#anyway i only need to add a scene or two so it's almost done

[adhd-merlin]

I wanted to finish my Bliss & Blunder WIP before going on my trip tomorrow but I don't think I'll manage, so have a snippet (because I need to feel like I neglected work for something)

it's mainly about Wayne's weird ménage à trois since it's Green Knight season (aka creepy bisexual adventures season. yes there are ghosts) <3

‘What exactly is the deal between you and Vern?’ Mo asks Wayne once, leaning conspiratorially over the bar. He’s an inquisitive boy, Arthur’s son. More perceptive than you'd think. ‘I work for him, he pays me a wage,’ Wayne says as he pours Mo’s beer. ‘It’s called having a job. I can see why the concept would confuse you.’ It's a snippier answer than those Wayne would usually give Mo, but the boy’s lips twitch in amusement. He rarely takes offence to anything. Or at least he doesn’t show it. ‘You know that isn’t what I meant.’ Wayne puts Mo’s glass in front of him. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mo.’ And then, eager to change the subject, ‘Shouldn’t even be serving you. We could get fined, you know.’ A laughably empty threat. Lou chooses that moment to come in from the beer garden. Tea towel slung over her shoulder. Notepad and pen in hand.  Wayne and Mo both turn to look at her as she walks to the till. She sticks her pen behind her ear, starts clacking away at the keys to work out someone’s bill. She's not the kind of woman who turns heads, but she's still easy on the eyes. ‘Well,’ Mo says. Wayne turns back to him. There’s a sly smile on his face. ‘We all do things we shouldn’t. Spice of life, innit?’ He glaces pointedly at Lou before picking up his glass and taking a sip. Too perceptive, sometimes.

[forjongseong]

pine-fresh // jay (ENHYPEN)

pairing: slytherin!jay x gryffindor!fem!reader

genre: hogwarts!au, somewhat rivals to lovers, smut (minors dni)

warning: profanity, a lot of making out, fingering // word count: ~4k

summary: a dash of bickering and a whole lot of miscommunication in Potions class landed you and Slytherin's Park Jongseong in detention. did you ask for it? no. did you regret it? also, no.

author's note: at last, the Slytherin!Jay of my imagination has now, sort of, come to life...

ever since I came across that edit you see on the header, I've thought about him A LOT. now that his hair is actually silver, I have thought about him MORE. especially when @jaylaxies made this, which I thought about ALSO a lot... let's just say that Slytherin!Jay has been occupying my mind a lot more than I expected.

my knowledge on the HP universe is quite limited, so please excuse if some scenes don't seem too believable (like Snape somewhat being less strict here, or detention being scrubbing the bathroom). the title of this fic refers to the password that is needed to enter the Prefects' bathroom.

now, I know I say when I post oneshots I intend for them to be standalone fics, meaning that I most likely won't write a part two. but for this one??? if a lot of you like it, and a lot of you ask for it, I might be open to writing a sequel (once I conduct a lengthy research on Hogwarts grounds)

anyway, I hope you enjoy this little treat! I'm trying to shake off my writer's block, so please expect secretary!Jay to return soon.

taglist: @jaylaxies @excusememissiloveyou @thots4hee @end-hyphen @nyanggk @maggstar @bucketofhiros @shinkenprincess-oh @mydarlingjay @mochimchimo @jongseonglogy @strawberrification12 @xiaoderrrr

permanent taglist is open! send an ask or DM if you want to be tagged.

As your House’s Prefect and one of the smartest students at school, you thought it would be impossible to dislike a class. Getting good grades in almost every subject seemed to prove that you liked learning everything, but by God, you hated Potions. Other than the fact that the lessons took place in a literal dungeon, which made it colder than any of the classrooms above, you always had to deal with the unpleasant smell of whatever was brewing in the room. Add the inconvenient detail that half of the class consisted of Slytherin students, which was more than you could tolerate.

You did not know when it started, maybe since the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor or when you witnessed one of your classmates getting teased by a Slytherin, but you had a strong aversion to anything related to that house. It became so bad to the point that whenever you got paired with a Slytherin for an assignment, all you wanted to do was to get the job done quickly for the both of you so you could leave the class as soon as possible.

“Miss L/N,” called Professor Snape. Your head snapped up and you locked eyes with him, somehow convincing him that you had been listening to all his instructions despite staring into the empty vials on your table. “Today you’ll be working with Park Jongseong.”

You nodded softly and once Snape turned his head towards another student, you made an audible groan and leaned back on your chair.

“You don’t sound so happy to be paired with me.”

Jay took the now unoccupied seat beside you and sat with a force that made his robe flutter. The flash of green caught your eye, and you hesitantly pulled your books to your side, making room for his on the table.

“I’ll handle the mixing,” you replied, completely unrelated to his remark.

Jay frowned before letting out a soft chuckle. “Wow, I guess you really aren’t in the mood today.”

You turned your head only slightly enough to shoot daggers at him with your eyes, and his response was just a huff to his face, messing up the silver bangs on his forehead. The sound of Professor Snape’s voice caught your attention, so you straightened up and listened intently, but also noticed how Jay was mimicking you. Once you were all instructed to begin, Jay grabbed his quill and started making notes for the recipe.

For the first couple of minutes, the process went well. You were mixing and adding stuff according to Jay’s dictation. However, after he misread the measurements for a certain ingredient, causing your brew to bubble uncontrollably, you began scolding him and blaming him for everything.

“What’s distracting you? How could you have misread that?” You half-shouted, a handkerchief in your hand as you attempted to clean up your surroundings.

“Maybe if you weren’t shaking so much when you’re holding the vials then I could have paid more attention,” Jay retorted, snatching a vial from your other hand to prevent more spills. “We should switch. You tell me what to do and I’ll redo everything.”

“That will take us even longer, and everyone else is already halfway done,” you complained as you looked around the class. You saw Professor Snape eyeing your table.

“Do you have another solution?” Jay asked, staring back at you.

You reluctantly agreed to switch tasks, but it turned out that Jay was worse than you. He kept spilling liquid, pouring more than needed, and overall causing more chaos than when he was just giving you instructions. Your grunts and groans were starting to gain the attention of the whole classroom, and by the time you were almost done, the bell rang.

The sound of your quill hitting your book was silenced by the footsteps of the other students exiting the classroom. They had finished their potions, and your table was literally the only one in the room that was still messy, with a mixture that looked too suspicious to be called a potion.

“I have been patient enough to let you two bicker the whole time, but for you to not finish making your potions,” Professor Snape said as he walked back to his desk, his cape almost floating behind him.

“Great, he’s gonna put us in detention,” you muttered to yourself.

“That is correct, Miss L/N,” Professor Snape continued. “Once you’re both done cleaning up your table, meet me in my office.”

The frown you wore on your face was so bad that anybody who saw you could easily tell that you were pissed, but between gathering the books and papers and wiping off spills with a cloth, you could have sworn you saw Jay smirking to himself.

---

As you placed a bucket of water in the middle of the Prefects’ bathroom, you sighed at the exhaustion that you felt despite not having even started your detention. You and Jay were both assigned to clean up the bathroom, which, despite only being restricted to use by the school Prefects, Head Boys, Head Girls, and Quidditch captains, was in an alarmingly grimy state.

You purposefully steered away from the side of the room with the toilet stalls and stood by the large, swimming pool-like tub sunken into the ground with bath taps surrounding it. The tub was drained, and you much preferred scrubbing it to cleaning all the toilets.

Jay was standing by the bath supplies on one side of the pool, staring at the different kinds of soap, bath oils, bath salts, shampoo, and conditioner. It took a while for him to realize you were glaring at him, basically waiting for him to start working already.

“Damn, it would be worth becoming a Prefect just to be able to use this bathroom,” Jay muttered, placing a small bottle of bath oil back in its place. “You must take baths all the time.”

You snorted, audible enough to make it echo throughout the whole room. “I don’t have time for baths.”

“Really? What a shame,” Jay sighed, rolling up his sleeves. “How long do you think it would take for us to finish?”

“If you keep using your mouth instead of your hands, probably a lot longer than I expect,” you replied without a pause, sounding annoyed.

Your snarky remarks did not bother Jay at all. In fact, it amused him, and the way he was laughing softly was not helping at all. He walked over to the stalls and finally began to work only minutes after you started.

“Today is really not your day, huh?” Jay’s voice echoed behind the stalls.

“Thanks to you, it’s not,” you answered, polishing one of the hundred golden bath taps that surrounded the tub.

“You know,” Jay started, only to pause to flush the toilet so he wouldn’t have to compete with the sound. “I have a feeling that you don’t like me.”

You rolled your eyes and moved your bucket to polish the other bath taps. Jay cleared his throat as he waited for your reply.

“Is it because I’m a Slytherin?” He asked. “I mean, it’s kinda unfair that just because I’m in this House, you automatically hate me—”

“I don’t hate you,” you finally responded. “Hate is a strong word.”

“Alright then,” Jay walked out of one stall and looked in your direction before entering the next stall. “So, what’s the story?”

You let out a heavy sigh and wrung out the cloth you were holding. It was a long story, you thought to yourself. You came from a family of Slytherins—both your parents and your older brother were—but since you were old enough to understand and remember things, you had always been the odd one out in your family. They would excel academically and go on to achieve things you never even dreamed of. Your interests were always different, and what got you far at school was thanks to your personality and smart work.

It was still a vivid memory to you, the moment you sat down and let the Sorting Hat analyze you. You thought you would hear a confident ‘Slytherin!’ from the Hat, but after a couple of seconds of deciding, it placed you in Gryffindor. Switching houses was never a thing, so you did what you could and made good friends, studied hard enough to make the professors notice you, and eventually, you earned the title of Prefect as you entered the fifth year.

Despite that, throughout the years in Hogwarts, you kept hearing and witnessing stories about Slytherins, how they always happen to achieve so much but at the same time are notoriously problematic. The house you once dreamed of being a part of quickly became one that you were relieved to be excluded from, but somehow, the longing remains.

Around your third year in Hogwarts, you began hearing chatter about Park Jongseong. He became popular, it seemed, after he was assigned to be the Keeper of Slytherin’s Quidditch team, and also after he had an insane glow-up. You then noticed that he was the quiet nerd who used to bury his nose in whatever book he was reading in a dark corner in the library, but since then, he had ditched his glasses and styled his luscious silver locks in a way that—

“Y/N, are you okay?”

Jay’s voice woke you up from your extensive daydreaming, and it made you realize you were polishing one bath tap for way too long.

“How long were you polishing that tap?” Jay asked, tilting his chin towards your hand.

His question spooked you, and you were beginning to think he might have heard your thoughts. You cleared your throat before moving to the next tap. “Not long, why?”

“Because I’m done with all the toilet stalls, and I noticed you haven’t moved an inch.”

Well, that’s embarrassing, you thought. How long exactly did you zone out for?

“Should I start cleaning the pool’s floor then?” He asked, fixing his folded sleeves before squatting down and then jumping into the empty pool.

“Sure,” you said, immediately picking up your pace and trying your best not to steal any more glances in his direction.

“Listen,” Jay began, both his hands firmly holding a mop. “You got really silent after I asked a question, so I’m sorry that I made you uncomfortable. We can continue to work in silence if that’s what you prefer.”

You smiled as you moved on to the next tap. “It’s fine. I was just tired.”

You refocused on your own task, determined to leave the bathroom spotless, but after a moment, you noticed Jay moving oddly around the pool floor, dragging his mop in a way that was not normal. When you lifted your head to look at him, you saw that he was singing, no, lip-syncing a song and using the mop as a mic stand, completely immersed in his imagination but being considerate not to bother you with noise.

At this sight, you burst out laughing. Jay stood up straight and turned his heel to face you, looking surprised.

“Please,” you said after you contained yourself, “do continue.”

“Miss Prefect,” Jay sighed, “this bathroom is way too huge for only two of us to clean. Do you think we can sneak out and get our wands from Snape’s office?”

You shook your head. “The door is locked with a password.”

“But you’re Miss Prefect,” Jay said, matter-of-factly. “Don’t you know the password?”

“He literally changed it after leaving us here with these cleaning supplies, Jay. I don’t know the new password.”

Jay paused and for a moment you thought he was figuring out a way to escape, when in reality, his stomach just did a backflip from the way his name rolled off your tongue.

“So, what you’re saying is there is literally no way to get out of this bathroom unless we finish cleaning it?” Jay asked.

“That is the point of detention, yes,” you replied, shrugging.

Jay groaned and turned around, pushing his mop and reluctantly continuing to clean the pool floor. You were almost halfway done with polishing all the bath taps, and you sighed as you looked at all the mirrors waiting to be scrubbed clean too.

After a while, Jay finished scrubbing the floors, and you began to wonder if you should have taken his work instead since the bath taps seemed like a never-ending task to complete. He loosened the tie around his neck and undid the first few buttons on his shirt, making you quickly look away.

“Should I help you with the bath taps or start doing the mirrors?” Jay walked over to your side before pushing himself up the edge and then standing up, towering over you.

“Mirrors, please,” you answered, this time tilting your chin to point at the direction of the sinks.

“Really? Because you seem like you’re taking your sweet time polishing all those taps,” Jay said, tilting his head to one side.

You looked up at him and he had this teasing, lop-sided smirk. Meanwhile, the unintentional doe eyes you were giving him made him almost choke on his own saliva.

“Just do the mirrors, Jay.”

You saw him smile the second you finished your sentence, and when he turned his back to you, it somehow looked like his shoulders were happy. He stood in front of the sink and did a quick count on the number of mirrors he had to clean. You saw him start from the far left, where one of the mirrors was cracked on the edge.

“Be careful with that one. Ravenclaw’s Head Girl almost—”

“Fuck!”

You heard Jay groan as he stumbled a few steps back, wincing in pain and shaking his left hand.

“Jay,” you sighed, standing up and throwing the cloth you were holding to the floor. “I didn’t even finish my sentence.”

You walked up to him and stood before him with your hand out. He looked at you questionably before lifting his left hand for you to take a look.

“Is it bad?” He asked, slightly looking away. “I don’t like the sight of blood.”

“That explains a lot,” you muttered, placing your hand carefully over his. “Oh, my God.”

“What? What is it?” Jay asked, his right hand shaking in panic.

“Your fingers are so thick and stubby, like cocktail sausages.”

Jay snorted before pulling his hand away and you giggled.

“It’s just a scratch,” you said in an attempt to calm him down. “You can carry on.”

“Well, do you have something I can use to treat it?” Jay asked.

You were already sitting by the edge of the pool to continue with your polishing. “Do I look like a walking first aid kit to you? Just spit on it and move on.”

Jay looked at you, unsure of your advice. He then turned around and decided to wash his hands with soap. The suds obviously stung, so he was flinching and wincing quietly, but he could see you giggling silently from your reflection in the mirror in front of him.

“Do you really mean it?” Jay spoke, looking at you through the mirror.

“Mean what?”

“That I have stubby fingers,” Jay clarified.

You were unsure what to make of his tone. He sounded curious but also hurt, or maybe…

“So what if you do?” You asked back, not paying attention to him.

The strands of your hair were becoming loose and covering your eyes, and you were dying to fix the scrunchie on your ponytail, but both your hands were wet and occupied with polishing. You kept huffing and puffing and even attempting to move your hair using the movements of your shoulders until Jay sneaked up behind you and tapped you on your arm.

“Here, allow me,” Jay said calmly, tugging on your scrunchie.

You sat up straight and let him pull your scrunchie off, letting your hair cascade to your back. He began brushing your hair with his fingers before gently bunching it into a ponytail. He skillfully tied your hair up into a bun that was less messy than before. You were about to thank him, but he moved from behind you and jumped back into the empty pool, standing in front of you and tucking the loose strands of hair behind both your ears.

His fingers brushed against your ear, and for a moment, you were lost in his eyes. The next thing you felt was his hand behind your neck, pulling you closer as he stood in between your legs, his lips crashing against yours. You sighed as you let yourself be enveloped in his warmth—his tongue tugging yours, his lips devouring yours, his palms pushing against your back, and his breath mixing up with yours.

You felt his hand travel lower down your back, settling on your ass before he pushed you closer to him, earning a soft yelp from between your lips. His mouth detached from yours only to give you a sly smirk before he dove back into you. Your hands rested comfortably on his shoulders as you gave into his every move, and when you felt one of his hands grazing the exposed skin of your thigh from the gap between your skirt and your knee-high socks, you gasped.

“Wanna see what these fingers can do?” Jay asked, speaking right against your lips.

Your eyes searched for his before you nodded a little too eagerly. He chuckled before sliding his hand between your legs and under your skirt. His fingers easily found their place on your clothed cunt, and despite his gentle moves, you could not hold in your moans.

“Jay,” you whimpered, hands bunching up his shirt.

“Oh, I like it when you say my name like that,” he teased, leaving a wet peck on your chin. “Can you say it again?”

He pressed his thumb on your clit before sliding it down your folds, and he could already tell that you were soaked. You were biting your lip, and he chuckled, bringing the same hand that was caressing you up and towards your chin.

“Come on, now,” Jay cooed. “Prefects are usually good students. You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”

His thumb slid upon your bottom lip, and you could almost sniff the scent of your own arousal. You were trembling at this point, desperate to feel more of him, so all you could give as a response was a nod.

“Say my name.”

“Jay—”

Your voice was muffled as he slid in a finger when you opened your mouth. You instinctively sucked on it before he entered another one, and then he hurriedly placed his hand back between your legs, pushing your panties to the side before easily sliding those two fingers inside of you.

“Jay!” You moaned loudly, spreading your legs wider so he could do whatever he wanted to do to you comfortably. Your fingers reached for the back of his head, pulling on his silver locks before you pushed his head to your neck. He began licking the soft skin under your chin before placing wet kisses down your neck. With one hand, you unbuttoned your top and pulled your collar open, giving him more access to your skin. He sucked on your collarbone softly and, at the same time, curled his fingers inside of you.

You repeatedly moaned into his ear, and at some point, you thought you sounded way too pathetic, but the way Jay was thrusting his fingers in and out of you and the way the squelching sound was echoing throughout the whole bathroom made you believe that the sounds you were making were actually quite tame.

“Jay,” you sighed. “Oh, my God.”

Jay lifted his head from your neck and flashed you a proud smirk before leaning in to kiss you again. You whined at the contact, and as your hands found his face, you began to caress him, pull him, and do whatever was necessary to send the message that you wanted him bad.

You felt the increasing pace of his fingers between your legs, and you began to feel the ache in your ass for sitting on the edge of the pool for too long. Jay pressed his thumb on your clit, and you threw your head back in pleasure, grabbing onto his biceps for support. When your moans started to sound higher and more in sync with the movements of his fingers, Jay leaned in and pressed his cheek onto yours before speaking right into your ear.

“Cum for me, will you?”

The deep tone and gentle vibration of his voice sent shivers down your spine, and with that, you finally reached your high. Your legs were shaking, and to soothe you, Jay began kissing your cheek softly. He kept kissing you and moving towards your lips, giving you a long peck before moving down to your chin and neck. He kissed the parts of your skin that were beginning to turn purple, and once he heard your leveled breathing, he pulled away to take a good look at you.

“Good girl,” he said right to your face.

You playfully, and very gently, slapped his face. He let out a wholehearted chuckle before pulling his hand from between your legs. Just seconds later, you heard the sound of footsteps approaching the bathroom door. Your eyes widened, and Jay quickly registered the situation. He fixed your collar for you to button up before he sprinted back to the mirror he was supposed to be polishing while you frantically searched for the abandoned cloth that you had been using the whole time.

“Why am I not surprised that you haven’t finished cleaning the bathroom?” Professor Snape stated after scanning the area. “It’s almost curfew, so wrap up and continue cleaning tomorrow. I’ll consider your detention done once this place is spotless.”

You stood up and observed as Professor Snape reached into the pocket in his robe and took out your wands. After he handed them over to you and Jay, he turned around without further question and left the bathroom. Jay looked at you, and you sighed in relief, almost collapsing to the floor because of your weak knees, if not for Jay holding you up by your elbows.

“That was too damn close,” you commented, standing uncomfortably since your panties were not fixed the right way.

“I’d say it was exciting,” Jay said, leaning into you and sniffing your neck.

“Jay, stop it,” you said, placing your palm firmly on his chest.

“That’s not what you wanted me to do when I had these stubby fingers inside you,” he teased, raising his hand and wriggling his fingers in front of your face.

You smacked his hand away, and he cackled, almost making the room shake from the echo.

“We still need to come back tomorrow and whose fault is that?” You asked, your back turned to him as you were tidying up the supplies.

“Fault?” Jay tilted his head. “No, favor. You’re missing the point. We get to come back here tomorrow.”

You stood up straight before turning to face Jay. He boldly took a couple of steps towards you, closing the distance and pulling you by your waist to press your body against his.

“Are you honestly telling me you’re not looking forward to it?”

With Jay’s arm firmly around your waist, the heat of his body against yours, his eyes boring into yours, and his silver hair messy from the way you were pulling on it earlier, there was no way you could lie to his face.

“Okay, I am looking forward to it,” you said after gaining enough courage. “Maybe instead of your stubby fingers, you can show me something else.”

Jay’s eyes twinkled at your daring tone, and you both chuckled before letting each other go, nagging at him as he collected your supplies while shamelessly ogling your body.

-END-

© forjongseong 2023, all rights reserved dividers by @cafekitsune

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[bad268]

Another arvid request

LOL IM SO SORRY

Anyways arvid wearing like a chain or smth all the time except when he's racing ofc so before the race he puts in on reader for her to "keep it safe" and also like some bracelets or smth. And he kike had to move her hair out the way to put it around her neck and he kisses her cheek or smth

Chains Ext. (Arvid Lindblad X Reader)

Fandom: RPF/F2/F3

Requested: Clearly (This is the extended version of Chains (Inktober 2024). No need to read it first, the scene I pulled for Inktober is the start of this.)

Warnings: Aged up Arvid, alludes to something being around someone's neck

POV: Second Person (You/your)

W.C. 1507

Summary: Arvid's chain. That's it.

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

~~(^Pinterest)

When you first got with Arvid, you made an offhanded comment that he would look good in jewelry—specifically a chain or something. When you got together, he took the suggestion to heart and took you with him to pick out a simple gold chain that later became a staple of his outfits. And the fans noticed too! You both knew that he was not allowed to wear jewelry during racing sessions, so you would keep it safe for the time being. Just before he would get in the car, he would pull you aside and move his necklace and fan-made bracelets to you.

“Keep it safe for me,” Arvid said just before the practice session. He unclasped his necklace before moving to stand behind you, brushing your hair out of the way and reclasping it around your neck. Then, he wrapped his arms around your waist as he hugged you from behind and littered kisses around your face. After you nearly shoved him away, he leaned his chin to rest on your shoulder before glancing down at the chain around your neck and commenting, “Looks good on you.”

“You know what would look better around my neck?” You asked as you pushed him back a little and turned around in his arms, bringing your arms up to wrap around his shoulders and play with the curls at the back of his head. 

“Don’t say that,” Arvid immediately gasped as he slapped a hand over your mouth. “This is not the time or place to be making comments like that! I need to get in the car!”

“I was not making a dirty joke! You were taking it in a dirty way, but that’s not what I was alluding to,” You said through his hand, causing him to remove it and put it back on your waist. “Not right now, at least.”

“Then, enlighten me. What would look better around your neck?” Arvid asked and cringed when the words left his lips.

“My own chain with your name or initial on it,” You replied simply. “I think it would be cute, and we could be twins!”

“My chain doesn’t have your initial or name on it,” Arvid pointed out, pulling back a little to grab his helmet, balaclava, and Han's device from the counter behind you as he prepared for the race.

“But I helped pick it out, so I’ll call that even,” You smirked, pulling him in for one last kiss before he would get in the car. “Just think about it, yeah?”

“We’ll see,” Arvid chuckled, pulling his race gear on before heading toward his car. “Talk to me after the session, and we’ll figure it out.”

~~(End of Inktober blurb. Onto Ext. part)

The topic was soon forgotten on your end, but not to Arvid. He constantly thought about it. He didn’t get to see you wearing his jewelry much since you would give it all back as soon as he was done for the day. And maybe it was the comment about you wearing his name or initial that got to him because he could not get the image out of his head no matter how hard he tried. 

Arvid would never consider himself a possessive person, but he wanted that. He wanted you to wear his name proudly and match with him every day. That’s why when your birthday came around, Arvid knew what he would get you.

He went to the same jeweler who made his chain and asked for an almost exact copy of his. The only change he asked for was to make it shorter and to add his name in cursive, either on a charm or between two ends of the chain. The jeweler was more than happy to fulfill his request and said it would be ready within a couple of days.

Then, Arvid went out and bought a couple of more minor things for your birthday. Your favorite snacks, a couple of things you had mentioned wanting, and a couple of things he saw that reminded him of you. He knew your birthday fell on a day when he would need to be in the car, so he set up an elaborate plan.

The morning of your birthday, you woke up alone in bed. Immediately, you frowned, but it didn’t stay there long as Arvid walked in with two mugs of your favorite drink.

“Happy birthday, darling,” He whispered as he sat next to you, passing the steaming drink to you as you sat up against the headboard. You eagerly took it, took a sip, and immediately sighed in contentment when it tasted exactly how you made it. Arvid smiled softly at you before he pulled a wrapped present from under the bed. “I know you said not to get you anything, but how can I not?”

“Arvid, I said-” Your smile dropped as you eyed the box. You didn’t want to get your hopes up, but it looked about the same size as something you needed. You had mentioned it once or twice, but you never expected him to get it for you.

“I know what you said, but I already bought it, so you have to accept it now,” Arvid smirked as he pushed it toward you. Begrudgingly, you set your mug on the bedside table before starting to open the package. As soon as you saw the design of the box, you ripped through it faster.

“You did not,” You gasped as you opened it, and it was exactly what you wanted. You looked up at Arvid to see him glancing over the rim of the mug at you before he diverted his eyes quickly. You could tell he was smirking. “Arvid.”

“I knew you wanted it, and why wouldn’t I get you something you wanted?” Arvid asked rhetorically before reaching out to grab your hand and pulling you out of bed. “Come on, there’s more where that came from, but we have to get to the track.”

You split off, going into the bathroom while Arvid double-checked he had everything he needed for the track. He also double-checked that he had the rest of your gifts in his bag just in time for you to walk out in your go-to track outfit.

You walked through the gates hand-in-hand, and thankfully, you didn’t get stopped by too many people. You may have been running a little late as it was, so it was good that you could get through virtually undetected. 

You made it to the garage in no time, and Arvid went back to the driver’s room while you stayed with the team in the garage as you normally did while Arvid put on his suit. Just before he left the garage, he turned back to you.

“Front pocket of the duffle bag,” Arvid shouted over the power tools, “Pick one.”

Skeptically, you opened the front pouch of Arvid’s supposed race bag, but the entire front was filled with different wrapped things. You looked back at him, but he wasn't standing there anymore. You shook your head with a smirk but still grabbed the first one you saw. You opened it, and it was your favorite candy from home. You gasped as you immediately opened it and ate one just as Arvid was coming back out.

While he was changing, he had your new chain in his pocket. He took off his own chain, swapping it with yours around his neck before he left the box with the rest of his clothes in the driver’s room. When he walked back out to you, he caught the tail end of you opening the gift and smiled as he walked up behind you.

“How did you know I’ve been craving these?” You asked as you held one out for him. He gently at it from your fingers before shrugging. 

“I think I just know you a little bit,” Arvid joked as he wrapped his arms around your waist tightly. “You know what time it is?”

“Is it time for the swap?” You questioned as you looked back at him, where you’re met with a nod. You set the candy down on top of the bag before immediately switching the bracelets from his wrists to yours. Then, you leaned your head down and made sure nothing was in the way for Arvid to put his chain around your neck.

Arvid smiled as he unclasped the chain and gently reclasped it around your neck. Like always, your fingers immediately ran across the chain, but they stopped as soon as they touched something different. 

“What is that?” You questioned more to yourself than anything as you walked toward the bathroom with Arvid trailing behind you. Once you saw it in the mirror, your jaw dropped. It wasn’t any normal chain. It had Arvid’s name on it! You turned back to him, still with your mouth opened and your fingers feeling along the metal of his name. “Arvid!”

“Happy birthday,” He chuckled as he pulled you closer to him by your hips. “Now, we can match.”

~~~~~

© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

[try-set-me-on-fire]

Hiiii 💕💕💕

For the wip game (the highlighted ones)

-❤️🪐

Hello!! For you since you’ve been interested in it for awhile and i promised you a scene ages ago and only just now finished it: big heart, I wanna let it bleed, aka buck joins the team younger fic! Here’s a complete drabble about them running into Phillip on a call…

They’re not in an enclosed space but, somehow, the kid’s laughter is still echoing around them. Bobby tries to bite down on his smile as he calls a vaguely warning “Buck,” though he’s not too worried about professionalism seeing as the surfer — who’s trunks are truly mystifyingly tangled on his board — is cracking up even harder. He’s sort of… hung up there, board stuck nose down in the sand, man dangling up on the back end of it. They seem too far up the beach for a wave to have done this, but what does Bobby know, he’s from a landlocked state.

“Sorry, Cap,” Buck wheezes. “Do we, uh… need the ladder?”

Bobby takes a measured inhale as he hears some kind of frantically smothered squeak sound coming from — is that Chimney? One of the paramedics, anyway — and shakes his head. “I think we can just lower the board down, if you’ll give me a hand. That sound alright to you, sir?”

The surfer gets through a few more wheezing chuckles before he can say “Yeah dude, lower away.”

They manage it pretty smoothly, with him and Buck on either side and Hen and Chim ready to catch the weight of the surfer. Hen starts off the next small round of laughter as she tries to de-tangle the swim trunks to move their vic, but everybody manages to calm down as they get to the actual medical examination.

As Hen and Chimney poke and prod, Buck chatters. “I learned to surf a few years ago, over in the Carolinas.”

“No shit?” The surfer grins. “Like Charleston? I gotta cousin over there.”

“Yeah, Folly Beach sometimes, but mostly went up to the Banks.”

“Sick.” The surfer gestures to where Hen’s wrapping some gauze around his bloodied elbow. “What’s your worst wipeout?”

Buck laughs again, a little delighted sound, always happy to be included. “Oh man- My first time out on the water, like the second wave I ever caught, just tossed me right off completely.” He tugs up his shirt before Bobby dawn shake his head not to, and twists around to show a jagged old scar on his lower back. “Landed on some rocks, needed fourteen stitches.”

The surfer whistles as Hen shakes her head. “I don’t think you’ll need any stitches for this one, but there’s enough debris in there I’m gonna recommend we take you to the hospital so they can get it all out.”

“Sure thing,” the guy says, looking more relaxed than Buck taking a nap on the couch after second helpings of mac and cheese. “Thanks man.”

“No problem,” Bobby says, definitely no trace of a chuckle in his voice no matter the delighted glances his team sends him.

The surfer tries to twist towards Buck once they get him on the gurney, winces, and then just turns his head. “You ever surf out here?”

“Have a few times, but I don't have a board or anything.”

“Man, you should come out and join us! We got a group most weekday mornings, I'm sure somebody could get you set up.”

Buck looks happy as a dog with a bone, glancing at Bobby with a mile wide grin. It's a familiar kind of look, though it takes until they're almost at the ambulance — Buck chatting away all the while — for him to place it, and it nearly makes him stumble when he does. Robert would give him that look when he made a new friend on the playground and got invited to hang out. Please, Dad, can I go? He's sure Buck didn't mean anything by it. Bobby doesn't have that authority in his life, nicknames and Springsteen concerts nothing that adds up to a tangible connection. And the kid- well, he's not a kid. 25 years old, can arrange his own playdates perfectly well. Still, Bobby feels a little off kilter as they load the ambulance.

“Rad, man, see you around.” The surfer is grinning at Buck, two happy little suns shining at each other. “Ask for Stevey,” he says, loosely pointing at himself. Steven Barney, he'd given as his name to dispatch.

Buck smiles, waves goodbye. “I'm-”

“Evan?”

Buck turns like a man in a haunted house, startled at an impossible sound with all the color draining out of him. The apparition takes the appearance of a white man a little older than Bobby, wearing neat, pale clothes and a sort of constipated, caught expression. They see that look on calls sometimes, with men who are going through an emergency with women who are not their wives and who are still trying to pretend they've done nothing at all untoward.

“D-” Buck blinks, a few times, hard. “Dad?”

Bobby can't help joining in Hen and Chin's shared oh shit look. There's not an overly familiar resemblance between the two — perhaps a shared stake in forehead real estate — but the man doesn't refute it. “I'll let you get back to work,” he says, glancing towards the sea, the ambulance, eyes landing briefly on Bobby before jumping away again, startled.

“Wait, wh-” Buck steps forward, hand wandering out in front of him before dropping back to his side. “What are you doing in LA? Did you have- a-a work trip?”

Buck's father clears his throat. “It's Brian’s birthday.”

“Oh,” Buck says, blinking again, rapidly this time, a fish thrown in new water. “He- he lives in California now?”

“No, no,” the man says dismissively, like he doesn't know why anyone on earth would choose to live in California. “He’s retiring early, wanted to make a weekend of it.”

“So-” Buck scrambles, visibly, and it makes Bobby aware of the small audience of first responders (and surfer), so he closes the ambulance door despite Hen and Chim’s wide eyes and shaking heads, and thumps the back so they pull away. Buck doesn’t seem to notice either way. “You’re- you’re here for a few days? We should- we could go get lunch? I-I have to work until tomorrow morning but-”

“It’s a busy weekend,” the man grumbles, doing a motion with his hands almost like he's patting himself down to make sure he has his wallet, the movements of someone making sure they're good to leave. “I won't have the time.”

Buck stands there, looking more wounded than any of the times he's been banged up on calls. “I- haven't seen you in- in like four years-”

“And who's fault is that?” His father laughs dismissively. “If you want to run off and throw your life away you can't complain about it later.”

“I-I didn't, I like what I- I have a job, I- I found…” Buck frowns, and Bobby worries for a moment he's going to cry out here in front of his father and colleagues and the beach goers of Santa Monica. He holds it together, though. “I like it here, and I like my job, and I'd like to tell you about it-”

“I won't have the time, Evan.” He doesn't even consider for a moment backing out of his obvious lie. “You can call next week if you want. Your mother will be glad to know you're in one piece.”

“Okay,” Buck says, shoulders sinking down and turning in. He goes from a 6’3” wall of muscle to a lost child right before Bobby’s eyes, hell of a magic trick. “Sorry,” Buck says, as Bobby does some math, works backwards a little. Fourteen stitches, definitely more recent than four years ago. He thinks about the laws of physics, or at least traffic, he’d break if he knew Robert was bleeding in an ocean somewhere in the world. “Sorry,” Buck says again — why, why should he be apologizing — and nods a few times. “I’ll- I’ll make sure to call.”

His father nods back. “We still work, so-”

“Yeah, after five, I know.”

“And your mother has book club on Tuesdays.”

“Okay.” Smaller, and smaller. Bobby remembers reading Alice in Wonderland to Brook, wonders how big Buck’s pool of tears is to shrink him so much. “I’ll just-” Buck clenches his fists, just for a moment, and then hides them in his pockets. “I’ll just try. If you’re busy you don’t have to pick up.”

Oh, God, give an inch and they’ll take a mile. Buck’s father looks visibly relieved at the offer of plausible deniability. “Alright.” He doesn’t move to hug his son, doesn’t even reach out for a handshake, staying a careful several feet away. “I’m sure you need to get back to your job,” he says, raising eyebrows in Bobby’s direction. It makes him bristle, he doesn’t want to be a forced coconspirator in judging Buck for something he hasn’t even done wrong. Buck wilts even further beside him. His father gives one final nod. “Goodbye, Evan.”

He’s already walking away by the time Buck says “Bye, Dad.”

And then they’re all just standing there. Hen and Chimney went off to the hospital, sure, but there’s still a handful of firefighters lingering around, either trying to make a lot of eye contact or no eye contact at all. Buck stares firmly at the ground. Bobby clears his throat.

“Alright, let's pack it up.” If they were operating under any other circumstance Bobby might compliment his crew for how quickly and quietly they get loaded into the trucks.

The ride back to the station is quiet, too, usual engine chit chat locked in everyone’s throats. Bobby’s pretty sure he sees Nichols subtly and somewhat frantically typing on his phone. Mostly, though, he watches Buck in the rearview. The kid is staring resolutely out the window, but Bobby would bet he’s not seeing a thing. His leg bounces on the seat, and Rodriguez doesn't even do the polite cut-it-out cough. Bobby wonders how many of Buck's stories he's overheard, if he's also now watching them tilt, shift, rearrange in his head. Dumb little boy stuff, skateboard-bike-motorcycle stunts, climbing up trees to fall out of them, all told with class clown energy, wasn't I stupid but wasn't it fun, wasn't it funny? Bobby got up to some shit when he was a kid, trailing after Charlie and taking any ill-advised dare the older kids tossed out to him, but he got hurt and he went home, his mom kissed his scrapes, even his dad would ruffle his hair and grab the first aid kit on his good days. Bobby looks at Buck looking out at nothing and tries to count the broken bones scattered between the big grins and his audience’s corresponding groans, tries to imagine Buck — all his silliness, all his sunshine — going home hurt to parents whose care comes with office hours.

When they pull into the station everyone flees the engine like there’d been a chemical spill, leaving Buck standing alone silhouetted against shiny scarlet paint. Bobby hesitates, one foot still up on the truck bed. He doesn’t want to overstep, but- he can’t stop thinking about how far away Buck’s father stood. The kid deserves someone to come closer. He only wished there was someone better than himself around to do it.

“Hey, kid-”

“I never knew what I did wrong.” Buck is frowning into middle distance, shoulders still tucked in around him. “I- I know I was stupid in- in high school, and college, but-” he looks right at Bobby, eyes wide, and he looks- oh, kid, come home. You’re hurting, come home, you’ll be taken care of, I got a first aid kid at least and I’ll learn to do better than that. “It was always like this- I-” Buck shrugs and here, finally, come the tears. “What did I do wrong?”

“Nothing,” Bobby says, and it's only two steps over to him, and he’s never even casually side hugged this kid before but Buck sinks right into his arms.

“You can’t know that-”

“I can.” Buck’s so tall. Bobby’s not sure the last time he hugged somebody taller than him. He wonders how tall his dad was, looming so large in memory but an unknown in actual imperial measurement. He wonders how tall Robert would’ve gotten. “You were a kid. You were their kid. There’s nothing you could have done that was so bad they shouldn’t have loved you anyway.”

Buck shudders against him, and his shoulder is getting wet, and the ambulance will be back soon and there’s firefighters milling about and, always, work to do.

But they can take a little time here. Bobby’ll bend it around, if he has to. The laws of traffic, the laws of physics. It startles him, scares him a little, but- he’d break them for Buck, too.

[izzysillyhandsy]

It is finally time for me to try writing about The Scene.

There's so much happening and changing within seconds. I feel that the whole history of Edward and Izzy is played out here, for (from their point of view) the last time.

We start off with Ed waking Izzy up, taking out his pistol (to Izzy's confusion) and then handing it to Izzy.

They are close, Ed is calm and fully in the moment. It is such an intimate moment, the way Ed tilts his head down in line with the pistol, never breaking eye contact.

And Izzy, who at first was trying to fend Ed off, now looks at him like this:

What is actually going on here? It seems like a return to something they've done before, like a memory of a tender moment. Of course, this is right after Ed tells Iz about the dream. Maybe it's just the closeness, or the fact that this must be the first moment in forever where Izzy is the sole focus of Ed.

But I feel that there is a story there, something in their past that makes Izzy - what is it - happy? Nostalgic? Regretful? I don't see turned on here, it's much softer than that.

"Good for you." (slightly sneering) "It was good for me." (completely sincere)

You don't need me to tell you this has more than one meaning.

Ed touches Izzy's hand as he stands up, "It was just what the doctor ordered."

The first half ends - these were the good times. Spending time together with weapons aimed at each other :). I think this was when both were young and relatively innocent, when life was exciting and the two of them were best friends, possibly even closer than that.

But now the second half starts.

"Anyway, it wasn't even like that."

Also has a double meaning.

"No, in my dream - I was standing. Just like this."

Ed turns his back to Izzy, making this an execution instead of an act of intimacy.

Izzy first raises the pistol, laughs brokenly and desperately. It feels like this was also a situation they'd both been in before. The laugh sounds like "No, we're not doing this. Once was enough."

I think a similar scene happened when they were young, and the next bit strengthens this theory for me.

Izzy puts his hand over half his face, his voice changes and he calls Ed "Eddie" for the first and only time in the show:

"Oh, you're scared, Eddie? To sc- to scared to do it yourself?"

Hornigold also calls Ed "Eddie", and I think Izzy is kind of channeling Hornigold here. Maybe, back on Hornigold's ship, Ed was ordered to execute someone and couldn't. And maybe Izzy had to do it for him. Maybe Izzy had to do lots of traumatizing things for Ed. Maybe the person executed was someone Izzy and/or Ed cared about. And maybe Ed started to resent Izzy for it. The way Ed is spreading his arms out, the way it seems almost staged - it's like Ed is saying "kill me like you killed him".

OR maybe this is how Izzy pep-talked Ed into becoming Blackbeard, which would be much darker (and harder for me as an Izzy apologist). But Izzy telling Stede that Ed's complete breakdown is like 50% his fault may point to events in the past where Izzy thought he had to push Ed into the Kraken-zone to secure their and their crew's survival. Maybe he did this often, especially at the beginning of their Blackbeard fuckery.

What is remarkable though is that Izzy hides his face with his hand, then forces out the words, almost choking on them. This clearly has importance and history - nothing so far in the whole show was forced out so violently - so I am heavily leaning towards a traumatic experience for Ed and Izzy both. It definitely crashes Izzy down from his nostalgia-high real quick.

Now Izzy's voice changes back to his own, but he speaks really fast and without inflection, trying to get everything over with:

"Go on clean up your own fucking mess I'm not doing it I've been doing it all my fucking life."

(without thanks I might add)

"Fuck off."

Izzy's finally, finally had enough.

Ed acknowledges, resignedly, and leaves. I think he expected it to go this way.

Izzy shoots himself. I think Ed also expected this.

Ed says he loved him best he could. It's over. He goes to his own death.

This scene is only a few minutes long, but as I said in the beginning, I think they're reliving their whole relationship here, first the good times (which are quickly devalued - "But it wasn't even like that") and the bad times (I did this for you, but for nothing - "Fuck off").

As Ed says to Frenchie, he's had closure with Izzy. He's shown him what it was like for him. Izzy's also had closure with Ed. From now on, Ed has to carry the weight of his decisions himself.

Both die.

(and then both indestructible fuckers come back)

[colleybri]

It’s not what it looks like!

Well, ok - it kind of is but it also kind of isn’t.

I didn’t watch Andor when it came out but apparently this scene (link at the end) caused a bit of a stir at the time as the ‘first sex scene in Star Wars’. Hmm. Well, you don’t actually see the sex bit so it’s more accurate to say that it’s a scene where sex is ‘very heavily implied to be about to happen’ as someone put it, a little demurely, on X.

So yes, in that sense - it’s exactly what it looks like. But there’s so much more to it than that, because this scene is absolutely packed with story-telling richness in a way that just can’t be appreciated from seeing it out of context. Which is why I am kind of promising myself that I’m no longer going to try and predict anything about Season 2 based on trailers etc.

The storytelling richness turns a ‘sex scene’ into something so much more, and this explains why it’s here at all - Tony Gilroy seems to be the last person to indulge in ‘fan-service’ of this kind. It’s all about what it’s telling us about these characters and this situation. Two things feed into that - the background information that we’ve gathered so far and what’s actually unfolding in the narrative.

Background: Timm and Bix are co-workers, but she’s his boss. They’ve been dating for an unspecified period of time, but it’s implied to be pretty recent: they have apparently agreed to do something together ‘one night a week’ and Timm earlier suggested ‘starting the week tonight’ with dinner in a way that almost implies that they haven’t gone further than that. More speculatively, this very cautious approach seems to come entirely from Bix and suggests a cautiousness about committing too hard, too soon. Meanwhile, Bix has a secretive working arrangement with Cassian, a man who is one of her oldest friends, a kind of sibling figure and also - crucially - something of a serial ex. Gilroy tells us that she’s ‘done with him’ by this time because he’s ‘burned every last bridge’ even though they’re ‘meant to be together’. Cassian turns up to conduct some kind of business with Bix (and we know it’s about providing stolen parts for her to sell on to contacts such as Luthen) from which Timm is deliberately and pointedly excluded. We don’t know if Timm and Bix have even discussed it, but what we do is that Timm is both jealous and suspicious, noticing that Bix “seems upset…” and that this “always seems to happen whenever you come around”. Add to all that, Cassian seems to have a low opinion of Timm anyway, as revealed by their brief confrontation in Ep1 (‘you need to find yourself a less complicated woman… good luck with that!’ - all adding to the shady-ex vibe). Cassian also has a reputation as a womaniser, with a particular predilection for those already in a relationship (Bix’s quip about his ‘fall’ being on a ‘jealous husband’).

Timm thinks his suspicion is justified as soon as he sees what Bix had been reading

Then there’s the actual plot as it stands at this stage. Cassian, desperate to get enough credits to flee from Ferrix, meets up with Bix in a bar. She’s done him yet another huge favour, and has called Luthen ahead of her usual schedule. By this time, the Pre-Mor bulletin asking for information on a ‘Kenari Human Male’ has been issued and Bix knows Cassian is yet again a wanted man. She doesn’t know when or if she will ever see him again, even if he manages to get safely away. In gratitude, he puts his hand on hers. Timm, drinking hard and spying on them, sees this and jumps to a final conclusion. We will find out in the next episode that Bix had told him Cassian was born on Kenari.

Just after Timm leaves, Bix pushes Cassian’s hand from her own. Perfect ironic timing.

If only he’d stayed in the bar another ten seconds… bad timing, Timm With Two Ms :(

Timm betrays Cassian - and by extension Bix - by calling PreMor. He then goes home, sits in moody silence and broods. Bix apparently continues drinking for a while offscreen and then comes to Timm’s door.

So to the sex scene. The obvious immediate point is that as soon as he sees her Timm must on some level realise his mistake. In his typical love of irony, Gilroy even has Bix say “Is it too late?”… oh boy, yes it certainly is for Timm. And he obviously knows it. He knows the relationship is doomed. The end result of that is that he looks so unenthusiastic at the sight of her that Bix picks up on it immediately and looks hurt and depressed at a perceived rejection. ‘No it’s just … I’m surprised!’ Timm tries to cover. Which is also true, but not in the way he wants her to take it.

The obvious irony is that he’s probably been dreaming about this moment for weeks, maybe months, but it’s all just so … disappointing, because of what he’s just done to betray her trust. As for Bix, she doesn’t want sex for the ‘usual’ reasons. And she’s not particularly enthusiastic about Timm or making any real effort here to make him feel genuinely like he’s the man for her. Her whole attitude smacks of ‘having to make do with the consolation prize’ in combination with ‘looking for comfort’. In other words, Bix seems to be using Timm to ease her depressed mood in a way that’s genuinely unusual in these gender roles.

Yikes. Really not what you want to see when you wake up… your lover fully dressed and staring at you.

So it’s a sex scene that is not particularly sexy, beyond the obvious visual image of Adria Arjona starting to undress. OK, yeah, that’s kind of attractive by default I suppose if she floats your boat, but if you’ve seen her in ‘Hit Man’ you’ll know what she’s capable of when her characters choose to really crank up the sensuality dial. Honestly, there’s absolutely no chemistry between Bix and Timm at all in this scene. Her two conversations thus far with Cassian were about a stolen piece of equipment but there was so much sexual tension and angsty subtext between them I vaguely remember indulging my occasional childish habit of yelling ‘Get a room!’ at the screen the first time I watched them.

In summary, it’s a very unsexy sex scene, where ‘going through the motions’ barely begins to cover it. But the broader point is - there’s absolutely nothing on the screen in this series that is not there for a meaningful story-telling purpose. And I will try and keep that promise not to attempt to glean anything from Season 2 trailers. Yeah, I know - ‘good luck with that’.

[asmodeusstahl]

So, I have a lot of problems with the latest (sixth) episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I’m just going to start from the beginning and work my way through the episode to the end.

Firstly, the episode title is “We Take A Zebra to Vegas.” Do we *see* a Zebra? For all of two seconds. That’s it. So much for a plot-relevant episode title. It’s a nitpick, sure, but if you’re going to make something an episode title, it should have SOME relevance to the plot. I understand that that’s the only chapter where we see the Lotus Casino, so it makes sense to use that chapter title as the episode title. But is it *really* that much more effort to add a scene featuring Percy and/or Grover chatting with the Zebra? There’s certainly run time and almost certainly budget for it.

Then we get to the casino itself and, as loathe as I am to admit it, the movie did it better without question. Even the smallest of details — like the look and vibe of the casino are done so much better in the movie. The casino is designed to trap children, so it’s filled with water parks, roller coasters, and all that makes a kid lose their mind. We see that in the movie. In the show, it’s just a regular old casino filled with a bunch of adults of all ages. There’s only like 2 or 3 shots where you really see groups of children. And that’s not even mentioning the exterior architecture of it. It’s a nitpick, but the show version doesn’t even look Greek-inspired. In the movie, it’s basically a knock-off Caesar’s Palace with Greek Columns and everything. It’s great. The giant Lotus Blossom with a roller coaster coming out of the side just… isn’t.

Much like with Medusa, all the suspense was just thrown out the window. Once they enter, Grover does the whole “wait, Percy, did your mom read you the Odyssey?” shtick and the trio figures out it’s the Lotus Eaters that Odysseus faced. Consequently, Percy and Annabeth do not lose themselves in the casino. They stay sane the whole bloody time. What annoys me even more about this is that Percy even says as they enter the casino “what if we just chilled here and played some games for a bit.” It got my hopes up that we’d actually see a competent drug trip scene — I was wrong. Annabeth immediately shuts him down and he’s like “yeah, no, I was joking.”

Anyway, they go to look for Hermes. I’m not sure why the fuck Hermes loves hanging out in this casino. The show’s explanation is that he just likes chilling there and nothing more is said on the matter. It feels weird to be that an Olympian would just be chilling in a casino run by monsters without a care in the world. Whatever.

Once they enter, Annabeth decides Grover should split off so they can cover more ground. Um, hello, if you’re trying to cover more ground why not have EVERYONE split off, not just Grover? So Grover goes off on his own, finds a Satyr that used to know his Uncle Ferdinand and starts talking to him about the Search for Pan. The Satyr is like “oh, yeah, Pan. I think I found him here. Come follow me.” Grover follows and eventually forgets who he is (and ends up playing VR). Sure, great, one of the trio lost it, but that doesn’t account for the other two and we really didn’t need to shoehorn more Pan stuff in just for the sake of getting Grover to split off from Percabeth.

Meanwhile, Percabeth have found Hermes and he takes them aside to chat after they mention they’re friends of Luke’s. There’s a few things here that annoy me. Firstly, Hermes lore dumps all of the trauma that is May Castellan — something which doesn’t appear until the 5th book. We could have — and should have, imo — gotten the backstory behind Luke’s failed quest to the Garden of the Hesperides to steal a Golden Apple. The quest he failed when Landon gave him the scar on his face. The quest *Hermes himself* assigned to him. There’s plenty of resentment for Hermes that comes for that — we didn’t need May Castellan. Not yet.

Turns out, Hermes is just stalling them because he doesn’t want to help. Fucking dick. So, Annabeth goes invisible and steals his car keys — which Hermes absolutely knew about. They rescue Grover after a brief spell of forgetfulness. Annabeth reasons that they didn’t lose it like Grover because they were together and it’s harder to forget when you’re with someone. Sure, great. How do you explain the DiAngelos? I highly doubt that Bianca would willingly let Nico wander off on his own. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

I really hate that the movie casino somehow managed to include Disco Darrin — the kid from the 70s that triggers Percy realizing something is fucked up — and that the show doesn’t. Darrin really helps reinforce the idea that the casino is full of kids out of time, which helps set up the reveal that the DiAngelos were in the casino for 70ish years and didn’t age at all. I hate that the movie did something better, I really do. But it’s just unavoidable when comparing these two scenes.

The trio then “steal” Hermes’ cab, which just so happens to have a letter addressed to the trio that supposedly tells them a back way into the Underworld. We’ll see how that turns out next episode, but I will be UPSET if we don’t get DOA Recording Studious and all that jazz. As soon as Percy (shoddily) drives the trio out of the parking garage, Hermes’ travel magic transports them to the beach in Santa Monica. That’s the one redeeming thing about this episode for me. That’s actually a really cool application of Hermes’ powers as the God of Travelers.

What I do have a problem with, however, is Percy’s experience in the ocean. Instead of meeting Poseidon, as was promised to us, we meet the Nereid from St. Louis. She tells Percy that “surprise, the summer solstice already happened. Poseidon waited for you as long as you could, but now he has to go marshal his forces for war. Go home now, your quest is done.” Um, what? The summer solstice passing makes no sense to me as a creative decision. The solstice is the reason that all the gods were on Olympus when Percy returned the bolt. You can’t expect the gods to just be chilling on Olympus 24/7 especially when war is about to break out.

Plus, you cannot tell me that Zeus wouldn’t have immediately started fucking shit up. His symbol of power was stolen — allegedly — by Poseidon. He’d want that back ASAP. In the book, it’s stated in no uncertain terms that, if Percy+Co. failed, Zeus and Poseidon would be fucking up the weather. Massive storms and natural disasters everywhere. The sky and the sea would be at war with each other. It would be like Armageddon. There’s 0 sign of that. At all.

Then, before Percy leaves, the Nereid gives him *four* pearls. Not three. Four. This takes away Percy having to sacrifice Sally for the sake of the world (even if she comes back eventually). This change just doesn’t make any sense to me. The explanation in the show is that Poseidon cares about Sally. But that makes 0 sense because there’s been an overarching narrative that All Gods Are Bastards. Additionally, even in this episode, Hermes mentioned that it was Poseidon’s advice to stay away from the lives of demigods/their mortal parents. That it’s awful watching them struggle and feel powerless to stop it. Why does Poseidon suddenly have the power to help Sally now? It just… doesn’t make any sense to me.

Another issue I have with this is that if the Nereid is telling Percy to go back to camp, why is she giving him *four* pearls? Assuming a retcon that the pearls transport the user to CHB, there’s no need for four. If Percy is supposed to return to CHB immediately, he doesn’t go to the Underworld to rescue Sally and therefore does not need a fourth pearl. If that isn’t a plot hole, I don’t know what is.

The episode ends with Percy being like “no, I’m seeing this quest through to the end.” Which is great and all, but the teaser for next episode worries me with how much it includes. We’re going to see Crusty’s Water Bed Palace, the Underworld, AND the fight on the beach with Ares. I don’t know how they’re going to fit that all into like 35 minutes of show time (accounting for the “previously on” segment and credits taking up 5 minutes of the 40 minute runtime). Crusty was the obvious cut from this episode so that it doesn’t feel rushed, but it *wasn’t* cut and that worries me.

And, furthermore, I think Crusty is going to have to be heavily modified for the screen. I see no way Disney allows Percy to go full medieval torture and stretch Crusty to death. Which is disappointing, if I’m being honest. It’s really the first indication of how Percy acts when he’s snapped/in the zone. Stuff like summoning hurricanes while fighting or overwhelming the weather barrier at Camp also falls into this category. That’s a nitpick, sure, but whatever.

Look, I didn’t want to be a hater. And I still don’t. I would love to love this show, but the problem with it is the marketing and the writing. It was marketed by Rick and the critics as a “faithful adaptation.” This is not that. This is a rewrite of the book that’s honestly worse than some fanfics I’ve read. Which says a lot because the PJO fanfic community is not known for having well-written works.

And the trio themselves just aren’t clicking as their book counterparts for the most part. Percy, especially, just doesn’t act like Percy. We’re missing his sarcasm and biting humor. It’s not Walker’s fault — anyone who’s watched The Adam Project” knows he can pull it off. Annabeth has lost most of her character development and had that screen time given to Grover. I was alright with it last episode with Ares, but it just did not work with Augustus this episode. The trio just doesn’t feel like the trio and I don’t think it’s the actors’ faults.

Like I said earlier, Walker can absolutely pull off Persass. The script just isn’t letting him do that and that disappoints me. I watched Leah in Beast and absolutely could see the Annabeth in her, but all of her moments and character traits are either being given to Percy and Grover or cut entirely. Taking away our knowledge from the books, we know the least about Annabeth’s character out of the trio. The script just isn’t making her click in my mind as Annabeth like the script in Beast did. I can’t really say much about Aryan, since I haven’t seen him in other works, but I do like that he’s being elevated above comedic relief. So… that’s a good thing, I guess.

Overall, I have a lot of issues with the show. Especially with this episode. I also have a lot of fears with the direction this show is going for the final two episodes and I’m nervous to see where Rick and the writers take this. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[alienteashop]

ALIEN ROMULUS

SPOILER WARNING

From Below the Cut

just want to say this is all my opinion but let's get into a rating from me lol

So overall I set a rating for Alien Romulus to a 8.5/10

This movie to me was great. there were a few drawbacks overall in which I feel took away from some of the horror elements in this movie like the amount of references to all of the other movies before it, and when I say all, I mean ALL of the movies both new and old

The thing about this movie is that I both hated and loved the fact that it was a mash up of every single alien movie before it, love in the fact that the tech was the same as the original movies (something people complained about in Prometheus) and that the original alien designs stayed the same in both looks and mannerisms

The thing I mainly disliked was the fact it was a mash up of every single movie, don't get me wrong some were really good and well done but others were kinda... cringe? In a way that you almost get second hand embarrassment from knowing them but in a laughing way

The actors I think did an amazing job and the general cinematography is great, it feels modern without taking away the old charm and tricks

The settings and placement of the general look and feel of everything was great with certain references to all movies and I believe even the game

Now I'm going to talk about the scenes in specific

just so everyone knows I'm not doing a summery I'm just talking about my favorite and or least favorite scenes

--

So in the beginning I just want to praise the use of the colony, an ALIVE colony I might add, and even though it's only a short part I do like the little insight you learn about the lives of the people and main characters, I also do like the clothes and lighting of these scene(s)

However in the beginning beginning aka the opening, they get transported fossilized rock and take it into research or whatever, not much is known other than the fact that the alien is back lol, it did kinda remind me of dead space with the artifact and it bringing the aliens along

And I think it was coolI also love the use of the androids in this film, with Andy being known as an android in the very beginning which proves to be useful later (Also I might add I do find the brother sister dynamic of the two bittersweet)

As for the facehugger scenes I absolutely loved them, I do think it was a little cliche with the whole body temperature thing and the fact that they couldn't see them because Andy said that if they sweat at all they kinda die and I felt like you would definitely sweat at that temperature especially with that stress but honestly it's kinda the nerd in me

However for the alien scene I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT I loved the use of a cacoon and the remembrance of acid for blood playing an important impact

I don't like the use of pressure in here I do feel like in space the pressure would definitely kill faster than it did/didn't but I appreciate the mention of it mainly in the ending scenes where her helmet is cracked and she didn't die? Maybe I need to catch up on space and pressure but idkkk anyway still the nerd in me

My favorite scenes were in the beginning they were walking down the halls and the lights was muahhh chefs kiss loved the tension and shot

I do genuinely like the lab part in the movie where the black liquid goop was shown as something good but was actually bad as seen with the rat transforming into its own thing

Because in the end although the Xenomorphic are parasites they are their own species in the end meaning they are going to be separate form whatever you put them in (idk if that made sense)

Now I will say I was a little hesitant when I realized in the end it was going to be a spin off of alien resurrection (aka alien 4) but I will say they did it amazingly

I do absolutely love their take of the human alien hybrid baby and the love the thing of the creature/baby eating its own mother like many species do and the creatures design is something that I will admit truthfully disturbed me the uncanny but also very human face and expressions made my skin chill a bit

I did not like the acid seen I feel like it could have been better

Final notes

--

I wrote this in my car directly after the movie so it's a little scatter brained but I needed to get it out lol

Okay truthfully that was all I really wanted to talk about I genuinely love this movie and thought it was great, and I will say that I'm just waiting for fanfiction of xenos of that one scene in the elevator where it caught Rain with it's tail, I feel as if people are going to eat that up 😂

Overall 8.5/10

Some cringey lines and scenes which are sooo obviously ripped from the past movies along with concepts but I think the movie was great and a fun time for sure

--

Also a thank you to @ozzgin for hyping the movie up for me 😆

[enn-jay]

Can u share your list with us so we can know what to expect

Always happy to talk about my writing! 😁

So this is the list I'm working on atm. I have no idea what order they will come in as I just work on whatever takes my fancy and sometimes a new idea comes in and takes over - which is what happened with Treacherous and Is It Over Now? As I've said before, I get very little time for writing, sometimes as little as 2 hours a week, so I do what I can. Luckily, I have the amazingly supportive @emmainldn cheering me on constantly, otherwise I'd probably never get anything written!

Haylor fics currently in the pipeline:

The Very First Night - about the first time they got together in March/April 2012. I started this before Treacherous but it's got similar vibes, so might end up taking a backseat for a while as I used a lot of my ideas for it in Treacherous. I do have other ideas for it though so it will probably happen eventually. It's a bit more angsty than Treacherous as it goes a bit "rust that grew between telephones-y" later on.

Just A Little Bit of Your Heart - Sequel to Midnight, late 2014ish. Harry wants to be with Taylor properly but she's keeping him at arms length and he's not very good at communicating. Angst and possibly no/little smut which is weird for me! This is almost complete and will probably be posted first.

Cruel Summer (working title) - Summer 2016 (possibly, not 100% decided on the timeline). This one will be open/ongoing episodes/hook ups and is literally just an excuse to write smut whenever I want without having to think of a proper storyline.

A Million Little Times - this is the big boy. Long series fic where Taylor is with John when they meet but Harry falls for her anyway. Over the years they hurt each other a million little times but they can't seem to stay away from each other. This will be split into two halves and I'm not posting until the first half is nearly done, so don't expect it any time soon, but if I go quiet, I'm probably working on this. I'm pretty sure it will be worth the wait.

Passports in Footwells - Break up fic Dec 2012/Jan 2013 - Chronicals the little mistakes and misunderstandings that leads to them breaking up even though they still love each other. Heated arguments, full angst, almost definitely some smut too. This one is only a couple of sentences long atm but I can see it zooming past the others cuz I'm really excited for it. I like writing pain.

Vigilante Shit - Current Harry watching a TikTok of Taylor performing Vigilante Shit at Eras. Very short but about finished, I've only not posted this because it's so short and I'm wondering if I need to add something else or make it part of a series or something.

5 Reasons Matty Healy Hates Harry Styles and 1 Reason He Doesn't - haylor from an outsiders perspective looking in. A very jealous outsiders perspective. Inspired by an incredibly interesting 1 hour video essay I watched about Matty having one-sided beef with Harry Styles. And Robbers by The 1975. I'm well aware noone asked for this fic but the idea came to me practically half-formed one day. 😂

I Can See You - Vmas hook up! - Someone suggested this the other day, but there is a scene in A Million Little Times which I think is set at the vmas so might include it in that...if not though I will write this at some point because 🔥🔥🔥.

[advisinghat56]

okay i spent about 30 hours on this motherfucker i am going to tell you about him now.

This is Christophe.

Everything on him is completely removable (except for his hair/face)(I didn't take off his clothes because then I would have to put them back on).

Any little black button that you see is a completely functional snap. I didn't want to give myself parkinson's doing and undoing tens of tiny buttons, not to mention the fact that i don't even own any buttons small enough for this project.

He’s even got the little details on his face, although they aren’t as noticeable as I thought they were. I made a little dogtag necklace for him to wear, because it's a really strong personal headcannon of mine and you can pry it from my cold dead hands. You can only see it if his shirt is unbuttoned though. He also has a dog toy squeaker. (Yes my dog has already tried to eat him.)

In all, I am very happy with him, even though I need to finish and fix some things, (notably the shirt, with its missing pockets and unfinished edges. (Side note- Christophe’s shirt doesn't actually have any buttons or even an opening along the front, but i decided that it would function better if I added those.)) I'll add the pockets later. I think the fleece is thin enough that I can get away with it.

If you look hard enough, you might be able to tell that one arm is a slightly different shade of tan because I didn't realize that the fleece that I had and the fleece that I bought was TWO SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT COLORS.

I actually had a really hard time with the sash because I couldn't find a good reference. I admit I didn't look very hard (but i DID look at an unhealthy amount of fanart), but I still couldn't find much. The fandom page only had front views, and searching google images didn't help much either. The front was fine, but the back was barely shown. I noted ONE scene (where at the very end) it was on screen for maybe half a second, so I had a vague idea of what it looked like.

I could’ve just left it there. I didn't need to double check. Nobody sees the back anyways. It doesn't matter. There is no point.

But i am nothing if not stubborn.

I don't actually have HBO max. So I went for the second best thing- Ze mole all scenes compilations on youtube. However, the only one I found was from 12 years ago. It's mirrored. The quality is shit. There's a fade transition between every scene. But I got it. I got the back shot I'd wanted. Here it is, in all its pixely glory.

I'd gotten it.

And I had absolutely no clue what I was looking at. (still don't)

But I didn’t want to wait anymore, I was almost done.

So I made a guess.

And all went well.

Until I saw a post.

No. It can't be.

The truth is right in front of me, all i have to do is slow it down.

goddamnit.

[yuriko-mukami]

Ecstasy Writing Process...

Updated: 09/10/2023

The first draft of the main story finished on August 20th, 2023, and the special chapter October 9th, 2023

📖 Word count: 44 133

📖 Library scene count: 6

📖 Smutty scene count: 4

📖 Biting scene count: 6

📖 Cover art: Needed

📖 CG edits: 1/2 done

Prologue - final version done

Ecstasy 01 - final version done

Ecstasy 02 - final version done

Ecstasy 03 - final version done

Ecstasy 04 - final version done

Ecstasy 05 - final version done

Ecstasy 06 - final version done

Ecstasy 07 - final version done

Ecstasy 08 - final version done

Ecstasy 09 - final version done

Ecstasy 10 - final version done

Epilogue - final version done

Brute End - final version done

Manservant End - final version done

Vampire End - final version done

After Story - final version done

Special - the first draft written

17/07/2023: I made this post for myself to follow the progress of the story. And now, I can't but laugh since with two chapters written we already have two library scenes... That's Ruki and Yuriko for you. 🤣

19/07/2023: Three chapters in, three libraries visited. Oh my, these two... 😅 Jokes aside, it's so nice to write Elizabeth and Yuriko's interactions but also Ruki and Shin's bickering.

24/07/2023: Oh boy... I felt bad when I had to write another Laito scene. Such a disgusting moment but I think it still serves the story. But I can't wait for writing sweeter scenes between Ruki and Yuriko later...

27/07/2023: I haven't been able to write as fast as I hoped, but I'm still making progress. There are so many tiny things I need to fit into this that I start to regret I decided to follow the game structure. I need to think if I want to do that in future stories or if should I simply make my own structure for those...

Also, I ordered two CG edits yesterday, instead of one. Now, I need to decide which chapter will get one. The other goes to the After Story.

28/07/2023: I hoped I would have reached Ecstasy 10 by today but I guess that was a bit high goal. Still, I'm happy with these results. And damn, I enjoyed writing Ecstasy 08 today.

31/07/2023: Oh my... It was so much fun to write Ecstasy 09 too, even though the chapter isn't happy at all. But I think Yuriko has great moments there. Poor Ruki though...

31/07/2023 || Second Note: I managed to write Ecstasy 10 and start Ecstasy Epilogue. Of course, there is still a way to go with all the endings and the After Story... but I begin to have my skeleton version here. I'm rather positive that the first draft might be finished in August. Of course, there are editing rounds to come but still... I'm pleased about this.

02/08/2023: I wrote both Brute and Manservant Ends... and oh boy, that was quite a trip. Prepare yourself for a yandere Ruki. Now, I only have Vampire End, After Story, and Special chapter left before it's time to write all the smut scenes~ My reward is almost here! 💙

03/08/2023: I finished the first draft of the Vampire End. Huh, that was quite a roller coaster. The text is terrible at the moment though, such bad writing... but since I'm going to edit the story anyway, I don't mind it at this point.

Also, my goal was 30 000 words for this story but I guess I will go past that since I reached it already and there are still things I need to add. Like all smut scenes.

04/08/2023: OH MY GOSH! The story's first draft is pretty much finished. Only the smut scenes are missing from the main story.

I will work on the special story a bit later since it won't be released on Tumblr but in the ebook version of the story. So, the next project is to scribble three different types of smut scenes. 😏 The fourth and last one will be at the end of the special chapter.

09/08/2023: Haa... I have such huge writing urges but I got an unexpected job offer for three weeks and now I'm all stressed out and tired whenever I have free time... 😢 I should stop saying yes to these odd job offers, I guess... since I already have the job I love. But I'm bad at saying no... Buuut I managed to start the first smut scene! I hope I have the energy to finish it tomorrow or the latest at the weekend.

12/08/2023: I just finished the first smut scene of the story... and I think it's the dirtiest one so far in the whole His Possession. 🙈😳 The next ones won't be this dirty I think, since they serve different purposes for the story... But gosh, I rarely turn into a blushing mess because of my own writing but this... We'll see if I edit it milder or not... 🫣

17/08/2023: Finished the second smut scene. So now, there is one to go for the main story (there will be one in the special chapter too). Soon, I can leave this story in Ruki's admin's care. Though... tbh, it might still take a while since I have been so damn tired after work. Writing has become slow and difficult because of this. But I'm trying my best. I want to publish this story by the end of this year.

20/08/2023: The main story is finished. 🥳 I will write the special later, but everything else is now drafted. Of course, there will be a lot of editing and I might even add scenes here and there but mostly the story is now formed.

Anyway, the next step is to give this in @ruki-mukami-dl's hands but I'm positive that everyone else can read it before this year ends. So, look forward to that.

09/10/2023: I got the special chapter back from @ruki-mukami-dl today. I still need to make some fixes in it, but it's mostly done. It will be published only in the ebook version of the story. But it will bring almost 20 pages worth of extra content. The chapter will be in Ruki’s point of view, and it can be rather triggering for sensitive people. But it surely was interesting to write together with Ruki’s admin 💙

Other than that, I'm making the cover for the printed book on the weekend. So, the ebook's cover is on its way, too. Then, just one final CG edit and everything is ready for November. Ah, I can’t wait to share the story!

[my-plastic-life]

Behind the Scenes: Olivier Mira Armstrong

WARNING: VERY LONG POST AHEAD!

This was definitely a journey for me! This project was completely new territory for me because A) this is a character/series I’m not familiar with, and B) I’d be attempting a FULL reroot all by myself. I’d wanted to practice, and my friend and I both decided it would be a good opportunity to do so. If I failed, I did have a rerooter friend who I knew could fix my mistakes.

But the first step was making sure the outfits could be made. Without them, this entire project would be in vain. I’d need an outfit for both dolls, though Alex will be posed wearing only his pants with his shirt and jacket suspended in the air like in this scene:

So anyway, that was the first step. I contacted my favorite seamstress, Elenpriv, and asked if this was something she could do. The doll I’d planned to use was a Made to Move petite Barbie, and the guy has slightly different measurements than a traditional Ken, but since the pants were all that really mattered, it should be okay. Anyway, Elenpriv said the outfits were totally doable!!! YES!

So the next step was finding the doll to use. I knew what body I wanted - the petite Made to Move Barbie because Olivier is pretty short compared to her brother. My friend informed me that Olivier’s typical face is a “resting bitch face” LOL. Unlike my Inuyasha dolls, this series of characters has noses and mouths that are more pronounced than just lines. That actually made finding a candidate easier.

Out of total coincidence, the doll I ended up using had the petite Made to Move body AND the perfect face! She wasn’t smiling and had short hair that could easily be removed for a reroot:

For the record, I’m not a fan of the flocked doll hair. LOL Anyway, that’s beside the point. Her face sculpt looked perfect, so I knew we had our candidate! And the outfits were a go!

So next up was choosing the proper hair color. I got my hair and the rerooting kit (I’d had some in the past but I got more just in case lol) from TheDollPlanetHair on Etsy. My friend helped me choose the color, and we went with Lemon Blonde. Or was it Lemon Drop? I got both because screens make it hard to tell colors, but in person they look almost identical LOL.

So then I got to work! I’ll spare the details of the rerooting process, except for the fact that, this being my first time doing it, it was certainly a learning curve. I’d watched several videos of people doing reroots, and no one ever plugged every single factory-made hole. So I didn’t, either. I also had to make my own holes (glad I had that extra tool to help with that!) because the flocked areas didn’t have any underneath.

Well, I got that part done, and after the boil wash, it looked way too thin. And because I was afraid the hair could come out during that boil wash, I’d already glued it inside the head. So then I had to go back and add more hair because there were totally bald spots. I did that about two more times in total before (and yes, I added glue inside each time prior to a boil wash) before I was satisfied with the thickness. I was worried it would look completely uneven, but fortunately it seemed to be okay!

Once that was done, I pulled the hair back into a ponytail so I could begin working on the face. I didn’t want to do the face first only to realize I majorly messed up the reroot lol. For the face, the only thing that needed altered was the eyes. I wanted to just paint over the original factory paint, but the eyes were too small for that. Anime eyes, you know? I also wanted to try to use watercolor pencils like I’ve seen so many customizers do. I bought some Mr. Super Clear, a protective breathing mask, and Prismatic watercolor pencils. I started with a practice doll to make sure I knew what I was doing. I sprayed her face with the MSC, then began using the pencils... and the colors just didn’t shine through. At least, not over the original factory paint. I didn’t want to remove that because I can’t draw to save my life. I need a base to trace over. But alas, it wasn’t working. I’m guessing because I didn’t use acetone to remove the original factory paint, which everyone else does prior to spraying the MSC. But no way was I going to take off the original factory paint and start from scratch. So I used my Miroku method and just extended the eyes how they needed to be. I did discover that the watercolor pencils will draw over the top of acrylic paint, so that helped. I had more control with them than a paint brush. I was also able to use a regular pencil for light drawing that I could go over later with paint.

This took some time, and of course there are two eyes, and it never failed - they would never look even lol. Something was always wacky in at least one of them, and I, being a perfectionist with a hint of OCD, was going nuts. But then I remembered that one eye is always covered. So if it’s a little off, it won’t matter too much. Hopefully. So I did the best I could, getting the shapes to match as closely as possible, adding in the two different shades of blue to the iris, then that tiny black dot in the middle and the white light dot, eyelashes, and the unique eyebrows, and I was finally satisfied enough to begin the next step.

That next step was cutting and styling the hair. Olivier has a relatively simple hairstyle. It kind of ends in a curled point, and there is one batch that’s always covering her right eye and draped across her chest. There is an even smaller strand next to her left eye ending at pretty much the same length as the batch. So I sprayed the hair and got it completely soaked, then took my curling iron to the back side to give it a little curl, then curled the batch and strand just a little bit. I think it works!

Once that was finished, it was time for the tops of the boots. I used the same Barbie boots I used for Sango and painted them black, but Olivier’s boots have tongues on the tops of them.

I had the outfits already at this point, and I’d already put Olivier’s on her so I could make sure everything fit okay. Of course, it was perfect! And the details are absolutely incredible. Elenpriv is truly the best!!! Just look at this detail!

The gold rope, the stars on the shoulder pads, the buttons - everything is there, and perfect!!! Her services are worth every penny!

Back to the boots. I’m a fan of nothing being permanent with doll stuff in case A) I change my mind later and B) a better method comes along later so I can easily modify an already existing design. So, remembering how I made Sango’s armor completely out of cardstock, bias tape, and paint, I used that trusty method once again. I sketched out a design on black cardstock, cut and glued a few layers together, then covered them with bias tape and painted the whole thing black. I left a little triangular shaped wedge at the bottom to slide in between the boot and the pant legs. Not perfect, but no way am I gluing anything to that uniform!!!

After that came the medals! I forgot to even mention them to Elenpriv, so that was on me. But I had some ideas on how I could pull them off. My first thought was to attempt to use my new Cricut I’d gotten for Christmas to do it, but I didn’t even know where to begin. And I wanted to make sure to have this project done because in a week or two I’d be dropping it off to my friend’s neighbor, who was staying at her second home in Kansas temporarily, and she would take it back to her. So I took some measurements of the area the medals would go based on this picture:

That’s also a nice picture with a straight-forward view of the medals. So I made them in a few different sizes in Photoshop, printed them out, and then held them against the doll to determine the best candidate. After choosing one, I literally measured every centimeter tick of each piece of those medals I’d printed, determining the length/height/width of each individual color, plus the coin part. I sketched the design out on bias tape, and then I used acrylic paint to bring the colors to life.

Why didn’t I just use what I’d printed? Because A) it was on cardstock, so the details weren’t nearly as sharp, and B) if I’d used photo paper, the entire thing would be way too shiny/unrealistic. So this had to be done by hand.

For the coins, I immediately thought of a hole punch. At least that way I’d get perfect circles! So I took my gold paint and covered a spare area of cardstock in it, then used two different hole punch sizes to create the medals (yes, one is bigger than the other). To add thickness, I stacked and glued two of each size together, then painted the edges gold since that part was white after cutting them out. Then I used a pencil to sketch out the cross design, then lightly went over it with black paint. I love my tiny paint brushes!!!

To attach them to the ribbons, I glued a mini strip to the back of them, then glued that to the back of the cardstock behind the ribbons. I felt that would be easier than trying to glue those tiny edges of the coins and ribbons together. I’m really proud of how these medals turned out.

To attach them to the uniform, I just used some double-sided tape. Because, again, NO glue on that uniform!!!

And with that, the doll was DONE! It was definitely quite a process, especially since I’m not familiar with this show or character, but I’m pleased with how it all turned out! My friend informed me not to share this until after the intended recipient had the dolls in her possession, and now she does. And she approves! YES!!!

[shinygoku]

Help! (1965)

It’s May Day, and a Mayday is a cry for Help!

Released shortly after the film of the same name [I gotta find better quality footage of it lmao], this album has only 2 covers and may have the most iconic songs featured since A Hard Day's Night. Does the whole selection hold up or could it have done with a bit more ....NUJV?!

That's right, in Flag Semaphore they aren't spelling HELP, but NUJV, which naturally I only know from reading about The Band haha. Done that way for more pizzaz, don'cha know. A very minimalist cover, I like it more than With The Beatles but I wonder why they tinted their black garb to be blue?

SIDE ONE

Help!: While they've dabbled in "Depression song set to upbeat music" before, I think this is their most iconic of that genre. I also think it's well known – at least among Beatlemanics, that it's a lot less ironic. John wrote this one quickly and in doing so put a lot of himself in there. With that knowledge, I feel a little more guilty going "Haha #mood", as I think it's safe to say the average listener has fewer Problems than John did, not least the lack of being on a microscope slide as The Beatles were... but it IS still a relatable number that's a fun song, too! For an anxiety number it makes a great opening, which is odd to say, but here we are. Splendid backing vocals and drums with occasional moments of very audible guitar also lift it above similar vibe'd numbers.

The Night Before: I love this one, and the depiction of the Stonehenge scene with interesting camera angles from the movie is forever married to the music in my mind! I think it says something that I'm much more into the "Hey Girl don't be mean to me" style than I was on past albums, maybe it's related to the dude being on the receiving end of someone leaving in the morning this time having it feel fresher? idk. Groovy instruments drive it very nicely and the harmonies add dimension to the mournful vibes in counter to the almost rock 'n' roll flavour, methinks.

You've Got to Hide your Love Away: I'm not as keen on this one myself... again, the sequence in the Film comes clearly to mind for this, but in that they were like, slouching in the communal house and that matches the sluggish energy. This feels like it shoulda been on the previous album with the slower tempo and grumpy lyrics. But all that said, it's still very solid and well performed, and again I know people connect to the exasperated words. Also hi, Tambourine! "Two foot small" is the standout line to me, and I think there could be allegory for non-heterosexual relationships in here, but a lot of the song is murky and mumbly. Maybe on purpose, it sure adds to the Mood, but it again makes me less energised.

I Need You: This was also in the film, but it wasn't as distinct a cinematography sponge. I think it shared the Stonehenge scene but The Night Before overshadowed it somewhat lol. Sorry, George! ^^;; – I guess it's down to this being much more mild and downbeat, even though the themes on paper are pretty damn similar. I'm not into the stated thesis of trying to guilt a relationship back on, which is a common pop song template. The bridges[?] are really lovely though, the stringing and bongos make a dope backing track with more "aaahhh-hhhh" type harmonies.

Another Girl: Ahh yes, in the film the Beatles were in the Bahamas and miming this song, like Paul playing the Bikini Wearing Girl - Anyway this is kinda another "Nyah nyah sucks to be you, I've UPGRADED with New Girl" that was common in AHDN and BFS, but I'm feeling more generous this time, maybe as it's got a jaunty tempo and more cheerful energy, even with spite lacing it lol. The short guitar solos add a certain je ne sais quoi.

You're Gonna Lose That Girl: Ok, first of all the whiplash from the previous title to this is soooo funny. I've also seen comparison to She Loves You, that this one offers a Quiet Part Said Loud; You've upset your Girl and you can either make nice with her pronto, or I'm gonna shoot my shot and be a better BF at that lmao. Either way, it's pretty refreshing to hear this kind of counterpoint to the hypothetical situations in other songs, this one isn't bragging or pleading but Stating that Improvement is needed, Dude. Albeit still with a smidge of arrogance to assume the girl will so easily fall into the POV's arms hahaa. Still, any nod to Girls Having Agency is groovy, like the instruments (includes Bongos this time!) and oooohhh man the smoke and colour filled Studio in the film.... you're making Smoking look too cool!! Aaaaaa! (It’s my 2nd Fave Music Vid sequence in the whole movie~)

Ticket to Ride: Did someone ask for another mopey song? I didn't, but I'm not complaining. The instrumental opening and strumming that continues until the sudden build up in the Bridge(?) makes this really fun to listen to! I forget if this is the one that may be about a prostitute or not, but it could explain the Girl's nonchalance about heading off lol, but it could be another sign of a slow to dawn realisation that 'Oh yeah, Girls do things off their own bat sometimes too....' which seems to be a theme in this album so far. Also seen a hypothesis /Paul allegedly claimed that the Ticket is to Ryde in the Isle of Wight, but as ya can see it's spelled different, so that may be a Reach. ALSO!! The Alps Music Vid from the film set to this music is my absolute fave part of the movie, even though the Bugs mucking about in the snow has no relevance to the song, it's just sooo pretty and a joy to watch while cool music plays~ And it has a fun coda, too!

SIDE TWO

Act Naturally: WOOOOOOOOO!!! YEAH, BAYBEE!! This may be my absolute favourite Cover the boys have performed, it's utterly perfect for Ringo and the bouncy energy really make this one I go out of my way to listen to. In keeping with the album's theme, it's up-tempo and has lyrics about how dang miserable the POV looks that he's the obvious pick for a particularly depressed role in a film! Uh... yay? (Pushes Depressing Ringo Lore away for this.) Seeing how Ringo seems to still do performances of this in more modern times, I think he's really fond of it, too~ And it is eerie how close this song is to Ringo's role in AHDN [Film] and Help! [Film] where he's the poor little Meow Meow undergoing the Horrors, and doing a pretty great act when not completely baked (and tbh, in Help! I think their High-ness enhances a daft plot rather than dragging it down). Also Paul's backing vocals in the chorus are very nice lol

It's Only Love: I don't recall hearing this one before. Maybe as it's not as good? lol. John's words are a bit tricky to parse out from the energetically strumming guitar. Again I'm keen on the music but the main Theme is "Girl you're difficult or something girl. Ow my feelings" and I'm not sure if it's meant to be a good or bad thing in this song's narrative. idk, mebbe this song would grow on me if I heard it more, but I'm not inclined to put it on the Underrated Gem shelf with IHJTDWY from AHDN or an upcoming song from Revolver...

You Like Me Too Much: George's 2nd whack at a song on the album! And I don't think I've heard this before either. And I'm not sure I'll remember this one later today lmao. I like the piano opening. Seems to be about a less-than-healthy relationship where the Girl is incapable of staying away... but has POV done anything to cause this? It seems like they threaten to get the girl even if she did leave successfully, so, assuming I didn't get the wrong end of the stick (which is possible as the sound balance is a bit murky on the mono uploads) then yeah, another L here. Geoooorge!! You can and will do better, but this ain't it!

Tell Me What You See: Not heard this one before lol. It seems less Creepy and more optimistic than most'a these less-than-memorable numbers, but it's not doing much for me, so yet again I will warmly comment on the Instrument work, a very consistent strength (which may be getting stronger and stronger, but it's less clear in this exact song lmao). The humming at the end wasn't very good though.

I've Just Seen A Face: Ohh! It's much faster tempo'd than expected! This shock to the system gets me liking it more than expected lmao. Somehow it seems more modern in this way (when I refer to Modern music, that's not actually a compliment most times fyi), but I dig it. Woooow that guitar is being strummed and a half!

Yesterday: Ahh yes. This song is quite load bearing indeed. Hearing the melody in a dream. Scrambled Eggs. The string quartet. Paul's work without any significant contributions from the others but released as Lennon/McCartney anyway as these days were so early and something like this hadn't been done yet. Potentially a first crack between that pair, it's later cited in John's Diss Song after the divorce... But I'm not planning to delve into conjecture, and other than my own fruit loop takes I don't wanna get too deep into rabbitholes here. It's easy to be mislead on Beatle Theory, tediously! But it's a beautiful, heart tugging song and it's no surprize that it's become the most covered of 'em all. So sad, mournful and regretful, yet compelling and easy to find yourself murmuring as you go about your day.

While I don't rate any covers over the original [listen to it on the '23 Red Album ver!!], I do get a kick outta an instrumental cover with Japanese Instruments (in part cause of my Weeb Leanings, but it's SOOOO JRPG End Credits material too lmao)

Dizzy Miss Lizzy: And we close the album with one more cover! ........Yeah, a bit of a damp squib to end on lmao. Anything is gonna be a Coughing Baby after the Hydrogen Bomb that is Yesterday, but it doesn't even seem to have many lyrics to speak of! Feels very much like Live Performance Filler when they need to space the Good Stuff out and have a bit of a break hsdjhjgdfhdf

CONCLUSION

Best 3: Help!, You're Gonna Lose That Girl, Yesterday

Blurst 3: It's Only Love, You Like Me Too Much, Tell Me What You See

I've had a hard time picking only 3 to put in the Best Category before, but this time it's even trickier as there's more Noticeably Strong Songs and Act Naturally is such a charming cover I wanted to cram more in! (something something The Economy Class Beatles getting just pushed out of my own spotlight on AHDN/Help!, oh woe is me as I love their songs!) That's good!! But again the Off Vibes for some'a these, especially on Side 2 again, make that easy to fill too. Still, this is an overall advancement over the previous 4 Albums, so I'd say overall Help! is Promising. But we aren't quite at the stage where they cement their position as the greatest Band of all time, but I think it's soon, VERY soon indeed...

🪲🪲🪲🪲

Once more I do wanna get into the Sillay Time that is their Movies, but I'm focusing on the Albums first and will do a reccy for missed Notable Songs and other media if I can get my paws on 'em ¬w¬;; - But what'll come next is exciting and not quite what is on the underside of shoes by spelling differences. That's right, Rubber Soul!

[beltransadie]

I ended up finishing another one (but it's pretty short). Admittedly it's just a side project I thought of during Christmas break, and I only ended up including what I initially planned. (Which is only up to the first verse).

Admittedly, this isn't the one I started right after I Won't Say I'm In Love, but more so something on the side that snowballed into a finished state (because I needed a break from the angst).

It's not the whole song, so there's not much art to add as preface. Here are the only fully colored frames in it.

And a sleepy Wanning.

Considering the references, the animatic covers up til chapter 80ish but it's not really spoilery anyway. I talk gush about stuff below. (I talk about what I referenced in here so if you don't wants spoilers for the animatic you should go check it out >.>)

"Can't count the years on one hand that we've been together."

That's literally it. That's what started the idea. That alongside the song's snappy beat made me think of 1.0 and how the way he just "hates" Wanning whilst looking out and seeking his attention.

So, to put it in a way, the animatic is more like: I hate you, but I'm still into you. (Even considering his past with the person)

Also this storyboard is just funny, him being confused while counting out how long they've been together. (I guess that's a spoiler in a way, gahah).

In the actual finished piece, the title is included in the background as if it's a part of the set piece which I find absolutely silly and decided to go for it. Just watching that sequence taken seriously is... gets me every time lmaoo.

----

The transitions

I want to talk about the transitions for a bit, it was in the storyboards alongside (what I'd like to call) the funny turn around coz it's literally a spinning shot of ranwan I considered to be kind of daunting coz those shots are hard.

(Look I know height diff in the storyboard, but I googled a bit and I found out that 1.0 and CWN are almost the same height)

Also those full body pics ended up being used a lot in that sequence, pretty neat though considering back views are hard.

The animation in the middle ended up being a video I greenscreened because my video editor started lagging with the frames. (it ended up being for the better because I added another track later on.

My cousin made me a pretty collage using the two full bodies and the other frames from I Won't Say I'm In Love and I ended up using it as my wallpaper xD.

And it's also said cousin who improved the 4 shots before the zoom in by making the sequence more funny and exaggerated. Arguably that zoom in shot with the background opening up into another shot...

My favorite really. The background are two black halves of the screen and the full bodies are both on separate layers and they're all animated to zoom out to give the impression of the camera zooming in.

From the storyboards, I initially planned it to be a bamboo grove in Red Lotus Pavillion transitioning into Mo Ran tying up Xia Sini's hair with the bamboo as foreground, but decided against it as 1.0 was not aware of Xia Sini's identity.

Instead, I opted for another favorite scene in chapter 75 with CWN saving Mo Ran in Peach Blossom Springs which also has this passage I really like.

(smithereens) He really got shooketh there.

The next scene stayed the same as planned and is the moment in chapter 32 where Mo Ran is grumpily feeding Wanning medicine, which then transitions into the funny turn around scene.

The frames transitioning from their first meeting to the New Year together was something that ended up developing later on. (I love the New Year frames, I love how Mo Ran's eyes light up as he looks at Wanning, I love how the fireworks are falling in the background and how the golden light is reflected off of Wanning's eyes—)

The spin sequence wasn't as hard as I expected. But that's probably because I've done it too much I kinda know what to do?

---

Last Additional Stuff

I think most of what I wanted to talk about is just the transitions and the spin around. The title at the start too as well as Mo Ran acting like a little shit. Also pointing out how I keep forgetting how his hair clip is supposed to be on his left lmao.

It's not definite yet, but I'm kind of considering expanding it somewhere in the far future. Closing this off with a Mo Ran cut out.

[bvannn]

Weekly update March 22, 2024

I’m still exhausted beyond words. I’m also on a bit of a spiral where I’m worried about the quality of my art and about my output, but it’s okay because I’m chipping away at old big projects still and as soon as classwork is subsided I’m going to try to learn a new skill, because any time I feel insufficient I learn a new skill so I can be better. Classes have been kicking my ass mostly but hopefully big things will be coming sooner rather than later.

I’ve been doing a number of drawings to time myself and update my comms. Turns out I’m a lot less consistent than I thought so it’ll be a bit longer till I get prices sorted out but it’s coming along. Also good chance I’ll add more on to it later once I sort out more things I can offer. My usual drawing style will be the main one, but I’m hoping I can also add the epithet erased style, the chibi dnd mini style I do sometimes, options for backgrounds, and eventually also music.

Problem with music though has been my exhaustion. The only music stuff I’ve really been drilling at has been bigger projects, but I’d like to just sit down and do a small beat as well at some point. Once I catch up with classwork I might try. I have been chipping away at a couple instrumental pieces, as well as the larger vocal cover and I did some lyric writing today for the two ‘finished mostly’ ones I’ve been sitting on. I did have to scrap and redo a character theme for the second time this week but once I have some time with a clear mind I can reroute that one and use the melody I wrote for the last draft. In development right now are an ambient character theme, a 16bit-ish instrumental theme, a Zelda medley, a song cover with Kyo, a small gabber song with no affiliation to anything, the two original vocal songs, one symphonic rock and one EDM, and a handful of others that I haven’t been actively working on. As soon as I have significant time I’m going to try to finish off some of them.

Once the music is finished I’ll have to throw visuals together for them too. I really want to put in effort to make animation rigs again but I don’t have the time or energy. I might do one for the vocal cover song since I could be reusing the character but I’m not sure it’ll be necessary. Once the cover is done I’ll storyboard something and decide then.

Comic is also still going, I haven’t had a ton of time to do thumbnailing/writing, but I should be down to the last scene. No guarantee I won’t have to add more after editing, but it’s getting there. Once that’s done I’ll try to post roughs of specific panels so it’s a bit easier to keep track of where it’s at. The thumbnailing is a big bottleneck right now because it takes a lot of brain power but it’s almost done. If I get myself together this next week it should be done by the next update. No promises though, I have a lot of classwork.

Last couple things, a good amount of my exhaustion is the result of insomnia, but I’ve been using that time to plan out TTRPG campaign stuff. I think I have some really fun creative encounters. I think I probably will try to write it out and find a way to release it, just in the interest of getting more people to play the anime campaign system (or whatever they end up renaming it to when the epithet erased version of the rules drops… eventually). I might throw together art for that too, but that’ll be a ways off, after the writing and encounters are done. Plus ideally I’d want the module to be available for free, so I don’t need to add too much anyway.

Last thing, as I mentioned I’m a bit unsatisfied with where I am with art stuff. I want to thank everyone who has been sticking around, I am trying to make it worthwhile for you too. But whenever I am unsatisfied with myself I need to learn a new skill, so I may be dipping my toes into pixel art soon. I do have that 16bit ish instrumental song I mentioned, that’s been on the back burner since January but I’ve finally been hit with the inspiration to finish it, and a little pixel animation would be nice to go with it, but that would require me to learn pixel art itself first, so I’ll try to do that in the coming weeks. Idk how soon though.

This next week will be primarily dedicated to clearing up schoolwork and fixing my sleep problem. After that I’ll try finishing up that cover song, finishing up comic thumbnailing, and finishing up that instrumental song, in that order. Anything else is a bonus. Will class work and insomnia get in the way? Probably, but I’m still doing my best.

[daisydood]

I'll ask!! [[Also Thrùd is super cool idk why people dont talk about her more!!]]

HCs for being best friends with Thrùd?? All she's really had to hang out with is her nasty brothers oh GODS.

Ramblings about God of War: Thrùd addition!

A/N: HEY ANON!! you're the first person in my asks ever, so ty!!! Sorry this isn't really what you wanted, but I'll to add some hcs if I come up with anything ❤️❤️

I'm pretty bad at writing HCs/fics and stuff, but I'll definitely do a character analysis and rant abt her!!

(Coming from Someone with a bias cuz my favorite character is Thrúd💀)

In my humble opinon, Thrud got done SO dirty in Ragnorak. She lost both of her siblings, then her father, then lost someone who she thought was good; Odin, THEN she lost the entire realm she's lived in her entire life (Asgard). Which like, fair enough, all of those deaths made sense because it was Ragnorak, and, it would mean that we get some character develpment from her, with all the grief...right? RIGHT-

Nope. Not even a little. After her two brothers died (AS ANON SAID, THE ONLY PEOPLE SHE COULD TALK TO HER AGE IM SCREAMING) all we got was an introduction scene to her character briefly mentioning Modi, then she said we are better off without him. Which, fair enough, if that's what she thinks.

BUT. All we got for Thrúd after her dad dies was a secret scene of her inheriting Thors sword. Which, IS SO COOL, but it wasn't even an obvious part of the game😭 She lost her dad, her dads dad, her entire home, and we got almost nothing from her about it. Same goes with Sif. She was literally just there. Her and Thor had this entire romantic dialogue about like "this isn't you 🥺" then he dies and and Sif- I think Sif had like 2 lines after that? Nothing even mentioning it, too.

Freya's loss of Freyr was treated much better then this. It wasn't really talked about, except for the final dialogue post Ragnorak, when you go up the mountain looking for Kratos. She said stuff like ohhh I'm gonna move on it's fine blah blah blah. That is so much better than anything that happened with Thrúd and Sifs loss.

How did I start ranting about Sif. What.

ANYWAYS (completely different topic on how she wants to be validated 💕)

I think that Thrúd just wants to be validated. She tries so hard to be a Valkyrie, and it's like people don't care. Her dad doesn't care, and her mom thinks it's too dangerous. Odin just sucks, and he probably doesn't care, same with Heimdall.

I think her and Atreus freeing Garm really broke her down. As soon as she realized what she and him had done, she panics. She gets really upset/angry and immediately tries to get out of Jotunheim. THEN HEIMDALL HARRASSED HER. She was completely in her head before Heimdall came and bullied the two, so the things he said obviously made her mad, man. She tried punching him. Knowing Heimdall, it failed pretty bad. She had to feel so belittled and stupid, everything she's work for being thrown away because of the one bad decision that was made.

anywayssssszs

Thrúd is so cool. She is sooo underrated man. She has so much potential for when/if another Ragnorak game comes out. Shes THE ONLY THORDSITTER CHILD LEFTT

note: hahfhfbdhdh once again anon I'm literally so sorry this isn't what you wanted😭 and oh my god my last post got twenty notes what☝🏻😧 okay okay okay what else do I need to say

OH YEAH sorry this take so long for me to post writing these takes foreverrrrrrrvrrvrv

OH YEAH hit up my asks if u want sum written & I'll probably talk about Freya next😱