#and because i bought so much merch i got too free prints so her yeah brother 😎

[cryptid-crusader]

All I'm saying is that it's been a long time since I've been carded when purchasing alcohol but I was carded for buying sexy anime men lewds at the con yesterday, sooo

[edorazzi]

Well, here we are again! Twitter said yes to a review post for a Miraculous magazine that suddenly showed up in my local area. ‘Tis the season after all, and by that I mean someone bought it for me as a joke birthday gift and I was way too happy about that.

I’ve done previous reviews of the Miraculous Christmas calendar, Easter egg set, superhero fashion dolls and action figures, so let’s dive into the unknown world of merchandising yet again!

(As always, if you enjoy my posts, please consider checking out my Twitter page or supporting me on Patreon for lots of bonus content!)

4 FREE GIFTS! PACKED WITH ACTIVITIES! MEET THE KWAMIS! PRANKS & LOLS! CUT-OUT MEMES! FANGIRL ALERT! NAIL ART! 100% OFFICIAL! I’m overwhelmed! It feels like I’m having a seizure just from the packaging!!! 

I should preface this by saying I haven’t bought a magazine like this in years. Possibly ever. I read things like the Beano, Animals & You and the odd Disney Princess zine when I was a kid but I have no idea what to expect from a free-gift-packed kiddie magazine in 2019. If the outside is anything to go by we’re in for a wild ride.

I’m noticing that it says “Miraculous #20″ on the back. Does this mean I’ve missed 19 previous issues? I’m genuinely a little upset by that. My local area is a complete dry zone for Miraculous so I haven’t had the chance to pick these up.

First step: let’s separate everything out and get a look at these freeeee giftssss. Except they aren’t free, because this magazine was like £3.99. This does seem to be the current trend - it’s kinda rare to see any kids’ zines without the excess packaging crammed with ‘free’ stuff. Is it really too expensive to just produce the magazine? Probably, in this economy.

Chat Noir is revealed on the cover! He was on the back of the plastic jacket, but it’s still nice to see the kids as a front-cover duo. Apparently we’re going to learn to draw Pollen, too, which sounds fun. I’m actually liking the look of the gifts as well, but we’ll get into those in a minute.

This hairbrush............. is adorable. Oh my god. It’s pretty cheap and flimsy but it functions the way it’s supposed to, and the Ladybug design has been taken into account in a better way than “it’s red/black, that counts” (lest we forget the UTTER BULLSHIT of the Christmas calendar, and YES I’m still mad about that). I don’t know how well I expect the outer sticker to last, but if it can take a bit of wear and tear this would be an adorable little travel brush. Nicely done, lads!

These nail stickers? Also adorable. They remind me of the kiddie makeup sets I had when I was little, back in the early 00s when plastic stick-on nails and decals were all the rage. Are they still a thing? That’s nice to know.

There are 13 designs (that I can count) - a Queen Bee mask, Chat Noir pawprint cake, macaron, cupcake, heart-print cookie, Ladybug stud, flower, lightning bolt, love heart, Marinette heart, bee, fox tail and star. The majority are directly related to the show and that makes them feel special. No Carapace though? :(

I’ve put a little Marinette heart on my furthest finger. At the time of typing this up (about a day later) it’s still firmly in place. I haven’t really knocked it around, granted, but it’s not flimsy enough to fall off after five minutes either. It’s also really cute to look at. Guess I’m still a decal-loving 2004 girl at heart......

These stickers though!!! Wow! They’re those holographic and slightly-puffy kind and they feel like pretty good quality, and the designs are so cute! I can’t fault these, they’re absolutely adorable. I immediately want to stick them everywhere.

So I’ve stuck them everywhere. I’m especially proud of the light switch pun. My room looks GREAT.

I saved these “mystery stickers” for last because I’m weak for the thrill of mystery bags, and there wasn’t anything on the packaging to indicate what kind of designs to expect. And OH!!!! OH, IT’S MY BOY!!!! Look at him!!!! 

I made jokes with the Christmas calendar about all the Chat Noir items being stolen ahead of time, but that’s definitely NOT the case with this magazine. I have been SPOILED with the presence of my cat son.

These stickers are similar to the sticker sheet (and the Chillin’ Out design is reprinted), but they’re puffier and non-holographic. I’m deeply allured by the “decorate your phone or tablet” suggestion on the packet, but I’m going to see how the previous stickers withstand the wear-and-tear of my laptop lid before adding any more. If I damage these beautiful Adrien stickers I’ll be devastated.

Those are our free gifts! They’re actually very fun and cute, I’m really happy with them! I guess now it’s time to get into the magazine itself...........

I genuinely almost forgot the magazine was the main part of this package. I figured I was done, but we’ve barely even started! Here’s a splash page of the kwami. Kwami with a capital K? Kwamis? I still feel like it should be singular-lower-case-k-kwami. I’ve never been happy about this “miraculouses” business either.

But is that--

It IS!!!! It’s Nino!!! 

I guess this is the new flavour of Miraculous tie-ins. Now they’ve broadened out to a full team we’re seeing a lot more of Adrien alongside the girls, and Nino is the elusive hero who shows up once in a blue moon. At least this time his name isn’t in the title of the gotdam show.......

Anyway, I can see I’m supposed to draw my “fave Kwami”. Better get to it.

Felix just wants a break. Just one break. But not in this magazine.

Speaking of seeing more of Adrien (and, tragically, less of Nino), this is the kind of splash page I want to see! Both kids are here! The banner themed with Marinette’s signature flowers is a nice touch too; that’s associated with her arts ‘n’ crafts in the show already and it makes sense to apply it to the creative portion of this magazine too.

I LOVE the promotion of Chat Noir nails as something the little girls buying this magazine will definitely want to try. I’d expect them to do Marinette vs Ladybug nails, but instead we get a boyish option! Hell yeah!

I’m a little confused by the Queen Bee masks apparently going on the Chat Noir nails though. I guess they’re friends? Is this secret AdriChlo confirmation? Watch out, Marinette, Kagami’s not the one to be worried about.

SURE WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SOME TURTLE STICKERS FOR AN ALL-BOYS THEME BUT I GUESS NOT HUH

Next up is a short merch catalogue (why would you put the big bold arrow pointing right to the underoos.....). Would those Chat Noir socks come in my size? Asking for me.

Then there’s......... this page. FANGIRL ALERT. God. It’s like the Ladyblog, if only the Ladyblog ever gave a heck about reporting what Chat Noir’s up to.

THE SPELL WAS BROKEN AND THE FANDOM IMPLODED WITH JOY.

I really have to wonder what age range this is meant for. Do kids know what a “fandom” is? Do little girls consider themselves “fangirls”? I guess most kids have enough internet access to figure it out these days (all the hashtags and LOLs and memes speak volumes), but I can’t imagine being young enough to fit the target range of this magazine while also knowing these terms. I dunno.

(Also, the definition of ‘implosion’ is ‘an instance of something collapsing violently inwards’, so I’m not sure that’s the word they’re looking for. Unless the return to the status quo in Dark Cupid and the continuing stagnation of the love square was enough to make people quit in frustration? Probably.)

I’m filling it in, of course. Because I must.

I gave up on the pre-approved ratings system pretty much right away, but I think this is an accurate rating of my LadyNoir opinions. 

I might be kinda cynical about it here, but I am actually pretty fond of how this magazine sells Ladybug and Chat Noir as a couple. The show’s portraying it as very onesided lately, with Chat pining over Ladybug who has absolutely no interest in him (Glaciator was a TERRIBLE episode and I’m still hurting from it), but reading this zine I’d guess they were already dating. It’s cheesy, but in a nice way.

I have to laugh at “the most amazing thing about this super duo is that they always look out for and protect each other” though. Chat’s usually pretty focused on LB, sure, but there are endless instances of LB using Chat as cannon fodder and just generally abandoning him to get mauled by akuma while she carries out her personal private plan to save the day. Maybe we’re just focusing on the better-written episodes, huh?

Moving ahead. I’ve been dreading this page since reading “Plaggs Pranks & LOLs” on the back of the packaging. I feel hatred in my very bones just looking at it.

I like that there’s ONE instance of the term “ladybird” in the joke column. This is a UK-based magazine and that IS the word we tend to use over here - “ladybug” is an Americanism - but it’s like they’re worried kids could have got to the middle of this magazine about a superhero named Ladybug and then not understand the bug jokes. Maybe whoever was writing this page slipped up?

OH NOOOOO. MARINETTE, NOOOOOOOOOO.

THIS IS WHY FELIX GOT RID OF YOU, PLAGG. THESE ARE ADRIEN’S PROBLEMS NOW.

(mmm whatcha saaaaay)

I mean........... YEAH, I guess, but we absolutely did see Plagg destroy Felix with an entire shelf of heavy books. I guess he’s nicer with Adrien. It’s all fun and games until someone has a nervous breakdown in the library.

I do love the concept of Tikki getting glitter-bombed by Plagg through the mail. She just curiously opens up the little letter which got slipped into Marinette’s purse, and-- WOOSH. One entire wall of Mari’s room is glittery except for a little Tikki-shaped silhouette. 

Next up is a two-page comic which is absolutely adorable! Look at those little chibis! The warm and soft colour palette! This is nicer than most of the official Miraculous comic book art I’ve seen, I hope they keep giving this artist work.

Nino’s here too (and he looks great!), and I like the touch of Marinette and Adrien playing as each other’s superhero characters. Adrien even wins the match, though I guess there’s something to be said about Ladybug beating Chat Noir (again)...... 

It does raise the question yet again of where this tie-in merchandise is coming from! They’ve had action figures, a movie, music video features, now an arcade game... Who’s getting the royalties here? Who’s profiting? Is this how Fu can afford to buy all those rare ingredients for the magic potions?

Over the page we have an activity to Design your Secret Lair! Right away I love the Marinette theme of the page, the soft pink and flowers, and the drawing space looking like a page in a binder with marker tabs and everything.

I have to design my secret lair, of course: 

What do you think? I’m very creative. I’ll need an adult to send in the drawing of my hideout but I think I’ve really got a shot at those unicorn headphones.

Now we’re on to puzzles and character pages. I don’t know what ol’ Gabe is doing trying to meet a 13 year old girl in the dead of night without telling anyone, you’d think if he’s got that much free time on his hands he could be spending it with his son.

I don’t know how those points in Ladybug’s power profile are awarded or what they mean, but you can tell this is a fan magazine. Official sources would have put her at a 10.

Standard House of Villains page! Most of these were good episodes but I’m deeply offended Riposte isn’t on here. Maybe her motives weren’t dramatic and cartoonish enough to be up in the ranks with Glaciator and Gorizilla?

“Cat Noir’s dad is also the evil Hawk Moth”, huh? I mean that’s not WRONG, but is it really something to put in his power profile when Adrien doesn’t even know yet??? Feels like we’re kinda jumping the gun on the poor boy. What if he picks up this magazine?

Apparently he’s one point weaker than Ladybug (seriously???), two points faster, equally as agile, one point less skilled and two points less cool. Despite all those lesses he still comes out at an equal 9, which is a relief! These kids are a team, putting either of them below the other would have been a big no.

I did the colouring page too, naturally. Je suis un artiste.

Now we’ve got a page fresh from the Ladyblog, a Miraculous quiz! Not a lot of excitement, but it’s nice to see Alya getting her own section.

I like that the qualifications of “you could be Ladybug herself!” are knowing what city Marinette lives in and what school she goes to. Well done, Mari! You’re doing your best!!!

TEACHER I AM SO HUNGRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I gotta say, I’m not so sure about decorating donuts with fondant. I’ve never tried it so I could be wrong, but it feels like rolled icing instead of frosting(?) would be too heavy for an entire donut. The texture is totally different.

I mean I guess if you’re going to load your kids up on sugar you might as well go all the way. They’re going to look like they’ve eaten something horrible with all that black fondant, but they’ll have fun. Adrien would love these.

WHERE’S NINO. THIS IS JUST UNFAIR. You’ll have four out of five heroes, then a double of Marinette and Tikki? Maybe this just goes to show how little memorable dialogue Carapace has.

Though if “Spots On!” is Marinette’s dialogue and not Ladybug’s, why are the other transformation phrases attributed to Rena Rouge and Queen Bee instead of Alya and Chloé? Surely they could have picked something better for Marinette to justify having her on this list twice instead of Nino.

The next page brings us one of those flowchart quizzes! And ouch, yet again the absence of the other heroes is obvious. I can understand not including Chloé here since she’s technically not a “friendly” character yet, but no Nino? Alya and Marinette are close friends, but Adrien doesn’t really hang out with them without Nino around. Having the three of them together just seems strange.

I do like the little fashion page! They’re all cute and affordable and easy to find on the high street here. I’d love to see how other issues of this magazine are structured; is there a different fashion spot every time? Styles to channel each individual hero would be adorable.

Moving on to a tutorial for a Ladybug notebook! I would have made this, but I didn’t have the time nor a notebook to stick it to.

Between this and the donuts, it seems weird that these designs are based on, like... an actual beetle, eyes and antennae and all. Shouldn’t it be Ladybug’s symbol? These come across more like “fun animals” arts ‘n’ crafts instead of themed after Miraculous specifically. I think if I made this (or decorated the donuts) I’d miss out the head and match the spot pattern to Ladybug’s symbol. 

The hidden message design is adorable though. I can see this being a craft kids are super proud of.

Another activity page! I didn’t have a go at these but they’re pretty standard. It’s cute that the coded message designs are the same as the stickers and nail decals!

Also, apparently Ladybug’s ‘secret’ is “LB mask + heart + CN mask”, which was (somehow) stolen by Volpina. Is that the secret Hawk Moth was talking about earlier in the magazine? Is he blackmailing Ladybug with revealing she has a crush on Chat Noir? How did Volpina ‘steal’ this secret? Is LadyNoir finally reciprocated???? THIS IS A WHOLE EPISODE IN ITSELF, I NEED ANSWERS--

Next page we have an ad for another girly magazine (Quizzes! LOLs! Celebs! Cringes! Puzzles!). I think I’ll pass, no matter how appealing that giant microphone pen is. 

And a “Miraculous Identity” quiz! Tikki’s apparently super fickle with her wielders, three seasons of relentlessly praising Marinette and now she’s telling us we’re the Chosen Ones. You can’t fool me with those big ol’ eyes.

My inner superhero is Marvellous Fox, by the way. Though yet again I’m noticing we don’t have turtle options...................

And on the back cover... the memes. Oh, sweet lord, the memes. They’re hashtag-SoRelatable! And I can cut them out to keep! Oh boy!!!

Is this what kids do when they have limited internet access? Cut fresh memes out of magazines and carry them around? I need to know.

That’s a very sinister Ladybug at the bottom of the page though. What’s-- What’s she going to do to me if I don’t cut out and keep these memes. Ladybug what are you going to do if I d--

Well that brings us to the end of the magazine! And yet again I’m surprised by how much time it takes to just put a bunch of photos together and write about them.

This is a neat little magazine all in all! The ‘free gifts’ are pretty nice, there’s a fair amount of content and the whole thing is pretty cute for young fans of the show. I could see myself buying this again - if it ever shows up on shelves, Miraculous is so scarce around here that I fully expect it to disappear again after this one issue - just for the free junk, but it would be interesting to see how they’d structure different issues too!

I notice we never did get that promised tutorial on how to draw Pollen; the one advertised on the cover. Was the “draw your favourite Kwami” activity supposed to cover that? I’m not sure that really counts.

If you got this far, thanks for joining me on this Miraculous journey! We’ll meet again whenever I get another piece of weird ML merch to cover. Bien joué!

[fandomsphere]

Here's day 2 of our AU Yeah August series. This one was also written by Emery. @auyeahaugust

Enjoy!

2. Convention by @emerywrites

Ships: Marc/Nathaniel

Author's note: For this AU the characters are aged up to about 19, and Marc and Nathaniel did not attend school together.

It was loud, hectic, and crowded. More people than Marc had ever expected had shown up for the first ever Ladybug and Chat Noir convention. He suspected that it had to do with all of the rumors that the super heroes themselves were going to make an appearance.

He admired Ladybug and Chat Noir as much as any Parisian, but they weren’t the reason he scraped together enough money for a ticket and forced himself out of his comfort zone to attend the convention. It was a certain artist who posted his fan art of Paris’s heroes on a blog. As soon as Marc had seen that Nathaniel was going to be selling his artwork at the convention, he knew he had to be there. He desperately wanted to meet the artist who had inspired him so much in the past year. But now as he stood nearby watching people walking by and admiring the art at the booths, doubts swirled within him, clouding his mind.

Was it creepy that he was attending specifically to meet Nathaniel? Would his favorite artist think him a stalker? Marc wanted to run. His eyes darted to the nearest exit and he took a step in that direction. A laugh turned his attention back to Nathaniel’s booth. The red-head was laughing at something a girl visiting his booth had said. His stomach fluttered at the sound. Marc shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He just had to work up the courage. Nathaniel didn’t have to know he was there only to meet him.

The minutes ticked by as Marc tried to make himself go over. Just as he took a step, a rather boisterous group of teens ran up to Nathaniel’s booth. Marc let out a shaky sigh. And, as if the artist could here it over his fans and the rest of the convention, Nathaniel looked up and his gaze shifted to Marc.

Marc bolted. He didn’t know why, maybe he was afraid Nathaniel would be able to tell just from looking at him what his motivations for coming to the convention were, or maybe he was just afraid of nothing… like he always was.

He got outside and felt himself deflate. His shoulders hunched as he wrapped his arms around himself. Other convention goers strolled past in their Ladybug and Chat Noir cosplay and holding their merch that they had purchased, completely unaware of the fool he’d just made of himself.

Marc pulled out his cell phone and called his friend. She drove for a rideshare app and he hoped that she would spare a few minutes to come pick him up to save him from any further humiliation.

“What’s up, Marc?” Alix greeted when she answered.

“Hey, could you, maybe come get me. This whole meeting Nathaniel thing isn’t working out. I’m just embarrassing myself here. I’ll pay you if you want. I just… I need to leave.”

“What? Why? What happened? Was he a jerk to you or something?” She sounded as if she was about to come out there just to beat up Nathaniel.

“No!” That would be quite the headline: “Small, Angry Rideshare Driver Murders Up And Coming Artist”. “Please, he would just think I was pathetic if he met me. I’d rather not put myself through that.”

Alix sighed. “Look, man, you are a cool guy. He would be so lucky meet you. I’m sure you guys would hit it off if you just gave him a chance… gave yourself a chance. Nath is a great guy. I think he’d really like you.”

Marc frowned in confusion. “You talk like you know him.”

“We went to school together. We lost touch after we graduated. I text him sometimes pretending to be the ghost of the goldfish he killed when he was seven.”

“You know him!” Marc shouted into the phone, attracting the attention of those around him. He blushed and turned away, speaking lower. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Because I wanted you to do this on your own. Go talk to him. If he turns out to be a jerk now, call me back and I’ll come get you. Deal?”

Marc didn’t see what other choice he had. “Fine.”

After hanging up with Alix, Marc procrastinated going back to Nathaniel’s booth. He walked around, bought a hand-made Chat Noir plush, watched the costume contest, checked out some other booths, saw some cosplayers putting on a show, and even sat on a bench to contemplate his life choices for a while.

Finally, he made his way back to Nathaniel’s booth… just in time to see him packing up. His work must have been pretty popular. There were a few other artists who were throwing Nathaniel dirty looks as he put away the one print he still had left.

Marc wanted to kick himself. He had wasted the opportunity he had to meet someone so special. He buried his face in his hands. Now, he had to call Alix and admit that he had screwed up.

“Excuse me.”

Marc lifted his head to see… Nathaniel.

His heart leapt into his throat and he would have run if his feet hadn’t felt like they were glued to the floor. How was Nathaniel there, standing in front of him, talking to him?

“Y-yes?”

“I saw you earlier. You were watching my booth for a while.”

Marc blushed and nodded.

Nathaniel let the silence stretch for a moment as if he was waiting for Marc to say more. When he didn’t, Nathaniel continued. “If you want a print, I still have one left.” He pulled out an art piece from his portfolio case and handed it to him. “Free of charge.”

It was a drawing in a night setting of Ladybug sitting on the ledge of a roof, looking contemplative. It was beautiful. He wondered what Ladybug would think if she had gotten to see it. To him, it was a masterpiece.

Nathaniel rocked back on his heels and chewed his bottom lip. “Do you like it?”

Marc’s eyes flicked up to the artist then back down to the drawing. He wouldn’t be able to speak if his eyes were on Nathaniel. “I love it. The way you did her eyes is amazing. I can see the reflection of the stars sparkling.”

He let his gaze drift back up to see Nathaniel looking away and only just turning back to him. “You’re very talented,” Marc managed to breathe out.

“Do you want to get dinner?” Nathaniel blurted. “Together, I mean. Or drinks? Or coffee would be great to.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he waited for an answer.

Marc’s mouth went dry. How was it possible, that Nathaniel was asking him out? He gripped the Chat Noir plush in his hand and tried to keep his voice steady. “I’d like that. Any of those… Any of those would be nice.” The look of surprise on Nathaniel’s face threw him. Marc couldn’t imagine why he would be expected to reject someone like Nathaniel.

“There’s a café across the street. Would you want to go there?” Nathaniel shrugged, as if he was pretending that he didn’t care as much as he actually did. “If you don’t, that’s fine. We could-”

Marc made a split-second decision, refusing to allow himself to second guess it. He shoved the Chat Noir plush in his pocket and grabbed Nathaniel’s hand. “Let’s go.”

Earlier…

“One second,” Nathaniel said to the convention goers admiring his artwork. He took a few steps away and answered his ringing cell phone. He glanced at the caller ID and sighed as he answered. “Hi, Alix.”

“Okay, Nath, I sent him back in. All you have to do is turn on the charm and not screw it up.”

“Obviously he doesn’t want to talk to me.” He glanced back at those standing at his booth. They didn’t seem too bothered that he was on the phone. “Are you sure that he likes more than just my art?”

“Of course I’m sure, stupid,” she said flatly. Then she continued more patiently. “I’m not the kind to play matchmaker, Nath. You know that. So, can’t you just trust that if I’m making this much effort that I must seriously think you guys would be good for each other?”

He shook his head to himself. She was right. Alix normally didn’t care about his love life. This Marc guy had to be something special if she was practically begging him to give him a chance. “Fine. I’ll try.”

“Great! And don’t sound so put out. You said yourself when I sent you his picture that you think he’s hot.”

Nathaniel gave a huff of air that was a suppressed laugh. “Okay, okay. I have to get back to selling my art. I have to pay for food somehow.”

“You still live with your parents.”

“Bye.”

[flight-of-the-sacred-eagle]

Christmas (1/4)

Part 1 of 4! There’s going to be a CykesQuill part, a Wrightworth part, and a dinner part with everyone

“‘poooollllloooooo~”

Apollo let out as groan as he snuggled closer to Klavier. “‘s too early...” he mumbled, smiling softly as he felt an arm wrap around him.

“But it’s Christmas!” Clay whined.

“The presents aren’t going anywhere, ruamfahrer,” Klavier mumbled. Clay huffed.

“Fine. Be that way,” he grumbled as he seemingly walked off. Apollo just sighed contently as he snuggled closer to Klavier. The pair had been up much later than expected, and despite the fact that Apollo was usually a morning person, he was way too comfortable where he was. Snuggled up to his boyfriend, warm blanket draped over him... it was nice.

Until the blanket vanished that was.

“Clay!” Apollo groaned as his eyes shot open. Sitting up, he was about to go off on his friend when he felt something bounce off of his forehead.

“Yeah, wrong person,” Ema said as she started munching on a snackoo.

“Ah, Fräulein Detective!” Klavier exclaimed as he sat up. “What a nice surprise!” He said. Ema just rolled her eyes.

“Save the sarcasm for later, fop,” she said. “C made hot chocolate and I brought doughnuts,” she said as she turned around. “Make sure glimmer boy there puts a shirt on,” she said as she marched out of the room. Apollo just rolled his eyes.

“We’re in my room,” he muttered. Klavier shrugged.

“It’s Ema,” he said as he smiled at Apollo. “Frohe Weihnachten, mien Apollo,” he mumbled as he pulled Apollo into a soft kiss.

“Merry Christmas,” Apollo mumbled back in Khura’inese.

“We should probably get up before there are no doughnuts left,” Klavier mumbled. Apollo nodded.

“Yeah,” he said as he slid out of bed and made his way to his closet. “Here,” he said as he tossed one of the Christmas shirts Clay had insisted on them buying. Klavier smirked.

“Ah, but wouldn’t you rather I go without?” He asked.

“Personally? I don’t care,” Apollo grumbled as he swapped the large, worn Gavviners shirt that he had been wearing for another one of the Christmas shirts he had. “But I’d rather not incur the wrath of Ema,” he said, earning a chuckle.

“Fair enough,” Klavier said before walking over to Apollo and putting his arm around him. “You ready for the chaos?” He asked. Apollo chuckled.

“Not even close,” he said as the pair left the room.

“And they have finally decided to join us!” Clay exclaimed from his position in his chair.

“Seriously?” Apollo asked as he looked his friend over, mouth twitching as he fought back the amused smile that threatened to overcome his face. He didn’t want to enable to his friend after all. Clay grinned.

“What?” He asked, reaching up to adjust his reindeer antlers. “It’s Christmas!” He exclaimed. Apollo just sighed as he finally gave up trying to hide his smile. Clay had decided to wear the shirt that Ema gave him a year back that the group lovingly referred to as his LSD Christmas shirt, because of the insanity on the front of the shirt. There was a unicorn with a Santa hat being ridden by a gummy bear in front of a gingerbread house that had other gummy bears in front of it. Apollo just shook his head.

“You look like an idiot,” he said with chuckle.

“I like it,” Ema said as she scarfed down a doughnut. “Now sit and eat so we can open presents, she grumbled.

“You look very festive there,” Klavier said with a chuckle as he and Apollo made their way over to the couch. Ema rolled her eyes.

“No shit,” she said. While she didn’t have a Christmas shirt as insane as Clay’s on, it wasn’t exactly the most normal of shirts. It was black with the traditional ugly Christmas sweater pattern, but in the middle was a bloody hand print. Beneath it, the words ‘this will be you if you get me shitty gifts’ were embroidered.

“You know, one day someone is going to take your threats seriously,” Apollo said as he grabbed a doughnut. “And I’m not defending you for free when that happens,” he said. Klavier snorted.

“If that happens, you can expect me to suddenly have a tour,” he said. “I’d rather not see that carnage,” he said. “Nor would I want to so much as risk the chance of me being put on that case,” he said.

“Eh, as long as we make sure that it’s given to the Paynes, everything would be fine,” Clay said before beaming. “Now, present time?” He asked.

“Hell yeah,” Ema said with a grin as she stood up and quickly walked over towards the tree. Clay just grinned as he raced over to the tree after her.

“Oooh! Oooh! You’ve got to open mine first!” He exclaimed as he bent down and snagged a rather large box. Apollo chuckled.

“Clay, chill,” he said. “There’s no rush,” he said as he made his way over to the presents, barely aware of Ema snaking around the tree and grabbing all of her presents.

“I apologize, but some of the stuff I bought didn’t exactly get delivered in time,” Klavier said. Ema snorted.

“God, you know C and I aren’t dating you, right?” She said, causing Apollo to look over at her and snort in amusement at the gigantic pile of gifts she had next to her.

“Ema, it’s no use,” Apollo said as he starting sorting the rest of the gifts out. “There’s a reason we have to actually sort the gifts now,” he said as he turned to glare playfully at his boyfriend, who just smiled. When it had just been himself and Clay, there was never really a need for them to separate gifts because, well, there were never all that many to begin with. “There,” he muttered. “I think we’re good,” he said. Klavier nodded.

“Looks like it,” he said as he sat down next to his rather small pile of gifts. Apollo couldn’t help but frown slightly at the pile. Sure Klavier had always said that he didn’t mind such a small pile, and sure Apollo’s bracelet had never reacted when he said that, but Apollo couldn’t help but feel slightly bad.

“Hey, you actually controlled yourself when it came to buying shit for your boyfriend!” Ema exclaimed. “I’m impressed!” She said.

“Ah, well, there’s a reason for that,” Klavier said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Apollo blinked in confusion as his bracelet started to vibrate.

“You know I don’t care about how much you get me, right?” He mumbled. Klavier just smiled.

“Ja,” he said as the bracelet began to vibrate more. “Just... don’t worry about it for now, okay?” He said.

“Okay, well, enough talk- you’ve got to open my present, Em!” Clay exclaimed, gray eyes sparkling.

“I take it you’re proud of it?” Apollo asked as he scooted closer to Klavier and grabbed his hand. Clay nodded.

“Yeah!” He exclaimed as he watched Ema roll her eyes and start looking for the big box Clay had pulled out earlier.

“Should we be worried?” Klavier asked teasingly. Apollo snorted.

“Knowing Clay? Yeah, probably,” he said. “He probably got her a knife kit or something,” he said.

“I already have a knife kit,” Ema said as she started ripping off the wrapping paper. “If anything, whatever’s in here should be worried,” she said with a snort.

“Hey! This took forever to find!” Clay exclaimed as he watched Ema with interest in his eyes. Suddenly, Ema’s eyes widened.

“Holy shit...” she muttered. “C, this thing is like. Really fucking expensive!” She exclaimed. Clay shrugged.

“Eh. I have to spend my lawsuit money some way,” he said with a grin. “It’s going to get to your house sometime next week,” he said.

“What is ‘it’?” Klavier asked.

“A crime scene kit!” Ema exclaimed. “Well, a conformation of order of it,” she said as she pulled out a bottle of what was probably luminal with a note taped to it. “Look!” She exclaimed as she shoved the note towards Apollo and Klavier. “It’s got everything!” She squealed as she practically leapt at Clay. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!” She exclaimed. Apollo snorted.

“Seems like the first present so far was a hit,” he said. Klavier chuckled.

“Seems like it,” he said before he grabbed a present and nudged it at Apollo. “Here- I got this for you,” he said. “I know it’s not super fancy but, uh... I figured that it could at least help out around your offices in Khura’in,” he said as he glanced away.

“Klav, whenever you say something isn’t super fancy, you tend to forget that you mean it’s not super fancy to you,” Apollo said with a chuckle as he started opening the present. “Also, I swear to god if this is some of your merch, I will...” he trailed off as he stared down at the gift in awe. “Amazon echo...” he mumbled. “Holy shit- you have no idea how useful this will be!” He exclaimed as he looked at his boyfriend and beamed.

“Is that the kind you can face call on?” Clay asked curiously.

“Ja,” Klavier said as he looked at Apollo and smiled before leaning in and whispering. “I’ve got one for myself and I got one for ruamfahrer,” he mumbled. “So we can chat when you’re just working or something,” he said. Apollo just beamed as he pulled Klavier into a tight hug.

“God, as much as I hate your need to spend money on me, you really do know how to give gifts,” he mumbled. Klavier just smiled as he hugged Apollo back.

“Okay, enough with the mushy shit!” Ema exclaimed. “The fop needs to open my gift!” She exclaimed. “Actually, all of you do,” she said. Clay grinned.

“Oooooh, I know what everything is~” he said with a laugh. “You two are going to love it,” he said.

“Oh lord,” Apollo mumbled as he grabbed Ema’s gift to him from the pile. “I feel like I should be scared,” he said as he started unwrapping the gift. Klavier let out a groan.

“... Fräulein Detective?” He asked. Ema grinned.

“Yes~?” She asked.

“Was this really necessary?” Klavier asked a he pulled out a mug with a piano on it.

“Yep!” Ema exclaimed happily. Apollo frowned.

“What’s wrong with that?” He asked. “It’s kind of pretty,” he said. Klavier sighed.

“My name directly translates to ‘piano’, Herr Forehead,” he explained.

“Oh. OH!” Apollo exclaimed before he groaned. “Goddamnit Ema,” he said as he finished opening his own present. “Let me take a wild guess- this is the Greek god, Apollo,” he said. Ema nodded.

“Yep!” She chirped.

“Okay, Em, I think I need an explanation for this,” Clay said as he looked his rather pretty dark blue mug.

“It’s made of clay,” Ema said. Clay snorted.

“Okay, that’s good,” he said before he glanced at Apollo. “Oh yeah- you should probably open mine next,” he said. Apollo sighed.

“Let me guess, it’s also a pun,” he said, causing Klavier to chuckle.

“Actually, it’s not,” Clay said.

“I don’t know if I’m more surprised that my bracelet didn’t react or that you actually got me something serious,” Apollo said as he tore the wrapping paper off of the present. “Wait- is this what I think it is?” He asked. Clay nodded.

“Yeah, I know you already know who your dad is, but I know you’ve mentioned being curious as to whether or not you have any living relatives so, I got you one of those DNA kits!” He exclaimed. Apollo just sat there, mouth agape.

“Clay, you didn’t have to get this,” he mumbled.

“Yeah, but I wanted to,” Clay said.

“God...” Apollo mumbled as he smiled at his friend. “This is just... thank you,” he mumbled. Clay grinned.

“It was nothing,” he said. Apollo snorted.

“No it wasn’t,” he said before grinning. “You’re making my gift look bad,” he said with a grin.

“No, you did really well with your gift, mausi,” Klavier said with a smile.

“Well, I think that’s for me to decide,” Clay said with a grin as he grabbed Apollo’s present. He had barely gotten a single strip of wrapping paper off of the present before his eyes went wide. “Oh shit- this is that telescope!” He exclaimed.

“So that is the one you wanted?” Apollo asked. Clay nodded enthusiastically as he tore the rest of the wrapping paper off of the telescope.

“This is it!” He exclaimed as he shot Apollo a grin. “Thank you, ‘pollo!” He exclaimed. Apollo smiled.

“It was nothing,” he said.

“Hey, so, what did you two get the fop?” Ema asked from her spot on the floor. “Also this mug is fucking awesome,” she said as she help up the mug Apollo had gotten her.

“I figured you’d like that,” Apollo said before he nudged his present towards Klavier. “Come on- open mine,” he said.

“And then mine!” Clay exclaimed.

“Aw, mausi, you know that spending time with you is enough of a gift for me,” Klavier said as he leaned over and kissed the top of Apollo’s head. Apollo huffed.

“Shut up,” he grumbled as Klavier slowly opened the bag. “Oh, I didn’t customize that by the way- it’s an actual product,” he said. Klavier let out a laugh as he unfolded the apron.

“Is this a compliment or an insult?” He asked as he looked the ‘I cook better than Klavier Gavin looks’ apron over.

“Insult!” Ema immediately called.

“It’s both,” Clay chirped.

“Oh for the love of- it’s a compliment,” Apollo muttered before smiling. “I mean. You’re easily the best looking man I’ve ever met,” he muttered.

“Mm. I’d have to disagree there,” Klavier said. “I think that title would have to go to you,” he said as he leaned in and kissed Apollo gently. Ema gagged.

“Ugh, just open C’s gift,” she said. Klavier chuckled.

“Okay, okay,” he said as he grabbed Clay’s gift. “Just so you’re aware, there will be a lot more of this at dinner,” he said as he opened Clay’s gift. “Ruamfahrer, they stopped making these ages ago,” he started. Clay grinned.

“I know! I got into a huge bidding war with someone over it!” He exclaimed.

“You got into a bidding war over this,” Klavier said as he held up what appeared to be a dark purple bottle of perfume with the trademark silver G on the front.

“Wait, you had a perfume line?!” Ema asked. Klavier sighed.

“Ja. We got a deal early into the career of the Gavviners, and frankly, it was the worst thing ever,” he said. Apollo snorted.

“It can’t be that bad,” he said.

“No. It can be, and it is,” Klavier said before chuckling. “Never change, ruamfahrer,” he said with a chuckle.

“Okay, so can we start on the mountain of gifts Gavin got us now?” Ema asked.

“Go ahead,” Klavier said. And with that, the group was off again.

No one noticed Klavier sliding a small box from Apollo’s pile.

[bakurapika]

my adventures so far today:

the plan was to walk to an open air market, get some food, come home to rest for like an hour before parade things

None of the experiences have been bad but none of them have gone 100% according to plan either lol

So I walked to this vegan restaurant and passed some vendors. Well, ok, I’ve been passing vendors EVERYWHERE, but they’re selling like... cloth, or anime merchandise (I think I wandered into a plaza specifically FOR anime merch? i’m not sure?????), or bras, or shoes, or faucets. Pretty much none of it is tourist oriented and I’m not faucet-shopping so I didn’t really go in any of those. 

But there were some arts and crafts/artisan type vendors that I browsed on the way. I bought a rly cute sugar skull choker that I think is probably technically a bracelet but it fits around my neck so it’s a choker dude. 

So I get to the vegan place and it’s super crowded, and I chat to some people there, because like 90% of the clientele spoke English. The guy’s family lives here and he told me to just walk up and sit down when a spot opened up because it’s “Mexican style” so I did, feeling very awkward, and then the waitress came up and told me to wait my turn outside and it’s like. Ah. 

They were out of the food I wanted but they had guacamole that was incredible

So I wandered out and kept trying to find a place to print these tickets I need, but everywhere directed me to somewhere else and I’m still not even sure that I can print these tickets at all at this point, so I’m resigned to just buying another ticket at the venue :-( 

Lots more tourist style stands, and it turns out I wandered into the first leg of the parade route, so it was loud and very crowded. I got a flower crown for my friend who wanted one that i’m sure was overpriced but, you know, WHATEVER, and I got a crown for myself that I didn’t realize how huge it was until I got back to the hotel and looked in a mirror. 

Side note on prices. I’m not fluent but I’m especially bad at numbers past 20. Like I don’t know 400 vs 40 and somehow that keeps coming up  and somehow I don’t think anyone’s robbed me yet. I’m also aware that haggling is probably a Thing here but I mean, you try to haggle if you don’t know what numbers are. (I’ve done ok I think except I just bought some drinks and yes I way overpaid and the girl there kinda laughed and a coworker tried to explain to me so I just gave her a lot of my change as a thank-you anyway.

I’ve been expecting WAY more tourist crap tbh. I haven’t seen that many stands for the kinds of things my family asked me to buy as gifts.

I did find an ATM and got more just-in-case cash, because there are so many street vendors and I haven’t seen anyone using a chip reader or taking card. I thought the USA was really slow to implement the chip but it doesn’t seem like it’s a Thing here.

So yeah it got rainy along the parade route and it was well past the time I wanted to head back, and I was not feeling the rain, so I tried to call an Uber. I think it got my location wrong or something because I had two different drivers cancel on me--the first one said she was almost an hour away even though she was physically close due to the roads?? So I just walked two blocks in the rain and called a new uber and it went fine, hooray.

Someone asked where I’d gotten my bright pink rain poncho (bought + packed because of the rain forecast) and I had to be like “en los Estados Unidos, lo siento” haha oops

I also looked around the shops near my hotel a little more. I found some Shrek pencils I might buy my sibling for no good reason. I slipped and got mud on my leg. I bought some horchata and then realized it had ice and thus Dangerous Water according to everybody and also the internet, so I drank about half and poured it out as if that would save me. Contrary to expectations, it wasn’t amazing horchata :( Seemed almost watered down. other drinks i’ve had here have been great tho, lots of fresh-squeezed fruit juice

I’m giving myself a mandatory time-out in the hotel room to keep from getting too exhausted and overwhelmed. Not sure what I’m gonna do tomorrow. I was sorta planning teotihuacan but I guess sundays are free days for citizens so it will be stupid crowded, and w/out a guide I don’t know that I’d absorb that much Archaeological Learning from it. Maybe i’ll see if I can’t make it a museum day. 

[kathillards]

rangerstop day one

ALSO KNOWN AS: BITCH EVERY POWER RANGER REMEMBERED US FROM MORPHICON (except selwyn. but hes still valid.)

so we avoided the megaforce rangers all day bc we wanted to surprise them at our photo op so for most of the con we wandered around looking at art and toys and bought so much shit oh my god there are so many talented artists here one lady was selling POTTED CLAY DOLLS and i almost bought a kat doll but. restraint. because i spent $80 at ceevee’s table and i still want more from him (he also remembered me from morphicon I LOVE POWER RANGERS YOU GUYS. I LOVE POWER RANGERS SO MUCH. I DONT HAVE ANY MORE ROOM ON MY WALL FOR THESE PRINTS BUT IM GONNA FUCKING MAKE ROOM.)

FIRST UP mike ginn because i got ceevee’s huge rpm gold and silver prints to get signed by them and the minute i got up to his table he was like “oh hi didn’t i see you at morphicon” and i was like YES and he was like “and weren’t there a bunch of you” and i was like YEAH LOOK ITS MY FRIENDS and he was like “and one of them was like super shy” because at pmc abbey had told him that our friend tabby loved him but was shy so he called her “shy tabby” and we all pointed at tabby who was trying to hide from him and we were all laughing and he just pointed at her for a minute to tease her and then he walked around his table and got behind her and pretended he was gonna jump at her it was so FUNNY AND CUTE HE LOVES HER HES THE CUTEST and he wanted us all to be in the pic i bought and i mean who am i to say no to mike ginn, the greatest gold ranger of all time

SECOND well li ming was busy (bc she’s a LEGENDARY RANGER BITCH WE STAN THE QUEEN OF RPM) so we turned around and jessica rey was there and SHE WAS LIKE “DIDNT I MEET YOU GUYS AT MORPHICON” because we talked to her for like literally 20 minutes at pmc just shittalking jdf and we were like HELL YEAH ugh she’s the cutest and we again talked to her for like 20 minutes (no shittalking this time) about what we loved about wild force and she was telling us about the alyssa’s father episode bc duh thats our fave and how the actor who played her father was like a famous actor but she knew him bc he was the real dad of one of the PAs and she didnt know he was famous and it was so cute shes so cute and tabby bought a white tiger hat from her (and a bunch of other things BUT THE HATS WERE HAND-CROCHETED THEYRE SO CUTE) and she was telling us just like. shit that happened in her day. and we LOVE her shes so great. AND THEN while we were talking to jessica, ann marie crouch came back bc they’re sharing a booth!! and she was dressed in her princess shayla outfit!! so kat and ben started talking to her god shes so nice and beautiful and she was selling little christmas ornaments of her flowers from her headband they’re so pretty and i told her “wild force rangers are ON POINT with the merch bc everyone else just has headshots” and she was like omg did you hear that w/ her handler and they high-fived (bc her handler made the ornaments) AND THEYRE SO CUTE. JESSICA TOLD US TO COME BACK SO WE WILL bc we have more things to get signed by them. she was also wearing a white tiger wild force hoodie she looked so cute.

THIRD then li ming was free and ofc i had to get her to sign my rpm silver print and shes SO NICE AND PRETTY AND she asked us what the japanese on the print said and we were like “it says you’re the best rpm ranger” and that gem’s said “my sister is cooler than me” and she laughed and we told her how much we loved her in the anniversary and how she was the strongest and most powerful rpm ranger and how she was the REAL LEADER gosh i love her and then we took my photo and SHE LET ME HOLD HER RPM TOY GUN THING i love herrr

FOURTH oh god okay so abbey couldnt be here but we wanted to get her shit so we went to sean cw johnson’s table bc duh and sapphire steph (of sapphire management, she handles like. a lot of rangers. SHES SO COOL) was handling him and we were talking to her and kat facetimed abbey to show her all of sean’s merch and he had these little coins that we got for abbey and asked if he could sign them and we were just talking to steph i dont even know about what i love her and abbey was on the phone and we were like telling them that she loves lightspeed thats why we’re facetiming and SEAN ASKED TO FACETIME HER AND SAY HI bc she was right there and also i showed him  and steph abbey’s little carter art of “get in losers we’re going demon hunting” and they both LOVED IT and then he was like “wait ive seen this art before” and i was like “yeah bc you fucking replied to my tweet about how dino charge is better than lightspeed” and he was like “oh yes i do remember that you said it was worse than watching paint dry and you wanted to gouge your eyes out with a spoon” and i was like I DIDNT SAY THAT I WASNT THAT MEAN (i was pretty mean, im so sorry sean i love you) im not gonna link the tweet bc I CANT BELIEVE HE FUCKING REPLIED TO IT AND REMEMBERED bc he was like “i’m not even on social media” and i was like “well you popped up in my notifs soooo” and he was like “no i respect your opinion even if you’re wrong” lmao and he asked what i didnt like about it and obviously i couldnt say “too many white people” to his face so i said i watched 20 episodes it was boring and we HATED captain mitchell bc we hate shitty mentors and we only love rangers and he was like “okay that’s fair” and i was like “and i didnt like that carter had this whole hero worship thing of captain mitchell when he was a shitty dad and like... is this your king???” (i literally said that why am i like this) and he was like “oh well he was kind of my king” and steph was cracking up at the black panther reference she was like “you guys are a hoot” oh and then we got him to do a video shout out where he says abbeys fave line “freeze missiles? sounds cool” and we were like DO IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT, YOURE AN ACTOR so he pretended to get in character and it was so cute and he told me also “i respect that you’re not fake and you stand by your opinions” and i was like ya cuz lightspeed sucks (no i didnt say that) cuz he was like “some people will be like ‘time force is overrated’ and then go up to michael copon (his booth was behind us) and be like ‘oh i’m a huge fan’” and we were like oh we’d never do that and he loved us even though i was so mean to him IM SORRY SEAN I WILL BUY SOMETHING FROM YOU TOMORROW as we were leaving he said to me “tomorrow you can be fake its fine” hes literally like. so cool. and also handsome. but lightspeed is still boring im sorry.

FIFTH we were wandering around again looking at toys and shit and tabby and ben wanted dino bite cafe shirts so we went to marvels by mossers which was right next to brennan and the sudarso brothers and we started talking to the guy there (aiden, not mosser) about, you know, the stuff they were selling and whatnot he’s so cool like they’re all so cool we talked for ages?? bc tabby had to go to the atm to get money and she took forever so we were just standing around saving her spot in line and aiden asked us like how we became friends when we’re all from different states and we told him we met online bc we love power rangers and we met up at morphicon and loved it so much we came to rangerstop and he was like oh thats so cool (this will be important later ok) anyway im just saying WE HAVE SO MUCH FUN JUST TALKING TO PEOPLE LIKE JUST. JUST TALK TO THEM. EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT POWER RANGERS. like this guy wasnt even a pr fan but he was so chill anyway i love everyone in this bar.

then we went out to eat but got distracted by gazbot’s booth of his HELLA COOL PRINTS and we bought abbey a balance print and an alpha print and kat bought all the six megaforce rangers and tbh tomorrow im gonna go back and get ninja steel blue BECAUSE while this was happening peter texted me “saw you and said hi but you seemed busy haha” becAUSE i did not stop to say hi to him (because he had a line!) while we were by marvels for mossers anyway i felt bad but we were hungry so went out to the food trucks and we saw two ranger actors whom we will not name come out to smoke together which was HILARIOUS (we love them anyway its ok) and THEN

SIXTH we came back inside bc i wanted brennan to sign my dino charge red print that i got from ceevee (also a shoutout to his handler who is really cool and talked to us and just. guys. i love everyone. i love EVERYONE.) and hes sooooo pretty god and his handwriting is so cute it looks like a child bc he’s left-handed and i asked him why the other dino charge rangers werent there and he was like “well davi’s filming and michael and camille dont really do cons” lmao and i told him i went to school w/ michael and camille and he was like “oh cool my sister-in-law went to that school” when i told him what university it was anyway hes just so pretty. im blanking on most of our conversation. then ben talked to him bc they’re both left-handed and reminded him that he instagrammed ben’s art and they message on insta and it was very cute #bennan for life bitches he also signed ben’s dino charge hat

SEVENTH so you know yoshi and peter are right next to brennan so i was with taylor (@ crossbuild on twitter, rocking the ryuga banjou cosplay) and she wanted to meet the sudarsos so we went over to say hi and peter came over and hugged me and we talked and he was like “since i dyed my hair blonde ive gotten like three more roles” and i was like “blonde privilege” (he looked. surprisingly good with it.) and he was telling me that he and yoshi are playing monkey demigod brothers?? or something and that’s why they both dyed their hair blonde and we also talked about kamen rider (bc taylor mentioned it) and he said he wants to watch wizard and i was like YES WATCH WIZARD ITS MY FAVE and he was like “everyone says bad things about it!” and i was like FUCK THEM JUST BECAUSE ITS SLOW-PACED and he was like “no you know i love slow pace” and i was like yes its very episodic but its SO GOOD THE CHARACTERS ARE SO GOOD they just had an issue w/ the lead actress being an idol and he was like “oh well so is lupinyellow” and i was like DO YOU ACTUALLY WATCH LUPATO bc he does keep up w/ sentai but hes always behind and he was like “dont spoil me im three eps behind” and i was like “well thats pretty good for you and also nothing happens in lupato” and he was so offended on its behalf and i was like “name one thing thats happened peter” and he was like “uh gold showed up???” and i was like “that happens every season” but then i was like “dont get me wrong i love lupato its my fave show of all time” (because it absolutely fucking is) and he was like “i thought so i was so confused” lmao (bc like. im always tweeting about how much i love lupato.) anyway yeah i asked him which kamen riders he’d watched and he was like “you know this pearl” which i did i just enjoy pretending i dont know anything about him. watch wizard y’all. and meanwhile, while i was talking to peter, ben and the others were meeting yoshi and ben was getting his dino charge dvd signed and he gave yoshi his art of koda WHICH YOSHI LOVED and ben was gonna pay $30 for the autograph but yoshi was like “no take it back” and he was like “you’re not gonna sell th dvd right” and ben was like “no i’m keeping it forever” and he was like “ya then you’re not paying for it” bc he LOVED THE ART AND HE LOVES BEN AND US hes so handsome irl like fuck man. who allowed dino charge rangers to exist in the mortal realm. he also gave me and ben cheetos later (he offered them to everyone, we were the only ones who accepted. i love hot cheetos.) 

EIGHTH we went to the alphas to get the alpha print signed for abbey and first of all, david fielding’s (zordon) handler was there (david wasnt there) and we were talknig to him and he was like oh im a HUGE power rangers fan i have boxes in my basement full of old power rangers toys and we were like “oh big mood” he was cool too man everyone is so cool i just love. to talk to them. and kat was getting the alpha print signed by romy and she was SO SWEET and we told her how much abbey loved alpha and went to search her art on twitter to show her and she LOVED ALL OF IT she was so sweet her handler was so sweet too and then we went to peta’s booth AND SHE HAD ALPHA GAY PRIDE SHIRTS AND STICKERS so we’re gonna buy those for abbey tomorrow

after that we were hanging around the nearby toy booth avoiding the megaforce rangers who were RIGHT next to the alphas (all together bc they’re codependent losers and we love them) and AIDEN FROM MARVELS BY MOSSER CAME OVER WITH A DINO CHARGE IRON-ON PATCH AND JUST SHOVED IT IN BENS HAND AND SAID “i want you to have this for free because i loved talking to you guys and you deserve it and i love when people meet like you guys did” bc of our little story of how we became online friends and met up and love each other and LIKE. BEN WAS ABOUT TO CRY. I LOVE US AND EVERYONE AT THIS CON. 

NINTH so we went back across the room to the sudarsos bc ben wanted to give peter his preston and marv art so i was like “we have something for you” and shoved ben at him and he LOVED THE ART (of course bc ben’s art is amazing) and was like “i’ve seen this on twitter dont i follow you” and ben was like noo you dont and i was like “no, i just retweet ben all the time so hes on your timeline anyway” AND THEN HE PULLED OUT HIS PHONE AND FOLLOWED BEN IN FRONT OF US and then also later he took a SELFIE w/ the three pieces ben gave him and tweeted about finally getting to meet this amazing artist and @-ed ben and it currently has like 100 likes so ya ben’s famous now go follow him @brodyromero 

AND THEN FOR THE MAIN EVENT THE MEGAFORCE PHOTO OP THAT WE BOUGHT AND WANTED TO SURPRISE THEM TONIGHT AND we also went to walmart earlier and got rainbow cupcakes for them and a candle that says 5 to celebrate their 5th anniversary bc we are that extra. side note, there was an ADORABLE little boy in line behind us in a pink mmpr diamonds t-shirt and he was freaking out at everyone and saw a blue ninja steel cosplayer and went OH MY GOD ITS NINJA STEEL BLUE and he was the only valid fan at the entire con and we let him cut in front of us (well we let everyone cut bc we wanted to be the last people in bc we are dramatique)

TENTH THE MEGAFORCE RANGERS so like the whole day we’ve been stressing “what if they dont remember us what if they dont care what if they dont” and then we entered and the literal second they saw us it was like. azim’s WHOLE FACE LIT UP AND HE WENT “OH MY GOD YOU GUYS CAME ITS MY GIRLS” (cuz remember we’re #azimsangels as per his hashtag) and HUGGED US ALL IMMEDIATELY oh hes such a good hugger and they saw our cupcakes and we were like “its for you for your fifth anniversary!” and they were so happy and surprised and ciara was like so jumpy and she like hugged us all SO BIG SHES SO CUUUUUTE they are all so fucking cute cameron remembered us too and came to give us hugs and kat got pity hugs from christina and john mark, the dignified ones (they were very nice, its just everyone else was clearly high and super jumpy and SO HAPPY TO SEE US) and andrew was just there looking gorgeous. sorry i cant say anything about him bc if u look into his eyes u black out and that happens to all of us. idk if he said anything. hes too pretty to exist. and we were like WE CAME TO FLORIDA TO SEE YOU GUYS because we loved meeting you at morphicon so much (which is TRUE we planned this all so last-minute bc we were like. fuck it lets go to fucking rangerstop we wanna see the megacast again.) and god they were so HAPPY. AZIM WAS SO HAPPY. CAMERON HUGGED ME SO TIIIIGHT. azim like crushed us all in a group hug the second he saw us. and then we took the photo and ciara literally just JUMPED into ben and kat and tabby’s laps bc they were sitting on the chairs and i got in the back in the middle of ALL FOUR BOYS like oh my god i cant even look at myself in the picture we got bc i’m surrounded by the literal hottest guys in the world like what the fuck. andrew gray TOUCHED ME. like holy fuck. and christina posed w/ the cupcakes and cameron held the 5 candle and was like “COME ON JOHN LETS BLOW IT OUT” and that was their pose and the rest of us were just cheesin and god its so cuuute im gonna make them all autograph it tomorrow and i also got megaforce red and silver prints from ceevee to get andrew and cameron to sign. and then after the pic christina tried to give us back the cupcakes and we were like NO THEY’RE FOR YOU THEY’RE YOUR BIRTHDAY GIFT and cameron literally started jumping up and down like a little kid he was like “WE GET CUPCAKES” and i was standing next to him so i said “we got rainbow ones so everyone was kind of represented except you sorry” and he looked at me and was like “yeah because nobody cares about silver” and i was like nooo its bc its hard to put silver on frosting and he was like yeah thats true AND THEN as we were leaving and they were like thank you for the cupcakes!! he was like “are there drugs in them” and kat was like “no” and tabby was like “yes” and i said “next time, for your 10 year anniversary” and andrew was like “ten years!” all chill like. i love him. king of red rangers. cameron said “love youuuu” to us as we left. i would quite literally die for all of them.

afterwards we were waiting around to get our reprints and azim came out and stopped to talk to us and we were like “where the fuck is your girlfriend we only came to see her” and he told us she’s flying to london :( and then he was like “are you guys coming tomorrow come hang out at our booths” (we were like “we have shit for you to sign we’re not just gonna loiter” and he was like “no just come hang out”) and he said “i wanna tell you guys the most heartwarming story that’s happened at rangerstop, a four year saga” so he like. REALLY wants us to come back tomorrow like what a cliffhanger that was!!

we also saw catherine and li ming bc the 25th anniversary photo op was right after us they’re so pretty!! im gonna visit catherine tomorrow and get my PINK RANGER W/ DRAGON SHIELD PRINT SIGNED BY HER ugh ceevee’s art is literally so amazing bitch. fuck. and then steve was also there and tabby was like “we love you steve!” (she said that for every actor that passed us but nobody heard her EXCEPT STEVE) and he stopped and turned back and was like HEY GUYS, love him. AND THEN SELWYN ALSO SHOWED UP FOR THE PHOTO OP and then on our way out of the photo op hallway he was ahead of us getting water in the hotel lobby so we stopped and said hi and introduced ourselves and i was like “we met you at morphicon” and he was like hmm (he was the only one who didnt rmr us at all clearly BUT HES STILL SO VALID. I LOVE YOU SELWYN.) and he was like “why don’t you guys get a picture with me” and we were like “well we’ll be here tomorrow to see you” and he was like “no we gotta do it right now” so he and tabby took a selfie LITERALLY THE CUTEST. HES SO HANDSOME. I LOVE POWER RANGERS.

also psycho red is hot

[canaryatlaw]

Alright, it’s currently 8:53 pm Illinois time (we’re still in Indiana so my phone thinks it’s 9:53, it didn’t transition for the whole day until like now apparently and is probably supposed to have changed back by now but here we are), we’re in the car on the way home from the con and I’m starting to write now because I need to go to bed ASAP when I get home because I once again could not fall asleep FOR MY FUCKING LIFE last night and of course I had to get up early so we could road trip to the con so I got like an hour and a half of sleep??? The last time I remember looking at the clock was at 5:08 am and my alarm was set for 6:45 am, so....it wasn’t good. But yeah, today was really good despite my lack of sleep. I did wake up when my alarm went off at 6:45 am, I had a message from Jess saying to give her like 10-15 more minutes than we initially planned so I got ready and waited for her to come pick me up. We got gas and then McDonald’s, breakfast sandwich and coke if I wanted to stay awake all day lol. And so we were off to Indiana for the con. The drive there was fairly unremarkable, we stopped at a rest stop for a minute but that was about it. We made it into Indianapolis around like 11:30 their time, parked in the parking garage next to the con center and got to the con. Our drive through Indianapolis revealed that today was definitely their pride parade and with a little more research we probably could’ve done the parade and the con, but oh well, not much we can do about it now. According to the online schedule the photo op for the guy Jess had a photo with was at like 1:20, so when we arrived we had to wander through the giant con center at first and then redeem our tickets and actually get to the main hall, where we located the photo op people and asked about the schedule.

It’s a good thing we checked, because he was not in fact at 1:20 anymore, he had gotten to what was first 4:45 and would then move to 5:45 in not too long. So obviously this was a bit of a curveball, since according to the earlier schedule we probably would’ve headed out a lot earlier. So now we have some time to kill. Well we wanted to see the guests anyway, and the first I wanted to see was the kid from Shazam, Asher Angel, mostly because I wanted to go on about how much positive depiction of foster children in media means to the kids out there that are constantly thought of as a problem and nothing more. He was sweet, definitely a teenage boy lol you could tell it was one of his first cons, but he was doing alright and was nice to talk to. He definitely looked bored at other points throughout the day which I can’t really blame him for, he is a teenage boy and the amount of attention the celebrities were getting at this con was definitely less than expected. Like, there were pretty much no lines for everybody....the entire con was a lot smaller than expected. So that was interesting to deal with. After that though we went and said hi to the guy Jess wanted to see from Shield and she got a selfie with him, he was really nice too. At that point we wandered the show floor for a while, Jess unsurprisingly found some kpop merch (it’s generally among the anime booths at this point) so she bought some of that which was cool. We ended up leaving the con center to get some food because con food is always trash and overpriced, and we didn’t have anything else better to do lol.

So we ended up going to steak and shake, which was a giant joke because the last time we went to a con in Indiana we got into a fight that kind of climaxed in us ending up going to steak and shake for dinner despite my request that we go literally anywhere else because my acid reflux was really bad that day, but that’s a whole other story we won’t go into, just know the fact that we ended up there was a giant fucking joke. I got a cheeseburger and a strawberry shake, and we killed some time there for a while before finishing up and walking back to the con. We returned to the main hall and ended up saying hi to John Wesley Shipp, this con was like prime for just getting to say hi to celebs because so many of them were standing around lol. He was cool, we got back to the Shield guy to get an autograph for Emily, and right next to him was Dot-Marie Jones, and I recalled that she had been at Clexacon and afterwards her wife had posted about how awful the con had been to them on Instagram and she was free so I was like if we approach this correctly we could get some quality tea about Clexacon out of this interaction lol. She had stickers that they were selling for $5, so we bought a sticker (they ended up giving us two) and were like “oh we just wanted to say hi, we wanted to see you at Clexacon but we heard it wasn’t great for you guys?” and that basically worked perfectly and launched a like, 20 minute conversation that consisted of all the terrible shit Clexacon had done to them and like, it was bad. The biggest revelation was definitely that the con wasn’t paying any of the celebrities to be there (I realize a lot of people aren’t privy to how the financial arrangements for cons work so that might not seem like a big deal but it is HIGHLY unusual and I couldn’t believe they got that many guests without paying any of them) and on top of that wanted a cut of their autograph money and shit which is just.....wild. It was a really good conversation though, not just about Clexacon but on how the voices of actual queer women should be the ones being centered, not just straight actresses that portray them but don’t live the stories (and we all know I adore my actresses, but it’s not the same) and like Clexacon had just been so shitty to her when she was one of the only actual queer women there and they could’ve had so much more but they were clearly only motivated by greed. She’s a super lovely person too and it was just overall a great conversation and it was really a pleasure to talk to her.

After that, or some time around then, the timeline might not be perfect here but I’m doing my best lol. We basically had nothing to do but I wanted some water so we walked over to their food court area and got some water bottles with the intention of just sitting at the table there for a while, which we did, but they ended up doing some like, pre-podcast launch media session with these three ladies who are launching a cold case podcast about this case from Indiana where this little girl was killed and I mean I only listened to their info about the case but I’m pretty fucking sure the abusive stepfather’s the one who did it (let’s be real, if the kid of an abusive parent dies, there is an extremely high chance the parent did it, and that chance actually goes up further by the fact that he was a stepparent, this is the reality of child abuse that I work with) so idk how much of a cold case there is to investigate there but Jess found them on twitter and they currently had like 18 followers lol so I mean maybe they’ll find their stride and build up a fan base. After their presentation and a little while of more time chilling out we ended up going back to the con area and seeing John Glover, whom we paid $20 to get a selfie with, he was again so delightfully bizarre and just absolutely hilarious to interact with and talk about Shazam with. So that was cool, and after that we chilled outside the main hall for a bit until Jess decided it was time to line up for the photo op, at which point I wandered for a bit and eventually ended up at Vanessa Marshall’s table who I kinda wanted to meet, she’s a voice actress who’s been in a ton of stuff but most relevant to me was that she did Black Canary for Young Justice and recently did an interview with the young justice podcast I listen to that was just fucking amazing about self-acceptance and that really just made me want to meet her so I paid $20 for a selfie with her and ended up having a lovely conversation with her.

After that I wandered a bit more and ended up buying a $5 “damaged” piece of Wonder Woman fan art (it was in the damaged pile but I couldn’t see anything wrong with it and it was a damn good deal) and ended up buying an adorable print of Goose the cat that was $10 and is going to go great on my Captain Marvel closet door. After that I reunited with Jess after her photo op and waited a little while longer waiting for the print while talking with a nice couple we’d previously spoken to at a con at some point lol. Once we got the photo we headed out, left Indianapolis and headed straight to the Cracker Barrel we’ve definitely been to before lol. There was a little bit of a wait but we got in in like ten minutes or so. Got our classics but they sadly we slightly less quality than we’ve previously had, but still mostly good. After dinner I raided their candy section very lightly and Jess acquired a giant stuffed goat I said I’d buy her so we paid the bill and bought that and headed out.

From there we’ve been driving, stopped once to go to the bathroom in the rain, but it mostly stopped raining so we didn’t have to deal with too much of it. The highlight of the drive home was definitely realizing Jess’ nemesis who was at the con was actually in the car behind us, and we proceeded to cut her off like three different times and it was great, I’m pretty sure she was still behind us when I started writing this and she was behind us until we hit the greater Chicago area but now we’re pulling up to our neighborhood that’s having it’s massive Nordic fest right now (“midsommarfest”) which looks pretty wild right now, but I’ll be home in a second and probably finish this off right before I go to bed, after I shower. My phone now said it’s 10:47 pm, though it should say it’s 9:47 pm Chicago time, so we’ll have to see for how much longer we’ll have to deal with that. But I’m about to get out of the car so I’ll leave this here.

Okay, it’s 10:54 pm currently, though my phone still says 11:54 pm lol. But I’m all showered and ready to go to sleep, and boy am I sleepy, so I’ll be going to bed now. Goodnight my friends. Hope you had a lovely Saturday as well.

[booksbeyondimagining]

Hey everyone!

Sorry I’ve not been very active on here lately (glances at personal goals for the year guiltily), but I spent the last couple of months working on shows and prepping for BookCon.  This year was a success, I think, in terms of achieving my goal to meet as many of my favorite authors – and potential favorites – as possible.

Saturday I started the day trying to get a ticket for a Leigh Bardugo signing at the TopatoCo booth, however their organization skills were downright awful and the line quickly became a messy blob and so of course this shorty in the back didn’t get one.  I told myself to get over it (and for the most part I did.  I was bitter still, but I was over it.  Gotta focus on the authors I did get to meet right?  The only annoyance was having to carry around my hardcover of SoC all day cause it costs $ to get back into coat check (wtf)).

So after that disaster I went to the signing for Brigid Kemmerer, who was lovely to talk to, followed by Susan Dennard (who got so excited about the poster I brought of the cover for The Executioner’s Three, her story on Wattpad).  I then went to the Jordandene booth to get an As Travars shirt – sadly they were out, but I got a Geekerella one instead – and while I was there I turned around and effing V. E. Schwab was right behind me.  This was the second time in 2 years that I’ve seen her on the floor, and this time I finally got a picture with her, lol.  I swear she is my lucky charm there – I wasn’t even actively seeking her out this year since I’ve already met her twice and yet there she was anyway.

I then went a stood for two hours(!) in a line for the Coco Ma/Jill Criswell signing for their ARCs of Shadow Frost/Beasts of the Frozen Sun (respectively).  I went to the booth to ask when the line was going to start forming and the guy was like “this is the line” indicating the one I thought was for the event prior to theirs.  So yeah, got to wait for a while there.  The line moved slowly because they were both talking with people, which was nice, but I was also mildly panicking because Amanda Foody had a signing I wanted to get to as well.  But I had a nice conversation with both (Coco was wearing Gryffindor robes so we had a fun HP conversation) and I got to the HarperCollins booth just in time to see Amanda and have her sign my copy of Ace of Shades.  

I think after that I wandered the floor for a bit, before making my way over to the Eoin Colfer signing.  I loved the Artemis Fowl series growing up, so I was ecstatic when I got the ticket to his signing.  The best part was we ended up talking theatre while he signed my books because he asked me what I did and I told him I do lighting design for theatre and he started talking about preferring the backstage atmosphere whenever someone puts on a play he’s written (I had no idea he wrote plays omg I’m such a fake fan lol).  And like the idiot I was I forgot to give him my business card.

After that I kinda stalked Katy Rose Pool.  She’s the author of There Will Come a Darkness which comes out in the fall and which I am currently reading (thank you Edelweiss).  It’s.  So.  Good.  And my friend had already met her during the day and told her about me and she remembered and was so nice and sweet and signed a blank bookmark I brought.  I also saw Amanda Foody there (I love how they have this group of writer friends it’s the cutest thing ever) and got the picture with her that I forgot to get earlier lol.  I then did some more shopping (got a Stardust candle that smells like stormy woods and blackberry and had little stars on top) and walked the floor until it closed.

And omg I went to the FierceReads booth to ask about the TWCAD ARC giveaway they were doing on Sunday (because yeah okay I am reading the egalley but I want it physically too of course) and while they were explaining it KATY ROSE POOL showed up again and I got so worried she thought I was an asshole for wanting the physical ARC as well instead of letting someone else get a chance to read it.  I’M SORRY I JUST WANTED ALL THE VERSIONS.  (Actually I’m over it now.  I got the ticket for the ARC game on Sunday and it was a chance-to-win game.  Basically you had your Tarot Cards read (the tarot cards are based on the characters in TWCAD) in a past-present-future spread and the present card determined which ARC you got.  I ended up getting The Last Word by Samantha Hastings oh well, but man the girl who did my reading was really good and it was scarily accurate.  But hey that gives me hope for my future cause it sounded just like what I needed.  Anyway, while I was there I watched two people who I knew had been first in both the ticket drop and the actual event line get the TWCAD ARC and I got really happy for them cause damn they deserved that.  PLUS I ended up getting an ARC of The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring for being tenth in line how cool was that!!)

Anyway, that was Saturday.

On Sunday, after getting the tickets at FierceReads (you got two for their giveaways, and beside the Tarot Card game I got a Grisha passport one which I gave to my friend cause I wasn’t interested in it), I wandered the floor for a bit before heading over to QuirkBooks to get ready for the Ashley Poston signing.  We were told we could buy the books before the signing even started so we did, and then they had a game where you turn one of those candy/prize machines you see outside of supermarkets and you got a piece of paper that indicated a prize.  My friend got a Charmed pin which she gave to me since I love the show, and I got a coupon for a free book so I got to return the copy of The Princess and the Fangirl I had just bought there and get it for free instead.  How cool is that?  And while we were in line for the game my friend saw Ashley Poston and she came over and talked with us and again while we were waiting for the signing to start.  She was so sweet and nice to talk with.

I then made the stupid attempt to try to get a ticket for the Melissa de la Cruz signing but since Penguin refuses to start lines before a certain time and just lets people stand in a blob, I again didn’t get one.  I wasn’t too angry though because I haven’t actually read any of her books, but the one she was signing for – The Queen’s Assassin – sounded interesting.  I was just more annoyed that all my other just-in-case-I-don’t-get-that-one events were already capped as well so I wandered the floor.  I finally found an event at the FaeCrate line for a die toss game but only got a chapstick lol.  Then I went to Simon & Schuster for their lollipop wall and ended up with a contemporary YA called She’s the Worst by Lauren Spieller.

I then went to the Meg Cabot signing where she signed my copy of Shadowland, because I love love love The Mediator series by her.  After that was the Tarot Card game as described above, and then the signing for Holly Black.  She seemed really nice from the line, but sadly by the time I got to her it was 4:30 and the publishers were making her speed things up to move the line along so I only got a candid picture and didn’t get much time to talk to her.  Oh well.

After that I went and got a shirt at Out of Print because they were putting them on sale by then – I got an Elephant & Piggie shirt and I LOVE it.  And then Hoopla was doing a wheel spin still but the woman said it was closed.  I waited around though because they had sunglasses and from what I could see, plenty of them (I don’t know what it is about my sunglasses but they will last like a year and then will just randomly break when I like take them off or something.  I don’t get it.)  They reopened it and when I spun and got a popsocket I asked and they just switched it for the sunglasses.  Lol score.

And that was the end of BookCon 2019!!

Here are all the books I received/bought/brought to get signed:

And here is all the swag I got (well the Susan Dennard poster I brought with me for her to sign, and the V. E. Schwab poster my friend actually got for me lol)

Also my friend and I stayed in this hotel that looked so old fashioned we kept calling it the Tower of Terror and saying we were gonna get visited by a ghost or something.  It was awesome.

Overall I was happy because I got to most of what I wanted, saw most of the authors I wanted to see, and bought some really fun merch too.  Can’t wait for next year and to see who I might get to meet then!

BookCon 2019 |A Review Hey everyone! Sorry I've not been very active on here lately (glances at personal goals for the year guiltily), but I spent the last couple of months working on shows and prepping for BookCon. 

[ellalynnmonroe]

VanCon 2017, my second convention is under my belt. Now that I’ve finished my finals for school, I can fully recap the events of the weekend and appreciate them completely. If there are any typos, I apologize now. My brain hurts from taking said finals. Hah.. oh, and uh. I haven’t entered in those fancy ass cues to seperate paragraphs since I was on Live Journal… like 15 years ago. So.. sorry for the continuous paragraph. 😂 The weekend began with this sweet gal (@winchestersnco) arriving at my door step. This woman was my right hand woman and savior this weekend. She was so incredibly helpful, patient, and loving when it came to my two month old daughter.. who’s name happens to be Amara. **Long backstory short.. my bf and I loved the name and the uniqueness. The fact it’s a character from our favorite only had a small part it.. as is the fact she was created at VanCon 2016…. #porncouver 😂** The drive to Vancouver started out great. Amara slept for the first third of the drive. And then hated us the rest of the drive. Though it was rather exhausting, me feeding her in her carseat is a memory neither Erin or I will forget, I’m sure. Needless to say, Amara had worn herself out so much, she only woke to eat and slept nine hours that night. Friday! The show started later than I remember it starting last year. The energy was also different. Maybe I got spoiled with Kim and Brianna. Rich is a neat dude and all, but those girls really set the bar high. Lol. The panels were fun. The first and only time Amara made a sound during a panel was during Samantha Smith’s. Of course I get called out and stand up to show her I actually have a baby. Jason Manns was added to the guest list at the last minute and I was so thrilled! Amara slept so soundly through his panel; she loves her music! Our autographs for the day included Sam Smith, Emily Swallow, and Brianna Buckmaster. Sam was apparently upset I didn’t actually walk Amara up to her during her panel. Lol, oops. She was in awe by the eye contact my tiny can make. She said “You are not new”. She said Amara is “an old soul”. A mother generally thinks their kid is the best, but hearing how alert and aware your two month old actually is, kinda makes your heart swell. 😍 Emily… ah, how do I put this nicely?.. I’m not a fan. She’s a bit… snatchy. Guess I can’t put that nicely. For those who don’t know, Emily plays the character, Amara on SPN. Coming into this auto, I thought even if this lady thinks I’m a total dweeb and I named my daughter after a SPN character because I’m incredibly obsessed, she would pretend to be amused. Nope. She was so blandly like, “Oh… cooool”. And then proceeded to take this stuffed doll someone made her and wave it in front of her face. I was hardly impressed. Brianna is probably one of my favorite human beings. I walk up and immediately she says “I kinda wanna hold that baby”. I told her she could, but she insisted on keeping the baby comfy. She was pretty entertained by the origin of her name; she said the last reason was the best reason. I just want to be her bff. She’s pretty damn rad. Karaoke…. well. We showed up late so all the guests were already tossed. ESPECIALLY my favorite person if the day. You guessed it. Emily Swallow. One of my roomies of the weekend stayed with me for a bit; Amara slept the whole time. It was the freakin’ Emily Swallow show. She sang over EVERYONE that sang a song. And by sang, I mean yelled with a vibrato. Not. Impressed. Saturday!! I really wanted to watch the first panel, but sleep took over and I slept too late. I love sleep, so I wasn’t to hard on myself. Hah. Mark Sheppard’s panel was entertaining, as usual. He’s so sassy. I attempted to ask him what activities he likes to do with his kids, now that he has some free time. Before I even asked my question, he looked at Amara and said, “That’s not my baby”. Hahaha. After me asking my question and him not answering, I tried to repeat my question and he called me bossy and continued to avoid my question. 😂 there’s a video or two of the ordeal running around out there that I need to acquire. I was pretty bummed he didn’t walked around the audience like he usually does. Idk who did what to him to make him pissed off, but they should be slapped. Misha Collins’ panel was absurd. I laughed so much, I can’t remember too many specifics. The moment I’ll never forget; however, is him asking how to sign “take a dump” in American Sign Language. I died. Matt Cohen, Rob Benedict, and Richard Speight Jr had the last panel. Amara had started to get a little wiggly, so I was in and out for that one. Rachel Miner’s panel… I am too hormonal for that shit. The guys carried her out to the stage and the audience gave her a standing ovation. I wept. She is one inspiration gal. We had a photo op with Brianna and autos with Matt and Mark that day. Our photo with Briana was all thanks to Erin.. Seriously. This girl is the effing best. I can’t brag enough about her. Anyway, back to Briana. When we walked up, I said to her, “You can hold this baby now!”. She did not argue one bit. Chris about died when he say her homemade ‘Wayward AF’ bandana-turned-bandaeu. Mark signed a book my friend gave to Amara, “If I Were a Moose”. Mark’s response? “If I were a moose, I’d kill myself”. Lol. Jesus Christ, Mark. 😂 Matt was cute and sweet as always. Nothing particularly memorable was said. But I do want you all to know that man is getting some of those silver highlights in his hair… Hey. Girl. Hey. Rachel was just as sweet as she was in her panel. She’s is a fighter. I could only hope to be the bad ass this woman is! I had the chance to chat with Jason Manns for a minute. He picked out which album of his Amara would like best. He was so sweet, and I’m so glad he was there. Louden Swain performed a couple acoustic songs in the lobby before signing autos for those that bought some merch. They had they’re SNS album available, so obvioisly I purchased it. Lol they too, were so nice. The talent these men posses is unreal. SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL. What’s there to say, that hasn’t already been said. The SNS never disappoints. Louden Swain is PHENOMENAL. Emily was annoying and Brianna nailed it. Oh yeah. And Jensen made an appearance and knocked everyone’s socks off.. or should I say panties? 😉 Fucking SUNDAY, BITCHES. J2 day. This is the day that everyone is anxiously awaiting. The panel was obviously hilarious and fun. These boys NEVER disappoint. There were too many funny moments to explain, but my fav? The endless butt jokes. YouTube the panel if you wanna get in on the jokes. Amara and I had a photo with Jensen and then I have one by myself with Jensen. As soon as I walk up to him and he sees Amara, his mouth drops. I asked, “Would you mind holding her for a photo?” He obviously did not object. Who can resist a tiny baby in a shirt that says ‘World’s cutest Supernatural fan" and a little black tutu with a SPN themed bow on the front of it?? Chris died, once again, after coming on close to check out her outfit. Bless that man! He took three quick shots and printed each of them for me to ensure we got a good one. And then I hand the tiny off and tell Jensen I have one with just myself and he proceeds to give me the best hug, Chris takes the pic, and Jensen gives me a tight squeeze. I tell him thank you, and he says something along the lines of “Congrats, mom”….. and I died. Hahaha. When I go to grab Amara, the head dudes in charge are fawning over her. I’d say her outfit was a success. Coming down the escalator, Gil McKinney came over to take to Amara. This man had been eyeballin’ her all weekend. It was pretty cute and sweet how he approached us. Jason also came over to see her Sunday outfit. I’m telling you, these guys are rad AF. Our autos were at the end of the day, and Amara was getting tired. Thankfully she stayed awake long enough for the two boys to see her. We get up to Jensen and he’s still all about her. He asks her name, and I tell him and the story to go with it. You can tell he’s kinda listening. For comedic value, I decided to say to him, “she’s out souvenir from last year” and the look on his face was priceless. It took a split second for him to register it, but once he did, he chuckled a bit. I thought Jerad was going to steal her. As soon as I walked up, he said “Look at the knees! And those thighs!” He was amazed by how strong she is and couldn’t believe she was only two months old. Now.. this is suppose to be the time I say, “That was that and we went home”……. But no. It. Gets. Better. So Erin and I had stood in line with our weekend roomies. They were toward the end, with maybe a dozen people behind them. Once they went behind the curtain, and Amara was sound asleep in her shoulder, she began walking back to our seats. I told her to slow her roll. I’m thinking, maybe if we linger long enough and stealth enough, some magic will happen…. AND DID IT EVER. Jensen comes out and waves to everyone, waves at Erin and I.. but does a double take when he sees this sleeping ball of chunk on Erin’s shoulder… he then RUNS OVER TO AMARA, PINCHES AT HER SWEET CHUBBY CHEEKS.. AND THEN.. GIVES HER A KISS ON HER CHEEK. JENSEN KISSED MY BABY. I vowed to never wash her again; however she had gotten herself so worked up on the ride home, she projectile vomited ALL OVER ME. It was a wonderful weekend, not too hectic, filled with such wonderful memories that I can’t wait to share with Amara when she’s older. 99% (lol) of the guests were so sweet and supportive of me bringing my tiny. The fans all loved her. I only had a few people harass me about ear protection, of which I brought, one lady get salty about being next to a baby before she had a chance to show her what an angel of a baby she is, and one person suggest I breastfeed in the bathroom after I asked where would he a good spot to sit and feed her. Other than that, everyone was great, I had a great time, and I miss all my ladies!

[johnradams]

So I saw comet and dear Evan Hansen.

I bought a hat from DEH, a shirt from comet and a Polaroid camera with the rest of my money because what can I say I want instantly printed pictures of New York. I liked comet better then dear Evan Hansen but I did really like how Ben Platt portrayed Evan and was honestly scared he was having a panic attack on stage. Also I was 3 rows away from the stage, so I could see all his sweat and wooo boy that poor guy must be tearing himself aPART. OKAY BUT NOW THAT IVE TALKED ABOUT DEH I CAN INFO DUMP ON COMET YES? Okay. So I went into comet without my parent and my sister because they wanted to eat so they had to wait outside with their food, plus we had an extra ticket we were trying to give away. The hallways leading to the theatre ( where you can buy drinks, merch and tickets) had a really cool Cold War Russia vibe. I believe I saw something empowering with the word pussy on it and that made me happy. Anyway, so I stopped by the merch stand and the guy was so sweet! I had to ask if he was open because there was hardly anyone there and he showed me his favorite shirt which I ended up buying ( the one with the portraits and prologue lyrics!). I was wearing a ' so broke I can't pay attention' shirt because it's soft and I love it and my usher read it and said she wanted one! She also saw my DEH hat and asked if I liked it and I was like " oh my gosh yeah it was amazing but like... everyone in line kept making a big deal out of its nine tony noms and I'm like, comet has 12??" She laughed and it was 👌👌GOOD! Anyway so before the show started someone from ensemble ( I'm so terrible at names, she has red hair and is lovely??) came and talked to us and asked who in our section had read war and peace and I was the only one which made me feel cool sksksks. also I was hungry because I'd chosen comet over food and they threw a pierogi at me so I was like... yes... amazing... the comet truly cares about my wellbeing. THINGS ABOUT THE ACTUAL SHOW/ ACTING ( spoilers??) - Lucas Steele!! He held off a bunch of notes just for giggles and it was so much fun. Once during the abduction a few people near me tried to start the song back up with their shakers and he just was like " no" and we all waited. Amazing - I liked how the characters kinda conducted a little bit. - JOSH GROBAN's LIL WADDLE. -JOSH GROBAN IN DUST AND ASHES. -just josh GROBAN tbh. - Denée Benton being in only a corset and underwear ( I'm sure there was more under that but shhh) on stage made my little gay heart flutter. She's so tiny and gorgeous and amazing. - I saw Lulu as Helene but!!! Charming was still good. - when Nat throws her hands up and says " so it must be alright!!!" I cry - MMMMM THE MAKE OUT SESSION AT THE ACT BREAK?? V nice. The symbolism with the door? Positively ripped my heart out. - Andrey in letters?? Making me wanna die like a true friend. - pierre plz put the drinks away that's not a healthy coping mechanism let's go get you some therapy son - /mARYA/ -wHAT???? - you beat that bad Anatole man. Beat him. Also Anatole flipping his shit when Pierre tells him how bad this thing is?? Amazing. -Helene getting up to defend herself? So amazing. I love her. - ANDREY PLEASE DONT HIT PIERRE HE LOVES YOU HE JUST WANTS YOU TO BE HAPPY AND NOT SABOTAGE YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU THINK NO ONE WILL EVER TRULY LOVE YOU AND THOSE WHO DID ARE DEAD - NATASHA IN THE END OH SHES SO SMALL? Denee is so adorable. -"*broken I noise" *natasha stops and looks at Pierre* "huh oh that wasn't me must've been the wind" -IF IF I WERE NIT MYSELF BUT THE BRIGHTEST HANDSOMEST BEST MAN AND IF I WERE FREE,,, I WOULD GET DO W N ON MY KNEES THIS ISNTANT,,, AND ASK YOU FOR YOUR HAND? AND FOR YOUR LOVE?? -"unable to find the sleeves" god help him - that comet tho!!! - STAGE DOOR! A lot of ensemble members signed for me? I haven't double checked but I think Andrey did too. And solokhov. Josh GROBAN did!! He's so lovely. He's got such a kind face, he can do no wrong. - seriously. The man could hit me with a car and I would apologize for hitting his car.