#he’s got about 80 people he travels with from show to show

[edsbacktattoo]

I have Gathered some Data

@skysofrey and I recently got into a discussion about names in OFMD. Specifically, how many times does Ed actually call Stede by his name in the show? We could only think of a few examples each and that didn't seem right. And because I'm insane, I decided to rewatch and note down every time a name was used, who used it, and who was being spoken to. Here are my findings!

Before you proceed, please know that this is strictly for fun and because I was curious. There are likely errors in the data (I'm sure I missed some things, I'm just one person.) but! I still think that what's been gathered is very interesting.

Here are some other fun/important/miserable things that I found in my travels:

There is one more time where Stede calls Ed “Edward,” and the only time it isn’t said to him directly. This is when Stede is addressing the petrified orange.

Of the five times that Stede is called “The Gentleman Pirate,” two of them are from Ed.

Ed calls Stede by his name only twelve times in the series. Only two of these instances are spoken to someone else. There are two others when Ed is looking for him at the pier, and therefore spoken to no one.

There are only ten instances of other characters calling Ed something other than his name or “Blackbeard.” Two of these are from Izzy, during the scene in Spanish Jackie’s bar, where he’s informing Stede that Ed would like to meet with him. During this scene, he only uses “my captain” and “my boss.” This is one of the very few times he doesn’t refer to Ed to other people as “Blackbeard” and it’s at the time that is arguably the most important. (He’s an idiot.)

Out of the twenty times that Ed refers to himself, fourteen of those are as “Blackbeard/The Kraken.” He refers to himself with names other than “Ed/Edward” 70% of the time. 50% of the times he refers to himself by his name are during the beach scene in episode nine, and there is only one instance where he uses his name that is not in Stede’s company. ("Actually, I do want to be called 'Ed' from now on.")

Izzy only refers to Ed as "Edward" to other people four times in the show. Two of those times are when he's marooning Stede's crew, and each time he uses his name in that scene, he takes on a mocking tone. Meaning that 50% of every instance he's referred to Ed as "Edward" to other people, he's been mocking his name.

Ed calls Stede "mate" as often as he calls him by his name, but he only calls him "mate" directly.

Stede calls Ed by his name only once more than Izzy does.

80% of the times Ed refers to himself by name happen in episode nine.

[beybaldes]

all I know of love is how to live without it

Eddie Roundtree × Fem!Reader

djats masterlist

word count: 1.9k

summary: Eddie's used to being second place, everywhere from the science projects he did in middle school to the one Camilla wouldn't choose. you show him that he's always your no.1.

Warning!! I have not read the book or the show!!! All info I have gathered has been from other x readers I have read. sorry in advance if I have butchered vour fav show/book because I have plainly made shit up in favour of satiating my own need for more eddie fics xoxo

"But the dude still wouldn't leave me alone, so I called Eddie over and was like 'I told you I have a boyfriend, see?' But he still didn't believe me, said he would've seen it in the tabloids if I was taken. Eddie got right in his face about it and then he finally left me alone." Graham laughed through every word you said, the two of you huddled in a corner of the room, it pack with so many people that if you'd wanted to move it would've been hard anyway. When he'd first found you about an hour ago, you'd told him to carry on in his travels, quite content to stand alone and people watch, but Graham insisted, not wanting to leave you alone in the crowd.

"Where is Eddie?" He asked, eyes scanning around the room in search of your partner in crime. Now that you'd thought about it, you'd not seen him in a while - he'd said he was going to grab himself another drink and then seemingly disappeared. "I don't think I've seen him since we got here."

"Yeah, me either." You scanned your eyes across the room once more, not seeing his tufts of blonde hair anywhere. "I'm gonna go look for him, if that's okay."

"You know it is." Graham assured you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and pulling you into his side, leaning down so you could hear his next words better over the commotion. "I'm gonna get another drink, come find me if you can't find him."

With a nod, you left the brunettes side, beginning your search for the blonde who you were 80% was crashed on a couch somewhere.

3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 6 laps of the main room later you still hadn't found him. You'd bumped into Graham twice who told you to give up on your search and enjoy your evening, and the rest of the members of the six at least once - spare Eddie himself.

In your attempt to scan through the room once more, you walked straight into Camilla, grabbing her by her elbow to make sure she didn't fall over at your sudden connection. "Cami, I'm so sorry I didn't see you."

"It's okay, y/n, don't worry about it."

"You okay?" You asked, noticing a slight sniffle to Camilla's words. Billy could be a dick, so you wouldn't be surprised if he'd said something to her that he really shouldn't have. The words didn't need to be said out loud, a silent conversation shared between the two of you in a matter of seconds between your eyes alone.

You pulled her in for a brief hug, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Don't let it ruin your night. You look hot as shit." Camilla broke into a smile at your words, whatever she had been worked up over melting from her features in an instant. "Go. Have fun. Get drunk. Who cares."

Camilla pulled you in for the hug this time, though only briefly, allowing you to pull away when you whispered a promise to find, and do shots with her, when you'd found what you were looking for.

As Camilla walked past you, you noticed a door behind where she'd stood that you hadn't seen before, leading out onto the balcony - promising to yourself that if Eddie wasn't here, you'd just get on with your night and question him about it the next morning.

Thankfully, the man of the hour was on the other side of the door, his forearms resting on the balcony's fence as he looked out over the city "You!" You cheered, steeping down onto the balcony and approaching Eddie where he stood at its far end, his eyes downcast and a half-assed smile on his face. "I have been looking everywhere for you! You said you were going to get a drink and you disappeared on me! What happened?"

You planted your arms firmly on the railing next to him, leaning down and forward to get a good look at his face which haven't moved since you'd come out to the balcony. Eddie's dejected expression had you freezing, realising the joyful disposition you'd entered the scene with may have not been entirely appropriate.

"Ed's." You reached out a hand for his arm, finally gaining his attention, though his eyes still head a far off look to them. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm fine." He immediately deflected, though the fact that his eyes still couldn't meet yours told you otherwise. "Really."

"I don't believe you." You bent at the knee, tilting your head and trying to get a better look at his face once more. "What happened, Ed's."

It wasn't a question this time; a gentle command for him to talk about, share what was on his mind. A problem shared is a problem halved was a saying you'd been raised on, and you weren't going to falter on that sentiment now.

"I'm fine." That wasn't what you'd asked. "Just go back inside I'll be back in in a minute."

"Eddie." Turning to face him entirely, you leant your side against the railing, one arm on top of it and one reaching out for his hand. "What's going on in that head of yours?"

Eddie still didn't answer you, his jaw locking and his hands gripping the railing tighter as he stared out at the city believe you.

"We don't have to talk about it." You whispered, moving closer to him as you spoke, the music from inside seeping out onto the balcony at its deafening volume. "But I'm here if you decide you want to, if you need someone to listen."

"You'll be there for me?" You couldn't tell what cogs were turning in Eddie's head, what motivated him to finally speak up and ask such a question, but you were glad he was talking. That was a step in the right direction, into finding out what upset him so much.

"Yeah." You answered honestly, no strings attached or conditions to your words. "Always, Ed's."

That seemed to be enough for Eddie for the moment, and you didn't plan on pushing him to talk about it, so you took the opportunity to slip back inside. Running from the balcony door and into the kitchen, you picked up two bottles of beer and ran straight back, not wanting to leave Eddie alone for too long now that he'd began to open up about whatever was bothering him.

"You're back?" Eddie asked when he heard the door creaking open. "What about the party?"

"Everyone else can wait." You answered, offering him one of the beers you'd grabbed cautiously, like he was a wounded animal you were afraid to startle. "You need me. That's all that matters now."

Though Eddie wasn't in the mood for smiling, he could feel one trying to curl onto his lips. He revelled in the quiet shared between the two of you, thankful that you were willing to be patient with him, let him deal in his own time.

"You remember that science fair project we did in the 8th grade?" Eddie asked out of nowhere, breaking the peaceful silence that had settled between the two of you. You took another sip of your beer, turning to him with a confused look on your face. "What did you think of it?"

"Think it was stupid." You muttered, looking at the late night city lights as you thought back on something that felt like a whole other life ago. This where different then, you were different then, and you couldn't quite place when everything had changed. "It still keeps me up at night that Graham won and not us."

While it was definitely an over exaggeration, it elicited a laugh from Eddie - something you'd been hoping to achieve since the moment you'd noticed the crestfallen look on his face.

"It was only because he stole Billy's winning project from the year before too!" You whined, remembering the events more clearly now that Eddie had brought it up. "That cheeky little- I'm so gonna convince him he owe me $50 in the morning."

"What? Why?" Eddie asked, mind now focused on your confusing words more then Camilla breaking his heart.

"I don't know, reparations for the win we deserved or something. I'll split it with you, 30:20."

"Why am I getting $20? Why not $25 each?" Eddie whined, his full body now turned to face you, one arm supporting his weight against the railing while the other held his beer.

"No, no. You'd get the $30. I did jack shit in that project. You did all the hard work."

"Couldn't have done it without you though, y'know." Eddie said in complete earnest, some kind of realisation settling over him as the pair of you dwelled on the memory from a life time ago. It was weirdly poetic in a sense, how even back then, before the band and everything, you stood by his side when a Dunne was breaking his heart in some capacity, put the pieces back together even when he didn't ask you too - or tell you it's what he needed.

"Still can't do shit without out now." The words came out in a teasing way, but you could tell Eddie was trying to mask the sentimental value to them. The two of you had been two peas in a pod as long as you could remember, you could read him like a book even when he didn't want you too.

"You know you could." You teased right back, feeling comfortable enough to knock your shoulder against his now that the mood had shifted to a happier one. "You just don't want to."

"Yeah I don't think I do." Eddie let you rest your head on his shoulder, one of your arms wrapping around his bicep while the other wrapped around his forearm in a makeshift hug. "Don't think I ever do, birdie."

"There's my Eddie." You cooed, so casually that it sent Eddie brain whirring. He knew he was nowhere near ready to open up his heart again, but you'd already wriggled your way in so long ago that it felt natural. Something about being your Eddie was something he thought he could get used to, but that wasn't something he wanted to unpack today. "Come back inside."

"Since you asked so nicely." Your arms stayed wrapped around Eddie's as you re-entered the party, weaving your way through the crowd in search of Graham who you'd all but abandoned earlier. He was easy to find, towering over the crowds of people, and he kept himself in good company, introducing you to the group he'd surrounded himself with and you and Eddie finding conversation with them easy.

Though Eddie had a smile on his face that didn't quite reach his eye, his entire demeanour had changed since you first found him on the balcony, and that was enough for you.

The rest of the night went quickly, people coming and going from your group, but you, Eddie and Graham sticking together for the rest of the evening. Eddie added his own opinion to the conversation every now and then, but spent most of the night taking in the feeling of your arms around his; thinking about how he must have been someone good in his last life to deserve such an angel as you in this one.

[luv4fandoms]

At Last-Ralph x FReader (ch 1)

So I haven't written in over a year lol, and this was SUPPOSE to be a one-shot, but I started writing and got in the groove again sooooo...it became a chapter story! Lol. Hoping to get a chapter out every Friday til the story is finished that way I can balance it with running my Etsy shop and all 😊.

Summery: After you and your friends are transported back to the 1920's by a time machine elevator, you embark on an adventure, and that adventure leads to a beautiful man.

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Pairing: Ralph x Reader

Words: 3,328

Warnings: Ralph being a cutie, also some possible trigger words for some, I do apologize, I was simply quoting the show and they were used.

I also have a Ko-Fi 😊

⚠️ 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐬, 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬, 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞.⚠️

"At last, my love has come along

My lonely days are over

And life is like a song"

"So…Just to recap so that I know I am not losing my mind here….We actually just followed a homeless man into an elevator"

"Yeah"

"That was actually a time machine"

"Yeah"

"That actually took us back to the 1920's"

"Yeah"

"How do you know it's the 20's?"

"Which box do we check first, the cars? The hair? The fashion?"

"1920's London"

"Not exactly what I signed up for when I decided to vacation from America" you sighed, looking around the cobblestone road. Somehow, because you still couldn't wrap your head around a time machine elevator, you and your four friends had landed yourselves in London…In the 1920's. Horace and Jason were looking around please, for different reasons, Horace in amusement and Jason at all the women. Nick looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, while you and Lauren sat back and took in your situation. You would be lying if you said that this whole thing was at least somewhat exciting, odd and unbelievable, but exciting. You had decided to visit your friends over the summer, having met Lauren online some years ago when you were in a Facebook group for "Things to do when in London", since you were hoping to visit that following year. Lauren and you struck up a fast friendship over music, and soon found you had a lot of similar interests. 

"Alright, let's just stick together and avoid any

plantations." Nick said after a moment.

"Imagine all the things we could do." Horace said with a smile 

"Invest in stocks and shares and get filthy rich in the present day." Lauren replied with a mischievous smile back.

"I was gonna say burn a witch, but we could do that." Horace replied

"...Now I suddenly don't feel safe" You replied, causing Horace to turn to you.

"Can trace my ancestors back to Salem remember" you laughed, causing his eyes to widen.

"Right! No, sorry, no witch burning" he backtracked, causing you to laugh more.

"It doesn't matter what time we're in, any time before the mid-'80s isn't good for black people." Nick stressed

"You have a point" You stated

"Bruv, how can you not wanna explore? We owe it to ourselves! People like us never

get to time travel. It's what white people do,

like skiing, or brunch." Jason replied,

"Anyone got a fiver? I'm gonna buy a house." Lauren laughed as you all made your way onto the streets.

"Look at you perving at all the ye olde ladies." She teased Jason.

"I'm just appreciating when women dressed like women, and not like twelve-year-old schoolboys." He told her, earning a punch in the arm. 

"I wouldn't call you eyeing every woman as simply appreciating" you laughed. Noticing a woman staring at Lauren before muttering.

"That reminds me, I must buy some black pudding."

"Would it mess with the future if I smacked that woman in the face right now?" Lauren asked, causing everyone to snicker but bringing up a very good question, what would happen to the future, your timelines, by you simply existing in the 20's?

"No, seriously, she's right. Time, space, ripple

effects and all that. What would happen?" Nick asked, causing Horace to reach into his pocket.

"Homeless Pete gave me some rules. Um 1, Don't kill anyone." 

"That's not even specific to time travel." Nick muttered

"Don't impregnate, get impregnated. Don't touch any animals."

"Awe there goes your fun Jason" you teased.

"Have fun and try to blend in." Horace finished

"Try to blend in?" You asked

"Am I the only one noticing that?" Nick pointed behind you, you all turned and noticed a large crowd of white people gathered to stare…ah…yeah…people of color were not as common in these times indeed.

"Why are we in a suit shop?"

"Because I didn't see a Foot Locker."

You noticed the man behind the desk look up from his magazine as you all walked in before suddenly looking very scared.

"Good afternoon" he said nervously

"How may I eat you-, help you?" He quickly corrected himself, his eyes landing on you.

"Hello sir, my friends would like suits please"

"Y-Yes of course, I'll just go eat the-Get the manager" he nervously smiled before escaping to the backroom.

"She's alright." You heard Jason say as you leaned over the counter to see the magazine the man had been looking at…Ah cannibals…that explains the oddness.

"Going by the day's events, don't you think you have enough girlfriends?" Nick asked

"Alright, then you go talk to her."

"Well, obviously I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because she's about 90 years older than me."

"What?"

"Yes, I could go outside,and yes, I could chat her up. But what if I fell for her, and she for I?

And we had this whirlwind love affair where we couldn't be without one another.

And at the peak of everything, she decides to come back with me to the 21st century. But as we return to the present day, I'd turn to her only to see that she'd become the age she would be in that time. And I would have the girl of my dreams as an old woman, dying in my arms." Nick concluded. 

"Ahh Nick, always the romantic" you snickered

"Bruv, I just said to get her phone number." Jason replied just as a new voice spoke up.

"Ahem!" 

Spinning around you suddenly felt like the air got knocked out of you as you looked toward the new people in the small shop.

'Oh…Oh'

"Hello" they spoke at the same time, and you could hear Horace say something along the lines of 

"Hail thee, good morrow,how doth thou?" Behind you, but he sounded so far away, everything did, it was like everything suddenly blurred into nothing until there was just him. He wore a cream colored suit and a boater hat, a simple enough outfit for the time but that wasn't what caught your attention, his eyes, the way his smile made them sparkle as he excitedly told the woman beside him to ask them, before prompting her again, causing her to quickly snap at him and his smile fell, and you watched his eyes dull a bit, the sight making your heart clench.

'Don't look sad please,never look sad'

"Ask us what?"

"We were just wondering-" He started but again was cut off by the woman, you could feel yourself beginning to get annoyed at her as you watched his eyes dull even further.

"Yes, Ralph!..Are you a jazz band?"

"What makes you think we're a jazz band?" Lauren asked, and you watched his eyes move over to her, eyeing her up and down and you felt your chest ache…So…Even in a different time nothing changes. Your eyes drift away from him, everything coming into focus again as Nick and the woman talked.

"Quartet."

"Well, four (five) coloured chaps in London. What else could you be?" She replied

"You're also carrying instruments." He added

"Oh, so you are." She smiled, looking at their hands and glancing at you.

"Now call it fate, but Ralph and I are hosting a sick-makingly glorious birthday party." She smiled excitedly, something about this woman gave you a headache already, but at least now you knew his name was Ralph…It suited him.

"We're twins.Non-identical." he stated, as if the non-identical needed to be added you thought, finding yourself smiling a bit. 

"I was born first." She added

"So Victoria and I are having

a party-" he started again, only to get cut off once more, and by how he slowly sank back you knew this happened often…Too often.

"Yes, Ralph!...And daddy promised us a Negro jazz band."

"You really shouldn't use that word." Lauren added.

"Oh, sorry. A Negro jazz quartet. Quite a shame, the band we hired cancelled.

"One of the poor fellows got polio." They laughed, causing you all to kind of look at one another.

"Typical, isn't it? All bad things seem to happen to me." She pouted

"How much we talking?" Lauren asked

"You'll be paid fabulously"

"So please, please, please say you're a jazz quartet!"

"We are a jazz quartet."

"Sorry, we'd love to but unfortunately we've got to get home." Nick started but Lauren jumped in

"We'll be there."

"Wondrous!"

"It is rather a formal affair."

"Yes, so no curious native trousers or, um, spongy foot sheaths."

"I can't wait!"

"Please don't let us down, otherwise Ralph and I will howl with shame and take our lives in a tragic double suicide." She stated, causing everyone to let out a nervous laugh, except they weren't laughing…before a simple.

"See you chaps later!" And just like that, they were gone. You watched them through the window, watched as he retreated with his sister, his excitement visible if only for a moment before she dampened it again.

"All I'm saying is that when people time travel, it's to prevent a natural disaster or to save mankind from extinction.Not to perform as a

'Negro jazz quartet'" Nick ranted after everyone left the shop with their new suits, you excluded. You looked around after you all stopped in the street, everyone ranting about how Nick wanted a paid gig and now they have one, Nick ranting about how everyone needed to get home and he was going to go back and find the lift to get us out of there. In the end Nick left on his own, leaving the four of you in the streets. 

"Right so do we just have a look around then?" Horace asked.

"You can go ahead, I'm going to look in some shops, still need to find some clothes" you replied, thumbing towards some more shops.

"Oh right!" Horace started but Lauren cut in 

"Why don't you lot go on ahead, we'll meet you at the gig" she stated, before walking with you towards the shops. The first two shops you both quickly walk out of after looking at the price tags. Yes you had some money but not that much. The 3rd shop was a bit cheaper, it was a bit of a thrift store in a way, returns from other shops that maybe had lost a few beads or had been repaired hung on the walls. 

"So…You trying to look your best tonight?" Lauren asked while you looked at the dresses.

"Just looking to blend in I suppose" you shrugged, watching as she nodded but continued to stare at you from the corner of her eye.

"So you wouldn't be looking for somethin' to catch his eye?" She asked after a moment, causing your head to whip in her direction.

"W-what?" You asked, trying to keep your voice low and even.

"Come off it, I saw the way you stared at what's his name…Ralph, back there. Looked like a deer in the headlights, if the deer was also in love with the car" she smirked before adding.

"Also pretty sure I heard you gasp when you first turned around"

"I….I don't know what you're going on about, I had no such look" you stated, going back to the dress.

"Oh really?" 

"Really" 

"Cause it looked to me like-"

"He had his eye on someone else anyways, now can we please drop it?" You sighed, grabbing a dress and heading to the changing room. Lauren watched you walk away, confused by your reaction, she was only teasing in her own sort of way, but the way you acted…she felt like she was opening an old wound. When you emerged again you were dripping in black and gold, a beaded headpiece around your (h/c) locks and a faux pearl bracelet around your wrist. Mary Janes adored your feet and as you looked at yourself in the mirror you truly felt like you were living your Great Gatsby fantasy.

"Whoa" Lauren said behind you.

"Good Whoa or Bad Whoa?" You asked, teeth worrying your bottom lip.

"Good Whoa" she smiled, causing you to sigh, before you grabbed your bag that was now filled with your old clothes and walked to the cashier, handing her the money, very glad you had exchanged your Dollars for Pounds. 

After shopping the two of you met up with Horace and Jason again, walking around the town for a bit before heading to the party. A party that you were both looking forward to and dreading. Once there you were shocked by the amount of people already there, and the amount of alcohol. You watched as the three of your friends drank from the bottle, you yourself sipping from your cup, before Jason noticed something, tapping Lauren on the arm.

"Someone's got an admirer." He nodded towards a table, you all looked over and noticed Ralph, his eyes raking over Lauren as he smiled at her.

"I'm guessing he's gonna be pretty pissed off when he finds out you're a girl." Jason joked

"Yeah, well I'm guessing Victoria's gonna be pretty pissed when she finds out you're a girl." Lauren replied, her eyes looking over to find you, your front facing the bar, your back to Ralph as you drank your drink. She looked back at Ralph, noticing that his eyes were on you, eyebrows furrowed before he caught her gaze, smiling again. The rest of the night was a whirlwind, first there was trying to stall hoping Nick would show up, then Jason almost started up with how it was now a Trio, the Wu-tang clan, before Nick actually showed up and they played their asses off. You couldn't help but actually enjoy yourself, the alcohol in your system mixing with the good music made it easier as you danced with random men and women. But all nights had to come to an end, and so soon while you were gathering round with your friends and smiling, Victoria and Ralph appeared.

"Such a giddy-making delight of a night, all thanks to you gentlemen." She smiled, before looking at the boys.

"Now, who would like a dance with the birthday girl?" She asked, Horace started to raise his hand before Jason pushed it down.

"I thought you'd never ask." He smiled and left with her. 

"And what about the birthday boy?" Ralph asked, and your eyes met Lauren's.

"Oh, I'm not-" Horace started but Ralph cut him off.

"Oh no, I was talking to that-,This one-, particular one of you." He gestured to Lauren before asking her directly.

"Would you?" She looked over at you once more, unsure of what to do, and noticed Ralph turn his head to look at you as well, seemingly following Lauren's gaze. You smiled, hoping it was a happy and reassuring smile, but the look on her face said that the disappointment showed through. But she still sighed, looked at Ralph and nodded.

"Yeah, go on then". You watched them head to the dance floor, Ralph looking especially excited while Lauren looked uneasy.

"Oi, you alright?" Horace asked, looking over at you.

"Me? On yeah I'm fine" you waved him off, going back to your drink.

"You sure, you look….sad" 

"No I'm fine, just a bit tired is all" you lied, and from the look on his face, he didn't buy it.

"Right come on then" he stated, putting your drink down and grabbing your hand.

"Excuse you sir" you laughed.

"Nope, don't even try it, no friend of mine is going to be looking like the girl who didn't get asked to prom" he smiled, you knew his comment was supposed to cheer you up but he didn't have to hit home like that.

"Thank you?" You questioned as the two of you started dancing. 

You couldn't help the glances over to Lauren and Ralph, glances you thought were sneaky…guess you thought wrong"

"You fancy him?"

"What?" 

"You do" Horace smiled

"I don't know what you're talking about" you stated, slightly glaring at your friend.

"You find him proper fit yeah?" 

"Horace please" you begged

"I'm not gonna tell, everyone has their types" he smiled.

"His is Lauren" you muttered, but he was close enough to catch it.

"So that's what's got you so down" he spoke, making you look at him.

"Don't let one fish ruin the sea for you"

"It isn't just one fish though" you sighed, jumping slightly when Lauren's voice was beside you.

"Why don't we switch partners, make the evening even more fun" she smiled an uneasy smile at you, Ralph behind her looking confused as she took your hands from Horace and replaced them with her own, both of them trying not to grimace at the weird action for them both. 

"Oh..um.." you stood, mouth opening and closing as they danced away, you slowly turned and were met with those same eyes that made your entire world melt away just this morning.

"Shall we then?" He asked after a moment.

"Oh..yes…sure" you gave a shy smile, placing one hand on his shoulder and holding his other, your breath catching in your throat when his hand rested on your waist. The two of you slowly swayed to the music, your eyes darting between his gaze and anywhere else, afraid if you stared too long you may get lost in those brown puppy dog eyes. It really should have been illegal for someone to look this beautiful. But a distinct tapping sound brought you out of your thoughts and as you slowly identified the sound you couldn't help the giggle.

"Are you wearing tap shoes?"

"Yes, aren't they wizard!" He smiled excitedly, his eyes twinkling just as they had this morning. And you couldn't stop the smile that reached your lips at the sight.

"Very, if I knew tap shoes were allowed I would have brought some, they make dancing more fun" you laughed, causing him to smile even brighter at you. 

"Oh do they, tonight has been the best birthday" he replied, and you nodded, because it really had been a good night.

"I'm glad you had fun Ralphie, happy birthday" you smiled, and watched as his face slowly morphed from excited to shocked, making your smile drop to a confused expression.

"Ralphie?" He questioned, causing your eyes to go wide as you quickly tried to come up with something, how could you do that? How could you slip up and give him a nickname the day you met him?! And not just any nickname, but one that sounds like it would be said by a lover! You wracked your brain for something, completely missing the blush that had spread on his cheeks from the nickname as he replayed it again and again in his head.

'Ralphie…Ralphie' he loved the sound of it, or maybe he loved the sound of you saying it with such affection, his mind playing him small movies, you sitting next to him, his head in your lap as he played his ukulele, you smiling down at him, playing with his hair as he sung…You curled up in his arms as he read you his favorite book, both of you comfortable under his sheets before you would drift off for the night…You atop him…your dress slowly sliding off your shoulder, your head thrown back and mouth open as you repeated that name…his na-

"I'm so sorry, I forgot that some people don't like nicknames, I tend to give them without thinking, I really am sorry" you settled on your excuse, watching as he blinked repeatedly, seemingly coming out of his thoughts.

"That's um" he cleared his throat.

"That's quite alright, you just caught me unaware, I'm not used to being called such…simply Ralph" he replied, finally meeting your eyes again, and you noticed his pupils were a little blown. 

"Sorry, I'll just stick to Ralph" you tried to laugh it off but he quickly cut you off"

"I like Ralphie.

Chapter 1 done!! Let me know what you think!

Also let me know if you'd like to be added to the taglist.

Taglist

@quirkyquartney

@the-a-word-2214

@no-mercy-bby

Your dress

[sirfrogsworth]

Looking Forward

If I trust my brother... and he did my dad's will properly... and set up my trust correctly... then I should be able to stay in the house for roughly 2 years.

If I trust my brother.

Then I can either sell the house and use that money for a small apartment or try to find a roommate situation to help me stay in the house a little longer. The nice thing about paying the mortgage is I can get most of that money back if I ever do sell the house. It's almost like a savings account with all my stuff inside.

Let's just hope the property value doesn't plummet for some reason. Though it has been around the same amount for many years.

I like living in my house. It's what I've known for 30 years. But being alone in the house is going to be a hard adjustment. After two years (or sooner) I may want to move near Katrina or Delling so I am closer to a support system. I wish we could all live next door to each other. Or live on a farm/ranch situation. And instead of chickens it is just a bunch of free range corgis.

I tried convincing Katrina to build a pool house, but she has a small backyard and no pool. HOWEVER... Apparently Florida has a lot of "mother-in-law suites." I had no idea that had a name, but I could be Katrina's mother-in-law. I have the skill set to guilt trip, make passive-aggressive comments, and judge how she raises her future kids. (And any other outdated stereotypes I've learned from 80s comedians.)

But I also like the idea of having a roommate. I could accommodate a single person or a small family. And I'd love to have an animal of some kind around. We have a huge fenced-in area left over from Otis.

I think I could offer someone a pretty sweet living situation. I have a full basement apartment that I reside in and so the entire upstairs is available for people to live in. I could charge cheaper rent than a cheap apartment in exchange for helping with chores that I struggle to do.

There is plenty of furniture and appliances ready to use. Full laundry room. I've got a really nice home theater in the living room so they can watch movies in style. I also have a few hundred TV series and several thousand movies on Plex. They get a full kitchen and bathroom to themselves. Plenty of garage space and a long driveway to park vehicles. They can have up to 5 rooms to do whatever in. They could do 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a small den area. My mom liked the den because she could watch her Judge Judy shows while my dad watched JAG in the living room.

If they don't have a family, they could convert 2 of the bedrooms into office space or craft rooms or S&M dungeons. They can decorate any way they'd like. But they have to keep the sex swing clean so I can use it. Not for sex--I just enjoy centripetal forces. And they'll have great privacy as I will be in the downstairs apartment. They'd only see me if I exit the house or if they invite me to dinner or movie night.

All they would have to pay is whatever I can't cover. I'd estimate in the $600-$800 range once the trust fund runs out. Plus the chores like cleaning and yard duty. That's a good deal, right?

The only downside is the house is in a deteriorating neighborhood. Businesses are closing and people are moving away. Our street is pretty isolated so there isn't much danger or crime. But we are adjacent to a dangerous neighborhood and the schools aren't great. That said, while there isn't much around here, in St. Louis you are always ~25 minutes from anything you need. The highway is literally down the street so driving to anywhere is fairly hassle free.

Also, I'd be happy to lend out the car for transport to a job. I'll only need it to get groceries every few weeks. They'd have to get added to my insurance and help with gas and maintenance.

Soooo... yeah, I think I have a lot to offer with my house.

They do have to be okay with my big subwoofer rattling things. The sound doesn't really travel through the floor, but the vibrations can. I can tone it down if they are sleeping though.

Oh! We also have a huge workshop on the property too. It could be used for working on cars or woodworking or an art space. It has electricity, lighting, heating and is perfect for anything that requires getting dirty. If that makes sense.

One idea I have been considering is seeking out an unhoused queer individual who was kicked out or is struggling to afford a decent place. If their parents don't want them, maybe I could provide a safe place. Things are so scary for LGBTQ+ folks right now. Especially in Missouri. St. Louis is a pretty blue city, but Missouri is a blood red state. If I could do something small for someone like that, I would be happy to help. Could be mutually beneficial.

So those are all of my thoughts and ideas as of now.

Again, if I trust my brother, I should have a decent amount of time to figure things out.

If things go sideways, I might be screwed.

So far he seems to be doing all the things he should be doing to get me sorted.

I'm going to choose to trust him.

With my life.

Oof.

[lululawrence]

Back after two years, what have I missed? Is there a master list? I’m having trouble trying to figure out what’s been happening with Harry and Lou. Agh!

oh friend lmaooooo i don't know of a masterpost or anything that exists for the past two years. i don't know of anything that even summarizes the past few MONTHS lollll phew... okay listen. i'm gonna try to summarize and like... gloss over a lot of stuff while still pointing out the important stuff, but i will inevitably miss things so please don't think this is like the end all hahaha

okay. this gets long, so almost all of it is below the cut for obvious reasons. here goes!

2020

January • walls promo continues and ramps up • walls is released

February-March • louis continues to do promo leading up to tour starting • harry performs at the brits • harry films a couple music videos • falling is released as a single • louis gets to do the first two shows on his tour (madrid and barcelona) before tour shuts down

April-June • both lay pretty low outside of the sourdough bros (or something like that? i honestly missed this when it happened lol) and louis tweeting about people keeping safe • watermelon sugar is released and almost immediately begins to take over the world thanks to tiktok lol • we learn from interviews that harry got "stuck" in la during lockdown • we see louis and harry for the first time in photos of them attending BLM protest marches in la and london respectively

July-Octoberish • 1d 10 year anniversary comes and goes with... pretty much zero fanfare other than some spotify playlists lol • louis is seen in london with jeremy joseph who does his merch appaz (and who has a twin who just HAPPENS to head universal music uk lmao the confusion was large and funny), which i'm mainly mentioning because it was our first glimpse of him with long hair and it was glorious. lol listen it was a rough time, okay? we got our highlights where we could lol • louis announces he's leaving syco and it seems the entire industry who has ever had any contact with louis before celebrates (i'm not kidding, the sheer number of tweets were insane) • harry drives to italy with a full on 80s style mustache. yes that's big enough for me to include in this, thank you lol • harry films the music video for golden and gets papped a lot while there • things go back to being pretty quiet outside of the odd tweet here and there as well as the odd sighting of them in various places • rumors start surfacing about harry acting in a couple of movies, one a film with florence pugh and chris pine directed by olivia wilde and the other a film about a closeted gay policeman... i'm sure you know where this is going lol • i think golden was released as a single in here somewhere as well but i don't remember the exact timing lol

November-December • filming for dwd starts somewhere around this time • as to rumors about olivia and harry... and this is about all i'll say about this other than big happenings lol • louis announces his livestream and who all the proceeds of the merch and the livestream will benefit • he cuts his gorgeous long hair before the livestream, which was very rude, but it was still longer so i won't complain too much • his livestream ends up being the most streamed male solo concert up to that point, he might still hold this record? i haven't kept up on that tbh

2021

January-March • harry releases tpwk as a single with an excellent music video featuring phoebe waller-bridge • filming continues for harry and things do wrap up for dwd • harry opens the fucking GRAMMYS and then WINS ONE, all while donning the most fabulous boas known to man • we continue to get random sightings of both of them in various public spaces, with masks sometimes being worn. sigh. • louis starts with his cryptic 369 and faith in the future tweets

April-July • louis starts really ramping up his social media usage compared to what it had been • he is also seen traveling quite a bit with the most GLORIOUS long hair *cries in long hair louis* that said, we were really wanting to know what he was doing because he had charlie lightening following him everywhere • harry also started filming my policeman and the on set photos were *chef's kiss* • rumors have been heard off and on about harry possibly doing a marvel film and started around the same time as the rumors about dwd, but they really start picking up again around this time and everything points to the eternals • louis is seen EVERYWHERE enjoying the euros as well as nizam's wedding celebrations and he let his long hair flow in the wind and it's just so wonderful • he also did a fun video to help with marcus rashford's charity to help feed kids in the uk and teach them how to cook... louis is even more disastrous than i thought he would be lol • harry and olivia have that super private yacht time in italy making everyone rue the day yachts were invented for the gazillionth time in this fandom • louis also announces he is putting on a festival! the away from home festival with bilk and the snuts and it's free and entirely organized by him and it's a lottery system and i still cannot believe how amazing he is? • harry announces he will be keeping his dates in the us for the fall and calls it love on tour 2021

August-December • the festival has a livestream associated with it as well as a documentary all about louis coming up with the idea, organizing it, planning it, prepping for it, etc • we learn the eternals thing is legit and the photos start coming in proving he did this back in december 2019 and we didn't have a clue?? some secrets can be kept apparently lol • harry is seen outside a studio with mitch... recording hs3?? lol • harry kicks off tour in the us and teases us the entire time, only playing tbsl at the second night in the same city and medicine only for even MORE special shows lol • harry blows our minds at harryween, coming out dressed as dorothrry and a clown, proving to us once again he loves to leave us hints and clues we will never learn about until sometimes months later • i should mention that he gets increasingly saucy during tour and mentions edging? repeatedly? lol just a side note • louis talks about writing and being so excited for tour, but it still doesn't feel like it will really happen this time • louis turns 30!!! • harry announces love on tour 2022, at least in part

2022

January-February • louis preps and posts about being so hyped for tour and it is actually happening after TWO YEARS • louis' tour kicks off in the us and it somehow becomes a pride on tour, it's just incredible • rumors had been going about a single from harry in the first quarter, but nothing had really picked up or pointed to that as of yet, so we were just kinda... waiting to see what might happen

March-now • louis' tour continues, finishing up in the us and moving to europe • this weird account on twitter and instagram pops up called simply you are home, and these weird ads pointing to an empty website begin to pop up in various papers and magazines worldwide... i'm assuming you know what has happened since then lol • but the thing is, louis was already going hard with the larry shit on tour, but he goes CRAZY with the coincidences that just happen to keep pointing to or parallels harry/harry's music promo • and then harry seems to almost respond in kind, and it becomes a weird back and forth that we're still watching play out and it's kinda disgusting tbh lmao • harry announces he's headlining coachella!!! and later it's also announced he'll be performing at big weekend (radio 1) and the summertime ball (capital fm) as well • louis is also announced to be performing at a good handful of festivals around europe this summer as well! • louis BREAKS HIS FUCKING ELBOW doing sprints with his band after a show lmao

and honestly i'm gonna just stop there, because i feel like everything else from the past couple weeks is just... a lot but also easy to find the info about lmao

and that is what you missed on glee. hahaha

[chibivesicle]

Dunno why you're harping so hard on the "muh mystery" aspect. A feature literally only existent in the 98 anime, because they added a shit ton of filler to make up for so little manga material at the time. The actual source material tells us this is all Knives's fault volume ONE! We know super early on why they're stuck here and who is at fault. The actual mystery the manga and stampede are setting up is not "who did it" but "why did knives do it"

Hello hello,

Yes, I'm one of those people who isn't happy with Stampede revealing a lot of information out from the get go. I 100% admit it. I think that this is going to be an issue for a lot of viewers, especially for people who have a high fondness for Trigun.

I think this comes from a lot of different places and combines in the general feeling of 'meh I don't like this as much'.  I’m surprised how quickly I saw the new series and was like ‘Noooooo!’ but didn’t even know why my immediate reaction was like this. 

1.) What was available at the time you watched the anime. When I watched the anime, it was on a fansub. The DVDs were released between 2000-2001 and the box set at the end of 2001. Therefore, this was all you could go on. If you wanted the manga it wouldn't be out until 2003 via Darkhorse in North America. You could have bought the current tankobons and then found a website where there was a text based translation of the speech bubbles. This was before the common use of fan scan translations. The ability to find a manga before it gets an anime was really freakkin' hard in the 80s and 90s. It was almost the reverse - you'd see the anime and then quest for the manga and hope it got picked up by a publisher who'd then publish it over several years.  They’d only gamble on a title if it already had a strong anime fanbase.

2.) The unique nature of the source material lead to an unusual but clever adaptation of that limited material. Studio Madhouse didn't have enough material for a full 26 episode run. They were brilliant to focus on a new point of view to introduce the viewer to the world. There is nothing wrong with a show that can be episodic, sure, we want stories with a plot driving them forward but episodic shows allow for more character development. The same situation happens, but characters behave differently and Trigun does this well. Having Wolfwood show up and hang out with the group from episodes 9-11 gives him more time to get to know them. The manga has Wolfwood and Vash as close friends, but before the Fifth Moon Incident they only rode on the bus together. Episodes 9-11 gives us more time for them to be dorks together and makes for enjoyable antics. 3.) The air of mystery fits in perfectly with the 'Western' genre. In the classic American Western, you frequently have a drifter who comes into town. He's a skilled gunman who never stays in one place but tries to stand up against injustice against the locals. He might be genuinely good. He may be on a redemption arc. He might be doing this for penance due his past deeds. Hell, he might just be bored.  What he does have is a mysterious past.

Trigun used this concept its advantage for the slow reveal of events. It went for a stronger ‘show, don't tell’ than either the manga or Stampede. Vash looks like a goofball drifter, why isn't he? What type of pain has he been through? How has he survived? This also worked for Wolfwood who won't reveal his full mystery either and the bits here and there in 9-11 add to it.  What is this traveling clergyman doing with a giant 100kg cross that he literally carries? Why would he accept carrying such a cross?  Why would he lie about being able to shoot a gun when he’s excellent at it?

4.) Meryl and Milly vibed with a Western audience more. I'm appalled at how Roberto is currently treating Meryl in the anime. It is setting up a different trope that didn't exist in the original anime or manga. I think a lot of women will not like this as much, the manga didn't have romance since Yasuhiro Nightow said he couldn't write it. But it means that the anime easily passes the Bechdel test which is good for female representation and motivations. I agree with the idea that Meryl and Roberto are written to be a much more culturally Japanese dynamic.  It honestly would make a lot of sense if they are trying to make this more of a domestic success than the original.  We’ll give it the gritty realism of the Japanese office culture!  That will resonate with people!  Maybe this brings in more Japanese women who sympathize exactly with Meryl now? 

I had no idea that Badlands Rumble was released in the States months before Japan.  It seems Trigun is like Escaflowne.  Saw great success outside of Japan but locally was a bit of a flop.  23 year old Meryl is just starting her career, but remember, women over 25 are ‘Christmas Cake’.  Past their best buy date and should be married.  And this is a term that exists in the present, not the past in Japan. 

Other people have hypothesized that Milly was eliminated due to her rare role as a canonically large girl who could take you on.  Other than the fact that she uses a non-lethal weapon, is the youngest child of 10, and the sweetest person ever.  I always loved her dress shirt, tie and suspenders look but it isn’t very ‘cute’ in a moe sense.

5.) Having a fresh comparison of the anime and manga.  With the Stampede hype, I watched the anime.  And then binged the manga.  Overall, I like the anime better.  It is more character driven, the pacing is right and the twists and turns work well.  The only weakness is the manga background lore is lacking but they more than compensated for it for the most part. 

I don’t generalize that I like a series based on a manga that the manga is inherently better than the anime.  Golden Kamuy was an anime that would have benefited from more of the manga chapters included for the first three seasons.  Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood was better with the full background from the manga.  Gintama messed around with content all the time deciding to move plot vs comedy.  Honestly, it always just depends on which one you ultimately prefer.  And I make this on a series by series basis.

6.) The power of nostalgia and a less saturated anime environment of the past. Now, you can essentially watch anime every day or read current manga for an entire year and not overlap with series other people are reading.  The 80s, 90s and very early 2000s were a sparse anime/manga ecosystem.  The internet wasn’t quite at your fingertips.  This then resulted in a more cohesive fanbase.  You all saw the same things due to limited titles to choose from.  Distributors in the States leaned hard into releasing more obscure OVAs since they were cost effective.  OVAs had more adult content than conventional titles so a bunch of us were exposed to some rather mature things likely before we should have.  A lot of 90s anime had that gritty feeling which I don’t think was an accurate representation for it across the board in the 90s but what made it internationally.  The first con I went to was full of Deedlit cosplayers. Why?  You could rent Record of Lodoss War at Blockbuster and it was a well known fantasy anime with a hot elf chick.  The hardcore people were the Inuyasha and Utena cosplayers since they’d not had a domestic release yet and were fansub/text only translation at the time.

With less titles to choose from, you spent more time on the limited series and really dug into them.  Thus, to the western fanbase, Trigun has risen to an important point on a lot of people’s lists.  Or it was the introduction to anime for a lot of people when my introduction had been series like Macross/Voltron/Sailor Moon/Ranma 1/2.  Were these ‘pure’ versions - nope but it was what slowly sucked me into more series. 

This also means that in this supersaturated environment, there is more competition for eyeballs.  Do you want to reboot a series that had modest niche success in Japan that was a blockbuster hit in the States?  You have the advantage of the series being complete now; you can draw from all the source material.  But it is a product of its time and the look can be easily dated to the mid-late 90s. 

There are two ways you go with this.  1.) The CLAMP approach - who cares about current styles and trends, we are gonna keep our chara design pretty standard for the original and that will give us our visual advantage.  2.) Adapt it to the current look - which I think is a gamble.  You lose your visual pop factor by making it look more current but it would appear how current series look so people might be willing to give it a shot not knowing the source material. 

With such high saturation, you end up with so many series with characters that all look similar.  I find this to make it hard to distinguish the isekai/fantasy/school set series and they just keep coming out.  I’ll watch a new anime and be like, ‘It was fine.’  but it will quickly blur into the next series that was just as ‘fine’ as that last one. 

In conclusion, I think all of these factors and likely more are why many fans who watched the original anime (and may have even read and enjoyed the manga as well) are so bummed out by this choice to put so many things up front.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that they will have time to fit in more characters and they may instead be swapping out characters for manga specific ones that weren’t written yet and dropping other manga and anime ones.  I have a gut feeling Midvalley will not appear.  If he does, I will be pleasantly surprised.

I think the reason why so many people love the slow reveal is that it rewards you for your time getting to know Vash.  And with other characters meeting him and wondering why he’s so weird it helps you to focus on it as well before the reveal of his origin.  From a narrative perspective it worked well and I think that contributed to why so many people love the anime and are fine with it if it was the only Trigun media they knew.

[therosebunpost]

FOR MY FIRST POST

I was inspired by all the Older!Eddie content thats been running around (my god, I love that man-)

So, this is gonna be suggestive in places, so if your under 18, DNI! Also, theres a bit of a dark twist, so please be aware of the tags!

But basically, its the 90s and you’re a young 20 something who lives in their Van. Maybe you run a blog, or just have very rich parents who don’t care what you do with their money as long as it doesn’t ‘stain their reputation’. Either way, you’re traveling around until you end up in Hawkins. The place where theres been a bunch of spooky shit that happened in the 80s, so you just HAVE to check it out. Plus, maybe you aren’t very good at Van maintenance, so your van just up and died on you. So you have to stay in the trailer park while you try and find someone who can fix it. Maybe on top of that, you can’t reach your parents as quickly, so you’re low on cash too. (I’m envisioning you take a lot of inspo from the 60s-70s. Flower child vibes and all)

In comes Mr. Munson. I’m thinking maybe in his 30s, who is known to help out with cars in the trailer park. The thing is, you gotta barter for it since you don’t have a lot of money. So there you are, doing chores for him. Making him food, tidying things, and of course, constantly asking him about the events of the town. You’ve seen the scars on his body. The occasional sneak peak when he’s changing out of his work clothes, or that one time you accidentally walked in on him when he was running around naked. Frantically getting ready for some thing he’s got going on. “A show.” He grunts at you later as he comes out of his bedroom, embarrassed but dressed. He knows he’s getting older. Knows that he shouldn’t care what someone like you thinks of him, but what he doesn’t know is that the sight of him comes up in your dreams. You really like Mr.Munson, Eddie as he often insists you call him.

You like him more when you actually see what ‘show’ he’s talking about. Explosive and electric, you cant help but wonder why he’s here. Why he isn’t up on some stage, rocking out with the best of them. You tell him as much, and you ride the high of his flustered smile all day long.

It doesn’t even phase you that it’s been a month since you came to Hawkins. That your parents still haven’t contacted you back about the money you need to be able to leave. The mail was slow, and it wasn’t like they were home a lot anyway. They’ll get to you at some point, you weren’t worried. How could you be, when the trailer park felt more like home with each day that passed? Sure, it wasn’t like your old life, but you liked the people. Liked the community of it. Hell, even the other residence of Hawkins weren’t bad either.

You meet the others. Steve, Robin, Nancy, Jonathan. You see how much they care about the gaggle of young adults who seem to follow them around. Yet, you notice something else too. The look in their eyes when you mention looking into the History of Hawkins. The way Nancy’s eyes flit up stairs, as if mentally checking to make sure something’s there. The subtle tensing of Steve’s jaw. The way Dustin rubs at his leg, which he limps on every so often. The dimness in Jane’s and Will’s eyes.

You dont bring it up anymore. You still look, sure, but it’s not as frequent. Just the occasional muse through different articles, when you have a minute alone. It’s rare though, when that happens. Between hanging out with Dustin and the gang, to making sure Mr. Munson Eddie, eats something decent, you don’t feel inclined to chase ghost stories. To believe rumors, especially from certain Hawkins residents.

Not when your chasing something else now.

You really like Eddie. He’s sweet, and kind even if he had a bit of a grumpy streak. Fair in all your dealings, sometimes even throwing in some free weed that you guys end up smoking in your van. He really likes you too, you’re so certain of it. It’s hard not to catch that vibe when his gaze lingers just a bit too long, or when you both sit just a bit too close to each other. When his voice goes all low, and smokey as he talks to you. When your laid back against the pillows of your pull out bed, the twinkling fairy lights dazzling due to the weed, and he lets his hand graze along your arm. You wish he’d touch you more. Sure, you were glad he was respectful with you. Following your lead when it came to contact, but just once you wish he’d just make a move.

Eddie wishes he could too. He thinks about it all the time. What it’d be like to kiss you, to hold you against him, to let his fingers run through your hair…but then things take a turn that he’ll never forgive himself for. He only lets himself think about it in the dark of night, as he buries another lifeless animal in the backyard. What would your blood taste like? Sweet? A little salty? Tangy like a fresh fruit? His fangs burn with it, that desire to sink them inside. When you curl against his chest in your van, hidden from the world, he’s glad that the weed seems to settle him. To fill him with lead, so he doesn’t spring at the pulse of your heartbeat.

He hates himself for it. Hates himself, so much, but he cant just distance himself from you either. So, he stays where he is. Letting you initiate things, but never letting himself have that freedom. He knows you like him, and knows that if things were different, you might just be perfect for him. You are perfect, and thats why he can’t let himself tell you how he feels. He’d never, ever forgive himself if it was you he had to bury next.

[canmom]

Animation Night 125: Peter Chung

[Animation Night archive]

Hiii everyone, it’s Thursday! And it’s a multiple of 5, which means it’s time for something ‘big’. Which is to say... full circle back to the creator whose Aeon Flux started this whole thing, Peter Chung~... one of my favourite directors.

^ me setting up an Animation Night...

But! We’re not here to watch Aeon Flux again this time! [Though if you wanna read about Aeon Flux, go check out Animation Night 52]. We’re here to watch the other works of Peter Chung! Such as Alexander Senki aka Reign: the Conqueror...

You see, Peter Chung is one of the few people to have the experience of directing both anime and western animation. The insights this gave him, related once upon a time on the anipages forums, were one of the seeds of what would become the ‘sakuga fandom’.

But let’s start at the beginning. Here’s a picture of Chung via imdb...

He was born in Seoul in 1961, the son of a guy in the foreign service, which meant his childhood was spent travelling all over the world (Wikipedia lists Seoul, London, Nairobi, Washington, D.C., New York and Tunis). Eventually they settled down to migrate to the USA, in Virginia. I’m not exactly sure when Chung got the animation bug, but it was early enough to send him to CalArts, where he attended their experimental animation program.

At age 18, he graduated CalArts joined the animation industry, working for the Spanish painter Salvador Bru. You can see some of Bru’s abstract paintings here; I haven’t been able to track down any of his work in animation. In any case, within a year Chung landed at Hanna-Barbera, working on character design, and also working with Ralph Bakshi [Animation Night 63] on layouts for his barbarian movie Fire and Ice (1983).

At this point he apparently got scouted by Didney for feature development, although which features he may have developed is not entirely clear. He also has layout and art direction credits for a couple of franchise works from this mid-80s period, such as The Transformers (1984, animation outsourced to Toei) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987, animated at an American studio then called Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, now Fred Wolf Films), and some less well remembered ones such as C.O.P.S., a bizarre animated spinoff of a reality show following cops on the job, and Ring Raiders, a toyline-driven show promoting toy aeroplanes.

Chung’s major break came, so far as I can tell, when he designed the characters for the inaugral Nickoledeon show Rugrats (see Animation Night 31 when we watched the Hanukkah episode), in which a group of children play in elaborate fantasy worlds. The show was a huge hit, although it was still a few years until Chung got the opportunity to create something purely according to his vision in Aeon Flux. In the intervening period he got to work on the post-apocalyptic superhero show Phantom 2040 (1994), once again on character design.

Then came Liquid Television, and Aeon Flux. Aeon Flux stood out amidst Liquid Television because its animation could easily have belonged a mainstream show... if it wasn’t horny philosophical science fiction, heavy on ambiguity. But by the same token, it’s specificity won a lot of die-hard fans (like me).

Since there are a number of interviews out there, let’s get some of Chung’s own words on what went into it...

O: You tend to broadly exaggerate your characters' physical characteristics, especially their height and their musculature—is there any particular symbolic or aesthetic reason?

PC: That's a hard thing for an artist to try to analyze. I could kind of try to pick it apart, but the simple truth is, that's the way I draw. I mean, I can tell you about my influences—my favorite artist is Egon Schiele, the German Expressionist. If you look at his drawings, they're very economical, very expressive. The first time I saw them, I thought they were perfect for animation. So I did make a conscious effort to try and adapt that approach to drawing. The other thing is… I was going for a style, when I was doing Aeon Flux, that was much more dependent on expressive drawing as opposed to lots of surface detail. In Japanese productions, they like to put a lot of highlights and shadows on things, to make things look very rendered. Each drawing has to stand out individually as an illustration. Having been trained in American animation, I wanted to have characters that were very realistic, but not so loaded with detail that they were going to be hard to move.

O: Your characters, both in Aeon Flux and in Reign, tend to dress in a way that's half formalized costume, half fetish gear. They often don't wear much, and what they wear is elaborate and stylized. What are your fashion influences?

PC: Well, I struggled a lot, when I was doing Aeon Flux, with how far to push the costumes, and how realistic to make them. I think a lot of illustrators realize—and you see this a lot in American comics as well—that if you draw costumes realistically, it's very difficult. You end up spending all your time trying to create believable drapery. So the tendency is to draw skin-tight costumes that mold around the body. This allows you to use the body more. You see this with classical sculpture, and dancers. You try to use the expressive qualities of the human body more—that's why sculptors prefer to work with nudes, as opposed to trying to make the clothing look accurate. Otherwise you end up concentrating on the clothing and not the person. The same is true with animation—I think of my animated characters as dancers. I want to be able to use body language as much as possible.

Chung’s comments here are interesting, in that his talk of forgoing highlights reminds me of the kagenashi approach taken by Mamoru Hosoda - in both cases, putting less complexity in the static drawings to allow for more motion, but still strongly influenced by the more solid drawing style of anime instead of the more 2D graphical approach of most American TV animation. Chung’s style of lanky anatomy with exaggerated bumps and details is uinstantly recognisable; only Robert Valley, directly inspired by him, is all that similar within animation.

What about Egon Schiele? Let me show you some of his paintings...

...you can probably see how he influenced Chung! (Expressionism if you’re wondering was a pre-first world war Modernist art movement which responded to naturalism and positivism by emphasising the personal, subjective emotional experience of the world. Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Alongside Schiele the German expressionist, Chung cites a whole lot of influences; lemme pick out some of the ones we’ve talked about on here...

I don't consciously model my style or techniques on any particular body of work.  I try as much as possible to draw from personal experience and observation.  I'm inspired by the work of other artists, mostly because they show me how good it's possible to be at practicing one's craft.  They would include, in no special order:

David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Alexandro Jodorowsky [Toku Tuesday 27], Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Resnais, Jean Cocteau, Allain Robbe-Grillet, Seijun Suzuki,

Osamu Dezaki [Animation Night 95], Yoshiaki Kawajiri [Animation Night 25, Animation Night 67], Yoshinori Kanada [Animation Night 62], Moebius [Animation Night 71], Kazuo Umezu [author of The Drifting Classroom, whose adaptation we watched on Toku Tuesday 19],

Egon Schiele, Horst Janssen, Frank Lloyd Wright, among others.

On comics, he’s pretty down on the state of the American industry, describing it as largely divided between heavy-handed narration where the illustrations feel gratuitous, and artistic flexes with weak story. He describes his aspiration to communicate the feelings of the characters visually, without being heavy-handed. So while I’m citing influences, lemme pull up Peter Chung’s favourite comics...

 Here is a list of my personal favorite comics stories in no particular  order. My choices are based as much on mastery of narrative form, as on  originality of conception. Each of them appear to have been impelled by  an inner vision; they are not comics inspired by other comics, but rather  by dreams, obsessions, yearnings. 

1. Baptism, Makoto-chan, Fourteen by Kazuo Umezu  2. Savannah by Sanpei Shirato  3. Mighty Atom, No-man, Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka  4. The New Gods by Jack Kirby  5. The Airtight Garage, Arzach by Moebius  6. The Incal Saga by Moebius and Jodorowsky  7. The Tower, The Hollow Earth Series by Schuiten and Peeters  8. The Jealous God, Envie de Chien by Cadelo  9. Be Free! by Tatsuya Egawa  10. Hard-Boiled by Geof Darrow and Frank Miller

I love Aeon Flux, but I’ve talked at length about it in the past, so let’s not spend too long on it here, since tonight the focus is on what came next!

In 1998-9, four years after Aeon Flux, Chung got his chance to work in anime - and not only work in anime but on a series co-directed by Rintaro (Animation Night 53, AN 62, AN 67).

So. Alexander Senki began life as a series of light novels by Hiroshi Aramata, a prolific and widely talented natural history researcher and novellist known otherwise for the occultist historical fantasy novel Teito Monogatari. Alexander Senki tell the story of Alexander the Great, but projected into a futuristic scifi setting.

For the animated version, Madhouse went for an international approach, and invited Chung to come in and design the characters and settings for a 13-episode TV anime, later compiled into a 90-minute film. Much of the animation was outsourced to the Korean studio DR Movie - one you’ll see frequently in the credits of recent anime, but I believe this was more novel at the time.

Chung commented on the experience in the above interview...

Peter Chung: There are many ways I could answer [what it’s like to put a particular stamp on a work he’s not directing], I suppose. In this particular case, it was different from a lot of other shows I've worked on as a designer. I've done a lot of work in the U.S. as a character designer, but in Japan, it's much more of an auteur role, where they really want your individual style on a project. In the U.S., it's much more collaborative. What was good about Reign was that they really liked the idea of things having an eccentric, personal style. And for me, that was great. A lot of that has to do, usually, in animation, with the ability of the animators to adapt to the drawing style of the designer, and they did a very good job, they tried very hard, to follow my original drawings. Whereas often, in American productions, they will try to simplify or adapt a designer's drawings to what the animators can draw.

O: Do you prefer the auteur method over working collaboratively?

PC: Well, as a designer, I like having the freedom and the license to design the way I want. So for me, working with the Japanese is better, at least from a designer's point of view. Now, working from the point of view of an animator, I think the animators had a lot of difficulty adapting to my style.

Animation-wise, Alexander Senki draws on the familiar techniques of Madhouse’s OVAs: limited animation and multiplane effects with moments of more complex animation. But Chung’s character and environment designs give it a particular flavour that makes it feel very different to most Madhouse works, really underlining the significance of a character designer to a project. The result, which takes a wander through the story of Alexander with a lot of philosophical musing was... polarising, but if you like Chung’s style, very appealing.

Since I cannot find the movie and it’s said to cut too much anyway, tonight my plan is to show 3-4 episodes of Alexander Senki - enough to give a taste. Because then the question is, what did Chung do next? He got a little more anime work, animating the credits to Party 7 - a live action comedy film which also Takeshi Koike on the map for its title sequence. Years later, Koike would make a spectacular tribute to Aeon Flux as an ad for the cancelled computer game...

And then we get the third entry in the ‘Aeon Fluxlike’ canon: Chung directed a segment of the Animatrix (Animation Night 6, long overdue for a rewrite though!). This was his first time working with significant CG - something he found a much more fluid process than traditional animation - and he was brimming with ideas, many of which ended up cut. Nevertheless, his entry is effective - pretty much just ‘what if Aeon Flux but the Matrix’, featuring a machine in a virtual environment designed to persuade it to defect. Chung says...

I mean, how many variations can you do on the story of someone suspecting that he's living in a simulation, then waking up?  I decided to take a radically different approach and view the world from the point of view of the machines.  After all, a robot would be more susceptible to delusion than a human.  Also, I wanted to show that the human mind is just as capable of creating a rich and seductive dream world as a computer is. 

And after these three splendid creations, what did Chung do next? I think most people if asked would draw a blank, since he kind of fell off the radar. Aeon Flux was adapted into a feature-length movie, originally described as more of an art film by director Karyn Kusama, but it was taken out of her hands and heavily re-edited by the studio into a very generic sci-fi action movie. Chung had little involvement, and was heartbroken at the result:

With apologies to both Phil and Matt-- who have publicly been effusive in their praise for the show-- the movie is a travesty.  I was unhappy when I read the script four years ago;  seeing it projected larger than life in a crowded theatre made me feel helpless, humiliated and sad. (...)  I know that the studio made a lot of cuts against the wishes of the writers and director. Most of the cuts concerned further development of the secondary characters.  Since my main problems are with the portrayal of Aeon and Trevor, I doubt that I'd have liked the longer version much better. I didn't when I read the script, and there are definitely some things I'm glad WERE cut-- like Catherine's pregnancy.   Maybe the makers didn't understand the source material and thought they were being true to it; or they understood it, but didn't think it would appeal to a wide enough audience and altered it to suit their presumed target.  They claim to love the original version;  yet they do not extend that faith to their audience. No, they will soften it for the public, which isn't hip enough to appreciate the raw, pure, unadulterated source like they do.  (...) Presuming to know what an audience wants to see and tailoring the product to fit is a method that sucks all the drive I'd have to ever create anything.  It's self-defeating disingenuous.  I'm not naive about the realities of making unconventional films in the arena of "mass entertainment". It's possible to make good unconventional films; it's also very hard. In any case, if you're going to risk failure, I say do it boldly, with conviction. The problem with the movie is its failure of nerve.

But Chung never seems to have gotten the chance to direct a wholly original project again. The remainder of his work is adaptations or franchise work, with various big productions reaching out to him to put a stylish auteur’s spin on their IP.

The first of these is a short film bridging the gaps between the two Riddick movies.

Riddick? Riddick is a series of sci-fi action movies featuring Vin Diesel as a space criminal. I admit, I haven’t seen them! They weren’t especially successful at the time, but became cult films, kind of present in nerd culture back in the 2000s... and kind of forgotten since. The first movie, Pitch Black, sees Riddick and co on a pilgrim ship which crash lands on an alien planet, where they have to survive. The second, The Chronicles of Riddick, opens with Riddick in hiding from bounty hunters. However did he get there? Telling us is Chung’s job!

The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is a 35 minute short animated film, created at Universal Animation Studios, which specialise in direct-to-video films. This was the first time that Chung worked with Robert Valley, who would later become well known for his two films in Love Death and Robots (Animation Night 99); fortunately this being a franchise entry does not overwrite that distinctive Chung/Valley style, as seen in this distinctive fight scene animated along with Jorden Oliwa and Lee Hong. It’s full of cool distorted perspectives in the drawings and distinctive layouts.

Chung next appeared three years later, on another franchise spinoff, titled Revisioned: Tomb Raider, a compilation series bringing on a variety of comics artists and writers to put their own spin on the game. This was supposed to be the first in a whole series of Revisioned projects based on games, but in the end it seems only one was ever made. Chung provided designs and scripts for the first three episodes. They’re all available on Youtube, starting here...

Videogame spinoff animations have a curious quality: they tend to have exceptionally lavish animation with all the videogame $$$ coming in, but often feel quite limited by being a promotion - more on that when I talk about Trigger’s Cyberpunk anime sometime soon. I’ll be interested to see how Chung handles this one.

Another three year gap later in 2010 and Chung directs his only feature-length film, Firebreather, adapting an Image comic about teenagers battling kaiju in CG. It sounds honestly... pretty plain by Chung’s standards, without much to distinguish it in either animation or the energy of the story. It seems to have disappeared without really making a splash.

In 2012 comes another brief videogame promotion, this time for Diablo.

In both this and Tomb Raider, Chung seems to have moved away from his earlier unshaded style; this one especially skews much more to ‘Western animation taking after anime’. There is, sadly, very little of that Peter Chung flair to be seen, and honestly I wouldn’t have guessed he was involved: it’s just a string of fight scenes.

The next year, Chung started working as a teacher at USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he remained ever since. It’s not quite the end of his creative output in animation, since he did produce the titles for Victor and Valentino (2019), most likely because the author of the original comic book sees him as a huge influence and asked directly. And that’s it, basically! A complete slice through the creations of the Aeon Flux guy...

What’s the plan tonight? Essentially the cross-section of Peter Chung works presented above: we’ll watch a fair chunk of Alexander Senki, and then have a look at everything since. If people are in the mood we might even rewatch a bit of Aeon Flux!

So! Let’s go! Animation Night 125 will be starting shortly, at https://twitch.tv/canmom - hope to see ya there ^^

[imperiuswrecked]

I’m quite curious, how many children does Comic Namor even have? I read from the Marvel Wiki that he’s got four, but I’m not actually sure of the number since he’s also got children from other continuities.

I’m only asking because MCU Namor calls every Talokanil his child, but considering he’s over 400 years old, I wonder if the MCU actually gives this Namor a biological child/children.

I highly doubt the mcu will give Namor a biological child but I could be wrong. However the way the MCU handles kids of heroes isn't the best, I think only Ant Man's daughter has any actual characterization and isn't like a cameo thing. Tbh I see him saying "child" to every Talokanil as a sorta Leader figure, like, idk how a priest says "child" to people? but for their specific culture.

Comic!Namor from the 616 only had two biological sons within his continuity, not counting AU kids, Event Kids, Future kids. So only sons who actually showed up in the present time.

Kamar - Namor's son from an unnamed Atlantean noblewoman who was murdered. Namor sends the son off into hiding for fear he would be a target next. He appears only during the Sub-Mariner (2007) 6 issue mini series. Namor orders his death for his actions of killing innocents in his war against his father.

And the son of Namor/Abira - He travels from the future to the past to make sure his parents don't choose each other over Atlantis in order to ensure Atlantis's survival. He appears only in Namor: The First Mutant (2010) series. Abira chooses to break up with Namor and become a Logomancer to save Atlantis, and their son ceases to exist.

So both of his sons are dead/never existed in the 616. As I said before Namor has many, so freaking many, a whole freaking lot of AU kids. Maybe someday I will do a list of them whenever I have a free time and energy for it.

The subject of Namor's fertility was a plot point in the 90s, where it was canon he was sterile for a long while until Kamar came around and everyone just ignored that. In the wiki it says "three unnamed children with Marrina" those are The Leviathan Children, they are all dead now, and it was retconned by the 90s they were not Namor/Marrina's kids. I would need to do a longer post to talk about Namor being sterile and those kids because it ties into issues from the 80s comics with Marrina.

But these are my favorite AU kids:

The daughter of Namor/Dorma (I call her Fen ll)

The son of Namor/Amora - Ove

But also I love Neena Frost who is the OC daughter of Namor/Emma Frost, Kris Anka made her but she was never in a comic

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Thank you so much for all your amazing fic recs!! I have an ask - do you know any Johnlock fics where they get off on having people watch them do… things to one another? The longer the better!

Hey Nonny!

Thank you so much for your kind words!!! It means a lot!!!

Nonny, I DO have fics you'll like, and I'll use your ask as a reason to post a Pt 2 list!!

Hope you enjoy what I got for ya! Feel free to add more, my friends, specifically fics that focus on it, rather than as a side thing like my fics are.

VOYEURISM & PUBLIC SEX Pt 2

See also: Accidental Voyeurism & Public Sex

Better Than One by Innerspace (E, 14,760 w || Threesome, Self-cest / Clone Sex, First Time, BJ’s, Power Play, Slight Dub-Con) – Sherlock creates a clone and discovers things about himself and John he never imagined. John is just along for the ride, so to speak. 

Kintsugi by distantstarlight (E, 14,772 w., 1 Ch. || Post S4, Emotional Hurt / Comfort, Regret / Remorse, Loneliness, Separation, Drug Use, Healing, Protective John, Sad Sherlock, Dev. Rel., Complicated Relationships, Love, Angst With Happy Ending, Sherlock is Called Freak, John’s Penance, Voyeurism, Doctor/Caretaker John, Guilty John, Detox, Fingering, Love Confessions, Cuddling, Slight Non-Con Turns Enthusiastic Consent, Virgin Sherlock) – Sherlock Holmes becomes estranged from the man he had once considered his best friend after John lets him down horribly in public. It seems that the world's only consulting detective will be on his own once again...or will he?

Anchor Point by trickybonmot (E, 49,856 w., 80 Ch. || Truman Show AU || Psychological Drama, Suspense, Slow Burn, Dark Characters / Fic, Alternating First/Third Person, Protective John, Anxious/Worried Sherlock, Tender Moments, Love Confessions, Hand/Blow Jobs, Cuddling, Jealous John, First Kiss/Time, Sort-Of Non-Con Voyeurism) – The world tunes in nightly for Sherlock, the ultimate in reality TV: Sherlock Holmes, a real person with a legendary name, unknowingly lives out his life in a staged setting contrived by his brother. Things get complicated when a retired army doctor joins the show to play the part of Sherlock's closest friend. This fic borrows its concept from the 1998 film, the Truman Show. However, you don't need to have any knowledge of the movie to enjoy this story.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by SilentAuror (E, 50,635 w., 1 Ch. || Post-S4/S4 Divergence, Case Fic, For a Case / Reverse Fake-Relationship, Conferences, Marriage Equality, Travelling / New York, Pride, Homophobia, Bottomlock, Marriage Proposal, John POV, Sexuality, Love Confessions, Emotional Love Making, Public Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Passionate Kissing, Needy/Clingy Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Touching / Hand Holding, Bed Sharing, Little Spoon Sherlock, Intense Orgasms) – John and Sherlock go to New York to attend a conference run by the National Defence of Traditional Marriage Coalition in order to investigate the potential bombing of the annual Manhattan Pride parade. As the conference unfolds, John finds himself repulsed by the toxic ideology being presented, which becomes relevent to his own unacknowledged issues and his friendship with Sherlock...

Never Change a Running System by Lorelei_Lee (E, 54,246 w. || Pre-TRF, Romance, Humour, Drama, Sex Toys, Anal, Rimming, Masturbation, Frottage, Blow Jobs, Public Sex, First Kiss / Time, Virgin Sherlock / Loss of Virginity, Accidental Voyeurism, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Experiments, Naive Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock, Possessive Sherlock, Straight With an Exception John, Hand Jobs) – Sherlock discovers his sexuality – with far-reaching consequences for John.

The Thing Is by TSylvestris (E, 56,743 w. || Case Fic, Dev. Rel., Anal/Oral, Blow Jobs, Meddling Mycroft, Drama, Romance, Humour, Casual Encounters, Pining Idiots, Possessive Sherlock, Orgasm Delay, Rough / Alley Sex, Public Sex, John Whump, Drugged John, Emotional Love Making, Awkward Relationship, Marriage of Convenience, Switchlock, BAMF John) – The problem with living with Sherlock, John thought, was that you never, never, ever knew the significance of anything. Like your flatmate's nose buried in your hair. Whilst you're in bed. Part 1 of Nitroglycerine

The Great Sex Olympics of 221B by XistentialAngst (E, 58,611 w. || First Time/Kiss, Experiments / Sexual Experimentations, Multi Pairings, Voyeurism) – John Watson thinks Sherlock Holmes should admit that he, Watson, is more of an expert on sex than Sherlock is. But Sherlock refuses to concede the point. He comes up with an experiment plan that will resolve the issue. The results will determine who wins the prize. But sometimes even the best thought-out scientific study has unexpected consequences.

Being John Watson-ish by elwinglyre (E, 69,902 w., 17 Ch. || Bodysnatcher AU || Author John, Cranky Sherlock, Angst, Sexual Tension, First Kiss / Time, Falling in Love, BAMF John, Past Soldier John, Feelings, Inside Someone’s Brain, Shy Sherlock, Sherlock Loves John, POV Sherlock, Switchlock, Slow Burn, Internal Dialogue, Mental Turmoil) – When consulting detective Sherlock Holmes steps on one toe too many at a crime scene, he's consigned to a desk job in an archaic office on the seventh-and-a-half floor of the New Scotland Yard. It’s in this bleak office that Sherlock discovers a portal into the mind of renowned author John Watson. Grander than his mind palace, this new wonderland affords Sherlock new vistas of experimentation. To learn more about the mystery behind the portal, Sherlock seeks out and befriends Watson. But then it all goes wrong when others find the secret portal door—including the man whose brain he visits.

Two Two One Bravo Baker by abundantlyqueer (E, 114,574 w. || Military AU || Afghanistan, War Story, Thriller) – Captain John Watson of 40 Commando, the Royal Marines, is assigned to protect and assist Sherlock Holmes as he investigates what appears to be a simple war atrocity in Afghanistan. An intense attraction ignites between the two men as they uncover a conspiracy that threatens everything they’ve ever known, but Sherlock is as much hunted as hunter, and everyone close to him is in deadly danger. Can he solve the case in time to save himself and John? Part 1 of Two Two One Bravo Baker Universe

[kaunisbaby]

MÅNESKIN SHOW REPORT NO ONE ASKED FOR TIME 🔥🔥🔥

the gig last night was HUGE 😳 I've never seen anything this big and wow. the band was super good, there were MANY solos (ethan and thomas mostly) and it reminded me a lot of 70s/80s huge rock shows and it really felt like an out of time experience. it was magical.

it was a 80k people show and there was so much variety?? there were children, elderly folks and everything in between. i saw people from austria, germany, spain (and angelina jolie and her daughter were there too 🤨) as well as people coming from all over italy! i also saw people of all styles and subcultures. honestly I'd been scared of feeling out of place because of my style but me and the bff were far from the only metalheads/goth people.

there were pyros and incredible stage lights making all kinds of effects! the giant screens showed the show in a way that i thought was super artistic (??). basically the production was HUGE, I've never seen anything like it, not even when i saw madonna in the 00's.

damiano is a literal god. he has an elegant mannerism when he sings that reminded me of young ville valo a lot which. you know. i like. but at the same time he seems very human and down to earth, a normal guy his age, for example when he went "LMAO look at my armpit hair on the giant screen" while he was talking in between songs. or when he said "now we're gonna show you something for the first time EVER" and obviously the crowd cheered, and he was like "lol i didn't even say what it is, could be the first time hearing thomas burping for all you know."

but it was actually A NEW SONG they were debuting, a ballad in english. it's still only a demo, and it's supposed to be the title track for their new album?? (but I'm not sure I understood that bit correctly).

i cried my eyes out during coraline LOL

ethan is a fucking BEAST (and good looking 😳), his drum solos were fire. victoria is so fucking good at bass and she's actually so damn gorgeous, if i was a teenager who was still searching for her style i swear she would be my main inspiration. thomas is also EXTREMELY good! and damiano holds an insane charisma, his vocals really really on point.

wow i thought this was going to be short because generally when i go to shows i have to travel and i usually go to the venue in the morning, whereas this time it was IN MY CITY and we got to the venue at like 6pm. i gotta say there's something extremely personal about homecoming shows. this is the first time im a fan of a roman artist (much less THIS BIG) so wow it almost felt like a national holiday that they were playing here and i do not feel very patriotic like ever but last night i felt kinda proud of being roman, especially since the venue was this ancient roman site. doesn't get any better than this

it was very tiring and my siblings and i got home at like 2am but it was so worth it! a great great show 🥺💖

[forestlingincorporated]

I wanna talk about Janet Drake

I’m not against exaggeratedly evil versions of Tim’s parents, tbh. It’s fanfiction, if we can depict an Exaggeratedly Good version of Bruce (which we can, and I do, and I love) then we can depict the Drakes as Exaggeratedly Bad. As someone who personally identifies with Tim, and his brand of complicated parental abuse in particular, I find it cathartic to uncomplicate that abuse and rescue him from the Obviously Evil Bad People. 

That said, since much of comics lore is passed down word of mouth, the oral tradition surrounding Tim has developed this idea of Janet as The Worse Parent between her and Jack that was never really present in the comics. We see much LESS of Janet, and we have 20 years worth of comics depicting Jack as a neglectful hotheaded idiot who ultimate does love his son. More importantly, Jack isn’t very much LIKE Tim, so there is a habit to attribute Tim’s traits to his mother... and, as someone who really really identifies with Tim, Tim has... some negative traits. Tim can be a bitch sometimes. He’s fiercely intelligent and sweet and kind, with a strong sense of justice, but he can be cold and judgmental and unthinking - he fights those traits, but he does have them. 

And it is perfectly fine to depict Janet that way. I’ve enjoyed depictions of Cold Calculating Janet Drake, but it’s not the ONLY option, and I want to challenge fans to consider different avenues. Tim could pick up these traits from anywhere: a nanny, Mrs. Mc Ilvaine (”Mrs. Mac”), a teacher, tv, Sherlock Holmes novels, Bruce Wayne himself. Tim is capable of not being like EITHER parent. 

So, what do we KNOW about Janet? (I’ll also touch on Jack, but only in scenes he appears with Janet.) 

When Janet was first introduced she was depicted as a gentle but “modern” woman. This was written in 1989, told by a 13 year old Tim, so this theoretically was meant to take place in 1979. I’m not here to give a lecture on the history of sex discrimination in the united states, but much of the legislation protecting women in the workforce or surrounding women’s bodily autonomy would have been very very new in this initial depiction. 

Here, Janet is shown to be encouraging, emotional, maternal, and projects her own feelings onto Tim. Jack is shown to be slightly sexist, possibly discouraging, but not overbearing. And the artist is shown not to know how to draw children. 

To insert some speculation, I think it’s important to note all the Drakes witnessed a terrible murder/accident that day. I point this out, because this is the last time Jack and Janet are depicted this way. It’s possible they changed as a result of this event specifically. 

However, this is also a story being told by Tim. It’s also possible these events aren’t really “real” at all, and Tim is misremembering what his parents were like as a three-year-old, possibly projecting a more palatable version of his parents into the narrative. This is entirely up to personal interpretation. 

In fact, the Drakes are shown in Legend of the Dark Knight attending Haly’s Circus, and the artist knows what a toddler looks like and they’re depicted as already having a slightly strained relationship. Jack is clearly on the defensive, and Janet seems to be passive-aggressive, though she could just be attempting to explain the situation to her toddler honestly. The intended tone isn’t especially clear. 

I do want to point out, in this depiction, Tim isn’t being carried like he was in the previous one. He’s walking ahead of his parents, which isn’t a terrible horrible crime, but could be dangerous in a crowded place like the circus. Might be a subtle hint to his parents overall neglect. 

Back to A Lonely Place of Dying, in Tim’s memories of the night he discovered Robin and Dick Grayson were the same person at nine-years-old, his parents are home, and watching TV together while Tim played... trucks, idk, in the living room with them. (This is semi-interesting, because you could say “oh, Tim liked vehicle toys as a kid” or you could extrapolate that this is another subtle indication of Jack’s sexism, providing Tim with appropriately “boy toys.” Either interpretation is valid. If Tim was assigned female at birth, would they have been given “girl toys,” or allowed to play with whatever they wanted?) 

This is, to my knowledge, the only panel of the Drakes when Tim is between ages 3 and 13. They’re all together, which might indicate that the Drakes were home more often when Tim was 9, only later going on business trips when Tim was “old enough” but... 

This is Tim’s boarding school when he’s 13. While most boarding schools in the US are for grades 9-12, Tim is clearly not a freshman at age 13; look how much younger the other kids in this panel are. In the US, the youngest you can attend most boarding schools is 7. 

That means Tim could have begun going to boarding school anytime between 7 and 13. He most likely spent all of middle school in boarding school, at least. There are an almost infinite number of possible ways the Drakes handled having a business that required lots of international travel, an archeology hobby, AND a very young child. Janet staying home until Tim was 7, 11, 13, is equally possible as the Drakes having a nanny until 7, 11, 13. Tim just doesn’t talk about that period of his life very much.

(”What about Mrs. Mac?” - it is unclear when Mrs. Mac begins working for the Drakes. We only see her when Jack comes out of his coma. She could either be a long standing staff member, or a recent hire.) 

Note: I’ve seen it said that it’s canon that “According to Tim, when his parents were home, they made a point to try and include him in their activities, bringing him along to events that were normally adults only.” I have never seen this panel, or I don’t remember it, so I cannot confirm, but I also cannot debunk this because... comics. 

By the time Tim is 13, Jack and Janet are away on business trips a lot, with limited communication, and no firm return date. If I’m feeling generous, I’d say it was harder to communicate internationally in 1990 than it is today. If I’m not feeling generous, I’d say the Drakes are extremely wealthy, and international communication was easier than ever before in the 80s and 90s. They’re not even going home to see Tim in a week or two, they’re going home and calling Tim at boarding school in a week or two. 

Even Bruce thinks its weird, though he doesn’t say so to Tim’s face. It’s written almost as if Tim’s parents’ neglect was meant to be a plot point that just got forgotten about. 

Tim’s parents are fighting at this point (their poor assistant), but Janet still goes with Jack on these business trips. And she’s clearly involved in the business, somehow, but the comics never SAY what Janet’s JOB is. We’re told Jack is the exec, but Janet is ONLY ever referred to as Jack’s wife, though they’re later described as the “heads” of the company, plural. 

Just to be clear, this is Jack’s business. There’s a perception that Jack is a bad business man because he and Janet fight over company decisions, and Jack looses the business after Janet dies, but Jack looses the company YEARS after Janet dies, and maintains it for about a year after No Man’s Land at that. We’re not told how Jack looses the business, but he’s got to be doing something right. Janet isn’t necessarily the “real brains” of Drake Industries. 

And I’m not... gonna... touch the... exploitation and racism because... I’m not qualified to do that. But, here’s the panel. The Drakes sure seem exploitative and racist in their business decisions. Someone else can... analyze that with more nuance. 

Regardless how how long they’ve been fighting, when their lives are in danger, the Drakes fall back into a loving husband and wife. Their marriage may be falling apart, but they do care about each other. 

I want to show these panels because it shows that Tim and Jack do have things in common. They’re both level headed in a crisis and can be somewhat cold in their practicality. Janet meanwhile and silent. Jack is later willing rant and rave at their captors, but Janet remains silent. 

That is, until they’re alone, and she finally lets herself fall apart. 

God, Jack can be obnoxious. Janet just looks miserable and resigned. I actually think Tim takes after his parents in this respect in equal measure. Tim can have a temper, but he can also be fairly melancholy and defeatist. 

Jack keeps reminding Janet to be strong and in control, which could be period typical sexism? But Jack seems so practiced and ready with the words of encouragement, and with Tim’s history with depression, I wonder if Janet has an inclination towards it as well. 

As the end approaches, when Jack brings up Tim, Janet seems to have a lot of regret. She talks about “wasting” the good things, and I don’t think it’s too big of a stretch to assume she’s talking about time spent with her only child. 

From this point on, Janet is at times spoken of, but not seen. Like here, when Jack says Janet wouldn’t approve of him and Tim being so “far apart.” He says this after he tells him he takes back his threat to send him back to boarding school, which might imply Janet was against the idea of boarding school? Though she obviously lost that argument when she was alive. 

Jack will of course renege on this later, but that’s Jack Drake for you. 

Or here in Tim’s illness induced dream, where he gets everything he wants. Though, since this is a fantasy of Tim’s, where his father and girlfriend are both more accepting and understanding than they are in real life, I would take this depiction of Janet with a grain of salt. 

After loosing Drake Industries, Jack thinks about Janet (though, they call her Catherine/Cathy for some fucking reason) during his depressive episode. And... uh... 

Hallucinates a Valkyrie???? Is this symbolic of suicidal thoughts, or is she... real? Or is he seriously hallucinating? 

Anyway, we’re not here to discuss Jack’s mental state, the fact that he forgot Tim’s birthday, or that concerning “I was going to knock some sense into you but you’re still bigger than me” statement from Tim, we’re here to talk about Janet. And even though this entire arc is about Jack mourning his first wife, they don’t SAY anything about Janet herself at all. I mean, they don’t even get her name right, so I guess what was I expecting. 

Then there’s Origins and Omens, which also doesn’t say anything about Janet, except that Tim’s memory of her is faulty - Janet was poisoned, her assistant Jeremy’s throat was slit on television, but Tim seems to have conflated the death he did see with the death he didn’t. 

The only piece of canon to suggest that Janet might be cold, is Tim compares her to Thalia. And even then, he’s really just saying Janet was protective of him. It’s kind of a scary look to make at your kid, but Bruce does the same thing, so. 

I do want to say... it’s not 100% clear if Tim is even talking about Janet. He could be talking about Dana. Dana was observably protective of Tim, though I don’t think he’s ever called her mom. He PROBABLY means Janet. 

And finally we have Tim visiting his mother’s grave (in a duel Christian/Jewish cemetery, make of that what you will), where Tim says she was “a little religious.”

And that’s it! That is all we know about Janet Drake in New Earth. Hardly the Mom From Hell, but she isn’t perfect. I’d be interested in seeing some alternate depictions of her within the fandom. 

I’m still gonna eat up Terrible Parents From Hell like a starving puppy dog, though. Just some food for creative thought. 

[ginger-snaps014]

Random Scooby Doo thought for the void: Daphne is the most versatile character. Because her main trait is being the “It Girl” and the definition of It Girl constantly changes with time.

Scooby Doo Where are You (1969) - This version of Daph is the Beauty in the Beauty vs Brains dichotomy that girls were shoved into. She is put together, slightly sassy, and everyone’s pick. Whether a girl is needed to fill in for a movie star on set, whether a kidnapping victim is required for a villainous scheme (except once), whether Fred needs pick someone when he splits up and looks for clues, she’s the top pick. Like every beauty queen Rom-Com lead, her flaw is being clumsy. She often gets called boring by modern day fans, but that’s because she perfectly conforms to expectations of the “perfect” girl. She has as much personality as many female leads in older movies. It’s just an understated humor, kindness, and class. She is a friend of the group. While the second wave feminists movement is going on, Daph represents more traditional girly womanhood and Velma represents the other options for girl (smarts, less fashion, etc. - it’s kids show so not much here, but most cartoons didn’t even have 2 female characters in the main cast unless one was a ditz, villain or the same character in a different color)

Scooby Doo Movies (1972) and the Scooby Doo Show (1976) - she does not change much. You just have more people appreciating her looks.

Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo (1979) and the New Scooby and Scrappy Show (1983) - Not my favorite show tbh. Daph doesn’t show up in every episode and Fred and Velma are no where to be seen. Scappy Doo is overused to the point he becomes one of the most hated characters is all of Hanna Barbara history. Where Daph does show up, she has significantly more agency on the story. Without Fred or Velma to seek out mysteries or solve them, Daph had too pick up the slack. She gains more lines and shows that she had intelligence and her adventurous nature. Her character doesn’t change or become a genius. She just has room to speak (instead of just looking good). She starts taking a leadership role as the most grounded character. Her girly-ness is less emphasized as there is not another female lead to contrast against.

The 13 Ghost of Scooby Doo (1985) - The first big change happens and wow!! Daph has a Charlie Angels make over. She has Ferrah Fawcett hair. She has a 1980s vogue/ princess Diana jumpsuit. She is pilot. She is the leader of the group as they travel. She is even sassier. She is a friend, but more vocal. She is still the most grounded of the new gang, and known for her looks. But now she has morals guiding her (hi Regan era). Her kindness is still percent. But this is her first all over makeover following popularity of female women having active hero roles in movies in tv (instead of just damsel in distress, love interest of action star, femme fetal, etc.). She is clearly still the same character but now in Charlie Angels font

A Pup Named Scooby Doo (1988) - Daphne in her Molly Ringwald phase. Now sporting the most popular color for girls (you can read marketing essays about the 80s but the pink was picked on purpose), Daph is back. She has valley girl levels of shopping and fashion love. She is not pretty- she is passionate about clothing, She is now super rich to match the “Greed is Good” consumerism of the era. She even has a butler and is allergic to cheap fabric. Her main look comes from teen qeeen of the brat pack Molly herself - just look at the bob. She is still kind, still sassy, and still a great friend of the gang. She just got a John Hughes and 90210 update.

Scooby Doo on Zombie Island (1998) and Scooby Doo direct to video movies until Cyber Chase (2001)- Meet Career Daphne! She is a news anchor/tv show host. She rocks a suit. She leads the chase to find a mystery! She is excited for the ghosts and an adventure. She loves and misses her friends. She is full of heart. She is still girly, but in a more adult way. Love this version. Her interest in Fred is confirmed in witches ghost. She is a friend, kind and sassy.

Scooby Doo (2002) and sequel - the live action movie explicitly goes into Daphne’s transformation from damsel to black belt bad ass. She is played by Buffy. She is still known as pretty, but shows that she does not want to be just a pretty face. She is still a little sassy and kind (at least to everyone who respects her Fred and Velma). She is forgiving. If doing a character arch about the gang, not being friends, this is how you do it. It’s them learning to come back together. And work through the issues stated early on. She is a little whiny for my tastes, but clearly still Daphne. In the sequel, she is truly herself. Being a true friend to the gang. Helping Velma. Being good at fashion and girly things (and not being weak because femininity isn’t equal to bad or less than). Being kind and sassy

What’s New Scooby Doo (2002) - Following the popularity of the movies, a new reboot came. Daph keeps here black belt skills. Her 13 ghost action hero tendencies turn into sports movies athleticism. She can surf, etc. She loves fashion and makeup (and again that doesn’t make her a bad person which is something media likes to do so round of applause scooby). Still pretty, kind, sassy, rich and a great friend. She continues on her trajectory to be an active role on the team.

Direct to video movies (2003-present) - honestly this is my favorite Daph! She is everything that came before. She is pretty, kind, sassy and a good friend (the core - though pretty is less her and more how others react to her). She is still a blackbelt. She can still fly planes. She is still understated to the point others don’t know her talent. She still has her unspoken thing with Fred. She is still the most most athletic and action-hero like (just look at her be a jousting knight). She is still rich (and her family has a castle in Scotland). She is still girly, fashion oriented, etc. and most times that is used positively (F you Frankenstein fat phobia movie). The best of these movies are made by people who love scooby and prior versions. The worst can disappear to the past because we have so many good ones (hi lochness monster, where’s my mummy, abracadabra, camp scare, sword and scoob, etc.) yes the characters here change too over time but there is still a uniform feel to them even as the animation gets cleaner and more modern

Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. (2010) - Hello to the Twilight Bella lovesick version of Daph. Honestly not my favorite (I do love the series), but I never liked Bella that much either. Daph is still pretty, kind, sassy, rich and a great friend. But now she pines for Fred like he sparkles in sunlight. She still has that it girl factor cause if people to pick her to join the Hex Girls or as a romantic interest. She is no longer shown to be particularly popular. Just a nice girl with a weird hobby. She is still girly and fashionable, but the show shows how that passion isn’t any weirder, worse or less valuable than Fred trap making hyper-focus. She now as dynamic family issues, but her found family is clearly the gang.

Be Cool Scooby Doo (2015) - a good show ruined by bad design. Daphne here is a mix of Jenna Marbles and Mable Pines. Like the YouTube royal, Daph engages is random weekly gags and is would not be surprising is she decided to randomly apply 100 layers of lipstick for shits and giggles. Quirky as Mable she loves her hobbies and puppets. She goes full tilt for her “trending” gag of the week. She still had that “it factor” that makes her a spectacle wherever she goes. Now it less visual and more action based. But you still can’t look away. Her looks for the first time are not emphasized. But She still is recognizable visually. She is still kind, sassy, and a great friend. Honestly, loved this update for a gen z Daph.

Scoobynatural (2018) aka that supernatural episode where same and dean get sucked into scooby Doo - while not scooby oriented, this works. She is kind and a good friend. Has an unspoken thing for Fred. Has that it factor that draws people in (or at least dean), but is unaware or uninterested. She is sassy, but never cruel. Her existential crisis is hilarious (but weird since she, shaggy and scooby are the main 3 who deal with real ghosts thanks to the 1980s). Totally acceptable version.

Scooby Doo Guess Who (2019) - this was a return to form. She is an more exaggerated version of her What’s New Scooby Doo persona. Honestly, this show holds less of an impact for a reason. It wasn’t an update for a new audience. It seemed a little tired to me to do the same thing as 17 years prior. A lot changed in that time. Not bad, just not much new to say.

Scoob (2020) - character design is great. She is called the heart of the group. Introduced as Wonder Woman - showing off her pop culture update (we are in the ears of comic book movies) and heroic character. Honestly, the human gang needed more screen time. But she was kind, a good friend, and had some sass.

Velma (2023) - This is a bad version of Daph (at least so far… maybe they will do a character development thing later on). It’s bad because it fails to keep Daph’s core traits. Let’s talk about the things they did decently. She is no longer rich. This is the eat the rich era so this makes her more likable and less like Musk. She is shown to be pro-rainbow. Again, this is great. Gen Z and aloha are the most tolerant generation to date. She kisses Velma (something hinted at in What’s New Scooby Doo). She has lesbian moms. Having the it girl be diverse says the best thing about our society’s changing culture. You can be “it” without being white. She has K-pop vibes with her eastern Asian appearance and bright Daphne hair. Which is popular in media. She feels cw which has a lot of teen shows. Sooooooooooo everything not about her personality. Here is the bad. Her personality is not Daphne. She a bitch. Not kind. She is mean to Velma (and others). Not a friend. She deals drugs. Not the moral character. They made me dislike my favorite character- WTF?? Also, hate her over sexualization. She is a teenager in this series!! Yuck! Every iteration was made to appeal to the next generation. So why was this version made like an early 00’s, pre me too, oversexed mean girl? Supernatural one off episode was an exception to the rule because it was not cannon and because we were seeing Daph through Sam and Dean’s words. They didn’t show he as a teenage and naked. Also, she is never trashy. This is trashy. Again maybe they will do a story arch to see her becoming Daphne, but she is not Daphne now. Being popular is not enough for her to have “it”. She im does not draw your eye or the eye of other characters on the screen. Being hot, is treated as being vapid and shallow. So much for showing girly girls that it’s okay to embrace your femininity because you won’t be a bad person. Hello “I not like other girls” mentality. She might as well be an animated character…. Which would be fine is it were an animated riverdale version that still had her core traits. This is just an unrecognizable rando with red hair.

In short, Daphne’s character is that if the kind, sassy, good friend with that “it” factor that draw characters of her world to her. She is visually pretty with red hair and in purple (with one decent exception). The add-ons to her personality change with what is popular at the time. Making her the versatile character in the gang. With every reboot, she represents the most recent trends for admirable feminine characters. SHE IS NOT A BITCH

[sturchling]

First off I love your Miraculous Ladybug fics. Also I don't know if you are a Black Butler fan or not. But if you are could you please do a fic where Lila causes a that destroys Marinette's home/bakery, which kills Marinette's parents and severely injures Marinette. While in the hospital recovering Roland finds out what Lila did and talks with Gina, both recently have been diagnosed with cancer and want to make sure Marinette is taken care of when they die. Gina or Roland remember a story told to them by a descendant of the Phantomhive servants (In this fic it follows season 2 with Sebastian being able to get Ciel's memories back before Claude tried to brainwash him and was able to eat Ciel's soul) (either from when Gina was in traveling in England or someone who Roland's father knew during WWII) about a demon who acted like a caretaker for a child in the late 1800's. They both decide to sacrifice themselves so Marinette can be cared for. One summons Sebastian the other summons Claude. The terms of the contract are simple, in exchange for eating the soul of the person who summoned their specific demon the summoned demon would care for Marinette, act as her guardian, help her achieve her dreams, and care for her, her husband and their children until Marinette passes away from old age. The contract is accepted with both demons. While caring for Marinette it becomes sort of a contest between the two demons of them trying to out do each other in different ways (if Claude gets her multiple roles of different color spider silk fabric, Sebastian "accidentally" gets Marinette introduced to several high ranking nobles ["Hello, my ancestor worked for your ancestor's peer. What a small world. Might I introduce you to my ward?"] that become her clients. Due to the two demons' shenanigans Lila gets exposed, the Butterfly and Peacock are recovered, Adrien's mother is awakened, Marinette gets some real friends (Will, Ronald, Grell, and the Undertaker got reincarnated and regain their memories after a while) and falls in love with her future husband (either Will, Ronald, or the Undertaker. The only reason I don't do this fic myself is I can't write Black Butler characters even though it's one of my favorite animes.

Sorry this took so long, I wanted to try my best to make the characters accurate, so I had to rewatch some of the show. I hope I did good, but I am pretty rusty, writing these characters. But I tried my best! Hope you like it!

Lila was getting more and more dangerous. She didn't just want to ruin Marinette's social life anymore. Now she wanted to ruin her entire life, or even end it. One night, when everyone was asleep, Lila broke into the bakery and started a fire. She made sure that it would spread to the upper floors and then she raced from the building before she was spotted.

The fire spread quickly and soon the entire building, bakery and the apartment were completely engulfed. Marinette woke up to the smell of smoke and Tikki yelling in her ear. Despite the kwami screaming at her to leave the apartment, Marinette raced down to her parents room, to see if they had gotten out, but the door was blocked by debris falling from the ceiling. The thick black smoke was choking Marinette as she tried in vain to get to her parents. By the time Tikki managed to convince Marinette that they had to leave, Marinette was severely burned on her arms, legs, and back. As she blindly felt her way to the exit, a now exposed wooden beam in the ceiling, came crashing down, landing on Marinette's legs. With her legs pinned and unable to move, Marinette passed out. Thankfully firefighters had already been called and pulled Marinette from the flames before it was too late. On lookers from the neighborhood watched in horror as the bakery went up in flames. Once the fire was put out and Marinette was sent to the closest hospital, the firefighters went into the apartment and found Tom and Sabine. They had died in their room, unable to get out because of the debris blocking their door.

The next morning, the whole city seemed to be grieving. Tom and Sabine were well loved people in the city and everyone was distraught over the loss. But no one was more distraught than Marinette and her grandparents. Roland and Gina heard about the fire early that morning and were horrified to learn that Tom and Sabine were gone. But their one piece of solace was that Marinette had survived. They both raced to the hospital and comforted their granddaughter. But they had a bigger problem. Both Gina and Roland were getting older, now both in their late 80's. Both of them also had several severe health conditions and likely wouldn't be around for much longer as it is. And then who would take care of Marinette? That is when Gina remembered a story she had heard when she was in England. A story of two boys in the Victorian era who had made deals with demons, and those demons took care of the boys. Soon after, both boys' souls were eaten by their respective demons. As much as Gina and Roland didn't want to leave Marinette, they thought that this was the best thing for her. The only way to know that she would truly be cared for.

That night, after they left the hospital, they summoned the demons the same way as in the story Gina heard. The room became dark with shadow and two voices spoke from the darkness, asking the two elderly people why they had been summoned. "We summoned you to make a deal. Our granddaughter has recently lost her parents and we likely will not be around much longer as it is. We heard stories about how you two cared for two boys in the Victorian era in exchange for their respective souls. In exchange for our souls, we want you to take care of our Marinette. To help her achieve her goals, protect her, and care for her until she dies. Both demons agreed to the deal. After all, they had already cared for children before, so they had the skills to do it, and the souls of these two people who would willingly do this for their granddaughter would be nice to have. With the contract sealed, Gina and Roland wrote in their wills that Marinette was to be cared for by Sebastian and Claude, claiming they were old family friends. They also took the two demons to meet Marinette, so that Marinette would at least meet the two before they began caring for her. Once the legalities were taken care of and Marinette had met the two, Sebastian and Claude took their payment and Gina and Roland died.

Marinette was overcome with the grief of not just losing her parents, but now her grandparents as well. Sebastian and Claude, who her grandparents had recently introduced her to, were declared her guardians and began watching over her. Roland had left Marinette his house, so she had somewhere to live. While Marinette began to settle into the new normal of her life, Sebastian and Claude got to work on the first order of business. They were going to get justice for Marinette's parents. They knew that the fire was not an accident and that someone had set it on purpose. The evidence was obvious, but the police were stuck. They didn't know who did it. But Sebastian and Claude quickly learned that it was a girl named Lila who had been tormenting their charge for years now. All they had to do was phone in an anonymous tip to the police about the girl, and the police searched Lila's apartment. Mrs. Rossi kept sayin this was a mistake and her daughter couldn't have done this, but the police soon found evidence of her involvement, including the accelerant used at the bakery. Lila was confused, sure that she had gotten rid of it all. But Lila was arrested quickly, as a crowd had now grown outside of her apartment building. Several members of Mrs. Bustier's class were there and saw Lila being dragged out in cuffs. As Paris looked on in horror at the arsonist that had killed the Dupain-Chengs, no one noticed the shadow like figures standing to the side, smiling coldly at the scene.

They also quickly figured out that Marinette was Ladybug and even figured out that Adrien was Chat Noir when he came over to check on Marinette. They learned this by sensing the souls of the kwami. Since the kwami's souls are obviously not human, and Marinette kept disappearing during the akuma attacks, it didn't take long for the demons to be sure of their suspicion that Marinette was Ladybug. After confirming this, they felt that defeating Hawkmoth fell under their duty of caring for Marinette so they set out to find out who Hawkmoth was. They were able to sense the souls of other kwami in the city. They sensed two other kwami in Adrien's house. With only two kwami present in the house, they were certain that this was the location of Hawkmoth. To confirm this, Claude used a smaller version of his demon form to enter the manor and watch the residents of the house. Claude soon saw Gabriel and Natalie transform with the missing miraculous. Now that they had confirmation, it was time to end Hawkmoth.

The two demons began to plague Gabriel and Natalie with nightmares and torment them constantly. In each nightmare, they made it abundantly clear that this was because of their actions as Hawkmoth and Mayura. Soon, Gabriel and Natalie could hardly sleep and were almost driven completely mad. They surrendered to Ladybug and the miraculous were recovered. Gabriel and Natalie were sent to prison for their crimes. When Marinette learned why Gabriel had done everything and what happened to Emilie, she used everything she had learned about magic to help revive her. Sebastian and Claude lent some of their power to this endeavor as well, not wanting their charge to exhaust herself in the attempt. Adrien had his mom back, and the two moved to England to get away from all the trouble Gabriel had caused as Hawkmoth.

With all the major problems in Marinette's life taken care of, Marinette could relax a bit and focus on her fashion. While she thought it was odd that her grandparents had left her in Sebastian and Claude's care, she did think they were doing a wonderful job. They helped to support all her dreams, any way they could. Claude once brought her several different rolls of fabric made from spider silk. This of course, renewed the rivalry between the two demons. Sebastian brought Marinette to England, making the excuse that it was to see her friend. While there, Sebastian made sure to 'run into' the descendants of some old friends. Several nobles and aristocrats found a charming man and young girl in front of them at many parties. The man seemed familiar to them all, especially the older guests at these parties. They were sure they had encountered this man before. When asked if they knew him, the Sebastian always responded with "My ancestor worked as a butler for one of your ancestor's peers. He worked in the Phantomhive manor as the butler to Ciel Phantomhive. It truly is a small world for us to meet. May I introduce my charge, Ms. Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Sebastian spent the whole night talking up Marinette's fashion business and Marinette would leave these parties with several more clients than when she arrived.

Claude and Sebastian kept trying to out do each other in their attempts to care for Marinette. Helping her with her designs, getting her fancy fabrics and equipment, even convincing several major fashion magazines to feature her work. As odd as the arrangement was, it did work. Marinette met several new friends, thanks to Sebastian and Claude's interference. She even met the man that she would marry. A man who looked suspiciously like Will, from all those decades ago. As the years went by, even after Marinette was an adult and didn't need caretakers anymore, Sebastian and Claude continued to watch over and protect her, as per their contract. And they would watch over her, for the rest of her life.

[scintillasofbeomgyu]

➷ a star called you — chapter 6: “dear sputnik”

pairing: choi beomgyu x reader. genre(s): fluff, band txt, college au, smau (this chapter is semi). wc: 889. warning(s): none. an: last photo is suhyeon's pov !!

[01:01 pm] — haewon ushers you and suhyeon into the bleachers, where they had miraculously managed to find three empty seats amidst what they believed to be no less than 80% of the student body. heart thumping harshly against your chest, excitement practically pumping through your veins, you take your seat between haewon and suhyeon and clasp your hands together.

“this is insane, they make an announcement less than two hours before they perform and there are people here i haven't even seen before,” suhyeon snorts, glancing around where they sit.

your eyes travel to the centre of the stadium, where on the soft patch of grass that is the soccer field, instruments, a band stand and massive speakers are set up. you giggle at the sight of taehyun shoving kai playfully as they adjust their ear pieces. soobin and yeonjun are messing around too; you giggle once more when yeonjun grabs onto soobin's nose and wriggles it around aggressively.

spotting a mop of dark brown hair tuning a guitar, you gulp and your heart stops. his back is turned towards you, but before you could get a better look yeonjun's voice rings through the speakers, “seoul national university! are you ready?!”

hundreds of voices, including yours, scream a sea of cheers in response. you find yourself wondering what they will play today; not that it would matter much. semester stress and the fear of possibly flunked tests have long been tossed out the window. a completely different kind of anxiousness had now taken over you as you watch the boys take to their positions.

beomgyu's fingers strike the chords of his guitar, sending shockwaves which seem to rattle the ground and the stadium resting upon it, and the crowd falls silent. then come their voices in magnificent unison, a small group of five, echoing off the space existing between them and the crowd before kai and yeonjun come with the first verse.

they're singing "dear sputnik", a song kai had written for your show with the same name. a song about feeling lost and in despair before finding that one person, your sputnik, with whom to share the journey of the vast unknown galaxy. you hoped to be that presence for people who felt like they had no one, for you knew all to well what it was like to feel utterly alone – even when you weren't.

a smile curls onto your lips as you join the crowd in standing, pulling suhyeon and haewon up with you as you did. “i can't believe we got this lucky!” you attempt to speak over the screams and chorus, haewon offers an enamored grin and ruffles your hair before turning back to the performance.

suhyeon looks to you, then back down to the field where the boys putting on a powerhouse performance; charisma shining in their every fibre. “you're right...” they say, their eyes fixed on taehyun.

you feel your heart race once more as they get closer to the bridge, knowing beomgyu's about to take centre-stage. you take in the way he moves around the stage, a breath-taking smile spread across his face flashing his pearly-white teeth to the audience. the ends of his long, nearly-black hair are damp as they fall across his face, and even as they fall into his eyes, he looks ethereal.

he steps up to the microphone with taehyun, flicking his hair to the back, skin glistening and glittering under the noon light, his eyes glazed over with adrenaline search the bleachers. just before he sings, his eyes lock with yours and your breath hitches. your fingers clench into your shirt as time seems to slow down before stopping completely.

“in a crumbling world,

i found a star called you,

i need you, my love ”

his eyes left yours not once as his voice, like bittersweet honey straight from the dipper, trickles through every inch of your being and fills you up with each and every raw emotion it carries. haewon and suhyeon place a hand on either of your shoulders and your're pulled out of your reverie.

“are you breathing?” haewon asks with an amused look in their eyes, though you can just about hear them over the chorusing stadium. when you only blink in response, haewon chuckles before scrunching up their nose, “you're so in love with him it's gross.”

you glance back to the boys as they finish off their performance, and beomgyu's fingers dance across his guitar a final time before they all run down to taehyun in the centre and fall into a bow. had you imagined it?

the crowd roars for the last time, high pitched screams coming at the boys from every direction. as they pick themselves up, beomgyu's eyes find you in the crowd again. a warmth spreads in his chest and he finds himself smiling softly, completely unbeknownst to you, who is excitedly recounting the performance with your friends, deep shades of red tinting the apples of your cheeks.

an arm wraps around beomgyu's shoulders before loosely draping across them. he finds taehyun throwing him a thumbs up while the others jog toward them excitedly.

“you think it's a mission accomplished?” yeonjun asks, catching his breath before following beomgyu's gaze to the group of friends still sitting in the bleachers.

beomgyu grins, nodding his head fervently, “they're smiling.”

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[empressofdiamonds]

I am 26 and I have never had a healthy relationship. I just got blocked by a guy who was a supposed friend who loved me but after having sex he body shamed me and then blocked me. I gained weight due to prescription medication that I am trying to lose. I feel horrible about myself and about any chance of finding love. I am in therapy trying to focus on self love. I am so jaded now and am worried I will die alone. Do you have ANY advice for me ? Thank you kindly

People find love at 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95 and 100 years old.

My grandma had the most healthy relationship with my grandfather. She dated him from age 16, married him at 18. They had three healthy kids, and when my mother turned 17, he deceased. My mother started working, my uncles as well, and Grandma as well. Grandma sold the family farm, moved to the city, started working various jobs until she found a great secretary job at a electronics business. She never stopped working and she kept being focused on her children and work until she felt the children were independent enough to not subsist on her anymore. She did that choice out of respect for her children, since they were her absolute priority. She worked hard to rise three amazing children that are very much successful and accomplished.

Around age 60 she started dating my new grandfather, they dated for 10-15? years, I can't remember anymore exactly. He adored on her so much, he gave us gifts again and again, he said he loved my smile. He kissed my grandma on the front all the time. They travelled everywhere together. He brought her to France once. It was clear they were incredibly intertwined together in the best sense imaginable. Later on he deceased, and my grandma still talks about him. My grandma, after a good mourning period kept on dating and she found various great lovers that respected her.

On the other side of my family, my other grandma met my grandfather at 13 years old, he courted her until she was 17ish? Years old, then asked for my great grandfather's permission to marry (before 18 you had to). They led a happy house, and raised two children, both adopted. When I was about 10, my grandfather died and left my grandma in deep mourning. It was recently (around 2015 perhaps?) That she went out of her mourning and met a great man. The man came to visit her everyday, doing the 2 kilometer walk from his house to hers. He came to help her with the cooking, they did long evening conversations on the balcony so often they knew each other so well, within only a few years. Most couples don't know each other so deeply after only a few years, by comparison.

Those two stories are to show you that love at any age is possible and that if you give up now, you're setting yourself to failure already.

Focus on your own joys and hobbies, and the man that will love you for you will hop along.