#I'll put all the clips into a video later

[curio-queries]

I saw Jungkook's documentary this weekend and have just a few thoughts. If you're avoiding spoilers, don't click the cut!

The Hybe Documentary Format

So...as a reminder to you all, I do not have professional expertise in the film industry. I'm just a very discerning consumer. I also haven't seen Hobi's documentary and I watched Road to D-Day while I was quite ill last year so I only vaguely remember some bits. (I'll definitely be getting back to those sooner rather than later though as research for a series of posts I'm developing.) That being said, I think we have enough data points to state that Hybe has absolutely no interest in filmmaking techniques outside of music videos.

I did mostly enjoy my experience seeing this film yesterday and I'm always grateful for any amount of footage the members are willing to share with us but this 'documentary ' was worse than Jimin's Production Diary. Any of you that managed to make it through my rambling review will know how dissatisfied I was with that.

I Am Still is not a documentary, it's a mixture of showcase footage and behind-the-scenes clips, most of which has already been divulged in the various episodes and shooting sketches on YouTube. Honestly, if you're not able to see the film, just go rewatch all of the bangtantv content for JKs solo period and the showcase and you'll be up to speed with 85% of what was in the documentary.

There are definitely some expansions to the storylines featured in the bangtantv content; mostly being anything that wasn't overtly optimistic. For example, we learn a little bit more about just how sick JK was during the Seven/3D promotions. That content likely was pulled from the bangtantv edit because it would have put a damper on the promotions and given certain 'fans' a focus to fixate their vitriol. But overall, it feels more like an extended version of existing content rather than a new work. At least JPD didn't continually feed us footage we'd seen before.

I'm someone who gets completely bothered by previews spoiling content so I didn't watch any of the promos until after I saw it and I am so glad I skipped them because most of the 'original' scenes of the film were featured in least one of them. Alas, that's a separate issue of which I'm definitely in the minority.

Was There No Structure?

Kinda. Like JPD, there is a semblance of a structure: Attempting to follow the chronology of release activities for JKs GOLDEN album through the lens of JKs staement trying to prove that he is still worthy of everything he was being hailed as during the BTS group activities but I don't feel this was successfully executed. It jumps round enough and isn't very successful in explaining the events if you didn't already know about them. The film starts with the SEVEN performance at GMA and footage that we've already seen of JK recording SEVEN, not mentioning anything about the music video or really how JK got involved with the song in the first place. The rest of the story beats have similar missing points.

They have a vague narrative with the 'I Am Still' points but that's mostly carried by subs and a couple of moments that JK mentions himself. I'm not saying it's not true or wasn't top-of-mind for JK during this process but it's not the main point of many of the moment/messages he shared with us during this time period so it feels a little disingenuous since everything else jn this film really only makes sense if you've already seen quite a lot of behind-the-scenes content.

Honestly, it makes me question the intended audience. Obviously, they know that ARMY will shell out whatever we need to when there's new content from our members but most of us will have already seen all of the bangtantv content so we are already familiar with the most of the footage in this film. I genuinely don't think this was produced in such a way to be palatable for audiences not familiar with BTS so who does that leave? Our friends and family that are peripherally aware of the content but haven't learned the basics of JKs album? ARMY with short term memories only?

But again, it seems this film was compiled by an editing team and not lead by a director with experience in crafting a documentary. The only new footage that Ican guarantee was captured with the express purpose of being included in this film was the few clips of JK talking in the practice room with the albums displayed by him. But we all know that's where all of the promo clips were gathered as well. I have issues with that approach as well but I'll leave this point alone for now unless anyone is interested.

Suffice it to say, all of these suppositions over the past year about how JKs documentary was getting special treatment or even questioning about investment in a project up front are dead. This was a product assembled with bits of what they already had completely in-house which was sold for distribution.

So, Did We Learn NOTHING?

No, there are a few Golden nuggets (see what I did there?). I can't recall everything having only seen it once (and having a rather disruptive audience - I swear there were only dozen or so ppl in my theater but I forget how obnoxious teenagers can be. I'm glad they're enjoying and supporting but we really didn't need light sticks flashing during a film and how many times does one person need to get up to answer their phone during this runtime? Three according to the row in front of mine.)

Anyway, something I thought was interesting to learn was that Standing Next To You was initially recorded the day after JK heard it for the first time. And hearing a little more about how JK yearned to perform that song definitelygot me thinking a little more about it. We can't reach any conclusions just with this little nugget but it does open the door to some theories. Like perhaps they were initially planning to have JK record two separate albums? SEVEN and 3D would be the singles of the first and JK would perform them as we saw but perhaps STNY was originally planned to be the single of the 2nd album that would release while he was in the military and thus be unable to perform it? Maybe JK loved STNY so much that everything was grouped into one album and Never Let Go was the only track held back for ms? Definitely some theorizing space to be had now.

Final thoughts?

Similar to my thoughts on the GCF: Budapest (which I feel would have had a much better reception if it had been labeled as a bangtan episode rather than a GCF), I AM Still should not have purported to be a documentary. It was much more similar to the annual Memories compilations. But the general public would not have shelled out the $25 to go to a theater to watch a Memories DVD so alas, we have our content packaged as a ~documentary~...

Did my view on the music change at all? Not because of the documentary. We're coming up on the year anniversary of GOLDEN and it's still definitely not my favorite. I completely understand why some people like it but it's just not to my taste. The overall impact falls a little flat for me. Too much breadth and not enough depth. I came into my musical soul during the 00s emo phase and will always be a sucker for music that absolutely drips in an emotional way rather than catchy songs vaguely referencing heartache and love. Again, just a matter of viewpoint.

I do think most of these songs stand much better being shuffled amongst other artists in a Playlist and several of them are significantly better when JK sang them live but I still won't be listening to them regularly. I wholeheartedly believe JK completed his task of proving himself as an extremely dedicated and versatile singer and performer. He's definitely got some solid points added to his resume after this project.

[spongebob-connoisseur]

Slappy out of context images

Feel free to assign your own context to these images <3

[hazelplaysgames]

soon, this clip will be up, about a team i picked then, and now we get to see what i chose. i mean, if you're reading this before watching, it'll still be soon for you. eventually, soon will be now, then then, as you'll soon see.

maybe i should just stick to now now. well, i can try, but we just missed it right then.

[anothermonikan]

'In 33 hours this will all be over, whether you do it good or not you wont have to worry about it anymore, cmon Andy, you got this! You got this!' <<< trying to do their last assignment

[hoodedjelly]

Sleep walk BTS post!

will go in depth with my process and put better quality drawings in here!

Before any of this i was listening to several fiddauthor/ford playlists to hear a song that really got my brain moving. Funny enough i didn't get Sleep walk from one of the 100+ song playlists i was listening to, it was in my oc playlist (thats a mad scientist who would've thought). Originally i wanted to make a fiddauthor animatic (who knows maybe i will), but THIS SONG just caught my brain in a way i couldn't refuse.

So i technically started working on it the late night of September 27, exactly a week ago! which yes yes i hear you all in unison go "WHAT???" to that, and all I have to say to that is.... I have untreated adhd and lots of caffeine in my system! (honestly felt like ford sometimes while workin on that animatic)

Started it off with some notes, then thumbnails. I had my tbob AND J3 open next to me stood up with clips for reference (prob looked a little insane looking back but its fine)

now for the rough animatic! i did this in Adobe animate 2022 (i'll get back to that later) the only thing that really got changed was i wanted to add the diner scene from j3. i realize now that it messed up the timeline i was going for with the animatic but i like to think things are out of order because of the state ford is in, things start to merge together.

After i sat with this rough animatic for a bit, i wasn't sure if i was going to make it in Adobe animate (what i usually do) or make it all in Clip Studio Paint. I wanted this animatic to be way more visually interesting then i usually do, so CSP it is. But! i only have CSP Pro, so i had to draw and export every single new frame from this animatic.

it was a little tedious at first (again never done an animatic like this before) but i got used to it! I edited it all together in CapCut and thats really it!

The missing J3 pages from TBOB spoke to me in a way that im not fully comfortable talking about to my followers. I put a lot of myself in this animatic then i'd want to realize, it's very important to me. The night when i uploaded it i was literally shaking with anxiety (and caffeine-) but the overwhelming support for it is really amazing, thank you so much! if you have any more questions please ask away i love talking about the art process.

Below im going to talk about the code and put HD backgrounds!

thank you for dyemro on here for cracking the code first! now i can talk about my insane little thought process about it

So i never planned to add a code until halfway through with the animatic. i was watching ThatGFFan videos and him talking about gravity falls codes got my brain cooking. i wanted something sweet and simple (i realize with dyemro's post it wasn't as simple as i thought, give me some slack it's my first time). like what you should with making codes you start at the end. And i wanted something that was a nice send off for drawing ford be fucking miserable for 1 minute and 30 seconds.

so i got this. (honestly every time i look at this drawing after finishing the animatic it makes me real emotional)

There are 4 codes in this whole animatic 0:02, 0:15, 0:30, and 0:58

wanted the first one to be REAL noticeable so people can stop and be like "wait... theres stuff in here". people usually think to use the bill symbols, but no! from the description theres a little hint to use the Author symbols

doing that code it leads to: imgu r.com /a/uZa iVfu (and if you know that double line a under a letter means capitalization + im a dumb dumb that used a code image that didn't have a Z so thats just a normal Z)

it makes a LINK! > imgur.com/a/uZaiVfu <

now enough of that boring stuff, heres some HD screenshots and backgrounds of my fav parts

[alicenthighstower]

TILE TRANSITION TUTORIAL

a couple of people have asked me for a tutorial on how I did the penultimate gif in this set, so here goes! this is my first tutorial, so please feel free to reach out with further questions if anything's unclear.

note: this tutorial assumes you know the basics of gifmaking, can create the base gifs, and are familiar with timeline mode.

STEP ONE: create the base gifs! I'd recommend staying between 25-40 frames for each gif, since the transitions we'll use later tend to increase gif sizes. these are the ones I'll be using for this tutorial:

STEP TWO: create the guide layouts for both base gifs. for this panel, I chose a 4x4 grid — I would recommend keeping the number of "tiles" low because it can get tedious, but have a minimum of 9 (3x3 grid).

now your canvas should look like this:

STEP THREE: create the tiles. this is where the going gets rough; there might be easier ways to do this that I couldn't think of 😭 if there are any please send me an ask!

essentially, in this step we'll cut up the base gifs into smaller squares so that each tile can be manipulated separately when we put both gifs together. to do this, first create a square using the rectangle tool and the guides. then duplicate the base gif, move it above the square, apply a clipping mask, and then convert the clipped gif and square (selected in the image below) into one smart object.

ALTERNATELY: you could duplicate the original base gif and use layer masks to isolate tiles. create a layer mask for the duplicated gif layer and, with the layer mask selected, drag your mouse over a square (using the guide layout) and press delete. then press ctrl/cmd + i to invert the layer mask so that the gif only shows in the square of your choosing.

now repeat until you've got the entire gif in tiles, and do the same for the other gif!

since the transition effect is achieved by staggering the crossfades for each tile of the final gif, you can cheat by having multiple tiles "flip" at a time, ideally no more than four. this means you need to cut the base gif up into fewer pieces. to do this, simply draw multiple squares instead of one and then merge the shapes, before duplicating and clipping the gif onto them.

if you do this, it's essential to remember that you have to divide both gifs up in the exact same way. each piece of the b/w gif has to correspond to a piece of the purple gif!

this is what the layers look like for each gif once I'm done:

I have them lettered so that it'll be easier to match them up in the next step.

STEP FOUR: this is the complicated bit that took me two days to figure out. I'll do my best to explain but don't hesitate to reach out if something isn't clear!

to begin, open up a new psd and import both base gifs into it. (remember to click "create video timeline" and ensure that your gifs are all in order before proceeding.)

now, the trickiest part about this transition is ensuring that all the little tiles sync up so that the larger gif is coherent. so first we'll create some markers (just empty layers) to ensure that everything lines up as it should. — marker 1: at about halfway through the first gif (b/w in this case) — marker 2: at about a quarter of the gif length — marker 3: close to the end of the gifs

at this point we're ready to start bringing in the tiles. I'm going to delete the base gifs from this new psd just to keep things cleaner!

first thing to do is import my b/w tile. move the timeline slider over to marker 1 and split the first gif. (if it helps, rename the split gifs and add (start) and (end) to the two halves.) then, move the (end) half to the beginning of the timeline, and the (start) half to line up with marker 3.

the purple tile is easier to manage. simply import it into the psd and line it up with marker 2.

your timeline should now look like this:

notice the overlap between the gifs at their beginnings and ends — this is where you'll be able to cascade the tiles flipping, so it helps to have a significant amount of overlap.

crop the three gifs for this tile as you see fit! since this is the first tile I want to flip from b/w to purple, I'll crop gif 1a (end) all the way to the current position of the timeline slider (red line with blue tip) and leave the beginning of gif 2a uncropped. for the flip from purple to b/w, I'll crop both gifs a bit.

once that's done, drag all three gifs onto the same level in timeline so they form a video group. your timeline should look something like this:

now you just repeat the process for all the other tiles! as long as you made sure that all the tiles in one gif correspond with tiles in the other gif in step three, this should be a fairly painless process. make sure to crop the starts/ends of the gifs separately so that they don't all flip together.

this is what my layers look once I've done all the tiles:

and the gif!

STEP FIVE: transitions! click on the half-white square (top right of the left column in the timeline, beside the scissors) and select the crossfade transition, then drag it between two gifs in a video group. it should create a two-triangle symbol and shorten the overall length of the video group.

apply the transition to all the tile flips, ensuring that the duration of all transitions is constant. this can sometimes be tricky because ps likes to change the duration of each transition, so right click on the transition symbol and manually change all your transition durations to be the same.

your layers should now look something like this:

STEP SIX: draw the grid. bring back the guide layout from step two and using the line tool (I like 2px thickness), trace the grid. adjust opacity as you see fit (50-80% is usually a good idea), so that the canvas looks like this:

STEP SEVEN: export and celebrate! you're done!

I hope this tutorial made sense and was easy to follow, and happy giffing! my inbox is always open for any questions <3

[the-californicationist]

Lost the post but it was so good and I'd love to get your take on it!

Price getting videos of you playing from home while he's deployed, and you aren't exactly quiet. Well, the boys hear it and it leads to them watching it at some point (with your permission of course!). I thoroughly believe Price loves showing off what's his and is comfortable in your relationship to consider sharing you with his team, maybe even in more ways than 1?

Maybe Price and reader record themselves a separate time to show the boys? I don't know I'm frothing at the mouth thinking of Price showing you off!

I am slowly making my way through these asks!! Thank y'all so much for being patient. As soon as I clear out my list, I'll turn the ask button back on.

This premise is so hot! Hope this is sort of what you were looking for?

Show and Tell

Price opened your video in the middle of Ghost’s briefing presentation. Luckily, only the task force was in attendance, but as he played the clip, your lust-filled moans echoed throughout the small conference room, unmistakable. All eyes turned to him, and Ghost halted mid-speech.

“Uh, sorry…” Price muttered, quickly swiping away. 

“Fuck, Cap. I know you showed us her photo, but she is damn fine,” Gaz chuckled, leaning over his commander’s shoulder to try and look at the screen.

“Eyes front, Sergeant.”

“Only seems fair to share, mate,” Johnny quipped, a gleam shining in his eye. 

Ghost put his hands on his hips, 

“If it was important enough to interrupt my presentation, maybe it’s important enough to share with the class… sir.”

Price sighed and sent off a quick text. He was asking you for permission to share. It wasn’t the first time that he’d asked you, but all the others had just been the odd picture here and there; a fancy neglige, or a holiday swimsuit… it was harmless. But, this was something else. To his surprise, you messaged back with an affirmative “Yes!” and a winking emoji. 

“Fine.”

Ghost held his hand out and beckoned for the phone,

“C’mon. We’ll put her on the big screen.”

Reluctantly, and a little worried things had gotten fully out of hand, Price handed over the phone. Your enthusiastic response was the only thing propelling him forward at this point. He wasn’t possessive, but he wasn’t much of a sharing man. 

But, then, there you were… in all of your beautiful glory. You were using your vibrator and sitting on the tile floor of your bathroom, burying a thick silicone dildo in your pussy to the hilt. Your moans echoed through the room again in spectacular 4k. 

“Mmm! Oh! Fuck… John, fuck me. Please! Yeah! Mmm. Just like that. Ungh!”

And then the video replayed on its loop. Every time, your shining lips would buzz with the whir of the vibrating wand, and your pink pussy would stretch to accommodate the toy that you were fucking yourself with, slicking it with your fluids and making it gleam. Your tits were bouncing as you rode it up and down, and your head was thrown back in beautiful abandon. 

“Alright, that’s enough,” Price decided. 

Ghost handed him back the phone with a sly smile, 

“Holy shit, Cap. She’s quite the little spitfire.”

Soap’s hand reached into his canvas pants and obviously adjusted himself, hardening like a stone. He let out a low, approving whistle. 

“She let you share that?” Gaz asked in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Price nodded, not sure what to say. 

“I want to see more,” Soap put a hand to his forehead in shock.

“Well, that’s all,” Price shrugged, and then added, “...for now.”

The whole room shifted a bit. Everyone was on edge. The rest of the briefing went by as quick as a flash, but before everyone left the room, Price suggested, 

“You know, it would only be polite to send one back.”

Later that night, he got three enthusiastic notifications. In each one, his men were jacking off to her, complimenting her, talking about what a pretty pussy she had, thanking her for sharing with them. Unzipping his pants, Price decided to add one of his own. 

As his hand worked him hard, he watched your video over and over again. He imagined how your tight little cunt felt around his cock, and how sweet you tasted. He imagined how you liked to whisper naughty things in his ear, talking to him about sucking him off in front of his task force, making them watch. Price knew you wanted to do more exhibitionism, and he encouraged you when he thought about how hot it would be to watch you discovering that pleasure. 

His cock throbbed in his hands, and he whispered into the phone as he videoed himself, 

“Such a naughty girl, you were, showing yourself to my men. We put you on the projector. You looked incredible, missus. You always look incredible. Had all of us achin’ for you. Thought Soap was gonna come right there. Ungh…”

Price tightened his grip and thrust into his palm, rubbing his foreskin up and over his swollen head, slicking himself with his precome over and over and over until it became almost too much. He told you,

“So, we decided to pay you back. For your gift. Hope you send us some more, baby. So fuckin’ hot. Mmm, fuck… my cock misses you, love. So bloody much. F– Fuck!”

Price’s orgasm erupted from his body, coating his belly in white, creamy liquid. He just kept coming and coming, thinking about how you would look with all your pretty holes filled twice. Stuffed so full with no escape. 

He sent off the files one by one, starting with his own, and he waited for your reply. 

The next morning, he woke up to two messages. One was a text, and the other was a video. The text just said: Wish you all were here with a heart emoji. When he played the video, he realized what you meant. 

You had lined up your toys, four of them, all in a row on the bed. Price pressed pause and went to go find the boys. He decided it might be better if they could all see your performance together. He set you up on the projector again, and his men filed in one by one, eager to see what you’d sent. 

“She said she wished we were all here, so I thought you lads might want to see what she sent.”

“Fuck yeah, we do,” Soap sat front and center, wiping a hand down his face, eyes glued to the screen. 

Ghost chuckled, 

“You’re a lucky man, sir.”

“That’s the fuckin’ truth, innit?” Gaz agreed. 

Once everyone was settled, Price pressed play. 

You were wearing a little black bodysuit made of silk and lace, and he could see your dark nipples through the fabric. He knew which one it was. It was crotchless, and just the memory of fucking you in it made him hard.

You sat on the bed, the four toys spread out in front of you, and you picked up the first one gently. You grabbed some lube from off-camera and squirted it all over the toy and leaned forward, squatting over it, working it into your asshole in tight little thrusts, moaning ever so sweetly as you let it fill you up. 

Then, once it was fully sheathed inside of you, you reached for the two toys in the middle, using the lube that was left on your hands to make them slip against each other. You used one to rub through your pink folds, teasing your hole with the head of it, and then — inch by inch — pushed it into your wet pussy. You took the second one and, with quite a bit of difficulty, tried to fit it in next to the first, stretching yourself out even more than you had in the first video, even with these much smaller toys. 

Price couldn’t believe his eyes. You were like some sort of sex goddess, showing off skills he didn’t even know you possessed, and your screams of pleasure were making him drunk with pride and lust. He heard a zipper go down and watched as Gaz started fucking his own hand, right in front of him. 

“Sargeant,” Price admonished him, but Gaz just shrugged and kept jerking off his long dick, 

“Sorry, Cap. Can’t help it.”

Another long moan from you drew Price’s attention back to the screen. You were reaching behind you, wrapping your arm around your body, and fucking yourself in the ass with the largest toy, calling out to him, 

“John… please. I need your cock… I need all of your cocks… ungh, fuck. Fill me with your come. Every hole. Please?”

Then, for your final performance, you used your free hand to feed the final toy into your throat, gagging on it and letting your drool run down your chin. Your legs were shivering, something that Price knew wasn’t easy to achieve. You must be so damn horny. He smiled, palming himself over his jeans, so proud of you for bringing yourself such pleasure like that. 

Ghost grunted, and Price looked over to see him hunched over, spilling his come onto the floor of the office. 

The video ended, and in the silence, the captain heard the wet milking noises of his men fisting their erections, trying to come to your incredible performance. 

Soap gasped breathlessly, 

“Hit play again, Cap’n. Please…” 

Price smiled, looking down at his team in all of their sex-addled joy, and pushed the replay button.

"Maybe we should all put in for some leave, hm?" Price suggested.

He was met with a very enthusiastic round of approving moans, and he felt the excitement rush across his skin like wildfire.

His pretty girl would have what she wanted, and he would make sure of it.

If you liked this story, you may also like one of my other fics: He Shows You Off! But, please heed the tags.

[ihueka]

bully beomgyu

bully!beomgyu who starts it off by picking on you for no reason! at first he did it for fun, just to make time pass faster in class. but later on he started getting.. touchy with you in places..

the first time he slapped your ass you let out a noise he had no idea you could make. he started seeing the faces you would make when he would slap your ass, he just loved how you would slightly jump up and shreak.

bully!beomgyu who would brush his hand against your upper thighs during classes as you would have to slap it away when the teacher asks what’s going on! he'll call you pet names behind your ear..

bully!beomgyu who teases you by taking away something you were just randomly holding, he would put it over your head watching you jump and down, and reached to grab it.

the height difference between you two causing beomgyu quite a bit of trouble. eveytime this happened, youll take youre belonging away from him, he would eye your breasts bounce, feeling his own pants suddenly tighten.

bully!beomgyu who would drag you to any empty classroom and lift your uniform skirt up and pull your undies down, slapping your ass as it turns dark shades of red by the minute. beomgyu would have you laid down and on his lap, rubbing his thumb on your clit, just so he could feel you squirm under him as you try and get off.

bully!beomgyu who blackmails you with clips of you having him deep in your mouth, the next clip showing you bouncing on his cock on the teachers chair. he has a whole album of you two and just for personal reasons. you stare back at him with doe eyes, tears slipping out of you as you beg him not to realse those videos.

bully!beomgyu who gaslights you, “i don’t want to have to show the teacher this but if you report me, i'll have to..” he grunts while holding on your hips as you sit on his lap as he rocks your hips making you rub against his bulge as you cry into his shoulder. you just nod, hugging him tight by his torso while sobbing silently.

bully!beomgyu who likes to have you in missionary most of the time because he loved watching you lose your breath as he would ram himself inside you, ignoring your pleads. beomgyu who really likes you swallow all his cum after you suck him off, he shoves his cock back in your mouth and ramming your head back and fourth as mascara runs down your face, cause he is never done.

bully!beomgyu who eventually realizes how much you loved getting treated like a rag doll. pulling him into the staff bathroom going into a stall and lifting up your skirt, hinting him to put his cock inside you.

“beomie, fuck me.. couldn’t stop think about you last period.” uou pout your lips while he had a big grin spread across his face “i thought you didn’t like doing stuff in public?” he teases, pulling down his zipper.

[dduane]

That paprikahendl recipe

So the first thing to be said is possibly the most important: this is a paprikahendl recipe. (And in this case, it was made with duck, because we were out of chicken... so it's probably paprikaentl, if anything.) :)

Everybody's mom or grandmother would've had her own version of this, which would naturally be the best one in the mind of the person you were talking to. The original dish, though—as @petermorwood has pointed out—would have been a peasant dish of the use-a-moderate-amount-of-flavorful-and-spicy-meat-to-season-a-lot-of-noodles-or-whatever kind. If you're a peasant, after all (and maybe even if you're not, of late...), meat is expensive, so in dishes of this kind it's used as more of a seasoning for what you have plenty of—in this case, the tiny flour-based noodles-or-dumplings called spaetzle. (In its rural beginnings, of course, the meat probably would've been a laying chicken that was too old to lay any more... or even a cockerel that had started shooting blanks, and whose morning racket was starting to get on your nerves.)

Later, though, a small tender chicken (or two) was seen as preferable. Paprikahendl became very popular in Hungary and other parts of central Europe, and in the process—over time—got taken somewhat upmarket. The recipe I used as my basis for this version is one that apparently was (and who knows, maybe still is) served at one of Vienna's famous Sacher establishments. As a result it contains elements I'm none too sure about—such as the last-minute apple—but otherwise seems to me to hold water.

The full recipe is here. Now let me tell you what I did to with it.

(inserting a cut here, so those who don't want to watch a bunch of video clips of things frying and cooking won't have to...)

Normally in the initial stage of this recipe, you'd cut up a whole small chicken (or two) into pieces, color them in your preferred frying fat (in Hungary, possibly lard, but at very least butter) and then set them aside to make the sauce. In this case, since the meat I had to work with was duck, I cooked that as directed and put it aside while we went off to do some other stuff. I also made spaetzle to go on the side, as it's the kind of thing you'd be likely to run into regionally. These we can fortunately buy ready-made, like most other kinds of pasta. Or you can make them from scratch. Since I now have a Magic Spaetzle Machine to do this, I'll show how that's done some other time. (Or you could look at this video...)

Then, to make the sauce, I pulled together:

The zest and juice of a lemon

Half an onion or more, chopped fine (I have to be careful with onions, as too much will set off my IBS)

Off to one side, I asked Peter to do the dry paprika mix for me. This was two very heaping tablespoons of paprika, and about half a teaspoon of cayenne, to mock up the heat of the hotter paprika that would have been used in small villages in the Carpathians.

Then I clarified some butter in the microwave, about three tablespoons of it (you melt it in a tall glass and set this aside until the milk solids settle out, then pour off the clarified butterfat) and dumped that in the big cookpot along with the onions.

When those had hit the cooked-until-translucent point, I cut the duck up into chunks and got them ready to go in: then added the paprika and (when that had fried a little) the lemon juice. (Paprika can taste a little raw in a sauce if you don't fry it a bit first.)

Then in went 125 ml of rose wine (I'd have used white if I'd had any, but whatever...) and about 500 ml of chicken stock, and everything got stirred very well together.

After that, the duck got chucked in and the pot was covered and left to simmer for 45 minutes or so. Normally this would be the time a raw chicken would need to cook, and naturally the duck was well cooked already: but it seemed to me that another 45 minutes getting even more tender couldn't hurt it.

So that was what happened. At the end of 45 minutes, the duck was removed and set aside while I got busy with finishing the sauce. You lower the temperature in the big pot until the pre-sauce liquid is just barely simmering. Then to thicken it, you use about a cup of the thickest sour cream you can lay your hands on, with a third of a cup of flour beaten into it very well with a fork. At which point you should be able to do this with the fork:

Now you find a big balloon whisk and start whisking this mixture into the pre-sauce, sort of a tablespoon or two at a time...making sure each dose of sour cream + flour is very well beaten in, leaving no lumps, before adding the rest. When it's all in there, you very gently raise the heat, stirring or whisking occasionally, until the sauce starts to thicken. Then add the meat back in and let it warm through in there for a little while longer: ten or fifteen minutes should do it.

Assuming that people are ready to eat, you heat the spaetzle (and toss it with some butter), plate it up, and add the paprikahendl on top. And dig in.

...Anyway, that was my take. If you go googling for "paprikahendl", you will find many, many more recipes: some far less complex than this approach, some far more so. Pick one that suits you and see what you make of it. This one worked really well, though: so you might like to take a shot at it.

If you do: enjoy!

[the-nosy-neighbor]

I was going through text and sound today, looking for mentions of a thing (I'll talk about it later) being repeated, and I pulled up all the audio from the secret videos:

Because at this point, I've rabbitholed far, far away from where I meant to be. I had also gotten a bit distracted about "the numbers are so hard to read." I don't think I've ever read any theorizing including numbers.

And as I was watching these videos, I saw Wally reach out and tap his cup 3 times. So, I started over, noting the numbers that are said or visuals that you can count:

Poppy/Howdy: Can see 4 balls of yarn

Poppy/Sally: Wally taps 3 times, 2 geese because they are that puzzle kind

Sally/Howdy: There are 2 fruit loops right in our field of vision

Frank/Barnaby: 10 figures (an extra on each side you can see as the video slightly pans.) 3 tomatoes can be seen, with 1 squashed

Barnaby/Eddie: this one doesn't seem to have one? There are 2 or 3 letters on the screen, it's hard to tell

Julie/Frank: 6 figures, 2 tomatoes

Julie/Eddie: 4 crayons

Frank/Eddie: A ton of paper chains. I noticed during this scene that Eddie calls Frank "Frank" and then changes to Mr. Frankly, so it got me to wondering if the lack of number is because a plot point is in the segment. (I know, way out there)

Frank/Poppy: 6 apples on the board, 1 doily

Sally/Jules: 3 images on the script board, Julie makes 3 decrees, she demands 2, 20, 30 in hopscotch,

Julie/Barnaby: 3, 2, 1 (Remember to come back to look at Barnaby talking about being small) Also, here, Julie says "I have a joke that will knock your head off." That's not a typical way to say that. Usually, it's "knock your socks off" so I think we can assume that this is more headless Barnaby motif.

Barnaby/Howdy: 1 ice cream, 1 berry, 2 straws, 1 spoon

Howdy/Eddie: 5 apples, they say 1 and 2

Barnaby/Home: 3, 1, 2 , 4, 4, 2

I may be way off base here, but we've been told about the numbers for a while now. I also want to post another thing about numbers later.

I really don't think it would be accidental, but I don't really know how often numbers are used in a video/script/conversation naturally. Also, I would just be assuming that they wanted us to count things in front of us. That is kind of a crazy idea.

But on the other other hand, the videos are in a particular order (they are named with numbers). The going theory on that is that they progress through the day during the videos, first video being the morning and last video being the evening. But what if the videos are also numbered so that we can put numbers in the right order?

We also had this mechanic in the hidden sound clip naming, which allowed us to hear Wally's message in order. Numbers being ordered that way isn't too far fetched when considering the precedent.

In short, I don't know, but here are some numbers. I think there is something missing from this theory, in that we haven't been provided with a key to tell us what numbers count. Then we'd have to find some kind of way to translate those numbers into something usable.

Comments and ideas welcome. I will even accept and encourage telling me I've been staring at Welcome Home for too long..

I'm going to go find a random video and see how many times you get numbers or a repeated word.

[croucify]

✶ STARGIRL — hamzahthefantastic x reader

004 ✶ Worth It For Once

stargirl masterfile – next – previous

SUMMARY: hamzah has a crush on a youtuber who's always out and about and slushies see their relationship progress on social media! (smau)

DISCLAIMER: reader is a brown haired girl and for some pics that aren't faceless, i'll be using olivia rodrigo cause i love her and she’s filipino like me hehehe

A/N: THANK U SM FOR 100 FOLLOWERS!!! here’s part 4 for now and i’ll be posting my 100 special later <33

liked by kynewman, user168, and others

slushynoobz New video with 2 random girls that did our makeup, help us spread the virus plzsz

view comments

user627 I'm scared

user019 hamzahs face LMAOOAOAOO

ynln virus has been spread to me pls send help

↳ hamzahthefantastic I'm right here to help

↳ ynln okay dr hamzah!

↳ thatmartinkid stop flirting in front of me pls.

↳ ynln oh thats not…

user804 MANDY AND Y/N IN ONE VIDEO OMFG

user567 is this a slushynoobz x gfs video...

We Got Makeovers

91k views • 10 hours ago

uploaded by slushynoobz

the first clip of the video showed you and mandy sitting on the couch, dressed like hamzah and martin.

you were in an all-camouflage outfit while mandy wore a button-up tee that her boyfriend usually wore. “hi it’s hamzah,” the boy said off-camera while you mouthed the words. martin and mandy doing the same.

“woah! i look a bit different today hamzah and you look different too!” martin continued after saying hello to the camera.

the girls were trying not to laugh then martin and hamzah went to sit beside them. “we’re just joking!” martin laughed as he was finally seen in the frame.

“today’s video is gonna be real special cause we have two guests,” you smile at hamzah while he speaks to the camera, this being noticed only by martin and mandy. “mandy and y/n and they will be cooking something up with us.”

the two boys continued explaining and joking around before you and mandy started prepping their faces for the makeup.

the whole time, you and mandy joked and teased the boys about them being canceled for this video as it looks like they’re queerbaiting.

“are we actually?” martin asked with wide eyes, looking between his friend and the girls.

you and mandy kept a straight face on that convinced the boys until you two gave each other a look and burst out into laughter.

the video switches to a new clip and it starts out with you feeling your leg cramping up and feeling like it was sleeping.

after a while of putting makeup on hamzah, the worst part of it was putting on eyeliner on a boy. and you thought it was already hard for you but it was even harder now.

it was hard keeping his face in place while you drew the line and so, you straddle him, legs on the side of his thighs and you were sat on his lap.

hamzah’s hands found their way to your hips, holding you so you don’t fall off. your cheeks were flushed when you felt his hands and you were thankful his eyes were currently closed and your back was facing the camera.

mandy and martin were too busy in their own world while she did his makeup. “it’s good now, open please.” you whispered to hamzah and he opened his eyes. you looked at both the eyeliner's shapes and his eyes went from your eyes to your lips and when you caught him you got off his lap and sat beside him again.

you and mandy finished with their makeup at the same time and the boys showed off their looks while you filmed them.

you four were laughing the whole time, the sound of your laughter still in hamzah’s mind even after filming.

hamzah was beside you while filming the outro, wrapping an arm around his body and leaning to his side with mandy doing the same.

you can feel your breath hitching in your throat as you look up at hamzah and when he catches you looking at him, he sends you a small smile.

even with the camera recording you two, you didn’t seem to care what their viewers would think. your gaze was still on hamzah and his on yours, his mouth gaping slightly to say something but was cut off by martin’s voice.

“hamzah? hamzaahhh?” he tried to get his attention, mandy noticing what was going on.

he looked up at his friend then his eyebrows knit in confusion. martin nods his head towards the camera and he faced there too.

the four of you all smiled at the camera awkwardly then the video ends.

✶ taglist — @cdbabymp3 @noturbabe22 @dabuggh3 @kingvioleta @tumb1rgir1z LMK IF U WANNA BE ADDEDDD!!!

[kuromori4]

New Theory-

London special- Adrien made the wish and here’s why:

**edited to add new discoveries!

I was not expecting the full trailers to drop so soon after my speculation post!! I’ve been poring over them and screenshotting and theorizing the HELL out of them!

(On that note, this theory post will be LONG! But I have a lot of great theories!)

My Original theory was that somehow Adrien discovered the truth about everything. That his girlfriend is Ladybug, that everyone has been lying to him, his father was Monarch, that he’s a Sentimonster, and indirectly the cause of BOTH of his own parents deaths.

He learns that all of this pain and suffering was caused simply so that he could exist. So Adrien decides the world would be better off if his parents had never created him. If Adrien is never born, his Mother never dies. His father doesn’t become the villain and doesn’t die either. Nathalie never gets sick, Master Fu never loses his memories, and Marinette never has the burden of being Ladybug and Guardian placed on her shoulders. (Effectively causing the 'End of Ladybug!') Nobody suffers, nobody dies. 

So Adrien decides the only thing that can end all of the suffering his existence has caused, is the wish. Ladybug often says that any wish made would have to serve the greater good. Would Adrien not see removing himself from the timeline as a sacrifice for the greater good? 

With the new trailers released, I really think my theory is even more possible! But with more info, some things need to be rearranged. I’ll be looking at clips from both the English trailer and French/Disney channel trailer that dropped.

Let’s break it down! 

Bug Noire faces the aftermath

The trailers show a few interesting details throughout what we can assume is the aftermath of the final battle. We see BugNoire Cataclysm the Kwami prison, BugNoire in the basement, Marinette looking at Emilie’s empty coffin/chamber, some shots of Gabe from the final battle, speaking to Gimme, and Monarch losing his Miraculous. 

I can’t be sure where in the timeline this hug with Nathalie occurs, but I'll mention it now. It’s not the only time we’ve seen them hug… the image in the bottom right is from the previous teaser video.

So Bug Noire and Nathalie hug in the ruined basement, then later, Marinette runs into her arms? So… does Nathalie know Marinette’s identity now??

And of course Nathalie has no robot legs, so we have clear confirmation that she’s been cured. (Not that we had any doubt.)

Bug Noire flies to London to free Adrien and give him the bad news

In both trailers we see shots of BugNoire flying through both Paris, and London.

Then we see BugNoire in Adrien’s white cell, obviously giving him the bad news that his Father is dead. Note that Gorilla is here, (and upset!) 

Kagami is obviously there because she was also held prisoner, but her expression here is very interesting. Kagami gives some serious side eye. If BugNoire is lying to Adrien about the circumstances of his father’s death, Kagami would know. She knows Ladybug is Marinette, and that Gabriel was Monarch. She may be unhappy with BugNoire’s decision to lie to Adrien. She’s clearly being quiet about it, not opposing her lie. But she’s not happy.

Then we see BugNoire try to comfort him, and it’s strained. (I threw in the shot of Kagami comforting him, because I also find it interesting)

LB gives an announcement about Monarch’s defeat

In the French trailer, we hear LB’s voice saying (Translated) “It's time to bring the truth to light” and she appears to be giving a speech, likely concerning Monarch’s defeat. And she looks PISSED. Possibly because she has to lie about Monarch. (We hear Gabe’s voice in the trailer asking her to “make sure Adrien never knows the villain that I was”)

Marinette puts away the earrings

We see Marinette putting the Earrings back in their box, closing it, and putting it in her vanity drawer. This is also interesting to me because later on, we’ll see that she’s wearing them when they get stolen.

So why put them away? Perhaps she thinks her job is done, it’s over? Time to retire? Maybe she needs a mental health break? (Who wouldn’t?) Maybe she feels guilty for all that happened and thinks she doesn’t deserve to be Ladybug any more?

***Edit to add!: Someone brought it to my attention that these shots appear to be frame for frame, the same as Origins pt 1, when Marinette puts the earrings in the drawer with the intention of giving them to Alya the next day. Later in this theory I show Bunnyx dropping Marinette into her bedroom right in front of the vanity. It's quite possible that (current) Marinette is going to borrow the earrings from her past self to become Chronobug!!

LB and CN hug

Not sure when this will take place chronologically either, but let's get it out of the way. Look at this hug. It isn't just a hug.

it's a squeeze. They hold each other TIGHT. There seems to be some level of comforting, or relief, or upset there. There is certainly emotion in it.

However, I can’t be sure, but It looks to me like Chat is smiling? So it may not be a sad moment? And if he had just found out his dad's dead as Adrien... I don’t think he'd look happy.

Maybe it's the first time they see each other after the final battle? It could be an ‘I missed you’ squeeze. Ladybug never thought she would have to face Monarch without him. I’m sure she was concerned for Chat when Plagg showed up on his own. It could also be Chat comforting her over everything she went through alone. (Or vice-versa?)

Or maybe they’re saying goodbye? With Monarch defeated, maybe they consider hanging up their masks? (Which might explain Mari putting the earrings away?)

The real question is what does Chat/Adrien know or think he knows at this point?

Marinette tries to sleep

We see Marinette, after everything, trying to get some sleep. The poor girl has huge awful bags under her eyes, so it’s clear she hasn’t rested, and likely has been crying. She’s clearly distraught over this.

Some things to note about these shots: She’s wearing the earrings AND Chat’s ring to bed. (The cat Miraculous is rose gold when disguised for Marinette.) This means she either never sent Chat back his Miraculous, or they’ve already decided to retire from being Superheroes and she’s ‘taken’ it back.

Tikki and Plagg are on the bed with her, and all of the Kwamis are home and sleeping around the room. 

Ghost Guy is Adrien?

Ok so here’s where it gets really interesting: This guy shows up. I’m calling him ‘Ghost guy’

I believe Ghost guy is Adrien. There is also potential for him to be Felix, and I’m totally open to that possibility, but for now, I’m focusing on my theories for Adrien. (I do address Felix speculations at the end!)

So we see Ghost guy’s head pop up through the bed beside Tikki and Plagg. They are sleeping on top of Marinette’s blanket, right beside her. This guy is uncomfortably close to them.

Then we see him walking through her room, glancing behind him over his shoulder to look at Marinette, asleep in her loft bed.

(We’ll get to the last shot in a minute) Then we see his ghostly hand going through what appears to be either Marinette’s sewing box, or the vanity drawer.

In the French trailer, we see him more clearly, possibly hovering over her, and he’s putting the re-configured Miraculous rings on his fingers. Then we see his hand plucking the earring off her ear. (pictured above) Since Marinette was also wearing Chat’s ring, he must have taken that as well.

Moving forward we are going to assume that this is Adrien, that he knows everything, and plans to use the Miraculous to wish himself out of existence. Here’s why I think it’s him:

Starting with body language:

He seems to have some level of comfort with his proximity to Marinette and the Kwamis. He’s moving slowly. He’s not in a rush, he’s not being particularly sneaky, and you can tell it's quiet. It's like he's wandering around her room, observing. Even the way he slowly drags his hand through the drawer/sewing box. I feel like there’s almost a familiarity there. Somehow, that seems personal. You could even say based on body language that he seems sad, or wistful? It could even be guilt, reluctance, longing or regret?

If this is Adrien, he could feel guilty about what he’s about to do, or debating if he should go through with it. He could be in awe/shock at seeing the evidence of his girlfriend being Ladybug right in front of his eyes. And look at the way he looks up at Marinette’s bed?? It’s not full of hatred, or malice. His shoulders are relaxed, his arms/hands at his side. You’d think if this was Lila or someone who wanted to hurt her that they would have tense or angry body language?

Whoever this is, he doesn’t seem to have interest in hurting her. He takes the earrings without waking her up, he doesn’t attack her. In fact, across both trailers, we don’t get a single shot where LB is fighting or confronting him in any way. (She does fight Clock dude, but we’ll get to that!)

But if Adrien only needs the Bug and Cat Miraculouses to make the wish, why does he take the Monarch rings? So that Marinette can't stop him! If he leaves the other Miraculous with her, He knows she’ll try to stop him. She’s Ladybug. Of course she’d find a way! Even if she doesn’t know it’s him. And if for some reason she did figure out it was him and what he was trying to do, he KNOWS she'd stop him. This leaves her powerless and ensures he completes his mission.

Appearance:

Whether or not Ghost guy is Adrien, I do believe he’s a he. (Or at the least, male presenting)

Sure, he’s skinny. But he has fairly broad shoulders, flat chest, thicker thighs, Masculine hands, and slightly squared-out body features. 

Now look at the features of his suit- The shapes and patterns are familiar. The symbol on Ghost guy’s chest may look like an owl, but it also has a distinct shape that can be seen on Aspik’s, Snake Noir’s, and even Mister Bug’s suit. The helmet head is to hide his hair, with the pointy hood at the back being similar to Ephemeral’s, as is the glowing suit, which is also seen on Rabbit Noir’s suit. (And Astrocat’s, which also shares similarities in the helmet shape!)

Most significantly, the shoulder armor. It’s a consistent feature in most of Adrien’s personas. Some kind of shoulder armor/design or feature is prominent on Chat Noir, Astrocat, Mister Bug, Aspik, and even to a certain extent, Catwalker’s. Even the V shaped forehead/brow design is seen multiple times. (Aspik, Snake Noir, Ephemeral) 

And finally- The hand- look at the hand that phases through. Look at them long fingies! The small wrist and wide palm. It totally looks like Adrien's hand. Or at the very least, a masculine hand. (I added pics of Adrien’s hands further down)

Powers: 

Obviously this guy’s powers include phasing like a ghost, both through things, as well as in and out of visibility. If Adrien is trying to un-wish himself, I think his ghostliness could be symbolic here too.

I also don’t think Ghost guy is time travelling. He doesn’t seem to have time travel powers, and he seems to be only active at the beginning/setup, to steal the Miraculouses. He doesn’t appear to be involved afterward.

His appearance in Lila’s Lair (The catacombs)

Ghost guy is also seen in Lila’s lair, (shown above) phasing into the floor. In this scene he doesn’t touch/interact with anything. He seems to just be observing again. He doesn’t take the notebook that’s on the table in front of him (A notebook that everyone seems to be fighting over, see below) He's just there, and then phases away. If this is Adrien, what is he doing here in Lila's lair? Also, the open boxes on the table are noteworthy.

Marinette wakes up, Bunnyx grabs her

So the next morning, Marinette discovers the Miraculouses gone.Then Bunnyx grabs her and drags her into the Burrow. She has no Miraculous, so she stays Marinette, and at some point acquires a yellow vest. We see Mari and Bunnyx being shocked over time portals disappearing. Then it looks like Bunnyx deposits Mari back in her bedroom. (Though I have to wonder if this is her same bedroom? Or another timeline/universe? The synopsis does mention Bunnyx sending her back in time.)

Bunnyx helps someone up?

This one is VERY interesting to me. Who is she helping up? Who’s hands are these? I think most would assume that since we know Marinette ends up in the Burrow, that this must be Marinette. But Bunnyx grabbed her from behind, by the arms. Sure, Marinette is clumsy and could have fallen. But why the first person point of view? And why did this scene flash so damn fast it was almost impossible to spot? 

I’m going to go crazy about hands again, but these look like Adrien’s hands too! The skin tone, the wide palms! Below, I purposely selected pics with both Adrien and Marinette’s hands in them for comparison. You can also compare them to Ghost Guy’s hand in the drawer!

We always go on about how Luka is the only one who knows Adrien's identity, but… does Bunnyx? (And if she does, is it the present or future Bunnyx who does? We are consistently seeing young Bunnyx in these trailers.) Adrien/Chat has also used the Rabbit Miraculous before. He’s been in control of the Burrow before. 

Clock dude

Ok, on a completely opposite note, I am convinced that Clock dude is a woman! I also think that it’s Lila. Here’s why:

The only visual confirmation we get that Lila is involved at all is her face on one of the promo posters, and the scenes that show her lair in the catacombs.

But we do get this one shot of a slender, feminine hand (With a super wonky thumb, lol) holding the notebook. I assume this is Lila’s hand. Although we have a sleeve/cuff similar to Mari’s, it’s missing pink polka dots and the skintone is off for Mari, who is rather pinkish. Plus, this is Lila’s lair. It makes sense that it could be her.

Now let’s look at Clock dude.

Clock dude looks awfully slender. The thighs, wrists, arms and shoulders are all very slim, long, and feminine. Look at those long skinny legs! Sure, Chat Noir has long skinny legs, but they are thicker than this. In fact his legs are quite curvy, being thicker at the calf and thigh. 

Now look at the vest/chest armor type thing they are wearing. This part looks like it could be there purposely to conceal breasts. The boots even look like they could have heels!

Power-wise, it’s pretty clear that Clock dude has time-jumping abilities. They seem to interact with something on their wrist before poofing out. (Potentially to another time?) They also seem to be holding the notebook in their hand.

It should also be noted that Clock dude appears to play the role of villain. We see multiple shots where it’s implied that Ladybug (Or in this case, Chronobug?) is fighting them. 

Lila’s blue light from S5

So Clock dude has a very telling blue glow. Much like the blue light Lila sees at the end of Season 5. (Ghost guy also glows blue, so that’s another possibility.) 

The blue light from S5 could be Clock dude’s time portal opening up. Clock dude could be their own person, OR, it could be Lila’s future self! This might explain her reaction to the portal as well. I’d imagine seeing your future self might be pretty shocking. It's possible that Clock guy jumps to this time to start Lila on her path.It could also explain some other things. Like how did Lila get down to the basement during the final battle? She was on the floor above them. The elevator was broken. How did she get the Butterfly Miraculous from the basement water before BugNoire, without being seen?

If she’s Clock dude and is jumping all over time, She could have easily gone to the basement, collected the Butterfly Miraculous, then gave it to another version of herself. (Or some other such time travel paradox bullshit!) 

Especially since we see the Clock dude in the garden watching Nathalie and BugNoire after the battle. We know that Lila must have been present at that point to retrieve the Butterfly, right? But who’s visibly present? Bug Noire, Nathalie, and Clock dude. After all, we never see Lila herself retrieve the Butterfly from the water.

The notebook

This notebook is ALL over the trailers- everything seems to revolve around it. We know that the notebook contains the note claiming that Marinette is Ladybug. We see what I assume is Chronobug’s hands holding the notebook open to the offending page, and it appears that she is in the burrow. (White background with a portal visible in the bottom left corner)

You see Clock guy holding it before they disappear in the basement (See above) 

We see (Possibly Lila) holding it in her Lair. (Complete with mysterious jewellery boxes?)

You can see Clock dude’s arm holding it in Lila’s Lair. (There are no jewellery boxes in this shot. Also if Clock dude is Lila, then it’s her hand both times.)

There’s a shot of Clock dude jumping for it, in front of one of Bunnyx’s (Maybe Chronobug’s?) portals. And interestingly, they appear to be in the white cell/prison that Adrien was held in!

Then we see Chronobug’s hand grab it off the floor of the white cell from a portal. And finally, we see it in front of Ghost guy when he phases through Lila’s Lair. (And again, he doesn’t touch it.)

Perhaps Lila may be trying to plant the book where Adrien can find it. Maybe she is trying to set off a series of events for Adrien to get him to attempt the wish? It’s also possible that she’s doing all of this to hurt Marinette, and didn’t anticipate what Adrien would do with that information?

If Lila has proof of Marinette’s identity in that book, then we can assume she wants to use thaat information to ruin her life. How could Lila best use Marinette’s identity against her? Sure, the world can't know who Ladybug is. But Lila already knows.Felix knows. Kagami and Luka do too. And now possibly Nathalie? Really, a bunch of people already know. The biggest threat was Monarch, and now he’s gone. Tomoe could be a threat, with the potential of carrying on with Gabriel’s plans, but she seems completely absent from this so far.

So who is the most dangerous person that Lila could give that information to? Who’s story ends very badly every time he finds out Marinette’s identity? That’s right. Adrien.

We know Lila’s has a vendetta against Mari/Ladybug. Hitting her where it hurts most (Right in the boyfriend) by planting the book where Adrien can find it, could be her main goal here. Destroying Marinette in the most painful way possible. Through the boy she loves. And if this info causes Adrien to realize the truth about everything, it could set him on a path of trying to make the wish to undo the damage his existence has caused. 

So I did mention earlier there’s a chance that Ghost guy could be Felix. There ARE similarities that you could consider. He does look exactly like Adrien after all, same body type, shape, hands, etc. 

Felix’s involvement?

Outfit: 

When Felix became Flairmidable, he also had shoulder armor. However, I want to point out that he was pretending to be Adrien then. It stands to reason that the Flairmidable outfit is less about what Felix would wear, and more about what he thought Adrien would wear.

Then we have Ghost guy’s hood. Yes, Felix wears a hood as Argos. I’d still argue that the hood looks much more like Aspik’s headgear in style and shape. Then from the scene where Ghost guy is standing in Lila’s lair, we can sort of make out his back, and it looks like he might have a slight set of tails on the back of his outfit, which is slightly reminiscent of Felix’s argos costume. I’ve seen it mentioned by other theorists. (I got this pic off someone’s Tumblr, hope it’s ok) There’s also the pose, a shot from the back where his hands are at his sides with fists clenched. 

However, based on pose alone it could be anyone. Chat Noir and Viperion have been seen in the exact same pose. And those interesting details that I pointed out previously for shape and style in Adrien’s other personas don’t apply to Felix. All in all, there aren't very many similarities. (They also don’t apply to Viperion, so you can’t even say it’s a style belonging to the snake Miraculous either!)

Now looks aside, What about motive? We Know Felix wants to protect Adrien. We know he also knows Ladybug’s Identity, As well as Monarch’s. He has all this info at his disposal, and has for some time. So why would he steal the Miraculous from Marinette AGAIN? And why NOW? Adrien’s father is dead. Even though it hurts Adrien, in essence, Felix’s goal is met. Gabriel will abuse his son no longer. So why would Felix need to make a wish? He has the Peacock Miraculous, no one can use it against them. I mean the only thing that comes to mind is potentially wishing that the 3 senti-kids are made into ‘real’ kids? Honestly, that actually seems pretty weak to me. 

Plus, isn’t Felix working towards redemption? We see him and Kagami joining the kids for the pool party at the end of season 5, and they seem to have been added to the lineup of heroes. Do you think Ladybug would EVER trust him EVER if he had managed to steal all the Miraculous from her TWICE, and make a wish? HELL NO. Even if he pulled out some sob story about helping Adrien, there’s no way. 

You could argue that at least this time, Marinette having Chat Noir’s ring with her is a rare opportunity to get 2 for 1. But… How would Felix even know that she has both? Felix was mysteriously missing from the entire finale scenario, besides returning Kagami to her mom just to be imprisoned. (I have my questions about this, for sure)

I’m not saying I don’t think Felix is involved at all. Because I’d sure as hell like to know where the hell he’s been?! And how, after everything, he seems to get into Marinette’s good graces enough to at least be present with the rest of the team in the future. (Though I’ve heard it argued that his presence may be out of necessity, because he knows too much about LB and she needs to keep him close. Which makes sense for sure.)

I’ve also heard it argued that If Ghost guy is Felix, perhaps he knows Clock dude is coming and tries to take the Miraculous to protect them before Clock dude can get their hands on them. Which… why wouldn’t he just show up to warn Marinette that Clock dude is coming?

Unanswered questions!

Assuming any of these theories are correct, I still have unanswered questions. 

How does Lila become Clock dude, where does her time power come from? Does she Akumatize herself like Gabe did? We see Nooroo and the Butterfly Miraculous on the table in her Lair, both with Clock Dude and Ghost guy. But Gabriel would take off the Miraculous when he Akumatized himself, so it’s not ruled out.

How does Adrien become Ghost guy? Where does his power come from?

How does Marinette become Chronobug? By all accounts, her Miraculous is gone. So how does she get the yellow Ladybug suit? Is she wearing Bunnyx’s Miraculous? Or is it a fusion?

Where is FELIX?

The takeaway:

To me, this tells a story similar to Chat Blanc, in that way that it proves to Ladybug that without a shadow of a doubt, Adrien and/or Chat Noir CANNOT know the truth. It gives a completely rational explanation for why the story may progress with Adrien being oblivious to his father’s identity, and/or his being a Senti-being. She might learn that an Adrien who knows the truth would be an Adrien who doesn’t want to exist. She wouldn’t want that for him. This is all irrefutable reasoning for Marinette to NEVER tell him. 

She wouldn’t even have to find out that Adrien is Chat Noir for this theory to work. Think about it, if she finds out it’s ADRIEN who steals the Miraculous, that would explain why Ghost Guy’s suit looks more like Aspik’s and Ephemeral’s suits than any of Chat’s other identities. Because Marinette KNOWS Aspik was Adrien. (Though she wouldn’t remember Ephemeral.) It wouldn’t even necessarily reveal his Chat Noir sides. 

Also keep in mind that this is her boyfriend! Of course she trusts him, and wouldn’t initially suspect him, because it would be so outside of her wildest thoughts. And discovering that her boyfriend is so distraught over his father’s crimes and the truth of his existence that he tries to end it? (Or at the very least stop it from ever beginning?) It would hurt her SO much. Because of course, she’s going to feel responsible for everything! That she somehow failed as Ladybug, failed to protect Adrien, failed to stop Gabriel, lost the Miraculous again.

And of course, this even helps along the Lila is Clock dude theory. She wants to destroy Marinette. And what better way than by destroying her through the boy she loves??

Yes, that would probably mean that if Marinette fixes everything, Adrien will forget it all (or… never have learned it. Time travel, AmIRight?) and it never happens (Again)

Adrien can’t know things

We see repeatedly that Adrien learning the truth only hurts him. And others. This would be the proof Marinette needs to always keep the truth from him. A valid reason for Marinette to lie to her boyfriend. 

Because if she doesn't, the world ends. Or he gets akumatized, or he goes off the deep end and tries to wish himself unborn.

I'M SORRY IT WAS SO LONG BUT IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR, WHAT DO YOU THINK?

[seokjinsonlyone]

in which you want to kiss jungkook's cheek...

[10:28pm] yn: you look handsome :p

you tossed your phone away as soon as you sent the message. you were used to thinking these thoughts not verbalizing them. but you know you appreciate it when he tells you that you look good, so it’s only right to reciprocate. your phone buzzed back almost immediately which you weren’t expecting.

[10:29pm] jk 🤪💜: thank yooouuuu

[10:29pm] jk 🤪💜: wyd

[10:31pm] yn: in bed

[10:31pm] yn: on my phone

[10:31pm] yn: looking at this and that

[10:33pm] jk 🤪💜: you should come over

you were literally looking at videos of him at the calvin klein launch party which was what prompted your message in the first place.

[10:34pm] yn: ??????

[10:34pm] yn: aren't u at a party

[10:35pm] jk 🤪💜: i was

[10:35pm] yn: ??????

[10:35pm] jk 🤪💜: i left

you furrowed your brows going back to check the time stamp on the video you just watched, but lo and behold there was a new video posted from five minutes ago and it was of him leaving. your brain short circuited at the clip of him walking past the camera to get back into his car. his cheek looked ripe enough to pick. you wanted to kiss it so bad

[10:38pm] yn: dang that was quick how long were you there

[10:39pm] jk 🤪💜: like 30 minutes

[10:39pm] yn: 😭😭😭

[10:39pm] yn: ur literally a brand ambassador don't u get paid to go to those things

[10:40pm] jk 🤪💜: LOL i get paid to APPEAR so i appeared and then disappeared

[10:40pm] jk 🤪💜: i don't like going to those things by myself i would've stayed if i could bring u with me

you jutted your lip out, heart softening as butterflies began fluttering in your tummy. you have no idea what you would do at a function like that even if you could show up with him. it was as much your scene as it was his, but if he needed the support you'd 100% step up.

[10:42pm] jk 🤪💜: so are you coming over???

[10:43pm] yn: it's kinda late ain't it

[10:43pm] jk 🤪💜: you could stay the night????

you bit your lip. your relationship was all of a week old and he already wanted you to spend the night? you didn't know what to say. it wasn't like you didn't want to. like, it sounded really good in theory, it's just... weren't you skipping a couple steps?

[10:46pm] yn: that's kind of fast, isn't it?

you sat waiting for his response, noticing the text bubbles come and go several times.

[10:50pm] jk 🤪💜: i mean if you don't want to that's fine but i think we should just do whatever feels right for us without thinking about other people.

your heart picked up its pace at his statement brain fixating on the word 'us'. you and him. he was right. that was all that mattered in your relationship. if he wanted you to come and you wanted to go then why not?

[10:52pm] yn: oh. yeah okay. i'll come

[10:52pm] jk 🤪💜: i'm not trying to pressure you !

[10:52pm] jk 🤪💜: you really don't have to come if that's too soon for you it won't hurt my feelings

[10:53pm] yn: no i want to! just let me throw a bag together and i'll be on my way!!!

you hurried, grabbing whatever laundry was at the top of your pile and haphazardly stuffing it in your backpack while putting all of your toiletries into your tote bag. you contemplate changing into an outfit but then shake your head. it was eleven o clock at night and you already told him you were in bed, he should be expecting the worse.

thirty minutes later and you were standing outside of jungkook's door, biting the inside of your cheek, as you rocked from heel to toe waiting for him to open the door. and dear god you must've saved a group of orphans from a burning building in a past life because being able to see jeon jungkook in the flesh, hair half up half down, bangs spread across his forehead, bunny smile blossoming on his lips was certainly some kind of blessing.

he grabbed your bags from you and set them down near the couch before pulling you into a hug, one arm wrapped around your hips the other around your shoulder, your face completely smushed into his chest which was deliciously firm and required every ounce of self restraint not to sink your teeth into his pecs.

"missed you," he said, pulling back to get a good look at you. there was a small section in your brain that wanted to feel self conscious but you couldn't find it in you to care all that much when he was rubbing small circles into your back. he made you feel too good.

"you saw me two days ago," you deflected.

"still missed you tho. wanna see you everyday."

you shook your head, toying with the hem of his shirt. he was still all dressed up. "how long have you been home?"

"maybe 15-20 minutes."

"why you still in your party clothes then?"

"you told me i looked handsome, so i wanted you to see me in person."

you breathed out a laugh and looked up at him again, letting go of his shirt, hesitating briefly before reaching out and twirling his hair in your hands and tucking that one loose strand behind his ear. "you are handsome and very very pretty."

"pretty?" he asked giggling.

you nodded resolutely, absolutely taken by the way his nose scrunched up as he laughed, cheeks puffed out reminding you of how badly you wanted to kiss them. you weren't sure how to go about it tho. like, you could just go for it. that was your boyfriend. cheek kisses were definitely on the table, but you just hadn't gotten used to wanting. you were always the one that gave yourself up to those who wanted you simply because they would have you but you don't think you've ever wanted someone back. so this feeling of actually being invested in a relationship was new.

he knocked his nose against yours. "you're prettier."

and you knew he was messing with you. could tell he was waiting on you to make the first move by the way he lingered, his breath intermingling with yours. but you just couldn't push yourself to do it. it felt like an invisible force was holding you back.

he backed up from you. "okay. i'm gonna go change now. you can find something to watch if you want."

you nodded mildly disappointed. the hug was really nice. much appreciated, but it had been two days. you wanted a little more. you groaned internally. you were just gonna have to go for it. "wait!" you called out when he was halfway down the hall, moving to catch up with him. "is it okay if- can i- can i-" you fumbled over your words before deciding to abandon them altogether, raising up on your tip toes to finally press your lips to his cheek.

you could feel yourself flush all over, heat sneaking up on every possible surface of your skin. ugh, why was showing affection so embarrassing?

jungkook cackled at the way you couldn't even look him in the eyes. "you're so freaking cute."

and next thing you know you were being pushed onto the wall, jungkook pressed against you at every possible point of contact as he kissed you hot and heavy. his tongue licking into your mouth at a salacious pace, swallowing all the little sounds you couldn't help but make for him, hands squeezing where they gripped your hips. you were honestly dizzy at the turn around, barely able to keep pace with the ferocity with which he came at you with.

he could sense it too, slowing down the kiss until he was pressing small pecks against your lips. you were so glad you were backed into the wall because you don't think you'd be able to stand otherwise. you'd kissed a few times before, but never like that. he breathed out a laugh. "i wanted to do that so bad."

"then why didn't you?" you asked, smoothing your hands over his chest.

"because you kept staring at my lips and i wanted to see how long it was gonna take you to break."

there he goes giggling again like he isn't a little demon seed. you scowled at him. "i was staring at your cheek actually." you pressed another kiss to it. and one to the mole that was on his chin because you had a minor obsession with it. and a final one back on his lips just because you could and you were starting to miss the feeling of them against you.

"alright i'm actually gonna change now. we can do sheet masks together when i'm done." he stole one more kiss before pulling away and walking to his room.

"please come back fully clothed!" you called after him. you had no idea what other kind of stunts he had up his sleeve and your self restraint was severely drained. if you saw his abs right now, you don't know what you'd do.

"no promises!" he called back. you sighed. it was gonna be a long night.

a/n: if you saw me say i wanted to kiss jungkook's cheek no you didn't <333

[moonshynecybin]

what would you consider essential marc and rosquez watching? i don’t mean races but the stuff happening around it, there seems to be so much and idk where to start 😭

BIG ass question. i think it depends what you want outta this and how you best interact with content slash consume information. for me (not to brag but. winner of multiple historical essay writing competitions in high school. for context on the kind of freak i am bringing to the table here.) the research is kind of the fun part ! like i just started googling shit! i would go to inactive blogs and just search 'marquez' on them to see what would happen ! a lot of the times that works ! but it also takes a lotttt of time lol so i'll chuck some good resources your way, why not...

okay im not sure how basic we're talkin here but um. background. so the documentaries are, i think. the best place to start. theyre entertaining and offer a good amalgamation of clips to provide context for the actual racing. and like i know you de-emphasized racing (which is fine lol who cares) but it really is like the most important thing in the world to these fools and its a pretty visual sport so i think its at least helpful. like yes sepang IS about the press conference, but its also about the conversation they have ON the race track using their motorcycles. which is also somewhat a conversation that they HAVE been having all year long...

i'd start with hitting the apex (2013), its a GREAT introduction to the "characters" that does a lot of legwork to contextualize everything. lays the scene for where vale is at coming into his relationship with marc (both personally, wrt to marco simoncelli, and career-wise concerning his flop at ducati), and also how insane marc's whole deal is in general. the second half is. materially a study on what him entering the premiere class did to the sport as a whole. the introductory chapter in many respects

marc marquez: all in. MY introduction and blissfully free online. marc comma in his own words, with all the implications of that. a self-produced documentary where he is giving feedback about the edit of said documentary straight to camera and no less vulnerable because of it which is very marc imo. revealing both intentionally AND unintentionally about his whole deal with injury, vale, and his image.

motogp unlimited. im gonna be real kind of boring. like i would still watch it ! but do it kind of later, once you know the major players so youre automatically more invested. it doesnt really give you more than marc says himself in all in tbh, and i get the sense him and vale were NAWWWT interested in doing more than the bare minimum for it.

marc's rookie doc. free and subtitled on the youtubes. the first half of this is deadass just him wanting to fuck vale so bad while every comment from vale has me saying GIRL. out loud because the foreshadowing would be genuinely shocking if this was fiction. anyways the laguna seca of it all....

next i would hit up PODCASTS ! i think it makes sense after the documentaries, because these are all podcasts that arent strictly about rosquez (even if they are in many ways the main characters lmao) and personally it helps to put faces to lesser known names that might pop up before i listen to a purely audio product and get lost in the soup of sounds. the paddock pass podcast has two retrospective episodes about the 2015 season that are really good at context, oxley bom pod has a fun recent episode on valentino that i love, again just poke around a lil

videos. these guys have never filmed a lot of content together tragically. what i wouldnt give for someone to make them do an escape room. anyways ranch visit HERE (post explaining the ranch visit here). sepang presscon (sowwy) here. vale unhinged podcast interview the month after marc's documentary came out here. vale retirement interview where he gets asked about marc here. vale talking about asking marc to the ranch here. vale postrace at argentina 2018 here. UCCIO postrace at argentina 2018 here. theres a lot moreeeee just go on my blog archive and filter for rosquez and vids its easier lol

journalism. hello. okay so you should genuinely spend some time reading through mat oxley's stuff he can write (theres a paywall but you can run that shit through wayback machine). he also loves an insane comparison which i do enjoy.... again this is one that can be solved by googling his name and tacking on 'marquez' or 'rossi' or a specific time period or race it will probably reap some dividends. in terms of specific ass articles this one is kind of load bearing in terms of sepang and some of the interpersonal competitive tensions at play. that being said there are manyyyyyy crazy interviews and snippents of articles from other journos floating around motogp tumblr (like literally too many to link) adn its fun to dig around to find them, but mat oxley gets a shoutout because i was reading this article TODAY !

other content. honestly one of the best resources I'VE found for plotting out the arc of their relationship is @kingofthering's everyrosquezpodium series. you can REALLY see it play out lol. also her tagging system rules she very neatly lays out years and races... so if something jumps out at you, CLICK ITTTT ! also all of @ricciardoes fave presscon moments series. insane.

all this to say a small little rpf fandom like this rewards some digging! i would just recommend following narrative threads that interest you ! its also a small fanbase that is pretty research oriented, so if youre ever confused about somethin, just shoot an ask or run a search on someone's blog (@kwisatzworld has endless vale resources and @batsplat is one of the most thorough researchers ive ever seen, for example) like for real theres so much... i also have a primer that i made forever ago that has some links on it so you can peruse that if you so wish. but frankly a lot of it is just using those research muscles and being sufficiently deranged enough to be screenshotting reddit threads at one am so you can post them to tumblr because they mentioned marc and vale in the same sentence and that lit up some of the neurons in your brain

(and i know you said outside of races but i think theyre good benchmarks as turning points soooo you should do some diggin on laguna seca 2013, jerez 2015, argentina 2015, ASSEN 2015, sepang 2015 obvi, argentina 2018, and misano 2019. those are the big tentpoles of insane rosquez relationship drama imo. i mean theres many more but. im limiting myself.)

[siriuslysmoking]

Swim

Part 4 of Meddle About

Series Masterlist

A/N: Never been on a private plane or been on a sailing boat or been to the bahamas, this is all coming out of my ass. I did however watch a youtube video on how to sail so I'm basically an expert. Much love <3. I recommend listening to Mamma Mia soundtrack once they get on the boat.

Pairing: Fem!college student x sugar daddy!steve

Warnings: fem!reader, she/her pronouns, alcohol consumption, age gap (R:21, S:29), Reader fawning over Steve every moment she can, I don't think I missed anything, Not edited because I don't want to.

Word Count: 2k

Summary: Working and being a student is tough, you never seem to have a moment to yourself, so when one of you co-workers needs a shift and offers to take your saturday night double, you take it. Finally going out with your friends you encounter a strange man with a strange proposition.

-The water's getting colder, let me in your ocean, swim Out in California, I'll be forward stroking, swim So hard to ignore ya, 'specially when I'm smoking, swim World is on my shoulders, keep your body open, swim-

Steve picks you up at nine in the morning two months later. He walks up to your door and refuses for you to carry your own luggage down the stairs. He opens the doors for you and only lets you carry your book bag. The drive only takes thirty minutes to the airport.

"Mr. Harington, this way."

Neither of you go through customs likes you should, you don't get your bags checked like you normally would've.

Both you and Steve are guided by an employee to a side door onto the tarmac, to a much smaller plane than the other big airlines. You eye the side of Steve's face.

Once you step onto the plane is when you realize this is a private plane. You need to stop forgetting how rich Steve Harrington actually is.

The plane ride is full of smiles and Steve explaining the plans for the week. "I booked a nice dinner for us tonight and we can go to the beach after, do you like the beach? I didn't ask."

"I do." You laugh at the panic in his eyes, "No the whole sand thing, but I love the ocean."

"good, good." He nods, "I've never done this before."

"Never been on a plane?"

"No, never been on vacation."

"You're joking?" You look at him in shock.

"Not unless you count work trips."

"You are a ridiculous man." You laugh, looking at him, "If I had the luxury I wouldn't stop traveling."

"I never really had the need to. I'm what some might say, a workaholic."

"You don't say?" You look at him sarcastically, he just lets out a low chuckle. "Then we will have to make this your best vacation ever."

"Only vacation-"

"But best." You point out.

When you arrive at the house, it's the most beautiful thing you've seen. It's a white house with light blue shutters, right on the beach, with a pool, and surf boards.

Steve and you take a walk through the house, the kitchen is huge with a view of the ocean, there's two bedrooms and three baths.

The bedrooms were big with golden mirrors and balconies.

You and Steve unpack in your respective rooms across the hall. You throw your windows open, letting in the fresh air. "Hey, we have dinner in a couple hours, if you wanna get dressed now, we can go walk around town."

"That sounds good." You smile, he nods and closes your door behind him, letting you get ready in private. You throw on a white long sundress that has buttons going all the way down your front so that you can leave the bottom open for your legs. You put on some strappy white heels to match and throw on your favorite jewelry.

Putting on some light makeup while you spray a floral smelling perfume all around you. You access yourself in the mirror while you put your hair up in a clip.

Steve knocks on your door while you put some finishing touches on your hair, "Can I come in."

"Yep!" You look away from the mirror, looking to him.

well damn. He's wearing a simple white button up and black slacks. He's got sunglasses placed on the top of his head and he looks good.

"Wow, sweetheart, you look beautiful."

"So do you." You smile back at him.

"Ready to go?" He holds a hand out.

"Yeah." You grab your bag and take his hand as he leads you down the stairs and into the car he rented for the week.

His hand stays firmly on your knee as he drives downtown. You stare at the beautiful sight- the outside of the car and inside.

You arrive in no time and of course Steve rounds the car to get your door, "Thank you for coming here with me. Doing this."

"Hey, I got a free vacation, I would never turn that down." You joke, he laughs along as he grabs the door to the restaurant.

You two get settled at a table on the patio. Both of you glance at your menu, discussing what you should get.

"You know, I've never asked the simple questions." Steve looks up from his menu.

"Then ask."

"favorite animal?"

"Elephants."

"Why?"

"They are a lot like humans, they mourn their dead like we do, burying them in dirt, trying to stuff their wounds with herbs, and even stay by their dead for days after they die."

"Woah, I didn't know that."

"What about you?" You put your elbows on the table, leaning forward

"Dogs."

"Why?"

"They're cute?" He scrunches his face.

"That's valid." You laugh.

The next day Steve wakes you up to breakfast on the porch of the house. After eating his pancakes you might have gotten down on one knee right there. You thought about going down on both knees when you saw him in his pajamas, simple gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt.

He explains your plans for the day, he rented out a boat for the day.

A new thing you learned about Steve, He has a Sailing License.

You go upstairs to get dressed for the day and throw on your bikini and a sundress that also counts as a swimsuit coverup. You slip on your sandals and grab your bag. You meet Steve downstairs where he's packing a bag of sunscreen and towels. He goes quiet as he looks up at you, he takes a moment to study you and you suddenly wonder if you should be wearing something else, then he breaks your thoughts by smiling wide and softly saying, "Ready?"

You nod, following him out of the door.

You didn't know much about boats but when you got there it looked like something right out of Mamma Mia.

"This beauty is called a Picchiotti Classic Bermuda Ketch."

"You know that means absolutely nothing to me, right?"

"Just wanted to impress you with my big words."

You watched as Steve tied all the ropes and raised the sail. While he was working you applied sunscreen and watched as reached for different things, his shirt lifting and-

You need to stop. You think to yourself.

Once you're on the water you rid yourself of your dress and lay down in the sun, pulling out a book.

"Having fun?" You hear Steve ask.

"Living my Mamma Mia dream." You sigh, basking in the sun.

"Mamma Mia?" He glances at you.

"Yeah, the movie, they used all ABBA songs."

"I know what ABBA is, but what's Mamma Mia?"

"No." You look at him in disbelief, propping yourself on your elbows, "Oh my god, you're serious!"

"I'm sorry?" He looks at you with a confused expression.

"You should be!" You laugh, "We're watching it when we get back."

"Alright then." He agrees with a smile.

"Tell me when you get hungry, I've got a surprise for you."

"This isn't when you kill me and dump me into the ocean, right?" You raise an eyebrow.

"Again, don't plan on killing you," He smiles then it suddenly drops, "Yet."

"Killed by a rich man on his boat." You raise your hands as if it was on a billboard, "Sounds like a good way to go."

"At least you have standards." He laughs, sitting next to you. "What are you reading?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Yeah, I would." He snatches the book out of your hands, before reading the back, He sits in silence as his eyes glance over the page. He looks at you while you give him a smirk.

"You sure?"

"I see you have high standards in other categories as well."

"Wouldn't you like to know." You repeat yourself with a sly smile, stealing your book back. "I'll let you read it when I'm done."

"Can't wait." He sends you a wink and stands up, turning and asking, "Drink?"

"Yes please." You smile up at him. He comes back with two Margaritas in hand, "Thank you."

"Of course." He sits and you've noticed he's taken his shirt off. You try your hardest to keep your eyes on the pages of your book but you can't help but let them wander.

Twenty minutes later Steve comes out with plates and lays them on a picnic blanket, "I asked Mia what your favorite food was and she was very specific."

You almost melt when you see him lay out all of your favorite food. "Steve."

"Yes-," He pauses, his face almost panicked, "Wait did she mess with me?"

"No, no." You stand when he sets the plates down with a sigh of relief. You engulf him in a hug, he seems shocked by it but after a moment he wraps his arms around your waist, and you whisper. "Thank you so much."

"It was nothing."

"No, it wasn't." You don't let go, hugging him tighter, "Maybe to you, but this means a lot, so accept my thanks."

"You're welcome." He whispers into your hair. He slowly lets his hands fall to your waist and you follow suit, your eyes meet and his hands settle in yours. You hold eye contact for what feels like seconds but hours at the same time. You feel your eyes falling lower from his eyes and then to his lips-

Steve clears his throat, quickly stepping away from you, he motions to the food, "Let's eat."

You stay still for a moment then quietly you sit across from him on the blanket.

A couple hours later you find yourself dipping your toes in the water, Steve's already in the water with his life jacket on.

The wind has died so the boat is steady. You are reading your book and you don't notice Steve looking at you, until you feel water on your face and book. You slowly look up, shoving your bookmark into your book. "That's foul."

Steve just smiles, "You'll forgive me."

"No." You stand. up, leaving your book on the ground, "Maybe if you hit me, but my book is next level."

You jump in the water, splashing him in the process. You feel his arms around you before you even touch the surface. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Attacking you with water."

He laughs, "You really shouldn't be in the water without a life jacket."

"But I have you to save me." You give him an innocent smile.

"Hours ago you were asking me if I was finally going to kill you, now you think I'll save you from drowning."

"What can I say," You wrap your arms around his shoulder as he holds your thighs up. "I'm a very trusting person, some may say it's a flaw-"

"I say it's your greatest strength." He says softly.

"Why, thank you kind sir."

The both of you have been waiting for the wind to pick back up, so when you feel it, the both of you take notice, "Let's get back on the boat."

He helps you over to the boat, not letting you swim on your own even though he knows you're fully capable. He lets you up the ladder first, then he follows after.

You spend the rest of the time just watching him in his element.

You make it back right before sunset and he tells you what he plans to order in. "Sushi?"

"Oh, most definitely."

After picking up dinner you and Steve settle on the couch, he clicks on Mamma Mia and you settle so that you can see all of his expressions and the screen.

By the time you've finished your meals you and Steve have moved close to each other on the couch, your legs rest over his and his hand lays over your upper calf.

Throughout the movie he makes comments such as:

"We have the same boat"

"Why does he have tattoos there?"

And

"Why is she singing to a child?"

At the end of the movie he looks at you with wide eyes, "We don't get to know who the father is?!"

"No." You laugh.

"There's DNA tests for a reason." He huffs, you almost burst out in uncontrollably laughter on how serious he is.

"She doesn't want to know, it's three times the love."

"I think it was Bill." he crosses his arms, seemingly studying the credits.

"I'm a firm Sam believer."

"No, He's a cheater, I can't get behind him." He shakes his head, still looking at the TV.

"Just wait until you watch Mamma Mia 2."

His eyes go wide as he looks to you, "There's a second one?!"

-

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[catboygirljoker]

[video transcript: a scene from the 358/2 Days movie. Roxas: Hey, what happens when Heartless are destroyed? Xigbar: The hearts remain. And then those hearts gather together to form the great Kingdom Hearts. Roxas: Then, can you tell me what remains if a Nobody is destroyed? Xigbar: What's there to leave behind? We're not even supposed to "be" in the first place. Roxas: And the members at Castle Oblivion, where'd they go? Xigbar: Nothing's left of them. Roxas: In which case, I'll never see them again? Xigbar: That's right. You coming? Roxas: Huh? Oh, yeah. end transcript.]

this scene is so funny to me because if you watch it by itself you assume xigbar is being a total asshole for no reason. just random unmotivated callousness and cruelty. but the DS version of this scene comes at the end of a whole mission, and with that context, you can see that xigbar actually has a reason for...being an asshole.

(transcripts below are fetched from this text of ancient times, a GameFAQ so old that it mistakenly describes xigbar as seeing roxas when he sees xion with ventus's face.)

Xigbar: What's wrong? Dazzled by the new scenery? Roxas: Do you think it's true—about the members stationed at Castle Oblivion? Xigbar: Ha ha, is that seriously what's eating you? Roxas: We might have lost a comrade. Maybe multiple comrades. That doesn't bother you at all? Xigbar: As if. Look, the faster we get this mission done, the sooner you can RTC and get your answers.

Xigbar: Still with me there? I've seen you spaced out before, but this is ridiculous. Roxas: What? I'm fine. I'm fine... Xigbar: Let me guess. Castle Oblivion? Like I said: the longer we take here, the longer you're gonna have to stay in the dark.

Roxas: Good, then we can go home? Xigbar: Why, Roxas? Did you leave the toaster plugged in? Roxas: You know why. Xigbar: Heh heh. C'mon, let's RTC.

then the scene from the above clip plays. like, xigbar is absolutely being a jerk, privately making fun of roxas for thinking his best friend is dead (when it seems pretty clear to me from the above transcripts that xigbar at the very least knows axel is fine, and i think probably knows that a nobody getting defeated just turns them back into a human).

but he tries, repeatedly! to get roxas to not jump to conclusions. this is an issue he tries to help him out with on another occasion as well, in a later mission in halloweentown, and takes a similar "tough love" kind of approach where he doesn't correct roxas (though worth mentioning that he also goes out of his way to save roxas's hide in that situation).

in the end he tells roxas that axel's totally dead, gone forever, nothing left. still pretty callous and mean. but with the context of the mission, it's less "xigbar can obviously tell roxas is upset and doesnt give a shit" and more "xigbar has put up with roxas's moping for this whole mission and TRIED to hint that maybe he's jumping the gun, but at this point the kid can think whatever he wants, no skin off xigbar's back"

Bonus Xigbar Fact: tte hanashi spotted! if you watch xigbar's mouth at the end of the line "And then those hearts gather together to form the great Kingdom Hearts," you may be able to see him saying the phrase "tte hanashi"!