#I love how in the opening of this film they show the Eiffel tower half built in the background which dates the present year to about 1888

[anyataylorjoys]

VAN HELSING —2004, written by Stephen Sommers

[tojipie]

shiu x fem!reader x toji

content: (fem reader, heavy smut, soo much praise, filming sex, spitroasting, eiffel tower position, threesome, blowjobs, face fucking, cumming on face, aftercare)

summary: just another day at work ! :) nothing raunchy going on here

“fuck, that’s perfect,” shiu mumbles, crouching to get a better shot of where you and toji meet. 

the man rutting into you takes the note as a compliment, bucking his hips back to slam to the hilt. the guttural moan he draws out of you is nothing short of sinful, earning you a laugh from the cameraman.

“oh, the guys at home are gonna fucking love that,” he chuckles, standing to grab a shot of you laying face down, ass up on the leather couch.

a calloused hand raises your face to the camera, squeezing your cheeks into a pucker. you smile, taking note of your fucked out demeanor in the camera reflection. 

“feel good, pretty girl?” toji asks, still gripping your face. 

“mmhm,” you groan, making a show of rolling your eyes back into your head. 

the cameraman looks more than pleased, palming himself over his cheap dress pants. 

“such a treat to have in the studio, y’know that?” he wipes a mascara-filled tear while you look up at him for a brief moment. “driving me fucking crazy.”

the incessant pap-pap-pap of toji’s hips against your ass echo among the walls of the small casting room, nearly drowning out the praise with how hard he’s fucking you. still, you smile, letting the suit-clad cameraman brush your hair from your face.

“where’d you learn how to take dick like this, huh?” toji teases, switching his grip from your face to your shoulders. your scene partner uses his newfound leverage to pull you back onto his cock, groaning at the new angle. 

“only like this with you,” you moan, clenching at the sounds of approval both men give you.

“what, you forget about me?” shiu asks, feigning jealousy for the sake of the scene.

toji leans forward, chest-to-back as he whispers something in your ear. hard, deep thrusts slow to a grind as he speaks to you. you nod, giggling at shiu’s pointed look of confusion.

“what’s wrong?” the cameraman mouths, moving to turn the camera off. you beckon him over to the couch instead, jolting from the pick-up of your scene partner’s thrusts.

the two men share a look as you readjust the camera, gauging the shot in the crystalline glint of the lens. perfect, you think. he was going to love this. 

deft hands make haste with his belt, undoing the buckle ever so slowly. the two of you lock eyes for just an instant as his face contorts into a grin, setting the camera on his shoulder to throw his belt off to the side. 

“oh i get love too now?” he teases, unbuttoning his bottoms and letting you get to work. his ironed suit jacket hits the floor, dress shirt half open. 

“you’ve fucked her before genius,” toji adds, slowing the pace of his thrusts to let you work on the cameraman. he was right, off and on camera even.

shiu’s hard, unbearably so when you free him from his boxers and take him into your mouth. you can practically feel how difficult it is for him to not blow his load right then and there, especially after watching you and toji go at it for half an hour with no stimulation of his own.

“hah fuck— she knows what i like, right?” the question is rhetorical, he wants you to take the bait. 

and take the bait you do, pulling off his dick just enough to swirl your tongue around his aching tip.

the noise you earn is more than pornographic, it’s downright sinful, egging you on as you move to take him to the base. 

“you seein’ this?” shiu gasps, panning the camera up to toji who has since stopped fucking you to watch. thick, deft fingers come up to rub at your clit instead, making up for the lost simulation. 

shiu’s free hand reaches down to nestle into your hair, pulling taught. a quick look to make sure the camera lines up is all he gives you before deft hips snap forward, fucking your throat with urgency.

the two men share a look briefly, chuckling as toji finally ramps up the pace again. thick, hot lengths penetrate you from either side, overloading your brain with pleasure. 

“look up at the lens for me baby,” shiu gushes, losing his grip on your hair to cradle your cheek in his palm. you push back on the cock currently pummeling your walls, eagerly groaning for the camera.

“aww there we go, always our favorite star.”

the praise goes right to your head, throat opening up to allow more of his length in. he hisses at the stimulation, grumbling a soft “fuck this,” before setting the camera down on the coffee table in front of the couch. 

“oh, that’s a good fucking shot,” toji comments, pleased at the new camera angle. the thought of the studio’s loyal fanbase getting to watch you get spit-roasted by the hottest business partners in the industry pushes you closer to the edge.

“fuck, there.” shiu groans, pulling himself from your throat with an obscene squelch. a whoop rings out from behind you, no doubt from toji as viscous ropes of cum paint your cheeks— you swear you hear them high-five each other.

“shit, sorry about the mess,” he doesn’t sound sorry at all, tapping the head on your closed lips with a fucked-out smile.

salty cum floods your tastebuds as you work to clean his manhood off, pulling back with an audible pop and a smile. “s’ okay shiu.”

“that’s talent right there,” the camera man comments, clearly pleased with your performance. shiu tucks himself back into his dress pants, quietly motioning for you and toji to switch positions.

the raven-haired man wastes no time lifting you into the air, thick hands situated under your thighs for support.

the position alone might have gotten you close enough to come had he still been inside you. you’re held against his standing body only by the hands under your legs, back-to-chest as you face the camera. 

you hike your legs up, locking eyes with shiu as you’re lowered onto toji’s dick a final time. 

the stretch is absolutely obscene, filling you to the brim over and over again as he thrusts into you.

“perfect, perfect guys,” shiu leans closer to get a better shot of your face. “just like that.”

“you wanna tell everybody at home where you want it?” toji asks, biting your shoulder for good measure.

“inside—please.” you sigh, laughing at the obscene groan that sounds from behind the camera. shiu reaches down to rub your swollen clit for you, pressing a kiss to your temple.

hot seed floods your body a second time, warming you from the inside out. the things toji pants into your ear are obscene, overwhelming your senses while shiu’s hand deals out tiny pats to your clit.

you both sink onto the couch for the final time, the soft leather cushions embracing your tired bodies. shiu approaches with the camera, flipping through a couple of scenes to seek your shared approval.

you sit quietly as you're wiped down with a wet towel, still attached to toji at your most intimate points.

“tired angel? need to wash off?” he asks, maneuvering you on his dick to straddle him.

“yes please,” you mumble happily, resting your head on his shoulder. two sets of hands gently caress your body, wiping the last drops of fluid from your sweaty skin.

“you’re gonna make us all millionaires, i swear,” shiu mumbles, pressing a kiss to the crown of your head before stepping into the bathroom to draw you a bath.

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reaction to OPTIGAMI!!

I have never been so nervous and scream so much during an episode of this show before. And if you know me, that's saying something. Gabriel and Nathalie are getting seriously scary. Their plans are getting much more convoluted and are getting closer and closer to actually succeeding. And because of this, Alya's involvement is a lot more important now because there's no way Chat Noir and Ladybug would have managed it without her. Let's be real, the reason they chose Nino as their target was because Gabriel's still bitter about Adrien and Nino being friends after Bubbler. Awww all the Kwami's are so cute, wanting to go along. Trixx being like, oh well I have an owner so I can go! And Marinette being adamantly against it. It was at this moment I knew, Alya's getting that Miraculous permanently. But I didn't know if it'd be in this episode or not, so I didn't get too excited yet. But Trixx and Alya's bond is something I really like and want to see more of. Nino and Alya's little high-five/handshake is so cute I can't help but smile every time. x3

Marinette's freak-out about getting in the elevator. Luka's got a soft look on his face. Kagami's like "why are you like this" Max's just confused at what's going on AND THEN THERE'S ADRIEN WITH THE SOFTEST LOOK When you realize that Marinette adoringly (and appeared like she wishes she could have that, too) watching Alya and Nino do their little high-five/handshake is what saved everything in the end.....😬Cutting it really close. I thought Alec got trapped by Hawk Moth and that that's why he didn't show up. Who knew he was playing video games in a bathroom stall instead of doing his job lol. Lesson learned, I hope. xD I'm just surprised Hawk Moth's in the bathroom instead of his lair. He could do the same thing from home. 😂 I'm not a fan of Audrey, but that was really cold. The exchange between Marinette and Alya during an akuma attack is what I've been waiting for since Gang of Secrets. Adrien being wonderful and protecting Chloe, which could've messed up everything had Kagami not saved him. It's so sweet that despite what happened between them, she still risks herself to save him. "Plagg-" Marinette comes bursting into the elevator, looking in her bag "Tikk..iii!" OOF So I screamed, a lot. And laughed hysterically 😂 All Marinette had to do was run in facing the other way and she'd see Plagg and it'd be all over. All that had to happen was for her to run in a second or two later. All that had to happen was she noticed Adrien a second or two too late. But Adrien heard her say "Tikk...iii" in an attempt to cover herself. Remember, he's always had suspicion of Marinette being Ladybug and came to the conclusion easily enough. Kwamibuster did divert his attention away from it a bit, but Chat Blanc took place after and he didn't hesitate to think otherwise. Aww poor Zoe :c She's part of the "Chloe's used me as a human shield" club. (((Everything after this point, I had to completely redo because tumblr decided to suck and wouldn't allow me to post my message due to an "error" (which has never happened to me before), then wouldn't let me save it as a draft. Then when I went to copy it all, somehow everything got eaten and it wouldn't allow me to undo to bring it back 😭 Goodbye an hour and a half of my time. And another hour and a half redoing it all. So if I happen to leave anything big out, I'm so sorry. My luck has just been extremely awful lately.))) You can take the Miraculous away from the kid, but you can't take the Miraculous out of the kid. Max and Luka showing their hero sides while not suited up is so nice. Loving the Oblivio parallel! Marinette says softly, "I'm sure Chat Noir will save us." While I know she's Ladybug and knows Ladybug won't show up to save them, he doesn't know that. Her response of Chat Noir will come save them, shows that she has confidence in him. Even if Adrien knows Chat Noir won't show up, that's such a sweet thing for her to say and I hope he noticed that. Marinette: "I'M STUCK IN THE ELEVATOR" Alya: "Ohhh? With

Adrien?" Marinette: how did she know? "Yeeeeees!" Alya: oh wait this is really bad Adrien: "I'm stuck in the elevator with Marinette!" Nino: "How cool! Adrien and Marinette are stuck together in the elevator!" Alya: "Haha yeah so cool and not problematic at all!" I love this entire scene. Alya teasing Marinette but then being like oh shoot this is seriously bad. Nino being totally oblivious to it all and thinking that it's good news to get their friends closer. And Adrien's just like, I'm not going to ask for help, I'm just informing my friend I'm stuck in an elevator with my just a friend. xDD And that kiss on the cheek from Alya was adooorable! Emergency phone for the Kwami's is such a good idea. But yeah, if they all screamed "Hello?!" in my ear, I'd be chucking my phone across the room too. Adrien's like, "who's that? That sounded like a lot of people.: "I called the fire department." OK. Yes, because you tell the fire department not to fly but to ride a horse to come rescue you when you're in a skyscraper. And repeat it again "Understood, firefighters? Ride in on a horse." Adrien's over in the corner like what the heck? You also, to firefighters, totally yell, "No, no, not prehistory!" and then sheepishly grin at the person you're with. Totally not sus and makes absolutely perfect sense! And then here's the part that has me going ??? Adrien saw Optigami's eyes on the wall, immediately alerts her to that and shushes her. Now, they're hiding from an akuma, but the thing sees them. There's no hiding from it regardless of what's said. So why be quiet? And yet, he's shushing her which convinces her to hang up. Had she continued trying to talk to them, Nathalie might've caught on to there being something up. Adrien's in Chat Noir mode here, as if what she's saying could expose their identities to Hawk Moth. That intense look he gives her after the fact too really shows that, he's not messing around. They also were both just about to tell the other their identities, them being extremely close to each other to do so. They came so close! So what's going on here, exactly? Adrien's come to the conclusion Ladybug is Marinette before. In Chat Blanc, after Kwamibuster showed him supposedly that LB and Marinette are different people, he didn't hesitate to think that Ladybug was Marinette. I don't think he's ever let that possibility go. And the events in the elevator where she started calling for Tikki, and her nonsensical comments over the phone that'd be something Ladybug does, may really have him leaning in that direction. Also, so very sus again that once Optigami went away, they both were like "Oh it was nothing" "I was only wondering what that strange eye thing was." Yeah, that's why you guys sounded nervous like you had something important to say and got in each other's faces! :D It's also interesting, because whenever Marinette and Adrien are in a situation together, Adrien almost always is the one that takes hold of the situation and is more aware of his surroundings over Marinette. xD This man over here just eagerly eliminating children. x.x Like a lot of things in this show, if Alya had just answered that phone call from Nino, events may have played out completely differently! o.o There goes the Eiffel Tower again xD It never not gets blown up, knocked over, or teleported. LOL it's so funny to me, and also such a yikes moment, that while Alya rushed over to Marinette's, got the Miraculous, teleported back, found "Nino" and gave him the Miraculous, then teleported into the elevator, Ladybug and Chat Noir's civilian selves are just trapped in that elevator, awkwardly, and all alone. Likely deep in thought feeling guilty they're powerless to do anything without exposing their identities. xD But at least they're both brooding over the same thing and probably couldn't care less if the other one talks or not, nor noticing enough that the other's really quiet. XD And the way they both reacted to the portal being opened in the elevator. Cautious, but then Adrien puts his hand on Marinette's back and kind of has

her in a position where he can pull her back to him and protect her. Which is a very different kind of protection than he's offered to others, Chloe earlier in this episode being a very good example. Just a friend? Yeeaah. The fact that in every single episode that has Marinette and Adrien interact this season, there's something there, and it's just a matter of time before it's addressed. A bit sad that we didn't get actual Carapace in this episode, but I'm hoping we get him in later eps! MAJOR OOOF A train with people in it underwater, a skyscraper with probably a lot of people in it burning in a volcano, cars, what looks to be the building they were filming the music video in Frightningale, and the Arc de Triomphe on the moon. Yeah I'm seeing where things are going now with this. I'm going to write a post addressing some of these things a bit later. Ladybug in a ponytail is the prettiest hairstyle imo. Chat Noir rushes in, sees Ladybug, Carapace, and Rena Rouge all together, first wondering how they all got in "Hello, Chat Noir" there went any of his thoughts he may have had about it lol... and feels disappointed. "Sorry! I would have got you, if I knew your secret identity." Whoa hold up. Ladybug, so forwardly talking about knowing his secret identity? o.O I smell foreshadowing. "As I always say, m'lady. To know me means to love me." "Then I'll think about it." as she smirks and giggles. Guys. She's being serious. 😍😍😍 I admit, I wish we could know what she was going to talk to Chat Noir about after everything, since she thought the situation was taken care of and asked him to wait there for her. She obviously had something she wanted to talk with him about. And thank you Marinette's observation skills for knowing that's not the real Nino! But poor Alya, so horrified like that... I bet she's thinking both "What have I done? I just gave a Miraculous away to Hawk Moth essentially." and "How is it that I couldn't recognize that wasn't my boyfriend?" On the latter, Chat Noir's made that error several times as well. Hawk Moth just really sucks to do that kind of thing to these kids. Real Nino's here to comfort Alya. Doesn't even have to say a word, just gives her a hug. I absolutely adore this. They're so perfect together. ;-; "It (Lucky Charm) always shows me the right way, but this time I was shortly led astray." "Hmm." Hmm? What the heck does that mean? More foreshadowing?? What's going to happen next omg. Yes, Marinette needs someone out there who can replace her if something happens. And I know so many people are like, oh no, that should be Chat! But just think about it. Today, Chat Noir and Ladybug were trapped in an elevator in a situation where they were powerless. They came extremely close to needing to transform with Hawk Moth watching. Had Hawk Moth not been Adrien's dad and let him be, they would've transformed and fought, no doubt. A lot of things could happen, and Ladybug and Chat Noir are always in the thick of things. We've seen one or both of them become unavailable many times. It's good that someone else is their safety net. You may see Alya as just Ladybug's but she's also Chat's too. I screamed and cheered so loud when Alya got her Miraculous to hold onto! I've wanted this for sooo long now! ;-; Okay ew, the way the music went from happy and sweet to creepy when Gabriel and Nathalie were on screen. 😬 Watch: Gabriel, in his plot to try to get to know more about Alya, will have Adrien through a party or have some friends get together at his house which will likely include Nino and Marinette as well, and have him use his own son to try to get what he wants without Adrien suspecting a thing, even thinking his father's giving him more freedom and more of a normal life. How sick. x.x This was a seriously good episode! I'm very excited to see how this all plays out, because things are getting seriously intense in many different ways! Honestly, my original write up of this post was much better but I lost it all. Which makes me very sad and disappointed, but it can't be undone. :c So

hopefully this was enjoyable anyway! I'll be writing a few posts that are more in-depth about some of the events that happened in recent episodes, including Chloe's character and situation, Adrien's feelings for Marinette, Adrien/Chat's situation with Ladybug, etc that are too specific and detailed to write in a thoughts and reactions post, so be on the look out for those! c:

[imaginesmai]

Peter Parker - Far From Home

This is long, angsty and fluffy! It follows the film, mostly. 

Plot: Peter Parker has just been run over by a train. However, he has biggest worries. Like, Beck having you in his grasp. 

“Oh my god, Happy”

Peter let out a loud hiss when the needle hit his skin once more, and swallowed down the tears that threatened to leave his eyes. He bit his lip, closed his eyes and endured the pain for a while longer. No more than a few hours ago, he had been all over the moon because you had asked him to go for a walk through the city. He had been inches away from kissing you, had gripped your hand and had told you the truth about his identity; well, you had figured it out, but no one needed to know that. It felt like a dream, that had turned into a nightmare because of his stupidity.

“Just a few more to go, don’t worry” Happy said, using a soft voice that Peter thought he didn’t deserve.

Another pinch, another hiss. The needle, however, wasn’t what hurt him the most. It was a mash up between the betrayal of who he thought he could trust, the guilt crushing into him like waves, and his mind running a mile per hour with the possibilities of the disaster that he had caused.

He tried looking out of the window and focused on the low hum of the plane. It was hard to disassociate from Happy stitching up his shoulder without any anaesthetic, and just when he thought he had managed to keep his breathing under control, the careful man hit some nerve and Peter jumped on his seat.

“Happy!” Peter slammed his fist on the desk, an empty cup making its way to the ground.

“Relax, Peter!” Happy tried to calm him down, but it only angered Peter more. The boy got up in a sudden move, with half of his wound still bleeding. Happy was about to drag him back to the chair when Peter turned around and faced him, showing the angry tears on his eyes.

“Don’t tell me to relax!”

Happy had known Peter for some years by then. He had thought he knew the boy fairly well to say that Peter was nothing but sunshine and rainbows. The kid made videos, introduced himself to everything – and anything – , and sometimes brought sandwiches for him when he thought Happy might not have eaten yet. But the way Peter spoke, showed him that the pain he was feeling was nothing like sunshine and rainbows. In fact, Happy thought no one should ever felt it – especially not a kid, his kid.

“How can I relax when I messed up so bad?” his voice broke at the end into a messy sob, and Peter pressed the back of his bloody hand to his lips. “I trusted – I trusted Beck. I thought he was my friend, I gave him the only thing Mr Stark left behind for me.”

“Kid, maybe – ” Happy started, but Peter cut him off.

“And now, he has her.” Peter let the tears run down his cheeks, supporting himself against the side of the plane. “He has the most important person for me and the deadliest weapon, because – because I can’t take care of anything without messing up”

His legs gave up and Happy didn’t have time to catch him before he stumbled into the nearest sit. The autopilot was, once more, the only thing that could be heard in the plane, besides Peter’s quiet sobs. Happy didn’t know much about what had happened, just that he had received a call from a very long number and had to fly through half of the world to get Peter. Since then, he had had to calm the boy down from a panic attack twice, where he had only muttered your name and asked if everything was real.

“So, please… do not tell me to relax.” Peter breathed out.

He let his body fall down until his head was nearly hitting his knees, and ran a desperate hand through his hair. It was damp with blood and sweat, and he missed so, so much the brief feeling of your hand running through his hair. It had been just a second, after he had freaked out after the whole discovery with Mysterio, and you had done it by chance. But he wanted so desperately to feel it again. Peter and Happy let the silence take over for a few minutes, and Peter used that time to get his shit together.

Finally, he heard movement and raised his head. Happy was sitting now in front of him, leaning towards him with his hands clasped together. There was only a desk between them, and that reminded him of the abysm that dissociated both of them in that moment. While Peter was witnessing his whole word crash, Happy still had to understand where that awful wound came from.

“You have to talk to me, Peter” Happy tried to sound as friendly as possible. He searched Peter’s eyes with his own, and held the smile even when he saw the pain in them.

“Y/N… she’s the girl I had the plan with” Peter started, lowering his gaze again. “I was supposed to kiss her at the top of the Eiffel tower, because she loves those awful love movies and I really, really like her Happy”

Peter started to tell him how Nick Fury had crashed his plan by changing the trip, how Beck had appeared from another universe and he had been fooled like a kid. How you had found a drone that proved his lies and had showed it to Peter, discovering his secret identity in the way. Peter avoided the details about how you had almost kissed in the bridge and how you had hug him for a while longer when he had jumped from that window; not knowing Beck was already at the hotel and had targeted you before Peter had the chance to do anything about it.

“It was all a trap. It – I-I fell for it. A-and he had her all the time, but I couldn’t… reach her” Peter tried to explain how the illusions had messed up with his head, and hadn’t let him save you. “Then – the train, I was hit by a train and I fell unconscious. I woke up before I called you”

“And that guy still has Y/N” Happy finished for him, and Peter nodded.

The shadow of you reaching for him, in Beck’s grasp, just before the train ran him over clouded if eyes. Peter wondered if you knew he was alive; you hadn’t known he was Spiderman until that night, and his powers were still some mystery for him sometimes. He wondered, too, if you were alive. If Beck wanted to, he could have killed you just after the crash.

But his ‘peter tingle’ told him you were still alive, with Beck, in case the plan had gone wrong and Peter came back. That was, probably, what scared him the post. That you would have to endure just an inch of what the illusions made to him.

Peter pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes and rubbed them until he saw white spots, and then looked up to Happy.

“I don’t know what to do, Happy” Peter wasn’t afraid of sounding weak, or childish, in front of him. The man sighed. “I just – I just want her back”

“You’re Spiderman. She counts on you” Happy told him with a small smirk, and his eyes were the most real thing Peter had seen since the fight with Mysterio. “You’ll figure something out”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That Flash had a public account with no self-preservation, where he announced himself the biggest fan of spiderman and uploaded the most embarrassing things, came in handy. Peter decided to take care of the suit while Happy drove them to London, where the students were and where he hoped Mysterio would be. Ned also knew about the fiasco of the monsters, and probably MJ did too, so they were probably a threat too.

The suit he was creating was nothing like the old one. He decided to go with the original colours, eliminating the blue and using only black and red. He added a few new webs designs he was working with Tony the last time in the lab, something similar to a parachute so that he could fly down from the plane, and a thicker cloth around his body so that he wouldn’t be defeated so easily.

Like last time. Where he had seen you for the last time.

Breathing through his mouth and giving Happy a hesitant thumb up, he decided to rip the band-aid at once, jumping out without looking back. Suddenly, he was surrounded by air, clouds and pressure. Peter fell through the sky like a crumb, right into the bigger mess he had seen in a long time.

A bus was in flames, flying in the sky and being torn apart like if it was made of clay. People were running everywhere, screaming and looking for their loved ones. As Peter went down, he could see more of the scenario; like Ned gripping Betty’s arm with one hand and leading MJ away with the other, or Mr Harrington trying to calm everyone down while screeching like a fire alarm.

Peter landed on the top of the bridge, hidden from plain sight but still in a good position to see everything above him. Like, Mysterio controlling the drones with a big helmet from inside the glass tunnel, while gripping your arm and dragging you around. He sucked in a breath as he quickly searched for any injuries. You seemed fine, wearing the same floral drees you had been wearing for the opera, then stained by grease and blood. Your hair, that had been pulled up, was obstructing your face as you tried to break free from Mysterio.

But you were alive, still having the will to fight against him, and Peter could almost laugh in relief. He didn’t waste much time in relaxing, instead going for the plan that he had made up in the short trip there.

“Happy?” he muttered against his earpiece. “I – Y/N is down there”

“That’s good, kid” Happy muffled voice came through the earpiece.  “You know the plan then. Turn off the earpiece and cause a distraction. I’ll be waiting on the ground, just bring her to me and I’ll put her to safety”

“Alright” Peter smiled shakily. For a moment, he hesitated. He knew he was far from just a kid, but he had really, really wanted to be a trip without any problem. Where he could talk about his feelings with you, and maybe kiss you. His hand trembled for a second; then he pressed the earpiece. “See you in a minute”

The lines of drones designed to protect Mysterio failed to detect Peter when he entered into the cloud, and the boy let his mouth hang open. There were, at least, one thousand drones flying around an open air, shooting and creating an illusion for the rest of the world. In the middle, stood the real Beck, talking angrily with someone and still holding your arm.

From where he stood on one of the drones, he could see some kind of wound on your ankle, that stopped you from moving freely. Peter gripped the end of the drone where he was resting with so much force that the mental bended under his fingers, and he had to stop himself before throwing everything through the roof. Instead of just going for Beck, he focused on the drones.

They seemed to be following a path. Move left twice, then right once, up and down three times. The plan was simple; destroy one of them so that Beck would be forced to check it out, and use the opportunity to lower you to Happy, who would put you in a safe place while Peter ended up the fight.

Peter decided to go with one that seemed lonely. It was probably in charge of something small, like the monster’s finger or his eye. He threw an explosive web to it and hid under the glass bridge when it exploded. From there, he could hear everything.

“No, I want the cape – what was that?” Beck turned around like a maniac, hissing venom into the earpiece. “Why the fuck has a drone exploded?! I said I wanted a perfect job this time!”

A unintelligible response came out of Beck’s helmet, too low even for Peter’s ear to pick up. He watched, from his place under a piece of metal, how his face became redder and redder until a vein popped out of his neck. It seemed that Peter was finally seeing Beck’s true face; a mad man that couldn’t control his emotions.

“I don’t care! I don’t – if this goes wrong, you’re dead! You hear me?! I’m gonna fucking rip you apart!” he threatened into the earpiece. Peter winced each time you were shaken around like a piece of rag, but forced himself to stay in place. “Like everything, I’ll go and solve it. But be fucking prepared for when I come back”

Beck took out the earpiece and threw it over the bridge, emitting a low grunt. Your lip trembled and more tears fell down your cheeks when his grip on your arm became more rough. Over the past few hours, you had cried, begged, yelled, insulted, sassed and said everything you could think of to the man. Still, the only thing you had received had been a nasty bruise on your cheek and a hard stamp on your foot that probably was broken.

“Now, listed to me” Beck kneeled in front of you and frowned. When he talked, spit hit your cheek. “You stay here. Quiet, still and being a good girl. If I find you an inch to the left, I’m going to throw you to the river tied to a drone. And that’s not gonna feel nice. You hear me?”

“Yes” you answered, knowing that if you didn’t he would only get angrier. “Yes, I won’t – I won’t move”

“I know you won’t” Beck scoffed, and inched closer. “But if by any chances certain spider boy comes around, you will stay put too. Because I don’t think his body would take two thousand drones shooting at him, alright?”

You nodded quickly and another sob rose up your throat. Beck got up and dragged you to the side of the bridge. He didn’t bother in tying you, because he had played with your mind enough times to know you wouldn’t move.

A drone appeared in front of him, simulating a small platform where he could step on. Beck spared you a final glare and drifted away into the mass of drones.

Peter, still hidden under the bridge, saw his chance and crawled up to where you were. He took his mask off with one hand and clenched his jaw. His body hurt and his spidey sense was screaming at him to leave, but he kept moving until he was besides you. He took a second to look at you thoughtfully; from head to toe, from how your hair was messy from being dragged and the way you hugged yourself.

It took him a while to move, because he could feel the panic attack rise to his throat, and the bile with it. He was tempted to turn to the side and empty what he had left in his stomach, but swallowed and gave you a hesitant smile. You didn’t move, neither, and he was afraid you thought he wasn’t real. Been there, done that.

“Hey” he whispered, and stepped – or crawled, since he was still in fours – forwards. “Hey, Y/N. It’s me”

“Oh my god” you squealed out, and unfolded the protective shell you had created around your body to put your hands on your mouth. “Oh my –“

“I know, I know” he stopped you, and looked quickly around to check Beck was still busy. “But I’m here. I’m – I’m real. And I can prove it! Ask me –“

“Oh my god, you’re alive!”

Peter barely could do anything before your body crushed into him. He wasn’t prepared for it, so he fell onto his butt and caught both of your bodies with his elbow. Swallowing the hiss of pain, he wrapped his free arm around your middle and hid his face on your neck.

Suddenly, he felt like a kid.

Spiderman wasn’t supposed to do that, but Peter let the first sob break through his throat and pressed you tighter against his body. Time was hot on your trails, and Peter knew that; yet he only took shaky breaths against your neck. You were talking, saying something about Beck, your class and the drones. It was all white noise, compared to his heart beating loudly against his ears.

You smelt like blood, sweat and Beck. It wasn’t a pleasant smell, because Peter was sensitive to them and, after hours of captivity, they weren’t nice. Behind them, there was also your natural smell, the one he found himself sniffling in class when you sat in front of him. It was there, just like Peter’s sanity, hanging by a thread.

Slowly, Peter pulled you back until your faces were only inches apart. He had to shift his gaze to see your features, and his lip shook dangerously. There were tears on his cheeks, and his eyes were glossy.

“I’m gonna get you out of here” Peter whispered. He didn’t want to sound weak, but it seemed that he was the one seeking your comfort. “I – Happy is down there, and he’ll take you to a safe place. I’m sorry… I couldn’t save you. Sorry.”

“It’s okay” you reassured him. “You’re saving me now, Spiderman.”

“But I couldn’t – “

“We can discuss it later” you cut him off with a small wet laugh. “I think I’m going into cardiac arrest if I spend one more second here”

Peter nodded once, twice and a last one more firmly. He got up and helped you to stand by his side, your ankle making your lean against him. Again, with just one hand, he put on his mask and jumped out of the bridge in a blink of an eye. Wind rushed past him like the familiar feeling he was used to, and he felt as if he was just in Queens, swinging back to his apartment after a rough patrol.

The occasional yelp from you and threat woke him up from his daydream.

He landed in an alley, away from the mess and destruction. Happy was waiting for you like the loyal friend he was, with a black car already on and a gun ready on his shelter. The plan was to run in the opposite direction, run by a hospital in case it was needed, and wait for Peter to go back home. It was a rushed plan, open to many problems and obstacles, hence the gun, but Peter didn’t have anything else. With a sigh, he unwrapped his arm from your waist and let you catch your breath.

“Peter – that was – we were, they were just seconds!” you smacked his shoulder lightly, and Peter didn’t have the heart to tell you it had been stitched in the ride there. “Why didn’t – I’m taking so many advantage of that.”

“We can… talk about that. At home” Peter said, voice muffled under the mask. He didn’t want to risk breaking down again, so he didn’t take off the mask. “I’ll see you there. I have, you know, to go back”

“I guess” you shuddered, and Happy honked. Neither of you cared. “Be careful”

“I will”

There went his plan, probably. The beautiful blue necklace he had brought you in Venice was probably destroyed in his backpack, wherever it was then. The kiss, shattered by an improvised kidnapping. His date, ruined by a mad murderer. And the girl he wanted to do all of that with, in front of him ready to go home.

Peter swallowed around nothing, because his throat felt dry.

“I, uh, we could do that again. No the swinging. The – the other part” Peter blushed under the mask, and you raised a brow.

“The part you got it by a train? Or the kidnapping?” you teased.

“No! No that’s – isn’t happening again. I promise. Never, ever again” Peter shook his head and raised his hands. “Like in a million years? Never. I’m sorry. Not that, it shouldn’t –“

Happy honked again, and both of you jumped a bit. He shouted something to Peter and signalled inside of the car and behind you. The place wasn’t ideal, but neither was probably kissing Spiderman. After all, you had just been kidnapped and Peter was going to risk his life for the sake of the humanity.

So nothing wasn’t ideal, but Peter wasn’t either, and that was where the magic of things laid.

There was a sudden breeze hitting the lower part of his face, and the mask rested uncomfortably against the bruises on his cheeks. Shivers ran down his spine and for a moment he was afraid, because his vison was being blocked because of the mask and his ears were covered. Probably a second before having a breakdown, he felt your lips on his.

They were soft but decisive, your hand cradling the back of his head. It wasn’t as good as what he had planned, yet he could live with that. Leaning forward and ignoring Happy’s indignant shout, he responded to the kiss. There were no fireworks or angels singings, and his body still hurt from the beating. Nothing was being solved by kissing, but he surely felt a lot better.

The kiss was awkward because of the mask, and Peter was too petrified to even think about removing it. One of his hands was resting on your hip, while the other just clenched and unclenched at his side. Your fingers cradled the baby hairs of his neck and he shudder, making you smile and push yourself tighter against his.

As quickly as it had come, it went away. You stepped back, lowered his mask and the world screamed for him again. Peter wasn’t sure, for a second, that it had been real; but then he saw the blush of your cheeks, the angry-proud smirk in Happy’s face, and the tingling on the tips of his fingers.

“Yeah, we can repeat this later” you said, and kissed his masked cheek. If he hadn’t had the mask, he would probably had been as red as it. “See you later, Peter”

Not the first date he had imagined, but he was fairly okay with it.

Want to know more about me? Here is my Masterlist! Feedback is always appreciated!!

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[sincerelymarinette]

A Recorded Life Sequel (3/10) - Miraculous Ladybug

Words 1448 Chapter Summary: On the year anniversary after Hawkmoth's defeat, the team reflects and meets up. Something is off with Marinette, though. Author’s Note: Let Team Miraculous be happy. That's what this chapter is. Maybe a little content warning on grief and sadness, but there is a happy ending. Also, this is the last of the part that takes place directly after Hawkmoth's defeat, the following chapters will be a few years later. I'm super excited for that!

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One Year After

---

While Sabine plated up breakfast for her, Tom, Marinette, and Adrien, they listened to the morning news. It was a Saturday, so there wasn't much to be done during the day. Scattered homework, hopes of filming a new video, and maybe play some video games. But that was a normal Saturday; this one hit much harder.

"Don't be bemused; it's just the news!" Nadja introduced the program. "A year ago today was the miraculous day where our favorite superhero took down Hawkmoth. I can speak for all of France when I say thank you to Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee. It has been a while since we've seen them around, but it is no secret that they deserve the break, and crime rates have been down. Thank you, our Miraculous heroes," Nadja said before it switched to a different topic.

Adrien and Marinette ate their cereal in silence as they listened to her talk, but never looked at the TV. It was going to be an emotional day to think back on, and it had already been an emotional year. But they wouldn't change the way things went down; as hard as it was for Adrien to lock his father up, he couldn't let him destroy Paris.

"Would you like us to do anything for you guys?" Tom asked them, finally breaking the silence.

Marinette shook her head. "Oh, no, thanks, dad," She said. "We're meeting up with the team a little later. It's been a while since we've all been together," Marinette nodded.

"Alright, well, you let us know," Tom smiled. Marinette's parents said they would be down in the bakery, and they exited to leave the kids alone.

"How are you feeling?" Marinette asked Adrien.

Adrien only shrugged in response, taking another bite of his food. "Kinda numb, you know?" Adrien said. "I thought I would be sadder, especially after talking to my therapist this week. But I'm still mad at him," He explained.

Marinette put her hand on Adrien's shoulder to comfort him. "And that's perfectly okay, you know that," She said.

Though Adrien was mad, he still felt guilty. He was the reason his dad was in jail, and he can't help but think if his mother really would be back if he let Hawkmoth make his wish. He also felt guilty that he hasn't once visited his father after a year nor talked to Nathalie since she moved away. Everyone always reminded Adrien he had nothing to feel guilty about and that his father didn't deserve to see Adrien, but no matter how much he was told, he still felt it. He couldn't help it.

The Kwami's came flying into the room at record speed. "Morning, guys!" Plagg said and quickly flew into the fridge to eat a piece of cheese.

"How are you guys?" Tikki flew up to them.

"The usual," Marinette answered for both of them. "I think seeing the team will be helpful. Nino has a lot of stories from tour to tell us, too," Marinette said.

A small smile appeared on Adrien's face. "I can't wait to see him; it's been so long," He awed, and the two of them finished breakfast. Once they were done, they headed to the nearby park where so many memories were made. Countless photoshoots, school projects, and Akuma fights happened at the park. Adrien and Marinette set down their blanket and waited for the others to show up. There was going to be a celebratory ceremony later in the day, but the team wanted to catch up before then.

Chloé arrived only ten minutes after Adrien and Marinette did, and Alya and Nino were not too far behind her, either. They sat on the large blanket, and all seemed to take a deep breath, taking in the last year and how much their lives, and Paris, has changed.

"What's on your mind, Marinette?" Alya snapped her out of her stare.

"Oh, it's not important," She sighed. "I'm glad we could all get together. I know we've all been busy, but I've missed the team," Marinette said.

"I agree," Adrien piped up. "We're all so busy and focused we need to make sure we can see each other all together more often. The team's got to stick together," Adrien said, much like a leader.

Everyone agreed, and put their hands in to pound-it, even though life was hectic with school and jobs, sticking together was most important with stressful times.

Nino told them stories of touring with Jagged Stone, and how amazing it had been. Chloé talked about her classes and things she was learning, and her plans for after she graduated. Alya just got a raise at work, which showed the publishers must like her work. Adrien's working with the stand-in CEO to re-open Agreste Fashion, and Marinette was still stuck with school and video making. It was no lie when they said they were busy, and a damn good thing they defeated Hawkmoth before starting university. How would they have handled all the work and fight crime?

Mayor Bourgeois called attention to the stage in the park an hour after the team arrived. They all looked up to the statue that was installed not long after Hawkmoth's defeat, and he reminded Paris how important this day is. He recounted some of their hardest Akumas, and some statistics on how well Paris has been doing this past year. It was true they could finally relax... but it all seemed too weird to just sit back.

---

That night, Adrien and Marinette went out for a nice dinner to treat themselves and take their mind off things. It was a day to celebrate, wasn't it? They didn't talk much about the day, just about life, and they were happy to be spending time together. It was a day for celebration, but it was still an emotional toll.

"So we were talking, and we're thinking our big comeback will be- Mari, are you listening?" Adrien asked, ultimately ending his story about work.

Marinette shook her head and put her fork down. "Yes, I heard you. The comeback," She said. She was half listening, and felt terrible that she couldn't give her one-hundred-percent to Adrien.

"What's wrong?" Adrien asked as he began to get worried.

"Nothing, I'm okay. So you were saying..." Marinette dragged on.

"No," Adrien said and sat back to look at her. "Something's wrong, tell me. You know you can trust me with anything, right?"

Marinette thought for a moment, but knew it was better to tell the truth. "I'm so thankful that we took down Hawkmoth. And I'm thankful that crime has gone down and Paris is a better city. But, do you ever miss it?" She asked, but clarified before Adrien could answer. "Not the Akumas or the crime. Just...being Chat Noir and Ladybug. I loved hopping around on rooftops and meeting on the tallest part of the Eiffel Tower. It was exciting," Marinette confessed.

Adrien's worried face turned from a frown into a smile. "I think some excitement is exactly what we need. How about we pay the bill and go check on our city?" Adrien proposed, and Marinette eagerly nodded. He called the waiter over and handed him his card; then they rushed out into a semi-hidden spot between the buildings.

The Kwami's had clearly heard their conversation, and were just as excited. It was time to take such a traumatic experience and take it back to be something fun.

"Tikki,"

"Plagg,"

"Transform me!" They shouted simultaneously, and the familiar glow of red and green filled the small alleyway. Ladybug grabbed her yo-yo and propelled herself to the top of the building, Chat Noir on her tail.

She pulled her phone out and held it in one hand while holding the yo-yo in another. The skies were filled with giggles and screams of happiness as they ran from roof to roof. It was something both of them needed: the freedom from Hawkmoth and his fear-filled times, and using it to create new and happy memories. Though there was no need to fight any Akumas, that didn't mean they could have some fun.

After a while of swinging around and chasing each other, they ended up at the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug pointed the camera at Chat Noir, who was catching his breath, and he waved, then she turned it back to herself, a smile from ear to ear.

She uploaded the video, and everyone all over the world was excited to see that their heroes never truly went away. It was nice to see them so happy in costumes that used to make them so sad.

---

@lady-of-the-roses-and-lilies @bookishserendipity03 @avatheexceed @gkz10 @coccinellegirl @kat-thatoneweirdo @strawberryblondish @snow-swordswoman @lilgaga98 @evufries  @toodaloo-kangaroo 

[a-mirror-of-memories]

ML doesn't represent any culture properly

Putting aside the fact that the ml crew keeps whitewashing characters and not making even the bare minimum to represent other cultures, I just noticed something.

The show doesn't even have proper French representation.

Practically all the landmarks that we see are buildings at least a hundred years old and without counting the Eiffel Tower very few of them appear in more than a single episode; and if that the case they mostly reappear as background. For example the Arc de Triomphe is a personal favorite and a popular tourist attraction. It appears seven times (4 in season one, 3 in season 2, one of those times as background, and once in season 3) and it's one of the lucky ones.

Alya's mom is a chef, Marinette's parents own a bakery and I can count with my fingers how many French dishes make an appearance.

But the worst from my point of view is that thanks to Astruc&co screwing up with the timeline (they have time to make an animated movie about the heroes but not enough to change the school year, that makes sense) they erased any French or Parisian celebrations.

We have Valentine's Day, two Christmas specials (only one of them 'official') and two invented holidays. That's all.

A quick search brought dozens of holidays, events and places; next are some of my favorites. Feel free of add more and please correct me if I'm wrong in any of them.

"Fete des Rois": During the first Sunday after New Year bakeries sell 'galettes' (round, flat pastries filled with buttery almond paste); inside one of this pastries there's a small figurine and if you find it in your portion you'll be crowned King or Queen. Put Chloé stealing the figurine from the person who found it and you have the plot for an episode.

Chinese New Year: I feel really stupid for not thinking on this event before and it's made my blood boil. Marinette, the freaking protagonist, is half Chinese. How hard's to bring the one Chinese holiday that everyone's knows about and which will put that part of her heritage in the spotlight?

Bastille Day: The French National holiday, celebrates the 14 July of 1789 and the French Revolution.

Paris Marathon: Look at me in the eyes and tell me that Le Chien Kim wouldn't be interested in this event.

Fete de la Musique:  on the day of the summer solstice, June 21, free street concerts and parties throughout the city, a.k.a. the perfect place to find Nino, Luka, Kitty section and Jagged Stone.

Open Air Cinema at la Villette: On July 21 it hosts the annual open-air cinema festival. It shows old and new releases, French and foreign films. This sound like something Nino would love.

Paris Fashion Week: I know it already happened in Style Queen but it happens twice yearly, with a Spring/Summer edition and an Autumn/Winter edition (And to be honest, if you told me that Style Queen was simply Gabriel launching his new collection I would believe you).

This is a French show, made by French people and it takes place in the French capital city. Change the background to any big city, the Eiffel Tower for the iconic landmark of said city and no one would notice the difference.

I'm not asking much; just two or three French real events shouldn't be an issue. Even a simple mention would be enough.

Do the creators really need to hire an expert to make an accurate representation of their own country?

[dorizardthewizard]

So I watched the Eurovision movie

Uh, I have a lot of thoughts because this is the closest we’re gonna get to the real thing this year ;^; First, the positives!

What they got right:

Overall, I like that it wasn’t really taking the piss out of the competition – whether you agree or not with how it was portrayed, the creators do have a lot of love for the show and that is reflected in how much it means to the characters. I think it was fitting to start with the kids watching and being inspired by ABBA’s win (I’m always up for showing people where the group’s fame started), and making it their life goal to perform in the contest. Just like Lars and Sigrit, many musicians in Europe grow up with Eurovision being an annual tradition and it’s their big dream to one day perform on that international stage, so yeah I think it decently showed how important ESC is here.

They got the overall vibe right too – most of the songs really felt like Eurovision songs (maybe a little dated but still), from the Viking-Europop opener to the Lordi-aesthetic one to whatever the hell Russia was doing. I don’t think Greece’s song was something they’d ever send though; it fits the character but not what the country typically sends. Then again, Estonia have sent an opera song in Italian and Romania sent yodel rap so actually, I take back that statement. They were missing a Balkan ballad though! Staging was on point – I think it was filmed at the Tel Aviv stage so that’s obviously a factor, but big angel wings and hamster wheels also bring a lot of familiarity :P No pianos being set on fire though, which, in a movie with so many on-stage disasters, is honestly surprising.

Of course there’s also the past contestant cameos, for that I’ll say one thing – needs more Verka. Maybe some contestants from earlier years would have been nice too, at least we did hear Céline Dion’s song in the song-along. Would also have been nice if the whole mashup was Eurovision songs, instead of throwing in some other ones just to make it more recognizable for non-Eurofans. Otherwise, the mashup was really seamless and sounded good.

Another thing the movie got right was European’s attitudes to Americans, not sure how I feel about it since the movie was made by Americans, but it’s self-aware and pretty funny :P There’s also the funny gag about countries not wanting to host because of how expensive it is, not sure why a guy working for the national broadcaster would care about that but looking at Iceland’s population size, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was also an economist for the government or something.

What they got wrong:

Of course, there were some things they didn’t quite get right. First of all, did the UK win for it to be hosted in Scotland??? Unless Australia won, or some other country that didn’t want to host or something. They actually made a joke about UK getting zero points, but they said it’s because no one likes us, when in reality we just send the blandest songs :/

There were also a whole lot of technical inaccuracies like Sweden breaking the rule on number of people allowed on stage, big five countries taking part in the semi-final (come on, how can you not get that right? Maybe they were afraid Americans wouldn’t recognise half the flags? :P), the contestants were just sitting by themselves in some room like it’s The Voice or something, their delegations nowhere to be seen, and then there’s the total lack of security or planning around the competition, with Lars just running around doing whatever. The countries presenting their votes in the semi-final stood out as well, but since we didn’t get to see the final I can brush over it, just so we experience the voting somewhere in the movie. Wonder why they didn’t use past contestants for the points announcements? They also had the French one speaking in English but you know what, they remembered to make sure he was standing in front of the Eiffel Tower so I’ll let them off :P

One thing that did bother me was how hard the movie tried to make us think the Icelandic song was a failure, except the song wasn’t even bad so they had to resort to all the incidents on stage. They even had that complete silence after the hamster wheel incident, and there is NO WAY that would ever happen – even the null points songs get cheers! In fact, people would cheer harder, and I don’t think Graham Norton, or anyone for that matter, would be that surprised that people remembered the song and actually gave it points (oh yeah, great to see him in this!).

Okay, some of those inaccuracies were nitpicks, but they’re just fun to point out. I don’t think they quite nailed the portrayal though, but more on that later.

The movie itself:

Judging the rest of the film, the humour really didn’t do it for me- it was just kind of jarring that one half of the movie felt like your usual light-hearted music contest film that was fairly rooted in reality, then the next there’s a dismembered ghost of Demi Lovato and a guy getting stabbed by Elves??? I know it’s classic Will Ferrel random comedy but honestly, those parts could have been cut out of the movie just fine, it’s like half an hour too long anyway and you can tell by the way the humour drags. It can basically be summarised by the ending scene where Lars is yelling at the Americans and then just keeps going, and I know that’s the joke in that scene but they do this throughout the whole movie – something will happen and the characters will keep reacting back and forth and it’s honestly exhausting. That might just be me though, maybe I’d prefer more witty and self-aware humour in a Eurovision movie but I guess non-fans wouldn’t get half the jokes so they went for over-the-top ridiculousness ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As for the characters, Sigrit was great; she’s a good mix between cute and weird. Lars is… annoying tbh, maybe I just don’t care for Will Ferrel's character type but when Alexander asks Lars what he can possibly offer Sigrit I was like “yeah Lars, what CAN you offer?”. Their relationship was cute though and his arc about caring too much about winning was decent, it does kind of resonate with Eurovision because yeah, lots of countries will revamp their songs to have English lyrics and the style is increasingly converging to Americanized radio-friendly pop music. I do wish they’d focused more on this conflict, rather than bringing in a love square (?) with Alexander and Mita.

Speaking of Alexander, I actually liked how they portrayed the Russian character; he wasn’t a villain, he was fun to watch and was genuinely happy to see Sigrit succeed. I did not expect them to go there with the whole “there are no gays in Russia” thing – I laughed but also actually felt for the guy, and his friendship with Mita was peak mlm/wlw solidarity, it was sweet.

The ending:

For me, this is where it goes American Hollywood style and kinda reminds me of Madonna’s speech about everyone being winners. Felt like I was watching Camp Rock for a second then (which is funny since Demi is in this movie) – all the other acts are fun songs but we’ll just change ours to a ballad so it must be more heartfelt and resonate with the audience, as if a good chunk of ESC songs aren’t ballads already!! To be fair, they do well in having it be a personal song about her hometown and adding in parts in Icelandic (although I’ve heard it’s so butchered you can’t understand what’s being said), it’s a sweet ode to one of the best parts of Eurovision – celebrating where you’re from and making your country proud.

Wish they’d focused more on that tbh, we really could have done without Lars speaking to the audience – that’s the more Hollywood moment for me and kind of reminds me of acts that try to connect with the audience like it’s a concert. Sorry but we don’t do that here :P Instead of the “music is feeling”-like message, it would have been nice if the movie was more directed towards celebrating why the contest is so big and important even decades after it began, and how it literally brings an entire continent together for one night. This would have been nice especially because of all the cynicism towards ESC and its dismissal as just a dumb, campy event with no quality music whatsoever.

Huh, I just remembered there are no live instruments at Eurovision so how everyone can hear the piano at the end is beyond me, also the instrumental kicks in despite the fact that that song has never been recorded in a studio, let alone able to be played out loud onstage. But I’ll just imagine that’s for us to see, the audience actually just heard her singing and nothing else. I don’t think it would have been that impressive, so Iceland probably won everyone’s hearts through memes instead :’D

Overall, I don’t think the movie was terribly offensive or anything, just some silly fun that missed out on the potential of better portraying the Eurovision spirit. I might eventually watch it again, but with skipping out half the comedy :P

[yorit1]

Aaron’s 28th Birthday

It was midnight on the 5th of January and his mum finally allowed him to head home. She called him a couple of hours ago and asked for help. He walked to the door and saw his husband's handwriting wishing him a happy birthday and that his first gift was upstairs. Aaron ran upstairs and got to their bedroom and was excited to see what awaited him up there.

Their room was transformed to look like a hotel suite in a Parisian hotel. Their window was covered with an image of the Paris skyline including the Eiffel Tower as if they were in Paris and not in Yorkshire. On the table, there were macaroons in different colours laid out to spell happy birthday. And special chocolates that spell out Aaron. Little mugs with real hot chocolate were sitting there. Aaron absolutely loved that his husband was extra when it came to his birthdays. He also thought that a few days away would be nice.

“Bonjour,” Aaron said in the little French he knows, his french always turned on Robert even if it was broken.

"Happy birthday, husband. This is how we will be spending the next few days. You and me in Paris."

"I love it.”

Aaron kissed Robert to thank him and things got heated between them. Aaron was really enjoying his 28th birthday so far.

The next thing Aaron heard was a pair of tiny footsteps, then small knocks on the door, and then two small voices giggling.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!" Aaron heard his children yell out simultaneously.

The twins then climbed into their daddies bed and got in the middle between them. They had presents in their hands that they were excited to show their dads.

"DADDY DADDY WE MADE THESE PRESIS FOR YOU1"

"HERE is mine DADDY."

"AND CARD"

Aaron received a birthday card where happy birthday was cut up on different coloured paper and glued together. Then Daddy was written below it. Then he got a gift from Annie Grace that was a small pillow that said I love my dada. And the gift from Jacob was a picture frame with a picture of their family of five, with colourful fingerprints all around the frame. Aaron felt all this parental love swell up for his beautiful children, and knew that he was incredibly lucky to have such wonderful children.

“I love you,” Aaron said repeatedly while he gave them hugs and kisses.

“Why don't we put on one of your films and watch it together,” Robert suggested

"Yay!” the twins exclaimed and snuggled in between their dads.

Robert was hoping that that would give his mum and mother in law enough time to prepare the breakfast downstairs. Robert wanted to help but they said that since they were going to Paris for a few days they should spend as much time as possible with the twins before they left.

Robert received a text message that everything was ready downstairs. That was perfect timing as there were about 10 minutes left in the movie. Robert is so happy so far Aaron’s birthday was going exactly as he hoped, and that was what made him happiest he wanted Aaron to have the happiest of birthdays. He hoped that he liked the birthday brunch they prepared for him downstairs.

When the movie ended, Robert turned off the tv. He heard the twins complain.

“Hey we get to have fun birthday brunch with dad and daddy isn't that fun, and see granny Sara and nana Chas,” Robert said to the twins.

"YAY” the twins let out excited shrieks and excitedly got off the bed. Aaron and Robert followed them and Annie Grace took Robert’s hand and Jacob took Aaron’s so that they could go downstairs.

When Aaron arrived downstairs he saw his mum and her partner, his dad Paddy, his sisters Liv and Eve. He also saw his mother in law, his best friends Adam and Vic and their new baby boy. His uncle and his partners' Charity and Moira, and their young children were there. Debbie and her children came by for a second to say hello and left. Andy was not there. Robert’s best friend and business partner Priya was also there with her daughter Amba. Aaron was happy that it was only immediate family here at his birthday and people that he had spent a lot of time with as he did not like big celebrations where he was the center of attention. It was also a brunch more than a birthday party, so the attention was not focused solely on Aaron. The gifts were also to the side so that Aron did not have to open them during the party.

Aaron next looked at the tables that were set up with the food. He saw an assortment of different types of toasts, his favourite breakfast food. There was the classic toast, cheese toast, beans on toast with an assortment of other breakfast foods such as eggs, sausages, and vegetables, There were also sweeter toasts available such as cinnamon toast and french toast. The side table had the cake and an assortment of Sara’s special cupcakes in many different colours and flavours.

Robert took Aaron’s hand so that they can go sit at the table to begin the brunch. Everyone wished him a happy birthday as they sat down. Aaron loved all the food that was made. He got to enjoy his birthday with his favourite people and eating his favourite foods. It was nice having them all over but it was also in a way that kept within his area of comfort.

After the breakfast was eaten the cake and cupcakes and some chocolates were brought to the table.

“Speech, speech, speech,” everyone called out.

Robert tickled Aaron's side and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

“Daddy, daddy, daddy,” the twins cheered.

“Ahm, thanks to everyone for coming. Thanks, mum for making the toast, and Sara thanks for making the cupcakes and cakes. Robert thanks for everything, and Annie Grace and Jacob your beautiful gifts mean everything to me.”

“I did have some help, Robert made the macaroons and helped me with the chocolates that you had last night. The twins made these chocolates that we are having today with my supervision,” Sara said.

Aaron bent down and tickled his children and asked: “Is that right, you helped granny Sara make chocolate?”

"YES, DADDY! WE MADE CHOCOLATE. Here eat okay?” the twins said

Aaron tried some of the chocolate that they gave him.

“Mmm, this is good. You guys are mini granny Sara. Can I have more?”

The kids were ecstatic when they heard that they gave more to daddy Aaron and gave some to daddy Robert.

The candles were set and it was time for Aaron to blow the candles out on the cake. Aaron heard make a wish. In his mind, as he was blowing out the candles he was thinking of how he had everything he ever wished for and things that he never thought he would have. That he was excited that their family would have an additional person in early summer. He was truly thankful for everything he had. When the candles were out, Robert gave him a hug and another kiss on the cheek.

Aaron spent time talking to his friends while the cake was being eaten. After that friends and family slowly left, after each one wished him a happy birthday. Currently, only his immediate family was here. It allowed them to say a proper goodbye to them before they had to leave for the airport. They also wanted to show him the gifts before they left. Their mum would each stay over a night while they were away. Liv was nervous about being in charge for so long and did not want to be alone with them, especially since she has had two seizures in the last 3 months. This way Aaron and Robert knew that everyone was safe and they could enjoy their holiday.

They were now sitting on the sofa with the twins between Aaron and Robert. They wanted all the cuddles before they left for a few days. They were each sat on one of their dad’s laps.

“Presi, presi, presi.” Annie Grace said excitedly.

Liv was the first one to hand over her gifts. She made a calendar with different family photos that she took, each month had different images of their family. The second gift was a painting that she made of their family of five. Aaron absolutely adored the gift that she made him. He reached over and hugged her tightly.

“I love you,” Aaron told Liv.

“I love you too, and I love that we are all family,” Liv said

When she sat with them on the sofa one of the grandmas took a photo of the family.

Eve was excited to show Aaron the gift she made him. She has a canvas where she wrote Dr. Aaron Sugden-Dingle and a drawing of him at his desk. Aaron loved it.

”This is beautiful, did you make this yourself, ” Aaron asked his 4-year-old sister.

”Mum helped, ” Eve said.

Aaron hugged her tightly and she gave a shriek of delight.

His mum got him a new robe and towels monogrammed with a Dr before his initials. She also put together photos of them through the years and for the photos over the last half a year it said my son the fully trained psychiatrist.

”We also have everything covered while you two enjoy your holiday.”

Paddy got him a new VR set that he really wanted.

”thanks Pads.”

"I uh have to go uh but thanks for today.”

Now that it's just them and their mums and children it's time for them to say bye and head to the airport.

He hugged his children close and said to them ”you will be good for nana Chas and granny Sara?”

"Yes," they said.

“Good your dad and I will be back in a couple of days. We love you so much.”

"Love you dad love you, daddy," the twins each said as they hugged each of their dads and gave them a kiss on the cheek.

Next, they went over to liv and gave her a hug and told her they will see her in a few days.

“Be good you, and call us if you need anything. I love you,” Aaron said as he hugged Liv.

Next, he hugged Eve and his mum.

“Thanks so much, mum, I’m so lucky to have you.”

Then next came Sara. “Thanks so much for looking after the kids. And the cakes and everything.”

“Anytime love,” she said as she hugged and kissed him.

Robert came over to him and took his hand.

“Ready to go to Paris?”

“Yes.”

Aaron and Robert walked out hand in hand laughing. They sat in the taxi on the way to the airport. Robert gave Aaron a kiss and wished him a 'happy birthday husband.' Aaron and Robert, we’re excited to spend a few days in Paris.

[thank-you-for-the-vampire-money]

TIMELESS

This fic is for @katie-my-lady​ (imma send this to her since tumblr is trash and won’t let me tag her)

A/N: MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Here’s your special WonderTrev Secret Santa fic!  I hope you enjoy feel free to ask if you want me to DM it to you or invite you to the GoogleDoc! Also i really love your blog, I’m so glad I was matched with you and I hope we can become friends!

Steve Trevor x Diana Prince

Word count: 1687

Summary: Steve and Diana show their love in many various ways, some more unconventional than others.

Warnings: This jumps around a timeline and is a little of an AU?  Like, Steve and Diana live happily ever after and nothing bad ever happened to them.

1983

Diana thanked the vendor as she grabbed her sundae and Steve’s milkshake from the counter and walking to their little table by the window. “Strawberry, with two Oreos on top, just how you like it,” she grinned, setting the glass cup in front of him.

Steve gave her a quizzical look. “I’ve never had an Oreo before,” he said, ripping the paper wrapping off his thick straw, “how could that be ‘just how I like it’?”.

A little smirk of pride crept onto Diana’s lips. “Try it…” she said, nodding her head at the little cookie. She knew what she was doing.

He tilted his head, chuckling. This was ridiculous, but he trusted her. He took the cookie in between his fingers, licking the bit of whipped cream off of it before shoving the whole thing in his mouth. His eyes went wide as the sweet flavor touched his taste buds. “Holy shit…” he mumbled through his full mouth.

“I know, right?” she giggled, watching his reaction as she took a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

“You’re always right,” he nodded, taking the other cookie, also eating it on one bite.

“Do you want me to get you more?” she laughed, wiping some stray crumbs off his lip with the pad of her thumb.

“Yes please,” he nodded, mouth still food.

 1918

Steve smiled as Diana rested her head on his shoulder, wrapping his arm around her broad shoulders. “What’s that one?” he asked, pointing to a particularly bright spot in the night sky.

“That one is actually Mars, named after the Roman god of war,” Diana answered, staring at the little dot, “you can tell it’s not a star because it doesn’t sparkle, like the other ones,”. She loved little moments like this; cool summer nights, exploring the skies with the love of her life.

“I know who Mars is… he almost killed me,” Steve chuckled, still in disbelief that he survived that whole debacle. He lifted his gaze back up to the stars, amazed as he watched a comet fly across the atmosphere. “Diana! Look! Make a wish!” he beamed, squeezing her closer in excitement.

She watched it disappear into the darkness very confused. “What?” she asked, “wish? Why? It’s a star…”.

His face fell into an expression of slight disappointment. “It’s a shooting star, you don’t see those every day…” he explained, pointing up to where the star blazed its path, “when you see one, you close your eyes and make a wish,”.

“Oh,” she hummed, liking the whimsical concept. Diana looked back up at the sky, closing her eyes gently. her eyelashes grazed her cheeks as she made her wish. She opened them again, the moonlight highlighting her brown eyes. “It didn’t work,” she frowned, looking at Steve for an explanation.

“Well what did you wish for?” he asked, giggling as he kissed her nose playfully.

A smile broke out on Diana’s illuminated face. She settled back into her comfortable position, tucked into his side. “Nevermind, it worked,” she sighed.

“What? What did you wish?” Steve asked, a bit confused, but mostly curious.

“You kissed me,”

1985

Things were very different in this time. Fashion, politics… but the one thing Steve was glad hadn’t changed was art. Sure, style and medium had changed, but he was glad art was still important to people. Steve sat on the bench in front of the Mona Lisa, simply staring at it. Even though it was almost closing time, there were still a handful of people in the museum adoring the piece and taking pictures. But, to be honest, Steve didn’t even notice they were there.

Almost every day Steve would come into the Louvre an hour before closing. At first it was so he could walk home with Diana after she was done with work, but after a few weeks, he’d come early just to look at the art. He’d wander around for hours, lost in the peace and quiet of his thoughts. He loved all the art, but his favorite, of course, was Lisa. It was such a surreal feeling to think he was in the physical presence of a piece of history.

“Visiting your friend again?” Diana asked, startling Steve out of his trance.

“Oh! Hi… uh… y-yeah…” he nodded, giving her an adorable half-smile as his cheeks turned red. He grabbed his wallet off the bench and shoved it in his pocket as he stood up, “I swear I’ve seen her twenty million times, but I never get tired of her,” he said, turning back to get one last look at the canvas.

“I should let you see my office sometime,” Diana hummed, holding his hand as she took in the mastery of the painting, “you’d be amazed by everything I have on display in there,”.

Steve gave a little chuckle, slipping on his jacket. “I’m afraid I’d get distracted by one masterpiece, as I usually do,” he said, looking into her eyes with that special look.

Diana caught his drift, shaking her head at the dumb pick-up line. “You’re awful,” she chuckled, walking towards the exit.

“Who said I was referring to you?” Steve said sarcastically, unable to keep from laughing.

With a dramatic eye roll, Diana playfully shoved his shoulder, “let’s go home, you dork,”.

1919

The sun beamed down on the shores of Themyscira, the crystal blue waves crashing gently on the shore. Steve laid on the sand, wearing nothing but a cotton tunic, letting the warmth soak into his skin. The cool water touched his toes, making him stir from his catnap.

“Feels nice, doesn’t it?” Diana grinned, kissing his head as she returned with a tray of fruit and wine.

“I never want to move,” he grinned, flipping onto his back, “I just want to stay here with you forever,”.

She grinned, kissing his head and brushing the stray hairs out of his face. “Well you’ll have to come inside eventually, even if I have to carry you inside,” she said, sitting beside him, shifting her white dress around her legs.

“Ooh! Will you?” he grinned, sitting up. Steve liked to think of himself as very masculine, but his one weakness was being carried by and piggyback rides from Diana.

Diana laughed as he kissed her knuckles, making her blush a little bit. “Yes, I can do that,” she promised, “as long as you actually go to bed tonight! You’re not keeping me up ‘til sunrise again,”.

“Oh, like you didn’t like it,” he winked, seductively placing a hand on her strong thigh, leaning closer to kiss her lips.

“Oh don’t start again, I need sleep!” she giggled, playfully pushing him away, “I’m part of the royal family, I have a lot of responsibilities, responsibilities that require SLEEP,”.

He rolled his eyes sarcastically, kissing her cheek before grabbing a fresh peach. “Sure, sure,” nodded, smiling and lying back down on the sand, “but after you’re done with your ‘responsibilities’, you can come to me for… ‘stress relief’,”.

Diana just flicked a grape at his head, making him laugh.

1980

“Say ‘cheese!’” Steve grinned, focusing the camera on Diana as she stood in front of the Eiffel tower. She gave a professional smile, sitting up straight. “Aw, c’mon Diana, give me a big smile!” he teased, adjusting the film to get ready to take another.

“I don’t have to listen to you,” she joked, grinning as she tried to smile bigger, the wind blowing her hair into her face, the locks getting stuck in her lipstick.

Steve thought for a moment, getting an idea. “Hey Diana!” he called.

“Hm?” she answered, pulling her hair back, confused about what he was doing. 

“Are you France? Because Eiffel for you!” he grinned, hoping that’d make her laugh.

She just rolled her eyes. “That was terrible,” she giggled, hissing through her teeth like a silly snake.

“Are you a thief? Because you’ve stolen my heart!” he called, his smile getting wider as his brain kept coming up with terrible puns.

“Steve,” she called, not sure if she could handle such bad humor, “honey, I love you, but you’re not that funny,”.

“One more, one more! I know I can make you laugh!” he called, getting ready to snap a picture of her reaction. This had to be a good one. “Are you a beaver? Because DAAAAAMN!” he said, holding his breath as he waited for her to react.

Diana stood there, her lips set in a straight line. Steve had thought he had failed until he heard her chortle. She showed off her pretty smile, laughing out loud at the horrendous pick-up line.

Steve quickly snapped a picture before going up to her. “Am I funny now?” he asked, pecking her lips.

“No, but that was so bad I had to laugh,” she sniffed, catching her breath.

1921

It was quiet. It was dark. All you could hear was the calming sounds of rain and thunder as the moonlit up the small London apartment. Steve laid on his stomach beside Diana, the light coming through the window highlighting his face.

Diana was sleeping beside him, a hand laid on his bare back as she shifted closer. Neither of them was awake, but they felt each other’s presence; they were drawn to it. They could each sense their warmth and hear their soft breathing.

They could feel when the other was having a nightmare and hold them closer, they could feet when the other was cold and cuddle up to them, it was like their brain waves were connected.

Steve shuffled closer to his wife, resting his head on her chest, listening to her heartbeat. That always soothed him, it was like music, a song of her life.

Diana shifted, wrapping her arms around him, kissing his head in her sleep before settling back into slumber.

Each of their souls reached out to one another, intertwining in an ethereal “I love you,”. Truly, they were made for each other, crafted by the gods to fit each other perfectly. Little did they know, their love was eternal, written in the stars

[asthecrushgoes]

Dancing with a Stranger - part one

GIF

Who: Luke

Inspiration: the 5SOS cover of Dancing with a Stranger (Sam Smith and Normani) mashup with Latch (Disclosure ft. Sam Smith)

Warnings (part 1): Swearing, drinking, implications of casual sex

Word Count (this part): 2,209

A/N: Sooooo….. the cover of ‘Dancing with a Stranger’ fuckedddd me up and I still think about it, so I decided to write a short fic. This was supposed to be two parts, but I wrote a lot and it ended up being three. If you don’t like smut, this first part can act as a stand-alone one shot or with part two if you want little hints of it! Part 3 is alllll the smut though, so get ready for that. Also, because they put ‘Latch’ at the end, I thought it really changed the whole meaning of the song and wanted to incorporate that into the story. Let me know what you think! 🍻

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

It was that time of night again. Luke was sprawled on his couch, wearing an old, torn sweatshirt, stuffing his face with takeout (tonight’s choice was Thai) and watching a movie. Alone. Always alone. 

In actuality, he wasn’t really watching whatever film he had thrown on the TV. He never did. Instead, his eyes were fixed on his phone, thumb swiping through old pictures. 

Pictures of her. 

Luke and Elyssa had been together for three years and Luke had thousands of photos still stored on his phone. He flicked through their cheesy, touristy photos in front of the Eiffel Tower, action shots of them surfing when he took her to Australia for the first time, candids of Elyssa across the table wearing the most gorgeous light pink dress on their first anniversary, screenshots of cute texts and weird Snapchats…

Basically their whole relationship was available to him at all hours of the day and he never seemed to be able to stop himself. He couldn’t bring himself to delete the pictures, but his heart broke again and again every time he pulled them up, which he hated to admit was often.

Luke took a large gulp of the whiskey he had sitting on the coffee table and closed his eyes. As always, he had to force himself not to dial Elyssa’s number. He clearly wasn’t over her, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea to start something that would only lead to more drama and heartbreak. 

It seemed like every time Luke got into these moods, his brain left out all the bad parts. And why wouldn’t it? The relationship portrayed on his phone looked perfect--full of smiles, laughter, kisses, romance, love. It didn’t show all the nights Elyssa would start a fight for no reason or would flirt with guys at the bar just to make Luke jealous and angry. It didn’t show all the times Luke would forget to text her when he was out with the band or when he would lie about where he had been or who he was talking to just to avoid a huge blow up.

But none of that ever seemed to stop Luke from missing all the cute things she did. Like the way she used to run her fingers through his hair when they were falling asleep and hum lightly whatever song was stuck in her head from the day. Or how she would always mix half regular and half decaf coffees and Luke could never remember which jar had which type of grounds in it, so she bought a label maker and they spent an entire night, staying up until 2:00 am, printing labels for her entire kitchen. 

Or when Luke would show her the band’s new music and she would sit and listen with her eyes closed, taking in every note and lyric fully before making any comments. Her face was always so composed, it was nearly impossible to tell what she was thinking. Luke would wait on the edge of his seat until Elyssa would crack a smile and he would instantly wrap his arms around her, lifting her into the air. 

“So you like it?” he would grin and her soft giggle would be all the affirmation he needed.

But now, Luke was surrounded with only the sounds of the television and Petunia’s snoring. Finishing the remainder of his drink and taking a deep breath, Luke dialed his phone.

“Luke?” the voice on the other line said after a few rings. 

“Um, hey,” Luke began, clearing his throat, “Did you guys end up going out?”

“Yes!” Calum yelled excitedly into the phone, “Are you gonna finally come this time?”

“I’m thinking about it…” Luke replied slowly. 

“Dude, we’ve been trying to get you out of your damn apartment for a month! Please come out. You need to do something to forget about--”

“Fine,” Luke cut his friend off, “I’ll come. I don’t really want to be alone tonight.”

“Perfect! Your first drink is on me,” Calum promised. “See you soon.”

Luke peeled himself off the couch, finally managing to shower and look somewhat presentable. He couldn’t remember the last time he wasn’t in sweats and his black skinny jeans felt tight and uncomfortable. 

“Bye, P,” he cooed, leaning down to give the portly bulldog a treat, before making his way out the door and into the Uber waiting at the end of the driveway.

The ride to the bar was silent, aside from the low hum of talk radio playing. Luke almost told the guy to turn around and bring him home a dozen times, but he figured he needed a night out. Needed a distraction. 

Once arriving at the bar, Luke easily spotted Ashton’s red hair and began making his way over to his friends, hands stuffed in the pockets of his leather jacket. As he approached Ashton, he quickly regretted not bailing on the night when he was still in the Uber. 

Michael, Crystal, Ashton and KayKay were dancing, mingling and getting way more touchy than Luke wanted to witness. Michael and Crystal were still on a high from their recent engagement, and Ashton and KayKay only started dating a few months ago, so they were stuck in the early ‘you’re the only person in the room’ phase. Calum was nowhere to be found. 

“Luke!” Michael called out upon spotting his friend. He pulled Luke into a quick hug, patting his shoulder without letting go of Crystal’s hand. “Hey, man. Glad you came.”

The others in the group echoed with similar greetings as Luke scanned the nearby faces.

“Where’s Calum?” he asked, desperately wanting to find the only other single member of the band. 

“He’s around,” Ashton grinned, “He disappeared to buy some girl a drink, of course.”

Luke groaned to himself, although he shouldn’t be surprised. Calum always got a lot of attention from women when they went out. His muscular arms littered with tattoos, dark curls, soft eyes, and cheeks that always maintained a perfect rosy hue when he drank, easily impressed strangers at the bar, never mind once his laid-back, goofy personality took over.

“I need a drink,” Luke mumbled, then turned towards the bar. He spotted Calum in a crowd on the dance floor, his hands sitting low on a woman’s hips as they moved together to the beat. 

Squeezing his way to the counter, Luke ordered a whiskey on the rocks, sighing as the liquor finally hit his tongue. He did not want to return to being the fifth wheel. Or seventh, Luke thought as he glanced over at Calum, who was still pressed up against the same woman. So, he absentmindedly pulled out his phone, fingers automatically opening photos. 

He looked down at the most recent one: Elyssa was looking over her shoulder, laughing at Luke as she stood in line at the grocery store, her arms full of as much junk food as she could carry. Luke took it the day before they were supposed to leave for a road trip to Vegas. It was the last photo Luke had. Later that night, Elyssa accidentally left her phone open on the counter and Luke saw texts from the friend she insisted Luke didn’t have to worry about. Apparently not. 

Wincing at the painful memory, Luke shoved his phone back in his pocket. As he looked up again, his eyes met these narrowed ones across the room. As he registered the rest of the woman attached to them, Luke noticed she was smirking at him as she sipped her drink. She had long, perfectly-styled loose curls that fell over her bare shoulders. Her black, strapless shirt came just above the waistline of her jeans, jutting out in small frills and giving Luke a small glimpse of the strip of skin on her stomach. Luke immediately felt a fire grow inside him. He was completely and immediately captivated by this woman.

When she noticed Luke finally looking back at her, her eyes unabashedly trailed over his body before snapping back to his face. Her smile widened and Luke took a deep breath.   

“Luke! You made it!” Calum called, slapping his friend on the shoulder and drawing Luke’s attention away from the other side of the room. Luke reluctantly turned towards his friend, giving a weak smile.

“So,” Calum continued, “What’re you drinking?” he asked, leaning against the bar to order another round of drinks. Luke could tell he was drunk and didn’t want to ask how many Calum had already had tonight.

“Whiskey,” Luke mumbled, his attention drifting from Calum back towards where the girl had been standing. But, she had disappeared. Great, Luke thought and downed the remainder of his current drink.

“Cheers, mate!” Calum said, handing Luke a refill. 

“What happened to your dance partner?” Luke asked.

“Ahh,” Calum sighed, “Georgia left with her friends.”

Luke stirred the ice in his drink. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t even want to go out tonight, but for some reason he thought this would help him get over Elyssa. The numbness from the alcohol was starting to take over and he just nodded along to whatever story Calum was telling. 

“Excuse me,” said a voice coming up in front of Calum and flashing him a small smile. 

Luke’s eyes shifted to the source and fell upon the girl from earlier. Of course she was going for Calum. Luke opened his mouth to make an excuse to leave, but the girl spoke again. 

“Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but your friend’s going to dance with me now,” she said to Calum, then turned to Luke, holding out a hand for him to take.

Luke obliged and was led by this stranger through the crowd to the center of the dance floor. The way she took control made Luke feel like he didn’t have a choice in the matter, and honestly, he preferred it this way. Elyssa had screwed him up so much, he wasn’t sure he’d even be able to approach someone at the bar, let alone attempt to pick them up, so he was willing to follow this new girl wherever she wanted to go.

His body moved automatically, arms instantly attaching to her waist and pulling her close. She responded by running her hands along Luke’s body--dragging her fingers over his chest, playing with the soft curls at the back of his neck, and pulling lightly on the fabric of his t-shirt. She bit her lip as she moved, her hips dipping low to the beat blasting through the bar. 

Luke felt his breath getting heavier and his heart beating faster. This girl was beautiful. And she had picked Luke out of the crowd. Her smirk hadn’t disappeared since she grabbed Luke’s hand and he felt himself unconsciously returning the smile. 

As they danced, Luke’s mind flashed to Elyssa. He wondered what she was doing tonight. What she would think if she saw Luke in the middle of a club, pressed against a new girl. But, in that moment, Luke decided he didn’t care. He was dancing with a stranger and he liked it.

He loved the feeling of her body in his hands. He loved how she moved against him. He loved the way she tugged on his hair, pulling a little harder than Luke was used to and eliciting a low growl from his throat. 

Luke didn’t want this moment to stop. He spun her around, pulling her back flush against him. His arms stayed on her hips and his head dipped low against her neck. She tilted to the side, allowing Luke to start running his lips against her exposed skin.

They continued moving together, completely forgetting about the rest of the room. Suddenly, she spun around and grabbed at the back of Luke’s neck. She pulled his lips to her own and immediately took control of the kiss. She had to stand tiptoe to fully reach him and she swayed slightly in his grasp.

Luke’s arms tightened around her, his hands wandering to the bare skin on her back. He let out a soft groan as she pulled at his bottom lip with her teeth. He could feel his arousal growing and he knew she could too. She rotated her hips against him and broke from the kiss, just slightly. Her fingers played with the chain around Luke’s neck and she looked up at him with the most seductive, mischievous eyes.

“We can continue this night elsewhere...” she said. She phrased it more of a suggestion than a question, already starting to back up towards the entrance, never breaking eye contact with Luke.

She was giving Luke a choice. He could turn around on the spot and retreat back to his friends, this girl turning into just a random make-out at a bar. Or, he could follow her out that door and let her lead him on into the night. 

Luke chose the latter. He caught up to her in two quick strides and grabbed her hand in his. She smirked at him, pausing for a moment to capture Luke’s lips with hers, then spun on a heel, pulling Luke through the crowd, out the door, and down the street.

—

Next part preview: “He could feel her hot breath against the sensitive skin of his lips and he shivered slightly at their proximity.”

—

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

[randomedrstuff]

Take Two! With Emilie de Ravin

The actress and LA mama on motherhood, her second pregnancy & strong roles for women

By Caitlin Wolper

Emilie de Ravin wasn’t the first to know she was pregnant again—her 2.5-year-old daughter Vera told her. Vera also was the first to predict that the baby was a boy, and, as time would tell, she was right. De Ravin—an LA mom and actress known for her notable and critically-acclaimed primetime TV roles on “Roswell,” “Lost,” and “Once Upon A Time”—will welcome her first son and second child with fiancé Eric Bilitch in a couple of months. 

However, her pregnancy is a bit different the second time around. When she was pregnant with Vera, de Ravin recalls, she didn’t yet have a child, so she didn’t have to factor in needs besides her own. Her current pregnancy has thrown her a brand-new challenge: Managing a toddler while also managing her prenatal wellness. “I still had time to myself [during my first pregnancy]. I still had: ‘Oh, I can find a new prenatal yoga class,’ or ‘I can go for a nice walk’ and really take that time to nourish and take care of [my] body and mind,” she explains. “The struggle during this pregnancy is finding time to do that.” She already swears by DockATot and Nuna’s car seat, and adds she’s excited to try out the SNOO by Happiest Baby with her child-to-come. When de Ravin can fit in some “me time” and prenatal yoga between caring for Vera and acting, she feels “a massive difference, especially mentally.” That said, de Ravin won’t let pregnancy slow her down—she was on a project that wrapped when she was at 16 weeks: “There was a lot of ‘Oh, I think I should wear the flowy dress for this’ by the end of that job,” she laughs. She and Bilitch—who’s also in the entertainment industry—often travel for work and take Vera along with them, whether it’s Vancouver, Europe, or Atlanta. Vera’s also traveled to her mother’s home, Australia, among many other global destinations. Even though her family is LA-based right now, de Ravin feels she isn’t necessarily raising Vera in LA (especially before she enters the school system), what with all their travel—but she says Vera loves traveling with the family, and it often plays a role in her dress-up and games of pretend.

“Every time she dresses up and gets her little bag together, I’m like: ‘Where are you going?’ and she says: ‘Oh, I’m going to Paris, I’m going to climb the Eiffel Tower,’” de Ravin laughs, adding that the family recently took a trip there. “She’s moving to Paris, apparently. Sometimes we, in these stories, get to go; sometimes she’s going on her own.” Though de Ravin can’t predict if her daughter will choose to act, Vera definitely loves dress-up and dance (“I think I’m asked every day if we’re going to ballet.”). When de Ravin was packing before a move, she let Vera stand on the dining room table to help. “That became her little stage and she was singing ‘I’m a little teapot’ in her red tutu,” she laughs. “She’s definitely got that side to her.” Her mother is clearly a model for this theatrical behavior. De Ravin started her career-defining role on the late-90s teen sci-fi drama “Roswell” at only 18 years old, playing alien-human hybrid Tess Harding. Only a couple years later, she appeared as Claire on the popular and critically-acclaimed TV series “Lost,” which follows an increasingly harrowing and complex tale of airplane crash survivors stranded on an island, and recently celebrated its 14th anniversary of the premiere. “‘Lost’ was an experience that changed my life in so many ways,” she says. “Not just my life; I feel like it changed the platform for TV. There wasn’t ever a show like that, especially on network TV. It really broke every side of the box and burst through.” She spent six years filming the show, and got very close to the cast and crew as a result. “That’s a long time to spend with the same people being the same character in the same set with the same crew,” she reflects. “And then, that’s just sort of gone.” She spent seven years as Belle (as in the protagonist princess of “Beauty and the Beast”) on ABC’s long-running “Once Upon A Time,” a role that she recently wrapped. The show, which combines modern life and fairy-tale to create a brand new story, is one she’s found appeals to all ages, and often brings families together in front of their TV. There’s a commonality in all the roles de Ravin takes: She looks for characters somewhat unlike herself that both challenge her and carry “a positive reinforcement of what to do, what not to do: Something that people can learn from and grow from.” She adds: “I don’t want to play the same character over and over again, just wearing a different outfit or with different color hair; [otherwise] I might as well stay on the same job for 50 years.” De Ravin craves the challenge of playing complex characters dissimilar to herself, and the research it requires. And with the range of different personalities and character circumstances she’s taken on over the course of her acting career, the rewards she’s reaped from her hard work and diligent research are clear.

“For me keep a character fresh, therefore to keep the viewer interested in watching and engaged in watching what I’m doing, [I need] something that is challenging, something that I can learn from,” she says. “Whether it’s anything from a different talent the character has, or an accent, or a belief system—something I have to dip into the knowledge pool and really learn and do some research for—[I have to] open up my mind and my heart to new things and new experiences. I find that the more open you are and the more hungry you are for knowledge in life in general, whether it’s acting or anything else, then the more giving you can be and the more interesting of a character I can develop from that.” With Belle and “Once Upon A Time” as a whole, one of her greatest challenges was portraying a famous, pre-existing character but still imbuing her with complexity that didn’t stray from her personality and story. “I’ve got all these children that are watching her, wanting to be like their favorite character; let’s give her something…an extra strength to her, an extra positivity to her,” de Ravin says. “Also, [show them that] everyone makes mistakes, and there is no perfection; there is no perfect princess or perfect life or perfect world. Everything’s messy, and that’s not a bad thing.” That’s the type of life lesson de Ravin hopes her kids would get from her acting work as well. “I would like them to be hopefully more inspired by things that I can teach them as a parent as opposed to through my work, but at the same time, there are things that are appropriate life lessons, whether it be conflict or love or whatever, [that] can be taught through film and TV: It’s a very prominent part of growing up now, or just our world in general,” she says. “A child sits down and watches something and it makes a much bigger impact than it does on us…They’re just this massive, magical little sponge.” That’s another reason she takes on challenging roles: She wants to play strong, realistic women, roles she’s starting to see more often. “It’s not just what I pursue or what I would like to pursue,” she says. “It’s also what’s being presented is changing a lot too, in at least what I have seen.” She adds that in the future, she does want her children to understand that as much as she loves her job, it’s still work, and hard work at that. “I love what I do, I’m very lucky and blessed to be able to still be working in this industry—it’s a tough one, and it’s a strange one, it’s a crazy one. But it’s work, and as much fun as it is, it’s a job like everyone else has,” she says. She then adds with a laugh: “They can learn about the craziness of it later. Keep it more in the fun part for now.”

After she has her son, de Ravin figures she’ll go back to work—not right away, but likely in 2019. Of course, it’s all up in the air for now, as is the nature of entertainment. “You never know what projects are going to be around [in the future]. Is it something that I’m going to be into? Is it something they want me for?” de Ravin says. But luckily, she adds, she does work in the sort of industry where she can bring her kids along for the ride (before they’re “properly” in school—Vera currently attends a half-day pre-school). “There’s such flexibility when they’re little… It’s a place that you can share with your children: If you’re working on location and it’s somewhere cool, they can come hang out and watch and travel with you,” de Ravin says. “It’s not like I’m going to close myself in an office all day and I’m not allowed to bring to my children, so that really is a huge bonus.” She starts to say that, all the same, she loves to be home with “her” (Vera) and amends it to “them,” including her baby-to-come. “It’s going to be a big change; whatever happens will happen,” she says. “I didn’t know how I was going to do it with Vera, and that all worked out really nicely.” She’s on a break from work as she waits for her son’s arrival, and has been passing the time with Vera, who’s excited to have a baby brother. Vera’s also keeping her mom busy, between reading together (“She memorizes me or Eric reading [books] to her and then she’ll sit down and sort of read them herself in this animated voice, playing it out.”) and helping out in the kitchen from her stool: “I think she enjoys the tasting process,” de Ravin laughs. They also pursue outdoor activities together as a family, something both de Ravin and Bilitch believe to be an enormously important facet of early childhood. “She loves swimming, she likes going swimming together… I always try and find some activities with her, like little family farms or veggie farms or the beach or going for a walk, going for a hike, just exploring; even just being out in our garden and gardening together and looking over all the flowers—and then she’ll find the ants,” de Ravin says. “That reminds me of me, just loving, when I was as little as this, the tiny things outside that you find, whether it’s a tiny little part of a seed or figuring out where this came from, or where does that insect live, and all the tiny wonders. [It’s] super soothing and calming, too, doing that with her. It really puts life and everything else that’s going on in the world into perspective.”

[billvsamerica]

Sin City

We’ve all noticed the lingering stare of a pervert.

On the high street when you’re shopping for Christmas presents or in the cinema when you’re watching the late night showing of Toy Story on your own again. But imagine you’re in a city full of them. Tight polyester trousers with flared bottoms, beer bellys flowing over the top of cheap plastic belts, topped off with a nice scruffy pair of Reeboks from the late 90s. But enough about my dad, this is the story of our latest adventure west.

A savory couple in a far from savory place

I always thought Vegas was a debauched place. That’s where it gets the nickname - Naughty Little Town for Naughty People. Prostitution and weed are both legal, but somehow in a much less savoury way than Amsterdam. With all that being said, we could never have known that the most morally reprehensible act we would witness would take place on the connecting flight from Chicago to Vegas.

Some of the most exciting parts of a holiday go on in the walkway of the airplane. Thoughts flood your mind: ‘Where will we be sitting?’ ‘What are my chances of survival if this thing goes down?’ ‘Who will the “third” person be?’ ‘Hopefully, there isn’t a “third” person!’ ‘Oh God, this things coming down, I’ve had a premonition. I need to warn everybody else on board.’ ‘No, don’t ruin it. It’s fine. You’re being stupid.’ ‘Oh, Jesus Christ! I just signed our death warrant.’ ‘I wonder if they have a TV?!’ etc.

Shelby and I took our spots next to the "third" person in the window seat, who we immediately disliked just for existing in a space near us, and opened our books: Shelby was reading an interesting book about the Appalachian area of America and taking on a challenging Sudoku puzzle. I was reading a different kind of book, still just as challenging though, the instructions on how to work the TV.

After the internal struggle of whether it’s okay to ignore the air stewardesses safety announcements, the passengers settled into the flight. The aircraft was not quite Wright Brothers old, but it was missing the mod cons of a transatlantic flight, like being able to choose an individual movie. However, it did have DirectTV channels. Shelby and I stuck on the Oscar nominated Can You Ever Forgive Me?.

I glanced over at the "third" person's film choice. I couldn't recognise the show, but the vibrant colours and teenage actors led me to believe it was some sort of kid's show. I looked at the man. No, it wasn't a large child traveling alone. It was definitely a man - a man wearing a tight t shirt that accentuated his man breast. I poked Shelby, she grunted her usual response:

"What the fuck do you want, fuckwit?"

She said, in a loving way though.

“What show is that?”

She glanced across at his screen.

"i-Carly"

"No, you Shelby. Now, what show is that?"

"It's called i-Carly. Now will you shut the fuck up?"

Bit weird.  Maybe he just put it on by mistake. Probably not watching it.

Fast forward three hours, I-Carly is still on his TV. And the man is inches from the screen. I looked at him intently. Does he not know we can see him? He's not in some sort of invisible perv’ chamber, although I'm sure those exist somewhere in Vegas.

I looked down to make sure nothing dodgy is...  Unfortunately, the man was definitely touching himself. Now, I'll give him a bit of credit. His hand was outside the trousers, but that only made it slightly better. Suddenly, it dawned on me - Shelby was in the middle. I wasn’t worried about her, per say. He was clearly into much younger people, but she might accidentally be hit with his flailing elbow or something. She looked across at him then up and me and mouthed,

"What do we do?"

For the last thirty minutes I tried my hardest to put the man off. I gazed out the window and loudly said a range of off-putting phrases:

"Wow! Look at that skyline," "Can't believe we're flying in the sky right now!" "Do you know why they stopped serving peanuts on flights? What about the people allergic to pretzels? Nobody ever thought of them!"

If that lot didn’t put him off, nothing would.

As we walked from the airplane into Vegas airport, we discussed what we should do. I was going to confront him, and say what? Don't do that sort of thing, you sick freak. I was going to grab him by the scruff of the neck, shake him and say,

“That's digusting, you sweaty little cretin!”

I was going to be the hero and stop all bad things happening forever everywhere... I... I... I picked up our bags and we got in a cab to Caesar’s Palace.

The taxi from the airport into Vegas took us adjacent to the strip. Huge replica buildings designed to look like other things. It’s all smoke and mirrors, a mirage in the middle of the dessert like the magic shows that run every night of the week. After taking a detour we didn’t ask for and racking up a huge bill, we arrived at Caesar’s Palace.

Anybody fancy a crap? (That’s not my dad, but a man in a shirt)

We walked through the modern building designed to look like the Colosseum - a gaudy Rome rip off - and bumped into our own ancient relics in the form of my parents. We hugged. They were here again, but their bags weren’t.

That night, we had a quick go on the slot machines, or as cool locals call them, ‘the slotties’ (and lost a bit of money). My dad became slightly enamoured with the virtual blackjack game, and then we all headed to bed to recuperate for the next day. The city may never sleep, but we were certainly going to.

The next morning, we looked out through our curtains at the view of the famous Belagio Hotel’s dancing fountain show, the Eiffel Tower, and a giant poster of Donnie Osmond. We had a fat breakfast, then walked down the strip.

Along the way, we ducked into a casino for a cheeky lil dabble. Dad spotted the virtual blackjack, and I saw his eyes light up. He was straight on it. We watched eagerly with anticipation as he turned his $20 into $5 and then into $25 and then into $15 and then he cashed out. With his cashed out voucher, I jumped onto a huge slot machine that I had no idea as to the workings. I hit a few buttons, and it flashed on the screen “Extreme!”. The lights started strobing and the lines span like the slick tires on a Ford Escort. My cash started building along with my adrenalin..  15-20-25... It kept going up and up and stopped, eventually, at $85. I took the money out and left the casino $85 richer because I didn’t give my dad his investment back.

What a start! Maybe I was a natural. Next stop, World Poker Tournament, but first, the off license for a can of beer that I could legally drink on the high street. It was like being back in Worcester on a Tuesday morning, I mean Wednesday afternoon, I mean Saturday evening.

The strip was packed with hen-dos, lad’s holidays, and waddling families who wanted a change from Disney. Me and my dad walked passed a man selling his hip-hop CD. I declined.

“Forget you then in your Bill Cosby sweater,” he said and laughed.

This drove me to grab another beer from a CVS. Inside, the cashier said,

“What a lovely sweater!”

Me and dad-livin’ it large Vegas

As you can imagine, I had very mixed emotions on the jumper and have not worn it since.

Shelby and mom stormed ahead up the strip, leaving me and dad to be awkwardly approached by dancing girls requesting a photo with us. It’s as if we looked like a couple of creepy blokes or something. We walked next to a bar where a man was strapped to a wooden chair and being forced to drink a strange green liquid by a woman in her underwear. Normally, this might be cause for alerting the authorities, but not in Vegas.

A group on a stag do walked passed us and my dad turned to me,

“Did you see that shirt? I need to get one of those!”

I had to tell him that it said “VAGITARIAN” not “VEGETARIAN”.  He didn’t want one anymore.

After walking the equivalent of a half marathon up and down the strip, Shelby wanted us to recuperate at one of the West’s staple restaurants, In and Out Burger - a place known for juicy hamburgers. We’d heard that they also had veggie burgers for the three of us who don’t eat the carcasses of dead animals.

Our number came up and we sat down at a table that had just been vacated. The remnants of ravenous tub tubs lay around and an In and Out employee was kind enough to offer to clean it up for us. She picked up a tray with the remains of a sweaty burger on it. In slow motion, the burger, wrapper, and discarded sauce tumbled off the tray and down, down, down, onto my dad’s cream trousers, the only pair he had as his bag was currently somewhere in Uzbekistan.

Turned a corner in Nevada to see the New York Skyline (and a rollercoaster)

This hilarious event only slightly made up for the fact that the veggie burger was two pieces of lettuce and a tomato between a couple of soggy bits of bun. As the name suggests, we were in and out of there real quick.

The next day we went to Fremont Street, the second most famous street in Vegas after the strip. A biting wind whipped through the dimly lit passageway lined with souvenir stores, Irish bars and strip clubs. Grubby looking men stood along the street staring wildly at the tourists passing by. They held cardboard signs that read quite witty things like “I’ll look after your wife while you gamble” and some less witty - “Horny!”.

A woman danced on a huge stage with barely any clothes on while a bunch of homeless people rocked back and forwards in front of her, totally unaware, it seemed, that she was there. An abandoned car with red flashing lights moaned and groaned as a zombie popped out the top. In fairness, it was advertising a local Walking Dead Exhibit, but I wouldn’t have been that surprised if it was actually happening on this street.

Having survived Fremont Street, I decided another dabble was in order (I was continually having these dabbles the whole time, but I’m only going to tell you about the times I won). I selected my machine, one without a chair that looked very old, and put in my note. The machine started to freak out and I knew I was onto another winner - $160 coughed up this time. I was a genius. A genius I tell you and definitely did not spend all that money very quickly in other machines. Ahem.

Join me next time as I recount the next stage of the adventure, our journey to the grandest canyon of them all and beyond to the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona.

[hazinhoodies]

October part 6

A/N: I have so many parts prewritten for this. Please send me your feed back on this! Whether its good or bad! Hope you enjoy

Harrison OSterfield x OC

Warnings: none. 

Word count: 1.3k The rest of the day went by quickly. All day Emma could still feel Harrison's hands like burns on her waist, his fingers splayed across her skin, never fading. The first rehearsal went by okay, other than a few dirty looks when she was given first part over the three other flutes, who have certainly been doing this much longer than she has. One she started playing though, the piccolo piercing in her ears, they seemed a little less angry. An older woman in her thirties and a man of about the same age, Janice and David, eventually actually complimenting the university student on her talent and tone.

It was late on a Wednesday afternoon, Emma sat in Tom’s trailer with Sam and Harry, each of them doing their own thing while waiting for om to finish up his scenes. Everyone else had already wrapped, Tom was the only actor left on set that day. Emma lounged on his ouch, her laptop open on her lap as she composed and texted Hannah, sending her samples occasionally for feedback, mostly receiving shitty texts about her day, or how she hasn’t drunk anything but pop in the past day and a half. As if she needs more energy.

Tom walked in after about an hour and a half, Harrison trailing behind.

“Let’s get this over with. I wanna go home” Tom flops on the couch near Emma’s feet. She sits up, making space for Harrison to sit and switching tabs immediately as Tom starts talking, answering questions he had memorized by now.

“Em, what would you be doing if you weren’t here?” Tom asks once he’s answered all the questions.

“Thought you wanted to go home, Holland” Emma chuckles, switching back to her composing and continuing to work on it.

“Yeah, well now I wanna know what you’d be doing if you weren’t so lucky to have me grace your presence” Tom spoke. A smile split across Emma’s face, showing off her white teeth, her dimple prominent in her left cheek.

“How do you guys deal with him?” Emma looked towards the other three boys

“We don’t” All three of them spoke, a pillow being tossed across the trailer towards Harry.

“I was planning on going back home for the summer. I haven’t seen Hannah in almost two years and phone calls are certainly not enough” Emma smiled as she received a text from Hannah as she spoke.

“Gonna take a guess and say that’s your best mate?” Harrison spoke quietly, bright blue eyes met Emma’s darker ones as she nodded, a sad smile on her lips.

“We’ve known each other since we were 7. Went to different universities but we were both performance majors before I switched into composition. She’s a handful but I love her”

“Sounds like Tom” Harry threw the pillow back at Tom as he spoke

“Dare I say worse?” Emma laughed.

Tom started some tangent on how “he’s not really that bad” and “you guys are just mean”. Emma was too distracted by the notification on her phone as it buzzed.

Tony⚡: IM GOING TO PARIS TOMORROW

Tony⚡: COME WITH ME

Tony⚡: IT’LL BE FUN I PROMISE

Emma smiled and looked up at the boys.

“Yeah yeah whatever Tom. Hey Haz can you do me a favour tomorrow?” Emma looked over at the blond boy.

“Depends. What is it?” Harrison couldn’t help but start to count her freckles as she spoke.

“Tony wants me to come to Paris with him tomorrow. Can you just send me Tom’s answer to the questions for whatever scenes he films?” Emma smiled gently. How could he say no to her?

“Yeah sure,” Tom had the questions memorized. It’d be easy right? It’s just one day, Emma does this every day.

“Thank you so much. Anyways. Tom do you still want to go home?” Emma smiled as the boy sat up abruptly.

“Yes please”

The next morning, Tony came to pick up Emma with Remy already in the car. The drive to the airport was filled with exhausted laughter as the trio still woke up. On the private jet, the three of them watched Infinity War. A horrible idea really. Emma started to fall asleep on Tony's shoulder quickly, only to be woken up by Remy yelling when he spotted Harrison on screen.

“Did you not know he was in it?” Emma spoke groggily, barely lifting her head off of Tony.

“I knew he was in it, I just haven’t found him before” Remy spoke, definitely way too awake for the time it was.

“Just keep it down. I’m taking a nap” Emma moved off of tony and leaned her head against the wall of the plane, falling back asleep quickly.

She awoke about an hour later once they had landed in Paris. Quickly grabbing her purse and heading out into the cool morning air with Tony and Remy.

The sun had risen since they had left. Emma quickly texted Harrison reminding him to get the answers from Tom and to send them to her. Knowing he’ll probably forget, she texts the only reliable one of Holland and co. Sam. He responds to her after a few minutes

Sammy: Didn’t you ask Haz to do it? Why do I get the dirty work now?

Em: Do you really think he’ll remember? It’s not even that bad. Just use voice to text if you have to

Sammy: Fine. I’ll make sure it gets done.

Em: Thanks Sam :)

The morning was spent at the Arc de Triomphe, des Champs-Élysées, and the Musée de l'Orangerie. The three of them had stopped for lunch when Harrison had finally texted Emma back.

Haz💙: hes never this much of a div when you do this. Barely got anything out of him.

Emma: If you send the answers I might be able to decipher it

He sent a long message, clearly copied from his notes

Emma: You made it sound like it was going to be horrendous. That’s no worse than what I normally deal with

Haz💙: hey now. im never helping you again if this is how i get treated

Emma: Thank you haz!! 😊💕

Haz💙: youre welcome em.

Harrison stared at his phone a little longer, admiring Emma’s contact photo. He took it while they were watching the dark knight rises in Toms trailer. Her hair was down around her shoulders, she wore a pale pink coloured shirt and Tom’s spiderman blanket was pulled up over her knees, bunching at her waist. Her back was against the armrest, her legs up on the couch, covered by the blanket. A bowl of popcorn sat in her lap. Haz had called her name multiple times so she would actually look at him. She looked past the camera towards Harrison curiously, her lips covered by her hand, holding a few pieces of popcorn.

“Haz. Delete it”

“But why? It’s a nice photo!” Harrison exclaimed, smiling as he turned his phone towards her

“It’s really not”

“Can i please keep it?” Harrison asked, giving her the best puppy dog eyes he could muster

“Fine. But if anyone else sees it that's it for you” Emma spoke after a moment of contemplation.

“You two are so weird. Shut up and watch the movie” Sam spoke up from his place on the floor.

The rest of Emma, Tony and Remy’s day consisted of the Louvre, and ending on the Eiffel tower as the sunset. At some point Remy had given Emma his jacket, claiming that the night would be cold and he’d be fine. She graciously accepted, not thinking anything of it. She stood between the two boys and watched the sunset, the sky swirling between pink, purple and orange. She hadn’t noticed the boys glances towards each other.

On the way back, the three of them fell asleep in one big group, all sharing a blanket.

Taglist @rainbow-marvel @starkravingparker @notimeforthemessenger

Writers who are amazing and let me tag them: @darlintom @cherryhollands @starksparker @starksmile @hollandroos @marvelellie @dej-okay @h-osterfield @upsidedownparker

[robbiejohnsonyr2ax2011]

University - Manchester Animation Festival - Day 5

During this week, we are attending the “Manchester Animation Festival” (Or MAF for short). During each day this week I will write a post giving my thoughts on what I watched, as well as add anything else we did such as meetings and Talks. I will also provide links to any form of clip or trailer, if I can find one.

(This Post will contain spoilers)

Student Films

The Song of a Lost Boy

The Song of a Lost Boy, tells the story of a young boy who is a choir singer for a church. One day during a performance, he loses his voice causing him to be kicked out of the choir and judged by the other members, this causes him to run away. The next day he finds some traveling performers who tell him to go with them, he does just that and everything is fine, until he must do a singing solo. Filled with anxiety he runs away and ends up in a cave, where he finds his voice, the performs watch in shock and accept him in their group as they continue traveling.

This short film was good, I liked the setting of the film taking place in a dessert as it could be seen as a place of isolation and endlessness. I also enjoyed the moral of the story being, trying to find one’s self, even when you feel like you can’t, you could be something one moment then have it all taken away from you in an instant, its getting back on your feet and moving on what makes you who you are. Lastly, I liked the sense of progression from calm choir, to loud performer, showing a sense of growth for the main character throughout the story.

Link to the Trailer below

https://vimeo.com/442375078

 Chant of The Printing Machine

Chant of The Printing Machine is a short film matching visuals to audio from an old-fashioned print machine. From start to end the Print Machine with audio create, scenery, objects and much more with its unique diverse sounds of creaks, bumps, clangs and more.

This film is a creative visual treat, based on the sounds coming from the machine and how their translated into visuals was great. I liked how Whirring sounds were visuals of two snake looking lines wriggling around the screen and when I heard a squeak the screen displayed an old looking tire. The visuals being old fashioned paper with looks to be ink on it was a nice touch, as if each frame came out of the printer itself.

 Big Fish

Big Fish is a fun musical short film about a fisherman going fishing. At first everything is normal, he sits down, ready’s his rod, places bait and catches fish, rinse and repeat. However, each action he does makes a distinct sound which becomes a short musical piece. In the end he catches something what surprises him and the film ends.

I really enjoyed the creative Foley for this film, combining and matching different sounds together to create a catchy fun tune was fun. I also like other elements, such as the bird causing pauses in the song and randomly appearing later. I also liked the message at the end of the film “Big Fish are worthy of fishing, even if you don’t catch one.” To me this means, even if you think you can’t do something, still give it a try you never know what you can do until you try it.

The Last Mother

The Last Mother tells the story in a dystopian future where the earth is nothing but scorching sands and ruins of what once was. We find a woman approaching a wilted tree with small wooden carved masks on it. She prays to the tree and she meets some golden spirits wearing the masks on the tree, with her own mask she too becomes a spirit. With the spirits power combined, they restore the earth to its original form, luscious green fields, lakes and artic weather, all the spirits around the world join together and leave the earth.

This film is interesting to me as I see this film as a sign of what will happen to the planet because of humans, but also reflecting back to what it was before civilisation. I also liked the idea of combining famous architectures, such as the Eiffel Tower in an exotic natural environment. As a final point, I liked the idea of everyone (represented by spirits) coming together and willing to let go of what once was, which is represented by all the spirits leaving earth and moving onto the other side (Possibly the afterlife).

  100,000 Acres of Pine

100,000 Acres of Pine is a short horror story, about a man who goes missing and dies in a woodland national park. The man’s brother Meg who is a park ranger can’t come to terms with his death and goes in search for him, after seeing a weird figure in the forest. As she explores the woods, she finds herself in structures that were once destroyed now fixed and an old Van. Blood follows her wherever she goes and eventually finds her brother Danielle, suddenly a tree comes to life and grabs her, she escapes and finds herself back where she started.

This film gave me shivers, I have to say I was intrigued and fascinated by the direction of the story and how the story unfolded with Danielle explaining what is going on through old cassette type recordings. He was explaining what Meg was seeing without being there, meaning Meg was having an identical experience to her now deceased brother. The way the tape changes from Danielle’s voice to Meg’s voice was a really good touch too as it gave a sense that she met the same fate. The animation style also works great in this film, as the rough (but well crafted) look of the environment works great for a horror setting, as well as effective use of lighting to signify danger and normality slowing creeping in on one another with its eerie red glow.

Link to teaser Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVWE72UWTaw&app=desktop

 Pearl Diver

Pearl Diver is a collection of three short stories, all of which happen between each other. The first of a hedgehog trying to keep a balloon, order to do this he shaves off his quills to not pop the balloon. The next is of a polar bear and a penguin who get separated when the small chunk of ice breaks, the polar bear finds a small engine, attaches it to his piece of ice and goes to find the penguin. The third are of two clams with pearls within them opening and closing. The polar bear finds the penguin, excited the penguin finds a pearl to thank the polar bear, but arrives too find that the polar bear has stolen her half the ice that broke. The pearl was taken from the two clams, now just one, the clam the penguin took is thrown back in ocean next to the other clam. Saddened (or shocked) the other clam loses its glow and dies. Lastly the hedgehog has popped the balloon so many times, he lets go of it and watches it float away.

This short film tells three separate messages all of which have in common the message of letting go. For the hedgehog, its learning to let go of something you love, for the clams its letting go of someone you love and for the penguin and polar bear its letting go of the trust you have with someone (at least that’s how I interpreted it). The animation and design are very nice and detailed with the polar bears fur rustling in the wind and the light from the clam’s pearls. I also liked how empty the environments where, as this can be seen as a sign of each character’s story and the thing they have, being the only thing, they have left.

 Link to trailer

https://vimeo.com/415941751

 My Favourite Hill

My Favourite Hill is a short film about a sentient hill, who loves people being on and around him. The people drink water from him and change cloths on him and play on him and much more. However, come night fall, everyone goes back to work in a factory situated nearby. This upsets the hill, who wants everyone to go back to him and the next day they do. Even more people arrive in cars, tour buses and more, until once again nightfall comes, and everyone leaves.

This short film is interesting in its narrative of loneliness and rejection, but most of all in its animation and design. The film is constructed out of moving pieces of art and cut pieces of paper, moved and swapped to give of the sense of movement and dialogue. An interesting choice for the story, but I also feel with the characteristics of the hill and some of the peoples actions (Such as kicking an old man to the moon before his limbs fall off) fit surprisingly well with this animation style.

 Link to trailer

https://vimeo.com/414535202

 The Quiet

The Quiet, is an interesting story from an astronaut stranded in outer space. He tells the story of him and his twin brother, he wanted to go to space and his brother wanted to be rich and had a love for diamonds. We are told of a robbery the brother committed at an elderly mans house, he is caught after knocking a globe over, in a blind panic he assaults the old man (implied death) with the globe and says it was self-defence, the court don’t see it that way. The brother is arrested and that’s the end of story, until the astronaut says how he misses his brother and the constellation Gemini is his favourite as its shared with him and the brother, who died at birth. It is revealed that the astronaut was actually the one committing the crimes and is arrested in a silent prison and says how the quite is terrifying.

This short film is fascinating in both its execution and story, I love the way how we are told and invested in the story between two brothers, only to have the twist reveal at the end. The moment of realisation was great, as the film goes silent for a brief moment at the reveal then escalates to reveal what really happened. The visual story telling is also really good, I love the outer space story telling for a story about theft. The way the stars align to create images and scenes is a very imaginative method of storytelling, I also liked how some Foley of everyday sounds where implemented into the stars, such as the sun being a gas cooker, or how a galaxy is matched with a light turning on.

Link to “The Quiet” Facebook page with trailer

https://www.facebook.com/thequietradheya/?fref=tag

Delphine: No Dogs

Delphine: No Dogs, tells the story of a woman arriving by boat into the country with her one year old son. They find a place to stay in an apartment building of which they meet an Irish woman, the woman looks after the baby whilst the mother goes to work. One day whilst at work the baby keeps coughing, the Irish woman checks on the baby to see if he’s alright. When she asks the mum about medicine, the mother says there not working, after the Irish woman complains at the doctors, the baby is sent to the hospital. There it is discovered the baby has newmonia, the mother thanks the Irish woman for saving her son’s life and the film ends with a picture of the child in a frame.

I enjoyed this films style of animation, opting to go with a paper putted style with different light layers for backgrounds, props and characters. The design also sets the scene for what kind of time period this story takes place in, being likely the 1950’s, with its look of being worn like a memory. The message of the story is also interesting to me as it highlights a time when immigrants where treated unfairly when it came to medication and that it takes someone from different ethnic origin to stand up for them (In the credits it details how this was a story from “… Irish and Afro-Caribbean Immigrants to the U.K and the evolving relationships to Britishness of their descendants.”.

 Link to Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sacProWHDyE

 Hijack139

Hijack139 is an animated adaptation of a true story of a plane from Norway being hijacked. A very drunk passenger who drank all his beer, called the airline hostess for more beer, before being given the option or the price he pulled out a gun and demanded more. The man drank lots throughout the flight, other passengers offered him more and even wine, when they arrived the man let all passengers with a connecting flight leave the plane, so everyone did. The police asked what his demands where asking things such as money, fame, power but the man just wanted beer, the police took him in, found out the gun was fake, the man was actually a 24 year old boy and was sentenced for three years in prison.

I liked this animations 3D style and design, the characters and environments look rubbery, allowing them to experiment with movement, especially with the drunk mans swaying body movements and body language. I also liked how the story was also told through rhyme getting a melody stuck in my head and making it memorable. As a quick side note I’m glad they added the real news reports and interviews of the incident, because initially I was sceptical and too silly to be true (I certainly laughed at the response of the passengers).

 The Winter

The Winter tells the story of a man carrying sticks and logs in a foggy snowy wood, the man spots a pack of dear’s one of which has a bright aura which looks like the moon around its head and antlers, the other dears run away except for the specific one and the man investigates. He follows the dear through the wood, until he falls in a deep layer of snow and passes out, he wakes up and realises its day time, with the dear he was following staring at him, but now with no bright aura.

This film looks great and really stands out with its design. This film is crafted with what looks to be figure painting, creating the fine rough bark details on the tree and the brown on the mans coat. I liked the overall atmosphere of this film, going from night to day and the music is a perfect fit for the unfolding story, it gives a sense of mystery and intrigue.

 And Something Else

And Something Else is a story about two crows being controlled and manipulated by a person, who’s face we do not see (only hands). The hands choke the birds, grab the birds, cause them to have an egg and more horrible things. The crows fall out attacking each other and crushing the egg, the hands try to intervene, and the crows fight back, causing the hands to go away, the two find each other beaten and hug.

This film was interesting to watch as for me the premise was not full there for me until the egg sequence. This is a story about manipulation and what it can do to someone and if so, to fight bac and stand up for yourself. The story also had sudden escalation from both a visual and audio standpoint admittedly making jump once or twice. The ending is also justified as the two crows come to terms with one another, knowing that they have both experienced the same thing.

  Pandiculation

Pandiculation is a short story of men in an important business meeting, however one at the back of the table is tired/ bored. He tries to stay awake and stretches himself discretely, stretching legs, leaning back on chairs, etc. He suddenly lets out a sudden loud yawn, everyone pauses to look at him. Knowing he has been caught he then lets out a giant yawn, which sounds more like a yell and everyone silently stares at him. The rest of the men suddenly do exactly the same in different positions.

The plot of this film is relatable to me as I have been in this situation of staying awake during something important before. It is the exaggerated and comedic movements and timing which rounds this film out perfectly. I had an idea of what was to come with the definition of Pandiculation (meaning the act of stretching oneself, usually followed by a yawn) told me what it meant, but not to this extreme, I laughed at the end when everyone was in an agreement of sorts and joined in.

  Tick

Tick is a story about a woman who keeps giving herself too many to do lists to finish, resulting in no sleep and working constantly. These range from work jobs, self-catering/ care, friend jobs, etc. She gets so into working constantly, that she forgets to feed her fish, the fish watches hinting for her to find him, but she does not. Once everything is finished and a wall of to do lists are filled with ticks, the last tick box is to feed her fish, which has died from dehydration, realising what has happen she puts in the fish food and ticks off the final box.

This film is unique in its message, to me the message is don’t overload yourself with work and lose site in the little more important things. A key feature in this film is the Foley as a variety of sounds can be heard, signalling different meanings. For example there is a faint tick sound of a clock in the background, signifying a concept of time passing and that it is also running out. Another is the sound of a kettle whistling, getting louder and louder throughout the film, possibly signifying the sense of pressure that time is running out.

  Today’s talks

 Frances Humphries

My first talk today was with Frances Humphries (Fran fir short) who is a past student from UCLAN and she explained her experiences at UCLAN as well as what she’s been doing since then. She explained how she enjoyed the university and got her first job through it, she also showed us her show reel promoting herself and her work. The show reel was very well put together, signifying that she stands out from the crowd, listing all the types of work she’s done and software she knows how to use. Fran also explained that a lot of her learning was whilst working as clients whereas asking for specific criteria from her.

Fran started working at a company that do festivals, she explained how she had done some adverts and even a sort of training video for sports direct, Fran also explained how the corporate world treats their colleagues with the mind set of making money fast and hitting deadlines. Over time Fran was given the job role of manager due to the previous one leaving, she explained how it was quite a lot at first from animating to animating, talking to clients, managing a team, etc. But still prevails none the less.

Fran also showed us her final projects spanning all her years at UCLAN and the development over the years was certainly there, good to start, great at the end. Fran also hinted about future projects in the second and third year including working with music student for sound and Foley. Lastly she ended with two things like that I feel will stick with me being try “Don’t get too attached to your work.” Because it’s the client could turn you down and the other being to not put yourself in a specific job role and try other things, this is backed up by her methods of learning new things online, even during a client call. Overall this was a very good talk, giving me more insight as to how clients view their workers as well as a potential heads up to what’s to come in my future years at University.

 Joanne Edwards

My second talk today was with Joanne Edwards (Jo for short) who was a student at UCLAN. Jo began by showing us her showreel highlighting some of her work, with a good mixture of clips in there. Joanne then showed us an advertisement she created for North West Helicopter Ambulance Service, being a stop motion story of a child in a car crash, airlifted to hospital and how he wants to work there when he’s older. Jo then showed us a piece she made with the same characters and backgrounds, but this time of her dog terrorising the city, it was cute and funny (She also explained she was inspired by the movie “Frankenweenie”). Lastly she told us the story of how she entered a competition by Aardman animation called “Gromit Unleashed”, where she created a giant Gromit which won and was auction to Nick Park, where the statue resides in his office. This also landed her a works experience with Aardman, where she created props for “Shaun the Sheep” and got to test reel models from “Pirates in An Adventure With Scientists”, unfortunately the footage was never used.

Jo then told and showed us her current project, which looks like its taking off nicely. Jo wrote a book called “Not the Bed for My Rump” which is a children’s story, about a dog (Inspired by her own) who is trying to find the most comfortable spot to sleep. Jo want on to explain how important advertising and spreading the word about a project is, she explained how she created a Kickstarter for the book, of which surpassed its goal and looked for help via other websites. She also mentioned knowing when to stick to your guns and take on board advice, such as when people on Reddit and Twitter thought the title looked inappropriate with the dog on its back, but she stuck to her guns and nothing has changed. Jo also explained how the illustration was made with “Gooish Paint” and “water”, which could be used for two distinct and different designs, great for foreground and background separations as well as characters.

Jo ended by recommended illustration if your thinking of doing a book, but if you want to create your own book, its best to read many other books similar to the one you want to make for reference and inspiration. For Jo, her dog was the biggest inspiration due to how he acts and the general funny nature of Bull terriers. Overall Jo’s presentation was very good highlighting other potential opportunities aside from animation you could, skills you may also pick up from the course and the overall importance of collaboration and advertisement.

Below is a link to the “Not the Bed for My Rump” Kickstarter where you can find more information about the book.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jo-edwards/not-the-bed-for-my-rump-childrens-picture-book

[robbiejohnsonyr2ax2000]

University - Manchester Animation Festival - Day 5

During this week, we are attending the “Manchester Animation Festival” (Or MAF for short). During each day this week I will write a post giving my thoughts on what I watched, as well as add anything else we did such as meetings and Talks. I will also provide links to any form of clip or trailer, if I can find one.

(This Post will contain spoilers)

Student Films

The Song of a Lost Boy

The Song of a Lost Boy, tells the story of a young boy who is a choir singer for a church. One day during a performance, he loses his voice causing him to be kicked out of the choir and judged by the other members, this causes him to run away. The next day he finds some traveling performers who tell him to go with them, he does just that and everything is fine, until he must do a singing solo. Filled with anxiety he runs away and ends up in a cave, where he finds his voice, the performs watch in shock and accept him in their group as they continue traveling.

This short film was good, I liked the setting of the film taking place in a dessert as it could be seen as a place of isolation and endlessness. I also enjoyed the moral of the story being, trying to find one’s self, even when you feel like you can’t, you could be something one moment then have it all taken away from you in an instant, its getting back on your feet and moving on what makes you who you are. Lastly, I liked the sense of progression from calm choir, to loud performer, showing a sense of growth for the main character throughout the story.

Link to the Trailer below

https://vimeo.com/442375078

Chant of The Printing Machine

Chant of The Printing Machine is a short film matching visuals to audio from an old-fashioned print machine. From start to end the Print Machine with audio create, scenery, objects and much more with its unique diverse sounds of creaks, bumps, clangs and more.

This film is a creative visual treat, based on the sounds coming from the machine and how their translated into visuals was great. I liked how Whirring sounds were visuals of two snake looking lines wriggling around the screen and when I heard a squeak the screen displayed an old looking tire. The visuals being old fashioned paper with looks to be ink on it was a nice touch, as if each frame came out of the printer itself.

Big Fish

Big Fish is a fun musical short film about a fisherman going fishing. At first everything is normal, he sits down, ready’s his rod, places bait and catches fish, rinse and repeat. However, each action he does makes a distinct sound which becomes a short musical piece. In the end he catches something what surprises him and the film ends.

I really enjoyed the creative Foley for this film, combining and matching different sounds together to create a catchy fun tune was fun. I also like other elements, such as the bird causing pauses in the song and randomly appearing later. I also liked the message at the end of the film “Big Fish are worthy of fishing, even if you don’t catch one.” To me this means, even if you think you can’t do something, still give it a try you never know what you can do until you try it.

The Last Mother

The Last Mother tells the story in a dystopian future where the earth is nothing but scorching sands and ruins of what once was. We find a woman approaching a wilted tree with small wooden carved masks on it. She prays to the tree and she meets some golden spirits wearing the masks on the tree, with her own mask she too becomes a spirit. With the spirits power combined, they restore the earth to its original form, luscious green fields, lakes and artic weather, all the spirits around the world join together and leave the earth.

This film is interesting to me as I see this film as a sign of what will happen to the planet because of humans, but also reflecting back to what it was before civilisation. I also liked the idea of combining famous architectures, such as the Eiffel Tower in an exotic natural environment. As a final point, I liked the idea of everyone (represented by spirits) coming together and willing to let go of what once was, which is represented by all the spirits leaving earth and moving onto the other side (Possibly the afterlife).

100,000 Acres of Pine

100,000 Acres of Pine is a short horror story, about a man who goes missing and dies in a woodland national park. The man’s brother Meg who is a park ranger can’t come to terms with his death and goes in search for him, after seeing a weird figure in the forest. As she explores the woods, she finds herself in structures that were once destroyed now fixed and an old Van. Blood follows her wherever she goes and eventually finds her brother Danielle, suddenly a tree comes to life and grabs her, she escapes and finds herself back where she started.

This film gave me shivers, I have to say I was intrigued and fascinated by the direction of the story and how the story unfolded with Danielle explaining what is going on through old cassette type recordings. He was explaining what Meg was seeing without being there, meaning Meg was having an identical experience to her now deceased brother. The way the tape changes from Danielle’s voice to Meg’s voice was a really good touch too as it gave a sense that she met the same fate. The animation style also works great in this film, as the rough (but well crafted) look of the environment works great for a horror setting, as well as effective use of lighting to signify danger and normality slowing creeping in on one another with its eerie red glow.

Link to teaser Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVWE72UWTaw&app=desktop

Pearl Diver

Pearl Diver is a collection of three short stories, all of which happen between each other. The first of a hedgehog trying to keep a balloon, order to do this he shaves off his quills to not pop the balloon. The next is of a polar bear and a penguin who get separated when the small chunk of ice breaks, the polar bear finds a small engine, attaches it to his piece of ice and goes to find the penguin. The third are of two clams with pearls within them opening and closing. The polar bear finds the penguin, excited the penguin finds a pearl to thank the polar bear, but arrives too find that the polar bear has stolen her half the ice that broke. The pearl was taken from the two clams, now just one, the clam the penguin took is thrown back in ocean next to the other clam. Saddened (or shocked) the other clam loses its glow and dies. Lastly the hedgehog has popped the balloon so many times, he lets go of it and watches it float away.

This short film tells three separate messages all of which have in common the message of letting go. For the hedgehog, its learning to let go of something you love, for the clams its letting go of someone you love and for the penguin and polar bear its letting go of the trust you have with someone (at least that’s how I interpreted it). The animation and design are very nice and detailed with the polar bears fur rustling in the wind and the light from the clam’s pearls. I also liked how empty the environments where, as this can be seen as a sign of each character’s story and the thing they have, being the only thing, they have left.

Link to trailer

https://vimeo.com/415941751

My Favourite Hill

My Favourite Hill is a short film about a sentient hill, who loves people being on and around him. The people drink water from him and change cloths on him and play on him and much more. However, come night fall, everyone goes back to work in a factory situated nearby. This upsets the hill, who wants everyone to go back to him and the next day they do. Even more people arrive in cars, tour buses and more, until once again nightfall comes, and everyone leaves.

This short film is interesting in its narrative of loneliness and rejection, but most of all in its animation and design. The film is constructed out of moving pieces of art and cut pieces of paper, moved and swapped to give of the sense of movement and dialogue. An interesting choice for the story, but I also feel with the characteristics of the hill and some of the peoples actions (Such as kicking an old man to the moon before his limbs fall off) fit surprisingly well with this animation style.

Link to trailer

https://vimeo.com/414535202

The Quiet

The Quiet, is an interesting story from an astronaut stranded in outer space. He tells the story of him and his twin brother, he wanted to go to space and his brother wanted to be rich and had a love for diamonds. We are told of a robbery the brother committed at an elderly mans house, he is caught after knocking a globe over, in a blind panic he assaults the old man (implied death) with the globe and says it was self-defence, the court don’t see it that way. The brother is arrested and that’s the end of story, until the astronaut says how he misses his brother and the constellation Gemini is his favourite as its shared with him and the brother, who died at birth. It is revealed that the astronaut was actually the one committing the crimes and is arrested in a silent prison and says how the quite is terrifying.

This short film is fascinating in both its execution and story, I love the way how we are told and invested in the story between two brothers, only to have the twist reveal at the end. The moment of realisation was great, as the film goes silent for a brief moment at the reveal then escalates to reveal what really happened. The visual story telling is also really good, I love the outer space story telling for a story about theft. The way the stars align to create images and scenes is a very imaginative method of storytelling, I also liked how some Foley of everyday sounds where implemented into the stars, such as the sun being a gas cooker, or how a galaxy is matched with a light turning on.

Link to “The Quiet” Facebook page with trailer

https://www.facebook.com/thequietradheya/?fref=tag

Delphine: No Dogs

Delphine: No Dogs, tells the story of a woman arriving by boat into the country with her one year old son. They find a place to stay in an apartment building of which they meet an Irish woman, the woman looks after the baby whilst the mother goes to work. One day whilst at work the baby keeps coughing, the Irish woman checks on the baby to see if he’s alright. When she asks the mum about medicine, the mother says there not working, after the Irish woman complains at the doctors, the baby is sent to the hospital. There it is discovered the baby has newmonia, the mother thanks the Irish woman for saving her son’s life and the film ends with a picture of the child in a frame.

I enjoyed this films style of animation, opting to go with a paper putted style with different light layers for backgrounds, props and characters. The design also sets the scene for what kind of time period this story takes place in, being likely the 1950’s, with its look of being worn like a memory. The message of the story is also interesting to me as it highlights a time when immigrants where treated unfairly when it came to medication and that it takes someone from different ethnic origin to stand up for them (In the credits it details how this was a story from “… Irish and Afro-Caribbean Immigrants to the U.K and the evolving relationships to Britishness of their descendants.”.

Link to Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sacProWHDyE

Hijack139

Hijack139 is an animated adaptation of a true story of a plane from Norway being hijacked. A very drunk passenger who drank all his beer, called the airline hostess for more beer, before being given the option or the price he pulled out a gun and demanded more. The man drank lots throughout the flight, other passengers offered him more and even wine, when they arrived the man let all passengers with a connecting flight leave the plane, so everyone did. The police asked what his demands where asking things such as money, fame, power but the man just wanted beer, the police took him in, found out the gun was fake, the man was actually a 24 year old boy and was sentenced for three years in prison.

I liked this animations 3D style and design, the characters and environments look rubbery, allowing them to experiment with movement, especially with the drunk mans swaying body movements and body language. I also liked how the story was also told through rhyme getting a melody stuck in my head and making it memorable. As a quick side note I’m glad they added the real news reports and interviews of the incident, because initially I was sceptical and too silly to be true (I certainly laughed at the response of the passengers).

The Winter

The Winter tells the story of a man carrying sticks and logs in a foggy snowy wood, the man spots a pack of dear’s one of which has a bright aura which looks like the moon around its head and antlers, the other dears run away except for the specific one and the man investigates. He follows the dear through the wood, until he falls in a deep layer of snow and passes out, he wakes up and realises its day time, with the dear he was following staring at him, but now with no bright aura.

This film looks great and really stands out with its design. This film is crafted with what looks to be figure painting, creating the fine rough bark details on the tree and the brown on the mans coat. I liked the overall atmosphere of this film, going from night to day and the music is a perfect fit for the unfolding story, it gives a sense of mystery and intrigue.

And Something Else

And Something Else is a story about two crows being controlled and manipulated by a person, who’s face we do not see (only hands). The hands choke the birds, grab the birds, cause them to have an egg and more horrible things. The crows fall out attacking each other and crushing the egg, the hands try to intervene, and the crows fight back, causing the hands to go away, the two find each other beaten and hug.

This film was interesting to watch as for me the premise was not full there for me until the egg sequence. This is a story about manipulation and what it can do to someone and if so, to fight bac and stand up for yourself. The story also had sudden escalation from both a visual and audio standpoint admittedly making jump once or twice. The ending is also justified as the two crows come to terms with one another, knowing that they have both experienced the same thing.

Pandiculation

Pandiculation is a short story of men in an important business meeting, however one at the back of the table is tired/ bored. He tries to stay awake and stretches himself discretely, stretching legs, leaning back on chairs, etc. He suddenly lets out a sudden loud yawn, everyone pauses to look at him. Knowing he has been caught he then lets out a giant yawn, which sounds more like a yell and everyone silently stares at him. The rest of the men suddenly do exactly the same in different positions.

The plot of this film is relatable to me as I have been in this situation of staying awake during something important before. It is the exaggerated and comedic movements and timing which rounds this film out perfectly. I had an idea of what was to come with the definition of Pandiculation (meaning the act of stretching oneself, usually followed by a yawn) told me what it meant, but not to this extreme, I laughed at the end when everyone was in an agreement of sorts and joined in.

Tick

Tick is a story about a woman who keeps giving herself too many to do lists to finish, resulting in no sleep and working constantly. These range from work jobs, self-catering/ care, friend jobs, etc. She gets so into working constantly, that she forgets to feed her fish, the fish watches hinting for her to find him, but she does not. Once everything is finished and a wall of to do lists are filled with ticks, the last tick box is to feed her fish, which has died from dehydration, realising what has happen she puts in the fish food and ticks off the final box.

This film is unique in its message, to me the message is don’t overload yourself with work and lose site in the little more important things. A key feature in this film is the Foley as a variety of sounds can be heard, signalling different meanings. For example there is a faint tick sound of a clock in the background, signifying a concept of time passing and that it is also running out. Another is the sound of a kettle whistling, getting louder and louder throughout the film, possibly signifying the sense of pressure that time is running out.

Today’s talks

Frances Humphries

My first talk today was with Frances Humphries (Fran fir short) who is a past student from UCLAN and she explained her experiences at UCLAN as well as what she’s been doing since then. She explained how she enjoyed the university and got her first job through it, she also showed us her show reel promoting herself and her work. The show reel was very well put together, signifying that she stands out from the crowd, listing all the types of work she’s done and software she knows how to use. Fran also explained that a lot of her learning was whilst working as clients whereas asking for specific criteria from her.

Fran started working at a company that do festivals, she explained how she had done some adverts and even a sort of training video for sports direct, Fran also explained how the corporate world treats their colleagues with the mind set of making money fast and hitting deadlines. Over time Fran was given the job role of manager due to the previous one leaving, she explained how it was quite a lot at first from animating to animating, talking to clients, managing a team, etc. But still prevails none the less.

Fran also showed us her final projects spanning all her years at UCLAN and the development over the years was certainly there, good to start, great at the end. Fran also hinted about future projects in the second and third year including working with music student for sound and Foley. Lastly she ended with two things like that I feel will stick with me being try “Don’t get too attached to your work.” Because it’s the client could turn you down and the other being to not put yourself in a specific job role and try other things, this is backed up by her methods of learning new things online, even during a client call. Overall this was a very good talk, giving me more insight as to how clients view their workers as well as a potential heads up to what’s to come in my future years at University.

Joanne Edwards

My second talk today was with Joanne Edwards (Jo for short) who was a student at UCLAN. Jo began by showing us her showreel highlighting some of her work, with a good mixture of clips in there. Joanne then showed us an advertisement she created for North West Helicopter Ambulance Service, being a stop motion story of a child in a car crash, airlifted to hospital and how he wants to work there when he’s older. Jo then showed us a piece she made with the same characters and backgrounds, but this time of her dog terrorising the city, it was cute and funny (She also explained she was inspired by the movie “Frankenweenie”). Lastly she told us the story of how she entered a competition by Aardman animation called “Gromit Unleashed”, where she created a giant Gromit which won and was auction to Nick Park, where the statue resides in his office. This also landed her a works experience with Aardman, where she created props for “Shaun the Sheep” and got to test reel models from “Pirates in An Adventure With Scientists”, unfortunately the footage was never used.

Jo then told and showed us her current project, which looks like its taking off nicely. Jo wrote a book called “Not the Bed for My Rump” which is a children’s story, about a dog (Inspired by her own) who is trying to find the most comfortable spot to sleep. Jo want on to explain how important advertising and spreading the word about a project is, she explained how she created a Kickstarter for the book, of which surpassed its goal and looked for help via other websites. She also mentioned knowing when to stick to your guns and take on board advice, such as when people on Reddit and Twitter thought the title looked inappropriate with the dog on its back, but she stuck to her guns and nothing has changed. Jo also explained how the illustration was made with “Gooish Paint” and “water”, which could be used for two distinct and different designs, great for foreground and background separations as well as characters.

Jo ended by recommended illustration if your thinking of doing a book, but if you want to create your own book, its best to read many other books similar to the one you want to make for reference and inspiration. For Jo, her dog was the biggest inspiration due to how he acts and the general funny nature of Bull terriers. Overall Jo’s presentation was very good highlighting other potential opportunities aside from animation you could, skills you may also pick up from the course and the overall importance of collaboration and advertisement.

Below is a link to the “Not the Bed for My Rump” Kickstarter where you can find more information about the book.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jo-edwards/not-the-bed-for-my-rump-childrens-picture-book

[podcastsouyee]

Podcast recommendation for friends and co

Podcasts I’m subscribed to and love with my whole heart (alphabetically):

Alice Isn’t dead: Story about a lady driving a truck and looking for her wife, it already starts out by being a little bit into the horror genre and it’s really great. It has 10 episodes so far and there should be season two. Night Vale Presents podcast. http://www.nightvalepresents.com/aliceisntdead/

Ars Paradoxica: A physicist from 20xx travels back in time to the year 1943 with her own time machine. She gets stuck there and records herself  and her journey. It has beautiful opening theme which I wholeheartedly love. I get a little bit lost in all different timelines later on and probably need to re-listen, but it’s brilliant and really cool podcast. Definitely recommend, even though it’s a bit harder to catch sometimes. https://arsparadoxica.com

The Bright Sessions: I saw somewhere description “like x-men getting therapy” and I really like that, all the characters (more or less) are lovable and amazing, it’s both really sweet and kickass. Totally one of my favourites. It also has a lot of like plus things such as playlists for some of the characters. It’s great. http://www.thebrightsessions.com

The Guardian’s Token: As the title says it’s one of the Guardian podcasts in which the amazing hosts (which changed like half way through, but the newer ones, Leah Green and Fred McConnell, are the best hosts ever and the reason why I subscribed) talk about topics like race, gender and similar topics (thus the name Token). It’s really interesting but also often quite funny. https://www.theguardian.com/society/series/token

The Once and Future Nerd: Alright this is ABSOLUTELY one of my favourites. It’s a story about three children/teens that get stuck in a fantasy world (like D&D kind of fantasy? I love that part of distinguishing people are their accents which are kind of all over the place, that’s loads of fun) + some plotting which these characters get sucked into. The characters are amazingly build, both the children and characters that are from the fantasy world. It’s fun but also dramatic, a lot of stuff happening, amazing story. And the talky Q&A episodes are also a lot of fun. One of those podcasts I want to re-listen right after finishing (I WILL DO THAT, I just have too many podcasts on my list). The start was a little bit slow? but then it gets really great. http://onceandfuturenerd.com

The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air): It makes me cry, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry because it’s just so cute and because oh my dear Julian (main character). Story about a silly little dreamy janitor that wants to be featured on radio show (that broadcasts from the top of the Eiffel Tower). It’s silly, it breaks my heart and I love it from the bottom of my heart and core of my bones. Seriously, please listen to this one, it’s so pure. Also Night Vale Presents podcast. http://orbitinghumancircus.com

The Penumbra Podcast: Goooood shit, it’s a podcast about stories from a hotel called “The Penumbra”. Main story is about a private eye in Hyperion City (biggest city on Mars) called Juno Steel and his cases. It got me hooked right away. The other stories, which go from a horror story to a love uncommon western love story, are also brilliant and totally deserve more listeners. I do not know how many people listen to this podcast but I am sure that there should be more. http://thepenumbrapodcast.com

Welcome To Night Vale: For me it seems like a podcasting classic, it’s the first thing I subscribed to, it’s the one that got me into the world of podcasts. Story about a strange town called “Night Vale” told by Cecil Gershwin Palmer, Night Vale’s radio host. It’s a lot of fun and the voice of Night Vale (Cecil Baldwin) is amazing. The stories from Night Vale are mysterious, hilarious and sometimes a little bit silly (often.. and a lot). Recently it hit its 100 episode. Obviously the first Night Vale presents podcast. http://www.welcometonightvale.com

Within The Wires: Relaxing Cassettes that makes you feel a little bit trippy. Like they tell you, you’re a fly. But then it gets like super fucked up and amazing. Another one of Night Vale presents podcasts. Like Alice isn’t Dead it has 10 episodes and I think there should be season two. http://www.nightvalepresents.com/withinthewires

Witch, Please: Hilarious and brilliant Harry Potter podcast that I can’t shut up about, hosted by two amazing and clever women. Discusses all the HP books and movies (spoiler alert, there is a guy with a film degree) into really funny details (such as the everlasting question: do the characters wear pants under their robes?). A lot of feminism, jew watch and discussions about how JK Rowling is not a good HP reader. http://ohwitchplease.ca

Wolf 359: Another one of my all time favourites, story about communication officer Doug Eiffel, orbiting around a rad dwarf star (I think) Wolf 359. It’s hilarious and when it gets sad there still is our favourite character, Stabby the Space Roomba. You won’t hear about him in the show at all but HE IS REAL, BELIEVE ME. In all seriousness, the show is amazingly, soundtrack is really beautiful and the whole cast is made of amazing and amazingly sounding people. It’s a really great podcast that I do recommend to anyone. http://www.wolf359.fm

And that’s all from my subscribed podcasts! I do love other as well, from nonfiction a lot of science podcasts, some BBC podcasts are really great, Guardian also has awesome podcasts, from fiction I am starting Rude Alchemy which is hilarious, MarsCorp sounds great (I started because I loved the soundtrack), Jim Robbie and the wanderers is REALLY amazing (I do recommend that), EOS10 is fun, Hello from the Magic tavern makes me laugh in public transport a lot, it’s so hilarious. And there a LOT more amazing podcast that I didn’t finish or even start yet. But those are my favourites!