#but now my two main reasons for sticking around the show are gone

[eyeball-freak]

Honestly considering that season 3 was terrible and that they killed off Qilby (I’m not sure how season 4 is I just got spoiled on a lot and I couldn’t bring myself to finish) as well as some of ToT’s behavior recently I just no longer have any interest in season 5 of Wakfu. Something was lost in translation during the transition from season 2 to season 3 and I don’t think they’re gonna get it back for the last season. Idk though, I guess we’ll see

[deconstructthesoup]

Looked at my Dead Boy Detectives swap AU, decided that it could be better, and ran with it. So... here ya go.

(For those of you who need a refresher---it's an AU where Crystal and Niko are the ghosts and Charles and Edwin are the alive ones. "Dead Girl Detectives," basically.)

Crystal is pretty much unchanged from the original concept---she died in the 1920's, she was a psychic socialite with absent parents, and she acted like the quintessential spoiled wild-child while secretly being fascinated by detective stories. She died when she got possessed by David the demon, who puppeted her body around for weeks... until she finally managed to wrench back some form of control, threw both of them off of a building, and wound up getting sent to Hell. Now that she's out and living free as a ghost, she's doing her level best to leave her old self behind and be a better person---partly for herself, but also so she can prove that she doesn't deserve eternal punishment if Hell ever comes for her again.

Niko's still an anime geek from the 1990's who was an outcast in life, but her death circumstances are different. Instead of dying from the dandelion sprites, she accepted an invitation to a party in an effort to try and socialize more after her father's death... and she got killed in a prank gone wrong, trapped in an abandoned mansion that used to belong to Crystal's family. She probably would've even moved on if it weren't for Crystal showing up and helping her out, giving Niko a reason to stick around. Niko's doing better now, but she still hasn't really processed her feelings surrounding her death. (Also, her hair's still white---she just dyed it that way, and it's never changed even after she died.)

Charles is also pretty much unchanged from the OG concept---he's still an irresponsible witch who got possessed by David and lost his memories as a result---with the added detail that he's one of many incredibly powerful magical people who David's possessed, wrecked havoc with their powers, and killed, though Charles thankfully survived the ordeal thanks to the Dead Girl Detectives. Also, I'm fairly certain that Charles is not only well aware that he's bisexual and out, but he and David were almost certainly dating. Or at least hooking up.

Edwin's still a socially awkward comics nerd and shut-in, but I decided to just have him get the paranormal parasite as a way for him to get involved with Charles and the Dead Girl Detectives---though, instead of a dandelion sprite that's all about soaking up attention, it's a hornet-themed sprite that feeds on people's insecurities and self-loathing. I think that he still butts heads with Crystal a little bit, but his bookish, studious nature winds up becoming incredibly helpful to the team, and he gets along great with Niko and Charles. Especially Charles.

Now, after thinking about it, I realized that if I was going to do a four-way swap with our main crew, it would probably make sense to do the same with our supporting cast. So:

The Night Nurse---or Minerva Knight, as I've tended to name her in my AUs---is in the place as Port Townsend's resident witch, though her motives are pretty different from Esther's. She has no need for any spells of eternal youth, having stopped aging a while ago, and she considers herself the protector of Port Townsend, keeping the forces of the supernatural at bay from the mundane residents... even if that means occasionally sacrificing a child or two to keep some of the more unsavory beings satisfied. Needless to say, Minerva has a very skewed view of morality, and unlike her canon counterpart, she can't really be swayed to change her mind. She's scary.

Esther, meanwhile, is in the lovely position as the Crow Queen, a charming and campy trickster being who exists to wear fabulous, over-the-top outfits, rule over her little feathered darlings, and to be a menace to everyone she meets. Her whole deal with Crystal isn't exactly flirtatious, but it's enough to give Crystal a gigantic bisexual awakening. And whether or not Esther's really all that interested and is just fucking with her, she's a lot of fun, and she's definitely instrumental in helping Crystal realize more about herself.

Thomas (the Cat King, but we're calling him by his first name) is Charles and Edwin's landlord---the owner of a queer bakery who's having a bit of a quarter-life crisis and is therefore a bit of an asshole to almost everyone he meets. Despite how prickly he is, though, he has an energy about him that makes him automatically endearing to every single misfit teen in a fifty-mile radius, and he's less than enthusiastic about it. Deep down, Thomas doesn't really mind, because he is a pretty lonely individual (not that he'd ever admit it).

And lastly, Jenny is the Night Guard On Duty in the Afterlife Lost & Found Department---overworked, burnt out, and thoroughly cynical when it comes to the affairs of the living. She's convinced that all she really needs is the big case that'll get her a promotion to a much less stressful position, and tracking down the Dead Girl Detectives seems to be just the thing. Of course, she's not as dedicated to her job as she appears to be, and even years of working in the most depressing place in the universe hasn't fully worn her down.

And, uh, other than the fact that I'm gonna have to figure out a stand-in for Monty... that's what I got!

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Our Youth: The Responsibility of Adaptation

I regret to inform you all that I dropped Our Youth a few weeks back. Which is tragic because I was so enamored with it at the beginning that I literally went and searched up the manwha and devoured it all in one sitting.

Now, I can definitively say that I do think the first part of both the manwha and the show is the strongest. BUT I want to talk about the two changes I saw in the first half that I do think negatively impacted how the College Years landed. (Forgive me if I get some of the details slight off I'm too lazy to go back to the manwha and check).

For the sake of expediency, I am going to keep the names from the jbl even when talking about the manwha, but please know that Minase and Haruki have different names in the Korean graphic novel.

I. The Big Change that Had a Big Impact

First, I want to talk about the events that get Haruki suspended/expelled from school.

The Show: The bullies Haruki hangs around in school rob a store, Haruki confronts them, Haruki gets in trouble with the school, Haruki...takes the blame for some unknown reason?

The Manwha: The bullies Haruki hangs around bullies a student so severely over the course of the school year that the student attempts suicide. Haruki has never directly partaken in the bullying (keeping with the categories Minase breaks people down in to) but he is a bystander. And when he hears about this student's suicide attempt he realizes that he really should not just be letting the bullies get away with shit like that. He confronts the bully, calls him out on it, and in front of the entire class and as the teacher walks in that fucking piece of shit kid cries and wails and cowers in fear of Haruki making it look like Haruki is not only threatening him but is also the main perpetrator of the bullying that pushed a child to attempt suicide.

In my opinion, there is a huge difference in the stakes and the consequences here, and I think the way the show played it out not only lowers the stakes but detracts from the messaging around the perception of kids like Haruki. The bully in the manwha weaponized the fact that all the teachers see Haruki as a violent delinquent because he...checks notes: choked a teacher who was sexually harassing a student and threatened him to prevent it from happening again and the fact that Haruki is technically culpable because he watched it happen and never stepped in, in order to take the heat off himself and avoid getting in trouble.

In the show Haruki just immediately backtracks on his fight with the bully at the pool hall and takes the fall, suffering the consequences for something he very much didn't do. Haruki's suspension does not induce the kind of rage it would have if they had gone with the manwha version, and Haruki's pulling back from Minase also would make far more sense in the context of Haruki's reaction to finding out about the student's attempt and the part he played in it.

II. The Small Change that Had a Big Impact

Now, I admit I am often guilty of finding a lot of small moments in media to often be what sticks with me, and I can get annoyed when I see an adaptation that might strip away my favorite little moments, or favorite little lines (RIP "call me child one more goddamn time" from Critical Role, you will always be famous to me)

But in this case I do feel it is fair of me to say that making this specific tweak to the story should have caused a hell of a lot of edits to the second half of the story in order to make it compelling. What would that be?

The Show: Minase's father makes a queer indie film. Minase and Haruki attend the film together, there is a happy ending, and Minase finds a label that speaks to his feelings for Haruki.

The Manwha: Minase's father makes a queer indie film. Miase and Haruki attend the film together, there is a sad ending and Minase does not find a label that speaks to his feelings for Haruki. In college, Minase learns that his tutor is gay and has a partner and is happy with his life and this is where he starts to parse through his feelings for Haruki and adopt a label/definition of his queerness.

Small tweak, huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge difference in vibe and in justification for what comes next. In the manwha Haruki and Minase do not see each other for six years because of a phone mishap where one of them had their phone turned off for months in order to focus on studying, and the other got a new phone number or something thus they did not really see or hear from each other. They have an accidental run in in college and they restart their relationship but it still takes them some time.

I dropped the show before I got to the college years so I do not know what if anything happened there, but I do think that when you actually did nothing wrong to warrant getting suspended from school, you know where each other's houses are, you know what your feelings actually are, and your external experiences with queerness are generally happy it is extremely difficult to make being separated for six years feel compelling or believable.

I think it is a little bit more believable when you have a character who is actually culpable in the bullying that led to a suicide attempt, your supposed "school friends" who you kinda have always hated tries to make himself the victim, you don't have a label/definition to put your feelings to, and your only external experiences with queerness are sad and tragic that you might do what Haruki did and assume that Minase also started seeing you negatively and no longer cared for you.

Anyway, I don't think I have a solid conclusion to this post beyond I think if the writers were interested in lightening the mood around the school situation and giving the boys a happy queer ending in high school so they could feel comfortable with their feelings, that's totally fine, but then I think they needed to make some tweaks to the back half to justify those decisions a bit better, at least based off of what I have seen and heard about the way the back half played out.

[nerdieforpedro]

Notes with Dieter

Dieter Bravo/husband x female reader/wife

My blog overall is 18+ MDNI

Word Count: about 1.1k

Summary: You're leaving for another work trip and Dieter is sad once again. This time, he decides to show you how much he cares in full Bravo style.

Warnings: Dieter is the softest boi 😭, side-eyeing a suitcase, illusions to smut?, kisses, doodles, just all the fluff, bad jokes

Notes: So this is a follow up to The Day before was always difficult. @angelofsmalldeath-codeine and @mysterious-moonstruck-musings are always asking more for more soft Dieter. So naturally, I took it as a request even though they didn't really ask? FYI Dieter is a koala 🐨 in this one, but he'll always be our lovable messy trash panda. 🦝 I think I used all the colors Hemmy. 😆

Main Masterlist / Dieter Bravo Masterlist

Dieter used to love suitcases. It meant he was on the move to a new job or some new fun, sometimes both. Now he was more ambivalent about them. Coming home and seeing the hard shell gray suitcase meant that tomorrow morning you’d be gone again for a time.

It’s not like he didn’t know it in advance, you’d always let him know ahead of time. Especially if he was going to be at home alone. It didn’t make it hurt any less. Some might say that he should get over it, just relax and wait for your return, but Dieter isn’t that type of man. The tea kettle screeches with steam and he knows where you are: the kitchen. Instead of alerting you to his presence, he waits until you’ve poured your tea and is covering it to let it steep.

His chest gently presses against your back before his arms ensnare you just under your breasts, propping them up as you’ve showered and in your black cotton nightgown. You’ve decided on an early evening for yourself but Bravo has other plans as his lips to the nape of your neck tell you. A chuckle leaves your chest while you fix the rest of your tea, not intent on giving him a quarter into the game he’s trying to play.

But the two of you sit on the couch. Chatting about current events, he hasn’t made any more moves. Just watching you, listening to you, with an enamored grin. Another chuckle from you for how cute he looks, he’ll do this from time to time when you’re going to leave town again. Like he’s trying to paint a picture of you in his mind. You always remind him that he’s your reason to come home. Dieter always tells you he’s grateful for that.

After tea, it’s bedtime and there are kisses goodnight. He wraps his arm around your waist. You kiss his neck and begin the nightly activities. Apparently Dieter’s learned to just give you a nibble and you’ll do the rest. In the glow of the short hours of the dark, you pinch his cheek, figuring out his game before dozing off on his chest. Sticking to him, not wanting to let go.

Dieter steals out of the bed when you’re asleep and uses a notebook he keeps in his nightstand. He sketches your various expressions you made while on the couch and then how you look in bed right now, sheets half-covering you, your glory exposed for him to see. He has to capture it now else he could miss his moment.

Another idea pops into his head so he grabs his phone and steps out into the living room to record it for you. He plans to send it tomorrow morning while you’re at the airport so you can listen to it on the plane.

A handwritten note slid into your suitcase is for when you unpack. Carefully he slides back into bed, his thumb running down your back with a kiss to your shoulder.

The sun has barely broken the horizon when the alarm sounds, groans fill the room as you both stir. Washing up and getting dressed is your focus so Dieter makes a light breakfast for you with coffee. His eyes cut to your suitcase before he picks it up to carry it to the car his ordered for you, thankfully he was able to zip it back properly.

A text from Dieter says to listen to the message on the plane and to download it just in case. Your headphones are in after greeting your coworkers and the plane is at cruising altitude.

“Hey pretty lady, you know I never want you to leave. I know it’s selfish but I know I always feel better and do better when you’re here. You’re my person you know? Plus who else is going to tell me that many patterns don’t go together, everyone always tells me yes.

Anyway, have a safe flight and kick those old dudes asses. I hope your project goes well. I know you were trying to explain it to be but once you got into Access and databases I was gone. I’m so sorry. I’m gonna try googling it later. You can’t wear that navy blue dress because they’ll think they have a chance and you’re already with an Oscar Winner. They’re too late and I love you Ms. Smarty Pants. Hmm… You should wear pants. Bye.”

The two people sitting next to you thought that you needed some oxygen based on how hard you were wheezing trying to hold in your laughter. You told them that you were fine and it was just a message from your sweet husband, he has quite a way with words.

Thankfully when you landed, everyone was given time to rest in their rooms before the initial group dinner. Opening your suitcase, a piece of notebook paper fell out and you picked it up off the floor. Sitting on the bed you read it, shaking your head.

Sometimes I really do wonder why you’re with me at all, why you come home to me. Hell, why you call me home. I can be a complete and utter mess, irresponsible at times and I’m sure annoying. My one redeeming quality I thought was in creating art through film, painting and drawings. You helped me see that I’m more than that though. So much more. I can be faithful, I can be loyal, I can put someone above myself and I can do all these things without needing an escape.

I often wonder what would have happened if you hadn’t run over my foot with your suitcase and I didn’t sucker you into having lunch with me. You look as beautiful then as you do now, actually more so because we enjoy nighttime KitKats a few times a week. We dance it off part way so it’s fine.

I love you my brave, clever, gracious muse.

Your koala bear who runs hot,

Dieter Bravo

P.S. - You should frame this FYI

Falling back on the bed, you question when Dieter would have slipped this into your suitcase let alone written it. It’s completely in character for him and at the same time, seems so unusual. Trying to hold your tears back only makes them fall harder, you’ll need to re-do your makeup for the dinner but it doesn’t matter to you if you’re late. Dieter will never fail to make himself memorable.

Life as Dieter Bravo’s wife is always full of the unexpected and something to hold onto.

Trash Panda Posse 🦝: @katw474 @readingiskeepingmegoing @megamindsecretlair @pamasaur @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin @sp00kymulderr @titlee78 @magpiepills @soft-girl-musings @morallyinept @rhoorl @wannab-urs @survivingandenduring @missladym1981 @yorksgirl @fhatbhabie @tinytinymenace @yourcoolauntie

Special fluff guests: @grogusmum @maggiemayhemnj and @frenchiereading

[hed-romancer]

how twins are depicted in media

i've noticed that very rarely do fictional twins act like how real life twins do. they usually fall into one of two traps: Gimmick, or Plot Device. so let's run through some examples of poorly written twins!

Gimmick Twins

Gimmick Twins are supporting characters that are functionally one character for most of if not all of their screen time. They go everywhere together and do everything together, with limited exceptions. There might be one episode where they try different things or a few lines about how they don't like being treated as a set, but largely they are treated as set, by themselves, by the people around them, by the narrative. They are often comedic relief and any long term separation between them is seen as sad.

Examples include: Fred and George Weasley, Edric and Emira Blight, Ruffnut and Tuffnut Throston. I'm also putting the twins from the shining in here. why not.

Plot Device Twins

Plot Device Twins can be main characters, supporting characters, or one-off characters that *have to* be twins because the plot requires them to be. Think of any movie with identical twins changing places. They have to be identical twins because if they weren't, the plot couldn't happen at all. a main character's evil twin shows up and takes their place- the only reason this character has a twin is because the plot demands it.

i'm now going to take a moment to discuss one of the examples of Plot Device Twins that irks me the more i think about it. Stanley and Stanford Pines. and i hate to put them in here, because dipper and mabel are perhaps my favorite fictional twins in anything ever (they're there for each other but have differences but don't get treated as a set but are still a duo. they decide to stick together at the end of the show but there's no indication they plan on spending the rest of their lives living in the same place. perfection.) but stan and ford being twins irks me.

so obviously stan and ford had to be twins because they had to have similar names because stan had to take over his brother's identity but the show still wanted the audience to feel like they knew stan, and didn't want to have to change his entire name after not what he seems. thus stan is using a fake name (stanford) but also his real name (he's always gone by stan).

and i get it. it'd be a little strange if after 30 episodes of a show, the real stanford pines showed up and we had to start referring to the guy we thought was stan pines as like. john pines or something. it'd be weird.

also stan and ford are twins bc then they can serve as parallels to dipper and mabel.

i get it. i really do. i just don't like it. i personally think they should've gone balls-to-the-wall, and had stan's real name be something completely different entirely. then the older pineses could've been twins or could've been not twins, and i wouldn't mind either way.

but yeah it's just kinda noticeable to me that a show that has a really good depiction of twins and is created by a twin about his own experiences, still falls into the trap of needing another set of twins because the plot won't work otherwise.

i don't think i'm explaining this right. does this make sense to anyone?

[radi0gh4stxd]

Au infodump post!!

I feel like I’ve wrote enough about this au to now, like, post about it?? I don’t know, but I think writing it out might help me to fill stuff in lol.

I don’t think this will be a long post, but I intend to yap a little so yeah-

Habromania Au!

Yes, I’ve finally got a name for it, but longer than I wanted it be called but eh, it’s whatever. Fun fact: the word means, ‘Delusions of Happiness’, and I think that fits the premise of my au as well as it can right now.

Now, onto the actual Au.

So, this au focuses a little more on my favourite little guy, Raffs!! He was given the short stick in the Og game, so I’d thought I’d let him shine a little in this au!

Don’t worry, Caz is still around and is just as important, but I’m not confident in my ability to write him yet, so for now, Raffs is our main guy!

Everything leading up to the drilling stays the same, except in this, Raffs isn’t the one going into the dive bell, it’s Brodie. Why?? Because one) I needed a reason for Raffs to not be infected and two) I wanted Brodie to be an infected in my au. So, basically Brodie decides that, to soothe the boys anxiety, to go first to just show him that all is fine, and that he’s safe.

And then the drill happens. And The Shape wakes up. This stays the same. Caz and Gregor still fall, except, I decide to be nice and decide that Gregor also gets to live, so Raffs and Douglas pull those two out, help them and that jazz. Douglas and Gregor stay with the diving bell, and Caz and Raffs go down and investigate, like in the game.

They find Gibbo, not infected, but rightfully scared. Finlay is also here, but she isn’t too well, instead of Gibbo getting the stuff in him, it’s her. But she swears she’s fine, that it didn’t hit her skin or whatever. So now, the group makes their way to accommodations, where Roy, Trots, Archie and possibly, again im making this up as I go, O’Connor are. They talk, discuss what the hell is happening and are later joined by Douglas and Gregor.

Archie is Very happy to see Gregor alive :)

Raff’s quick to ask where Brodie is, because you know, if they’re here, then where’s Brodie?? And the two explain that, well, Brodie went to look for him. But he wasn’t right, something was definitely wrong with him. But he was gone before they could ask anything.

So, now they have to go round the rig, searching for the others. And the shape stuff still happens, infected still try and fuck them over yadda yadda-

Now not everything written here is set in stone, but most is. This is me just kinda word vomiting and hoping it makes sense.

Now, the Shape and the infection and infected.

As already seen, some of the og infected aren’t infected here, while some who weren’t infected are. Thats only a few characters, most of the og infected are infected here too.

The infection is different in this au. It’s mostly mental, but physical traits still appear, but it mostly stays in its origin spot of infection, unless said person has more than origin spot of infection <3

Think of this like, a mashed up version of those mlp infected videos, the infection from hollow knight and the mold from resi 7. I’ve taken bits and pieces of what I like about them and just- threw them in a blender.

^^^

These are like, shoddy, sketched renditions of what I mean by the , ‘physical’ effects. The one on the left is Muir, and the one the right is Brodie. Not the best but I tried-

Now, I did change some things about the Shape for this au, and how it affects the crew, but I might, and by might I probably will, make a separate post for that.

As for now, that’s all I’ve got for this au. But yeah! Fun! If you have any questions about this au, I’ll try and answer them best I can, but I’ll warn you, I’m not to great at it. So if it comes off a bit awkward, that’s why<3

[retrievablememories]

out loud | seulgi (m)

pairing: chauffeur!seulgi x celebrity!fem!reader genre: fluff, fwb to lovers, hurt/comfort, smut word count: 6k warnings: cursing, injury (ankle sprain), crying, oral sex (female receiving), fingering, some thigh-riding song inspos: out loud - syd ft kehlani | for the night - chloe | touch me - victoria monet ft kehlani | losing - h.e.r. a/n: this is a sequel to lady cab driver!

all this “day in the life of a celebrity” stuff is way out of my range of knowledge, so i’m not sure how much of this realistic, but hey...shrug!

the MC is a singer but not a kpop idol or in the k-industry. i’m not gonna stop if you imagine it that way though lmao

--

you could never deny me

to the eyes of the strangers that watch us when we walk by

so what's with all the silence?

“...so, are you sure you aren’t currently in a relationship?” genie, the podcast host sitting across from you, asks this while twirling her pen a mile a minute and smiling nervously. she innately knows that she’s going to annoy you with this inquiry, but she asks anyway.

you sit up straighter in your seat, giving her an exasperated look. “what do you mean ‘am i sure’? you think i wouldn’t know that or not?”

“okay, calm the attitude!” she cries out, laughing to mask her own annoyance with the way you responded. “i just want to know because you’ve really been different lately.”

“i would if you hadn’t just asked me the exact same question earlier,” you deadpan, completely ignoring her second statement.

amanda, who is your friend-but-not-really and serves as the main host of this podcast, laughs and places her hand on your shoulder. “it’s not that serious, y/n.” she’s also probably wondering where the hell your media training has gone, but you’ve never had much patience for entertaining ridiculous, rude, or annoying remarks even in the public eye. for many people, that quality has made you a bit unpalatable, but you figure the ones who really matter will stick around regardless.

you sigh and try to mockingly roll your eyes, though you think it probably comes off more genuine than playful.

“genie has a point anyway, it’s not hard to tell when you’re having more fun in life, you know…specifically with another person, i mean. your overall demeanor shifts,” amanda says, raising a finger as if you can’t dispute her hot take on it. “and also, there are a few more romantic-slash-sensual songs than usual on your recent EP, so…”

despite yourself, you smile crookedly as you think about the tracks she’s mentioned; it’s more of a smirk now. genie observes your expression and throws her hands up as if to say see what i mean? “does everything have to be from personal experience?” you argue.

“does every song have to be fictional?” amanda shoots back, leaning closer to the microphone in front of her. “or will we all finally realize that there is a fundamental truth in almost every song there is in the universe, no matter how off-the-wall it may be…yes, that even includes eiffel 65’s blue.” you close your eyes and put your forehead in your hand, which means you hear rather than see genie choke on her drink in her laughter.

“don’t start getting all existential on me now, or whatever the fuck it is that you do,” you mutter. “also, you two should be praising your own smarts each and every day for making this an independent podcast, because this silly shit would get you kicked off any actual network. girl.”

--

it’s a matching pantsuit today, and a little more casual than the ones seulgi usually wears. great for your eyes, not so great for your concentration. at least you’re not the one who has to drive.

you almost regret your decision to get in the front of the car, but then again, that outfit is the very reason why you’re sitting up here with her now.

seulgi blinks at you like you’ve just landed from a spaceship as you climb into the passenger seat beside her. it’s not the limo today, which is really only saved for more luxurious outings or when you want to show off in front of a fellow celebrity you’re not too fond of, but the mercedes-benz—which you admit is still show-offy but not as impractical.

“you’re getting in the front seat?” she asks, but turns the engine on anyway and is already backing out of the parking space.

“yes, why not?”

“kind of defeats the purpose of having all those amenities in the back, but okay.”

“i’ve had my fill of ice water and little andes mints for today, seulgi. just let me sit up here with you, please?”

seulgi arches an eyebrow. “well, you don’t have to ask me. even if you never drive it, it’s your car. remember?”

“true…and i know you prefer being told what to do, so…”

there’s an awkward little silence where seulgi makes a sound like a laugh and reddens, which you take as a win for today. it’s become surprisingly more easy to get her flustered ever since you two began your arrangement, when you used to be on the receiving end of it more often than not.

“so how’d it go?” she asks, regaining her composure by changing the subject.

“same as it always is with those damn girls,” you say, chuckling as you think back to one of the many ridiculous things amanda had said during the interview. “they’re fun, though. even if i find something to complain about every time i go on their podcast.”

“what’s your complaint for today, then?”

you hesitate, scratching the back of your head with a sudden awkward air. “they asked me about any ‘current relationships.’ just the kind of gossipy stuff fans always want to know.”

seulgi nods, still keeping her eyes on the road. “so i’m sure you gave some cryptic answer or something? since you don’t like people prying in your business.”

“uh, basically.” that wasn’t the answer you expected, though now you aren’t sure what you were expecting. you two aren’t in a relationship, so why would seulgi act any certain way about interviewers asking you that question?

the rest of the car ride back to your house is filled with sporadic conversation, which also involves seulgi reminding you of your weekly schedule for what feels like the 50th time. transporting you everywhere means she needs to know your entire itinerary at all times, which also means she essentially plays the roles of both chauffeur and personal assistant. the convenience of it is perfect, but occasionally, it also serves to make you feel more confused about your “involvement.”

the lines between personal and professional have blurred so much that you no longer know what’s wrong and what’s right.

and now that you’re in it, it feels odd to field relationship questions, write romantic songs while telling yourself you have no particular subject in mind, and keep your arrangement a secret so that no one in the public world knows about seulgi’s connection to you as anything other than your chauffeur. it feels odd to have her drive you around the city to important work events or interviews and accompany you across the country on professional business trips, only to see her again several nights a week in your bed.

within the small bubble consisting of your personal team and close friends, everyone knows about what you and seulgi have going on. they don’t comment on it, which you prefer, though you can’t rid yourself of the slight paranoia of what they must say when neither of you are around. especially danika…a backup dancer and friend of yours who you were involved with in a similar way before seulgi ever came along.

but as long as no one opens their mouth to you about it, you’ll be fine. even if you’re beginning to feel a little confused about the nature of all this. maybe you’re just overthinking it.

seulgi’s hand on yours is warm and familiar as she helps you out of the car. it makes you feel weirdly sappy for a moment, so you don’t think twice as you lean forward to kiss her on the corner of the mouth, like a preview of the real thing. just a teaser. you chuckle at the lipstick print that’s left there when you pull away.

“will i see you tonight?” you ask, though it feels more like a confirmation of something you both already know.

she nods and rubs her thumb over the back of your hand with a smile. “tonight.”

--

a music festival in europe, a week later...

you’re in your dressing room with some of your dancers and other team members, mentally preparing yourself to get on stage in just a few minutes. danika plops onto the soft gray couch beside you, purposely taking up the rest of the space on it so that her head is in your lap, hair fanning across your legs. you look down at her face, sighing at being disturbed out of your routine.

“well, hello. now what brings you over here?” you ask.

"nothing special," she replies, though you know that isn't true just by the expression on her face. "you must be excited to be performing your new songs for the first time with a live audience." her eyes are alight with the thrill of performing again after a while.

“i’ll stay excited as long as all you guys keep it together and make me look good.”

she rolls her eyes. “of course we will. you and i didn’t spend like 5 years dancing at every possible event to not look good together.” the stress she puts on together makes your ears perk up.

scoffing, you shove her shoulder in a way that you both know isn’t serious. “okay girl, i didn’t even say all that and you know it, so don’t start.”

“i’m just joking,” danika shrugs, and then speaks lower so no one else can eavesdrop; though they’re all preoccupied with their phones and conversations. “though, i’m always open if you are. for old time’s sake, or whatever.” her voice and posture are as casual as can be, one of her hands behind her head, but your eyes widen a little. you’re not entirely sure how to respond to that knowing you’re regularly having sex with seulgi—which danika surely also knows.

you and seulgi never really discussed the terms of your arrangement. instead, you just…decided you really liked that day in the limo, wanted to do it again, and continued falling into bed together. whether sleeping with other people is okay is unbeknownst to you, though you suddenly realize you have no desire to do so.

you shove danika again, trying to play off your surprise and uncertainty. “where’s that even coming from all of a sudden?” she interlocks her hands with yours as you try to pull away, and the both of you end up scrabbling on the couch, your question left unanswered. “if you mess up my outfit before i have to go on stage—”

seulgi walks into the room casually sipping from a smoothie cup alongside your manager sherry, and as engrossed as you are with play-fighting danika in your lap and trying to untangle yourself from her, you don’t notice seulgi glancing over in your direction. her eyes squint and her whole body pauses for a second, but she does nothing to make her presence known to you. just as quickly, seulgi brings her attention back to your manager, only catching the tail-end of what the woman was saying.

“sorry, can you say that again? it’s a little loud in here.”

seulgi focuses fully on sherry now, but there’s still something itching in the back of her mind. there’s no reason for her to feel weird about you and danika acting as friends do. it’s not that kind of relationship, she reminds herself, though deep down, she can’t help feeling a bit bothered at that level of closeness between the two of you.

--

before long, it’s time for you to go out on stage and perform.

there are so many different things to think about whenever you’re on stage, but every time, it all comes together like a type of second nature to you. there’s little time to dwell in your nervousness when interacting with fans and making sure you’re hitting every note and dance move. out of all the nonsense that comes with notoriety and the entertainment industry, these moments when you actually get to live and breathe in your talent and share it with others are what makes everything else worth dealing with.

even when you get to the last song in your set, you’re not yet ready for the night to end, having fed off the crowd’s energy and used it to fuel your own adrenaline.

things shift drastically halfway through the first chorus, though, when you twist around a little too harshly during a spin and your heel goes out from under you. you feel a sharp pain burst in your ankle, and it’s intense enough to send you stumbling to the ground. for a few seconds, your mind spins from the shock until you realize you’re no longer standing.

“shit, y/n!” someone grabs your arm from the side, and you realize it’s danika. there’s a wave of concern from the crowd in the form of panicked screams and shouts. seeing everyone’s shocked faces makes your heart beat faster; you can’t help feeling like you need to defuse the situation, reassure the fans, and salvage what you can.

grinding your teeth together from the pain, you bring the microphone back up to your mouth with one hand while wrestling your heels off with the other. “i’m okay...the show ain’t over yet!” there are many cheers at that statement, though the aura of concern still persists. moving the mic away, you tell danika, “it’s fine, go back to your spot.” the rest of your dancers are still keeping with the choreography for the sake of professionalism; danika looks at you like you’ve lost it, but you shoo her away, so she rushes back to her place amongst the others.

now without your heels, you push yourself back to your feet and limp through the rest of the choreography, making a concerted effort to keep your voice steady through the pain.

as the last notes of the instrumental fizzle out, your dancers gather at your sides as they’re meant to do for the ending of this song, but a couple of them—including danika—sling their arms around you so they can support your weight. they lead you off the stage to the tune of thousands of screams, yet all you can hear is the blood rushing in your ears. you’re so distracted you even forget to say your regular thank yous and goodbyes to the crowd.

you are able to keep yourself together until you get backstage and sherry wrangles you down into a chair and scolds you for still trying to dance on your injured foot—at which point you put your face in your hands and burst into tears.

“that was so stupid. i looked so stupid out there. what the fuck is wrong with me? everyone probably hates me now!”

“that’s not even true.” sherry sighs, now regretting how she immediately complained instead of trying to reassure you.

“no they don’t!” danika says at the same time. “you’re overthinking it. look, we just need to get you to the hospital.”

you shake your head, your eyes burning with tears and face still hidden by your hands. “this is why i hate heels.”

seulgi isn’t surprised at your injured state when you’re helped into the car, having already been alerted by your manager. she is startled by how much you’re crying over it, though she doesn’t show it. she’s never seen you shed one sad tear before this.

seulgi drives you to the nearest hospital with sherry, danika, and a couple other essential members of the entourage in tow. she doesn’t go in with you and the others, as it’s her job to have the car ready to swoop you away from any prying fans or paparazzi whenever you get done. instead, she spends most of her time in the car drumming her fingers against the wheel and fidgeting in her seat. the other percentage is spent resisting the urge to take her gloves off so she can bite her nails.

it feels like hours before sherry texts to update seulgi and you’re in her sights again, brought out in a wheelchair and your big sunglasses firmly covering your eyes. seulgi is a little taken aback at her own relief but doesn’t dwell on it long, as her main focus is getting you out of the parking lot in one piece amid the photographers trying to crowd the car.

sherry rolls down the window to growl at them, “get the fuck out of the way! we’re not paying for your hospital bills if you get run the fuck over!” this seems to be enough to back them down, though they’re clearly not happy about being spoken to in such a way.

the rest of the ride to the hotel manages to be fairly calm, and you are whisked up to your room by the others. seulgi parks the car in the parking garage and finally unclenches her hands from around the steering wheel. she yanks her chauffeur’s gloves off and runs her hands through her hair, feeling like one weight has lifted while another simultaneously settles itself down on her shoulders.

seulgi has barely stepped foot into her own room when she gets a text, and she sighs—doesn’t look like she’ll be clocking out for the night now. but after receiving texts from sherry all night, she doesn’t expect the message to be directly from you when she checks her phone.

2:03 a.m. y/n: can you come up to my room?

there’s no explanation. it’s just those seven words. seulgi’s heartbeat speeds up anyway.

within minutes, she’s being let into your room by sherry, who appears to be on her way out.

“you know what to do if you need anything,” sherry calls over her shoulder.

“yeah, i got it mom!” you reply, which earns you an eye roll from her.

sherry nods to seulgi as she slides past her, patting her on the shoulder. “you know she’s injured, so—take it easy, yeah?”

seulgi only scoffs at that, her ears reddening at the implication. she closes the door after her and walks to your bed, where you’re lying with your injured foot propped on a pillow and wrapped in a bandage. the TV is on a random station that seulgi knows you’re not even watching, the volume so low it might as well be muted.

“how are you doing? is your foot okay?”

you shrug, looking tired and disappointed with the world. “it’ll live, i guess. it’s a sprain, so it’ll heal eventually…good thing it’s not a damn fracture.”

“i’m glad it’s not serious,” seulgi says, allowing herself to breathe easier.

you sigh and recline further against the pillows. “feels kinda like the end of the world, though.”

“i know. i’m sorry. you were really good today, though, and i hope that counts for something.” seulgi absentmindedly scratches her thumbnail against one of the pillows on your bed. “you already know i thought the only girl was great,” she adds, referring to one of your new songs.

you lean your head on your hand, your face warming at her compliment. you think back to the night you’d invited a handful of close friends—including seulgi—to listen to that track and a couple other completed ones. “i don’t know why i released that song to the public. it seems too personal. and then i performed that tonight before falling flat on my ass in front of thousands? shit!”

seulgi gives a lopsided smirk. “has anybody ever told you how dramatic you are?”

you shake your head fiercely, pretending not to know. “no, never, i think?” before the conversation can continue down that road, you blurt out, “could you stay with me?”

“you want me to stay the night?” it certainly wouldn’t be the first time seulgi has stayed over with you, but she’s kind of surprised you want her around while you’re in this state.

in this context, you’re a little embarrassed to admit it, but you nod. “you just saw me have a complete meltdown over a fucking ankle that will heal anyway. we go together now.”

seulgi is even more dumbstruck by that statement, and her heart starts full-on hammering against her ribcage. she can’t tell if your tone is joking or not, which makes it harder to decipher if you’re actually claiming a relationship with her in this moment or just talking shit like you always do.

it doesn’t help that she’s still feeling a bit confused over your earlier interaction with danika and how it bothered her more than she anticipated. like you, she has begun wondering a little more deeply about where the boundaries of this arrangement end and begin.

at this point, she’s too afraid to ask. the opportunity seems to have passed as you peel back the comforter on the unoccupied side of the bed and pat it impatiently with an imploring look.

“i haven’t even showered since this morning,” seulgi says weakly.

“can’t you shower now?”

“i–yeah, i guess. but i’ll have to go back to my room to get clothes.”

“do you have to go? you can just wear the hotel robe here.” you gesture vaguely to the door of your closet, which is currently closed, but seulgi presumes the said garment must be there.

“and sneak out of the room like that in the morning?” seulgi looks at you in mock horror, and you laugh nervously.

“come on, i can just get sherry to run to the store and get you a new outfit—” you’re about to say something else but stop yourself. “or…maybe you’d rather just sleep in your own bed tonight? uh, that’s fine, i don’t want to—”

“no, i do!” seulgi starts hurriedly pulling her suit jacket off as if to prove to you her desire to stay. “seriously, stop overthinking it!” she calls out as she heads to the bathroom, though she’s also addressing herself.

and so you wait for seulgi to get finished while flipping through channels that don’t offer much to watch. the analog clock on the wall by the TV edges towards 3 a.m. with every minute, but a regular sleep schedule has been foreign to you for years now. your body feels the exhaustion, but your mind is too awake to allow sleep.

seulgi crawls into the bed beside you after she gets out of the bathroom, draped in the hotel robe as you suggested, her hair damp against her cheeks and face bare of makeup. she notices your restless demeanor and asks, “what are you thinking of?”

“i don’t want to think about anything right now,” you reply, which isn’t really an answer, but it’s better than having the awkward what are we? discussion that keeps plaguing your mind.

“what do you want to do instead, then?” seulgi asks, trying to probe your mind.

“you.”

seulgi sits up, knowing the tone of your voice and what it signifies. “you’re injured, y/n,” she murmurs, but she can guess how you’ll respond—which is why she shifts closer anyway. “at least let me do all the work.”

seulgi leans closer to kiss you on the lips, so sweetly that it makes you grin into the embrace. her damp hair tickles your face as you kiss, getting tiny drops of water on your skin. the droplets spread as her lips move to your neck and you slide one of your hands to the back of her head, feeling the strands slip between your fingers.

she remains careful of your injured right foot as she situates herself halfway between your legs, straddling your left thigh and letting you feel her bare against your skin from where your shorts have ridden up. one of her hands slips beneath your tank top, her fingers grasping your breast, thumb grazing across your hardening nipple, and it’s not long before the other hand joins to caress both of your breasts beneath the fabric. each moan that comes out of your mouth is greeted with a kiss from seulgi’s lips as your mouths remain enmeshed.

your hands settle on seulgi’s hips, and you can’t resist the urge to flex your thigh a bit and make the muscle shift against her. at your motion, her lips part in a moan similar to your own. “y/n, seriously…” her words dissolve into a chuckle as you make the motion again and drag her hips forward in tandem.

“sure you don’t want me to handle this?” you ask lowly, flexing your thigh again in reference to the aforementioned this making a wet mess on your skin.

“no, let me before you try to take over as usual.”

she slides down and tugs at the waistband of your shorts, and you carefully lift your hips up to aid her in getting them halfway down your legs. she’s hardly surprised to see your lack of underwear, which you have often cited as being “too restricting.”

her hands grasp both of your thighs as she kisses the skin above your navel, around it, across your hips, and down to your inner thighs, her tongue coming out to trace a path down your pubic mound until it meets the glistening pearl it’s looking for.

“seulgi…” you sigh, shifting your hips to get closer. she answers your call of her name with a wet swipe over your clit and several more after, closing her lips gently around the sensitive bud to heighten your pleasure. never able to keep still for long, she slides one hand off your thigh to spread your lips apart for more access, fitting her tongue inside you after she’s gotten you sufficiently worked up to where your clit is throbbing on her lips. her soft mouth on you has you forgetting the pain of your sprained ankle and the embarrassment of the day’s earlier events as your head sinks back against the headboard, every nerve in your body trembling with the anticipation of release.

she separates her tongue from you to tease two of her fingers at your entrance, stimulating the ultra-sensitive nerve endings there, and that move makes you nearly scratch at her arms to get her to bring her mouth back into play. “y/n, be patient…” she chuckles, her breath warm between your thighs. her fingers reach that spot inside you repeatedly only to flutter against it as she pleases, constantly shifting away and leaving you wanting just that much more.

“shit, i-i can’t take it,” you cry out, your voice breaking on the last word when her fingers stroke that spot and the tip of her tongue circles your clit at the same time. “you seriously expect me to be p-patient right now?”

“only for a little while longer,” she answers, looking at you from beneath her lashes, her skin the color of rose petals. “could you do that for me? i just don’t want this to end so soon.” you are so wet by now that the sounds of your slick occupy the pauses between her words, the sheets beneath you damp from your own wetness and your sweat.

your eyes slide closed after you regard her entreaty, and you offer no intelligible response besides a low, almost stifled moan. you’ve already made up your mind that you’ll make no promises anyway, because you can’t last much longer like this. the way her fingers move against your walls now, assuredly grazingthat spot every time and no longer purposely missing it, has your mind spinning out of control with the need for climax.

your jaw slackens when her mouth returns to you fully again, sucking up your wetness like it’s much-needed water and her tongue stroking across the most sensitive parts of you. the tension in your body tightens until the snapping point, a shaking and high-pitched gasp escaping your mouth.

you flex your legs so intensely that it makes your ankle hurt, but that pain gets lost somewhere in the rush of your orgasm, which spills forth and fills up every corner of your body simultaneously. your voice stutters out of you so that it sounds like you’re sobbing, and you think you might actually be when a tear or two slips from your eye. still deep inside you, seulgi keeps prolonging your climax until you are spent, sighing and slumping against the headboard at an uncomfortable angle.

seulgi rests her head upon your left leg and listens to your gradually slowing breathing, grinning to herself at being the cause of it.

“come on.” eventually, you pull on seulgi’s arms to bring her closer, and she follows. you taste yourself in the ensuing kiss, but you are more focused on sneaking your hand between her thighs, your fingers sliding in the slick and circling her clit before nudging lower to push inside her. her thighs tense around your hand, and she releases a pleasured moan. she requires no coaxing to rock against your hand, though you provide it anyway because you know she likes to hear you talk her through it. “such a good girl for me, aren’t you? i can’t get enough of you, seul.”

“for you,” she repeats, her head lolling on her shoulders as you crook your fingers into the spot she loves—and that you might possibly love even more, for the way she responds when you do it. one of her hands clenches in your shirt while the other goes to circle her clit as you continue fingering her.

“you’re the prettiest when you touch yourself,” you murmur, your own arousal pooling again even as you focus on her. your lips go to her neck and you nibble the skin gently there, causing her to shudder, the robe falling down her shoulders. the taste of her skin right out of the shower is one of your favorite things, you think.

seulgi‘s orgasm is as sweet as the kiss you share while she squeezes around your fingers. you shift your mouth so you can kiss the sweat beads off the side of her face, her jawline. you laugh quietly, perhaps from how much you enjoyed the pleasure you just shared, and she follows suit after catching her breath. it feels like only you two exist in the world right now, laughing for hardly any reason at all.

although tonight turned into possibly the shittiest night of your career, you think it couldn’t have ended any better than this.

--

you wake up with some of seulgi’s hair in your face, and the sheer familiarity of it has you momentarily forgetting that you’re in another country. you are uncomfortable from sleeping on your back all night due to your foot, but you feel better from having her by your side first thing in the morning. you try not to think too deeply about how your heart throbs just from looking at her sleeping face—how cliche it all feels and yet you aren’t even together.

for some reason, that bothers you this morning more than it has any other morning.

more time passes before seulgi begins stirring against you; the sun has risen higher above the horizon and is now brightening the room considerably even through the curtains. seulgi covers her mouth as she yawns. somehow, this one simple action out of everything else is so endearing to you that it has you speaking before you can reconsider.

“uh, i meant what i said last night, you know,” you say, averting your eyes to the ceiling. maybe it will potentially hurt less if you don’t look.

“which part?” seulgi is still half-asleep as she moves flyaway hairs out of her eyes.

“that we…that we go together, actually. maybe we should do more than just have sex.”

seulgi blinks.

“the songs really all were written with you in mind,” you blurt out, as if it must be said now or never. “not really any relationship i had years ago.”

“you’re serious?” seulgi sits up now, becoming more conscious with each second and her surprise mounting.

“i’m very serious….and feeling a little dumb right now,” you answer, rubbing your hand across your forehead in a nervous gesture. you hadn’t planned for just how nerve-wracking the actual “feelings” part would be; the sex had always been easy.

“but what about danika?” seulgi rushes out, then startles like she hadn’t meant to say that at all.

“danika?”

“i just thought—you two are still close.”

“yes, but that’s been over for years.” at first, you assume that seulgi must be thinking the songs you wrote are actually about danika; but after considering what the other woman proposed to you yesterday, you realize it’s likely deeper than that. you make a move to sit up, and seulgi helps you up when she notices. “there’s nothing between me and danika, and i don’t want there to be. we are close and we play-fight and do stupid shit because that’s how we’ve always been, but i don’t want to do anything that’d make you uncomfortable.”

despite your words, seulgi pulls the robe tight around her shoulders in a self-conscious move. “but i don’t want to, like…intrude. or stop you from having fun with your friends. i’m the new person around here anyway. i mean, what if…i don’t know, i just—”

seulgi’s worries are interrupted when you grab her hands and bring them up to your face, pressing your lips to her knuckles. you keep them there for a few long moments before you lean forward to kiss her, and she responds in kind.

“you don’t have to worry about anything like that, okay? if i say it’s me and you, then it’s me and you. everybody else knows not to fuck with me on that,” you insist, and that pulls a laugh out of her as she shakes her head.

“fine,” she relents with a sigh and a smile, and though it’s just one word, you can tell you’ve eased her thoughts.

“could you trust me?” you ask quietly, still holding her hands. you press them to your chin, if only to feel her on as many places of your body as you can.

“yes. i can.”

the two of you sit like that for a few blissful minutes, simply breathing each other’s air and enjoying each other‘s company, before your phone starts ringing and doesn’t stop. sighing, you see that it’s a call from sherry and know you have to answer or she’ll never stop calling.

“what’s up, sherry?” you ask, leaving one hand free so that you can keep playing with seulgi’s fingers.

“i hate to break up all the fun for you guys, but you’re aware that we’re checking out today, yes?” there’s movement and talking in the background, so you figure the others must be in the room with her. “i’ll be up there for you soon, so don’t even think about complaining. and make sure you have some damn clothes on!”

“of course, mother dearest. anything else i should know?” you quip, giggling.

“anything you should know? yeah: i’m not playing. i’ll carry you outta there if i have to.”

“okay okay, i got it. loud and clear. let me get dressed now, bye!” you hang up the phone before sherry can say anything else and almost go to leap off the bed like you usually would before remembering your ankle is injured.

“y/n!” seulgi exclaims, grasping your arm tight so you don’t slide off the bed. she rolls her eyes before you both laugh at your silly mistake. “looks like i’ll have no choice but to stick around…if only to keep you safe.”

[hollownekomata]

//preliminary info on the other two Cooperative Arrancars because they're scratching at my brain but not enough to draw their looks (much of this could be subjected to change but the general concepts are set):

Gwynvere Clarnive Campanária (she/them) - Ex Arrancar n.58

Animal: Barn Owl

Fourth Division (main tasks: courier, quick transport of medical equip)

Actively seeks out the Recruitment Squad to join the Unit. Once one of Baraggan's fracciones, she defects right before the Segunda Espada leaves for the World of the Living because she feels like skipping work (again) and doesn't want to deal with Ggio. Only having joined Baraggan for their own interests, she doesn't have any particular reaction to his demise. After Aizen's defeat, Hueco Mundo becomes too "dull" and "tame" for her, and so decides that switching over to the winning side isn't such a bad idea.

Opportunistic troublemaker whose favorite hobby is to stick her nose into other people's business. Loathes hard work, prefers to flutter around the Gotei 13 to pick up on the latest gossip, or just find people to pester (his favorites are Iemura, Ikkaku and Yumichika). The only one she sort of respects and is thus safe from her mischief is Captain Unohana --Gwyn never misses her ikebana classes.

Physical highlights: has owl-like wings made of hollow bone-plate which she uses often, even for short distances. Her mask is a pair of big round glasses frames (no glass, just the frame). Hollow hole placement still unknown. Her smug aura mocks you, constantly.

Zampakuto: Malasorte (command: "Descend") - (appearance unknown)

--

Rorkedras Ippodirge (he/him), Ex Arrancar n.30

Animal: Horse/Seahorse

Fifth Division (main task: being an asshole, for now)

Joins the unit seemingly on a whim. Before Aizen's arrival, he was the leader of a small pack of Adjuchas who he considered his closest friends. Among them was his brother, who leaves the group in search of power to become a Vasto Lorde, only to come back some time after gone mad from the desperate realization that no matter how many souls he'd consume, he'll never trascend his current state. As a last resort, Rorke's brother slaughters his old group of comrades thinking that will be the key to reach "enlightenment", but is cut down by Rorke himselt. Found by chance by Aizen and his lot, he receives the blessing of the Hōgyoku and becomes the n.30.

Things don't go much furhter for him under Aizen, seemingly because of lack of potential to become an Espada. The lack of recognition makes him bitter towards Aizen and his lot, and he's actively happy to hear they were defeated. Deep inside, he misses the connection he had with his pack and that subconsciously leads him to join the Cooperative Unit.

Arrogant, loud, sarcastic and a big show-off. Short-tempered. Takes joy in standing out and getting attention, often seeking it by getting into fights in front of an audience. Those who know his story probably understand it's a symptom of losing his leader role and his close friends, but he hides it all behind a fierce mask. The closest way to his heart is praise, and attention, and playing along with his antics. Shinji is the only one able to keep him somewhat in place, while he takes a liking for Momo because of her determination.

Physical highlights: hollow hole placement unknown. His mask covers his right cheek/temple, and looks like a fossilized ammonite. His horns are supposed to recall coral (hones them often for that exact reason). Loves golden jewellery and is covered in it (earrings, bangle bracelets, anklets), adorns his face with pearl-shaped ornaments, sometimes glitter.

Zampakuto: Nereide (command: "Drench") - looks like a double-edged oar

first very raw sketches:

[affiesque]

As promised, here’s the second half of my random thoughts and observations about Desire Catcher now that I’ve finished my latest rewatch (links aren’t working for me right now, but if you want to read the first half just click on one of the tags on this post and it should come up easily). The entire series is 24 episodes, most of which are somewhere between 35 and 45 minutes long - so, depending on what types of shows you usually watch, it might be a bit of a commitment. But I definitely think it’s worth it.

OK, time to brace yourself, as there’s a lot going on in this second part…

At the halfway mark the relationship between Luo Fei and Lu Fengping is starting to fray (oh look, it's my good friend angst again) - essentially, Lu Fengping is frustrated that his mom’s murder remains unsolved and Luo Fei hasn’t given him much in the way of clues like he was supposed to. Lu Fengping ends up working with the main villain (Bai Ya Xing), who is behind all of the crimes/murders that have been happening, to find his mom’s killer and get revenge. (I won’t spoil the details, but I will say that this particular storyline could probably have used some fleshing out, as the details and motivations don’t quite come together in the end. As I’ve noted before, the real draw with Desire Catcher is the relationships, so you can kind of wave those plot holes away - unless that sort of thing really bothers you, which I totally get.)

There’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going on throughout the middle episodes, with Lu Fengping getting more cagey and Luo Fei chasing after him a bit, attempting to figure out what he’s hiding. You get Luo Fei trying to casually inquire with multiple people as to Lu Fengping’s whereabouts when he’s gone for no more than a couple of hours at a time (we get it bro, you’re obsessed), not to mention lurking in the shadows near his apartment at night (yikes, dude). During this period there are definitely times when Lu Fengping looks almost guilty for pulling away and for what he’s planning to do, like he wants to confide in Luo Fei but he can’t - there’s a particular wistfulness to his expressions that’s so on point and gets me every time.

One nice little touch throughout is the many dinner dates the two leads go on - granted, one ends with Luo Fei leaving before they even eat anything, and another has him answering Lu Fengping’s question “Does everyone look like a suspect to you?” with “Yes - you look like one too,” so not exactly the most romantic situations (social skills are not Luo Fei’s strong point). But I am a sucker for those little intimate moments - misty evenings with blurry streetlights, tables piled high with steaming dishes and clinking glasses, the muted conversations of the people around them - and of course the sharing food = love symbolism.

Speaking of tropes, if you’re a fan of jealousy, then DC has got you covered. Again, no big plot spoilers here but Luo Fei finds out Lu Fengping has brought a girl home one night - not for the reason he (or anyone else) thinks, but you can tell he’s in his feelings about it (and Lu Fengping, I love you, but maybe in the future do not kidnap a stranger - even if you had your reasons and you were sort of helping her in the moment). He ends up getting arrested (twice!) for the abduction and when Luo Fei fails to help him, their “big breakup” begins in earnest - Lu Fengping saying “I shouldn’t have counted on you right from the start” got me right in the heart, ngl.

*Books as symbolism alert* - we get just one shot of some books strewn around Lu Fengping’s apartment in the second half, but I did find it interesting that the subtitles call out two of them specifically, which feels important. Those are “The Sea, The Sea” by Iris Murdoch and “It Takes More Than A Carrot And A Stick” by Wess Roberts. The former is about love and loss and romantic ideals by an author known for writing about morality and the power of the unconscious - things that seem relevant to a hypnotist, I would think. The latter actually made me laugh audibly when I noticed the subtitle: “Practical Ways Of Getting Along With People You Can’t Avoid At Work.” Sounds about right for them.

Here’s another alert - BIG GIANT SPOILERS AHEAD!! Click below with caution…

OK, so the big event of the second half is Lu Fengping faking his death(!!) in order to give him the time and space away from Luo Fei/the police to move ahead with his revenge plan. Long story short, Luo Fei thinks Lu Fengping has blown himself up, goes through the five stages of grief, figures out he’s still alive and somehow manages to be like, “Hey, thought you were dead but no biggie - let’s not even hug it out and instead just go right back to teasing each other and solving crimes - it’s all good.” Honestly, I’m glossing over a lot here - how absolutely devastated Luo Fei (and everyone else, for that matter) is when he thinks Lu Fengping is dead, how they finally yell a bit about their feelings and come clean about certain things when they reunite, how the OST rips your heart out again and again in these moments (“Did we meet just to be torn apart?” - I mean, come on), how relieved Lu Fengping looks when he realizes that Luo Fei doesn’t hate him for what he did, how Luo Fei suddenly can’t stop smiling (you’ve come a long way, baby). I think these are probably some of the strongest scenes in the entire show, but I must admit that the way they don’t truly address the fallout of something this intense still bugs me (stay tuned for a fic I’m writing on that very topic, in case that sort of thing interests you - and @thinkonce-acttwice, I ✨promise✨ I’m actually working on it!).

I know I haven’t mentioned Liang Yin in this second-half review yet - what happened/happens to her still plays a major role in the story of Lu Fengping’s mom’s death. I won’t give the details here, but do note that there are some flashback scenes of her getting attacked that might be rough for some viewers - so please keep that in mind. However, aside from a couple of moments where the men in her life feel the need to protect/shelter her despite her being quite capable of handling things herself, I will say that the story gives her back some agency, and it does feel as if by the end she’s come to terms with her past and is in a good place overall. And the relationship between her, Luo Fei, and Lu Fengping gets a really nice resolution - a sort of found family thing that brings them all together.

There’s lots of plot movement as we work our way through the final episodes - the big bad villain is vilaining, there’s an evil nurse who’s in on the shenanigans, poor Professor Ling (Lu Fengping’s mentor and fellow hypnotist) gets accused of being a fraud and ends up in the hospital, Lu Fengping almost stabs himself in the heart while hypnotized by Bai Ya Xing (though of course Luo Fei shows up in the nick of time to save him - I swear, despite knowing that this is just a “bromance” show, every time I watch that scene there’s one split second where it seems like they’re about to lean in and kiss - oof), poor Liang Yin gets kidnapped by the big bad villain (unfortunately, more “man pain”). I tell you, this show is a roller coaster ride every freaking episode.

I won’t spoil the final ending too much, but rest assured Liang Yin is fine. Stuff happens, Lu Fengping ends up in prison - though he sort of puts himself there on purpose, sacrificing himself for Luo Fei, even if he doesn’t come out and say that’s what he’s doing. And he basically gets a form of justice for his mom’s death. The very last bit sees him return from prison on parole - he reunites with the police team and Luo Fei in a slightly cheesy but rather touching moment, though, again, even just a quick hug would’ve been nice…

Bottom line, I love all of them, your honor, and will probably never be over this show - there’s so much to unpack in terms of the role of fate in our lives, how broken people can find something in each other to live for, how to forgive others and, importantly, yourself.

OK, again, this one got away from me, and I know I’m probably forgetting like a million little things, but hopefully I’ve managed to entertain at least one other person with my ramblings. And if anything here has sounded intriguing, please check this little show out so it gets the love it deserves! 🖤

[mercedesvince]

can I get a Kim Pine x shy autistic male!reader story?

Kim Pine x Shy! Autistic Male Reader

“Take out”

Standing in the corner of the room, you watched her. Your girlfriend Kim Pine. She really was great at what she did. You watched as the drum sticks hit the toms, allowing for a fantastic sound to arise. People crowded near the front to hear the band play, but you were always one to shy away and retract from the crowd instead of throwing yourself into it.

Stephen on the mic, Scott on bass guitar and Kim on drums, what a combination. They really did create such great music, to you at least. You had been hyper fixated on this sound they made, this genre of rock, ever since Kim started playing with them. You had gone to one of their first show a few months ago, excited and supportive to see Kim play. Behind the stage you encouraged her, sticking by her side until she left to go play on stage, but even then you stuck near the edge of backstage, and from the second they started playing, you were entranced, just like you had been a few weeks ago when she had invited you to one of there practices.

As there set came to an end you wondered away from the crowd and made your way backstage.

“Y/n” you turned and saw her smiling at you “Hey where were you during our set? I didn’t see you in the crowd,” you knew she was messing with you a bit, as you guys had been together long enough for her to know you did not enjoy being in the center of the crowd. You let out a light laugh followed by “I was there, just less near the chaos and more near the edge”. Still smiling at you she said “Of course you were,” she turned her head to look around “Let’s get out of here, just let us finish packing up our stuff.” You nodded in response and followed her to see if you could help wrapping up anything.

“Bye you two get home safe,” Steven said beginning to walk away from you and Kim. “Bye guys,” follows Scott. You gave both a smile and wave, as Kim just gave the two a quick wave. “So what do you wanna do now?” You turned and gave Kim a quick glance, then replying to her question saying “I was thinking we could go to my place and watch a movie or something, we could order take out”. Looking ahead as you both made your way on the snow cleared sidewalk, she replied with “Sounds good”.

Finally making it into your home, you both removed your coats and any accessories you had on to help keep you warm. “I’ll order the food and you can chose the movie or whatever, what are you in the mood for?” having been in your home multiple times before, Kim made her way over to your home phone. “[food type] sounds good,” beginning to pick up the phone and look for the number, Kim answered “Yeah, that does sound good”. You were grateful for Kim, although you were very capable of ordering your food, you were more than happy to let someone else do the talking for you.

Heading into your living room, you looked through your DVD collection, immediately picking out [favourite movie]. You had probably seen this movie more times than the average person would watch their favourite film, but you could not help it. It was a great film, and you knew so much background and facts about it, it was just one of your special interests and something you enjoyed deeply. Kim herself had fallen victim of your rewatching, but she did not care. She always let you chose the movies or shows when you guys spent time at your house. You wondered if it was because she knew how much you enjoyed the film, and maybe she had grown tired of it herself, but was just putting up with it because of you. Maybe she really did just like it as much as you did. Well there is truth to both statements, as Kim did enjoy the movie, but the main reason she sat down and watched it, was because she knew how much you enjoyed it.

As you got everything ready in the living room Kim headed in. You had sat down on the couch, remote in hand with the movie paused, waiting for your girlfriend to walk in. “Let me guess, [Favourite Movie]?” You looked at her and smiled, then looked back at the screen pressing the play button. She sighed next to you, smiling as she leaned against your shoulder. You knew one of you would have to stand up to go get the food you had ordered when it arrived at your door, but that would take another few minutes at least.

30 minutes later, you heard the doorbell ring. Just as you were broken away from the screen, you were getting ready to stand up, when you felt Kim lift off your shoulder. “I’ll get it”. “I left my wallet in my jacket,” you replied, “Wow what a gentleman,” you heard from the next room over. You just laughed at her comment, but did not go back to watching the screen. You leaned your head over the couch, as much as you could to get a view of your front door. You watched her take your wallet out of your jacket and then open the door. Trying to get the best view you could at who was standing outside. Kim took out some money from your wallet, handing it to the person outside, in exchange for the food. Once she shut and locked the door, making sure she was safe, you returned your vision to the TV.

“I ordered you your favourite, you’re welcome,” you open the container your food was in, smiling when you realized it really was your favourite. “You are the best Kim,” once she got her food ready, she leaned back against you, placing her head on your shoulder. You took a bite out of your food, leaning your head on top of hers. “Hey y/n,” you replied with a hum, still chewing your food. “I love you”. You felt your face heat up a bit, Moving you eyes so you could see her in their corner you replied “I love you too Kim”.

[shytastemakerthing]

Hi I was hoping for a matchup!

Romantic and platonic of your okay with doing both if not just romantic :)

First off I am a Scorpio and my mbti is INTP but I'm more of amnivert.

As for my personality it depends on who I'm around. If it's people who are energetic and really loud I'll tend to keep a more motherly role, But if I'm around people who are more mature in nature I'll be the loud and stupid one. My sense of humor is pretty rude and sarcastic in general if I know the person I'm with can take it, if not I'll cool it down. I like to think I'm self aware of how others are feeling. I'm that one person who knows like everyone but isn't popular, if you know what I mean. However I don't have any close friends which kinda sucks but whatever. I don't wait around thinking things will get better, if I'm not being treated right I'm gone which has led me to ditching a few people.

I was accidentally told by my friend once that I come off as intimidating or hard to approach as well I didn't know till then but I have a horrible case of RBF so it makes sense. 💀

As for the things I like: the main thing has to be music I'm concerned for my ears atp, my favorite artists have to be Chase Atlantic, Lana Del Rey, The Weekend and Artic Monkeys. Candy, I have a sweet tooth but I'm trying to cut back a bit, trying new candies is pretty fun too. Video Games, but I'll mainly stick to hand held consoles(my phone or switch) I mainly play puzzle or mystery games, TV screens are too bright and loud. I enjoy going out and doing things with people too, helps get me out of the house.

My hobbies include: Lego: but the big complicated sets not the kids ones I swear 😭 Origami: I just like throwing Ninja stars at the people I know or maybe if a stranger is just sitting beside me I'll just give them a paper swan, the reactions are always cute y'know. Book/Manga collecting And finally trying out random things I have like one day hobbies y'know like maybe I'll start cooking for a week or crocheting, puzzles, stuff like that while watching a show I'm still trying to find a hobby to really pick up.

I don't play any sports though it's never been my thing, but I try to go on walks every other day which is nice.

Things I don't like are pretty limited, it's probably just bad scents and cat fur.

That's all I can think of right now so I hope I did this right and thank you!<3

A/N: Hello and thank you so much for your request as well as your patience given how long this one has been in my inbox! I hope that you enjoy your match-up and have a wonderful day/night!

Request: Twisted Wonderland Match-up

I match you with........

Floyd Leech

Look, there are a number of reasons as to why the chaotic, mood swings filled eel man was chosen

Make this man a ninja star and his menace level only increases

A lot

You may have had Jade and Azul come to you about this, one rather amused and delighted while the other is more frustrated

Not too hard to figure out which is which on that

Motherly mode comes out big time when he is one of his more sporadic moods

The chances of him getting into trouble or hurting himself is quite high but he loves that you are there to be able to take care of him, he almost seems docile........

Almost

But when he is in more of one of his sour moods, that's where your fun side comes out because no matter how deep in a slump he is in, you always manage to get him out of it

Yes, Azul and Jade have also come to you about that

Jade finds it rather impressive because not even him or his parents could get him out of a slump that easy

(Please marry him)

He strikes me as someone who would rather like Legos, whether they are simple or much more complex, it's a favorite pastime the two of you have

Crochet something for this man and he will carry it with him essentially for the rest of his life

Floyd is happy with you, one that won't be going away any time soon, he just hopes that you are as happy as he is, that's what matters to him

Thank you for your request!

[mdhwrites]

I think a major part of my frustration with Luz's character arc (if it can be called that) is that I think the best character arcs often involve the character starting at a place where there is something they are wrong about or there is some flaw they need to grow from. Anne from Amphibia (and Sasha and Marcy as well) is a great example of how to do this well. But Luz never really has her fundamental beliefs or character challenged except I suppose in Episode 2 of the show when she learns she's not a chosen one. (Which as you've pointed out before is arguably undermined by some of the chosen one-like tropes she falls into later anyway.) There's nothing (according to the show) that she was wrong about or needed to change her mind about or needed to grow in any way from. The only thing she learns is that it's okay for her to be herself. Which, uh, pretty sure she already knew that in Episode 1? "Us weirdos stick together" and "no one should be punished for who they are" and all that? So really she learned nothing. I like Luz well enough and I find her charming (when she's not pointlessly angsting about ~helping Belos~ anyway) but come on, that's no way to write an interesting main character. Anyway that's my two cents, any thoughts on the matter? 🦎

So this is great in conjunction with my earlier blog because it is effectively a question about what you prioritize or think is important in a main character. What parts of character analysis do you care about? But I talked about character analysis in general this morning. Let's talk main character analysis. And yes, I've done this before somewhat with talking about if Luz is a good protagonist but didn't talk about main characters and arcs. So why don't protagonists usually have a more defined arc than the characters around them? That answer is actually pretty simple: The more defined they are, the less you can do with them. The character might say no a plotline or not react correctly to another character who needs them to behave in a specific way for their plotline. The more their character demands actual attention, the harder it is to tell the rest of the story since they are theoretically the focal point of the story. Frankly, this happens with Luz. Part of why S2B struggles to FUNCTION, let alone S3, is because Luz is demanding attention when before now she didn't. She was there, she might do things but the character she was interacting with, or the element of the world, was what came first. The most immediate example post Yesterday's Lie of this is actually the beginning of Elsewhere Elsewhen. Lilith just got hired to be a historian... But Lilith is a plot device almost as much as the time pools are in that episode. That's why Luz misses most of the party because the show wants to claim she's doubling down on her angst and worries and so she's finally actually putting more work towards figuring out what's going on. If the mouse hadn't spoken up, it's questionable if she would have gone to the party at all. And that sucks for Lilith's character because she HAS to be simplified than in order to not take up too much attention from what Luz is doing and her personal plot line. She's a gag character mostly in that episode for that reason because Luz is the dramatic anchor now despite this episode featuring what is theoretically a large change for Lilith in accepting a position DRASTICALLY lower than her original one. Reaching Out suffers similarly. It is theoretically about Amity's relationship with her father but Luz's angst is such a priority that Amity even struggling in the tournament isn't allowed because that would take too much time away. Luz can't properly react to Amity because the writers are so focused on her keeping this secret. Worst yet, to both Reaching Out and Falls and Follies, is that the writers can't have Luz actually stop lying so despite Amity asking Luz to stop TWICE, that can't have an impact on anything because they will not let Luz get past this. If she does, Hollow Mind's aftermath either is instantly resolved and we don't get her trying to stay in the human (which boy if that wouldn't have been nice) or becomes far more complex and has negative ramifications as characters have to now treat Luz differently based on the new information. Frankly it's a problem with ALL the character writing in TOH. Statements and future plans matter more than what the characters might actually do or real growth. This is also why characters are replaced as much they grow into new versions of themselves. Momma Eda is incompatible with her old self unless more thought and more complex answers are put into how she handles new problems dictated what she theoretically grew into. It's better to just forget most of what Eda does in S1 instead and just accept the new characterization.

And when your form of character arcs through replacement, that's a REAL problem for your main character. They dictate the tone and focus of the show after all. They have to change by inches without throwing the entire thing out of whack. And MOST people agree that S2B feels entirely different from the rest of the series, if not also S3 in general. And yeah, that's gonna happen when everyone has to now deal with an angry, upset, lying, secretive ball of emotions that is what Luz became in S2B. All while not being allowed to actually influence these emotions because the resolution is only allowed in S3. And halfway through it at that! Frankly, I would argue that instead of the issue with Luz being that she had no arc (and it's fine if that is the bigger deal to you. Arcs are compelling and spending too much with a main character who never changed is what made me eventually stop watching Randy Cunningham: Ninth Grade Ninja) but that when they tried to change her, they put no real thought into it. Despite this being their main character, their core, they treated Luz like they do any plot point, any character arc, any theme. It's just to make a statement and to try to prove it's better without the thought needed to make it better than other shows. And you do that to your main character and you are going to kill your story. ========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[misskattylashes]

The Holiday Photos Saga continued ...

So yesterday I wanted to show my non fandom friend the love-fest that was Alex and Pauline in Italy. Go onto Google to search for it. The above set of pictures was my result. I thought maybe my algorithm had gone a bit funny so I asked several people and we all got the same result. The article has completely disappeared.

Now there could be several reasons for this. The most unlikely one is that there was a 1% chance it wasn't staged and they requested it be taken down. But given the whole article was a puff piece for Pauline we will put that theory to one side in the 'No Way' basket.

The most likely reason imo is that it failed miserably. I am still going with the make or break holiday theory. The publicists thought it would plant seeds of doubt into fans heads about their relationship due to them both looking miserable in the main pictures in the article. However the main thing fans noticed was that the photoshoot was done with Backgrid using the same location and very similar shots to a previous one with Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde. People were straight away calling it out as staged and fake. It had done enough to damage Alex's reputation as it was so they requested it be taken down immediately.

Another theory is that she organised it without him knowing. But given that Alex is looking in the camera in several shots I think we can add that to the No Way pile.

My last theory is the wildest, so please bear with me. One of the theories is that Louise is a beard contracted to last until the end of The Car Tour. Alex, especially during the last leg of the European tour has been more flamboyant and dare I say camp on stage. Maybe he is getting tired of hiding behind a straight persona. Maybe between them they cooked this up. She gets a few grand for selling the pictures - plus publicity to help her move on to whatever her next venture is, and Alex has planted a seed of doubt in the minds of the fangirls about his sexuality.

Already I have seen numerous posts from teenage girls going 'Stop saying Alex is gay 😭' even some of the comments on the Daily Fail were implying he would have preferred her to be a bloke.

Maybe they realised the article would only be up briefly before the record company/publicists took it down. But knew darn well by then the damage would have been done because everyone took screenshots, and besides that, you cannot unsee things. If by chance Alex is either planning to come out after the tour, or just stop having beards, then this was all part of a plan to help the more deluded fans (you know, the ones who think him and Miles behaved like brothers during the EYCTE tour) adjust to his sexuality.

I hope for his sake it is the last one because it means he finally gets to stick two fingers up to the 'inevitables who pushed him around' as a kid, pushing him to become something he wasn't.

[popculturebuffet]

The Kablammiest Ka-Blam! Retrospective: Season 2 Review (Comissioned by Cory Bryant)

Assume crash positions you happy people, my Ka-Blam retrospective is back! After a delay or too we're back for a cartoon crammed season 2. If you missed part 1 you can find it here.

Season 2, like most great season 2, takes everything good about season 1 and amps it up: the segments are tighter, the animation for the Henry and June segments and Sniz and Fondue is even shaper, and the rougher edges on the segments I wasn't as keen on have been sanded off. This is a show firing on all cyllenders.

Production wise I don't have NEARLY as much to say this time around

Yeah while I LOVED the deep dive I took in season 1, it was also a lot so not having to give a deep history on 5 diffrent cartoons.. is a relief. I still have to cover the one off shorts but it's not NEARLY as much and i'd once again like to thank the KaBlam! wiki for providing my background info. Seriously whoever put all this together and put your time into this.. thank you.

Moving into season 2 was a smooth transition: the only real big change was Sniz and Fondue switching studios, with Mike R Brandon hating the animation PitchiPoi did for season one and thus switching to doing most of the work itself and sending it to Canadian studio funbag. Otherwise things went smooth: the 5 main segments from season 1 stayed on.

The other changes are either show specific or slight: the startling shorts title card is gone, but we still get plenty of one offs, though for some reason it's mostly at the back half of the season. Season 2 is simply tighting up what came before , not having the growing pains of season 1 or the massive turnovers we'd get for Season 3. It's simply KaBlam KaBigger and Ka Better so join me as we take a look at this season under the cut.

Henry and June was the segment that changed the most in season 2 and for the better.

Season 1 relied way too heavily on "June abuses henry" for it's jokes, with a good chunk of the segments being the poor guy getting kicked around for no reason. Season 2 imeditly puts an end to this and instead of just moving on from the bit the premire is entirley about it: Henry is fed up June keeps torturing him and quits, and June sees how much she really needs and misses him, with Henry coming back.

And unlike a lot of cartoon shows light on status quo where we'd just.. go back to that... we don't. June DOES still prank henry on occasion, but this time around he either deserves it or it's in moderation.

Henry himself changes a lot: he's still the show's butt monkey.. but the show changes his characterization to fit that status better; Henry's now a know it all egotist who charges into situations he has no idea what to do with June's warning's falling on deaf ears and her pranks on him now more to take him down a peg. The slapstick lands better now that Henry actually deserves it and h'es not being clowned on EVERY episode. If Henry is getting hurt, he's usually brought it on himself and it's the best that way.

The segments also move away from the random bits style of season 1. We still get them ocasoinally, but most season 2 wraparounds have a consistent story going on. Sometimes it's linear, other times it's a bunch of skits centered around whatever's happening to KaBlam that day. This is also an improvment as it gives the stories more movement and keeps me more invested in what goes on between the other cartoons. They also do some really creative ones as we'll see. I may not have really liked the Henry and June segments for season 1 but I LOVE them in season 2. Great stuff.

Won't Stick to Most Dental Work: The aforementioned "Karma finally bites June in the Butt" episode, and it is glorious. After a season of Henry Torture, it's nice to see June taken down a peg and the two genuinely reconcile. It's a great start that helps smooth the transition between the two versions of these segments.

Won't Crack or Peel: It's KABLAM O VISION, as our heroes do various 3d jokes. It's.. okay. It was mostly made so they could make a 3d version on vhs, which is super rare. See if you have one in your closet! Hurts So Good: Back to the good part and we have a telethon parody and while I really have seen maybe one or two in my lifetime, especially nowadays where there are easier ways to raise money, I still love me a good Telethon parody episode and this is a great one, with our heroes asking you to send us your bones staples to keep the show afloat. We get a great hands across america/we are the world parody sung by characters from every segment. That's a touch i've always liked, but haven't really commented on: the wraparounds aren't afraid to refrence or have cameos from the other cartoons and I like that. It makes the world feel more interconnected and I appricate the various animators and voice actors from them pitching in. It's extra work they could've understandably refused but i'm happy they didnt.

Harold's Glow in the Dark Butter: A return to the old random segment days.. and i'ts not great. feels like a season 1 holdover. The only bright spot is June's shilling for the titular product at the end.

Tastes Like Paper: One of my faviorites from the season. The heroes get a new director of research that puts them through a lot of hilaroius nonsense. The reveal of who it is though is what makes this all so great: the idea of a crooked research director humilating them for personal gain? We've seen it before but it still works. That guy being the MAYOR who wanted to turn the page? fucking great. Granted I love the mayor any time he shows up on action league now with his weird voice, so this was an easy sell but him fucking up the show and Henry using a chekovs marching band on him is fantastic.

I Just Don't Get It: Another assorted shorts one but a much better one as Henry has chest hair drawn on him that goes wild, June plays around with censor bleeps for comedy in an all timer segment, and June clones henry. Some pretty good stuff.

E Plubris Kablam: Another eh one, and another one mostly made up of segments, though the 100th episode bit at the start is great . The rest is a bit predictable and mostly Henry gets bitten by his hubris, which CAN be funny and is preferable to "henry gets whalloped real good for no reason" but falls a tad flat here.

Better Than a Poke in The Eye: Far and away my faviorite of the season. In a parody of studio tours and cheesy theme parks, Henry and June take a tour group on a ride through the studios and EVERY bit is a banger. We start with what seems to be a mascot playing the flesh but it's just some naked guy, a simple joke but one that make me giggle. We get an obnoxious sun burnt guy who keeps trying to take the fun out of every stop... till Promethus' ship vaporizes him. I mean i'ts a guy in a Prometheus mascot suit but still.. they really did kill this guy and I love it. Henry and June just.. straight up stand there while a man dies and don't react. So fucking good. We then get a bit where you can be the hosts.. and Henry and June face the harsh realtiy tha tmost kids are gonna act doofy. Finally we have my faviorite: it's hard to top an out and out murder, but our heroes succed with the Off Beats Stunt Spectacular, where Betty Ann beats the shit out of the populars and gets into a speed boat chase with them. it's so hilarously stupidly off brand and I love it so damn much. I never would've thought of something this gloriously stupid. And my well for glorious stupidity is vast and terrifying so... respect.

Get Sam Donaldson's Mystery Bag: June is a member of news anchor Sam Donaldson's fanclub and the duo start a KaBlam one as a result. Henry tries to hog it so they split into warring fanclubs before settling their dispute the way all should be: giant fighting robots. Also sam donaldson ALSO has a giant fighting robot, as does Diane Sawyer. This is a fun one.. not much else to say.

Cramming Cartoons Since 1967: Henry and June's parents visit and I love how relatable they are.. sterotypical yes but in a way that feels real: Henry's mom overly dotes on him and makes him wear a train sweater.. probably thomas the tank engine offical merch. it's red so Percy I guess. I woudl've gone for henry myself. Henry on Henry.

Anyways, June's dad is a terse talking "manly man" with a large gut and the two spend the segment embarassing their kids and being hilarious, eventually getting into an all out fist fight. I love how Henry and June deal with it too.. they just bail and both parents say sorry. It's good stuff and a creative idea, shows just how much of a step up these segment sfocusing on one premise are: it tightens things up and gives the jokes more room across segments if needed.

Hand Cranked For Your Enjoyment: This one is.. eh. they can't all be winners. Our heroes get neighbors upstairs from a viking comic strip... confusing a comic strip with a comic book.

Yeahhh as a huge fan of both comic books and strips... this annoys me. The idea of a neighbor on the same comic strip page having conflict with another strip is great and Pearls Before Swine got a great week out of this and has had tons of great meta jokes on the subject. But here.. it makes no fucking sense. Kablam is a comic book. And I get this is a comedy show, I could forgive it if vikings invading was funny. But it just isn't. It woul'dve been funnier if edgy mid 90's superheroes invaded.. and actually make sense. Easily the weakest of the season.

Art + Science Equals Fun: Another series of random skits, but another good one as Henry and June accidnetly rip a page, a clever meta bit, and June sings a really good song about being a KaBlammer. It's a really fun folk song that just.. slaps so hard.

KaBlam, James KaBlam: Our season finale and we have a great one to go out on as our heroes get an awkward College Intern. A close second to the Studios one. He fumbles with the boom mike, is awkard on camera, gets in the way, there's a LOT of good antics with him. I paticuarlly love how, being a college student, he describes the adventures of Patchhead in a VERY film school way and june ends up agreeing with him after it airs. It's an all time classic to close out a solid season of wraparounds.

Once again it's time for Sniz and Fondue. Season 2 is both shorter.. and sadly a drop in quality from season 1. While the animation his sharper and I dig the new title card, story wise the series struggles to get good jokes out of it's great setups sometimes. There's good MOMENTS and two standout episodes .. but the other 4 just feel weak. It's clear having to do most of the anim ation himself was putting a strain on brandon and i'm not shocked he quit: the fun had clearly gone out of making the show and while he had a tempting offer to make it a full series he was just.. done and he quit. Nick.. didn't but we'll get to that next time.

This is just depressing to write because I LOVED season 1 of Sniz and Fondue. It was a lot of fun, creative and energetic and it's just... a lot to realize a creator was running out of energy and the will to go on with a work he genuinely loved as he made these. I don't take any joy in not liking this. I just feel bad for the guy. It's very clear Brandon loved these guys and Nick never shared the same love. They loved the MONEY sniz and fondue could make them, but they didn't care one iota of a shit about the guy making it. It's no wonder Brandon comes off a bit cranky in the interview he gave to the KaBLam wiki: I would be too after all this shit.

"Sigh"

So... Sniz and Fondue season 2

Clubbed: This one STARTS good as Fondue buys a fancy stereo but has no tunes to go with it, so Sniz joins a cd club. And i'm sure all 3 of our younger readers in the audience let out a collective

Basically back in the 90's various cd manufacuters had "scams' where they'd send you an order form, you could order a cd for pennies but then you had to pay for one each month, and the bills mounted up. A lot of jokes have been made on them and Sniz and Fondue really dosen't bring anything new to the table. Fondue ends up having to trade them his stereo. WOMP WOMP.

Celluloid Sins: This one is a bit more fun. Snizz has taken up the art of "plexing", i.e. sneaking into another theater after his movie. The term is dated, as multiplexes are now the majority, but the idea of a 20 something sneaking in and out of films on one ticket is timeless. It's probably harder NOW with assigned seating, but I could still see kids, 20 somethings or whoever pulling this. Snizz' glee at it is infectious, and it's mostly held back for going the obvious route with it: Fondue is caught trying to stop him, Sniz has a change of heart, both are banned. The ending though IS great and for all this batches faults... it usually sticks the landing: they just go to another down the streat. Ahhh captalism.

Crustsean Sensations: My faviorite of the season as it goes back to what makes the series work: a simple premise playing off the characters eccentrcities taken some places. In this case Fondue finally uses his hat as a chef's hat and whips Sniz up some shrimp cocktail, happy that for once Sniz likes one of his upscale treats. Well upscale on their budget. Sniz becomes addicted and we get plenty of great jokes out of it, from him ringing a bell to him showing up in Fondue's room.

The best though. is the payoff.. he ends up running around trying to get his shirmp fix, something I can relate to when I run out of an expensive snack, and finds.. a little girl running what's essentially a lemonade stand full of all kinds of weird shit who says "Ask if you don't see it" and has a bit of shrimp in a gross box. Normally i'm not pro grossout... but taking the idea of a sketchy gas station (Another thing that seems to be not nearly as common as 90's cartoons said, but still exists) and making it into a child's lemonade stand type deeal is just.. so brilliant and I love how surreal it is: Even Sniz is wondering if he dreamt all this. He did not and ends up in the hospital. The highlight of the season and while it's not super hard, it's still one of my favorites of the series.

Hello Dolly: This one is built on a trope that was common place when I was a kid, but is very

In hindsight. A romani woman curses Sniz for bumping into her. Or his clay. This whole sterotype has aged like cheddar on a sidewalk.

The doll Sniz makes out of the clay for Fondue's birthday is great: stone head bean bag body.. but it never quite lives up to the "killer doll parody" granted it has a HIGH bar to clear as Simpsons "Clown Without Pity" aired 5 years earlier. And while it had it' sown unfortunate sterotype it had way more jokes in almost as much time.

So this one could'v ebeen good but the dated sterotype and the "it's been done" feeling kill it. For the record Aqua Teen Hunger force ALSO did the killer doll joke better later, as did of course the king of killer dolls.

So time hasn't helped it.. but even then it was far behind.

Chicanery Chums: This one is meh til lthe ending. Fondue wants to pull a prank after Sniz tells him he can't. We've seen this before. Sniz fakes his death, somehow we've seen this before. The ending.. is the only thing it really has: Sniz is in a mental ward from the prank but unsuprisingly is faking it.. but the two laughing like hyenas gets them both locked up. It's just.. oddly charming ...being locked in a mental hospital is one of my greatest fears, and the idea of it happening over something so goofy is... hilarous. Seriously, it's just so charming.. it remind sme "no i'ts not that easy" and "no they won't keep you forever". It's a mostly irrational fear and it took an irrtional ending to see that. So thanks Sniz and Fondue.

Rat in the Hat: The penultimate episode and the other really good one of the season. Sniz convinces Fondue to let him wear his hat, and naturally the latter freaks both when Sniz wears it a while.. and when he SEEMS to get magic powers from it. The payoff, that it's just Sniz's charisma and he gets bored of it the minute bianca takes it, is great. Simple premise, great execution.

Great Infestations: The season two finale is also our sendoff for Snuppa and Bianca though given the two only showed up in Rat in the Hat and Hello Dolly otherwise, their roll was already dimnished. Still it's nice to see them off and it's a fitting one for a season finale: Fondue is ticked Sniz's lice infestation leads their house to be fumigated, so he bunks with Bianca. Sniz ends up bonding with snupa, Fondue gets jealous, the two make up at th eend, this episode is mid. Good premise, meh execution.

And now for the inverse of my disapointment in Sniz and fondue season 2. Action League Now! as a mild disapointment in season 1: i get why kid me liked it and there were some good episodes, but it's schticks could get old quick.

Season 2 dosen't do away with a lot of the common jokes, stuff still falls on our heroes or runs them over, but it refines them and the show as a whole: The series has embraced the fact our heroes are a calvalcade of fuckups, and it's all the better for it: Our heroes ruin relations with a foreign nation, blow first contact, and generally destroy everything they touch and the series is better for it: instead of "wow isn't it funny these superheroes are'nt good at thier job" it's "how BAD can we make these guys at what they do", while still mixing in some other stuff. Our heroes also tend to get beat up for their jerkassery a lot more, which just makes the slapstick play even better. Exagerating stuff in comedy CAN backfire horribly.. but here it was just what Action League Now needed. It needed to be more over the top and have it's heroes be loveable destructive dumbasses who destroy everything around them. We also get a decent amount of the mayor, not as much as before sadly, but still enough to bring joy into our hearts and lives. A truly fun season of action figure shenanigans. Let's dig into it.

Big Baby: This one is decent, introducing Bill the Lab Guy's teenage daughter Quarky, who sounds like she's 7. The Mayor uses Big Baby, a giant baby doll, for a freak show and the Baby Gets loose. Shenanigans insue, this one is alright.

Danger For a Dignitary: This is where things pick up as the Flesh is forced to fill in for an identical diginitary from another nation. The setup is typical.. the payoff though.. is fantastic. Turns out the Flesh REALLY can't stand to not be naked for long.

So he strips.. and it's a non issue as they assume it's a metaphor..a nd then he bungles it anyway by singing his own name on the treaty, leading to the nation being destroyed and our heroes having to awkwardly hide that. Dark Comedy is hit and miss for me but this.. this is just beautiful.

Incident at Chlorine Lake: Our obligatory jaws parody as the Mayor is having parties at Cholorine Lake. The monster? a trophy bass.. as in a bass on a trophy. I love everything about this. I also love that the mayor tries to deny it as you'd expect until a flurry of body parts comes up, a gag they could only get away with using toys and I salute them for it. I also love Bill's obession with the fish, thinking it needs to be preserved..which is normally true but kinda hard to argue with when, unlike say a rare tiger or something, it's main diet is people. A tiger just hunts and shit. Most rare animals don't harm you unless yo upiss them off billiam. Sharks are less harmful than this thing.

Revenge of Hodge Podge: This one brings in another recurring villian and it's something I like about season 2: while they don't massively expand the rogues gallery adding Big Baby and Hodge Podge shakes things up a bit. I love the mayor more than oxygen, but having some other rogues helps with the series former repettion problem: season 1 was mostly "the mayor has some evil plot and the action league stoops it". It was done in diffrent ways, but it was mostly same shit diffrent day, with a few rescues thrown in. Here the Mayor is used sparingly, still showing up plenty, but not being used every 5 minutes. As a result I can enjoy my boy more but the show dosen't get old and can spread it's wings a bit.

Hodge Podge has a mildly annoying voice, but the over the top voice helps with his nature: a guy who got destroyed by the league's incompetence and rebuilt into a pile of other action figures glued together by Bill. Not only does his existance Emphasie the League's incompetnece and callousness, but he's just fun to have around. The solution is also fun as we get a nice parody of a stock plot: Quarky wants to be a scientest, bill dosen't take her seriously and she.. makes the league into an abomination out of their spare parts.. well thunder girl, the rest are left in a pile. this at least distracts hodge podge and gets bill to accept her, but leaves Thunder girl understandably annoyed.

Voice of Treason: Hodge Podge steals a voice modifier. This one sure did happen.

Caged Thunder: So the Cheif sends Thunder Girl to do espenoge on the country next door, only for her to get kidnapped. What's either the mayor using a terrible accent or the mayors foreign equivelent is running the country and plans to send a missle. The wiki says he's in disguise but i'm just not sure. OUr heroes barely save the day as always. A decent one with a bit of a diffrent bit but the Mayor (?)'s accent gets annoying after a while.

Science Fiction Parody: Okay first I love that the title for this one is just.. blunt about what their doing. It's also one of my faviorites of the season for being just.. so delightfully fucked up. Some aliens come in peace.. and our heroes utterly bungle first contact. Stinky naturally is the first to as he reacts to an alien reaching for his camera by shooting him, which was a punchline in 1997 but just makes me really sad for a while in 2024. Now his APOLOGY for it is darkly hilarous, saying "sorrrryyyy" like a scolded child and the alien's non reaction to it is great.

OUr heroes proceed to horribly mangle EVERY member of the alien delegation through sheer stupidity and it's as funny as it sounds. The fact they all survivie and we simply see the aftermath helps, and it's fun that for once we get to see the aftermath of what was done to one of these toys. They try to destroy earth as a result which is shockingly fair all things considered. Our heroes survivie only for their to be more ships. Wah wah. This is never resolved, I assume the league was saved by.. let's say moe. The highlight of the season, taking the black comedy to dizzing heights i'm honestly shocked they got away with.

Flesh and Blood: Another banger. The Flesh is reunited with what seems to be his parents on a tv show but turn out to be con artists. The Flesh is usually fantastic, so pairing him with two criminals barely succeeding at conning him into stealing things woh also get maimed the whole time is great and the punchline of flesh's real parents accidently running him over is easily the second best car runs something over gag so far.

The Quarky Syndrome: Quarky gets superpowers then disappears from the series. The action league laugh at her and are punished for their hubris. This one's shockingly forgetable despite turning one of the shows recurring cast into a hero and never follows up on it. Meh.

Turkey of Terror: Thankfully the season ends on a high note as the last 4 are all amazing. Our first as the League invited to thanksgiving dinner with the mayor. If I had a nickle for every time I had to do an out of season thanksgiving special this feburary i'd have two nickles. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice.

Anyways the Mayor instead bakes them into a turkey instead and it's up to Stinky, who wisely noped out to save them... and whose also greatful to escape his own family. It's hilarous and has the best car gag of the season when the turkey and the fleeing mayor are both ran over. We also get a boss baster versus wisk fight between the mayor and Stinky.

Meltman At Large: This one rides soley on it's gimmick.. and it's such a fun gimmick it gets away with it: Meltman feeling useless among the team for his power to... melt, drinks an unstable potion bill made behind his back and becomes human sized. As in some poor guy had to wear a life sized meltman costume. The costume is great, a bit clunky fitting the show but entirely well made, i'm just betting it was hell to actually work in. Meltman bungles his way thorugh an adventure, crushing the action car by calling fontizes, picking everyone up for their douchebaggery, getting caught in a kiddy pool and having to jump jump to rescue some kids.. and then getting sent away on a ballon for his hubris. It's Meltman at his best... stupid and obnoxious but throughly punished for it.

Danger Society; This might be my faviorite of the season, as it condenses everything great about this batch of episodes into one premise: a group of challengers of the unknown/fantastic four style heroes, the Danger Society sweeps into town and takes our heroes work. This isn't a NEW premise: A year prior JLA launched with the same premise, but it's one that works here as instead of being secretly evil as normal for this kind of polt the danger society.. are just genuinely good people who want to save lives. Their actual heroes while our protaganists are just miffed they aren't getting free food at the cafeteria anymore.

They challenge the society to a "who can save more lives contest" and the society.. is horrified at the idea and ONLY agrees so SOMEONE is saving lives. And how our heroes do.. is just.. the best joke of the season. They nope out.. and they still loose. They ENTIRELY know the stakes, their just that stupid and selfish and only keep theri job because the danger scoeity gets subjected to the car bit. A true classic.

Rock-A-Big-Baby: Our finale and an episode that actually aired BEFORE this in a way, being the opening short for Good Burger. It's also a neat onea s KISS guest stars. Yes KISS, the band themselves guests and rocks and roll all nights. Not as good as when they met scooby doo and took the gang to another dimension to battle a foe who'd become unto a god, but still pretty neat and I applaud them for being game for this nonsense. For as defensive of their brand as they can be, the Band is really up for any weird cameo, and showed up on family guy TWICE for some great shit. The plot isn't much special: big baby kidnaps Gene Simmons, Meltman claims to know them and it turns out he isn't lying., but the celebrity cameo really makes the episode special.

Promethus and Bob.. hasn't changed any in season 2. It's still "Alien tries to teach caveman things, caveman dosen't get it and chaos ensues". My opinon from last time hasn't changed either: It's a decent premise with great animation, I just don't really like "Haha get it caveman stupid" jokes and the premise of "A "higher" civlization teaches a supposedly "lower" one " has aged like fine milk on a gravel driveway. I don't hate Promethus and Bob but it's just not for me and this probably won't be the last time I say this as the show lasts all 4 seasons. I wish I had more to say but the show.. simply hasn't changed and dosen't seem like it will. Unlike Action League it's comfortable in it's formula and it clearly worked for a lot of you, i'm just not one of them.

Pottery: Prometheus teaches Bob pottery. Sadly we don't get a ghost refrence. Furniture: Promethus tries to teach Bob how to sit on a chair. This one.. is actually pretty funny as Prometheus clearly wants him to sint frontsies not backsies and Bob isn't really doing anything WRONG as sitting front of a chair is more a comfort and societal thing. Box: Our heroes Box. Not a rocky refrence to be found but Prometheus does get punched in the face so.. yay? I guess. Milk: Promethus tries to teach Bob to milk things... and I already used the goodnight everybody. Damn. I somehow dont' remember this one and dont' think I wanna. Canoe: DO BOB A DO BOB PROMETHUS TEACHES BOB HOW TO BUY A CANOE. Skate: Promethus tries to teach Bob to ice skate. At this point I think he's just checking shit off a list... who am I kidding he alwasy was. A fun one. Leverage: Former insurance investigator Nate Ford and his band of cohorts act as modern-day Robin Hoods, pulling elaborate scams targeted against the greedy and the corrupt. Spear and Trapping: Bob learns how to use a spear... like..a ctually learns. I honestly didn't realize the signifigance. Trapping goes more poorly and leads to doodling on Prometheus' face, a scolding from his boss and being trapped in a pit with a saber toothed tiger after them. So a normal day really. Farm: Bob tries and fails to learn how to farm. I don't have a ton to say really. I told you i'ts basically the same bit just diffrent activity the caveman fails at. Breakfast: Okay NOW bob can't cook an egg. I mean... he clearly ate enough to survivie this long. Probably ate some raw eggs at some point. I mean he can't have a diet entirely of raw meat and scabies from eating almost nothing but raw meat. Construction: Promethus tries to Help bob build things. Can he do it.. no no he very much cannot.

Onto a series that recycles the same basic loop.. but does so much batshit insanity with that it works. It's the diffrence for me: P and B isn't terrible, but while they try to do diffrent slapstic the medium just dosen't allow them to get all that creative with said slapstick.

Season 2's a bit shorter, I think due to production delays, but it's still excellent. At it's worst, it's just okay and even the okay segments have something going for them. After writing on the other shows it hits me just.. how out of the box perfect this one came. There's no shame in improving after season 1 mind you, Schitt's Creek and Letterkenny are some of the best comedies ever and both only got better with age. Life With Loopy is just the rare one that knows almost entirely what it wants to be from day one and thus hits a home run out of the gate and just keeps running. I know sports ball.

Butterfly Loopy: Loopy cocoons herself to become a butterfly. A suprisingly common plot... I don't know why "character want sto become a butterfly" is so widespread but it is. It's still a fun one and Loopy has to be saved from a Loony bug collector and learn it's okay not to be a bug. Also Larry gets kidnapped by said guy and we don't get any resolution to that. He's just... apparently trapped there for a while living the glamourous life. Solid start to the season.

Upside Down Loopy: Loopy decides to live upside down after standing on her head. That's.. really the setup but the concept i sjust so much fun, as Loopy uses suction cups to get around, drops stuff, and later becomes friends with bats that freak her dad out. I don't know why he was so freaked, lester , the bat that spooked him, seems like a sweell guy. I'd get a strawberry with him. Larry's solution to this housing crisis? Flip the bitch... seriously he just. .has the house flipped and that's how it ends. I've realized while writing this section season 2 of Life with Loopy isn't big on concrete endings for the most part: most adventures end with the wacky shenanigan just having settled int oa managable but still ever present state this season and i'm okay with that. It give the series a bit more unpredictablity and keeps it from getting formulaic.

Goldfish Ghost: Loopy's whole family think's she's wetting the bed and she handles this about as well as you'd expect.

Turns out it's her goldfish from last season, whose visitng her every night... but he's aware she needs to move on and takes her to find another Fish. That fails and this ep is shockingly average for an episode about a ghost fish helping his former owner move on... but the ending lands it: A cat shows up, a really neat puppet, follows them and the fish barely escapes.. and loopy realizes the poor kitty was just hungry.. and with that Loopy has a new pet and we end on the two adorably snuggling. As someone whose recently both dealt with the loss of a pet and moving on with a new one, I love this ending. As a human being in general.. I love this ending. The episode itself is okay but it sticks the landing so well I can forgive it.

Loopy and the Lost Voice: Loopy is told the old addage of "she'll loose her voice".. but given what show we're in it's taken literally and she goes to a lost and found to get it back. The guys running it are both impressive puppets and my nightmares for the next few weeks. They also don't have it and Loopy has to get it back from an opera singer. She also gets a barry white deep voice. It honestly reminds me of the gravity falls bit where Dipper gets hit with the same, but slightly better. Or the episode where Zorak gets a silky smooth voice and Brak's hot for you baby cause he's a pickled beat. What i'm saying is it reminds me of other good television instead of better takes on the idea, and that's a good sign. Loopy and the Flu Bug: As usual Loopy takes the idea of a flu bug literally... also at this point i'm pretty sure Larry has to Larrysplain ever damn time his parents use a metaphor.. granted while it's partially "I know more than you", I do kinda see his point when Loopy takes everything literaly. Then again sh'es right and turn sout the flu bug's sick. Honestly her befrending the guy is genuinely sweet, as most people hate him but he's just sick himself and just doing his job, and Loopy points out sick days CAN be good. Loopy's genuine kindness really makes the series for me: she WILL end you if she has to or you've angered her, but she's genuinely doing what she does out of childlike wonder, impulse or genuine kindness.

Late Night Loopy: This one has a great premise, a very 90's one at that, but a meh ending. Not bad enough to ruin the short but enough to keep it from being my faviorite of the season. It would've easily won that Kablammy were it not for the ending. The rest is good: Larry gets to stay up later as he's older and watch late night tv, something that future generations will never really know existed, but for us with cable or standard tv, was a fact of life.. as was just how.. boring it was. Mostly late night talk shows, infomericals and other shit. Even nowadays a lot of cable networks just... air that crap, though it's become way less. Loopy ends up in the tv from boredom, and has to flee a talk show host before he.. kills her for being too young to do this? It's never explained. Maybe he's sending her to the bog of etneral stench, I don't know which is worse.

So that ending.. larry has to buy loopy to get her out of the tv and they have to pay it off and it's just.. not satisfying. Loopy was just curious and Larry literally did nothing wrong. It just botches what was otherwise a fantastic episode.

Kung Fu Loopy: A stellar season finale this one annoyed me a little at first, though it's mostly as a younger sibling: Larry is excited that the Charlie Chicken Show On Ice is coming and promises Kung Fu Chickens on ice, getting int oa zen state for it. He then proceeds to be a whiny dick about having to bring loopy.. even though she's also been established as liking the show, is just excited and at worst asks for snacks, especially since thei rmom probably gave him conession money. I was worried this would end up annoying.. but it goes somewhere great as Charlie accidently stains loopy's dress with a pie. And thus must die. She end sup as the assitant for a demonstration, which feels unfair to Larry who. .actually wants to do it and she's runing the show for her vendetta. Had the short not stuck the landing.. this one just wouldn't of worked. But not only does Loopy open a can of whupass on charlie, whose arrogance over the issue an dnon chalance makes him more than desreve it, but she volunteers larry as his replacement. So while she did go out for revenge, she didn't do it selflessly or reckleslly: she knew the whole time her brother could replace this clown. So what could've been "larry is a pissant" or "Loopy ruins everything for larry guess thems the break".. instead ends heartwarmingly as Larry realizes brining her go thim his dream... and all because she just loves and has faith in her brother. A sweet note to end the season.

With the off-beats it feels more like a contiuation fo the previous batch of shorts than a brand new season. And given how good the off-beats was last time, i'm fine with that.

Part of that.. is a bit sad. This is the last batch of the off-beats. There's a valentine's special we'll be looking at as part of our end of retrospective special compiling all the various shorts these series left outside of kablam, something Cory happily greenlit after I realized just how many extra shorts and what not were kicking around, but for the series proper this is the end.

Thankfully unlike Sniz and Fondue the end isn't nearly as bitter, if still bitter sweet: Mo Willems.. simply wanted to focus on other projects. At the time he was doing shorts for Seasame Street and had a pilot shot at cartoon network with Sheep in the Big City, both projects he'd rather work on. It doesn't seem he disliked the offbeats, he just liked the other stuff more and Sheep did get a full series greenlight which was nice... said series didn't last long, but it is one i'd like to take another look at after seeing the off beats.

So our final batch is really about the same. Out of the cast Tommy and August get the most focus, though we still get another spotlight for Betty Anne Bongo and Rapunzil and most of the off beats get screentime per episode, so it never feels like their hogging the spotlight. It's still a wonderful, melacholy yet hopeful little short and i'm sad to see it go. IT was a nice big of low energy whimsy after the high octaine feeling of most other shorts.

Tommy's Coat: The "season" starts off on a high with possibly my faviorite episode of the bunch, Tommy's Coat. Tommy's coat is being cleaned and we get frequent cries of "I want my coat" as the rest of the gang try to help him get over it. HIm going after the populars after hallucinating them as his coat is a perfect punchline, and it's nice to see him back with it at the end. Good stuff.

The Suave-O-Matic 5000: August becomes cool for a day. It dosen't pan out. Another one of those plots on KaBLam that i've seen before and better and a rare misfire for the Off-Beats.

Tommy's Song: My other faviorite, Tommy gets a song stuck in his head. What makes this one special for me is the fact the song is depeicted by the notes floating over him and we get plenty of great gags out of it, from Betty Anne Bongo not being able to hear ANYTHING from Tommy till he yells to August accidently sucking his mind out when trying to remove the song. How the populars get their compuance is also sweet as Tommy simply shares the song which hunts them to the ends of the earth via chasing them commically. Okay... i've stopped being wishy washy this one is my faviorite, hard choice though.

Repunzil and the Sweepstakes: Repunzil enters one of those old "you could win a million dollars" sweepstakes. None of the off-beats are optimistic, while the Populars kinda just.. shove her into her group. I like this one entirely for the gag of one of the popular's nameless horde getting shoved out, leading to the great visuals of Repunzil just.. shoved in there awkwardly and not laughing along with their mockery and the odd man out running behind them and laughing... and doing so again after Repunzil gets thrown out, suprisingly enough.

The Sprain: Betty Anne gets a repetive wrist injury, been there, and can't play her bongos. The Popular's are dicks about it until they realize injries get you sundaes from Grubby Groo, the only adult here.. which is still one more than peanuts at least. He's just as useful, but it's more because the Populars try to play nice when he's around. Honestly I think he KNOWS their little shits on some level, but both is nice enough to give ANY kid a sundae if they maim themselves, and knows that they HAVE to be nice around him and it thus gives the off beats a safe zone from their bullshit. This one's fine.

Paddleball Record: August goes for the world record in Paddleball and september realizes he can't work a can opener when he says he dosen't need his owner for the day. It's a nice one epsecially since, like the September spotlight last season, it gives the dog a bit of compuance. Snoopy CAN be aloof, but he's not such an outright dick to his boy, and we get a sweet moment of August giving up the record for September. We also get a really nice endnig as he readies to try again, this time with September's cans opened. Awww.

The Statstic: Our final episode and a proper finale for the series: A stastic gets released that one in four people gets something dropped on their head, and tommy leaves the group for his own safety while the rest of the Off-beats try to find ANY way to get their friend back. You can see just how miserable both sides are without Tommy around.. and see the populars get bonked on the head. The payoff.. that it's just not worth being apart despite the risk, is genuinely sweet and get's to the series core: they nervous they nebbish they small.. but together... life is sweet they cool, they the off-beats.

Even if they've dropped the label, i'm keeping it.. if nothing else than because the logo looks neat and gives this section a heading.

The shorts for this season are superb. There really isn't a bad one in the batch. Some I loved, some I liked okay enough, but nothing that isn't creative , interesting or that couldn't of gone in the open slots left by Sniz and Fondue and the Off-beats next season.

Weirdly there's only 5 this season.. and another lava short that's.. okay as ever, all coming in the last batch of episodes, but all are fun to talk about, so i'm fine with that. Let's begin

The Brothers Tiki: A rare two-off, the brother's tiki is semi live action, taking place in a real world setting and having humans around but focusing on two Tiki Brothers. The premise is great: Two tiki aliens flying around in a spaceship resembling (and played by) a Bar-B-Que grill fly down to rescue what they think is a craft in distress and is instead just a grill... and theirs gets mistaken for it, filled with coals and lit on fire, leaving them stranded. The first ep sets this up and has an adorable ending as the family living there's little girl finds the two and snuggles them like plushies, while the second has our heroes trying to contact home via radio waveds and only JUST fialing thanks to the younger tiki's attention span.

Overall Brother's Tiki is decent. It's nothing super amazing joke wise "ALIENS DON'T GET EARTH" will never not be a thing, but the deisgn and puppets for the brothers is too cool and they find fun stuff to do, like turning a shop vac into a hot air ballon or having the brothers stack. It's a lot of fun and I recommend checking it out.

The short came from Gordon Clark's love of stop motoin animation, kitsch, lawn sculptures and buddy films, creating something special. Fun fact one of the hosts of myth busters worked on that. It means nothing to me but I know many of you will be impressed. Adam for the record.

The Girl with Her Head Coming off.. was my faviorite segment of the season, both among these and overall. It's a nice chill short about a tweenage girl who waxes about her crush, her teacher embarassing her, her annoying younger sibling and cousin, and why we all can't just be ants. it has a nice sketchy style, like the kind someone that age would make with colored pencil, with the characters having this cool abstract look to them. It also has a nice touch of melacholy, that feeling of having a crush on someone whos with someone else and just how that shit tears you up, feeling like you'll never be good enoguh. Granted this being fiction we get a nice ending as it turns out the guy is both single and is also weird, but it's still a nice relatable little short with a lot of fun to it. Reminds me a lot of the Ramona books by Judy Blume or the Fudge books. Truly fantastic stuff from Emily Hubley, daughter of John and Faith Hubley, who did a lot of animation for seasame street and most personally for me, the Doonsebury animated special, which I hope to cover at some point this year. She certainly did her parents proud with this one.

There's three more shorts that were aired on nick if not KaBlam and you can kinda see WHY at this point I ended up needing a whole special: there's two half hour specials, around 18 shorts from pilots to shorts from various series that simply never aired on kablam.. there's a lot of neat bibs and bobs to explore with this series. KaBlam may not ALWASY entertain, no one bats a thousand, but i'm always fascinated by the amount of animation talent on display here. It makes me happy nowadays with the indie boom animators can just launch the shows themselves if they have a brilliant idea like this one or simply want to make some fun shorts, not having to worry about fitting them into specitic time slots.

Randall Flan's incredible big top is a short by Brian Mulroney, who directed a few episodes of Beavis and Butt Head and part of B an dB doo america and helped with the story for Ballmasterz: Rubicon and Mike DeSeve, another Beavis and Butthead director as well as a writer and director for a TON of pre school shows including Pocoyo, and a writer on the Over the Hedge Movie, another thing I want to cover sometime soon as while not a fantastic ADAPTATION, it's still a hell of a film.

Randall Flan is simple: the titular overly nervous Randall takes his circus into a town that while never having met one, is having an anti blue lion fevor... and his main star just happens to bea n egotistical blue lion who can't take the hint. It's also a nice little diddy on prejudice without really getting heavy into it: everyone hates the blue lions on concept.. but once Bravado performs and they see his talent, pride and heart, they accept him. Granted it's really jus tabou tpissing randall off into chasing bravado around before said acceptance but hey, that works too. It's.. alright. Not quite as great as the other one offs this season, but still a lot of fun with some creative animation.

The Adventures of Patchhead.. is a fever dream. A glorious fever dream but it might be the most bonkers segment this series has put out thus far, as well as one of it's first live action one. I mean Action League Now TECHNICALLY is , but it's more a very limited form of stop motoin animation.

This short, Teed Off, follows a southern golf tourney in a redneck style town, but more in the Pogo or Tom Sawyer sense where it's whimsical and not deeply fucked. Prized Asshole Kid Kudzu is about to win by as he's beaten all comers when our hero arrives: Patchhead, an overalls clad kid with a melon on his head and a wrench for his club who challenges Kid Kudzu. And just in case you hadn't figured it out from the picture yes, Kid Kudzu is played by none other than comedy legend and living god Nick Offerman who you may know as Ron Swanson on parks and rec or Beef Tobin on the HIGHLY underated currently running comic masterpiece the great north

So naturally hearing he was going to be on KaBlam in one of his earliest rolls was a highlight and he did not disapoint. he is entirely game for the hammy mugging this roll required. Adam Sandler if you ever consider making that Happy Gilmore sequel.. well don't but if you have to, please cast Nick Offerman as a southren golf villian. he can even be shooter mcgavins best friend or something just.. we need more of this.

Now it's time for our second KABLAMMY AWARDS, giving out the awards for the best segment for each main series , the best standalone and the best overall. I've spoiled some of these but let's get to it anyway.

Henry and June: Won't Stick to Most Dentalwork. It's just one non stop laugh fest, from the actual murder we can't forget happened to the glorious climax with the Off-Beats stunt show. True comic genius.

Snizz and Fondue: Crustacean Sensations. It's almost entirely for that roadside stand bit, but damn if it isn't a good one and the rest is classsic.

Action League NOW!: Science Fiction Parody. Yeah I changed my mind as I was writing this. The sheer dark comedy here is fucking great.

Life with Loopy: Upside Down Loopy. It's a simple concept, it's fun and the ending is incredibly well set up as it is batshit. Plus it has a loveable bat.

The Off-Beats: Tommy's Song. Tommy's Coat was close, but the animation on the musical notes, them chasing them around and the climax I didn't mention of Repunzil getting the song stuck in EVERYONE'S head at the end.. i'ts all genius.

Startling Short: The Girl with Her Head Falling Off. I didn't hide this one nor would I. A true joy from start to finish. True excellence.

Best Short Overall: This was a really tough one as all the shorts that made it this far are good and the two I narrowed it down to were hard.. but I have to give it to The Girl With Her Head Falling Off. It'd have plenty of tween focused media like it but it's unique animation means there's nothing exactly like it out there, and that's what makes it special. Won't Stick To Most Dental Work was a VERY close second.. but I had to go with my heart.

Next Time: We venture into uncharted territory as Sniz and Fondue tries to go on without it's creator and the show goes on without one of it's founding segments and without i'ts best segment. Will Race Rabbit and Jetcat be able to fill the void? Will I like them? Tune in same kablam time same kablam channel next week to find out.

[go-to-two]

There really is not an argument anymore that the show is still getting the same amount of viewers as it used to. They're not. The numbers don't lie.

Why do you think so many people have stopped watching Chicago pd? Would you say it's because of Jay leaving?

I'll really only give my opinion on things the show can control. There will always be things out of their hands like the natural drop-off of audiences for long running shows, the general decline of broadcast TV viewership, losses due to decisions at Med and Fire, etc. I'm also not saying the viewership for PD is bad. This is only speaking to losing viewers from where they were to where they are now. Alright, as for what the show can control... the writing!

Losing Jay was going to be a creative hit either way, but they did it in one of the worst possible ways and all but destroyed a fan favorite ship in the process. That certainly won't keep viewers around if they were already on the fence with Jay leaving to begin with. Then, let's look at the individual characters. How many storylines have they had? One, two if they're lucky? We are fifteen episodes in and some main characters have only had one story. How about the quality of these storylines? Social media engagement for this show has gone down tremendously (this is more noticeable to me than viewership numbers) and if you look at the engagement, the only people really excited about the show right now are Kim and Adam fans. There's a reason for that. They have a storyline that's carrying over from episode to episode, it allows them to be people outside of work with home scenes, and it has a likely payoff. These are basic tenets of writing that an audience needs to stay engaged.

The show just makes the assumption that each viewer cares about each character and storyline, when that's simply not the case. So, when a viewer doesn't care, they are disengaged for weeks and are much more likely to just stop watching altogether.

This got rambly and I didn't mean it to. All this to say, there are a lot of factors that play into loss of viewership, but the show is in complete control of the writing. They have to give better quality stories to all of the characters if they expect people to stick around, and that hasn't happened.

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 12

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’m counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January. TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “Life used to be so placid! Won’t you PLEASE put down that acid?! And Say That We’re Sweethearts Again!” Number 12 is…Harlequinade.

Ladies and gents…let’s discuss Harley Quinn for a bit, shall we? I’ve been saving up the chance to really dive into Harley till now, because I felt it was important to wait till this episode for reasons I’ll go into. Almost without any argument or doubt, Harley Quinn is the single greatest and most lasting legacy that “Batman: The Animated Series” left behind. Of all the characters and concepts that the show fostered or expanded on, Harley is the one who truly broke the mold: an original character made for the series, she started off as sort of that one semi-obscure Batman Villain that only “real fans” who loved the TV show knew about…then started to make her way into more mainstream recognition, slowly at first, and then suddenly with explosive intensity. She’s now got her own TV show, a couple of movies with her as the main character, and more comics than you can shake a stick at, not to mention numerous other adaptations in other media. For me, however, the version from the DCAU will always be the truest and greatest version of her character: the first and still the best. Harley was originally voiced by Arleen Sorkin, and the character was partially inspired by her, as well. I say “partially” because Harley’s truest inspiration – and this is most obvious in her earliest appearances – were the henchgirls that frequently popped up in the 1960s Batman TV Series. (In fact, there are at least two specific henchgirls who I am convinced directly influenced Harley’s character, since both seem almost identical to her.) Over time, the character became more fleshed out and really blossomed into a major player in her own right. In my opinion, the episode that OFFICIALLY settled Harley as a mainstay was this one: “Harlequinade.”

The plot begins with the Joker stealing a nuclear bomb, of all things, and then going into hiding. Knowing time is of the essence, Batman and Robin decide to team up with the person they know is closest to the Joker’s cold, black heart: Harley Quinn. Harley agrees to help the Dynamic Duo out in finding the Joker and dealing with the bomb, in exchange for an early release from Arkham Asylum. What follows is a wild, chaotic ride of hijinks and shenanigans, as the trio bounce around Gotham trying to track down the Joker, complete with a random musical number…yes really.

This, I feel, is the episode that really put Harley on the map. Before this, yes, we knew she was a fun character, and she had a lot of great lines and moments, but she was always in another person’s shadow, whether it be the Joker, Poison Ivy, or even both. This, the Honorable Mention “Harley’s Holiday,” and one other episode I’ll get to later in the countdown really solidified her as a proper character in her own right. We learn more about Harley in this story, with little hints to her backstory and a better idea of her philosophy and motivations. We also get a greater idea of her beyond just being a villain, as she proves to be a surprisingly capable helper and even shows signs of right thinking. She’s not as far gone as the Joker is, she has things she values and cares about that make her more human and sympathetic. You can really see this episode as the start of where Harley would go in later/more recent years, with her becoming less of a villainess and more of an anti-hero: a wild card who can’t always be trusted, but makes for a surprisingly great ally in a tight pinch. It’s not by any means the darkest or most complex story, nor even the greatest look into Harley’s mind and personality we ever got…but it’s a LOT of fun, and one of the main stories that helped to make Harley who she is now, for better or for worse.

Tomorrow we move on to Number 11! Hint: “Why don’t you show them what an overdose can do, Daggett? Why don’t you tell them about ME?!”