#That evil karaoke thing was the one thing that gave him the chance to have more line and such

[chewysgummies]

Omg, not me thinking about "The bounty" again. The more I think about the episode, the more I realize how much of a MESS it is. For both Killbot 86 and Commander peeper. Especially for commander peepers since everyone always thinks "the bounty" is good for him cause it foreshadowed/reveal peeper to be badass, when in reality, it is not. Yeah, it did- but only temporarily before they made peeper cry over lord hater and exaggerated how much of a whiny crybaby he is.

Like honestly, remember how in "The prisoner" or something, Peeper managed to easily trick Wander into the ship? Yeah, he didn't capture him, but it wasn't hard to manipulate him inside the skullship, right? And I believe that episode came BEFORE the bounty so It wasn't hard to do that job of simply luring in wander into the ship. So like- Why was that so difficult of him to do?? And remember that line lord hater said?

"You can't seem to do the one thing I continually asked of you"

Noticed how lord hater mentioned he "continually" asked peeper to capture him? So he failed multiple times to get wander in despite how easy it was to manipulate him the first time. So HOW DID HE NOT SIMPLY DO THAT AGAIN??? You can argue that stuff happened off screen and there's a time skip for sure, but like- this is Commander peeper we're talking about. Isn't he supposed to be the "smartest" person? Y'know, to think of a plan instead of playing cat and mouse chase? Anyway, Peeper had his chances multiple times in a row until Hater had enough and straight up called in the bounty hunter cause he was so incompetent at doing his job.

And this is where I start to have issues. literally the first thing we see is Peeper whining to lord hater about what he's doing wrong instead accepting the facts he knew he screwed up and tried to apologize to lord hater for his failure before trying to convince him to give him another chance. Anyway, he proceeds to abuse his soldier, basically lashing out on other, and just- my god he fuckin suck holy shit. I get that the point but like- it made me question why I was into him to begin with.

So like yadda yadda, stuff happened. Sabotaging the bounty hunters. And my poor sweet, dearly beloved badass of robot man I love- I cannot go into details about how much I wanted to cry over him. Like genuinely speaking. I love him so much and realizing how horribly they mistreated him- holy fuck I'll never forgive this show. Fuck this show man- I already mentioned about what they done to him, but they literally robbed him. If given the chance, he would've been important. Especially since it was shown that he was actually crucial to Sylvia and peeper's parallel and the flashback as well. If Sylvia lost that fight, wander would've possibly ended up with killbot 85. I'm so pissed off that they shafted him like this. HE LITERALLY HAS THE MOST ERROR IN HIS DESIGN OUT OF EVERYONE AND THIS IS HIS FIRST INTRODUCTION- HOW DO YOU SCREW HIM UP LIKE THIS⁉️‼️⁉️

So yeah, anyway, my sweet robot got his shit kicked in by Peeper and near the end. Lord hater called him out on his shit and peeper admitted he screwed up. But then you see that fuckin peeper- HE LITERALLY DROPPED ONTO THE FLOOR AND START CRYING LIKE A BABY- i know that peeper is just a "pathetic little meow meow" but like- you gonna at least side eye at this part cause like wtf? Jesus Christ, they exaggerated the worst part of peeper's character here and genuinely I start to think that I kinda regret being into him in the first place?? Literally The Axe does a better job of displaying peeper competently and didn't make him into a full on crybaby.

So sorry for rumbling on about this, all of this come from the fact that I genuinely love killbot 86 so much that if anything bad were to happen to him, I'll cry. Or at least I wanna cry for him. And knowing how everyone seems to think this is a good peeper episode with the knowledge how messy it is, it just- idk. It really is not?? So sorry for the long rant. If you got this far, thank you for reading. Maybe you can argue with me but I'll be honest when I say that I have the tendency to overwhelm myself with bad thoughts and act out on emotion. This episode just made me so upset that maybe, just maybe killbot 86 would've been liked by the whole community instead of being so unpopular. I tried my best to get him noticed and put all my effort & love into him after YEARS of having nothing. It's not fair for him. It's not fuckin fair.

[ellestra]

Robots rising against their gods

I really liked Eternals. I liked all the Marvel films this year. Sure the big explosive end of Black Widow was kind of meh but all the family stuff was awesome and I loved every moment of it. And Shang-Chi was just so much fun and beautiful and touching and had both dragon and Wong doing karaoke and what more can one want? But they both had pretty good critical reception. This one is “rotten” and sits lower than even the most criticised entries in the MCU so I was worried. But I enjoyed it a lot.

It’s beautiful in it’s visuals and designs (Karun was right - even Deviants) and sad (you feel the weight of time on these characters and the weight of their decision) and a little hopeful (that humans may deserve this chance). I liked how their view of humanity was as split as their view on what is the greater good and that those splits weren’t in the same places.

SPOILERS

I loved how it was about family being fractured by religion. The split between those who were dedicated to their creator and his plan and those who rebelled and killed a god. A robot uprising story shown as a good thing. Even if their creator came to punish them for it.

I liked how they let us spend time with each character and understand their point of view - from Kingo siding with Celestials despite loving humans but doing nothing to stop Sersi and others because they are family to Phastos being disillusioned by us but helping to kill Tiamut for just exactly two humans.

It also made me wonder about Kingo. A lot of people criticise the fact that he just leaves but I thought it was nice they included this kind of point of view and that it will be super interesting to see in the sequel how Arishem would judge him when he wasn’t involved in death of Tiamut but also let it happen.

I liked that it wasn’t a simple choice and Celestials weren’t just evil. I was so upset Ikaris mad sure the whole thing with putting Tiamut to sleep failed even though I knew it had to happen. But I also liked that Sersi succeeds because he loved her too much to stop her. Arisham made them unable to evolve but they still all were able to grow and make their own choices. My favourite parts of any AI story.

I also ended up shipping Druig/Makari. The use of her powers was most awesome. The fight between Ikaris and Makari was so much better than Superman vs Flash in Wheadon gave us (I haven’t watched Snyder cut - I have neither HBO Max nor the time). And I was sure Druig was going to be the bad one because mind-controllers usually are but they basically made him try Mantis trick for Ego and he still save the day after it fails. She almost defeated Ikaris.

And Sprite’s fate was great to show how Sersi was really driven by compassion and love both for humans and her family and wanted to give them the chance to live their life. Even someone who betrayed her the way Sprite did. It’s also a great way to go around the actress ageing but it also meant she was not taken and is still out there with all the thousand years of knowledge and experience. She knows all the stories. I hope her and Dane team up.

The only thing that I didn’t like was how the Super Deviant subplot kind of fizzled out. Sure, it made Thena find her warrior self and purpose again but it wasn’t worth losing Gilgamesh for that. I was prepared for Thena to find a way to center herself not in revenge but in knowledge of the truth about her condition. I expected more from that Deviant story showing that they aren’t just evil. Maybe even continuing the theme of the creations of a Demiurge finding their own purpose.

As for the credits scenes I liked Eros (I don't mind him being Harry Styles but then I don't really care for Harry Styles so he can be just a character to me). He’s projecting the right level of untrustworthiness to question both his help and any statements he makes but the offer he makes is too good not to take. If only Pip’s animation wasn’t so bad. He looked like he came from a commercial of some offensively stereotypical Irish thing.

Dane’s scene was all awesome. The sword was creepy and Harrington did well selling how though the decision to wield it is. And the voice was great tease too even if I only discovered it was Blade from reading articles on the internet.

[centerofreality]

Thoughts on Yakuza 4

Alright! Finished Yakuza 4 on a school day (Although, I still have the substories and Nair’s Training to watch as well) and honestly, I like this one a lot! A few flaws here and there that I’m going to mention during this long ass post so let’s get to it! 

Spoilers if you haven’t watched or played Yakuza 4! Note that these are all primarily my opinion!

First of all, the characters! I love all four of the protagonists qwq, they’re a good dynamic and I really like the interactions they had, along with Date too (who’s with Sudo in a helicopter once again). I can totally imagine them just having a good night at a bar or a sushi place somewhere and duke it out with karaoke (and have Akiyama pay for all of their expenses). Yasuko’s death made me shed a tear or two but her death almost seems peaceful. She’s happy that she got to talk to Saejima again - which was one of the only things she wanted to do for the past 25 years, and she didn’t want him to have blood on his hands, a little sister protecting her older brother. I wished there were more interactions between her and Majima but that’s okay. 

Akiyama and Tanimura were two of my favorites! (Sorry Saejima, sorry Kiryu) I love their sassy and sarcastic energy! There’s also Saejima with his cursing which is honestly funny to me, while Kiryu is still Kiryu. 

There’s also Kido and Arai! Okay.. I may have judged Kido too early but I’m glad to see at the ending that he wasn’t evil like I thought. Although his plot twist definitely surprised me. He actually reminds me of Nishiki a little, maybe because of his hair and his personality.

Arai’s kind of...meh to me, but I kinda gave him some respect when he talked to Tanimura at the ending. He was willing to turn himself in. He and Officer Sugiuchi have some similarities and have both been in some deep shit while in the force which shows a lot of what could go through when it comes to our police forces in real life.

The other villains I didn’t like, That corrupt police officer that just wouldn’t die in Saejima’s part being the top. They’re kind of forgettable in my opinion. 

Minami was completely a side character but I still like him, I like his energy and he’s definitely been taught by Majima. I thought he was a rude asshole but he’s not that bad actually, he gives me the vibe of Ryuunosuke Tanaka from Haikyuu!! I actually thought he and Kido were handsome while my friend went for Kiryu and Akiyama (but mainly Akiyama)

Hamazaki got the redemption arc!! He changed from an asshole to a good guy. I cried when Haruka told Kiryu that he passed away. He’s changed a lot after realizing that there were still people who trusted him and he could have been so much better when he’s alive, just as I think with Mine, Nishiki, and Ryuji. Hamazaki’s a villain who turned into a hero. :’)

Next is the music. The scene with Yasuko and Akiyama on the roof, Tanimura escaping from the gas with the sound being muffled and back to normal, Yasuko’s Death and Memorial, When the Four Protagonists did that all for one, one for all thing, and the credits. They were all so good and unfortunately I couldn’t really find them anywhere and are mostly unreleased. : (

The plot is a bit confusing for me. There’s clans everywhere and I wasn’t sure which is which. There’s also something that’s lacking but I’m not sure what it is. The memorable part for me was the ending. After they went and said goodbye and showed their respect to Yasuko. They strolled to the Millennium Tower in all black. They really went in with a helicopter that flew 100 billion down the sky (which parallels to Akiyama with the Millennium Tower explosion) and all of them were so badass during that scene. Honestly, if I had that chance, I’d act cool too. Akiyama asking who fights who and they all seperate, ugh, love that. There’s also that part where Sudo and Date come back with a bunch of scoops for Munakata with Sudo scolding Date and Date not giving a fuck HAHAHA

Saejima has his own family now and watching him and Kiryu go to Daigo and Majima to do some yakuza work makes me happy. I thought if Haruka and Kiryu moved back to Kamurocho, who would take care of the kids at Sunflower/Morning Glory? I’m not sure if Mikio and the Ryudo Family are still there but I hope they are!

That leaves all of the things I can think of right now! I’ll go to sleep and watch the substories and all before moving onto the next! Yakuza 5 wouldn’t be that bad...Right? RIGHT? RIGHT?!-

[iamleavingthisfandom]

karaoke bar - request

@glimmersinner​ said:

i have a reddie fic idea, dont know if youre taking requests, but im thinking of after the battle of it (eddie survives bc its canon) they go out for kareoke and stan can live or die its up 2 u :) but they do kareoke at this bar and like richie sings “eddie,baby” to come out w his feelings and i need that in my life thank u

I am, indeed, taking requests! And this is such a lovely one, thank you for sending it to me. Hope you like what I’ve cooked up for you!  read here on ao3

Raucous laughter rolled over the table full of drinks and snacks that the Losers occupied. After all the “you’re a fucking clown” were said and all the sinister interdimensional entities were done with, everyone went to settle their own affairs, but agreed to reconvene in New York. Which was currently taking the form of getting together in a karaoke bar, an occasion full of drinking and revelry, finally not bearing the shadow of responsibility for defeating an ancient evil. The laughter erupted after Richie’s quip about Ben and Beverly’s over-the-top cheesy rendition of (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life, all in good fun, of course. A “happy for you, but keep all the straight details to yourself” was a drunken comment of him trying to read the room, with no malice behind it. He had come out via his twitter earlier in the week, with all the Losers sending him messages of love and support afterwards, and it took no time at all for jokes about being gay to become his go-to response to many things, despite the lingering internal problems. Humor was always his coping mechanism, after all, and it helped that he was surrounded by supportive friends. The main problem he was actually struggling with was his less-than-friendly feelings for none other than Eddie Kaspbrak, currently sitting across from him and sipping a Strawberry Daiquiri through a bright green straw. His jokes were decidedly not helping with that, especially not when Eddie let go of the straw to laugh so hard Richie could hear his snorts above the general rowdiness of the bar, but that was not going to stop him from making everyone laugh.

Just as Richie looked away from Eddie, desperately willing himself not to blush (he was almost forty years old, for fuck’s sakes, he did not blush), Bill called out in a challenging tone: “Beep-beep, trashmouth, either step up and sing something or stop making fun!” Richie put his hand to his chest, as if deeply wounded. “Billiam, making fun of you all is my sacred duty.” “Sing something, Richie,” Beverly joined in. Soon, Bill and Beverly were both chanting “sing,” while Stan sat between them, looking entirely unimpressed if not for a tiny hint of a smile. Ben was mostly interested in looking at Beverly enthusiastically chanting, Mike was grinning a bit, but waited to see the situation develop, and Eddie… Well, Eddie was looking at Richie with an impish expression that the latter was having trouble reading. Finally, after a few seconds of this, he raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine, you vultures. Let me show you how it’s done,” he grinned as Bill and Beverly cheered, and stood up to go to the karaoke machine. He scrolled through the list of songs when one caught his attention. His jokes weren’t helping, but maybe… He didn’t let himself finish the thought before he pressed “play” and the first soft chords poured from the speakers. He lifted the mic just in time for the lyrics to start. The cameras captured all of the glances And all of the chances we’ve missed Everyone at the table cheered supportively, except Eddie, who looked like he recognised the song all too well and was slowly starting to show a very fetching blush. Though there was a small, hopeful smile— except was there? Richie didn’t want to give himself vain hope, and instead sang further, only gaining confidence and enthusiasm with every line. As always, it took little time for his flair for showmanship to show itself, and by the time the first chorus came, he had started moving his hips and his free arm, in a more dramatic than choreographic fashion, but expressive nonetheless. Oh Eddie, baby, won’t you come to my arms tonight? I beg and plead you, please succumb to my charms tonight. He spared a wink at Eddie, who looked progressively more scarlet, before grinning and making a show of holding his palm to his heart. I give my heart But you take it and you break it and you tear it apart Oh Eddie, baby, won’t you come to my arms. Not that he hadn’t heard the song before, but somehow actually singing it out loud was different than listening to the lyrics: they resonated deeper now. He didn’t let himself show that, though. A smirk here and a rakish grin there did the trick, and apart from Stan’s raised eyebrow and knowing smile it seemed like no one had thought too much of it. And I hope one day, dear friend, you will come around. The second Richie thought that maybe choosing a song that showcased his hidden feelings was, in fact, not the best idea he’d ever had, he caught the sight of Eddie biting his lip in a small smile. He reminded himself that Eddie was just embarrassed at being the center of attention (wouldn’t be the first time for that) but in on the joke, yet no matter how he framed it to himself, that little smile was all that it took for his breath to catch. The rest of the performance was likely not his best form, but it mattered little, and when he finished the last line, the Losers’ table erupted in cheers and applause. Even Stan clapped, unable to hold back his smile. Richie made an exaggerated bow and got back to his seat. “Alright,” Bill clapped his hands once more and got up, “I’ll go see if they have Tubthumping,” and with that, everything seemingly got back to normal. Well, everything except the weird, almost-calculating look Eddie was giving Richie that stopped him from joking about how cheesy Bill’s song choice was. The rest of the night was uneventful and full of that special drunken merriment that can only be found in good company. If anyone noticed the looks Richie kept throwing Eddie, no one mentioned anything, and if Eddie had anything to say about Richie’s initial choice of song, he kept it to himself. Eventually, as everything in life, the night had to end, and the Losers started parting ways until the only people left outside the bar were Richie, smoking a cigarette, and Eddie, shuffling his foot on the asphalt and looking anywhere but at his friend. “Fun night, huh?” Eddie wondered, seemingly at no one in particular. “Yeah, but my head’s going to be killing tomorrow,” Richie joked with a puff of smoke. Eddie lifted his head, biting his lip and meeting his eyes for the first time since they said their goodbyes to the rest of the group. It took a lot of Richie not to let that stop his inhale of smoke, but he kept his breathing steady. “Rich,” Eddie started and paused again, unsure. “Yeah, Spaghetti?” Richie was determined to keep it light. “I wish you’d stopped doing things like— like the song,” Eddie rushed out on a single breath, like he was running on a sudden drunken influx of bravery. “If you don’t mean anything by that, it’s just cruel,” he added, quieter and hiding his gaze again. Wait— cruel? If he didn’t mean anything? Within seconds, hope grew in Richie’s chest, one that he’d systematically squashed down, and too soon it became too big to contain. After a short awkward pause, it pushed the words out of him. “I meant it.” Eddie’s eyes shot up as he looked questioningly at Richie. “Whatever you’re thinking of now, I meant it.” “Can you say it? What you meant?” The look in Eddie’s eyes, cautious but on the verge of happy, and the tentative step he took towards Richie, gave him the strength to throw the cigarette on the ground and step on it without taking his eyes off of Eddie. “I’ve been in love with you since I knew what love was,” he knew it was always a risk to be so open with his heart, but the giggle Eddie let out and a smile that lit up his face were the best payoff Richie could ever want. “You’re so cheesy, Tozier. You’re lucky I’m in love with you, too,” Richie barely had the time to make a sound before Eddie moved in and tugged him down into a kiss with a hand in his hair. The kiss was short-lived, though, and soon Eddie was pulling away with a frown, quickly replaced with a laugh. “You reek of smoke, that’s gross.” “I’ll give up smoking for you,” Richie promised dramatically, his ability for coherent thought almost gone with the giddy high of their long-anticipated finally. Eddie chuckled and stood on the balls of his feet as Richie wound his arms around him. “I can get used to it,” he kissed Richie again. The rest of the world melted away when their lips moved against each other, and as he tasted the sugary residue of strawberry concoctions on Eddie’s lips, Richie knew he’d never felt quite as elated before in his life. No, not even when his agent booked his first large venue for his show. When they pulled apart, Eddie looked at him from under his eyelashes. “Want to come over to my place?” “Ouch, Eds, not even gonna buy me dinner first?” Eddie let out a small laugh, but he looked determined, and maybe, just maybe, Richie felt like he would do absolutely anything for him at that moment. “Well?” “I’d love to,” Richie smiled in response. Eddie stepped back to hail a cab, and suddenly there was a slight twinge of doubt in Richie’s gut. “And we don’t have to— do anything you don’t want to do, of course.” The look Eddie gave him in response was best described as amused. “Oh, we don’t have to, but I definitely want to. That is, if you…” he didn’t finish the thought, because Richie interrupted him. “You have no idea how much I want to.” With a grin, Eddie took his hand and waited for a cab to pull up, which it did in just a few seconds. Richie followed him into the car with a blinding grin and put his hand on Eddie’s thigh as he listened to him tell the driver the address. His main takeaway from the whole thing was that sometimes joking about his true feelings paid off big time. Anything else was overshadowed by Eddie’s hand sliding smoothly into his once more and his large eyes staring gently into Richie’s own, but maybe that was just as well.

[rekkingcrew]

Campaign Debrief

So for nearly 2 years I ran an Edge of the Empire campaign with 3-4 players, mostly weekly. These last couple of months we’ve been using discord, which has gone great. I want to get down some of my thoughts about what worked and what didn’t. 

This is gonna be a big wall of text and all but two bits are gonna be under the cut: system and play style. 

Fantasy Flight Star Wars game system is legit my favorite system EVER. (Not to dick wave or anything, but that’s including D&Ds 2-5, Gurps, White Wolf, Blades in the Dark, Dungeon World, Deadlands, and a few miscellaneous other short form ones). The system of advantages and disadvantages, and especially triumphs and despairs rather than just straight successes and failures really opens up complex narrative opportunities and gives a chance for wild story beats that just would not have happened otherwise. The fights go fast but feel meaty and there’s a lot of room to pitch advantages to your friends so you’re not just waiting your turn. Character creation is granular enough that your choices always feel meaningful, and points can be spent anywhere, so you can really specialize and shape your character. 

We played very collaboratively and it made things AMAZING. Part of this is that we were all good friends and have played together for a while now. Our taste in what kind of story we want is similar- nuggets of drama scattered throughout, but mostly cutting up. A lot of the best NPCs and story suggestions came from my players rather than from me- our season one boss villain, Imperial spymaster “Uncle” Karston Severax, a pantoran ex-special forces black operative whose current public face was a Mr. Rogers-esque children’s TV presenter, for example, was someone my players started out and all of us collective “yes and” added to around the table, and he was JUST THE BEST. These kind of exchanges also gave us moments like the time our tech tried to blackmail the head of a security corporation with the fact that he was having an affair and he’d written just LOADS of incredibly cringey fanfiction; but the roll was such that the attempt ended with him finally getting the push he needed to quit a job he hated, get out of a marriage that just wasn’t working, and follow his dream of self-publishing. He even dedicated his first book to our slicer. Because it wasn’t a DM vs Players atmosphere, because we were all on the same page, I could ask my players “hey, what do you want for your triumph?” and “all right, so who is the NPC you know?” as well as just “that’s enough to finish this guy, what does this look like?” This campaign was 1000% better for sharing that world building load, and the players were all, I think, more invested. 

more below the cut. 

What Worked

One of the most useful things I ever did was start giving players morality pet NPCs that were their special hench people, and I’m embarrassed that I waited so long to assign one to our droid. 

The zero session was absolutely invaluable in setting the tone of the game and the relationship between characters, and I will bang this drum until I’m fucking blue in the face. Don’t meet in the first session. Sit the players down and say “how do you know each other, why do you stay together, what are some of your past adventures?” It’s just so much better. 

Cameos and ties to our other games, in what we’ve been calling “The Drax Kreiger Expanded Universe” have continued to be welcome pretty much every time. People were delighted to have a moment or two to slip back into old characters. 

I was able to identify what each player wanted and give them that. Brick’s player wanted quiet scenes with big character emotion, like his one on one pit fight the character didn’t want to have, or the letter from his mother telling him how proud she was of him, or the time in training where he tapped into how angry he really was and it spooked the character and everyone on the ship. Nyla’s player wanted a big epic, but also difficult space journey of good vs. evil, and so Nyla got a padawan whose parents she had possibly killed when she fought for the empire, she dug up the grave of her clone teacher’s order 66′d jedi for the crystal for her lightsaber, she got to cleanse a temple that was trapped in a fruitless struggle between light and dark, and a climactic lightsaber battle that was about possibly sacrificing herself for the good of others. TK’s player was deep into star wars trivia and space stuff, so he practically squealed when Verpine shatter weapons showed up, and he seemed to get a kick out of the Evocii, and also that time they put on wing suits and dove the atmosphere of a gas giant. It’s worth noting nobody was actually all that interested in the thing that turns my gears: complex mysteries with a lot of clues and investigation, and once I let that shit drop, things ran a lot smoother. 

Some of our best stuff was non-combat challenges, like climbing the cliffs of Naboo or navigating the deep undercity of Nar Shadaa. The guys reliably failed anything social, but environmental challenges were always appreciated. 

I always tried to make sure there was more than one way to do things. For any given mission, especially early on, I’d try to brainstorm at least three ways something could be accomplished. 

My party split up a LOT, but we found a sort of cinematic cutting back and forth to be really useful. When there was a big crit, or a goal accomplished, or something like that, we’d jump to the other party even if the fight wasn’t over. Sometimes that was only just, like, Brick and the guys doing drunk karaoke and saying to no one in particular “MAN, I hope Nyla’s having as fun a time as we are!” but it kept everyone involved and it wasn’t just people waiting their turn for 20 minutes at a time. Also people chimed in with fun advantages and disadvantages. 

I had everybody write backstories and whenever I could, I incorporated in things from what they’d written. Our second season was basically TK tracking down the guy who’d made him, a Thackwash alien with the same sort of shifting personalities he had. TK’s player hadn’t written much about the guy except that he’d been a salvage mechanic who constructed TK for protection when he got in trouble with the local mafia. Giving that guy complementary personalities for each of TK’s really helped stick the landing on that one, and the player really enjoyed having actually completed his character’s goal. 

It’s worth saying, we took some time at several points during the campaign, either individually or as a group, to talk about what we liked and didn’t, what we wanted more of, where we wanted things to go, possible directions for characters, mechanical issues, how to have a better game, group dynamics, all sorts of stuff. In a way it’s like sex: people have this fucked up expectation that you’ll just be good at it without communicating, and man, fuck that. Talking to my players was ALWAYS worthwhile.

I was always adamant, because it was a thing that bugged me when I was a player, that if a character had spent the points to be good at something, they got to be good at it. That made some things difficult, but I think it was the right decision. It took me a while to tailor fights right, and honestly a lot of times, splitting up the party was the best way to balance fights, but I never said to anyone hey that thing you spent all those points on, could you please not do that?

My players were excellent about encouraging each other to have serious dramatic moments. TK was completely ready to die in a fight, and when he lost a significant chunk of his programming, the way he chose to play it was really heartbreaking. Everyone came inside and had tea with Brick’s mom. No one stepped on anyone else’s fun when it was time to be serious, and everybody was great about cheering each other on, whether they were being funny or being dead serious. 

I FUCKING FINISHED A CAMPAIGN. IT HAD AN END. So much stuff petered out over the years, I was adamant I wasn’t going to do that. 

What Didn’t Work

Boy, my players had pretty much all the trouble trying to remember to use “they/them” pronouns for NPCs with neutral or alien genders. 

No one is interested in falling damage. Sigh. 

I did not keep good track of money or ship fuel or anything. The campaign didn’t end up relying on it too heavily (I was honestly expecting a much more Cowboy Bebop setup than where we drifted), but that was an area I kind of fell down. 

We never really got obligation working correctly and in the end we just ended up abandoning it. We kept doing the force morality because the lone force player was very into it and it was a huge part of that character’s journey, but for the rest having people show up to collect on obligation was sometimes not possible in the story- or if it was possible it was pretty cumbersome. Campaign did obligation by arc, and I think that’s a pretty useful way to do it- roll at the end of the arc for what’s coming next. 

Early on, I made way too many assumptions about what was an adventure hook for my players and what was an annoyance. Honestly, bits of this lasted pretty late. At one point I gave my players a spy for the larger rebellion they could totally talk to- he was even working with their resident bothan spy- but they looked at the senatorial assassination he was doing and literally said at the table “I think it’s best if we just walk away from all this.” And so they did. Which was frustrating, but, you know, it is what it is. They also never much cared about the hutt gang war. 

I let a lot of things drop that I would have liked to bring back before the end, but in all honesty, I think we were all running a bit out of steam. I would have liked to put in Brick’s old mentor, or follow up with the imperial governor that was a falleen in a human skin suit, or see more of the bounty hunter’s guild, or have a nice end thing with our bothan spy, or any of that. But I do think it was time to end it. And we followed the threads people liked. 

I had way too many NPCS.

What sort of worked

I had like 200 npcs and they were not all bangers. In particular, I let the party design their own ship, which I wish had played a bigger role (though it did really set the tone), and I let them design 2 npc crew who would fill in any party roles they didn’t want to play and guard the ship so they could go on adventures without worrying about it. The devaronian scoundrel was with the party to the end though I never really got him to be more than a joke, but the bothan spy kind of fell off, and while she made some appearances, she didn’t really have as big an impact as I would have hoped. She kind of got replaced by Nyla’s padawan, a hench mon calamari called Nezrene, who was a better fit with the party. But, you know, players will do what they like.

Factions. In the first bit of the campaign, my factions were a fucking life saver, because I could design scenarios with a sort of “what is each faction doing/ which faction hurts from this, which benefits?” By the second season we’d kind of abandoned them to go to the core, and by the third my group was solidly rebel, so the hutts and bounty hunters fell a lot by the wayside. I still think having a couple of broad poles of power, and having the players know them and their leaders, is a good call. But they do seem to kind of organically pare down on their own, and it’s easy to get caught up too much in them. Useful sorta?

There was definitely a point where my players just were not challenged by conventional challenges. We ended up doing most of the later fights that involved a lot of minions in montage. I’d have them roll their fight skills unopposed, just to see if they got any interesting advantage/triumph set ups. I still had boss fights that were mostly challenging, but there just was no point in throwing storm troopers or low level gangsters at them. Not when they have soak 8 and autofire, and that one talent that lets you kill every minion in a combat. Designings fight got a bit tricky, and in those big high level combats, despairs and triumphs come up a lot more and really sway the fight, which I like, but also it’s very hard to plan for. 

Mass combat was tricky. I did a lot of it toward the end because my players were generals in a rebellion. I always had them do the rolls and some of the narration, but that wasn’t always enough to make them feel like things weren’t very arbitrary. 

I personally love the rule that if you roll a despair shooting into an engaged combat you shoot your friend. Nyla, who got shot twice this way, does not. 

We started the game with a tech character who dropped out. Toward the end, we picked up another tech character whose player couldn’t do their regular stuff because of covid lock down. Neither of these characters could fight at all, and both were very differently oriented than the rest of the party, and that was tricky to manage. Additionally, the dude coming in at the end had like a year and a half of in jokes he did not get and there were 200 goddamn npcs. I tried to give him the lowdown on what he might have heard about the party, but it was a combination of too much information and not that much player interest. He did get to break a star destroyer though, and I think he liked that. 

I offered players XP to write backstory stuff, and later goodbye notes others could find if they kicked it. Not all of them did. In the end it made a negligible difference, and I still think offering the bounties on this is basically a good idea. 

What I would do different next time.

Three ring binder that opens and closes so I could move fucking NPC stats around. I filled two goddamn school notebooks with notes for this campaign and there were so many goddamn times I was like “I KNOW I wrote this down, but where?!”

Players felt a bit aimless when they didn’t have a specific villain. I’d planted a few in, but they took finding, or they were too easy to avoid. Next time I would have a few more people who were actively on my player’s tails. 

I would keep better campaign notes and/or ask one of the players to do so. I used to do recaps for the games when I played Rek. There’s stuff I KNOW I’ve forgotten, and more I’ll forget as time goes on, which is a shame. It’s a weird, ephemeral medium, but possibly I’m just spoiled by living in an age of easy reproduction and enormous storage where data is concerned. 

Better book keeping in general, really. 

When I did a mystery short, I wrote up a list of all the clues people could find but not where specifically they were, so that I could just jam them anywhere they seemed like they’d make sense whenever a roll called for a player to find something. I think I’d try to do that with player’s personal stories so they could be woven in a little better. I did a lot of flying by the seat of my pants. 

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it went, and I’m ready to get back to playing for a bit. I loved DMing, and I more or less DMed the game I would have liked to play, but man, doing this all the time, or being the only person who does it? After a while, that’d be a lot, and I’m looking forward to the break. 

[gaiapaia]

Kermit and Friends: Alexander Octopus Cortez

Since Kermit and Friends Sunday Church Services began, Elisa has shared her story a few times about how she was chastised by the Christian church she was attending before bringing back KAF.

KAF Church had a new attendee this week, a lovely Christian woman by the name of Marie. When Marie heard how Elisa had been treated by her church, she was disgusted, as am I every time I hear it. 

Here’s where I might sound a little judgmental and conspiratorial, but it doesn’t surprise me that Los Angeles churches are the type to turn people off from God like that. I’m from the south, Marie is from the mid-west... and the churches we’re familiar with would NEVER treat Elisa with such condescension. 

But finally, yes, FINALLY Los Angeles has a church that can be trusted. It’s name?

THE KERMITARIAN CHURCH!

That’s right baby, we have an official name for our church now, and man... is it ever so beautiful and perfect.

Oddly enough, Elisa still remains to get judged in her very own church! This time by Muslims, not Christians. What happened? Well let’s review the show...

Church kicked off with an awesome introduction video Elisa made. I really loved it and I look forward to seeing more stuff like that in the future. Very fun!

Elisa then talked about chance encounters and how God places each person in our lives for a reason. I agree to an extent but I also don’t think it’s too wise to hop in the car with strangers just because you’re invited somewhere. So please be careful with that in the future, Elisa! God blessed us with free will and there are evil humans out there who take advantage of that amazing gift. We shouldn’t judge people but we also can’t trust everyone we come across.

As mentioned above, Kermit got a new friend this week in the wonderful Marie. She was a little shy on the show but I can tell she will become more comfortable over time. Hopefully she returns next week!

We got our weekly call from Barry Boss next where he asked if the audience would enjoy seeing a sex tape between he and Elisa, and he also claims he’s working to get Elisa a TV talk show in Miami. I would have to vote no on the sex tape, but here’s hoping he gets that TV deal for her!

After the call, Elisa opens up about how she became smitten with the animated octopus from last week’s show, Alexander Octopus Cortez. Elisa has this quirk of falling hard for voices she’s attracted to combined with personalities she deems humorous. It’s very cute but it has never led to anything good romantically... unfortunately, AOC did not turn out to be an exception.

Elisa wrote this unbelievably creative song for AOC. I’m not exaggerating or kissing butt when I say the lyrics were truly brilliant and hilarious. I was amazed by the song, but AOC? Not so much. 

Turns out AOC is not just an animated octopus, but a gay animated octopus well into his 60′s or 70′s. He has zero interest in Elisa, leaving her heartbroken yet again. Hopefully though AOC continues to visit the show, as he will be a good personality for Elisa to have fun with.

Moving on... DJ Smooth made his immaculate return to Kermit and Friends this week with a handsome new haircut. He was less troll-ish and actually participated in the show in a very entertaining way. He has potential to be a great addition to the church and I hope he attends every Sunday!

Laurie the Muslim also returned to the show this week for the first time in a while. She brought a couple of Muslim friends with her (Mohammad and Boahan) and there was a nice conversation about what inspired them to be Muslim and how it’s benefited their lives.

We also got to meet a new friend of Kermit by the name of Pete. Elisa met Pete on Facebook where he was ranting about masks being used as a political agenda. Pete seemed very sensible and may become a voice of reason on the show if he continues to attend Kermitarian Church every Sunday, as he made rational points any time Elisa went to him for his opinion. Same goes for Darron the Pharmacist, who also had a nice little appearance on this week’s broadcast.

Elisa also received a couple of pleasant phone calls this week from her old KAF love interest Gonzo and also from KAF legend, Kleenex. Hopefully in the future those two will click the Streamyard link to attend church rather than call in so they can speak with other members instead of just Elisa. Remember, Streamyard works just as well on a smart phone as it does on a computer. It was great hearing from them though!

Next up is Corey and all hell breaks loose.

Corey admittedly has done a lot of naughty things in the past. He’s received nothing but coal from Santa Claus for years now. However, at Kermitarian Church, the slate gets wiped clean and EVERYONE is welcomed to attend and hopefully to repent. Including, yes, ThyCorester. And for two weeks straight, Corey has done nothing wrong. 

The fact of the matter is, once Corey cammed up, it was Laurie who rehashed the drama. It was DJ Smooth who went on the attack. It was Johnny B who criticized. All it takes is a smile from Corey for people to lose their minds. Why? Why allow this man have so much power over your emotions, especially when he’s not doing anything? Forgive him and move on. If you say nothing negative towards the guy, there’s a chance he won’t start in with his nonsense. It takes two people to be cordial, and so far Corey is the only one willing to try to be cordial. 

So yeah, most of the rest of the show was bickering between Corey, Laurie, Smooth, and Johnny B. Was it entertaining? Absolutely, but did Corey start it? No!

Because Elisa allowed Corey and Laurie to trade insults and accusations toward one another, Laurie’s friend Boahan became very critical of Elisa for the way she was running the show. She blamed Elisa for Corey and the chat’s words, she said Elisa was milking for drama instead of trying to have a loving church, and she basically stormed off afterward, not giving Elisa a chance to respond to her. Laurie then pretended to be offended by Elisa calling her ‘Laurie the Muslim’ just because her friend was offended by it. Of course Laurie takes the side of her new Muslim friend over the woman who has loved and supported her for nearly 5 years straight. Makes complete sense, right?

From the very beginning, Elisa has said Kermit and Friends will welcome ANYONE. She wants ALL walks of life to come together on this show and be friends. Is that possible? Logic says no, but Elisa is a dreamer and optimist, you can’t tell her anything is impossible. That said, I’m sure she understands having such different personalities will raise conflict. The good thing about conflict is that while it does lead to entertainment, it also leads to resolutions. However, the people arguing have to be open to resolutions. If they’re not... that’s not Elisa’s fault. 

Forgiveness is the key. Forgive Corey. That doesn’t mean you must forget, but forgiveness and being cordial is the best way to deal with him. It will also help with your mental stability since your mind will no longer burst into flames whenever you see his face. Seriously, to the Corey haters... just let it go already.

Anyway, besides that, the show also featured the return of Jason Deeh Pitre, and Johnny B. Jason looked awesome as always and gave us a nice little tune, while Johnny B did a beautiful karaoke performance of the song Peace in the Valley. DJ Smooth also got creative this week with a funny little poem about Corey, and William Quigley cammed up while in the shower and did a hilarious dance number for the audience during an argument between Smooth and Corey.

As you can tell, it was a crazy episode, even crazier than last week. I loved it. KAF continues to be my favorite podcast with my favorite characters and my favorite host... I can’t wait for next week! :)

[olicitytropes]

Olicity Tropetastic Awards: Season Three

The season of angst, assassins, and al sah-hottie is one we’ll always hold close to our Olicity-loving hearts. From their first date, to their first kiss, to their first time together, season 3 really gave us everything...including(arguably) the best hiatus fanfiction we’ve ever had.

Don’t ask Oliver to say he doesn’t love Felicity. And don’t ask us to say we didn’t love these fics. 

@tangled23works’s recs:

Memory Lane - @lupin72

Oliver and Felicity spend a night at a karaoke bar with Oliver telling Felicity how he knows for a fact that she can sing. Felicity realizes that she really doesn't remember Thea's birthday 

**Award: Best Karaoke+Fluff I’ve Ever Read**

Devil’s Backbone - @anthfan

What happens if Oliver and Felicity begin a physical relationship brought on by the catalyst of Sara's death, but acted like nothing had changed between them. One chapter per episode.

**Award: Best Canon Divergence/Fic You Need To Read ASAP**

The End of the Beginning - MachaSWicket

Tomorrow – and her stomach jumps a little every time she lets herself think about it – tomorrow, she and Oliver are leaving on some grand tour of the U.S. (And each other.) But first: sleep. Lots and lots of sleep. At least that’s the plan. To say she wasn’t expecting a knock at her door is putting it mildly. Because Oliver left her outside Palmer Tech with a sweet, lingering kiss, and he’d looked at least as tired as she felt.

**Award: Cutest, Most Realistic Olicity The Night Before They Ride Off Into The Sunset**

Only you can set my heart on my fire -  inlovewithimpossibility

He can’t help but smirk at her tone of voice. His main focus over the past two months has been memorizing every element of the woman underneath him. He’s tuned himself into her frequency, storing the cause and meaning of every type of hitched breath, moan and tone of voice. This soft, distracted murmur is rare but one of Oliver’s favorites.

(A small NSFW fic set in Bali during Olicity's post-s3 roadtrip)

**Award: Most Gratifying Olicity-In-Bali Fic**

@blondeeoneexox’s recs:

Caught in the Rapture - @bindy417

AU. Being the daughter of a ruthless and notorious crime lord, Felicity Smoak didn't think her life could get any worse. When her father unexpectedly sells her in marriage as a peace offering to his enemy, she quickly learns it'll take more than just her sharp intellect to survive. But what starts out as a sentence worse than death may actually be her only shot at freedom.

**Award: Most Beautiful Olicity Growth**

The Firebird - @supersillyanddorky06

Felicity Smoak stumbles upon a man dressed in black about to kill someone. The man takes an interest in her and she does not realize who he is. He is Al Sah-Him, the best assassin in The League, the crown jewel of the brotherhood, who is known for his lethal focus and killer instincts, brought up in the League itself.

What happens when he is taken completely with the blonde?

Assassin AU. Basically a what if Felicity met Al Sah-Him and not Oliver Queen story. Stuff will happen. Enjoy!

**Award: Most Amazing Felicity and Al-Sah-Him Non-Canon That I Really Wish Was Canon Because It Would Have Been SO REWARDING Fic**

P.S. Hong Kong: Was it Real?!? - @cruzrogue 

(This is off season 3 Flashbacks. When Tommy goes to Hong Kong he doesn’t go alone he takes his friend Felicity as the best information system being to help him locate Oliver Queen. Tommy may leave empty handed but Felicity gets to be a bride…)

Trope-tastic Awards: Week One

Fake Marriage!

(Olicity fake marriage stories! Pretending to be married, accidentally married, drunkenly married in Vegas and they don’t remember any of it)

**Award: Cutest Fake Marriage S3 Fic**

@allimariexf’s recs:

Once More (From the Top) - @writewithurheart

In the aftermath of his fight with Ras Al Ghul, Oliver finds himself somewhere unexpected: his hospital room when he first came back from the Island.

With a second chance to right the mistakes he’s made since coming back to Starling City, what will Oliver do to save the people he’s loved and lost?

Will he be able to change his past or will be he forced to watch history repeat itself?

**Award: Most Intriguingly Brilliant, Heartwarmingly Beautiful, Why-Can’t-This-Be-Canon Time Travel Trope**

We Should Just Kiss (Like Real People Do) - @dust2dust34

Prompt-inspired ficlets covering Oliver and Felicity's road trip after 3x23 "My Name is Oliver Queen."

Covers everything from the fluffiest fluff to silliness to gratuitous smut to ridiculous happiness to some angst.

**Award: Hottest Exploration of the Sweet, Smutty, Quiet, Happy! Domestic! Olicity Moments From the Summer of Olicity that we Deserved But Never Got**  

Long Time Coming - MachaSWicket

Felicity’s pretty proud of them both, that they follow up their frantic, almost-had-(probably-amazing)-sex-in-the-lair lapse in control with an actual, grown up, adult conversation in which they agree to keep their hands to themselves until they go on a couple of real, official dates. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. They agree that kissing is okay. And some, you know, associated behaviors. Because kissing involves touching and hugging and maybe occasionally some delightful friction. So that kind of… grinding is also acceptable. But they’re not going to have sex before their first date. Probably. Or how Oliver and Felicity turned all that blistering UST to RST. Finally. Spoilers through S3, including “The Climb.”

**Award: Sweetest, Most Emotionally-Fulfilling Use of Delayed Gratification (not to mention hottest)** 

@smoaking-greenarrow’s recs:

Confidence - itwasred

Olicity on their road trip after the season 3 finale, discovering each other. Felicity has some confidence issues that Oliver is quick to get her over.

**Award: Best Oliver Making Sure Felicity Knows How He Has Always Felt About Her**

Pacific Crest Trials - @imusuallyobsessed

After they drive off into the sunset and leave Starling City behind, Felicity and Oliver decide to go hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. Felicity soon realizes that her vision and the reality don't match up, and Oliver does his best to convince her that backpacking isn't all that bad. Part of the Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon, prompt: summer vacation.

**Award: Cutest Protective Oliver**

This One Time in College -  Vixx2pointOh

After we saw them drive off into the sunset, we know the travelled around the world....

In Thailand Felicity got drunk and started talking.....drunk Felicity shouldn't be in charge of talking....

**Award: Most Hilariously Drunk Felicity**

Daughter of the Demon - @laxit21,  mewmew666

What if in 1988 while traveling through Las Vegas Ra's al Ghul bumps into a nice waitress named Donna Smoak and they have one-night stand together? A little bundle of joy named Felicity Smoak is the result. In 2014, the Demon Head becomes aware of his youngest daughter's existence.

**Award: Most Unique Twist in Canon**

@memcjo’s recs:

Bury me in your Sins - @theirinrutherfords

Don’t involve yourself in the league of assassins and don’t fuck with the league of assassins. It’s a pretty easy concept, right? Well, it would have been if Felicity had known what she was meddling with. Now she has one of the league’s best assassins knocking down her door.

**Award: Best Use of Felicity Being in Over Her Head But Coming Out on Top**

Come Back When You Can - @smoaking-greenarrow

Felicity Smoak had accepted that her husband is dead. She's done everything she could to hold her family, her team, her city, and herself together. But five years after losing her husband, Felicity learns that things didn't happen the way she thought they did. And when Oliver realizes that he was lied to, he's willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge on the people who took his life away.

**Award: Best Use of Angst/Sorrow/Revenge Leading to a Happy Olicity**

Into Thin Air - @realityisoverrated-fic

Tommy disappears on his morning run. Two weeks later, Felicity is taken from the Foundry. Oliver is willing to sacrifice everything to get them back.

**Award: Best Use of Stubborn SmoakingBillionaries Facing Extreme Danger to Save Each Other in a HOLY SHIT~WOW! fic**

Try Harder Next Time - @hope-for-olicity

Set in Season 3 (I heart Season 3), Diggle confronts Oliver about letting Felicity go - yes, I can write the same story a different way over and over and over ;) This was Hope-for-Olicity’s 100th story as well!

**Award: Best Use of Diggle Sees ALL and is Tired of Oliver’s Shit**

A Nice Day for a Light Wedding -  sarcasticmama

A one shot based on leaked finale spoilers for Season 3 of the Arrow. Olicity! Written in between feedings with no beta. All mistakes are mine.

**Award: Best Happily Ever After Olicity Fluff**

Unasked Questions - @laurabelle2930

Olicity Smut ;) This one takes place during 3x20. It’s my take on what happened before we see Oliver staring out over the moon lit sands of Nanda Parbat. 

**Award: Best Use of Sexy, Bittersweet Olicity**

@msbeccieboo’s recs:

His Felicity, His Happiness - @oliversmuse

She just wanted to have a night off. A night where she could forget the trauma she had been through three months ago. But that night, everything changed. He saved her then kidnapped her. He was a mystery to her and she hated mysteries. They needed to be solved. She was determined to find out who was Al-Sah-Him.

**Award: Best disposal of Evil!Ray**

Adventures in Ivy Town - @it-was-a-red-heeler

Oliver and Felicity learn that there can be danger in the burbs, too.

**Award: Cutest Ivy Town fluffiness!!**

[bittysvalentines]

Cafes and Triumvirates

From: @hargreeves-and-wine 

To: @omgtranspoindexter 

Summary: Love is a mosaic, if one takes the time to think about it. The way we feel for those who love is comprised of all the moments we share with them. In sickness and in health, for better and for worse. Over the course of a day, Chowder, Dex, and Nursey find themselves dwelling on moments that make them fall in love with their partners all over again. 

Rating: T

Content warning: One mention of offscreen (but legal) drinking.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you enjoy this fic!

                                             Chowder - The Morning

Wiping down the windows was a chore normally despised by anyone who had ever worked in a restaurant. There were always the streaks that could never be properly cleaned away, no matter the angle at which you wiped them. Reaching up to get the top edges would often result in the cleaning liquid running down your arm. Hell, it only took a bug that was flying haphazardly for your hard work to be ruined.

Yet Chris regarded it as the second best part of doing the opening shift; the first, of course, being the pastries and cookies that were delivered first thing in the morning from Bittle’s Kitchen down the block. From their perch 15 inches off the ground, they were able to reach and clean the windows with ease. Each swipe of the squeegee helped reveal another slice of the daily lives of the other residents of Samwell Street. 

There was Lardo, putting the finishing touches on a large mural she had been commissioned to paint on the side of the Knight, O’Meara, and Wicks Law Office. Further down the way, they could see Ransom and Holster walking their troop of dogs and a cat (who, Chris had been told, was raised around dogs since birth before the men adopted her). Even from behind the glass and fairly heavy front door of the Samwell Stoop, they could hear Holster’s joyful voice bouncing off of the cobblestones of the street.

Only one sight, however, could bring a full on grin to Chris’ face at this hour of the morning. Just in front of the pane of glass, Dex was busy checking off the week’s supplies that had been brought in the delivery truck while Nursey was bringing down a large box of milkettes and creamers with one arm. The moment that Dex turned around to confirm something with the driver, Nursey snagged a butter tart from the platter the former was saving to give to said driver.

“Well, thanks again, Johnson,” Dex finished as he handed a paper back to the driver. “We actually saved you a little something for your- Nurse! What the hell?” 

Nursey shrugged as they offered out the other half of the tart. “Did you want one?” They, thankfully, had the good grace to swallow before speaking.

“You are simply unbelievable, stealing a gift of all things.” Despite his chiding, Dex indeed took the offered tart and popped into his mouth before giving Johnson the rest of the platter. “Now you better take this before my idiot partner gets their hands on more of them.”

As Johnson got into his truck and pulled away, Nursey hugged Dex from behind and pecked his cheek. “You know, you’re adorable when you blush,” they murmured, only causing Dex to turn an even darker shade of red.

With a friendly tap on the window pane with his squeegee, Chris got the attention of both of his partners. They honestly didn’t mean to be a voyeur; in fact, they weren’t sure if they could be one since they were dating the two of them. Still, Chris figured they would appreciate being informed that they weren’t alone.

“Oh shit, Chowder!” Dex abruptly pulled away from Nursey and hurried inside the cafe with one hand behind his back. It was only when they climbed down from the stepstool that Chris saw what Dex was hiding. “You didn’t think we’d actually forget to save one for you, did you?”

The moment they’d taken a bite out of the butter tart, Chris was crushed in a tight hug between the two of them. Nursey’s aftershave and Dex’s cologne enveloped them in a feeling that could only be described as home.

                                              Dex - The Afternoon

“What do you mean you’re out of maple pecan pie?”

Will, who was using his break in the back room to be out of his binder for a while, could just hear the complaint. As he peeked outside to see what was going on, he could see a guy who stood at a height of about 6’4 at the counter, staring down Chowder. Just behind them, Derek was handing a girl her cup while watching the situation at the same time.

“Look, sir.” Chowder may have been slightly dwarfed by this man, but one didn’t become a goalie by showing their fear. “We only get so many pies delivered at the start of the day, so if we run out, we run out. Of course, I could go over to Bitty’s Kitchen, use my own money to get another pie, and let my partner here take over this massive lineup all by himself. Would that satisfy you, sir?” The conversations in the cafe had given way to silence as the patrons turned to watch.

The tall customer only folded his arms and doubled down. “I paid for a slice of pie, and I demand that I get what I paid for,” he huffed, doing his best to give Chowder something that resembled the evil eye.

Nursey feigned wiping his hands on his aprons, but Will could see that he was actually cracking his knuckles. “You haven’t paid for anything yet. My partner here has tried being civil, but it’s clear you’re not listening.” Even though they weren’t quite at the customer’s height, Nursey had a way of commanding attention when it was needed.

“Is it so wrong to expect a slice of pie with my coffee?”

“If you want pie, then go and get it yourself.”

“I demand to speak to the manager!”

“You already are, asshole.”

Though it was a crisp fall afternoon outside, there was clearly a gathering storm within these four walls. Will had fully emerged from the break room and was about to approach the counter when Chowder silently motioned for him to stay back. It was almost scary to see the perpetually chill Nursey standing with such contempt behind their eyes.

The tension in the air was finally broken when the customer stalked off, muttering something about “ungrateful millennials” as he pushed the door open. Then, Nursey relaxed their stance and turned to the crowd. “I can help someone over here!”

Before too long, Will was due to get back behind the counter. As Chowder passed him on the way to their own break, the two of them stopped to briefly hold hands. A similar blush coloured both of their cheeks when their eyes met.

“You were brave.” Will murmured, longing to wrap his partner in a hug.

Chowder shook his head, though they squeezed Dex’s hand back. “You’d have done the same.”

Once he was behind the counter, Nursey gave him a look as if to say “I’m okay, I’m alright.” Still, Will decided to give their hip a little bump since anything beyond that would probably be seen as unprofessional. While they were technically their own bosses, Will insisted that the three of them treat one another as coworkers as long as they were on the clock. They just happened to be coworkers who snuck in kisses when they had the chance.

                                             Nursey - The Night

It’s been said that the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach, but as far as Derek was concerned, the way to a person’s soul was through their taste in music. They had read a study once that said people’s moods and taste in music influence one another in a type of pseudo-dynamic equilibrium. Or something like that. Derek wasn’t a chemistry student for a reason. 

Chemistry journals didn’t, however, cover what to do when there was the slight catch of you and each of your partners having wildly different tastes in music.

In order to keep outright Armageddon from erupting, the three of them had hung up a calendar in their break room with a schedule for who gets to play music when. Chowder was assigned to Mondays and Thursdays, Dex had Tuesdays and Fridays, and Derek chose Wednesdays and Saturdays. “I guess God gets to pick the music on Sundays,” they joked since none of them would be there anyways.

This particular Saturday had been more stressful than usual with the confrontation earlier. On top of that, it was a deep clean day, so Derek, Dex, and Chowder had been up to their eyeballs in checklists of things that had to be refilled, wiped down, and rearranged. By the time they had finished, it was around eleven at night, a whole three hours after the Samwell Stoop normally closed. So the trio treated themselves to a cuddle pile on the couch in the breakroom.

“Nursey,” Dex whined softly, dragging out the Y. “Can you change your playlist to something less… intense? I’m getting flashbacks to that bootcamp I did back in college.” Although it probably wasn’t intentional, he let his head slump against Chowder’s shoulder, who leaned against him in turn.

With a quiet “Chyeah,” Derek pulled themselves away from his partners to grab his phone. It was probably a bad idea to have the aux cord right behind the counter, but they and Dex usually had the impulse control to not check it. Emphasis on usually. Chowder sometimes struggled a little bit more, but it was decided that it was better to be chewed out by a patron for checking their phone than to have the whole store subjected to an unexpected voice memo of Dex drunkenly singing along to “You’ve Got a Friend In Me.”

For the record, he had scored an 82 on their friend Whiskey’s karaoke machine that night.

So after much deliberation as to slow down the mood, the lively harmonies of the Jackson Five were switched out for the light crooning of Jason Mraz. Though they would take the secret to their grave, the playlist was actually the one that Derek had used for sleeping back in his college days. It was more lonesome than they had realized to truly be on their own in the world. So these songs were the ones they fell asleep to, hoping to have pleasant dreams instead of their usual fitful nights.

Nowadays, they used it for times that they needed to destress. Music wasn’t really a good idea in the bedroom anyways since it was noisy enough with three of them in the bed. Another secret that their would never dare disclose was how their found Chowder’s chainsaw-like snoring actually quite adorable.

“This slow enough for you?” they joked as they tucked the wires back into their little storage cup (one of the mugs that could no longer be used due to the broken handle). Yet, when Derek looked up from behind the counter, they were greeted by the sight of Dex and Chowder slowly swaying to the melody in one another’s arms. Their eyes were closed as they nestled into the crooks of their necks, and Chowder’s hand fumbled around for Dex’s before their fingers were intertwined.

Poetic enlightenment often eluded Derek when they needed it most, but this moment must have been something extraordinary. 

Sun and Moon

Forever in a cyclar chase

Yet neither is ever alone

For stars and clouds are one and the same

Keeping them company

In the wide open sky

While they had never gotten any complaints for their writing volume, it was the closing of Derek’s leather-bound notebook that got their partners’ attention. They broke their hand clasp and reached out towards them at the same time. “Derek,” Chowder murmured, their voice serious, yet gentle as it always was when they used their legal names.

Although they were a quarter inch taller than Dex (they do know how to use a measuring tape, thank you very much), Derek allowed himself to be enveloped in a tight hug between their two partners. “I love you… Will, Chris, both of you… I love you so much.”

Outside, the stars were indeed shining alongside the moon. Most people had either turned in for the night or had dimmed their lights and shut their curtains. Yet in the relative darkness, the Samwell Stoop was a glowing beacon, its yellow brilliance spilling out of the windows. If Derek still had their notebook out, he might have written about how metaphorical it all must have been to an outsider. But they didn’t need words right now; they had everything they could have needed right beside them.

[ashes-and-ashes]

Drarryland #8!

Okay, I’m sorry! This is so cringy and I whipped this up in 20 minutes and I wash my hands of this cringy crap.

Propmt: Three words: Drarry + Wizards Karaoke. Must include either full or partial lyrics to an original song (by you). Maximum 866 words.

@gameofdrarry

Our Brave Boy Harry

Draco was already regretting his decision the instant he walked into the room.

It was dark, flashing strobe lights and neon tubes, magical fireworks exploding every 20 seconds above their heads. It was his 19th birthday, and Pansy and Blaise has insisted they handle the birthday celebrations.

Draco sighs. He should have known better then to trust Pansy and Blaise.

He rolls his eyes. “Goddamn it. What the hell is this place?”

Pansy leans over the bar, a drink already in her hand. It fizzes, turning from green to silver to blue, and she downs half of it with a snort. “Karaoke, Draco!”

Draco grits his teeth. “And what the hell is Karaoke?”

Harry laughs, and Draco sighs, flipping Harry off. “Oh, shut up.”

Harry leans back. His wand hangs at his side, giving of sparks of red and gold, and he shrugs. “Karaoke is a muggle thing.”

“Is it though?” Blaise tilts his head. “I mean, I’m pretty sure a wizard came up with this. No muggle could just be like walking down the street one day then, ‘hmm let’s create a thing where we sing into a box with our friends.’” He pauses. “That sort of logic is exclusive to Wizards.”

Harry snorts. “Obviously you haven’t seen a muggle on crack before.”

Draco rolls his eyes. “Alright, great, muggles on crack and stuff. What the hell is karaoke?”

“It’s like where you sing songs. Famous ones.” Blaise frowns, at the mirror in front of them. “Enchanted mirror. It displays all of the words. You sing along to it.”

Pansy interjects, smiling wickedly. “If you sound crappy, the mirror yells at you.”

“Great.” Draco sinks further into the seat. “I can’t sing.”

“Of course you can, Dray!” Pansy winks at him. “Come on, Potter. Let’s see if you are as good at singing as you are at Quidditch.”

Blaise snorts. “I was thinking of something else, but Quidditch works.” He lets out a yelp as Draco hurls a pillow at his face. “Okay, Sorry!”

Harry takes out his wand, flicking it at the mirror. “I’m setting it to unlimited. Muggle and Wizards.”

Pansy laughs. “You’re on. I’ll beat you in anything, Potty.”

It’s almost a surreal experience, watching Draco’s boyfriend and his closest childhood friend screaming the lyrics to ‘All Star’ into their wandtips. Pansy is dramatic, clambering over the couches and coffee tables and bar stools, Harry spinning around underneath her. It’s an interesting performance, and Draco lets out a round of applause as Pansy throws herself into Harry’s arms. “Damn. Watch out, Dray, I’m stealing your man.”

Blaise frowns down at her. “Pans, you’re lesbian.”

“Screw it.” Pansy sighs happily, throwing herself onto the couch. “Your turn, Blaise.”

Blaise stands, offering a hand to Draco. “Want to go?”

Draco shakes his head. “Later. You go with Pansy.”

Blaise smirks. “You won’t know what hit you.”

Draco snuggles into Harry’s side as Pansy and Blaise go off, Harry smirking as he watches. “So.”

Draco raises an eyebrow. “So what?”

“So.” Harry shrugs. “I never thought I’d see Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini dance around the room with roses clamped between their teeth.”

Draco rolls his eyes. “Oh trust me, they’ve always been like this.”

“Yeah.” Harry smiles. “I’m seeing that.” He reaches up, wrapping an arm around Draco’s shoulder. “I’m glad I met them. I’m glad I’m dating you. There’s so much I didn’t know about...about everything. I’m glad I have the chance to experience it.”

Draco nods. “Me too. I mean - “

He’s broken off by Pansy’s shriek. “Potter!”

Harry stands, Draco next to him. “What?”

With the biggest smirk Draco’s ever seen, Blaise points to the mirror, where the words “His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad” are now scrolling across the top.

Harry blanches. “No. Aw shit.”

With a serious face, Blaise stands up. “His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad. His hair is as dark as a blackboard. I wish he was mine, he’s really divine - “

“The hero who conquered the dark lord!” Pansy interrupts him, with a evil glance at Draco. Harry groans. “Draco, I swear…”

With a cough, Draco places his wand in front of his mouth. “A long time ago, on a Dark Halloween Night, there lived the hero Harry who gave the Dark Lord a fright.”

Pansy kicks her legs up. “And for 11 years he grew up in a dingy muggle home, hidden from the paparazzi who would not leave him alone!”

Blaise jumps onto the table. “But our brave boy Harry - “

“With His eyes of pickled green - “

“Took one look at old Voldy - “

“And turned him into steam!”

Harry hides his head. “Please no. I can’t believe they wrote a whole bloody song about me.”

Pansy just shrieks into her wand. “And the Hero of the day - “

“The young Boy Who Lived - “

“Who was never even afraid - “

Harry finishes glumly. “Gave Voldemort the shiv.”

“That’s it!!” Draco smirks down at Harry, who’s hidden under the table. “See, you’re famous!”

Harry groans. “I hate you all.”

Pansy shakes her head. “Don’t give me that crap. You love us.”

Draco puts his arms around her. “Yeah. He does.”

[thatfairyfangirl]

Certain Point of View Chapter 4

Warning: This chapter will be the first in a string portraying domestic abuse and the effects abuse may have on a person. If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic/spousal abuse these next few chapters may be triggering.

You woke to the sound of your alarm blaring in your ear. With a groan you twisted and turned, as you stretched yourself out. After the less than friendly run in with Loki yesterday you had barely slept. Grumbling, you rolled out of the bed, you could smell the savory scent of the coffee pot having been turned on by the timer you set as you drew back your curtains and pulled the window open to let the crisp cool autumn air pour in. Though you had hoped it would invigorate you as it has many mornings before, it brought no comfort today as your eyes caught the curtain of what you now knew to be Loki's window shut. 

As you readied for work, Loki's long slender fingers drew the curtains back just enough to peek at you, frowning to find that you were not your usual dancing self. Your movements were slow and drawn out as you played the scene over and over, trying to find a way things could have gone differently, convincing yourself maybe things are better this way. Just because you saw him for what he really is doesn't mean everyone else would...though you hoped the book you had been writing might change that one day.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

"We told you!" Your friends scolded lightly as you both sat down to an afternoon coffee, Friday dragging around you. "The dude may be a god but we told you not all gods are good."

"I still don't know...he just seemed upset that I was afraid. But I wasn't." You let out an exasperated sigh as your head rolled back. Loki hadn't left your thoughts all day, the angles of his face torturing your memory, the way his hair fell tantalizing your soul as you took a sip of your frappe. "I think ...I think it's just all he knows." Your eyes glanced over to the tower dominating the skyline of Manhattan. "And there's something so tragic about that."

"Umm no! It is deserving! HE ATTACKED NEW YORK WITH AN ALIEN ARMY! Did you forget about that?" They continued on. "If it wasn't for the Avengers we would all be dead or he would be the overlord of earth or something." Though you knew you should find something wrong with that thought you just couldn't. You knew the myths, the stories...he was cunning and always five steps ahead. In the back of your mind you wondered if he might have been good for the world. 

But the more you thought of those old stories the more you were reminded of all the terrible things he did even then, and the tingle of excited fear you had for the adversary as a child. Defeated, you nodded. "Ok...you're right." You let escape your lips, not sure if you fully believed it.

"Now will you please take one night off of writing that stupid book and spend some time with your friends?" One of the two asked. "My brother's bar is having a Halloween party tonight, if you dress like a hero you get a free drink, and you obviously need to be reminded what human fun is." The other offered.

~ ~ ~ ~

You stumbled over yourself, your amaretto sour splashing onto your fingers as you, your two best friends, and your new drunk buddies all together belted out "SWEET CAROLINE...BA BA BAAAAA" not so much in the fashion of karaoke but more as an inebriated reflex that no one in the bar could avoid as the song played.

Outside Thor lead Loki through the streets, hoping so much to find a way to bring his brother out of the funk confronting you had lead him into. "Was I too harsh on her?" Loki's words asked smooth as velvet as the musical debauchery continued to pour from the open bar door.

"Yes! You never gave her a chance!" Thor answered, pausing in his stride, noticing that something had pulled his brother's attention. 

"GOOD TIMES NEVER FELT SO GOOD" His icy eyes, somewhere between blue and green, pulled up to the window to see your face shining in the neon lights as the two girls who were so excited over his brother draped over you. "SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD!" You were adorned in an old viking style dress with a gold band around your brow, your hair framing your face with two thin braids and suddenly he realized you were the most gorgeous creature in all of history, the brightest star in the night sky and he regretted every syllable of the harsh words he said to you. You lost your breath and your heart stopped as you looked up to him frozen, staring at you from the window. Your lips curled into a soft welcoming smile as your fingers rose to give him a subtle wave. A grin began sneaking onto his lips, however, as he lifted his hand to wave back, the movement of tight muscles in a bad Thor wig toward you stopped him. His lips pursed as he watched the beefy oaf wrap an arm around your shoulder before storming off to catch up with his brother. No. He wasn't too harsh. Yet still, he loved hating how you seemed to always play him for the fool.

Your heart sank as you watched him leave, just drunk enough, and needing validation enough, to let the stranger wrap himself around you as you both introduced yourselves. "That could have been you." Thor added as he wrapped his strong arm around his brother. 

For the remainder of the evening you found yourself talking with the makeshift Thor...sure his name may have been Kyle but right now you were at just the wrong frame of mind to only know him as Thor as you explained your love of mythology and that you were meant to be dressed as Sigyn, despite his continued insistence that you were obviously a Valkyrie. But the attention was kind and refreshing, and the encouragement from your friends who had far more to drink than you lead the both of you back to your apartment. It wasn't until the following morning when you saw each other outside of costume and with sober eyes that you exchanged numbers.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

A warm and mild autumn soon gave way to a harsh unyielding winter. Bitter winds whipped the city and piles of ice and snow frosted streets and buildings. But none sat so beautifully as the frost that framed your window as Loki watched you. Yes, music still played, but he couldn't hear. All he knew was that you were moving listlessly through your apartment in the mornings, slow lurching movements that seemed to crawl along with the shorter days and the more he saw your boyfriend over, the slower you seemed to move. You couldn't move with the joyous grace you once did, your body hurt too much. The way you used to dance put strain on unseen bruises and sore muscles left by Kyle in moments of his anger and rage.

"Why in the hell are you going out on that stupid fire escape again?" Kyle shouted from the kitchen as he watched you open the window to climb out to your favorite writing spot. The past month of dating him for the most part had been lovely...but the temper that he held...that scared you to your core, and worse, you had no idea how to make it stop.

"Because you're getting ready to watch football and I want to write." You answered meekly as Loki watched the exchange from the window, a hint of more winter snow speckling the air.

"Don’t be so stupid!" Kyle barked out at you as he retrieved his beer. "You're going to get sick!" You sighed as you climbed back in and closed the window, he was probably right. "I don't know why you're still working on that love letter to your neighbor anyway. No one in their right mind is going to want to read a book with Loki as the hero." He continued as he plopped onto your sofa and turned on your tv.

"Because there are two sides to every story and to tell it from the point of view of the adversary brings a new spin to the original mythos." You grumbled as you set the laptop down to rummage around for your headphones, not too keen on the idea of listening to the male chauvinism that was about to be blaring from your TV. "I've told you."

"HEY!" You flinched, pulling back as he shouted. From behind his curtain Loki watched, rage building with each flinch and each moment true fear sat in your eyes, putting the night he startled you to shame. But as your eyes spotted the movement of the curtain, you looked up to your cunning god of deception with a glimmer of hope. Would he see? Would he save you? Kyle followed your eyes to see the villain watching you. He hated how the twisted evil thing always was in that window staring at you. With a gnarled frustrating grumble he got up to shut the curtain. "You’ve been flirting with that thing on the fire escape again?!" He demanded as his hand gripped your wrist tightly.

"No Kyle! I swear!" You insisted desperately before a hand landed sharply across your cheek.

With the curtains and windows closed Loki couldn't see or hear what was going on as he convinced himself that there was nothing wrong, that you wouldn't let this buffoon do what he thought. 

Tag List:

@starvinggaywriter

@sardonicsleeper

[nerdasaurus1200]

Now Kiss

Requested by @ ablaghafir. The idea came from @ fact-dogsarehappiness. In which Adrien and Marinette are oblivious idiots in love and the whole team is the fandom  (aka, shipper trash and 1000% done with these two).

Alya has to admit-looking back, there’s a lot in her life that she never expected to happen. The first thing was becoming Rena Rouge, arguably one of the best things that happened to her. It gave her the chance to be a hero like Majestia, and help out Ladybug. Which reminded her, the one thing she never EVER expected was Ladybug being her best friend. That’s not to say she wasn’t pleased about it, although she’s pretty sure Marinette quickly got tired of all the questions. After that day, Alya was sure nothing else could surprise her. And then Nino let it slip to her that Adrien was Cat Noir. And neither Adrien nor Marinette knew who the other was. How Nino managed to convince her not to say anything to them, she’ll never truly understand. As the years passed, more superheroes joined Team Miraculous and more identities were figured out until eventually everyone on the team knew who each other was. Except for Marinette and Adrien. It was killing everyone, they were both so obvious. Marinette looked the exact same both in and out of the mask, and the only real thing Adrien changed as Cat Noir was his hair. As much as it annoyed them, they agreed not to interfere. They would have to tell each other eventually; they could wait and be patient.

However, the more time passed, the more their patience was wearing thin. It all started when Adrien asked Marinette out. They were all very happy for the new couple, but they were a tad confused as to why they never told each other their identities. It confused them even more that they never caught on to why they always had to suddenly leave during a date when an Akuma attack happened. Chloe recalls one time during patrol where Adrien had asked her if she knew what it was like to love one person and then meet a whole new person and love them so much that you wonder if your previous love was even real. “Who’s the person you used to love again?” She asked. “Ladybug,” Adrien answered. “And who do you love now?” She asked. “Marinette,” Adrien replied as if it was obvious. “Just wanted to clarify so we can all have a good chuckle later,” Chloe remarked dryly. It got a little harder when Adrien and Marinette got engaged. Ladybug and Cat Noir couldn’t stop raving about how happy they were that the other was getting married. “When’s the big day?” Ladybug had asked. “September 1.” Cat Noir answered, and Ladybug’s face fell. “That’s the same day I’m getting married.” She said. Everyone held their breath. Would lead to the reveal?! It had to, there’s no way they couldn’t figure it out. What kind of friends have their wedding on the exact same day without knowing they’re marrying their friend?! “Well...we’ll be there for each other in spirit, won’t we?” Cat Noir finally said. “You’re right, kitty.” Ladybug replied, smiling. Everyone facepalmed at the interaction, their hopes once again crushed. Their anger over the lack of the reveal lessened once the wedding came. Everyone was practically bursting with excitement, Adrien in particular. The look on his face when Marinette walked down the aisle was one they would treasure for years to come. “Are you okay?” Kagami asked playfully. “Shut up, I’m fine,” Adrien muttered, earning a snicker from Kim. “Relax, dude, I’ve got your back,” Nino reassured with a playful smirk, holding up a tissue. “Thank you.” Adrien choked out, quickly grabbing the tissue and wiping his eyes. “And you said I wouldn’t need the tissues,” Nino commented to Max, making him roll his eyes. The rest of the night was a hoot and a half. Kim had managed to dare Kagami into doing the Macarena, Marc and Nathaniel became a drunk karaoke hit, and Adrien and Marinette couldn’t stop freaking out about how they were married now, and their irritation at the lack of reveal came and went. They couldn’t help but groan when Cat Noir complimented Ladybug’s new short hair when Adrien had seen it on Marinette earlier that day. However, their irritation came back with a fiery vengeance a couple years later, the day they found out Marinette was pregnant. The whole team was ecstatic to be Aunts and Uncles, and then it all went downhill from there on patrol later that night. “Ladybug you won’t believe what big news happened today!” was the first thing Cat Noir said, beaming as soon as they saw each other. “What a coincidence, I have big news too kitty.” Ladybug replied, also beaming. “Oo, let’s say it together!” Cat Noir replied, “My wife is pregnant!” “I’m pregnant!” Ladybug announced. Both of them stared at each other wide-eyed. “WHAT?!” Cat Noir couldn’t help but yell. “I can’t believe it!” Ladybug giggled. “YOU can’t believe it?! First I find out I’m gonna be a father, now I’m gonna be an Uncle too?!” Cat Noir replied. The pair laughed as they pulled each other into a hug, completely oblivious to the reactions of their teammates. “Nobody is this oblivious.”Roi Singe murmured gravely. “A-are they just...pretending not to know just so they can mess with us?!” Viperion asked. “That’s it. We’re doing what we should’ve done years ago. RABBIT HOLE!” Alix yelled. “Bunnix, no!” Rena Rouge yelled, gripping Bunnix by the wrists. “BUNNIX YES! IT HAS TO BE DONE!” Bunnix yelled back. “THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY!” Silene yelled. “THIS IS THE ONLY WAY!” Bunnix yelled. “I can’t take it anymore. I just can’t do this, Alya. I don’t have the strength.” Roi Singe whimpered shakily as he cried into Pegase’s torso. “...Okay, while Kim is busy having an emotional breakdown, does anyone have any new ideas to make our idiots figure out their identities?” Rena asked. It had been a year and a half after the pregnant incident, and Adrien and Marinette now had a little baby girl named Emilie; Emma for short. Instead of patrolling like they should have been doing, they now spent their Thursday nights coming up with ways to make the reveal happen. “Maybe we could trick them into figuring it out,” Viperion suggested. “Ooh, that’s a good strategy, snakey.” Empress praised. “No, that won’t work. Mari’ll see right through it.” Carapace said. “Maybe we could actually tell them?” Princess Piggy suggested. “Nope, too straightforward. Bound to go wrong somehow.” Alix shot down. “Operation Secret Garden 2?” Rat Gris asked. “It never worked then, it won’t work now,” Rena answered. “Well, there has to be SOMETHING.” Phoenix Hood said. “What if we just locked them in a room together or something?” Tigress asked. Everyone held their breath in thought. Would that work? “Max, probability of success?” Rena asked, barely containing the excitement in her voice. “Hmm, well if we did attempt to lock them in a room with the end goals being them both discovering each other's identities, then it would have to be after an Akuma attack. However, we do have to make sure that the door of the room we keep them in is reinforced enough to withstand their super strength. Then one of us will have to command Plagg and Tikki to detransform them. If we accomplish this, our chances of succeeding are...93.874383% with a 2.8128748% margin of error. In conclusion, we have a very high chance of succeeding if we attempt this.” Pegase deduced. “Then it’s settled, next Akuma attack, we strike,” Rena announced, and the others nodded in agreement. A week later, the day of reckoning finally came. An Akuma attack broke lose at Le Grand Paris Hotel, and Team Miraculous was on the scene within minutes. As usual, Ladybug and Cat Noir were dancing around each other almost the entire time. The Akuma was quickly defeated after Cataclysm and Lucky Charm were unleashed, also as usual. No more evil doing for you little Akuma. Time to de-evilize! Bye bye, little butterfly. Miraculous Ladybug! And then it was over. It was time to attack. “Well done, everyone. I have to say, you were all more efficient tha-hey, what the-?!” Ladybug started but panicked as Taurus grabbed her and Cat Noir and tossed them in the storage closet nearby. They didn’t have much time, they had to act quickly. Carapace and Rena Rouge rushed to the door to hold it closed before their leaders could open it. “Sword, sword, get the frigging sword!” Rena yelled, using all of her strength to keep the door shut. Empress drew her sword and placed it into the door handle, ensuring the door wouldn’t open. Tigress made sure to lock the door for good measure. “Tikki, Plagg! Spots off and claws in! That’s an order!” Rena yelled. They saw a flash of light from the cracks of the door but heard nothing except for a quiet gasp. “Guys, what the heck?!” They heard Marinette yell. “We’re all sick of your crud. THAT’S what the heck!” Silene yelled back. “Marc, you’d betray your own flesh and blood?!” Marinette yelled. “No, I’m doing my own flesh and blood a favor,” Silene said firmly. “This is for your own good!” Taurus lectured. “It was either this or I go back in time to Stoneheart and out you two. And SOMEONE said no.” Bunnix added, glaring at Rena Rouge. “For the hundredth time, it would disrupt the entire timestream!” Rena argued. “Alya, let us out. NOW!” Marinette yelled. “NO!” Rena retorted. “Alya Césaire, so help me, I will kick down this door!” Marinette threatened. “Girl, I would LOVE to see you kick down a door reinforced with a magical weapon that’s literally indestructible.” Rena challenged. Her dare was met with silence, but she took a few steps back and drew out her flute. “What are you doing?” Viperion asked. “This is Marinette we’re talking about. Even without her powers, I’d be really stupid to underestimate her.” Rena explained. A few seconds later, a loud bang and a yell of “OW” was heard. “That sounded like it hurt.” Tigress commented. “Oh, poor Marinette. We should go in and check on her.” Princess said, but Empress stopped her. “No, don’t open the door. If we do, they’ll escape and she’ll kill us.” The Dragon warned. “Well, we need to make sure she didn’t break a toe or anything.” Carapace protested. “I got it! The security cameras!” Queen Bee pointed out. 

The team rushed to the front desk and crowded around the monitor that showed the closet their leaders were currently trapped in. Adrien was helping Marinette balance on one leg, and she was wincing in pain. “Here, sit down. I’ll take a look at it.” He said, helping her ease down. He took off her shoe as gently as he could and began inspecting her foot, but soon got lost in her eyes. “So, all this time, you were Cat Noir.” Marinette couldn’t help saying. “And you were Ladybug all this time.” He replied. A beat of silence and the pair burst into laughter. “Ten years, and we’re just now finding out.” She said. “Right? I mean, come on! We’re married, we have a daughter! Now granted, I got a little suspicious after the haircut. At least now I have a clear conscience about all this.” Adrien added as the laughter died down. “What do you mean?” Marinette asked. “What do you mean what do I mean? You’re my wife, Marinette. We made a vow to never hide anything from each other. I just...always felt so guilty hiding it from you for so long. It felt like I was lying to you. There were so many times I came so close to telling you, but then Plagg pointed out I’d just be putting you in danger, and-“ Adrien ranted, but Marinette cut him off by pressing a finger to his lips. “I felt guilty too. But there’s no need to worry. We both know we can handle ourselves. And even if something bad does happen, we’ll face it together. For better or worse, remember, kitty?” Marinette comforted. The look on Adrien’s face earned many ‘awws’ from their teammates, and they squealed as he pulled her in for a kiss. Suddenly, he pulled away. “Wait! I just remembered! YOU asked me to save YOU from Evillustrator!” Adrien realized. “And you tricked me into thinking you were showering during Simon Says! We’re even!” Marinette retorted. “Okay, yeah, I guess you’re right. Now, m’lady, allow me to transform back and Cataclysm this door so we can escape and get back at our teammates.” Adrien asked cheekily, making Marinette giggle. Crud, everyone thought as they looked at each other, their faces going pale. They forgot to take away their Miraculouses! The next second, the whole team was scrambling over each other trying to get away from the closet as if a bomb was about to go off. “EVERYBODY SCATTER!” Rena yelled. “RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!” Carapace wailed. For a few short seconds, they had hope of survival, but that hope was quickly dashed when they heard the door crumble to ash.

[your-high-lady]

Realisation

Summary: This story is about Feyre. She has a couple of small dreams she wants to achieve but turns out it isn't as easy as she imagined it would. Trust me, the story is better than the summary. Modern AU. Feysand.

Chapter 1  Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4  Chapter 5   Chapter 6   Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the plot. All credit goes to Sarah J Mass

Chapter 9: Awkwardness and lips

After about thirty minutes of driving, we finally reached the place we were having dinner. It was within walking distance of the mini-golf place so we were planning to just walk over there after dinner.

I smiled at Azriel as he held the door open for Mor, Amren and I, and laughed when he let it close on Cassian and Rhys. I could tell they were close, just like Mor and I. Amren, however, was a different case. She filled the room with her essence, even in her tiny body. It was impossible to miss her.

A small smile on my face, I took in my surroundings. The restaurant was an Italian one with a homey feel to it. There was a row of comfortable-looking sofas right at the back and artificially-lit torches hanging off the walls, each one about a metre away from the other. The rest of the lighting was done by lit-candles on each table. It was a little dark for my liking but the open feeling the place had made up for it. It was a relatively warm night so we decided to sit outside. Our waitress, a blonde woman with huge nerdy glasses, gave us our menus and took our drinks order before the dinner-talk started up.

Ten minutes later, our food orders given, I was listening to Amren and Mor as Amren caught Mor up on her relationship with her boyfriend Varian. Apparently, they'd had sex for the first time a couple of nights ago and it made Amren very happy because they'd been dating for only about three months but she really liked him and had been feeling ready for that step in their relationship for a while now. Amren was just in the middle of gushing about how much Varian adored her when I felt eyes on me. I turned to find Rhys staring at me. Azriel and Cassian, who were on the right of Rhys were playing a game of chopsticks, which meant that they didn't notice what Rhys was so blatantly doing. I looked at him for a couple of seconds, waiting for him to speak or do something but when he didn't move, I said, "Yes? Did you want to say something to me?"

He tilted his head to the side before asking, "Do you have a boyfriend, Feyre?"

I raised my eyebrows before shaking my head. He nodded, thinking to himself, before looking up at me again, "What's your favourite food?"

"Peanut butter, banana and bread, together." The corner of his lips lifted in a small beam.

"Any place you'd like to visit?"

"Paris. I can imagine myself at the top of the Eiffel Tower, looking down, and realising that we are all such a small part of something so much bigger than anything we could imagine." Wow, that got deep. But surprisingly Rhys only gave me a sweet smile before moving on.

"Sunrises or sunsets?"

I instantly frowned. Why would he ask me a question like that? He just raised his eyebrows. "Sunrises," I said, maybe a tad bit more sassily than I meant too.

"What's on the top of your bucket list?"

"I don't have a bucket list. I just want to graduate and settle down." He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Are you sure? There's got to be something you really want to do before you die." I shook my head in reply. I was boring that way. I didn't want to live a flash life. I just wanted to settle down, buy my own house maybe, and just teach art.

"What's your dream life?"

"Teaching art to little kids."

"So you like children?"

"I guess so." I shrugged, brushing the words off. Rhys opened his mouth to ask, I assume, another question but just then Mor squealed. Our food had arrived. I shook my head at her in amusement as the waiter put my dish in front of me. I thanked her before diving into my food. I was actually starting to get really hungry.

About twenty minutes later, we were finally walking over to the mini-golf place. We'd chosen this place because one, it was close to the restaurant we wanted to eat at, two because it was one of the few places that stayed open till late and last because the place was so beautiful with all the waterfalls and amazing replications of cool places around the world, such as the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon and the Eiffel Tower.

After amusing the person at the desk for about ten minutes while we all fought over who would pay, Rhys finally ended up paying for all us. Though I wasn't really happy about that, I sucked it up because the entry was only ten dollars per person, so at least he wasn't spending too much money on me. I absolutely hated it when people spent money on me. It made me feel cheap and selfish as if I was using other people's money for my own fun. We decided to make teams, two people in each. Cassian ended up with Mor and Azriel with Amren, which left Rhys and me to go together. Oh, what are the chances!? Trying very hard to hide my grimace, I went to get a golf stick and ball. As I was doing that, I sensed him and the tightness in his muscles behind me. At least he seems as annoyed as I am, I thought to myself.

The first few courses were a blur, with me only coming back to my senses when it was my turn to hit the ball. By the fifth course, we were loosing. By a lot.

But then, at the seventh course he said, "It sucks, huh." I looked up at him with a frown. Did he mean being in a team with him? He clarified, "Loosing. I bet you wish you were with one of the others." He let out a breath in amusement. I frowned before saying, "I don't think that at all. It's not so bad being with you." He stared at me before moving his eyes to my lips. I noticed his pupils widening a little, causing me to blush. He noticed, looking up, before shaking his head and paying attention to the game once again. He didn't talk to me after that.

—

Rhys's POV

Beautiful. She was so beautiful, breath-taking even. She was so pretty and soft and adorable. The questions I had asked her: they had just been a way to get to know her a little better, but her answers had been so unique and different. She wanted to teach little kids art. I smiled to myself, imagining her walking around a classroom and giving feedback to the children she was teaching, making them smile when she gave them a compliment. I knew she would be successful in achieving her goals. I knew she was strong and wouldn't stop until she got everything she had ever wanted for herself. It was just another one of the things that attracted me to her. Because I was attracted. It was impossible not to be.

But Feyre was so different from her.

She had been so different with her red hair and black eyes that were always gleaming with schemes and wicked delight at small things in the world. I had found the gleam to be attractive but later I learnt that that gleam was just something she was using to lure me in. Her love at the beginning of the relationship was a trap, and then her hatred and evilness at the end was the immediate poison.

And then all of sudden, those black eyes turned into blue and grey. And instead of the gleam, there was a… glow. There was no other word for it. Her emotions shone through her eyes, making her whole face sparkle with the emotion, too. And though the light was mostly from happiness, there was also sadness and despair behind it. It was always there, like a shadow trailing her. And just like the sun momentarily hiding behind a cloud, I could see the shadow of the depressing emotion hiding the shine of the sun. I'd seen the sun disappear behind the cloud a couple of times today. Once before I got her to do the carpool karaoke and once when playing golf. I'd just happened to glance at her, wanting to see her face light up at my success of getting a ball into the pit, and she'd been happy. But before the happiness appeared, there had been shadows. Feyre was good and had hid them quickly, but I was also good. Spending time with her had given me a sharp eye and I'd spotted the shadow. And it wasn't the first time I'd seen it. I'd seen it multiple times before, in our previous interactions and I didn't like it one bit. I didn't understand why I felt this way, but I very badly wanted to get rid of those shadows. I never wanted to see them on Feyre's face again. I just didn't know how to get rid of them. It annoyed me, made me tense. Maybe if I knew what was causing the shadows to appear, I could get rid of them. But how should I ask her? It's not like I could just walk up to her and say, "Hi, I've noticed the shadows in your eyes and face and very desperately want to get rid of them. Could you please tell me what's causing them to appear so that I can do something about it?" Yeah. That would get me places.

Shaking my head at my thoughts, I tried pushing her out of my head and closed my eyes. But even in my sleep, she appeared with her golden-brown hair and grey-blue eyes, her sun and shadows at war.

Feyre's POV

I stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to my ceiling as I thought.

Rhys.

I felt so comfortable in his presence, something that surprised me a lot since I'd gotten used to the idea of never being comfortable with a male's touch. But it was different with Rhys. He was so handsome, his features sharp but beautiful. I pictured all the drawings I'd done of him. Though they were all done without thought, I knew some of those sketches were the most authentic and alluring pieces I'd ever drawn.

I didn't remember much about my mother, but I did remember something she'd once told me. The sentence had stuck with me from the day she'd first said it and since then I'd always tried to let it show in my work. An artist's best work always comes from the heart.

So did that mean my pictures of Rhys were coming from my heart? But why though? All that there was in my heart was the wish to be successful. That's all I wanted. I didn't want the love of my life anymore. Not after Tamlin. Tamlin's actions had proved to me that my dreams had always stupid and false and that there never had been anyone perfect for me out there. And even if there was, which I very highly doubt, it was not Rhys. Rhys was not perfect. He was arrogant. He was intimidating and always stared at me as if there was something wrong with my face. He wasn't perfect. He was sad and stressed. I'd seen it in my paintings and in real life, too. He was not perfect… but what if?… What if… there was no one perfect out there. What if there never was a perfect guy out there for me. What if I had always been destined to be with an imperfect man. What if I was to make him perfect. No. Not perfect. Complete. I was to make someone complete with my love, and he would reciprocate. Because that was love. Completing someone with your love.

As I lay in bed, I thought about all that.

And then, out of nowhere, I remembered how his eyes had wandered to my lips before drifting back up. I blushed again at the thought, before flipping on to my stomach, stuffing my face in my pillow, and forcing myself to sleep. But even then, night-blue hair and violet-coloured, silver-flecked eyes stared back at me in my dreams.

AN: I love this chapter, it's just so sweet. But what do you think? Do you like where their thoughts are going? Tell me everything.

[blackevermore]

x Michelangelo x Taz headcanons

[Slight Nsfw: Mention of nudity but that’s it]

x Taz is NOT allowed near any of the weapons despite training and studying the craft of weaponry. When she isn't working on designs she isn't serious and just wants to play with everything. She's secretly repaired everyone's gear (before Donnie had a chance to notice they were broken) but Mikey was the first to notice his favourite pair of nunchucks had different ironwork via the chains. Sometimes it was long and sometimes it was short. Luckily for him, he can work with both, what gave it away that someone was messing with his stuff when the leather strips on the handles were changed from black to teal. 

x "Babe! It's been you the whole time!"

x "Ahhhhh!" [Taz makes a mad dash to get away from being caught]

x When Taz finally comes to her sense and realizes Raph isn't mean big and evil (and it's Donnie or Leo she should watch out for) she starts to spend time with him more and actually talk to him. This lowkey makes Mikey jealous because Raph is just eating it up how Taz is more open with him. When Mikey is jealous he pouts and makes that grumbly voice and Taz always teases him and ask if he is jealous. If he says no she'll cup his cheeks and mush them together until he confesses. No one knows why that works on Mikey but it does.

x Mikey and Taz had both broken a foot from trying to skate down the sewer tunnels, different times, same secret tunnel, rant foot, same trick.

x "Sweetbean we're like totally meant for each other."

x "Mikey this isn't a sign of love, this is a sign of our stupidity."

x "Same thing."

x Karaoke is every other Friday (used to be every Friday but then Donnie smashed the jukebox to piece after Taz screamed out the lyrics to "I will always love you" while he was trying to work). With Donnie's permission, the couple can still have their nights. Sometimes they give fair warning to loud songs and other times they don't. Taz's favourite type of songs to sing are RnB and indie love songs, she'll pull Mikey to the floor and she'll sit across from him and sing to him.

x It is Taz's fault Mikey now wants Hot Cheetos are weird hours of the night. He used to only sneak out for pizza, now he gets Pizza and Cheetos. Or if he is being a lazy ass and Taz is in the state he'll call her up with an excuse of wanting to see her. He gets his snacks and his baby all in one.

x If there is a will there is away. These two risk takers have broken into rooftop pools for late night swims when Mikey isn't human. Leo was on their asses when he found out what they were doing just before dad found out. Taz has never done a backflip in her life, that day she had to do 10 while Mikey had 110. Taz almost wanted to cry from the struggle being real.

x That didn't stop them, now they sneak out when they are sure no one is awake (Donnie is always awake poor baby has insomnia so they bribe him to stay quiet).

x When Taz spends the night in the sewers you can always find her on top of Mikey with the blankets thrown over the both of them. She's like a koala. Since Mikey is cold blooded she doesn't have to worry about getting overly hot and they can stay knocked out in the same position until she wakes up.

x Mega plus for the boys she always makes breakfast for them and their dad, though she's doing it half sleep and sometimes falls right back to sleep when she finishes.

x April already leaves her window unlocked for when the guys want to come over but when Taz comes up state she doesn't even bother getting a heads up on either the whole gang is coming over or just Mikey. April has come home from work late in the night with Mikey raiding her kitchen and Taz asleep on the floor in front of the TV.

x "I didn't know you were coming."

x "Mikey I LIVE here."

x Every turtle as an area to themselves and everyone knows Mikey's area is like the party room but sometimes its the very quiet arts and craft area with a sign that says "DnD". Taz and Mikey do paint theory (or that's what Taz calls it) where they strip down to nothing and sit facing each other and use different colour paints to draw or write on each other. There is nothing sexual about this, it's actually a very serious thing for Mikey to do because of his anxiety with wanting to be "normal". Sometimes Mikey will turn on his human disguise for a session because it makes him feel better but Taz will turn it off and paint on his shell. She knows that he worries a lot about their relationship and the reason they do it naked is so that there is nothing to hide and they have to be open with each other. The disguise is a blessing and a curse.

x "Mikey.....did you just paint a Vincent Van Gogh sun on my boob?" x "No.....yes...."

x Even outside of the session they doodle on each other for fun. Taz falls asleep a lot of the times half way in Mikey's lap when he has down time and I'll hike up her skirt or shorts and draw a mural depending on how long she stays sleep. When she isn't face up, he'll ask her to remove her shirt so he can paint on her back. He once did a shell inspired piece and Taz was worried about messing it up before she could get a picture of it that she walked around the lair without a top holding her chest.

x They post all of Mikey's body art on insta and it's really popular.

x Mikey is honestly the personality of any of their joint media accounts and Taz is happy that other people now get to see how awesome he is.

x Washing the paint off is also fun too because the way it mixes in the water lowkey turns Mikey on.

x Mikey loves taking Taz out on the motorcycle (when Raph finally brings it back) he takes her to all his favourite hideouts off skirts New York. They star gaze and talk about family drama and personal matters. Taz doesn't know how to put some of her feelings into words and Mikey doesn't know how to properly understand his feelings. It makes them feel better afterwards and when its time to go back home they always seem mellower.

x Taz went to a party with April and there were cookies on a snack table she took twelve of them and after the party took them back to Mikey after parol. They sat up in his bed eating them all. After a few minutes, Mikey started getting giggly and Taz was hella sad. Mikey was trying to cheer her up but she just kept crying more. Leo found the two and quickly realized they were high off their ass and called April to ask where the cookies came from. When Donnie and Leo offered to take Taz back to April's Mikey started crying and Raph had to hold him back from trying to pull Taz into a bear hold and keep her there all night.

x Either of them can actually recall the night other than waking up with a headache.

x Mikey have stolen the tank for joyrides even after Donnie locked up the eyes. Mikey developed some really bad human traits such as breaking and entering and hot wiring. Since he doesn't know how to properly drive the tank and nor do Taz she still drives them because she's a bit more responsible.

x They have gotten into so much trouble when they come back.

x "This is so your fault."

x "Shut up Angel."

[teababe27]

Notes From the 2019 Myanimelist.net Challenges - Part 1: Anime

Health problems have laid me up a little, but now I’m finally posting this.

As you can tell by the title, this is a post in the vein of last year’s notes about the Myanimelist.net Anime Watching and Manga Reading Challenges. While I didn’t complete everything by the deadline, I had some fun with it and saw/read some good things, some okay things, some things I’ve been meaning to watch anyway, and some things I probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for this challenge.

This post will deal with the anime side. Part 2, dealing with the manga side, will come soon.

I will mention some notables/honorable mentions and then some of my favorite things I watched for this challenge.

Let’s do this.

Honorable Mentions/Other Notables: Millennium Actress - completed for the task “Watch an award-winning anime”

Two filmmakers interview Chiyoko, a retired, reclusive actress from long ago. She brings the two filmmakers through her memories.

As far as I’m concerned, anything Satoshi Kon does is great. A movie with an interesting concept and an interesting art style. I teared up a little at the end, ngl.

RIP Satoshi Kon.

My Neighbor Totoro - completed for the task “Watch an original anime”

Two little girls move to a house in the countryside with their father. While at the house, they discover forest spirits and go on adventures with them.

As expected from Studio Ghibli, the art is gorgeous. The story was fun. I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t seen this until now.

While not my favorite Miyazaki movie, this was still beautiful and also fucking adorable.

It was also pretty cool to hear the Fanning sisters in early roles.

Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? - completed for the task “Watch an anime in which your favorite character’s voice actor participated”

Three kids, each with a different special ability, are whisked away to a world called Little Garden. They are called upon by Kurousagi (Black Rabbit in the English dub) to win “Gift Games” and help the community regain its former glory and resources after a demon took them away.

I’d put this under the group of “Things i probably wouldn’t have watched if not for this challenge”.

I’m not normally into isekai anime (I feel it’s been way overdone lately), but I had fun with this. I honestly didn’t like a couple of the characters at first, but then I realized it was kinda the point. They did get better, though.

Automatic props for having Josh Grelle in there voicing one of the titular problem children.

I had fun with this one overall.

Aoi Bungaku Series - completed for the task “Watch an anime with more than 16 minutes in total and tagged as Mystery, Psychological, and/or Thriller”

An anthology adapting several classic Japanese books and stories.

This anime was different than a lot of what I have watched before. Bleak as hell a lot of the time (especially in the first story), but I found this anime interesting. I might try and read the books that these stories were based on.

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor - completed for the task “Watch an anime suggested by Myanimelist or Anime+”

Justy Ueki Tylor is a bit of a lazy bum. He signs up to join the space military because he wants to live a relatively easy life and get a good pension when he retires. Through sheer charisma and dumb luck, he helps diffuse a hostage situation, leading him to be promoted to Captain of a ship with a bad reputation. An evil space empire and higher-ups looking to get rid of Tylor are also involved.

I found this show funny, but I also feel like this is one you need to be in the mood for. That being said, this was a fun watch.

A lot of zany hijinks and watching Tylor get by through sheer luck and charisma. Gave me some mixed feelings at times.

I have a weakness for things that came out in the 90s, as I grew up with that animation style and shows from that time period. As such, it was very cool to hear voice actors from my childhood, like Rachel Lillis and Lisa Ortiz, in this anime. (I was internally going “OMG it’s Misty!!” every time Yuriko talked.)

Favorites from the Challenge:

Hanayamata - completed for the task “Watch an anime that began airing between 2010 and 2015″

An ordinary student, Naru, wants nothing more than to be pretty and dazzling like in her fairy tale books. One day, she meets a mysterious girl, Hana, who dances with her one night. Hana turns out to be an American transfer student who ends up transferring into Naru’s class. Hana then introduces Naru to Yosakoi dancing and forms the Yosakoi club.

I thought this was a cute and fun slice-of-life anime. Premise can be a bit iffy if you really think about it, but I had fun with this show. I love how everyone slowly opened up with each other and was able to make their club work.

Also, I couldn’t help but have this thought: I feel like the first couple episodes had so much lesbian subtext that I had to check if this anime was made by KyoAni (it wasn’t, it’s made by Madhouse).

Tatami Galaxy - completed for the task “Watch a Noitamina anime”

A third-year college student runs into a mysterious guy at a ramen shop. The student reflects on his past 2 years at college, mostly spent with his friend Ozu trying to break up happy couples. The student wonders if he’s wasted his life and resolves to do better. Then a time loop starts happening and more chances arrive.

*clasps hands like Gendo Ikari*

We meet again, Masaki Yuasa.

No better time than this challenge to work through more of Masaki Yuasa’s filmography, especially after watching the decent Mind Game and the excellent Kaiba for last year’s challenge.

While watching this anime, I felt myself going back and forth on whether or not I really liked this anime. Whether it was overrated or underrated. Whether it was a good idea on what the Endless 8 could have been or something that kept going unnecessarily long because the Student couldn’t see what was in front of his face. Whether it was style over substance.

The answer?

Yes.

I honestly liked it, but I do understand the criticism. I feel like the confusion about my feelings can be a good thing and this anime still had some great points and made me think.

I also thought the art style and soundtrack were great, as usual from Masaki Yuasa.

One Outs - completed for the task “Watch an active staff member’s favorite anime with 10 episodes or more”

A struggling baseball team recruits Tokuchi Towa, a pitcher who is more of a gambler than anything. Kojima, the team’s veteran player, hopes that Tokuchi will lead them to the championship. Corrupt ownership and unethical opponents also add problems.

Tokuchi was a great character. He’s a genius, but also a huge troll. His method is basically trying to psychologically get to the other players and go from there. I liked seeing him work through situations and outsmart people. This was one of the few anime from the challenge where I could watch several episodes in one sitting and not even realize it.

Basically, this was a take on sports anime I didn’t know I needed.

Aggressive Retsuko (aka Aggretsuko) - Season 1 completed for the task “Watch an ONA,” Season 2 completed for the task “Watch an anime with more than 16 minutes in total and a popularity lower than #700″

Retsuko, a red panda, is an average office worker. Unfortunately, she hates her job. She is harassed by her boss and given unreasonable amounts of work. To relieve the stress from her life, she secretly goes to karaoke and sings death metal to scream everything out.

I love this. I love Retsuko. I love the little songs sprinkled in. I love Retsuko’s relationships with several of her office-mates.

I feel like I can relate so hard. Not necessarily with the heavy work load, but just the general stresses of life in your 20s. Being stuck in a job that isn’t the best, and also liking metal.

I had a ton of fun with this show. Season 1 was slightly better than Season 2, but I loved this show all the same.

Girls’ Last Tour - completed for the task “Watch an anime that finished airing with more than 10 episodes and has a synopsis by MAL Rewrite”

In a post-apocalyptic, war-torn landscape, two girls, Chito and Yuri, travel the world for answers, with only their motorbike/tank, their supplies, and each other.

This, by far, wins Best of the Challenge this year.

This anime gave me a mix of emotions that I don’t know if I’ve ever felt before. A strange mix of existential dread and sadness and going “aww” at the slice-of-life adventures the two girls have. It made me laugh, made me cry, and made me think.

Watch this one, please.

[writings-of-dumpy]

The Princess and the Pirate

A/N: Well, this story is entirely selfish, but it’s my tumblr so who cares. If you do chose to read, I hope you enjoy!

Summary: Descendants has a hold on me and Harry Hook is at the center of it.

~Prologue~

Five years ago, Mal left Auradon and broke up with Ben. She left her friends and home in search of her greater purpose, as she put in her breakup note, and escaped the pressures of being Ben’s lady of the court. Ben then decided that he would once and for all scrub the Isle of the Lost clean of villains and villainy. Harry, Uma and Gil were among the first to be taken to Auradon to be given a chance at a new life, and Harry found it to be quite rewarding. After about a year or so of working together, Ben, Carlos, Jay, Evie, Harry, Uma, and Gil were a tight-knit group of friends with Evie now Ben’s Lady and Uma his Chief Advisor. With work to be done on both ends of the bridge, Harry elected to stay on the Isle and help keep the order and safety of the people of New Auradon, which is what the combination of the island and the mainland was now called. After a few years of peace and prosperity and all of the descendants growing out of Auradon Prep, Auradon university was built and would begin its inaugural semester in just a week.

 ~Harry~

It had been an extremely long time since Harry had even thought of stealing, pillaging, or anything even remotely unpleasant. He had learned to be a good person effortlessly and enjoyed making others laugh and girls he found attractive blush with his now harmless flirting. Harry let out a sigh as he looked out onto the clean and bright streets of what was once a musty, dirty, crime-ridden cesspool of misery he was forced to call home. He looked past the small island to the mainland where he was about to head for some of his very first educational experiences. His father wasn’t much of an academic and his mother had died just a few years after his birth, so the only formal training he had was in cartography. While on Neverland with his father before the Beast rounded everyone up and plopped them on the isle, Harry had been taught to fight, have fun, and even fly under the tutelage of Peter Pan. Harry thought back to those days as he made his way to Auradon university. He thought about Gil and Uma, who he hadn’t seen but once a year for the past five since Mal’s departure (which of course sparked Ben’s Clean It Up act, as the group called it) and he wondered if they’d be as happy as he is to finally have stability.

Harry followed the signs and found his way to the student housing where he was greeted with a tight hug by Gil.

“Harry! Oh, man I’m so glad you’re here! We’re roommates, can you believe that?!” Gil exclaimed.

“Let him breathe, Gil, he just got here,” Harry heard Uma say from behind Gil. Harry chuckled and embraced his significantly shorter friend.

“Still wearing that eyeliner and hook I see?” Uma asked skeptically.

Harry shrugged. “Ye know me.”

“Come on, I’ll show you our room! Oh and these are the houses: there’s Aurora, Kita, Florian, and Shang! We’re in Shang where all the cool guys are. Aurora is where all the princesses and musical people are. Florian is for all the writing people are… like reporters and thinkers. Kita is where all the science nerds are, so if you need homework help, go to them,” Gil explained as they walked through the path. As Harry looked around, he happened to see the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Her hair was long and red and her skin was paler than Snow White’s he was sure.

“Who is tha’ beauty?” Harry asked after stopping dead in his tracks.

“That’s Rayla. She doesn’t say much, but man can she sing. We had karaoke night last night and she won by a landslide,” Uma explained.

“Is she a princess?” Harry asked. He hoped the answer was no because he knew he’d never be able to get near a princess. New Auradon was a wonderful place, but there were still some who feared the children of such horrid people.

“Not sure… Nobody knows who her parents are, so I’d assume not,” Uma responded with a shrug.

Harry and Gil walked into the house labeled ‘Shang’ and were greeted by Ben, Evie, Jay, and Carlos.

“Hey, look who finally made it!” Ben said and pulled his eyeliner-wearing friend into a hug. Harry greeted everyone and smiled, then noticed Uma’s sudden shyness and looked over to see Lannie walking by.

“Hey, guys! Hi, Uma,” she said and winked at the teal-haired girl.

Uma blushed and Harry’s smile grew into a gawk at Uma. “Are ye- “

“We had ONE date,” Uma said quietly, and Harry noticed her cheeks turning red.

“I’m going to go meet my new roommate, I’ll see you guys at dinner, okay?” Evie said and gave Harry’s shoulder a squeeze before kissing Ben briefly and skipping off towards Kita house.

“When are you proposing?” Carlos asked Ben once Evie was out of earshot.

“Proposal? Well, i’s about time, lad,” Harry said and patted his friend on the back.

Ben blushed and smiled. “Well… I had to get all of my knights together, which includes you now, Harry.”

Harry smiled and tried not to get too choked up. “I’m honored.”

For the very first time, Harry was home and he was excited for this coming year of learning and was hopeful about his new position.

 ~Rayla~

“Is that the last of it?” my mom asked my father and I, who had just carried the last of her teaching materials to her classroom inside of the massive campus that was Auradon university.

“Yes,” we groaned in unison.

“This is so exciting, isn’t it? All of my research is going to be spread across all of Auradon’s finest…” my mother said and practically floated around the room.

“Yes, I’m very happy for you, but Jane… did you really have to bring all of England with you?” my father asked.

“Tarzan, you can’t convince me that those were heavy while when I met you, you bore your weight and then some on your knuckles,” my mother responded which caused me to chuckle.

My parents looked at me and smiled. “Why don’t you go find your room, dear? We’ll see you at dinner. Maybe you’ll make friends!”

I rolled my eyes and waved goodbye to them. It’s not that I didn’t like people, I just… didn’t say much. I wasn’t in the business of people, I was going to this university to become a veterinarian—Auradon’s first, in fact. I got along with people in passing just fine, but I guess it was odd that I was perfectly comfortable not saying anything. I had very few human friends growing up and I was often teased for hanging out with animals at the various shelters rather than going to parties. I knew my parents worried, but I couldn’t find it in myself to be someone I’m not. When I explained that to them, they understood and usually left me alone about it.

I approached Kita house and entered the gigantic mansion to find a large group of people mingling about in the common area directly ahead of me. Since my performance last night at the karaoke bar, people all over this campus have been saying hello to me in passing. I wave and greet them back, of course, but the conversation never seems to go further. So when none of them seemed to notice my entrance, I was slightly relieved that I wouldn’t have to reciprocate an awkward greeting. Instead I headed up the stairs towards the dorms and scanned down the hall until I found my name and another on a large blue door.

I opened the door and found that half of the room had been taken already, which made picking a bed extremely easy, for which I was very grateful.

“Oh! Hello, you must be Rayla! I’m your roommate, Evie,” a woman with glossy blue hair said cheerfully from the claimed closet.

“Hi, yeah, nice to meet you,” I said and smiled politely.

“Hey, you won karaoke last night, right? Wow! I thought you would have been in Aurora for sure! Where did you learn to sing like that?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I learned from birds, I suppose.”

Evie laughed. “You’re so funny! I hope you don’t mind, I took this half of the room already.”

“Not at all,” I said with a smile and set my things down.

“So what are you studying?” Evie asked me.

“Veterinary medicine,” I answered while unpacking.

“Wow, that’s amazing. We actually have a campus mutt named Dude. He’ll probably be the most interesting dog you’ll ever meet,” Evie said. I looked at her quizzically.

“Oh?”

“He talks.” I smiled. “All dogs talk, you just have to speak their language.”

“No, she means actually talk. Like you,” I heard a male voice say from behind me. I turned around and saw a small and tan collie mix sitting in our doorway. “You’re not going to try and poke me, are you?” the dog said.

I stumbled backwards in shock and Evie giggled.

“I know right? I guess he got into some nasty magic and nobody knows how to reverse the spell,” she shrugged.

I knelt to his level and held out my hand for him to smell. “So… you’re a talking dog… Alright, Evie. I’ll give you this one, he is certainly the most interesting dog I’ve ever met.”

For the next hour or so, Evie and I talked a lot about what our goals were and Evie told me all about her plans to create new formulas of makeup and beauty products and I was thoroughly impressed with her ambition.

“Hate to interrupt, but dinner is in ten minutes,” a boy with glasses, a bowtie, and a sweatervest said from our doorway.

“Thanks, Doug,” Evie said not making eye contact and visibly uncomfortable. After he left, I looked at her as we got up to walk together.

“What was that all about?” I asked her.

She sighed and explained as we walked down the stairs and out of the house towards the dining hall, “That’s Doug, he and I used to date. When I first came here, my mother, the Evil Queen, told me to find a prince but then Doug made me feel like I didn’t need one. So we dated and then we just drifted apart when Mal left, and then Ben and I really started to get to know each other, so now he thinks that I’m shallow and that I just want a prince to marry so I can live in a castle, but that isn’t true! I love Ben and I’d do anything for him. The fact that he’s King is only happenstance… You don’t think I’m shallow, do you?”

I shook my head. “Not at all. I think you’re very smart and loyal.. But I’ve also only known you for an hour.”

Evie giggled. “Feels like longer. Oh, hey! There’s Ben, you should come meet him and the rest of our friends! Come on, they’ll love you.”

Evie lead me over to a large table that sat about 12 people. Evie introduced me to each of them, and she introduced me to them, “Rayla, this is Ben, Carlos, Jane his girlfriend, Jay, Uma and Lannie, Gil, and Harry.”

I waved to everyone shyly and smiled.

The man named Harry was sat next to me and got up only to take my hand and bow deeply. “Pleasure to meet ye, lass. I’m Harry,” he said and planted a soft kiss on the top of my hand. I stood there completely stunned and blushing.

“Damn, he doesn’t miss a beat, does he?” the girl named Uma said, which earned her a glare from Harry. He pulled out a chair next to his seat for me and I thanked him, still blushing. Evie sat next to me and grinned at my face, which I was sure was red.

The room went quiet and I saw at the professors’ table my parents as well as many other famous faces and the Fairy Godmother herself stood up to address us, “Welcome everyone to the very first semester of Auradon University! As headmistress, I hope that you all have a wonderful time learning and growing. But for now, enjoy your dinner. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!”

[malisonquill]

Rebuild: Behind The Scenes

I thought just for some fun, I might post the plan I made for writing Rebuild. It has some silly alternate titles, some doodles I sketched out, and I thought some people might like to see how much the end product was different from the plan. 

I do also have a section of the plan just for ideas, but I haven’t included it here because it contains spoilers for the sequel(s). 

Hope you enjoy my ramblings below! (Obviously it contains major spoilers for all of Rebuild, so make sure you’re read all that before reading this!)

Rex Brickowski AU Outline

C1: Rexile (AKA Anikin Voice: "I hate Sand". AKA What to do when you're suddenly not dead)

Rex ends up back in his own original timeline in the outskirts of Syspocalypstar. He’s alone, no Rexcelsior, no velociraptors. That makes him sad. 

He looks to the city and thinks about everything.

Cat lady comes, he gets bricks and builds and awesome bike  and drives to the city. 

C2: Shattered (AKA Rex really likes bikes for some reason and also fucks shit up)

There, Lucy and the others are chillin in a park while Rex tears through the city exploring, turning heads. 

He goes up a ramp that sends him up over a building above the park. Whilst in the air he grabs his bike and does a flip. The others watch him. He lands on the road next to the park and spots Lucy, his eyes go wide. He does a skidding turn to pull up beside them. 

They say how awesome that was. They don’t recognise him and he plays along with that. He needs to get used to them and himself before he drops a bombshell on them. 

They show him around the city. He gets a black coffee from the shop. Freezes when he sees a laundromat (PTSD), he hallucinates the deafening roar of the Dryar of Undar until Unikitty distracts him and pulls him away and they continue the tour. 

At one point Everything is awesome plays, he acts aloof but taps his foot quietly and lucy notices. 

Eventually they get to the town square. There is a statue of Emmet. Rex is immediately taken aback and asks what it is (to gauge his friends reactions and also because he's genuinely surprised to see he's been acknowledged). 

Lucy says it honours the special, Emmet. That he was there friend. That they looked for him for a while, but eventually had to admit that he was gone, so they stopped looking. 

BIG ANGST TIME.

Rex snaps. He’s still bitter. He starts off vauge like “You gave up? Would he have given up on you?” but gets increasingly louder and madder. Revealing that he was trapped in Undar, how he feels abandoned and slowly revealing to the others that he’s Emmet. Lucy is like “Emmet…?” And he’s like “Emmet is gone! He’s dead!” 

He breaks the statue in one punch in anger. His friends are horrified. He looks between them and the statue, shocked and saddened by himself. “What have done?” (Internally). He drives off, leaving the others sad and confused. 

C3: Traces Of You (AKA Talking to your ex who you feel betrayed you, even though she thought you were dead… that's rough buddy)

Alternate titles, How can you stand there, a whisper from me? Gone But Not Forgotten

After a short while, giving everyone some time to breathe/ think, Lucy finds Rex in the outskirts. They talk. He explains how he toughened up, how he did some terrible things, how he wants to be better but doesn’t know how. How he’s ruined any chance he had with his friends because of the statue incident. Tears form in his eyes. Lucy goes to comfort him with a hand on his shoulder and says “Emmet...” Queue the “I’m not Emmet anymore and I dont know how to be” line.

Lucy convinces him to not be just one, be a combination. That his friends can help him through this and him to be happier again. He says he’s still can’t fully/ needs time to trust them again, but he’s willing to try. Oh and to call him Rex, cause he wants to be different from movie Emmet. 

C4: Building Blocks (AKA DON'T TOUCH ME WHEN I'M WRITING ABOUT SPACESHIPING!!!!)

Lucy and the others ask Rex to build something with them. He decides on a spaceship, they let him lead. Friend interactions. 

C5: Time Heals All Wounds (AKA So it turns out you based your entire new personality on your friends and also you finally acknowledge your PTSD)

Over a longer time period (make this clear), montage of helping with each individual. Them understanding Rex and who he is more, maybe after he tries to act exactly like Emmet would but it’s unnatural for him? Finding out about raptor training. Helping him cope with his PTSD (Dryar, paralyzation, loneliness) and abandonment issues.

(after writing half the chapter, i realised) His hand injury and recovery mirror emotional healing! )

https://askmarietheapprentice.tumblr.com/post/183050688583/meta-monday-rex-dangervest-based-his-persona-on 

Order: 

Fist, alone with Benny, flying spaceship they all built. (Who Rex developed his spaceship love from.) Emotional thing dealt with: ?

Unikitty. He learnt to harness/ weaponize rage from. Unikitty encouraging him to release some anger and destroy some rubble. Helps him get his anger feels out.

Metalbeard. About being a captain of pirates/ raptors. Talk about how he misses them.

Batman. Learnt how to be tough fighter and suppress deep emotional issues. See below for events. Then they talk about talking through things with others, stuff B learnt in Lego batman movie.

Maybe he’s left alone for ten mins whilst a friend goes to grab a brick or something and is terrified they wont come back. He’s relieved but visibly shaken when they do return. 

Maybe a change over between friends. One has to go and leaves Rex to meet the batman outside of a shop. As he waits his mind wanders thinking Batman has forgotten about him, doesn't want to meet with him, or even like him etc. As this happens he hallucinates hearing the dryer roar. He stands frozen in place, covering his ears as his vision gets darker. Maybe this causes him to glitch to the real world and back every few seconds. The roar gets louder and louder and louder. Batman comes, sees Rex, is concerned and tries to get his attention by touching his shoulder. Rex freaks out, snapping out of his hallucination shouting/ screaming and madly thrashing punches. He smashes a bin or lamppost or car to pieces before Batman can calm him and he realises he's fine. Rex apologies.

Lucy. Made a super cool alias like Wyldstyle, and hides his insecurities under confident exterior like her. Maybe they talk on their way to her surprise. She asks why he changed his name and himself? He explains his thoughts on Undar, how at the time he thought his friends were right and so he toughened up. Made a cool name like she did. He realises a lot of his Rex traits are semi based on his friends. Maybe talk about how it's good to be confident but also not bad to be vulnerable/ talk about problems with others. He realises he's already been doing this with others? Or just have mostly fun not angst for them here!? Meh, idk yet.

Ends with Lucy giving him that cute little house he made for her, that he’d almost forgotten about. Says it’s just a basis and he can change it if he wants. Talk. Suggests they could be platonic (for now) roommates. She leaves him for the night, he’s now ok (ish) with being left alone. 

C6: True Colours (AKA Title made it sound like Rex would turn out evil but surprise! He actually just wanted to look pretty. AKA Rex stares in a mirror for an awkwardly long time)

When Lucy returns, Rex looks different. He briefly went to the Man Upstairs realm and used markers etc, to change his appearance. He wanted some brighter colours to look happier, and more like a combo of Emmet and Rex. He explains this, and decides he wants to be called Rex Brickowski to symbolise this combo of all his aspects. 

Basically this first bit is the man I used to be from count of Monte cristo musical.

(Rex and Lucy designs and also size comparison.)

Maybe some Rex and friends hanging out, it’s better than before. Group karaoke? Tries to warm up to Sweet Mayhem?

C7: Epilogue (AKA The end happens. Everything is awesome is still a bop)

Rex and CO are hopeful for the future. Rex knows who he is now and thinks he can be happy again and trust his friends. He’s a mix of mature and innocent/ sweet. He can now enjoy ‘childish’ things and tough things. He’s happy and thinks everything might be ok now. 

Maybe he goes to the coffee shop, orders Lucy something and a black coffee with 25 sugars for himself and returns home, listening to rock music on his headphones.

(End on poignant thing.)

Side Notes/ Reminders For Myself

“According to a draft from the first film's script, Emmet is 22 years of age in that film, thus making him 27 in the sequel if accepted.” My AU Rex spent 2 years on Undar, plus 5 getting tough before the movie happens. Making him 34 at the start of the AU.

Rex was in his past changing things. But when Emmet was saved, it was no longer his past/ his timeline. So he faded and was sent back to his original timeline. All the stuff he did in the movie timeline still happened, we see three raptors are still there with Ms Scratchen-Post at the end. So the raptors stay where they are in the movie timeline, because they aren’t like Rex who is being written out of the movie timeline’s future. Which is why Rex is alone at the start of this AU. 

Very important! Rex's trust of his friends. My take: friends are the most important thing to Emmet. With friends, he was happy even during the apocalypse. Without them, he becomes jaded, tough. Lucy is who he was closest to/ loved. None of his friends, but especially her not coming for him and moving on hurt him the most. As Rex, he was most mad at her (see him scowling at her during the movie). But then they all try to come back for movie Emmet. Lucy makes it through and saves him. She saved him. This changes post back to the futuring Rex's view. The fact the movie Lucy saved him plus the fact he loved her and cared for her the most before, means AU Rex is inclined to trust her most. 

Titles for 3 stories: Rebuild. Rekindle. Re-----. (I'm an idiot for planning 3 of these!!!!!)

Rebuild: Rex's relationships and himself up again. 

Rekindle: his and Lucy's love for each other. 

Re-----: ((REDACTED BECAUSE IT’S A SPOILER! You’re gonna have to wait to find out what it is!))

INFO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw-r_G7rfnU - Chris Pratt Singing

Dino facts:

https://www.psd1.org/cms/lib/WA01001055/Centricity/Domain/36/SS_How_Fast_Did_Trex_Grow.pdf

http://cycles.westinmathies.com/Info_Pages.asp?ptype=Velociraptor_Cycl

SPELLING = Armamageddon (according to the subs)

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

And that’s it! This is the rambling mess that brought you Rebuild. Hope it was interesting to see.

As another note of my writing process, I did a lot of jumping around. If I had an idea for some lines of dialogue pop into my head, I wrote it down before I forgot and then slightly altered it and filled in the gaps later. In fact that whole bit between Lucy and Rex in chapter 3 was almost all dialogue (with a few notes like “He turned. She smiles” Etc in between) and then later after writing some of chapter 4, I went back and filled in all the gaps. 

I would really recommend writing down whatever pops into your head like this if you want to write things. You might think “Oh, i’ll remember to put this in when I get to writing here!”, that is a lie. You won’t. Or it’ll be different to that brilliant thing you came up with whilst day dreaming out a window. It’s definitely better to jot it down and have it, then decide to edit it later if you don’t like it, than lose it entirely. Just make sure when reading over your chapter/ story that everything flows together nicely. :)

This method also meant I wrote chapters 5, 6 and 7 simultaneously. I had about half of chapter 6 and 7 done whilst I was still making my way through 5. (Probably because 5 was so big!) But then when I was done with 5, I finished off 6, then 7. It also really helped when I came up with the idea to put the first line of the story as the last line too. It gave me a direction to go in for the last chapter (after Rex get’s back from the coffee shop) and also was a nice way to end it off. 

Anyway! Hopefully I see you all again for Rekindle! Which by the way, if there is anything involving the characters from this story that you might want to see, please let me know! I might just fit it in somewhere! :D