#but hey!! trying new things is important and that includes pose practice lol

[weaverofink]

Young Justice outfit swap #3!! Impulse and Secret, who I have no real rationale for grouping together other than I thought it would be fun

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight 6: Take me baby, or leave me.

Futaba and Kaoruko know the lesbian hand hold confirmed!

For the previous episode go here!

To go to the start of these posts, go to the Prelude!

Here we go again with theater gays and oooo this was good! Our local lesbian couple is so good! ;w;

Important note! This meta/write up was written before I saw episode 7! Ok? Ok!

The title of this post is the name of a song from the musical Rent. I honestly have mixed feelings on that musical but the songs are still great. And the song is sung by the local lesbian couple in that musical! Uwu

(Tho they have much bigger issues than our local lesbian couple lol.)

>And if you give a damn, take this summary or leave me!

(Yeah that was a lame joke lol)

The episode starts in the past with a baby Kaoruko and Futaba! Baby Kaoruko has run off so  Baby Futaba goes to find her, and find her she does. Baby Kaoruko is posing for photos for people saying how cute she is. Baby Futaba picks her up with her bike and the two stop at a river so Baby Kaoruko can eat. Baby Kaoruko complains about her frequent dance lessons and declares she’ll join another family to get praised more, she looks excitedly at Baby Futaba. Baby Futaba is not amused. After asking if she has money to ride trains, Baby Futaba is like “oh well, guess I gotta leave without you and tell your folks you’re leaving. Too bad, really liked your dancing.” Baby Kaoruko quickly changes her mind, gathers her things and hops onto the back of Baby Futaba’s bike saying let’s go home, and lists off things she wants her future girlfriend to do for her. In exchange, she’ll show her the most sparkly place in the world. We then jump to the present, Futaba and Kaoruko are getting ready to fight a duel. And now, we find out how we got here. Er, after the opening of course.

Look!! At!! The babies!! So cute!

We go to Mahiru scolding Hikari over being messy and that she needs to put things away if she lives in this room. Hikari is embarrassed. Karen comments that Mahiru is like a big sister and she’s like, well. I am one. We then go to the three walking to school, local lesbian couple pulls up on the motorcycle. Futaba wakes Kaoruko up via taking off her helmet, this surprises her for sure. It also surprises Karen!

Karen relates to people so easily she even feels the eyebrow pain.

Kaoruko complains about how Futaba wakes her up and Futaba is like then wake yourself up. The group is joined by Nana and Junna, Junna is like “wow you guys have been early lately!” Futaba says they aren’t gonna lose to the other sleepyhead (Karen) and Karen is like YEA-wait what?! Next we go to tap dancing class, which is a thing they do at this school (wow they going for ALL the theater arts here), and Claudine and Futaba are partners in that. The two seemed pleased with their routine. Kaoruko stands next to Maya and is suprised Futaba was doing really well and Maya waxes poetically for a moment about that and then is like “well we can’t fall behind can we.” And Kaoruko is like wha.

SHE! TINY! SHORT! BLESS!

We then go to everyone lined up in the classroom, the first round of casting for the main characters has been done. There will be more rounds so this isn’t the final casting. They post it and, every girl we know makes it BUT Kaoruko. She’s pissed. Futaba tries to reassure her that she’ll get another chance but nope, Kaoruko goes straight to the stage crew to complain. She yells at the head writer, Sanai, and Sanai is like “ERM. Well uh.”. Luckily the director, Ameniya, steps in and bluntly tells Kaoruko off saying Kaoruko’s acting sucks and she’d be no use to this play. We cut to Futaba and Kaoruko chilling in a practice room, Kaoruko complains about the rejection while laying on her girlfriend’s lap. She then asks Futaba if she doesn’t get into the play if she could have her part. Futaba doesn’t give an answer and instead keeps drinking her juice box.

We then go to later that night, Kaoruko exits the bath area and is like “honey I’m ready for a foot massage!” but Futaba isn’t in the room. She’s outside practicing her tap dancing routine with Claudine. Claudine tells Futaba she’s improved a lot, then Kaoruko comes in like “yOU’RE HIDING FROM ME?!” and Claudine and Futaba are like oh shit. Kaoruko is like this is why you’ve improved so much?? An Futaba says she training with Claudine because she wants to keep improving, Kaoruko accuses Futaba of stealing her spot on the cast list. Claudine is like whoa whoa hey. But Futaba snaps and tells Kaoruko off, saying she isn’t going to give up her role cause it’s HERS and she earned it! Kaoruko is like fINE IF YOU THINK CLAUDINE IS SO GREAT WHY DON’T YOU JUST BE WITH HER! And Futaba is like FINE I WILL. And we cut to Futaba rolling to Claudine’s room and says “I’M SAYING HERE FROM NOW ON!” to the shock of the crowd that gathered after hearing the two of them arguing. Kaoruko stomps away pissed.

I saw you with Kuro-han last night! K-Kaoruko it’s not what you think! I won’t hesitate bitch!

The next morning Futaba is riding her motorcycle to school alone. Kaoruko on the other hand hasn’t made it past the front porch, luckily Nana and Junna are here to look out for her. We see throughout the day Futaba is doing just fine but Kaoruko is struggling. In the evening she complains to herself about her day. She grumbles saying “Futaba I’ll make you speechless!” she then recalls the duels, she goes oh yeah I can be a star that way! But then she remembers she has gotten her ass kicked, a lot. She instinctively calls Futaba’s name but then she remembers her girlfriend isn’t here. So, she. Hatches a plan.

The next day Kaoruko has told the other girls she’s leaving the school, much to Karen’s distress. Karen cries and begs her not to go. The other girls also try to talk her out of it but to no success. It isn’t their attention she wants after all.

Later that evening Kaoruko is packing, Futaba has come to the room and asks if Kaoruko is serious about leaving. Kaoruko is like yup I sure am have fun with Claudine and shit. Futaba asks if she has train money and if she knows how to ride the trains, she says yes and then Futaba says ok, bye then and leaves the room. Kaoruko is annoyed.

Futaba is now in Claudine’s room and plops onto the bed sighing, Claudine is like welp I guess she’s serious about leaving. This could be a good opportunity to bloom on your own. She says that Futaba is good enough alone to keep improving and get on the main cast list. We then have a flashback to middle schoolers Futaba and Kaoruko, Kaoruko is like hey we going to this fancy academy and Futaba goes what. We go back to the present and see both Futaba and Kaoruko in bed looking troubled. The next morning, Kaoruko is leaving and the other girls are here to see her off. Karen clings to her legs and cries, still begging her not to leave. Kaoruko is like, nope sorry I’m leaving. Then Maya suddenly approaches her and drops some needed advise, saying that someone who has people looking up to them or people who chase after them so to speak should strive to be their best for their sakes. Maya wishes her safe travels and Kaoruko leaves, Karen is still crying while Mahiru hugs her.

Kaoruko is then at the train station and dwells on Maya’s words. Hopes Futaba will come and stop her. For quite sometime, she doesn’t come. The train arrives and then ta dah Futaba is there. Kaoruko is happy at first but jumps back into anger being like HMPF what are you doing here? Futaba is like, cut this crap out I know you too well for this leaving thing to work! The two start arguing and then, their phones go off. It’s dueling time!

We arrive on stage and Futaba and Kaoruko give their introductions. The set is traditional Japanese style inspired, this is the Revue of Promise. In a dojo, while Kaoruko is in front of a dragon and Futaba is in front of a tiger, the two argue again. Giraffe comments that the revues have gotten increasingly personal. The two start physically fighting. Futaba reveals that the reason why she wants to improve is to catch up to her, to go to the place that shines like she promised when they were kids. They stop fighting and Futaba says that the other Stage Girls have been doing their best to keep improving no matter what, and that’s what she’s doing too. Kaoruko is effected by her words, she laments that she didn’t get Maya’s words til it was too late. She says Futaba deserves to be on the main cast list and decides to use her weapon to cut her cape off much to Futaba’s alarm. Kaoruko says Futaba is blooming and she isn’t. As she tries to do so, Futaba runs to stop her but. Kaoruko misses, on purpose. She’s happy Futaba finally tried stopping her, she thanks her and the set falls away to a new very pretty one. Kaoruko repeats Maya’s words and her and Futaba have one final charge. They clash, Kaoruko wins and flowers explode everywhere. With their relationship patched up, the two hold hands and the audition duels ends.

FUCK YEAH FLOWERS! FLOWERS MEAN GAY! HELL YEAH!

The next day, Kaoruko sits by Futaba’s bed all ready for school including helmet as Futaba wakes up. This startles Futaba, I would’ve screamed lol. We see the other girls waking up and that Futaba left a thank you gift for Claudine, which is a bunch of candy and Kaoruko left one for Maya which is...one candy. Well Maya seemed to like it anyways. Then the two girlfriends ride off to class on the motercycle, Kaoruko is like let’s be number one in the world together! Futaba is like sounds good and then the episode ends.

I for one accept our new lesbian overlords.

Or....That’s where this episode would normally end. But. Not this time. Not at all.

After the credits, odd circus like music plays. We go down to the underground stage and, Nana is there. Chilling on the stage, with a script right next to her. Giraffe is in the audience. Nana says that things are pretty different this time, and this needs to go back on script. The episode ends on this creepyass end card.

JUST NANA. JUST NANA. JUST NANA.

>Let’s go lesbians! It’s discussion time!

-I liked the Dragon Tiger thing, shows yin and yang with Kaoruko and Futaba!

-Mahiru scolding Hikari omg, she’s right though. Hikari is very messy! We can see that in episode one! Though not picking up after yourself is also a sign of depression….welp.

-Karen was a fucking treasure this episode, adorable. The eyebrows screencap is still funny.

-Maya made a friend omg. I hope her and Kaoruko hang out after this episode, their dynamic seems fun!

-I love that Maya got so excited over getting the one candy like she’s such a dork I can’t handle it!

-Kuro is such a fucking good sport, she let Futaba stay in her room while the spat was going on like what a good friend.

-Maya saying that someone who has followers or people who look up to them or people who chase after them so to speak should strive to be their best for the sake of those who follow. With Maya having Claudine always wanting to chase after and eventually pass her, this basically confirmed that Maya strives to be the best for Claudine's sake! Fuck my heart oh my god, Maya you romantic motherfucker gdi.

-I liked Kaoruko and Futaba’s progression a lot. A type of relationship like theirs is a tough one to balance. Kaoruko is a spoiled princess and Futaba has been happy with spoiling her and doing what she asks. But as time goes on Kaoruko has come to depend on Futaba so much that any of Futaba’s dreams and ambitions get stamped out. It was only a matter of time this sort of lovers quarrel happened.

Futaba has discovered she has a passion for the theater and seeks to improve herself and forms a friendship with Kuro who has tons of drive to want to do better and so Futaba learns from her. As a result Futaba has started changing herself for the better but Kaoruko hasn’t changed at all and still expected Futaba to do whatever she asks. Hence a conflict develops when Kaoruko notices the change.

What kicked everything off really is Kaoruko not getting a role in the play for the first audition round, but Futaba did. Kaoruko not changing lead her to fall behind pretty much, and that makes her mad and frustrated. So when Futaba isn’t in their room like she normally is and instead practicing and hanging around another girl, it’s the last straw. An argument ensues, it seems like it lasted all the way to the dorms cause there's a whole crowd of other girls in the hallway so the arguing was so loud it disrupted the entire dorm. And I imagine all the other girls are like ??? cause Futaba and Kaoruko never have fought like that before.

So then theres a separation period, Futaba camps out in Kuro’s room and the two don’t speak to each other. Unsurprisingly, Kaoruko is struggling greatly without her girlfriend to help her all the time. This makes Kaoruko even more frustrated and she very stubbornly refuses to change still because at this point she doesn’t understand that Futaba was tired of being in her shadow. Being the drama queen that she is though, she decides to dramatically leave so Futaba would chase after her. It doesn’t really work cause Futaba knows her girlfriend too well. And then they used the audition duels to talk it out basically (or fight it out same thing lol). The conclusion was basically them having a more balanced relationship and it was all very very sweet.

-Change is quite a common theme in the show. This episode, Nana’s issues, feeling stuck in life, the need to change the theater system, etc. I’m excited to see where this theme takes us!

-Futaba is so short it’s adorable! Like! So smoll! I love her.

-Futaba and Kaoruko very cute, I’m happy they worked out the issues in their relationship. Such sweet girlfriends.

-The duel arena was lovely!! Fucking awesome!

-Hey recall the crew members who talked with Nana last episode? Well that’s the script writer and the director! The one I called Crew member two is Kiriko Sanai, she’s the director. The one I called Crew member one is Shion Ameniya! They are called by their last names so I will also be referring to them by last name. Are they dating? Maybe, we just don’t know.

-Junna: Wait so I’m in a magical stage arena where physics don’t matter right?….I’m gonna pull off some real arrow bullshit hell yeah.

Listen, I love Junna lol.

-So saw repeat stages, does that mean any girl can use any kind of stage? Hm.

-That paper for the Starlight play, it said the Starlight Gatherer again! What’s the deal with that?! WHO IS IT?! Why are they gathering Starlight?! What the fuckkkk?! Also! Now we know the other roles are goddesses too! Still! Fuck!

-There’s something wrong with Nana Daiba, very wrong. After the credits rolled we not only got an after the credits scene but a bizarre end card on top of it. Our past six end cards have all been white but this one was not only yellow but had Nana’s name written everywhere! And it looked like the writing was written or drawn, like in her notebook. Her just chilling on the underground stage was also weird, especially the music playing while she was there. It was, a bizarre creepy circus tune that we’ve never heard before and when a show plays something they’ve never done before then that means they were saving that for a reason. There’s also the fact that on the OST cd that just came out there are seven different versions with different girls singing of Fly me to The Star, but number seven has no one singing. It’s just instrumental. Um. Anyways, Nana then talked about changing the script, getting it back on track. And that, is scary. What does she mean by that? I’m nervous...I’ll talk about the giraffe stuff in the speculation section.

>*Ominous giraffe shaped cloud rumbling in the distance* Ahaha what the fuck.

-For awhile there's been people speculating that Nana is really Giraffe, I dismissed it as something silly at first. But now, there's edvenice mounting up that Nana is at least connected with Giraffe in some way! So, here's how I see it.

While I don’t think that Nana IS the giraffe (that’s a bit out there for this show methinks) I think it’s very possible that they have a connection.

So I’m still very convinced that Giraffe is a Qilin or a Kirin as it’s said in Japanese (kirin is used both to describe an actual giraffe and the mythical animal). And the important thing to recall about them here is that Qilins/Kirins are sometimes shown to be familiars to gods. Now I’m not saying Nana is a god or anything but it’s possible why Giraffe is here is because he is here for Nana. He is her familiar, that’s why they have visual similarities. If he does belong to her that would explain the little pink bow on his tail. Also Nana uses two katanas which can be representative of a Kirin’s antlers.

I theorized a while ago that Giraffe, with Qilins/Kirins being protectors, is here to protect the girls from whatever is really going on with the Top Star/Heavenly Tiara but maybe he only came in the first place because Nana asked him to or that just Nana is here so he is here. He sits with Junna because Giraffe knows she’s important to Nana.

I also believe that Nana’s real role in the auditions is an enforcer of the system. In the stage version Hikari is working with the antagonists as their spy/instigator, maybe in the anime it’s Nana who is allied with the system hence she can come and go into the stage freely. Maya may be a symbol of the system but Nana makes sure people “stick to the script” and Karen has disrupted this script for too long. I don’t think Nana does this out of malice, it’s because she’s so scared of change and wants to preserve the past so badly that she is willing to do whatever it takes to push the Starlight play back where she wants it. Even if that means knocking down whoever is in the way of that or having her familiar around.

I know it sounds weird guessing that Nana has a pet mythological animal but, I find that the most likely explanation that isn’t Nana and Giraffe having similarities is purely symbolic but that could also be the case too.

And I gotta mention, so Nana’s color is yellow and giraffe’s are yellow and brown and bananas have those colors too right? Well Nana does have brown on her, in her stage outfit her boots are brown and she’s the only Stage Girl with brown boots. Ex: Mahiru, Maya, Junna. That’s…pretty wild man.

-As for Nana’s role with the auditions, here’s what I’m thinking. In the stage musical Hikari is working for the antagonist/the system at the start. I'm wondering then if in the anime Nana is the one alined with the system? That's why she can go to the underground stage whenever. She's its enforcer so to speak, and she doesn't do this out of malice but because she's so scared of change and wants to preserve the past so badly that she is willing to do whatever it takes to push the Starlight play back where she wants it. Even if that means knocking down whoever is in the way of that.

For quite sometime now, Karen has been openly defying the system and in this episode it was legit used by Futaba and Kaoruko to vent and sort out their relationship. But that's not how its supposed to go, so Nana is here to set it back on course. She'll be fighting Karen to do just that cause it really did all start with her, take Karen down and bam problem solved. I was wondering when the system will start getting tired of Karen's open rebelling and I think that time is very very soon. Ah poor Nana, hope she'll be ok by the end.

-We are halfway through this show and we’ve established a solid status quo, we know all the girls pretty well. We've seen them happy, understand their relationships and all. So when a show does this you know what that means? It means it’s time to break the status quo! Most shows/storied have a tipping point, where everything goes to hell in a handbasket. And I think for revue starlight, episode 7 is that tipping point! The odd end credits, the odd end card, the Fly me to the Stars thing, and the fact that the Japanese Revue Starlight twitter didn’t post a preview video is what is telling me this. If I were writing this then I’d chose episode 7 or 8 as the tipping point. The build up leading to this has been very excellent! I’m very nervous/excited because since episode one there has always been a ominous feeling, like there's something dark and nasty lurking behind the scenes and we’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I think it’s dropping next episode. Are we ready for it? Uh, I dunno. I’m flipping man, I haven’t felt this energized about an anime in awhile! Like, man. Dude. Omg.

>*Jaws theme intensifies*

Loved the episode! It was lovely in every way! But, this post is shorter than usual because of the incoming episode. I can’t get my mind off of it, gdi I want it to air asap! But, gotta wait. Soon!

See you on the Banana stage in episode 7!

[gottalovetheletos]

Butterflies. Shannon Series. Ch 5.

Authors note:  Sorry it’s long lol. 

Warnings: swearing, masturbation/ phone sex.

Word Count: 2,168.

Butterflies. Chapter 5.

If you haven’t read it here’s : CHAPTER 4

Monday:

Last night with Shannon was amazing. I just have to make it through this week. I arrived at work and did my normal thing. Calling up people to interview and writing up interviews I’d done. I needed to start writing my questions for the awards evenings too. So exciting to think that in 1 week I get to rejoin Shannon and visit LA. Right, I’ve got to stop day dreaming. I completed a great deal of work before 5 pm which was brilliant. I finally got home, made some dinner, gave the dogs theirs and decided to open up my laptop and do some online shopping for my trip. Oh dear. I’ve spent well over two thousand on clothes. How ever it did include 2 dresses for the awards evening which would be reimbursed by the company. Thankfully. Once I’d gotten over the shock I ran a bath. Once again the room filled with steam as I lowered myself into the colorful water. 

After I decided to wrap myself up in my dressing gown and cuddle up in bed with my dogs, a book and a nice big mug of tea. 

Tuesday: 

My usual morning routine was taking place. Breakfast for me and the dogs. Getting ready for work. I’d just finished getting dressed and realized I hadn’t checked my phone. There was a whatsapp message. I told Shannon to download the app so we could stay in contact. “Good morning beautiful, I made it home safely. Just being driven home. Have a good day at work. Call me when you can! Miss you already x x x” the message read. Oh I love a good morning text. I left the house and messaged him on my way to work. “I know you’re asleep but hopefully you read this when you wake up. Good morning handsome man. I miss you already too. Thank you for letting me know you got home safely. I will ring you at 6 pm here which is 10 am where you are. Speak soon gorgeous x x x” I placed my phone in my pocket and continued my journey to work. I carried on with my work as usual. Lyra walked passed and reversed. “So I hear Big Boss Sally has you going to LA for the 2 night award ceremony.” “You’ve heard correctly” I replied. “You are so lucky. How are you and Mr Leto?” She asked raising her brow. “We’re getting on quite nicely thank you. I would appreciate if you didn’t blurt it out though” I laughed. “Of course. I would never. It’s just very exciting that’s all. Just please let me live Vicariously through you. I’ve always wanted to date a famous person” “We’re not dating. We’re just... erm...friends” She raised both eyebrows. I could tell she didn’t believe me. But to be honest I didn’t know where we were, so didn’t feel the need to label us. “Okay” she raised both of her hands in defense. “When you want to talk about the fact you’re dating him come to me and give me the gossip” She laughed and started to walk away. “Good luck with that one” I laughed back.

I finished my work for the day and went home so excited to speak to Shannon. I waited patiently for 6 pm. The alarm on my phone went off and straight after I was calling him on face time audio. “Hey sweetie” that familiar voice brought tingles to me as he spoke. “Hey babe how are you?” “Wait one second” he hung up and I saw the face time screen pop up. “Shit, I look awful after being at work all day” I spoke to myself. I had to pick up I mean I was just talking to him. I pointed the phone to the ceiling. “Hey” “He..wait why can’t I see you?” “Well I look rough. I’ve just finished work and haven’t had time to shower or anything” “Y/N, just show me your face. I miss it!” he begged. “Ugh okay. But don’t hang up when you see how bad I look” I laughed making him laugh. “I promise baby” I tilted the phone up. “You look beautiful” “You have to say that” “I don’t. I just say what I see”. We ended up speaking for a few hours before I had to go to bed. “Bye baby” he blew me a kiss. “Bye sweetie” I blew him one back. 

Wednesday: Hump day. I ended up being called out for a quick interview with a new celebrity that was on some reality TV show. Luckily someone wrote out some questions for me as I’d never seen the show in my life. After a day of travelling around London I was thankful to be home. 

Thursday: Spending the day writing and editing my interview from yesterday. Back home once again. It was 7 pm and I was in the bath. Shannon was trying to face time me on my phone so I answered. I tried to cover up as best as I could. “Hey” he sang. “Hey, I’m in the bath and kind of a little naked so I’m sorry if you see something you don’t wanna” I giggled. “Erm. Babe. You know I’ve seen you naked and wet before right?” He let out a belly laugh. “Oh right yeah” I could feel my cheeks burning ever so slightly.  I’d just about finished my bath. As I was getting out Shannon told me to grab my phone and said “I’m gonna need a picture of you and that gorgeous body” 

 “Hmm, maybe I’ll make you wait and suffer the rest of the week, you’ll appreciate it more” “Ugh tease” he chuckled. “I know I’m so mean. I’ll have you make it up to you when I next see you” “I think that will have to be the case Y/N” Once again we had to leave our virtual date as I had work tomorrow and Shannon had to go to a Black Fuel meeting. We hung up and I went straight to bed thinking about Shannon’s delicious body. 

Friday: Last day of work before I could start packing my things and getting ready to ship myself off to LA for a week. I started the day with a meeting with the boss. Sally called me into her office so we could talk about the award show. She gave me a list of people who I needed to grab to do a quick interview with. We also spoke about the camera man who’d be joining me on the day. He was getting sent out a day before the show to ensure he’d arrive in time. After we’d gotten the important stuff out of the way we spoke about what I was going to do with my time. I told her I’d be with Shannon for most of it and she was pleased for me. Sally was only 20 years older than me but her and I had a very good relationship. She was like a mother to me. After our meeting she told me to go home and start getting ready for my trip. I thanked her and practically ran home. As I arrived home the delivery van was also at my apartment with all my new clothes I couldn’t wait to open the box along with the two garment bags which had my beautiful award show dresses in. I took the box and the bags from the delivery man and closed the door. I placed them in the living room and tore the tape off of the box. It was so beautiful. It was full of tops, shorts, skirts, dresses, bikinis, shoes, jewelry, lingerie  and a couple bags. I tried a few bits on to make sure they fitted and they did. I took them off and put all the clothing items in the washing machine. Then the dryer. While they were in the dryer I decided to take the dogs for a walk and on our way to the park I messaged Evie, my dog walker/ pet sitter to make sure everything was still okay. We arrived at the park and I attempted to get the dogs to pose for a picture so I could send it to Shannon. 

But Hunter was having none of it. I didn’t mind. I still made a cute picture. We continued to walk around the park then back home. The clothes were dry so I got out the iron and ironing board, turned on my 30 seconds to mars playlist and had them blaring on the big speakers. By the time I’d finished ironing it was 10 o’clock and I hadn’t had dinner. That was the next mission. I didn’t have a lot left so I took a ready meal out of the freezer. After I’d finished and washed up I changed for bed I read my book and fell asleep.

Saturday:

I woke naturally by the sun streaming through the small slither in the curtain that I didn’t close properly. I let the dogs out onto the balcony to go to their potty. Then poured the dogs some food and made myself a bowl of cereal, it was a really fresh morning so I grabbed my dressing gown and sat on the balcony  then had a shower. I pored myself a cup of coffee and made my way back to the living room where the pile of laundry from last night was. I sat down and realized I hadn’t got my suitcase from the guest room yet. After I’d picked it up I sat back down in the living room and I started to fold the clothes and wrote down what I was packing. My face time ringer was going off. I picked up my phone to see Shannon was calling. I answered. “Babe what are you doing it’s 11 am here which means its...” I paused to do the math. “...3 am where you are”. “I’m missing you that’s all” “At 3 am? Honey you should be sleeping. You’re going to see me in less than 24 hours. I think.” I giggled. “yeah but I want you now, I want you here and naked” he growled. “Naked huh” I placed my phone on the side cupboard and removed my top showing my naked chest. “Mmmhmm, just like that” He moved his laptop away from him showing me his length in his hand. I couldn’t help myself. Just thinking about him got me so hot. His hand stopped and moved up so he was stroking his chest. My legs went weak. “Take off your panties” he ordered. I slid them slowly down my legs. I was agonizingly wet already. I moved my phone onto the coffee table and told Shannon to wait for me to come back. I walked back in the room with a pink dildo from my nightstand. I sat down on the sofa and spread my legs showing him my glistening core. I pulled out the dildo from behind my back and ever so seductively licked and sucked at it. Shannon was moaning, the sound making me rock my hips. I dipped my finger into my soaked core. I moved the toy down, brushing my nipples and clit on the way down. I’m watching Shannon on my phone stroking himself. Eyes only on me, waiting to see what’s next. Slowly I pushed the toy into me moaning Shannon’s name. “Mmm I miss that pretty pussy”. I increased the speed of the toy moving it in ad out faster and harder. “Fuck, I wanna feel your body on me Shannon” “Soon, Y/N, soon. Now cum for me” My hand moved from my breast to my clit. I could feel it, I added more pressure to the circular motions being made by my hand. I couldn’t help but moan out Shannon’s name again and again until the knot came undone. In my euphoria I could hear Shannon moaning my name too as I watched him cum. We both stared at each other trying to catch our breaths. “That was hot” Shannon laughed. “It was, now go to sleep I need to finish packing” I ordered putting my clothe back on. “Yes Ma’am” He yawned. We said our goodbyes and hung up. The rest of the day I was packing and getting things ready for tomorrow morning. An early night will be needed. Evie messaged me saying she’d be at mine at 10 am. I wouldn’t be there but she has a key to let herself in. 

Sunday: 4 am alarm was buzzing. I started to get ready. I decided comfy clothes for the airport. I’d be sitting on plane for 12 hours so comfort is the way to go. 

5 am and my taxi came to pick me up. I gave the dogs a big kiss and cuddle before saying goodbye and locking up my apartment. It was time to make my way to the airport. 

CHAPTER 6

_______________________________________________________

@meghan12151977 @sanellv @pheenixpeterson

[furederiko]

The 2nd episode of Kyuranger paves way for an intriguing Duo of Thieves!

- Our episode opens with "The Space Shogunate, Jark Matter has designated the insurgent force Rebellion's Kyurangers..." Wow. Looks like the Shogunate is controlling the media as well, because the news comes up really quick. LOL at that bounty photos. Even Lucky is showing a "For real?" expression on his headshot. Hahaha. - As hinted last week, we get to see two more core characters of this show. Namely, the golden-colored robot(?) Balance (VA: Yuuki Ono, whose image song as Wen Yang in "Dynasty Warriors" series is to-die-for), and the silver-haired humanoid Naga Rei (Taiki Yamazaki) whose name might be derived from 'Nagareboshi' that means 'Shooting Star' in Japanese. Gold and Silver? Yep, that's a bit on-the-nose, eh? Both of them are already introduced in the opening, so not really a surprise. This duo is located in an industrial planet called Planet Jigama, and are inhibiting contrasting personalities. Hmmm... - Hooo... interesting! Raptor is briefing Lucky and Garu about the Jark Matter's... pyramid organizational structure! We actually always had this in past titles, but I think this is the first time it's been charted so... neatly. Above the cannon fodd... er I mean Combatants, there are Malisters (Daikaan in Japanese) who are essentially the MotWs. In higher rank, there are Menasters (Karo) who represents the 88 constellation systems (That's A LOT). And on top is Don Armage himself as the Shogun. I think the more important part would be that top-left part, the "Lecture by Raptor 283", because she IS acting like a lecturer. A strict one at that. I told you last week that her personality would clash with Hammy's, and well... it's happening already. LOL. We need more of this internal conflicts! By the way, Over-Time has changed Dorado Yellow's naming from Sparda into Spada (as well as Planet Jagama into Jigama, and Malicestrate into Menasters), which might be more appropriate. So I'll be following suit in my reviews. - Updated opening sequence! Lucky and Garu are in it now. Judging from the preview and the pattern so far, we're going to get the complete (9 Kyurangers) version come episode 5! Hey, I just noticed the sequence actually includes scenes from this episode too. Hope this trend continues. Oh, and yeah, the Lacerta Kyu Globe (Tokage/Lizard) has also debuted in this episode! During the CM that is (Kyuranger Choco!!!)... LOL. - Dumb Lucky is trusting people TOO easily. I'm considering to call him Dumb-Luck from now on. In case you're wondering why Balance and Naga call themselves as BN Thieves, that's simply their initials put together. All those colored-skinned aliens reminds me of "Guardians of the Galaxy", but this diner scene also easily reminds me of Star Wars' Mos Eisley. Does this mean the BN Thieves are nods to Han Solo (or should I say, Duo)? I used to think that way last week, in that Naga might be serving as a Han-esque figure, while Balance as his Chewbacca. But it seems I might have been inaccurate. In fact, Naga's lack of emotion might be a nod to a particular Marvel's movie character instead: Drax the Destroyer! Then again, he also has that lack of social knowledge, that makes him feels like... a robot? A clone? Okay, hold that thought. Turns out everyone in his silver-haired planet also LOOKS the same. Creepy. Like, "Children of the Corn"-level creepy. By the way, Naga's actor looks so MUCH better without that silver wig. It's amazing the effect of make up to people, right? - Dumb-Luck is also very naive, isn't he? Or perhaps, too... optimistic? But that's why I can't hate him, because he's basically acting like a little brat. Speaking of personality, Balance is VERY lively. And he's sleazy too. I LOVE HIM already LOL. He reminds me of Hondo Ohnaka from "Star Wars REBELS". The fansub might not reflect it, but he has a habit of spouting slang and/or making wordplay in his speech. Like that line "Nice to meetcha!"? In Japanese he actually uses the word 'Shiku-yoro' instead of the spelling-correct 'Yoroshiku'. Perhaps, this is his character's signature style? He makes a fun pair with Naga though. One half who doesn't know how to express emotions (and longs to obtain ones), the other is expressing a little too much (without caring for other's emotions). There's a hint that Balance is just using Naga though, so I can't help but wonder how the two of them get together in the first place? Hmmm... - We have a big cast, and that's a fact. Which is probably why, the transformation and stylish roll calls are incorporated in the battle. I like this approach. Of course, this goes for the Kyurangers who are not taking the spotlight. In this case, it's the other Kyurangers beside Lucky, who plot-wise, are put to the side. That's both the advantage and disadvantage of having a big cast. - Our MotW is Malistrate Gammetsui, who seems to be based on... a turtle? Salamander? He's the boss of Jigama, and he's interested about the Kyuranger's 50 million bounty. But the team is divided into two, so which one will he target? Lucky for him, it's Dumb-Luck's team. What about the other team? Eridron (who shoots arrows, obviously, since he's from Sagittarius) himself deals with Spada and the rest. This is just episode 2, but already a Menaster is on the front line? And forcing our heroes to run for their life? NICE. After all, it's 9 Kyurangers against... the galaxy *sigh*. - Great Gawd, Dumb-Luck triggers the alarm on purpose, and calls it LUCK *smh*. He sees the good in everything, doesn't he? Holy twist, Balance actually SELLS OUT Lucky to Gammetsui. That's 'GOI-SU'!! (FYI, 'Sugoi' means 'Awesome', but you've probably known that already). All for the sake of the blue-colored treasure he's trying to steal. Technically, he's acting like the episode's 2nd MotW, much to Naga's dismay. Hence, the part where Naga chooses to be a 'friend' for Lucky and betrays him, gives Balance the shock of his life. Worse that that, Lucky actually believes that all these are merely Balance's plan? He IS that naive, eh? Wait till he knows the truth... - Which won't happen. LOL. Of course, Balance's conscience wins over him, thus he chooses to rescue Naga. It seems they are connected with a bond that's stronger than... wait a sec?! Why do they remind me of... C3PO and R2D2?!! OvO... Anyways, thanks to this rescue, we get to know who, or WHAT exactly Balance is. He's a machine organism who has the ability to control other machines. Basically, like the antagonists of "Chouriki Sentai Ohranger". Hmm... it'd be great if he is from one, right? Because that would make both series canon. Naga on the other hand, has the ability to freeze enemies just by glaring at them with his glowing green eyes. A neat nod to Greek Myth's Medusa, perhaps? - Balance wants to team up with Lucky to get loots, and also emotions for Naga. So definitely NOT in this to play a hero. He blatantly says this goal outloud, and Lucky's okay with it! I think it's good that these 2 new members have their own 'selfish' goals to be part of the Rebellion. In fact, we need more heroes who function in grey-areas like these. And nothing's wrong with that, because hey, they have awaken their Libra and Ophiucus Kyu Globes JUST because of that. Random trivia: in the recent 13 Zodiacs concept, Ophiucus is also a horoscope sign just like Libra. It's closely aligned after Scorpio, which will have a representation in this show very soon. - Yep, Balance and Naga are the focus characters, so they have the rights for a full transformation and roll call sequence. #4 The Trick-Star Libra Gold and #6 The Silent Star Ophiucus Silver make their debut! Before you complain that Leo Red is tagging along, do remember one thing for the sake of being fair: he hasn't had the chance to do these properly last week! XD. And yes, though many might be annoyed with it, I'm loving Libra Gold's dandy atttitude and attention-seeker poses too. It makes him stands out and... unique. At least audience would be worried that Naga might be in some bad company! Hahaha. Also... LOL at that not-so-subtle Kyu the Weapon's sales promotion. But never mind that, because the cool group finisher "All-Star Crash" is genuinely cool. - First 'earth'-based mecha battle and also first shot of the enlargement method for the show's MotW. Looks like all Jark Matters have the ability to do this, with the help of that weird Empire's symbol. I'm liking how Libra Voyager and Ophiucus Voyager have two forms, the spaceship one and humanoid. And the way the two practically kicks Chamaeleon Green and Dorado Yellow out of Kyuren-Oh? LOL to that. They even have their own finisher, the yo-yo slam "Kyuren-Oh! Trick Break! Super Galaxy". Due to the limb-changing concept, looks like TOEI can't rely on stock footage for the mecha's transformation and final moves this season. I hope this means we'll be getting a variety of new combination every week. - Since they have officially joined the team, Naga wears the Rebellion's uniform, while Balance? He gets a new paint-job. The best part of this closing scene, is already we're seeing personality clashes. The easy friction between Hammy's manner of speech with Balance, or how Balance and Spada seems to be on the same 'dandy' page. Whoops, that's not the closing scene. We get a quick glimpse of the next Kyuranger. This mysterious man (seriously? XD) has an Orange Kyu Globe, but his pendulum looks like a Kyu Globe too, and it's colored... Blue? Hmmm... intriguing! - Ending sequence is obviously updated as well. The BN Thieves are now included, and put center stage. It looks even crowded now, and we still have two more! At least the dance is fun, right?

Overall: This episode introduced two more characters, and more importantly two more different types of personalities. It's going to be interesting to see how they interact with the previous six members (including Raptor). The dynamic of Balance and Naga Rei was more than just intriguing or fun to watch, it evoked questions and mysteries as well. These are great potentials that are prime to be explored in future episodes, and I sincerely hope that will indeed be the case. After all, opportunities to dish out and develop every characters are just too good to ignore. On a side note, we're only in episode 2, and we already have seven Kyurangers. Do you think the plot is moving too fast? I mean, they could've simply made the BN Thieves intro into a 2-parter, right? If the show gathers all its core heroes in just 5 episodes, I wonder how the story will play out in the episodes that follow? Hmmm... Next week: Meet the Dragon Commander! Also, beware the sting of... Dopplegangers?

Episode 02 Score: 8 out of 10

Visit THIS LINK to view a continuously updated listing of the Kyutama / Kyu Globes. Last Updated: February 19th, 2017 - Version 04. (WARNING: It might contain spoilers for future episodes)

All images are screencaptured from the series, provided by the FanSubber Over-Time. "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

[fiftystars]

hey anonymous!! sorry for being two weeks late on this tutorial, but here it is. I’m no expert on promo / graphics, but I’ve learned enough over the years to figure out my style of promo / graphic making. So, please keep in mind, this isn’t a end all be all to promos, so when I say ‘you should’ or ‘you want to’, they’re all just suggestions. this is just a (hopefully!) helpful tutorial on how to figure out how to start making promos and develop your own style or learn!

This is going to be split into two parts. The first part (this post) will talk about the details of what I like to do with my promos and what I keep in mind when I make them. The second part (here) will be more of a visual tutorial showing exactly what I do.

First off, and most importantly: 

i. dimensions. 

You need to know the tumblr dimensions for photosets, otherwise no matter how much you work on your image, the actual resolution and quality of the photo will come out looking wonky if it’s the wrong width. For a single image, the width is 540px. For two images, it’s 268px. For three images, the width is 177px! So depending on how many images you include in your promo (side by side), you’ll have to make them different sizes to fit tumblr’s dimensions properly!

Keeping on dimensions, I usually like to make my promos simple, and try to stick to two images, three max. This is because longer promos are usually more difficult (for me, anyway) to pull off, and even if you have nine 177px images in three lines it doesn’t look all that great. So two images in a row, with either one or two rows, or three images total, one in each row, works! For two images in a row, a long height usually fits best. For one image in a row, a short height fits best. You can usually make the heights varying with the latter though! Play around with it. Make the first image short, and the second image twice as long, or vice - versa!

ii. picking an image. 

I usually go to google or pinterest (or my own photo libraries if it comes down to comic characters) to find my images. I try to go for high quality and large versions of the image, because A.) the quality is better and B.) I can scale it down or keep it big and I have more freedom and options to work with in terms of positioning / cropping. If I want just the bottom half of the face in the image, I can move it so just the bottom half of the image shows. If I like the whole thing, I can just scale it down. If I want only the right half of the face, again, I move it so only the right half shows. So try to pick an image that’s big enough and not pixelated or low quality.

You also want to keep in mind what kind of promo you want to make. Do you want it to be dark, serious, and solemn? Bright colors and a smiling face or a cute art style miiight not be your best fit. On the other hand, if you want something bright, positive, and upbeat? Then bright colors and an uplifting image works! Of course, psds + image arrangement can always help with this, but not always. If you want to include text in your promo too, this is also very important to keep in mind. You want your image to match the text you’re going for. If you have a quote / text / poem that talks about the strength or the sacrifice of your character, you want to have an image that, when someone looks at it, they think of that. Similarly, if you have anything that talks about how vibrant / positive / youthful your character is, you’d want an image that conveys it. The medium is the message. You want to make sure people don’t see conflicting messages!

iii. image cropping / positioning. 

Another big one! The image you choose doesn’t have to be entirely what you’re looking for. What I mean by this is that if you like the torso / neck area, but not the face? Crop the face out, but leave everything from the chin down. You like the face, but not the torso? Keep everything from the bridge of the nose up. This also really depends on what kind of message you’re trying to go put into your promo. Chin down usually puts the focus more on symbolism, where face only puts the individual at a more personal standpoint for the audience. I usually like to browse on pinterest to find any images in promos that aren’t fanart or canon art of my muse, especially in more abstract promos. I run into a problem a lot though: I find an image I like, but it’s only 240 pixels or so compared to the 540 I need. No worries! Usually, this is solvable. Just right click on the image, and click search google for this image. It’ll open up a new tab and give you the option to look for the same size file of the image, or a bigger size file of the image. Around 80% of the time you’ll find an image that’s at least 500 pixels big, if not bigger. The other 20%, maybe not. But still. 540 pixels isn’t big enough. You could either make the other forty pixels transparent, or!

iv. white space. 

White space, or empty space, is a really cool way of using an image in your promo without the photo needing to be 540px. It works best with actual people - art or photos - and when most of their body is visible. If there’s an arm or a leg that’s slightly cropped off you can always position it to that end of the image to make it look complete. (ie. right arm slightly cropped out, move it to the right end of the image. ta-da! you’re good.) What white space means is just that. A bunch of white (or empty) space around an image. No background scenery. No gradients. It puts the focus directly on the image since there’s only one thing that you can focus on. For example:

Lots of white space! No face showing, just a smile to go with the actual pose. Singular color (red) that’s kept bright to match the smile and keep a bit of vibrancy in the promo even though the rest of the image is monotoned. The text matches with the middle being the same shade of red as the gauntlets to kind of emphasis and draw attention to it. It’s a really simple promo graphic with not too much going on. But it works! 

v. matching.

This is another little thing I like to do. I like to match my promos with my themes if I make them at the same time. Not exactly alike, but close to it. It looks nice on the theme itself, and it really helps convey the stylistic elements of what your muse portrays without actually needing text. The colors and textures in that case do it for you. And speaking of matching ...

vi. text. 

More specifically: fonts, sizing, positioning, and amount.

 I think we all know by now not to use comic sans, lol. I’m not an expert on text, but usually a nice script font paired with a simple sans serif (or serif!) font works really nicely. They contrast but compliment each other really well. I typically avoid using two sans-serif or serif fonts together because they mimic each other too much, and don’t draw enough contrast on the eyes so they kind of blur together. Again, going back to what I’ve been saying practically this entire tutorial lol, you want the aspects of your promo to match thematically! So a font that kind of fits to your promos theme will help a lot. 

The sizing is also a cool thing to mess around with. Again, I keep my stuff fairly simple, and kind of predictable, lol. Big and bold for what I want to emphasis, and smaller, regular text right below (or above). Usually I keep the big and bold text shorter. Either the URL, or the title of the character. The smaller, regular text is longer so that it fits within the dimensions of the bigger text, and it’s usually the details of the blog. independent / affiliated, selective / private, single / multi verse, etc etc. 

For example:

Big bold name! Smaller, regular text containing the details. Again, cropped out eyes, lol, since the focus is supposed to be more on the solemnity/weight of it all, with the people behind him.

Positioning of the text is important too. You don’t want it to interfere or clash with parts of your image. Don’t put your text in places where it’s hard to read, and don’t make your text the same or too similar of a color as the background that it’s placed on either. If your promo has text, you want it to be read and sort of its own independent thing, important enough that you, y’know, included it in your promo. So place it where there’s a lot of white space, or if it works in the center of the promo. Which leads us to ... amount of text. 

Text on promos is fun. They’re cool! They help whoever sees it get a feeling for what you’re going for, what your muse is like / what they represent, who they are, etc etc. But too much text is a thing, and it’s not a good thing. It can make the promo or graphic too cluttered, it can take the focus away from the image you selected, and if there’s way too much, then you might have to make the font smaller to make it fit, and then on top of all that it won’t be easy to read.

For example:

The white text alone was not visible and clear enough against the colors of the image, so I added in a drop shadow to help make it more legible. I centered the text to the middle of the image and didn’t make it too small so it would draw the most attention to it. I kept the font the same through and through, only changing the size. The url is big, bold, and italicized to emphasize it, with the details of the blog underneath being smaller. The colors match! It’s two colors, bright red and gold because Tony Stark / Iron Man’s colors are red and gold. The quote, with ‘aflame’ ‘burn’ and ‘like a phoenix’ also are imagery associated with these colors.

The text I added underneath in the actual tumblr post was centered and justified as well, to keep the symmetry and balance of the promo in mind.

If you have a long image where the actual image itself isn’t the focus of what you want to put through, but the long quote is, it can work! It’s worked fantastically well in those cases, because you read the text while seeing the image out of the corner of your eyes. But you have to make sure the text is legible and doesn’t clash with the image, and that the text isn’t the size of the entire image either. it also works with promos of shorter height, but again: keep in mind what the focus is.

for example:

this is a very text heavy promo. but i made it fit, by making the images dark and faded into the background, and keeping the focus on the text. the quote was long, so i divided it up intil three different images. big bold text for the url, with smaller blog details underneath. the font is uniform, with only one used throughout. too many fonts does not look good. try to keep it at two at a time, three max.

that’s all i can think of at the moment, lmao. there are really simple graphics: not a lot of textures in them, not too saturated or hard - mixed. not animated. but this is less a ‘these are the kinds of promos you should make’ and more of a what you might want to keep in mind when making any kind of promo! 

overall though, what you want to do most is experiment. use photoshop. don’t be afraid to try new things, to use different features. if you never use them, you’ll never know what they do or what they look like, what kind of effect they can make on your graphic. find your own style, your own preference!!

hopefully this helped some anonymous!