#also i don't really have a solid title so suggestions are nice

[edgeray]

Hello 🍉anon again, hope you’re doing okay and I hope my writing is not atrocious for this request. This idea has been on my mind for an Arlecchino x dragon reader(similar to Neuvillette). So, Arlecchino receive a report from her operatives that an unknown creature is lurking in the shadow near Poisson, that keeps on attacking the others fatui members and stealing their rations. She tells them that she will look into it eventually as she doesn’t want their ressources to be stolen. She starts to investigate to gather information on this creature and possibly locate it and by a twisted turn of fate, stumbles into a dragon(secretly the reader)that look awfully hurt and almost on the verge of dying. Arlecchino took pity on the rather tiny looking dragon (tought it seems to be an adult one) and brought them to the house of the heart to treat their wounds.

As the times pass and Arlecchino started to grow fond of the dragon, she see in the corner of the room, a human. Visibly confused, she starts to draw her scythe ready to impale the person in front of her should they pose a threat. Then the reader just go up to her and nuzzle into her as if it was the most natural thing in the world and it was at this moment that she realized it was the dragon she had rescued. They start to bond and eventually grow more intimate with each others.

My Little Fire

(Arlecchino x GN! Reader)

A/N -  Hi 🍉 Anon! Nice to see you again <3. Sorry this took so long. I just spoiled you guys with dragon arle, but how about dragon reader? Great idea, anon. Y'all really love dragons huh? Dragons are cool af, I don't blame you guys.  Unfortunately, I dunno a whole lot of genshin lore, so how genshin dragons work, idrk. I made you a Pyro Dragon, because bonding over fire abilities >>>  Dunno why I was so braindead while writing this, but that's why this took me an extra day to write this. By the way, the title is the english translation of the last three words. I headcanon that Arlecchino can speak Fontainian (French).  Content warnings / info - monster x human, reader is a dragon, reader is referred to ‘it’ for the most part, not second pov until the middle, arle's pov, reader is gn!, 1.7k words

Arlecchino didn't typically deal with these sorts of outings, not when her job typically dealt with information gathering and diplomacy. However, she couldn't turn a blind eye to this report in another Fatui camp situated in Poisson. Purportedly, rations have been going missing despite attempts to secure and protect them. Fatui operatives have been injured, and while Arlecchino does not doubt that some incompetence may have come into play, she does not believe that they are truly that incompetent. The operatives confirm that it is some type of creature, given the claws marks and the teeth indents the harmed operatives detailed. Whatever it was, it was too quick for the members to see, and so she now had to deal with it. 

Arriving at the camp, witness accounts didn't prove to be very helpful in terms of identifying the troublesome critter. However, the storage room, where the rations were stored, provided an interesting story to her. Unsurprisingly, clawed scratches littered around the containers of food, though she notices the indentures were caused by rather small paws. Despite the suggestion that the creature was rather tiny, it did not mean that creature was not weak, able to cut through solid metal. Interestingly enough, scorch marks also surrounded the area, even though there were no burns recorded in the injury accounts. The creature also seems rather famished. Each occurrence it raids the storage room, a considerable amount of food was stolen. Fascinating. Arlecchino can think of very few creatures like this but all of them seem implausible. 

However, there was a pattern to this creature’s visits. Every three nights, it came, wrecking havoc to whatever was in its way, but Arlecchino is sure that she'd be successful in capturing the beast tonight. She orders that no operatives are around the area–the last thing she desires is some inept fool getting in her way–and then she waits outside. 

It's near midnight when she first sees a glimpse of the creature's silhouette, about the size of a cat, but she can make out a long tail with spikes. Just as she anticipated, the creature appeared, flying through the open window she purposely opened. It pauses at the entrance, as if observing the lack of guards, but not questioning it as it dashes across the floor. Either this isn't a very smart creature, or its desperation for food outweighs the risks. Regardless, it just made a mistake. 

She uses her speed to enter the room before the creature has time to react, standing in front of the window it entered through. She closes the window, her eyes narrowing down on the now cornered beast. A scaled creature, with horns and wings. Its ears flattens against its head and their wings press against its body, imitating the fearful behavior a mutt would display. The longer she observers the creature the more she realizes that these traits match those of a dragon, albeit a very small dragon. She wonders if this was just a hatchling. 

The small dragon snarls at her, and a blaze emanates from its spine, the flames coursing down to its tail. The bright flames illuminate the dragon's features more, and it's when she notices that blood is spewing from a gruesome cut on its leg. 

An injured Pyro Dragon? It's terribly small, and she can't imagine how this one is still alive given its injury. Although the fire is an indicator it's a mature adult, the size is a cause of concern. What a pitiful thing.  

Arlecchino’s eyes flicker over to the box that the dragon tried getting into. As she approaches it, the dragon snarls, tensing its body to lunge at her at any second, however, she simply ignores it. Opening the lid, she's met with thick cuts of raw meat. She takes several cuts of the meat from the insulated container, before holding it out in front of the dragon. If the dragon needs raw meat, she has a particular selection of premium raw meat for herself that she could use for the dragon. 

“Eat,” she demands as she offers the food. The dragon, still maintaining its anxious behavior, stalks closer, sniffing the food before it latches its teeth on the steak. 

“I have as much meat as you could want, better quality as well. I'll feed you, shelter you, and take care of that cut for you. Come with me.” She says, offering another slab of meat. 

The dragon doesn't respond, nor stop eating, but its body relaxes. By the time it reaches its last piece of meat, it's eating out of her hand. Arlecchino uses the close proximity to examine the dragon's injuries. The dragon nudges its head against her hand, and Arlecchino strokes the dragon's head. 

“Will you come home with me?” 

The dragon gives her an affirmative croak. 

—

The dragon did not grow any larger even in the months it stayed with her, nor did it transform into its human form yet. Its wound had been festering for quite a while, however under her care, it is healing remarkably quickly. Arlecchino proposes that the dragon is using its energy to heal from the wound. Had the dragon not done so, it would have surely met an agonizing fate. This continuous depletion didn't allow for the  dragon to grow in size, transform, or use its powers and it would have continued in that state for years had she not rescued it. 

It must be because of this that the dragon does not take long to get attached to her.

The dragon always sticks near her, sometimes physically on top of her. If it's not on her shoulder or head, then it's on her lap. Getting accustomed to how clingy the dragon is was a struggle, but she soon learns. 

If she'd allow it, it'd follow her everywhere. It's almost endearing. 

It only took three days for the dragon to sneak into her bedroom. The morning after, she awakened with an unfamiliar weight over her torso, and she found that the dragon was nestled on top of her. The next night that she slept, it was nuzzled against her neck and sprawled over her right shoulder. She'd be lying if she said it was an unwelcome sight, and it became a nightly occurrence. 

Often the dragon would play and entertain the House of the Hearth children. Sometimes, it'd accompany her outside, but only on certain missions. After all, she needed to test the dragon’s abilities in its current condition, and who better to test it on than the scum of Fontaine? 

Something else she finds intriguing is that the dragon devours fire, much like how the Iudex fancies his water, though the dragon is particular to her blood flames than any typical flames. On occasion, she uses her powers as a treat that the creature happily indulges in. 

Arlecchino only wonders what more she would learn once the dragon finally transforms. 

—

Arlecchino returns to the House of the Hearth after another irritating Harbinger meeting, rather exasperated and irked by some of the impudence and dimness of her ‘coworkers.’ She reaches her bedroom, exhaling a sigh. Before she enters, she hears scuffling from beyond her bedroom door. Her door is slightly cracked open, implying that someone had entered during her absence. From the small opening of her door, she catches a glimpse of a figure. Instantly, her eyes narrow and she withdraws her scythe. 

Intruders have no place in her house. She knows that no children are inside, as it's one of the first things she's instilled when they first come: stay away from her room under any circumstance. So who is this audacious soul that dares trespass into her chambers?

Upon opening the door, she does not expect the speed of her assailant, as a figure crashes into her, wrapping their arms around her neck, face pressed against her neck. Arlecchino is momentarily stunned by the action, but for some reason, it feels familiar. The body is abnormally hot, too warm for a human being. This isn't someone she recognizes, and she was about to throw the being off of her when she paused. A purr erupts from the other person's throat, the vibrations coursing through the Harbinger. 

“Arle…” the person murmurs, the name making Arlecchino hesitate. They lean away, tilting their head and glancing up at her, and then her breath hitches. Vibrant, slitted eyes stare back at her, that gaze only belonging to a certain dragon she knows. 

“You're the–”

“–Dragon. It's finally nice to meet you, Arlecchino,” you say, as you finally uncoil your arms around her. Arlecchino observes you for longer, her scythe disappearing. Now that there's no threat, Arlecchino takes the time to observe your human form. 

“Are you fully healed?”

You nod, giving her a soft smile. “I am. Thank you. I'm indebted to you. I'm sure you know of this, but I would not have survived for much longer if it weren't for your help. If you'd allow me, I'd like to work under you as a repayment. I'm sure you'd like what I have to offer.” 

Arlecchino closes her eyes, a ghost of a smile appearing over her lips. “Very well.” 

—

Arlecchino learns many things about you. She learns of your favorite food, which happens to be her blood fire. The way you favor your meat served and how you're incredibly food-excitable. She learns that your wings and tails are incredibly sensitive underneath her fingertips and she is well aware that she abuses this knowledge. She learns that your presence lifts her heart and it’s only you that can appreciate her curse. 

Your favorite touch from her is your head. Everyday, she'd pat you on the head the same way she did the night she saved you. Kissing your forehead and carding through your hair are close seconds.

She learns that there are some things that don't change even with your new form. While you never return to your small size in your dragon form, it does not mean you still do not linger around her, sitting in her lap when she's at her desk. You still play with the children, often acting as the ‘Mother’ role that the children did not have. And every night, you return to her bedside, embraced in her arms. 

There are a few things that have changed with your new form. Arlecchino feels as if you've rekindled her, your love is another flame in her veins that doesn't scorch her being, but instead, you warm her soul, consuming her cursed blood flames. 

It's what inspires the name that she always calls you before you drift to sleep. 

“Mon petit feu.”

[makingfanfictionstosleep]

Pillow Talk

Satoru Gojo x FReader

18+ Minors don't interact

"Hey I have a question," you asked your boyfriend as you plopped yourself sideways on the bed facing him, while he mirrored you & mumbled a lazy, "Hmm."

"If you're given a choice, what would you do for a living?"

He titled his head sideways as he thought of an answer. Nobody has ever asked him this question. He's Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer of his age, of course he is expected to use his powers for greater good.

"I never really considered that. Probably a streamer? Or a sports coach? Or maybe I'd still be teaching... You know, college, probably, " he answered, "What about you?"

"I'd like to be a musician or a kindergarten teacher. Either way, I think I'd be nice to live a normal life," you said a bit too whimsical, as if it's a fairy tale, "Normal clock in & out, normal dates without worrying of curses or being called to subdue curses, sleeping soundly at night... Must be really nice."

"True," he agreed, "I can relate to that."

"Sucks to be you sometimes, you know? Even if you rarely tell me about it, I van only imagine the pressure of being called as The Strongest," you spoke softly, as you played with his slender fingers, "I wish the higher ups would also see you as a human being, not as a weapon."

He smiled at your genuine words. That's what he love about you - your sincerity, kindness, grit & loyalty. It is true that he usually keeps it all to himself, not being a burden to others, but you just bulldozed your way in & snatched some of the load from his shoulders. Yes, a normal life sounds nice, but he thought it's not worth it if you're not by his side. You eased up his loneliness, stress & pressure simply by being there.

"Hey!" You threw a pillow at him, interrupting his thoughts, "You've been quiet for some time, come on, it's just a question. You know it's far from our reality."

He tackled you & caged you in his strong arms, making you laugh hysterically as he peppered you with kisses on your face, neck, cheeks.

"You & your million dollar questions," he poked your nose, "Baby, you know that I'd do anything for you."

"I know," you smiled against his lips, "I know. And I don't want to lose you for that normal life shit. It's just a thought because Kento left the jujutsu realm to be a salary man, so it got me thinking."

"Hey, no thoughts about another man while with me on bed," he pouted.

You held his face his your hands, kissing the tip of his nose, "Nobody is good for me, except you, Satoru."

"Yea I'll see to it that I'll ruin every man because I'm the only one who makes your toes curl," he dived for a hot, passionate kiss, as you wrapped your legs around his waist.

"Maybe I can be one of your college students," you teased, making him even more turned on.

"Fuck I can only imagine," he groaned, his member turning into a rock solid state, "You & me, in a classroom, with your small skirt hiked on your waist as I fuck you on my desk, damn."

"I can still fit in my highschool uniform..." You said suggestively.

[littlewestern]

Henryships, please!

This one goes out to @belle-aesthetics who asked for Henry as well!

Henry!! Oh Henry, how troublesome you are to ship sometimes. I feel as though he's in a similar situation to Gordon where there aren't any engines that are an exact perfect fit in a way that I find satisfying.

I prefer ships where the whole is greater than the sum and facets of all characters involved are brought out by the relationship that wouldn't be revealed otherwise. But Henry has so much work to do on himself and his own confidence that it's hard to set him up in a relationship that feels balanced in that way. It's not impossible to make work, but it often feels like shipping him with other engines is an exercise in trying to pair everyone off who doesn't have a partner, which I don't care for... But I do have a few thoughts.

HIRO:

Good ship! Solid canonical foundation, mutual respect and admiration, shared experiences on which to build further growth!

I mentioned in the Gordon post that Hiro likes being supportive and leading by example, and it's easy to imagine him finding a relationship with Henry satisfying for that reason. Henry needs someone who will build him up with reassurances and encourage him to be more self-assured. It's really cute, and I think that they'd both get something out of it.

The thing I think holds this ship back from being really top-tier is that I feel like Hiro might fall into the trap of being too helpful? Because he is so cool and nice, I could see him doing the thing he does in Henry's Hero where he tries to let Henry off the hook and ends up taking on way more work/responsibility because of it. Someone with more investment than me could do something with that, but I just don't see the potential for growth here in either of them. That wouldn't (and shouldn't) be a dealbreaker, but it makes it far less appealing for me personally. Now, a similar ship with a little bit more edge to it, that might be something. Which is why I might suggest...

EMILY:

Oh you know I love me some Green Engine Solidarity. And it doesn't get much more solidary than this!

Rewatching the show this last time around, I was a bit surprised by how many incidental little moments these two have together, it's probably about as many interactions as Henry has with, say, Edward - intrigue!

I like this ship for a few reasons. Emily, like Hiro, enjoys "helping" other engines, but she's usually much less gracious about it, especially in the early seasons (which are the ones where I like her the most). Unlike Hiro though, Emily would not be out here cutting Henry any slack if he started getting skittish about ghosts or rain or whatever else. This is an opportunity for growth on both their parts, as Henry gets encouragement without coddling, and Emily gets practice being a bit more defthanded and gentle with her attempts at building Henry up. This is the kind of relationship I like to see!

A unique thing about Bossy Emily, though, is that she's actually never rude to Henry as far as I can remember. She ticks off quite a few engines in those bad old seasons, but Henry she's always quite sweet to. Henry matches that with a joking kind of camaraderie we don't see much from him, which I love. When Hatt asks another engine to take the mail in Percy's stead, Emily volunteers Edward for the job and Henry immediately picks up the assist by saying how Edward knows how to do everything, swanky eyebrows and all.

After all, the mail is a job for a small engine.

They also have a connection with being safety oriented. Henry cares deeply about protocol, and does not fuck around when someone is out here flouting them for the sake of convenience Gator ahem. In another episode, Emily is assigned the title of Safety Engine, which would have been a great addition to her character arc of feeling like she has no job except for the fact that it's never brought up again afterward. Ray never forgets, though, and if it were up to me I would simply pull that into being a regular and acknowledged aspect of her character. But nobody asked me, of course.

Henry is also among the engines Emily asks to be her best friend in a later episode, which... Y'know, she asks every engine she sees but Henry readily agrees!

Idk, I think they're cute. If I wasn't ride or die for Emily/Caitlin also I think this would be my favorite ship for the both of them. That being said I do have one more dark horse contender that might be. Slightly controversial.

SPENCER:

OKAY WAIT. LISTEN. HEAR ME OUT.

I love this episode, it's so funny to me.

"You need a big, strong, Duke's Engine to protect you? ;)" takes me out every time I watch it, and I have watched it a frankly embarrassing number of times.

Spencer, to me, is the kind of blue-blood type who is aware of his station, aware that his build and breeding make him the envy of every railway, and finds the idea of being brought down into the gutter with these common engines... utterly thrilling. He can't say that's what he wants, but oh god does he want it - and it manifests in him trying to get Henry to hide behind him like a scared teen watching a horror movie with their crush. Hi-larious.

They're not good for each other and I'm not sorry. This is my favorite Henry ship by miles. Go watch The Beast of Sodor if you haven't already, it's so great.

[solarsonicsoda]

Ranking 500+ Theme Songs - #17: X-Men

Look, you need to know when to capitalise on a trend or pop culture moment. I don't know about you, but my Twitter feed is full of X-Men right now after a certain movie came out, so I'm using it to my gain. X-Men, the cartoon from 1997, follows the formerly most famous superhero team from Marvel Comics, a group of mutants led by Professor Charles Xavier. They battle not only with supervillains like Magneto, but also with anti-mutant sentiment that flies in the face of their heroics. Thankfully no one is this cruel in real life... That was heavy sarcasm FYI, I get this is a text medium.

If you want a picture of just how fondly remembered this show is, just look at it's new revival series all these years later which is literally called X-Men 97. Like it was so beloved, they chose to include an explicit reference to this original show in the title. If you're at a level where that is worth doing, you know you have a very popular show on your hands. I'm genuinely certain that this show is a large part why some of the less widely used characters in this group are so popular as references or costumes. It's always these designs I see!

Personally, I have no experience with this show. Never saw it on TV, and never really knew just how beloved it was until a few years back when I started actively looking into these things. X-Men has never been something I truly got into, I enjoyed a bit of Spider-Man and Batman growing up, but that was really it for me and superheroes. I am very much familiar with the legacy of this theme song though! Shall we get to it?

X-Men Theme Song

This is good! It's got a very distinctive sound, which makes sense given just how iconic this one became! There's lots of nice fanfare and building throughout which makes for a pretty exciting song. It's a pretty good fit! The riff is maybe repeated a little too much for my taste, and I would love a little bit more flavour thrown in, but it's good!

I am also throwing in X-Men '97 here. I know it has a different name, but the show is a continuation and whilst there are small changes to the theme, it's just a cover really. I like this version a bit more with some of the other elements, but I think it does lose some of the riff's original sting. Pretty much the same though, I'm just splitting hairs.

Overall, it's a good solid theme that has stood the test of time for good reason. It isn't my personal cup of tea truly though, and I always wish I had just a bit more. This might be controversial, but I'm going with B.

Stay tuned for more and be sure to send in any suggestions for other shows you'd like to see done (after the 500 already in the pipeline that is). Check out the intro to this series here, and check out the tier list.

[hootenanie]

tagged by charlotte @charlottan to spell my url in song titles! tyyyyy my friend

H-hung up on a dream by the zombies. this is maybe my favorite zombies song. beautiful barque pop instruments. beautiful harmonies. beautiful homoerotism. what more can be said? it's the zombies, I've only ever met one person who didn't love them and she was later exposed for abusing her boyfriend.

O-oh death by kaleidoscope I really like this folk song! it feels so much like a fake traditional ballad someone would make up to put in their bad horror movie trailer lmao, so I'm glad it's real. the kaleidoscope version is... fine. kaleidoscope in general is kind of just fine, but I'm including their version because of how much I like their album art and because I don't wanna go through the trouble of finding a better version rn. sorry

O-one of our submarines by thomas dolby. Thomas Dolby is pretty hit or miss for me, but when he hits he really hits. I love his atmospheric synth songs, and I love how they're equally suggestive of a bleak after-the-end future and an analogue world wartime past. this is I think one of his best songs special thanks to @psygull for introducing me

T-train song by the pentangle. this is from basket of light, which is one of my favorite vinyls I own! it always cheers me up, it's so warm and friendly sounding, quite a bit of uk folk from that period is. I don't really have any special thoughts on the pentangle, only that they where very good, remarkably technically skilled, and I'm glad John Renbourn and Bert Jansch went on to release collaborative albums together after the group broke up. you know, it's nice when people seem to be friends

E- è tornato sabata, hai chiuso un'altra volta! by marcello giombini. I love themes with lyrics that explain the premise of the movie SO much. every film should have one. and this one is so good, it's really catchy, it's sung in English which is good because that's the only language I can understand, it explains who our protagonist is ("sabata, fastest gun in the west. nine-fingered man, four barrel dillinger, he's the only invincible man in the country side") what the stakes are ("if you want money, if you wanna get rich, you gotta be a son of a...") it's got a goofy singer whose elongating vouls like crazy. again: every movie should have this

N-(the) night has a thousand eyes by gary lewis & the playboys. I've got a weakspot for early 60s bubblegum pop, and for unintentionally unnerving stuff from the same era, which you can probably tell from the title this also is lol. I also think this album is just really solid. this isn't one of the best songs on it, but it's one I listen to more than most. anyway, I reccomond it, or at very least opening track This Diamond Ring to fans of the Beatles' early work

A- america by allen gingsberg. not a song? fuck you it's on spotify. that's where the songs live. america I feel sentential about the wobblies

N-no love lost by tucker zimmerman. I found tucker zimmerman by chance while looking for something else, and I'm really glad I did. he's got a gentle voice and a simple & emotionally open lyrical style I find really nice. this album, songpoet, in particular is a real gem of a find and I'd say more about it if I wasn't getting really tired

actually y'know what I'm so tired I'm just gonna list the last two without commentary

I-I'll follow the sun by the beatles.

Eastern Spell by t. rex.

tagging @chymical @itsonofthem @psygull @lindaloring @chaumas-deactivated20230115 @bluecheer @lew-basnight @bill-blake-fans-anonymous

[buildabearcore]

I watched this movie when it released on streaming platforms and wanted to give a mini-review on the movie.

This is by no means a bad movie; I'd give it a solid 5 or 6 out of 10. It is definitely very cheesy.

Plot: [no spoilers] The movie follows the main character Marzipan and partly her mother Cinnameg through the final days leading up to Christmas. Cinnameg is worried there won't be enough toys for Christmas, and Marzipan wants to help her mom through this issue.

Comments on Plot: [spoilers] The plot is extremely simple in my opinion, but it is a kids movie at the end of the day. I feel like if I were a kid I would view this movie more positively (not that I have negative views; I am more on the neutral side). The workshop is under-producing toys because the manager, Starsnaps, believes things need to be done with heart. Cinnameg, the assistant manager, realizes doing things this way will lead to not enough toys being produced. She keeps suggesting they modernize like the reindeer have, however, anytime she brings it up, Starsnap remains stuck in his ways. At some point, the nice and naughty list machine breaks down, and during the stress and chaos, Starsnaps assigns Cinnameg his lead position so he doesn't have to deal with the mess.

While this is happening, Marzipan keeps seeing a glimmer up in the mountain and wants to go investigate it. On her adventure she meets a bear named Grizz, who is a notorious bear on the naughty list. Marzipan learns that Grizz is actually not all that bad, and over the course of the movie, helps Grizz learn that it's not too late to be good(B-plot). Marzipan wasn't able to make it to the glimmer on her first trip, and would return towards the end of the movie. In the meantime, she encourages Grizz to help at the workshop as a means to help Marzipan's mom make more toys for christmas. Here ensues the B-plot, where the elves at the workshop are initially scared of Grizz. He is a bit clumsy in helping, but they finally find something he is good at and the elves get more comfortably around him. Of course this fragile trust is broken when he snaps later on out of frustration. The elves become scared again and Grizz runs away dramatically.

Cinnameg is still struggling to make enough toys while also ensuring that all toys are made with heart. This is the point of the movie where Build-A-Bear advertising comes in to play (although they don't mention their actual brand, it instills the core message of the company). Cinnameg and Marzipan come up with the idea of making a singular toy that every kid would love, teddy bears. Each bear would have a heart put it with a wish made by the elves. This allows them to make plenty of toys.

Now at this point I am struggling to remember the exact plot, as I rented this movie at the beginning of December. But I will try my best.

Marzipan goes back in search for Grizz to comfort him. She couldn't find him initially, but on her way, she saw the glimmer again. She begins to chase after it, ending up at the very top of the mountain. There's a cave where she thinks she hears something, and thinking its Glisten (I haven't mentioned her but she is a mythical Christmas reindeer that basically embodies people's spirit and belief in Christmas). Instead she finds two wolves, both on the naughty list, who try and attack her. Grizz hears her, and comes to her rescue. After that encounter, Marzipan convinces Grizz to come back to Santa's village, which he agrees. I forget how the elves end up not being scared of him at this point, as I don't remember it really being explored in the movie. They do however give him a teddy bear as his first ever Christmas present and acknowledge that even he can be nice.

Santa is at this point, about to deliver the toys, however, there are too many on the sleigh for him to fly. After struggling a bit and thinking Christmas is ruined, Glisten shows up to help pull the sleigh. (Her name is in the title and she literally only shows up at the very end. This detail frustrates me so much haha. It should have been called Marzipan and the Merry Mission.). The toys get delivered and the movie ends with all the teddy bears parachuting down to the children's houses.

Again, my account of the movie may be a little off, as I saw it about 2 weeks ago, but I am stubborn and refuse to rent it again. I really wish they had a physically CD to buy, because $20 for a digital copy seems a little excessive to me.

Other plot: This is something I didn't really mention because its tie in to the main story isn't really explored. Marzipan's dad passed away, and the necklace he gave to Cinnameg was passed onto Marzipan. The necklace is special, in a sense that it glows in response, to I believe Glisten? Or something with two stars aligning? I genuinely do not remember, despite it suppose to be a sentimental thing, I couldn't catch onto to this part. But regardless, the connection of this special necklace to the plot is vaguely explained to the point of it feeling irrelevant. There's also this older elf, Sage Evergreen, who drives the belief in Glisten through story-telling. She also makes mention of Marzipan's necklace, but again, nothing is absolutely explained.

Characters: Truthfully the characters are very flat and generic. Not to a point of being bad, but it makes the movie overall mediocre.

Marzipan is likeable, and honestly has pretty good character. I normally get annoyed with kids in animation , because I feel like they rely on being loud or kind of rude to have a kid-like story. Or they tend to have non-sensible or somewhat outrageous actions to things. (I'll probably get hate for this but I think of things like spongebob, loud house, and even diary of a wimpy kid; I feel like the kid characters are obnoxious or just not great people. Maybe that's the point but I personally just don't like kids media like that). Marzipan is a sweet girl, who has an adventurous and curious personality that makes it a more enjoyable movie then a lot of kids media. She, to me, is a redeeming quality of this movie.

Cinnameg I don't have much to say about. She's a pretty standard character, trying to abide by old ideas but also trying to modernize. My biggest issue to be honest was the way she was animated. She looks more like Marzipan's older sister than her mom. It's kind of a personal issue more than a critique, as her image is just because of the animation style. Part of it I think was also her voice. The voice actress was good, but her voice sounded too young I think.

Grizz: I have a love/dislike for Grizz. His character was fine, and his character story was pretty generic. You know, seemingly bad guy not actually being bad. However, his interactions with Marzipan were cute despite the generic-ness to it. (I also love his irl bear, it reminds me of the polar bear). What killed me was the voice (not in a bad way). It was kind of like a new-york mobster voice? The voice actor was fine, but it just felt a little out of place in the movie. I get it was kind of to portray Grizz as a stereotype bad guy to support the plot, but it was kind of funny hearing him talk.

Crumble Starsnaps: Despise him (not actually haha). He is just a silly little guy who likes to sing and dance and do things with heart. He was a pretty bland character to be honest. Nothing good or bad to say about him. EXCEPT the fact he just jumped ship the second things went bad, and because he never had a bad thing happen to him. That scene is quite comedic to me.

Sage Evergreen: Again, a pretty neutral character. Her role was basically exposition to the world, although a lot of it was vague or generic. I can't get to upset, cause at the end of the day, it is a kids movie, and realistically this is a money grab to sell toys. However, I feel like her character was kind of robbed of having a better role.

Glisten: I can't even say anything about her. She is just a pretty mythical reindeer present in the movie for maybe 10 minutes. I feel like for her name being in the title of the movie, she did not have much presence or significance. It feels like she was written in just to have her, cause the plot still could have happened one way or another without her. They could have written a way for the sleigh to fly even if she was present.

Donner: This is one of the reindeer in Santa's entourage. He has no significance to the plot, but I want to mention him because he was voiced by Billy Ray Cyrus. I don't know why or how, but it is so funny. Donner literally just sounds like a stoned 40 y/o man. His voice doesn't fit the movie at all, but hearing how jarring his voice was in the movie made me laugh.

Music: Not much to say for music. I think they sing like one or two songs, and they weren't that great. Kind of felt out of place to have singing at all. You can blame Starsnaps for that one.

Animation: The animation is okay. For a cash-grab movie it is better than I expected, but it's still not as good as it could have been.

Final thoughts: The movie overall is okay. The characters are okay, the story is okay, the music is okay. I feel like the did just good enough to make it watchable so they could sell the new bear line. They have had the merry mission line for a few years now, but since they have an entertainment company now, I guess they wanted to market it differently this year. I stand by the fact that Marzipan is really the redeeming quality of this movie, although not by a high mark. The thing is, I want their movies to be good, because I like build a bear. And this is my personal stance, but I feel like Sharon Price does not care about the company in the same way Maxine Clark did, which is resulting these mediocre products. (I will say I did like the documentary they recently made, like it made me physically laugh). Maybe I am being to critical, as this is their first animated movie under Sharon Price. (Holly and Hal came out in 2008, but I have yet to watch it). If they continue to do more movies, I hope they intend to take feedback and try to improve, as I feel they definitely have the capabilities to do that. It really is just matter of their motives. If the are only making movies just good enough to sell products, then this is the best we are gonna get. Although, I feel like if they put a little more heart into it, it would do better in the long run.

I still encourage you to watch this movie. Although I see it as pretty middle ground, it was still a cute movie to watch.

If you read this far thank you so much. I have never done a movie review, so I know this is probably not the best. I don't intend to do these very often (as I don't foresee an excess of build a bear movies being made), but if you have experience with writing movie reviews, advice is appreciated.

[the-firebird69]

And I send a daughter thinking our company is a floor or Bechtel or Turner and we could pull it out pretty cheap it's a good price and very fast and give a price to put one in make it expandable modular with a sink or two and even limited taka Mac, and all the gearing is like solid state and it makes it very nice it has a digital monitoring with redundant system it's like a nuclear plant because it is one if they go nuclear there's geothermal here but it's not very warm down there so it takes forever and solar takes too much room down here there's one thing that works and it's the current but really it's title and it's lame. There's a huge demand for power here there's a bunch of nuclear power sources for the material is also a lot of wood that comes out of here but it's not enough to fuel even one area in one plant the phosphorus has a lot of uranium no it's a half percent an extraction is expensive but there is a source of uranium is too and there's plenty of it and yeah we can mine it we have robots. And it's for energy. And we can quote that. Is oil here does not as much as you would think and some shell but hardly any how does natural gas and methane but the methane is just topical but the natural gas is pretty huge it's not being used for anything and it really should be and the plants would run very efficiently and cleanly and it's a lot safer unless hazardous much less hazardous than nuclear it's it's 99% less hazardous spaceships and chips don't run a natural gas but power plants do there's about five deposits three of them are very big and would last 10 years for each area at twice the size they are now so they want prices on that other than that there's not much for energy source here regarding material the nuclear source would run for about 500 years it's not renewable the waste has to be incinerated the very specialized incinerator most people don't know how to do it there's no point in doing it so much of it and they use it for ships and there be a fight every day the five deposits that are here could run all of Florida probably for about 10 years which is a long time and it was tackamac it could run it for 20 years and we do suggest using it and it sinks probably 25 years it's very nice way to run things it buffets or buffers so you don't have a brownouts and you don't have arcs and excess and it saves your equipment a lot of abuse and people are very interested in it it's very efficient and we're very good at this kind of thing and we suggest the natural gas some of them we can have as a coach in and you can cogen and you can use wood. And it means two or three sources of fuel. And the wood here is enough for one area for many many years just unlimited so there's a few areas that do cut down a lot of trees every year and they grow back and they remove broken ones I mean it's just common knowledge of North a constantly have problems with it and you can build a plant up there and it would be practically free to provide electricity the natural gas needs to be pumped but you can use the pumps that are at the site the factory The power generation plant and the sink makes it really really inexpensive I'm going to publish but this is for the future of Florida

Thor Freya

Okay well I guess we knew all that hopefully sounds great we're going to check into it and we'll have you guys in for a meeting

Mac daddy

We're sending out a lot of warrants and we want these guys out of here and they tried to attack us from the inside we rested a lot of people they're in prison and they giving up information and we're going to use it

[a-lesbian-goth]

A Monster’s Trip to Justice

@mymywhataninterestingsight

@magicandheart

@magestaves

@banbutsunoriron

@idontknowanythingandthatsok

I remember the first time the moon changed. I remember how there was a feeling of tranquility after the sun fell. Usually people would feel trapped in concrete walls. But for a wolfman, concrete walls are comfort for a long night in. This was how it was always going to be. I would never hurt any living being, and that was a great comfort for me. I’d been through enough in my life to know what harming a living being could do. I hated the sound of suffering, sometimes I even hated the sound of the world around me. Here is was quiet, no sounds leaked through the thick walls around me. My mentor had brought me to this place.

We’d worked at the lumber yard together, and it’s amazing how you can bond as you cut through a forest everyday. My mentor Cecil Fields, had been a werewolf or more commonly known back then as a wolfman ever since he was 30 years old. And he still looked 30 years old. But to a kid fresh out of high school with starry eyes and rose colored glasses, Cecil Fields was a jaded old man. In fact he was a lot like a Father to me. Funny how you realize so much about someone after they’re gone. And he had brought me to that same basement one night precisely on the full moon. He promised me he wouldn’t hurt me, so I sat in his basement and waited for what he wanted to show me. I was suspicious of the basement, but I trusted him enough to stay put.

I remember how he changed, how his body became deformed and filled with hair. It wasn’t like in the movies, it was quick and painless. He looked like a big black dog standing on it’s hind legs. He stared at me with pure red eyes, and I knew he was still in that mind. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t lose yourself in that form. But of course, my little idiot self screamed their head off and scrambled across the room, falling on my own damned shoe laces and smacking my head against the concrete. I was bleeding like crazy, and was lucky I didn’t die then. I still regret screaming and doing that. I was frozen on the floor, my ears ringing from the echoes of my screams. That was all the time he needed. It was over quickly, and I should have been lucky he didn’t decide just to kill me right there. A swift bite to the arm, quick and as gentle as possible. The bite didn’t tear out my flesh or muscle, but in my terrified state it looked that way. He went to the corner of the room and curled up, satisfied with his work. I waited for the sunrise anxiously, knowing now why I couldn’t open the door. I cried like a little kid, begging him not to kill me. It should have been more obvious than it was, but he explained it all to me when he changed back in the morning.

And I was back with him in the basement, this mentor staring at me from across the room. My first full moon. I was a little too happy about it, knowing how proud Cecil was of me. Knowing that we were bound together, an inseparable pack of two. And I would have loved that, to stay in his guidance forever. But that just wasn’t my luck. Cecil gazed at me like I was his first born child, yet in his proud stare there was sadness, maybe even a little pity.

“ I cursed you, Porfirio.” He muttered, sitting on the concrete ground with a groan. “ What, with eternal life? Never getting old?” I was naive then, just a kid with a starry eyed, dewy dream of never getting old. Typical Peter Pan or some bullshit like that. “ No, you dear boy.” Cecil sighed, staring down at the ground with the face of a tired man. “ Then with what?” “Being alone.” “ But you said-” “ Forget what I said.” “ T-Then-” “ I’m dying.” He held his head in his hands, and for the first time, his face grew red and he burst into tears. “ Cancer, cancer they told me it’s in my back near my spine. There isn’t shit I can do, Porfirio. After all these years there isn’t shit I can do!” He stood, and punched the wall, leaving his first bloodied and a dark stain on the sterile gray. The moon was out now, and our features were changing. I felt the energy going through me like I was caught up in ocean waves, drowning me as I became something greater. The peace I had felt was gone, filled with sorrow and fear of what was to come. The waves of this new power held no meaning, because the image I’d had of the future had shattered into some fragment of a nightmare. And that’s reality would be for a very, very long time…

Now what do I remember of Albert? Well, for starters, his name was pronounced in the pretentious French way where you pronounce it like Al-Bear. Secondly I remember what he did, of course, I doubt anyone could forget that. And thirdly, I remember his face from my childhood; a kid that sat in the back of the class, the smart one that got bullied a lot by his parents and the kids in the schoolyard. I don’t remember if I was one of them, and I wonder still if it would have made a difference.

I remember writing in for a roommate. The typical “person wanted” ad-no stoners, no conservatives, no devil worshippers, I was looking for your average Joe, Jane, and John. Then Albert came, Albert from my home town. That was a weird coincidence, considering our home town was half a country away from the point where we both ended up. I didn’t know he moved, but I remembered that we both had our reasons. Mine was an escape from my abusive parents and from the death of Cecil. For him, something similar to the first reason, maybe even the second. We didn’t talk about it, we know where we came from, there was no reason to know specifics. In fact, I thought I was going to enjoy living with Albert for a while. He seemed nice, and didn’t care when he found out my secrets. I thought he was a good roommate for a long time, until…

It started.

Albert wasn’t the hot rod in the dealer’s lot. He was a beat up Ford MK1. His chin was sunken into his neck, and his skin was the color and texture of a rotten peach. He was awkwardly built and lanky, and to make this guy a real winner, his shoe size couldn’t have been more than 6 and a half. The only feature that stood out were his eyes. They were bright blue, like the picture of the ocean on a postcard. They locked you in, held you there for a long time. Something about them was unsettling, but I could never place my finger on what. I thought it was something wrong with me, like everything else. Like I said, he was a “nice guy”. So I shoved my suspicions about Albert aside and tried my best to get along.

But everything changed when he actually found a girlfriend. Peg was a factory worker and she wasn’t a real looker either. She had features similar to that of a brick wall, and an attitude exactly of that. She smelled like grease even after she showered. I didn’t care about Albert’s love life, because to be honest I was pretty confused about my own at the time. One night I heard Peg screaming in Albert’s room. I thought it was some fetish thing, so I stayed quiet in my room until morning. Her screams still ring in my ears sometimes, because oh god, how could I be so stupid? The next morning, Albert emerged, disheveled but otherwise looking completely proud of himself. But something about him seemed…wrong. As in more wrong than usual.

Half asleep and mulling over a cup of instant coffee, I leaned over the table and watched as Albert went over to make himself a cup. “ So, uh, will I have to make her breakfast later?” “Nope,” he said, his voice joyful and half laughing at my question.

“ I didn’t hear her leave last night,” I said, taking a long sip of my coffee.

“She didn’t.” “ Then, is she-”

“ I killed her, Porfirio.” It didn’t seem real for a few moments, and I felt in many ways disconnected from myself. There was Porfirio, looking like a deer in headlights, eyes blurring with disbelief. His heart had fallen past the pit of his stomach and feet, melting into the floor. And then he asked, “ What?” As if he didn’t already know. You heard the screams, genius. Then he started making connections, and there it was, the elephant sized tiger in the room. Porfirio stood up, almost falling over on the table, and he ran over to Albert’s, room, throwing open the door and almost breaking it off of it’s hinges. And there she was.

Peg was horribly mutilated when Porfirio found her. Her breasts were cut off, and she was cut through the middle with a jagged knife. Her organs spilled out in a bloody mess on the floor. Her eyes were wide open, blood shot with the fear and agony she had gone through in her late life, her mouth still hanging wide in a scream. But I didn’t answer her screams for help and mercy. I, Porfirio, had stayed silent in my room the whole night. My heart wretched and beat, pounding as though it was tired of me and wanted to be free. I didn’t realize how heavy I was breathing. My eyes darted across the floor which was stained in a dark color.  I looked over to where her bottom half, or what was left of her bottom half, was. It was cut apart, and stacked like lincoln logs in the corner of the room. The lower half of the torso almost like a crumbling house with the organs and spine protruding out from it, the skin marred from knife wounds. The legs were leaning on the side of it, cut off from the lower half, the soles of the feet touching and holding it all together. There was no beauty in it, in murder there is no beauty or grace. Murder is not art, and I’m sorry if your fucked up mind ever tells you it is.

I felt a metallic and bitter taste rise on my tongue, and out from my mouth flowed the coffee I drank and bits and pieces of what I had ate the night before. It even took me a few moments to realize that that new fluid solidifying on the floor had come from me.

And behind me,

Albert was laughing.

“ With what you are, and you can’t even stomach this?” He said with some sort of dry, fucked up laugh that I never wanted to hear again. I was a werewolf, dammit, but I wasn’t a killer! My mind was blank as it searched for answers, my mind darting across the carnage. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, it was as though the moment had locked me into a cage where I would never escape.

When I could move again, I was ten minutes late for work. That fucking asshat had made me ten minutes late. I forget a lot of what Albert told me, but I couldn’t respond so it wasn’t really important. Something about art I think. But any person would know what he did wasn’t art. I went into my room, and thought about it all being some sort of dream. But it wasn’t. I could still hear Albert cleaning up his “masterpiece” in the other room. I slid on the black pants which were a typical quota for where I worked, and I noticed that my legs were still shaking. My hands shook with them. I buttoned my pants with my fumbling hands and slipped on my red shirt. I pushed myself off from the bed and went over to my mirror, taking some hair tonic on my comb and slicking it through my black hair. I was ready to go, but I looked like a deer after it’d been hit by a car and left on the side if the road to die. I figured there was nothing I could do to fix that, and I tried my best to head out into the world and be a functioning being.

That was one of the hardest shifts at the Five and Dime I’d ever done. My eyes kept darting to the clock, watching the black hands tick onto each number, going onto the calendar to see the moon schedules. Full moon next week. Full moon, and what would I do? What could I do? How could I fix this? I said absent minded hellos to the customers, half hearted “have a nice day”s. Occasionally, a “buenos dias” and a “gracias”, and each time one of the abuelas tried to start a conversation, she noticed something was wrong. After I refused to tell her why, she scurried off to make a big lunch or something. Damn, did I want to tell her. I wanted to gush out my feelings, cry and melt onto the counter about how my roommate was a murderer. I wanted confess like I was the murderer. I felt guilty, like a man being convicted of his crimes on death row. My mind kept calling me back to the room, and I sure as hell didn’t know what to do about it. I couldn’t kill Albert, because in my heart I knew that I wouldn’t finish the deed, and he’d find a way to frame me for the murders. I couldn’t tell anyone-if I did, I’d be shot up as soon as I turned on the full moon. It was perfect conditions for Albert, and I cursed my rotten luck. I’d climbed the hill to fall back down it again, and I wondered if that would be how I spent my eternal life now that Cecil was gone…

The answer came to me after Albert had killed so many, I had to stop counting them for my own sanity. Albert was an expert by now, and he was coming up with new “creative” ways to get rid of the bodies. Leaving them in the woods or throwing them into a river, turning them into soaps and sweets he’d share with cronies at his office job. Knowing how to clean the blood, taunting me at work as he went into my Five And Dime and buying supplies to clean his messes. I felt myself being torn apart with every kill, separating like egg whites and yolks for a demonic pastry. I wanted so desperately to do something about it, but I couldn’t. Albert knew it too, Albert mocked me for it. When his eyes locked me in, they were challenging me, daring me to do something about it.

Then it appeared to me one night.

I was in the kitchen, sitting at the table. Our counter space was occupied by a junk tv I bought. I turned it on to drown out the screams, to drown myself in whatever protests were happening. I turned it on after work, sitting to watch the daily news that was never new at all. But that day was an exception. It was turned on to some hippies out in California, a reporter with a pole up their ass along with McCarthy’s head in the mind talking about why these younglings were important.

LSD.

LSD. Sweeping the college campuses and the student protests, they said. Said protesters reported how it opened the mind, how it felt like heaven was right in front of them, how great they felt. An escape from reality.

It sounded foolproof.

If I went wolf during a trip, I could kill Albert with ease while having no idea what I was doing! And even if I didn’t, it could help me with how I was feeling, help me find a way to kill him. It was perfect. “ Why are you smiling?” Albert asked, staring back at me as he did the dishes.

“ I wanna try it,” I said, pointing at the television screen.

He shot me a suspicious look. “ Why?” “ Why not?” “ You can’t be serious. Those protesters with their liberal bullshit wouldn’t know their head from their asses.” Well, looks like Albert really didn’t fit one of my roommate specifications after all. “ Listen Albert, I just, uh, have a good feeling about it.” I shifted in my chair, and I realized then my smile. Albert asked about out but I didn’t really pay attention to his question. “You’re going to the college today, right?” Albert, much to my disgust, had recently taken an affinity to killing college students. Told me it was something about the vitality and robbing of innocence that got him off.

Albert nodded, “there’s going to be a frat party tonight.”

“I’ll go with you and I’ll get it there!”

Albert thought about this for a minute, shooting me a sideways glance that made an anxious feeling rise into my heart. It didn’t matter if he said no really, but maybe I could prevent another murder if I took the LSD before he killed somebody. A part of me still feared the consequences, but a larger part of me was desolate-it had no fear or much of anything really.  Maybe LSD could fill it with something, but then again that was pure assumption based on this horrible, wonderful plan I had.

I sat in the front seat with Albert as we drove to the college. He’d been hesitant around me the whole day, and for the first time, I started to reconsider my plan. What if Albert was preparing for the moment I was going to trip like I had? What if he sat in his cubicle office job the whole day, answering phones and typing out sheets, all while thinking about all the ways my trip could hurt him and his plans? With the way he looked at me, it wasn’t too far fetched. “ You sure about this whole LSD thing?” Shit. “ Yeah, of course I’m sure,” I responded, staring out the window. I watched people passing by on the street, my sweaty palms against the dashboard, and the quick beating of my heart. I tried to focus on the people outside, and imagining how Albert would kill them. Although, this made me think about what if I were to do it on my trip, so I quickly abandoned the thought.

There was no moment of bravery, there was no moment at all which I realized “I am doing this no matter what because it is right.” No, I was fucking petrified about the consequences, I was resolute that everything could go wrong and that was it. I wasn’t a hero then. I’m still not. I was and am just a wolfman, going through the desert, horribly out of place but with no way to get out of it. I didn’t have Cecil . God, Cecil  would have killed Albert right after Peg. But I didn’t have that courage. If I was trying to be Cecil , I was only a dull reflection of who he was. So I never tried to be Cecil , though at that moment, I wondered what he would do. I wondered how he would have torn Albert apart, gutting him alive as he screamed, just like his victims before him…

I wondered if I could get to that.

The night air hit me like a bat to the stomach. Going into the clammy, hot frat party, it wasn’t hard trying to find drugs. Most of the students were already drunk, high, or tripping or somewhere in between all of it. The place smelled of pheromones and drugs. I watched them for a few moments, sinking into the crowd. I only looked around 18 after all, so me going into the party wasn’t a huge stretch of the imagination. I surveyed them, some of them were kissing and fucking, some of them were looking at themselves as though they’d never looked at themselves, and others were shouting about absolutely nothing at the top of their lungs. The only lights on were stage lights, multicolored and in various random places around the room. Some of them were out,so I decided that people were moving them. The air buzzed with loud radios, announcers playing the latest tunes, people babbling on about pointless advertisements on things the kids could probably never buy, and people reciting the nightly news. I almost felt high just being in the place, taking in the fumes. But eventually, I found one with acid. The transaction was simple, I handed him a roll of money, and I had 5 strips. They were at the bottom of a small brown bottle with the label scratched off. Sketchy, but I didn’t really care what they did. I just wanted to be out of my skin.

I returned to the car successfully, the bottle in my pocket. I felt proud of myself, sitting in the back seat of the car, laying down with my head against the back of the window. I heard footsteps approaching the car, and I turned my head to see Albert walking a college girl towards the car. She had unkempt brown hair, and wore a flowing dress of some thin material. She got into the side of the car, and by the way she was stumbling, I could tell she was drunk out of her mind. Albert’s tie was undone a little, and he had a look of excitement on his face. Watching that disgusting, putrid piece of filth stumble with the girl towards the car made me want to vomit.

I heard the car doors open, and slam shut. The girl in the front seat smelled like she had taken a bath in a whiskey keg, and she chuckled. “ Who’s the Puerto Rican in the back?” She asked, her voice slurring. I didn’t bother correcting her and telling her I was Mexican. It wouldn’t make a difference. She mattered, yet she didn’t matter at all. She was a human life, a woman who deserved to become someone great. She could have the cure for cancer in that brain of her’s, and humanity deserved to have that. She didn’t deserve to get killed by Albert, snuffed out too soon. Her family didn’t deserve to mourn her and never find the body. She didn’t matter because I had no right to know anything about her, and she had no right to know anything about me. I could have told her to run, tell her Albert was a murderer, but that wouldn’t do any good. She’d run out of the car, inform everyone at the party, and Albert would deny it. If the police came, there wouldn’t be enough evidence linking him to anything, and he’d be let go. Then he’d tell the world about my existence, and I would die. Albert would kill more people. So I couldn’t do anything, except sit there, and hope the little pieces of paper in that bottle would end this whole mess… “ Don’t mind him,” Albert said, smiling to the full extent which his sunk chin could allow. I wondered if the girl could even tell how ugly Albert was. I despised how he talked about me. It reminded me of how my Mother would tell the women in her church group about all the things I’d done wrong, when I’d done absolutely nothing. I was a good child and she fucking knew it. My Dad just filled my body with scars for no reason other than he liked to have that power over me. Albert liked to have that power over me. He liked knowing I was a wolfman, and he liked knowing that to keep me quiet. He liked knowing that anything I said to the girl would do nothing. He liked having me powerless.

But not for long.

By Jesus, not for long.

A few minutes into the drive, I opened the bottle with the strips. I shook it until two fell into my palm, and I was surprised by the color. They were bright, neon colors like pink and green. I wondered if I hadn’t been handed something else by the college junkie, but then I realized it didn’t really matter. I popped two on my tongue, and counted three more left in the bottle. I was tempted to take them all in one go, but I didn’t want to wake up dead. Being dead wasn’t too bad in the situation, hell, maybe that’s how they’d catch Albert; but I wanted to know that Albert would be dead. I wanted him dead and gone. I wanted to know that he wouldn’t hurt anyone anymore, even this girl in the front seat. Maybe her life wouldn’t go anywhere, and she’d wish she was dead just like me. But there was still a chance it wouldn’t. And that chance, was worth it.

I closed my eyes and felt the strips dissolving, and I let myself go calm, knowing that this was only chance one. I had three more left. Three more…

I felt my skin grow more receptive to the air around me, the staunchness of the car. My senses became more aware of the insides of the car, and I felt like I could feel everything in myself. I felt like I could feel my brain firing off, my stomach processing my dinner. It felt like my life had ended, and I’d risen again, learning the layout of this new, beautiful body. I opened my eyes and looked at my arms, and my vision took me by surprise. Everything felt sharp, clear, as though I’d been seeing through a fog my whole life and it had recently cleared up. I laughed, and the sound echoed as though I was in a cave-no, the basement. Cecil. I laughed, and things started to change. They grew different colors-the leather came to have flecks of green, light blue, and in amazement I sat up and touched it. Albert and the person had began to talk again, and their voices became echoed was well, distorting as my thoughts seemed to talk, sounding out all around me. It was as though I was back in the party, only the party was myself. My thoughts moved at a lightning fast pace, marathoning in a circle around me. The place I was in felt new, it felt refreshed through this clear lense of colors that were so perfect. I wanted more. I moved my arms and felt the muscles within them contracting to commit to my movement, I felt in control. God, I was finally in control. For my whole life others had controlled me, my Father, Albert, with the exception of Cecil. God, Cecil, you should have seen this! I felt a flooding sense of joy and comfort come over me, nothing was wrong.

I forgot about Albert in more wonderful world.

He was so far away, and I was so close, so intimate with the world around me.

I was in heaven.

When the car stopped, I was very aware of it. I got out of the car, and onto the sidewalk. The world was fluid around me, as though each part was fragmented into many pieces like a stained glass mirror, only the pieces of glass were moving as though there was one great force pulling them. I walked up the stairs to the apartment, Albert was ahead of me and so was the girl. They became closer as though I had put a pair of binoculars upon them, and far away as though there was a football field of distance. The stairs grew bigger and smaller, and I paused on a few of them, thinking that if I moved, I would lose my footing and fall off the edge. The images then separated, one image layered with a rotating translucent version of the other. So I was back in the apartment, and I found myself completely in love with the tiles. I fell to the floor and watched them. They were changing to different colors, different patterns which moved like a river on the floor. And I touched these patterns, and found that when I came closer to them they faded. My thoughts had somehow gotten lost into a greater loop that was beyond myself, and I had forgotten about killing Albert. I was pounding my hands onto the moving patterns, the texture of the tile so sleek and glossy beneath my hands. And new voices joined my trekking thoughts, asking me in both English and Spanish about things I hadn’t thought about before. I felt so happy, so happy that tears slipped down my face, feeling so hot yet comforting. “ Beautiful,” I said, my voice joining the continuous echo.

Around me, shapes began to rise, I had lost all sense of time although I know it was slipping by like the patterns around me. Shapes rose and went to the ceiling which flowed like an expanding and shrinking river, rose up to touch the ceiling and fall back onto the fluid tile. The pure, free joy came over me and surrounded me as I laid down on my back near the table. I had almost forgotten there as I watching the towers rise and fall. I fell in love with it too, stroking the sides like a soft animal. The spires swirled into the air then swirl back down, rise up from me, then swirl back down. It was mad, glorious, I loved it. Warm hands were touching me, all warm hands were pulling me down into the floor, warm hands that loved me. There was a great sense of everything being resolved, including Albert. Everything was okay. Heaven. Heaven was where LSD had brought me, a new bright world where I was free from anything and everything. A place where I could hear everything and nothing. It was beautiful.

Then, I found myself closing my eyes, feeling the great weight possessing them. I closed my eyes, and the world quickly went black.

When I woke up, I knew I was back in reality. The LSD had worn off, except for a large feeling in my chest. I sat up, hoping it would go away, and something thumped on the floor next to me. It was then I realized my shirt was covered in wet blood, and on the side of me with eyes wide open was the girl.

I’d failed.

I’d fucking failed.

Like the rest of Albert’s victims, she was cut in half. The torso now lay on the ground beside me, pale as a sheet with her skin sunken inwards. Only this time, I noticed that she was clean cut, as though someone had taken out the organs inside her. I let out a scream and curses.

“ Porfirio? More like, Poor Fear Rio.” Albert laughed at his own fucking stupid joke, which didn’t at all alter the total panic I felt from the girl’s dead body and my own failure. “You killed her, you know. You killed her in that form of yours!”

“ ¡Calláte, hijo de la chingada!” I spat bitterly, my words coming out in sharp, fearful breaths. I looked down at my hands, feeling dizzy and unable to catch my breath. He was a lot worse than an hijo de la chingada, but at that moment those were the only words my mind child find. I suddenly missed the LSD trip, because it felt better than reality-hell, it felt more real than reality. I was resolute that I didn’t kill her. It was impossible. I knew I was on the ground the whole time, and Albert was too fucking stupid to even make it look like I killed her. Although I knew this was true, it added onto the sudden hatred I had for myself. The feeling of failure and self betrayal. I felt like vomiting as I looked over to the dull eyes of the girl, and I pulled my legs to my chest and put my face down into my knees. I couldn’t even ask Albert if I had turned to my wolf form during the entire thing, because I was panicking to much to think of anything but the dull eyes, no longer watery from her drunkenness. Both living and dead, they seared themselves into my brain, and all the revelations I came to during the acid trip had disappeared. I felt exactly where I had started-

Powerless.

I took and shower to wash the blood off, relied on the sun to dry my hair, and got on my uniform to go to the Five And Dime. Before I forgot, I rummaged through my clothes from the night before to get the medicine bottle with the LSD. I put it on the top of my dresser, and stared at it as I prepped myself for work. My hands went slowly on the tie, and suddenly the girl’s eyes came back into my mind. I pulled it tighter, and tighter, and tighter-

Until my eyes focused on the LSD again.

I released my grip on the tie, coughing a bit and feeling the all too familiar wave of nausea creep up from my stomach. “ I won’t fail again,” I promised myself and the bottle. “ Two more tabs of it, and I’ll kill him. I won’t fail again.” Fear was surrounding me, closing me up in the darkness like a trash bag smothering my body. Trash bags were Albert’s signature when he threw someone into the river. I had failed. I had robbed her family a chance of having a daughter. I had robbed her of a chance to live her life, whether that be for the better or for the worse. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, still don’t, but at that moment I felt like I killed her. Maybe I couldn’t kill Albert, whether that be on acid or not. I was a coward, I knew that much. I had defied all the bravery that I had ever seen in Cecil, I spat on his legacy when I was supposed to carry it on. A headache throbbed in my skull, an alarm to fire off that I needed to go to work.

It was like I’d witnessed Peg’s death for a second time, only this time I had a plan. Everything I did felt dull and mechanical, rehearsed over and over. Any stamina that I’d gained from working and escaping the apartment was gone, drained by the dead girl’s eyes that stared down on me. I tried to think about my trip, remember what I’d seen and what I heard that had made me happy. It was all gone, gone…

I popped two strips in my mouth, the same as the last time. I closed my eyes for a few moments, then found relief in my senses sharpening. And it all came back to me, coming in like an old friend. The hurried thoughts, the voices, and the spires of color, the patterns like stained glass reaching into the sky as they touched the ceiling moving like a river of color.  I looked at my arms, expanding and retracting, full of color and light. It was then I felt myself rising, I was going somewhere else. I was floating along the air, I had become a different being. Around me the world had changed, I was no longer in a bed, I was no longer anywhere that I recognized.

This new world was full of the geometric patterns which I looked at with great awe, patterns that rose endlessly into a sky where they gathered and swirled together. Below me was a sensation like heaters blowing around me, then I felt myself changing, changing into my wolf form. Had I forgotten the full moon, or was it the drugs? This thought was lost in the echoing voices and thoughts that all seemed to pass by fluidly, like the blue and green surface where I stood. And when I looked up from where I stood, I saw a being absorbed by these colors, a familiar form almost like a mirror image of the form I had taken on. Only this image was not me. From it I gathered a familiar sense, as though I had found-

“ Cecil!” My voice became loud like a scream, echoing and remaining through the trail. I was so small in comparison to this wide, majestic place where I now was. It wavered, the images folding onto themselves and creating new ones, the world around me beautifully distorted save the being before me. The rapture of seeing Cecil was so immense, and I heard his voice again. Cecil, whom I had watched fade away in the hospital, whom’s coffin I lifted and left behind, Cecil, Cecil my mentor, my spiritual Father, whom I had mourned. Engulfed in the beautiful and unclear world, where we were both a part of something much larger.

“Do what is right,” Cecil told me, his words then getting lost. “ Kill Albert. Do not forget.” “Cecil!” I cried again in amazement, rushing towards him in the energy that I was.

“ You are strong. You are a part of something much greater, Porfirio. You are worthy. You are whole, and you are loved. What you are going through is a muddy stone in a river, a river of what your eternity shall be.” “ I get it,” I cried, my voice shaking through the world. “ I get it!”

Cecil neared me, his presence filling me with the paternal warmth and guidance it had offered me in the past. Gone was the image where he wasted away, gone was the weight of his coffin in my hand, gone, all gone. He was there, holding me, filling me with a purpose that I had forgotten. Filling me with faith, the hope, the love of myself that had gotten lost, that I never fully discovered. It felt like the gate to everything had been unlocked, and here I was, inside of it all, a part of it all. I may not be brave, yes. But that was alright. I was brave in the eyes of others, and bravery did not matter. I was myself, I was a part of something greater. I was a part of a loving world. And it was time for me to destroy something for that whole.

Instead of fading to darkness this time, I faded back into reality. When the effects were gone, there I was, lying on my bed. I got out of my bed and went to find Albert, fear coming over me like the waves of something that I felt when becoming a wolfman. I decided quickly on how to do it if it was not already done. I didn’t know if I’d killed him already or not.

          My thoughts were answered when I heard someone screaming in the next room, a man this time. Albert usually didn’t do double kills, but since he was, this was all more of a reason for it to happen tonight. I was running quickly, and only then I realized-

I had been in the form of the wolfman. I ran on my hind legs, feeling my paws running against the floor. I jumped on the door, knocking it down. I saw Albert, the man on the bed tied to it as Albert laced him with cuts that weren’t deep enough to kill him. He turned to me, and I saw the surprise widen his horrible eyes.

Surprise.

And horror.

Like the girl.

I bit into his stomach, taking a mouthful of his torso. I tasted his blood, felt his organs between my jaws, and tossed them aside when I felt the waves reversing. It didn’t matter. I kept him pinned beneath my weight as I changed back, and wrapped my hands around his throat. He tried to fight me off, but he was weak from my bite and his arms felt like rag dolls as they tried to push me away. I saw his face turn bright red as I squeezed his neck as tightly as I could, I saw it turn redder, then violet, then blue-and dead. His eyes lulled back in his head, and I continued squeezing, my grip as tight as it could go. Even though I knew he was dead, I threw his body off of the bed and watched it fall onto the floor with a thud. I went onto the floor, launching into obscenities, and I cut my hand as I pried the knife from his dead hands. He’s managed to cut me a few times, but he had failed once I had torn into his stomach. The truth possessed me, and I couldn’t stop. He was dead, but some part of me told me he was still living. I took the knife from his hands, and stabbed it, I continued stabbing it into his head until it split open, the brain flowing out like a smashed pumpkin. Then, a great sense of tranquility came over me.

I stopped, my breaths shaking my body, and I dropped the knife.

I looked at the victim on the bed, surprised, looking at me with fear. “Stupid,” I said to myself, although I was bound to break that habit sometime. I took the knife, and cut the rope at the boy’s foot. He seemed horrified, watching me in shock. He didn’t thank me, he just laid on the bed, filled with fear. I dropped the knife on the ground, and it clattered onto the floor. “ It is done.”

I left the room, my feet feeling heavy as the rush had faded. I’d done it. I’d fucking done it. I succeeded. I went back into my room, a great sense of relief and tranquility coming over me. And that was it. I turned to my mirror above my dresser, and saw myself, covered in blood. Covered in small nicks. Then, I saw the reflection of the pill bottle.

One tab left.

Why the hell not? Some part of me still felt disgusted in myself, felt wrong, although what I had done was the right thing. I may have killed him, but I prevented the death of future victims. I needed to be away from it again. I needed one last time to get myself away, one little reward for this thing that I had done. Maybe I’d even see Cecil again, and he’d congratulate me on my good work. Albert was my first killing, and my last.

My hands fumbled on the white lid, and I nearly dropped the brown bottle.

I let the small, green tablet spill out onto my shaking hand.

Shaking? I laid back on my bed, feeling relief and tiredness. This wouldn’t last long.

I slipped the tab onto my tongue,

And I went to heaven one last time. 

[cheese-induced-madness]

twobrains x reader headcanons bc i can't be the only one simping for this guy. under the cut bc long post. minors beware, it gets a little suggestive at times (like pg-13 levels, i'm not putting straight up pr0n in the main tag like an animal)

-Dr. Two Brains is a man who is very free and unrestrained with physical affection. If he enjoys your company, expect him to be extremely touchy feely with you in an almost infuriatingly casual manner. He'll pull you in close, hold your hand just for the sake of it, snuggle up next to you if he's sitting down near you, or just keep an arm around your waist. He's also not above letting his hands wander into less innocent places (with respect for all boundaries, of course.)

-That being said, as open as he is with the physical and sensual side of things, emotional intimacy is where he struggles. He has a reputation as the most dangerous villain in the city to uphold, and feelings are complicated when you have two brains that hate each other, so he has to have complete and total trust in someone before he really lets them in. He sees vulnerability as very high risk/high reward.

-The mouse brain cares about nobody and nothing except for cheese. While Steven will love you dearly regardless of the mouse brain's opinions, Squeaky will either see you as a means to an end for more cheese, a tolerable neutral party, or a distraction from his ultimate goals, depending on how into cheese related crimes you are. There may be a bit of infighting between the two brains depending on how mean Squeaky decides to be about the whole situation.

-Dtb would never allow himself to hurt you. He may be grouchy at times, he may raise his voice in annoyance (and immediately regret it), he may break promises if it means he gets cheese out of it, but he would never lay a hand on you in anger. He isn't perfect, and he's certainly evil, but he draws the line at being abusive. That's one low he simply refuses to sink to.

-He makes an active effort to compliment you a lot, especially on specific things so you know he's being genuine. He's pretty fond of calling you cute or sweet, and he makes sure to let you know he thinks pretty highly of your intelligence to balance out how much he brags about his own. If you shoot him compliments back, it'll catch him off guard and he'll absolutely melt. As popular as he is as a villain, he's also still highly feared, so it's rare that he feels genuinely loved.

-As much as he wants to give you hickeys, he is also highly nervous about where the line between love bite and painful bite would lie when he has teeth that can chew through solid steel.

-He likes having you around while he's building rays. It's nice having someone to bounce ideas off of, and even if you don't fully understand how it all works, just giving him the chance to explain his process out loud if he's hitting a wall can help him realize exactly what may be going wrong.

-Sometimes he'll make an unnecessarily long string of really bad puns to annoy you because he thinks you're cute when you're suffering from his terrible almost-comedy.

-If you are not already an active villain, twobrains will offer to show you the ropes of doing crimes and help you plan out your first spree. Of course, if getting involved isn't really your deal, he'll be perfectly content with letting you hang back at his lair while he and the henchmen go on cheese heists, as long as you bring him a block of cheddar now and again when inevitably he ends up in jail again.

-If you ARE already a villain with a decent reputation, expect him to get just the slightest bit competitive about the title of top villain. He won't take it too far, but he definitely gets a little salty if you ever manage to rank higher than him, and then immediately tries to one up you with an extravagant heist, which, most of the time, will fail spectacularly. Also expect him to consider rampaging through the city while constantly slipping flirting in with the standard villain banter to be a date.

[docockbrainrot]

i think i want you (to leave)

Summary: We’re all running from something. Sometimes, metaphorically. Sometimes, literally. Literally running, from the very strangely hypnotizing supervillain that seems hellbent on ruining every bit of your life he can get all eight of his limbs on.

Pairing: Doc Ock X Reader

Content: Slow Burn, NSFW eventually, 18+, Female Reader

(A/N: hey yall so this is the first fic ive written in literal years and i was going to wait to start posting it until ao3 let me in but i just kind of wanna get it rolling now so i dont just abandon it lmao. ill link it though once i make an account. song suggestion with each chapter, not always super related but a sample from my inevitable otto playlist and title was also borrowed from the oh, weatherly song of the same name. pls enjoy :3)

Chapter 1

city// dbmk

Everyone always told you it was really quite impractical to bring your car with you when you moved to New York. And while you wholeheartedly agreed- you just couldn't bear to part with her, in all her busted bumper and peeling paint glory. The old gal had gotten you from sea to shining damn sea more than once and there's memories in every stitch of her leather seating. And in all the shitty little trinkets you've collected that are shoved haphazardly across the dashboard and dangling ostentatiously from the rearview mirror that occasionally call attention from douchey cops with nothing better to do than pull someone over for 'obstructed vision'. Or maybe it was the Fuck The Police bumper sticker. Who could say.

Tonight though, is one of those nights where you wish you had scrapped her for some cash to justify refilling a Metro card. 

Parking is always slippery business in this neighborhood, downtown with the streets lined with cafes and boutiques and an outrageous amount of tourism. So while you aren't surprised per say when the nearest parking spot is a solid ten minute walk from your apartment, you are still disappointed. At least it has the potential to be a nice stroll. It seems like a quiet night, with markedly less honking, road raged shouting, or various other nuisances that make living in the Big Apple so dang quirky.

A couple of sad finagling attempts at parallel parking later and your beater is sandwiched securely (maybe… maybe too securely) between a large Cadillac SUV and some kind of hideous Jeep. Throwing the gear shift into park, you sit there for a moment to just contemplate your life. And glower unhappily at the bag of groceries on the seat besides you that, well, isn't gonna bring itself inside. Sigh. Okay. 

The driver's door creaks open and you gather your bag (singular. it's one bag- but you're still not happy about it) and keys and phone and- wallet? Wallet?? Oh- it's in your coat pocket. Wait- keys? Don't lock the keys in the car- okay, no you're holding them. You kick the car door closed with what you hope would look like a cool little move, had you been able to keep your balance and not trip yourself in the process. And the door bounces back open. 

Scowling, you give it a good slam with your elbow and miserably lock it with the key fob. Definitely more times than necessary, the telltale chirp of the mechanism sounding off several times in rapid succession. Better safe than sorry. 

It's not like it's a particularly dangerous area. Even the brunt of the superhero bullshit stays more uptown than your little nook of Manhattan and muggings are a slim to none occurrence. The people are often kind and friendly when you walk your dog around the surrounding blocks and in the past few years of having to drag your sorry ass ten blocks from your car to your building at unholy hours of the night, you've had yet to have a bad or even remotely off putting experience. 

Guess everyone's luck runs out eventually.

The streets are quiet, but fairly well lit. Every once in a while you have to trek past an alley, dark and dank and unwelcoming in all senses. You don't look. There's something about peering into the darkness, the void. Ever since you were a child and long drives home through Midwestern countryside filled your evenings, you couldn't bear to glance into the woods once the sun had set. It was an unsettling sensation you could only describe as the pure fear of someone, or something, looking back at you through the unforgiving, unknown territory. 

Reminded uncomfortably of this rather baseless trepidation, you slip your hand into the pocket with your keys and your fingers find the little key-chain stun-gun. Your mother insisted you have some kind of self defense on you at all times, living alone in a big city. You tried to tell her that… well… frankly the dinky little 'weapon' would hardly stand up against any of the truly terrifying creatures that skulk around the boroughs. But she probably wouldn't take that very well. She worries enough about you as it is. After every big (and small) hero versus villain clash she gets wind of from the media she's calling you to make sure you weren't thrown from a bridge or had a car dropped on you. 'Not yet, but here's hoping,' you always respond with the dry sense of humor that drives your poor mom bonkers. 

Pathetic weapon in hand (though in truth… maybe it looks more like some kind of pocket vibrator- it's even pink! Come on, Mom!), you steel your nerves and doggedly avoid glancing down the alleyways despite the looming curiosity that always gnaws at your innards. It makes you feel a bit like a child that's going to get caught red handed, anxious and perturbed. 

A sound comes up from behind you, at least you think it's from behind. Hasty footsteps, labored breathing. You forget all about the stupid alley and look over your shoulder. There's a man rapidly scrambling down the sidewalk towards you, looking quite like he'd had an awful day. His lab coat is dirty and his glasses are cracked and he even looks like he might be injured. He doesn't look twice at you as he pushes past. 

That's when you notice… the other noise. It makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you don't think about it- you glance down the dark catwalk. For a moment, you see nothing. Then two glowing red pinpricks of light glare back through the gloom. Your heart seizes in your chest when two… becomes four. And that unnerving sound is getting closer- like mechanical whirring occasionally interrupted by a dull kerchunk like someone's slamming a hammer into the concrete with perfect repetition.

Lab Coat Guy doesn't make it very far. A long, metal appendage rockets out of the alleyway with a distinctive shhhnkk and it's claws hook into the back of his clothes and lift him several feet off the ground. A second figure comes into view from the shadows, shrouded with darkness as he toes the line between sidewalk and alley.

Your heart can't take this stress, really, you promised your mother your anxiety was under control. You haven't moved a muscle, frozen in place barely a few steps from where Lab Coat Guy was pleading incoherently, probably for his life, while dangling pathetically in the air. Maybe if you don't so much as breathe you'll go invisible. You feel like a rabbit cornered by a pack of feral dogs and the flight or fight instinct has securely settled on… fright. 

"Honestly, David. You thought you could get away?" The voice is almost lilting with melody, gentle on the ears and pleasant. A bizarre contrast as you take in the imposing form of the man who takes the final step into the light. Supervillain, for sure. Trench coat and round sunglasses. Really? The giant robotic tentacles coming from his person aside, that is, it's a dead giveaway. You know who he is immediately, anyhow. You don't live under a rock, he's been the headline of every paper for weeks. Doc Ock, is what they've taken to calling him. Previously some kind of esteemed scientist, Otto Octavius. You really don’t keep up with this wild stuff, really. It’s just rather impossible to be totally ignorant, with the media foaming at the mouth to keep everyone informed of the ridiculous goings on of the city.

He doesn't spare you even a second glance, slowly lowering the blubbering Lab Coat Guy (David?) from his place in the air and launching him abruptly against the door of a car parked alongside the street with such force the vehicle shudders, keeping him pinned there with a claw pressing flat to his chest. Maybe it was a good thing you had to leave your car so far away… You’re pretty sure your insurance doesn’t cover comic book villain damages.

"Please, please, listen, you don't understand, I can't-" David is probably finding it hard to continue begging with the metal crushing into his chest with such force the car door is beginning to creak and crumple under the pressure. Ouch. Looks painful. You're uncomfortably aware of that fact that you could be next if you don't make a fucking run for it. But you're still shell shocked, feet locked into place and eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights. 

"No, you listen to me, David," the good Doctor lowers his voice as he leans down so he's eye level with the terrified man, "this is your final warning. I expect results. By the end of the week. Or else." 

The mechanical arm hums in a low robotic thrum as it retreats from Mr. Lab Coat's battered body. The man takes a moment to stagger to his feet, no doubt suffering from at least a few broken ribs, and he doesn't dare to look back as he hurries away as quickly as his injuries allow. He's gone around the corner of the block as quickly as he had appeared and you're uneasily aware of your current, somehow worse situation.

It's just the two of you. Alone. 

[eryiss]

Chapter Five -  The Cut

Summary: Freed and Laxus live incredibly different lives. Freed is a corporate lawyer in the capital city, and Laxus works as a handyman in a countryside hotel. Despite their differences, their lives collide when Freed inherits a house in Laxus’ village, and hires him to make the derelict building liveable. But the closer they get, the more they seem to offer each other. [Fraxus Multi-Chapter]

This was written as my admission for Fraxus Day 2020, hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus​. Hope you enjoy it. Also, this chapter has mentions of bullying and descriptions of blood,

You can read this under the cut, on Fanfiction, or on Archive of Our Own. You can find the chapter masterpost here.

Chapter Five – The Cut

Melancholy wasn't the word. It wasn't.

Freed wasn't the type of person to get melancholy, he had never been governed by his emotions at all. He didn't look back on things fondly, nor did he feel a sense of sadness when parts of his life were over. Yes, of course things did make him emotional, but he was by no means the type of person to feel sad because something was over. Life moved on quickly, and so must he. It was the rational way to live his life.

It was a mantra he found himself repeating over and over again, as he walked through the house.

The nearly finished house.

The place was by no means a model home, but it worked as it needed to. Windows had been fixed, plumbing and electricals repaired, and structure reinforced. Walls were still stripped with remnants of old-fashioned wallpaper sticking to it, and the floorboards were bare, but it was a house again. It needed love, attention, and upgrading for anyone to actually want it. But it was liveable. Exactly what Freed had wanted. So, following the logic he lived his life by, he should want to sell the place instantly and get back to Era and work on his next case. It was the next logical step, and exactly what he should be doing.

Of course, he wasn't. Because despite it being in contrast with how he'd always lived, Freed felt an odd sense of reluctance to leave. He found himself more than once hovering over the call button on Gildarts' phone number, only to return his phone to his pocket with a muttered complaint of annoyance at himself.

It was pathetic really.

He tried to rationalise it, give his feeling a pragmatic explanation. He said it was because the house was an achievement for him. Something he had done with his hands. A practical achievement that stood out to him because most of his notable work was with the mind. And why would he want to leave something like that? It was a monument to what he could do when he put his mind to it, and he was proud.

But that was a lie, he knew that. The real reason he didn't want to sell the house was because it was the only thing tying him to Magnolia. And he wasn't ready to leave it yet.

Yes, of course he didn't need to own a house to visit the town. He had gained a solid friendship with Laxus, and had gained acquaintances with Laxus' own friends, and so he could justify visiting them from time to time. But the issue lay in that he didn't really want to come back from time to time. He'd gotten used to visiting for the weekends, and he didn't want to stop.

And he couldn't do that now. Not without everyone in the gossiping village knowing why he returned. Because they would, they'd see through it like glass, and Freed wasn't able to deal with that.

He wasn't good at being embarrassed. Never had been.

There were few situations in his life where he had actually been embarrassed, something that happened by design. There had been a few unfortunate instances in his teenage years that find themselves replaying in his head on random nights. So he had made a conscious effort to avoid any situation where embarrassment might occur. It was working well, all in all, and yet this village had this effect on him that made him question the choices that had kept him sane so far.

Freed shook his head. He wasn't getting melancholy, and he certainly wasn't getting self-reflective.

It did nobody any good.

He took a small sponge and slowly wiped down the table in Albion House's kitchen. It had been there when Freed had inherited it, and after Laxus had sanded it down and polished it, it was as workable as the rest of the house. Tonight was the first time the table was going to be used for its actual purpose. He and Laxus were going to have a meal together.

That didn't help the situation.

Because, clearly there was something more. Magnolia was a nice town, and the people in it were good to Freed, but nobody got that sentimental over a collection of buildings. People did, unfortunately, get sentimental about other people.

And annoyingly, Laxus was a good person. He was snarky, and had a bite to him, and he could challenge Freed without blinking. But he was also kind, and helpful, and when he was teaching Freed how to wire a socket or plumb in a toilet, he was patient and made sure to keep the mood light; particularly when Freed was on the edge of smashing the porcelain bastard with the wrench. He was a good man, and seemed to know how to handle Freed in whatever situation he was in.

Also, he was beautiful. Freed had withheld that admission for a while, but since they would likely part ways soon he wanted to be honest. Broad shoulders, a thin waist, striking blonde hair and bright eyes. Evergreen had been right; he was an Adonis.

It didn't help he had a rustic charm that attracted Freed more than it should.

Perhaps it was for the best that they wouldn't see much of each other. Freed wasn't the romantic type, he had more important things to do. And his attraction was born out of proximity. Laxus was an attractive man, but he was just a man. In one years' time, Freed would have forgotten about him, and his life would be normal again.

And hopefully those occasional dreams would pass too. Be them the disgustingly sweet, or the more… intense ones.

"Hey," A voice snapped Freed out of his thoughts. "I think it's clean."

Freed frowned, then looked down to the table he was cleaning. One particular part of the table in particular was shining more than others. Freed's hackles rose slightly at the teasing tone in Laxus' words, but he scolded himself in his head. Laxus hadn't known what he was thinking about, all he'd seen was Freed washing a table for far too long.

"Out of interest," Freed said, cautiously. "How long have you been here?"

"Fifteen minutes," Laxus grinned, raising the two pots of Chinese food. "Food might be cold."

"Fifteen minutes!" Freed exclaimed, almost horrified.

"It was like half a minute, moron," Laxus smirked, walking to the table, and placing their take-out on the table. "What were you thinkin' about that hard?"

"A case," Freed lied. He didn't have an active case at the moment, but he was probably going to be helping with one soon. When he went back to the city. Permanently. "It's nothing too troubling, really. It's actually quite an easy case really, but our client is high profile, and they might use our services again should they need it. So we need to be litigious and cordial."

"Can't imagine you enjoy being cordial," Laxus smirked. "Probably out of practice."

"And for that, I don't think I'll pay for my half of this," Freed said, reaching over and taking the pot of food from Laxus' hand.

"Kinda proving my point there, ain't ya?"

Freed smiled a little as he brought the chopsticks to his lips. They were having a meal together as a sort of goodbye evening – not helping with Freed's refusal to be melancholy about the situation. Because not only did it force him to confront the fact he's leaving, he has to do so with the man who's making it a lot harder to do so. Worse still, Laxus had looked so damn charming with a tediously honest smile when he'd suggested they eat together. It had sent a little jolt through Freed.

Bastard. Maybe he was doing it on purpose.

"I saw Cana while I was waiting for the food," Laxus spoke again, garnering Freed's attention again. "She mentioned that her dad's looking forward to seeing what we've done with the place, apparently he's been excited about it."

"Is he interested in buying it?" Freed asked, frowning.

"He's your estate agent, Freed," Laxus said in a deadpan voice, though he was clearly fighting a smile. "You should know that. It worries me that you don't know that."

"Gildarts is Cana's father?" Freed frowned further. "They have different surnames?"

"Fuck, sometimes I forget you ain't from here," Laxus laughed loudly, leaning back in his chair and grinning. "There's a hell of a lot you don't know, isn't there? Well, guess the best place to start is with Gildarts, ain't it. Or I guess a more accurate name is Gildarts, Man-Whore Extraordinaire."

And thus, Laxus began to tell the rumours and stories about what Gildarts was like when he was younger – he really did seem to earn the title Laxus had given him – before trailing off to the other stories about Magnolia. He spoke about his hometown with a level of enthusiasm that Freed enjoyed watching, and found himself getting enveloped in the worlds that Laxus was describing. Though he might not be quite as eloquent as Freed was, he certainly made up for it with boisterous laughter and an odd amount of glee at exposing his friends embarrassing stories.

It was almost enough to distract Freed from what Laxus had said. 'I forget you ain't from here.' It was a little sentence, probably a throwaway thought to Laxus, but it made Freed feel oddly comforted. As if he had been accepted into this little community.

A ridiculous idea, really.

He blinked to stop that train of thought, and focused on the story about Elfman. Apparently he had been dragged into some comic book convention by his sisters and had been forced to dress as a monster from a book series. He apparently hated every moment of it, and Laxus had spent the years following showing the pictures of him in the costume at every opportunity he could. To prove his point, Laxus had pulled out his phone and showed Freed.

It was a better costume that Freed expected. But it revealed far too much for the shy, younger version of Elfman that Laxus had described.

Freed did find himself distracted by Laxus, thankfully. But it wasn't quite enough, because as he listened, he absently lowered his left hand under the table and started to swirl his finger against the palm of his hand. Perhaps he wouldn't have noticed the return of his nervous tick, had it not been for the raised scar that he grazed lightly.

It was new, and when he touched it and thought back to its origin, any lie about not being melancholic was shattered.

~~~

"Shit. Fuck. Fuck."

Freed hissed, pain splitting from his left hand up into his arm. He stepped back slightly, eyes flickering to the large gash that he'd just given himself, along with the thick blood that was fighting to get from it. It was a nasty looking cut, and Freed found himself unable to look away from it.

Laxus, who had been crouching down and pushing new floorboards into place, glanced towards Freed with a slight grin. The expression fell when he saw blood drip onto the floor, and he stood up quickly and walked to Freed's side. He took Freed's injured hand in his own, and let out a small hiss of sympathy as he saw the cut. Ridiculously, Freed couldn't help but note that Laxus was holding his hand for the first time.

"That's pretty nasty," Laxus commented.

"Is it," Freed muttered. "I thought it was a papercut."

"Good, if you can be a dick then it ain't that bad," Laxus smiled. "Come on, we need to wash it."

Not removing his hand from Freed's wrist, he dragged the lawyer from the cottage's sitting room and into the kitchen. Freed didn't fight it, instead focusing on catching the droplets of blood rather than letting them land on the carpet and stain it. It was a good enough distraction from both the stinging pain that was running through him, and the presence of Laxus being so close.

It wasn't a distraction from the embarrassment of the situation. Because after being successful at almost every task Laxus had given him, he cut himself sawing off the edge of a floorboard. Out of all the tools he's used, he was bested by a sawblade.

"This ain't gonna hurt a bit," Laxus promised as he opened the faucet and dragged Freed's hand under the stream of water.

Laxus Dreyar was a lying bag of shit.

"Mother fucking crap-whore!" Freed practically yelled. There was a moment of silence, Freed almost panting with pain, and Laxus biting his lip. A second later, a loud, unabashed, raucous laughter filled the room. Laxus actually doubled over he was laughing so much, resting his hands on his thighs while Freed glared at him from the sink. "I'm glad you're enjoying this so much."

"I'm sorry," Laxus grinned, something almost akin to a giggle slipping out. "I really am."

"No you're not."

"I'm not," Laxus agreed. "It was fucking funny, man. I ain't ever seen ya acting like that. Just caught me off guard," He glanced up, met Freed's glare, and burst into laughter again. "I'll get a bandage. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Freed muttered. "And try not to fall, impale yourself on a spike and die. That would be awful."

"Don't worry. Only an idiot could get hurt in this place," Laxus laughed again, and if Freed had something in reach, he would have thrown it at the bastard's head.

When Laxus returned to the kitchen, he was holding the first aid kit that he had insisted they keep in the house; no doubt when the humour of Freed's injury and subsequent cussing died down, Laxus would gloat about how right he was with demanding the first aid kit. He carefully guided Freed's hand out from under the stream of water, and patted it dry softly with a towel. Freed winced a little at the pressure on his cut, but didn't say anything.

Slowly, with careful and practiced movements, Laxus wrapped the bandage around his hand. He managed to avoid trapping any of his fingers. Though the white fabric did get stained slightly, it seemed to trap the blood from pouring out too badly. The pain was subsiding slightly now, too.

It allowed him to appreciate how gentle Laxus was being. He wasn't used to thinking of Laxus being gentle.

"How do you know how to do this?" Freed asked, sitting at the kitchen table.

"I used to have to do it all the time," Laxus sighed a little as he spoke, removing his hands from the bandage and inspecting his handywork. He looked up to Freed, who was frowning at him slightly. "I had a lot going on when I was a teenager, got into a lot of fights. Well, that's how I saw it. Turns out I was kind of a bully."

Freed frowned deeper. "You were?"

"Yeah. Didn't think I was, at the time, but I went to therapy for a while and she called me out on it," Laxus shrugged. "But yeah, a couple times a month I'd fight some kid. Had a superiority complex or some shit, wanted everyone to worship me and do what I want. Cringey teenager shit and a lot of aggression, bad mix. Eventually, when the guys started to fight back, I needed to learn some basic first aid."

When Laxus looked up, Freed had an expression of curiosity on his face. It clearly wasn't what Laxus had expected.

"Was it the therapy that made you stop, then?" Freed asked, and Laxus seemed blind sighted for a moment.

"Er, no. Not exactly," Laxus shook his head. "There were two kids that pissed me off more than most, don't know why. So when things were getting bad, I kinda… targeted them more than anyone else. Natsu and Gajeel, you might have met them at some point. Fireman and mechanic. But they got pissed at me for taking things too far, jumped me, beat the shit out of me, then went to the principal and told him all the shit I've done. Got suspended, thought about myself, and started meetin' with Porlyusica; she's my therapist. She basically listed all the shit I've done and made me be better."

Freed took a moment to think through what he'd just heard. It was the best thing to do, he'd found out. Sometimes people let out their biggest, darkest secrets to him – the curse of being a lawyer – and your first thoughts on the matter were often unhelpful. So he took some time, and eventually asked the question that seemed most prudent.

"Your principal suspended you without evidence?" Freed asked.

"Oh he had plenty of evidence," Laxus laughed. "Hard to get shit past the guy when he's your grandfather."

"Makarov?" Freed frowned.

"Yeah, used to be in charge of the school. Only retired because the school board forced him to," Laxus grinned. "He started working at the hotel because he found retirement boring," Laxus smiled for a moment at the memory of his grandfather's sudden proclamation he was buying the hotel, before looking back to Freed, smile drooping slightly. "I just admitted to beating up kids and being a bully, why doesn't that bother you?"

"Some of my clients intentionally lower their workers' wages to increase their own paycheque, and then laugh about it," Freed shrugged. But Laxus nudged him, sensing there was more. "Nobody was there best in high school, I certainly wasn't."

"You were a bully too huh?" Laxus laughed, joking.

"Well, not exactly, but I wasn't the most kind," Freed leant back in his chair. "I was the smartest person there and wanted people to know it. I would start discussions on test results just so I could make sure everyone knew I'd gotten one hundred percent. And there was one boy, he wasn't the smartest, who sat beside me in most classes. Alphabetised seating plans and all. I could be rather… patronising to him. I think I had a crush on him, in retrospect. It was probably a twisted way of trying to deal with it."

"You don't seem like that now," Laxus commented. "Other than when you're joking, but I know that ain't serious. What changed?"

"Evergreen and Bickslow essentially told me that if I didn't get over myself, they'd stop being my friends," Freed smiled. "Other than them, I only had my parents. I couldn't lose them."

They sat in silence, Freed thinking back to the person he was in high school, Laxus perhaps doing the same thing. It was an odd feeling, sitting with someone who somewhat understood what it was like being ashamed of the person you used to be, but knowing you've grown past them. Most people, if they did feel like that, didn't talk about it. It was nice to know that, in Laxus, he had someone he could relate to.

It was also nice to know that he had just come out to Laxus and the blonde hadn't so much as blinked.

"I would have kicked your ass if we went to school together," Laxus declared, smirking.

"You would have tried," Freed corrected, allowing the mood to be lifted. "But, as a child I was also an award-winning fencer. I would have stabbed you before you could hurt me."

"Hard to stab someone when you've been knocked out," Laxus grinned cockily, making a fist. This had the unfortunate side effect of making his bicep flex, and therefore Freed had to avert his gaze.

They chuckled together, enjoying their joke that wasn't particularly funny. It was relaxing to be around with Laxus, and Freed felt as though he could be honest with him in a way that he couldn't be with others. Perhaps that was because he was the first person Freed had gotten to know deeply since his time in school. But that didn't matter, really. Because the important thing was that he enjoyed Laxus.

"Come on," Laxus spoke again. "I don't trust my bandage work. Let's go to the doctors, make sure you ain't gonna get infected or some shit."

And stupidly, Freed's heart fluttered at that.

~~~

"You really are distracted, ain't ya?"

Freed looked up from his hand, which he had placed on the table and was fiddling with, and towards Laxus. The blonde had an expression unknown to Freed, something between being amused and contemplative. Freed frowned.

"I suppose I am," Freed agreed. "I'm sorry. You wanted to do this and I'm being terrible company. What were you saying?"

"It ain't important," Laxus gave a half shrug. "You wanna tell me what's bothering you?"

"As I said, I've got an upcoming case that could be very good for my company," Freed quickly lied, because the truth was now completely untellable. "It's getting to me a little, but it's not as bad as you might think. I just need to rationalise everything."

"Right. So when I texted Evergreen a second ago and she said you don't have anything planned at work, she was lying?" Laxus crossed his arms, and Freed's eyes narrowed.

"You and Evergreen talk?"

"You can bullshit me all you want, but I'm gonna be able to see through it," Laxus said, ignoring Freed's question. "And you don't have to tell me what's actually bothering you, because if it ain't my business then it ain't my business."

Freed wanted to snipe at him. Ask him why, if he believed his words, was he still talking?

"I'm just gonna say this," Laxus continued. "Nothing has to be done if you don't want it to be."

And, in a way, there was the reality that Freed had been hiding from. Because, as much as he didn't want to leave Magnolia behind, he also didn't want to let himself think he could stay. The hard line he had always drawn with the house was that, once it was functional and sellable, he would sell it and get back to his normal life. Not only was it a goal for him to achieve, but it had also turned into a rule he had to follow.

Because his fondness for both the town and Laxus had been gradual, and it hadn't gone unnoticed by Freed. He told himself he had to leave the place behind at some point, and doing that once the house was sold was a way of holding himself accountable. Once the building work had been completed, there was nothing else for him to do in Magnolia.

But that was a lie.

And the only person keeping him true to the rule was himself.

"I always said that I would sell it once everything was fixed," Freed stated, voice flickering into the lawyer tone he denied having.

"Then say something else," Laxus retorted, as if Freed could do that. "Look, I don't know what your life is like when you're in the city. But I know you seem to like being here. So why don't you just keep coming?"

"I-" Freed paused. He needed to think. "My real life is in the city. I can't-"

"Who says that your real life is just in the city? You've been coming here every weekend for months now, it's as much a part of your life as anything," Laxus stated, and his smile made Freed's resolve crumble slightly.

"I told myself that once the house-"

"This isn't about the house" Laxus insisted. "This is about you, fucking idiot. I think being here makes you happy. And if something makes you happy, why stop because of some bullshit rule you set yourself? That ain't smart."

Freed thought, for a moment.

It was almost nauseating to hear Laxus speaking like this, and Freed couldn't explain why. Well, perhaps he could, but the explanation wasn't something he was willing to entertain. Because the only real reason Laxus would be so insistent on Freed returning to Magnolia as he had been doing was because he wanted to keep seeing Freed. He wanted Freed to stop coming as much as Freed wanted to.

But Freed couldn't allow himself to accept that. Because if he did, he'd start wondering why. And then maybe he'd trick himself into thinking that his silly crush was reciprocated. He couldn't.

"There is… more work I could do," Freed spoke without thinking.

"I guess there is," Laxus nodded. "So you're sticking around? For the house"

"For the house."

It wasn't for the house. They both knew it.

[tomorrow-human]

MY THOUGHTS ON iDKHOW'S ALBUM DEBUT: RAZZMATAZZ

So I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME have just released RAZZMATAZZ today and heres what I think...

[SIDE A]

¹LEAVE ME ALONE:

A bombastic opening track. Was released in the beginning of August...? Probably? This song just SCREAMS at you with retro futuristic funkiness. It has 8-bity flourishes in the instrumentation and seems to be maybe talking to the same person as Choke (from 1981 E.P.) and the title track Razzmatazz have been (or maybe a separate entity as suggested by the vinyl booklet and Indoctoration?).

Anyway, fantastic track, great opener, and nice mood-setter.

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²INDOCTORATION:

It's... eerie. It's not a song in the same sense as Leave Me Alone, despite having a wobbly backing track. It's a spoken interlude that seems to be initiating you into Tellex maybe? It yet again mentions the White Shadows that will be overseeing your progress with Tellex. It seems oddly nostalgic for some reason. That's strange. Overall, solid little piece of lore building that really reinforces the concept aspects.

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³MAD IQs:

It's the first song from this album that wasn't released as a single and it made my jaw literally drop. It has a similar lyrical and vocal structure to the opener and New Invention, but what I like is how much they were able to do with it, though it makes you wonder about how far apart these songs were written; but In the context of the albums concept and the Tellex stuff however, it could be interpreted as a corporate decision, this repetition. The minimal instrumentation in the verses with Ryan's sturdy drumming and Dallon's bassline makes me go fucking bananas. It's so fucking great and full of this punchy energy. And the HARMONIES. YES. "Voluntary victim~" "I'm burning~ in your mad IQs" SIR STOP BEING SO VOCALLY TALENTED. Also I think i heard him shriek right before the bridge which? Snazzy. So Mad IQs, energetic track, filled with more of iDKHOWs signature darkness.

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⁴NOBODY LIKE THE OPENING BAND:

Ah yes, Opening Band. Ironic considering how often iDKHOW are the opening band, but I'm sure that's obvious, seeing how they usually sing this one at the start of their gigs. It was actually (I think) the first or second song I didn't know how but found through youtube so I might be pretty biased here. It's a sweet sounding change of pace with the instrumentation being made up of only the piano and tambourine that tells of a typical opening band, that no ones ever heard before and likely will never hear again, via a sympathetic narrator with a hint of the typical iDKHOW teasing. In all honesty, it would've worked better as the album opener, which then could've been followed by Leave Me Alone, but it's a nice change of pace overall.

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⁵NEW INVENTION:

I already reviewed this song on my other blog right here so imma keep this brief. It shares similar aspects to Leave Me Alone, with the music video concept and song structure, but It manages to darken the narrative, and the choir-esq harmonies sound like ultra bright neon lights that only push this mood further. It still is a magnificent song and by far one of my favourites in the album.

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⁶IN THE GALLOWS:

MASSIVE SHIFT IN STYLE HOLY FUCKOLY-. The track opens with a very cutesy old timey little piano intro and starts the verse with a little funny beat. If you don't listen to the lyrics, it sounds like a silly little oldie song. But as we all know, iDKHOW doesn't do silly. The lines "For you, I'd die▪︎Or kill myself▪︎which ever makes you smile," From just the first verse are a prime example of this. The narrators murderous and suicidal intentions have clouded the romantic attraction into obsession- And I kinda like that, in a poetic way. The chorus is a standout, with the calm start to the explosion in the line "I'd swing from the gallows and wave" that just swings at you with a baseball bat to the chest. Oh, and the sax solo? Magnificent. This whole song is a chefs kiss from me.

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⁷CLUSTERHUG:

I love the lyrics of this song the most of it all. It sounds like a rebellious teenager wrote it after thinking about how shit their hometown is and wanting to get out. It also incorporates how much the narrator would want to do all this with their crush, adding that slightly goofy and pretend-aloof chorus of "only if you'd like me to I could fall in love with you" as if they weren't already in love or at least that's how I see it. The vibe of this song is more pop-y than the rest of the album, but that's more likely because it was repurposed for Razzmatazz after being originally written for The Brobecks, their older band. It's a nice little tune :).

[SIDE B]

⁸SUGAR PILLS:

This. Will. Get. Stuck. In. Your. Head- and. You. Will. Like. It. Basically, just seems like a song about drugs that, for some reason, reminds me of Gorillaz (who I dont even listen to). But the BASSLINE AGAIN- Jesus help me live. It has more of that energy we saw with the first few tracks and adds even more electronic elements. It's probably my second favourite song from this album that's not a single because of how fun the chorus sounds. What else can I say? I can just imagine myself bopping to this in the car screaming 'SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR PILLS' On a hot day.

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⁹KISS GOODNIGHT:

It's so sweet 🥺. It's one of those songs I could imagine a character in a movie singing to someone from a stage. If you want pretty song vibes just listen to it. Because it is a pretty song. And that's all I have to say on it. Now allow me to take a moment and shove it into my pretty song playlist that acts like my personal lullaby machine.

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¹⁰LIGHTS GO DOWN:

Yes. F u n k y. Give me that sweet sweet disco energy, thank you. It's just filled with all these *☆~blingy and sparkly~☆* effects, and, combined with the drumming, the result is just glorious. The best part of this song is in my opinion the bridge where it goes darker lyrically and in sound that just naturally slides into another funky-ass sax solo. I can definitely see myself dancing to this at a party and then in later years growing nostalgic for those days.

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¹¹NEED YOU HERE:

It's supposed to be happy in tone and hopeful slightly but it just makes me sad. It's a song about how, because Dallon has to tour because it's his job, he has to be away from his family often. And he had nO RIGHT ADDING HIS DAUGHTERS VOCALS AND RECORDINGS INTO THE MIX ITS LIKE HE WANTS US TO CRY. It's not my favourite of the album, not going to lie here, but it's also such a sweet song with nice instrumentals and vibe 🥺 so that's all I'll say.

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¹²DOOR:

It seems like this one was written around the time sad ukulele music was really at its peak but am I complaining? Fuck no because this song is great. It just gives it to you straight, that if the narrator ever does anything that the recipient doesn't like, they can always cut them out of their life. It's nice in that regard- you don't usually get songs that don't try to deflect the pain or gain pity. We need more of these kinds of songs. The shortness of it really adds to the effect of this being more like a regularly said thing, even though I'm always a bit sad that it ends so fast. It does, however, nicely close the near end of the album before Razzmatazz.

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¹³TOMORROW PEOPLE:

Creepy Tellex thank-you note. You're welcome..? I want no part in your conspiracy tho. Go away weird American corporate man voice.

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¹³RAZZMATAZZ:

And there it is. The title track. Like new inventions, I have already reviewed it here on that same blog so this will be brief also and more just thoughts. It's a great closer and is more old timey than most of the songs here as well. And with the last instrumental and sax solo, we come to the albums inevitable end... until next time.

[GENERAL THOUGHTS]

Overall, this was a fantastic little debut for iDKHOW and I loved it. So worth the pre-order. The songs were great and the lyrics were just excellent. My only real criticism is that the song order on Side A was a bit strange. I feel a way to fix this would be to throw Nobody Likes The Opening Band into the beginning, then have Leave Me Alone as a second track, and maybe even switch one of the songs on this side with one from Side B (either Mad IQs or New Invention with something else but then that would be kind of stretching it). Or maybe even switching Clusterhug with Mad IQs or New Invention could work. So in general? Razzmatazz good album. Next question.

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Thank you for reading, anyone who happens to see this and have read this. Hope you've enjoyed some of my thoughts on the debut and agreed with at least 2 points I made. See y'all on another review (or shitpost)!

-L.J

[bleucolor]

Last time I tried to post a giyushino fanfic and since i navigate myself through Tumblr like a boomer, I accidentally deleted my story. I felt like a whole ass clown but I'm feeling hopeful and I'm back with another prompt using the moon. This takes place in a modern AU where both Giyuu and Shinobu are teenagers. A random drabble for Giyushino which was inspired by being quarantined at home. Hope y'all enjoy and please do send some love 🥺👉👈

Moonlight and Sunrise

Giyuu and Shinobu were friends, however this fact was quite shocking to others due to their Light and Day personas. Tomioka Giyuu was a loner, he had like maybe 2 solid friends being Sabito and Makomo and the others were at max labeled as acquaintances. Shinobu wasn't the most popular one at their highschool but she was well known. She would always be seen alongside her two best friends, Sanemi the oversized delinquent who'd actually bite your head clear off and Uzui the player; who'd get girls left and right. With attention at both sides of the bay it'd be obvious that Shinobu would be well known around their school, being head of the pharmaceutical research club and still being an avid member of the fishing club and the flower arranging club gave Kochou quite the recognition around Kimestu Academy.

Giyuu happened to be in a different class than Sabito and Makomo to his demise thus forcing him to be the lonesome sheep he is. His classmates didn't bother much about him either and nor did he. To him, Kyojurou was too loud, Sanemi was too reckless and Iguro was too emo. He once even referred to Mitsuri as a horse girl to Sabito, but he later concluded that Kanroji was just a rare hybrid of a Taki girl or a hot cheeto girl and Himejima was that one person who believed in horoscopes too seriously, sometimes he'd do tarot readings for his other classmates which Giyuu honestly found quite cool. Whereas Shinobu was someone Giyuu would've honestly never associated in the first place and truthfully speaking their duo wouldn't even exist if Shinobu hadn't approached him first. Shinobu was more of a bully to Giyuu primarily but later Giyuu had opened up to her about how he thought of her as a close friend and that softened Shinobu's heart and strengthed their bond. Although Kyojurou was the smartest kid in the class; even securing his title as class president; Ubuyashiki sensei always made sure to pair up Shinobu and Giyuu together during class projects thus leading to frequent study sessions together. Towards the end of the year, Shinobu became the third person in the entirety of Kimetsu Academy to be close to Giyuu, the 1st and 2nd being Sabito and Makomo and 4th being a special freshman called Tanjiro.

Even though his classmates were rather annoying, Giyuu never did hate any of them. In fact it was hard for Giyuu to genuinely hate anybody in the first place but then there was this one person and that person was Shinobu's oh so charming boyfriend, Douma. Giyuu saw through his pretty boy personality when she first introduced him. He ranted about it to Sabito the very night, complaining about how he's all fake and it's all just a matter of time before that facade comes of. Sabito didn't miss a beat and told Giyuu to suggest a suitable partner for Shinobu instead, to which Giyuu had no answer to. And as per said prophecy it didn't take long for Shinobu to see Douma's true intentions and she decided a queen like her deserved better than this.

It was finally summer break and Giyuu and Shinobu had finally completed 12 painstaken years of schooling along with the others of course. Shinobu decided to host a little get together and hang out with the people she cared about one last time before they drifted apart into adulthood.

Giyuu reached the mall at about 8 pm and walked straight to the food court since Shinobu informed him that's where they would be. To his horror, Shinobu had invited a great deal of people, including those who didn't like him, example being his whole class. As always his presence was ignored by his classmates but thankfully amidst the groups of people, Giyuu noticed a particular red head named Sabito, aka his best friend. Sabito and Makomo were both invited too. Giyuu and Shinobu's friendship caused Shinobu to become good friends with Sabito as well, both of them developed a special bond while they both took turns into bullying poor Tomioka. Shinobu was sitting next to Kimetsu Academy's mascot boy, Inosuke, who looked way too soft for his harsh demeanor. Shinobu had a soft spot for this freshman. She had told Tomioka of how he filled the gap of her need of a younger brother. Unlike Tomioka, Shinobu had a lot of sisters; Kanae who was the eldest, Aoi was a year younger than Shinobu and then came Kanao who was 2 years younger than Shinobu, and lastly were the triplets, Naho, Sumi and Kiyo who were just middle schoolers. Inosuke was a bratty kid who'd frequently get into trouble for having a foul mouth but he was close to Tanjiro and weirdly Kochou's little sister, Kanao's best friend. The butterfly sisters loved having brutes as best friends for some reason, it didn't make sense but somehow worked out for them.

"Inosuke, promise you'll leave that nasty reputation behind."

"I ain't making any promises till you promise you'll send me 3 boxes of foreign chocolate every month." he crossed his arm and looked the other side.

Shinobu softly smiled at him, she was definitely going to miss this kid alot. "Alright Inosuke, I'll make sure to send you the latest ps4 games as well."

Inosuke's eyes lit up as he shook hands with Shinobu to confirm the deal. A subtle smile tugged at the corner of Giyuu's lips.

Giyuu went over to the table Sabito and Makomo were seated at and took a seat opposite to Sabito. It didn't take long for Shinobu to note his presence and she went over to their table and took a seat next to Giyuu. "Aww Tomioka-san, look this is a good farewell party for you, all your friends are here right Infront of you." she snorted.

Giyuu sent her a painful expression. Must she do this even on the day when he supposedly bids her farewell? "Tanjiro's not here though."

"So Kochou, did you get your acceptance letter?" Sabito tried desperately to break the awkward silence.

"oh yes I did, luckily I got into the university I wanted to. I'll be shifting to Canada a few months from now."

"That's so cool. Congrats!" Sabito sent her a beaming smile.

Giyuu was quiet, he was silently studying Shinobu, maybe this was the last time he was going to see her. She was wearing a Yellow ruffle top that was paired up with skinny ripped jeans and her 5 pound white filas, her hair was tied into a half ponytail; she looked cute. Alot of people would've assumed Giyuu's sense of fashion was probably as bland as his personality but surprisingly the guy had drip. He wore a plain black shirt paired up with dark denim jeans and chains to accessorise. Giyuu was an eboy. His sense of fashion honestly made him look quite intimidating but it added a spice to his laid back bland persona, maybe that's why Shinobu had taken an interest to him in the first place.

And almost too soon the party had came to an end as the clock struck 11 PM. Shinobu was probably tired of getting squeezed everytime she got hugged goodbye. One by one, everyone started to leave and before they knew it, a very ominous pair was left behind, and that pair being Giyuu and Shinobu.

"Sabito-kun is a very nice lad. You have great friends Tomioka-san." Shinobu complimented.

"He's nice because he walked Makomo home at 11pm?"

"Well yes, that's rather a very gentlemanly behavior. Don't you think so?"

"You know I've been doing that to you in every single one of our study dates right?" Giyuu raised an eyebrow, right now he seemed like a puppy wagging his tail to receive pats from its master.

Shinobu's cheeks flushed a pale shade of pink when Giyuu had referred to their study session as study dates mistakenly. It was just a slip of a tongue that's all. "My Tomioka-san, are you waiting for me to compliment you?"

"It's nice to hear you say something good about me once in a while Kochou." he pouted like a child.

"If that's what you want...then alright. Walk me home one last time Tomioka san."

"No." he blurted almost too bluntly causing Shinobu to frown almost too evidently. "I'll take you home on my bike instead, this time."

Shinobu was quite taken aback to his sudden kind gesture. Her stomach swelled up with a weird feeling. A mix of happiness with sadness that this was the first and last time she'd get to ride behind his bike.

Giyuu had disappeared for a split second into the parking lot leaving a timid Shinobu pondering. He did mention he really liked bikes. Weirdly as a highschooler, Shinobu always wanted to cruise behind a boy's motorcycle at least once during her high school years and well this was her chance. In 3 minutes Giyuu showed up in a Ducati xdiavel Infront of Shinobu. He patted on the seat next to him gesturing her to come take a seat behind him and so she did after admiring Giyuu and his totally hot ride. Not gonna lie his attire went really well with his bike, she almost felt like she was starring in some music video as they cruised into the dark streets.

Shinobu shrieked almost losing her grip as Giyuu hit a speed bump.

"Kochou." he called out to her, getting her attention.

"Hm?"

"Hold onto me, or you'll fall." his words left Shinobu all flustered and hot but she was quick to oblige, she didn't want any broken bones right before her flight. She also silently thanked the gods that it was too dark for Giyuu to make out her flushed red cheeks.

"Tomioka-san? When did you get this sweet thing?"

"It was a gift from my dad."

"But what if you have to move away for uni? What will happen to it then?"

"I'll take it with me, I haven't gotten a number plate for it yet so I'll just ship it using a ferry or something."

Shinobu wrapped her arms around his waist tightly. She wondered if she was the first girl to sit on his bike. She also wondered about the other girls who would eventually later sit on his bike.

"Kochou, are you in a hurry to go home?" Giyuu suddenly asked.

"Not really, mom and dad are staying at my grandparents' place in the country side and Nee-san just wants me to spend my last few days as free spirited teenager."

"Spend this night with me." he suddenly blurted.

"What?" she choked on her words. Giyuu had become way to daring these days, saying whatever he wanted and bruising poor Shinobu's heart with his choice of words.

"Come on, I wanna show you something." he reassured her in a soothing tone.

"Alright Tomioka-san, as long as you don't get us into trouble I'm good."

He soon parked into a quiet neighborhood. Jesus, this placed seemed abandoned for God's sake, what did he have to show her here? the grudge or babadook?

"Tomioka-san are you sure about this place." Shinobu sent him a nervous look as she tugged at the hem of his shirt.

Giyuu looked into her eyes as he held his hand out to her,"Trust me Kochou." and so she did. They now walked into this dark neighborhood, her tiny hand still enclasped with his large ones. Giyuu knew Shinobu wasn't a big fan of places like these. Places that screamed paranormal activity but the fact the she obliged quite quickly did make him realize how much she trusted him and deep down it made Tomioka Giyuu happy.

"isn't this place restricted or anything? Are we allowed to come here?" Shinobu asked almost too loudly.

Giyuu quickly covered her mouth with his large hands and pulled her into a dark alleyway. Shinobu was quite confused at his sudden antics. She sent him a raised eyebrow as he pinned her against a stone wall, his hand still covering her mouth and almost immediately a Patrol guard walked right past them on the streets. He quickly let go of her and pressed his index finger against his lips gesturing her to stay quiet. "it's alright as long as you don't get caught." he whispered to which she rolled her eyes. He held her hand once again and walked to the biggest house in the area, the house was 4 stories high and Giyuu seemed to have a weird tactic of slipping by the backdoor without getting noticed every time.

"So Tomioka-san, you wanted to show me an abandoned house. Very funny."

"They're not abandoned, they're on sale." He replied walking towards the kitchen.

Shinobu followed him precautiously, "And you're treating it like you own it."

"Only for a while." he replied as he took out 2 bottles of flavored milk. He handed Shinobu the strawberry flavored one knowing that was her favorite and kept the melon flavored one for himself.

"Tomioka-san what's the meaning of this?" she asked one last time, quite getting tired of his shit, really.

Giyuu didn't reply but held her hand as walked upstairs, practically forcing her to follow behind him. They soon reached the attic.

Shinobu was a little taken aback seeing all the clutter of furnite up there. Giyuu pulled up the glass window revealing a beautiful full moon night, how come Shinobu didn't notice that before? And then Tomioka started doing something stupid, which was climbing out of the attic window. Shinobu quickly grabbed his arm as a result of an involuntary reflex, "Are you stupid, do you want to die?"

Giyu was now standing on the roof of a 4 story house with a nerve wrecked Shinobu holding his arm. "Trust me Kochou." he spoke holding out his hand to her.

She shifted her gaze from his moonlit eyes to his hand. Did she trust him with her life? Yes, yes she did. She placed her hand on his and he carefully helped her outside. "Tomioka-san I don't see any point in all of thi-" Shinobu was cut off with the picturesque view of the moon and its bright stars right Infront of her.

Giyuu took a seat next to her, observing the view alongside her. He slowly sipped his melon drink while Shinobu quietly enjoyed her strawberry drink. His gaze shifted from the scenic beauty Infront of him to the other scenic beauty next to him (im a little gay for Shinobu sorry) and there she was Kochou Shinobu, the stars reflected in her eyes as she absent-mindedly stared into the sky being lost in her own void and Giyuu just watched her, she looked even cuter now.

It didn't take long for Shinobu to catch him staring which almost made him choke his drink.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah." he replied after his coughing fits died down. He decided to lay down and enjoy the beauty the night had to offer and Shinobu copied him, laying down next to him. Giyuu had quickly slid his arm towards Shinobu, allowing her to rest her huge head on his arm.

"Tomioka-san." she called out to him making his gaze lock with hers.

"Hm?"

"Thank you. I needed this."

He sent her a soft smile as he tucked behind a strand of her hair behind her ear, "You're welcome."

"You know Tomioka-san, since you've been craving compliments I guess I'll finally give you one." Giyuu softly observed her, wondering what she'd say. "If i were to describe you to a person Tomioka-san. This scenery would suffice."

"Hm?" he raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

"It kinda matches with your personality you know, It's as quiet and mysterious as the night but nevertheless if you observe closely it has all this beauty to offer." she smiled at him, and this time it hurt him. It made him feel weird. It didn't take long for Giyuu's cheeks to be flushed red under the silver moonlight. Giyuu couldn't reply to this, heck he couldn't even force any words through his mouth. Shinobu smiled and gazed back at the stars once again. She was hit a wave of familiarity, this was her and Giyuu's relationship, it was a bit complicated but it was a bit too beautiful to lose. She started to feel her stomach coil in sadness realising this was the last possible memory she'd spend with Giyuu or maybe they could meet up during the holiday seasons and have remakes of adventurous nights like these.

"Tomioka-san, did you get your acceptance letter?"

"Yeah I did."

"Where are you going?" she wasn't facing him, she didn't want him to see her sad expression.

"Same place you are." Giyuu tried his best not to smile while he said that.

Shinobu quickly turned to him in surprise, "That's a horrible joke, Tomioka-san."

"I'm not." he said, pulling out his phone from his pocket and scrolling through his email to show her his proof. And to Shinobu's surprise there it was, and it was legit. Shinobu was quiet, this was what she wanted but in was a bit too much for her to take in all at once.

"Thank God, now I don't have to worry about you not having friends and getting left alone." she snapped back almost too quickly,

"Shut up."

The air was light and heavy at the same time, Shinobu was a bit too happy to be falling asleep but it didn't take her long to doze off in Giyuu's arms, or on Giyuu's arms. Ouch.

He mentally cursed himself for suddenly exhibiting simp behavior, but today was Shinobu's day and he just had to oblige even though he had to sacrifice his arm.

It didn't take long for Giyuu to doze off alongside Shinobu. Falling asleep under a star-filled sky did have a romantic touch to it.

Giyuu was the first to wake up as the sun slowly started to rise amongst the clouds, creating a magnificent hue of purple and orange. Thankfully Shinobu had shifted from laying on his arm to laying on his chest instead which was definitely more comfortable, but surely Shinobu wouldn't be able to sleep long against his chest with his heart pounding like that.

Giyuu took a moment to appreciate a sleepy Shinobu alongside the beautiful sunrise. Her sun-kissed face was just art in its own form. If Giyuu was anywhere as skilled as Sabito in art, he'd use this masterpiece lying beside him as a prompt and then that's when it hit him. Shinobu basked in the golden rays of sunlight, Shinobu was the golden sunrise in early mornings and if Giyuu were to describe her to someone he'd say something along the lines of; "Shinobu you're the morning sunrise. You're annoying but your presence brings warmth." he whispered softly patting her head. And as most cliché scenes this was no different, much to Giyuu's ill fate, Shinobu was seemingly awake the whole time, and she heard every bit of that.

"That's quite harsh Tomioka-san, but I'll take it." she replied causing a frantic Giyuu's heart rate to sky rocket.

With the sun out, Giyuu and Shinobu realised they better be getting home now since they both had guardians to explain their whereabouts to. It didn't take long for them to pack up and reach Shinobu's house. They shared a small hug on Shinobu's front porch along with Shinobu thanking him for giving her an unforgettable journey. This was a nice end to her highschool life. With a wide grin plastered over her face Shinobu walked into her house to 5 very amused and interested sisters.

[unadulteratedkr]

For the WIP asks: 4, 14, and 19?

I have two WIPS right now, so these answers go towards both My Fair Maiden (the My Fair Lady AU I swore was gonna be my only fic in this fandom lol) and Music Play’st Upon the Blessed Wood ( the exotic dancer verse that was GOING to be PWP but has developed a soupcon of plot sighs)

4: What came first, the title or the plot?

For both my WIPS, the plot came first, and I’ve yet to have a story that had the title come first, methinks? I have vague ideas of future installments to my PWP series where the titles come from Shakespeare sonnets, but like…. I’m a plot-first kind of gal.

14: Tell us about an upcoming scene in your WIP, that you’re excited about.

For My Fair Maiden, I’m SO so so excited to write that confrontation scene where Eliza sings “Without You”. SO SO excited. It’s the scene I most wanted to adapt for this AU and I’ve already written little snippets. It's much more rooted in Jaime and Brienne’s characters and they’re both much more obviously in love with one another and it’s got such a lovely edge of angst before the eventual happy ending. I don't know HOW I’m gonna write the eventual happy ending because there’s a conversation that very much needs to happen when Brienne returns to the house and I’m not sure how that one is gonna go, but the conflict before it? YES PLEASE.

For Music Play’st Upon the Blessed Wood, I REALLY can’t wait to write Brienne’s burlesque dance. I had a moment of inspiration this past week at work about what Brienne’s dancing would be channeled through and had to fake needing a bathroom break to furiously write notes on my phone. I’ve still got to sift through some song ideas, but basically Brienne’s gonna be doing a dance with a baseball theme. Complete with a glove pull with a batter’s glove and some suggestive moves with a baseball bat. I cannot WAIT to write it.

In a nice twist of fate, both of these scenes are at or towards the end so I like the fact that what I’m looking forward to writing the most requires me to write most of the rest 😂

19: Do you know how your story ends before you start writing?

Not always! I had NO idea how I was going to finish either of my exchange fics, but I knew my ideas were solid enough I’d be able to make it through to the end and figure it out along the way.

I did know I wanted a happy ending for I Will Put My Faith and Trust in You, and I figured the ending out around the same time I picked my title because I kinda stole the ending from Aida for it. In Aida, the reincarnated souls of the two lovers who die in the story meet one another in the present in the final moments of the musical. So. Loved the lyric as a song title and then went, “OH WAIT. I’m gonna just use that ending!”

I still feel like I wrote let it be for nought except for love's sake in a fugue state, so I don’t know if I ever thought to myself what the ending would be because I didn’t even know I had written the ending until I kinda blinked and looked at it and went, “Oh. I think this is done?”

For both my WIPS though, I know almost exactly how they’re going to end, which is nice. :D

I also do know that, even in my more sad and/or moody endings, I like to ensure there’s an element of hope or happiness for our two faves (it’s pronounced favs).

Ask me a question about my WIPS!

[gildedmuse]

Last Post, On This Very Tumblr:

Locations brought to you by A Writer™.

"And where does this take place?"

"Oh, a beautiful but untamed expanse of-"

"No, I mean an actual location, not a description."

"Uhh.. water?"

".... Like, any specific water or...?"

"....The Sea?"

"Which Sea?"

"There's more than one?"

Now In A New Post, On This Very Tumblr:

(Hover for precise logepose coordinates to secret army base camp!)

I'm sorry, what the hell is this?

Are you telling me that, out of all these locations:

A town on an island that sells pizza

A massage parlour on some clouds in the sky

A well dressed crew standing aboard a ship at sea

The least secretive, easiest to locate is the primary hide-out of the Revolutionary Army?

Why!?

Also, what!?

But at least we know where. For once.

Why, when it comes to the location of the one thing that really should not be widely publicized, is that when someone finally had the thought that they could bother making up a name or two. I honestly expect this is how it went:

SV: You know, these An Island Somewhere In Some Sea On An Unknown Planet Title Cards just aren't cutting it.

NG: We could start being more specific, giving these settings some real, concrete locations.

SV: You know what, that's a solid point and good out-of-the-box thinking. Where's the next scene set?

NG: Umm... The Revolutionary Headquarters?

SV: Alright guys, we need to get to work recording in very precise, excruciating details the location of this top secret base. I mean, I want maps even Zoro could follow!

BE: Yay. More work.

I mean, I guess it's nice to see an effort is being made to-

(Pictured: I don't know. People from ... Some place. Losing their lives or something. Geography is hard work okay!?)

Oh come on you guys! IN THE SAME EPISODE!?

SV: Alright so it took us nineteen days but we track down and precision pinpointed the location of the Revolutionary Army Base. I gotta say, guys, it was tough going for a while but I think the blood, sweat and tears - so many tears - it was all worth it in the end. Having a solid, recognizable location has really added depth to those scenes. So, uh, what's next?

NG: It's a... Battle scene. The Revolutionary Army is fighting to free people from oppression and tyranny. Oh and, of course, stopping the flow of black market, cheap weapons the government is knowingly pouring into the countries run by corrupt leaders.

SV: Awesome, sounds like an amazing, important scene to get across that these guys aren't just about abandoning their own children while forcing others to become child soldier. They are after real, obtainable goals that will better the world and the lives of all it's people. What have we got lined up as some potential locations? Any suggestions?

ONG: A Battlefield?

NG: Shouldn't it be located somewhere. You can't just gave a battlefield in some gauge abyss.

BE: So like... A Country.

SV: .. Like?

BE: Like Some Country?

SV: A Battlefield In Some Country?

BE: Yeah?

SV: Love it! Come on, team, let's pack up and get home. I want some Starbucks and to catch the finale of Pirate Island.

ONG: Oooh, yeah. I wonder if that Luffy/Law Alliance is still together.

UE: He should have made an Alliance with Kid. They would have won the most votes easy.

SV: Look, nothing will ever beat the first season where Shanks won it on his own.

ONG: Ohmygod, the scene where the Mihawk/Shanks Alliance broke up? I cried.

BE: And when they wouldn't even accept Buggy on the Island. You could feel the tension.

SV: That is how you do reality tv.

NG: Umm... Guys? Guys, what do you mean by "Some Country" like... Any country? Shouldn't it matter? Guys!

NG: Guys!

NG: ...

NG: Wait up! (I watch Pirate Island, too!)

[james-stark-the-writer]

So I just saw Spider-Man Far From Home...

... And it's very good, if a bit stupid. Also I'm really pissed at one particular easter egg/joke in the movie which has really made me salty and sour. Movie's good, go watch it. 8/10.

Now we're going into full spoiler territory. I was live tweeting the whole thing so I have my thoughts as I was watching them and after I've watched it both as a comparison on the whole thing.

THIS IS YOUR ONLY SPOILER WARNING. LEAVE IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE.

Let's start off with my initial impressions when the movie started.

So, none of that really changed. The "Ned suddenly has a girlfriend" was hilarious, the Vamanos "joke" didn't land at all and Venice does look pretty fucking dope.

The cinematography for the movie as a whole is excellent and the framing of certain shots was so well done it was fucking mindblowing.

Also, the scene where Beck and the rest are choreographing his attack? *cinemasins voice* scene from the director's room somehow made it into the script.

Anyway, the cinematography is just absolutely gorgeous. Some shots are really fucking cool.

The music. I—

Fuck this movie, okay? I WAS NOT READY FOR THE OPENING CREDITS. ABSOLUTELY FUCK THIS MOVIE.

You can't do that in the beginning of the fucking movie, man! Fuck! Do you know how embarrassing it is to break out into song in a theater??? And it's not like I can't break out into song when you use Whitney Houston. That's just impossible.

Fuck that.

But besides that, I really don't remember any of the music. I enjoyed the movie alot and didn't complain about the music once when I was watching it so it must have been pretty decent but I don't remember any of it. Take that as you will.

The direction is pretty fucking spot on.

Now onto my next impressions.

So, uh, yeah. Pretty much the same thoughts. Although the "It's WATER, PETER" comment has me thinking that he was acting on impulse trying to do whatever but idk doesn't sit right with me for some reason.

And yeah, they really did justice to Mysterio's character. I really really liked him as a villain. I've seen him in three different games and a show and a movie before this so I know how he's supposed to be portrayed. This movie? Pretty good job.

I stand by everything in this. Nick/bot really nick/talos as we find out in the post credits can fuck right off. But yeah, I really wanted a bell scene like the one from Spider-Man 2. Eh, shame. We didn't get that but it was still funny.

I also stand by all of this. Spider Verse is still better tho. The second half really bought the movie down from a solid 9 to a 7.5 or 8/10 depending on how much my particular saltiness bothers you. Also, remember the second to last tweet. We're going to come back around to that in a little bit.

Next we have this

Still stand by all of this as well. Wanna see Mephisto represented properly. Doesn't have anything to do with FFH just thought about it in the moment. Let's move on. Not much to talk about here.

Still stand by all of this.

Context for the last one so you don't think I'm a dumbass: I don't see trailers for movies. They usually give away all of the plot. All I knew about this movie was that it took place after endgame, it had mysterio in it and that there was going to be a bew suit, possibly. Nothing else. No casting choices, no trailers, no photos from the movie. Nothing. That's just how I watch my movies. No prior context. If its a series I enjoy, I watch the movie regardless of low ratings. If I don't know the series and the title intrigues me, I watch it. If the title and poster don't intrigue me, I skip it. That's it. That's how I choose which movie I watch. Now you know.

Moving on.

Also standing by all of this.

Tom Holland in EDITH glasses owns my ass. No criticism taken here, unfortunately.

And Jake really did look Tony when he put the glasses on. Really nice touch. Good job whoever suggested that in the makeup department or whatever.

Moving on. Here's the part where I became really really really really excited. And was almost immediately let down immensely. And you can chalk it up to me not seeing trailers or whatever if they showed this stuff in there but for me, it was just disappointing because when Peter was designing the suit, I saw the bottom half was white. I got excited and was immediately disappointed.

Then there's the Mysterio is stupid comment. I'll explain my reasoning in a second, bear with me. But other than that, still stand by all of this.

Moving on, there's this. And here's my explanation for the Mysterio is stupid comment. I'll get a bit more detailed later on.

And then there's me freaking out over the mid credits scene. Fuck that.

Moving on, here's the last one. My final reason why the second half was such a let down. It was a visual treat but if Avatar taught us anything, it's that visuals alone do not a movie make. Tell me, do you even remember the name of the main character from avatar? Don't look it up. Name two characters from Avatar. And tell me the plot. You can't, can you? Hence my point.

Now onto why I hate that stupid fucking easter egg.

Now for the uninitiated, Earth 616 is the comic universe. All the comics take place on Earth 616. Marvel's Ultimate Alliance takes place on Earth 6109 and so on. The MCU takes place on Earth 199999.

Now there's a joke in the movie where Beck says he's from Earth 616 (or he says that this aka mcu is 616 I can't remember) but THAT MADE ME SO MAD HOLY SHIT

Because now I don't know if it was a bad joke, a bad Easter egg, or just baiting comic fans. Now non cimic fans obviously don't know what universe the comics take place in. So that's not gonna bother you. But me?

I AM FUCKING ANNOYED TO NO END.

Because if it's an Easter egg, did Beck pull the numbers out of nowhere? Why did he choose 616? It feels so lazy to use that as a reference because it serves no purpose and just serves as bait for comic fans. Now, endgame did establishe multiple timelines and universes.

Now I don't mind them bringing the other universes into canon MCU. My problem is that THEY KEEP REFERRING TO IT AND TEASING IT BUT THEY NEVER DO IT.

They teased it in Infinity War, teased more of it in Endgame but it never went anywhere and ruined Agent Carter as canon in the process, teased it further at the end of endgame because cap time travelling means that the entire mcu is an alternative timeline and the original one has cap returning to it. Which means the mcu past cap leaving to return the stones is literally just an AU. But whatever. They're teasing it in FFH as well. And I've just about had it.

Either do it, or don't. You're not really providing anything new to keep the mystery going. All you're doing is presenting the same shit three different ways to entice comic readers and it leads to nowhere.

Fuck all of that and that half point deduction is purely because of this fucking "easter egg". Its horrible, it's almost as bad as queerbaiting and it fucking sucks. Fuck all of that.

But besides that, the movie is pretty good, and if you like the mcu you've probably already seen it anyway.

The mid credits scene eas nuts and I'm pumped as all hell for the next movie. The end credits scene left me with a ton of questions as a good end credits scene should and also answered a few questions in the movie. I'm just disappointed it wasn't actually Agent Hill. I want Colbie to get her own feature length movie. Marvel? Make it happen.

AGENT HILL DESERVES A FEATURE LENGTH MOVIE OF HER OWN.

Sidenote: So do Black Widow and Ronin but they can come after Hill's movie.

But overall it is a very good movie and I certainly like it better than homecoming. And a HELL OF A LOT MORE than endgame. I think we've already established I thought Endgame was a shit movie but let's not talk about it here.

Anyway, if you haven't, go watch the movie. Its really good.

I loved Ned, I loved a lot of the jokes, I loved the character arcs, the writing was really solid, the direction is solid, the cinematography is fantastic, the choreography of the action is really good, the soundtrack is forgettable but decent, the opening credits will make you cry like a little bitch if you're invested in the mcu or just like Whitney Houston and yeah, the second half is stupid and contrived but it still makes for a good and entertaining movie. Just like endgame.

7.5/10 its decent but it's much better if you don't have the same problems as I did. Then its a 8.5/10 or something.

Also, there is another picture of me tweeting shit, see that in a reblog of this post. It's funny.