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deaddee-anime-brownfanlady · 1 year ago

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Fav Series to get to know me a little better.

Been seeing a few posts do this and thought it could be fun to try too. No pressure but feel free to join along if you want!

The Sandman- While I've read a few chapters of the comic (which I still need to read more of) par say, the Netflix show adaptation is so freaking good & seriously exceeded my expectations in terms of the visually effects also the storytelling is done so well & seeing Morpheus in live-action is also great too. So hyped for S2.

POSE- I swear this series doesn't get enough attention on it as far as I can tell. Because it's honestly I think one of the best shows I've seen so far, Set during 1980s America during the AIDs crisis with a mostly Black and POC casting that's focuses on Ballroom culture which offers a place of belonging to NY gay/queer communities. This show is a emotional roller-coaster that had me feeling so much for its great characters & it should be watched more by everyone because it's so good.

Arcane- Just seriously one of the best mature adult animated series thus far. Before I got into Arcane the only one or two thing I knew about it was hearing how awesome it was and that its based off of the long time popular online game League of Legends & that was pretty much it. But actually seeing this show upon first episode had me hooked from the start, everything dealing with this show is top-notch. From the fantastic, incredible 3d animation to the mature well-written compelling storytelling, along with well-rounded, morally complex flawed characters that feel so human in terms of the choices they make be it in the wrong or right, also the real banging soundtrack along with it. Just one of the bests series I so far seen.

Primal- Yet another example of really great adult animated series that have come out recently way ago. By the creator of Samurai Jack and Dexter Laboratory, Gennady Tartakovsky Primal is to me a good, well done showcasing of visual storytelling. Just a epic & awesome story about a caveman dub as Spear and his Dinosaur pal "Fang" that bonded over the loss of their families & now goes on a journey together through the violent prehistoric times. I consider this animated show to be akin to art, like a show with zero dialogue & all atmosphere & raw emotions. Just a piece of like animated art.

American Gods-Ah this show, Yet another one of Nail Gaiman works. I have a bit of some conflicted feelings on this show because while its so damned good and I seriously love everything about it on the premise of Gods and Deities from other cultures and mythology living within the modern world & trying to rebuild the influence they've once had on humanity & everything else how this show is put together in terms of visuals also storytelling is great...except for that damn cliffhanger and the fact that the show was cancelled...so yea. Still love it a bunch but eh...yeah.

Tuca & Bertie- Yet another fav adult cartoon show of mine that also got done so dirty yet again but also I feel don't get a lot of attention on it. Made by Lisa Hanawalt who in case you didn't know was the character designer of BoJack Horseman, and I would say Tuca & Bertie is like the less depressed and lesser cynical sister series of Bojack while still tackling some real heavy mature issues and problems. The world of Tuca & Bertie is one filled with mainly anthro bird people and dogs also talking plants people too. The show just has this more off-beat , zany , fun optimistic feel-good vibes going for it that's feels so inventing. But similar to Bojack in a way were its not afraid to get emotional serious about adult problems like sexual abuse or dealing with harassment & treating said issues with tact & maturity while still keeping the show overall light-hearted tone. Should be watched more.

The Midnight Gospel- The short way to giveaway on what this show is or deal with? Can be phase in one way. And that there's should be more animated Podcast. Made by Pendleton Ward the same man behind Adventure Time, I swear this show was quite the experience but in a good way. The animation is so trippy and yet so uniquely creative with using different styles. It follows a dude who goes inside a simulator to different worlds to try to interview people. The talks within this show can hit on many different levels with discussions of coping with loss and death or dealing with the struggles of hoping, a show you should take your time with, but so worth it.

Castlevania- I'll try to keep this one short & sweet. But another real awesome and oh so good adult animated series based off the classic game of the same title. great and amazingly done action /fight scenes as well as also just as wonderfully engaging and entertaining characters that you'll truly end up feeling so much for and the crap they have to deal with. Fantastic beautiful animation also the storyline and plot is just as good as the look of the show. Truly another banger.

AMC Interview with a Vampire- Now, this might sound like a controversial statement. But I deeply think and feel that this series version of interview with a Vampire is ten times more better then the movie. Not! That the movie is bad or anything, I very liked and enjoy the movie...but it never been one of my top fav movies to be honest. But the show on the other hand is so Top-notch on many levels, especially with the great performance of each actor. So Love Jacob Anderson playing as Louis de Pointe du lac and with him as an black man during 1900s America and how that's play into dealing with his vampirism, also his sexuality in terms of black queerness and showing the intricacies of the many challenges also jump ropes a black man having to keep the front of hypermasculinity especially black masculinity in a time era were being black your already seen as less than human is written so damned well. Also Sam Reid playing Lestat De Lioncourt is so fucking both great and entertaining to watch like for real, and Claudia in this show I feel is so much better then the one in the movie. Like I felt so much for her in this series. Like its so good.

Documentary Now- One of my most favorite comedy series that's never fails to creak me up. Like for real if you're interested in or into mockumentaries style of comedy then this show right here is right up there. Each episode focuses on a different "documentary " topic from dealing with a band rise & fall from success to the son of a famous chef overcoming his fears of chickens and taking over for his dad to a broken man that's ends up having a deep connection with a monkey. This show is just something else ^0^ .

Final Space- Final Space is probably one of if not the best adult animated series that I truly feel belongs right alongside with Bojack-Horseman to be honest. It's severely underrated in terms of adult animation which I think it's a shame because it really surprises me with how good it ended up becoming. At first glance looking at this sci-fi themed average typical comedy adult cartoon ended up being and becoming a much more well-rounded, emotional thought out very developed top-notch mature series. What I love about final space is that unlike other so-called “adult” animated shows is that it doesn’t try so hard with its adult humor or go overbroad with how much it tries to make it so “adultlike” such as having non-stop cussing or unnecessary super crude gore or out of place sex & nudity ( which I feel isn't always a bad thing when done right...but some adult cartoons tend to go overboard with it) This show has such a great balance of its comedy while also not afraid to get emotional serious about loss & grief or deal with some real heavy dramatic moments that are treated as serious as can be & isn't treated as a joke or a one off thing like how it would in certain other adult cartoons. One of the most mature animated series I've had the pleasure of watching & still pissed that it was done so wrong.

Welp that's about it! Sorry if this got too long ( ￣▽￣). This is just a couple of series I love. Tag in if ya'll want too!

@iamnmbr3 @dorkynerd23 @lokomotives

@feministfandomforever @uncleasriel

@zinexine @itwv-brainrot @vulgar-mary-p-ppins @captainbarinius @eddawrites @that1-otter @ghostbauhaus @freedom-and-beyond @dreballinarts @youlackconviction @toe-star @gey-scout

#tag game #tag along #reblog game #mutuals

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ct-hardcase · 8 months ago

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First three for that ask game for I believe emerald and mercury from rwby?

holy shit thank you I love talking about these two:

Emerald

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?: First and foremost, @alexkablob's influence lmao. In all seriousness though, Emerald's redemption arc being projected, telegraphed, and executed well is a huge part of the appeal. Also, I liked Mercury more first, so her relationship with him helped kickstart my enjoyment of Emerald, and remains an important element of why I like her character (but certainly not the only one).

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?: The fact that she takes a few moments to be sad, and then immediately gives a "wait, I defected just for you assholes to get defeatist on me?" speech that ends up being the rousing inspiration. The more her non-Cinder appeasement personality shows, the more I love it.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?: I'll copout answer this and say it's that we didn't get to see more of her in earlier volumes.

Mercury

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?: What can I say? I have a bit of a tendency toward underdeveloped villains who are sort of cocky. That, combined with my enjoyment of speedsters, kind of made Mercury a shoo-in.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?: Other people have done better metas than I have, but the amount of implications that the writers packed in about him without actually saying it out loud is nuts. Mercury Black is rash and cocky to peers and victims, but he's an abuse victim who almost never lashes out around the villains who has more power than he does (among the notable exceptions being his "back off, freak" to Tyrian, which speaks again to his dynamic with Emerald). He tries to climb the ladder within Salem's structure, because power through violence over others is all he's really known his whole life (raised by an abusive mercenary, murders him, joins the woman who wants to kickstart the apocalypse). hyasinthum said in the tags of this post that any time he expresses emotions like fear, he does it away from the camera, as if the audience is someone he has to mask against. And this is all with a C-tier character (in terms of distance from the main cast) who was very recently elevated to B-tier.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?: In the manga, he has an added scene where he's being kind of a creep to Ruby during Dance Dance Infiltration (or: these characters' prom). It doesn't feel entirely ooc, but it definitely doesn't feel great to read, given that I wasn't originally enjoying his character with the "[x] is a creep" mindset. We do get chivalrous Weiss out of it, though.

#ask game #tysm!#adaurable

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hilli98215 · 2 years ago

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I posted 6,980 times in 2022

485 posts created (7%)

6,495 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@queen-with-the-quill

@storyweaverofgondor

@roxycake

@tending-the-hearth

@skywalkerangst

I tagged 948 of my posts in 2022

#disney - 110 posts

#personal - 63 posts

#kingdom hearts - 54 posts

#thanks for the ask - 32 posts

#teacher things - 26 posts

#tagged post - 25 posts

#youtube - 24 posts

#fandom - 24 posts

#random - 22 posts

#disney parks - 22 posts

Longest Tag: 105 characters

#but i really only know jason alexander from his performance in seinfeld (comedy) and cinderella (musical)

My Top Posts in 2022:

As he should....

Go see tick, tick... BOOM! if not for the musical aspect, just for Andrew Garfield's performance. He is wonderful and yes. He did learn to sing and play the piano for this role.

37 notes - Posted January 10, 2022

...that 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' performance was bad. Very very bad. They could have made it so good but nope

42 notes - Posted March 27, 2022

What do you think about Disney’s gargoyles, the tv show? I think it’s much better and mature and has some Batman the animated series vibes.

Hello Anon!

I was in the generation where I watched reruns of Gargoyles with my older siblings in the early/mid 2000's. We loved this show for the fact that it was much different than the animated shows Disney had at the time which were based on their IPs (Hercules, The Little Mermaid, and Goof Troop for example).

As for it was a better show, that depends on what you like to watch. It was diffidently influenced by BTAS (which ran from 1992-1995 but kept going on due to reruns) since that series took its audience seriously and knew it could still give its lessons but in a mature way.

The same could be said about Gargoyles. The creators took their audience seriously while also creating a show that was appropriate for kids and something parents could watch with them. It still had lessons but also characters who were more than comedic relief.

The villain is great, the cast of characters is memorable, and it's a series that may forget was a thing and is part of Disney Animation and storytelling.

Getting off track for a bit, but here is a video from NerdWire where they discuss the show and why it was so good and why people should watch it.

youtube

56 notes - Posted February 20, 2022

This. This is a great example why people want to become teachers.

That scene on KLAUS (2019) made me smile because that's what we want to see in our students. The simple joy and wonderment of learning. Even as simple as writing your name.

(Also you need to turn your phone if you want to watch the clip. Sorry desktop users....)

95 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I've been sick for a few days so I can finally put my thoughts into words. I was in the middle of watching Infinity Train. Actually, I was on season 1 episode 3 and was going to continue watching the show when I had a chance.

But now I can't. I had to watch the news unfold by watching various TikTok users and reading Twitter threads. Then to realize that it was not only various animated shows that were taken off the HBO Max platform but also 200 episodes of Sesame Street.

And for what? A freaking tax credit? That's not how this works.

You see what Warner Brothers is doing is atrocious. Not only are they alienating an entire medium of entertainment, but they are also telling the animators, voice actors, editors, directors, and others that they don't matter.

Animation matters. The people who put their blood, sweat, and tears, and took time away from their families matter. The fans of these shows matter.

Warner Brothers is not going to save money, they are going to lose it in the worse way possible.

196 notes - Posted August 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #some of these are very unexpected #epecially that last one #Youtube

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amane-by-together · 4 years ago

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Hanafuda || Amane Yugi

(Part 1 of 10)

genre: fluff, school, slice of life, modern au (where all wonders live)

summary: amane yugi spends his school days skipping classes until he meets [name] [surname], a student from the other class, who was also skipping classes and eventually the two of them formed a platonic friendship. cutting classes and playing hanafuda together strengthens their friendship but soon unexpected feelings blossom between the two.

“Amane-kun.” [name] was shuffling the hanafuda cards together for them to play, she glanced over to the choppy haired boy who was sitting crossed legged against the rooftop's railings. “You going to the next class?”

“Nah.” Amane answers while fiddling with his locks of hair. “We probably skipped three classes this day, wanna skip classes in fourth period?” he smirked playfully.

“What class do you have in fourth period?” [name] asked, giving Amane some seven hanafuda cards. “Math?”

“Literature.” He received the cards and scooted in front of her. [name] flashed him a quick grin, her competitive side is showing all of a sudden when it comes to hanafuda. Amane stared at his cards and groaned. “Ugh, why do I get the worse cards?”

“I dunno, I wasn't looking when I was shuffling them.” [name] purses her lips together as she analyzes her cards. Her [eye color] colored eyes met with Amane's amber eyes. “Hm. Let's start!”

“You go ahead, [name]-san.”

“Hm~? Alrighty then~” [name] stretched her arms and let out a satisfying sound from her lips. She placed a sakura card with the tag to its match and took another card from the stack and placed it along with the cards on the center since it has no match. “Winner gets to sleep in the loser's lap.” she added.

“[name]-san, you know so damn well I'm not good with these things.” he murmured with a blush while putting a matsu card on the center.

Amane met [name] by chance. He often skip classes alone week by week, no one seemed to notice his absence which was fine by him. One day, he decided to stay on the rooftop and saw a girl sitting by herself with her phone. It must be fate or a coincidence, he thought.

The thing is, he has never seen this girl from the classes he attended to so he assumed that she's from the different class where Tsukasa, his twin brother, is. “Tsukasa-kun?!” she exclaimed at their first encounter. “What the frickety frack are you doing here?!”

Amane scratches his cheek and sweat dropped. He spoke. “I'm not Tsukasa though, I'm his older twin.”

[name] blinked she stood up from the bench and went over to Amane. The choppy haired boy slightly backed away from her. “Your tone is lowered down a bit, your eyes shaped like the crescent moon, yeah you're not Tsukasa-kun.” she muttered.

“I'm Amane Yugi, first year highschool, from class A.” he introduced himself while twiddling his fingers. “I'm Tsukasa's older brother though.” he chuckled.

“[name] [surname], same year as you but I'm from class B. Nice to meet you, Amane-kun.” [name] sat back down to the bench, she patted the extra space next to her. “Come, sit next to me.”

Amane hesitated a bit but shrugged and sat next to [name]. The female grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I guess you're skipping classes like me.”

“I've been skipping multiple times, no one noticed it yet, how about you?” Amane scooted closer till their shoulders touched, his bangs became parted from the side due to the slight wind that passed by.

“I started skipping on the beginning of first year.” [name] pulls out a packet of melon bread and gave it to Amane which he gratefully accepts it. Amane and [name] ate in pure silence, munching on to the bread that [name] bought recently which was originally for herself.

During those days of skipping classes, they would play hanafuda together on the rooftop. [name] would frequently win during their matches, guess luck really isn't compatible with Amane. The two of them quickly became close due to their meet ups when they're skipping classes together.

“Amane-kun, I know you have the full moon bright card.” [name] eyed him suspiciously but a shadow casted over to her face with a funny glint in her eyes. She placed an ume card with a red tag on it. “Red Poetry Tags, I win again~!”

“I couldn't even get a lot of yaku combinations.” Amane helped [name] to clean up the cards. “I knew I should give up the plain cards.”

Amane blushed at the thought of [name] laying down on his lap, he doesn't even know what to do when that happens, maybe he should play with her hair or massage her cheek?

[name] happily laid down on his lap, Amane grabbed his hoodie and placed it on top of her skirt. “Ne, [name]…” his hands reached over to caress her hair with his fingers. “Let's have lunch together.”

“Sure, I don't really have someone to share my lunch with,” Amane looked down on her laying on his lap and gave her a soft smile. He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and started to pet her head, he reminded her of a cat. [name] would often keep her distance from others makes her cat-like according to him.

Though there's a part of [name] that doesn't want to open up to people, Amane was pretty much the same as her. “I got tired from work, yesterday.” he mentions with a small chuckle.

“Wait, you have a part time job?” [name] asked as her eyes piqued in interest, wanting to know what he does for work. “Where?”

Amane's cheeks grew warm, he slightly drooped his eyes and said. “I'm not telling you.”

“Why though?”

“You'd probably show up if I did.”

[name] turned her head to face his embarrassed look. She smiled playfully while wiping a dramatic tear from her eye. “You know me so well.” she faked a sniff.

“It's embarrassing...” Amane grumbled. [name] reached her hand out and placed it on to his cheek. He leans against her touch, the feeling of warmth and serenity made him smile a bit.

“But it's not. The fact that you're working is admirable.” [name] assured him with a smile unbeknownst to her that Amane's heart definitely skipped a beat on that act. “Pinch~” she cheekily grins while pinching his cheek.

“Owsh—” Amane tried to say while his cheek is being pulled by [name] and by that she releases her cheek. “That hurts...” he pouted.

“Have this for payback.” Amane returned the favor by pinching her cheek. Her cheeks were like mochi, which he likes to point it out just to tease her. “Mochiii~”

[name] deadpans. “You're treating me like some kind of mochi instead of a person.”

“Exactly.” The bell suddenly rang interrupting the two teens. Amane grabbed his bag that was on the bench. [name] punched a hole on the juice box using a straw and took a sip.

Amane leaned back against the railings, unboxing his lunch and ate. [name] didn't feel like eating, a juice box can satisfy her stomach after all. “[name]-san, don't you have lunch?”

“I forgot it at home.” she replied nonchalantly, she kept on having a stoic face until her stomach betrayed her by letting out a small growl. Amane stop eating halfway at the sound. “That’s nothing~” she denied that she was hungry.

“Here, I’ll give you some of my lunch.” Amane picked up a piece of egg roll using his chopsticks and raised it in front of [name]. “Say ahh~”

“O-Oi!” [name] flinched as she backed away from him. Amane’s brow creases in pure confusion. “Y-You don’t have to...”

“I can’t let you skip lunch, [name]-san.” The choppy haired boy smiled while putting the egg roll near her mouth, then his smile turned into a painful one. “Just take a bite, my hand is getting tired.”

[name] sighed in defeat, she was very hungry and was wrong about the juice box making her full. She tucked a hair behind her ear and ate the egg roll that Amane offered for her, his heart skipped a beat whilst she pulled away. “I guess, sharing lunch is not a bad idea...”

“Also, your lunch tastes good.” [name] scooted next to Amane to see his boxed lunch, she pointed at the ghost-shaped sausages, the bunny shaped rice balls and egg rolls. “You made that?”

Amane nodded with a slight blush on his face but the smile on his face didn't falter. “Well yeah, at the first time I made one of these they were all sloppy but practice makes perfect so I'm able to make one. If you'd like, I'll make you one or we can be matching too~!”

“Let's have matching lunches, duh.” [name] opens her mouth and ate another piece of egg roll that Amane was offering her. “But before that, I'll make us some lunch for us to share.”

“[name]-san, here have a sausage.” Amane feeds her the ghost-shaped sausages which the latter hummed contently. Amane took a bite on one of the sausages, he pulled out his phone and swallowed his food. “Hey, [name]-san,”

[name] stopped chewing her food. “Hm?”

“Wanna go home early?” Amane said with a mischievous grin, he's mostly the bad influence when it comes to reckless things like skipping classes. [name] had no idea why he has a lot of plans regarding this. “This is getting boring, don't cha think so?”

“And how do we plan to sneak out from school?” [name] asked, quirking a brow whilst waiting for an answer.

“We can jump off the roof.” Amane suggests.

“No. We'll freaking die if we did or even break our bones.” [name] shuddered. “If we did, they'll think it's just some lovers' su—”

“Nevermind that then.” Amane flailed his hands in front of her. “I guess we should wait till dismissal then...”

“Wanna play again?” [name] asked as she showed him the small box containing the cards.

Amane smiled. “Sure.”

Amane sat alone on a concrete bench, listening to the soft pitter patter of the rain surrounding him. Holding the clear umbrella from his right hand, he sighed as if he's gonna make a monologue or something.

He has friends from his class but none of them made him feel real. The only person who can make him feel like himself was no other than [name].

[name], to Amane, was everything to him. Meeting her was fate as if they were meant to meet in the first place. Back then, Amane admired some girls yet only because they're pretty. None of them were ever even close to him, he only felt shallow for them.

“Sorry for making you wait—” [name]'s voice cuts him off from his inner monologue. She held up her school bag on top of her head to prevent her from the rain. She grins blithely. “You don't have to be sitting the exact same way.”

“My uniform is a bit soaked.” [name] added with a wince. Amane licked the side of his lip and stood up to put the umbrella above her. “It was literally sunny recently.”

“Hm, I'll be taking you home.” Amane hands her the umbrella to [name], went over to his bike and puts his school bag in the basket. “Which way is your house?”

“That's like a novel way to put it but I guess that works.” [name] pointed out. “Sounds like a romance cliche, not gonna lie, lmao.”

Amane stepped on to his bike, [name] held on to his shoulders from behind. He was thankful that she didn't get to see his blushing face, because that's lowkey what every guy felt when there's a girl behind them on a bike.

Amane started pedalling. [name] closes the umbrella and sits down instead. “It stopped raining, by the way.” she declared.

[name] wrapped her arms around his torso and that's how Amane's face erupt in a huge blush. “[name]-san?!” he stammered at the sudden action.

“...Don't say a word about this.”

“I'm sorry, what?”

[name]'s face flushes, she buried her face on his back and that's where his heart started to beat faster. Out of all the girls he admired throughout the years, his feelings for [name] is different.

How so you may ask? When Amane is around [name] it's like he's sitting on a fluffy pink cotton candy or maybe standing on water that reflects a pastel pink sky with soft looking clouds with her. “You know, with you hugging me from behind isn't that kinda...” Amane turned his head towards [name] and smirked playfully. “Bold for you~?”

[name] tightens the hold in irritation. “Ack—” Amane's hold on the handle became wobbly but managed to maintain his balance. [name] elicits a small giggle in return.

“Hm, wanna skip again tomorrow?”

“If its with you, why not?”

“You're so cheesy.” [name] slightly smacked his shoulder. Amane turned ahead, a smile forming from his lips.

‘Nonetheless, I don't really mind skipping with you even if it means being with you...’

“Hold on tight, we're going downhill!” Amane gripped on the handles of his bike. [name]'s eyes widened when she saw that that they were about to go down on a slope.

“Cheers to us delinquents!” [name] cheered before they go down to the road.

Definition and terms:

hanafuda - flower cards that can be played in a variety of games such as koi koi (the type of game that [name] and amane are playing with the cards)

sakura - cherry blossom

matsu - pine tree

ume - plum blossom

-end of part 1-

thank you for reading, make sure to like and reblog if you love this post~

taglist: @closetwaffle @closetweebsmh

#tbhk #jibaku shounen hanako kun #amane yugi #amane yugi x reader #anime #hanako x reader #fluff #yugi amane #yugi amane x reader #amane #hanako kun #jshk hanako #toilet bound hanako kun #hanako

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chidoroki · 5 years ago

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TPN ch181

(spoilers! AAAHHhhaha..my children!)

Okay, so remember in my last review when I said I was impressed how Ray, Gilda and Phil managed to narrow down where Emma might be in the matter of a couple months? Well, I take it back because it hasnt been just a few months, it's been two damn years! Oh my god, I can't imagine how hard it must've been for everyone, especially our two boys, to search for so long without even getting on single clue about Emma's whereabouts. Some of the children still doubt whether she's alive or actually in this world with them or not.

(image limit, so imagine the panels of the Goldy Pond kids discussing the lack of clues and Thoma and Lani doubting the reward again)

Thankfully, Gilda gets the idea to search in forbidden zones which is where we see her, Ray and Phil. Speaking of which, oh my poor boy. This is the longest Ray has been without Emma by his side. I thought the one month after Goldy Pond was hard enough on him, but two whole years? Damn, I can't imagine the stress and anxiety he's been experiencing. He's still so frustrated too and gets so close to Emma without even realizing it. Then, surprisingly, his beloved family steps in to help? The people he personally couldn't save now come together to help him save the one person who originally saved his life. Like, hello?? I love this! Conny, who was another sibling he had to use in order to put his initial escape plan in motion to save Emma and Norman's lives, is now assisting him in saving Emma from being alone. Yuugo, who knows firsthand how important Emma is to Ray and how close they are. Isabella, knowing her son kept his promise as he's always set out to do whatever it takes to protect his entire family. The fact that Ray's lost family members can feel how strong his bond with Emma is and they jump in to help reconnect the two of them again.. just, wow. It may be all the rayemma week feels getting to me but that's like a damn soulmate occurrence if i ever saw one!

The two unknowingly pass each other again but thanks to Emma conveniently losing her necklace and finding it with perfect timing, they all finally encounter each other. Everyone expresses their complete shock and relief that they had finally found Emma, and while I am happy they their search ended up a success, the mood changes fairly quickly due to our girls lost memories. She hasnt the slightest idea who "Emma" is, who these people are or why they're so excited to see her. The kids wonder if they have the right girl, as they take notice of Emma's bare neck.

One look at the necklace in her hand though and Ray finally puts the pieces together. Honestly, I'm not at all surprised he's the one to figure out the true reward, as Ray has been very perceptive since the beginning. He's also always been openly honest and blunt when things get serious, so naturally he's the one who has to let everyone know this because while it's a sad truth no one wants to hear, or even believe, they all need to realize it, including Emma. Even Ray has trouble coming to terms with the sacrifice Emma made. He understands how hard it must have been for Emma to accept the heavy price of her forgetting the family she loves so deeply and he looks so broken when he realizes that. He must be feeling so guilty that he couldn't have been there with her when she made the new promise. He still puts the blame on himself and he's so upset that his failure lead Emma to live in a world alone without the family she cares for more than anything.

I wasn't too satisfied last chapter when demon god told us the real reward and Emma's response was a simple "okay," so I'm grateful we learned more about the conversation now in this chapter. She really did want to live her family. She even knew some of them might get mad at her for keeping a secret. She says it's a selfish request, for her to place such a heavy burden on herself, but what mattered to her back then upon accepting the reward is what has always mattered to her, and that's her family's happiness and safety. It wasn't just her loved one either, but for all the demons and cattle children. This girl truly has a heart of gold and demon god himself is left surprised. Of course I wish she didn't think she was being selfish since everyone did agree to follow her as their leader but aahh.. my poor girl.

Spoiling the very end now, but we dont get one last fullscore trio hug. Of course that upsets me since I thought it would've made such a perfect ending, but it makes sense now given how everyone's reunion with Emma happened. While their happiness and relief is completely understandable after searching two years and finally finding Emma, they overreact and this visibly freaks her out. Come on guys, last time I said to gently remind her of her past, not bombard her right away. Having a ton of strangers surround you and tell you such outlandish things is quite jarring. I'm glad she takes the chance to listen to everyone, but she just doesnt know these people well enough to suddenly hug them. I imagined a hug would've happened upon her recalling some of her memories somehow and feeling relived that she met the two boys she often once dreamt about, but oh well.

Norman takes this time to step in and ease some of the tension, saying how happy he is that Emma's alive and even reiterating some of the things he said to her during his shipment scene. While this chapter soon shows how well the escapees have adapted to the human world and changed, it also puts an emphasis on the boy's true personalities that they showed since the very beginning. I've already mentioned above how Ray stayed true to himself, about him being open and honest to the others with the truth and even his own feelings. With Norman, I don't know the word for him really, but his speech about their family and his feelings remind me of ch1/ep1 where we see him trying to calm Emma down after seeing what they did at the gate. He stayed by her side and remained hopeful even though he was just as scared. Right now, I get the same vibes. He's just as upset as their family upon learning Emma lost her memories, but he still wants her to be apart of their family.

Although it seems like a very rushed way of tying up loose ends, I'm happy to hear about how well the children have been adapting in the human world. They're attending school and following their passions. They all look so happy! The entire Lambda crew is healthy and Cislo even has a prosthetic leg! The medicine made from Adam's dna was successful and also helped those children from the mass production farms. Mike Ratri and the clan are actually being helpful and trustworthy. I absolutely love Norman's comment about Ayshe not killing him! It really makes me smile and I assume that means she's forgiven him.. maybe. Her dogs were indeed able to cross over to the human world too and now there's even more! Chris is finally awake! They seriously have to fill the poor boy in on so much news though.

I get it. It took the entire story for me to understand but now I get Norman's intense feelings. He's been infatuated by this girl since childhood. He told us/Ray his feelings at age 11 then "gave his life" to give her a better chance at survival. He kept living just for the slight possibly to see her again. After almost two years, they reunite, only for about a week or two before they all cross over into the human world and Emma is no where to be seen. Another two years pass and while they all find her, she's almost a completely difference person. Yet Norman's feelings remain so sincere for her that he accepts this new Emma. He lets her know that the bright future she wished for came true. (me? speaking of noremma? even im surprised)

Her head might not have the slightest idea who these people are, but her heart surely remembers! Emma's feelings for her family were so strong that they persisted throughout these entire two years, even after she stopped having those dreams about them. Deep down, and without even realizing it, she loves them so much that it makes her cry.

“Why am I... Even though I don't know them. Though I don't know anything. Though I can't remember. Why... Does it feel warm, but also so painful in my heart? I wanted to see you.”

Seeing everyone else get emotional and expressing their feelings to her right back and having all of them accept this new Emma.. yeah, that has me in tears! Demon god truly underestimated these kids and how deep their love for each other went. Emma's family was never going to give up looking for her because, thanks to her influence, they also didn't believe anything was impossible. “Screw destiny” indeed! (also we never did learn the old dude's name or Emma's new one hm? odd.)

Did Emma get her memories back? No. Did Ray pat her head again so I could die from nostalgia? No, because I'm still here. Did we get a fullscore hug like I originally hoped? No, sadly. The ending isn't picture perfect but honestly, this is still okay. Our precious girl is finally reunited with her family again. Most importantly, they're alive. The trio are teenagers about 15/16 years old now, which amazing since they once believed they wouldn't see a day past the age of 12. Yet here they are, living happy and free in the human world without fear and killing, which is exactly what Emma wished for.

I can't believe the manga is truly finished. It feels like it all went by so quick, but perhaps that's only because I haven't been in the fandom as long as others, like if you've been here since the manga started then I applaud you and can't imagine how sad this must be after four years. The anime is what caught my attention and my love for this series only grew when I jumped into the manga right after season one ended. I must have binged all available chapters at the time in like three days, all the way up to ch129. Since then I've waited patiently week after week to see how this suspenseful story would pan out for out lovable and very large cast of characters. Each new twist and cliffhanger made my brain crazy and stressed me out but it was so great to experience them with everyone.

Also, big thanks to all of you who share your comments on these reviews of mine! Even though I started writing them pretty late into the story and at the most stressful time, it was great to hear so much feedback and experience the exciting finish with everyone. The manga may have ended, but don't let that make the fandom quiet! We still have future manga volume releases to look forward to, the live-action movie that is still set for this December along with a live-action series that was also recently announced. Most importantly, season two of the anime is still scheduled for January 2021! You can bet I'll do reactions for each episode as I normally do with other anime! The series still has so much more content to give us, especially if the anime continues to recieve future seasons over the upcoming years, so of course I'll give my thoughts on all that I can.

I give all my thanks and appreciation to Shirai & Demizu for such a wonderful and suspenseful story, for all the memorable characters and the stunning artwork. The series has truly become my favorite. That's right, I said it! My favorite. TPN has taken over Black Lagoon as my favorite series. (Revy can still keep her spot as my favorite character but I'll be damned if Ray isn't a really really close second.)

#the promised neverland #tpn manga #tpn ray #tpn emma #tpn norman #ray #emma #norman #chidoroki used chatter

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Amphibia Weekly Reviews: Bessie and Mircroangelo/The Third Temple “The Things We’ve Set into Motion Cannot Be Stopped”

Hello all you happy people. It’s been a long road, with an even longer road trip, but the season’s almost over: just two more weeks of Amphibia.. and with all the build up weighing down on our heroes two things are clear: this cannot end well for Anne or anyone involved, and this is going to hurt. It’s going to hurt a LOT. it’s going to be some...

... how have I not used more MST3K gifs. Questions for later. Point is with emotional pain immient, a revolution on the way this episode only ratchets up the tension.. while also sparing some time for makeover jokes and a breather episode about snail mentorships, fashion montages and giant crabs. I do love me some giant crabs. And i’ll tell you allllll about it under the cut.

Bessie and MicroAngelo:

This episode finds our heroes preparing for the third and final temple, loading up the wagon and preparing weapons, maps, potions, all that good stuff.

We end up getting two plots out of this. The first is the titular one: so Polly can help prepare, Hop Pop gives Bessie the task of watchin gher snail and certified cutie MicroAngelo, that tiny Snail who I assumed would disappear forever after his intitial apperance because that’s usually what cartoons does. But much like One Piece, Al Ewing and that owl what watches me while I sleeps, Amphibia never forgets.

It’s some Looney Tunes style shenanigans.. not the bugs or daffy, more on him later today, kind more the “Bigger more responsible party protects the smaller more vunerable or reckless one” kind you’d see eveyr so often. Tom and Jerry also really loved this. And Amphibia wears it well, with some good gags and really cute bonding and some really excellent animation on Bessie, giving the old girl plenty of life and animation. The only part I genuinely do not like is Hop Pop blaming Bessie for.. running after micro angelo afte rhe ran off. Aka doing the job you assigned her.

Someone i’m looking at. Regardless otherwise it’s just some fun, adorable slapstick with a downright precious ending. And hop pop DOES apologize.. and wish he was a cute snail. I do not have time to unpack all the implications there nor ponder what Hop Pop would look like in a snail costume. This week’s given my brain enough nightmares.

So anyway, our subplot has Marcy trying to give Anne a Makeover... and her past attempts with Sasha have been objectively horrifying so Anne is rightly scared, though the armorer who comes to help with it has a blue crab so tha’ts where all my attention. I fucking love crabs.. they just look so neat. Some see the fact a spider crab being out and about in animal crossing as horrifying. I see it as oh look at my cool terrifying crab friend. About the only crab I don’t like is this asshole.

And even then he can be VERY funny. .he’s just also an exploitative douchebag and having worked in food service, let me tell you I.. I get why Squidward is the way he is. That said Krabbyland is a masterpiece entirely because he’s such a terrible person, so it ballances out when the show’s doing it’s best.

Point is I like crabs and I like this subplot.. though mostly because it says a LOT about who Anne and Marcy are and where there at. Part of why Marcy is so gung ho about helping Anne is she figures this is her last shot to be whoever she wants to be. But really she’s just projecting: it’s been obvious since we properly met her that Marcy.. likes living HERE more than earth. On earth she’s an outcast: her hyperfixations, her tendency to babble about things she likes, her smartness... alll things that just make people turn away from her or pick on her on earth, with only two people relaly understanding and appricating her.. maybe more but we don’t know the situation with her parents yet. As someone who is a lot of those things, I get where she’s coming from.

So ending up in a world straight out of an rpg... she florished. Everything that made her life difficult at home suddenly made her florish: her skill with RPG’s meant she could blend in easily with the courtly high class of Newtopia, gave her a love of taking on missions, and allowed her to put her hyperfixation, knowledge and enthusasim to real world use, creating massive improvments in an already ritzy city. Everything that made her an outcast in our world made her a hero there. It’s why I worry about what’s to come: to both Grime and Andrias.. she’s the perfectly made pawn: too desperate to have Sasha back to see the kinfe he wants her to plant in Marcy’s, and too happy to be accepted to see the rpg convention, the benevolent ruler turning out ot be a puppet for the big bad, starring her in the face. Amphibia’s given her her freedom.. but it’s also left her very vunerable and may leave her alone.

As for Anne.. she realizes how far she’s come: from selfish and kind of distructive to selfless and self reliant.. and still kind of destructive but hey, you can’t cahnge eveyrthing about yourself. It’s why when given heavy armor.. all she needs is the core of it.. something simple to guard her but nothing too complex. She’s fine with who she is.. and it’s why she’s in the best place of the three girls. And why she’s left smack in the middle of the war to come. A war she can’t stop and that will leave her having to choose one... or do the right , hard thing and choose neither and try and free them from the bad influences they’ve embded themselves in. Either way this is going to hurt both her and the audience.

Final Thoughts: Bessie and Mircoangelo is good classic cartoon fun with a suprisingly deep subplot. Simple, but a nice pallete clensar, especially since the next episode is pretty tense and given it’s ending and eveyrthing that’s been building this season, it’s likely only going to get worse from here, so it’s nice to have a quick and breezy break before hell comes to frogtown.

The Third Temple:

Before we get to the final temple we get a flashback showing how Sasha met Anne and Marcy. The other two were playing on the swings when two big dillholes pushed them off and Sasha selflessly and fearlessly stood up to them. And promptly beat herself up more than the bullies who dodged her and eventually got so freaked out by whatever the hell this was they ran and a friendship was born. But noticably she’s a lot diffrent 7 years ago, aproximately, than she is at 13: she’s every bit as fearless and willfull.. but the compassion she once had got buried under a need for control. It’s easy to see now WHY Marcy and Anne loved her so much: she was their friend, their protector, she cared about them.. and while she never STOPPED somewhere along the way it became less about doing the right thing for the women she loves and more about getting her way.

And now the two have had time to heal from what their friend girlfriend became.. it’s time to rip that wound wide open as finally, after almost a season of waiting, Sasha reunites with Marcy for the first time and Anne for the second.

Naturally her return is in time for her gem to be charged, though our heroes unware of that didn’t seek her out before going in. This time Frobo’s riding claw though weirdly dosen’t come inside. Which is a problem with Frobo’s addition to the cast as the whole: they’ve kept him out of any episode since his induction into the family and only properly explained it once. It just dosen’t make a lot of sense to me; Yes he is massively powerful but his childlike thought process counters that. He’s easy enough to write in but is left out becasue the writers don’t want to deal with an extra character. And I had more than enough of that shit when watching Ducktales. I don’t need it when your main cast isn’t NEARLY as large or hard to juggle. It’s just galling to have spent an entire season showing he was following them, give him a whole episode.. and then just forget about him because i’ts convient. Hopefully he’ll play a bigger role as things progress and we find out where he came from because his misuse is a dark spot on an otherwise great second half of the season.

Frobo does get to prove himself useful though and open s the temple door he just weirdly dosen’t come along. But this does leave the door open for Sasha to come in as our heroes struggle with the first puzzle: Turns out this dungeon was built by a bro, seriously the temple languge is very broey and VERY hilarious contrasted with how normal for a fantasy setting the others were, as is fitting the strength gem, so our heroes have to compete feats of strength. Unfortunately this does not mean wrestling the ghost of Jerry Stiller to the ground but instead fighting some Lava Worms, and fighting just ONE of them and lifting the provided warhammers is a challenge for Anne.. and she’s the only one who can with Marcy not having enough upper body stregnth and the plantars all de-hydrated spongebob style.

So naturally Sasha ends up being their savor, easily dispatching them and getting some help from grime who while also dehydrated, is still phsycially strong enough to be of some help. Marcy is overjoyed to see her.. and is the only one. Given Marcy hasn’t been on the wrong end of Sasha and Grime like they have, it’s understandable: while Marcy’s grappled with Sasha’s actions and grip on her and Anne, it’s been clear it hasn’t hit her as hard as it has for Anne and she likely dosen’t get the full scope of it like Anne does. To her Sasha just made a mistake and she’s back now and tha’ts what matters. To Anne and the Plantars... sasha and grime tried to kill them and Sasha then tried commiting suciide to save them. The scars of that haven’t really healed for them, nor should they.

And given Sasha has spent the season clearly blamiing everything on Anne defying her and has been raising an army based on her resentment, and given she flew into a jealous blinding rage at finding her exes were fine and dandy without her she.. wholheartdly apologizes.

Yeah she apologizes.. but tellingly while she talks about her and Grime being left homeless following the battle.. she leaves out everything after: The fight with Yuan, the growing rebellion, driving her friends away, the horrifying army Grime now commands. Something’s off.

Anne naturally dosen’t trust her to do this herself and insists on coming along sitll. The next task is juts.. asking how much you lift bro, which Sasha easily passes by lifting, bro.

The final test in Jim Crunch’s Temple of Fitness, I mean who else could’ve wrote this, is of course a big fight with a giant statue of a toad, fitting how each temple so far was built by one of the civlizations: there were frog statues and symbols in the first temple, the second was guarded by a newt and the last now has a toad guard.Though curiously.. the test itself is wholly designed for a human. Before it wasn’t 100% clear even with the hyroglyps if the chosen ones had to be human or not.. but now it’s impossible to argue otherwise. There were hints : The fact the guardian pegged her as a possible chosen one on sight , the ruins in the background of the title cards which also depict the watcher with a thousand eyes (which is what i’ll be calling him till we get his, her , they or it’s actually name. ).. but here the chamber includes a gravity increase dbz style, meaning our heroines are the only ones who can stand as the Plantars and Grimes frog and toad bodies respectively aren’t strong enough to stand anymore. And while Marcy tries it ends up falling on Anne and Sasha with Sasha being Angry Anne doesn’t trust her.. and Anne not refuting it, pointing out she has EVERY REASON not to. As she puts it “it’s not just toad tower”. For most of their lives Sasha has been controlling, caring about what she wants and not what the people she loves wants. It wasn’t just the fight there... it was simply the wakeup call to how bad a person Sasha had been.

And for the first time in the episode.. Sasha is geniune, apologizing for what she did, and genuinely admitting how she treated Anne wasn’t wrong. it was something she coudln’t admit to herself episodes ago.. but faced with both loosing two more people due to her behavior, and having plenty of time to reflect on said behavhior.. she finally relaizes it’s her. Fuck man.. what else is there to say.

Oh right the giant monster thing, which Anne trusts Sasha to finish.. and we get anothe rDBZ homage as Sasha removes part of her armor, which creates a CRATER, which lowers her weight enough to fight the thing. She gets a thumbs up and the honor of recharging it.

Anne suggests opening the box.. but Marcy is VERY quick to shoot that down and suggest talking to the king. And while her reason SOUNDS good,, they don’t want to get warped somewhere ELSE at random.. it’s very clear from her actions and how quick she tried to stop it that she needs them to get to Andrias for whatever he’s talked her into. And I emphasis talked her into: Marcy trusts the king, and was in a very emotional place when he was about to talk to her at the end of season 2a... and he knew it. He knew she was at her most vunerable, most malable and trusted him completely.. and knew right then and there was his shot at getting vengance.. for him and his master. Whatever he has planned.. it’s not good. The mechancial lovecraftian horror he keeps in his creepy basement full of lost souls is a dead giveaway from that. But I don’t.. fault Marcy for it. It’s not just because I sympahtize.. to her Andrias is a good noble king trying to help her. He’s the kindly mentor she always wanted, a person who enjoys her skills dosen’t care how much she talks and has complete faith in her, something even Anne struggles with.

But it’s VERY clear, to me at least he’s been likely using her from the moment they met: to her sh’es just an optomistic pawn, someone gullible enough to do whatever he says. I’ve always felt that her “missions” probably had some darker purpose she wasn’t aware of: getting Andrias things he needs for his army, an army she has no idea is opressing people. She’s insulated from that and instead surronded by adoring people who accept her for once. Even going to wartwood, she hasn’t yet made the connection between the toad towers and what their purpose is. I think deep down she might suspect this stuff.. but she can’t ACCEPT that the one person who every had nothing but faith in her.. is a horrible person who opresses others and somehow has even WORSE plans in store.

Sasha likewise is facing the pressure of her parental figure.. while her patching it up with Anne was legitmate... her and Grime’s own plans rely on getting in there and Grime simply sees the other two as pawns , and just like the king he wants he wants to overthrow, their use expires once his plans in motion.

But the thing is.. it’s clear despite assuring Grime she’s still all in.. her face in the last shot, as seen above.. says otherwise. Her apology was legitmate, not just an attempt to get close to the one thing in her way of power, but what she’s come to realize: she’s gone from blaming Anne for it.. to realizing it was her. But she’s also stuck: while Marcy is unaware of the strings her pupeteer is pulling her towards.. Sasha is all too aware of what her mentor is planning. And the thing was she was all too willing to go for it. She blamed Anne for what happened at the tower, blamed Anne for turning marcy against her and blamed the plantars and co for turning anne against her. But in the harsh light of day... none of that’s true. Marcy dosen’t hate her, neither does anne, they didn’t turn against her.. they were just tired of her shitty behavior and wanted the friend they found that day on the playground back, the woman they loved who’d go to hell and back for someone and not the bitter, manipultive person she became. She’s once again realized it was her fault.. the question is if that’s enough for her to do the right thing or not. And the hardest question of all is IF not reblling isn’t the right thing. Wfhile the Toad’s probably shoudln’t be in charge either, Andrias REALLY shouldn’t. There’s NO easy answers here, no happy outcome that makes everyone live’s better. There’s no easy way out, no shortcut home.. just the louder and louder drumbeats of war and one girl’s decision of whose side she’s going to take.

Final Thoughts on the Third Temple: As with the other four sasha episodes thus far, this was frogging brilliant. Shoudln’t be a suprise and it makes me both look forward and dread the war to come

Next Week: The plantars try to bury the hatchet with Sasha and Grime, the girls enter a battle of the bands, and the finale comes ever closer.

If you liked this review follow me for more, and join my patreon. At just 2 dollars a month you get acess to my discord, exclusive reviews, and get me closer to my stretch goals. See you at the next rainbow

#amphibia #the third temple #bessie and microangelo #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #bessie amphibia #microangelo #hopidiah plantar #sprig plantar #polly plantar #bro

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stargazetheseries · 3 years ago

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OPEN CASTING CALL FOR STARGAZE: “THE PILOT” EPISODE & TRAILER VISIT: https://stargazetheseries.com/casting-call/ FOR DETAILS OR READ BELOW: A Borken Creative Production Sept 27, 2021 STARGAZE is a queer campy sci-fi adventure short-form adventure series intended for OTT. Executive Producers: Jill Golick, Carrie Cutforth Director: Regan Latimer Writer: Carrie Cutforth Union: ACTRA TORONTO (NEW MEDIA) Shoot: The pilot will begin shooting for 5 to 6 days between October 25-Nov 17th, 2021 Location: Toronto STORYLINE: A disparate group of rookie oddballs join an elite squad commissioned to save the Queerverse (from itself) only to discover the STARGAZE program is a sham make-work initiative to keep the crew from rocking the boat by sending them out on a fool’s quest (led by two elder queer chaperones who despise each other). Think: A 2SLGBTQIA+ The Facts Of Life meets The Breakfast Club in space! *BIPOC STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY **MUST BE 18+ TO SUBMIT EVEN IF CHARACTER IS LISTED AS YOUNGER THE STARTGAZE RECRUITS: SAF RON (she/her): Character is 20, cisgender woman, lesbian, open to all ethnicities; some physical comedy required. LEAD. Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, Saf joins STARGAZE with high expectations. If the adults won’t save the day, she will… and finally get the credit she deserves! But can this lone wolf learn to connect with others, stop being a control freak, relax her unreasonably high expectations of others (and herself), and step into the leadership role for which she is destined? First, she’ll have to stop seeing anyone getting in her way as a mustache-twirling villain, learn to see her crewmates’ value, accept help, and open herself up vulnerably. Gets apoplectic when mad; Has a knack for creating very convoluted protest chants that no one can follow. WHIT SPRINKLES (he/him): Character is 19, cisgender man, gay, open to all ethnicities. Must be able to walk elegantly in high heels. LEAD. A social media influencer famous for his snarky and bitter ’reads,’ charismatic Whit has developed a parasocial relationship with his stans. Living life performing in the spotlight from a very young age, Whit has no idea who he really is, what his real interests are, or his beliefs outside of what his analytics tell him: “My fans are gonna love this!” Only joining STARGAZE under pressure from his stans, his inability to forge true intimate connections is exacerbated by his relationship with his mother/manager Mumsy Sprinkles, a talentless hack/narcissistic stage mother living her dreams through her kid. If Whit was a meme he would be: ‘Bitch, I dun give a fuck!’ But he does, indeed, give a fuck. ESSA T. HATCH (they/them): Character is 18, non-binary or agender, asexual, demiromantic, neurodivergent, open to all ethnicities. LEAD. Adorkable Essa is an introvert who doesn’t really ‘get’ people. The explorer among the crew with an engineering mind and a love of mapping places and spaces, they know every nook and cranny of the ship and are usually the first to forge ahead (i.e. wander off) on every expedition. Essa mostly wants to be left alone to their own devices because they actually prefer their own company (neurotypicals can be so exhausting!). This normally wouldn’t be such a problem except Essa was pressured to join STARGAZE to make friends and widen their social net out of parental concern (‘We won’t be around forever, Essa!’). Loves to knit, make Venn diagrams of relationships; speaks in emojis when emotionally drained. LEW D’SHUS (he/him): Character is 21, transgender man or transmasculine, pansexual, open to all ethnicities. LEAD. When babelicious Lew looks at you with his rapt attention and dreamy eyes, you feel like the only person in the ‘verse until his short attention span snaps away and he forgets you’re there. “Good vibes, only!” Lew will gladly give you your Tarot card reading, but not before taking the negative cards out first. With his strict ‘the universe is love, we are love,’ mantra, Lew never wants anyone to feel bad even when they are deadass wrong! His philosophy of

appeasement can cause conflict amongst the crew and his inability to take sides in crucial moments will often put them in danger. No, we cannot just hug everything out, Lew! CHRYSTRAH SNU (she/her): Character is 17 (must be 18+ to apply), cis-gender woman, identifies as ‘queer’ but just figuring it all out. LEAD. Chrystrah is a fresh-off-the-belt queer who has arrived with big expectations: ‘I’m here, I’m queer! Direct me to my spot on the rainbow carpet!’ The trauma of her homophobic upbringing has left Chrystrah without any real sense of self; her identity loosely held together like a fragile cracked egg. Any criticism, no matter how gentle, feels like an attack, causing Chrystrah to act abrasive, territorial, and defensive. She is always overcompensating in big bombastic ways because she feels so inadequate for not knowing the right words, behaviours, and codes. She is jealous of Saf (some might say obsessed) who does seem to get it all right. Fiercely loyal, Chrystrah is the first to run headlong into danger to save someone. She has a steep learning curve ahead. THE ELDER QUEER CHAPERONES: BAE TORGA (she/her): Character is late 30’s-early 40’s, cisgender woman, bisexual, bipolar, open to all ethnicities. PRINCIPAL. A war hero (or war criminal depending on who you ask), Bae sees STARGAZE as an opportunity to redeem herself in the eyes of former mentor and friend Oracle Cain. She is someone who struggles with self-loathing and self-doubt even though she’s spent her adulthood righting her past wrongs and reining in her bipolar disorder, which contributed to her past rash and reckless mistakes. Possessing a tough, gruff demeanor, Bae is outwardly sardonic but really a bleeding heart who holds back out of fear that any demonstration of affection and empathy will be seen as a commitment. ORACLE CAIN (she/her): Character is middle-aged or older, transgender woman, ambulatory wheelchair user or wheelchair user, open to all ethnicities. *Note, as this is sci-fi, younger than middle age may apply. PRINCIPAL. A founding figure of the Queerverse, Oracle has done her service, done her duty, and now she’s done. She wants a peaceful existence to guard her limited energy and manage her physical pain. Instead, she’s pulled out of retirement to command a ship full of bickering youths. She also has to contend with spoiled brat and former colleague Bae reminding her of the past that Oracle is trying hard to forget. But duty is duty and it’s not like complaining ever got her anywhere. Talking to Oracle can feel like playing a chess game where the aloof commander is always five steps ahead: you never quite know where you stand with her. ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS ELP WHIPP (they/them or xe/xem): Character is middle-aged or older, gender-fluid, open to all ethnicities. Leader of the coalition of non-profit planets (each with its own conflicting Gay Agenda) that rule the Queerverse, Elp Whipp is a career bureaucrat/bean-counter who often gets caught in the trappings of their own political web — meaning much of nothing ever gets accomplished and progress is never made. Elp will appear throughout the series in that ‘Dean of the school’ role, occasionally showing up to demand overdue reports, warn the crew that their funding is at risk, and generally throw a wrench in the works. CARDIGAN JACK (she/her): Character is 30s, cis-woman, lesbian, open to all ethnicities. Cardigan Jack is a ‘pussy-hat’ wearing neo-liberalist feminist with a pirate vibe. She is the ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ of TERFs, and Saf Ron’s nemesis. TO SUBMIT: Borken Creative is committed to diverse and inclusive casting. For every role, please submit qualified performers without regard to disability, race, age, colour, sexual orientation or gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by law, unless otherwise specifically indicated, subject to legitimate casting directives. DEADLINE: Oct 8, 2021 EMAIL: [email protected]. SUBJECT LINE: Character(s) Role, Performer’s First and Last Name, pronouns. BODY OF EMAIL: Please provide contact info including phone number.

Please confirm you are 18 or over in the body of email if applying for a Stargaze recruit character. Submit headshot and resume as attachments to [email protected]. Resume should be in a scannable text file format (such as .doc, .pdf, .txt). First round selects will be invited to submit either a video clip audition or zoom audition invite. Only successful candidates will be contacted.

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#lgbtq #lbtqia #lgbtqplus #queer sci fi #casting call #auditions

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kelltheowlenby · 4 years ago

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Luz IS a chosen one and here’s why

Omg I deleted this the first time and have to start over from a super rough draft cuz I spelled chosen wrong in the image and I’m not even gunna fix it now cuz I’m bitter.

OK ok so I feel like I've seen most of this information theorized about individually but with wing it like witches I feel like a connected some dots and my brain's going to explode. So in this essay I will be telling you why Luz is a chosen one, who chose her, and why.

This theory contains some spoilers for wing it like witches, and potentially the show going forward.

So lets start with the theory and then we can go back and review the evidence.

Luz is a chosen one, she was chosen by the writer of the Azura books. This person wrote the Azura books to influence her and created Clone Lus so she can stay on the boiling isles. Her goal is to take down the emperors coven.

Now let me tell you why.

First, how do we know Luz has a clone?

Well we don't for sure, but the fact that when we are introduced to Gus's clone for the first time the show makes a point to show the clone misbehaving and having a personal identity outside of Gus makes me believe a clone developing it's own personality is something that will happen in the show. Now if Lus does have a clone that went to camp that means someone knew she was coming to the boiling isles. This was planned ahead of time. Owlbert is the one who leads Luz through the door, and it seems extremely intentional. This means it is someone who has a strong bond with Owlbert , which obviously leads to Eda, but I don't think it's her. Eda is genuinely surprised and confused by Luz, so that means it's someone who has a connection to Eda. Someone Owlbert trusts and is willing to work for. Hmmm put a pin in that.

Now second, what evidence do we have that Luz is chosen and this was a long term scheme, not just a last minute decision?

The Azura books. With Wing it like witches I personally think it's impossible to ignore the blatant parallels between Luz, Amity, and the Azura books. I believe they were written and released in both dimensions to lead these girls in the right direction. They have had a ton of impact on both their lives and their relationship. Without these books they would not trust each other, and honestly would have missed out on a lot of character growth outside their relationship with each other. Luz wouldn't even have chosen to stay in the boiling isles if it wasn't for the cover art of an Azura book.

Not only that, but it’s pointed out MORE THAN ONCE that it’s strange that they have both read/watched Azura content. In the library Luz is surprised they are released on the boiling isles (letting us know this isn’t normal/expected) and amity is surprised in wlw that Luz has seen the same azura movie as her. I don’t believe this is a coincidence, the writers want us to be curious.

Third. Why Luz? What's so special about this human girl, and why would she be chosen for anything special?

Luz impacts everyone she meets, and the people she meets are important. She was intentionally matched with Eda, and not only has it softened Eda's heart but Luz gives her something to live for, to fight for. Twice in the first episode Eda seems willing to give in to capture only to change her mind when she realizes Luz is in danger. That's before she even knows Luz, what would she do for her now that she's her kid? Topple an entire oppressive government perhaps? Eda is a rebel but she’s not a revolutionary. She see’s the flaws with the system the way it is but she doesn’t have anything to push her to change it. Luz could be the key to that.

Now Amity, she freaking adores Luz, and that connection is only going to get stronger. The Azura books are pushing that connection hard. They WANT Amity to care about Luz. Why? Because Amity is connected to the emperors coven. She's a powerful witch well on her way to joining, and maybe eventually leading the emperors coven. Her mentor is the coven's leader and Amity likely has influence over her. Amity is intended to be the inside influence, or a spy, or something along those lines. Swaying her perspective can sway the power balance of the entire emperors coven if cards are played right.

And another reason Luz is chosen? She's powerful as HELL. Keep in mind she's only been learning magic for a FEW WEEKS, she only knows FIVE spells, and look what she's already accomplished. She has brought a house to life with her friends, and amplified Amity's magic enough to make a MASSIVE abomination. Theories are going around about that having to do with friendship or love or heart rates, but what if it's Luz? What if it's her connection to the island? Once she knows how to do a spell she doesn't struggle to cast it. If she has the glyph right she can cast it as big or small or as powerful as she likes regardless of the size of the glyph. She turns Grom into a massive tree with a glyph the size of a playing card. She is never tired after casting spells, she never runs out of magic, her form of magic combats creatures who can literally eat magic for dinner. Luz is no joke, she's a beast, and within weeks she's casting at levels on par with top students and graduated witches.

Now the final question. Who chose Luz?

The easy answer is Eda, because Owlbert is hers, but I don't think that's right. She seems too surprised by Luz and confused by her behaviors. She’s also too willing to let Luz leave. Emperor Belos is a decent guess too because we know he's trying to get to Eda, but why would he provide her with a powerful apprentice before he can even capture her? So I'm going to throw him out the window as well. Lilith? No, she was surprised Eda's apprentice was a human, and that she had an apprentice at all. Amity? lol no sorry. So who?

Someone we haven't met before. Mayhaps a character from season 2 that Dana is excited for??? Someone with access to powerful oracle magic to predict the future and identify Luz and what she needs to be guided down the right path, as well as illusion magic to create the Lus clone. Someone with close connections to Eda, that Owlbert would trust and work for. Someone who wants to take down Belos, and needs Eda's help to do it.

Maybe their relationship is strained, maybe Eda forgot her because of the curse, maybe there's a whole underground revolution and Eda's friend is just a part of it. I don't know, but I'm excited to find out if any of this theory is on par with what happens in canon.

hopefully I didn’t leave anything out. I’m so mad I deleted the post by mistake XD let me know what you think? Do you see any holes? Any additional evidence?

#toh #the owl house #luz #lus #luz noceda #luz the chosen one #the chosen one #eda #eda clawthorn #lilith #lilith clawthorn #amity #amity blight #wing it like witches #owl house theory #the owl house theory #toh theory #kell theory #kell analysis

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writing-the-end · 4 years ago

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LoL Chapter 39- Periapts

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

How many hermits does it take to find protection amulets? And not bring home even more junk like a target run? And what do they do when the Guild of Gedeon discovers them?

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“Grian, those shoes are worthless for you- you already have wings!” Iskall waves his arms, exasperated by his shopping buddies. In the midst of the Redland bazaar, the hermits have separated out to find supplies they both need and could use. Iskall tones himself down as two Gedeons walk by, the entire area going quiet and watching as the council guildmembers march on. What are they doing in Redland?

“Yeah, but you don’t. You guys could use it though!” Grian buys the sandals without second thought, and without haggling for the price. Mumbo groans. They have yet to even purchase a protection or repelling item- or any amulet. He’s not sure if Grian understands saving money, and can only look away, across the busy, bustling bazaar to see who else is having better luck.

Hypno can’t help but play with the dowsing rods in his hands, only for xB to grab one rod before the two pieces can cross paths. “Those aren’t a toy, give me those things. Do you want to summon a storm?”

“It could be useful! A big storm to battle off a husk storm!” Hypno grins, before patting his hands against his friend’s shoulder. “It’s alright, man, we can grab some talismans right after this. But this is too cool to pass up!”

Together, with xB’s innate kipling knowledge of enchantments, they pick out a few talismans. Wards against harm and unfortunate thoughts. Removing the law of attraction, or at least easing it. Two of the talismans were mass produced, before xB advised Hypno that unique amulets were likely stronger, picking through boxes and glass cases full of strange, vibrant pieces.

But it doesn’t take long for xB to get distracted on his own. Reeling back when he sees it. “Whoa, I didn’t know these still existed! I thought the last of the moodium ores have died out!”

“But xB, we’re supposed to be looking for amulets.” Hypno mimics xB, but he’s grinning. “What even is it?”

“It’s a mood ring!” xB’s voice rises and falls to make it sound mysterious.

Hypno isn’t much impressed. “You mean the trinkets you get from the candy store as a kid?”

“No! Those were inspired by real mood rings. Watch this.” xB slips the ring on, and covers the pink, round cut gem and closes his eyes. Hypno snickers, watching for the stone to change color just because of xB’s body heat. His snicker fades, lip quivering as he feels globs of hot tears fall from his eyes. What the hell, why is he crying? Why does he feel so sad?

“You…” xB’s grin and a wiggle of his bejeweled finger is all he needs to see to know what’s happened. “Asshole! You changed my emotions!”

“No, I didn’t. You were already sad about something, I just amplified that. I also can smell that you didn’t brush your teeth this morning.” xB covers his nose, pulling off the ring before taking a deep, relieving breath.

Hypno isn’t sure what he’s sad about, but it was obviously there. He wipes away the tears, large droplets and streams down his cheeks. Ruining his cool guy attitude, just crying in some random shop in the middle of a bazaar. He looks around for something to raise his epic points, but becomes distracted when he sees three Gedeons roughing up a shopkeep, demanding some kind of council tax he never heard of. In fact, all of the bazaar is quieter than other times he’s been to Redland. As if a nightmare patrols with Sidero’s henchmen. Perhaps that’s what saddens him. Even here, the Council’s influence is felt.

Further down, nestled in an arcade offshoot, Ren, Jevin, and Cleo are in the middle of an intense battle. Not with swords or magic, but words.

“300 rupees.” Cleo declares, holding up the protection talisman. The sigilized stone dangles in the air, twisting and casting it’s armoring gaze out on the bazaar.

“800, little lady.” The portly merchant reaches out, threading his fingers around the cord and starts to pull it back.

“350, and you get to keep your fingers for calling me a lady.” Cleo lays her other hand on the hilt of her sword, smiling a demure grin, her sickly green skin stretching for him to see.

“Fine.” The merchant untangles himself from the fight and the amulet, grumbling under his breath as he takes the money from Jevin’s outstretched hand. “I dunno why people are suddenly buyin’ up all the protection amulets. There some kinda guild war about to break out?”

“Not exactly.” Ren snickers, before trodding out of the tent and back into the sunlight. If he were on Eremita, he’d stretch out and sunbathe, sunglasses perched just so that he can see the clouds make their own creations in the sky. His daydream is ruined, however, when he feels a rap against his rear, tail tucking between his legs.

“Hey boy, wanna get the stick?” Jevin teases, waving a snarled old staff for Ren.

The mixed-up mage isn’t amused- though, the werewolf in him does make his heart beat in excitement to chase a stick. “My dude, I’m not even a real werewolf. I just know I rock a tail and ears.”

Cleo shakes her head. “This is ridiculous. Who would waste 2000 rupees on some stick? These merchants are out of their mind. Now I see why Scar left his home.”

“That’s not just ‘some stick’ li-” The merchant stops when a flash of metal glints against the sun, backing up until Cleo sheathes her sword again. “I- it’s a shift stick. It’s a one time use, takes the holder back in time a minute. A do over, a chance to fix a mistake. Perhaps even more useful than any stone necklace. One of a kind, and for such… unique customers like you, I’ll lower the price to 1500 rupees.”

Jevin pulls out 5 gold rupees, before Ren and Cleo can say anything, and clutches the stick. “Totally worth it.”

“How do we even know if it works?” Ren isn’t sure if it does exactly what it claims to do. They may have bought the most expensive branch in the world, but Jevin refuses to let it go.

“We can ask Xisuma. He can check or something, he’s a smart guy.” Jevin shrugs. They have enough money, especially with how well Cleo’s haggling has gone. They could buy three shift sticks with the money they’ve been given, and still have enough to buy even more talismans.

The three wander along the bazaar, meeting with other hermits on their way. BDubs and Keralis show off an entire chest of shielding stones, while Scar is laden with more golden amulets than anyone. When Cleo presses him on how he managed to find so many unique and powerful charms, he only smiles. “I know a thing or two about the trade business.”

“Those are the dragon spirits on them.” Cub points out the twisting, dancing dragon. Without wings and the white pearl accents, it’s easy to identify which of the spirits is depicted. Ashtios, the Northern Wind Dragon. Another depicts winged dragons, finned dragons, sheared dragons. Fire, water, and earth. The spirits and sages that aided the gods to create the earth, and who provide median between the two realms. Nothing is more protective than a dragon, and they can feel the strength in the spell of each amulet.

Down the bazaar, the hermits jump at the sound of metal clashing and magic being cast. Followed by yelling, Keralis and Doc are chased from a shop. The shopkeep waves her broom at the two. “What kind of freak eats a bug in the middle of my store! Get back here you cretins!”

Doc’s gruff snicker is only matched by Keralis’s whimper. “But it was gonna help us. It was just a noisy locust.”

The two escape from the bazaar, disappearing into the crowds of Redland. BDubs points in the direction his friends just escaped, blinking away confusion. “Should we be concerned about them?”

“Keralis is with Doc, he’ll be fine.” Xisuma waves. “Besides, their grown men.”

“Looks like we weren’t the only ones who got distracted by other goods.” Cleo nods her head at the books in X’s arms.

Xisuma looks offended by the statement, and stutters over his breath to explain himself. ‘The-these are ancient works! They could have important information about dark magic!” He looks at the stick Jevin’s holding. “What kinda crap are we bringing home now?”

“We have flying shoes.” Iskall holds them aloft, Grian preening the white feathers flat against the golden laces.

“Dowsing rods and a mood ring.” xB keeps the metal rods far away from Hypno, who seems all too keen on starting up a hurricane in the city.

“And what we hope is a stick that can turn back time.” Jevin holds it up. “Otherwise I’m going to use this stick to beat that merchant for lying.”

Lucky for Jevin and the merchant, Xisuma can feel the magic in the whorls of the wood. “I’ll say, these are all pretty impressive. Useless for our cause but… temporal magic is difficult. Were all our rupees wasted on things we didn’t intend to buy?”

“Not the Convex!” Cub grins, hefting the smaller of the duo over his head, blue embers gleaming from their eyes. “We have enough protection amulets to destroy whatever Dolios got!”

Xisuma opens his mouth to answer, but another voice cuts through the air, his own faltering and fading against his mask. “Now what reason could you have to go against Magistrate Dolios?” All of the hermits turn, seeing a squadron of members from the Guild of Gedeon, red tassels that mimic the Council’s golden ones fluttering in the wind. Behind them, the broom wielding merchant sticking her tongue out at the hermits. “Wait a minute- I think I’ve seen these scum before.” The center mage points at Mumbo. “You beat me in the duel!”

Xisuma meets his gaze with TFC, both with their eyes wide. Behind him, Iskall rolls up his sleeves and snaps his gloves tight, ready for a fight. Mumbo’s fraught voice whispers out from beneath his mustache. “No one bought any smoke bombs, did they? Anyone?”

The guildmembers hear his words, and three magic circles rise. Mumbo shrieks and hides behind Grian. “Why did we have to send our two best fighters to Alphasgard?”

Wind blusters against the hermits, tearing flags against their poles and sending the bazaar into chaos. Grian’s wings open, flight feathers brushing against the stone walls on both sides of the bazaar. He beats his wings down, and a gale force wind sends the bucket-headed goons of the Council knocking into one another, rolling down and into the mudcaked gutter. “Alright, I think the shopping spree is over guys. Time to bounce!”

One second, the head mage is on his feet, the next he’s collapsed on the floor, snoring. Hypno’s wild purple magic circle twists in his hand, eyes blank and full of sleep while he searches his own mind. Digging through his dreams. The other two wizards slip their way out from the gutter, sharp spines of one’s spell driving forward like horns of a bull. But a dense fog appears in the midday sun.

It’s also bright blue. Beef turns, taking the sudden cover as his chance to escape. All of the hermits follow suit, though Joe remains a few paces behind to follow Hypno. “Blue fog that smells faintly of cotton candy...I would love to study your psyche and dreams one day, my dear friend Hypno.”

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porschekittisawasds · 4 years ago

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simply cannot believe i made a supernatural fic rec list in the year 2020 but here we are

When Worlds Collide

When Zachariah dies, the illusions he’s created die with him. But before they collapse completely, sometimes they collide. That’s how Castiel goes from cradling Dean Winchester’s broken body one moment, to finding himself face to face with Dean Smith in the next.

note: basically endverse!cas’s world collapses right after endverse!dean is killed by lucifer and he gets thrown into the it’s a terrible life verse. drama and love and a whole lot of fuckery ensue. it’s tagged as major character death but it’s not really

Broadway Musical

This is the day that marked the Holy and Blessed Union of Dean Winchester and Jo Harvelle.

The merging of prominent bloodlines is always a grand occurrence, but breeding pedigree hunter families like Winchester and Harvelle is something to be rejoiced. It is also something to be meticulously planned, which thankfully the Host is very good at.

note: an AU where dean and jo are destined to fall in love and have two sons who will bring on the apocalypse and be the vessels for michael and lucifer. only problem is cupid’s arrows don’t make them fall in love with each other and heaven promptly starts freaking the fuck out so cas slips into a vessel and tries to do some matchmaking to get the whole end of the world thing back on track. it’s tagged as unrepentant crack and that pretty much sums it up, but it’s also a very funny and enjoyable read

a turn of the earth

Dean’s your typical half-orphaned, monster-killing 22-year-old until a trenchcoated stranger crashes into his back windshield one September night, claiming he’s an angel that knows him from the future and that he’s on the run.

Frigging fantastic.

note: listen i LOVE a good time travel fic

How (thanks to Gabriel) Dean and Castiel (accidentally) raised each other (and Sam)

In which, Gabriel meddles with the time line and Castiel becomes Dean's angel rather sooner than intended.

note: after lucifer stabs gabriel in hammer of the gods, gabriel uses his very last bit of grace to travel back to the beginning of time and decree castiel the angel of thursdays and dean winchester. fast forward a few eons and castiel hears mary’s dying cry. he shows up too late to save her, but he decides that a human life is very short in the grand scheme of things so he can play guardian angel to dean (and by extension sam) while also fulfilling his duties to heaven. not only is this pretty much my favorite supernatural fic, it’s also one of my favorite fics in general

The Shattered One

When it struck Castiel, he was in mid-flight. It dropped him out of the sky like a sparrow buffeted by gale-force winds. Castiel set down the first place he could find. He ended up standing in a field in Switzerland, swaying on his feet and staring down at his body, dazed by what it had just done.

note: okay so listen. this is tagged as mpreg but that’s kind of a stretch imo. it’s not like... mpreg mpreg in the sense that it deals with angel reproduction and has nothing to do with sex or pregnancy. angel reproduction goes like this: a section of an angel’s grace will suddenly and randomly break off and begin to grow on it’s own. after a certain period of time, another angel has to offer a piece of their grace and the two pieces will combine to form a new angel. that new angel is a fully developed, fully functional angel and is considered a new brother/sister instead of an offspring.

cas’s grace shatters which means he’s fucked because this takes place in season 5 after he’s defied heaven. no other angel will offer up a piece of their grace so his own is basically going to rip itself apart, killing him in the process. when dean and sam find out cas is going to die, dean offers up part of his soul in place of another angel’s grace. what results is a new angel that has just enough human in it that it takes the shape of a human baby and sends pretty much all of their lives into a tailspin.

ALSO just a heads up this is definitely more pre-destiel despite the relationship tag. there’s a sequel where im pretty sure they do get together but i haven’t read it so i cant’s say for sure.

Kiss You When It’s Dangerous

When his partner Uriel, betrays him, Federal Agent Castiel Novak is saved from becoming a ritual sacrifice by brothers Dean and Sam Winchester.

note: FBI!cas gets thrown headfirst into the supernatural. tagged as major character death, but again it’s not really

My Roots Take Flight

After forty years in Hell, Dean’s more than willing to accept the offer: become a guardian angel and earn his freedom. But his new ward seems destined to hunt alongside Sam, and there are secrets in Heaven that the angels don’t want found out. Dean’s going to have to choose between his duty and the people he loves- and to work out just where Castiel fits in.

note: season 4 au where dean is an angel and cas is a human except it’s way more complicated than that

Peace and Good Luck To All Men

Christmas in the Milton household was difficult enough without the added complication of guests- and if Luke and Gabriel placing bets on who can get with Sam first wasn’t bad enough, then Cas developing a ridiculous crush on his sister’s boyfriend definitely is.

note: the one where michael, lucifer luke, gabriel, anna and cas are all human siblings but michael and lucifer luke are still trying to kill each other, gabriel is still Like That and cas is still super into dean which is pretty inconvenient considering he’s with anna.

Asunder

Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Matthew 19:6)

note: it’s been a very long time since i read this, but from what i remember it’s an AU where they’re all human and dean brings his friend/co-worker cas as his “date” to sam and ruby’s wedding for moral support. when sam was in college, he met ruby and they started using drugs together. after several failed attempts at helping him get clean, dean eventually cut sam off and it’s been years since they’ve spoken. even though sam and ruby are now both sober, dean blames ruby for everything that happened and the only reason he’s even going to the wedding is because bobby and ellen basically force him to. again, it’s been years and years since i read this so i can’t remember a lot of the details, but i do know that despite this being a dean/cas fic a lot of the focus is dean rebuilding his relationship with sam and that’s what i remember really liking about it.

Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered

Death brings Sam back — sort of.

note: a general fic involving only sam and dean. sam’s soul is so damaged from its time in the cage that when death brings it back, it shatters into pieces and so does sam. like literally. there’s four different sams now, each representing a distinctive part of his personality. sounds cracky but it’s actually surprisingly angsty and focuses on how the sams and dean are adjusting to their new reality and each other

Point Pleasant

(okay so this fic was deleted but i’m putting in on here anyway because the author has since turned it into a novel and had it published. im sure old pdfs of the fic are floating around but i highly recommend reading the novel version. if you know it was based on a destiel fic then it’s really easy to see those influences in the writing and the characters but it can stand up on it’s own. also!!!! it has pretty much the coolest take on the mothman’s origin story that i’ve ever heard.)

Ben Wisehart (Dean Winchester) grew up in the idyllic town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. An early encounter with the supernatural shaped his worldview and served as the catalyst for his career as a bestselling horror writer. Thirteen years after abandoning his home, Ben returns to the town to investigate the apparent reemergence of the terrifying creature responsible for his childhood nightmares. In Point Pleasant, Ben is confronted not only by the town’s resident monster, the Mothman, but also by his former best friend, Sheriff Nicholas Nolan (Cas Novak). Together, Ben and Nicholas (Dean and Cas) uncover the mystery of the monster in the woods and discover that the ghosts that haunt us are sometimes made of flesh and blood. And sometimes, they lead us home.

Sympathy for the Devil (and Dean Winchester)

this is not so much a rec as it is a request.

basically an au version of season 5 (and kind of the whole series really). when god cast lucifer out of heaven, he tore out his grace. lucifer’s grace was put into the cage, but lucifer himself fell to earth and spent thousands and thousands of years reincarnating as a human. his latest reincarnation? dean winchester. so when sam opens the cage, lucifer’s grace is released and dean realizes that he’s lucifer. part of him still kind of wants to start the apocalypse but the other part of him has a whole new appreciation for humanity considering he now remembers every human life he’s ever lived. it’s made more complicated by the fact that dean (/lucifer) doesn’t really want to tell anyone that he’s apparently the devil so he has to keep his now angel status on the dl and also because despite heaven wanting the apocalypse to start, michael went missing from heaven shortly after lucifer was cast out and no one has any idea where he’s at.

this fic was deleted, but if anyone happens to have a pdf copy let me know. i would be highly appreciative!

#listen i read a lot of spn fic back in the day so im probably leaving a lot off this list #but these are the ones that i remember years and years later #also i just realized these are basically all AUs lmao #destiel #destiel fic rec #supernatural #supernatural fic rec #spn #ficrec

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windstorm64 · 4 years ago

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Attack on Discourse I Guess

I swear to god if I see one more post on tumblr dot com saying that Attack on Titan is “pro-fascism” or “pro-imperialism” I’m gonna lose my freaking...

*deep breath*

Listen, I absolutely want people to be critical of the media they consume, especially from Japan. Due to their role in WW2 and their glorification of past military actions from their conservative side, there’s a lot of Japanese media that contains themes and imagery that would (ideally) not at all fly in the west. Sometimes it’s harmless, being simply misguided, other times it’s bad, containing some pretty horrific subtext regardless of the author's actual intention. Attack on Titan absolutely does contain themes of imperialism, xenophobia, propaganda, extreme nationalism, and more. But the all important distinction here is that Attack on Titan does it

with.

purpose.

It’s NOT condoning them. Just like how Lolita isn’t promoting pedophilia, or the clockwork orange isnt promoting whatever the heck that movie is about, simply having these themes present in your story does not mean they are being condoned.

Do I blame people for not understanding that at first? No. AoT takes its sweet time when developing its themes, and is constantly overturning what you thought you knew about its worldviews. That’s just the kind of story it is. It will go incredibly into detail about a plethora of opposing views, some being downright deplorable, and takes extra care to make them all look inviting and sweet. You don’t realize it at the time, but what seems to be the only right answer at the time is secretly ushering in the worst that man can muster. That’s how it is in real life. That’s how these evils get into real society; “with thunderous applause”. The difference here is that AoT, even if it takes 100 chapters to do so, slowly but surely will overturn all these themes and let the right way show itself over the course of the series. It doesn’t hold your hand, it doesn’t sugarcoat it, and I’ll even admit that I was a little nervous during some parts over what exactly the author was trying to say, but every single time Isayama chose to let the reader decide what was right in the moment, until AoT’s own in-universe marketplace of ideas eventually worked as intended and snuffed out the unsavory.

Does that mean you personally have to enjoy seeing it? No. The marketplace of ideas approach often does not work in real life (punching nazis is good) and seeing it used in fiction might not be your cup of tea.

Does that mean I think all of its themes are handled well or tactfully? Absolutely not. There are some stories that I think are handled VERY poorly, with the redemption of Magath’s character, for example, being downright horrendous. But those aren’t the complaints I hear from you people. All I hear are the same tired arguments that have been countered in-universe time and time again.

You think the survey corps are an allegory promoting imperialism? Then you’ll love the part where the real villains are revealed to be actual greedy governments invading foreign lands to oppress and murder the populace and steal valuable resources. And how the main characters, in-turn to learning that there’s more people out there in the world, switch their goals from expanding their territory to understanding and allying with the outside population.

The titans represent xenophobia? Then you’ll love the internal conflicts of the main cast when they realize that the titans are just like them, and the constant struggle thereafter against the prejudiced countries outside the walls who seek to punish them for their ethnicity.

Nationalism? Propaganda? The story has just spent the better part of 2 arcs displaying just how evil, dangerous, and reality-warping these things can be.

Fascism? Y’all’s favorite arc would probably be the one where the main cast literally overthrows their own corrupt fascist government because it was, in fact, fascist and corrupt.

German influences glorify nazism? Germany does not equal nazi. The author is clearly a fan of all parts of German history, and is a fan of war memorabilia in general (which admittedly becomes pretty risky when looking through the lens of conservative Japan’s notoriously glorified WW2 outlook), but nothing about it supports Nazism, or any of their ideals. Misguided? Perhaps, I can’t say I’m a fan. But it doesn’t denote anything about the author's character that we can reasonably glean. Eventually the true villains of Aot were given clear similarities to Nazis, clarifying Isayama's true moral priorities.

And before any of y’all start trying to point out what the author said in the past- I KNOW what the author has said. Or rather, what he was rumored to have said. But even if the rumors are true, and that shitty ignorant take on Twitter about Japan and Korea was from him, it's 100% the kind of thing that can be called out and learned from. The tweet was like, what? 10 years ago? Maybe more? Even if it was him he has clearly been educated on the deeper implications of his statement, as evidenced by the way these themes are handled in his story. Attack on Titan directly condemns eugenics on multiple occasions. It tackles it in a surprisingly on-the-nose way too, compared to how the series handled its serious themes prior to that point.

That's why I WANT y’all to be critical of the media you intake. So you CAN call out the glorification of unsavory themes and bring them to the attention of those in charge of them. Because that’s how people learn and grow. That’s how you create an educated populace that understands the implications of the things they create. I am 110% convinced that all these themes were tackled in AoT BECAUSE of all the criticism he got in the past. 10 years is a long time, and we are still getting new developments to this day that challenge the themes introduced in the first couple of chapters. Whether or not these themes were planned to be tackled from the start, or were introduced later on after being called out, is something we’ll probably never know. But please do yourselves a favor and learn what the heck you’re talking about, and the context around it, before going off for years about misguided claims. Don’t cheapen words that should be reserved for the most grievous of behaviors when you really just want to make a point.

Attack on Titan is a brutal nuanced story that shows off the worst that humanity has to offer, and how hard it is to do the right thing in a world where the right thing doesn’t always work. But taking an honest, elongated approach to exploring how these themes interact with humanity and society is NOT the same as promoting it. If you like your stories more black and white, where the good and bad of real world themes are more clearly defined as opposed to AoT’s more nihilistic and gray approach to morality, then by all means go enjoy that other story. I’m not trying to convince anyone to like it. I’m not expecting everyone to enjoy seeing these themes shoved in your face every installment. And I’m certainly not expecting anyone to understand all of this right away, hell I’m constantly arguing with dudebro AoT fans on reddit who are SURPRISED that Armin and the Alliance are taking an anti-genocide stance. And somehow I’m the crazy one for seeing this plot line coming for literal years. There’s simply just a lot more to this story than you can understand at a glance, and I implore anyone who thinks that’s they can simplify the real world themes dealt with here in such a menial way to seriously reconsider.

You are welcome to dislike Attack on Titan. You are more than welcome to criticize it’s possible mismanagement of sensitive real world themes. I am not so enamored by Isayama’s writing to expect a young manga artist to be the forefront of knowledge on such complicated, disturbing topics. But please, cut it out with the crazy claims. I’ve been hearing these things for so many years and it’s all the same. AoT has risen to become one of the most popular anime/manga of the current era. If the story was really as deplorable as you claim it would not have become as popular as it has been. The fans aren’t stupid (well, not all of them. Together, we can beat the reddit dudebros and save the world). This didn’t happen by mistake. The fans aren’t ignorant of the messages it’s sending. Attack on Titan is just... good! Even if I can’t get you to agree with me on that, at least look at it honestly for what it is, and what it’s trying to be. It’s really, really, not at all what you think, or what other tumblr users are trying to get you to believe.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #aot #snk #eren yeager #armin arlert #snk anime #aot anime #snk manga #aot manga #discourse #fascism #imperialism #genocide

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anhed-nia · 4 years ago

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BLOGTOBER 10/4/2020: SOCIETY

Without having a survey to back me up, I feel comfortable asserting that as a horror fan, you go through different phases with SOCIETY. It’s a basic fact of life, and yet it morphs and mutates underneath you, shocking you anew just when you think you’ve got a grip on it. You never forget your first time, because there is simply nothing like it. Then, after you get over the initial shock of its patented brand of body horror, you start to take it for granted; it's so broad and monolithic that it becomes something like the Grand Canyon--when it’s not right there in front of you, you begin to experience it more iconically, as part of the wallpaper of existence, rather than an in-your-face confrontation with the limits of experience. Then, you revisit it every few years (or months, depending on what sort of person you are), and the prophylactic layer that your brain has wrapped around your memories of it--the one that allows you to think of SOCIETY as a fun, wacky cheap thrill--begins to crumble, and you realize all over again how iconoclastically vile it is. Wherever you happen to be at, with this inimitable genre landmark, you'd be hard pressed to deny that it earns its royal status among horror movies, just for being so uniquely fucked up.

Filmmaker Brian Yuzna is best known as the co-creator of the indispensable RE-ANIMATOR (or as the co-writer of HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS...depending on what sort of person you are, again), itself a milestone achievement in the blending of sex and gore that so characterized '80s horror production. That film clearly brought out the best in Yuzna and frequent collaborator Stuart Gordon (also of HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS fame...among other things), but it's interesting to see how they operate apart, to understand the unique ingredients that each filmmaker brought to the more perfect union of their classic Lovecraft adaptation. Gordon skewed darker and more intellectual, as evidenced by the end of his career with the shattering mob thriller KING OF THE ANTS, the disturbing true crime drama STUCK, and the Mamet-penned EDMOND. Yuzna, for his part, is almost anti-intellectual, preferring to cook up blackly comic, semi-pornographic nightmares like his two increasingly horny RE-ANIMATOR sequels, the terminal S&M fantasy RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3, and the shamelessly hokey comic book adaptation FAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED. Yuzna's lack of shame is really his defining feature as an artist, and nowhere is this more obvious than in his directorial debut and signature masterpiece, SOCIETY.

Salvador Dali's "The Great Masturbator," a chief visual inspiration for SOCIETY.

Yuzna was able to leverage the success of RE-ANIMATOR to lock in two directorial opportunities, BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, and a bizarre body horror exercise about a Beverly Hills orphan who discovers that not only are his adoptive family from a different bloodline, but they're not even from the same species. That both pictures employed the writing team of Woody Keith and Rick Fry gives you a little taste of what to expect from SOCIETY, but to be frank, the latter threatens to make the former look like a very special episode of ER; "overkill" barely begins to describe SOCIETY’s ambitious assault on the human body. In a recent interview, the philipino-american director giggles perversely, "I think my friends were a little embarrassed for me (when they saw SOCIETY)," and this sound bite reminded me that the last, most important ingredient that Yuzna contributes to any project is unabashed joy. It's a little hard to imagine stomaching SOCIETY without it.

In this unusual scene from the class struggle in Beverly Hills, Billy Warlock (son of HALLOWEEN 2's Michael Myers, Dick Warlock) plays Bill Whitney, a rich, handsome, athletic high school student with a heavy duty anxiety disorder. Although he appears to have it all, he is plagued by nightmares and hallucinations, reflecting suspicions that the family that spoils him is also out to get him. Perhaps this is all understandable, though. Bill is under a lot of pressure these days, with his parents devoting all of their attention to his sister's coming out party, and his narcissistic girlfriend pushing him to ingratiate himself to the assholes higher up the social ladder; it's enough to make any teenager feel alienated and insecure. But, do these garden variety anxieties account for his visions of his sister's body deforming itself unnaturally, or the dubious evidence he finds that her debutante ball involves incestuous orgies and human sacrifice? Is Bill simply crumbling under the strain of societal expectations, or is the friction with his shrink, his parents, and his peers all symptomatic of an elaborate plot against him by elites who are truly less than human?

I can’t believe they use this cheapo blanket trick MORE THAN ONCE in a movie that is famous for its unforgettable special effects, and I guess I kind of love it.

In case I haven't made the answer abundantly obvious, I'll add that while SOCIETY is the purest expression of Yuzna-ness on the market, it has an important co-author in Screaming Mad George. The eccentric japanese FX master, whose name is apparently an amalgamation of Mad Magazine, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and...George, has produced some of horror's most outrageous makeup and visual effects, mostly for Yuzna, many of them in SOCIETY. If you've seen even a trailer for Alex Winter's 1993 oddity FREAKED--which is itself a grossout criticism of American social standards--then you are already familiar with SMG's trademark style. He specializes in twisted perversions of the human form that would make a cenobite blush, driven by a penchant for puns, and influenced equally by THE THING's Rob Botin, and Big Daddy Roth’s Rat Fink style. Screaming Mad George is instrumental in articulating Yuzna's premise: that behind the shimmering veneer of success and sophistication, the upper class are just a bunch of degenerates, who literally degenerate into something unimaginable behind closed doors. It's impossible to imagine SOCIETY without his sinuous, slithering monstrosities, or his indescribable realization of their most important social event, "the shunt".

One of many great images from a zine I wish I owned, on SMG’s Facebook page.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by SOCIETY's visual impact, but its message is just as potent now as it was at the end of the Reagan era: Rich people are not only different from the rest of us, but in fact, they aren't even human. Writers Keith and Fry make an interesting choice of hero to help put this across. A lazier writer would have selected any archetype from the Freaks and Geeks set to create an easy Us vs Them tension, but SOCIETY is led by a promising young man who, for reasons he himself does not yet understand, is just not "the right kind of people". Bill appears to have every advantage in life, including a level of popularity that wins him presidency of the debate team despite his nerdier rival’s superior prowess--and yet, he suffers from a stigmatizing psychiatric disorder that is the natural result of feeling indefinably different from one's peers, and intuiting that, as a consequence, they don't even really like you. The shallow jock with deep-seated emotional problems is a much more interesting protagonist for this kind of social allegory than the charismatic outcasts that you get in movies like THE FACULTY and DISTURBING BEHAVIOR, for whom the idea that the elites could be aliens is just de rigueur.

It's worth noting that this complexity of character extends to Bill's love interest, sympathetic society girl Clarissa Carlyn (Playboy Playmate Devin DeVasquez). At first, she seems villainously eager to introduce Bill to the many splendors of "the shunting", but as the plot against him mounts to its horrifying conclusion, she defects. There appears to be a reason for this, although honestly, this is the most difficult part of SOCIETY for me to wrap my head around. Clarissa lives as an essentially independent adult, only burdened by her mother (Pamela Matheson), a possibly brain damaged hulk who lurks in and out of various scenes just to be disturbing, always announced by some toots on a tuba, before eventually siding with our heroes. I'm really not sure what's supposed to be going on in this part of the movie, except that this character contributes to a number of distasteful jokes. But, I hold on to the idea that by virtue of whatever disorder Mrs. Carlyn suffers from, she serves the purpose of priming Clarissa to rebel, since her very existence makes her daughter something of a societal outcast herself. That's the best I can do.

In any case, everyone working on SOCIETY commits completely, with Mrs. Carlyn being no exception. The movie's climactic orgy of the damned is an all hands on deck operation, just as reliant on Screaming Mad George's artistic abilities as it is on the actors' responsibility to make you believe that this fucked up shit is really happening. There's a visceral patina of sleaze spread over the entire film, dripping from the way that characters talk to and touch each other, flirting and flaunting their bodies in a distinctly unseemly fashion, even when it stays within the realm of mundane reality. This constant sinister, insinuating attitude on the part of the whole cast lays the foundation for what is to come, and while I appreciate everybody's hard work, my favorite performance is from an actor who only comes in at the very end: David Wiley as society king Judge Carter. Wiley's career consisted almost exclusively of the most ordinary sort of television work, which makes his outrageous turn in this alien porno flick all the more respectable. While other characters transition from suspicious pod people to full-on mutated perverts, Judge Carter has to show up just for the finale, establish his authority, rip off his clothes, and plunge straight into a sea of slime, happily fisting his way through the cast. Wiley meets this challenge with aplomb, making of himself a hybrid of Robert Englund and Gene Hackman, perfectly embodying the movie's joyful absurdity, and never betraying the slightest hint of embarrassment.

SOCIETY is very much a don't-look-down type of endeavor, a fairy that could expire at the slightest lapse in faith. There's a visual pun in the last act that's so gross, so offensive, so frankly idiotic, that I don't have the courage to describe it; my whole body tenses up when I know this scene is coming, as if it were the meat hook scene in TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE or the brutal rape in the middle of SHOWGIRLS. I don't like it, but at the same time, I respect Yuzna's unhesitating commitment to show it to me, and I think that actor Charles Lucia should get some kind of award for shouldering the burden so valiantly. SOCIETY is a daring movie in the truest sense, a film with more balls than brains, and in this it exposes the limitation of intelligence and taste, and the real need for pure transgression, in producing art of any real value. You might argue with me about whether Yuzna's masturbatory magnum opus really qualifies as art, but to respond to that, I'll quote the great transgressor Alejandro Jodorowsky: "If you are great, EL TOPO is a great picture. If you are limited, EL TOPO is limited." So stick that in your shunt and smoke it.

youtube

PS Here, have this stuck in your head for the rest of your life.

#blogtober #2020 #society #brian yuzna #screaming mad george #woody keith #rick fry #billy warlock #Keith Walley #devin devasquez #david wiley #horror #black comedy #satire #body horror #social criticism

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agl03 · 4 years ago

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Hello! I’m a new aos watcher, so I apologise if this is a repeated rant, I just wanted to vent a little and found your blog :) I just finished through season 3 and 4 and those were really… rough on fitzsimmons, more so than the first 2, and I think it’s because the writers were so inconsistent? 3A was just a mess to jemma. she was so hot and cold, but not in the way you’d expect from being on a planet. it was like watching a different character almost every other episode [1/6]

[2/6] she has ptsd, then she doesn’t, she’s professing love for fitz, then professing it for will. I was getting whiplash! It felt like the writers put her through hell and then didn’t know how to come back from it, but gathered their bearings in 3B (although if I’m honest, that felt a little cheap, because it was a redo for her relationship with fitz but she still never got to react to being on a freaking alien planet!)

[3/6] and then season 4 was so hard to watch how they tore fitz down. I just find it so hard to believe that, without jemma, fitz would be such a monster, because he had to be a good person too, right? otherwise its like he had 0 personality before jemma and she carved him into who he was, but that doesn’t make sense. I guess I’m still shocked that he never woke up from it, even though everyone else did. it felt like the writers pushed him far (too far) and didn’t know what to do with him.

[4/6] I haven’t seen season 5 so I hope they mention it a little bit, but it was a real struggle to see how extreme they went with him, and Im honestly struggling with whether or not i should go on because the writers seem to love to push them to extremes and then backpedal and not in any way that resolves anything, it really makes me cringe sometimes!

[5/6] I also thought it was strange that fitz got a chance to say, very clearly, that he would always choose jemma over anyone, but that jemma never said anything about that for will? I get that jemma is more reserved than fitz, but I’m still a little sore about that, it doesn’t help with fitz looking like besotted second choice, is all I’m saying. I guess I’ll have to see in the later seasons…

[6/6] anyway, i'm sorry for this, i had about 4 seasons of angst built up in me and i didn't know who to turn to! i really like the show, but i am starting to try and watch with less and less expectations because i keep getting my hopes up for a real resolution and it hasn't happened after almost 100 episodes... thank you for listening and for being so friendly from what i see! i hope i haven't poked old wounds or anything !

Hi Anon!

Welcome to the Fandom, and you have no idea how much these kinds of asks are right up my ally over the years. I’d say go digging through my blog for more of the metas but that is spoiler central in there so I hope this will suffice until you are done.

First and foremost I don’t want to spoil anything for you but I’ll say to you what I said to the fandom at the end of Season 4....just hang in there we have to trust that the writers have a plan. I”m REALLY gonna stress this one cause I have a feeling you’ll be back.

Season 3 does indeed hold many old wounds and a pile of story lines that started and then went no where or flat out didn’t make sense. The whole Space Rando thing was upsetting to say the least but I will tell you the writers said in the Season 3 Declassified that he was nothing more than a roadblock in getting Fitzsimmons together, 12 episodes, but that is what is was. Were there other ways they could have worked with a more father figure Space Rando and Jemma’s PTSD for that delay, yes, but to be very honest they did not have the real estate to do that kind of story the justice it needed with everything else going on. It is also worth noting they had to fire the actor that played Will and in that had to change a few things, IE Hive was Ward. Real estate wise the cast had gotten pretty large at that point and there just wasn’t enough time to properly deal with all that was going on.

Season 4 they did much better, had things mapped out better, but that still didn’t change the fact that I suspect there were a few lane changes story wise . Again thanks to the declassified books. And over the years I’ve done A LOT of metas on the Framework and I think something that gets lost a lot is what Radcliffe said he wanted and what AIDA actually did when it came to fixing a regret.

Radcliffe told AIDA, in order to keep the team quiet and not trying to bust out like May did, was to take away a regret. And for May that was Bahrain. That change was what set up the hell scape we came into with Hydra in charge. Radcliffe was blissfully off on his happy Island with no clue what she was really up too until it was too late.

After 4.14 when AIDA got her hands on the rest of the team she didn’t do like she did with May, Change her biggest regret, rather she changed A regret and for everyone but Fitz stuck them somewhere where they wouldn’t get in her way. Mack got his daughter back and was ready to die in there with her. Mace got to be the Hero Inhuman Leader he always wanted to be. Coulson was a teacher. May was where her regret left her. Daisy (had she been replaced) would have just been another foot soldier in Ophelia’s army. And Jemma was where she could never ever have a chance of getting to Fitz because she feared their love and that Jemma would take him from her. And I have proof those were not the regrets that they would have had fixed and I’ll circle back to that in a second.

Fitz was her target all along. She knew from the Darkhold she needed him for what she wanted. Looking Glass and Love. However, she didn’t realize that his heart always was Jemma’s and when he wasn’t brainwashed and controlled within an inch of his life that he’d leave her in a second. She mistook his previous acts of caring and empathy as love and had no understanding of the depths of human emotions. IE you can love people different ways. Sure he cared about AIDA but he loves Jemma with his heart and soul and vise versa.

As Fitz was her target she fixed things so that she could insert herself in his life in Jemma’s place and that he would have grown up with his awful father who taught him that cruelty and power was the way to go. This also kept out any positive and caring influences like his Mother, Jemma, and the team.

I said I had proof that some of those regrets weren’t necessarily what the team would have picked. That came via Self Control from Robo Coulson and Robo Fitz bearing in mind these LMD’s all had scans of who’d they replaced. Their memories and their desires.

Robo Coulson told Robo May to let this whole hostile takeover happen because in the Framework they were happy and together. That was decidedly not the case there though their connection ended up proving crucial to getting everyone out.

Robo Fitz told Jemma he was doing this for her so they could get married, grow old together. Had he known he would be sending Jemma literally into the grave Robo Fitz would not have gone along with the plan. He thought he was getting Jemma and they were going to go live their own Happily Ever After in there. Yeah, not the case either.

With the not waking up, no one but Coulson woke up and that was only thanks to Tahiti. And yes, it was brutal. Every week my poor ask box got more and more upset and as a fandom we were more than ready to get the hell out of there. I mistakingly died on the hill that Jemma would snap him out of it (though I did accurately predict the second Fitznapping....yay). She didn’t because this isn’t Once Upon a Time, True Love’s kiss doesn’t break the curse of having your mind completely wiped by an evil LMD and the Magic Demon Book. Now looking back it does make the fact that the second he had free will again, despite that other manipulated life where he was dedicated to Ophelia, it was still Jemma.

Oh and Jemma did choose Fitz over Will, when the sandstorm hit. She continued to go to Fitz and left Will....she would have never left Fitz in a sandstorm with the evil monster lurking about.

That all being said sometimes crap just has to happen to move the story ahead and there is always a price to pay for the good. I do think the Framework went too far but at the same time the writers were making a bit of a political statement there and they saw how good Iain was with evil bad guy.

Shippping Fitzsimmons is a lot like a Marathon and you are about to the “What on earth have I done to myself,” point of the race. But I promise the feeling of crossing that finish line at the end can’t be beat.

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crystalwillow · 4 years ago

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Against All Odds, Part One

Pairing: James Whitmore x Lillie Jones

From: The Vampire Ball series on the Love Sick mobile interactive game app

Characters Backgrounds: James Whitmore is a magic professor at the prestigious Karnsein University, a school for the upper caste members of society. But they aren’t just ordinary upper caste members, they are vampires and witchers. Lillie Jones is an ordinary human, a lower caste member of society and works a normal mundane 9-5 job to help the man she believes to be her biological father pay the bills to keep the lights on, and her mothers medical bills to help her get the best care that can be given. When her mother sadly passes away she receives an invitation to Karnstein and as much as she tries to ignore it, she has no choice but to enroll. There she becomes the main target of a host of attacks from a mysterious Masked Man. Very soon after meeting James Whitmore she feels some kind of attraction to him. When the two venture away from the university to a town full of werewolves to fix their totem which helps them with their transitioning, James and Lillie discover they feel so connected because of a magical bond put on some ancestors many years ago, but Lillie’s ancestor wished not to marry James’ ancestor so now the magical bond sits in their bloodlines, waiting to be acted upon.

What this is: This is an AU of the story where I’ve taken out the magic that James has in being a witcher, and put the two characters in a more modern and accepting setting. James is not a professor, but an influencer, just like Lillie is in this AU. I know it’s not Choices, but I need to take a break from writing so full on for Choices characters until I’m ready to continue on with my AU’s (3 out of 4 of which are Ethan Ramsey), and just write for other pairing I like from similar apps to Choices. I will make a separate subsection for them in my masterlist so if you enjoy them you can find them at any time

Word count: 5.5K

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It had been two years since Lillie Jones had taken the dive into the deep end of life and brought the camera she had been saving for during the entirety of her teenage years hit record, then edited that video and posted it on social media. She hadn’t expected her first ever video to go anywhere far, so when it went semi-viral and she was getting calls from radio stations and offers to appear on national TV daytime shows, it was a lot for her to process. But now, it was as if it were second nature for her, she had a wedge of experience under her belt and was happy she had taken the dive. She was currently in the back of a taxi making her way into the heart of New York for an interview with a well esteemed magazine. But it wasn’t a solo interview this time, there was going to be another social media influencer there. After many minutes of car horns honking, and being jolted about like a salad being tossed in vinaigrette, Lillie paid her taxi driver and collected her things, heading inside the building with a pep in her step. Once she was inside she was greeted cheerfully by the staff upon arrival and escorted to her dressing room backstage to get ready. After about an hour of being there she was called onto set but stopped in her tracks behind the cameras as she stared at a gorgeous man with free flowing short brown locks of hair and a smile so white, she could have sworn it was visible from space.

“Miss Jones?” A voice said next to her bringing her back to the present moment.

“Who’s that?” she asked the lady standing next to her in a hushed tone.

“That’s James Whitmore. Our other interviewee for this take.”

“You mean… I’m being interviewed, alongside… him.”

Lillie started to internally panic and turned on her heel running out of the room and into the nearest bathroom, locking the door behind her. She had never been good around men she found attractive. She always managed to put her foot in her mouth, stutter too much and just make a complete fool of herself. It was the main reason she’s single, not that she could complain, she had her 2 pomeranians, Jasper and Rose to keep her company. And in the bedroom she had become such an expert at pleasing herself, she was convinced nobody else could learn so she just shrugged it off and didn’t even bother looking for love.

“Miss Jones, we need to start this interview to stay on schedule.” the same voice from before filtered through the door.

“Uh, it’s okay. Go ahead and interview James without me. I’m feeling a little queasy.” Lillie called back as she turned the cold tap on, wetting her hand before splashing the little droplets from the end of her fingers onto her face.

“What’s going on?” a muffled male voice sounded from the other side of the door.

“Mr. Whitmore! Ah, n-nothing major. Miss Jones is just feeling a little sick. We’ll commence the interview in just a moment.”

“Miss… Lillie Jones. Correct.”

“Yes sir. I’m sorry, just give me two mi-”

“Not necessary. Let me speak to her.”

Lillie swallowed harshly as there was shuffling outside the door, not only was she hiding from this man to avoid making a fool of herself. The hiding had turned into the very thing that was making her a fool. She jumped as a sharp knock rapped at the door.

“Miss Jones. Or Lillie. Can I call you that.” James asked and waited for an answer.

“L-Lillie is f-fine.” she stuttered back.

“Are you going to open the door so we can speak face to face?”

“No.” she squeaked out quicker than she probably should have done.

James gave a low, rich chuckle from the other side of the door. “It’s the looks right?”

Fuck. How did he know? Did he clock her staring but she just didn’t notice?

“Look it’s okay. I’d be nervous around me too. In fact, I am… nervous around myself.” he admitted openly.

Lillie stared at her reflection for a few more seconds before unlocking the door and opening it a crack. James sighed and asked to be excused and not followed for a moment before slipping inside the bathroom and shutting the door. Inside her found Lillie looking at herself in the mirror as she played with her hair, trying to position it right.

James stopped in his tracks as and watched her.

“Wow.” he gasped quietly.

Lillie froze. “What?”

“You- You’re even more beautiful in person. I-” James blushed furious at the realisation of what he had said as Lillie made eye contact with him in the mirror and cocked a brow at him. “I um… follow you.” he said, clearing his throat.

A small amused smile graced Lillie’s features and she suddenly didn’t feel so awkward anymore. “You. follow me?” she asked.

“I do.” James admitted.

“Wow. and here I am not even knowing who you are.” she chuckled as James faked being offended.

“I know my looks are… intimidating.”

“Understatement of the century.”

“But. Don’t let them turn you into every other girl I’ve met. Because at heart. I’m a nice guy.”

“Every other girl?”

“Running from me because I come across as a self centered jerk.”

“That’s not why I ran.”

“Then why did you? … Run that is.”

“Because… Because I got a feeling I haven’t felt in a long time and it’s terrifying.”

“Is running from that feeling and hiding because you’re scared the best thing to do?”

“Yes. No. Maybe… I… No. No, it’s… it’s not.”

James chuckled that low, rich chuckle again and it sounded so much better not filtered by a door that Lillie found herself squeezing her thighs together as she softly bit her lip, looking at him. James caught her looking and she looked away with a furious blush.

“Now. if you’ve finished hiding. I believe we have an interview to do?”

“I…. guess we do.” Lillie smiled. “Sorry for freaking out and making you run late.”

“It’s fine. I only have leisure time planned after this until The Met Gala tonight.”

“You’re going to that?!”

“I am. Don’t tell me that a pretty face like you wasn’t invited.”

“Of course I was. If you watch me, you’d know. Now unless that was a lie…”

The two laughed as they walked back on set and had microphones attached to them. The next hour passed smoothly with the energy between James and Lillie, light and playful as they did an interview for the magazine and filmed a Q&A video for the magazine’s YouTube channel. After returning the mics and gathering their belongings, The two headed outside, closely followed by their managers and waited on the sidewalk for their cars to collect them.

“So uh… Lillie?”

“Yeah?”

“Could I… get your number?” James asked as he shyly held his phone between them.

Lillie gave a smile and took his phone entering her number. “Let me guess. You’re going to get a picture of me off line and add it through edit later.”

“Actually… I was going to ask if we could take one together.”

“Now?”

“If you’re not opposed to it, that is.”

“Of course not. We can take a picture.”

“Awesome! Could you take it?!”

Lillie laughed “Tell me when you’re ready.”

James eagerly positioned himself behind Lillie. “Is it cool if I kiss your cheek?”

“I… sure!”

James lightly pressed his lips to Lillie’s cheek and she smiled as she took the photo.

“There.” she smiled, handing James his phone back.

“Thanks. You’re awesome.” James grinned as their hands grazed against each other.

It was clear there was a spark between these two, the energy on the part of the street they were on was so strong they hadn’t realised their cars had arrived. Until they heard their names being shouted. They pulled apart and shook their heads as if breaking a spell and both flushed bright pink.

“So I’ll um.. Hear from you soon?” Lillie asked as she stopped at the door of her car.

“Yeah. Real soon hopefully.” James smiled back, then the two headed off in opposite directions to get ready for The Met Gala later that night.

Around 8pm that evening Lillie’s phone rang with an unknown number and she answered putting it on speaker as she got her hair and makeup done.

“Hello?” she said

“Lillie! It’s James.”

“James, hey! You’re on speaker phone by the way. I’m having my hair and makeup done.”

“Ha, no sweat. You are too. I’m having last minute alterations made to my suit.”

The two spoke up until the moment they had to leave and make their way to the event and when she arrived, Lillie smiled brightly as she waved to the camera’s and people gathered around the event. She made her way along the red carpet and stopped for interviews and for the press to take their pictures. She was in the middle of posing for pictures when she heard her name being called from her left, but she remained professional and focused until she was let go and turned to find the source of her name being called when she spotted James waving at her.

“Hi!”

“James, hey!”

“Twice in one day huh?”

“Small world.”

They looked at each other before bursting out in a fit of laughter. James took in Lillie’s appearance once they had stopped laughing and whistled lowly.

“You look absolutely gorgeous.” He complemented

“Thank you! You’re looking quite dapper yourself.” Lillie smiled.

Once they had finished outside and were in the building where they had a little more privacy, the two wandered around together in deep conversation until James was called away to talk with some very powerful looking people and she was left to her own devices. She mingled throughout the night by herself but at some point snuck outside for some fresh air as she started to feel faint from how hot it was inside. James excused himself from his conversation and quietly followed her, concern filling his chest. Lillie found a bench nearby and sat on it, heaving in a deep breath and exhaling it slowly. James sat next to her and stared ahead, waiting to see if she would speak, but when she didn’t he took it upon himself to do so.

“Are you okay?” He asked, turning to her with a concerned brow raised.

“Yeah. Just… getting a bit stuffy in there. I needed some air.” Lillie explained with a small smile.

“You sure?” James asked

“Yeah.”

The two sat in companionable silence before James spoke up again.

“Lillie?”

“James.”

He chuckled a little at her beaming face. “What’s it like to kiss you?”

“What?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry it was… a stupid question. I should-”

“James, wait.” Lillie grabbed his arm spinning him back around and closer to her so their chests almost touched. “Why don’t you find out? I mean… I’m right here aren’t I?”

“Are you giving me permission to..?”

“Yes. James, I am.” She whispered with a smile.

Suddenly, nerves were all James could feel alongside his heart hammering in his chest. This was it, he was finally in a moment where he could kiss his year and a half long internet crush. He couldn’t fuck it up. His eyes felt heavy as they closed slowly whilst his lips connected to Lillie’s. His mind and stomach simultaneously bursting with joy and doing metaphorical backflips. Her lips were even softer than he imagined and dreamt of, they tasted of his favourite snack, salted caramel popcorn and it mixed perfectly with the small traces of wine left on her tongue. He was so absorbed into the moment he hadn’t noticed a few cameras flashing around them until he pulled away and softly opened his eyes, his gaze locking onto Lillie’s bright emerald orbs gazing up at him and the smile on her face. He felt giddy and like he was back in school again, sneaking off from a party to kiss the pretty girl he had a crush on. Except this time, he knew it was a serious crush because if this woman walked away and he never saw her in person again his heart would shatter.

“Wow.” He sighed and a small smile, his hand naturally connecting to Lillie’s cheek and brushing a stray strand of hair away.

“Did I meet your expectations?”

“You surpassed them by a long shot.”

Lillie giggled and the voices of the shouting press and other media outlets filtered through.

“James how long has this romance been going on?!”

“When did you two meet!”

“Does this mean you’re no longer single Mr. Whitmore!?”

“Lillie Jones. Are you only going after him because of money!”

Lillie stopped in her tracks, the look in her eyes scared James so much he took a step back as Lillie turn towards the reporter.

“Excuse. Me.” She asked through gritted teeth.

“Well James Whitmore has been in this game longer and has more money at this point. Is this a money motive love?”

“One. I don’t think it’s any of your business or your right to ask such insensitive questions. Two. If you’re even having to ask that question you clearly haven’t researched me well enough to know that I don’t need to chase romance for money motives because I’m sitting on a healthy 6 figure bank balance from all that I do from modelling to YouTube to 8 days a month I work at my local animal shelter! So… Maria. I suggest if you want to keep your job, you think before asking such insensitive things. Because next time you might not ask someone who is as nice as I am and willing to let you go with only a warning to NEVER ask me something like that ever again.”

The rest of the press diverted their attention away from the situation as Lillie stepped back from Maria and back over to James.

“Remind me never to get on your bad side.” James said and Lillie giggled as they headed back inside the gala.

The rest of the night went by smoothly and Lillie and James once again bid each other farewell outside and headed in separate directions.

The next morning greeted Lillie in the afternoon as she awoke with a hangover and a bunch of missed calls and texts from people. Groaning she trudged to her kitchen and took out a ginger juice shot and backed it in one, wincing at the spiciness, before turning around and heading to the bathroom to freshen up. Once she had taken care of that, she grabbed her phone and placed an order for food and watched the TV as she waited for her order. She stared at the screen and zoned out the the point where when her doorbell rang it scared the living daylights out of her. She rushed to answer it, however when she opened the door, it wasn’t her food delivery that greeted her, but a concerned looking James.

“Oh James! How did you-”

“Get your address?”

“Yeah.”

“I bugged your manager until he gave in.”

Lillie groaned. “Now he’s gonna hate me and keep going on about it at our meeting across town tomorrow.”

“Sorry. But you weren’t answering your phone. I thought maybe it was off because of the tabloids.”

“The tabloids?”

“Have you not seen yet?”

“I’ve literally just turned my TV on and put it straight onto netflix.”

James winced.

“What?” Lillie asked curiously.

“Can I come in?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.”

Lillie moved aside letting James in and closed the door behind him. “The living room is this way.” she said walking forwards and James followed her.

Together they sat on the couch and James turned on one of the channels that reports on “hollywood drama” just as a segment about them came on. Lillie zoned in on their every word.

“Next on The HollyTrend, is she Pennsylvania’s Princess or just an uncouth, foul mouthed demon from hell. Last night at The Met Gala, Lillie Jones and James Whitmore were spotted by some paparazzi, sharing what seemed to be a very intimate and steamy moment together. But just seconds later, Lillie Jones snapped at a member of the press at a seemingly innocent question. When asked if the kiss they just shared was a PR stunt, Lillie turned on the paparzo and snapped at her in a very undermining tone. I can say one thing for sure here. And that is, James if you are dating her, get out. And get out now!”

Lillie couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and even though he was holding her hand. It wasn’t enough to comfort her from the lie and harsh words she had just been called. She ripped her hnd from James’ and rushed into her bedroom, locking the door behind her, climbing into her bed and letting the tears fall.

“Lillie, wait!” James called just as the doorbell rang. He sighed and answered it, taking in the food order and finding Lillie’s kitchen, placing the bags on the side, then going to the door which he heard slam shut and knocking gently. But the only thing he heard in response were muffled sobs.

“I just hate this job sometimes!” she yelled. “No mom, you don’t understand, I put myself out there. They see me as knowing what I was doing and inviting this kind of thing into my life!” the pain in her voice ripped at James’s heart as well as he mom’s on the other end of the line.

“He’s here. He came by to show me so I wouldn’t be alone when I read a paper or something I think. … He is. He’s a great guy. I only met him yesterday mom, I wouldn’t be able to tell if I’m in love yet! … Yeah, he’s a great kisser. MOM NO! DAD DON’T LISTEN TO HER! MOM! MOM!”

James knocked again as Lillie placed her phone on the bedside table as she realised her mom had hung up the call. She sighed heavily and got up to unbolt it. James entered with a small smile.

“Your food came. I’ve put it in your kitchen.”

“Oh. Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”

James sat on the edge of her bed. “So you like locking doors huh?”

They both chuckled at his attempt at a joke. “Shut up.” Lillie giggled lightly kicking his leg.

“What? Are you gonna say it’s not true?”

“...No.” Lillie replied as she playfully rolled her eyes.

“What have you got planned for today?”

“I’m filming a vlog and a batch of about 7 videos for my channel.”

“Can I help?”

“Don’t you have a schedule of your own?”

“Trying to get rid of me now? Miss Jones?” James smiled mischievously, before launching himself at Lillie and attacking her with tickles.

“Ahh! James!” She laughed trying to push him off, but it was no use, he knew what he was doing and tickled her until she tapped out to catch her breath, lying next to her on the bed.

“That was fun.” He breathed heavily.

“Yeah.” Lillie responded in the same way.

As they laid catching their breath, in the middle of them, their hands brushed. They turned their heads and Lillie smiled at James whilst he blushed furiously from the slight contact.

“James?” Lillie asked, curiosity in her eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Be honest. Do you… have a crush on me?”

“What?! Nooooo. I just think you’re very.. pretty. A lovely woman. Uh…” he said, blushing bright red and truing his face away. Was he seriously being that obvious that she could tell he had a crush.

“James. I’m not stupid. Last night you wanted to know how it felt to kiss me. Today you came to warn me about the tabloids and held my hand as I watched and listened, then just a few moments ago you attacked me with tickles just to get me smiling again. There’s only one conclusion here.” She said and James sighed defeatedly.

“Okay. I’ll admit it. I do. … have a crush on you. I have for a while.”

“How long?”

“Hm?”

“The crush. How long?”

“A little over a year.”

“A little over… wow.”

“I’m not a stalker! I promise!”

Lillie laughed loudly at his outburst. “I never said you were.”

“No. But I just want to make it clear that I just think you’re extremely beautiful, caring, funny and down to earth. I love watching your videos where you give back to your community by helping all those charities. The looks on the kids faces, or the gratefulness from the people working the food banks when you donate ready made hampers…”

Lillie zoned out and listened to him, looking in his eyes and realised that he didn’t just have a crush, he was deeply in love with her and she didn’t even know him.

“... but my favourite thing that you’ve done by far, would have to be delivered care packages to the homeless. It just truly shows what a lovely human you are. And the tabloids don’t know shit about you if they want to call you an uncouth, foul mouthed demon. Because you aren’t. You aren’t Pennsylvania’s princess either. You’re Lillie Jones and if that’s not enough for them, they can go fuck themselves.”

Lillie sniffled and reached for a tissue to dab away the tears in her eyes, gaining James’ attention.

“Did I make you cry?”

“Don’t worry. These are good tears!” Lillie chuckled as she wiped the fallen tears from her cheeks and blew her nose. “It’s just… you’re… you’re amazing.”

“I know. But thank you.” James grinned.

“You’re also way past a crush and deeply in love with me and haven’t even taken me on a date yet. I call that quite rude.” She joked.

“When are you free?”

“What?”

“When are you free? I’ll arrange a date. You and me, no cameras that aren’t our own, unless they belong to fans.”

“Are you being serious?”

“Deadly so.”

“Um… give me a second.” Lillie said, grabbing her planner from her desk and flicking through the pages. “I’m free on a Thursday 2 weeks from now.”

“Awesome. Keep that day clear. I’m going to make it the best day of your life.”

“I’m holding you to that, Mr. Whitmore.”

They chuckled and headed back downstairs, into the kitchen where Lillie ruffled through her bags and pulled out her food.

“It’s almost cold.” She sighed, turning around to get a plate from the cupboard, whilst James sat on a bar stool across from her.

She put the food on the plate and set it in the microwave to heat up and heard her phone ringing from in the living room, where she discarded it on her way through to the kitchen.

“Can you watch my food? I should get that.” She said running off and James chuckled as he rose to his feet and stood by the microwave.

As James looked through her drawers for the cutlery, Lillie raised her voice in anger making him worry about what the phone call was about.

“...NO MARK BECAUSE IF YOU KNOW ME AT ALL! AND I MEAN AT ALL! YOU- NO I WILL NOT CALM DOWN WHEN YOU’RE TELL ME TO STAY AWAY FROM HIM UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! UGH! THIS IS ONE TIME TOO MANY MARK, YOU ARE FIRED! EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!” Lillie shouted then hung up angrily throwing her phone on the sofa and letting out a scream before heading back to the kitchen.

James was drinking a glass of water as she walked in “you… don’t mind do you?” He asked.

Lillie looked at him, somewhat dazed “huh? Oh! No. You’re fine.” She waved and plopped down onto a stool.

“You wanna talk about it? Things sounded pretty intense.”

“They tend to be that way when your now, ex-manager, tries to break any new friendship or relationship you try to make work over and over again.”

“Let me guess. That was about the tabloids and me?”

“Got it in one.”

Lillie sighed as James placed her plate in front of her. “I’m not that hungry anymore, do you wanna share this with me?”

James was about to protest when his stomach grumbled loudly. “Oh I… yeah.. okay.” He smiled and grabbed another fork from the drawer and sat next to her.

Later in the afternoon, Lillie was wide awake and ready to start filming sit down videos and the end to her vlog.

“So what’s the first sit down video?”

“A get ready with me. I haven’t done one in a while, so I need to bring my makeup down from my room, set up on the coffee table and film away.”

“I’ll sort your ring lights for you.”

“Thanks James. You’re amazing.” She smiled and found herself naturally pecking his cheek before skipping off upstairs, whilst James stood frozen in his spot.

“She kissed my face.” He whispered to himself before shaking from his daze and getting the work on sorting Lillie’s ring lights.

Lillie came back carrying a decent sized box with all of her makeup and tools in it and started setting out the basics on the coffee table.

“That’s a lot of makeup.”

“It takes a lot to go from textured to flawless.”

“I prefer you textured.”

They looked at each other before bursting out in laughter again. It had only been a little over 24 hours since Lillie had met James but she felt so comfortable around him, and she hadn’t put her foot in her mouth once. She could be 100% herself and he didn’t judge a bit.

“Do you want to be a guest in this video? Or would you prefer to sit and watch?”

“I’d like to watch. I find it calming watching you do your makeup.”

“Aw. You do?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. I’m ready, could you hit record for me?”

“Of course. In 3… 2…” James motioned one with his finger then nodded as the camera started recording.

“Hello my little Lilypads, welcome back to another video! And today, we’re going to be getting ready together. Now the look I want to show you this time is one you can use for date night. You know how I do it here, I will be showing you a dressed up and dressed down version of this look so… let’s get it!”

James watched as Lillie spoke to the camera as if he wasn’t even there. He was transfixed with how she seemed to work so quickly whilst talking to her audience. He silenced his phone as texts started coming through, and mouthed a quick sorry to Lillie. She smiled at him subtly and carried on with her makeup.

“You’ve all probably seen the tabloids by now about me and a certain someone, and are wondering if I’ll address it. Which I will, it just won’t be in this video. Because this is a get ready with me, not Lillie's bitching sesh.”

Off camera James suppressed a giggle and shook his head as he smiled whilst Lillie put the finishing touches to the dressed down version of the look.

“Now this is, ladies and gents, the dressed down version. It’s soft, a little playful, subtle with the glitter.” She stood up and got closer to the camera to show her eye shadow. “Now if it’s a night out with the girls. You’re going out for a meal, then hitting the club for a little bit, to dress this delicate little golden number up, all you need to add is some navy blue or black eyeshadow and white eyeliner, which I will show you how to do, right now.”

A couple of hours later Lillie had finished 3 sit down videos and her vlog, and was not getting ready to film a last minute video with James. They had both taken to their social media pages to ask for questions and were having dinner, allowing enough to roll in.

“How many questions are we answering?” James asked.

“As many as our hearts desire.”

After dinner, James and Lillie watched some TV whilst they let their food settle then they set up the camera in front of the sofa and worked through the questions, some were funny, some were rude and addressed so, whilst other were just normal questions any curious person would ask.

“... OOO! This is a good one. It’s from Lillies_Angels. Does James have any pets of his own? He seems like a cat kind of guy but I could be wrong. From Charlotte.”

“I don’t have any pets, but I have adopted a baby elephant, who I try to go and see once every two months. I named him Winfred, after my father. It’s also my middle name, so he is technically named after both of us.”

“Really? Wow. Thanks for that question Charlotte. I hope you and the girls are doing okay, it’s been a while since we spoke, let’s talk soon! … Okay, one more question from your side James and then we’ll wrap this video up.”

James scrolled through the thousands of questions he had in response to his post until he found one that made him chuckle. “Okay. I’ve put you under pressure in this video so I think it’s only fair I answer a similar question.” taking a deep breath he read out the question. “Do you ever think Lillie will like you back as much as you like her? You’ve been pretty vocal about wanting to meet her over the last few months.” He blushed as he locked his phone and placed it aside on the table. “I.. don’t know. Is the honest answer to your question Sam. I am just thankful for being blessed enough to have this moment come. She knows that I have a crush on her now, but I’m not trying to rush a love story. Love stories take time to craft and make. If anything more were to happen between us, I’d want it to be natural and unforced.”

“Plus, he is taking me on a date Sam. so you needn’t worry. But sticking to what James is trying to say. We won’t be a couple to continuously post every couple thing we do on social media, if we become more than friends. I think we’d share milestones and highlights from vacations maybe, but anything else, I’d like to think we’d keep that private.”

James smiled and answered Lillie’s statement and Lillie wrapped up the video before James got up and pressed the button to stop recording.

“Okay 4 sit down videos complete, 3 to go and then I can hit the hay before waking up tomorrow and looking for a new manager.” Lillie said as she took a deep breath to center herself.

“I admire you even more now you know. You work so much harder than I thought. I thought you filmed one video a day every day for a week, but you film in batches like this?”

“What and you don’t?”

“I don’t. Actually. I film 2 videos a day, 3 days a week. And vlog whenever I feel like it. On top of that I model for Hugo Boss, Dior and BooHoo Man. But you do so much more.”

“It’s not a competition James. We each have our own limits and boundaries.” Lillie smiled.

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.” James sighed checking the time. “Woah is it really that late?”

Lillie yawned as she looked at the clock on the wall and saw it read 11:48pm. “It must be.”

“Are you going to be okay to record on your own now? I’ve got a flight to catch in two hours. I’m going to Italy for a photoshoot.”

“Yeah. I’ll be fine. I’ve only got a bake with me, a clean with me and a wine and chill to film. So I’ll be fine. You head home and grab your things then head to the airport. I wouldn’t want you to miss your gig.”

They stopped at Lillie’s front door and shared a hug before James pulled his coat on. “You’re sure you’re going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

James smiled and gave her another hug before walking out of the door and descending the steps.

“Oh and James?!” Lillie called out.

He spun on his heel and looked up at her “Yeah?”

“Thanks for checking on me and … spending the afternoon helping me out. I… Thank you.” she smiled

“It’s no problem. Anytime I’m free, if you need me just call.” James replied.

And with a small smile and wave to each other he headed off towards the taxi rank not far from Lillie’s house, Lillie closing her front door, locking it and turning on her security system before heading back to filming more videos.

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