#have i ever mentioned how very pretty erika is?

[episims]

Erika I didn't think I could be this nervous about opening the shop! I hope the renovation was worth it...

Lydia "I've never seen this many people here..."

Erika "Oh, isn't it great? Keep the queue moving, and I promise there will be a bonus on today's pay!"

Erika "Good people! The shop is closing in an hour. But there's still time to pick some of those mouthwatering cucumbers!"

[y4riii]

JJK (jujutsu kaisen) HEAD-CANNONS !!!

| well, hello. Welcome to my world ! (pretty cringe, but whatever) Today I thought of some head-cannons about JJK characters. I thought long and hard on this, so I hope this gets to other people ! Not all of these are from my imagination. Some of these are from tiktokers i weally like (like trin and erika. I hope you guys know them T_T) but anyways, I’ll try to make more of these when I have time. Anyways, enough of me talking, let’s get started ! |

note: this is my first time making something like this. Let me know if you have any tips for me ! (^^)

TM (things mentioned) & WARNINGS: dating, smoking mentioned in suguru’s, guns mentioned in toji’s, mentions of killing in sukuna, mentions of family members dying in sukuna, mentions of irl crimes in toji & sukuna’s, drinking mentioned, getting drunk mentioned, roblox game “da hood” mentioned, one night stand/hook ups mentioned in toji, sukuna, and suguru’s, pregnancy mentioned in sukuna’s, cheating mentioned in suguru’s, satoru not being loyal head-cannon, spoilers in nanami’s and a little bit in toji’s, homeless & stank mentioned in toji’s, road rage mentioned in toji’s, disrespect mentioned in sukuna’s.

• Satoru Gojo:

• Hmm. Have you ever thought how Gojo would be if he had a phone? Yes. He’s the type to use emojis a-lot. He’s also a type to use them face icons like ( ˘ω˘ ). I feel like it’s so him. :3

• Gojo is NEVER serious. Though, He can be very serious. If you see THE Satoru Gojo mad or with a serious face, you KNOW it’s serious. (You see how Satoru was mostly in a cutesy and non-serious mode throughout the show unless it was something really serious? That’s why I thought of this head cannon.)

• Gojo is definitely not the type of person to be loyal. He can pull anybody for his unique features, and for his stunning look. Any girl be coming at him, and he knows exactly how to entertain them. If you actually dated THE Satoru Gojo, you would definitely be jealous with all of the girls coming up to him, and how he interacts with them.

• Gojo is the type to be the yapper in the friend group. He would yap about anything I feel like. I feel like while he yaps his butt off to Suguru AND Nanami, Suguru would often question, “what is he on about?” And as you know, Nanami would be tired of him yapping. I guarantee you.

• Gojo is definitely a kpop Stan. He’s a girl group listener. He’s the type to be a true Stan or iz*one. He would absolutely LOVE YENA. Her songs are written with a glitter pen with a puff ball at the top. Nemo-Nemo, Sugar, Smiley, and more are more likely to be his favorites. He loves songs that are written with a glittery pen with a nice poof ball at the top. Me too, Satoru, me too.

• His style? Hm. Idk. I think he would wear a Barbie like style. Pink, white, yeah. Or, something more cutesy. A cutesy style would fit him :3

• If Gojo drank alcohol, and if he got drunk, he’s a crazy drunk. He would yap about so many things, sometimes it don’t even make sense. If your at a karaoke, drunk or not, he’s singing. It will be literal gibberish if he’s drunk.

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• Suguru Geto:

• Ive been waiting for this one. I thought about these alot, so prepare ( ◠‿◠ )

• Suguru is the type of person to LOVE music (like me hehe) I feel like he would listen to rock n roll of whatever you call it, or just music bands. ( like weezer, or maybe mother mother. Maybe also tv girl. He would probably choose one of them bands. :3) and if he wants to listen to any k-rock bands, it would probably be xdinary heros. (A k-rock band under jyp entertainment.)

• Baggy clothes are definitely his thing. Especially with his long luxurious black hair out and down, beautiful. His style in this world would definitely be grunge, or harajuku I think how you spell it. (I said both because I searched up both of them on Pinterest and the same photos popped up. I got so confused so I just chose both.)

• He is the type of person to smoke. When he’s mad or something, “I need a smoke break” or if he needs/wants to smoke, “I need a smoke break.”. When he’s with a friend, he’ll ask if they smoke, and if they do and if they want to smoke at the moment, he will give them a lighter, and maybe a cigarette. (Only if they forgot their lighter and need one.)

• He is definitely the type to manspread. (Basically when they sit with their legs open, and sometimes they slouch.) or, he sits with his elbows on his knees.

• Hes the type to be in a “friends with benefits” trope. He can get touchy and clingy, even though you guys are just friends. Even if you have a boyfriend, does he look like he care? No. He tends to get jealous of your boyfriend too. In the end, (hopefully) you break up with your boyfriend for something like he cheated on you or something serious like that, and you vent to Suguru about it, and then BOOM. You guys are dating <3 (based on a fanfic I read. I reblogged it a while ago and I forgot the creators user.)

• He’s definitely the type to play an instrument. Either an electric guitar, or a regular guitar. He can also be the type to play the drums. Imagine how attractive he’ll look while drumming with a band, on stage, with his long black luxurious hair down, and with some sweat on his face. Automatically my dream man.

• He’s definitely the type to have TATTOOS AND PIERCINGS😍 nose piercings and ear piercings are definitely his thing. Maybe even eyebrow piercings. Imagine how he would look with tattoos and piercings + a muscular body.

• small note: he’s not the type to have a billion of piercings. (just a exaggeration.) he would think there’s no need. He’ll probably have double of triple piercings on his ears (including that big circle piercing he has. I don’t know what it’s called.)

•He’s the type to drive with one hand on the steering wheel, and his other arm on the arm rest. (If he has a girlfriend in the passenger seat, his hand will be on her thigh, or sometimes gently petting your hair.)

• This one is from my friend : Geto would call you a monkey and see that it hurt you feelings, then he would console you with a hug and kisses

• small note: this one is actually so cutesy awwwwww

• Suguru is also the guy to drink. I feel like he would handle it well. If he gets drunk, then he will definitely text some random stuff to people. You will definitely see a message like this, “hryzzz hie sre ypu dpinh” and you know Suguru is drunk. That man knows how to spell, so it will be obvious when he’s drunk. Sometimes, if he has a girlfriend he would try to text them “o muss ypu” but unfortunately, they accidentally texted their ex.

• side note: ouch.

• Suguru can really just take your girl, or just take you away from your man, even if he doesn’t try to. If your cheating on your man, and you hook up with him, yeah your definitely going to get addicted to doing the boombayah with him, and then your going to end up dating Suguru. Cheated on your ex boyfriend with him or not, he is still loyal to you, and you better be loyal to him back.

• side note: don’t even ask why I thought of this.

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• Kento Nanami :

• I wish they had the yellow color, but they don’t. 🥲

• Hm. Nanami is the sweetest man in jujutsu kaisen I feel like. Every time I watch moms look at Kento Nanami, they are always falling in love with him. I don’t blame them.

• Nanami is definitely a foodie. He’s not really the type to eat unhealthy food like fried food and fast food. He’s a type to be a more fancy foodie. Restaurants are definitely his thing. The fancy restaurants with foods that are the most hardest name to pronounce, I feel like he would somehow know how to pronounce them. When I try to pronounce them, I’m speaking a whole different language at that point. It’s too hard T.T

•He is the type to ADORE time with you. Things such as movie nights, or date nights, his favorite thing. His date ideas either be restaurant nights, walks around the city, or sometimes going to the movies.

• His style is more basic, but fancy. His colors are any shade of brown, not orangish brown though, white, sometimes gray, and black. His style is like academia. Light or dark academia, it fits him.

• He’s the type to be on that mewing streak, and hitting the gym every other day. Did y’all see his jawline and body in season 2? It’s like bro had a glow up. (He was always fine.) He’s also the type to use that one toy where it’s like a ball, but you bite it to strengthen your jawline. I hope y’all know what I’m talking about😭 (I saw an add on it on TikTok, I forgot what it was called.)

• small note: he’s definitely the type to mew everywhere, and everyday😭. He’s been mewing until he died in season two ._.

• He is the type to help old people cross the street, and help people with groceries like carrying them into their car. If he’s feeling generous enough, he’s also the type to pay for their groceries if they don’t have enough money for it. He is also the type of person to stand up for women and men, but mainly women. He definitely believes the rule, “men don’t hit women”

• He’s the type to listen to classical music, or jazz on the radio. He’s not really the type to listen to artists like nowadays. If he’s feels like it, he’ll listen to music like flowers by miley cyrus I think her name is, or that one song that goes like “someone put me on the double shot of whiskey”. Other than that, he’s the type to listen to classical and jazz music. Maybe opera too… opera is beautiful and calm. Hehe.

• small note: and, he’s the type to marry me. Heh.😋

• He’s also the type to handle alcohol well. The only time he will get drunk is if he’s in the comfort of his home. If he’s out drinking in public, he will be careful enough to drink 1 or 2 glasses of any alcohol. Even if Gojo convinced him to drink more, you are NOT catching that man drunk in public.

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• Kamo Choso :

• Hmm… I didn’t think of this one alot. Him and Suguru give off the same vibe to me kind of… so some of it might be the same from his.

• Choso has two sides. Cutesy, and kawaii, and horror and scary. Like art the clown. He gives off the cute vibes (sometimes…) and then he gets a little scary and horror. Also like Russian roulette. Cute song, but meaning is crazy.

• He’s definitely the type to have a creepy pasta phase before. He’s also the type to love scary games and horror movies. Five nights at Freddy’s, sonic exe, creepy pasta, ect is his stuff.

• small note: sonic exe used to be in my old childhood. I was scared of it because of the music, but it prepared me to not be scared of the horror movies now. I’m still scared of terrifier and art the clown though.

• His music taste is similar to Sugurus, but his is more…. Heavy metal. Xdinary heros, baby metal, mother mother, Sleeping with Sirens (especially a trophy father’s trophy son) is his stuff. If he feels like it, he’s the type to listen to enhypens songs like fatal trouble, given taken, and criminal love.

• His style? Grunge, or what people would call “emo” like scene, and goth. Mostly goth though, especially with the make up and stuff and the outfits, and the hairstyles, it would fit him.

• On his cutesy side, he’s definitely clingy. He enjoys being the little spoon. Especially while you play with his hair, 💋. He’s also the type to lay his head on your chest, or stomach. He would be so cute ;3

• small note: his theme song for his cutesy side would be “yachin ga hanbun?!” which is one of nana’s osts. :3

• Emojis are also his thing. He’s not the type to fit everybody else’s use of emoji. Instead of “😭” when they laugh, it’s “😅” and “😂” for him. He is also not the type of person to use short cuts when he types. Like for example, instead of “idk” he says “I don’t know” instead of “wayd” he says “what are you doing.” I mean, he was born in a different generation, he’s 150 years old😧

• hmmm…. I feel like choso isn’t the type to drink. If he was the type to drink, he would definitely get drunk easily.

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• Toji Fushiguro :

• I was waiting for this one, heh.😼 half of these are habits that I’ll do. We’re both broke after all, and I feel like we can bond if I was his age. (BROKIESSSSSSS)

• Toji is the type to road rage. Like literally. If you sit at a green light for 2 seconds, you hear loud beeping behind you. Like dang the light just turned green😭

side note: • but if you do that to him, he would either yell at you, or if he’s really mad, he’ll grab his gun, pull down his window, and shoot at you. And I promise you, bro does NOT miss.

• While he drives, he’s definitely the type to listen to that rap music. Some of it is sooooo bad, some of it is actually good. Lil mabu, sexy redd, ddosama and his friends who are also rappers I think (idk bro😭) is his type of music that you would hear BLASTING every time toji drove past you. (Before y’all start with the broke comments, shiu probably gave bro his check , and he used it for a car. He’s still homeless and stinky though.)

• If toji has a house, he’s the type to live in da hood. There will always be shootings where he live (he’s the reason for it) peoples money missing (he took your money) and music ALWAYS blasting (which is mostly from his house.)

• if toji finds the right lover, he’s the type to literally change. Suddenly, he’s caring, he’s clingy, and he’s alot nicer to you.

• small note: if somebody hurts you or do anything to you, your never seeing them again.

• Toji is the type to be a BIG curser. It can be around kids, or parents, or even random strangers in public, he’s cursing any chance he gets.

• He’s a different version of the spare change dude on TikTok. (Y’all remember him) begging people for money walking by.

• if you tell toji to do the “give me my money” trend, I guarantee you after the video, he’ll be like “where my money” like erm, it was a trend.

• I hear this so much times every time I read a fanfic of him. Nicknames like “doll” “sweets” or “pretty little thing” is definitely what he’s calling you. Dating or not, stranger or not, he’s calling you that. (If he feels like it.) if you make him mad, he’s definitely calling you woman.

• invite this man to a part with alcohol, he is definitely coming and drinking. Sometimes he would get drunk, sometimes he wouldn’t. Can he handle alcohol? Hmmmm… yes.

• Every party you invite this man to, he is ALWAYS leaving with a one night stand. After they hook up, he’s leaving her on the hotel bed, and he is OUT.

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last one :

• Ryomen Sukuna :

• Sukuna is a big and grumpy man. I’ve been thinking about this alot, so let’s get into it !

• Sukuna definitely has the “I do NOT give a flip” mindset. You see the last item of something in the store, you go and grab it, it’s gone. You look to your left, and you see ryomen sukuna having the exact same item in your hand. “Erm, I was ge”- “I do not care.” oh. He then walks away with the item.

• Sukuna does NOT know the word “permission.” He’s the type to make you his slave or girlfriend without even asking you. Like dang (＾ｰ^)

• You are NOT catching bro calling you cute names like “sweetheart” “doll” not even “love” no. You’re getting “woman” or “human” or, maybe just your name if he even knows your name.

• if he actually loves you, he’s really possessive. Somebody looks at you too hard? Gone. Somebody tries to hit you up? Gone. Somebody cat calls you? Gone. Somebody gets a little too close to you? You guessed it. Gone.

• He’s the type to hide what he actually wants. If he wants to cuddle with you, he is not telling you that. If he wants to kiss you, he is NOT telling you that. Even such a tough man is a little shy at some things.

• He is over 1000 years old, he is from the ancient times. So, he does NOT know how to do things in this century. He doesn’t know how to work a phone. It’s not like he gives a crap about that.

• Trust me. He does NOT have a soft heart. He’s cold hearted. Very cold hearted. You tell him your mom died? He’s bursting out in laughter. Oh no! Your boyfriend broke up with you? He’s bursting out in laughter.

• Is he loyal? Hm. If your not who he reallllyyyyyyy wants, then no. Does he care? No.

• Have you ever seen them tiktok lives where they all take turns roasting eachother? Sukuna would COOK at that. Everybody would be flabbergasted.

• small note: nobody can clock sukunas tea. (well, maybe if you bring up his true true form which is a pou.)

• He can definitely handle alcohol. 2 giant bottles, and he’s still sober. He’ll definitely make fun of you for getting drunk after a couple of glasses.

• hook ups? Yes. He’s not as crazy as toji though. He’ll probably focus on 1-3 girls. He might get you pregnant, but that man does NOT care. Sad, but true.

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hehehe guys I’m done. I spent the whole afternoon on this. My hands are sweating… but yeah. Thank you for reading !

(remember. Some of this is inspired by trin and erika on TikTok, and the rest is mostly made up in my head.)

I might make more head-cannons like the jujutsu students, and WOMEN😍 let me stop acting gay. But anyways, try to look forward to them guys ! Byeeeee

😋🎀🎻💝🦢🪞

random note: I used to play in orchestra, now I play in the band since my school doesn’t do orchestra no more. I miss orchestra so much, and my clarinet keeps screeching😒

[kedsandtubesocks]

erika i am so curious about baseball player gojo..... like.... omg 😳😳

Sel… I am going to chase after him with a baseball bat…

00: Foul Ball.

You run into the tallest man you’ve ever seen in your life at your favorite local coffee shop.

Literally, while moving to your usual seat this giant of a man, not paying attention on his phone, smacks right into you spilling both his and your hot drinks all over you.

It burns, thankfully not that much. Mainly embarrassment and annoyance burn you more. Frustratingly you try to dab away the mess with the pathetic wad of napkins the guy shoves at you.

“Look! Please let me pay for another drink and anything else you want!” Your mystery man

“No it’s fine.” You seethe trying to gather your dignity.

“Aw come on! Those pumpkin cheesecake muffins look pretty good! Don’t you want one?!” He cries almost desperate.

Turning up you’re about to snap at him when you finally get a very good look at your current enemy.

He’s tall with striking cloud white hair. Sleek modern sunglasses slide down his nose as azure pool eyes stay focused on you. And of course he’s absolutely gorgeous.

To save your sanity your eyes dart to the bakery display and spot those muffins he mentioned.

“…okay fine. But I also want a croissant.” You mutter.

He buys you two of each.

You’re also surprised at how adamantly he drags you to sit down at a table.

“We can break bread together over our temporary peace treaty.” He beams.

The man is annoying charming, like a song you find annoying but can’t help but still bop your head to.

He’s new in town, actually moved here all the way from Japan.

“That’s a long way from home.” You admire genuinely. “What brought you out here?”

“Work.” He says simply and with a shrug.

Your mystery man rapidly and eagerly jumps to ask about you, where you work, what you do.

It feels…like a pity conversation. As easy as it is talking to him, you know this is unfolding simply because he ran into you and is trying to just smooth things over.

“Look,” you sigh picking at your croissant. “We don’t have to do this.” You wearily wave your hand between the you and him. “The pathetic small talk and all that. I get it, accidents happen and I appreciate the apology muffin. But you can head out.”

“Don’t forget the ‘I’m a clumsy and unaware idiot’ croissant I got you.” He adds and your lips twitch.

“And come on. I’m not that boring to talk to am I?”

He isn’t and it annoys you even more.

“Besides, who says I maybe just wanna chat with the cute stranger I accidentally spilled various drinks on?” He smile wide at you and it’s dangerous.

He’s dangerous.

Mystery man vows to run into you again same time next week and he is true to his words. In his hands are more pastry treats and your drink order, because of course he remembered.

It’s then that you finally learn his name.

“Gojo, Satoru Gojo.” He introduces himself. “Though you can call me cute coffee guy.” He smoothly adds.

You refuse to call him that and he playfully cries.

Again, it shocks you how just easy it is talking to him. Conversation is casual and so effortless. Gojo eagerly listens to your recommendations about places to visit, restaurants to try out.

“As long as you go with me! I need my own cute tour guide unless I’ll get lost.” Gojo pleads.

You roll your eyes and hate how fast your heart beats at his words.

Then his phone goes off. Sighing Gojo answers it. You give him privacy by looking at your own phone. However, you can’t help but catch bits of the conversation. He talks about a photo shoot scheduled for the end of the week and how his agent will be making any adjustments to the time slot.

And it clicks. He’s a model. He’s definitely a model.

“Sorry, work being dumb.” Gojo apologizes as he hangs up.

“No worries.” You reassure him casually. You realize you never fully asked about his job last time.

“So, what do you do?” This time you make sure to.

Gojo’s wide sky eyes flicker to you as he takes a sip of his tea.

“Oh I’m a professional baseball player.”

He answers so casually while setting his drink down, like he just told you about the weather. For some reason you can’t help but laugh. Because model made sense, but a baseball player?

“What?!” Gojo cries playfully. “I’m serious look!”

Suddenly he grabs his phone again. He quickly types something on it and turns it to you.

What he did was Google himself. Because of course he did. Low and behold, you discover he is indeed not a model.

Instead, you see his broad shoulders, his tall frame, looking infuriatingly gorgeous in a uniform -

And you learn that your mystery coffee man, Satoru Gojo, is in fact a very real and actually very famous professional baseball player.

[thewomanwhowatchedchristmas]

Dimension 20 Misfits and Magic: Holiday Special (2021)

In case you aren’t familiar with Dimension 20, it’s an actual play tabletop role playing game show available on Dropout. Misfits and Magic specifically uses Kids On Brooms for its gameplay, which is similar to Dungeons and Dragons with some different mechanics.

This holiday special follows the events of season 1 of the show, and I think for character reasons it make a lot more sense if you’ve seen the season, but it would still be fun if you like weird wizard holidays. Our game master (GM) is Aabriya Iyengar, and the magical misfits are Whitney Jammer (Lou Wilson), Evan Kelmp (Brennan Lee Mulligan), Sam Black (Danielle Radford), and K (Erika Ishii). Any character mentioned that is not one of the four magical misfits is played by the GM. This special takes place at Gowpenny Academy of Arcane Arts somewhere in Britain. Our magical misfits are American teenagers referred to as the “pilot program” for testing how previously non-magical people adapt to being magical.

Headmistress Philtrum tells our misfits that they can’t go home for the holiday break because their families are NAMPs (Not Activated Magical Person), and also because it is the time of year when their magic wanes the most, so it would be more dangerous for them to leave the school. Everyone is very upset, but they look forward to spending the weird wizard holiday called The Lulling together, especially since it’s Evan’s first holiday celebration ever. But when they learn what The Lulling signifies, survivalist Evan goes a little hard in preparing to fight the seemingly mythical wizard eating tadeshacourt, or tad for short, a large bear shaped monster with a deer skull for a head with antlers.

The minister of education McJonjon leads the ritual to lull the monster back to sleep for the year, and then everyone goes back to the castle, at least until Jammer finds something weird on his shoe that Evan identifies as deer velvet. I have no knowledge of when deer shed their velvet in Britain (or anywhere else for that matter), but Evan seems to insinuate that it’s out of season for normal deer this close to Christmas (December 21st). There’s also fun relationship drama between Jammer and Cleo, and Sam and Fergus, which prompts K to soothe their friends and further give Evan another panic attack.

Partly to keep their spirits up since nobody can go home for Christmas and partly to give Evan the best first holiday ever (and for a secret third reason), the misfits decide to throw a rager in the Great Hall. Being in Chimeron (Goat House!) gives them a great relationship with the kitchen. They call this party the lolling and invite everyone because none of these kids go home for breaks, which is weird.

This is a pretty niche pick as far as my holiday movies have been historically, and I do think it is hard to follow if you haven’t seen the preceding season. However, I believe that if you want to watch this, you would also like the preceding season, so you might as well just devote about 12 hours to watching all of it. Anything created by Dropout holds a very special place in my heart, so I’m going to give this 4 stars. I might not watch it again, but I definitely want to play Kids On Brooms and now I have to reread Harry Potter so… wins all around.

[maple-rose]

I went to see Gundam SEED Freedom tonight.

I don't ever talk about it here, but before I fell into the Fire Emblem hole, Gundam SEED was my obsession throughout highschool and university (if you ever find my deviantART or livejournal account, uh.... the proof is all there, embarrassingly...).

Anyway I've been waiting for this movie for like 15 years. It's kinda surreal that it even exists, amidst rumors of it being cancelled and all.

I wore my Murrue cosplay jacket I made 15 years ago (it still kinda fits, lol), brought a Haro plush and a Lacus plush.

The movie itself, it was fun! Lots of fanservice (both in terms of people and mechs). The pacing felt too fast in the 1st half, and most of the new characters aren't very well developed but that's kinda expected given the run time. Other than that, as a long time fan, it was a good movie!

Also it looks really nice! SEED/Destiny always had inconsistency in art and animation so it's good to see more good animation.

Some specific thoughts under the cut (spoiler warning):

Mu x Murrue scenes! screams Have I mentioned they were my OTP throughout highschool and university? Mu cut his hair and it looks way better! The new ORB uniforms look good, though kinda wish to see Mu in casual outfits more

RIP Archangel T__T You went through and survived so much…

Mu said his line lol (actually 2 of them, Shinn called him an Ossan and he said he's not an Ossan (callback to same exchange with Dearka))

Kira's pinboard has some nostalgic photos on it! Including the shot of the Archangel crew from the 3rd Destiny ending <3

Lacus got so many new outfits! I'm not sure if I like her role in this but she is more interesting than in Destiny

I got new respect for Athrun now. I was hoping someone would slap Kira out of his slump and he delivered!

I actually like Shinn more now too, when he's not being an angsty teen and instead a simpleton kid/the comic relief

Kira.. I think this Kira is an improvement from Destiny at least; he was really boring in Destiny… so it's good to see some emotion and see him crack. But also be more honest with his feelings

New girl Agnes is Flay 2.0? but if Flay could actually pilot a mech?

I was expecting more new mechs (to sell kits), so I'm really surprised they brought back so many existing ones (even the Buster and Duel… but not Aegis)

Though when Freedom deployed and they played Meteor, it was very nostalgic! (Meteor is basically Freedom's theme song, it first played when Freedom was first shown SEED)

New songs by TMR, Nami Tamaki, and See-Saw (who broke up pretty much after Destiny ended, came back for another song)! Also some nostalgic BGM came back

The new antagonists aren't really redeemable or sympathetic, which is a shame 'cause that's one of the things I liked about SEED; but with the runtime I get it, they're supposed to be the "bad guys" so the main crew can come together

It's kinda funny how that guy keeps calling Kira a failure, 'cause Kira is literally the Ultimate Coordinator

Lacus's pilot suit is really funny. This is actually the first time she's been sexualized like that; usually she's the pure one

The final scene is.. what I expected from a SEED climax, but a lot more hammy lol. Power of love!

They did end up confirming AsuCaga, but funny thing is Athrun and Cagalli never actually talked to each other or were in the same room even.. Meyrin is the one with Athrun (not sure if I like her new hair...)

Who is that kid with Cagalli?? He called her "Nee-san". He looks like Mu... it can't be Mu's kid, he looks too old for that. Another clone of Mu's dad? Some new guy who happens to look alike?

I saw a lot more cameos than I thought I would. The whole Archangel crew, Miriallia and Sai, Erika (ORB's head of tech, the one who gave them all Gundams), Arthur (Minerva's 2nd in command guy), Andrew Waltfeld (why didn't he have a bigger role?! He was just shown in 1 passing shot). Even some dead people were shown in flashbacks. Actually I think the flashback at the end showed all the major characters who died.

[nonsenuser]

the piano teacher (2001)

this movie has been on my list for a while, 1. because i too am a piano teacher so duh and 2. 'perversion at its wicked best' is too interesting of a hook to ignore. i did keep removing and re-adding this from my letterboxd watchlist because i was worried it would be either way too freaky for me or just too uncomfortable (recently i've realized my threshold for things in movies has gotten pretty high and i tend to overestimate how disturbing something might be, not that this wasn't disturbing).

from the way people were talking about this movie i was expecting something like 'yeah its called the piano teacher but theres barely any piano in it' or 'classical music culture is used as a metaphor and you could replace it with anything' and while the first is just not true and the 2nd *might* be true it is a really smart choice to have erika be in this profession and for most of the characters to be classical musicians because of the kind of personalities and attitudes that are portrayed are somewhat normalized and encouraged within the field.

i can only speak from direct experience, I took piano classes for several years (4-16 years old), had a pretty strict russian teacher and have met people who took it extremely seriously, to the point where they experienced great metal distress from piano. i never took piano as seriously so it never was like that for me (for a while), i was good enough to basically never practice, my parents never forced me to do it and i started pretty young so i was able to finish all my levels before high school ended. i think being around that positive environment and always knowing i would never take piano that seriously is what made me love it for a very long time.

I think after i finished all my levels and did more music in high school strings and started learning stuff on my own, I was really challenged and while I did understand that yes I had talent, it was a punch to the gut to get unfiltered criticism about my skills. I questioned for a while if i would ever pursue music seriously (like as a teacher AND performer) but it became evident to me that i just didnt want to become the stereotypical pianist (like erika).

back to the movie.... erikas character is obviously taken to an extreme because of her suffocating relationship with her mother and her intense sexual desires, but having the classical music setting as a background is kind of perfect to bring all of this attributes into focus (and even enhance them)

it has been explained in great detail why the abuse, sexuality and psychological effects of it intertwine so well but i think its worth mentioning how the music that is discussed plays a huge role in all of it. erikas expertise is schubert and he is a romantic composer, meaning his pieces are very expressive and full of dynamics, ornaments and accents. its kind of ironic that erika says his music is not just 'loud and soft' but moves between 'a scream and a whisper' because we rarely if ever see erika display this range of emotions for most of the movie. and with my minimal time around professional classical musicians... ironically this is the type of personality that is encouraged. the seeming husk of a person able to perform beautifully with huge range of emotion.

completely unrelated, but the scene where the hockey boys come onto the ice and essentially force the figure skaters to leave? yeah you could say thats how erika and walters relationship ended up playing out.

theres so much more to talk about but i have to think about it more and then i'll add to this post here but wowow. new fave movie for sure.

[papirouge]

akari takeuchi is so beautiful, like she has this round face and sometimes has the appearance of being a lil chubby yet she's really popular among her groupmates. I love how she looks with very short hair too.

japanese people in general seem to be pretty fixated on thinness. in remember when morning mmusume got popular and people talked about kago ai and tsuji nozomi and they refered to tsuji as "the chubby one", even though she was only slightly bigger than kago.

i dont know if you ever keep up with momusu or if you ever cared about it, but once they had this member who was actually overweight (susuki kanon), and she was constantly mocked by fans, the public, and apparently teased by management and team members. obviously she did not pass the audition when she was overweight; she mentioned later that she went through an extreme diet to appear skinny at the audtions, but that she'd been chubby all her life.

but i think koreans are even more extreme with their beauty standards. like, you can see korean idols tend to be skinnier than jpop ones, i think the girls even lose their periods or have very irregular ones. i remember when kpop started gettinf global recognition, sometimes kpoppers would post on certain j-artists youtube videos just to compare them to korean ones, and I remember checking the comments in this perfume video and kpoppers were literally saying they had fat legs. like the girls from perfume (and not, it was not when achan was a lil chubby in their early years)

Anon I do "care" about those things bc I've been a jpop head for a longer time that I will ever admit 😭

Akari has always been a favorite of my mine 🩵 And yeah her face is sooo cute!! She definitely stood out because she was chubbier but imo that's a good thing bc idol are sooo interchangeable. Unless your very pretty or very talented (dance, singing) being a bit different can be an asset if well played.

Imo I think thame difference with Kanon is that Akari seemed confident and it gave her the charisma and appeal that fan like. Kanon was maybe too young and insecure and fans caught it and it made them uninterested and disrespectful for her performance...

And yeah, Japan is obsessed with skinniness, water is wet lol

I've always be intrigued by the fetishistic way of considering beauty. For example they will hyperfixate on features that a supposed "attractive" such as a small face, high nose brige, big eyes, etc and literally dismiss every thing else to the point it's getting ridiculous at times. Someone would be pretty but because they have a very small face they'll be elevated as an absolute staple of beauty.

I lurk a lot on girlchannel and every 2-3 days there are threads dedicated to rave on beautiful people... I remember one thread dedicated to rave on Erika Toda arms skinniness when she played Misa Amane in the Death Note movie 😭

This fetishization of beauty that's also why they will get plastic surgery to get features they consider objectively pretty without considering the harmony with the rest of the face, such as a high nose brige but since the rest of their face will remain unchanged the balance of their full face is so weird. East Asian tend to have a large face so I think them ps'ing their nose to be as small as possible makes them look so weird and uncanny 🥴

Kpoppers are mentally ill so I'm not surprised they don't have any idea what a normal human being looks like.

Perfume gals have perfect legs - they literally made the whole 'VOICE' single cover out of it 💀

It's not really that Achan is "chubby" it's that she has wide hips which is considered unattractive in Japan. That's why in their outfits coding, she's the one to wear clothing who are ample/lose in that area, while Nocchi is the 'boyish' one (short hair + pants/shorts) and Kashiyuka is the one wearing the shorter & more skimpy outfit version. Here's another example for their JPN album visuals

Arguing that these women would be in any way fat is insane. That's how I know kpop fans have brainrot.

Whenever I stumble on kpop MV gif my eyes itch at the amount of filters used... Kpop idols are routinely abused and mistreated but these idiots will keep stanning. I've always found ironic how people have no problem acknowledging that what we consume has political consequences and won't shut up about H&M and Shein mistreatment of their employees + their business model damaging effects on their environment but will keep lining the pockets of Kpop artists agencies doing the same 💀

Both Japan and Korean are fucked up with their Beauty standards but Japan still has the kawaii card that allows someone to still be considered appealing despite not being conventionally attractive. I think Ai Kago and Tsuji Nozomi totally belong in that category. That being said, kawaiiness can also be artificial considering that Nozomi did plastic surgery on her eyes to make them look twice bigger + obsessive use of light color lenses (look at the pics of her marriage before she got the procedure💀). Kyary is also infamous for revamping her face (namidabukuro + eyelid lift)

And let's no forget Tsubasa Masuwaka who's jumped on the kawaii bandwagon after the end of the heisei/gyaru era and has been doctoring like mad her pics ever since...

[humaninpogresss77]

My thoughts on C3E27

I was really thinking to write this before but I got a panic attack for a personal thing and I decide to postpone it.

Again, this is very dumb and not all the things I would love to post, and I’m sorry for the people that waste time reading this stupid stuff.

Having Ashley as a regular is such an improvement. I hope she gets to do a lot of Ads as mending the time she wasn’t there.

I mentioned before but I couldn’t look at nothing more than Laura and her arm during her merch segment. Although that shirt looked beautiful, and I think that would be the first merch I would buy If I have the ways to get one.

Fearne’s postcards had to be fake. I’m so sad for her and I’m more curious about Morrigan now than ever. I wonder if she wasn’t really Fearne’s nana but a high figure in the feywild and they left Fearne with her for protection. Also, how is all of this connected with Morr from the crown keepers?

The way every single one of the members of hell bells do everything they can to protect Fearne there. It shows how much this group has growth together in the time they have.

I want to believe that Dusk is reaching for a connection with the party and they have real interest for Laudna or Orym and is not a plot to mess with them.

I guess that during Laudna and Imogen conversation, Erika rolled a perception check and sent a text to Matt? I guess it was a perception check. That was sneaky.

My opinions about Imogen and Laudna’s conversation are in here.

I know they were always good, but is so interesting to see Ashton so supportive and interest on their friends. I wonder if it has to be with what happened to them during the fight meeting Dusk or has been in Bassuras.

F.C.G really need help. I hope they get someone that can give them answers. How they continue messing names was scary.

I don’t have that much to say about Orym more than I love him and I feel for him.

GIVE MISTER A GUN.

I wonder why Fearne doesn’t transform into a direwolf. I mean, I kinda understand the mechanics part, but I would love to hear a reason in the plot why she doesn’t reach that. I’m pretty sure the gang is gonna die from excitement when she does.

Holy crap what on earth is happening. I don’t remember any other plot connected in the way all of this is going.

So, I believe the black ring is pointing to the gem and not Fearne? So, I was kinda right and is something she is holding more than herself.

I’m not that interest in the race but it looks is gonna be fun.

[barbie-movie-confessions]

i personally love the memeification of barbie movies. it keeps them somewhat relevant in pop culture when they wouldn't be otherwise, and even though they're special to me im very well aware there's a lot to make fun of in them

Or maybe they’re still relevant because many of them are actually very good movies.

I’m pretty sure the reason that anon doesn’t like the memeification of Barbie movies is because the internet as a whole has this sort of imbalance between the “ironic” fans who make fun and fans that no-joke love Barbie movies as they are. The Shrek franchise is a good comparison. Shrek 1 & 2 are actually really good films, but the franchise as a whole has been memeified so badly that sometimes it’s hard to find people talking about it in a serious manner.

A lot of Barbie’s films are genuinely good. There are things we can criticize or make fun of, of course, as with all media. But I also understand Anon’s frustration with wanting to see them treated with more respect. I think it’s that imbalance I mentioned. People who like Barbie movies the way want to interact with people who feel that same way. 

But unlike Disney, DreamWorks, or even lesser-liked animation studios like Illumination, Barbie’s films are not taken seriously by people who aren’t already fans. Yes, Barbie movies are 70min toy commercials, but so are a lot of Disney movies. Barbie movies sometimes have ridiculous or confusing plots, so does Blue Sky or Illumination. At the same time, though, it’s clear that tons of Barbie movies are crafted with the same care that one would give to any other animation studio. Many have beautifully developed romances, animation that holds up surprisingly well, unique worlds, humor appropriate for kids that also makes adults laugh, etc.

And another part of it is how others react to non-sarcastic fans. Ever heard of the term “Disney Adult”? While some people use it to describe themselves, a lot of others use it as a way to make fun of adults who still like Disney. Barbie fans may not have their own term like that, but just liking anything related to Barbie, not even just the movies, as an adult often gets you judged. I’ve had film bros breathe down my neck before about how I need to watch some “real” movies. It’s embarrassing and mean.

Sorry for this long reply. I just really don’t agree with the idea that without the “meme culture” Barbie movies would be considered irrelevant. And honestly, even if they are irrelevant in the grand scheme of animation, or movies as a whole, does that really matter? Plenty of “relevant” movies these days have boring plots, utilize the same actors over and over, or simply recycle stuff from the past. Relevancy doesn’t automatically mean better.

I do appreciate your point of view. Like I said before, there are in fact things you can criticize or make fun of with Barbie movies, even if they take up half your lifeforce like me. I just happen to agree with that other Anon about their overall perception.

- Erika

[eveofwriting]

Howdy! I would love to request some Yandere pokemon content if possible. Erika and her gym always looked like a mini prison, as you need HM Cut for the tree blocking the way there. In the gym are four female trainers on the outside. With another area in the middle that you need to use Cut yet again to get it. What I'm trying to say is that her gym looks like it's designed to keep her darling/you there. I would like some Yandere Erika headcanons please and thank you. Fem darling if not too much.

[Honestly I’d be damned if I said you were wrong, 😆🤚 I can’t imagine getting out of that maze of a gym easily, in my original copy of yellow, with the graphics it was near impossible for me to find my way through that gym. Nearly a twitch plays pokemon team rocket base situation- oh wait I’m talking too much.]

Yandere Erika Headcanons

★ Well, after she’s determined she wants YOU as her lover, your fate is sealed and you should probably say goodbye to any hopes of seeing anyone except the gym trainers, and of course, Erika.

★ Erika will stop at nothing to make sure you can’t leave her, she loves you too much to let you go.

★ Despite her unhealthy obsession, she is pretty casual about the relationship.

★ Oh, did I mention she’s the type to put restraints on you?

★ She’ll make it comfortable for you, maybe some fuzzy handcuffs that really won’t make your wrists too sore but will do the job of keeping you in place.

★ All of your pokemon are safely kept in a storage closet that only the people who work at the gym can access, so good luck.

★ In short, you have no way of escaping.

★ She does often fall asleep, which I suppose might give you a bit of hope!

★ But then you have at least 9 other girls there ready to hold you down and get Erika if you ever somehow get out of your cuffs and the hedge maze type thing grown around you.

★ She must’ve been planning this for a while, seen how elaborate all of the things that prevented you from escaping are.

★ Did someone say punishments? No? Well I’m telling you anyway.

★ She is very gentle on punishments, considering she hates to see her darling Y/N get hurt in any way, shape, or form

★ Expect a gentle scolding and a slap on the wrist.

★ If you really don’t learn that you need to play her little charade of lovers to survive, the punishments might get a bit more brutal.

★ After three failed attempts at escaping, you’ll see that she’s infuriated, at you, and at herself for not making you comfortable enough that you want to constantly leave.

★ She does do sweet things for you, honestly.

★ She absolutely adores cuddling with you, even if you fight back, she’ll just have one of her pokemon sedate you so she can enjoy it.

★ She imagines you enjoy it just as much.

★ She makes sure you have everything, including food, water, and will let you use the gym changing room to take a bath. (Most of these rooms don’t actually exist but shhhhhh use your imagination >:[ )

★ She doesn’t want to hurt you herself, so she’ll have one of her pokemon do it for her.

★ Usually just stuff that is slightly painful, but if she needs to, she’ll have one of her partners use a more damaging move.

★ Maybe poison powder to make you nauseous and give you a headache, or she’ll paralyze you and repeatedly have one use vine whip as if it was an actual whip.

★ Unsurprisingly, the name suits it well, and you’re left with some nasty cuts.

★ “..I didn’t want to have to hurt you.. Just return my affections, that’s all I want..”

[captainsspnanon]

C3E24 reaction

Sorry for no reaction last week, these things happen.

I love the multiple instances of reactions of the Hells that are so clearly different than the Nein.  While the Nein as a party always felt heavily neutral that slowly shifted to good, a lot of the Hells already feel like they’re in good (though I’m genuinely wondering if Chetney might actually be in the evil spectrum, but we won’t see it against the party because they’re people he cares for?  Imma keep my eye on his NPC interactions!).

...whaaaat is going on with the dusstras being tortured and having it’s kids killed???? Is this just a case of environmental ‘humanoids don’t care about animals when taking resources for themselves’, a specific case of ‘bad guy using area where the creature is from for it’s own purposes’ or even more specific ‘bad guy actively hurting the creature for reasons’.  OR, is it just a random flavor moment that Matt chucked in that will never be dealt with again? XD

I feel a bit bad for Taliesin that no one followed up with Ashton after their impalement after he took care of Orym yesterday/last episode, but I also am a little annoyed because c’mon dude, the group was all talking over each other.  Pull a Liam, interrupt or take a moment when they’re silence and THEN say what Ashton is doing, you’re more likely to get party reactions or interactions from it.  It was hard for me as a viewer to hear what you chose, even though you said it twice.  And you’ve been playing with this group for ages, you know that they’ll talk over shit and miss stuff all the time!

While I’m appreciating all of Chetney’s gifts to the party, I 100% think that Robbie got the best one, just in terms of complexity and appearance. XD  Like, the hand is fun, the box was sweet, the dollhouse is hysterical, but that SHIP WAS SO PRETTY AND COMPLEX.  So now we’re just waiting on Fearne, Imogen, and maybe FCG unless the feet were considered the gift but I doubt it.

Minor shade to Taliesin, but I’m glad a few of the party (and cast OOC) mentioned that he needs to SHARE things.  There’s levels of in character secrecy or hesitancy that make sense, but omg I’ve been annoyed with Tal from time to time (especially in C1) where he would be like “I have a plan” or “I’m going to do a thing” and then not TELL anyone what is was until it was actually happening.  Or in the case of C3, “oh god is it Thing?” “what’s Thing?” “I’m not gonna tell you now”.  If you’re stating it out loud, expect people to follow up, and give some fucking answers, even if you don’t tell the full story!  If you don’t want to do that, but want to make a statement, pull the shit that Liam does and have Ashton make a comment to himself when no one else can hear.

I’m really enjoying the descriptions of Bassuras, even though I’ve never seen Mad Max itself, I’ve seen plenty of pictures and gifs from original and otherwise.  Looking forwards to the exploration of the city, especially because I do miss the travelling.

I fucking love Fearne so much, I cannot even.  (I also cannot even, apparently Ashley with dark hair is all I ever wanted OMG)  I adore how she’s being so creepy at night, looking at and touching people.  I’m also very glad that FCG was woken up by this and is able to confront her about NOT COOL.

FCG being VERY protective of their markings, what the fuck is up with that?  I WANT TO KNOW NOW.  (also their pissed at birds because one shits on their head all the time.  Did Matt know this?  Is this something Sam has been planning but never told Matt so now Matt just needs to decide how he wants to deal with this?  IS THE BIRD THE BBEG THE ENTIRE TIME???)

ERIKA ERIKA ERIKA!!!!  Okay, 1) I don’t actually think I’ve seen any of the one shots she’s in so I’m looking forwards to seeing her play, 2) I’m very interested to see how long she ends up staying as a guest, getting a vague idea of how guests will be going forwards, 3) ...I’m actually kinda slightly disappointed because I do love just the cast on their own, but I’m keeping my opinions open, and 4) I wonder if the temporary break was maybe to accommodate her schedule?

Oh hey, fun to see that I have an instinctive fear with the description of a glaive now. Thanks C2!

You know, as much fun as Sam’s gas cans are, I prefer the flask?  Because the flask (for the most part) wasn’t disruptive.  But the gas can is FREQUENTLY disruptive, and this one is BAD.

@suicidallyreckless

[ultraericthered]

The 17 best characters in Umineko, according to my opinion.

1. Lambdadelta - Super adorable, super hilarious, super whimsical, super scary when need be, SUPER PAPER! Lambda has got it all!

2. Bernkastel - I love me a great villain, and Bern is one of the best in this whole franchise. Extra cool points for being Evil Rika Furude.

3. Erika Furudo - I want to deck her in her smug little gremlin face but then also wrap her in a warm blanket and keep her all snug and protected in equal measures, which is a VERY hard thing to pull off as perfectly balanced as Erika somehow does and I adore her for it. 

4. Sayo Yasuda/Beatrice - Pretty much the centerpiece character of this entire narrative. Never fails to be fascinating and entertaining.

5. Maria Ushiromiya/MARIA - Uuuu! While at first Maria seemed a bit too try-hard to be for Umineko what Rena was for Higurashi, I got attached to her quickly and she proved to be a wonderful character.

6. Battler Ushiromiya/Black Battler - It’s almost unbelievable how much Battler’s character grew on me and won me over. A far more heavily flawed individual than Keiichi was, but just as interesting in his own right. Plus, he’s even got a badass evil doppelganger! 

7. Ange Ushiromiya/Ange-Beatrice - Easily the most sympathetic character in the cast aside from maybe Maria, and ultimately the true hero of this tale. Following her journey was always a highlight.

8. Jessica Ushiromiya - Tough-as-nails but a bit scatterbrained and blunt as hell, not to mention a pansexual icon. I can’t not love her!

9. Ronove - He’s too friendly and likable to be a nefarious demon!

10. Gaap - Another very fun and likable (and hot) demon character.

11. Virgilia - Beato’s mentor really helped kickstart our deeper understanding of magic, witches, and Yasu’s character while always being a pleasant and comforting presence to have around.

12. Eva Ushiromiya/Eva-Beatrice - Eva was the most fascinating and complex of Kinzo’s children who aren’t Yasu, making me care about her yet also detest her at different points, back and forth. She also has a kickass evil doppelganger in the form of her “black witch.”

13. Willard H. Wright - I’m a sucker for eccentric and antisocial Holmesian detectives, and Mr. Wright really made the most of it.

14. Lion Ushiromiya - They’re just precious, and show us what could have been had Kinzo not been even more horrid than he was.

15. Kyrie Ushiromiya - Imagine if Kyoko Kirigiri grew up and lost a good chunk of her moral standards, and you’d have Kyrie. Whether she be acting for good or for bad, she’s undeniably one cool MFer.

16. Hideyoshi Ushiromiya - How did Eva ever manage to score a guy so caring and kind? Easily the least bad of the Ushiromiya adults in terms of morality, even if he is sadly under-developed.

17. Juuza Amakusa - Formerly of the Yamainu and now serving as Ange’s hired bodyguard, he’s another fun morally sketchy character.

And the runner ups are....

Tetsuro Okonogi - I love the guy, but he appears in literally every single When They Cry entry, so he’s not exactly unique to Umineko.

Dlanor Knox - Have a difficult time separating her from Erika in my mind, so she doesn’t really stand on her own as a character.

The Seven Stakes Sisters of Purgatory - A fun take on the Seven Deadly Sins/Demon Lords, but lack much dimension or individuality.

The Chiester Sisters - Much as I enjoy them, they always did seem kind of out of place in this series, and they’re even less developed than the above sisters group.

All the other characters I can take or leave (Dr. Nanjo, Kumasawa, Gohda, Gertrude & Cornelia), I like them alright (George, Krauss, Natsuhi, Sakutaro), or I have more conflicted feelings on like if I mostly like them but sometimes hate them (Featherine Augustus Aurora, Genji, the Goat Servants), I mostly hate them but sometimes like them (Rosa Ushiromiya, Rudolf Ushiromiya, Zepar & Furfur), or I just flat out hate them but enjoy the shit out of hating them (Kinzo Ushiromiya. Fuck Kinzo. Oh, and Kasumi Sumadera too.)

[buttmuncher91]

a lot of advanceshippers love to say such bs about Drew even to this day. Drew is not my favorite character & it’s fine to prefer advanceshipping over contestshipping and I kinda like advanceshipping , but some of the things they say are ridiculous! This is not bashing on all advanceshippers or advanceshipping in general, this is just some quotes (not exact) I’ve seen that I’ve had problems with.

”Drew is a jerk! Ash would treat her right!“

Both would treat her just fine! Drew watches out for her & tells her when Harley is tricking her, saved her friends & brother when she was busy, saves her friends, cheers her up when she’s down, & they both calmly talk to each other when alone.

Besides, there are some things to point Ash being a jerk to her too! Ash yelled at her because he was butthurt he had no boat to get his next gym badge & skips out on watching some of her contest when May even watches him battle regular trainers.

And it’s not like May is an innocent angel herself. She yelled at Ash & Drew for no reason, had her torchic attack Ash, & forced Ash to agree to let her travel with him by bringing up her bike.

I know May & Ash have developed a lot sense than, but so has Drew & y’all are just stuck viewing him how he reacted at the beginning.

”May hates Drew & loves ash!“

She doesnt hate Drew. At the very worst, she sees him as a friend & has seen him that way by “Who, What, When, Where, Wynut.” Like I said we seen them talk a lot when they run into each other & heck, she even ditched the group, including Ash as he was talking to her, to talk to Drew when she saw Drew. So tell me again how she loves Ash way more than Drew lol!

And in ”Spontaneous Combustion“ May blushes at Drew after he waved and walked off. May never blushed around Ash, even when some weird couple accused her of being Ash’s lover. And there was nothing in that scene that indicates her getting red met something else. She wasn’t sick, doesn’t look mad, didn’t do anything embarrassing, etc... so it looks as if she really likes Drew.

”Drew is a flirts with any girl & would cheat on May, but Ash would never cheat on her!”

You people have nothing to back this up. Drew had fangirls gushing all over him? May being Norman‘s daughter and probably because she’s referred to as hoenn princess, has a lot of fanboys! In fact, Ash is more likely to cheat on May then Drew dispite him being oblivious, as Drew showed 0 interest in his fangirls & ran from them. If he was such a flirt, he wouldn’t run from fan girls, but would try & you know, FLIRT with them. Drew also showed 0 interest for other girls, & only teases May. You advanceshipper fanbrats (not saying all advanceshippers are fanbrats just the advanceshippers who think this) only pretend he is to make up reasons for May to reject Drew.

”He only likes May for her rack, & wouldn’t care for her if it was flat!“

Talk about reaching. Drew only stares at her FACE! He never stared at them, & the anime gave her chest 0 focus. He isn’t just some creeper. Despite not being interested in her, he treated Breanna nicely & she was flat. He may just have puppy love/a crush on her, but saying he’s just trying to win her because of her rack is complete bs!

”Think about it, Drew & May would make ugly babies!”

Based on what? Cuz Drew has green hair? As someone whose least favorite color is green (okay, okay dark/forest green is pretty), I think this is a stupid claim. Even with a weird hair color, there’s a chance the child could be cute, & really beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Hair color is NOT even close to a huge factor to what separates not ugly to ugly. And they don’t have to make babies if they do get together. They can just choose to adopt to help out those who need a home or just happily be with each other with no children at all.

”Drew is in less episodes with May than Ash, so advanceshipping is better & will be canon!”

🤦‍♀️Misty has the most screen time with ash. By this cruddy ”logic,” Misty & ash (so far) are canon. Yes, misty has much more screen time with ash than May. Misty had all of Kanto, Orange Islands, AND Jhoto with ash... as well as a cameo with ash in Hoenn, and TWO separate cameos in Alola. And at this point, May could have spent more time with Drew. It’s been 4 regions that Ash hasn’t even thought of 1 of her Pokémon after all this time. I’m no pokeshipper, but let’s be real here.

And most of the time Ash & May are on screen, it’s them focusing on their goals/Pokémon. They cheer & encourage each other too, but it’s mostly friendship stuff. Could something happen later on between them to spark love? Sure. But nothing in the anime ever pointed to that. And you can literally say that with Ash and... ANYONE! Like Ash could grow up, met back up with Roxie & they could fall for each other.

When Drew appears on screen, you mostly see hard evidence for contestshipping, weather on Drew’s side, May’s side, or both. Yes, there’s evidence on BOTH sides that they like each other. At best, advanceshipping looks one-sided on May’s side. And even then, it mostly looked that way in the beginning of AG. There’s way more evidence that May likes Drew & vice vesa than with ash & May, even with “less contestshipping hints!“ A lot of hints for shippings are overblown. Not just advanceshipping hints, but poke/pearl/negai(actually never mind, negai is under looked & over hated)/amour/etc... are over blown & it’s just ash being his usual nice/childish self. With Drew, it’s obvious he likes her as how he constantly stares at her, teases her, gives her red roses (& says they’re for beutifly), etc... While I think I covered how May likes Drew enough already. And yes, this could just be a kiddy crush for the both of them, but in the end there’s still harder evidence that Drew & May like each other.

Plus there are a lot of canon fictIonal couples who had less screen time with each other than other characters. Naruhina, ichihime, Hinny, gochi, etc...

“Drew never saves May’s life, unlike Ash!”

So? May never even tried to saved Ash, like she did with Drew!

Ash has also saved: Angie (who has a more confirmed crush on ash), Dawn, Pikachu (3x I can think of), Chinchar, Lillie (or at least attempts to help a lot of times), Celiebi, Erika’s Gloom, Serena, Misty’s sisters Pokémon, a ton of CotDs & their Pokémon...

And what of those who saved Ash? Misty, Sabrina’s... family photographer, Gary, Iris, Clemont’s father, Zeroara dude, a ton of officer jennys, Pikachu, a lapras, Paul, Drew (ya keep on hating him if it werent for him Ash Brock and Max would probably be dead in that crate Jessie, James & Meowth trapped them in so not even advanceshipping could happen).

“Rivals can’t be dating!”

Where did you get this bs? Even in the pokeani IN THE AG SERIES this has been proven false. Watch Pasificlog Jam again. Who put you in charge of how couples should work anyways? If a writer wants to have rivals hookup in their story, than they have that freedom to have the rivals hookup regardless how upset you get over it.

“Ash & May kissed in a banned episode, so advanceshipping is canon not contestshipping!”

Come on guys, they’re 10. The anime creators aren’t gonna have two 10 yr olds kiss on the lips. Its really creepy some person came up with this. No, it’s not creepy cuz I don’t like advaceshipping (I actually like some aspects of it). Again, it’s creepy because they’re 10. If they were like 13+ yrs old, it‘d be okay, but NOT 10. Plus, even Japan is very sensitive when having kissing on the lips happen with kid shows. Even with adults, they censor it/show something else as the kiss happens & just imply it happened. Expecally how they view kissing on the lips in the first place, they ain’t having 2 ten year olds kiss.

And there would be NOTHING to imply that they where going to kiss. Around this time this episode that they kissed claimed to happen (episode 357), Ash & co. where heading to fortree. Nothing ever was implied from the both of them even want to kiss each other. They just where supportive friends of each other with no hinting there where secret feelings or developing feelings from ether of them. Theres also nothing beyond that episode that implied the kiss happened. Because if it did actually happen, I’m sure something like that would impact the next few episodes, but nope no mention of any kiss nor do ash & May act any differently around each other in 358 and beyond. So even if it did happen, it was going to more than likely sink the ship, like it was some akaward thing they did because they were “under the mistletoe“ & afterwards just agreed to be friends & forget about it. The pokemon anime was always about friendship, adventure, and Pokemon themselves, never romance.

Also episode 357 is “Take This House and Shuppet!” not “A Kiss Under the Mistletoe!“ The Japanese episode is the same as the English barring names & episode number.

Were do you get such a sorce for this info? “my friend’s japanese friend who talked to the director of the AG anime & saw it!” or some other ridiculous unreliable garbage like that? Give me actual sources with interviews from the writers talking about this supposed banned episode. Bet you can’t, unless it’s fake & unreliable. If it existed, it would have floated up by someone from Japan. After All, even if for 20 mins that episode should’ve existed if it was just banned. Like “Electric Soldier Porygon” was banned completely & only aired one time in Japan. However, there are places that you can watch the episode despite it being completely banned due to putting a lot of children in the hospital from seizures. That was older than the supposed advanceshipping kiss episode as ’Electric Soldier Porygon’ is a Original Series episode in Kanto the 38th episode. No one can find this supposed advanceshipping episode nor is it even listed in the banned episode list. It should be harder to find this older banned episode than it should be to find this supposed banned kiss episode.

“Why should May choose Drew over Ash? Ash is like a literal god!”

What? Yes, he’s befriended every legendary & come back though poketears, save the world so many times, has arua abilities (he rarely uses), & whatever else, but it’s not like he seems that BA or whatever. Ash not aging seems over focused on, when in reality NO ONE is aging. It took him 7 regions to win 1 league (a questionable one at that), can’t remember Pokémon he seen before & sometimes forgets what he learned, & needs saved by others sometimes. Some god, can’t even rescue himself. Besides, who knows what Drew has done on his adventures. Drew has also saved Ash, Brock, & Max from trouble, isn’t Drew awesome saving someone ”like a god!”? Drew also has beat him in a battle as well, is that y’all’s problem?

And where is Ash’s voice in all this? It’s like this in all this anti-Drew bs. “Drew is just this terrible creature who possesses all 7 deadly sins & is the creation of Giratina & thus May hates & so does everyone else! However... blessed by Arceus himself, we all just know not dense Ash Ketchem is waiting to sweep May off her feet & save her from the demonic spawn that is Drew who is lusting after her bewbs😡” (<-original ideas, do not steal jkjk). Like there’s NOTHING to indicate ash wants her. And do you think this of May as well? Like do y‘all think May is just this perfect, sweetest, most divine woman in the pokeani that only Ash “blessed by Arceus“ is the only guy that should be blessed by such an angel? 🤣

Look, I like Ash & I like May. But even with my favorite characters I wouldn’t go as far as to think so highly of them that it makes Helga’s obsession with Arnold look like nothing. And just because Ash is more amazing with more feets & whatever, doesn’t mean May has to love ash or that Ash has to choose may because Drew doesn’t measure up to him.🤷‍♀️ Just think about it, should Timmy’s mom go with Dinkleburg? After all, he is smarter than Timmy’s dad, has more money & is more successful than he is. And Wandesemo is more popular, not stupid, & mostly competent unlike Casmo. Should Wanda dump Casmo for him? Of course i understand wanting the best person to end with you’re favorite character. But that’s not how love works & in the long run isn’t fair to both Ash & May (& Drew, but I know you haters don’t care about that).

[tetrakys]

Eldarya A New Era - episodes 1 and 2

Let’s start with a brief recap and then my comments at the end.

Not much happens plot-wise, which makes sense since the first chapters are always about exposition and introducing the characters.

Episode 1: 

We wake up in the new Crystal room and are swiftly taken by Huang Hua to the infirmary, we are perfectly healthy and have a chance to meet one of our old friends. Since we have been revered as a deity for the past 7 year sin the Crystal, Huang Hua has to make an announcement to the whole HQ saying that we are back into the living world, then we can finally explore HQ, meet old and new friends, get a new outfit and later attend a party in our honour. This is pretty much the plot of the first episode. 

Episode 2:

In the second we have the chance of picking a Guard to belong to, Huang offered the Light one but Erika refuses because she doesn’t feel ready yet. We also get a new sword that Jamon has created for us and we can train a bit with him, afterwards we join a mission and go the forest. Once there we realise there is something wrong, as if some areas looked corrupted. We find a hurt companion and a very human shotgun bullet next to it and an evil-looking companion who attacks us causing us to end our very first mission at the infirmary, as usual. Once we are back on our feet we talk to Huang Hua about the bullet and realise that there is something she is hiding from us, then we help Ewe making a potion to save the companion. The companion got attached to us so we decide to adopt it.

Now a bit of info dump about the characters:

Huag Hua is the new head of the guard since Miiko went back to her family obligations. She is no longer the Phoenix apprentice although we don’t know why yet, she is in a romantic committed relationship with Ewelein who is still the head of the infirmary and member of the Light Guard. 

Aleja and Sonse got married and left, Colaja joined them and she and Jamon broke up since he stayed. He was sad for a bit but then got over it. Kero left when most people left no one knows where he is. Ezarel left with Twilda and Mary Anne to try to make a new life for themselves. Memoria disappeared and no one knows what happened to it and all the dragon spirits. Karuto is still he chef and he became much nicer in time, also is food much better after fruits and vegetables in Eldarya became edible. There is speculation about his relationship with Feng Zifu who is still very polite but much older looking, however nothing confirmed yet.

Huang Chu is the new head of the Absynth Guard, she looks and acts kinda strict and matter-of-factly but she is also surprisingly open-minded, she encourages Erika to think with her own head and never blindly accept anyone’s order not even her own. She doesn’t get along with Mathieu at all.

Koori is a kitsune member of the Absynth Guard, she is funny, provocative and flirty. She wants to become friend with Erika and even flirts a bit. We see her both flirting with and mercilessly teasing Mathieu, not sure if she’s actually hitting on him or playing him, but this seems to be her normal behaviour. 

Chrome is now the head of the Shadow Guard, he and Karenn are still together and while he is the official head it seems that she is his boss as usual so hierarchy is a bit blurry. The both became more mature in time, she is less into gossip and he went through a rough self-blaming patch, but he looks pretty happy right now, eating a lot and constantly making lame jokes, and she seems to have become a real fighter (everyone is recommending to never train with her).

Adalric is a sylph, Erika comments he kinda looks like a genie. He has constantly his head in the clouds forgetting all the most trivial tasks, he talks with the stars and the wind apparently.

Ophelia is this little girl we see for just a moment, we feel that she has the same aura as the Oracle, we hug her but she just smile and leaves. We are told she showed up after the White Sacrifice and no one actually knows anything about her, not even if she sleeps and eats and where. 

Mathieu is a human who stumbled in a mushroom cricle about one year ago, he was sort of a recluse with no friends nor family on Earth, only thinking about fantasy and adventure, so he is very happy to be in Eldarya and couldn’t care less about going back to Earth. To his dismay the test assigned him to the Absynth Guard and he’s constantly hoping to be reassigned to the Obsidian instead. He’s the happy-go-lucky type but seems to also have a certain depth that we will hopefully find out.

Nevra is now a member of the Light Guard and Huang Hua’s right hand (he basically got Leiftan’s old job). He looks more severe and it seems that the events of S1 hardened him. He is back to his slutty ways but in episode he admits frivolous relationships don’t bring him happiness. 

Leiftan got out of the Crystal with us but it took longer for him to wake up. He says that he needs to find himself and wants to put distance between him and everyone else, in fact he refuses to rejoin the Guard. When Erika asks him to train her aengel powers he refuses and says that he won’t ever touch a blade again and will never be responsible of further violence. Nevra can’t stand him at the moment because he thinks he is escaping his responsibilities. 

COMMENTS:

Since people liked the expression I’m going to repeat it again, let’s address the elephant in the room first. (Guys “elephant in the room” is a figure of speech, it’s not a real elephant lol).  No one mentioned who is the head of the Obsidian Guard, when Erika tries to ask one time the subject is swiftly changed and people seem to go out of their way to not go there. Everyone, including their grandparents, their cousins, neighbours and the cousins of their neighbours has figured out that the head of Obsidian is Lance, who is name dropped constantly. I know that there are some people who still like to live in denial, kudos to them. BV all but told me that Lance is coming in episode 3 before Christmas, the release pace is like MCL’s so I’m expecting episodes every second Wednesday of the month at this point, but we’ll see.

The situation with Nevra and Leiftan is heavy not gonna lie. I’ve only played the episode with Nevra so far and my heart broke in tiny pieces, but I want to savour the angst and enjoy the ride. I don’t blame either of the two, Leiftan went from traitor to saviour in a matter of what two days? He had not time to think about his choices and properly reflect on himself. I think it’s fair that the writing his giving him a bit of depth as a character now and not just using him for his abs and to kill and save people when needed. So yeah, I approve him going to therapy or whatever is going to do to achieve self-growth. 

Nevra is a bit trickier, he spent one year moping in front of the Crystal every day, then moved on simply out of survival, and he’s well aware that the life he has now brings him no joy so one would think he would jump into Erika’s arms immediately? He is probably still very much hurting about everything that happened and he still has a fight or flight reaction about everything regarding it, his subconscious reaction when he saw Erika must have been DANGERDANGER RUN. Sleep around is easier because he doesn’t care and can’t be hurt again. While I can understand this, I also think it’s pretty cowardly and I would’ve liked to have given the reaction to get mad, to demand him to spend time with us, because yes he hurt but we spent 7 freaking years in a coma and no time has passed for us, the day before we were swearing love to each other and now this coldness. And yes I could’ve chosen angrier options with him instead of being understanding, but then my LoM would’ve dropped. 

So what I think I’m trying to say is that I would like to have the option of getting mad without having devastating consequences on all the relationships. I know that the next episode is called Rage-something so I am hoping Erika will blow up. We are probably going to run into Lance, find out that he’s been forgiven and working with the Guard and go full violent mode. And hopefully she will get mad with the other guys as well. Homegirl needs to unleash since episode 13 AT LEAST.

Also, since Leiftan refused to train her, I’m expecting that Lance will at some point. Sweaty training sessions with a strict instructor who she kinda hates but also kinda thirst for... 😏😏😏 I have expectations now.

My general comment is that I like the writing so far, I see much improvement from the previous season although it’s too early to judge. I loved the shade thrown at Miiko and the Guard test, you can really tell the writer’s thoughts sometimes, he uses Mathieu to tell us what he thinks. 

The one think I didn’t like is that, while I can understand most of the choices and the events of these two episodes, I don’t understand how the writing can justify Erika not looking for Ezarel if she were on her route. No time has passed for her, anyone would go looking for their lover in a situation like this, not just “oh well, he’s gone”. I know he can’t be brought back, but give me a good, logical reason in game. (Also, I hope to never see him and Valkyon as secondary non-datable characters because I would die inside).

About the other characters, I like Koori and Huang Chu, I don’t like Adalric, just personal taste, he seems to be the type of person who would be into yoga and spiritualism and it’s just not me at all lol.

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression, radio version - Ep 43, July 2016 - Inadequate election coverage by media, Increase in motiveless crime.

Kaoru starts this episode by saying how its still really hot. Joe mentions that its only going to get hotter over the next few weeks, and asks Kaoru if he hates Summer. Kaoru says he hates Summer and Winter. He prefers Spring and Autumn, and will absolutely not be attending any summer fireworks displays or other such summer events. Everyone has summer vacation time, so not matter where you go, its hot, and there are people everywhere. He hates this.

Kaoru then moves on to talk about the new single Utafumi, in particular the special site that has been set up for it. Upon entering the site, the phrase 3分10秒間の痛み (3mins10secs of pain) appears on screen. This short phrase gives off a kind of instant power, but Kaoru wonders what Joe actually thinks of the song. Firstly, says Joe, the song contains an effortless feel, and does have an instantaneous power to it. For some inexplicable reason, he also feels like the song is enjoyable to listen to. Joe also picks up on something that he said during his Rolling Stone interview with Kaoru the previous week, which is that Dir en grey is very multifaceted when it comes to expression. Just as there a many different angles from which to view a Picaso painting, Joe views Dir's music in the same way. He fell in love with its multi-dimensional sound after seeing the last tour and listening to Utafumi, and wants to delve deeper into it. Kaoru expresses his thanks at such words, and explains that Utafumi is a kind of step in the direction towards the new album. He asks everyone to look forward to that.

Next they welcome Tasai for the Tokyo Sports corner. The first thing Tasai does is apologise for Hiranabe bringing a young woman with him on the last show. To Tasai, its unthinkable to bring a girlfriend to work. Kaoru says he was honestly pretty shocked.

Tasai's first topic relates to the House of Councillors elections, and how all TV stations run election specials on the night after the election has finished. The tv personality Dave Spector has questioned why Japan never shows such election specials on TV before an election. Surely it would be better to get all the info out there to the voters before the election takes place? Joe elaborates on this problem by bringing up the movie 'Pacchigi!/Break through!', by director Izutsu Kazuyuki. Joe had talked with the producer of the movie, who is a Korean resident of Japan. The movie deals with the conflict between a Korean school in Japan and the local Japanese teens. The producer told Joe that advertising the movie was very tough. He had paid a lot of money to a certain tv station for a CM spot, and wanted to use a clip from the one of thr climaxes of the movie where the Korean female lead character (played by Sawajiri Erika) says to the Japanese boy who likes her, 'If you and I were to be together always, can you become Korean?'. Despite being approved by the ethics committee, the tv channel wouldn't accept it. When the movie was promoted on the radio, the director and producer pushed really hard to be able to play the Korean song 'Imjin River', which appears in the movie, but at the last minute, the radio station refused to play it. This illustrates that the media are the most conservative ones out there. Japan needs its media to change first before other change can happen. Tasai adds that there is no law forbidding detailed coverage before an election in Japan, this is entirely self imposed control. Although the likes of Ikegami Akira play an important role in bringing political issues to the forefront, there is still a large build up of frustration surrounding elections in Japan. Kaoru states that if the media did cover elections thoroughly before voting took place, they would be much easier to understand. Joe agrees, saying that if people developed an interest in the small details of the situation, it might be a catalyst for them to check out the actions of political parties in more depth. Kaoru replies that a lot more fishy businesses would come up to the surface if that was the case.

Tasai admits that there are other ways to get information, for example on the internet, but TV is still currently the big one. The only rule is that they are not allowed to tell viewers directly to vote for or not vote for a specific candidate. But there is nothing stopping them from presenting all the information there is, and telling viewers to make thier own decision before an election. Joe wonders which media outlet will ever be the first one to take this step. It will be a very important move if it happens. Tasai thinks it is currently still quite difficult for a tv station to be able to do this. He  also thinks that another important point in relation to the recent election is that young people didn't vote. Kaoru agrees, and says changes in the media would make everything easier to understand for them. Tasai says that in one previous House of Councillors election, the number of voters over age 60 was 12 million, wheras the number of voters in thier 20s in the same election was only 4million. The politicians are therefore always talking about the interests of the elderly..pensions etc, which people in thier 20s don't connect with. Tasai makes a plea for any listerners of this show who are in thier 20s to please go out and vote at election time. Kaoru echoes this sentiment. Joe say politics needs to be more future facing, and brings up the case of a country who did an experiment giving voting rights to 0 year old babies. Thier parents would vote for them in a way which they thought best represented thier future interests.

Kaoru coments that an online voting system is also needed to meet the reality of this younger generation. Tasai thinks that online voting will become a possibility in the near future. Joe comments that given the advanced state of technology in this day and age, an online voting system should not be that hard to organize. At the same time, Kaoru says he does enjoy going to vote in person at the local elementary school (*voting stations are often set up at elementary schools in Japan*), because he would never have any other opportunity to go into such a building, and he finds it quite nostalgic.

Tasai's next story is about a strange incident where a ballet teacher had her thumb cut off by a man. The man knew she would be alone at the ballet studio in the morning. He entered, strangled her till she passed out, and then cut off her thumb with a chisel. He must have had some kind of reason to do this, but no-one knows why. He apparently admitted he had wanted to cut off the little finger, but the ring finger got in the way, so he cut the thumb instead. Tasai doesn't understand why anyone would do this. No-one in the man's neighborhood knows anything about him, which makes him all the more odd. Kaoru comments that even though Japan is known for being a safe country, this kind of thing still happens. Joe asks Tasai if he has seen an increase in this kind of random crime in recent years as a reporter. Tasai says he definitely has. Crimes like murders etc used to be more clear cut in thier motives, such as wanting insurance money etc, but these days there seems to be a lot more thoughtless, maningless crime going on. Joe adds that a lot of these crimes have no apparent motive or end goal. Cases are also on the rise where crimes are commited against unrelated people. Tasai says this must have something to do with the environment people grow up in these days, but what exactly it is, he can't tell. This is unlike Hiranabe, who definitely had a motive for bringing that girl to the studio last week. *wink wink*.

To finish, Kaoru plugs the new jingle campaign, and says he might play some more entries on next week's show. Lastly, he wonders how Dobashi is doing in Rio and makes the realisation that if Dobashi never returns, Hiranabe will have to appear more often instead.

Songs - Dir en grey/Red Soil, Bauhaus/Hollow Hills, Dir en grey/Utafumi.

[carewyncromwell]

Next Cinderella AU part ahoy! Time for the whole world to know who the owner of the mysterious slipper left at Florence’s ball -- King Cosimo’s one true love and savior -- truly is...

Makeup in the 17th century was rather limited, though in the later half of the century, rococo fashion brought very pale skin and red lips into vogue in the upper classes, so nobles took to putting on white face paint and powder, rouge, and finally bright red lip color. The closest thing to foundation in the 16th and 17th centuries was Venetian ceruse, an expensive skin whitener made of water, vinegar, and lead. Needless to say, given that last ingredient, it’s unsurprising that using a lot of it would result in hair loss and lead poisoning. People in the 17th century also took to wearing “beauty patches,” or pieces of velvet or silk cut into pretty shapes, to cover up scars or blemishes. 

“Lavender’s Blue” is a traditional folk song referenced in Disney’s live action adaptation of Cinderella. 

Previous part is here -- whole tag is here -- Katriona “KC” Cassiopeia belongs to @kc-needs-coffee -- and I hope you all enjoy! xoxo

x~x~x~x

Andre’s plan went into action first thing the next morning. He, KC, and Erika had stayed up all night finalizing their preparations. By the time the clock had struck nine AM, the entire country of Royaume was buzzing with the news that the King of Florence had miraculously survived an assassination plot at the Masquerade and now sought out the “mysterious princess” who had so thoroughly charmed him there so as to make her his queen.

As KC had predicted, soon everyone in the kingdom was preparing for Prince Andre’s arrival so that the eligible young women in their houses could try on the slipper so as to “prove” they were the maiden who had saved King Cosimo. One of those such homes ended up being the Cromwell estate.

Charles Cromwell had been furious to discover that Carewyn had mysteriously disappeared from the still locked tower room without a trace. He’d resolved to use all of his resources to track her down and drag her back home, once breakfast was through. One can imagine that Charles was even less pleased, however, when over that very breakfast he learned the news that Orion had survived the assassination attempt. When he’d seen the scar of Orion’s name appear on his forearm under those of Jacob and Carewyn’s the previous night, he’d thought that it meant that Malfoy and Rakepick were able to tie up the loose ends in his absence, just as he’d told them to. Now it seemed that Orion had just barely managed to survive a dance with Death unscathed...and so not only were his co-conspirators likely in custody, but peace between Florence and Royaume was now a foregone conclusion. 

But, it seemed, there was still one chance the Cromwell family could still get ahead. Charles was rather confident that Rakepick wouldn’t turn on him, and Lord Malfoy was unlikely to be believed by either King, given the position Charles had at King Henri’s side and the established friction between Malfoy and Orion. And even if Rakepick was foolish enough to try to betray him, it would be her word against his -- and he knew his word would win out with King Henri, in the end. And now, according to Andre’s decree, the person who could fit the mysterious slipper left at the ball would become the King of Florence’s bride...Queen of an entire country. It was an opportunity Charles knew he couldn’t be foolish enough to pass up -- and so he set about preparing Dahlia, Iris, and Heather for Andre’s arrival. 

“My intelligence informs me that the shoe is an unusual size,” Charles instructed them, “so we shall do our very best to ensure that one of you is able to wear it.”

And so the three of Claire’s daughters’ feet were bound in thick bandages under their stockings, compressing their toes so as to make their feet smaller. It was very painful -- all three young women were unable to fight back tears as they waited in the sitting room for Andre’s arrival. They weren’t in much state to walk, so their mother Claire fussed over them by fetching them sweets and peppering them with advice about how to play off their tears as being tears of joy at the thought that they’d see “their precious Cosimo” again.

At long last, after an entire morning and afternoon of trying the shoe on many hundreds of women, Andre arrived at the Cromwell estate, KC and Erika in tow. As planned, not one of the women could wear Carewyn’s shoe -- there were a few who managed to get it on, but were unable to keep it on for very long, whether because it fell off due to being too large or because it was too painfully tight. Andre had had to go out of his way to have the shoe cleaned multiple times throughout the day, so as to make sure it stayed in good condition. One woman had even gone so far as to cut her own toe off to try to make the shoe fit, and Andre had furiously put his foot down, refusing to let someone ruin his work of art with blood stains. 

Andre’s arrival at the Cromwell estate was strategically timed to be one of the very last homes with eligible maidens visited. And when Andre greeted Charles Cromwell, decked out in his finest purple and gold velvet tunic, he played it remarkably cool. 

“Your Highness,” Charles Cromwell said in a very demure voice. Although his children Blaise, Pearl, and Claire all bowed or curtseyed, he merely gave a respectful bow of his head. “We are truly humbled to welcome you to our home.”

Andre gave a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Thank you, Lord Cromwell.”

His eyes flitted down to Charles’s right wrist, obscured by his long, flowing black sleeve, and then over at KC, whose eyes were slightly narrowed. 

“Father was a bit disappointed when you and your family left the ball so early,” said Andre smoothly. 

Charles gave something of a resigned sigh. “Yes, well, my grandson Tristan was up well past his bedtime -- Blaise is very meticulous in maintaining such things.”

His eyes then narrowed almost curiously upon Andre’s face. “Rest assured, had I known how the ball would end, I would have remained by your father’s side until the last.”

“I have no doubt of it,” said Andre, just barely managing to keep his voice level. “Your presence would’ve been very helpful, under the circumstances...”

“You mean in answering to the allegations thrown at Lord Cromwell’s feet?” said Erika in a rather blunt voice. 

Blaise, Pearl, and Claire all stiffened. Charles himself, however, didn’t react with any surprise -- instead he only raised his eyebrows. 

“‘Allegations?’” he repeated very coolly. 

Andre acted dismissive. “The magician captured for the attempt on King Cosimo’s life spun a tale of you having hired her to cast the dark spell on him.”

Charles feigned incredulity. “I, hire a magician? Whatever for?”

“She raved about you supposedly conspiring with a Florentine lord to assassinate King Cosimo and sabotage all chance for a proper peace treaty between him and Father,” Andre rambled on, almost the way he would talk to Carewyn about his upcoming fashion design projects. “Naturally, Father and Mother spoke for you and reassured his Majesty that you would never do such a thing.”

“But of course, your Highness,” said Charles. Despite the humility of his mask-like face, his blue eyes flickered with something like satisfaction. “It’s my and my family’s greatest privilege, to serve yours. Why would I ever harm a man who your family sees as a prospective friend and ally?”

“You see, Erika?” said Andre with a wry smile. “I told you Lord Cromwell would set the record straight.”

Erika crossed her arms, her brows high over her narrowed eyes. “Anyone can spout pretty words. That Florentine Lord spouted plenty of them, before the scar on his arm exposed his guilt.”

Charles’s eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly upon Erika. 

“You doubt my loyalty to the Royaumanian Crown, Lady Rath?” he asked softly. 

“I don’t trust people who talk more than they act,” said Erika, perfectly undaunted. 

“A proper sentiment for a child who thinks so little that she has even less to say,” sneered Blaise. 

“Blaise,” Pearl hissed at him reproachfully.

Erika shot Blaise a very hard look. “You can’t be thinking that much, if you’re not taking your father being accused of treason seriously.”

“Erika,” Andre said sharply, as Pearl grabbed a hold of Blaise’s arm to stop him from striding forward and possibly retaliating. “Father has categorically stated that Lord Cromwell couldn’t have been involved with the plot to kill King Cosimo. And I agree with him -- no blood relation of Carewyn’s could possibly have been involved in something so cruel...”

The mention of Carewyn seemed to make all three of Charles’s children’s eyes darken. In Pearl’s was frustration; Claire’s, irritation; Blaise’s, resentment. 

“I agree,” KC said, her eyes drifting over to Charles thoughtfully. “Still, it might be good to set Erika’s mind at ease. Lord Cromwell, would you please show us your right forearm?”

There was a strange flicker in Charles’s eyes. “My arm? Whatever for?”

“All those involved with the casting of a dark spell show visible evidence of it,” said KC pleasantly. “The Florentine Lord and the magician both had it on their arms -- if you weren’t involved, then you wouldn’t have that same proof on yours.”

Charles gave a mild shrug. “Very well, then...”

He lifted his sleeve and held his arm aloft. 

The skin was ghostly pale and faintly wrinkled...and yet utterly devoid of any scarring or blood-red letters.

Andre, KC, and Erika all gave a visible start. Charles’s lips spread into a very cool smile. 

“There now,” he said as he lowered his arm and shook his sleeve back down into place, “I hope that has...put to rest your concerns.”

His diamond-like eyes shifted to Andre.

“Shall we move to the drawing room, your Highness? My granddaughters should be practicing their needlework there, should you wish them to try on that infamous slipper...”

Andre shot KC and Erika an slightly uneasy glance.

“...Yes,” said Andre at last. “Please, do lead on, Lord Cromwell.”

Charles’s cold smile broadened as he stepped aside to let them enter the manor house. Andre strolled forward, his eyes lingering on Charles’s sleeve as he went. 

This didn’t make any sense...Charles clearly had been involved. He couldn’t have hired another magician to cast an illusion on his arm, could he? 

But, Andre thought, if it were an illusion, then the injury would still be there, even if people couldn’t see it...just like a beauty patch or...

A thought congealing in his head, the Crown Prince of Royaume purposefully stumbled over his own two feet while crossing the threshold. In his fall, he latched onto Charles Cromwell’s right forearm, clutching it hard as he tried to catch himself in a crouched position. Despite himself, Charles couldn’t stop himself from letting out a bellow of pain. 

“Oh...my deepest apologies, Lord Cromwell,” said Andre, his eyes very sharp despite the pleasantry of his expression. 

He gave another few sharp clenches to Charles’s arm as he hoisted himself back up onto his feet. When he removed his hand from Charles’s, Andre could see some blood trailing out from under Charles’s sleeve, tinted with what looked like something powdery white. 

“Ceruse, Lord Cromwell?” Andre said in a very cool voice. “Hardly a suitable healing tonic, for an open wound.”

He shot Erika a significant look. Erika launched herself forward, grabbing onto Charles. All three of Charles’s children made as if to pull her off of him and Charles wrestled in her grip, but it was no use -- within seconds, she’d yanked Charles’s sleeve back up, to reveal a mess of powdery white ceruse stained with blood. Yanking out her handkerchief from the inside of her dress pocket, KC rubbed the residue away, to reveal the same three names that had scarred Patricia Rakepick’s arm. 

Jacob Cromwell.

Carewyn Cromwell.

King Cosimo Amari VII.

Blaise, Pearl, and Claire all recoiled.

“Father?” Claire said shakily. 

“That should be enough proof to corroborate Patricia Rakepick’s testimony,” said Andre, “both about the assassination plot and about what you did to Carewyn and her brother.”

All hints of pleasantry had left his face as he stared Charles down. 

“Lord Cromwell -- for high treason against the Crown of Royaume, I sentence you to be imprisoned immediately and executed at dawn. Erika -- lock him in irons, to be brought back to the palace.”

Charles’s face had become very pale and mask-like, his eyes very wide and dark with shock, rage, and terror. Pearl and Claire both looked horrified. Blaise -- as shocked as he was -- recovered first when Erika tried to drag his father away. He initially made as if to grab at Erika, but immediately pulled back, his hand clasping at mid-air. Instead he whirled on Andre, his eyes very wide with something oddly panic-stricken. 

“Your Highness -- please reconsider! My father is old, he’s not in the highest of faculties -- ”

“Everything he’s done suggests otherwise,” said KC rather coolly. 

“Please, your Highness,” Blaise plowed on regardless, “my father has always been loyal to the Crown -- he’s served your family faithfully for so many years, just like all of us have -- ”

“For his own benefit,” scoffed Erika. 

“Think of his family, your Highness!” Blaise said in a louder, even more forceful voice, almost trying to block Erika out. “Think of where we would be, without our patriarch! Don’t take him away from his children -- his grandchildren...I will take over all of his responsibilities, as head of our family, if you only release him to my custody...”

Andre wasn’t moved by Blaise’s pleas, but he considered the older man critically for a moment as Erika locked Charles onto the boot of the coach. 

“You will never sway me to spare your father, Master Cromwell,” the Prince of Royaume said sharply. “However...there might be one person who could. The mysterious princess who King Cosimo wishes to wed heard of the assassination plot your father has been implicated in and came to the ball in disguise to warn him.”

Pearl gave a start. “That girl...was there to protect him?”

Charles actually straightened up slightly on the boot of the coach. His face was still mask-like and his eyes were still very dark and hollow, but he was clearly listening intently.

“She not only won the King’s heart, but ultimately saved his life,” said Andre. “Even going so far as to shield him from the spell’s effects with her own body without a shred of hesitation. She’s a hero: one that soon all of Florence and Royaume will rightly celebrate as a champion of peace.”

Andre indicated Charles with an offhand incline of his head without taking his eyes off Blaise.

“Perhaps if your family contains King Cosimo’s savior as well as his prospective assassin...the first will be merciful enough to speak on behalf of the second.”

With the terms set, Blaise immediately escorted Andre to the drawing room where Heather, Iris, and Dahlia were waiting. All three of them were surprised, confused, and a bit intimidated when Blaise ordered all three of them to try on the shoe -- Blaise was much less composed than Charles, and his gaze much more openly volatile. Sure enough, though, even with how much all three girls tried to make the shoe fit, it was no use. Iris even managed to shove her foot into the shoe, but it was so narrow that it pinched her already injured feet too badly for her to even speak. When she opened her mouth, all she could do was cry -- and so Claire, distraught beyond reason, wrenched the shoe off of her middle daughter’s foot and cradled her in her arms as if she were a baby.

“It’s my slipper!” wailed Iris. “I swear it is! My feet are just swollen, from all the dancing we did last night -- ”

Andre crossed his arms, his eyes rather dull. “Iris, really -- after how long you stayed in the palace, you don’t think I know full well your feet wouldn’t have fit this shoe?”

Iris was so startled that her tears stilled in her wide eyes. 

“King Cosimo deserves better than a woman who would only treat him as an object she can use to her own advantage,” Andre said very coldly. “Just as Carewyn deserves better than being around someone who cowardly tears her down when she thinks no one else can hear her.”

Iris’s face lost all of its color. 

“Y...Your Highness -- ” she said shakily, but Andre had already turned his back on her.

“Speaking of Carewyn,” he said airily, “it seems she’s the only one left who could save your father now, Master Cromwell. I sincerely hope you haven’t damaged her feet the way you have your other nieces’...”

Blaise’s jaw clenched. 

“I’m afraid Winnie has...disappeared, your Highness,” he murmured. “Just last night, in fact.”

Andre raised his eyebrows coolly. “Really? Well, I can’t say I blame her, under the circumstances.”

He turned to KC and Erika. “Well then, if she’s not here to speak for Lord Cromwell, then there’s no sense in delaying. Let us be off for the palace -- Father will want to know we’ve captured the final culprit in the plot against King Cosimo and prepare the execution block...”

He swept out the door of the manor, Erika and KC behind him, perfectly ignoring how Blaise, Pearl, and Claire dashed after him.

“Your Highness, please -- ”

“We can more than pay any penalty -- please reconsider -- ”

“Please don’t do this -- ”

“I will only accept King Cosimo’s princess’s defense of Charles Cromwell,” Andre reiterated coldly without looking for them. “You clearly don’t have her under your roof, so this discussion is over.”

“But Winnie might still fit the shoe!” said Claire desperately. 

Pearl and Blaise shot her a thoroughly appalled look. 

“Claire, how dare you suggest such a thing!” snarled Blaise. “As if a low-bred girl like our Winnie could ever charm a King!”

Claire trembled, but actually managed to stand her ground for once. 

“B-but her feet are a strange size!” she whispered to her siblings desperately. “They’ve always been ugly and narrow and misshapen -- her shoes were always falling off! And...oh, Blaise, if she could fit the shoe, then at least Father won’t...won’t...”

She broke off, the last flicker of her courage having long been spent. 

Both Pearl and Blaise looked like they’d swallowed a lemon. One could wonder what horrified them more -- the thought of having to appeal to Carewyn for help in saving Charles’s life, or the thought that she might actually end up fitting the shoe and becoming Queen of Florence.

Despite the nausea in Pearl’s expression, she nonetheless seemed to come down on Claire’s side. As stupid as Claire could be...Andre himself had said Carewyn was their only hope now. 

“Just...just give us time to find Winnie, your Highness,” she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “She can’t have gotten too far...”

Andre crossed his arms. “Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”

“One.”

Everyone turned to look at Charles. He was sitting very still on the boot of the coach in chains. His eyes were so dark in how they glinted that his pale face resembled a skull with diamonds trapped behind his eye sockets.

“There is a boy under your employ called Bill Weasley who trespassed here a week or so ago with his brother, demanding to see my dear Winnie when she was too ill for visitors,” he said in a very cold, detached voice. “Perhaps you should ask him where he’s taken my granddaughter.”

Andre’s lips spread into a very pleased smile. They hadn’t visited the Weasleys’ home since the only single girl who lived there was eleven-year-old Ginny...but Bill and Charlie had planned to sneak Carewyn out that night with Talbott and Badeea, so even if she’d chosen to stay at Talbott or Badeea’s home or even somewhere else, they would undoubtedly know where she was staying. 

“You know the way to the Weasley family home, right, KC?” Andre asked over his shoulder.

“Yes.”

“Very well -- perhaps they’ll have Carewyn’s new address, then.”

It took Andre’s royal entourage and the accompanying Cromwell coaches about two hours to migrate up the mountains that held the Weasley home. Blaise, Pearl, and Claire had all insisted on coming on behalf of Charles, and Blaise hated the thought of anyone besides him tending to Tristan, so soon the entire Cromwell clan had been piled into their family carriages. Dahlia, Iris, and Heather in particular had to be carried from the house into the carriages by their father, Arsen, and Kain, since their feet were still in too much pain for them to walk on them. 

Fred and George had spotted the approaching entourage first, from their spot dangling out of the nearby trees while picking apples with Ron and Percy. The four boys barreled back to the house to get Arthur and Molly, but it wasn’t long after they’d told their mother everything they saw that the sound of whinnying horses signaled their arrival. And as soon as Blaise opened the door of his white coach, he stiffened sharply at the sound of a familiar voice singing through an open upstairs window -- one that, when Andre opened his own gold coach, made the Prince beam from ear to ear. 

“I love to dance, dilly, dilly, I love to sing; When I am queen, dilly, dilly, you'll be my king. Who told me so, dilly, dilly, who told me so? I told myself, dilly, dilly, I told me so.”

It was Carewyn. For you see, when the Weasleys returned to the Burrow in the wee hours of the dawn after Orion’s coronation ball, they were delighted to find Bill sitting by the fire, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and his arms wrapped around Charlie and Carewyn, both of whom were sleeping soundly with their heads resting against his chest. Bill had just barely managed to hush his younger siblings so as not to wake the two, and Molly immediately bustled around to fetch another couple of blankets to wrap around all three of them, as well as some pillows so as to make Bill more comfortable. In the morning, Carewyn had been pretty set on leaving to find her own place -- but as one might expect, all of the Weasleys shut that idea down, passionately insisting that she stay with them. 

“No, I can’t put you at that kind of risk,” Carewyn had said insistently. “My grandfather will be angry enough to know that I ran away -- if he knew Bill and Charlie had a hand in it, that you all were harboring me -- ”

Arthur took hold of Carewyn’s shoulder. “Don’t you worry about us, Carewyn. I don’t fear Charles Cromwell a ruddy bit, and that goes for Molly too.”

Molly nodded. “Definitely! And after the things we’ve heard, Carewyn...oh, dearie, there’s no way in the world we could ever let you go back to that...that...”

“Demon in human skin?” finished Charlie darkly. 

“Not the words I would have chosen, but yes,” sniffed Molly. 

Carewyn opened her mouth to argue further, but Bill leaned in to give her a light, chiding tap to her nose. 

“Don’t argue with them, Carey -- once Mum’s made up her mind, there’s no changing it.” He grinned. “She’s rather like you that way.”

Carewyn’s expression melted into a weaker, watery smile. 

“...Thank you,” she whispered. “All of you...thank you.”

And so now, at the moment that Andre and the Cromwells had arrived at the Burrow, Carewyn had been cleaning in the upstairs hallway, singing as she always did whenever she was working. 

Ginny, Molly, and Arthur rushed out of the house, greeting him, KC, and Erika with smiles and hugs. Erika in particular was very confused by the family’s almost aggressive amiability, but Andre responded in full, squeezing Ginny as if she were his own sister and clapping Arthur warmly on the back. It was not a welcome revelation for any of the Cromwells, to see the Prince on such good terms with the family of the people who they thought had stolen Carewyn away. And when Molly volunteered to go fetch Carewyn, she came down dressed in a modest teal dress (a hand-me-down from Molly, which Molly and Carewyn had managed to tailor enough to fit her), Bill and Charlie just behind her. 

“Carewyn!” 

Andre opened both of his arms and brought them around Carewyn in a warm embrace. 

“Andre, it’s so good to see you,” she murmured, closing her eyes to try to hold in her emotion. 

The Crown Prince pulled back enough to look her over. 

“That color is absolutely radiant on you,” he fawned over her. He glanced at the neatly tied bow in her ponytail. “Especially with your ribbon...a pale blue like that is a perfect shade to contrast your hair.”

Carewyn smiled wryly. “Well, light blue is my favorite color. My real one, I mean.”

Andre blinked, before his face broke out into an even broader smile. “Oh, that’s so much better than ash gray!”

Carewyn’s gaze was then caught by what was attached to the boot of Andre’s coach. The sight of Charles Cromwell locked up in chains, his diamond-like eyes boring into her with an endless, dark stare, made all traces of a smile fade from her face. 

Charlie, however, couldn’t fight back a huge, smug grin.

“Well, well,” the second-eldest Weasley spoke to Charles dryly, “if it isn’t Lord Cromwell. Not so high-and-mighty now, are you, you no-good feck?”

“Charlie,” said Bill, but his voice was hardly reproachful as he glared down at Charles. “Don’t waste your breath on the likes of him: he’s not worth it.”

“I do believe I made it clear that your family was to stay away from mine, Bill Weasley,” said Charles in a very low, dangerous voice. “You have a lot of nerve, to steal from me -- ”

“That’s just it, though, Lord Cromwell,” Bill cut him off, his voice growing a bit quieter and harder. He brought an arm around Carewyn, bringing her right up against his side protectively, the same way Jacob might have so long ago. “Carey is my family. So I intend to do whatever I have to make sure you and the rest of your lot never lay a foul hand on her again.”

Blaise’s eyes flashed dangerously. “How dare you -- !”

He raised a hand as if to try to strike Bill, but Carewyn stepped in his way. 

“Blaise,” she said in an unusually sharp voice, “the entire Cromwell family was slated to attend the masked ball hosted by the King of Florence...and yet I was not counted among you enough for Grandfather to even consider taking me with you. You can hardly expect me to be considered part of your family now.”

Blaise went sullenly silent. Carewyn looked up at Bill, her stoic expression unable to completely contain the gratitude and affection she felt toward her friend, before she turned to face Andre more seriously. 

“Andre...” she said slowly, “it’s not that I’m not glad to see you, but...what is all of this? Why did you bring them here?”

Andre’s eyes twinkled in amusement. 

“Last night at the masked ball,” the Prince of Royaume explained, “King Cosimo met a beautiful, mysterious woman dressed as a robin in a pair of shoes made of what looked like colored glass. He danced with this woman and no one else, before the two disappeared from the ballroom altogether. It was only just before midnight that they reemerged, with the woman dashing across the ballroom toward the front doors...the lovestruck King running after her, begging her not to go.”

Andre’s lips curled up in a wider smile. 

“This ‘mysterious princess,’ as everyone at the ball called her, had warned King Cosimo of a planned attempt on his life. Had she not come to the ball and danced with the King, it’s certain that he would’ve died, and that all hope for peace between Royaume and Florence would have died with him. Yet she fled the ball so quickly that she never got the recognition she deserved from either my father or King Cosimo for her courage. And because of the powerful illusion she disguised herself with, which made her look different to every single person at the ball, no one knows who she is.”

Andre swept over to the coach, picking up the beautiful hand-painted "stained glass” slipper he’d left on the seat. He cradled it in both hands as he showed it to those assembled. Carewyn’s eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly upon it.

“This glass slipper,” said Andre, his smile broadening enough to show his white teeth, “is the only thing she left behind that night, as any indicator of her identity...and whether because of some magic in the shoe or the talents of some incredibly talented master of fashion,” he waggled his eyebrows cheekily, “it has not fit any of the hundreds of women who have claimed to be its owner, seeking to earn King Cosimo’s hand in marriage.”

He beamed at Carewyn much more warmly. 

“I seem to recall, however...that you possess a set of feet that is very difficult to properly shoe.”

Carewyn looked from the slipper to up at Andre. Her face was very stoic, but her blue eyes rippled with something deeper. 

“I do believe I said that the Cromwells did not allow me to attend the ball, Andre.”

“Yes,” granted Andre. “But our mysterious princess didn’t come with the Cromwells.”

“This ‘princess’ also very clearly wanted no recognition for her ‘courage,’” said Carewyn, crossing her arms. “Why else would she wear such a thorough disguise? Why else would she run from the King before the stroke of midnight, when this illusion she supposedly wore would’ve worn off?”

Andre looked a bit embarrassed. “Well, perhaps...but for a woman so brave...well, it seems rather strange, to want to hide...to deny the best parts of herself: avoid a chance at true happiness, with someone who clearly loves her.”

Carewyn faltered. Andre smiled fondly. 

“Please,” he said, “won’t you just try the slipper on? I promise, I cleaned it on the way here.”

Carewyn had to suppress a giggle behind her hand. Her eyes slowly softened upon Andre’s face, before she finally relented and gave a nod. 

Charles, Blaise, Claire, Pearl, and the Cromwell cousins all sticking their heads out of their white coaches all watched as the Prince of Royaume bent down in front of his friend, letting her lift her skirt enough to expose her feet. Slipping one of her way-too-big brown shoes off, Carewyn then easily slid her foot into the stained glass slipper. 

Which, of course, fit like a glove.