#ITS SO FUN LIKE. art was just like well SOMEONES not admitting it’s own emotional state to itself. Watch this!

[planet4546b]

love so much how in artificial condition as soon as murderbot gets on board art just says. oh im gonna peel this little idiot like a grape

[cacti-are-like-flamingos]

Wasted Oxygen...

Gojo Satoru x Reader x Geto Suguru

The Cursed Trio | Mr. Sandman

...

Despite being the ever energetic guy he was, Haibara loved to sit down and people-watch. Silently observing others go about their daily business, unaware of their audience as they freely express themselves through large and small mannerisms.

He'd always make sure to find a nice cozy spot, somewhere a bit hidden so no one could see his lingering eyes. If Kento was here, he'd been stating how inappropriately creepy he was being. He could already hear him hehe

Regardless of what his partner would think, the raven-haired boy could easily spend hours observing the world interact with itself. If he was lucky enough, he'd see an entire movie unfold right before his eyes.

Most of the time, though, he tried to call upon his inner Sherlock. Using the art of deduction to figure out the possible stories from every passer-goer.

Usually, it'd be more fun with you considering your extraordinary ability to deduce people to downright filth.

The two of you hanging out, making up stories for every person that caught either of your eyes had become a little routine of yours, one that started from his days of teaching you Japanese. He'd tell you certain words while discreetly pointing to people who embodied said words --- he hadn't expected for you to suddenly start rambling about the possible nuisances of each and every person you saw

And the fact that you had no filter made it worse! The amount of times he had to cover for you after you'd accidentally said something rather insulting about a person who stood close enough to hear --- double digits!

Regardless, it's the same reason as to why you're the most attuned person in terms of others emotions --- once you notice the patterns, you'll see them everywhere is what you'd often say to him

Although, it did leave him wondering. Just how were you so good at people-reading? Is that how you got along with those two so well? Because you knew instantly what they were about the moment you met them?

No, that can't be. On numerous occasions, you've complained about how Gojo and Suguru confused you. You claimed that they were like a whole new different breed of soul that you've never come across before.

Haibara blinked

Souls. The first time he heard about your Cursed Technique, he had to admit --- he'd never heard of a technique like yours.

Cursed Sight: Chains, a cursed technique that bestows its user with the ability to perceive the spiritual and see the souls of living beings as well as curses. The way it works is rather simple, or so, that's how you mentioned it to be.

As one knows, everything is made up of energy. So by simply channeling your own cursed energy, you can manipulate the strands into forming objects. By focusing well enough, you could bring said objects into the physical world: however, there was a catch.

You could never break eye contact.

The technique had great potential. Just visualize the item you need and Wala! It's there. (You had a preference for chains ghost rider type beat. You'd chain curses down to limit its movements prior to going for the kill. In times where the Curse proved too strong, you'd hold it down while continuously attacking it with an already cursed energy-imbued weapon)

To be honest, your fights were quite the spectacle. The way you expertly used your chains to capture curses, the way you used the ends of the chains to destroy them with such force --- ooh la la (aizawa x ghost rider's love child)

We're getting side tracked --- point is, your ability allowed you to see people's essence. You knew when they lied, you knew what they felt, their soul usually said everything you needed to know (you confessed that the soul only shows the most general of feelings so that's why you depended on deducting to truly understand people's intentions)

One major down side, you could never turn it off. I don't think you've ever really seen someone's face much less your own. Bodies are shaped around the soul, and the soul is always so blinding with its different hues. At least, the silhouettes had somewhat of expressions. (Further clarification, it's like cutting out human shape out of colored paper. Just three-dimensional. AH, THINK GOD FROM FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST but include the shape of hair and outfits) You could see the shapes of their eyes, the slope of their nose, and the curve of their lips.

(and now, you're probably asking -- but OP, what about clothes? How do we have a sense of style if we can't see the look when we look in the mirror? That is true. Wearing outfits will just accentuate your soul's shape. But the moment it's off and on a hangar, you can see it plain as day since it's soulless on its own. Also Ieiri helps you, sometimes even Yaga if you're that desperate)

"You're going to hurt yourself from thinking so hard, Haibara." There you are! You even brought, "Hiya!" "Senpai!" Gojo glared at you, "Meh, why aren't you ever this respectful? Hm? You have to respect our customs, foreigner!"

You scoff, "I do respect your customs, just not you."

"Bitch."

"Masochist."

"Masochist?! The hell is that for?"

"You like me insulting you, your soul lives for it. Got a degradation kink, old man?" "Who the fuck you calling old man for?! I'm just a year old-" "Haibara~! Let's go get something to eat!" "O-Oi! Don't run away, pussy!" You stick your tongue out at him as you pull Haibara by the arm, dragging him to some nearby tall selling takoyaki

You spent the entire day ignoring Gojo, who sulked behind you and Haibara as you dragged said male all around Roppongi where you were supposed to meet up with one other. Yep, you guessed it!

Mei Mei!

(don't you just love mixing friend groups and praying to whatever god is out there that it all works out? 😁)

Mei Mei couldn't care less about Haibara, though she did seem to acknowledge him as somewhat worth having around in regards to his 'service potential', but honestly, her indifference was palpable

Instead, Mei Mei focused on you, whose face held a dreamy look as the pretty woman spoke to you with that lovely sing-song voice of hers (she still HELLA sus iykyk but for the sake of this, she ain't. She's just greedy here)

Gojo was irked by how close Mei Mei got to you, his face unbelievably stoic as he watched you and Mei Mei interact (cue that anime angry mark and eyebrow twitch)— Mei Mei acting like a sugar mama to you as the white-haired woman walked you around pointing at shit she knew you'd like.

Ah, I can already hear some of you confused --- specifically the ones who are really into canon.

You see, Mei Mei does nothing out of the goodness of her heart. No, no. Greed is the very foundation of her character. And so, it would make sense that she wouldn't just spend her money on anyone just for the hell of it.

And so, the truth. You and Mei Mei had this secret arrangement --- in return for a few favors and pieces of key-information that she can't quite get from her watchful crows, Mei Mei would pay for your services. Usually, she'd just send the cash over but whenever the two of you are together, she'd provide you a little shopping spree. (No-one knows about this btw)

Despite the previous, it was evident that Mei Mei liked you. She saw you as her favorite little Kouhai, mainly because of how resourceful you could be, and the way your personalities seemed to mesh well together was exquisite in her opinion.

(Side Note: Your relationship with her is incredibly on-the-surface. The reason why you get along so well is because you adapt yourself to her personality. I wouldn't say you're a people-pleaser, although you are, but more of a subtle manipulating type of thing. Idk how to put it)

You weren't at all annoying like the others. Additionally, you had a higher chance of reaching your service potential than any other (i don't even know if that's a compliment or an insult and I wrote it 🤪)

Gojo wasn't a big fan of Mei Mei spoiling you, and it led to a whole day of the two of them kind of fighting to show off who could spoil you the most (though it may or may not have been your plan from the get-go).

The situation became more obvious to Haibara when you wrapped your arm around his, a wicked smile upon your lips as you quietly inquired from Haibara what he wanted. Not fully grasping the scheme, he answered, and then you'd claimed as your current desire, which Mei Mei and Gojo would then buy immediately.

Eventually, Kento joins after receiving a SOS text message from Haibara. At the sight of the two wordlessly seething cotton swabs with you smirking in front of them, Kento dragged him away (he only greeted you, he could care less about the other two)

While Mei Mei was preoccupied with a phone call, and Gojo was off buying something sweet for you and spicy for Suguru, to eat together later — you found yourself sitting at the same spot Haibara had been sitting earlier.

There was someone next to it, but that didn't stop you as you plopped yourself down, attention focused on the people walking by. Blissfully unaware of the minor curses that plagued them.

Sometimes, if you felt merciful, you would destroy the curse. Weaker curses didn't require you to physically manifest your chains; a small, invisible chain was all it took to loop around the curse and squeeze them to death.

"Never seen a technique like yours, foreigner."

At the stranger's words, you paused. You hadn't sensed any cursed energy from the person sitting next to you, so how could they have known? Glancing to your side, you tilted your head in slight confusion as you examined the man sitting next to you

"what happened to 'hello'? 'how are you'? To introductions, in general?" There was a slight tease to your words yet your fingers subtly twitched by your side

The raven-haired man snorted in amusement, a slight smirk on his lips as he leaned back against the wall of the bench. His hands were in his pockets as he didn't once look your way.

"How long have you been here with them?" Something in his voice had put you on edge, but at the same time, you didn't feel imminently in danger.

"Long enough, give or take."

He made a face, "Like it, so far?"

You shrugged your shoulders, your eyes still on his silhouette as you answered, "Neutral, so far."

"So you haven't been here long enough," he sassed back earning a short snort from you.

"Oh? Why's that?" "You'll see, soon enough." And with that, he stood up, walking away from you without another word. You stared at his soul, watching it get tinier with every step he took.

You had met many dark blues, but the edges of his were... fuzzy. Not clearly definable. That was new.

Surprisingly, you didn't feel shook or concerned. You actually felt a rush of excitement, the sort you got from trying to solve the mystery of some crime show before the narrator could even reveal the truth.

Suddenly, Gojo appeared in the corner of your eye, his sunglasses pulled down his nose as his iridescent eyes gazed down at you.

His eyes were the only ones you had ever truly seen. You thought it was because of his Six-Eyes.

"Yo! Got the drugs," he said, to which you replied with a casual "Hm."

He narrowed his eyes, "What happened?"

So observant

You perked up, "What?"

He repeated, a small frown on his lips, "What happened?"

You shrugged, "Just an... interesting encounter, that's all."

Gojo knew better. But he also knew you.

"Alright, let's go. Mei Mei already left, and she wanted me to give you this," he said with displeasure in his voice as he threw a bag into your lap—a luxury brand bag. But not before handing you yet another bag, another luxury brand.

With a sense of curiosity, you gently untied the bag's ribbon and opened it, revealing a small box inside. Your fingers carefully lifted the lid, revealing the gift within as you opened the box

A single earring, a crescent moon hanging from it. It's metal glimmering under the setting sun (wow, time passed fast today)

"Now we can match!" Gojo said. Showing off his wrist, a silver bracelet with a sun hanging from it.

You snorted, "What about Suguru, hm?" (While you asked, you put the earring on without another moment's notice)

He rolled his eyes, revealing another bag matching your own, "His is here...ya like it, tho?"

Having stood up from where you sat, you smiled softly as you affectionately bumped your head onto his shoulder before motioning for him to walk with you. (You didn't get to see his grin, but you could feel it.)

"Let's go home, Gojo," you said, with Mei Mei's gift loosely wrapped around your wrist, knowing it could wait.

...

(A/N): Ugh, I keep having to come back to fix certain things so it can better fit my narrative. I keep writing these shits while being tired af, and when I wake up --- I forget my own canon 🙄

Anyways

Who do you think the rando guy is?

Also did you notice how you immediately checked Gojo's gift rather than Mei Mei's? In fact, you completely ignored her gift to you.

Moreover, have any of you noticed that whenever you get to know someone --- their name alters? I wonder what that implies for certain people.

And what does a fuzzy outline mean?

This was also supposed to take another turn but then the characters charactered and here we are now.

Drop a comment

Feel free to buy me a 🦩

Hope you enjoyed!

[rainbowpui]

I saw "svconfession" page on Tumblr and some takes about SJ just makes my blood boil

cont.

Especially this one: "People should stop writing everyone falling in love with SJ. He’s not SY, guys! SJ is an asshole and no one can stand him, but YQY. He’s an acquired taste." Like why are they trying to dictate us on what we can write or what we can't write

omg yeah ive seen so many bad takes like that

literally they are just haters its no ones fucking business what kind of fic someone else is writing or art they are making. its really pathetic to claim to stan one character but spend all your time shitting on another.

the classist implications of saying the CHILD SLAVE who is HEAVILY implied to be a CSA survivor is inherently unlovable but the rich NEET internet troll who harasses people and manipulates others for his own gain is like "super nice actually"

tbh i think sy is a wayyyyyyyy bigger asshole than sj. hes literally introduced as an internet hater. people dont want to look at the way that he treats sqh or admit that what he did with lbh was emotional manipulation and child grooming.... like he literally love bombs him and shows a clear bias to him while ignoring all his other students. a teacher bullying a student is wrong but so is a teacher being inappropriately close to a student???? theres a reason that everyone else on the sect thought he was ALREADY fucking lbh when he was a student and lmy was writing that fic, its bc their lvl of "closeness" was not at all normal. not to mention that ppl forget he didnt save lqg out of niceness. he did bc he was trapped and couldnt run (reread the novel babes everyone somehow misses this part???) and wanted to use lqg as human shield. he needs sqh to help him take care of the plant body so he doesnt... literally die... but even after OWING HIS LIFE TO SQH he STILL treats him like shit and threatens him with violence all the time... including in the extras were he supposedly had all that ""character growth"" 🙄

but just bc i feel that way doesnt mean im going to police how anyone else writes fic and has fun. they can woobify him all they want and ignore all his flaws if thats the kind of content they want to make and its not my business bc its fucking fanfic and ppl can write any kind of fic they like. but i would really appreciate it if they would stop shitting on us for OUR fave. esp given that a lot of sj stans like him because..... they are also survivors as well and can relate to him bc of that. and then get accused of supporting child abuse irl bc we dare relate to the character that is clearly shown to have gone through the worst abuse as a child of any of the characters in the novel..... like use your brain...

[survivorofhathsin04]

Stormlight character favourite movies and why (In my opinion)

Kaladin- Forrest Gump

It's just wholesome and Kaladin respects that, a story of triumph and inspiration that Kaladin can really enjoy, consistent rewatch for him and Syl quotes it constantly to make Kaladin feel happy when he's sad.

Adolin- John Wick

It's fun action and Adolin LIVES for it just because its so fucking cool and he appreciates good fight choreography. He literally just thinks every part of it is so cool and will always rewatch every film in the series regularly.

Watched it with Shallan but she sobbed uncontrollably when the dog died.

Shallan- Tangled

Absolutely adores the characters because she just sees it as her and Adolin through and through and physically attached and related herself to rapunzel so much she lightweaved her hair blonde and insanely long. Cries multiple times every rewatch.

Plus she just loves the music and all the wholesome aspects. Listens to the soundtrack all the time.

Dalinar- Apocalypse Now

Relates to the meaning of the movie so much he genuinely doesnt believe how the film can exist he adores it even though it does remind him of the darkest time of his life which he resents about himself he accepts that it happened and really appreciates that someone else managed to capture that feeling in a movie. The idea that his actions during war and the evil he did is a thing other people understand and experience helps him a lot.

Jasnah- Lady Bird

Jasnah is very analytical of films and always watches them from a writers perspective and this is a particular favourite for her for just how well and emotionally nuanced the characters are. She sees Lady Bird as very young and naive but also relates a lot to her emotions and pursuing happiness and a reason to be happy in a miserable world that seems against her, the dynamic between Lady Bird and her mother also had an impact on Jasnah as the theme of motherhood and conflict between a mother and daughter is just gripping to her.

Navani- Little Women

Navani absolutely LIVES for seeing women pursue happiness and live their own lives and make the choices that make them happy, the film absolutely embodies strong femininity and Navani adores it every time she watches it. Dalinar enjoys it too but very reluctant to admit it.

Szeth- My Neighbour Totoro

Szeth may come off as a cold blooded, emotionless killer but deep down hes so sweet and caring and this film in particular hit a sweet spot. The setting reminds him of Shinovar and he just loves really soft wholesome stories to distract him from all the death and horror and wanting to kill himself.

Renarin- Dead Poet's Society or Luca

Stuck between these two because their both his absolute favourite and he can't pick. He relates so immensely to them and just likes watching gay boys exist and feels represented through these films the most.

Syl- Frozen

Utterly obsessed with the characters and the story of a girl coming into her own by fleeing home and then also the themes of family and familial love is so precious to her. She also just adores the music and sings/hums them at any given time.

Wit- Paddington 2

It's funny and silly and Wit appreciates good art.

[spengsart]

Holy crap how is your art so incredible?! ;3; I admit I envy your ability to draw the TF2 dorks so easily! Please give words of advice for someone who can’t draw people well

~ TF2 Gremlin

Thank you so much!

I find it hard to give advice to other artists because in all honesty I don't have too much faith in my own artistic ability, even after getting an illustration degree, but I will say that I exclusively drew animals up until I started playing TF2 like 11 years ago.

Study artists! I recommend staying away from studying online artists when you can, because it can become too easy to compare your art to theirs, (at least it is for me). Whereas studying an artist whose process is vastly different to yours can offer a lot more insight.

I value motion, expression and emotion far above anatomical correctness, and I think this is foundational to my personal style. I think one of the worst things artists can do is rely too heavily on things looking "correct" or "right", rather than pleasing or fun.

Who give a shit if the eye shouldn't really be there or whatever, its about the moment you're capturing. idk if any of this is even slightly helpful but just do your thing and keep doing it! There is no wrong way to do art, which is what makes it so special. Experiment, do wacky shit. Enjoy doing it.

[confinedmadness]

[Game Review] 結合男子 -  Elements with Emotions

I’ve been wanting to play this game since finding out about it during the Tokyo Game Show 2022 in September last year. I admit, I was drawn to it purely based on the art. But, after knowing more about it, I realized it was a type of game I play often enough anyways.

Elements with Emotions is a visual novel-style game where in you pair up different characters to proceed to different story routes. At the moment, the game is only available in Japanese and can only be played with Nintendo Switch.

I bought and downloaded the game on release day, and after a day I’ve finished exactly 2 endings (1 proper ending, and 1 failed ending). Overall, the game was fun to play, with a rather simplistic story but a cast of varied lovable characters, and a repetitive leveling system but very interesting ability concept.

Story

Personally, the story is okay. “Dead matter” is overtaking the world and turning it into nothingness. We join the main characters as they fight against dead matter with elemental powers. It keeps you interested enough to keep going, with a few twists here and there, especially towards the end, but really nothing special. 

I think the story is burdened by a lot of terminology. While it does help create a completely different world, it also introduces a lot of complexity that I thought it didn’t really need. Sometimes, they just made the story harder to understand instead of making it interesting.

If you have the patience to immerse yourself in the world though, you will be rewarded because the worldbuilding was great. There’s even a lot to learn from reading the glossary of terms and the information packed into the descriptions / explanations.

Characters

I do love the characters in this game. Character design is amazing, and they thoroughly make use of this in the marketing of the game. Each character has their own twitter account (yes, the character) and you can see each of their personalities shine that way. I think this is only possible because each character was well thought out.

As with any visual novel, you don’t really get to know all the characters in a single playthrough. You get to know the most about someone in a route where they are the central character. And then you get to know extra information about them in the other routes where they serve a more minor role. 

However, considering I only really played through the entire story once (because the failed ending was really too early), I do think they did a great job of introducing the characters and giving you a chance to know each one a little bit. Enough for you to be interested in them.

Every in-game day, you have a chance to talk to a character or pair of characters and learn more about them (their personality, hobbies, what they do and where they go in their free time, etc).

I am personally really excited to buy Misora’s additional content so I can play his routes. Despite playing a relatively small role in the route I did, he definitely caught my attention.

Also, the game has a wonderful voice acting cast, which is always a really big point for me.

Game Play

At its core, this game works just like every other visual novel. You read the story and every now and then, you will be presented with choices that will affect dialogue, responses, and the story as a whole.

The unique aspect of this game, however, lies in its use of the elements. Every character has the power of a specific element. No, not the classical elements like earth, wind, water, fire. I’m talking about chemical elements-- hydrogen, lithium, carbon, etc.

Every in-game day, you’re able to train chosen characters. You can choose between 3 activities: (1) “link” two characters (elements) so their connection  becomes stronger, (2) train your whole team so their shared abilities become stronger, or (3) let them rest so their “happiness” is restored and their future training becomes more effective.

The abilities are my favorite thing in the game. Abilities are named after chemical compounds. And yes, you can only use abilities if you have all required atoms to form the compound. For example, to use the ability Carbon Dioxide (CO2), you need to have 1 carbon and 2 oxygen atoms available. These atoms are generated with every attack that the corresponding character makes.

I swear I had so much fun learning about these compounds (even though you don’t need to understand them to play the game) that if this game had existed when I was still in high school, I might have gotten a better grade in chemistry.

Finally, during a fight, once your “link gauge” has been filled, you can then “link” your chosen pair so that they are strengthened and can deliver a killing blow to the enemy. (So far, all enemies died once I’m able to link, but I’m unsure if it guarantees the end of a fight.)

All in all, had a lot of fun with it and looking forward to trying out different pairings and seeing the different stories. Also, excited to form more compounds with more characters as additional stories are released in the coming weeks.

[okayto]

Mini-Review: Kotaro Lives Alone

Shin Karino thought he only had to deal with the average problems that any thirty-something trying to make it as a manga artist would have to: Encroaching deadlines, artist's block, frequent back pain, and all that. His life takes a turn for the strange, however, when he meets Kotaro, an incredibly precocious four-year-old who lives on his own in Shin's apartment complex. Kotaro pays his own bills, makes his own food, and is much more capable than your average kindergartener. That said, he's still just a kid, and soon Shin and the other tenants find themselves becoming the found family that Kotaro truly needs.

A big reason Kotaro works is that Kotaro, himself, is incredibly charming. Yes, you have to suspend some disbelief to accept the premise of “4-year-old successfully lives by himself,” but for all his precociousness and intelligence, he’s also a young kid: he has a tendency to black-an-white beliefs/understandings of the world, loves an obnoxious-to-adults kids’ cartoon, and mimics its samurai characters’ speech patterns, sounding oddly formal and, yes, like a kid trying to sound grown-up.

This was a great mix of humor and pathos: the former helps keep the latter from overwhelming. Kotaro is dry and deadpan, and like many kids is a mixture of “understands more than you think,” “thinks he understands but doesn’t,” and “doesn’t understand but won’t admit it.”

It’s very fun: Kotaro is a likable character, kept from being too obnoxious in the vein of genius-small-children archetypes by having many of the weaknesses of his peers (not knowing how the world works, jealousy when his adults pay attention to other kids, deep and abiding love for a cartoon adults can’t stand). And the adult characters, his apartment-building-neighbors, also aren’t sure what to do with this small child who is formally and seriously introducing himself as their neighbor, sans other adults.

You know when you’re in a situation around other people, and no one is quite sure if what’s going on actually needs to be addressed because it’s kinda on the border of weird, or because no one else has said anything yet, so you’re all looking at each other silently asking “should we be doing something? should someone say something? this is weird, right? we agree this is weird?”? That’s how the adults feel, but especially Karino.

This is a kid, but he does have legal guardians who know he’s living alone. So it’s not my business? But he’s a young kid. Should I do something? But I don’t want to get involved. But he’s a kid.

I’ve seen criticism of the show’s art, and while it’s not the prettiest anime to exist, I liked it. In particular, I like Kotaro’s weirdly un-emotive expression and impenetrable eyes. Contrast his appearance with the other kids who show up, looking fairly normal...and then notice that the person whose facial design resembles Kotaro’s the most is his neighbor Karino: an adult, somewhat apathetic, not particularly happy with life.

Kotaro’s lack of expression can be played for laughs, and adds to the impenetrability of his feelings, but to me it’s also an early sign that this is a kid who has experience things, and had to face life, at a level usually reserved for adults.

As the series goes on (at a mere 10 episodes), we learn more about Kotaro’s past, and why the titular character lives alone. The episodes themselves are a mix of humor (Kotaro Does a Thing with all the seriousness of an elderly hermit; neighbors get involved to various degrees) and gravity (when it’s often revealed that Kotaro’s Thing-Doing is related to something in his past, or the whole thing about him living without adults). It made me cry a little, but in a good way.

Verdict

English dub? Yes!

Visuals: Average. Kotaro’s stark design may be off-putting to some, but I thought his character design worked well (as detailed in the review), and the style of the show overall felt deliberate to me--we’re dealing with an absurd situation as the premise and the art felt like it added to that impression.

Worth watching? Yes. Turn off the part of your brain that won’t shut up about how irresponsible it would be to let a 4-year-old actually live alone (how loud this part of your brain is will vary from person to person) and enjoy the dry humor, reluctant found family (found uncles and aunts?) shenanigans, and tear up a bit. And at 10 episodes, it's a little shorter than a normal anime season.

Where to watch (USA, as of April 2023): Netflix (sub and dub)

Click my “reviews” tag below or search “mini review” on my blog to find more!

[xiaowhore]

we will meet again.

genshin impact x gender neutral!reader.

the pitter-patter of rain. a weeping man who fell to his knees. a heart-wrenching wail that could only emanate from a shattered soul.

someone was cradling you in a gentle embrace. tremors ran through him but his grip was firm, the only source of warmth where everything was so, so cold. sobs wracked his body but you couldn't muster the energy to produce a single shiver, exhaustion deep in your bones.

“i'll find you,” he promised, pressing a final kiss to the crown of your head. “i'll do whatever it takes. i'll wait a hundred years, and a thousand more. so please...

please don't go where i can't follow.”

as someone who'd been dragged to many, many boring field trips, you've more or less accepted the fact you'll never be able to truly escape from visiting museums.

you're starting to think it's a prerequisite in the standard itinerary. which adult assumed listening to ancient history would be a terrific source of entertainment for teenagers with an attention span of a goldfish? surely not someone who understood teenagers well. or maybe they were enticed by the cheap entrance fee. you've been scammed. you should've just gone to a waterpark or something.

trailing behind the pack of kids in your class, you let the tour guide's words go in one ear and out the other, immensely regretting the string of decisions that led you here. why did you fool yourself into thinking the trip would be more fun this year? why did you let your friend convince you into going? why did you ever place your hope in the boring principal to decide on a more exciting destination for once?

and the most pressing cause of concern: why on earth did you start spacing out and get lost in the process?

scratching your head at the dreadful predicament, you have half a mind to fish out your phone and contact your friend.

...fuck. it won't turn on. you've been playing mobile games the entire ride in the bus.

okay. well. you can explore on your own and find them along the way. hopefully.

you navigate your way through the brightly lit space, strolling past pale walls adorned with paintings that told of an older time. beams of sunshine filter through wide glass panes, reflecting off rusty antiques and gleaming jewels. you stop at a particularly tall statue, mildly at awe from the brilliant sculpture despite not knowing how to admire art at all. the marble is so smooth you almost thought the clothes were made of silk, encompassing the defined torso and sweeping across the floor. in spite of knowing you most likely wouldn't recognize this god, your eyes briefly glance over his name anyway.

and............ nope. you really don't know him.

why does he have a rubik's cube... did that already exist hundreds of years ago? you squint at the thing he's holding in his hand. and he has a hole in his hood specifically for his ponytail... weird.

you continue your arduous journey across the gallery, yawns escaping your lips. nothing really catches your attention, but you have to admit, reading about monsters and seeing sculptures of strange creatures is pretty neat. why didn't the tour guide talk about this instead of some god who put their nation on lockdown?

after walking for quite a while, you finally spot a glimpse of familiar faces. you feel a spark of relief and you're about to break into a sprint to catch up with their pace when you suddenly felt compelled to stop.

you sharply turn around to glance at a painting.

objectively speaking, it's beautiful. the brush strokes capture vivid emotion, a picturesque replica of what must be foregone ages. the pasture almost seems as if it extends beyond the frames, a field of flowers that tickle your ankles. the warm tones of twilight are the final burst of radiance before the sun descends beneath the horizon, a bittersweet farewell that leaves you to long for its return. the biting cold air chases away the warmth, and-

you're almost fooled into thinking it's a buried memory resurfacing in your mind.

so i'm hallucinating now? in the midst of your daze, you failed to see the very obvious silhouette smack dab in the center of the painting, hair swaying in the breeze. it's impossible to miss. you must be truly blind not to see it. how did you not see them? as if... as if..... you were actually the one who...

you're definitely sick. it's the awful lunch's fault. you remember it tasted funny.

you shake your head and resume your walking, reminded of your priorities to return with your peers and maybe pay a visit to the infirmary; the painting was not an optical illusion and having hallucinations is probably a bad sign.

but you keep getting distracted. bright splashes of color at the corner of your eye rob you of your attention, a strange urge driving you to feel obliged to stare. you can't tear your sight away from the person in the paintings. it's always the same face too, albeit showing different expressions — sometimes pleased, sometimes amused, sometimes mad.

it feels oddly familiar to you.

of course, it's only inevitable that you run into someone eventually when you walk and not set your gaze forward where you're actually walking. a sputtering apology leaves your lips on default as you step away, for once staring at something else.

except when you see his face, you feel like you've seen it somewhere before.

he places a hand on your shoulder to help steady yourself, since of course you start tripping on your own feet. he looks a bit concerned, but there's something else there. a glimmer of shock, a faint redness dusting his cheeks. and something that resembles indescribable joy.

your heart squeezes.

you're certain you look like that too, but you don't understand why.

then the tour guide's voice returns in your mind, the brief moment you bothered to pay attention to any of his explanations:

“there was once an artist who loved his spouse so dearly, he dedicated all of his paintings for them. for a time where cameras didn't exist, they were his recollections of precious memories. he claimed to be forgetful, and only a painting could retain the memory of his beloved's smile.

of course that was just a lie. aside from being an artist, he was a brilliant young man full of talent and wit. how could he ever forget his lover's face? if anything, he probably burned it into his mind already.

yet he doesn't see it for very long. a tragedy befell their lands, and his beloved died in his arms. he kept these paintings as his treasures, the final piece of what he had of them.

he vowed to search for them in their next life, that these paintings would remind him of his promise. if you look at the corner of the canvas, you'd see what his lover is called—”

“[name].”

[natriae]

My Sakusa Kiyoomi headcanons

c/w: gender- neutral reader, talks of anxiety and lonely-ness, affection, sickness, family, little bit of drinking (not a lot of detail), let me know of there’s any i missed

growing up he was often alone because his brother and sister we’re so much older then him

i feel like his parents or maybe his mom worked at a hospital so she made sure he was always clean

also during a take ur kid to work day he saw someone extremely sick at the hospital and his older brother had told him some elaborate scary story about how they got sick(which is why he wears the mask)

eventually he realized the story was an exaggeration but he was so used to wearing the mask and keeping clean he just kept his routine (the mask was also for japan’s air quality <SAKUSA’S NOT GERMAPHOBIC>)

His parents are a lot like Komi’s from Komi can’t communicate(its so good please watch it) where his mom is super talkative and his dad is very quiet but blunt

He would never say this out loud, but he’s really grateful to have komori. He was his best friend growing up-even though they are cousins- and kept him from being very lonely

often times after his parents got home from work they were quite exhausted, so Kiyoomi didn’t wanna be a bother and have them do stuff or talk about his feelings :(

he ended up developing terrible anxiety, and since he didn’t have the best social skills he’d uses volleyball as a channel to get out all of his emotions

Surprisingly he’s very smart lol

In middle school he’d try and get amazing grades so his parents paid more attention to him, but in highschool he learned to did for himself

in his second year of highschool his mom stopped working as much, so when she went to visit him at nationals she saw Atsumu and wouldn’t stop commenting on “what a sweet boy” he looks like (she was very happy to know they’re teammates now)

No his family is not “rich” but they are more well off then most

After college when he was in MSBY his sister gave birth to his niece, and he was the designated babysitter

Unlike the rest of the MSBY 4 Kiyoomi preferred wine and staying in

before he met you his ideal night was facemasks with his niece, a glass of wine, and tv

Kiyoomi has actually always wanted a family. He didn’t like other peoples kids because they were not well behaved- which often gave people the idea he hates kids- but he’d always wanted his own child.

He didn’t care if it was a boy or girl he just wanted a mini of his partner and him running around

Kiyoomi would never have a one night stand no matter how badly Atsumu begged him to have “fun”, and believed in fate. His partner would come to him when they’re destined too. Would he ever admit to this definitely not

When he did get a partner he thought his love language was acts of service, but to his surprise it was physical touch. The best way to wind down was to cuddle up to u and lay his head in the crook of ur neck and u pet his hair

at night he thinks about how awkward he was with interactions he had years ago (relatable) and he gets down on himself

eventually he opened up you and talked about all his feelings he kept in and eventually went to therapy to get better

he got a small yorkie named kokoro (means emotions/feelings) to comfort him

also everyone follow @/lovelykujo on instagram i love their art literally amazing

[scorpionyx9621]

Do you think Jason Todd fandom is kinda toxic? Because it seems like NO MATTER what DC do, there'll always be complains. Forget the bad adaptation like Titans. Even Judd Winick cannot escape the criticism with how he potrayed Robin!Jason. They just never satisfied.

SORRY, IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO RESPOND TO THIS. I just moved from Washington D.C. to Seattle, which, for my non-American friends, that's 4442km away. And I DROVE THERE ALL BY MYSELF. And now I'm trying to find new work in a new city and trying to stay mentally healthy and positive. Life is exciting but hard and scary.

*sighs*

As someone who was a fandom elder with V*ltr*n. I've seen some of the worst when it comes to fandom behavior. I'm talking people baking food with shaving razors and trying to give them to the showrunners. I'm talking leaking major plot details and refusing to take it down unless they make their ship canon (I am looking at you, Kl*nce stans) For the most part, DC Comics has had a decades-long reputation of treating their fans like trash and not caring what they think so from what I've seen, we all just grumble and complain in our corners of the internet about how we don't like how X comic portrays Jason Todd.

The challenge with Jason Todd is that he's your clinical anti-hero, the batfamily's Draco in Leather Pants, he's a jerkass woobie, and on top of all of that, he's a Tumblr sexyman. It's a perfect storm for a very fun but frustrating character to be a fan of. It doesn't help that every writer decides to re-invent the wheel every time Jason comes up so his canon lore is confusing at best and inconsistent as a standard.

I guess starting with a general brief on who Jason is and what is uniform about him with every instance he's appeared in comics/media.

Grew up in a poor family in Gotham with a dad who was a petty-mid-level criminal, and a mother who dies of a drug overdose.

Survives on the street on his own by committing petty crimes and potentially even engaging in sexual acts to keep himself alive.

Is cornered by Batman and taken in after Dick Grayson quits/is fired

Becomes the second Robin, but is known for being the harsher, more brutal Robin.

Is killed by Joker after being tortured, but somehow comes back to life and regains senses through the Lazarus Pit

Resolves himself to be better than Batman by basically being Batman but kills people.

Where there has been a lot of conflict in the fandom is the fact that Jason Todd is not a character that is written consistently. DC Comics loves to go with the narrative that Jason was "bad from the start" and was the "bad robin" when, yes, he has trouble controlling his anger, but he also still is just as invested in seeing the best of Gotham City and trying to be a positive change for the world as any other DC Comics hero.

Where I get frustrated with the fandom is its ability to knit-pick every detail of a comic they don't like while completely disregarding everything that makes the comics great and worth it to read. My example being Urban Legends. To which most people had pretty mixed reactions to. I was critical of the comic at first but as it went along I ended up really liking it. I have a feeling DC Comics went to Chip Zdarsky and told him he had 6 issues to bring Jason back into the Bat Family, and honestly he didn't do a bad job. Did it feel rushed? Absolutely. I wish there was more development of Jason and Bruce's characters and their dynamic as a whole. However, where I see a lot of people being angry and upset with Urban Legends is that they feel Zdarsky needlessly wrote Jason as an incompetent fool who needs Bruce to save him.

Whether or not that was the intention of Zdarsky is up to debate. However, and this may be controversial, but I don't think he wrote Jason Todd out of character at all. For as fearsome, intimidating, and awesome as Red Hood is. Jason is a character who is absolutely driven by his emotions. Why do you think he donned the role of Red Hood? As a response to his anger towards The Joker for killing him, and towards Bruce for not taking action against The Joker and for seemingly replacing him so quickly after he died. Jason didn't care about being the murderous Robin Hood or for being the bloody hammer of justice against N*zi's and P*d*ph*les. He only cared originally about making The Joker and Bruce pay. It wasn't until he trained under the best assassins in the world and realized most of them were horrific criminals who trafficked children and were p*dos that Talia began to realize that the teachers that she sent Jason to train under started dying horrific and painful deaths.

The entire story of the Cheer story in Batman Urban Legends was started because it finally forced some consequences upon Jason. Tyler, aka Blue Hood's father was a drug dealer who gave his supply to his wife and kids. And when Tyler's father admitted he gave the drugs to Tyler, it immediately made him fall within the self-imposed philosophical kill-list of Jason Todd. And Jason, well, he proceeds to kill Tyler's father. When this happens, Jason is in shock. Tyler's dad fit the bill to easily and justifiably be killed by Jason. We've never seen Jason having to deal with the consequences of being a murderous vigilante on a micro-level. When Jason realizes what he's done in that he's murdered Tyler's dad, he's shocked. He tells Babs the truth. He does a rational thing because he's in shock. He doesn't know what to do, he never has had to face the consequences of his actions as Red Hood and now the gravity of befriending a child as a vigilante hero who kills people just set in when he killed the father of the same child he was just introduced to.

(Oh here's a little aside because it had to be said, Jason would not have been a good father or a good mentor to Tyler and absolutely should not have been his new Robin. Jason is a man who is in his early 20's (not saying men in their early 20's can't be good fathers at all) who is a brutal serial killer using the guise of a vigilante anti-hero to let him escape most of the law. the complications of having the man who murdered your father adopt you and make you his sidekick are way too numerous for me to explain in a long-winded already heavy Tumblr essay post. There's a reason why we don't advocate for a story where Joe Chill adopted Bruce Wayne or one where Tony Zucco took in Dick Grayson.)

The next biggest argument is that they feel that Jason is giving up his guns as a means to just be invited back into the Bat-Family. To which I will tell anyone who has that argument to go actually read Urban Legends. Already have and still have that argument? Please re-read it. Don't want to? That's okay, I will paste the images from the comic where Jason specifically says that he doesn't want to give up his weapons for Bruce and his real reasoning down below since the comic isn't exactly readily accessible.

Jason gave up the guns because he felt the gravity of what he had done and knows how it'll effect Tyler. Thankfully his mom is alive and in recovery. But Tyler doesn't have a father anymore. And Jason killed Tyler's father. It may have been in accordance to Jason's philosophy, but it was a case where it blurred the lines. Jason Todd isn't a black and white character, just very dark gray. He doesn't kill aimlessly like the Joker. If you are on Jason's list you probably have done something pretty horrific, and also just in general, being in his way or being a threat to him. Mind you, in early days of Red Hood and the Outlaws (Image below) Jason almost killed 10 innocent civilians in a town in Colorado all because they saw him kill a monster. That being said, Jason isn't aimless in his kills.

(Also can we just take a moment to appreciate Kenneth Rocafort's art? DC Comics said we need to rehabilitate Jason Todd's image and Kenneth Rocafort said hold my beer: It's so SO GOOD)

That being said, the key emphasis in the story of Cheer asides from trying to introduce Jason Todd back into the Bat Family and give an actual purpose for him being there, other than him just kind of being there ala Bowser every time he shows up for Go Kart racing, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, and the Olympic games when Mario invites him, is that Jason and Bruce ultimately both want the same thing. Jason wants to be welcomed back into the family and to be loved and appreciated. Bruce want's Jason back as his son and wants to love and protect Jason. Both of these visions are shown in the last chapter of Cheer while under the effect of the Cheer Gas. It's ultimately this love and appreciation they both have for each other that helps them overcome their challenge and win.

Jason Todd is a character who, just like Bruce, has been through so much pain and so much hate in his life. The two are meant to parallel each other. While Bruce chose to see the best in everyone, giving every rogue in his gallery the option to be helped and give them a second chance, hence why he never kills, Jason has a similar view on wanting to protect the public, but he understands that some crimes are so heinous they cannot be forgiven, or that some habitual criminals are due to stay habitual criminals, and need to be put down. But at the end of the day, the two of them both try to protect people in their own ways.

I am aware that through the writings of various DC Comics authors such as Scott Lobdell and Judd Winick, the two have had a very tumultuous relationship. And rightfully so, I am by no means saying that Scott Lobdell writing an arc where Bruce literally beats Jason to within an inch of his life in Red Hood and the Outlaws, nor Judd Winick's interpretation of Under the Red Hood where Bruce throws the Batarang at Jason's neck, slicing his throat and leaving him ambiguously for dead at the end of the comic is appropriate considering DC Comics seems to be trying everything they can to integrate Jason back into the family. That being said, a lot of these writings have shaped the narrative of Jason and Bruce's relationship and have an integral effect on the way the fandom views the two. It doesn't help that Zdarsky acknowledged Lobdell's life-beating of Jason by Bruce at the very end of Cheer by having Bruce give Jason his old outfit back as a means of mending the fence between the two of them. That does complicate a lot of things in terms of how they are viewed by the fandom and helps to cause an even greater divide between the two.

Regardless, I want to emphasize the fact that Jason Todd is a part of the family of his own accord. Yes, he's quite snarky and deadpan in almost every encounter. However, Jason is absolutely a part of the family and has been for a while of his own will. There's a great moment in Detective Comics that emphasizes this. Jason cares about his family because it is his found family. Yes, they may be warry about him and use him as a punching back and/or heckle him. At the end of the day, we're debating the family dynamics of a fictional playboy billionaire vigilante whose kleptomania took the form of adopting troubled children and turning them into vigilante heroes. Jason Todd wants a family that will love and support him. This is a key definition of his character at its most basic. This was proven during the events of Cheer and is being reenforced by DC Comics every time they get the opportunity to do so.

Now, none of this is to say that I hate Judd Winick. I do not, I don't like the fact that in all of his writings of Jason, he just writes him as a dangerous psychopath, and Winick himself admits to seeing Jason as nothing much more than a psychopath. Yet Winick is the one who the majority of the fandom clings to as the one true good writer of Jason Todd because 'Jason was competent, dangerous, smart' Listen, friends, Jason is all of that and I will never deny it. However, what I love about Jason isn't that he's dangerously smart of that writers either write him as angsty angry Tumblr sexyman bait or that they write him as an infantile man child with a gun. There's a large contention of this fandom that has an obsession with Jason Todd being this vigilante gunman who is hot and sexy and while I definitely get the appeal. It is very creepy and downright disturbing that all of you hyperfixate on his use of guns and ability to be a murderer. It is creepy and I'm not necessarily here for it.

What I love about Jason Todd is that despite all of the pain, all of the heartache, all of the betrayal, and bullying, and death, and anguish. Jason Todd is one of the most loving and supportive characters in all of DC Comics. Jason has been through so much in his life, but he still chooses to love. He still chooses to see the bright side in people. Yes, he takes a utilitarian approach and chooses to kill certain villains, but at the end of the day he wants to see a better world, and he wants to be loved. It takes so much courage and so much heart to learn to love again after one has been abused or traumatized. I would not blame Jason at all if he said fuck it and just went full solo and vigilante evil. He has every right to, but he still chooses to be with the Bat Family of his own accord. That's something that I see a lot of in myself. I have been through a lot of trauma and yet I try to be a better person myself in any way that I can. It is extremely admirable of Jason to allow love back into his heart when he really doesn't need to. He kills and he protects because he has this love of society. It may have been shaped by anger and hatred, but Jason has found his place amongst people who love him and value him. I think Ducra, from Red Hood and the Outlaws put it best in the image given below.

To end this tangent, I love Jason Todd and all of his sexy dangerousness, but it's far more than that. As much as Jason may be dangerous and snarky, he loves his family without a shadow of a doubt. I look up to Jason Todd because despite all of his pain and all of his trauma, he still choses to love. Jason Todd is a character who is someone I love because despite all of his flaws and having a very toxic fandom, he still serves as a character filled with so much heart and so much passion. I wish more writers would understand that. But for now I will live with what I have. Even though the fandom may be vocal about it's hatred for his characterization, I choose to love Jason regardless because he is a character who chooses love and acceptance regardless of his pain. Jason Todd is by no means a good person in any sense of the word. He has easily killed upwards of 100 people by now. He is a character who is flawed and complex but ultimately is one who powers forwards and finds love and heart in a place from so much pain and anguish. That is what I love about Jason Todd. After all, to quote a famous undead robot superhero, "What is grief, if not love persevering?" Jason Todd chooses to love despite all of the trauma and pain and grief. Yes, he is hardened in his exterior, but inside there is a man with a lot of love to give and someone who deserves the world in my eyes.

[thompsonstessa-moved]

'Teraz Rock' Interview - english translation

A well know polish magazine about rock music 'Teraz Rock' (Now Rock) had an interview with Måneskin, and since one of the polish fans on FB shared pictures of the magazine, I decided to translate the interview, because I loved some of the stuff they said there! :D

As always, the whole thing is under read more. ;)

Maneskin is not only ‘Zitti e buoni’ and their winning performance in Rotterdam during the recent finale of Eurovision Song Contest. Italian band fits perfectly into the trend of rock restorers, and at the same time fights with the mental narrowness, prejudices and homophobia. On August 19th they will play In Park Kolibki In Gdynia.

I: You started by playing on the streets of Rome…

V: Unfortunately, there is not a lot of possibilities to debut in Rome. Rome is lacking the appropriate places, there are almost no rock shows. So we couldn’t find a place where we could show ourselves to the people. So we decided to play on the streets to gain the following, the listeners. We did that for good few months. And we had a lot of fun doing that. We think it really helped us, too. Because when you play on the streets, you don’t play for someone who came to listen to you. You need to attract people’s attention. So it was a great lesson on stage skills, to keep the attention. And we played many hours each day, so we also evolved as musicians, as a band.

I: Is it true that you had issues with police? V, D, T, E: Yes, that’s true!! (laugh)

D: It was all because of this old lady, that lived on the first floor, near the place where we used to play. She snitched on us! And sometimes police came and tried to get us to leave.

I: They didn’t arrest you?

D: No, it wasn’t that bad.

V: We were 16 back then. We just went all ‘We swear we won’t do it again!’ (laugh). We hid somewhere for 10 minutes….

D: Went around the block….

V: And played again (laugh).

I: You admited that at first you were shy. How did it happen that you gained so much self-confidence? Do you think one has to be self-confident if they want to show the world that they have something to say in music, in art?

V: It is important, but its more about feeling good with yourself and having fun doing what you do, rather than confronting the world. I think that if you lack confidence, you can’t fully enjoy creating, because you keep thinking ‘What the other will think about it?’. But everyone has to go through this phase. In my opinion, self-confidence is not something you’re born with. Everyone has the moments of hesitation and doubt. I have them too, still. And I think that’s perfectly normal. But you need to learn to appreciate yourself, accept yourself the way you are, because you can’t run away from yourself. We have whole life with ourselves, until the day we die (laugh).

I: Damiano, in one of the interviews you said ‘What we say, can change someone way of thinking’. Do you want to influence your audience? Artist like Chuck Berry or AC/DC just had fun on stage.

D: We also have fun on stage. But now, when we’re well known, we can get to many people, especially young ones. And there’s a chance, that if we say something positive to them, we could help them with their problems, that they can’t fight on their own. For example – like Vic said – we can help them gain more self-confidence and make them feel safer in the world around them. I’ll say this: if as a musician you have something to share with others, do it. But if you just want to have fun playing, that’s OK too.

T: Exactly.

I: Your behaviour on stage is often the reason for homophobic attacks. What would you say to homophobes here in Poland?

V: Fuck them!!!

T: Fuck them!

E: Fuck them, fuck them! (laughing)

D: Maybe not so vulgar.....

T: Fuck them!

D: For sure they should open up more, get rid of prejudices. Make a step forward. Free themselves from the old way of thinking. Let the others live however they want.

I: You debuted in 2017 with EP ‘Chosen’ with two of your own songs and few covers. Even tho you were so young, you already came off as mature musicians with a set style…

V: Thanks, but I don’t think so (laugh).

D: I don’t think we would agree with that.

E: We wouldn’t agree with that, definitely.

V: My bass playing skills definitely left much to be desired.

D: 'Chosen' definitely has its advantages, but… we were still looking for our sound back then. That EP is so much more different than our other albums. But it is a part of our career, our journey, and we don’t regret anything that has to do with it. We had a lot of fun recording it and… its something we did in the past and we’re happy that people loved it.

V: Still love it!

D: Exactly, still love it. Even tho we changed so much since then.

V: The most important and coolest thing about that EP is that even tho we were really young and our skills weren’t as good, you can still hear that we already had charisma and knew what we wanted. And even tho most of the EP consists of known songs, we changed them, played them in our own way, our own style. And that’s really cool because it shows us as a band with their own personality. Of course, now that we listen to that EP, we have lot to complain about…

D: We would do the songs much better.

V: But we like the attitude we already had back then. Even tho we were so young.

E: Our sound really changed since then, but you need to remember that when we we’re recording it, it was already a huge accomplishment for us.

D: That’s true.

I: On ‘Chosen’ Damiano sung in english. On your first album, ‘Il ballo della vita’ from 2018, you had songs in italian as well. Did your songs get more personal because of that?

D: I wouldn’t say that. We started writing songs in italian out of necessity. If you’re an Italian artist and want to reach Italian audience, you need, you have to sing in italian, because not a lot of people speak english there. Now it’s different, we managed to reach international audience, so we can make more songs in english. But we won’t resign from italian, we like to write in italian as well.

I: While recording ‘Il ballo della vita’ you made documentary ‘This Is Maneskin’…

E: They will never forget it! (laugh)

I: You can see there, that during that time you argued a lot.

D: We were young!

I: Did the conflicts threaten your band’s future?

D: No! We were just starting out...

V: Conflicts were inevitable. We were very young and suddenly tabloids were writing about us. And recording an album required a lot of work. And we never experienced that before, we had issues dealing with work in the studio. Because creating and recording together isn’t easy. You need to make many decisions, everyone has their own opinion. Now we’re more mature, we know how to deal with those situations. We can discuss with each other in a constructive way. We were much more childish back then and yeah, we fought sometimes. But even then nothing happened that could threaten our band.

I: ‘Il ballo della vita’ is a concept album of sorts. You have there Marlena, who, like you said, is personification of the concern a lot of you have – that we’re not able to be yourself…

D: The album was supposed to share a message to our fans. We wanted to tell them how important for us is the freedom to be yourself. The ability to love someone, that was chosen by our heart. Freedom to wear the clothes we like. Et cetera, et cetera… We realized that the album would speak to people more, and will be easier to understand, if we gave that idea a name. Of course it’s an idea that we still share to this day, just maybe a bit differently.

I: Your last album, ‘Teatro D’Ira Vol. 1’, you recorded live in studio. Did the way you worked on it was much different from the way you recorded ‘Il ballo della vita’?

D: Oh yeah! It definitely took us less time!

V: Definitely much faster. It was very exciting. We wanted to keep in studio the energy we have when we play concerts, which meant playing together. Which is of course much more difficult than recording separately. But we told to ourselves: let it be, we should at least try. And we loved the result.

D: You know, at first you work on the material in rehearsal room. And you’re full of energy. But then you come into recording studio, where you divide the song into parts, and you loose that power, that magic. So we realized that we should change the way we work, so we could keep the emotions from rehearsals.

I: ‘Teatro D’Ira Vol. 1’ is another concept album. You said its all about the rage, that plays the role of catharsis sometimes. Can you say something more about it?

V: Anger is mostly seen as something negative. And we think that classifying emotions as positive or negative is stupid. Especially in art. When you’re creating, anger can make you give more from yourself, say more. And that’s what our album is about, talking about the world of theatre. We show that something that’s seen as bad, can – especially in the world of art – become something good. And those songs, that are so full of rage, can bring relief to our listeners, which only confirms what I’m trying to say.

I: In the lyrics to 'In nome del padre’ and ‘Vent’anni’ you’re talking about mistakes you made in the past...

D: They are very different tracks, even if they seem to talk about the same topic. Vent’anni is all about our age, because we think it’s a very special moment in your life: you become an adult, but you’re still too young to be considered as such, and they don’t treat you seriously. We wanted to share that with our fans, because maybe they think the same. And In nome del padre is about the battle we had to fight, the mistakes we had to make, to get where we are today. Of course we’re still young, we still make mistakes. But I’m singing about the mistakes from the past, because they made us the way we are today. And I’m saying: don’t be afraid to make mistakes, because they are a part of your journey, your life. What’s important is how you react to those mistakes.

E: It’s not a mistake to make mistakes.

I: The next album, continuation of ‘Teatro D’Ira Vol. 1’ – is it already recorded?

D: No, no.

V: Indeed, our next album will be continuation of ‘Teatro D’Ira Vol. 1’, but we’re still working on it. We don’t want to record it in a hurry, we want to take our time making it.

D: We have a lot of songs already, but we want to have plenty to choose from. We want the album to have the most representative songs, the best ones.

[geminihalos]

Astro Analysis pt.2

Back at it again with a different family member’s chart, but this time it was upon request. I promise that I will start posting about famous ppls charts and why they are like the way they are. If yall want a specific famous person’s chart analysis then please take your time to comment on this post by putting a name in there.

Alright so the family member that i’m putting on the spot today is my own father.I ask for my family’s permission before posting anything relating to such matters.

I’m going to be quoting him a lot lmao bc its too iconic to leave out.

☀️Sun in Leo + Sun in the 10th house: Is in general very Confident and loud. Sometimes has no filter and is a huge lover of art, especially cooking. He expresses himself fully through his career which is also MC in Leo, meaning he is meant to be a leader. There is a sense of enjoyment in being generous and having a reliable reputation. Has a big heart, but won’t hesitate to cut away the unnecessary. Tiny bit of spoiled brat energy, but won’t admit it.

☀️ Ya’ll ever notice that Leo placements also love video games, and are very good at it. Ex: my own father, my cap brother with the leo rising, my aries archnemesis with a leo moon. All of ‘em love playing video games and spend hours grinding on getting the xp and the dubs.

☀️ Scorpio moon + moon in the 12th house: this placement is what makes him the easiest to talk to in my opinion because he understands the emotions and wisely handles them because this placement if highly developed. Scorp moons claim they don’t cry often, and he himself believes that crying is useless and he’d rather think about what to do next instead of moping around. Vague descriptions of how he feels, and enjoys deep convos.

☀️The 12th house is linked to the past life, the secrets, and subconscious, which means that he hides his emotions fairly well, and they’re well controlled with scorpio in there. Is aware of what’s going on inside his emotional nature. Reflective when developed and he has an innate desire to reach enlightenment. makes sense bc 12th house is linked to spirituality. Fuels the generosity and calms the ego.

☀️Mercury in Leo + Mercury in the 9th: once again very loud, but loves jokes and is very comedic. Satire humor because of scorpio influence. Naturally charismatic voice, knows how to command people in a socially acceptable way, and always has a tendency to talk over people to get his point across first. Strong in his beliefs and points especially bc mercury is in the 9th.

☀️ Mercury in the 9th makes him direct his logic to the way of life and helps him find ways to set his morals geared towards finding emotional freedom. See how this connects with scorpio moon in the 12th? Often talks about the philosophy of life and is bent on finding as much knowledge as possible, a natural scholar of life. Fun, loud, and confident. (his life path is 7: the investigator and knowledge seeker path)

☀️ Venus in virgo + venus in the11th: makes for a witty person and it's true that people with this placement prefer modest, savvy, clean, and sophisticated people. That’s why he married my mother (a capricorn in the VIRGO decan). Is conversational and loves to share knowledge (”useful and life-changing knowledge” as he puts it) when he’s bring social. 

☀️Venus in the 11th makes him loved by society, and once again can attract people’s attention. People find him generous, thoughtful, and quirky, which are the classic Virgo traits being expressed through Venus. Although his angsty Scorpio moon makes him preach introversion, he can talk to people just fluidly, and they like him.

☀️ Mars in Cancer + Mars in the 8th: Is passive aggressive and hard to anger for real, but once someone does trigger him, he gets explosive with his words and saying hurtful things in the moment. Once again like my cap brother but more heated. Actually good at tennis; ppl with mars in cancer are good at tennis like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Refael Nadal. 

☀️Likes to make people rage quit for the fun of it when playing competitively. “we have to make sure he doesn’t know we’re pros” he said, “why” I said, “because I want to destroy him and make him think he has another chance of beating me... just for me to destroy him bahahahah” (applies to video games and tennis)

☀️ The 8th house rules the secrets, the hidden, and also financial deals/transformations. What this means is that he directs his energy towards taking calculated risks when it comes to material wealth instead of managing/keeping it which is 2nd house specialty. Does stock market investing and claims that investing came natural to him (”it was in my blood” lmao). Lowkey Scary because his financial strategies are risky, but it takes strong guts to execute. 

☀️ASC in Scorpio with Uranus in the 1st: Lots of confidence here guys. Uranus rules Aquarius whose sign is opposite to leo. Therefore, he appears like he has a god complex since aquariuses can be louder and more narcissistic than even Leo. But then again, he has leo placements... oof. He comes across as someone quiet, strategic, and intimidating, but he has a distant and aloof look as well.  

☀️MC in Leo: Born to lead and forge his own path. He was given so much leeway and freedom to innovate and find his own way, that he matured very quickly without the help of his parent (aquarius in the 4th). The leader who shines, but with the scorp energy, he prefers to be more secretive and work behind the scenes.

☀️Fixed Dominant: “i’m so adAPtaBle what are you tAlKinG about” *proceeds to argue with my brother about why going this road is faster than the other even though he’s clearly wrong*

☀️He looks up to feminine sun signs a lot bc of his virgo venus and scorp moon: ex- Warren buffet (virgo), Bill gates (scorpio), John D Rockefeller (cancer). 

[bigteefsmallbrain]

General Soul Eater HCs please

Soul Eater: General headcanons

Death the Kid:

He’s an art critic

Hear me out

He is obsessed with symmetry, and loves the beauty in it

So when he sees something non-symmetrical, especially in art, he can’t help but to critique it

May go as far as to send a personal letter to the artist (If they’re alive) about how offensive it is that they created something so asymmetrical

If he can’t send a letter to the artist, he’ll send one to the owner/museum and request it be taken down, while listing reasons why it’s horrible.

Anything he writes has an even amount of letters and words

Be that his test answers

Essays

Letters

Diary entry

Speaking of diary entries, he definitely has one

But it’s actually just a catalogue of symmetrical things he’s seen

He puts photos into it and writes about how beautiful it was to see

He doesn’t care what it is much, just that it was beautiful

Meaning he takes photos of people too

Which can be unnerving at times

He’s probably taken a photography class before, or at the very least is self taught

Literally has a photo album of things he views are beautiful, but non symmetrical and he would die if anyone found it

Like a particular sunset with uneven hills

Or a flower with one too many petals

Definitely has an 8 ball, not a magic one, just an 8 ball, it’s placed on a velvet pillow in his room and he frequently polishes it

Elizabeth Thompson:

Makes several backup plans as a way to cope

Especially after dealing with an experience with a ghost

She has notebooks full of them, labeled and detailed

At one point she started putting them in alphabetical order but stopped immediately when she realized Kid’s perfectionist habits were rubbing off on her

She practices acting in the mirror

Usually so she can charm a man into dating her

But also to con people

She used to be a “Street rat” and that thought of ending up on the streets again constantly plagues her mind

She takes full advantage of the “Rich life”

Shopping sprees

Quality makeup

Salons and spa days

The works

She lets Patty’s thought that she knows everything get to her head

The fact alone that her sister believes in her that much is enough to make her a bit egotistical

And Patty’s admiration for the girl makes it ten times worse

She literally doesn’t care if she ends up being wrong because she’ll just be right next time anyways

So stubborn in that aspect

Patricia Thompson:

She likes dark humor

You can’t convince me otherwise, you actually can’t, I have evidence

She made an origami Giraffe, and broke its neck

Laughed when Kid said he “wants to die”

She literally pokes him with a stick when he’s depressed

She likes dark humor, and probably looks up jokes to tell others just for kicks

She’s secretly sadistic, and likes scaring her sister and others

She may act naïve and innocent, but she is anything but

She definitely has, more than once, banged on Liz’s door at 3AM just to hear her sister squeal like a little girl

Honestly, she probably purposefully gets their pose wrong, just to see her sisters annoyance and laugh when Kid gets smacked

She likes origami

Probably first got into it because of the paper ninja stars

Then just found it relaxing

She most likely makes the ninja stars mostly, and keeps a box of her origami creations somewhere

Has in the past, and will not hesitate to do so again, beat someone up for kicks or just to destress

Patty has two faces, the childlike innocent one, and the insane anger one

So it’s not too far fetched to say that she’ll hide her anger till she can corner someone alone and beat them up

Or that she gets bored and decides to do so

I wouldn’t be too surprised if her sister occasionally joined as well

Maka Albarn:

She’s a Harry Potter nerd and you can’t convince me otherwise

She loves the concept of magic

Loves the dynamic between Ron and Hermione, though feels a bit of Deja vu thinking about it

Probably used to write fanfiction, but in a way that made it seem like it was actually part of the story

She will hit you if you mention it

Definitely the type to compare books to their movie counterparts

Not in like, a critic way, but she will definitely rant about the differences, or how a character looks exactly like she imagined, or if they didn’t put in a particular scene she liked in the book

Forces Soul into movie nights, but it’s only the movie counterparts to her books

I can see her forcing everyone into a group study session

Be super organized about it, and setting it up in a way so that no one can refuse

She probably has specific ways for everyone to study

Like having Black☆Star work out while studying so he retains the knowledge better

Or setting up the session in a symmetrical way so Kid doesn’t freak out about it

She writes letters to her mom, as a coping mechanism for when her emotions get to be a little too much

Like when she’s having a bad day

Or if she’s particularly peeved at something Soul did

She writes a lot more letters when it comes around the time of her mom's birthday or death anniversary

She likes the thought of an old timey romance, and often listens to songs that give off that kind of feel

She really likes “It’s Been a Long, Long Time”, it’s one of her favorites

She also likes the old Disney songs, like “Once Upon a Dream” and “So This Is Love”

She would be so embarrassed if anyone found out though, especially if it was her dad or Soul

She isn’t quite sure why she’s so worried about Soul finding out though

Speaking of, she half realizes, half doesn’t with anyone's romantic feelings, including her own

She’ll fantasize about getting a love letter or having someone present her with a bouquet of roses

But if it actually happens she’s like “Oh, thanks friend!”

She knows the behaviors, she just can’t put two and two together

They would have to be extremely blunt, no over dramatic confession, just “I’m in love with you and want to be romantically involved with you”

She reads dictionaries for fun

She really likes to read out of date dictionaries, just to see what words and slang existed back then

She also highlights words she likes and uses them frequently on accident

She has most definitely yelled “I have cupid’s kettlebells*! I’m not flat!” at Soul before

Soul Evans:

Bottles. Up. His. Emotions.

He’s influenced by “toxic masculinity” and fully believes that being vulnerable in a serious way “isn’t cool”

He will bottle everything up so deep down inside that it seems impossible for it to surface

Feelings of inferiority to others? Bottled

Want to cry or break down? Nope, gotta be cool

Started crying in front of someone and can’t stop? He’s not crying, you’re clearly blind

Speaking of crying, once he starts, and I mean genuinely starts, it’s so hard to get him to calm down, and even then the tears don’t stop

Sometimes he’ll start to freak out and send himself into a panic attack because the tears just won’t stop

He’s that influenced by the thought of being vulnerable

On a lighter note, he does adore playing the piano, but the only person he’ll play for is Maka

He swears it’s not favoritism, and it’s partially true, but favoritism does play a large role in it

He frequently drags Maka to his room to show her a new piece he put together

And if he notices her feeling a little down that day, he’ll start playing a song that he knows she likes

He definitely knows about her love for old timey romance songs and is very embarrassed to admit a lot of the pieces he constructs are based off of that

The walls are p a p e r t h i n , he can hear her music through the walls

He secretly finds it adorable when he catches her listening to it because she’ll be dancing around to it

He also frequently finds himself thinking about those moments

He’s the stereotype that parents tell little girls about, with how boys will bully their crush

He’s a lot more playful and easy going, but still teases Maka, so much

Unlike Maka, he’s fully aware of his feelings, and acknowledges them, but bottles it up, only letting himself entertain the thought every once in a while

He jabs at Maka’s lack of “Cupids Kettlebells” as a way to try and ensure she won’t fall for him, because he doesn’t know what he’ll do if she does

He reads the same dictionaries that Maka does, not for fun, but so he can know just what the actual h e l l she’s saying

More than once he’s had to look up a particular word or phrase online because he can’t find it in the dictionary

“What the hell? It’s an old Victorian saying!? Where does she keep finding this stuff!?”

Subconsciously, as time goes on, he starts using old phrases as well, he was so embarrassed the first time he got caught saying “Keep your idle daddles* off of her!” when defending someone from a perv.

Black☆Star:

Is so unbelievably selfish with food

It’s not even funny

He will stab someone if they reach for his food

He surprisingly eats healthy most of the time though?

Says something like “I have to otherwise I’ll never surpass the gods!”

The only person who could ever p o s s i b l y steal his food is Tsubaki, but even that’s pushing it

He has the weirdest dreams, and I mean weird

Dreams like being turned into a potato and being cooked, mashed, and devoured by Tsubaki herself

He didn’t talk to her for a week after that dream, and refused to eat potatoes for a full year because “You never know if it could be a person turned into a potato!”

He was also very offended when Tsubaki ate potatoes during that time period

He takes things very literally

Like up above, if someone does something in a dream, he acts like it was real

Or if someone makes a joke about fighting, he will drag them outside to fight

He’s secretly scared of Tsubaki

But it’s for literally the stupidest reason

And he fully believes that because of it she could fight god and win

She used to have a pet cockroach

One of the flying ones

And he is so unbelievably scared of them, because for some reason they just don’t die, and they have w i n g s

So the fact she owned one as a pet scares him so bad even though it was literally for only a week

He has a soft spot for children

He doesn’t really know why

He just does

Is secretly really good with kids

Literally the definition of dad material

He has his flaws but still

Little kids are the only people who could steal his food and get away with it

Every. Time. and it makes the others so mad

Tsubaki Nakatsukasa:

What can I say, she’s perfect

She probably receives love letters

Reads them over when she’s feeling sad

Likes to keep them in a shoebox she painted

She definitely paints to unwind and relax

Likes to go outside and paint the sunrise/sunset

Takes note of beautiful scenery so she can come back in her free time and paint it

She probably draws/sketches too

Carries a sketchbook with her

More than likely has drawn Black☆Star doing something

Like napping or training

She’d never show him though, too scared of inflating his ego or giving him the wrong idea

Stress bakes/cooks

We know she cooks

Liz took advantage of it and pretended Tsubaki’s cooking was her own

So we know she does

Sometimes painting/drawing doesn’t cut it

So she heads to the kitchen and bakes away her worries and unwinds

The main reason Tsubaki would possibly be spared from Black☆Star’s stabbing habit with food is because she cooks all the meals

She makes sure everyone is comfortable around her

She’ll go as far as to learn someone's customs and practice cooking their unique cuisine just to make sure that they feel comfortable and safe in her presence

She radiates mom friend energy

She’s perfect mom material, perfect wife material, perfect in general honestly

*Cupid's Kettlebells is a old term for a woman's bust

*Idle daddles is a old term for hands

I Hope you like these general headcanons for the main seven! You didn’t say which characters you’d like to see, so I played it safe by putting the main characters! Thank you for the ask!

[jacksvnshine]

What is Love?❤️| Stray Kids

For Chan, its just being there. He has a stellium in his 6th house, that includes his Moon, Venus and Mars. This makes him very passionate about routine, his work, health and helping others, so seeing someone else with those traits is very attractive to him. His Scorpio Venus is all about devotion while his Libra Moon appreciates romance and partnership. Nothing would win him over faster than a team player, someone who dedicates their time to organising and taking care of everyone. He wants a committed, practical relationship where he knows he and his partner can depend on each other and that he doesn’t always have to be ‘perfect’ around them. He needs a reminder to have fun (Sagittarius Mars) and that he’ll be looked after. He really just needs someone to be there for him, like the way he is for everyone else😭

For Minho, its respect. A Scorpio Venus is not easy to win over, and a Scorpio stellium? Good luck thinking you can charm him right away. Minho is very observant - and though he’d be bitter to admit it, a bit judgmental too - because he has high standards and doesn’t like getting his heart broken. Sagittarius Moons do not deal well with negative emotions and like to avoid them, and when combined with the depth of Scorpio Venus/Virgo Mars, it can make them hesitant because they don’t want to have their time wasted with someone they took the brave chance to be so vulnerable with. Minho would love for someone to acknowledge the ways he opens up to them and values just how much time and attention he pays to them. He can act all jokes and silly but if you even think about flirting with him for fun and having no real intentions of going anywhere? BYE. He’s only interested in someone who takes his committment as deeply as him🔒

For Changbin, its in the little things. Being cared for in subtle ways actually means a whole lot to him. Anyone can make grand gestures of love but who’s the person that remembers to buy chicken soup, not vegetable, because its your favourite when you’re feeling sick? They know you feel nervous before a big presentation but you don’t have to remind them because they already wrote it down in their calendar and are at your door, ready to walk you to class and wait with you even if it means they are late for their own. Remembering details and doing small, non-sexual favours flatter him a lot because to him, it shows you care about him in every way. Flirting only goes so far with him, because what he wants deep down is attention (double Leo, hello??) and utmost devotion (Virgo Venus and Scorpio Mars). He shows his own love in modest ways, and so when someone reciprocates that, it makes him ~feel special~. He just wants some validation and showing you care about ‘even the dumb things’ reminds him that he is someone worth listening to and loving😚 

For Hyunjin, its all-or-nothing. Though his Pisces Sun and Virgo Moon are opposite signs, both are rooted in idealism. The Pisces stellium (including Venus) only contributes to this even more, which can make Hyunjin a very sensitive lover because it can consume him if he isn’t careful. His Aries Mars isn’t hesitant when it comes to going after his goals and if that goal happens to be you, you better believe he’s gonna do all he can to win you over because he’s so fixated on chasing that ideal romance. What would win him over, is someone who isn’t afraid to wear their heart on their sleeve and loves just as passionately as he does. He wants an exciting fairytale romance and he’ll overthink himself to the point of stress if it isn’t perfectly the way he imagined (Virgo Moon). He wants someone who can make his dreams come true but needs a healthy reality check every now and then too. Also, you didn’t hear this from me but he would thrive on seeing his partner jealous. It shows you want him just as much as he wants you and even better if its front of others too😳

For Jisung, it’s creativity. His Pisces Moon, Libra Venus and Leo Mars all appreciate art, beauty and performance. He loves an artistic soul and if someone were to create a piece of art and share it with him, he would be honoured. Even better if the art was intended for him specially or he was the inspiration behind it. Whether it be a painting, drawing, song, poem, etc., he would find it so beautiful to be romanticised like that. He may come across as goofy, but he’s easily one of the most sensitive members because he takes everything at a deeper level (Pisces Moon) and yet struggles to always express himself clearly. He opts to use his creative talents for self-expression in the most sincere form, and he sees love in those who speak to that part of him too🎨

For Felix, it’s enthusiasm. His Aries Moon is so warm and excitable; he finds something positive in everything and loves when someone else shares that attitude. A Libra Venus and Leo Mars combination make him so generous too because he loves to please and spoil. Virgos can often feel as though they are taken advantage of, so what would win him over most is when people make a big deal out of the things he does for them. Nothing would win him over faster than a huge smile, blushing cheeks and a hug, especially that of gratitude. He’ll try to play down things he does but on the inside, he’s hanging on for a reaction that would make his whole day. Seriously, he’d insist on paying for a meal or buying you something you had your eye on because seeing you all flustered and thanking him would make him so proud to be able to get those pure, unfiltered reactions from you🥺 

For Seungmin, its security. His Virgo Sun/Mars and Cancer Moon appreciate comfort and feeling safe, while his Libra Venus likes to add doting affection. Though he could find it fun to be with someone a little more on the reckless side, what he wants most is stability and a relationship full of consideration for each other. People who are mannerly and almost maternal-like are what make him fall most, so don’t expect him to get with anyone purely based on their looks. He’s selective but he finds it easy to woo over his crush because he is a romantic deep down and knows how to put others at ease around him. That’s why he wants someone who brings that gentleness to him too, and makes him feel at home🥰

For Jeongin, its confidence. Leo Moon, Aries Venus and Scorpio Mars are all very passionate placements, strongly driven and competitive. He likes people who match this energy and can keep up with him. He’s drawn to people who hold a natural confidence as his Aquarius Sun and Leo Moon opposition can often make him conflicted in his perception of himself. He needs a friendly, fiery ‘rival’ and partner-in-crime who celebrates each of his achievements with him and pushes him to be the best he can be. Individuals who don’t care for others opinions but live their lives for themselves inspire him, and that unapologetic happiness is just irresistible. He wants to be their King and rule alongside them👑

[chibimyumi]

Lost and Wins in Adaptation

Dear everyone, as per Anon’s request, I shall analyse a Kuromyu and discuss the Lost and Wins in Adaptation. The results of your democratic votes (comments and asks) are out, and the winner is TANGO ON THE CAMPANIA! In this post I shall only be discussing character/plot influential changes, so no stand-alone comedic sketches will be included.

This is going to be a very long post because there’s just so much to unpack. But feel free to read it in bits, or skip to the part you are most interested in (but do come back later though (ÒvÓ)b). This post will include the following sections:

What makes a good adaptation?

AberHanks - Expert Glue and Filler

“Just like my family!” - One line, many messages

Grell - A Capable Career Woman

An unfortunate Sacrifice

Raw Trash Demon

Active Inclusion Midfords - Manga Fix?

Reunion and Aftermath

Afterword

I promise you the analysis will make you love TotC even more!

1. What makes a good adaptation?

2.5D wouldn’t exist without the 2D, so it is essential for any 2.5D producer to prove to the fans the producing side understood the source material using their form of medium. Changes are inevitable, but the key is that when things are changed, the core of the original needs to remain intact.

Theatre as medium’s biggest disadvantage is its strict time constraints. Whether the producers are capable of adapting a story within the time constraints without it feeling like a quickly duct-taped patchwork is what distinguishes a good adaptation from a bad one. The scriptwriters have no choice but to sacrifice parts to tell a concise story, but the art is in skillfully choosing what to yeet. The musical does need to be able to stand on its own without new audiences going “what?”, after all

2. AberHanks - Expert Glue and Filler

The most obvious difference between the original manga and Tango on the Campania is the addition of Aberline and the musical original, Hanks. In Tango on the Campania they are very cleverly employed to tie the musical together within the time constraints.

Ronald appeared before the Campania Arc, but it wasn’t before this one that he gets his own proper introduction. What the manga readers and musical-only audience have in common then, is that at this point of the story, Ronald is almost equally new. The line: “if we get to meet again, alive, that is” is a very effective way to introduce Ronald’s chipper but cynical personality. In the manga Ronald’s conversation partner was a passenger who fancied Ronald. It would have been a waste of stage time to adapt the third class setting and introduce this girl too, but skipping the line entirely would not do Ronald’s introduction justice. So the script writers cleverly used AberHanks instead, and when Ronald delivered the iconic line, the impact is still the same as in the original.

Additionally, AberHanks are supportive roles in them being police officers who help combat the zombies. The historic Titanic had a really poor survival rate, and that’s without dealing with murderous zombies. In Campania however, that’s a different story. I would argue that Aberline and Hanks evacuation efforts, along with the Formidable Midfords greatly increased the survival rate of Campania passengers.

This addition is a brilliant three-birds-one-stone move. This firstly shows that despite AberHanks being the comic relief, as the police they are not there to fool around. Secondly, by explicitly placing the Midfords along literal fighters of crime, the audience also clearly understands what the Midfords - the Chivalric order - are: fellow fighters of crime.

Thirdly, the gentleman’s code of evacuation is children and women first, and AberHanks would undoubtedly also have heeded that code. And yet Frances was there, and AberHanks never attempted to evacuate her or doubted her skill. The police and Frances fighting side by side shows the audience that even in the 19th century, Frances is recognised firstly as member of the Chivalric Order, before being ““just a woman in a huge dress””. Don’t mess with her.

3. “Just like my family!” - one line, many messages.

A very small but game-changing alternation is when Ciel was trying to convince Lizzie to remove her dress to benefit escape. In the manga when Lizzie refused, O!Ciel immediately rips the dress, saying that once dead she won’t be able to wear any dress, because death is the end of everything.

In the musical with real child actors they couldn’t very well reenact this scene, so instead they gave Ciel the line: “Everything is over if you’re dead, just like my family!”

In the musical, Ciel doesn’t touch Lizzie, which is very clever. When someone refuses to remove her clothes, it is because she feels infringed, exposed and/or unsafe. If somebody doesn’t do something out of fear, what you need to do to convince them is to minimise that fear. By forcefully ripping her clothes, MangaCiel only made Lizzie feel even more infringed.

Instead of touching Lizzie, MusicalCiel appeals to Lizzie’s empathy. By making Ciel say “my family” to Lizzie, both audience and Lizzie are shown/reminded how Ciel had tragically lost his family, and cannot afford to lose more. At that time of the musical, new audiences wouldn't know yet what Ciel had been through. So when later the Cinematic Record of Sebas started, “just like my family” also functions as an effective foreshadowing of what would later be revealed, avoiding Ciel being in a cage looking like it came from nowhere to new audiences.

One could argue that Ciel’s phrase was emotional manipulation, yes... but it was a literal life or death situation for the objective good of everyone. And besides, we all know who our Trash Lord™ is; manipulation is part of him.

Ciel had yelled at Lizzie, and immediately he turned around, clutching his chest. It was such an impressive moment because it showed how that blow Ciel dealt was a doubled edged one. Lizzie was clearly hit too, and very quickly she realised her own fault and apologised. Then the most fun part for the audience is to consider whether this was Ciel’s genuine reaction, or whether that was all part of his acting skills in manipulating Lizzie. I say both are equally likely! (Oh Reo, you brilliant little...)

I personally consider this alteration superiour to the manga original.

4. Grell - A Capable Career Woman

Per Yana’s direct request to Grell’s actor, Uehara, she asked him to portray Grell as a capable career woman because Yana admitted she failed to do so herself.

Most of Yana’s request was fulfilled simply by Uehara’s acting and respect for Grell, but there is also one tiny line added to her script which emphasises her focus on her job. “I’m dropping you!”

Nobody on the Campania had time to fool around because it was literally going down. Grell had her job to do, and yet Rian thought it a good idea to withhold information from Grell about the method of stopping the zombies. By threatening Rian whose life was at Grell’s mercy with “I’m dropping you”, the audience is very effectively shown that Grell is a no-nonsense woman, and that she knows how to get someone to talk. 👌👌👌

5. An Unfortunate Sacrifice

Some things had to be omitted to fit the stage time limit, but the most painful omission in my opinion were details in Sebastian’s cinematic record.

A really unfortunate but understandable omission was Ciel reuniting with Tanaka and Madam Red... but considering the time constraints of the musical, shoe-horning these moments in with different actors would have come at the expense of the rest of the musical. Though very sad, it is what it is.

Another omission is Sebas forgetting to spare one assassin to interrogate. In this post I discussed in detail why this omission by the movie adaptation was such a sin. Tango on the Campania omitted that part too, though as a stage medium it is more forgivable than an animated movie with endless possibilities Ò^Ó. Nevertheless it is a bit sad, because this omission takes away that the audience can see how Sebas was just so used to massacring on auto pilot, and how even Sebas himself recognises he needs to learn control.

THOUGH, I must say the musical actually tries to compensate for this shortcoming, unlike the movie. This omission of what showed that Sebas was far from perfect at the beginning, Furukawa compensated by simply being the most insincere, passive-aggressive, unprofessional, arrogant prick he could be.

The audience won’t catch a hint that Sebas used to be no more than a weapon, but they will see how Sebastyun never served a human on close proximity before!

6. Raw Trash Demon

I have already talked about how Sebastyun is a real game-changer on this blog, so I will not repeat every detail again. So here I will only address the significant changes in spoken lines that add to Sebastian’s character before he was fully trained. In this post I discussed in detail how Furukawa portrayed Sebastian’s gradual growth from raw demon to one hell of a butler. Sebas at the beginning was really butler in appearance only, as he was insolent and never knew when to shut his wondrous trap.

In stage format it would have been quite awkward to do a bath scene, so instead the creators replaced it with a wound-dressing scene. Instead of pouring hot water over the boy, Sebastyun is now scrubbing his master’s skin off. When the boy protests, rather than immediately apologising like his manga counterpart did, Sebastyun just shoves the feedback right back down the boy’s throat. “You’re making too much of a big deal out of it.” Here we see how Sebas is not there to serve his master, he’s just doing his thing because he has to.

Another line that is musical only is when Ciel’s stomach rumbled, and Sebas laughed his arse off, saying: “what an inglorious sound!” In the manga Sebas started a high-horse speech about human weakness, which was quite bold already. But he did not seem to dare straight up humiliate his master for a basic bodily need.

Sebastyun however? Balls of steel.

He humiliates his master, can’t apologise for shit, and when he says things in compliance with his master, it’s in a tone of: “well, screw you too”. Sebastyun was so bad at his job that Ciel too was given another line that wasn’t in the manga: “The preparations of a day’s meals is part of a butler’s job”.

Sebas had just criticised his master for being a useless kid, and now Ciel makes a comeback with the line: “well, you don’t even know what your literal job is, let alone how to do it.” The addition of this line is very powerful in my opinion, because it quite effectively compensates for the omitted scenes of Ciel and Sebas both sucking at their respective roles.

When O!Ciel commented on Sebas’ awful cooking, MangaSebas seemed quite willing to do his job well, and immediately offered to fix his mistake. Sebas does not apologise, but he does show that he made a mistake in not being considerate enough of Ciel’s current condition.

Sebastyun however, couldn’t apologise for shit at the beginning. Instead of showing openness to feedback, he immediately externalises by making humans the problem again, rather than his own lack of cooking skill. No wonder Ciel smashed that table with such aggression!

Another changed line is Sebas bringing his master hot milk after his failed dinner attempt. Originally Sebas did so potentially as an attempt to show his readiness to do better at his job. He explains that he does so out of consideration for the well-being of the boy.

In the musical however, Sebastyun does not say the manga line. Instead he says: “I can’t afford to have you starve to death.” I am not sure whether this was the script or Furukawa’s improvisation, but either way it perfectly shows yet again, how Sebas is not there to serve his master, but to just get his tasks over with.

This is a very short but efficient alternative way to retell how Sebas especially at the beginning was not very enthusiastic about being summoned, as analysed here from the original Japanese manga. Sebas is not like: “(UwU) gimme more orders”, he’s like: “(ಠ_ಠ) what is it this time?”

A small addition that was definitely an improvisation was Sebastyun sitting down on Ciel’s bed, and the boy pushing him away. (At the beginning of the run Furukawa didn’t do that yet. The first time Furukawa sat down Reo just moved aside and gave Sebas a nasty look.) Here it also reemphasises how little Sebastian understood of what was done and NOT done as a servant.

A final, noteworthy addition in the far beginning of their contract was Ciel saying that he acknowledges both he himself are the demon are still fakes. The boy says this line after Sebas had brought him hot milk which Ciel appreciated.

Ciel calls his butler forward in a soft tone, and Sebastyun just looked so self-congratulatory, self-satisfied, he adjusted his suit, standing all ready like: PRAISE ME! (●´ิ∀´ิ●)✨

Yeah no... you wish.

In the manga this line doesn’t exist, so Sebas is simply surprised to hear the compliment, and then his master just splashes the cold water right over him.

7. Active Inclusion Midfords - Manga Fix?

The most dramatic and influential change to the musical is the active inclusion of the Midfords. It is an entire scene that was added to the musical, so it is a bit impossible to unpack everything in this already very long post. So here I will only address the most game-changing alterations.

Yana Beaten to the Punch, strike 2 and 3?

Now many chapters later than the Campania Arc, we know that the Midfords had been the legal guardians of Ciel after the death of his family. But even before the release of the chapter, we’d see in Sebastyun’s Cinematic Record how the Midfords were very involved with their nephew. This shows how much respect for the manga the musical producers had, and how well they understood their source material that they too could beat Yana to the punch. Strike 2!

Both Midfords were present before and during the decoration ceremony. And Sebas bows deeply, thanking them sincerely for their aid all this time. Sebas cannot lie, so when he says “sincere gratitude”, it really was sincere. Alexis responds humbly, saying that it’s simply the right thing to do.

Not only did the Midfords aid Ciel in his reintegration into the world, Frances also showed the audience and Sebas she knows exactly what she is preparing the child for. Frances says she understands how cruel it is for the young Ciel to do what is expected of him, because being Earl means more than wealth and power. It is: “shouldering the burden and name of ‘the Queen’s Watchdog’.” The musical also does a great job at linking Frances’ position as the previous Watchdog’s sister, to being the legal guardian of the future Watchpuppy.

I have seen many manga readers talk about how they found Frances’ involvement insufficient in the manga, and I understand. She has a very small role in the manga, so we don’t know what she has or hasn’t done to help. But in Tango on the Campania, we do get a much clearer sense of the Midfords’ role in Ciel’s life.

Ciel was still mid-preparation before the start of the Ceremony, but Frances and Alexis had already arrived to keep a parental eye on him.Ciel is surprised, but Frances responds with: “it would set a bad example if the star is late”. Though it is but one short phrase, the script writers shows (not ‘tells’) how she is there because she wants to make sure Ciel’s decoration will go smoothly, as well as that her own role is to set an example for Ciel by being on time herself.

This is possibly a reference to what Sebas says to Frances in chapter 14, how he wishes her to be his master’s example. Except that here in the musical, it is Frances who takes this initiative, which in my opinion is the superiour way.

When Frances commends Ciel for his courage of returning to fight, Sebastian adds: “The most opportune chance for counter attack is when the opponent strikes. That is what milady Frances had taught him, the Young Master said.”

To which Frances is quite surprised to hear, and incredulously she says: “Ciel said that?” This makes one suspect whether Frances really said those words to supposedly Real Ciel. It would be very funny if Sebastian (accidentally) gave Frances a hint of his master’s real identity. I am not sure whether this is an implicit hint that Frances might have started suspecting Ciel is not the Real Ciel. Some have theorised Frances has the deepest suspicions among everyone. If that turns out to be true, then TotC might have beaten the original manga to the punch again. Potential strike three!

Another change is the replacement of Madam Red with Alexis. This one is just a very pragmatic change, because the phrase “To Ciel you are already as good as family” is very iconic and important and shouldn’t be left out. But getting a Madam Red in here out of nowhere would require time-consuming exposition. So by giving this phrase to Alexis instead, the musical effectively solves two problems in one go.

8. Reunion and Aftermath

Another addition to the original manga is the reunion on the rescue ship, just like the the movie adaptation of the Campania Arc did. After all that has happened it is very nice for the audience to see the emotional reunion and the aftermath. In the manga the Arc ended with Sebas and his master on the rescue boat, and it had a very nice, open feeling to it, I absolutely love it! 💖🚤

Audience Considerate Story Telling

To a musical-only audience (which TotC had a lot of because of the collaboration with TOHO), the opening ending might have felt a bit abrupt. These musical-only spectators don’t have the Arcs after the Campania to know for sure Sebas and Ciel went home safely, and that life would just continue. Nor would they know for sure what kind of impact the enormous revelation of Undertaker being a reaper would have on our protagonists. Had the non-manga audiences been given the same ending as the original, then it might have looked a bit like this to them.

Also considering the musical medium, any (Japanese) audience would want a satisfying finale song to wrap everything up. (Kuromyu21 not having one was a real complaint among JP spectators). And after the dramatic brawl song of Sebas fighting the zombies on that boat, you can’t very well pull another song on that tiny thing again. Okay, the song TotC did settle with for the finale song was......very disappointing in my opinion as it reminded me more of a Disney parade, but it at least had a song.

Emotional Full Circle

Despite the song being quite unfitting, the emotional reunion really, REALLY hit hard. When Lizzie says “welcome back” to Ciel, it was a perfect full circle back to what Lizzie couldn’t do 3 years ago.

In her flashback of 3 years ago when Ciel returned to her, the boy lifelessly said: “I’m back... Elisabeth”. Lizzie however never responded with “welcome back” because she was too preoccupied with something just feeling off.

In the musical reunion however, unlike 3 years ago Lizzie was fully emotionally equipped to genuinely welcome her fiancé back, and Ciel too happily responds: “yeah, I’m back, Lizzie”, using Lizzie’s preferred name.

Sebastian’s Aftermath

The reunion is but a simple addition, but it allows the musical to show the impact of such a traumatic event on the omnipotent demon butler.

The Cinematic Record showed how cocky Sebastyun was, and how he didn’t have a single worry in his life. After Undertaker had fatally wounded even the demon however, Sebas became a different person. In the finale we see Undertaker silently disappearing into the shadows. Sebastyun wasn’t even entirely sure whether Undertaker was there, but at the merest suspicion already you see him flinch and twitch. This shows how from now on Sebas has become a person who is on edge.

I mean, what’s the point of telling an event if the event doesn’t impact the story and characters, right? In this way too, the inserted aftermath scene skillfully wraps up an overwhelmingly eventful story.

9. Afterword

Well, thank you for reading this looong post till the end! As discussed in this post, TotC did a wonderful job at adapting an existing story with consideration of its audience and medium.

The largest obstacle of the theatre medium is time constraint, so the makers have to sacrifice parts. In what was sacrificed however, they more than sufficiently compensated by including parts outside the Campania Arc into the musical, without harming the integrity. This shows just how much respect and knowledge the TotC team have of the source material.

As a musical adaptation, it is an exemplary production.

Related posts:

Hyper Detailed Development - The Art of Kneeling

That Demon, Skin Crawling

That Butler - Punchable

Lost in Translation II - Sebastyun’s Butlernese

[cloudy-minded-idiot]

sealing a deal

pairing: Sharon Carter x reader 

warnings: alcohol consumption, slight spoilers for TFATWS

word count: ~1,400

a/n: requested by @penparkz . thank you so much for your request! I’ve never done Sharon Carter before, but I hope you like it :) 

summary: newly arrived in madripoor, sharon attempts to strike a business deal with the reader. (set sometime between civil war and infinity war)

The club was dimly lit. Shadows moved in the colourful neon lights, bodies dancing to the sound of the newest bass-filled techno song. It was impossible to move around without jostling at least a couple of party-goers. They didn’t seem to mind either way, too drunk or high to really notice their surroundings. So, Sharon pushed on, gradually making her way to the bar. Subtly she attracted the barkeeper's attention, muttering the code word she had been given beforehand. With a nod, the burly man put two drinks down in front of her and told her to stay put. He disappeared without another word.  

While she waited, Sharon eyed the bottle in front of her. Its transparent glass revealed a strangely coloured liquid that seemed to change its hue depending on how the club lights hit it. Letters of a foreign language adorned the label, the paper of which was soaked from the condensed water that slowly ran down the side of the cold bottle.  

„It's an expensive drink. Very hard to acquire, “a voice quietly spoke up beside her. The blonde turned her head slightly to face its owner, eyeing the newcomer as they sat down.  

You continued, unfazed by her scrutiny.  

„In fact, I have to import it myself. It’s very costly, so I tend to reserve it for special occasions. “  

She cocked her head to the side, face not betraying any emotions.  

„And you think this will be such an occasion? “  

You simply smiled in answer, picking up the second bottle and holding it out to her.  

„I sure hope so. “  

Taking your cue, the blonde clinked her own bottle to yours, waiting for you to take the first sip before trying the liquid herself. The drink felt smooth in her mouth, tasting both fruity and bitter-sweet, with slight hints of alcohol underneath. You looked at her expectantly, and she nods, setting the bottle back down.  

„Not bad. Not sure if I'd go through all that trouble for this drink. But not bad,” she delivered her assessment with a polite smile.     

„Your honesty is appreciated. I can get you something to drink that’s more to your taste if you like,” you raised your hand to wave down the barkeeper, but the blonde stopped you, with a hand on your arm.

“That’s very kind of you but unnecessary. I'd rather just get down to business,” she told you, releasing your arm again. 

Slowly, you lowered your hand, regarding her with a calculating gaze. There wasn't much you could read from her expression as she kept her professional mask. Typical ex-government agents. You had run-ins with your fair share of them. They usually weren't much fun. Usually weren't as pretty as her either. Suppressing a sigh, you shrugged and took a swig from your drink.  

“Fine," you let out breathily, nodding at her, "I was told you had a business proposal for me. So go ahead. Propose.”  

The other woman wasted no time. Sharon launched into her explanation, going over the plans she had come up with. You listened patiently, letting her talk uninterrupted. She laid out her idea for a high-scale art heist. Nothing you hadn’t done before, definitely doable. She took out a tablet, showing you the piece in question. It was a portrait of a woman, sitting under a tree and looking out to a distant mountain, surrounded by fields of flowers. You were familiar with the work. Very beautiful. Very expensive.  

“The painting will be a part of a special exhibition in Tokyo this week, " Carter explained, swiping on her device to pull up a satellite picture, "Security will be tight, but less so than it would be in the museum. I know a guy who can get us the plans of the exhibition hall and details on the protocols. You would provide the forgery, of course. We’ll quickly swap out the portraits and transport the real one back to Madripoor. I already have a handful of potential buyers willing to pay astronomical prices for this piece. We’ll split our winnings 50-50.”  

You traced the grain of the wooden counter as you thought her plan over with a hum.

“That's a pretty tight schedule. My forgeries take some time,” you pointed out. The blonde remained unimpressed.  

“I've heard stories of you painting a Van Gogh, a Monet, or even a Botticelli in two days. This will be nothing compared to that.”  

“I see, you've done your research," you said with the slightest hint of approval, "Then you'll also know that I don’t usually work with newbies. It’s risky and I have a reputation to uphold.”  

You paused to let your words settle in, taking another sip of your colourful drink. You could feel Sharon’s gaze on you, as you pretended to carelessly look around the club.  

“I have a counteroffer," you went on, keeping your tone light, "You'll handle circumventing the security and selling the portrait. I’ll provide the fake and organize transportation. I get 80 percent of the money as compensation for the risks I'm taking for trusting new blood. In return, if this goes well, we can do more business together in the future and I’ll make sure to recommend you to a couple of my associates. Really get your business going.”  

You couldn’t hide your smile, as you saw her mask slip, a discontent frown settling on her face.  

“So, I'll only get 20 percent despite being the one doing most of the dirty work? I might as well be doing this whole thing on my own-"  

You held up a finger, stopping whatever else she was going to say.  

“Oh, but you can’t. Because your whole operation depends on me making that forgery for you,” you smirk. You saw the way her jaw set in irritation. She knew you were right. You were invaluable to her plan. Didn’t mean she had to like it. Fidgeting with the cold drink in front of her, she made up her mind.  

“45-55 split, and you get to choose the next target should we cooperate again.”  

“I thought that was a given," you dismissed her offer casually, "I can offer you 30 percent.”  

“Absolutely not. 40-60, or I'll look for someone else to help me.”  

You let out a laugh, shaking your head in genuine amusement.  

“Good luck finding someone. There’s no one even close to being as good as I am. If there were, that’s where you’d be,” you leaned back in your chair, “Besides, I'm being generous for even considering working with you. Folks around here aren’t overly fond of newcomers, especially ones that still smell of big government.”  

The two of you held each other's gaze for a moment. Her face was set in determination, eyebrows drawn together as she thought about her rebuttal. You had to admit you admired her stubbornness and resolution. Undoubtedly something she had learned from that great-aunt of hers. Your little staring also contest gave you time to reassess your offer.  

After all, you had done your research on her as well. And you weren't stupid. You knew working with her wouldn't be as great a risk as you made it out to be. She might be new, but she was skilled, and she obviously knew her stuff. Her previous training certainly came in handy too. All she needed were the right connections, and you were sure it was only a matter of time until she made a name for herself here in Madripoor. When that time came, you wanted her to be an ally. Or, possibly, even something more. You never could resist a pretty face.

Mind made up, you set down your drink and held out your hand to the blonde who eyed it with caution.  

“Here’s my last offer. I'll agree to your terms. You get 40 percent of the money. I'll guarantee to do business with you in the future and put in a good word for you, so you can establish yourself around here," you listed off with a grin, never breaking eye contact, “In return, you'll buy me another drink and let me take you out some time.”  

“Take me out?” Sharon repeated with a raised eyebrow. Resting her chin on the knuckles of her hand, she regarded you with interest. For a moment, you admired the way the neon lights danced across her face.

“On a date,” you clarified, “Unless you don’t want to. It's not a deal-breaker. I'd also settle for two drinks instead.”  

The blonde smiled in intrigue, leaning forward to take your hand in hers. Her grip was firm as you shook on your deal.  

“One drink and a date, it is.”  

___________________________________________

taglist: @fireflyglass @madamevirgo @xxxtwilightaxelxxx