#and it was a theme week so the competition was RIDICULOUS lol

[homura]

my little dewdrop laundress won first place aisha again AND THIRD OVERALL?!??!? ;-;

[sneakyblinders]

the royal wedding of small heath

A/N: I was going to post this in one big fic but it’s so long... and I’m not finished quite yet lol enjoy pt 1. PT 2 HERE warnings: soft tommy. for my tommy and his darling wife!au. language, mild sexual themes.  1.9k words

The Garrison was bustling with people. People milled about, this way and that, people Tommy recognized, and people he didn’t. The musicians that Arthur had hired for the event were fantastic, just the exact music Tommy had wanted. None of the new stuff, and all of the stuff Tommy and his brothers held dear to their hearts.

Family members from near and far gathered here today after the rehearsal to celebrate with Tommy and his bride.

He made his way over to the bar, where Harry was rapidly pouring shots for a group of men lined up at the bar Tommy could only assume to be some of your cousins. Not men he knew. “Gentlemen,” he greeted them.

“Mr. Shelby, we appreciate your generosity tonight.” The oldest of them said, leaning over the other two to shake Tommy’s hand.

“It’s my pleasure.” Tommy told him before asking Harry for another bottle of whiskey for the table.

“She looks mighty pretty tonight, Mr. Shelby,” Harry told him, handing him the bottle.

“That she does, Harry. That she does.” Tommy glanced back over his shoulder, hearing your laugh as your sister told some ridiculous story from when you were children to John and Finn.

He turned back towards your table, bottle in his hand. He made his way through the crowd, beginning to itch in his suit. He was far too worn out from all the people that were abso-fucking-lutely everywhere this week. People from your side of the family had started pouring in on Monday from all over England, the United States and fucking France to witness the Shelby wedding. The Royal Wedding of Small Heath is what the Birmingham papers had called it when your engagement announcement ran in the papers. Your mother had bought every paper she could get her hands on and sent the clipping to every family member she could think of.

“It’s pretty rare that someone like us marries someone like Thomas Shelby.” your mother had told you, eyes peering at you over her glasses.

Someone like us.

You’d been raised in London, your parents both modest people. Your father has worked as a banker ever since you could remember. He made a decent living, but with you, your older sister and brother and mother to take care of, there was never really much extra money to go around. You lived well, and had everything you needed, but the wants were never really attended to.

So when you accidentally met Tommy one evening on your way back home in London, your mother insisted it was fate. And a few months later, you deemed that she was right.

Tommy returned to your table, setting the bottle of whiskey down. John snatched it up and poured his and Arthur’s glasses full once more. “Are you doing alright, Sweetheart?” he asked, adjusting in his seat, his arm around you.

“Yes,” you beam up at him. “Are you?” you ask, a hand on his thigh.

“Never better.” he told you, love pouring from his chest.

“If I see a more lovesick man I’ll drag him here so you can have a competition,” John laughed. Esme elbowed him in the ribs. “What? I’ve never seen ‘im like this.” John told his wife.

“Pay him no mind, love.” Esme told you. You giggled, squeezing Tommy’s thigh under the table.

“I generally don’t.” you told her.

“And that, Tommy, is why we love her!” Arthur cackled, raising his glass to his lips and throwing back the whole glass of whiskey.

Your mother apprehensively approached the table. She’d been here for a bloody week and a half and Tommy had barely been able to get his hands on you for fear of her popping up and claiming your whole relationship to be an absolute travesty. “Dearie, your father and I are getting quite tired, would it be alright if we retired for the evening?”

Tommy sighed when you stood up to hug your mother. “Of course, of course. Tommy,” you turned to look at your fiance. “Would one of your brothers escort them to their lodgings?” you asked.

“I’ll do it, love. Happy to.” Arthur told you, standing up. “Anything for you, love.” he threw you a tipsy smile.

“Thank you, Arthur. Mother, remember, we must be at the estate by nine.” you reminded her.

“Yes, of course. We will be there.”

Your mother hugged you goodbye, your father waiting patiently by the door. Arthur lumbered after them, making sure they got there safely. It was only a block away, but stranger things have happened in Small Heath.

After your parents left, other guests started to trickle out of the Garrison, whether to settle in for the night or go get rowdy somewhere else, no one knew. Tommy quietly observed the rest of the people, smoking his cigarette, arm around your shoulders as you talked to your sister.

“Are you ready, sister?” Emile asked.

“For what?” you asked with a confused look on your face.

“To be a wife, of course. And all it entails.” she told you, a suggestive tone in her voice.

“Emile!” you scolded her, eyeing Tommy, who acted as if he wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to your conversation. “Not here!”

“Thomas, wait ‘till you see the things our cousins from France bought her.”

“Emile!” you scolded again, cheeks flushing hot. Thankfully John and Finn had gotten up to fetch more beer.

“It’s alright, love, everybody knows you won’t be out in public for at least a week after tomorrow.” Tommy told you, a devious look on his face.

“Thomas!” you scolded, a look of disbelief on your face. “Ganged up on by my sister and fiance. Unbelievable.”

“We’ve been in cahoots this whole time, sister. How do you think he picked the ring the right size?” Emile asked, peering at you over her wine glass.

You look at Tommy, who was smirking. “She’s right, love. Phoned her and asked the second I knew I was going to propose.”

“Which was when?” you asked.

He leaned in closer to you, lips to your ear. “That night after I took you to that restaurant in London–what was it called–”

“Wiltons.” you reminded him.

“Ah, yes, Wiltons. I took you back to my hotel and–”

“Okay, I know what day you’re talking about now.” you tell him, pulling away from his lips. He’s smirking at you. “Cheeky man.” you tell him as he lights a cigarette.

“Only bad thing about him, he smokes like a freight train.” Emile joked.

Tommy smiled, cigarette in his mouth. “You get used to it.” you tell her, thankful Tommy was tolerant of your sister's childish remarks.

You sat in silence, Tommy’s thumbs drawing sweet circles on the back of your hand as your sister went to find your brother. “Do you think everyone will behave tomorrow?” you ask Tommy.

“They will, my love. I will make sure of it.” he tells you, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

“Where is Ada?” you ask, suddenly noticing her absence.

“She said they will not be making an appearance until tomorrow.” Tommy said, rolling his eyes.

“Because of Freddie?” you ask.

“Yes, because of Freddie.” he confirms, putting the butt of his cigarette in the ash dish.

“It’s not fair to Karl, keeping him from his family.” you tell Tommy, snuggling closer into his side.

Tommy sighs. “I know, my love.”

Polly comes over towards the table, a smile on her face. “Are you two ready for tomorrow? Dress all picked up?”

“Yes. It’s hanging in the room at the estate.” you tell her.

“Thomas, did you pick up–”

“Our tuxedo’s from Mr. Zhang, yes, Pol. I did.” he says flatly.

“The baker came to me this morning and said he would deliver the cake around noon.” she rattled off all the delivery times of the various things. Flowers by nine, musicians would arrive by four, and the estate would be bathed with white roses and greenery by one in the afternoon. Polly had been an integral part of the wedding planning, going with you to every dress appointment, every catering and cake testing. Tommy waved it all off, telling you, “Whatever you want, Darling, all I care about is the bride at the end of the aisle.”

A little before midnight, the party came to a close. Everyone left, leaving you, Polly and Tommy to discuss various particulars of the impending wedding day. The musicians packed up their things, and Tommy handed them a rather thick wad of money.

“Thank you, Mr. Shelby.” the bassist said.

“Thank you, you all did a wonderful job tonight.” Tommy told them sincerely, showing them to the door and locking it behind them.

“Alright, you two might as well start saying your goodbyes. Can’t see each other until she walks down the aisle, Thomas. It’s bad luck.” Polly told him. “I’ll wait outside, love.” she told you, walking to the car that John was waiting in. You were going to spend your last night as a single woman at Polly’s place, sleeping in Thomas’ old bedroom, that he had only just vacated, telling you his wedding present to you was rather grand.

He stood up and walked over to the old gramophone and began to play one of John’s new records. Some of the slow jazz that was popular then. “Will you dance with me?” he asked, turning to you, eyes straining to make out all your features in the dark.

A few lonely candles were still lit, giving the pub a warm glow. “Yes, Mr. Shelby, I will.” you stand up to meet him in the middle of the pub.

He pulls you into his chest and you rest your head against his heart. “I swear to you,” he whispers lowly. “I will spend all my life loving you, and you alone. You are the single best thing to happen to me, my angel.”

You smile against his chest, feeling his heart beating in his chest. “I love you, Thomas Shelby.” you tell him, melting into him.

“I love you.” he whispers.

Your ring sparkles in the faint rays of light, casting small rainbows on the ceiling. It was far bigger a diamond than you thought practical, but Tommy would not hear of a smaller diamond. You were quite nervous to see the wedding band he had picked but he assured you that you would love it.

“I can’t wait to see you in your tuxedo tomorrow.” you tell him, looking up at him.

He smiled softly at you. “Enjoy every minute of tomorrow, Sweetheart. Anything you want, you can have, okay?”

“Will life always be like this?” you ask.

“Like what?” he asked in return.

“Anything you want, in the blink of an eye. The snap of my fingers.” you say, still in disbelief.

“That is my goal, love.” he tells you, reaching down to kiss your lips.

The kiss is cut short by John bursting through the doors. “Will you let her come on? Polly won’t quit complainin’ about the cold. You have your whole lives to kiss.”

Tommy kissed you again, John throwing his arms in the air and huffing before turning around to walk out the doors again. You hear him faintly yell to Polly, “He won’t let go of her, Pol!”

“I better go.” you chuckle, looking into Tommy’s eyes.

“Sleep well, my blushing bride.” Tommy teases you, pressing one last kiss to your lips.

“Goodnight, Thomas.” you tell him.

He walks you to the car, where John is thoroughly annoyed now. “See you tomorrow!” Tommy says, a mischievous grin on his face.

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

11/10/2024 – 11/16/2024

Sunday

Week 40 of missing Cipher Academy

Love Live Superstar Episode 6 MADE ME CRY AGAINNNNNNNN KEKE MY BABYYYYYY YOU’RE WORKING SO HARD FOR YOUR DREAMS AND I’M GLAD YOU DECIDED TO PURSUE IT WHOLEHEARTEDLY I LOVE YOUUUUUU AND THE NEW SONG IS SO GOOOOOOOOOOD IT’S LIKE IT WAS MADE JUST FOR ME Now I just need them to give me at least a clean version of the 30 seconds of acoustic Hoshizuku Cruising on the season 3 OST CD and I’ll be satisfied and set for life. Please Bushiroad. (Also the parallels between Keke’s story and Liyuu’s real life journey to become a seiyuu and idol in Japan makes me emotional to think about…)

Monday

Undead Unluck good!!!!! UNDEAD UNJUSTICE… What an amazing parallel. Tozuka’s always been good at parallels and foils and call backs, but this is just so peak.

Tuesday

Landed back home and had to sleep for like forty hours to recover

Wednesday

Oshi no Ko finally ended and man…it feels so far from the manga I initially read and felt excited for. All I can really say at this point is LMAOOOOOO I was taken in by its seemingly down to earth take on the ins and outs of the Japanese entertainment industry with a dash of social commentary about parasociality, but the finale just devolved into unbelievable melodrama and I had to check out at that point. I don’t know, for a story supposedly about the “dark side of the industry,” it never felt like it was really examining and interrogating any systemic issues; instead it all boiled down to a few bad actors (with baffling motivations), and a final thesis you could find in any basic idol show. It hurts because I was really really into this story at the beginning, but with this flop of an ending I’m going to have to give it a 3/10.

Hung out with a friend and caught up on some Dropout shows. First we watched the Make Some Noise episode with Jess, Ross, and Geoff and it was decently funny. Then we started watching Gastronauts, and I honestly love this show so much… I love cooking competition shows already, and seeing Dropout put their own spin on it is so much fun. I love that the challenges are purposely ridiculous and out of the box – I like to imagine that the chefs had a good time flexing their creativity rather than just exhibiting their skills in a straightforward head to head. And then all the food looked sooooooooooooooooooo good it was honestly driving me a little insane. I’m really going to look forward to new episodes of this on a regular basis.

Thursday

Read the latest chapter of Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 and man this series is so much more fun when I can binge the whole thing…when will I learn… But this was a cute chapter regardless, just doing a bunch of testing and inventing.

Read the entirety of I Want to be a Wall in one sitting and it’s cute! As with most Yen Press queer manga pick-up’s, it’s kind of baby’s first introduction to its central topics of asexuality and marriage inequality, but it was nice to see it explored from the perspective of these adults with their various familial and social pressures (the stuff about the stigma of not having kids really got to me). It got a tad melodramatic for me towards the end, but it was sweet enough that I’ll let it slide. 7/10.

Caught up on One Piece because I heard that bangs Robin was back AND SHE DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!!!!!! I MISSED HER BANGS SOOOO MUCH and it’s kind of a relief to finally start a brand new arc, I’m going to do my best to pay attention and remember things this time as things develop lol I love the Norse mythology theming and whatever Loki’s got going on, but I hope this giant tree with its various levels isn’t just a retread of Impel Down.

I read Itou-san on a random Twitter recommendation for dark yaoi and just felt underwhelmed lol Maybe it was a pioneer in its time, but to me it just felt like the most generic edgy romance story in the world. It was like a teenager’s conception of what a whirlwind romance with an assassin would be like (coupled with a teenager’s conception of what a super duper evil assassin organization would be run like), and it just didn’t compel me. Unfortunately I’ll be giving it a 2/10.

Friday

Oops

Saturday

Whoops

[handwrittenhello]

FAQ/PLMM ROUNDUP

Will you do another poll with [x]?

Maybe? I totally understand the desire for an unofficial do-over without Vriska, which is the most likely to happen out of all possible options. Please don't ask me to run one just for two characters you want to see go head-to-head, though. Contrary to popular belief, I do use this blog for stuff other than ridiculous polls 😂

I've also been asked to run polls with other themes, like blorbos/

If I do end up running something, it won't be until next week.

I'm really mad that there was suspected botting/interference with Vriska's polls!

Me too, bud. Without being able to see exactly who voted what and when, though, there's no way to prove without a doubt that there was. I believe there was, other people believe there was, some people don't believe there was. That's all fine.

Just don't let this color your enjoyment of the competition or other fans/fandoms. Don't let the minority ruin the reputation of the whole.

How do you know the results/it was a tie/it says the final round was 50/50?

Tumblr doesn't show exact percentages or exact vote counts. Supposedly there's a way with API to show it, but I'm not that tech savvy. The way I made decisions was based off of Tumblr highlighting the winner green after the poll ended.

Various messages of support, saying you had fun, saying you're sorry about botting, etc.:

Thank you! I hope you all had fun as well. And thank you for making this silly contest as popular as you did; I didn't expect this to become SO popular and contentious! To everyone who created fanart/shitposts/meta/etc. about the contest, you're great! I and your meow meow thank you for your service.

If you want to unfollow me now that the PLMM contest is over, bye! Hope you enjoyed :) If you want to stay, I'm mostly a fandom blog, some shitposts here and there. I write and make art too.

Under the cut: the full stats spreadsheet, with some notes.

Fun facts: Harry du Bois ended up with 103,156 total votes across all five rounds, the most out of any character. In second place is Vriska Serket, followed by Howl Jenkins.

The hottest race was the final round. The second-hottest was Harry du Bois vs. Howl Jenkins, and the third-hottest was Prince Zuko vs. Vriska Serket.

I'd have loved to have created a graph plotting the contestants' rise and fall, but frankly, that's way too much work lol. If you happen to do so, tag me!

[imo-chan-imagines]

heyyyy :)

i hope you have a good day.

i would like to request a part 2 (or maybe more parts)

of the Kambe daisuke str!pclub story.

i love you storys btw <3

VIP Treatment | FKBU Drabble

Daisuke × fem!stripper!reader

♡ Sequel to: Eat The Rich ♡

Warnings: 18+, spicy smuttt 🥵, holy water on standby pls, strip club, sex for money, protected sex + mentions of raw sex, close to hate fucking 🤏, maybe some dub-con if you're really squinting but not really, 1 (one) light booty slap lmao, sugar daddy proposal 👀, dark themes, swearing, Daisuke being one cocky son of a biatch lol, request, drabble

A/N: Hello, Anon! Thank you so much for requesting this! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to it. I had a lot of requests and other content lined up. I hope you like it, though ♡ Please read part 1 first, as the story continues!

This request isn't part of it, but please check out my 500 followers event below! Requests are now open!

♡ My 500 followers thirst event ♡

⚠️ 18+ CONTENT! MINORS: PLEASE DO NOT INTERACT ⚠️

"Fuck," Daisuke hisses. His grimace dissolves into a smirk as he looks up at you.

His view is perfect as he watches you slowly slide up and down on your knees, taking him inside you, inch by inch. He holds your thigh, fingers clutching at your flesh, before running his thumb over the skin.

It's been two months since he first came to the club and made his little 'business proposal'. Now he's a regular, stopping by at least three times a week, just to fuck you – or for you to fuck him. That's how it usually goes.

At least he normally brings condoms with him now. Raw costs him extra. A lot extra.

Not that it isn't enjoyable – fuck, his dick is so good, it's unfair. Like you're ever going to tell him that.

A slap lands on the side of your ass, snapping you back into the moment. It sounded worse than it felt, nice and audible against the curve.

"Attention on me," he says, almost softly. Demanding prick. You narrow your eyes at him.

Fine. If he wants your full attention, that's what he's going to get.

You sit up straighter, rising up onto you knees, and increase the pace of your movements until you're bouncing on is cock, your thighs burning. Your eyes glint in wicked satisfaction as you recognise the frustration in his face as he struggles with himself against the sudden increase in stimulation.

But rather than sink under your determination, he rises to the challenge. He grips your hips for stability, bucking up to meet you every time you fall and swallow his length into your tight, little cunt.

His breaths are rougher, he's less collected. That stupid, supercilious grin is still there, but it's shifted into something more amused. Like he enjoys the competition.

A hand comes up and cups your breast as it bounces, thumbing over your nipple, before he pulls you forwards, enveloping it in his mouth. He licks and sucks.

You feel weak under his touch, but you keep fucking yourself down on him, the tip of his cock reaching so deep inside you that you feel like whining. But when he peers up at you with those icy eyes, his tongue still wrapped around your nipple, you shudder, almost collapsing against him.

The coil in your stomach tightens as he thrusts up into you, your hips grinding desperately into his movements as you chase your high.

"Gonna cum for me, hm?" he coos, too sweetly to be genuine. He chuckles through his ragged breaths, the air cool on your sweat-covered skin, and his voice drops. "Go on, cum for me. Do it."

His fingers find your clit and start making slow, deliberate circles. He's barely been stroking you for more than a few of seconds before you're clinging to his neck and rutting your hips against him as your tight walls squeeze and flutter around his cock.

He muffles his grunts as you cum, gritting his teeth as you fall to pieces against him.

"D...don't fight it," you mumble into his shirt, clutching at the loose tie that's come undone around his neck. "...cum for me too. Wanna feel it." You can feel him throbbing inside you at your words.

He pushes you face-down onto the seat and re-enters you, thrusting at his own pace until his fingers dig into your hips and he spills out inside the rubber with a dissolute groan.

It's only ten minutes later, when you're both redressed, that he speaks again, this time with a business proposal even more ridiculous than the last.

You cock you eyebrow at him. "You want me to what?"

"Quit your job here and come for work me. Just for me." He leans back in the seat the way he always does, taking out a cigar and lighting it with his Zippo.

"What, you afraid I'm fucking my other clients?" you scoff. "They fucking wish they were that rich."

"Is that a no?" he says, in reference to his offer. He snaps the Zippo shut and puffs out a plume of smoke in your direction.

"I didn't say that." It would mean no more creepy losers. No more guys' hands you didn't want on you. No more work. "What would you be then? My sugar daddy?" you tease, smoothing out your dress.

"You could call it that." He draws on the cigar again. "I'll even buy you your own place, if that's what you want. Just keep doing this with me, and I'll pay you more than you could ever need."

"You're already doing that."

"Then I'll pay you even more."

You laugh, but he doesn't, and it shuts you up. There's something odd about his behaviour. He isn't as cocky and smirking as usual. It's almost affectionate, but you tell yourself 'posessive' is more likely the ticket.

"Well?" he asks, tilting his head to the side.

Well. There was only one answer a girl like you could give to an offer like that. Right?

© imo-chan-imagines 2021

[prose-for-hire]

How Ats characters would spend Halloween with their s/o:

A/N: Happy October! This is written on the assumption that the s/o really likes Halloween !! 🖤💜

Warning: Reader gets sired in one hc (Darla’s).

Angel:

Angel is surprisingly content to celebrate

Doesn’t feel it’ll be bad luck - I mean how more cursed can he get

if you really like Halloween he will do every dumb activity in the name of making sure you’re happy

Will take as much time off for you around the time as you like

He’s the boss anyway

Halloween’s usually pretty quiet

(always is around this time of year)

Won’t like people dressing up as vampires

Will call them all posers

If you do dress up as a vamp he’ll tell you that you look ridiculous

“What are you wearing, huh?” “You don’t want to be like this, y/n”

And will tell you to change

If you pout and sigh he’ll look back at you and instantly feel bad

Explain it’s just a fantasy

And laugh, offering to dress him up as a human

Might protest at first but finds the idea funny

Give him a fake tan and a Hawaiian shirt

Or something brighter anyway

He’ll give you one of those looks

But secretly find it fun when you excitedly pick “human” make up and clothes

If you try and show him off to the others will refuse

Can’t let them know he can get giddy and fun (that’ll just be for you and him)

But you will take pictures

Lots of pictures

he’ll scoop you up and hug you to him, so you can’t see how wide he’s grinning

Spike:

Spike likes to pretend he hates it

But he loves it

No denying it

Won’t even be good at hiding it

but he will maintain he doesn’t wanna go anywhere

if you really plead will go to a bar with you

won’t dress up

but will get a lot of compliments on his Billy Idol costume

you might have to drag him away from a couple bar fights on Halloween

soul or no, the next person that says that name will be in the ground

if you’d rather stay in, he’s got you covered

he’ll have a tv guide or similar and have made a precise schedule of all the best Halloween shows/movies

and have made a reminder of where and when to switch over 

will ensure you both have plenty of snacks and drinks to last very near twenty four hours

will have a show or a movie lined up for any mood

want to be scared senseless? Here you go

Something cuter and a little spooky themed? Will line it up for you

(but will complain it’s lame)

Will make sure you’re comfortable and not scared if you’re watching horror movies

will take the piss if you jump but if he notices you’re really not enjoying it he’ll have a back-up to watch

will probably have several alternatives at the ready

the man knows his tv

if you’re frightened he’ll pull you into his side and give you as much comfort as you need

Cordy:

She’ll really like the holiday

Especially dressing up

(and the 24 hours off)

she will have planned her outfit (and yours) a few weeks before

Cordy will have conned Angel into letting her throw a party in the hotel

she will be doing a surprise-Halloween part for you

You love Halloween and you had kept hinting that it was getting close

maybe you could make plans

but she kept making excuses

there was a demon you needed to research

she was tired this year after all the work you guys do

she might have even faked a vision to get out of the conversation

Cordy will want everything perfect

she will threaten the entire team

that they have to come or else

and all of them will be there. She’s too scary not to listen

On the day you might look a little sorry for yourself

sat at reception in a costume just waiting for someone to have Halloween plans

You’ll get told to come into the ballroom (there’s a ballroom in the hotel)

Angel or Gunn will have been tasked to bring you

it’ll be a Halloween wonderland

Decorations, great music and all your friends in cool costumes

(except Angel)

Cordy will run at you and squeeze you tight, kissing your forehead

 telling you its all for you

and will give you an amazing costume for you to quickly put on

it’ll be the best Halloween part ever and she will barely leave your side all night

Doyle:

will be a bit unsure about the holiday

Has a bit of insecurity he’s still working on surrounding his demon half

Used to drink his way through the 31st alone

All of the masks and costumes

hard for him not to get a little cynical

Was hard to keep his usual good humour up

also, at this time of year his brooding could have put Angel’s to shame

But will have changed even slightly when he met you

And saw your enthusiasm

How could he deny you that excitable smile you always got around this time of year?

he will literally follow you to any activity you want

just so long as he gets to see you smiling like that

You choose a haunted house or similar

you know all about his demon half, he was open with you

so he doesn’t really find the house scary, although he does jump more than once

finally, he jumps so much he changes and manages to scare the actors away

he gets very pleased with himself

talking about ‘winning the haunted house’

in such a good mood will come with you to a party after

steals a crown from someone’s head

professes he’s the king of Halloween

and you absolutely have no intention of arguing with him

will appreciate all of the extra affection you lay on him through the night

Fred:

will adore the holiday

And absolutely adore you if you love it as much as her

Will literally vibrate with excitement

moving her hands around as she speaks animatedly

telling everyone your plans loudly

Everyone will have heard at least twice

Ghost trains and candy apples

Pumpkin carving and decorating the entire hotel

Literally every floor

Even the already spooky looking rooms

by the time the actual day comes around you’ll both be suuuper tired

you’ve done something pretty much every day leading up to the 31st

you’ll be laying in bed together and she’ll be threading her fingers through yours

humming contentedly and then talking non-stop

about all of your adventures

you start to giggle speaking of wearing costumes and knocking on the doors of the hotel

so you do

you annoy Angel by doubling back and asking him for candy twice

you knock on every door of the hotel, shouting trick or treat excitedly

one ghost answers and says they would like to see what tricks you have on offer

you both scream

you run, hand in hand, away from the ghost on the far side of the hotel where nobody goes

huddle together, under your shared bedclothes

as if that would protect you from the ghost

you spent the rest of the evening, still in costume, wrapped around the other

Gunn:

used to spend it patrolling his neighbourhood

Making sure all the kids were safe from vamps, etc while they were out

(Didn’t know about the Halloween rule)

When he told you about this, you loved the idea

You both came up with a plan

You managed to get him to dress up a little (an eye patch and a hook or similar) and you dress up too

Taking some of the kids Gunn used to look out for to the posh neighbourhoods so that they can get the best candy

The kids had some great costumes and mountains of candy

You made sure they all got back safely

Luckily no real demons in sight

At the end of the night Gunn would offer to take you out somewhere

Maybe a bar if you’re up for it seeing as you have some costumes on

he will enter you in a costume competition

knowing that you look the best in any room

(Halloween or otherwise)

if you don’t win he will absolutely argue with the person that picked the winner

the disrespect

If you don’t wanna go out he’ll be content to go home with you, telling you he’s gonna scare you senseless with the goriest movies

Will look away from the screen more than you

Insists he’s not scared - I mean he fights worse in real life

it’s just it’s a lot of gore when he could be admiring you duh

You won’t be able to tell if that’s the truth or not but take the compliment lol

And cuddle up to him just in case

Wes:

wasn’t such a big thing in England when he was growing up

Took himself very seriously as a watcher

So never really celebrated

So if you love it and suggest all of these fun activities

He’ll be straight into reading up all about them

By the next day can tell you the origin of all of the activities

And after a long-winded explanation which you will sit and listen to

Cos he’s very cute when he rambles like that

He’ll nonchalantly add he wants to try pumpkin carving first

so you’ll be looking for the nearest pumpkin patch before he changes his mind

make a day out of it

hold his hand through the entire day 

and maybe hang onto his arm a little

he will absolutely adore you being so physically affectionate

won’t be able to stop smiling

especially if you’re gushing about the 

he’ll offer to carry the pumpkins but may struggle a little as he hauls them to the car

you’ll both stop and not be able to stop smiling at each other

he’ll want to make the best one and will research so many designs

he’ll be really proud of himself and you when you show him yours

Wes will hug you softly to him and whisper his thanks 

you bring that little bit of joy into everything you do together

and Halloween is not different

he will set the carved pumpkins out pride of place on his desk at Angel investigations

or on the mantlepiece at your shared home

Lilah:

Pretty much works through every year

But this year was different

Made up a horrible excuse and spent it with you

She told you not to expect her to ever do this again

will have spent most of the day in bed with you

you don’t get much time around her job as it is

so you really enjoy spending this time with her

will suddenly get up in the afternoon and tell you to get dressed

you’ll frown, but feel she’s got something planned

you skip to the closet and she shakes her head, places a box on the bed

very special, several outfits for you

with a robe to place over the top

has been talking to all of her contacts and has got you both a very special ticket

she knows how much you enjoy Halloween

so has found a way for you to indulge

time travel, something that has been offered by the senior partners for employees to use (a kind of bonus)

she takes you through the decades

to different events/parties/time periods so that you can experience real events

All spooky themed

she’ll come with you and you have an amazing time

she makes you feel really loved

Lindsey:

he’s indifferent on the holiday

But will humour you if you like it a lot

Probably went trick or treating and all that growing up

But will have “grown out of it”

One he notices how excited you’re getting for the holiday will have to ask

he’ll smile, maybe chuckle at the way you admit you love it

will say he’ll hope for the time off to spend it with you

won’t want to miss your enthusiasm

they don’t give him any time off.

So you call him in sick, using your most professional voice

they believe you (or at least they don’t need him cos its Halloween so they let it slide)

Introduce him to an escape room or something

One of those properly haunted mazes with the freaky actors that jump out

It might even relax him more than his job

He’ll hold your hand through the entire thing

will find a ‘cosy’ corner

and pull you into the shadows, for a kiss

only you could keep his mind off the stress of Wolfram and Hart for this long

he was actually enjoying himself

and the idea he was protecting you from this made up threat

will start to plan something for next year (maybe a surprise for you)

Lorne:

has mixed feelings on the holiday

Loves that he can walk around without question

But gets annoyed at how many people start to touch his skin and try and “take off his mask”

could get really annoyed, making him hide away more

or, with you there, he may embrace it

If you’re really into it will throw a Halloween party in your honour

In caritas, with 90% of the guests being bemused demons

Some will have never heard of what humans do for Halloween

Apple bobbing would be a hit

Lorne will literally stop at nothing if it’s your favourite

I’m talking cobwebs in the corners, spooky playlists and themed karaoke choices

The cocktails would be brilliant and the regular customers that were invited would get really into it and want there to be an annual party

You would be the guest of honour

Lorne would ofc have practiced at least one number

and shout you out (with a big spotlight on u) at the start and the end

of any and all numbers

i’d be surprised if you weren’t pulled on stage at some point

To ensure everyone knows you’re his s/o and there would be no Halloween fun without you

Darla:

really won’t know much of Halloween

But might be surprisingly into it

You all worship us? Once a year?

Has visions of walking through the streets and making people sacrifice themselves to her

She will humour you if you want to dress up

but you only have one option: vampire

she wants to turn you anyway, she can’t spend much longing toying with a human

the other demons would talk

she will break into a mall

clear the area and reserve it for you

take you into all of the shops and will help you pick the most expensive items of clothing

will want to dress you up from a period of time she will remember fondly

as soon as you’re in your outfit will not be able to keep her hands off you

will take you out and show you off 

everyone will basically worship you (as she suspected)

she will lure someone away (after she is turned back into a vampire again)

have her fill

and nobody will notice

Halloween will be her new favourite time of year and will love you more for introducing it to her

She will know you like it so much, will offer to sire you that evening

Will want you beside her forever. And knows Halloween is special to you

You accept. It’s the best Halloween you ever spent

Harmony:

will have a plan for you to go to every party she’s been told about

An hour at each and you can double back if there’s a good one

Will wear the least clothing she can get away with

Will look reaally good

Might actually melt if you offer to do a couples costume

She’s a vampire but she’s still used to being a human

Loved Halloween and still does

Great excuse to get drunk and kiss her s/o

She’s very handsy anyway and will try and press as many kisses against you as she can at parties

Might start to nibble on your neck

If you’re into it and don’t tell her to stop she’ll squeal and get excited

And nibble a little harder to test your limits

Either way will be hanging off you in some way

So everyone knows you’re with her

Is surprisingly protective over a s/o

Especially at parties

Loves violence now so will try to get into at least one fight on halloween

You will have to pull her back from slapping the nearest person for looking at one or both of you funny

If her vamp face shows people will assume it’s a costume

[normal-thoughts-official]

Concept: enemies/rivals to lovers au where malec decide to hook up and have "hate sex" bc "I hate u but that doesnt mean u arent hot" but then it somehow ends up getting really tender and sweet anyway (bc of course they're both pining whether they realize it or not... bonus angst: magnus realizes and is Hurting alec is oblivious) and afterwards theres just this awkward silence of hm.. that was... Not hate sex

Bonus if it begins rough (not actually hurtful but rough) like alec slams him against a wall and it's all Flirting and Teasing but them they get to the making out and it's less rough and more very soft. (Also thinking alec slams magnus against a wall and magnus, embarrassingly, melts immediately bc he sub,, alec may tease him a little but hes also nonjudgemental and weirdly soft and magnus is like 😊)

hmmmmm i do love this concept but tbh i have trouble imagining a enemies to lovers au with malec because lmao when would they ever hate each other. i mean they had the perfect setup for this with alec being a shadowhunter but they’re just like nope. we ain’t about that life. like dahdsaidhasihdaihda

i guess rivals works tho, like they’re both competitive and turned on by competition oops yeah magnus reinvigorating sure and talented so i can see them both being like, idk athletes or some other shit who cares, and they’re like on opposing teams and there’s a rivalry going on because they’re both the aces

or if we want to be a healthy amount of ridiculous that fits our boys, they are just like. pool rivals in the local bar. izzy or fucking somebody dragged alec to the bar one (1) time and because alec isn’t big on drinking or noise or anything he just beelined to the pool table, and magnus immediately joined him, and they just turned like. VICIOUS. immediately. because they’re both about as good and competitive

so it becomes kind of a Thing - every saturday night they’ll “happen to be at the bar” and “see each other” and be like “i want a rematch” and monopolize the pool table. i mean other people can join them but it’s hell because they’re so focused on each other they just keep quipping and bantering and basically all but ignoring them. and everyone is like sigh. but it’s fun to watch so other ppl quickly start getting there to watch them and making bets and shit, and it gets the bar considerably more popular, so the owners aren’t mad

(i’m picturing that the owners are meliorn/maia/raphael because hoo boy am i a slut for the polycule. maia is the bartender and raphael cooks and meliorn kind of handles logistics. simon is a musician but he plays there all the time too and they’re all together and it’s cute. anyway that’s why magnus is always there, he always comes to see raphael and they spend most of the afternoon talking - idk he works mostly at the counter along with maia? look don’t question me. also earlier there aren’t a lot of people anyway so it’s mostly slow so they’re going around and getting everything ready and magnus helps okay let me have this - until eventually raphael sighs all like “tall boy is here” and magnus turns and sure enough, there is alec and there they go to the pool table)

okay so eventually alec learns that magnus is usually there on tuesdays as well as saturdays, so he starts coming in on tuesdays too because it’s better anyway and he gets to play and unwind with like, less people around, and it’s nice. and that’s when they start to know each other a little more deeply because they can engage in conversation without anyone watching (well. the polycule is definitely watching, but subtly. raphael will deny it in the face of overwhelming evidence but they all know he’s watching and desperately rooting for magnus and getting way too invested in their pool games) and actually like, talk about themselves without feeling weird? you know. usually they start talking to try and “distract” the other but their banter comes in so easily and they do have a lot of common interests and experiences and it just progresses naturally. talking and playing, playing and talking

(lmao there’s probably a point when magnus won’t be able to go to the bar as usual and he lets raphael know and raphael’s all teasingly like “should i tell tall boy not to come then?” and magnus is like don’t be ridiculous. but alec comes in and raphael tells him that magnus isn’t here today and alec is like *SULKS* and maia just kinda pets him on the head and it’s funny and ridiculous okay)

ANYWAY onto the theme of this ask (god why can’t i stick to the original idea for anything ever) they start to know each other better and fall in love and all that jazz, but their whole relationship is like. laced by the competitiveness and the game, you know? so they’re like ah yes haha we’re definitely rivals not friends at all. yes i did tell him some of my secrets and past experiences and we see each other almost every week why do you ask

and there’s obviously a lot of flirting involved because you CAN’T tell me that they don’t get turned on by competitiveness and each other’s skill, okay. like alec will score or whatever it’s called and magnus is equal parts big mad because they’re tied again and just like oh myh ofd so muhc arm jhmmmm strong competentt,,, god please fuck me until i cant speak and magnus has Even More Arm so alec is just watching him (also he’s so graceful and flexible and focused and every time he gets into position to idk what it’s called you get the idea, do the thing, alec is just. mesmerized by his movements and looking respectfully. and then he scores and smirks at him and alec is like god DAMN it you little brat i’m going to fuck you so hard haha what who said that) 

so anyway they flirt a lot and you can’t tell what is bantering and that is flirting anymore, and the sexual (and romantic but they don’t wanna acknowledge that. tbh mostly romantic because while i love some good ole sexual tension i feel like sometimes fics like this rely too much on that and u can’t feel the romance but like, they definitely start to talk about their lives and have a lot of fun together not just sexyal tension you know? like most of the time they’re really just talking normally about their days and they open up and just talking to each other makes them feel so much lighter and that’s why they keep coming back, you know? but they also flirt) tension is thick and eventually they end up kissing kinda roughly and passionately

and YEAH it begins kinda rough like wall slamming and all and magnus is all melty and like of course they’re not gonna do anything kinky because that’s a kinda spur of the moment thing and they didn’t discuss boundaries, or anything. but just like alec towering over him, kissing him roughly, clearly taking control and magnus being super into it and grabbing him and bringing him closer and wrapping his legs around him and just humping him and moaning? hmmm delicious 

anywAY yeah they’re supposed to have “hate sex” (not like really hate but more like, oh my god i’m so tired of you teasing me all the time and being an asshole and my totally rival not anything else, we should fuck about it) but like. they’re just. in love tbh and soon the kisses turn more reverent and alec’s wandering hands get softer and start just exploring and loving and it’s suddenly slow and sweet and he’s kissing every inch of magnus’ skin (even as magnus is kinda bratty like come on alexander, fuck me) and it’s just hmmm just great and loving. and alec fucks him slowly and magnus kisses him deeply and they’re both holding each other close and when magnus comes he lets out this beautiful moan and alec comes too, all like “oh my god, you are so perfect, so beautiful” 

and then they’re kinda like, panting and coming down from the high, and maybe they even kiss again after they’ve come without realizing what they’re doing? just like hmm good and nice and they’re still embracing and alec’s dick is still inside of magnus lol and they kiss slowly and languidly and then they just kind of come down from the high and look at each other like. oh god. shit. fuck 

but there’s no denying it so they’re just kind of like. hm. i guess we should. talk about this? haha. and they do because we stan healthy communication and that’s the story of how malec used hate sex as an excuse to be boyfriends 

[yourstreetserenade]

So as I mentioned I do have a holiday fic which I’ll be posting in December, until then though I thought I’d share the details on another holiday fic idea I had. I had two ideas and I debated on which story to write and in the end, I decided that the following idea would be more time consuming and I just didn’t have it in me. So the following is my nixed holiday fic idea.

It was a future fic in which Brittana were celebrating their first holiday season as a married couple. The gist of it was this...as a newly married pair Santana would introduce Brittany to a long standing tradition in the Lopez household: Black Friday shopping. 

Santana would explain that she and her mother, Maribel, take their Black Friday shopping very seriously. Every year, no matter what, Santana and Maribel would meticulously map out their plans weeks in advance, scouting ads for the best deals at the best stores. Even though Santana lives in NY with Brittany and there are better shops in the city, it’s a very important mother-daughter tradition that they do their shopping in Lima at the one huge outlet mall. It’s their turf. So Brittana fly back home to enjoy Thanksgiving with both of their families and it’s over dinner that Whitney learns that Brittany is going to join Santana and Maribel for Black Friday shopping. Feeling as if they should include her as well, the Lopez ladies extend an invitation to Whitney. Later that evening, after filling their bellies with food they prepare for retail war.

Whitney and Brittany are a little taken back by how serious Santana and Maribel are about this. They have laminated maps of the mall, food rations in their bags, mace (in case they encounter any unruly shoppers), perhaps Santana even has a set of brass knuckles (which Maribel confiscates from her daughter). Santana and Maribel approach Black Friday with as much intensity and detail as a military maneuver. Whitney and Brittany side eye how ridiculous they are but they overlook it, Brittany loves Santana and Whitney is just jazzed to be included.

So at midnight, Thanksgiving night, the four women set out on their mission and head to the Lima mall. There’s a few very specific deals they have their eyes on but Maribel has her eyes on a very expensive, very rare handbag. I don’t know handbags, it can be whatever. Hermes, Gucci, whatever. The ladies all agree, the fancy handbag is the priority. 

Our characters walk into Lima Mall to utter chaos. Their friends and neighbors have turned savage, Santana and Maribel are nonchalant about this, after all, they’ve done this all their lives. Brittany and Whitney are a little out of their element however, perhaps a little bit overwhelmed and maybe even slightly amused to see the usually calm, professional and articulate Maribel Lopez go absolutely apeshit on someone over an air-fryer. The four ladies navigate the mall without incident and manage to bag some sweet swag. Eventually they take a break, refueling with protein bars between stores, it’s then that Santana and Maribel break it down for the Pierce women. Santana explains that everyone in town - everyone in the mall - knows the Lopez women run that mall each and every Black Friday. The name Lopez strikes fear in most people so for the most part all soccer moms and dads know not to mess with them when they’re after a deal but there’s a couple of families in town that like to play and butt against them in a bid to win more power.

‘’The Cohen-Changs and the Fabrays,’’ Santana identifies the two other mother-daughter pairs she and Maribel have been warring with for decades.

‘’You mean our friends?’’ Brittany would ask. 

To which Santana would reply, ‘’They’re not our friends, at least not on Black Friday.’’

Because what happens in the Lima Mall stays in the Lima Mall and it turns out that outside of Mckinely and outside of the Glee club the Lopez’s, Cohen-Changs and the Fabrays have been in competition to be the best, most badass Black Friday deal shoppers. Years of sabotaging each other, one-upping each other and so on. Brittany laughs, but Santana is straight-faced.

‘’Babe, this isn’t a joke,’’ Santana declares. ‘’Our three families have had bad blood for years, okay? You’re an official Lopez now which means you’re a part of this. This is important information that you need to know. Now I haven’t seen the Fabrays or the Cohen Changs today but that doesn’t mean they’re not here. This handbag is the holy grail - the it item of the season. My moms wants it but word is the department store has a very limited stock. We gotta make sure we get our hands on one before either of those bitch ass families do!’’

Meanwhile! Interspersed with all of the action scenes in the mall there will be a handful of cutaway scenes that take place in the parking lot as Brittany’s dad and Santana’s dad wait for the women in the Pierce family’s old minivan. Lots of silly banter, with Santana’s dad being the serious straight laced one and Pierce being...Pierce. 

The four ladies gear up at the mall, arming themselves with walkies and essentials before storming the department store in question. They wade through the mass of people, elbowing and kicking and screaming and through team work they manage to get their hand on the very last handbag - the handbag of Maribel’s dreams. There’s a moment of celebration between them all until they realize - where’s Brittany?

It seems in the kerfuffle to get their hands on the bag Brittany has vanished, swallowed up into the crowds.

The three women are confused but don’t panic until they hear a message over their walkies. It seems someone has ‘’intercepted’’ Brittany. 

‘’You hand over the bag, we hand over your wife,’’ says the person who has taken Brittany and is using Britt’s walkie to make demands on the Lopez-Pierce women.

Santana doesn’t need to be told who it is, she already knows. ‘’Fabray,’’ Santana seethes.

Insert a FaceTime call. Santana and Quinn glare at each other down via their devices. ‘’What do you want, Quinn?’’

‘’I think I’ve made my demands fairly clear, Santana. I want the bag. The choice is yours, you can either trade the bag for your wife or you can keep the bag and suffer the consequences. Who knows what horrible things will be inflicted upon Brittany in the meantime.’’

‘’Hey, babe,’’ Brittany would greet Santana, pushing up against Quinn in order to be in the video frame. ‘’Quinn just bought me a bunch of churros!’’ 

‘’Brittany, go sit down!’’ Quinn shoves a perfectly safe, perfectly intact Brittany away because obviously this is more of a mind game than a lethal game, but Quinn and Santana are both playing up the intensity for all it’s worth, cause comedy. ‘’As I was saying, Lopez, if you want to see your wife again, you’ll hand over the bag. She’s being held captive at an undisclosed location. You have two hours to make your decision. I’ll contact you again with the location of the trade off, if you dare contact mall security, well...I can’t promise Brittany’s safe return.’’

‘’Quinn, can we go get some Panda Express?’’

‘’Yes, Brittany, we can go get some Panda Express.’’

End call. 

Insert some crazed primal scream from Santana. Because of course! 

Of course Fabray would play it like this. Of course Quinn would be after this hot bag and of course she would play dirty. This was Quinn’s plan all along, Santana concludes, Quinn would let Santana, Maribel, Whitney and Brittany do the dirty work of actually going through the great unwashed crowds, only to ‘kidnap’ Brittany for the trade off. Quinn would get the bag without having to do any of the work. Evil genius! Santana is mildly impressed but she isn’t about to submit. Maribel is worried and Whitney is on edge so Santana takes the lead in this.

‘’Here’s what we’re going to do - we’re going to play along,’’ she tells her mother and mother in law. ‘’We’re going to make Quinn think we’re going to meet for a trade off but it’ll be trap. We’re going to walk away with Brittany and the bag. They’re somewhere in the mall and we just have to find them.’’

Then insert lots of little scenes as the ladies make their way through the mall, perhaps even bumping into other Glee characters (because everyone is home for Thanksgiving and there’s literally nothing else to do in town). Maybe there’s a short montage as they travel from level to level, occasionally stopping to buy and eat a hot cookie as they search for Quinn’s makeshift lair in the mall. 

Eventually all of their running around and clue collecting leads them to believe that Quinn is keeping Brittany in the back stockroom of a Claire’s (which is really sort of a nod to the fact that Claire’s used to sell a lot of silly Glee merch back in the day, like there were Rachel and Quinn themed makeup ‘’palettes’’ lol - also does anyone wish they could go back in time and actually buy all of the dumb Glee merch just to have for shits and giggles and nostaglia, sometimes I do, I remember once going into a Barnes and Noble and seeing a backpack with Finn’s face on it, god, 2009 was a simpler, stupider time and I miss it). Anyway! They make their way to the Claire’s in the mall, bust into the back stock room to find Brittany - again perfectly safe and totally nonchalant. And because they outnumber Quinn they’re able to take back Brittany...briefly.

Once they defeat Quinn (who is left beneath a huge pile of headbands or something) they make their way out back into the main walkway of the mall only to find some giant dance mob demonstration happening with carollers and all kinds of nonsense. It’s there that Brittany gets ‘intercepted’ once again!

They may have just defeated Quinn but they forgot about their other bitter rival: one Tina Cohen Chang. 

‘’I’m gonna kick your sneaky ninja ass when I see you Tina,’’ Santana declares over FaceTime.

Tina isn’t amused. ‘’First of all, racist, second of all, how does it feel to lose your wife not once, but twice, Santana?’’ 

‘’You should know by how I handled Fabray that I don’t negotiate with terrorists, Chang.’’

Thus begins another mission through the mall to find Brittany and again Santana, Whitney and Maribel have to navigate through several stores which have turned into complete war zones. Soccer moms fighting over big screen tvs and people punching each other out over shoes, etc. As they move through stores, kiosks and the food court Santana is in a rage. This wasn’t how their first joint Black Friday as a married couple was supposed to go, she should’ve known once she brought Brittany into the fold others would use her as pawn to gain more power and knock the Lopez family down. Revenge for all those years of the Lopez family tricking, manipulating and fighting dirty on every Black Friday for the past ten years.

Maribel honestly doesn’t care at this point. ‘’Look if they want the bag we can just give them the bag, I’m tired, I just want to get Brittany so we can all go home.’’

But Santana isn’t having it. ‘’No, we’re getting Brittany but we’re not handing over that bag, mom. This mall is our turf - we run it. Retaliation must be swift and brutal. Gangland rules. We figured out where Quinn’s hideout was, we can find Tina’s too and then I’m going to bust a metaphorical cap in her metaphorical ass!’’

After some brief brainstorming Santana decides to make some calls. Insert Face Time with Mercedes, who’s bleary eyed because unlike her idiot friends, she’s at her family home in Lima in bed where all the normal people are Thanksgiving night at 2am.

‘’If Tina were to set up a secret ninja liar in any store at a mall, what store would it be?’’ Santana would ask in greeting.

‘’What the hell are you talking about?’’ Mercedes would scramble to look at the time. ‘’What, it’s 2am, what’s going on - oh wait. Black Friday. Let me guess.’’

‘’Tina has Brittany and she’s holding her hostage somewhere in the mall unless I hand over a Hermes bag!’’

‘’It’s too damn early for any of this nonsense, I’m hanging up.’’

‘’Wait, no, Mercedes, I need your help.’’

‘’Well, junior year whenever Tina and I would hang out at the mall, her favorite store was always Hot Topic.’’

‘’Of course, goth phase era Tina. Why didn’t I think of that?’’

And this of course would be a nod to the Hot Topic tour the cast did when the show first started. They surround the corner Hot Topic to find Tina holding Brittany captive among a bunch of emo shit. Then begins a brief but hilarious tussle between Santana and Tina who is eventually restrained and tied up using like, tattered emo black lace tights.

The gang of ladies walks out of the Hot Topic, again to madness going on all around them within the mall. There’s fist fights, there’s screaming, maybe even a small fire, the residents of Lima have mad this Black Friday and the mall is a warzone. People have gone straight up gorilla and now the mission is to escape the front doors but before they can there’s another interception!

Except this time it’s Maribel and Whitney who are whisked away, vanished into the crazy crowds. Brittany and Santana are confused but once Quinn and Tina join them in their spot, our pair realizes neither Quinn nor Tina are responsible for their moms going MIA. One, they’re standing right in front of them so they couldn’t have and two, they’re not that organized or powerful.

Who could it be this time? And why take their mothers?

The answer comes when they get a FaceTime call from someone from their past. The only person who could and would hire henchmen and go to crazy lengths to get her way. Sue. On screen Sue is sitting in a chair, petting a cat, full villian mode.

‘’Let me guess, you want the handbag?’’ Santana huffs. ‘’Why, it isn’t even your style, what the hell would you want with it?’’

Sue shrugs. ‘’When I travel by plane I tend to get sick in the air and I’d like to use it as my primary vomit bag. If I’m flying first class I’d prefer to vomit in style. I’ve been watching you, your friends and family run around the mall all night, sandbags. Quinn and Tina are amateurs but you know that unlike those two boobs, I can do serious damage if I so chose. So hand over the bag and I’ll hand over your mothers.’’

End call. Brittany and Santana, as well as Tina and Quinn converge to discuss. Yes, Tina and Quinn kidnapped Brittany earlier but those were harmless power plays, but Sue? Who the hell knows what she’s capable of, Quinn reminds them, after all, she almost shot Brittany out a cannon junior year. Sue could ship their moms off to some deserted island or frame them for tax fraud or waterboard them or all kinds of crazy shit.

‘’I’m not handing over this Hermes bag so Sue can puke in it during plane rides,’’ Santana declares.

‘’She has our moms, Santana,’’ Brittany urges.

‘’Look, I got you back twice, didn’t I? I’ll get our moms back.’’

‘’Yeah but what were you up against? Tina? Quinn? No offense, ladies, but you never stood a chance. But Sue? She’s like a legit Disney villian, Santana.’’

Thus begins ANOTHER trek through the mall, this one takes them through employees only section, security camera rooms and air vents. Like all of the action movie tropes, but in this instance played for laughs and all taking place in a shopping mall. Eventually it all leads to a big showdown on the mall rooftop where Sue is leaning into the villian role, even going so far as to tie up Maribel and Whitney to chairs and putting bags over their heads.

‘’Tweedledee, Tweedle fakeboobs, you’ve arrived,’’ Sue greets them.

‘’Here’s the damn bag now let our moms go.’’ Santana tosses the bag in Sue’s direction like this is some kind of mob pay off or drug deal.

Sue inspects the bag and then nudges the moms up and our of their chairs, the moms blindly walk towards their daughters. Lots of hugging and embracing as they work to release Maribel and Whitney of their blindfolds and hand restraints. All the while Sue stands tall, observing the tiny dots of people exiting the building with shopping bags in tow. She has a long and ridiculous spiel about consumerism, american greed, materialism and such. ‘’Look at those unwashed idiots, screaming and trampling and stabbing each other and for what? Big screen TVs and seventy five percent off of mom jeans at Old Navy. Have they no sanctity for the holiday? Then again this holiday is based on a false narrative to erase the very real pillaging and destruction of a native culture so perhaps this…’’ she makes a wave to the barbiac acts and people below them. ‘’...is very much in line with what the holiday represents. Either way, I’m off to spend the next two weeks on my private island so I have a plane to catch and a bag to vomit into. Always a pleasure, Lopez, Pierce.’’

And with that Sue zooms off - taken away by some helicopter that swoops in and scoops her up and all of them are like ‘what the hell’ cause where the hell did the helicopter come from. It’s no matter because they start their way back down off the roof and into the mall. Their all a little worse for wear, some have limps or bruises or small injuries from the evening’s events but they all survived Black Friday at least. Wearily they go down and collect their belongings from where they had hidden/stored them earlier before all the action went down and slowly they FINALLY make their way out of the mall after several hours inside.

The four women enter the Pierce minivan, injured and disheveled. Santana’s father and Brittany’s father jointly turn in their seats.

‘’You girls have fun with your shopping? You get any good deals?’’ Pierce Pierce asks.

‘’I think my ear is broken. Can ears be broken? I got punched in the ear earlier and it feels broken to me,’’ Santana states dryly and to no one in particular.

‘’Honey,’’ Maribel sighs to her husband in the driver’s seat. ‘’Just get us home.’’

Cut to later that night (or technically it’d be the wee hours of the morning, since they start Black Friday shopping at midnight, so when they arrive home it’d be 3 or 4am). Whitney and Pierce have retired to their home. Maribel and Santana’s father have gone to bed as well. Santana and Brittany are in Santana’s old bedroom. Brittany has stitched Santana’s little scraps and bruises up as they prepare for bed.

‘’I’m sorry we all got kidnapped so much tonight,’’ Brittany says.

‘’Babe, it’s not your fault.’’

‘’I know but I feel like me being there got in the way of you and your mom doing your thing, you know?’’

‘’I mean, Black Friday shopping has been a mother-daughter tradition for us since forever, but you’re my family, Britt, that means you’re a part of all the traditions now too, if you want to take part. Although I’m guessing after tonight you’ll never want to go Black Friday shopping with us again.’’

‘’What, are you kidding? If you ask me tonight was a blast! I mean yeah I was a little worried when Sue took our moms for a second but it was also kind of cool, the four of us being a family and doing family things. Like battling the crowds and all of the insanity was a lot but it was also kind of fun. Plus, it was super hot how you got all take chargey and came to rescue me.’’

‘’Hot huh?’’

‘’Totally hot. All that smoldering and chest-heaving…’’ Brittany makes a show of fanning her face.

Santana does her bashful thing but relishes the attention and the kisses and affection Brittany lays on her.

‘’But it also meant a lot to see that you would go to the end of the earth for each of us, all of us and that’s really what this season is all about,’’ Brittany continues, hugging and smooching on Santana. ‘’Family.’’

Cut to a month later. Thanksgiving and Black Friday have passed. Brittany and Santana are once again back in Lima with their families to celebrate Christmas. Everyone is happy and enjoying themselves but Santana’s a little sad she couldn’t give her mother the beautiful rare handbag she had wanted. Maribel waves her daughter off, yes they lost the bag but it doesn’t matter. They still have their tradition and their bond, and now they get to share the experience every single year with Brittany and Whitney now too.

‘’As wild as it was that night, it’s also felt like an adventure with those two along for the ride. I may not have a purse or any material thing to show for the experience but that doesn’t matter. The experience was a gift in itself. Now I have another daughter, now you have another mother, that makes this mother-daughter tradition we have even more wonderful. Plus it means we have an extra two pairs of hands so it’s easier to loot stores.’’

Insert some sweet brief exchanges between Brittany, Santana, Whitney and Maribel who have bonded over the hell that was the first annual Lopez-Pierce Black Friday Shopping Extravaganza.

...

There would be lots of little details and kinks to work out, not to mention a ton of interaction between Santana-Whitney, Whitney-Maribel, Maribel-Brittany in between all of the running around. The characters would have to be moving through the mall constantly and, it would be a lot. Also I don’t know if anyone has noticed but I tend to write things that are very contained. Bachelorette takes place in the span of one night, so does You Instead, IWLTM takes place over the course of one summer. I have this habit of containing the characters either within a space of time or in a specific physical area or both and making that work is always a tricky thing. I just didn’t feel like creating another sprawling fic like that so, I opted for something a little more simple.

I doubt I’ll ever use this Black Friday fic idea but I feel like if I ever had the time to devote to it, it would be a fun and hilarious ride. I wish I could take you readers on it, but, I hope you got a chuckle out of this maybe?

Anyways, if you go Black Friday shopping, be safe and don’t get kidnapped! :)

[bohemianrhapsody86]

200 Things About Me (originally 200 Things You Can Put In My Ask)

I got this off of @rami-malek-trash - don’t know who the original poster was, sorry if it’s you. I’m bored and cramping and no one usually sends me asks anyway, so I’m just going to answer all of these myself 

200: My crush’s name is: Drew (Now boyfriend, but he was my middle school crush) 199: I was born in: 1986 198: I am really: cool 197: My cellphone company is: T-Mobile 196: My eye color is: green 195: My shoe size is: 9.5/10 194: My ring size is: 9/10 193: My height is: 5′6″ 192: I am allergic to: Nothing 191: My 1st car was: 2001 PT Cruiser 190: My 1st job was: Server at a local pizzeria 189: Last book you read: Startalk: Everything You Ever Need to Know About Space Travel, Sci-Fi, the Human Race, the Universe, and Beyond by Neil DeGrasse Tyson 188: My bed is: Not very comfortable. I need a new mattress, but I need a job first.  187: My pet: A siamese cat named Chico. 186: My best friend: Amanda  185: My favorite shampoo is: I like using Aussie 2-in-1, I also like using Shimmer Lights occasionally so I can keep my gray hairs nice and shiny.  184: Xbox or ps3: PS3 183: Piggy banks are: Cool. I have one that counts my change lol 182: In my pockets: Nothing because they hate putting usable pockets in women’s pants.  181: On my calendar: I marked where I started my period yesterday, and my boyfriends 32nd birthday is next Tuesday.  180: Marriage is: Something I want everyone to have the option for if they want it. 179: Spongebob can: use his imagination 178: My mom: is amazing! 177: The last three songs I bought were? Cool and Sucker by The Jonas Brothers, Don’t really buy many singles, just albums if I’m interested and their cheap.  176: Last YouTube video watched: Brooke Candy - Paper or Plastic 175: How many cousins do you have? Too many to remember 174: Do you have any siblings? Yes, an older brother and older half-sister. 173: Are your parents divorced? Yes, they divorced back in 1999 172: Are you taller than your mom? Yes. We used to be the same height, but gravity has taken a hold of her and squashed her down.  171: Do you play an instrument? I used to play the trombone in middle school, but that was 20 years ago. I’m sure if I ever got my hands on one again, I might remember a scale or two.  170: What did you do yesterday? Went around town job hunting and then bought a maxi dress at a local craft store.  [ I Believe In ] 169: Love at first sight:Yes 168: Luck: Yes 167: Fate: Yes 166: Yourself: Sometimes 165: Aliens: Yes 164: Heaven: Yes and No 163: Hell: We live there now. 162: God: No 161: Horoscopes: Yes 160: Soul mates: Yes 159: Ghosts: Yes 158: Gay Marriage: Yes 157: War: No 156: Orbs: Yes/No 155: Magic: Yes [ This or That ] 154: Hugs or Kisses: Kisses 153: Drunk or High: High  152: Phone or Online: Online 151: Red heads or Black haired: Black haired 150: Blondes or Brunettes: Brunette 149: Hot or cold: Cold 148: Summer or winter: Winter 147: Autumn or Spring: Autumn 146: Chocolate or vanilla:Chocolate 145: Night or Day: Night 144: Oranges or Apples: Apples 143: Curly or Straight hair: Curly 142: McDonalds or Burger King: McDonalds 141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: Milk Chocolate 140: Mac or PC: PC 139: Flip flops or high heals: Flip Flops 138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: Sweet and Poor 137: Coke or Pepsi: Always been a Pepsi girl 136: Hillary or Obama: Obama 135: Burried or cremated: Cremated and turned into a tree or my ashes made into a vinyl 134: Singing or Dancing: Singing 133: Coach or Chanel: Neither 132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks: Katherine McPhee 131: Small town or Big city: Small Town 130: Wal-Mart or Target: Target 129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: Ben Stiller 128: Manicure or Pedicure: Mani 127: East Coast or West Coast: East Coast - never been to the West Coast 126: Your Birthday or Christmas: Birthday because it sometimes falls on Thanksgiving.  125: Chocolate or Flowers: Chocolate 124: Disney or Six Flags: Disney 123: Yankees or Red Sox: Neither, Cubbies til the day I die.  [ Here’s What I Think About ] 122: War: Pointless 121: George Bush: Better than the asshat in office now. 120: Gay Marriage: If I can get married to my boyfriend, the my friend Jerry should be able to get married to his boyfriend, Josh.  119: The presidential election: I hate that orange buffoon.  118: Abortion: I’m pro-choice.  117: MySpace: Always had trouble figuring out my Top 8 and what background I wanted to use.  116: Reality TV: Only thing I really watch are cooking competitions. Those are the only ones that matter. Not a fan of the Kardashians or the Bachelor/ette bullcrap.  115: Parents: My mom is amazing, my ‘dad’ was never really there.  114: Back stabbers: Asshats 113: Ebay: Hardly use it.  112: Facebook: Good to stay in touch with people you want to/some of the groups on there are awesome.  111: Work: Don’t have a job as of yet. *keeps fingers crossed I hear back from someone soon* 110: My Neighbors: Loud AF and nasty. I live in an apartment and the neighbors upstairs have so many kids and animals up there it’s ridiculous. I wish they’d leave.  109: Gas Prices: Ridiculous, but not as bad as I’ve seen it before.  108: Designer Clothes: Meh, not my style unless I find something in my size at Goodwill.  107: College: Been there, done that. Not really for me. Never graduated.  106: Sports: I like watching them, mainly baseball and basketball. The NFL can go fuck themselves.  105: My family: Love my blood relatives and my chosen family.  104: The future: It’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.  [ Last time I ] 103: Hugged someone: last night when my boyfriend came over and brought me my phone charger.  102: Last time you ate: An hour ago. 101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile: At my bestie’s baby shower.  100: Cried in front of someone: Sometime last week 99: Went to a movie theater: When Endgame came out 98: Took a vacation: 2010 97: Swam in a pool: A few summers ago 96: Changed a diaper: 2007? 95: Got my nails done: 2007? 94: Went to a wedding: 1999 93: Broke a bone: Never *keeps fingers crossed* 92: Got a peircing: 2012? 91: Broke the law: I probably broke the speed limit yesterday at some point.  90: Texted: about 2am this morning.  [ MISC ] 89: Who makes you laugh the most: My bestie Amanda and boyfriend Drew 88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: my cat. 87: The last movie I saw: Ant-Man  86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: getting a job 85: The thing im not looking forward to: Interviewing for a job 84: People call me: loyal 83: The most difficult thing to do is: finding a job 82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: Yep, 77 in a 55. 81: My zodiac sign is: Sun - Sagittarius, Moon - Leo

80: The first person i talked to today was: If you count texting my boyfriend at 2am, then him.  79: First time you had a crush: Sometime in Elemetary School.  78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: my mom 77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: yesterday 76: Right now I am talking to: myself 75: What are you going to do when you grow up: I have no clue 74: I have/will get a job: soon 73: Tomorrow: Never Comes 72: Today: Is the day 71: Next Summer: Not here 70: Next Weekend: I have no clue 69: I have these pets: 12 year old 17 lb cat named Striper.  68: The worst sound in the world: My cat hacking up a hairball.  67: The person that makes me cry the most is: myself 66: People that make you happy: my mom, brother, sister-in-law, boyfriend, best friend. 65: Last time I cried: sometime last week 64: My friends are: amazing 63: My computer is: pretty cool and loaded up with Sims stuff.  62: My School: I don’t go to school anymore.  61: My Car: gets me there.  60: I lose all respect for people who: disrespect me or my loved one.  59: The movie I cried at was: Endgame 58: Your hair color is: salt & pepper 57: TV shows you watch: Legends of Tomorrow, Worst Cooks in America, Any cooking show really.  56: Favorite web site: Tumblr 55: Your dream vacation: Somewhere away from my town 54: The worst pain I was ever in was: when I had that ovarian cyst. 53: How do you like your steak cooked: medium 52: My room is: messy 51: My favorite celebrity is: too many to list  50: Where would you like to be: in bed 49: Do you want children: nope 48: Ever been in love: yes 47: Who’s your best friend: Amanda 46: More guy friends or girl friends: About the same.  45: One thing that makes you feel great is: music 44: One person that you wish you could see right now: my grandma 43: Do you have a 5 year plan: I don’t even have a 5 minute plan 42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: Kinda, not really 41: Have you pre-named your children: Nope 40: Last person I got mad at: The Dump, but that’s a daily thing.  39: I would like to move to: out of the US 38: I wish I was a professional: crocheter/crafter [ My Favorites ] 37: Candy: Butterfinger Cups 36: Vehicle: Don’t really have one 35: President: Barack Obama 34: State visited: Pennsylvania 33: Cellphone provider: Always been with T-Mobile 32: Athlete: Anthony Rizzo 31: Actor: Tom Hanks 30: Actress: Sandra Bullock 29: Singer: Freddie Mercury 28: Band: Queen 27: Clothing store: Lane Bryant 26: Grocery store: Aldi 25: TV show: Don’t really have one 24: Movie: Too many to count 23: Website: This black hole of a site 22: Animal: Cat 21: Theme park: Don’t really have one. I did enjoy Six Flags over Georgia when I went back in 2002. Dollywood is always fun but it’s been even longer than that since I’ve been there.  20: Holiday: Halloween 19: Sport to watch: Baseball 18: Sport to play: Nothing.  17: Magazine: Entertainment Weekly 16: Book: Harry Potter 15: Day of the week: Thursday 14: Beach: Virginia Beach 13: Concert attended: Jonas Brothers in VA Beach 12: Thing to cook: bacon 11: Food: bacon 10: Restaurant: Hmmm....don’t know that one.  9: Radio station: Classic Hits 102.7...hardly any commercials and they tell you the artist and song title after every song. 70s, 80s, and 90s songs.  8: Yankee candle scent: Don’t have one 7: Perfume: The scented oils from a local curiosity shop have some of my fave scents.  6: Flower: Iris 5: Color: Blue 4: Talk show host: Jimmy Fallon 3: Comedian: I’ve got several 2: Dog breed: Corgi 1: Did you answer all these truthfully? Yes.    

[moontaeilll]

ALL ABOUT SM GLOBAL PACKAGE & NEO CITY: SEOUL EXPERIENCE

by twitter user @sugnsook​ // @yudotaeil 

Hello~ so i am not that good at explaining/vlogging or writing stuffs but in this thread? or blogpost or wherever u guys reading this, i will try to describe my experience as much as I can. Also for now, I am dividing this post, FAQ-style  according to several topics, and I will put a separate detailed post on my own Neo City: SEOUL experience. I hope this will help for u guys deciding to splurge a bit on concert/global package!

Disclaimer: In the past, I got a few ccs complaining about my fangirl related-expensive expenses, I just want to note earlier here that as the whole prior to the actual concert, I was a part time student & working 30+ hours a week, working every chances I get. It was also my last semester of undergrad studies & I have been wanting to attend NCT’s first ever concert since 2017 and been really saved up since then, so I consider the large expenses is pretty much a treat for myself.

Tl;dr: if you worked hard enough and really wanted to attend your faves event, just go for it, as it was really worth it.

— General

What is included in Global Package?

Concert ticket (depending on days u wanna go), a good quality hotel for your stay, return transportation to & from the concert venue - hotel, preorder access to official merchandises, NCT 127 theme global package-special merchandises, NCT 127 theme snack boxes (after the concert), One themed lunch, a half day tour with tour guide before the concert, special event (varies according to what concert) - for NCT127’s we got a photoshoot session with NCT127’s life-size standee in SM’s infamous practice room itself.

How much does Global Package cost?

All i can say first thing first is….it IS costly. The ones I am paying is $949USD for Superior Single (Course C) as shown below:

The difference between the prices & packages are it depends on which hotel they will locate you & your seating in the concert. They also have Course A, Course B & Course C which depends on the concert days you are attending. Because I am flying out to Seoul just for the purpose of concert so why not just buy the two days ticket? And yeah that is why I chose Course C.

When does the ticketing open?

Usually the global package ticketing will only open at least one month prior to the actual concert, just like the concert announcement itself.  Basically right after SM announce the concert, just be prepared as the ticketing will be shortly after it, right before the general ticketing starts. My advice is just, save up save up and save up as it is really well-known super costly.

How competitive the tickets are?

It is less competitive than general ticketing for sure, but pretty competitive in between ifans itself. When I bought mine, I initially planned for just economy ones but the ticket sold out WHEN i clicked “payment”. So, be quick or you might need to wait a bit more. I’m the type to be anxious if I dont have my ticket yet so I really want my ticketing matters to be settled up as soon as possible so-- when I figured out the economy package got sold out I quickly clicked on superior option - impulsively hehs.

During that ticketing, SM allows you to hold your payment up to 2 hours, as for twin package buyers can split payment. So if the tickets sold out, you might be able to get it after 2 hours. NOTE THAT: SM changed the policy from 2 hours to 30 mins now.

Eventually SM will release more packages and you CANNOT change your options once you have buy it. The packages will be available up until a week/or two before the concert, but the type of packages is really depends. I would say, Course C - Economy package sold out pretty quickly because that is what most people aiming for.  

*also, keep refreshing the page if you are buying at the exact ticketing open time! The ticketing for mine opened 3 mins before the actual time so yeah….

How is the payment made?

Paypal only. Just be sure you have signed up to smtown travel account, and link you cards or have paypal balance to get your payment completed smoothly. Your package will only be confirmed once you get the payment confirmation so, having a working payment method is important. SM’s cancellation policy is ridiculous so I recommend everyone who is interested to join GP to do a thorough research beforehand.

Can international fans join general ticketing?

Yes, but not really feasible, as Yes24 sites require verification, unless you have connections with korean verifications or buy from 3rd party. The downside of 3rd party is you might get even more expensive ticket collectively compared to what Global Package has offered.

How good the seats are?

It depends on your luck as you will only draw your ticket basically the day before the concert. The more you paid for the package, the better the seats. For standing you might get a better queue number and in korea concerts you strictly go in by queue number. I chose seating, so for luckily one of my seat was right next to extended stage, and another seat was on the other side but center view. Also i luckily got both sides of seating so I can enjoy the concert with both views.

It is possible to trade your ticket between other global package holders tho - bcs i saw people did this at my hotel lol but you cannot ask sm to change your ticket. The concert ticket will be written as “해외팬투어” (intl fans tour), instead of your name.

My seat on the first day

My seat on the second day, center view

My seat on the second day, side view

Is there a customer service page i can rely to?

Yes. If there is one thing i would applaud SMtown travel for, it is for their customer service. I used a lot of their “Q&A” page and they typically will reply you within one business day. If you ask on weekend, they will respond to you as quick as on Monday. So if you have any like literally, ANY question about your package, just send a question to them and they will reply personally as soon as they can. And it is in english.

— Logistics

After you have bought your package, SM will update the logistics & schedule 2 WEEKS before the concert. So don’t worry if they ghosted you out before that 2 weeks lol.

Technically, they will divide the hotels according to the package type (dlx/superior/econ), then they will divide you into bus numbers, according whether you are seating/standing. Also your schedule will depends on the bus number you get. And this is non-exchangeable, as they prepared everything according to the list that they grouped you out.

How is the hotel?

For me, i got located at Ibis Styles Ambassador Hotel in Gangnam. Because I got single package, i got the whole hotel room for myself, lol what a new experience, as for my solo travels i only go for budget hostels 🤣. The hotel location is only 15~20mins subway away from the venue, and it is walking distance from COEX. There are a bunch cafes & convenience store nearby so it is pretty easy to get something. The only thing is SM’s booth opens at 8pm, so because I arrived early, I just roamed around until the booth opens. At SM’s booth, it is where you pick up your preordered merchs, sm’s merchs and most importantly draw your tickets. Also I took the chance when gathering with fellow global package goers to trade anything i needed to exchange while everyone is there.

I dont know where to put this under, but for GP, We were given a greeting card from the boys, bunch of stickers, a letter set (with colour pencil), L-holders, bunch of posters and nct127’s moodlight. For the letter set, you can decorate and write fanletter to the members and hand it to your tour guide at the time they ask you. I bought some masking tape and stickers beforehand to decorate my letter, u can prepare it ahead too and transfer it to the letter they give as the time frame is really short.

Can I go to the concert by my own?

Yes you can~ Be sure to tell your tour guide so that they dont waste time waiting. You also have to tell them whether u want to go back to hotel with them or not, as that is when they will hand you the snack boxes. If you are not certain of travelling alone in Seoul, i recommend to travel by the bus they provide, because the tour guide will bring you right until the concert entrance. For me, I wanted to join fan-events and roam around the venue more, so I decided to go on my own. (Best thing about it was when you’re in a train with fellow NCTzens they just airdrop you a lot of nct related stuffs — including the selfies they airdropped at the venue!).

— Itinerary

How tight the schedules are?

It kinda not as tight as I thought? Except for pretty early schedule on the first day, also Maybe because I got a seating ticket so I dont go to venue after the tours right away (standing fans had to queue right away after the tour)

And for me, this was my schedule —

25th 8pm: pick up merchs, ticket etc from SM booth 26th 10am - gather at hotel lobby 10:30am - depart for lunch (at Bulgogi Brothers), it was NCT127-theme and they play nct’s songs! 11:50am - depart to COEX artium - u get 1 hr to roam around there, I chose to roam around smtown museum 1pm - depart to SM C&C building in cheongdam, for special event Around 2~ish - depart back to hotel

U get free time in between and gather back at 4:30pm to depart to concert venue as concert starts at 6. As concert ends around 8:30pm, they give you about 45mins~ to get back to the bus if you wanna go back with them. 27th Bus departs at around 2 pm if i recall, as concert starts at 4pm. I went out at 10am lols (also tell your tour guide!) and bus departs around 7:30pm after the concert. 28th - check out around 12pm.

Detailed itinerary will be updated in my experience post.

The best thing about the concert period was they give you discount on some SM-related stuffs. For example, they give 30% off (?) for beverages at sm cafe for ticket/GP holders, and also discounted smtown museum admission. There were also new merchs got released that time, and some other promotions going on.

Snack box after the concert!

Merchs I collected from kfans giveaways at the venue

The best part was NCTZens spreading out the fanproject - sing Paradise during Encore; using Airdrop. NEO indeed 😎

The amount of memes & stuffs being airdropped - lol 

— Budgeting

General budgeting for my trip:

Flight - around 1.6K MYR return trip with 20kg luggage & meal (AirAsia)

Hotel - i only went during my GP stay period so it was all inclusive (hotel + concert ticket) with that $949 USD

Other expenses (tmoney, food, additional merchs) - about $250 usd is enough for me for 4 days, considering I spent on buying cosmetics & merchs a lot. My own preordered merchs was separate amt too, it depends on what u do/willing to spend around that period.

— For Muslim Fans

Do they provide halal meals?

They dont provide halal meat, but you can request for vegetarian option or seafood. During lunch, I got vegetarian bibimbap set. And for the snack boxes, too bad SM provided ham/bacon in the sandwiches, which I am not confident in removing it so I decided to not eat, just eat the cookies. Also they offer late-night meals after the concert (separate pay), but I didnt opt for that one and only went to eat at nearby places.

Can I pray before the concert?

Yes~ as I mentioned earlier, there are a few hours gap before you depart to concert so you can pray at your hotel beforehand. Or if you dont mind, like I did as I went to venue early on the 2nd day, I went to pray at Olympic Park area itself, there are a lot of benches or u can walk a bit further to isolated places to pray. I just sat down at some bench and pray while sitting down.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

These are what I can think of, and as I said earlier I do have another separate post regarding my own NEO CITY: Seoul experience, and I will update under a thread. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via twitter (@sugnsook/@yudotaeil) or  curiouscat.me/6sungjae.  Also for neo city fancams/random pics about my trip, it will be updated eventually under the main thread where this entry is posted :) Hope it helps!

[hope-and-sleep]

So I made a list of things I wanted to do this summer

And wow is it terrifyingly long.  It scares me, and I’m the one who wrote it.  I’m going to be lucky to do even a quarter of these things.

Imma try to do all of these things.

Read on for the ridiculously long list

Tumblr: So I have 4 tumblr blogs: 1) a main blog 2) a studyblr 3) (new!) a reblog blog 4) (new!) an rp, which I currently haven’t posted on but am planning to. All four of them need to be worked on

lizhly: retag literally everything

hope-and-sleep: create a tags list and also retag literally everything

compendium-of-things - reblog every reblog from lizhly with appropriate tags.  Also reblog a whole bunch of stuff from the ‘likes’ stuff that you wanted to reblog but didn’t because you thought it’d be awkward to have a giant mass of reblogs all within 1 minute

bells-and-belligerence - create a tags list (easy considering there aren’t posts) and attempt an update every week (difficult because I decided to make things hard on myself and mandate that each update requires a drawing)

For all: attempt html design

For all: make icons

Career: I need to at least try to be a responsible person and do stuff that would try to advance my professional life

Make ur LinkedIn profile so that it contains more than literally your picture

update your Resume

Write a CV at some point

Make your own website (if you finish with compendium)

Come up with some kind of elevator pitch

Language: Fluency is a beautiful thing

My parents have learned of my goals.  My dad is apparently now making it a point to remind me of them every time I’m speaking English instead of Cantonese, and this is actually really hard because 1) I have to actively think “don’t speak English” and 2) I have the vocabulary and syntax of a toddler.  Worse than a toddler.

5 words a day in my app, complete with writing practice

Video Games: I’m a CS major that wants to work on video games but also hasn’t played very many video games.  This clearly needs to be rectified.

See if you remember the password to ur Steam account

Buy cheap/free games and attempt to finish one every two weeks (lol not going to happen)

Games you want to play/finish at some point (that may or may not be cheap): Undertale, Skyrim, Doki Doki Literature Club, FFXIII, Rogue Galaxy

Play one of zephy0’s games

Make a practice for Ludum Dare

Do Ludum Dare!

Writing

300 words a day

try one writing prompt a week! (lol i totally know ur not going to do it)

attempt to finish eyes open wide

attempt to finish salute to the graves

July Camp NaNoWriMo

Art

try 30 min a day

that one comic you said you were going to do but never did

Make a PayPal (open commissions???)

style studies (maybe one a week?)

Actual literal studies

perhaps one of those 100 theme challenges that you started six years ago and never actually came close to finishing

Music

Attempt to memorize one song per month

Finally figure out how to play Megalovania

Finally figure out how to play Bergentrückung

Adulting

Learn how to cook

Learn how to drive (in a way that doesn’t make ur mother fear for her life)

Clean ur fucking room

Clean out your Desktop

Clean out your inbox.  All of the inboxes.  You have so many of them.

Education

Recode (redo some of your 131 stuff)

CS 180 stuff (read thru perhaps 1 textbook chapter a week?)

CS 111 stuff

Review CS 32 stuff

Codecademy!

Blender

Unity

Search for coding competitions ( the ones every saturday will work fine!)

Miscellaneous

attempt some kind of skincare regimen

Go to bed before midnight

wake up ridiculously early in a way that terrifies other people

learn how to do a handstand

become ambidextrous

attempt to do a cartwheel without killing yourself or anyone around you

attempt to do the splits without killing yourself or anyone around you

...Ehehe.  Um, I actually think it might be literally impossible to do all these?  I’m not totally sure how much free time I’m going to have per day, because I have a job now and I don’t have anything resembling a time schedule yet.  I can’t do ten of those ‘let me spend at least one hour a day on this’ things if I only have five hours of free time a day, so I feel like this is going to require pretty strict scheduling.

...also I’m sure this list is going to get longer because I feel like I actually had more things I wanted to do this summer but forgot about.

Well.  I’m sure this’ll be a fun time.  

[lia-nikiforov]

Weekly Anime Rambling Re: Creat...ive Conceit

Another week of getting everything mixed up because my viewing schedules are a disaster hahaha! is it very obvious i’m running out of puns

The season’s drawing to a close, and it looks like every show is rushing at full-gear to wrap up all their loose ends or end on a good place before the season break. Which means a lot of shows are doing shitfests and I have A LOT OF WORDS

I haven’t talked much about Fate/Apocrypha in this feature but I must shamefully admit I’m enjoying it way more than I expected. I’ll talk more about that in my final season rundown, so for the time being I’ll just say Astolfo is my waifu and if you use the T slur to refer to them I’ll gut you alive. 

One show clearly struggling to meet its planned middle-point is Altair, with the past two episodes breezing through plot points like a speedcourse on acquiring new party members for Mahmut. The production itself is also clearly suffering, finding an in-model shot of any given character woud be a challenge. I did like the latest episode because we’re finally getting to see more political nuances beyond “Evil empire wants to conquer the world”. I also really liked how they brought the Prenses into the fold by emphasizing her importance in the political moves they’ll carry out next, and that she was the one to come up with them was specially great

Giving female characters agency? What, Like it’s easy?

I’m not even gonna talk about episode 10 of Ballroom because it was so boring I hardly remember anything about it except thinking “is there ever gonna be any dancing” (the answer was no). But I am going to talk about episode 11 because god was it frustrating.

Firstly, this was the episode that featured the most and probably best dancing animation of the entire show. Unsurprisingly, even then it’s overshadowed by the abuse of stills and audience shots. Whatever little magic and good-will they manage to create with, for example, a neat shot of Tatara and Mako hopping is almost instantly voided by a full minute of still frames. Let 👏 me 👏 see 👏 the 👏 fucking 👏 dance 👏 gdi 👏

Of course it wouldn’t be Welcome to the Ballroom without at least a very fine layer of casual sexism and neglecting the female characters entirely, this time awfully noticeable in the second half where all the focus is on Tatara and Gaju having a load of fun with their dick measuring contest! Wait, what do you mean ballroom dancing is a pair sport?

If you ask this show, Ballroom dancing is a sport about men being cool while dragging around women who have no fucking idea of what the fuck is even going on. Add to that all the harping on how “it’s the lead that makes or breaks a pair” “if the leader is bad the pair will look bad” because I guess the follower doesn’t ever matter.Or how only the boys are dead tired after the event, because I gues the girls weren’t dancing at all, what a relaxing job it must be to be a female in competitive ballroom dancing, you don’t have to put in any effort at all!

Also the music choices are atrocious which is finally explained by the Production team revealing they thought the audience would not like “old” music -because I guess the audience is too stupid or smth- so instead they went for completely inappropriate pop-rock themes instead! Maybe don’t underestimate your audience if you want them to buy your produc! (source)

But okay, after god knows how many episodes, the Tenpei cup finally ends, Gaju and Shizuku win but Mako wins Queen of the Dancefloor! At least some recognition fo Mako’s dancing skills, that even in spite of Tatara’s sloppy dancing she managed to outshine Shizuku through her own talents! Wait, hold on, what’s that?

FUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUU SHOOOOOOW

Adding insult to injury, Gaju doesn’t even apologize to Mako for treating her like crap. In spite of his scummy attitude, Gaju seems to be a good sport, so I thought at least he’d “officially” ask Mako to become his partner again, but no such luck, it’s her who approaches him first. Fuck you again, show.

I also have a lot of thoughts about the garbage treatment of Shizuku, but I’ve talked about the show enough in this week, so that’s another post.

Oh yeah, Vatican is... the expected mess I guess lol. I have literally no idea of what is going on anymore but...

I want some of that cocaine too bruh (i’m kidding, don’t do cocaine my friends)

Also, Made in Abyss is great but can we please drop all the pee jokes.

I’ve technically already watched the final episode of Re:Creators, but I want to address the penultimate episod which is the actual resolution of the conflict because it’s not only a convoluted mess (and if I went into that in detail I’d write thousands of words), it’s ultimately a betrayal of the show’s opening promise.

To elaborate, Sota’s first dialogue is something along the lines of “I’m not the protagonist of this story. This story is about her”. At first I thought it meant Selesia too bad she died meaninglessly and without really doing anything for the story like 99.99% of the creations :’D, but we later learn he’s talking about Setsuna, for whose death he feels guilty yadda yadda Potato McBoring manpain.

But then the show decided to make Altair so ridiculously and unbelievably overpowered that the only way to defeat her is the very predictable “create Setsuna” and this is where the show betrays itself

Because even if the resolution is that Setsuna and Altair go off into this some other world to live as abstract creations happily ever after, the actual emotional climax of the episode is after they disappear:

This is a massive slap in the face to everything the show was trying to do and to Setsuna’s character. Basically she’s stripped of her agency and becomes a figment of Sota’s creation. Sota who abandoned her when she was going through the hardest of times, now gets to be -even if briefly- her creator, her god, and he takes the credit for being the amazing creator that save the world. He even says it out loud in a culminating moment of disgusting conceit.

The whole purpose of the story, of the show, as it turns out to be, is to satisfy Sota’s ego. Setsuna is literally fridged for the sake of Sota’s manpain. This was never a good show, but until now it just felt like a lot of poorly executed great ideas. This, though, is basically giving up on any pretention of being “different” of stepping away from “Blandy McBoring protag saves the world because no one else but him can do it, he is so special”, and it’s made even worse because of the context of Setsuna’s death and the meaning of being a creator. Ugh, I’m coming short of words so I’ll just leave it at this was already a mediocre show and somehow they managed to go all the way and make it terrible.

And now another show that is sadly crapping the bed for its last hurrah, and one I’m very sad to be dissing like this. Yup, I’m talking about Virgin Soul

It’s like 10 episodes late and all the reward we get for waiting so long to hear Charioce’s motivation boils down and awfully rote and predictable to “Bahamut killed my mommy so now I kill Bahamut”. Next we know Charioce’s mom was also named Martha I guess. The explanation is also delivered in the most transparently expositional dialogue possible and seems like a very last-minute attempt by the writers to paint Charioce in a sympathetic light because they realized too late they hadn’t given him anything for the audience to like him beyond his romance with Nina. Somehow their explanation doesn’t even address the genocide against the gods or the enslavement of the demon race, and it seems every insinuation of Gabriel being shady has been forgotten too. Okay...

It’s sad because this feels like a hugely missed opportunity. The first half of the series painted the possibility of a tri-racial conflict in which all sides were to blame, but instead it seems like it was all a fabricated conflict to pad the way so they could have a three-way confrontation bombastic finale, but with none of the nuances and grey morals it initially promised. The characters are still great, but I’m very sad that the story has been reduced to an uninteresting, predictable cliché that doesnt even quite work with all the previously established ideas.

Oh well, the season’s almost over. Next week should be my last Rambling of the season before my Final Review and I also somehow gotta find time to post about my most anticipated shows for the fall. Fun!

[seigaku9th-blog]

japan week three ➜ ryosei’s summer thanks event

on july 16th, i had the chance to attend ryosei (8th inui)'s summer event & meet him!!

this was more of a just for fun ~i want to give back to my fans~ kind of event rather than one commemorating the release of a DVD or photobook or the like. i had no idea what to expect, but it ended up being sooo much fun!! this is my favorite event i attended.

i was sitting in the middle of the very first row of the venue, which was both nervewracking and wonderful. the venue wasn't full, but there were still a lot of us, and everyone had so much energy and was so nice!! it felt really cozy and fun.

the event kicked off with a talk section between ryosei & the MC, as well as a Q&A from the fans. they mostly went over ryosei's work within the past few months... when his hatsukoi monster character was brought up, the MC said ryosei kinda was like his character (a crazy fanboy of a young boy who dresses like a cute girl) and called him a pervert... ryosei didn't deny anything and even said "yes i'm pervert-san i look forward to working with you"... i... don't even... know...

when talking with the MC, ryosei was so loud and chatty, but when answering fans' questions he does this ADORABLE thing where he gives these really long detailed answers, and his voice gradually gets lower as he talks more & more... he would ramble a little and it was ADORABLE. i really appreciated him putting so much thought into his answers to fans' questions.

my favorite question was when a fan asked him about makeup.

Fan: "having been in tenimyu, you had to do your own makeup for 2 years. how is it to leave that work to makeup artists now?"

Ryosei: "you know, makeup artists do a great job, but there's moments where i have to tell them things like, that's not my foundation color, you made my face darker than my neck!! or things like that."

i thought that was really interesting bcuz i always had been curious about that; some tenimyu boys are so skilled at doing their makeup, and then you see how they look when other people do it for them, and... well.

being in the first row and sitting near where ryosei was, i felt like he was looking in my direction so often and it was so intimidating!! he's such a chill guy but he's also so beautiful and tall... he is. SO beautiful. i was especially happy because most of his freckles & beauty marks were visible thanks to how light his makeup was hehehe... also he has the most amazing cheekbones and these GIGANTIC hands actually that might be scary more than anything

he then brought his guests in: kodai (8th taka), tsuji (3rd higashikata) & . the guests were announced way after we got the lottery results & our tickets, so i was so amazingly happy that i'd get the chance to see kodai & tsuji.

the first thing they did together was this adlib skit competition. the MC would give them a specific prompt and then they each had to come up with a skit about it. the crowd would then vote for our favorite one.

the themes were: - you're the teacher and your student just graduated; - confessing to your childhood friend; - you confess but the person is already taken.

ryosei won the first one, but kodai won the other two!! he was just so pure and good it's no wonder... ryosei was like THIS IS MY EVENT WHY ARE YOU ALL VOTING FOR HIM ughhffjcsg

tsuji would get embarrassed & laugh in the middle of each of his skits, it was so cute!!

i really liked their skits for the third one. kodai's was like, "ah, really? well, that's fine!! i wish you all the best!!" while ryosei's was, "oh, okay then. bye. *turns & walks away*". i laughed SO hard. i feel like there was truly this dating game pattern of kodai being the sweet harmless guy, tsuji being the awkward goof & ryosei being the flirty, crazy and rude one. XD

then it was time for the performance numbers. okay, i really had NO idea any of this would happen AT ALL. it was kinda shocking...

so, ryosei & tsuji start talking about how they both love kpop... (a thousand red alarms go off in my head)... and how they... learned a choreography... (by then i'm already ready to die of embarrassment)... and so...

ryosei & tsuji did this entire dance cover complete with lipsynching of BTS' i need u? live on that stage? while i was in the first row? i'm still mentally scarred honestly?

but the worse is that. i actually. really enjoyed it. they're both really good dancers and were seriously going hard on that stage and they're both very tall you know... so when they did those sexy body rolling & neck touching & etc moves i was like OHHH. NOOOOOOOO

i honestly wish they had recorded it because despite how scarred i am i would definitely have rewatched that 488558 times. ryosei's legs...

afterwards all four of them sang kiseki by green boys? it was really pretty. ryosei did the rap part and it was so funny he is such a goof... however tsuji definitely stole the show with his wonderful singing~ poor ryosei keeps getting outshined at his own event...

afterwards, ryosei introduced his college friend, one of the first people he met after moving to tokyo. i thought it was really cool and sweet of ryosei to have invited this totally normal guy to his event! his friend was so quiet and shy, it was so cute to watch them.

the reason why ryosei had invited his friend was so he could play the guitar as ryosei sang his own songs. yes!! ryosei is apparently an amateur singer-songwriter now!!

it was a very heartfelt and sincere and lovely moment. ryosei isn't the best singer out here, but he still sounded so sweet, and the songs were really emotional. the second one was about going back to your hometown, coming home. when ryosei described his feelings behind the song, a lot of people in the crowd teared up, ryosei made fun of us!! (and then teared up himself while singing it.)

afterwards, it was time for us to meet ryosei. we could take a cheki, talk to him & personally hand him our letters.

what i thought was really cool about this event is that the cheki was included in the base price ticket. a lot of events require you to do crazy things or spend a ridiculous amount of money to get a cheki. (i bought 3 photobooks to get my cheki with zaiki LOL)

as expected, ryosei was so incredibly calm and casual. he greeted me and we took the cheki, please take note of how huge his hands are next to mine when i already have rather large hands... it was almost scary to watch girls and their small hands doing heart shapes with him i'm terrified

i told him how much i loved all of his roles especially jek and jouetsu and orion and INUI!! and how i've been supporting him from canada since he debuted in tenimyu and how i love his ""energy"" on stage (idk how to compliment extra-ness in jp).

he held my hand very firmly and warmly and he's sooo quiet and calm, idk why he does this thing where he's constantly yelling at his friends but basically whispers to his fans but it's so sweet... he is so beautiful and his soft face looks like cookies & cream what with his freckles... and his big smile is so cute!! he looked really surprised when i gave him my letter, maybe he didn't expect me to be able to write XD

i then went out to the goods area. honestly, i regret not buying more things. his photosets were GORGEOUS, the concepts, poses, expressions, outfits, image quality, everything were so much better than the bromides i got from everything & everyone else this month. no offense, but...

the cutest thing was the collection of cheki on sale. there were hundreds of unique shots: all hand signed & captionned by ryosei. i regret only getting one of them... i'll share higher quality pictures of the goods i got at this event at a later date.

as i mentioned, this was the objectively best event i attended this month. ryosei isn't even one of my top 10 actors or anything, but he's such a charming & entertaining guy. i'm really thankful to have met him & glad he treated me so kindly. i hope i can see him again!!!

thank you for reading this report!!

[shslbullrider-blog]

45 qs

oooh my god this is typical ellie “answered too long” there are no short responses but lots of ebull spoilers bc i dont care.

1. Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?

ebull has one big sister!  she and her are obnoxiously close, and have been known to game situations so that they’re both doing similar things at the same time -- just so they can spend as much time together as physically possible.  they’re physically separated most of the time, so they have to make any time they get for each other really count--!

ebull has always been achingly protective over her sis, who, in turn, is a bit more clever and wise than her.  they kind of have always lived in each other’s minds and they really balance each other out!  

2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like?

loving, but distant.  ebull doesn’t see her mother that much -- mostly for vacations and for the odd week or two out of the year.  she talks to her on the phone often enough, but it’s not quite the same.

most of their face-to-face interaction is based in her mom making up for lost time -- which tends to lead to ebull’s fashion and life choices being prodded at.  lovingly!  but in that completely-serious-tongue-in-cheek way.  theyre a pretty dry but warm family over there in gen, but it does embarrass her a bit. 

 she’s a bit more secretive towards her mom than with her dad -- but doesn’t really find that to be a bad thing!  mostly bc her mom is a bit of a gossip though and it Strains Her Life.  she’s also got an issue with respecting ebull’s privacy and she really hates that.

3. What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like?

extremely close.  ebull is a bit of a daddy’s girl and it’s kind of obvious -- she spends a lot of time with him, tells him all of her issues, asks him for advice, rags on him -- and he dotes on her like no one’s business.  she could probably get away with murder and have her dad ask her where to hide the body -- he enables a lot of her behaviors in a way her mom refuses to.

he does have a few very hard limits, though.  and ... makes it painful when she crosses them, because he tends to feel rather personally slighted if ebull keeps things from him or goes against direct advice.  they live together most of the time when ebull isn’t at home, so she tries to avoid this whenever possible.

sometimes by drawing in!  oops. ��privacy.

he’s a really dry but extremely warm guy in gen tho -- kind of a great person and ebull admires him a lot.

does not fucking get video games though.

4. Has your character ever witnessed something that fundamentally changed them? If so, does anyone else know?

ummm not really, not counting murder game things.  

sawako’s death fucked her up in a way that she doesn’t like to talk about -- even to people she’s close to -- but well!  that’s private--!

not even michiko knows the extent there and that’s saying something.

5. On an average day, what can be found in your character’s pockets?

advil, spare bandannas, potions, sawako’s love/friendship potion (it pokes at her back like constantly), tissues, pens, little scraps of paper, small vials of perfume, essential oils, hand cream, hershey kisses, needle + thread, mini toothpaste/toothbrush, a photo of her sister, gum, about four tubes of lipstick, mascara, her ID, like a single monocoin, sometimes you get a spare pair of clothing in there (plus calvins!), breath freshener, nail polish, nail cutters.

...

her jacket has more pockets than you’d ever fucking know.

6. Does your character have recurring themes in their dreams?

warmth.  being enveloped in warmth.  sunny days, laying in the grass, swinging a bat with her dad, driving over 100mph and feeling the warmth of the car through her hands.

....

sometimes she dreams of ow characters kissing her too but that’s a whoooole other kind of warmth she wouldn’t admit to.

7. Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares?

coldness.  dying slowly and alone.  calling out to people to receive no answer.  people she’s close to telling her she’ll be right back and not answering her call thirty minutes later.  various situations of seeing various corpses of cared-for people in increasingly horrifying death poses.

8. Has your character ever fired a gun? If so, what was their first target?

nah! why use guns when she’s got THESE GUNS [pretend she flexed]

9. Is your character’s current socioeconomic status different than it was when they were growing up?

nah not really!  and if it did change, she didn’t really notice.

10. Does your character feel more comfortable with more clothing, or with less clothing?

being honest -- super honest?  more.  a lot more.  jackets and things to cover her neck -- she can’t wear dresses comfortably without pulling tights up or she feels uncomfortable.

but she’s willing to wear the hot ‘skimpy clothing’ to fit in better with her ‘fellow teens’ because that’s what’s attractive, right??  god shes sure this works??  janties are in season right she can bring them back??

stunningly if ebull is comfy w u she tends to wear more clothes in ur presence idk what that says about her.

11. In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been?

the first few months in the game, before merge.  it was a constant, waking fear back then.  wake up in cold sweats and close to puking.  character spoilers: she was always worried, anxious, and uncomfortable but u know she’s thriving.

(also, she’s ridiculously good at seeming calm).

there have been high points since merge -- including not getting texts back from tomoka, michiko calling her for help in ch5, and some assorted Other Business (lol) but yeah it’s eased off a little and hasn’t breached that level since.

outside of game i dont know if ebull knows what it’s like to know fear.  she DID have a frighten that she thought was rather substantial in telling her parents she got into hpa for being a gamer but honestly she lived and like most things in her life it went better than she  expected it to.

12. In what situation was your character the most calm they’ve ever been?

well, she’s really good at SEEMING calm despite alarm bells in her head.  and she actually thrives during high stress situations!  she is deathly composed and very comfortable during raids, and actually has found that trials are kind of becoming comforting, in a sense -- and she feels calm in her accusations.

... thanks.

in general, she does better once she’s used to a rotation.

13. Is your character bothered by the sight of blood? If so, in what way?

nah not really!  she’s more squeamish than she seems at first glance, but it doesn’t obstruct her from what ‘has to be done,’ so to speak.  

14. Does your character remember names or faces easier?

names -- comes with the territory (given the fact that she deals primarily with online people).  but she’s super good at both, and very rarely gets a name unattached to a face -- or forgets either.  she finds it inspires bad blood.

15. Is your character preoccupied with money or material possession? Why or why not?

kiiiiind of ?  it’s a strange case.  ebull’s used to the finer things in life and has certain standards -- like, if she’s dating someone, she insists on both sentimental and expensive gifts (because the combination ensures that she covers her bases and that they “really” care about her -- it’s proper that way), and if she was denied anything from her current standard of life she... might go through a bit of a culture shock, really.  

money and status has been a huge theme of her life and upbringing -- with two working parents who sacrifice family time for their successes.  so she knows what it’s like to have a lot of it in a rather... passive way.  she has no interest in the excess that her family can get into, but she’s never ever ever had to even think about money in a lasting way -- she gets speeding tickets out the ass and the only concern she has is how her family might bully her, rather than the monetary cost associated with it.

she can afford to not be preoccupied with wealth, is probably the best way to put it.  she gets that this puts her in a pretty good position, and is empathetic to people who struggle, but really wouldn’t know what to do if she couldn’t just pay for shit she breaks without thinking about it.  so like, she’s not out there purposefully decorating her house with useless pieces of shitty expensive art or always after the highest brands, but wouldnt know what to do if the ability to do that was suddenly stripped away.

16. Which does your character idealize most: happiness or success?

ebull would claim a mix of both -- that competence and fulfillment in other areas help to ensure happiness, etc, but.

if you really put a gun to her head on this one, she’d have to admit to ‘happiness.’  she’s not very ambitious and not competitive in the slightest -- if she’s struggling emotionally and upset all the time, what point is there to her successes?  does success mean anything if it’s not attached to fulfilling work? 

she’d never claim that people have to be happy all the time, but don’t you have to lose to fully appreciate your wins?  it’s a conundrum.

she’s very go-with-the-flow in nature, and finds things escalate fast when people stress over finishing, being right, or attaining perfection.  it’s better to take a walk and let it sit for your health and happiness than push yourself further.

this is probably at least partially due to her overall ‘ahh’ feeling about how much her family works, but she absolutely doesn’t hold it against people who think differently.  kind of admires them, really!  she’s just not built for it.

17. What was your character’s favorite toy as a child?

a stuffed monkey her dad got for her during one of his trips to america.  she keeps it somewhere in her room.

18. Is your character more likely to admire wisdom, or ambition in others?

ambition ambition ambition -- though admittedly, ebull has neither trait, in her view.  wisdom is fine and good, but it’s easy to sit and get complacent with it, she finds.  also people who think of themselves as ‘wise’ tend to give her headaches.

she admires cleverness above both but finds it’s not the same as either.

19. What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before?

jesus christ where do i even fucking start it’s kind of a cyclical mess.

her biggest is most likely how long it typically takes her to get comfortable with people.  ebull finds vulnerability, opening up, and the like... extremely difficult (but v attractive).  she’s extremely adept at turning conversations into what the other person is feeling, and avoids giving any insight about her life in most situations -- even with people she claims to be close to.  she keeps any cards she intends to keep close to her chest, even when it doesn’t make sense to.  she’s understanding to the point of becoming a doormat in some places, and is easy to take advantage of once she’s committed -- but fears getting to that level, and will naturally close off if someone doesn’t read her mind and figure that she’s uneasy.

then she’ll ghost that person for hurting her feelings or just using her.  which happens often, not because someone actually did, but because she thought they did.

she works primarily in the realm of assumed knowledge, and, as a naturally perceptive person, knows that it’s unfair of her to assume people will remember as much about her as she does to them -- but it hurts her feelings anyway if she’s close to (or is crushing on) someone who doesn’t seem to just ‘get her.’  you can’t rush things in too fast, but you also have to be the one to make the first move.  you have to get her but be okay that she will almost never tell you a direct answer.

she keeps her preferences and desires coy and mysterious until she’s comfy and ugh yeah.

like in general this is a self-feeding mess of an issue here and it’s of no surprise that before the game she’d never been in a relationship.

20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?

usually it’s just to look for improvements to herself.  she very rarely uses other people as a basis as to what she should be doing in an excusatory way -- like ‘if theyre not working, i dont have to be.’  she hates that.

21. If something tragic or negative happens to your character, do they believe they may have caused or deserved it, or are they quick to blame others?

she always -- and i mean always -- blames herself first.  this drives BYE(star)BYE up a wall when theyre playing games because yeah she does this incorrectly a lot.

she usually needs people to let her know when she’s being a bit too hard on herself or over-extending.  but even in these situations she... relies on someone else to take the blame off her directly, rather than believing it entirely herself.

22. What does your character like in other people?

cunning, warmth, a bit of a tongue-in-cheek attitude, bullying, ambition, COMPETENCE, a bit of daredevil attitude, ability to hold her leash, genuine care, passion, ability to admit fault, EMPATHY, work ethic, good-humoredness, effort, something that i can only describe as ‘has the vibe of a ‘’’bad boy’’’ but treats her right,’ the ability to balance her out in any way fucking possible, the ability to make decisions, teamwork, commitment, the ability to just ‘get her,’ caution.

no one person can have all these things which is so upsetting but she lives.  mostly if you balance her out and make her smile... she’s good.

23. What does your character dislike in other people?

brattiness, hypocritical behaviors, blaming others needlessly, saccharine niceness, people who are weirdly friendly, touchiness too soon, obstructing team work, people who think theyre somehow above rules/norms, unwarranted self-importance, people who dont even pretend to try to understand where others are coming from, people who expect other people to do work for them, people who spread gossip too far, no boundaries, people who act as if theyre above bias/other human things/etc, ‘weak’ personalities, people who just escalate her rather than grounding her out a bit, people who take advantage of other people’s feelings, people who intentionally hurt others, sadistic qualities, overt self-flagellation, cattiness over men in women, men who are nasty towards women,  infidelity, lack of loyalty, promise breaking, people who claim to care past a polite level but don’t.

...she can take any of those in doses, and she’s very willing to admit that no one is perfect -- and she’s sure she expresses some of those herself, sometimes.

24. How quick is your character to trust someone else?

weird question for ebull.

trust is a strange thing for this gal.  when ebull uses the word ‘trust,’ she means she has an expectation.  for instance, she trusts someone named “bigdragonfucker42069″ to be kind of unbearable in the team’s groupchat.  she makes these kinds of judgments very quickly, and can be said to ‘trust’ every single member of her class -- such as, she trusts veronica to come into a trial logically and get exasperated by any court theatric, and she trusts masashi to say little in trial but to be marginally sensible when he gives ideas.

most of these expectations do include trust for being alone together with them, sometimes during motives, because she trusts people to not go after one of the clearly athletic people who could phone a friend and have backup in minutes.  shit like that.

this doesn’t mean, however, that she trusts people in a traditional sense -- and it goes in negative ways -- like she trusts that there are maybe two people that, even before the game was revealed as a vr, would give a shit if she died beyond ‘fuck now we lost someone who does shit.’  it doesnt always work to her self image’s favor!  

for a more traditional trust -- like trusting with emotional intimacy... um.

....

that takes.  a long time.

...a very long time.  and you have to pass shittests.

25. How quick is your character to suspect someone else? Does this change if they are close with that person?

quick to suspect, slow to solidify -- if that makes sense.  she doesn’t put much above just about anyone, but she’s willing to see reason or be proven wrong, and is pretty gracious when this is done.

doesn’t change a damn bit if she’s close to someone, but her um.  reaction.  might be a lil different.

26. How does your character behave around children?

she loves kids so much and is eager to teach them things, show them things, the whole bit.  god.  she loves kids.  easiest way to get her to genuinely smile is to bring a damn toddler around her.

27. How does your character normally deal with confrontation?

eagerly, but levelly.  she doesn’t shy away from much, but she’s more looking to compromise or do whatever suits the group best than whatever interests she might have.

she finds she does get a lil excited at ‘locking horns’ with people, though.  so to speak.

28. How quick or slow is your character to resort to physical violence in a confrontation?

depends entirely on the situation.  usually really slow -- she’s got about three locks on herself, calm down mechanisms, ability to tone down her impulses (and her impulses are RARELY ‘hurt someone’) -- but she does have.  big.  no-nos.

if any of those no-nos are touched she kind of goes blank white and will get violent without warning.  these things don’t really happen in real life though so she’s usually safe.

sucks 2 b in this game tho lol sorry jiji.

29. What did your character dream of being or doing as a child? Did that dream come true?

she really wanted to be the first female mlb baseball star.  died when she was about nine because it felt really unattainable, and she’d rather... accept her lot in life than try hard for something and fail that badly (oops).  now it’s too late to do anything about it even if she wanted to so she considers this a success in some way.

she isn’t here to make waves or so she says.  she doesn’t talk about this much but she does still love The Sport.

30. What does your character find repulsive or disgusting?

people who use other people’s feelings against them, or abuse the trust other people have in them for their own gain.  people who lie in relationships.  cheaters.  people who could give a shit if they hurt someone they claim to care about.

31. Describe a scenario in which your character feels most comfortable.

sitting with her family in their country home for their week alone together.  having only a few homework assignments to do, about to go on a walk with her sister so her parents can have time alone.

32. Describe a scenario in which your character feels most uncomfortable.

she’s accidentally hurt someone she cares about -- they’re trying to act ok, but she can tell that they’re upset and that their trust in her took a hit.  she has no way to really apologize -- no way to fix it quickly.  she’s alone in her room, trying not to dwell on it but finding it impossible.  it’s cold.

33. In the face of criticism, is your character defensive, self-deprecating, or willing to improve?

always always always willing to improve.  she takes all crit pretty well and never takes things personally.  maybe to a fault.

34. Is your character more likely to keep trying a solution/method that didn’t work the first time, or immediately move on to a different solution/method?

not only does she immediately move on to a different method, but she mapped that method out mentally around the middle-mark of her first attempt, making it easier to jump into.  ebull has never seen the point in trying things over and over again in desperation, and is always looking for new ways around something.  she’s adaptable in almost every sense, and doesn’t feel too bad about failure the first dozen of times as long as she eventually settles on an answer.

this sometimes leads to some rather unconventional solutions but you know.

35. How does your character behave around people they like?

ummm this is really dependent on the person, her intentions with the person, and their overall ‘relationship chemistry.’

ebull is extremely adaptable and finds it easy to go along with what other people need or desire in a relationship -- and therefore most of the time, if she likes a person, she tends to turn into some kind of balancing act.  she’ll also seek their company in her own ways!

it diverges a little between her intending for a friendship and her intending for a lover, however.  if ebull wants to have someone as a friend, she tends to spoil them -- to get into their interests a bit and starts to joke around early.  friends also get clued into her feelings and her background almost readily, and she’s more willing to explain herself or get into the things she likes (or even reveal embarrassing tidbits about herself) with people she feels mostly platonic towards.

if ebull intends to try to date someone, she um.

does her best to act absolutely detached from them.  if at all possible.  she shields any information about herself behind seven proxies of coyness.  she tries to turn every conversation into something about what the other person wants or their feelings rather than her own.  she gives little, coy compliments -- winking nudges of her interest -- but absolutely doesn’t invite the chance to get closer.  above all else, she tries to remain mysterious.

...it’s a lot easier to be her friend.  or like.  go from friend=>lover because holy shit is her dating scheme a pain in the ass.

36. How does your character behave around people they dislike?

depends on if this is a business/pleasure relationship.  in business, or for similar things (like a family her parents are trying to impress), ebull is remarkably good at acting at least interested in and polite towards other people.  she’s very willing to be or act compassionate even to people she detests, as she finds that there’s too much emotional energy used up by being mad or trying to behave anti-socially around someone she has to be around.  ebull values group cohesion and effort above most else, and finds that she starts causing issues by gaining attitudes.

if she has to be alone with someone she dislikes, she’ll smile politely, giggle at all their jokes, shrug her shoulders a lot, and move on quickly.  mostly you can tell if she dislikes you if she’s consistently trying to avoid speaking with you, and doesn’t coyly hint at things.

37. Is your character more concerned with defending their honor, or protecting their status?

she finds these two are almost irreparably related, and likely couldnt choose between the two.  mostly because she’s more interested in just letting her actions speak for her, rather than get into fights over if she’s a good leader or deserves her position or anything.  it’s counter-productive to focus on either of these.

38. Is your character more likely to remove a problem/threat, or remove themselves from a problem/threat?

weirdly enough she will usually just remove herself and her healers, if at all possible.  that, or try to calm the problem/threat or work around it -- rather than remove it entirely.  she’s not afraid of confrontation, but finds being quick to jump doesnt tend to look good.

39. Has your character ever been bitten by an animal? How were they affected (or unaffected)?

nope!  ebull doesn’t tend to deal with animals often.

40. How does your character treat people in service jobs?

politely, doesn’t tend to seem entirely bothered by slip ups or the like.  the type of person who notices that something is going wrong in the kitchen or her waiter seems frazzled and responds with “im in no rush, so take your time” or merely steers the dinner conversation away from how hungry people are into something more productive.  tips well.

41. Does your character feel that they deserve to have what they want, whether it be material or abstract, or do they feel they must earn it first?

earn it, fullstop.  and this includes things that people don’t traditionally associate with being earned -- like a good partner, for instance.  she detests when people demand or act deserving of things like other people’s respect, time, sympathy, or effort without giving a good reason.  this is partly why she’s not easy to phase even in the game when things go badly, because it’s easy for her to rationalize that she must have done something to disrupt other people’s trust in her -- and therefore lost her standing for their attention.  

she has never, ever assumed that she deserves something just for being there or showing up -- and finds that when things are just given freely, she gets a little anxious.  usually she assumes some ulterior motive.

42. Has your character ever had a parental figure who was not related to them?

nah!

43. Has your character ever had a dependent figure who was not related to them?

um unless you count 12 year olds on youtube who love her tanking videos, no.

44. How easy or difficult is it for your character to say “I love you?” Can they say it without meaning it?

if it’s by text to a person she’s friendly with and has no intention of ever dating?  super easy.  “ilyyyyyy” and shit, sometimes cheeky.  she can also use the term ‘love’ very indiscriminately, as one of her more charming speaking tics.

any other circumstance? hoo boy.  she can think of no harder phrase to utter -- and this is coming from a gal who refuses to make first moves or say things in a non-delicate manner.

she finds phrases like ‘i love you’ way too fucking vulnerable to be said lightly -- and has to be absolutely sure before saying it.  because she fears not having her feelings reciprocated over most things, ebull will NEVER say it first, even if that means it takes years to exchange the phrase.  she’s also the type of person who could hear someone else say it in earnest and feel only uncomfortable -- if she doesn’t feel the same way.  rather than fake her feelings and return it, she’d find coy, cute ways to brush it off.  she doesn’t  take this shit lightly and has determined ‘i love you’ to be something said only with absolute certainty.

also if you say it too fast or in a position she thinks is kind of manipulative (such as saying it for the first time to her as you’re attempting to get next stage intimate), she’ll probably get disgusted at you for faking your feelings in an attempt to make her put her guard down and that’s a break up.

so yeah if she says it to you out loud, platonic or romantic?  she means the hell out of it.  also it probably embarrassed her to say and she might be close to crying.

45. What does your character believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them?

ebull is a buddhist and is therefore ‘covered’ when it comes to the afterlife -- so she doesnt really fear what will happen to her on paper.  off of paper she’s kind of still a bit weirdly superstitious and it’s a meld of traditional worries on top of bizarre concepts like american ghost hunting shows.  she’s kind of superstitious and willing to believe a lot of things -- especially things that can’t be especially disproven -- and can consolidate a world where most people reincarnate but maybe christians or something all turn into ghosts, and--

she also quietly believes in cute sounding myths, or old adages like “what will be will be” which she finds strangely comforting.  most things all point to her still being accounted for in the afterlife.

her big fear associated with death is leaving people she loves behind -- or how they’ll do without her there.  she doesnt want people she loves to dwell on her being gone.

[evenstevensranked]

#42: Season 1, Episode 20 - “Almost Perfect”

Ren gets a "C" in shop class which means it's the end of the world. Louis' locker is festering with steam and bacteria, so Wexler lets him use a storage closet until it’s fixed. Naturally, Louis makes the best of it and renovates the space into a south-of-the-border themed hang out.

This episode opens with the subplot. We see steam blasting out of Louis’ locker accompanied by “Halloween”-esque tinkering piano. I don’t know why I never noticed the opening line before, but Twitty asks “Dude, are you grilling turkey dogs in your locker again?” Why am I laughing at this?! Louis explains that his locker has had a hot water leak all week. It’s causing moss to grow on his egg salad sandwich and mushrooms to “not only grow, but THRIVE” on his math book. He tries to ask Principal Wexler for help, but.. ya know.. Louis isn’t exactly the most reputable student. So Wexler pretty much ignores his pleas. Probably because he was too busy running off to a meeting with Vice Principal REN STEVENS! 

He finds Ren and approaches her all excited like “Guess whaaaat?!” Ren guesses that he finally bought some red car he’s always wanted. I like this because it foreshadows Dirty Work where Wexler DOES get his snazzy red convertible. The big news is that she’s a shoo-in for Student of the Semester. This whole scene is slightly uncomfortable, like most of their scenes together. Their relationship is so weird. He even calls her “the daughter I never had.” Okay. He suggests that she should write some glowing article about herself in the school paper. Why would anyone ever suggest that? How arrogant would that be? Either way, Ren ends up agreeing to said article but instead of writing it herself.. she assigns two little minions to do it.  

No, really. Am I the only one weirded out by this? lol. 

We meet Carla (Lisa Folies, All That!) and Marla (Krysten Leigh Jones, Remember the Titans) for the first time. They're two young girls who are obsessed with Ren and her ~perfection~. We only see them one other time in Season 2. They’re very eager to impress Ren and dress exactly like her and everything. I never understood how people dress the same as others on TV shows like this. How does that work? Did they break in and photograph all of Ren’s clothes one day and then go out to buy everything??? Do they have cameras in Ren’s room that live stream her outfit choices every morning? And then proceed to reach into their Ren Closet and wear the same exact thing? Like... How else is this even possible at all? 

They’re fawning over Ren and asking her what it’s like to be perfect. Ren insists she’s not perfect, but when she’s asked to list some of her imperfections… She acts all cutesy arrogant like “what do’ya know! I guess I don’t have any! *shrug*” It’s a little off-putting.

Louis’ locker water leak has gotten so bad he needs to wear a wetsuit and goggles to school now, lol. There’s seaweed or something growing in there and it’s also the home of an evil life form that somehow materialized. He tells Wexler “I swear to Pete, there’s something growing in there and I don’t think it likes me at all!” Who are these men everyone in the Even Stevens-verse swear to?! Twitty swears to Bob, Louis swears to Pete. Once Wexler sees the extent of the damage, he lets Louis use an old storage closet for the time being. I never got that. Sure, Louis keeps a whole lotta junk in his locker -- but what normal person needs a giant closet for a few books and a jacket? Anyway, Wexler says “make yourself at home” so you know Louis is gonna run with it. Like, I’ve said before... If you give Louis an inch, he WILL take 20 miles. 

“I can make this work” he whispers to himself as he observes the closet space, lol. I just realized there’s an actual physical lightbulb next to him, signifying the idea. Wow. 

Even though she’s the number one contender for Student of the Semester, Ren really wants to ensure that she gets the title… again. Apparently you get a $25 Honey Ham gift card and it’s really satisfying. Why she gotta be so greedy, tho??? According to Wexler she's already been Student of the Semester for the last two semesters, she’s Student Policy Monitor, lord knows what else, AND don’t forget that she's practically Vice Principal as well. Geeez, Ren! Let some of the other kids have their time to shine. But, regardless.. her plans are halted when she gets a C in shop class, jeopardizing her chances. As you can probably guess, this means it’s the end of the world. Well, what did she expect?! Everyone else constructed things like violins and grandfather clocks. But Ren Stevens thinks she can pass with flying colors by making a pizza paddle. In comparison to everyone else’s projects, hers is honestly worth a D- lol. Sorry, Ren!

LOOK AT HER COMPETITION! She seriously submitted a pizza paddle -- a literal slab of wood -- and expected an A. 

Louis decides to turn the closet space into a Mexico-style club. I mean, what else do you expect from Louis Stevens? He has an entire construction team come in to do the job and forges Principal Wexler's signature to pay for it. I feel like this is an episode that has glimmers of the more outlandish, unrealistic plots we see sprinkled throughout Season 2 and super frequently in Season 3. But, the odd thing about this case.. is that it doesn’t seem THAT outlandish to me. I can actually see Louis pulling this off, lol. I’m pretty sure Shia is ad-libbing all of Louis’ commands to the construction workers. (i.e. “Come on, guys! We should have the ceiling fans by now!”)

Something that made me laugh: Ren aimlessly walks around clutching her pizza paddle repeating “C” to herself in disbelief. She walks by Louis and the renovation crew so he asks her “We’re thinking of going with this Burnt Tortilla paint for our walls… What do you think?” and all she can say is “C” …but, Louis takes it as “Si” and I can’t deal with it.

A conversation between Ren and Wexler is accidentally broadcast through the intercom… letting the entire school know that “Ren Stevens got her first C.” Everyone listens in utter shock and some people even rush to the principal’s office just to stare at Ren with disappointment. Everyone held her to a ridiculously high standard and now they’re all depressed and let down because -- SHOCKER! -- she’s not perfect. How dare she!

Because of this, Carla and Marla completely let themselves go and dress like ragamuffins the next day. I feel like there’s a lesson here: Do not put all of your faith in a mere human being, you guys. This is all too extreme. It’s a C. They’re acting like she committed some morally wrong, unforgivable crime. Hardly. However, in Ren’s world, a C is an unforgivable crime. So, technicallyyy she did this to herself. Oops. She eventually decides to “fight back” for a chance to re-do her project, and suddenly Carla and Marla love her again.

Louis unveils the newly renovated locker/closet to Twitty. I love this scene. Twitty walks in and says “Dude, I’m in Mexico!” and Louis is like “Nooo, my friend. *turns on Mariachi music* NOWWWW YOU'RE IN MEXICO!!!"

He proceeds to show Twitty around the small space saying things like "See that? That's not a guitar, it's a bass and I got it shipped in from Meh-hee-co" with the accent. The line that kills me though is "See that matador painting? The guy at the gas station told me it's on real velvet." - Incredible. This line is actually a very obvious overdub. It cuts away to a shot of the painting and Shia clearly recorded this line as a voiceover after the fact. The quality and volume of the audio is totally different from the rest of the scene. Just something I always noticed. Wexler obviously finds out about this when he receives the work order and pays Discoteca Louis a little visit. 

“You said make myself at home, so I did. Tropical smoothie?”

Wexler tells him “Stevens. I want you, your smoothie, and your tacky velvet matador painting out of here in 24 hours!” and leaves. Feeling like this is an injustice, Louis decides to throw a muy grande farewell fiesta before the place is torn down. We get one of my favorite lines here: 

Twitty: I kinda like the matador painting.

Louis: Yeah. “Tacky”?! HE PAID 12 BUCKS FOR THAT!

Ren goes to speak to her shop teacher after school and we see that his license plate reads “WOOD LVR.” He also tells her “Ren, maybe you haven’t noticed but.. I LOOOOVE WOOD! Wood is ma’lady.” Why do I feel like this is another innuendo? All I can think of is Beyoncé. SERFBORT. Her teacher ultimately gives her a second chance at the project. Of course. All she has to do is make a perfect footstool and she’ll get an A.    

There’s a line half way around the world to get into Louis’ party. He has bouncers, velvet rope, and Twitty is keeping track of a guest list. This is so hilarious it’s ridiculous. To highlight how ~exclusive~ the party is, Twitty won’t even let Carly Blaine, his own cousin, in because her name isn’t on the list. Louis eventually turns it into a free for all and allows everyone to go in. How they all fit, I have no idea.

After completing and submitting her footstool for grading, Ren is anxiously awaiting the outcome in the hallway. Here is where we finally get a fantastic character moment from Louis:

Louis: “You ever wanna be normal? You're always trying to be perfect at everything.“

Ren: “What's wrong with being perfect?"

Louis: “It's not normal.”

YOOOOOOO! How fire is that line, though?! The matter-of-fact, simple way he was able to get through to Ren reminds me of something Shia said irl at his #TouchMySoul art instillation. I love caring, smart Louis! Yes.

Ren ends up getting a B- on her footstool. She’s not too happy, but she accepts it. Sheesh! If I got a B- in junior high, it would be up on the refrigerator door! Dang. She says she’s done with being perfect and goes to have some fun at Louis’ shindig.  

There’s a Ricky Martin - “Livin’ La Vida Loca” knockoff song playing at the party, presumably called "Casa de Fiesta.” IT GETS STUCK IN MY HEAD ALL THE TIME BUT I LOVE IT. We get a montage of Louis partying it up set to this song, which is truly a vision. Although, I can’t help but feel like Tumblr would crucify him for the cultural appropriation. Or would this count as "appreciation"? He has an authentic Mariachi band and everything. It just hit me -- Where the heck is Tawny?! Surely she’d have something to say. 

Louis is shocked when he sees Ren there. This is another one of my favorite moments:

Louis introduces Ren to the band and I swear this is Shia ad-libbing again. (i.e “This is Arnesto! And Manuuuuel!”)

…and that’s pretty much it.  

This is a good episode. It really is. But, much like Dirty Work.. This popular and memorable Louis storyline is only a subplot. Also, nothing serious happens with Louis as a character here until the last few minutes. Like I said, I adore his mini speech to Ren. GAHH!! When Louis is good, he is REALLY good. He just busts out some profound crap outta nowhere sometimes. Gotta love that. As usual, this Ren main plot just isn’t as strong. It's so unfortunate. But seeing Louis’ words get to her is touching, and it’s great to see her let go at the end.

Thanks for reading as always! Getting back into the swing of things after my trip to New York last weekend. :)

Please, chime in using the Disqus comment section below!

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[katalytic]

Raw or Smackdown?

See, if I was not sleep-deprived, this would be an easy answer, and we could go on with our lives after I replied with one or the other. BUT since I got like… two? three? hours of sleep, and I tend to ramble when tired, I’m going to reply to this with A Very Long Post about my (very jumbled) thoughts on each show. Click on the “Read More” to, uh, read more (unless you’re on the mobile app – whoops).

Raw:

Since the brand split, Raw has had this issue where they either pull the trigger on a story line too early OR they let a story line limp to its sad conclusion, thereby ensuring no one gives a fuck by the end of it. However, in the past few weeks (since WWE has been “on the road to Wrestlemania”), they’ve gotten better at letting stories breathe while still adding a couple of new wrinkles to keep things fresh.

Please let this be the start of a trend and not something that stops as soon as Wrestlemania ends.

The Universal Title looks deadass like Lord Zedd from “Power Rangers” after a bedazzling accident.

Raw has my very favorite wrestler, Sami Zayn. Unfortunately, being a Sami Zayn fan right now feels like what it felt like being a Chicago Cubs fan in 2014 – you knew good things were around the corner, but can we see at least two wins strung together? Why Must I Suffer Like This?

Raw also has my other favorite wrestler, Bayley… whose character has suffered since joining the main roster, in my opinion. However, if WWE pulls off the Sasha Banks heel turn and shows how Sasha has slowly been manipulating Bayley this entire time, all will be forgiven.

Sasha Banks returning from her injury and decking Dana Brooke in the face was what cemented my wrestling fandom.

Can we talk about the women’s division, though? Because there are literally only four women they’re using in the division on Raw right now: Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Nia Jax.

Alicia Fox is busy having messy relations with Noam Dar.

Emma became Emmalina for a hot minute before she was “lol nah” and disappeared back into her cocoon or whatever.

Dana Brooke is JUST NOW getting out from under Charlotte’s thumb. This is a story line that should’ve been done ages ago.

Paige’s neck is, like, dead or something.

There are probably other women I’m forgetting because I haven’t seen them, like, ever.

Like, why? Why just these four?

Also, Nia Jax seems like a lovely person in real life, and I dig her in-ring character. But she does entire promos through her nose, and her theme makes me go “(dismissive wanking motion)” every time I hear it.

The first time I ever knew what a Seth Rollins was, he was returning from injury and then screaming at the crowd for cheering him. Iconic.

That’s probably why I didn’t really buy into his whole “yes I am a babyface now” act until he did his in-ring interview about his new knee injury. He just seemed like a snotty brat acting out because Mom and Dad had a new baby to dote on up until that point.

The whole Kevin Owens/Chris Jericho friendship thing went on for way too long but the Festival of Friendship was worth all of it.

Chris Jericho… what a goddamn delight he was this year. I’m going to be sad when he leaves to tour with Fozzy after Wrestlemania.

I’m glad Kevin Owens is being Actually Evil again.

I can’t believe it’s taken them this long to finally figure out Roman Reigns’ sweet spot as a character (tough as nails, dismissive of the old guard, doesn’t really give two shits about the crowd booing him because he knows what he’s about), but I’m glad I’m here to witness it. Now don’t fuck this up.

Because oh lawd before this Roman Reigns’ characterization was… A Mess. The less said about his reign as United States Champion, the better. Let’s all just… agree to forget this happened?

(I still want him to admit that he misses The Shield and that’s why he keeps everything vaguely Shield-like AND why he was so quick to be friends with Seth again.)

The tag team division is another mess. The New Day seem like they’re finally back on track in new IDGAF personas now that they don’t have the weight of the longest championship reign in tag team division history!!11! holding them down. But everyone else? Yikes.

Except, weirdly, Sheamus, who is actually pretty fun now.

Enzo Amore and Big Cass probably suffered the most out of everyone in the tag team division while The New Day were busy making history. (The whole storyline with Rusev and Lana? Let’s never speak of it again.) I used to look forward to them, but now, their music hits, and I stare off into an invisible camera like I’m on “The Office.”

Listen. I appreciate what Stephanie McMahon has done behind the scenes, and I get that her character on “Raw” is supposed to be an asshole. I understand. But I still want someone to hit her with a chair.

Triple H looks like he needs to take a dump. Like, all the time. He has permanent dumpface.

Come back to me, Finn Balor.

SmackDown:

SmackDown, to me, has been the more coherent and consistent of the two brands since the brand split. I think that the one thing that people were touting as its detriment at the start of the brand split – the smaller roster – actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Less characters means less working parts you have to shuffle around for stories to work.

Of course, the smaller roster means that you had the same four dudes vying for championships at the start of the brand split, but to the writers’ credit, they’ve been expanding that pool a bit.

The Randy Orton/Bray Wyatt story line. I mean, fucking hell. Did anyone expect it to be, like, good? Who knew Orton getting his head split open like an overripe melon during SummerSlam would lead to this? Shout out to everyone involved for being completely invested in it and taking even the most ridiculous parts of the story deadly seriously, because any sort of wink and nod to the audience would ruin it.

The Miz is the greatest heel on either brand, and it’s not even close. He even got me to feel sorry for Dolph Ziggler for a minute, there. Genius.

I know a lot of people still don’t like John Cena, and after watching older episodes of Raw and SmackDown on WWE Network, I can understand why. But the Meta Cena of this past year is the best version of John Cena possibly ever. 

Also, Nikki Bella coming out to save Cena three weeks in a row makes my heart flutter. LOVE IS REAL.

The women’s division needs more women, but at least they’re using everyone in the division.

I would vote Alexa Bliss as WWE Rookie of the Year if there was such an award. (Is there such an award?) Yeah, she’s still green in the ring, but her character work has been fantastic to watch. A sneaky-good NXT callup.

The tag team division is a mess on this show, as well. American Alpha won the titles and then went a month without having to defend them. That’s how much of an afterthought the division has been.

Hopefully, the Usos winning the titles last night will help. Their heel turn has been one of the few bright spots in the entire division this year, so I’m hoping that’ll help elevate things.

Dean Ambrose growing a beard was a significant highlight for WWE this year, as far as I’m concerned. Now he doesn’t look like a baby with a combover anymore.

AJ Styles is probably one of my favorite characters in WWE right now. He’s like the Cool Old Guy crossed with the Only Sane Man who’s also Wrong Genre Savvy. Like, he’s the one dude on this show who sees it as an actual athletic competition and cannot comprehend the chicanery that surrounds him.

Take him calling out Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon for giving Randy Orton a match against him to be in the main event at Wrestlemania. Yes, on LITERALLY ANY OTHER SHOW, he would be completely right about how COMMITTING ARSON should not somehow grant Randy Orton a chance to be anywhere else other than jail. But he doesn’t realize he’s on a TV show about a wrestling show. Like, you shared a locker room with a an undead zombie wrestler AND a mystical cult leader, both of whom can teleport, my guy. That’s fine, but arson – ARSON is where you draw the line. Okay, buddy.

And then, when he sort of figures out that, hey, the rules of the outside world don’t matter on this show, he manages to break the ONE RULE he shouldn’t have: attacking a McMahon. And he still gets kind of rewarded for it (if you think having to carry Shane McMahon through a match where he is guaranteed to attempt to destroy himself at least once is a reward – which, honestly, it is, in WWE-land).

After all this, you’re probably wondering “So… Raw or SmackDown?” tl;dr: Raw has more of my favorite wrestlers, but SmackDown has the story lines I’m more invested in.