#god I’m so glad the hype train has finally set off!

[hegodamask]

From Varada’s instagram story

[star-scrambled]

OKAY!! Recollecting my thoughts is SO HARD RIGHT NOW cause the limited information that’s here is doing NUMBERS on my theories oh my GOD!!

So! I’m about to share the most notable content in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Mad Libs book, the only new book release that entails any kind of spoilers! (NOTE: IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE MINOR SPOILERS OF ANY KIND DON’T READ AHEAD. IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE SPOILER TAGS LISTED BELOW FILTERED ID RECOMMEND YOU DO SO.)

To clear the air a little for those who want some clarity on how major these spoilers are: You won’t find ANY unexpected surprises. It doesn’t go into any detail about events assumed to happen a lot later in the film, such as Sonic running on the ocean, Robotnik’s huge robot, the tornado (not the plane but the actual one), etc. All the hype, high-stakes content is completely unmentioned. HOWEVER, you will find a lot of small spoilers vaguely describing some background information on Tails and Knuckles, amongst other potential plot points and details. It’s also important to note that, like the first movie’s Mad Libs book, some of this potentially isn’t addressed or occurs in the film! Still, if you’re highly sensitive to spoilers, I would recommend not proceeding, but if you’re cool with some new details, feel free to stick around!

I’m gonna summarize as best as possible and save some of the content that’s. REALLY itching my theory brain for last! Yippee! HERE WE GO:

- Knuckles IS the last of his race

- Knuckles’ destiny is to protect the Master Emerald, an ancient relic of his clan

- He’s been training since birth lol what a badass

- Knuckles’ abilities are listed off, which don’t include gliding, so I’m lead to believe it’s been retconned

- Ozzie the dog is potentially still at home with Sonic

- Tails is LITERALLY THE COOLEST. We obviously can’t assume he does all this, but according to this book he has the potential to invent things such as a device that can communicate with people in other dimensions, a contraption that scans a person to find out if they’re an ally or enemy, a tool that can translate Russian, etc.!

- Stobotnik page. Not as juicy as Stone’s diary thing from the 1st Mad Libs, nor does it include any new information, but it’s what it sounds like. It acknowledges Robotnik’s fake “Stone” from the end of the first film, “because clearly Robotnik couldn’t *verb* without him.”

- Tails owns the Tornado! Though it’s not referred to by name

- Wasn’t there a set leak tweet discussing dog sleds or something? Cause there’s a mention of it here that seems familiar

- Sonic and Tails go to a Tavern, as seen in the first trailer

- Mentions of a dance-off?? It’s super ambiguous, but I’ll share the most interesting details. One point mentions creating holograms, so this probably doesn’t apply to Tom and Maddie at the wedding. There’s also a mention of “having a dispute with a friend or a/an *noun*”

- Prior to meeting Sonic, Tails had heard stories about him! Tails idolized him and was excited to finally meet his idol when he found Sonic, expressing that he wants to be just like him when he grows up 🥺

- Sonic’s really excited about making a new friend!! He’s really flattered by Tails’ idolization, and thus agrees to take him under his wing 😭💖

- Also, the text mentions Sonic being glad to find a friend “his own age”. The assumption is that Tails is (obviously) still fairly younger than him, and by that he just meant hanging out with another kid and not adults all the time

- No new juicy info about ring portals, but I love the increased emphasis on it in the sequel that numerous sources such as this one are hinting at!!

- GUN (Guardian Units of Nations) is established!! Otherwise nothing too significant, but it’s cool! Then again, there could be game references I’m missing in this, so feel free to hmu for more info if ur itching for it!

- Knuckles training sequence page is here. Nothing major, not really interesting or telling of anything at all, but could hint to a scene like this in the film?

Okay. That’s most of the major stuff outta the way! Time to get into some things that made me audibly freak out in the store LMFAO

- AHHHHHHH AHAHAHHAHA IM SO HAPPY THE THEORIES THAT LONGCLAW AND THE ECHIDNA ARE ALIVE IN THE PRESENT DAY ARE FINALLY DEBUNKED!!!!!!! STUFF WENT DOWN BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SO HAPPY YIPPEE THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE ITS ALL COMING TOGETHERRRRR

- Some more context is included for Sonic stopping that crime at the beginning of the first trailer! My theory about him sneaking out of the house at night to do that is CORRECT YIPPEE! Same goes for Tom being the more strict parent in comparison to Maddie, who wants him to understand that Sonic can handle himself. I ABSOLUTELY believe this is going to lead to Maddie suggesting Tom talks to him father-son style, which cues the fishing scene the next morning!

- MY SONIC MONTAGE SCENE PREDICTION IS ALSO CORRECT?? He’s gonna do a BUNCH of fun stuff during the day, and then at night he’s unwinding with a movie (and popcorn ofc lol)! BUT what matters here is that it will SPECIFICALLY be an action/superhero movie!! And THAT ADDS TO MY PREDICTION PERFECTLY!! I’m praying we get a minute with Sonic just. Watching the film and longing for that life of helping others and being a “true hero”. I want the main character of what he’s watching to say a line that sticks with him throughout the rest of the movie’s events, a quote that at first benefits the hero image Sonic is striving for, but slowly twists into something that encourages TOO MUCH sacrifice on Sonic’s part for his family along with black-and-white thinking when it comes to him wanting to beat “the bad guys”, including Knuckles, who he’ll learn that doesn’t apply to.

And so we’ve reached it. The Power of Family page.

- Longclaw is mentioned, but not in any new information or appearances! Just a recall of her sending Sonic to Earth through a ring portal to protect him (the sentence goes on as “protect him from the *plural noun*” which could obviously go for the Echidna or generally other “war lords” out to get him)

- Sonic puts Tails on the same familial level as Tom and Maddie!!!!!!!!!!

- Vague references to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles’ team up ensues!

- So that’s all REALLY CUTE and telling of the message this movie’s gonna deliver, right? Yes! But. There’s one part that I had to read over multiple times before it’s implications hit me and my angsty theory heart like a truck.

- “In fact, when Sonic saved *first name* from danger, he began to understand that family can be more than the *plural noun* that you live and *verb* with. A family includes any *noun* that you would do anything to protect.”

- Now, at first you might think this could be referring to Tails, and I would do the same! It makes complete sense and, hey, I’d be surprised if this didn’t happen between the two of them. But, upon further inspection...this could apply to not just him?

- This sentence comes directly after this one: “But then he met Tom and Maddie Wachowski and a young two-tailed fox from his home planet, and guess what? Sonic didn’t feel so lonely anymore.” He already mentioned Tails’ impact on him, so where’s the sense in him having a different realization straight after?

- So what if he’s talking about Knuckles.

I want to keep going from there but my brains going to erupt if I proceed any further. What if he’s talking about saving Knuckles. He probably isn’t but like What If He Is. Knuckles teaming up with Sonic and Tails is ALREADY vaguely mentioned at the end of this same page, like I said before, so if he’s not a part of the prior message than why is he referenced suddenly. What if he’s talking abo

[griffintail]

Okay this is just a small thing that you don't have to do, just an idea but like. What do you think their reactions would be to wolf hybrid!Child reader going Rabid on a skeleton that tried to hurt their dad.

I hope you enjoy! ♥

In Game, Reader is 10

Pairings:  Platonic! Parental! Tommy, Wilbur, Philza, Technoblade, Eret, and Dream x F! Child! Wolf Hybrid! Reader

Warnings: Fighting of Mobs

        TommyInnit

        Hyped

        Tommy loved bringing (Y/N) everywhere he went, much to everyone’s dismay her whole life.

        Their dismay lessened once (Y/N) was able to actually learn how to fight. With her added perks of being part wolf and her father being a decent fighter, she wasn’t half bad for only being ten.

        Today, the pair were out trying to get (Y/N) her first disc. Sure, she had her father’s she shared with him but she wanted her own, which made Tommy so proud of her. Together they struck out into the world and went searching for a few ruined temples and such.

        “We only got a few diamonds so far.” (Y/N) huffed, her ears flat on top of her head after they searched their third temple.

        “None of that now!” Tommy tried to cheer her up. “It took me ages to find my first disc. We’ll find one for you. And having a few diamonds isn’t too bad either! We can use them to try and scam a few items from people.”

        (Y/N)’s tail wagged at her father’s words. “Yeah! We’ll find one! And if you’re going to do more scams with Uncle Tubbo can I join?”

        “Of course! That’s the spirit!” He ruffled her hair between her ears as they went to find a new place to loot.

        Night was slowly creeping up on them when they found a new abandoned building.

        “Alright, it’s dark inside and it’s late. So, get your shield and sword ready.” Tommy told her.

        She nodded, taking her shield off her back as Tommy went in first, shield up and sword at the ready. Following in after him with her shield, her ears twitched as she listened. Tommy walked forward when (Y/N) heard the pulling off a bow. Before she could warn him, Tommy yelped as an arrow snagged his bandana and tore it as it went by.

         He whipped around to defend himself when (Y/N) snarled, launching herself into the skeleton.

        The monster was barely able to hold itself together and got no chance to respond to the attack as the child used her sword to cut off its head. Tommy stood in surprise as (Y/N)’s ears twitched and her tail straight as she growled tearing the rest of the bones apart.

        “Holy shit!” He exclaimed finally, (Y/N) jumping as she looked at him. “That was fucking awesome!”

        She knelt on the ground for a moment with a bone in her hand, watching him before grinning and her tail wagged quickly.

        “Really?”

        “Of course! My training for you has really worked!” He grinned as helped her up. “Let’s go own more shit!”

        “Yeah!” She bounced putting the bone in her hand in her bag to gnaw on later.

        Tommy had her listen first this time and together they took out any other mobs.

        In the end, Tubbo screamed as Tommy slammed his door open with (Y/N) on his shoulders, practically howling while holding a disc in celebration. It was just an average adventure.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Wilbur

        Worried but proud

        Oh look, Wilbur has another animal child, who would be surprised?

        After the war, L’Manberg had become a mostly peaceful nation. (Y/N) didn’t need to learn how to fight like her brother so he let her instead enjoy her other passions.

        It very much pleased Wilbur though that his little girl always still wanted to spend time with him. One of those days, the pair had been outside the walls. Wilbur had brought his guitar, strumming as he sang, while (Y/N) ran around to get her extra energy. The father hadn’t expected the storm clouds to roll in so fast but they did.

        The rain started to pour, (Y/N) screaming as she clung onto Wilbur as thunder boomed.

        “It’s alright little star.” He assured her as he quickly got up, putting his guitar on his back. “Let’s get back home.”

        She clung to his hand as they sprinted for the path and went for L’Manberg. He had carelessly not brought a weapon as he hadn’t expected to be out when monsters could come out. So, when a skeleton was in the path, he halted to a stop, looking for a quick escape before it noticed them.

        “This way—” Wilbur tugged (Y/N)’s hand but his eyes went wide as the arrow flew past his head. “Shit!”

        Before he knew it, (Y/N) had let go of his hand. He was too busy looking for a weapon to defend himself and his child when he noticed (Y/N) attacking the skeleton.

        “(Y/N)!” He yelped in panic as he rushed forward.

        Even without any experience, just pure instinct to protect her pack, she managed to take apart the skeleton. Wilbur pulled her from it, her big eyes looking at him with a bone in her mouth. She sat there for a moment before her eyes went wide, the bone dropping.

        “I’m sorry daddy!”

        Wilbur didn’t know what to say for a moment, the thunderclap breaking him from his thoughts as (Y/N) screamed, clinging onto him again. He took a new approach and scooped her up before sprinting instead for the Embassy. Tommy wasn’t in, so they were able to slip in. The man sighed with relief to be out of the rain, putting (Y/N) down.

        She shook the water out of her hair as she swished her tail to do the same. Wilbur took off his guitar, jacket, and hat, laying the objects on a chest as he ruffled his hair.

        “Alright, let’s get your jacket off and find something to dry off with,” Wilbur said, going for the back room.

        “I’m really sorry daddy.” She spoke before he stepped through.

        He stopped, remembering what happened. He looked back at her, her ears pointed back as she stared down at the ground with her hands behind her back and her wet tail on the floor. Coming over, he knelt in front of her, taking her shoulders, having her look at.

        “There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Wilbur told her, making one of her ears twitch. “You did good. I was extremely worried, yes. I was scared you would get hurt and I don’t want you to rush into danger again without a proper weapon, but I’m not angry or disappointed with you.”

        “I really did good?” She asked, her tail coming off the floor.

        “Yes, you did.” He smiled. “I’m proud you were able to think on your feet little star and protect us both. But, as I said, we’re not going to do that again without a weapon right?”

        “Yes sir, Mr. President.” She gave a giggle with a salute.

        He laughed as he kissed her forehead and ruffled her hair. “Now let’s get you dry.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Philza

        Would have taught her more control, proud

        (Y/N) laughed as Phil held her securely to him as they soared through the sky from the village they had just traded at.

        “You having fun darling?” He smiled at her.

        “Yes!” She cheered, her ears twitching madly in the wind. “This so much more fun than walking!”

        He laughed himself as he nodded. “It is. Like I said though, I can’t do this long, we’ll probably have to walk the rest of the way home.”

        “Aw ok.” She frowned but instead smiled and decided to enjoy the moment.

        Phil had promised the young girl when she was old enough, he’d start taking her one trading expeditions after he trained her up a bit. He did tend to stay out for long periods of time after all and usually saw mobs. It had come to that time and Phil personally trained her. As Phil had taught all three of his sons, teaching his fourth child was no work and (Y/N) picked it up quickly. He also helped her work on her wolf instincts just as he had with Techno with his piglin ones.

        Of course, it was precautional training. He wasn’t going to let her fight mobs so easily. There was little to no chance she’d have to fight anything; Phil was a master at avoiding mobs and taking them out with ease as he only had one life left to his name and had to be extra careful.

        As night was starting to set in, Phil landed as his wings took as much as they could.

        “Alright, stay close to me darling.” He told her as he took off his shield and sword as a precaution.

        She nodded, her ears perked up and listening carefully to help her father as she had her own gear out. Together, they walked through the snow towards their home, Phil ahead of (Y/N) as she was close to his back. As they were close to the edge of their property, (Y/N)’s right ear twitched at the sound of a bowstring in the distance. Quickly, she turned and held up a shield in front of her father’s back, an arrow giving a loud THUNK as it hit the wood.

        Phil jumped at the noise, whipping around just as (Y/N) dashed forward and used her sword to strike the skeleton with ease. He rushed over as the skeleton tried to recollect itself and gave a final blow to it.

        “Come on,” Phil told her as her tail swished and she growled lightly. “We’re almost home.”

        She followed Phil again and from there they got home safely. He sighed in relief as he laid down his weapons, (Y/N) laying hers down beside him. Looking at his daughter, he patted her head between her ears smiling.

        “Good job kiddo. You really had my back.”

        Her tail wagged eagerly as she smiled. “I learned from the best.”

        He laughed as he nodded. “Guess you did. We got to work on you not rushing in head first though ok?”

        “Ok.” She nodded with determination.

        “That’s my little angel.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Technoblade

        Proud

        (Y/N) was the daughter of the Blood God!

        The second she could hold a sword on her own, she wanted to learn everything she could just to be like her father. Techno was glad to teach her as he wanted to make sure if his enemies ever found her, she could defend himself and he did tend to exploit her wolf abilities in some dangerous places, so not having to watch her constantly was good too.

        Today was any other day. A bit of training between the two, trading a bit with a village, minor terrorism in the Dream SMP land.

        “So, what did we learn today?” Techno asked as he led her across the bridge in the Nether to the home portal.

        “Grandpa doesn’t let us have fun?” She questioned as she looked at him.

        Techno threw back his head in laughter at that. Phil had convinced Techno not to do a few of his crimes, much to the pair’s disappointment.

        “I was looking for more we keep better track of our invisibility, but grandpa not letting us have fun is true too.” He grinned.

        (Y/N) wagged her tail as Techno went through the portal first, (Y/N) a few seconds behind. He frowned at the night sky, taking his axe off his belt as he saw a few scattered mobs in the snow.

        “Guess we were in the Nether too long,” Techno said. “Stay close to me. We’re going to make a run for the house.”

        “Ok.” She nodded as she took off her sword just as a precaution.

        “Three, two, one, go!” He told her before the two of them sprinted across the snow.

        They had piqued the interest of a few zombies but they were much too fast for them. As they got close to the house, an arrow snagged itself into Techno’s cape. He stopped and went to turn with a full axe swing but didn’t get the chance as a snarl filled the air. Looking, he saw (Y/N) slashing through the skeleton with ease then tore it apart with her own hands.

        He was impressed but there were mobs around. So, grabbing her by the arm, he dragged her away, forcing her to run with him again as she growled still at the now-dead skeleton.

        “Come on killer.” He told her with a proud smirk.

        “It tried to hurt you.” She huffed as they finally slowed down on the porch.

        “Yes, but what do we say?” He looked at her.

        “Technoblade never dies!” She threw up her arms with a grin and he smiled as well as he ruffled her hair as he opened the door.

        “That’s right. You did well out there, little goddess, we need to work on your form though and that was a bit overkill.”

        She pouted. “Ok.”

        He chuckled patting her head. “But I’m proud of you regardless.”

        That made her smile again as Techno took off his cape to fix it. As he did the voices were chanting.

        Blood Child! Blood Child! Blood Child!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Eret

        Worried

        (Y/N), as a wolf hybrid, had an excessive amount of energy that Eret was just not able to keep up with sometimes. So, he’d let her go off on her own with Tommy, the two usually able to work both of their excessive energy out without any possible danger as Eret made Tommy promise him.

        It had been one of those days and Eret was waiting by the castle gate, worry starting to seep into him as the sun was starting to set.

        “Damn it, Tommy.” He muttered under his breath before going back inside the castle for a moment.

        Coming back out and starting to walk down the path, now he had a sword strapped to his belt as he made his way to Tommy’s. As he got to the fenced area, he heard the sounds of (Y/N)’s laughter as Tommy was yelling out profanities. Going in and to the door, he knocked on Tommy’s door. Swinging it open, Tommy stood there with a scowl on his face.

        “You’re both late,” Eret told him.

        “Shit, is it really that late?” Tommy’s eyes went wide at the setting light. “I got to meet up with Wilbur!”

        He went back inside as (Y/N) came over, seeing her father, a guilty look on her face seeing the fading light.    

        “Sorry, dad.”

        “It’s alright sweetie. Let’s get home before it gets too dark. Stay safe Tommy!” He called as (Y/N) came to Eret’s side.

        The two walked down the Prime Path as the sun set full set.

        “You’re not mad?” (Y/N) asked.

        “No princess, I understand you were having fun. I was just worried and I knew I had to come to get you. Tommy’s a good fighter but I don’t think he could protect two people.” Eret explained calmly to her.

        “Well, I’m sorry I worried you.”

        “It’s alright, let’s just get home safe.” He smiled at her.

        The castle was just in sight, making Eret feel relief that they’d get there without seeing a single mob, but he jinxed himself. As they stepped out of the gate from the Community House, an arrow flew by his arm. He jumped in surprise, pulling his sword as he went to grab (Y/N) to pull her behind him, but only grabbed air.

        Looking around in a panic, he saw his little girl tackling the skeleton on instinct and starting to pull it apart with her hands.

        “Princess.” He said quickly as he went over and pulled her off the mob as she growled. “It’s alright. Calm down.”

        “It tried to hurt you!”

        “I understand sweetie, but you should have let me handle it alright?”

        She huffed but nodded. “Alright.”

        He helped her up and smiled as he ruffled her hair. “Thank you for being my knight instead princess but I promise I got it.”

        “Ok, dad.” She agreed as they went home to the castle without any more problems. “…can you teach me how to fight though?”

        “If you want to princess. We’ll figure it out.”

        “Thank you, dad.” She smiled.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Dream

         Proud but Worried

        “Got you!” (Y/N) howled as she tackled George, who in turn screamed.

        Dream laughed as he came over to them putting his wooden sword on George’s chest. They were playing a game of Manhunt and Dream had (Y/N) on his team naturally. With that, she was able to use her wolf senses to win with ease. Dream actually had to do very little but defend her. Sure, he trained her but there was a large training curve between her and everyone else.

        “We win again.” Dream told him.

        “This is no fair,” George whined. “(Y/N) can hear everything.”

        “You guys practically stomp around the forest.” (Y/N) grinned as she jumped up, her tail wagging rapidly.

        “Now don’t be too mean to your uncle.” Dream laughed, ruffling her hair.

        “I’m going to guess George lost too.” Sapnap came over to the group.

        “Dad and I are the best team!” (Y/N) threw up her hands, making Dream grin as he moved his mask from his face.

        “What told you? The scream?” Dream teased George now.

        George grabbed Dream, trying to tackle him but Dream managed to swing it back and pin George to the ground. The goggled man huffed at his second defeat as (Y/N) cheered.

        “Alright, let’s get home you two idiots.” Dream chuckled as he helped George up.

        The sun was close to setting and they were in the forest. The two other men agreed with Dream and everyone started walking.

        “Can we play again tomorrow?” (Y/N) asked Dream with eagerness, her tail still wagging.

        He laughed, nodding. “Sure. But why don’t you try and find me tomorrow with your uncles?”

        “But I like your team.” She pouted.

        “I’m honored sweetheart, but we have to make your uncles think they’re good too.” He whispered but loud enough for the others to hear.

        “Alright! You listen here Dream!” Sapnap stopped to argue with his friend, making Dream laughed.

        (Y/N) was giggling as the three were playfully arguing with each other but she frowned as her ear twitched hearing a sound in the forest. It sounded like…bones?

        Then she heard the bowstring and her eyes went wide.

        “Look out!” She shouted, startling everyone, giving them enough time to move as the arrow just flew past Dream’s face.

        “Holy shit!” Dream exclaimed in surprise.

        Before anyone could react, there was a snarl and the three saw the little girl tearing the skeleton apart.

        “Yo! You show it (Y/N)!” Sapnap cheered.

        “Shut up. Alright, sweetheart.” Dream came over, pulling her off. “You got it.”

        She huffed at the pile of bones before looking at her dad. “Are you ok daddy?”

        He smiled lightly as he nodded, patting her head as he crouched in front of her. “I’m fine, you warned me just in time.”

        “Good.” She grinned, her tail wagging.

        “But I don’t want you to do something like that again ok?” He looked at her seriously. “You got it, but you went way over of what you needed to.”

        She frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”

        “It was dead, but you kept going. That’s serious stuff. Sapnap was wrong to encourage you. I’m proud you got it, but you need to keep your control, ok?”

        She nodded slowly. “Ok. I think I understand.”

        He smiled again, kissing the top of her head. “Good. Now let’s get home before anything else catches us.”

        With that, the four went home, pride definitely in his chest but he would make sure his daughter understood her anger.

[rouiettes]

raya and the ugliest fucking dragon i've ever seen holy fuck who the hell thought to give a dragon fuckiNG EYEBROWS WHY WHY—

aka the musings of a filo non-binary bisexual who feels victimized by the dragon designs of this fucking movie supposedly centred around THE LAST DRAGON???? MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE STAYED STONE GDI WHAT THE FUCK SERIOUSLY WHY DO THE DRAGONS LOOK LIKE THAT

let's get one thing straight.

none of the characters in this movie. rest assured. not a single straight person was in this movie. trust me.

raya and the last dragon had all the foundations of a good movie

IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO GREAT

BUT IT WASNT

AND HERE'S WHY

(in my humble opinion okay pls dont come for me)

a disney movie with sea culture at its heart and soul, i was so hyped to finally watch this movie

(not as hyped as i could have been tho bc let's be honest DISNEY DID SHIT WITH RAYA'S MARKETING)

(AND PERHAPS FOR GOOD REASON LOL I SWEAR I DONT HATE THIS MOVIE OKAY)

you had the amazing score, the amazing concepts for plot and characters, the solid solid worldbuilding???

if you just told me about how raya's setting and premise, i'd probably be "wow this movie sound like the whole package"

and then i'll actually watch the movie and have just as much trust issue as raya did :/

but i digress

A DISNEY MOVIE WITH SEA CULTURE AT ITS HEART AND SOUL

do you know how diverse sea culture is??? VERY

and one thing i was very happy to see was how raya handled it

it was by no means perfect but

the subtle shows of culture in the way the characters acted, and the environment of the movie was just CHEF'S KISS

not only that but the ideas the movie had in terms of its world and the people in it felt genuine, it felt alive

a dragon that isn't the typical fire-breathing lizard

characters who look like they could easily be my neighbours or children i've played with

instead of pandering to this movie felt like an actual homage to sea cultures

and for good reason bc seeing all those familiar names rolling in the credits had me feeling some type of way :")

also that fucking soundtrack gave me chills throughout my watch of the movie

okay now that we've got the things i actually like about the movie, let's talk about what i don't like

if there's one word i could use to describe disney's raya it would be: rushed

like i said in the beginning, all the groundwork for an astounding disney movie were already there

but all of it just goes to waste bc the plot and it's characters feel so Unfinished

the movie felt like a bullet-point presentation of the story

WHICH IS SO FUCKING DISAPPOINTING BC THE CHARACTERS SEEMED SO INTERESTING but all we got were shadows of what they could have been

cardboard cutouts of the archetypes they filled

i'm not asking for a bottomless well of depth, but i at least wanted more for the cast than just: angry misunderstood princess, angry misunderstood princess with an undercut, that one dancing kid from moana but with more spice, boss baby, and the mountain

and i get that they had to sacrifice some of their depth to keep the run time of the movie short but you have got to be better than this disney

i hate to compare but it felt like this movie tried to go beyond what moana gave us, and shot so far that it ended up back to where it started, and then stumbled back a few steps

AND IM NOT EVEN SAYING A DRAGON MOVIE WITH A BIG CAST IS IMPOSSIBLE

BC IT'S ALREADY BEEN DONE

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON DID IT THREE TIMES

and you'd think the plot for one of the few disney movies with a non-western setting would have more than just a macguffin considering how batshit sea folk tales can be

but you'd think wrong folks.

GENUINELY IT FELT LIKE THEY WERE ATTEMPTING SOMETHING BUT WERE SHORT OF BRINGING IT TO FRUITION

sure moana had a macguffin too with the heart of te fiti, but the heart itself wasn't the heart of the movie

it was the journey of moana and maui

it was that BEAUTIFUL TWIST WITH TE KA AND TE FITI

ALL DELIVERED WITH A NATURAL FINESSE THAT HAD YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT

YOU WERE ALONG FOR THE RIDE OF THE STORY INSTEAD OF QUESTIONING EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOING ON LIKE I WAS

maybe this was just me but like, i felt so bad for the friend who watched this movie with me bc all i could go on and on was how the plot felt like it was getting in the way of itself

why didn't the different kingdoms (??) kept the gem in rotation or smth, when did they decide that heart would keep it and then get mad at heart for keeping it????

why didn't awkwafina dragon just show herself to the kingdoms bc everyone seems to be in agreement that dragons good right? that they would be the key to getting rid of the druun right??? SO THEY'D ALL AT LEAST HEAR HER OUT OR SMTH RIGHT????????

and yes raya has trust issues but it seems to only spring up at the most convenient times plot-wise, we didn't really see her learn to trust other people again OTHER THAN THE TIMES WHERE SISU WOULD HAMFISTEDLY SHOVE IT DOWN OUR THROATS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE GOOD SOMETIMES RAYA

we see it with boun, but then she just trusts noi, her monkeys, and tong THE GUY WHO STRUNG THEM UP AND WAS THREATENING TO TORTURE THEM????????

i'm gonna be honest and say that if it weren't for namaari i'd have absconded the moment sisu came on screen

as far as i'm considered the actual plot of the movie is just the entire sword fight scene between her and raya

and finally

we get to the part i will be erasing from my brain for my own mental well-being

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT DRAGON DESIGN

WHY OH WHY TH  E FUCK DOES SISU SOUND AND LOOK LIKE THAT

my friend said they looked like the ponies from mlp in 3d AND NOW I CAN NEVER UNSEE IT

THEY HAVE EYEBROWS THEY HAVE HUMAN FACES

HUMAN FACES ON MAJESTIC DRAGON BODIES

THE INTERNET HAS COLLECTIVELY DECIDED THAT SISU IS BASICALLY FURRY ELSA

every time we got a sisu close up i lost 5 years to my life

disney i am suing for damages

if you want me to drop the charges i demand raya 2: electric boogaloo but it’s just raya and namaari enemies to friends to lovers ark

and also for them to never say dragon nerds ever again

AGAIN. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON GAVE US BEAUTIFUL DRAGON DESIGNS. HELL IF YOU WANTED MORE EASTERN LOOKING DRAGONS FUCKING SPIRITED AWAY??? HAKU??????????

AND YKNOW WHAT. SISU WOULDN'T EVEN LOOK THAT HORRIFIC IF THE MOVIE WAS IN 2D

im not the first person to be side-eying disney's decision to keep pumping out these 3d movies but like.

no amount of added dimensions could ever make that dragon design okay

and there so many more points i could go off on to show how this movie was rushed

how the other dragons, and even sisu's siblings whom she had been missing for the entire movie DIDNT MAKE A SINGLE SOUND???? NOT EVEN A FUCKING GROWL DISNEY???? DID YOU EVEN TRY WITH THE DRAGONS AT ALL??? THE SUPPOSED CENTRE OF THIS MOVIE'S PLOT?????????

HOW THE CHIEFS OF THE OTHER KINGDOMS WERE BASICALLY PLOT DEVICES????

THAT ONE CHIEF'S SKELETON WAS MORE INTERESTING THAN ANY OF THEM COMBINED ALIVE

kudos to that one granny chief though

u can never have enough bad ass old ladies

AND GOD THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS JUST FELT SO FORCED

ALONG WITH WHATEVER LESSON SISU WANTED TO IMPART ABOUT TRUST

LOVE THESE CHARACTERS THEY ARE FUNNY THEY ARE FRIENDS FOUND FAMILY

TRUST PEOPLE IF U WANT THEM TO TRUST U

TRUST PEOPLE OR ILL LITERALLY FUCKING KILL U

children aren't stupid disney. if you tell your story well enough, they'll pick up on the messages you want to give them. YOU DONT HAVE TO THRUST EVERYTHING IN OUR FACES

i was exhausted by the time i finished this movie

bc i really wanted to love it. i wanted to feel more for it than just: well, it's a movie :)

i dont hate this movie though like it's not even worth the energy for that

i think that ultimately, despite all my issues with it, this movie was a step in the right direction when it comes to having non-western stories being told by non-western people in big name productions

i'm glad raya and the last dragon exists

i just can't help but be dissapointed though bc this movie put so much effort into putting my people and culture at its forefront but at what cost???

good characters and story for a good setting and design????

does it have to be one or the other?????

DOES THE DRAGON HAVE TO HAVE EYEBROWS??????

[mae-gi-writes]

Deobi Playlist (EP 6) | The Boyz Imagine

Ep 6: in which Hyunjae’s mom sets him up.

he Boyz x Hospital Playlist inspired drabble series.

Main Characters: Hyunjae, Juyeon, Kevin and OC (Mae)

Sides: the rest of The Boyz.

Genre: fluff, slice of life, comedy, BROMANCE BRUH

EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10 | EP 11

---------

“Tonight at six. Don’t be late.” 

“Ma,” Hyunjae lets out a tired sigh, ruffling his locks in the process, “I’m really not interested and I--”

“You’re almost thirty! You should be getting married by now!” 

“Ma, blind dates don’t help people get together. It’s just a lousy way for singles to mingle.” 

“Exactly why you should go.” 

“Ma.” 

“Please, Hyunjae? She’s such a good girl. I met her and her mother for tea yesterday and her mother seems so keen to get her daughter married off to an honourable man! Now, I don’t know about honourable, but you’re funny. Surely, you can charm her socks off?” 

“Ma look, I--” Hyunjae frowns upon realizing what his mother is saying, “hey, excuse me? I am so honorable! But anyway, that’s besides the point. I’m not interested--I said I’m not--Hello? HELLO?!” 

Pulling the phone away, he is faced with a blank screen. 

“OH MY GOD!” his nostrils flare, “she just hung up! ON ME!” 

“I can hear you just fine,” comes Juyeon’s mumble from his respective desk. 

Hyunjae swivels around with a look of growing horror at the fact that this time, there’s no getting out of the mess that his mother has just put him in, “I’m almost thirty, and my mother decides that it’s the greatest idea to set me up like I can’t get my life together. Can you believe that?! The outrage?!”

“You don’t have your life together,” Juyeon is quick to point out.

“Juyeon, I really don’t need your sass right now.” 

“So are you? Going to that blind date?” Juyeon asks, a smirk curving his lips upwards as Hyunjae lets out a loud, insufferable sigh like the world has collapsed onto his shoulders, “Do I have a choice?” 

“I guess you don’t.” 

“I guess I don’t.” 

-------

Shit. Shit. Shit. 

It’s only the first date and Hyunjae is already late. Not that he cares, not really. Except that this girl will probably go tattle to her mother about his tardiness, which will then prompt his own mother to give him another earful about not being the perfect gentleman that she has raised him to be. 

It is with that particular train of thought that he practically bursts through the cafe called ‘Yours Truly’. Truly boring, in his personal opinion. Trying his best to swallow mouthfuls of air, scanning the room and walking in until he notices a lone woman, seemingly bored and looking out of the window as though there are other things preoccupying her mind. 

He approaches reluctantly, “Er--Are you Do Sarang?” 

The woman’s face swivels to face him. He has to admit, right there and then, that she’s not all bad looking.

“Yes,” she says slowly, as if she’s gauging his personality, “you’re Lee Jaehyun?” 

He extends a hand, “call me Hyujae. That’s the name I go by, most of the time.” 

She nods, and he barely has time to settle himself into his seat when she tells him, “so what excuse do you want to tell your mother?”

He blinks at her, ‘huh?” 

“You can say I’m boring. I only read books as a hobby and I love baking in my spare time, except I burn the kitchen. You think that’s bad enough? Or maybe tell her I have bad breath or something,” she keeps up the stream of babble with so much gusto that he can barely keep up. His mind churns the words inside his head, before reality suddenly kicks in.

“Wait--” he raises a hand to stop her, “you mean, you’re trying to find ways to sabotage this?” 

“Of course I am. Why? Were you actually--” cupping her hand over her mouth then, her eyes widen in shock, “Oh no, were you actually genuinely interested? Oh my gosh, I am--”

“NO!” He hollers a little too loudly that causes a few glances to glare daggers in his direction. Flashing a guilty smile while scrunching his shoulders up, he lowers his voice and continues, “no, I mean of course I’m not interested in blind dating. I just--I wasn’t sure.” 

“Okay great. Just so that we’re on the same page.” 

“Er--Sure.” 

“Cool. What shall I say about you? That you sweat a lot? Or you have AIDS? Or--” 

“I do not have AIDS,” Hyunjae quickly rectifies. 

Sarang laughs. She does have a nice laugh, he thinks to himself as she says, “you don’t seem like the type to have AIDS.” “Just tell your mom that I’m too noisy and talk too much. Or that I--er-- that I’m just too quiet. Too bland. Boring. You don’t like that.” 

“Okay, deal.” 

“Deal,” it’s at this particular moment that his stomach growls, causing Sarang’s lips to curl up in amusement. Hyunjae bites the inside of his cheek as he tries to restrain his own grin. He looks down for a moment, before finally meeting her eyes once more. 

“So...since we’re already here. Do you want to grab lunch?” 

-------

“So how did your date go?” Mae asks. 

A few days have gone by since Hyunjae’s supposed blind date, much to Mae’s excitement. Considering that she had been one of the potential candidates that the former’s mother had already listed down, she was glad that Mrs. Lee is finally opening up her horizons and allowing more women to enter Hyunjae’s life. Not that he needs any help at all, considering that he’s always been a charmer with the ladies. 

To celebrate, she had all asked them to gather at the local snack they usually frequent -- a habit from their earlier college days that seemed to have stuck -- and had ordered an array of pork belly, raw beef and chicken strips for the occasion. Radishes and Kimchi plates littered their entire table and servings of raw pieces of lettuce were left still untouched as they waited impatiently for the meat to cook through. 

Hyunjae has also noticed how she tries her best to stay as far away as it’s physically possible from Kevin, and while it might not appear that the latter is ruffled by her actions, Hyunjae has known the said man for too long not to notice the flash of hurt flickering across his face.

“She’s actually really cool,” Hyunjae says upon realizing that he still hasn’t answered her question, “she isn’t interested in blind dating either. So we’re both just finding excuses to please the mothers.” 

“Wait, but--” Juyeon frowns, “you just said she’s cool. Why not just hang out with her?” “Because that would just mean that my mother was right, and I’m not giving her the satisfaction.” 

“What an idiot,” Juyeon mutters behind his glass of soju and Hyunjae scowls at him, “piss off, lover boy.” 

“Alright alright, everybody calm down. I have meat,” Mae interrupts them by placing the grilled pieces onto their plates. As she does so, her arm brushes against Kevin’s shoulder, and she jumps back as though she just got burnt. 

“S-Sorry,” she mumbles out. It doesn’t take an expert to notice the fact that she’s blushing. 

Hyunjae clears his throat as a way to distract them from the sudden atmosphere, sending Kevin a pointed look across the table while a mindless Juyeon digs in without hesitation.

“How’s your relationship going, Juyeon?” Mae says a little too loudly, an obvious attempt to divert the attention. 

“It’s going great. We--We really understand each other,” Juyeon says with a small, hesitant smile like he’s trying to hide his happiness. 

“You are so whipped,” Hyunjae singsongs.

“At least my mother doesn’t have to set me up,” Juyeon shoots back.

“OOOH,” echo Mae and Kevin, who accidentally catch each other’s eyes before looking away. Though they’re not fast enough, causing Juyeon to blurt out, “What is going on between you two?” 

“NOTHING!” Both screech at the same time before shooting each other weird looks. 

“Sure doesn’t seem like it though,” Juyeon mutters loud enough for them to hear, while Hyunjae grabs the meat off his plate and stuffs it in his mouth. 

“Speaking of relationships,” Hyunjae continues when Mae hands over the tongs. He puts some fresh meat on the grill, passes some condiments down to Kevin and Juyeon, “Mae, does Changmin not know what boundaries are?” 

“What?” Kevin’s head snapped to attention at the same time that Juyeon said, “what happened with Changmin?” 

“Nothing happened with Changmin,” Mae shoots Hyunjae a look, “stop hyping them up like that.” 

“Oh yeah? Cause you guys were getting pretty friendly when I spotted you in the elevator.” 

“He was trying to untangle my staff card, you dumbass,” she replies through a mouthful of lettuce and pork. Gulping it down, she continues, “stop making the situation something that it’s not. Also, what the fudge were you doing in the Cancer Ward?”

“He was practically breathing the same air as you! How am I supposed to interpret that?!” 

“What? In the elevator? When?” Kevin’s eyes snap right to left in confusion.

“It’s nothing!” Mae answers with flushed cheeks and unable to meet his eyes, “it’s really nothing! And Hyunjae, stop inventing stuff!” 

“I am not! He was so close to you I would have socked him one if I--”

He gets cut off by Juyeon stuffing a roll of lettuce-wrapped meat into his mouth, his words finishing in a gargle as he scowls at Mae with his cheeks still puffed like a sullen child. Mae leans back in her seat, wishing that the ground would swallow her up just so that she does not have to look at Kevin’s face ever again. 

It’s bad enough that she knows he has a crush on her, bad enough that she secretly harbours the same feelings and isn’t sure how to express them. Adding Changmin to the mix will only provoke him and create a havoc of misunderstandings that she really does not wish to get into right now, and Hyunjae’s big ass mouth is not helping.

She waits until Kevin and Juyeon go off their separate ways with an excuse that she’s riding with Hyunjae this time, for he’s going back for his night shift at the hospital. As soon as she gets into his car and slams the door closed, Mae proceeds to whack him across the back of his head.

“Ouch, Jesus woman,” Hyunjae rubs at the sore spot with a grimace, “what was that for?”

“You idiot,” Mae hisses, “why in the world are you talking about Changmin in front of Kevin? You know how insecure he gets!” 

“Relax Mae. I was doing that to rile him up for you.” “Well don’t. I don’t like it.” 

“Hey, I have good intentions okay? Next thing you know, he’s probably going to get off his lazy ass and confess,“ he stops at a red light and cups his face with his hands in a dramatic pout, “and who are you going to thank when that happens?” 

“You’re not getting any credit for that.” 

“You’re so mean.” 

They finally pull up to the Hospital main entrance, before the man nods at her, “go on. I’ll go find a parking spot.” 

“Do I have to say thank you even though I’m pissed at you?” Mae asks, grudgingly picking up her bag. 

“Do you want me to tell my mother how mannerless you are?” he pauses, “actually, maybe that’ll stop her from marrying us off.” 

Despite their earlier argument, a smile creeps up her lips before exploding into a full-out grin. She salutes him, “see you on the other side.” 

“You’re talking as if we’re going to die.” 

“We might as well die, if we don’t save our patients.” 

“Wise words Mae,” he calls out as she walks away, and then chuckles when she sticks her arm out in a back-handed wave.

--------

I gotta say that Mae and Hyunjae’s interactions make me go AHDFH sometimes cause they fight like siblings and it’s the cutest thing. Who agrees with me? 

NEXT EP WILL BE OUT ON MONDAY! 

Tagging: @juyeonzz​ because she is the sweetest thing :,) 

Let me know if you wanna be added to the tagging list! Otherwise, don’t forget to turn on notifications for my Tumblr so that you don’t miss out on Deobi Playlist! ^^ 

[animechick2015]

My Hero Academia- My Unwanted, Long Ass Ramble That Absolutely No One Asked For......

So being at home 🏡 due to mostly COVID-19 and a crumbling economy, I decided to rewatch all of my favorite animes, from Bungou Stray Dogs, Inuyasha, Demon Slayer, Fairy Tail and finally My Hero Academia. Once again I was entranced by the bright colors, spectacular animation and lovable characters that Kōhei Horikoshi-Sensei created. But coming to the end of the recent Season 4 a revelation came to me: I just don’t like Deku as the main character 😱.

I know. I know. I must be certifiably insane not to love such a cinnamon roll, with his cute freckles, messy green hair and 1,000,000 megawatt smile. But it’s true. I have no interest with him as the main character. After this new discovery I decided to think why I didn’t like him and the reason was simple: he’s predictable or rather his story is.

From the on set we were told that he’s going to be the greatest hero ever. Every arc that he’s been in he comes out on top with a new increase usage of his power. After finishing Eri’s arc I was just like ‘huh, is it going to be more seasons of this?’ Now for those of you thinking well you just watched the anime, you should read the manga.....I read it religiously every week. It doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing you can bet I’ll drop everything I’m doing just to read and re-read that chapter; find myself on tumblr and read all the fan theories and musings about said chapter. So i know what’s going on in the manga and once again I just like meh he’s going to be on top anyways why should I bother getting invested 🤷🏽‍♀️

Dammit Deku don’t look at me like that 🥺.

I still love him and I am proud of how far he’s come but I just can’t find it in myself to get hyped up for him.

So who do I get hyped up for? Well I’m glad you asked ( I know you didn’t but here it is anyway hehe)

Bakugo Katsuki

The gremlin of Class 1-A. King Explosion Murder. Future Number 1 Hero (I wish). Before anyone can finish asking who my favorite character is in MHA I’ll blurt this angry boi’s name. There’s just something about that drew me in from the very first episode/chapter. Yes he was a JERK, bully and ok he was an absolute asshole to Deku but there was something that kept me thinking I want to see more of this asshole. In the beginning, I thought he was going to be another Sasuke type character: join an evil group at the first chance, battle the main character throughout and eventually find his way back to being good and I was like meh. But then the Sports Festival arc happened and I was oh, this boy’s got potential so I took off my Naruto googles and started to really looking at him. If I’m honest, the first time I saw him as a hero was during his fight with Uraraka. I got so hyped during that match that I was standing and cheering, tears in my eyes for the both of them! When the spectators started to complain about Bakugou being too rough with Uraraka I was about to throw hands with fictional characters. Then when Aizawa gave his speech about Bakugo giving his all and respecting Uraraka and I was sold.

Since then I’ve been an avid supporter of his. During the Kamino arc I was worried but also impressed that he was able to go up again members of the League of Villains and was smart enough to realize that he was holding All Might back from going all out again AFO. His fight with Deku was emotional and I was a sobbing mess. Him going through the Hero License arc with all that guilt showed me his determination to being a hero. Even though he wants to portray that he doesn’t care about anyone but himself, he shows time and time again that he cares about Kirishima, Kaminari and Sero. He’s observant with Todoroki and Endevour during the Support Courses. He pushes Deku. He has so many layers as a character that I want to know more about him. Do I think that maybe he should’ve been the main character, yes I do. But I’m ok with him being a support character as well. I can’t wait to learn more about him and to see him be the amazing hero I know he’ll be.

Uraraka Ochako

Ok this girl right here 👆that’s my sunshine girl and no one is allowed to mess with her. Got it?? Seriously, I love this girl. She radiates warmth, hugs and pure unadulterated happiness. Just something about her face just makes me happy and I just wanna squish her round cheeks. Ok ok I’ll stop.

But seriously she is such an underrated character. I know for a fact she gets a lot of unnecessary hate because one: for being Deku’s love interest (I’m not really invested in their relationship tbh but if it happens I’ll be cool with it) and two: her reason for being a hero is to make money. Funnily enough the reason why she’s most hated by fans is the reason why I love her so much. She’s a young girl from a poor family who just wants to make her parents happy and I relate to that so much it made me want to cry when I first learned of her reasoning. Out of all the characters in the MHA world I connected with her the most. In addition, what I admired about her is that yes, she does have feelings for Deku but she’s able to put them aside and follow her goals. Like damn it who wouldn’t admire that? Who can’t relate to pushing their feelings aside to accomplish their goals? I seriously love this girl. Also, I love that she doesn’t limit hereself. When she started U.A. she wanted to be a support hero because of her quirk but after her fight with Bakugo she saw the potential to be more and she took it, trained and made herself better. She really is an inspiration. I hope we get to see more of her in action and maybe even lead a fight instead of being support. I can’t wait to see her grow and blossom into a badass ass woman who kick your ass while looking like an angel sent from above.

Shigaraki Tomura

Finally, this crusty boi gets me so hyped whenever he’s on screen or in a manga chapter that it’s probably unhealthy. From the very first time I saw him at that bar with those creepy ass hands covering his body I was intrigued to say the least. Every time I see him, I’m silently (not really) begging Horikoshi-Sensei to give me more of him. There was just something about him that screams more.

Fast forward to the Villain arc (one of my favorites tbh) and we learn more about his history and what he had to endure and dammit I just wanted to hug him. It’s so easy to hate the bad guys for hurting people but do we stop to think about who hurt them? And my boy was hurt a lot.....from his family (the ones who were supposed to protect him), the heroes (whose literal JOB IS TO PROTECT PEOPLE!), AFO (don’t get me started on that creepy bastard). And then suddenly I was supporting the villain. A part of me wants Shigaraki to succeed because if he does the hero society will admit their many flaws and idk maybe get rid of the hero vs villain Society that caused problems for generations 🤷🏽‍♀️ just a thought. Honestly if Shigaraki was the main character of this story I think it would’ve been much more interesting. I would definitely like to see more of him and I really want him to shake the hero society to the core.

So there it is.... my unwanted, unnecessary (if we’re being honest here) ramble about MHA. What started as a post about not liking Deku as the MC turned into......this. I’m sorry 😭. But once again I’m not hating on Deku. I love my little broccoli boi and I’ll be supporting him until the time he does indeed become Number One (maybe I’ll get myself a pair of red sneakers to match Deku’s before that happens), but there’s so many more characters that hold my interest other than him. I wish I could’ve listed them all but frankly I’m tired and hungry and I need to take a shot of something after this week’s chapter because Oh My God!!

Anyways, if anyone made it this far down my post, thank you for reading, please don’t be mean and have a great week!

[beetlejuicewrites69]

Concept: Reader is Lydia’s big sister, is told about Beej and has probably personally met Adam and Barbra; but when Lydia actually breaks down and summons him during dinner, reader just has an Oh My Gosh This Dirty Ray Man Is The Love Of My Life moment and Beej can not figure out why Lydia’s sister of all people can barely get a coherent sentence out around him (Cue Lydia face palming in the background at both of them)

author’s note: holy shit, i love this concept so much. if i do this right, please let me know if you want me to continue the story because i’m so down to turn this into a series. i switched it up a little, but i hope you enjoy it :) 💚💜

Sister’s Story

beetlejuice x reader that is also lydia’s sister

You loved your family, but dear God/Satan, you loved being away from them just as much. Even when your mom was alive, you valued your freedom. Once she died, you decided it was time to spend some time alone. Your little sister, Lydia, stayed back with Dad. They moved to a small town in Connecticut, while you chose to stay in the Big Apple. You had been twenty then, and as incredibly scary as it was, it was the best decision of your life. It was a little lonely, but you still saw Lydia and Dad at the major holidays and events when you road-tripped home.

Four years had passed, and a ton had changed. Your dad has gotten remarried to Lydia’s ex-life-coach, and their house was apparently haunted. You had met two of the three residential ghosts. Adam and Barbara, an incredibly sweet, but lowkey boring, married couple, were a great second set of parental figures for Lydia, especially since you weren’t around much. The third ghost that frequently haunted the new(ish) Deetz home was named Beetlejuice.

Now, you had never seen him, but Lydia told you all the stories. He was a legendary disaster. Your sister had pushed him off the roof, married him, killed him, and then befriended him. That entire story freaked you out, but Lydia never backed down from the fact that overall, Beetlejuice was a good guy. She always gave you updates on all the crazy shit he did and said, and she tried her best to describe him, but she always finished those stories with “It’s to hard to explain, you kinda have to see for yourself.” He was a mythic demon.

Emily raised you to seek the strange and unusual, and this demon being unintentionally hidden from you was aggravating. Whenever you visited the house, he never seemed to be around. It was purely coincidental, but it bothered you. Over the last four years, he had been hyped up so much that you had begun to frequent the house more and more.

Your incessant knocking led your father to answer the door. His booming, yet gentle, voice greeted you.

“Y/N! What a pleasant surprise!” he swallowed you up in a hug. His embrace lifted you off the ground, your feet left dangling.

“Hey, Dad,” you laughed as he returned you to the ground. The roar of combat boots stomping down the hardwood stairs brought your attention to farther inside the house.

Lydia screamed when she finally made eye contact with you. At 19, she was finally beginning to look closer in age to you. All your life, you felt as if the five years between you two were so distant, but now that you were 19 and 24, they felt too close.

“Y/N!” she jumped on top of you, tackling you down to the ground. You struggled to breathe.

“I’ll, uh,” Charles laughed. “Leave you two to catch up.” He walked away to the kitchen, where Delia popped her head out to wave hello. Smoke wafted behind her, and she turned back in, coughing.

Barbara spoke up from deeper in the kitchen. “Delia! Close the oven!”

“But Y/N’s here!” Delia protested. “It’s just a chicken, calm down!”

Your sister’s grip tightened. “I have not seen you in SIX MONTHS!” she leaned in closer to your ear. “Bitch.”

You shoved her off of yourself, giggling through it all. “Watch your mouth, that’s illegal!” You stood up, pulling Lydia with you. You both plopped down on the couch.

“Ok, what’s happening, girl,” Lydia lovingly mocked Delia’s tone. “Fill me in! Spill the tea!”

“No tea to spill, weirdo,” you shoved her shoulder. “Just the usual. Love my job, hate my landlord, still,” you sigh, “single, I’m considering getting a cat. Your turn.”

“Ok, um...” she tapped her chin playfully. “Well, at work the other day I did this photo shoot for these people whose dog was, like, dying, and they dressed him up in a tuxedo to take farewell photos. Super weird. Very weird family.”

You laugh at the anecdote, and gesture to the dining room table. “Weirder than this?” Adam and Barbara were setting the table, while Charles and Delia were making out against the kitchen doorframe. You shook your head, grossed out, yet glad your father was happy. “Disgusting. You know what, I heard something else in this house is disgusting. What was that again?”

Lydia raised her eyebrows. “I told you, you have to figure out how to summon him yourself! If you’re truly connected to the spiritual world, you can do it yourself.”

“Lyds! You know how much I love this shit! Don’t do this to me!” Your frustration increased as the conversation went on. Lydia refuses to tell you how to summon him, and whenever she requested his presence, he was always busy. “How am I supposed to believe he’s even real if I’ve never seen him?!”

Adam popped his head out from the dining room. “He’s real, unfortunately. You don’t need to see him, you can smell him a mile away.”

“Well I’ll never know,” you threw your hands up in frustration. “because no one in this God/Satan forsaken house will let me see him!”

Lydia tilted her head and gave you a weird look. “Huh,” she pondered. You hadn’t seen Lydia in a while, and you weren’t sure what just bothered her. She shook her head, her expression never changing. “He says that all the time, too.”

“What?” you questioned right as Delia called you all to the table. You missed family dinners like this, and you truly did cherish these moments. Even though Adam and Barbara weren’t eating, they kept the four of you company. You loved hearing your weird family’s laughter and conversations, yet Lydia’s previous comment continued to bother you.

Halfway through dinner, the conversation turned to ghosts. As you ate, you questioned the Maitlands. “So, could you eat? If you wanted to?” Adam and Barbara shrugged.

“I mean, yes,” Barbara said. “But we just don’t need it.”

Adam nodded in agreement. “We aren’t hungry anymore.” Delia set her fork down hastily in response.

“Then WHY is Beetlejuice so hungry all the time?!” she exclaimed. “I’m always missing food because your little friend keeps stealing stuff!”

Lydia explained bluntly, “Beej is a special case.” You were so sick of all the mention of Beetlejuice, and it had finally got to you. Your utensil clattered onto the plate as you groaned loudly.

“So when am I gonna meet this guy, huh?” you said, a little too loud. “All I ever hear is BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE!”

Lydia’s eyes widened as a puff of green smoke appeared at the other side of the room. A new chair had materialized at the head of the table, and in it sat an unfamiliar figure. He was large and grimy, with bright green hair and a smirk plastered across his face.

“You called?” his mouth opened, spilling out a gravelly voice. You point accusingly at him.

“Are YOU Beetlejuice?” you gape across the table. From his dirty suit to the crazy look in his eyes, he looked certifiably insane. However, something shocked you about him. He was cute. He had dimples and laugh lines around his eyes; his brown roots gave him a more human appearance. He looked to be around your height, and his dirty striped suit was well tailored to his body type. His voice, while scratchy, was the most beautiful sound you had ever heard.

“That’s my name, babe, don’t wear it out,” he winked at you, then turned to Lydia. “Who’s the new girl?”

Lydia took one look at you, noticing your still agape mouth. You had been single for way too long, and this man had taken your breath away. She sighed. “That’s my sister, Beej. Y/N, remember?”

Beetlejuice stretched his arm across the long table to poke your jaw back up. His elongated arm kinda freaked you out.

“Is she okay?” he laughed at you. You stuttered, trying to find the words to say. He poked your face again before retracting his arm back into his body.

“Holy shit,” you whispered. You stared at him in shock a little bit longer, the table silently laughing at your response. Beetlejuice just laughed loudly and smiled.

“Oh man, she’s fun. She better hang out with us more often,” he leaned back in his chair, checking out the family. You gawked at him, taking in every imperfection on his strangely beautiful face.

Realization of your awkward silence hit Lydia like a train. She facepalmed and went, “Oh no. This was a mistake.”

Beetlejuice ignored her, flashing across the table to poke you in the face again, this time up close. He leaned into your face, peering at you. “You’re way less chatty than Lyds, what’s wrong with you?” You laughed awkwardly and uncontrollably in response, while blushing at his sudden closeness.

Lydia just continued to shake her head in her hands.

[qveenpoppy]

kingsman the golden circle: a review

so, i kinda just jotted stuff down as my reactions during the movie, so i’m just gonna copy that over here and have that be my review. figured that’d be more authentic and i also just kinda did it for fun. i mean, it made my viewing a lot longer than it should have been but hey, i had the time, so why not? enjoy, my friends. i’ll add some overall thoughts and a score at the tail end. (i’ll bold it, for anyone who wants to jump right to that.)

Gosh that opening action sequence was BONKERS, so high-energy and kinda unrealistic that Eggsy would survive that but incredible to watch nonetheless. And it's been so long since I watched the first film in full, I've forgotten about my love for the theme/score. It's so gorgeous and epic.

I made a mistake starting this before dinner, and that first scene at Poppy's dinner was one of the most disturbing things I ever saw. I find these characters so interesting but the violence in these films is a little too much for me. I tried closing my eyes during the scene but I did so too early and then opened them back up during That part. I gotta make sure to keep them closed if something like that happens again (which I'm guessing it might).

The transitions in this movie are phenomenal, I love continuity with shapes that tie each scene to the following ones.

Because I'm watching this two years late, I saw some spoilers for the movie online. Like,  a while ago. Like, back when it first came out. I was curious and only moderately liked the first movie (it was visually great but as I said, not one for R-rated violence). That being said, the scene in which Harry gets his memories back is WAY better viewed in context. Whether you think of Harry and Eggsy as an item or not, it's very good. Eggsy knew EXACTLY what would bring Harry's memories back, and I adored their hug after Harry calmed down. (The height difference!!! Eggsy went on his toes!!!) Also, I hope Harry got to keep the puppy after that and named him Mr. Pickles Jr.

Anyone else get super hyped when they hear Colin Firth say, "Manners maketh man"? It's like you just Know shit is about to go down when those words are said in these films. I hope the prequel next year gives us an origin of that line being a battle call. Also, I heard Pedro Pascal did some rope training for this film but holy wowness, it's so good! Yeah, it's enhanced with CG effects and probably some switch-ins with stunt doubles, but it still makes for an incredible action sequence! I hope Pedro gets to show off some of these skills somehow next year in Wonder Woman 1984 or Mandalorian s2. (Can't believe I slept on him for so long as an action star, what a talent!)

You know, I can kind of see where this president is coming from? I mean, as his female aid reminds him, it's a gray area, considering those who experiment with drugs or self-medicate or teens/kids, but I can also see how taking out those who use illegal drugs kinda ends the whole "war on drugs". There's logic to it but considering those mentioned parties, it's got a devious, ignorant edge to it. I can at least say I like this movie having a little bit more of a political edge to it than the first one. I wonder if anyone had a debate like this while/after watching the movie, whether they agree with this president's stance or not. I would guess the red tie he wears points to him being a Republican, so you know most Democrats would be quick to disagree, given the climate of the country following the 2016 election (aka, more divided than ever).

Also why is Charlie hotter in this movie than he was in the first one? Is it because he's evil? The shaved head? The robot arm? (I mean, being a legit villain isn't a good thing, but he's not as psychotic as Poppy and kinda has a foot in both sides, at least since he's English and now his girlfriend is infected with Poppy's disease. I wonder if he'll change sides at some point, or just die at the hands of the Kingsman, considering what he knows about them.)

(Oh wait, nevermind, he gave her the antidote. But maybe he went behind Poppy's back to do so? Or it's a placebo version and he'll wind up turning on Poppy??? Also does he know his girlfriend got fingered by Eggsy?)

(Yeah, think I can kiss that redemption arc goodbye. Eh, at least there will be fanfics for that. Or at least ones where he and Eggsy have hot hate sex.)

Oh shit, Whiskey made Eggsy drop the antidote. But at least Eggsy and Harry are okay. But how the fuck are they gonna save the day now?

Was Harry seeing butterflies as part of the delusion stage of Poppy's virus? Did the Statesmen unknowingly treat him with one of the drugs she infected? Is he gonna die AGAIN?! (Oh wait, I saw the spoilers, he'll be fine. But they might have to use the antidote on him.)

Okay I also knew from spoilers that Whiskey wasn't gonna survive the movie but delusional Harry took him out?! Why?! Will he be revived by the Statesmen like Harry was? (Whiskey's just too cool a character to lose in one movie.)

Nevermind about the agreement thing, this president is one sick motherfucker.

Sorry this commentary is becoming much briefer and summary-esque, but Whiskey (aka Jack; they did that on purpose, didn't they?) is back. But I still don't think he'll make it till the end of the film. Is he gonna try and take Harry out? Is he actually a double agent? 

You know, with them bringing Harry back, it kinda lowers the stakes of these movies. Like, is anyone ever fully dead? 'Cause this movie especially seems to keep bringing people back, at least with that Statesman tech. So it's hard to be all that sad about Merlin's death. I mean, obviously him fucking BLOWING UP seems like a pretty permanent way to die, but I thought I saw - again, around the time this came out - behind the scenes photos of Mark with some sort of green motion capture pants, as if they'd given him some metal robot legs like I guess Gazelle's in the first film. Like he just got knocked back by the blast and could no longer use his legs, if revived. But apparently it didn't make the final cut. Still, wouldn't be surprised if they used that footage for the third film as a way to bring him back. 'Cause clearly Merlin, Eggsy, and Harry are the main trio in this franchise. (Sorry, Roxy fans.)

Ohhh, look at Elton getting in on the action sequences. Yes, Sir!!!

I love when action sequences are set to more creative choices of music :)

Harry & Elton, huh? I ship it

Oh, Whiskey is actually a bad guy. Damn. Take back all the praise I had for him. Pedro, I love you, but fuck Whiskey.

Thank god I covered my eyes this time when That happened. Ugh, gross.

Ohhh, an impeachment and removal from office. If only life could imitate art... (But only in that way, nothing else from this movie should happen in real life.)

Tequila works for Kingsman now?!

overall thoughts: a suitable sequel for this franchise. obviously pretty similar tone-wise with the humor and language and violence. i always forget that these films aren’t exactly my taste. kinda triggered my anxiety with all that violence and the whole drug-triggered virus (not that i’ll be experimenting with any illegal drugs anytime soon, but my paranoid brain will definitely keep me even further away from them now.) like, they’re well-shot and i like the characters, and i mostly wanted to watch this for some explanation of how harry was brought back from the dead, but i’m at least glad i chose to watch this at home and on my laptop/tablet. it would not have been good for me to see this on the big screen. (and i managed to watch both movies for free, and completely legally. first on xfinity on demand, this on a free rental from fandago. go me!)

as i said, the political aspects did at least make for some cool thought-provoking moments and debate. i do love when movies make you think like that. mindless action movies are the absolute worst (i’m looking at you, marvel and transformers franchises). 

i’m at least curious about that third film, how they’ll handle the loss of so many significant characters, or if they’ll magically be brought back to life, again. yeah, as cool as it was, bringing harry back may have been a mistake for this franchise. but i understand that it’s the main relationship of the series, even if eggsy is now married to that swedish princess, tilda or whatever. (meh.)

rating: 7/10. it’s hard for me to give a film any lower than that, unless i turned it off or got particularly tired/bored while watching it, so. good action, good characters, fun humor, smidge too violent. 

till next time, my dudes!

[minaminokyoko]

Godzilla: King of Monsters: A Spoilertastic Review

To get straight to the point for some of you, yes, thank God, this movie is better than Godzilla '14.

For one, the title character is not only in the movie for a decent amount of time, they don't constantly cut away from the action and the film is properly lit so that even in night scenes and scenes with heavy rain, our lizard boi is fully visible. He also is kicking some ass and taking some names, and that's what we came here to see. Thus, it's immediately better than its predecessor.

However, a big problem with the movie is the humans. Not the supporting Monarch team, mind you, but the "family." This is one of the most poorly written families I've seen in a while. It's just baffling. They are very, very unlikable people. You don't really get to know them much, and moments where you do, you just don't like them. They are not easy to root for. It's a very similar problem to a lot of other disaster movies, where they pick a bunch of high strung, angry, selfish people as your leads to the point where you're kind of rooting for the disaster to get them, and that's sadly the other half of this film.

In short, they do the kaiju stuff well, but the humans drag the movie down a couple of enjoyment levels, if you ask me. Let's get to it.

Overall Grade: C

Spoilers ahead.

Pros:

-Godzilla and the other monsters look and sound great. They truly feel like their title: Titans. The movie does a good job of offering scale and giving you different perspectives to understand the size and scope of these creatures, and it's very cool to see some of them in the flesh while others are just named. They name-dropped Kong three times that I counted, but he's still Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Movie, which is irritating, but I also think that's for two reasons: (1) they need to build the hype train and sadly this movie is not on track to do well, as evidenced by my theater only having about eight people total in it opening weekend, and they need all the help they can get if they truly want to turn this into a franchise (2) they want to give him and Godzilla an entire rivalry film to themselves instead of just making him an extra here in this movie. Give them the room to breathe and be rivals in their own film rather than just shoehorning Kong into this debut of the other kaiju. But back to my point, the monsters all feel corporeal and intimidating. I really liked Mothra's design in particular. She looks gorgeous and is kind of the Ugly Cute variety of monster. I very much enjoyed seeing these creatures with some good effects given to them (although there are a few spots where it could look better, but WB struggles with this a lot, I've noticed) and the sounds they make are tremendous and impressive.

-The monster fights are pretty solid. I do admit that Pacific Rim kind of raised my bar for kaiju fights even though I know it's not the same story, but that to me is the perfect balance of human characters who are actually likable and useful versus giant monsters. I think it just should be a good blueprint for how to run the show if you're advertising giant monsters blowing up shit and beating the stuffing out of each other. I think the monster fights in King of Monsters are paced well and you can mostly understand where they are in relation to each other and how evenly matched they are. There were also smaller, neat details like seeing Mothra in her larva state then evolve into her adult form. That's very cool and creative and I enjoyed that little detail. The final smackdown with Godzilla and Ghidorah was a good monster mash, and I appreciate them giving it time and not cutting away. Godzilla's finishing move was 100% badass. Kudos to the big Lizard Boi, and kudos to Mothra for coming to help her lizard boyfriend as well against Rodan.

-The Monarch team is dicey at best, but the humans actually did more than just following him around like in Godzilla '14. It was actually a smart idea to introduce the ORCA and the concept of trying to at least either soothe or summon the monsters. I liked it a lot, and it was relatively realistic. We as a species are stupid and would of course try nukes first, but once they learned that these things actually feed on radiation and it makes them stronger, then they would be forced to find alternative options. It allowed the human characters to finally be truly relevant and not just dumb, wide-eyed spectators (although, God, there was a lot of that in this movie) and it gave the whole thing a sort of story.

-Just like the previous movie, Ken Watanabe gave a performance this movie did not deserve. He's just one of those actors where he's so seasoned that even though God knows this movie's script is not fucking Shakespeare, you could still tell that he cared a lot about the project and was easily the best actor hands down.

-I'm glad Emma dies. Fuck her. Thank you for having the teeth to not try and give her some shitty redemption that she wouldn't have deserved anyway. Thank you for sticking to your guns and doing just like Deep Blue Sea and letting the person responsible for all that death take the final bow for her shitty fucking actions.

-This has nothing to do with the canon, but I had a really cool idea: what if Last Action Hero Bad Guy is Tom Hiddleston's character from Kong: Skull Island? Wouldn't that be fucking neat?! It just occurred to me that since Hiddleston's character was probably in his 30's during the 1970's, he'd be in his 70's during this film and he's a tall, thin British dude. I would love it if we got some kind of backstory reveal that something happened that caused Hiddleston's character to turn against Monarch. Wouldn't that be a good idea for a second Kong movie? Seeing the hero turn to the villain for the sake of saving the planet? Man, I like that idea a lot, but that's me.

-I was glad to see Ziyi Zhang return to a big screen movie. I liked her and felt bad about what happened to her career, so it was cool seeing little bits of story, especially about how Asian cultures do in fact consider reptiles to be helpful and not hurtful. That was a neat little mythos thing for me.

Cons:

-As mentioned above, I hated this fucking family. This family is just unbearable. I know the film is ham-fisted in its attempts to deal with loss and tragedy and a broken home, but there is a way to do that. There is a way to write characters reconciling and putting aside a rough history to come together. This is not the way. It's so sloppily written that I was throwing my hands up in exasperation at certain points. They are so unlikable. You see so little of their home life, first off, that there is no real connection to get to know them. This is a common problem in action movies these days, too--they don't know how to set the stage and just rush into action. It's true we come to action movies for action, but that doesn't mean we don't also want to enjoy the characters we're spending time with. We know it's fully possible to have action packed movies with well-written leads. It's been done for decades, so this movie has no excuse for why the three family members are aggressively terrible. Emma is a selfish, thoughtless bitch and her motivations make zero sense. Mark is just an angry ex-alcoholic who just barely is relevant enough to be in the story. Madison is damn near a blank slate daughter archetype with little to offer except to be something to rescue. Even with one brief flashback of when they were happy, we're not given a reason to root for them because you never get to know them and the few character traits they do display are just awful. For that reason, we're gonna give Emma her own bullet point to explain why she is just the worst.

-Emma's motivation is completely ass-backwards. Going the eco-terrorism point makes no fucking sense for what happened to her. Hear me out. I can see what this movie was going for, and I know it's kind of an odd comparison, but what they ended up with is basically blonde Thanos. Fuck this woman. Fuck this woman for deciding that she's right and millions of other people need to die because she thinks she is right about something, and she was fucking wrong. 100% fucking wrong. It made no sense that because Godzilla killed your kid, you're gonna slaughter tens of thousands of other kids to "restore the earth" and make it some kind of utopia. You're gonna subject innocent lives to torture and death and trauma in the hopes that titantic animals you cannot at all control and barely understand will raze everything to ashes and then shit can grow again. This is some deeply white people shit, too. Sorry to pull that card, but yes, this is a full-on white people mentality of doing something that will hurt everyone else BUT YOU and thinking you have the right to make that fucking decision. She and Maddie were somewhere safe, and she told her ex-husband to go somewhere safe too, and then she pulled a trigger that killed millions of fucking people whose only crimes were existing. That environmentalist message was utter shit. Is the earth overpopulated and polluted? Yep. But the fucking solution is not to kill half the goddamn population. The solution is to work together and overthrow the corrupt people keeping us from finding realistic ways to solve the problem, not wiping out half of humanity while you sit in a goddamn doomsday bunker sipping coffee and congratulating yourself. The crazy thing is this blonde Thanos bullshit did not need to happen. Last Action Hero Bad Guy was perfectly fine in this role of basically the kaiju version of Ra's Al Ghul. It made sense for him to be like, "ay, fuck y'all for killing the earth, let's let the monsters have it back and then clean up afterward." All you had to do was keep it the way it was presented to us: he kidnapped her and the kid and forced them to help wake up the monsters. There was no need to for this idiotic Deep Blue Sea nonsense of her agreeing with him and somehow setting it up. Which, by the way, made no goddamn sense because he kills all those innocent scientists in the lab at the beginning of the movie. Did she know he would do that? If so, fuck her. Fuck her in the ass sideways for killing her own teammates. She could have met him somewhere else. What was with the guns and shit if she's the one who came up with this dumb idea? I hate everything about this character and I am glad she died in the end because she was as much a fucking monster as King Ghidorah.

-The dialogue in this movie is atrocious. Look, I get it, it's a generic action movie. But come on. There were seriously points where I just rolled my eyes or threw my hands up in exasperation because there were just so many Captain Obvious comments or unfunny one-liners thrown back and forth. It's painful to endure some of this shit. The "humor" in particular really hurts, because you can see they put pauses after certain lines where they think the audience is laughing, and trust me, no, we were NOT laughing. Stupid shit like telling a character to "hold on" as a fucking maelstrom is trying to blow them away or just other dumb filler dialogue that makes me wanna slap my forehead. It's egregious.

-The Monarch team is still kind of as stupid as the last movie. Not completely, but they were reaching hard in certain cases and they still felt useless. One example that drove me insane was when Godzilla went back to his bachelor pad to recharge, they then say this is where he comes to heal...and then proceed to nuke that shit. And I'm like...bitch, whatchu gon' do now if he gets hurt?! You're just gonna find him and nuke him every single time he's hurt?! What the fuck kind of plan is that? I get that the movie writers wanted a sense of urgency, but that was such an idiotic way to accomplish something needed for the plot. They introduced a cool concept and then eliminated it immediately. Oy. Another example is Mark's dumbass screaming for Maddie like she can possibly hear him at Fenway Park with fucking Ghidorah and Godzilla literally fighting right on top of the stadium. Are you kidding me? My God, Mark is stupid. He did the same thing when he ran into the base with a fucking pistol screaming her name and letting the armed mercs know exactly where the hell he was. I am shocked his dumbass didn't get immediately picked off. Moron.

-Sarigawa's death was some full-on nonsense. Fuck you for killing the only credible actor in the entire movie, and what's worse is that it very much feels like a person of color dying for the sake of some goddamn white people. Because, yes, folks, I'm sorry, this is a white woman's fault. All this shit is because a white woman wanted to be Thanos and now this awesome dude has to sacrifice himself. Fuck off. I hate this point in the story, even though bless Watanabe for giving us the only credible emotional scene in the entire movie.

-Even though she was barely a character, I disliked Sally Hawkins biting it randomly in the first third, and not getting much reverence. No, we didn't know shit about her, but it felt like the movie just said "fuck it" and moved right along like it was no big deal. I don't know why they even bothered.

-How in God's name did they somehow "sneak" Ghidorah's whole ass head out of fucking Boston with no one noticing? It's a giant dragon head! How did you fucking do that and no one saw you bring it all the way to Mexico? I swear to God, this movie is filled with plotholes. I'm fine with them setting up Mecha Ghidorah or just cloning him all over again, but why couldn't it just have been in Boston and they just snuck in during the dead of night and moved it somewhere nearby? That thing is gigantic and it's a hard pill to swallow that they just left without anyone noticing it.

EDIT: A fan corrected me that this was the head that Godzilla ripped off before the end fight, so the above point is invalid. Nice catch! Thank you! 

-Nitpick: Did Mothra die? That was unclear. I hope not. She's the Queen. I'll have to ask some Godzilla fans to explain what they thought happened after Ghidorah blasted her in the final fight.

-Nitpick: Good God, these human characters survive shit that would easily kill a normal person and it is a little bit grating on the nerves to suspend your disbelief this hard.

-Nitpick: I hate it when monsters the size of fucking buildings somehow notice tiny ass humans enough to bother giving them their attention or even their ire. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot." I hated it in '98 Godzilla and I still hate it. Something on that scale should not even vaguely bother with one tiny human being, but that's me.

I know I have some very heavy criticisms, but this is still a decent flick if you're just going to shell out for a matinee showing. The monsters are great and entertaining and there's plenty of fighting to go around that is worth a peek, especially the end fight with Ghidorah and Godzilla. It was pretty cool to see in IMAX as well, but I leave that up to you folks if it's worth it.

Kyo out.

[star-shapedfruit]

A sort of KH3 review.. thing

Well dang that was a wild ride wasn’t it? It’s been about 2/3 weeks since I finished the game (took me 5 days which is record time for me considering it was a pretty big game) so I’ll try my best to condense my thoughts on it below

Please note this is my opinion so you may agree or disagree with me on some parts and that’s totally fine!

And it’s gonna be long

Alright let’s get the bad out of the way:

-The pacing

I’m not the first and I definitely won’t be the last to complain about the goddamn pacing. Kingdom Hearts in general is pretty bad when it comes to a well balanced pace and this was the same. Everything felt rushed and crammed towards the end with it feeling like ‘quick let’s wrap this up ASAP!’.

It was literally Disney world after world with bits of important story in between and then the actual plot of saving everyone kicked in and probably made up of about 3 hours of the whole game. It could have been better if we’d have rescued Aqua and Ven earlier then towards the end save Roxas, Xion and Terra (and Namine) but nah.

Even the ending itself felt rushed and half assed at times. We didn’t get to see Sora save Kairi it was just Keyblade Graveyard ending- everyone being happy at the beach- credits. That was... kinda dumb? Also when you’re wrapping up a 17 year old saga you don’t tend to end it like that. You know what I’m talking about.

-Characters

They gone did Kairi dirty again. AGAIN. How many times are we gonna do this? My poor girl got shafted right at the end just to fuel Sora’s anger and then didn’t explain how she got back to the islands anyway but who fucking cares y’know.

She was hyped up after being confirmed to be a guardian of light and in training with Lea and they did fuck all with it. It’s like you’re so excited to see Santa and you get up on his knee to ask what present you want this Christmas only for Santa to laugh and smack you in the face.

I could go on and on about Kairi but I’d probably be saying what everyone else has already said. I was expecting more character interactions ie the famous Roxas and Ven one we’ve been looking forward to for years but we got a funny glance and that’s it. Again, probably due to pacing but there was so much potential for some great new friendships to blossom and they just... didn’t.

-Worlds

Ok this is mainly Twilight Town being so teenie weenie. Come on, in KH2 we had TT, Hollow Bastion, TWTNW, Yen Sid’s Tower but for 3? Two sections of TT that’ll do. ??? Why??? It looked gorgeous and I couldn’t wait to explore the whole town but for some reason we were reduced to it being two rooms. Also missed out a good opportunity to have RG playable again but nah.

I get the feeling Disney we’re very pushy with this title? Like they had more input than usual and Square couldn’t really argue with them which would explain why the OG worlds were kinda dull? Idk I hope they learn to butt out a little and let Square do their thing. I’m not saying get rid of Disney god no. I just think there needs to be less Disney and more OG in the next title.

Alright the good stuff now!

- The graphics

Holy shit this game was BEAUTIFUL

Everything was gorgeous to look at and Unreal Engine made all the worlds look unique and specific to their Disney world. Like o can’t fault how this game looks it’s just that pretty

-Voice acting

Hayley, Hayley my man you did fantastic. I was getting worried that he’d sound off like in DDD but the man delivered. Everything was spot on and his emotions came across so much better? That scream? The crying?? The joy?? Beautiful. And Vanitas sounded so goddamn evil and Hayley sounded like he was having a blast voicing him 👌

Jesse did amazing as always with Roxas and Ven making them sound different. Just wish they coulda talked to each other xD I really liked Alyson’s Kairi too! I miss Hayden but for the most part Alyson pulled it off great along with Xion.

Like everyone sounded so much better I could go on and on. Can’t really fault much of the voice acting tbh. Xehanort grew on me but Nimoy will always be the better Nort

-Minigames/side quests

I absolutely SUCK at the cooking mini game but I still found it loads of fun. The only one I could do properly was the salt and pepper shaker one 😅 The 100 Acre Wood stuff was very samey samey but still cute and fun regardless.

I only did one flan mini game (the one in Toy Box) and that was awesome too! Hunting for ingredients and lucky emblems was tricky in parts but I loved the satisfaction when you finally find the damn thing! They were just a nice little touch and even though I only got 17 out of 90 I enjoyed looking for them.

Also that Tangled dancing game. My FAV IDK HOW MANY TIMES I’VE PLAYED THAT ITS JUST SO WHOLESOME AND GOOD

-Attraction Flow

LOVED this gimmick. What can I say I absolutely love Disneyland and being able to use the rides to fight in battle was a blast. I especially loved the mad tea cups (“Bring it in!”) and the pirate ship they were loads of fun :D shame I only got to use Thunder Mountain twice because it’s one of my favourite rides xD

-The gummi phone

Who doesn’t love this. Finally I can take selfies with Disney characters! It was so cute I’m glad they added it. I’m definitely gonna use it more on my next gameplay at inappropriate times during the final battles 🌚

-Final battles

Being able to fight alongside Riku, Mickey, Aqua, Ven, Kairi, Lea, Roxas and Xion was at the top of my wish list for 3 and it finally happened ;-; Ok we’re with Kairi and Lea for two minutes but I ENJOYED THOSE TWO MINUTES. Kairi actually does some decent damage too so she can fight. You did amazing sweetie. And how OP is Roxas? You can just sit back and let him do all the work while you and Xion chill out. Granted they weren’t difficult bosses but I don’t care I got to fight with my sons and daughters by my side <3

I’m nearly done now promise. Just wanna say my favourite worlds ❤️

Corona: Gorgeous and (mostly) tranquil. Rapunzel and Eugene make great partners and the hair swing thing was awesome to jump to different areas. Also the little quests with Rapunzel were adorable and made the world feel more alive.

Monstropolis: I think what made this world for me were the character interactions and the music. The world itself was just inside the factory but the way everyone played off each other and dealt with Vanitas at the end was amazing. And Sora doing his funny face again. You little treasure <3

Toy Box: YOU. ARE. A. TOYYYYYY. Everything was so gigantic and interactive and gsjsksksla it was just loads of fun! Loved Woody and Buzz as partners and the whole world was such a treat- nothing like we’ve ever had in a KH game before. Can we also talk about Woody absolutely wrecking Xehanort though? Iconic.

Well I think that’ll do me for now. Overall I’d give it an 8.5/10 with the major issues being plot pacing and lack of character development. Also the camera sometimes did this weird thing in attraction flow mode where it’d just zoom into a rock or a tree :/ I really enjoyed KH3 despite its flaws and what was done well was done really well

Maybe get some more new writers and let Square properly take the reins for the next one yeah? And let Kairi finally have her time to shine. You’ve set up a rescue mission after all, Square 👀

[april-lilies]

Sounds like you have some super cool stories for us, it its not anything too private. I think it would be super cool to hear about more stories with you and tokyo.

Oh my god, the thing is that I don’t even know where to start…so you’re going to get a general rundown of all of it. I apologize as some bits may potentially make people uncomfortable (I got molested while drunk at one point).

Strap in, this is going to be LONG, though I’m going to gloss over some bits. This all happened while also going to school Mon-Fri and some Saturdays all day. I’m also excluding most of the hanging out with my class friends because it was more just casual hanging out/bar hopping/nothing very exciting.

If anyone has any more specific questions about my experiences or Tokyo, please feel free to ask me.

The first weekend I was here I went to a gothy music event after going to a Buck-Tick gig. The BT gig ended at like 8:30 and I didn’t want to go home and I knew of the all night music gig. I was going to chicken out from going, but I decided to attend. That one decision set off all of this.

At the gothy music thing, I saw Auto-Mod and various alt DJs in the Tokyo scene. Some random western dude then came in and seemed to know everyone and eventually danced with me for a bit. He was just trying to get people to dance/get hyped up for the band. Figured that was that, but after the show he grabbed me and started introducing me to various people, mostly DJs including DJ Sisen. Turns out the dude runs his own club, and he and one of the DJs (who I will call Ossan #1) took me over to it. I got in free and drank free, chatted with people a bit there. Ossan #1 worked/works for Buck-Tick’s record company and we chatted about BT for a while. He was fucking shocked I knew them and had just come from a gig. It was wild to just…run into a random person and talk to them about BT at some length. After the club closed, the club owner took me out to breakfast at a lil place that you wouldn’t have ever been able to find unless you knew it was there and the cooks looked like yankis. Everyone was really nice and were shoving food at me for me to try. I didn’t get home til like 10:15 in the morning.

This was before Halloween and the club owner told me I should come to his big Halloween party at a big nice venue the next weekend, so I went because I am a curious mofo. Through the night I got hit on and pursued and bought drinks by various men, danced, and got kissed by like 5 people. Toward the end, Ossan #1 shoved me on stage to dance with some professional performer girls, which was pretty fun. After, I was invited to come to the after party and we split up to go in various taxis/or take the train. I took the train with another DJ guy, who then tried to take me home instead, to which I noped out and went to the bar where we were supposed to meet the other people. I just kinda hung around and left when I felt I could.

Next weekend was the weekend before Halloween and my closest class friend asked me to go out to an LGBT party with her (she’s a married lesbian). I said sure, but we ended up not going there and ended up going to a famous women’s only bar in the gay district of Tokyo. We did a nomihodai, which is all you can drink for a set time (at this bar it lasted two hours). Various people were hitting on my friend until she told them she was married and then the attention turned to me and it was the first time irl I’ve been hit on by women. It was an interesting experience and was fun. After, we left to go to an lgbt bar where my friend knew the manager. Drank there. Then decided to walk over to the bar where I know the club owner, since there was another Halloween party there that night too. BUT when we got there, my friend decided to go home and left me to the bar by myself. I was already pretty fucking buzzed by that point since we’d had a lot to drink, and then when I got to the bar, I met another DJ (who I will now call Ossan #2), who bought me like three shots, which we downed quickly. He went off and left not long after that. I didn’t know at the time, but now I think he probably left because he was drunk/he can’t handle much booze and the shots probably hit him. I was ok myself for a bit, but then the shots fucking hit me and knocked me on my ass. I blacked out drunk for the first time in my life. It was not fun and I don’t remember a lot. I know I got sick and I had a few nice people taking care of me. I’m really glad for them and that the people at this bar are generally very good people. When I was more conscious/sober but still terribly drunk, I found myself scared and alone on a couch in the bar. I noticed Ossan #1 (who was also very drunk) and he was the only one I recognized and I went to him because I wanted to be near someone I knew. That ended with me being drunk and confused as I realized he’d fucking shoved his hand up my shirt and pushed my bra away and was groping me. I was too fucking drunk to really do much. I was aware enough to pull his hand away when he kept trying to put it down my pants, at least. This was near the end of the party and at the end he tried to get me to go home with him and I was too drunk to really do anything, so I stared at the bar owner until he noticed me and came over. He fended off the Ossan DJ #1 and then had two of his friends escort me to the train station so I’d be safe. I regret getting as drunk as I did that night and will never, ever do it again, but it was probably a good lesson to learn.

Most DJs or club people I’d talked to a bit more and I had exchanged Line contacts, so later that week Ossan DJ #2 contacted me and asked me to go to a music festival the coming weekend with him. Again, I am a terribly curious person and said sure. He bought my ticket and went over to it together, grabbing some food and some beers at the venue (Poor dude said he was kinda drunk after two beers. One thing I like about japan is I can drink all the Japanese men I’ve met under the table.). It was more of a nerdy music/arts festival than anything, merging electronic art and imagery with electronic music. It was actually really cool and I wish we’d stayed longed, but Ossan #2 just kinda flitted around a bit from area to area in the venue (which was a cool museum). He eventually took me to a nice sushi place and we ate a ton and he paid for all of it. He then decided he wanted to go home and we split ways. To this day I’m still not exactly sure wtf he wants from me since he’s made no moves on me at all, but has asked me to hang out multiple times, though I’ve always been busy.

Next weekend I was out shopping and by the end couldn’t decide if I wanted to stop by the bar for a drink before going home. It was only like 8pm and I didn’t think there would be many people there and I didn’t wanna go by myself when there wasn’t a party going on (they start at ~11pm), but I decided to walk over to the area anyway before deciding if I was gunna go in to the bar or not. When I got there I decided no, and started to walk to the train station home. On the way, a guy who was clearly not a resident stopped me. He was a guy in Tokyo on business from Hong Kong and asked me if I knew any good bars in the area and if I wanted to go drinking with him. I said sure, only because I got to pick the bar and we were right by the one I was comfortable with. Drank with him for a while and responded with disinterest as he kept hitting on me and trying to kiss me/etc. he was kinda drunk already and luckily at one point he fucked up and called me the wrong name, to which I fucking roasted him. It was getting near 11pm then and I had permission from the bar owner to stay a bit later without having to pay the entrance fee for the upcoming party and I basically told the guy to gtfo since he’d have to pay if he stayed any longer. After he left I stuck around and socialized for like an hour before catching one of the last trains home.

Next, I decided to go to another kinda gothy DJ/performance event at the same venue as the one I’d first gone to. I didn’t really know anyone there (I had met a few of the DJs before, but nothing to the level they’d really remember me), so I just kinda hung around by myself and danced a lil. Annnd then Ossan DJ #1 came in. It was a dance of awkward small talk, standing on opposite sides of the room, and avoiding each other. Eventually at he end of the night, the club owner I know showed up and he ended up taking me and introducing me to more people and got me to socialize a bit. At one point when he’d gone off to socialize with some others, Ossan #1 finally came up to me at the bar and was like ‘So……..you’re mad at me….what did I do?’. I thought he was avoiding me because he knew he fucked up the last time, when in reality he was avoiding me because I’d been acting cold to him all night and he didn’t know why. He didn’t remember what he’d done and I got to inform him of it, to which he tried to make me stop and shush me and tell me to keep it a secret. I was not shushed. Eventually bar owner came back and we went over to his bar, which was frankly pretty boring this time. When we were leaving, another club owner stopped me on the street and said I looked like Boy George (which was a comment I got about 5 times that night because of my make up/hat combo. it was completely an accident) and she got my Line info and asked me to play Boy George in an 80s night she will be doing in March and was very happy to find me because she already has a guy who plays Pete Burns for her. We’ll see if she ever actually contacts me about this again. When I went to say goodbye to the bar owner after she was done talking to me, he introduced me to a friend of his and told his friend to ‘take care of me’. I didn’t know what the fuck that meant, but he took me out to breakfast and we just chatted. It was nice and the food was fucking amazing traditional Japanese grilled fish breakfast set.

Sometime during the next week (on a school night) went to a Kaya gig where he sang Schwarz Stein/Femme Fatale/solo work accompanied by piano and violin. It was a very lovely little show in an intimate bar.

Ok, now this I’m not exactly proud to admit, and you may judge me as you like, but I messaged Ossan #1 the next week and told him I’d forgive him for what he did one time and asked if it’d be ok for me to go to the event he was DJing that night. I knew we’d run in the same circles and that I’d keep seeing him and I wanted to clear the air. He said yes, that he was relieved, and that he’d never touch me again (which he has indeed kept his promise on and has backed off from anything more than some verbal teasing). The event was at a very nice little bar I’d never been to before. There was supposed to have a cover charge, but I waltzed right in and the staff like gestured to Ossan #1 like ‘ah you’re here because of him.’ He bought me a drink and then proceeded to introduce me to some people there, including a couple. The wife spoke very good English, and it turns out they run a large fetish party in Tokyo and that Ossan #1 DJs for it. Apparently Ossan #1 introduced me to them as sort of an apology and had suggested to them that I model for their next fetish party, to which they liked the idea. I ended up chatting with the wife most of the time, and I have to say she was THE SWEETEST. The DJ event at this bar only lasted until 1am and trains don’t start again until 4-5am, so I had intended to walk 45min to the bar I know the owner of and stay the rest of the night there. Instead, I was asked to go to Harajuku to a bar with the couple, Ossan DJ #1, and two girls who were at the bar (one of which was one of the girls I’d danced on stage with at Halloween, but I’m not sure she remembered me). I said sure, and the couple paid for all my drinks at the first bar and then we hopped in taxis, which I also didn’t end up paying for at all. At the bar in Harajuku, the couple took us up to the private floor and a waiter immediately came and served us all champagne. I was sitting on the end at first and everyone was talking in Japanese and I just kinda observed, until the wife noticed and moved from her husband to come and sit by me and talk with me ;___; Lots of champagne and silly chatting was done (and I guess planning for their next Fetish party, but that was done in Japanese) and turns out the wife was really into BT/Sakurai when she was a teenager, so we chatted about that too. Overall, it was really, really fun and the wife invited me to their private Xmas party in a few weeks. After, we all hopped in a taxi and they had it take me over to the bar I normally go to and paid for it for me. I don’t remember a whole lot because I’d been drinking a fair bit, but I know I kissed one of the bartenders, and idk how the fuck that happened. At the end, I somehow also ended up going out for a ramen breakfasts with a bunch of French people, who ended up paying for my food for some reason.

During the next week, for some reason I decided to go over to the bar when the bartender I’d kissed was working. I’m not exactly fucking sure why, I think I just wanted to see how he acted and to see if that had actually happened. We chatted a bit about music and it was really pretty awkward since we were the only ones there at first and his English was bad as is my Japanese. Eventually more customers came in and he was attending to them, but turned the music system to playing Soft Ballet since I’d mentioned I like them. And then this older dude from Belgium came in and came over to ask to drink with me because he was glad to see another Westerner there. We ended up chatting for a quite a while and he bought me drinks the whole time. Eventually his friends came and he left and I needed to catch my train and I went to leave. To which the bartender came out in the hall and kissed me while I was waiting for the elevator, which then confirmed that shit had indeed happened the last time I’d been at the bar. I still have no fucking clue why he and I ever kissed the first time.

The next while was spent mostly on school and trying to find something to wear for the Xmas party. Like what the fuck do you wear to a fancy dress party run by people who organize Fetish parties??? And also I was curious how it’d go because both Ossans were on the guest list. Anyway, eventually that came and Ossan #2 was super surprised to see me because he had no idea how the fuck I got involved in this group/how I got involved enough to be invited to the Xmas party. He and I chatted and hung around until he had to leave to DJ at another event (which was supposed to be the after party for the Xmas party, but we didn’t end up going). After he left I kinda just…awkwardly introduced and passed around to various Westerners/Japanese who spoke English there. I don’t think some were very thrilled to talk to me/felt like they were baby-sitting. It was funny though, at one point I was asked which DJ/man there I ‘belonged to’ and the woman seemed to think it was badass that I said I don’t belong to anyone. At one point I talked with the host couple a bit too and they expressed that they were trying to figure out what they wanted me to do for their Fetish party. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, and I still don’t. Eventually a half American, half-British guy came up to me and we ended up chatting most of the rest of the party. He was really chill and bought me some curry, lol. The party was officially over, but most people stuck around to keep drinking and socializing and were getting more drunk. Ended up chatting with Ossan #1 a bit and with the host lady. Also, for being a party run by fetish people, the most kinky thing that happened was someone getting spanked a bit at the end, so it was a lot less weird than I thought it might get. A group from the party, including the host couple, decided to go to a restaurant near by and the half-Brit guy and I decided to go along. We hung out most of it but later regretted going b/c it was a flat fee we were all charged to be there and eat/drink, which was about $50. I didn’t have enough money on me at the time and the Brit guy took pity on me and decided to pay for mine since he knew I was a student and had no income. I told him I’d pay him back, but he refused. We also ended up being silly and eating slices of wagyu steak with our hands because we didn’t get sliver wear and it was some stupid protest at the time over how expensive it was. Idk, it was dumb but fun. Eventually we hopped a taxi and he went home and I went to the bar I always go to to wait for the train. Nothing very exciting happened there other than a drunk bartender kept giving me rice balls for free. I guess the day after the host lady messaged the Brit guy to ask if I’d gotten home ok ;____;

The next few weeks I just focused on getting through school/finals, which was admittedly rough and came with a bit of a breakdown towards the end. One week night I did end up going out to dinner with the club owner, which mostly was just him talking about politics the whole time. We went to a bar in the gay district for a few drinks after since I guess he liked the particular gay bar, despite not being gay. Idk, he still mostly talked about politics, which is not a topic I really enjoy discussing. Another night I ended up going out to a café with the Brit guy, as well. It had intended to be me studying and him working on translation work, but we mostly ended up talking and gossiping about the people in the club scene. I guess he’s been in the scene for ~10 years and yet I’ve managed to infiltrate it and meet more people in two months than he had in years 8| Not that I was trying to do that, it was all a bunch of accidents. Also near finals I went to a music gig of Auto-Mod/Der Zibet/Loopus. I regret not sticking around to socialize at the bar once the show was done, but I had Saturday class the day after.

Finally got through finals and went out with my school friends for the last time before most of them left since they were staying only one semester (thankfully the girl I went out with on Halloween is staying and she’s the person I’m closest with at school). ANNNNNNND the next day picked up Riki (@crimsonmaggots) from the airport. That night I’d been invited to parties both by the club owner and by the fetish party lady, but Riki and I were both exhausted and stayed home. He stayed with me over my break and we did a bunch of stuff. I’ll mention some notable ones that relate to my social life or music.

We went to Yellow House, which is a shop run by the woman who has been dressing many visual kei bands since the very beginning/her shop has been around 37 years. It’s tiny but the walls are plastered with old band flyers, posters, and polaroids of her with band members through the years. I def freaked out a bit over her old pics with BT and she had a sticker banner thing from the original DIQ in ’89. If you’re ever in Harajuku and are into VK, I suggest you stop by and at least talk to her. She’s a gem and a spitfire of an old lady. It was a religious experience; especially for Riki since the lady basically dressed him in a perfect coat and also he ended up buying one of the same shirts Imai had bought from the lady.

We also went to Buck-Tick’s tour finale, which was FUCKING FANTASTIC. We prepared like the entire day to make sure our looks were on point before going to the gig. It was so fucking good and I ended up getting us 4th row seats since I’m part of Fish Tank. People danced the entire gig and it was super fun. He and I also ended up in the crowd a few times on the live broadcast of the show. After, we hit up a restaurant for some beef stew omurice before heading to the bar I always go to for the weekend’s party. Which happened to be hosted by Takuya Angel this time, who thanked us for coming. It was a small party and we mostly just hung out and danced. The bartender who I had kissed the one time did like try to be a bit close to me at a few points, but I think got salty and avoided me after seeing that I was there with Riki, since I guess he thought we might be involved. Also the club owner randomly showed up and made two big posts of Chinese stew and gave it to all the guests for free??? It was an odd night, but fun.

On New Year’s we decided to go to a sort of gothy, black-themed New Year’s party. Unfortunately, we left kinda late and I didn’t think about how Shibuya would be fucking PACKED on NYE, so we were stuck jammed in a crowd when the year changed. Eventually we made it to the party and were met by a warm welcome from a DJ lady who was also there. She runs a shop in Harajuku we’d stopped by previously where she was super nice and let us try on corsets. Otherwise, I had been introduced to a few people there before (such as the woman who was running the party, I met her at the Xmas party, but I don’t think she remembered me), but wasn’t exactly on close enough terms to feel comfortable chatting with any of them except Ossan #1. Most of the night was spent dancing our asses off, people watching, and drinking. The performer girl who I had danced with at Halloween and who had been around at various other events was there too and she ended up dancing with me a bit and eventually dragged me and Riki up on the stage to dance with her and her friend during the last DJ set (which was Ossan #1). Idk how long Riki was up there, but the girl and I ended up dancing on stage together for quite a while

Various other adventures were had while Riki was here and he just left yesterday and now I’m fucking sad he’s gone.

I start school again tomorrow and that’s where I’m at with things. There’s a party this weekend at my typical bar where Ossan #1 is DJing….we’ll see if I go or not. We’ll see what happens with the fetish party. We’ll see what the fuck happens with my social life. All I know is this is far from over.

I applaud you if you read this all.

[saltpepperbeard]

**REWRITE** These Words are a Lie ~A Joshifer Fanfiction~ Chapter Two

A/N: Holy moly does it feel weird to write that title again. But hello everyone! This may seem a bit odd, but trust me, this has been a long time coming. I was super hyped when I published chapter two back in 2015. Over the years however, the chapter has gotten uglier and uglier to me, the characterization/motivation just BEGGING to be fixed. And of course very recently, my writing motivation has returned home from war lol. So naturally, I FINALLY decided to rewrite this chapter as a fun little exercise!

I have to say that I’m much happier with how it turned out. It ended up longer than the original of course; no surprise there lol. But I’m really glad I did this, and I had so much fun diving back into the TWAAL universe again! (And yes the banner got a glow up too lol)

Disclaimer: This chapter contains strong language and explicit sexual content.

The original/old chapter two can be found here [x]

All chapters can be found here [x]

And without further adooooo....

After a plethora of love-soaked reveries and heated dreams, I awake with a start. It takes me a moment to come to terms with where I am, come to terms with reality. The second I do, I’m met with a lifting relief and a crushing sadness.

The clock on the night stand reads 3 AM, and I’m still in my Berlin hotel room, Josh asleep in bed beside me. I’m so happy he’s here. His presence alone takes a giant weight off my shoulders. His presence alone hoists me away from all the bullshit I’ve dealt with for the past few weeks. It reminds me that life is hopefully headed in a simpler, happier direction, one where my ex isn’t constricting me.

Losing Nick however, and having Josh to fill the holes, unfortunately has problems of its own. Looking at him as my best friend, Josh does wonders with making me feel better. He always knows how to make me smile, always knows what to say, and always makes me feel like I’m home. I suppose he’s a little too good at making me feel better, because even to this day, he still surpasses the “best friend” title in my heart.

After everything we’ve been through, after all the twists and turns our lives have taken, I still long for him like nothing else.

The thought is amazing, but so incredibly frustrating.

I’m away from Nick, sure. But I wish I could undo even more. I wish I could go back to our first break up and never look back from then on. I wish I could go back to Hawaii and fully commit to who I’ve deeply loved after all this time.

But I can’t. The damage has been done. And now I’m stuck here in limbo.

A long sigh slips from my nose as I eye Josh in the darkness. Even though he’s turned away from me, he looks absolutely conked out, his body sagging heavily into the mattress. My expression shifts to a sad ghost of a smile as I continue to stare, the dreams picking back up even in my wakeful state.

What would it be like if Josh was lying in bed beside me not as my friend, but as my partner...

What would it be like if Josh and I had spent the night peppering each other with kisses instead of platonic hugs...

What would it be like if Josh and I had fallen deep into each other and fucked the night away...

I sit up a bit more with alarm, almost feeling ashamed of myself for having such a thought cross my brain.

God, I’m such a mess. My emotions and composure are really such a mess.

Any sane woman wouldn’t jump from guy to guy like this. Although, perhaps I never fully “jumped” from the start. Nick and I definitely weren’t in love weeks ago, months ago. Anything we did wasn’t even remotely genuine. What I’m thinking about Josh however...

I bite my lip and decide that a bit of fresh air might do me good. I definitely need to clear my head.

As carefully and quietly as I can manage, I roll out of bed and head out onto the balcony. The cool night air is instantly refreshing, and I greedily inhale deep lungfuls as I attempt to calm myself down. I focus on anything and everything that can distract me from thinking about the man still asleep in my bed. The Berlin traffic down below, the gentle whisper of a breeze in my ears, the sound of the sliding door opening behind me...

A bolt goes up my spine, followed by a slight sense of dread. Guess distracting myself isn’t in the cards for tonight.

Another sigh huffs from my nose, and I pivot to see a very sleepy Josh, still rubbing the exhaustion out of his eyes as he steps on to the balcony with me.

“Hey...” he murmurs, his voice thick and raspy.

“Hey...” I whisper back.

“What are you doing up?” he asks, moving to stand by my side.

I chew my lip nervously, avoiding both his gaze and question as I turn to look over the city below.

“Just couldn’t...sleep I guess.”

Josh seems to consider this, a slight silence following my answer, before he continues.

“A lot on your mind still?”

“You have no idea...”

Another pause. And consequently, without either of us saying anything, my thoughts begin to whirl.

God, I wish I could tell him. I wish I could tell him everything, tell him the truth. I wish I could be perfectly open and honest with my feelings, and have everything work out just the way I want it to.

But I’m stuck. I’m trapped. And there’s no telling when things will come out.

I grasp the edge of the balcony, the metal cool against my fingers. Just when I’m about to truly spiral, a gentle hand against my back shifts things, if only for a moment. Josh rubbing soft circles silently comforts me, but then sends my thoughts reeling once more.

He’s such a great friend.

He’s such an amazing person.

He’s an absolutely perfect man.

God, I love him so much.

My grip turns so hard that my knuckles begin to white out, tears threatening to build in my eyes. I must tense up as well, because the hand against my back slows to a halt.

“You okay?”

I nod, but the moisture I was fighting to keep away ends up pooling in my vision.

“Jen...” Josh murmurs, his tone a bit more solemn.

Just like earlier, just like when he came into my room, he breaches the barrier of my composure. Because when I turn to look at him and open my mouth, all that comes out is a sob, followed by streams of tears.

This time though, he doesn’t say anything. His face falls, his mouth setting into a tight line, before he simply holds his arms out for me to fill. I do so without question.

He holds me tightly as I cry for everything I’ve lost, everything that could have been. Though I’m so incredibly fortunate to have him in my life, call me selfish, but I want more. I want all that he is.

“I hate seeing you like this,” he murmurs, breaking me out of my thoughts, “Everything will be alright, Jen...It’ll get better...”

I could cringe at those words, giving a few more sobs into his shoulder.

“I just want everything to be...simple for once, you know? I want everything to just...fall into place...”

He lets out a sigh against me, nuzzling his head against mine. He allows me more time to cry, more time to get my more extreme emotions out, before I can practically feel his demeanor change. He perks up a bit, his entire form running warm and sunny against my stormy attitude. When he leans back a bit, I cannot help but follow, pulling away a tad to catch his eye.

“Well,” he starts, and I cannot help but notice the twinkle in his gaze, “I don’t know if I can mess with how your life unfolds. Manipulating time and space wasn’t included in acting training.”

Despite my tears, I let out a snort, one that’s enough to bring out the crooked grin I’ve fallen in love with over the years.

“But I can however, at least try and make things a bit better tonight?”

He then reaches up with a hand to brush a few of my tears away, his thumb gently swiping across my cheek. It’s enough to bring my smile back, which only intensifies his.

“So since we’re already up, how about weeee order some food and drinks through room service, put on a shitty movie, and...stay up until things fall more into place?”

I laugh despite myself, despite everything still circulating around through my head.

“You’re an idiot, Joshy...It’s three in the morning...”

“I didn’t hear an answer,” he chuckles.

I give a shaky inhale, contemplating if it’s wise to interact with him more in such a state. But who knows; it might be beneficial to spend the night with him as a friend, and break myself out of the thirsting cycle I’ve got going on.

Anything’s better than lying awake trapped in my thoughts anyway.

So pushing my hesitance aside, I sniffle and return his smile.

“Yeah...Let’s do that.”

xXx

We go back into the room, and it isn’t long before we’re surrounded by various forms of alcohol, munchies, and movies. I’m quick to turn to drinks to numb myself, to white out my mind, getting buzzed faster than I planned to. While he initially gives me shit for using alcohol to cope, teasingly calling me Haymitch and what not, it doesn’t take Josh long to follow.

We laugh and talk, eat and drink, attempting to pay attention to the chosen movies as much as possible but barely doing so. The entertainment is more between us, a stream of drunken jokes and jabs pouring out of us.

It’s just what the doctor ordered, spending time with him like this. It’s just the two of us acting like idiots in their twenties. It puts me in my place.

Three turns to four, and four turns into five. Though the booze continues to run rampant in our systems, we begin to wind down a bit, flopping against the bed and trying to focus more on the television.

And just like usual, the whole friendship element begins to chip away, something far stronger attempting to win me over. Just when I happen to be at my utmost weakest as well.

In my state of growing mental and physical exhaustion, I find myself laying against Josh, my arm thrown messily across his chest and my head atop his shoulder. He holds me in a loose embrace, the two of us quieting down as we try our best to watch whatever’s on the TV.

“I needed this...” I murmur after a bit of a pause.

“I know you did. How are you feeling?”

“Reaaaaaallly good,” I reply, my voice clearly coated with liquor.

Josh snorts, before laughing a bit at my intoxicated state.

“Glad to hear it. Sorry if you wake up with a headache tomorrow, though,” he chuckles.

“Whatever. I was probably going to have one anyway.”

He chuckles a bit again, before snuggling closer and starting to rub my back once more. I let out a long breath and relax even further against him, getting lost in his touch and comfort.

A bit too lost I suppose, because before I can even process what I’m doing, I press a soft kiss to his chest, my lips brushing against his skin. It’s a silent thanks for everything. It’s a hint of my longing towards him. It’s definitely not how two friends should be acting.

My logic eventually catches back up, and a bolt of fear runs down my spine. God dammit, I’m slipping. I’m slipping something terrible. I can feel the alcohol washing away any and all self-control I may have. I can’t fuck things up for us. Not again. No matter how much I may want to, he’s my friend. He’s...

My argumentative thoughts are cut short by Josh’s hand stilling on my back. I hold my breath, wincing as I prepare for him to question my motives. Oddly enough, he does the exact opposite of what I expect; he leans down and presses a gentle kiss against my temple.

God, I love it. It sets me completely alight, warmth shooting from where his lips touched my skin to every nook and cranny of my body.

Josh and I have always been a bit more physically affectionate with each other. Platonic kisses have never really been out of the question. But with my current circumstances, in my current state of mind, a simple kiss takes me to a whole different state of being.

It rekindles my romantic thoughts. It makes me want to kiss him until the sun comes up, until the liquor runs dry. It makes me want to get locked in his embrace and never come out. It makes me want to smother him with all the pent up love I’ve been accumulating over the past few months, past few years.

And of course with love, stronger, more salacious thoughts are quick to follow...

My breath catches, soft shivers beginning to course through me. It’s like I physically have to hold myself back from falling victim and completely ravishing him. I have to aggressively restrain my impulsive side, my eager side, and hold on desperately to my more logical, calm thoughts.

But as the warmth spreads, it gets harder, and harder, and harder, and harder.

I have to come up for air, pushing myself up off of Josh and sitting beside him instead. I avoid his gaze for a moment, attempting to reign myself back in with deep, collected breaths. I’m almost about to leap off the bed and take some time to myself, to ensure I don’t do anything stupid.

When I chance a glance at Josh however, when blue looks into warm, wonderful hazel, I lose it. I lose everything.

His stare appears to be soft, loving, curious. And if I didn’t know any better, I’d almost say his pupils are quite enlarged, like he’s gazing upon me with the same desires...

I shut my eyes, trying so hard to hang on to whatever composure I have left. But I can still see him behind shut eyelids, and so I feel the last bit of willpower crack into pieces, a subsequent twitch rolling through me.

My breaths turn shaky, and I open my eyes so I can reach forward and cup Josh’s jaw, desperately begging him to help set me straight.

But he doesn’t. I don’t see any hint of confusion, disgust, or any other negative emotions really. He just continues to look at me with those enticing, handsome eyes of his.

“Fuck...”

My whisper comes out slightly pained, slightly ashamed. That doesn’t stop me from leaning forward though, everything directing me to get what I want.

“Fuck, Josh...” I whimper, almost in a sort of messed up apology before I pounce.

And pounce I do.

It’s like time skips forward; maybe we do have the ability to manipulate it after all. Because in one second, I’m still hesitating, and in the next, I’m crushing my lips to the mouth of the man I truly desire.

It’s heaven. It’s everything. I haven’t kissed him this way in so long. All of our more recent kisses have been for the cameras. I haven’t had him all to myself like this in what seems like an eternity.

It’s almost like my lips were made for his, gliding and sliding perfectly through them. His lips and stubble provide a wonderful mixture of velvety soft and scratchy gruffness that I grow all the more lightheaded, all the more eager to drink him in.

As I greedily kiss him however, as I suck and smack and coax, he doesn’t appear to be doing the same. And when I realize my actions aren’t being reciprocated, I snap a bit more to my senses, a slew of worry flowing through me.

He doesn’t want it. I was just convincing myself otherwise. I threw myself onto him without him feeling the same way. The alcohol painted lies and fed me with false hope.

I almost start to panic, and though it pains me to do so, I start to lean away to break our beautiful connection. Josh has always been one for surprises though; instead of letting me go, he finally comes to and chases after my mouth.

I could almost cry from his silent permission, the kiss entirely mutual now. And so I eagerly hop right back in, gaping against him and hoping he follows my lead. He does, joining me in the lascivious, messy, amazing kiss.

Our lips meet and clash in a continuous stream, like we’re just as desperate to get that forbidden taste from each other. When his hands reach up to frame my face, tugging me even closer to him, I cannot help myself; I begin to moan and whimper through each advance.

It was stupid to think that I would be satisfied by just a good make out session alone. Because sure enough, the deeper and deeper we kiss, the hungrier and hungrier I get. I quickly start to crave more, quickly start to want to connect with Josh in every way, shape, and form.

God, if I could fully have him tonight...

Caught up in the moment, in my emotions, in my intoxication, I need him. I need a taste of what could have been. I want to experience this with him before it’s all ripped away again; the universe never seems to bring us properly together.

So naturally, stubbornly, I want to take advantage of what’s happening here and now. I want to go through with what we’re both feeling.

Though every part of me is already on fire, my pelvis completely goes ablaze, raging the strongest of all. It practically takes hold of the rest of my body, leading me to climb onto Josh’s lap, straddling him as our kiss continues. He groans as I do so, but suddenly, he begins to slow down, not returning my advances as much.

“Josh...” I whimper against his mouth, breaking our seal to pepper his jawline with kisses and nips.

Again, he vocalizes, letting out a heavy sigh. But he doesn’t chase after me like I thought. He seems to still even more.

“Josh, I want you...” I whisper into his skin, solidifying my desires.

Another heavy sigh puffs from his lungs, and his hands creep up to my shoulders, pushing me slightly.

“I...I can’t...” he heaves.

My heart flips within my chest, and I quickly go back to kissing him, attempting to rekindle his spark.

“Shhh, you can...” I murmur into him.

“Jen...”

Now he chooses to be persistent. Now he chooses to stop us. He gives my shoulders a harder push, guiding me off his lap and onto the bed again. When I look into his eyes, I see the same pain, the same look of attempted self control, that I was showcasing earlier.

“No...We have to stop.”

I open my mouth to argue back, before floundering and biting my lip instead.

“It’s not a good time right now,” he continues, panting softly.

“Josh...” I start, stubbornly trying to keep things going, despite being well aware of the consequences, “There’d be no repercussions, no problems. And definitely no regrets from my end.”

“I’ve heard that before...”

My heart sinks into my stomach, his words transporting me back to years prior. When we were crazy for one another. When things were just as complicated. When we fell victim to such deep intimacy that we came out hurt on the other end.

A slight glaze of tears well up in my eyes. I just want him without problems. I want him freely. I want him without having to worry about a care in the world.

“Josh...Please, I...”

“Jen,” he starts again, cutting me off, “You’re not in a good head space right now. You need some time to process everything. I think we both do. So how about we just...take it down a few notches?”

I let out a shivering sigh, looking down and preparing to accept defeat. It’s at that moment though, that I notice a very telltale sign of arousal. There’s an unmistakable, definitely difficult to ignore bulge in Josh’s pants, the fabric practically tenting with his erection. I bite my lip, feeling myself clench down below. Josh must follow my gaze and read my thoughts, because I hear him inhale so sharply that it could cut right through the sexual tension.

Slowly, my eyes travel back up to meet his, the air growing hotter and hotter between us. We share a simmering stare, our eyes both swirling with dark lust. But Josh somehow manages to cut it off, closing his eyes and swallowing hard.

“No...” he groans, slightly shaking his head, “No...”

And proving that he’s the stronger-willed individual, he pushes himself off the bed, grasping the back of his neck as he begins to walk away.

“I just...Give me some time alone, okay?”

With that, he departs towards the balcony, leaving me alone, frustrated, and increasingly ashamed of myself.

“I’m...I’m sorry,” I attempt to say to him, but my voice comes out in a barely audible whisper.

I feel crushed. I feel sad all over again. It’s like a painful reminder that Josh and I will never be, were never meant to be together.

Before I can feel too sorry for myself and break down completely, I decide to go into the bathroom and shower. I feel like I need to wash all of this, wash all of my emotion, completely away. And I’m sure the warm water will feel soothing in Josh’s cold absence.

I walk into the bathroom and shut the door, not bothering to lock it behind me. I’m sure Josh will leave once he collects himself anyway. I strip away all my clothing, and pause for a moment to grasp the counter, eyeing myself down in the mirror.

My appearance matches what I’m feeling inside; disheveled, chaotic, and upset. I blow out a long breath and hang my head, cursing at how everything currently is. But I can’t control anything. I can’t do anything about it. So after a moment, I simply prepare myself to step into the shower. A distant call of my name freezes me solid.

“Jen?”

I can’t bring myself to answer him. I fear what follows will be something along the lines of “I’m leaving for the night.” And I can’t have that. I don’t want him to go. I refuse to believe I’ve messed up things further. I can’t.

My name leaving his lips draws closer, and closer. Even when he’s right outside the door, I bite my lip, unable to find the strength to reply. But to my surprise, he barges into the bathroom without caution, practically throwing himself into the room.

“J-...Oh, fuck...”

I can practically feel his stare, his eyes leaving small fires as he flits them over my bare form. Without the slightest bit of shame or embarrassment, I turn to face him, perhaps even flaunting my body a tad. And I find a very frustrated, very handsome, very hard Josh in the doorway.

I watch him curiously, and admittedly delight, as the last bits of his composure come crashing down. He practically falls against the wall, nostrils flaring, eyes squeezing, biting the back of his hand as he fights to the end. I can hear him groaning and letting out a slew of expletives, my heart speeding up as I watch. I reach out with my mind and figuratively wrap my flames around him, enticing him to come back on the same plane of passion.

“You...You drive me insane, you know that?” he grumbles against his skin.

“I know.”

He lets out a series of sharp breaths, before he finally makes eye contact again; but not without giving my nakedness another sweep.

“Dammit,” he whispers, “...No repercussions?”

My heart flips within me, practically skipping beats at his question. We’re so close to having each other. So so close.

“No repercussions,” I breathe, “I promise.”

“This is stupid...”

“Probably.”

He gives me one last look, and then I visibly see the final walls come down, his body slacking as he gives in to his wants a well.

“Fuck it; c’mere, Jen...”

He doesn’t have to tell me twice.

I skate across the tile, my feet barely touching the floor as I rush to him. And in seconds, I’m eagerly pressing my body into his, locking us into another kiss. He moans and I capture it, before sending the noise back, mewling my utmost need. Having him like this, kissing him so deeply, feeling his erection pressing into me...

I instantly go lightheaded with lust, my body and mind a bursting firework of emotion and feeling.

He must want this as much as I do, because without really giving us time to kiss, he’s leading me backwards and out of the bathroom. I eagerly chase after him, continuing to claim his mouth as we go along, excitement and anticipation rushing through my veins.

We quickly weave back into the bedroom, and the moment we reach the bed, he pivots me so I’m poised against the edge, sitting against it. I’m immediately on the same page as him, and spread my legs wide open with a sigh, welcoming him to be as close as humanly possible. The air quickly perfumes with my scent, and I watch as his eyes roll, taking every bit of me in.

He takes my invitation and steps up between my legs, fiddling with his drawstring pants. In his desperation, our desperation, he pushes both his pants and boxers down just enough to allow his length to spring out.

I take a moment to appreciate him, sighing and smiling at how large he is, at how ready he is for me.

He returns the expression, grinning crookedly, dirtily. I watch with interest and admiration as he takes himself in a hand, pumping a few times with subsequent grunts from his throat. I take my bottom lip into my mouth, before brazenly taking him as well, wrapping my fingers around his length. He lets out a hissing noise through his teeth, which shifts into a groan as I tug him forwards, leading him to my entrance.

I rub his head through my damp, swollen folds, shutting my eyes and savoring the feeling. We both let out moans and gasps, before Josh takes over, giving a small thrust of his hips and nestling the tip of his erection into my depths.

“You want this?” he growls, “You really want-”

“Don’t talk; just fuck me,” I breathe, wrapping a hand around his neck and pressing him to get on with it.

A visible shudder rolls down his form, his eyes rolling slightly once more. When he doesn’t immediately take me, I give the situation more fuel by adding, “...Hard.”

And with that, he brazenly latches his mouth to my neck, and sheathes himself deep inside me with a strong, fluid thrust.

Instantly, I see stars. Just from his entrance alone, I already want to scream in pleasure, my body completely at his mercy. It is absolutely astounding, the difference it makes when I’m experiencing this with a man I truly adore. After years of waiting, years of wanting, it feels like nothing else I’ve experienced before.

Josh goes through with my request. He doesn’t give me time to process things. Right after his initial thrust, he takes me carnally, driving his pelvis into mine again and again. We both sing out our pleasures, utterly delirious with the feelings we’re granting each other. He stretches and pounds me perfectly, and I swallow him up and clench around him with equal precision.

It feels right. It feels so right. It’s like each thrust erases reality away, hoisting me to a place where it’s just Josh and I. It’s like each movement deep within is Josh taking me back, claiming me as his once more. It’s like each hard shove of his length slowly turns the tables back to Hawaii, erasing every trace of my ex and going back to a time where Josh was my only focus.

It’s extraordinary. It’s everything I’ve wanted for the longest time. I could live in it forever.

“Mmmm fuck,” Josh’s pleasured grunt sounds, breaking me out of my trance, “God, Jen...”

“Don’t stop...” I croon back in return, holding on to his neck and riding the force of his movements, “Oh God, Josh...Please don’t stop...”

He certainly doesn’t. If anything, he intensifies his thrusts even more, driving into me so hard that I’m forced to fall back against the mattress. He reaches down to hoist my legs up, grasping my hips to give himself more leverage as he continues his wonderful assault.

I’m writhing and screaming and tossing my head, completely lost in the pleasure he’s giving me. It must be equally as good for him, because he’s far more vocal than I remember, grunting and moaning and yelling my name.

I can feel my release approaching quickly, and for the first time, I don’t want it to hit. I want to prolong this moment as long as I can. I want to have him this close, inside and out, for the rest of my days. But unfortunately, our bodies dominate our minds, racing to orgasm even if we don’t want them to.

When I feel myself beginning to tense, I almost try to fight against it. When I feel Josh’s fingers atop my clit, coaxing me to race ahead of him, I almost want to slap his hand away. But damn if it doesn’t feel divine, his body working me straight to my glorious finish.

I’m overrun with pleasure so intense that I’m surprised my keens don’t break the lights. My entire body explodes with sparks and fire, shooting up from where Josh is touching me to every ounce of my being. My vision whites out, and for a moment, I really do feel like I’ve entered heaven.

But Josh is quick to ground me, just as he always does. I come back just in time to hear his final, cracking yell, before he shoves deep inside me and lets out numerous spurts of his release.

I lay on the bed in a wondrous daze, clenching tightly and swallowing up every last bit of him, like I’m fighting to keep a piece of him forever.

Completely satisfied, completely satiated, and completely exhausted, my eyes droop as the room fades from existence, practically floating on cloud nine. I don’t have the strength to stop Josh from slipping out of me, but he’s quick to fill the gap by flopping down on the bed beside me.

The two of us simply lay drunkenly together in post-coital bliss, the once chaotic room only filled with our quieting pants now.

I don’t think too hard about what we just did. I don’t take anything into consideration. I simply enjoy the moment, appreciating it for what it is.

When Josh crawls further up the bed to rest near the pillows, I lazily follow, nestling my bare, full body against him. He flops an arm atop me, and the moment I snuggle into his chest, it’s no surprise that a much needed slumber overtakes me, falling into a perfectly content rest filled with nothing but the man of my dreams.

xXx

Though I do indeed awake to a rather nasty headache the following, my body feels lighter than the pillows behind my head. I let out a long and content sigh, stretching my limbs and enjoying the warmth still radiating out to my extremities. What happened just hours before still feels like a dream to me, reality not fully sinking back in yet. Still halfway locked in my reveries, I reach out to caress the man beside me, hungering to continue and to never wake up from this.

But when my fingers dust across an empty, cold mattress, I do.

I snap awake, sitting bolt upright in bed. And when the sheets fall off my form, revealing my still-naked body, reality hits with an excruciating force.

Josh is gone.

Josh and I had sex last night.

Oh God.

Anxiety and dismay are both quick to set in. Though I vaguely remember us promising each other that there would be no repercussions, we were obviously too out of our heads to fully commit. Because we’re best friends. Two best friends who are still pretty much linked to other relationships. Two best friends who have been cut deeply by this same thing before.

Oh God.

I wanted it so bad. I wanted him so bad. And as messed up as I was last night, there was no stopping it. I hungered for that little taste of him like nothing else. But for what? Messing us up again? Messing him up?

Shame pours through my veins in droves, manifesting as tears that are quick to coat my vision.

“J-Josh...” I whimper out, praying that he’s in one of the other rooms, that he’ll reply to my call.

My suite is just as empty as my bed.

Moisture pours down my cheeks as I throw myself out of bed, slipping on a robe and searching around. My heart sinks further and further into my stomach the longer and longer I search, the hotel room feeling very much vacated. But as I pass by the window, I catch a glimpse that sends a sob of relief from my throat.

Slowly, cautiously, I open the sliding glass door and step out onto the balcony, next to a rather pensive-looking Josh. Though I’m so glad he didn’t leave, I can’t bear to look at him. I’m feeling increasingly guilty, all the memories and visions of last night pouring in one by one. It was mutual, yes, but I was the one who initiated it, the one who pushed it.

I can feel his eyes on me, his stare forcing more tears out of my own. He continues to look at me, and I know I have to say something. I know I have to apologize.

“We...We shouldn’t have done that...”

I hear his intake of breath, and still feel him staring, so I’m quick to continue, “I mean...I shouldn’t have done that...It was all my fault, Josh, I’m sorry...”

I wait for him to step in with his two cents. I wait for him to chip in with his eloquence and maturity. When I’m left with silence however, I cannot help but sob.

“Josh, I’m...sorry...I was way too worked up last night and....it just...got to me.”

More silence. I’m starting to think nothing I say will come even close to fixing the situation.

“Can...Can we just forget this ever happened?...Please?”

He lets out a long sigh, and finally speaks up, his voice hoarse and low.

“I think that’s easier said than done...”

My composure, as fragile as it’s been over the past couple of days, snaps right in half once more. My sobs pick up, audible hiccuping-noises sounding from my throat and visible shudders rolling down my body. Though my eyes are now shut from the force of my cries, I can practically feel Josh deflate beside me.

“Jen...”

I don’t look at him. I don’t move. A pair of gentle, warm hands on my shoulders however, coax me to do so, beckoning me into my favorite embrace. I’m still devastated, surely, but I feel immensely better that he’s hugging me. I wrap my arms tightly around his neck and bury my face into his collar, continuing my weeps and never wanting to let go. To my utmost relief, he holds me back just as firmly, his hands rubbing soft circles against my back.

“I...I didn’t want to...” I hiccup into him.

“Didn’t want to what?”

“I didn’t want to...fuck things up again...for us...I was so...fucking stupid...I’m sorry...”

“You’re...”

I hold my breath as he inhales deeply and lets it out with another long sigh.

“You’re not stupid,” he murmurs, “I acted out of impulse too. I mean, I think it was pretty obvious that I was caught up in the moment as well. So we’re both guilty in that respect.”

My heart flutters a tad at his words, a hint of comfort trickling back in. Anxiety is still in the lead however, making my arms wrap even tighter around him, locking him into my embrace.

“Please don’t leave me...” I moan.

I feel his breath catch, before he hugs me closer as well.

“I’m not going to leave you...”

A particularly sharp sob sounds from me, and I feel one of Josh’s hands venture up to cup the back of my head, cradling me and rubbing his fingers soothingly against my scalp.

“Jen, I’m not going to leave you,” he murmurs firmly, “I promise.”

His words flood me his warmth once more, and I feel my sobs letting up a tad. I snuggle closer into him, nestling my face against his skin.

“I mean,” he starts with huff of laughter through his nose, “What’s a drunken fuck between two friends?”

I cannot help but laugh at the absurdity of it all, shaking my head at the both of us.

“God, Josh...Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

“Yeah, but I guess we’ve never been ones for being normal,” he huffs again, before his voice takes a more serious tone, “And it’s not like we haven’t done this before.”

I let out another puff of mirth, but my heart sinks again as his last words do. I chew my lip for a moment, before leaning back in his arms, meeting his eyes for the first time this morning. When I’m met with the usual gentleness, the usual warmth swirling around his hazel depths, I gain the strength to continue.

“You’re more to me than just...a rebound, by the way...”

His eyes search through mine, blue and hazel silently communicating.

“I didn’t just jump on you to forget Nick...There was more to it than that...I just...”

The truth poises itself on my tongue. The need to admit my true feelings wells up dangerously in my chest. But as per usual, it all crashes, my body deflating as the truth blips away once again.

“I don’t know...”

“Regardless of why it happened, what’s done is done,” he says, still continuing to rub my back, “So how about we just...try and look past this?”

I can feel my heart crack a tad at the missed opportunity. Another chance to be with Josh, gone, obliterated. But inwardly I know he’s right. Inwardly, I know we have to, for the sake of our friendship at least.

“It’s going to be weird...”

“Maybe at first,” he agrees, before I see that teasing glimmer in his eye, “I mean after all, I’ve seen my ‘annoying sister’ naked. And we ended up doing it. Pretty hard to look past that.”

“Josh!” I gasp, rolling my eyes with a groan that eventually shifts into a few huffy rounds of laughter, “Oh God...Why’d you have to bring up the fucking annoying sister thing again...I hate that. And you just made things worse.”

“No I didn’t!” he chuckles, “We’re from Kentucky. Totally normal.”

“Jesus,” I laugh, “You’re awful.”

We both laugh together, chasing the anxiety within away. It comforts me immensely that we’re still able to banter as we do, even after such a life-changing incident.

When we quiet down, smiling and gazing into each other’s eyes again, I have to proclaim at least something.

“You mean a lot to me, Joshy...”

His stare softens, his smile turning solemn and gentle.

“You mean a lot to me, too. There was no way in hell I was going to throw you away over a slip up.”

My smile must fade a tad, because he’s quick to add, “A mutual slip up.”

Tears well up in my eyes again, but they’re happier, relieved. Even though yes, I am still worried about the future, worried about if this will end up impacting us in any way, it comforts me tremendously to know that Josh is still by my side.

“Thank you...” I whisper, throwing myself back into his arms.

“You’re welcome...”

He inhales as if he’s going to continue, but instead settles on hugging me back in return.

I don’t think much of it, simply glad that we’re okay, that nothing erupted from our impulsive act of passion. As I continue to embrace him under the light of the rising sun, bathing in warmth and contentedness, I can finally feel myself starting to relax.

I guess things will be okay after all.

[theofficiallesbianflorona-blog]

Ballroom Dancing

(It’s sort of a working title)

Summary: Lance McClain Can’t dance. Pidge finds a room in the castle only Lance hoped to find. Lance is extremely nervous. Keith can dance, Keith is helpful. 

( I am shit at summaries, my apologies )

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P1:

The castle was big. Of course, there were rooms we hadn't seen yet. Did Pidge have to stumble across that room, though? When I found it I hoped I was the only one who would find it, because I knew what would come next. "Hey, Princess?" started Pidge at dinner that night. Allura, who had just taken a bite of her food, turned her attention to the green paladin with a wide-eyed look that read "Yes?" Pidge set down her fork. "I was wandering the castle today on my way to training, and I found a room… I think it was a ballroom?" I held back a groan but I couldn't hide the slight look of displeasure and terror on my face. Good thing everyone was focused on Pidge now. "Why, yes! As a diplomatic family, of course my father had a ballroom. Oh I have such fond memories of dancing with my father and friends in that ballroom when I was younger!" says Allura and my look of worry grows. Oh please don't say it… "I wish we could do it again…" Allura sighs wistfully. Quiznak. "Well," Hunk began, swallowing a bite of space food. "Maybe we could? We could invite a bunch of people from the alliances! Maybe we could even have the Balmerans come; it'd be great to see Shay again…" No no no no oh god no. "Hunk, that's a great idea!" Allura exclaimed, a new glimmer in her eyes. "I don't know. Having the doors open and a lot of guests here… That didn't work out so well last time." Saved by the Keith! Also, he makes a good point. "Yeah, what if some galra show up, or some spies get in? Lotor is sneaky." I add. "Lance agrees with Keith? This is a new age," mutters Pidge and Hunk stifle a laugh. I shoot her a look and she sticks her tongue out at me. "We could have security! Shiro and I could keep a look out for any shady figures. You know, back when I was a young Altean, I had to go through a rigorous training in order to-" As Corran begins on one of his "when-I-was-younger" stories, I begin thinking of ways to avoid the ball. See, the thing is, I can't dance. I mean, of course, I can make up some moves and such, but ballroom dancing? Nope. Never been able to. I even took classes back on Earth and I still couldn't get the hang of it. I would always step on my partners' toes. They eventually kicked me out of the class after I sprained someone else's toe by accident… My mother gave up on ballroom dancing after that. I was jolted out of my thought process when Hunk tapped my shoulder and whispered, "Do you believe this?" I jumped a bit and blinked, replying, "You're actually listening?" Hunk glared at me. "Lance, we're on a completely different subject. We're talking about songs! Now that Corran got some internet, we can look up songs even from Earth,” he whispered. My stomach did a backflip just thinking about Earth. About home. “Okay. Have we decided anything?” he whispered back.  “A few… mostly classical. Bach, Mozart, that kind of stuff." I smirked. "Can we sneak in some Ke$ha" Hunk rolled his eyes. I felt a kick under the table. "Lance, no!" Pidge hisspered (that means hiss-whispered. I coined the term myself). "OW Pidge! No need for violence, you little-" "Lance?" I looked up to see Shiro looking at me quizzically. "Yyyyes?" I said cautiously. I obviously had no idea what they were talking about. "What do you think about Allura's idea to have them pay something to dance with the paladins?" he asked. "I… What?" "When I was a little kid and my father held balls here, I remember them trying to raise funds by having the guests pay a small fee to dance with the paladins! I thought we could do that again, seeing as we need funds. Actually… I don't think I can recall us ever actually paying for somethi-" 

"I think it's a great idea, princess," interjected Hunk. "Me too" added Pidge. "I actually wouldn't mind that," said Keith. Well, now it'd look bad if I didn't agree. "Sure, Allura. Sounds good!" Now if I could just leave the room without drawing too much attention to silently panic in my bedroom… "Princess, shouldn't we have practices first? I'm sure many of us haven't danced in a long time, or even at all," offered Shiro. Oh, come on! That makes everything so much worse. But, maybe with enough practice, I could learn by the ball? Who am I kidding? I'm never going to be good at dancing. I've just learned to accept this. "Shiro, that's a wonderful idea! We can even use the ballroom!" And so it begins.

------

P2 it’s a double feature:

"Lance." "Lance!" "Oh my god, LANCE WAKE UP" I'm violently shaken awake by small hands grasping my shoulder and hitting my face. "Ugh... What the hell, Pidge?" Lance, you've had your beauty sleep, now you have GOT to GET UP" Pidge exclaimed, jumping up and down. "Dude, what's happening?" I say, rubbing my eyes and moving to sit up. Pidge is smiling like a dork. It's a little creepy, but that's Pidge for you. "Allura has outfits. And they look amazing." She put a space between "they", "look", and "amazing" for emphasis. I immediately perked up. "Wait, seriously?" Pidge laughed, "Why would I lie about cool clothes, Lance? OF COURSE I'M SERIOUS!" We simultaneously started squealing.

When we got to the rest of the team (except Shiro and Corran, who were meeting with the Arusians about security) Allura was already showing Hunk some suits that the previous paladins had worn for dances. Hunk was eyeing the old blue paladin's suit with designs along the collar that looked like a galaxy or magic. It was beautiful. When Allura noticed us walk in, she said hello and immediately brought over an array of outfits that would fit me. She turned to Pidge, "Would you like to wear a dress or a suit? I have plenty of both that will fit you!" I saw Pidge's eyes go wide. Nobody had ever asked her that. "Thanks, Allura! Can I look at both options?" Pidge said, maybe a bit more enthusiastically than expected. "Do you just want to look at cooler alien clothes, Pidge?" I elbowed her. "Duh, Lance. Duh," she replied as she followed Allura to another corner of her enormous princess closet. I snickered as I looked through the suits Allura had given me. They were all stunning, made with a fabric like a mix of silk and cotton, but definitely nothing I'd ever felt before. There was one with shimmering holo, another with a holo-like substance, but it was truly a moving rainbow. There was another with moving stitches, depicting a battle between Voltron and a large alien beast. At the end, when Voltron was victorious, it moved and started over again. My eyes finally fell on a shimmery sky blue suit, accented with fabric that looked exactly like the ocean's surface, and moved like it too. I immediately took it and tried it on. It fit perfectly. I totally didn’t squeal and jump up and down for a solid 10 seconds…

After everyone had picked out their outfits, we all gathered in Allura's bedroom in our outfits. We all looked around. I felt so high-class like I should be holding a champagne glass or something!

Hunk had chosen a sparkly yellow suit that shimmered in the light, a perfect golden, paired with a shiny black tie. The top looked like it was made directly from the sun. He looked great. Pidge ended up going with a dress after all. She had an off-shoulder dark green dress with those little sleeves. It puffed out at the waist and flowed down, with a small train in the back. The design of beautiful alien plants looked so real, for a bit, I thought they were growing out of the bottom of the dress. She looked so happy in it, and she looked amazing. Allura had a tight light pink dress with blue accents that shimmered when she walked. She also had a tiara with jewels hanging down and into her hair, which was up, but cascading down in the sides.  She looked gorgeous. Keith had a dark red suit, with accents that looked like red fire in the evening, so real I expected smoke to come off it. He had a black flower that looked like it should turn to dust, but in a good way, you know? He looked nervous in front of everyone. I kind of wanted to assure him that he didn't need to be worried… I mean, he looked crazy good. Definitely better than me. Probably the best in the room, though I hated to admit it. Maybe this ball wouldn't be that bad… Allura clapped her hands and broke the silence. "Well, you all look wonderful! I'm so glad you like the outfits, too. I had been hoping to reuse them someday," she smiled and said. "Yeah, thanks Allura! These are so cool," Hunk replied. "Dude, I love this so much," Pidge agreed, sitting on Allura's bed and playing with the ends of her dress. Allura laughed. "Well, you all should probably hang those up in your own rooms now. Wash up and rest up! Tomorrow we start dancing!" I was so hyped up with my new suit, I didn't even mind the impending doom that loomed over me in the form of dance lessons as I showered and put on my nightly Altean face mask.

Well, I didn't think about it until it was the middle of the night and I woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare I couldn't remember. My feet felt sore. It hit me what was going to happen tomorrow and a million "what if?"s ran through my mind at a million miles per hour. What if I fell? What if the fall sprained my ankle? At least then I could embarrass myself further. But what if they made me dance anyway? What if I was so bad none of us raised money at the ball? Would Voltron die? Would Haggar and her evil druids make the galra reign over the universe once more while we were still stranded in space with no way to get home? I couldn't get back to sleep with all these horrible ideas in my head. So I went out, rubbing my eyes, not sure where I was heading. My feet took me to the kitchen. I figured a midnight (do Alteans have midnight?) snack might clear my head. As the door slid open (man I love these automatic doors in the castle) I heard movement in the kitchen. I jumped slightly, only to realize it was only Keith. "Hey, man. Couldn't sleep either?" I asked. "I guess... I'm just not that tired. What about you?" "Oh.… I.. Uh…" Did I want to tell him I had a slight panic attack about how I can't dance and now I can't get back to sleep? "Let me guess: You're nervous. Honestly, so am I. I don't think I'm a great dancer. I'm also not the most popular paladin, so at least not a lot of people will want to dance with me." "I'd want to dance with you!" I blurted, immediately regretting it. I don't like seeing my friends upset, especially when I'm already upset. Sometimes I just say whatever I think they'd want to hear without thinking about it first. Not that I wouldn't want to dance with him though, I'd just make a huge fool of myself. "Um, thanks, Lance. That's… really nice of you. Maybe I'll take you up on that offer" Alright not what I was expecting but… wait… is he… blushing? It's not much, but I'm pretty sure he is. Oh god. Now I'm blushing too. This is awkward. I'll say anything to break this silence. A small part of my head says "tell him that why you're really here". Okay, anything but that. "So, uh, what brings you to the kitchen?" I ask. Smooth, Lance. Great conversation starter. "Midnight snack. Maybe it'll help me sleep. You?" "Same thing… Hey," I begin. "You said you didn't think you were a great dancer? But you can dance, yeah?" "Yeah? I mean I guess I can. I took lessons and I didn't fall on my face, so I suppose I was good." I fell on my face. A lot. I feel my face get warm with embarrassment. "Why?" Keith asked. "Well, ugh, this is weird to say, but I can't. Dance, I mean. It's super embarrassing. I tried taking lessons and stuff, but I was never any good," I found myself pouring out all the crap I didn’t want to think about. It felt good. "Every time I would try, I would step on someone else's toes, or trip them, or trip myself, or mess up in any way possible dancing. Eventually, my mom took me out of dance. I'm still sad about it because I did really like it. Music is awesome and I just wish I could move to it well. That sounds stupid, I know, but it didn't sound as stupid when I was lying awake in bed, sweating, because I was scared my bad dancing would scare away anyone from donating to Voltron at all, then Voltron would fall and we wouldn't be able to stand up to the galra and they would regain control over the universe and we would all be enslaved to them and all of would be stranded slaves in space with no way of getting back home." I finished, tears breaking through my eyes and slowly rolling down my cheeks. "Oh, Lance…" Keith sighed, setting his cup down on the counter and opening his arms for a hug. His expression looks so genuinely concerned, which only made me feel worse. Though, if he looked mad or happy I'd still feel worse. Nevertheless, the tears started coming faster, and I leaned forward while Keith stepped towards me and wrapped me in a bear hug I didn't think possible for someone of his size. I sniffed and Keith gently let me step back. "I've never told anyone all that…" Keith smiled warmly. "I'm glad you told me. If you wanted, I could teach you how to dance?" he offered. I looked up. No one ever asked me to dance, even if it was just lessons. "I told you, I took lessons before. I'd probably end up getting your wrist sprained…" I answered. "You got someone's wrist sprained?" Keith asked incredulously. I winced. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to- Maybe it'll be easier to learn one-on-one? And with someone you already know?" Keith offered. "I… I don't know. Maybe. I think I'll tell the group tomorrow, though. It'll be easier now that I've already told you," I sighed. "I'm going to try to go back to sleep. 'Night, Keith." "'Night, Lance. Hope you get to sleep."

It took me a little while to actually fall asleep, but at least the anxiety had calmed down, more or less. I prepped myself for tomorrow. I was (not) ready.

[fieryrondo]

my top 25 favorite programs from the 2017-2018 season

So. We survived Olympic season. (Or did we?)

A few lessons gleaned from the past ten months: 

the season is indeed long

momentum is fleeting

in the wake of disaster there will always be skaters who shine (thank god)

eating pineapples and writing prayer fic is extremely therapeutic

Olympics hype really is all that

being an fs fan is equal parts suffering and reward, though often times it seems more of the former and less of the latter.

See below for twenty five of my favorite programs from what has been a most tumultuous season, roughly in order of enjoyment. There is no rhyme or reason to this list as it is purely subjective based on my taste, which is already questionable to begin with. To avoid cluttering the top spots with skaters I absolutely stan and would gladly die for, I have limited myself to one skater per program.

Re: performances from Olympics. It was notoriously difficult to find footage for many of these skates. Thanks ISU I’ve done my best to link to broadcast footage whenever possible but have resorted to a few fancam links for some of these performances. Please do not manipulate fancam footage without permission from the uploader; I’ve been guilty of reblogging gif-sets made from fancam footage (which 99% of the time have the watermark removed and are clearly uploaded without consent and credit to the fancam creator) and am now trying to be careful with what I reblog.

Without further ado, here are my top picks:

25. Jimmy Ma’s SP, Propaganda/Turn Down for What, 2018 US National Championships

A guilty pleasure but something this fun can’t be bad right? This is the kind of skating program I’d show to friends and family in real life who dismiss figure skating as a dated sport characterized by heavily used classical warhorse music almost everyone recognizes but can’t actually name.

24. Ross Miner’s FS, Queen Medley, 2018 US National Championships

While Nathan skated a very technically strong program at US Nationals, the free skate of the night for me went to Ross Miner, who roused the crowd into a roar when he had the skate of his career and made a convincing bid for the Olympic team. Fun and electric, this program sparkled with energy from start to finish.

23. Moa Iwano’s SP, Asturias, 2017 JGP Austria

I generally don’t pay much attention to the junior skaters (so much skating, so little time!), but this talented lady from Kobe caught my eye during the JGP series. There were quite a few tangos this season but this one was by far the best one (that’s right, the best tango this season came from a 13-year-old). While her jump technique is not the best, Moa has an impressive sense of musicality beyond most skaters her age. I’ll definitely be following her more closely in the seasons to come.

22. Keegan Messing’s FS, Chaplin Medley, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

Thanks to a certain Spanish skater, I’ve developed a soft spot for Chaplin programs and while Keegan didn’t manage to skate this program clean, I really enjoyed it. It’s cheeky, charming, charismatic and full of fun choreographic details that bring the program to life. With an exodus of Canadian men retiring this season, Keegan will be among the oldest. He really hit his stride this season; here’s hoping he snags his first Canadian title next season!

21. Patrick Chan’s FS, Hallelujah, 2017 Skate Canada

Enjoyed...is not quite the right word to describe my feelings when I saw this particular skate via live stream. Shocked to pieces was more like it, and perhaps an overwhelming sadness to see him struggle so much. This skate would set the tone for the rest of Patrick’s final competitive season--a mentally, physically and emotionally taxing end to a competitive career most skaters can only dream of having. While this skate was a technical disaster--he skated a total of only two clean triples--it is nonetheless beautiful in the way a withering flower is; a remnant of elegance, an echo of years of skill, a lament for what could have been.

20. Yuna Shiraiwa’s FS, Pictures at an Exhibition, 2017 Internationaux de France

I had a hard time with this one because I adore both of Yuna’s programs this season, set to two very interesting pieces of music. Her FS, “Pictures at an Exhibition” won by a slim margin mostly because I love Mussorgsky and “Pictures at an Exhibition” is one of my favorite suites of all time--I also realize now that it’s really really difficult music to skate to because of the million tempo changes, key changes and the fact that half of the movements are very slow and not at all suited to skating. It’s a highly ambitious program for a 15-year-old and choreographically there are a couple of abrupt music changes that break up the flow (it’s mostly variations of the Promenade theme with a few other movements spliced in) but I really appreciated the challenge she took with a riskier but interesting piece of music. Looking forward to more exciting programs next season!

19. Nathan Chen’s FS, Mao’s Last Dancer, 2017 US International Classic

Super early in the season when skater after skater hopped onboard the recycling train like there was no tomorrow, I was ecstatic to hear Nathan bring forth two brand new programs. While Nemesis proved to be an instant hit, I was drawn to the free, an intriguing blend of Chinese music and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (avant-garde eargasm!!!). Mao’s Last Dancer had the potential to become a truly memorable and complete program. While the strategy to strip down the choreography in favor of hitting the technical elements later in the season was a practical choice, alas the performance I enjoyed the most happened to be its debut. 

18. Cheng Peng/Yang Jin’s SP, Assassin’s Tango, 2017 Finlandia Trophy

What a rough season they’ve had :/ But I loved their short program, which they only managed to skate clean internationally exactly once this season. For some reason, after Finlandia, this short never really clicked for them (missing the cutoff for the free at Olympics was tragic) and they ended up returning to their tried and tested short from last season for their post-Olympics redemption in Milan. It’s a cute and fun program and they skated it best here.

17. Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres’ FS, The Sound of Silence, 2018 World Championships

After a strong start to the season led to a lackluster 4th place finish at Europeans, James/Cipres scrapped their initial free program to return to a program they were much more comfortable with, a strategic move that paid off when they rebounded at the Olympics and at Worlds with season’s bests and a shiny Worlds medal :) While it is not a technically perfect performance (see their 2017 World Team Trophy for a clean skate), there’s a lot of power and passion in it.

16. Carolina Kostner’s SP, Ne me quitte pas, 2018 World Championships

Simply divine! I have nothing else to add except that this was a breathtakingly exquisite performance, and I’m glad Carolina was able to perform this program to perfection in front of her home crowd.

15. Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani’s FD, Paradise, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

I admit I wasn’t immediately sold on the Shibutanis’ final program to their self-proclaimed “Trilogy”. “Fix You” was an amazing program, the best program of their career so far, and as with all sequels, it was tough to imagine “Paradise” could be better. But somehow things started to pull together once they made a few tweaks midway through the season and they pulled off a magical performance in Pyeongchang. Technically brilliant but also brimming with emotion, a performance absolutely worthy of Olympic bronze.

14. Elizabet Tursynbaeva’s FS, The Prayer, 2017 Internationaux de France

I fell in love with Elizabet last season (particularly her free skate to “Princess Mononoke”) and was very excited to see what programs should would do next. And she did not disappoint. Besides having the only acceptable Carmen this season, I also loved her free skate to Celine Dion’s “The Prayer”- it’s light and lyrical, a good fit for her. She still rushes through the choreography and some of her spins look really weird to me but she has made enormous strides in her presentation despite being hampered with a serious hip injury midway through the season. She’s lovely to watch, so floaty and quick over the ice.

13. Adam Rippon’s FS, Birds, 2017 NHK Trophy

What can I say? I loved this program last season and seeing it again this season was even more spectacular. The attentiveness to the music, the choreographic touches with bird movements, the meditative atmosphere. It’s just a very beautiful program. Adam has such a vibrant personality that obviously shines in his more “showy” programs, but I think I enjoy seeing his softer, lyrical programs best. 

12. Wenjing Sui/Cong Han’s FS, Turandot, 2017 NHK Trophy

As a fairly new fan, I don’t have the same level of distaste for warhorses as veteran fans do (I imagine this will change once I have more years of figure skating watching under my belt). It’s not as poignant or as memorable as “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” from last season, but I admit I still very much enjoyed this skate, if only because Sui/Han were the ones skating it. Did I wish they had picked something a little more interesting? Yes, but they’re Sui/Han. They can make anything look good.

11. Kana Muramoto/Chris Reed’s FD, The Last Emperor/Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, 2018 World Championships

Kana is the best thing that has ever happened to Japanese ice dance (Chris, you’re cool too.) I’m so weak for this genre of music and ever since I discovered a certain tiny queen skated to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, I’ve been waiting to hear it again. I’m a sucker for nature imagery and you really get the sensation of the passage of time and the movement of the seasons. Watching this is like taking a breath of spring air.

10. Boyang Jin’s SP, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2018 Four Continents Championships

Meh movie, great music. My favorite Boyang program to date, it was really exciting to see him attempt something more serious, a heftier program that would expand the emotional range of his skating. His short program was brilliant at Olympics, but I enjoyed Four Continents a little more because it was such a comeback after an injury-filled first half of the season. Out of the new generation of rising quadsters, he’s made the most improvement and I have no doubt he’ll continue to grow over the next quad. Onwards and upwards, Boyang!

9. Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue’s FD, Across the Sky/Caught Out in the Rain, 2018 US National Championships

My favorite free dance of the season! You can always count on Hubbell/Donohue to do something a little offbeat. Blues is a bit of an unusual choice of music for a free dance (which tend to be either lyrical or warhorsey drama) but it fits them like a glove. After building some good momentum earlier this season, a few fatal errors in the free including an invalidated choreographic sequence left them trailing in 4th, just shy of the podium at the Olympics. They rebounded to claim their first Worlds medal a month later, which was a special moment to witness but I felt their Nationals performance was the most passionately skated.

8. Tatsuki Machida’s EX, Swan Lake: Siegfried and His Destiny, 2017 Carnival on Ice

Go big or go home. The time and technical requirements of amateur competition are clearly too restrictive for Tatsuki’s genius :) Why cram the greatest hits of Swan Lake into a paltry two-minute program when you can really do it justice by skating to it for almost eight minutes instead? Tatsuki spares no expense for his epic-length programs. Every moment is meticulously thought out and is as extra af. We’re treated to almost a minute of dramatic music and a skater-less spotlight before Tatsuki appears. The star of Swan Lake is typically the swan (or the black swan) but no, that’s too conventional; let’s make Siegfried the guy everyone’s talking about instead. Drama hands! Floofy hair action! Seven straight seconds of twizzles in time with the tempo change! Dramatique feather posing because why not. Did that twenty seconds of absolute silence between movements make you uncomfortable? Good, because it’s all eyes on me! Skating so gorgeous you wouldn’t even notice there are only two jumps (both amazingly timed to the music), this is a visual and aural feast for the eyes. It’s a Swan Lake to outclass all other Swan Lakes that have been, that are, and that will be.

7. Akiko Suzuki’s EX, O, 2018 The Legends

[inserts crying emoji] A regret I have is not becoming a fan when Akiko was still skating competitively. I love this program soso much and seeing it brought back again was a real treat. The choreographic sequence still sends shivers down my spine <333

6. Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir’s FD, Moulin Rouge, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

Scintillating. Flawless. The pinnacle of ice dance. It’s the kind of performance that just sears into your mind for a long, long time. Though they didn’t get perfect marks here, it’s as perfect a skate you’ll find.

5. Wakaba Higuchi’s FS, Skyfall, 2018 World Championships

Such a cool and sleek program. I like the blue dress more than this one but this was easily the free skate of the ladies in Milan for me. A passionate and powerful skate, it was really nice to see Wakaba come back strong after a disappointing Nationals finish and hit it at Worlds. Reigning World Silver Medalist! (now please give her the PCS she deserves)

4. Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot’s FS, La terre vue du ciel, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

Wow. Just wow. I went in as a Sui/Han fan but wow, this free skate is gorgeous and sweeps me away every time I watch it. And they performed it to perfection at GPF, Olympics, and Worlds. The choreography is amazing and unique, and apparently full of little touches to previous programs (like the star catching moment from “The Lighthouse”, their free program last season). Dominant, majestic, and absolutely exhilarating to watch. I can watch this again and again and never tire of it.

3. Satoko Miyahara’s FS, Madame Butterfly, 2017-18 Japanese National Championships

While her short program is more loved (as it should be, it is an amazing work of art, Lori really outdid herself, you should go watch it ^^), I think I enjoyed her free skate more simply because it’s given her so many Moments this season. Coming back from a slew of injuries, including a serious hip injury from last season, it was highly questionable if she would even be able to make it to the Olympics at all. But Satoko silenced all doubters again and again, at Skate America and then at Japanese Nationals, where she gave the free skate of her career with an emotive and stunning performance that carried her to her Olympic dream on butterfly wings ^^. Triumphant, mesmeric, spectacular-it is a Madame Butterfly that rewrites the tragic ending into one of hope, a story that is entirely Satoko’s.

2. Javier Fernandez’s FS, Man of La Mancha, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

(password to video link: man of la mancha)

A skater from a small federation, from a country where figure skating barely exists, Javier has written history again and again. And what a journey it has been! From finishing 35th at his first Worlds appearance in 2007, Javier would go on to qualify for his first Olympics in Vancouver and become the first Spanish skater to win Europeans, to win Worlds, and ultimately, to win an Olympic medal. It feels appropriate that “Man of La Mancha”, an unapologetically Spanish program that perfectly captures the essence of Javier’s career--”to dream the impossible dream”--is to be the program to stake his Olympic dream on, And his Olympic dream truly seemed almost impossible in the months leading up to Pyeongchang. An uncharacteristically disastrous free at the Cup of China disqualified him from making the Grand Prix Final for the first time since 2013. And while his Chaplin short clicked for him (also excellent, highly recommended), he struggled with the free all season long. Unabashedly romantic, with just the right amount of earnest cheese (the best kind) and aged whimsy, “Man of La Mancha” is my favorite Javier free skate and I’m so glad he was able to skate it to its fullest potential at the competition that mattered most.

1. Yuzuru Hanyu’s FS, Seimei, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics

What makes a skate great? Legendary? Memorable? It’s easy to jump to the pristine “Seimei” in Barcelona, the ethereal cleanliness of “Hope & Legacy” in Helsinki, or even the world-record breaking (again) “Ballade No.1″ in Montreal. While all of these skates are indeed great, legendary, and certainly memorable, I find my thoughts turning instead to a young seventeen-year-old Romeo in Nice, unleashing his battle cry after a dramatic fall as he fought through a sprained ankle to win his first Worlds medal. Clean performances are definitely great, but great skates don’t need to be clean. At the end of the day, what makes a skate great is in the struggles overcome, hardships endured, fears mastered, doubts silenced; in spite of it all, to manage to find joy and fulfillment in not only what you have accomplished but also in the thorny path that has led you there. It’s not as perfect as Barcelona, but the Seimei in Pyeongchang offers a different kind of magnificence, a triumph in more ways than one.

[some-cookie-crumbz]

Action Figure

Action Figure Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Kidge Summary: Coran has a set of gifts for the Paladins to help boost morale. They have a few... Concerns, to say the least. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more. AN: I want you all to know that this was the first prompt I had figured out once I saw the full list. I have been hyped for this one!

They’d all been settled in the castle kitchen, nibbling on some almost-brownies Hunk had made and swapping stories when Coran came stumbling in with a decently sized box in his hands. He dropped the box in the center of the table, leaned on it, and grinned widely at them all. “So, Paladins,” He drawled happily, lightly rapping his fingers along the top of the box, “how would you all like a little treat?”

“That depends… Normally your ‘treats’ involve really terrible feats be accomplished first. Like that time you promised us all a day off but first we had to survive a six consecutive rounds of combat against the gladiator drones on their highest setting,” Hunk said wearily, taking a suspicious sip of his milk.

“Personally I believed that the training experience itself was a wonderful treat,” Allura chimed in.

“Yeah, that’s because you’re a nut when it comes to running drills and exercises. Even before you were an piloting a Lion you rode us like a cowboy on a bucking bronco at a rodeo,” Pidge scoffed with a roll of her eyes. She then paused and glanced over at Keith. “Which reminds you, have you ever been to a rodeo before? I mean, you grew up in Texas, yeah?”

He shrugged. “I grew up there in a lot of my younger years but, after age nine, I was kind of a ward of the Garrison,” He explained.

She hummed thoughtfully before Coran cleared his throat to get their attention again. “I believe I asked a question,” He said with a dainty sniff.

“I’m sure we’ll all be happy with whatever you’ve brought for us, Coran,” Shiro said with a small smile.

Coran beamed before starting to open the box. “Well, I’m sure you all remember those phenomenal shows we put on a while back?” He mused.

“You mean the ones were you flanderized us all into stereotypes that could be seen as demeaning and degrading to us as individuals, thus making a mockery of the contributions we make to the team on an everyday basis?” Hunk asked flatly, licking a smearing of chocolate from his thumb. All eyes swiveled to him and he perked up in surprise, an anxious smile starting to turn up on his lips. “Oh, uh, I mean, those shows where we got a bunch of new additions to the coalition?”

“And you almost got us all killed because you had some weird brain slug or whatever?” Lance asked before taking another bite of his brownie.

Keith cocked his head and looked at Pidge expectantly. “Wait, what is that all about? Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

She shrugged. “It was while you were more focused on working with the Blade. You were a little too busy to keep up with at the time aside from the big conference calls to discuss orders and mission specifics,”

“Ah,” He agreed with a nod.

“Anyway,” Coran said as he popped open the flaps, “the show was such a hit that we were selling holocaster recordings of it!”

Hunk seemed to pale at that. “Oh, great, so now a whole chunk of the universe thinks I’m just some goofy slob,” He whined.

“Hey, at least you won’t be looked at like a complete idiot by any life form with a basic grasp of the logistics of space travel,” Pidge quipped back.

“Excuse me,” Allura said calmly, holding up one hand, “but I think I got the shortest end of this deal out of all of us.”

Silence fell at the table for a moment before they all turned back to Coran. “So, uh, what does this have to do with the show?” Lance asked.

Coran brightened significantly at the question. “Glad you should ask, Lance! See, since the recordings were selling so well, Bii-Boh-Bi and I decided that producing merchandise would be a great idea! All the proceeds are used to help fund the rebellion, of course, but it’s been going very well! We’ve sold shirts, hats, stickers, even undergarments!” He said enthusiastically. He then began rummaging through the box excitedly. “We have also sold action figures of all five Lions of Voltron, toy versions of the bayards and a slew of other toys! But this, here, are the prototypes of the latest addition!”

And, with a dramatic flair, he produced a figurine donning the Black Paladin armor.

And the table immediately erupted into laughter.

“Oh, my God! Did they give Tiny Shiro steroids? He looks like two Shiros combined!” Pidge wheezed out, throwing herself back against her chair. Indeed the figurine had rippling muscles… That were significantly more pronounced than the actual Shiro.

“It’s a Double Stuffed Shiro!” Lance gasped, exchanging a look with Pidge and Hunk, before all three erupted into even more ludicrous laughter. Allura looked a bit confused, but was still giggling a bit behind one hand. Keith was looking between the stone figure of Real Shiro and Figurine Shiro, lip between his teeth, trying as hard as he could to not laugh outright.

Coran frowned a bit. “Well, perhaps it looks better in the alternate outfit? It comes with a second costume composed of that really phenomenal black shirt you wore that one time,” Coran suggested, starting to rummage through the box to find the accessory.

“No! No, the figure it fine in the Paladin armor!” Shiro snapped, his brain finally seeming to catch up with what was going on around him.

“Forget what he says! Change it into the shirt, Coran!” Lance all but shrieked.

“Yes!” Pidge hissed out in delirious glee.

“Do it! Do it!” Hunk agreed.

“Why don’t we look at some of the others?” Shiro barked quickly, trying to plaster on a polite smile but the edges coming off just a bit too forced.

“Well, that would be a good idea! As I said, these are just prototypes, so Bii-Boh-Bi wanted to get some feedback to make sure they’re as accurate as possible,” He said, setting the Shiro figure next to the box and beginning to rummage through for another one.

Lance swiped the actions figure up and began messing with it, posing it this way and that. “Fear not, innocent creatures of the universe! Shiro the Hero and his loyal Team Voltron are here to protect you!” He declared, dropping his voice a few octaves to try and imitate Shiro, while making the figure flex.

Laughter echoed again at the table, a crimson hue beginning to creep up along Shiro’s face as he swiped the toy from Lance’s grasp, but then paused to Coran pulled out the next figure.

And then it started all over again.

“It looks like they put Lance’s face under a magnified glass!” Hunk cackled.

“I’m melting, I’m melting!” Pidge squealed, throwing herself against the table for an added dramatic effect.

“Ding dong, the witch is dead~!” Keith suddenly sang, snickering at the nasty glare he got from Lance in response.

“Which old witch~?” Hunk joined in.

“The wicked witch~!” Shiro added, a hush falling for a second before everyone except Lance and Coran started howling yet again.

“It’s not that bad!” Lance protested, swiping the figure from Coran’s hand and looking it over. He opened his mouth to say something, one of his hands waving side to side in the air, then closed it. He then dropped the figure on the table and pulled the box over to himself. “Okay, okay, that’s enough about me! Let’s see what some of these other ones look like!”

“Excuse you!” Coran huffed indignantly.

Lance growled then perked up, freezing for a moment before pulling out a figure of white and yellow. “Oh, Hunk, buddy. I’m so, so sorry,” He said quietly, slowly turning the action figure to face the other Paladins.

Laughter paused for a moment before Hunk reached out, taking the figure from Lance’s grasp. He stared at it for a moment before taking a deep breath and adjusting the face so that it was staring up at the light above their heads. “All around me are familiar face, worn places, worn out faces~!” He belted out.

Shiro, Lance and Pidge started howling while Allura and Keith exchanged confused glances. Keith merely shrugged at her, showing he had no idea what they all found so funny either. “I think it’s another one of those meme things they like,” He mouthed.

“Oh,” She mouthed back.

“But seriously, they made my figure look like I am just ready for death. Like, I’ve given up on everything, no more of this living junk. Totally overrated,” Hunk explained, snickering as he waved his actions figure in the air.

Lance snickered before reaching into the bag again, a sharp bark of laughter escaping him as he grabbed another one. “Well would you look at this!” He said with a laugh, pulling out a figure of white and green. He cleared his throat before turning it to face the rest of the team. “Have you guys seen my pocket protector anywhere?” He asked, making his voice as nasally as possible and even trying to add a lisp.

Keith clamped one hand over his mouth, trying so hard to restrict the laughs vibrating in his chest, while Hunk guffawed like no other. Allura and Shiro settled into quieter laughter, both seeming to gauge Pidge’s reaction before being too vocal. Pidge herself actually snorted a bit, taking the figure and looking it over curiously. After a moment she tossed the action figure over her shoulder, batted her eyelashes, and said in her best Steve Urkel impression, “Did I do that?”

The other humans at the table were sent into another bout of rowdy cackling. Allura chuckled but was still clearly baffled as to what the joke fully was.

“Okay, we’ve only got Keith’s left,” Lance said, rummaging through the box again once he’d settled down.

The boy in question perked up, brow furrowing. “How did they make a figure of me? I didn’t participate in the show,” He pointed out.

“No, you didn’t, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have a stand in for your part,” Allura said with a quiet groan.

“Tah-Dah~!” Lance sang as he produced the very silver-haired, very Altean and very beautiful Keith figurine to the others at the table.

“Wait, what?” Keith asked in alarm.

“Hey, Allura said it herself; she got the short end of the stick in the ice show compared to the rest of us. She got stuck having to play you,” Lance laughed loudly.

“I only hope that I was able to give you the complexity you deserve, Keith,” Allura said, her grin becoming something more teasing and mischievous.

“Don’t worry, I gave her a few pointers and coached her into the role, to insure the integrity of your character,” Pidge laughed. She and Allura exchanged sly smirks.

“I’m Keith, I’m so emo~!” They chimed in unison before dissolving into giggles.

He blinked then smirked a bit himself. “So then, if Allura is actually Keith, does that mean you two are dating now?” He asked, indicating the two of them.

“I suppose so. Sorry for stealing your girlfriend,” Allura mused, tossing a strand of hair over her shoulder and winking playfully.

Keith put on a fake scowl and looked down at Pidge. “How could you?”

“Hey, it’s not technically cheating since I just went from you to you,” She snickered back. She then shrugged lightly and indicated the other woman with a sweep of one hand. “And, honestly, can you blame me? You just have such a lovely figure that you can’t even compete!”

“Thanks, sweetheart,” Allura crooned playfully, blowing Pidge a kiss.

“Aw, just speaking the truth, sugarlump!” She laughed back, pretending to catch the kiss and pressing it to her cheek.

Keith snickered before looking over at Allura. “You sure you want to take on the responsibility of being in a relationship with that thing? Garbage gremlins can be wily little creatures to date,”

“Excuse you, we prefer the term ‘compost cretins’, you bigot. See, this is why I had to leave you for you!” She said playfully, throwing her hands up in the air in mock-frustration.

The whole table erupted back into laughter while Coran pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometimes he wondered if these Paladins were really worth all the effort.

E

[koganeirou]

I remember a few years ago I volunteered at a festival in my town’s local J-town and there was a cosplay contest and one of the winners was a Cardia cosplay. At the time, I only knew Code Realize by name, but I thought that the cosplayer was beautiful beyond words. And I think fate’s finally run it’s course now LMFAO.

Anyway I’m done this game! and what can I say. this game is incredible. It definitely lives up to all the hype and praise it got and I think this game is one of my favourite otomes I’ve ever played. It just sounds like I’m riding the hype train because this game is treated like the holy grail but I think this game is probably my second favourite, closely behind Nightshade. I’m not really sure what more I can say other than I loved everything about this game from the bottom of my heart and I enjoyed every minute of it. anyyyyhoo more of my thoughts underneath the cut because it’s become sort of like a ritual for me to share my obnoxious opinions every time I finish a game! 

**SPOILERS**

okay I actually feel kind of bad for saying it but I kind of felt Lupin’s route to be a tad bit underwhelming?? I really enjoyed how Lupin’s route tied up all the other routes and gave all the boys satisfying conclusions if only Seven’s route was like that but idk the whole climax of wrecking Isaac with something as simple as bombs that he somehow didn’t figure out were there, and just magically getting rid of Cardia’s poison by letting Isaac suck all the energy out of her boobs just felt a tad bit trippy for my tastes?? The whole shebang on the Nautilus seemed to just drag on and on, especially with the whole Aleister and Sholmes business like I’m sorry I don’t care for any of these dudes.

**END SPOILERS**

Moving along, I didn’t like…. the majority of the villains. With the exception of Victoria (who is an amazing side character btw. Amazing villain in Fran’s route, amazing supporting character in Lupin’s route. what a woman), I felt like a lot of the antagonists were either really one note, shallow, or just flat out annoying. **SPOILERS** And that’s what made Lupin’s route that much more of a slog because you have alllll these annoying ass villains herded into literally one spot. Like I’m sorry to any Finis fans out there, but his Kaji Yuki screaming and five billion Naruto clones just started getting really annoying really fast and my annoyance with Finis ultimately triumphed my sympathy for him lmao. Still, he did deserve a better ending than just flying off the ship to his death like wtf?? Isn’t he alive in the Silver Miracles fandisc?? did he just magically come back to life??? **END SPOILERS**

My second biggest complaint is that I felt like a lot of the romance sort of depends on the common route? It’s driven by the character-center scenarios in the common route where Cardia gets to know the boys and bond with them because once you’re booted in a route Cardia’s immediately like “I think I’m in love!” and it just sometimes feels like it comes out of left field without taking the common route into consideration. and idk I just wish the routes were a little more independent and detached.

BUUUUT MOVING ALONG. Each route had their strengths and flaws, and while Lupin’s route is obviously the “true” one, I actually didn’t feel like Lupin really overshadowed the other boys? I’m glad that writers didn’t give the other boys lukewarm stories and lazily written routes because they all got the love they deserved, imo. I felt like every route offered a piece of the main puzzle; Lupin’s route was simply the route that unearthed the final piece. Each boy’s route dealt with a separate piece of the overarching plot line/conflict, which just made the world building of Steel London so much stronger. And I loved every last bit of it. I loved the steam punk aesthetic, the historical European setting; I loved all the political drama, with the terrorists plots, government corruption, hints of mystery, thriller, cringy shoujo romance etc. It was an adventure story through and through and boy did it reel me in. 

Cgs are gorgeous, backgrounds are detailed, ost is amazing and really made the scenes that much more emotional. Also kudos to the damn voice actors/actresses because boy this game has some damn good voice work. Maybe I can stop associating Daisuke Hirakawa with his creepy Laito-Bitch-chan-voice and start associating him with the beautiful man that is San now LOL.

The writing in this game is A+++. Absolutely solid. Finally, an otome game with a overly convoluted and complicated plot but no noticeable plot holes or unexplained loop holes! What an accomplishment! Jokes aside, I usually have a lot of writing complaints when it comes to otome games because I’m a critical bitch, but aside from minor gripes I mentioned earlier, I did really enjoy the game’s story and it had so many incredibly powerful moments that just made me had to walk around and take a quick break because of how shook it made me lmao. I loved the themes about atonement, forgiveness, humanity, the whole “humanity versus god” conflict, and I think in terms of complexity and depth of narrative, this game is def up there. I loved all the historical, literary, and religious references this game made and while it may not hold the integrity of the original source, it still made the story that much more fun and complex.

In terms of main characters… haha, I loved them all. They’re all precious children who deserve happiness and the world and I ended up getting attached to every last one of them.

Cardia tho? She makes this game, 100%. She truly lived up to her role as protagonist because she was the damn star. I’m very open about my appreciation for otome heroines and am very against heroine hate in general, but even still, this is the first game I’ve played where my favourite character was the heroine herself, not any of the boys. I love how kind hearted Cardia is. I love her strength, her bravery, how her character is so intricately woven into the story. But more than anything, I adored the character development she got. Code Realize truly is… her story, not any of the guy’s, not even everyone’s favourite man, Lupin’s. She’s so multi faceted and nuanced, maybe even more so than the guys. But I also loved the little quirks she had and those moments where she acts like a classic typical shoujo manga heroine made me smile like an idiot. She’s a fighter who hangs on until the very end and she’s the type of heroine that you just can’t help but pour your whole heart into rooting for. I really enjoyed how balanced her relationships with the guys were, it never felt like one out shined the other.  Shout out to Fran and Lupin for having the most romantic kiss scenes ever LOL.

As for the guys themselves, my fave order is prob San > Fran > Lupin > Van > Impey. Though if you include all the characters , It’d prob be something like Cardia > San > Fran > Lupin > Victoria > Delly > Van > Impey.

 Fran and San are really close because I loved them for different reasons and I think I enjoyed their relationships with Cardia the most. Fran and Cardia had really good chemistry and I loved watching them develop and grow together, where they both stood as equals who elevated each other, whereas San and Cardia had more of a tragic love that they both had to bend over backwards fighting for and it tickled my melodrama loving side //shot. I really adored all of the relationships Cardia had with the guys (and the friendships between the guys themselves) and while this game is mainly plot driven, I never felt like any of the character writing fell short. Everyone is just so memorable and multi faceted, you can’t help but love them.

anyway that’s enough ranting from me lmao. I regret only playing this game now since I’ve heard of it forever but better late than never. I really am glad to play this game and it’s def one of my top favourites. I’m done ranting and I’m gonna go cry now.