#The background’s a bit bland but I think it turned out decently

[unknownarmageddon]

Pretty happy with this,,,

Killer belongs to Rahafwabas Cross belongs to Jael Peñaloza the Apocalyptic Kross AU is owned by me and Apocalypse Anon

[radellama]

Fanfiction "Would you rather?"

Tagged by @future-dregs , yours were so fun to read and I got a bit rambly but had fun answering too!

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Friends to lovers, or enemies to lovers?

Friends to lovers, definitely. I'd rather not have animosity and troubled backgrounds that add baggage to the relationship, it's frustrating for everyone. Unless it's a very rare case of well done enemies to friends to lovers slowburn.

Be forced to watch a terrible movie adaptation of your favorite fanfic, or an amazing adaptation of your least favorite fanfic?

Amazing adaptation. If something like Harry Potter can be decent movies with THAT kind of source material, you can do anything. I think I've already seen enough terrible fanfic movies with all these shitty 'franchise reboots/sequels' so. Yeah. looking at you star trek and resi

A more fun question for me would be which one I'd have to direct, my favourite fic with too much upper management meddling and ruining it, or adapting a source material I hate but with mostly free reign over how I go about it - to which I'd still go for the one I hate cause I'll work through it with pure, hard boiled spite and turn it into something good LMAO

Read fanfic chapters backwards, last to first, or read them as parsed from google translate?

Backwards, but I'm taking the assumption that each chapter is in order and I'm reading the chapter order backwards, not each word of each chapter backwards as well.

Consume every fanfic as an audiobook read by a monotone narrator, or have to read every fanfic on a tiny printed piece of paper written in yellow highlighter?

I can't fucking read yellow highlighter and I already watch enough of that monotone shit on YouTube when I'm studying/drawing, easy win to monotonous reading.

Get a tattoo on your body of every fanfic title you read, or never read fanfic again?

Tattoos. Just get a good artist and make a kind of design out of how all the titles are placed, make em tiny so you got room for more, and off ya go.

Vampire AU or Werewolf AU?

Vampire! But good ones please lol. Werewolves are fun too but a lot of what I've read is too bland-angst or unfunny crack, and vampires just appeal to me more

Get sold to a boy band, or be stuck in a time loop with your love interest?

Time loop! There's some really nice episodes of shows that have time loops (I'm mainly thinking star trek but I'm SURE I've seen other time loop episodes) so I'd be interested to see how that'd go with different stakes and have it be relationship oriented/character driven instead of in massive high stakes must save the world lol

Kill your favorite character, or marry your least favorite character?

I MEAN.... CT already gives you the option. I can just do that. I've also jokingly already been married and divorced to the annoying shit head from CT as well, but I don't think it counts cause I love to hate him. Dunno. If eventual divorce is an option maybe I'd get married, cause I can already kill

Meet your love interest in a coffe shop AU or a college AU?

Really depends on what we're studying. If it's my current major, that could be kinda funny. Making short films with these constraints and pretty much no budget is insane, and I'm even more so. It'd surely be interesting. Also tbh I don't go to coffee shops because I don't like the smell and they're always loud as fuck and I don't even drink coffee to begin with soooo......

Have your fic history leaked, or never read another fanfic again?

Fuck it. No shame. I've read some shit and it'd be a bit nostalgic to see what I read way back in the day cause some were fun (most the fics are lost or got deleted) but most of it is cringe LMAO

Be able to read amazing fanfiction but it always has an mpreg plot twist, or only read bad fanfiction for the rest of your life?

Listen. If it's amazing, mpreg could be good. I just don't like seeing weird mpreg that feels fetishy and not well done. Plus if this means cool trans rep in fics, sign me up I'll get over my own personal discomforts. Also will it stay a plot twist if it's in EVERY fic I read? That's just overdoing the trope with no innovation

Gay ships or straight ships?

Honestly I prefer The Gays ™ cause at least back in the day, when did we ever get shit. It was all queer baiting or villain characters or bury your gays. But! If it's written well I honestly couldn't care less, I'd take an interesting het ship over a bland gay one any day

Ship a rarepair with almost no content, or a pair with lots of content but almost all of it is cracky nightmare smut?

Haha both of these are reality 🙃🙃 I mean, I made an OC to ship with my favourite dude (almost no content cause I'm da only one making shit) BECAUSE all the other fics with my man were fucking gross. Not even funny cracky nightmare smut just straight up. Enemies that are together but not really lovers, taking advantage of power imbalances, incest, and straight up being disrespectful and blurring lines of consent and all of it feeling wildly ooc. YUCK NO THANKS I'LL STAY IN MY CORNER WITH MY OC AND CONTINUE MAKING DUMB MEME COMICS AND ATTEMPTING THE NICE FIC

See your OTP shatter years after their happily ever after, or never have the happily ever after happen in the first place? 

Hmmmm..... Well considering my oc ship I mentioned previously ALREADY HAS a betrayal and break up with ambiguous ending in mind for their 'canon' fic, I might have to go with the first one. Cause it can be done well and having that reflection of all the good times together being only memories can be so bittersweet... Though I'm up for reading a good one that explores never having gotten together. Any otp I'll read either if it's good

Read a poorly written but complete fanfic, or a literary masterpiece last updated June 2013?

Listen. I've already read some masterpieces that haven't updated since earlier than that. I still think about a lot of abandoned fics all the time. If it's good and I have to live with it being incomplete I'll take it

Read SSSS++++ tier smut with almost 11k words, or 70k words worth of fluff?

Both, if they're both well written. But tbh I'll take the smut if it's that good

Read only alternate universe fanfics, or only canon fanfics?

Considering I get a little inwardly pissy when I see some utterly whacky ooc stuff, I'd rather take the aus, cause then if people feel too ooc for me it's just an au lol..I know the point of fanfic is that you can do whatever but also, if you're doing a canon/canon adjacent fic, I prefer when they're taken seriously. I know that's pretentious as fuck and definitely of the 'you will never understand these characters like I do' shit but. Aus are so much easier to enjoy cause so many people have weird interpretations that'll piss me off way more if they're trying to pass it as canon...

Introduce fanfics to your normie friend with an ongoing smut fic with great writing, or a complete fluff fic with terrible writing?

Great writing. Nothing wrong with some smut if it's really good, no need to be prudish. And honestly, if the normie friend is REALLY against it, I could just create a censored version for them and snip out the smut scenes.

Read your NOTP with all your favorite tropes and perfect characterization, or your OTP with tropes you despise and inconsistent characterization?

Notp done well for sure. If it's that good and in character with good plot and tropes, it could be fun. Dunno if it'll change my mind on it being notp lol but I'd rather that than have to read those shitty fics for my man all over again lol.. Already been through that don't make me do it again

Read a fic with an interesting concept but very poor writing, or read a fic with an uninteresting concept with really good writing?

I've already read plenty of both. Some fic authors are just able to make the most mundane things compelling, and some are still honing their skill but clearly have the passion, and both are fun to read. Don't really have a preference here, I'd probably just go on whatever is recommended to me/piques my interest first lol

Have a major character death, or have a bed sharing scene but it's a ship you hate?

Both lol, I don't really care. I'd be mildly curious about how others characterise the ship I hate, and major character deaths can be very interesting and help create some fascinating dynamics and character driven moments. Actually maybe I'd lean more towards character death

Read a fanfic that has consistent grammar and spelling mistakes, or one that the characters are wildly different than canon?

Grammar and spelling mistakes. I'm taking this as 'wildly different to canon but trying to make a canon fic,' in which case it's a massive no thanks. If it's a crack au or clearly meant to be silly, I don't mind, but grammar and spelling aren't that bad

Every fanfic includes Jackson Wang, or every fanfic includes at least one NSFW moment?

Fucking .. Jackson Wang... I've already been in the dark days where I read Kpop fic and every other fic he'd be there anyway and sometimes it's the most random thing... He's a nice enough dude irl but now I'm older and have different fandoms to actually read I realise I'm rather uncomfortable reading fics of irl people, no matter what the mental gymnastics I might've used to justify back in the day. So I'll take the nsfw thanks

Read the most absolutely messed up dead dove with your most wholesome otp, or subject yourself to 100,000 words of your NOTP all written in a solid block with no punctuation and horrible grammar?

Dead dove. I can take that, I'm fucked in the head anyway and might really enjoy it. Spelling and grammar being poor I can deal with, but a solid block? Even of a ship I do like? No thanks that's going to make my head cave in

Have the power to read every fanfic in existence, or have the power to make any ship canon?

All da fanfic, and please have part of that be that I remember the titles and where to find them LMAO. Unless we're talking about turning my oc ship canon in a game mod.... Coders hmu I have ideas to make this a reality

Have your OTP get together in canon but one of them dies in a tragic way, or all members of your OTP survive but get together with other people?

Hmmmm.... Really depends on what ship it is. And the context. I'd take either cause they're both great angst.. I am trying to think of what I'd lean towards but it really feels split down the middle for me lol

Read a cringy 70 chapter Harry Styles mafia AU, or a highschool Kpop AU y/n fic horrible grammar?

Already read those cringe kpop high school aus with next to no grammar and I'll fucking do it again. I don't care for Harry Styles at all lol

Accidentally send your boss a super detailed smut fic, or read a super detailed smut fic about your boss?

Read one, I can keep that to myself. Yeah maybe the first couple days/weeks after I read it will be hard not to laugh or something, but I'll get over it I can be professional.

Read smut fanfic aloud to your parents, or submit fanfic to the employer of your dream job?

I MEAN....... I'M STUDYING TO MAKE MOVIES RN AND IF IT'S MAKING A SCREENPLAY FOR AN ALREADY EXISTING FRANCHISE THAT'S TECHNICALLY FIC!??? I dunno if making movies is my ~dream job~ but I've always wanted to be creative and make stories so. Easy. Also if I make movies or whatever and there's a sex scene in it that's really similar to reading a smut scene to them anyway..

Pine after an oblivious love interest, or be the oblivious love interest being pined after?

Mutual oblivion 🙈🙈 🤯💥

jk, I think both have their interesting qualities, I can't really say. What about being oblivious to the fact that you're pining??

Hanahaki disease, or your soulmates first words to you tattooed on your body (and they're really stupid)?

Ummm... I don't really read soulmates aus all that often. Hanahaki has a really cool aesthetic to it but all the fics seem the same, and tattoo ones... Like once you meet, what's next? I'd probably say hanahaki just for the aesthetic and fingers crossed it's interesting and not bland tragedy porn, or I'd just ask for a better soulmates au LMAO

Be an Alpha, Beta, or Omega in omegaverse?

I've never read any of these kinds of fics so I dunno. I'll be whatever is funniest or provides the most compelling plot

Read a fanfic where the characters turn into furries, or a fanfic where the characters all get pregnant?

Nothing wrong with furries, could be fun. Lowkey interested in what's caused everyone to get pregnant, like is it just slice of life and EVERYONE is pregnant, like men women and all inbetween alike? Or is it a sci-fi or fantasy where there's some magic/science bullshit? It could be interesting? And tbh I have a few scenes in a fic I'm writing with sci-fi bs for some characters getting pregnant but it's coming from a body horror perspective so? If it's a cool premise I probably wouldn't care about everyone being pregnant?

Be able to resurrect dead fics, or have the power to create of plethora of new fics effortlessly?

So uh. This is the choice between resurrecting dead fics or actually having the time to write my 20+ aus just for ct? That I could even write fics for other fandoms? This is easy I wanna finish writing my fucking fics babbbeeeyyy

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Tagging @stillmoveforward @hellishgoat @fanimefreak @kanonavi @dishesoap @nyx4 and anyone else I'm forgetting if ya wanna do it. No pressure to it you don't want to either

[dwellordream]

“...First, let’s talk about materials. We can rule out a Steppe Nomad inspiration for any of this right off. The Eurasian Steppe is very large and covers a range of arid climates (that is to say, parts of it are colder, parts of it are warmer), but they all have spinning and weaving technology, by which the supple hairs of woolly animals, or plant fibers like linen, or cotton, or even natural protein fibers like silk can be fashioned into fabric which is more flexible, comfortable, breathable and temperature controlled than the raw leather we see in the show.

...there is a distinct lack here of lots of leather, except in the sort of things that lots of cultures use leather for (boots, fittings, saddles, bags, tents). Instead, clothing is mostly made out of nice, comfortable, breathable textiles, because of course it is. That is not to say, to be clear, that leather or hides or fur were never used – fur especially was used; merely that they were generally used to supplement clothing primarily made out of textile.

...Now Plains Native American clothing does make much greater use of animal skin as a clothing material, but there is an important distinction to be made here. The problem here is with the plasticity of the term ‘leather’ which can technically include a wide range of products, but in practice is understood to mean exactly what the Game of Thrones costume department and literally every piece of official artwork of the Dothraki understand it to mean, which is the product of tanning processes.

I am not an expert, but as far as I can tell, Native American clothing was not made in the same way; animal products were used in a process I have seen described as ‘brain tanning’ (rather than using chemical tannins) and the final product was then smoked. The result – which is often called ‘buckskin’ regardless of the animal source for the hide – is very different from the leather we see in the show.

This is, in terms of material, very clearly not what the ‘vests’ the Dothraki in the show are wearing. Buckskin would also be used to make trousers, as opposed to the “horsehair leggings” of Martin’s wording, which also strike me as deeply improbable. Haircloth – fabric made from horsehair (or camel hair) – is durable, but typically stiff, unsupple and terribly itchy; not something you want in direct contact with your skin (especially not between your rear end and a saddle), unless you just really like skin irritation. It is also a difficult material to get in any kind of significant quantity – and you would need a significant quantity if you intended to make most of your trousers out of it.

...Well that’s for materials, what about patterns? Once again, we can quite easily rule out anything steppe inspired. Again, the Eurasian Steppe is big and has lots of variety, but relatively long robes are generally the norm in terms of dress; where long robes were not worn (see our Scythian above), the common pattern was heavy sleeved garments and trousers with very complete coverage. A common example of the type of long robe-like garments is the Mongolian deel, a long sleeved robe or tunic which provides a lot of protection against the elements. In the case of elites – and Daenerys is, initially, mostly around elites – these could be made of expensive silk or brocade – but poorer versions might be made of wool.

...And there is good reason for these relatively high-coverage garments. Plains or Steppe peoples naturally tend to live on, well, plains and steppes – that is large expanses of semi-arid grasslands. The very nature of that terrain configuration produces fairly extreme seasonal temperature variations (that is, very hot summers and very cold winters) as well as extreme daily temperature variations (that is, hot days and cold nights) because such places are far from large bodies of water and also don’t have tree-cover, both of which serve to moderate rapid temperature changes.

Consequently, as anyone who has lived in a plains state in the USA (or on the Eurasian Steppe, though that is fewer of my readers, but for my brave handful of hits from that part of the world, hello and welcome!) can tell you, you need clothes that can be layered and which can be both warm in the winter and cool in the summer. For us moderns, we mostly do this by owning multiple season-specific wardrobes, but clothing is expensive in pre-modern societies, so multi-purpose garments, or garments that be layered, to turn a warm-weather outfit into a cold-weather outfit are important!

There’s no reason to suppose the Dothraki Sea would be any different: it sits at about the same latitude as King’s Landing so there is little reason to assume it would be warm all-year-round. Parts of the Eurasian Steppe stretch decently far south, sharing a latitude with northern Italy and Spain; nevertheless they do not enjoy the same Mediterranean climate because they don’t have the same exposure to the weather patterns created by the sea. The southern end of the Great Plains stretches down all the way into Texas, but still gets properly cold in the winter with temperatures regularly dipping below freezing in the winter despite the latitude. For a people who are camping and working outside all of the time, warm clothing is going to be a must.

...There is tremendous variety here, but I don’t think any of it could be aptly described simply as “Men and women alike wore painted leather vests over bare chests and horsehair leggings.” Now, if you looked hard enough could you find something that resembled Martin’s leather vests, bare chests and horsehair leggings somewhere in the clothing of Native Americans across two continents? Probably, but among the specific Native peoples that Martin cites as inspiration, it does not seem to be at all common. And if that description was wholly unconnected to anything in the real world, we might well stop there and conclude that, well this is just the ‘dash of pure fantasy’ that Martin was talking about (although as we’ll see, it is going to be quite a bit more than just a dash). But I don’t think we can stop there, because (removing the medallion belts) Martin’s description does adequately describe something that exists in the real world: Halloween costumes purporting to depict Native Americans.

...The vest-and-pants style of Native American Halloween costume seems to be rather rare now, but it was, at least to my memory, much more common in the 1990s, when A Game of Thrones was written (initial publication date of 1996). You can see them, for instance, on many of the background extras in the famous Thanksgiving scene from Addams Family Values (1993) and that vest style was also a part of the outfit for the also-quite-unfortunately-branded YMCA Indian Guides/Indian Princesses program (rebranded as the ‘Adventure Guides’ in 2003 after decades of Native Americans complaining about it) which was also fairly popular in the 1990s.

Now, I am not saying that Martin planned to construct his Dothraki out of Native American stereotypes and bad Halloween costumes. In fact, I am fairly confident he intended nothing of the sort. But in the absence of doing some effective research (and it is going to become increasingly apparent that at least effective research was not done) there was quite possibly nothing else to inform the effort other than what was ‘in the air’ of the popular consciousness. Of course the danger of those often simplistic public stereotypes is that people often do not know that they have them, assuming instead that the vague impression they have is essentially accurate (or at least, close enough for a regular person). And that’s a real problem because it reinforces the popular stereotype, especially given Martin’s reputation for writing more ‘historically grounded’ fiction. And that is a problem because…

The clothing that the Dothraki are described and visually shown wearing is clearly intended to convey things about their society. Returning to our visual comparison above, it is easy to see that the actual clothing of both Eurasian and American ‘horse cultures’ was often bright, highly decorated and generally eye-catching, featuring complex patterns and shapes. It was both nice looking, but also spoke to the humanity of the people that made it and their very human desire to look nice and have nice looking things. By contrast, the clothing of the Dothraki is presented as simple, rugged and unadorned.

...I want to stress this to make the point clear: people in the past liked to look nice! Much of the popular perception of pre-modern clothing assumes lots of dull, drab colors, undecorated or merely adorned with rough pelts, but this is almost entirely a Hollywood construction. The Romans didn’t exclusively dress in white (indeed, the toga candida, the white toga, was an unusually formal thing to wear, like a politician’s suit-with-flag-pin), medieval peasants didn’t wear drab brown (they dressed in bright primary colors mostly), and as I hope the historical pictures for this essay show, both steppe nomads and Plains Native Americans wore nice clothing with lots of patterns, color and decoration. These men next to Khal Drogo are his elite guard of ‘bloodriders,’ the companions of a ruler who wields tremendous power and wealth! And yet they have opted to wear mostly undecorated bland brown leather.

Just to underline this point, think about what a fine set of clothing communicates to an observer (for instance, one of Khal Drogo’s thousands of mounted warrior retainers who are present at this event). Imported goods, like metalwares (which nomads won’t generally be able to make themselves) or fine imported fabrics demonstrate not only trade contacts but also often that the leader has useful ties to foreign leaders (since such things were often gifts or tribute from foreign courts). Garments whose production, due to fine patterns, complex weaves, intricate beading or quillwork, would take many, many hours of production demonstrate that the leader has a lot of subordinate people in their household (in many cases, that would mean women), which both implies the ability to give these people as gifts (either in marriage or because of their non-free status) and also the access to resources (in this case herds of animals) needed to sustain so many people – in short, the sort of leader who can reward faithful warriors richly.

And of course a leader who outfits his closest retainers – his bloodriders, in this case – with such wares (especially expensive foreign metal military equipment) demonstrates both access to military capital and also the ability to reward his trusted lieutenants. In short, the Khal whose person and immediate retainers are decked out in finery looks like backing the winning side, which is a very important thing to assess as one of his warriors. So even if not one of Drogo’s men cares about their personal appearance at all, it is still politically important for them to dress for success.

Which then demands the question, looking at the very fine clothing of historical horse cultures that supposedly provided the inspiration for these Dothraki fellows: Where is the exquisite bead work? The fine quillwork? Where are the carefully made fringes? Where is the silk brocade? Where are the detailed, complex patterns?”

- Bret Devereaux, “That Dothraki Horde, Part I: Barbarian Couture.”

[meant-to-be-a-hero]

Ranger Rankings - Power Rangers Dino Charge/Dino Super Charge

Spoiler alert - these two were really great.

Premise - 4.5

The Energems give the team a reason to come together, and to stay together until everything's sorted. We've already had multiple dinosaur themed seasons, but this one really uses dinosaurs as a backdrop even moreso than Dino Thunder did, right up to the very end.

The mythology around the Energems evolves nicely, and it feels like something that's constantly important rather than just relevant when the plot demands it.

The museum setting works really well (although how many people need to work in a café at once?) and the idea of an intergalactic bounty hunter has been played with before, but these seasons really go in on that a bit more.

The only problem I have is that they could have been a little more serialised in the search for the Energems they didn't have, a la Operation Overdrive.

Character Dynamics - 4.5

This season's characters are all so good, I don't even know where to start. Everyone's totally different, and they take a little while to get to know one another and grow into their own. But they're all totally formed characters rather than just bullet point character traits, and they're all believable too.

Everyone has an arc, even people like Kendall who only really comes out of the cave when she needs to yell at people initially, and it doesn't feel like the story's weighted in anyone's favour particularly. Even Tyler, whose quest for his dad feels super-important, doesn't override everyone else's stories.

I just really love these idiots. They're all so good.

Sixth Ranger Arc - 4.5

If we just limit this to Ivan, then it's probably a 3.5 or something. He's great, but he does fade into the background a little every now and then after his initial arc. He gets some fun spotlights though, and I liked the relationship between him and Koda as men out of time.

But this season had the most Rangers ever on a team, so the entire series basically becomes a Sixth Ranger arc, because after Ivan and Phillip (who turn up in quick succession) there's James, Kendall, and Zenowing to take into account, and with each successive Ranger the team grows stronger and has even more interactions to balance.

Phillip's probably the least developed of them all - he has his initial arc of learning not to throw money and things and not to be a pompous ass, but after that he kind of just shows up as needed for Sentai footage. He's a good guy, but he does become a little faceless.

James' plotline takes its time to get going, but I liked his interplay with Tyler a lot. They actually had plausible reasons for him to go off and do his own thing too, I'm glad they took the time to explain his absences.

And Zenowing, who I thought would be daft, was actually a decent addition to the team. He's again totally different to everyone else, and he does have a role to play rather than just standing in the background.

Oh, and Kendall becoming a Ranger and just taking it in her stride and no one questioning her on it at all? Yeah, we like that.

Plot Development - 4

I'm proud of these seasons for having plots that thread through both Dino Charge and Super Dino Charge rather than just closing everything down at the end of one to start something new. Samurai did it too to an extent, whereas Megaforce you could basically cut down the middle. Dino Charge and Super Dino Charge really do feel like evolutions of one another.

The search for the Energems is a good impetus to keep everything going, and it presents good reasons for the villains to keep going after the Rangers specifically so they can take them back, rather than just attacking the Rangers because they're in the way.

If anything, there can sometimes be a few too many one-and-done episodes where the villains JUST go after the Rangers, which stalls the momentum somewhat, but you can't say that the threat doesn't escalate as the plot goes on. Compare where we start with where we end and it's such a huge difference.

Villains - 4.5

I don't think I've had as much fun with villains in a season since Lothor or Dai Shi.

Sledge could easily have become one-dimensional, but his relationships with everyone else on the ship kept him interesting. I never knew whether he was going to yell at Poisandra or kiss her.

Speaking of, Poisandra was hilarious. Again, she could have been far too one note, but they made her interesting in her own right by giving her her own plans, and Curio, while a tad bland, was a good straight man for her plots.

I did get a little bored of Fury by the end, but at least they kept him relevant by having him face off with other generals. It's nice when the good guys get along, but it's better when the bad guys don't. I also really liked Wrench, who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty even though he was the tech guy.

I do think Dino Super Charge has the better villains though; Heckyl and Snide were a good pair, and Heckyl's eventual face turn was actually a nice surprise. The idea that he wasn't evil at all until the Dark Energem was well handled, and while his redemption arc came right at the last minute, it did feel complete and earned.

I also really liked Lord Arcanon and Singe; they ran the risk of being too little, too late, coming in with only like 8 episodes of a season left, but they had history with the other villains that made them relevant, and Arcanon's overblown sense of self-importance made him fun too.

Overall - 4.40

Hottest Ranger - Oh god, this one's far too hard. It's like a four-way tie between Tyler, Chase, Riley, and Koda, all for different reasons. Stick them in a blender and give me the perfect Ranger.

Notable Episodes:

When Logic Fails - A crystal maze-esque episode which shows off Riley's unique talents.

Wishing For A Hero - The Rangers make wishes that all go terribly, terribly wrong.

Love At First Fight - Mostly for Beauticruel's terrible accent.

Freaky Fightday - Body swap episode? Body swap episode.

Edge Of Extinction/End Of Extinction - World-wide Zord fights! Time travel! A black hole! A happy ending!

I'd also like to mention how good all four holiday specials were. They're all clip shows, but they have such good, fun set-ups that they're not a chore to watch like the holiday specials usually are. Trick Or Trial was especially good.

[five-rivers]

Long Night in the Valley chapter 12

The scene shifted the moment Tempest woke up. They were outside, on a street in the middle of the city.  Storm clouds circled overhead.  

Tempest stood in front of them, hands in her pockets, a bland expression on her face.  

“So,” she drawled.  “You’re Nine’s friends.”

“Uh,” said Ochako, taken aback.  Right after Four had said she wouldn’t talk to them, this was disconcerting.   “Yes?”

“I’m his teacher,” said Aizawa, stepping forward.

“Yeah?  You think you’re doing a good job raising up little child soldiers?”

“Excuse me?” said Aizawa.  

“You heard me.”  She shifted her gaze to Ochako, then to Todoroki and Iida.  “I bet Souma told you I wouldn’t be talking to you.”

“He did say something along those lines, yes,” said Iida, even as Ochako worked very hard to elbow him.

“I can follow why he’d think that,” Tempest said. “I spent most of my life fighting against the government.  Lord knows I wouldn’t have approved of him choosing a ‘pro hero’ to follow after him.”  She took her hands out of her pockets to make air quotes.  She was wearing brass knuckles.  “Whatever a pro hero is supposed to be.  Government lackeys.  Cops and war criminals with a different name.  I’m shocked he pulled a halfway decent person from the muck.”

“We’re not war criminals!” protested Iida.  

“Oh, yeah?  I forgot, the Geneva convention was nixed, wasn’t it?  They had this big meeting and decided none of it applied to metahumans, and then, bam!  Everyone’s a metahuman, so it doesn’t apply at all, huh?  Neat, right?”

“What we’re doing now might not be what you’re used to,” said Ochako, “but it’s the way society works, now.”

“And we’re not killing people, like you did,” said Iida.  Ochako winced at his combative addition.  

“I did what I had to, to get people out of the torture camps,” said Tempest.  “People like my little sister.  You know what they did to her?  They thought her power was just controlled by her voice.  So, they cut out her vocal cords.”

“They don’t do that anymore,” said Todoroki.  

“You think a government like that is just going to stop doing things?  Without people making them?  Without being forced?”  Tempest laughed and looked up at the swirling sky.  “Maybe you do.  You’re just kids, after all.  But tell me this, do you think they didn’t know exactly what was happening to your family, Todoroki Shouto?”

Aizawa cleared his throat.  “What’s your point, here?” he asked.  “What do you want from us?”

Tempest looked back at Aizawa.  The coldness in her brown eyes made Ochako shiver.  “We could have kept you out,” she said. “That Suzuki idiot, too.  Do you know why we didn’t?”

“Enlighten us,” said Aizawa.  

“Because the way we do it would cause irreparable brain damage.  We know, because we’ve done it before.  I thought it was worth it, but the others didn’t want to hurt ‘Nine’s friends.’”

“Are you implying that we aren’t Midoriya’s friends?” asked Todoroki, frowning.  

Tempest huffed and wind whipped down the road, making Ochako cover her face.  

“No.  To be honest, I’m not completely sold on Nine, either.  He wanted to part of the system so bad, and that’s not to mention—” she huffed again.  “At least he knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the equation.  You four, though… I’m stuck with Nine.  I don’t owe you anything and you’re causing all these problems.  What I want from you—”

Behind her, lightning snapped down from the sky.

“—is to prove to me you’re worth it.”

.

“Vlad, the police were able to find your car,” said Powerloader, holding his hand over the receiver of the staff room telephone.

“Oh, thank goodness,” said Vlad.  “I hate taking public transportation.”  He paused.  “I mean, uh, did they find Yagi?  Is he alright?”

“No, they didn’t find Yagi.”

“Great,” said Vlad.  “So, ask them when I can pick it up.  Why are you making that face?  Did Yagi total it?  I bet he did.  ‘Symbol of Peace,’ my—”

“No,” interrupted Powerloader.  “Yagi didn’t total it.  Or crash it.  It was parked in an alley near the Musutafu entertainment district.”

“Where Midoriya had that fight with Hawks,” said Vlad, putting his head in his hands.  “It got wrecked by one of them, didn’t it?”

“No,” said Powerloader.  “It was parked in an alley.  They found it on a security camera.  It isn’t there anymore.”

“They took it again?”

“The League of Villains took it.”

“You’re joking.”

“I wish I was.”

.

The bus felt empty with half the class missing. The remaining 1-A students (plus Shinso) were all huddled together at the front, mooching off of the teachers mobile hotspots.  

“Did my email go through yet, kero?” asked Tsuyu, leaning over her seat to look at Denki’s computer.  

“Not yet,” said Denki.  “I’ve got all the pictures you guys sent arranged, but I wish we had more video material.  Ashido was the one with the most…”  He sighed. “Ashido, gossip queen, when you wake up I will apologize for all my comments about your hobbies.”

“I have some videos of Midoriya.”

“Trust us, Mineta, no one want your videos,” said Yaoyorozu.

“Huh?  Why not?”

“Tell us this.  How many of your videos are actually of Midoriya and don’t just have him incidentally in the background while you try to film girls.”

“None of them,” said Mineta, obviously not seeing why this was wrong.  “Why would I film Midoriya?”

“Mic,” said Midnight, “please remind me to sign up the walking lawsuit for some sensitivity classes.  How did Eraser miss this?”

“Unfortunately, Shouta is about as sexual as the average rock, so…”

“Remind me to sign him up for some training, too, then.”

“Will do.”

“Walking lawsuit?” asked Mineta.  

Everyone else sighed.  Then Denki’s laptop pinged.

“Huh.  I just got an email from Principal Nezu.”

The adults, including Green Light, the bus driver, blanched.  Adults were bothered by the weirdest things.  In the end, Nezu was just a guy with a quirk, right?  A hero, even!  Principal Nezu, the Education Hero!

Okay, he’d scared Denki (Mr. Terrible Grades) a lot in elementary and middle school, but really.  

(Okay, the crane thing at the Final Exam had been high-key terrifying, but he was trying to get past that.)

“Huh,” repeated Denki, having read the email. “That’s interesting.”

“What is it, my electric friend?” asked Aoyama, drapping himself sideways across his seat.

“Aoyama-san,” said Midnight, “don’t put your feet on the windows.”

“Principal Nezu sent me a link to an ‘All Might adopt a kid’ fanfiction, and it’s by—”

“Midoriya writes fanfiction?” asked Shouji, evidently surprised into using his real mouth to speak.  

“That’s cute, kero,” said Tsuyu.  “It must have been before he met the real All Might, though.”

“No,” said Denki, “it was last updated just a couple of weeks ago, and, well… Midoriya didn’t write it.”

“So, who did?” asked Yaoyorozu.  

“Not Nezu, right?” asked Jiro, winding her earphone jack around her finger.  

“There’s no way, right, Kaminari-san?” asked Present Mic, nervously.  

“Uh, no, no, it’s, uh, it’s All Might. According to Nezu.”

A beat of silence.

“What?”

Denki inserted his pinky into his right ear, trying to clear it.  Man, if the Bakusquad had been here rather than the quiet half of the class…

“Yeah, it says here that this serves All Might right for working on this during school hours?”

More silence.  

“Green Light, the road!”  

“Oops, sorry!”

“Hey, guys, are we sure that All Might didn’t, you know, kidnap Midoriya rather than the other way around?  Guys?”

.

Gran Torino, also known as Torino Sorahiko, was an active hero.  That meant late nights and late mornings.  He was also an old man.  A very old man.  Late mornings often turned into noons and afternoons.  

Sometimes, during those noons and afternoons, he liked to ignore technology and the outside world for a good long while.  Maybe read the paper a little bit.  Or one of those terrible romance novels Nana had left him in her will.  

Still, he was a hero, one wrapped up in something best described as a two-hundred-year-long shadow war, so eventually he did turn on the news.  

Only to see Toshinori’s boy fighting Hawks on live television.  

Not to mention Toshinori hanging out in the background with a shaved head.  

And the ticker said UA student Midoriya Izuku kidnaps Symbol of Peace.

(Which was the dumbest thing he had ever heard, and under other circumstances, he would have been rolling on the floor laughing.)

Gran Torino was an old man, but, luckily, he only felt like he was simultaneously having a heart attack and a stroke.  His body was more than functional enough to place a not-at-all panicked phone call to one Tsukauchi Naomasa.  

.

Tsukauchi Naomasa was incredibly busy.  That busy-ness was divided mostly evenly between desperately trying to find his best friend (who had evidently decided to make a hopefully brief foray into kidnapping teenagers) and trying to figure out what the commission was taking, because it had to be illegal.  Oh, and putting together a complaint that the commission was infringing on police prerogatives.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure how much traction that last would get, since pro heroes had been steadily gaining more and more responsibilities even as the police were losing both them and the power that came with them.  Not to mention Midoriya’s stunt with Hawks… Which… Naomasa just wanted to know why?  What had the point of that been?  On either side?

(Sometimes he wished he were friends with normal people.  Like… he didn’t know… an accountant, maybe?)

(Not that he would give Toshinori up for the world. Just, some normalcy would be nice, too.)

He took a deep breath, remembered what he always told Toshinori about stress, and took a mouthful of room-temperature coffee.

In that thirty-second period, two more problems presented themselves to him.  

One, his cell phone began to ring, displaying the contact information for Gran Torino.  

Two, his email softly pinged, and a message from Principal Nezu asking for any images or videos Toshinori might have sent him slid into his inbox.  

Briefly, Naomasa considered ignoring both of them, but that wasn’t a realistic option and was irresponsible besides.  Contrary to his character.  

He picked the lesser of two evils and answered Gran Torino’s call.

.

Garaki was going to have a mental breakdown.  This was fitting because his car had broken down.  Midoriya Inko was asking him if he thought that his ‘friend’ might come pick them up, if it was safe.  If his ‘friend’ had a car.  

This last had almost sent him into hysterics. Gigantomachia in a car oh-ho!

Except it wasn’t funny at all, as this was almost certainly going to result in his death at the hands of All for One.  No matter that he considered the man his very dearest of friends, he was under no illusions about what All for One would do to him over this inexcusable error.

Perhaps he should just cut his losses and get one of the remote-activated noumu to come for them.  

Then, inexorably and inevitably, things managed to get even worse.

.

“Stop the car!” shouted Tomura.  

“But you said not to—”

“I know what I said!  Stop the car!”

Tomura twisted to see out the rear passenger window. Everyone else turned to follow his gaze, effectively blocking his view.  

“Get out of my way!” demanded Tomura.

There was some awkward, half-hearted shuffling.

“Does that look like anyone to you?” Tomura hissed.

“Yeah!  Like the doctor!” said Toga.  

“I’ve never seen him standing up, though,” said Spinner, dubiously.  “It seems out of character.”

“I didn’t know he owned a car,” mused Compress, rubbing the bottom edge of his mask.  

“Not him!” snapped Tomura.  “The woman!”  He pointed angrily at the rapidly approaching woman with green hair, narrowly avoiding dusting Mr. Compress’s top hat.  

“Eh?  What about her?” asked Spinner.  

“Doesn’t she look familiar to you?”

“To be honest, everyone without mutation quirks looks kind of the same to me.”

“Someone without face blindness.”

“Oh!  She looks like Izu-kun!  Do you think that’s his mom?”

The woman knocked on the window of the car.  Twice, unhelpfully rolled it down.  

“Thank you so much for stopping, we—Oh!”  She took a step back.

She apparently recognized them.  Joy.  He was going to unpack his feelings about this woman later.

“Hey, doc,” rasped Tomura, annoyed.  “What the hell have you been doing?”

“Ahem,” said Garaki, finally stepping out from behind the car.  “I didn’t expect to see you here, Shigaraki Tomura.”

“Because you blew us off and stranded us in the middle of Musutafu?”

“No,” said Garaki, in a way that absolutely meant ‘yes.’  “I knew you were resourceful enough to safely make it out of the city.”

“Oh, yeah?  Really?  You—”

Compress chose that moment to slam his face into the back of Tomura’s head.  Tomura steadied himself automatically on one of the car’s uprights, which cracked dangerously under his hand.  He pulled back as if burned.  

When he looked up, the gremlin’s mother was halfway to the tree line with – What was that in her hand?

He looked back over his shoulder.  

That was Twice’s goddamn mask.  

Compress, for some reason, was also missing his stupid mask (and covering his face like the dramatic weirdo he was), and Toga basically had hearts in her eyes.  Spinner was being Spinner, and therefore ninety percent useless.  He was lucky he was fun to play games with.

How to make her stop?

“Hey!” he shouted.  “We have your son!”

This was a lie, as far as he knew (unless Dabi had snatched him on his way back; it wasn’t impossible), but, he was a villain.

The green-haired woman stopped and turned back, allowing Tomura a full view of her expression.  

He decided that he regretted everything.

.

“Okay,” said Izuku, multitasking by letting Two pick the lock on the League’s safe, “considering Gigantomachia’s ability to track by smell and the questionable running water, we can’t just sneak out.  He’ll find us.  So… I think our best play is getting him to attack Shigaraki, and then when they’re both distracted, we run for it.”

Toshinori nodded and sighed.  “If only we had a giant jug of perfume.  We could throw it at his face and disrupt his ability to smell us.”

“I mean, I found a whole bunch of garbage a way back.  That isn’t perfume, but it does stink.”

“No, no, your plan is superior.  We’d draw too much suspicion if we attacked him like that. Perfume could be written off.”

“Yeah, I can see that.  Because perfume is a ‘nice’ thing.”

“Indeed.”

“It isn’t actually very nice to have it all over you, though,” said Izuku.  

“No,” agreed Toshinori.  “It isn’t.”

The safe popped open.

“I won’t ask if you don’t.”

“Deal.”

“But, anyway, assuming we do get away, what then? Where do we go?  And—Wow.  The League of Villains is broke.  I almost feel bad.”

“I was going to say Deika, but that’s too far, now, and we don’t know if Gigantomachia will come after us,” said Toshinori.  “Drawing him to a place full of civilians would be irresponsible.”

“Yeah,” said Izuku.  He frowned, pulling his head from the safe, and glanced out the window. “What about the Wild Wild Pussycats?”

“What about them?” asked Toshinori.  

“They’re near here, aren’t they?  And they’ve got that whole complex, so, I mean��  I don’t know how they feel about us right now, but it wouldn’t be a terrible place to hide.  Would it?”

“I’d hate to bring all of this down on them as well,” said Toshinori.  “But… That being said, I don’t believe they’re actually there.  They were taking some time off because of what happened to Ragdoll.”

“That makes sense,” said Izuku.  “Should we take the risk?”

“I’m unsure if we have a choice, my boy.  We could try roughing it, but that puts us in a very vulnerable position.”

“And we can’t stay here, with the League.”

“No, we can’t.”

“Okay.”  Izuku sighed and started to thumb through the League’s collection of fake IDs, looking for something he could use.  “Wild Wild Pussycats it is.  We’ve got to convince Machia to attack Shigaraki, and… then we sneak out the back while they’re fighting.”  He shook his head.  “It sounds really unheroic when I put it that way.”

“Under these circumstances, I think heroic is the set of actions where no one dies.”

His mentor was right.  Izuku still felt weird about this, though.  (The pettiness was completely different.)

Not to mention…

He put the last of the fake IDs away and massaged his temples.  “They’re doing something weird in there,” he said.  “I’m going to check on them.  I might be out of it.”

“Don’t worry,” said Toshinori, patting Izuku on the shoulder.  “I’ll keep an eye on things out here.”

(Perhaps all of this could have gone unsaid, what with their connection, but saying things out loud made them easier to organize.)

.

“Hey!” shouted Izuku over the roaring wind. “Stop that!”

“Are you going to fight me, Nine?  All by yourself?”

“No,” said Izuku, somehow contriving to look down his nose at her despite the height difference and the fact that Tempest was floating several meters in the air.  “I won’t have to.  Because I have a secret weapon.”

Ochako could almost see Tempest roll her eyes.

“And,” shouted Izuku, “do you seriously think I just wanted to be part of the system?  Are you serious?  I wanted to help people.  People the system failed.  It isn’t like they’re responsible for the system either!”  He waved his hand to indicate Ochako, Iida, Todoroki, and Aizawa.

“I’d argue about your hobo teacher.  Is this your secret weapon?”

“No, this is, Great-Aunt Miranda.”

Tempest opened her mouth, then closed it again. The wind began to die down.  “I’m – I don’t know what the point of that was—"

“Neither do I!  What’s the point of this?”

“The point is determining whether or not you have people you can rely on, or a bunch of backstabbers who’ll hand you over to a government lab as soon as it’s convenient!”  She stabbed a finger at Ochako.  “She’s just in ‘heroics’ for the money!”  She pointed at Iida.  “He’s only here because it’s traditional for his family.”   She gestured at Todoroki with her other hand.  “He’s doing it mostly out of spite.  And who knows what your hobo teacher is doing this for!”

“There’s nothing wrong with any of that!” protested Ochako.  “You must have your own motivations, too!”

“She does!” shouted Izuku.  “Considering what they are, you have no room to be criticizing Iida!  Besides, you don’t even like me!”

“This isn’t about liking you or disliking!  You’re the—” Tempest visibly cut herself off, then took a deep breath.  She set herself down on the street.  “Knowing what we do now about certain things, a fourteen-year-old would not have been my first choice.”

“Excuse me!  We’re all sixteen!” said Iida.  

“You’re sixteen now, it’s – The fact of the matter is that you’re children.  Naïve children.”

“Oh my gosh, you were younger than I was when you—”

“I was kidnapped and tortured—”

“I know, but why are you taking it out on—”

“By the government that you are trying to lick the boot of—”

“Did you see what they did to Suzuki?”

Ochako felt like she was spectating a very passionate tennis match.  

“If it means anything,” said Aizawa, dragging himself out of the pile of rubble he’d been thrown into by the wind, “I’m just trying to keep my kids alive as long as possible.”

“Then expel them!  Stop them from becoming literal child soldiers!”

“I do,” said Aizawa.

“He does,” confirmed Ochako, who was well acquainted with Aizawa’s reputation.  

“He really does,” seconded Todoroki.  

“I used to see Tensei’s group chat, and every time he expelled someone…”  Iida shivered.  

“Huh,” said Todoroki.  “Is that why you’re so… insistent about rules?”

“Of course not!  Rules are important regardless of why so many students were expelled during the first month of school!”

“So, why didn’t you expel these ones?”

“If you honestly believe the problem child wouldn’t have flung himself at the first villain he saw after that and dove straight into vigilantism, you don’t know him very well.”  He sighed, standing, and brushed dust and pebbles out of his tracksuit. “That goes for these three as well. They’re insane and it’s not my fault.”

“Isn’t saving others what heroes do?” asked Izuku, walking closer to Tempest.  Ochako wanted to run out and grab him, but this whole ordeal had just shown how useless that would be.  “No matter what?”

“Not no matter what.  This is why I…”  She shook her head, sighing.  “Not no matter what.”  She leaned forward, her hands on her hips.  “Don’t die. You do realize what will happen if you die, right?  I don’t have to spell it out for you?”

“N-no,” said Izuku.  

“Besides which, I’m not a hero.”

“You saved people,” protested Izuku.  

“And, as your friends pointed out, I’ve killed, too.”

“I know,” said Izuku.  “But you aren’t a bad person.”

“Lots of people kill during wars,” said Ochako, going to stand by Izuku, “and that’s what you were fighting in, wasn’t it?  I mean, I don’t know a lot about that time, but…”

“You wouldn’t.  It’s been over a hundred years.”

Izuku nodded.  “This fight isn’t doing anything, though.  None of us want them here if the vault opens.”

“The what?” asked Iida.  “The vault.”

“Hopefully,” said Izuku, “you won’t have to worry about it.”

“The fight did do something, though,” said Tempest.

“What?” asked Izuku.  

“For one,” said Tempest, “it made you think. For the other…”  Her eyes flicked over Ochako and the others.  “Everyone you fight will have their own reasons. Remember that.”

.

As they walked down the street, storms still brewing overhead, Ochako kept catching glimpses of children in the alleyways and cross streets.  

“Who are they?” she asked, unable to help herself.

“My sister and I,” answered Tempest, brusquely. Ochako, watching the back of the woman’s head, saw her twitch slightly towards one of the alleys.  “About the time we were taken.”

“Taken by who?” asked Todoroki.  

Tempest laughed.  The sound was entirely humorless.  “That government you’re so eager to serve.  You’ve noticed, I hope, that my sister and I aren’t completely Japanese?”

“Yes?” said Todoroki.  “I’m not blind, after all.”

“Todoroki,” said Aizawa in a warning tone.

“Good for you.  Our mother was Japanese.  Dad was American.  We went back and forth to see the family.  Problem was, everyone on Mom’s side quirks.  We didn’t even realize it.  The government tracked the weather disturbances to our movements and raided our family reunion.  Never saw my parents again.  Never saw anyone, for that matter, except my sister and my aunt – Dad’s side – who tried to smuggle us out and got shot for it.  We spent four years in that hell before Ryuji rescued us.”

“You’re more open about this than I would have expected,” said Aizawa.

Tempest sneered.  “Why wouldn’t I be?  I’m a terrorist, and people only become terrorists if they want to make a statement. Which I did.  Trust me when I say this, Nine, if the hero commission took you into ‘custody,’” she spat the word like it was dirty, “you’d be in the same boat. What do you children think they do to all those high-profile criminals in Tartarus?  The ones that are held indefinitely in a private prison without even a show trial?”

“I know, Three,” said Izuku, far more calmly that Ochako would have been able to.  “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to be a hero.  It’s easier to change systems from the inside.”

“Not this system.”

“No,” said Izuku, “but then I had no idea this part of the system even existed.  They do a lot to hide it, after all.”

“Hm,” grunted Tempest, skeptically.

The buildings began to thin out, interspersed with wilderness.  The road rapidly graded narrowed into a one-lane road, then gravel.  

“Is this normal?” asked Ochako.  

“We have more control over our environments than the other ones.  You’ve noticed that only Eight and Nine had multiple versions of themselves running around and being confusing.”

“I didn’t do that on purpose,” said Izuku.  

“Exactly.  Any of us could send an army of ourselves against you.  Only those two don’t have a choice about it.  Amateurs.”

“Shouldn’t they have had the same amount of time as—” started Ochako.  She broke off as a series of concrete walls topped with barbed wire rose up in front of them, scraping at the surrounding trees, shedding clumps of dirt.  

The trees fell away, leaving a clear, baren space between the walls and the trees.  Slightly beyond the structure moonlight glinted off the surface of a lake.  

“Well.  Welcome to Jinoshi Lake Camp, kids.”  Tempest turned, putting her hands on her hips.  “This is where I met Ryuji.  And…” She glanced up at the walls.  “This is as far as I go.”

“You aren’t going to show us where to find this ‘Ryuji?’” asked Aizawa.  

“I promised myself I’d never go back there.” She jerked her head over her shoulder. “I’m not revisiting it for you.” She started walking away.  “Have fun.”

[songbirdsingingthings]

Christmas Eve - Shouto Todoroki x Reader

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS, THEY BELONG TO KOHEI HORIKOSHI

DAY TWENTY-FOUR OF 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS - 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS MASTERLIST - MAIN MASTERLIST

The entire morning and afternoon seemed to go by in a flash. From spending the morning with the entirety of Class 1A, to the massive snowball fight that Class 1B challenged the lot of you to, and finally, the massive dinner that you and your class had… let’s just say, you were pretty exhausted. Some of your classmates had already gone to bed and others were spending time all crowded around the couch, watching and making fun of some random Hallmark movie that was showing, but you preferred your quiet little corner. With a  steaming  mug of hot chocolate in your hands in Christmas music playing through your earbuds, you sighed and closed your eyes. No matter how old you became or what had happened earlier in the day, you would always be kind of restless on Christmas Eve. The energy surrounding the day was just incredible and the thought of waking up the next morning and it being Christmas Day? It always managed to keep you up until the early hours of the next morning. This Christmas Eve was no different, so you tried to do things that would induce sleeping. You made sure to stop actively using your phone an hour ago, you worked out earlier in the day, you’re even drinking hot milk - well, hot milk with cocoa powder in it. None of it, though, seemed to work. So, here you were, sitting in the study section of the dormitory, staring at a blank wall and hoping that the bland color would put you to sleep.

“Y/N? What are you doing over here?” A soothing voice filtered through your ears, prompting you to turn around. Standing about 4 feet from you was Shouto Todoroki, one of your closest friends at UA. 

“Trying to fall asleep,” you say softly, propping one of your legs over the other. He gives you a small smile and takes a seat next to you.

“You’ve always been able to complete that task rather quickly. Whenever we’re on the bus or watching a movie, your head usually ends up on my or someone else’s shoulder, asleep.” He says. A light blush covered your cheeks as he said that - you try not to make it a habit of sleeping on his shoulder, but he was just such a comforting and comfortable person to be around.

“Yeah, but it’s Christmas Eve, and I can never fall asleep at a decent time on this day every single year.” You explain, leaning your head back over the back of the chair.

“Well you won’t fall asleep like that - these chairs are painfully uncomfortable.” He says as you lift your head. You look at him expectantly, seeing that wheels were turning in his head with an idea. “Come on, let’s go back to your dorm room.” He says, offering you a hand. You take it gladly and he tugs a bit, helping you stand up. The walk towards your room is quiet but not awkward. You know that if Shouto has something that he wants to say he’ll say it - it’s almost better to not force a conversation with him and just let the silence grace the two of you with its presence. The two of you finally arrive at your door which you push open easily, revealing your neatly made room. You mentally thanked your past self for cleaning up even though you had no idea that you would be having company. “Go get your sleepwear on, I’ll stay here.” He says. You give him a nod and a smile, pulling out a pair of pajama pants and a ratty t-shirt, then make your way to the girls’ bathroom. On your way there you think back on your previous exchanges with Shouto. Yes, the two of you had been friends for a while, but you haven’t seen him go out of his way with other people like he does with you. Was it just the excitement of Christmas Eve or just you overthinking things? You shake your head and change, balling up your day clothes and tucking them under your arm. It has to just be my imagination, I’m sure he’s done these kinds of things with Midoriya and Momo, you think. You settle with that being your reasoning, until you get back to your dorm room to see what Shouto had done to keep himself busy. There were aromatherapy candles lit on your side table, soft rain sounds in the background - some sort of white noise always helped you fall asleep - and most surprisingly, Shouto had changed into his own pajamas.

“Are you planning on falling asleep in here?” You quip as you brush your hair, getting rid of all the tangles that had formed throughout the day.

“Yeah.” You stop your movements and look at him. You hadn’t really expected that answer, you just thought he was going to spend time with you a little bit until you fell asleep… oh, who were you kidding. You had hoped that he would stay, but never thought that he actually would.

“O-okay! Just letting you know, I’m kind of an active sleeper.” You say, laughing a bit in embarrassment.

“I’m aware,” he says simply, a grin appearing on his face. Your mind goes blank for a second.

“Uh, meaning?” You ask as you slip under your covers, followed by the red-and-white haired boy.

“Well, your arms always seem to wrap around something. Your bag, a pillow… me.” He says. Your face was showing a full blown blush that you didn’t even attempt to hide. Shouto chuckles and wraps an arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him. “Don’t worry, I find it endearing.” He reassures, rubbing his hand on your shoulder. You relax a bit and even start to feel a bit drowsy.

“Thanks for looking after me Sho,” you mumble, settling your head on his shoulder. Your hair tickles his neck a bit but he doesn’t say anything.

“It’s my pleasure, Y/N, really.” He says. You close your eyes and wrap your arms around his torso. Shouto smiles and presses a feather-light kiss to the top of your head and then rests his on top of yours. “Oh, and merry Christmas.” He whispers, looking at the clock that showed four red digits; 12:00 a.m..

[prettywarriors]

Fate The Winx Commentary

Good morning internet! Today is the drop of Winx: Riverdale edition! I sure hope you're ready for my aggressive and unnecessary commentary, because it is coming for you either way!

The netflix landing page lets us know:

Fate The Winx Saga

6 episodes, 48-53 minutes each

"Genres: Fantasy TV Shows, Teen TV Shows, Italian TV Shows"

"This show is: Emotional"

As mentioned elsewhere, my Winx knowledge is limited, so I will be coming into this fairly fresh and will try to be unbiased. As I have seen trailers, the keyword here is Try.

Episode 1

'To the Waters and the Wild'

CW: Animal Death, Swears, Implied Child Death, Blood, Implied Teen Sex, Burns, Weed, Fatphobia, Whatever the term pussie falls under

Episode 1 TL;DR: We meet everyone, learn their dynamics, have the basics of the magic system beat into us, meet our monsters, and name drop Harry Potter. Standard first episode stuff.

I do want it on record before we start that I got about halfway into the first season of Riverdale, and the first season of Netflix Sabrina. They were, well, bland and boring imo? I did get through a few seasons of Teen Wolf, but that's because it was capable of Fun and Jokes. My current expectations are a few unintentionally funny lines, maybe some almost decent magic effects, and because it's 2021, one whole gay character (I did hear one of the boys (there are boys?) is bi, but also an asshole so I'm hoping for some wlw)

TV-MA LANGUAGE AND SMOKING OH FUCKING BOY Almost full moon (waxing) in opening shot- I Will be tracking moon inconsistencies if it keeps showing up that is a pet peeve but hey look a bunch of sheep That's a good start (it's ominous though. don't hurt the sheep) Swears count: Feckin' 2 Mystical portal barrier. Oh yeah s5 of the magicians is on netflix now WELP THOSE ARE SHEEP GUTS RIGHT OUT THE GATE HUH For CW it's up a tree, and the dripping blood is a good warning of what's about to be seen :( oh and then the man who was looking for the sheep dies offscreen save for a spray of blood. THIS ISN'T YOUR CHILD'S WINX CLUB it seems to say. I assume. How much blood was in the original winx because this is already at least a full cup. (Also the monster noises for whatever was chasing the man (werewolf it was a werewolf trailers are bad guys) were not very good)

Opening credit scene is 5-6 different blooming elemental wings. They're pretty, but it's unclear if the last one is secret 6th member wings (because the second to last ones are fire which is the main character's element right?) so maybe we'll get a late 6th addition? (I am in I.T. please give me the most relatable character you cowards)

KIDS IN THE CORNER BY AMBER VAN DAY PLAYING I like where they shot this but that might just be european woods pretty. The opening location was nice and mossy save for the sheep blood Fancy big stone school establishing shots (it's nice, and huge) and we land on a red head who seems less than pleased to be here Courtyard shot of... whatever the name of the replacment plant girl is, holding a tray of various potted plants for an older man (father? first day of school send off maybe?) Aisha(?) walks by, not talking to anyone, Stella(?) is taking Magical!Selfies with at least 3 other girls, Musa(?) has a suitcase and headphones and smiles at a passing girl Oh boy a boy with a pocketknife doing little tricks with it! Nothing says edgy like an actual knife edge. Gonna take this moment to point out I have some level of face blindness and while the girls all look fairly different from one another, if there is more than one tall blonde white boy as I fear there may be, I WILL NOT be able to tell them apart. Not through maliciousness, just general incompetence, so anything I say about the boy characters (I want to say they're the knights to the girl's faeries? is that right? this whole thing smacks of gender) should be taken with a heap of salt I've come to accept tv just. displaying text messages on screen as a storytelling method. It's never my favorite but it just Is a modern story element. Also Bloom needs to meet stella at the alfea gates Alfea I presume is the school- does the name mean something? It sure feels like the word elf and therefore fae but I don't feel like googling anything this early in Oh look two more blondish tall white boys. Pocketknife was wearing something else i think, one guy has a brown jacket and pink shirt (bad combo), the other looks old even by tv highschool/college standards and his jacket has a jock vibe. Jock jacket also has an earring? Is this the bi character who is an asshole? From this one second of him, only in profile, I will assume yes, he is an asshole I like Bloom's backpack Pink shirt looks at Bloom from across the quad. I am already tired of this romance Cool he walks up to someone he has identified as lost, and is 'impressed with [her] confidence in the face of complete ignorance' COMING OUT OF THE GATE WITH A NEGG HUH PINKY He even states he wasn't offering help Then Why Are You Talking To Her Jackass Subs are going with the fairy spelling, and Bloom confirms she is a fairy and we confirm this is College. Unless this is a european thing where they call schools different things. I think that's just for public and private? And maybe just england? I'm American all they teach us is 1492-ww1 over and over for like. 10 years sorry Rest of the World 'What Realm are you from?' 'California' Speaking of ameri-centric, I'm gonna Guess that original Winx, the italian cartoon, didn't have their main character be from cali usa? I am presuming this is a side effect of making this property for a more global distribution than I'm guessing winx was originally conceived as back in the early 00s The Otherworld. I assume this is the fairy realm and whatnot? And the magic school. Seems to be located behind a magical barrier in the earth realm?? If that's right it seems weird if basically everyone who goes to the school is from the otherworld Pinky doubles down on his rudeness but in a Fun and Cute way because :/ and the Specialist hall is Very Pretty, oh and there's a fairy hall. Are specialists the boy...things? magi knights? bros of the blade? guys who wear those 'here come a special boy' sneakers from that one comic? Stella sees this conversation which is great because they drop the term mansplain. why would otherworlders know that term even??? Edgey(?) sees Pinky and they hug it out Stella knows Americans are the type to wander off so I guess there's a lot of inter-world connections?

Miss Dowling- is this teacher going to be like the pedo in riverdale who got *checks notes* killed off by one of multiple serial killers later on? Dowling is the headmistress, gotta keep the otherworld a secret from earthers, time and place for portal making. all standard fantasy stuff so far, nothing to make this stand out Stella has a gateway ring, and frankly isn't too nice? all the backgrounders clothing is Bland and very normal 7 realms of the otherworld, Solaria is where Alfea is, i like magic globe Incase you forgot this was a modern tale, people update their insta stories here. 'I was kindof bummed I didn't see a single pair of wings' YOU AND ME BOTH BLOOM 'We had wings in the past, transformation was lost, tinkerbell was an air fairy' This is either a cop out for your glittery cowardice, or a set up for the main girls re-finding transformation magic later. I did like the Tink bit Bloom is a fire fairy and the subtext of this conversation is that bloom's magic did Something bad. I hope it was burn down her old school's gym a la buffy movie I like miss Dowling but in the I wouldn't Be Surprised if you turned out to be Evil way, and I guess Alfea is a very privileged upper crust school. What types of college do normal fairies go to then huh? damn privileged fairies 'our students have gone on to do amazing things like re-discover long lost magics' We Get It. You will give me Wings, but Only If I'm Patient Dowling throws a jab at Bloom about power control, but I like her necklace so It's Fine

Bloom video calls her parents while unpacking in the dorm, which may have come pre-fit with a heck ton of board games? Love it. Or new plant girl brought them along with her many plants Stella has a fancy mirror and lots of jewelry and fashion photos and makeup, Musa has a laptop and apparently not much else, gotta get those establishing personalities down I guess 'Ladies of the Flies honey don't be sexist' Bloom's dad for feminist of the year (these jokes are bad but i guess we can call it a dad joke as justification) Asiha gives Bloom a look and saves her from the call with her parents- yay friendship step one achieved Blooms parents think she's in the alps because magic secrets and what not Aisha asks bloom if she's never read harry potter and I guess Bloom is a potterhead (that's the term right?). Is this self awareness that all magical school fantasy series have the same basic bricks?  Bloom is a ravenclaw sometimes slytherin, Aisha is a Gryffindor Stella is changing because she's the fashion one and has a fun pastel rainbow skirt, and uses magic to make a real aggressive lamp. She's also a mentor (maybe older than the others by a bit?) I am assuming Stella here is something along the lines of a diplomats daughter the way she talks about appearances. She better get down and dirty later on to show her growth about how some things are more important than looks yada yada Fairy magic powered by strong emotions, i am waiting for bloom's backstory to be movie x-men rogue style tragedy Terra! Which. Of course is the Plant Fairy's name. Stella is a little mean to her about the plants and she takes it with a smile and some subtle snark back using classic literature Oh that's fun Terra points out the name-plant thing, and name drops her cousin Flora. That's. The one they replaced with Terra right? Terra's dad works in the greenhouse at the school which explains earlier (and her mum is named rose) Stella is indeed a second year and Musa's eyes change for. Lie detecting magic? and loves her headphones (Overstimulation?) Aisha wants somewhere to swim and we cut to a 'pond' by specialist training. Assuming she wants to sim because she's a water fairy, why Don't they have a pool? also this pond looks. Unpleasant for swimming

Girl specialist! Does that mean we have boy fairies? Boys. Fighting. Talking about girls. All gingers are nuts. Thanks edgelord AMAZING SHAGS THOUGH 'I didn't realize your hand was a red-head' it's not truly edge if we don't talk about sex every 10 minutes Subtitles earlier only said boy 1 boy 2 but now pinky or edgy is Riv Edgy smokes weed, and pinky is a big brother figure to him, and the head? of the special boys doesn't like edgy. Me neither older guy Bit of swordplay, more girls, every specialist has black training outfits, very military Pinky is Sky who is son of Guy of Place. an important lad. without context this is meaningless to me There's a giggly boy who laughs at the idea of a war in the future and gets a talking to. I suspect this boy will be re-occurring enough to die- he has those tertiary character elements with his intro and such (and he's black so I am prepared for your standard racist murder choices) Burned Ones exist outside the barrier, which makes me wonder if dead shepard was in the otherworld? There was nothing establishing that he was in any type of Other place but :/ Oh look edgey is having a smoke cross the barrier while we learn about the creatures that live beyond it. Time to find out these creatures no one young has ever seen are still kicking Specialist leader had to kill his own pa after a burned one got him. They also. Used a shotgun when trying to fight it. Do specialists even have powers or are they just good with weapons? Edgey finds the shepards corpse. Mostly blood 'it's been 16 years since the last sighting' 'Rosalind killed all the burned ones' ahh magical creature genocide hey when is abarat 4 coming out. and is rosalind hot?

School, gossip, Aisha and Musa are snarking at Tera for thinking the guy died of natural causes because we need to have these characters not actually like each other to make it stand out when they do Aisha talks about how she eats a lot and if she didn't swim she'd be massive and we cut to the plus sized tera looking uncomfortable are we really doing this? Tera points out that Musa was ignoring her earlier and it's all just uncomfortable and not great character conflict (but I thought I saw Musa holding an honest to god ipod? it's blue but it could be a phone case. Her hand is in the way) tera and dad interaction is nice, i'm also convinced they couldn't afford more than 3 magic adults

Girl with braids and metal in her hair! There were witches in winx right? Like 3 minor antagonist girls? I assume this is one of them. Because she has alternative fashion and is therefore evil /s Beatrix. Names in this series leave something to be desired (that something is subtly. I get it, they're carry overs from a series for a younger audience, she-ra had the same issue, but i can still poke fun) Swear count: Arsehole 2 Bollocks 1 Shit 1 She's a weird ass kissing with clearly ulterior motives

Bloom is Studying and her notebook is just FAIRY MAGIC POWER = EMOTIONS LOVE FEAR? HARTED? FIRE FAIRY CONTROL? in case you weren't paying attention Oh a flashback already to the magic triggering event? Her mother had pointed out she's an introvert, and past!Bloom doesn't Party. She goes Antiquing and is a Weird Loner (her 'basic bitch' of a mom's words) Swear count: Bitch 1 Bad daughter count: 1 Bad mother count: 1 Magic glowy eyes for Bloom: 1

Bloom Hates Parties and asks Pinky I mean Sky where she can be Away from People and he fears he'll be Mansplaing to her to. vague that it's dangerous outside instead of saying 'hey there's monsters and someone was just killed by possible one of them stay in the barrier' Stella wants to talk to Sky because they have History. I did hear there was a love triangle between these three. I am bored and everyone at this party is a nosey bitch who is watching their tense conversation. Also Something? Happens when Stella gets upset [mystical warbling] Random magic effects in the (very pretty) forest Bloom is trying to practice her magic on her own, and to do that she's gotta look at sad teen pics. And look, her burnt bedroom from her first power usage The fire magic is pretty good. I think fire is like. the opposite of water when it comes to cg where it almost always looks pretty good, while I swear i've seen the actual ocean look like a shitty render Magic out of control, bloom can't control her emotions, Aisha can stop her with water magic which makes some nice steam Bloom is angry at aisha for saving her. So far 3 of the 5 girls are abrasive at best remember when people made characters likeable? Swear count: Shit 1 (but it doubles as the literal meaning because of flooded toilets) Swear count: Bitch 1 Ass 1 Taking away your teen's door is. Really shitty. Not almost burn down your house worthy but damn cheerleader mom I do not understand sleep shirts with buttons. That seems painful if you lie the wrong way? Her mom was seriously burnt by first magic usage that's a backstory Shit count +1 Main character aspect time: dormant fairy blood line? awfully strong magic for that. baby who died day after it was born and now she's here? ...I was going to say changeling thanks aisha A Barbaric practice loving hints at long term world lore Hell is a bad word for kids!! Cutting to headmistress and her secret passage after finding out bloom is secret pureblood? this really is a harry potter thing

edgelord offers giggly some booze, and says pussies twice because he's Edgey and does peer pressure Tera calls him out and knows he's a sad nerd in disguise not a 'badass' and he says she's 'three people in disguise' because fatphobia shit +1 arehole +1 tera. chokes out edgelord with a vine because she's had enough of this shit. good for her edgelord is Riv, and he lived

OBLIGATORY GOOGLE SEARCH FOR THE TERM CHANGELING REMEMBER BELLA'S VAMPIRE GOOGLE GOD I LOVE TEEN FANTASY AND THEIR INSTANCE ON GOOGLING COMMON FANTASY TERMS OH hey the lamp bloom brought with her is the one she was fixing at home that's a nice touch Stella bonds with Bloom about homesickness, and the takes a selfie Musa is a mind fairy. So she. Is a telepath with purple eye magic? Oh there's types of 'connections' Memory, thought (others but i am cut off from the lore) Stella did Something to someone who Talked To Her Man last year and now lent Bloom her teleportation ring to send her some because miss mentor really cares more about her shitty man then helping the girls she's in charge of First World- earth Old Cemetery? Very Sexy. and bloom sweetie don't leave a mystical gateway open, and how will you explain to your parents how you're back so fast Wait she's only 16? SO this really is some european college where that's a funny way of saying High School Fire guilt, bad feelings about life shattering revelations, better connection with mother. I gotta say I have low expectations of this show carrying the family connection through the rest of this. That conversation felt more like a Hey We Made These Movements Onto Other Stuff Now

Lighting choices are interesting, with green, orange and purple for creepy warehouse. THE Creepy Warehouse where she would sleep without her parent's knowledge wow right that GIRL DROPS THE DAMN RING AT THE FIRST SIGN OF burned one looked more alien than werewolf-y here Decent Horror movie looks, and dude stole her ring. Rude. Saved by the headmistress, and tera/aisha/musa are here to great her Stella can't be here though because she has to greet a half naked freshly showered sky because life is suffering and producers insist people like to see teens half naked (who. Who?) shit +1 and she dumped him. pity part of one and using it to try to get your bone on. HEY A SONG I KNOW. IT'S WHATSITCALLED FROM THE BAYONETTA COMMERCIALS WAY BACK WHEN. in for the kill la roux. I do wish netflix would either commit to telling you what song was playing or didn't tell you at all

Riv offers Beatrix a hit from his joint because what Is a Bad Kid hasn't changed in like 70 years Blowing pot smoke into someone's mouth isn't as sexy as ya'll seem to think it is Musa has cute sleep socks with little pom poms, and I love Tera's floral jammies Tera offers a bluetooth speaker so they can listen to music together Musa also calls out Tera's fake happiness this is the good shit character interaction i live for Musa Empath Mind Fairy 'somber indie music'

If you kill a burned one in the human world Something? Extra bad happens? So the headmistress knows Bloom's a changeling, and ohhh that's the last time a burned one was spotted. Is Rosalind the famed Monster Slayer the birth mother of Bloom? Tera text flirts with Giggly who IS NAMED DANE and has a thing for. Sky? Riv? I told you these boys all look the same to me so if it's a half naked pic on fairy insta i'm out of context clues. Crymeariv is the insta name that answers that. Is this the slow burn enemies to lover mlm i can't finish this sentence i don't care riv is a dick Stella and Sky are in a bed and she doesn't seem to have a top on so Implied sexy times? MYSTERIOUS HOODED AND ROBED FIGURE CROSSES THROUGH THE BARRIAR AND SHOOTS THE BURNED ONE WITH LIGHTNING MAGIC OH IT'S beatrix

alt-J – Adeline as an ending song

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Rewatching Snyderverse Part 1 - Man of Steel

Not, let me preface this by saying that my opinion of Zack Snyder as a director prior to MoS was mixed. I really liked his Dawn of the Dead and 300 was a lot of fun. But I hated Sucker Punch and while there are some merits to Watchmen, I think he was a bit too slavish about adapting the comic without really getting the spirit of it along with a few fatal miscastings. But Nolan had endorsed Snyder for the movie so I was optimistic. My overall opinion of the film ended up being a big “meh”. I have seen the movie a few times, including last night and my opinion has never changed.

Now I don’t hate the movie. The film is split into two halves. I really quite like the first half of this film. The Krypton sequence is my favorite action sequence of the entire film and Snyder does create a unique version of that world. I enjoyed everything about Clark’s past with Jonathan and Martha, interspliced with him figuring out his Kryptonian heritage and finding the scout ship. I liked that Lois Lane is shown to be a smart reporter and having tracked down Clark all on her own, and I really liked how the idea of first contact with aliens is handled. I mean Zod’s arrival on Earth is very creepy and well handled. There are a few eye rolling moments like Clark being able to fake his background check and being able to make it onto a secret military installation despite just being a grifter. But those are relatively minor. Superman’s first flight is a gorgeous scene, capturing Clark’s glee quite wonderfully. The casting of the parents is excellent. Crowe as Jor-El, Costner as Pa Kent, and Diane Lane as Martha Kent are all really good.

To me, the film takes a pretty big downturn after Zod enters the picture. His arrival on Earth is well handled, but then the film turns into one brawl after another, starting with the Smallville sequence. To me, the action sequences are what I call destruction porn. Snyder seems to revel in causing as much destruction as possible. Certainly the camera lingers constantly on buildings falling and explosions. It just gets boring and monotonous after a while. And its basically one after another. The Smallville fight is followed immediately by the gravity beam destruction, accompanied with Clark trying to destroy the World Engine, followed by creating the singularity, followed by the Clark vs Zod fight. There is no relief found for the last 40-50 minutes at all because its just non stop destruction. I also found Shannon to be overly hammy. There are moments where he’s really good but a lot of it is just him screaming. Faora was a more intimidating figure in the movie. There is also some pretty hokey dialogue. Like Zod screaming “There is only one way this ends Kal. Either you die, or I do”. Every time he says this I can’t help but say in my head that that is actual two different ways how it can end. There are some big tonal issues. Like Metropolis goes through unimaginable destruction and tragedy and we have Lois and Clark kissing at basically ground zero like its a big romantic moment, and then a few scenes after Zod’s death, we have Lambard flirting with Lois and Jenny about going to the basketball game. The film also wastes a lot of characters. I mean, Fishburne, Meloni, Lennix, Schiff etc... are all good actors who are basically just spouting exposition grimly. I am a huge fan of Richard Schiff from TWW and its criminal how he is basically just used to just explain to the audience what is going on.

My big issue also comes down to casting of Henry Cavill and Amy Adams. Now, I think Henry Cavill has great potential to be a fantastic Superman and he has the looks and the acting chops, but for some reason he’s always been a tad too bland in this role. I have seen him be way more charismatic and better in other movies like in The Man from UNCLE and MI: Fallout. He’s not bad at all. He’s decent, but whereas the best superhero castings like Bale as Batman, RDJ as Iron Man, Evans as Cap, and even Affleck as Batman, have grabbed me immediately, he didn’t really make me feel that he’s The Superman. And I had never seen any Superman movie prior to MoS other than Superman Returns, so I had no Christopher Reeves nostalgia. Amy Adams is one of my favorite actresses and I have loved her in many, many movies but like Cavill, she’s a bit bland in this role. And the most fatal problem is that Cavill and Adams have no chemistry. Given how important that relationship is in the context of this film and the films that came after and were planned for the future, its a big problem.

In the end, I can’t help but make direct comparisons between Man of Steel and Batman Begins. Both have a very similar structure with the first half going back and forth between the hero’s past and what he’s doing currently, and in the second half we have the hero dealing with a villain from his past. Batman Begins managed to do the second part a lot better than Man of Steel did and it utilizes its cast a lot better despite Man of Steel having more than its fair share of quality actors. At the end, I was a little let down because the first half of the film gave me a lot of hope for a great Superman origin movie but the last hour of the film just gives me a headache. It was still an acceptable movie. there are a lot of worse Superhero movies out there, but in a world where we had great superhero origin movies like Batman Begins, Iron Man, TFA, Spider-man etc... this one paled in comparison overall. But it had laid a pretty solid foundation, if they had only followed it up properly. Overall, it was a 5.5/10 type film.

[youarejesting]

Quarantine.2

[Masterlist] Pairing: BTS x reader (i don’t know if this will have ships or just friendship or what I am just letting it run its course) Genres: friendship, drama, romance Rating: All Summary: Your brother works with a few BigHit dance teams and whilst having permission to accompany him at work the city shuts down banning anyone from stepping outside for a whole WEEK while they disinfect the streets. If you step outside you might get arrested, shot or poisoned by the chemicals they are emitting through the city. Words: 3.1k  Announcement: I have 901 followers this. I can’t thank you guys enough. Stay safe. (this has a tiny inspiration from the movie exit and that is that they can’t go outside that's about it)

[Part 1]  [Part 3]  [Tag Yourself Here]

When the sun poured in from the window, you deemed it time to wake up, though you hadn’t actually slept, not that you didn’t try. There were specific requirements you needed to sleep. It had to be pitch black with soft tone music in the background and there had to be air running across your face by a fan or you would feel claustrophobic.

Stepping out into the hall, you heard two young female employees talk as they passed about ‘hot water running out’. Following them down the hall you saw the first set of bathrooms. It was packed, the line stretched out down the hall. 

“Maybe we should try the bathroom on the third floor?” one of the two women said,  “No these are the best and it will be packed as well so we should just stand in line.”  

You walked away and to the third floor to see the line, you weren’t worried about showering anytime soon. It was also out the door with tired men and women sitting against the wall. Humming thoughtfully you remembered the storage room, there was an old bathroom beside it, what are the chances there was a shower in there. 

Taking the service elevator to the basement. It was clean and brightly lit, just as it had been the day before. There were cameras in some corners of the halls. You walked to the end cautiously, why did basements have such a bad reputation. Seeing the familiar storage room ahead of you and to the right was the bathroom. You pushed the door open hesitantly; you saw the stalls they were clean and unused, and like luck would have it the last had a shower. Locking the door you showered quickly the water was hot because there was a personal hot water system in the corner of the stall. 

With a towel wrapped securely around your chest, you quickly ducked into the storage room. Cleaning up a little and hanging ropes across the pipes on the walls. Making a makeshift clothesline to hang the clothes you had washed in the shower. There were some old costumes and props and hoodies. Searching the piles of clothing for something that fit. You found something you were nervous to wear. Embarrassingly you had found a box of old merch and discontinued items in various sizes, none of it had been worn they all still had tags and were sealed in their packets folded professionally. 

You pulled out a set of BT21 underwear in your size and felt your face grow hot if you were caught wearing these character underwear you would be mortified. You found what looked like a plain black hoody in an XXL and slipped it on. It reached to your knees. You chose this size as there were no pants in the pile and boxes you had searched just hoodies and underwear. 

You took the service elevator up to your floor and stepped out walking past the two women who had lined up in front of you still haven’t gone in. Continued walking you slowed past the boys meeting room you could hear groans of annoyance, “there is no hot water and the lines for the showers are huge” 

Deciding to take pity and potentially losing your secret shower, you knocked on the door. Met by a dishevelled Jin. Slipping past him and shutting the door, the room had a very manly musky scent and you blushed “I um… found a secret shower with a personal hot water system but you have to promise to keep it a secret or I won’t tell you?”

Their eyes lit up. Scrambling to you. You told them to pack their shower stuff in a discreet bag and they lined up waiting. 

“Follow me?” Turning and peeking out the door you heard them gasp and start laughing hysterically. You froze confused, had your hoody rode up and exposed your underwear. Tugging the back of the hoody down you sighed in relief realising that wasn’t the case. Whipping around to see they were hanging off each other trying to suppress their laughter.  “what is it?”

“We didn’t know you were a fan of Suga?” “Who?” They pointed at the small thin young man, his eyes sleepy and his face blank, the corners of his mouth seemed permanently turned down.  “You're wearing my uh merch, it says ‘Suga’ on the back” you turned to have a look and facepalmed. 

Yoongi couldn’t help laughing at your shocked reaction, his eyes lost all their sleepiness and turned into rainbow arches, his soft cheeks lifting and his smile revealed. You could see his pink gums and you knew he was genuinely amused. 

“I uh stole it from the storage room, I thought it was a plain black hoody you have a lot of merch clothes down there,” Leading them from the room and past the line of employee’s to the service elevator.  “Why do you take the service elevator?”  “What services will we get when the whole city is stuck indoors? And the regular elevator is small and busy” 

“You are pretty smart?” Namjoon nudged you with his shoulder, which would have been fine if your body wasn’t tired and lethargic from lack of sleep. Stumbling back into Jimin’s arms. “Thank you, I find I can be smart when I need to be” The doors opened and like every time you stepped into the basement you felt like you were in some action or horror movie. 

“This is where we die?” Hoseok laughed his voice cracking a little. You laughed, actually laughed. There was something about the way he said it in English with his cute accent.

“That’s what I think every time I come down here. The bathroom is in there, there is only one shower but if you wash your clothes with the bucket and the generic soap I stole from the supply cupboard down the hall, you can wash your clothes and hang them in the storage room. It has decent ventilation down here so they won’t take to long to dry”

You left them to it, going back to the storage room, cleaning some more you found a board game and some promotional cans of drinks. There were some more clothes in another box, you tried to find a pair of pants that would fit but were unlucky. You couldn’t have it all. 

You sighed hanging a long white fabric backdrop over the slightly stained couch. Sitting as you emptied some more product boxes while waiting. You were tired but you couldn’t sleep. Deciding to use the BT21 makeup, you found you put on some makeup and smiled it was nice. You wondered why the storage room was filled with random bits of their work. 

You finished applying the lip tint when they walked in clean wearing only towels, “oh um” you turned to cover your eyes, “you have clothes and costumes over there”

They all sorted through the clothes and dressed while you faced the corner of the room. When they said they were done, you walked back to the couch to find it already occupied. “You look happier” Examining the group of boys, Taehyung was tying his shoes on the couch and Jimin and Yoongi were talking quietly looking up and down your legs your cheeks tinted pink 

Jin and Jungkook were hanging out washing and they stopped staring at your bra and underwear, causing you to get redder especially your neck and ears. Taehyung hooked his finger under the hem of the hoodie you were wearing and gently pulled it up at the side. With a squeal and a jump, you flailed slapping his hand away. 

“Taehyung, you can’t just do that?” Namjoon scolded and Taehyung blushed holding his hands up in defence.  “Sorry I wasn’t trying to look at your underwear I was just wondering if you had pants on, but, um… are you wearing Cooky underwear?” Jungkook froze his cheeks going red and you looked away refusing to answer your face feeling like it was on fire. “I don’t know the character names but it’s a bunny?”

“Oh JayKay you lucky boy” Hoseok slapped the younger boys back and you frowned.  “Again I just wore what was clean and I could find” You walked out of the room unable to stand to be near them your face was too warm. On your way back to the corridor they all caught up joining you in the elevator to the second floor. You were all going to the dining room for some breakfast. 

Your brother again was nowhere to be found, many of the boys were wearing prescription glasses complaining about not having contacts.  “You look good don’t worry” you mumbled to Jin and he seemed to fluff right up like a proud peacock blowing a kiss at you from one end of the table. 

Taehyung sat in front of you and it was kind of hard to eat. He was so handsome. His face was mesmerising. His eyebrows were thick and eyelashes were long. He had rounded ears that stuck out giving him a silly kind of look but you thought it was so cute. You seemed mesmerised by the tiny freckle on his nose. 

Eating slowly giving up your kimchi again and settled for rice and the lightly seasoned side dishes. “You mustn’t like kimchi,” Namjoon said “It’s a strong flavour I am still getting used to but as for now it is making my stomach hurt my body is not used to fermented foods” “But kimchi is so delicious” Hoseok defended

“It’s like, imagine how you would feel if you had to eat bread every day your body would react. It’s nice at first but then you get sick of it, wanting something you are used to eating. Your body would bloat unused to the carbs. My body does the same thing with kimchi but instead of bloating if I eat it I might just vomit”

Yoongi nodded understanding and you sighed “I just want something bland like mash potatoes and chicken with no chilli or kimchi just plain food, just once” you sighed pushing the food around your plate Jungkook laughed beside you his teeth were adorable, and when he smiled his eyes did too you were lost for a moment. He handed you some of the plain food from his plate. They were all really handsome and you had to keep yourself from saying or doing anything embarrassing. 

Parting ways you went to find your brother, he was practising with the dancers. You sat watching, even helping one of the students through the routine. Dancing was a family trait, you had been dancing for as long as you can remember but you didn’t anymore, you had gotten so many rejections from your auditions that you finally gave up. 

So your brother tried not to act too surprised when he saw you standing and doing the very basic steps to show his student the routine. They were practising for a festival which might not even be held due to the virus. sighing, the kids all took a break and your brother left sparring you a glance. 

Frozen in place you didn’t know you were walking until you were face to face with the stereo. Pressing the play button the music played and all you could hear was the rejection. 

‘I am sorry you didn’t get the part’ 

‘We regret to inform you, your audition was not accepted’ 

‘You didn’t make it to the final audition round better luck next time’. 

Shutting off the music you were having a panic attack. Again. Racing out of the room, you ran straight into Hoseok. He grabbed your arm. Looking down at your face, “hey breathe it’s okay, look at me and breathe” You copied his breathing until you felt yourself slump against his chest. He rubbed your back, “Hey, tell me what’s wrong?”

You hadn’t let any tears slip not this time, and you were determined to keep it that way. “It’s nothing” “Come on, that was not nothing?” He squeezed your hand, “tell me about it, I am a really good listener” He sat you down in your brother’s office and poured you some water, “it’s stupid” “Nothing is stupid if it makes you react like that?”

“I used to do something I pursued it and loved it very much, but everyone rejected me, said I wasn’t good enough said I wouldn’t become anything and after all the rejection I couldn’t take it anymore I couldn’t even think about this thing without panicking, I miss it so much, it use to make me happy. I use to get an electric buzz through my body and it was surreal. I could express myself and become whoever I wanted to be, but now all I hear is their voice telling me no”

“I understand, I wasn’t always this famous guy, I was a street dancer, I tried and tried and tried and I got rejections after rejections until one day I got scouted by BigHit” “How many times were you rejected? If you had to take a guess.” “Fifty to a hundred at least”  “I was rejected 873 times, I had a tally that’s the equivalent of being rejected every day for two and a half years, forgive me if I felt worthless”

“Don’t let the no’s stop you okay, keep pushing until you get that yes because a life of struggle is better than a life of regret” he smiled patting your knee before leaving quietly and you sat there confused. 

You spent the day thinking about it, it scared you how your feet began itching to dance. Your body wanted to move. You walked past the dance studio rooms at least three times before finally, you got the courage to step inside. You sat off to the side watching your brother and Hoseok perfect their routine. 

“Hello” Namjoon smiled as the two of you were talking, he started teaching you a tiny bit of Korean, you only got through greetings, my name is, how are you? Where is the___? what is this? It was fun and took your mind off the dancing. 

You caught your foot tapping and left the room slowly before the feeling caught up with you. You went to the basement and to the storage room your clothes were almost dry, you continued searching through the boxes and bags of clothes and found some more stuff. It was a shirt that said plus multiply plus in yellow and blue, and the sweat pants you found the tag said soobin and was a perfect fit. 

Slipping them in a bag you headed upstairs, everyone went to dinner. Sitting beside your brother you ate slow, mind wandering with what if’s. He was right a life full of what if’s and regret was worse than the rejection. Your brother was talking adamantly with his students and the dance team, you ate what you could before you excused yourself leaving. Laying in the storage room you really couldn’t get the feeling out of your body or the music out your head. Your fear had morphed, you were scared to feel the joy that only dancing could bring, a fear of how bad you must be after the long break.

It was torture, it got dark. You got changed and travelled up the stairs this time trying to tire yourself out or slow yourself down because you knew exactly where you were headed. You took your time and you finally arrived on the fourth floor. You stepped into the empty dance studio and turned on the lights dimming them so they gave a faint glow, you didn’t want to alert anyone that you were inside. 

Turning down the stereo system you plugged your phone in and started a slow song, it started small, feeling the music, trying a few moves and stopping you didn’t have anything to go on just yet you were warming up. When none of the songs could draw anything out of you, you switched to the CD and hit play on whatever was inside. The song title appeared on the small led screen ‘Louder than bombs’. The music was able to move you, it had been so long you danced the lyrics ripping through you 

Louder than bombs I break. 

You finished the song crying and you wanted to do it again but the next song had you with the beat of the drums it was called ‘On’. Slowly getting into the songs each one bringing out a new emotion. Expressing everything you had, you had gone through the album twice. Dancing to black swan, the music died out when you heard clapping and turned falling on your behind. 

There was a slapping sound and a deep “ow what was that for?” “Tae, She isn’t supposed to know we are here idiot” The lights grew a little brighter and you saw the BTS boys and your brother.  You frowned “how long have you been here?” “I have been here since pretty much the start,” Hoseok rubbed the back of his neck “you were dancing to some English songs”

“I came in halfway through louder than bombs the first time” Jimin grinned doing a few of the moves he memorised. “Your brother was looking for you, we had been searching everywhere,” Namjoon said “We worried you went outside”

“Your dancing was really nice?” Jungkook said “I liked what you did with my song and the black swan dance you did was very pretty” “Y/n I haven’t seen you dance in years” Your brother stepped forward, you were feeling a little overwhelmed, “it was really good?”

“Well remember it because I am still not dancing” Trying not to cry the declaration ripping through your chest. Namjoon started explaining the meaning behind black swan you looked at your shaking hands “I have to go I really can’t do this” you tried to push past them as you staggered off down the hallway wiping your eyes on your sleeve. 

“It was nice” You froze the gravelly tone made you turn. Yoongi walked over and placed his hand on your head awkwardly patting it. While refusing to look at you. “I have never seen anyone move like that to my songs before, it made it seem like it was something more I don’t know beautiful it looked like actual art” 

He shuffled looking a bit nervous. Walking away leaving you dumbfounded. Sure it was one thing to hear. ‘You are so good’  but it was another to hear the sincerity in someone’s voice as they said something as deep and meaningful about your dancing like Yoongi had said to you. He called your dancing ‘Art’ for crying out loud. That’s the highest compliment you could possibly think of at this moment.

[Part 1] [Part 3]  [Tag Yourself Here]

[unibrowzz]

Mod (finally) reviews all 67 winners of the Eurovision Song Contest Part IV: The 1980s

Ah yes, the 80s. One of my favourite decades for music overall, and one of the only decades in Eurovision where I wouldn’t immediately jump at the chance to change most of the songs that won, the other decade being the 2000s. 

But at least with the 80s there was more quality songs per year, whereas the 2000s was mostly drivel.

I also count the 80s as being somewhat of a turning point in the contest’s history, and by that I mean it always seemed to me like it was the decade where the UK really began to stop caring. Most people know the song that won in 1985, but nobody knows what won in 1986. Everyone knows Johnny Logan won twice, but couldn’t name his second song. Everyone knows Celine Dion competed, but can’t remember if she won or what she sang. 

That and countries also started experimenting with more modern sounds and outfits towards the end. The early 80s is just an extension of the 70s I swear. 

But that’s enough of all that, how do I find the winning songs?

1980- What’s Another Year?

Country: Ireland

Artist: Johnny Logan 

Language: English

Thoughts: Ah yes, the song that makes every 50something woman in the UK and Ireland all doey-eyed and rosy cheeked as they remember back to when they were a teenager watching this on TV and drooling at the lovely looking sad Irishman singing his sorrows into the microphone.  Or that’s my experience with this song anyway. Another experience is that most vintage fans I know tend to dislike this song on the grounds of it beating out [insert song here] Everyone has their favourite from 1980 since it was honestly a pretty strong year, but even though this song isn’t my first place for that year I can still clearly see why it won. See, 1980 had a lot of pop songs, so a slow, sad song like this one was bound to stand out, whether it was popular or not. Luckily for this one, it turned out to be a popular choice. Other songs wouldn’t be so lucky… Back on track though. Like I said, this is a very sad and melancholy song with sad and melancholy lyrics, which not only made it stand out in its year, but also made it stand out amongst other Eurovision songs of its time. It’s strange to think, but at this point in the contest’s history there hadn’t been a winner with lyrics so solemn and personal. See, in modern Eurovision, every other song is the artist baring their soul about their horrible ex-boyfriend, or their depression, or past abuse, or whatever, so knowing there was a period where songs like that were so rare is just… surreal to me.

Is this my personal winner for this year? This or Greece tbh, I don’t mind this one

If no, what is? Greece- Anna Vissi- “Autostop”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 23rd

1981: Making Your Mind Up

Country: United Kingdom

Artist: Bucks Fizz

Language: English

Thoughts: Ah yes, the UK winner that nobody really likes, but the BBC still forces at us anyway because they’re proud they came up with a gimmick that everybody remembers. Or maybe it’s not that well remembered, but nobody would know that because we’re reminded of it every year. This song is… alright. Just alright. The first listen of this one is always the best, because after a while it just gets kind of annoying. The singing ESPECIALLY starts to grate you for a while. Even in the studio version the two girls sound unbearably shrill and whiny, and I’m not sure if that’s their fault or the songwriter’s (since if I remember correctly only one of them was a professional singer). I’m seriously convinced there’s no way for a female vocalist to pull this off without sounding terrible.  Again, this one’s perfectly fine and serviceable, but that doesn’t mask the fact it’s still the worst UK winner and the worst winner of the 1980s too. 

Is this my personal winner for this year? No

If no, what is? Portugal- Carlos Paião- “Playback”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 58th

1982: Ein Bißchen Frieden

Country: West Germany

Artist: Nicole

Language: German (Translation: “A little peace”)

Thoughts: This song gives me a really warm, nostalgic feeling, and I don’t know why. I mean, I know this one did well internationally, so it’s possible I just heard it as a kid, but given how I grew up in the early 2000s, “Eurovision is a shitty freak show full of weirdos from the USSR who gang up on the UK and don't vote for us on purpose” era Britain, that’s highly unlikely. Anyways, this is such a warm, fuzzy kind of song. It has a lovely… round-the-campfire, singalong kind of vibe, like this is meant to be sung by a load of long haired hippies with flowers in their hair and CND symbols drawn on their cheeks. And it’s… … Also kind of bland. If you’ve been reading my personal winners so far, you’ll have noticed I definitely have a soft spot for old German entries, so it’s a shame I find the one song they actually won with to be so… generic. It’s like they got tired of being unique so decided to send the same saccharine fluff everyone else was sending, and guess what, it paid off majorly, because this song was a huge hit at the time. Something about that kind of bothers me, like, out of all the entries they sent, it’s the one that’s the most “Eurovision-y” that ended up winning. And there’s something depressing in that.

Is this my personal winner for this year? No

If no, what is? United Kingdom- Bardo- “One Step Further”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 50th

1983: Si la vie est Cadeau

Country: Luxembourg

Artist: Corinne Hermés

Language: French (Translation: “If life were a gift”)

Thoughts: You want a tip on how to stand out amongst Eurovision fans? Say you like this song. Probably won’t make you very popular, but you’ll stand out at least. I will confess, I, too, was part of the hate-wagon for this song. Like most fans I knew, I’d complain about how boring and uninteresting it was and how it, ahem, “robbed” so many other entries, and how basic it was, et cetera, et cetera. But… honestly? It’s not even that bad. Sure I had other favourites from 1983 (the ones I could stand watching anyway, the host that year was so unimaginably terrible I gave up watching halfway through. I DARE you to watch the whole thing without wanting to neck yourself), but this song gets way more hate than it deserves. I honestly don’t think this song is half as bad as I made it out to be myself, or as bad as the fandom makes it out to be. It’s got a decent melody, some solid vocals, some appealingly 80s instrumental, like there’s a lot I like here. …Until you read the lyrics and realise they’re almost as half-assed and lazy as All Kinds of Everything’s, but I digress. Did I prefer other songs from that year? Of course. Am I going to complain about this one winning? Nah. It’s alright. 

Is this my personal winner for this year? No

If no, what is? Sweden- Carola Häggkvist- “Främling”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 41st

1984- Diggiloo, Diggiley

Country: Sweden

Artist: Herreys

Language: Swedish

Thoughts: Whenever I was a younger fan I used to describe this song as being drunk-dad-at-a-wedding-music performed by three sentient Ken dolls, and I still stand by that statement. And I don’t really know how else to describe this one. It certainly has its charm, and it’s still a likeable song, but it also feels very… vapid. Like if this song were a person, they’d be a bit of a bimbo. And I mean, the song’s about how the singer’s oh-so-happy and prancing down the street in his brand new shoes, so that’s probably a fair description. Part of me wonders if that’s down to old Eurovision songs being vapid in general or if it’s down to the schlager genre itself requiring songs to be kinda neutered and happy-go-lucky, but even though I do like this song, it does come off as being a bit bland. A bit by-the-numbers and playing-it-safe. And I don’t mind songs like that, but I’d rather they didn’t win, y’know?

Is this my personal winner for this year? Not really

If no, what is? Italy- Alice & Franco- “Il Treni di Tozeur”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 15th

1985- La det Swinge

Country: Norway

Artist: Bobbysocks

Language: Norwegian

Thoughts: Ah yes, the song which finally hauled Norway into first place after years of being a regular last-placer. Maybe the UK should take some notes instead of blaming Brexit. Or Russia. Or Iraq. Or anything other than their own apathy, for that matter. But this is about La det Swinge and not the UK, so what are my thoughts on it? Well it’s… It’s the kind of song I imagine my mom and aunt would sing at a wedding if they ever attended one. It’s a very fun song, a little cheesy, sure, but it’s hard to not like a song that’s this upbeat and cheery.  And yeah I know it’s because it’s schlager and that’s generally a really cheerful genre by default, I touched on that in the review above, 

Is this my personal winner for this year? This or Israel

If no, what is? Israel- Yizhar Cohen- “Olé Olé”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 14th

1986- J’aime la Vie

Country: Belgium

Artist: Sandra Kim

Language: French

Thoughts: This song is an enigma because I’m an absolute slut for 80s pop, yet, for some reason, I find this song painfully average and uninteresting. Now, I’ll get it off my chest and say that 1986 was also a painfully average and uninteresting year, and most of the time I just felt myself remembering the singer more than the song, and even then I struggle to remember what some of the acts even were. It was just such a boring blur of a year I’m surprised the juries even managed to stay awake to pick a winner. And I GUESS you could argue that this song is so upbeat and peppy that it woke them up, but that doesn’t excuse how bloody generic it is. Like, this is the most generic 80s song you can imagine, and not in a good way. It feels more like stock music than an actual publicly released pop song. Had it not won, I doubt it would’ve stood out to me at all; it would’ve just faded into the background with all the other muted, 80s-coloured mush from this year. Basically, there’s a reason the singer’s age is the only thing noteworthy about this song.

Is this my personal winner for this year? Not really

If no, what is? Luxembourg- Sherisse Laurence- “L’amour de ma vie”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 49th

1987- Hold me Now

Country: Ireland

Artist: Johnny Logan 

Language: English

Thoughts: Ah yes, the superior Johnny Logan winner.  And I’m not sure why everyone forgets this one because Mother of Mercy this song is in another league entirely compared to the other schlock Ireland’s won with. Like this is their best winner, no competition. One of their best songs overall as well. One of the best entries from the 80s, one of the best winners of the 80s, one of the best winners… Yeah, I really like this song.  I’ll admit to sleeping on this one for too long myself, always dismissing it as some boring Irish ballad to go with all the other boring Irish ballads they somehow managed to win with (we’ll get to that later), and always agreeing with people who said XYZ country (always Yugolslavia) should have won instead.  Basically I learnt the hard way to never judge a song on its country and genre. But one day I found myself in the midst of a revisiting trip, going back to winners I didn't pay much attention to, just to see if there was anything I’d missed the first time round. And something about the lyrics in this song resonated with me a lot more than I thought they would. In a strange way, it made me feel older; like I’d grown up and was able to relate to the words in a song and appreciate it more than I could when I was younger. The line “what do you say when words are not enough?” especially hits harder than it should; as someone with autism I tend to find showing emotions difficult, even in virtual conversation where I’m not using my voice or face, because… Well, what do you say when your words aren’t enough?

Is this my personal winner for this year? Yes

If no, what is? N/A

Personal ranking (out of 67): 2nd

1988- Ne Partez pas Sans Moi

Country: Switzerland 

Artist: Céline Dion 

Language: French

Thoughts: Telling people Céline Dion won this thing is a new favourite hobby of mine, just to see the confused reaction. And that’s the most interesting thing about this song because it’s… fine, I guess? It’s a perfectly serviceable 80s power ballad, but there’s no bells and whistles to make me sit up and declare it any better than just “okay”. It’s basically the ballad equivalent of J’aime la Vie from 1986, in that it’s extremely 80s and also in French, but there’s nothing to make it that memorable aside from the singer herself. And even then this isn’t the song that made her famous anyway. Even her singing doesn't make this one stand out, partially because the song doesn't do anything special with it, and partially because she just blends in with all the other good singers of this era. And that’s kinda sad to think about.

Is this my personal winner for this year? Hmmm....

If no, what is? Greece- Afroditi Frida- “Clown”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 22nd

1989- Rock Me

Country: Yugoslavia

Artist: Riva

Language: Croatian

Thoughts: So this is another song it really took me a while to get into (there’s lots of those, trust me) and one that was very briefly in my top three overall favourites. It’s slid down a few slots since then, though I would still say it’s… Somewhere in the top 15.  I don’t really have a lot to say about this one, if I’m honest. It’s just a good, fun, solid song which stood out in a very dull and ballad-saturated year, nothing more, nothing less. The lyrics are nice too, being about a bored musician who learns to love music again by teaching himself how to play pop songs to entertain his friends. That’s a unique subject and I can imagine it resonating with a lot of people who’ve fallen out with a hobby they used to love because they took it too seriously (providing they either speak Croatian or have looked up the lyrics, of course). I mean, it resonates with me at least. All in all, I just like this song for its message more than anything else.

Is this my personal winner for this year? No

If no, what is? Portugal- Da Vinci- “Conquistador”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 9th

[crimsonrae]

Across the Road, At the Brothel

Chapter Eleven

Summary: Jaskier fell in love any day that the sun rose in the East. It was a trifling, pleasurable experience for him. Even when he was jumping out a window to avoid cuckolded husbands. So what happens when his trifles start to become more significant? Jaskier/OC. Some Yennefer/Geralt

A/N: Jaskier is just too adorable not to write about. This is a relationship development story with an OC. There will be smut in later chapters and plenty of angst.

Rating: Mature

It's Not the Fall

A cloud of dirt erupted into the air as Geralt landed on his back. His medallion hummed steadily against his chest as he quickly gathered his bearings.

His sword landed a few feet from him.

The bruxa's scream continued to assault his ears as he kept a wary track of the fleder bearing down on him again. A curse fell from his lips as he barely managed to avoid an attack. The setting sun glinted almost tauntingly in his golden eyes and Geralt just managed to bite back a growl.

Had the whole fucking universe come against him?

A clawed hand slashed down at his face and Geralt only had his quick reflexes to thank as he caught the wrist before those too sharp talons could tear into his eyes. With little thought, he thrust the silver dagger in hand across the creature's stomach and felt the flesh give way like butter. The fleder roared in shocked-pain and flew back. It allowed Geralt the chance to roll to his feet and grab his sword.

Only then did the witcher notice the silence.Not daring to pull his gaze away from the infuriated vampire, Geralt pushed his senses out as he sought the bruxa, even as the fleder attacked again.

                                        »»————-　　————-««

Jaskier hadn't come to the Rose and Pine.

Lyrra tried to swallow her disappointment as she went about her duties. She quietly berated herself for being so foolish as she tried to remember that this was what she had wanted. She had wanted peace again, to feel in control of herself and to return to a routine that was familiar. Things that had been inexplicably absent since Jaskier had sauntered into her life. He was giving her exactly what she had desired with his distance. It dismayed her how easily he had disrupted everything, even more so when she realized just how quickly she had adjusted to his presence. It felt like he had been with her for months, not weeks. She bit back a frustrated sigh. She shouldn't be pining for a man she barely knew.

He was a dalliance, nothing more.

She would repeat that until she believed it.

"Another beer, luv."

Lyrra nodded at a strange fellow in a brown smock and moved to collect another order. She needed to keep busy that was all. She moved about the tavern in a familiar dance. Kept her head bowed and the mugs of ale full as she faded into the background. Hillard was the only one to pay her much mind and even then, it was only a curious look or two.

The old barkeep had noticed the conspicuous absence of a certain minstrel, as well. He, like Lyrra, had grown used to the boy's presence in the pub – more so his inane chatter and propensity to break into song after have a few glasses of beer or wine. Not that the bard didn't sing without the alcohol, it was just those songs were quite a bit tamer than what spilled from his mouth after a little liquid courage – while often amusing, wasn't always...right proper. In truth, the boy was lucky the people of Glynedol were rather hard to offend or else he would have been dealt a resounding beating on more than one occasion. And while Hillard would never mention it aloud, he was rather delighted by the bard's propensity for calling Tyssa, Madam Hatchet, even when in mixed company.

It wasn't until the night was nearly half over that the barkeep finally gave in to his curiosity, "Alright lass, where is'e?"

Lyrra frowned as she passed him a tray, "Where's who?"

The deadpan stare she received had a smile quirking at the corner of her lips. Hillard dryly intoned, "King Llorad o'course. Yer boy, lass. Where's yer boy?"

"He's not my anything." Lyrra responded back softly as she took the now drink laden tray, "I dunno where he is. I'm not his keeper."

Hillard frowned churlishly as he asked archly, "Did 'e do somethin'?"

Lyrra smiled faintly at the older man's worry and shook her head, "Nothing that I didn't want. Promise."

She skittered off before he could ask any further questions. Despite appearances, Hillard was smarter than most gave him credit and she had no doubt that he was putting together the pieces without much input from her. After all, two years of working for the man had given him a decent insight into her proclivities.

Even still, the night seemed to drag on and Lyrra found herself glancing toward the tavern door any time it opened. Jaskier never appeared, nor did Geralt and she found his lack of presence almost as disheartening. The witcher never hung around for long, ever the loner, but his imposing figure had become something of a comfort to her.

As time passed and the customers came and went, Lyrra cleared the last of the tables and wished Mirel a good night as the other girl headed out with Owain. The moon sat full in the sky as she met Hillard on the road outside. The barkeep had become ever more protective over the girls in his employ after Lyrra's attack, she didn't bother protesting an escort anymore. She did, however, protest the silent judgment his company engendered.

She bit back a growl of frustration as she heaved a sigh and bit out, "What?"

"I dinnae say anythin'." Hillard rumbled back loftily.

Lyrra pursed her lips in annoyance as she sent him an unimpressed stare, "You didn't have to."

After a long moment, the barkeep shrugged, "Ye like 'im, he likes ye. Why chase 'im off?"

"What makes you think I chased him off?" Lyrra questioned lightly as she tried to ignore the bland stare she was receiving from the older man. She fidgeted after a moment and scowled, "Fine. There's no point in starting something more serious when he'll be gone soon... if he's not already."

She would like to think that Jaskier would say goodbye before he left, but she knew her reticence had hurt him more than he had allowed her to see.

"Hmmp." Hillard grunted dubiously but refrained from further comment. He had to remind himself that it wasn't his place to counsel his barmaid as if she were his daughter. To be fair if she had been his daughter, he would have chased the bard off the first night he had flirted with the girl.

His disbelief gnawed at Lyrra, however, and she growled, "What?"

Hillard sighed and stopped. He looked at her knowingly, almost sadly, "He'll be gone soon or ye will?"

Lyrra damn near froze as she fought to keep her surprise from her face. Her mouth moved silently for a moment before she broke their stare, "How..."

The barkeep bit back another sigh, "Aye, girl – I've been around a bit. Ye've been restless, eyes searchin' and ears open. Pushin' ta bard away was ta the last clue. Ye was neva gonna stick around 'ere foreva. Surprised ye hadn't left sooner."

Lyrra shrugged, "I've liked it here."

"Ye've had a good break." A faint smile tinged the older man's lips, "But ta game still calls to ye."

Her grey eyes flashed with a mix of longing and anticipation and she couldn't deny his words. A rueful smile pulled at the corners of her lips as she caught Hillard's commiserating stare, "Still a pirate at heart, Hillard?"

"Pirate captain, lass." He corrected softly as a roguish grin flashed across his mouth, but Lyrra didn't miss the faint gleam of longing in his hazel gaze.

She had been lucky to stumble upon Glynedol when she had. Ill and quite frankly waiting for death, an old farmer had found her bleeding out in a vineyard and had taken her immediately to Tyssa. The old madam had taken her in without question and fetched the town healer. It was in the weeks that followed in which the former princess had discovered what exactly the small town she had stumbled upon really was – a retirement community for the outlaws and vagabonds. Those that hadn't been caught or killed for their exploits anyway. She had never felt more at home.

Hillard was right, however. That feeling of comfort and familiarity had started to become suffocating and she had been itching to move on. She had originally planned to be gone by the end of the harvest season, but the oddness of the last few months made her think that she had stayed too long already. Her little sparring sessions with Geralt had reinforced that fact. Her reflexes were not as sharp as they once were – she refused to believe that the witcher was just that good.

She and the barkeep turned down the path to her cottage. A comfortable silence now enveloped them, but Lyrra's mind continued to whirl. She ignored the sinking sensation in her belly as she braced to enter an empty home. Jaskier and Geralt's departure would be the last string holding her back from leaving... she truly had no other reason to stay. She couldn't explain why that made her sad. Moving to a new town had never caused her such grief, such uncertainty before. Hillard seemed to sense her thoughts as he gave her arm a reassuring squeeze.

Yet as the duo neared her cottage, Lyrra frowned as she noticed a light emanating from the window. Her brow furrowed in confusion. A horse, no two horses lingered in her pasture. She only recognized Roach. The witcher had retrieved her from the stables just that morning. She couldn't fathom whom the other horse belonged to. Jaskier hadn't seemed overly fond of the creatures himself.

She picked up her stride and ignored Hillard's muffled curse as he moved to keep up with her as he sensed her unease. It took only a handful of moments before she crossed the threshold of her home and walked into a nightmare.

Lyrra barely managed to duck in time as a sword swung at her head. A curse left her lips as she glared up at the golden-eyed witcher, "You kill me in my own home and I will come back as a wraith to torment you."

Geralt merely grunted and helped her up. She noticed then the blood coating his clothes and skin. It was hard to see in the dim light from the fireplace against his dark clothing, but a faint copperish scent cloyed at her nose. This time her brow creased in concern, "Are you hurt?"

Hillard entered the cottage behind her more cautiously. He eyed the witcher warily for a moment before quickly evaluating the rest of the room.

Geralt paid him little mind as he shook his head wearily, "No, but I need to fetch the healer."

Lyrra frowned but didn't have the chance to question him further as she heard Hillard suck in a sharp breath. Her gaze followed his into her bedroom. She could just make out the form of a man lying prone on her bed. Hillard blustered forward for a better look as Lyrra snapped a demanding gaze back on the witcher, "Jaskier -"

"It's not him." Geralt murmured, impatience coating his tone, "I don't know his name. He was attacked by a bruxa. Lyrra, where can I find the healer?"

"It's Tyllan." Hillard grumbled casting a grim look at Lyrra as he ambled out of her bedroom, "He's a right mess, lass. I'll fetch Mirel's ma, but ye take care o'im."

Lyrra nodded, not bothering to watch as the old barkeep left. She slid around Geralt to her bedroom, "Geralt, get me some water from the well, please."

She quickly lit the lamp on her bedside table and turned to pull out a few cloths from her chest. She didn't have much left after taking care of Geralt's shoulder. She grimaced and grabbed a near-empty bottle of liniment as well. It wasn't until she collected her supplies that she finally turned toward the bed. She bit back a gasp as she took in the man on her bed.

Tyllan was the blacksmith's son. He ran his own shop in Belhaven but visited his father often. The man was built like a fortress. He was easily a few inches taller than Geralt with just as much muscle, but he looked nothing like the imposing man she knew him to be now. His normally tan skin was paler than the moon. Yet, it was the flesh around his throat that had her attention. It had been torn open like soft cheese and a moss-like substance had been pressed into his wound. She didn't dare touch it. Her grey gaze roved lower as she took in the slashes to his chest that wept slowly. She pressed her clothes over the wounds and held in a sigh as she tried to ignore the amount of blood Tyllan was covered in.

Geralt came to her side and poured the requested water into her basin on the table. Lyrra spared him a glance, "Are you sure you're not hurt? Your shoulder -"

"I'm fine, help him." Geralt murmured as he wet a cloth and passed it to her.She frowned at him, "What happened?"

                                       »»————-　　————-««

"OI!"

A vague swishing sound of a projectile being launched through the air registered to Geralt's senses long before the shout had. He barely ducked in time as an axe flew past his head and embedded itself into the fleder bearing down on him again.

It landed with a sickening thunk.

The creature shrieked in pain, but the unexpected attacked worked in the witcher's favor as he managed to get his dagger through the throat of the lesser vampire without becoming speared by its talons. The memory of his last fleder attack was all too clear as he pulled away from the creature and ignored the dull throbbing from his shoulder. He ripped the axe from its chest as it fell to the ground, satisfied that it wouldn't be getting back up.

A shrill scream shattered the air and Geralt felt his feet skid backwards before he had a chance to even look for who assisted him.

The bruxa.

He whipped around, expecting to see the vampiress advancing from his blind spot. Yet, no one was there.

His golden eyes swept the area wildly. He spotted the horse before he spotted its rider and the bruxa's latest victim. She had the man pinned to the ground. His arms straining as he tried valiantly to keep her fangs from his throat. Her nails like lethally sharp claws dragged across his chest, ripping fabric and flesh, to tear into his arm. The man roared in agony, his fingers pressed into her eyes and she screamed again. This time throwing the man unconscious from the soundwave.

Geralt expected the scream as he gathered his silver dagger and quickly cast Quen to ward himself. The bruxa was too busy to notice his approach. He fairly lunged across the yard and slammed his dagger into the bruxa's back just as her fangs clenched upon the man's throat. His blade tore down through the hard muscle of her back, sizzling as it went, and finally pierced her heart. Her mouth opened in surprised torment, letting the man beneath her go as she fell into death's embrace.

Geralt hauled her small form off the large man as he moved to assess his wounds. His throat was bleeding profusely and the witcher wasn't sure if he could stem the flow... or even if he did if it would be enough to save the man. His attention turned abruptly to the horse and he fairly yanked the saddlebags from the poor beast as he sought out a useful compress. There wasn't much to find and Geralt growled as he eyed his surroundings. The drying moss dangling from a nearby tree-line caught his attention and he gathered as much as he could before packing it tightly into the man's wounds.The man was horribly pale, but the shallow quiver of his chest gave Geralt hope that he would survive.

                                     »»————-　　————-««

The healer had arrived as Geralt told his tale and related his and Jaskier's findings from a few days prior. The small woman pushed Lyrra out of the way as she laid out her own supplies. She clucked disapprovingly under her breath as she listened to the witcher's words, but said nothing as she examined Tyllan closely.

A piercing look from her emerald eyes, so similar, yet so different from Mirel's was all Lyrra needed to vacate her bedroom. She tugged gently on Geralt's arm and swiftly snatched a few of the healer's bandages. She had long learned not to ask what it was exactly that Nyria did to heal people so close to death. To Lyrra there was no doubt that Tyllan was on that particular doorstep. The woman, however, always demanded privacy to perform her craft and Lyrra had the distinct feeling she would be without a bed again. Hillard hovered in her front room as Geralt followed after her.

She quietly bade him sit before the fire and moved to peel his soiled shirt from his shoulder. The witcher flinched away from her with a scowl and Lyrra merely raised an unimpressed brow, "Yeah, you're really fine. You've probably broken it open again."

Geralt frowned, "It's just tender."

"How can you be sure? You're slathered in blood." Lyrra intoned dryly as she ignored Hillard's muffled snort. Not even his hair had escaped, as splotches of red and brown – she assumed was dirt - glinted in the firelight.

She pulled a bandaged from her pocket and reached for his shirt again. To her surprise, she found an old dressing wrapped around his wound. She hadn't taken Geralt as the type to properly care for his injuries once he initially healed. The faintest staining of pink had risen to the clothes surface and she sighed, "It needs to be replaced. Shirt off."

Geralt shook his head, "It can wait. It'll be changed once I get a chance to bathe."

Lyrra pursed her lips in a frown, but couldn't disagree with that logic. Unbidden, she turned her attention toward Hillard, but found the old barkeep staring intently at Geralt, "Where did ye say this attack 'appened?"

"About four miles south of here. There was an old ruined farmhouse that they were congregating at – I would have the townsfolk stay away from there for the time being." Geralt answered after a moment. He turned his own hard gaze on the older man, "At least until I can head back and check for anything else lurking."

"Hmmph." Hillard grunted in agreement, but his brown eyes held a glint of worry that caught Geralt's attention, especially when the barkeep spared a quick glance at Lyrra who had suddenly taken an interest in feeding the fire, "I should get Myer down 'ere for 'is, boy."

Lyrra bit her lip and nodded her understanding, "He'll be worried, especially if he was expecting Tyllan. You should take the horse with you."

She stood and walked with him outside as Hillard quietly brought up sleeping arrangements. It wasn't until they were a good distance from the cottage door that their tone turned quieter and more serious, "It's odd that those creatures went ta the Ol'Croorey house."

Lyrra shook her head, "Not really. The magic of that place attracts all kinds. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner."

Hillard scoffed, "Tha place attracts those needin' a place ta 'ide."

"Well..." Lyrra drawled with a pointed glance. That had been the purpose of the Croorey House in a town of criminals. A place for the people to shelter if any law or crossed assailants reared their heads in Glynedol. "I'll head out there tomorrow. Check to make sure no one was using it as intended."

Hillard grumbled under his breath, "Jus be careful, lass. In an' out. Ya don't need one o'those creatures getting' ye either."

She nodded as she waved the older man off. If anything, slipping into the Croorey House would be the opportunity for her to assess her skills. It had been a long time since she had to sneak into anywhere. She turned and headed back into the cottage, only to be met with Geralt's piercingly expectant stare.

He had barely moved from his place by the fire, "What's the Croorey House?"

Lyrra blinked, "You could hear that all the way in here?"

A weary sigh fell from his lips, "Mutant... remember?"

Her mouth moved silently for a moment before she asked almost hesitantly, "Do I want to know what else you can sense?"

"Lyrra." Geralt warned quietly, not to be deterred by her weak attempt at distraction.

She paid his warning little mind as she pulled out her basket of laundry from the morning. Her fingers quickly shifted through the layers of garments before she pulled out a dark shirt and passed it to Geralt. He arched a brow, not having realized she had taken his clothing for washing but didn't move to claim his property.

Again he growled, "The Croorey House, Lyrra."

She stifled a sigh and placed the shirt next to him. She didn't know how to explain Croorey House without explaining the town and neither was an explanation she wanted to give. Slowly, choosing her words carefully, Lyrra began to explain, "Glynedol is... different from other towns. Its people are different."

Geralt tilted his head and waited for her to continue.

"Many here have difficult pasts – pasts that have the potential to come back and haunt." She pressed on quietly, "So, years ago, the town came together and created a... a sanctuary of sorts. The Old Croorey House is that sanctuary for any who need a place to hide. It's where your vampires were dwelling."

The witcher frowned, "That place was all ruins and framework. It'd be a poor hiding spot, let alone sanctuary."

A sly smile twitched at her lips, "Well, that's rather the point. No one is supposed to know that there Is anything there."

"An illusion." Geralt murmured as he remembered the way his medallion had continued to thrum after he had dispatched the vampires. He had assumed another creature was in the area, but if he had been inside a spelled space then the results would be similar, "Glynedol has a mage at its service?"

"An elf."

Nyria's voice crackled through the room like a snapping whip. Her green eyes burned hollowly, as the duo turned to her. She eyed Geralt's shoulder in much the same way Lyrra had, but made no moves to offer him aid, "Tyllan will need care through the night. Do you have a chair to spare, Lyrra?"

The young woman nodded as she grabbed a wooden back from her small table to move inside. Nyria cocked a brow at the witcher, her voice almost brittle as she chided, "I did not heal you to have my work spoiled. Have a care."

"I'm fine." Geralt bit out, "The man in there is the only patient you need be worried about."

Nyria sniffed unimpressed, "Don't come running to me when infection sets in."

Lyrra appeared at her shoulder, a faint smile twitching at her lips as the elf spun on her heel and to her patient's side. The barmaid crossed her arms as she murmured softly, "She likes you."

Geralt raised a disbelieving brow, "I would hate to see how she treats those she doesn't like."

"If she didn't like you, she would have ignored you." Lyrra continued just as quietly as she stifled a yawn.

Geralt nudged his bedroll to her and picked up the clean shirt from the floor. It was time he cleaned himself up, "You should sleep."

Lyrra shook her head, "I'll wait until Myer gets here. You may need a buffer if he decides you're to blame for his son's state.""Sleep, Lyrra." Geralt ordered unconcerned as he exited the cottage and headed for the stream.

»»————-　　————-««

Jaskier bit back a weary sigh as looked tiredly up at the building before him. The cobbled stone and plastered walls of the inn were a welcome sight after such a long day. Yet, even in his weary state Jaskier hesitated to enter and succumb to the simple pleasure of a soft bed and a hot meal. He itched to return to the cottage and seduce his way back into the arms of his recalcitrant enchantress. Despite his desires, he hadn't been lying when he had told Lyrra that they both needed space, however. All of it due to six words.

I don't want to miss you.

Those six little words had been bandying about his head since leaving her lips. Oddly, it was both the most hurtful and sweetest thing that had ever been said to him. Whether Lyrra knew it or not, she had struck a nerve he had thought he had long since buried. She had incited thoughts that were normally induced in darker moments, lonely ones when company was scarce and his drink a tad too strong.

I don't want to miss you.

Was he not worth missing?

Was he doomed to wander the world begging for even a scrap of true affection?

Worse yet, was the realization that there was someone who could, who potentially could, give him that attention he so craved, but that she didn't want to.

…

No, that wasn't fair. She was afraid to...and that was just heartbreaking.

He also knew he hadn't been fair to her with his translation of her meaning either. He had seen the faint sheen of her pain before it had been glossed over by guilt. It had made him feel like an utter bastard. She had every conceivable reason to be leery of him and his intentions and he had thrown it back in her face.

It was all too intense. Too much. Too soon.

Lyrra had been right. They barely knew each other, had barely scratched the surface with each other, and neither one of them had been particularly interested in that scratch going deeper. For all his blather, Jaskier was very good at keeping his past in his past. As his father would say, he hid behind his inanity.

Inanity that had almost damn disappeared with her bloody words. Oh, how he had become so serious in those few minutes, had shown her... He didn't know what.

Bollocks, he had made a mess of it.

Even that kiss had revealed too much, too soon.

He wanted to groan.

He had fallen in love before – this was nothing new, but falling had always felt like a blissful freefall before. Where his heart tightened and beat a little faster, where the butterflies fluttered erratically in his belly, where he felt breathless and besotted almost painfully so. He had the same sensations with Lyrra, but this fall felt more like a plummet down a steeply rocky mountain that was leaving scrapes and bruises with his descent. It was bloody terrifying... and fantastic.

A wicked grin spread across his lips.

Yes, he needed his space. He needed to regain some of the equilibrium that he had lost in the past weeks before he tumbled down that mountain again. It had taken him until he had reached the Rose and Pine to realize that said space would be scarce in a town the size of Glynedol. He needed to go further and to spend a few days to himself.

He needed Lyrra to miss him.

He had left word at the inn for Geralt and Lyrra with only a quick muttered prayer the bloody idiot innkeeper would get it to them before he departed.

It had taken a little more than half a day to walk.

Belhaven.

He pulled on the heavy wooden door to the inn and was pleasantly surprised to find a crowd still gathered, despite the late hour. The innkeeper a portly man of sixty raised a curious brow as he took in the flashy silk apparel of the bard.

"Here for the dice tournament?" His low voice grumbled in question.

Jaskier smiled, "Indeed, I am."

He never noticed the twin pair of eyes that followed his entrance as he requested a room.

Previous Chapter     Next Chapter 

[booperbeanv3]

DR ASK MEME LET'S GOOOO! 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 18, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31, 34, 45, 46, 51, 52, 60, 76, 99 ♥

7. Favourite class trial from all the games?

-- Without a doubt, SDR2 Case 5. It was honestly the only trial that got me excited, even after being spoiled so hard. I didn’t have much of an opinion on Nagito when I first saw it, but afterwards I was just in awe. Not because I admired him, just because it was so interesting how he managed to come up with all of that.

8. Least favourite character?

-- I’m not exactly sure if I have one. There are certain characters I dislike because of strange writing, lack of story purpose, general dislikeable traits [inappropriate behaviour] or just because of personal bias. Overall, I’d say I dislike Ibuki the most. It’s more of a neutral-dislike though. It’s not that she’s bad, per se, I just don’t see her appeal. She’s just sort of there to me and her chipper up-beat attitude is hard to keep up with. I guess she’s a mix of all the traits I listed above.

9. Least favourite class trial?  

-- There are a few I dislike because of their difficulty or their windiness. SDR2 Case 2 hits both of these. I really hate the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case sideplot, and Peko’s talks about being a tool are a bit uncomfortable even if I do like her relationship with Fuyuhiko.

10. What would be your Ultimate Title?

-- I think I may have considered this? I remember an old prompt had me listed as the Ultimate Character Artist/Designer. 

13. What’s your opinion on the Danganronpa 3 anime?

-- I still have not watched it as of now. I’ve heard mixed opinions. Some say it’s good, others say it’s awful. I’m interested in the Future Foundation, though. Also this might help lighten my opinion on Ibuki a bit.

18. Favourite rare ship?

-- Maki x Angie! One of the few rarepairs I have, I am completely famished for content. Only 12 fics on Ao3 and most of them are unfinished, have them as a background ship or are short in length :(. I need to draw them more together.

22. Favourite talent?

-- No opinion. If I had to choose, I’d say Ultimate Assassin purely because it was wasted potential. Inventor, Detective and Soldier are pretty close as well.

26. Favourite execution?

-- Kaede’s! It’s memorable and I like the suffering in it. I wish there were more like hers. Yes I do hate Der Flohwalzer now.

27. Least favourite execution?

-- Mikan’s. Really upset me how there was fanservice in her execution of all things. Just plain insensitive! The idea is bland itself as well.

30. Which character would’ve deserved to survive?

-- Probably Leon. Dude didn’t deserve to die so fast. Such a cool character design and personality! And for what? Dying first in the first game because the designers were sick of him???

31. Is there a character you think who shouldn’t have survived but did?

-- Not exactly, no. I remember being super happy when Imposter died because I was mad at Byakuya though ^^;; imagine my disappointment when I found out that was a fake. Overall, I don’t have an opinion. Some of the survivors would’ve been cool as blackeneds, but I’m neutral on all of them. Petition for Mastermind!Himiko.

34. Best character design?

-- Ooh, I really liked Fuyuhiko’s but I’d say it’s a tie between Mondo and Juzo. I just think they’re neat, alright?

45. Unpopular opinion?

-- Ultra Despair Girls was better than any of the main games when it comes to plot enjoyment.

46. Unpopular headcanon?

-- Kokichi is bisexual.

51. Character you thought you were gonna dislike but loved in the end?

-- Maki, for sure. I disliked her for a while, but now I can tolerate her pretty decently. She’s ok.

52. Character you thought you would like but disliked in the end?

-- Byakuya. Honestly I only liked him as first because I thought he was hot and then got super mad because he turned out to be a rude piece of shit.

60. Saddest moment?

-- I didn’t cry during any playthroughs, but V3 was just a pain rollercoaster so that gets its own moment.

76. Favourite research lab?

-- Shuuichi’s!! Sure, there’s poison everywhere, but it just seems cozy. Otherwise I’d say Himiko’s or Korekiyo’s.

99. Your absolute NOTP?

-- Maki x Kokichi. No. This is the first thing I think of when I think of BAD. AWFUL. I’ve considered being lenient for pre-game, but no. I’m lumping them together. No.

[smbinfostation]

Super Mario Bros. Ice Capades - 1989

To commemorate the SMBIS’s 20th anniversary, here’s the infamous Mario Ice Capades video in high quality. Enjoy!

Original commentary from October 17, 2003

On Thursday, December 7, 1989, ABC presented an Ice Capades special on TV, hosted by Alyssa Milano (of Who's The Boss fame) and Jason Bateman (Silver Spoons; Valerie, Arrested Development). The show had many famous and talented figure skaters, music numbers and comedy acts, including segments featuring Barbie and the Super Mario Bros. This happens to be the 50th Anniversary of the Ice Capades that they taped, as the programs that the hosts and the audience had, with the Mario Bros and Barbie on the back. (The 50th Anniversary Ice Capades Barbie was released at this time also.) When the segment begins, the hosts are backstage when they spot some random people playing Super Mario Bros. Alyssa mentions that she's never played videogames before (*gasp*) and Jason brags to her that he is a master of Nintendo, proclaiming himself to be the "Video Prince." Then he tells her about the plot of Super Mario Bros. [It's interesting to mention that Jason refers to King Koopa as Bowser, because the entire show after this just calls him King Koopa.]

As they talk, they are interrupted when the monitor starts flickering and doing crazy stuff. Jason, who apparently know everything about Nintendo, states that it's a computer virus, which will, and I quote, "release all the evil forces stored up in the computer." @_@ Um...OK, "Mr. Video Prince", whatever you say. Then, who pops up? Yes, it's good ol' King Koopa (NOT Bowser!), played by the late 80's sitcom star Christopher Hewett, a.k.a. Mr. Belvedere. Koopa has released the virus and threatens to take over the world. His plan is very laughable at best, as it implies that a NES can be used to infect computers with deadly viruses, which probably can't happen. That, and he says he doesn't really want the world, but does it anyway because he loves causing trouble. It's nice to have hobbies, I guess.

The Mario set is decent enough. It looks like a 3-D version of the 8-bit SMB1, with pixelated clouds and trees in the background and a castle in the middle. However, it looks way better than what Mr. Hewett had to wear. His costume is very tacky and ugly. He doesn't even have anything over his face, just horribly applied green face paint around his moustache. His horns looked like dangly jesters' bells and he's wearing horrible plaid pants and a geeky red bow tie. On top of that, he's riding on a moving castle. You know the forts at the end of each level of SMB1? Yep, he's roving about on the ice on a castle. o.O

Koopa calls out his minions to destroy different computer parts that NES's don't have, including 2 Green Koopa Troopas, 2 miscolored white Goombas, 1 Hammer Bro (two Troopas and only ONE Hammer Brother?), a Red Paratroopa and a Spiny. The baddies' costumes were based on their official Nintendo designs, though they looked very non-threatening and somewhat cuddly-looking. The Goombas and the Spiny, about a meter or so tall, do seem to be radio-controlled, or have skaters crouched or something inside them. After this, Koopa pompously sings about how evil he is, with his baddies dancing around him...wearing plaid pants...on a moving castle...oooookaaay. Mr. Hewett had a very cultured, polite-sounding British accent, not like Cartoon Koopa's voice at all. He sang pretty well, but the lyrics were shallow and kinda childish. The song is short, thankfully, and only proves that Koopa can create plans for world domination much better than he can sing silly egotistical songs. After this, we see the Princess Toadstool (can't call her Peach yet, as this is still 1989, or all time and space will unravel around us and disappear), who has a huge, horrid mascot-like head and a cliché Mae West-ish Hollywood voice, off to the side with her subjects of plumber pawns with her. Another note is that the Princess's costume is based on the official Nintendo design; she has blond hair, instead of red/brown from the cartoons.  Princess Pea....Toadstool, helpless to stop Koopa, then summons the Mario Bros., who for some reason arrived from the sky with the help of their trusty support wires. @_@ [Here's something I just noticed: In the scene when the Princess talks to her people before she calls the Bros. from the heavens, you can see the Marios behind her, with their backs turned to the audience. Sloppy editing.] After being briefed on the situation by Princess, Mario and Luigi, with their very stereotypical Italian accents and oversized, misshapened mascot heads, protect the Maiden in Distress from the horrible men in Koopa Troopa suits. The Princess helps out by sending out carts containing kids from the audience to assist the Bros. Koopa then scoffs at the Marios for sending children to do a man's job. So, one by one, Koopa sends out his legions of dumpy villains to defeat the Bros. However, Luigi dons his airgun/cardboard box out of nowhere and mercilessly kills each bad guy with sparkler blasts that are later added in. The effect of the baddies dying is just crude and leaves one to think how it'll work without the superimposed TV special effects of them just fading away and disappearing to low-budget heaven. Koopa, realizing that his army of extras is failing him, decides to attack the Bros. himself on his mobile fortress with his Spiny. The Marios and the children in the carts surround Koopa, totally ignoring Spiny altogether from the onslaught of death and sparkly insanity. After Mario spouts a remarkably bland joke/pun, the children vanquish the Koopa King with their big foam wrenches and dirty plungers in a blast of sparklers. Cheesey fanfare music plays afterwards, proclaiming the death of the Koopa King, as the children are returned back to the audience, without getting any complementary gift for being a part in the show.

In the end, the Princess, who now just looks like a giant, mutated blow-up doll, congratulates the Marios by giving them the "Purple Plunger for Bravery" or "The Incredibly Cheap Cardboard Hero Prize.". Then, the Bros. have a disgraceful squabble about bragging rights. Note that in all this, Mario does absolutely NOTHING to help out. Luigi killed all the minor foes and commanded the children to kill Koopa. Lazy, lazy Mario... Backstage, the monitor that the hosts were watching all this goes back to normal, then for no reason, Alyssa announces that she wins the game by default, although she doesn't even play it at all, leaving "Jason the Video Prince" in a stupor.

----

More research led me to a site belonging to a Mr. Michael Baroto, a costume designer who made these all the characters for the show, including the baddies, the Bros. and Peach. Apparently, he had only 3 months to make three sets of ten costumes, as well as two other costumes for another show. Seeing that he had to make 30 costumes in the short a time span, this would explain why the Marios and Peach looked so rushed. They don't do his talents justice, however, as his other works, including puppets, dolls and marionettes, are very creative and well-made. There are production photos of the Mario costumes in the previous link. If you ever get to read this, Mr. Baroto, please don't take my negative comments personally. ^^;;;;;;

Here's something I just noticed after watching this over again. Apparently, they deviated from what they'd usually do at a live show and made it extra special for the TV show by adding those "special" effects and camera angles. Also, they taped this when the audience wasn't present, as the seating couldn't been seen at all. They do show some stock footage of people watching all this and laughing at the bad puns, and of the kids getting out of the carts when the show was over, never getting compensated with gifts and whatnot for killing off the "mighty" King Koopa.

However, doing this just made the show worse, as there were obvious editing mistakes. For example, you can see enemies that were killed off later hanging about off to the side when the children return to the audience. In another instance, right at the end, you can see a lone boy sitting on the ice in the background playing with a wrench behind Princess Toadstool before she hands out the awards. Then he disappears in the next shot. And let's not forget the earlier example of the Marios already on stage before they arrive from the sky.  Very very sloppy, even for late 80's television. Of course, this was a time when little kids wouldn't care less if the show was crappy or not. It had Mario, and that's all that mattered.

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight/Theme Finale: The Monad

True Neutral Overseer of Creation, the Infinite, and Truth

Domains: Artifice, Darkness, Knowledge, Void Subdomains*: Toil, Night, Aeon, Stars

Concordance of Rivals, pg. 11

Obedience: Spend 30 minutes in meditation, clearing your mind of needs and prejudices. Then briefly wander and observe your surroundings, seeking a source of excess, accomplishment, or emptiness. Spend at least 30 minutes counteracting that phenomenon in some way, such as by creating something where nothing exists, providing comfort to a morose stranger, or thinning the excess population of ants in a field. Benefit: Upon completing the Obedience, select two Knowledge skills; gain a +4 sacred or profane bonus to the selected skill checks.

(*IMPORTANT NOTE: The Subdomains are my best guess; Subdomains are not listed in Concordance of Rivals. Anywhere!)

What a delightful Obedience! Meditate for a bit, and then help balance out the world! Awwww :)

Don’t worship the Monad if you’re a Ranger, or any other class with a Favored Enemy-Esque mechanic, because it won’t end well. I do enjoy that the Monad still allows its followers to pursue wants, though I’m sure that wasn’t the designer’s intention and likely just me toying with loopholes I see in sentence structures. Such as the loophole that you can view just about anything as excess, accomplishment, or emptiness.

Destroy a building, or help build a new one. Steal from the rich and give to the poor, or do the exact opposite (and be hunted down by me, personally). Kill bugs or introduce new ones to an environment. Destroy someone’s most prized possession, or give your own to someone in need. Comfort a stranger, or antagonize an ally whose ego is becoming unbalanced. Help to grow a crop, or take a torch to the whole thing. Really your imagination is the limit here, which could potentially lead to choice paralysis... but this also makes it incredibly easy to just Background Detail it without a need to elaborate. If your DM rudely demands details, you can turn it around and ask them details about the environment in order to find something you could correct. Two can play at that game!

Don’t be needlessly rude to kind or curious DMs, though. That’s not cool!

What IS cool is that benefit. While it’s not outstanding, becoming just a bit better at being a smart guy is always nice. Choosing Arcana and/or Dungeoneering is usually the way to go, but you can tailor your Knowledge bonuses day by day if needed. Heading into the wilderness? Pack Nature. Going into town? Might as well get Local and Nobility! The possibilities are endless! (actually there’s only ~45 combinations but y’know)

Boons are gained slowly, gained at levels 12, 16, and 20. Servants of the Monitors, though, can enter the Proctor Prestige Class as early as level 8. If entered as early as possible, you can earn your Boons at levels 10, 14, and 16. You MUST take the Monitor Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience. Monitors grant only a single set of Boons.

Boon 1: Aeon Arbiter. Gain Unseen Servant 3/day, Spectral Hand 2/day, or Gaseous Form 1/day.

Well right off the bat, Gaseous Form is painful to use most of the time. It reduces your speed to an agonizingly glacial 10ft, making it useful for getting into or out of a sticky situation but basically nothing else. You can’t really properly scout with it since you still look like a you-shaped gas cloud, but the defensive bonuses it confers means that if you get trapped in a tiny room or with a monster you don’t want to be with, any space that isn’t airtight can’t contain you. The fact it has no components also means you can cast it while grappled or restrained, so if you think you’ll end up snatched up and/or tied up, surprise your enemies by changing matter states!

Unseen Servant was, is, and always shall be one of my favorite spells in the game, even if it’s not a particularly useful one when you’re facing down a dragon, or even a single bandit. Your invisible buddy can perform all your menial tasks you require since it has an enormous 1 hour/level duration, and there’s a LOT of items that weigh less than 20lbs you could have your pal cart around. If you can’t foresee needing them later in the day, conjuring all three of them at once and setting them out on various tasks will multiply your own productivity immensely. I recently read a cute little guide online that pointed out a shovel weighs only 5lbs and a shovelful of soil will rarely surpass 3, so having a team of invisible workers digging trenches can help fortify any positions you hold. It’s just a fun spell! And it rewards knowing exactly what you can do with 2 Str and understand the limits of the servant’s manual dexterity.

Which leaves Spectral Hand, which is probably the most useful thing on this list, if less fun than UnSe. Using touch spells that aren’t Save-or-Suck is always dangerous when you’re a squishy caster, but Spectral Hand allows you to stay safely at a range to deliver them. With a range of Medium (100ft + 10ft/level) and a decently lengthy 1 min/level duration, Spectral Hand can likely last through one to three encounters to let you slap multiple foes with spells you’d otherwise never get to use. Don’t forget you can also use it to deliver buffs and healing to your allies, too! At 2/day, the only reason NOT to take Spectral Hand with this ability is if you adore Unseen Servant as much as I do, or are already in a situation (like a prison) Gaseous Form could save you from.

Boon 2: Immaterial Flesh. You gain the constant benefits of the Moderate Fortification armor special ability. If you already have a similar defensive ability, you increase that ability's chance to negate the additional damage by 10%.

This means that critical hits and Sneak Attacks have a 50% chance of doing no additional damage, for those who can’t keep track of all Pathfinder’s wild armor enchantments. It’s a boring ability, but a lifesaving one that can shear hundreds or thousands of points of damage off incoming attacks over the course of your adventuring career. Most creatures armed with Sneak Attacks have low damage on their normal attacks, so this ability can mean the difference between taking 4 damage and taking 40. Sure, it’s a coin toss as to whether or not it works, but a coin toss is better than having no way to avoid it at all!

I like the fact that if you’re already fortified or have some other method to dodge precision damage (it works on SIMILAR powers, not just fortification!), it’s increased. If you can get your hands on some Armor of Heavy Fortification, the chance to block the incoming damage becomes 85%.

I’m sad that no flavor details are given regarding what this power does to your physical body. It says ‘immaterial flesh,’ but what does that mean? Do you become a gaseous nebula or crystalline formation like the other Aeons? Do you get all swirly and galactic like the Monad? I wish it gave us more details, because it’d lighten up an otherwise bland but useful ability.

Boon 3: Creative Destruction. 1/day as a standard action, you can touch two creatures adjacent to you, or yourself and an adjacent creature. One takes 150 points of damage (Fortitude half; DC=10 + half your HD + your Cha modifier), and the other regains a number of hit points equal to the damage taken by the first target.

Ever wanted to just reach over and slap someone hard enough to kill them instantly? 150 damage--150 untyped damage, I should clarify--is not something to be taken lightly. That instantly kills most humanoids at that level and severely damages hardier monsters, with CR 16 creatures rarely exceeding 280hp at the highest. Hitting a squishy enemy caster with this power can end a battle faster than Power Word Kill, though with the downside that you must get close enough to boop them on the nose... but you aren’t required to make a touch attack. No, no attack roll is required. The only way this ability can miss is if you can’t physically touch your target, meaning incorporeal enemies are immune, and a DM may rule that certain gaseous creatures are, as well. While this ability may also intend for you to use your hands to do the touching, it simply says “touch two adjacent creatures.” You can technically use this ability by tackling someone, kissing them, or just poking them with your foot!

Now, this ability grants a saving throw for half damage, negating some of its burst potential... But that’s still 75 untyped damage that works against ANY CREATURE you can touch. Constructs, Undead, Outsiders, demigods, Great Old Ones, creatures with resistance or immunity to every element in the game and every negative condition you can think of, anything! 75 is less impressive but still impressive! It’s an enormous chunk to shave off any foe and you can indeed shave it off any foe, and they don’t have the option to avoid or lessen it at all! The fact it bypasses all forms of immunity and requires only a touch is AMAZING, and we haven’t even covered the fact that the second target regains HP equal to the damage the first victim took!

Like... 75 HP is big enough by itself. It can take a normal encounter two or three rounds to deal 75 damage, and you only need one action to undo it. And 150 HP? That’s typically enough to take someone with a d8 or smaller hit dice from 0 to full in an instant and restore anywhere from half to 75% of a Fighter or Barbarian’s health bar. But, here’s something else important: much like the destruction, the healing is also universal! Constructs are notoriously difficult to keep running due to their specific healing requirements, and Undead are similarly finicky, but Creative Destruction’s health transfer is accepted by ANY creature with an HP bar. Even yourself! That’s the best part! Even without an ally or another enemy nearby to transfer the health into, you can siphon it into yourself to beat down a bad guy!

And I suppose you could also transfer your own health into an ally that really needed it, but uuuuhhhhh 150 damage is a lot. That tactic should only be use if you have no other option! 

And all you need to do to obtain all this power? Remove all your prejudices and help keep the world running smoothly. Perfect for a character of any alignment! except probably chaotic evil.

You can read more about it here.

[sternerstufftoys]

Son’s Streaker

Standard disclaimer: The theme of this week's reviews is the worst toys in my collection. If you enjoy these toys, great! It is not a personal attack on you or your tastes. Not everything you love has to be good, and you are not defined by the quality of the things you like. Essentially, you don't need to defend your honour on someone else's view of plastic robot men.

Oh ho, what an irony that the vainest of the Autobots ended up with the ugliest of the Combiner Wars moulds. Lad must have been fuming, I tell thee. I mean, there's a lot to like about Sunstreaker's general design. He's got those great big ear thingies, so he'll always stand out, he's got the canopy chest, he turns into a swish sports car and he's got that turbo thingy on the roof, so yeah, he's a Good Boy. Just not here.

He's also had a good turnout in fiction over the years, even though he quickly vanished into the background in the cartoon when Tracks showed up, and was one of the assumed off-screen casualties of the Movie, but both Dreamwave and especially IDW gave him plenty of page time. Sure, he definitely deserved a better finale to his relationship with Hunter O'Nion, but it's not like he vanished from the series after that, even if he generally took a more background role again.

I'm stalling, aren't I? I'm trying to avoid having to talk about the toy. I don't have anything to say about the character at all, but I'm trying to stretch it out like he's some fiction megastar like I've covered in the past. No Thunderwing he.

Alright, let's do this. The CW Breakdown mould is hands down the worst of the bunch. CW was generally a smash hit, giving fully-functional versions of (almost) all the classic combiner teams, as well as a few oddities along the way. But while the Stunticons yinned with the superb Dead End, they yanged hard with Breakdown. And then it only got worse when it was done in yellow as Sunstreaker. Because while Breakdown was lumpy and wonky, it did still look like Breakdown. Sunstreaker just... doesn't.

For starters, there's too many right angles. Almost everywhere one line meets another on this toy it takes a sharp 90 degree turn. Once or twice wouldn't be a problem, but here they're everywhere. Point of comparison, just today I had my first experience with the Prime Wheeljack mould, and it's astonishing how much better this works, and not a single right angle to be had anywhere. And if the Dead End mould could pull it off, why not this one?

Second, the proportions are off. The torso goes on for days in every direction, the chest juts out hard, the legs look piddly and stumpy by comparison, with the weedy little arms dangling down uselessly despite perfectly adequate joints. Third, the head and shoulders don't line up. It's funny how often this can cause problems with a figure, and it's not always something you notice at first.

I do like that his turbo charger thingy is made from the hand-foot-gun doodad, and it sits comfortably on his back. This is good! It looks Sunstreaky! It sticks out way too far, obviously, but it's trying. It looks even better in car mode, and definitely has the most effective way of keeping the HFG around out of any CW character (other than Brawl). His other accessory, a sort of gunblade thinger, is less successful. When did Sunny Streak ever use a swor- oh forget it. Like it even matters. After all that praise for the HFG the sword just gloms on the side of the car mode as an afterthought, which of course it is.

But here's the kicker. These issues are actually forgivable. I didn't think they were, but then I met Unite Warriors Lightspeed, who uses the slightly-altered design for CW Wheeljack, but is mostly improved by having much tougher and better quality plastic. Sunstreaker by comparison may as well have been made from the spare yellow scraps left over from all those Bayverse Bumblebees that were accumulating in factory waste bins. It's somehow too yellow, with a slight sheen of translucency that makes details just sink away into a bland mess if they're not picked out in paint. It's the same problem that affect Megatron in Titans Return and Apeface's white bits in Siege, only this time in yellow.

Lightspeed wears this mould reasonably well. G2 Breakdown is also just about acceptable, though this is mostly due to his ludicrous shell suit deco. But other than that, this is an ugly mould that just doesn't work as a Transformer toy. There's decent odds for Sunny Delight here to make a comeback in Earthrise, though this is only an educated guess, nothing more. But if he does, I'll be ready to upgrade. I don't often say that either.

[pocminiseries]

Girl With The Tattoos|2

Vibes.

♦️

The nightlife of Seoul was always so vibrant and beautiful.

Na'imah was fortunate enough to have an apartment that allowed her such views as she laid in bed just like tonight.

It was only 10:30 P.M. but she knew that sleep wasn't coming any time soon. It was one of the reasons why she chose to work nights instead of the morning shifts.

Sometimes she'd purposely avoid sleeping because of the dreams they brought. They were almost rarely pleasant.

Plus if she was being honest, she was tired of going to bed alone anyway. For so long she has been purposely dismissing the idea of a relationship. A few times she has come close to being in one but of course, she would always distance herself when she thought someone was getting too close. It was unfortunate because she has come across a few good men that she knew had the potential of making her happy.

Sometimes she hated the way her mind worked.

And the one time she finds herself genuinely interested in someone, he comes in the form of an idol who she knew that realistically she couldn't have. Fuck her luck.

She had been talking to JB for about a month now and so far she enjoyed their conversations so much.

He was easy to talk to and a good listener. Although she hasn't revealed much of her past for a reason, she has started to let down her walls brick by brick. For the first time, she was beginning to let someone in.

She loved how he sensed certain things. Like a few nights ago the topic of family was brought up again and when he asked about certain family members, she would become distant which he caught immediately and changed the topic to something else. He never pressured her about anything.

And she never let the fact that he was famous get to her head. However, sometimes she would have to remind herself of who he was because the more they interacted, the more she was beginning to feel something towards him.

She had a vibe with him that she never had with anyone else.

"Fuck." She mumbled, turning her face into her pillow. Why was she thinking about him so much?

Maybe this was just a simple crush? Something that would past with time? But would it be so wrong to allow herself a bit of happiness for once? Even if it was only temporary? She didn't know herself honestly. This whole situation was a tricky one and had multiple outcomes both good and bad.

The sound of her phone vibrating beside her pulled her from her thoughts and back to reality. Glancing down at the lit up screen, JB's name showed across the screen as the incoming caller.

"Hey." She whispered into the receiver once she answered, turning to her side to face the windows.

"I didn't wake you did I?" His voice was so melodic and sweet like honey. She could listen to him speak about something as bland as precipitation and still be intrigued as he talked.

"No. You know I don't really sleep much at night."

"Mm, we'll have to change that." He replied, thinking of numerous ways he could put her to sleep, both sexual and non-sexual. He wanted to feel bad for thinking about her in such a manner but he was a man and he would be lying to himself if he said he hadn't thought about it more than once. He was attracted to her both physically and mentally, so it was only natural.

Na'imah smirked at his words, feeling a double meaning to them but decided not to speak on it. "What are you up to this late?"

"That's why I was calling. I wanted to know if you would mind coming to see me? I know it's last minute but I could really use your company." The rest of the members had headed home but JB still had a few more tracks to lay before he would decide to call it a night. His music wheels have been turning all day and now that he was alone, the only person he could think about was her.

"Where are you?" She asked, hearing soft music playing in the background of where he was.

"The studio."

Of course, she thought to herself. She was almost convinced he lived there when he wasn't busy.

Sitting up, she removed the covers and prepared to get dressed. "And where would this studio be located?" She hadn't seen him in four days because of his scheduling, so there was no way she was passing up seeing him, especially if it was longer than a few minutes like it usually was.

"The new JYP building in Cheongdam. I'll text you the address." He tried to hide the excitement in his voice but failed miserably. This was his chance to talk to her like he wanted and touch her in ways he's never been able to.

"Are you sure that's ok? I mean, I know that they just don't let anyone inside of those buildings." The last thing she wanted to be is thrown out for "trespassing". Plus she knew that her black ass would for sure stick out like a sore thumb.

JB laughed a bit, finding her concern to be cute. "Yes. I'm personally inviting you." He said, leaning back against his chair. "Just call me when you arrive, so I can let you in." The building was almost deserted around this time with a few employees and a security guard keeping watch.

Though she was still nervous, she decided to still go anyway. It was better than laying in her bed until she felt sleepy. "Alright. Let me get dressed and I'll head that way."

Saying their goodbyes, Na'imah quickly pulled on some clothes, not thinking much of her outfit. As long as she was decent, that's all that mattered. However, she did at least pull her hair into a sleek ponytail. She debated whether to apply makeup but thought against it at the last minute, sticking to simple lip gloss instead. Once she was pleased with her final look, she grabbed her crossbody bag and headed out, locking up behind her.

The JYP building was only about 30 minutes away, so she chose to take the subway since the station was closer to her apartment complex. The whole ride made her nervous the closer she got to her destination. Here she was making a late night trip to see an idol, something she didn't even think could ever occur. Only weeks ago her life had been pretty routine, with not much excitement and in little time, she found herself in this very predicament.

As soon as the building came into view, she almost convinced herself to turn back around and go home. What the hell was she thinking?

"Relax, you can do this." She pep talked to herself after taking a deep breath.

Retrieving her phone, she dialed JB's number and waited patiently until he answered as she eyed the building in front of her. She recalled walking past it a few times, just never paying attention to the name of it. Although the kpop scene was obviously huge there, she rarely ever dove that deeply into it. Knowing a few groups, here and there. She had almost hyped herself up to go to at least one of the shows to experience the hype but never got around to doing so.

"I see you. Come here." He told her as soon as he answered. Na'imah looked confused for a second until her eyes landed on him. A smile broke out into her face when she approached him while he held one of the glass doors open for her to come in.

She barely got a good look at the place when he decided to pull her towards him, hugging her tightly. After her shock had worn off, she wrapped her arms around him, doing the same in return.

The way she molded into him was almost insane. Her sweet scent filled his nose when he nuzzled his head into her neck, pulling her closer. He had been wanting to this since the moment he had laid eyes on her. It was something so simple but meant so much more to him.

"Jae..." She groaned softly when his lips unintentionally brushed against her skin. Immediately she pulled back allowing her eyes to fully take him in up so close and personal.

"I'm sorry." He apologized, licking his lips before he allowed some space between them.

She shook her head, waving him off. "It's fine." And it was but she couldn't say the same for her body though.

"Follow me." He said, nodding his head towards the hall behind him. She silently walked behind as he walked up a flight of stairs, soon stopping in front of some double doors. Her eyes danced around the impressively sized studio, admiring all of the professional equipment in front of her. She could only imagine the type of music great music that was being recorded here.

"I work in this one until my studio gets finished." He revealed, pulling her to one of the chairs in front of the mixing console. She wondered how they even knew which ones to touch with there being so many to choose from. She was hesitant to touch anything, afraid that she might mess up something.

"Your second home huh?" She half-joked after spotting the pillow and blanket on one of the couches behind them, where she imagined he's probably slept on a few times.

JB smiled a little, not denying her words because he knew they were true. They had released their album weeks ago, yet here he was already working on new music. When he gets inspired, sometimes he can't help but express himself through songwriting. He wasn't even going to reveal that one of the songs that he's been working on was about her. Some things are better kept to himself...for now.

"I've listened to the songs you have on your SoundCloud a few days ago, it definitely seems very Im Jaebum like." She smiled, pulling out a blowpop from her candy stash inside of her bag and quickly placed it into her mouth, paying no attention to JB who was watching her every move.

"Really? Is there a song you favorite the most?" He asked, clearing his suddenly dry throat. Why out of all the candy she could have pulled out, she chose that one? His gaze was set on the way her lips wrapped around the blowpop, lightly sucking it with no care in the world. Shaking his head a bit, he realized how silly his mindset was being, letting his hormones get in the way. It was only candy.

"Holic." She answered once she pulled the candy from her mouth. "We have very similar taste in music." She added, remembering back when he told her about his love for soul music which ironically enough was her favorite genre.

JB found it very interesting that she said that song in particular because as crazy as it may seem, it held so much truth to how he was feeling right now. However, he also found it strange how songs he had written over a year ago explained so much now that he has met Na'imah.

But even he knew that no matter how much he liked her, he would have to be careful for both of their sakes.

"May I?" She asked after a while, pointing at the Mac computer in front of them.

"Go ahead."

Placing the sucker back into her mouth, she rolled her chair closer to his and pulled up SoundCloud, logging into her account. "I think it's only fair that I bless you with some good music." She smirked, glancing at him before focusing back on the screen. Plus she needed a distraction. The way he's been looking at her since they sat down was making her feel a certain way.

This has been the longest that she's ever been in his presence and she wasn't sure how to act around him just yet. What she really wanted though, was to hug him just to feel him close again. To take in his manly scent and his warmness on this cool night. She knew that he had no clue how good he truly felt. It's been so long since she had someone, especially a man who embraced her the way that he did.

Finding her playlist, she hit shuffle and let the music play, allowing it to ease her nerves.

"I don't make you nervous do I?" JB suddenly asked, seeing her truly relax for the first time. He found himself observing like he always does. It was his way of trying to figure her out whenever she didn't speak. He wanted to know what she was thinking and how she felt by simply looking at her or hearing a change in her voice.

She was still keeping him at a comfortable distance which he understood completely and he was more than willing to be patient until she was ready to let him in. Still, he was curious about her story. He wanted to know why she didn't want to go into detail about her childhood and upbring. It was clear someone had hurt her enough to where she was protecting herself like she was.

And he wanted to change that.

"Honestly? A little bit. It's just...it's been awhile since I've been alone with someone like this." The last time she was alone with a man she ended up in his bed in what was the most mediocre sex she had ever experienced in her life.

Now here she was with a man she not only found so physically attractive but one who had made her lower region throb from his lips brushing against her neck. It was ridiculous.

She almost jumped out of her skin when she felt his hand touch hers as he intertwined their fingers. "Don't be. What happens between us will always be up to you." Being a man of his word, he meant exactly what he said.

Na'imah could feel her cheeks begin to warm up as her gaze shifted from their hands to his eyes. Why must he look at her like that so much? As if she was the most precious gem he had ever seen. Whenever he does it, he makes it so hard for her to keep up her barriers.

"Can I at least have a taste?"

Blinking her eyes a few times, she gave him a surprised look. "W-what?"

Chuckling, JB started to pull at the blowpop, indicating what he meant. "You've been sucking on it like it's the best candy in the world and I want to see for myself if it is."

Pulling it out of her mouth, she scrunched up her face in fake disgust. "I don't know where your mouth has been."

Hitting her with the "Oh Really" look, JB snatched the candy from her hand and quickly put it in his mouth. His taste buds were hit immediately with the flavor of strawberry. All Na'imah could do was pout, that was her last blowpop too.

"You're lucky I like you or otherwise we would've been fighting." She joked right as he bit into the hard coating. "JB!" She squealed not thinking that he was going to eat the whole thing. She only thought he wanted a simple taste, not for his greedy ass to devour it for himself.

JB watched her unfazed and continued to chew the overly sweet bubblegum that was hidden in the middle, tossing the white stick into the trashcan behind him.

She couldn't stop the mean mug from appearing on her face which he found to be pretty cute. "Here." He offered, wrapping the gum around his finger and pointed it at her lips.

"Just eat the damn gum." She snapped, softly pushing his hand away from her.

Shrugging, he did what she said until the flavor started to disappear. "I'll make it up to you." He told her as he stood up, throwing the gum into the garbage before taking his seat again.

"Oh, you most def-" Barely able to finish her sentence, JB grabbed the arms of her chair, sliding it to face him. With her legs between his, she watched him lean closer, invading her personal space as her heart thumped rapidly inside of her chest.

A small smile pulled at his lips, seeing her go stiff while his gaze slowly moved from her eyes to her lips that she subconsciously bit into. "I always keep my word." He assured her, placing his hands on her thighs.

Na'imah didn't know what to do. She didn't want to give him this vibe like she didn't like what he was doing but she also couldn't force her body to respond like she was screaming for it too. Even when he had the nerve to purposely slide a hand to softly grip at the back of her neck pulling her closer, she still didn't dare move.

"Let me-"

"Yes." She said a little too quickly but she didn't care, she was more than ready for this.

Needing nothing else, JB connected his lips to hers, taking the lead of a kiss that was filled with so much unexpected passion and need the more their mouths moved in complete sync. He teased at her bottom lip, biting and sucking the plump flesh until she opened wide enough for him to slip his tongue inside without missing a beat.

Na'imah could still taste strawberries as he flicked his tongue against hers, tasting her in ways she never allowed anyone else.

It wasn't supposed to feel like this so soon. He wasn't supposed to be able to ignite this fire inside of her just yet. And he wasn't supposed to taste this damn good either.