#and the VAs were there and dressed like their characters and it was so nice :') i love when VAs do that shit hehehe

[shirogane-oushirou]

[rambling about f.ate series news]

just watched the f.ate stream. f.sn hd with eng translation for the first time ever in a Funking Week, and then a.taraxia hd is ALSO in development???? crying sobbing wheezing passing out. i want to see s.aber and b.azett and l.ancer and my daughters r.in and i.lya and The Freak Himself k.otomine and and and---

[kaliforniahigh]

birds of a feather, we should stick together - n.s. (part one)

Best friends to lovers, fake dating and best friend Noah <3

Warnings: a mean character, curse words, Noah makes fun of fine line tattoos, lies and reader trying to fit in to the best of her abilities. If I missed something, let me know!

Part 2 is in the works and coming soon!

WC: 4.3k words.

Requests are closed for now / Click here to be added to the permanent tag list <3

To say you were overly excited to meet up with your high school friends would be a total lie. When you told Noah they arranged a lunch date, to remember the good old days, he scoffed, and asked you why you even stayed in the group chat with these people.

Truth is, they weren't all bad. Acually, most of them were pretty nice, It was the Regina George of the group, also known as Jade, who fucked up the vibes.

Jade was a mean girl, and she never understood why you were friends with the awkward emo kid, with the side-swept bangs. This emo kid being your best friend, Noah Sebastian, who was the first person you met when you enrolled in a new school, in the middle of the school year.

It was 6th grade, and you had just moved to Richmond, VA. Your dad was transferred, so you had to find a new home, in a new city.

You and Noah became friends fast, being paired up by your English teacher during reading classes, you talked more than you actually read. He found out, that even though it didn't look like it, you enjoyed the same bands as he did. And that you learned to play acoustic guitar from a pretty young age.

You told him that your dad was in a band during his college years, but, due to adult responsabilities, it became more of a hobby for him than anything else.

Soon, the two of you were inseparable. Walking down school corridors together, him going to your house to do homework, and showing you around the city on the weekends.

You were the one who took school more seriously than him, and you were the one who ended up going to college and getting your Master's degree right after. But he was the one who always took you to watch his band practice, who took you to watch his friends - who were always much older than the two of you - perform.

When you were both 15, Noah told you he was going to drop out of high school. You weren't too happy, because you wouldn't have your best friend with you anymore, but you always knew the time would come, and were surprised he didn't decide to do it much sooner.

And that's how you met Jade and her friends. You weren't popular by any means, but, one day, she approached you and asked you how you styled your hair so nicely, and how she loved your pink tips.

You wanted to tell her that your best friend helped you. When you told Noah you wanted a splash of color in your hair, he went to the store with you to buy the necessary things. He wanted you to do purple, but you settled on pink. You remember him huffing in annoyance, telling you that pink was such a boring color.

At home, he helped you with the back of your head, while you spread the vivid color on the front pieces. It turned out amazing, and you joked that he could be a hair stylist if this band thing didn't work out.

Noah and Jade never really got along. The first day they met, Noah was picking you up from school, waiting for you in the parking lot. You remember Jade making a backhanded remark about his tattoos and the way he dresses, and Noah's face turned sour immediately.

After that, anytime they were in the same vicinity, shady comments were thrown by both of them. Noah always commenting about how the bleach in her hair must've gotten to her brain, and Jade commenting about how Noah was a wannabe rockstar.

Noah asked you many times why you kept her around, instead of dumping her and finding new friends, and you always explained how it wasn't that easy.

This was high school, and everyone already had their group of friends, not really being keen on letting other people in. Besides, without him there, and without the girls, you truly had no one else.

At the end of the day, he understood. Noah himself had a hard time making friends, and to this day, he never understood how someone like you decided to befriend him. He knew how being solitary could ruin your years in high school.

Now, sitting in this overpriced lunch spot they found downtown, you were contemplating your life choices as you tried to eat your Caeser salad without grimacing. All of them ordered fucking salads, and you did the same, not wanting to be the only one ordering chicken parm.

"Girlies", Jade said, wiping her mouth with a napking and setting it back down on her lap. "I know this is a reunion, but I have such good news", she clapped her hands excitedly. Typical Jade, always wanting the attention on her.

Everyone stopped eating to pay attention to what she was saying.

"So, you know how Peter proposed to me last year, right?", everyone nodded yes. "We're getting married in two months!", she exclaimed, reaching inside her Louis Vitton bag and pulling out what seemed to be wedding invitations. "And all of you are invited!"

The girls cheered and started to hug her, you did the same, expressing your happines for your friend.

"It's going to be in the Bahamas, in an all-inclusive resort", she informed, handing out the wedding invitations. Meanwhile, you were wondering with what money you were getting your ass to the Bahamas.

"Peter is paying all the expenses, for everyone, so don't even worry about it", she said, as if reading your thoughts.

Jade got engaged to the kind of person everyone thought she was going to date. Peter was a hot shot plastic surgeon based in LA. You had no doubt he racked up millions of dollars every month just fixing people's faces. Jade herself had something new done everytime you met up.

"What about you, Y/N? Who are you bringing as your plus one?", Emma asked. You guess you zoned out and missed part of the conversation.

"You're bringing your boyfriend, right?", Lily chimed in.

Did they even know if you had a boyfriend or not? You looked around the table, all the girls waiting for your answer. You didn't know what to say. Suddenly, your eyes noticed all of their beautiful engagement rings, and you didn't have the courage to say you were still single.

"Yeah, of course", you answered, hoping you were convincing.

"Uhh, that's amazing! Who is he?", Jade asked, excitment coating her voice.

Shit. Who the fuck would you say is your boyfriend?

"Noah", you said. He was the first person to come to mind, and you didn't hesitate to say his name.

You saw Jade's face twist in a frown.

"You're dating Noah?", she asked, judgment evident in her tone.

"Hmm, yeah, for a while now", you were lying through your teeth at this point.

"Well", she shrugged. "I guess it was always gonna happen anyways", and just like that, the rest of the girls went back to their conversations, while you mulled over what the hell you had just done.

You were already gonna tell Noah to come with you to the wedding the moment she handed out the invitations, which, was going to be a difficult task in itself, since Noah held a grudge against Jade to this day. But you were sure you could convince him with the all-inclusive resort argument.

Now, not only did you have to convince him to go with you, but you had to tell him you told the girls you were dating?

You were already thinking of excuses not to go.

When everyone was finished with their meals, they slowly started to say their goodbyes. You did the same, giving each one of them a kiss on the cheek as you made your way out of the restaurant and to your car.

When you got in, you instantly fished your phone from your purse, dialing Noah's number.

"You need saving from the botox bitch?", Noah answered the phone. You rolled your eyes, but laughed anyway.

"I'm already leaving the restaurant, actually. I was calling to ask if I can come over"

"Since when do you call to ask if you can come over?", he asked, confusion in his voice. He was right, you usually just showed up.

"I don't know? To make sure you're home?"

"You know I'm always home"

"Can I comer over or not?", you asked again, a hint of fake annoyance in your voice.

"Of course you can"

"Then I'll see you in fifteen", you said, hanging up the phone and starting your car.

On the way over to Noah's house, you've been thinking about how you were going to break the news. You still had a little while to think about what you were going to tell him, but, you knew that as soon as he saw your face, he'd know you were hiding something from him.

So, without an actual plan, you decided to tell him today. That way, you wouldn't have to torture youself for days with this information, and you gave him more time to prepare. That is, if he even decided to go.

You trusted your abilities to convince him, though. Noah had a history of doing whatever you wanted just to see you happy, and you never took advantage of that, but desperate times call for for desperate measures. Besides, a vacation to the Bahamas, with all expenses paid, didn't seem all that bad. Even if you had to endure Jade for a few days.

Parking outside, you gave yourself a pep talk before leaving your car and locking it behind you. Using your spare key, you unlocked the front door and made your way inside the living room, announcing your arrival by calling Noah's name.

"I'm right here, what are you yelling for?", he answered from the couch, the PS5 controller in his hands. You just shrugged in answer, and sat next to him.

Grabbing your purse, you pulled out the fancy wedding invitation Jade had handed to you, and set it on the couch beside him and between the two of you. Grabbing it and reading what was written in gold letters, Noah's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Oh, so the queen of botox is getting married to the king of botox?", you gave him a sideways glance, but smiled at his nicknames for the couple. It did suit them, after all.

"Yeah, they are. Jade couldn't help but announce it today", you pointed out.

"Well, are you going?", he asked, setting the invitation back down.

"Hmm. It depends, I guess", you answered, avoiding his eyes and you could tell he already clocked that something is wrong.

"Why?", he asked, a little hesitant.

"Jade said we can bring a plus one"

"Yeah, you usually can at weddings"

"And I was thinking....", you trailed off and looked at him, seeing the exact moment the realization dawned on him, and he immediately started to shake his head.

"There is no way", he said, getting up from the couch and walking over to the kitchen. You got up as well and went after him.

"Why not?", you asked him, a little bit of whining in your voice.

"Are you seriously asking 'why not'?"

"I mean, I know you don't like her, but c'mon, this is gonna be a nice wedding. Besides, it's in the Bahamas, and Peter is paying for everything", you argued.

"Is it's because it's in the Bahamas, I can pay for a vacation for us in the Bahamas, no problem", he crossed his arms against his chest.

"It's not because of that"

"Y/N", he stepped closer towards you. "You know you can just go alone, right?"

"I can't go alone", you huffed in annoyance, because his argument was totally valid, but you did not have that option anymore, all because of your big mouth and will to please everyone.

"Why not?", he asked, confusion etched all over his face.

"Because...", your shoulders slumped as you realized the gravity of your mistake.

"Hey", he grabbed your shoulders, sensing your discomfort. You were never uncomfortable around him, so this behaviour from you scared him a little bit. "You can tell me, what is it?"

"I told them I have a boyfriend", you say, voice low and a little embarassed.

"But you don't have a boyfriend", he observed the obvious, having difficulty in understanding where you were going with this.

"I told them it was you", you looked down towards the floor, fingers going to rub your forehead as you waited for his reaction. The seconds ticked by, and the silence ate you alive.

"You...", he started, but stopped himself in his tracks, head going over what you just told him, to make sure he got it right. "You told them we were dating?", you answered with a head nod, still looking down.

"Y/N", he said your name with a little bit of annoyance lacing his tone. He looked up at the ceiling, as if willing the heavens to give him the strength to deal with you.

"I know, I know", you say, looking up at him. "It was just that they were drilling me about this and I didn't know what to do!"

"Tell them you're not dating anyone?", he deadpanned, and you hated that he kept stating the obvious.

"Yeah, but they already see me as the odd one out, what are they gonna think when I tell them that I'm almost thirty and not dating anyone? They're all engaged, for fucks sake!", you exclaimed and started to pace around the kitchen.

"You worry about what they think of you too much", Noah pointed out. He hated the way you felt like you always had to please them, they way you always thought you had to fit in into their world.

"It's ok, I'll just come up with an excuse so I don't have to go to the wedding", you waved your hand, dismissing this conversation. You were already feeling your head start to throb. You made your way to the couch, grabbing your purse, and the invitation.

Behind you, you hear Noah let out a big breath, before softly calling out your name. You stopped in front of the door and turned around to face him.

"You owe me big fucking time", he pointed a finger at you, and you couldn't help but let a smile dance over your lips.

"You're gonna do this?", you asked, a little doubtful.

"You're doing my laundry for two weeks", he comprimised. "No, three weeks. Fuck it, you're doing my laundry for a whole fucking month"

You cheered at this, not minding it one bit. His laudry was easy since he only had black clothes.

You skipped your way over to him, reaching your arms up and circling them around his neck to pull him into a hug. You couldn't see, but he had a smile on his lips as well.

At this moment, Noah thinks he would do just about anything to keep you happy.

"At least she can't make fun of your hair anymore", you observed, as you parted from him. He groaned in reply.

"Don't fucking push it", he warned you, but there was no real threat to his words.

"Oh!", you snapped your fingers as you remembered an important information about the wedding. "I forgot to tell you something"

"What is it?", he asked, looking at you sideways in suspiscion.

"It's at an all-inclusive resort", you wiggled your eyebrows suggestively. "Besides", you continued "Jade's probably gonna invite so many people, we won't even cross paths with her", you observed.

"I hope you're right"

To say you had a lot of time to prepare was a lie. Time flew by incredibly fast, and in between work, choosing a dress and picking up a suit for Noah - who complained endlessly about having to wear it, you argued that he can't wear a black tank top to a wedding, and he huffed and puffed even more - you were only one day away from boarding the plane.

You were going over everything in your suitcase. Another thing Noah was going to complaing about, you can hear his voice in your head asking you why you needed so much stuff. You zipped it up when you decided that obsessively thinking if you forgot anything was not going to make you magically remember something.

You texted Noah that you were ready for him to pick you up. You both decided it was best if you slept over at his house, and he was asking one of the boys to drive you over to the airport for practical reasons.

It wasn't too long before you heard honking outside, signaling Noah's arrival. You took everything you needed, and looked around you to make sure you locked everything up, and when you were satisfied with your quick inspection, you walked over and opened the front door.

Noah was opening the trunk when he saw you.

"Don't say anything", you raised your hand up to stop the words you were sure were going to stumble from his lips. He raised his arms up in surrender and didn't say anything. But, he did make overexaggerated grunting noises as he hauled your bags inside the trunk. You ignored him and went to lock your front door instead.

Getting in the car and driving away, you pulled your phone from your pocket.

"Jade already texted the flight information", you observed.

"At least she's competent", he retorted.

"Imma need you to try and be civil, at least. Remember we're going to enjoy the beach and drinks", you reminded him of what you've been saying for the past weeks. "And you can't call them botox queen and botox king".

"If she doesn't talk shit about my tattoos, we'll be fine", he argued back.

"Her husband has tattoos", you pointed out, as if that makes the situation any better.

"I bet it's some fine line pussy ass tattoo of a lion or some shit like that", he grunted in annoyance, remembering he's gonna have to deal with Jade AND her husband.

"You know what?", you rubbed you chin in thought. "I think it actually is", you pondered, and you both couldn't help but cackle out loud about the fact that he was most likely right about the tattoo.

The rest of the day went on without a hitch. You ordered some food so you didn't get any pans or pots dirty before traveling, and soon, you were both ready for bed, since you were leaving pretty early in the morning to catch your flight.

You were getting comfortable in Noah's left side of the bed, when he came in the room, dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie, joining you under the covers.

Plugging your phone to charge, you turn to look at him, doing the same.

"Did you set the alarm?", you asked and he hummed a yes. "Did you set it really loud?", he hummed in reply once again.

He knew you got anxious whenever you had to do something important in the morning. You always thought some entity was going to disable the alarms you set on your phone and you wouldn't wake up in time.

"Don't worry, we'll get there with lots of time to spare", he reassured you, and opened his arms so you could lay against his chest.

Sleep found you easily, as it always did whenever you and Noah slept on the same bed. You were used to sleeping in an empty house, since you've been living on your own ever since you moved for college. But to say your sleep was calm and serene was a lie.

With him, you felt safer, like he could protect you from everything and anything. You trusted him more than you trusted anyone else in your life.

Noah, wasn't as tired as you were, and he contemplated how these days were going to go over as he waited for your breath to even out. It was a ritual of sorts whenever you two slept together. He always waited for you to fall asleep first. And, sometimes, when you had difficulty sleeping, he sang some soft tunes, or rubbed your scalp the way he knew you liked, and that always did the trick.

Next time you woke up, was with Noah's shrill alarm ringing on the bedside table. He really did set it really loud, because you were groaning and telling him to turn it off. He woke up with a yawn, disentangling his arm from under your torso to finally quiet the alarm.

Yawning and stretching your limbs all over the bed, you heard Noah chuckle beside you.

"You're like a damn cat, stretching like that", he pointed out, looking at you with a smile on his face.

He always thought you were the most adorable in the morning. Your hair was a little messed up, and your eyes were all tired and fighting sleep. A part of him wished he could just pull you back to rest beside him and resume sleep. But, the trip from hell awaited the two of you.

Getting up from the bed, he announced he was going to brush his teeth and take a shower, meanwhile, you busied yourself gathering all of the suicases and backpacks downstairs.

As soon as Noah left the bathroom, you went in there and did your morning routine as well as you could with your stuff all packed away. Luckily, you kept a few things over at his place for convenience.

Changing into something comfortable for the airport, you made your way downstairs and found Noah dressed in usual sweatpants and hoodie combo.

"Did you grab your sleep mask? I won't lend you mine this time", you told him. Last time, you had to endure a whole flight without your sleep mask, because Noah had forgotten his, and you had no heart to tell him no when he asked to borrow yours.

"Yes, ma'am. I grabbed my sleep mask", he answered. "I already texted Jolly, and he's on his way to pick us up".

"Did you lock everything up?"

"Yep, already checked the entire house while you were showering"

Noah was used to this. You had a ritual everytime you were travelling, and he learned that getting ahead of you was the best thing to do. That way, you wouldn't get stressed with things he didn't do, or forgot.

Right on cue, you heard a horn souding outside, Noah opened the door and was greeted with Jolly waving from inside the car.

"Ok, let's go", you clapped your hands in a "chop chop" motion.

On the way to the airport, Noah and Jolly chatted on the front seat, while you went over the flight details on your phone, making sure everything was in order for check-in. Noah hated airports, so he left you in charge of everything he found boring.

The drive was short, and soon, you were bidding Jolly goodbye at the drop off zone, and you didn't miss the little pat on the back and the "good luck" he wished Noah before getting back in his car and driving away.

Checking-in, you and Noah found a place to sit while he grabbed some breakfast for the two of you. While you sat there, eating and waiting, you were reminded of a very important detail that you forgot to discuss with him.

"Oh, my God! I totally forgot to talk to you about something", you exclaimed, swatting him in the chest to get his attention.

"This is the second time you forgot to tell me something about this wedding trip", he said.

"When they ask us how we got together, what are we gonna tell them?", you ask him. You've been going over all the lies you'd need to tell during this trip, and you realized that you and Noah didn't have a game plan at all.

"That one day, you professed your undying love for me and then we started to date?", he said, as if the answer was obvious, but you could tell he was sprinkling a little bit of sarcasm in there.

"I'm serious, Noah", you huffed, looking at him. "We have to be beliveable, otherwise, they'll catch on, and ruin the whole thing"

"We can just tell them that we realized we wanted to have something more than just a friendship", he suggested, and the idea wasn't so bad. Jade always said you'd end up together from how much time you spend with each other.

"Out of nowhere?"

"No, we've been hiding our feelings, thinking that the other didn't feel the same way, until, one day, I told you I liked you and you told me you liked me too", you rubbed your chin, thinking over his plan. "It's not overcomplicated and if we stick to the same story, we'll be fine", he reassued you. "Besides, Jade is so self-absorbed she'll probably not even ask anything about us at all"

"That's very likely", you agreed with his reasoning. After all, it was Jade's wedding, so the light is gonna be on her, and not on you and Noah.

"What about PDA?", you broached another subject that you've been avoiding.

"If you wanna kiss me, you can just ask, you know?", he teased you, nudging you with his shoulder.

"It's not what I meant, and you know it", you told him, but you weren't able to hide the little blush covering your cheeks, and he noticed too, by the way he was grinning.

"I can hold your hand. I mean, I kind of already do. But let's just go with the flow. You don't have to worry too much about this, it's just a couple of days, after all", he said, and he was right. You and Noah meshed well and were usually in the same wavelength, so there was no reason to think things were going to go south.

You just hoped you had time to relax and enjoy the beach, the drinks and the foods, which, if you knew Jade as well as you did, were going to be impeccable.

Tag list: @concreteangel92 @foliosgirl @collisionofyourkissmakesitsohard @stardustsirenmelody @miwomens @concretejunglefm @fadingangelwisp @prettygirlrock126 @dontwantthemoney @tosoundlessdarkistare @babygirlchuuya @follow-me-down-to-wonderland @lacy1986 @romanreigns-supreme @xmads-omensx @missduffsblog @rumoured-whispers @thisbicc @badomensgoodomens @floatingkiwi @collective-heartbreak @dontwantthemoney @dream-machine-love @alwaysfightforwhoyouare @amelia-acero @kenjipepsi1 @montgomery-929496 @daddy-dierkes-girlie @stardustsirenmelody @cheyyyyr @triedbimsoblu333 @xxkatsatwatwafflexx @noyaisasimp @youlookforultraviolet @w0manof-flesh44 @chaoticwineaunt @geminigirlfromfinland @turn-your-life-into-folklore @butterflyeffect07 @zozaline @deardelirium @ferduttini @jilliemiw86 @alylanaeblack @lilcrazy011

[astriiformes]

Wait, I don't think I mentioned this here. So when I was at DragonCon last year, a friend and I cosplayed T'Lyn and Boimler, right. And on the day we were dressed as them, a man came up to us and very politely was like "I like your costumes," and it was a somewhat memorable interaction because he was very nice to us.

Anyway several months later my friend told me that even though we didn't realize it at the time, she had a suspicion that the guy who complimented our cosplays was in fact. Eugene Cordero (who was indeed a guest at DragonCon last year), and this is going to haunt me for the rest of my life because. I can't prove it, obviously, but I think she might be right.

Curse of cosplaying characters from an animated series and not knowing what all of the VAs look like. 😭

[agrosehamada]

Dear Diary: Rose Hamada, March 16th, 2058

Dear Diary,

Papa and I are home from our weekend trip! He picked me up from school on Friday and we drove to a convention hosting a special Bridgerton ball! It was so much fun--we dressed up as Collin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington and I think we looked great! I was a little too nervous to actually dance, but we spent the night doing a "gossip" scavenger hunt (which I think was fitting for my cosplay!)--there were 60 cards scattered all over the hotel, 30 with names of people and 30 with bits of scandalous gossip (like murders and affairs) that lined up with those names! We only found 54 so we didn't win the scavenger hunt but it was really fun! And we won some cute hats in the raffle drawing!

We also did the "loot drop" at midnight where balloons with prizes in them were tossed over a balcony and if you popped the balloons you could get the prizes--I got some cute little plushies!

We also got to meet the voices of Phineas and Ferb at the con which was SO cool!!! Papa and Dad both watched the show growing up and showed it to me and Danny and we love it too--I don't know if Papa or I were more excited! Both the VA's were so nice and even did their character voices for us!

It was so much fun but I was so sleepy after the busy weekend that I fell asleep on the road trip home 😴 Now I'm just chilling out for a bit on voice chat for Penny! I had this idea for Cars Land outfits for our Disney trip and she loved the idea and even gave me some ideas of her own--I ordered the fabrics to work on them! I keep adding outfits to the list but I have so much fun sewing them I think that's okay XD

Here's hoping for an awesome week :)

Love,

Rose

[blackdigitalrose]

Wed - Smile Pretty Cure! - EP 32 - 34

EP 32

Another strike on the parallel board, the resident fairy even came to help, at least this time we actually spent some time on the matter and poor Happy took one heck of a beating in this ep (her VA's voice must have been so sore )

Subtle

Now he's jumping between the two as well, that almost feels like cheating. However, those are more than just hair accessories, turns out they are actual Akanbe noses.

That's definitely favouritism right there, went to Akane first both times.

Precure with their SSJ moments again (I can't remember if it was this series or a different one last time -.-'') but good gravy, don't tell me the Precure are getting in on it now to. So many countdown clocks.

Bottom line, there were way too many moments take screen shots of in here and too many good speeches, which helped clear up the confusion a little of why they were fighting at all, after all Bad Ends offer, especially to kids wouldn't sound bad. Truth is, life isn't easy, hardships happen and overcoming them is what builds character, that you can't deny reality forever... this show suddenly hit a super surprising heavy message.

Equally so, Miyuki was nailing it with the leader/ team speeches in this ep to!

Although, does that mean the clock is an advent calendar of attacks or just that the phoenix will keep getting stronger as the clock ticks further round? (The difference between this attack and the previous one was not actually obvious at first -.-'')

EP 33

Strike 2! No one at this point could convince me that Smile is not simply Yes take two but with the faults fixed.

Miyuki and Yayoi are supportive at least.

XD Pop has clearly been enjoying himself this ep, at least they let him be involved and sort of pro-active.

All that, just to steal the tape at the end XD but a tape in this day and age (even in 2012) just feels hard to believe. Although, I'm guessing the movie title was a play on the Precure movies of the time?

The ep was certainly a break from the norm and it did show the groups chemistry off quite well but it was more of a silly ep than any actual diving into Pop as a character but at least he got an ep, they could have very easily glazed over him, after all Candy is lead fairy, Pop only shows up now and then.

EP 34

This is one of those eps, where you want to go back to the early eps and check against the classroom shots just to see if these people are actually in the class?

You would have thought that would be on the mark, after all, not getting to play was the issue and he shot it straight down. Now that's stubbornness.

Both at it >.< Although, there is a single ep difference in completion if it's once per ep, which would nicely tie us into the finale stretch. (when you look at it like that, it becomes a bit self explantory)

XD And on that note, well that definitely doesn't bode well does it.

This was just an extension of Reika's original ask... That crab and monkey idea fell apart fast, that's definitely Peter Pan. (although, it is giving Heartcatch vibes, minus the snazzy song) but I'm quite sure it is the main five singing this song, six if you include Candy.

Got to wonder why Miyuki didn't come out with the one dressed up as Prince Charming, all the others were paired up with matching characters (minus Reika) but that's a snazzy class shot.

[greengrungeemo]

I know the most emotional tale in Avatar Last Airbender tends to be Iroh's tale, especially because it's in honor and memory of his original VA, Mako! Iroh's my favorite character hands down. Toph too!

So, a scene I think about A LOT and get emotional to in ATLA is Katara & Toph's tale in Ba Sing Se. Specifically, after when Katara and Toph go to the spa and get their well-deserved break! They treat themselves to an awesome makeover and feel pretty. What's heartbreaking is that within 20 seconds (I counted) of them walking out of the spa and mentioning how they feel girly and good about themselves, they encounter a group of bullies who say, "Nice makeup", to which Toph thanks them, and they follow with, "... for a clown!" 20. SECONDS. They only had 20 seconds outside where they felt pretty, to be put down soon after. This results in Toph and Katara getting revenge and having a nice bonding moment afterwards.

It just bothers me and actually makes me cry every time I watch it. I know that's weird to admit, but bullying someone, especially a badass blind/disabled person, and making them not feel pretty when they were feeling pretty about themselves... just hurts really badly. I also know it's fiction, but it seems incredibly telling of a society we are when open-handed comments like that are thrown about carelessly, without ANY consideration of how the receiving end would feel, and how it would ultimately and potentially affect their entire day. Toph knows who she is deep down, the strongest bender around, and I think we all know who we are deep down to an extent, so it just sucks when people assume things about you and put their energy into putting you down unnecessarily. Be kind, have empathy! It's not hard! Women as a whole deserve to feel pretty about themselves and feel safe. We need to stop putting each other down.

I tear up the moment Toph has a tear fall from her face, because it's a sharpened painful tear from a lifetime of emotional burden. You can tell it really hurt. I'm gonna be there like Katara is for Toph, for all my friends and loved ones, always.

If anyone ever put you down for your appearance, how you dress, how you present yourself in any way, or for your disability/race/orientation, know for a fact that you're beautiful. Don't let any carelessly thrown about remark define you.

[bangpop91writing]

If you’re still wanting prompts:

One character adjusting the other’s jewelry/neck tie/ etc. for Salami pls! 💜🩵

Oh my beloved ninja! You can send me as many prompts as you like! I will never say no even if they take me awhile to answer sometimes.

Send Me Prompts

Tommy isn't a religious guy. Not even a little bit. He understands why religion is important to so many people, why it is such an important part of most other first responders lives. Tommy would never be a dick about something the brings another person if it isn't hurting someone, he's just. Not.

His family wasn't really religious. They were sort of Christian in that lazy American way where you are pretty much indoctrinated into it whether you liked it or not. And they would go to church on Christmas simply because his mom liked the songs, the aura, and the whole tradition of candle light church services on Christmas. His Dad was Christian in the way that it was his favorite weapon of bigotry, never mind his dad hadn't stepped foot in a church other than Christmas for over forty years.

Tommy thinks his grandparents might have been catholic, but he doesn't remember. He was really young when they died. And it doesn't really matter anyways.

Just because he wasn't raised in a religious family doesn't mean Tommy is ignorant. He knows what a big deal today is, what a big deal confirmation is.

Sal is the opposite of Tommy. Tommy is comfortably agnostic, Sal is a tried and true, practicing, Roman Catholic. Which does not make sense to Tommy considering the churches stance on what the couple had done the night before, and that morning in the shower, and would probably do tonight before the start of Tommy's twenty-four hour shift tomorrow morning. He always kind of wonders if Sal weekly confesses to enjoying sucking his boyfriend's dick and sodomizing each other, but Tommy doesn't actually want the answer to that question.

He also doesn't ask because he knows how important Sal's faith is to him, how much comfort it brings Sal after a call goes sideways, after they have seen the worst of humanity and have to hand it off. Tommy hands it off in his VA support group, Sal hands it off to God in church.

Tommy doesn't typically go to mass with Sal, and they are both okay with it, okay with Tommy being a Christmas and Easter service goer. But today is special, and Evan though Tommy isn't religious he understands how important it is. Today Sal's God daughter Sofia is getting confirmed.

So Tommy makes sure the beautiful silver cross necklace Sal bought Sofia is wrapped along with the card they bought, signed together, and tucked a check for five hundred dollars into. He puts on his best, and only, suit making sure he looks presentable as a member of the sprawling Deluca family. There are three different Deluca cousins being confirmed today. But Tommy also wants to make sure he looks respectable as the partner of Sofia's God father.

Sal is on the bathroom, dressed in his nicest black slacks and pristine white undershirt. He is freshly shaved, showered, and looking like a wet dream. He was also fiddling with the clasp of his cold cross necklace.

Tommy can't help but smile affectionately at his boyfriend's back. Sal who is big, and strongly, and capable in every aspect of his life is undone by a tiny gold jewelry clasp.

"Here. Let me." He offers, stepping into the bathroom directly behind Sal, taking the necklace from his hands. Maybe it's all his years of armature mechanic work, or his years as a pilot, but Tommy's hands are steady, easily working the clasp. Tommy places the chain around Sal's neck, securing it in place, before reaching around Sal's broad shoulders to adjust the cross so that it hands perfectly between Sal's collar bones.

"Very handsome." Tommy says, only half teasing. He always thinks Sal looks handsome. Him being dressed in crisp black slacks, and a wife beater with a gold cross hanging around his neck is a particularly nice sight. He might actually prefer it to Sal trusted up in his suit. "I think you look perfect just like this." Sal rolled his eyes affectionately giving Tommy a quick kiss before making his way back into the bedroom to finish getting dressed. Tommy followed behind prepared to keep teasing his boyfriend.

"I think my Mama and Maria would kill me if I showed up like this for Sofia's confirmation." Sal retorted dryly as he slipped his white button up on over his shoulders and doing up the buttons. Tommy privately and very bravely mourned the loss of skin. Instead he decided to be helpful.

"You want me to do your tie?" He asks feigning innocence which Sal saw right through.

"Yes, but if you do we are going to be very late." That sounded like a challenge if Tommy had ever heard one.

[storiesundercandlelight]

I jumped out of my bed when I saw you updated!! 🥹💕💖

The Geoffrey fic was amazing…! You’ve been well? Life is going oki?

I was kinda laughing the other day as I talked with a friend of new things we’ve been reading; and told her about u and was like “man, I miss them”. And whenever I got excited talking about books and then remembered some that disappointed me or were just plain I would said that again out of reflex; “man I miss them sm”

That’s my new “I should call them”. 🩵✨ You never disappoint, I’m so glad you’re alive and active!

I wasn’t into Geoffrey and after reading this I’m like that Kombucha girl video like “mmm nah, BUT lemme check twice just to be sure” 😭

Could I request something Jonathan xFem reader that begins with someone being super affected by voice/sounds/talking; taking things to something physical/NSFW? I’m super into Jonathan’s voice and accent; in gral all the VA’s did an amazing job!!

I’m super close to finishing the game now and DAMN they’re all (characters) so well made 🥹

Or just whatever you’d enjoy writing or been wanting to write for a while! I trust your amazing taste.

Take care of yourself and I hope you’re well and happy! Lots of hugs 💕🩷💕🩷✨!!!

There's Something In The Way You Speak

Here you go! I hope you love it! Jonathan's voice could definitely make us all go feral!! And Geoffrey is my best boy 🤣 I will make you love him!!

I haven't proof read this yet so I'm sorry for any mistakes! <3

Jonathan knew how easy it was to rile you up now, a small perk he was more than happy to take advantage of especially on a night like this. He'd hated social obligations before being changed into an Ekon, he still hated them. He couldn't even eat or drink to distract himself from the dull conversations he was pulled into.

Damn Edgar for forcing him to come to this thing. He knew it was all about keeping up appearances. The hospital requires funding Jonathan, these men fund us. So make them happy and feel like they are needed, because they bloody well are. The only perk to tonight? Having you by his side, dressed so finely. The curve of your neckline was bordering scandalous for this day and age, more than one set of eyes had landed on you tonight, much to Jonathan's annoyance.

But, as Jonathan had recently been made aware of, he had a little weapon to use against you. The memory made him smirk, your cheeks had grown so red after your all but blurted out the effects his voice had on you. I don't know, something about the tone and just the way you say things....just forget I said it alright?

He definitely would not be forgetting you said it, how could he just stand by and let quite possibly his best advantage over you go to waste. Before it was always Jonathan falling head over heels whenever you beckoned, how easily you made him want you, how simple it always was to make him lust after you. Oh how the tables have turned.

Jonathan moved closer to you, your body leaning delicately against one of the pillars adorning the room. It took a slight amount of bending to bring his lips right beside your ear before he whispered, nice a deep. "You know, I've been thinking about all of the doors in this hall. Where they lead to, which of them will be the one I'll pull you through, the one where I'll ravish you across whatever surface we find"

Your head turned towards him, eyebrows lifted and eyes wide in surprise. "Behave Dr.Reid" you whispered back.

"I don't want to behave, I want to fuck you" Jonathan felt your body tense beside him but this time he wasn't told off, you simply stared straight ahead, eyes flicking over the couples dancing or socialising. "Don't you want to?" His lips were all but pressing against your ears now, the soft tickle of his breath had you shivering.

"What I want is for you to behave" You quipped back, but Jonathan saw the redness growing on your cheeks, he was fairly curtained he'd never used that sort of language around you before....why wasn't it working? Jonathan straightened up, the glass of whiskey - still as full as when Edgar handed it to him- was the only thing he could use to occupy his hands as he tried to think of what else he could say to you.

Two - or was it three?- tedious conversations with men you had no desire to listen to, had come and gone since Jonathan's attempt to scandalise your thoughts. You wouldn't let him know it but your entire body had flashed hot and cold at his words. The idea of him whisking you away to have his way with you hadn't left your mind since he'd put the thoughts there.

Jonathan all but pouted his way through the conversations, waiting impatiently for them to end so he could try his luck again. He didn't have any ideas as far as what to exactly say to you, filthy talk wasn't exactly in his list of strengths, but the thrill of trying to rile you up was enough to keep him excited to try.

You had somehow managed to slip away from the small group that had Jonathan cornered, his eyes searched for you across the room, as the men in front of him continued their dull conversation. There you are. You had clearly just come from the bar, a tall glass in hand as you let your eyes wander over the room, stopping on the paintings along the walls. Truth be told Jonathan would feel happy enough to simply watch you from a distance, your beauty was always something that had him catching his breath each time he looked at you.

You felt Jonathan behind you before you heard him speak. "You abandoned me" He spoke low again, his lips not as close as before but close enough to have the hairs on the back of your neck prick up.

"You seemed to be doing alright"

"I don't appreciating you playing so hard to get...especially given how much effort I'm putting in to trying not to get hard while looking at you" Lord above this man would be the death of you, you turned your head towards him, catching him playing innocent as he met your. gaze.

"Have you gone mad?" Of all the time for Jonathan to be trying his new found technique to get you in the mood, now was certainly not the time! But the boyish smirk that pulled at his lips made you think that no matter where you happened to be at this moment, nothing was going to stop him.

"I think that one" Jonathan nodded his head towards a door positioned near the back of the room, out of the many doors that lined the walls between painting in the room, this one was likely the easiest to take and not be seen. "Given that it isn't locked of course, but I have a good feeling"

"You can't just wander around!" You whispered back to him. "One, people will notice you've gone-"

"After a while"

"And two, we can't just walk into whatever room we please, certainly not to do what you have in mind! What if someone catches us?"

"What if the sky falls on our heads? What if Priwen storms in and burns me at the stake? What if's are too boring for tonight my dear, and I have had the last three hours of nothing but boring so... shall we?"

Before you could even argue Jonathan had gripped your wrist and walked towards the door with much more confidence than you could muster. The creeping paranoia that someone would see you both sneaking away was almost enough to have you fighting against his pull. But before you knew it Jonathan had turned the knob on the door and pushed you both through it.

The hallways was dark, lit only by the moon light that came in through the windows on one side of the space, more doors lined the walls on the other side. "See? if it was in use tonight they would have lit it up" Jonathan walked forward leaving you by the doors you'd just come through. The first door he tried was locked, with a purse of his lips he moved onto the next one. "Hmm, a linen closet?" Again he moved onto the next, seemingly unhappy with this one also.

"Jonathan..."

"Perfect!" He motioned you over with a flick of his hand, only allowing you to get so close before pulling you once more through a door and into what looked like a small - very small - laundry room. Shelves covered one side of the room, an assortment of sheets and towels were folded neatly in stacks.

"Perfect? Oh lord if this is what you're calling perfect right now then you must have slipped a few marbles out, are you sure you're feeling alright?" Jonathan pulled the door closed quietly before reaching for a wooden chair sat off to the right of the room (presumably used when the servants were polishing or sewing) and fitting it under the handle, effectively locking you both in, and more importantly locking people out.

"There!" Jonathan turned to you, the boyish grin back. He gripped you by the hips moving you slowly backwards until you bumped into the counter top lining the other half of the room. You felt weightless for a moment as Jonathan lifted you onto the counter, his hands quickly pushing up your dress enough for his to stand between your thighs. "This is much better" His voice depended as he leaned forward, pressing his lips for your neck and trailing kisses up towards your jaw. "Do you know how difficult it has been for me tonight to see you dressed this way?"

Not that you imagined he wanted answer, but you wouldn't have been able to speak even if he had. Your mind was entirely too focused on the way Jonathan's hands travelled up your thighs, pushing under the bunched up fabric of your dress. "So many men were looking at you... I had a mind to let the beast take over....the walls would have looked better red"

You let yourself shiver fully, the idea of Jonathan being enraged at other men looking at you had you reaching out behind you, looking for support to keep you upright as he continued to lean over you. You felt the most subtle scrap of his fangs against your neck before he spoke again. "Will you let me have you? God I want you"

His voice grew deeper as lust quickly consumed him, his grip tightening on you as he lifted you again, just high enough to quickly slip your underwear down your legs. You couldn't even help yourself now as your hands slipped around the back of Jonathan's neck, pulling him in for a kiss that was entirely too needy and downright messy as you both started grabbing at each other. Your hands clashed with Jonathans as you both reached for his belt, but with a chuckle you both managed to free him, already so firm and ready.

Jonathan pulled you closer to the edge of the counter and by doing so, closer to him. "If we get caught-"

"Shh we won't" Jonathan nipped playfully at your bottom lip before lining himself up and pushing into slowly, his eyes closing as you enveloped him. "Christ you feel good" Hearing Jonathan's words of praise in this setting was new to you, he was far too much of a gentleman to whisper filth into your ear. But apparently those days were over.

Your gentle moans filled the small space as Jonathan moved against you, whispering and groaning against your neck, letting his fangs nip you in-between words. God knows if you weren't at a party you would tell him to bite down, to drink as he took you. It was almost as if Jonathan had the same thought as a broken whine tore out of him and his hips began moving faster.

You kept one arm behind you, using both the wall and counter top for support while the other pulled Jonathan closer to you, your lips finding his for another messy kiss. You knew it couldn't last forever but you desperately wanted it to, especially when Jonathan was being as vocal as he was.

He wasn't even sure what he was saying now, he'd lost the sense to form full sentences when you started rocking back against him, meeting his thrusts, your hand in his hair gripping and pulling him closer to deepen your already wild kiss. But Jonathan did know you were both so close, he could feel how tight you'd become around him, your face moved to press against his shoulder as you tried to conceal the moans that were falling from your lips.

You came with a shuddering gasp, you grip on each other tightening as Jonathan followed. It was only a few moments of you both regaining your senses before you pulled apart. Your eyes looked over Jonathan and a small smirk pulled at your lips at the sight of him, his hair messed and falling out of place, his tie and shirt was pulled and wrinkled but his fangs were what had your eyes lingering, they were extended, just visible as he looked back at you.

"You look a sight" Jonathan chuckled before righting himself and his clothes as best as he could, pushing his hair back with his hand before reaching forward to help you down from the counter. You started straightening yourself up as Jonathan bent down to retrieve your underwear from the floor. You reached for them but he pulled them back out of reach. Jonathan watched as confusion washed over your face before quickly tugging the fabric into his pocket.

"You cannot be serious"

Jonathan simply shrugged. "You wouldn't need them for long anyway" You huffed a disbelieving laugh at the man before you as he stood smugly by the door about to remove the chair he'd used to lock the door.

"Jonathan?" You both froze. Edgar. He didn't shout but he definitely spoke loudly enough for you both to hear him and be sure of who it was. Your eyes snapped to Jonathan, a clear I told you so, written all over your face.

Jonathan couldn't help it, he started smiling, and then giggling, covering his mouth with his hand so that Edgar - who was walking closer and closer to the door that hid you - wouldn't hear. You couldn't believe this, you couldn't believe him.

It took a few moments and a brief amount of panic when Edgar tried to the barricaded door before his footsteps receded down the hall. and then another few moments before either of you felt safe enough to crack open the door to see if the coast was clear. "See? I told you we'd be fine"

"Jonathan he will know as soon as he takes a look at us what we've been doing!"

"So you're telling me we should sneak out of one of the windows and go home? Excellent idea" You shook your head but you couldn't help the smile that grew on your face as you watched Jonathan check every single window on the way back down the hall to the party, just in case you could plot another great escape.

[absolutedaisy]

Christmas in Uranium

A Ride the Cyclone Christmas oneshot I wrote, below the cut. Minor tws for dr*g mentions and swearing.

Oh yeah also it’s Nischa and PerfectDolls haha

I included a “bonus character” in here with a name I headcanon him to have, surprise!!

The first snowfall of the year came on November 25th. The air had cooled down significantly since the Fall Fair, and classes were back in full swing. The Christmas season had begun (despite Ocean’s insistence that it didn’t start until December first) and that could mean only one thing: the choir’s annual Secret Santa Swap. 

“Okay everyone!” Ocean climbed atop the wiggly stool, balancing herself by holding onto a table. She had in hand a top hat stolen from the costume closet behind the stage, filled with slips of paper. “I want everyone to pick a piece of paper to see who you’ll be shopping for this year!” She announced to the choir, who were gathered around her, watching with emotions that ranged from excitement to disdain. 

“I’ll go first!” She dug her hand into the hat, read off her piece of paper, then tucked it in the pocket of her dress. “Ricky, you go next.” 

Ricky adjusted his neon green sweater, which was far too big for him as it was, and reached out for the hat. He smiled when he read off the name, then took the hat from Ocean and passed it to Constance, who took a slip for herself then passed it to Penny. Penny drew a name, looking it over and looking slightly uneasy, then passed the hat to Noel, who took one for himself and passed the remaining piece to Mischa, without unfolding it. 

“The gift swap officially ends on December 15th!” Ocean reminded them. “Happy shopping!” 

“So…” Penny slumped down on Ricky’s beanbag chair a few days later. “I have no idea how to shop for presents. I got Connie, and she’s always making such sweet gifts for everyone, I don’t think anything I could get her could stack up!” 

Ricky looked at her thoughtfully. “I’m not much good at it either, to be honest. Normally I’d tell you to burn the paper in a fire, but since it’s Christmas, I have to be nice. Just…buy from the heart?”

”My heart is a raccoon.” Penny smiled. Ricky glanced at her, but Penny decided not to provide further information. 

“Yeah…right.” Ricky nodded along. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.” He stood up, grabbed his crutches, then started to make his way out. “I’m gonna grab a snack, want one?” She shook her head. “I’m gonna get going, I have shopping to do!!”

”Of course I get stuck buying for Ocean…” Noel grumbled, tossing himself onto his bed and staring up at the fairy lights that hung from his ceiling. “The biggest bitch in the entirety of St. Cassian’s, and I somehow have to come up with a gift she’ll like.”

He rolled over so his head was nestled against his pillow, burrowing into a blanket. “Well, I mean, she doesn’t have to like it, but it needs to be creative, at least. But maybe I should be nice just this one time?” He sighed, talking to no one in particular. “Think, think, what does Ocean like? School, being a bitch, most likely Penny…” he trailed off. He had an idea, and best of all, it wouldn’t take a single dollar!

“Ocean!” Mischa was banging on the ginger’s door a few days into the Secret Santa Swap time. “I need help with swap. It is not easy to buy present. I have no money. And also no ideas.” 

Ocean opened the door. “Mischa it’s ten o clock at night. In December. In Canada. It’s negative four degrees, where is your jacket?”

”Ukrainian men do not feel cold!” Mischa snapped, despite his chattering teeth and shivering form. “Only rage and-“

”Passion, yes Mischa, I get it.” Ocean sighed. “Come inside and I can help you with the gift thing.” She opened the door to her house. 

Mischa’s nose was nearly blown off—the entire place smelled of weed. Ocean seemed rather ashamed of this. “I know that face.” She said darkly. “My room smells better, I promise.” She pointed to a door at the end of the hallway. “In there.”

Mischa opened it up. Ocean’s room was vastly different than the rest of the house—while what he’d seen of the kitchen and living room was messy and grimy and smelled of drugs, Ocean’s bedroom was spotless and smelled of lavender and rosemary, thanks to one of those insense diffusors. The bed was neatly made—a twin sized mattress with pure white sheets and pillowcases. The walls were pale grey, the curtains sky blue, the ceiling and trim were white. It looked like a room you’d find at a rental house, almost as if Ocean put in effort to make it look like nobody lived there at all. 

She sat down in the chair in the corner, just a plain grey armchair, and looked at Mischa. “Who did you get for the swap if you don’t mind me asking?”

He glanced down at his feet, his face a bit red. Ocean got the memo. “Well, you know what he likes.” She said. “But… I feel your pain. I got Penny.”

Mischa scrunched his brow in confusion. “You like Penny? I thought you were…not a girl kisser.”

”The word is heterosexual, Mischa. You would be, erm, correct. Yeah, I must have misunderstood you. But…you got Noel, yes?”

”Yes.” He folded his hands. “What am I supposed to do? He is my poet!”

Ocean bit her lower lip in questioning. “Well, he doesn’t know you like him, right? He’s pretty dense. Not as dense as you, but dense, still. Maybe your Christmas present to him could be…” she mimed a ‘kissy face’. 

“And you could do same for Penny?” He chuckled, to which Ocean huffed. 

“I told you, I don’t like Penny.” She insisted. “Now are you going home or staying here?”

He sighed. “Neither is ideal. Your house smells like the boys’ bathroom by the teachers’ lounge. You know, the one where they-“

”Smoke weed, yes, I know.” Ocean finished. “My parents are really into…that stuff.” She scrambled to her desk, pulled a pack of matches out of the drawer, and proceeded to light another candle. “Perfect.”

“Mhm.” He looked back at Ocean’s. “I think I’ll go home. Smells better there.”

The walk home was tedious to say the least. Ocean lived on the very end of a one-way, dead-end street that led all the way through the woods that surround Uranium City, which, though sparse, were dark and scented of pitch. Mischa kicked up pebbles and sidewalk salt on the way home. The road was mostly clear, but he feared patches of black ice.

”Whole thing’s so dumb. I’ll never find something suitable for poet. May as well just give up.” He muttered, the cold night wind scooping up his words like air beneath a bird’s gentle wings. He remembered what his mother had told him about giving gifts, that the best ones came from the heart, but that was back in Ukraine, when the only person who would even want to give him a gift was his mother. Now, with a whole group of friends, and some very confusing feelings about Noel, this whole gift-giving thing was hard. 

When he finally got home, he was surprised to find the front door left unlocked for him. Usually it was shut and locked tight after his foster parents went to bed, whether Mischa was inside the house or not. Perhaps this was their early Christmas present to him.

He slipped inside and locked the door behind him for those fuckers’ sake, then made his way down the basement steps to his makeshift bedroom, which was really just a futon and a tv positioned on a milk crate. There was a shabby old rug, as well as a cardboard box filled with his foster parents’ old junk: a sewing machine and some scraps of fabric, a half-broken coffee maker, and a clock that was missing the hour hand. 

Mischa sat down on the futon and tore off the clothes he was wearing, leaning back for sleep in just his boxers, when he saw something peeking out of the box of junk: a spool of thread, with a needle sticking into it. Mischa remembered when his mother used to sew with him, little projects, like book-marks and pillowcases, but he imagined he could probably pull something off if he tried. So from that old box, Mischa, still clad only in his heart-patterned boxer shorts, gathered a pile of materials, fired up the sewing machine, and got to work. 

“What on Earth do I buy for someone who spends half his time drinking cheap vodka, and the other half watching slasher flicks?” Ricky stroked the head of his soft grey tabby cat, Buzz. Buzz purred and rolled over for belly rubs, but was no help in the Christmas shopping department. Ricky chuckled. “Everyone needs a cat like you, huh buddy? You’re like…free therapy with fur!” The cat rolled over again, this time sticking his rump up for Ricky to pet, and the boy obliged happily. 

“Maybe Mischa would appreciate a cat,” he laughed, “though I personally wouldn’t trust him with a creature’s life. I’m surprised he hasn’t accidentally burnt his house down yet.” Buzz gave a little ‘mrrp’ sound, as if he was agreeing. 

“Seriously, Buzzy Boy,” Ricky said impatiently. “Feels wrong to buy him, like, alcohol, but what else can I do? It’s not like he has any other interests besides rap and being angry.” He chewed on his inner cheek, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. “I’m at a loss for words.” 

Buzz leaped off Ricky’s lap, swishing his tail around his body and moving to groom himself with one of his forepaws. Ricky shifted his weight, glancing at Buzz, now down on the floor amongst Ricky’s scattering of art supplies.

Ricky was quite the artist in his spare time. He spent a lot of time making comics about Zolar and the Space-Age Bachelor Man, mostly for his own enjoyment. Then, he was struck with an idea. Amongst his art supplies were some pieces of scrap wood, previously part of a solar system model for class. But if he could cut them just right, paint them…

A meow interrupted his train of thought: Buzz was teetering precariously close to a recent work, which Ricky had done with paints. “No no, Buzz! Your-“

Crash!

Buzz recoiled and frantically tried to get all the paint off of his tail, which just resulted in all of the paint being knocked over. Ricky sighed. Brainstorming session was over, cleaning session had just begun. 

“Connie, whatcha doin?” A small voice asked from behind a door. It wasn’t even seven in the morning the Saturday before the swap, which was to take place on a Sunday, but the Blackwoods’ kitchen was already filled with the scents of fresh baked pastries and sweet fruits. Constance was standing in the center of the kitchen, surrounded by bowls and spoons and boxes of ingredients. 

“Oh! Henry!” She laughed. “Good morning!” Her little brother sleepily rubbed his eyes. 

“Whats with all the yummies? The sun just woke up.”

Constance laughed and set down the bowl of egg whites she was whipping, then scooped up Henry. “I’m perfecting a new cake recipe! You wanna help?” 

Henry nodded. “Can I lick the bowl?” 

She broke out in a grin. “Would I ever say no to you?” She set him down and handed him a bowl and some flour. “Four cups, and make sure you measure carefully!”

Constance had poured years of work into helping Henry become the best baking assistant she could ask for. And he really was incredible at it. A few moments later, she was provided with four cups of flour. “Thanks buddy!”

”What kinda cake are you making?” He prodded her again, tugging at her tattered purple lacy apron.

“Hey! No touching that.” She protested. “You know this old apron is falling apart and you aren’t helping.”

He pouted. “Sorry Connieeee~” he whined, to which she just sighed and smiled. “You wanna see what kind of cake I’m trying to make?” 

“Well…” Constance pointed to a piece of paper she had laid out on the kitchen table. “Take a peek!”

”Woahhhh~” Henry stared at it in awe. “Is that a space cake?” 

The drawing she had made was of a three-tiered cake, swirled with galaxy-hued icing and topped with what seemed to be an alien cat, probably made out of fondant or marzipan. 

“Space cake is an understatement.” She laughed, peering over his shoulder. “This is Ricky’s Christmas present. Think he’ll like it?” 

“He’s gonna love it!” Henry assured her, bouncing back to her side. “What kinda taste is it?”

”Oh, flavour? Marble!”

Henry looked up at her, eyes glimmering in confusion. “You put marbles in a cake? That doesn’t sound like it will taste too good, Connie. Why don’t you make it ‘nilla or chocolate?” 

“No, no,” she laughed, snorting a bit as she did so. “Marble just means it’s vanilla and chocolate swirled together.”

“So there’s no marbles in it?” Henry asked again, just to confirm. 

“No marbles. Wanna taste the icing?”

“Mhm!”

With Henry’s breakfast completely spoiled by sugar, Constance started cleaning up her mess, when there was a knock on the door. “Now who in Uranium is gonna show up this early? It’s seven in the morning! Mom and dad aren’t even awake yet!”

She got the door, revealing the paint-covered form of Ricky Potts in her doorway. 

Crap! She thought. His cake! He can’t know about that! 

Constance stepped out onto the front porch and slammed the door shut behind her. “Sorry. Messy in there. Henry’s baking.” She lied, hoping it wasn’t too blatantly obvious. Ricky, although far from dumb, seemed to buy it enough. “Also, why are you covered in paint?”

”Long story. Do you have stain remover?” 

“Not that I know of. Mom has to go grocery shopping today. You can try Noel though, he lives just up the street and he’s always got all that stuff. God forbid he get a single stain on that dress of his.” She explained. “I’ve gotta help Henry, and uh…” she tried to think of another believable lie. “Sew this.” She fingered with the hem of her apron. 

Ricky nodded along to all of this. “Thanks for the advice, Connie. See you tomorrow, at the secret swap thing?”

”See you then!”

The swap was held at Constance’s house, per her request. Her gift, apparently, was far too big for her to transport very far on her own. When the group got there, Constance was proudly displaying the most massive cake any of them had ever seen, and Henry was beaming as he showed it off. 

“Merry Christmas, Ricky!” Constance beamed as the male walked through the door, “From me and Henry!”

Ricky admired the cake for a long while, and probably would have done so for longer if his duty hadn’t called. He set his wrapped present, which was rather flat and rectangular, in Mischa’s hands. When the taller unwrapped it, he revealed a picture frame. The outside was painted with all sorts of colours and little green money symbols, $, which Mischa was greatly amused by. The picture in the center was of the whole choir at the Fall Fair, their hair all messed up and their faces reddened from a ride on the roller coaster there, just an old wooden one called The Cyclone. 

Mischa grinned. “Ricky, man, did I ever tell you what my mother told me about gifts?” 

Ricky shook his head. 

“She always said hand-made was best. Thank you, Space Jesus. I will treasure it for life.” 

At this moment, Penny shot to her feet. “My turn!” She held out a box, one of the ones that always held clothing when it was wrapped and under the tree. “For you.” She passed it to Constance. 

Constance tore at the wrapping, Henry helping to clean up the scraps. She opened the box and pulled out an apron: pale purple in hue, with little gold, pink, white, and blue clouds painted on with puffy paint. Her eyes started to tear up. “Penny…this is gorgeous…and my current apron is falling apart and…” she enveloped Penny in a quick hug. “You have no idea how much it means.”

”I suppose it is my turn, now.” Mischa held out a very lumpy, unevenly wrapped gift. He gave it a gentle toss toward Noel, who caught it without an issue. He ripped the paper off, and inside was the most beautiful ugly thing he’d ever seen. 

It was many different colours, really: blues and reds and greens and shades of grey and pink and everything in between. Its eyes were buttons, and it took the shape of a bear. Clearly homemade, and Mischa had really seemed to have poured his entire soul into the plush. 

If Constance had made a big deal shedding tears over the apron, than this was worse, because Noel was absolutely weeping, curled into Mischa’s side, holding the plush bear. 

Ocean, who really hadn’t spoken much since this whole thing had begun, got to her feet. “Listen, Penny…” she met the brunette’s eyes. “I really had no idea what to get you, and this really isn’t much…” she held out a tiny box, wrapped in gold paper with silver ribbons bound around it. Penny took great care not to tarnish it too much. 

Inside the box sat a very tiny clay lamb, painted as pure and white as freshly fallen snow. It was gorgeous and shiny and Penny looked at it in awe. “I…Ocean…” 

Ocean smiled. “Is it enough?”

”It’s plenty.” Penny finished. And with that, she shot to her feet, and pecked Ocean on the cheek. 

By the time the redhead calmed down from the little kiss, Noel’s tears had mostly dried. With a satisfied smirk, he held out Ocean’s present, a card, a gift card was what she expected. But when she opened it, all she found was a picture of a dog. A white dog. With the words “I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE” written across the front. On the back side of the slip of paper, Noel had written a note:

Congrats on coming out, Oce. Please kiss Penny before she dies of lesbian pining.

<3 Noel

(meme for reference)

[kukuandkookie]

Might copy and paste the text here later from my Twitter thread where I expressed why I enjoyed it, but I recently read My Little Poplar and ended up liking Bai Xinyu and Yu Fengcheng quite a bit!

Yu Fengcheng’s eventual regret was honestly written really well, and the relationship between the two leads has good chemistry. ��

Even better is that it features Jian Suiying, who I also have gotten weirdly attached to???

Like objectively the book Jian Suiying comes from, In Love With an Idiot, has its flaws. Or rather, it employs tropes that really aren’t for everyone, which includes the main couple fighting constantly (so it’s basically fighting and then fucking and then fighting and then fucking and you get the idea), and it gets kind of overdramatic at times, as some very angsty-type stories can be—whether they’re from China (known as “dog blood” stories) or not.

I even found it a little silly that so many were so obsessed with Jian Suiying, and yet…

Here I am now, sliiiightly obsessed with him. 🤡😂

It’s just that! As I mentioned on my Twitter, he’s so unique for a shou/bottom/uke character!! Before he met Li Yu, he was always the top, and he’s sexually confident and pretty intelligent and ruthless and…well, temperamental. He does admittedly have a charm to him that works and I find it pretty amazing the author managed to predict that, since so many characters in her novels adore him BDMGIHSKD.

Even his red flags give him charm, because while he is problematic, the red flags make him an intriguing character. The author does a pretty good job at balancing the different aspects of him that make him technically infuriating and yet also compelling.

His charm is further boosted by the fact there’s actually a clip of one of his VAs just trying to cheer you up if you’re sad?? Like hello??? 🥺

It is no longer a surprise to me that Li Yu ended up so obsessed with Jian Suiying. 😆

Also I’ll note now the last image is actually by the My Little Poplar manhua artist while the others are from the manhua adaptation of Jian Suiying’s own novel! I like how the manhua artist draws him quite a bit since it feels so him. I’ve seen fan art and they sometimes feature him smaller and thus not domineering enough, even though they usually show him with the same hairstyle—which makes for a fun tangent on its own since danmei designs can be a bit “basic,” so when one specific design becomes a recognizable look for a character, I find it pretty cool.

In fact, one of my favourite details in My Little Poplar was watching Yu Fengcheng be very frustrated with how much Bai Xinyu looked up to Jian Suiying. 🤭

Also just seeing him show up always made me go “yay!” because it’s so fun getting to see him again, especially as part of his story aligns with My Little Poplar (as in the plots of both novels happen somewhat concurrently).

Similarly, the manhua adaptation, My Beloved Fool, has a really nice art style and I really like that the artist always lets Jian Suiying shine by really dressing him up. He and Shi Qi from Trap a Vicious Dog (another series I want to ramble about on why I’m enjoying it so far) are two manhua protagonists I know of who are like…confident smart corporate bosses that get stylish fits almost every manhua chapter, which is a nice detail ahaha.

My Beloved Fool has recently hit the heavy angst section of the novel so it’ll be depressing to follow for a while since you’ll just watch Li Yu fall apart as Jian Suiying suffers absolute hell. 😔

Someone even uploaded the first season of the vomic version of the manhua on YouTube. 👀

Similarly, I’m really excited for the My Little Poplar manhua to get to all the good bits of the story there, since Bai Xinyu develops a lot as a character and I find Yu Fengcheng’s regret especially well done. But evidently it’ll take quite some time to get there; first we have to get past the military bullying alfndkfjjss.

Anyway the actual reason I started typing this out before I spiralled into another huge ramble asjakfl is that I found In Love With an Idiot and My Little Poplar audio dramas on YouTube!!

I’d heard some In Love With an Idiot audio clips from something that some fans had shared to YouTube before, but it sounds like those clips were from a completely different audio drama than the one I landed on. I’m especially excited about the My Little Poplar one. Even if it’s not extremely high quality (I think Bing Xing Xia Deng aka Inferior by Nature aka The Selfish Gene has admittedly spoiled me because it was so high quality 😆), it’s still fun hearing these characters come to life aurally.

Even more so since iirc I saw a Twitter post saying the My Little Poplar and In Love With an Idiot got taken down officially, so they may only be accessible via online reuploads right now. I can’t find the post to confirm, but if true, I’m glad someone preserved them. 🙏

Update: I did find the other version’s VAs of the In Love With an Idiot audio drama! Except it’s maybe a…sequel? Where a Li Yu of the past transmigrates 5 years into the future when Li Yu and Jian Suiying are a couple?? It’s on MaoEr FM…and it’s for free. 👁️

In fact, I could totally ramble about the Bing Xing Xia Deng audio drama—which I already have for a friend, so I can just copy and paste that long-ass (slightly more incoherent because it’s a lot of fangirling) wall of text here haha. I am currently very obsessed with that series too because it really is high quality and I like how it evolved the novel it’s adapting, but my friend is the expert on it so I feel a bit more shy about sharing my thoughts sometimes.

Welp that went on quite a number of tangents but yeah. I’ve enjoyed these novels and I’m very happy they got audio dramas and that they are still out there to be enjoyed after everything. 🥺💕

OH and final note but…the fun fact about the 188男团 aka 188 Group, which is the overall series Jian Suiying and Bai Xinyu belong to (so-called because it’s 10 novels that share a universe and all feature (scum) gongs of 188 cm) got sort of made into an “actual” 男团, aka a boy band/group! I found the couple (?) songs they released and some fan songs and it’s nice seeing them all “singing” together alfjskfjs.

An English translation can be found here!

An English translation can be found here!

Me when I spy Jian Suiying, Li Yu, Yu Fengcheng, and Bai Xinyu especially in the MVs: 🥺

[ccborrega]

FRANKELDA AND HER GHOSTS 1. (Part 2)

Seeing how more and more english-speaking audience is apparently watched Frankelda now, I feel like it's a good moment to post the translation transcript I did of the first live event with the Ambriz brothers, 'Frankelda y sus Fantasmas'. Posting on parts for easy reading because it's over 20 pages long. These are basically Q&A of making-of aspects of the series, going from concepting and design to even edition and post-production, going through Voice-acting and even trivia. They do sometimes comment some lore, but are restricted in how much they can talk about it as it would apparently spoil upcoming things. Latter episodes have some guests, including Mireya Mendoza herself (Frankelda's VA both in english and spanish) Kevin Smithers, who composed the score and songs in the series and even the edition team in the most recent one! (It honestly gives me life to see how much Cinema Fantasma values the whole team.)

It's fair to warn you that it's probably better to have watched the entire first season before checking it out, as it contains commentary on things that might spoil you if you haven't. It's also worth noting that this one was recorded on November the 26th in 2021, back when we had no word of the film being made or the new dub and USA release. Some additional notes:

-El Coco and the Boogeyman are both used for the same character in this one because it's how they do it in the dub. -Something happens in there that I cannot describe with the screencaps alone and the transcript would feel naked without, so description is provided. It's magical, you'll see.

Arturo Ambriz: Good, let’s move to this question which is also really nice- well, we already replied to Val Guerrera’s question, which is: ‘Are you thinking about publishing a book for the show?’. Well, that one’s already settled. Let’s do… let’s move to the next one, which is: ‘Is there one puppet per character and a lot of changes, for instance, mouth, eyes, etc.? Or are there multiples and a lot of changes?’

Roy Ambriz: They’re one-of-a-kind.

Arturo Ambriz: Ah, wait. The question is by Bailey Val… Bailey Valquion.

Roy Ambriz: All the characters are unique, they’re priceless, they have a personality and that’s why there’s only one for each… no, but seriously, yes, there’s only one, because…when you watch the ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ making-of and you see there’s ten Jacks or something like that, I don’t know when- sorry, how many. We… I reiterate, being a Mexican production, new, and the such, we obviously didn’t have the budget to make a thousand copies of each character. So, what we did was make them the smart way in the puppet wing, so that we could fix them, and we had a very talented and… arrrgh! Super strong and buff puppet hospital team, just constantly fixing them again and again. Frankelda… yeah, there’s two Frankeldas, which is… something we hadn’t mentioned up ‘til now. There’s two Frankeldas because she was the character who had the most animated minutes on-screen, and the cool part is, if you look really closely, you can actually tell which is which, and that’s something we love.

If you watch the original ‘King Kong’ movie, the one from the 30s, there’s like three… the King Kong puppets were hand-made, they didn’t even cast them, Ray Harryhousen made them with wet cotton on latex and built them over… over skeletons he made…

Arturo Ambriz: Willis O’Brien.

Roy Ambriz: Ah, my bad, Willis O’Brien. I said Harryhousen but it’s Willis O’Brien. And he made them by hand. So, they’re not identical and there’s like three King Kongs, but it doesn’t matter because the illusion of life is there and, and you know it’s real. But, yeah, the hardcore ones, which I think is all of you, can figure out which one’s Frankelda mark one or mark two. But really, she’s one and the same, don’t worry, she sometimes just… likes to do her hair a little bit different, or arrange her dress some other way, because Frankelda never sits still and her… her spirit can take any shape she wishes to.

Arturo Ambriz: Next question… and it’s from Noemi Juárez… I wanted this one to show up. ‘¿Did you use the same figurine for Frankelda’s grandma and Magali’s hen witch?’ Let’s see, we can answer this one very plainly.  It’s not that it’s the same figurine, it’s not that it’s the same puppet. Could it be that perhaps, perhaps, it’s the same character…? Anything you’d like to add?

Roy Ambriz: Well… Frankel- I mean. Frankelda, her stories, to write them she has to base them off her own life because, and this is a tip I’m giving you, we’re giving you, if you want to tell your own stories, write about what you know. Write about what… what you’ve learned, what you like…

Arturo Ambriz: What you’ve lived, what hurts you.

Roy Ambriz: But this doesn’t mean it has to be hyper-realistic and like… a copy, an exact replica of what is. You can tackle it from fiction, fiction can help to make-up and transform, because you can transform yourself. So you can create characters from an aunt you knew or your friend’s mom who is really interesting, and you can create… and that’s what she does, and so, ask yourselves why Frankelda drew inspiration on her grandma, right? To… to make the witch- who, by the way, her name’s Totolina.

Arturo Ambriz: Good. Next question… ‘What was the production process for the songs? Did you guys make the concepts for the lyrics?’ Alex Rosas asks.

This question is really interesting, we’re definitely inviting Kevin Smithers to one of these, he’s the composer of our songs and our orchestral pieces, and we’ll be able to talk more about this. But look, here’s a really fun little history tidbit… originally, we’d only planned for one song in the whole series, and it was El Coco's.

It was the very first one we wrote, it was the very first one that got recorded. Actually, that one… the Boogeyman’s story only exists because when we… I think it was literally the day we got greenlit to produce this, Roy and I were talking about what we wanted to see on-screen and we said: ‘Ooooff… this hobo monster, El Coco. All scruffy and ragged… in an alley in Coyoacán… playing a thousand instruments and flying ghost kids out of his hat and forming a dead kids orchestra.’  We were like: ‘Yes! That’s what we want to do for this season of ’Frankelda’’. And we started working on the story, we started creating everything and that’s when we made the lyrics for what at the time we still called ‘The Boogeyman’s Waltz’ …

...and here’s El Coco dropping by, and- hang on, let me get this out of the way… we started to work on the Boogeyman’s song. Sergio Carranza sang it, it turned out amazing, it turned out absolutely breath-taking, and, well, we realized...

[Here Hernevalito hilariously falls off Herneval's arms and Roy tries to silently non-react to it...]

...maybe it was worth it for the whole series to be a musical and have one song per episode. Why? Because we love musicals, because at the end of the day… think about this, I mean, each song… and here’s a little tip in case you like to write songs… each song is a poem.

[Roy then discreetly sits Hernevalito on El Coco's horn.]

Each song is actually a poem, that’s why Herneval tells Francisca ‘Hey, why don’t you read me that poem you just wrote?’

[Success! No one saw that, right?]

and it’s a sung poem. Well, songs are poems, right? I don’t know if it’s our way to put in a little bit of… creative, poetic and philosophical writing into the show, on top of it making it a lot flashier, making it more memorable. You listen to the song and it reaches faster. So what we worked on with Kevin was, while we worked on the lyrics…

Roy Ambriz: Specially him.

Arturo Ambriz: We kept working them, writing them, and like… turning them over, looking for… concepts, which, come entirely from the scripts, because the scripts were there first, and once we were clear on which ones they were- what it was we wanted to say and how it could have a nice ring to it- it was then that Kevin Smithers got involved and he helped us to, well, create the music proper, and there’s some… some texts that got edited, and some got longer or got shorter, and it was a very organic process where we included parts of the script, the poetry part, the conceptual and musical part, and everything got combined. And, believe us, we’re really glad to see you liked the songs, you’ve sang them, you’ve posted videos, you know the lyrics. That’s a dream come true for us.

Roy Ambriz: Besides, soon you’ll be able to sing with Frankelda or Herneval. So stay tuned to our Tik Tok channel on the next weeks.

Arturo Ambriz: Yes. Yeah, that’s right.

Next question… ah, this is a good one. ‘Will new kids inspired on your crew show up for the next episodes?’ Danitza Rivas asks us.

Roy Ambriz: Yes! We’re really excited, we have a lot if ideas, we want to see them already. I really like how… I want to clarify, just because they’re based off… as a fun little nod, from- the characters, it doesn’t mean they’re, like… exact copies, right? Of… I mean, they’re fictional characters, that should always be clear.

But yeah, we’re really, really excited about getting to include more kids. Tormenting even more characters; because a writers job is always to torment their characters, that’s how you put them to the test and depending on how they face the challenges you make for them, that’s how you discover what their nature is like. In this case, we like how… they don’t make it, and it’s something really fun to do because there’s a nice little reflection in there. But yeah, there will be many other children- but also expect to catch a glimpse of old acquaintances, of old friends in there, for sure.

Arturo Ambriz: And… I was precisely trying to look for the question to see who made it a while ago… the truth is I lost it, hope someone can help me over here…

Roy Ambriz: Tinta Invisible.

Arturo Ambriz: Someone… no. Someone was asking how we got the idea to use members of the Cinema Fantasma team to be the inspiration for the kids. And yeah, that’s the reality, not everyone may know this but, all the kids that app-

Female background voice: Daniela Herrera.

Arturo Ambriz: What? Daniela Herrera? Daniela Herrera was asking this just a while ago. And we realized  we needed a bunch of kids and we didn’t want them to be generic. We wanted each one, even the ones in the background, just walking by, to have something unique to them that took a step away from cartoon stereotypes, where you always have… the chubby one, the red-haired one, the goth one. I mean, those stereotypes get on your nerves, right? So, we wanted everyone to be a combination of very particular elements, and we were like: ‘Well, people who work in Cinema Fantasma are visually fascinating, it’s like a whole new range of personalities, of shapes, of colors, of voices, everything.’

So, that was the best inspiration because it really is also an homage for our team, they do so much. I mean, this, the stop-motion, the series, the movies, it’s teamwork! And for the next seasons, we’ll keep using people from the team and new people too, people who’ve joined this crew to create more and more characters. I mean, this is part of ‘Frankelda’s DNA and will always be.

Roy Ambriz: Mm-hm.

Arturo Ambriz: OK. Let’s see… ah, this one. Go on and answer this one, Roy. It’s a question from Valeria Palacios: ‘Do people turn unto Spooks when they die or are Spooks born some other way?’

Roy Ambriz: No, a normal person doesn’t necessarily turn into a Spook when they die. It’s actually quite strange but, there’s Spooks who want to be human, like the Gnome- the Gnomes. They want to be human because they don’t like the… the place they were assigned to as Spooks. There’s Spooks who are fascinated by humans, like, from an anthropologic point of view. Like the Boogeyman, who loves to study them and has been doing it since he was… his dad used to bring him to watch him work when he was a kid.

Arturo Ambriz: Don Coco!

Roy Ambriz: Don Coco would bring him to watch him work, and he’d be gawking at them, and he loved them, and he’d say: ‘I just don’t get them. They’re so fragile and so… so stupid…’

Arturo Ambriz: ‘So temperamental!’

Roy Ambriz: So, they loved that. There’s Spooks that absolutely loathe humans, like the Mermaid, who used to have control over the territory and was worshiped as a goddess and now she hates that no one is even aware she’s there, and on top of it they polluted her world, and her pyramid lays forgotten. It’s undiscovered, it’s in Xochimilco but no one’s discovered it yet, it’s underwater.

And then there’s humans who want to be Spooks because they aren’t happy with their lives. Like Tamazola, Tochina and… which one am I missing?

Arturo Ambriz: Totolina.

Roy Ambriz: Totolina! Who are the three witches. In order to become Spooks, they had to figure out a lot of things, I can’t really give away too much because it’s a spoiler. And they had to perform a ritual which they’d been constructing for a long time before they could actually do it, and they hadn’t accomplished it until Magali came along… but there’s a reason they have so many caged animals in their kitchen, y’know?

Arturo Ambriz: You touched upon one of the questions someone… someone else made. This one’s by Alexa Casas: ‘Will we be seeing Don Coco in the next seasons?’

Roy Ambriz: Don Coco! Who can say?

Arturo Ambriz: What do you guys think? A bit of homework for you, you’ll see.

Next… ah, this one’s great: ‘Why did Herneval’s attitude change so much when he became a book?’ Picture this. You guys are maybe, I don’t know…

Roy Ambriz: No spoilers!

Arturo Ambriz: Yeah, no spoilers. You guys are… I don’t know if in middle school, high school, college or already graduates. What were you like five years ago? Picture yourselves ten years ago, the kind of personality you had, the way you spoke, OK? It’s been a hundred and fifty years. That’s all I’m saying.

Roy Ambriz: But, Herneval aged, didn’t he-? ahhh.

Arturo Ambriz: Spoiler! Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler… soc! OK, next question. Ooff, no, I’m not answering this question because it would be a huge, huge, huge spoiler…

Roy Ambriz: Let me see, what is it?

Arturo Ambriz: I’m gonna skip it.

Roy Ambriz: Read it and I won’t… they’ll just see my expression.

Arturo Ambriz: You sure?

Roy Ambriz: Yeah.

Arturo Ambriz: They’re asking, and there’s actually more than one person asking: ‘Whatever happened to Francisca’s body?’

…next question…

Roy Ambriz: Tinta Invisible.

Arturo Ambriz: Yes, yes, next question: ‘What’s Herneval’s biggest fear?’ by Meru Chan. Look how- this is a really nice question, it’s true, Spooks have fears too, right?  I mean… specially Herneval, Herneval shows himself as… fragile, vulnerable despite… he’s such a good… I was going to say ‘Good person’, but, let’s say he’s such a good Spook, and…

Roy Ambriz: A handsome lad.

Arturo Ambriz: And a handsome lad.

Roy Ambriz: The fussy book.

Arturo Ambriz: He’s gentlemanly, he’s kind, he’s passionate… but I definitely think that… not to give away to much: Herneval is very scared of loss. He’s afraid of having- people he loves and…

Roy Ambriz: Ah-ah! Erm…

Arturo Ambriz: OK. Yes. Yeah, that would have been a spoiler.

Let’s see, this question has no, no, no spoilers at all, and it’s… they’re asking… ‘What can I do if I want to learn animation but I’m already studying for a different career?’ Paulina Cortés is asking.

Roy Ambriz: I think this question might also be exemplified better along the next sessions as we get more of our friends parading here, who also created ‘Frankelda’. But in order to animate, to make an animated production, you’ll need lots and lots of different talents and abilities. It’s really funny because sometimes we get called ‘Animators’. The two of us. It’s like- that’s not true, we don’t animate. Well, I animated… a couple of things, but we’re not animators per se, we’re directors, were writers, we’re sculptors. So, an actual animator and with a big range too… I think that might be… too much, and it might be- what’s that word again? Like, overwhelming. Right? Like… too much. It’s… when, really, when you shred animation into tiny pieces, you realize you need someone who knows how to write, someone who knows how to administer a project, someone who can paint, someone who can draw well, and design. Someone…

Arturo Ambriz: Book-keeping.

Roy Ambriz: Book-keeping! You need a musician, or someone who knows about music, you need actors and voice actors. It’s endless, right? Someone who knows about tech, someone who knows about IT, someone who knows computer programming, who can do motion-controls. Who can do post-production-

Arturo Ambriz: Social-media.

Roy Ambriz: So… college is always a starting point, and this is something we always say, from experience. We graduated more or less, ten years ago, give or take. College is a starting point, it’s not that you have to stay there just because you got your degree in that area, it’s a starting point you chose for… a project. But from then on, it’s up to you and your guts, and your continued studies of many other things you didn’t really see in school, and to living, it’s up to you where you lead your life to and where you want to go, and whether you achieve that your calling is… aligning what you want to do for work, with earning money, and on top all of this, with your reason to live, because it’s your life project; and this is how you feel accomplished, and this is how you know you can do some good in the world, and if you manage to align all of that, it’s beautiful. We’re very happy we’re able to do this for a living, but it implies a lot of work and for you to move to where you want to be.

Arturo Ambriz: Next, it’s a question by Bets Chan Ching, and it’s: ‘What is the Spooks’ life cycle and is it the same as humans?’

Roy Ambriz: Hmmm…

Arturo Ambriz: This question is a really good one, such a good one, it’s something that will be gradually answered as the next seasons roll by. What we can say is, it’s definitely not exactly like a human being’s. But I think you can reflect on, I don’t know… have you realized there’s times you don’t want to do a specific homework, you’re scared of doing it because you’re convinced that you’re going to mess it up? And maybe if you’d done it immediately you would have spent half an hour doing it and then you’d be done, but because you didn’t do it during the week, well, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger in your mind, and it’s gigantic by Saturday and it’s even bigger by Sunday? And by Monday at four AM this homework, this fear of doing homework is just massively huge and it’s crushing you? And now something you could have gotten done in half an hour ruined your entire week? I think if we understand, like… fears, we can get a better idea of what the life cycle of Spooks is.

Roy Ambriz: ‘Anything? Heeheehee…’

Arturo Ambriz: Yes, exactly. It’s a very, very interesting question, but… actually, if we tried to completely explain it right now, it wouldn’t make any sense to you, you have to see it, you have to watch it happen little by little in the next seasons.

Ah, this question is really nice, Mansand Saga asks: ‘Did you have any problems with friends or family when you picked your career and to pursue your passion?’ …no. We happened to be in luck…

Roy Ambriz: In our specific case.

Arturo Ambriz: The two of us, specially, were lucky to have our parents, our friends, our family always supporting us. We specially got a lot of artistic stimulation- and corporate as well, from our parents, that’s how it’s always been. Our mom always made us draw, made us sculpt, made us get our hands dirty… I’m even exposing her a little bit here, but my mom would sometimes even let us skip school so we could go to an amusement park, or to the movies, or because- I don’t know, maybe even something like the weekend’s game got a bit too long and we wanted to finish it properly, like, we had those kinds of permissions.

So, it did help us big time to have that kind of help. In conclusion, if you see one of your friends wants to do this for a living, support them, cheer for them, because yes, there is a professional life for arts. Now, obviously, we’re aware that not everyone has this kind of family support, we have a lot of friends who experienced rejection in their homes in order to be able to make a living with this. But what we’re saying, the best message we can send about it is episode four of ‘Frankelda’s Book of Spooks’. That’s why we created the El Coco, that’s why we created Tere, that’s why we created these ghostly children who dance and make music, it’s because we’ve watched a lot of our friends and acquaintances get their passion stolen by the Boogeyman…

Roy Ambriz: And they just settled…

Arturo Ambriz: They settled, they dedicated themselves to something they didn’t even want to do, and suddenly it’s been ten, fifteen years, and they’re like: ‘Oh, my God, I wish I could turn back time and give myself unto the things I’m passionate about.’. So to keep that from happening to you guys, we made the Boogeyman and Tere.

Roy Ambriz: Play it for your aunts and uncles, the Boogeyman episode, when they get on your case.

Arturo Ambriz: Oooh, this one’s really, really good, only detail’s that the username of the asker is JICJ2442. They’re asking in Tik Tok, and it’s… ‘Will we see…?’ ah, we’re mixing our sources for the questions from all the social media, eh? They’re asking if we will ever see the Spooks’ world.

Roy Ambriz: Tsss… it’s what we want to show you the most!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s not so much the world, it’s the Kingdom of Spooks.

Roy Ambriz: Herneval’s Kingdom, y’know? And that of his parents, hm? So… that’s what we want to show the most. That’s where Francisca’s headed to right now, Frankelda, and, well, we hope we get to show it to you.

Arturo Ambriz: Alright, Camicatura is also asking when they’ll get to watch the series if they’re in Spain. This is a very, very good question. Look, there’s no precedent for this kind of series made in México or Latin-America, like… a stop-motion, horror musical, and one of such a high quality. I mean, it’s like a very odd mixture of elements, and there’s definitely plans for the international launch, so it can be watched all over the world, but that’s something we’re going to achieve little by little.

For us, the ideal scenario would be to get to a point where… where season two can launch simultaneously in every country that has HBOMax. But it’s a matter that’s not really in our hands, rather, they’re completely strategic on the part of HBOMax and Warner Bros.

Roy Ambriz: Now, if you want to watch it, you can write to HBOMax’s social media about wanting it to also arrive on Europe, and that would be great help, y’know? If more people around the world start requesting it, there are more chances that it’ll be authorized for more countries.

Arturo Ambriz: Great. Herneval’s little wing is covering your face quite a bit. Let’s see, you’re going to love answering this one, Roy, I’m sure. It’s: ‘Do Spooks only haunt kids or adults too?’

Roy Ambriz: They haunt everyone. Really, I think… children can get a better grasp of what a Spook is, and humans… they look for another explanation…

Arturo Ambriz: Adults.

Roy Ambriz: Adults. Like, children will see them as Spooks, and adults will too, but the Spooks won’t… won’t allow themselves to be seen quite as easily, because Spooks live anywhere you look, but you can’t see them for lack of knowing to look.

Arturo Ambriz: Great. This question is very nice, asked by Axel Imanol and it’s: ‘What was your inspiration for making ‘Tinta Invisible’? Honestly, I love that song a lot.’ Look, the lyrics to ‘Tinta Invisible’, like we said just a while ago, are a poem. It’s literally a poem, its inspiration comes from what writing implies, what making fiction implies. For instance, this line about… it’s one of the lines we like the most, it’s: ‘Reading, you inhabit the hidden.’ Picture it, right? If I have my ‘Harry Potter’ book here, well, it’s just an object, it’s like some sort of brick, right? A paper brick, my ‘Harry Potter’ book. But within those pages lies in hiding all of Hogwarts, and all of Diagon Alley, and it conceals… I don’t know, Azkaban Prison within. And it hides… the Weasleys with all of their kids.

So, within a paper brick, there’s this whole world, hidden. So, when you read it, when you read a book, when you read a story, you inhabit the hidden. Because, I swear to you, I’ve been in Hogwarts- because when I read Harry Potter, I picture myself walking around and climbing the magic stairs, and getting into one of the rooms… I don’t know, the classroom for Potions Class with Professor Snape. I mean, I’ve lived in Hogwarts by reading fiction. That’s what ‘Frankelda’ is about, that’s what ‘Tinta Invisible’ is about. ‘Tinta Invisible’ is a song that pays homage to the art of writing and fiction. If you analyze each line, it becomes very clear… well, not all that clear but all of the… the symbolism of what writing and creating something that doesn’t exist is hidden there.

Roy Ambriz: Here’s Frankelda’s ‘Harry Potter’ collection.

Arturo Ambriz: Oh, that’s so cool!

Roy Ambriz: The books.

Arturo Ambriz: Where did that come from?

Roy Ambriz: Walmart.

Arturo Ambriz: I’d never seen it. It’s really cool! Ahh, goody. Well, let’s see… ‘Frankelda and Herneval’s personality, did you plan it in advance or did you base it off someone?’

Roy Ambriz: Yes… our task as writers is to plan out the personality of each character, it’s… when you write a character, it’s like you’re living it, it’s like you’re placing yourself in their shoes and seeing the… I mean, you’re within their perspective and looking at the world from their eyes. Counterweights start emerging, right? And Dramatic Orchestrations, as they’re known, start emerging, like… Herneval, you’ve seen it yourselves. Young Herneval with Francisca isn’t the same as…Herneval-libro with Frankelda, and it’s not the same as Herneval-libro with Procustes, right? I mean, he changes, depending on who he’s with. Why? Because that’s life, you’re not the same when you’re alone with your friends to when you’re in a Christmas dinner with like family members you rarely see, you only meet them once a year, or when you’re in class. It changes.

So yeah, each personality and each character has to be written, has to be pondered, has to be rewritten, has to be erased and… and raised again, and gradually discovered. And, obviously that process starts with writing but is run by character design, art design, animation, run by voice actors, who also permeate it, and the character is uncovered throughout all of these processes.

Arturo Ambriz: Very good. Also… that’s the thing, I mean, you guys can see that so many of the characters we’ve seen in TV or movies are opposites, aren’t they? And Frankelda and Herneval-libro, spending so much time together on-screen, well they had to be opposites, right? One of them is red and the other is blue, it’s that simple, I mean, it’s a visual-psicological-narrative codification. Frankelda is an optimist, Herneval’s a pessimist. Frankelda’s cheerful, Herneval’s a grump. Frankelda always moves in circles, her hair has circular curls, her hand movements are circular; and the book is a small square, and everything about him is a square, right? So, this is a good tip for writing characters, thinking about opposites, thinking about complements, thinking about the Ying and the Yang.

Next question… this question is Meru Chan’s: ‘What made you change Herneval’s appearance from the Pilot?’

Roy Ambriz: It was a… that’s a rather interesting question. As we’ve said, when we made the season as opposed to the Pilot, we agreed that we had to improve everything. And the Pilot- we didn’t really wonder about that many things because it’s a Pilot, y’know? Obviously, we’d gotten less time, and the top priority was to show that the series could be great, so what we did when they greenlit the season was to think better about the characters. At some point, as you’ve seen in the concept art, Herneval was thought up as more of a demon, but it was way too obvious, and it could also have religious connotations we really don’t want there to be, so, we decided to ponder it. He’s not the Demon Prince, he’s the Prince of Spooks, I mean, he has to be a Spook. What’s a Spook? It’s something new.

So, we started to ponder and around this time, Ana Coronilla, who is the art director, had the idea- she was like: ‘I kind of see him as an owl.’ Because with Herneval, in order to make him princely, we kept thinking and got- we were creating with the Awesombrosos, trying to make him more reptilian, or some other thing, and when we said ‘Owl’, it was like ‘Wow, he looks amazing!’ and on top of that, he has to… like, the personality we want, and that’s when we said ‘It’s just, if this were a live-action, he’d be played by someone along the lines of Timothé Chalamet-‘ not sure I’m saying that right.

Arturo Ambriz: Timothee.

Roy Ambriz: Timothee Chalamet, so… well, we said ‘Him, plus owl, plus some other elements.’ And, well, we got hunk Herneval, and then we saw the book and the character progression made no sense anymore, the one from the Pilot, because he’s more snakelike. So it was like ‘OK, how are we going to rebuild the character so he still has Herneval’s essence that we’ve already gotten to know from the Pilot, but make it make sense that this character turned into the book?’. And that was the ruling on which we decided to make… to change the Hernevals.

Arturo Ambriz: Well, next question, by AB_8A_7: ‘If Herneval used to be the Prince of Spooks, does that mean the King will show up in a flashback?’

Roy Ambriz: Oooh…

Arturo Ambriz: You’re getting close to the… the heart of the matter. Definitely, obviously, we’re going to meet the King of Spooks, we don’t want to disclose anything else about him, but… but props to you guys for realizing it, right? If there’s a Prince, then who’s the King?

Roy Ambriz: Besides, somewhere… well. Nope. I was just about to spoil it!

Arturo Ambriz: No spoilers.

Roy Ambriz: But that’s the thing, it’s… how cool is it to think, who is Herneval’s dad? Why… why does Herneval have to go to the human realm? Why wasn’t he in the prologue? That is, why was he with Procustes and not his father? So you start to… to develop and sprout a lot of fun things…

Arturo Ambriz: Why is there an hourglass that’s close to the limit?

Roy Ambriz: No one’s talked about the hourglass, have they?

Arturo Ambriz: I haven’t really seen that much…

Roy Ambriz: Hmmm… go figure.

Arturo Ambriz: Anyway… well. This one was by La Reina Cuervo, who we’re already familiar with because we had an interview with her this week, real fun. She’s asking how much time Frankelda spent with Herneval before they got trapped. And that question, well, can’t be answered because it’s something we’re going to see in the next seasons, what happens during this process. That is, once they cross that threshold at the crypt, at the graveyard, what Herneval and Francisca had to do, how they got to where they are right now. For sure, it’s in there, this story that’s still going to develop further.

Next question… ah, well, this one’s really simple. 199501 asks: ‘I don’t know whether you already answered this one, but what are the three witches’ names?’ And, the witch who speaks the most, the one that turns into a hen, the one that sings, her name is Totolina. We just barely realized we never had them mention their names, but in production her name was always Totolina. Then, the witch that turns into a toad, her name is Tamazola, and the witch that turns into a rabbit, a hare, her name is Tochina. Yeah?

Next question… ‘Does Herneval have some sort of power?’ question by Blackroses.

Roy Ambriz: Well, you saw that already, he does, right? And… his power is used three times along the first season. We can’t say more, but he definitely has. Well, he’s the Prince of Spooks, he has to have something special to him.

Arturo Ambriz: OK, next question… ‘Why does Tere play the theremin?’. Question by Lagunas X. Look, we realized long ago that… the theremin is like, the musical instrument of ghosts. The theremin, in every B-movie in Hollywood where there’s ghosts or aliens, zombies, it’s like… a sound that doesn’t seem to belong to this world, because it’s really similar to a human voice. But at the same time it sounds like the mix between a robot and a… a howl. So, it’s like, hard to decipher. So, the theremin has this whole symbolic weight which we love, ever since we created this studio ten years ago, the bumper of the intro we had, which was the Cinema Fantasma bumper, you can hear a theremin. So, for us it’s always been like the theremin is the Cinema Fantasma musical instrument. Personally, it’s my favorite musical instrument.

So, when we started to unravel this episode which I’ve told you about a while ago, that we wanted to get to this big moment of the orchestra in the alley with the dead children and the Boogeyman dancing, we start to realize we needed, like… a character who wanted to make music in order to get to this moment, and we realized it would be very original to have her play the theremin, because we’ve seen a million boys and girls who play the violin or the guitar, even Coco and Book of Life have this, right? You can always look for something different to… to give the show a unique flavor.

Moving on, Yara Edith asks: ‘Why is Frankelda from Hidalgo?’ And, get this, originally, this was only going to last one hour and we’re at, I think, an hour and a quarter. Let’s… let’s answer a few more questions and we’ll call it a day, also so you guys can have a nice Friday and not just sit there listening to us. Right, so let’s go back to Yara Edith’s question. Why is Frankelda from Hidalgo?

Roy Ambriz: Because, well, something both of us really wanted to do is… make something that felt… a series that felt Mexican but by someone who actually lives in México, y’know? Like, for there to be these little elements no one else who didn’t live in México could have, and it’s mixed in with experience. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to is the Panteón Inglés. I love it. One of my best friends hails from there, from Pachuca, but she’d take us… back in college we went a lot of times, to- Hi, Rosa, if you’re watching.

Arturo Ambriz: I don’t think she is.

Roy Ambriz: I don’t think so because I didn’t even give her a heads-up, but OK. But we traveled a lot, and we made a lot of- she’s a photographer. And we did a lot of photography exercises at Panteon Inglés, and it’s just gorgeous. And… truth is that when we were framing this series, we said: ‘It just would be so cool that she was a Victorian ghost, right? In this big house.’ And back at the Pilot we couldn’t really get into it, show it, how we want to break away from that cliché, I mean, she is Victorian, and she is from that period, but it’s not in Europe, it’s in México. Because mixing in with history -which is something we also love, like, mixing in bits of truth- it’s around this time that the British arrived in there to, well… care for and extract from the silver mines, they brought in a lot of things, right? Soccer, the pasties, which turned into pastes, and whatnot. We figured it’d be really nice if Frankelda’s house is European because his dad is British, but he’s a British man who fell in love with a Mexican woman, and Frankelda’s born from that union.  Why? Because Frankelda- as you know, well, in México we’re a mixture of the European and the Mexican-origin, and, and we’re not- it doesn’t matter anymore, to us, origin doesn’t matter anymore, just that we’re Mexican, and that’s very Mexican.

And so, Frankelda is Mexican. She makes her stories up with the mixture of things, of elements within her head, and what better place than… I mean, if this beautiful place that actually exists in real life inspires us, well, we wanted to also pay homage to that place, and even though it’s not exactly identical, it is a rather latent inspiration for us.

Arturo Ambriz: Alright. Now, Emily Delgado asks us whether we’re giving some kind of courses or bachelor, and, yeah, actually yes, we’ve given several of them. Next year, we’ll reactivate our section called ‘Cinema Fantasma EDU’ which is where we give our courses, bachelor degrees, workshops, conferences on stop-motion. That’s a great way to learn. Stay tuned to our social media, cause that’s where we’re giving notice. Thing is, between COVID and all the work we had with ‘Frankelda’, we had to put this project on hold, well, this whole year. But we’re eager to get back into it and get it done. This is something we love, and we’re exploring other options, really cool ones too, with a certain… how do I put this, brand that makes online courses to make a very specific kind of thing. Really cool, we’re working really hard, I don’t want to spoil that either, because it will be announced in due time, but we’ve got more options coming up so we can talk and we can try to impart some of the knowledge we’ve been saving up all these years by making these productions.

Roy Ambriz: Good.

Arturo Ambriz: Very good. And… I think this will be our last question.

Roy Ambriz: Last question!

Arturo Ambriz: Let’s see… I’m looking for one that’s real good.

Roy Ambriz: Yeah, close it up with some meat, go on.

Arturo Ambriz: Something that makes fans speculate?

Roy Ambriz: Yeah.

Arturo Ambriz: …there���s just so many good ones. Let’s see, for instance… ah, look, this one’s nice because it additionally comes all the way from Chile. Sent by Gabriel Beltrán, and it’s: ‘Are the Spooks’ stories told on the show based on real legends or inspired on something of the sort?’

Roy Ambriz: And, well… it’s a mix of everything, right? We aren’t basing them on anything specific per se. I feel like we’ve already seen so much in México, in Mexican adaptations about Mexican legends. Which is really cool, but it’s already been done, even in animation. So, we wanted to do new ones. There’s characters like, for instance- in the… originally in the pitch, back when we hadn’t thought so much about it, the witches… the original concept art is somewhere around, they were more… European, more classic, or United States-like, with the hat and the broom and the stockings. And we were like: ‘No, we want it to be…to feel more like… witches who have somehow been living around a lot of places in México or Latin-America for a while, and who, as luck would have it, right now are living around Colonia Roma maybe, or La Condesa, something to that effect. How do we make it feel specific?’

So… it obviously comes from, well, people- we can’t say ‘We invented witches, we invented mermaids.’ Or anything. But they’re more like… characters and archetypes we take and resignify to things we’ve lived through, things within our imagination, and things we want to see. Maybe the one that’s more inspired in an existing character which we felt had barely even gotten representation in Latin-America is El Coco. The Boogeyman, always-he comes from… our mom always tells us this story, we’d mentioned it a couple of times, but my grandpa used to say to her, because we collected toys, and back in the nineties they were all monsters and stuff like that, really cool stuff. And my grandpa used to tell my mom: ‘Why would they ever be afraid of the El Coco if they have that kind of toy and aren’t scared by it?’. So, this Boogeyman character, like… a bum, or, just something that’s not exactly what we have in the collective imagination, but we had that idea floating around, and, well… we decided to capture it. And I hope we can see more of the El Coco in the future.

Arturo Ambriz: Totally… well, I think we’ve reached the limit with this session. We’re obviously absolutely thankful to you, this is why we want to keep creating these opportunities to chat. We know there was a lot more questions but, think about it, we’d be here for five hours. We’d be happy to, but we also don’t want to ruin your Friday, so I think the good stuff has to be, like… like, in moderation.

We’ll also take this chance to tell you that we seriously are on the constant lookout for everything you’ve posted on social media- look, for example, I have a physical fanart right here, and it’s so cool! But trust me when I say all the digital ones, all the ones I’ve found, I’ve shared them on my Instagram account and I’ve been saving them. I feel like it’s like I’m filling up my Panini album, I’m logging in all the time to see what I can find and save it. And something we would love to do here in Cinema Fantasma, we’d just have to rearrange the space, is to print all the fanart you’ve made, print out all the fanart you’ve made and post it over a wall in Cinema Fantasma even just a small print. Because, trust me that, for both of us as well as the whole crew it’s mind-blowing to see you liked what we worked so hard on, what we toiled so much to make. Right now, we’re seeing some of the fanarts we love on screen…

Roy Ambriz: Just not Tik Tok because…

Arturo Ambriz: Uh-huh, not Tik Tok.

Roy Ambriz: Because we’re… on a different one.

Arturo Ambriz: But it’s not that…

Roy Ambriz: Look how gorgeous! Wow!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s not that we’re only seeing the ones we like the most, y’know? We like all of them, it’s just that we did a quick search right now and these are the ones we had close-at-hand to show, but really, we love all of them, and all of them have their charm.

Roy Ambriz: Yes, and they’re beautiful, thank you so much. We’re very, very, very grateful with all the Fankeldos and Fankeldas…

Arturo Ambriz: Or Spooks.

Roy Ambriz: Or Spooks, or…

Arturo Ambriz: The Owls.

Roy Ambriz: The Owls and the Writers.

Arturo Ambriz: The Quills.

Roy Ambriz: Anything you like, thank you so much because Frankelda is alive thanks to you. Something we can say is… ‘Frankelda’ is a celebration of fiction. So although there’s a… an official storyline which comes from us and Cinema Fantasma, Frankelda, the thing she likes the most is to be alive. So, consider the stories you make for her, when they’re in your minds, in your hearts, to be canon as well. To you, to the one reading right now, it’s real, because Frankelda is alive. So… draw her, write her, think about her. It's so nice to see it, really, we’re super thankful. It’s… this is the best possible present for us after… for the whole team, after… such difficult years in order to keep it afloat, where we had to, well… work so much, sacrifice some things in order to get it out there. So, this is super gorgeous, and we’re sending hugs to absolutely all of you guys and… an announcement. A fun one.

I think it should be up by now, a new filter that you can find, called ‘Frankeldízate’. If you want to turn into Frankelda or in… if you want to be real Fankeldos and Fankeldas, you can use that. Please, use it, it’s really fun. You can use it to sing, you can use it to write, for anything you want, it’s up. Start using it. Tag us, please, we love to see everything you make.

Arturo Ambriz: Something very important we nearly forgot is… we have a little surprise giveaway, OK? We have 5 posters, signed by the whole team. By the team who made ‘Frankelda’s Book of Spooks’, the Cinema Fantasma team. And we’re going to give it to the first five people who answer the following question and sent it to our mail, frankeldafanart@gmail.com.  Repeating the address, frankeldafanart@gmail.com, OK? First five people to send the answer to this question, we’ll get in touch with you through the mail to see about sending it. If it’s within México City, it will be through our messenger boy, our dear Arturo, but if you’re not in México City, well, we’ll look for a way to get it to you through national or international mail. OK? So, the mail is frankeldafanart@gmail.com and here’s the question, OK? And it’s: How… where does-? We mentioned it a while ago. Where does Herneval’s name come from?

Roy Ambriz: Go!

Arturo Ambriz: There it is, we went into it in detail a while ago, so if you paid attention, you can answer that question. And we’ll look for a way to make… make some other dynamic so we can give away this kind of things. Is there anything else you want to add, Roy?

Roy Ambriz: Well… please use the #Frankelda. You can use the other ones, they’re really cool. The ‘Que Listo Sos, Herneval’ one, all the ones you’re making up, but also use the #Frankelda on its own, because that way we can get everything thrown together and it’s like evidence for us to show the producers of you wanting a second season. Be insistent. If you wish, insist at the Cartoon Network LA and HBOMax LA social media accounts in your different kinds of posts, but use… flood them with requests for ‘Frankelda’s second season because that’s the only way we’re getting it. So, if there’s a massive second season bombing, it’s way easier, I hope no one kills me for saying that, but it’s the truth and I have to ask. So, well, I think that’s all for this session. If you liked it, expect more. We’ll be announcing the date for the next one along with our guest star soon.

Arturo Ambriz: Also, believe us when we say, as Roy did a while ago, if we can talk for a bit about what ‘Frankelda’ represents, well, we highly, highly, highly recommend for you to read. It’s never too late to get close to literature. We already made it easy for you, why not start with ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley? I’d be very surprised if you didn’t love it, truly, it’s fascinating. It’s a beautiful, philosophical, horror, science fiction book, it’s got everything, y’know? It has family drama, it has traditions, it has murder, it’s an incredible book. Read. Write. That’s something I struggle with a lot regarding my students, as we’ve mentioned, we teach in a handful of classes, and I do see sometimes how they lack… reading, and this is also why we were so insistent on the main character of the show being a writer.

So, well, we’re finishing up and, I just read a great suggestion and it’s that we should leave but first we should put Herneval and Frankelda together, and we should leave them like that for a minute, leave them like this for a minute… and leave. Thanks, goodbye.

Roy Ambriz: Goodbye!

Arturo Ambriz: It’s been great.

[adultswim2021]

Yappy Broads #1 | February 22, 2010 (online) | Pilot

Yappy Broads isn’t too complicated to explain. It’s a The View style women’s program with five “women”, four of which are men in drag doing very little to actually act like women. We got Larry Dorf, Tommy Blacha, Earthquake, and Dino Stamatopoulos all wearing freaking dresses and dang-ass woman wigs. Their straight woman is Shandi Finnessey, an actual former beauty queen. One could sexistly say that she is there to look hot, but that would suggest that anyone else involved had some other higher purpose for being there.

First they talk to a woman peddling a workout for your face called “Facersize”. There’s chatter about various topics of the day, and then Corey Feldman stinks it up by hawking his CD and his bad Lost Boys sequel. Have you seen it? I haven’t, but I bet it’s bad. The closing credits feature a close-up of Shandi holding a shaky bunny rabbit, which is pretty nice. 

The entire thing is ad-libbed, with a group of funny fellas all chiming in with attempts to be funny. There are moments that show promise, and they usually involve Dino being cantankerous. It seems highly edited down, yet the highlights are still sparse. The single defining moment of this show is Earthquake commenting on a nose exercise: “you know how much cocaine you could do with your nose like this? (no audience response) You be tore up! (no laughter).” To be fair to the show, I did laugh at that, but not in a nice way.

There’s something special about watching TV go off the rails. But this seems like it was designed to already be off the rails. I didn’t really enjoy this. I can’t tell if the problem is that they’ve edited it down too much or if they didn’t edit it down enough. I would love to see the unedited taping of these segments to judge for myself. Even if this were especially funny, it still seems a little wrong to air something like this on a weekly basis.

Anyway, Shandi Finnessey has only done one nude photoshoot and it was for Peta.

MAIL BAG

The Simpsons has killed off its beloved character Larry Dalrymple or "Larry The Barfly." Thoughts on this development? Memories to share? Comments? Questions? Dyns?

I actually watched some of a YouTube video about this and the commenter took issue with the story of the episode being about Larry being lonely and left-out Homer and his friend's fun adventures, because they observed that Larry seemed like he was friends with the hat guy, and that it was a horrible omission. Like the writers should just be presenting an episode that strives to not contradict the previous 800 episodes instead of doing a specific, interesting story. Seemed like a baby-brained way of complaining about the show. My baby-brained takes on cartoons are the only takes that truly matter.

Soul Quest Overdrive has the leader of the proud boys as a voice actor on the show. He was the one who spearheaded that whole January 6th insurrection thing back in 2021, the one that every news outlet was comparing to 9/11 when it was really more like the world's biggest temper-tantrum. He blamed the show being cancelled on the other VA's "Not being as funny" as him.

It's weird how I've hated that guy for as long as I've known about him, and him doing a 180 politics-wise did nothing to affect his standings. But January 6th is maybe the hardest I've ever laughed at anything, so I guess he does deserve some credit.

I don't really know WHY they changed them to sports equipment, this is pure conjecture, but maybe AS felt like having 2 food shows on at the same time was a bit too cheap/cash grabby, so they changed them to differentiate it a bit more. I know they've shot down shows related to hell and food when Development Meeting was still running since they hit that well so many times.

Yeah, that actually does sell the case for it being a creative decision. Maybe it's not sneaky at all, what they're doing.

As for "Eggball", if you look closely on the pinball machine you can see black shake as a decal on it, still on (HBO)max. They can erase a HNIC but they can never erase history.

I had read about black guy cup being on the machine, but I simply must admit that I did not notice it myself!!! Not sure what those letters mean there, but I'm going to assume that none of them are slurs and publish this immediately without looking it up.

[ecargmura]

Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective Episode 11 Review - The Mad Chameleon

My biggest worry going into this episode was whether this one would be as poorly written as Episode 5, which also happened to star Kawasemi, but it wasn’t. To my surprise, this was a lot better in execution. At least, I won’t have to worry about Kawasemi episodes being poorly written going forth.

Basically, Kawasemi has lost his groove ever since Yamane got arrested. He’s making basic errors and fumbling around a lot. Toto got sent to the Aichi Prefecture to help with a report, and to check up on Kawasemi on Amamiya’s request; while Amamiya just wants to see how bad Kawasemi is doing, she does care about him in her own way. The murder case regarding the Mad Chameleon was something Toto and Kawasemi happened to stumble upon as they were heading back from the souvenir shop; like I mentioned before, Toto is a crime magnet as crimes keep happening whenever he’s in the vicinity.

What I’ve noticed is that, in both Kawasemi episodes, the murderer is usually just a random person and not really a character for people to get assimilated with. Like with the Hand Collector, all we knew about him was his name, his obsession with hands, and that he already died. There wasn’t really any time to get to know about him; the same goes for the Mad Chameleon. We don’t know anything about this guy other than he’s someone Kawasemi arrests because he murdered someone. To be honest, I did feel a bit stupid as I couldn’t figure out the culprit. How was I supposed to know he had a watch? That felt like it came out of left field.

This episode is just Toto and Ron helping Kawasemi get his groove back; fortunately, Ron knows how to do so. The way he dressed up so slobbish was a test to see if the eagle eye would come back, but it was super hilarious. Ron calls himself Near-sighted Kamosemi and is trying to give Kawasemi a run for his money in order to help put his mojo back together. The way he copies Kawasemi was hilarious, especially with the tongs. He looks great with glasses though. It’s funny how he looks like the Persona 5 protagonist in front of the character voiced by the P5 Protagonist (Kawasemi’s VA voices him). Fortunately, it works as Kawasemi reverts back to his usual self by pointing out Ron’s imperfections; seeing Ron with two different socks and shoes was hilarious.

Other than the crime scene, the subplot around Ron is about him getting examined to see if his condition is genetic or something in his brain. It turns out that it’s neither. It’s just something that could have affected him after the incident. The mystery behind this disposition gets bigger. Though, it was nice seeing Dr. Usaki again. I also liked the part where Ron and Toto were in the train and they were talking about Ron having friends; Ron doesn’t have any friends, nor did he have any back then, but he considers Toto to be his friend. How sweet. It does make a bit of sense why Ron acts like a troll at times; he never had friends, so he’s unsure how to behave around them and whether people would tolerate his behavior. Toto knows how to behave around him and tolerates his antics, which is why Ron is rather fond of him.

Since last episode was a one-off murder crime, the opening for today’s episode got updated. When Toto meets up with Ron at the cafe, you can see the three girls from the last episode on the farthest left table. There’s also Chikori in front of the cafe entrance. It’s nice to see them! Now that there are two more episodes left, I’m curious on what they will be. Will they be a two-parter or two stand alone episodes? What are your thoughts on seeing Kawasemi again?

[dumbegglife]

long rambles

feeling listless and don't wanna do anything other than stay in bed so just gonna ramble/vent about whatever media i've been engaging with recently.

manga:

devil's line: sexy manga about vampires. also cops and terrorists. tbh i haven't finished it, but i got over halfway, and i liked it. i actually tried watching/reading this some years ago, but i wasn't into it. this time around, i recognize that in the realm of modern vampire romances that play coy, this one is actually really honest and sincere about being horny for vampires and that was refreshing. the mangaka is good at worldbuilding and focuses on details you normally wouldn't expect. there are many other romances/relationships between side characters, and one caught me off guard, because i unexpectedly fell in love with them and became obsessed: slow burn...enemies to lovers...uncertain feelings. whereas the main couple is attracted to each other immediately, this couple took a lot of development and i loooove slow burn.

the anime is not great, but the english VA for anzai has a reallyyy nice voice. the art in the manga starts out kind of wonky but improves as you go on and can be quite beautiful/dynamic.

ikkoku nikki: a quiet story about a female writer in her 30s who adopts her teenage niece after her parents die tragically. a slow and thoughtful story focusing on grief, loss, and the effect adults have on children. it meditates on how children want to know their parents but despite being family, despite spending your life with them, they often remain a mystery. you could describe the aunt as cold and sharp and singularly devoted to her career as a writer, but she's also deeply caring and tries her best to create a safe and warm place for her niece when no one else would. it's nice to see compassion coming from unexpected places.

the guy she was interested in wasn't a guy at all: a cute, bubbly story with great art, genderbending and yuri :3 the story is quick-paced and neatly self-contained, like a lil snack. the main characters are opposites - a flashy, popular girl and a timid, "plain" girl who can be suave and intimidating when she's in her element, which is always fun. i love the clothes the mangaka dresses them up in.

this monster wants to eat me: ooookkkkkk, the monsters in this manga?? stunning. two actually giant monsters with thousands of teeth but also very elegant and stylized. 10/10 monsters. threatening to eat your girl as romance? 10/10. sad, toxic yuri relationships? nice. unfortunately, i'm not a fan of how the mangaka draws people. and the monsters stay as people for most of the manga. the art is generally very beautiful- the clothes, the scenery, the monsters, and the people are drawn decently, but i just personally don't like how the faces are drawn. i find that everyone is relatively unexpressive and stiff and too cutesy. i would enjoy this manga a lot more if not for the style, but that's just the way it goes. the monsters are peak though.

games:

persona 5 royale: finished playing this uhh like 2 months ago, but it feels like forever ago. i got like 170 hours into this game, so safe to say that i enjoyed it! but also it was quite a slog to get through lol, especially at the end of the base game. the ending was also whack imo. and royale was a lot for me too. at that point, i was playing just to finish, but the ending of royale was more satisfying for sure. the beginning of the game was definitely the best. the music, the style, the fights were all new and insanely fun. i was hooked instantly. but after it was all over, i forgot about it, because i was really, really ready to be done and the writing was mostly forgettable. i will say my favorite characters were makoto and akechi. i like joker too but only for his impeccable drip.

shows:

dmc netflix: pheww....overall, really hated this but it was like watching a trainwreck and i couldn't look away. i don't have any history with dmc lore, i didn't play the games, hadn't heard about the franchise much until this show came out, so can't speak to how it relates to the original games or anything. the animation done by Studio Mir was pretty amazing, so there are certain scenes i will watch over and over again, like the mercenary fight scene and the scene where they fall out of an airplane - those were pretty gorgeous. i did like this interpretation of Dante - he was really fun and goofy. and he's hot! "coincidentally", he's also almost completely separated from the demons-from-hell-are-actually-immigrants narrative, so i can just try watching his scenes in isolation and shut the rest of it out. on the opposite end, Lady's narrative is entirely intertwined with the scary British bunny man (can i also say i hated the alice in wonderland references, it's just...so overdone), so can't say i enjoyed her character as much. her swearing was jarring and felt extremely juvenile. ultimately, episodes 1-5 were tolerable and sometimes really great, and the rest is almost unbearable.

[sklodowskacurie]

HANSI holy shit. from the bottom of my heart i deadass apologize SO MUCH it literally wouldn’t let me answer ur ask?? and then when i was going to send you an ask my memory loss reactivated and now i am sending you this from remeberance SO SO SORRY i have the ask opened up now I WILL NOT FORGET.

OOOOOOO ok ok . i never knew pride and prejudice was a romance book !! i thought it was more historical i dint kniw why HAHAHA but thats actually so nice i might have to read it (when life stops piling tons of lemons in my life,,,,,)

NOOOOOOOO i know its been a while but have you played genshin now ? i know the side quests are HELL bruh i literally quit because inforced myself to do those quests…… but i hope u were able to launch it .,,,,,, and tell me how it goes !! i heard from some people that people did not like natlan, and the va’s were on strike so no voiceover…. and yea it was a mess from what i heard… i do like the motorcycle of mauvika but lowkey i was like why is there a motercycle LMFAOOOOO

HAHAHAH yessss i am doing computer science but recently seeing any code makes my blood boil HAHAHAH those tests are NOT FOR THE WEAK ,,,,,, dont worry you perfectly wrote hello world right !! i think “print (“hello world”);” is specifically python because the syntax is simpler but hahaha you dodged a bullet with comp sci, im going to crash out over comp sci (i sometimes love it but sometimes getting 34 errors over if and else statements are not great ,,,,)

OOOOOO the feeling of getting new jeans….. i dont know about you but whever i find the perfect jeans it becomes part of my character design HAHA but im so glad you found good ones !! especially good quality ones that dont feel like hell to walk it are so good <3 i might have ti find new jeans because i only have two pairs ,,,,

dont worry about it slipping your mind !! as you can tell from my memory span mine isn’t all too trustworthy either LFMAOOO

hmmmm my favorite artists are a lot …. i love wave to earth, mitski, CAS (#1 artist on my spotify), laufey, project sekai / vocoloid songs, and sooooo much more…… i wanna know what ur favorite is !! would love to see your playlists and ur taste HAHA

i think thats everything !! i hope ur doing well hansi ,,,, take care and stay safe ok !! ❤️

I literally cannot be upset or anything like that because I am so so so so sorry, I saw your ask and kept forgetting </3 we are the same.

I actually haven’t, it would not load on my computer and I fully gave up lol, but honestly you know what I think is funny? I like to do tasks I really don’t want to do by pretending like they’re genshin side quests (“fold 5 pieces of clothing”) and it actually really motivates me. I know that has literally nothing to do w playing the game in actuality, but I thought it was funny and wanted to share. BUT YEAH I heard it was a huge huge mess because people didn’t like a lot of things. Do you still play? Also, I’ve been watching a lot of gameplay about Resident Evil, and I wish I could play but I’m too broke. Have you ever played?

HAHA, I have two good friends who do comp sci and I agree that it’s the biggest love hate relationship. I grew up surrounded by computers, so I am familiar with more of the hardware side, but I always wish I could learn how to code. It always overstimulated me and I’d get frustrated so fast. Are you planning on majoring in it? (Or however your school system works, not sure if it’s different)

I might have spoke too soon </3 I stopped wearing them after the first time because I like how they fit but they’re too wide at the bottom (I forgot to buy specifically the short version) and they only look how I want to if I pull them up a ton w a belt (which sucks because they’re already low rise). I’m planning on returning them soon, so I guess I’m back to only one pair of jeans. Which reminds me, do you dress in a specific style or aesthetic?

Ooo I LOVE mitski, she’s been my top artist for a while now. I am obsessed w her- what are your fav songs from her? Other than that, I’m your typical male manipulator lol. I love the Strokes, Radiohead, Doja Cat (jump scare lol), PinkPanthress, etc.

Again, I’m so sorry :( I missed you!! How’ve you been?

[beetlebugdash]

My live thoughts during The Owl House finale! (Major spoiler warning!)

Why so late at night for this finale

But 10/10 for disney for doing a marathon before the finale

WHY AM I ALREADY TEARING UP IT HASNT EVEN STARTED

HERE WE GO

Oh the song

It hurts OWWWWWWWWWWW

ALL THE CHARACTER GROWTH

Here comes the tears 

Oh that wasnt the episode?

Black screen?

Oh no different dimension

HEY!

bELOS?

Creepyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Im just as confused as you luz

DID STRINGBEAN JUST SAY HI?

I dont like this

NONONO PETREFICATION

O MY

LUZ VS AMITY?

Nightmareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

EDA WHATS GOIN ON

NO

Oh shush lilith 

ITS ALL THEIR NIGHTMARES

Willow?

Are they puppets now and their living through the nightmares?

Nice suit evil dream Gus

NOT THE SHOVE

O gosh not hunter

A WITCHES BATTLE?

Its a witches duel

ITS NOT REAL!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

SMART VERY SMART

Now its the title!

And on a rubix cube

REUNITED YAY

THE KISSES AW

RAE RAE

DONT TOUCH FRANCOIS

Dog?

Belos is acting horribly sus rn

MANIPULATION EW

NOT FRANCOIS

“I can imagine”

WAIT HOW DID IT HAPPEN

EDA’S PALICEMAN IS ALIVE!

“Itty bitty spiders”

Kid dosent understand death….. Owch

Thank god there isnt any commercials

HES ALIVE?

RAINE FIGHT IT FIGHT IT

AMITY MOVED

WAIT I DIDNT KNOW THERE WERE COMMERCIALS

I DONT WANT A HACHIMALS FAMILY VACATION

NO

Ooooooooooooo owl house marathon monday (at 8pm smh)

Finally were back

JUMPSCARE PACMAN

10/10 music

Stinger hehe

Marbles?

KING ACTING LIKE A HAMSTER

JENGA!

The blushing and sadness awwww

Lucky number 13 hehe

USING THEM PRONOUNS FOR THE COLLECTOR

THEIR JUST A KID 

COLLECTOR LORE!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Abandonment issues ow

COLLECTOR IS AN INNOCENT KID!

ADOPT THE COLLECTOR 

THE LIGHT GLIPH

NOT BELOS

YES FIGHT RAINE

RAINE VS BELOS

“IM DONE” AHAHAHAHAHA

THATS THE TITAINS HEART

WAIT OWL HOUSE ABRIDGED YAY

Uh ohhhhhhhhhhhh

NOT THE MERGE NO

Im scared mom come pick me up

LIGHT GLYPH

MISS LILITH teehee

SAFETY FOR LUZ

Back to the owl house

“The bird house”

Series recap! Tying all the episodes together!

TALKIN ABOUT SPINOFFS

The mountains!

Kindness and forgiveness

Scary animation

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Holy crow thats a lotta magic

DID RAINE DIE?

YEAAA COLLECTOR MAGIC!

tHAT DOSENT WORK COLLECTOR

NONONONO

AMPHIBIA?

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Oh my OH MY WHAT

EVEN HER MOM KNEW

KING AND EDA ARE PISSED

IM PISSED

Yep shes really gone wow

Dimension portal?

OW

Who what huh

HOOTY?

KINGS DAD

IN GHYPH PJS

BAD GIRL COVEN TSHIRT

“King and queen, best of both things”

AW BEST PARENT AWARD

Is that king andrias’s va?

THE BOILING ISLES

POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aw saying something to king TELL ME

Epic music is epic music

Rest in peace

CAMILLA IS AWAKE

Uh oh 

ARE THEY PULLING A SVTFOE?

Theyd better not be

YOU BROUGHT PAPER YAY

THE TEARS AND APPOLOGIES

BOOM

NEW FORM LUZ

WOA

LONG HAIR AND MATCHING EYES TOO

YOOOOOOOOOOO

COLLECTOR HELPING!

SMOOTH ANIMATION

AW

BOOM LIGHT

THE GLYPH IN THE MOUTH

Woa skys above

THE SMILE

NOT THE FLIPPING COMMERTIALS

FINALLY

Whistle?

RAINE!

AW

TEH KISSING

“Fluffier?”

AZURA SPEECH BUT LUZ

OH NO COLLECTOR

NOW EAT THIS SUCKERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Is he gone for good?

“I dont feel so good” -belos

AW THE ACCEPTANCE

ITS SO PRETTYYYYYYYYYYYY

Philip?

Oh just kick him already

KICK HIM YAY

Transformation sequence?

Back to nomal form aw

I LOAF YOU AW

Aw

IS THAT HOW IT ENDS?

STEVE!

AW REUNITED!

GAY KISS!

DARIUS AND HUNTER!

Idk how i feel about the music?

THE CUDDLING!

KISS!

HOOTYS LASHES

FRANCOIS!

Awwwww at least the collector gets a happy ending

No more glyphs…

Awwwwwwwww

LUZ!

COLLEGE?

TIMESKIP

PORTAL WORKS!

AWWWWWW

HUNTER MAKES PALICMAN

A flapjack gravestone awwwwwwwwwwwwww

THE MUSTACHE

LILITH GLOW UP

AMITY LOOKS AWESOME

Prof bump the gardner awwwwwww

Oooooooo new power

DARIUS AND AMITYS DAD SHIP?

Raine looks GOOD

GUS LOOKS COOL

EDA YESSSSSSSSSSSS

Eda became what she feared, a headmaster

KING-CENERA AW

A DRESS AND AZURA CAKE

Wow king is big

Aw a shooting star!

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Oh that was a PERFECT ENDING!