#he hasn’t been in any previews so far I’m gonna be so sad if he isn’t in any maps

[libra-cant-just-dance]

If they don’t give us story mode this year or the story mode is bad, they better at LEAST give us an Andy Da Vega map

[fizzingwizard]

So............ Episode 39 is a fever dream xD I think the writers were high. It’s probably better enjoyed while high as well, if you’re not eight years old. Bahahaha.

But HEY they really went for it. They were like, this is the concept, we are not backing down, YOU’RE GONNA LIKE IT OR ELSE. Man. Ballsy.

I can’t say whether this episode was Good or Not Good - I think it’s more in the liminal zone of “you wish you could forget but never can” memedome. Lol

It’s a Jou ep and we can say, for sure, that the episode certainly embodies Jou’s potential *cackles*

Note: Episode 40 won’t air until 3/21.

Pic of the Day is Taichi because, as usual, I capped him too much.

Taichi: Pretty sure we all just ate hallucinogenic mushrooms by accident but just gonna smile through it

More below!

First Tailmon lectures the kids on the importance of taking a break to rest. Basically, Tailmon is me. Hey, writers, are you reading my blog? Lol.

They pull up to what turns out to be a Digimon burger restaurant. The fact that Palmon didn’t know what burgers until they went to the simulated human world is dealt with pretty much by saying she just doesn’t get around much lol.

They find many Digimon enjoying burgers made by the Digimon after my heart, Burgermon.

The Squirtle Squad is there too.

Taichi also is me.

Sora comments on how this place reminds her of a place from home, to which Mimi responds that she’s never been there as she usually travels by plane ??????????????????????

I know she’s rich but does she take a plane to the grocery store xD

The kids st down to enjoy some burgers, all except for Yamato, Koushirou, and Hikari, who didn’t listen to Tailmon’s lecture and are still working. Even Tailmon doesn’t take her own advice.

Jou suddenly notices something strange. He stands, glasses shining.

Jou: Why is no one eating the fries!

Taichi: I’m eating them.

Jou: i dON’T MEAN YOU!!!!!

His blood pressure skyrockets. Fries are the main reason to go to a burger joint. Why is no one eating the fries??

Taichi: Like I said, I’m eating them.

Jou: NOT EVERYTHING’S ABOUT YOU!

Meanwhile, Yamato’s group realizes Komondomon is very dirty when he accidentally creates a small sandstorm out of his fur. They meet another Komondomon who is sparkly and bishie and find out there’s a car wash service by Lunamon nearby, so they take Komondomon to get washed.

HEY WRITERS, YOU’RE READING MY BLOG RIGHT??? I asked for this before. Bahahaha. BATHE KOMONDOMON 2021

Lunamon also tries to bathe Gabumon, but he’s not interested.

Gabumon: I don’t need a bath!

Yamato: Uh, are you sure?

Jou’s indignation over the not eating of the fries turns out to be because, sometimes after cram school he sneaks off to a burger restaurant and eats fries and just has a moment for himself before he goes home. His special time with fries keeps him sane in a cold, cruel world.

Then this abomination appears. Potemon. He both is a potato and loves eating potatoes. Uh. That’s. That’s kinda wack

Jou instantly clicks with Potemon due to their mutual love for potatoes. I thought we’d get an explanation like “no one here eats fries because we save them all for Potemon” or something, but it seems like... Potemon is really the only one who likes them... idk man this episode makes no sense

Then Burgermon makes a sad announcement... They’re going to discontinue the fries!

Burgermon: Selling fries is a net loss for us because no one eats them.

Taichi: But you don’t sell anything, it’s all free.

Burgermon: Yes but if we DID sell them it WOULD be a net loss because no one eats them

Then Hikari’s like “quit being so lazy!” and the others are like “you literally told us it’s important to rest” and Hikari’s group is like “KOMONDOMON NEEDS A BATH ALL PLAY AND NO WORK MAKES JACK A DULL BOY” and Taichi’s like “but my name is not Jack”

Gomamon tries to help Jou cheer up by reminding him of his image as a leader. Tailmon is surprised... but accepts her new leader lmao.

I mean, how could you not admire his authoritative figure?

There’s a running joke from this point about the word suberu (滑る) which means both to slip like in the tub and to flunk an exam. So, for Jou, it’s the equivalent of a curse word lol. Mimi is the number one offender, the little witch bahaha.

Potemon has gone to cry over not being able to be a cannibal anymore, until he is consumed by potato rage. His eyes glow red and he evolves to...

... Jagamon, another potato Digimon, but larger. He is a Perfect level WHAT. Does that mean Potemon was Adult level??? Or he was so upset he just jumped two levels in single go without any extra help from Millenniumon?? i think this guy might be the real Big Bad y’all

Jagamon throws potato bombs around and stuff starts to get wrecked.

Taichi: This seems like an overreaction!

Agumon: To be honest I get it. I’d probably act the same if I couldn’t have my favorite food anymore.

Taichi: But your favorite food is every food.

Burgermon and Lunamon bravely rush out to stop Jagamon, but then, when rescued by Taichi, instantly agree to turn tail and run bahaha.

Not to be outdone, Yamato rushes in to save this little guy, Pusurimon, who looks up at his hero with eyes full of wonder.

Taichi then asks Yamato to lead the evacuation which pretty much means “stop stealing my fans”

Meanwhile Birdramon... helps???... Blimpmon...

I didn’t even know there was a Blimpmon...

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised...

....

Jou realizes that Jagamon is Potemon and begs the others to help him save the little potato head.

Taichi notices that Lunamon’s bubbles are peculiarly strong for bubbles and stop the potato bombs from exploding. I mean, he and everyone else figures it out just by using their eyes. Jou then instantly takes over and starts giving orders like he’s a got a shrewd plan.

Jou: I have a plan!

Mimi: What is it?

Jou: Use the bubbles to stop the potato bombs from exploding!

Mimi: Funny, that was my plan too!

Jou... What a coincidence!

Tailmon receives Captain Jou’s orders and promptly evolves to Angewomon. She shoots her arrow into Zudomon’s hammer and tells Jou to infuse it with his strong feelings.

(A quick not funny aside - now we know Angewomon can do this. It makes perfect sense for both her abilities in 99 Adventure and the abilities we’ve seen from the holy Digimon thus far this season. Bit of a strange way to have it confirmed but xD)

Jou does just that, infusing Zudomon’s hammer with his passion for fries and the deep connection he felt with Potemon as potetomo “potato friends.” Then he freaking picks it up, leaps into the sky which has suddenly become dark and stormy even though it was blue five seconds ago, and slams it into Jagamon’s skull.

Jou: I AM THOR, SON OF ODIN, AND THIS IS MJOLNIR! YOU WILL RESPECT THE HAMMER!

Mimi: I THINK THIS MIGHT BE OVERKILL!

But it works. A swift blow to the head and Jagamon is back to his normal potato-loving self. We all just accept this.

They now have a surplus of potatoes, thanks to Jagamon’s power to spontaneously generate them. Never mind that they also EXPLODE. Apparently that does not affect how delicious they are to eat.

I figured at some point someone would say the reason the fries were being discontinued was due to lack of potatoes, and the arrival of Jagamon would solve all their problems. But if they ever did say anything that, I missed it. Was a bit odd.

The end!

So, YEAH, bonkers episode. But Jou is the hero we all want to be in our hearts. And everyone loves fries. Which makes this the most relatable episode yet lol.

Did I like it? No, not really. But I think that’s because I am not eight years old xD I do appreciate the Jou-related humor though. Def can’t say this episode was boring! And, among other things, nearly everyone got to talk do stuff - only Koushirou and Takeru didn’t have much of a role this time. And the joke with Tailmon accepting Jou as her leader was pretty funny and cute and I hope it sticks. And I really did love the way Jou relied on Mimi at the end - it was just silly, not meaningful in any way, but it was funny and my Joumi heart enjoyed it :P

Next episode, again, won’t air till 3/21, and it looks to be a Sora episode. (Last week I surmised that ep 40 would kick off the next big arc, but I had totally forgotten Sora hasn’t had “her episode” yet. Sorry Sora ;_;)

The preview looks light-hearted, though perhaps not quite as silly as this week.

First they will go to Jurassic Park!

Where Sora and Taichi will impress the dino bird kingdom with their soccer prowess!

And Mimi will continue to relax.

Jou: What happened to all play and no work makes Jack a dull boy?

Mimi: Um, excuse me, I’m a GIRL.

Koushirou: You all know you’re using that phrase the wrong way, right?

[galaxina-the-pyro]

Candace Against the Universe Predictions

Note: This is MY LIST of possible outcomes that can occur in the movie - they may differ from what your predictions are, and that’s okay. This was just made for fun.

(~)

Doofenshmirtz and Isabella’s duet (which, yes, they ARE going to have a duet in the movie, this was confirmed) is going to either be a rap battle, or a song about the two having to work together to solve a problem (I really want it to be a rap battle)

Doofenshmirtz’s reasoning for having a rivalry with Isabella stems from the fact that he doesn’t want a child telling him what to do - by the end of the movie, though, he grows to respect Isabella

Isabella might remind Dr. D of Vanessa when she was her age

Phineas and Candace have an emotional argument about how Candace would rather live on a planet without her brothers than go back home where everyone is concerned and stuff - this leads to Phineas saying they never should’ve come to rescue her and things get really emotional after that

Phineas, Ferb, and the gang listen to some of Doofenshmirtz’s backstories during the trip, and are immediately fascinated by them - they don’t doubt a single tale, but it leads to them asking a lot of questions that never get answers

Phineas, Ferb, and Doofenshmirtz build an inator together

The big bad villain of the movie (if there is one) creates a doomsday machine meant to destroy any planet that goes against his/her people’s way of thinking (the entirety of Earth included), and Doofenshmirtz saves literally everyone by installing a self-destruct button on it, which the main villain accidentally presses

Candace and Vanessa get kidnapped at the same time rather than separately

Perry somehow someway has a musical number in all this - somehow, he sings something, possibly in his head

Doofenshmirtz shares his stories about how he keeps getting beaten up by a platypus to the other kids, and these are the only stories that Phineas and the others don’t quite buy, since, you know, platypuses don’t do much - Doofenshmirtz ALMOST name drops Perry before something happens that totally interrupts him

There will be at least ONE Phinabella moment - at LEAST

Before getting kidnapped, Candace gets the impression that Jeremy is going to break up with her for either not showing up to the game mentioned in the preview, or possibly ruining the game in her attempts to bust Phineas and Ferb

Phineas’ present shown in the preview was for Candace, possibly on another day where he and Ferb are trying to make amends to her for something that probably happened previously - this present is brought with them on their trip to save Candace, and Phineas is determined to give this gift to her

The unknown gift is what makes Candace cry (again, that’s been confirmed to happen in the movie as well), and makes her realize that she can’t live in a world without her brothers, no matter how insane they are

Candace sees that weird imaginary zebra that calls her Kevin, and he actually gives some sound advice - or not. Either way he has a speaking role

The aliens attempt to sacrifice Candace (and probably Vanessa) to some kind of god/goddess

Isabella is trying to earn her “Space Travel Rescue” patch in this movie - she also earns several other space related patches

Isabella’s patches are brought into question by Doofenshmirtz, which probably starts the conflict between them as Isabella attempts to prove she can do literally ANYTHING she sets her mind to - however, he still ends up questioning them, not because he doubts Isabella’s abilities, but because he wonders why anyone would want to earn patches involving shrimp net repair, sap collecting, and other nonsensical accomplishments. He also questions how there are space-themed patches and WHY

There is a sad, cute song in this movie, and I will stand by that

Candace befriends an alien - this alien may or may not be the main antagonist of the movie, but said alien shares in Candace’s frustrations over not being taken seriously, not being appreciated, and having her “hopes and dreams” dashed by younger siblings

We learn the NAME of Phineas and Candace’s biological dad, which is, coincidentally, Lawrence - a different Lawrence to be sure, but still, his name is Lawrence, probably to hammer in to fans’ heads that their bio-dad doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things

Isabella’s dad has a speaking role

Irving was GOING to be a part of this adventure, but was inevitably left behind - they gang once in a while mentions him, acting like he’s there when he actually wasn’t

Phineas actually snaps at Ferb or Isabella or whoever about saving Candace, being super worried about her and stuff - he apologizes immediately

Ferb ends up having another uplifting speech, that dissolves into a wave of frustration as he goes to destroy the aliens that kidnapped his sister

Phineas, Ferb, and the gang find Perry in space - no one questions how he got there, not even Doofenshmirtz. Maybe Candace and Vanessa do but they stay quiet

Vanessa learns that Perry’s family is the Flynn-Fletcher’s

Candace and Vanessa have a duet

Monogram constantly interrupts Perry on his adventure, leading to Perry eventually throwing away his communicator - he feels a sense of freedom that is brief upon getting a new one when he gets home

Schnitzel gets a cameo

No she doesn’t. That’s not actually possible. This was a test to see if you actually read this

There’s a “death scene” in this movie, but the character who “dies” is okay

Milo’s brief presence in the movie inevitably is what causes the events to play out

Candace, Vanessa, and Isabella all sing a song together

Buford ends up using the canoe (that he carries throughout the entire movie, that was also confirmed) for everything except for what a canoe is supposed to be used for

Buford has an “I am so in love with her right now” moment (if it’s with Vanessa, Ferb ends up Vulcan Pinching him for seemingly no reason)

There will be a very touching Canderemy scene

The alien that teams up with Phineas, Ferb, and the gang plus Doofenshmirtz either turns traitor, or makes a noble sacrifice in order to ensure their safety

The alien is probably the younger sibling of the alien Candace befriends

Meap has an appearance in the movie, whether it’s a cameo or him playing a very small part in their overall adventure

After returning to earth Doofenshmirtz claims he’ll never go to outer space again, but then suddenly gets a sense of foreboding as Milo and Melissa walk passed him from far behind, hinting at certain events in Milo Murphy’s Law

Weird Al has a musical number in this movie (not Milo. Just Weird Al)

There’s a montage on when Phineas, Ferb, and Candace were much younger (bonus points if younger Isabella appears in this montage at least once)

Phineas, Ferb, and the gang sing a song together (probably about the power of friendship or something, I dunno)

One of the characters keeps saying space puns and drives everyone crazy (I’m voting on Phineas, but Buford is also a good contender for this, probably a better one in fact)

Phineas and Ferb both cry in this movie

There are nods to Isabella and Baljeet’s heritages (cuz I think that would be neat)

The Fireside Girls help the gang out from Earth, much like in the episode “Out to Launch”

In fact, all the episodes involving Phineas and Ferb going into space are mentioned in this episode - one such mention gets a “but that hasn’t happened yet” response from Ferb

Phineas, Ferb, and the gang end up getting captured

There’s more than one epic fight scene in this movie

One of the items that caused the possible disaster at the “big game” mentioned in the preview was the very t-shirt canon that Candace uses to fight off the alien invasion

Isabella ends up nearly admitting her feelings to Phineas when the gang are in a deadly situation with seemingly no way out - they’re either rescued by Doofenshmirtz or Candace

At the end of the movie (probably post credits), although the aliens are defeated, they end up abducting Thaddeus and Thor’s sister, Mandy - instead of helping her, they decide to go play video games

Baljeet has a musical number about the probabilities of them being able to save Candace (which is very slim); Phineas and the others keep being positive while ultimately ignoring Baljeet’s warnings

Somehow, Klimpaloon makes an appearance; we ALL know the Giant Floating Baby Head is gonna appear, so what’s the point?

Doofenshmirtz and Vanessa have a very sweet father-daughter moment (maybe one that hints at Doofenshmirtz’s future reformation, but I dunno)

Vanessa and Norm also have a sweet moment, as the reason why she was captured was because Norm is considered her younger brother, much to Doofenshmirtz’s chagrin

Vanessa and Ferb talk to each other once in this movie

Vanessa and Monty are dating in the time frame of this movie - whether Monty actually shows up in the movie or even should show up in the movie, I dunno

Isabella teases Ferb about his crush on Vanessa before he shoots back about her crush on Phineas - all while Phineas is standing there, completely oblivious

Phineas and Ferb actually have an argument

Phineas has a Candace moment. I dunno what that would look like, but that’s what I wanna see

The couple with the wife who’s like “What did you think a(n) [insert specific thing] was going to fall from the sky?” make an appearance

Isabella gets lost in Phineasland at least once

At the end of the movie, business goes back to usual - Candace attempts to bust the boys and fails, but she’s surprisingly cheery about it, probably saying something like “Ah~...home sweet home.”

The movie ends with the guitar riff, like in any Phineas and Ferb episode

[madcaprainbow]

So I’ve mentioned I’m working on a Byler college AU with the very basic premise loosely stolen from Grease because I’m an unoriginal sod.

It evolved from the idea of Mike being stuck on a family holiday with his parents at a hotel owned by Joyce and falling in love with Will while he’s there, and then turned into a college AU later when the idea of ‘what if Will turns up at Mike’s college later’ came into my head and wouldn’t leave.

As of now the plan is to thread the ‘falling in love on holiday’ part of the story into the college drama in flashbacks or asides where relevant and I couldn’t think of any other way to open chapter one of this thing than with the flashback to Mike and Will on their last day together.

And I had a day off work today so I just first-drafted this out and offer it as a weird preview of this nonsense, and hopefully motivation to continue now people have seen it.

Chapter One

It's not long after sunrise. The sun is low in the clear sky of the morning, hanging just above the waves and setting the sea ablaze like sparkling jewels as far as the eye can see. There's still a faint night chill on the breeze and Mike's eyes feel heavy behind his sunglasses, limbs clumsy and awkward, still shaking off sleep as they stretch.

He's up earlier than usual. His parents and Holly are packing, ready for midday checkout and the long drive back to Indiana.

Mike had packed the night before. Knew he'd need to be able to duck out of the room before the bickering over who put where and why started.

And he needed to see Will.

He finds him at the far end of the beach. A blanket is laid out on the sand next to the rocks, and Will looks so small curled up on it. His knees are pulled up, arms wrapped round them. He's looking off at the distance.

He doesn't notice Mike, and the taller boy takes a moment to himself to drink in the sight. The sun dances across Will's form and seems to light up those big soulful eyes. Mike feels an ache in his chest, and pushes it down as a lump rises in his throat.

Come on, he thinks to himself. Keep it together.

Will only stirs when Mike drops down on the blanket next to him.

"Morning."

"Hi." Mike leans in and drops a kiss onto Will's bare shoulder. He tastes like the spray of the sea and something beneath that Mike has come to define as just wholly Will.

He feels the sigh run through Will's body more than hears it, notices him deflate.

"When's check out?" Will asks. He still hasn't looked over at Mike yet; Mike fights the urge to reach out and tilt his head to kiss him properly. He can feel the tension, doesn't want to intrude. Knows he has to let Will work through it.

So he settles back, stretches his legs out in front of himself on the blanket and fixes his eyes on the horizon. "Midday," he answers "they're packing now."

"So this is it then I guess." There's a definite quiver in Will's voice. Mike doesn't want to think about it either. He's been avoiding thinking about it all week.

"Yeah," is all that comes out of Mike's mouth. It's quiet, barely a breath, and he can hear the longing in it. God, this hurts. He didn't think it would hurt this much.

His chest feels tight. Full of that sinking feeling. Like he's standing at the edge of a cliff looking down into nothing below, terrified of the plunge but knowing it's inevitable.

"Will," he starts. Slowly, cautiously. Doesn't know what he's going to say but knows he has to say something, hopes that if he starts talking the words will find him instead of him having to search for them.

But Will has other ideas. He turns, finally looking at Mike. And god, seeing the sadness in that frown on his face makes something deep inside Mike cry..

"Mike..." Will starts, and he's looking straight into Mike's eyes and the sorrow in his own has Mike longing to pull Will towards him and just hold him. "I don't... don't really know how to do this."

Mike sits up on his knees. They're both kneeling, facing each other.

"It's okay," he tries to sound soothing but he's pretty sure he just sounds nervous. "I know, Will." He finally gives in, and reaches out wraps his arms around Will.

He marvels at how familiar this already feels. How natural it feels to hold Will, feel the smaller body against his. The heat of his skin, the steady thump of his heartbeat. Will's arms circle his shoulders and they lean in to each other, Mike savouring every feeling. While he still can.

"Will," he starts and hopes for the best "I don't know how this happened. But these have been the best two weeks I think I've ever had. I don't think I've ever felt this way about anyone before. You're incredible. I'd never have survived my parents without you."

Will drops his head into the crook of Mike's neck, his breath hot against the skin as he huffs out a laugh and god Mike wishes he could stay in this moment forever.

"I'm gonna miss you," Will whispers against Mike's neck "so much, you have no idea."

"I know," Mike whispers back "because I'm going to miss you too. God, Will... I'm going to miss you so fucking much." He's glad they're doing this early. In the stillness of the dawn before the hotel starts coming to life, they feel frozen in time. A silent, endless moment just for them. And it would be perfect, if Mike didn't know that it had to end.

Will pulls back, blinks up at him. His eyes are wide and Mike could, and would, gladly drown in them. This boy has ruined me, he thinks to himself.

"Mike I know it'll sound desperate," Will says "and I know we've only known each other for two damn weeks but I just need to say it."

Mike feels his chest tighten like a vice. Deep down he instinctively knows what's coming. He's been trying to figure out his own end of this every second since he first met Will, rain-soaked and shivering, two weeks ago.

He's running on instinct and adrenaline and feelings when he ducks in and catches Will's lips with his own. And fuck, he's definitely going to miss this. Kissing Will is perfect. Hell, Will is perfect. Soft and gentle, with fire underneath that you rarely see and his kisses match. A whimper slips out of Will's mouth and Mike greedily swallows it, chases it deeper and feels Will melt into him.

He feels alive, skin tingling with electricity and heart screaming with joyful song in his chest and he never wants to let go.

But they part. Their foreheads are pressed together, breathing each other's air as if they need it to live. Some part of Mike feels like he does need it to live; the thought of having to be without it terrifies him.

"You don't need to say it," he breathes "it's okay. I know." The joyful song hits a discordant note, and Mike feels guilty. "We've still got the morning. Just the two of us."

He notices the brief sag of Will's shoulders. "Just the two of us," Will repeats back to him. Quiet, like a prayer.

They both move at once this time, and fall back into the kiss. Clinging to each other, on the beach, the golden sun flowing over them, content for now in that last, perfect, endless moment together.

[okaybutlikeimagine]

PREVIEW: Will You Take Me as I Am?

i’m working on a fic for @biillys for something long overdue that i almost feel embarrassed talking about bc?? it was so long ago that the fundraiser has since been cancelled! have i apologized enough yet??? i don’t think i have!!

ANYWAY the title is “Will You Take Me as I Am?” and it was supposed to be super light and fun and happy and it will be but it’s also going to be angsty bc Quarantine is doing some Shit to me over here ~♥ BUT it will have things including, but not limited to:

- Billy, Steve, Max, and El bickering over music

- big long road trip to Cali

- stupid roadside attractions

- sunny summer days in San Diego

- Billy’s friends from back in the day (bc he had them and we need to talk about that!!!!)

- Max Max Max Max and Max bc Max is so good and we need to talk about her too

- Tony fucking Hawk

it’ll hopefully be done soon! this is just a super tiny snippet bc i feel awful for not having it finished yet and i need to post something or i’ll cry. so!! @biillys, i love you so much and hope you’re well and it’s COMING but until then, have this slightly sad but also heartfelt scene with our little Disaster Siblings! ♥

(title from California - Joni Mitchell bc DUH)

~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~

Driving Max to school doesn’t set Billy on edge anymore.

“And it’s just so stupid because Cindy swears to everyone that she looks like Molly Ringwald. She doesn’t stop talking about it! Like anyone even cares.”

As irritating as it might be to hear about 9th grade gossip.

“And she still makes fun of my hair. Because it’s not the ‘right’ shade of red? What the hell?”

Billy smirks and listens vaguely and thinks about a few months ago. He remembers when the fall air bit him hard. When it felt invasive and aggressive and piercing rather than just present and embracing and knowing. The chill doesn’t hurt him anymore. The sound and smell of the farms doesn’t boil his blood anymore. The idea of Max having a life here doesn’t grind away at his memories anymore.

He’s laughing without hearing her. He vaguely hopes she doesn’t take too much offense by it, but the rest of him doesn’t really care. She’ll just hit him and grumble and he’ll give a vacant yet amused apology and they’ll continue on their car ride listening to Joan Jett.

Except she doesn’t hit him. His chuckles die down and the only sound through the car is Joan Jett wailing and Max tapping her fingers on her jeans.

It’s got Billy curious. He looks over quickly and sees her mouth moving- mumbling to herself.

“Telling yourself secrets or something?”

She glares, but it’s half-hearted. She chews on her lip and then she’s looking back down at her lap.

Billy’s just a little tempted to just let it all slide, but...

“Alright, what’s up?” He caves.

The quiet of the car makes Billy nervous. The air is whipping past them through the slightly rolled down windows, shoving itself into the absences of their conversation. Billy’s fingers start fidgeting with nerves and he’s on the verge of cutting in before she can get any words out, but then Max is speaking, hurriedly and with a furrowed brow as she says-

“How old are you again?”

Billy pauses.

“The hell kind of question is that?” He asks, looking over at her incredulously, confused at the question. She’s still trying to glare.

“Shut up! Just… you’re like… graduating soon… right?”

Billy raises an eyebrow at the road.

“No, Maxine.” Billy says with dripping sarcasm. “I love high school so much I was thinking of just staying there for the rest of my life.”

“Let me talk!”

“I am letting you talk! You’re just saying stupid shit!”

“Augh, you are so annoying!”

She’s crossing her arms now, and for some reason Billy can’t find it in himself to be amused by it. So instead he heaves a little sigh and bites his lip and waves for her to continue.

She sighs back.

“It’s just… my birthday is kinda close. And yours is like, right after that. And I was… just thinking. The other day...”

She trails off, hands fidgeting and head turned to the window. She doesn’t pick back up the conversation. Iggy Pop is howling through the radio, now.

“Thinking? Pretty dangerous thing to do when you’re-”

Max hits Billy with the hardest glare yet of the car ride. He concedes.

“Alright. What were you thinking about?”

The glare softens. Her eyes fill with worry… and nerves. Billy finds something vaguely reminiscent in them, even if it’s not exactly the same as in his memory. He knows he’s being a little shit but he hasn’t done anything to warrant fear... has he? He racks his brain while they sit in the silence she lets settle between them.

“I was just thinking about… well… remember that one birthday?” She’s had a few birthdays while they’ve shared a roof. A couple of them he’s purposefully decided to forget-most notably that first one. “When you took me to the boardwalk?”

That one he definitely remembers, with more color than most memories. She was turning 12- it was right before they found out they were moving. Things had been going so well. That birthday saw them walking down the boardwalk together to pick up some ice cream sundaes and talk about friends. Old ones and new ones. Gossip and interests. Max has mentioned that birthday a few times before- she says all the time it was the first time Billy treated her like a real person. Like a sister. He used to roll his eyes at her confession until he stopped. Because he realized maybe she was right. Maybe before that, “sister” wasn’t really in his vocabulary- not with a real definition and most definitely not with a face.

It was a nice day. They skated down the boardwalk and he taught her a couple of tricks on her board and he bought her something from the knick-knack store at the corner where the boardwalk met the street. She smiled at him genuinely for the first time ever. It seemed like they could be friends.

He chews the inside of his lip. He doesn’t like to think too far past that memory.

“Yeah, I remember.”

She’s fidgeting still. He wants to slap her hands to get her to stop because it’s making his leg twitch.

“Well I was just thinking about it. And… and… well…”

She’s picking at her cuticles. He winces whenever he sees her do that. He used to do that too. Used to bite at them when he was nervous, so much it’d make his fingers bleed. He’s stopped for a year or so now. She’s still doing it. He wonders sometimes if she picked it up from watching him and his shifty eyes. He can’t take watching her so nervous and he’s starting to feel on edge and-

“Spit it out, Max.” His voice is a little snappy, but he really doesn’t mean it. She sighs rather than glares.

“Are you still gonna move out to California?” She asks, all the words slurred together like they’re one but it doesn’t matter, because Billy understands them all.

He loses his breath for a second. When he looks over, he sees her eyes are screwed shut, but then she opens them and there’s tears there. He hates seeing tears there. Something squeezes his heart at the thought that he’s responsible again... only this time he doesn’t even know what he’s done.

“Uhm-”

“Like after you graduate.”

“Uh-”

A tear falls down her cheek.

“Shit.”

She looks down at her lap. Billy looks back at the road and has to hit the breaks hard when he realizes he’s about to run a stop sign. He takes a deep breath.

“Maybe. I dunno.”

“Take me with you.”

It’s sudden. He’s staring at her and she’s staring at her hands, picking at her cuticles viciously. It’s the faint sound of someone honking behind them that gets Billy to start driving again.

“Not like… forever...” Max says in such a small voice Billy is speechless. “Just for… a little bit.”

They ride in silence for a bit. They’re almost at school. Billy almost wants to stop the car because Max is going to cry and she’s gonna be pissed about walking into school while crying.

There are too many thoughts swirling through Billy’s head, some of them colored like a carnival, before Max is speaking again.

“I just… I miss home.”

It punches Billy in the gut. His memories fade to the sand and the waves and teaching Max how to break through the surf. He’s swirling down into thoughts of ice cream and babysitting her and walking along the boardwalk and telling her to make sand castles while he ran away with his friends. Tanned skin and sun-bleached hair and darker freckles blooming on their faces.

“It was stupid.” Her voice cuts quickly through the fog of memories. “Forget I said anything.”

“What? No.” Billy can’t forget. He doesn’t know how to answer but… but she’s crying and he’s not going to pretend like that’s not something he should be worried about.

“No, it’s stupid. You’re gonna be going with Steve. I don’t even know how I’d get back… it’s fine-”

“Are you trying to live with your dad?” Billy asks because it’s the only thing that makes sense to ask right now. She shakes her head vehemently.

“No no… I wanna live with my mom. I wanna stay here. I just wanna… visit, I guess…”

He so often forgets she’s still such a kid. She’s four years away from where he is. She’s four years away from being able to be independent. From having the ability to leave. They moved and Billy felt like he had been put in a cage. The word “landlocked” was the cruelest, harshest, most disgusting word imaginable to him because to him the only synonym was “trapped”. He knew it meant staying for another two years. He didn’t think about how for her it meant six. For her it was either plant your roots or let them dry out and crack in the Indiana sun. He couldn’t see that as he screamed at her back then.

“I dunno, I just miss it.” She says, but it’s quiet as she wipes at her cheek with the back of her hand.

Billy pulls into the school and picks a spot in the back of the lot, even though the bell is gonna ring soon and it’ll probably take too long to walk onto campus. She’s still sniffling a bit and his heart is squeezing tight. His chest is constricting. He’s watching Max right now and thinking about how the Billy he was a few weeks ago and even beyond was making a whole plan to just fuck off to California with Steve. How he didn’t even give a thought to leaving Max behind with the knowledge that he’d be back in the San Diego sun. He’d be back where the world made sense and she’d be here still shoving her roots in the ground to find some comfort.

Now suddenly he can’t imagine ever doing that.

“Well uh…” He starts, but his voice is bubbled. He clears his throat and tries again. “I still gotta convince Steve… I was planning on taking him just for a trip over there. Just so he can check it out and see if he likes it.”

He hasn’t even extended an offer yet, but she turns to look at him and the only way to describe her face is glowing. She’s so hopeful. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is slightly tilted up into a smile, open a little in shock. He just shrugs it off, even though it lights up his chest.

“I guess we can squeeze you into his fancy little car.”

“Oh Billy thank you.”

She reaches across the center console to wrap him into as good a hug as she can. He rolls his eyes, but he pats her back as he does it.

“Yeah yeah… chill out.” He sounds tired to his ears, pulling away from Max and getting ready to leave the car when-

“We should take El, too.”

“What?”

Max crosses her arms, suddenly looking pretty bossy for a girl with tears still shining in her eyes. Billy can’t say he’s exactly surprised at seeing her capable of that.

“We should take El too.”

“You just invited yourself and now you’re inviting other people?”

Her brows furrow.

“She’s my best friend! And she’s like... your sister now, right?”

“Yeah yeah, but-”

“I’m going to be there all alone with just you and Steve! I’m gonna need someone to keep me company while you two try to suck face.”

“Okay I get it-”

“Plus she’s never seen the ocean! She’s never left Indiana… she’s barely left Hawkins! She needs something like this-!”

“Al-right! Alright, I get it. I’ll ask Hop, alright?”

Max seems to let up, taking a deep breath and sitting back in her seat from where she was getting dangerously close to the edge in her excitable anger.

They sit in the quiet for a second before Billy elbows her and mutters: “Trying to guilt trip me, huh?”

Max shrugs, but she’s chewing her lip and picking at her cuticles and she’s giving Billy a side eye and-

“I just wanna show her around…” Max shrugs again, like she can’t think to do anything else. “It was my home too, Billy.”

She’s still picking at her cuticles and her leg is bouncing and she… she’s so young. He’s not sure how he could forget so quickly. She left a home behind, too. And family and friends. She left a lot behind. He always forgets.

“Billy…” Max starts, voice trailing.

“Yeah?”

There’s a small beat of silence where Billy waits breathlessly.

“We’re going to California.”

It’s a statement- like there’s no doubt in her mind that it’s happening. It’s going to happen. He hears her certainty and feels it too. She’s starting with concentrated eyes down at her lap but she’s so sure it looks like it hurts.

She sniffles and his heart nearly cracks. He rubs her shoulder kind of harshly and rather than a glare she gives a sort of grateful smile. That is, before she pushes at Billy’s hand and wipes at her eye and gripes about how “we’re gonna be late.”

Billy snickers.

[currentlyreadingmanga]

Toilet-bound Hanako-kun: Chapter 10 - The Young Exorcist (Part 2)

Previously: we had a mostly Kou centric episode! We learned more about his family, in particular about his kinda scary brother Teru. Kou made it his mission to find evidence that proves that Hanako is not a bad supernatural, which lead to some very cute bonding moments between the two boys. Kou decided that he wouldn’t exorcise Hanako because he considered him a good guy, but Hanako doesn’t take this change of heart well since he clearly doesn’t think that killing someone can be justified in any way. He goes overboard, though, and threatens Kou with his knife and it’s at that precise moment that Teru arrives and zaps Hanako with his own exorcist weapon and I was left with very high levels of stress

Now onto the next chapter!

Okay I really like this cover page, because it while it can be seen as the two exorcist keeping the aparition at bay, since they’re the ones that can (and have to) do it, you can also see other nice details. There’s also the contrast between both of their expressions while holding Hanako back: how calm and collected Teru looks while Kou looks uncomfortable. And how Kou’s weapon not only is keeping Hanako in check, but is also holding Teru’s sword back so that it doesn’t touch Hanako. 

Anyway, yes, it’s a very good drawing that conveys this arc very well.

Okay so Kou is remember all those times he would sneak out to watch his brother fighting against supernaturals and how cool he looked while doing so. Teru always greeted his brother with a kind smile and Kou had assumed that that was the expression he wore into battle but

Yeah, can’t say I’m surprised, those are the main expressions we have seen on his face when it comes to Hanako and apparitions. Still, Kou’s face is honestly heartbreaking, he must feel so helpless

I feel like I need to reiterate: his calm smile in moments like this kinda scares me, Like, I get it, I understand why he’s acting this way (he found Hanako pointing a knife at his baby brother, what’s he gonna do? let him go just like that? no, that would be stupid) but still, it’s slightly unnerving

But in spite of what his brother says, Kou stands his ground defending Hanako but Tery reaches for his bead bracelet and oh. it’s a capture weapon. fantastic, this just keeps getting better and better

Hmm, idk if I’m reaching, but it kinda feels like Teru is babying his brother a little too much. I don’t know their full family situation, and while yes, Kou is clearly inexperienced in dealing with supernaturals, I feel like Teru shouldn’t dismissed what he had to say so fast although, again, the knife pointed towards Kou really doesn’t help the situation 

Hanako calls out to Haku-Joudai but holy fuck Teru really is much more powerful than Kou since he can create a lightning cage so he can’t summon his tsueshiro.

This is real bad. Things really aren’t looking good for my ghost child here

That’s interesting. Does that mean that Teru is just THAT much more powerful that his spiritual energy can control the lightning like that even if his weapon is mainly used for attacking? Also, does that mean that Kou’s weapon is better for controlling said lightning? 

It looks like Hanako is gonna tried to defend himself with his knife but Teru just tells him that “no matter how you try to cover it up, in the end, you can never hide what you truly are” with his scary face TM. And Hanoko looked angry before but after that he looks honestly shocked

It’s really something how he can looked so small and terrified while holding that knife. It conveys a very hopeless feeling, idk maybe I’m reaching

Oh wow 

Now this is some beautiful and haunting imagery.

I mentioned during my last recap that while there’s a real underlying danger that we can see in Hanako, but again, he doesn’t seem like a genuinly bad or vengeful person. So this description is suspicious to me. It could be true, but after everything we’ve seen so far, it could very well be a case of rumors twisting the original story of him murdering someone and blowing it our of proportion

 Okay so they start fighting and I’m too scared to scroll down because so far Teru has clearly proven that he’s not someone you want to mess with ahhhh

ヽ(ﾟДﾟ;)ﾉ!!

━Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)━    OH MY GOD NO NOPE NO

Σ(ﾟ口ﾟ;)// Σ(ﾟ口ﾟ;)// Σ(ﾟ口ﾟ;)//  IT JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE NOOO BABY that looks so painful ahhhhhhh

I don’t want to keep scrolling but hnnnnng I must know if my child will be okay (and I know that he most likely will be but still jfc this is so painful to look at)

Kou explains how Teru usually fights against supernatural and ngl it’s kinda horrifying and yes, it looks like it’s best to stay out of range but Hanako is trapped there with no way out

And ahhhhh now Kou is second guessing himself, thinking maybe his brother was right and that Hanako should be exorcised but nooo baby you should listen to your instincts if they tell you something is not quite right here

Ohhhh. Okay, so we’re dealing with a layer of self-confidence issues too. I didn’t consider it, since it just seemed like he admired his brother a whole lot, but it isn’t just that. And it makes sense, since from what we saw last chapter, Teru seems to be some kind of prodigy, and it’s not rare that Kou started to compare himself to him (not only thinking that he wants to be like him, but also seeing what he’s lacking since Teru seems to be so “perfect”). So yeah, to him, his brother “knows what’s best”, because that’s the way it’s always been

Teru says that Hanako has been near the shore for a long time and that it’s time for him to face his punishment, but Hanako seems to have something to say about that and

oh. oH no.  he’s crying oh nO he looks so sad oh god ಥ_ಥ

So to Hanako, being exorcised wouldn’t be a fair way to pay for his crimes. He’s telling Teru that if he expels him right now, then nothing would be gained from it since he would just be released from the mortal plane without actually doing something to atone. And “atone” is a fitting way to put it, since from what we’ve seen, he doesn’t want (or expects) to be forgiven, he just wants to do things right, to find a way to repent for what he has done. It’s is also in line with what he told Kou before, about how he cannot let himself be exorcised yet because he has a task he has to acomplish.

And Kou is thinking back to all the ways in which Hanako has been helpful and the times when he protected both him and Yashiro. And he makes a fair point, he (and us readers too) has no way of knowing if Hanako is telling the true, he could be lying. But still, Hanako’s actions are out there on the table, and Kou needs to make his decision based on what he believes is the right thing to do.

( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

Σ(ﾟДﾟ；≡；ﾟдﾟ) !!!!! FUCKING HELL WHAT OH GO D

KOU YOU’RE A PRECIOUS ANGEL THAT DESERVES THE WORLD BLESS YOU

Hanako and Teru look so shocked but Kou isn’t backing down, no sir, he’s here on a mission and he’s not gonna let his new friend/tolerated acquaintance be exorcised. Also holy fuck he body slammed his brother into the ground wow he’s really not playing around and

This is good. He needs to let this out or it’s gonna eat him up. And yeah, it seems like I was right on the money with the too much babying before. Kou makes some very valid points here: yes, he’s not his brother, he’s nowhere near Teru’s level of experience and he should have been more catious when dealing with Hanako, but he has also seen things his brother hasn’t. He’s seen how Hanako behaves around him and Yashiro, and how he tries to protect all the students in the school, so he’s not gonna be blinded by the “all supernaturals are bad” speech because he knows it’s not true.

He admits that he needs to get stronger and he’s confident that he wiil, And then he will decide if Hanako needs to be exorcised or not, that’s a responsability he’s willing to take. I’m really proud of him, for sticking to what he believes it’s right, even against his brother’s wishes.

And thankfully, Teru relents and decides to let Kou handle things on the forefront because he doesn’t want his baby brother to hate him. They’ve reach a solid middle ground, the only thing Teru asks is for Kou to remember what he’s said all that and to be conscious that this is Hanako’s last chance if anything happens. Next time he won’t be so kind.

Now Kou and Hanako are left alone, and Kou tells Hanako to behave properly since he doesn’t trust him fully yet and that at the moment he starts acting suspicious, he’ll exorcise him

...................okay, no, I call bullshit on that. There’s no way Hanako had time to apply the eyedrops during his fight with Teru. Even if he had them handy for something, there’s no way. He has to be doing it to lighten the heavy atmosphere because he’s a little shit like that.

Ohhhhhhhhh okay we’re cutting to back to Yashiro in the library. Hopefully this will be more lighthearted, I feel like the previous confrontation was too much for my heart

She’s researching the seven mysteries but it seems like she’s not having much luck since everything she finds is about the girl Hanako-san.

OH

Hello there, suspicious green haired girl that’s shown to spread the rumors in the anime and that was with that suspicous guy that sent a spirit orb to spy on my babies. How nice of you to appear...........I’m sure only good things will come out of this

Oh, looks like there’s a preview of scenes from the next volume of the manga

.......It certainly looks like we have quite the ride ahead of us, doesn’t it. Also!! That white haired guy from the anime intro is finally here! Since he was right next to Yako in the intro, I’m guessing he must be one of the mysteries we’ll deal with, possible number five since Aoi mentions it right there.

Awwwww they have a little sister! She looks so cute! It looks like Teru isn’t a morning person and judging from the apron Kou is wearing, it looks like he takes care of the cooking? or some kind of housework? I wonder if this means that their parents are out of the picture

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 15: “I Wouldn’t Say That”

The one and only thing this episode needed to do was succeed in making Hatori look fine as hell, so I’m glad they managed to do that, since this part of the story’s always been kinda forgettable beyond that, lol.

Thoughts under the cut. [Spoiler warning for the whole series]

Just to get right to the chase, this episode adapts chapters 25 and 26 of the manga, same as episode 16 of the 2001 version. It’s actually kinda interesting to compare them, since even though they’re about 99% the same, the comparison really highlights even more of the consequences of the stuff the 2001 version cut out as a whole.

I think I already mentioned this last week, but anyway, since the 2001 version removed the whole hat subplot and everything referencing Kyo’s connection to Kyoko, everything about Yuki and Kyo acting weird in this part had pretty much no context in that version, whereas at least in this version you have a pretty good idea what’s going on and how it connects to the previous episode, even if they’re both subplots that are largely still mysteries right now. And in addition to that, they also entirely removed Mayuko from the 2001 version, so the stuff with Hatori there was left on a more vague note. Which all just made this part feel super filler-y and disconnected from the rest of the story, originally.

But honestly even in the manga this part was always kinda filler-y and uneventful. It was just made even more so in the 2001 anime because it basically removed the few important story elements that were actually set up here. I think the series is really good at having every new story beat either introduce a new character, meaningfully develop existing ones, or just set up future plot points, but I’ve always felt like this is the weakest arc out of all of them, with the set-up mostly just being ‘wow, Yuki and Kyo sure are still moody for reasons we don’t fully know yet’ and ‘I guess Hatori will maybe hook up with the main trio’s teacher eventually’.

I do think it’s kinda funny, though, after seeing a lot of anime only people last week be like ‘I can’t wait to find out what’s going on with Yuki and Kyo next week :)’, when in reality this episode is like 90% Tohru going ‘I wonder what’s going on with Yuki and Kyo’. We’re not gonna find out what’s up with them, especially with Kyo, for a loooong time, lol. I hope that anime-only people don’t feel too genuinely let down or disappointed by this episode, but if there’s any one part where I think new fans might start thinking that the series is beginning to spin it’s wheels and needs to kick it up a notch, this episode would be it.

This whole part’s also always stuck out to me, even in the manga, as being just about the only part of the story after the first volume where we actually see Yuki and Kyo transform. It’s one of the things that make this part feel like a very episodic, filler-y ‘return to the status quo for a whole’ sorta part, if that makes sense. You’d think it wouldn’t be noteworthy that they transform here, but it sticks out in hindsight when you notice how they otherwise stop doing so pretty much entirely after the first volume. It’s not actually a recurring element of the story. Though I actually think it feels a bit more ‘natural’ in the 2001 version because they added some bits here and there in other episodes to have them transform when they didn’t in the manga, which made it seem like something that happens way more than it actually does.

Like always, I tend to be mostly ambivalent to these sorts of comedic breather sections [even though they’re necessary for the overall story flow], but I still really like the whole Jason joke. It reminds me that when I first read the manga I assumed that it must have been a localization of a reference to a Japanese horror movie, but nah, it was literally a Jason reference even in Japanese, lol. Which actually makes it feel a bit more understandable that Kyo doesn’t get it. Although, come to think of it, I wonder if this has more to do with how his sheltered upbringing lead him to being completely oblivious to a lot of ‘normal’ stuff. Which would make it kinda depressing in hindsight. But still funny. 

Even though I still kinda don’t like the whole Mabudachi trio as a unit, Hatori’s still great, so I appreciate how this episode is actually more about giving him a chance to take a nap and read a book, more than anything to do with the main trio. I do still like how many parts there are like this that focus on the adult characters and their perspective on things. Even though, as much as it gets more relatable over time, it also becomes kinda funny, in the sense of ‘stop being such a drama queen, Hatori, you’re not even 30 yet, lmao’.

Also, it’s not like they really changed it from how it was in the manga, but I forgot just how immediately obvious it is that he’s gonna hook up with Mayu later on. Although I think it’s actually even more blunt in the manga since apparently she had a picture of Hatori next to the picture of her and Kana, which I didn’t even notice until I just saw someone point it out.

I’m actually pretty excited for the episode we’ll get later on focused on them, even though it won’t happen until season 2 at this rate. They’re one of my favourite side couples in the series, and it still bugs me that they cut Mayu out of the 2001 anime [even though I get why they did it].

Anyway I think that’s about everything there is to say about this episode, but in addition to all that, we now know for a fact that the next episode will be adapting Uo’s backstory, which is really interesting to me. I already guessed it based on the vague look we got a while ago of Caitlin Glass’ notes, but I’m still a bit surprised they’re shifting that part up so much. If I remember right, it’s chapters 39 to 41, so at least in the manga it’s a fair bit ahead of where we are now. But it’s also mostly a flashback arc so I don’t think it’d exactly be hard to shuffle it about.

I’m mostly curious to see how they’re going to adapt it and pace it out, partly because it basically wasn’t adapted in the 2001 anime at all so it’ll sort of be all new in the reboot, and partly because it’s a three chapter arc in the manga, and the reboot hasn’t adapted mote than two chapters in a single episode yet.

Caitlin Glass’ notes do seem to indicate that Uo’s backstory will cover the next two episodes, though, which would at least be better than cramming it into one. It’s a pretty substantial arc with a lot going on, so I’d be happy if they give it a two-part treatment here. Though if they do it across two episodes, it makes me wonder how they’ll break it up, and if they might flesh it out with some material from later in the series, to bring it up to effectively two chapters of content per episode, which would be in line with the average pacing of the reboot thus far.

If they do that, I hope they find a way to slide chapter 50 [the one where Uo and Kureno meet for the first time] into it. I think it’d be fairly easy to tie it into the present-day parts of the Uo backstory arc, and it’d be nice for the reboot to throw a curveball and formally introduce Kureno this early on. At the very least the alternative is that he probably wouldn’t show up until season 2, which would be kinda sad.

We’ll see how it goes, but at the very least the next episode will definitely be getting into the flashback portion of the arc, since the episode title is taken from when Uo first met Tohru. I wonder if it’ll adapt all of the flashback, or if it’ll stop halfway and finish off in the episode afterward.

Most of the series thus far has split very easily into single episode chunks, so it’s kinda exciting to get to a part that’s a bit less obvious in how it’d translate into an anime format. It’s the sorta thing I really like speculating about.

And as a reminder, going by what we know from the next episode preview, Caitlin Glass’ notes, and the official confirmation of season 1 being 25 episodes long, it looks like the structure of the season from here on out will be two episodes for Uo’s backstory, Kisa’s intro, Ritsu’s intro, Hiro’s intro, the episode with Hana and the Yuki fan club, Hana’s backstory, and then probably Tohru getting sick and then the whole Kyo arc across three episodes total. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but after looking back at the notes we saw, it looks like the two Hana episodes will in fact be two separate episodes back to back, so Hana’s backstory would be episode 22 at this rate, which leaves three episodes to adapt chapters 30 to 34. Which I think would work fine. I think they’re going to tie the set-up for the Kyo arc into the episode with Tohru getting sick so that it ends with Kazuma showing up, and the last two episodes can spend more time on the actual meat of the Kyo arc. But we’ll see.

Either way I’m really excited for the next two episodes. The reboot’s been pretty similar in execution to the 2001 anime for a while now, so it’ll be fun to get two episodes in a row focused on material that basically wasn’t in the 2001 version at all.

[gingervsblondie]

Blondie Goes Latin (1941)

2:27 AM, Thursday, 12 December

Y’all ready for this, buh buh buh bah bah bah ok let’s watch a Blondie.

2:28

Welp, in looking this one up to watch it, I’ve spoiled for myself that this one features Dagwood dressed as a woman. Let’s see how I feel about that once it’s in context.

2:31

Watching it on Prime again for better picture quality, but I’m not falling for their tricks a second time so I skipped the 4 minutes and 20 seconds (nicenicenice) of inexplicable preview footage spoiling the rest of the movie.

Although I’ve already spoiled that Dagwood goes Dragwood so who cares anymore.

2:44

GOT MY SNACKS LET’S GET STARTED

2:46

The usual theme song’s back, and it’s just occurred to me: The lyrics go

“Life with us is fun and crazy,

Baby Dumpling, (read: Alexander Hamilton Bumstead) us and Daisy

What a family

Incredible

Bumstead-able”

Now I know that later on, Cookie Bumstead, their new daughter, will be introduced. I wonder if they adjust the theme song when that happens.

2:56

Starting off strong with a pretty basic continuity error. Dagwood, with shaving cream on his face, runs outside, realizing he’s packed his razor into his luggage which he gave to the cab driver. As soon as he’s outside, the shaving cream is gone from his face.

HOLY SHIT I SPOKE TOO SOON. It wasn’t a bad continuity, it was a good visual gag! He runs into the postman, as per usual, and when they get up, the shaving cream has swapped over onto posty’s face!

Apologies to Blondie Goes Latin. They did a good and I assumed it was a bad because I guess I don’t think highly enough of the standard of production in the Blondie film franchise.

3:01

AND they followed it up with a SECOND solid visual gag! The posty puts his hat and mailbag on Dagwood, goes into the doorway, and runs towards Dagwood, either to get the shaving cream back onto the right face or just out of pure vitriol and malice. He misses, we hear him crash, and the camera cuts to the cab, which is flipped on its side.

That got a full laugh out of me.

3:04

AnD ThEn ThE ShAvInG CrEaM swaps over to the CaB DrIVeR’S FaCE!!!

3:06

AHB*: Mommy, is Mr. Dithers going with us too?

Blondie: Of course, dear, he’s taking us along as his guests.

AHB: Why?

Blondie: Because he needs a rest.

AHB: Why doesn’t he take Mrs. Dithers?

Blondie: Because Mrs. Dithers needs a rest.

AHB: I don’t get it.

Man they always go so hard with the infidelity angle in these fuckin’ flicks.

*Alexander Hamilton Bumstead

3:08

There’s a character Wikipedia tells me is named Manuel Rodríguez, played by one Tito Guízar. So this could be some more (relatively) positive representation, like that guy in Servant Trouble.

3:12

Manuel Rodríguez fuccin immediately seducing Blondie. Nah yeah this is accurate representation.

3:20

This movie got me AGAIN, this time with a kinda surrealist goof. So they’ve found out that Dagwood has to stay behind to close a deal, but Blondie, AHB and Daisy are going with Dithers. Dagwood and Blondie start crying at the thought of being apart. Daisy cries, and how they got that shot I’ve no idea.

At first Dithers is telling them not to act that way, but then he starts crying too. Then Dagwood meets a man at the door who’s there to tell them “All ashore that’s going ashore,” and HE starts crying too. And then as the ship’s whistle sounds, it cuts to this:

3:24

Man and another good goof, Dagwood looks at Blondie and AHB and says he’s gonna shut his eyes so he can remember them just as they are now while they’re apart. Then he runs out the door, immediately crashing into someone.

Is this movie genuinely funnier than usual or am I just in a better mood?

3:28

‘Nother laugh. Dagwood fell while carrying a bunch of drums (in a series of misunderstandings that will eventually lead to him in Dragwood playing the drums with a band that the film is currently introducing, and which is actually kinda interesting and likeable so far) and slid clear across like 20 feet of floor.

3:30

There’s a singing quartet in the band that sounds exactly like the Let’s All Go To The Lobby song.

3:32

The female lead of the band is called Lovey Nelson, and I think I’m in love with her. She’s sassy af.

3:34

I think Michael Jackson might’ve plagiarized some lyrics off Blondie Goes Latin.

3:36

Upon the development that Dagwood’s playing the drums in this, I considered noting that it would be harder to edit that into a Whiplash parody than that one I did with Hop on my YouTube channel.

But then Dagwood did an intense drum solo for like 45 seconds and now I’m not so sure.

3:44

ALERT, ALERT, SENTIENT DOLL, I REPEAT, THERE IS A HAUNTED DOLL IN THE MOVIE, SOMEONE CALL A PRIEST, OR ELSE JUSTIN MCELROY, EITHER WILL DO

3:45

So you’re saying that you don’t have rhythm.

BUT LISTEN WHAT YOU’RE DOING RIGHT THERE-

This Blondie is a musical and I’m down.

3:47

Oh God they’re holding on the doll for soooo loooong

3:58

Alright sun’s getting real low, (Future Euan note: wow, great Avengers: Age of Ultron reference, past Euan.) by which I mean it’s 4 am and I’m gonna go to bed and finish this in the morning.

1:36 AM, Friday, 13 December

Back to it! Looking forward to this given how much I enjoyed it last night.

1:38

Dithers: Falls

Blondie: “Oh, Mr. Dithers! Here’s a drink for you.” Hands glass of water.

Dithers: Drinks, then scrunches up his face in disgust “Oh, that’s water isn’t it?”

1:42

Tito Guízar is now singing in Spanish. It’s interesting, cause it feels totally out of place. Like when Ben Platt sings at the end of the first episode of that show The Politician; it’s clearly just “This person can sing so we better let him sing.” Not so much in a bad way though. Like he’s doing what he’s good at and I like that it’s a bubble of a different culture inserted into this white suburban family sitcom I’m inexplicably exposing myself to.

1:46

This movie’s fuckin’ neat. Blondie’s listening to the song and gets sad cause she misses Dagwood, so she goes out on the deck of the cruise ship that this is all happening on. Tito Guízar follows her out, (I’m pretty sure they’re in front of a projection background) and she says she liked the song but didn’t understand a word of it, so he offers to sing it again in English. And now he is!!! I like that.

It also reminds me of that one creepy Aardman short tho.

1:51

Oh but then Blondie starts singing with him, and it gets to a point where they’re singing simultaneously but Blondie definitely hasn’t heard the words yet. So it morphs from a realistic enough scene to musical rules where people sing at the same time when they’re on the same page.

1:53

HEY how come it hasn’t come up yet in past movies that Penny Singleton (Blondie) can sing this well? Like the intro song is basically just talking, but she can sing.

1:58

Hey, a Dagwood sandwich! DAGWOOD SANDWICH WATCH 2019 that’s what I do when those show up, right? Been a while since one of those has shown up! It, um… fuck, it actually looks pretty good I’d probably take a stab at eating that.

2:00

And the crossdressing begins. Lovey needs Dagwood to get to the orchestra and play the drums, but Dagwood knows he’ll get recognized by Blondie or Dithers or AHB. (He’s not supposed to still be on the boat.) So Lovey opens her closet and hands him a dress.

2:02

Haha, the Dagwood sandwich is actually a plot element. A steward brings it away on a tray down the hall and Blondie sees it, adding to other clues she’s gotten that Dagwood’s on board. There’s a great overly dramatic shot of the sandwich coming into focus as he walks it towards the camera.

2:05

Blondie just barrelled the lens so hard that I felt her looking into my soul.

2:07

This movie continues to be a full on musical. Blondie’s singing the same song from earlier, but without guitar-man there, just on her own sadly. I wonder if this keeps being a thing in later movies or if this is just the one musical Blondie movie.

2:11

Welp, Dagwood’s crying at the emasculation of wearing a dress.

Coooool.

2:13

I like Lovey’s singing. Ruth Terry’s the singer/actor who plays her, looks like she did a lot of movies.

2:15

The quartet had a nice little choreographed routine during this song. I liked it. I like this one you guys! Maybe you should watch it???

Never thought I’d get to that stage with a Blondie movie.

Future Euan Note: I cannot in good conscience recommend the viewing of any Blondie feature film. Statements made within a Blondie watch are subject to fits of madness and delusion.

2:18

Wow um. Blondie said to guitar-man the sentence “Will you do me a favour? Make love to me.”

I mean I talk about how hard they go in these movies with adult relationship drama, but there’s something so direct about “Make love to me.”

2:20

Blondie’s trying to make Dagwood feel bad by making a show of being involved with guitar-man.

Dagwood’s arc better end with becoming a strong independent woman who don’t need no Blondie.

2:25

Man okay but there’s an extended dance sequence and it feels so long and it’s making me want this to be over.

Penny Singleton’s a decent singer but a crap dancer.

Maybe that’s unfair actually. She’s kind of in character and needs to convey intentions and that. Not easy to do when you’re also performing a choreographed dance routine.

I just can’t stand when they play the sound of tap-dancing over an actor who’s clearly not tap dancing.

2:31

Welp. That wasn’t how Dagwood’s arc ended.

2:33

Hehe, they had a satisfying pay-off to earlier gags. First, they had Dagwood run into a steward, the way he does with the posty every movie. Then, just like posty, the steward tried running into Dagwood to get even. But he misses, goes down one of those big ole cartoon ventilation pipes, which leads him to the music hall where he shoots out a grate and penguins across the floor like Dagwood did earlier. Double pay-off.

THEN Dagwood’s being chased by sailors, so he goes down the pipe, penguins as well, as crashes into the steward a second time.

2:41

Recently, for my annual Christmas watch, I watched It’s a Wonderful Life, but for the first time I watched the colourized version. It was really weird seeing this movie I’d watched in black and white on a VHS tape on an old CRT for the first time in full HD on a big TV, and also with the extra dimension that colour lent it.

It’s gonna be some time before we’re gonna be able to do that to any of the Blondie movies, because

A) Nobody’s going to meticulously go frame-by-frame painting in a Blondie movie, and

B) I doubt somebody saved the masters, so these movies probably don’t and won’t exist in HD.

Just gotta wait for upscaling technology to advance real fast, and then for some kind of automated colourization process to get invented. But you know, once those things become possible and accessible, I’ll be on the forefront remastering Blondie.

2:46

And that’s the end of Blondie Goes Latin. An above-average Blondie, and an out-of-the-ordinary one. There were laughs-a-plenty, a crying steam whistle, a creepy-ass haunted doll, Dagwood in Dragwood, and a handful of solid musical numbers.

My Dagwood Sandwich Rating is: a really pleasant sandwich. Like a posh one you’d get at a food court when you’re on vacation. With spices and shit. And you don’t know what the bread is called but it’s not the usual kind of bread you have at home and it’s a bit tough but the sandwich is good. Hell yeah.

[angsty-nerd]

Fictober #9

I made it! I made it!

#9. “It does have a certain taste to it.”

Roswell, NM Fanfiction, Liz, Rosa, & Arturo Ortecho. Gen.

This is a continuation of my Fictober #3 ficlet... it gets a little longer than most of them so preview with the rest beneath the cut.

It was an odd, but comforting family reunion.

Most intense family gatherings don’t begin after ten o’ clock at night, but in this case, with the Crashdown closing for the evening, it was that late when Liz brought Rosa home for the first time in a decade.

The reunion went well. Papi didn’t have a heart attack, and Rosa was finally at ease, being at her home with her family. Papi was overjoyed to have both his daughters back. So sleep simply wasn’t an option.

Liz and her father traded off telling amusing stories of the past 10 years to Rosa, while Rosa roared with laughter. Most of Papi’s stories even Liz hadn’t heard yet, and it reminded her how much of her father’s life she had missed...so much time wasted while she was running and hiding from her pain.

Later, when the laughter died down a bit, and Rosa was silenced with an enormous yawn, their father asked, "What did Rosa mean earlier when she said that I was the best 'out of everyone'. Who else have you seen, Rosa?"

"Papi, don't blame Rosa," Liz insisted. "I was the one who was keeping her hidden."

"It's been, what? Two weeks or so?" Rosa mused.

"Fifteen days, 13 hours, and…" Liz glanced at her phone. "...24 minutes. Since I found you in the desert and Max's body in the cave."

Rosa and Papi both just stared sadly at her, wide eyed. "Yeah, I know!" Liz cried out. "Muy idiota! But I'm feeling every single minute that he's gone, like each one is like a pin prick to my heart. Each one alone is small and insignificant, but with time? I won't be able to tolerate the pain anymore. I have to figure out how to save him before I fall apart. I have to!!"

"Oh Liz…" Rosa reached over and hugged her sister tightly. "We all see how hard you're working. If it's possible to save him, you will."

"Yeah." Liz agreed. "But what if it's not?"

They both fell silent. Nobody ever had a good answer for that question, or any words that actually brought Liz any comfort.

After a long moment of silence, Papi gently replied, “Then we thank God for the brief time we had with him and we pray that his soul finds peace, mija.”

It wasn’t what Liz wanted to hear, and it hurt like hell. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, trying to fight back the tears that were stinging and threatening to fall. Once she was sure she could claim victory over them, she reopened her eyes and told them, “Well then, Max is damn lucky that I’m a fighter.”

Papi nodded and thankfully redirected the conversation. “But two whole weeks! Where have you been hiding, Rosa?”

“Mostly with Liz at Max’s house. Occasionally with Kyle at his place. One very weird night at Isobel Evans’ house, and that was an experience I do not want to relive!”

“Why?” Papi asked.

“Just… it gave me the chills being in that house. It was like I could feel him all over it. Like he was watching me the way he used to.”

“He’s gone, Rosa,” Liz insisted. “Max told me himself that he’d never be coming back. Michael and Isobel saw Max…” Liz’s voice faltered. “...they said they saw Max kill him. You’re safe. We’re all safe.”

“I think...we need to stop with the sad and scary talk,” Papi announced. “Instead I think it’s time that we talk about the happy times. I think it’s time for a churro pancakes talk, Liz. Tell Rosa and I tu loca historia de amor with Max, hmm?”

Liz couldn’t help laughing as her father wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her. “Oh we are definitely going to need churro pancakes for that conversation!” Liz announced, tossing off the blanket she had wrapped around her lap. “I’d better get cooking!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Pancakes are served!” Liz announced with a flourish, as she slid the plates across the Crashdown kitchen counter at her family.

“I’m still not sure about this new recipe of yours, mija,” Papi said skeptically as he cut his first bite and took a sniff. Rosa had already shoved some in her mouth chewing slowly, with uncertainty.

"There is a certain taste to it. It's not churros exactly. More like actual dirt. Seriously Liz, are you feeding us dirt? How did you manage to take something as perfect as Papi's churro pancakes and turn them into this?"

Liz and their father both burst out laughing at the look of disgust on Rosa's face.

"Rosa! I told you that Papi hasn't been well. He's pre-diabetic. He can't eat all that sugar anymore!"

"Well yeah…" Rosa said with a smirk. “But does that mean we have to suffer?”

“Rosa!” Liz scolded, but Papi cut them off before they could argue further.

“Now girls, let’s get on with it here. I believe Liz promised us a love story.”

“I don’t know how much there is to tell,” Liz admitted. “Sure there was a lot of...I don’t know...feelings between us, but it all happened so fast.”

“Did it though?” Rosa asked. “You were interested at the end of senior year.”

“You were friends with him in high school, yes?” Arturo wondered.

“Well yeah… we were friends, lab partners...and we went on a date.”

“What!?!” Rosa exclaimed in unison with Papi musing, “I didn’t know that.”

“Well, it was earlier on the day that Rosa died,” Liz explained softly. “So we didn’t really get a chance to talk about it. He took me out to the desert, and we listened to music and watched the sunset. We danced. It was perfect. Until I told him that I was leaving town. He asked me to stay, and I refused. Then he offered to come with me. I think...he was already in love with me then, but I didn’t really understand. Then Rosa died, everything fell apart, and I left without him and broke his heart.”

“Wasn’t this talk supposed to be about the happy times?” Rosa asked through a mouthful of pancake. “So far we have death and heartbreak, so, great start there, Lizzie.” She gave Liz a sarcastic thumbs up.

Liz made a face at her sister. “Fast forward ten years, okay. I guess Max never really got over me. And while I may not have been in love with him in quite the same way, I certainly had unresolved feelings for him that I had buried along with everything else that I loved about this town. Except for Papi, of course.”

“Then the government pulled my study’s funding and I lost my job in Denver, unexpectedly. Somehow, in a decade, that had never happened before. I always had managed to have the next thing lined up. But this time, for the first time, I had nothing. I needed to reboot my life. So I dumped my fiancée, packed my car, and drove home.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rosa interjected. “Did you just say fiancée? Elizabeth, you’ve been keeping secrets! Spill!”

“Different guy, different story!” Liz protested.

“Let’s save it for another night, muchachas.” Arturo agreed.

“Fiiiiine!” Rosa complained. “Continue. I guess.”

“So, I’m driving back into Roswell for the first time in 10 years, and I drive right into an ICE checkpoint. Which is totally illegal this far from the border. So ICE tries to hide what they’re really doing by making the local sheriff's department set up a DWI checkpoint. And the locals can’t really say no to the Feds, right?”

“Bastards,” Rosa muttered.

“So, I’m driving into the checkpoint, and they wave for me to stop, and I just lose it. I roll down my window and start digging for my passport, and all the while I am just going off on this guy, telling him he’s a racist, citing the legal precedent that I’m gonna sue him under...and then I turn to show him my identification…”

“...and it’s Max?” Rosa interrupts.

“It’s Max.” Liz confirms. “And he’s staring at me like he’s seeing a ghost. And we’re both almost speechless at the sight of each other. Then Sheriff Valenti steps in to see what’s going on and the moment is over. At least, until Max showed up at the Crashdown that night after closing. And that’s when we actually talked, and caught up a bit. There was a moment between us that was just electric…and then Wyatt Long shot out the Crashdown windows.”

“The windows and the outside lights,” Arturo corrected. “I am so glad that Max was here with you.”

“Yeah.” Liz agreed. “Yeah, it was a really good thing, Papi. Because one of the bullets got me. I was shot. Wyatt Long would have murdered me on my very first night back in Roswell, if Max hadn’t been there.”

“Oh Lizzie,” Arturo gasped.

“I was bleeding out on the floor, and Max just didn’t even hesitate. He put his hand over the wound and healed me. And then went after Wyatt. Oh, and Wyatt didn’t shoot out the lights, Papi. That was Max. He, uh… his power is somehow tied to electromagnetic energy. I haven’t quite figured it all out yet, if he channels it and uses it to do what he does, but it’s also somehow tied to his state of mind, like when things get intense or emotional for him it also tends to affect the electricity in the area, so I still want to know if it’s that he draws from it, or just is connected to it, or…”

“Liz, you’re rambling.” Rosa interrupted.

“Right.” Liz acknowledged. “Sorry. So if you just want the shiny happy version of things, Max revealed himself to me and told me that he had loved me since the first day he met me. We slowly got to know each other better, but I was always hung up on the idea that he might love the idea of me more than the reality of me, so finally I called him out on it. And he proved me wrong. So I kissed him.”

“He proved you wrong?” Her Papi asked.

“He listed my faults. Trust me, it was way more romantic than it sounds.” Liz insisted, before taking a big bite of pancakes.

“So what are you leaving out. The part about me?” Rosa asked.

“Well, that among other things,” Liz admitted. “I found out that you were murdered by an alien and I was trying to be sneaky about investigating him, but I lost it pretty quickly and accused him to his face of murdering you. Which in turn upset and hurt him so much that he accidentally blew the power grid for the entire town.”

“The mysterious power outage!” Arturo exclaimed

“Yup. My fault,” Liz confessed. “Then Noah tried to kill me, and Max saved my life...again. And then he finally told me the truth as he knew it about what happened when you died. I told him I never wanted to see him again because of what he did to our family. Then I was so angry that I spent weeks in my lab creating a weapon to protect myself against an alien. Then Isobel injected herself with it and almost died. And I felt horribly guilty about my role in that, plus came to a few of my own realizations about how much I cared for Max, so I spent weeks working to cure her. And then we kissed.”

“Oh, is that it?” Rosa laughed.

“The short version.” Liz confirmed. “But this is what I meant when I said earlier that it all happened so fast, Papi. That kiss was just a few days before the gala. The night of the gala was when we confirmed Noah’s identity. The next night is when Max killed him, and the morning after that he brought Rosa back and died. We only had a few days together. I mean, we haven’t even officially gone on a second date yet. Just that one date back in high school.”

“Oh Lizzie, I’m so sorry,” Arturo murmured. “Come here mija.”

He opened his arms and Liz leaned in to hug her Papi. He opened one arm wider and gestured for Rosa to join them. She did, and the three Ortechos stood there in the kitchen of their family restaurant, the smell of cinnamon still in the air from the pancakes fresh off the griddle, and basked in the miracle that they were together again.

When they separated, Arturo looked at his two girls, still so alike, even though instead of two years apart in age they were now over eight years apart.

“Liz, keep the faith. You may not have alien powers, but you do have one of the most amazing minds and hearts I have ever known. If anyone can bring your Max back, it is you.” He squeezed Rosa’s hand and smiled. “I may not have believed yesterday that the dead can return, but I have been proven wrong. Rosa is with us again. So what’s to say that another miracle can’t happen too?”

[minijenn]

Bot Battle Preview 3

aslkdjasldkjsaldjas ok so again I am SO sorry this chapter is taking SO goddamn long but yeah chances of me getting it out before kh3 comes out tomorrow are pretty much zero but whatever I’m still gonna pound away at it until then anyway alskdjalskdjsld again SORRY I REALLY AM BUT AHHHHHH IM AN ABSOLUTE EXCITED MESS RIGHT NOW FORGIVE ME 

“I-I… I can’t believe it…” Ford shook his head, the shame in his tone unmistakable as they all stood before the entrance to Gravity Falls’ dump. Pearl and the kids had spent the entire trip there explaining McGucket’s rather disheartening story to the author, who could only really react to it with shock and guilt that he was far too ashamed to hide. “I… I knew that Fiddleford had taken his… horrific experience with the portal harshly, but I could have never imagined he would have used that infernal memory gun to…” Ford trailed off, letting out a sad sigh as he shook his head and looked back to the ramshackle shack Pearl and the kids had told him McGucket now called home. “If what you all have told me really is true… then this is all my fault…”

“Oh, Stanford…” Pearl frowned, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t your fault. There’s no way you could have known; there’s no way any of us could have known… Because believe me, if Rose and Garnet and Amethyst and myself had known, then we certainly would have done everything in our power to help him…”

The most Ford could offer in response to such a solemn sentiment was a small, but weary smile. However, upon noticing the palpable remorse between the pair, Steven was quick to step in to try and alleviate it. “Maybe you guys weren’t able to help Mr. McGucket back then…” he began with a frown that soon turned into a reassuring smile. “But the good news is you can still help him now! Heck, we already have by helping him get back his memories!”

“Yeah!” Mabel chimed in enthusiastically. “Which is why I’m sure he’ll totally down to help you guys out with building your super-cool giant robot!”

“Wait, that’s why you clods dragged us all the way out here to this disastrous waste depository?” Peridot asked, baffled as she finally tuned into the conversation. Since the green Gem still needed to be watched carefully lest she run off on her own again, Ford and Pearl agreed that they had to bring her along with them to the junkyard so they could keep an eye on her. Of course, the green Gem had protested, especially when they more or less forced a leash on her to keep her from escaping. Still, she ultimately had no choice in coming along, and was clearly appalled upon learning exactly what the point of this outing really was. “I can’t believe you’re wasting my valuable time that I could be using to build my machine that will no doubt pummel yours into the ground just so you can find this ‘McGucket’ creature! This is completely asinine!”

“Well, its not any more ‘asinine’ than you thinking you can actually take Pearl and Great Uncle Ford on in an inventing battle and win,” Dipper remarked with a rather sarcastic smirk that succeeded in eliciting a frustrated growl from Peridot.

“Well… I suppose we should head inside…” Pearl said with a hint of apprehension in her tone. Without any further deliberation, the group approached the hillbilly’s shack as Mabel went on ahead to knock on the door.

“Old Man McGucket! You in there?” she called. “We have something we need to…. Ask you…?” she trailed off as the brittle wooden door slowly creaked open on its own accord, allowing everyone to peak in to see the rather ruinous state the shack had been left in.

McGucket’s home wasn’t usually the cleanest, given its spot right in the heart of the junkyard, but now it certainly seemed to even more of a wreck than it usually was. What few actual possessions the hillbilly had were strewn and scattered all over the tiny shack in a chaotic, disorganized mess. And even more mysterious than the hectic state before them was the fact that McGucket himself was seemingly nowhere to be found within it.

“Whoa, it like a hurricane blew through here…” Dipper noted with a worried frown.  “I wonder what could have happened?”

“Its strange…” Pearl nodded fretfully. “It almost seems like the place has been entirely abandoned, and in quite a frantic rush at that… But if Fiddleford isn’t here, then were could he-”

The white Gem cut herself off as a sudden clamor sounded from the small window on the far side of the shack. Startled, everyone tucked away behind a rather large pile of garbage to see exactly who was apparently breaking into the shack for some unknown reason. Though, ironically enough, said perpetrator just so happened to be the very hillbilly that called it home.

McGucket let out a loud cry of alarm as he haphazardly slipped in through the open window, landing hard on the other side of it into a pile of miscellaneous scraps. “Aw, conswarnit!” the hillbilly huffed, clearly exasperated as he picked himself up off the ground and began hurriedly picking through his scattered possessions. “Now where’d I put those darn things? They’ve gotta be around here somewhere! I can’t spend all day ‘round here lookin’ for ‘em! I gotta skedaddle outta here again before that confounded portal blows this whole town sky high!”

“The portal?” Ford whispered with a concerned gasp as he leaned out from behind their hiding spot a bit. However, in doing so, he accidentally happened to knock over a stray empty can from the pile, which of course, garnished McGucket’s attention the instant it hit the ground.

“Whazzit?! Who’s there?!” the hillbilly exclaimed fearfully, swiping up a nearby frying pan off the ground and brandishing it as threateningly as he could. “I got me a cast iron skillet here, and I ain’t ‘fraid to use it! I’m warnin’ ya!”

“Whoa, hey, its ok!” Steven assured as him, Dipper, Mabel, and Pearl stepped out first. Ford nearly joined them, but decided to hang back at the last second, both to make sure Peridot was restrained and out of fear as to how McGucket might react to him after so many years. “Its just us! L-long time no see, huh, Mr. McGucket?”

“Oh!” McGucket gasped with apt relief as he lowered his pan. “W-well howdy, kids! A-and howdy to you too, Miss Pearl…” he said, inclining his head in respect for the white Gem.

“H-hello again, Fiddleford,” Pearl greeted somewhat awkwardly, mostly since she know fully remembered the rapport herself and the other Gems used to have with him. “How have you been since… well, since your memories were returned to you?”

“I… gotta admit I’ve seen better days…” McGucket frowned, scratching the back of his neck as he looked down fretfully. “B-but I’m afraid I don’t got time to stand around here and catch up. I only came back here to get my handy dandy whittlin’ spoon,” he said, holding said very old, very bent up spoon up. “I gotta hightail it back to the bunker, and I reckon ya’ll do the same! It’s the only place where any of us has a chance at bein’ safe once that darn portal opens up and-”

“Uh… actually… the portal sort of… already opened,” Dipper pointed out.

“…W-what?” McGucket asked, his eyes wide with growing fear. “B-but… but that’s impossible! If that confangled portal opened up, t-then none of us would even be standin’ here right now! It would have blown us, this town, maybe even the whole entire world to smithereens! It would have started the end times, the apocalypse! And worst of all, it would have let that… darn, dastardly demon out to terrorize us all!”

“W-well, then, we certainly were lucky. It didn’t destroy everything and it didn’t let him out, thank goodness,” Pearl clarified with a sigh of relief. “But… it did bring someone else back instead…” At this, the white Gem glanced over at Ford, who still really had no idea how exactly he intended on facing his old partner, much less what to even say to him. Still, the author knew that it was either now or never, which was why he took in a deep breath to steady himself before finally stepping out of hiding to face his former friend for the first time in over 30 years.

“H-hello… Fiddleford,” Ford said with a small, bittersweet smile as he took in just how hard the passage of time had apparently been on the once youthful inventor before him. “It… certainly has been a long time… hasn’t it?”

[jwgammuto]

WWE Raw Review for 12/17/18

Not too many more Good, Bad, and WTF segments left in its rookie year but we’re gonna go ahead and channel our inner Obama/Vincent Kennedy McMahon and talk about change this week. Did Vinny Mac shake things up or piss in the fans’ collective faces with hollow fan service? Let’s find out nowish!

The Good: I’m sure you all figured I’d start with the state of the tag division and The Revival and you were right. This is a start. What concerns me is Vince is very reactionary when it comes to crowd pops. The right team won this #1 contender fatal four way but the crowd didn’t go nuts when they won and they did seem to love the Lucha spots in the match. Don’t listen to them, Vinny. They’re idiots. I like crazy high flying spots from insane athletes too and maybe The Revival’s serious heel schtick won’t work as well on Raw as it did in NXT but you should find out for sure. These guys can go, they have an awesome finisher, and they can cut a better promo than any other team in the company except maybe Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era. Whether this is a few week program or they take the belts off Power and Glorious right away is a matter of opinion. But Shatter Machines for e’erybody.

Bane Ambrose’s promo and subsequent open challenge met by Tyler Breeze. This was a necessary follow up to an underwhelming match at TLC that wasn’t met well by internet snobs like me. Dean’s in ring work isn’t the best right now but he’s making up for it by really embracing this heel character. Breeze is a talent with a stupid gimmick but he looked good despite the obvious loss coming his way. Rollins using the old “disguised as security” trick to get the drop on Ambrose is unoriginal but effective. I dig it.

Finn Balor vs Ziggler. This was the match I was looking forward to but sadly was cut short and we were robbed of a clean ending thanks to the only member of 3MB who hasn’t held a main roster title. This makes sense but I really wanted a better end for a good match.

The Bad: The hour long Women’s Gauntlet for a shot at Rousey’s Title. I have deeply mixed feelings about all of this. It wasn’t awful. Some of it was really entertaining and some not so much. But when the McMahons come out and say “change is coming and we want our fans to be excited” and serve them up an entire slogged hour of a gauntlet match where 3/4 the participants aren’t over, it creates skepticism. The crowd was dead throughout the vast majority of this. Bayley shines here selling a knee injury and still gutting out a couple wins, and Moon continues to improve. Also, has their ever been one of these women’s gauntlet type matches where Banks wasn’t last in? Is she being protected? Is the Legit Boss sleeping with The Boss? Natty was an obvious choice given her relationship with Ronda, but they had a golden opportunity to turn her instead of the lame hug/respect angle to close the show. Yes we’ve seen lots of Big Showesque heel turns lately but this one made sense and would have ended the show on a really high note and amped me for next week. Or even have Ronda turn and really shock me. Show me change!

The opening segment. It’s ironic how much live crowds love Vince despite knowing he’s the direct reason the show sucks when it does. I’ll start by saying this whole act went on far too long. Everybody got an entrance. That’s about 8 minutes alone. Then the hollow promises of change. Now I understand Rome wasn’t built in a day but don’t tell us we’re getting fresh matchups and what we want and then immediately serve us a damn near exact repeat of last night’s TLC match with Corbin and Braun with Angle instead. Rollins and Ambrose. Still going. Lashley and Elias. Still going. McIntyre/Balor/Ziggler. Still. Effing. Going. It’s not that the ship can’t be righted, it’s that it feels deeply unlikely that it will be. The truth is, it will probably be better because the ratings are actually in the shitter and they do have to do something. But radical change is not something a global company like this does well. We’re still gonna get stupid convoluted Saudi Super shows that derail storylines because money and they’re still going to push who they want when they want and bury who they want when they want. We, as fans, have an impact, but not a say. Don’t insult us.

The WTF: Money Scented Chris Masters and Elias. What a monumentally bad feud this is when Elias isn’t allowed to do the talking. Sadly, I don’t think it’s over. So much more of Lashley’s Ass being narrated by Flavor Flav to come. This is not change.

Promos for returning and called up stars. Love Owens and Zayn and glad they’ll be back. Not together please. It’s time for Owens to take back his rightful place on the card and ditch the bestie act. Zayn is a hell of a performer. He can find a niche without relying on KO. As for the NXT call ups, I’m conflicted. Evans should go to Raw. They desperately need a good female heel to fill the void left by Alexa Bliss and they appear to refuse to push Ruby Riott. EC3 has the look and the gimmick but his success will heavily depend on who they book him against to start. Feels like a Raw guy as well. Heavy Machinery is fun both on the mic and in the ring, maybe I’m biased but I would have preferred the Street Profits. They can job and still be fun. No need for them to be in the title picture. I’m not sure Heavy Machinery has that ability. Nevertheless, please go to Smackdown so we can see someone else feud with rotating three team Axis of Doom. Nikki Cross will only fit in with Sanity but that only works if they’re a faction and they’re actually on TV, which they aren’t. So Smackdown I guess but it probably won’t matter. Sad. And finally, of course, the next guy to get rammed down our throats, The Dude with “Lars” on his ass. I was sure he would debut to destroy Corbin last night. I was wrong. I guess it makes more sense for him to go to SD Live but who do you book him against? Is he a heel? Guess we’ll find out in the coming weeks.

Preview for next week. Lashley and Elias in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight. No. Corbin and Rollins. Saw it last week. Natty and Ronda. Stop hugging and fight. Ziggler/McIntyre/Balor. This is change?

They say they recognize that change is needed and Corbin isn’t calling the shots. That’s a start. Scapegoating Baron is a shitty move but if he remains on the roster, he certainly has heat. So that’s a win, no? No Bliss on this show was an odd choice. The Christmas Eve show is already looking suspect. Change takes time, but I’m not seeing an overwhelming commitment yet. They get one Hogan Belt Whip for The Revival and half a Hogan Belt Whip for not letting Banks win the gauntlet. See you guys next week for Krampusnaucht!

[berjhawn]

WINTERNIGHT - Chapter 9 - History

Warnings: Fighting, arguing, vampires, Lycans, ETC

Pairings: Bucky Barnes X Vampire Reader

Parts:

Preview

Chapter 1 - Night

Chapter 2 - Learning to Trust

Chapter 3 - Lucian

Chapter 4 - Sledgehammer

Chapter 5 - Reunions Suck

Chapter 6 - The Mansion of Hell

Chapter 7 - First Kiss

Chapter 8 - Sanctuary

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

Chapter 9 –

I wait by the window of my bedroom for what seemed like centuries until I see a familiar car pull up to the gate. Turning I quickly make my way from my room down to the front door right as Selene walks inside. Her eyes meet mine and I nod before I follow her toward the awakening chamber. Before we reach it Kraven grabs Selene’s arms and pulls her into a cove. She holds her hand up for me not to interfere and I wait patiently. I hear Kraven try to bully Selene and then the crack of bone as she swings her arm up catching him in the nose before quickly turning and sprinting off toward the chamber.

I smirk at him before I follow her. When we reach the chamber, I contemplate not following her but I know I shouldn’t stay behind. I hear Kraven running after us and right before he is able to walk into the room the big doors close locking him out. I stay back toward the exit as I watch her and Viktor talk. I watch as Selene bows to him his eyes filled with adoration.

“Come closer, my child.” He says and she obeys.

“I’ve been lost without you, My Lord.” Selene says and I grit my teeth. “Constantly hounded by Kraven and his never-ending infatuation.” Victor chuckles the sound sounding weak as he is still slightly shriveled.

“It is the oldest story in the book. He desires the one thing he cannot have. Now, tell me, why have you come to believe that Lucian still lives?”

“But I’ve given you all the proof you need.” Selene argues.

“Incoherent thoughts and images, nothing more. Which is why the Awakening is performed by an elder, you do not possess the necessary skills.”

“But I did see Lucian, I shot him, you must believe me.”

“The chain has never been broken. Not once. Not in fourteen centuries. Not since we Elders began to leap frog through time. One awake, two asleep, that’s the way of it. It is Marcus’s turn to reign, not mine.” I look from Viktor over to Marcus’s chamber Kraven’s words replaying in my head.

“But I had no choice. The coven is in danger, and Michael is the key-” Viktor scoffs cutting her off.

“Ah yes, the Lycan.” He says disgust feeling his voice.

“Please. Allow me to get the proof you require.”

“I will leave it to Kraven to collect the proof. If there is any.”

“How could you trust him over me?” Selene asks and I can sense the sadness in her voice.

“Because he is not the one who has been tainted by an animal.” Viktor says and I feel my blood start to boil. “I love you… like a daughter; but you leave me with no choice. These rules are in place for a good reason, and they are the only reason we have survived this long. You will not be shown an ounce of leniency. When Amelia arrives, the Council will convene and decide your fate. You have broken the chain and the Covenant. You must be judged!” He looks at me and I walk up and stand beside her, glancing over only momentarily to see the tears falling from her eyes. The doors open and before anyone can touch her I call out, “My Lord, allow me to escort her to her room.”

“Very well, no one may touch her save for Night.” Viktor says and they nod.

“Thank you, My Lord.” I say giving him a quick bow before I grab her hand and quickly pull her to the door only to have Kraven and his lackeys follow closely behind us. We walk through the halls and up the stairs until we reach her room. The lackey’s open her doors and I walk in with her only to have her turn around and glare at Kraven as he says, “You should’ve listened to me and stayed out of this. Now you’ll be lucky if I can convince the Council to spare your life.”

“Tell me. Did you have the nerve to cut the skin from his arm, or did Lucian do it for you?” Selene asks and I smirk as I slowly turn back to look at him.

“I bet Lucian did it, there’s no way he’d let a vampire touch him.” I say folding my arms over my chest.

“Mark my words,” Kraven starts anger lacing his words, “Soon, you’ll both be seeing things my way.” He nods to the guards to close the doors and I roll my eyes.

“I seriously doubt that.” I say as Selene moves over to the window. I follow her and reaching her side I sense a slight difference in her attitude. “You alright?”

“I can’t believe he doesn’t believe me.” Selene says and I nod.

“It’s because he’s blinded by his hatred for Lycans.” I say following her gaze outside right as the shutters slide down the windows signaling sunrise. “He should know that if Kraven is possibly lying he is the last one to send to get proof of his treachery. I don’t quite understand his logic myself.”

“Oh well, there’s nothing I can do now.”

“You’re giving up awfully quickly.”

“I’m just following orders.”

“I understand.” I say as I watch her walk from the now shielded windows to her bed. I wanted to ask about Bucky but I knew now wasn’t the time.

“Your Lycan,” She starts taking me by surprise. “How did you meet him?”

“Truthfully,” I ask and she nods. “I met him almost seventy years ago. I saved his life.” Her eyes consider mine as if to ask for more details and I nod. “While I was wandering the world unsure of what it wanted from me, I came across a soldier who had lost his arm. I don’t really know why I couldn’t leave him behind and just move on.”

“So, you saved him.”

“I gave him some of my blood to keep him alive.”

“Are you insane Night? You don’t know what your blood is capable of. Is that why he hasn’t aged?”

“No, at least I don’t think so. Before I rescued him, back then, he was experimented on. They turned him into something called a super soldier, that is how he survived for so long after the loss of his arm; he was also placed into a cryogenic chamber and only thawed when they needed him to kill people. Them being Hydra.”

“I remember them.” Selene says remembering how some of our kin went rogue and joined them. All of which we took out, at least as far as we knew. “What I am curious of is, if he has traces of your blood in his body, and he has been bitten by a Lycan; how is he not dead?”

“I didn’t give him a significant amount, just enough to stop his bleeding. I don’t think there is even a trace of my blood still in his system.”

“You better hope not, if Viktor or any of the others find out about him they will kill him.”

“I know,” I say unconsciously rubbing my shoulders.

“I don’t know what to believe anymore honestly. Michael is not a bad guy, and there has to be some special reason Lucian is so obsessed with him.”

“Perhaps it’s his blood.” I state and she stares at me.

“I know it’s not a normal Vampire ability, but you know how I can smell the sweetness and rarity of human’s blood.” She nods and I continue, “His blood smells special, and slightly familiar, I’m not sure why though.”

“Do you remember where you smelled it from? The familiarity?”

“Honestly, it was like smelling Bucky, only Michael’s blood smelled purer, whereas Bucky smells sweet.”

“How is that possible for their blood to smell similar?”

“I don’t know, I wish I did, but I do not.” I pause waiting for her to ask more but she doesn’t. “Is he, safe?”

“He is,” She says causing a wave of relief wash over me. “He is protecting Michael.”

“Good, he’s good a protecting people.” I say remembering his stories he had told me all those years ago.

~~~~~~~~~~

Bucky groans out in annoyance as Michael pulls and rattles his chains. “Dude, come one, you gotta stop.”

“I would if you uncuffed me.”

“I already told you I can’t do that. I promised Selene.” Bucky replies reaching for a pen and paper. Michael turns quiet for a moment then suddenly a gun goes off causing Bucky to jump in surprise as he looks over to see that Michael had missed the chain and was now pulling at his chains again. Bucky shakes his head and goes back to writing on the paper.

“What are you writing?” Michael asks trying to get a good look at Bucky’s piece of paper.

“A map of escape,” He pauses to look over at Michael, “You know, just in case anyone other than Selene or Night shows up.”

“So how long have you been bitten?”

“I was bitten right after you in the elevator. Lucian, I believe, bit me for getting to close to Night.”

“Why? Isn’t she a vampire? Don’t they hate each other?”

“Night is special,” Bucky replies a wave of memories filling his mind causing his head to throb in pain.

“Special? How?”

“I don’t know all the details yet, but I will.” Bucky replies as he adds more and more details to the map.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how’d you lose your arm?” Michael asks changing the topic and Bucky pauses a moment to look at his metal arm.

“I fell off a train and over a cliff. I think I lost it during the fall.”

“And your new one?”

“A crazy scientist made it for me. I didn’t want it, but I don’t regret having it.” Bucky replies as he lifts his left hand up to wiggle his fingers.

“How come you weren’t freaked out by all this vampire, Lycan stuff?” Michael asks and Bucky sighs as he tosses the pencil down onto the paper finished with his plans.

“I met my first vampire around seventy years ago. He was an asshole. Well a good guy, but an asshole just the same. He’d been alive for centuries just waiting for his dead wife to be reincarnated. I never found out if he ever found her. Then after my accident, I met Night, and she saved my life. Things happened and we lost touch.”

“That’s why you were at my apartment that night. You wanted to know if I knew her.”

“I watched the CCTV of the subway fight and saw that she was surprised by you. Not gonna lie, it made me a tad bit jealous.”

“You really like her, don’t you?” Michael asks causing Bucky to nod slightly.

“Yeah, I think I do.” Bucky looks at the landline and takes a deep breath before he lifts it up and dials Hunter’s number again. “This is gonna suck.”

“Hello?” A familiar voice answers and Bucky groans inwardly.

“Hey Red,”

“James where the hell have you been?” Natasha asks causing Bucky to roll his eyes.

“Well, if you want me to be honest, a mansion full of Vampires, and now I’m in a safe house.”

“Where is she?” Natasha asks anger in her voice.

“She’s at the mansion. She stayed behind so I could get out safely.” Bucky answers as he runs a hand through his hair. “Where’s the punk, I know he came with you.”

“I’m here.” Steve replies quickly and Bucky can tell that he is angry with him.

“You two didn’t need to come here. I would have been fine.”

“Bucky, did you get what you needed?” Steve asks making Bucky feel suddenly irritated.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You came here to find out what happened, did you?”

“Steve, I came here to find her and I did. That doesn’t mean I’m done, or that I’m leaving. I can’t leave. Not now.”

“Why? What happened?” Natasha asks interrupting them both.

“Things are different now. I’m not leaving. So, you guys can accept that or go back to America by yourselves.” Bucky hangs the phone up and clenches his jaw so hard it starts to hurt.

“You okay?” Michael asks and Bucky lets out a heavy sigh before he shakes his head.

“Not really,” Bucky replies pushing himself up from his chair so he could pace back and forth. “I understand they’re worried about me, but the way they talk about my need to find Night like it’s just another stupid mission pisses me off.” Bucky runs a hand through his hair as he reaches the window. He knew they would probably locate him very quickly so he hoped that the sun would set soon. He didn’t care about the thought of becoming a werewolf, well it’s not that he didn’t care, he was just more concerned with Night and how she was fairing back at the mansion. “I’ll come get you soon (Name).”

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

“Did he really just hang up on me?” Natasha asks staring at the phone eyes filled with anger while she typed away at the computer in front of her.

“He hung up on both of us.” Steve says folding her arms over his chest as he tries to put himself in Bucky’s shoes.

“I knew he shouldn’t have come here.” Natasha says her brow furrowing.

“Like you said, nothing we could have said or done, save for locking him up, would have kept him from going.” Steve says a pained expression filling his face.

“Still, he’s become someone completely different. He’s not the man you and I know.” Natasha replies pausing momentarily to look over at him.

“What are you doing?” Steve asks curiosity filling his face as he moves to stand behind her.

“I ran the trace and found out where he is.”

“But,”

“But his attitude doesn’t fit him. So, I decided to go back and look at the security cameras at Michael’s apartment.”

“Did you find anything?” Steve asks his eyes focused on the screen. They watch closely as the scene plays out in front of them and Steve grips tightly to the table crushing it in his grasp. “He was bitten.”

“Yeah, but that’s not all.” Natasha says her eyes narrowed at the long haired Lycan. “He whispers something to Bucky.”

“Rewind it and zoom in,” Steve says his eyes trying to focus on the Lycan’s lips. “I remember your scent, you’re still searching for her, aren’t you?” Steve puts words to Lycans lips and feels his anger rise.

“So, the Lycan knew, or knows, the vampire; and he also knew Bucky was looking for her.” Hunter says rounding the corner with a beer in hand.

“I think it might have been more than that.” Natasha says leaning back in her chair to ponder.

“What do you mean by that?” Hunter asks voicing Steve’s concern.

“I’m not exactly sure.” Natasha replies before leaning forward again and starts typing furiously.

“What are you doing?”

“When Shield was still in business, we had an accumulative list of all the Vampires and Lycans we came across. I think I’ve seen him before while I was doing a mission.”

“Could you be able to verify who he is? If so we can figure out what he wants with the human and what he meant by what he said to Bucky.” Steve says moving to the other side of the room to grab his bag.

“If he is who I think he is, you know that none of this is coincidence. They wanted Bucky here.” Natasha says and Steve nods.

“More of a reason to go get him.” Steve says reaching out to grab the door handle only to have someone grab his wrist stopping him. He turns to see Natasha standing behind him holding a syringe full of some liquid her eyes unreadable. “What’s this?”

“Tonight’s the full moon, if he starts to change, give him this. It’ll put him down enough that the transformation will be impossible.”

“I got it,” Steve replies reluctantly taking the syringe from her and putting it in his jacket pocket.

“We don’t know what he’ll become rogers, the serum in you is also in him; that alone is dangerous.”

“I got it Nat,” Steve says his brows furrowed. “I’ll find him, and when the times comes I’ll bring him home.”

Will Continue in - Fighting The Change

[msdre20]

Writing about Insecure because...reasons...#Triggered

I’d like to think that I’ve gotten over my previous heartbreaks & dating disappointments but every now & then I’ll get “triggered.” Nothing triggers me more than the extremely popular & brilliantly written HBO show “Insecure.” Issa, Lawrence & friends are damn near too relatable on so many levels & the realness of their situations is not only extremely entertaining but (& I swear I wish I could think of another word but I can’t & it is what it is) TRIGGERING. 

**Spoilers on the way, so if you haven’t watched the most recent episode do that now & come on back***

The moment I saw previews of Issa attempting to work through her insecurities by talking & rapping to herself in the mirror, I knew this show was for me. I expected to laugh (which of course I do) & I even expected to relate. What I didn’t expect was to get neck deep into the #TeamIssa vs #TeamLawrence discussions that “Insecure” instigates every week! Lawrence, started out season 1 bumming it on him & Issa’s couch. Two years into a stint of unemployment because he was working on a dream. Issa was left to be the responsible one to make sure they both had a place to live & food to eat. And with all the sacrifices she made to support homie in his dream, he couldn’t even remember her birthday. This was the moment I decided Lawrence was trash. This is also the moment that violent flashbacks of my ex dropping me off at a job I hated but we needed, IN MY CAR, so that he could “go to the studio” (or more realistically, chill on Facebook or play the Xbox I bought him all day) came flooding in. *TRIGGERED*

Issa’s insecurities led to her running back to Lawrence before they even had a chance to let their “break” breathe. And we all know she ended up cheating on him which apparently caused Lawrence amnesia....and then there’s Tasha. 

I’m damn near positive there were several Tashas in my ex’s world. The fans of his music who didn’t know his girl was paying all his bills. They saw his potential, the stroked his ego, told him how he’s a “good man” & immediately they get to occupy mental space instead of the one who’s been holding you down...when you’re Issa levels of frustrated & tired, how can you remember to stroke your man’s ego? And who’s taking care of you, when you’re taking care of ALL? *TRIGGERED*

The entire Lawrence and Issa situation illustrates perfectly why the show's called Insecure. Sunday’s episode confirmed that Tasha is collateral damage & it's really sad because she doesn't deserve it. She saw Lawrence as a "good man" simply because he had a college degree....she fell for his "potential." (I’d venture to guess Issa did too) *TRIGGERED*

 Tasha’s past could potentially be the reason why the bare minimum is good enough for her *TRIGGERED*.  Issa got tired of picking up the slack of his wasted potential and her insecurities led her to go way too far off the "give no fux" deep end & cheat when she should've just left him. Lawrence is LAZY! He expects a cookie for basic adulting *TRIGGERED*, so when Tasha came around telling him how amazing he was when he was feeling down on himself, it was textbook that he'd get into her. He still hasn't processed everything with Issa & is looking for easy companionship with Tasha. The trash part of him knows that he can just do the bare minimum with her & she'll be cool. *TRIGGERED* Tasha, Lawrence & Issa's (& if we keep it funky, MOST of us) actions are ALL rooted in their (our) insecurities.

Liz Barlow hit us with a WORD regarding Tasha & her role in the Issa/Lawrence foolery in Huffington Post today: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/for-girls-like-tasha_us_5978438de4b0940189700dc7?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003

She wrote: 

"...We open our hearts and bodies to men looking to take up temporary space in our lives as they try and decipher their feelings for someone else on air mattresses, leaning beds, or futons in friends living rooms. They are in transition and in no space to be a true partner, but instead of explaining that, they use the vagueness of unpurposed quality time to pacify any concerns.." 

The #LawrenceHive is gonna say, but he’s hurt and confused and Issa’s trash because she actually cheated. Infidelity is painful, I’ll never dispute that. But how about we act like grown ups and not bring whole other individuals into our hurt? How about we open our mouths & use our words. “I don’t know” *TRIGGERED* is not an adequate answer to someone who you’ve strung along for a ride where you had no intended destination *TRIGGERED*. Lawrence isn’t stupid, he knew Tasha was catching feelings, which is why he let it happen because “easy” is his jam. Him going to her at the end is simply him not knowing how to be alone. He also needs the ego boost and Tasha is more than willing to do that. Lastly, Lawrence his chronic “good-guy” syndrome. He can’t seem like the “bad guy” even if he is. So getting into another relationship will both hurt Issa & prove to himself that he’s not a bad guy. It’ll also keep up his “good guy” appearances. *SO MANY DAMN TRIGGERS*

This show is probably gonna give me a tick when it’s all said & done. I’ll probably be knee deep in some much needed therapy too! 

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

mmkay let it out what's your thoughts on the new doctor who

- Okay so right off the bat??? It took me less than five minutes to fall in love with Bill holy SHIT

- Like I could tell from her original preview that I was gonna like her but!!! She’s fantastic!!!!

- 12 playing the electric guitar at any given time is a strong weakness of mine

- The Doctor…has pictures…of Susan and River on his desk…I am…beyond deceased

- Okay like literally every single incarnation of the Doctor fits the aesthetic of ‘eccentric professor who gives no fucks but also ends up teaching very memorable classes’ perfectly but like. I’m so glad Capaldi is the one that gets to FULLFILL that omg.

- “You shouldn’t be in my class you aren’t a student here”

- “I know but I’m like really gay and accidentally made my crush fat because I can’t function properly”

- “Valid points, I need to teach you everything I know.”

- What…is in…that Goddamn vault.

- “Doctor What?” you know that killed him just a little inside

- She got him a freaking carpet for Christmas??? amaze

- Also just the fact that she spent Christmas with him??? You’re not crying I am

- 12: “I’m a cold hearted lone wolf I’m here to do my job I don’t care about anyone no one can crack me-”

- Bill: “Yeah my mom died when I was a baby and I have no pictures of her it makes me very sad”

- 12: *internally screaming, eye twitching, frantically grabbing a camera and sprinting into the TARDIS, shouting* “I aM a CoLd HeArTeD lOnE wOlF i’M hErE tO dO mY jOb I dOnT cArE aBoUt ANYONE-”

- seriously that was so sweet I almost cried???

- LMAO when she said “You’ve apparently been teaching here for 70 years” and he was like “You’re thinking, ‘he doesn’t look old enough’ “ and she said no. HIS FACE 😂

- “One time you were supposed to give a lecture on physics but you started ranting about poetry” “They’re the same thing.”

- Like they did a weird job with the Heather girl??? I ultimately felt bad for her but she was like shady right from the start it was strange

- Like every time Bill was around her I was like “honey reel in your thirst just far enough to realize this situation has me nervous” omfg

- w h a t  i s  i n  t h e  v a u l t

- Am I like…the only person who doesn’t like Nardole? I never have tbh he just feels shoved in there

- Like his whole spiel about wanting to make sure the Doctor’s dealing with River’s death okay at the end of the Christmas special was sweet but like??? He feels out of place and hasn’t properly done anything yet???? Idk it feels like someone inserting an oc into their fanfic re-write of the show but not knowing how the oc can actually effect the plot

- The Doctor has been a college professor for at least 70 years like…is the TARDIS okay? I can’t imagine she enjoys being parked in his office or the ‘out of order’ sign omg

- Yes, yes I am worrying about a sentient machine’s feelings leave me alone

- “I see my face all the time- never liked it, it’s all over the place, having expressions when I’m trying to be enigmatic.” MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

- “Why are you running like a penguin with his ass on fire”

- When she asked the Doctor if he knew about sci-fi. A++

- He was so swept up in figuring it out before he snapped back and was like nEVER MIND SWEET CHILD PLEASE GO AWAY ITS PROBABLY JSUT WATER lmao

- Can we as a society please stop setting creepy moments in fiction in bathrooms??? Like I’m fucking over it

- And honestly??? I’m so PISSED about the thing in the shower drain holy shit after years of having issues with drains because of “it” and I finally start fucking getting over that only for Doctor Who to do this to me??? Why does this show always know my deepest paranoia shit and use it only briefly like WHY

- Anyway,

- Bill’s reaction to the TARDIS was HILARIOUS

- “What happened to the doors though did you run out of money?” LMAO

- WHAT IS IN THE VAULT

- I lost it when they ended up in Australia omfg that was good tegan screaming in the distance

- “IF YOU’RE FROM ANOTHER PLANET THAN WHY DID YOU NAME YOUR BOX IN ENGLISH IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE”

- “You’re…the first person to mention that…?” I WAS SCREAMING

- yelling ‘shark attack’ in a restaurant and it actually works? okay

- Why does Capaldi’s Doctor have such a penchant for traveling to the literal end of the universe??? This is the third or fourth time he’s gone there omfg

- Like he’s always like “no one will find us here” but like at this point? End of the universe would be the first place I’d check for him? lol

- 12 looked so proud of himself when he was called ‘silly’!!!! I’m so happy for him it’s a relief he’s out of the emo ‘what kind of man am I’ phase

- OKAY LISTEN UP

- WHEN THE DOCTOR GAVE NARDOLE A SPARE SONIC SCREWDRIVER

- DID WE ALL SEE THE DESIGN???

- BECAUSE I’M PRETTY SURE THAT’S THE SONIC RIVER USED IN THE LIBRARY AND IF IT IS I AM GOING TO THROW MYSELF DOWN THE STAIRS I S C R E A M E D

- on a mildly related note: Nardole running around trying to sonic things and quietly screaming was THE MOST ME THING I’VE EVER SEEN ON TV

- I do shit with that exact attitude all the fucking time you don’t even understand I was looking in a mirror it was hilarious

- So question: Since when is the Dalek’s laser “the hottest fire in the universe”? Is that an already established thing I forgot about or like…did they just want an excuse to show the Daleks? lol

- so Creepy Water Demon Girl was chasing them through time and space solely because she thinks Bill is hot?

- R E L A T A B L E

- When Bill asked the Doctor how he’d feel if someone erased his memories and a slightly warped version of Clara’s theme music started playing??? I stabbed myself that was UNCALLED for I was NOT READY

- When the Doctor was having Internal Struggles™ and he told the pictures of Susan and River to shut up and then the TARDIS started making noises at him and he was clearly getting emotionally ganged up on I was YELLING that was so funny lmao

- Why was he so against travelling??? Why the same school for 70 years??? WHAT’S IN THE VAULT??? Who did he promise????

- The whole ending scene when he was inviting Bill on the TARDIS- idk I just really liked it?

- The lighting behind him from the ship, the mini speech, the music playing in the background??? I really dug it omg

- WHAT IS IN THE VAULT

- But no yes I???? Really freaking enjoyed the episode. Like it’s obviously not the best of the series or anything but I think it was a great opener and now I’m even more pumped for the rest of the season I’m so hype I can’t handle it omfg!!!!

[makeyourownmyth]

best seen in 2019.

This is way overdue, nor is it important, but I’d like to clear out my cache on the notes app, so that I can track things more accurately in this hellstorm of a year. Usual caveats apply: I don’t watch many current things, and my tastes skew away from typical award fare, but that’s why this is MY list.

Anti

Tag - Wanted to love it, it wasn’t good.

Welcome to Marwen - Spaghetti approach means that it was too much of all things. It should have been more heavily edited and would have been better for it.

Midsommer - I know everyone went gaga for it, but it wasn’t for me. I mean, I got it. And it was well made. But it was neither pleasing nor entertaining to me.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - I’m honestly not even interested in re-litigating this, and maybe this movie is why I never wrote this list, so let’s just leave it alone, eh?

Marvelous Ms. Maisel - Again, I know this is a popular pick for some of the best TV “now” but it doesn’t hit for me. I want more from her, or from him, but the story just wants to meander. Hell, I’d love a focus on just the manager. 

Titans - I wanted to love it. It’s terrible.

Legion Season 2 - This was too much. They saw how well they did with S1 and were like, fuck it, we’re going to 11. Well, that was too much.

American Gods Season 2 - Singlehandedly turned me off the show. I can take the deviations from the book (and some of them were GREAT!) but when you’re being gratuitous JUST for the sake of gratuity, there’s not much point to me tuning in. 

Black Mirror Season 5 - There might not have been a single good episode in this season? It’s a bad sign when the Miley Cyrus one MIGHT have been the best? 

Runaways Season 2 - Less Spike = less good. 

Honorable Mentions

Bird Box - Remember when this was a thing? Yeah, it was fine.

The Farewell - It wasn’t as funny as I thought it was gonna be, and that’s probably more on me than on the adverts, but I thought it was quite good. 

The Edge of Seventeen - This was quite funny, but the most hilarious parts are the ones we already saw in the preview. Still very good.

Daredevil Season 3 - It took me a looooonnng time to get to it, but it was still good. I’m not sad it’s over.

Bohemian Rhapsody - I appreciate the movie and the respect it’ll put on Queen’s name for a whole new generation. But. It wasn’t as good as it could have been, IMO.

Jessica Jones Season 3 - The last one not to make the cut to the Best Of list. Just too much ridiculousness in it, especially compared to the tightness of S1. This was the best of the Netflix MCU shows, and it’s sad that it kinda petered out this way. I’d probably watch JJ over any season of any of the other shows, though, even this S3. It’s just head and shoulders above the rest of the nonsense.  

Best of the Year

American Gods Season 1 - Like I said above, while it eventually went off the rails, I loved the boldness of most of the changes, and Anansi was dope. 

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch - A worthwhile experiment. I think it’ll grow in esteem as time passes, even though it’s not a FANTASTIC “show” - there’s just a lot more going on than its mere existence.

Rocketman - The bolder of the music movies of 2019. I’d rather have my actors actually sing the whole parts, and hell, if it was gonna be crazy, let’s go full crazy, not just have this half-hearted attempt to hedge our bets. 

The Mandalorian Season 1 - It was fun. It felt simultaneously like someone FINALLY realizing that Star Wars isn’t actually that GOOD, and it can just be a spaghetti western fun shoot-em-up time, while also indulging in the good parts of nostalgia. Baby Yoda, obviously, is cute. 

The Magicians Season 4 - Not as good as Season 3. No doubt. I’ll never try to convince anyone of that. But when it’s hitting on all cylinders, this is pretty much better than anything else on TV.

Legion Season 3 - One of the rare exceptions to the above praise. While S2 felt like a misstep, S3 was the correction to that overreach. Clearly, they knew where they were going, and they did it so well. Was it perfect? Obviously not. But I’m so happy that something this far afield exists in the MCU, even if only tangentially. 

Vice - Well, this was just a tour de force for Christian Bale, and the party didn’t stop there. Jesus. I thought I didn’t need to see it because I’d lived through it, and I wasn’t sure I’d learn anything, but damn. It was brutal. 

Zombieland 2 - The exact opposite. It was a totally fun time. Unexpected that it even exists, but it wrings out all that it can from a pretty gnarly premise in the first place, and then goes even further, both in making us laugh and actually trying to tell a story. 

Russian Doll - Obviously the best TV that I saw this year. From concept to execution, all the parts were exquisite. Even though I ended the series with some big time looming questions, I never hold that against a show. It did exactly what it wanted to do, I was never bored, and I was always entertained. What more could I ask for?

Avengers: Endgame - I mean, honestly, there’s nothing to say about this movie that hasn’t already been said to death, by people way smarter than me. The only shocking thing to me is that it’s so relatively low on my list. But there’s reasons, as you’ll see, that have nothing to do with this movie being bad, but rather the other movies being incredible. 

Mid 90s - The best “real” movie I saw last year? I mean, it was great. I know the comparisons to KIDS were abundant when it was coming out, and sure, I can see some part of that, but it was actually pretty radically different. I mean, they’re just coming from different places. It felt very...searching. Like, we could feel the kids trying to find their place. And who hasn’t been there?

Spider-Man: Far From Home - Fantastic. I mean, it’s Spidey, it’s Tom Holland, they’re in Europe, what’s not to like? Mysterio played out exactly like we knew he would, and yet I don’t know anyone who was disappointed by that. One of my friends said it was too much a Tony Stark movie, which I kinda get, but if you’re not cognizant of the universe in which this is taking place - both ours and his - I don’t get why you even see comic book movies. This was it for me. 

Captain Marvel - The only way to beat Spider-Man in my geek heart? Put a powerful woman face front to tell the fucking nerd boys who call anyone who can do anything they don’t like a Mary Sue, and have her LITERALLY save the day. The story being in the past worked perfectly for her intro to the larger MCU, and paid huge dividends in Endgame, but this is a way better movie than that one, because it CAN stand all on its own. She’s the truth.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Sarazanmai Episode 8: “I Want To Connect, But We’ll Never Meet Again”

Hey Ikuhara, do you take constructive criticism on your posts? :) I JUST WANT TO TALK :)))

I’d seen vague stuff on twitter recently about how devastating this episode was gonna be, and honestly I think that actually under-sold how messed up and tragic this episode was, on so many levels. I was actually worried that I’d end up being a little disappointed in it after how strongly people were talking about it, but hahaha nope. I am officially dead now :)

Thoughts under the cut.

OK first of all I may as well point out that I, and also lots of other people, totally saw that starting scene coming. It’s a lot more obvious if you’re familiar with Ikuhara’s writing style and the sorta tropes he likes to use, but it felt pretty inevitable that Toi and Kazuki would have had a prior connection we didn’t know about before now.

I was a bit confused about the timeline of it at first, but by the end of the episode it became pretty clear that it must have happened shortly after Toi shot that gangster dude. I guess it also must have happened shortly after the whole incident with Haruka, since Kazuki talked about ‘not being connected to anyone’, but I vaguely remember Kazuki looking older in the flashbacks to that whole sequence of events than he did in this episode’s flashback.

Even though this all makes sense and just ties everything together, I’m curious about why Enta has been saying that he was the one to give Kazuki the micanga. I mean, I think the initial story was that Enta gave it to him, but I can’t actually remember now. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s still a little more for us to find out about how Enta and Kazuki first met and became friends.

Over the last few days I’d been preparing myself for the possibility of Chikai becoming a kappa zombie and getting erased from existence, and on the one hand I guess I’m happy that didn’t happen, but on the other hand I feel like what happened instead was even more tragic.

I’d been waiting for the inevitable part where the main trio would come into direct conflict with Reo and Mabu, and oh boy did that sure go in the worst possible way. Reo’s out there looking like a horror movie villain, and now Enta’s dead? Maybe? The fact that it looks like the severity of the gunshot wounds is censored so much actually makes it hard to get a feel for how fatal it’s meant to be. When they shot the first gangster dude earlier in the episode, it was so clean and bloodless that I honestly thought it was more like a magical tranquilizer dart so they could drag him to their police box to use the desire extraction machine on him, but I guess we’re meant to think that it was a straight up regular fatal gunshot.

To address the whole elephant in the room, I’d be very surprised if Enta’s actually permanently dead, when we have three whole episodes left. I know Ikuhara likes killing off his characters, but I feel like that tends to happen much closer to the end of the show. And since we already have a whole wish-granting system in place, anything’s possible. And going by what Mabu said at the end, and how one of the ep9 preview images seems to be of Kazuki in a hospital, I have a feeling that Enta might still be alive, but on the brink of death.

I’ve been on the Enta Defense Train [tm] from day one, and I hope that this episode helped people understand that he really is a good boy who doesn’t deserve the shit he’s gotten. The whole bit with him saying at the end that even after everything that happened, he couldn’t make himself say that he hated Kazuki was high-key heartbreaking.

And on top of all that, I honestly wasn’t expecting Toi to actually end up leaving with his brother. Well, mostly because I expected Chikai to die in this episode, but still. I imagine Kazuki will find a way to get back into contact with him soon enough, but the fact that Toi had also left them sure puts Kazuki in an even more tragic spot.

I hope I’m not the only one who’s getting the feeling that Kazuki’s quickly developing a crush on Toi, with how fast they’ve been bonding and how severely he’s reacting to Toi’s departure. It’d at least throw a whole new wrench in things if it’s true.

In spite of how Reo and Mabu’s actions in this episode are pretty straight-up indefensible, especially if we’re meant to think that Reo actually just outright shot both Enta and the gang member dude, I still can’t help but like them. Reo in particular is being driven out of loneliness and desperation, and also tbh it’s kinda hard to take his scary moments too seriously when they’re so over the top, and when we also know what he’s like in his day to day life, lol. At the very least I’d much rather people criticize them than Enta, considering that the worst thing Enta’s done so far is be a petty and jealous 14-year old with a crush, whereas Reo and Mabu are literally serial killers at this point.

And on the note of them, it sounds like the anime might never get around to adapting the short chapter from the first light novel volume that goes over how the two of them first met, which would be kinda sad since, now that I’ve read it, it’s really good and helps contextualize why Reo feels so strongly about Mabu and is doing so much for his sake. I’d say that the material from the manga and the twitter account is actually more ‘plot important’ and necessary to truly understanding them as characters, but still.

Vaguely related to them, we also got another scene with Sara and Keppi in this episode, which seems to spell out more explicitly that they’re both on the side of the kappas and are working against the otters, to the point of Sara whipping out some anti-otter technology. I still have no goddamn idea what to make of her as a character at this point, especially since this episode really makes it seem like she doesn’t remember Reo and Mabu, even though we’ve already been told that the ReoMabu manga is, one way or another, canon to the anime.

I initially wasn’t sure if Keppi getting frozen was meant to have consequences or just be a silly thing, but I saw someone point out that if he stays that way for a while, then Kazuki won’t be able to transform into a kappa, which could be a problem.

I think I said in the last episode post that it looks like things are heading straight into the climax, and that seems to be the case now. A lot is probably going to hinge on who gets to use the plates to make a wish, and what they use it for. I’m curious to see if Reo and Mabu only have the four plates that Enta had stolen, or if they also got the fifth one that the trio would have gotten after the ball zombie fight. It’d probably make more sense if Rreo and Mabu only have four of them, so they can’t immediately make a wish with it.

The more the show goes on, the more things pop up that seem like really good and necessary places to use the wish on, so it’s getting harder to tell how I think that’ll all end up. At this point the situations going on with Toi and Enta seem a lot more severe and in need of outside help than Reo and Mabu’s situation.

Even with just three episodes left, I’m not entirely sure what to expect. Mostly I just hope it manages to stick the landing. I’m kinda worried that, at the very least, Reo and Mabu’s characters might end up being too reliant on material from outside of the anime to really flesh them out, but at this point I think the main trio and their development will be handled in a satisfying way.

I said before that I thought we’d be in for another whole round of secret reveals, but with how this episode went, and the possibility of Kazuki not being able to even turn into a kappa in the short term with Keppi being out of commission, I think the pattern is completely broken at this point and we might not get any more secret leaking sequences. At least not via the whole sarazanmai transformation thing.

If there’s any one specific thing I really want them to address before the anime ends, it’s the whole connection between Reo, Mabu, and Sara, since that hasn’t come up at all yet in the anime, and it seems really important. But we’ll see.

One way or another I think we’re in for a lot more tragedy before this ends, lol.