#We love goofy dance pose references

[ninjakarkki]

Sometimes the best way to de-stress yourself is to dance with the person you love the most!

[blistering-typhoons]

BBC SHERLOCK REWATCH - A STUDY IN PINK (REAL TIME NOTES)

From the perspective of someone who watched this show when they were thirteen, made it their whole personality and then stopped being a massive prat.

I thought about organizing this into a cohesive review, and maybe as I go on I'll delve deeper into some of my observations but for now I thought it would be funny to present my findings in raw, mostly unaltered form:

- loud ass opening, my god

- only bit of acting Martin freeman ever does lmao

- dances along to theme against my will

- god the effects and transitions are so shit

- all the shots of the pills are so ugly

- oh yay molly - whoo - yayyy

- the potential withe these two goddamn

- also this sherlock does not drink his respect women juice by god

- fucksake the deduction about john's sister- not only is it translated awfully into this modern setting, it's explicitly a deduction Sherlock is supposed to make once they know eachother a bit better

- THE POTENTIAL

- also sherlock displaying one insecurity when john accidentally insults his stuff- well done moftiss, characterization

- How far away is the crime scene, why it dark

- pls the transitions

- PIPE BOMB, WHOO Phone deductionnnn

- oh my god it's so shit

- uuuuuuuugggghhhh the potential I hate this shooooow

- fuckin deduction as a way for witty one liners and sexism, i hate this place

- 'you were thinking it's annoying' i'm going to send myself off a cliff, CRINGE

- RACHE- moffat, come here a sec- literally putting ACD on par with the police, who are always wrong the sheer audacity- also just a bad change

- these lens flare white lights are so goofy please, you will never be a whole scene of silence with jeremy brett

- benedict cumberbatch is very pretty i will grant

- terrorized by the fact i used to quote this show unironically

- from a writing point of view I understand that John gushing over Sherlock is to show off and emphasize their specialest boy- but, some sincerity is infused into it from an acting standpoint

- 30:02 GIRLIE WHAT IS THAT SOUND EFFECT

- OOH YAY THE PSYCHOPATH/SOCIOPATH STUFF WHOO YEAAAAH

- All the phones calling as john walks past is kinda cool but mostly stupid

- oh anthea, what a rich character lmao

- how long was mycroft posed like that

- First johnlock queerbait whooo

- Where does he fuck off to???

- he just vanishes lmaoooo

- Three patch problem. Bruh.

- I am bored as shit, help

- This music- girl

- Bloated is a very good word to describe some of these scenes

- HERE SHE IS- THE BIG DADDY OF QUEERBAITING

- this scene is insane fucKING INSANE I HATE THIS SHOW

- god how much episode is left fucksake

- the stop/go signs- pick a tone girl

- this episode is so almost good and it's anytime Sherlock makes a mistake lmao

- not the drugs bust :/

- ooh sociopath line- whoo

- "I don't have to [imagine]." OOOH OKAY, WELL, YOU GUYS GET *ONE* POINT FOR THAT SHEESH

- this is so ridiculous- COME WITH ME- girl shut up

- I wanna be done I wanna be doooone.

- lamenting the confrontation we had in the unaired pilot

- The 'Frwhoomp' noise as the light goes out, girl

- 20 Minutes left my christ

- BRO- I forgot that bit of ADR wooooof

- and thus begins the scree of Moriarty

- five years, why is Scotland Yard still doubtful of Sherlock's skills? I know he might have been deep in his addiction during some of that, but they evidently kept him around for crime solving.

- Great man/good man quote has me fumin babes, my god, what a fundamental misunderstanding of Sherlock Holmes

- boring ass back and forth

- this piano is giving me war flashbacks

- is it a five orange pips reference?

- also the pills look like that speckled gum that burns your throat

- when is it oveeer

- falling asleep

- bomb under the table but the table is made of glass and hates gay people

- she tooks the kidssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

- 13 min

- love, or rage, dude, come on Sherlock

- i hate this 'enjoying crime too much' theme they've written

- like watching a stupid play

- once more, the potential

- moriarty he said calmly

- also, so out of character for Sherlock do I even need to say

- peaks of what could have been- FUCK

- this mycroft fake out- lord

- also, mummy, fucksake

- cheesy ending BUT IT'S OVER

[defaulttool]

me admiring the art of bemani PART ONE: "いちかのごちゃまぜMix UP！" event

so this is prob gonna be a new series where tl;dr i glaze the art of bemani because theyre f'ing good (sometimes, thanks konami), and also because even tho not many people care about rhythm games, at least care about the art of it lol

i would also post the artist's name, but konami stopped giving the names of their cover artists a long time ago... only the song artists are named.

to give some context of this event, its basically a mashup of two songs (or mix-up), to make a new song, in order to unlock the boss song. why? i dunno ichika wanted to get some food and somehow found herself at a mountain

im just gonna go order of the circle the event page is in lol (ill save the best one for last tho... lol)

[]DENTITY (I x perditus†paradisus)

ok before we start on this song... they shouldve named it ][DENTITY :3

i can definitely tell they were copying both of the series's artstyle (they really just used a 3d render of TRAN and pasted it in lol), its still pretty dang good. the cat ear shaped v-disk is so funny to me idk why. the song itself however is really good imo, pls give it a listen.

White Stream (Four Leaves x Snowmelt)

so we basically turned back in time and stole the artstyle of Sound Voltex Vivid Wave and GITADORA Tri-Boost Re:EVOLVE lol. i really dig it tho lol, just like song (god they went hard on the vocal chops)

Kilonova (キヤロラ衛星の軌跡 x Pursuer)

so even tho this is one of the more forgettable songs (since no one other then ddr players care about ddr), they forgot to add in pursuer to this cover art lol. i dont like this one, but oh well lol

新蛇姫 (New Decade x BREDLI)

this is one of the more creative ones lol. New Decade (fyi released in 2010) with the 2020's art style, and BREDLI's snake obsession. i also like it how it conveys the songs dont like each other so they just show the mascots getting beat the shit out of lol

Dance With The Dead (Love 2 Shuffle x

Necroxis Girl)

OK WTF WHY DOES SMITH LOOK SO GOOD IN IN THIS JACKET HE HAS SOME MOVES 🔥🔥

even tho the font is... hard to read, they went crazy with it lol. they literally took the sick ass fit from love 2 shuffle and the goofy ass poses in Necroxis Girl. go wild.

Metamorphic (ロミとロボの宇宙飛行 x MONOLITH)

this is just the MONOLITH but with a cuter artstyle and added some animals to give it WoNdeR. i quite like it, shows off the two songs very nicely.

Indigo Nocturne (蒼氷のフラグメント x REcorrection)

jesus christ they represented both of the games and the songs in the best way possible. like... this is so calming, just like the genre of REcorrection, "Fluffy Pop". the song itself is such a bop too.

輪廻の鴉 (RINИE x 鴉)

the best one out of the bunch. holy shit they went fucking hard on this one. i think they know it because this song is the only one with vocals lol. like... even tho they dont really reference a lot of the two song's artworks, they really took the time and effort to reference both Pop'n Music and Beatmania IIDX in the best way possible. like tran and mimi... TRAN AND MIMI LOOK SUPER GOOD HERE LIKE THEY SHOULD BE OFFICIAL CHARACTERS YOU CAN PICK IN POP'N (ik they exist already, but like its the duo as a character, not just one of them)

BONUS EXTRA STAGE: VOLAQUAS (Valanga x 海神)

sooooo.. how do you make a boss boss song? just combine two boss songs together not that hard lol. okay but in all seriousness, combining two boss songs that you made, and then it "YOUR NAME VS YOUR NAME BUT DIFFERENT" is the biggest flex because dj totto vs totto sounds sick af. the song doesnt miss as well lol, the genre is literally "EMPYREAL HYDRO ARTCORE". i wonder why the legendary mountain is underwater in the cover art this time... /s

ENDING THOUGHTS

alright since the event happened like two years ago already (jeez its already been that long? i still remember unlocking it myself like it was yesterday)

even tho konami fucked up in 2016 and 2017 and lost most of the magic tbh, i think this is a good event nonetheless. like the collabs are insane. ill give it a 5 pepperoni pizzas / 19 grapes (mostly because the songs that are mixed up are also added to the other game as well... and thats like.. good :)

[seancekitsch]

Not to Touch the Earth

this is a prize buck 60s au bc apparently i have enough of an ego to do that

a/n & warnings: drug reference, alcohol references, no actual drug use, unprotected car sex, use of the word daddy, roughness, cult references, orgy references, none of this is even really prize buck canon but yknow we might reference it again for a joke or two. natural born killers reference also

“Some outlaws lived by the side of a lake, The minister's daughter's in love with the snake,” you sing off-key, “Who lives in a well by the side of the road. Wake up, girl, we're almost home!”

You punctuate the end of the verse by howling out the window of the car Klaus was using, voice being swallowed by the vastness of the desert somewhere on the California border. Klaus drove on, trying to remember a time you were ever so free. He figures you probably never were, not sober. Not totally sober like now. He was coming up on three years, you on six months, and your new favorite activity was definitely driving out into the desert, as far away from Klaus’ little commune as possible, and singing songs that hadn’t been written yet and making love on the hood of the car. 

He smiles and looks over, watching you lean out the window bathing in the golden light of the sunset and he has to laugh. Is this just what you’re like in a car? Or is it being trapped in time? Your first week here was spent avoiding any of his followers and trying to talk to any of the universities in San Francisco, but none of them would hire you because a woman with a doctorate was rare, and a woman professor was even rarer. You stopped trying in a fit of anger after one Dean told you your ‘husband was a brave man for letting his wife become so educated’ before offering to let you take undergraduate classes because those were available to women. So you leaned into helping him hide from the Destiny’s Children. You had fun here. You kept each other in check being sober, you kept him from being fully engulfed by the group. You like these people, you just wish they didn’t like you and your partner as much as they do.

But the times when the two of were alone were the best. Klaus loves stealing you away from everyone else and being with you like everything’s normal. He loves you without that twinge of shame you carry with you, without waking up with tears in your eyes and thinking he doesn’t notice them. You haven’t been crying or hiding it from him here. He loves how goofy you allow yourself to be, the way you don’t constantly hold yourself back.  He remembers back on earlier today, when you’d snuck up on him, licked a warm stripe up his neck and sang lyrics from the very song you were piecing together now.

“Not to touch the earth, not to see the sun. Nothin left to do but run run run,” you sang, only for him.

“Let’s run.”

You didn’t have to say it again before he grabbed the nearest set of car keys and was swatting at your ass to get you running for the passenger seat. 

You feel the hot air hit your skin, and you can’t remember a time you ever actually liked the heat. You never saw yourself even visiting southern California. Sobriety re-introduced you to the cold and you greeted her like an old lover. You like your cold weather and your jackets and your fucking hospital socks you stole and stockpiled which now didn’t even exist yet. But the heat here is different, it kisses your skin like Klaus does, frees you from the burdens of life fifty years from now. The heat is a reminder that you don’t have the struggles you had in 2019, the heat is a reminder you can rebuild yourself. You know you have to go back sometime, but you can be selfish and steal this time with Klaus. You squint into the setting sun on the horizon as Klaus makes the car slow, then veers off the empty road to park. You’d have the moonlight soon, which meant a cool night with him all to yourself. By the time he walks around to your side of the car, he blocks the sun from your view. Your eyes trail up from the tip of that ugly fucking beard he’s got growing to his chin, to his lips. To the grin he sports, saves only for you.

“Do you think they’ve noticed were gone?”

“Why? Worried Keechie’s missing you?” you snort.

“Keechie? God, no. Although, if I were you I’d be worried Madelaine was getting lonely by now”

Right; you were hiding from two members of the group in particular. Your first mistake was attempting to have sex in a five mile radius of the group. You didn’t think they’d barge into your tent and invite themselves to join. But, ever the adventurous and slightly stupid, you let them. Now two of the four that had been in your tent  were trying to recreate that moment again.

“Not my fault I rocked her world. You jealous, Prophet?”

“At first I was impressed because I didn’t think you swung that way, but yes. Yes, terribly.”

That probably isn’t much of a joke. Sobriety put a bit of a possessive streak in Klaus, and as much free love is flowing, it’s nice to feel like you belong to someone. And you do belong to Klaus, in every way that counts for your group. But you’d struck a chord with Madelaine and now shes creeping in on Klaus’ territory.  

He pulls you from the car, literally pulls you. His hands come up under your armpits and lift you from the car window until you can step out of the window and he can lower you down onto the sand. He’s thankful you’ve learned your lesson, as the last time he did this you weren’t wearing sandals and burned your feet on the sand. He bends to let you pluck the wide brimmed hat from his head and you place it on your own as you walk to the trunk to fetch a blanket. Dancing, not walking, he thinks. The way you walk is more like dancing. You grab a blanket from the trunk and sit with him until it’s night. You sit with him close enough to reach out and touch, but not quite. It’s in these moments you can close your eyes and perfectly imagine you’re back in your studio apartment with him, listening to the record player and sharing a bottle of wine, thinking about the narrowly avoided apocalypse and job hunting for him. You can close your eyes and imagine inviting his siblings over to crowd your apartment for a loud night of laughing and take out. You can hold his hand and think of how very little space the two of you took up in the world and how comforting it felt. 

When you open your eyes again it’s dark. Perfect. Night falls quickly in the desert. You look over to see Klaus equally as relaxed, an easy smile painted across his entire face, worry lines smoothed away.  He hums a song you recognize.

“Sweet Jane? Don’t you think that’s a little too ‘Mickey and Mallory’ for us?”

He hums a little more of the song before he answers.

“I was just thinking if we mixed blood in a wedding ceremony our paramours would leave us alone,” there’s a hint of something dark in his eyes, “Now get on the hood.”

It’s the way that he says it, low and commanding, that has you jumping up onto the hood of the car and eagerly arranging yourself in a provocative pose, legs splayed and leaning on your arms to arch you back a little, just to entice him even more. That’s all part of the dance, and here more often than not he leads. He commands and positions you the way he likes it and rewards you in kind. He actually looks a bit like a god figure or a superhero the way he saunters over to you in the dark and crawls above you onto the hood, sandal clad feet standing on the grill so he has more leverage for what he has in mind. 

“Now, are you ready for Daddy?

You have to snort at that.

“Daddy? If anyone is daddy here, it’s me babe.”

He grips your bare thigh, just above the knee, then gives it a little warning slap. Not hard, just a little more than nothing.

“I don’t think you’re in the position to call yourself anything besides what I feel like calling you, doctor.”

Any retort to that comment, which honestly stung a little, died on your tongue when a low growl rumbles from his throat and his mouth connects with your stomach, biting at the cloth of your tank top and the skin underneath. You sink back down and stare at the stars, whimpering as you count them and let Klaus tease you as he undresses you. 

“If you were the prophet I’d be entirely devoted to you,” He says as he pulls your shorts down your legs, “I’d follow you everywhere on Earth, I’d do anything you asked of me.”

“Don’t you already?” you laugh.

“I do,” He confirms, “I do, I do, I do” and punctuates each confirmation with a little nip at the inside of your thigh, the same one he had just slapped. The beard he’s been growing out tickles as you squirm beneath him, hands roaming wherever they wish but solidly keeping you in place for him. You think back on your first time with him, how eager he’d been to please, how you wanted to be the one he was pleasing, and how far you’ve come together. His fingers wind up your legs like ivy on an old statue and pause at your underwear, teasing for a moment, before pulling them aside and plunging two fingers into you without warning. He pushes them in deep, scissoring them back and forth a few times, before pulling them back out, and sucking on them. If youre moaning or swearing, you can't hear yourself. An appetizer for a meal, or something equivalent of that. The delighted moan that echoes from his throat as he sucks you from his fingers sends shivers up your spine, just knowing you're in for it tonight. Propping yourself up on your elbows, you dare to meet his eyes, dark and stormy and hungry for you. He has the audacity to give you his sweetest smile before roughly pulling your underwear away from your body and heavily dropping his knee onto the car hood between your own. Klaus himself is intoxicating, you didn't need drugs or alcohol. It was so easy for him to consume your senses, and you readily let him. And when he finally kisses you, you feel yourself drowning. Really truly drowning. The way his tongue dances with your own has you gripping his shoulders like hes the last rock before a riptide pulling you under. It takes him no time at all to have his pants undone and to be grinding himself against you. This is a glimpse of the Klaus of 2019, humping against you and gently whimpering into your mouth. But quickly he pushes that away, lining himself up with you and pulling back enough from you to make eye contact as he pushes himself in. No matter how domineering he could be in the 60s with you, he makes sure to look at you, to ask those silent questions, to be granted that permission to absolutely take over you.With each thrust, long and deep, punctuated with a needy moan, he takes a little more of you. And you willingly let him, and give him everything you can. 

You probably look like one of those renaissance paintings beneath him, as he thrusts hard deep fast, your breasts exposed like all of the biblical women, your body contorted on the hood of the car, like one of those angels in anguish. There was no where for your hands to find purchase that wasn't Klaus, so your hands are far up behind you, palms planted on the windshield to give yourself a better angle, a better arch of your back for Klaus to wrap his arms firmly around you, so he could kiss your chest and the long expanse of your neck and shoulders while he kept his pace. He held you as lose as possible, and for a moment you imagine its just him. You as nothing but an extension of himself, your pleasure mixing and becoming his pleasure. When he got like this, its easy to imagine he didn't have many lovers before you that cared that much about his pleasure. Sure they probably thought he was a fun time, as that was a given, but it was probably rare someone actually cared about what he was feeling. You like that he trusts you with this bare part of himself. No, you love it. You love-

A deep moan from his mouth vibrates against your breast, you feel it even more than you hear it, and it brings you back to where you are now, looking down at his lust filled, indulgent expression. 

“Keep looking at me,” he commands, thrusting harder, making you almost squeak at the angel he's hitting, “It's just me, and you, and the coyotes out here.”

Your hands scramble to grab the sides of his face as you start to move your hips to fuck back against his thrusts, eager to come for him while hes watching you. Any attempt to praise him comes out as stuttered moans and fragments of words, but there's a devilish smile on his face that tells you he knows what you're saying. 

He pulls one arm from under you, slams it on the car below right next to your head, and goes in for the kill. He’s merciless in his thrusts as he kisses and nips at your fingers that he can reach. He doesnt guide you but throws you off of the cliff into bliss, a scream parting from your lips as he refuses to slow his pace. This more dominant and possessive Klaus is wild, selfish in a beautiful way. In his face you see indulgence personified, a modern Dionysus filling each urge that swept over you. He doesn't let you calm down, doesn't let you catch your breath, overstimulating you as he reaches his own release. He comes equally as loudly, with a shout of your name and “oh, lover” tumbling from his lips before he stills, and captures your lips on his own. 

He kisses you slowly, like he's drinking in the taste of you, holding you still, feeling your skin melt with his. It's hard to tell where he ends and you begin, but you prefer it this way. It's just the two of you in the desert. Just the two of you in the world. There's plenty of water in the canteen, and after a drink to refresh you, you'll be tearing at each other again, just far enough off the road no one will see you. He pulls out of you with a hiss, like it hurts him not to be inside of you, and you find yourself involuntarily whining at the loss as well. He grabs the canteen and returns to put it to your lips, then his own, then you sit and talk of nothing and everything sweet, needlessly flirting and preening each others egos with loving words until you're both ready to go again. It continues like this until one of you falls asleep on the other. This is the desert routine. 

When you wake around sunrise, covered in bruises and hickies, hair tangled to hell, you're wrapped in the blanket from the trunk, Klaus’ shirt used as your pillow. He’s just outside, naked as you are, greeting the dawn. Something about his posture beckons you to join him, and on shaking legs you pull yourself from the car, unsteadily stepping until you can wrap your arms around his torso, his hand reaching to grab for you and sliding over your shoulders. He repositions you so you stand together, not with you behind him. The way its supposed to be. And then the moment the sun is fully in the sky, he greets it by crowing like a rooster. Loudly, freely. You join in.

[jackedspicer]

a bio for my xiaolinsona! she’s a work in progress so i’m bound to come back and change it. trivia and more in depth information is under the readmore :)

continued trivia:

she’d show up somewhere near the start of season 4

she’s used a LOT for slapstick. in fact she’s mostly a comic relief character

she’s guided mainly by emotions, is right brain oriented, and is a hands-on learner

there is a running gag where she frequently has bandaids on her fingers, hands, arms, or anywhere really

she’s a massive funk junkie. LOVES disco. she’s also a great dancer

when she comes up with xiaolin showdowns, sometimes she’ll base it off of fun recreational activities or things that seem harmlessly mundane, like mini golf..... tic tac toe.....dance-off...... rock paper scissors..... the showdowns themselves obviously end up being high-stakes and lethal as they always are, except they’re based off of goofy premises

she’s probably musically accented by grunge that’s slightly funky

when it’s funny, she occasionally will use huge words or make jarringly philosophical statements, eg patrick star’s “the inner machinations of my mind are an enigma” cut to footage of milk spilling

shes a lot like charlie kelly. in general. any charlie moment is just. Her. she’s a wild card and screams every line and huffs glue and tries to get the honey out of a hornets nest outside of jacks house because she thinks hornets make honey and she likes ghouls and she genocides the rats in his basement and sleeps ass to ass with him and is illiterate

she likes to do arts and crafts but they almost always come out as abominations. she’ll occasionally borrow some of jack’s tools to construct her latest atrocity, and she’ll refer to them by a wrong/made up name while she’s at it. “the hacksaw duey”, “the electric hole puncher,” ”the automatic pizza cutter”, etc. yes the projects and the bandaids have a direct cause and effect relationship. please refer to this video (and this channel in general)

imagine her sitting at a table and just doing this in jack’s lair... this video alone can be used to sum up so much of her. the technique. the bandaids. the blatantly wrong information that’s said with such conviction. the dark turn towards the end of the video. “superfluous protrusion.” the way it ends

continued trivia pt. 2, taken from my instagram

(i’ll get into this more further down the post)

fighting style because this is xiaolin showdown:

she has a very nimble, disorienting style of combat. using pokemon stats as an analogy, her highest would be speed by far, followed by attack, with her lowest stats being defense and special attack. this combined with her unrelenting nature makes her an excellent distraction and a general nuisance, but she doesn’t fare well in prolonged head to head battle.

favorite shen gong wu: 

monkey staff, mikado arms, fancy feet, neptune helmet, hoduko mouse, woozy shooter (on herself), tongue of saiping, longi kite, indigo pyramid (on jack (cause it’s funny))

*the shen gong wu she’s most skilled with in battle are ones that trip up her opponents and cause status ailments. kinda like a prankster

backstory/analysis:

at her core, she’s a jolly, optimistic, humorous person, but her unruly, isolating childhood put a blow on her psyche. much like jack spicer, she’s been virtually alone her entire life - she was rejected by peers and adult figures alike since earliest childhood, and her home life was turbulent at best.

to ease the pain, at some point, she took on resenting and judging those around her as a means to cope. she has a holden caulfield-esque defense mechanism in play where if everybody sucks for this reason, or that reason, or those reasons, then she has justification for detaching herself from others, and she can derive her only source of self esteem from being better than them. this hurts far less than the devastating truth that she cannot connect with people on account of feeling so worthless and estranged from other human beings that she could never have the chance to be cared about by anyone. deep down, she’s in desperate, thrashing need of support and genuine human connection, and she has a warped perception of how she can achieve that.

she’s taken up evil as a hobby because it nurtures her desire to be destructive and, again, just like jack spicer, she engages in it as a way to feel seen. all press is good press, and the best way to make the headline is to cause some damage. what sets her apart from him in this regard, though, is that she takes all of her pain out on her enemies (in this case, the xiaolin monks) because she can’t stand how well off they are - instead, on the basis of their acceptance of one another, she sees them as goody two-shoes phonies who ought to be knocked down a peg. while evil to jack is both a means of getting much needed attention and a convoluted way of spending time with friends, to sid it’s a way to vent frustrations and a way to, well... still garner attention, but also spend time with a friend, except the friend is jack.

the other half of the reason she partakes in petty villainy is that it’s just... fun. she only got wrapped up in all this because she’d been restlessly putzing around somewhere remote, found a neat doohicky she planned on keeping, and when one thing led to another she wound up in a xiaolin showdown against jack. experiencing the chaos unfold revealed a golden opportunity she couldn’t pass up, so she asked jack to let her come with, debuting their partnership (i talk about this in further detail at the end of the post). goofing off and doing evil with him is so much fun to her! it makes her feel alive, a sensation and state of mind she never could fully achieve before.

noteworthy relationships:

jack: 

they have a team rocket thing going on. not in terms of their interpersonal dynamic, but rather their role in the story, how much of a threat they pose as, their schemes, and even their overall attitude are reminiscent of the iconic duo; they’re petty, recurring villains with hearts of gold who aren’t above occasionally siding with the good guys.

even though they both are on the same tier of comic relief and general foolishness, the metaphor i like to draw is that jack is the left brain and sid is the right brain.

their personalities have such chemistry and they’re both so goofy that they effortlessly sync up. everyone thinks it’s REALLY annoying

they’re best friends! they actually care very deeply for one another, even if they might have funny ways of showing it. they may be evil, but they’re mutually the only and closest friend the other has ever had, and with that carries a lot of weight. think of it - the first person you meet who hasn’t been nothing but awful to you likes you and wants to be around you. What a concept

while their relationship is platonic, there are several gags implying a romantic element, even though nothing is ever outright stated. kisses on the cheek, bashfulness, other characters making fun of them (“where’s your DUMB little girlfriend?” “..........she’s not DUMB!!!!!”), domestic references (“am i sleeping on the couch”)..... it’s left ambiguous because it’s hetbait plain and simple. somebody asks them what they even are and they say Partners In Crime wym. jack asks sid What Are We and she fist pumps the flat of her own chest twice, throws a peace sign and says We’re Bros

their nicknames for each other include but are not limited to “jackass, jacky-boy, jack-o-lantern, smarty pants, wiggles, spack jicer, spack, mr spack, spackle”, and “shortstack, pipsqueak, sid the kid, champ, funky monkey, foxy (in a funny way, he’ll say it like Whatcha Up To Foxy ? while she’s like making a mess doing an arts & crafts abomination or just vibing bein her weird lil self....  it comes from a place of playful sarcasm and affection) (champ, funky monkey, and foxy are courtesy of @currentlyfallingthroughspace)

to piggyback off of the left brain vs. right brain metaphor, “heart vs. brain is how they think, right brain vs. left brain is how they act, and two halves of a heart represents their natural dispositions” is how my aforementioned friend put it. they both have a lot of heart and are ooey gooey on the inside, but the difference is that sid can grasp the intricacies of emotional/psychological matters while jack can’t (actually knowing how to EXPRESS this is another topic). it’s in the same way that jack can effectively plan ahead, use logical reasoning, and know where to go and how to get there, but sid is shabby in this department. “one is aware but doesn’t address it until it’s too late, and one can’t see it and doesn’t ask until it’s too late.”  

another feature of potential conflict in all incarnations of them is the juxtaposition of sid actually being more down to earth than jack in the grand scheme of things. jack has the potential to go completely overboard, and whether or not he demonstrates the ability to catch himself on the event horizon will ascertain the outcome.

deep down, neither of them are truly evil, and they bring this out in each other as they ultimately contribute to the redemption of one another. how this actually happens is a lot rockier. sid has the intuition and self awareness to become increasingly cognizant of the fact that she engages in schemes as a way to bond with her friend, and, over time, she’s able to recognize that she’s simply been acting out, and she consequently softens up over time - but jack is much denser in this regard. he doesn’t consciously pick up on the same things she does and still believes that she’s drinking the koolaid as much as he is. the crucial dissonance in what matters most that had been incubating under the weight of things left unsaid emerges in a major falling out that challenges the nature of their entire dynamic and respective moral codes. i had a lot of help from the same friend with the following series of events and it’s really something that ought to be gone into detail on its own post, but a whirlwind brief summary is that jack becomes desperate from losing over and over so he comes up with this sinister plan that’s just too far, sid tells him to stop, they get into a nasty fight, sid leaves and makes it clear she’s not coming back, she goes to the xiaolin dragons for help, jack goes on an evil rampage but also loses his grip and has this mental breakdown because he lost the one person who’s ever cared about him (or so he thought), sid has the same brutal separation pangs but it doesn’t change the fact that jack is still doing what he’s doing, sid gets a firsthand view of a fight breaking out between the monks while she’s working with them and has a moment of clarity when she observes how they resolve it in such a healthy way, as they continue to work together and help her through the whole fiasco she realizes they’re not so bad, an entire excruciating series of events that’s genuinely too large to fit on this post unfolds and it ultimately ends with jack actually having to team UP with the good guys to stop what he started, and it ends with them breaking down, apologizing, and beginning their redemption BUT not without the illustration of several lessons that arose out of the complications of the entire thing...... the overarching lesson that’d been entrenched in their entire dynamic from the start, albeit corny, is that caring and being cared for was all they ever needed, and they learn to cultivate that within each other right under their own noses. it would be fun to have them stay as recurring villains forever, but seeing how much good is in their hearts is enough to make you wonder how they were ever evil.

xiaolin monks:

she thinks she hates them, but she doesn’t really. while her opinion of them is marked by resentment and distaste, she also holds them in high regard. a part of her wishes she could be friends with them, but the mental landscape she’s paved for herself doesn’t reveal that as an option. in her mind, she’s already been rejected by them. so why try?

the way she takes her pain out on them - people who had nothing to do with her traumas - can be summed up by the spinel su quote, “why do i want to hurt you so bad? i’m supposed to be a friend. i just want to be a friend.”

she gets chummier with them upon her redemption. out of the group, she gets along best with clay and dojo :) 

bonus origin episode

this would be the imaginary early season 4 episode i mentioned at the beginning of the post. it’s more of a loose string of ideas tied together with reckless abandon but hey. the episode would open with jack feeling lonely and down on his luck to establish the theme that he kinda needs a friend (”wuya’s gone, chase trained his cats to get surly with me if i show up, my evil dream team won’t answer my calls....”). his sulking is interrupted by a shen gong wu alert and he’s like. whatever. i don’t need them. i’m still gonna do this on my own. even if it’s. ˡᵒⁿᵉˡʸ. fastforward to the scene i described where sid is putzing around with her doohicky (which i’m considering might be the neptune helmet) all by her sad miserable lonesome when suddenly some flying bloke in a trenchcoat who looks like he hasn’t seen the sun in years shows up telling her she’s got something he needs. she of course responds with something along the lines of “you know what? why don’t you try to take it from me since you want it so bad, mr big stuff,” triggering a xiaolin showdown. this is around the time the xiaolin dragons show up too late - but they’re grateful for somebody having been there to fight jack in time, even if they have no idea who they are. she has no clue what’s going on, but whatever it is, she LOVES it. she goes buckwild. she has a time. jack, on the other hand.... well, understanding how badly he needs that wu is certainly throwing a wrench in it, but he can’t help but feel like he’s having a bit of fun too. well, up until he loses. post-showdown, the monks kinda count their chickens before they hatch so to speak and they rush over to this new kid with a shower of praise, thinking they have a friend on their side. instead, she cuts them off, shouts to the guy who’s gathering his bearings (or lack thereof) - “hey! jack was it?” - and playfully tosses her shen gong wu in the air, catching it. “you look like you need this thing way more than i do. tell you what! take me with and i’ll let you borrow it,” is what she follows it up with, implying she wasn’t really that invested and only saw the whole thing as a fun game. jack and the monks are flabbergasted. what’s more bizarre is she did in fact ask to join him, something nobody’s ever done out of their own volition before. she talks about how boooooooooooring it is here and how that was soooooo much fun and to pleeeeeeeease take her with. he’s really iffy about it and doesn’t know if it’s such a good idea. he tries to make himself look cool, telling her “as IF, shortstack..........im afraid The Jack Rides Alone................................................. but-” and ultimately buckling because he can’t deny that it would be nice to have someone around.

[ducktracy]

173. a sunbonnet blue (1937)

release date: august 21st, 1937

series: merrie melodies

director: tex avery

starring: berneice hansell (girl mouse), mel blanc (sheriff, george washington, various), billy bletcher (villain)

the second entry in his mice trilogy (that is, ain’t we got fun, this, and the mice will play), tex avery revisits the roots of earlier merrie melodies to give us this cutesy tale about mice running rampant in a hat shop at night.

akin to the countless of other “come to life at night” cartoons of both the past and future, we open to the facade of a hat shop -- snobby hatte shoppe, that is. the streamlined, art deco exterior feels straight out of a frank tashlin cartoon. truck inside with a multi-plane pan across the dark, empty, vast shop. very moody and eye-catching.

a mouse hole in the wall is now the focus of the camera, where a trepidatious mouse pokes his head out warily. he tiptoes furtively along--the foreshortening and perspective on the backgrounds is very nice, again quite tashlin-esque--the shop, pausing right out in the open. silence except for the music score... until, in an unmistakably avery move, the mouse bellows “HEY! ANYBODY HERE!?” without waiting for an answer, he darts back into his hole.

the coast is clear. delighted, the mouse hops into his conveniently placed elevator, leading right towards a light switch. this cartoon does take extra steps to make lighting a priority, but some cases are more successful than others: as the elevator doors open, revealing a pool of light, the mouse momentarily becomes transparent as he passes the open door, thanks to difficulty with the double-exposure. nevertheless, mr. mouse turns on the lights, prompting the black button above the on/off switch to ram right into his face, sending him falling to the ground and landing safely on top of a top hat.

mr. mouse asserts that he and his mice friends have no company: they’re free to party. after all of the mice have swarmed the place from their hole, the mouse proves himself to be a casanova as he chews the shape of a heart into the wood to impress his sweetie, voiced by the giggly berneice hansell. his efforts pay off as his girl croons “oh george, you’re so cute!” i’ll never get tired of hearing hansell’s squeaky voice for as long as i live. the love-birds run to join their friends, but have unexpected company: a nefarious, billy bletcher voiced mouse. yes, folks! it’s a kidnapping picture! the kind that dominated the first 5 years of warner bros cartoons all too prominently!

 in preparation for the song number, both mice coyly pose with the hats mentioned in the song, with villain mouse crawling under a nefarious looking cap of his own to keep a keen eye out on the missus. the pans from the lovebirds to the villain is well executed. it’s not as blindingly fast as frank tashlin’s transitions, but it doesn’t need to be, either. there’s definitely a level of control present, which works to the cartoon’s advantage and disadvantage. primarily the latter. 

a mouse turns off the light-switch, another turning on a headlamp to use as a spotlight, which segues us into our song number. the song number is cute, but that’s about all it is. it’s surprisingly prominent, calling back to the earlier days of the merrie melodies where the songs were full-on songs, not sharp, witty, tongue-in-cheek quips as was becoming the norm for 1937. another pan demonstrates that the sunbonnet blue and the yellow straw hat getting wedded. the song sequence is unremarkable, but there is a bit of that avery bite as we get a rather dismal view of married life: sunbonnet mama is doing all of the housework while straw hat dad reads the paper, paying no mind to their plethora of children running around.

we’re treated with more lighting effects as the mouse operating the headlamp now uses colored visors as a substitute for lighting gels. some of the colors certainly translate better than others (that last red color in the sequence muddies up the drawings an awful bit.) nevertheless, the happy couple are greeted with cheers and applause after their cutesy little number is complete. 

thankfully, irv spence swoops in to save the day from monotony, adding some much-needed zest and fervor with his animation of “the three ratz brothers”. the clumsy brothers perform a vaudeville routine after breaking out of a dunce cap, singing “i haven’t got a hat”, the merrie melody that marks the debut of porky, beans and co. just 2 years prior. the entire ratz bros. sequence is very well done and difficult to capture in photos and words: one of those scenes that you need to see for yourself. irv’s poses are strong, defined yet loose and rubbery, and his facial expressions are satisfyingly goofy. 

the rats burst into a medley of songs, the mood drastically changing as the engineer mouse from before switches out gels. green lighting sparks a mournful dirge of “i haven’t got a hat” (with one of the brothers even crying hysterically), yellow lighting prompts one of the brothers to recite ted lewis’ catchphrase of “is everybody happy?” lighting turns blue to reflect the unanimous outcry of “NO!” again, this is a great sequence--THIS is what tex avery is about. it’s strikingly noticeable that his heart wasn’t quite in this short, but for just a minute, he’s allowed to get a word in. song numbers change, as do moods, as do colors, the rapid pace transitions once again tashlin-esque in their execution. the three brothers end the number in a lively rendition of “the lady in red”, staring at the audience with crossed eyes and big grins. gone too soon!

with the festivities over and done with, the peace now serves as the perfect transition for some prime kidnapping. the villain mouse sneaks up to the girl using his hat as a cover, and, predictably, snatches her away. george does a bit of an avery take as his ears elongate in shock--he rushes to bang a spoon against a nearby military hat. they’d have plenty of military gags to work with in the coming years, as we’ll most definitely see once WWII breaks out. for now, george summons his army of mice to go after the villain and save the day.

memories of harman and ising past revisit us once again as we get a taste of a tried and true--well, mainly tried--gag: mouse blows trumpet, prompting his pants to fall down. more hat gags, such as a line of mice marching beneath band leader’s hats with merely their legs exposed, until irv spence breaks up the monotony by animating a rat sheriff resting beneath a sheriff's hat. george hurriedly alerts him to his dilemma, prompting the sheriff to exclaim “WHY DOESN’T SOMEBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS!?”, a catchphrase whose origin is a bit muddy--some attribute it to radio show personality fred allen, others to a listerine commercial, it’s even the name of a song. it bubbled up in a number of 1937 warner bros cartoons (porky’s badtime story being one example.) nevertheless, spence’s animation is lively like always, his zest not taken for granted.

after the sheriff blows on his whistle, summoning a police and fire brigade (all spawning from police hats and fireman hats respectively), a mouse hiding beneath a cowboy hat bellows “BUCK BENNY RIDES AGAIN!”, prompting a slack-jawed, hayseed mouse to respond “hello, buck!” both are a reference to jack benny’s radio show, particularly jack benny’s cowboy persona, (as you can guess) buck benny. elsewhere, we get some more gags of the mice and their “factions”, including football playing mice and their respective cheerleaders. finally, we get a distance shot of all of the hats running together. it’s a nice bit of animation, and the lively underscore of “i haven’t got a hat” does contribute an air of jolliness to the sequence.

elsewhere, george darts through rows of hats, the sounds coming out of his mouth being the unmistakable laugh of daffy duck’s. in the midst of his franting HOOHOO!ing, george stumbles upon another george: washington. once again, irv spence animates the exchange between both mice, the Regular George asking “which way did they go?”, prompting washington to arbitrarily tack on “i cannot tell a lie: they went that way.” the scene has potential to be funny--i would have loved to have seen the washington mouse act all uppity and snooty--but falls rather flat instead.

we’re treated with a blind mouse gag (because that’s a knee-slapper, huh?) who points george in the direction of the chase. kidnapper and victim dash over a staircase of meticulously placed hats, pursued by george. george jumps onto a top hat, flattening it, and then swings the hat around like a frisbee. the frisbee effectively slides beneath the villain, sending him sliding. again, another spence scene, with some rather intriguing animation, especially that of george winding up the hat to throw.

the villain loses the girl in the process, and now flies empty handed into a knight’s helmet after the top hat springs up and launches him across the room. george closes the helmet, placing the villain in “jail”, prompting him to grumble the ever popular fibber mcgee and molly catchphrase “t’ain’t funny, mcgee!” mel blanc voices the line instead of billy bletcher for reasons unbeknownst to me. meanwhile, the mouse sweethearts reunite. george excitedly whispers into his sweetie’s ear--she nods, prompting george to do a dance of excitement while the audience waits with bated breath.

their grand secret? a wedding. the happy couple march down the aisle lined with hats, complete to a rather jazzy rendition of “here comes the bride” (which makes me think of a similar scene in a gandy goose and sourpuss terrytoon, animated by the great carlo vinci.) the officiator reflects a burst of avery humor as he gives a hilariously abbreviated ceremony: “do you.... dododododdododododo... do you?” “i do!”

with weddings come wedding gifts, and our mice are no exception. the bride does the honors of opening the box, and husband soon follows. wife peers inside and grows rather bashful, a flurry of giggles. she encourages her husband to peer in--he does so, giving another daffy-esque “WOOHOO!” of shock as he stares at the camera in befuddlement. we iris out on the big reveal, which also has the honors of being tex avery’s first use of live action in a cartoon:

this is a rather frustrating entry. i don’t like to hold tex avery up as if he’s some monolith--his cartoons aren’t perfect, as we see here. he has weaknesses and faults like everybody else. but the fact that we’ve seen what he’s capable of, it’s hard not to compare it to works like these: the letdown is inevitable. it’s clear his heart was not at all in this one. it instead feels like a merrie melody from the 1934-1935 season--the art style is the only thing boosting it from comparisons to harman and ising. it’s just not a strong entry at all. there’s hardly any bite to it, it plays the game much too safe. irv spence’s scenes are the shining stars of the cartoon, especially that interlude with the ratz brothers. that is true avery, that is what he is capable of, but the rest of the cartoon just doesn’t follow through. painfully formulaic, unremarkable, forgettable. you’re better than this, tex! i will give it points for artistic experimentation: the lighting effects, while not executed perfectly, were certainly ambitious, and some of the backgrounds are very tasteful. but, as a whole, this is a very forgettable cartoon that you can easily skip. but, for you curious types such as myself, link!

[darkfairy-tales]

Inception - Chapter Two

Description: As an omega, Hongjoong was always treated wrongly in his pack. So when he is forced to be with an alpha who wasn't his mate he runs away. With little to no idea on where to go. With a small hope of finding his mate.

Character: ATEEZ, EXO, THEBOYZ, etc

Pairing: Ateez x Hongjoong, Hongjoong centric

Warning: Mentions of blood, violence, etc

Hongjoong woke up to various voice whispering. Well at least they were trying to whisper it seemed. But it was loud. "No! He is sleeping with me!" A loud voice stated. He heard a hiss and a sound of someone smacking someone's head followed by a whine. "Shut up you idiot." Another voice said. "Look he is waking up." he heard Mingi's voice say. Hongjoong sat up slowly rubbing his eyes. He looked around seeing all the seven alphas standing around the bed looking at him. His face flushed. "I-is there something wrong?" He asked in a small voice, shyly. "No no nothing is wrong! We were just watching you-" a short hyper alphs spoke up but was cut off by yeosang whose ears were red probably out of embrassment. "We were just looking over you." Yeosang said in a better words. "Alright! It's about time everyone introduces themselves!" Mingi spoke up.

"Hii! I am Choi San! I love plushies. And I love you too." the alpha with cute dimples, San, introduced himself. His words making Hongjoong blush. "Hello! I am Jung Wooyoung! The sexiest man well werewolf. At least in this household. Pleasure to meet you my mate." the alpha with deep beautiful eyes, wooyoung, spoke up doing a sexy pose. Yeosang shooked his head. "Don't mind him. He is..... crazy." Yeasang said making Wooyoung whine and Hongjoong giggle covering his face with his little hands.

"I am Jeong Yunho. The happy virus! Will you go out on a date with me?" The tall alpha with a goofy smile, Yunho, said. Putting his hand out like a prince asking a princess for a dance. Hongjoong placed his hand on Yunho's playing along. "I would love to." He said blushing. His heart beating wildly. Mingi coughed looking at Yunho with a funny look. "Anyway I am Choi Jongho. I am the strongest here. I will protect you forever hyung." Jongho said a bit shy but also looking bold and confident. "I am Park Seonghwa. I won't call myself a head alpha. But I am the oldest here. And I lead these childrens." Seonghwa says snorting when Yunho complained about how they were not children.

"I am Kim Hongjoong. F-From Dark Rose pack. I was born in 1998. Uh... and I don't really have anything to say." Hongjoong says looking down. "You are the second oldest here then! You are the same age as Seonghwa and Yunho hyung. Remaining of us are younger." Wooyoung says with a silly grin. "Come on. Let's get you something to eat. I made some braised chicken. With Seonghwa hyung's help." Yeosang says. Jongho helps Hongjoong get up from the bed. They all went downstairs and into the kitchen and let Hongjoong sit down on one of the chairs as they also sat down around him on the dining table while Yeosang went to serve the braised chicken to Hongjoong along with rice and some side dishes.

"Eat up. You need to gain more energy." Seonghwa says with a smile. Hongjoong looks around unsurely. "Are you guys.. not eating?" He asked. "No. Why? Want to eat together?" Yunho asked. "It's just.. in my previous pack they don't let me or other omegas eat until the alphas do. I mean most of the pack does that. So.." Hongjoong trailed down. "That's so cruel! We don't do that here! Don't worry. We eat whenever we want. Wherever we want. It's doesn't matter hyung." San says. Hongjoong starts eating, a bit shy being surrounded by seven alphas. This was all so new. He had never been looked at in this way. With so much love and care. It was almost overwhelming. But he liked it.

Mingi leans down wiping the corner of his mouth while he was eating. "You got some sauce there." The younger giggled. "Hyung is so cute." Wooyoung says as he leaned down on his arns watching Hongjoong making the omega turn beet red. "I am so glad that you are our mate. We can't ask for anything more. You are perfect." Seonghwa says with a kind smile making Hongjoong's heart flutter.

After tons of compliments, teasing and funny arguments Hongjoong finally finished eating. He offered to do the dishes but Jongho, the maknae didn't let him. "You don't have to do anything. We can handle this." He younger had said as we went away with the dishes to wash them. Hongjoong could only pout feeling bad for making the younger wash them. "Okay! Who wants to go out! I want to run. And also go to meet Jongin hyung and others!" Yunho hollered. Everyone agreeing. "Who is Jongin hyung?" Hongjoong asks looking up at Mingi. "He is our brother, well cousin brother. We are a part of the same pack, Aurora. They just live in the different pack house. Our territory is spread wide. There are many of us in different pack houses. And we have a name for every pack house. For example we are called ATEEZ. Jongin hyung is from EXO. They were the one who started all this. They gathered around our cousins and close friends and made Aurora. There is also a pack house named BTS. And also THEBOYZ." Mingi explains. "You are going to meet them today! I am sure they will love you!" Wooyoung says.

"I will go with you all?" Hongjoong asks. "Yes of course. We are going to run together." Yeosang says. Hongjoong's eyes sparkled at the thought. "Really! Yay! I am happy. I was never allowed to go outside. But I can run with you all today." He exclaims happily but the others froze. "You were allowed to go outside?" San asked frowning not knowing what to think about it. "Yeah. They never allowed me to run with them. The most I could do was stray inside or around the pack house. They never let me go into the woods. At least since 5 years." Hongjoong said, a sad look on his face. "Oh goodness." Seonghwa mumbles surprised. "It's okay now. You can go with us everytime you want to." Yunho says.

They all got ready to go. They put their extra clothes in bag, one bag for each one of them. They went out of the house turning into their wolf forms. Hongjoong look at how almost all his alphas had black fur. They were giant. Bigger than him. And no doubt stronger. He was shy as he changed into his wolf form too. The others looking at him. His wolf had white fur in contrast to the seven alphas. Yunho howled a bit as he walked towards Hongjoong nuzzling his head against the omega in a loving manner. Seonghwa barked signalling everyone to get ready for the run. All of them had the bag which contained their between their jaws. Seonghwa started running, but not too fast towards the west. The others followed him including hongjoong. They goofed around even in their wolf forms in order to make Hongjoong feel at ease.

After twenty minutes, which seemed short considering they ran very fast, they reached a huge pack house. Seonghwa led them towards the small outhouse they had outside where they changed back into their human forms putting on the clothes they bought with them. Hongjoong was blushing red looking at his alphas. He put on the clothes Wooyoung packed for him. He put on the black pant first. It was comfortable to wear and just his size. Next he put on the white sweatshirt which was a bit bigger. And it probably belonged to Seonghwa considering it had seonghwa's scent on it. "All done?" Seonghwa asked. Everyone nodded. "Our joongie hyung looks so cute." Mingi squeals pinching hongjoong's cheeks leaving the omega pouting.

"Let's go then." Yunho says excitedly. They exited the small outhouse. They walked up towards the huge house, seonghwa ringing the door bell. The door was opened by a tall man with huge but cute ears. "Welcome everyone! Come in! Come in! I see we have someone new today. I have a guess on who he is." The man said letting them in looking at hongjoong and giving the others a cheeky smile. Hongjoong was holding the back of Yunho's shirt as he stood behind the tall alpha hiding himself out of shyness and also from the way he felt so nervous. Other people came down the stairs. Hongjoong looks at them, his eyes falling on one of the male who was obviously pregnant being held by who he assumed was the mate.

"Wow Hyung. How are you feeling? Is Jongin hyung still being annoying?" Yeosang asks the pregnant omega teasingly causing the omega to grumble. "Chanyeol and Baekhyun are more annoying than anything. And I don't know if I want to stab them or spare them." the omega grumbles. They all went to the spacious living room. "Introduction first!" San says leaning his back against the large couch. Everyone introduced themselves to Hongjoong. He relaxed realizing the others were really nice and welcoming. "So who is the new addition we see?" Beakhyun, the omega also the mate of the alphas Chanyeol and Sehun asked, referring to Hongjoong. Seonghwa wraps his arms around Hongjoong's shoulder gently. "He is Kim Hongjoong. Our mate." He says. "I knew it!" Chanyeol hollered clapping. "Our you say?" Minseok who was the oldest and also omega asked. "All seven of them are my alphas." It was Hongjoong who answered. Lay, the beta who was the head alpha's mate gasped. "Oh my god. That's wow... Goodluck handling these seven rowdy pups." He said jokingly. "Which one is your previous pack Hongjoong?" The head alpha Suho asks. "Dark Rose." Hongjoong answered looking down. He was not proud of the fact that he was from Dark Rose since his uncle took over. His uncle was the reason the pack had a bad reputation.

He had half expected the others to judge him over the fact that he was a part of Dark Rose pack. But he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I am glad you came out from that hell hole." Kyungsoo says. "Exactly. I don't know if we ever knew each other or so. But me and Kyungsoo also came from Dark Rose. It was long ago. But yeah we ran away there. And we met others after that. We understand what you must have gone through in that pack." Baekhyun says. "I am sorry." Hongjoong says. "Ayee why are you saying sorry. It's not your fault." Chen says. "The head alpha is my uncle. I am.. I am Kim Hakjoon's son. I was... I was supposed to take over the pack with my mate. But my uncle took away everything. If only I was strong I could have made it better for everyone." Hongjoong says as tears filled his eyes.

"Oh my god I didn't recognized you are Hakjoon alpha's son. You have grown so much. We have seen you in different occasions. Your parents were great leaders." Baekhyun says surprised. "Whatever happened. Leave those memories behind. Now you can have a new start and have new beautiful memories with all of us." Kyungsoo says as a sob escapes him. His pregnancy mood swings hitting him. Jongin hugging his omega quickly whispering comforting words. The sight made Hongjoong smile. Yunho noticing the smile on Hongjoong smiled too. He pulled the omega on his lap. Hugging him from behind. Wooyoung complaining at the side about how Yunho was hogging their baby all alone.

"Hongjoong as a welcoming party how about we have a hang out but only for us omegas and betas. Alphas can go do something on their own." Minseok suggested with a bright smile. "And here comes trouble." Chen mutters yelping when Minseok hit him while giving him a glare. "That would be great." Hongjoong agrees. "Okay then Suho do call the others to get their omegas here!" Lay says clapping his hand. Suho sighs as he calls THEBOYZ and BTS. Telling them about what happened. "Come come!!! We need to get ready for the hangout." Baekhyun says with a smirk. They all stood up. Hongjoong was led upstairs by the older omegas. "Hyung we expect you all to give us our omega back on time." Yunho shouted over them.

"Oh no. We don't have food ready. Omg there are going to be four hungry and pregnant omegas." Chen curses under his breath. "Minseok is going to have your head if he can't find his favorite snacks." Wooyoung said bursting out laughing. "You are gonna know the struggle one Hongjoong gets pregnant." Chen said with an eye roll. "So we shall get the snacks and food ready shouldn't we?" Jongin said. "Okay let's get back to work boys! We don't want angry, hungry and frustrated omega and betas today. So we might as well get to work." Suho said. They split their works and got to work to keep food and everything ready. Seonghwa and others were happy knowing Hongjoong was fitting just right in with the others. They all went to set up the large room upstairs where the omegas and betas usually hangs out when they are together. Every alphas in the house ready to make their mates happy.

[Inception Masterlist]

Hello everyone! Haha this is going to be a mess. But a beautiful one. Imagine Exo, BTS, Ateez and TheBoyz together 😂😂 Chaos. And yes that chaos is about to happen. Stay tuned for the next chapter! 💀 It is gonna be filled with fun.

I hope fans especially, especially mutifans, would love this hehe ❤ Please don't forget to like and reblog this. Thank you everyone. Love you all. Buiii~ ♪ ♬

[nodesiretogrowup]

alright, round 2

Quack Pack!:

Damn, they just throw you into the sitcom. I love it. All the overacting and over the top poses/reactions are great

Dewey’s entrance is great

Is the bear the one from the last episode?

“I’ve shenaned-once, I’ll shenan-again” BEAUTIFUL

And then he just one-legged hops up the stairs backwards

I liked the Della and Louie are both wearing green. It’s a cute thing to tie them together

ON THE MOOOOOOOOON

Louie totally did this scheme with Dewey in Della’s place at some point

The fact that Scrooge stops to entertain the idea is great

 “We’ve got about...30 mins” I love when shows make allusions to the actual runtime

Beakley and Webby had the BEST ENTRANCE! They must have seen the Lady Gaga halftime show

That dangerous agent stuff is probably gonna come back. Next week is the spy episode so...

“I’m not a spy” I wonder how that worked in the plot of the fake show. Did Beakley do spy stuff? It just doesn’t make sense for a sitcom

From the get-go Huey could tell things were off

WHY DID DONALD HAVE TO MAKE SUCH A SEXY FACE AT THE CAMERA?! I DON’T WANT TO HAVE A CRUSH ON DONALD! CURSE THE DT CREW FOR MAKING DONALD HOT! AND THE SEXY VOICE!

I wish they had just used the Quack Pack intro for the theme this episode

I want Launchpad’s band to somehow exist. I liked the girl’s design a lot

INTRODUCING DELLA!

“QUACK PACK WAS TAPED IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE.” Oh 90s sitcoms

When you rewatch the episode you can see they foreshadowed the twist. Donald looks directly into the camera an awful lot for someone that doesn’t know there even is a camera

Knox Quackington? Even for a show full of punny names, that is a ridiculous name

His outfit looks more “ace reporter” than “eccentric photographer”

“He’s a spy” Do you think Gene was trying to pretend to be a spy for the wacky misunderstanding of the episode in-universe or he just didn’t know how photographers act?

“YOU’RE SO SMALL! But so STRONG!” Webby has probably killed a man

The screen wipes are GREAT, though that feels more like an anime thing than sitcom. Sitcom scene wipes usually were establishing shots of the house they live in or the city. I’ve watched far too much tv

Louie’s lie speil was great and solid logic

“Time is money, kids, and I’d rather spend time because it’s not money” Inspirational

Donald sure cares a lot about the lighting. How would he know the office had the best lighting, hmmmmm

Something about that hand movement makes me think 90s but I’m not sure why

Dewey doing the dance that the triplets do in Mr. Duck Steps Out is cute

The blank pages made me think about how people can’t read in their dreams

“On the moon we had this old saying-always check your pockets” To be fair, that is good advice

Poor Huey just CAN’T catch a break! First he hallucinates a talking guidebook (THAT BURNS TO DEATH AND COMES BACK AS A GHOST) now reality is SHATTERING BEFORE HIM. Yeah...this season’s gonna do a number on this kid. Hopefully he gets a break next week

“Since when are YOU a hairstylist?” “SINCE THE INTERNET” Now THAT is a quarantine MOOD right there 

So we learn later that SHABOOEY is Gene’s catchphrase, is Dewey saying it because he’s being controlled by Gene in that moment? 

Donald looks into the camera again

SOMEONE HELP THIS CHILD! HIS WORLD IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL

THE FUCKING PEP COMMERCIAL! GOD IT WAS SO 90S AND BEAUTIFUL!! I NEED THE SONG TO BE RELEASED! 

Maybe because it was a soda ad in a Disney Afternoon-based show, but the commercial made me think of Coo-Coo Cola from Rescue Rangers

Ducktales-the ONLY Disney show with an in-universe “and you’re watching Disney Channel”

I love Huey dearly but....it’s really fun watching him MCFRICKIN LOSE IT

Dewey can’t throw...because he’s a theatre kid

Donald looks at the camera again

Louie’s wipe DEFINITELY looks like something out of an anime. Is Louie secretly a weeb? I mean he is in a different show

Gene doing his best not to break character. A true thespian through and through

“Yo” *all the ladies cheer*

All of the sudden BAM Launchpad has a band. Is he the Uncle Jesse?

I love that we don’t get to hear them play

“Trapped in a mystical prison that’s constantly laughing at us” I call that my brain :’)

“WHO ARE THOSE LITTLE GUYS?”

“I figured if anyone would crack, it’d be Dewey” Huey seems WAY more likely to snap imho

“But that was from soul-crushing loneliness” Della, you wanna talk about that? With a professional perhaps?

“We need some wacky hijinks!”

“HOW DID I GET HERE? WHY AM I DANCING?” Huey gets SO MANY great lines this episode

And once again we have Donald looking directly into the camera

“Cute girl stuff” Della probably went around with a meat tenderizer as a kid, so it’s normal

Goofy seemed to be aware of the cheering. HMMMMMMM

AAAAAAAAAAAAND.....GOOF TROOP POSE

I’ve been calling DT17 Goofy Chibi Goofy because of how short he is compared to how he normally looks. They probably made him shorter so he and Donald fit in a single frame easier. I know a lot of the boarders/animators for the show have a hard time doing scenes with Launchpad and the kids because of how MASSIVE he is compared to the kids

Goofy knew something was different about Donald. HMMMMMMM

The way Don delivers the line “You CAN help” has a weird inflection, at least to me

I want Goofy thinking to become a meme and people put random sounds over it like those are Goofy’s thoughts

That face-slap was loud

AND DONALD LOOKS INTO THE CAMERA LIKE HE’S ON THE OFFICE

Where was Dewey that whole time? He kind of just...disappears for a bit

Oh Launchpad, you MAJESTIC himbo. And Gene smiles, too cute

“Getting the lid off that peanut butter jar was an adventure” In that household it probably could have

Donald using Louie and Della’s names when he could have just said you broke your mom’s vase or something like that

You look pretty nervous there, Donny-boy

“I don’t mean the last episode” Good, because you kinda lost your mind in the last episode

Wow, flashbacking is TRIPPY

“EVERYONE, TILT YOUR HEAD TO THE LEFT THEN SCRATCH YOUR CHIN” So that’s how you do it

“We should really get back to the plot, I mean problem”

Why don’t you want to flashback, DONALD?

lol Goofy does it too even though he wasn’t present for that event

Gene’s just blankly staring in the background

“REMINISCE HARDER” What you tell yourself as you take a test and are trying to remember what you studied

Yay, the journal is brought up!

“How many lamps did this jerk have?” Excellent question

Webby looks INSANE and Huey FULLY SUPPORTS HER

DONALD HAS PTSD AND NEEDS HELP

I feel like Gene took some MAJOR liberties with Donald’s wish. When I think normal family problems I don’t think of sitcoms. In fact that is the FURTHEST THING from what I think of as normal. Then again Gene is played by Urkel, so that might be his normal

Speaking of, does Gene know that they are all ALREADY in a tv show? How far does this rabbit hole go?

“EVERYONE STOP CATCHPHRASING!” “Is ‘I’m not a spy’ seriously my catchphrase?” You deserve better, Beakley

Of COURSE Dewey’s cool with it...because he’s a theatre kid

DEAR LORD, SOMEONE HELP THIS MAN!

Gene just trying to sneak out. I don’t think he wanted to deal with all that family drama

“HOW MANY MORE SECRETS DOES THIS AGENT HAVE?!” Oh Launchpad. Next week you’ll learn all about secrets and agents and secret agents

Gene feels like what would happen if all of Genie’s pop culture references were limited to the 90s. I LOVE IT

“AGES! The long ago year of 1990!” Well I feel old (born in 91). His eyes after he says it are just AMAZING

Gene being so knowledgeable about what makes great tv is hilarious. Clearly he should have directed the Darkwing movie lol

Seriously though, this really gives us a good look at Donald’s psyche. The guy just wants his family to be safe. But it’s even deeper than that. He wants to be normal, which includes him having a voice that’s easier for people to understand. He’s got a lot of baggage and trauma that needs to be dealt with, mainly how he views himself. Like, fuck

The HURT you see in Della’s eyes when Donald talks about why he likes it there BROKE ME

Huey’s line about adventuring being who they are got me teary eyed

Goofy just shrugs as he walks out

Of course Launchpad was gonna get the multiple dates plot. We’re ALL thirsty for some Launchpad

“Probably at least 3 seasons, plus spinoffs, and I assume they’ll reboot the show eventually.” Lines like this make me think Gene is very aware he is in a tv show

WHY THE FUCK WERE THE AUDIENCE HUMANS?! IS GENE AWARE THAT HUMANS EXIST AND ARE WATCHING THE VERY SHOW HE’S ON?! WHAT IS REAL ANYMORE?!

 “HORRIBLE, FLESH-FACED MONSTERS!” Not gonna argue with that

Dewey is SUCH a drama queen

I don’t like how Scrooge called Gene genie. He told you his name, there’s no need to be rude

POGS

Ok the study date girl kinda reminds me of Laura from Family Matters, but that might just be because Urkel is there lol

How old is Launchpad supposed to BE in the sitcom? I don’t think a 30-something is going on many study dates

“You all seem real nice, I feel bad about the mix-up” LAUNCHPAD YOU BEAUTIFUL HIMBO

OH GOD THE LAURA DUCK IN THE BACKGROUND. JESUS

Beakley and Della telling the dates to find themselves and to be independent SLAYED ME. I was NOT expecting that!

“AH, MY PET SNAKE!” “Louie why would you have this?” “THIS IS A POORLY CONCEIVED STORYLINE!” “Eh, everyone’s a critic.” Louie’s right though, DEWEY would be the one with an exotic pet. Or any pet

Tiny Johnny and Randy

WHY ARE THE HUMAN KIDS’ PROPORTIONS SO MUCH WORSE THAN THE ADULTS?! THEY HAVE GIANT FUCKING HEADS!

 PUT SOME PEP IN YOUR STEP

The ENTIRE SCENE of Goofy and Donald together was SO HEARTWARMING and something we could NEVER GET before this series!  Having Donald and Goofy talk about being parents is WONDERFUL! It’s something we’ve never seen before with these characters. Donald just wants to be normal and Goofy giving a beautiful speech about how there really is no normal so enjoy the candid moments in life. I LEGIT CRIED

OF COURSE Goofy would have the wallet overflowing with pictures, he is THAT DAD. Seeing Max was great. I thought we might see PJ but I SQUEE’D when they showed the picture of Max and Roxanne! I hope they show up for real later on

We get a hint at the OTHER twist here with Goofy actively encouraging Donald to put things back to normal while everyone else that aren’t the Duck family are trying to keep them there

Also, Goofy’s ears have bones

DON’T MESS WITH DONALD’S FAMILY. It will NOT end well for you

Goofy just starts snapping pics, like the true photographer he is

SAX TIME

“LET’S GET QUACKING” It’s no “I AM THE STORM” but still good

AVENGERS CAMERA SPIN

“A lamp in a lamp?” I can’t tell if that is BRILLIANT or lazy. Or BRILLIANTLY LAZY

“YA HA HA HOOOOWIIIIIEEEEE” It wouldn’t be a proper Goofy cameo without the yell

The scorpions got bored and left

 “The sound of no one laughing never sounded SO GOOD”

“BEST EPISODE EVER!” Definitely in my top 5

“Gawrsh, that’s sweet.” *does a cute wave* “Wait, Goofy was really here this whole time?”

Ok, but where was Goofy before then? Did Gene poof him away from something important? I WANT ANSWERS!

I bet they had this bit so people wouldn’t freakout like they did with Darkwing

I love Launchpad just being confused and waving at Goofy. He’s never met the dude before so it’s understandable. But I NEED they to have a proper interaction. THING OF THE PROPERTY DAMAGE!

“Magic’s got NOTHIN’ on a big name guest star” YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN A SHOW!

Lowkey want that Goofy lava lamp

The little Maxes flying over Goofy’s head...ADORABLE

PLEASE TELL ME THEY GOT GOOFY HOME SAFE

Donald using his last wish on the picture made me tear up. He could have had ANYTHING. He could have wished for a normal voice. But he used it for a family memory

Donald and Beakley both looked into the camera for the picture. WHILE FIGHTING DEMON HUMANS.

I can’t lie, THIS was the episode I was most excited for even before we got the premiere date. I was excited for the 90s cheesiness. Then we found out Goofy was gonna be in it and I got even more excited. Goofy is one of my faves, especially Dad Goofy. I was expecting it to be balls-to-the-wall insanity nonstop but they got me in the feels too. I want more of this Goofy and Donald. The two of them being single parents who lost someone close to them. Like I said earlier, this episode is in my top 5 for sure.

[sinfullystanning]

Believe In Me

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Summary: You’d given up on love until you have a chance encounter with a mysterious man at an old friend’s wedding who makes you want to believe again.

You sighed as you slid into the wooden pew, wishing you were anywhere else except for there. This was the tenth wedding you’d been to in the last few months. On the bright side, at least today you didn’t have to plaster a fake smile on your face and pose like a porcelain doll amid a sea of bridesmaids, cursed to haunt the most important photographs in someone’s life. It wasn’t that you hated your old college friends, you were happy for them, you really were, but the green face of jealousy demanded to rear her ugly head every time another obnoxiously fancy invitation arrived in the mail and migrated to its glaring spot on your refrigerator. It wasn’t like you were the only single person at these things, but there was definitely something up when you were in your late twenties, old enough to be married and you’d never been asked out, let alone gone on a date before. You’d sat through four years of college telling yourself that you had time, that your special person was waiting for you somewhere. Then you’d started working and still, no one had ever bothered or even seemed to notice you. Then, suddenly, like a cruel reminder of your predicament, the invitations had started to pour in and here you were, sitting in the back of a church, wishing you could disappear.

Your thoughts were interrupted by a voice and you looked up as it said, “Is this seat taken?” You blinked blankly several times as you adjusted to the view in front of you. The voice belonged to a tall guy with the most piercing blue eyes.

“Huh? Uh, no, no it’s not.” You broke eye contact, trying to look anywhere but at those eyes, as you awkwardly patted the spot beside you. “Yeah, um, you’re welcome to, um, no it’s not taken.” You collected your hands and gripped them in your lap, your face burning red. He chuckled softly before sitting down next to you.

“So,” He turned to face you, but you didn’t look up from where you were suddenly very interested in your hands. “Are you on the bride’s or the groom’s side?”

“The bride’s.” You mumbled, sneaking a peek at him through your hair, hiding your face from view.”

“Nice, I’m on the groom’s, we’re colleagues from work. How do you know the bride?”

You swallowed before sitting up again, using all your will-power to turn and face the mystery man, as if you hadn’t just fallen flat over your words a few moments ago. “We were friends in college.” You pushed a stray piece of hair behind your ear. “I’m surprised she even invited me, to be honest, I hadn't heard from her in years.”

“You never know.” He shrugged. “People remember each other differently. To you, your friendship could have been forgettable, but for her, it could have been something else. For example, after today you might forget the random guy who talked to you at some girl’s wedding, while I’ll be wondering what someone as pretty as you was doing hiding in the back of the church like some old widower.” He paused brow furrowing before raising a concerned eyebrow. “Wait, you’re not an old widower are you?”

You had been caught off guard when he called you pretty, but his ridiculous question made you giggle before answering, “No, no I’m not an old widower. I’m just a disillusioned romantic that’s done with love, which isn’t too different, to be honest.”

“Ooo, disillusioned, big word. What has you so disillusioned? A bad breakup? Left at the altar? Cheated on? All of the above?” He leaned imperceptibly closer, slinging his arm over the back of the pew.

You had no idea why you were about to share all your problems with a complete stranger whose name you didn’t know, and maybe it was the way he had called you pretty, something another guy had never said to you, or maybe you just wanted someone to rant to, but you took a deep breath before answering. “Nope, none of those. Quite the opposite actually. I’m twenty-eight years old and I’ve never been noticed by a guy before. Never been asked out, never gone on a date, never been kissed, et cetera.” You mentally scolded yourself for letting that last one slip.

Mystery man raised a surprised dark brown eyebrow but didn’t say anything for a moment. “Well then, I think it’s time we changed that don’t you?” Your eyes went wide, your brain shifting into full panic mode. “Let’s start over.” He continued, extending his hand out to you. “I’m Bucky, it’s nice to meet you.”

You shook his hand nervously. “I’m Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you, Y/N, and now I’d like to ask if you’d like to be my date to this wedding?”

You were speechless at the proposition. You had just met this man a few minutes ago and only learned his name seconds ago, and now this? “But we’re both already at the wedding.” You said, confused.

He pulled out his phone, checking something before putting it away. “Well if it’s the technicalities you’re hung up on, the wedding doesn’t start for a few more minutes so we could walk outside, I could ask you again and then we could come back. It’s up to you.” He shrugged nonchalantly. You gaped at him like a beached fish. Before you could say anything he broke the silence. “I’m serious, you know. Be my date to this wedding, I promise it’ll be way more fun for both of us.” When you were still silent he sighed. “Look, I know this probably isn’t what you envisioned for your first date, but how about we consider tonight a trial period. Free of charge, and then at the end, you can decide whether we leave as strangers or something else.” He smiled. “Come on, let me illusion that disillusioned romantic. You don’t have to believe in love, just believe in me.”

Finally, you sighed, and smiled shyly you nodded. “Okay, let’s do it.” His smile spread into a big goofy grin and you couldn’t fight the giggle that bubbled past your lips. Before Bucky could say anything back, the organ in the balcony began to play and the doors behind you opened as the wedding began.

***

After the wedding, Bucky and you were swept up in the crowd of guests, being called up for various sets of photos before finally escaping out the doors into the breezy evening air. You were about to go to your car to head for the reception when Bucky grabbed your hand. “Come on,” He beckoned towards the other side of the parking lot. “I’m your date until the end of the night, remember? You’re riding with me, I’ll drop you off here afterward.” You hesitated for a second before following Bucky to an old vintage car that made you stop and stare. It seemed almost comically anachronistic to see the ‘65 Ford Mustang Convertible in a lot full of the twenty-first century SUVs. Meanwhile, Bucky was already in the front seat, leaning out to call to you, “Aw, don’t diss the princess.” You laughed before closing the distance to stand beside the car, peeking inside to appraise the blue leather interior that screamed of midnight rendezvous to deserted beaches and road trips with the music all the way up. You couldn’t hide your grin as you walked around to the other side of the car and climbed into the passenger seat. Bucky turned the key in the ignition and the probably ancient motor rumbled to life. You closed your eyes, drowning in the sound as the car pulled out of the parking lot.

***

You were looking for Bucky. As soon as you’d made it to the reception venue, you’d excused yourself to freshen up in the bathroom after the wind had tossed your hair every which way on the drive. Turning another corner, you finally caught sight of him. Bucky was leaning over a table covered with place cards, a pen in hand. You walked up to him, peering over his shoulder to catch a glance at what he was doing.

“Hey, do you know her?” Bucky didn’t look up, gesturing to a place card he was holding. You frowned, racking your brain.

“I think so, another college friend, maybe? Why?”

“Is she single?”

“What?! What, I don’t know!” You exclaimed at Bucky’s unexpected question.

“Well hopefully she is, but either way I think she’ll enjoy the company of some hot, well-to-do for tonight because we’ll be switching seats.”

“Wait, what?” You asked, your brow furrowing in confusion.

Bucky finished what he was doing and straightened up, finally looking at you. “Just switched up the place cards.” He dangled a pair of place cards in front of you. “I wouldn’t be a very good date if I didn’t sit with you, would I?” Relief washed through you as you understood what Bucky had been doing before blushing at the casual way he’d just referred to you as ‘his date.’ “Shall we?” Bucky extended his arm to you and you took it, the two of you entering the lowly lit reception hall where celebrations were already in full swing.

No sooner had you found your seats that the waitstaff swarmed the table to serve a particularly sad looking salad. You were inspecting a droopy leaf warily when Bucky pushed out his chair, standing up. “Where are you going?” You asked, arching a curious eyebrow at him as a grin spread across his face.

“Well since I’m suddenly no longer hungry,” you giggled at that, “I think I’m ready to dance, how about you?” You hesitated. You weren’t much of a dancer in general and the dance floor was pretty empty at the moment with the exception of a few already-drunk uncles. Before you could answer, the familiar electric guitar riffs of ACDC’s You Shook Me All Night Long blared out of the speakers and Bucky’s grin widened as he backed onto the dance floor, eyes never leaving yours as he began to comedically play an air guitar along to the iconic intro, transforming into a goofy rockstar before your eyes as he lip-synched the words at you as he danced horribly along to the music. When the chorus came around he stopped in his tracks, pointing straight at you with both hands as he mouthed, “You shook me all night long!” You couldn’t hold it back anymore and burst out laughing, one hand over your mouth and the other holding your stomach as you doubled over in your chair. When you caught your breath, you straightened to see Bucky standing in front of you, hand outstretched. You only hesitated a second before muttering, “Oh, what the hell,” before you grabbed his hand and followed him onto the dance floor.

***

When the night was finally over, Bucky pulled his car into the now-empty church parking lot. You stepped out of the car and suddenly you barely remember even getting here earlier today, the morning seemed like a lifetime away from the magical night you’d just had with Bucky. You stood there beside the car, lost in your thoughts when Bucky’s voice called you back to reality. He too had vacated the car, coming around to stand in front of you.

“So, I guess your trial period is all used up.” He was smiling softly, almost wistfully.

“I guess it is.” You said, smiling back. You paused for a second that felt way too long. “So how do I subscribe for more?”

Bucky’s smile grew into a goofy grin and you couldn’t hide the one spreading across yours to meet it. His eyes glittered with mischief. “There’s just one thing you need to do.”

“And that is?” You shot back, more than happy to match his banter.

“Well it goes a bit like this,” Bucky said as he leaned in and placed his lips on yours. At that moment, it felt like your brain experienced a blackout and a power surge all at once. You were stock still and electrified one second and the next you were soft and malleable and he drew you into his arms, gently deepening the kiss. When he pulled away, you were speechless. He finally broke the silence, “As much as I don’t want to be the responsible one, it’s already late and I don’t want you driving alone at night, so you should probably go, but I think there’s one more thing I need before you go.” You sighed before smiling ruefully, you really weren’t ready for the night to end. You turned ready to leave when Bucky grabbed your wrist. “Wait, I told you, I need one more thing-” You cut him off, turning around and quickly reached into the breast pocket of his shirt, fishing out your place card with your number written on it in neat print.

“You mean this?” You teased playfully as Bucky gawked. “Let’s just say I made my decision a little early.” With that, you turned and began to walk backward toward your car. “Call me?” You asked as you clicked the remote and heard the doors chirp open. Bucky chuckled and rolled his eyes before getting back into his car and you did the same. You leaned back in the driver’s seat as you watched him drive away, unable to shake the smile on your face. Maybe, just maybe, you were ready to believe in love again.

[monikafilefan]

Dead End Road Epilogue

This is ch5 of 5 and has time jumps, and flashbacks. We end with them POST MS1V

Tagging @today-in-fic @baronessblixen @scully-eats-sushi @kyouryokusenshi @skullsmuldon @peacenik0 @lappina @furiouskidcollectorlove @foxanddanapetrie @sculdership @mulder-even-if @postmodernpromartheus @spiritedballroomdancer @xfilesgayepisode sorry if ive missed anyone who has been following along this far. 

Epilogue: Life on the run is for Mulder and Scully is now in the past. This is how they fair in their future together.

----------

A short time later, after composing themselves, they were finally able to follow the rest of the guests over to the building. Scully gave Mulder the look that he’d received whenever she was anxious for alone time, so they decided to forgo the dinner and dancing to get on the road sooner rather than later. They had a marriage to consummate, after all. As they walked hand in hand with their heads in the clouds, they were greeted with a photo station for the guests to get their picture taken as a parting gift.

Mulder looked down at Scully and she nodded. They wanted a memento to take with them for a day like today.

“Hi there, I’m Michelle, would you two like a photo to take home?” the older woman with kind eyes asked while holding up a polaroid camera.

Scully nodded, “yes, please!” Mulder stood next to Scully as the woman readied the camera.

“Okay, I usually offer advice for posing with lighting since it’s getting dark outside now and I’m using this type of camera,” she said, looking down and adjusting the flash. As Michelle looked up and held the camera level, she gasped as her mouth hung wide open and quickly pressed the button, sending off a flash of light that captured Mulder and Scully so naturally holding one another with their emotions shining through.  

The seasoned woman cleared her throat and held out the printed polaroid, as Scully and Mulder were still caught up in gazing at each other. They turned simultaneously, separating their entwined bodies as Mulder accepted the photo and Scully blushed.

“I have to say, in all my 59 years here on this earth, I haven’t seen a couple so enraptured with one another like you two are. Your love shines like the sun,” Michelle admitted, giving off an expression of awe.

Mulder grinned like a fool and Scully bit her lip as her pinkening cheeks brightened. They all smiled at one another, saying their goodbyes while Mulder and Scully stared at the developing photo and walked back to their car arm in arm.    

As the crickets chirped and the warm breeze blew the stray hairs away from their eyes, Mulder stopped short of the car’s door. “Let’s get off this dead end road we’re on, Scully,” he told her, with the double meaning not going unnoticed. Scully handed him the keys she had in the pocket of her cardigan and they both got in the car as they shared a smile, knowing what step came next.

Leaning over her lap, Mulder snuck in another kiss to her swollen lips as he snagged the map off of the dashboard. He opened it up and smoothed it out across his lap to display the large image of the United States covered in ink with tiny circles and stars, marking their journey over the last two and a half years.

“Same as usual?” he questioned, looking at her with the goofy grin he couldn’t keep off of his face. She nodded with a smirk. One he noted hadn’t stayed off of her face since the ceremony either. “Pick a place any place, Scully.”

Mulder beamed at his now wife and wondered where the hell they would end up this time. Where ever it would be, he knew it would be someplace static, someplace with tangible meaning to them. He was sick to death of running and knew she was too. They hadn’t once come across anyone who had actively sought them out since after those first few months that they’ve been labeled as fugitives. Even though it was still risky, It was time for them and he didn’t give a flying fuck if he had to take out every threat that crossed their path to happiness. Mulder was determined to make a future happen for them instead of having to fight it.

Scully’s choice on where they would go from here would prove to be the first real step in their ‘for better or worse’. “Ready?” she asked.

Mulder grinned wryly and couldn’t help himself. “Let’s get it on, honey,” he laughed, wiggling his eyebrows at his own comment that referred back to when they had to   pretend to be a married couple.

Scully scoffed and rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide her amusement. She then shut them tightly, smirking as she waved her hand around dramatically and dropped her finger down on a northeastern state. Laughing at the location, they grinned joyfully at each other as she covered his left hand with hers, rubbing her thumb back and forth along the space of his finger where his wedding band would’ve rested.

“Virginia, here we come!”

----------

Epilogue:

“The road to happiness has never been a straight one, and yet, it is the only road worth traveling, no matter how curvy or rocky it is!” -Mehmet Ildan

----------

One year later…

(2005)

Scully closed the office door and walked around the corner to see Mulder frosting bright blue cupcakes in their kitchen. The Cher song they had danced along to after that Great Mutato case over a decade ago played softly in the living room and Scully smiled at Mulder’s romantic gesture.

Frosting smudges, cake batter, and ingredients were strewn all along the counter and wooden dining table. The sight thrilled her in a way that only he could elicit in her. Witnessing Mulder bake was a rare sight over the years since they’d become friends and then more than, but an unbelievably sexy sight to see indeed. Yes, sex and sadness is what another day like today brought for them both. Yet, it seemed that she could handle their son’s birthday without locking herself in the bathroom and breaking down or trying to hide her emotions about it from Mulder.  He would feel her discontent anyway from the moment she woke.

Scully had learned over the years—especially within the last year—that it was much more rewarding to lean on Mulder for comfort instead of fighting to find it on her own. Her newly found strength regarding William had stemmed from the talk and promises they had made the year before which only permanently solidified the road they were driving down together. She had also learned that when she did lean, he leaned right back. And goddamn it felt wonderful!

Scully certainly wasn’t naive to believe that their dark cloud would never return to cast shade on their sunshine, but she knew that when it did resurface, they would survive and come out stronger in the end no matter what sacrifices they might need to make in order to find their way again.

It was true that they shared a feeling of loss for their little one who was celebrating his fourth birthday today, but they also shared a feeling of deep, all consuming love for one another.

And she was happy, dammit! They were happy, and it finally felt like they deserved to feel happy.

Smiling wide, she sighed contently at her husband and felt a rush of excitement for the new changes coming to their life. She had received news just days after leaving Florida that her name was cleared and she was free to live life out in the open again, a life with permanency. The news trickled through the underground grapevine via Skinner that Mulder still was considered a fugitive but the priority on finding him had lessened considerably. He had promised that in the future, those who knew the truth about him would be able to set the record straight and him free as well.

Scully knew, with the mass amount of money that they had hidden under false identities, that she still had a few years to find out where and what she wanted to do work wise before the run money ran out. Becoming a practicing doctor was an option she’d thought about taking but she knew that working in a DC hospital would be tricky with their history, whether she were cleared or not. Laying low for as long as possible was the advice they were given three years back, which is what she and Mulder had both agreed was the best option.

But when it came to Mulder, he couldn’t have been happier for her reclaiming her good name and being able to visit her Mother. Yet, she instantly felt a pang in her heart that Mulder wouldn’t be joining her. She’d ended up crying for him, and for William in the hotel shower that night while Mulder was out on his evening run.

That was a year ago. And since then, her Mom has shown up at their home once a month just to visit with Mulder and show him the affection she so desperately missed giving him.

Feeling sudden overwhelming desperation to show her husband affection herself, she moved forward wrapping her arms around his waist, hugging him into her tightly while she relished in the baritone of his laugh vibrating along her chest. The satisfaction that swept over her left warmth to pool in her belly and the familiar yearning throbbing through her.

“Hey, there you are.” Caressing his hands along her arms that were squeezing him close, he looked back toward her and hummed deeply knowing exactly what she had in mind as her fingers slowly drew circles along his abs, creeping lower and lower. “Aww honey, don’t you think we should wait until the cupcakes are finished?”

“Mulder, you know calling me honey only makes me want you more,” she scolded teasingly, with a gentle skim of her finger over his blooming erection.

Mulder groaned knowing it was a term of endearment he used sparingly for that very reason. He was surprised to find out that tidbit of information about her when he had called her honey that first week they were on the run while they tried to blend in with the locals. Ever since knowing it made her wild for him, he’s only called her that on special occasions. Driving her wild had become his favorite past time and Scully certainly couldn’t get enough of it.

He spun around while still wound up in her little arms and encompassed her entirely, holding her against his body. Mulder couldn’t help but think about how damn lucky he was to have Dana Scully to hold all the days of his life.

With her in his arms, Mulder remembered back when they had arrived in the outskirts of Virginia after traveling from Florida for seven hours straight. Their last break, that consisted of a meal and a makeout session in the nearest Travel Center, prompted them to get to their motel as quickly as possible and consummate their vows. He wanted to make slow sweet love to her in a bed bathed in candlelight and not another quick fevered fuck on the side of the road. So the whole ride included an obscene amount of excited touching, kissing, rubbing and wandering hands finding their way down the inside of each other’s underwear. Oh, if cars could talk...

Scully was checking her and Mulder into yet another rundown crap motel when an elderly man posting a flyer on the bulletin board in the small lobby caught his eye. He could see the man was struggling to make the paper stay with pushing in the tiny pins alone and Mulder, being the gentleman he never had to try very hard to express, rushed over to help him without a second thought. He noticed that the information on the flyer held no photo or remarkable description of the home for sale. Just a line at the top stating, “A cozy Farrs Corners home that’s ready to be filled with love. This peaceful secluded life makes for a happy wife.” He had to stifle a laugh after reading that tag line since it had seemed to fit their life remarkably well at the moment. Yet, everything about the flyer was utterly unremarkable. That in itself had captured Mulder’s attention immediately. And glancing back at his newly wedded wife with a devilish grin, he held out hope they had finally found the perfect place to live out their future together.

One week later—after her telling him that he was “bat crap crazy” more than once—Scully signed her name on the deeds dotted line and he had finally carried her over the threshold that night, creatively christening every single room with their love in their new unremarkable house. Twice.

Scully pinched his ass causing Mulder to jump in surprise and grip his hands around her hips.

“Mulder? Not that I’m complaining, but If you’re done stabbing me in the stomach with your well-endowed anticipation for what coming after desert, then I suggest we untangle and get the candles.” Scully let a giggle slip out as she enjoyed her teasing with her chin perched atop of Mulder’s chest. He just smirked down at her and thrusted his full erection into her again.

“You’re killing me right now, Scully—interrupting my memories of when we found and christened the house won’t help the stabbing any. And you slinging innuendo at me is sure as hell not going to keep the monster from his hunt,” he belly laughed at the admonishing yet aroused look on her face as he reluctantly let her loose.

She elbowed him and he turned back around to ready the candles for each cupcake.

They had thought about an answer to their question on how to honor the day in their own way together, but baking and making a wish for their son seemed like the only choice to make. It wasn’t too celebratory nor too insignificant for them to acknowledge William and their special day at once.

Mulder pulled out two superman blue frosted cupcakes with a candle on each one. Scully had told him the story years earlier that right before William was given to Catholic Charities for his pending adoption, he had eaten a cupcake topped with superman blue frosting that Maggie had made for him while baby sitting in celebration of William’s half birthday.

Scully unlocked the front door and followed the sounds of giggling coming from her Mother’s kitchen. “Mom, I’m back. What are you two up—” she couldn’t even finish her question as her eyes widened and a huge grin spread across her face.  

There sat William on the counter, donning only his diaper and the mass amount of bright blue frosting smeared all over his hands, rounded belly, and chubby cheeks as he attempted to shove what remained of the crushed cupcake into his drooling O-shaped mouth.

“Hi Dana! I wanted to wait for you to get back, but this little guy had other ideas and stuck his hand in the frosting jar.” Both women laughed, and as Scully walked over to press her lips onto her son’s face, she received a perfectly shaped tiny blue handprint along the front of her white blouse.

She told Mulder one night when they were sharing memories with one another, that she wished that she had never washed that meaningful mark off of her shirt.

Scully pulled out a lighter and lit each candle resting the piled high blue frosting. They closed their eyes to make a wish and blew them out in unison, sharing a sad smile with one another through the trails of smoke wafting in their faces. Mulder grabbed Scully’s hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze.

He hummed deep in his throat with his eyes closed and wistfully said, “Happy Birthday, William.”

Setting both cupcakes on the counter, she raised her hand up to run her fingers through his hair as Mulder laid a soft tender kiss upon her lips. Leaning back, she stared intently into his warm hazel eyes for a moment, watching the affirmation shine through before she spoke.

“I really hope he is happy, every single day,” Scully was barely able to get the last words out before her emotions threatened to take over. Mulder reached up and tucked a long fiery strand of hair behind her ear and palmed her cheek as he brushed a thumb along her eyebrow. “And happy anniversary to us, Mulder,” she murmured, pulling him flush against her with their arms and hands squeezing one another, sealing the day and their future together with a long and zealous kiss.

----------

Thirteen years later…

(2018)

Scully rested in a rocking chair that sat in the corner of the living room, quietly creaking and scarcely swaying back and forth, facing out the window of their unremarkable house. Scully’s eyes were shut with her groggy voice barely audible as she whispered, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog...was a good friend of mine…” her singing trailed off, finally losing her battle with exhaustion.

The muffled sounds of classic rock music being played from the other side of the house mingled with Scully’s now heavy breath sounds made Mulder grin joyfully while he surveyed the sight before him.

He leaned along the wall as he held a glass of water, a worn familiar map, and push pins. Mulder silently padded along the wooden floor and over to the corner where his glowing wife sat asleep with their sleeping baby nestled upon her chest. He quietly leaned over the two most important women in his life and stared blissfully, taking in each feature for as long as he dared without risking Scully feeling him lingering over them too intensely. He chuckled to himself as he noticed the cupcake’s small smudge of blue frosting staining the corner of Scully’s mouth. He sat the glass down on the window sill and gently pressed a kiss onto each of their red-haired heads, thinking to himself that his life was pretty damn remarkable and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Over the years, they had both held back discussing William in too much detail on any given day. The subject of his short life spent with Scully as his Mother and his unavoidable adoption was just too damn painful for them—even though it was for his own safety as well as their own—still burned a hole in their resolve just a little more every year. They started the tradition of sharing happy memories and lighting a candle to make a birthday wish just for him that they never once strayed from. Even on their darkest of days, and during two of Williams birthdays that they had spent apart to battle their own demons alone; they lit candles for their son together while they held hands side by side.

Overcoming obstacles and navigating in the dark had become their entire life, and they thrived because of it—in spite of it. Memories of the long journey to get to this very moment in their lives, had finally brought him comfort in knowing that surviving all of the dangerous hardships were honestly worth it all. He would take every sanction, face every monster, endure every ass kicking and emotional tirade that he’s ever had all over again, just to get to bask in this joyous moment with his family.

Yes, Fox Mulder was absolutely irrevocably happy. He almost couldn’t damn well believe it, and he believed in hell of a lot.

Years ago, he and Scully had sat on his old couch with beers in hand one night and discussed how all paths led them to that very moment together. He now only realized how much that rang true. How much they made it their truth .

Ironic how he use to believe that the truth was out there, and maybe it was. Yet, his truest truths in life, the ones that meant the most, were currently in this house and rocking along in the moonlit night. Turns out, that this was the real truth they both had been searching for in the end; family.

Mulder turned toward the wall to search for the perfect spot when his eyes caught on the framed aging polaroid of him and Scully on the day they exchanged their vows fourteen years ago. It was a perfect photo of them that Maggie had insisted they frame after Scully called her later that very same night from a burner phone to tell her what they’d done.

Mulder leaned in a little more and reexamined everything about them caught up in the moment. They’d faced one another, heads close together while wrapped up tightly and smiling brightly at each other. Mulder had been brushing wayward strands of auburn hair away from her face as her hands slid slowly up his chest. Her gaze was locked onto his own while her palms rested along the sides of his neck as they shared a beaming smile, their love and commitment practically radiating from the glossy paper. The lady who took the photo was right. Their love really does shine like the sun.

Smirking to himself as he straightened the frame, he realized that some may call the union that took place between them a wedding—the day they became one, but it was so much more than that to them. They were basically living as a married couple for many years before that day, so as the two of them listened to the couple in Florida reciting their vows, they had made their own commitment to one another the Mulder and Scully way.

And there they were, perfect opposites only perfect for each other.

Right then, he decided that he’d found the only place to display their past as they looked forward to the future. The perfect place also served to cover a stray bullet hole from the Russian home invasion that he must’ve missed during the week he had to play Mr. Fix-it after returning from that long gruelling visit to Ikea with Scully. With a shake of his head, he started to hang that old used and abused map on the wall.

A strong yet gentle hand touched his shoulder and a deepening voice followed. “I’m done putting the last of my stuff away in my room. Need some help?”

Turning to meet him at eye level, Mulder gave a grateful grin to William as he returned the touch to the young man’s shoulder. “Not for me to deny you a thing on your birthday,” Mulder joked, leaning back to let his son take over the task.

He watched on as the long and slender fingers of the boy that he and Scully had marked that map up for, moved it to its final destination while he felt his chest swell with pride.

As Mulder stepped forward and ran his fingers along the vast amount of small ink marked circles and stars that spanned across 41 of the 50 states, he smiled with the recollection of their long and crazy journey.

And no, he realized, he wouldn’t change a day.

Mulder turned and looked from his sleeping wife cradling his tiny peaceful baby Margaret, who looked so much like William at that age that it was slightly spooky. Mulder felt his heart skip a beat at the realization of his family coming full circle. 

He looked back over to meet the eyes of his resilient son who wore that same lopsided grin he did and noted, “all roads do lead to an end, after all. Only, our rocky and curvy road finally led us to one of those that you think you’ll never find...a happy one.”

----------

[062467]

Rammstein Tag Game!

Rules: - Tag the person who tagged you, so they know. - Put your answers under the questions. - Tag as many awesome people as you want. - Feel free to do it if you weren’t tagged! Here we go!

I don’t remember who I was tagged by, this draft post is like 3 years old i’m sorry haha

1. If you get a chance to take a photo with your favorite member, would you like them to smile, make an interesting pose, be serious or something else?

I would honestly love them to smile, there’s nothing more precious than them, six men who do pyro, sing about eating humans and generally seem badass and scary, smiling.

2. If you could choose only one of the previous live performances to go to, which one would you choose?

opening of the Mutter tour, or the one when they played Lied von der unruhevollen Jugend or Pet Sematary. honestly, i’d just blind pick one of these.

3. How old were you when Sehnsucht came out? (1997)

-3:) kill me now

4. Which era (their appearance/look) do you think was the best?

MUTTER, THE RED FLÄMIN HOT CHEETO TIPS. or just the general full-on fed hair thing. but Reise, Reise was also flaming hot.

5. What’s your desired relationship with Frau Schneider? (wife, mother, etc.)

I feel like she’d be this one annoying aunt, who you love despite them being irritating as shit. love me some Frau.

6. Which hairstyle suits each member the best in your opinion?

Paul: the long hair, doesn’t matter if blonde or brown Till: his Herzeleid hair or the silver-ish Sehnsucht Richard: spiky black, like Ich-Will-video level spiky black. but I live for richard in long-ish hair... Flake: blonde Oliver: hehe. no but seriously a full beard suits him. Schneider: I feel like now is my favorite Schneider era. that or either the Sehnsucht one.

7. Which of the members do you think you’d get along with the best and why?

either Paul, because I’m a goofy mess, but can pose as intimidating, or Richard, because I’d constantly express my admiration for him. and he’d love that. on a serious note tho, I feel like we have some problems in common, as well as the supernatural thingy would be an interesting topic to tackle. idk, I’d do my best to get along with all of them.

8. Which of the members do you think you’d get along with the least and why?

probably Flake, Oliver or Till. I heard that Flake is cranky and seems shy, same with Oli, I’m shy too, so idk if any conversation would ever take place haha. and with Till I’d simply be too damn scared to say a thing. so there’s that. basically we wouldn’t *dislike* each other, there would be barely any contact lol

9. Who of the members would you like to see singing with Till?

hell, maybe Ollie or Doom, just because I never heard them sing with him, I think.

10. Which band’s song would you wish to see as a cover by Rammstein?

idk, they always kinda surprised me with their cover choices and execution, so I wouldn’t like to change that, they’re doing a good job.

11. Who of the members would make the best dad?

something tells me that Schneider is a really caring dad.

12. If you got the chance to interview Rammstein, what would you ask them?

how do you pick you setlist? what qualifies a track to be an opener?

do you come up with stage and outfits concept yourself, or is it suggested by someone else?

what flavor of ice cream would you be?

what is your most vivid memory from your childhood?

which era is your favorite?

do you have a vision of a music video for a song that never got one? or a different vision than the music video it got?

I’d rather not write all of it here. not because they’re inappropriate or something, it’s just, I don’t even wanna start writing some of them, because I’m gonna cry lmao.

13. Would you consider of doing a nude scene in Rammstein’s music video? (just you appearing nude, nothing too nsfw)

I mean, if course I’d consider it. it would depend on my shape at the time and just on that probably. doing acts and nude scenes is, supposedly, very liberating and makes you more comfortable with yourself, so why not. and hey - I’d be in a Rammstein video haha. (I’d probably not like the way I look and hate myself a bit for doing the scene)

14. If you could remake a movie(s) so that the main role is played by one of the members, which movie(s) would you like to remake?

my favorite movies are always pretty tragic or scary as fuck for the main character, so idk if I’d like to see any of the members in such state.

15. Who of the members would make the best husband?

I will go with Flake or Ollie

16. You can put eyeliner on one of the members, who do you pick?

well, Richard, obviously, since he doesn’t seem to do it anymore (which should be considered a crime, he looks so good in eyeliner jeez).

17. Who of the members would make the creepiest uncle?

Till. all the way lmao. like, imagine him on family gatherings doing all the hips and tongue movements aaaa.

18. What do you think about the “Pussy” music video?

I love it, it’s so funny to me. when I watch it, it’s always a mixture of being a tad uncomfortable, turned on and giggly.

19. If you could travel somewhere with Rammstein and pick a destination, where would you go?

I’d go to the place where they had the whole creative process (and recording, I believe) of LIFAD or Mutter. I’d just like to kinda re-live it with them.

20. Who of the members would be the best to get drunk with?

I’d love to get hammered with Paulchen.

21. Could you sing Engel with Till in front of thousands?

hell yeah, this is one of the few songs I feel comfortable singing. I’d love to do that even more if it was done like on 2019 stadium tour, on the b-stage, only with piano and rest of the group humming. ahh.

22. With which member would you agree to swap clothes with and with which one would you definitely not?

if we’re talking personal style, Paul has some poppin outfits, from what I’ve seen, Richard and his shirts, however... I would just let him rock them:)

now if we’re talking stage outfits, I’d LOVE to switch with Richard (especially the fluffy coat), there’s not really a person I wouldn’t switch with, as long as they’re not topless haha.

23. Which of the members do you think would win in a stripping competition?

Richard.

24. Which of the following would you rather be?

- Rammstein’s manager - Rammstein’s make up artist 🙋🏻‍♀️ - Rammstein’s bodyguard

25. Which of the members would make the best best friend?

Paul.

26. Which Rammstein song do you skip on your shuffle? (There must be that one song you just don’t need at the moment)

Stirb nicht vor mir. I’m sorry but I rarely can stomach it. it’s a nice song in theory, but there’s just something about it that I can’t stand, maybe it’s the other artist’s voice, I don’t know.

27. What would you do if Paul made a bad joke about you? (With good intentions but slightly rude)

I’d laugh and pretend to be offended for a quick second haha

28. Who would you give a stuffed animal and who a leather thong for their birthday? XD

I’d give the animal to Flake and the thong to Till.

29. Are you concerned about anything that has to do with Rammstein?

I’m always scared for them tbh. oftentimes I’m just petrified at the thought of stage/pyro malfunction, I mean what they’re doing is some really dangerous stuff.

besides, I’m scared when I think that they won’t be here forever, sometimes I’m scared that they won’t be there when I’ll be in my 30s, so I’m grateful for every moment I can cherish them and their craft, for every minute at the shows.

30. Would you like to get a tattoo that refers to Rammstein?

yeah, I’d like a couple.

31. Would you pet Oliver’s head?

who tf wouldn’t like to?

32. Which position in Rammstein do you find the hardest to be? (for example: the frontman, drummer, bassist etc.)

probably frontman, lots and lots of pressure, most eyes are probably on them, they have to use most dangerous props and move a lot, so it takes a physical toll as well.

33. If you could have one of the members with you in school/work to protect you from evil, who would you take?

oh damn, that’s an interesting one. Richard, Is love to have him around.

34. If you were in one of the boys position, would you feel awkward or strange when you see your face on a giant poster?

of course, I’d hate it, probably. after sometime tho, I’d get used to it.

35. Would you Flake dance with Flake on stage?

if only I could dance like him haha, but I’d love to try!

36. Do you think any of the songs are underrated or overrated and why?

obviously I think Du hast is a tad overrated, as for underrated - Nebel, Adios, Hilf mir, Dalai Lama, just off the top of my head.

37. Who of the members would make the best breakfast?

I’m gonna go with Ollie, he’s so stoic and always in great shape.

38. Would you like them to make a song in your native language? (If they haven’t already)

hm, Till made an intro to polish edition of Sehnsucht and it was very sweet to hear it, but I don’t think so, no. if it was like in Ausländer, one or two words, sure, but I never want to get over the excitement of Till speaking Polish haha.

39. Which Rammstein couple combinations do you ship?

I don’t I mean I love all the sweet moments they share, but I get a bit uncomfortable when people make it out to be a bigger thing than it is. of course I love to joke around about their bromances, but it’s as far as it gets tbh.

40. Would you join Richard in his spray tanning hour?

I mean, damn, I love being pale-ish, but we’d have to be barely clothed while in there, right...?

RIGHT...?

41. What Rammstein possession are you most fond of? (merchandise, album or other)

probably the Völkerball photo album, I love it. I particularly like to go to the index and search for pictures from Poland, it makes me very emotional.

42. Favorite song performed live?

Heirate mich or Was ich liebe.

43. Would you dare to touch Frau Schneider’s hair?

I’d beg her to allow me to.

44. Rammstein with beard? Yes/No

yes, except from Richard and Flake.

45. Which of the members would be the best for playing video games with?

Paulie or Ollie.

46. Red haired Rammstein or blonde Rammstein?

oh shit oh fuck, I’m gonna go with blonde just because red tips Rammstein>redhead Rammstein.

47. Favorite interview with one or all Rammstein members?

Viva Jam 1998, still have a copy on my computer, it’s my first and favorite interview.

48. Would you Till hammer with Till on stage?

what are these questions, of course I would.

49. Your favorite feature in each member?

Paul: smile creases Schneider: smile! Flake: I love his whole face, it’s so calming Till: eyes and lips, can’t choose Oliver: his chest and him being a friggin giant Richard: tummy and lisp (I hope it can be considered a feature)

50. If you could write a letter to Rammstein what would you write?

some cheesy shit I will not share here.

I tag @amura @gay-pengy @beauty-at-matrix @naraism @followthecreeper

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Totally Awesome

by Viorica

Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Viorica finds a Potter-related bit of media that actually deserves the hype

Oooh! This is in the Axis of Awesome!~

Parodies are a tricky thing. If you've got too much of a hate-on for the source material, you end up being too bitter; if you love the source material too much, you can't effectively make fun of its flaws; and if you just don't care either way, you get something like this. It's a difficult tightrope to walk, but when you're lucky/talented enough to get it right, you end up with A Very Potter Musical. Written by college-aged fans of the Potter series, it combines the best of the original series with the talent of the actors and writers involved, and ends up eclipsing the source material entirely.

The story takes place in Harry's second year, and encompasses the events of all seven books. Harry and his friends (with Ron's sister Ginny in tow) arrive at Hogwarts to discover that the new teacher Professor Quirrel has R

resurrected the House Cup (which is basically a one-school Triwizard Tournament) as part of Voldemort's plan to capture Harry Potter under a bumbling Dumbledore's very nose. It's hard to describe the rest of the plot without going into spoilery detail (which I'll be doing in the next paragraph anyway . . .) but suffice to say, problems arise, relationships are formed, and Team Potter must go up against Voldemort and his Death Eaters- though ironically, Voldemort's ultimate fate owes more to the "love conquers all" theme which the books neglected and the musical effectively puts into use.

When I said in the first paragraph that the musical is an improvement on the books, I meant it. The plotting is much more streamlined (for one thing, the Trio doesn't spend months sitting in a tent, and actually condemns the seventh book's plot as "stupid") the characters more likeable, and the biggest problems with the book-

tokenism

,

Dumbledore's lecturing

,and the

delusions of grandeur

are removed in favour of canonical gay characters (the main couple is, in fact, gay, and Voldemort's redemption comes about from his affection for Quirrell- quite a divergence from Rowling's choiceless choices) a Dumbledore whose stupidity and blindness is repeatedly mocked, and a pervading knowledge that this is, in fact, a very silly story. For instance, Malfoy's conviction that there is a wizarding school called Pigfarts located on Mars and presided over by a talking lion turns out to be true; after all, how is it more ridiculous than the main concept of the franchise? The musical also addresses such all-important questions like:

How did Quirrell sleep with Voldemort on the back of his head?

Why did Dumbledore trust Snape, anyway?

What happens when two people who share one stomach get drunk?

In addition to lampshading the flaws and inconsistencies of the original series ("I just put anyone who looks like a good guy into Gryffindor, anyone who looks like a bad guy into Slytherin, and the rest can go wherever they want." "Can anyone tell me what a Portkey is? . . . Well, can anyone tell me what

foreshadowing

is?") the musical can stand on its own as a creative product. The songs are entertaining and catchy - the fan favourite seems to be "Granger Danger", but my own is "Gotta Get Back To Hogwarts:"

We're sick of summer and this waiting around It's like we're sitting in the lost and found Don't take no sorcery For anyone to see how... We gotta get back to hogwarts We gotta get back to school We gotta get back to hogwarts Where everything is magic-cooooool Back to wizards and witches, and magical beasts To goblins and ghosts and to magical feasts It's all that I love, and it's all that I need at HOGWARTS, HOGWARTS I think I'm goin' back!

But of course none of the material would be entertaining without good actors to support it, and the cast rises admirably to the task. The three leads - Darren Criss as Harry, Joey Ritcher as Ron, and Bonnie Gruesen as Hermione - all bring the right balance of likeability and flaws to their roles, but it's the secondary characters who steal the show. I suspect that Joe Moses (Snape) is familiar with the Harry Potter fandom, because his Snape is a perfect parody of the fanon version, right down to his exaggerated purr of a voice. Joe Walker makes a truly hilarious Voldemort, especially given that he has to deliver lines like "Get me some Nasonex, you swine!" with a stright face (though I am surprised that his voice held out through five performances, given the amount of growling that was involved.) with Brian Rosenthal serving as his quieter, gentler (but no less funny) counterpart. Lauren Lopez as Malfoy steals every scene she's in, with her exaggerated accent and habit of rolling around the stage. Even Goyle, who barely has any lines, cracks the audience up every time he opens his mouth. While Britney Coleman, who plays Bellatrix, has caught some flak from YouTube commenters for being "irritating" she didn't really get on my nerves. The worst you can say of her is that she didn't leave any impression at all- and with a cast this good, less-than-perfect performances can easily be buried in their better counterparts.

All in all, the musical is recommended to anyone who has a passing familiarity with the HP canon. Honestly, it's a shame that this show can't make any money, being an unauthorized parody. It's really the only thing connected to Harry Potter that I wholeheartedly enjoy, one that actually earns it's tagline of "Totally awesome"Themes:

J.K. Rowling

,

Theatre

~

bookmark this with - facebook - delicious - digg - stumbleupon - reddit

~Comments (

go to latest

)

Wardog

at 11:03 on 2009-10-14Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, this is, in fact, *totally awesome*.

The hot female Malfoy is making me go wibbly.

permalink

-

go to top

Andy G

at 13:01 on 2009-10-14This is brilliant! I love every scene with Voldemort and Quirrell in particular.

permalink

-

go to top

Wardog

at 13:50 on 2009-10-14"Your plan to infilitrate Hogwarts on the back of my head is going swimmingly, my liege..." BEST LINE EVER!

permalink

-

go to top

Melissa G.

at 23:23 on 2009-10-14Loved it! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

permalink

-

go to top

Viorica

at 01:54 on 2009-10-15Have you gotten to Voldemort's big tapdance number yet?

permalink

-

go to top

Jamie Johnston

at 21:28 on 2009-10-16Fab. Those kids deserve to go far.

But can someone explain to me the thing with Malfoy falling down and rolling around all the time? Bear in mind all I know about

Potter

comes from three of the films (1, 2, and 4, I think) and anything I've picked up from conversations and

Ferretbrain

articles.

permalink

-

go to top

Viorica

at 22:41 on 2009-10-16Honestly, I'm not really sure. I think it's just the actor being goofy.

permalink

-

go to top

Andy G

at 10:15 on 2009-10-17I saw it as being a bit of a spoof of femme fatales or female villains writhing round the stage in dance shows/musicals, rather than anything based around the books.

permalink

-

go to top

Melissa G.

at 16:54 on 2009-10-17I don't know. I kind of saw that as an exaggeration of how over the top Malfoy can be. It seemed somehow fitting to a caricature of his character.

permalink

-

go to top

http://mmmarcusz.livejournal.com/

at 23:57 on 2009-10-17I think it's meant as a reference to how Malfoy is always described as striking a pose ("lounging", "preening", etc.) and this is just an over-the-top extension of that. Also, was I the only one who found the Draco actress incredibly cute?

permalink

-

go to top

http://tabaquis.livejournal.com/

at 06:49 on 2009-10-19I adore a VHPM, which is great because I too have become completely tired of That Woman and Those Books being touted as any kind of coherent literature.

I do think the guy playing Snape was totally channeling Kevin MacDonald's "Simon" from Kids in the Hall though! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC4PjXNt2gw

permalink

-

go to top

Wardog

at 11:14 on 2009-10-20

I think it's meant as a reference to how Malfoy is always described as striking a pose ("lounging", "preening", etc.) and this is just an over-the-top extension of that. Also, was I the only one who found the Draco actress incredibly cute?

Yeah, that's what I thought as well.

And, yes, she is amazingly, wibble-inducingly hot. Me likey.

Also I notice the musical has a delightfully arch relationship with the fandom - so I think purring, rolling, lounging Malfoy was a nod to both the books and his typically depicated fandom persona.

permalink

-

go to top

Montavilla

at 01:58 on 2009-10-21So glad to see appreciation for this musical. I just loved it.

It's hard to say what makes Lauren Lopez so perfect as Malfoy, except everything. The ponchy accent, the constant posing, the way she's always trying (and failing) to get Harry's attention. Somehow Draco just *is* a 12-year-old girl.

And I liked Bellatrix. She's somewhat annoying with the screaming, but that is Bellatrix, and I love that they aren't being coy about her and Voldemort having a sexual relationship. It's only one of the ways in which the musical trumps the books.

I crack up everytime I think about her face when Voldemort sits on the desk. You can see that she's still trying to make it work--but she's kind of catching on to what he's really up to.

But *everyone* is so excellent. I showed this to some of mine and we all kept remarking on how perfectly perfect Cedric Diggory is. I love the entrance of Cho Chang and just that look that the Asian actress gives. It's almost her only moment in the whole show and she makes the most of it.

You can tell that the entire cast is having a great time playing their parts--and the audience is loving it as well. And that's what makes a great live performance.

permalink

-

go to top

http://for-diddled.livejournal.com/

at 21:08 on 2010-08-08Just thought you chaps might be interested to know that they've made a sequel, which can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OepW-AG-Ris&feature=PlayList&p=86C718AEE71C9DE9&playnext=1&index=7

[acaseforpencils]

Jason Chatfield.

Bio: I grew up in the far flung suburbs of Perth, in Western Australia, and used to spend my paper route money on MAD Magazines (I cheaped-out and stole my dentist’s waiting room issues of the New Yorker. I think I was the only kid who looked forward to going to the dentist).

I moved to New York in 2014 and started pitching to the mag in person. I’m not sure Bob liked me, so I went back to pitching via email. Then I went in on his last day and finally sold my first piece. I feel like it was his final f—k you to the magazine. “Here! Have a Chatfield!” 

Find this print here!

The cartoon was a goofy play on Vlad the Impaler. 

I didn’t sell to the magazine again until last month, but I’ve had a handful sold as dailies. And I’m published in MAD often, so they’ve clearly done away with any of their standards.

When I’m not drawing gag cartoons I write and draw a syndicated legacy strip called Ginger Meggs which I took over 10 years ago. It’s been around since 1921 and now appears daily in 34 countries. He’s kind of an Australian version of Dennis the Menace, except he predates him by about 30 years.

Tools of choice: For drawing/roughs, I use a Prismacolor Turquoise clutch pencil with a red lead and try to find some paper with a little bit of tooth. The mixed media pads at Blick do the trick nicely.

I ink using a Uni-ball Vision Elite Stick Roller Ball Pen… or a Pigma Micron 03. 

DO NOT use the Uni-Ball Vision Rollerball Pens, Fine Point (0.7mm) if you’re traveling. They explode on planes. And ruin your copy of The New Yorker.

For a wash, I just use watercolor and whatever brush is lying around. Nothing fancy. There’s a scanning app on my phone called “Adobe Scan” which does a nice job of scanning line-art into a PDF when I’m out of the studio and need to email in a quick rough.

I use a Wacom Mobilestudio Pro for finished artwork. I like to get out of the studio and work from a bar or restaurant, so it helps that I can take that with me. I use a little glove that I got on Amazon so I don’t grease up the screen, and the felt-tip nib that comes in the pen-holder makes the friction between the stylus and the screen more like pencil on paper. Unfortunately, they’re not waterproof, as I found on a recent vacation…

My wife plays piano and sings at bars around the city so I’ll often sit at the bar during her sets and draw. Digital/Traditional depends on what deadlines are most pressing. (She has a weekly residency in Astoria —if anyone’s interested in going, let me know!)

A lot of people email me for advice about tablets —I’ve been trialling/demo-ing Wacom products for 15 years— I think they’re great. If you’re married to doing stuff by hand but want to colour digitally, you can get a decent tablet without going broke. Depends on your workflow.

Writing Desk: My wife and I were living upstairs in 5A when my neighbour in 4B died. He was a brilliant poet and had an incredible old writing desk. It’s the only thing that was left in the apartment, so I’m looking after it ’til his grandson moves in at the end of our lease. I work for countless hours at this old thing. It’s beat up, but I’ve patched it together enough that it won’t collapse and bury me mid-brushstroke. I’ve stuck a few of my favourite toons on the top of it.

Tool I wish I could use better: My brain. It really is a sack of cats. Whenever I want to sit and do work, it clocks off. Then it comes up with a pearler of an idea at 3 in the morning when I’m trying to sleep. I write it down in my phone, but autocorrect makes it indecipherable by morning.

I like working with my writer friend, Scott. We both do comedy at night and have developed a nice short-hand. We also seem to have the same library of references and can build on each others’ premises, which tames my sack-of-cats.

Tool I wish existed: The Deadline Extender.® I’ve never missed a deadline, but that said… an extra 3 or 4 minutes to allow for a terrible wifi connection, or a errant scanner wouldn’t go astray.

Also: The Deadline Extender® PREMIUM: Let’s you go back in time to when you were procrastinating and slap yourself in the face. $30 p/month.

Tricks: Ok, well. This is going to sound a bit Dalton Trumbo, but bear with me: I do my best work…in the bath.The most productive 3 hours of my week are during Scotchbath Sunday; an immoveable chunk of time on Sunday evening whereby I lock myself in the bathroom, run a bath, lug my drawing stuff onto a bit of wood that sits over the bath, and just write and draw. Nothing else. I write weeks worth of my syndicated comic strip (Ginger Meggs), I write New Yorker cartoons, scribble up roughs for dailies— and when I feel like I’ve earned it (usually 2 hours in) I tap the side of the bath three times, and my wife peels herself from her piano and I unlock the door to a nice big glass of scotch. It’s a hell of a carrot on a stick to work towards when you’re stuck. (PS. Lest you think I’m some kind of Don Draper-era misogynist; the scotch reward part was her idea. I think she realized it keeps me in the bath and out of her way.)

Anyway. It’s a great way to switch gears creatively. It’s like being on an aeroplane. No wifi, no phones — just the work you need to get done. Get involved. #ScotchBathSunday.

Oh! And if I get my deadlines done for the week, I have a small budget for a solo lunch somewhere where I can eat cheese and draw. I really didn’t know cheese ’til I moved to America. (And yes, I’ve already been to Wisconsin. Good Lord.)

Tips? I always tell younger artists to not even think about touching a drawing tablet until they’ve learned to draw by hand first. Otherwise they’ll always be drawing away, knowing they have the insurance of the CTRL+Z key at their disposal if they screw up a line. That’s not a good habit to have when you’re working to a deadline. But, once you do know how to draw, by all means dive head-first into the digital realm. It’s incredible. Procreate, Sketchbook or Photoshop are all great.

Misc: One of the hangovers from working in advertising illustration is that I’ve had to be a bit of a chameleon style-wise for the last 15 years and haven’t allowed myself to just settle into one style. Lately, I’ve just decided to say “Bugger it!” and try and find a loose, consistent style that I’m comfortable with, that’s an apt conduit to my silly ideas.

I always loved George Booth’s line, and his ability to create a scene with so much movement but just at the right moment in time. Also Sam Gross’ dark, hilarious cartoons with perfect line-economy. And I’d give my left arm (I draw with my right) to know how Barry Blitt has so much control with his washes…

Chatfield’s portrait of Sam Gross

While I’m geeking out, I love seeing younger cartoonists find their feet and thrive in a style that just feels like they’re speaking to you— Ellis J. Rosen, Sofia Warren, Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, Jason Katzenstein, Amy Kurzweil, and a seemingly endless list of talented younger artists who are putting in the work are a big inspiration. 

I know it should be Steig or Thurber or Addams, but my favourite cartoonist is Sergio Aragones.

I was always so enamoured of MAD growing up and studied the lines of Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee and the Usual Gang of Idiots. I remember being so frustrated I couldn’t even come close to getting my work to look like theirs, but I think I found a style somewhere in between when I fell short. 

I think Wil McPhail’s poses are masterful, and I wish I knew how how the hell he did that. One day I’ll trudge up to England and knock on his door to ask him. I find myself doubled-over at John Cuneo’s Instagram, and Ed Steed’s absurdly funny gags. I have a slew of toons I’ve torn out of years’ worth of magazines and taped to my studio wall, or my zillion year-old writing desk. I’m constantly humbled by how generous and welcoming the existing crop of New Yorker cartoonists have been to a goofy Aussie immigrant — Joe Dator, Matt Diffee and Pat Byrnes, Mort Gerberg and an ever-growing list of prolific, talented cartoonists who make the 99% weekly rejection tolerable.

I’ve made some of my closest friends and have been lucky enough to meet my cartooning heroes through the National Cartoonists Society. I got to spend a lot of time with Sergio at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in the UK last year which made my year. We were signing together for a whole afternoon and I spent more time geeking out with him than signing.

Okay. Enough drooling. Sorry.

I’m a fan of cartoonists.

Website, etc. I have a weekly podcast where I throw around ideas for New Yorker cartoons with a fellow comedian and writer, Scott Dooley. It’s called “Is There Something In This?” It’s a bit of fun. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the art of writing gags very seriously. It’s an extremely difficult skill to master, and we’re virtually zygotes at it. We have lots of listeners now, which is bewildering. Talking about drawing is like dancing about architecture, but here we are. Anyway you can find it on iTunes or wherever you waste time listening to podcasts.

My website is jasonchatfield.com and my comedy stuff is up at jasonchatfieldcomedy.com  ( I’ve been doing stand-up comedy for 11 years. If anyone wants to come see a show, hit me up! I’ll put you on the door). My instagram is @jasonchatfield. I’m still trolling the British chap who has the @jasonchatfield handle on Twitter to no avail. To that end, I’m @jason_chatfield on Twitter.

If you want more art supplies in your life, A Case for Pencils is on Instagram and Twitter.  You can also find me, Jane (the person who created/edits this blog), on Twitter here, which is where I stick the paintings that I’ve been doing instead of interviewing people consistently (I needed to balance working on other people’s work and my own work!). Oh, and If you’d like to support this blog, which is always very appreciated, there are many different ways to do so, which you can find here!

[ganymedesclock]

What do you think of a theory floating around that Shiro dislikes Lance? Because honestly, I'm stumped how anyone can come to that conclusion because we were given examples of how Shiro acts around people he doesn't like and how Lance would behave if he was around someone who he's aware of either doesn't like, trust, or isn't too fond of him and the interactions between Lance and Shiro just doesn't seem anywhere comparable to the scenarios I'm talking about.

I think it’s a pretty clear juxtaposition of two fandom trends.

1. There’s a very robust group of people who are very fond of victimizing Lance.

I kind of refer to this as the “langst party” but I think that’s not entirely true because some people write “langst” purely for the sake of enjoying frolicking in dark places and that’s, y’know, can’t fault them.

But roughly, there’s a very vested interest in sections of the fandom in seeing Lance not as one of the most emotionally savvy people on the team and overall a hero who is able to take care of himself and meaningfully deal with his own insecurities, but as a defenseless and intensely vulnerable person, to the point of giving him a character flaw of internalizing things without discussing them with people (a character flaw markedly held by Shiro, and Keith, and to a lesser degree Allura, but definitely not by Lance).

Because the point of this exercise is nobody loves Lance more than them, and in fact, everybody else hates Lance. His team hates him, his friends hate him, random people at the Garrison hated him, the writers hate him…

Which is… manifestly not true. But it needs to be true to see Lance as an unloved victim which is very important for, I think, flattering themselves (or whoever they want to ship Lance with) as the one person who can see his real worth.

Which, being fair- if there’s one trait here that is authentically Lance, it’s the concept of hidden worthiness. Lance out of the team has a conflicted relationship with his specific “heroic identity”. He first specifically, strategically interrupts Allura so as not to hear it, and then when it is finally stated in the open- that the Blue Lion is the heart of the team- it’s Lance saying it with certainty and confidence… about Allura.

Lance worries his contributions aren’t enough and then when he realizes they are important he assumes Allura can do it better, which… he’s wrong. And this is frustrating.

But Lance is not hated, by Shiro or otherwise- this perception of Lance as an interpersonal underdog is frankly, morbidly hilarious to me because Lance is the interpersonal champion of the team. His major successes- s2e2, s4e6, to name examples- come from connecting with other people and knowing his feelings. He did the best during the Lion Swap- a few embarrassing near-collisions in Red but other than that almost immediately settling in and working the kinks out- because he’s good at knowing where he is emotionally.

And yet, the attitude is out there- because the ultimate point of this exercise is it has nothing to do with Lance the character’s feelings- it has everything to do with the fans who want to consume the feeling that they’re the only one who cares about him, that they’re lifting up this wounded soul. And in that case, pointing out that canonically Lance is manifestly not a wounded soul, and doesn’t need to be fawned over, and has friends who are there to support him, doesn’t appeal. It’s not what they’re getting out of it.

The other side of it, with Shiro in particular:

2. Shiro is mistaken for an ideal person and judged harshly when he doesn’t live up to that ideal.

Shiro adores his team. Compassion and empathy are traits he places a very high value on. In Shiro’s eyes, a leader who fails to support, nurture, and care for their subordinates is the lowest form of filth- they have failed the fundamental thing that makes them worth following. As a leader, he thinks that it’s his job to take care of these people. It’s one of the first things he says about the idea in s1e1: “My team was captured by aliens once, I’m not going to let it happen again.”

Shiro reflexively takes charge, not in that he starts bossing people around but in that he immediately feels responsible for other people’s welfare. And this is a charming and heroic trait- this is the worthiness the Black Lion sees in him.

It’s also a product of the fact that Shiro lives his life ruled by a sense of responsibility and anyone he views as in a situation comparable to his- Zarkon, Lubos, Slav, Keith in s3/early s4- Shiro feels comfortable projecting the unrelenting sledgehammer of his own personal standards on them.

As I just made a post about, Shiro reads as someone with PTSD and OCPD. In short, he’s got a lot on his plate while already being naturally kind of high-strung and prone to internalizing struggles as personal failings. He’s under a lot of pressure and its inevitable not all of his interactions with the team are going to be perfect. He’s going to mess up, he’s going to yell at people, he’s going to regret it and try to do better. This is all pretty standard- it’s the behavior we see from the rest of the cast, and, people in general, especially people like Shiro who, again, have a massive load of stress they’re dealing with.

However, there’s a pervasive perception of Shiro as the completely well-adjusted, infinitely more mature than the rest of the cast, flat-out father figure- which is through and through not who he is. Because of this, completely understandable instances of Shiro losing his temper are viewed out of universe either as complete jokes (s2e10 and its fandom reaction) or suddenly not funny any more because now he’s losing patience with Keith, and this must be evidence that Shiro is sinister and evil somehow now.

As much as the fandom has a bad habit of treating Lance like a victim, the fandom has an equally bad habit of either treating Shiro like a saint who can do no wrong or- when he fails to live up to that- like a demon out to ruin everyone’s lives, especially Lance’s.

Roughly, Shiro has had some imperfect interactions, with Lance and with others. This is because he’s an imperfect person. The problem is, with the expectation he should be, or that he’s presenting himself as such, it means that his imperfect interactions are seen as an act of malice, rather than again, a stressed person with a lot on his plate not always knowing the right thing to say. The perception that Shiro is actively or maliciously disregarding Lance, rather than the fact that even out as far as season 4, our heroes are still growing and getting to know each other.

The truth of it..?

In s1e1, Shiro is contextualized as Lance’s personal hero, and his first interaction towards Lance is remembering his name unprompted, thanking Lance for helping him, and offering Lance his hand. Lance eyes the mechanical prosthetic, unsure of how to feel about alien technology, but then looks up at Shiro’s face- smiles, and clasps it. The implication is thus that Lance is slightly uncomfortable at first with the implications of what happened to Shiro, but he trusts Shiro.

Shiro is shown in this scene to live up to Lance’s admiration of him. He’s, at the core, a good person.

Now, there are also a few scenes in early season 1 of Shiro sort of rolling his eyes, expressing frustration, or shutting Lance down. Again, Shiro is a perfectionist who’s very concerned with making a good impression, and Lance is the kind of guy who’s much more inclined to wing it. In that sense, Lance is more confident than Shiro- he’s not afraid to look goofy. This contrast is shown big time in s4e4, when Shiro is positively wooden and painfully uncomfortable the entire time, while Lance is hamming up his lines and dangling from the Red Lion striking poses for strangers.

(Seriously, consider Lance basically doing the clothed equivalent of a pole dance in front of an audience full of strangers compared to Shiro’s look of visceral discomfort when Worm Coran presents him with a tight shirt to wear)

This initially leads to conflict (s1e1, “Girl, you’ve already activated my-” “LANCE.”, s1e6 and “Nope, not doing that.”) but we never see anything I would call a major falling out between Shiro and Lance- and Shiro relaxes a lot around Lance as the series goes on.

As you say, anon, Shiro doesn’t treat Lance like someone he doesn’t like, because Shiro is someone of incredibly pointed standards- if he doesn’t like someone, he verbally lays into them with an intensity that makes it very clear. Even the early stress between them is not because Shiro dislikes Lance- he likes Lance, and sees him as someone he wants to take responsibility for/take care of. It takes Shiro a while to come to trust Lance as someone who can take care of himself, but that’s very much present by the time of s2e10- the point at which Lance confidently states he can make an incredibly difficult shot and Shiro- despite not knowing much of Lance’s marksmanship- hangs back and trusts Lance to make that shot.

This is a big deal for Shiro, who really dislikes being hands-off. And when Lance makes that shot, Shiro praises him in a way that suggests he was very impressed.

Shiro sees Lance as someone he can be proud of to have on his team. They may not always agree, but Shiro trusts Lance. He does override him in s4e6, however, at the same time, as soon as it becomes clear Lance is right, they need to get out of there, Shiro reverses that call and agrees with him.

And Lance trusts Shiro. I think the clearest example of that is s2e8, where Lance is willing to pointedly disagree with Shiro to his face. That might not sound like respect, but it is- you have to remember Lance looked up to Commander Iverson, but didn’t really trust him, and this was exemplified in s1e1 by the fact that Lance had zero hesitations doing things behind Iverson’s back. If he disagreed with Iverson, he’d just work around him.

We have never seen Lance go behind Shiro’s back like that, and that, to me, is the nail in the coffin. Lance expects, and is used to getting, that if he has a genuine concern he can go to Shiro and bring it up and even if Shiro disagrees, he’ll at bare minimum lay out his reasons for doing so (as he did in s2e8). When Lance argues in s3e1 against Keith leading, he never once says “well, I disagree with Shiro’s call”- his rebuttal instead is “well, I never heard Shiro say that,” and when Black, Shiro’s Lion, corroborates the decision, Lance’s response is that even if he’s disappointed, that this is fair and he can trust that.

The one time Lance accuses the Black Lion of hating him- the closest I think he’s possibly come to suggesting he thinks Shiro resents him- he very clearly changes his mind seconds later to, again, “We should trust Black’s decision because he wouldn’t make it without a good reason.”

“The Black Lion hates all of us!” is petty venting, and deeper down, Lance trusts Black- just like he trusts Shiro if they might not always agree. I don’t think Lance still holds Shiro as a distant personal hero the way that he did at the beginning, but Shiro came off that pedestal to instead become Lance’s friend. That Lance doesn’t have stars in his eyes when it comes to Shiro any more is a testament to the fact that they’ve become closer, and Lance now has a better sense of the real Shiro.

So I think that’s about what it comes down to- Lance can get mad at Shiro, he might grumble at some of Shiro’s calls, but, ultimately, he trusts Shiro, and cares about him. Lance doesn’t dislike Shiro, and Shiro doesn’t dislike Lance. They definitely have room to be closer, and, given this picture by Lauren Montgomery:

I think that we have damning evidence they’re going to get closer if I’m correct in my theory about Lance having an arc about sexuality, that it’s going to be mostly Shiro supporting him through that.

Much the way Hunk was the main person trying to help Keith process the immediate ramifications of his revealed galra heritage, much like Allura’s immediate reaction to finding out Pidge was a girl was to try to connect with her (which, if there’s something to the theory that Pidge is a trans girl, it’s actually rather sweet of Allura to immediately hail her as a kindred spirit in that sense), Shiro is depicted with a fond hand on Lance’s shoulder and standing with him for support. Lance is a little uncertain, like Keith and Pidge, but he’s there, and he’s smiling.

The implication from the picture, if we indeed take it as foreshadowing, is that we’re due for an arc of Shiro being there for Lance in a period of introspection or self-exploration. And this is flat-out not the interaction of people who dislike each other. It’s very hard not to read this picture as Lance is drawing strength and confidence from Shiro’s presence, and Shiro is making an effort to be here for Lance.

Even if it’s not meant to be taken as foreshadowing, this is how one of the formative minds behind VLD views Shiro and Lance.

It’s also worth noting that Sven’s fate in s3e4 is mirroring the death of Shirogane in the original series, GoLion, and Sven’s hospitalization in DotU (which is an adaptation of the same event)

Both times, for a bit of context, the reason why Shirogane/Sven is trapped in single combat with Haggar is because Haggar’s target is originally Lance- (again, just like in s3e4 Sven takes the bullet to protect Lance). Haggar isolates Lance, attacks him, and traps him in a net, intending to kill him. Sven realizes Lance is missing, goes after him, cuts the net and tells him to run while he holds off Haggar.

That in s3e4, they remind us specifically of this event- Shirogane dying to save Lance’s life- suggest that while Shiro is almost definitely not gonna bite it, that connection between Shiro and Lance is important to the writers. They could’ve put in a lot of other DotU or GoLion homages in s3e4, but in an episode mostly original, it’s Sven, and his selfless sacrifice for Lance, that made it in.

[richiestoziers]

stay gold

summary: richie is desperate to win best couple costume at derry high’s halloween dance, and who better to go matching with than stanley uris.

warnings: um kissing, slightly sexual talk or notions??

read on ao3 here!

got messed up during posting sorry for any mistakes!!

it’s the derry high annual halloween dance and almost all of the school is there, usually everyone would be at the party at sally mueller’s house, but this year they put a curfew on halloween and they were strict. apparently there have been some threats of violence this halloween so cops are driving up and down the streets to catch anyone violating this curfew, and the only way to have a semblance of fun and not break the curfew was going to the school dance.

richie and his friends had never gone before, they usually stayed at bill’s and rented some scary movies, but this year they decided to go. it was mainly because bill’s parents had a party to go to themselves and they were afraid to leave the kids alone with these threats. they were all either seventeen or eighteen but the denbrough’s still saw them as children, and probably would until they graduated high school.

that was how they found themselves in this situation, scrambling for costumes to wear to the dance, and richie begging “someone please go matching with me!”

they all looked at him and shook their heads, knowing whatever richie wanted to wear would not be good for them.

“come on guys, they have a couples contest and i really want to win. please, please, please.” he got on his knees as they all hung out one day, his hands seemingly ready to pray as he begged his group.

“sorry richie, i already have a superman costume.” mike responded first, and richie almost offered to be lois lane until he realized that was already taken by the resident red head of the group.

“eddie and i are going to be batman and robin.” bill spoke next, leaving ben and stan for his two options to match with.

“i’m going as an olympic track player, which i don’t think would make much of a matching costume.” there goes ben, always representing the track team he was so proud to be apart of.

“stan, please tell me you don’t have anything.” richie turned, still on his knees, feeling the sting of the gravel rubbing into his knees as he made eye contact with stanley. “you’re my best friend, my love, the one person i want to match with. please, stan, do this for me and i’ll do anything for you.”

stan rolled his eyes in typical stan fashion, and put his hand out. “stand up, seeing you begging on your knees was fun at first but now it’s just pathetic.”

richie took his hand to help himself up, and wiped the pebbles that rammed their way into his knee. “are you sure it’s not cuz if you keep seeing me on my knees like that you’ll get hard?” there is richie, making crude comments that make stan blush.

“shut up, say shit like that and i won’t match with you.” stan looked down to his feet, trying to hide the blush from the lanky boy towering over him.

it was an unoffical offical thing that stanley uris was crushing on richie, he was butt-crazy in love with that boy. everyone in the losers club knew except for richie, he was somehow blind to stan’s obvious affections towards him, despite stan being so blatantly obvious with it.

“come on stanley, if you do me this favor i’ll owe you big time...whatever you want.” richie took stan’s hand in his as he said this, making stan look up to this big eyes made even bigger with those ridiculous glasses richie still wore (stan found it so cute). god, richie did not know what he was doing when he did this to stan. holding his smaller hands in richie’s larger harder ones, telling him these things that made stan want to faint and fall in his arms.

he thought he was crazy for falling for richie tozier, and he was right.

“fine, i’ll match with you, but i have to agree with the costume. i’m not wearing something ridiculous or embarrassing myself.” stan agreed, though he knew he would the minute richie asked.

richie let go of stan’s hands and missed stan’s face fall, a wide smile showing those big horse like teeth richie had that stan thought was cute for some reason. they were right when they called him bucky beaver as kids, except stan saw it as cute rather than an insult.

“great! come over to my house and we can plan it all out. we better win or i’m going to trash the school.” richie spoke, half serious.

“well i won’t be helping in trashing the school, you can get kicked out on your own.” stan rolled his eyes, using his typical richie centric sarcasm as a way to deflect his obvious crush on him.

“you’re supposed to be my partner in crime, stan, don’t bail on me so quickly.” richie feigned dejection, but stan was used to his fake over dramatics.

“beep beep, richie.” stan spoke, with a curled smile on his face that he desperately tried to hide, even more so when richie wrapped his arm around his shoulder as they walked with the group.

the group disperses until it’s just richie and stan, and stan is shy and scared but trying not to show it. him and richie always hang out alone, but every time stan feels his heart beating frantically and thinks he’s gonna faint, and he always has to hide it from richie so he doesn’t suspect anything.

stan is convinced he has no chance with richie, it’s all apart of his self loathing that has haunted him for years and years.

but he climbs in richie’s truck anyway, always struggling since it’s so high off the ground and stan hasn’t grown since eighth grade when he hit 5′7″, versus richie who seems to never stop growing. he’s a beanstalk, and stan is jack because boy does he want to climb up that.

he shouldn’t think such things, so he keeps his eyes on the road rather than look at richie and think thoughts that will leave him red in the face and his hands all clammy.

“you okay, stan?” richie questions as he drives them back to his house, used to stan being quiet but not when it was just them two.

stan and richie had been best friends since richie was one and stan was born (richie was a year older), and even as children they knew they were going to spend the rest of their lives together.

and so far they had, they were still best friends to this day, and even though they were close with the other losers when it came down to it it would always be stan and richie. just how they liked it.

“fine, just a bit tired.” stan turned to look at richie as he spoke, a smile on his face reassuring richie, and richie swore he almost got in an accident at the sight. looking at stan like that, leaned against the seat, curls unruly and his big brown eyes looking up at richie, and his thin pink lips spread out into a smile.

richie would never tell anyone, but he thought his best friend was gorgeous.

so he had to turn away, look back on the road before he swerved to the side and killed them both, because stan was like the sun. he was like the sun because he was beautiful and warm and everything he wanted, but he couldn’t look too long or he’d lose himself in it.

it’s a good thing they weren’t too far from richie’s house, making it quickly over. “here we are.”

parking in his usual spot the two boys jumped out of the truck, making their way to richie’s door as he unlocked it for them. all the lights were off indicating that they were alone in the house for the time being, which both excited stan and made him nervous.

“come on, let’s go up to my room and plan our award winning couple costume.” hearing it referred to a couple costume made stan almost swoon, but he followed richie up the stairs and into his bedroom none the less.

“so what were you thinking of?” stan asked richie, making himself comfortable on richie’s bed, finding the one clean spot on it and in his room to sit on.

“i don’t know, maybe some brokeback mountain.” richie winked at stan, teasing him and taking a seat on the rolling chair at his desk.

“so just a cowboy costume? not very distinguishable.” stan tried to play it off cool, especially since brokeback mountain was one of his favorite movies.

“all jokes, but i don’t know. batman and robin are already taken, and i wanna look good so no tweedle dee and tweedle dum or shit like that. we’ve gotta look hot, hot hot.” richie sang the last words, and since they were in private stan felt no need to deliver a snarky comment.

“well i honestly have no idea. we could be spongebob and patrick?” he offered up, but felt dumb immediately.

“did you not hear me say i want to look hot, and a sponge and a starfish aren’t exactly that. let me get my creative juices flowing, i always have been the smart one of us.” richie teased, getting a smack from stan which interrupted him rubbing his temple in hopes of an idea. “hey! watch it! i’m trying to think here!”

stan could only smile, loving how silly the boy in front of him was.

“greasers! like a grease meets the outsiders type thing, we could be ponyboy and johnny or some shit like that. come on, hair all greased back, cool sunglasses and leather jackets. we’ll pull some honeys and win the contest with our charming good looks.” richie got out of his chair as he said this, making ridiculous poses stan thought was his attempt at being a ‘greaser’.

“fine, not like i have any other ideas.” not to mention he wouldn’t mind seeing richie in that, and it was a pretty simple costume to get together.

“better not half ass this or bail out on me, stanley, i really want to win.” richie spoke with a pointed finger, and stan doubted they would win but did it anyway.

“promise, now i’ve got to get home and do some homework. i’ll see you later though.” stan got off the bed and walked through the mess that was richie tozier’s room to his door.

“wait, i can drive you.” richie offered, quickly getting up from his seat.

“thanks, but i can walk.” stan smiled at him, not wanting richie to go through the trouble of driving him home.

“are you sure? it’s no problem, really.” richie asked, leaning against his doorway, pale skin and pink lips in a goofy grin. it was going to drive stan crazy.

“i’m sure, thanks anyway.” stan smiled one last time, making his way down the stairs and to the door. “bye, richie!”

“bye, stan!” richie screamed back, smiling as he looked at stan walk out the door and into his heart.

he was just as madly in love with stan as stan was with him.

so they go to the dance, separately in the end and both are excited to see the others costume.

richie has his hair greased up but not greased back, it’s still down and if it wasn’t so greasey it would look good. he has sunglasses on over his contact which he rarely wears, and a leather jacket over a worn out mickey mouse shirt and ripped jeans. all together and all on him, it really works.

and he’s talking with bill and waiting for stan, and when he walks in he almost drops his spiked punch because stan looks hot. his curls are greased back so you wouldn’t even think curls are under there, and it makes you focus more on his face which is absolutely gorgeous. he’s in all black, a look richie has never seen him in, but he secretly loves. he loves seeing him in a black shirt and leather jacket and black skinny jeans that make richie’s jeans feel tight too.

“stan the man, looking good. i haven’t seen your hair like that since your bar mitzvah, and you looked hot then and you look hot now.” richie says as he greets him, putting his arm around the shorter boy to make sure everyone knows they were matching.

“you guys have to sign up to be apart of the couples contest, you know that right? none of us did so you guys could actually have a chance.” bill teased, and richie made a mocking face in response.

“let’s go, stanley my man, we still gotta win this thing.” richie leads stan to the booth with the entries, and stan’s heart is racing at the sight of richie and that his arm was still around him.

tonight was the best night of his life, or at least he hoped so.

richie only lets go of his grip on stan to sign them up in the almost empty bin, making him realize almost nobody cared about this shit, but he was still dead set on winning.

writing down in his chicken scratch handwriting richie tozier and stanley uris he quickly enters it and grabs stan’s hand, that big smile on his face and asking. “come dance with me?”

stan doesn’t even have to speak, just nod his head and give him a lovestruck smile as they go to the dancefloor. they dance to some trashy top 40 hit that they can barely hear the lyrics too, but they jump around and richie is a horrible dancer making stan laugh until his stomach hurts (richie loves the sight of it).

stan swore richie was starting to dance worse just to keep him laughing.

stan was right, richie was doing that, because he loved getting stan to laugh and he loved seeing him laugh and he loved him.

isn’t it funny how two people can be so crazy in love with each other but not tell the other?

it must be a high school type of thing, or at least that’s how they imagined it.

“are you having fun?” richie screams to stan over the music, his dancing all over the place making his hair go crazy.

stan moves closer so they can talk, screaming in response. “yeah, more than i thought i would!” stan was never a school dance, homecoming game type of guy. the only reason he ever went to games was for mike since he was on the team, but he was bored and cold throughout it all.

“good, i can’t have it getting around that my date is bored.” richie screams back, and stan’s dancing falters a bit before he gets back into the rhythm.

“date?” he questions, unable to ask anymore.

“well, not a date but...you know. we’re a couples costume, you’re kind of my date.” richie gives an unsure smile to stan, and stan doesn’t understand what he means but nods anyway.

they dance until they’re tired and sweaty and they both agree they need something to drink, and while richie gets some of the juice spiked with vodka stan sticks with the clean water in the cooler to the side.

“hey guys, you look great.” coming from superman, or rather mike, it was a great compliment.

“thanks, mikey, you look great. where’s lois?” richie asks, looking mike up and down, his costume is great.

“with ben, of course.” even though they were matching they were nothing more than friends, beverly’s heart belonged to ben hanscom.

the two followed mike back to the table claimed by the losers, all of them sitting their either talking or eating the halloween themed snacks.

“they’re going to announce the winners soon, shut up!” beverly tells them when they get too loud, and stan and richie are squeezing each others hands in hopes that they win.

up on stage is some girl in the grade below them, and richie is blanking on her name because he’s so excited he hopes he wins. “and the winner of this halloweens couple contest is...eddie corcoran and betty ripsom!”

feeling dejected and disappointed as he watches the winners in a ketchup and mustard costume go up on stage, he’s sad and pretending to be mad because that’s what they all expect. “this is bullshit, come on stan, let’s blow this popsicle stand.” he grabs stan’s hand and drags him out, and the losers know he isn’t really mad and let them be.

“richie? are you okay?” stan questions as they walk through the empty hallways and out to the parking lot.

“yeah, but our costumes were so much better than that shit.” his lanky arms flail around as she speaks.

“you’re not actually mad, are you?” stan questions, unsure.

richie smiles and laughs as he unlocks his truck, ready for them both to go in. “no, but i’m still going to destroy the school since they stole my claim to fame from me.”

stan shakes his head and gets in richie’s death trap of a truck, looking at richie and wishing they won for his sake.

“i’m sorry.” stan says, and he’s doing it again. he’s leaning against the seat and looking so precious that richie wonders how he is still resisting himself.

“stan, it’s fine. i had fun, and i hope you did too.” god, he’s starting to treat this like a date.

stan nodded, giving him a genuine smile. “i did...i always have fun with you richie.”

richie takes off his sunglasses and gives stan that look, that look of tenderness and loving and stan’s lips open a bit at the sight, because he is so in love with his best friend and he just can’t resist...

so he doesn’t.

he leans in, hypnotized by richie’s plump pink lips and big brown eyes, and their lips are pressed against each other. it’s soft, barely a peck, but it’s something and stan pulls away because he’s so shocked by what he did.

he looks at richie with terror in his eyes, worried that he ruined everything he had, but as he looks richie’s eyes are still closed and his lips are so kissable and stan is under his trance so he goes in for more.

this time it’s a real kiss, and richie cups stan’s cheek and stan grabs richie’s shoulder and kisses him the way he always wanted to. he kisses him like it’s the last time he’ll ever kiss him, he kisses him like he does in his dreams.

they finally pull away with their foreheads still together and their arms still all over each other, and they look into each others brown eyes and smile.

“i guess this technically was a date.” richie speaks first, his smirk making stan’s smile grow wider.

“good, i was hoping it was.” stan responds, and he doesn’t think he’s ever smiled bigger than he is right now.

and they were right when they said they would spend the rest of their lives together, because that’s what you do when the person you love loves you back.

@wyattghouleff

[ducktracy]

81. how do i know it’s sunday (1934)

release date: june 9th, 1934

series: merrie melodies

director: friz freleng

starring: rochelle hudson (various)

so imdb lists rochelle hudson as a voice credit?? that strikes me as odd, since i tjought she went to mgm with harman and ising to voice honey some more. but, she can always have two different gigs, and if it’s wrong it’s wrong. anyway! the inside of a closed grocery store is as alive as ever, including a swarm of pesky flies.

how do you know it’s sunday? well, people are strolling along to church and there’s an exterior shot of a grocery store that reads CLOSED SUNDAY ALL DAY. a lovely interior shot of the store as we pan to a can of sardines, who sing the titular “how do i know it’s sunday?”, asserting itself to be rather catchy. obviously, there’s a whole genre of things coming to life. this theme will continue even into the 40s—even around grocery stores, such as clampett’s 1941 goofy groceries. it gets trite after awhile, but i suppose if you go to the theater and see these shorts only a few years after each other it’d be different.

like always, all of the groceries make their contributions to the song. a decapitated pig’s head (porky? this IS friz we’re talking about) grunts in a bass voice, a married couple of pickled herring sing, women from the blue ribbon malt extract boxes sing (parodied as pink ribbon malt), an onion makes a potato cry from her multiple eyes (which is actually quite amusing), some blackface caricatures including a parody of aunt jemima named aunt eliza (would be nice if my namesake were attached to anything other than a blackface caricature but).

tamales also contribute—they would make a reappearance in billboard frolics. oysters, which are not at all oysters but in fact clams, click their shells like castanets, as does a flamenco dancing lobster. the animation is good—it turns out the particular print i watched had some sort of error in the restoration, because the animation looked distractingly choppy. it was just the particular restoration, other older prints seem fine.

multiple women from the old dutch cleanser cans (parodied as old maid cleanser) do some clogging, while a man runs a fan like a merry go round and speeds it up to the highest setting! damn!

below a shredded wheat box (threaded wheat) sings the girl from the morton salt box. elsewhere, a little inuit boy who looks startlingly similar to buddy is fishing. he’ll come into play soon. there are two morton salt cans, perfect for the two boys in the uneeda biscuit (uwanta cracker—i have a fondness for this gag only because it was referenced in one of the musicals i was in in high school LOL) packaging to flirt with. the song is very catchy, but so far this cartoon has been rather uninteresting. maybe because i’ve become desensitized to the magic of the singing and dancing cartoons. it’s still cute though! i like the designs of the girl and the boy. i love my vintage advertisements and products, so this comes in handy.

our inuit boy from before runs over to a cookie box and knocks on the door, and his cookie sweetheart (buddy and cookie literally?) joins him happily as they skip away. elsewhere, the villain(s) enter: a swarm of flies. they target a piece of roll cake and tear it to shreds. elsewhere, they devour some russian rye bread, engaging in the prisyadka dance. this would be a favorite of friz’s, he’d use it in cartoons typically revolving around ants and other insects, like in the gay anties.

“buddy” and “cookie” are seesawing via soup can and knife, very safe. the flies spot the girl and kidnap her as always! the boy does buddy’s obnoxious call from buddy of the apes, swinging from a rope and kicking the flies off of his girl as she’s taken hostage. with the flies gone she lands, enough time for the boy to grab her hand as they run away from an angry swarm of flies.

popcorn is used as a machine gun to shoot down the flies, but the flies fashion safety pins and toothpicks into tiny bows and fire in retaliation. the flies circle the frightened advertisements below them, the arm and hammer (harm and ammer) box smacking one of the flies in the head.

the flies grab some matches and light them, setting the surroundings of the advertisements ablaze below them. one of the uneeda biscuit boys relies on the carbonation of seltzer water to put the flames at bay, another character who looks vaguely like mr. peanut using champagne to put out the flames. i don’t think i’d rely on alcohol of all things to put flames at bay unless you have a death wish.

nice, stringy animation as a toy soldier(?) uses syrup to stick all of the flies together in one giant ball. their fate is further sealed when the popcorn from the popcorn gun sticks to the syrup. a homemade popcorn ball falls straight into a box of popcorn balls. a rude awakening for whoever chooses that one.

the boy from before distracts the remaining flies by jumping into a grinder, safely getting out from the bottom as the flies pile up inside. he grinds them and shoots them into a bottle, which he corks and poses on triumphantly as his colleagues cheer. iris out.

not the most entertaining cartoon ever, but not the WORST. it stretched on for a very long time, the climax didn’t feel like it had much urgency to it. it seemed to match the leisurely pace of the beginning half, the only difference being the musical underscore which helped to enhance the mood. not much to really say, because there wasn’t much there. the song was catchy! and the backgrounds were enjoyable to look at, as was counting up all the references, but you’ve seen one, you’ve seen em all. and the “all” will have better entires than this one. but, friz is still new to the directing gig, and he’ll continue to get better and better. 1936 is when things start to pick up, and 1937 will be a great year: mel blanc joins the scene, daffy is introduced, bob clampett becomes director, even ub iwerks directs a small handful of cartoons. i’d skip this one, there’s better groceries come to life adventures in store. nevertheless,

link! (different than the one in the screenshots, the animation is much smoother)