#claymation is so much work

[lenorayoder]

lumon really made that whole claymation video in a week. that's how u know they're evil

[bokutosbiceps]

‘tis the season | kuroko no basuke

gom minus kuroko plus kagami x gn!reader | fluff | ~1.4k words

warnings: some suggestive/18+ themes but nothing explicit, uh—rudolph spoilers? i guess? also some cursing

a/n: welcome to my xmas special for the kuroko no basuke boys !! as usual, i chose to write for GOM (minus kuroko) + kagami. ALSO i realized i never ever specified that, in every single one of my pieces for knb, all of the GOM + kagami are aged up to college. pls enjoy 🎄

18+ MDNI | under the cut for length

akashi seijuurou’s favorite christmas tradition is attending a christmas concert. he always remembers how his mother would help him get all dressed up, how his father would actually turn off his phone for the evening, they’d go to a lovely dinner, and then they’d . but now his mother’s gone and his father is consumed by his work—so he goes with you! it’s different of course, but he loves being able to see you dressed up just for him and take you out to a nice dinner, just the two of you. no teammates allowed. 

seijuurou is the perfect gentleman all night, keeping a strong arm around your waist and pressing his side into yours for warmth while you make the short walk from the restaurant to the concert hall. and once the concert hall lights are dimmed, he’s intertwining his fingers with yours and caressing the back of your hand with his thumb, whispering a sweet merry christmas, my love to you before pressing a kiss to your temple.

aomine daiki can be found napping by the fireplace like a big cat as soon as it gets just a little bit cold outside. is he planning on doing anything else once he’s stretched out by the fire? nope. is he moaning and groaning for you to come lay down next to him while you’re decorating your place for the holidays? yep. 

“oi, you’re making too much noise…can’t fall asleep.” daiki complains, earning a narrow eyed glare from you. 

“dai, if you would just help—”  you yelp as you feel your arm getting tugged down, ending up on your butt. daiki hasn't even opened his eyes, but he's pulling you down till your face is pressed into his chest.

“chill. i'll help you after we get some shut eye, aight?” daiki drones, placing his hand on your ass to keep you in place and resting his chin on top of your head. you just sigh and relax, leaning against daiki and reluctantly reveling in the warmth of him and the fire.

kagami taiga and ice skating do not mix. taiga had thought it’d be fun and romantic to take you on an ice skating date for christmas eve. you’d be clinging to the side of the rink and he’d be your tall and steady hero, ready to glide around the ice with you clinging to him as your savior. he did not expect for it to be the other way around.

“s-s-slow down, y/n!” kagami stutters as you slowly glide to the edge of the rink so he can have something more tangible to hold on to. your shoulders were sore from the way your hulking boyfriend had been gripping them as you lead him around the ice.  

“i’d have thought someone who’s such a capable athlete wouldn’t be so terrible at ice skating.” you purse your lips, unable to keep the teasing smile from spreading across your lips. “do basketball players not have to have balance?”

“shut up!” taiga huffs as he slaps his palms down onto the railing of the rink. he turns to you with a pout on his lips. “i’ll get the hang of it soon…you’ll see!” his blush is spreading to the tips of his ears and you know he undoubtedly feels embarrassed. you skate over to him and press your body against his, backing him up against the edge of the rink and leaning up to place a quick kiss to his nose.

“i believe in you, taiga.”

kise ryouta loves watching christmas movies! a cozy, plush throw wrapped around his shoulders, fuzzy socks on his feet, a nice cup of hot cocoa in his hands, and you cuddled into his side. his favorite movie is the very old, claymation rudolph the red nose reindeer because he just adores the blonde elf who aspires to be a dentist. i feel so connected to him somehow! kise always says, excitedly pointing at the screen when the elf first shows up in the movie. 

he’ll sing along to every single song, grabbing you by the shoulders and swaying the two of you along to the beat or picking up your hands and making them move along to the melody. and, of course, without fail, he will bawl his eyes out when rudolph is chosen to lead santa’s sleigh on christmas eve. 

“ryou, you’ve watched this movie every year for as long as you’ve known yourself…why do you cry every time?” you tease, reaching up to gently pinch his cheeks, already red from crying.

ryouta wraps his arms tighter around you, pulling you against his chest like you’re a big plushie, and buries his face in your hair.

“i can’t help it! he’s head reindeer…just like his dad!” ryouta sniffles, holding you close. you just giggle and hug him back, trying to comfort your big baby because of an eighty year old movie.

midorima shintarou hates going to the christmas market. not because you’re there—you’re actually the only reason his team gets to enjoy his presence at the market. he hates it because his entire team shows up and is dragging him around the market, asking him which little knick knacks he enjoys. his team knows that shintarou is a difficult man to shop for, so they like to take him to the christmas market and get his direct opinion on things.

shintarou the introvert finds this little tradition exhausting; being pulled every which way, giving his opinion on every single little thing that his friends might think he likes, having to explain that he is not a collector, nanodayo and that he just needs them for his lucky items.

shintarou’s favorite part of the evening is when his friends say goodnight and leave you and him to wander the christmas market on your own. you always have to calm him down after his friends leave, because they really do bring up straight to his boiling pot and leave you to bring the heat down to a simmer.

he decides this is nice, though, since no one’s asking him if he likes this or that or if he’d smile if he happened to get this for christmas. he’s not too keen on PDA, but he will take your hand in his and hold it gently while you walk through the various stalls (again). it’s just you and him, your intertwined hands, and the little trails of frozen carbon dioxide you leave in puffs behind you. 

murasakibara atsushi is competitive when it comes to decorating christmas cookies. he will constantly be looking over your shoulder at your work and making little quips and comments about what you should have done.

“i didn’t know you were such a professional, sushi.” you say, eyes focused and brows furrowed as you move the piping bag in various circles and half moons along the golden, baked dough of the cookies.

“of course, i am. this is literally my job.” atsushi drones, expertly icing the cookies and using a fine tip piping bag to draw intricate decorations on top. you glance over at his cookies and notice how perfect they are. damn, you really didn’t realize he was a literal professional. 

unfortunately for you, you stay admiring atsushi’s cookies for too long and leave yours unprotected from selfish, needy hands. atsushi swiftly moves behind you, moving you to the side with his hands on your hips, then swipes a half iced cookie from your baking sheet.

“murasakibara atsushi! i wasn’t done with that one!” you gently beat your fist against atsushi’s solid chest, causing him to huff in protest.

“doesn’t matter, looks like shit anyways.” atsushi hums and finishes the cookie in one bite, licking his fingers happily. “tastes delicious, though.” atsushi smiles and turns back to your baking sheet, looming over the rest of your cookies. you move between him and the counter and spread your arms wide, hoping to guard your cookies from the ex basketball player turned pastry chef. 

“i can offer you something sweeter if you leave my cookies alone!” you plead. atsushi raises an eyebrow at you as if to say gimme it then and you smile innocently at him. you turn your head to the side and tap your cheek with your index finger.

atsushi understands your gesture and a deep chuckle rumbles up from his chest as he leans in to place a frosting speckled peck to your cheek.

“y/n-chin knows i can’t resist her. my favorite treat.”

taglist: none! lemme know if you wanna be added to my knb taglist ✨

[zahri-melitor]

So I've read the opening story of Tim Drake: Robin.

The opening issue is solid, highlighting a lot of Meghan Fitzmartin's skills as a writer. She picked up threads neatly from her earlier stories, showed her hand to the audience, and did do a fair amount of subtle character work. If I'd picked it up with no background knowledge of the fandom conversation about the title, I'd have been very excited for where it was going.

I liked the links back to how part of what prompted Tim to move out was Bruce being fussy over Tim having been shot in the throat in Batman #125. That felt realistic and a nice little link between titles.

As far as a story goes: I didn't mind it. Parts of it were very obvious, especially when you clued into the themes - if I'd actually been reading it as it came out and had a month between issues for things to soak in, I probably would have been tapping my toes over the reveal of who Moriarty was disguised as.

I would like to specifically dunk on both Meghan Fitzmartin and Moriarty for the detective novel writer selections, because...hmm. Kinda misogynistic there. Fitzmartin uses 6 writers for this, and 6 specific stories/franchises:-

Edgar Allen Poe – Murders in the Rue Morgue

Mark Twain – The Stolen White Elephant

Arthur Conan Doyle – Sherlock Holmes

Raymond Chandler - Goldfish

James Gelsey – Scooby Doo

Wilkie Collins – The Moonstone

What do you notice about this list, that I immediately noticed? They're all men. Who is an immediate name that comes to mind, who even had public domain stories as of 2022, who probably should be on a list like that and who also has incredible influence over the direction of the genre? Oh, I don't know, maybe Agatha Christie? (Also Dorothy L. Sayers is also right there and available, but skipping Christie?)

And once she'd built up this "it's all the detective stories" premise, Fitzmartin then went for a book code (cool!) from non-existent books (not cool). If you've just spent all this time glorying in how this is all related to Specific Classic Detective Stories, why not...use a real book code and refer to their actual stories? You've already done it for the plots! Commit to the bit!

Also I spent a good chunk of issue #4 staring at the page going "Carol Donovan? You mean Deb Donovan's judge daughter who recently appeared in Mariko Tamaki's 'Tec run? Tim, how are you missing something this straightforward? Also she's dead?" and then it never came to anything. Maybe do a quick check if anyone else has been using the name you just invented for the story.

"I even tried making a new costume for myself. It doesn't fit." - I did find it interesting that Fitzmartin was once again playing with the "is it time to move on" themes for Tim that were popping up around here in various conversations. Especially given she had Tim and Dick relitigate their conversation from Urban Legends #10 and similar themes in DC:YJ. It does suggest to me that she was working her way around to getting Tim into a new identity, but cancellation has once again left that in the 'not happening' basket.

In terms of the art: Riley Rossmo was the wrong pick for the title, but I do see the thought process that led into him getting the nod for the opening story, given the whole claymation villain set. It was very 2D animation style. I don't mind Rossmo (and interestingly he's developing a whole line up of detective stories he's done art for, given he's also had a Martian Manhunter book and got Wesley Dodds, he did one of the Batman/The Shadow crossovers...) but his highly malleable art style loses a lot of background detail or makes what is there harder to parse.

I did very much appreciate the way Rossmo drew Tim's detective work, though. I liked the technique for highlighting details and clues, and it actually very much reminded me of how some computer games present clues (including how it's done in Gotham Knights, in fact).

I know everyone has said this, but Bernard needs to develop a personality AND to commit to whether or not he knows Tim is Robin. Because sort of hinting that he knows, while Tim worries about hiding things from him, but not actually confirming either way is only really acceptable if you actually do build up to a big reveal moment where the whole drama has been paid off.

I did appreciate that MegFitz had clearly taken feedback and returned one of Bernard's two pre-existing personality traits (conspiracy theorist who thinks the Bats are urban legend cryptids), because one of the weaknesses of using Bernard, a side character with 6 preboot appearances, is that at lot of his existing personality was sketched in. He was a conspiracy theorist, and he desperately wanted to be popular but wasn't, so he presented himself as having a Cool Guy's Personality (see: 'your step-mom is hot'). Now, Meghan Fitzmartin wants us to read into that second trait as a facade that Bernard was putting up to deal with the fact he was gay and hiding it, probably even from himself, at the time. Which, fine, it's a perfectly reasonable reading of Bernard (and to her credit, MegFitz has Bernard spell it out a little on page in TD:R), but the problem is...you've just lost one of the two identifiable traits of 'Bernard' and it hasn't been replaced with anything else. And while 2004 in comics was still trying to hold onto the Urban Legends reading for the Bats to an extent (though it was failing), 2022 comics has so long since abandoned it that Bernard having kooky theories about Batman's connection to Mothman or whatever is very...why?

And because both of these pre-existing personality traits are under strain from the context, it really is sort of necessary to give Bernard something else about him for people to latch onto for his personality. And it doesn't really seem to be there yet (as of #6). It's the same complaint that people have about Jon/Jay and a whole host of other partners for recently out superheros: they're generically pleasant, supportive and bland, with about the depth of a mirror. Give me some of the toxic drama the 30 year old lesbians are allowed. Where is my breakup over custody fights with an ex and one of the two getting seduced by a vampire.

[nathanbatemanfucker]

Apple Pie

summary: you and hotch spend the first of many christmases together.

pairing: fem!reader x college!aaron hotchner

contents: explicit language, best friends to lovers, mention of a deceased parent, internal angst/sadness, food mention, fluff, kissing

wc: 1,756

A/N: me writing a hotch fic? more likely than you think! merry christmas to my hotchgirls (and everyone else of course) who celebrates ❤️

cm masterlist

He doesn’t understand why he misses it. There was never anything special about his home on Christmas. No expected pile of presents under the tiny tree that was always falling apart– is probably falling apart in his mother’s living room right now. No extended family gathering together around a table. No Sunday mass, or other family tradition.

His father was never there and for that he was grateful. The haul was always modest, a few present for him, a few for Sean. Sometimes there would be a can of cinnamon rolls popped open, filling the house with spiced warmth, eaten with chocolate milk. Other times he would just scavenge, always making sure to share whatever he found with Sean. Oatmeal or some cereal with raisins in it, sprinkled with sugar.

It was never much but it was home. It was Hotchner Christmas.

He makes the decision early to not go home. There’s nothing there for him— Sean is in juvie, his mom is working herself to the bone to keep up with bills. His father is dead. So he stays on campus.

And for once in his life, Aaron feels lucky because you stay in town too.

“Why aren’t you going home again?” He asks a couple days before the break starts. The two of you are sitting on the couch in your apartment after dinner, one of the classic Christmas claymations playing on the tv.

You shrug, taking a sip from the warm mug of hot chocolate in your hands, “Christmas is their anniversary, they’re taking a trip and we’ll do all the family stuff when they get back.”

He hums in response, turning his eyes back to the screen though his mind drifts elsewhere.

Aaron can’t think about how different your experiences with the holiday are. How much love filled your home when the season rolled around. Jealousy would bubble up inside of him if he didn’t care for you so much. You’ve become the most important person on the planet to him in the short time that you’ve known one another and he only wishes good things for you.

As if you can hear his thoughts you lean your head on his shoulder and ask, “What’s Christmas like at your house?”

“Even when my father was alive he wouldn’t be there…he was off…doesn’t matter. My mom tried. She did the best that she could with what we had, what my father gave her,” His voice is somber, and you can’t tell if its because he misses it or never wants it to happen again.

Regardless you nod, deciding to leave any of the other questions that popped up in your head from that description alone to fade away. Aaron always has this melancholy that surrounds him and you’d never want to contribute to it. In fact, you do everything you can to always make him smile, an expression that is almost reserved just for you.

“Since we’re both staying here, what do you think about me coming over for Christmas?”

“What could we possibly do in my miniscule dorm room for Christmas?”

“Alright, then you come over to mine,” You suggest easily.

—

He’s standing in the parking lot of your apartment building near his car like a nervous idiot and he’s not quite sure why. That’s not entirely true, any time he’s alone with you he’s nervous because you’re…well you’re you. Bright and sweet, always reminding him that there are things and people worth enduring this life for. But, this is different– you don’t share Christmas with anyone, especially not you. With how you’ve talked about your Christmas traditions, this is a big deal.

You’re sharing a piece of your home with him, something he’d never do because his home for as long as he can remember has been broken.

When you open the door, you’re in Christmas in pajamas, green with a Christmas lights pattern all over it just like the tree. He couldn’t keep a straight face if he tried, not with the way your eyes light up when they drop to the plain green sweater he has on.

“You’re here and you’re festive!”

He looks down at the sweater skeptically, “I tried.”

“It’s perfect,” You insist, pulling him inside.

Your apartment is cozy— all the main lights are off because you’ve covered the space in soft white Christmas lights. There’s Christmas music playing low in the background, a tree much too large for the space nestled in the corner of the living room. There are trinkets and knick knacks everywhere. Christmas has effectively exploded in your apartment.

He raises an eyebrow at you as he sheds his coat, “You’ve gone all out I see.”

“It’s your first Christmas away from home, it should be special.”

“Trust me, I didn’t expect all of this,” He gestures around loosely.

“Well, its the first Christmas that we’ve ever spent together. So it’s extra special. C’mon.”

You grab his hand leading him into the kitchen and his heart jumps in his chest. The warmth of your hand is gone quickly as you reach for two martini glasses rimmed with sugar and filled with a deep burgundy liquid. That smile is still on your face as you hold them up near your cheeks, looking proud of yourself.

“What’s this?”

“A cranberry spritz.” You hold it out to him and when he eyes it cautiously you add, “Non-alcoholic just how you like. I also have eggnog if you’d prefer it.”

That furrow between his eyebrows smooths out, a small smile on his lips as he takes it, “This is good, thanks.”

Your returning smile is bright as always as you gesture to the stool at the island, “Sit, dinner’s almost ready.”

Dinner is intricate by his standards; a roast chicken with a sauce that’s light and garlicky, mashed potatoes, and a mixed vegetable dish that he could easily eat every day for the rest of life. Ignoring his protests and grumbles, you plate dinner not only for yourself and him, turning on The Grinch before sliding into the island stool next to him.

“Didn’t know you could cook this well, you’ve been feeding us grilled cheeses all semester.”

“Cooking like this is expensive, Aaron,” You remind him teasingly.

“I know, I appreciate it— really, you didn’t have to do all of this.”

“Should we take a shot of eggnog every time you say something like that tonight?”

He gives you a scolding look that makes you giggle. You stand, bumping his shoulder playfully and he tries to join you, reaching for his plate but you quickly snatch it, hand coming down on his shoulder.

“Stay put, I’ll take that. There’s dessert too.”

“Dessert?”

“You expected Christmas dinner without dessert? What’s next, you don’t think I got you anything?”

“I knew you’d be stubborn and not listen so I didn’t waste my breath.”

“Good,” You say with a smile on your face, happy that he’ll accept the gifts you got him, but also because it feels good to be known by him.

With your hands tucked safely into bright red oven mitts, you retrieve the apple pie from the oven, steam escaping from the intricate design you carved into the crust.

Aaron blinks, something soft stirring deep in his chest, “Apple pie.”

“It’s your favorite,” You simply, not noticing the way his voice changes as you continue to examine the pie.

“You know you didn’t have to do all this for me.”

“We’re at two shots of eggnog now. Who said I did it just for you?” You tease softly, before turning towards him, your expression growing serious. “You deserve it, Aaron. Thorough holidays, your favorite dessert, every reason to smile. You deserve it all.”

That feeling that’s been sitting in his chest, bubbling softly turns into a rolling boil, one he can no longer ignore. He reaches for your hand and pulls you close, a soft sound of surprise leaving you as he presses his lips to yours. You melt immediately, clutching at his shoulders as he licks into your mouth. While the kiss is overall gentle, there’s an undercurrent of hunger that’s obvious in the strength of his grip and insistence of his tongue. I’m the desperate whimper that slips from his throat and echoes into yours. He breaks the kiss eventually, resting his forehead against your own as your breaths mingle.

“The mistletoe is actually over there,” You whisper against his lips stupidly.

He looks at you with disbelief, mouth agape before determination materializes in his eyes. Moving you both to the mistletoe, he kisses you again, this time it’s softer and less heated.

“Better?”

“Honestly, I think I liked the one over there a—“

He cuts you off with another kiss, cupping your face in his hands. He kisses you. Kisses you and kisses you and kisses you, like it’s his job. Like it’s his dying wish and the grim reaper has come for you.

“As much as I love losing air in the name of sucking face, the pie’s gonna get cold and I made it just for you,” You mumble, running your hands up and down his chest.

“Don’t call it sucking face,” He grumbles, cheeks going pink as he lets you go.

You move towards your baked masterpiece, inhaling its sweet, cinnamon-y scent. “Snogging?”

He gives you an exasperated look, but you can see the way his lips twitch, the fondness in his gaze as he moves towards you.

“Kiss-a-rama? Lip Olympics? Lip-lock-a-doodle?” You muse, cutting a piece of pie for him and sliding him the plate.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“And all yours,” You murmur with a smug smile, cutting a piece of pie for yourself.

Aaron’s flush deepens as he takes his place at the counter again. When you join him, he pulls your stool closer to his, wrapping his arm around you as the two of you eat and talk and kiss. The warm domesticity and soft excitement in the air has him feeling like this could be home. You could be home. A tradition he could look forward to.

Further into the night, the two of you are curled up on your couch as always— yet another Christmas movie playing— instead this time you’re firmly planted in Aaron’s lap with his arms wrapped tightly around you.

“Aaron?”

“Hmm?” He hums, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“Let’s spend every Christmas together,” You suggest, as if you’d been reading his mind earlier.

He grins, raising his hand to your chin to pull you into a gentle kiss. “Yeah, let’s.”

cm taglist: @ssamorganhotchner, @hotchsdoormat, @lefthandedhotch, @heliotropehotch, @zetasaturno99, @ssa-montgomery, @moonshine-evelyn, @emlynblack, @wheelsupkels, @jaspxr, @gspenc, @sadgirlml, @hotchs-bitch, @wilbur-rabbit, @hotched, @greg-montgomery, @reidselle, @fightingdragonswithwho , @rousethemouse, @eternal-silvertongued-prince, @lesbianhotch

[badhabitscollection]

So Much (For) Blitz —An exclusive reveal of the star of Fall Out Boy’s latest album cover

Fall Out Boy’s latest effort So Much (For) Stardust) has been critically acclaimed and lauded by fans as some of their best work to date. The album artwork, prominently featuring a doberman, has left some puzzled and looking for additional context as to the dog’s identity and how the artwork came to be. The Bad Habits Collection is proud to bring you the exclusive reveal of the dog featured on the cover of their eighth studio album alongside the full story of how they were discovered.

— 

When Fall Out Boy officially announced their eighth studio album on January 18th, 2023 and unveiled the album artwork for So Much (For) Stardust, there were a lot of opinions to be had. Some of the fans immediately felt connected and claimed it as their own, some compared it to Fiona Apple’s 2020 release Fetch the Bolt Cutters, and some downright found it revolting. Overall, most agreed that it was polarizing to say the least. Donned in an all black background, the front cover features both the name of the band and the album itself in the work of Omar Mroz (hereinafter referred to by his online moniker Mr.Oz). The text is covered in glitter and written out in the same style featured earlier in the rollout of FOB8’s album cycle with A Claymation Fall Out Boy Celebration, dropped as a surprise present from the band on Christmas one month earlier. The headlining attraction of this sideshow was in fact just a simple square box, containing a swirling artistic depiction of a doberman barking in the presence of a froth of bubbles.

From the moment I first laid eyes on the iconography of Fall Out Boy’s new era, I had just two questions in mind: Who is the dog? & Why choose the dog? A few obvious possibilities were immediately ruled out. Solely based on what’s been posted to social media, this dog did not belong to Pete, Joe, or Andy. Patrick has remained dormant online for years at this point, but still the odds felt slim. I did my best to brush it off, but ultimately I kept coming back to the thought of WHY? If you’re familiar with my previous work on the history of Take This To Your Grave’s album cover, you already know this type of sentiment means a lot to me. After a while of waiting for the band to bring up the topic in an interview or statement, I had essentially given up hope on any type of official explanation. It was at this moment, just 3 days before the release of the record, that I accepted the reality of the situation. This wasn’t a hot topic within the fandom. And no one was going to provide me with the answers I was looking for. If I wanted to know more, it was solely up to me. So… I got to work. — 

To take a step back, the artwork for So Much (For) Stardust first hit the internet on January 11th, seven days before the official reveal. Posted alongside the name of the first single Love From The Other Side, our barking pup friend was featured on the home feed of FILTER | NEWs on VK, a Russian social media site that I’ve been told is comparable to Facebook. The artwork was watermarked with a subtle, transparent white logo for FILTER in the background. Despite this post being up for five days (a millennia on the worldwide web), it wasn’t until the 16th that the fandom at large made this discovery, with many claiming it was an outright fake.

However, the *stars* started to align proving this leak to have a dose or two of authenticity. Mr.Oz’s claymation video from earlier in the rollout followed the story of a similar looking doberman, who just so happened to pose in the final frame in a style strongly resembling the leaked cover. 

Beyond that, a post from lyricist and bassist Pete Wentz’s Instagram dating back just two days earlier was quickly dug up. On the 4th slide of the carousel, there it was: a selfie of Pete with a Santa hat on and propped up on the shelf behind him... the physical painting of the doberman seen on the leaked cover.

All but confirmed at this point, one last clue presented itself online. The freshly created Twitter account “@muchstardust” popped up out of nowhere, making itself known by following myself and a few other notable hardcore fans in this space. @muchstardust made just one single tweet before being suspended (for reasons unknown). 

The post featured three images, the watermarked cover, Pete’s selfie, and notably, a compressed form of the actual photo taken of man’s best friend —the same one the leaked cover features an oil painting rendition of. 

—  As we all know now, this leak was indeed real and confirmed as the album artwork just a few days later by Fall Out Boy themselves. But that’s when the trail went cold. Later promotional photos featuring the band and taken by their long time collaborator Pamela Littky included another doberman, but clearly not the same one once examined a bit closer. On March 21st, the Chicago rock group posted “What do you think the dog’s name is? 🫧”, but never followed up with the answer. It’s as if they were taunting me specifically with how vocal I had been about wanting to solve this mystery. Just before the album’s official release, I was tipped off by someone with an early copy of the CD that the liner notes of So Much (For) Stardust credit Safia Latif for the cover painting and Jen Patterson for the photograph the cover painting was based on. With new pieces of the puzzle in play, my search for the dog in question was reignited. However, my leads proved of little to no help. I could not get in touch with Safia and could not properly identify Jen Patterson online for the life of me. Taking the hunt back to the drawing board, I reverse image searched the photo @muchstardust had originally provided, which even at this point, months later, was our only source of the actual photograph. Littered with results of the album artwork naturally, I did come across one potential connection. Once again, I found myself on the public timeline of someone’s VK.com profile. “dextromethorpan 3” had included the same photograph in a gallery of different doberman puppies posted on December 21st, 2020. This was���something. Sure, this photo likely did not originate from the VK profile I had unearthed, but at least now I knew it had been around the web for a few years. Scratching my head, I wondered how Fall Out Boy had originally come across this image. Was it something that came up on one of their feeds? Or perhaps just a keyword search? Taking it to different forms of social media, I found a potential match on the /r/doberman subreddit posted 10 months ago. Titled “Cool pic of us playing with bubbles”, the dobie in question featured strikingly similar features and color patterns, and was of course, playing with bubbles. 

So I did what any other sane fan would do… and sent a private message to the Redditor the night before the album dropped with Jen’s photograph. “/u/drc55555” responded Saturday morning agreeing that the dog did look a lot like their own, but that they didn’t recognize the photograph. I woke up in a cold sweat seeing the glimpse of the Reddit notification on my iPhone and replied informing them of the cover of Fall Out Boy’s brand new release and asking if the user was the Jen Patterson credited in the album’s booklet. A day later, they replied once again noting that they weren’t Jen, but that this has sparked a memory of another DM they had received in the fall of last year from an Elektra Records personnel, Fueled By Ramen’s distributor who Fall Out Boy had publicly rejoined the roster of just this January. Indeed, 200 days ago from this very conversation, a marketing representative from the label had reached out to the Redditor through the same platform letting them know that an artist they work with had come across the very same photo I myself found and that the artist had fallen in love with it, hoping to use it as part of the artwork for an upcoming project. /u/drc55555 had conceded that they regretted not responding at the thought of how their dog could have become famous. This is when I knew, I was HOT on the trail. Either a member of FOB discovered this photo of their dog while scrolling Reddit or had specifically sought out the same search terms as me, which meant the actual photograph used on the cover could have potentially been found through the very same method. My search accelerated and within a few hours I had run a variety of similar terms by Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, really any social media site I could get my hands on. Nothing had come up, but I hadn’t called it a day quite yet as one of the more obvious sites remained: Instagram. Heading to the explore page I have barely used in my own time on the platform, I typed in the same keywords that brought me to the pup’s uncanny match on Reddit: “doberman bubbles”. And there it was, exactly 60 rows down, right in the center, the original image of the dog I had been looking for all along along with an alternate photo of the same dog in the next slide in the same setting captioned “BUBBLES!!!!!”, posted —you guessed it, in 2020. 

—  With this case officially closed, I’m beyond stoked to introduce Blitz the Doberman to other fans of Fall Out Boy. At the time of publication, Blitz has 12.8k followers on his public Instagram account, which lead me to question how this match hadn’t already been made. Blitz’s bio reveals he was born on February 27th, 2019 and lives in Las Vegas with his human, one Jen Patterson.

In a beautiful twist of fate, within the hour of finishing the final draft of this piece, Blitz’s humans responded to my inquiry from earlier in the week. I spoke with Jen at length who was happy to share her story exclusively with The Bad Habits Collection. Similarly to the Redditor from earlier, a marketing rep from Elektra Records had reached out to her through Instagram on September 20th, 2022 inquiring about using a picture of her pup for one of their artists’ work, a message she initially regarded as spam. Eventually, she came to an agreement with Elektra, however, this story ended there for her. Up until Jen read the direct message I sent to Blitz’s account, she had not the slightest idea that he was featured on the cover of the new album of one of the biggest modern rock bands left in the world. I was shocked to hear this, but Jen on the other hand was incredibly excited to learn of the breaking news. I shared a photo with her of her name printed in the liner notes of So Much (For) Stardust, a cool moment for us both. Jen told me “I never considered myself a photographer, but that’s amazing!” When I asked about how Blitz already had such a huge following on Instagram, she told me all about how she’s networked with others in a doberman group and has kept a steady stream of posts coming on the daily. In discussion of what she’d like for others to take away from this article, Jen simply hoped others would get to know Blitz’s name —my entire goal of this investigation all along. Half-joking, she expressed that she’d also love to have gotten her hands on some merchandise with his face on it. Infinitely grateful for her responding to my DM and taking the time to talk with me, I’ve personally sent Jen physical copies of So Much (For) Stardust in both vinyl and CD format. I’ll be sure to update this write-up with a photo of FOB’s newest mascot posing with his album cover when they arrive! Closing out our conversation, Jen let me know that she “felt like if you hadn’t reached out, we would not have known.” To be honest, there were times in this journey that I thought it might be for the best if I gave up the search for this pup as to not invade anyone’s privacy. I figured if Blitz hadn’t already made himself known publicly, maybe there was a specific reason behind not doing so. I would have never guessed that reason was because his family were simply unaware of his new-found fame. I feel honored to have been the one to share this discovery with Blitz’s owners and again want to thank them for their contributions to this piece. Jen has also graciously shared the original photograph of Blitz the cover was based on in its full resolution, uncropped:

— 

After scouring the internet to to uncover this story, it all leads me to just one final question: Why Blitz? What’s the connection? Moreover, what’s the intended meaning here? Jen let me know that she herself was unaware of how and why the photograph was found and selected, but we can naturally draw our own conclusions. Discussing this topic with other longtime fans of the band, all have come to the same conclusion that Fall Out Boy’s latest effort features some of Pete’s bleakest lyrics in a long time paired somehow ever so perfectly with some of Patrick’s most uplifting and dance-worthy melodies to date. As my partner pointed out, the album artwork depicts a breed known for their usage as guard dogs with a tough exterior, but shown playing lightheartedly with what’s usually associated as a child’s toy. In the words of fellow Fall Out Boy historian and Bad Habits Collection collaborator Tommy McPhail, the cover displays “the epitome of boundless joy and simplified bliss amongst chaos”, a phrase that perfectly sums up the entire feeling artistically and masterfully expressed in So Much (For) Stardust in my own eyes. Fall Out Boy’s newest full-length studio record So Much (For) Stardust, produced by the legendary Neal Avron, is one of their strongest statement pieces in years and is now available everywhere music is streamed or sold. You can follow Blitz’s adventures on Instagram: @blitzdoberman —  “The kind of pain you feel to get good in the end. Inscribed like stone and faded by the rain: ‘Give up what you love before it does you in.’” Written by Alex Toor for The Bad Habits Collection

[bethpencilart]

Have some sketches I made the last couple of months since discovering Moral Orel

I did some doodles before this to learn how to draw Orel and this was my first attempt at drawing him in my style. I also drew Christina.

I love Stephanie, so I made a page dedicated to her. The flag is supposed to be the lesbian flag. I decided that I should also draw some of the other adult characters. From left to right: Bloberta, Clay, Reverend Putty, Miss Censordoll, Principal Fakey, and Miss Sculptham. I had a theme with the right page, the adults of Moralton that should be role models for Orel but constantly let him down /lh

Adult Swim canceling this show is my Roman Empire. They really canceled it before the main character could go through his entire arc. I made these design mainly to work on something else, but I'm happy to have made them. I have definitely been inspired by other designs fans have made, but I did try to be original. Also made one for Christina! She's kinda inspired by pastel goth cause I imagine her parents are more strict and wouldn't let her wear traditional goth attire. She's probably already pushing the line.

Finally, some OCs I made. I'm sorry. First two are friends for Christina, I wanted to do something more then make a female Doughy and I had fun making them. The second is an OC I designed for a fic that is currently a wip. Yes, I did have a fun time creating the punny names.

Laika Lyukanida is Christina's childhood best friend. She is a second-generation Russian-American, her grandfather defected the USSR and moved to the US. I wrote that he was KGB, but I'm thinking that him being a spy makes more sense. I thought it would be funny for her to quote her grandfather sometimes and it being obvious that the quote was about his previous work, but neither her or Christina recognize it.

She is more resistant to Christina's chaotic plans, but she always finds herself working on them anyway. She has an interest in science and is often sneaking in the library against her family's wishes. As she grows older, she probably becomes more agnostic but keeps it a secret. Her first name is mainly a reference to the claymation studio, but I imagine in universe she was named after the dog that made it to space. Her last name is a reference to an old stop motion film from Russia.

Komugi Nendo Jingorō is Christina's friend who has a friendly rivalry on who's the better Christian. She is unfortunately very aware of how much her and her family are outcasts due to being Japanese in a mostly white protestant town. Christina and Laika are her closest friends due to them being more accepting of her. Laika understands what it's like for her name to be constantly mispronounced and relates to her. Christina's parents, much like Orel's, are racist and she has to keep their friendship a secret from them.

Her first and middle name is a reference to flour clay. It's a type of clay that children play with, and I thought it would be a cute name for a kid character. Her last name is both a reference to an old Japanese artist known for working with clay, and a reference to a stop motion short film that is about the same guy.

Will Plasticine is a gay florist in Christina's hometown. He grew up there, and when he turned 18, he ran away from his parents to go to college out of state. He met Stephanie there and they immediately became friends due to them being able to relate with growing up closeted in a very religious environment. She made one of her first tattoos on him, a pink triangle on his upper arm. He opened a shop in his hometown once he finished college, but he still has contact with Stephanie and sometimes they visit each other.

His first name isn't a pun or a reference, his last name is a reference to material used for claymation, especially earlier on. I thought it would be funny to make him a florist to Stephanie's tattoo artist, ie the florist and tattoo artist au thing. Obviously it's not romantic, they're just good friend. I imagine he has a story that parallels the episode, "The Blessed Union", where Christina hears a sermon about how wives should treat their husbands and she becomes curious on what husbands should do for their wives and she ends up in his shop.

[password-door-lock]

Unknown gives you a blank look. “Say that again.” He’s not shy about asking you for clarification when he needs it, nor is he embarrassed about lacking the context for whatever you’re planning to yap about. Unknown has learned since meeting you that you’re the one who’s strange for knowing so much about so many useless things, apparently including obscure Yuletide lore that has never been relevant to the Savior’s Christmas Day sermons. 

“Sure.” You shrug, evidently accustomed to odd requests from your employer. You’re not half as pliant as the believers are— you’re prone to snide remarks, and occasionally, you even argue with him— but ultimately, you are loyal to Unknown. “I asked if Santa and Rudolph had been here yet. It was a joke, boss.”

“Who the fuck is Rudolph?” Unknown has heard about Santa, of course, and he feels it should go without saying that the bastard is not welcome at Magenta. The sheer idea of a man who picks and chooses which children are worthy of receiving gifts is antithetical to the very project of the Mint Eye. But Unknown has other concerns at the moment. He’s never heard of this Rudolph person before, but if they go along with Santa, then they can’t be good news.

Granted, if they go along with Santa, then they’re probably not even real, but Unknown is nevertheless annoyed. He didn’t dress up in his holiday finest and spend all night working just so he could waste this morning cleansing your false faiths.

 “You don’t know about Rudolph? God, where do I even start?”

“Stop beating around the bush.” Unknown doesn’t have all day, after all, and he had hoped to give you your present sooner rather than later.

“Okay,” you pause for a moment, presumably— hopefully— to collect your thoughts before answering his question in a succinct and accurate manner. “Rudolph is one of Santa’s reindeer. He has a glowing red nose, so he was bullied as a kid, but then one year, it was foggy on Christmas, so Santa couldn’t see, and he was like, ‘hey, Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?’ and Rudolph said yes, but I’ve always kind of wondered if saying no was even an option for him. Like, do the reindeer live on their own and they just contract with Santa as freelancers, or are they his employees, like the elves? I can’t remember if the movie goes into it.” 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, your monologue has left Unknown with more questions than answers. He has no idea what to do with the information he’s just gleaned. “What’s a reindeer?” He asks. 

“Okay, bro, whoever taught you about Christmas did a seriously shit job,” you proclaim, “Reindeer are like— so, they actually exist, they live in… cold places, I guess? I don’t know. But they’re a real type of deer that you could actually go see in real life.”

“And… their noses glow?” Unknown is baffled. How could an animal like that really exist? 

“No,” you assure him, “They also don’t really fly, but in stories about Santa, he has a whole team of them pulling his sleigh. You’ve really never heard of reindeer? Ever?”

“Where would I hear about something like that?” Unknown demands. He finds it beyond doubtful that the Savior would ever have bothered to educate him about any animal, and that redhead never told Unknown the whole truth in his life. It would make sense that he’d be hiding something big, even about that made-up bastard Santa Claus. 

“Okay, well, I know how we’re spending Christmas morning,” you announce, like you have any say in the matter. Sometimes, Unknown wonders if you have any idea what it means to be his assistant, after all. “First, I’ll show you how to pirate the old claymation movie about Rudolph. That’s a classic.”

“Claymation?” It’s like you’re speaking a foreign language. 

“Man, have you never been outside before?” You ask, with a cute little laugh, “It’s a kind of stop-motion where they splice the film together from a bunch of pictures of clay figures. You’ll see when we watch it. Anyway, let’s also pirate some kind of documentary about reindeer. I’m sure there’s something like that out there, or at least… Arctic animals? But I don’t know if Reindeer live in the arctic. They might live in the woods.”

“You’re getting bossy,” Unknown warns, though he can’t hide his fond smile.

“I’m educating you,” you counter, looking equally fond.

Unknown goes along with your plan. He’s in a giving mood today, which is very seasonally appropriate and besides— he wants to learn more about reindeer. 

[creepypastalover97]

Hey everyone!

So I'm ordering some art materials soon so I can start working on some claymation dolls for sonic animations. But I'm only could get so much material right now, so I can only make five dolls right now. So I need some opinions on which characters I should make first.

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

'90s MV of the day

Southbound Pachyderm by Primus

Released in 1995 on Tales from the Punchbowl. Directed by Les Claypool and Raub Shapiro. The painstaking process of stop-motion photography meant this video took six weeks to create, with each day of work only generating six to ten seconds of imagery.

There is actually another MV for this song, which was only included in the Enhanced CD version of the album; you can view it here!

from our voters: "I love love LOOOVE claymation!!!! And this one is so fun to me the characters have strong designs and the animals in particular are cute. I kinda want to nominate every Primus video but after much consideration I decided to go with this one"

[ducktracy]

The California Raisins reference makes me so happy! I love the California Raisins and works of Will Vinton in general. Meet The Raisins and Raisins Sold Out in particular are amazing Claymation specials and I highly recommend checking them out.

(context!)

AW YAY!!! i'm so glad to hear this! funnily enough, i was just at an antique emporium with my mom this past weekend, saw some California Raisins toys and brought up how we got to reference them... i'm excited to check these out, thank you for the recommendations!! i've been watching a bit of Pee-wee's Playhouse lately (got hooked on the Christmas special which is both a) VERY GOOD and b) one of the campiest and gayest things i've had the fortune to witness... the unsubtle messaging of Pee-wee being barraged with fruitcake and then having two hunky construction builders who look like rejects from The Village People building a wing entirely out of fruitcake.. it's so good), so stop motion and claymation has certainly been on the old noggin lately.

thank you so much for the recs! your passion for stop motion and puppetry always makes me so happy!!

[yuri-is-online]

Did you have any thoughts on how Twst just broke the pattern of only using 2D content as bases for story, events, and characters? That opens up a whole new selection of Disney movies now that it aren’t actually confined to just referencing 2D.

Eh not really? At first when I was thinking of crack ideas I did consider Nightmare Before Christmas a bit far fetched because of that, but since it's technically a claymation movie and not traditional 3d I'm not as surprised. I'd be more shocked if we saw something like say, Pirates of the Caribbean or one of the Pixar movies. I don't know how influential the movie is in Japan but Nightmare before Christmas was a huge deal when I was a kid growing up, on the same level as all of the movies Twisted Wonderland has already used for events if not more.

I think the idea with twst is to reach for the more "classic" properties so if we did see a 3d event I'd expect something based on something like Toy Story before say Big Hero 6. There's a bunch of 2d movies they haven't worked their way through yet either like Treasure Planet, Atlantis, the Black Culdron, Peter Pan, the Great Mouse Detective, and they could always go back to the Haunted Mansion too. Nightmare Before Christmas is just a stupid obvious choice for a Halloween event, 3d or not, and it has a lot of options for costumes that aren't as present in say a Peter Pan themed event.

That was a lot of nothing but uh TL:DR I'm not super surprised this event is happening nor do I think it means much for twst using 3d movies for events. I could always be wrong though so we shall see.

[azquine]

Randomly thinking about the prospect of an Avatar: the Last Airbender and Community crossover where everything is pretty much the same, but there is bending.

I don't think anyone would be spectacular, considering that this would be a community college, and there is not much need to weaponise bending here.

Honestly I think Jeff would absolutely have very weak bending that he never bothers to use. In fact, I think he'd prefer the idea of being a non-bender than someone with such weak bending, so that's what he pretends to be. That way he can come across as someone who has entirely gotten along without bending, who doesn't need it. I think he would have inherited the same element as his father, and his mother has a different element to him. Either way, his parents were far more proficient at bending than himself, which causes a little more insecurity to cover up. As for which element? I'm not sure, I could be swayed towards any. Maybe fire?

Abed is 100% a water bender to me, and I think he'd be pretty good. I can imagine him practicing alone here and there as something to focus on in his lonely teen years. He's well versed in using it for basic utilitarian tasks in the Falafel restaurant, and he's spent some hours moving little water figures in recreations of movie scenes. I can also see him finding a book to teach himself healing from. It's a way to be useful, needed. A way to protect himself and keep himself out of the doctors office. Bending is a pretty private thing for him though, he doesn't necessarily like to show it off. For most of the first year the group assumes him to be a non-bender as he never mentions it, up until one day when someone asks if he can fetch their water bottle from the other side of the room, and Abed casually sends it flying into his hand with no explanation. He's not really used to using his bending on others, so he doesn't really have any combative capabilities, his father always looked down on the idea of using something so spiritual to harm others. It can get pretty tricky when he's overwhelmed though, as he has a habit of accidentally freezing any water around him. The room was ice cold during the claymation episode. Troy has a habit of always making sure he has a water bottle, something to have on hand for Abed if he needs, and a literal temperature gauge for if he's okay.

Shirley is absolutely an earth bender, and while she mostly uses it for catching falling children and items in a hectic household, she also has the best fighting capability. She can and has hit a motherfucker with a rock in her less patient days. Other common uses are to quite literally put a wall between her and someone who has offended her, or to stop someone from walking away from her mind lecture by snagging their foot. It's one of the few tools of power she actually has, and so she keeps a tight fist on it.

Peirce is a Firebender from a long line of 'pure blooded' Firebenders. He boasts a lot about his skill, and he is pretty good at making flashy displays, but there is more light than heat. He also has no real control over those big flames, so it's just as well that his fire is toothless.

Britta is also a non-bender, though she tries to practice the meditative practices of each element. This is something Jeff sneers upon, as 'why would you bother doing the boring stuff for elements you can't even bend?'. I'm assuming she has at least some Airbender lineage in her family that she's pretty proud of, though probably not her parents themselves.

Troy I'm not entirely sure of, again I could be swayed by any of them. I mean, AIR conditioning, fire has to do with temperature, earth has metal bending for pipes, water is what makes air conditioning and plumbing work. It could be any. Either way, it's something that he has a rather natural grip of rather than something he has to study or meditate on. It's something that intuitively assists in whatever he's doing, like football or repair. I don't think he does bending for its own sake very often, it's more something supplemental for other activities.

Annie naturally has a lot of trouble with the more intuitive and spiritual aspects of bending. Her brain fires off thoughts too quickly to clear it and focus on the elements. But she is a quick student for the more skill based aspects of bending, of what hand placements and movement speeds she should be doing. As for which element, I'm leaning towards water, though I can see fire also working. Something changeable and emotional, though it's hard for her to lean into that.

Idk, let me know if you have any thoughts. I'd love to talk about this!

[kozachenko]

So the piece below has a bunch of really saturated and bright colours so I'm gonna put an Eyestrain warning just in case, also spoilers for Touhou 19

{Artist Notes}:

Hisami Yomotsu, our first FRUITY touhou character!

... I'll see myself out now...

With this piece, there were a lot of things I wanted to keep in mind. First of all, Hisami kinda has the same vibes as a villain from an indie claymation film for kids (oddly specific I know), what I'm trying to say here is that I took some inspiration from the Other Mother from Coraline. I know that Hisami doesn't show her eyes all that much, but I had a really cool idea for them and tbh the piece doesn't hit the same without a full view of her face so I just wanted to have fun with this one. I'm kinda sad about how her dress turned out, mainly the shape, maybe I'm overthinking it but it doesn't feel like the original dress, I'll have to get better at learning how to draw those types of dresses lol. I still like how the pattern looks tho. I wanted to go for a very surreal vibe for this piece, so I went all out on the colours. Flourescent greens, vibrant blues and purples, the works. I wanted it to feel like she's chasing you down and this is the moment where you freeze up and she catches you. Also, after learning about her mythological inspirations, I think I ended up bring back the "hag" element lol!

[zel-shadedreviews]

This is the very first feature-length movie by Aardman Animations; after their short movies with Wallace and Gromit, and television shows such as Rex the Runt and Morph, Peter Lord and Nick Park finally gave us this.

The film takes place on a chicken farm where the poultry prisoners plan to escape their confinement and experience the wildlife. Led by Ginger, the chickens constantly fail, while under the eyes of the Tweedy farmers and their guard dogs. One night, Mrs. Tweedy devises a new plan in order to increase their income by making chicken pies with a machine. When Ginger begins to lose hope, she witnesses a flying rooster that escaped from the circus, where he crash-lands into their farm and sparks a deal with her to help them all fly, or so he thinks.

This movie is one of the staples of Aardman Animations, right beside the Wallace and Gromit shorts, containing a mixture of their excellent writing and dark humour. What I mostly love is the premise of a chicken farm portrayed as a depressing concentration camp with the farmers as their wardens, even to the point of homaging The Great Escape. The recurring joke of learning how to fly does enormously take flight in the middle point, focusing on Rocky’s influence on the chickens, before we are thrown into another source that establishes as the final climax, bringing a larger layer of thrilling threat. The climax I especially remember being the highlight of the film with a chicken coop-constructed airplane that’s chocked with a handful of gags, some even pulled from Star Trek.

As for its comedy, Aardman knew how to add a mixture of family-friendly one-liners, visual gags and even some dark humour now and then. You do have some that take the extra mile such as a knitted noose, but then the mood immediately picks up with comedic situations involving the scatterbrained hens. I wouldn’t go as far as saying the movie was that dark, but it earned a solid PG rating when it knew how to take the curtain off now and then.

The animation for an Aardman movie is something worth talking about, as they’re the masters when it comes to animating claymation. I liked how each individual design is present on the chickens, mainly from how their neck would have a necklace or a scarf; this was to hide their head seams and works well to tell each of them apart. At first, the chickens may look creepy at first with their humanised heads and teeth, but they’re designed to look as uncanny from avians and have that classic Aardman charm. With Aardman’s focus on the foreground, they don’t give up on their backgrounds especially, adding layers of life towards its gloomy plantation and the rollercoaster of hazardous gears within the pie-making machine.

Aardman Animations is one of my favourite companies as they know how to do their work without a sign of a single fingerprint anywhere else. Seeing this sort of quality makes me appreciate on far they’ve come from the eighties and after their first projects.

The characters are also fun to watch where the main star is Ginger the sensible leader who has an eager wish to escape the game and find out freedom for the flock. With the mindset of thinking outside of the box, Ginger stops at nothing, attempting to find anyway to find various ways out of the farm and you see how much she does care for her brethren. Even when she loses all hope, she picks herself up again and proposes a better alternative, no matter what the cost. Julia Sawalha kept a firm yet likeable voice for this character.

Rocky’s a laidback character with the demeanour of a cocky American slacker, showing up as the flock’s idolised saviour, only that he bares a deep secret that plays a part near the ending. Surprisingly, this was one of the few roles of Mel Gibson that I actually didn’t mind, where his voice fitted the overall character.

You have the side-characters who are share their individual personalities: I liked the brains of the team, Mac, with her thick Scottish accent; the boisterous muscle of the group, Bunty; the rambling retired colonel Fowler and my favourite being the knitting airhead, Babs, who always had to make a line at the wrong time. Seriously, the latter had the greatest line in the entire movie; “I don’t want to be a pie! I don’t like gravy.” There’s also the scheming Nick and halfwitted Fletcher, two hustling rats that appear every now and then to assist the chickens in their aid of need in exchange for eggs.

The villains are fantastic, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy who are the owners of the farm. Mrs. Tweedy is the central villain with a tight control over the farm, making sure every chicken lays their eggs otherwise its soups on for the failing type. By the end, the farmer decreases into an axe-wielding murderer, hungry for chicken flesh and larger profits, while not even caring that her own poultry has constructed an entire flying machine. Above all, she constantly berates her dim-witted husband for acting like himself, even if he’s the one who sees the truth. I also like how dull Mr. Tweedy can be, yet he’s the suspicious type and manages to build an advanced pie-making machine from scratch. What’s pretty interesting is that they never refer to each-other by their first name despite being a couple. The fates with Mrs. Tweedy was satisfying to watch, where a mad monster on the loose met her match with her own plan backfiring in her face.

This is hailed as a classic and I can’t even say anything else to express my love for this movie. Not even the sequel can change my verdict on how this holds up as a masterpiece.

Final Rating: A

9/10

[libra-cant-just-dance]

Time for my preview thoughts again!!!

Since you all asked so nicely /j

Whenever, Wherever: Yesssss!!! Nice-looking map, choreo looks fun. Perfect song for just Dance. Love the coach's pants

Sleigh Ride: Cute! I'll probably play it like once but just like all the recent claymation maps, they did a great job. Wish the coach was more expressive? That's really my only complaint though.

Move Your Body: Hm. Okay. Yeah I'll probably only play it once for completion's sake. I really like the background on this one but the coach is weird. They could've used that background with regular coaches?

Stop This Fire: I like this one! The coach's dress looks SO cool. The background is a liiiittle confusing but it's not bad? Choreo looks fun, I think I'm really gonna like this one when the game comes out.

You Love Who You Love: Yesyesyessss!!!! LOVE the coach's outfit!! And the background! So many little nods to Eva Chase and things to zoom in on! Duet with her and Eva WHEN. I need this enemies to lovers story. Honestly not sure how much I'll enjoy playing it because the choreo isn't my favorite? But we'll see!

Exes: I'm biased to not like things that are sports-themed, but I gotta admit this one looks pretty cool! Love the effects and vibe of the background. The hologram floor? Ooh I'm getting ideas. Coach's outfit is kinda funky and the choreo looks like it'll be fun once I actually learn it enough to follow along (IF I learn it enough to follow along). Boo sports but I'll give it a shot. I'm seeing people say this is the Hot For Me Coach? The only similarity I'm really seeing is sort of the color scheme and the fact that it's sports but idk

Basket Case (Bathtub Version): Weird choice of a concept for this song but it kinda works? The background is cute. Idk how I feel about the choreo though, I'm not really vibing with it and I feel like it doesn't match the song that well.

[bi-buckrights]

Seven (+) Sentence Sunday

Thanks for the tags y'all @monsterrae1 @rogerzsteven @bekkachaos @disasterbuckdiaz @thewolvesof1998 ✨

Started a little Christmas fic featuring an airport meetcute, hoping to have it done sometime soon 🎄

“I’m sorry, sir,” she says again. The man leans against the counter, his eyes darting down to her nametag for just a moment. “Listen, Marcy.” He bats his eyes at her and a blush rises to her cheeks. Goddamn, this guy is charming. “Don’t you think we could work together to make a little Christmas miracle happen here? Get this guy home to his son?” For a moment Eddie thinks she might actually do it; he wonders if those deep blue eyes could make anyone do anything. But then she seems to shake herself from her daze, standing up tall and clearing her throat. “The gate is closed. There’s nothing I can do.” She looks at Eddie, a flash of pity crossing over her face. “And thank you for your service.” Eddie wants to scream. He doesn’t want to be thanked for his service; he wants to see his son. He wants to be there when Christopher wakes up in the morning to make his Christmas wish come true, he wants to sit on the couch and watch the old Rudolph Claymation film that Chris loves so much, and he wants to hold his son in his arms and forget the all the pain of the past year. All the energy leaves Eddie’s body in that moment, the adrenaline that carried him through the airport receding like the ocean, twenty-five hours of travel finally crashing over him like the tidal wave that follows.

Tagging @hippolotamus @spotsandsocks @hoodie-buck @loserdiaz @wildlife4life @giddyupbuck @heartshapedvows @eddiebabygirldiaz @spaceprincessem