#binge watched it over quarantine

[victoriademedici]

would you be mad that I just confused twilight with TVD? Hehehehehe oopsie

[billkaulitzwife]

The Outsiders Nowadays (in 2024).

Ponyboy (born 2010)

on playstation 24/7

“FIVE MORE MINUTES, DARREL.”

his username is smth stupid like ‘smokersleftlung’ or ‘mylittlep0ny’

“wya?” when ur at his door

vapes.

SORRY.

noah kahan lover

jeans, steel toe boots, camo shirt, neon orange jacket.

would try to get his friends to read

but gets called a dork :)

“Something in the Orange” on full blast while thinking of Cherry

posts horrendous .5s of himself on snap

typa guy to hold a fish on his instagram

favourite show is probably yellowstone

Johnny (born 2008)

loves open boxing the gang !

sad he has an xbox and not ps like the boys

HATES fortnite.

unironically says skibidi gyat

“hey dal, look at that furry over there.”

its just some kid.

foster care.

dallas would add him on snap and getting annoyed when he said “wyll”

has a stupid bow by his name

“johnny🎀”

like bro you are not coquette.

cries to wlw poetry.

snap user: “ooh_achurch” insta: “cadecade55”

used :3 once and never did it again.

watched friends and says “hes so me” whenever he sees ross.

Dallas (born 2007)

“wyll”

typa guy to yell GYATTT in public

barks at emos and furries

vapes in the school bathroom

racist.

would call you a slur for looking at him for more than a second.

mullet + perm combo

jumped a 7 year old and got on the news

male manipulator core

owns a husky named after himself

knife enthusiast.

screams at his dad for ten more minutes on the playstation

“do u send?”

no i do not thank you very much.

suicide boys. lil peep.

thinks he’s dean from supernatural

same username everywhere: “imnottexan”

fav show: big mouth

Adelaide (born 2010)

regina george but on a mental level

gatekeeper.

arsonist !

had a friend group with “bug” “kai” “arson” and “alex” in 2021 and nearly khs.

almost thought she was bi.

fought a girl in the locker room at school

takis, cookie monster pajama pants, latina makeup

SABRINA AND CHAPPELL LOVER, used to be a swiftie

sturniolo triplet fan (owns all of space camp)

buys clothes from shein

usernames: “addiethebaddie” “adelaidecurtis”

fav show wld be shameless

BEDROTTING.

grew up on spongebob and bubble guppies

writes poetry in her notes app

Darry (born 2004)

“live laugh love” sign somewhere in the house

“Doesn’t know how to text normally .”

(jkjk)

“PHONE ON THE TABLE WHEN YOU GET HOME.”

has a pinterest board full of pumpkins and dogs

invested in the kardashians

the therapist friend

facetimes the gang when he’s on lunch break

doesnt understand what skibidi is

ONLINE COLLEGE!!!

blasts dad rock when he drops off the twins at school

duct taped two-bit to the top of his car during freshman kill week

did the same to steve

class of ‘22

lowk eats up lana del rey

hates twitter and instagram

username: “darrel_curtis”

believes in angel numbers (me too king)

has a picture of him holding a fish on his instagram to ‘attract the females’

Sodapop (born 2008)

boycott

belittle

boyboss

owned wizz for less than a day

trolled little kids on roblox with steve

saw too many… things on omegle.

scrolls on tiktok for hours.

usernames: “thispxssytasteslikepepsi” “sodap0p08”

binges twilight in hiding

also barks at emos and furries

laughs at any kinda fart joke

showed pony a picture of a horse and said “found u online”

they fought.

threatened to break the tv when he couldn’t play slime rancher for three hours

turns his life360 off when he goes out with sandy or to a car show

Two-Bit (born 2006)

broke four controllers when he played seige

trolls on fortnite

finally fucking finished high school (class of ‘24)

ice cream scoop hair

binges bojack horseman

bo burnham’s biggest fan

made a huge deal when the queen died

refused to wear a mask during quarantine because ‘ITS FOR SISSIES’

preaches the second amendment “MERICAAA”

username: “twobit”

sends random memes in the gc when the others are fighting

hates xbox users

complains about adelaide using shein

“tummy hurty” posts on his insta story

would slap the shit out of you if you said seige was just a game

Steve (born 2007)

trolls on dti

eats goldfish like his life depends on it

username: “handletherandle”

also preaches the second amendment

and the first

and the fifth

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICA—

went on a school trip to dc and hated everything he had to eat

doordashes when he has enough

hypocrite

wld call you a slur for a GOOD reason

avid minecraft player

and overwatch.

mountain dew addict

reposts politics and cars on twitter

hates minion memes

“wyll”

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!

[precioustarkey]

journalism at its finest

summary: you have made a career for yourself by interviewing celebrities, but are feeling a little uncomfortable when one hits close to home.

warnings: none

i nervously climbed into my car. the engine only makes my nerves rattle more. growing up, i was infatuated with actors and musicians. i found myself watching movies for the actors instead of the plot. listening to songs for the singers instead of the message. i can't explain my relationship with the media. i guess being online a lot as a teenager is to blame.

regardless, i knew from an early age that i wanted to work in the industry. not as an entertainer, but in the background. i wanted to observe the lifestyle up close. going to college for journalism was the best decision i have made for myself because now i get to live out my fantasy. 

i get paid to interview these people. and though i find a lot of them uptight and spoiled, the nosy side of me loves picking them apart. because of my job, i try my best to stay neutral on these celebrities so that they don't feel uncomfortable. apart from the research i do in order to come up with my questions, of course.

today is different. there is a show called "outer banks" that came around during quarantine, so with my free time, i binge-watched the entire first season. as i mentioned, normally i watch tv shows and movies for the actors, but i hadn't seen anyone in this show. 

however, when i delved deeper into google, i found the name of one of the actors to be familiar. drew starkey. i quickly found out that he grew up in north carolina, as did i. confused, i pulled myself from my cocoon on my couch to find my old high school yearbooks. grabbing one at random, i see him grinning in his senior photo. how could i forget? 

ever since i discovered this, i avoided the show like the plague. even though i had been surrounded by celebrities for years now, i had never known one of them personally. it almost ruined the glamorous aura surrounding them. imagining him as a regular teenage boy in the classes we shared was humbling. he wasn't mean in high school, not at all. if anything, i remember finding it odd that he hung around the theater kids because he was a total jock.

because of quarantine, i knew that press would be difficult for the actors, and because of this, i never anticipated having to interview them. which helped ease my nerves. moving to los angeles meant that i would interview every celebrity on the new up-and-coming shows. part of me hoped the hype surrounding the show would die down before the lockdown did.

the entire ride to the studio, i told myself over and over again that there was no way he would remember me. he was a jock, and i barely spoke. it wasn't the fact that i was shy, high school just wasn't for me. i counted down the days to graduation. i was only there because i had to be. i put more focus on my studies than my social life. 

in the back of my mind, i can't help but fear that seeing him will bring back memories of being the closed-off kid i was back then. as long as no one mentions it, everything will be okay. i repeated that to myself a few times before parking my car in the lot. removing my seatbelt as slowly as possible to buy time.

my hands are shaking as i walk to my studio. i send passing smiles to my coworkers as i make my way to the bathroom. i confirm that my hair, face, and outfit look presentable, and read over my questions one last time. 

the cameraman walks up to me as i take my seat to wait for the cast to arrive. "i just got a call; austin and drew are going to be the only ones you're interviewing today. madelyn, rudy, and  madison will be interviewed tomorrow," he says, looking for any sort of confirmation. "that sounds perfect," i say, smiling, still looking at my cards. 

i hear footsteps coming from the hallway and quickly stand up. austin and drew emerged into the room with their crew. "hello! so nice to meet you, my name is y/n," i say with a grin as i hold out my hand to them. they do the same, introducing themselves as they take turns shaking my hand. 

all three seats are now filled, so we can begin the questions. the first fifteen minutes go perfectly; we're laughing, they're thoroughly interested in the questions, and they're giving great answers. turning my attention to drew, i ask, "has this sudden change in lifestyle been difficult for you at all? to go from putting your all into basketball, to then deciding on theater in college?" 

he looks taken aback by my question. that nervous feeling in my stomach is slowly creeping back. i made sure that his sports background was easy to find online, so i was confident he wouldn't be too surprised. "wait a second. y/n? y/n y/l/n?" i can feel my cheeks flush at his realization. 

"can i be honest? i was hoping you wouldn't notice," i said, covering my face with my note cards. we are now sharing smiles. "oh my god. i sat behind you in algebra, you're the only reason i passed that class," he says in between laughs. seeing him in person has brought all of those little memories flooding back. 

after a minute or so of catching up, their team urges us on. "we've got other interviews, guys," the man says impatiently. we carry on for an additional fifteen minutes or so before i have run out of questions to ask. we said our farewells, and i thanked them for coming.

just as they were leaving, drew turned around, brushing past the guys they had walked in with. "y/n can i get your number? i would love to catch up properly whenever we both have time," he says, pulling out his phone. "yes, of course!" i smile, quickly typing in the numbers before they are once again rushed away. 

it felt like no time before my phone started dinging.

part two is here!

[gilverrwrites]

i’ve sent this request to river-rat69, but wanted to see how you would potentially interpret it >_>

exploring interests with jack and finding a common one? like art? perhaps?

just a cute idea idk

Finding common interests with Jack

Author note: That is super cute! I'm note sure if this is what you had in mind, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

I will also note, I know a common opinion is that Jack is like a child in an adult body, but I always read him more as like an adult with minimal world or social skills.

Can be read as romantic or platonic.

Rating: General

Genre: Pure fluff

Please be kind to your mind ❤︎

I feel like if Jack wants to make a connection with someone, he will try anything at least once.

He's a 20-year-old who has never had to make friends before. Cas and the Winchesters are family, thats different. Friends he has to make an effort for. (At least in his head.)

If he thinks you really enjoy something that he doesn't, he won’t want to hurt your feelings. He wants you to like him.

So even if he doesn’t enjoy something that much, he’ll try to pretend.

It’s up to you to figure that out and stop him from torturing himself.

He’s too nice, loyal to a fault.

Although, the many sceptical questions and the suspicious looks are a dead giveaway.

“Is it supposed to smell this strong?” Yep “And I can’t eat it?” No, Jack, it’s soap! “And we’re wearing gloves because? It’s dangerous, yep, got it.” “Is this what a headache feels like? NO! It’s fun! If you like it, I like it.” “It takes HOW LONG to cure?”

Probably stay away from things like candle and soap making.

He likes stability, so I think having a set day each week, or a couple of hours each night to do stuff together, would be ideal for him.

He’d love bonding over shared interests in films and TV.

He doesn’t have to eat, but I think he would enjoy trying new foods.

So: having a weekly film night would be awesome. Where you can both veg out on the couch together, eat whatever new or different foods you find at the supermarket, and watch horror (primarily zombie) and/or sci-fi films together. 

Or spend the weekend binge-watching The Walking Dead or The Cornetto Trilogy (+ Paul, non negotiable).

Video games too: Left 4 Dead, Fallout etc

Then fall asleep where you're lounging, talking about your faves and your fan theories. 

I don’t know that he would be into making art, per se, but I think he would like crafts.

I feel like Jack would really like those diamond painting thingies. Or just like, bedazzling things in general.

Like, I can see him contracting some weird cosmic-being version of the flu, being quarantined with an Angel!Reader and it being like that one episode of Malcolm in the Middle. 

Also legos. Just things that take a lot of attention to detail, something that can take his mind off of the constant pressure he is under, that you can really focus on, but that has a cool pay off at the end.

Animation as well, both watching (more 2D stuff like Batman, Invincible, Nimona)

And doing– probably more like stop motion, with again, legos, or claymodels. 

(I’m totally not projecting because I am an animation nerd)

He would, however, enjoy art galleries and museums.

Being able to admire and learn about things created by humans throughout history would be so astounding.

Would like to have you with him so you can observe, learn, and discuss together.

If you’re interested but unable to go with him, he’ll memorise everything so he can relay it all to you later, or pick up a bunch of leaflets for you to read. Or he’ll make a note of all his favourite parts so he can take you there another time.

He would have a similar sentiment if you are an artistic person. 

He doesn’t want to draw or paint stuff with you, but he would like watching you and your creative process (if you don’t mind being watched)

Like absolutely fascinated by your ability to create something from nothing. Something that evokes emotion or tells a story – wow!!

Your number one supporter. Gift him your art, and he’ll put it on his bedroom wall.

Those galleries I mentioned earlier, he’s buying you both tickets to go see your inspirations shows or displays.

Wants to look through all your old works, he doesn’t care if that horse you drew when you were 12 is the wrong shape and has wonky eyes, he thinks its so cool that you tried, and practiced, and learned. That’s human ingenuity.

You’re so cool.

[3months2mordor]

On Hobbits and Existential Dread

or Why “The Scouring of the Shire” is the True Climax of The Lord of the Rings

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Or more accurately, there lived a human who had been in hard COVID quarantine for six months and certainly felt like a hobbit, what with all the staying inside and eating second breakfast and trying her best to ignore the world, which seemed in the summer of 2020 to be spiraling towards something unknown. And she, well I, was packing for college. On an impulse that I cannot explain except to say that I had previously binge watched all the movies in my seemingly infinite quaran-time, I packed a large red volume of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings with the intention to read it over the course of the semester.

What began as a simple personal challenge to read a chapter a night instead of doom scrolling on Twitter became a profound experience not only in terms of discovering that my parents were right in saying the book was actually really good, but also in realizing that the Hobbits, in their edenic Shire perched on the edge of a world about to enter catastrophe, were more like me, more like a lot of us, than Aragorn or the Elves or Dwarves or Men who people Middle Earth. And here is why the chapter at the very end of the last book where the Shire is nearly destroyed is so very, very important.

Tolkien takes careful time in his books to establish the attitudes and habits of his hobbits who live in pastoral harmony in near complete isolation from the rest of the world. They are content with what they have and don’t have the greed that drives Dwarves to dig, or the ambition that drives Men to war, or even the worship of nature that drives Elves deep into their forests to protect them. They build their hobbit holes, smoke what is definitely pot, and eat and drink heartily. They care little for news of the outside world and tend their fields instead. That’s it.

But the world does not cease to exist just because they want it to. It never does.

As Gandalf warns in Rivendale, “We are sitting in a fortress. Outside it is growing dark.” (Part 1 Book 2 Chapter 1).

Regardless of how much the hobbits might ignore the coming of the Dark Lord Sauron and the existential threat that is his attempt to control the world, it will not go away. They will not be safe from the darkness just because they want to be and they have a supply of candles in the cupboard. And so, at the start of the story, evil comes to the Shire in the form of the Black Riders and Frodo, our hero, must leave to keep the Shire safe from the forces of darkness. Still Frodo is just a hobbit, albeit a brave one. So he laments to Gandalf, “I wish it need not have happened in my time” and Gandalf replies “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” (Part 1 Book 1 Chapter 2).

I feel this quote more deeply every year. A deep childish wish for things to exist as we expected them to be, but a solemn and more mature knowledge that Gandalf is right. That our time has already been given to us. All that we have left is what we do to make that time matter.

But back to Frodo, who takes a good seventeen years to heed this advice, but eventually sets off on an adventure to save the Shire which, spoiler alert, ultimately saves the world. Along the way people despair and seem to lose hope. Theoden, recovering from a spell that robbed him of agency and clearsightedness, cries “Alas! That these evil days should be mine, and should come in my old age instead of that peace which I have earned” (Part 2 Book 3 Chapter 6). Even Sam, in his darkest hour thinking he has lost Frodo for good, groans “I wish I wasn’t the last. I wish old Gandalf was here, or somebody. What am I left all alone to make up my mind? I’m sure to go wrong” (Part 2 Book 4 Chapter 10).

Yet despite it all the One Ring is destroyed and the King returns and good wins. Everything is set right and our heroes get a chance to rebuild the world rather than watch it crumble. They get to go home.

Now this is a fine story and one I desperately needed amongst all of the *everything* going on in 2020. However it is not the ending that stuck with me. For you see once Frodo and his companions return home, the Shire is not the same place they left it.

The Shire, in their year long absence, has descended into a despotic police state run by a wealthy, privileged hobbit who stays in his hole rather than try to help his people as Men, who tower over the hobbits, and are specifically and on multiple occasions called bullies, abuse their power. They use their strength to take food and (let’s face it) weed from the hobbits, desecrate their land with deforestation and pollution, and create a state of fear and paranoia that anyone could be taken at any moment to prison without trial after only a mere whiff of seditious behavior. The world has come to the hobbits and they are so paralyzed with fear that they are unable to do anything other than sit in their hobbit holes and keep their heads down, hoping that they and their families will make it through.

Now, Frodo and his companions, having seen the change that can be wrought from people who stand up to bullies and fight to make a difference, see the state of their home and immediately understand the despair their friends and neighbors have fallen into because they too have felt it. These are the hobbits who faced thousands of orcs and rode in battle and walked to Mount Doom with only each other to lean on and they know how deeply despair of impossible odds can affect someone. But they have also learned that that despair is not inevitable. They saw the Ents on their last march when Treebeard said it was “likely enough that we are going to our doom… But if we stayed at home and did nothing the doom would find us anyway, sooner or later. That thought has been long growing in our hearts; and that is why we are marching now” (Part 2 Book 3 Chapter 4). They saw the Rohirrim ride to battle against impossible odds because it was the right thing to do. They saw even the most pitiful Gollum play his part in saving the world. And they saw the Eagles fly in to help carry the day.

There’s always hope if there’s something worth fighting for.

And so, back in the Shire which was not the Shire they knew but still the one they love, the four heroic hobbits do what had once seemed impossible: they get the hobbits, in their apathy and terror and existential despair, to stand up and fight. And it’s hard, and people die, and it gets worse before it gets better, but in the end the bullies are run off and the hobbits are victorious and they begin to rebuild, not just their homes but their forests and their relationships with each other too.

The hobbits, and me really, wanted to curl up in their holes and hope the world would go away. And sometimes, God, that seems like it’s the only thing you can do when darkness is spreading far on the horizon and it keeps creeping closer but isn’t here yet. But Sauron is not the scariest thing in this book. Tolkien’s real villain was the fear and despair that can paralyze you to stay in your hole until the Shire is burning around you. Yet even the most comfortable and secure hobbits have to stand up and face the world because if we don't, no one else will.

There is a reason Frodo is able to see the mission to the end. And it’s not that he’s exceptional in the way other heroes are. No. In fact it is because he is unexceptional and unambitious and also uncompromising that the deed is able to be done. He, like the hobbits he helps at the end of the series, has to get up and work to fight the evil that hurts people every day. And Frodo doesn’t save the hobbits of the Shire; they save themselves. Then they rebuild. They grow things again, not better, not the same, but they have to go on living. And, I don’t know, I needed to realize that.

We aren’t Aragorn with a throne and a legendary sword and a destiny to be king, we aren’t the Elves with their centuries of knowledge and skills, we aren’t the Dwarves with their mountain holds to hide in. Heck, we’re not even Frodo, or at least I’m not. There’s no way I could handle a walk that long. We’re the hobbits. We see the existential wave of dread and terror that is coming and our instinct to hide from it, to hold it off as long as we can and then silently accept it when it comes. Because what can one little halfling do against a thing like that?

But even the hobbits of the Shire stand up eventually. Even hobbits can take that dread for a bleak future and turn around and create new life. There’s a reason why the symbol of the Shire returning to peace and throwing off the yolk of oppression is a tree. The bullies cut down Bilbo’s old one and it can’t come back. But Sam plants a new one anyway and hopes it will grow.

I’m reading the Lord of the Rings again before this election as I did last time. But this time I’m not alone. I’m reading it with friends. I marked passages like the ones above that made me think but also ones that made me laugh because there is joy in amongst the shadows and if we cannot find those moments it’s hard to keep looking for the light. In rewatching The Two Towers film the other day I was struck, as I usually am, by Sam’s speech at the end of the movie, based on one he gives in “The Stairs of Cirith Ungol.” I think it bears quoting in full.

Sam: It’s all wrong By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam : That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

Hobbits are remarkable people, Tolkien says, and I hope we are too. I hope we can get through this by raising up our own Shires full of hobbit warriors to face the world and not lie down and give up. Because if everyone did that there would still be a One Ring and Sauron would rule forever.

But we have to save the Shire. It’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. We have to believe that. I have to. I will do my part to make sure it does, but first I have to believe it’s possible. We have to take that existential terror and turn it into righteous fury because we have seen what a shadow can do and we cannot let it spread again. We have been there. But we will not go back again.

[stardustjmk]

sorry stardustjmk but i AM a jake girl so I will just continue to request jake LMFAO buttttt I would like to request maybe jake and reader watching a movie and it makes the reader cry and like they are not emotional for any reason in particular other than the thing that happened in the movie was sad but jake comfort and teasing about it pls pls pls❤️❤️

Note: LMAO no need for apologies - I used to be a Jake girl, and now happily sit in twin lane, so i’m all for the Jake requests. 🫶🏻 Also, this idea is so cute i’m obssesed. Also, this is more of a blurb than a one-shot, but I still hope you enjoy! <3

Pairing: Jake Kiszka x GN!reader | Genre: fluff | Word count: 1k

Movie nights became a regular thing in your home wirh Jake during quarantine. You could only do so many off-screen activities given the circumstances, so by the end of the day, the thought of cuddling up and binge watching a few movies always sounded perfect to both of you.

Now, the movie nights are fewer and further between, but still a common occurrence. Common enough for you to still have candy left over from one of your last movie nights, you find as you rummage through the cabinets in your kitchen. An excited smile plays on your lips as you gather the assortment of candy, then bring it out to the living room. You take another trip back to the kitchen to grab the bowl of popcorn you’d made, along with drinks for you and Jake.

Just as you plop onto the couch, Jake joins you in the living room. You watch as he walks to the couch, taking the short period of time to take in just how cozy he looks. He wears a soft grey t-shirt, with plaid pajama pants, and you can tell

that he brushed his hair, then ran his fingers through it at least twice since he did it, giving the locks a tousled look. It reminds you of when you first started dating, which in turn makes your heart swell.

He plops down next to you, and instinctively, you snuggle into his side, and his arm lays across your shoulders. You two never stay in the same position for that long, but your cuddle sessions usually start like this. “Did you pick a movie?” Jake asks, the gentle rasp in his voice like music to your ears.

About the movie…you knew from the trailer alone that it would likely make you cry, or at least make it hard not to cry. Do you still want to watch it regardless? Absolutely.

So, you nod and grab the remote, having already pulled it up. Jake isn’t concerned about the movies contents, trusting your taste. Not to mention, you could probably get him to watch the strawberry shortcake movies if you really wanted to, just because “I love you, and I just like spending time with you. So, i’ll watch whatever you want to watch, baby.”

At some point you and Jake find yourselves laying on the couch together. He’s laying flat on his back, with you nuzzled in between his body and the back of the couch. Your leg is thrown over his torso, and your hand rests on his chest. Your other arm rests beneath his neck, and you find yourself mindlessly playing with the ends of his hair as you watch the movie.

You knew there was going to be at least one gut wrenching scene, but here you are, on the second one, and the twist is something you couldn’t have predicted. You try to suppress your tears, but a shaky breath is all Jake needs to know you’re getting emotional, and he then has to suppress a smile. Which, if anyone were to be seeing this out of context, the image of your boyfriend grinning while the scene on the television plays out, would be questionable.

Tears fall from your eyes, landing on his shirt and leaving temporary stains. You can’t help it at this point, the tears flowing freely. You sniffle as you try to blink away some of your tears in order to see the screen, but you almost regret it as the image displayed makes your heart twist even more. Jake remains silent and still, aside from a hand on your back that rubs soothing circles into it. He’s quiet, and you’re almost shocked to think that you’ve escaped any teasing from him, but as soon as the credits roll, he lets out an amused chuckle. You carefully push yourself up, and he lets his legs fall off the couch to give you more room.

You’re certain that your eyes are red, your lashes wet with the tears you’d been crying consistently for at least twenty minutes now. Jake sits up, and you refuse to acknowledge the shit-eating grin that spreads across his pretty pink lips. “Honey, it’s just a movie,” he coos as he reaches out to caress your cheek, swiping away some of your tears. You’re torn between leaning into his touch or being dramatic for the fun of it, but you can’t resist him. So, you settle for somewhere in the middle. “You would say that,” you huff, nuzzling your cheek against his warm palm.

He scoots forward and wraps his arms around you, and you sob. It’s meant to be a funny, dramatic sob, but more tears roll out of your eyes. “I guess you didn’t learn your lesson from the last sad movie we watched, huh?” Jake hums, kissing your head. His tone is the perfect mix of teasing and sweet, making you melt and scowl all at once. “I’ve learned my lesson this time,” you sniffle, lifting your head.

Jake cups your cheeks and plants a kiss on the tip of your nose. “You say that now, but i’m sure you’re gonna find another movie like this, that we have to watch, and we’re gonna be right here again.” He explains, and you know he’s not wrong. “Whatever,” you grumble, but you aren’t mad. His hands are still on your cheeks, and he wiped away your tears again.

Sure enough, a few weeks later, you’re raving about this new movie, and when Jake looks it up one day, he can only smile to himself thinking about you being torn up over it. And no, you won’t escape his teasing that time either.

[fandombandomfics]

Chapter 9 (Bad Decisions)

Here is chapter 9!

Addy’s POV

Lucas and I are on a walk around the neighborhood so we can have some privacy without the guys listening to us. Lucas is a nice guy and really funny. We have a lot in common and share similar interests. He finds it cool how I work on sound for my brothers band and tour around the world with them. 

“Babe what’s the deal with you and Noah?” He asks and I sigh. 

“We have a history together. Ever since he’s been friends with my brother I’ve always tagged along. He sees me as his little sister,” I say. My chest gets hit with a small wave of pain, hating that he only sees me as Nichy’s little sister. 

“You both seem pretty close…have you guys dated in the past?” He asks and I laugh in response. 

“God no and even if we did, Nichy would have something to say about it. Surprised he hasn’t scared you off yet,” I say with a giggle. He chuckles and pulls me closer to him, giving me a kiss on the lips. 

“Well he won’t. Be honest with me, have you and Noah hooked up before?” He asks and my smile falls. I still think of him when he isn’t around. Noah is on my mind even when I’m with Lucas at times. 

“Yeah we have….during quarantine we did,” I say, the memories flashing before my eyes for a quick second. Lucas puts his hand on my cheek and rubs the pad of his thumb against it. 

“And now?” He asks 

“No we haven’t stopped a month before we started dating,” I say and he smiles. 

“Good, because you’re all mine now,” He says with a smirk. I feel my cheeks heat up and giggle. Just wish Noah would say that to me. He chuckles and kisses me passionately. I let out a soft moan before I hear my phone go off. 

Noah: we have a session at the studio tomorrow, early 

Me: alright, will set my alarm 

Noah: just the two of us, we have to work on a remix 

Me: alright 

I put my phone away and Lucas takes my hand to continue our walk. We walk for about two miles by the time we get back to the house. We walk into the house and see Noah, Jolly, and Nichy on the couch watching something. 

“What you guys watching?” Lucas asks 

“Supernatural,” Nichy says 

“Without me?” I ask while pouting. They all chuckle and Jolly pats the seat next to him for me. 

“We’re about to find out what Michael is up to,” Noah says. I sit next to Jolly as Lucas goes to the kitchen to grab a snack. 

“Michael!Dean hits different,” I say 

“It’s because Jensen is in a suit,” Jolly says 

“Yeah duh its eye candy Joakim,” I say 

“So if I wore a suit you would drool?” Noah asks with a smirk. I feel my cheeks heat up slightly and I giggle out of nervousness. 

“Bro you wish, My sister would never drool over you,” Nichy says and Noah smirks at him and leans back. 

“Only one way to find out,” Noah jokes but I know he’s half serious. 

“You better not Davis or I swear I will–”

“Kill you I know,” Noah says with a chuckle. Lucas comes back from the kitchen and sits on the seat next to me on the couch. As we watch the episode, Lucas and I cuddle on the couch. He kisses my cheek and I smile at him. I hear a grumble coming from the other side of the couch but I ignore it. 

“I hate Michael,” I say 

“Same,” Noah says 

“Michael is always an interesting character. I mean he is an archangel,” Lucas says 

“Yeah but he has a stick up his ass,” Noah says 

“Well yeah because he’s Michael, always following God’s orders,” I say 

“Anyways let’s focus on the episode you two,” Nichy says. As we binge some of the episodes, I grow tired and call it a night. 

“I’m gonna go get some sleep,” I say and get up from the couch. Lucas left a little while ago so I head upstairs. As I round the corner I run into Noah and stumble a little. 

“Sorry,” I say and walk around him. He grabs my arm and pushes me up against the wall. My breath hitches in my throat. He smirks down at me and puts his hand on my neck. 

“You know you really outta know that I hate that Lucas guy,” He says and I scoff. 

“Says the one who said we need to stay friends,” I says through gritted teeth. He laughs and kisses my neck. I bite my lip and close my eyes but quickly snap out of it and shove him off of me. 

“Fuck you Noah I’m with Lucas,” I say and he laughs. 

“Well you do like fucking me Addy,” He says and I feel my cheeks heat up. 

“Thats besides the point Noah. Stop making things difficult,” I say and walk over to my room and slams the door. 

“See you in the morning Adeline!” Noah says and I roll my eyes. 

Of course we still have that studio session tomorrow.

[cf56]

I kind of hate binge culture. In 7 days, all 10 episodes of season 3 of the Animaniacs reboot will be released all at once. Some people will watch them all on the first day. I, on the other hand, will go at my own pace, watching about one a day. I want to savor each one and make the season last, since there’s a good chance this will be the last new Animaniacs content ever. By doing this, I will completely miss out on participating in the early theorizing, screenshot posting, art, and writing that people do in response to season 3. By the time I’m done watching it, over a week after the release date, and I come out with my own thoughts and enthusiasm, it will already be old news to many people. If I had my way, I’d make it last even longer, restricting myself to watching an episode a week. I’m just not willing to separate myself from the fandom for that long.

I think this is why many streaming-exclusive shows fail to have a noticeable cultural impact. Everything is dropped all at once, and what follows is a brief frenzy of confused discussion as people pick out their favorite moments and talking points from all over the season, essentially trying to scream over each other the entire time. Then, within a week or two, most people who watched it lose interest and move on. Wouldn’t it be so much nicer if we could have one episode at a time, watch it at our own pace, and then come online to see all the reactions to that particular episode and only that episode? It would be so much easier to digest, so much easier to let sink into our minds. The series in question would stay relevant for much longer. Plus, the wait between seasons wouldn’t seem nearly as long. Imagine if you watched the Animaniacs season 2 finale on January 28th, 2022 instead of November 5th, 2021. Now the wait between seasons is a basically just a year, instead of 15 long months.

So yeah, it annoys me. It annoys me to be stuck between the two options of either having to rush through the last new Animaniacs content I’ll ever experience, or quarantine myself from the fandom for three months to avoid spoilers as I watch it slower. Either way, I’m missing out, and it sucks. There is something to be said for allowing consumers to chose what pace they watch their new shows, but for people actually invested in the fandom of these shows, it’s inconvenient. And let me also say I have absolutely no problem with binging old shows. My only issue is with the practice of dumping entire seasons of new shows onto streaming platforms all at once.

[sweetlunar]

honeymoon;

p a r t . n i n e

Day twelve July 11

We drive to an adorable piazza in Greve for coffee; Swifts fly above; we eat our pastries and sip our coffee as a man feeds birds from a nearby bench. We head to Pietraserena Arrigoni, a winery in San Gimignano, Tuscany; two donkeys and an alpaca are stabled on the winery grounds; we are seated on a terrace overlooking an agriculturally diverse valley and served a four course meal; we taste a white wine, a rosé, a red wine and a dessert wine:

* Vigna del sol- Pairs nicely with the bruschetta.

* Rosato- Pairs nicely with the meats and cheese.

* Caulio- Pairs nicely with the pasta.

* Vin Santo- Pairs nicely with the tiramisu.

We enjoy the view, swoon over the 25 year aged balsamic vinegar and learn much about the wine we tasted from our sommelier, Mateo. We return to the B&B and rest. We go to Chianti Mixology Farm for dinner and the restaurant, with appreciated accuracy, lives up to it’s name; the drinks are expertly crafted and the food is local and fresh; I take the grave, gastrointestinal risk of ordering the pulled pork sandwich as it is topped with purple cabbage tossed in yogurt; Cody and I are in love (with one another, yes, but also with the pork dish). We both enjoy a Chianti mule and a farm basil smash; the sliced lime in our drinks is so vibrant, it is as if it was picked just minutes prior to mixing the drinks. We are transported to the day we binge watched every episode of Drink Masters while in quarantine. Driving back to the B&B, we see a pair of Eurasian Collared-Doves. As with all nights here in Chianti, we have a choice between stale, unconditioned air or an invitation for the mosquitoes; tonight, we brave the mosquitoes.

[sailorstarr-chan4]

For the first time since 2020, I am feeling the urge to read InuKag fics again???

This all started in June when I FINALLY read the iconic "Freak Attraction" by our esteemed @artistefish (which is PHENOMENAL AND AMAZING BTW PLEASE GO READ IT), but then, just now, I saw that the Smut Queen herself, @keichanz had posted new smut...... 👀👀👀

Aaaaaand suddenly I went hunting for other smutty oneshots to add to my "Marked for Later" fics. For the first time in AGES. Like. Um. Holy shit????

[Ramblings about my "Inuyasha history post-2020" below cut. Tl;dr: I'm lowkey Shook that my love for Inuyasha and InuKag fics is finally, slowly coming back 🥹💕]

Here's the rundown: 2020 happened. I went into quarantine with my parents. I was determined to finally devour a BUNCH of Inuyasha fics I kept meaning to read, and at first I did with great gusto..... but..... as April 2020 crept along, my interest began to wane and depression seized a hold of me.

Then Yashahime was announced. The fandom imploded. I felt nothing. No interest, no worries, no intrigue. NOTHING. It would've scared me if I was capable of feeling it.

Oh eventually, I felt a mild amusement at all of the squabbling and ship wars and all that nonsense (and spawned a whole fucking series of memes as a result lmaooooo). But my love for the fandom/fics had more or less snuffed out. Which sucked for a number of reasons, not least of which were "shit, most of my WIPs are for this fandom fuckfuckfuckfuck" LMAO 🙃

Depressing shit aside, I dove back HARD into the Disney fanfic side of things, on top of other anime titles and old fandoms like Harry Potter. I moved on to other fandoms, partially due to feeling embittered at the Inuyasha fandom for already making my depression over my lack of interest EVEN WORSE with all the in-fighting over Yashahime (which btw, for the record, is NOT a particularly bad show. It's not a GOOD show, per se, I don't have any strong feelings for it either way, but it's NOT the Antichrist™ like fans were making it out to be, sheesh >.> It's just another mediocre sequel for a classic-but-not-particularly-amazing-original-series. Shocking, I know. Moving on)

The only thing keeping me sane about Inuyasha was watching it with my fiancé, from Nov. 2020-Sept. 2021. His delightful commentary breathed life into the series like you wouldn't BELIEVE lmao 🤣

Eventually.... I felt the desire to write again. But it was HARD. 😭

After Shameless was completed in April of 2020, I felt.... empty of Inuyasha fic writing. By a miracle, I managed to update my Big Three WIPs (An Unexpected Encounter -> June 2020; Inuyasha: Prince of Thieves -> July 2020 & Sept. 2022; and Shards of the Sea -> June 2021 & Sept. 2022), but the gaps between updates kept widening, and I only worked on them because they were already partially written/published. I even ended up archiving older ficlets into Tied Together and Bonds Across Time, but had to resist the urge to delete everything and start afresh SEVERAL times since 2021 (which, coincidentally, was around the time the fandom was tearing itself apart over Yashahime bullshit and by bullshit I mean innocuous junk people were losing their goddamn minds over ugh.... 😒)

The handful of other fics I punched out for other fandoms were small, and only posted briefly in the summers of 2020 and 2022.

The latter summer was thanks to my first InuKag written smut in 2 years: Sinful Symphonies.

So, yay! Finally getting a feel for writing again, both for Inuyasha and in general! But I still felt utterly detached from other Inuyasha fics, not because of the writers (are you KIDDING me, half of the reason it was hard to distance myself from the fandom was because of the AMAZING TALENT in this fandom ugggghhh 😭), but because of my personal, complicated feelings with the fandom and series as a whole.

But then I binge-watched the series by myself this May. And finally, decided to buckle down and read Freak Attraction, which I have been meaning to read LONG before 2020, and thus, it became my first Inuyasha bookmarked fic on AO3 in almost 3 years, and first "new" Inuyasha fave as whole since August 2021.

My last Inuyasha bookmarked fic on AO3 was on Nov. 1, 2020 (on ff.net, I read two small MirSan smut fics in August 2021, but these are outliers; I really could not bring myself to read more than those -.-).

My last InuKag bookmarked smut on AO3 was April 7, 2020.

My last REVIEWS I left for an Inuyasha fic (besides the aforementioned fics) were from June-August 2021 for a couple of updated faves (namely Keichanz's Iconic You Rescued Me, which was a ROLLERCOASTER OF FEELS, LEMME TELL YOU).

And now. NOW. AT LAST. THREE WHOLE YEARS after 2020 sucked the joy of Inuyasha fandom/fic from me.... I want to try again. I want to read more again.

Even if it's only a little bit, I would like to find joy here again. 🥺💕

[nicomundthered]

A Tale of Two Animals

pairing: Arthur Morgan x fem!reader

warnings: quarantining, tooth rotting fluff at least by my standards.

summary: from the prompt- Modern au, where Arthur and reader are self quarantining with each other, and reader catches Arthur playing on her animal crossing island.

word count: 1,899

a/n: I've never played AC. I know nothing, repost from ao3.

Masterlist 

Admittedly, self quarantining hadn't been that bad of an experience for you. In fact, it made you feel more than a little guilty. That while you were cooking meals, binging Netflix, and cuddling with the love of your life. People were sick, losing their jobs, and even dying.

But the way the two of you were living, It was your idea of paradise...that was until the both of you cleared out your Netflix queue.

Then things got a little rough. Arthur was a man of action, and not having anything to do had made him stir crazy. He was quicker to argue, and sometimes he’d say things without fully thinking them through.

He would always apologize profusely, even when it wasn’t necessary. You knew him, and knew that this was really hard on him. Besides, he never hurt you the way he always assumed he did. He was too hard on himself.

One time it was a little argument over a mug you loved. He had put in the dishwasher, when you’d always carefully hand wash the item.

He’d called it a ‘stupid mug’, and you, being locked up and slightly stir crazy yourself, started to tear up. He apologized on and off for the next hour, and promised to do the dishes for the next month.

A promise that so far he’d fulfilled.

Then you made the grave mistake, one that you’d regret for the next TEN days, you turned it to a local PBS station and got Arthur obsessed with a damn ten-part horse documentary.

They were an hour and forty five minutes a piece. And it wasn’t really that the footage was so boring, it was the narration. The man’s voice was calming, almost too calming, and would put you to sleep within minutes. You’d awake to the sound of the man's voice only to find Arthur still enthralled.

Which, all of this didn’t sound like a big deal, but it threw off your sleep schedule. And when you're stuck inside, with nothing to watch, sleep becomes something you really looked forward to.

And so, it became his nightly ritual to eat his dinner, wash all the dishes, put on his oversized comfy lounge pants, and sprawl out on the couch to watch another episode of the documentary.

On the fourth night of the documentary you had reached your limit. You just could not take one more second of his old monotone voice, and you searched the internet for something to entertain you...or rather something that you could buy, you should say.

It was then you came upon the new Animal Crossing game. You had played it when you were younger and really enjoyed it, so without overthinking it you added it to your cart, paid a little extra for overnight shipping (you desperately needed it before tomorrow night), and purchased it.

After making sure you received your email receipt, you stood from the couch, stretched a little, and kissed Arthur on the top of his head.

He tore his eyes from the television and looked up at you. “You goin’ to bed so early?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling a little tired.”

He moved to stand but you gently pushed him back down. “Finish your show.” You bent down and kissed him lovingly on the mouth.

“I can pause it and save it for tomorrow.” His eyes twinkled with mischief and any other night you would have pulled him to the bedroom, but you were NOT prolonging your torture for another night.

“No! I mean no, I don’t really feel well. Kinda got a headache.”

He frowned and reached up to feel your forehead. “You need me to run to the store to get ya sumthin’?”

You smiled. “No, I’m fine, really just need some sleep.” You yawned trying to convince him.

You were apparently an ok actor. “Well alright. You let me know if ain’t feelin’ good sweetheart.”

“I will, I promise.”

When he nodded satisfied with your answer, and pressed play, you almost ran to your bedroom.

The next day you spent not so patiently waiting for your package. Just after you put away the sandwich stuff that you used to prepare lunch, you got the notification that it was delivered.

You ran to the door almost dropping your phone, and retrieved your small box. You ripped through the packaging and waited for it to load on your switch.

And just as Timmy and Tommy were welcoming you to the game, Arthur walked in hair wet and slicked back, wearing nothing but a towel. He smelled fresh and amazing, just as he always did.

“I thought I heard the door slam.”

“You did, it’s fine. I just got a package.” You didn’t look up as you were reading the instructions on the small screen. To be honest you didn’t want to get distracted, and before you was one hell of one.

He frightened you a little as he bent over you curious as to what you were doing.

“It’s just a little game that I wanted to play. Figured it would be a great time since I’m stuck here.”

Taking one look at the graphics you could tell he wanted to make fun of you by the way he opened and closed his mouth a few times.

You decided to stop him short, not wanting another stupid argument. “I played it when I was a kid. It's super nostalgic for me.”

His nod was one of understanding and thanks, glad that he didn’t start something from nothing.

And that’s the last you really paid attention to anything for hours, until he brought you a plate of hot tacos.

You looked up red eyed and confused. “What time is it?” You looked around for your phone.

He handed it to you and chuckled. “Goin’ on eight. Thought you might be hungry.”

You gave a playful pout as your stomach growled smelling the delicious looking food.

“Game must be really good.”

You nodded with a mouthful of taco. A little embarrassed that you ate half of it in one bite. But happy that he knew exactly how you liked yours prepared.

“What’s it about?”

You swallowed. “Eh, nothing really. You just kind of build things and help friends out”.

“Oh well, I’m glad you're having fun.” He said without any malice.

“Gosh Arthur these tacos are amazing.” You took another large bite.

He chuckled lightly “It’s like you say, things always taste better when you don’t make them.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t help. I know it’s been our thing since...”

He raised his hand in dismissal. “You cook all the time for me. It is the least I could do for you. ‘Sides you looked like you were really having a good time.”

Your face flushed slightly. Had he been watching you? You knew you did that thing where you bit your bottom lip when you concentrated. It made you a little self conscious, but he would have none of that.

“You sure are beautiful, you know that?” He gently moved a piece of hair from your forehead.

“Arthur…”

“I mean it. You’re absolutely perfect. Can’t believe I’m so lucky.” He shook his head in amazement.

You were at a loss for words so you replied with the only thing you knew he needed to hear. “I love you so much Arthur.”

He reached down and kissed you hard. Sometimes words weren’t enough for him. He was after all, a man of action.

Things were getting heated, your tacos forgotten, when an alarm started blaring.

You looked at him in a daze and giggled softly. “It’s time for your program.”

He slowly opened his eyes and sighed. “Yep.”

He stared at you looking drugged by your beauty.

You smacked his arm playfully. “Watch your ponies.”

That sobbered him up. “They ain’t ‘ponies’ they are stallions and mustangs, and..”

“I’m joking.” You cut him short saving his lecture for later you were sure. “Hurry you're going to miss some of it.”

He turned the TV on, and you excitedly picked your game back up. So focused on it, you never heard a word the boring old man said.

It was late. Real late. You hadn’t played a game through the night since you were in high school. But as you admired your island, you felt that it was worth it.

You looked to the otherside of the couch and saw that Arthur hadn’t wanted to leave you. He was sprawled out breathing heavily, obviously deep in sleep.

The sun was rising and you thought it a better idea just to leave him be. He’d be up soon anyhow. You plugged your game in to charge and went to get a couple hours of sleep.

It was around lunch time when you awoke. You hated sleeping in but then again, where did you have to be?

After showering, and brushing your hair and teeth, you groggily made your way to make some coffee.

When you entered the hallway you heard your game. Worried that you had left it on you hurriedly entered the room, and to your surprise, were met with the sight of Arthur, brows furrowed, deep in concentration playing your game.

You smiled wickedly at the sight and cleared your throat loudly.

He jumped like he had just been shot and placed your game quickly on the coffee table. “Oh god! You scared me.” He placed his hand on his chest for dramatic effect.

You walked over to him slowly, hands on your hips, and tried your best to look angry. “Now what were you just doin’?”

“I, I…”

“You what?”

“I was just curious is all.” He nervously ran his hand through his hair.

“Curious?”

“Well, yeah. You were havin’ so much fun, I just wanted to see what it was about. Ya know?”

His voice sounded so innocent and his eyes looked so wide from shock. Arthur Morgan wasn't used to getting caught.

You really shouldn't do it but you couldn't help it, you started laughing. So hard that you actually had to bend over.

He stood up placing his hands on his hips. His hair was an absolute mess, sticking up from all angles, and he actually attempted to look at you seriously.

Which, of course, made you laugh harder. So hard that tears started streaming down your face. There was something about this large, handsome, intimidating man, sneaking your switch and waiting until you were asleep to play Animal Crossing. And then getting caught all while being extremely embarrassed about it.

Either he finally started to see the humor in it, or perhaps he got joy out of seeing you so happy, he too started to laugh.

He walked to you and hugged you tightly, then playfully threw you onto the couch. Neither of you stopped laughing for a while, not until your sides were splitting and you could take no more.

He nuzzled your neck. “I’m real sorry I played your game without permission.”

You briefly chuckled while stroking his muscular arm. “No you're not.” You whispered back.

“Alright, I’m sorry that I got caught.”

You both kept laughing until, still tired from the previous night, you fell asleep in each other's arms.

A loud alarm woke you both. You snatched his phone from the side table mercifully stopping the noise.

He mumbled. “Don’t worry it's recording.”

You sighed heavily.

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

[kyndaris]

Days of Transit and Films

Living in Australia, the first day of travel is almost always the most uneventful. Why? Because in order to reach any other country (besides New Zealand) involves a bloody long flight. So, it was with my trip to Japan via ANA (which took about 9 hours and 45 minutes or so). It also didn't help that there was congestion at Sydney airport, which delayed our departure time by upwards of thirty minutes. By the time we landed in Tokyo, it was nearly 9 PM local time and bleachpanda and I needed to go through customs, collect our baggage and check-in to our hotel.

Thankfully, getting through immigration didn't take too long for either me or bleachpanda. With our luggage in tow, we breezed through quarantine and went about securing ourselves a taxi to take us to our hotel for the night: Toyoko Inn II in Haneda.

On the 9 hour flight over to Japan, I kept myself entertained with several films while bleachpanda battled with motion sickness. Still, she managed to watch Barbie despite sleeping for the majority of our time onboard. As for me, the films I watched included: The Marsh King's Daughter, Puppy Love, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile and Dumb Money. An eclectic collection of films that started off strong in the psychological thriller genre before dovetailing into a lighthearted romantic comedy and animated child film. Then I finished it off by watching a meme-heavy film about gamers rising up and sticking it to the man.

Sadly, during my flight over to Japan, I didn't get much reading done. Nor could bleachpanda and I have any riveting conversations given her proclivity for motion sickness and had her eyes closed every time our plane hit turbulence.

But what to say about the films I binged on the way to Japan? Well, The Marsh King's Daughter was a movie that tickled my interest a few months back when I first saw the trailer. It starred Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn and so was immediately on my radar as a weighty exploration of the human condition. While it wasn't exactly the most riveting watch, it still managed to capture my attention for the duration of its run-time.

After enjoying the tension-heavy film about family, love and toxic obsession, I decided to watch something I could completely shut my brain off. Enter: Puppy Love starring Lucy Hale and Grant Gustin (two actors who caught my eye back when they were starting out. One featured in a guilty pleasure show I watched back when I was in university - Pretty Little Liars - and the other started out as an antagonist in Glee before becoming the better version of the fastest man alive).

From Puppy Love, I hopped over to watch a film about a singing crocodile and the wacky plot shenanigans that come from a half-animated, half live-action musical starring the likes of Shawn Mendes, Javier Bardem and Constance Wu. Is it strange that there's a singing crocodile whose exact origins were never exactly explained? Yes, but the songs are catchy and it's a nice feel-good film.

And even though Lyle doesn't speak, he can readily communicate through song - which, admittedly, beggars belief but these aren't things one should think too hard about.

Then finally, after nearly nine hours in the air, and fully from a sandwich dinner, I settled the headphones back onto my ears to watch Dumb Money. Though I never did watch it in cinemas, I did read about how people were using the RobinHood app to hold the line against The Man when it came to the shorting of the GameStop stock back in 2021.

At 8:57 PM, we landed at Haneda airport. After our plane taxied to its designated spot, we traipsed down a set of stairs for the waiting shuttles that took us to the terminal proper. Due to the late hour, we were the only flight going through immigration and customs, smoothing exiting the airport about twenty minutes to ten.

One short taxi ride later took us to our hotel close by. I, of course, managed to embarrass myself by trying to close the automatic door of the cab. It was only when I heard the driver tell me twice to stop that I realised the error of my ways. Still, we managed to check-in to the hotel only a few minutes past 10 PM. Once inside, bleachpanda and I dumped our gear and flopped onto the bed, exhausted from a day on the plane.

The next day, I woke up early and puttered around our shared room as bleachpanda snored away. At 7 AM, bleachpanda's alarm went off and after spending 45 getting ready, the two of us headed down for breakfast. Once full, we visited a local shrine nearby as well as a 7-Eleven wherein I bought a banana and milk.

Returning to our hotel at around 9:30, it was back on the road for the two of us as we headed to Narita airport for our flight to Seoul. We arrived with barely any time to spare as we checked-in for our flight and sped through security. Still, we managed to try out Japan McDonald's. I picked a Teriyaki Pork Burger (which was mildly disappointing because of how dense the sauce was) and bleachpanda enjoyed an Ebi Burger. Full, we boarded our flight to Seoul, wherein we were treated with another heavy meal.

At 4:30 PM, we landed at Incheon International. On the flight, I watched Venom: Let There Be Carnage while belachpanda slept on, too ill from the turbulent start to our flight. The sequel to Sony's Venom was a fun watch, even if it didn't win any awards. Tom Hardy, I can most assuredly say, is living his best Eddie Brock life, given the banter between our two protagonists.

In fact, it reminded me of my relationship with bleachpanda during the trip. I'd tease and aggravate her, she'd threaten to murder me in my sleep...

And yet she'd still comply with all my walking demands as we managed to rack up a 14,500 step count average over the three weeks we were out and about on our overseas trip.

Once we grabbed our luggage and went through South Korea immigration, we took a taxi to our hotel in the heart of Seoul. After wechecked in to our hotel in South Korea: ENA Suite Namdaemun, bleachpanda and I ventured out to enjoy a nice meal out at Michelin Star winner: Korea Ginseng Chicken Soup.

[whothehellisoli]

i was curious as to when i subscribed to dnp and when i went scrolling through my youtube history…

11:32 pm💀 it was a school night too

also bonus

i watched about 5 videos, none of them for more than 2 minutes😭

and this is the first video i watched in full

the more you know!

but isn’t it crazy how one random school night in quarantine, on my moms laptop at 11:30 at night, i searched for two youtubers that (based on the videos i’d been watching before) i’d been seeing random clips of and now here i am, fucking insane about them💀 i hyperfixated starting the next day and binged SO MUCH of their content for over a year, before fading out and only watching their (phil’s) new uploads, until these fuckers decided to come back and ruin my LIFE.

AGAIN.

[kosher-martian]

My parents are moving and it's the most disastrous series of unforced errors ever.

For context, my grandparents retired in the late 80s / early 90s with a very healthy nest egg, having made their careers and retired at the peak of American Capitalism. Between Social Security, military pension, and pensions from their careers, they were made for life.

They lived in the middle of nowhere playing pretend farmer/rancher/cowboy, far away from any medical resources or modern conveniences. There was a small grocery store and hardware store nearby, but anything else was 30-40 minutes away from their stupid little farmhouse. Hospital? Doctors? 45 minutes away minimum, usually an hour or more once traffic was factored in.

As they got older, it was increasingly difficult for them to live independently because of how far removed from everything they were. Independence came with ever-increasing costs: Home healthcare visits, house cleaning services, and grounds keeping services (among others) all paid for out of their copious pensions. Eventually it became a combination of all of those things plus my mother and aunt visiting them multiple times a week (over an hour drive just to get there) to make sure all of their needs were being met.

Even I eventually got roped into helping them maintain their faux independence. I tried to convince them to move back to civilization, but it was more important to them to maintain their fake farmer/rancher/cowboy lifestyle. In the end, they had to be forced into a nursing home pretty much against their will. It was not a fun period and I'm not keen to revisit it.

My parents retired recently. They will be trying to make ends meet on Social Security plus whatever remains in their 401Ks. Their 401Ks are a disaster because they made no attempt to manage them until right before they retired, at which point it was too late to make any changes that might affect the outcome. But that didn't matter because they wanted to retire anyways.

They have a home in the city, 15-25 minutes away from their doctors and surrounded by hospitals, standalone ERs, and urgent care clinics. There are grocery stores, hardware stores, and every conceivable kind of specialty shop within a stone's throw. To my knowledge, until very recently their plan was to live in their current home until they died. They hadn't really settled on what they would do with my grandparents' home. My siblings and I encouraged them to sell it and put the money towards their retirement. My parents were not committed to the idea. Then the pandemic came. Almost overnight, it seems, they changed into radically different people.

While my dad is fairly outgoing, my mother has always been borderline agoraphobic. As far as I know she has no friends. The closest thing she has to a friend besides my dad (with whom she has nothing in common) and my aunt (who at best loathes her) is me. Did I mention my mother is a hoarder?

My mother LOVED quarantine. She was content to sit at home, watch television or read books, work from home, and then text me nonstop all day long (to the point that it was impacting my productivity at work and making me lose sleep). She still texts me nonstop.

She retired in the middle of the pandemic and now had even more free time; time she spent reading regurgitated reddit threads from those low-effort BuzzFeed knockoffs, writing fanfiction, and watching hours-upon-hours of television.

My dad did not like quarantine nearly as much, but he loved that he was incentivized to watch endless hours of television, play video games, and play on his iPad; activities he already enjoys.

I cannot overstate just how much television my parents watch. We're talking easily 14-16 hours each day, usually binge watching a single show or alternating between two different shows, and at most breaking for an hour to go buy lunch (which they eat in front of the TV) or maybe go to a doctor's appointment.

For the last 5 years, their daily TV consumption consists of Yellowstone, those HGTV home renovation shows (in particular Home Town), the storage unit auction show, and those travel channel shows that are just extended commercials for cruise lines.

All of a sudden their retirement plans changed. Now they want to move into my grandparents' old house in the countryside and play pretend farmer/rancher/cowboy AND also pretend home renovator AND go on a series of cruises they can't afford. It's like watching them toss their meager life savings into a burning dumpster.

I reminded them of how difficult it was for our grandparents to remain independent as they got older. "We're still young," they said.

I reminded them that our grandparents' independence came with high costs that they themselves will be unable to afford. "Don't worry about that now," they said.

I reminded them of how much time and energy they spent checking in on our grandparents and how me and my siblings don't have (and can't really foresee) the same standard of living that even my parents enjoyed. "You'll love visiting us in the country. We have so many plans for the house!" they said.

They've spent the better part of 18 months burning through their savings so they can live out the shows they see on TV. They've paid for a complete home makeover for my grandparents' stupid house, which included:

A costly asbestos abatement

All new appliances

Rewiring the house

Reupholstering much of the furniture in my grandparent's home plus more than a few pieces from their house in the city

Buying new furniture to replace the pieces they didn't want from either home

$20k for a top-of-the-line natural-gas powered generator (one strong enough to power a small restaurant) so they never have to worry about power outages

Art restoration for almost every painting in their current home plus a number of paintings my grandparents had

And they even renovated my grandparents' two barns!

By the way, they largely didn't clean out my grandparents' house, they just paid the contractor to dump everything in the barns after they were renovated.

They decided on March 1st that they want to move out completely by the end of March, which has forced my siblings and I to spend all of our available time helping them shovel out 30 years worth of my mother's compulsive hoarding. It never quite reached the point of the Collyer Brothers, but it did get to a point that our bedrooms were only nominally ours. We lost all functionality of the combination dining room / rec room around 2005. After 2018, neither of my siblings' bedrooms were even accessible. They want to move by April Fools Day.

I'm still cleaning out "my" room (only the upper layers of the piles of hoard were ever mine). I learned recently that my bedroom actually has a closet. I lived in that room for over 20 years thinking I never had a closet. I decided last night that I won't take anything. This will upset my mother. She envisioned "cleaning my room" as "taking everything somewhere else so she doesn't have to see me throw away anything". She has fought me on every item I have thrown away. I don't care about her feelings on the subject anymore.

She won't stop texting me about how much fun we're all going to have visiting them in the country, or how I need to hurry up and finish cleaning out "my" bedroom, or that I should be a good son and make time to help them go through everything they shoved into the barns. Maybe I should even take some of it (all of it preferably) because they won't have room for all of it once their stuff is moved in. Can't I help? Pretty please?

They've become completely unmoored from reality. My dad will just randomly force strangers at the grocery store to swipe through before and after pictures of their reupholstered furniture. My mother is talking in various fake accents (from her best approximation of "British" to Antebellum Southern drawl to 1940s Mid-Atlantic to that generic fake accent all modern country musicians use). They call me at all times of day. They don't care that I'm working or trying to sleep because I have work the next day. My needs don't matter anymore, only their wants matter.

EDIT: While I was typing this my dad sent me a before/after picture of a bookshelf they had restored.

When it became evident that I should probably wear a respirator and gloves to handle anything in the lower levels of my mother's hoard, she became upset. "It's not that bad! You're overreacting!" she said. Their home is a biohazard. They will never find a buyer for their home. the exterior is okay, but inside is wrecked beyond your wildest imagination. They are still ticked at my siblings and I because none of us could afford to buy their home nor did we express any interest in buying it at a significant discount. Whomever they convince to buy the home will need to gut it.

I'm honestly done with them. I don't think this personality shift is temporary. I just think it's who they are now. They've become selfish, shortsighted, incredibly inconsiderate, and unfathomably weird. Nothing I say has made a difference. I did everything I could to convince them they were making a mistake. I live with the existential dread that they are banking on me and my siblings helping them solve their problems when it inevitably hits the fan. Screw that! Luckily I live in a state without filial responsibility laws.

I will not be rescuing them and neither will my siblings. I will not be visiting them or sacrificing my time and energy when they could have just sold that stupid farmhouse and put the proceeds towards saving for their advanced age. For reasons I will never understand, it is more important that they get to play the characters they see on TV than it is to plan for a future when they are old and infirm. I get it, one is fun and one is not. Surely they can see that we're at the same age they were when they became parents. They had a house, two new-ish cars, & young kids. Meanwhile we live in miserable shoebox apartments, with cars that have 200,000+ miles on the odometer, and no path to home ownership in the foreseeable future.

But go on ahead. Go play Yellowstone. Go play Home Town. I hope whatever fleeting happiness they squeeze from their experience can fill the miserable void in their lives. I don't have the gas money to drive 100 miles round-trip to visit them every week vs the 40 miles round-trip I make now. They are making it harder and harder for me to see them. Once they are out of sight, they will be out of mind. They just don't realize it yet.

[lemony-snickers]

For pillow fort friday<3

If I had to make you a drink I would do a simple whisky cocktail !  (I hope you like whiskey as much as Saya does—bc I know I do!)

-Whiskey on the rocks with a homemade spiced* honey syrup *(cinnamon, ginger, orange, honey+ water/sugar) -A dash of Orange bitters and a weee bit of fresh lemon juice—garnished with an orange wheel

You pick a movie/tv show/anime! (Or 5?) I could use a good rec! :)

good morning, kaz! i'm so sorry i missed this last night, i was busy singing my lungs out very poorly at karaoke, ahaha.

that cocktail sounds fantastic, i will take two, pls & thank you. whiskey (and scotch whisky particularly) is my preferred liquor most of the time, though gin does edge ahead a little bit in the summer when i enjoy a nice fizz with fresh fruit. that cocktail sounds perfectly up my alley! <3

let's see what i can do about recommendations below the cut because they got looonnnnggg (sorry)...

tv shows:

ted lasso. i was very late to this one, but just binged all three seasons and really enjoyed it. on apple.

BEEF. it's sooooooo goood and bizarre and wonderful in the worst (best) ways. on netflix.

trial & error. was an nbc comedy over too soon. on peacock, i think.

the river. likewise cancelled early, but it's horror on the amazon and i loved it a lot. idk where to find this one, but i'm sure it's streaming someplace as all things are these days.

not dead yet. which finished its first season recently is an easy watch & pretty funny. the MC is very relatable in an, "i am a mess" sort of way alsjdf;adfs. i think this is nbc, but i watched it on hulu.

movies:

everything everywhere all at once. i can't wait to watch this again. it was my first time in a non-socially distanced movie theatre post-quarantine and it was such a joy to hold my spouse's hand while i laughed my ass off and cried and yelled. love this fucking thing (as does everyone else, as they should).

you won't be alone. this is horror. body horror. it's pretty messy in parts but so so sooooooo soooooooooooooo good. it's also primarily in macedonian with subtitles and i'm not sure how hard it would be to track down.

the impostors. with stanley tucci and oliver platt is a comedy from my youth that i still think is one of the best of all time.

a goofy movie. idk, y'all, i just showed this to my spouse because it was referenced in an episode of atlanta (another great fucking tv show) and it's still just so funny and heartwarming and the music they made for powerline is so good.

spiderman: across the spider-verse. haven't even seen this yet but my god i want to so badly and i just know it's gonna be killer because the first one blew my mind.

anime (i'm probably not gonna come up with much here you haven't already seen or know about tbh but let's see):

blue period. especially as an artist, i think you might enjoy this one. i binged it in like a day and a half and thoroughly enjoyed it all very much. on netflix.

maid-sama! i actually enjoyed watching this anime so much that i then went back and read the whole manga because i needed to know how it ended. it was cute and expected and exactly the sort of low-stakes shojo i needed at the time.

ghost hunt!.i fucking love this little horror anime and am so disappointed it didn't get to go longer. there is a manga and also a light novel that are very worthwhile if you ever have the time.

i think three is all you're gonna get outta me for this category, but i hope something there sparks your fancy! thanks so much! <3

[killerandhealerqueen]

8 shows to get to know me

I was tagged by the lovely @loisroo​​ and while I’ve done this before, I’ll do it again and actually explain why these shows are my favorites

Killer and Healer - okay look.  When it first came out, I was going to wait until it had fully aired to watch it and just like...binge it.  But then I kept seeing beautiful gifs from @tytangfei​​ about our two mains and i’m like...you know what?  I can’t fucking wait anymore, I need to watch it now.  So I did and honestly?  I did not think it would change my life as much as it has.  I made so many friends because of this drama, have written so many fics for this fandom (126 and counting), I’m doing a fucking rewrite of the drama to give us all a happy ending because it’s what we (and the characters) deserve and just...look at these fucking idiots in love i love them

S.C.I. - my first true drama that introduced me to the world of cdramas.  I watched it when it aired in 2018 and was just so intrigued by the cases, the characters, just...this drama holds a very strong place in my heart.  It’s not my number one (which is Killer and Healer), but it’s very important to me and I love them very much

The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty - I think this was my first historical drama that I watched during quarantine and it was another drama that honestly got me through that hot fucking mess of a year.  I also made a lot of friends because of that drama and I just loved the found familiness of it all, I loved how they always had meals togther (it reminded me of sunday dinners where all of my extended family would get together and eat dinner and just have a good time) and it was just a good drama.  And the cases too.  The cases were interesting, as were the characters and just...it’s a good drama

Jiang Hu Shao Nian Jue - okay, this was a new/recent drama that I just watched but it really hooked me in because the mains reminded me a lot of Jiang Yuelou and Chen Yuzhi in regards to chemistry and the whole aesthetic and just...the overall case and everything was just my style

Under the Skin - another case/detective/crime drama and I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  I liked Shen Yi and Du Chen and their dynamic (very Jiang Yuelou and Chen Yuzhi-esque and if anything reminds me of Jiang Yuelou and Chen Yuzhi, I will check it out), I thought the individual cases were really interesting and how Shen Yi was able to use his skills as a forensic artist to help solve the cases.  And the overarching case...look, if there’s an overarching case and all of the individual cases somehow tie into it, I’m all over that shit (and there’s supposedly supposed to be a season 2, if that cliff hanger had anything to say about it)

Doubles - not one of the first jdramas that I watched, but it’s one that I keep going back to to watch over and over.  It’s an older drama, from 2011, but there’s just something about it...something about the characters, something about the cases...yeah, it’s a crime/detective drama (I tend to watch those) but...i don’t know.  It just feels very human, to me.  Maybe that’s why I like it.  Like, the cases that they take/are assigned to aren’t like...big cases (the last one is but it’s only big because one of their friends got hurt because of some big wig)...they’re literally in Unit Zero, which is like...the shittiest unit in the station, but they do their best and at the end of the day, they just want to help.  I don’t know, it’s just a comfort jdrama of mine

 Danger Zone - it’s a taiwanese drama and the only one I’ve watched but...my god, this drama.  It’s dark (holy shit it’s dark) but the cases are fascinating and the like...two mains, Ren Fei and Liang Yan Dong are just so interesting because Liang Yan Dong only ever wants to talk to Ren Fei when he’s in prison before he’s released because he only trusts Ren Fei and just...god, the overarching case for this drama...I just...Ren Fei and Liang Yan Dong are connected because of the overarching case and they had no idea and just...this drama is so good.  It’s so dark but it’s so good.  If you ever get the chance to watch it, please fucking do

Tagging: @zennialemo​ @nineninepetals​ @ahhhnorealnamesallowed​ @mejomonster​ @marulo​ @hyperbolicgrinch​ and anyone else who wants to play