense in like, probably like, the first, you know, maybe two and a half hour cut of it, and then they just kept chopping away. And then who knows who they brought in to do a hack job, but I'm sure a lot of those threads were left in and they just, instead of, you know, in that in specifically in that scene, if you look where he meets, I think it's the theatrical cut where he meets her for the first time in the hallway. A lot of his dialogue is on her. So it's just ADR him saying, like, I got your letter, very nice to meet you. And you can totally tell that they just ADR, those lines into shoo in that he is meeting here for the first time there. So yeah, this, it's definitely a mess. And there's a lot of those things that I think people just wouldn't notice on our first viewing. But now we're analyzing it. Yeah, you're like, Oh,

Unknown Speaker  32:16   no, I wouldn't if I only watched the unrated cut, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. It's just because I'm familiar with both versions. What what I find kind of weird about it is that you would assume the unrated cut was closer to say the assembly directors of the assembly cut and then they whittled it down. But she talks about the letter in the later scenes in the unrated cut so it's almost as if they made the decision to cut it down while they were still filming

Unknown Speaker  32:47   it. Maybe it was like a bigger even bigger thing where she wrote him a letter then went to visit him then you know, like so it's probably a thing on the thing on the thing. And then they were just like, let's all just cut it out. And

Unknown Speaker  32:58   I think that would have made sense since actually Chris because it would have like that she could have written him first and then he didn't respond and then she went in person, because you know, he wasn't responding. The other thing that I wanted to point out about when she does when he goes to her door, is that her maid or lady and waiting or whatever you want to call her is Yara Greyjoy Did you notice that? No way from Game of Thrones? Yeah, I was like, Oh my God, that's the Greyjoy sister tiara,

Unknown Speaker  33:28   which was like can you miss her? She disappears I think

Unknown Speaker  33:31   you might get her on one more scene like but very very brief.

Unknown Speaker  33:34   That's like the only reason for me to go back and watch

Unknown Speaker  33:38   Yeah, we're giving away your hand Chris

Unknown Speaker  33:42   and just to touch upon Emily Blunt now you know i think you know she's well cast in this movie. I guess she does a really good job considering what she's been given which I think is a pretty thankless role. There's not a lot to it but I mean, she gets some moments to cry and stuff and I you know, I think she delivers I think a case could be made for the her being the best for sure in the movie. I agreed.

Unknown Speaker  34:08   Let me bring up one more point about just the brothers story in general like why I don't maybe this is originally in you know, in the original Wolf Man, but it just makes no sense to have this brother standing in the way of a the love story, all of it just like why doesn't Why don't they just give the story to Benicio and have him be in love with her. And it's like this trifecta between him and Anthony Hopkins. It just seems to be a step too far.

Unknown Speaker  34:34   The brother is just a plot device to get him

Unknown Speaker  34:37   but he's so important because it's like oh, that's Emily Blunt's you know, fiance and all this stuff where it just seems like they could have figured out a different way of doing it. You know, it seems like

Unknown Speaker  34:47   a gothic romance kind of thing. You told Oh, the dead brother, you know, okay. It adds a layer of you know, sadness to it.

Unknown Speaker  34:58   They just need to do it. It was I agree they just needed to get him as far as like the why why that's important is just like because it comes to you know, to light later about you know how much she hates his father and how much he hates this town and like wouldn't come back so it's like and and again if we you know if we do believe that there was a letter and then there was her going there and you know, I mean there could have always been some sort of kind of thing between them because yeah, it's the whole Gothic like, you know, longing and all that stuff. Yeah, but yeah, it's just I think it's totally just to get him back home and to just make it the most dysfunctional family ever. We pretty much and worst dad award of all time. Yeah, we'll come to find out later.

Unknown Speaker  35:47   And I will say this. I don't think that Benicio del Toro and Emily blonde have sizzling on screen chemistry. On speaking of worst dad award, we get another scene with Talbot and his dad and Anthony Hopkins looking out the telescope to the moon. Again, the telescope is a reference to the original film. His dad in the original film, who was played by Claude Rains is fascinated with his telescope, but the telescope never comes into play later. So it's yet another sort of reference that doesn't have a real point in the story.

Unknown Speaker  36:25   That scene I do love that Anthony Hopkins takes the time to blow out almost every single candle that he has in the room which I'm like you know what fucking a that's realistic you know like with the production design like this year like how many freakin candles does this guy have and they show him like you know what, it's time to go to bed this was a ritual we used to have I would you'd have to sit here open up this thing blow inside put it out and it's actually a fun callback when you see him in his sorry spoiler when if we just jump ahead to his little man cave or wolf cave thing? There's like 8 million candles there and I just kept thinking like how long is it gonna take him to blow these in his gave man it will take a long time.

Unknown Speaker  37:06   It was the family crypt I believe

Unknown Speaker  37:08   Okay, I'm surprised he didn't make his poor Kim fail manservant Yeah, blow out all these candles. But I thought also Chris I noticed the candles as well. And I was also really impressed with like, some of the cool like lantern type devices they have like candles as well like kind of these like kind of mini torch type things. I don't know what you would call it but I was like I thought that was really again with the production design. The attention to detail was was really cool.

Unknown Speaker  37:37   You know that blowing out all the candles thing was was all Hopkins I was like, I need to blow out all these.

Unknown Speaker  37:45   Okay, Anthony, go ahead.

Unknown Speaker  37:48   All right now in the unrated cut, we get Larry going to Gwen's room. But it's a different scene than in the theatrical and he apologizes for making her uncomfortable into over dinner and gives her items of her brothers. It's you know, it's not like a great scene or anything, but it definitely helps sort of, you know, you feel that her character is more endeared to him by it, as opposed to in the theatrical where you don't really understand why she would be endeared to him at all, because they don't even really have any real scene. So again, I feel like it's a better scene. Then we get to one of few sequences in the film where Larry is having a flashback. It plays like a dream sequence but he's not sleeping he's awake. And he's just sort of having these traumatic flashes of

Unknown Speaker  38:42   maybe he took the spice

Unknown Speaker  38:46   and he's playing with his brother and the mother's watching you know they wake up at night and something sinister is going on in the house like in the hallway This is

Unknown Speaker  38:54   where we see the blood come out of the sidewalk I remember that being a very cool image

Unknown Speaker  38:58   Yes, yes, I believe that's where we see that it's all done in this very stylish Gothic kind of look, but it feels a little like they're trying hard to be trippy and spooky and I don't know if it's they kind of go like a little too far I think with some of the techniques, but he goes out into the garden we get a cool topiary had some cool topiary hedges a gorilla which I appreciated the topiary a gorilla, for sure you know in the movie looks expensive. They didn't spare any expense, which is why it's appropriate to do for Tentpole Trauma because they spent a lot of money on this movie and it bombed so I feel that it's appropriate for this podcast no

Unknown Speaker  39:42   doubt and I will say that the night scenes all look like they're shot at night, you know, and the lighting is great. And you know, there's no Day for Night here at all. And kudos to those cinematography for making it look appropriately scary.

Unknown Speaker  39:56   Yeah, I mean, I think the cinematography is is impeccable. I forget who the cinematographer was. I feel that it fits in with the Coppola Dracula and the Kenneth brana. Frankenstein, at least in that regard where you know, you know, it's high high production value update.

Unknown Speaker  40:15   Interesting. The cinematographer is Shelley Johnson. And he was also the cinematographer for Captain America The First Avenger. Okay,

Unknown Speaker  40:25   yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Because that same director, right

Unknown Speaker  40:28   buddies with Joe, but also what to Chris's point about, you know, bringing up a new agreed with that as well bringing up the superhero feel to some of the film anyway.

Unknown Speaker  40:38   Yeah. And Joe Johnson also did the rocket tear, which was also sort of a throwback, superhero 1940s type of things. So it's kind of his wheelhouse. I can see why he was hired for this when Mark Romanek left the production.

Unknown Speaker  40:51   He was also a special effects guy, right? Did he work on Star Wars? Yeah, stuff. So

Unknown Speaker  40:57   yeah, he was like a Spielberg protege, a guy who came up through Spielberg. Yeah, we get to see a quick shot of a D aged Hopkins with a goatee and the dead mother and it's sort of framed to look like a suicide. She's got a straight razor in her hand, you know, but I think at this point, nobody's really thinking that that is a suicide. The mother having, you know, spoiler the fact that the mother was killed by Hopkins, is really not a surprise at all. You know, even on first viewing, you're like, she didn't kill herself. It's kind of one of those performances by Hopkins where, you know, immediately he's a bad guy, you know, sort of like the sort of like the jack nicholson shining, where you're like, yeah, of course, he's gonna go crazy. He's clearly crazy.

Unknown Speaker  41:49   Yeah, even if you don't know exactly what his deal is, you know, he killed her, like you don't even if you don't know how it went down, you know what I mean? Like, there's more more to be revealed, but you immediately know that he's, he's the villain.

Unknown Speaker  42:03   And in that scene, Benicio, I feel like gives nothing right after you see his mother dead. Like, that was one of my notes. When you see that happen? You think, you know, I'm, I'm reliving this childhood trauma, and it cuts to him. And he's just like, Oh, yeah, I remember that. And I'm like, Whoa, what's going on here? Why didn't anybody direct this guide? Or? I don't know. That's an example of my of a moment where he he failed to deliver for me,

Unknown Speaker  42:29   I feel like it's a little unfair to judge his performance. Totally. Because the the editing is so suspected it but I feel like a lot of the especially the scenes where he's having these flashbacks, they could have been, like, put together from something else. Like I would have to have read the script to know if this was all intended to be in there. From the beginning.

Unknown Speaker  42:50   Maybe I'm reading too much into Larry. And maybe I'm just too much of a Binney SEO defender. But I also think that, you know, as we find out more, you know, sorry, spoiler alert, that Larry spent some time in asylum. Yeah. And they did a lot of bad things to Larry, I don't know if he is even able to have the proper emotional responses at this point. Because I mean, you see what goes on in the asylum. It's bad news. So maybe Larry's just tapped out like this is, you know, like, this is all the reaction that he can muster. Or maybe he just saves it all for the stage.

Unknown Speaker  43:31   Alright, so then moving on, we go to the brother's funeral. There's, you know, more Gothic imagery, then Larry and Gwen haven't have a moment by the waterfall. He talks about his father's cruelty. And then that's, as you were mentioning, Jen, where we get our first mention that he was put in an asylum, and then after that sent to America, this sort of waterfall setting will also come back into play at the very end.

Unknown Speaker  43:58   Yeah, that's where he says, Gwen says, Ben said that you guys played here as children. And Larry says it was our refuge. So we

Unknown Speaker  44:05   find out that Glen is leaving. You know, whatever. This is all happening super fast. It just feels like the scenes are really cut to the quick here. Then we get Lawrence goes off to find the gypsies because he's learned that his brother was involved with them or something like that. And you know, I like the Gypsy camp. It's pretty cool. It's you know, it's about what you would expect from a big budget movie Gypsy camp. Geraldine Chaplin, the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, is the gypsy woman

Unknown Speaker  44:36   I know she's also I know her from Do you guys know the movie with Holly Hunter home for the holidays? Do you remember that at all with like, Claire, I've heard of her name. Well, I highly recommend it. It's really good Robert Downey Jr. and Holly Hunter. And anyway, it's a fun holiday film, but that's where that's where I reckon

Unknown Speaker  44:52   Downey Jr. was in Chaplin.

Unknown Speaker  44:55   Oh, interesting. Yeah, good connection.

Unknown Speaker  44:57   Also on this scene, we get a quick Rick Baker cameo Rick Baker's the famous makeup artist who did design the way he designed American Werewolf in London and lots of Famous Monsters he designed just did he work on this? He did. He designed the werewolf. We get a quick cameo of him here. He's the guy that's just kind of on lookout and he's watching and then he gets slammed by the werewolf really quickly.

Unknown Speaker  45:24   I also wanted to bring up that before we get Larry going to the Gypsy camp, which by the way, we all know is not a good word, but that's just how they use it. And the film. Yes, just disclaimer. I was it's a little puzzling that Larry's Dad, I made a note of this because he's like telling him me like, you know, yeah, you should stay inside because it's going to be a full moon. I don't want to lose you too. And then he says all of that and then it's like cut too. We see Larry riding off to the Gypsy camp like you know, whatever, dad, because he of course he's not going to listen to him. So I guess as I'm talking it through now I'm thinking like, maybe it was some sort of reverse psychology to like to get

Unknown Speaker  46:04   him to go out. It is weird though. The way it cuts right from him saying Don't go Don't go out and I don't

Unknown Speaker  46:11   want to lose you too. And then yeah, he's there he is galloping away another great cut.

Unknown Speaker  46:17   We get the prerequisite in a universal monster movie. We get villagers with torches they show up for the bear because they're they blame the gypsies bear for the attack on Larry's brother. The bear is very clearly not a real bear. It's a CG bear. But you know, we don't want them torturing. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  46:36   well, did you hear what he said? He says to somebody says like he doesn't all he does is dance. And I was like, Oh, that's sad to like dancing berry circuses.

Unknown Speaker  46:48   Yeah, but that's like

Unknown Speaker  46:49   somebody said that he's supposed to be an old like bear that's like about to be put out to pasture. Right? Like, I think the pub people are like, there's no way that bear could have done this. He's so old. And yeah, you feel a lot of sympathy for that bear even though he's CG.

Unknown Speaker  47:02   At least they don't have the bear fight the werewolf and get torn apart. Well, that would be more so I

Unknown Speaker  47:07   will say the claws through the policeman's mouth is pretty cool. That was one of the cool dads. I love that shot

Unknown Speaker  47:13   high. high praise for that, Chris. Yes, that that. I love that. I love that kill.

Unknown Speaker  47:19   Yeah, that's, you know, that's what happens the way the werewolf attacks that camp. And you know, we get that shot and a bunch of other pretty fun gore moments. This is when the movie really comes alive. For me these scenes. There's a lot of fair criticism to be had of the film when it's trying to be dramatic, but I feel like when we get to werewolf faction, it's pretty good werewolves. Action. I mean, yes, yes. Guilty of maybe being a little too CG at times. But you know, I don't know. I'm just happy to see a wolf man werewolf running around killing people. You know, I like the way the werewolves run on all fours. At some points. It's a little goofy, but I just like it.

Unknown Speaker  48:02   That's great. It's almost like, you know, in Transformers when they transform to the different mode to go faster. You know, it's like, yes, it's almost like a cheer moment. Like, you know, if the movie were better, you would definitely be cheering at that part. Because you're like, I need to go fast. I don't do this boop, boop. And then it's just great.

Unknown Speaker  48:19   I love it too. It's It's It's total chaos when when wolf wolf thing happens, but it's like chaos in the best way. It's like it's exactly it's like for all the the slow burning that's going along. It's like you really get a payoff. And I love this scene in particular, because you have people screaming, it's the devil. Yeah, the devil. And then yeah, it's just total chaos. And then like he, there's like the little boy or the little girl that like loses or mom or dad or the mom's looking for them and like the kid wanders off or there's just like, it's Yeah, just so much so much happening. And like it's really intense. And like, you're Yeah, you're just kind of on the edge of your seat, literally. Sure.

Unknown Speaker  48:57   But in the in the Extended Cut, it takes like, what 4050 minutes to get to this point. Is it Yes, definite reason why they cut it.

Unknown Speaker  49:06   At this point. You know, we get to sort of see that Larry has a hero in him. He grabs a gun and sort of goes to help people being attacked. There's this one kid who runs off he goes to help him the kid runs off into this like Stonehenge. Yes. Like I don't think it's literally supposed to be Stonehenge in

Unknown Speaker  49:27   England or there's just mini stone hedges like all around the corner in the countryside. I have the same

Unknown Speaker  49:32   exact same thought I was I just was like, is there just one that we know of here in the states are there there are many, many of these.

Unknown Speaker  49:40   Makes me want to live in England even more. I'm a druid No, you can just have a mini Stonehenge in your neighborhood. How cool would that be?

Unknown Speaker  49:49   You know the neighborhood stonehedge you know,

Unknown Speaker  49:51   and it's super foggy and gothy which I love. I'm a sucker for that kind of imagery. I don't care if a computer is doing it. I love it. That's the point where we get that Lawrence's attacked by the werewolf and bitten really savagely on the neck. So we know he's now bearing the mark of the wolf. And the villagers show up and drive the wolf away with their guns. And they bring Larry to the gypsy woman. And you know, everybody's basically telling her to kill him, but she won't do it. She tells them, he can only be released by someone who loves him. And we're all wondering who's

Unknown Speaker  50:33   this his dad doesn't love him let

Unknown Speaker  50:36   him fail. But stitching up of the wound was pretty gross in a good way. That was great. Like what she's stitching it up that was

Unknown Speaker  50:42   with one of those long curved needles.

Unknown Speaker  50:45   fishing hook. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  50:46   that was that was cringy. And a good way

Unknown Speaker  50:49   not to bring it back to Bram Stoker's Dracula again, but there's I feel like with Dracula, you almost get more bang for your buck. Because Dracula can be Dracula. He can be a bat and he also becomes a wolf. And the wolf in that is almost more interesting, because he can do way more things. Even as sex. Yeah. Which is more than you can say for this, you know, but I mean, I guess this is again, doing the classic wolf thing, but I would have liked a little bit even more craziness with with the wolf here, where, what else could he do? You know, but I know they're trying to keep it classic.

Unknown Speaker  51:24   Yeah, but then you'd be dealing with angry werewolf, right? Tell you what you can and can't do with a werewolf. And if you don't think that they'll do that, think again. Because horror fans can be really pedantic about what their movie monsters are allowed to do. If you ever want to find out go wander into a zombie conversation because there's a lot of strong feeling and a question

Unknown Speaker  51:47   Where did the term like isn't lichen, right, that lycanthrope? Like and throw? When did that become coming to use? Because I know what it was that underworld? Is that? Is that where they use it the most? But, you know, was it always around? Well, they call them lichens. Okay. Right.

Unknown Speaker  52:04   I think it's been around since the 1800s. I didn't research it. I don't know. But it's it's a term that's been around a while it's been around before,

Unknown Speaker  52:12   because it's in one of the books where she's researching. And I was like, oh, there's that word again. But like, when did pop culture? When did the movie start using it? Because I don't remember it from the 80s. It definitely

Unknown Speaker  52:22   no, it was definitely being used in the 80s. It was, it

Unknown Speaker  52:26   was it seems like instead, like you know how they go the Batman instead of Batman. They're like, let's say let's call them this. And so we don't have to call them werewolves now. And it just seems like like let's latch on to a new term.

Unknown Speaker  52:38   Yeah, it's a kind of it sounds sort of scientific. So it Yeah, sound smart. Right. When you say it?

Unknown Speaker  52:44   Well, it was first, the first mention of the word according to Wikipedia, was in 60. Ad.

Unknown Speaker  52:51   Whoa, wow.

Unknown Speaker  52:52   Yeah. Okay. So it's a it's a it's a Greek word, apparently. And it's translation. It's leukosis, which is Wolf and anthropos, which is man says Luke can throw pa or throw PA. That's where it comes from. The definition of it is that it's a form of madness involving the delusion of being an animal usually a wolf with corresponding altered behavior. But yeah, so it's been around for a long time. I don't know when it was, like, like subset I don't know when it was first mentioned in films, but it's it's a term that's been around a long, long time. It's used in movies and stuff earlier than you think. I wouldn't be surprised if it's used in the original Wolf Man or werewolf of London, which was the first official will universal were watching not American. Were right London, werewolf and of London. But um, yeah, good research. Interesting fact. So Lauren, Larry is brought back to the manor. When comes back, and like Glenn keeps coming and going. In the movie. It's like, just stay put, when

Unknown Speaker  54:02   the funeral is over. What is she doing? Like leaves?

Unknown Speaker  54:05   And then she comes, you know, it's just like, Why are Why are they moving her around so much in the story, just have her stay there. Who cares? It's a weird, baffling you know, sort of plot thing that keeps happening. You know, Larry's his head is swimming from I don't know, you know, being infected with lycanthropy. And we're getting these sort of dreamy, you know, heroine visions. You know, we get the sort of Gollum looking wolf boy,

Unknown Speaker  54:35   so Gollum. Yes. I wrote down the same thing.

Unknown Speaker  54:39   It looks like they just took the like, they took the Gollum model. Just through some, just, He really looks like Gollum. And you know, we'll later learn what that will boy is and it all it's, it's all fine, but it just seems kind of, you know, thrown together to add some scares or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  55:00   And then this is an again this is this is when Kim sale seek showed up and in the theatrical version, I was like wait, who is this guy again? It was just so like in the unrated. We get so much more of him. Anyway, so he shows up he comes in with a tray. And then you know Larry's like oh take when I thought you were leaving and Gwen's like this place is it's possible to escape. And this is, you know, this is Besides, this is the least I can do. Yeah. And then we see Larry, starting to heal.

Unknown Speaker  55:30   Then we pass over the spot where Anthony Hopkins and Emily blonde pass each other on the stairs. And he just I was just about to bring that up. I love I mean, talk about classic, awesome Anthony Hopkins where he's just eating the apple and just gives her the creepiest stare in the world. I love it.

Unknown Speaker  55:47   Well, that's only in the unrated cut. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  55:50   How could they cut that? But I mean, come on, like,

Unknown Speaker  55:53   yeah, I mean, in in the unrated cut. This whole section is much better because it's really montage in the theatrical and the unrated. They kind of let it breathe a little like, you know, we get that scene, like you said, where they pass each other on the stairs. And you can tell while he's eating the apple that he really doesn't want her there.

Unknown Speaker  56:11   Now, does that make sense with I'm sorry to skip to the end again. But he said, is he supposed to be in love with Emily Blunt? Okay, because there's a certain point where he's like, your brother was gonna take her away from me and blah, blah, blah, and I can't deal with her being away. I was like, wait a minute, what was was he into her the whole time? And I was totally confused.

Unknown Speaker  56:30   No, Chris, I felt the same way. But I think and maybe I'm wrong, but I think it was just because she kind of reminds him of Gen Y.

Unknown Speaker  56:40   Right? Because then the statue of his dead wife looks exactly like Emily Blunt too. Right. So yeah, okay. All right. I guess that makes but

Unknown Speaker  56:48   I had the I had the I had the same thing though, too. But then again, I was like, Okay, this is Gothic, like anything go right. Like the dad could be in love with her too as Emily Blunt. You know, it was like, damaged, you know, like that movie damaged.

Unknown Speaker  57:00   Yeah, you know, now that you're bringing it up, I think maybe you might have a point. And I've seen this movie more times than you guys. And I never that never really sunk in to me because it's so sort of thrown in there. But yeah, I think you know, he does have sort of some weird thing for her because she reminds him of his his dead wife.

Unknown Speaker  57:20   Maybe Anthony Hopkins was like remember legends of the fall? That's the only type of movie I'm going to do where everyone falls in love with the girl all three brothers.

Unknown Speaker  57:27   Well, yeah, it's a real crime against cinema that that Apple moment was cut out of the theatrical a great people needed to see that on the big screen. So Lawrence is better sort of miniseries just kind of seems like he's been on a like five day bender.

Unknown Speaker  57:45   Got a stiff neck right, that scene?

Unknown Speaker  57:47   Yeah, the doctor comes and checks him out. And you know he's healing miraculously which the doctor is clearly unnerved by Hopkins. Dad is kind of being nice to Gwen but it feels sort of threatening now that I'm thinking about it. Maybe he's attracted to her as you pointed out, just a basic like Okay, it looks like he's on the mend kind of part of the story. But we know better. He you know, he's looking at his wounds and he's seeing how how much healing he's gone through. And then Kim fail when they get the real scene with Kim fail seek. And Larry where he's the Sikh is in the dining room or something and he's like loading up

Unknown Speaker  58:33   cleaning the he's cleaning the gun or

Unknown Speaker  58:36   elephant gun or whatever it is.

Unknown Speaker  58:38   Yeah, he was cleaning guns

Unknown Speaker  58:40   and you'll we learn that he's been there. The Sikh has been there since Larry was a kid. His name is Singh. Yes. You know, he shows. Larry is the silver bullet that he's made. Well, he

Unknown Speaker  58:53   says, and then Larry says to sing now that you thank you for remembering his name. He says, Are you preparing for a war? And then sing says Do you believe in curses? Mm hmm.

Unknown Speaker  59:05   Yes. And that's it. This is when we really it's really driven home that sing is the man servant. And everybody needs a man servant. I think

Unknown Speaker  59:14   I need man's servant.

Unknown Speaker  59:16   Now incomes one of my favorite character actors, especially when he's playing a villain Hugo Weaving. He shows up as the inspector not really a villain in this case, but he is an antagonist. Weaving is just basically doing Agent Smith from the matrix here but he's doing like Agent Smith of Scotland Yard basically, it's pretty much the same performance. He goes to the manor to question Lawrence about the going the wolfy goings on. You know, Hopkins is sort of like gatekeeping but Larry's like no, go ahead, let them in. I'll talk to them. So they have the sort of scene in a in the park. Where we even starts off by saying, you know, I've been following your acting career, Mr. Anderson, and you know, starts off sort of ingratiating himself, and then the questioning becomes more pointed. You know, he's bringing up Larry's time in the asylum, and then he brings up how, oh, he's an actor, so maybe he's playing another role, you know, or, you know, this implication that, uh, you know, an actor would be more, you know, likely to be a murderer. And, you know, I think that's when Larry sort of needles him about not catching jack the Ripper.

Unknown Speaker  1:00:38   Yeah, but he's no, he's no Van Helsing from when actually when Anthony Hopkins played Van Helsing, he did bring a little bit more craziness to the role where it's like, everyone's kind of stuffy in this movie, and I feel like this would have been the opportunity for him to bump it up a notch and be like, a little bit different than this like stuffy straightlaced Scotland Yard guy, you know, in Anthony Hopkins, Van Helsing literally humps, Billy Campbell in Dracula, you know, and it's like, Yeah, he plays him totally crazy. And I feel like this movie could have used a little bit more like passionate melodrama over the top, you know, acting just to just to make it more a little bit entertaining. Yeah. Jen, like you're saying like, Alright, so if Benicio is, is a mopey guy who's like, all inward and whatever, you need something to balance that out. Like there needs to be a little bit of Yeah, agree. You know that other flavor?

Unknown Speaker  1:01:29   Yeah. And there's definitely no performance in this that goes, it's sort of in the crazy direction of, of Anthony Hopkins, and Dracula, or of Gary Oldman, and Dracula. Yeah, nobody's nobody's boring it on to that level. The movie could have benefited from a little more. Hey, agreed. Then now then there's some more hallucinations outside. There's another scene with Glenn, where he teaches her how to skip stones. Were you guys swept into the romance of this?

Unknown Speaker  1:01:59   Honestly, that's the one moment that they actually have that I feel like feels human. And I was like, I guess that's it. They're in love. That's it. That's all we get.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:07   That's all it takes Chris. That's all it takes.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:11   Stones a love that will stand the test of time, right?

Unknown Speaker  1:02:15   Oh, I think I might be skipping ahead. But there's that other moment where he she says something to him and then there's a big close up of her lips and he's just like losing control because she's so sexy and alluring and yeah, I feel like that's the one deep moment of sexuality in the movie that I feel like could have been threaded throughout the entire thing. Everybody is just driven crazy because of because they're Woolfson you know, tie it to sexuality and then this whole thing that peeked out for a moment there maybe that was from Roman x you know idea but like they didn't really go go there with it. It's just like this odd one moment where it's like oh, I got to get away from you Emily because you know you're driving me crazy.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:56   He sends her away again Yeah, right that point

Unknown Speaker  1:03:00   go skip some rocks.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:03   But no, he has like yeah, I think that is in the moment, Chris because it's like we're getting his Wolfie hearing and then I think he's like Wolfie horniness

Unknown Speaker  1:03:12   with it's, it's it's very, it's just a few See, it's like a another scene. Okay, it's right. It's right around that area. It's a different scene, but

Unknown Speaker  1:03:20   it's close by where he's like, yes, zooming in on her like her pouty lips and like, kind of, I think maybe even like her chest area or something like her neck

Unknown Speaker  1:03:28   or something. He's like, like the nape of her neck. And he's like, looking at her pulse.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:32   Yes. That's the point of the movie, as Anthony Hopkins will later say is like, it's so good to be the wolf. Let the wolf free. Like, you know, that should have been been nice to struggle the entire time has been like, well, like, it feels good to be the wolf. But no, I can't I know, I can't but where's that touched on in a second? But, you know, I feel like if that's your thesis of the movie, that's the reason why the main bad guy loves being the wolf. And I feel like that's an interesting concept, you know, and they touched on that in what Emily's Hulk. He knows like, the craziest things I like when I Hulk out and yeah, so I feel like that could have been explored and brought to, you know, a satisfying the Matic point.

Unknown Speaker  1:04:13   I think he's got a complicated relationship with his wolf Enos because he's like, I think, you know, he would maybe if he didn't have such the past that he did and the family issues that he did, he might be able to lean into it more, but I think it's because of all this family stuff that's happened and like all this, like, you know, all the stuff that happened to him or whatever, he doesn't really get to enjoy being a wolf. Like we just get, because usually I feel like with the wolf, man, there's usually some enjoyment and then there's remorse. Afterwards, you know, like when they come back down or whatever, it's like going on a bedroom, you know? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:04:50   But it's definitely while it's on and it's always been a sort of metaphor used in at least in movies. It's often been a metaphor for alcoholism. Yeah. You know drug addiction beat yeah yeah right and I think to Chris's point like a probably would have been strengthened better if we got some sense of being you know for for beneath CEOs care we get it from Hopkins but oh yeah like from beneath to his character that this is can be fun and exciting and exhilarating and you know you get a rush out of becoming this monster and killing

Unknown Speaker  1:05:26   I don't think he allows himself to have that

Unknown Speaker  1:05:29   so you know the villagers are sort of you know gathering up in there you know they've they they think they know what's going on here and they want to take Larry in they have this really creepy priest with them. They show up at the the manor we see them sort of in montage making silver bullets and stuff. We see that the full moon is coming so we know that you know, Larry is gonna wolf out soon. We get a quick sort of scene with Hugo Weaving at the time. Totally not buying into this werewolf shit. He keeps asking for a pint of bitter please.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:03   Right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:05   And the lady in the pub is not having it because her husband was killed by the wolf. So she's like, you should be out there looking for this killer. And he says all he wants is his beer. Yeah. And yeah. And she's, she's like, so bent out of shape. He was like I you know, there, there are rules. I can't just hang around here, you know, rules that will keep us from a doggy dog world. And then he's just like, you know, where's my pint of better? I skipped today, the scene where the they show up at the manor with a priest. And Hopkins comes and fires at them with his his gun. And he's like, oh, sorry, I meant to hit you.

Unknown Speaker  1:06:41   He apologizes for missing. Right. It's pretty great. And it's sort of you know, you're it's a weird kind of moment, because he you know, you haven't really seen him sort of stick up for Larry. Yeah, but now he's like, he's sticking up for him. And you know, he's like, my men servant is hiding in the on the roof. And he's a crack shot. Yes. But he's not really there. Seek is not on the roof. It's a bluff. Right.

Unknown Speaker  1:07:03   And that's when he says to Larry, he's like, that's what he says. He goes, you're not the only actor in the family.

Unknown Speaker  1:07:09   Yeah. So it does pay off. It does pay off. So

Unknown Speaker  1:07:13   yeah, basically, we're all just heading towards Larry turning into the Wolf Man, which is what we sort of been waiting for. Basically, dad knows it's coming and he lures Larry out to the family mausoleum. He's got it all set up with candles and everything. And you know, the mom's sarcophagus is there, which is a pretty sweet sarcophagus. Later in a hallucination, we see it sort of, you know, it's this carved marble thing and we see it move and say something to me. It's

Unknown Speaker  1:07:42   technically a wife Kane, isn't it? Kind of Yeah, keep

Unknown Speaker  1:07:46   that's where he keeps his wife. Every good wife deserves a mausoleum. That's right. Anyway, so you know, they go down into the crypt, and we find out that and this is a little confusing, because he like closes a cage door. And you think that he's the dad is going to lock him in? Mm hmm. But I think it's just to separate them like he doesn't we don't see Larry breaking out of anything, so he's not locked in there.

Unknown Speaker  1:08:14   Oh, it's because he's gonna turn into a werewolf too. Yeah, right. That's where that's where he goes all the time to keep everyone safe, right?

Unknown Speaker  1:08:22   Yes, right. Yes. But usually thing has to come in a lot. I think he gets he has to lock it from the outside.

Unknown Speaker  1:08:28   Yes. That's you know, that's what he says is saying locks me he says that later. He says Singh locks me in every time I change. But you know, I don't want to be locked in anymore. The wolf must must outright and so it's just a little the way it's sort of blocked is a kind of confused, confusing to me, because we see him close a cage kind of door between them. But neither of them is actually trapped in there. Because then Larry starts to change. We get the first real werewolf transformation that we see. It's good. It's see again, it's very CG. You know, and I know I from what I know about the movie about the production. Originally they wanted to do practical transformations and Rick Baker was really excited to do that. But because Roman EC left under such short notice, Joe Johnston didn't feel he had the time and you know, I remember people who were fans of Wolf Man having a lot of problem with that at the time. Let's do CG needs to be needs to be practical and I mean, I agree it would have been better if it had been practical but

Unknown Speaker  1:09:43   absolutely i mean that's that's your money shot right there. That's why people come to see the movie is to see you know, the transformation and if then to that if you're going to make the Wolf Man update you got to do I'm not saying it shouldn't have been maybe it should have been a mix of CG and yeah and practical, but they should have, you know, it's like, oh, I don't have time to do that. Well then don't do the movie. Yeah. Like, I feel like that's, that's an important section of the movies is the transformation. Right? And if you can't be, you know, American Werewolf in London, right, then why bother

Unknown Speaker  1:10:14   here? Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get why it happened. It is a disappointment. And if they had pulled off something really spectacular, it would have been a selling point for the move. Yeah, yes. But, you know, and, and this is, you know, key. This is pertinent to the point of this podcast, I think, you know, the transformation was shown a lot in the trailers. And I think, you know, it was very clear from the trailers that it was CG, and I think that that turned a lot of people off. Yeah, they saw that and they were like, yeah, just looks like a CG mess.

Unknown Speaker  1:10:47   I'll give you the moaning sounds so painful, like waves like,

Unknown Speaker  1:10:52   just like, God Damn, that sounds painful, man. Like,

Unknown Speaker  1:10:56   he's bringing it there, Chris. He's bringing it. He's coming alive.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:01   And I and I like the things that they focus on in the transformation. I like they show his hand getting all gnarly. Yeah, they show his like, leg getting bent back like a wolf. scenary. Yeah. So it's like, I feel like they knew what to focus on.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:18   They just write the concepts there. Yeah, the

Unknown Speaker  1:11:20   concept was there. They just you didn't have the time to execute it in the way that would have been the most effective.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:27   And along with what Chris said, with the moaning I think the sound was really good for the transformation, too. There's a lot of the like the crack, you know, here the bone. Yeah, it's gross. And then yeah, like, I always love like, when the feet come out, like the shoes and stuff to like, just everything just busting out and just like, yeah, does gnarled and knuckled and, yeah, it's just a it would have been It's a shame. I agree with what you're both saying, if it could have been a mix of CG and practical, I think that would have really been been something that could have been a standout for the film, but, but I think also, yes, that's something that our fans want. But our fans also have, you know, set the bar high with like you're saying with like, American Werewolf in London, or the howling? Like you have, like, you know, these transformations. Can we talk about the way he looks though? Because, yeah, I think I think he looks great. And I know you love him to Sebastian because he looks like

Unknown Speaker  1:12:23   Hold on, though. When we first were watching it together. You said you didn't think that the the wolf man looked very good.

Unknown Speaker  1:12:31   I came around to it though. I came around to it. Well, because of

Unknown Speaker  1:12:35   why did you

Unknown Speaker  1:12:35   because because I think as we talked earlier about the effects, like there's certain times where it looks better than others. Like there's certain lighting, there's certain things like it just there's times where he looks better. there's times where he truly looks like our action figure, which is what I want him to look like, we have a wolf man action figure. And he looks I mean, I think he's identical to that. But then there was like, the first maybe it was the first shot of him. When we watched the theatrical version. I was just kind of like, I don't know. And it could also be just because like it was more of the the maybe the movement of him as well like being more like, like we said, like more superhero esque or something. I don't know, but later, I don't know. I grew to be like, Alright, no, I'm into this. Like, I like the way he looks now. But yes, you're right. In the beginning, I was like,

Unknown Speaker  1:13:26   Well, I mean, I brought it up. The reason why I brought it up and wanted you to restate your feelings on that is because you're not alone. There's a lot of people who don't like the look of it. I have friends in the horror community who weren't into the design, and I like the design the reason why I like the design is because it evokes the original Wolf Man. It's an update of the original Wolf Man. And it's also a sort of take on the Oliver read werewolf from

Unknown Speaker  1:13:57   Curse of the werewolf,

Unknown Speaker  1:13:58   right Curse of the werewolf the hammer werewolf movie it's sort of a combination of those two more the Oliver read werewolf and in his clothing,

Unknown Speaker  1:14:07   I love the clothing and for me that that kind of makes it I mean, I don't I'm not aware of you know, the various looks as you guys are but to me it feels like the correct way to update the classic werewolf you know, and when he's got bad vest and shirt on and just the the shape of his head and the way everything looks. Yes, it's, you're like, that's, that's perfect. You know that that? That's him?

Unknown Speaker  1:14:31   Yeah, I love that too. And it's that that sort of vest look is sort of similar to what Oliver Reed is wearing in the curse of the werewolf. Yeah, I love the costuming of it. I really like the look of it. I understand like at first glance it seems maybe a little awkward. But it works for me his he doesn't really have an extended snout like a lot of modern werewolves do it's sort of you know, more compact like the original Wolf Man.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:00   I think it's what I like about it.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:01   I like that too.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:02   Well, to me, there's a difference between just a werewolf and the wolf. Ah,

Unknown Speaker  1:15:06   wow. Okay,

Unknown Speaker  1:15:08   the Wolf Man looks more like a man. Yeah, he's a specific type of werewolf. He's

Unknown Speaker  1:15:14   right, man. You know, recently recently, I discovered I think I watched like on YouTube or something about special makeup effects for thriller, and they were mentioning how that is actually aware cat, right? Oh, because he's, you know, they got the long whiskers and it's a flat face as well. And I'm like, Oh, that's why that that stands out to me as well. Is that that? That look is very cool, too. And yeah, and I think I'm on your wavelength Sebastian, where I think it's cool. The design is always cooler when it's more man than wolf.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:46   Yeah. This is when we get the first Howl, which I think sounds pretty great. You know, who was involved in making the howl?

Unknown Speaker  1:15:54   I do. But I'll let you deliver x interior. No.

Unknown Speaker  1:15:58   You did the stuff for Dracula?

Unknown Speaker  1:16:00   No, it was David Lee Roth and Gene Simmons. The clap

Unknown Speaker  1:16:04   the two classiest people in the world. Yeah. I

Unknown Speaker  1:16:07   don't know. And you know, it's fitting that we're discussing this now because Eddie Van Halen just passed away the day before yesterday and was sad, really sad. super sad piece Eddie. So yeah, I mean, I don't know how much of David Lee Roth and Gene Simmons there is actually in the howl but they were apparently brought in to record some howling for the howl. So the villagers try to trap the Wolf Man with this like deer and that sort of dugout trap. But you know, it doesn't go well for them. One of the guys gets pulled into the trap and the Wolf Man messes him up pretty bad. There's some good slashing and gore

Unknown Speaker  1:16:49   we haven't talked about because I think this might notice is I don't know if this is the first one this might be the second one because there's there's definitely a couple throughout the film, the wonderful decapitations this film deliver? Yeah. And yeah, it definitely happens. I think it might happen also at the first Gypsy wolf out but it definitely happens during this time with the little pit or whatever. You totally the decapitation.

Unknown Speaker  1:17:13   No, it happens. One of the guys who is one of the river Yeah, no, he goes into like quicksand or something. Yes. Um, he's one of the guys. He's the guy in the Extended Cut that he throws the drink at

Unknown Speaker  1:17:25   that he has probably his beef with. Yes, yes. Yes. That's why I was talking about was so satisfactory because of now knowing what goes down in the pub. I'm like, Oh, that. That's why Paul had some meaning behind it.

Unknown Speaker  1:17:37   Yeah, that that guy runs into what looks like quicksand. And he gets stuck there and the Wolf Man, Wade's out to where he is and swipes off his head with a claw and it goes flying. And it's extremely satisfying. Yes, I really like this whole sequence. It's action packed and gory and fun. And this is basically why you come to a wolf man movie, in my opinion.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:02   Yeah. I mean, I always could use even more blood. Like when, you know, granted, there's a lot of killing and maiming. But like there's not a lot of splashing of blood like that's to nitpick. You know, I just would like a little bit more splashes

Unknown Speaker  1:18:17   more blood.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:18   Okay, so then we get the scene, but that's in every werewolf movie where the werewolf wakes up and the next day and he's all covered in blood and rags. He's a human again. I've all been there. Yeah, we've all been there. You know, he's sort of near the manor. I don't know. He's like out in the backyard. I don't know where he is. But he's

Unknown Speaker  1:18:36   inside a tree tree. He's He's in a tree like the trees like hollowed out and he's like, curled up in there.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:42   Yeah. And dad is there basically like laughing at him like, Oh, you did some terrible things.

Unknown Speaker  1:18:50   Yeah. reminded me of your two terrible Mariel

Unknown Speaker  1:18:57   these clearly delighting in the fact that like he's been on that Lawrence has been on a murder rampage.

Unknown Speaker  1:19:03   This movie had been more successful that you've done terrible things could have been like a classic line. Yeah, you know, if everybody knew this movie, people would be quoting that left and right, you know, after that, nyan that bachelor party you've done.

Unknown Speaker  1:19:17   But yeah, he basically dad basically gives him up to the villagers who knocks him out, then, you know, they they haul him to London to back to the old asylum. And you know, they've got the total cliche German doctor, clearly based on Freud. They put him in this chair, which is pretty amazing. I have no idea if this is based on anything real but they dunk him in a big pool of ice. And like what looks like an electric chair, but it's just an ice dunking chairs a

Unknown Speaker  1:19:47   great image though. Yeah, and like whoever Who cares if it works, it looks like straight up torture, but it looks so cool. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:19:54   we go back into sort of montage mode here which I'm not crazy about. It's you know, he's He's getting tortured. Like at one point he's got like a bit nice teeth and he's like, jabbering, like, I also think that we're supposed to pick up on the fact that time is passing here. Yeah. Which, Jen, I know you had a problem with it because you're like, there's this place is just got nothing but full moons.

Unknown Speaker  1:20:20   I said the same thing like they never show a not full moon. Like, here

Unknown Speaker  1:20:25   it is. I think the montage is are supposed to serve as a feeling of passing of time without like, you know, doing the cliche thing of showing like a calendar whipping by really sad. You know, I mean, it's

Unknown Speaker  1:20:38   a month goes by because he's got a turn at some point. And I believe that they're trying to set up the fact that they all do think that he's really legit crazy. Yes, because he's acting crazy. And so that you know, the payoff later will be everyone thinks he's crazy. And then he's not aware. Well, yes,

Unknown Speaker  1:20:53   Hopkins shows up to hang around his cell as Lawrence is sort of straitjacketed. And then we get the story of, you know, how dad became a werewolf, which was he was, you know, out in the Himalayas or something. And he went to a cave, and the Gollum werewolf boy was in the cave. And that werewolf boy bit him and that's, you know, how he became a werewolf. If you're wondering why that's the story. It is similar to the setup of the story in werewolf of London. The original werewolf movie from that was actually before the Wolf Man

Unknown Speaker  1:21:35   sounds vaguely racist.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:36   Yeah, probably.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:38   There's some feral Asian kid man. Goddamnit.

Unknown Speaker  1:21:42   Yeah, it was racist. We'll just assume it's racist if it's old. And this is when we get confirmation in a flashback that dad killed mom as a werewolf. which is surprising to no one. And, you know, we get to look at the Anthony Hopkins werewolf and the Anthony Hopkins Wolf, man, it's it's pretty good. It looks more like it's CG than makeup to me. I you know, it's just for a flash. So who knows? My guess is probably Anthony Hopkins was not keen to put on tons of makeup. So he's probably you know, they probably had to do it like that, because he wouldn't go for it.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:24   Well, it's also where we learn that this is when Larry says to dad, like you should just kill yourself. And he's like, I consider that but life is too good.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:34   Yeah. I like I like Wilson is awesome. Yeah, yeah. But he but he gives Larry a straight razor and it's like, yeah, kill yourself. And then, you know, so yeah, he gives Larry the razor and then he we see Hopkins leaving this the Siloam. And he's he's jamming down on the harmonica as he walks out.

Unknown Speaker  1:22:56   Yeah, I said to even said to you, I was like, Who is playing the harmonica in this asylum? And you're like, that's Hopkins like he's just like do to do on the little mouth harp going down the

Unknown Speaker  1:23:08   hallway. A little john popper?

Unknown Speaker  1:23:13   Yeah, the character is musical. He's always playing the piano. And I know that Anthony Hopkins always plays the piano and like, anytime he can put it in it, put it into a movie, you know, he even writes the the pieces and then so he'll play some noodle on the piano and there'll be like, leave it in. What is that? He's like, I wrote that. And then so though, he does that a lot, because he's pretty accomplished pianist. Oh,

Unknown Speaker  1:23:37   cool. So that's totally cool. Okay, yeah. Nice. All right, cool. Well, that's good to know. Then we go on to what may be the best scene in the movie, which is the very ill advised nighttime asylum lecture. I mean, at first I'm like, why are they doing it this this at night, but then the doctor says like, I'm doing this to show you He won't turn into a werewolf. Yeah. Oh, good. But yeah, so they're in like a you know, theater, operating theater or whatever. And they will and Bernice CEO, and he's in you know, like, it's strapped down chair. It definitely at this point, we're veering into sort of dark comedy, because the the doctor is, you know, lecturing with his back turn to Benicio about how he's not going to turn into a werewolf and how he's just crazy. And Benicio is like, you need to go get out of here. I'll kill all of you. And and nobody's listening. And then so the doctor is lecturing, and he starts to change behind him. And the guys in the theater are like pointing like like, Look, look behind you. And he just keeps talking. Oh, good. It's pretty funny.

Unknown Speaker  1:24:51   Best don't The only thing that bothers me is that he doesn't kill everyone. I want everybody in that room that it should have been a pile of bodies, man, like That was the only minor quibble with that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All those fuck all those guys.

Unknown Speaker  1:25:06   Yeah, I mean yeah, they did promise everyone would die and not everyone died

Unknown Speaker  1:25:10   and the transformation they do like show his like jaw like snapping and like eath rolling into weird place. Yeah, that was cool it like oh we'll save some weird transformation stuff for this time so that you know you see different anatomy changing

Unknown Speaker  1:25:26   yeah and the first transformation is done in that crypt and it's sort of dark and there's candlelight so you know yeah this is like bright You know, this is a brightly lit Yeah, nothing operating theater and he's, you know, they're really showing you the change.

Unknown Speaker  1:25:40   I think that change looks really good here. Actually, I was I was really like, I was super super into this and just really ready for Larry to fuck everybody up. And it just it looked so much the change. I just I liked it so much better in this in this scene. And I don't know if it was pot, you know, partially because it was leading up to something it was going to be very satisfying. You knew it was going to be

Unknown Speaker  1:26:02   just the sweetest plum. It's all about the scene and wanting to see him go apeshit on all these doctors it's it's a lot of fun. There's a funny moment where one of the one of the doctors is trying to get out and the guy's at the door and another guy's in the door and not letting him out. And meanwhile, Larry's carving through people left and right.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:25   The guy at the door is like like mopping the floors. Yes. Like I think it's locked. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:33   The most it's not my job.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:35   There's some like slightly poor wirework here where you can tell like when he actually throws the the main doctor out the window. Yeah. And it's just like there's no way to him at all. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:26:47   the gravity

Unknown Speaker  1:26:48   so it's out the window instead of actually being thrown. But you know, it's nitpicky, you know,

Unknown Speaker  1:26:54   it's this. It's the satisfying though. It's still all satisfying.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:57   Yes. Yeah. Oh, and I just love that one part where he I think he's got a big chunk of a guy in his mouth. Yeah. And he just he looks at it. That's when he spots the actual doctor. And then the piece of meat just drops and he's like raw.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:11   It looks like a liver.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:12   Yeah. Is that is a great shot, like that is so good.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:16   And they throws the doctor out the window and he lands on the Oh, yeah, that spiked fence, you know, which is always good.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:23   skewered.

Unknown Speaker  1:27:24   Yeah, somebody skewered on a spiked iron rod fence is always a winning proposition. So Larry escapes from the asylum, he basically goes on sort of a rooftop chase scene. They have the seat, they have, you know, the sort of prerequisite scene where he like, gets on a gargoyle and howls at the moon. You know, it's an easy lay moment. But I'm an easy lay for gargoyle perches, pretty much like that. whenever it's in a movie, we get Hugo Weaving has clued in to this and he's sort of chasing him on ground while the Wolf Man is running across the rooftop, we get a really, you know, this sequence really sort of highlights this running thing where he's running, you know, along the roofs, and then he drops into the onto all fours and starts around all fours. Again, this moment feels to me kind of like a superhero movie moment, you know, because he's going from rooftop to rooftop, you know, and I can see why maybe some people you know, who are expecting a more sort of straightforward, grounded horror movie might not like this stuff, but I like big budget spectacle. And this is where the movie is sort of delivering on that

Unknown Speaker  1:28:45   for sure. Why Why would you have an issue with this just because it's too CG and too fantastical. It's just

Unknown Speaker  1:28:50   not a horror movie thing. It's you know, it's it's like a like I said, it's like a big budget, it's more of a sci fi or superhero thing

Unknown Speaker  1:28:59   because to him like jumping off of rooftops, or just to be like a big sort of animal loose because me isn't that what American Werewolf in London ends like that. So,

Unknown Speaker  1:29:09   right, but not done with $100 million in computer. Right, right. Right facts. Okay, I didn't

Unknown Speaker  1:29:15   have a problem with it. I was enjoying it. And I just was like,

Unknown Speaker  1:29:19   you're kind of you know, you're more of a horror fan than a sci fi or superhero movie fan. So like, I

Unknown Speaker  1:29:25   was okay with that. Okay, no, didn't bother me at all. No, I was just like, like, it's been like, it's, it builds up so much to this moment, where I kind of feel like, you know, I know we talked about earlier that, you know, Larry doesn't get to fully enjoy his wolfing. But I feel like for a minute here when he's like going all around London and do I mean, I think he might might be enjoying this rooftops for a minute, you know, like being able to, like okay, maybe this isn't all bad. You know, like there's, you know, the superhuman strength that he has. But yeah, I just, I mean, it's such a such a climax that it comes to With everything that happens at the asylum, and then he's just like, you know, he's just he's just going balls out. So I think they deliver. They

Unknown Speaker  1:30:09   there's a fun sort of little bookend to the scene where he sort of jumps down and he's in, you know, I don't know, Piccadilly Circus or something like that. A train, there's a train car that gets derailed, and it like runs over a dude while it's getting derailed. And you see the guy like, pretty great and falls over on its side, and it's full of people. And the Wolf Man like jumps on top of it. And he looks in through one side window, and there's a really cool shot of him, like looking in through the glass, and then breaks through the glass and like falls into the train car and then start slashing away at people really messing them up. I think the action is pretty well done. Could it be a little better, maybe. But I think for the most part, and this might actually be one area where Joe Johnston was a pretty good choice to come in. Because I don't imagine Mark Romanek would have really cared very much about these action sequences, Drew and Johnston does. I mean, he's not like known for being a great action director, but he's solid, you know, he did Jurassic Park three, which has some fun sequences. So you know, he comes from the Spielberg camp, so he knows what he's doing with action.

Unknown Speaker  1:31:19   And the action is not the sticking point here for sure.

Unknown Speaker  1:31:23   Lawrence goes on his werewolf bender. And he ends up under a bridge as we all have been after a bender by London Bridge, in fact, and he drinks some wakes up in the morning and he's back in his tattered bloody clothes. And he like drinks some really gross water from a puddle. And then we learned that Gwen apparently owns an antique shop or something in London, which is not set up at all. No, but she's she's going to her open up her store for the day. And Larry has I guess, figured out I mean, it says her name on the if you look at the signage on her store,

Unknown Speaker  1:32:06   wait, wait, is this where we learned that? That Mary Poppins and Wolf men are in the same universe?

Unknown Speaker  1:32:10   God? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:13   Yeah, so she goes into her antique store that hasn't been set up. And he's like sleeping under something in their table or some table. And then, you know, they have a scene, he tells her that he knows his father was the original werewolf and she wants to help him. We get more sort of romance moments here, which don't necessarily

Unknown Speaker  1:32:36   that's in quotes, romance, right? No, but

Unknown Speaker  1:32:39   we get it, we get a kiss here.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:41   All right. It was so hot, I forgot.

Unknown Speaker  1:32:45   Anyway, Hugo Weaving shows up and, you know, he shows her the newspaper drawings of the wolf carnage. And, you know, he basically detains her, you know, they figure out that Larry's been in there and they they think he's hiding behind a mirror. And he like shoots the mirror and, but behind the mirrors like this pan's statue, like a statue of the god Pan. I'm a pan fan. Not a Peter Pan fan

Unknown Speaker  1:33:13   and pan Greek god Pan, one half goat the other half man.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:19   Yeah, so yeah, the mirror gag is cool. In the and now in the unrated cut. That's where we get the scene of Larry walking around London. And there's a paper boy selling papers like Wolf Man kills everyone. And Larry buys all the papers from him sort of weird comedic moment that doesn't really fit but you know, and we get this montage as both of them make their way back to the Blackmore mansion, cheese on a train and a horse and stuff. But poor Larry's, he's just hoofing it the whole way. That's right. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:55   I'm in through the Moore's looking very for Lorne.

Unknown Speaker  1:33:58   Yeah. And there's, there's like a solid five to 10 shots of him, depending on which version you watch it like just walking. If they didn't do that, everybody like would it just work? could look. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:34:12   yeah. You can't when Gwen is trying to find Geraldine Chaplin's gypsy woman. So she does eventually meet her in a barn. And you know, there's this whole sort of scene where she's talking about how much you know, she wants to save him. And it's kind of like uncomfortably anti feminist sort of moment. You know, where it's like I can change him that kind of thing. Like I can change the abusive boyfriend, right oh man, which was a little uncomfortable there.

Unknown Speaker  1:34:46   Also at this time, though, there's there's a total souped up scene going on with Hugo Weaving. Yes, it right in the carriage and loading up a silver bullets. Yeah, he's a believer now.

Unknown Speaker  1:34:57   Yes, he's turned turned a corner on This Wolf Man, this werewolf business and he's ready to like lay down some silver bullets.

Unknown Speaker  1:35:04   Wouldn't all of London have turned believers after a giant Wolf Man just came marauding like in Piccadilly square. I mean come on what's going on fake

Unknown Speaker  1:35:14   fake news Chris fake news.

Unknown Speaker  1:35:18   There were crazy urban myths going around London in that period there is a famous sort of monster called Spring Heeled jack that would like supposedly come jumping down from roofs and like attack people and then jump away into another roof doing impossible things so that kind of stuff actually happened in London and there was never any explanation for it. I'm sure I'm in all parts of the world but they're famous stories from London of crazy crazy stuff like that so so Larry makes it back to the manor just in time for the full moon but poor Kim fail seek manservant is dead. He's a corpse sort of hanging on the wall. So I guess we're to assume that a pop killed him didn't have any more use for me. Yeah, that was

Unknown Speaker  1:36:08   why I wanted to see what happened to him I mean what

Unknown Speaker  1:36:11   well they sort of set him up as a badass so

Unknown Speaker  1:36:14   yeah, he's a great shot and then like way he's just dead

Unknown Speaker  1:36:18   it is off screen and we don't get I mean we can only assume that it you know it was dad we'll find out when he did it you know Yeah, but it's Yeah, he deserved he deserved it on string screen kill if he was going to

Unknown Speaker  1:36:32   die He Larry gets the key off of the dead seek that unlocks his case full of his trunk full of silver bullets. The dog who we haven't mentioned I forget his name but he gets a nice sort of a big dog he gets a nice jumpscare here and one thing I appreciated there's a shit is about to go down in the manner but Larry lets the dog out Yeah, he lets him go

Unknown Speaker  1:36:57   this the wolf and also let the deer go at 1.2 and chase a man instead of a deer yeah

Unknown Speaker  1:37:02   the deer with when they first try to trap him with the deer he doesn't kill the dog

Unknown Speaker  1:37:06   is Samson By the way, Sam Samson Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:09   Nice. Larry. Here's dad in the parlor playing the piano laying it with bloody fingers. Yes. Little shot. Very Yes. It's the Sikhs blood on his fingers. I don't know. Somebody's blood.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:20   Well, there's a there's a dead guy on like the chair.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:23   All right. It's the it's like the inspectors pal.

Unknown Speaker  1:37:26   You go weavings right hand guy. Yeah, man. We get sort of Hopkins doing the supervillain speech. It's pretty great Hopkins ham. So yeah, they they kind of have their big confrontation moment. Hopkin hits him with the cane that point it's a little bit repetitive just because I feel like we already kind of got the supervillain speech from dad at the asylum and we're just kind of getting more of that Hopkins starts throwing shit around and this is I love

Unknown Speaker  1:37:54   when he throws that chair it's so badass

Unknown Speaker  1:37:57   but but it's totally what you were saying where the wire work is kind of like suspect like it just kind of flying off

Unknown Speaker  1:38:04   but Hopkins man just like the look on his face and the way he's so nonchalantly does it it's ridiculous but awesome at the same time

Unknown Speaker  1:38:11   I didn't I didn't have an issue with any like I just like buy in that these like wolf dudes have all the strings in the world so like anything is gonna be like just like nothing you know? It's like no, I like it in concept it's

Unknown Speaker  1:38:23   just like technically if you're if you're really paying attention to it yes, it looks a little like somebody yanking a wire and pulling a yeah pulling a piece of furniture off exactly right. So they both wolf out and they do the thing where they like charge at each other and like smash chests to definitely a host matrix C type of werewolf wire fight for for a minute, and it ends with Larry. decapitating dad just great good decapitation, it's you know kind of CG looking but it's it's a pretty good death. And doesn't he doesn't his head like fly into the fireplace?

Unknown Speaker  1:39:05   I know he kicks

Unknown Speaker  1:39:06   him into the fireplace okay yeah, he

Unknown Speaker  1:39:08   kicks him to the fireplace right but

Unknown Speaker  1:39:10   the head actually we see the head kind of de wolf Yeah, it starts like going back to dad but another thing about dad wolfing out and then having the big fight which I appreciated because I was able to differentiate as to who was who was the dad shirtless?

Unknown Speaker  1:39:26   Thankfully only as a werewolf Yeah, that's shirtless. So gwenan Hugo show up and yeah, the Wolf Man bites Hugo which is a setup for a sequel that'll never happen. I think they're you know, the sequel was gonna maybe be Hugo Weaving as inspector werewolf or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  1:39:46   I would have watched that.

Unknown Speaker  1:39:47   Yeah, me too. I totally would have watched that. We do get Hugo Weaving in Joe Johnston's next movie, Captain America because he plays the Red Skull. So I guess maybe they liked working together. Who knows. And you know, the manner burns down because that's what manners always have to do in our movies. The Wolf Man chases going out into the woods with the torch wielding villagers following after them because you got to have that universal monster movie. You know, the woods look cool. She's sort of hiding behind some trees and there's lots of fog. And he sort of, you know, chasing, chasing, you see him in the background. He chases or to the waterfall where they had that moment, but not the place where they skipped stones, the waterfall,

Unknown Speaker  1:40:31   where the where the brothers had there was a refuge

Unknown Speaker  1:40:33   refuge.

Unknown Speaker  1:40:35   Yes. He's sort of like, tackles or pushes her down to the ground. But she's like, No, me, you know, me good acting here from I mean, she's good. The whole movie. Oh, yeah. She's great, really good moment here, where she's sort of trying to convince him to kind of recognize who she is, even though he's in wearable form.

Unknown Speaker  1:40:55   I liked that. You could see her in his pupils, by the way that I thought it was. I mean, I know it's kind of hokey or whatever. But I appreciated that.

Unknown Speaker  1:41:02   Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is kind of hokey. But yeah, it's the scene you need to have, yes, the werewolf movie. villagers are coming, basically, you know, he's gonna kill her. But then he, she gets through to him, and then he, you know, he stops, then they hear the villagers coming. And then she shoots him because she's got a gun with her with silver bullets, presumably in it a little. I mean, I would have preferred the cane. But, I mean, why didn't she have the cane? And then, you know, pulled out the knife and stabbed him in the heart or something. And then he, you know, transforms back into Larry and dies in their arms. And they have this sort of, you know, sad, doomed love moment, which, you know, honestly, no one cares about.

Unknown Speaker  1:41:49   I cared. You care? Yeah, I did. Actually, I did. I did actually. Well, that that moment was like, I mean, it was because he, he like kind of he starts to after she shoots him, and then he kind of like turns over to a side. And then he kind of I think he grabs her arm, like a little, a little bit of a jumpscare. But then you can see he's coming back to being Larry. And then he says, that's when he was like, thank you. And he was like, it had to be this way. You know, it's like he was this, you know, now he's tortured guy and I don't know, I I actually didn't care.

Unknown Speaker  1:42:22   I cared. He dies, and Hugo shows up and we see that he's got the cane and you know, again, they're sort of I think it's sort of, you're supposed to sort of think, Oh, this this is he's going to be in the sequel. And then you know, they show the moon and there's more of Emily's voiceover and then we're out. And you know, we've got sort of horror movie style Wolf Man and credits, which are pretty cool. They're, you know, they're stylish and cool.

Unknown Speaker  1:42:50   I can't help but think of, you know, Dracula, where Amina chops Dracula's head off. And, you know, they're this sort of lovers souls that are always meant to be so that makes sense to me that, you know, she should be the one to kill them. But I just feel like they're trying to shoehorn that same story into this by by the Gypsy saying, it has to be someone who loved him. I'm like, Well, does she even say like, oh, for his soul to be fine, or I mean, like, what's the point of that? Like, would he have lived if anybody else shot him with silver bullets? Like, why does it have to be someone who loves him? It just it seems like they're just really forcing a story at this point.

Unknown Speaker  1:43:26   I think. I think they are sort of going to that. Well, they're, you know, I think there's figuring Hey, it worked for Dracula, you know, right. It'll work for the wolf. Man. I definitely think this movie is is trying to capture the magic of in some ways of that Coppola Dracula, that's definitely what it's aiming for. Right. I mean, some people hate the Cobo Dracula, so right. No, it's not like that movies universally loved either. Sure, sure. It's more people like it now than they used to. But I remember back in the day, nobody was hankering for more of that. Well, there's a lot of problems. You know, everybody was just like, Look, you know, sucked, you know, and like, actually, it's, it's not like it was that beloved at the time.

Unknown Speaker  1:44:08   It made money though. That's why they made so

Unknown Speaker  1:44:11   and this movie didn't. So on that note, you know, my sort of feelings about why this movie tanked. Like I said, I think that trailers unfortunately, by showing the CG transformation, I think turn some people off. I think that Benicio del Toro is not the kind of actor or leading man that brings in money, you know, like he's just not. If this had been Brad Pitt or somebody I think it would have probably stood a better chance even though like Benicio, and I know he was really passionate about doing this. I think that probably didn't help. And I think that, you know, when it came out, the reviews were pretty abysmal. And I think that is largely due to the sort of editing, I think that the editing is bad. And I think that sort of hurt the movie critically, I don't know if if they had released, the longer version in the theaters, if that would have been received any better probably wouldn't have been. Because I think like Chris fairly pointed out that I think a lot of the problems are in the script, unfortunately. Yeah. So you know, I don't think it was going to do that well with critics, either way, but if it had been more embraced by fans, then maybe there would have been some word of mouth and it wouldn't have tanked nearly as badly, but even a bigger sort of issue. And I think that we're seeing this with all of these universal these attempts at these universal monsters is that, I don't know if people care about them. You know, like, they've tried now with Wolf Man, they've tried with, you know, a new Dracula. They've tried with the mummy with Tom Cruise. And it's like, there, none of them are hitting it. It's too bad. Because obviously, I'm a fan. I love the universal monsters, but I just don't think that they're big money movies. Now, you know, the recent Invisible Man that just came out, did it smart, because it's a low budget movie. It's contemporary. It's not hinting on your love of the Invisible Man. To sell it. It's, it's just giving you a movie with an invisible man and calling it the Invisible Man. And it's like a, you know, whatever, a $5 million movie as opposed to 100 million dollar movie. So it's, you know, 150,

Unknown Speaker  1:46:32   right?

Unknown Speaker  1:46:34   Yeah, or whatever, if you bring the budgets of these things way down and do these sort of scaled back attempts at rebooting these series and do them, you know, in a modern setting, which isn't to my preference, because I like the cool Gothic setting, but you know, you could probably do Gothic for cheaper than 100 and 50 million How

Unknown Speaker  1:46:56   do you know how much it costs to make shape of water? Because that's, I mean, that's clearly got some creature going on.

Unknown Speaker  1:47:02   Yeah, I mean, but it was probably, you know, 50 million or something, but the shape of water wallet had a lot of design and really rich design and everything. It didn't have a lot of action. The action is what costs a lot of money. Yeah, for a lot of these things, you can have something look great and have it be period and stuff but as long as you're not throwing in like massive action sequences, you know, you're not going to reach that hundred million dollar mark or whatever.

Unknown Speaker  1:47:31   But also how much did Anthony Hopkins get walk away with here? I feel like he you know, he was commanding some money

Unknown Speaker  1:47:39   the costs were high you know, and I think something like shape of water, though it's not like cheap it's not you know, Michael Shannon isn't gonna demand $50 billion

Unknown Speaker  1:47:51   right felt like they weren't holding back on the budget on anything here. I feel like they were just like open the floodgates and just make the best movie we can and

Unknown Speaker  1:48:02   there's a lot of good things here though. I like it you know there was the It looks good like I mean it's just it's it's kind of it's it's a bummer and I you know I would love to see the the universal monsters live on I haven't seen an attempted a creature film and that's why I was thinking of shaper water but now I don't know it's it's it's it's weird because like I said, in the beginning my first watch I was kind of ambivalent about the whole thing and then watching closely, the theatrical and the unrated version. I just came to like to film a lot more

Unknown Speaker  1:48:39   Yeah, I think if you were to see this bar if you were to see this movie, you know at a bar with the sound off you'd probably be like this movie looks incredible. Oh my god the Wolf Man Anthony Hopkins is in this Emily Blunt you think this is the greatest movie and then you'd go home rented watch it with the sound and go wait this movie sucks like what what happened? You know because the production design the cinematography all there so so many of the elements are right but then the crucial elements like the story the editing and the direction fail and that's it's kind of like right down the middle where you got half good half bad and then it just doesn't come together and knowing that you know every everybody it went forward with last minute director change will pull the rug out from any production I think so. Just look at solo or and you know, like I mean, like they brought it into port it's not a terrible movie. I you know, it was watchable.

Unknown Speaker  1:49:39   You mean the Wolf Man or

Unknown Speaker  1:49:40   the wolf? No, the wolf sorry the Wolf Man was watchable and is a fine enough movie but especially with the watching the Extended Cut was a bit of a drag.

Unknown Speaker  1:49:50   So you prefer the you prefer I prefer

Unknown Speaker  1:49:52   the theatrical cut because it just gets to the point, you know, gets to the gore and gets to the but I understand why you would watch the Extended Cut, if you were just you want to luxuriate in the feel of the movie because the feel of the movie is, is good, you know, they got the gothic horror thing, you know, we've gone over it and yeah, I just I think that it's just too boring. And they needed to add some more interesting twists and add a little bit more, you know, modern lies juice to it, yeah, in order to in order to make it stand out.

Unknown Speaker  1:50:23   And then also, to piggyback on that Chris was, you know, I feel like, because, and you brought this up to Sebastian, it's like, Who is it really for? Because, like you said, it's not, like, there's elements of it that aren't something that a horror fan is going to really be into, you know, because of more of the action type. Like, the sequences and it's just, I don't know, I didn't I don't know if it was really defined for a person, so or it could have become like, I had a cult following. He other than, you know, having like, the basis of being the Wolf Man, but the actual film didn't have like that thing that it's like, oh, you know, this is what horror fans like, loves. I mean, you kind of have that because you love the way he looks. But like, if if, you know, if, like we said earlier, if like the transformation could have been kick ass, then like, that would have been something that people were talking about, you know, if it would have been at the transformation, or, like, if there would have been some real hamming it up, like, we would have got like full Hopkins, like, you know, being really Machiavellian, like over the top or something like that. there needed to be something that had people talking.

Unknown Speaker  1:51:40   Well, I think your point of, you know, who is this for? It's not quite, you know, hitting the target for horror fans. It's not quite hitting the target, because there's too much sort of slow drama scenes. Exactly. Or for fans of big spectacle action movies, or sci fi or whatever stuff with big money and big production designs not really hitting that target. And it's not really hitting, it's definitely not hitting the target for people who are into period dramas. If that's what you're going for, so ivory,

Unknown Speaker  1:52:17   it is not

Unknown Speaker  1:52:18   I think, you know, it's, you know, yes. They didn't know who they were making this for, which I think is going to be a theme that we find a lot in this podcast.

Unknown Speaker  1:52:29   They made their made it for podcasters in 2020

Unknown Speaker  1:52:33   to dissect

Unknown Speaker  1:52:35   this will be great for them.

Unknown Speaker  1:52:37   That's who this is made for. All right, well, um, that wraps up our discussion of the 2010. Wolf Man, thank you for joining me. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  1:52:47   yeah, thank you.

Unknown Speaker  1:53:01   That about does it today for Tentpole Trauma. If you like what you heard, check out our social media presence on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Just look for Tentpole Trauma. That was easy, wasn't it? If you like us, hit subscribe, and leave us a sterling review on iTunes. If you dare. If you really like us, head over to patreon.com and get involved in one of our fabulous tiers. You'll be glad you did. Want to communicate with Tentpole Trauma, send an email to Tentpole trauma@gmail.com we'd love to hear from you. And who knows, one day you may even get your email read on one of our shows. Well, thanks for listening, and we'll see you real soon.

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: DokiDoki Oct 19

Fluffy loves TokyoTreat apparently; he couldn’t wait for me to put the box aside!

I always get really excited whenever we come to an October DokiDoki box x3 they’re usually really fun, include cute accessories and Halloween items, and I love the cover artists work.

This months theme: Happy Halloween

“This month’s crate is all about the spooky side of kawaii. Come celebrate Halloween with us, using these items to make your October 31st a spooky special night!“

You know, as I read this and began to look more closely into this box and the Yume Twins, I almost felt like these 2 boxes were competing with each other this month. That, or its purely coincidental that they had vaguely similar themes and items. It could be, but I thought it was kind of funny.

Suteki Crate & Photo Prize

This month’s prize feature a pair of Pokemon plush ready to go trick-or-treating.

Meanwhile, the Suteki Crate is based on Sanrio goods, namely Kuromi and Sentimental Circus. Along with My Melody and Sirotan.

I love the Kuromi plushie, as well as the pouch set next to it, and the pen stand above it! The umbrella and hand bag are also very cute too.

Halloween Cat Tape

I think this may have been by the same company that made the “Christmas Cat“ tape we got from a Christmas box last year. The packaging and style of it looks exactly the same, but with different pictures of course. The length of this tape is 15mm x 2m.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I think for cat lovers, washi lovers, or decorators for Halloween would really like this. It’s easy to tear and stick, it sticks really well as far as I can tell, and the design is a really cute and fun way to touch up whatever you might be using it for.

Pumpkin Shiba

It looks like we get to have a fun little guest join us for Halloween- the very same Shiba who showed up during Christmas, and peach season. I’m not complaining, but I’m guessing by this its popularity is still going strong huh?

Anyway, for this month, this sweet little shiba comes donning a jack-o-lantern costume! It’s super-round and thick, filled to the brim with cotton for a soft and squishy companion you can squeeze nonstop~

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I think its adorable, if I had remembered I had it I would have set it out somewhere in the house for some more decoration. It’s very cuddly as far as plushies go, but I noticed in the picture that its ear seems stuffed, while mine has a slight wrinkle to it. I’m not sure if that was just how random the distribution for the stuffing is, or if I’m just over-analyzing. The body itself feels like... I want to say cheap carnival plush, while the head portion feels like good quality plush.

But the plush is really cute, and the quality of the stitching and detail is really good. A lot of times I always find some minuscule error or issue with mine, and besides its ear, nothing stood out to me.

Kuromi Spoon

Our next item is essential for Halloween, because before you can do anything you need to eat :D and this month, we received a Kuromi themed spoon. Just be careful so she mischievously doesn’t make you spill anything ;3 Its worth or costs 5 Sanrio points.

These types of spoons are those curvy, deep ones you will find in a lot of Asian places or served with soup. Because its shape makes it the perfect spoon for collecting the liquids or small items. I assume this could also be really useful for things like cereal, or certain desserts.

The spoon’s long handle and shape on the tip make it handy for storage and easier use. The top is white and black, while the underside is colored lavender. The spoon features an image of Kuromi, and her name is written on the handle, along with a print of grey skulls and pale pink hearts. 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

It’s so cute! It’s perfect for a cutesy Halloween image, or Kuromi fans like me ♥ I admit that I didn’t use it yet (nor the Sumikko Gurashi one I got a few years back; I KEEP forgetting and we just had soup yesterday DX), but I intend to at some point. Or just keep it for my slowly building Kuromi collection.

My Melody & Kuromi Bowl

Any fellow Cutie will probably remember seeing this exact design in my YumeTwins review; now do you see why I was starting to compare the two boxes a little earlier?

To be fair, they are already very similar though... I should do a comparison review at some point, but I’m not sure how I would go about it. I’ll need to sit down and give it some thought later, I think it could be kind of fun to do.

Oh, anyway, this is an adorable heart-shaped bow. Besides Kuromi and My Melody though, it also features some other friends preparing for a Halloween Party with them! This is worth/costs 10 Sanrio points.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Besides just looking really cute, the bowl is very deep. It’s perfect for any sort of food item you could want to put in it, or you can even store other little items, like essentially you would leave home with (keys, cards, sanitizer, coupons, reusable bags, etc), trinkets or small collectables, toiletries, etc.

I can’t wait to use it~

Ghost Sponge

Our last item, which will help you clean up after a fun Halloween; or if you’re like me help with spring cleaning...

You get 9 melamine ghost-shaped sponges. They’re very soft and squishy, and because there are so many you could do a lot of things with them! Besides cleaning, you could use some to make pictures by dipping them in paint, perform squishy makeovers, decorate in various other ways (they would be cute put on the wall and painted with glowing paint :D), or just use them as a cheap and premade squishy.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Honestly, I’m not sure what I want to do with them yet, if anything. I know we get this stuff to use it, but sometimes I can’t bring myself to ruin it by using it you know? I hate the idea of ruining it and throwing it away, because it feels like a waste of money to me. But when we get copies like this, then it’s not as hard for me, so I will probably spare so many, and use the rest.

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 4 out of 5. I’m happy with the items and the quality is really good. No real problems or issues- BUT, usually when we get a Halloween box, they would always include some really cute accessories; one year we got kitty ear clips and paws, one year we got a nurses needle pen and wing hair clips. They usually don’t go mainstream with them like they did this time. 

Theme: 4.5 out of 5. All but 1 item is pretty much definite Halloween material. But the 1 item that isn’t has that sort of spooky-cute vibe, which is what they were going for, so it still works. I feel like the Happy Halloween theme itself was also a little generic/basic.

Total Rank: 8 out of 10 Cuties. I would recommend the items or this box, but I didn’t think it was up to part with their previous Halloween boxes.

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

1. Bowl - On one hand, I like how the design goes with the other items in the YumeTwins box- but on the other, I’m a little bored with the design by now. I love its heart shape though, I’m excited to begin using it!  

2. Ghost Sponge - They’re simple looking, but adorable.

3. Kuromi Spoon - I love the design on the handle, it’s so sweetly dark. I really need to get it and my Neko spoon in the silverware drawer... 

4. Pumpkin Shiba - It’s so cute and round x3

5. Cat Tape - I tend not to use my washi tape (the few times I did, they tend not to stick very well?) but I really like to collect and just look back on them from time to time.