#It’s merley (?) all in good fun

[sunsetsandsunshine]

#12 on the ask game? :3

Heya Nonnie 💗‼️ Hope your doing well and thanks so much for the ask 💞💕💓!!!

12…(What is your favorite music genre?) - Ohooo I have a TON…but to sum it down I like literally A N Y T H I N G besides country music 😂🫶🏾! I can rock out to literally anything else if it isn’t country— I don’t have anything against it! I just don’t like hearing trucks, beers and girls 24/7 in the same song.

My top 3 music genre’s would def be Jazz, Hip Hop and Reggae. What about you 👀⁉️

[therealslimshakespeare]

The Passion of Johnny 🥀

Summary: Bucky Egan takes it upon himself to give some wedding night advice to his dearest and most cunty, capable and very Catholic captain. Did it have to be five minutes before the aisle walk? Did it have to be by the stale communion wafers? Did it have to have include practice fingering? Brady has so many objections but better to get this over with than have it bleed into Egan’s best man’s toast…

Requested? OH YES ✔️

Circa: late summer 1945

Warnings: so much innuendo and dirty talk, this is sex Ed, after all. Catholicism but it’s not really impacting shit beyond vibes, and a decent amount of homoeroticism…it’s war buddies in a church y’all. That’s a staple. Brief illusion to past male SA.

Full credit to my babe Ashely who more than co-wrote this, she was possessed by the spirit of Bucky Egan in our chat and out came this, I have merley sprinkled verbs and adjectives and cohesion throughout her masterpiece. And to Christi who added copious devastating one liners throughout and held my damn hand while I choked on this hotness

They’re in the back of the church, in the vestry room, attending to all those last minute wedding details -the ring checks, the tie-fixing, the last minute dizzy spells. And once left alone with him, Bucky spots the lump in the groom’s pressed slacks from across the room. He snickers. Ah this'll be fun. “C'mere kid...come talk to me.” he cajoles, “Ya fast? Ya loose? Feel like throwing up?”

Bucky claps him on the back extra hard and Jack coughs dryly, hands falling from his tie.

“Listen,” Bucky goes on without being answered, “good ole Father Peter Paul Frank whoever is gonna get up there and try and tell you all about marriage and devotion and all that jazz...and he means well. sure... but I wanna make sure this marriage starts off right...so let's have a little chat. I ever steered ya wrong, huh?”

“Bucky, I uh...kinda wanted a minute alone.”

Bucky racks his eyes over the pristine and quite filled out uniform. “Yeah trust me I got eyes kid, we can get you all settled so ya don't make a complete fool of yourself in front of the entire church.” Bucky for his part is smoking in church, after having lit a cigarette off the candles, and Brady supposes this talk is necessary. Not he thinks, for the education Bucky so benficently seeks to relay, but rather to stave off the likelihood of all these tips and tricks of the trade coming out in a groomsman’s toast.

Bucky’s rowdy, handsy behavior normally never bothered him. Until now. Every back slap and chest shove and cheek pinch has him feeling funny, tingly, oddly eager and terribly alive. Johnny shouldn’t have spent all night trying to tug one out in vain, now he’s a goddamn confused mess. But he knows he wants to please Bucky, unfortunately always has and in lieu of a father in his life today -though god knows this dangerous, grinning man is no replacement- he acquiesces. Jack takes a seat in this same room he did as a child to review his catechism and Ten Commandments, and marvels how despite all the partying of last evening and the week before, with booze and anecdotes and bawdy jokes flying like flack, Bucky would wait until they’re beside the stale, surplus communion wafers to discuss conjugal functions.

He's absolutely sweating and that makes sense, it’s August. But Bucky is clapping him on the back again, beginning the talk like they didn’t already do this routine, “Ya look great kid.” He compliments. “Almost as handsome as Ida.”

It’s a very sincere compliment, Jack knows this, and it makes him roll his eyes all the harder although his cheeks burn.

“Ya nervous? Yeah? Good. You should be.” —this is followed by a signature cheek slap. “-you’ve got maneuvers to learn.”

Jack’s eyes grow a little panicked. More than nervous then. He wasn't this hard before. But the more Bucky talks about ‘maneuvers’ he's getting almost fully so. Frantically smashing the front of his pants down, groaning, “Bucky, stop. I beg you, stop. I'm about to walk down the aisle!”

Another cheek smack. “Don’t fuckin' roll your eyes at me kid, where else ya gonna learn this? The goddamn Padre? Now listen up, those two fingers, raise your fingers, those two- what the hell is that one even doing? -not like that, c'mon take this seriously.” Bucky presumptuously adjusts Jack’s long, elegant fingers, “You ever felt a cat's tongue? You know how it's sorta rough, like sandpaper? Well there's this spot inside her, it's gonna feel sorta like that, only softer. And that's the magic spot, kid. I'm telling ya, aim for that spot and you'll be golden.”

Brady, he was pleased to see, was no longer rolling his eyes. The pupils, however, had taken over the blue. "Can I- can i get to it with my tongue, Bucky?"

“Uh, no, my dear young novice, but that shouldn’t stop ya from trying. Never stop trying to get at it with whatever, anything God or your job gives ya. Christ kid, you even seen a pussy before?"

Brady manages nothing more than a big swallow, "She showed me hers."

"She showed you- when?"

"Last Wednesday."

"She showed you her Tussy Muzzy last Wednesday? Holy hell, Miss Tilly!" Egan whoops loudly before Brady shushes him with a few scowling smacks to his chest. "Well, tell me, wha'd she say when she showed you her pussy?"

Brady begins to retract, "Sir I can't

-I can't say,"

"Oh listen up, listen up good and hard, right now. What a lady says? She means, and you should always listen to her, but she never says it when she means it. So you gotta remember it and file it away. To use against her later. Nicely, of course. Jack? Wha'd she say?"

Brady, with eyes heavenward and looking like all he was missing were the drops of blood, "She said she wanted me to take her and that it -it-it was throbbing and -fuck uh, that- that it would be mine Saturday, uh that’s today, that it’d be mine anyway? Oh Fuck."

Bucky, he sees, is eating this shit up. Bucky practically whoops again, right here in church. “Miss Tilly.” he murmurs in the most salacious voice ever. “Goddamn.” he utters, “GODDAMN!” a second time much louder.

Brady stares at the embroidery on the chapel cloth. Green and gold stitching interweaving to make leaves. Eternal life and shit.

“Well,” Bucky is rallying, “since ya seen one -fucking idiot not touchin' it when you could’ve…First rule of marriage: don't go turnin' down offered pussy. And you heard her, none of that timid chivalry shit, you take her, you hear me?”

“I’m hearing you sir.”

“Didn't think she was the type.” he whistles, still stuck on the fact that Miss Tilly Macon with her straw hats and white gloves begged Jack Brady to take her in a car seat just days before, “Right, well, tell me, did ya get a good look? Was she shiny?”

“It... glittered.” Brady spaces out recalling the petals of it in the red glow of the stop light.

“Well that’s good, we’ve got something to work from kid. Alright, that cat tongue I told ya about? Can’t get to it with your tongue, gonna need your fingers. Now c’mere, closer, come here dammit. Yeah ok, so,” Bucky holds up his palm, like he’s gonna swear an oath, “you're gonna find the spot and when ya do, you’re gonna rub and rub and keep rubbing -go on, try, try it against my hand, c'mon Jack don't be a prude"

Egan watches as Brady shamefacedly begins rubbing between Bucky's thumb and forefinger with surprising skill. The kid’s a natural. “Damn, fixing my headache, ok yeah like that uhuh.”

“It’s just the C major cord.” Brady rebuts with a small eye roll that morphs into a cringe in expectation of another loving slap.

But Bucky holds his peace and bites his lips, and Brady wants to please him so, he lets Bucky ramble on and do his odd little puppet show with his fingers.

When that is over, Bucky turns and casts about for his next prop before grabbing a stack of charity bibles, cigarette still hanging out of his mouth. He begins stacking the Bibles and pretending his fingers are now Tilly and Jack and the Bibles are a makeshift bed. Like Johnny doesn’t know what human limbs look like. And Brady, he knows he’s lost a great deal of mental capacity since seeing Tilly’s scared parts, -running into doorframes and spacing out during planning, to the point where Ida and Eugene think he needs to be shrinked- but this feels more than a little silly.

“Well that’s that part. But, back to the beginning.” Bucky straightens from his demonstration, puts one leg up on the desk and despite the absence of his animated fingers, the Bibles look terribly suggestive stacked there on the mahogany edge, “First thing,” he is pointing at Jack, “when you get upstairs, ya ask her...if she's ever had an ice cream cone in July.” Bucky is nodding with a big smirk that Brady feels like he should answer, “Know what I mean huh?”

Brady shakes his head and rubs his neck bashfully, to be perfectly honest he has suspicions but this is Bucky, and it’s safer to admit he hasn’t a goddamn clue. "I'm gettin' that the ice cream cone ain't literal.” He ventures.

“Trust me,” Bucky insists, “all this boring church business... the dancing, the punch, I'll make a nice little speech that won't make your ma keel over...soon you'll be the god damn ice cream cone right there in those nicely pressed pants.” Bucky saunters over to where Jack is sitting on the table top part of the desk, takes the back of his hand and whacks Jack's noticeable bulge. “There's your ice cream cone kid.”

Jack jumps back startled on the desktop, and Bucky cackles, muttering something about Goddamn Prudes and Jack has to keep shushing him.

“Anyway...so she gets a couple licks... and then..” Bucky is pacing and wagging his finger, “…you get a little taste of your own... real important now... work the tongue in that pretty little hole and get her started…”

Jack is about to hyperventilate at this point as Bucky starts throwing out more ice cream analogies. Lots about cream. And licking. Something about cherries. Then somehow baseball works it's way in. Predictably. So many bases, first and second and bats and stroking and more cream. There is a fly on the rim of the gold chalice, at least it’s stopped it’s buzzing little circles.

“Ya got stamina buddy boy?” -Jack has got no idea how to answer that. “Ya don't wanna be the husband who blows the second ya slide into home.”

“Trust me...after last night…” Jack grouches, letting the details slip through in his angry belligerence at his own stubborn erection.

“That sucker is from last night?” Bucky howls. “You friggin Catholics don't even wear rubber socks either do ya?” Bucky is rubbing his hands together, Brady feels half sick, half close to coming untouched from all this talk about condoms and such, “I'll be uncle Bucky before the year is out and the first one better be named after me!” Bucky crows, then softens as he sees Johnny’s overwhelmed face, “It's gonna be great kid, I'm telling ya.. worth all that Nazi camp bullshit.” He sniffs roughly, “Plus..uh, ya know Tilly seems like a swell girl...makes a decent meatloaf I heard...sickness and health all that jazz…” He comes closer and claps Jack on the shoulder a few times.

Brady feels the overwhelming and embarrassing need to assure him he’s always welcome to the meatloaf.

Bucky acknowledges this with a soft, saddened smile before his beautiful, capable hands slide up Brady’s stiff shoulders and come up to cradle Jack's sweaty, rosy face, “Damn proud of ya kid.” he swears gruffly, “Think of me when ya slide in tonight... Lord knows I'll be wishing I was there…” Bucky whistles but it doesn’t feel crass, not the way it did even ten minutes ago. Brady has a lump in his throat and a stupid desire to say ‘same’ but he doesn’t because it must be some sorta fucked for him to long after a man he fought for, a man he got ready to die with, a man he’d gone to hell for, a man who he’ll still be obeying. Even tonight of all nights. Maybe the camp fucked him up worse than he knew. Or maybe it’s just Bucky and how Bucky’s always been, how he’s always been around Bucky -always his aggravated fool.

Whatever Tilley will prove to be for Jack, she’s not that. And that’s as it should be. Still, he feels like meatloaf is a small thing to offer as those hands finally slide away.

💋 Hope you enjoyed! Feedback is a writer’s lifeblood, please feel free to scream in comments or the inbox, I love it and wanna hear it all. Trust me, nothing is “too dumb”. Your thoughts mean the world to me.

MOTA taglist, I only have one so ignore if this is not the universe you signed up for:

@stylespresleyhearted

@ab4eva

@earth-to-lottie

@suraemoon

@blurredcolour

@steph-speaks

@crazymadpassionatelove

@rubyfruitjungle

@taestrwbrry

@storysimp

@javden

@sexualparkour

@jointherebellion215

@sunny747

@ask-you-what-sir

@xxanaduwrites

@pretty4u

@yorkshirekiwi

@waitedforlove743

@elvismylove04

@blikebarbie92

@luminouslywriting

@justheretoreadthxxs

@bookotter01

@mads-weasley

@ka-ski

@darkestbeforethedawn16

@slowsweetlove

@richardslady121

@barbeygirl

@prfctplcsreads

@vaf24

@harrys-housewife

@claireelizabeth85

@pearlparty

@piastrinho

@sapienti0sat

@atrophyingaphrodite

@beingalive1

@vendylewin

[lifeofkaze]

Valentine's Challenge 2022 - Day 8

Prompt: Kiss

Find all stories of this challenge in the masterpost here.

A/N: This is it, the end of this year's Valentine's Day Challenge. It was so much fun reading/looking at all the amazing entries. Thank you so much to everyone who took their time to participate - you're amazing💛💛💛

It was common knowledge among the students of Hogwarts that Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop was the best spot in Hogsmeade to go for a date. Almost everyone Ava knew had been to the cutesy little tearoom one time or another, so when she and Charlie Weasley entered the shop on their very own first date on Valentine’s Day, Ava wasn’t surprised to find the place absolutely packed.

She had somehow managed to get them a table in advance which they sat down at, surrounded by couples happily staring at each over rose petal tea and heart shaped scones. The sound of soft music was drifting through the air and golden cherubs hanging from the ceiling tossed pink confetti into their cups at random intervals.

Ava hated everything about it.

Judging by his silence, Charlie seemed to share the sentiment. He had barely said a word since they’d arrived, oddly intent on inspecting the bottom of his tea cup as if he could discern his fate from the tea leaves.

“Not quite what I imagined, I have to say,” Ava said with a forced lightness to her voice and leaned back into her chair, casting a dark look at the cherub above them getting ready to throw more confetti. It retracted its hand and turned to another table. “I really don’t see what the fuss is all about.”

Charlie looked up from his tea, relieved that Ava seemed to dislike the setting as much as he did. “Me neither. I have no good memories about this place.”

Amused, Ava arched an eyebrow and leaned forward again, her chin resting on her interlaced fingers. “Why’s that? Does it remind you of a date gone wrong?”

Charlie shifted in his seat. “Yes, but not mine.”

The first real smile since Charlie had picked her up from the Ravenclaw common room spread on Ava’s face. “This sounds like there’s a story to tell.”

“Maybe,” Charlie said and the corners of his mouth were twitching, “but this is not the place for it. Do you want to leave this rose petal hell behind and go for a walk?”

Ava was already shrugging into her coat. “I thought you’d never ask.”

As they were making their way through the labyrinth of tables toward the door, Ava noticed Charlie scowling at two girls sitting near the exit. They were huddled deep into their black-and-yellow Hufflepuff scarves and were still wearing their hats.

Once outside, they set down the main road of the village. Suddenly, Charlie grabbed Ava’s hand and pulled her into an alley branching off the main street. Too stunned to ask what he was doing, Ava looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Charlie, however, merley put a finger to his lips, telling her to be silent, and ducked deeper into the shadows.

Only a few moments later, the two girls Ava had seen in Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop were quickly walking by the spot where Ava and Charlie were hiding. They were bickering and turning their heads from side to side while trying to look inconspicuous.

“You lost them,” complained one of them. Ava noticed a flash of bubblegum pink hair peeking out from beneath her hat.

“No, you lost them,” the other shot back. “They got out of sight when you knocked over those cups. I told you we should stay away from them.”

Ava and Charlie waited with bated breath until the girls had vanished around the corner before stepping back onto the street.

“I’m really sorry,” Charlie sighed. “I should’ve known they’d do that.”

“Why would they?”

Charlie looked decidedly uncomfortable. “It’s become some sort of habit between us.”

Ava raised her eyebrows. “Spying on each other’s dates?”

“If you want to call it that.”

“What else would you call it? Have you been spying on your friends before as well?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it spying.”

“What would you call it then?”

“Making sure everyone is safe and happy?”

Ava had a hard time trying not to chuckle. “Of course you would.”

Charlie looked into the direction where the two girls had gone and made a thoughtful noise. “With date patrol on the run the village is out of the question for us. Is there any other place you’d like to go?”

Ava weighed their options for a moment. “How about the Shrieking Shack?” she suggested with a gleam in her eyes. “The most haunted building in Britain, apparently. There are numerous accounts of its bloody history, but none so far have proven to be true. I’d love to know what’s behind the stories.”

Charlie offered Ava his arm. “Sounds lovely,” he said wryly, prompting Ava’s giggle to turn into a laugh.

“Does it?”

“No, but you're excited and that’s good enough in my books.”

Setting off on their way, they soon had left the village behind. They were following the snowy path through the forest surrounding Hogsmeade, chatting and laughing all the while. Their cheeks were red from the cold and yet Ava found herself unable to stop smiling. She was more relaxed than she’d been in months, but then again, she was always relaxed when she was with Charlie.

Halfway on their way to the Shrieking Shack something gleaming through the bare branches of the trees caught Charlie’s attention and he stopped.

“It’s not like the most haunted building in Britain doesn’t sound wonderful, but I think I have a better idea.”

“And what would that be?”

Charlie held out his hand to her with a smile. “Do you trust me?”

Ava took it without a moment’s hesitation. “Yes.”

Charlie’s smile widened and he pulled Ava off the path and through the snow. It came up halfway to her knees and they had trouble getting through it. They were laughing and giggling by the time they reached a small, frozen pond beyond a group of trees.

Ava held her breath when she stepped out into the clearing. The ice on the pond was thick, so thick that the murky water beneath wasn’t visible anymore. The pale winter sun reflected off the patches of ice which weren’t covered by snow or lying shadow, making the pond and its shoreline gleam and glitter.

Charlie let go off her hand and carefully set one foot onto the ice. He seemed to be satisfied with the result because he set his other foot onto the frozen surface as well.

Ava, however, wasn’t as easily convinced. “Are you sure it’s thick enough?”

“It’s been below zero for weeks now. It should carry us.”

“But we don’t have skates.”

“Are you a witch, or not?” Charlie said mockingly.

He drew his wand and made two sets of blades appear beneath the soles of their shoes before stepping onto the ice without hesitation. His movements were confident and more graceful than Ava would have expected, but so far, Charlie had outrageously exceeded her expectations in pretty much anything he was doing.

Ava carefully followed him, moving a lot clumsier than Charlie had. She had only ever been ice skating a couple of times in her life and hadn’t liked it one bit. She wasn’t in control of her movements and was uncomfortable without feeling the ground firmly beneath her feet.

“What do we do now?” she asked. She cursed herself for her stupid question when Charlie laughed.

“We skate.” Charlie turned around his own axis once before skating backwards out further onto the pond. Ava, on the other hand, remained right where she was.

“What’s the matter?” Charlie called out to her.

“I can’t do that.”

“What? Go backwards?”

Ava shrugged helplessly, a feeling she didn’t enjoy in the slightest. “Backwards, forwards, take your pick. Why are you laughing?” she asked, somewhat irritated to see Charlie chuckling.

“Just surprised you of all people don’t know how to skate.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You seem like the type.”

“What type?”

Charlie smirked. “The ice queen type.”

“I’ll show you ice queen,” Ava snorted and bent down to gather some snow from the edge of the pond. She formed it into a ball, aimed carefully and threw it at Charlie.

“Hey!” he protested and ducked beneath the second snowball Ava sent his way. “That’s not fair, I have no ammunition!”

“Your fault for getting out of reach of your defences,” Ava said and threw another snowball. This one was missing its mark by a good bit.

“You throw like a girl,” Charlie scoffed. This laugh was turned into a muffled scream of protest when the next one hit him straight in the face.

“And you scream like a girl.”

Ava made to throw again but Charlie had already come over to her. With a quick motion, he got hold of both of Ava’s hands. “Say that again.”

Ava opened her mouth to repeat her words but suddenly found herself unable to. Her heart was beating faster than before and a fluttery feeling was spreading from her stomach into the rest of her body as she looked up at Charlie. The sun was catching in his ginger hair, making it glow like molten copper. It was clashing horribly with his crimson hat he insisted on wearing but Ava was too mesmerised by the snowflakes caught in his lashes to notice.

“That I live to see the day on which you lose an argument,” Charlie muttered, but he didn’t sound as confident as he had done before. He adjusted his hold on Ava's hands and slowly moved backwards. “Come on.”

Not letting go of her, Charlie pulled Ava along with him out onto the ice. They were going faster than Ava was strictly comfortable with and her grip onto Charlie’s hands tightened.

“What are you doing?” she asked nervously.

“Showing you how to skate.”

He accelerated a little, all the while going backwards with smooth, practised movements. They had almost reached the middle of the pond when Charlie gently freed one of his hands from Ava’s hold and held the other upwards, carefully turning her around in a slow circle.

Ava let him guide her, undecided whether to listen to his words explaining what she should be doing or to the sound of his warm voice. Ava decided to go for his voice, which soon turned out to be a mistake, when Charlie all of a sudden said, “Try for yourself.”

When he let go of her other hand as well, he caught Ava completely unaware. Having no idea about what she was supposed to be doing, the tip of her skates got caught in a small hole in the ice and sent her stumbling into Charlie with a small scream. He just so managed to support her weight before they could both crash to the ground.

“Who screams like a girl now,” Charlie laughed.

Ava looked up at him and saw that his cheeks were flushed. She slowly stood upright, bringing them even closer together. She could feel the warmth of his body as Charlie let go of where he had been holding her and brought his arms around her, pulling her against him.

He was so close now that she could count all the many freckles on his skin and see the dimples forming on the corners of his mouth as he smiled. Her heartbeat sped up and Ava forgot how cold she was as Charlie slowly raised his hand and laid it against her cheek, the wool of his gloves slightly scratchy against her skin.

There was a drop of icy water from the snow still lingering on his lips and Ava could taste it as Charlie bowed his head and gently kissed her. The moment their lips connected, thousands of butterflies seemed to swarm into every corner of Ava’s body, making it tingle and her heart flutter in unison with their tiny beating wings.

She felt Charlie smile against her lips as he pulled her closer and she brought her arms around his neck, smiling as well as she kissed him back. Right in this moment, the ice beneath them could have cracked and broken and Ava wouldn’t have cared; all that mattered to her was the two of them, right there and then, standing in the middle of a frozen pond in a wintry forest with the light of the sun glowing around them.

[oliviaischillin1204]

the tape

Pairings: Platonic Logince

Word Count: 1,045

lmaoo y’all want a third one?

“What’s this?”

Logan looked over his shoulder, and his stomach immediately dropped. Roman was holding a VHS tape that Logan recognized all too well.

He stood up. “It’s nothing. Give it to me.”

He held his arm out, but Roman instinctively pulled his hand away, looking at Logan curiously.

“Why?”

“Because it’s mine.”

“But if you said it’s nothing,” Roman asked, a slow smile forming on his face that Logan unfortunately realized was his brother instinct kicking in. “So why do you want it?”

“Because-- it’s mine,” Logan spluttered. “Give it-- Roman!”

It was too late: Roman had spun on his heel and run out of the room, towards the old VCR they still had hooked up in the living room.

“Roman!” he yelled, hurrying to chase after him. “Come back!”

He heard Roman’s mocking laughter as he rounded the corner to the living room, and the two found themselves in a staredown on either sides of the room.

Roman grinned. “Just tell me what’s on it and I won’t have to watch it!”

Logan considered his options. Tell Roman. Let him watch it. Or--

He leapt forward, pinning Roman against the back wall of the living room, and shot his hands down to squeeze haphazardly at his sides.

Roma shrieked at the surprise attack, nearly dropping the VHS as he scrambled to pull Logan’s hands off of him. “Nohohoho! You little-- stohohop!”

“Give me the tape, give me the tape, give me the tape,” Logan repeated, easing the two of them onto the floor to avoid making Roman fall over. Roman squealed, hastily shoving an arm out to thrst the tape toward the VCR.

“Juhuhust-- just let me-- no!” he cried out as Logan took advantage of his position by shoving a hand under Roman’s exposed armpit. The wiggling of his fingers made Roman struggle not to jerk his arm down to protect himself. He laughed helplessly, but he didn’t stop trying to put in the tape.

“If you give it to me, I’ll stop,” Logan practically sang, easily reaching one arm out to reach for the tape. His fingers brushed he plastic casing in Roman’s shaky grip, and he almost had it--

Roman’s other arm came out and immediately jabbed into Logan’s unprotected ribs, causing him to retract his arm with a startled yelp. Roman, however, didn’t stop either of his tasks: he reached out further with the VHS while simultaneously beginning to tickle up and down Logan’s ribs.

“Ssstop, stop, Roman--” Logan hissed, arm jerking as he both tried to reach for the tape and protect his sensitive ribcage.

“Can’t-- can’t handle it?” Roman asked, catching his breath as he took the upper hand. He skillfully managed to reverse their positions: now he was hovered over Logan, fingers wiggling deep into the crevices of his ribcage, and although Logan was still ticking under his arm, it had become horribly uncoordinated and ineffective.

“Na-hahaha!” Logan screamed as Roman hit a particularly sensitive spot on his ribs. Unable to hold back any more, his arms shot back at a rapid speed and wrapped protectively around his torso. “Stohohohop! Plehehease!”

Roman did not stop, and in fact merley placed the tape on the TV stand in order to tickle Logan with both hands. “Call it payback for starting this whole thing, Specs. You were so scared to tell me about your little secret tape, and now you’re getting tickled! Is that better?”

Logan only giggled in response. He desperately tried to get himself under control enough to start reaching for the tape again, but his brain was hopelessly fuzzy from all of the tickles.

To his surprise, he realized Roman had removed his hand several seconds ago. He gratefully took the time to catch his breath, but the lack of action from the other side made him suspicious.

Slowly, Logan cracked his eyes open. “What--”

His words immediately cut off with a shriek as Roman, out of nowhere, yanked up his shirt and gave Logan a terrible raspberry right in the middle of his stomach. Logan arched his back, hands attaching to Roman’s shoulders as he frantically tried to push him off.

“No mohohohore!” Logan begged. “Plehehehease!”

Roman laughed lowly, finally pulling off of Logan with a small pat on his stomach. As he caught his breath, he realized there was some sort of noise in the background.

He opened his eyes again, craning his neck, and--

And there was Logan’s own face on the TV, speaking slowly and carefully as he read off of a sheet of paper.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, sitting up forcefully. Roman’s eye shifted from Logan on the TV to Logan in real life, looking at him with a furrowed brow.

“It’s poetry?”

Logan opened his mouth, then closed it again. “I hate you.”

Roman gave a bemused laugh. “That’s what you didn’t want me to see? You reciting some poetry?”

‘I hate you,” Logan repeated with vigor, keeping his eyes locked on the ceiling as his face turned even redder.

Roman paused for a moment, letting Logan’s voice on the TV was over him.

“Is that-- did you write that?”

Logan shot an arm out and grabbed a pillow from the couch, not hesitating to batter Roman with it. “I hate you!”

Roman squawked, laughing as he held his hands up to defend himself. “Calm down, Teach, it’s okay! I’m not laughing at you, please!”

Logan huffed in embarrassment, dropping the pillow and crossing his arms petulantly. “I record myself to hear the cadence of the words. No one else was supposed to see it.”

He new he was pouting, but he couldn’t quite stop himself, even as Roman leaned forward and poked his cheek.

“It’s okay, Logan. Seriously, I’m not gonna make fun of you at all. And, honestly, it’s good! I like your word choice, and the imagery you’ve put in is really good.”

Logan huffed, but he felt himself softening to the creative side’s praise. “Well... I suppose, I have some other samples, if you would be interested...?”

He’d hardly finished speaking before Roman gasped, standing up quickly and pulling Logan to his feet. “Show me!”

Logan smiled, and the two returned to Logan’s room to spend the rest of the day bonding over Logan’s own writing.

[raveismysublime]

Why the IC needs to grow the fuckity fuck up

The IC “Mor, Feyre, Cassian, Rhysand, Azriel and EXCLUDING AMREN CUZ THIS DOES NOT RELATE TO HER” needs to grow the fuck up. AND I AM HERE TO TELL YOU WHY THE FUCKING WHY.

***If you guys want to read my post about Nesta you can here ***

**** I have a really shitty blog about why I hate Rhysand here if you guys want to read that too haha ****

If you agree, that’s cool, if you disagree, that’s cool too. BUT do not deny facts my dear friends, because facts are facts are facts are facts and I said what I fucking said. 

Before really getting into each character, which I am going to do, I’m gonna start by saying my main problem with the whole IC is that they are all over 500 fifty fucking years old (excluding Feyre) and still act like fucking cunts of a children. One main thing I’m going to repeat is that they all need to grow the fuck up, yes Feyre too, because 500 years on this planet should teach someone fucking something. 

Honestly the whole IC needs to communicate with each other, but that’s another post for another time. 

Alrightyyyyy this is gonna be LONG so like, sit back? 

Let’s start with Mor shall we: 

Mor, oh Mor. So I actually enjoyed Mor as a character, I didn’t despise her or love her, but I liked her enough to not skip her scenes. She seemed like a fun, girl who was also deep at heart and I liked that. BUT Mor has problems that she needs to solve. What happened to Mor was traumatizing and I actually cried with what happened because, fuck that’s fucked up. BUT that does not give her an excuse and allows her to trail Azriel along, and use Cassian as a buffer for all the problems she refuses to face. Their needs to come a point where you fucking acknowledge your problems and stop tormenting those around you.

Like what did she expect, for all of eternity to never drop poor Azriel (he is not innocent, I’ll get to him soon) out of his misery AND TELL THE GUY YOU DON’T LIKE HIM. I understand it’s deeper than that, but it’s also not. Mor at surface level is this chill, bitchy (that’s a compliment) bad ass, but inside she’s all shades of fucked up (so am I, no judgment). Mor needs to realize that hiding in her little happy bubble of running around the bush is gonna let up.

For instance, when Cassian starts falling for Nesta, Mor is rude to Nesta, snarky, and in the most convenient times, such as during solstice in ACOFAS when for the two seconds Cassian actually looks at Nesta, she decides to give her his present. Mor knows that what’s happening between Nesta and Cassian isn’t some bullshit and she’s not happy. She knows her times out, and she gotta admit to herself her problems and admit it to everyone around her because they fucking deserve it. 

What happened to Mor when she was 17 was all shades of fucked, but you cannot keep defining yourself by that. Mor is so much more than what happened all those years ago, and she deserves to be happy, and should want that for Azriel as well, and everyone for that matter. Mor coming out to Feyre “which in itself IS SOMETHING ELSE I CAN RANT ABOUT FOR HOURS BUT I WON’T” is, I think, one step towards her to being happy.

Mor needs to grow up, and realize she can’t fuck around and expect no one to speak out on shit. 

Now Feyre: 

I don’t like Feyre. From the beginning of ACOTAR to ACOFAS any likeness I had for her just deterred into a pit full of shit. Feel free to disagree with me, I don’t really care. 

So Feyre to me, is a hypocrite and just a annoying character and narrator. I usually enjoy the main characters in books, but this one wasn’t for me. 

Throughout the books, Feyre prided herself on never being a house wife, to never let a man talk for her, to never sit around while the men did the work. 

Well, guess what. She did just that in the end. 

The whole IC coddles her, even when she is out rightly wrong. What happened to Feyre under the mountain was tragic, pitiful but nothing compared to what the rest of the IC went through. I am not downplaying her PTSD, merley saying the world does not revolve around her and that she needs to grow up and realize that, and shits not always perfect. 

After the war, Feyre’s life went into “perfect fairytale mode”. She shops, she cleans, she has sex, blah blah blah. Whenever anyone disagrees with her or Rhys, she justifies her and Rhy’s actions??? because they are always right???

Feyre is young, yet acts older and more responsible than everyone around her and they just let her. In my opinion, Feyre needs to grow up and understand that it is not always about her and Rhys. She needs to realize that she is not perfect, and that she is not always right and makes mistakes. 

Now Nesta has her own issues and I wrote a blog about that here but the way Feyre treats Nesta to me, is downright pathetic and rude. 

I am not saying Nesta is a angle, she has done fucked up things but Feyre just irks me whenever she tries to make amends with her. For instance in ACOFAS (she pissed me off the most here) she pressures and blackmails Nesta into going to starlight, says to do it for Elaine not for her, to make “Elaine happy”. Then she gets mad at Nesta for taking the money??? like what the fuck did she expect???

With Lucien, Feyre goes “he’s a good male” to Elaine. Like no. It doesn’t matter if he’s the most perfect man ever, not everything is perfect with a man. 

Feyre only likes Elaine because she is easy to deal with, like the flower of a rose while Nesta is the thorne. 

I just feel Feyre needs to be more aware about everything around her. Nesta is hurting and you bribing her to come to your little gathering with your pose of friends that just humiliated her the whole time is not right. 

I could get into every thing I hate about Feyre and why I do, highlighting all of her actions and everything she does that is just so wrong, but I wont in this post. 

YAY now Cassian!!!!!!: 

Okay I love Cassian. Him and Azriel are like my literal children but that does not mean that they don’t got maddd issues. 

Cassian’s issue is that he has insecurities, and those insecurities affect his daily life. For example, when he gets Nesta the present and she won’t accept it and he throws it away, we see that occurence from his POV. But, we can also see his insecurities shine through. Him always still being thought of a bastard no body, thinking that no one will ever want him or love him all of those things still affect him.

Mor chose him over Azriel because she knew the affect of her actions would hit harder if she lost her virginity to a “bastard no body”. The one thing that always hurt Cassian was when someone would comment about him being a Bastard nobody. 

He hides these insecurities behind his humour and lax behaviour (okay same) and I think he needs to find a way to deal with it. 

Another point about Cassian is that he does not respect Nesta’s privacy, and basically a minion for Feyre and Rhys to keep tabs on Nesta. If a girl does not want to talk to you and asks you repeatedly to leave her alone, you fucking leave her alone. It does not matter if you meant well, when someone does not want to talk to you leave them alone. Cassian’s insecurities are shown more when he is alone with Nesta, and that is something he needs to grow up and figure out himself. He can’t keep allowing his insecurities and lack of confidence affect his actions, especially around Nesta. 

To me, Cassian is better without the rest of the IC around him BUT that is also when all his problems are shown. He cannot hide behind Rhysand and make jokes with Azriel, flirt with Feyre or Mor, and he has to be by himself. 

The fact that he doesn’t talk to Nesta when Mor is around, or would be talking to her then immediately stop the second Mor walks in shows he cares more about her validation, and that also sends the wrong messege to Nesta. 

I love Cass, I really do but he has problems that he won’t acknowledge. They ALL DO. 

               If yall still reading all this way through I LOVE YALL!!!! 

Okay Azriel!!!!: 

I actually don’t have a lot of negative things to say about Az cause he is literally the most unproblematic one out of them all, but he, like Cass runs on Mor’s validation. 

I understand that he loves Mor and is still waiting out for her and all of that, but (and I may be wrong) shouldn’t their come a time when you talk about things? When you get tired of 500 years of silence and just talk about what the fuck is happening? 

I just want Az to be happy, and he thinks he deserves all the pain he’s got because of his cruel brothers. I want Az to get the light, not Feyre or Mor. 

I want Az to get over Mor, find love, and be fucking happy. I want him to want it for himself. I do NOT want Mor to tell him, I want him to tell her because its what Mor deserves for toying with him this whole time. 

I want Az to find out who his real father is, and for his mother to get justice as well (ugh, it just hurts me) and to be fucking happy. AND TO FORGET ABOUT MOR BECAUSE SHE DOES NOT DESERVE HIM!!!!!!

Now, last but not least 

Riceman: 

So I actually already wrote a really shitty blog (it is honestly terrible lmfao, I’m just angry the whole time) about why I don’t like Riceman and I go into detail from each book on why I do not like him. If you guys want you can find it here  and leave your opinions!!!!!!!!

But one thing I do want to address is how whenever Rhysand does something absolutely terrible, Feyre justifies it by “its something that you had to do” or “they’ll forgive you and understand” (same to Feyre). 

For example, when he makes Mor work with his abuser, and Feyre’s like “she’ll understand it is what you had to do” does he not know how traumatic that would be for someone? He didn’t even talk to Mor before to warn her, to prepare her. No, he just threw it in front of everyone like what the fuck. 

It’s just, Rhysand is so problematic on many levels, and he was one of my favorite characters but then ACOWAR came out and we all know how that turned out. 

ooookayyyyyy that’s the end!!!!!!! If you read all this way your the best omg love yous!

make sure you check out the Nesta blog and the Riceman one, I go into a lot more depth about them and give actual points and factors 

make sure to tell me what you guys think! Y'all agree? Disagree? did i miss any points?? Lemme know

[thereallinksstuff]

Uhm here's my first fic in like 8 years, I hope it isn't to bad.

Fandom : sander sides ,

Pairings: intrulogical, background royality hint of anxciet

Words: idk fahm

He felt the familiar tug of Thomas summoning them, he sighed in annoyance at being disturbed.

He popped up just like any other day he was summoned only this time everyone was staring at him. "Why are you all looking at me as though my head has turned into Barneys armpit?" 

"Uh....Nice outfit logan" Virgil managed through his suprise at logan not being in his normal tie and black polo.

Looking around the room at everyone staring at him, Logan realised he hadn't changed into his work clothes. No instead he was wearing large spiked combat boots, torn black skinny jeans, with a sleeveless punk rocker style Jean vest. Even his hair was a vibrant blue instead of the normal brown.

"Uhm...Logan? How come your dressed like that?" Patton had asked curiously.

being pulled from his thoughts by Patton's question logan turned to look at the fatherly side,

"Well it is not my usual attire, I am comfortable like this. I merely forgot to change before popping up. If you would all continue with the discussion you were having prior I would be grateful."

"I agree, let's get back on topic." 

Logan was thankful for their host for helping in getting everyone's eyes off of him.

For the next hour or so they discussed whether or not Thomas should do one thing or the other, He didn't pay much attention. He was too focused on a strange feeling (heh feeling) that someone was in his room.

As soon as Thomas had his issue resolved Logan was the first to say goodbye, of course with a reminder to drink water and be healthy, but he was out of there quickly.

When he got back to his room he didn't immediately see anyone there, curious as to why he felt like someone had been. Looking around his room he noted how all the books were in place, his bed was still neatly made, his closet doors were slightly open as he had left them. Taking a moment to double check inside his closet, he felt like someone had their eyes on him. As he walked out of his closet he noticed a small paper and box on his desk.

Making his way over he examined the note with a strange curiosity.

To Lo,

I have a proposition for you, if you would like more info, check the kitchen  ; )

From, someone.

As curious as Logan was about the note, he loved a good puzzle after all,  he looked inside the little box. Inside there was a small space pin that had 'viva la pluto' written on a small ribbon. To say he was shocked was an understatement, he was baffled as to who would have given him something so nice and who would have gone through the trouble of learning about his disdain for Pluto no longer being a planet. 'It is a planet, stupid people.' he thought as he placed the pin on his vest. Making his way down to the kitchen he noticed Patton making dinner with Roman and Virgil not around, possibly in their rooms.

"Hello Patton, I wanted to apologize for my appearance today with Thomas, I nearly forgot to change, I will make sure it doesn't happen again."

Turning around and smiling brightly at Logan, Patton just gave him a shrugging wave. " It's alright Logan, I think we were all just surprised to see you...all punked out." "I understand the confusion Pat, I tend to only allow myself to dress this comfortably when there is nothing that will need my sudden appearance."

He Gave Patton a small smile while looking around the room, he noticed a small deep blue note on the counter, "hey pat, who's the note for?"

Patton turned and followed Logan's gaze- " oh that? Im not sure who it's from but it's got your name on it." Logan walked over and picked up the note, choosing to pocket it for the moment. "Well I am going to go reorganize my books, I shall see you at dinner Patton." He finished saying as he walked into the shared living room. Pausing for just a moment to read the note.

To my Star

I know you like to read so check your favourite book to find the next clue

From someone cool.

As he made his way back up to his room he couldn't stop himself from theorizing who the notes were from, it wouldn't have been Patton as he was with Roman, and Roman well, to be honest he didn't think Roman would do something this simple..

As he entered his room, he almost immediately noticed ' the murder of Agitha Christy ' sitting on his bed- not on the shelf. Sitting down on his bed picking up the book, he fondly remembered the first time he read the book, it was such a nice memory. When he opened the book he saw the note, gently taking it out and setting the book back on his bed, he read the note.

To My Sun,

I know this has been short but here is your final clue, meet me where you'd least expect me, yet exactly where someone like me would be.

Love your admirer.

'My Admirer?' he thought to himself as he got up to return his book to its place. Thinking logically he slowly went through the list of who it could be, Patton and Roman were quickly ruled out seeing as they were together. Only for a moment did he think it'd be Virgil, but realizing that Virgil currently likes Deciet, it wouldn't be him.  Pacing back and forth in his room for a good 20 minutes he decides to try looking around the 'basement.'

No it wasn't really a basement more like where deciet and Remus chose to have their rooms.

Walking down the hallway that leads toward the 'dark sides' as Roman puts it, login again felt like he was being watched.

Making his was down to the common area for the 'dark' sides logan looked around seeing neither deciet or Remus. After a few moments of looking he sighed and thought out loud to himself. "who would send these notes, especially to me?' after all he was the 'nerd' he was logic. Although he didn't enjoy the nerd aesthetic as much as his punk one, he just couldn't get his thoughts to a conclusive answer about why someone would admire him.

Lost in his thoughts he didn't notice Remus come up from who knows where to stand right infront of him.

"HIYA Logan, whatcha doing down here?"

Be started into reality, login recomposed himself before answering, "I was looking for the author of some notes that I've been left, I am merley looking everywhere." He replied maybe. Little quickly, he had hoped Remus didn't pick up on it.

"Oh well, that sounds fun can I help you??"

Remus asked while bouncing on his feet, seemingly excited about being able to help someone. For a few moments logan questioned why Remus would want to help him, however he couldn't bring himself to a logical conclusion as to why he shouldn't let him help. He sat down on the couch that was behind him, and held the note out to Remus. "This is the last note I received however I do not know who the author is, and such I figured I just look around in places I wouldn't normally go." He finished with a huff, looking up towards Remus. He was reading the Note and doing his weird thinking face, Logan took this time to really get a look at Remus, he wasnt in his normal Dukey attire, he was wearing something more akin to how logan was dressed. Biker boots, ripped cutoff shorts, a black sleeveless t-shirt that read 'could be gayer' across the chest and a fully studded and patch covered Jacket. Logan laughed a little to himself about the similarities between his and remus's styles.

"Well, do you have an idea as to where I should look Re?"

Almost as if he had forgotten Logan was there Remus blinked then bounced right back into energy town. "I DO!!" He shouted and grabbed logan by the wrist. "I know this seems kinda crazy but just follow me!" Remus bounced forward dragging logan along with him. Ignoring the nice feeling of having someone else hold you, Logan followed after Remus, hoping it wasn't to far.

"Okay I'm gonna need you to close your eyes and trust me." Remus asked as he stopped in front of a door Logan didn't recognize. "May I ask why Remus, I do not wish to be the subject of your pranks."

Remus looked around quickly trying to come up with an excuse, not being able to think of a good one, he replied simply. "it's a surprise! But also because we have to cut through a part of my imagination. And I don't want you to be er.. grossed out?" Remus finished quietly, being considerate of the others feelings was a bit strange to Logan, seeing as Remus rarely did it, however he was more curious as to who the author of the notes was. He made the decision to trust Remus, and of he was honest with himself, he was hoping Remus was the author, seeing as he liked Remus for quite a while now.

"Alright Remus, I trust you to keep me safe, we can go when you are ready." Logan adjusted his glasses to look at Remus, who had been staring at logan with a wide grin plastered on, but slowly it wavered as he processed what logan had said. "You...you actually trust me enough to enter my imagination?" He asked, looking down rubbing his hands awkwardly together.

"Well yes, you may not have the nicest or cleanest thoughts and ideas, but you are a part of Thomas, and to be honest with you Remus, there are times when I prefer deciet and yours company more than the others. You are unpredictable and can be a bit much however, I have no reason to not trust you. You have never directly hurt me, or the others - well minus roman."  Hoping that He didn't pick up on the emotions behind his words, Logan let out a small breath he didn't realize he was holding as Remus bounced in excitement. "Okay, let's go!"

Grabbing Logan's hand instead of wrist this time, Remus pulled logan into his imagination as soon as the other's eyes were closed.

Logan now with his eyes closed and his hand in remus' , he hoped Remus knew where he was going, but then again, He tended to know a lot of weird things, so he let himself get pulled along what sounded like a dirt path. Every so often he would hear humming from Remus as the walked. It had only been 10 minutes of walking but to Login it felt like longer, what with his eyes being closed and all that.

"Okay stay right there with your eyes closed." Remus had asked him calmly, with what seemed like nervousness in his voice if only a little.

"I.. uh okay" Logan replied trying to show as little confusion as possible. He could hear Remus walk towards and open something but, without the visuals he couldn't identify it, so he waited patiently playing with the various spikes on his wristband.

Remus slowly walked back over to Logan, a bouquet of wilted flowers in his hands (he tried for days to make living flowers but couldnt)

He gently tapped logan on the shoulder, "okay you can open your eyes now" he said with such gentleness that the other had not heard before, slowly opening his eyes and looking at his surroundings, he couldn't help but to be shocked. Up in the night sky there were thousands of glowing stars with a large shining moon bathing both men in a nice calm light.

As Logan looked around he noticed the partially alive trees and bushes that surrounded the clearing they were in. Remus had a wonderful imagination,sure, there were random creatures wandering around and random dirty jokes personified everywhere but it was wonderful in its own way. He wondered why so few were willing to see it.

Finally looking over at Remus, Logan noticed how he was already looking at him, with a goofy grin on his face holding what seemed to be withered flowers. "I know you are a hesitant person sometimes and that you like to do things in the most logical order. However demented or disturbing to the other my ideas and thoughts are, you help them to understand me better. Which I can't thank you enough for. So Logan Sanders...would you like to...go kill people together?  LikeBoyfriendsShould? On a regular bases?"

It took a moment for logan to process all of what Remus had been saying, and if his thinking was right Remus was the author of the notes, and he was asking him out in a very Remus way...

For once Logan didn't have the words to respond, the side he has had feelings for, for a while is asking him out and to be his boyfriend. Before his logical thinking could stop him he stepped forward grabbing Remus by his jacket collar pulling him into a kiss.

Taking the kiss as a yes, Remus slid his hands around Logan's waist, kissing him back with passion in an attempt to communicate how happy he is. When they pull apart logan looks at him with a sparkle in his eyes that was usually reserved for learning. However right here right now, with Remus, in his imagination logan couldn't be happier, even with all his grossness or disturbing thoughts, Remus was the one for him.

"Thank you, and to verbally express my feelings, I accept your offer to be in a romantic relationship, Darling."

"Haha I figured from the kiss but thank you, to hear you say it makes my heart explode into a million pieces hahah." Leaning his head on Logan's shoulder the two sit and talk until dinner, to which they both go to, sharing glances and holding hands, much to everyone else's confusion. they lived punkily ever after.

I hope y'all like it, let me know if you do

Sorry for any errors in grammer or spelling, it isn't my strong suit

[sofhyuck]

More Than Words

Genre: Friends to lovers, college!Mark, fluff, Mark being a dumbass

Word count: 8.2k

Excerpt: “I mean, we’re not dating, if that’s what you mean.” You finally spoke up, bringing your forearms to lean on the table.

“Ok…” Jeno trailed off, seemingly trying to think of what words to say next. “But do you…I mean, like, do you want to, ya know, be in a relationship with him?”

Silence washed over the two of you as you began to mull over his words. Did you want to be in a relationship with Mark? I mean, you basically acted like you were at this point, but couldn’t it mess up your whole friend dynamic if you began dating? Wouldn’t it be weird living together while you were in the early stages of a relationship? And what if the two of you broke up while you were still rooming together? What would happen then?

A/N: I h8 mak lee

Masterlist

You huffed out a heavy sigh as you jabbed your finger into the keypad with one hand while attempting to balance your luggage with the other. Finally, the lock chimed, signalling that the door was unlocked. Pushing it open, you dragged your luggage inside, allowing the door to close behind you. Shoes littered the small entryway, evidence of your roommate who had managed to move in a few days before you. The international program at Yonsei offered a two week period in which international students could arrive in order to acclimate themselves. While you chose to stay with your family a little longer, your roommate wanted to settle in as soon as possible.

When you first found out who your roommate was going to be, you were shocked, to say the least. The boy, Mark Lee, had immediately taken to facebook and friended you, sending you a short message about being your roommate for the following school year. You exchanged a few messages, the preliminary “where are you from” and “when will you be arriving” before the conversation eventually died out. That didn’t prevent you from browsing his facebook and instagram, which he hadn’t hesitated to friend you on as well. There was no denying that he was attractive; he held a cute boyish charm to him, and nearly every picture he posted had a slew of friendly comments underneath, signifying that he was well liked. All you could do was hope that his image on social media wasn’t a mere facade and that his friendliness translated into real life.

Lugging your suitcase over to the empty twin bed, you pushed it to the ground and hastily emptied its contents. Jetlag was slowly overtaking your body, and you wanted to get yourself as situated as possible before you inevitably passed out. Placing your final pair of underwear in the drawers, you closed up your suitcase and headed towards the shower attached to your small dorm room. Meeting Mark be damned, you just wanted to sleep. Stepping into the tiled room, you took a few seconds to scan the contents of the bathroom while turning on the shower. Typical for a boy his age, Mark only had a few toiletries, the majority of the counter space taken up by your own supplies. Submerging yourself under the stream of warm water, you allowed the grime collected over the hours of travel to wash off of your body. Quickly shampooing and conditioning your hair, you turned off the water and finished up your nightly routine. Luckily, you had arrived at the dorms in the evening, meaning that you might be able to adjust to the time difference more easily. Stepping out of the bathroom, you didn’t even bother drying your hair before plopping down onto your mattress and falling into a deep sleep.

❃❃❃❃

You woke up the next morning to the soft thrumming of the air conditioning unit. Sluggishly, you picked up your phone to check the time only to find you had managed to naturally wake up at a decent time. Rolling over onto your side, you were greeted with the sight of Mark’s sleeping figure on his bed across from yours. You studied his form for a few minutes until the urge to pee became too strong and forced you out of your bed. Careful not to wake the sleeping boy, you padded towards the bathroom in order to relieve yourself and wash up. Drying your face with your towel, you reentered the living area only to be find Mark propped up on his pillows, scrolling through his phone. At your entrance, his attention turned towards you.

“Good morning!” He smiled, waving awkwardly with his phone still in hand.

“Oh, good morning! I’m sorry if I woke you up, I was trying to be quiet.” You muttered, moving to sit on your own bed.

“It’s no problem at all,” he waved you off. “I normally get up around this time anyways. How was your flight? Are you adjusting to the time zone ok?”

“My flight was fine, a little long. Oh!” You jumped up, hurrying towards your suitcase. “I brought you this chocolate from my hometown, I hope it hasn’t melted.” Rummaging through your luggage you pulled out the bar and handed it to him. “I wasn’t sure what flavor you wanted so I decided to play it safe with salted caramel.”

Mark’s eyes lit up at the sight of the chocolate, eagerly taking it from you with a wide grin on his face.

“Woah, dude, thanks so much! Damn, now I feel bad, I didn’t even think to get you anything.”

“It’s fine, you can repay me by showing me around the city today.” You said with a shrug.

“Oh, sure, of course! Actually, my friends and I are going to Hongdae today and we were wondering if you wanted to come with. They’ve been dying to meet you.”

“Why would they want to meet me?” You queried.

Mark’s face flushed as he fidgeted in his seat. “I mean, well, I showed them a picture of you and they all thought you were really pretty and, well, yea…” He mumbled, voice trailing off at the end.

It was your turn to turn red in embarrassment and you shuffled towards your closet in order to distract yourself.

“Well, that’s very nice of them. I’d love to hang out with you guys, though!”

“Great! We’re meeting in half an hour so we should get dressed. They’ll meet us in the common area.”

The two of you moved around each other, preparing for the day before it was time to go. Mark held the door open for you as you slipped on your shoes and the two of you headed towards the common area. You walked in relative semi-comfortable silence, but it wasn’t long before boisterous laughter could be heard bouncing through the halls. The noise grew louder as you drew nearer to the common area, the laughter joined with the voices of several boys. Rounding the corner, you were greeted with four boys who appeared to be around your age.

“Ah, hyung, you’re here! Oh, Y/n too!” The four boys turned their attention to you and Mark walked over to greet them.

“Yah, you guys are so loud I could hear you from the third floor.” He teased, gesturing for you to come closer. “This is my roommate, Y/n, as you all already know.”

“Um, hello, it’s nice to meet all of you.”

They all introduced themselves accordingly, revealing that they were all in the year below Mark. All but one of them had lived in Korea their entire lives while the fourth had lived in China while studying in a Korean immersion school. Nerves began to bubble in your stomach at the prospect of having to converse purely in Korean with the boys, a language you still lacked confidence in.

“Y/n, you’re so pretty. I wish my roommate was as pretty as you!” Jaemin cooed, batting his eyelashes at you, causing your face to flush.

“Yah! I’m your roommate, dumbass!” Jeno yelled, shoving Jaemin in offense.

Laughter chimed throughout the group and Renjun suggested that you head out so that you might be able to miss the lunch rush on the subway. The five boys walked ahead while you slowly lagged further and further behind. You weren’t particularly social to begin with, let alone in a language you were still struggling to grasp. There wasn’t much else you could do but stray behind and silently curse Mark for leaving you in the dust. Could you have attempted to make conversation? Yes. But was Mark making any efforts to include you in the conversation? No. So why should you have to do all the work? Too busy shooting daggers at the back of Mark’s head, you almost missed Jeno nudging Mark. Hoping to subtly get it through Mark’s thick head that you were feeling a bit left out, Jeno gently pushed his numb-skulled friend towards you. He stood waiting for you to catch up, the rest of the group slowing their stride alongside him.

“Sorry for leaving you behind,” he muttered, bringing his hand up to scratch sheepishly at the back of his neck. “I got a little caught up in the conversation.”

“That’s ok! I get they’re your friends, I barely know you guys it’s fine!”

Mark merley grimaced, clearly still feeling the guilt of leaving you behind. Catching up with the rest of the group, Mark made feeble, but albeit appreciated, attempts at including you in the conversation. Luckily, the other four boys were able to actively engage you in conversation, and you found yourself enjoying your time spent with them. While they all made efforts to converse with you, you found yourself talking with Mark and Jeno the most. As time wore on and your party travelled around the streets of Hongdae, you began to feel the jetlag creeping back over you. All the walking around and eating surely wasn’t helping to keep you awake, and you found yourself slipping in and out of semi-consciousness. You were sat in a small ramen shop when, finally having enough, you gently nudged Mark’s arm and he turned to look at you.

“Sorry, I know you’re having fun with your friends but I’m feeling really tired right now and I’m a little unsure of how to get back to school. Would you mind…?”

“Oh, of course not!” He immediately stood up from where he was sat, explaining to the rest of the boys that the two of you were heading back. The subway was a little crowded and Mark rushed to grab you the last empty seat, leaving him to stand in front of you, slightly leaning over you while holding onto the overhead bar. You lazily gazed up at him, smiling lightly at his look of concern.

“Sorry again for making you head back early. And sorry I’ve been so low energy today, I promise I’m not usually so boring.” You laughed lightly.

“No dude don’t apologize! I shouldn’t have dragged you around the day after you landed! And you’re not boring you’re really fun and cool and, and, yea…” he trailed off, looking to the side in a poor attempt to hide his flushed face. The two of you spent the rest of the short ride in a comfortable silence. Arriving at your stop, you stumbled out of the train and Mark quickly took a hold of your waist in order to steady you. He left his arm there as he led you back to the dorms, scared that you might fall again. Upon arriving at your room, Mark hesitantly released you so that you could wash up and go to bed.

“Thanks for taking care of me Mark.” You whispered, laying down on the firm mattress.

“It was no problem, really. Rest well, Y/n. Goodnight”

“Goodnight.”

❃❃❃❃

The rest of the week passed by fairly quickly once your body fully adjusted to the new time zone. You spent the first few days following your initial venture inside the dorm, only going out to the nearby convenience store for your meals. However, once you recovered, you spent your days with Mark and his friends, discovering different parts of Seoul whilst becoming a tight knit group of friends. Of course, your adventures couldn’t last forever as the first day of classes loomed over your heads. You knew you weren’t going to share any classes with your younger friends as you were going to take all of yours in English. Mark had eagerly asked to see your schedule the day before classes began and you discovered you would share one class in the afternoon. Donghyuck had, very politely, asked that you all eat lunch together every day or otherwise risk being thrown into the Han river. Everyone had willingly agreed to the proposal, deciding that you would all meet at the main gate.

Mark woke up before you, his first class starting half an hour before yours. You barely had time to get in a quick good luck before he made his way out of the room, leaving you to get ready for the day ahead of you.

The morning went by in a blur, especially since  you only had one class before lunch. You had made light conversation with the person sat next to you, but there were no friendships blooming yet. When lunch time rolled around you made your way towards the main gate, meeting Mark along the way as his class was in the same area as yours.

“How’s your day been so far?” Mark asked, bumping your shoulder with his.

“My class was pretty uneventful,” you shrugged. “But I missed your wonderful presence.” You pouted, bringing your hand up to pinch at his cheek.

“Oh shut up,” Mark blushed, swatting your hand away, “You sound like Hyuck. Besides, you’ll get to see me this afternoon.”

“Ugh, I guess that will be enough for me.” You huffed, giggling when you saw Jaemin waving wildly at you from the main gate.

The six of you spent lunch in an upbeat manner, although you were almost kicked out of the restaurant when renjun all but leapt across the table after Donghyuck called him short for the hundredth time. There was endless chatter amongst your group, often earning you glares from the surrounding patrons eating their lunches.

“How was your class?” Jeno asked, leaning into your left side where he sat.

“Not too bad, the professor seems nice enough and the course material is interesting. What about you?”

“My day’s been great! Jaemin’s in my sociology class, though, and he talked through the whole class.”

“I did not!” Jaemin yelled from across the table, seemingly delivering a sharp kick to Jeno’s shin as he winced in pain, lifting his leg from under the table to soothe his aching limb. Jeno stuck his tongue out in response before turning back to you.

“I wish we had some classes together, I knew I should have taken English class more seriously in high school.” He pouted.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, I’m the one who should be taking their language studies more seriously seeing as I’m living in another country.”

“Ah, Y/n, your Korean is good for someone who’s taken it as long as you!” Mark piped up from your other side.

“Stooop, don’t flatter me.” You whined, bringing your hands up to quell the blush forming on your cheeks.

“Oh shush, it’s true! Anyways, we should get going, our class is starting soon.” Mark held you by the elbow, gently pulling you up with him as you checked the time on your phone. Realizing you only had fifteen minutes to get back on campus, you quickly bid your friends goodbye and rushed back to campus.

“Slow down there Speedy Gonzales, we’ve still got time.” Mark called out from a few steps behind you.

“Unlike you, Mr. Lee, I’d rather not be late to the first day of class.”

“It’s not my fault my bag broke on the way to class.” He pouted, finally catching up to you. “Besides, look, we’re here with minutes to spare!”

“More like one minute.” You muttered under your breath, following Mark into the classroom and sitting beside him.

A small laugh threatened to break past your lips and you brought a hand up to your mouth in an attempt to stifle it. It was nearly the end of class and Mark was passed out on his notebook, lulled to sleep by the monotonous voice of your professor. Quietly, you leaned over and placed a sharp flick to his forehead. Mark jolted upright, blinking blearily before bringing his gaze over to yours, his expression muddled from his sleep.

“Class is almost over, idiot.” You murmured under your breath, turning your attention back to the professor who was wrapping up his lesson. At his approved dismissal you gathered your things, looking over at Mark to find him doing the same.

“Should we go get some boba to celebrate a successful first day of classes?”

“Were you even awake for any of your classes?” You laughed, following him out of the academic building.

“Shut up. I was considering paying for your drink but you’re being so mean to mean you don’t deserve it.” He huffed, picking up his pace, forcing you into a light jog in order to catch up with him.

“Oh, I’m so sorry for telling the truth.” You teased, clutching onto his bicep.

“Whatever, I’ll pay for it anyways because I’m such a nice roommate.”

You gave out a mock cheer, ruffling Mark’s hair only to grab his hand and pull him towards the nearest boba shop.

“Taro milk tea with seventy-five percent sugar, right?” He asked, looking behind you as he stood in line for your drinks.

“Mhm,” you hummed, “You know me so well Marky.” “Don’t call me that.” Mark grumbled, but you could see the smile fighting its way onto his face.

❃❃❃❃

“Oh my god Jeno get off of me!” You whined, practically feeling your lungs collapsing under his weight.

“Nuh uh, not until you give me my phone back!”

“I told you already, I don’t have it! Renjun took it, he won’t admit it because he wants to see me suffer!”

“Stop trying to deflect all of your problems onto me, Y/n, this one’s on you.” Renjun called from Jaemin’s bed, quietly laughing at your pain.

“Jeno, I swear he’s lying!” You drew out, attempting to throw his weight off of you.

“Just give it to me and I’ll get up-” Jeno was abruptly cut off by Mark shoving his surprisingly heavy body off of you only to take his place. Mark, understanding the concept of wanting to keep his friends alive, laid next to you as opposed to directly on top.

“Hey, that’s my bed.” Jeno pouted.

“You should’ve thought about that before trying to suffocate my roommate, dumbass.” Mark quipped back, wrapping his arms around you and pulling your body closer to his.

It was a friday night and the six of you had set yourselves up in Jeno and Jaemin’s room. A few empty soju bottles were strewn around the floor as you all chattered away, drinking away the stress of the previous week. Jeno frantically moved around the room, searching for his misplaced phone.

“I swear to God, who the fuck took my ph— oh.” You looked over to see Jeno picking his phone up from the top of his mini fridge.

“See I told you I didn’t fucking take it.”

“Oh shut up, Y/n, you were more than ready to throw me under the bus.” Renjun yelled from across the room.

“You were blaming me too!” You could feel Mark’s body shaking behind you, giggling at your antics.

“Both of you stop, I’m getting a migraine.” Jaemin groaned.

“No, let em go!” Donghyuck replied. “This is A plus content right here!”

You let out a small laugh, already forgetting your previous quarrel as the alcohol muddied your mind. Mark nuzzled further into your back, allowing more giggles to slip past his lips. The two of you found yourself stuck in a fit of laughter and you turned to face him, poking at his face with your forefinger.

“What are you guys laughing about, I wanna know.” Donghyuck asked, scooting over to rest his chin on the side of the bed.

“I don’t even know, Hyucky.” You breathed out between your laughter, nuzzling your head into the crook of Mark’s neck.

“You old people are weird.” Donghyuck murmured before turning back to the rest of your group.

“Aw, Donghyuck, we loooove you.” Mark giggled, pursing his lips in a mock kiss. Donghyuck merely shot him a look of disgust and the rest of the group chimed in with a chorus of “ewwww”’s.

“I have to pee.” Mark suddenly announced to the room, climbing over your body to make his way to the toilet.

“Don’t clog it up like you did last time!”

“I told you that wasn’t me!” Mark flushed, swiftly closing the door behind him. The room fell silent for a moment before Mark spoke up once more.

“Start talking or something,” he whined, “I don’t want you guys to hear me peeing.”

The boys all laughed, restarting their conversations so that Mark could comfortably relieve himself. Jeno made his way back onto his bed, sitting beside where you had propped yourself up in order to scroll through your phone.

“Watcha lookin at?” He prodded, leaning over your shoulder to glance at your screen.

“Hm? Oh, I’m texting some friends from home. They  just woke up.”

Jeno hummed in understanding, bringing his head to rest on your shoulder.

“Are any of them pretty?” He teased.

“Like I would introduce any of them to you idiots.” You snorted while putting down your phone, Mark reappearing from the bathroom to sit on your other side.

“Hey, what’s so bad about us?”

“Well, Renjun, you’re all incredibly annoying.”

“I resent that!” Jaemin chimed in.

“What about me, am I annoying.” Mark nudged your side.

You looked him up and down, your gaze lingering on his pouting lips before returning to his eyes.

“Eh, you’re all right I guess.” You shrugged, laughing lightly when he let out a loud huff.

“I’m the best damn roommate you’ll ever have.” He crossed his arms while angling his body away from you.

“You’re wrong, Jeno is the best roommate ever.” Jaemin called out, winking at Jeno from across the room.

“Aww, Marky, I’m sorry, did I hurt your feelings?” You reached over to pat him on the head, Mark leaning into your touch. “You’re the best roommate I’ve ever had.”

“You’re my favorite roommate ever.” He smiled, giggling while nuzzling his nose into the side of your head.

“God you old people really are gross.” Renjun practically gagged, earning him a high five from Donghyuck.

“You’re just jealous because you have Hyuck as a roommate.”

“Maybe you’re right…” Renjun trailed off, seemingly rethinking all his previous life decisions.

“I revoke my previous high five.”  Donghyuck mimed undoing his high five, pulling another laugh from Mark.

“See why I wouldn’t want to introduce you to my friends? You’re all idiots.” The room filled with a chorus of whines and your neck vibrated from Mark’s laughter, his lips nearly pressed against your neck. You brought your hand up to ruffle his hair, leaning your head against his. A sigh of content came from Mark and you shut your eyes, feeling yourself being lulled to sleep by Mark’s steady breaths tickling at your neck.

“I swear, get out of our room before you fall asleep.” Jeno nudged you, pulling you out of your peace.

“They’re so old they can’t even stay up late anymore.”

“Shut up I’m barely a year older than you guys!” Mark groaned, standing up and pulling you along with him. “Come on, let’s go back to our room.”

You only nodded in response, suddenly overwhelmed by the strong urge to fall asleep. Noticing your exhaustion, Mark hooked his arm around your waist and pulled you to his side, allowing you to rest the majority of your weight against him. The rest of the boys all bid their farewells as the two of you left the room. The international dorms were a good fifteen minute walk away from the regular ones, leaving you and Mark to stumble home, giggling the whole way back.

Mark pushed the door open, tugging at your wrist, encouraging you to follow behind. Closing the door behind you, you immediately latched your arms onto his waist. He led you to his bed, throwing himself down and subsequently pulling you along with him. The both of you giggled before Mark reached up to brush a few stray hairs from your face.

“We should probably get washed up.” You mumbled, laying your head to rest on his chest. He merely hummed in response, gently nudging you to move so that he could get up. The two of you washed up in a comfortable silence, you taking slightly longer than Mark considering your extensive skin care routine. Leaving the bathroom you came face to face with Mark lying on his bed. He made soft grabby motions, signalling for you to lay down beside him. Softly, you padded towards his bed, settling into the warm sheets.

“Sleep with me tonight, yea?” Mark whispered into the top of your head. You nodded slowly, already feeling yourself slip into a deep sleep. In your half-unconscious state, you felt Mark press his lips into your hair before he fell asleep as well.

❃❃❃❃

It was looking up to be an odd day. Mark had left earlier than usual as the class he shared with Donghyuck was set to have a field trip that day. Renjun wasn’t feeling well so he decided to stay in while Jaemin had to study all day for his upcoming exam. You and Jeno, being the only ones of your small group left, decided to stray a little farther from campus than usual. The two of you took your time, ambling about the streets while you chatted and bantered away. Eventually, you arrived to a restaurant that you both deemed suitable enough and headed inside. You made small conversation before your food was set before you. After taking a few bites of his meal, Jeno sat back and cleared his throat. You looked towards him, eyebrows raised in confusion as it was unusual for Jeno to stop eating before he completely finished his meal.

“What’s up?” You queried, setting down your own chopsticks to give him your undivided attention.

“I was just wondering, well me and the boys have been wondering…ah I don’t know how to ask this, it’s so awkward.”

“You’re scaring me.” You laughed nervously.

“It’s nothing bad! It’s just, the guys and I have noticed that you and Mark are, like, really close and keep getting closer and, I don’t know, we want to know if anything’s going on.”

You flushed slightly, wondering just how long these speculations had been carrying on. You’d be lying if you said you hadn’t noticed the shift in your dynamic. It’d be an even bigger lie if you said your heart didn’t race at every lingering touch Mark provided.

“I mean, we’re not dating, if that’s what you mean.” You finally spoke up, bringing your forearms to lean on the table.

“Ok…” Jeno trailed off, seemingly trying to think of what words to say next. “But do you…I mean, like, do you want to, ya know, be in a relationship with him?”

Silence washed over the two of you as you began to mull over his words. Did you want to be in a relationship with Mark? I mean, you basically acted like you were at this point, but couldn’t it mess up your whole friend dynamic if you began dating? Wouldn’t it be weird living together while you were in the early stages of a relationship? And what if the two of you broke up while you were still rooming together? What would happen then?

“I’m going to take your silence as a yes,” Jeno smirked, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “It’s pretty obvious he likes you too, you know, and we’re all pretty much waiting for you guys to get together at this point. It’s been like, two months since we made our bets on you guys.”

“You made bets on us? What do you even mean by that?” You raised your voice, shooting an accusatory glare at him.

“Yea, so if can you guys get together in like, a week? That’d be great. Renjun already lost but my time’s running out and I’m really banking on you guys so I can buy my christmas presents—”

“No, you idiot!” You cut him off, reaching across the table to smack him over the head. “I can’t believe you guys made bets, oh my god you’re all so weird.”

“Please Y/n, I’ll even buy you a really nice gift!” Your harsh glare shut him up and you quickly changed the subject of the conversation. Your lunch came to an end and Jeno paid for your meal in hopes of winning your favor. When the two of you arrived back on campus Jeno made sure to send you a sly smirk.

“If you tell anyone you’re dead.” You hissed through gritted teeth.

“Hey now, I may be annoying but I’m not a bad friend.”

“Sure Jeno, whatever you say.” You said with a roll of your eyes before making your way to your next class.

❃❃❃❃

“Ah, our Y/n is so cute!” Jaemin cooed, squeezing your cheeks with his hands.

“Jaemin I will end you.” You deadpanned, expression stoic as you stared straight at the boy in front of you.

“How many times do I have to tell you guys to leave my roommate alone?” Mark groaned, swooping in to rescue you from Jaemin’s grasp.

“You can keep telling us that, but as long as Y/n remains this cute we will never leave them alone.”

“I know they’re cute but they’re my roommate so hands off.” He huffed, bringing your body closer to his.

“Calm down there, buddy. I may joke about hating all the skinship but, really, I don’t mind.” You reprimanded, pinching at Jaemin’s cheek to further your point.

“Ah, Y/n, thank you for finally returning my love!” Jaemin exclaimed, mock weeping while throwing his body onto yours. A loud laugh sounded from you at his antics, happily wrapping your arms around him in an embrace. Mark huffed loudly beside you and you looked over to find him glaring at Jaemin’s back. You reached over to pat him on the head when your room door burst open to reveal a fuming Jeno.

“Jaemin what the hell did you do to our keypad?” He roared, storming over to rip him from your embrace.

“Shit how did you even find me?”

“Where else would you be? Hyuck and Renjun are still fighting over the noodle incident and god bless anyone who would want to be around when they’re hashing it out. And don’t change the subject, explain to me why I can’t get into our room!”

“Well, you see, it’s actually a funny story—”

“Can you guys take your lovers quarrel somewhere else? Y/n and I were just about to watch High School Musical.”

“Again?” Jaemin snorted. “How did Y/n manage to rope you into watching that garbage for, what, the third time this month?”

“The High School Musical trilogy is a timeless classic you asshole.”

“Stop trying to change the subject.” Jeno practically whined, tugging at Jaemin’s sleeve.

“Fine, ok, so maybe I spilled some of my coffee on the keypad this morning and maybe I forgot to tell the office before it closed.”

Jeno let out a loud groan, throwing himself down onto Mark’s bed.

“Well what the hell are we supposed to do now?”

“I called the emergency number and they said they should be able to have it replaced by tomorrow morning.”

“And for tonight…?”

“That’s why I came here! To ask our lovely friends to let us sleep over in their room!”

“What?” You and Mark cried incredulously.

“No way, what the fuck how are we even supposed to all fit?” Mark rushed out.

“Easy! You and Y/n share a bed and me and Jeno share a bed!” Jaemin stated as if it were the most obvious solution in the world. “It’s not like you guys have never shared a bed before.’ He grinned mischievously. You felt a blush creep onto your face, knowing that he was more than correct.

“Ok but what about me?” Jeno spoke up.

“Oh, don’t act like we’ve never shared a bed before either.” Jaemin stated, pointing an accusatory finger at his roommate. “So, please, can you let us stay over? We’ll even pay for your dinner.” He turned towards you.

“We will?”

“You will? Well in that case, why not?” You shrugged, looking over to Mark for his approval to which he nodded in agreement.

“I don’t have my morning class tomorrow so it’s fine with me.”

“But,” you interjected, a grin making its way onto your face, “you have to watch High School Musical with us in addition to dinner.” Jeno and Jaemin both groaned but had no choice other than agreement. You ordered out for pizza, not wanting to venture outside, and camped out in front of your laptop while sat on Mark’s bed. Placing your laptop on a chair, you wormed your way into Mark’s side, his arm coming down to wrap around your side. Out of the corner of your eye you could see Jeno throw a smug glance in your direction, resulting in him receiving a swift kick in the abdomen from you. He only laughed in response, shifting his body away from you to rest his head on Jaemin’s shoulder.

Despite all of his complaints about the film, Jaemin had broke out in song during Get’cha Head in the Game, becoming the Troy to your Gabriella. Occasionally you would feel Mark’s chest vibrate, laughing at your enthusiasm for the film. As the closing credits rolled up the screen, the four of you moved your way around each other to clean up. Finally, you settled down on your bed and Mark moved to lay down next to you. He wrapped his arms around you, bringing an arm to rest securely around your head and placing a soft kiss to your forehead. A small smile found its way onto your lips and the room turned dark, Jeno turning off the lights before going to sleep on Mark’s bed.

Jaemin and Jeno left early the next morning, desperate for a change of clothes and a nice shower. Despite his class being cancelled, Mark was awake when you woke up. You gave him a quizzical look once you had cleared the sleep from your eyes.

“I went out to grab you some breakfast, I knew you were going to sleep through your alarm this morning.” He smiled shyly, placing a sweet water chestnut bun on your desk.

“Aw, Marky, thank you. That’s so sweet.” You teased, getting out of bed to hold him in a tight embrace. You hummed while closing your eyes, breathing in the scent of his laundry detergent and shampoo that lingered on his shirt.

“Don’t fall back asleep, dumbo, you still have class to go to.” He pried your arms from around his waist, placing a sharp flick to your forehead.

“Ugh fine.” You grumbled. Speedily, since you had slept through your alarm, you washed up and grabbed the bun, shoving it into your mouth and grabbing your shoes from the doorway.

“See ya later!” You chirped, placing a quick peck to his lips before heading out the door. It wasn’t until you were halfway to your classroom that you realized what you had done. You froze, dumbstruck at your actions. After a few seconds someone bumped into you, breaking you out of your state of shock. Looking at your phone, you rushed your way to class, head still fuzzy and full of embarrassment.

You didn’t go to the main gate at lunch, choosing instead to hide out at the convenience store. The other boys didn’t seem to question your absence since you received no texts from them. Of course, you had told Jeno what had happened; you trusted him not to tell the others and he was the only one who knew for certain your feelings towards Mark. It was fairly easy to avoid Mark throughout the day, although you nearly had a panic attack trying to sit as far away as possible from him during your shared class. However, you can’t run away from someone forever, especially when you’re roommates.

You had spent dinner without the boys as well, going out with some acquaintances from your morning class instead. In an attempt to stay out as long as possible, you desperately drew out the conversations. But, alas, you eventually found yourself making the trek back home. Dragging your feet along the tiled halls, you made your way towards your room. You could see light peeking through from under the door, signaling that Mark was home. With a deep breath, you punched your code into the keypad and pushed the door open. Mark was sat on his bed, already in his pajamas and scrolling through his phone. His gaze briefly flickered up to rest on you before he turned back to his phone. Anxiously, you washed up and put on your pajamas, ready to go to sleep and hopefully erase the memories of that morning. Silently you moved towards the light switch, ready to turn them off.

“Wait!” Mark’s sudden interjection broke through the previously silent air. Confusion evident on your face, you turned to find him standing in front of you. “What about my goodnight kiss?” He pouted, hands coming to rest on your waist.

Heat washed across your body as you studied his face for any traces of a joke. The anxieties that had been following you throughout the whole day were still sitting in the back of your mind, and you were always worried that your feelings were being played with. Finding no hint of humor, you leaned up towards him and hesitantly pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. A wide smile grew on his face and he wrapped his arms around your waist, whispering a soft goodnight into your hair before releasing you to turn out the lights. You stood in shock for a few more seconds before walking over towards your bed. You hardly slept that night.

❃❃❃❃

“Didn’t I tell you to get together like a month ago?” Jeno whined. “Now I’m out of thirty bucks plus I have to live with a smug ass Jaemin.”

“Fuck off.” Mark pushed at the younger’s head before bringing his arm to rest over your shoulders. Your whole group was sat in a circle on Renjun and Donghyuck’s floor, hanging out before the stress of finals season inevitably settled over the six of you. Having witnessed Mark place a light kiss to your lips, the room had immediately erupted into chaos, having never witnessed such a spectacle from the two of you before.

“Hyung I can’t believe you guys didn’t even give us a warning,” Donghyuck whined. “You can’t just do shit like that in front of us, it’s gross.”

“Oh, my bad Hyuck. Next time we’ll warn you far in advance so that you can protect your virgin eyes.”  Donghyuck gave Mark a sharp glare in return, folding his arms across his chest.

“I can’t believe fucking Jaemin won the bet.” Renjun grumbled.

“You’re the dumbass who thought it’d only take three weeks.” The boy quipped back. You only laughed at all the quarreling, settling yourself further into Mark’s chest as he pulled his arms tighter around your waist.

“Do you want to get out of here? These idiots are gonna make me lose all my brain cells if we stay any longer.” Mark whispered into your ear.

“What brain cells, hyung?” Renjun called out in feigned innocence.

“Let’s go.” You laughed, standing up and grabbing Mark’s hand to help him up as well.

“Don’t leave us!” Jaemin pouted.

“Unless you’d rather watch us make out for a bit, I think we’re gonna go.” Mark replied, laughing at the resounding groans that filled the room. He grabbed your hand, pulling you out the door and bringing his hand down to your waist. You looked up at him with a smile, pressing a kiss to his jaw line.

“Where are we going?” You hummed, leaning your head on his shoulder. You felt it lift in a shrug.

“It’s around dinner time, figured we could go to Hongdae and have something to eat.” You smiled at his suggestion, nodding in agreement. A comfortable silence settled over the two of you, allowing all your worries to come to the forefront of your mind. A week had passed since you had first kissed, and they had become a frequent occurrence. However, nothing official had been made between the two of you and it had been eating at you for the whole week. You didn’t want to press him in fear of ruining your current relationship.

The subway doors slid open and Mark led you in, attempting to keep you from being jostled around too much on the crowded train. Eventually, you worked yourselves into a comfortable position, Mark keeping one hand firm around your waist while the other held onto the railing in order to keep the both of you steady. He leaned down to give you a chaste kiss, lingering for a moment before pulling away. It wasn’t long before your stop arrived and the two of you piled out, weaving your way through the crowds before arriving at the exit of the subway. Mark didn’t let go of your hand as you walked around the streets of Hongdae, eventually finding a restaurant and settling down for a nice warm meal.

❃❃❃❃

“Are you almost ready?” Mark called from his bed, fiddling with the frayed edges of his ripped jeans.

“Does this look ok?” You asked in response, opening the bathroom door to model your outfit.

“We’re just meeting some of my friends, Y/n, not the president. And you look fine. I mean, you make anything look good.”

“Ha ha very funny.” You quipped back, giving yourself a final once over in the mirror. Deciding that you did, in fact, look decent, you moved over to where Mark sat. Looking up from his jeans, Mark grasped your hips in his hands and smiled up at you.

“Absolutely beautiful.” He winked, pulling himself up and the two of you out the door. “Why are you so nervous anyways?” He looked back at you, puzzlement written across his face.

“I don’t know…I mean, you’ve known some of them since, what, you were like nine? Like it seems like they’re a big part of your life and if they don’t like me then like I’ll feel weird and—”

Mark abruptly spun around to face you and you would have walked right into him if he hadn’t placed his hands on your shoulders. You opened your mouth to reprimand him for his reckless behavior but he stopped you before you could even begin.

“Y/n, they’re going to love you, ok? They’re super chill and you’re an amazing person. They have no reason not to like you!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air and nearly hitting a passerby in the head.

“Ok, ok, calm down before you decapitate someone.” You laughed, grabbing his hands to hold between the two of you. Smiling, Mark placed a kiss to your knuckles, leading the two of you to a small cafe.

“Deep breaths, ok baby?”

You smiled and gave him a quick thumbs up as he pushed the door open. Immediately spotting his friends, Mark waved and moved to sit at their table, pulling you along with him.

“Hey guys!” He grinned brightly. “This is Y/n. Y/n, this is Jaehyun, Sicheng, and Jungwoo!” You nodded in greeting, flushing lightly at their stares.

“They’re cute, Mark.” Jaehyun winked, earning himself a jab in the side from Sicheng who sat beside him.

“Oh, um thank you,” you replied shyly. “So, Mark told me you guys met when you were living in America?”

“Yea! We met at some Korean American camp thing in New York and I basically adopted him as my little brother.” Jaehyun reached across the table to ruffle Mark’s hair, forcing a groan of protest from the younger.

“And what about the rest of you?”

“Oh, we met earlier this year. We go to the same uni as Jaehyun and he wanted to introduce us to his favorite younger brother!” Jungwoo spoke up softly. “We’ve hung out a bunch since then and now we’ve all adopted him!”

“God this is so embarrassing.” Mark muttered under his breath.

“I think it’s cute!” You cooed, fixing Mark’s mussed up hair. “What university do you guys go to again?”

“Seoul National.” You froze as the prestigious name left Jaehyun’s lips.

“O-oh wow, you guys must be, really smart.”

“Ah we’re not that smart.”

“Yea, don’t worry babe once you get to know them you’ll realize they’re a bunch of idiots too. No better than our kids at Yonsei, if you ask me.” You laughed as the other three boys all gasped in offense.

“How dare you even think of comparing us to those brats! I swear, my phone still glitches when I press the space key because of the time Donghyuck tried to use it as a hammer.” Sicheng fumed, throwing his phone onto the table in order to demonstrate the damage.

“They sure are idiots, but they’re lovable idiots, as I’m sure you guys are as well.” You laughed at their shocked expressions.

“She’s mean, Mark,” Sicheng pouted, “I think she’s perfect for you.”

Mark laughed, pulling you closer into his side.

“Yea, I think she is.” He replied, giving you a quick peck on the cheek.

“Wow, so cute!” Jungwoo gushed, turning to face Jaehyun. “Why don’t you treat me like that?”

“I think I agree with those two, you guys are idiots.”

“That statement applied to you too, hyung. Don’t think you’re exempt from the label.”

Jaehyun huffed at Mark’s remark, sinking back into his seat while Jungwoo patted his head in condolence. You spent the rest of your time at the cafe chatting away, occasionally nibbling at your slice of cake while simultaneously having to bat Mark’s prying fork away from stealing a bite. Once you finished your drink you excused yourself to the bathroom. You glanced at yourself in the mirror, straightening out your appearance and heading back to your table. Before rounding the corner, you heard Jaehyun mentioning your name. Out of curiosity, you stayed in your spot, straining your ears to listen in on their conversation.

“I think Y/n’s good for you, Mark. You seem really happy, too.” You could hear the others hum in agreement and you had to spend a few more moments in your hiding place in order to tame the blush that had formed on your cheeks. Finally calmed down, you emerged from behind the corner and sa back down beside Mark. He smiled over at you, immediately wrapping his arm around your waist to pull you back into his side. You grabbed his free hand with your own, pulling it to rest snugly in his lap.

❃❃❃❃

Finals were nearly over and most of your gang had already left for their respective homes. Mark and you had made plans to travel south for a few weeks, visiting your friends along the way, before you went home to celebrate christmas with your families. Currently you were curled up next to Mark on his bed, resting after finishing the essay you had been religiously working on for the past few days. You mindlessly traced patterns over his chest, studying the rise and fall with each breath he took.

“This is nice.” He whispered, hand lovingly stroking your hair. You hummed in agreement, bringing your hand up to intertwine with his.

“Can I, can I ask you something?” You suddenly spoke out.

“You just did.” He chuckled, his laughter lightly jostling your head.

“Shut up. I mean another question.”

“Shoot.”

“Well, um…” you paused, unsure of how to phrase your question. “You know we’ve been like, going on dates and…you know…doing stuff?”

“Making out? Yea, it’s been pretty great.”

“Yea well anyways,” you continued, rolling your eyes, “I was just wondering…I mean well, you’ve never exactly asked me to be your girlfriend, I guess.”

Mark immediately sat straight up, eyes blown wide as you nearly fell off the bed.

“Oh shit holy shit wait fuck I’m so sorry.” Mark eloquently remarked, moving to aid you in resituating yourself on the bed. “Did I seriously never ask you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I seriously thought I asked you to be my girlfriend, like, the day after that first kiss.” He said quietly, bringing his hand up to rub at the back of his neck. You moved to straddle him, furrowing your eyebrows in mild exasperation.

“You idiot! I’ve been worrying the past month trying to figure this out and you’re telling me you forgot to ask me out?” You leant over, flicking his forehead.

“I’m sorry, I just really thought I’d already asked you!” He pouted, lightly rubbing the reddened area.

“You’re just lucky I love you.” You sighed.

“Oooh you looove me?” He sang, lightly tickling your sides.

Rolling your eyes, you settled back into his chest, a light smile tugging at your lips. Minutes passed in silence and you felt yourself slipping out of consciousness when Mark broke the silence.

“So are you my girlfriend now, or…?”

“Yes, you fucking idiot.”

“Ok, just checking.” He shrugged, pulling your body closer to his, snuggling into your neck as you both drifted off to sleep.

[nitropulse]

The perfect vibe- RANDOM VIBES E1

Imagine yourself in the summer in the year of 2011, possibly mid August . A good point in the year

Your Location being that of Connecticut or even rhode island. Somewhere in the north east of US .

Its Sunset , the sky is purplish and light orange with a hint of dark blue piercing the gradient. Many vibrant and surreal hues. I'd assume this is 6:00 -7:00 pm .

Your standing in the middle of a empty field alone surrounded by a forest and a apartment complex nearby .

The field is overgrown with tallgrass. And seems to go on for about 40-50 yards . It used to be used in the early 1960s as a drive In movie theatre . It's been abanonded since that era. you can see the reminsence of the theatre somewhat left behind but, overgrown by plants and nature . You can see The giant wooden projector screen in the distance. its still up but covered in mold and somewhat fallen over . Makes you wonder about all the great fun people must've had back then in this feild and what films where played.

The apartments are decent, standard late 1970s architecture . Nothing great. The neighborhood is rather small with friendly neighbors who mind there own and don't cause much havock.

The forest has a mountain like hill terrain that seems to go on for a while . The trees seem to be mostly pine and oak . They make a great shade that contrasts from the lovely sunset . Mabey there's a small city miles within the obscured paths, who knows ? It looks beutiful anyways

You can smell cookouts in the area , that distinct smell of hotdogs grilling in the distance or even a nice hamburger .

The air is nice and warm with a few breezes passing by often. Not too humid, Leaving you feeling at a blissful 68-72° degrees.

To top it all off you can hear blackbird blackbirds song 'blind' playing from the apartment complex . Just the bassline in the distance from where your standing. Someones having a summer party it seems, The song feels almost dreamlike in a way nobody can explain . Something about that simple progression in the sound feels like a good high .

At this point life feels almost as if it's timeless. A spiritual moment rather. That nothing can stop these good vibes . We could be at this field forever.

Seems like it could put you to tears. A time where there's absolutely no major problems or stress in your life. Feels like you got everything you needed , You got a bottle of Pepsi, a pack of marlboro cigarettes, and your canon AE-1

And That's the true feeling of nastolgia for me. It's one of them anyways

Mabey we won't comprehend this visualization the same way but I do hope who ever finds this appreciates it and finds peace

This is Just something random I had on my mind I wanted to vent out since winter bums me out alot . This is merley a mirror projection of an actually day / day dream i experienced years ago

-Christian ("Kiko") Lopez

[fevie168]

Tuesday (November 20): "Zacchaeus received Jesus joyfully"

Scripture: Luke 19:1-10

1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich.  3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today." 6 So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it they all murmured, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of  anything, I restore it fourfold." 9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."

Meditation: What would you do if Jesus knocked on your door and said, "I must stay at your home today"? Would you be excited or embarrassed? Jesus often "dropped-in" at unexpected times and he often visited the "uninvited" - the poor, the lame, and even public sinners like Zacchaeus, the tax collector! Tax collectors were despised and treated as outcasts, no doubt because they over-charged people and accumulated great wealth at the expense of others.

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was much hated by all the people. Why would Jesus single him out for the honor of staying at his home? Zacchaeus needed God's merciful love and forgiveness. In his encounter with Jesus he found more than he imagined possible. He shows the depth of his repentance by deciding to give half of his goods to the poor and to use the other half for making restitution for fraud. Zacchaeus' testimony included more than words. His change of heart resulted in a change of life, a change that the whole community could experience as genuine.

Faith welcomes Christ in our heart and home Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) urges us to climb the sycamore tree like Zacchaeus that we might see Jesus and embrace his cross for our lives:

Zacchaeus climbed away from the crowd and saw Jesus without the crowd getting in his way. The crowd laughs at the lowly, to people walking the way of humility, who leave the wrongs they suffer in God’s hands and do not insist on getting back at their enemies. The crowd laughs at the lowly and says, 'You helpless, miserable clod, you cannot even stick up for yourself and get back what is your own.' The crowd gets in the way and prevents Jesus from being seen. The crowd boasts and crows when it is able to get back what it owns. It blocks the sight of the one who said as he hung on the cross, 'Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing... He ignored the crowd that was getting in his way. He instead climbed a sycamore tree, a tree of 'silly fruit.' As the apostle says, 'We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block indeed to the Jews, [now notice the sycamore] but folly to the Gentiles.' Finally, the wise people of this world laugh at us about the cross of Christ and say, '“What sort of minds do you people have, who worship a crucified God?' What sort of minds do we have? They are certainly not your kind of mind. 'The wisdom of this world is folly with God.' No, we do not have your kind of mind. You call our minds foolish. Say what you like, but for our part, let us climb the sycamore tree and see Jesus. The reason you cannot see Jesus is that you are ashamed to climb the sycamore tree. Let Zacchaeus grasp the sycamore tree, and let the humble person climb the cross. That is little enough, merely to climb it. We must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ, but we must fix it on our foreheads, where the seat of shame is. Above where all our blushes show is the place we must firmly fix that for which we should never blush. As for you, I rather think you make fun of the sycamore, and yet that is what has enabled me to see Jesus. You make fun of the sycamore, because you are just a person, but 'the foolishness of God is wiser than men.'[Sermon 174.3.]

The Lord Jesus is always ready to make his home with each one of us. Do you make room for him in your heart and in every area of your life?

"Lord Jesus, come and stay with me. Fill my life with your peace, my home with your presence, and my heart with your praise. Help me to show kindness, mercy, and goodness to all, even to those who cause me ill-will or harm."

Psalm 3:1-6

1 O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God. [Selah] 3 But you, O LORD, art a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cry aloud to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy hill. [Selah] 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me. 6 I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about.

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: To see Christ, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)

"Come and let us see what was the method of Zacchaeus's conversion. He desired to see Jesus and therefore climbed into a sycamore tree, and so a seed of salvation sprouted within him. Christ saw this with the eyes of deity. Looking up, he also saw Zacchaeus with the eyes of humanity, and since it was his purpose for all to be saved, he extends his gentleness to him. To encourage him, he says, 'Come down quickly.' Zacchaeus searched to see Christ, but the multitude prevented him, not so much that of the people but of his sins. He was short of stature, not merley in a bodily point of view but also spiritually. He could not see him unless he were raised up from the earth and climbed into the sycamore, by which Christ was about to pass. The story contains a puzzle. In no other way can a person see Christ and believe in him except by climbing up into the sycamore, by making foolish his earthly members of fornication, uncleanness, etc." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 127)

[popculturebuffet]

Monthly Muppets: The Great Muppet Caper

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Monthly Muppets, where once a month I review something muppet shaped. And after the waking nightmare that was Muppets Wizard of Oz last month, Emma, my good friend and patron who comissons this monthly dose of muppets, let me suggest the next one, one i’d been curious about, and thankfully that curosity paid off as today we’re talking about the Great Muppet Caper, one of the best muppet movies.

I could find shockingly little about this one other than it was released in 1981, just months after the end of the muppet show, making it one of only two films produced during the shows run, as well as some behind the scenes stuff i’ll sprinkle about, but nothing about why this film was made. 

What I can tell you is out of all of the films this is one not a lot of people talked about and I only saw bits of on tv. It wasn’t till the tragic passing of Charles Grodin last year that the film got a second wind thanks to his performance. And after finally seenig it in full.. I really question WHY. This film is a delightfully bonkers bit of meta madness, glefully smashing the fourth wall with a hammer and plopping our heroes into a half baked genre plot that’s really just an excuse for jokes. The plot is merley a way to get from one comic set piece to the next and most of the time it works as said comic set pieces are really funny. And i’ll show you why under the cut as we make tracks to foggy london town for THE Great Muppet Caper!

Our story begins in a hot air ballon with Kermit, Fozzy and Gonzo where Fozzy wonders why there there. Kermit explains it’s to give a nice shot for the opening credits... which not only come up soon after but the characters comment on. Well moreso Kermit and Fozzie comment on it while Gonzo ponders his dream of plummeting. 

As you can tell the film just goes ahead and dunks your head into a fishtank full of meta jokes. From minute one the characters gladly mention their in a film and we get tons of great jokes out of it. While one or two are just ‘get it we’re in a movie” most of them really truly land, especially this opening which is deeply funny as the characters just casually talk over the credits. It helps i’ts rooted in the character: Kermit being the straight man, Fozzie being confused then amazed, and Gonzo being entirely weird and wanting to make himself into a weird blue pancake. It speaks to the muppets strengths that we can get 3 minutes of them in a hot air balloon barely visable and it holds my intrest the whole time.

We get into the film proper as they land on the  streets of I dunno, an absolutely amazing effect. You can tell that not only did they get a bigger budget this time, likely thanks to the first film being a runaway success, but that they used it well. There’s tons of great practical effects in this one and the Henson crew really pushed themselves. We get our first musical number “Hey A Movie!” which talks about making a movie with “everybody and me”, which is a fun number where they talk over what the film will have before getting into character. Granted the characters are just Fozzie and Kermit as twin brothers and Gonzo as their photographer, but it make s a shift int he films: While the first film was indeed a film, it was a drametization of actual events, something later films From Space, The Muppets and Most Wanted would go with. Here our heroes are comploetely removed from the muppet show for the first time , something every other film would go with, to the point later films would have them reenact some classic stories. It’s an intresting shift, likely done conciously as Henson knew the muppet show was wrapping up and thus it was better to pivot away from it for a bit to keep it fresh. As we’ve seen with Wizard of Oz it can fail horribly but here it works fine: the muppets are still thesmelves their just plopped into a scenario

Our heroes sing a great song.. and miss the real story as some jewel theives plot a daring heist behind them of one of Lady Holiday’s jewels. Naturally their boss isn’t impressed their story is about identical newspaper men and is furious every other paper got the scoop and only hried the two because he knew their father.. and let’s.. just look at him for a second. 

I am in love with this gag. For starters they had to make a muppet JUST for this joke. Like looking closely at it there’s small touches tha tmake it clear they didn’t just edit the photo with drawings and such. They built a muppet combo of the two JUST to make this joke. Sure it’s a copy of fozzy with kermit features so it wasn’t super hard, but they still had to add that to the budget just for this one gag. ANd given it’s one of the film’s best it was totally worth it, I just admire the fact Henson and co were never afraid to make a muppet just for one sketch, let alone a one second picture. I also love the fact this means this guy EXISTS in universe, and is either related to Fozzy or Kermit or just so happened to be a green bearfrog they found on the street. 

So the boys boss wants to fire them, and given this would, in kermit’s words “Make for a short movie” he offers a deal. The three of them fly out to London, interview Lady Holiday, the world famous fashion deisgner and professional rich lady who done got robbed, and catch the thieves. Editor Man agrees, though he won’t pay their way. Which is fair I mean he was about to fire them, so this way if they loose, he looses nothing. If they win he gets the story of a lifetime. 

So our heroes head to foggy london town in 14th class, aka baggage, which is just a great scene from Gonzo’s crate being stamped whatever (which despite knowing that’s how they classify him was still a great visual gag to see), to the reveal they just get hucked off the plane and let god sort it out. 

Thankfully god sorts them into a lake and thanks to a local british person, they find a hotel for cheap, the Happiness Hotel. So it’s off to London finally, and after some more fun gags, our heroes arrive at the hotel. The Happiness Hotel is run down and ran by Pops. 

No no the muppet show pops. He was according to the wiki their doorman and mildy forgetful but gets a larger roll here running the hotel which leads us into a another number, “The Hapiness Hotel”, which is utterly fun as it describes how barely functioning the place is but shows just how happy everyone is and how happy they are to add our crew to their numbers. THey also mention there’s no kitchen.. which is apparently contridicted later when Swedish Chef runs out of one after a car runs into it but I like to think it was walled off with him inside and he just burst out when Beau accidnetly rammed through it. We see just about every muppet show puppet that isn’t a monster man (we saw those in the intro number), including Annie Sue who most don’t remember but I do thanks to this sketch

Sadly angry pig is on sabatical from the happiness hotel after murdering that one bellhop that one time. 

Anyways our heroes then get a good nights sleep with a classic murphy bed gag, and we cut to the next day, where we meet Lady Holiday. She’s a stern but fair fashionista played by the late great Diana Rigg of The Avengers fame, though she’s done loads of work with her final and most brilliant turn being in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho. She’s great here though her behavior with a bunch of her models upsets them. She ends up greeting Miss Piggy, whose there to be a “holiday girl”. While her ladyship dosen’t need a model nor a side of bacon she does need a secretary and Piggy agrees since it’s a foot in the door at least. We then get a big creamy load of exposition as Lady Holliday explains she’s meeting with her brother, he’s no good and leechs off her, she dosen’t like him and only gave him a position out of charity, and that he’s likely after her jewels. As Rigg eloquently puts it “It’s plot exposition darling it has to go somewhere”

So it’s WACKY CONCIDENCE TIME as Piggy just so happens to be playing boss as our three heroes walk in.. well okay Kermit and Fozzie walk in Gonzo got his nose stuck in the door. Just like at Elton John’s christmas party. 

So naturally Miss PIggy claims to be miss holiday and as is usual for these films Kermit and PIggy have love at first sight.. and messy divorce about 80 minutes after the movie ends. So he asks her out, she agrees to meet him at 123 fake street.

We then get the best scene of the film as Beau, the muppet theater drives a taxi... naturally like a mad men. I’ts just pure gold especially him directly driving into the hotel and then doing a u-turn where the kitchen magically exists. Again I feel he just.. broke it free after they walle dit off. And if you think “Well then how was the swedish chef alive” well he ate whatever. It’s public record the man will devour ANYONE. 

So we get a number as Fozzie helps Kermit get ready, and also clingly tries to come along till Kermit eventually caves. You know if I had a nickle for every time a muppets film had a story about codependent brothers.... i’d have two nickles. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice. Unlike the Muppets.. it goes nowhere. All it does is set up a gag of the whole gang, who Fozzie invites, driving them later. 

We do get the second best bit of the film though as John Cleese, THE John Cleese, and some lady play a rich couple, with John taking the fact a pig is breaking into their house in stride, talking with it to his wife as if this happens every day, and later giving up chasing her and kermit (who she took for an impromptu tour of the house to keep up the charade), dinner reconmendations. IT’s one of the best things ever put to film, with Cleese’s deadpan just.. absolute perfect. Check it out here. 

So our heroes head to the supper club he mentioned where Kermit is horrified by the prices, though Gonzo has a simple solution: take souviner photos! He even gets one of god himself. 

So while Gonzo meets his maker, Kermit dances with piggy and fozzie sugars up his booze.. a bear after my own heart i’ll tells yeah.. platonically. If I want a bear to fuck me i’ll stick with Cheri thank you. 

That Bear can get it. Anyways, the two dance, in a style resembling at the dance, a nice sublte callback. And almost halfway into the film we finally meet Nicky, who is annoying the shit out of lady holliday. We get a great visual gag too where she talks about putting her necklace he convinced her to wear out away because theives are breathing down her neck... and he procedes to breathe down her neck while denying it. Charles Grodin’s performance here has garnerned a lot of praise and i’m one to agree. The best human performances in a muppet production either serve as a straight man well, or ham it up to high heaven to match the muppets. Grodin hams it up very well, which is approriate because he soon sees miss piggy and wants to eat some sliced ham. 

She ignores him though, because Kermit, and we get an elaborate dance number while Nicky’s goons kill the lights and rob the necklace in the confusion with Piggy booking as Kermit quickly finds out she’s not lady holiday. I wish my first date involved jewel theives, john cleese recommending restraunts and charles grodin. And that it was a thing that actually happened to me already. 

So the next day our heroes develop the film in the bathroom because comedy and plot convience and what have you and Gonzo is pretty sure Piggy did it. Then again he’d later go on to say OJ was entirely innocent, so maybe he’s not the best at this. But he’s proven wrong when they get a negative of nicky.. which sadly gets destroyed by the light as you saw. One of the weaker scenes of the film. 

So that afternoon Kermit sulks in a park and a girl says “look daddy a bear”. It’s not only a great callback to the whole idnetical twins thing.. but also one of the sweetest stories i’ve ever heard, one I HAD to include in this review. So the girl in this gag was Christine Nelson, the daughter of longtime mupeteer Jerry Nelson. Christine had cistic fibrosis and was sad she would never get to make her dream of being an actress. So Henson gave her the part , along with jerry as her daddy guy, just to make sure the poor girl got a SAG Card. If that wasn’t sweet enough earlier when Nelson discovered their insurance wouldn’t cover Christine’s treatments, Jim simply responded by changing their carrier entirely, and brushed off Jerry’s heartfelt thanks with “That’s what insurance companies are for”. Jim Henson was a kind, thoughtful soul the likes of which we may never see again. If you can somehow see this Jim.. I hope your happy wherever you are. I miss you man and I regret you passing before I was born. The world needs you now more than ever Jim. 

We also get THIS great scene

So anyway, at the park Kermit happens to run into piggy and it goes a bit like this

Kermit: You lied to me Piggy: I only lied to impress you Kermit: Well you lied! Piggy: (Overacts) Kermit: Meta jokes! Piggy: I love you Kermit: I love you too even though it’s only been a day! Piggy: Let’s have a long romantic ballad on bikes! Kermit: Agreed!

I mean the bike scene is impressive but it really dosen’t add anything. Just because a scene has a good effect, especially a practical one dosen’t make it good. And it’s one of two scenes that feel like padding in what’s honestly not that long a movie. 

Speaking of which that night Nicky hits on Piggy and dosen’t leave her alone while she tries to work. Keep in mind, while his job title is worthless parasite and he probably can’t do anything to her, nor doe sit seem he would, he’s still her employers brother and thus might try preassuring her and even if he isn’t he’s still a creepy guy hitting on her while she tries to work. 

But yeah this whole sectoin.. is the weakest part of the film. The rest of the gang decides to frame piggy so they can steal Holiday’s biggest jewel, the baseball diamond from the mallory gallary. So he sends piggy out as a model so they can frame her. This part dosen’t quite work to start but then we get the water ballet. Oh my fucking henson, the water ballet scene. Now making a muppet swim with frank oz using a scuba mask.. that IS geninely impressive and looks neat.. but that’s almost all the scene has so your left with two minute sof just.. ntohing. 

Thankfully the last few minutes give us one of the most glorious thigns i’ve ever seen: Charles Grodin singing operatically about how much he wants to fuck miss piggy. I could’ve watched a whole movie of just this. And it climaxes in him and kermit both singing while miss piggy wears a sparkler crown and then dives into the ocean. If this segment had just been a minute shorter maybe I’d like it. 

So Kermit decides to head nicky off since Gonzo happened to be taking photos of people’s knees to spook Charlie, and after a rousing speech from Fozzie they agree. One visit to PIggy later, where she’s not impressed with the plan and thus superman bends the bars to escape jail, we’re at the climax: Piggy tries to reach the rest of our heroes while they try and foil Nicky and his crew. We get a great bit about trying to fool the guard with a pizza order, before both sides meet and fight, with Nicky having the upperhand for a sec till Piggy swoops in on a got dang motorcycle. She also stole a truck on the way here. So with that Nicky’s foiled, his sister only finds out in a storybook and our heroes head home 13th class, all falling out of a plane in one last showstopping set piece. 

Final Thoughts:

While I summarized a lot, it was only because this film is a work of comedic genius. It does slow down a bit in the last act, but the first two are just PACKED with some of the best jokes henson and co ever performed, Charles grodin is awesome. 

The film’s only real issue.. is it lacks any real core drive. PIggy and Kermit met a day ago in this continuity. While grnated they didn’t know each other long in the muppet movie either, that film put in effort to invest me in the two. Most films that focus on them as a couple do, with the muppets and take manhattan also being notable examples. Here their just together because it’s kermit and Miss PIggy and that just don’t work for me. 

It only dosen’t hobble the film.. because it’s really funny. It’s just that hilarous and outside of that slogging section with the fashion show and the bike scene, i’ts so well paced I don’t care. You whip from one comic set piece to the next, givgen enough time to laugh but not enough time to really think about the plot. So while the film is far from the most heartflet or well thought out plot wise.. it is damn fun and I still can’t give this anything but my highest recomendation. If your looking for fun and to see a man keep up with the muppets, this is a score worth sitting down with this caper for. 

Next Time: Arrrgh! We set sale for a childhood classic as Kermit, Fozzie, Piggy and some blonde kid set sail against Tim curry! Muppet Treasure Island Baby!

If you enjoyed this review please consider comissioning your own or joining my patreon. Thank you for reading, have a wonderful day. 

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Shadow Into Light (Lena Restrospective) Finale!: Lena In Season 3! (Commission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and welcome to the FINAL part of my look at the life and times of Lena Sabrewing. It’s been a long and satsifying journey through the character’s rich arc and some of Ducktales 2017′s best episodes. Lena started as a tourtured but complacient teen willing to do bloody awful evil things if it meant her freedom, who through the power of love and friendship realized what she was doing wrong, that she loved Webby and turned on Magica... and after a brief stint of this going horribly wrong a magica simply just bodyjacked her, she sacrificed herself for Webby he story seemingly done. Of course it wasn’t, Disney woudln’t let them kill a teenager... fully grown lion men horrifcally decaying indiana jones style yeah, of course it’s disney, but killing a teen is where they draw the line. Point is Lena was merley trapped in the shadow realm with a bunch of those guys Yugi beat and with the help of everyone’s faviorte stoic hummingbird, freed Lena. Lena found new family in Violet.. but also found dying is easy but living is harder and had to wrestle with both her fears of turning out like Magica and Magica herself who naturally was gaslighting her to try and get the last scraps of her power back. We also took a detour or two to see where she came from: looking at both Minima De Spell and her rivalry with a 34 year pretending to be a small child, and Magica’s Shadow whose like Lena except almost nothing like Lena. We also took a look at her one comic apperance which was never released here for some reason and was incredibly disapointing. 

So yeah i’ts been one long, fun ride filled with gay subtext, launchpad’s spider sense, giant legs, movie refrences from warriors to jaws to nightmare on elm street 3: the dream warriors, toddlers who look and probably are 34, launchpad apparently huffing enough paint to damage his brain as that’s the only way to explain the terror of the terrafirmains subplot and gay subtext. I’ve enjoyed every step of the way so before I take the last one of those steps, i’d like to thank all of ya for reading this. I’ve gained at least 10 if not more followers off this series alone and I appricate all of you. I’d also like to thank Kev for directly comissioning this, keeping me in work and in x-men comics since 2020. 

As you can probably guess by the title.. this one’s a bit different. This is a combination of two things: The first is that i already reviewed “The Phantom and the Sorceress” when I was reviewing each episode of Season 3 as it came out.  My thoughts have not changed  at all so I felt redoing that review would be redudant and a waste of Kev’s money. The same goes for Split Sword, which has the extra issue of  being a three story episode with only one of the parts starring the focus of this retrospective. The second is while she shows up about the same amount as season 2, her apperances in season 3 outside of her Christmas Cameo are all more substaial outside of her two starring roles. Both COTHJSW and The Last Adventure shed some more light on our faviorite shadow and feel like natural evolutions of her character so it felt wrong to just flat out ignore them. 

So rather than do a full review of the episodes i’m just going to go into Lena’s apperances for Season 3. This way I can cover Phantom again without fully repeating myself, and fully track the last steps Lena takes as the series closes out in a fresh and hopefully enjoyable way. So join me under the cut for one last step into the shadows as we finish bringing Lena into the light. 

Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!

Challenge was one of the very first Ducktales I ever talked about on here, alongside Quack Pack, so it’s quite a trip returning to it a year later, even if i’ts just my memories of it. It’s also an excellent episode, with a great and engaging main plot and a “it’s just kind of there” subplot. 

It’s also one of the only three episodes to focus on Violet, and one of only two that focuses just on her and not on Lena in any way. It is a shame: While I love Lena as a character, I wouldn’t of just spent several weeks talking about her if I wasn’t getting paid for this retrospective or not, Violet is equally intriguing and so i’ll be taking a second out to talk about her as I really HAVEN’T gone into her character this retrospective and given how important she is to Lena and to all of us, most Lena fans like Violet just as much and vice versa. I’ll still be talking about Lena in this episode, obviously, but I feel her sister from two misters deserves some time in the spotlight too as the show only gave her three episodes, and one was more focused on Webby and Lena by design and the other we’ll get to. 

Violet is an excellent character. She speaks well and with little emotion but that’s just how she is and she’s never called out for it or insulted, something I like. Likewise she dosen’t judge others, never really batting an eye at the rest of the groups own quirks and at most being freaked out by leg huey a bit. She’s just a kind, curious, intellgent young lady. 

And this episode shows that off: We get to see her in the spotlight of her own, every bit the Woodchuck Huey is and more, but still supporting and encouring him, seeing their contest as a friendly one and putting no stakes into it as she’s failed before, she can fail again. What matters is she get back up and keep going. Her “razzing” is also just downright adorable, and nicely shows off her and Lena’s new dynamic: they’ve gone from friends to siblings, something really not shown off last time and something that wason’t confirmed on screen till now but it just works naturally, the cool and collected but chaotic underneath that lena just plays perfectly off the uttelry calm and deadpan violet. It’s a natural, perfect dynamic that they clearly had mapped out from the beggining and simply had to build up to that. 

Her genuine shock at Huey’s betryal... hurts the heart, as she genuinely thinks it’s her fault and not just my boy having a panic attack and doing something questionable. But it also shows her character.. when givne the same opprunity and no guilt for it, he struck first.. she dosen’t. She saves him because it’s the right thing to do and shows Huey she really is the bettter woodchuck.. but htere’s no shame in it. It’s okay to fail, what matters is you keep trying. And as a result despite giving Huey the opporunity to win with her.. he turns it down. She gets a deserved win, celebrating with her family and just wearing the most adorable smile. She also just has.. buckets of chemistry with Huey. I mean it was apparent to me with the whole Library Scene in Nightmare but god damn do they ramp it up with this one. They just contrast each other perfectly here, the handshake is adorable and he clings to her.. while also being hilarious “I naturlaly defer to authority!”. I will take this ship to my grave, and fully support it... that being said if you ship Huey/Boyd or all three togehter, go for it man. I do the latter sometimes. Your good. You didn’t need me to tell that but sometimes shipping discorse can get downright ugly so rather than make it a war between two ships, I just wanted to offer an olive branch for once you know? Same with Weblena. I obviously adore that ship but if you have a non-boys ship with her, tha’ts cool too. Ship what you want to.. i’m just doing me through this retrospective. 

Now back to Lena. Her apperance in this episode is really heartwarming and really nice after all the shit she’s been through. This is the first episode she’s in where NOTHING bad happens to her. No really, every apperance, even her two cameos had her suffer in some way. She spent the entire first season grappling with Magica, and her season 2 apperances trapped in a shadow dimension and nearly loosing her girlfriend to her own jealously, horrifically stalked by her abuser using her own self doubt against her, attacked by a literal tempest in a tea pot and captured by aliens. The girl has not gone one friggin onscreen break since the series started and probably not many off it either. 

Here? She just gets to cheer her little sister, proudly celebrating both her and her new dads. She gets to teach her sister to trash talk, even if that ends up backfiring a bit but she meant well. And she gets to celebrate with her family when her little sister wins. It’s all small stuff.. but it’s all things she’s NEVER had. A sibling to be proud of and support. Dads to sit with and go places with. A family to celebrate things with. This is all pretty normal stuff, but not something everyone gets to have and something Lena NEVER had even remotely. But now she’ll ALWAYS have that. A supportive loving family to give her a place to belong, and to support in turn. After a nightmarish 14-15 years of existance, she’s FINALLY allowed to just be happy without having to fight a giant monster first. 

She’s finally made it, she’s hoped and she’s waited, for the first time in her life she dosen’t feel alone. Her hearts started to heal, to know this is real, this is how it feels.. to have a home. Yes I haven’t given up on that song. And if you think this is the last time i’m going to quote a song you clearly didn’t read the review I did of the next episode. 

The Phantom and the Sorceress:

Season 3′s primary focus outside of the FOWL plot was tying up loose ends. Pretty much every major recurring episode outside of Fethry got an episode tying up their character arc and of course Lena was no exception.

You’d think with Magica no longer a threat to her and having fully accepted she’s a good person now, and having found a place to belong that Lena was done.  But while she accepted her past, that she’s not magica, and that she deserves to be happy.. she never accepted Magic as part of her despite being made of it and that’s what this episode ties up as well as the mystery of the blue aura that surronded her magic at times. 

The episode starts with Lena’s amulet, which she has back now which is the only part of this episode I don’t like as they don’t really explain why she’d take it back from Violet. But her magic keeps goofing up and making Sleepovers dangerous, and gets Scrooge grousing about how magic is bad.. only to naturally backpedal when an angry Webby points out Lena is magic. He does amend things and genuinely apologize for it, having not meant her at all and not even thinking of her as part of his hatred of the stuff. It also shows why Lena likely didn’t take him up on his offer.. with her self loathing still going she probably thought he was just pitting her and would always resent her.. when really he just geninely did not care despite his overwhelming hate of magic. It worked out granted, she found a better fit for her family wise.

But Lena hates it too.. and while she hasn’t fully brought it up before it makes perfect sense: We saw how she viewed it as dangerous and not worth the risk to bring her back in Friendship Hates Magic and Magic has brought her nothing but pain, nearly killing her on several occasions, allowing magica to fuck with her head  or directly control her and general putting the one person she cares about more than anyone in harms way. She hates what she is.. because it’s brought her nothing but pain and misery. She has ever reason to resent it..

Yet this episode is about forcing her to accept it.... to realize that Magic is part of who she is, and that it’s not inherently good or bad, it’s all about the intent of who uses it. Her last two uses of it were not made with any malice and in fact using it to pull her friends into her dreams allowed her to break free of Magica. 

And it’s perfectly done by giving her a new enemy, something I REALLY wish tehy’d done with Fenton at some point, but get why it took this long with Lena: The Phantom Blot. The Phantom Blot, like many characters in this series is HEAVILY redone: he keeps the iconic look and threat level but instead of being an operatic supervillian, he’s an anti-villian with a link to magic he never really had before. He works with FOWL sure but it’s likely because unlike the rest of FOWL he actually agrees with Bradford’s goal for a less chaotic world and his desire to wipe out magic is perfectly in line with that. 

He’s also given a backstory that perfectly parallels him with Lena: Both were created by Magica in a way and horribly abused by her: Lena mentally and phsycially, and Blot by having to suffer under her rule after he took over her family and then barely survivie as she wiped out his villiage, his family and his normal life swearing vengance on her. LIke Lena magica didn’t care about him or see him as a threat, figuring like most people who swore eteneral vengance on her he’d get swatted down like a gnat once and never return. INstead he returned again and again and again for decades, learning each time getting stronger and wiping out more magic along the way. He went from what was probably a good normal person to a vengeful vigliante dedicated to wiping out magic good or bad because he can’t concieve that it isn’t ALL bad. He’s easily what Lena could’ve become if , ironically enough she hadn’t encountered him, seeing the end result of hating something just for what it is as it tried to murder her. That hating and resenting Magic would just lead her to become as hollow and vengful as the blot, having a good cause to start.. but slowly loosing yourself to hate and anger. Letting the person who ruined your life still control it simply by focusing all your energy on hating them and people like them. 

It also gives us an interesting and painful teamup as with the boys and Scrogoe stuck in another dimension, there’s only one person they can turn to deal with Magic: Magica herself, whose resulted to depression eating pizza and the most she can do as a threat is eat the garlic Violet was wearing in case of vampires (”There now your susceptible to vampires!” is easily the best joke of the episode, from how Magica eats the garlic in one bite to her manical laugh to Violet just being annoyed rather than terrified or anything). Magica only agrees because they have a common enemy and if he sucks up her magic amulet, that’s the end of any magic she has left. 

It’s also here we learn the reason for the blue and purple color coding: Duckworld magic is indeed color coded.. but rather than be based ont he emotions used or anything.. it’s based on the user. The purple is Magica, and as we later learn Poe’s, magic, and thus Lena borrowing it via the amulet. The Blue is HER magic. Tapping into her emotions and her own inante power. It’s a nice twist I didn’t see coming but makes absolute sense in hindsight: Every time she’s triggered it.. it’s been when she’s been using her own emotions and been doing thigns for her own good, and not for anyone elses. It also explains why the Magica powers aren’t working for her or stable: their not HERS to control and thus are fighting her. 

So she trains to use her own using the time honorted traditions of montages and having your sibling shoot things at you out of a magical amulet. She grows in her talent and power and herself, even if she learns from the person she hates more and comes to accept magic.. in time to fight the Blot who misguidedly thinks harming her will show Magica the pain he felt.. even though as we learn later that ship already sailed and we already knew she cares nothing for Lena. 

But as he drains her amulet... she focuses on what she cares about... and if we didn’t already ahvea  MOUNTAIN of subtext for webby and lena her “frienddship” montage has maybe one or two shots of her sister.. and about 80 of webby. Seriously they.. they weren’t even hiding it at this poitn outside of the finale, which we’ll get to. 

And so she takes hold of her magic, no longer need the amulet to channel it and taking on her super mode! Which was highly contreversal at the time.  BUt I get why. As a transformation, ala dragon ball, and a superhero type costume it works, giving her a power and grandeur not seen before and showing she’s using all of it, giving weight to when it only shows up in the finale when she needs it most and likely would’ve given it weight any other time it showed up. But it wasn’t clear if this was her permenant look now and Frank’s response to it was to say he wanted to dress everyone up in that outfit , at the same size Lena has it, including launchpad wearing it like a cape. Which while hilarious and it was, was also blatant trolling as her return in Split Sword showed it wasn’t her default form, and they could relax. But as a form showing the apex of her power, character development and confidence, it works and has all the drama i’d expect from a form like this, reflecting the blot’s power back onto him and overloading the gauntlet and facing down Magica easily. 

It’s the perfect way to cap things off... Lena finally acccepts herslef as she is fully: she’s not evil and neither is magic.. magic is a part of her and her power is not something to hate.. but to embrace. To use to protect the world from people LIKE Magica who would misue their power to harm others or the blot who belivie her power is inherently evil. This is a lena freed from the chains of self hatred, fully accepted. It turns her story into a wonderful, beautiful story of escaping abuse and accepting yourself as who you are, that no matter what you are or where you come from, you are beautiful, you are good and you can do good. And as she flies off with her sister and girlfriend, she’s finally, fully, truly at peace with who she was who she is now and flies into the future.. and to free her girlfirends dad from another dimension. Nothing is holding her back now, no one can push her around, she’s who she wants to be, she’s the master of her, and the thoughts enough to lift her off of the ground. She and Webby are independent together and they are flying. And yes i’m linking the song again. 

But even with her character Arc Wrapped she still could support others in their own growth. Case in point:

The Split Sword of Swanstantine!

This was the vingette episode, with a pair of the kids, one from Team Magic the other from the Duck Boys, going after a piece. And while Violet’s segment is neat it dosent’ really expand on her enough for me to go into it like I did with Challenge, so i’ll only be covering the cold open and Lena and Huey’s segment. Given these two are some of my faviorites, Lena hasn’t really gotten to have any meaningful interactoins with anyone besides Webby, Violet and Magica (And scrooge but for like.. two minutes), and this bit is really creative and intresting I loved it. It also has Steelbeak so I got a nice Jason Mantzokus fix on top of that despite him barely getting to speak in this one.. and really all season. Season 3 REALLY wasted Steelbeak, only using him three times and just ignoring the whole idea of him growing more compitent with time. Maybe Frank’s saving that for darkwing duck if he gets to do that I dunno. At least Invincible and Close Enough are using the man properly so I got that. 

THe setup to the episode as a whole is comedic gold: Scrooge has taken the kids to Monocrow to find the split sword, one of the missing mysteries before FOWl.. only to then realizze in one of the best jokes of the season, after HOURS of plane travel probably that Violet and Lena had also come along having slept over and thus spending the episode in their sleep clothes. As Violet puts it in LIebe’s best delivery of the series “You said eveyrone get on the plane so we got on the plane”. So, fricking relatable. Scrooge’s awkard “Do you.. like history?” is also great, David is a treasure, as if he’s just now realizing he really dosen’t know Webby’s closest friend and girlfriend and is scrambling for some common ground so he can stop talking. 1/2′s good enough and we’re off. 

Lena and Huey’s plot, the final one of the three, likewise has a simple setup: Huey finds the sword piece.. and also Steelbeak, whose ready to punch  him some children. Lena freezes time as she can do that but can’t delay the inveitble, just give them time to plan. 

And this is a nice showcase for Huey and a nice chance for Lena to be snarky as Huey wants to try anything and everything he can do that dosen’t involve fighting as he hates it and Lena endulges him as he gets tossed around, playing on her phone while he tries dumb scheme after dumb scheme from prtending to be his dad, to his inner child, to construction to offering him a snack, to “what sword piece” while hodling the sword blade twice his side behind his back.

Lena eventually calls him on it: He can’t keep avoiding this and there’s some reason he dosen’t want to fight. The reason turns out to be he bruce bannered himself and thus has a split personality for all his agression and primal rage, the duke of making a mess,  Huey’s version fo the McDuck family anger he’s buried away and is ashamed of, hating his  more impuslive emotions due to his desire for control. 

As for how Lena impacts this.. it’s her own acceptance of the part of her she hated, her magic, that gives her the clarity to help Huey, helping him realize like her this shit isn’t healthy and to make peace with the Duke instead of fighting him and locking him away. The result is a perfect combo: a huey with all the power and strength of a mcduck, but the nuance and tactics Huey normally has to beat Steelbeak easily. Lena is impressed, a friendship is forged and we see how far sh’es come: from hating herself.. to helping others stop doing it before it gets worse. 

How Santa Stole Christmas!

All we really learn here is that she and Violet share a room and a king sized bed.. but we got that cheek smooch and I had to mention that so there you go. 

The Last Adventure!:

Like most of the main cast Lena gets a decent note to go out on, if a bit wobbly. The wobblyiness comes from two sources. The first is just a nitpick of mine; We don’t get to see the climax of her fight with the Blot alongside Manny. No really. The Blot got two spotlight episodes, his own sidekick/wife/amy sedaris, and was built up as one of FOWL’s biggest threats.. and his defeat isn’t even shown on screen for some damn reason. I feel they just ran out of time but given how important Lena and Manny were series wide and how awesome the keith david reveal was, it’s a cop out

Speaking of Cop Outs we can’t talk about this episode without talknig about the elephant in the room: Lena saying Webby “already has two sisters”, seemingly shooting down any posiblity of Weblena. I do not see it that way but do feel the two could’ve phrased it better and we could’ve gotten SOME Weblena by the end instead of none to offset this. I feel Lena’s motivations, esecpailly given the context were purely to try and placate Webby to keep her from investigating the twins further and endangering herself, not realizing how badly this wouldn’t work as Lena’s never cared about where she comes from and her past is all pain and abuse before Webby, while Webby had this gnawing at her her whole life. I do think the last episode was the WORST POSSIBLE place to put this, as it comes off as queerbaiting evne though I don’t think that was the intent. So yeah this line sucks and was poorly conveyed. 

Everything else though is thankfully excellent: Her raging frekaout at June feels warranted, as June is literally trying to cut Webby out of her life and was purposffully trying to galight webby as we find out. Her and Violet’s reason for going is also just pure awesome, pure heartwarming and pure badass, both angrily and simply proclaming when stating why their going on the final attack no fowl “It’s Webby”. Webby helped Lena become a better person and lnvoes her more than anyone else and vice versa and Webby gave Violet Friends, a sister and a life of her own. Nothings going to stop them and Scrogoe wisely backed down on that one before they strangled him. 

Her final scene is the best though: Not only do she and Violet give May and June friendship braclets but despite the earlier hostlitlity... Lena helps them with not a second though. She now understands them, gets that their like her: a being made by an evil dickhead who saw them as a tool to use and not a person and was willing to kill them the moment they were no longer useful. She too was once lost, sad and felt alone..but Webby pulled her out of that and now she’s going to be there for these two, these alterante versions of the love of her life, to give them the same support and encourages them they’ll find their home. And sure enough my boy comes by not a second later to adopt both of them. In an instnat they’ve gone from alone with only webby like Lena was.. to having a family of their own and loyal friends to stay by their sid.e 

And so Lena ends the series charing off into the wild blue with her sister and her newfound friends, the future all ahead of her, the past finally put to bed, and herself finally at peace, in love with Webby.. and with herself at long last. 

This retrospective was a wonderful time. I throughly enjoyed going through Lena’s history and being more and more impressed how much I’d missed and how it was even BETTER the second time around. This arc is Ducktales at it’s best and Lena is the finest thing they acomplished. This is easily Kimiko Glenn’s best role and really let her show off her range. Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ll see of this wonderful lesbian shadow, but as it stands with peace, love and self worth found, it’s still a good place to leave her. If she ever returns i’ll of course pick this up again, and free of charge but for now I enjoyed the ride and throughly enjoyed this retrospective. T

Thank you all so much for reading. If you liked this retrospective, please stick around. My next comissioned story arc is covering the various crossovers Lilo and Stitch did, but after that in three weeks return here for Season 2. All three arcs, All done intermidtley. Buckle up. 

Until then follow for more, and join my patreon. My next stretch goal is monthly reviews of darkwing duck and reviews of the super ducktales mini series, and after finsihing this post i’m going to throw in some extra non-duck ones! 25 is being changed up from covering Tailspin every month, to covering a Danny Phantom episode every month, and the beloved special ultimate enemy. So check that out. I may throw in some more on both 20 and 25 so stay posted. And just for joining at the 2 dollar tier you get acess to my discord server and get to pick one of the shorts for my varoius shortstaculars I do. Next one up is goofy’s birthday with Donalds in june so join now! 

ANd if you just have one speciifc episode I haven’t covered you’d like me to, those are 5 bucks a pop on commission and available via my ask box, direct messages on here or discord at technicolormuk#6550 and until the next rainbow i’ts been a pleasure

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Review: The First Adventure! or Baby Donald Says Eat the Rich

Welcome back. I’d been looking forward to this one for some time in the hopes of getting one thing i’ve been waiting for.. sadly that thing didn’t come, we’ll get to that, but this was still a fun episode so let’s hop right in. Spoilers in a second but my tag is spoiler tagged soooo.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We open in the 1960′s. Austin Powers just went into Cryo Freeze to prepare for Dr. Evil’s eventual return, The Marvel Universe was in full swing, a teenager in baltimore was battling racisim via a dance show, and Black Heron had just been caught by Agent 22, aka Beakly when she was young and just as gorgeous then as she is now. Heron once again engaged in her usual cartoonish supervillian, and now SHUSH has her.  Meanwhile in a nearbye room a young accountant by the name of Bradford Buzzard is outlining his plan for Director Von Drake: The way he sees it every time a villian costs chaos Shush “Wastes” billions causing MORE chaos to stop it without controlling things. He proposes taking over the world, weeding out the chaos and ruling from the shadows. Naturally, Ludvig isn’t on board with any of this and points out they aren’t super villains. It’s here this episode fully defines something about Bradford’s character. Back in “Let’s Get Dangerous!” when Huey called him a villain, he said he’s not one... at least from his point of view. It’s here, in his youth we get a clear understanding why he dosen’t think so: So far most people we’ve seen in the world of Ducktales take the chaos and insanity of the world in stride: Either just numb to it like most of the citizens, Rolling with it like Daisy and Violet, or diving straight into it like.. pretty much the majority of the cast, either for the love of adventure and treasure like the McDuck/Duck family, or for their own ludcrious ends like Glomgold, Mark Beaks or Magica. To them the world’s fine the way it is and there’s to explore, take or whatever.  To Bradford.. this is madness... he feels all these people are just a bunch of overgrown children, and in some cases actual children, are just making the world worse and worse until one day their going to break it. One day skill, intuition, wit, and knowledge just wont’ be enough. Someday Scrooge, SHUSH or whoever’s standing in the way of evil will fail and the world will fall. This simply can’t go on, and SOMEONE has to control this, someone has to take this world, shake the chaos out of it and MAKE it sane. Make it work the way it’s SUPPOSED to. And to Bradford that’s him. Someone has to, no one else will, so he will. To him SHUSH doing this is just the logical thing: They want peace right? Their fighting for good right? Then what’s better than making the world a utopia? Ending these conflicts and remaking it.  The thing is.. that’s not what Heroes do. As we’ve seen in various stories where the superheroes, the Good Guys take over they do improve things.. but at the cost of free will. At the cost of free thought. At the cost of their morals. They become what they were fighting all those years and have to bloody their hands and keep them bloody just to make THEIR world right. And that’s not Utopia, that’s a dictatorship. The example I always come to, even though there were ones before and after this including Marvel’s incredible Squadron Supreme maxi-series, is Justice League the animated series’ two parter, like most of their episodes really but that’s not the point, a Better World, about an alternate reality where Superman kills Lex Luthor after Luthor kills the flash and hte League take over the world. The thing is.. the world isn’t BETTER. It’s just crime free. You can sweep the chaos and the crime under the rug.. but your not making a better world, your just making YOUR version of it. No one person is a god even if they have a power of one and no one person can or SHOULD be able to decide what’s best for everyone. It’s up to each of us to MAKE the world better, to fight for a better world. That’s what Ludvig knows full well and what Bradford just can’t see. You can’t control the world, you just have to accept the things you can’t change like it being chaotic and change the things you can like injustice. 

Bradford however, who was hired as a favor to his grandmother, can’t though Von Drake lets him off with a warning.. and a laugh about an accountant being able to be a super villian. Bradford however realizes ther’es some truth to that.. he needs someone to teach him out to operate outside the law, and if SHUSH won’t take the world and remake it.. maybe it’s time someone else did.  So in the prison cells of SHUSH, which are conveniently empty outsdide of Heron, Bradford outlines his plan to her. To create a massive orgnization to steal the world and give it the order it needs. To combine their skills: Heron’s for grandeur and crime, and Bradfords for strategy and focus, to take the world. The Orginzation for World Larceny, or OWL, fitting bradford’s hatred for theatrics. Heron objects, adding an F for fiendish, and Bradford relucntantly agrees to get her on board, lets her loose and fakes like he just saw her escape. FOWL is born. And the world would never be the same. Cue credits and cue the rest of the review under the cut. 

After the opening we cut to 1994-5.. sometime around then as it’s hard to get an exact year, and that’s how the crew likes it. Point is it’s the 90′s, and Scrooge is.. busy running his company. We’ll get into the weeds of that in a bit, but this is a different Scrooge, one who while no less capable, has no thirst for adventure or drive. He’s not nearly as miserable as the Scrooge we saw back in Woo-Ooo but he’s still a much less complete man. Anyways alongside him for his planning is Duckworth, whose very much alive at this time, and who tells his boss his sister Hortense left something in his office for him.  To no one suprise, that thing is the twins, at the tender age of i’m guessing 10. Since your probably curious, Della is still voiced by Paget Brewster, just using a slightly different voice like the Triplets and Webby’s voice actors do. It’s just a bit more jarring here since unlike those characters, we’ve seen adult della and thus are used to this voice coming out of a grown woman. It’s not bad and I got used to it eventually but it was jarring at first especially since once again Donald has a completely diffrent voice ACTRESS doing his voice.  This time around it’s cristina valenzuela, of Miraculous Ladybug fame, who I know more for her song work and twitter than her actual work ,but am delighted to see her here and she does a terrific job. I genuneily did not realize it was her, and while not exactly like the late great russi taylor, it is just similar enough to work. 

So we get to see what the Twins were like when they were the Triplets age: Della is about the same, but with more of Dewey’s impulsiveness, and Donald, much like he’d be a few years and some dead parents later, is a bitter, grungey musician whose constantly on his guitar and railing against the man.. which is Scrooge in this case which is fair. Hortense left a note.. which bothered me as I genuinely expected her to show up and was majorly disappointed she did not. We are in year 4 of this series, season 3 and STILL no appearance of Hortense or mention how she died, as she and Quackmore are still alive by the end of this. Given she’s easily my faviorite part of Life and Times, this bothered me, and the only reason i’m not more upset.. is the clever way they wrote around actually using her. The letter she leaves for Scrooge explaining things is the same one Della herself used in the comic strip, and using a bit of the postcard she left in the cartoons, when leaving Huey, Dewey and Louie with Donald, down to the Twins having left a firecracker in their fathers seat, thus leaving him in the hosptial. As disappointed as I am my favorite Ginger is completely absent once again, this is a brilliant reference, and I have to give them credit for it, so it’s a fair enough trade off.  As for his “Angel Nephew and Niece”, Della wants to dive into adventure while Donald struggles to write a song, singing throughout the episode. It varies in tolerablity, though mostly due to the writing, Cristina is doing fine. Della however is disappointed to find her legendary uncle views his past exploits as merley a means to an end to get his fortune and now he has it he can just focus on building it in the boardroom. This is an intresting take.. and one I could easily have seen happening to the Don Rosa version seen in Life and Times. The Scrooge there himself saw building his wealth as the most important thing until his encounter with Teddy Rosevelt, who taught him experince was what mattered and the having isn’t as fun as the getting. It works for me: This is a scrooge who never got that lesson so once he got to be richest duck in the world, having achieved his life’s goal nothing was left. He’s not miserable like the Scrooge we saw at the start of the series, having lost his love for adventure after loosing his niece/daughter, and having lost his fight. This one has retired.. but because he likely just sees no point in going on. He’s the richest duck in the world, has a vast empire.. no amount of treasure is really going to add to that like it used to, and as he points out in a second Shush has tons of agents at this point to clean up what’s left of FOWL. He’s the man who has everything, so why keep going. It’s weird to see a scrooge without the hunger to keep going, but it makes sense when his belly is full. Without someone to get him to see there’s always another rainbow, he just stopped chasing them. Also a fun nod to the comics I almost forgot to mention is when hearing about the “Gift”, i.e. the twins, Scrooge dreads it’s another surprise party, a nod to life and times where Hortense threw Scrooge one that went.. badly and lead to their entire relationship collapsing. Though Donald did get back at Scrooge for screaming at his parents and Auntie Matilda

However his busy day is disrupted with a call from Beakly. They’ve found the last known cordinates of Captain Yellowbeak, but FOWL is on them and Scrooge is the only one Beakly trusts for this since they have a leak. Beakly is also director of SHUSH at this point, with Von Drake having retired or died or both at this point. Scrooge reluctantly accepts, while Della is excited at the prospect of a real adventure and Donald ends up sharing her enthusasim as it’d make a good song. Scrooge, naturally, has no intention of bringing them with him to their disapointment and leads Donald to sing another “Suck it the man song” which totally isn’t about Scrooge.... spoilers: It entirely is, he’s just a little dumbass grunge baby and I love him.  We then get a cute sequence of Della popping up in Scrooge’s Luggage and Trunk to try and convince him to let them tag along, before we cut to the Limo, driven by Duckworth at this point, which solves that mystery. Scrooge is firm in having his butler take them back and have them work with him and Duckworth’s fine with that.. but wants overtime, which is fair. Scrooge, being Scrooge, grumbles about not being made of money, proven wrong by gold spilling out of him. Though I do like the update of Scrooge’s classic cheapness when it comes to pay: INstead of barely paying his employees like a monster, he’s simply reluctant to pay extra if he dosen’t have to, and would rather drag two 10 year olds with him on a dangerous adventure than pay overtime, which tracks. It’s also clear if he had to he WOULD actually pay it, either due to legal reasons or his moral standards, he just isn’t happy about it. So he agrees, though he wants Donald to leave the guitar behind which.. given the most Donald’s been able to come up with is “Suck it THE MAN” and “This guy’s a greedy asshole”.. he’s extremely correct and when Donald tries to pull a “YOU CAN’T CENSOR ME MANNNN”, Scrooge just chucks it out of the car.  At the airfield while Della is excited like an rabid chipmunk, and genuinely thinks she can fly a plane because she’s played Outrunner 2.. which I have only vaguely heard of before now. And is apparently just a pc game where you run a lot so I genuinely do not get where Della gets piloting from that.. but she IS Dewey’s mother. So with that in mind the family take off and Scrooge explains what their after: The Papyrus of Binding. It’s a dangerously powerful magical artifact from Ancient Egypt that will make whatever’s written on it happen. The dangerous part is that it’s incredibly literal: As Bradford puts later in the episode, ask for unlimited power, it might zap you dead with a million volts, ask for infinite wealth, prepare to be crushed underneath it. It’s a nice twist on a Monkey’s Paw or Jackass Genie situation. Instead of either the source of the wish granting magic just being inherently evil, or some dickhead screwing with the hero.. it’s just an object that has no ability to interpret nuance, just like your phone with the goddamn autocorrect. It can’t judge intent or tone or meaning, it just gives exactly what it’s asked. It’s a thoroughly interesting concept. 

Something I really like about this episode is the fact it answers some little questions. While none were Hortense related, and I am still grumpy about that even with this coming out a good 17 hours after I watched it due to getting caught up with other stuff, it does have little touches that explain small parts of the lore: Who drove Scrooge? As just mentioned, Duckworth. Who flew scrooge? Paid pilots. Did he have a plane before the sunchaser? Yup. It fills in some small gaps in the world. Stuff we weren’t dying to know but’s stil lintresting. Said pilots in this case however are Heron and Bradford. This episode also fills in Heron’s character, as while we’ve already seen bits and pieces this season she LOVES being a classic, take over the world james bond type villian, like she stepped out of a duck version of kim possible.. and i’m just now realizing there probably IS a duck kim possible somewhere in this world as while far after disney afternoon, it fits too neatly to not be wedged in there with your tailspins and goof troops. I wouldn’t be suprised if there were brid versions of every human based disney afternoon and one saturday morning show. My.. my head’s swimming from this. I could be, and probably am wrong but the sheer idea of this... it’s amazing.  Back to Heron, she just LOVES being evil and destructive, letting the world know she exists and operating on a grand scale. Now we’ve seen more of her while she’s Beakly’s nemisis.. she’s really an evil scrooge.. yes another one. Like Scrooge, at least how he normally is,  she simply gets how the world of Ducktales operates and can take advantage of that to the best of her ablility. Just like adventuering, cartoonish supervilliany is about risk and reward.. sometimes you faceplamnt hard, that’s the risk, but the rewards and rush is worth it. She’s as addicted to grandoise villiany as Scrooge is to adventure by this point. And like Scrooge, and unlike her partner Bradford, she sees the world as it is: Chaotic and one big sandbox to play in. She contrasts Scrooge by the fact that while Scrooge is willing to bust down doors, he still has morals, as well as the wisdom to not go overboard Heron often lacks. It also makes her a good contrast ot the equally skilled Beakly: While Beakly is taciturn, controlled in all things especially her emotions, Heron is bombastic, gloating and borderline insane, and while deadly in a fight, dosen’t exercise any control in her plans, preferring it big and loud despite her partner usually being right about reiging it in.  So Heron evacuates dramatically, taking a grumpy Bradford with them, and sending the plane into a tailspin. 

I can’t wait for Next Year’s Tailspin episode. I swear to god. I’m hoping for Shere Kahn but this episode has taught me to be okay with disapointment, if a grumpus. Della however shows her natural talent and despite having no real experince with planes, lands it gracefully. While that’s going on, Bradford berates Heron for her plan, pointing out that they COULD have simply landed the plane, then captured the McDuck family and executed them quitely, versus leaving a chance they’ll survive which they do. They AREN’T supervillains.. or at least he thinks he isn’t. Heron does show off her competence though, pointing out that this way they can simply stay low, and FOLLOW the Ducks to the treasure. Bradford is impressed for a second.. till Heron’s evil shows as she plans to use the Papyrus. Bradford loudly objects to this, listing the possible risks shown before. If not used CAREFULLY, it could kill them, and she balks and wants him to just embrace being the Villian already. It’s what I love about their dynamic set up here: While they are equals, Bradford is a better strategist, able to think and plan way in advance, and prefers subterfuge, and if present day is any indicatoin probably used Heron’s flash to distract from the real mission or goal often or to do something on the down low while she kept SHUSH busy. His last two plans, while again requiring some pizzaz, relied on misdrection: having the ducks take care of an immidate threat like their used to.. while he gets exactly what he wants while their busy and whatever they get out of it is either nothing (Impossibin) or something he couldn’t use just yet and thus if he didn’t get it, no loss, but if he did it just moves up the timetable. Not only that but he’s outlasted all three other big bads, lying in the shadows till it was too risky to leave scrooge and play and even THEN, only coming out into the open when forced out. IT’s why he’s Scrooge’s most dangerous opponent: He knows how Scrooge’s other enmities operates as well as Scrooge himself. And since he knows everything he can maneuver Scrooge exactly where he needs him to do exactly what he wants. It’s unknown how the family will beat him, but he’s easily the biggest challenge they’ve had. 

But back to the show and the past, Scrooge bonds with his niece and nephew, retelling stories of his past as they get closer, with Donald ending up high at one point and thus seeing the ship stranded on a mountain. As he recounts a fight with El Capitan, the villian from the ducktales 87 pilot, he counts the story as as a loss: He didn’t get anything from it, no treasure no new contracts. But Della shows him the point he’s been missing; He got a story. Sure he lost.. but he got experince, a tale to tell and a legend grown.Just because you don’t get everything dosen’t mean it wasn’t worth the experince and you can’t hold it in your heart. And this episode shows why this scrooge needed his family: Without Teddy to mentor him, he simply never got that adventure wasn’t about gains or what you get.. it’s about the thrill of it, the enjoyment of discovery and the memories you make.. it’s about the Journey not the destination. 

As Scrooge starts to warm up to that, he finds a gap, with Della volunteering Donald to jump but Scrooge just having the kids hop on his back and pogo caneing across. The family find the Papyrus, and find out why the ship is all the way up here: Captain Yellowbeak, who’s a character from one of barks stories and the one who had the scroll last, wished to escape.. but that just stranded them. He asked for water.. and it drowned his crew.. and finally with the document hteir reading he asked for release... and thus is now a skelington. The kid are happy to have reached the goal.. while Scrooge is back on his Zack Morris phone trying to reschedule things and schedule a SHUSH evac, to the kids annoyance. However Scrooge raining on their parade gets interupted by Heron and Bradford, as Heron can’t resist popping out dramatically and Bradford is UTTERLY furious since she blew his cover, and Scrooge recognizes him from his christmas party, a nice callback. Scroog being scrooge figures out he’s the mole and Bradford runs , furious at Heron. Their conflict is an intresting one: Both have a point but both will not back down. Bradford is right this showboating nonsense has only hindered Heron’s plans.. and Heron is right that Bradford needs to accept he’s the bad guy. Even if he has well meaning motives, he’s the villian, he works with them, he leads them.. he is one.  He just can’t accept he’s wrong or dosen’t have the answers... huh.. I wonder who that reminds you of. And that’s 100% intentional as Frank has outright compared Huey and Bradford and like last season it’s neat to have the main vilian contrast our chosen Duck for the season. 

Heron outfoxes the kids and gets the papyrus and being just an enitrely black hearted bitch, plans to kill them just to spite scrooge.. writing that “his sidekicks will perish on this mission.”.... but Scrooge’s character development, and her choice of words, means nothing happens. As Scrooge outlines, “Their not my sidekicks their my FAMILY, and this isn’t a mission, it’s an ADVENTURE”. Scrooge has finally accepted his life for what it really is.. and the thrill of the chase over what lies at the end. There’s always anothe rainbow.. and he’s finally become the man who will chase every last one. 

OF course this is interupted, and Heron escapes with the papyrus, when a skeletal pirate attacks.. why is Yellow Beak alive, why’d the scroll do this?

But we get a neat fight as Scrooge fights the skeleton while he sends the kids after Heron. Scrooge gets a cool looking swordfight, while Bradford gets the papyrus, and Yellowbeak even terrifies me what with his bestial roll and fucking centepede crawling out of him.. jesus those things freak me out.  Meanwhile the kids battle Heron, who throws della overboard... and thus for the first time, Donald taps into his beserker rage, snikty snoink, and easily incapaciates the more experinced and fully grown adul, though Della since we’eve been following her kids for the past three seasons, is fine, if suprised by her brother being the goddamn wolverine. 

While heron is out for a second, Scrooge heads after Bradford, and vows to tell Beakly and chase him all across the world. However Bradford gets an utterly awesome moment.. he admits scrooge may be right and probably would.. but since he has the papayrus and is careful in everything he writes his request carefully and perfectly “As far as the ducks are concerned, I was never here.” Grante dit COULD have left scrooge out.. but since he didn’t sday duck family or specificy, and likely knew it’d do that, it instead just means the three bilogical ducks. Bradford dissappears, turning invisble and leaving the papyrus for scrooge, who foils heron by simply writing that this scroll will be lost until one day found by his heirs.

So Heron takes a fall and looses an arm, again.. or for the first time.. the family is triumphant and despite loosing his goal, Scrooge is convinced he and the kids will find it again. See above. Scrooge then pulls out his phone and tells Duckworth to rework his schedule.. but it’s so he can find someone to run his comapny so he can spend more time with the kids. As for why Hortense would allow this before her still mysterious passing.. i’m guessing A) she notices her brother is happier and more alive than he’s been for a while and B) they just blew up their dad’s ass with a firecracker, and she won’t be able to use it for a while, so she’s double mad, so if it means she gets a moment’s peace and is with someone she trusts.. why not?

So we end on Scrooge packing up, preparing for further adventures.. i’d love a spinoff of this one day. I mean Disney plus needs it, and since Frank is probably going over to Darkwing.. maybe matt could take a crack at this. Just saying. You have the cast ready, a giant world to explore, and 15 years worth adventures. Run that baby damn you! But yeah the inevitble happens and Bradford further proves his magificent bastardry.. by appling for the position of running the company as head of Scrooge’s board, and setting up said board. So now FOWL has unlimited resources, he has a direct eye on what he now realizes is his greatest threat, and the complete trust and faith of both Scrooge and Beakly. It also puts Beakly’s breakdown in context: We now see WHY she went as far as she did: While the revelation was bad for Scrooge, finding out one of his most trusted allies was a traitor the whole time and knew everything about him, for Beakly.. it had to be worse. Finding out one of your best employees, one of the FEW people you ever trusted, and someone you DIRECTLY RECOMMENDED TO SCROOGE, was not only the man who set up your greatest enemies, but had compromised your organization for most of your career. IT’s no wonder she broke down so hard.. while I already gave several reason adding “This level of betrayal and self doubt to the list” only makes it that much harder on her. But for now a partnership is started.. one that very well may end scrooge. 

Final Thoughts: A pretty good episode overall. It’s well paced, to the point I probably forgot a LOT, has some good jokes, and fills in a lot of the gaps in the lore, while giving us a nice insight into bradford and heron. Even without hortense this was a pretty good episode. 

Upcoming Reviews: LIfe and Times; Master of the Mississippi Ride of the Three Cabbleros: The Three Cablleros (House of Mouse) Tomtrospective: Lava Lake Beach

[fevie168]

Tuesday (November 21):  "Zacchaeus received Jesus joyfully"

Scripture: Luke 19:1-10

1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich.  3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today." 6 So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it they all murmured, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of  anything, I restore it fourfold." 9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."

Meditation: What would you do if Jesus knocked on your door and said, "I must stay at your home today"? Would you be excited or embarrassed? Jesus often "dropped-in" at unexpected times and he often visited the "uninvited" - the poor, the lame, and even public sinners like Zacchaeus, the tax collector! Tax collectors were despised and treated as outcasts, no doubt because they over-charged people and accumulated great wealth at the expense of others.

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was much hated by all the people. Why would Jesus single him out for the honor of staying at his home? Zacchaeus needed God's merciful love and forgiveness. In his encounter with Jesus he found more than he imagined possible. He shows the depth of his repentance by deciding to give half of his goods to the poor and to use the other half for making restitution for fraud. Zacchaeus' testimony included more than words. His change of heart resulted in a change of life, a change that the whole community could experience as genuine.

Faith welcomes Christ in our heart and home Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) urges us to climb the sycamore tree like Zacchaeus that we might see Jesus and embrace his cross for our lives:

Zacchaeus climbed away from the crowd and saw Jesus without the crowd getting in his way. The crowd laughs at the lowly, to people walking the way of humility, who leave the wrongs they suffer in God’s hands and do not insist on getting back at their enemies. The crowd laughs at the lowly and says, 'You helpless, miserable clod, you cannot even stick up for yourself and get back what is your own.' The crowd gets in the way and prevents Jesus from being seen. The crowd boasts and crows when it is able to get back what it owns. It blocks the sight of the one who said as he hung on the cross, 'Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing... He ignored the crowd that was getting in his way. He instead climbed a sycamore tree, a tree of 'silly fruit.' As the apostle says, 'We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block indeed to the Jews, [now notice the sycamore] but folly to the Gentiles.' Finally, the wise people of this world laugh at us about the cross of Christ and say, '“What sort of minds do you people have, who worship a crucified God?' What sort of minds do we have? They are certainly not your kind of mind. 'The wisdom of this world is folly with God.' No, we do not have your kind of mind. You call our minds foolish. Say what you like, but for our part, let us climb the sycamore tree and see Jesus. The reason you cannot see Jesus is that you are ashamed to climb the sycamore tree. Let Zacchaeus grasp the sycamore tree, and let the humble person climb the cross. That is little enough, merely to climb it. We must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ, but we must fix it on our foreheads, where the seat of shame is. Above where all our blushes show is the place we must firmly fix that for which we should never blush. As for you, I rather think you make fun of the sycamore, and yet that is what has enabled me to see Jesus. You make fun of the sycamore, because you are just a person, but 'the foolishness of God is wiser than men.'[Sermon 174.3.]

The Lord Jesus is always ready to make his home with each one of us. Do you make room for him in your heart and in every area of your life?

"Lord Jesus, come and stay with me. Fill my life with your peace, my home with your presence, and my heart with your praise. Help me to show kindness, mercy, and goodness to all, even to those who cause me ill-will or harm."

Psalm 3:1-6

1 O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God. [Selah] 3 But you, O LORD, art a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cry aloud to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy hill. [Selah] 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me. 6 I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about.

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: To see Christ, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)

"Come and let us see what was the method of Zacchaeus's conversion. He desired to see Jesus and therefore climbed into a sycamore tree, and so a seed of salvation sprouted within him. Christ saw this with the eyes of deity. Looking up, he also saw Zacchaeus with the eyes of humanity, and since it was his purpose for all to be saved, he extends his gentleness to him. To encourage him, he says, 'Come down quickly.' Zacchaeus searched to see Christ, but the multitude prevented him, not so much that of the people but of his sins. He was short of stature, not merley in a bodily point of view but also spiritually. He could not see him unless he were raised up from the earth and climbed into the sycamore, by which Christ was about to pass. The story contains a puzzle. In no other way can a person see Christ and believe in him except by climbing up into the sycamore, by making foolish his earthly members of fornication, uncleanness, etc." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 127)