#and another is playing the series but like Just started Origins (hi Nikki)

[midnightwind]

trying to get my Rook origin story in a state to share like shaking a bag of dog treats in front of friends going "you want to beta read my silly fanfic, you want to beta read it so bad, you can't resist looking at it"

[afpwestcoast]

The UC Theatre, Berkeley, CA, 12/31/23

As I was about to board my flight from Portland down to Oakland who should run up - after boarding was well in progress - but Amanda Fucking Palmer herself, with a large bag from Powell’s Books over her shoulder, which is so on-brand it’s not even funny. The whole crew was on the same flight with me. Cosmic coincidences.

The inimitable Kat Robichaud dominated as Mistress of Ceremonies, and she brought along some friends from the Misfit Cabaret, so this promised to be a great night from the start.

Kat kicked things off with her original song Charade, then The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence provided a series of short, pithy blessings for the new year that managed to be funny, touching, and queer in equal measure.

Snatch Adams did an amazing burlesque routine involving a leaf blower and a giant balloon that she somehow got completely inside … and then removed her clothes.

Another original from Kat, and an extremely sexy dance from Aurora Rose, and it was time for the Dresden Dolls.

In 2017 Amanda did an NYE show a week after having a miscarriage and barely made it through the show. This show was similarly performed amidst some personal tragedy. Amanda had just learned that a good friend from New Zealand - whom she was actually en route to go visit - had died suddenly and tragically. And the longtime landlord / den mother of the artist collective Cloud Club, where Amanda “grew up” as an artist, was in hospice on his death bed (he passed early on the 2nd). While she did talk about this a little on stage for the most part she just powered through and delivered a killer show.

My favorite way to ring in the new year is with Amanda and/or the Dolls, and this show went a long way towards explaining why. Flamboyantly talented people providing astounding spectacle; who could ask for anything more? Halfway through the show my friend Nikki turned to me and said, “I can’t imagine being happier than I am right now!” I couldn’t agree more.

Annotated Set List:

Good Day (Brian on guitar to start)

Sex Changes

Gravity

Modern Moonlight

My Alcoholic Friends

Shores of California

Welcome to the Internet (Bo Burnham cover) - Before this song Amanda often asks, “Are there any young people in the audience?” and she typically chooses one to serenade during the ‘Waiting for YOOOOOU!’ bridge. Tonight this turned into a bit of a bidding war in which we started at 18 and worked our way down to 5. At one point Brian became an auctioneer, “I’ve got 16 here do I hear 15? 14! 14 going once, can I get … 13 over here!”

Mandy Goes to Med School

Amanda said she wanted to repeat the collective primal scream they had done last NYE, and while that’s true the tradition actually started at the very first solo show Amanda did in the States post COVID in August of ‘22.

“Close your eyes, and on the count of three I would like you to scream as loudly as possible to release the good, the bad, the ugly, the better, the unfulfilled, the loneliness, the whatever you fucking went through last year it’s now gone and you’ve got about an hour to sit with it if you wanna be sad or happy and then it’s all gonna go away and we’re gonna go into 2024 into a bucket of unicorn dreams!”

PRIMAL SCREAM!!

Mister God

Amanda said that she and Whitney had come up with a working title for the new Dresden Dolls album: Downer Bangers (“That was my nickname in high school!” quipped Nikki.)

“I found out this morning that a really good friend of mine from New Zealand just died really suddenly and tragically, and I’m in the middle of losing someone else in my life, and it’s just one of those days where you’re like, ‘This is happening, and I still have to play a show.’ This has happened to me enough that I know how to do it, but I’ve gotta tell you that it’s still really weird to get up in front of everybody while I’m going through what I’m going through. And here’s the great thing about being in the Dresden Dolls: I have a song for that! So I’m gonna play it.”

Houdini

Another Christmas (Brian on guitar, Amanda on jingle bells)

Amsterdam (Jacques Brel cover) (Brian on guitar, Amanda on beer) - At the beginning of the second stanza Amanda lost track of the lyrics. “In the port of Amsterdam, there’s a sailor who … ”

“Dies!” I helpfully yelled

“Dies … sorry, Tom.”

Hey don’t apologize to me; I live for this shit!

Missed Me - Brian has taken to really going all out on this one, often performing entire melodramatic vignettes. Tonight he just … left. Got up, left the stage, disappeared. He has played with briefly “leaving” during this song, but this time he was just gone. And Amanda had no idea what was going on. She was talking to the crowd - he’s really gone, I’m all alone, what do I do? sort of thing - when a large, potted plant crept up behind her. As Brian was creeping about the stage hiding behind the plant like a cartoon villain Amanda said, “This is the same guy who during soundcheck was like, ‘Let’s keep the intro really short.’” The antics went on so long that Amanda got flustered and got confused about where they were in the song. She looked at me and asked, “Is this right?” I gave her a big thumbs up.

Backstabber

Astronaut (A Brief History of Nearly Nothing) (Amanda Palmer cover)

Mrs. O - Quick restart after Amanda thought she detected a medical issue in the crowd, something that happened at both the LA and SD shows earlier in the month. It was a false alarm, and the band played on.

Delilah (featuring Kat Robichaud AND Whitney Moses (the OG!)) - Double Delilahs for double the pathos. Before starting Amanda entreated the crowd to sing along. “I want you to sing this song tonight for someone who needs it. And that someone might be you.”

Sing - Amanda was keeping one eye on the clock and the tempo on this one was a bit faster than normal so they could get it in before …

MIDNIGHT! Balloon drop! General pandemonium!

(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!) (Beastie Boys cover) - Everyone on stage!

Coin-Operated Boy

War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover)

——

Girl Anachronism

Photo Gallery: Preshow family portrait.

Destiney performed as a living statue before the show.

Snatch Adams, ladies and gentlemen.

The Dresden Dolls!

Welcome to the Internet

Another Christmas

Amsterdam!

Sometimes you just can’t see the drummer through the trees.

Dual Delilahs!

MIDNIGHT!!!

Submitted without comment.

Good night!

Traditional selfie with Whitney Moses and post-show family selfie featuring Michael!

[notnctu]

doyoung: the reserved

━ welcome home to housemating smut series :)

☆ click the link above to read background info about this housemate!

☆ GENRE: smut, pwp ☆ DETAILS: fem!reader, college!au, housemate!au ☆ WARNINGS: brief cockwarming, degradation kink, slight praise kink?, name calling, a lil mean dom!doyoung, unprotected ☆ WC: 3k ☆ SYNOPSIS: another drunk night out and you’re knocking at his door in the middle of the night for cuddles, or so he thinks?  

☆ AUTHORS NOTE: i originally wanted this to be a cute fluffy lovey smut, but boy did i switch it up halfway through lmao it’s filthy like the rest, enjoy and hopefully this puts yalll to sleep. shoutout to my bestie nikki for helping me hehe luv u bubs

3:12 AM. If only Doyoung could ignore the heavy knocking on his door and drift back to his sweet slumber, but he knows better than to leave you drunk and alone. He groans and stumbles in the dark, the warmth of his sheets leaving him quickly. As he rubs his eyes open to brace himself for your drunken appearance, Jaehyun’s voice is urgent on the other side of the door. 

“Can you hurry and open up? I hear your footsteps, I really need to pee!” His housemate’s whisper is more than threatening. He can hear your gentle, whiny voice behind the door.

“Is Doie asleep?” You whine, “maybe we shouldn’t wake him. You know how he hates people going into his room and I think he has class tomorrow.”

At the end of your sentence, the door swings open to reveal a tired Doyoung in his utterly adorable cozy pajamas. Though it’s beyond dark, your hazy image of him is more than glorious and a baffling desire to fall into his arms overcomes you. “It’s Saturday tomorrow, (Y/N). I appreciate your consideration, though.” His voice is hoarse and raspy from sleep, unlike his usual chirpy tone.

“Hi…” His sudden presence has you growing shy at the sight of your housemate. You being the shy one is a rare sight as it’s usually the other way around. Doyoung has always been quieter and more kept to himself, to the point where it’s normal for him to lock himself in his room to be alone. Nonetheless, he does quite enjoy your company. 

“Hey,” Doyoung chuckles and coolly crosses his arms across his chest, playing into your bashful act. He swears he’s over you and there are close to no romantic feelings involved, but it’s always the soft glow that surrounds you that he can’t seem to shake off. Doyoung may have had a one-sided love, but he knows that you can’t go to bed without him when you’re drunk. What a bad habit you’ve formed. 

Despite his initial crush on you, Doyoung still completely adores you. It’s too hard not to. You understand him the most in this whore of a house and you’re as close to his ideal type as he’ll ever meet in college. Considerate, kind, life of the party, intelligent, funny, willingness to be vulnerable. The list can go on, but he’ll have to stop himself if he still wants any chance at a relationship with someone else. 

Though he’s never confessed, let alone told a single soul about how he used to harbor some feelings for you, he simply knows you won’t see him the same way and oddly enough, he’s grown to silently accept it. When you’re sober versus when you’re drunk are two different spectrums. He isn’t sure how he ended up being the one you cuddle every time you come home drunk, but it definitely confused him at the very start. 

However, the moment you’re sober and it’s daylight, it’s as if the night never happened. Despite the occasional physical affection, everything is platonic and you’ve made that clear as the day remains cloudless. 

The process of getting over you wasn’t painful, it just never fully goes away. He’s come to accept that you’re an amazing person and since he’s gotten physically and emotionally intimate with you, it’s better that you two remain good friends.

But this practically explains why you are the only person Doyoung will wake up in the middle of the night to comfort. On top of that, he hates dealing with drunk people…with the exception of you. 

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” You play with your fingers behind your back and Jaehyun rolls his eyes at this strange encounter he’ll never understand. 

“I know you didn’t have Jaehyun aggressively beat at my door to simply ask me this question. Are you giving me the option to decline?” Doyoung’s snarky smirk is recognizable even in the lack of light.

“Well, I don’t want to bother you--”

“Come in, the bed is going to lose its heat.” Doyoung cuts you off abruptly, gently holding out his hand for you to take. Jaehyun groans and stomps his way to the bathroom, finally relieved to be free.

Doyoung quietly shuts the door, locking it as he does every time. He slowly lays you down in the spot he was sleeping on to ensure you have the maximum amount of warmth and follows in on the other side quickly.

Laying on your side, you two face each other in the comforting silence. Underneath the blankets, Doyoung naturally snakes his arm around your lower waist, pulling you into his body until your legs are tangled with one another. 

Inches away from his face, he notices that you’re oddly quiet for being drunk. His finger lightly brushes against your cheek and draws his brows together in concern, “do you need to throw up?” You shake your head, eyes dropping anywhere but his own.

“Do you want kissies to sleep?” It’s a common thing you usually ask him for, using terminology that intoxication has coined for you.

You call his name and he perks up to listen, “I’m not exactly drunk.” 

He blinks at your statement, slightly confused as to why you’re requesting to sleep with him tonight. “Explain?”

“I had a sip of a mixed drink at most.” Rolling your eyes, you pout at him. “I was only pretending to be drunk so Jaehyun wouldn’t ask questions about me wanting to come into your room.”

Doyoung still doesn’t understand your motives. “So what is sober (Y/N) doing waking me up at this ungodly hour? She knows better.” He tsks, facial expression is slightly bewildered.

“Because I saw someone at the party who looked like you, except slightly less attractive.” Your voice grows a bit more bold and seductive, “but he was wearing such a hot outfit. I couldn’t help, but imagine how good you would actually look in it.”

He gulps when he feels your hot hand holding his forearm. Your grip is tight, thumb drawing circles on his skin. “W-What was he wearing?” 

“It was a white button up, but the first five buttons were unbuttoned and you can just see the few lines of his toned stomach.” Your hand trails up his arm, spreading across his chest. “And the black slick belt, fuck. It reminded me of the one you usually wear for your econ presentations. You know I go wild for a nice professional fit.” 

Doyoung can’t believe what he’s hearing. You’re definitely more eloquent and explicit with your words when you’re sober. Nonetheless, he’s incredibly turned on by the fact that you came back horny at the thought of him and how your hand is sliding its way down to his waistband.

“Should I dress like that more often?” Doyoung follows your moves, running his hand up your shirt to grab your tit. “Because I don’t think you’ll be able to control yourself if I do.” 

An uncontrollable whine comes from your throat when Doyoung runs a thumb across your nipple. “I know it turns you on to watch me lose control, you’re call.” His other hand draws your chin closer.

His hot breath hits your bottom lip, “I’ll consider it then.” His lips crash into yours hungrily, tongue lapping with yours over and over. Doyoung hooks underneath your thigh and places your leg across his lower half. Grinding into your pelvis, you can already feel how he is slightly hard through his thin pajama pants.

Nose pressing into skin, that’s one of the reasons why you love making out with Doyoung the most. It’s as if he can’t get any closer, but he does and he tries until you’re suffocating in each other’s presence. 

His soft lips glides and traces so tenderly, his kisses feel individualized. It’s customized exactly to how you like it and how he seemed to figure it out puts him in another category of intelligence and skill.

Doyoung pulls away, leaving a yearning for more. He subtly checks the time behind you, 3:47 AM. “Are you tired?” There is slight guilt in your voice when you notice the hesitation in his face.

“A bit.” He apologizes, but you clasp your hand over his mouth.

“Why don’t you just put it in me? That will satisfy me enough, I just want to feel full and we can still cuddle.” You do feel bad for waking him up for sex, forgetting that this man has a normal and healthy sleeping schedule.

He raises a questionable brow, “never tried that before, are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sorry for waking you.” You bite at your lip in anticipation. 

Doyoung tsk again, rolling his eyes until they reach the ceiling. “Me waking up and opening my door for you was my choice. Besides, you know I can’t keep my hands off of you given the opportunity.” 

You pout, kissing him on the lips once more. “Now take off your cute shorts, so I can check how wet you are.” Doyoung demands, which causes an increase of a flow down there. Nevertheless, you listen and discard every piece of clothing you had on. 

When Doyoung swipes at your cunt, you react greatly to his touch. “Dripping.” is all he says as he licks his fingers clean of your juices.

He follows to take off his clothes quickly, lazily pumping his cock in one hand and toying with your clit with the other. You’re squirming, as you hold onto his forearm to steady yourself. However, the pleasure is undeniably delicious, the flavor hitting at the tip of our tongue. “Doyoung, I want you.” 

He sees the strain in your face, lip bite and eyes closed shut. You’re holding back so much, he can tell by how your sporadic hip wiggles all because of his fingers. “Have you always been this needy, baby? Wanting to be full of my cock so late at night? You should know better.” His raspy chuckle is the absolute death of you. Your eyes open immediately when his hand pulls away and grabs at your waist to pull you closer. A heavy heat spreads across your chest, completely blindsided by his hot comments. 

You and Doyoung have slept together a handful of times and let’s say, this man is deadly with his dirty talk. He’s just one of a kind, a fuck like no other and it drives you to see stars. He is always so reserved and posh, a true well-mannered and neat man. Doyoung is tastefully seductive, not sleazy or flirtatious. 

His banter always has you second guessing, wondering if there is some sensual implication behind his words. Doyoung doesn’t sugarcoat; when other men shower you in endless praise and boring, generic compliments, he makes sure those nonsensical comments don’t get to your head. He praises you in a way that makes you feel special, individualized. 

But he knows you don’t want to get praised, you get enough of all that already and you know that you’re attractive. While Jaemin gives you sugary sweet pet names, Doyoung calls you the nastiest ones in bed. Something about it thrills you, a refreshing kind of attention.

“Only for you.” You pucker your lips, with an innocence in your charm to persuade him.

Doyoung looks at you with sharp eyes and a haughty smirk on his lips. He uses his knee to open your legs and a quick hand to hold it up, aligning his tip at your entrance. You two still lay on your sides and face to face, breast pressed against chest. “Such a pretty slut.” He gently plants the softest kiss on your cheek, as he enters all the way in until he’s practically in your guts.

A gasp crawls up your throat, but Doyoung places a hand over your mouth to keep you shut. “Don’t want Jaehyun to come knocking again, do we? Be a good girl and shut up.” He holds back his own moan, the feeling of you wrapping around him makes him feel hazy and full of lust. 

Nodding, your arms fall around Doyoung’s neck and the skin on skin hug is more than comforting. His hot cock twitches inside of you, reminding you of the fullness at the literal pit of your stomach. Your friends have always talked about cockwarming and how sweetly intimate it is, but is it bad that you just want Doyoung to fuck your brains out? 

Doyoung glances at you with hesitant eyes, “baby, are you doing okay?” The shift in tone and mood catches you off guard. This is something new for both of you and Doyoung wanted to make sure it is still pleasurable for you.

You clear your throat, sinking onto his dick until you’re touching skin. Doyoung groans and narrows his eyes at the sudden movement. “Sorry, getting comfy. Wanna sleep now?” 

His hands glide down your back, finding their way to squeeze your ass. Your leg rests on top of his own and you two are locked in each other’s embrace until you’re both suffocating -- just how you both like it. His eyes wander down, as if he’s contemplating something. “I’m not sleepy anymore…” He clears his throat with light strokes against your skin.

“Then fuck me?” The politeness in your voice causes the switch almost instantly. Doyoung grips your hips, shallowly fucking you into the sweetest escape. 

“Always wanting to be filled, baby.” His whisper tickles your neck as he dots small kisses under your chin. Your mind whirls with temptation and pleasure, unaware at how dark and lustful Doyoung’s eyes have become. “Love being used, my doll?”

His thrusts quicken, with the strongest squeeze on your ass. Every powerful hit has moans and whimpers falling from your lips, and you’re beyond lost for words. A soft “mhm” does nothing for Doyoung, this man wants a verbal answer. 

“Answer me properly.” He stops, filling you up to the brim again. However, he starts grinding your hips into his own and the simple move lights up every endorphin in your body. His tip rubs against your spot perfectly, making it even more difficult to speak. With arms failing, you hold onto his shoulders for your dear life. “Fucking you so good that you forgot how to speak? Let me hear you, (Y/N).” Your name falls in a faltering moan. 

You’re so close, your grip feels tighter with each movement. “Love being used, love being fucked by you.” Your eyes shut for a brief second, before Doyoung tsks.

“Open your eyes and look at me.” When you peer at him, Doyoung blinks with fire in his dark pupils. His stare is deadly, but the eye contact only drives you further. 

His movements halt and just as you’re able to sigh with disappointment, he snakes a hand in between your bodies and rubs at your aching clit. Your body seizes at the electricity that comes from your most sensitive place and Doyoung continues with longer thrusts.

His hips match the pace of his rubs, intensifying the pleasure tenfold. Doyoung knows you want to be loud, covering your mouth to muffle your endless streams of moans and profanity. 

“All it takes is an outfit to get you horny. Pathetic.” He can feel that you’re on your edge and any second, you’ll explode in the palm of his hand and all over his cock. “Maybe I’ll fuck you in a pretty one next time.” 

Your heart is racing and you can only nod in response.

“Now, that’s my good girl.” Doyoung smacks your ass harshly and that’s enough to send you tipping. 

With a shiver down your spine, you bite your lip at the heightened pleasure. Every muscle in your body jolts and your pussy is already sore, you can’t imagine how you’re going to feel in the morning. A small yelp and trembling legs later, you’re pulling Doyoung as close as you can. He feels your walls squeeze around him and he can barely push his last thrusts in before following in your release. 

Both of you pant heavily in each other’s arms, Doyoung holding you against his sweaty chest as if he’s afraid to let go. You swear that you feel him give you a light squeeze through the hug. He grows soft inside of you and the feeling of him pulling out is pure disappointment and emptiness.

“We should try that again.” Doyoung chuckles, getting up quickly to grab some wipes for you.

“I don’t think we did that right.” You laugh, the chilly air cooling your heated body when the blankets fall off.

Doyoung sits in between your legs, gently cleaning you up. A tiny, cute smirk appears on his face. “Then, we should definitely try it again. Y’know, the right way. Trial and error, we have to keep doing it until we can get it right.” 

“Doie, if you want to sleep with me again then say so.” You tap his nose as a way to lightly tease at his usual timid demeanor and his way to beat around the bush.

He rolls his eyes, even in the low light, you can see how they glimmer. “Who was the one who knocked on my door tonight?” He retorts, tossing the wipe away and dressing himself again. 

“And who is the one blatantly suggesting that we try cockwarming again?” You taunt, eyebrow lifted and lips puckered.

He scoffs, joining you in the sheets. Doyoung plants a quick kiss on your cheek, “you just wait until I put on my black belt and white button up. Then, we’ll see who’ll be talking.” 

“Don’t walk around the house in that, you might turn on more than just me.”

Doyoung flicks your forehead, “those idiots wouldn’t know a hot man even if it hits them in the face.”

You can’t help, but smile at this silly and sweet boy. You’ve always adored Doyoung, it’s hard not to. If there was anyone in this entire mess of a house that you love coming home to, it would be him. And secretly, he feels the same way about you too.

[nileqt87]

How I’d write a Buffy/Angel spinoff!

I still say the best spinoff they could possibly ever make would be all the Chosen Slayers getting deactivated, then Buffy and a Shanshu'd Angel (IMO, this plot really would only work with Angel, because it actually matches his story arc, not Spike's, to want a human life and fatherhood) have a daughter who grows up not knowing the truth about her parents (and half-brother!) until it's forced to come out.

I would particularly note that the first thing that happens to newly-called Slayers is their prophetic dreams. If ever there was a way to start breaking secrets to this new heroine that also serves as flashback exposition featuring the old shows, this seems custom-built for it. It’s exposition for the audience that never saw the old shows as well as an introduction to a key Slayer ability, but most importantly, it’s personal family revelations that go far deeper than historical flashbacks of unrelated persons or monsters that mean nothing personal. These would be scandalous secrets for a baby Slayer, given Buffy was the rule-breaking Slayer who is most famous for having romantic relationships with the very creatures she’s supposed to slay. Angelus would be the worst family secret of all! This story has all the makings of an existential crisis before acceptance. That would also be a good place to drop in Connor’s history. Buffy never actually got to react to that bombshell either, so that would be an interesting drama with her, as well. Buffy and Angel both tended to feature heavily in prophetic dreams, so it also just feels right to continue that.

If there's some reason why David Boreanaz (who, let's face it, is really not getting younger and SEAL Team can't go on forever) can't or is unwilling to appear, one could have an explanation that Wolfram & Hart has had him trapped in a holding dimension for years as punishment.

You could even build an arc around that with Buffy or the daughter trying to find him. Basically, a kind way of explaining Angel's absence if necessary and Buffy unfortunately having to mirror her single mother (which was a fear of hers), despite it being no fault of Angel's. It would be yet more cruelty for him to miss out on yet another child growing up, which would be a dramatic plot point itself. It could actually become a story where he does matter quite a lot, despite initial absence or mystery.

An even bigger shock than mom having Slayer superpowers and a world full of supernatural forces would be a reveal that dad is a 394+-year-old (depends on if you count hell--in a modern-day spinoff, Angel is rapidly approaching 400 years!) ex-vampire.

The most interesting and fitting story you could ever do with a maturing Buffy would be having her be a mother and trying to have a normal life.

This would also give Sarah Michelle Gellar a starring role that allows her to be age-appropriate, yet also having a younger generation that the original audience can still care about because she isn't completely divorced from the two previous shows in the way that an unrelated Slayer spinoff would be. It allows the core storylines of *both* shows to truly matter, far more than a Buffy Steele-Gunn offspring would.

---

Just a a few notes about my pitch for a continuation that works with the real ages of actors and their availability... I should also note that Xander (played by Nick, anyway--Kelly might work for a flashback) is a character who could never appear in live-action again, so maybe he could be used as another event that contributed to Buffy's retirement besides pregnancy.

If the Shanshu and conception were directly post-NFA, any offspring would be 16 years old right now. IMO, if there were any plans to give SMG a series with her in a major supporting role, this just means that the space for how long between NFA and the Shanshu or how long Bangel got to be with each other widens for however many years it would take to revive the franchise.

I strongly believe that the best option for the franchise would be a back-to-the-suburbs story exploring age-appropriate Buffy facing motherhood, rather than trying to turn Buffy into a war general surrounded by nothing but subordinates (horribly alienating future for her) with a lack of equals or a grounded setting à la the season 8 comics. If you want to introduce the Buffyverse to a new audience whom you can't expect to watch 24-year-old shows until they're interested enough by the revival, you're going to have to ground characters in a relatable reality.

As for how a new Slayer would be called after deactivation, I firmly believe the line is through Faith now anyway, so it would just take her dying for a minute à la Prophecy Girl for a new Slayer to be called. I would definitely want Faith in the show!

--- Facebook discussion

I feel like SMG's concern was less wanting to reprise the role entirely, but more concern that she'd be expected to play the same exact role in her 40s. This is giving her a role that fits a woman (and a mother in real life) who is in her 40s and is a major supporting role rather than he young lead whose story is being centered on.

As for the Angel situation, SMG might actually be more willing to return if she could beg DB to come back for perhaps an initially-limited role and the scenario is one I believe she'd actually support, as it fits with her preferences!

While it might seem that Buffy as a single mother retreads the original, Angel is obviously nothing like the Hank situation (not to mention Joyce and Hank being completely clueless), so the circumstances of the father would be quite different from Buffy's own situation, while also feeding into her own stated fears about her future.

This also brings up all the conversations in Bad Eggs, The Prom and the Chosen cookie dough analogy (children are mentioned again) to the forefront. Unlike with the other options, it was something that came up repeatedly. Admittedly, it was always by Angel due to his infertility and the human life he most desired; all of which ended up being an important part of *his* story.

However, a part of Bad Eggs that is woefully underrated is that Buffy was disappointed when Angel told her vampires can't have children. She immediately covers it up with a babble speech and then starts making excuses for why Slayers are unlikely to have that kind of future. Young Buffy did not disregard it because she didn't want children ever at all, but because the person whom she saw that future with was someone who couldn't have them.

Enter Nikki Wood, where Buffy learns that at least one Slayer was definitely a mother, which she was clearly surprised by.

That's another reason why I can see Buffy, if she got her hopes up with post-Shanshu Angel and conceived, would do anything to be a good mom by not being all about "the mission". She would never want her child to be raised without parents. And I think she'd be doubly sensitive to that, not just because of Nikki, but because of Hank leaving and Joyce dying.

Buffy also became surrogate mother to Dawn, who was made out of her (in a sense, she is her real mother), so Angel's situation with Connor actually had a direct mirror in Buffy's situation with Dawn.

But those conversations were also not just about wished-for children that couldn't be conceived, but also asking Buffy to think about what she wants for her future if she took out the belief that Slayers don't live long enough to have one.

This show would be the answer to what happens to a Slayer when she does live long enough to have the future she barely wanted to get her hopes up for before.

Buffy (ditto Angel) is the character for which this story actually has a ton of setup in the shows themselves. These characters talked about it! And the circumstances are really nothing like Joyce and Hank, even if the initial setup plays into both Buffy and Angel's worst nightmare scenarios about parenthood: being a single mother and not getting to raise the miracle child you thought you'd never have. That kind of bittersweet writing that shirks too-good-to-be-true wish-fulfillment is a cornerstone of what makes it a Buffyverse storyline. If the daughter's family lied to her about their history to keep her safe and protect her from knowing what goes bump in the night (making them the polar opposites of Hank and Joyce in regards to knowing all too well--especially Angel's experience of being the worst thing you could bump into at night, rather than utterly clueless), that would certainly be a conflict. Especially if she found out in a particularly shocking way (say, prophetic dreams). And if Angel (I'd like to imagine he has the company of ghost!Wesley and maybe Illyria and Spike) has been taken for punishment by Wolfram & Hart, it might really confuse her if she doesn't know that he didn't just leave or some other excuse Buffy covered it up with. Wolfram & Hart would also probably love the irony of Angel getting what he most desires (to be human and a father), only to punish him with it by wasting his remaining years separated from all that he loves.

[thecrackking]

Okay so as I was thinking of Order of the Sparrow I also realized something that I didn’t really see until now. You know the scene where David explains that no one seems to care anymore so he puts his life into trying to make people see camp the way he does? You know the scene where he says “fucking” and we all died because we never thought HE would say that. So I wanted to break down each one and then show how when David wakes up what happened after.

“The campers don’t care” - let’s assume this means all of them in general and for the sake of it all the campers when he was the counselor. As the years go by it seems like kids don’t really care for the outdoors anymore or they don’t care like David because it is clear that Nikki loves nature just not in the way David hoped I guess. So you know David of course tries to see that the campers see how great camp can be like how he learned how great it can be. So David tries to throw everything he can providing as many fun activities and bring each and every camper happiness and he tries to every day.

“Gwen doesn’t care” - this brings us to the idea that people definitely have which is that Gwen has been a counselor in past years (like how Max supposedly has come every year since he was legally able to). Which also brings me to the idea that Gwen really did use to care for the camp. But I think it’s easy as to why she no longer would which is because she can’t get another job, and that all her college degrees won’t help her here and that she could be doing more and better in life but can’t.

“Even the founder of this place has better things to do” - David knows, he knows full well that Campbell doesn’t care for the camp like he probably did when David was a camper. Which would make sense Campbell would care about the Camp when it was originally up and running but as time went on he realized it wasn’t making him money like he hoed so he abandoned it and used David to keep it up so he could have a place that isn’t suspicious and hide his illegal stuff. David knows and despite that he still looks up to Campbell, which is probably because of his camper Order of the Sparrow experience. If David hadn’t thought that Campbell was trying to prove his potential and really just decided that a dead camper wasn’t good and witnesses wasn’t a good thing either. David probably would have continued to come back and be counselor but he wouldn’t see Campbell as a father figure (and remember David never had a father figure growing up so David probably felt awesome when he finally had someone to call a father figure, but thank god it wasn’t much of a role model ordeal cause David probably would be dealing drugs for Campbell simply because he asked him too.

Okay so I assume that Max would have explained what happened, in full detail probably how David was upset because no one seemed to care anymore. Of course he probably would have played off his worry and all but the campers and Gwen definitely took what Max said David spilled to consideration.

The campers aren’t as rowdy as they were in season one and are a little more respectful about stuff this time as well.

Gwen of course sings the Campbell song and even she starts to have slightly better attitude about her job. It’s there you just have to squint.

And throughout the series we see how Campbell and David’s relationship changes from David looking up to him and praising Campbell to being basically heartbroken when he realizes that Cameron Campbell isn’t all how David originally thought he was. Like even when Campbell is sent to jail and threatens David he acts like Campbell got out because he is just amazing and is now testing to see how well of a job David and Gwen (mostly David) are doing. Of course within the same episode David also sees that Campbell really doesn’t care and is just looking for someone else to take the fall. And in Camp Corp. we see that David has a grudge but that is quickly resolved and then quickly shattered at the end. But even in the beginning of season four David doesn’t lose hope for Campbell. He thinks he can change and be the person David had always thought he would be. Which if anything we also learn the Campbell realizes he’s a shitty person and wants to change he just has to work on it.

And in a way they’re all changing for David.

[aestheticallyholland]

NEVER NOT | DECISIONS . . .

❃ PAIRING tom holland x fem!reader

❃ DISCLAIMER i do not own the artists (and the reader) that are going to portray the characters, but i do own some of the their names. the plot of the story is inspired to the book and movie 'to all the boys i've loved before' but with changes. the gifs and photos used in this series are edited by me but i get credits to the originals. also, this series is first posted in wattpad by me. PLEASE DO NOT REPOST IT SOMEWHERE ELSE !

❃ WORD COUNT 1.7k words

WANNA BE ON THE TAGLIST? feel free to comment on this post if you wanna be added to this series' taglist to get notified for updates !

NEVER NOT MASTERPOST | LEI'S LIBRARY

"Wherever you go, whatever you do, I'll always be here to support you." - anonymous

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

[ january 05, 2016 . . . ]

Y/N WAS WAITING FOR TOM TO PICK HER UP FROM HER HOUSE. Tom had suddenly texted her to wait for him as he was going to pick her up. Of course, she agreed to him and told him not to be late.

Another week has passed since their real relationship started. They've celebrated Christmas and New Year together in each other's houses during the week. And also with their closest friends which were Erika and Harrison.

They finally opened up about their relationship with each other which made Erika and Harrison open up about theirs's too. Although it was already obvious for Tom and Y/N, they still wanted to hear from them.

When Y/N was lost in her thoughts, Tom's car suddenly arrived which surprised her.

"Tom!" She called out.

Tom happily got out of his car and walked towards Y/N.

"Where the hell are we going? It's like nine in the morning." Y/N complained which made Tom laugh a bit.

"Good morning to you, love." Tom greeted and gave a peck on her cheek.

She rolled her eyes playfully at him before answering back. "Morning, Thomas." She wrapped her arms around him and snuggled.

Tom's arm snaked around her shoulders as they walked towards his car.

"Seriously, where are we going?" Y/N asked Tom as she placed on her seatbelt.

"My house. My mom wanted to bake with you all of a sudden. She also wanted to make lunch for us." Tom said which made her eyes widen.

"How come you didn't tell me it was that? I could've prepared." She said.

"It's okay. I think my mom just prepared already." Tom said and started the engine and drove off.

Y/N sighed in relief and sat comfortably on the seat. She grabbed Tom's free hand and wrapped her fingers to his. Tom plastered a smile on his face while driving going to his house.

It has been a week since he got the news and he still hasn't told Y/N about it. He only told his family and Harrison first during the morning. He just didn't know how to tell Y/N about this.

This is why he planned to tell her today. And hopefully, he would tell her.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"Y/N!"

Y/N heard that familiar voice that called her and it was Tom's mom.

"Nikki!" Y/N called back as she gave her a big hug.

Tom closed the door in his car and went beside his girlfriend.

"I missed you already, dear," Nikki said to Y/N which made her giggle and Tom rolled his eyes.

"Mum, you just saw her a few days ago," Tom said and his mom just ignores her son's response.

"You know, it's very hard to deal when all my children are boys," Nikki said that made Y/N laugh, and Tom groan. "But, I've gotten used to it eventually," Nikki added.

They continued to talk as they walked inside Tom's house. Y/N basically helped his mom prepare lunch while the boys just played video games.

From time to time, their mom would scold them and ask them to help in preparing or else they would have to do the chores themselves for a whole month.

Nikki would tell Y/N stories about Tom and his childhood and about photography too which inspired Y/N to want to try to go into the field of photography.

"Lunch is served!" Y/N exclaimed that alerted the boys and they ran towards the dining room.

"No running, boys!" Nikki scolded them and just sighed at her sons. "Until now, they still act like little kids," Nikki whispered to Y/N loud enough for them to hear.

All of them gathered together and ate lunch. Tom sat down beside Y/N. Before that, he and his youngest brother, Paddy, argued on who will sit beside her. But of course, Tom won since he would always say that Y/N is his girlfriend.

"How's your father doing, Y/N?" Tom's father, Dom, asked her across the table as they were eating.

"Same as always. He's just staying home right now since it is still the holidays." Y/N answered.

"Tom," Nikki called out her son who looked at her. "Did you...?" She trailed off since she wasn't sure and Tom already knew what she meant. He shook he said as a 'no' and Y/N noticed their conversation. They continued to talk silently that Y/N couldn't really understand what was going on until Ton spoke up.

"Y/N, there is something I need to tell you," Tom said and Y/N just looked at him, waiting for him to say what he wanted to tell her.

"You know that I act, right?" He asked her and she nodded. He has mentioned before to her that he actually acted since he was a kid.

"Well." He paused for a while and looked at his brothers and father who was encouraging him to tell her.

"I auditioned for this role a few months ago before we met and..." He took out the paper that he received a few weeks ago and gave it to Y/N.

Y/N took it opened to read it. As she read through the lines, her eyes suddenly widen.

"You're..." She paused, trying to sink in what she just read. She looked at him and suddenly wrapped her arms around him.

"You're the new Spider-Man!" She exclaimed while hugging him. Tom didn't expect this kind of reaction but he was glad it was. He hugged her back and kissed her head.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Y/N asked him and pouted.

Damn it. She's so cute. Tom thought in his head before answering her.

"I didn't how to tell you this, honestly. I have to make a decision, Y/N." Tom told her.

He grabbed her hand and suddenly stood up and pulled her with him. He wanted to tell her this privately so he excused himself first and went upstairs with Y/N.

"Does this mean that you're leaving?" Y/N suddenly asked as soon as they went to Tom's room. He looked at her with sad eyes and nodded.

"Come on. Don't be sad, Tom." Y/N said and caressed his cheek. "This has been your dream since you were little," Y/N said.

"But I don't want to leave you, Y/N," Tom said and held her hand that was on his cheek. She just gave him a small smile before saying something.

"I'll be happier when I get to see you on the big screen, Tom," Y/N said which made Tom's chest feel lighter. "I'm so proud of you. You deserve it so much." She pressed her lips to his and Tom responded to it.

"Let's go somewhere," Tom said and held her hand once more.

"But, what about your family?" Y/N asked.

"They'll understand, don't worry," Tom said and led Y/N down.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"Is this another mysterious place again?" Y/N asked as Tom was covering her eyes. She could feel her feet being covered by something soft and sandy since Tom told her to take off her shoes.

"You'll love it," Tom said. After a few more walks. Tom asked her if she was ready and she nodded. He took his hands off her eyes and smiled.

"Woah," Y/N said as soon as her eyes were uncovered.

They were on a beach where there were fewer people. The sky was so clear that it reflects in the waters of the ocean. The sound of the waves satisfies her ears. Her feet were covered in sand.

"This is where I go when I feel stressed out or just want to relax alone," Tom said and stood beside her.

"You really discover so many beautiful places," Y/N said and wrapped her arms around him while looking at the waves.

Tom spun her around to face him while her arms are still wrapped around him. She gave him a questionable look first.

"I will never forget this beautiful face," Tom said that made Y/N blush.

"You really know how to make me blush," Y/N said and smiled. "And I will never ever forget this handsome face of yours." She said that and pinched his cheek with her other hand. "I still can't believe my boyfriend is the new Spider-Man."

"Me either. I'm so happy about it." Tom said and smiled widely. "I still can't believe that I have to be away from you for God knows how many years."

"I don't mind waiting for you, Tom," Y/N said. "As long as our love never fades, I'll wait for you."

"Man, I am so lucky," Tom said and sighed then smiled. "I have the best family then I just got the role that I've been dreaming to act." He looked at you. "And I have you."

Y/N felt herself blush again and slapped Tom playfully.

"Ow! What was that for?" He asked her and she giggled.

"For always making me blush." She answered and placed her head on his chest.

"I will go to you every day before I leave," Tom said. "I want to cherish these days with you."

Y/N continued to look at the scenery and smiled.

"Me too, Tom. Me too." Y/N said.

"You know what." Tom let go of her to properly face her. "Go here when you miss me the most. Go to this place when you won't be by yourself." Tom told her. He got something from his pocket and revealed it to her.

It was a bracelet with white marbles on it. In the center, there was a sun symbol that was surrounded by white marbles.

"Wear this to remember me." He added and placed the bracelet on her wrist.

She looked at the bracelet and smiled. She felt tears going to fall from her eyes and looked at him. She leaned herself to him and he hugged her.

"I'll always go here, Tom," Y/N whispered, softly.

They stayed there together with Tom's arms around her. He just wished that this could last forever.

❃ TAGLIST @allthisfortommy @kait4073 @lovebittenbyevans @l0ve-0f-my-life @spiitfiires @robertpattinson-th @jackiehollanderr @butterflies-glitter

[katiecomma]

Tell me the fandom deets on Macgyver, pretty please?

the first character i ever fell in love with: Jack Dalton - 100% - From the moment I first met him I was like: sassy ex Delta Force who loves everyone too much? MINE!

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: Unpopular answer: Mac honestly. I love Mac. I love him a lot. I understand that he’s been through some shit. But some of his motivations in the last few seasons (fair warning: I’m not totally caught up on the show - this is one of the main reasons why I stopped watching) haven’t made a lot of sense to me. And the stuff with Nasha really made me mad... And I think if they would have given us the voice overs in S3 we would have been able to see more of his motivation and gotten into his head why he was doing/saying some of the things he was doing it would have helped. And from what I’ve seen... I don’t like who he is in a relationship with Desi (I don’t hate MacDesi, but I hate what they’ve done with it in the show from what I’ve seen)... so I just... I don’t know I feel like he’s not the same character from S1-2... and that’s my Mac honestly.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: I actually think I still love all of my ships from this show... there’s no ship that I don’t like anymore... Huh. But I don’t tend to give up on ships... I don’t know if I’ve ever changed my opinion drastically on a ship in a fandom like that ever.

my ultimate favourite character™: Jack Dalton again... I love him too much. He’s got the greatest lines... he’s charming and witty and loves all of his little found family so much it hurts.

prettiest character: I honestly have to say I think this is a tie between Riley and Mac. I have a bigger crush on Riley... but GAH they’re both so pretty. Like... ridiculously pretty.

my most hated character: James. He’s the worst. I even wrote an entire fic on the premise of Jack getting to punch him in the face. There was some other plot... but I honestly engineered the whole plot and everything around Jack getting to punch James in the face at the end. Worth it.

my OTP: MacDalton - I’m on this ship until it hits an iceberg and sinks. I love them so much. You go kaboom, I go kaboom?! Epic ship material. Coming back for another FUCKING TOUR IN AFGHANISTAN FOR MAC?! Epic ship material.

my NOTP: MacDesi (SORRY! This is not invalidating this ship for ANYONE ELSE - this is a personal opinion and I support you shipping them 100%) - again, fair warning that I’m not caught up on the series... but from everything I’ve seen... Desi is a very abusive SO. I think they had potential, but I really don’t like what they’ve done with it on the show. As for shipping outside of canon... I personally never saw the romantic connection based on their interactions before they got together. Very-Desi centric... the pink dress scene drove me crazy because I didn’t like the idea of Desi trying to win Mac over by doing something like that. Up to that point Desi struck me as the kind of woman to be herself and just wait for a man to make a move on her, or to just be bold and make a move on him. But strutting around in a revealing little dress and playing mating games - I was sad they took her character to that place... so I never really shipped them.

favourite episode: Mac + Jack (S2E12) - as a MacDalton shipped I love this for obvious reasons... but there’s just so much in this episode... I loved seeing Jack and Mac in the army... the way they first met and totally hated each other at first... fantastic. This episode also has my favourite line of all time... when Mac’s trying to defuse the bomb under the hummer... and Jack’s bothering him... Mac: Well, you know what, there is a quicker way to do this. Jack: Really? Mac: Yeah, it involves a loud boom and a bunch of shrapnel in your body. Close second place: Skull + Electromagnet (S2E5) - Harper Hayes is so awesome and badass. I love her a lot.

saddest death: Jill Morgan. I loved her so much. I remember sitting down to watch the S3 premiere and saying: As long as they don’t kill Jill, they really can’t let me down...

favourite season: 2 - I loved Cage. I loved all the dynamics. My favourite episodes are in this season. It’s solid from start to finish. I love this whole season.

least favourite season: I will say 3... because I didn’t watch enough of S4 to name it. But S3 really let me down. I hated the way things just faded away with Nasha. I wish they’d had a better end to that. I hated that we lost the voice overs, especially because some of the stuff Mac was doing and saying was obviously because he was messed up over what happened with Jill and Murdoc and all that, and if we’d had voice overs we could have understood what he was feeling. The same way we did in S1 when all the stuff with Nikki was going on. Jack left. Gross. And he left Mac behind with just that handshake. Before Jack left I hated the way he was treated - they made him into the comedic relief buffoon... and there were several episodes where Mac was making Jack the butt of jokes. Desi showed up and it was pretty obvious when she came on the scene that they were introducing her as a new love interest for Mac. I have 0 tolerance for female characters being introduced solely as a love interest - cause: gross. I hated the Riley/Billy breakup. I hated that they killed Jill.  I hated that Charlie died the way he did, and then that night when they got together for beers Mac was smiling and hitting on Desi And let’s not forget that DESI got a phone call from Jack when Charlie died... but Mac didn’t. WHY?! You really think Jack would find out that Charlie died the way he did and not immediately call his boy!? Bullshit Sorry for the rant... but there were a lot of things in this season I didn’t care for.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: I guess Desi... though I wouldn’t say everyone else loves her. I just... there was so much potential with Desi as a character. Strong asian-American woman who’s the badass strong arm of their team... and they made her a love interest and made her kind of an abusive SO... and I just didn’t care for that. I think her and Mac as characters were both treated badly as a result. In conclusion: I really wanted to like her... I even have a huge crush on her... but I still just... don’t.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: I guess Murdoc?... Cause I love Murdoc a lot. And I was sad that they ruined the dynamic between him and Mac when he killed Jill. Killing Jill made it so their dynamic can never be the same. Mac didn’t like Murdoc before, but now he hates him on a personal level and will never forgive him.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: Riley - she deserved for Ellwood to stick around. She deserved for Jack to stick around. She deserved for Billy to STICK AROUND. And she deserves to have Mac treat her his found sister and not try to get into her pants the way he seems to every other woman he’s EVER around. (AGAIN: I am not in any way saying MacRiley isn’t a valid ship. I can see the potential - ship to your heart’s content). All this talk of love triangles upsets me... I think they’ve waited too long to pull the trigger on MacRiley... because they’ve always very much had sibling vibes to me.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: I had originally written that I didn’t have one, but I TOTALLY DO!!! Jack/Harper Hayes!!! I have this series of fics where she’s basically his Murdoc and is totally stalking him and stuff... and I just... everything I’ve written around their sexual tension is very non-con... but I love them a lot and I DON’T KNOW WHY.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Mac/Jill - I kinda love them. I love the idea of them being nerds together. I think they would be adorable. Jill is into the spy life but not a field agent so there wouldn’t be as much stress for Mac about losing his girl to the life... etc... So I love them. I think they could have been happy together. And seeing Mac have a happy little home with someone he can still talk about spy stuff with I think would have been great. And yet as much as I love them I just still sit back and dream about it, but I haven’t written much for them. Thank you for the ASK!!! I love doing these!

[anikkis-fantasirealities]

“LiVELY Legacy of Japan’s Lionized Anisinger”

➀ Personality Profile ┊ ˢʰᵉ ʷʰᵒ ˢʰᶦⁿᵉˢ ᵗʰʳᵒᵘᵍʰ ˢᵒⁿᵍ ᵃⁿᵈ ˢᵗʸˡᵉ··· ˢᵐᶦˡᶦⁿᵍ ˢʷᵉᵉᵗˡʸ ʷʰᶦˡᵉ ˢᵃˡᵘᵗᵃᵗᶦⁿᵍ ˢᵘᵖᵖᵒʳᵗᵉʳˢ·

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ꒰⁺˚₊·₍₍loading...₎₎ ㅤ ✎...۪۫❁ཻུ۪۪ -ˏˋ 🎤 ˊˎ-

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ

༘✶ ㊉ ㈦〘 ⅯⅯ 〙⋆｡˚𓆟 ༉ ║ Posted : ０６/１５/２１° ｡༄ ‧₊˚ ๑ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ •ଓ.° ｡❍ ㈩ ㊇

- - ——— ꒰ An article by Nicole “Nikki” Elaine S. Chua of NEU-IS ꒱

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ₊·͟͟͟͟͟͟͞͞͞͞͞͞➳❥ ࿐ྂ—͙❬₊° ᶦ ᵃᵐ ᵃ ᵇˡᵒᵍᵍᵉʳ ᵃᶠᵗᵉʳ ᵃˡˡ·“= ‹⸙͎

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤ ㅤ❝ Madamada iku wa yo~! ❞

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ- LiSA (Rally Go Round)

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı. ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤᴺᵒʷ ᵖˡᵃʸᶦⁿᵍ﹕ᵍᵘʳᵉⁿᵍᵉ ⁻ ᴸᶦˢᴬ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ0:11 -◦————— 3:59 ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ〔 ↠ⁿᵉˣᵗ ˢᵒⁿᵍ ╵╻↺ ʳᵉᵖᵉᵃᵗ ╻╵⊜ ᵖᵃᵘˢᵉ 〕 ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤVolume: ▁ ▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ █ 100%

Lush, loose—lofty and lovely. Lucent and lavish—lustral, laid-back, & luxuriant. Luminous. Legendary. Limitless. Light hearted and letter-perfect. There is not enough words for me to describe her overflowing talent for music, and the impact she has created for tech-savvy usernames cheering on their favorite idols & animations alike. Nowadays, most millennials and Gen Zs go neck-to-neck with their clashing interests of two international sensations: one known for the funky beats of charismatic boys dancing in synchrony, and the other, notable for moving illustrations of all kinds of stories that allure the imagination. Yes, let’s admit it, my generation has fallen in love with the influence of K-pop and anime, though I cannot blame anyone because of the fun & happiness they bring. Do you agree with me?

Well, even if you cannot agree or relate with me, I’m sure you would be able to find this article interesting! This personality is not someone of looming authority nor power—she is not a lady from the West, nor the Northern isles or even the Southern seas. She is here: the Rising Sun’s pride and honor bestowed by a sharp katana slaying all evil. It is where that familiar tune of hers is empowered with the narrative of a young man and his breathing techniques—a tale beloved by many anime fanatics. Yes! I’d like to introduce to you, one of Japan’s famed singers of all time: 𝙇𝙞𝙎𝘼! Make your entrance, please!

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ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ 【 今日もいい日だつ 】 ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ❝ Today is another great day! ❞ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ- LiSA ╰╼|════════════════════════════════════|╾╯

My life is truly music-inclined, even if I have two left feet and a raspy, rough voice. Those foreign lyrics ring out in my head, every time I enter through the gates of Japanese culture and enter my fantasy I know so well. I mean, cool right? I can still remember how I first embraced her beginning chords in January 2020, when that song, Gurenge, was heard throughout the spacious stadium of the New Era University college department. It was the opening ceremony for Intramurals 2020, and as soon as the melody played, the crowd sang along in a noisy type of harmony.

𝙂𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚, it means “red lotus” in English—the title of the Japanese opening theme for the animation called, “Kimetsu no Yaiba,” or more acclaimed as “Demon Slayer” by millions of anime ethusiasts across the web. I wondered what that range of vocals wanted to tell me. Those beautiful notes and the intensifying instrumental that accompanies such an epic story. Slowly, I understood why she is adored by many people, rain or shine, sun rays to lunar silhouettes. Now, here I am writing with everlasting conviction, to share everything I know about her—the reasons why that captivating rhythm, those inspiring words, and the pleasant emotions, made me sing along. So, let’s rest for a while, and I’ll tell you more about LiSA, behind the reflection of that worn out blade.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

LiSA, or Risa Oribe in real life, is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and lyricist from the Gifu Prefecture—in the small city of Seki. She is 165 centimeters tall, which is quite tall for a Japanese woman. She is known for her multiple song hits used in Japanese animation titles such as the Fate series and Sword Art Online. Though, did you know that she also sang for the music-based anime series, “Angel Beats!” as one of the main characters who so happened to be a vocalist, as well? This was LiSA’s professional song debut in the music industry, which she lunged into when she was given a chance to step onto the reknowned arena for some of Japan’s history makers: Nippon Budokan! As a kid, Risa Oribe was taught lessons in piano, dancing, and singing, which continued onto her junior high school years. After auditioning in the infamous Budokan, she held onto the dream of becoming an artist on the next journeys she would walk on outside her hometown.

Believe it or not, the name “LiSA” is an stylized acronym, consisting of confident letters that possess unique dignified meaning from one another. The stage name is adopted from a blast from the past, of the times Risa Oribe had travelled to Tokyo to form a band. “LiSA” stands for, “𝙇𝙤��𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙎𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝘼𝙡𝙡” which may sound weird for English speakers, nonetheless, its significance still pulls my heartstrings all in all. Prior to becoming the individual singing artist, “LiSA,” Risa Oribe has always been a part of bands ever since high school—one of them being a cover band of indie rock music, “CHUCKY.” Despite the risk of working with the band in exchange for her accredited certificates from university, she continued to reach for her ultimate dream career as a singer. Unfortunately, “CHUCKY” only lasted for three years, and this is what led Risa Oribe to test her luck in the capital of Japan—persevering for that aspiration, because there’s no turning back now!

╭╼|════════════════════════════════════|╾╮

ㅤㅤ 【 じっと見つめた　キミの瞳に映ったボクが生きたシルシ 】

ㅤㅤ ❝ As I stare intently into your eyes, ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤmy reflection there is the proof I exist, ❞ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ- LiSA (Shirushi)

╰╼|════════════════════════════════════|╾╯

LiSA’s musical influences are, surprisingly, internationally respected musicians of the English language. Some of these prominent figures in her life are Avril Lavigne, Green Day, Paramore, and Rihanna. She is well-known for memorable hyped performances filled of power and passion. Sometimes, if people are granted the opportunity to be mesmerized by remarkable skill, she is also able to play the guitar and key harmonica in her concerts. She can sing in Japanese, obviously, but her words weaved with melody extends into Chinese and English perception, too. As a songwriter, she personally wrote some of her produced masterpieces like “Shirushi” and “Rally Go Round.” Though, perhaps you’ve never would guess that LiSA had a voice acting debut in 2015, too! Don’t get your hopes up because she did not give life to any anime characters, but instead, she became the Japanese voice of Madge Nelson in the film, “Minions.” I know, don’t get me wrong, it’s a shocking difference from the person LiSA is famous for.

However, for Risa Oribe, it was not something to be shy about, for she absolutely loves Minions! For avid fans of LiSA, they would often spot sightings of Minions merchandise in her social media accounts. It’s a fact that wouldn’t make you think that she can be that intimidating performer on fire, once she leaps onto stage. She still has that gentle vibe, especially when she raises her arm to greet the audience with a simple peace sign. The dark packed venue would chant along the bridge instrumental, rapidly waving their lightsticks until the song performance is finished. It’s as if the stars have landed in a small part of Earth during the night fall, to take a day-off head banging to the beat of rock. LiSA’s concerts deliver the message that “𝙇𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙎𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝘼𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨,” as it is the running title pinned to her lives from then to now.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Speaking of which, here’s a fun fact! Did you also know that LiSA’s albums all start with the letter L? From “Letters to U” and “Launcher,” to “Leo-Nine” and the recently revealed “Ladybug,” each album has a motif that follows her musical style. LiSA’s original songs tell stories of hope, determination, and love. Ever since she released her first solo single debut, “Oath Sign,” for the anime, “Fate/Zero,” her name would never vanish from the music charts of new singles and albums in Japan. Songs like “Crossing Field,” “Catch the Moment,” and “ADAMAS,” of “Sword Art Online” were also noteworthy for their impact on LiSA’s career as a singer, not only for Japanese animations, but also for Japanese TV dramas and live-action films. Her very own, “Homura,” for the anime film, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Train” have even outstretched to the Billboard charts across the Pacific ocean!

Today, she has celebrated her 10th anniversary in the music industry—a realization that it just seems like yesterday when she got to meet her fans in different countries, go on tours to perform everyone’s favorite anime songs of hers, and made her mark as an “𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧” of the Rising Sun. That is why she is, indeed, an artist with a lively legacy to our current era—a personality deserving of a profile article from yours truly. It’s been great having you with me in this article, and I hope you were able to find admiration for LiSA and her work! Thank you for reading! I’ll see you again in another blog where my fantasies become realities! A Nikki reminder: don’t always go with the flow, and be yourself! Good day!

╭╼|════════════════════════════════════|╾╮

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ 【 生き残ったこの世界で　新しい　眩しい　 ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ 開けを迎えに行こうか 】

ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ❝ In this world I live in, there will be a new glow, ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ for now let’s welcome the new dawn! ❞ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ - LiSA (dawn)

╰╼|════════════════════════════════════|╾╯

· * ✫ * ⊹ * ˚ . . 　　· ⋆ * . * . . · . · . * · . · · + . ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ· ** ˚ . . + 　　· ⋆ * . * . . · . · . *

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ. . + 　· ⋆ * . * . . · . · .˚ ⊹ · * ✧ ⋆ · * . · . · · .. . .

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ· + ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ· * ✫ * ⊹ * ˚

ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ · ** ˚ . . + ㅤㅤ　· ⋆ * . * . . · . · .˚ ⊹ · * ✧

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ⋆ · * . · ㅤㅤ . · · .. . . · + .

ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ. · + . *

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ⋆ * . * . .

ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ . · ·

ㅤㅤ﹙dedication. ﹚ ୨˚୧ ˚ ༘♡.↳ ₊˚‧

This blog is dedicated to my sister, who is a big fan of LiSA. I am grateful that you’ve made me sing with her, forevermore.

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ﹋﹋﹌﹌﹌「 🎀 」﹌﹌﹌﹋﹋

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ┊彡 Credits

➥ Cover Edit

➫ Background

➫ Stand-out LiSA holding a microphone stand

➫ Sitting LiSA

➫ Butterfly themed LiSA

➫ Kimono LiSA

➫ "Brave Freak Out" promotional picture

➫ "Only ≠ Lonely"

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

➥ GIF

➫ "Gurenge" Music Clip ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

➥ First Blog Divider

➫ "Datte Atashino Hero" Music Video

➫ "KiSS me PARADOX" -LiVE is Smile Always ～PiNK & BLACK～ Live

➫ "No More Time Machine" Music Clip

➫ "LEO-NiNE" Limited Edition A Album Cover

➫ "LUCKY Hi FiVE" Single Cover ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

➥ Second Blog Divider

➫ Raising Arm LiSA

➫ "ASH" Single promotional picture

➫ "Unlasting" promotional picture

➫ "ADAMAS" article by Billboard

➫ "Shirushi" Music Video ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

➥ Third Divider

➫ Red-themed LiSA

➫ "Letters to ME" Music Video

➫ "Surprise" Music Video ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ

➥ Source of Information

➫ LiSA Wikipedia page

➫ LiSA’s Discography Wikipedia page

➫ Every Anime Song by LiSA fan-video compilation

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ��ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ﹋﹋﹌﹌﹌「 end. 」﹌﹌﹌﹋﹋

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ⭆ Back to Homepage ⭅

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ Next Blog ⇨

[ckjensenauthor]

Current WIPS

All Hail the Queen of Hearts: A twisted Alice in Wonderland fairy tale, where Alice is the Queen of Hearts. Novel is finished, in editing/beta readers stage! Blurb: You know the story of Alice in Wonderland. Or, rather, you think you know the story. You think it is a story of a girl who gets carried away in her imagination, carried to a fantastical land of Cards and tea and talking animals. That story isn't quite true. Wonderland is not a figment of Alice Liddel's imagination. Or anyone's imagination. Rather, it is the product of everyone's imagination, throughout all of Time. It is a real place, just as real as Earth, as real as Neverland. And, like any country, the government isn't perfect. So come, and enter the tumult of Wonderland politics at this moment. After the rebellion overthrows the despotic Queen of Hearts, Helena, sixteen year old Alice Liddel takes the throne, despite her misgivings. As Wonderland emerges from a time of political turmoil, Alice learns to play the role of queen as she seeks to find a way to stay young forever.

Crystal Coves: aliens in the cold war! Brainstorming stage. I have a vague plot. Think of Star Vs. The Forces of Evil or Gravity Falls- that kind of vibe, but sci fi rather than fantasy. This is set in the 1950s and follows the adventures of Ellie Smith, a 12 year old girl, and her best friend Charity Jones. Ideally this would be a webcomic! If you have art skills, let me know! I’d love love love that! I can also send you the character concept art my friend did (she’s busy and doesn’t want to take on a webcomic right now, which I totally understand!)

Aeron Ascending: space pirates!! Gay!! This will be my nanowrimo 2020 project, but so far it’s outlined! Set in the far-off future, this follows Aeron, the daughter of the colony leaders of Colony 197. However, as the colony moves onto another planet, she’s kidnapped by space pirates to be held for ransom and separated from her family. Her only goal is to return home and live the life that’s been planned out for her... but the pirates have other ideas. 

Asphodel: Scifi dystopian, but inspired by Greek mythology! Also gay! Perfect for fans of PJO! In Asphodel, no one can die anymore- the doors of death have been locked. We follow along with Nyx, a cyborg conscripted to serve as the physical therapist to the newly-cyborg demigod prince, son of Thanatos, god of Death. As she adjusts to palace life, Nyx tries to find a way to unlock the doors of death, hoping to let her parents finally rest. Only in brainstorming for now. 

Finworth Academy: A magical university. While Hogwarts is more middle/high school, Finworth is for college age kids (but this is entirely separate from Harry Potter, don’t worry!) I don’t have a plot yet, but I do have some fun worldbuilding! I’m thinking this will be a romance, and probably have some great queer representation, though that isn’t set in stone yet.

The Black Cloud: The Black Cloud is a tyrannical organization striving to take over the kingdom of Alindor. Follow Nikki and Sam, two earth teenagers who fall off a waterfall and into Alindor. They get wrapped into a rebellion against the Black Cloud, and with no way to get home, they play along. I started this when I was sixteen, and in four years, I’ve developed a lot as a writer- so even though it’s drafted, it needs a rehaul story-telling wise. It was originally going to be a trilogy, but will now be a duology. Perfect for fans of Brandon Mull, especially his Beyonders series!!

That’s it for now, as of 17 Aug 2020! I’ll make sure to use the hashtags for each of my posts, with the title and then my name, so it’s a unique hashtag and you can always find what you’re looking for if you’re interested in one of my WIPs!

[bandzrus]

My Kinda Lover (One-Shot)

The Dirt!Vince Neil x Reader

Masterlist

SUMMARY // requested by anonymous – Vince being shy around a girl, getting nervous and messing up a show when she’s there

NOTE // the year is 1981 btw, right before Motley Crue formed.  Uhg, I feel like Vince is so much harder to write than Nikki or Tommy, even though I love him.  

WORDS // 2905

TAGLIST // @mainly-me @shamelessobsessions @broken-pieces  @calspixie  @shouttatthedevill  @cigarettes-after-sexxx  @thatbandchick39  @buckyofthemyscira  @countrygirlswonderland  @kawennote09 @tommyfuckinlee @miserablecunt  @madsthegroupie  @livingforrt  @catsoo12  @whisky-a-go-go @motherloovebone @rysepieces98  @kickstartmyheartmc @voguesixx  @marvelismylifffe  @iluvmesomemarvelndc  @princesof-theuniverse

***

              It was a series of convoluted events that got you and Vince Neil together. Your brother was the leading cause of these events, and being the teasing older sibling that he was, he wasn’t ever going to let you forget it.  It started a month before it happened, when your brother finally stopped sleeping through his history class and saw Mandy.  New to school and therefore single, your brother was one of many bachelors who asked her out, all with no success.  Except your brother wasn’t a quitter, and he made it his personal mission to follow her around like a love-sick puppy opening doors for her, picking flowers, and going to every party she was invited to whether he was on the guest list or not.  And that’s how you wound up at Angie’s pool party.

              Angie was one of the most popular girls in your brother’s year and was notorious for throwing the best parties in LA.  Her parents both worked in big law firms and spent more of their time at the office than at home, which meant Angie had the run of the mansion.  It was never difficult to score an invite to one of these parties – as long as you’d never had an unpleasant run-in with Angie, you were welcome to help yourself to all the booze, bikinis, and pool floaties Angie had to offer.  You barely knew Angie and wouldn’t have gone to the party on your own accord, but your parents insisted your brother take you along since they were going out of town for the weekend and didn’t want you staying home alone too long even though you were plenty old enough to.  Your brother of course was going because Mandy was going.  And while you poked fun of him all the way there like the annoying little sister you were, it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to you.

                “If you’re wearing your speedo right now Jason,” you warned your brother. “I’m going to disown you.”

              “Chicks dig the speedo!”

              “No we don’t!”

              “Mandy won’t be able to resist me,” grinned Jason, gripping the wheel of his ’69 Mustang casually with one hand while his other hovered over the shifter.

              “You’re going to send her into shock.”

              “Shut up.”

              “I’m going to call the police and say there’s a guy exposing himself if you come out in your speedo,” you said, feet resting on the dash.  You tapped your fingers along to “Free Ride” by The Edgar Winter Group on the radio.

              “I swear to god, Y/N if you embarrass me in front of Mandy I’ll-“

              “You don’t need my help to do that, you’re perfectly capable of embarrassing yourself all on your own,” you chided.  “And your threats don’t scare me.”

              “I’ll tell mom and dad you were drinking.”

              “Jason, I’m twenty.”

              “Yeah, underage!  They’ll ground you.”

              “When they found out I drank at Hailey Anderson’s party in eleventh grade they didn’t care,” you pointed out.  “They’re not going to ground me now.”

              Your brother frowned and didn’t say anything for a moment, knowing you’d won the argument.

              “Fine, can we agree to just leave each other alone at this party then?”

              “I would like nothing more than to not associate myself with you,” you agreed.

              “I don’t want you fucking things up between me and Mandy, I think she’s finally coming around.”

              “If you say so,” you sighed, turning your head to look out the window at the passing California hills.  It was nearing the end of May and the perfect day for a pool party, and if you were being honest you were glad you were going to a place with a swimming pool.  It was hot as hell outside.

              Angie lived up on a hill, and as your brother pulled into the long driveway you could spot part of the Hollywood sign in the distance.

              “Come on, shitbird,” Jason called, pocketing his keys and swaggering up the path to Angie’s front door.  You could already hear the party in the backyard.

              “Coming asshat,” you snapped back.  Name-calling was nothing out of the ordinary with you two, and you’d probably been reprimanded more by your parents for that than any other bad deeds. Ringing the bell, the two of you waited patiently on Angie’s doorstep until she came to the door.

              “Hey Angie!” greeted Jason, putting on what he thought was his most charming smile.

              “Hi Jason.”

              Angie was blocking the doorway, one hand on her hip and the other on the doorframe.

              “We’re here for the party.”

              “Aw, Jason!  I thought we were selling Girl Scout cookies!” you whined, giving your brother your best pouty face.  It made Angie laugh.

              “I didn’t know you had a sister,” she mused, giving you a friendly smile. Jason just rolled his eyes and sighed, abandoning his smooth-guy act.

              “My parents forced me to bring her along – I made her swear she’d just sit in a corner with a beer or something.”

              “How old are you?”

              “Twenty.”

              “Did you bring a bathing suit?”

              “Yup,” you answered, flipping up your shirt to reveal your red bathing suit.

              “Want a beer?”

              “Love one.”

              “Come on in then,” smirked Angie, lifting her arm so you could get inside the house.  Jason made to follow you, but Angie blocked him off again.

              “Hey!” he protested, throwing his hands in the air.  “What gives Ang?”

              “Did you bring a bathing suit?” she inquired, eyeing your brother up and down critically.

              “He wore his speedo,” you informed her, giving Jason your best shit-eating grin.  He flipped you off.

              “A speedo huh?”

              “Chicks dig it.”

              You and Angie shared an understanding look before she turned back to your brother and lifted her arm to let him pass.

              “Thank you,” he scoffed, shooting daggers at you.  The two of you followed Angie through the house and out to the backyard where about forty other people your age were milling around drinking beer, smoking, laughing, or splashing in the pool.  Yup, a perfect day for a pool party.  You spotted Mandy first and smacked Jason on the arm to get his attention.

              “Try to not embarrass yourself too much,” you said.  “I’m grabbing a beer.”

              “Fuck off.”

              “Gladly.”

              Watching your brother shrug off his leather jacket and run a hand through his hair like some kind of preening bird, you rolled your eyes and then headed for the drinks table.

              “Just a beer thanks.”

              “Sure.”

              Handing you a cold one from a cooler full of ice, the guy running the table waved you off as a gaggle of girls came up to him.  Popping the cap off and taking a swig, the cold liquid felt especially good on a hot day.  You noted a few people your age milling around, but then something else caught your attention.  At the far side of the pool there was a drum kit and some other instruments set up. Taking another sip of your beer, you decided to wander over and investigate.  As you were making your way over trying to catch a glimpse of who exactly was about to play, music filled the air.  You recognized the song almost instantly.

              “You got my motor racin’

              I find my thoughts embracin' your every move

              I wanna set you reelin’

              I want to make you feel the way that I do

              And oh

              I been thinkin' 'bout you for so long

              I don't want to lose ya, you're my kinda lover

              My kinda lover

              My kinda lover

              My kinda lover!”

              It was “My Kinda Lover” by Billy Squier, accept it sounded better than the original which you hadn’t thought possible.  Elbowing your way through the crowd that had gathered, you finally spotted who exactly was playing.  Three long-haired brunettes on drums, keyboard, and guitar, and smack in the middle the hottest guy you’d ever seen.  Baby blond hair, tight white snake-skin leather pants, studded belt, jean jacket – he screamed rock star.  Your jaw dropped open.

              “Oh fuck me,” you muttered under your breath.  You couldn’t take your eyes off him; none of the girls crowded around the band could.  Totally mesmerized by the way he moved his hips, the longer you stared the less you realized you were drooling.

              “My kinda lover

              My kinda lover

              My kinda lover

              My kinda lover!”

              Leaning in close to a few of the ditsy blondes next to you to finish the last bout of chorus, the band wrapped up the song.  Cheering, whistling, and swooning, your good day had just turned into a great one.  And it was about to get even better.

              “Thank you, we are Rock Candy!” said the blond, giving the crowd a winning smile.  Blinking and shaking your head, you finally realized you had drool on your chin.  The blond singer glanced over at you and chuckled as you wiped the drool off with the back of your hand.

              “Shit!” you muttered, feeling yourself blush scarlet.  The crowd was starting to dissipate now that the band was abandoning their instruments in favour of cold booze, but a few of the girls were sticking around hoping for more.  When they realized the blond wasn’t paying them any attention and looking at you instead, you could hear them make a couple nasty remarks under their breath before they too wandered off.

              “Never had that before,” commented the singer, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand as he adjusted the mic stand with the other.

              “Hmm?”

              “I’ve never had a girl physically drool before,” he laughed.

              “I wasn’t-“

              “I dig it.”

              “Wha- really?  I’m totally embarrassed,” you confessed.

              “Yeah.  Makes me want to actually consider being a real rock star.”

              “I thought you already were.”

              “Really?”

              “What the fuck do you think?” you laughed lightly.  “I was drooling!”

              “Now, was that over the music or just over me?” the blond asked coyly, taking a step towards you and adjusting his pants.  You bit your lip.

              “Cocky son of a bitch, aren’t you?”

              “Been told that before.”

              “Both,” you answered honestly.

              “Want to get something to eat?”

              “I’d love to.”

              Swaggering back over to the drinks table, you started munching on chips while the singer asked for a beer.  You leaned your hip against the table and ignored the judgmental stares of other girls as you waited for the blond to pop the cap off his drink.  With a hiss, the metal cap came off and he took a rock star length swig of beer before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

              “Before I start calling you Drool Girl, mind telling me your name?”

              You laughed.

              “It’s Y/N,” you answered.

              “Vince.”

              “Well it’s a pleasure to meet you, Vince.”

              You bit a particularly large chip in half and then held the other half out to Vince.

              “Pleasure to meet you too,” he said, letting you feed him the chip.

              “What brings you around here, rock star?  I’ve never seen you before.”

              “Free booze,” Vince held up his bottle.  “Hot chicks.

              This time he gestured at you.

              “What about you?”

              “I came here with my idiot brother,” you confessed.

              “Oh?  Which one’s he?”

              “The one flexing his non-existent muscles for Mandy over there,” you pointed. Your brother looked like a total wad, taking turns gawking at Mandy and his own bicep.  Vince just laughed.  

              “He thinks he’s got game.”

              “You’re related to that guy?”

              “Unfortunately yes,” you sighed, turned back to the blond and taking a sip of the beer you’d forgotten was in your hand.  “He’s been going after her for a month now, you’d think he’d give up but no.”

              “She’s way out of his league.”

              “Oooh yeah!”

              “Does he have a cool car?”

              “Huh?”

              “Does he have a cool car at least?” asked Vince, taking another long swig of his drink.

              “Yeah, he drives a Mustang,” you frowned.

              “He taken her for a drive yet?”

              “Uuuh-“ just as you were about to reply no, you saw your brother grab Mandy’s hand and by the way he was gesturing you could tell that’s exactly what they were about to go do.

              “-I was gonna say no, but…” you pointed at the two of them with the head of your beer bottle.  The singer just laughed again.

              “Do you drive anything?”

              “I’ve got a 280z.”

              “Shit, really?” Vince asked, nearly choking on his beer.

              “Yeah.”

              “I’ve wanted one of those forever.”

              “Well, you’re gonna be a rock star, I’m sure you’ll be able to afford one in no time,” you giggled, twirling a bit of hair around your finger.

              “You really think I could be a rock star?”

              “Definitely,” you purred, taking a step towards him and fiddling with the hem of his jean jacket.  

              “Hey!  Vinny!”

              It was one of the other Rock Candy members calling for the singer. Turning his head, Vince gave a nod of acknowledgement.

              “Hurry up, we’ve got another song to do!”

              “Give me a minute, geezus!”

              “Hurry the fuck up, dude!”

              “Fuckin’ asshole,” muttered Vince, turning back to you.  “Sorry ‘bout that.  Can we finish this later?  Maybe over another one of these?” he held up his beer bottle before downing the rest of its contents.

              “I’d love that.”

              “Cool.”

              And with that the blond planted a flash of a kiss on your lips before nudging his way through the crowd.  Standing there stunned for a minute, it took a particularly loud scoff from a nearby girl to snap you out of it.  

              Eating another handful of chips and finishing off your beer, you decided it was high time you peel off your street clothes and strip down to your bathing suit.  The band had already started playing, and once again you recognized the song almost instantly.  It was Deep Purple’s “Highway Star”.  Balling up your t-shirt and shorts and tossing them under the nearest hedge where nobody would bother with them, you were about to shimmy your way back to Vince through the crowd when suddenly you had a better idea.  Grinning to yourself, you jumped into the pool.  Submerged, you were pleasantly surprised at how warm the water was.  The LA sun worked fast.  You swam towards the other end of the pool, only breaking for air when you came up on the other side.  Gripping the edge with one hand, you ran your other through your wet hair.  If you were doing this right, you looked like a damn model. The crowd still had a couple gaps in it and from your vantage point you could see the singer perfectly.

              “Nobody gonna take my car

              I'm gonna race it to the ground

              Nobody gonna beat my car

              It's gonna break the speed of sound

              Oooh it's a killing machine

              It's got everything

              Like a driving power big fat tires

              And everything!”

              Vince’s eyes met yours, just as you started making the move to get out of the pool.  Pushing yourself up chest first, you winked at him.  Your bathing suit left little the imagination and you knew it.  Sliding out of the pool with more grace than even you knew was possible, Vince’s singing started to falter.

              “I love it and I need it

              I bleed it

              Y-yeah it's a wild hurricane

              Alright hold t-tight

              I'm a highway star!”

              Smoothing your hair, you let the water run off your body as you smiled and bit your lip at him.  Maybe the red on the blond’s cheeks was from the heat or the singing, but you knew better.

              “N-nobody gonna take my girl

              I'm gonna keep h-her to the end

              Nobody gonna have my girl

              She stays close on every bend-d

              Oo-ooh she's a killing machine

              She's got everything

              Like a moving mouth body c-control

              And everything

              I l-love her I need her-“

              The band was getting annoyed with Vince, you could see it on their faces and even hear it in their playing.  More than just some of the catty girls were staring at you now.  A bunch of your brother’s colleagues were too, and of course Vince couldn’t keep his eyes off you.  He cut the chorus short, and the band started to trickle off, wrapping the song up before their singer butchered it too badly.  Vince let go of the microphone and gave an apologetic look at his bandmates before stepping into the crowd.  You were still standing near the edge of the pool, one hand absently playing with your wet hair.

              “I’m sorry, was I distracting you, rock star?” you asked, faking innocence. The blond wet his lips nervously, looking down at his feet for a brief moment before back up to you.

              “You did that on purpose,” he said plainly.

              “Maaaybe.”

              “First you drool for me, and now you’re getting wet for me.”

              You knew he was talking about a different kind of wet.

              “What are you going to do about it?” you asked him, lifting an eyebrow.

              “Give me your number and you’ll find out.”

              “Fine.  Got a pen?”

              Vince looked back at one of his band buddies for a pen.  Thankfully one of them had one.  You took it and then grabbed Vince’s hand in yours.  Using your teeth to pull the cap off, you carefully scrawled your number onto the singer’s wrist.

              “There,” you finished, letting go and recapping the pen.  “Use it.”

              “Oh I will,” promised Vince.  “Especially now that I know you’ve got a 280z.”

***

Uhg, I’m so sorry this took so long for me too finish, it’s not even that long and I liked the concept.  Next on my list is part 10 of TNFT, but I may take another break soon and work on some more of my requests.  I hope this didn’t suck too much and let me know if you want to be tagged in anything!

[megalony]

Councilling

Another part of my new dad! Ben Hardy series which I hope everyone will enjoy.

Taglist: @marshmallowmae @butlegendsneverdie @langdonzvoid @luvborhap @jennyggggrrr @radiob-l-a-hblah @rogertaylorsbitontheside @chlobo6 @rogertaylors-lipgloss @sj-thefan @omgitsearly

Series masterlist

Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ben's eyes glanced around the familiar waiting room, taking everything in like he always did as they waited for their weekly appointment. He glanced at a woman a bit older than himself sitting on the seats to his right. There were seats set in a square, three on each side. The lady was sitting with a young girl next to her who was tapping her foot rhythmically against the wooden floor. There was another woman, maybe about Ben's age with a boy a few years older than James who was sitting at the table in the middle of the square of seats. He was playing with the few lego pieces on the table, his eyes sneaking glances over at Ben and James every so often.

James, on the other hand, was sitting next to Ben on the chair in the corner, his eyes glued to a book on his lap he found in the chest of drawers beside them. Ben couldn't work out if his son was trying to read the book or simply glancing at the pictures but either way it was keeping him happy and content so it didn't really matter.

The father noticed his boy was a lot calmer now than when they had first turned up to the sessions. Both he and (Y/n) had been there for that first session and James hadn't stopped fidgeting. He'd sat scratching at his hands and arms, unable to sit still, moving from clinging to (Y/n)'s arm to scuttling onto Ben's lap trying to hideaway. Now James was fine with turning up, he trotted up the stairs and turned left and picked out where he wanted to sit out the way of everyone else until Nikki came to get them for their session. He could reach for a toy or get a book without asking Ben to get it for him as he sat scared stiff. It was an improvement.

"Gonna put that back buddy?" Ben whispered when Nikki came out into the waiting room. Smiling at the pair of them as James hopped to his feet, moving and setting the book back before grasping for Ben's hand.

Ben walked over to Nikki who was a few years older than he was, she was rather short compared to him. Long brunette hair and a bright smile that never ceased to amaze him. She opened the door she just came out of, guiding the father and son down a long corridor. Turning left before opening a door on her right with her key card.

"Alright, how are we today?" Nikki questioned as she pulled out on of the deep blue chairs and took a seat. Watching James look to Ben before sitting down next to him opposite Nikki as usual. "What would you like to do today, James? We've got paint, some papercraft, or I've got some playdough if you want to make something?" The brunette smiled when the four-year-old's eyes seemed to sparkle at her last suggestion. Getting to her feet she wandered over to the wooden cupboard on her left, grabbing the small container that held a few pots with different coloured play dough in them.

When the container was set down on the table in front of them both, James eagerly opened it, passing one of them to Ben before grabbing the red one for himself. A smile on his features as he looked rather giddy. They didn't have play dough at home since Lola almost tried to eat it last time and Lily got a lot of it stuck in the carpet. The colours had got mushed together since they had had them for a few years as they were originally Lily's and some had dried out. James had gotten very upset when the colours had been mixed and when (Y/n) threw them out James had screamed. His temper flared as Ben had to sit him on the stairs for a time out.

"How have things been since last week?" Nikki asked, the smile never leaving her lips as she rested her elbows on the table, her hands clasped in front of her. Watching with curiosity as James started to roll the dough into a circle as Ben grabbed one of the play cutters from the box, cutting out a few stars.

Coming along to the sessions seemed to make Ben a lot calmer as well, he felt like a kid himself because James always liked him to join in with whatever craft they were doing. James wouldn't partake unless Ben or (Y/n) joined in so they did so to encourage him but Ben always ended up getting carried away and spacing out for a while. It was nice to have these hour sessions because it gave Ben some time to be with James and listen to him opening up. Their home was always rowdy, they had a seven-year-old, four-year-old with more care needs and a one and a half-year-old who was the definition of trouble. For Ben to have some time alone with his only boy was calming and helpful.

James was always different when he was on his own like this, when he wasn't sitting and reading or feeling uncomfortable at preschool. When he wasn't shying away from family or clinging to his parents or arguing with his sister. When he wasn't getting upset or anxious or jittery it was like Ben was looking at a different child.

"Got a new room, have a den in there now... the calm room." James glanced up to Ben who smiled and nodded encouragingly. Happy it wasn't taking very much to get James to open up this week. Last week with (Y/n) James had been too quiet because he wasn't happy. He didn't want to move house because it was different and he didn't like different, it made him worried and he seemed to shut down. Ben was thankful he was opening up now.

"A calm room, is that a safe space for you James?" Ben had started calling it a calm room so James would get into the routine of going there when he felt upset or angry and could lie down or read or just play for a while and feel better. It seemed to be working up to now. "How have you been feeling this week, you didn't seem happy about moving last week?" She asked when the little boy hummed in response.

His eyes glanced at her own before looking down to the play dough in front of him, grabbing the small plastic cutter, using the tip to draw swirls and designs into the dough he had flattened against the table. He bit his lip as his head tilted to the side to look at the dough in front of him. He seemed to be adjusting to moving. His room was sorted and he liked the new wallpaper, where his toys were, where his bed was and the shape of the room. He liked the house and he was sleeping a bit better lately so he was happy.

"Mummy got me some new colouring books, and a Harry Potter one. She colours with me... daddy says Lily can't colour with me anymore. I- I like the new house though.

"Why can't Lily colour with you?"

(Y/n) noticed James was running low on colouring books. Most of the ones he had were either half-finished, finished or were scribbled out when he got mad at them. She had found some doodle books that had more interesting pictures rather than just cars or animals or landscapes. They were flowers, shapes and intricate patterns for an older person and they would keep James happy because he could spend time on the finer details. He didn't like the same colours touching such as the petals of flowers or the parts in a diamond. The new books would keep him occupied and the Harry Potter one made him smile brighter than she had seen before.

"You don't like her helping you colour, do you buddy?" Ben answered when James stayed quiet, his head nodding to what Ben said as his attention focused on the designs he was creating on the play dough. The actor knew that didn't mean his boy was ignoring him, if he concentrated like this it helped with his ADHD so he could listen and focus better.

Another argument broke out when James and Lily were colouring together, there was a picture in one of James' books that Lily really wanted to colour but James didn't like sharing his books with her. Ben had had enough of the arguments and the squabbles, telling his kids that if they coloured they were in different rooms. He made Lily keep her colours and her books in her room and kept James' stuff in the cupboard in the dining room so they didn't mix each other's things and they couldn't argue anymore.

"How have you been sleeping? Must be weird, in a strange room."

With his ADHD James had a hard time getting to sleep, he kept wriggling, or a leg jittered. A muscle somewhere tensed and contracted or recently Ben had noticed James started to tap his fingers against the wall like he was drumming out a rhythm without realising he was doing so. He tossed and turned every five minutes and took over an hour to get to sleep.

"Daddy came up with a new routine, sleeping a bit better now."

"We listen to some music, have a chat and a lie-down. Seems to be doing the trick." Ben knew it took quite a while to settle James so he and (Y/n) took it in turns to try and settle him down rather early. When Lily was fine with watching tv in her or their room and Lola was having a nap, Ben or (Y/n) would lie down with James in his room with some music playing that was meant to be calming. No lyrics or singing, just different instruments playing quietly in the background. Some nights James lied in the den whilst listening to the music before he lied in bed with one parent and they talked about anything and everything. Whispering to one another to try and get James to feel more tired.

Once he seemed rather tired Ben or (Y/n) would slip out of the room and let him try and sleep on his own which usually worked. If it didn't they would pop back in and lie with him or give him a drink of milk or let him listen to some more music until he was asleep.

Some nights, James didn't like his parents laying with him after their chats because the sound of someone else breathing made him unsettled. He didn't like the sound and it made him notice his own breaths and count them and that really panicked him. Other times he liked to lay on Ben's chest and let the very distant sound of his heartbeat swirl in his head like the beat of a drum and settle him into a sleeping state. They were finding new ways for him to get to sleep and it didn't matter which routine they used, as long as James was feeling better and able to sleep.

"That's good news then. Do you have your own room, I know you said you didn't like sharing with Lily at your grandparent's house." A while ago James and Lily had stopped at Ben's parent's home but James ended up sleeping on the sofa. He couldn't stand staying in the room with Lily because he liked to be on his own and he couldn't sleep so he wandered downstairs where Ben's parents found him in the morning. To make things a lot easier, Ben's parents had Lily over at the weekend to stay and then had James one night during the week, usually a Thursday since James liked his routines. It was easier for all of them and let James have a break from a crowded house and let Ben and (Y/n) focus on either both their girls or Lola and James instead of juggling their three kids all at once.

"Lily has to share with Lola, I get a room on my own room... Lily doesn't want to share either. S-she said I have the room b..because I'm different."

Ben's forehead rested against his hand as he closed his eyes for a moment, he had told Lily time and time again she couldn't refer to James as 'different'. He wasn't different, he just needed more care and understanding than some other kids. If she called him that even if she didn't mean to be cruel it was going to make James feel more isolated than he already did. He would feel insecure and upset and Ben didn't want that.

"That's because she didn't get her way buddy, she just doesn't understand." Ben rubbed his hand up and down James' back as the little boy nodded, his eyes glancing up to Nikki.

"Everyone has little quirks and ways they like to do things, just because Lily doesn't understand yours, doesn't mean your different. What is it about sharing a room that you don't like?" James kept his eyes on the play dough in front of him, trying to concentrate on it since he loved creating things with it and hadn't been able to for a while now. His hands moving to roll the dough up again instead of drawing with it as he tried not to think about why he didn't like sharing a room.

The little boy began to shake his head when he couldn't concentrate on the red dough in front of him. His eyes snapping closed when he started to notice each breath that came in and out of his lips. He could feel the way his chest expanded and deflated like balloons pushing out against his ribs. His fragile form began to shake when he started counting each breath that left his dusty rose lips. Becoming aware of the way he was breathing, wishing he couldn't notice it. Ben had told his son that it was normal, everyone got paranoid when they became aware of their breathing because it was an autonomic response. No one had to think and remind themselves to breathe so when they noticed the action it was startling and unnerving.

James let go of the dough as he glanced over to Nikki, noticing the way that her breathing was calm like Ben when the little boy looked to his dad. Noticing how Ben was breathing very steadily, his chest easily seen through the white fabric of his shirt. His father's eyes narrowing in a silent question to ask if his boy was alright. Wondering why he was suddenly quiet and unmoving.

Tears suddenly sprung to James' eyes and fell down his reddening cheeks as he looked up at Ben as his face fell. His hand fell to his chest showing Ben he was suddenly aware of his own breathing.

"Oh... oh no, buddy it's okay. No, no don't think about that..." Reaching over Ben quickly sat James down on his lap, trying to pull the little boy to his chest to hug him. Knowing James was particular about hugs, his parents were fine to hug him, it made him feel safe but other people made him uncomfortable. A frown pulled at Ben's lips when James batted him away, shaking his head as he pushed at Ben's arms. Not wanting to be close to him because he could feel his heartbeat and each increasing breath Ben took that didn't match with his own and it made him feel worse.

A small wail left James' lips as Nikki looked to Ben, unsure what would be the best thing for James right now in this situation. She had come up with little ways to calm him down but that was for planned situations such as if he got angry or upset or uncomfortable. Ones like this weren't what they had planned for.

"Can you play some music?" Ben asked quickly as he reached out, grabbing some paper and a pencil to try and distract James. If he started drawing or colouring he could try and take his attention from counting each breath he took. It never usually took long to distract James from something with his short attention span.

Nikki quickly fished out her phone from her pocket, playing some random tune that didn't really matter if James liked or not, it was just something to distract his mind.

"Sweetheart, here. Draw me something, okay? That's all you have to do now, just draw don't think of anything else." Ben turned James around so he would stop hitting his arms and chest to push him away. His arms enveloping around his son as he handed him the pencil and pushed the paper in front of him needing him to think of what to draw. James snatched the pencil held out to him, dragging the light violet lead across the page in a straight line from one corner to the other. Then repeated the action with the other two corners of the blank piece of paper.

James started to draw lines all over the page ranging from horizontal to vertical to diagonal. (Y/n) had shown James this kind of drawing that was meant to be done with different colours. To draw lines across the page going across, down and from each corner with different colours so they all overlapped and James could ask Ben to guess which colour he started out with. It made a nice pattern except now he was creating the lines out of anger, scribbling lines all over the page in the same colour, the lines ranging from very deep to very light depending on the pressure James used.

"Shh, see? Just pencil to paper, nothing else. You're alright buddy." Ben whispered, his lips pressing to the top of James' head. Watching as James seemed to calm down, the lines he drew were no longer rash and forced but slower and careful.

The four-year-old flipped the page over so he could start again before he pushed the pencil across the table. Watching it scatter off and crash down to the tiled floor before he started writhing around in Ben's arms. Trying to get away and most likely head out of the room. Ben knew if he let James go he would run off and try to hide somewhere, he always did when he got angry or he threw a tantrum which is what he seemed to be doing now.

James pushed his elbow into Ben's stomach as a small sob left his lips, he didn't want to be here anymore, he didn't want these questions or having to talk about how he felt. He wanted to go home to his den, he wanted to bundle up under the blankets in the cupboard with Frankie. James wanted to shut himself away and sit with his toys or go to sleep. He didn't want to sit here anymore, he wanted to go home.

"Sshh... stop it, please. We're going home now but you need to try and calm down sweetheart. We'll go home." Ben mumbled, getting to his feet as he adjusted James in his arms. Holding him to his shoulder as James finally stopped lashing out at hearing they were leaving. The little boy buried his face in Ben's shoulder as the actor gently swayed him side to side to try and calm him down. He didn't fancy walking out and passing by the onlookers with a screaming child in his arms especially if James lashed out and hit him by mistake. He'd rather calm James down enough so that he felt comfortable before taking him out to the car to go home.

[troominmoll]

"i feel like being bitter and listing off all the things that the 90s show changed about the original stories" as a relative newcomer to moomin-related stuff, i'm curious... what *did* the 90s show change??

*rubs hands because I love being insufferable*  

(Minor disclaimer that this is mostly done in good nature. I understand almost every show that is adapted from existing content is gonna change stuff to suit their story-telling needs. But I am annoyed that some who praise the 90s anime think the new series is bad simply for doing things differently when that show, and nearly every one prior to it, has also put their own spin on things.)

There are 24 episodes of Tanoshii Moomin Ikka (plus a movie) based on the books by Tove Jansson, and I think 11 based on the comic strips she wrote. It would take a long time to cover every single detail in every single episode, so I am mainly going to discuss those that have changes I find more significant, disappointing, personally distressing, or just plain baffling.

(A second disclaimer: I have not read any entire comic stories past the point where Tove stopped working on them. There are some episodes based on strips created exclusively by her brother Lars, The Vampire and Artists in Moominvalley being two examples. I will be skipping those, as well as Bouken Nikki episodes, as I have yet to thoroughly watch each one on account of so few being based on Tove’s work and the headaches they induce lmao. Nitpicks from fans who have read Lars’ strips in full are welcome.)

Now without further ado, let the fussing begin~

01 Spring in Moominvalley: This follows the basic storyline from the first two chapters of Finn Family, but with some notable changes. Snufkin at this point woke up from hibernation along with the rest of the family, Little My had yet to be introduced, and Snork - a child like the rest of the main cast - lived with his sister and the rest of the kids in the Moominhouse. The entire subplot of him being an inventor is merely an invention of the anime.

Moomintroll, in the book, spends a lot more time in transformed body. As he believes his friends are playing a new game when they fail to recognize him, he makes up a story about being “The King of California”. He repeatedly pretends to insult Moomin (himself), and in a touching display of devotion his own friends beat him up to defend his honour.

02 The Magic Hat: Continuing on with a scene based on the later half of chapter 2, we see Moomin rescue Snorkmaiden from the Ant Lion, and along with Snufkin, decide to trap him in the magical hat. In the original story however, Moomin and Snork trap the him. This was rather unprovoked, though Moomin cites a moment from a previous book (read all about it in The Moomins and the Great Flood!) where the Ant Lion allegedly kicked sand in Mamma’s eyes. The gang then takes the hat back inside for more “experiments”, and after making a mess, the adults decide it best to dispose of the hat in the river.

Much like in the story, the hat is soon recovered by Moomin and Snufkin, though a chapter where they hide it in a cave and and end up frightening the Muskrat (who uses it as a shelf for his dentures) is absent. It then continues to the scene where Moominhouse is briefly overgrown with plants. Aside from this happening sooner than it did in the book, and the premature appearance of the Hobgoblin, and the missing Mameluke hunt, and the part where all the children play in the jungle, I think it’s pretty true to that chapter!

03 Discovery of a Wrecked Ship:  First off, I wanna say I’m mostly including this episode on my list just to make it clear that Snufkin’s random sexist comments towards Snorkmaiden and Little My are missing from the book. There is a chapter where him and Moomin go ambling up some rocks, but “the girls” are thankfully absent from this scene.

So then they discover an abandoned boat and the rest of the episode is padded with scenes where they repair it. A charming spectacle, I’m sure, but also absent from the book as the boat they find is already in pristine condition. Shame that Snufkin never got to share his idea for the ship’s name, (it was Lurking Wolf aha ha ha) but that might be for the best.

07 The Suitcase: As seen in episode 06, Thingumy and Bob arrived in Moominvalley. They bring with them stolen goods and and the mother of Grimace, who seeks to recover said goods. Snufkin, once again letting everyone down, decides that a gentle female should speak to them about the contents of their suitcase and soon Snorkmaiden is assigned to the task. Instead the book features a trial sequence, which really helps hammer in the metaphor. Everyone takes part and Sniff acts as prosecutor of behalf of the Groke, who appears and is willing to trade the treasure in exchange for the magical top hat (NOT a pretty scallop).

08 The Hobgoblin’s Magic: Moomin hears that his wondrous wooden woman has washed up on the shores of Moominvalley. But when he rushes to the beach, he finds nothing but sand and disappointment waiting for him. This sends him spiraling into a brief yet no less deep depression which is cured only when Thingumy and Bob share their contents of their secret suitcase. The novel was much more reasonable however. He was saddened by the loss of Snufkin who had skipped the valley for the first time, promising (as we all know) to return on the first day of Spring.

And then there is a fabulous summer party thrown by the family after the recovery of Moominmamma’s handbag. This part is true to the story, at the very least. But the party in the book is much more fantastical, with dancing, music (from America of all places), punch served in darling sea shells, and everyone - right down to the tiniest forest critter - is invited, and gets to make a wish when the magic man arrives. 

09 An Invisible Friend / 10 The Invisible Child: I wouldn’t say that these episodes, featuring the famous character from Tales of Moominvalley, have any life-ruining changes from the original story. But since no episode is complete without a bit of drama, or a pointless cameo from Snufkin, a scene where Stinky traps Ninny with the intention of having her assist in his robberies has been written in. And Little My’s comment regarding the aunt in the English dub, where she states “I hope you told her she hurt Ninny’s feelings!” seems uncharacteristically gentle in comparison to her asking if Too-Ticky “bashed her head in”.

13 The Last Dragon on Earth: As mentioned in the entry above, some episodes will include new subplots or elements for the sake of drama and action. This episode is another example of that, but otherwise it has only minor tweaks. Snufkin states that “the cards” have told him he should leave Moominvalley early if he catches x number of such-and-such a fish, but that storyline is exclusive to this show.

14 Our Neighbor is a Touch Teacher: This episode is based on snippets of the comic strip “Moominmamma’s Maid”, but scraps the storyline containing the titular character from the strip, which is nearly all of it. Instead, it is entirely focused on the Moomin’s new neighbor, Mrs Fillyjonk, a strict and uptight mother of three.

After the Moomin’s welcome party leaves Mrs Fillyjonk fearing for her life, she forbids her children from playing with the Moomin brood. They sneak away anyway. A bunch of death defying stunts happen, courtesy of Stinky. Mrs Fillyjonk plans to leave the valley, but the kids have none of that. This is almost an original story, save for the existence of a party.

16 A Close Encounter with Aliens: Once again we have an episode based on the comics. It follows the basic plotline of the Moomins caring for a stranded Martian child.  But a lot of wackiness was cut for time, including invisible Moomins pranking valley residents, a flying fire brigade, and Moomin shrinking down with Mamma, who later bites a Fillyjonk child. Time used for an inserted chase scene with Stinky (one of many across the tv series) feels could’ve been better spent on some of the fun stuff mentioned in my previous sentence.

17 A Change of Air: And yet another comic-based episode, this one taken from “Moomin and Family Life”, which happens to be my personal favourite comic so this analysis may sound bitterer than others. The episode cuts the beginning of the strip, where we see a lonely parent-less Moomin contemplate suicide before being reunited with his long lost Moominmamma and Moominpappa. The comic is a completely different entity from the books and adjustments must be made, so this decision is understandable. But the following choice? Less so.

The episode instead starts with Pappa complaining that nothing exciting ever happens, and I won’t remind him of the events from episode 16 because everyone brings that up. Stinky overhears plans of doing something to entertain him, and during the night makes a set of giant footprints leading to the sea. Whereas in the comic strip, the “giant” prints are innocently left by Snufkin who was wearing boot too big for he gotdamn feet. He nearly perishes for this grave mistake.

Strips where Moominmamma and Moominpappa hang out in a cave, Moomin sheds a few tears tears, and Snufkin offers some half hearted words of comfort provide a basis for following scenes in the episode. But antics with Moomin and friends trying to foil Aunt Jane, who angrily travelled to the Moominhouse after being pranked by Pappa, are sadly missing. 

24 Hurry Up Snufkin: The part where Snufkin meets and later names the forest creature Teetywoo, is based on the short story “The Spring Tune”. There are many potential gripes one can have about such a brief scene.

A lot of the dialogue between the two characters reflects what is said in the short story, but what the episode sorely lacks are Snufkin’s feelings. Gone are his shouts and snaps, his grumpiness about being disturbed, his regret when he lashes out, his desperation to find Teetywoo again. His famous line “I’ll come when it suits me” is “cried violently”, making me wonder how it ever became an inspirational quote (oh wait I know). In favour of portraying Snufkin as cool and chill, the anime sometimes ends up making him look more like an emotionless bump on a log.

The plotline of Snufkin being late to return because he is trying to compose a new song has been cut, on account of either his lack of talent or lack of music budgeting.

25 The Lighthouse / 26 The Day the Lighthouse Lit Up: These episodes actually combine elements of two different stories: the comic strip “Moomin and the Sea”, and the similarly titled novel “Moominpappa at Sea”. Lacking most of the typical shenanigans from the strips, or bleak themes from the book, these episodes feel more like a slightly above-average family outing.

The episodes seems to lean more towards the comic, where Moominpappa takes on the job of lighthouse keeper as inspiration for his writing, and Moomin is terrorised by an equally frightened ghost. Too-Ticky unfortunately is missing from the episodes, alone with the scenes where she shares some spooky suggestions with the spectre, and where Snorkmaiden fakes her own drowning to help Moomin feel brave. 

Borrowing from the books, we meet both the former lighthouse keeper and a little boy named Toft, who apparently got very lost on his way to auditions for a “Moominvalley in November” episode. The episode scraps the element from the book of Moominpappa making the entire family miserable because he has some deluded fantasy about protecting and providing for them on his own, as well as a heart wrenching subplot involving the Groke, which I will not spoil for those considering reading it. But know this: there will be tears. 

28 The Floating Theatre / 29 The Lost Children / 30 Midsummer: This three-parter is based on “Moominsummer Madness”, which is kind of an interesting book. Taking place smack dab in the middle of the series, we see it move away from the more lighthearted tones of the early stories, and begin the shift towards the less fantastical and more serious themes of the later books. But it isn’t quite there yet. And being written around the time Tove still worked on the comic series, some parts of the book would not seem out of place if drawn in her strips.

The most noticeably difference between the original story and anime episodes is the change of the cast. With the number of characters and subplots happening at once in the book, it was inevitable that some unlucky sod would get scrapped from the story - three sods in fact, by the names of Mymble, Misabel, and Whomper. Sniff is inserted into the story, and references to Mr Fillyjonk, the stage manager and Emma’s late husband, are removed. 

Snufkin and My’s subplot is changed and cut quite short, beginning with the element of the two not knowing each other. His assault on the park keeper seems to be done for the sake of rescuing the children more or less imprisoned in the park, but book Snufkin simply took joy in breaking the law. The episode lacks great scenes of him trying to take care of the 24 little children; doing things like making silly noises, threatening to drown himself, and exposing them to second hand smoke. 

With a small handful of characters missing, the plot of the play Moominpappa writes greatly differs from the book. And say goodbye to the ending chapter, where the reunited Moomin family flees the police and gets chased all the way back to Moominvalley. 

45 Moomin Builds a House: This episode is based on the comic of the same title. Although it cuts the story quite short, what is left in is relatively close to the original. Except for the insertion of Snufkin, but I am not offended because that adorable laugh made his appearance worthwhile.

59, 63, 68 Adventures of Moominpappa: And here we get to the episodes based on “The Exploits of Moominpappa”. The first few changes I’d like to point out are a little less notable. As Mrs Fillyjonk was already more established in the show, the Hemulen aunt becomes a Fillyjonk. Edward is a silent character, the Nibling child that Pappa and co look after is absent, and everyone gets real ugly colour palettes. 

Next, as you may know, the original books don’t really follow a solid timeline and canon changes in between stories. So in an attempt to make more sense, the young Mymble that Moomin meets is Little My’s mother, rather than her sister. But strangely, Moominpappa’s other friends are no longer the parents of Sniff and Snufkin. Why those two were still so enraptured by listening to his story is unclear.

Comet in Moominland: Finishing off the list is a movie based on the story of the same name. Being the first in what is considered the “main” book series, there are bound to be differences in how characters are written. But there is no difference here more worth talking about than Snufkin.

As I’ve already mentioned before, he is portrayed in the anime as more relaxed. He is the older and most mature member of Moomin’s group of friends, and tends to be reserved in expressing his emotions. For the sake of presenting Snufkin as a responsible figure, he never teaches the gang his favourite game: rolling boulders down cliffs, an activity which almost results in multiple casualties. We never hear his story about disrespecting a police officer, and his subsequent prison break.

But Snufkin in the earlier books is very much a child like the rest of the main cast. He is playful and talkative, being described as bringing “gaiety” to their adventure, and is always thrilling his friends with epic tales from his travels. He is not shy about expressing himself, he is shown to have some sadness about having no parents and cries his wee heart out upon sees the dried up ocean.

Other changes may seem more innocuous by comparison, snipping a party scene and river raft ride, and including Little My. But with the lack of a noticeable personality for a key character, and some of the action scenes, much of the movie just feels like a boring hike home.

~

In short, yeah. As you can see I’m pretty passionate on this subject, especially when it comes to Snufkin’s characterisation. Anyone who wishes to discourse Moomins with me is welcome.  

[lifeofnickripley]

Favorite Manga/Anime

Kay, so If I'm gonna start posting stuff onto here, guess I gotta do some journaling kinda stuff.(It is a blog after all) Alrightly then, guess I'll start off with something relevant to the original content I will frequently post, Manga/Anime. There will be a lot that I love that aren't on here, but these are my personal favorites.(LONG BLOG I AM SORRY)

Top Anime:

Honorable mention - Amon - The Apocalypse of Devilman OVA - Kay so I'll be the first to admit, I'm a total edgelord.(one of my bands is a death metal band) and this one is GORY!! It's depressing, messed up, dark. It deviates from the Manga storyline but I always go back to it, plus that ending OST is amazing.

10.)Monster Musume - I probably should be extremely embarrassed about liking this one...but I'm not, it's amazing. Perverted? Yes. Weird? very. So much weird T&A action goin on that it's nauseating at times? oh my god yes. That being said, IT'S HILARIOUS!!!

9.) Pop Team Epic - Ever wondered what it's like in hell? This show. This show is literally meme hell, to the point where you lose brain cells if you watch it too long. It's great. I recommend it, after watching a decent chunk I wanted to scoop out my eyeballs and play tennis with them. That may sound like a bad thing, but trust me, it's an amazing feeling.

8.) My Hero Academia - Kay, so I'm not caught up on this one, buuuuut it's motivational as hell. I don't think I've ever rooted for a protagonist to win at something more than I've rooted for Deku. The popularity of the show speaks for itself but, damn, what an awesome underdog show.

7.) Jojo's Bizzare Adventure - SONO CHI NO SADAME!!! JOOOOOOOOOJOOOO!!! I still need to catch up on this one too but I love this wacky, music reference filled, insane show. I doubt I can really say much that hasn't been said already bout it. So on that note ORAORAORAORAORAORAORARARA

6.) Noir - Highly underrated anime. Bout two female assassins, one played by Monica Rial. Refreshingly dark and realistic, this awesome tale is set in France and is haunting, to the point of where I still come back to it after years and years of watching it. Quality anime that has slipped under most people's radar.

5.) Mirai Nikki - I said I was an Edgelord, right? Think this one cements that status. Home of the best Yandere in all of anime, I doubt I need to sing it's praises. Yuno Gasai is a well known character for a reason. Love this insane series.

4.) My Bride is a Mermaid - I'll admit, when I first saw this on Netflix and began watching it out of boredom, I didn't think I would like it. Matter of fact, I was sure I would hate it. I don't typically like cutesy things, edgelord here, I despise things that are cute and cuddly (Cept for cats). But HOOOOLY HELL this one was funny. Best part is? It doesn't rely on pervy imagery to be hilarious, it is humor at its purest. Comedy anime at its finest.

3.) Samurai Champloo - Sa-sa-sa-samurai champloo! Woooo where do I begin? Three misfits, Edo period Japan, Hip-hop related adventures, and badass fight secenes? Count me in! Made by the same people who made Cowboy Bebop, even has Steve Blum voicing Mugen, so you know it's good.

2.) Saikano - Kay so don't judge an anime by its art style. I repeat: NEVER judge an anime by its art style. This one is cheesy, yes, and the English Dub is horrible. THAT BEING SAID, it really does not go where you would expect it to go and one scene in particular had me shedding...manly...tears-It's sad, ok?! That character didn't deserve that death scene!!!

1.) Neon Genesis Evangelion - Ahhhhh yes. The creme de la creme of #toodeepforyou. Highly intellectual and artistic, this DIY amalgamation of a series hits many notes for me and came to me at a time where I needed it most. It's slow but if you allow yourself to be patient and analyze what is at first appearance a confusing, psychedelic nightmare, you'll find yourself in for a treat. Best part of the series for me? The movie End of Evangelion. You watch the series, you have to watch the movie. End of discussion.

Top Manga:

(BEEN AWHILE SINCE I'VE READ MANGA SO IT'S ONLY TOP 3)

3.)Inuyasha - The original Manga that got me into anime/manga. Rumiko Takahashi's work is very near and dear to my heart. I just remember the feeling of reading these for the first time in Middle School, I don't think I knew manga could be this cool when I firt started. The demons were legit terrifying, you couldn't help but root for Inuyasha and Kagome. Mindblowing stuff for an 11 year old.

2.)Berserk - Probably the one manga I still retroactively read. Dear god, it's excellent. The story, the fantastic art, superb writing and character development. There is a reason I want to get the Brand of the Sacrifice Tattooed on my neck. Guts is arguably one of the most sympathetic anti-heroes ever written. This is another series that really entered my life at the right time. No matter what terrible things happen to Guts. He lives on, he fights through his literal demons everyday. Above anything else, he carries on. Will forewarn anybody hoping to check it out though, extreme depictions of violence and sexual violence. Series is not for the faint of heart AT ALL.

1.)Ranma 1/2 - Ahhhh Ranma 1/2. My absolute favorite. Every time I sit down and read this manga, I find myself genuinely laughing from one of the panels. In my opinion, Rumiko Takahashi's best work. It is an absolute comedy masterpiece. Pure craziness and absurdity. 10/10.

[albionjake]

Goodbye Big Brother: The Show That Changed Television and My Life

You’ve probably read this title and thought ‘Christ, he really likes Big Brother too much’ and you’d be correct. I definitely do. There’s no denying that. But I would add that you probably think Big Brother is just a trashy, meaningless reality show and I’m afraid to tell you that you’re wrong about that. You have probably come to that conclusion as a result of extreme reality saturation. Reality as a genre is now almost exclusively easy to watch trash that washes over you and you forget about a few days later. Big Brother is entirely responsible for all of it existing but I don’t believe it should be judged the same way as its spawn. BB is the original and it should be treated with respect (yes Channel 5, I’m talking to you). At one time in the UK, Big Brother was the biggest show on television. It was on the front pages of national newspapers and magazines. Housemates became household names. It was watched by four times the amount of people that watched the Love Island final this July. It changed the way TV was made. Before Big Brother, we didn’t have shows where the public called up and voted people off. It wasn’t a thing. Big Brother is the original reality show. The greatest of all time. A show with so many iconic scenes and characters, no other reality can even come close. Try arguing a case against a show that gave you Nasty Nick’s confrontation, Helen and Paul’s romance, Jade Goody’s verruca meltdown, Fight Night, Michelle and Chicken Stu under the table, Kinga and her bottle, Nikki Grahame’s diary room rants. If we go over to CBB, it gave you George Galloway being a cat, “Yeah, Jackie”, Tiffany Pollard believing David Gest had died in the house. No other show could produce moments like this.  So why is it being cancelled at the end of this series? Well, nobody is watching it anymore. Has the show changed? Yes, a bit. But not really. The basic premise has always been there for 19 series. What’s changed a lot more is society. We are a very different country to what we were in the year 2000. People have much shorter attention spans and have come to expect shows to be heavily produced and edited. Big Brother is still essentially the same show it always was but it has changed and I’m going to tell you how while also hopefully reminding you why the show is so incredibly important and why it’s an absolute travesty that it’s been thrown on the scrap heap without anyone caring. Series 1 began on the 18th of July 2000. Ten people went into a house, and the first few weeks bubbled away without much fuss, viewers were steadily increasing as people became interested in loud and confrontational characters like Caroline and Nicola and a burgeoning romance between Andy and Mel. We could spy on people living their lives. After years of having to covertly peak through the net curtains or put a glass to the wall to spy on the neighbours, we could do it openly in our homes and then get rid of anyone that was annoying us by calling up and voting them out. The show didn’t take long to become a national talking point. After 35 days, Nick Bateman was ejected from the house for cheating. For weeks leading up, he had been secretly writing names on pieces of paper and showing them to other housemates in an attempt to sway their nominations. The public had also watched him make up stories about things like his wife dying in a car accident and he’d become the most hated man in Britain. On his final day, the other housemates had confronted him, led by Craig who eventually won the show. Nick was on the front pages, he made the show a massive hit, everyone was talking about it.  The second series was eagerly anticipated and was full of much of the same arguments and controversy. The show was streamed 24 hours a day on E4 and a sister show began called Big Brother’s Little Brother which would lead to the ‘sister show’ becoming a genre of its own and being a staple of pretty much every reality and talent show on TV. Brian Dowling won the second series after being adorable and hilarious for 64 days. His win told me, a gay 13 year old boy, that young, gay men could be accepted for who they are by millions and that was invaluable to me. Big Brother literally changed my life, so forgive me if I get defensive about it. It’s more than a TV show to me. Over 19 years, it has taught me so much about human interaction, about accepting people for who they are and about a whole host of controversial issues. Watching a house full of different adults every year from the age of 12... I can’t even imagine how many things the show taught me. It’s almost certainly shaped a huge part of me and my personality. Week one of the third series brought the first ever nominations twist as the public were asked to nominate two housemates and then the housemates would decided which one to evict. Of the two that were up, the housemates chose to evict Lynne who had actually received the second highest number of the votes. Who had the highest number of votes to leave after one week? Jade Goody. Sort of proves that letting the public vote for anything might have been a huge mistake all along. Jade Goody would later become the biggest star the show has ever produced. Jade’s story is one of the most fascinating stories in British pop culture history and I’m astounded it hasn’t been made into a film. She made the series unmissable and I believe she’s one of the all time greats. BB3 also gave us Allison Hammond who now presents on This Morning along with a load of other stuff and Adele Roberts who hosts the Radio 1 early morning breakfast show. This series was the most crazy yet, with more twists and turns than before and a more volatile mix of housemates.  Following the insanity of BB3, the show tried to get back to basics with its cast and the people chosen were a bit less manic. This was the first huge misstep for BB. It’s a risky format, there’s always a chance that your housemates just aren’t going to work. Always a chance they’ll all pretty much just get on and have a nice life in the house. This is another reason why I love Big Brother. There’s always a risk that it could be a shit series. Sure, producers can intervene and try to spice the show up but, what I’ve learned over the years is, that if it’s a shit series then it just can’t be saved. If those housemates aren’t right then nothing you throw at them is going to fix the problem. BB4 was one of those years, it was perfectly pleasant but entirely uneventful. So Big Brother 5 had to win everyone back. A lot of people had given up on BB4 but the show was still young enough to stir up interest when it came around again the following year. They’d learnt from last year and were telling us that Big Brother was “going evil”. The house was pumped full of loud, opinionated and diverse people. Big Brother was harsher and meaner than ever before. The show was exciting again. The huge argument that is now known as ‘Fight Night’ was one of the show’s landmark moments. Security was sent in to diffuse the situation. The police were called by concerned viewers at home. Housemates were screaming and shouting in each other’s faces. Tension that had been bubbling under the surface for weeks had erupted and it was absolutely amazing to watch. I was watching the live feed on E4 that night and despite mostly only getting to see shots of the garden and hearing the familiar sound of birdsong, the little snippets I was able to see were genuinely thrilling. Big Brother 5 was won by Nadia Almada, the first trans housemate ever. Following Brian’s win a few years earlier, this cemented Big Brother’s important place in the LGBT world. No other show has shown quite as many varied types of queer people in this country. And it doesn’t just show them, it lets an audience get to know them. Nadia didn’t win because she was trans. She won because she had been an incredible housemate. Seeing the leaps and bounds trans rights have made in recent years has been amazing but let’s remember how out of the ordinary it was to see a trans person on mainstream TV in 2004. Not a drag queen like Lily Savage or someone wheeled out on Jerry Springer for a cheap laugh. We got to see a real trans person on mainstream national TV and it can’t be understated how healthy that was for our country and culture. BB was now back on track as BB6 came along and was just as great as BB5 had been, probably better. We had legends like Makosi and Kemal, Craig and Antony’s fascinating friendship and fiery characters like Science, Maxwell, Roberto and Derek to keep the drama going for the whole summer. Kinga and her bottle will probably be the most memorable moment from the series but the whole three months were exceptional. Big Brother 7 was more of the same. Another amazing mix of housemates including Pete, Nikki, Richard, Lea, Aisleyne and Glyn. But BB7 is where things started to take a turn. This series had 22 housemates overall. That is too many housemates. One thing that hardly ever saves a series is throwing in more housemates and BB7 added 8 people across three different twists. Not only that but a very late twist allowing the public to put their favourite evicted housemate back in was the first time BB messed with one of it’s fundamental format points, “Who goes, you decide”. The public had paid to evict Nikki and then she was allowed back in. If that wasn’t bad enough, when she did return she was a lot more knowing, she’d seen how hilarious the public found her tantrums so she was playing up to that and it wasn’t the same. Nikki is one of the greatest housemates of all time but I think letting anyone back in when they’ve been evicted by the public just isn’t right. I would say, though a fantastic series, that BB7 was the beginning of the end for Big Brother as a cultural talking point. The minute they messed with those BB fundamentals, the whole format was up for grabs, they could mess around with anything, the public lose sight of what the show is about when you’re changing the rules all the time. So BB8 came along and was perfectly acceptable. I would argue that it had far too many knowing housemates. Chanelle made several blatant attempts at becoming the new Nikki with some excruciatingly exaggerated tantrums. We had out first ever BB superfan housemate in Brian Belo. We had a weird twist where they only put women in for the first week. Completely pointless. Looking back, there were so many examples of BB losing its way in this series. BB7 had created a small puncture and BB8 was failing to contain the water damage. Then BB9 came along and added several more punctures. I hate Big Brother 9. I think it’s trashy and gross. It’s grubby. The house was full of incredibly unlikeable characters along with some entirely forgettable ones. It was all so crude and unpleasant. There was an incident where Dennis spat in Mohammed’s face and was ejected. There was Alexandra threatening people with her gang friends on the outside. There was Mikey who was vile. Rex who was horrible. Darnell who later appeared in porn with Bex from this series and Billi from BB8. Just grubby and, for me, not what Big Brother should be about. Everyone was crass and loud and fame hungry and dreadful. BB is accused of being that all the time but for 80% of the time, it isn’t. Sadly, this series lived up to critics perceptions and it was awful. I’d say the only good thing BB9 did was give us Lisa Appleton who I am still obsessed with. I could look at pictures of her putting the bins out whilst eating a saveloy all day. After BB9, Big Brother had lost the public. BB9 was the one that stuck a knife in Big Brother’s cultural significance. The show never recovered. Big Brother 10 was a vast improvement but nobody knew because ratings went down by a third. It’s amazing that BB10 was actually on Channel 4. Although I guess ITV keep chucking The Voice and The X Factor on air and nobody cares about those. Telly is weird. BB10 was great, it toned down on the vile people and we had a bunch of genuinely interesting people. It wasn’t as fast paced as the previous 5 series which was actually a relief. The balance was right again but by this point Big Brother was far from the only reality show around. Structured reality was creeping in and BB couldn’t compete with faked storylines. The public’s attention span for watching a bunch of fairly nice people make a few friends, have a few bust ups and a couple of romances just wasn’t there. Society had changed and Big Brother had been left behind. Channel 4 then announced it was cancelling the show. Nobody was particularly surprised. BB11 would be the last series of all time which actually got ratings up slightly. I loved Big Brother 11. Shabby and Caoimhe’s unrequited love storyline was the first we’d seen between two girls. BB superfan Mario being picked at random from a huge group of hopefuls on launch night was great and his task at being BB’s secret mole while having to dress as a mole and wear a sign saying “I am a mole’ showed that BB was back to being silly and fun. There was a talking chest of drawers that gave housemates secret tasks and plenty of really great, imaginative and fun tasks throughout. BB had finally shown what sort of show it could be but, sadly, it was too late. The series’ winner Josie Gibson was one of the best winners BB had and her relationship with the fascinating John James was amazing to watch. To see a handsome, toned, blonde, Australian surfer guy fall for a normal, plus-sized girl from a Bristol farm was something that only Big Brother could give you.  Then we had an underwhelming Ultimate Big Brother which was deservedly won by Ultimate Housemate Brian Dowling and BB was gone. I was sad to see it go but I understood why and looked forward to its inevitable return a few years down the line. But then Channel 5 came knocking and the show was reborn. Now, I’m grateful to C5 for giving the show a second chance and brining us a new era of BB. They took Celebrity Big Brother and ran with it, creating a huge number of iconic telly. Kim Woodburn, Perez Hilton, Gemma Collins and so many more completely insane celebrities have made TV gold on C5′s version of CBB and it has been amazing. But, much as I love CBB, my heart is with Civilian and I’m not sure it has ever been quite right on Channel 5. The moment it first began, things were different. The editing, the music, the way the housemates names would constantly come up like I was watching an episode of TOWIE. Big Brother was finally trying to fit in with the modern crowd of reality shows and it looked like an embarrassing dad trying to hang out with the cool kids. Just be yourself, BB. All the show ever needed to be was itself and things would have been fine, this year’s series has proved that. Unfortunately, the show just became less and less itself and completely lost its way. One thing I will say about C5 is that Emma Willis and Rylan Clark-Neal have been absolutely incredible. They both love Big Brother as much as the fans and it’s so appreciated. After a shaky start with poor old Brian Dowling hosting, Emma took his place and did Davina proud. Of course Davina McCall will always be THE host of Big Brother but Emma has done a perfect job and made the role her own. Rylan has been a brilliant Bit On The Side host. Following Dermot O’Leary and Russell Brand as BB sister show hosts is not an easy task but Rylan has been just as wonderful as both of them. Davina, Dermot, Russell, Emma and Rylan all did amazing jobs hosting BB and BB related shows and I’m thrilled to have been there with them the whole time. Of course, there have been moments of greatness on C5. It’s Big Brother for goodness sake. I enjoyed Aaron winning the first C5 series and being the first winner to be booed when he left. I enjoyed Luke A showing everyone that trans men exist too and becoming the second trans winner. I enjoyed a lot and I never stopped watching. The first three series on C5 sort of passed everyone by, including me really. I watched them and enjoyed them but I wasn’t hugely fussed. Then Big Brother 14 happened and BB lost itself completely. Firstly, Zoe Birkett from Pop Idol was in civilian Big Brother. There had literally been dozens of far less famous people than her in the celebrity version. Due to the success of CBB, C5 were clearly mixing the two together and it was awful. The housemates were now being scouted. We had the same people who were also trying to get on X Factor, The Apprentice, Britain’s Got Talent etc etc. People that just want to be on telly. NOT people who want to be on Big Brother.  One of those people was the odious Helen Wood. One of the most poisonous and vile people ever to step foot in that house. Due to an insanely misjudged opening week task, Helen won a pass to the final. This meant that her bullying and nasty behaviour was left unpunished for weeks. Nobody could nominate her. Decent people were stuck in a house with her and it was genuinely unpleasant to watch. Without the pass, she would have been evicted very quickly but with it she was able to gain popularity with people who found her bullying “entertaining” and she ended up winning the show. It was BB’s lowest point. The next year, the house was full of reality TV rejects again. It was a weird series and BB seemed to be changing the rules all over the place. Twists were thrown in at an alarming rate. Someone was evicted on the first night. Then on Day 18, 4 housemates were evicted and replaced by another 4... essentially starting the series again because the entire house dynamic changed. This was unbelievably alienating for viewers and it went down terribly. It was completely dreadful. Then, as if the series wasn’t enough of a mess, they put Helen Wood back in the house as a guest. Helen spent her time being vile again, to the point where Brian Belo (another guest) escaped after she drove him to tears. Afterwards, Helen ended up having some sort of fight backstage and she’s since been banned from all BB shows and events. Quite right too. Mental that they ever put her back in. BB17 was a slight improvement but it was still full of reality show rejects and still had weird twists like letting Jason evict Lateysha without a public vote. Madness. But the series did feel like BB was finding its way again and I enjoyed it more than I had for a while. Then we had BB18. I really really liked BB18. Unfortunately, the house probably had the most reality rejects it’s ever had. With about half the house having been on Ex On The Beach or Ibiza Weekender. All these crappy cheap reality shows clearly being the easiest place to grab a housemate from. Easier for producers than sitting through thousands of audition tapes, I suppose! Anyway, despite this, the series was pretty great. Going back to the classic two bedrooms created two camps and I absolutely love BB when it feels like there are two camps. We had Rose Cottage and Thorn Cottage and I was fully Team Thorn all the way. Brilliant housemates like Raph, Hannah, Deborah, Chanelle and Isabelle really made the show watchable again and I loved it. It still had a lot of flaws but it was a really enjoyable series and I was so pleased to see so many of Thorn Cottage in the final week. Then the wait for BB19 began. It was a longer wait than usual as we all heard rumours than Channel 5 didn’t want BB anymore. Celeb BB ended and then another came around and still there hadn’t been a civilian series. The second CBB had been pretty great and BB fans had high copes that the next civilian would deliver and be what we’ve hoped for for such a long time. Then the news broke on the day of launch night. Channel 5 were cancelling Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother. Big Brother 19 would be the last series ever. The news was upsetting but not surprising, it was only made worse when BB19 started and it was so instantly incredible. The housemates had been chosen properly and they were great, the launch night had so many nods to the old days, the house looked wonderful and the launch night twist introducing Big Coins to the game was amazing. Then we were blessed with so many brilliant and inventive tasks. The show was back doing what it should have been doing the whole time. But AGAIN, it was too late. For the second time, BB had been axed and then decided to pull its socks up and be brilliant. Why does it always have to be too late? I’ve loved this final series. There have been one or two issues towards the end but ultimately it’s been a really brilliant bunch of housemates who I think have been worthy of possibly being the final people to call the Big Brother house home.  So now it’s gone and I can get on with my life. BB does take up a lot of my time when it’s on and I have watched every single series since the year 2000. That’s a lot of time so part of me is glad, I won’t lie. If it comes back though, I’ll be here and I’ll watch it because I’m a FAN. Being a proper fan of Big Brother means you don’t give up when it’s dull or when the producers seem to be losing their minds or when the rest of the country moves on to Love Island. We love Big Brother, not the genre it spawned or the countless, meaningless reality shows that wouldn’t exist without it. People often label me a ‘reality TV fan’ but I’m not. I just love Big Brother, that’s all. It’s the original and it will always be the best. People may say it’s not what it used to be but those people aren’t watching it anymore so I’ve no idea how they could possibly know. The show has always been the same deep down. It’s about watching and connecting with a bunch of strangers for a few months. Loving them, hating them, learning from them, feeling for them and generally being fascinated by the different ways that human beings interact. There are now hundreds of shows like it but none of those shows do it quite like Big Brother does it.  Big Brother is a very special television programme and I love it unashamedly. It’s gone for now but I have a feeling that one day, Big Brother will get back to us.

[dismuch47]

Roswell Sequel Series Outline

@anheiressofasoldier Hooooo boy, are you gonna regret saying that you would be willing to read my pitch. Mwhahahahaaaa! (but seriously, thanks. I’ve been meaning to write this out since it has been so vivid in my head, down to the song that they play at the end, leading to the credits of tasteful, retro animated graphics of tabasco sauce bottles, waitress uniforms, and flying saucers...)

So let’s see if I can keep this down, somewhat...

EDIT: HAH. So long. Forgive the typos. So late and I don’t want to read through all of this when I spent so much time writing it! Not done yet...

So we open in Roswell, shots of some of the old spots that bring nostalgic feels, but years have passed: the old highway/gas station, a football practice at Roswell high, the diner (and they’re still wearing the old uniform style), UFO center, through some neighborhoods until we get to a house. We vaguely recognize it, but it focuses on an older man at a few computers, and some gentle panning reveals law enforcement memorabilia until we close in on the man’s glasses and those pale blue, worn eyes. Why it’s our beloved Jim Valenti! And he’s typing away on some conspiracy message board with wacky avatars that convey that he’s probably conversing with younger persons. There is a message for him and someone wants to meet him, to get the answers he promised. He contemplates, is reluctant, but then responds to meet him in the place that they originally agreed upon, in two weeks. He sends the message, exhaling, maybe this is a mistake... but then he looks at a picture of Kyle, grinning that Valenti smile, winning ball in his hands. Jim nods to himself, it’s decided, and he gets up to get coffee...

That’s when men in black suits bust in through the door, armed. Jim drops his cup, hands up. He’s too far from his guns, says something smart-ass to distract them... while his hands charge and a blinding flash of light comes from them.

That’s right. Jim Valenti has mother effing powers!

The men stumble about, whilst Jim dashes to the computer screens, holding a hand over them to blast out the hard-drive with energy pulses. He picks up a handgun that was strapped beneath the desk and takes out two men before he is thrown against the wall. One of the MIB has his hand raised, a supernatural opponent. None of the other MIB look phased. Jim looks up, wincing in confusion. One of the MIB asks the attacker if they should relocate Jim to “the compound” with the “others.” But the leader decides that Jim is too old to withstand any of the rigorous testing... he’d only be dead weight. He raises his hand to finish Jim Valenti off...

And we see Jim’s gaze wander back to the picture of his son, as his assailant’s hand glows...

And cut to black with a flair of cliff-hanger: Cue Roswell theme song and Roswell graphics...as it morphs from Roswell to more recognizable location of midwest city, the coast, New York, China, India, London...all tainted with something extraterrestrial/galactic... promising more of the unknown at a broader scale. 

And then we start up in Cleveland, Ohio, of all effing places. 

(And now I’m going to get less detailed; just thought it was important to establish the mood and intrigue first ;) Oh, and I also have like NO final name decisions for a lot of these characters, so forgive the half-assedness with these names.)

The character that we will ride on the back of to get to the characters we know and love is a hispanic youth (mid teens), who is clearly living in poverty and trying to keep his nose clean. Let’s call him...Alex. (: I had too; to honor the original). Alex is special, because he has powers, And he is a co-mod on a message board that reaches out to others with abilities. The main mod, who has been very encouraging and helpful in avoiding attention while still developing the abilities, has finally okayed meeting up for the first time with Alex (It is... was... Jim ): The halfway point that they agree upon is Nashville in two weeks. Alex has no money, but he has to find out why he has these abilities. He was dying from a shoot-out when he was young, caught in the crossfire, he was healed... it’s too hazy a memory, and ever since then, powers.  and he’s not the only one.

In real life, Alex has 1 friend who moved from New York, (let’s call him Nicky) who also has abilities and shares a similar origin story... only it was a terminal illness while living on the streets. In his dreams, however, he knows Yen...a Vietnamese-American girl who can dream walk into anyone’s dreams. They’ve never met face to face, but they have bonded. Online, however, Alex is aware of 37 users who claim to have similar experiences with “the healer”, whether they remember it or not. Descriptions vary, so they can’t nail who he/she is. Alex, Nicky, and Yen (in dreams), decide to go on an epic road trip to meet the board mod, who Alex is CONVINCED is the healer.

So we have couple episodes of teen-powered shennanigans, meeting Yen in person, meeting up with some of the other “healed” (they have their own hand signal and everything); some awesome... some fake. So they reach Nashville, in the spot... and mod never comes. Alex knows something is up; the mod never would have pulled this (father complex issues). They do some investigating, looking for clues and they find something left behind. A floppy disk... which none of them know what the eff to do with. And then, someone seeks them out. Let’s call him...Greg. Late teens, maybe early 20′s...knows everything about Alex and is able to convince Nicky and Yen that he’s legit. (but he’s totally not legit). And Alex is wary, because he always got the vibe that mod was... older? With a full grown kid. Some simple questioning, and he’s able to trip up Greg, who also doesn’t have powers.

Outted, Greg shows his true colors and summons the MIB and takes the three youths after a brief skirmish (they put up a good fight, but the MIB are so experienced with their powers), they are taken to “the Compound.” (dun dun dun). The Compound is basically a hold and experimentation facility for HUMANS with extraordinary abilities; the “healed.” Alex and crew think it’s the dark government... but it’s actually aliens; Antarians, cleaning up human anomalies left over from their failed hybrid units. And, get this: they call “Greg”...ZAN. Oh yes. Very “human” Greg is Max’s estranged son, who bounced around in the foster system, has nice shiny baby memories of being the son of a king and queen and loved... only to face a very cruel world that recognized him as nothing. He’s mostly an icon, being the son of two hybrids, but he’s though of being less by the Antarians because of his powerless genetics. He’s out to prove himself to the elitist species. 

Alex, Nicky, and Yen are able to escape from the compound with some clever thinking, and rallying beaten down inmates...on of the eldest being a man who was experimented on for 3 years. Despite his once peaceful ways and dry humor, he’s now a mind-warper with mad-skillz: Kyle Valenti (oh yeah. He HATES that that is his ability; self-loathing galore). The gang picks up another female, let’s call her Roxie (cause she got no-where to go!) and Kyle decides, after seeing what’s on the floppy disk (his dad, explaining why he started the website; because it was for the terminal kids who would grow up to have abilities, just like everyone else Max healed... but more people from the outside, all over, were getting abilities as Max and pod squad were on the run. Kyle is moved, and he decides that if the 4 want to meet the one who changed them to gain closure, he would be their guide. He explains the events of Roswell and the pod squad: the teens are floored that they are wrapped up in Alien stuff.

The plan is to go connect with Isabelle Evans, but on the way, Kyle diverts the trip when he sees an advertisement...for the singer Maria Deluca touring nearby (yeah, bear with me, I promise it will pay off). Nicky and Roxie are just rabid fans for Deluca so they are totes okay with this distraction. Touching reunion between Maria and Kyle. And Maria fills him in on the three years he’s been gone: 

War is coming to Earth. Kivar diverted political tensions to Earth with a very brutal and militant species. Like this specious tears through planets like a plague. Upset with Kivar, Antar sent emissaries to find one of the royal 4, from either set of hybrids, but only found Zan... who was eager to be found. With the promise of giving him powers, Zan was enlisted to track a hybrid down. He had a lead on Micheal Guerin, who seemed to be around the corner, during certain times in his life... but he was able to use Micheal to get to Max. Max thought that a reunion was to occur arranged by Brody...but he was thrown into a portal and beamed to an Antarian vessel. That was a year ago. 

Deluca declines going with the group to their next stop, unable to see LIz in the state she is in, getting pulled back into it all, and on top of it all...Maria is now a single mom of an adopted toddler: a boy. He’s her whole world and there was no room for anything else. Kyle and gang bids her farewell and continue  on.

I don’t know where Isabel is, but they arrive and she has a pretty nice house, job: picture of normalcy. But she’s a wreck... and she nearly falls to pieces when she sees Kyle after three years. Yes. They were a thing at one point; she she spent every night trying to connect to his mind and dream walk with him. She has a daughter, Cassie, who looks just like her mother and fully embraces her her alien heritage as a princess; she the worst. She gets to know Alex, Nikki, Yen and Roxie, and they are floored by her abilities... that she flaunts. (no, Kyle is not the father... and neither is Jesse: DUN DUN DUUUUUN)

After Kyle and Isabel have their well deserved moment, they decide that the kiddies can’t come along, because it’s WAR, so they are to stay at Isabel’s house. And not only that... but the Parker-Evans chldren (all 3 of them) are dropped off by SERENA, Liz’s work budy from the University Lab Research Team (WHO THE EFF IS SERENA???) Turns out Serena be cool, but she’s a human who doesn’t know about any of the alien stuff (but she’s like mad smart with theoretical science). So the adults leave to go on patrol, and the teens think this sucks, though the little Parker-Evans kids are happy to have new playmates. Cassie pipes up that she’s not going to stick around, since the eldest kiddo is 13 and can handle her younger siblings so she gonna go abuse her powers to go clubing. She coaxes Alex to go with her, Roxie is down... but Yen and Nicky decide to stay at the house to protect the kids. Yen isn’t so happy that Cassie appears to be sinking her claws into Alex.

Club shenanigans, but then Alex Guilts Cassie to give a crap about what is going on outside of her comfy life and she tags along with him and Roxie as they go to shadow after the adults. And what they find is is a Michael Guerin, Isabel Evans, and Liz Parker-Evans kicking some serious alien ass. They are trying to steal aboard a vessel to get access to the Antarian ship hovering over earth. Then this armored opponent appears and nearly smears Liz across the gravel, but Micheal and Isabel are able to hold him briefly, giving Liz and chance to get a clean shot... but she hesitates. She can’t do it... and the armored figure is about to break free. Things look dire for the three, so Alex and Roxie spring to action, getting in a good shot or two, but the figure retreats back to the ship in a beam of light. Liz, instead of thanking the teens, yells at them.

It had been Max. Stripped of his consciousness and replaced with the collective consciousness (see how I’m including some book stuffs???) of Antar: their memories of King Zan poured into the hybrid vessel, Max Evans. The idea was to have their reclaimed King challenge Kivar for the throne. But King Zan, a distorted version, as memories aren’t a replacement for a SOUL... and with the temperament of a human...straight up just kills Kivar. And leads Antar into a dark age. Wah-waaaaaah.

But there’s a problem: remember how Dupe Isabel made the comment that Max’s pod set are the defectives? Too human? Well, it’s true... and Max’s body, being too human, can’t handle the energies and massive power from the crystals that he’s wielding. (it’s all about the crystals, for Antarians: they bring people back from the the dead, serve as text messages, it’s great... oh, and some probably become huge ass weapons) So basically, Max’s body is dying from being too over-extended. It’s like a rubber band that can’t snap back into shape, but just get’s looser, and looser until it just TEARS.

Then of course we have to have an episode about how the main gang got to their current states: Liz and Max of course married right away, had their first kid a few years after Isabel had Cassie. Liz got an online education and worked her way up to a position at a research Lab, where she met Serena (WHO DAH EFF IS SERENA???) Meanwhile Max works a late third shift at a hospital, or rotates around, and heals the really desperate cases. Micheal is ever vigilant to protecting Isabel and Max/Liz’s families, being a hard as nails yet doting uncle.. but he’s kind of a bar fly, even though he can’t drink (he likes the ambience), but gets squirrelly whenever a Deluca Classic comes on the jukebox. He has regrets... many regrets. He wears down Max to give the kids a normal life, get a mortgage, enroll them in public school... cause they deserve the best life experience. Isabel had Cassie pretty early on...after Jessie...Isabel hit a low, especially when she facebook stalked him to find out he had moved on. So she goes out, grabs the nearest stranger, and... well...(but it’s kinda important WHO that person was... It was human-meat-puppet Kivar. Who’s never too far from his Valondra; he’s THE WORST) Meanwhile, Kyle bonds with Isabel during her pregnancy, provides for her, has a fling with her, but it is never fully realized because Isabel freaks and needs to have control over her life and her daughters, so he becomes a cool uncle to Cassie. He opens his own garage. Maintains highly secretive correspondence with his father, when he’s lured to meet up with his dad... which was never arranged by Jim. He was taken to “The Compound”. Max does get a house with a fence for his family, and just when they settled in, they get a visit from a mysterious boy: Ethan. And Ethan says “You’re my dad.”

But the thing is, Ethan doesn’t look anything like Max: it’s all Tess. The young man has a clear memory of his mother, that fits Tess’ description, and that she loved Zan. He’s a nice guy, sweet, but has had a slew of misfortune with abusive families. He grows on Micheal... in an annoying way. After a DNA test, at the insistence of Liz, they find that Ethan shares no DNA, and is certainly not human. And a simple alien connection reveals that this isn’t Tess’ son... but Ava’s...and Rath (WHA? EW! NO! But yusss. I’m not saying it’s a good match, but it happened) And Ava did love Zan, and wanted Ethan to find Max...because she wasn’t in a good situation and had to give up her son for his best chance (OUAT ALL OVER AGAIN) since Rath would probs chuck that full-blooded alien babe at Antar for brownie points. So Ethan is disappointed but willing to depart but Micheal is all “Stay with me, twerp. But get a job and help pay rent.” Ethan makes breakfast for his grumpy new big brother/dad everyday.

Feeling awful for her unwillingness to let Ethan in right away, Liz supports Max in tracking down his biological son. He’s afraid that the same fate fell on Zan Jr. Which, fyi, Zan lived a very average life... but he could REMEMBER the alien stuff, and his mother, and another world... so basically, he loathed his family and situation. So Micheal agrees to help track down Zan, because he’s become pretty good at that kind of thing, and reunites the two, with the help of Brody... and then... well... you know how that goes.

Okay. I have to stop for the night. UGH I’m almost thru. No, but this is GREAT, writing it down. Maybe finally this idea will be exercised from my brain permanently!

[stagestageau]

Camp Camp Actor AU

So me and my friends decided to make a Camp Camp Actor AU! 

To make it easier for the kids, the characters keep their actors first name. Therefore David is played by David, Gwen plays Gwen, etc.

Max is David’s adopted son. Max was neglected as a baby and taken in by David's parents as a foster kid. Once he turned 18, David adopted Max because his parents couldn’t but he didn’t want to lose the then 4 year-old Max. Despite that he is a very good Dad to Max and makes sure he’s comfortable at all times. Just. David is a good Dad okay.

Talking about David’s family, he and Daniel are actually twins. He prefers to be called Danny though. He helped David take care of Max a lot in the beginning of their acting career, taking turns on who takes care of him depending on who had auditions/filming.

Sometimes he and Max go on adventures while he’s babysitting and David’s like No Max cannot go rockclimbing Daniel he’s tOO SMALL DANIEL!

Daniel is actually an atheist.

He keeps making fun of his role for drinking his own poison. He thinks that’s one of the dumbest ways you could possibly die.

‘Davey’ is Davids little brother. He’s the only one in Camp Camp who’s rolename isn’t his real name. His actual name is James, but the other kids usually call him Jimmy.

They have a sister that is starring in a Western produced by the same studio.

Daniel never not has a gift for his nephew. He kept lurking around the set before and after his episode a lot because 1. he didn’t have any other obligations at the moment and 2. he loves seeing his brother and nephew play their roles, be it in a show or an advertisement.

Due to Max history, scenes that reference the neglect of Character!Max are very hard on both Max and David. They had to retake the scenes from Parent’s Day a lot because David kept starting to cry. Everyone actually went for Pizza after that, not only to celebrate finishing filming for the season 2 finale, but also to cheer up David and Max.

Mr. Honeynuts is actually Max teddy bear from baby times that went through a lot as he grew up. He usually sits on the shelf nowadays in a self made cardboard chair with a blanket and pillow enjoying his 'retirement' to make sure he doesn’t break apart. When the script called for a beat up teddy they had him join their actor family.

Gwen and Jen(nifer) are sisters and while they’re a year apart in age they look a lot like each other. Jennifer is the older one of them.

Offstage Max is a real sweetheart and actually acts like a ten year-old. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t like pranks though. He and Daniel love playing pranks on David together.

Daniel always had a thing for pranking his brother. As a kid David never left out a chance to prank his brother back but now tries to set a good example for Max, so when he pranks Daniel back nowadays he makes sure it’s not too bad and tries to avoid Max being around.

In the beginning Max always messed up his lines and said Dad instead of David.

Nikki and Neil are actually siblings.

Cameron always brings cakes and other baked goods for everyone and is overall a really sweet guy. He bakes everything himself and is overall a great cook.

Dolph (short for Rudolph) asks if his character could be changed everyday because he hates it but his mom is sick and they need the money so he can’t do much.

After the season 2 finale everyone got together and threatened to leave the show if Dolph’s character wasn’t changed to something less....bad. It worked and his character was changed for season 3. The first episode switches between David taking the campers on a hike and Gwen explaining to dolph who he acts like and then helping him change his outfit and hairstyle. After the episode all that is left of season 1/2 Dolph is the accent and the love for art. His role name is changed to Rudi.

The Quartermaster just showed up one day. In "Quartermaster Appreciation Day", the script had David give the Quartermaster a raise and the episode was supposed to focus on the campers trying to find a present. Instead, the Quartersister walked in. Everyone's like 'David who the fuck is THAT'. Poor guy has no idea though. But because they were close to deadline they were supposed to just stay in character if something happened.

Cameraman: gesture to keep going. David:...."your very own qUARTER..SISTER"

Neil is autistic.

Germy Fartz is actually a really popular child actor who agreed to this role for the hell of it. All the kids were like wow its so cool to meet u who're you playing. And Germys like "i'm fart guy"

Cue immense giggles from all children.

Bonquisha usually plays the heroine in an action series and is pretty much a 'guest star' in ep7. She came back cause fans kept asking if Character!David was single and how the date with Character!Bonquisha went. So they made Bonjour Bonquisha. Since no one recognised her in the show it’s widely believed in the fandom that the action series whos lead Bonquisha plays either doesn’t exist in the Camp Camp universe or has another actress in her role.

Jacob played her love interest in her last movie and his appearance as her new lover is a nod to that.

Space Kid was supposed to only wear a NASA cap and jacket, but when auditions started and Neil Armstrong Jr. showed up in a self made space suit it was changed to fit him more. He wanted to get this role because he had the fascination for space basically layed in the crib and always loved both space and acting.

The other kids all call him Nebby (from Nebula) off set to avoid confusion between the two Neils. He loves this nickname.

When Max first started to get involved in acting and such David really wanted to support him but he was worried about the whole acting world and how it'll affect him. Especially because Max was neglected- he wants attention because of it. What if acting gives him the wrong attention? David is Worried but still supportive

So David gets him an acting coach and Max tries for commercials and David's talking with Max's therapist and coach on the sideline just checking in and being a good father.

Then Max tries for this role and David is Worried because its kinda close to home a bit with the "bad parents jokes" but Max really wants to do it and he does great! He gets a callback! McDonalds for dinner!

When the casting director went on break during auditions for Max' role he thought about how for the role of the male counselor they needed a man that looked like god himself would go to him for comfort. Cue him running into David calming down a young boy that had lost his parents in the chaos of auditions.

In the original pitch of the show, Max’s role was called Tony.

Aaaaand that’s the basics!