#and honestly it felt like too much to have 4 musicals and/or 4 golden age of hollywood movies on the list

[notmoreflippingelves]

I was tagged by @arathesane

Rules: List your five all-time favorite films and have people vote on which one matches your vibe.

No pressure, but tagging @moocowmoocow, @saemi-the-dreamer, @combefaerie, @chlogummy and anyone else who wants to do this.

[your-local-grubdog]

Together in the Storm Chapter 4: Our Corner of The Cloud

Story Summary: Olimar is back home once again, ready to rest and recuperate from everything that had happened. Yet the universe keeps throwing unwanted surprises his way, making rest difficult. He just wants to make his (now rather large) family believe that he’ll be okay. Because he is, for he has to be.

Chapter Summary: Olimar spends some time with his son

Read on Ao3 here!

[][][][]

As it turned out, getting help wouldn't be so simple.

Rose and Olimar researched the best they could during the few days he was in the hospital. And for the next several days after that, after Olimar got to return home and rest somewhere where he felt more at ease. It shouldn't have been so hard to try. But as it turns out, Hocotate Freight didn't exactly cover therapy in their care plan. And paying it out of pocket was…

They had to stop looking, at least for now, as the process was stressing out Olimar a bit too much. He was now turning his office computer off, planning to not use it at all for a few days. He had to stay away from searching fruitlessly for aid, and he probably could do with less screen time.

"I'm going to go start on dinner, okay hun?" Rose rubbed her husband's shoulders in an effort to calm him as she spoke.

"... A-Alright. I think I'll go lay down."

"Alright." She kissed his forehead. "I'll come get you then."

Olimar nodded, leaning into the gentle touches. He sighed as she walked away, putting himself in a proper posture again. As he tidied up his desk (which it didn't really need, it just made Olimar feel better) he saw the black box again. With a heavy heart, he gently touched it. He had been able to get the files off of the flash drive onto his computer just fine, but an entire ship's AI was a completely different beast. He had no idea how Alph got it on there, and no idea on where to even start with restoring it. It honestly made him anxious, eating him up inside. Was it aware it was in a hard drive, or was it like being asleep? Or more like being in a coma? He knew it didn't have real emotions, but the idea of it being aware and trapped made him feel so guilty.

Maybe he should just ask Alph for some help…

He soon stood up, desperate to stop thinking about the ship and the therapy and money and anything else that caused stress, though he couldn't exactly just do that. He was always, at least, thinking about the golden monster. The bracelet he hid away in his room, taunting him. The injuries he sustained that still pained him. He didn't know what the golden lifeform did to him, exactly. He knew he spent most of his time on the Drake sleeping, same for the hospital. But good Gods did walking hurt now. Well, there was always a mild bit of pain. The kind he assumed to be typical for a man his age with a job as labor intensive as his. But now it was so much more, and he always stayed close to a wall or heavy piece of furniture to lean on for support. Though, he avoided the family shrines. They were barely used, but he wasn't going to risk ruining them. He didn't think he'd fall, he wasn't unstable (at least, he didn't feel like it, but he also wasn't entirely sure what that would feel like), but he was still scared.

He felt almost relieved to reach the stairs. Getting up them was damn near tortuous, but he was thankful to have a railing sturdy enough to put his full weight against without consequence. When he reached the top, though, he couldn't help but wonder if it would've been better to just nap in his recliner downstairs instead. Everything hurt now. Oh well, at least he had plenty of time to rest between now and dinner. As he approached his bedroom, however, his ears flicked. He could hear music from down the hall, certainly from his son's CRTelecaster. He really should take a nap but… oh, he couldn't help himself. Was it too much to ask for some time with his kid? He slowly made his way over to his son's room and gently knocked on the door.

The music immediately stopped. "Oh, uh, come in."

With that permission, Olimar slowly opened the door and smiled at his son. Nova was sitting on the floor, CRTelecaster in front of him. The boy had made the instrument himself over the past year or so, something which Olimar would never stop being proud of. Olimar helped a little, of course, having supplied the electronics that were reused into the instrument and doing a little bit of wiring. Most of it was Nova's work, though. "Mind if I sit with you for a bit? Haven't gotten to hear you play much since you've finished working on that."

Nova paused for a moment. "Sure, you can listen."

"Thanks kiddo." He made his way over to a futon pressed against the left wall, which was currently set up as a couch. It usually was a couch, the only reason Nova had it instead of normal seats was for when Pluto visited. He leaned into it, letting out a slight groan. The futon was far from the most comfortable seat in the house, but it was so much better than standing any longer. Or struggling to sit on the floor... He couldn't help but worry about how winter will go. He'll just have to be better by then, so he can sit with his family around the kotatsu and not in a chair away from them. Hopefully Nova doesn't mind me staying here a while, I really do not wanna get up again… "How's it been going with the CRTelecaster, hm?"

"Alright. Haven't memorized any songs but I can easily read the sheets for them."

"Could you play one?"

Nova nodded. He tapped just a few things on his phone before finding the sheet music for whatever song he had chosen. Soon, the strange electronic noises truly unique to the instrument filled the room. Olimar couldn't help but smile a bit as he hummed to the song. He knew this one, not too well, but it played on the radio often. If Nova was nearby, he'd ask for the song to be turned up. The boy didn't sing the lyrics to it - probably not yet confident in his ability to sing and play at the same time yet - but that was fine.

Olimar could remember when Nova had first asked for some old electronics to make it. Such instruments were very common on Hocotate, had been sense Olimar's great-grandparents were around. It was around that time that interstellar shipment became the most common job on Hocotate, and with it came plenty of opportunities for pilots like Olimar to buy some unused "junk" other planets no longer wanted. Such so-called junk was perfect for making all sorts of things, even musical instruments like the CRTelecaster. Most people made their instruments themselves, and Olimar had wanted to make one himself when he was a kid, but there was no way his father would have let him. Buying one, while possible and not too expensive, was also certainly out of the question.

He was more than happy to let his own son have it, then, and to help him build it. Seeking out more items for it became such a pleasant habit that it was hard to break. At least his son had spare parts now, should something break or he wished to start another project.

Soon the song was over, Nova taking the time to silence the machine. As he did Olimar couldn't help but smile and clap, even more so when his son's response was an unamused glare. "It was really good, though. You've gotten much better."

"T-thanks. It's - it's an easy song to play-"

"Aw, no need to dampen your achievement here. Progress is progress, and it sounds good."

Nova shuffled around awkwardly, though he was smiling a bit. "There's - one song I can sing and play at once. If you'd care to hear… I'd, uh, also like for you to sing with me."

Olimar couldn't help but smirk a bit. "I thought that you hated it when I sing. That you think I'm bad at it."

"Because you are." Nova groaned, his pure bluntness and annoyance getting a hearty laugh out of his father. "I still… want you to, though."

Olimar's chuckles finally faded away. "Aww, of course buddy. If I know it, that is."

"You do. You taught me. It's Our Corner of the Cloud."

Oh, that old work song. Captain Destiny had taught him that one, when he was still but a young mechanic on her crew. Olimar found himself growing heavy as he leaned into the futon more. "Aw, of course buddy. I take it you want to just sing the responses?" It made sense, it'd certainly make it easier for the boy to sing and play at the same time if he had only four lines to worry about.

Nova nodded.

"Ah, alright. I've never sang with instrumentals, just with voices alone, so start the beat and I'll figure out where to start singing as well."

Nova nodded and began to play his CRTelecaster. Olimar bobbed his head to the beat as he tried to get a feel for it. The instrumental stayed simple, a further aid to Nova in learning. Besides, work songs were never really supposed to need or generally have instruments playing along them. Workers were meant to be able to still work while they sang. For pilots and mechanics like himself, it was a way to pass the time, get closer to the crew, and keep morale high. After a few loops of the simple beat, Olimar finally found where and how to start. In a deep voice that he struggled to keep even, he began to sing,

"We've traveled far across the Cloud, Seen every corner of this Galaxy, We'll bring back the supplies we need, To serve our folks back home, A job so hard, it makes us proud."

… Though Olimar couldn't exactly call himself proud of his job. Proud of how far he's come, from janitor to mechanic to captain, sure. But not really of the job itself. At the very least, Nova seemed to be having fun, soon joining in for the response.

"No matter where we may go, Nothing will compare to our Hocotate Our dear home of ice and snow, I swear, we'll be back there someday."

Olimar's ears wiggled a bit. Since when did his son get so good at singing? Nova had always been better than him, but now the kid sounded amazing. Ah, just another thing to be actually proud of.

"Yesterday, a shipment to Koppai Of plastics, metals, and wires For them to make computers so fancy Which we can build into our own ships Stabilizers and navigators letting them fly.

"But no matter where we may go, Nothing will compare to our Hocotate Our dear home of ice and snow, I swear, we'll be back there someday.

"Today, a shipment to Zelace Of gems, silver, and gold For them to make jewelry so pretty Perhaps we'll pick some up for our love And bring a smile to her face!

"As no matter where we may go, Nothing will compare to our Hocotate Our dear home of ice and snow, I swear, we'll be back there someday.

"Tomorrow, a shipment to Baher, Of paints, clay, and marble For them to make art so fine Their cities covered in murals and statues A gorgeous site like no other.

"Yet no matter where we may go, Nothing will compare to our Hocotate Our dear home of ice and snow, I swear, we'll be back there someday.

"Yes no matter where we may go, Nothing will compare to our Hocotate Our dear home of ice and snow, I swear, we'll be back there someday."

When the song was done, Nova looked over to his father with a smile on his face. "Thanks dad, it really does help."

"Ah, no need to thank me. It was fun." A slight stretching of the truth, as Olimar's chest now felt awfully tight from anxiety now, but he did truly enjoy any time spent with his family.

Nova smiled a bit before setting up the CRTelecaster to be put away. As he did that, he asked, "So… when will you be sent on another delivery run?"

That made Olimar pause. He… really wasn't sure. Nor was he sure when he'd return to work period, since he had tasks at the office he did when not piloting a ship. Sacho seemed empathetic to his plight when he first returned. But even though he certainly needed more rest, the boss's empathy grew strained as Olimar took more time to recover. So he probably would be returning to work sooner rather than later. With a sigh he just shook his head. "S-Sorry kiddo, I don't know. Depends on when my body decides to stop hurting." Or when the boss decides he's done waiting for me… "But I think it won't be too long now."

Nova nodded, silent as he put his instrument away. "So what's PNF-404 like?"

"Hm? Oh, same as before." Olimar chuckled awkwardly. "A beautiful, wild planet. Can be a little scary, but with Pikmin I'll be okay. We found tw-"

"But you still got hurt."

That made Olimar flinch a bit. "Ah, well, I… this was a bit different."

Nova just huffed. "I see."

"... We found two new kinds of Pikmin! Rock and winged."

"I know." Nova was now looking through his shelf of games for something. "You've told us that already."

"We also found-"

"And you told us about the crabs." Nova cut him off in a flat tone. "And the new bulborb. And the swarming shear grubs. And seemingly everything you'll actually tell us."

That response made Olimar flinch again. Did he make Nova mad somehow? He… couldn't exactly tell his thirteen year old son about the golden monster. So what else was he supposed to say?

His son eventually sighed when Olimar failed to respond to him. "I'm going to play some games before dinner now."

"Oh - yeah, of course. Have fun kiddo. S-See you at dinner then?"

"Yeah, sure."

Well he sure managed to ruin everything. There wasn't really much he could do about it now though. With a sigh he began to stand up from the futon, only to yelp as a harsh spike of pain shot up from his lower back. He fell back onto the futon, groaning.

"P-Papa?!" Nova was quick to stand up and hury over to him. "W-What happened-?"

"I'm alright, I'm alright." He groaned, though he hardly sounded convincing. "Just, sudden back pain. I think I'll need a few more moments…"

Nova frowned but nodded as he gently sat down next to his father. "H-How did - this happen?"

Olimar shrugged. He honestly didn't know what the monster did to him, given he was knocked out for most of his time there. "Ah, n-not sure buddy. But I'll get my rest in, don't worry. That's all that matters."

Nova huffed, ears leaning back. "You sure you'll get enough time off before you have to work again?"

"I - er…" Olimar's ears leaned back.

When he once again failed to respond, his son let out an agitated groan. "Your boss is a di - jerk. He's a jerk."

"Hey, watch your language now." Olimar teased, poking Nova's nose. Normally he'd get on him a little more for nearly cursing like that, but he couldn't exactly disagree with the boy on the matter.

"Sorry, Papa." Nova mumbled. After a few moments, he hugged his father and said "S-Stay as long as you need."

"Ah, no, I don't wanna intrude-"

"Rest."

The sudden command silenced Olimar as he watched his son pull away and boot up his game console. Well then. He didn't want to worry his son more, though, nor did he really want to risk another pain spike. So he let himself relax a bit as he watched the boy play some adventure game he had. He could feel himself dozing off, which admittedly made him feel a little guilty, but he was just so tired. Nova must have noticed, because suddenly Olimar woke with a jolt as his son explained "I'll wake you when it's dinner time."

"Huh? Oh, t-thanks…"

The last thing Olimar wanted to do was worry anyone, let alone his children. But as he slowly fell asleep he couldn't help but wonder how in the Gods' names he was supposed to do that.

[alolanroy]

2024 Watch Thread Part 5

part 4 https://www.tumblr.com/alolanroy/753737344319930369/2024-watch-thread-part-4?source=share

Berserk Boy: At a certain point I realized I hadn't played it in a month. I think the gameplay is alright, but that's about it. The sprite scaling looks weird and the character design doesn't gel with the Megaman ZX sensibilities. Terrible hoverbike section. 5/10

Warcraft: Putting the Mid in Middle Earth. Without the context of the series, I was never engaged by the movie. The humans were bland and the story felt less interested in a complete story than a beachhead for a franchise. 5/10

Half Life: Blue Shift: Glad I participated in the community event to boost this old game's all-time player count. As a game it didn't really wow me. I think it was overreliant on barrel pushing puzzles when barrel pushing doesn't work well in a few instances. Dispite a few baffling bugs that cost me maybe a combines 25 minutes, it was a quick and enjoyable romp. 6/10

Skyrim: Sirenroot: This may be the most atmospheric mod I've played thus far. This mod makes this one dungeon more gorgeous than anything in the base game by far, and the music sets a really spooky tome. I like that I didn't immediately catch what was going on with the multiple-character paths. While it doesn't equate to any kind of tangible reward, the characters are interesting enough that getting everyone to survive is intrinsically rewarding enough. 8/10

Skyrim: Wyrmstooth: It might be reductive to refer to it as just 'more skyrim' but that opinion congealed when I was stuck doing blackreach again. Some of the quests are fun, but some of the unmarked ones deserved to be marked quests. 6/10

DanDaDan (3 episode premier): I knew nothing about DanDaDan going into this since I was invited by a friend. PEAK. It's understandable how much hay the preroll interviews made about the direction and shot composition. 8/10

Iron Warrior: While I wouldn't say this film was altogether entertaining, the ethereal visuals and dream logic made it a unique watch. I'd like to watch a cut of this without any dialogue, since its story is mostly visuals until the lore-heavy last sprint. Honestly, we gotta put Trogar in a Star Wars, this guy is pure Sith. 6/5/10

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War S1-2: This all-killer-no-filler approach to a bleach adaptation is a real brisk shower after muscling through the Arancar arc. However, some of the fights feel a little too short. It betrays that some of them consist of a handful of attacks and prescribed reversals of fortune. Especially towards the end, I could feel the series sputter as characters the viewer aren't super invested in square off. Points for the great soundtrack. 7/10

Mars Daybreak: A great premise and fun initial hints at worldbuilding got me in, but the energy left my body as it went nowhere. We never really get to know the cast in any meaningful way and there's charitably one character arc. Nothing gets resolved only in the last two episodes to they rush to figure out what they're doing. The robots are sauceless. Theres enough endearing material, but I regret committing to finishing it 5.10

This is Spinal Tap: my watch group didn’t have context going in, so the first few minutes of trying to figure out of this was a mockumentary was a real treasure. While prone to dry spells, when it hits, it hits. 7/10

Adventures of Hercules: This movie really felt like a throwback to the old greek myth epics of golden age Hollywood. Great casting and no real pacing problems to speak of. On the funny side, collecting 7 thunderbolts that drop like a video game is pretty funny and Lou Ferrigno looks like how Bara artists draw men with tits. 7/10

Skyrim Mod: Katana, Journey in the Shadows: I picked up that these are supposed to be characters from some other fantasy series, but the 'Ow the Edge' readings are pretty high. Yeah, this is my OC. Her name is Katana, and she's a cool lesbian with a ninja sword and shes got a sick backstory and a secret shadow side she has to use a magic ring to control. Quest-wise, it felt like a couple of radiant bounties and an anticlimax ending. ambitious scripting for character interactions in the bars, however, there were some conflicts and I had to help it along. The companions themselves are pretty well realized, but to what end? 5/10

Transformers One: While it could never have really delivered on my sky-high expectations of adapting lore of pre-war Cybertron from the Aligned continuity or IDW, it succeeded on getting my partner hooked on Transformers yaoi. It was gorgeous, but maybe needed a teensy bit more sauce to get it over the edge into legendary territory. 8/10

The Wild Robot: My feelings on this are very raw as I'm writing this out. It felt like the golden age Pizar classics I've been missing. If the number of crying parents in my screening was any indication, this was a very heartfelt movie. Points for showing us a minimum of human civilization in this movie. We know exactly as much as we needed to. 9/10

Hard Rock Zombies: It satisfies the assignment of being a feature-length thriller video, but wasn't particularly gripping. The Italian feeling mood and editing was amusing, but my group got bored pretty quick. Bonus points for the best Hitler reveal in any movie yet. -6/10

Gundam Seed Freedom Re-watch: This movie still sucks.

Valor's Kids: A brief glimpse into the world where Niel Breen discovered Second Life. -4/10

Dual to the Death: Fun wuxia action and some really surprising twists and turns. I think this movie capitalizes how cool ninjas are more than most American or Japanese films. Any low points are worth it for the phenomenal final confrontation. 8/10

12 Angry Men: This film has more than earned its reputation. It balances subtlety and overt discussions on societal views on poverty, generational abuse, anti-black racism and xenophobia. It made me reconsider all my years of groaning at jury duty and think about the importance and power I have as a citizen. I can't really fault it for being a bunch of white dudes though, because their predisposed hegemony dictating the fate of an unseen black kid was part of the point. The presence of an unused women's restroom did call it into attention though. 9/10

Wallace and Gromit - A Grand Day Out: A real banger, though I find it interesting that a few parts I thought were scary as a really little kid. 8/10

Skyrim - Meridia's Order: Well executed, though I feel like it could have used a slightly wider scope. The side content to the main quest felt very limited, especially with how it draws comparison to dawngaurd. If it were a released expansion, I would say it lacks in scope, but has quest design above the usual Skyrim standard. 7/10

Skyrim - Hel Rising: I think it was a little rough around the edges and had a lot of character for a more complex dungeon. However, poorly signposted puzzles and gamebreaking bugs that nearly killed my game drop it down a few points. I also wonder how the version I played (TrueHel) stacks up against the old de-listed versions. 5/10

Megalopolis: Kinda like Zardoz, I watched this with a friend expecting a bizarre mess that twitter had promised me. Instead I was on the edge of my seat. I was enraptured by what was being cooked and had one of the most genuine bust-a-gut laughs at one of the jokes in recent memory. The joker posits that we live in a society. Cesar Megalopolis posits we live in a civilization. 9.5/10

Amityville in Space: Fuck this -4/10

Trump vs The Illuminati: The first movie made of default unreal engine assets and stock footage -2/10

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom: IDK if it was the reused footage, but I couldn't help but feel like I'd already seen it. -3/10

Attack on Titan (2022): This feels like if Serenity got like 23 direct to DVD sequels of diminishing returns. Incomprehensible/ -4/10

Ronin Mecha 4-Warrior of the Frontier: Not even good enough to finish. What a sad way to end this franchise. -31/0

Wallace and Gromit-The Wrong Trousers: Delightful. 7/10

Wallace and Gromit-A Close Shave: I think this one has gone up in my rankings. The childlike whimsey of the bike chase sequence and the plane sidecar put a real smile on my face. 7/10

First Blood: There's a really good anti-cop reading to the movie in the sense that its the text of the film, but I don't think the audience this series ended up with is ready to accept that. I wish they stopped here. 8/10

[studywgabi]

Dr. Cinnamon Roll, M. D., Ph.D., NCSP, LMHC

Well, I've seen it all: one-sided crushes, flings, situationships, horror stories, heartbreak, love, love triangles, and all the messy, hard-to-define ways of knowing someone in between. Rude to the waiter, rude to my friends, rude to my parents, rude to themselves, rude to me. Peter Pan, Madonna-whore, Oedipus, God, hero, inferiority, superiority, Napoleon, and savior complexes. The liars, the cheaters, the fuckboys, the gaslighters, the jerks, the assholes, the players, the closeted gay guys, the short kings, the golden retrievers, the bad boys, the mistakes, the phases, the ones who were jealous, insecure, clingy, possessive, and/or unavailable, the ones that got away, and the soulmates. Oh, and, just in case it wasn't clear, I was referring to ex-therapists, not boyfriends.

I guess I'm a little bit of a therapy hussy; I've burned through five therapists in as many years. Here's a tour of them, along with some honorable mentions:

Dr. #1: Took my therapy flower.

I wasn't too jazzed about seeing her at first. My parents were forcing me to go after my friends' parents had eavesdropped on a conversation between my friend and me and narced.

As cliché as it is, we just...drifted apart (deep sigh). We broke up after a year when I came back from spending 2 months away from home because her private practice wasn't covered by my insurance. It had been okay for a while but wasn't sustainable. I learned a lot from her, but I didn't really want to be in therapy at that age and I didn't feel like I could be honest with her about the way I really felt about myself without her feeling obligated to tell my parents what I said, which I really didn't want to have happen to me again.

She diagnosed me with dysthymia, generalized and social anxiety, O.C.D., and suspected I might have PCOS (she was right). You never forget your first.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Chucklefuck: The school counselor for last names H-K, another unintended, unanticipated, unwelcome, and shit-on-a-cracker result of that 1 conversation with my friend. This fuck carrot, who had a doctorate, certification, and 15 years' experience in school psychology told me, "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem," inspiring much emo poetry. If any cock lemurs who don't know anything about the permanence of your situation have said anything like this entirely untrue and insensitive statement to you, I am so, so sorry. Please don't believe them. You deserved so much better.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Pushy: Insisted I have my camera on during our zoom meetings, after I repeatedly told her I was more comfortable with it off and felt it would be easier to talk honestly. She diagnosed with me body dysmorphic disorder. Plenty of fish in the sea.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Heartbreak: Shattered me. She was my first love, my high school sweetheart, my prom date, my ride-or-die, my steady gal. We were together for all 4 years.

I was having a rough go of it: failing classes, missing so many days of school I might not have graduated, and barely able to leave my house. I was seeing her twice a week, but things just kept getting worse and worse for me. There was no structure to our meetings, no plan for treatment and no goals. I would bring up an issue and she would just tell me the first advice that popped into her head. I would tell her that I couldn't see the point of getting out of bed, and she would recommend putting on some good music first thing in the morning. She was kind and she wanted the best for me, but she couldn't tell me anything I couldn't have googled myself. I had wanted to see a different therapist for a while, but my parents didn't want me to have to start over and build up a relationship with someone new.

I knew something else was going on, something beyond my previous diagnoses of depression and anxiety. I had been meeting with a professional twice a week for 4 years, but it was watching tiktoks, 30-second videos filmed by random children on shaky, blurry iPhone cameras that made me suspect I had autism. I felt more understood in those videos, where such niche, specific experiences from life were described by a stranger so impossibly similarly I thought they must be talking about me and not themselves. Dr. Heartbreak gave me a months-long evaluation, during which time she forgot to bring the papers she needed to the office with her, forgot to send me the results for several weeks, made multiple errors on the final report, and I failed 2 more classes. I was then that I found out I had not only autism but ADHD and an eating disorder, too late.

After the evaluation, I started looking on my own for other therapists, and talking to my pediatrician about ADHD medication. Dr. Heartbreak told me next time she had a new patient, she would immediately start them with a comprehensive evaluation. "What about me?" I thought.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Rebound: A one-night stand and my first experience getting back out there after the big heartbreak. Rodney Dangerfield must have been her fashion icon, because she wore a very loosely-tied bathrobe to our one and only zoom meeting, which was unfortuitously scheduled at the same time as her three cats' yodeling jam session. {From what I gathered, there's a feline Yoko Ono, and more drama then Fleetwood Mac had during Rumors. I give the band maybe another six months (in cat time) before the lead yodeler tragically O.D.'s at 27 like all the great artists before him.} You know what they say, the best way to get over someone is to get under the copay plan of someone else.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Cinnamon Roll: Love and savior of my life. The suicide hotline set us up on a blind date. After 5 long years of searching, of "I'm not really looking for anything serious right now" or "I still hang out with my ex-girlfriend, that's cool, right?" or "I'm allergic to latex," just as I was ready to give up, all of a sudden, the smoke cleared, the crowd parted, and I saw her. Love at first sight! A bolt straight to the prefrontal cortex! And we lived happily ever after.

Everything she tells me is something I need to hear 10 years ago. She has this incredible way of verbalizing what I've been trying to tell her but just don't have the words for, of summing up my whole life in one sentence. I struggled to connect with every therapist I had before her because they were all so far removed from anything I had experienced as middle-aged, married with 2.5 children, white women. She's only 26, just 8 years older than me, and biracial like I am. You really do a feel a difference with the right therapist. You realize just how wrong the wrong ones were.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Cup of Chamomile Tea: Basically the Dr. Garth Fisher of pediatrics. She's the most sought-after, highly-reviewed pediatrician in the state, but remembers the smallest details about every single one of her many patients. She has a lovely, soothing lullaby for a voice and makes Mother Teresa look like a total bitch. She diagnosed me with PCOS.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Feelbad: A medication-management referral from Dr. Chamomile. Prescribed me unwellbutrin, then prozac efron, then lexacon, then zoloft (sorry, I don't have a pun for that one, ooh, wait, crossing the sertraline!). She's a trooper, putting up with my bad puns and my treatment-resistant depression.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Meanie-Face (Dermatologist): What can I say about this doctor that is complimentary? Oh, the bathroom right outside her office is a good place to cry. She's got that going for her.

She spent my first appointment talking about how she was bullied in middle school because her parents could only afford to buy her 1 pair of bright-yellow, too-small pants. This story was related to my skin, but I don't remember how.

She prescribed a miracle: spironolactone. She said this medication would make me lose a significant amount of weight, take me up a cup size, permanently cure my acne and my hirsutism to the point where I wouldn't need to shave at all, and make the hair on my head grow noticeably thicker, faster and longer. After all, she took spironolactone herself and that's what happened for her! I couldn't believe this pill was even legal and that she was just giving it to me, just like that! Imagine, in a couple months' time, I would be free.

When I came back for my follow-up with none of those results, she completely changed her tune and said spironolactone might have a small effect on all or some or none of those features. When I told her I was still losing quite a bit of hair, she said I wasn't, and joked that even if I was, my dad (who is bald) and I could just go on Rogaine together. When I told her spironolactone hadn't helped my hirsutism at all and that I still had to spend four hours getting ready every morning, she said it absolutely should not take me that long, because she remove all her hair in 3 minutes. She sympathized, saying she "knows how hairy you guys are," ("you guys" referring to Latinx people) because she had so many Latina friends growing up.

When I came back for my third follow-up visit (I know) and told her I had only used the cream she prescribed once because it made my skin peel, she said that was a very common side effect, but explained how the peeling was actually a good thing, because every time my skin cracked and broke off of my face like an extremely painful cheese danish, my acne scars would come off with it. Said peeling would also reveal beautiful, youthful, Freddy Kreugeresque skin and prevent wrinkles. I was 14.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr.s Chatty Cathy and Son (Dentists): I imagine the final (50% of your grade) in the toughest, most brutal weed-out class that causes at least half the students each semester to run out of the room in tears in dental school is a presentation on saying the most asinine things while you're wrist-deep in someone's mouth like, "you're going to {Name of College} next year, huh? That's where we send all the hippies," or "so, guess how old I am." (I didn't guess, but he told me anyway and said he thinks he still looks pretty good for 64, then sung The Beatles song to me and recited a story about Paul McCartney's childhood taken directly from his Wikipedia page.)

That's the elder Dr. Chatty Cathy. I always hope I get Dr. Son, he leaves me alone for the most part and just gossips with the tooth nurse (dental hygienist) about her brother's two-timing girlfriend and time in prison. Maybe they're under the impression the sunglasses they give me double as ear plugs, or maybe they just don't care what someone with a cavity thinks of them (fair).

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Pixar’s Soul

SPOILERS AHEAD

Reviewing animation is a passion of mine; you probably know that if you’ve followed me long enough. I enjoy doing it for everything new that comes as much as the good stuff of yore. I can’t tell you why I got into it long as I have or if I should consider a full time gig of it, all I know it’s that it’s as much my passion as many other things in my life. That really is a piece to a personal puzzle I’ve developed as I watched Soul, this film from a studio that I admittedly wasn’t sure if it could get its groove back after it felt like they were stumbling a bit. The SparkShorts are good, but Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, and Onward especially didn’t resonate with me. Didn’t tell me Pixar stood out as much as they in the “Golden Era”. This one did, and let me say it kinda cut deep.

Off the bat, as I understand that the trailers were quite a turn-off, I came to know before watching this that they weren’t trying to reveal everything. Honestly, the trailers were purposefully misleading as the most of what we got from the “Inside Out Knock-Off Blue Blob” world was a little over the first twenty minutes and the very, very end for the climax, less than you’d believe. It is the point I wasn’t too invested in with how simple it all felt; it’s basically if Microsoft or Google developed your birthright. It luckily doesn’t blow smoke up the ass with the way it runs things, takes more shots at ethical philosophy than any religion I could think of, but there’s good reason why we’re not in this world for very long. The Soul world did it’s purpose, but a little too well because it really wasn’t interesting outside the bond between Joe and 22 and a few laughs. Like I said though, we aren’t in it too long before we jump back to Earth with something I should’ve expected with this film but was still blown aback. I’m talking BODY SWAPPED ADVENTURE, Baby! [[SPOILERS AHEAD]]

Far Enjoyable than Your Name, don’t at me

A good chunk of the film has 22 in Joe’s body, Joe in a therapeutic cat’s body, and I’m surprised at how much engaging it was. It helps that 22 is never by any means a nuisance and they actually pull off the mechanics behind the trope well where it doesn’t feel like 22 in Joe’s body is annoyingly all over the place once she gets used to it. Weird that all of New York didn’t seem to give a shit about a middle-aged man stumbling in nothing but a medic robe, but never crossed that line for me to say, “Okay, this shit is stupid.” But what really makes this, basically the majority of Soul work, is Joe (or 22) interacting with the city.

If there’s one great takaway for this, it’s indeed the musicality for the New York life. The barbershop, the subway, the jazz club, the tailor suite run by Joe’s mother, the living streets really make this city feel like a character in its own right. I say this film makes every person we meet count for something. The devil’s truly in the details; every location has a story to tell as well as remind viewers, myself especially, of people and places so close to life. The story paces along nicely too as we get to the “main event” before getting to the moment that made me cry the second time. I cried a total of four times, mostly in the latter half of the film because that was where things were certainly coming together. That was where, I doubt intentionally, the film hit me in the heart more than I could’ve imagined with the simple thought:

I was Joe and 22, and I still am from time to time

Sappy consideration, I know, but to get a little philosophical & personal for a bit. This film is generally about the direction of your life. Joe had a direction set in stone for himself to play the hottest jazz gig despite professedly doing/trying nothing else big with his life, living actively average you’d say. 22, the number which can mean “coming and going” since it’s a palindrome, has no direction despite being capable of understanding everything. As of now, I may only be in my early twenties, but I’ve felt like I’ve been both these characters at the same time, like a eternally spinning coin. I can feel directionless, having no clue to who I really want to be, but I know there is passion in me somewhere that I myself haven’t figured out yet but push forward with every major choice I make. I have both felt like I’ve done nothing and can’t do anything in life despite making it this far. But if there’s anything this film showed me, it’s that it’s alright.

If there’s anything that I can say describes Pete Doctor’s direction with this and Inside Out, it’s that he makes the most basic and simple human truths feel necessary, welcoming, and especially otherworldly. With Inside Out saying “it’s good to be more emotive”, Soul tells me “it’s good to enjoy the simple things in life.” Not to say you should live average and accept it, nor is every big moment you have will/should impact you the same way or the way you wanted, but appreciate those moments where things just go your way for a change. Where you can just look at the world, take a deep breath, and just feel comfortable with yourself to live another day. This isn’t a particularly surprising message, but it works because it fulfills everything it built up. Who else but Joe on that day, finally getting what he wanted after so long, can feel empty from it as opposed to the moments where he got to enjoy those enjoyably average moments he didn’t think he’d get along the way? And who else but him could show 22 that living doesn’t mean having a purpose or having that purpose in your mind 24/7. 

You can just... live as everything does.

This film isn’t as honest as Inside Out, especially with the whole concept of the Great Before, but it still offers that pragmatic advice in a way that definitely sticks. It can feel like this film came out at a bad time with the given circumstances of our reality, but it’s as much a simple pat on the back to tell you it’s okay. I figure the execution won’t be for everyone, the film isn’t perfect plotwise, but to me it’s definitely a golden, just as mature light for modern Pixar. A considerable classic that I hope is given well with time as much as a chance with all audiences. 

4 Out of 5. A Soulful Sensation of a Film

[whatisgoingonpaul]

Lost boys backstorys

I made a post while ago on my ideas of the boys past but now I want to update it. I just want you to know I’m still a firm Prequel lover/follower however we don’t get much info on the boys Pre 1906, so that’s what this is for! However personally I would have had more Max so this is going to be both pre 1906 but also include relationship with Max a bit.

I am also including my personal ideas on Last names and age. However I am under the idea that they wouldn’t know/take their last name seriously if the did know it cause- ya know. Orphans. This is going to be lengthy and I’m going to pin it, not just because I want it seen but also to remind myself in fic writing (when I don’t follow these ideas in a fic it’s gonna be Marked as Au- as I’ll probably be messing around with a different past.)

I’ll be doing appearance but only physical as there’s some stylistic changes. For clothing? Honestly so thinking workers clothes/cowboy esc

Also! Their stories are all going to kinda intertwine so I’d there’s not enough info under one theirs a solid chance there’ll be more for them under someone else’s!

David Hardy-

Age(as of 1906): 19

Born: 1887

Appearance: Average height, his hair a dirty blond- near reddish and is around shoulder length. Bearded. (Think doc but with slightly updated clothing)

Backstory:

David Is the only of the boys to grow up with at least one of his parents, living with his mother until her death when he was around 7. They lived in a decent, though cramped little space in San Francisco, by the docks. His father worked on and off- a not so stable style ending in him getting involved in not doing saviory things - getting arrested. His mother worked as a washerwoman. David worked the streets awhile, as a young child now left alone, he learned to pickpocket and live off what he could manage. It was around this time he had found Marko- doing the same thing he was - though arguably less effectively do to his more sporadic nature. At around age 10 the two became extremely close and rather inseparable, Marko even looking up to him despite being the older of the pair. However david wasn’t one to living completely criminal like... he did NOT want to be his father, which lead him to not drinking , EVER. (Even as a vampire he still doesn’t do alcohol.) he poked towards more honest work, also forcing Marko into doing the same , which he wasn’t exactly thrilled about- but did anyway. Tried. David did a lot of work on the docks, odd jobs and stuff like that- but it never paid even half as good as nabbing a wallet or cheating at cards. He wouldn’t be his father- he’d be better- better then all the nobody’s. More level headed then Marko though  ambitious, big headed and still wildly child like- eventually Paul , Dwayne and Jasper joining the pair. Well now, David had himself a full on gang. Never robbery, not that far. The group pickpocketed , cheated at any sort of game or match, that sort of thing... they were still young after all. Smart enough not to go wild like some famous bandit (Though David will admit to his slight admiration of Billy the kid.). He’s a quick learner, and when he learns something- he learns it well- becomes a damn near expert. When he is good at something he is good at it. He is the leader out of the groups mutual respect towards him , quick thinker. Notable flaws: Huge ego, hopeless romantic.

Marko Connelly-

Age(as of 1906): 20

Born: 1886

Appearance: on the shorter side, golden - darker brown hair in this fluff of ringlets it’s long about just past his shoulder blades and typically tied back. Usually dirty somehow (Think Poli but with longer hair and updated clothing)

Backstory:

Born to a rich family , one of those who moved from east to west and actually did make it big. He was a pretty little thing, more a doll to his mother then particularly a child- only taken from Nanny to be dotted over or photos taken. However around the age of 3 or 4 things had tipped, scandal! Missing. That is what the newspapers said anyway he was found missing- was it that he was given away? Or stolen? He was never particularly a child to be quite or sit still or anything such as that... so who is to say? Marko doesn’t remember a lick of that either way as he was far far to young for it but he does remember being alone. This is how he had grown his attachment to birds, they always stuck around. He grew comfortable with being alone, having himself to depend on, getting good at grabbing what he needs- A mansion is stark contrast to dirty winding alleyways. He was always cursed with his looks- even filth covered at 6 he could make sad eyes and tend to swindle whatever he wanted... but he wasn’t completely quick. He’d get in trouble, his face memorable he could rarely pass the same trick again. At 11 David came across him, the two started working and living together (that is where they could find a place to sleep.) he sort of gained this complex. He felt he owed David , in some strange sense he became attached at the hip- a helper, a second- almost servant like the guy had saved his life and he is now the others. It didn’t help that at a young age, Marko had developed what was come to be understood as a deep crush- at times as teens this was reciprocated. As loyal and loving as he was to the other male he wasn’t nearly as cautious, as rule following... he had come to despise authority, to despise the fancy, the rich all of the crowd. He was never sure why. Even regular work got on his hate list... but he gave in and would try to do a normal amount pf work.. it never really worked as there was something, how he would sass, how he looked or smelled or spoke (neither him nor David really spoke ‘proper’ English - meaning no slang or accent). Around when Paul came things started to shift in the group, more mouths- more work and more thinking. Oh yea David and his thinking. Marko is a bit hostile right off the bat when it comes to people he doesn’t know, eventually he cracks and will be more loyal to you then to anyone you’d ever know. He opened up to Paul, a lot sooner then he would have thought the guy was funny and sweet - lil stupid too. David had this grand idea of a little gang, naturally Marko was all for it because illegal activity is fun- it was like a game to him. A liked stealing from pockets and playing distraction for David, as time grew he began to hate how young and gentle his face appeared to be. He LOATHED absolutely appalled the pity glances he would get, the hand outs the whole “oh you poor fragile little dear 🥺” he hated being babied and still does. He hated the stares he got on the opposite direction ... at first, it was funny, it was nice to be wanted in that sense rather then some baby. However... it grew creepy, it wasn’t women or a fella his age...it was more the gaze of older men. Marko detested it so much- he KNEW he’s seen what some of the guys... even younger then him ended up doing- he could see the occasional look in david’s eye. No he would never really consider....no. Paul was more his shoulder to cry on, someone to go to , to ramble to to speak with and just be with. The two were touchy, always leaning against eachother or grabbing their arms, laughing or sleeping or- eventually it became more then casual, it was serious. The two started ‘dating’ at some point- none of them were ever serious on titles but it was good to put a word to it.

Paul campbell-

Age (as of 1906) : 18

Born: 1888

Appearance: tall and lengthy, he has a mole on his left cheek, he has stubble/shadow opposed to a beard. He’s also usually dirty, dirty blond , long hair think Buffalo bill with volume and his hairline not receding

Backstory:

Grew up in a orphanage, hundreds of kids all stuffed together into a few rooms, often sharing beds and everything else. He was never a still child, he would always figit and move and shift - whenever he’s supposed to be quite or still like lessons or Mass he just couldn’t. This - got him most of the attention from the mistresses and overseers- much more quick to slap then to explain... he was docile , quick to flinch and try and stop. Never worked well. Once you get to 7-8ish you work if not adopted by a decent age. Sweeping, factory work he tried it all. He was particularly desensitized to violence at a extremely young age while working in a textile factory- he’s seen a kids arm come clean off. Terror turns to fascination eventually. At some point he’d stopped returning at night finding David and Marko at 15, he started hanging with them- it was safer in numbers that sort of thing- Paul could read a bit , David could write a bit- the three worked it out together. always so distracted- the others learned right off the bat he wasn’t built for pick pocketing no matter how hard he begged about it. Instead he’d do real jobs- sweeping , fighting, placing crooked bets that sort of thing. He always complains. A massive softie since he was young, Paul can’t quite handle being on his own- he’s used to having at least one other person around him at all times causing him to get quite hooked onto the other boys. He hovers around the same places. He is also a fan of dancing- Paul- is music obsessed the moment he heard the first noise of any sort of music he was hooked. He is one about fun- being restrained from it for so long as a child- always to sit out and watch or to think about whatever he did.. oh. Dancing, drinking, drugs, clubs, all of it is his kind of deal- he would drag the others with him when they had a bit of extra cash to deal with. Dwayne and his brother, when they joined on he was instantly accepting, unlike Marko he didn’t have the deep seeded trust issues, he was immediately touchy and happy to share a joke or a comment no matter the glares. He is the one to get Dwayne to lighten up a little bit, to smile he loves to see that smile :). He got around to dating Marko, when they finally put a label on it he was really giddy about it, making jokes and comments- he adores the little names like ‘sweetheart’ or ‘bo’ - he eventually gets around to just plain ‘sugar’ . Marko is the one who really entertains Paul’s love for dancing, the two of them trying to get the others to do something lighten up- eventually their pawing would bare fruit. Paul makes the best out of the worst situation, even if they end up sleeping on the beach more often then not- he somehow makes it seam alright. Except that one time he had gotten sand in Dwayne’s eye and all hell broke lose. He is the current youngest member of the group after Jaspers passing.

Dwayne Maher

Age (as of 1906) : 22

Born: 1884

Appearance: Tall, muscular , tanned(I will establish this now but Dwayne is Native American.) long Black hair with burnet highlights, reaches half down his back.

Backstory:

Born out more Midwest unlike the others he was not born in San Francisco, eldest son of a decent sized family of four kids. Do to conflict he and his younger brother skipped town, skipped state and fled to California.. better options you know?. He’s strong built, hard working and good with his hands though, rather playful most of the time. He looks after his younger brother closely, when there is work they work the same place, when there is not they both still do the same. Quickly took to David and the gang , having a tight knit bond with each of them. He was sort of the muscle - if there was trouble, he knew how to fight and it would likely work better then the knives the boys carried around or the gun David could barely shoot. It was Paul who got him to open up more, about himself and just to speak in general, he’s much more under his breath and jokingly commenting then he is saying something out loud- however if he dislikes something or thinks it stupid you WILL know it. Like David he carries the occasional thought of caution, however he’s not nearly as quick to worry. Maher is not his actual last name , nor does he ever mention it- he simply uses this one when it’s needed as some sort of identification or document. He’s surprisingly good at money, he ends up counting with David and is better at budgeting no matter how he may want or need something. He doesn’t speak on his past as he tries to make it seam he has little of one, he likes to make things mysterious he finds it amusing.

Jasper Maher-

Age (as of 1906) : 16

Born: 1890

Died: 1906

Appearance: shoulder length black hair, typically tied back and braided , tanned, string bean.

Backstory:

The younger brother of Dwayne who is much much more open on how he grew up, casually mentioning things he learned from his parents of his brother (he doesn’t remember his parents that much.) young hot shot sort of kid who’d much rather have action then he would some serious job, loud, energy filled and one for violence- however he’s surprisingly sweet. He often got himself and his brother into trouble. He was a quick and fast young child who grew surprisingly closest with Marko, the two having a habit for breaking every possible rule they could manage together. Their close friendship lead to Marko naming one of his birds after Jasper long after his passing.

Max-

Unknown age but he is seen as extremely old and powerful

Relationship with the boys:

After finding them he has decided to take them under his metaphorical and physical wing, acting as a sort of guardian. Food, clothing, shelter, he was everything the boys didn’t have and was surprisingly inviting in the beginning. ‘I do this for you, you on occasion do this for me’ sort of deal. He wasn’t a leader so much as he was a usual figure, the boys knew and understood him to be above them... so they followed you know? The whole new vampirism thing and the clueless kids- he had to explain and show nearly everything... especially to David, he wasn’t so much harsh to him as he was strict- more of a lead by example sort. Honestly he was father like in a strange sense- that someone is almost like a parent but very much your boss. See... with Max’s strength, there’s this almost automatic level of control- you can’t say no to him. You literally can’t not do what he asks (some supernatural level messing-). There’s something dark about him, in him that the boys still don’t understand in the 80s- but it scares them. It’s strange, it feels unlike him... he seams just like a Dorky , sweet man until...

Some random thoughts that don’t really fit anything

The boys are explicitly religious, past what you’d hear in passing or remember from growing up. Saying “oh god” and respecting religious officials are about what you’ll get

Whoopsies! This was a extremely long post lmao. Sorry for the long read but I could go on and on about them this was just a small blurb to all of it. If you ever wanna hear more do tell me. Also tell me if I should add tw for anything as I know I got a little dark at some points.

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 25: The Abduction of P-Chan

Y’all, it has finally COME. The arc I have been wanting to rewatch for ages. One of my favorite arcs in the series. It’s time for figure skating, I’m pretty sure I remember this arc very well, and I look forward to seeing if I still love it as much as I used to.

Oh, but before I do that, I just want to go over something. I already talked about this during Season 1, but some of you might be confused why I’ve waited so long to cover this arc. It’s because the original broadcast order and the production order are different, and Hulu has things in the production order. I wanted to cover the series by broadcast date, so even though this takes place right before the original Shampoo arc, we’re not watching it until, well, now. But anyway, that done, let’s watch the episode!

I am not disappointed.

The episode starts at an ice-skating rink, where Akane is there with a few unnamed friends who want her to join the skating club, because she’s genuinely that good. However, she brought P-Chan with her and left him on the ice. Before she can get back to our transformed lost boy, someone else finds him and takes him away, calling him ‘Charlotte’.

From there, we cut to a ramen shop where Ranma is getting grilled by his friends Hiroshi and Daisuke, who want to date ‘the other Ranma’. That request goes as well as you can expect (though I do have to wonder, since it’s unclear if they think the ‘other Ranma’ is Ranma’s girlfriend or his sister, and they both want to date her, if this would be an actual polycule), but just as Ranma starts walking away, insulting Akane because his friends brought her up, she appears, looking upset.

Ranma immediately regrets that and starts backpedaling, only to realize she doesn’t care about that, she wants his help finding her pet. Luckily, that won’t be too hard, because the thief enters the same shop they’re in, carrying Ryoga around with her. Akane tries taking him back, but the girl resists.

That’s when someone shows up to help Akane, a tall attractive young man who acts like the ultimate pretty boy romance option. He apologizes, explaining his friend has a bad habit of taking things she finds cute and naming them. That just sets the girl off though, whining more and more about the matter until she challenges Akane to a figure skating match.

It’s then that we learn who these two are: Mikado Sanzenin and Azusa Shiratore from Kolholtz High School. Together, they’re a figure skating duo known as the Golden Pair, and they’ve won 950 matches with no losses. Despite this, Akane is ready to fight.

Mikado starts putting the moves on her, causing Ranma to flick some food at him. The figure skater takes that as a challenge, so it’ll be a doubles match of Ranma and Akane versus Mikado and Azusa, and it’ll be in one week.

That night at dinner, Ranma and Ryoga argue over who gets to skate with Akane, each bragging over what they can do...the only issue there is that neither can actually skate at all. Akane starts helping Ranma after he goes into the bathroom and activates his and Ryoga’s curses, since he feels like failing so badly at skating looks worse when he’s masculine.

The Golden Pair return, with Azusa snatching P-Chan to put a new collar on him, one only she can unlock, and Mikado now trying to flirt with Ranma. It’s revealed that they’re both masters of Martial Arts Figure Skating, and that’s what the match really is, as they train by defeating a hundred opponents in just nine seconds. Things get worse when he actually steals a kiss from Ranma, causing Ranma to go use hot water to turn himself back and enter the ice rink ready to fight. He punches the ice so hard that he leaves an enormous crack in it, and he claims it’s the first time in his life he’s been really mad.

That’s where the episode leaves us! But wow, I still feel like a lot happened in this one. There’s a heck of a lot for me to cover, but let’s just start with, well, all the Ranma/Akane. I’m sorry! I can’t help myself!! There was just so much of it! Whether it be Ranma worrying about making Akane mad from another “she’s not cute” kind of thing and being ready to take it back, to how annoyed he gets from Mikado flirting with her, to how after being kissed by Mikado one of the first things he worries about is that it was in front of Akane.

It was adorable!

I also think it’s remarkable how this story is just carried by the personalities of its characters. This isn’t some plot that happens to have the Golden Pair in it. The conflict is driven by Azusa’s strange kleptomania and my Mikado’s predatory behavior. Compared to some other storylines I can think of, this approach makes this one feel much more focused, as well as emphasizing the antagonists of the arc.

I’m going to give each of them their own Character Spotlight in coming weeks, but I did want to say here that I think it’s really interesting how Mikado is frequently animated to make his possessive behavior clear just through visuals, like how he holds Ranma’s arms while carrying him, to keep him from resisting his advances.

The comedy felt strong in this episode, as did the action. I wasn’t laughing the whole time or anything, but I was entertained throughout, and that’s not something I can say for a lot of episodes, sadly. It’s a strong start to this arc, and it just gets better from here...or at least that’s what the opinions I formed in high school tell me, from across the vast distance of time.

Instead of doing a Character Spotlight, I’m going to FINALLY talk about Season 2’s Opening! Since, for some reason, this is the first episode to have it...when due to broadcast order versus production order a lot of places don’t even have it in Season 1!

This song is called “Little Date”, performed by the band Ribbon. It’s a very cute little song, with elements of lighter and sillier moments but also of more emotional ones. I like it a lot more than the first opening’s song, and while I’m not sure if it’s my favorite opening, it’s one of the ones I love going back to listen to the most.

The visuals are...okay. The first half is pretty meh, a combination of original art, images from the manga, and overall less animated stuff. It’s also kind of infamous for showing Ranma’s cursed form topless, right at the start. The second half is better, and I especially love Shampoo’s introduction. The way she and the music fit together is really good, and the fact it’s at the bubbliest part of the song works really well.

On the whole, even with some more lackluster visuals, I’d still put it above the first seasons’s OP.

If it isn’t obvious, I’m very happy to be starting the Martial Arts Figure Skating Arc. I don’t know how popular it is in the larger Ranma fandom, but I know I’ve always been a big fan of it, and this time around it’s still good, at least so far. Honestly? I’m actually going to put this as the second best episode so far, I liked it that much.

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’  

Episode 25: The Abduction of P-Chan

Episode 12: A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 15: Enter Shampoo, the Gung-Ho Girl! I Put My Life in Your Hands

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 19: Clash of the Delivery Girls! The Martial Arts Takeout Race

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 23: Enter Mousse! The Fist of the White Swan

Episode 17: I Love You, Ranma! Please Don’t Say Goodbye

Episode 20: You Really Do Hate Cats!

Episode 16: Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 22: Behold! The 'Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire' Technique

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 21: This Ol' Gal's the Leader of the Amazon Tribe!

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Episode 14: Pelvic Fortune-Telling? Ranma is the No. One Bride in Japan

Episode 18: I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?

Episode 24: Cool Runnings! The Race of the Snowmen

This arc continues next week, and if I’m being honest, I think it’s going to top this. But maybe I’m wrong! We’ll see with “Close Call! The Dance of Death... On Ice!”. Can it be as good as Reptaur on Ice? I doubt it.

[curlytemple]

niche interests list 

okay sure yes this is fun! i havent posted a thing like this in such a long time. thank you new gal pal @scottspack for tagging me! 

pigs????

alright first lets throw it back to preschool! my fav childhood toys were my baby doll (snookums) and a plush pig that my grandma got me that i just called ‘pig’ ...i watched the babe movies countless times, and piglet? that anxious little guy GETS ME bro. when my preschool did a nativity play and my class got to choose an animal to be in baby jesus’ manger, my mother recalls me saying that i would be a pig because jewish people (jesus christ) wouldnt eat me. she has no idea how or when i learned about kosher foods. ironically despite my namesake i was too afraid of the movie charlotte’s web to watch it more than once because the scary farmer tries to kill wilbur for being small and the pretty spider dies. 

sugar creek gang 

OKAY this is a book series from the 40s-70s about a group of christian little boys in indiana who went on adventures in the woods and helped people. my dad read a LOT of chapter books to me as bedtime stories when i was little (see also the mandie series, nancy drew and the hardy boys, little house on the prairie) but sugar creek gang is one that really hit. i read all 36 books with dad and at least once again on my own. there was a series of 4 or 5 movies in the early 2000s when i was the Perfect age to have a crush on most if not all of them. this might be too much detail but i have to tell you about these boys. we WILL not be revisiting the heavy religious themes. 

 the narrator is bill who is Good and Kind and wants to be a doctor when he grows up. his best friend is a chubby boy nicknamed poetry because he memorizes and quotes poems, he is the Detective of the group. BIG JIM is the leader of the group who is supposed to be like, 14, which was very cool and hot, to me. and yes there is a little jim, who is the baby of the group. then there is CIRCUS who is known for his climbing and acrobatics, and his FIVE SISTERS AND BEAUTIFUL SINGING VOICE. dreamboy. i’m almost done listing boys, i promise. a boy called dragonfly who is allergic to everything and hella superstitious. later in the series a new boy named tom moves to town and tom has an older brother bob who is NOT A CHRISTIAN (bully) 

tangentially, the buttercream gang, a movie from 1992 that was almost definitely made by some christians who grew up reading the sugar creek gang series which i’m guessing on vibes alone. will spare you Good Boy details but scott is in love with his best friend pete who moves to chicago and falls in with a bad crowd and scott just refuses to stop LOVING HIM. very gay christian film in retrospect. 

peter pan

so i know liking disney’s peter pan isnt niche, but it was the way i liked it. tinker bell stan from day one, i watched all of those disney fairies movies, even the ones that came out after i was definitely not intended audience. there was an online pixie hollow game where you could design your own fairies and play mini games where you gathered dew drops or something. had a HUGE CRUSH on jeremy sumpter in peter pan (2003) then i got really darkly obsessed with the idea of growing up when i was 12 or 13, and everything peter pan was deeply My Shit for my entire adolescence. i read the original book and every other twisted version of the story i could find and seriously freaked myself out about wasting my youth. 

shug

you’ve probably heard of jenny han now, or at least the netflix adaptations for to all the boys i’ve loved before and the sequel ps i still love you (always and forever, lara jean, coming soon?) but before she wrote THOSE, she wrote my first ever Favorite Book, about annemarie “shug” wilcox, a girl in the summer before starting middle school. it is SO engraved on my heart i cannot explain. i felt so incredibly understood and cant even tell you how many times i read it. thinking about all of the ways it made me feel SEEN is actually making me very tender so i’m gonna go on.  

the summer series

on the subject of jenny han, since she was now my Favorite author, when she came out with the summer i turned pretty in 2009, i was ALL IN. it’s not summer without you, and we’ll always have summer were published the next two years. a coming of age series about a girl isabel “belly” conklin who stays at her mother’s best friend's house at the beach in the summers. i really could talk about it forever yall. i actually dont know how to be succinct about it. i will try. her mom’s friend has TWO BOYS. one brother, jeremiah, is the golden boy and her best friend who is in love with her! the older one CONRAD is her childhood crush who's just sort of around while belly is firmly getting over her childish feelings and going out and experiencing teen beach life with jeremiah for the first time and figuring out who she is and wants to be! by the end of the summer he admits he feels differently about her (hence belly internalizing this as The Summer I Turned Pretty) and they get together. this is already too much so i will just say that the next two books deal with a PROFOUND LOSS and the selfishness of grief and the SELFLESSNESS OF CONRAD and i will absolutely lose my shit if netflix picks it up for a second jenny han series adaptation. 

pappyland

this was a kids show in the 90′s that features a character named Pappy Drew-It, an artist dressed like a 49er who lives in a magic cabin in pappyland. there’s tons of characters and music and life lessons but the meat of every episode is a detailed drawing how-to (pappy is actually a cartoonist, michael cariglio) and i have a hard back cover sketch book from my grandpa that i FILLED with drawings that pappy and DOODLEBUG taught me to do. there is a running gag that pappy always breaks his crayons.  

boy meets world

i KNOW this is beloved by many but i’m counting it because i’m simply too young to have such an obsession with it! the show ran from 1992-2000. i was born in 1996, but reruns on the disney channel and abc family cemented it as one of my favorite shows. cory and shawn, closer than brothers, shameless homoromantics, shawn is cory’s first wife!!!!! truly showed me what a best friend can and should be!!!!!! the great love of your life!!!!! TOPANGA, the og weird feminist girl who said stop shaving your legs and start speaking your mind, ladies! the characters are so richly developed that they are real people to my heart. YES every character on this show is in their late 30s-early 40s and YES i feel like we grew up together. in season one they’re in the 6th grade and we follow them all the way to COLLEGE. countless poignant life lessons, often literally dictated by the wise and hilarious MR. FEENY, cory’s next door neighbor and somehow one of his teachers for YEARS. my love was only solidified by the 2014 girl meets world reboot, centered on cory and topanga’s daughter and her best friend. (which was literally cancelled because disney didn’t want to transition from a kids show to a teen show, something essential to the original. also because that teen show would have had CANON LESBIANS. extremely shameful move in 2017!) boy meets world lives rent free in my heart and i will never evict it!!!!!!!

i consulted my mother when i got stumped for more and she reminded me that i had obsessions with the impressionist art period and babies and ANYTHING fairies or pixies, and i was way too young when my love of the canadian teen after school special degrassi began. she also said bob ross, which i was hesitant to include because he’s been super ~trendy in recent years, but to be fair (To Be Faaairrr) she’s right! i don’t think people really watched the joy of painting as much as i have throughout my life. best sick day show of all time.

lastly i could honestly list anna herself as a niche interest, my mom actually metioned that ive always hyperfixated on my girl friends (gay) but i’ll just note that YES friday night lights, YES barry lyga novels. love to share so many things with you, niche or not, they’re niche in Our Mind.

[deobis]

Road to Kingdom Episode 4 Thoughts

The third challenge was for each group to pick one of their own songs and perform it. I really wish RTK stuck with the “king” theme, but I guess there are only so many challenges they can create revolving that topic. 

DISCLAIMER: I am a lot harsher in this review than any of my other posts. Please know that I do not hate any of the 7 groups and I truly wish the best for all of them. This is just an analysis of the most recent performances.

Anyways onto my rankings!

Enjoyment ranking: 

Pentagon (Wow! For once it’s not TBZ haha)

Verivery

The Boyz

Oneus

ONF

TOO

Golden Child

Objective Ranking:

Verivery

The Boyz

Pentagon

ONF

Oneus

Golden Child

TOO

Prediction rankings:

Pentagon

The Boyz

Verivery

ONF

Oneus

TOO

Golden Child

Put a prediction ranking bc the rankings haven’t been announced yet so we will see tomorrow!

For the first time in forever, TBZ is not first in my book. Shocker I know. That’s not to say that I didn’t like their performance or concept but rather the other groups (PTG and Verivery) did better in my eyes. Let’s talk about TBZ’s Reveal (Catching Fire) perf. I’ll call it RCF for short. TBZ was the only group to continue a story from the second challenge. This gains major points in my book as I love plot driven performances. Anything with a story or clear objective gains brownie points because it’s what makes performances an art. You can dance to a song but if there’s no emotion it stays as a sport rather than a form of artistic expression. TBZ have shown their artistry fully through RTK, something they haven’t really been able to do before. I’m amazed at how they are able to control shock factor so well. I was worried the stunts of Danger would outshine whatever they had to show in RCF but they proved me wrong. There were less stunts this time but they focused on a much larger picture (pun intended). They added backup dancers and allowed the camera to take wider shots to show their formations. I just felt like they lacked a spark this time. If you can’t already tell, I prefer their Danger performance much more. A large part of this is due to the arrangement of Danger. The RCF arrangement was interesting and refreshing but there wasn’t anything really new. Maybe I feel this way because I’ve listened to Reveal too many times who knows. Negatives aside, I have to say I really liked the choreography changes. The part where Haknyeon is center really blew my mind. 

But here’s why I liked Verivery and Pentagon’s performance more: emotion. Pentagon’s is obvious, they used this stage to send off someone they really love. You can really see that the members love Jinho and that they have a deep bond. Pentagon was also the only group to mix two of their songs together, one being a title track and one being a side track (note: PTG and Verivery are the only groups who picked side b’s for their song). Pentagon’s arrangement was impeccable. For me, the new Shine sounded like a Jpop song (mostly because of the rock vibes; if you listen to Jpop you know what I mean), while still retaining the bright theme of Shine. A lot of people might say the performance was too emotional and not professional, but out of all 7 performances, Pentagon’s was the most meaningful and was delivered the best. The message and how they played with the stage was stunning and their little additions and references to other popular Kpop songs makes it so you will notice something new every time you rewatch it. Please watch this video where Hongseok goes into detail about the little easter eggs and the whole purpose behind their performance. I have so much respect for Pentagon and I could write so much more about this performance but I must talk about the other 5 haha (if you want to hear more feel free to ask!)

Verivery. VERIVERY. God DAMN did they really come back and hit hard. They definitely had the clearest and most well thought out performance of all. What differentiates them from TBZ’s story like performance is that TBZ had too much going on in my opinion. They tried to tell us a long story with not enough time. This is why so many fans have vastly different interpretations of their performance. While this can often be a good thing, I think you have to find a balance when doing a storytelling performance. Verivery cleanly executes their narrative of a nightmare and takes the cliche of “it was all a dream” to the max by going “SIKE” at the end. Their choreography was so well planned out and they were honestly very minimalistic about their stage, just like TBZ’s Danger stage. The shock factor is just right (my favorite part being when the backup dancers have the smoke come out of their mouth). Not only that but Photo is a SIDE TRACK. I cannot stress enough how brave of them that is. I legitimately thought it was a title track until I looked at their discography. They arranged their side b to sound like a title track, and not only that, they changed the overall feel of the song as well. If you listen to the original Photo, it sounds more like a bad boy song, but their RTK version is very much so horror/rock themed. I can’t STRESS how good this performance is. Especially because it’s such a contrast from their last performance. Photo is now in my spotify playlist and I have no regrets.

Now onto the last 4 performances. I hate to break it to you all but... I didn’t really like any of them. None of them made me think “wow I could rewatch this so many times.” Lets start with Oneus. LIT is my favorite Oneus song so I highly anticipated this performance. If you didn’t know Oneus before and only watch this stage you might think its a very good stage with a strong traditional theme. I totally agree, the traditional theme is unique to Oneus and I loved the instrumental changes they made so the song would cater more to their theme. The biggest issue I had with this stage was that It literally is just like their music video. If you have seen the LIT mv you will know what I mean. The dragon dance, traditional clothing, theme, sound, everything was too similar. The stage was grand but it just felt like a live version of their MV. 

I know a lot of people liked ONF’s performance. Let me just say first that they killed it and YooA was *chefs kiss* The biggest issue I had with this stage was its message and theme. They seemed to have a conductor/medieval theme but also the masks?? Like what? It felt so out of place and random. I felt like a lot of their stage choices had little to no purpose. I honestly still don’t understand why YooA was there. The duet dance was nice but why? It seemed like they were trying to tell a story but it just wasn’t clear to me. It looked nice and everything but that was about it. In no way am I saying the performance was bad, it’s just there’s nothing that makes me want to go back and watch again. I think the fact that there was a plot but no plot at the same time really bothered me and that’s why I didn’t like it as much. 

TOO has grown a lot since episode one. They are truly experimenting with the stage and I’m very happy to see that. I have the same issue with TOO as I did with ONF. There was a clear theme of “dark vs light” or “evil vs good” but why? What was the point? The theme may have seemed obvious but was it really? Were they trying to convey good vs bad, angel vs devil, justice vs injustice? I couldn’t tell throughout the entire performance. It’s okay to take cliche themes but with a show like RTK, there needs to be something more. I also hate to be harsh but some of their execution just wasn’t as clean. This doesn’t only apply to Chan (I think that’s his name), but the whole performance in general. The most obvious instance is the head twist part. But I applaud Chan for performing with 100% even after his mistake (which, by the way, he made look very natural. I was very sad when he kept beating himself up over the mistake 😞 you did great bb I hope you know that). Even if their age and lack of experience is shown in their performances, I must say they are really stepping out of their comfort zone and learning at a rapid pace. I have high hopes for them.

Now onto the last group. Golden Child. I was very impressed with GolChas first two performances but this one was a disappointment. I appreciate the use of strings and their classical arrangement (as I said in my previous episode thoughts post) but this performance was, well, dull to say the least. The only “shock factor” was the violin solo (which was very good btw), but I think it was too late into the performance. There wasn’t much that made me interested in the performance up to that point. I don’t know. There really just isn’t much for me to talk about because they didn’t really do much.(God that sounds so harsh;; I’m sorry 😭😭) I really think their second performance was highly underrated but all in all this third one was not it. 

As you can see my critiques for this set of performances are, well, a lot harsher. I think it’s because the bar was raised so much higher after the first three episodes. Overall, if I had seen any of these performances outside of the RTK context I probably would have been a lot more impressed and shocked. I wish the best for all the groups and no matter who gets eliminated tomorrow I want all the groups to know that they all deserve a spot in the Kingdom. Mnet is just trash.

[ai-katsuu]

Wonderland Ball (3/4)

Chapters: 1  2  3  4

previous chapter    next chapter

---

At the opposite end of the room, Queen Alice, finally done with greeting her audience members, sighed back on her throne in content. “This is the best outcome of any party Fairy Tale Island has had. I mean you’re amazing, Hatter!” she grinned at her dearest friend. 

“But of course, Alice dear.” he tipped his hat, “Throwing parties are my specialty after all.” 

“I was the one who brought the guests over,” the Cheshire Cat intervened. “Wasn’t easy, you know?” he smiled at the Hatter who only frowned back.

“Oh, yes. Tell me, how did you manage to get the Fearless Seven to come?” Alice excitedly asked him. 

“He transported them here without warning,” a short witch with a grey bun walked into the scene. “I saw the whole thing myself from my room.” she calmly mentioned. 

Alice gasped at the Cheshire Cat, who now had his tail in between his legs, “Is Zeniba telling the truth?” 

“Well, in a sense yes.” he mumbled. 

“He was also rude to Prince Jack’s wife.”

“Yea, called her a servant.”

“You know I don’t fancy you two being here.” the Cheshire Cat frowned at the twins who had just entered. 

“Cheshire, how could you?!” Alice scolded then turned to her friend in the white suit.  “Rabbit, could you call her for me please? I want to apologize on his behalf.” 

“Wife isn’t here, miss. He failed to include her in his transportation spell, just like how the F7 fails to be on time.” he grumbled. 

“You left her behind?” she stared at him. 

“I wouldn’t say left, more like, dis-included?” he looked sideways. “Alice, with all due respect she wasn’t even a princess. He married a commoner.” 

“Your point?” Alice challenged, “Royalty or not that is his family, now both of them will be apart from each other on Christmas Eve. I want you to write an apology letter to this woman and apologize to Prince Jack yourself. That’s an order.”

“Oooh, someones in trouble.” the Mad Hatter grinned. The Cheshire Cat glared at him before bowing at Alice,

“As you wish, Your Majesty.” 

“Your Majesty, Prince Howl is here,” Zeniba smiled, a young blonde man charmingly smiled at her. 

“I’ll take care of this. Hatter, make sure he follows through.” Alice told him before standing up and greeting the wizard. 

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

Once midnight had struck, the ball had come to an end, and the others went back to their suite. Exhausted from all the mingling and formalities, the group immediately fell apart when they got to their beds. 

“I think I might have bruised my arm when I threw Peter over the table.” Arthur examined his bicep. 

“Shut it, at least you weren’t chased around by two she-demons who want to put a dress on you.” Hans grumbled. 

“You think Papa sent Jiminy on purpose?” Noki asked.

“Please, I don’t want to think about it.” Kio responded. 

They all awoke the next morning and spent the day in the Wonderland Palace. They had high tea in their suite, played several games, and even got a chance to meet with Queen Alice herself. They were wrapping up the conversation when Alice stood up, 

“Prince Jack, may I speak to you?” 

“Of course, Your Majesty.” 

She pulled him off to the corner of the room and it took Jack by a great surprise when she bowed; not as a greeting but as an apology. “Your Majesty? Please raise your head!” he told her.

“Prince Jack, you have my deepest apologies for how my right hand man treated your wife. I’m sincerely sorry she could not be here. His actions do not reflect Wonderland’s beliefs and morals.” 

“Your Majesty, I am not upset with you. You weren’t the one who said those things after all. Though I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed with how he treated her.” he sadly told her. 

“Apologies are in order from him. Please, allow me to let you and your friends leave early.” she said. And that’s what happened. The Cheshire Cat appeared right beside her and waved his hand, the purple mist covering them as they were transported back to the gates to the White Palace. 

“I will never get used to that.” Briar said, holding her head. 

“Well at least we’re back. That was exhausting, not gonna lie.” Pino said, twisting his back. 

“Do you hear music?” Gwen asked them. The others nodded and followed the sound that echoed through the halls. It led to the doors of the ballroom they saw bright lights that's shone through its cracks. Briar opened them to see a sight that none of them would have expected.

Townspeople, man and woman, kids of different ages, running around, singing, dancing to their heart's content. Elders gave gifts to their grandchildren, grandchildren played around with ribbons that were attached to a large pole, adults ate and drank while watching the band perform. 

Somehow, snow was falling from the ceiling and people of all ages were making Snowmen, sledding, having snowball fights, or creating snow angels. It was full of laughter and fun, a different energy radiating from the Wonderland Ball. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you, be of good cheer!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

“What is this…?” Snow felt a small smile coming to her lips from the excitement and liveness everyone was exerting. 

“Are these all the people from Golden Goose?” Merlin questioned. 

“Why are they all here?” Hans looked around. 

“Oh, Your Highness'!” Isabella, in a lovely green dress, curtsied to the thirteen princes and princess’ “Welcome back!” she beamed. 

“Isabella, what is all this?” Jack asked her.

“Golden Goose's annual Christmas Eve Party, Miss Audrey had the suggestion of moving it to the palace ballroom so that it would be much bigger! She planned all the songs, the presents, and hosted the whole event.” 

“She did all this?” he looked around at the green and red festive lights. 

“You bet your high privileged ass she did.” Frost floated down to the group. “With my help and Isabella’s, this was all possible through her hard work.” he threw a snowball directly at him. A few sparkles appeared on his eyes before Jack started laughing, but quickly regained his composure. “Oof, tough one.” Frost laughed. 

“Where is Audrey?” Arthur asked. 

Frost smiled, leaning on his staff and gestured to the crowd behind him. 

There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting

And caroling out in the snow

They'll be scary ghost stories

And tales of the glories of Christmas's long, long ago!

Amongst the crowd Audrey was singing along with the band, playing with the children and dancing with adults. Her hair was up in a bun, loose hair stands out, and wore a red dress that extended just below her knees. Her see-through heels made it a bit difficult for her to walk, but Isabella made them just for her.  Not a trace of sadness or jealousy was on her face as she sang an unfamiliar song to them. 

“It’s a traditional song from the outside world.” Frost told the group, “She’s been playing a lot of Christmas carols from out there. Honestly much better than the ones they have here.” 

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

There'll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing

When loved ones are near!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

The crowd applauded as the song ended, as did the group. Frost threw his staff up lightly after clapping, “Well your highness’ I have to help a big red man deliver his presents for Christmas and I’m already on the Naughty list. Probably,” he went to the nearest window and opened it, “later nerds.” the wind started blowing in his direction. 

“Snow Queen said hi by the way.” Jack called out.

“Wait, what?” Frost turned back, “No wait! Just when the conversation was getting interesting!” but was then blown away by the winds. 

The group had decided not to interrupt the party and went back to their rooms, hoping to greet Audrey after. After the party had ended, Audrey made her way to the parlor exhausted and removed her gloves. 

“I didn’t know you could sing. You always refused to.” 

Audrey turned around to see Jack smiling with his arms crossed. “Jack! You’re back!” 

Jack beamed as he welcomed her with open arms as she ran towards him. “I missed you so much, I’m so sorry you got left behind..” he buried his head on her shoulder, trying to make sure he didn’t ruin her hair. 

Audrey shook her hair, “It’s fine. I got to plan this party and meet everyone from Golden Goose. Oh Jack, they’re all so lovely and their traditions every Christmas are amazing!” 

Jack nodded, “I’m glad you enjoyed it, but it’s not okay. You should not have been left behind, that was rude of him to leave you out.” 

Audrey shrugged, “I guess, but at least something good came out of it.”

“Yes, you won’t have to spend Christmas with them next year, don’t worry.”

“What do you mean?” Audrey laughed.

“Spending the evening with commoners is hardly the right way to celebrate Christmas, there should be balls, and elegance.” he told her.

“Well, sure but there’s nothing wrong with their traditions.” Audrey’s smile thinned down. 

“It’s hardly fitting for someone married to nobility. You should be spending it with all of us at these balls.” he raised a brow.

“I’d love to spend it with all of you, but the traditions you just saw are not ‘hardly fitting’, they’re wonderful.” she frowned. 

Jack rolled his eyes, “Audrey please, why spend your holidays in the cold filthy streets when you can spend it warm and cozy in a palace.”

“There is nothing wrong with where they live.” she said now angry, “Their happiest memories are on those streets. And mine are too, wandering around several towns, I’ve seen the joy they all have.” 

“That’s impossible, no one can be truly happy there.” he firmly told her, “I don’t want you to live or be treated like a commoner, you deserve much more than that. For goodness sake, you’re married to a prince!” 

“What’s wrong with being a commoner? They’re the same as you, they just have a different lifestyle!”

 “Commoners don’t have all these riches you see around you. They’re not as well off as we are. We can easily afford anything we want. If we have the money then we can spend it, what’s wrong with that?!”

“Nothing! Nothing is wrong with the lifestyle of a noble but neither is the lifestyle of a commoner! They’re two different things but that doesn’t mean that either status is worth greater or less of value, they all deserve equal treatment!” Audrey stared him down, “Maybe if you actually experienced the life of one you see that we aren’t as pitiful or filthy as you think we are.”

That crossed the line for Jack as he looked at her one more time and stormed out of the parlor. The twelve people who had their ears pressed to the door heard footsteps coming and they quickly hid behind the large curtains. Jack pushed the door open with violence as he marched through the halls. Audrey on the other hand, not realizing the error both of them had made, made her way outside of the parlor and walked the opposite way.

Once the two were out of sight from each other, the twelve princes and princesses came out of the curtains. 

“That can’t be good…” Gwen frowned.

[blueishfood]

Her handsome boy, Chapter 5

Pairing: Adrienette, Ninya (in the background)

Words: 1,8 k

Warning(s): Swearing,

Summary: Alya, Marinette, Nino and Adrien are seniors (18 y/o) and as Marinette, biker girl supreme, discovers Alya’s crush on the music-nerd Nino Lahiffe she starts to question if she also has a crush on a certain goody-two-shoes-boy.

A/N: So here is chapter five FINALLY. This took me way too long to write, but there’s a lot going on at school now before Christmas so I guess it makes sense…  I don’t like this chapter partly because I feel like it’s too slow going but meh-

Prouloge

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

As the night slowed down, so did Marinette. Adrien realized that the bar wasn’t as bad as he had thought, and neither were the people. The bartender refused to give Marinette any alcohol, even if she asked jokingly. It was obvious to him, that they were all like family. Adrien wondered if this was what it was like this in Marinettes biological family as well. He wondered if this was how it could have been in his family.

She took his hand in hers, and Adrien put the thoughts aside. She smiled brightly at him, as if the atmosphere had filled her with light and energy. Maybe it had.

“Do you want to see my favourite place?” She asked, her eyes big and warm. Adrien smiled back at her, confused.

“I thought this was it,” he mused, cocking his head to the side. Marinette chuckled, eyes dragging over the joint.

“It is pretty close,” She answered, “But there’s somewhere even better.”

Adrien nodded, determined. “You can take me anywhere, My Lady,” He grinned, bowing down low to place a kiss on her hand. Something that proved a little difficult in a crowded bar.

Marinettes eyebrows rose, but she didn’t pull her hand back. She merely rolled her eyes and held his hand tighter.

“Let’s go then, Casanova.” She pulled him with her, out the door, on the bike and into the night.

It was amazing how much he could smell on the back of a motor bike. Street food, grass, smoke and leaves. He had never before realized that he could smell summer. Well… he could. He could smell it all, he could feel the freedom of it all. Adrien understood why Marinette loved her bike, he even wondered if maybe he should get one. If so, it would be green. Like a neon green and maybe black. Yes. That would be a nice ride.

For a second he thought of asking his father about it. But then he remembered who his father was and almost laughed. He would never agree. But what if Adrien was to suddenly have a rebellious faze in his teenage life? He could buy a bike from his dad’s golden emergency card and get piercings. Maybe he would even get a tattoo. It would be nothing like his celebrity image. Nothing like what he had worked so hard to build.

The press would have a field day and Gabriel himself would flip. It would be perfect.

Adrien was chuckling hysterically when Marinette pulled over. She stepped off the bike, pulled the helmet off her head and stared him down.

“What are you laughing at?” She demanded to know, hand on her hip. Adrien sobered up and grinned at her.

“Buying a bike and getting a tattoo,” he answered laughter not quite gone from his voice. Marinette bit her lip to hold back a smile. Her eyes raked his form and Adrien almost squirmed.

“A tattoo would suit you,” she stated before turning around and heading for the forest. Adrien followed, not entirely sure if Marinette knew where she was going.

He voiced his concern right before tripping over a twig and faceplanting. Thankfully Marinette didn’t notice, or at least she pretended not to notice. He could swear he heard her giggle. Hopefully it was his imagination.

“Don’t worry Adrien, I know this path like the back of my hand.” Marinette didn’t lie about that. The way she moved in the dark, was almost as if the path was full of light. Adrien struggled a bit to keep up, but every time he seemed to slow down, so did she.

Until they stepped into a clearing. The darkness was penetrating, and it was hard if not impossible to see anything at all. Squinting through Marinette’s phone light, Adrien caught a glimpse of something big and round. Also, maybe a metal rod? Or a giant twig? It could honestly be anything. With a few leaps, he was right behind Marinette.

“What is this place?” He asked, still trying to see their dimly lit surroundings. He could hear Marinette grinning even if he could barely see her.

“Stay here for a bit?” She ran off before Adrien could respond. A chill raced up his spine. Suddenly he realized just how cold it was, he wondered how he had missed that detail.

“Okay, very funny princess, come back.” He patted his pockets again, looking for a phone that he had intentionally left in his locker. His dad had a tracker and Adrien wasn’t exactly stupid. Or maybe that was exactly what he was?

“Mari this is getting old.” He looked around, not finding the spot of light from Marinettes phone anymore. Would she just leave him here? To be fair he didn’t really know her, in fact he’d basically just met her. But he was sure she wouldn’t do something like that. At least not to him. Right?

“Marinette if you leave me here I wil literally die. It’ll basically be murder!” Adrien didn’t dare take another step. His eyes were still not entirely used to the light and he could be walking off a cliff for all he knew.

Then light blinded him. Adrien blinked furiously for a few seconds before he could see Marinette in between the swirling dots. She was smiling, not entirely grinning but close.

“Don’t worry, handsome boy.” She winked. “Who in their right mind would leave you behind?” My dad? He locked away that thought as Marinette began to walk.

Glancing up, Adrien realized that the light was coming from a small version of a Ferris wheel. He almost gasped. Well small wasn’t exactly the word, but it wasn’t huge. Maybe the height of eight-something grown men? The light was soft and bright at the same time. The metal bars were yellow from age and the carts red as her lipstick.

His eyes drifted back to her only to realize that she was looking at him. Adrien decided her smile lit up the place more than the Ferris wheel ever could. As soon as he discovered it, the smile disappeared. Adrien quickly made it his mission to make her smile again.

“Come on, pretty boy!” He rolled his eyes at the nickname. As he followed her to the bottom of the Ferris wheel. “Are you really going to call me that?” Marinette lauhed at the question and looked at him with bright eyes.

“I’m just trying to find out what fits… And you called me Princess, so.” She shrugged, stepping up on the first metal rod. Adrien grinned.

“But you’re like a motorcycle princess!” They laughed together; Adrien figured he hadn’t had this much fun since… well since never. When he realized what Marinette was doing, he followed, careful where he stepped as they climbed the wheel.

“You’re not scared of heights?” She asked, glancing down to him and stopping for a second. Adrien shook his head; his hair wild in the wind.

“Never been,” he told her, and he swore he could see a smile in the way her mouth quirked.

“Huh, wouldn’t have seen that coming.” Marinette pulled some of her hair away from her eyes.

“Are you?” Adrien asked before he could stop himself. “Scared of heights?” He continued, curiously.

“No,” Marinette stated, turning away from him stubbornly. Adrien could see her hands shaking. He chuckled under his breath; she was surprisingly cute despite the front she put up. Adrien climbed the next few steps quickly until he was next to her. She looked at him as if he was someone she didn’t deserve. Then he rattled the step they were on.

Marinettes hands clenched around the metal so her knuckles became white. “STOP!” He continued for a little bit, grinning. “I SWEAR I’LL KILL YOU ADRIEN I’M GOING TO DIE!” She folded her arms around the metal bar she was holding, and Adrien finally stopped.

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL.” Marinette didn’t let go of the bar for another long miute. The silence were interrupted by the occasional; “We could have died.” Or “If you do that again I will push you down.” Adrien kind of doubted the last one, but didn’t say anything.

“Not scared of heights we said?” Marinette scowled at his kind of smug expression.

“Oh, shut it. Everyone has to be afraid of something.” Adrien laughed at that and reached out a hand to help her on. Marinette ignored his hand.

The top was apparently Marinette’s hide away. The tallest cart was filled with blankets and pillows, the roof was a tarp she pulled over the cart when she left. In a plastic bag in one corner was a stack of books. The roof was filled with fairy lights. According to Marinette that had been particularly hard installing. The view was beautiful, he could see all the lights in town. For a while they sat in silence.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this in an abandoned amusement park in the middle of night… With you as the only witness. But punching Chloe was probably not the right thing to do.”

Marinette closed her eyes and turned back to the view of the city. She pulled the blanket closer and sighed.

“I know.” She glanced at him and then away again. “I- I have anger issues. Well, not on paper but I can get very angry very quickly if I don’t watch out. Usually I have control but today I just…” She let the sentence hang in the air.

“Snapped,” Adrien finished for her, a light chuckle escaping him. “Sometimes I wish I could snap. But with dad and the image I… can’t.” Marinette nodded. She knew what that felt like. She felt like that before she decided to do exactly the opposite.

“Maybe you can stop me from snapping and then we can snap at each other instead sometimes.” She laughed, shaking her head at the idea. Adrien lifted his eyebrows.

“I don’t know if that would be better,” he answered, settling back in the pile of pillows with her.

“Well, at least you won’t have to deal with me, I’ll be kicked out of school for sure.” Adrien put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad. Our school’s discipline is not a harsh one. Maybe you’ll get a call home and a mark on your resume, but it won’t be more than that.” Adrien was very certain when he said this. He probably shouldn’t have been.

 Tags:

@rhi2018 @thevixentimelord @mkiahb @dont-panic-to-much @nii-facedaingeal @our-cool-jenny @miraculousbuebird @coccinellegirl @littlebluewhalen @http-mitch @sarsoora55 @legitsadness @immatureidiot101 @ribbonthewolfartist  @i-dont-even-knoooww-man​ @bones-bones​ 

[itisannak]

Can you please write something with Calum Grammys related when yn won and she thanks Calum in her speech then he thank her in another way when they’re back home ;) after teasing the hell out of her during the after party 🤤

Summary: (Y/N) and Calum attend the Grammy’s together. (Smut / Unprotected Sex / Oral; Female Receiving)(Request) (Words: 3.8k)

“Can you please check if Calum is ready?“ I ask my assistant as the stylist puts the final details on me. “He’s been waiting for you for a while.” My assistant replies and I smile. “Thank you. And thank you for everything, really. I don’t think I could have made it today without your help.” I turn to both of them as the stylist walks a few steps back to look at me. “You look great, boss. You really do.” My assistant hugs me before she moves to help me get out of the room. “I’ll make sure to mention you in my acceptance speech if I win.” I chuckle. “When you win. You deserve this.” She corrects me as I move to the living room of the suite.

I see Calum, sitting on one of the couches carefully so his pristine suit won’t crease. He looks like a model, ready to hit the runaway, elegantly swirling his glass of sparkling water. Honestly, him looking so goddamn breathtaking is enough for me to slip out of my dress and just stay in with him. “Wow… Look at you…” He gasps as his eyes land on me. “Not bad for someone who was wearing sweatpants and a bun for a week straight last month, huh?” I ask, twirling around to give him a look of my gown. “Not bad at all, I might say. You look like a real-life princess, baby.” He states, wrapping his arm around my waist. “And you look like my knight in shiny armor.” I reply, placing my hand on his chest, while my eyes wander on his figure. “Thank you for doing this with me.” I sigh, causing Calum to hum with his whole chest. “I wouldn’t miss your first Grammy acceptance for anything in the world.” He replies, pressing his lips on the back of my hand after he takes it in his. “Well, we don’t know if I will actually get it. There are great nominees this year, greater than me.” “Please… You are going to walk on that stage and I will get to root for my amazing, Grammy-winning girlfriend, and the whole world is going to see you shine with that golden gramophone.” He tries to soothe me. “And if anything goes wrong, remember that for me you are always going to be a winner, and you will always get awarded by me, on our bedroom, over and over again.” He winks, rubbing his thumb on the small of my back. “Please, don’t start with me right now.” I breathe out, pressing my body on his a little more. “Why, princess? Am I too much of a temptation to you that you could skip Grammy’s for me?” He asks, smirking at me teasingly. “I could skip everything for you, baby.” I reply, earning a hum of satisfaction from him. “Guys, the car is here.” My assistant announces; Calum clears his throat as he takes a step away from me, while I try to regulate my breathing. “Ok, let’s go.” I announce as Calum links his arm with mine.

“And here comes everyone’s favorite couple. Hi guys. You look really amazing tonight.” The interviewer cheers for us as we approach her on the red carpet. “Hi, thank you very much.” Calum replies, smiling as he wraps his arm tighter around my waist; officially, this is our first red carpet together, so it is more than normal for him to be a little nervous. Honestly, this feels strange to me as well. “(Y/N), you look like a princess today.” The interviewer compliments me, giving me a warm smile; I am sure she has told the same thing to the dozens of women she has interviewed today, but I am willing to take it. “Thank you, I’ve been told quite many times today.” I giggle, turning to look at Calum. “She looks absolutely gorgeous, right? Have you ever seen anyone looking so beautiful?” Calum adds, rubbing his thumb over my hip. “Well, since my date is looking ravishing, I had to be a match for him.” I state and shrug. “How does it feel being nominated for a Grammy for the first time, at such a young age?” She asks me. I take a breath before answering, trying to recall how I felt when my manager called me with the news. It still feels like this is a product of my imagination, something out of my wildest dreams. “Wow, it feels surreal. I don’t know if this is a dream or not, but truly, it feels beyond of my imagination being here.” I reply. “Calum, how does it feel watching her bring this dream into reality?” “It is magical. I was lucky enough to be with her whilst she was recording this album and I got to experience first hand the hurricane named (Y/N). She is inspiring, watching her work has been my source of inspiration and I am extremely proud to be here with her. Win or lose, she has reached something that is spectacular. But I am pretty sure it is going to be a win.”“You as well had a great year, right?” “Uh, I got to tour with my 4 best friends and make music for my millions of friends. It was a blessing.” He smiles. “And trust me, since I have seen what he is working on right now, this time next year we are going to be here to watch him and the rest of 5sos getting an award.” I add, earning a chuckle. “You think so?” He asks me. “Please, your nomination is a matter of time.” I nudge him, making the interviewer coo. “Thank you for this, guys. Enjoy your night, and the best of luck to (Y/N).” The lady smiles at us.“Thank you. Enjoy the show as well.” I reply before Calum and I walk away.

“You really meant that? About the award?” He whispers in my ear. I stop and step in front of him, placing a hand on his cheek as I tilt my head to the side.“They did you dirty this year. But boy, they have 4 giants coming their way. This time, next year, your Grammy will be hanging out next to my Grammy, keeping each other company.” I comment, watching his lips curl into a smile. “Let’s get in.” He presses a kiss on my forehead and his hand goes back to the small of my waist.

I try to enjoy the night, dancing to the live performances and cheering for the winners, but as the announcement of the winner of my category approaches, I become agitated, way too anxious about it. I didn’t realize how badly I want this, until this point, where I am so close to making or breaking it. “Baby…” Calum whispers in my ear, placing a hand on my knee. I wasn’t aware that I was apparently bouncing it until now; but his hand on my body is soothing in any setting, so for now, it seems to give me some sense of tranquillity.“I am sorry.” I quickly apologize. Calum’s hand travels up until it meets mine on my lap, and that’s when he tangles our hands together, bringing mine to his lips. “Win or lose, I adore you. With every fiber of my existence.” He whispers; I close my eyes and take a breath, smiling. He is truly better than any award. “I love you.” I simply reply.

“…And the winner of the Best New Artist Category for 2019 is…” The presenter cheers, making my stomach tighten up. I squeeze Calum’s hand, feeling my body tremble as I watch the presenter open the envelope. “(Y/N) (Y/L/N). Congratulations.” She cheers. I freeze as everyone around me claps. Calum whispers a ‘Holy shit’ as he pulls me into a hug. “Did I win? Did I just win?” I ask him. “You did, princess.” He pulls away, letting me walk to the stage. I still shake on my way there, putting a serious effort not to burst in tears. The lady in the sparkly dress hands me my award and mouths a Congrats before she steps aside so I can take up the podium.

For a single second, I forget every practice I had for my acceptance speech, everything in my mind becoming one huge knot of mess.“Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is an honor to stand here today, winner of a category with such great artists nominated. I have to thank a million people and I am afraid that if I start now I will never end. This is a recognition of all the hard work I put into this last year, but truly, this is not the result of a single person’s work. I would like to thank my producer and my manager for believing and bearing with me. I would like to thank my parents, for all the trust they put into me, and for how they raised me to pursue my dream. I would like to thank my assistant, for her help and for literally being my lifesaver in many cases. I would like to thank every person who streams, buys, or supports my music in any way. And last but not least, I want to thank my partner in life, for being my biggest fan, for being there to brush all the doubts away, and for essentially becoming my muse. Thank you.” I smile, eyes glued to the only person that matters in this room. I walk down the steps, being cheered and greeted by everyone I see on my way back to my seat. Calum waits for me with open arms, hugging me close to his chest.“No one deserved this more than you did. Congratulations babygirl. I am sure this is the first of many.” He whispers, pulling me in for a kiss. “I think that I won due to my lucky charm.” I giggle. “Which is?” “You. So you’d better be here for my every nomination.” I point my finger to him. “If you promise to thank me on every acceptance speech you give.” “Deal.”

After the award show, we had to quickly change into less formal attire, so we headed to get back to the hotel, just for a while. “You know, I’ve never fucked a Grammy winner.” Calum states as he lets me out of my gown.  “Yeah? Well, if you behave, this might change tonight.” I reply, trying to play it cocky. But of course, after almost 2 years, he knows my buttons. So, his lips move along the curve of my neck, slowly, to the point where with every peck I feel my skin break in goosebumps. “Yeah, baby? Well, I must be on my best behavior then, mustn’t I?” He asks, his breath fanning on my skin. I gulp thickly, closing my eyes to try and concentrate. “You are playing dirty. I like it.” “You always like it dirty.” He comments, brushing his thumb over my lips. “We should get going. The party’s red carpet will start at any minute.” I state and he chuckles. “Right… We have to be there, don’t we, pretty girl?” He whispers, walking away from me to let me dress up.

“I was just congratulated on your behalf.” Calum states as he walks up to me, handing me a drink. “Really?” I ask, bringing the glass to my lips. “Really.” He nods. “I am sorry.” I lean towards him, placing a kiss on his jaw. “Why, princess? I am flattered. I get to have the winner all to myself. In every way that I want. All night and day long… And I get to kiss you, and touch you, and hug you, and pin you down on our bed and keep you there for hours. So, yeah… Congratulations to me.” He replies; his arms are around my torso, pulling me to his body, while his lips rest just below my ear, making me shiver. “Do I get to get all of you tonight?” I ask, almost moaning at the sensation of his soft, plump lips on my skin.“Do you even have to ask?” His fingers trace patterns on my hip, while I press my ass on his cock. “Next year, maybe we can try those vibrating panties under your dress. I would love to see you on-stage, the vibrations on full speed and you trying to hold yourself together while you accept one more award.” He whispers; I whimper, just picturing the scenario in my head. “Cal… Please don’t do this to me. Not right now. I have to be able to function. And this is making it hard on me.”“Hard? Like as hard as you are making me?” He asks, pressing his boner on me. “This is unfair.” I whimper, feeling my face heat up. “If you think this is unfair, wait until you see how I am going to edge you tonight.” He replies, turning my face so my lips are on his. “Wanna skip the party? I need you, right now.” I suggest, feeling close to my bursting point. I really need him, his voice while he whispered those words made me melt into a puddle for him. I could not care less about the publicity I could gain from this event, all I want right now is to get out of here and take him home. “No, princess. We have to stay a bit more. And you will have to behave for me, ok?” He replies, voice steady and dominant, raising chills along my spine. “Ok.” I nod my head, taking a deep breath to find my focus.

We ended up leaving the party 2 hours later, after Calum made it too hard for me to contain myself. His hand on my ass was the final stroke; I almost dragged him out of the venue, and thankfully, he wasn’t the one to protest. “You think it is funny, teasing your award-winning girlfriend like that?” I whine as the elevator doors close. I turn to look at Calum, who is chewing his bottom lip while he smirks triumphantly. “I don’t know. It was pretty fun for me. And for an award winner, you seem to be affected by me pretty easily. You would think that this award would have given you a little bit poise against me. But really, you are still putty under my touch.” He replies, walking up to me. His fingers stroke my arm, eyes glued to my body to observe my reaction. I try to hold my posture, not giving him the satisfaction, but goosebumps spread on my body, making Calum chuckle. “See, princess?” He chuckles. The elevator doors open, and Calum takes my hand in his before we walk out; one second he can be an absolute teasing dick, and the next second he turns to the greatest boyfriend in the world.

We stumble to our room, Calum unlocking the door in mere seconds; the perks on spending the greatest part of the year in hotel rooms around the world. From the moment we step in, Calum presses my body against the wall using his body. “Let’s get you out of that designer dress, before it gets turned into a pile of rugs.” Calum states, his fingers fumbling with the zip of my dress for a second. The material slides off my body, leaving me in just my panties in front of him. “Look at my babygirl…” Calum hisses, gliding his hands all over my body. He kneels down in front of me, hooking his fingers in the delicate lace of my underwear. I gulp down the knot in my throat, anticipating Calum’s next move; usually, this results in whatever I am wearing turning into shreds. But he simply pulls them down, making sure that his fingers ghost over my thighs on the way to remove them. “Why do you look so good naked? Why can’t I get enough of you?” He groans, kissing down my stomach. “For the same reason I can’t get enough of you.” I moan, enjoying his warm kisses on my body. Calum smirks against my skin, lowering his mouth to my groin. And before I can realize it, his tongue is on my clit, rolling it in slow circles. I lose my balance for a moment, but Calum’s hand pins me firmly to the wall by my hips. I find myself gripping onto his hair, pulling at the silverish locks as he kitten-licks me; he has teased me long enough today for me to feel magnificently. He maintains eye contact while his tongue works on my bundle of nerves, making me feel intimidated. “Screw this.” He grumbles, taking off his blazer before he picks me up.

He walks me to the bed, placing me on the edge of it. He stands in front of me, dressing down from his outfit. I watch as his body moves; it is like he is putting on a show for me… As if I need more of a reason to lust over him. His clothes end up on a ball on the floor, showing his rush to meet my body.“Are you ready for me, love?” He asks, pulling me more on the edge of the bed. He runs his cock over my slit multiple times, rubbing my clit with the head of it. I nod my head, spreading my legs more for him as he smirks at me. “Are you sure, princess?” He asks, licking his lips; the teasing is never-ending, at this point becoming more of a teasing of the brain than the body. “Please.” I whimper, getting too impatient to just feel him. “Ok then.” He smirks, easing his cock in me. My breath hitches as my eyes flicker open and shut. “Cal…” I breathe out, arching my body to get closer to his. He rocks his hips slowly, letting me adjust to him before his thrusts get more violent. “You feel so good, princess.” He whispers, stroking my hair and face as he leans down to kiss me. “Please, I need more. More of you. Please.” I beg, becoming greedy for him. “Yeah, princess? You need more of me? Can this pussy handle more?” He asks, pounding his hips on my hips, making me twitch with excitement. “I want all of you, daddy.” I whimper; his hands grip on my waist, lifting me up a bit to fix the angle. “Don’t call me daddy. I might cum right here, right now.” He growls, squeezing my face in his hand. “I am so sorry… Daddy.” I whimper, moving my hips to make the thrusts a bit deeper. Calum slaps my ass, smirking at me. “You really shouldn’t push your luck, baby.” He states, digging his nails in my skin. “Why shouldn’t I?” I moan, biting my lip as I watch Calum’s face contort in anger. “I am serious, princess. I will fucking lose it if you call me Daddy one more time. And tonight, I need you to cum first. I need to feel you contract around me. And I need to hear those cute little sounds you are making when you are cumming.” He replies, moving his hand to bring his thumb to my clit. “It won’t be long if you go on like that.”“Oh yeah?” He asks cockily; sweat forms on his forehead as he moves his hips on mine, guiding his cock as deeply as he can inside me.“Calum…” I moan loudly, bringing my hand to grip in the hair on the lower part of his head. I yank his head back, causing him to hiss from the suddenness of my actions. “Harder, princess. Give me your worse.” He tries to keep his dominance, but the whine in the end of the sentence reveals that he is losing it. I grip on his hair harder, letting my nails scratch into his scalp. And he rewards me for that, pounding in me as hard as he can, hitting on my spot time after time. “Holy fucking shit.” I scream as I cum, arching my body off the bed, gluing my chest on his while I pull on his hair a little harder. My stomach is filled with butterflies as my body fills up with chills. I rest my head to the side, giving Calum the chance to bury his face in my neck. His lips suck softly on my skin, fueling the feeling coursing through my body.“You make such cute sounds.” He states, pulsing inside me as I still ride my orgasm. “Maybe we should record them and put them into a track… Let everyone know how good you sound as I make you cum.” He continues, bringing a whimper out of me. “Shit… Look how that pussy is milking me.” He groans as his thrust become sloppy and less powerful. He moans as he cums, prolonging my own orgasm. I wrap my legs around his waist, pulling his body as close as possible to mine.

He rests there, trying to catch his breath as his body relaxes. His hands that were gripping on my body are now softly caressing it, hazily stroking his fingers on my skin. “Shit, we forgot the condom.” He suddenly tenses, supporting his body to sit up a little. I stroke the hair on his neck, smiling softly at him. “It’s ok. I am not on my risky days, one time won’t hurt.” I yawn, making him relax and smirk. “Cumming inside you actually feels good. I mean, I love the excitement.” He states, kissing down from my neck to my collarbone. “How many actual kinks do you have, Calum Thomas Hood?” I giggle. “You are bringing out new ones every time I am inside you, babygirl.” He hums, his hand stroking my sides. “Well, I am willing to help you discover them, then, baby,” I whisper, resting more on the mattress. “Have I told you today how much I love you?” He asks, sounding sleepy. “Mmm, nope.” I reply. “I haven’t? Well, I beg for your forgiveness for stalling, and I announce to you that I love you more than I loved you yesterday, and yesterday I loved you more than life itself.” He whispers, sitting up to look me in the eyes. “You are only saying that because I have just won an award.” I tease him, giggling.“Well, yeah… I have to ensure you won’t leave me for someone more successful than me.” He replies in the same teasing tone. “Well, I will have to reevaluate my options now.” “Please, princess… No one can fuck you like I do. You are hooked on me.” He replies cockily. “No one can love me like you do.” I add and he nods. “No one.” He reminds me, leaning down to kiss me.

My Masterlist

[sign-from-god-complex]

A Gift From Me To You - Chapter 1

Summary: It was nothing really. Just a tiny little doodle on his inner wrist—a flower, something resembling a large daisy, but not quite. It wasn’t anything to get worked up over. Except, of course, for the most important fact: Virgil didn’t draw it.

Some people didn't ever get a soulmark, and that was fine. The four of them had, more or less successfully, resigned themselves to living their lives without a soulmate; that was just the way it was and there was nothing they could do about it. Of course, it could never be that simple.

Pairing: LAMP/CALM

Warnings: Brief suicide mention (let me know if there’s anything else I should warn for!)

AO3 link

It was nothing really. Just a tiny little doodle on his inner wrist—a flower, something resembling a large daisy, but not quite. It wasn’t anything to get worked up over. Except, of course, for the most important fact: Virgil didn’t draw it.

Virgil knew about soulmates. Most of the population were lucky enough to be linked to a certain person that was more suited to them than anyone else. The link was expressed through a drawing on their wrist which somehow related to their relationship, called a soulmark. The mark could be anything from music notes, to a shared favourite food, to a brand logo, and it usually showed up when you were around 5 or so years of age, but sometimes it was as late as 10. The link wasn’t intrinsically romantic; a person’s soulmate didn’t have to be their lover and just as commonly ended up being a lifelong best friend instead.

People had theorised for millennia over the origin of soulmarks, but Virgil hadn’t listened or cared. Because when he said, “Most of the population”, he meant the part of the population he wasn’t included in. Virgil didn’t have a soulmate.

Or so he thought.

Virgil frantically searched through his day for some reasoning behind the ink on his skin. Did Remy doodle on him while he wasn’t paying attention in class? Did he press his wrist up against someone else’s drawing that hadn’t dried fully? Did he do it in his sleep?  

He was fully aware he was being ridiculous, but when something you’ve believed for your entire life—practically built your life around—turns out to not be true, it’s kind of hard to stay calm. It’s like finding out you’re adopted or finding out Pluto isn’t a planet. It was entirely unprecedented and not entirely unwelcome. So, in the midst of his panic, he called his best friend Remy.

The phone rang a few times before he heard a voice on the other end.

“Wassup?”

Remy sounded slightly groggy, and then Virgil remembered it was 2 am and he’d been just about to go to bed before he noticed the mark. Virgil felt a stab of guilt go through him for waking Remy up from the very little sleep they managed to get. He was being silly, this could have easily waited until the morning, he shouldn’t bother them wi-

“Virge, it’s fine, gurl,” Remy said, interrupting Virgil’s spiralling thoughts, “I can nap in class if I really need the sleep. We both know I don’t understand the lesson either way.”

Remy always seemed to know exactly what Virgil was thinking and managed to cut him off at the pass before he panicked too much. It was one of the reasons they were such good friends, considering how different they were.

Remy was a massive extrovert. They lived for parties and hangouts and though Virgil remained their best friend, it was rare to see Remy without someone else around. Virgil, on the other hand, hated meeting people and kept to himself as best he could. Remy was pretty much his only friend—although he had acquaintances that he liked, he didn’t feel as comfortable around them as he did around Remy. No matter how annoying they were sometimes.

Honestly, if Virgil hadn’t known Remy already had a soulmate, he would have claimed they were the source of Virgil’s mark.

Virgil cleared his throat, “Rem, you didn’t, like, doodle on me in class or anything, did you?”

His voice shook a little due to all the emotions that were rushing through him right now. Virgil could hear Remy’s confusion through the phone.

“No? What’s going on, Virge? You’re worrying me.”

“Cause, I, uh-”

Preparing to tell Remy about his mark, he glanced down at his wrist briefly and his breath caught in his throat.

His soulmark had changed.

What was once the outline of a simple flower had become a small bouquet. On his wrist were about half a dozen daisy-like flowers, all in shades of blue, purple and red, and tied up neatly in a golden bow. It was gorgeous, bright and shining and more than he deserved.

He heard Remy calling his name through the haze that had descended upon him.

“Virgil, I swear to god, do not make me come over there and kick your-”

“Sorry, Remy,” Virgil replied, “I just… I think I have a soulmark.”

There was a good 5 seconds of silence before Remy spoke up again.

“What?”

They sounded completely baffled, like this was the very last thing they had been expecting Virgil to say, which was completely justified. People didn’t just get soulmarks. Virgil was 17, the time for him to develop a soulmark had long since passed. It was entirely unheard of…

And yet.

“Are you… are you sure, Virge? Like, it couldn’t just be a prank or something?”

Remy sounded hesitant to suggest that Virgil’s supposed soulmark could be anything but genuine. Making fun of someone for not having a mark was hugely cruel, but, of course, it happened anyway. Virgil had definitely gone through his fair share of bullying due to his lack of a soulmark, and therefore, his lack of a soulmate. But, unless the person pranking him was entirely incorporeal and able to wipe his skin completely clean and draw something new without him noticing (highly, highly unlikely, but technically not impossible), there’s no way this could be a prank.

“No, it changed, Remy. It, uh, it’s different now than it was when I called you.”

A beat.

“Oh, well that’s…” Remy took a deep breath, “Wow.”

“Yeah.”

Clearly, neither of them had any idea what to do in this situation.

“This is a good thing, right?” Remy sounded unsure.

Soulmates were something Virgil had always been kind of cynical about, but mostly that came from the culture surrounding it. It hurt, being left out of something that people seemed so excited about. Soulmates dominated almost every form of media and whenever a character didn’t have a soulmark it was always a weird point of tension. Usually, these characters were robots or aliens or just plain “weird”.

Truly though, Virgil hadn’t longed for a soulmark, he’d longed for a change in the culture. He hadn’t thought of himself as weird or broken, no matter what bullies at school would say. He realised there was a percentage of the population who just didn’t have the same experiences as the rest, but just because they’re small doesn’t mean they’re less important. He’d built his identity around the belief that he didn’t need to have a soulmark to be worthy or deserving of love of any kind. So, getting one… left a lot for him to process.

He chuckled lightly, “I’m not sure? I think so? I… don’t know what I feel right now.”

“That’s… that’s fair.”

There were a few more moments where neither of them said anything, just thinking, before Virgil stirred into motion.

“We can talk about this more at school tomorrow, Rem, yeah? I think it would be best if we both got some sleep.”

A yawn was heard from Remy at the mention of sleep and Virgil’s mouth quirked up at the corners slightly.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, sounds good,” they replied and Virgil could hear the sound of rustling blankets as Remy moved further back under the covers, “Goodnight, Virge.”

“Goodnight, Rem.”

-------------------------

Roman had noticed his soulmark almost the second it had appeared. He’d spent the evening running lines with some of his friends in the drama club, as they were coming up on their performance of Anything Goes, and Roman had been cast as the male lead.

The auditorium had long since been closed and so the small group had retired to Roman’s house to continue practising. Roman had insisted his parents wouldn’t mind, after all, they weren’t likely to be home anyway.

They’d been running through You’re The Top when Roman had glanced down at his script to clarify a line and stopped dead in his tracks.

“Roman?” Valerie questioned, “It’s your line, dude.”

Roman didn’t reply, his eyes fixated on his wrist where a small doodle of a flower sat. Where did it come from? He was quite sure it hadn’t been there before, he would have noticed it! Wouldn’t he? His world was swirling with so many emotions he almost felt he had to sit down. But first, he turned to Valerie.

“Did you draw this?”

His voice was calm, too calm for the situation. His acting skills were kicking into high gear, assisting him in keeping his emotions under wraps for just a moment longer.

“What? Roman, I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Valerie replied.

She didn’t, of course. Roman knew Valerie would never do something so cruel to him. Valerie was the Reno to his Billy, both for the purposes of the musical and also in real life. They were excellent friends and any romantic feelings either of them may have had at one point or another was put into the past long ago, as they both had someone they loved now.

Valerie knew his lack of a soulmark was a touchy subject. Roman was a romantic at heart, that was clear to see within one interaction with him. As soon as he’d learned about the concept of soulmates at 4 years old, Roman had been obsessed with the idea that there was a perfect person out there for him. Out there in the great wide world, there was a person who understood him better than anyone else ever could and they didn’t even know him yet. It was intoxicating, believing that you’re loved at your core from the moment you’re born, waiting for them to show themselves.

So of course, Roman’s 5th birthday went by without a soulmark. And then his 6th, and his 7th and his 8th. By the time his 11th birthday came he thought maybe his soulmark was just a little late, but when he reached his 12th birthday he’d finally given up hope. He’d locked himself away in his room for over a week, sobbing and screaming about how it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair! He deserved to be loved like that! Why wasn’t he good enough?

Roman had moved past the immediate rejection he had felt, but to this day he still felt a pang of sadness every time he watched a romance movie or saw couples in public holding hands and laughing, matching soulmarks on display. He knew he didn’t have to have a soulmark to have love, but… sometimes he forgot.

Roman’s eyes filled with tears as he struggled to comprehend what he was seeing. He spun around to glare at the other cast members in the room, his face stormy. He thrust his wrist out towards them.

“Did one of you do this?!” he yelled, his voice almost breaking, “This isn’t funny! Did you do this?!”

The rest of the cast shook their heads frantically, looking slightly terrified by Roman’s demeanour. Though he may be a drama queen, none of them had ever seen him quite like this. This wasn’t drama, this was pain.

Roman was… well, he wasn’t sure what he was about to do, but he was about to do something, except he was interrupted. Another cast member, Terrence, pointed to his wrist and said, “Roman…”

Roman pulled his wrist back to look at it again, the little doodle of a flower still ingrained in his mind, except… this wasn’t a little doodle. This wasn’t what he’d seen at all. It had changed.

And the bottom dropped out from under him and he was falling.

He sobbed the same way he had 5 years ago, completely unabashed and totally lost. And amidst all the despair and confusion, there was hope rising in his chest. Hope that he’d let go of so long ago, hope that maybe, there was a perfect person for him, hope that maybe he was loved after all.

And so with Valerie wrapping her arms around Roman’s shaking form…

Roman broke.

-------------------------

Patton was woken up by a call from his boyfriend. Quickly wiping the sleep out of his eyes, he scrambled to grab his phone from the nightstand and answer it before it rang through.

“Heya, Ro,” he mumbled, still not quite awake.

A quick glance at his clock revealed it to be 4 in the morning, which was slightly concerning. Although Roman didn’t answer to any kind of sleeping schedule, he didn’t usually call Patton during the night. Pat would often wake up to an array of texts about anything from the cool bird he saw to how much he loved him, but calls were reserved for more immediate problems and never past 11 pm. He hoped everything was alright.

A closer listen indicated things may very well not be alright. Roman’s breathing was kind of unsteady and Patton could hear sniffing like he’d been crying. He immediately shot up straight in his bed, turning on the bedside lamp to wake him up a bit.

“Ro? Love, are you alright? What’s going on? Do you need me to come and get you?”

A laugh was heard from Roman, though it was slightly watery and quiet.

“No, mi corazón, I- I just need you to do me a favour, okay?"

Patton nodded, before realising Roman couldn’t see him.

“Yeah, okay, Ro. What is it?”

“Can you just… just look down at your wrist?”

Patton sighed.

“Ro, we’ve talked about this…”

Patton knew his boyfriend got insecure about their lack of soulmarks. It was something he’d confessed to after Patton had confronted him over dropping his hand when in public. At the time it had hurt; it had made him feel like he was some dirty little secret or that Ro was ashamed of him. After Roman had admitted what was truly going on, though, all Patton wanted to do was swaddle him up in a blanket and kiss him until he realised how much he was loved.

Patton had been raised by four loving parents who didn’t all share a soulmark. Their relationship was complicated, Patton knew, but he also knew that it was wonderful. As far as he was concerned, soulmates were a building block, a foundation. They may give you a place to start, a place to call home when you’re unsure about where to go, but you can build those things for yourself! You can build a foundation and you can build a home, with a family—or a found family—there to stay by your side.

A soulmate may be an important relationship you have, but it shouldn’t be the only important relationship you have, and not having a soulmate just meant having to form more important relationships by yourself. It doesn’t make you any less deserving of love, it just means you have to do the work yourself to find it.

He’d talked to Roman about this quite a few times when he was feeling particularly down about his lack of soulmark, and he’d really seemed like he was moving forward. So this request felt like 3 steps backwards.

“No, Patton, please. Just… do this for me. Please.”

Roman sounded like he was on the edge of breaking apart, so Patton agreed, looking down at his wrists in the lamplight and…

Oh.

His breath left him in one big rush. There, on his wrist, was a beautiful drawing of a bouquet of flowers. A drawing, he surely did not do. He rotated his wrist back and forth, watching mesmerised as the colours shimmered.

“Ro…” Patton whispered, voice breathless, “How did you… ”

“Do you have one too? Patton, I-” his words were coming out shaky now, rushed and teary, “I didn't understand and I thought it was a joke but I just had to know and I-”

Patton pulled the covers back and rushed to stand up, grabbing his keys from off his chest of drawers.

“Roman, where are you?”

He didn’t even bother changing out of his pyjamas, just stuffed his feet into his sneakers and carefully crept down the stairs. He knows that if one of his parents caught him they would still let him go, but they would insist on driving him there and would probably ask for some kind of explanation. An explanation Patton didn’t have.

“I’m at th-the park, near my house,” Roman managed to get out through his increasingly quick breaths, “I just, I had a breakdown in front of everyone and I needed to think and I can’t-”

“You’re alright, sweetheart, you’re fine. Just breathe. I’ll be there in 5, okay?”

After an answering okay from Roman, Patton hung up the call. He quickly scribbled down a note to leave on the kitchen counter just in case one of his parents woke up to find him missing, before he rushed out to the car and started the drive to the park.

With all his worrying over Roman, Patton had barely had time to examine his own feelings on the situation. It was clear Roman had spontaneously gained a soulmark too, and considering the odds that more than two people would mysteriously gain a soulmark in one night, Patton assumed they were matching. Which was… wow. That was amazing.

He loved Roman, he knew that already. It hadn’t mattered to him in the slightest that neither of them had a soulmark, but he knew this was something Ro worried about. Once he got past the mess of this evening, Patton was happy that Roman would be a little bit more sure that Patton truly did love him. It did, of course, raise the question of why and how they’d even gained these soulmarks, but that wasn’t for Patton to worry about. Right now, he just had to focus on driving and getting to his boyfriend.

-------------------------

Logan hadn’t noticed the mark until later that day, considering he followed something resembling a sleep schedule.

To Logan, this had begun simply as any other day would. He took a shower, brushed his teeth, got changed and went downstairs to make breakfast. It was all done on autopilot, a morning routine that he’d gone through so many times he didn’t even have to think about it anymore. Until he tried to start breakfast.

He placed the bread in the toaster and then searched around for a moment, trying to find his Crofters. His Dad loved to hide the jars so that he could steal them himself. Logan had told him many times that he was the adult who was supplying him with the Crofters and if he wanted some he could just buy more. His Dad responded by saying that things just tasted better when they were stolen, to which Logan would roll his eyes and take the jelly to begin his meal.

After opening a few cupboards, Logan could see his jar on the top shelf, barely hidden behind a box of cereal. Logan was just tall enough to reach it, standing on his tip-toes and stretching out. He almost had it when something caught his eye.

His long-sleeved black button up was beginning to get slightly too small, so as he stretched the sleeves didn’t quite reach the end of his arms. And there, peaking out of the fabric, was something colourful on his wrist. Momentarily forgetting his Crofters, he pulled his sleeve back to get a closer look and stared in shock and awe at what he found. If you had gotten close enough to him, you may have had heard him make a whirring sound, akin to a computer that’s been given input it doesn’t understand.

He had a soulmark. He had… a soulmark. He had- fuck.

This went against everything he’d believed about himself for years.

Logan didn’t do emotions. He was logical, and there was nothing logical about emotions. Emotions were subjective and messy and caused more trouble than they were worth. His friends had often tried to convince him by pointing out all the positive emotions you can experience as well—things like love and joy and comfort and excitement, and sure. Those things weren’t unpleasant to experience, but they didn’t make up for all the negative emotions—the things like sadness and pain and grief and heartache and longing.

Emotions like those were what took his mother away from him before he was barely old enough to understand what it meant. Emotions like those are what forced Logan to have dial 911 to tell them his father wasn’t breathing and he didn’t understand why and he didn’t know what to do and if he loses him he’d lose all he had left.

Emotions were… too much.

No. Soulmates were nothing more than a fantastical idea to promote heartbreak and pain, and Logan didn’t need that.

But it seemed the universe disagreed.

In a barely lucid state, Logan walked over to the medicine cabinet and grabbed out some bandages, wrapping them around his arm. If anyone asked, he could just say he’d strained it from typing too much. Luckily, he was ambidextrous, so writing with his right hand wouldn’t be so difficult. It wouldn’t work forever, but it would work until he found a more permanent solution.

So Logan returned to his breakfast, spreading Crofters on his toast and finishing preparing for the day.

A day like any other.

-------------------------

Chapter 2

[thenervouscook]

Nervous Cooking: An Intro and How To

Hello there. I’m a nervous cook. I hate wasting food. I don’t like being bad at things. I have a very complicated relationship with food, thanks to an eating disorder.

In short, I often feel daunted in the kitchen, have felt that a lot of recipes gatekeep information and make it hard to me to feel like cooking is accessible and fun.

I like food. I love the idea of cooking. With the help of some nice people I know, I’m making good progress into enjoying the kitchen, and playing around making things and swatting away the dreadful pretentiousness, snobbishness, and pomposity that sullies what is supposed to be a joyous, wholesome, and ultimately tasty activity.

So where to start? Before we get to sharing recipes, let’s have a breakdown of what we’re trying to do for ourselves, before we even turn the oven on.

How do we become less nervous in when cooking?

1. Put some music on.

There’s nothing as daunting as standing in your kitchen with a recipe open, feeling like you’re already set for failure before you’ve even begun. So with that, put some good tunes on. You might have to turn the volume down occasionally as it is distracting you too much from the task at hand, but honestly, set yourself up for a good time.

Hall & Oates are great for making your meal with.

2. Read the recipe first. Maybe read it a few times.

Too often, I’ve started cooking and followed the recipe as a go, only to find that the person who wrote the recipe can smash out some sauce in 40 seconds while it takes me ages to do, while I burn my onions in the process. 

Reading the recipe first enables you to plan for any tricky moments where you feel unsure, or indeed, helps you to work out how to re-word something that might confusing rather than having to translate it when you’re in the middle of cooking something.

Recently, I made something that said “add 100ml of stock”, which wasn’t included in the recipe itself - reading it through before setting off meant that I didn’t have a nervous breakdown halfway through.

3. Prep the ingredients

Foodies call it ‘mise en place’��- don’t worry about foreign phrases yet, we won’t be using them here and we’ll probably do a translation of cooking terms at some point. These phrases are perfectly fine to use if you know what you’re doing, but of course, when you’re a nervous cook, your brain can go “AAAAAAAAAARGH I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS AND I’M ALREADY TALKING MYSELF OUT OF COOKING AND I MAY AS WELL JUST GO TO THE CHIPPIE”.

Calm down. It’s all good. Maybe we’ll do a glossary of terms later, so we can understand what these people are talking about.

Don’t worry. Mise en place basically means getting everything ready before you start, like they do on the telly. You’ve seen a TV chef saying “add half a tablespoon of paprika’, and they just tip it out of a little bowl, rather than measuring out while the pan’s on? It’s that.

So, if you’re making a curry and the recipe says that 4 spices are all getting thrown in at the same time, then measure them out first, put it in a bowl, or a little glass dish you’ve saved from when you ate a fancy yoghurt that came in a glass thing rather than a plastic pot, or even a cleaned out plastic yoghurt pot - it literally doesn’t matter - you measure them out, throw them all into a thing, and when the time comes to add them to your cooking, you can lob them in the pan without thinking about it, because you did the groundwork before the stress of the timer.

And ‘mise en place’ will not be used again on this blog, because there’s no need really.

4. Convert American measurements in advance

If you’ve found a recipe that looks ace on an American site, you’ll soon find out they measure everything differently. They have a ‘cups’ system. 1 cup is 128g or 4.5 oz.

If your scales are accurate enough to measure 128g exactly, go nuts. If not, take the time to find another recipe that has measured things out in a way that is more useful to you. If you have the money, have a look online and buy something cheap that measures out in American cups. 

Just don’t get caught on the hop while you’re in the middle of cooking your tea and get yourself worked up.

5. You can still eat a cock-up

American writer Hanif Abdurraqib said: “I'm not normally one for baking — I get that it is mostly all about the following of instructions, but I think that has always made the task more daunting for me and my many anxieties. If I failed, that failure would be speaking to some greater inability, or it might tell me something about myself. But, my anxieties, though busy as ever, aren't very interested in whether or not I fail at the moment. Also, I have such a low bar for edible desserts. Even a failed baked good is still a baked good worth consuming, in my home.”

That’s one of the golden things good cooks never share - even when you mess up, chances are, you can still eat it. Set your bar low. Don’t tip it in the bin because you’ve failed or because it looks like a mess.

I made a banoffee pie, and was worried I was going to balls it up, because I’m rubbish at whisking. Talking to a very talented chef I know, she said “don’t bin it - mix it up and call it Banoffee Eton Mess style!”

That was a very important lesson to learn - if it doesn’t work out perfectly, then re-brand the fucker and eat it anyway.

6. Follow good food people and ignore perfectionists if you want

A lot of broadsheet food writers and TV chefs are perfectionists, and don’t share their mistakes. When they appear on TV, they’re often berating some poor amateur cook for messing up their flans or whatever, because they’ve entered a talent show like Great British Bake Off, Masterchef, or whatever.

Ignore all that if you want, or if it puts pressure on you. It’s just you in your kitchen, making something to eat. Doesn’t matter if it looks like a road accident when you put it on your plate, as long as it tastes good.

Everyone’s Instagram accounts only show you their successes, so you can write those off too, if they’re doing your head in.

That said, there’s good people out there who will show you short-cuts, things to not worry about, and enjoy food that looks like an absolute mess. David Chang is a good chef to follow - on his Instagram, he cooked chicken thighs in a plastic bag in the microwave ‘round his mums, and has a show called Ugly Delicious where the focus is about getting rid of the pointless rules and aesthetic bollocks that stops a lot of people from wanting to cook.

Brad Leone at Bon Appetite is another good egg - he’s very much a ‘bung it in, that should be alright shouldn’t it?’ type of cook. Very unpretentious. Good fun. Pronounces the word ‘water’ funnily.

7. Focus on flavour, not aesthetics

I talked to someone who knows a lot of professional chefs, and they told me the difference between restaurant food and what we cook at home is the delicious but disgusting amounts of salt and butter they put in everything. Like, you’ll use a splodge of butter in your food, and a pro chef will stick a whole pack in. 

Season the crap out of everything too. Keep tasting it as you go along - you’re not a pro kitchen who has to worry about sticking a spoon in your mouth and then returning it straight to the pan.

When a recipe says 2 cloves of garlic, and you know you love garlic, sod it, put 3 or 4 in.

If you’re nervous about making your food too salty, for example, then just follow the recipe to the letter, and then when you serve it up later, if it needs more, just whack a load on as a booster at the end. It’s cool.

8. Don’t worry about having loads of gear

You might read some recipes that ask you to pulverise something in a food processor and you might not have one. If you can afford the gear, fine, go wild. If not, see what the alternatives are. You might be able to do it by hand, or you might be able to cheat by buying some pre-mixed stuff. Cheating is good. Don’t worry yourself.

If you’re bad at mincing garlic, just buy a tube of garlic paste. The only people who would judge that are terrible people, and terrible people don’t deserve your cooking.

9. Worst case scenario

You’ve burned your food. You’ve used salt instead of sugar. The whole thing has gone so badly that it is inedible. You feel defeated and annoyed at yourself. You swear you’ll never cook again.

It’s okay to wallow for a bit, but remember this - if you angrily sling everything in the bin and walk to the chip shop or Maccies - a Big Mac or chips pie and gravy is still a 10 out of 10 meal to have. In terms of you eating, you’ve not failed yourself.

Get stuck into your nuggets meal and enjoy them, and you’ll remember to not put salt in, instead of sugar next time.

10. Give yourself a break

Chefs, foodies, and cooks often forget to tell you what it feels like to not know how to cook. That makes sense - they’ve been practising for ages.They’re at a certain level, and assume the person they’re talking to is at a certain level too. 

When they casually say “knock up a quick roux” and you’re not sure what a roux even is, that’s okay - you can either stop listening to them, and watch a YouTube video about what a roux is, how to make one, and what they’re for... or you can carry on watching your show and just have a holiday in someone else’s good skills.

I can play guitar quite well, but I don’t hear a blistering solo on a Steely Dan record and think ‘well, I may as well throw my guitar into the street’ - I can pootle along on mine, while enjoying someone else who is better at a thing than I am. Try and do the same with food shows. You can always turn them off if they’re making you feel depressed - you don’t owe anyone shit.

Remember how grateful you are when absolutely anyone else cooks for you and how you don’t judge anyone else’s food harshly, because you’re not an arsehole? Do the same for yourself.

[thesinglesjukebox]

LANA DEL REY - THE GREATEST

[7.71]

The discourse is lit...

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Lana Del Rey's embrace of decades-old American culture has always been a window into the present, so it's no surprise that her invocations of rock music and Dennis Wilson's deaths on "The Greatest" are signposts for our own inevitable demise. But even before she concludes the song with ruminations on California wildfires, Hawaii's false missile alert, and the possible necessity of colonizing Mars, you can sense the knowing dread in the midsong guitar solo and her affected vocalizing. She declares that she's "wasted" with poise and romantic longing, stretching the word out into a rallying cry; she intimates that debauchery is not just an expected response to contemporary anxieties, but an empowering action in times of seeming powerlessness. She channels that same depressing spirit in her semi-ironic delivery of the song's most memorable couplet -- "The culture is lit and I had a ball/I guess that I'm burned out after all" -- toying with its dual meaning to succinctly portray how escapism in end times isn't indecent behavior, but a necessary means toward survival and acceptance of one's fate. The sparse guitar strums and piano melodies that close out the song anticipate the somber eventuality that awaits us, but can that be much worse than right now? Worse than a time when "dancing with you" and "doing nothing" can be nostalgic pastimes due to never ending stress? Whatever the case, we'll collectively watch as it happens; it's the "live stream" that Lana hints at in the final line, and it'll be of cinematic proportions: "the greatest loss of them all." [9]

Joshua Copperman: "The culture is lit, and if this is it‚ I had a ball." This line is everything I hate about the aesthetics of this decade, but it IS the aesthetic of this decade, at least the latter half. Apart from rare, usually unintentional exceptions, something about 2010s voice-of-a-generation songs always felt pat, apparently because they had hope. We need songs for an age when everything is so overwhelming and impossible that there's nothing left to do but give up, give in, and bide your time until the flames -- the literal ones or the David Foster Wallace ones -- consume you too. (Who by fire, who by water vapor.) The cool, detached gloominess of "The Greatest" sends the opposite message to the one producer Jack Antonoff sent years ago; I don't want to get better, because there's no time left and no point. Lana was "doing nothing most of all," and that's why she's become the figurehead for this decade's music. Not Gaga. Not Beyonce. Not Lorde. Lana. Lana won the race to the bottom because she was there first; maybe a writer once took her sadness out of context, yet if someone said "I wish I was dead already" today, the response would not rise beyond a shrug of 'mood.' I don't even like this song that much as a song. It's slow and dreary, and that "culture is lit" line sounds hackneyed and pandering in its own way. But it's because of that artificiality that the line feels authentic, which was Lana's whole thing in the first place. Maybe I'm just bitter that she became so important when I wasn't looking. To paraphrase another, equally 2019 line, I hate to see it. Especially when I was so blind the whole time. [7]

Josh Buck: "I miss New York, and I Miss you. Me and my friends, we miss rock and roll." As Lana del Rey laments her Big Apple days, it feels like a lifetime since she was a Brooklyn Baby, singing Lou Reed with her boyfriend's band. She ventured out west to create an entire California fantasia and over a handful of albums, she built a cinematic version of the Golden State that was vibrant and full of endless sun and limitless romantic possibilities; even if it was all tinged with just a dab of noir-ish danger. It was a world as fully realized and teeming with mythology as a great novel. And "The Greatest" is where she watches it all burn down. "I'm facing the greatest loss of them all." California dreams are beautiful, until you have to wake up, so she sparks a cigarette and raises a glass to the ride. But if "The Greatest" is a moment of personal reflection, it's also a celebration. It's a toast to a new Greatest Generation. A generation that created and protested, that fucked and traveled and loved in spite of a planet threatening to burn them alive, and world leaders determined to end things even quicker. It's an anthem for thriving in the face of the apocalypse. It's my favorite single of 2019, and just thinking about it triggers a million competing emotions. If all somehow make it through this moment, we'll have one hell of a story, and a hell of a song to go with it. The culture is lit, but we had a ball. [10]

Michael Hong: A couple of cycles ago, that line probably would have drawn mass scorn from critics, but for now, it may very well be the lyric of the year. Part of that may be attributed to the way the culture has shifted their view on Lana Del Rey, but another part of it is that Lana sounds the most honest she's ever sounded. "The Greatest" is an ominous but sincere reflection of the current state of the world, and Lana no longer seems content with empty depictions of American touchstones. Lines like "I miss New York and I miss the music" still rely on those same symbols, but they now feel like lived experiences rather than empty nostalgic musings. Hell, Lana Del Rey even manages not only to make "me and my friends, we miss rock 'n' roll" work but sound like one of the most profound statements you've ever heard. Lana Del Rey's hushed vocals paired with the gauzy instrumental are quietly disarming, playing out like the cinematic zoom-out at the edge of the apocalypse. And if this is it, those final laments on the outro might be the greatest way to go out. [9]

Alfred Soto: She's not the greatest, nor does she think she's the greatest, so long as she thinks the "culture is lit" and she's "having a ball," whatever that means, but I suspect it means more than the guitar solo. Narcissism as plaint. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: The core Lana Del Rey problem is that she confuses narcotic with dramatic and droning with sweeping. "The Greatest" mitigates those faults a little, but only a little, and only by borrowing some faults from classic rock. The track also smothers what could have been a fine torch song in overproduction -- the culture can't be lit if you snuff it out with a million moles of echo. It shouldn't happen that I felt more genuine things about ghosts and missing things from a perfume newsletter than this. [4]

Ian Mathers: So here's the thing; I originally wrote about and scored this song before the more exhausting parts of the whole Lana Del Rey Conversation that engulfed Music Twitter last week had happened, and I was basically saying, yeah, the conversation is interesting and has some good points but I mostly receive the song outside of it and I just like that song (and generally do, with her singles). But then... it got worse. And between the artist herself showing her ass and all of the assorted takes, the thought of listening to any of LDR's music just got more and more enervating. Some would say it's unfair or incorrect to adjust my opinion of this song, or at least to admit that those events have, in fact, adjusted my opinion of the song. But I'm a guy who wrote a Master's thesis at least partly on the idea that the context around a work of art justifiably changes not only our aesthetic relationship to it but the ontological status of the work of art itself (which is not a physical thing, not even as data). The classical example is finding out, say, a painting is a forgery, but honestly this whole thing is a great example too. Doesn't make me outright dislike "The Greatest", but does legitimately move it from being a real bright spot to a song I enjoy that I need a bit of a break from. [7]

Stephen Eisermann: Hats off to Lana and Jack for really creating an atmosphere of nostalgia that you fall into the second you hit play. Lana's vocal is tender and understated, further reinforcing the sense of longing the track aims to create; but, hearing her sing the word "lit" and the Kanye West reference stand in stark contrast to that moody guitar lick and I... I just can't reconcile the two. [4]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Lana Del Rey is deeply aware of the fickleness of the music industry. On Born to Die, that manifested in her almost-trolling approach -- aggravating, almost-rap cadences, weird production choices, even weirder lyrical ones -- that wormed its way into the pop consciousness. For her middle three albums, she refashioned herself as a thinking person's pop star, working with more respectable (and more male) figures like Dan Aurebach and A$AP Rocky as a way of positioning herself as adjacent to prestige. The music was better but also more boring. Now, with Norman Fucking Rockwell!, she has cashed all the checks that a decade of practice and following the rules of pop earn you. "The Greatest" is a thesis statement for the album's ambition. It's not just the title -- although that is a helpful indicator. It's everything: the classic rock guitars and big drum fills, the nostalgia for doing nothing of the lyrics, the way she sings them. On "The Greatest," Lana sounds done. Not exhausted, but complete, as if she could walk away from this all and not miss a second's worth of sleep. It's a big damn classic rock song that's aware of how bombastic it sounds, and yet its self-awareness does not undercut its narrative and sonic heft. It's the kind of song you can't make without making a lot of worse songs that dance around the same topics. But here, where it really counts? Lana nails it. It's a buzzer-beater of a song, rattling around the rim four times before falling in -- all the sweeter in glory for the bumps on the road before it. It's likely not the last Lana Del Rey single we'll review, but if it is, it's a fitting send-off: in response to all the fickleness of the industry, Lana rewrites her story on her own terms, and makes it sing. [9]

Jackie Powell: Norman Fucking Rockwell started as such a fascinating paradox, but didn't really continue building and evolving on what made its first third so successful. "The Greatest" is lyrically relatable and sonically beautiful. Jack Antonoff, being the wizard that he is, finds a way to wean Lana Del Rey of her noir and whining tendencies. He overdubs her potential for a beautiful vocal pairing it with brighter arrangements. It's pellucid and mellow but not a snoozefest. But its placement on this album really sold the track short. NFR loaded its most compelling tracks at the top of the project. Del Rey placed "The Greatest" after "Fuck it I love you" in a double feature of a music video, which where it should have been placed on the album. In the visual, Del Rey floats around and almost above her surroundings contemplating what's next. The haunting but gorgeously comforting guitar solo brings the listener along with Lana herself back down to earth. Lyrically and through its soft piano, the outro is what gives this song its weight and a sense of profundity. Her cultural references which include Kanye West's physical and emotional transformation and David Bowie's "Life on Mars" allow us to reflect on what we've become. Lana Del Rey does that here and on almost every record. I just wish "The Greatest" was given the proper stage to achieve the status of its moniker. [6]

Joshua Lu: The majority of "The Greatest" feels unbound by time, as Lana Del Rey reuses Extremely American words that apply to the '80s as much as today: Long Beach, New York, the Beach Boys, rock 'n' roll. Only the outro plants the song firmly in the current year -- with mentions of Mars, Kanye, global warming, and that time Hawaii thought it was about to get bombed -- and with this passage of time, these signifiers bring no joy to Lana anymore. Her sprawling sense of nihilism seeps through in her languid voice and the turgid, psychedelic guitar as she laments how her generation's time is ticking away. Tempting as it is, I'm wary to read into this song as some kind of political statement, in part because the epochs that Lana fetishizes were also rather shitty, and also because I think Lana herself wouldn't prefer this reading, as it would play into that "p" word she, erm, has expressed adversity to. Maybe that's the song's trap, that despite how alluring it is to try to ascribe some deeper meaning, it's better to just do what the song does: sit back, observe, and mourn. [8]

Alex Clifton: Lana Del Rey has a beautiful and occasionally overwhelming voice. It's haunting but for me it can be like ingesting too much cake in one sitting -- extremely rich to the point where it feels exhausting to listen to more than one song at a time. Having said that, "The Greatest" is a song that works well with Del Rey's vocals. When the first pre-chorus hits -- "those nights were on fire, we couldn't get higher" -- her breathiness feels less like an affect but sadder and more wistful, the awareness that she'll never be able to get that life back again. It's a grandiose song, strings and languid piano and a chorus of a dozen Lanas sighing "if this is it, I'm signing off," but for once the grandiosity of the production fits the message. My issue with Del Rey's persona back in the Born to Die days was that I couldn't quite make out who she was under all the artifice, flower crowns and American flags. I know that's the appeal of artists like Del Rey, whose entire careers are built off of specific personas (despite what they claim to the contrary), but I don't deal well with facades that are built that tall. Arguments about personas and performativity in music can quickly dissolve into arguments about authenticity and how much that matters to the music, and I want to stress that I don't care about authenticity in the slightest -- I just like the moments where artists aren't invincible but human. In "The Greatest" those walls crumble down and Del Rey revels in her sadness in a way that hits close to the heart. She's vulnerable and mourning over a real love rather than a fantasy, and for once I feel like persona or no, I understand the appeal of Lana Del Rey. [8]

Vikram Joseph: At 2am this morning I found myself in the smoky bedroom of a guy I hadn't met until two hours earlier, half a bottle of red wine deep and still high off the fumes of the MUNA show I'd just been to, discussing the aesthetics of Lana Del Rey's music videos (as a kind of emotional foreplay, I guess?). It struck me that this, right there, was actually a pretty good representation of Lana's aesthetic -- unlikely moments that shimmer at the fringes of reality, a doomed romanticism that bleeds into a laconic, blissful sort of nihilism. There's so much heightened emotion (close to melodrama) in her music, and yet there's a simplicity too in what she craves -- men, bars, California, sun -- that Vice described as a "revolutionary pleasure." It feels like an extremely LDR move to draw a direct parallel between lost love and the end of the actual fucking world, but it's testament to her songwriting, those aesthetics that she's worked so hard on, and the spellbinding, crystalline production on "The Greatest" that she pulls it off so completely. From the opening bars -- dignified piano chords, soft-focus acoustic guitars and cinematic strings -- it feels like an elegy; I can't help but see the crumbling, sunlit edifice of a gorgeous building when I hear this song, especially during that billowing, washed-out guitar solo, or the slow nuclear decay of the outro. "The Greatest" feels like a culmination, and a kind of closure. It's a veteran of an iconic club scene reading the memoirs of her golden years out loud, or the last time two people who once loved each other ever speak, or a beach scene at the end of civilisation. Sonically and aesthetically, it sounds cast adrift in time, and that's why it's so effective. It's the end of the world as we know it -- I don't think Lana feels fine, exactly, but maybe there's a certain comfort in finally knowing for sure that it was all for nothing. [10]

Will Adams: Lana Del Rey made a career writing elegies to American culture, which is what makes "The Greatest" as moving as it is heartbreaking. The patriotism of "American" has turned bitter. The sprawling luxury of "Shades of Cool" has fizzled. The worries expressed in "Coachella -- Woodstock In My Mind" have been realized in twisted, terrifying ways. So it makes sense that, after a few minutes of misty-eyed farewells presented with a smile ("I had a ball"), it all collapses to rubble. The gleaming classic rock evaporates into three descending chords. This, it turns out, is the greatest loss of all. Not rock 'n' roll, not a past lover, not Long Beach, not Kanye West, but everything. In that final minute, the song sinks to the ocean floor, the flaming city fading from view, the monuments and culture blurring into nothing. Del Rey is gone, too, as there's nothing left to say. There is nothing except the brutal end. [10]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[maiakana]

Accent - Lee Felix

Stray Kids

masterlist

Key: fluff, humor, honestly some ranting haha

Characters: reader x felix

Count: 3.1k words

Part: 1 2 3

Description: who knew a late night run to the grocery store also meant running into a boy with a peculiar voice, literally.

Note: this was my first chapter of a fic I wanted to write but I kinda liked it as a one shot so here we go! I’m still learning so bare with the writing and mistakes! most likely will make a part 2 or 3 but no promises segrtergsefb

GIF Originally Posted by @felixeslee

You tugged your scarf closer to your face as you walked down the streets of Seoul. You were creating a mental map in your head of the area surrounding you.

Although you've been living in Seoul for 3 years already, you haven't quite gotten the hang of going around. Having almost no other connections in the country has also been making it more difficult.

The words were ringing in your ears, the lingering chill that spiked down your spine, as if they were just spoken.

"Y/N I forbid you, I swear you better come back here before you regret it."

Old news you didn’t need to think about, baggage you were still letting go.

It was later in the night, most residents and tourists have retreated into their homes and hotels by now.

However, a good handful of people were still milling about, friends hanging out, adults having late night drinks, or late night shopping. Specifically grocery shopping, which was where you fell in the categories.

The streets were illuminated by golden glows and neon colored signs, advertising hole-in-the-wall restaurants and tourist attractions. Instead, what caught your eye was everyone's fan favorite: the 24 hour convenience store, it indeed deserved that name.

A breeze from outside rushed behind you as you entered the store, your brown hair flew around your face, along with your scarf. You grabbed a basket with one hand as the other is busy trying to tame your airborne hair.

You started down the aisles, picking out the cheapest food items and ingredients you could find. The life of a student.

There was no one else in the store but the cashier, an old man who was busy watching the small TV monitor on the wall and counting money at the register, most likely his earnings from earlier in the day.

You hadn’t gone grocery shopping in a long time, living in a small dorm by yourself didn’t really prompt a lot of needs that needed to be replenished often. Not to mention your lack of eating, sometimes remembering mealtimes was easier said than done.

You filled your basket with the last few snacks that your hands could grabbed before striding towards the register. You politely greeted the cashier, reaching into the pocket of your long coat and pulling out a few coupons and cash, ready to hand them over.

While the old man scanned your items, you noticed all the posters and pictures plastered all over the wall behind him.

Idol groups: boys and girls alike, all very beautiful, a little unreal you might add. Many of them were group photo shoots but some had members individual headshots.

You recognized many groups displayed, from the big-shots like BTS, EXO, and Twice. To upcoming phenomenons like NCT's 18 member super group, just to name a few.

A sad smile curved on your lips, you had a push and pull relationship with idol groups, never quite cemented your opinions on them.

You've never had a issues with the idols themselves, in fact you used to be a huge fan, following so many groups, listening to their music, and even learning their fanchants, the whole shabang. That was the pull towards the appeal. Idols used to be your role models for as long as you could remember.

Repeat that: used to be.

The industry that produced Idols was what killed your appeal. That's the push. When you were younger you had no idea what it took to be in the limelight of the idol industry, of the trainee life.

But who could you blame, a majority of the world never knows that it takes to be successful, you were no different.

Over time, the idea of boys and girls your age being subjected to their looks and physical appearance, whether their voices were deemed alright, and collapsing from over exerting their bodies dancing. It was all too much for you, even as someone on the side lines.

Don't even get yourself started on the negatives of the fans and fandoms. However, the only light to shed on this was that at least Kpop isn’t the only industry that had extremes among those that enjoy it. Western music fans that were toxic over there, were just as extreme too.

You knew that most fans were regular people and just enjoy the music and the bands but sometimes the polarizing few become too much. Maybe it's human nature to have bad apples everywhere.

One incident you remembered a few years ago was the Shinee’s Taemin and APink’s Eaeun situation. A perfect example of the viciousness of fans and their hate and outbursts whenever they saw their idols do something they don't like.

They'd stalk, harass, and belittle anyone that was even in a 10 ft vicinity of the star. Following them around saying disgusting insults, hammering the nails even further. You don't think you’ve ever seen two people in such distress before.

It was such a shame really, for all we know Shinee's makane may have really loved her like he said on the show.

Now years later, the two are left to only avoid each other on stages and music shows when their groups cross paths. Minimizing contact at all cost to protect Eaeun from further harassment for just being around him.

And that wasn't even a scandal, some fans just couldn't stand their oppa being potentially happy with another person.

to be honest that whole section was me being emo after I watched so many videos about it and for all i know none of it was true or real or it was real and they were hurt because of it, either way i don’t feel like deleting it so sorry to anyone annoyed by it lmao

Although idols weren’t on your radar anymore, you would always know of them, it's inevitable. You were living in the time where they were growing the most international.

Music has always been a love of yours and that's all you’ve been focusing on ever since you came to Seoul. That's probably the last connection you had to idols, your love for music, your love for what you do.

The old man finished ringing you up, bagging all of your groceries and handing you the receipt.

"Hold on dear," the elder said, as he crouched down and shuffled with something under the desk.

Restlessly, you tapped your fingers against the counter. Looking around at all the idol merchandise, your eyes were drawn on to the TV monitor.

"N E X T  W E E K  O N  M N E T!" 

On the TV screen, many different clips of a few boys wearing dark clothes in a dance studio flashed by. There was a voice over, by an older man, explaining the tasks the trainees had to overcome. It was an idol survival show.

In some flashes they were sitting in a half circle talking intensely, in others they were dancing to choreography as one person sat out giving thorough feedback. However, the last clip showed a lot of the boys individually, either writing lyrics or practicing the lines.

You had barely caught the large strikingly red S and K at the end of the clip before the old man bounced up from searching below, stealing your attention again.

"Aha I found it!"

He brought out a small booklet, as if it was a manual you’d get along with a new speaker you'd buy. A manual it was not. You looked at the cover featuring a subtle sky blue with the Hangul lettering in white.

SCOUTING: COMPANY AUDITION & EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION

"You, young lady, look like these idol kids that are hung up on this wall," he gestured behind him while placing the small book into one of the bags. "We're given these little things all the time by a handful of companies to 'scout for rough potential.’ We only give them out during the day but since you're here so late I figured why not give you one eh?"

You stared oddly at the bags full of your food and now with a book that's basically a catalog of idol company hotlines. Looking back and forth between the wall of posters and the old man's kind smile you felt your cheeks blush at the gesture as you hesitantly smiled back.

"Uhh . . . thank you sir you are very generous," you stiffly bow, thanking him for the bags, still slightly baffled by the idol comment.

Ironic. You still remembered being told the same thing once, but that it’d be the only thing you’d be known for.

How superficial.

To save yourself from further embarrassment you briskly headed for the door. The chilly fall air brushed against your cheek, the bags in your hands slightly swaying due to the quick pace. Walking only a few feet away from the convenience store, you looked down at the bags thinking about what the man said.

Yeah right, become an idol your ass.

Before you could look up you felt your right shoulder collide into another figure, earning a loud yelp from the both of you. You dropped your bags as you stumbled slightly losing your balance while the other person, who you realized was a guy, stumbled on his step too.

The guy reached his hands out and gripped your arms on both sides steadying you. Because of the small tug from his motion, you had accidentally taken a step towards him, slightly closing the space between you guys.

"Are you alright?" a deep voice asked, filled with concern. Shocked, our eyes flickered to meet his. English?

He had ebony brown hair parted on the left side of his face. It was a tad longer than most of the men’s hair you see around but the way it flowed just to his eyebrows perfectly framed his sharp pale face.

He was decked in all black clothing, sneakers and all. He was only maybe 3 or 4 inches taller than you yet his dark hoodie and jeans seemed to make his figure tower over you. His jaw was angular, skin a little paler than yours and lightly dusted across his nose and cheeks were freckles.

bahaha apparently he is 5' 7  rn its okay tho because i’m hella short

"Yeah I am,"  you mumbled back, stunned by his dark eyes staring down at you.

He grinned at you showing of a white smile. He gently let go of your arms and crouched down to pick up the fallen bags. "I think we're both going to run into something worse than each other someday if we don't pay attention to where we're going."

You quirked up an eyebrow. "You speak English?"

"I don’t know, does it sound like I'm speaking Spanish?" he chuckled at his own joke. 

His voice was like the ocean itself. A deep flowing tone, miles under sea level, it was a complete contrast from the pretty face it was coming from.

Your ears seemed to ring listening to his voice. An accent of some sort? It wasn't an American accent like your own, nor was it European, it was distinct. You couldn't really put a finger on it.

"Don't take offense to this but are you a foreigner too?" you questioned.

"Hmm I wonder what gave it away," he flashed you an amused look, carefully handing over the bags full of your groceries. "But yes I am, you?"

"I guess we're both in the foreigners club here," you said looking up at him. "I'm from the States."

"Ahh so I got an American on my hands."

You furrowed your eyebrows at him half amused and half curious.

"And what's that supposed to mean huh?" you shot back. He laughed at your counter, the happy sound echoing through the street.

"I knew you couldn't have been another Aussie," he shoved his hands in his pockets, tilting his head a bit, as if thinking about how he wants to form his next comment. "Your accent made that clear, love."

You couldn’t help but giggle at his words, him following suit. So he's Korean Australian, that's new. 

You thought it was only the British that said love.

An electronic ding rings out of the boy's jacket. Quickly pulling his hands out of his pocket with a phone in grip, he opened up the device to view a message he just received.

Sighing, he typed a quick reply to the other person on the other end. You noticed the slight bags under his eyes as his faces was illuminated from the phone. His posture was relaxed but slightly rigid in some movements.

He was clearly exhausted.

When he looked back at you, you took a step back putting some distance between each other, bending down and respectfully bowed to him, greeting him in Korean.

He bowed and greeted you back.

"I'm sorry for bumping into you, I didn't realize it was possible to bump into someone in plain sight," he said, shyly scratching the back of his neck.

You waved him off. "It's okay, I should've been watching where I was going but thank you for helping me."

"It's the least I can do after I sent you spiraling," he replied. He flinched as a few more buzzes went of from his phone, clearly whoever was texting him wasn't willing to wait much longer.

Time to go.

"Looks like my fellow foreigner has to go," You said, tilting your head to the side. "Seems urgent."

"Just my hyungs," he sighed, rubbing his eyes a little. "It was my turn to get snacks for home. Didn't realize I was on a time frame though."

"Lose a bet?"

"Something like that," he said. He held a hand out with the same grin on his face from before. "Well Miss America it was nice bumping into you."

You reached out to shake his hand.

His big hand I'm sorry I snorted writing this haha was warm, delicately holding onto your smaller one, they seemed to tingle at the touch. "I could say the same thing too, Aussie."

You let go of each other hands and exchange a small bow again. The brown haired boy started a step towards the convenience store until he paused and turned back to look at you. He seemed to be debating if it was worth to ask you something.

"Are you busy tomorrow?" He asked.

"Haven't even known each other for an hour," you jokingly raised an eyebrow at him. "Straight forward I see."

He laughed while taking off his beanie, running his fingers through his hair a little. He played the edges of his sweatshirt looking a way a bit, fidgeting.

"Well if you aren't doing anything tomorrow night you should come to Sinchon. I heard there's a lot of busking in the streets since it'll be Friday," he rushed.

"And you want me to come watch with you?" you pressed back. It was an interesting hang out choice for sure, but he's sparked your curiosity. You wanted to mess with him a little longer. "How will I find you? Doesn't seem safe to just give my phone number to a stranger I met on the street. I mean come on we haven't even exchanged names."

His face perked up. Clearly surprised that you were playing along with him. "It's Felix, Lee Felix. And what does my favorite foreigner call themselves?

"Ha ha ha you think you're so witty don't you? I'm Min y/n."

His eyes glistened under the city lights, you felt your heart pound faster at the way his face changed into content after learning your name. "So what do you say miss y/n? Care to join a night of fun with your favorite foreigner?"

"Hmm, maybe you'll see me there," you joked sarcastically. "How am I supposed to turn down the offer of a lifetime?"

You weren’t lying to be honest, even though the idea of watching some buskers was interesting, you weren’t completely sure if you could go. You had a long schedule for tomorrow but you didn't have the heart to ruin his excitement.

Felix's hand shot down back into his pocket to fish out his phone again before handing it to you looking away quickly, avoiding your eyes.

"Maybe you'll feel better if we had a way to let each other know when we'll be there," he mumbled, his cheeks tinting a bit pink.

"Is that how you're going to ask for my number?"

"If it's working then yes."

Laughing at his honestly you gingerly took the phone out of his hands and put in your number. His fingers lightly brushed against your own causing tingles to travel up your hands. 

Ignoring the flutters in your stomach, you frantically typed in your info, becoming very embarrassed every time you made a typo. Feeling a heavy gaze watching you, you had barely missed the small comment that slipped out of his lips. 

"Cute," he muttered under his breath.

You felt like digging yourself in a hole while you waited for him to put in his own number on your phone, openly spamming in some middle school emoji choices for the heck of it.

His cheeks raised up as a smile lit up on his face. "Can't wait to see you there!" You nodded happily at him trying to calm the nerves that were spreading through your body. 

What kind of trouble were you getting yourself into?

You urged him to finally head towards the store, it was like you could hear more message alerts already coming of his phone from a mile away. Waving goodbye as we walked away from each other, you couldn't help but feel the excitement building up already inside. You haven't had a light hearted conversation like this in a long time.

You closed your eyes seeing the painted image of his dark eyes looking down at you, hearing his deep voice that hilariously did not match his face. 

His voice.

You whipped around from where you were, only a few feet further from the store and where you just spoke. You spotted the same boy right in front of the store, just about to push the door in.

"Hey Aussie!" 

Your shout echoed through the empty dark street. The sky was clear and the moon was out, a perfect chilly day in November. 

He turned to your direction surprised at your call. Doing the same head tilt like before, he was about to reply until you beat him to it.

"I like your accent." 

His eyes twinkled a bit as he smirked back, amused.

"I like yours too."