#hes just using it as a chance to tweak his product a bit

[pigeonentity]

transmasc adrien but gabriel insists that he can only transition if he chooses his son's name. because he chose it the first time and because it's meant to be a thing parents lovingly decide for their kids and because he needs control but now his child's not a baby anymore. he's older but more importantly he's a model and he's a Product. when gabriel chooses this name this time he gets to know what he's selling

[meamiiikiii]

Can we hear more about the King in the reverse isekai au?

Sure thing!! :D

Funnily enough I’ve been slowly working on and off on a silly lil comic including the King from Reverse Entry AU recently. So have a messy concept sketch of what he’ll look like. Before the mumblings under the cut (design will most likely be tweaked later tbh ASFASD)

To talk about the King I also need to talk a tiny bit about this Siffrin’s background, so here is the briefest of rundowns for them first (which will prob get a more elaborate post some other time):

Siffrin’s parents used to run a storefront (refer to first bullet point section in this post). 

It was their life’s work and they loved that place dearly, since they built it themselves from the ground up.

However, his parent’s passed when he was 19-20, and that storefront ended up falling into his hands.

They were in college at the time, and ended up switching majors to try to get better know-how in running a business.   

But at the end of the day, they had to sell it.

[the above premise was heavily inspired by stuff that happens in a webtoon with the initials GH since it is very near and dear to me actually] 

With that established, onto talking about the King in relation to above!

The King was a family friend to Siffrin’s parents.

The wooden crown is actually a gag gift from one of Siffrin’s parents due to “The King” being a nickname for him from college, it’s not actually his name ASFASDA.

(It’s actually too big for his head and sometimes it falls above his eyes actually LMAO)

For a time, he worked underneath the storefront when he was down on his luck, and he is eternally grateful for that.

After he got back up on his feet, he still made sure to visit from time to time, and even helped lead a couple of the crafts sessions the store did. 

When Siffrin’s parents passed, he was devastated, since they were close, and had known each other basically forever.

And they had done a lot for him when he needed help as well.

But, at the time he was not in the best position to try and help with the storefront from a financial standpoint.

However, he, alongside a couple of others, did try to volunteer around the storefront to help it stay running for a time (it was well-beloved in the community, after all!)

It just wasn’t enough. 

He was one of the few people at the time who was against Siffrin’s decision to sell it off to some random company

(which happened to be the crafts company that Siffrin and the King and literally everyone else now work for now)

Mainly due to knowing what that store meant to Siffrin’s parents / how it helped him when he was at his lowest / overall having lots of good memories tied to it / he didn't want to let one of the last remnants of his friends to be thrown to the wind 

And to end this off, some miscellaneous tidbits on the King in the present time of this AU:

The King actually joined the company specifically because it was the one to buy out the Siffrin Family Storefront™ and usurped what they were doing with it

But uh…. he’s like in the IT department?

And has like no real influence on what goes on with whatever acquisitions the company makes

Or what the company does with them LMAO (without it being probably directly illegal)

Best he can do is be a nuisance to those working around it tbh

Like actively slowing down conversations on fully discontinuing the products attached to the storefront to further stretch out its life?

Or being annoying with tech and just? Not being helpful. When people are having system issues that cause delays in work despite being a main contact.

And in general probably being more nosy in places he probably shouldn’t be tbh.

Stuff like that!

There’s a chance that some of this gets tweaked the slightest bit / elaborated more on later since I am always Indecisive, but those are the vibes!

Thanks for asking :D!!! Also again if anyone has any questions on literally anything from this silly AU feel free to ask!!!!! 

[shatteredminds]

One important thing to note was that the shadows Azura controlled didn't use her energy, they are like an extension of her body. Well... she can emit them she can also attack, defend, and travel in them, it didn't seem like she had a limit to how or what she could have the shadows do since she could be in a shadowless area and still use them.

However it was also important to note that they act based on Azura's thoughts and feeling, like back in the clearing in the Vail when they tryed to move him so she could attack her older brother. Azura had been wanting to give the gauntlets to him and the shadows did as such, even if she didn't want them to do such.

Though, once he put them on he may feel them sap a miniscule amount of his energy, the parts of the gauntlets that look like their supposed to light up do so in the color of his Ki. The metal linking up to the saiyan's energy and locking it in with a brief flash before glowing a dim version of the color of his Ki like their in stand-by mode.

The coverage of the gauntlets cover the whole of his hands, wrists, and forearms as they fit snuggly, following every movement of his hands and wrists inside without interfereing with his inhibitors. The gauntlets appear to know that they aren't going to be used at that moment so they go into sleep mode, which is their bracelet forms that also fit snuggly on his wrists.

The shadows would then produce a few peices of paper, one with Azura's magically translated handwriting. It says-

– To Kefla, (Ps. I may have rambled a bit)

I hope you don't find my reasoning for making these or the fact that I have observed you training while in the shadows because I was curious as to how you train and I apologize for not asking and just doing so without your consent to do so.

However I notice that you favor fighting with your fists instead of using weapons, so I made these gauntlets to help you in battle as they will act as armor so that your hands, wrists, and forearms can't get injured while you fight.

I made many different variations and tested them out, tweaking them and seeing what I could give them that will maximize their effectiveness and efficiency when you use them. These gauntlets are the final product and the only pair from the different variations that are made with materials that are rare and hard to find across the many realms in my universe. However I won't go into detail about all that, I will talk about the metal their made of as that's the reason for their weight.

The metal's name is Askil, it's difficult to find no matter what realm in my universe you are in. The chances of finding a realm with even one planet bearing Askil is small due to how many realms there are and the fact that Askil's raw form tends to be found in small to medium clumps scattered about the planet that one has to stumble upon it since it can't be found with locators.

Planet Kao in the Eadrothra Realm does have Askil though, there is a good lot of it mined but it was still used rarly and only used to make specialty weapons for those in the highest ranking of the royal guard during the empire days, those who had talent, great potential, and have lead their soldiers to victory time and time again. All species were those who lived great lengths of time and had the strength to wield such heavy and powerful weapons.

Speaking of the weight, it doesn't matter how small the object made from Askil is it will be incredibly heavy, the bracelet forms of these gauntlets weigh approximately one ton each due to the density of the metal. Askil is incredibly durable no matter it's thickness of the object and can withstand multiple levels of powerful hits before even a scratch will be present. Another trait of Askil is that it links with the energy of the one using a weapon made from it or wearing a peice of armor made from it. However once it's linked to one person's energy no one else can use them, so that means these gauntlets will respond to you and only you when their linked, reading you through your energy.

As said prior as I tested variations of the gauntlets I added things that would maximize the their effectiveness and efficiency, I also added many things to help you in combat.

——

- There is a holo-screen built in. I felt that this could make your work easier when it comes to reports and whatnot. You can also access whatever it is that those bracelets you're already wearing do. This feature also has other functions that I'll get into it later.

- Energy charge. In order to work they need to use your energy, however they are quite efficient and only needs to sap a miniscule amount of your energy to work so it won't affect you in the slightest. The energy it takes is amplified afterwards to last a long time so it won't constantly be saping your energy throughout combat.

- Sleep mode and stand-by mode. I feel that these are self explanatory. Stand-by mode is when their not in use but in gauntle form, waiting to be used but not using any of their stored energy. Sleep mode is when they go into their bracelet forms, they can be stored out of the way so you don't trip on them and so they can be worn outside of battle and be on hand incase you need them without being obvious that their weapons.

- They can amplify the strength of your punches. You are able to adjusted how much it does so through the holo-screen by pressing the amplify option and inputting exactly how much you want it to amplify the strength of your punch, it won't go past that percent in battle unless you adjust it beforehand.

- Energy barrier. With the amplified energy they sapped from you they can create a barrier that can block, repel, and even mirror attacks back at your opponent by hundred fold if you desire so. The energy barrier covers every angle and provides maximum coverage.

- Energy blade. The little slots on the top part of the wrists are able to produce various sizes of energy blades. The size of the energy blade can be adjusted by going into the energy blade option and inputting the size of blade you want, it will have the example next on a separate holo-screen to show you. It can also be displayed whenever you want if it's not suited for what your doing.

- Micro-bots. The gauntlets make little bots with a mixture of the energy it has and a special soluble metal I made that can be absorbed into your blood and filtered out like any other waste. When the gauntlets sense that an major injury has been made upon your body the micro-bots will be released and they will go to work. They will stitch up the wound, working inside the wound to staunch the blood flow where it shouldn't be and stimulating blood flow to where it's needed to speed up and help your healing factor.

- Self repairing. Being that Askil link's up with your energy it also uses it to repair itself on the spot if it's damaged during combat.

- Language translator. I get a feeling that it's going to be kinda obvious that I used magic to translate these words into English and that it's getting obvious that I can't read or write anything that isn't in the old dialects of the empire. So since I also don't know how many languages are in your universe I implemented a translator that will automatically scan the words on something and give you a translation in English or whatever language you choose. This is a function that also works in their bracelet form's for convenience.

- Scanner. Pretty self explanatory, both gauntlets and bracelets can scan for the energys of others as well as heartbeats and heat signatures. I don't know if any being here can silence their energys/hearts so it can also pick up souls much like how I can see them.

I hope these gauntlets bring many victorious battles to you in the future and I apologize for how long this ended up being. It is also possible to disable these things if you desire.

- From Azura with love

In the kitchen Azura was carving the meat off the bones of the food after setting the table, once done she would be going up to wash up and get dressed in something more suitable for supper and the event that is Kefla's day of birth. But for now she was just cutting everything up so they could dish themselves up.

After she gets off his lap, he gets up and walks to one of the windows in the house to start smoking. Now that he is not living alone in the house, he must take into account the presence of his partner. The smell of the cigarette quickly impregnates the clothes he wears. A smell similar to that of cinnamon.

The good smell of food comes easily to his nose as he takes a last puff of the cigarette and burns it completely. He then attempt to make his way to the living room until some shadows approaches him with what appears to be present.

He tears open the purple wrapper and his eyes sparkle with interest at the sight of the two bracelets. They are not particularly heavy, but when they change and their weight increases so much. He is taken off guard. Almost falling to the ground, but he can get a hold on himself.

He puts the gauntlets around his tattooed arms and admire them. He finds them fantastic, but surely, there is more to them than just being fancy gauntlets that weight so much. He is impatient to find out what makes them so special.

Perhaps, he had to wait to open them, but he did not know about that. Since it was the first time someone outside his daughters had done something for him. Not that he needed a present, but having one felt really wonderful.

[topguncortez]

I put this in submit on accident but what if when out in public Mrs.Seresin is breastfeeding baby girl and someone does something to make the mrs uncomfortable or insecure and Jake and daggers defend her! Opposites attract world would be awesome! Thank you ❤️

it's all good! Just a reminder to all, my ask box is called "Attention to the talk" (it's a term we use in my unit when they want us to pay attention) Also, tweaking this just a tad so it's when Mrs. Seresin has Eli:)

|| Masterlist || Opposites Attract Masterlist ||

It wasn't every day that Jake got to bring his kids to the hangar, but when he did get the chance, he was all smiles about it. Some members of the dagger squad had just come back from a small mission overseas. Jake had opted to sit this one out, seeing as Eli was only a couple months old. Y/N appreciated having Jake home, but was starting to grow a tad annoyed with him. Jake was kinda lost without Rooster, Bob, Phoenix and Coyote at his disposal.

Jake showed Alex and Ella around the hangar, showing them different parts of the planes, and showing them the maps. Alex was more interested in all of it than Ella was, which wasn't surprising. Y/N and Jake had talked before about how much Alex took after Jake in his interest in flying. It slightly terrified him that one day Alex could grow up to join the military, but also made him proud.

"You look happy," Rooster said, putting his arm around Y/N's shoulders.

"I am, currently child free right now," Y/N smiled and held her arms out, looking as she had no kids attached to them. Bob was holding Eli, and seemed to be catching him up as well, "I'm glad you guys are back. He made me watch Texas football."

"Oh no, you poor thing," Coyote joked and she rolled her eyes.

"Hey! How about we go to the beach. . . a little dog fight football?" Maverick suggested, holding up a football in his hands.

"Beach, Papa Mav!" Ella yelled and ran towards her 'papa'.

"Sounds like that's a yes, huh, Elles?" Maverick said, and picked up the three year old in his arms.

"You okay with that?" Jake asked, putting his arm around his wife, "I could use some sun, looking a pit bale."

"Oh jeez, anymore vitamin D and it all goes to your head," Y/N joked.

"Gotta soak past those hair products first," Bob quipped.

Jake and Y/N met the team down at the beach after they stopped by home to get the kids ready. Since the addition of Eli, it got a bit more challenging to get three Seresin kids ready to go anywhere, but they managed. Alex was six and could kind of get his own stuff together with supervision, and Ella was starting to do the same. Jake could handle the two older kids while Y/N focused on getting the baby ready.

Penny was sitting under an umbrella on the beach, and called Y/N over to sit next to her. She smiled at the older woman, as Alex and Ella engulfed her in a hug.

"Oh hi, babies," Penny smiled, "Amelia! Kids are here!"

"Millie!" Ella yelled as the teen walked out from the Hard Deck, "Momma can we go to the water?"

"Stay with Amelia and Alex, okay?" Y/N said, and Ella nodded with a smile. Y/N greeted Amelia, and then sent the three of them on their way.

"Look at him," Penny cooed, seeing the baby strapped to her chest, "Snug like a bug."

"You should see Jake wearing this thing," Y/N giggled, "He wasn't a fan of it with Alex, I think partially because he was just so little, but he fell in love with it and the wrap around one when we had Ella."

Y/N carefully sat down on the blanket next to Penny, then unstrapped the baby on her chest. Eli let out a soft cry at the loss of warmth from his mother, but was content once he was laid on his back and given a toy. Penny smiled at the two of them, before going back to watch the aviators play.

"What's the point of this?" Y/N said, looking up from her son, "Offense and defense at the same time?"

"No clue," Penny said, "Pete made it up when they came back for the uranium mission. I think they just use it as a chance to take their shirts off."

"I'm not complaining," Y/N giggled and Penny shot her a smirk.

"Hey, you just had that one," Penny laughed.

"Baby department is closed," Y/N said, "Three is enough for us. Ain't that right, Eli." She gently tickled her son's belly, getting a laugh from him.

Penny, Y/N and the kids stayed on the beach for awhile, until the older two were begging for a snack and something to drink. They sat on the deck of the Hard Deck still watching the aviators play and tackle each other in the sand.

Penny had gotten Alex and Ella chicken strips and fries. They both sat at the table outside with Y/N, watching their dad and uncles play. Eli had started to grow fussy, and Y/N knew that it was getting close to feeding time for him. She noticed some eyes drift over to her as Eli let out a loud cry.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Y/N said, listening to his cry, “You’re hungry aren’t you. I got you, baby boy,” Y/N grabbed a blanket from the diaper bag to cover herself. She tried her best to hush Eli while she got herself situated, pulling down the strap of her swim suit, “Shh, Eli, it’s okay.” It was hard to get Eli positioned right to latch with him moving around, but once she did, his cries ceased. She made sure the blanket was covering everything, as she sat back in her chair a bit.

"Do you really have to do that?" A man in a khaki uniform asked her. He had to be fresh out of flight school. He only had a silver bar on his uniform and a singular rack of ribbons.

“What?” Y/N asked softly, looking up at him. 

“That.” He said nodding to her feeding Eli, “It’s weird. They have bathrooms ya know."

“Oh,” Y/N heart fell into her stomach, and she suddenly felt very exposed, even though her chest and feeding son were covered, “I’m sorry, I can leave. Um, Alex, Ella, I'll be right-” Y/N started to gather her diaper bag and push off the couch when Jake and the dagger squad walked up on the deck. 

“What did you say to her?” Jake asked the young aviator who was still looking over at Y/N. 

“It’s okay, Jake,” Y/N said, trying to deescalate the situation. 

“No, what did you say?” Rooster asked. 

“I just asked her to go somewhere else,” The aviator, “Not everyone wants to see that.” 

“That?” Jake, raised his eyebrows and clenched his jaw, “That is completely natural for a woman to do for her child. It’s her body and she is doing what it is designed to do. Nobody else was bothered by it but you, so why the fuck are you trying to sexualize somethig so natural and innocent?” 

“I-I’m not.” 

“Then you’ll be okay if the mother of my son feeds him where she feels comfortable,” Jake said, and walked over to the empty seat next to her. He put his arm around Y/N, trying to make her feel more comfortable. Y/N settled into him, and he placed a kiss on her temple.

"You can leave now," Bob said, and the aviator got up from his spot quickly.

"Wait," Phoenix said, and the aviator stopped in his spot, "What's your name?"

"Lieutenant Correll, Stallion," He said.

"Thought so," Phoenix smirked, "Well, Stallion, you'll report to the hangar at zero five Monday morning. . . bring a toothbrush."

"Multiple, actually," Payback said, "My plane is a little dirty from the last mission."

"Bring a friend too," Coyote said. Lieutenant Correll gulped audibly, "Okay, now fucking leave." He scurried away from them quickly, running into Maverick as he walked down the steps of the deck.

“What did you do?” Maverick asked, walking over to the table full of his aviators.

“Nothing, he can just go fuck off,” Jake mumbled. 

“Jake,” Y/N sighed, “If you guys are uncomfortable with me breastfeeding Eli-” 

“None of us are uncomfortable by it, Y/N,” Rooster said, “It’s like a mom thing to do, ya know.” 

The team agreed and sat down in various chairs around the Seresin family. Y/N smiled at them and then looked down, seeing Eli slowly falling asleep against her chest. When she was done feeding, Phoenix helped her cover herself up, as Jake was burping Eli. Y/N let the daggers take the kids back to the water.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Y/N said, as she finished pumping. 

“Yes I did,” Jake answered, “I’m not going to let anyone make you feel uncomfortable for doing something totally natural. There are so many benefits with breastfeeding, there’s the vitamins, the skin to skin contact, the bonding, the-” 

“Okay, I know,” Y/N said, cutting him off with a smile, “This isn't my first go around with this. But thank you, daddy.” She smirked and Jake rolled his eyes, pulling her in for a kiss.

“It’s my job, mommy.”

[shorkbrian]

Villain! Bakugo out here with a Mommy kink hoping for milk? Sign me up

I did a bunch of research on this, and am armed with practical knowledge of how Bakugou might treat you if he had a lactation kink.

(What to expect - HEAVY lactation kink, not super NSFW but it’s there, dubcon. I get a bit more explanatory and less smutty lol sorry)

At the beginning of his kink development, Bakugou wouldn’t necessarily be looking to actually make his partner lactate. He just finds the sensations comforting, lying on a pillowy chest, wrapping his lips around a nipple and sucking until he falls asleep. Does he have an oral fixation? Maybe, but that’s not necessarily why he’d do it.

Something about the closeness, the skin-to-skin contact, the trust and safety that’s felt just really gets him going. He gets all soft and relaxed, sucking on his babe’s nipples. As such a rough, irritated guy, the oxytocin he gets from committing such a deeply intimate act is literally like a drug to him. He wants more and more of that feeling, of the close connection with his darling, whether or not they’d be willing.

It’s a huge, huge act of love and generosity, especially taking the time to commit and induce lactation.

Bakugou would go all out, he’d have pumps, creams, make his darling eat a special diet, I think he’d even go to lengths to get lactation-inducing drugs. Lactation can happen outside of pregnancy, it just takes a lot of time, patience, and research.

Those drugs (like Domperidone) have to be taken 3-4 times a day, pumping has to happen pretty regularly, and the woman has to be relatively relaxed and in a good headspace. Stress, poor sleep, and a lack of water or food can result in a woman’s production lessening and drying up, so Bakugou’s darling really isn’t going to ever get a break.

Like, she’s stressed because she’s with him, because he’s so controlling and possessive and won’t let any other man even look at her. Stressed because Bakugou insists on her lactating, even if she’s not that into it or if it makes her uncomfortable. Stressed how needy and demanding the man is, how it’s his way or the highway, how if she doesn’t go along with whatever he wants, Bakugou accuses her of not loving him.

So already, it’ll be hard for lactation to happen.

But every night, just like clockwork, Bakugou’s there.

He’ll knead your breasts for a while, warming them up, enjoying the feel of them in his hands. Sometimes he’ll do this when you’re watching TV, or trying to cook dinner, or on your phone. Just sidles up behind you and grabs your chest, squeezing and groping and massaging the mounds with care.

While he’s rough and aggressive during sex, he’s more controlled during times like these, softer and less prone to acting like he’s got a toilet bristle brush shoved up his ass.

After he’s sufficiently “warmed you up” you get sat down somewhere comfy - sometimes the couch, but preferably the bed, just in case Bakugou feels a little more pent up than usual and wants to relieve some stress using your body in another way.

If he hasn’t stripped you of your shirt already, that’s next, along with your bra. Bakugou prefers you to be completely nude, but you find that extraordinarily uncomfortable, so after a couple of heated arguments, Bakugou’s decided to relent on that rule.

The man’s shirt comes off too, so he gets to lie flush against your and feel your soft flesh against his own.

The first couple of times, he had always started out far too eager, pulling and tugging at your nipple painfully, creating such a tight suction with his lips that it made you cry, and you’d begged him to stop. He hadn’t, not until you’d made milk for him. Something that you had thought to be impossible, considering you weren’t pregnant.

But not he starts of gentler, with soft kisses over your breasts, little kitten licks across your nipples, hands holding your sides, your shoulders, anywhere he could grab with uncharacteristic tenderness.

When he finally does dip down and begin sucking, it always feels weird. NO matter how many times he does this, you can’t feel comfortable with it. It’s such a strange, pulling sensation, relieving, emptying.

Bakugou’s figured out how to suckle and breath at the same time, just like a baby. He’ll purse his lips and nurse, stop for moment to breathe through his nose, then continue. This results in his warm breath intermittently puffing over your skin, making desperate little noises as he continues to drink you up.

You’d never have thought that Bakugou Katsuki could be defined as desperate, or soft.

Whichever breast he’s not sucking at gets massaged with one of his hands, tweaking the nipple, groping your flesh. You don’t know how or when he got so good with his mouth and hands, when he was able to practice coordination like that, but the movements are seamless for him. 

He spends a significant amount of time lathering one breast with attention. If his jaw gets sore, or his mouth feels tired, he’ll pull of for a few moments to nuzzle at your plushy tits before latching on again.

And when he’s ready, he’ll switch to the other breast, hand immediately coming to spread his saliva around your nipple, to try and combat the chill that always makes you shiver whenever your spit-slick nipple gets exposed to the air.

All you can do is lay there and let him drink his fill.

Trying to catch his attention or try to divert him back to different activities is like trying to water a fake plant - absolutely nothing happens.

You get ignored, or Katsuki slaps at your hands if you try to pull him off, squinting up at you like a petulant child.

He usually falls asleep like that, it’s been months of the same routine, every single night. Bakugou suckling at you like you’re the first drink he’s had in years, obviously desperate and wanting, but trying his absolute best to hold himself back from devouring you.

Sometimes, if he’s excited, he’ll fuck you like that, hips slapping against your while he’s hunched over your tits, panting against your flesh.

Cumming always feels better when that happens, but it’s not like you’ll tell him that. He already pushes for you to let him nurse at your tits any chance he can get, and especially when it comes to sex. 

Even after an intense, tiring fuck, Katsuki can’t fall asleep unless his mouth is on you, tongue sucking at your nipple. 

Bakugou highly enjoys suckling at you at any time of day - right when he wakes up, before you’re even conscious, when you’re watching TV or reading a book, at lunch time... really any chance he gets, his face is buried in your chest. He always gets sleepy afterwards though, so he’s prone to even more irritability if he can’t take a nap, of which he completely denies. Says you try to use that as an excuse to not let him touch you, and then it’s back to the old argument of Katsuki claiming you don’t love him.

He’s manipulative, but you don’t know what else to do except give in.

During the day, he has timers set for when you’re supposed to take your lactation pills. The man had hand-fed you them at first, not trusting you to do it right yourself, considering how you were against the idea. 

When he has work, Katsuki video-calls you, makes you take the pill and show him your mouth afterwords.

Pumping happens semi-regularly, only if Katsuki hasn’t been able to nurse for as long or as often as he usually does. You’ve learned not to do it while he’s around, even if he’s in the house working on paperwork. Katsuki hears the sound of the pump and suddenly appears, bulge in his trousers, a gleam in his eye. 

So you do it when he’s away, per his rigid instructions. He makes you text him when you do, as a video call would make him too excited.

He’s very good at keeping you taken care of. When you’re starting to chafe and get sucked raw, he makes sure to slather your chest with cold creams and oils to speed up healing time, to heal the angry, swollen skin. It’s like your body dislikes his nursing as much as you do, with how often it seems to ache from his treatment. 

Bakugou makes sure you get eat foods that help increase prolactin, the lactation hormone. Dates and Apricots are staples in your diet, and you’re sick of them. Bakugou insists you eat them anyway. You’re going to produce milk, no matter how much he has to force it.

You provide him with safety, security, a warm place to lay his head at night (your chest) and the one thing that seems to help him calm down in any situation.

When he comes home angry, you only have to wince through his rough fondling before he begins to pacify, and by the time his mouth reaches your breast, he’s quiet and relaxed.

Something’s agitating him beyond belief? he comes to you, salivating, expectant and sure of relief.

Whatever you want, however you feel - that’s all an afterthought, always has been, and always will be.

[nellynee]

The makings of greatness, or why, as a ride or die Treasure Planet stan, I’m glad there’s no Treasure Plant 2

You ever see somethings that makes you unreasonably angry? Yes I understand exactly what I’m saying, and how that indicates that my emotions and opinions on this are exactly that. Opinions. There’s a good chance I have some objective truths mixed in, but that does not make my opinions based on those truths truth. If you disagree or have different tastes or opinions or interpretations, cool, let me know! maybe you’ll change my mind. That being said.

The plot synopsis for the Treasure Planet sequel makes me angry. Not like, actively so, just annoyed enough to be in a bad mood. And now you guys all have to be in one as well. Why?

Reason 1, and probably least important: Disney sequel syndrome.

Ok so Disney sequels aren’t inherently bad. I’ll stan the Aladdin sequels to my grave, who knew Cinderella could world build, obligatory Rescuers Down Under (the first one was better) blah blah blah.

But there is an inherit problem with sequels in general, and that usually has to do with cast and crew. An original piece of fiction has to grab the audience yes, but there’s also freedom in that. Media touches people in different way. The worldbuilding can mean more to some than others. Some are in it for the animation, or the character developments, or relationships. What connects with one person won’t connect with another. The problem with sequels is that different people who worked out the original material might and usually do not work on the new. And those new people are already working on that new material with their own personal lenses and experiences and interpretations coloring the old. The reason sequels (and remakes, and big budget presentations of other materials like books into movies) tend to bomb hard is because you are essentially being forced to accept someone’s fanfiction into the canon material. Usually, there’s a pretty strong correlation between more successful franchises/extension material, works staying true to the core material, original crew working on the material, and the enjoyment of the audience.

And sources say very few of the original crew remained. Some yes, but mostly voice cast. Even worse, TP2 was a DisneyToon production, not even a mainline feature. Now I’m not saying the new people weren’t talented, or passionate about the project, or were lacking in experience. It doesn’t really matter if any of those things are true or not. It’s the warping of their personal lenses I don’t trust. Fanfic I can disregard, meta I can disregard. This would have been canon.

And reading the Artbook makes is abundantly clear that the parts that touched me personally would have been missing. The very core of Treasure Planet for me was the relationship between Jim and Silver (and their exquisite animation budget). However you choose to interpret that relationship, you can not deny that Treasure Planet is a powerfully emotionally romantic movie. It’s quiet moments and emotional resonance shaped my views of intimacy with a sharp and fine touch. Silver and Jim’s bond is as undeniable and powerful as it is compelling and awe inspiring to witness unfold.

And a lot of that is owed not only to  the voice acting of Joseph Gorden-Levitt (Jim) and Brian Murray (Silver), But to animators Glen Keane and John Ripa, who were the head animators of Silver and Jim respectively. Not only did Gorden-Levitt and Brian Murray deliver stunning performances, but made sure to work together and jointly play off each other in ways most voice actors don’t have the opportunity to do. And the Masters Keane and Ripa took an already stellar and carefully crafted vocal rapport and took it one step further. I highly recommend the Artbook as a good read, both Keane and Ripa talk about the journey of discovering who Jim and Silver were with delight, acting out entire scenes together using their own body language to build the characters together, using the same animation reals to animate, tag teaming in and out of the program rather than do it separately, becoming so attuned with their characters attitudes and mannerisms that you can tell they poured entire pieces of themselves into Jim and Silver.

I’m not saying the Sequel would have been inherently bad because it’s a sequel, or because a new crew worked on it, but I am saying I wouldn’t trust it with a ten foot pole.

Reason 2: Thanks I hate it (I’m saying it’s inherently bad because the plot is bad and I hate it)

I’m sorry for the length, but for you to really understand just how bad this is, I actually have to pick through every single line and tell you why it fails critically at some junctures and where it would be so simple to fix. For those of you who were unaware that there was a sequel in the works at some point, I’m pulling these quotes pretty much wholesale from the AnimateVeiws article Buried Treasure: The ill-fated voyage to Treasure Planet 2, specifically the interview with Jun Falkenstein who was set to direct the now canceled sequel. Spoiler warning, I guess?

So, from the begining

“The sequel was to pick up where the first film left off, with Jim Hawkins going to the Royal Interstellar Academy. At the Academy, he is a hotshot “natural,” but he doesn’t follow the rules very well.” - Strong start but then dropped the finish. I think the interstellar academy would be a very compelling starting point. I see no fault in it at least, it’s a good opportunity to world build. Clemence and Musket like to make a point that Jim was crafted to connect with the emotionally wounded and distant youth in a age of divorce, so showing what happens when that youth hikes up their britches and gets to work can extend on that theme aaaaaaand you dropped it. Dropped that strong start. Yes, Jim was more than a bit of a bite back rebel in the film, but that was a reactionary response to the bad place he started in. Jim was abandoned, and tied his self worth into that abandonment. His kickback against society was a reaction stemming from an inability to see his personal worth and any sort of future he could craft from it. He outgrew this, his very character development was about this in the film. His character arc was about realizing his inherent worth, embracing a sense of confidence and learning what he could do. Even disregarding that, bonus material outside of the film shows that Jim has a very strong sense of respect for Captain Amelia, her military career, and the hard work she put into it, and he’s there on her recommendation. Why would he act out in this? He is a natural yes, but the film shows he’s incredibly sharp and intelligent, if unlearned, and more than ready to learn given opportunity.

“Hence, he gets off to a shaky start – especially with his classmate Kate, who is very smart and has a type A personality. Kate’s father is Admiral Blake, the Commander of the Navy. Jim and Kate vie for top of the class but have very different skills.” - So building off this to fix the problem before. I guess the dynamic they are going for is something like “the kind of a jerk hotshit hotshot who’s got it all figured out and the straight laced rule fallowing stick in the ass rival”? I’m not apposed to to a rivalry, but lets tweak this, given how “hot shot natural jerk” isn’t really where Jim settles at the end of the film. Jim is a natural talent, who excels under tutelage, but more importantly, he has practical experience. While the time period spent on the RLS Legacy is not defined, they do sail to a deep and unexplored part of the galaxy, probably well outside of regular settlements, so no small distance, though Jim is young enough that a very long period of time would be noted in physical growth. Given comparisons to classic nautical sailing of the source time, months, perhaps up to a year? That’s a long time to spend, learning the rough and tumble basics, tying knots, experiencing food and water rations, extreme temperatures, playing with the rigging and mechanical aspects of the boat. Jim knows what it’s like to actually sail. Meanwhile, this is the Royal Academy, who probably takes in upper class second born children and pumps out military accolades for well learned mathematicians and strategists. Jim doesn’t fit in because he can visualize, he can think outside of the box, he can weld a damn engine to a hunk of shrapnel and ignite it freefalling against a metal hellscape and outrace a boat in a high adrenaline situation. He adapts where the other’s frantically look through their notes for the answer. Worse yet, he’s poor and not classically educated. Make it a class issue. In this aspect I do like Kate. Being the Daughter of the Commander of the Navy, she probably has a very technical and far more expansive understanding of navel ships, particularly the running of them. In this way Jim and Kate are perfect foils. Jim representing the poor, instinctually and practically knowledgeable crew, and Kate the upper-class, technically knowledgeable command, a dichotomy representing the haves and have nots in their skills, experiences, an class.

I don’t want to post a picture and break the post, but I do love Kate’s design. I do recommend looking up the article and checking it out. that being said, being a feline species, they messed up not spelling it Cate.

“Captain Amelia is dean of the Academy, which has a brand-new vessel: the Centurion.” - I… why, why is Amelia the dean? Additional material shows that Amelia broke ties with the military because she didn’t like their rule stickling ways and red tape. Why would she want a red tape position? She helped with a war and then bailed first opportunity to become a freelance captain so she could fallow her own rules. Even if you don’t know any of that additional material, you do know that she is a freelance captain. Why is she dean? what happened to the old one? Are they dead? Did DisneyToon kill them? Did Disneytoon kill the old dean?

“Designed by Doctor Doppler, the Centurion is the fastest ship in the galaxy.” - HE’S NOT THAT KIND OF DOCTOR!

“B.E.N. is its pilot”. - NO

In all seriousness all three of those statements show a serious problem, in that none of those characters are in fact those things. Amelia I’ve already explained. But Doppler was a debatably youngish bachelor with too much money who was fascinated by astronomy specifically and who suffered from ennui. And BEN was a navigational unit, so maybe it makes sense for him to be a pilot, but why is a robot who was functioning under a galaxy feared pirate for who knows how long given any kind of agency over a brand new incredibly important ship? These decisions were probably made to incorporate as much of the old cast as possible, to not exclude fan faves. But any decision that makes BEN a prominent part of the plot and thus gets more screen time is a BAD one.

“The pirate Ironbeard desires to commandeer the Centurion. This ruthless villain is relatively all iron – almost nothing of whom he originally was, inside and out, is left.” - On the one hand, I have a weird feeling that this would somehow violate the 30-70 rule. Buuuuut on the other hand, the Artbook does describe the decision making process of what and how was mechanical on Silver (my favorite tidbit was the wheel on his head representing his constant thinking and assessing) and states that that they in a way represent the pieces of humanity he gave up looking for Flint’s Trove. Extending that to a pirate who has given up everything could be a powerful thematic tool if used right (or intentionally)

“He leads a group of pirates to hijack the Centurion while Jim and Kate are aboard.” - ok, yeah, I’ll buy that. If they are butting heads constantly, I could see them sneaking off to the new piece of hardware to one up each other on who knows their stuff, or maybe bond over wanting to learn about the said new tech and being frustrated with restrictions.

“The Navy can’t catch the Centurion, due to the vessel’s speed and armor.”- sure

“Jim and Kate escape the Centurion. Jim decides he needs a pirate to help catch pirates. They find his old buddy Long John Silver in the Lagoon Nebula, where he is running a smuggling ring. “ - So what Jim just goes “I know just the pirate to help us” and then finds him? That journey of itself deserves it’s own movie, anything less is a disappointment. Alternative. Jim and Kate escape onto a particularly lawless planet. Jim has some tricks to keep them safe and fed, maybe he even excels in ways he’s been straight up stop gapped at the academy. Maybe his knowhow is appreciated by others who society also rejects. But Kate is a frustrating fish out of water, getting offended and worked up over things that are big deals to an average citizen but not criminals and pirates. But such reactions are putting them in danger and she needs to get perspective fast. It’s plausible maybe that Silver tracks them down through interesting rumors, but more than that, let it be fate. Neither having any idea the other is there till the second they see each other. Bonus points if Jim and Kate get in a bind and Silver is the leader of the harassers. Better yet lets add some thematic mirroring not only to the scene where Silver saved Jim from Scroop, but directly contrast it to the scene where Silver doubled back and down against the notion of caring for Jim when called out before the mutiny. *kisses finger* Touching and hilarious.

“ Silver agrees to help when he hears about the Centurion. “ -  Silver agrees to help when he hears about the Centurion without Jim even having to ask. Storywise, lets make some kind of deal over how Jim, an upstanding enrollee of the academy, apparently is chummy with a pirate. Tension doesn’t just have to be external, and Kate is the daughter of the Commander of the Army. Maybe she’s recognized and this gets them in trouble. Maybe Kate has issues with her identity outside of her father’s career and need to learn a lesson about being outside of a rigid social structure?

“Jim and Kate receive a tracking signal from B.E.N. – who is currently hostage aboard the Centurion – and follow via Silver’s creaky vessel. They discover the Centurion docked near the Botany Bay Prison Asteroid. “ - While being the fastest ship yet is a good excuse for wanting it to get stolen, my suspension of disbelief breaks a little at any ship, let alone a creaky little pirate vessel, catching up to the fastest ship yet, or the tracking signal being the only way to track it to a guarded prison. Seeing as how I’ve written BEN out of this scenario lets fix it. After the events of the movie, the Royal Military swoops in after to confiscate the debris of Treasure Planet. For those in the know, canon lore states that the Planet was a giant computer, and it and the map were the byproducts of an ancient and advanced civilization. Studying the debris led to the Centurion, notable not for it’s speed, but for it’s stealth. It can cloak itself. Which is why no-one can find it. Meanwhile Silver lets it slip that he snagged the map from it’s pedestal as they escaped the planet as a souvenir. (handwave why the portal was still open with a “the whole thing was exploding, the computer froze). The map is able to track the remnants of said planet, aka the Centurion, meaning Silver has the only means of tracking the cloaked ship

“Ironbeard is using the Centurion to disable Botany Bay’s security systems. Jim, Kate and Silver sneak aboard the Centurion, where Silver reveals to Jim that he wants to take the Centurion for himself. He asks Jim to join him.“ YES. YES YES YES YES YES YES! Understanding that  Jim’s decision to not go with Silver in the first movie is key here. He rejected Silver’s offer the first time because Silver had shown him he had intrinsic value, and Jim finally felt that the natural gifts he had were worth cultivating, that he did have the chance to explore who he could be on his own terms. Jim was comfortable being on his own, because he felt capable. Now, Jim and Silver bring out the best in each other, and the time apart has done them harm. Jim’s strings of social rejections are starting to fell like a glass ceiling he can’t overcome, and is finding more and more comfort in being a big fish in a pirates small pond, and the emotions of of being wanted that come with Silver is a powerful drug. But it’s a one way ticket away from any opportunities he could work towards, not to mention his barely repaired relationship with his mother. Meanwhile Silver has been slowly slipping back into the colder, more selfish self he was, a necessity for his lifestyle, and doesn’t want to loose his connection to Jim and what Jim brings out in him, but is still far enough gone to make the offer and try for the boat anyways, even if he knows it’s not what’s best. It’s an emotionally compelling decision. You want them to say yes, you know they shouldn’t

“Kate overhears this and is horrified, especially since the two have, of course, started falling for each other during the adventure.” - Hate. this I hate. Leaving shipping to they way side, what’s that “of course”? why do they have to fall for each other? Why the Disneytoon sequel love interest? I have a feeling her characterization would come at the cost of it. Why can’t they be rivals? why can’t they develop a mutual respect outside of attraction? Why can’t they both learn an individualized lesson about finding their own place in the world outside of social constraints as foils without macking? I hate this concept. Kate overhears, and is horrified, because Silver is a Pirate which is actually in universe get yourself hanged offense, and Jim is considering this, and they are going to steal a VERY IMPORTANT BOAT and and leave her stranded in a dagerous prison, and are making an objectively morally bad decision.

“Ironbeard discovers the intruders, charging into a fight in which Silver is injured. Meanwhile, the other pirates throw down ladders to the prison below, allowing swarms of elated prisoners to climb up into the ship. Silver, Jim, and Kate exit the Centurion amidst all the confusion. However, Ironbeard shoots down Silver’s ship. They plummet to the prison asteroid below, crash-landing” - cool. Drama. But for my purposes, lets tweak it so Silver isn’t injured yet. But I really want to emphasize that this attack does not interrupt before Jim can react to Silver’s offer. Even something as tentative as “I’m not sure” has consequences. None of this “misunderstanding” BS.

“ Kate is angry at Jim and storms off. “- again, make it clear that Jim showed a real chance of agreeing to steal the ship. if she’s angry before he had a chance to answer that’s contrivance for drama’s sake. Give her a reason to be mad

“ Jim is about to blow her off as well when Silver tells him to give her a chance. He reveals a part of his past through a flashback, when a young (non-cyborg) Silver screwed up a relationship with the love of his life – a decision which directly led to his life of piracy. “ - nope. nope nope nope . I’m gonna put a big old * here because this is reason number 3 why I hate this potential movie, and I will get to that believe me, but here’s me, putting a pin in it. That being said, have Silver selfishly try to double down on getting Jim to join him in a three way argument instead. This is the conflict of the film. Kate, who was learning to grow outside of the strict restrictions of her life and do her own work, make her own way, is being rejected. She is as morally repulsed as she is hurt that she wasn’t included, and hates herself for that hurt as well. Jim is torn between the freedom of what he could be after the academy paired with the strict social constructs around it, and the freedom of a life “full of himself and no ties to anyone” but running from the law and the two friends they represent. Silver is the aggressor here. He likes Kate, he does, but he loves Jim and only has one place in his heart, and has spent his life being selfish. There’s already a crew on board, and Iron beard is hooked into the Centurion. With having the only other means to navigate, they take down ironbeard, the rest will surely fall in line. This is paydirt. A fantastic ship, a bloodthirsty crew, and Jim.

“Silver has a very dangerous cargo with him that he had been trying to smuggle and sell for a fortune, which has the power of a neutron bomb. Jim, Kate and Silver reconcile and work together to fix Silver’s ship and prevent the Centurion, filled with the most evil pirates in the galaxy, from going on an insane robbing-and-killing spree. At the last second, Silver reluctantly gives up his “retirement fund” in order to destroy the Centurion, with Ironbeard and all the pirates on board.” - this entire section needs rewritten. That’s a mcguffin Silver put it away. I have retconned the mcguffin to be the old map, so that is now moot. Now to not blow up the ship. Afterall, Silver and Jim have both already overcome what Treasure Planet represented with it’s destruction. Rather, B plot

If we are that desperate to have past characters in, let’s have Amelia and Delbert back home. When the Centurion is captured, Amelia immediately volunteers to fallow, feeling responsible for Jim and secretly pining for some adventure. Delbert feels the same, and he to a bit of an adrenaline junkie after the events of the first movie, but they have the children to think about and only one can leave. Delbert is the one chosen to help by the navy officials searching for the Centurion. While Amelia bickers with the Admiral Blake over his pragmatic but emotionally distant decisions over the situation of his missing daughter, Delbert is an astronomer, and is blah blah blah science meta, fallow the flashing  and bending lights around the cloaked ship to find it. As in Delbert is helpful. Amelia in a reflation to Admiral Blake, is torn between her family and commandeering her own ship to help. Blake is frustratingly headstrong in his decisions, and the script makes it seem like that emotional distance is disinterests, but reveals to the audience that it incorporates a great deal of suppression of his anxieties and worries over his daughter, and trust in her abilities, though he has issues expressing this pride to Kate herself. Amelia, Delbert and fam make what is probably a poor decision in commandeering a ship and leaving on their own to track the Centurion, the navy hot on their heels.

Back to A plot, the navy is approaching. Jim has to make a decision. He is the only one who knows how to unmask the ship using the old ones tech without training, as it’s based off the map. While Kate and Silver are distracting iron beard, he has to either steal the ship and sail off, or uncloak it for the navy. Iron beard is taken down, but not without Silver getting injured. Jim decides that Silver’s life is worth more than anything, and after agreeing with Kate that she’ll commandeer a doctor and wont let Silver die, uncloaks the ship. The Centurion is retaken in a blaze of naval glory that is the action climax. The pirates fight back up are over run. Maybe Kate gets taken hostage as the Admirals daughter, as an opportunity for a resolution with her arc as Blake’s distant daughter, though obviously said resolution comes at her showing her abilities in taking care of herself and the practical skills she has learned.

“Silver again parts from Jim and Kate, telling them to take care of each other. A few years later, Jim and Kate graduate with honors, while a proud Silver secretly watches from the shadows, smiling” - Boooooo. Kate and her dad make up, and she challenges him that she’s going to one day Captain the Centurion, with him understanding that she needs less a mentor and more an emotional support while she works her way up the ranks. She invites Jim to be her first mate, to which Jim accepts as a navigator, (a thing I’ve pointed out to be his real strength in another post). But to Silver, who has been “pardoned” for his part in retaking the Centurion, the movie hinting that he to would be on the eventual crew there I fixed it fic to come I s2g.

yeah there’s a lot of good there, but it’s so easy to fix the bad it’s frustrating. which brings me to

Reason 3: that little pin

“ Jim is about to blow her off as well when Silver tells him to give her a chance. He reveals a part of his past through a flashback, when a young (non-cyborg) Silver screwed up a relationship with the love of his life – a decision which directly led to his life of piracy. “

Nope nope nope I’ll tell you why.

First of all, sources like the artbook say that Jim is so Important to Silver because he’s the first person Silver has ever let become important. he’s specifically stated to have no family, never married, no children. And that’s something he cultivated actively. His life of piracy, his metal limbs, his loneliness and moral failings were all gleefully accumulated for one reason and one reason only

Treasure Planet.

Treasure Planet was the great love of Silver’s life. It was a lifelong obsession. It destroyed his body, took his youth, his opportunities and nearly his life. He broke Jim’s heart over it.

And he let it go. For Jim.

And Jim understood this

This is the crux of treasure planet’s very themes. This is where Jim found self worth. Another person finally looked at him and said “you matter, you matter more than anything. I like being around you and I choose you first.” and it made Jim realize he’s someone worth choosing.

The treasure was EVERYTHING to Silver, and Silver let it go, for Jim.

That one line there, attributing the start of Silver’s fall to a girl? that actively retcons the entire theme of the previous movie. IT rewrite the emotional linchpin of Silver’s sacrifice of the gold. And actually fuck that. right into the ground. I do not accept. I do not pass go. I refuse. Fuck you non existent movie. That makes me mad. every single time. Hate I shall never let go.

No

[lokiondisneyplus]

Loki director Kate Herron’s heart was beating fast. She’d already had some surreal experiences during her short time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so a simple phone call shouldn’t make her nervous. But on the other end of the line was Owen Wilson, an actor and writer she admired and hoped would join her on a time-jumping journey through the MCU.

“It was the most detailed pitch I’ve ever done, to an actor, ever. I pretty much spoke through the entire first episode with him,” Herron recalls of wooing Wilson, who wasn’t too familiar with Marvel before being cast as Mobius, an agent for the mysterious Time Variance Authority central to the series.

Wilson instantly put Herron at ease with his laid-back charm as she walked the actor through 10 years of onscreen lore for Loki, the god of mischief played by Tom Hiddleston. She answered his questions about Avengers: Endgame, about time travel, about how this version of Loki was not the one fans knew from films like Thor: Ragnarok, but rather one plucked from an alternate timeline from 2012’s The Avengers.

It was all part of a whirlwind few years for Herron, who not that long ago was temping at a fire extinguisher company and struggling to land directing work even though she’d already helmed a BBC project with Idris Elba. Then Herron finally achieved breakthrough success directing episodes of the Netflix hit Sex Education and soon was hounding her agents for a Marvel meeting.

When Herron finally landed one, the Loki superfan cleared her schedule and spent two weeks putting together a 60-page document, even though her agents tempered her expectations by noting it was just a meet-and-greet.

“I knew I’d be up against some really big directors, and I knew I wouldn’t be the most experienced in the room, so I [said], ‘OK. I’ll just be the most passionate,'” recalls Herron.

Just a few days after officially landing the job, Herron found herself on a five-hour walk through New York with Hiddleston discussing Loki and flying to D23 in Anaheim to be greeted by thousands of screaming fans alongside Loki head writer Michael Waldron.

Herron is now working long days finishing up Loki in Marvel’s production hub in Atlanta, where the British filmmaker has largely lived since getting the job in 2019. Over Zoom from her freezing Atlanta apartment (she still hasn’t figured out the quirks of the air conditioner), Herron dives into Loki ahead of its June 9 debut on Disney+.

What was your process of sitting down with Marvel for this?

I was just so overexcited. [My agents] were like, “Look, it’s just a casual conversation, they just want to get a sense of you,” and basically I was like, “OK, I’m just going to pitch them.” Because I thought, they might not meet me again. So I got as much information as I could, and they sent me a little bit about the show. And I just prepared a massive pitch for it. I canceled everything for two weeks. I made a 60-page document full of references, story ideas, music. I knew I’d be up against some really big directors, and I knew I wouldn’t be the most experienced in the room, so I [said], “OK. I’ll just be the most passionate.”

Was that first meeting in Burbank?

That was in England, in southeast London on Zoom. I had a few stages where I did that. Then after a few interviews with Kevin Wright and Stephen Broussard, two of the Marvel executives who got me ready for the big match, I went in to pitch to Kevin Feige, Victoria [Alonso], Lou [Louis D’Esposito], the whole team there. That was very surreal because they flew me to Burbank and I pitched at Marvel Studios. I didn’t have the job, but I found out they were interested and then I remember Kevin Feige called me, and when he was in London, we had coffee. He was like, “Look, we want you to direct it.” Oh my God. They flew me to D23 and that was crazy because I think I found out I got the job 48 hours before, and then I was onstage. The Lady and the Tramp dogs were in front of me and Michael [Waldron] on the red carpet. “What is going on?” (Laughs.) I met Tom that week as well, so it was a bit of a whirlwind kind of thing.

📷Herron, Waldron and Feige at D23 in 2019.

Where did you first meet Tom?

I had a two-stop trip. I flew first to New York to meet Tom. He was in Betrayal at the time, on Broadway, so we basically went on this amazing walk around New York. I’d never met him before. We just spoke about Loki and what was really important to us about the character and where we thought it would be fun to take him, as well. It was this intense, five-hour conversation with him basically. I met him and then flew straight from meeting him to D23. So it was a lot. (Laughs.)

When did you finally get the scripts? How did that change your thoughts on what you want to do?

They sent me the outline, so I knew the overall story. I also was pitching stuff. “Oh, we could do this with this character.” The pilot was really well written by Michael and I really liked what they were doing with the character and the story. Then it was building upon that and throwing in ideas for where he could go later in the show. It reminded me a bit of improv where you’re always building, always trying to push the story to the best place. So we were always adapting and shifting the story. Our lockdown, during COVID, was a chance for us to go back in. I was cutting what we’d done, so I was like, “OK, this is tonally what is really working for the story.” Then we went back into what we hadn’t filmed and started adapting that stuff to fit more where we were heading.

The Marvel movies have a writer on set to help tweak things. Was that the case with Loki?

Michael [Waldron] was with us at the start, and then he went on to Doctor Strange [in the Multiverse of Madness]. We had a really wonderful writer called Eric Martin from our writers room, and he was our production writer on set. It was between me, him and my creative producer Kevin Wright. We would kind of brainstorm and adapt. I’ve always loved talking to the cast. We had such a smart cast. Owen is a writer as well. If you have that amazing resource, why not talk to them? We were always adapting. Obviously paying respect to the story we wanted to tell from the start, but always trying to make it better.

📷Herron on the set of ‘Loki’ with Hiddleston and Wilson.

Kevin Feige has said Owen Wilson, like his character, is nonplussed by the MCU. Since Owen isn’t necessarily dazzled by Marvel, does that make him all the more perfect for this role?

He is playing a Loki expert, so at the beginning of production, Tom and I were talking. He devised this thing called Loki School. He did a big lecture to the cast and crew. I love the character. This is a decade of fans loving this character and where that character has been. It was talking everyone through that, but through Tom and his own experiences. Stunts that Tom liked or costumes. He ended up doing that same Loki school for Owen. Owen absolutely loved it. Owen has such a writer’s brain. I remember I had to pitch him down the phone. My heart rate [was up].

Was this the pitch to get him to get Owen on board?

Yeah. I love his work. “Oh my God, I’m going to talk to Owen Wilson.” He’s so laid back and nice, it immediately puts you at ease. It was the most detailed pitch I’ve ever done, to an actor, ever. I think I pretty much spoke through the entire first episode with him. You can tell he’s a writer, just by the way he attacks story. His questions about the world and the structure and the arc of the character. It was really fun to work with him.

Was it the most detailed pitch you’ve ever done because you really wanted Owen, or because you knew you needed to woo him a bit to get him to sign on?

It was the questions he asked, and the way he attacked story, in that sense. And also probably because he was newer to the Marvel world, he was like, “OK, how does this work?” I also pitched him Loki’s arc over the past 10 years, where that character has gone, but also explaining our Loki and what happened in Endgame and time travel. There’s a lot to unpack in that conversation.

Sometimes Marvel will give writers or directors a supercut of all the scenes of a specific character. Did you get one of those?

They didn’t actually give me a supercut, but I’m a big Loki nerd. I think his is one of the best [arcs] in the MCU. I really wanted to make sure we were paying respect to that. At the same time, something Tom spoke about a lot was you have to go back for a reason. Let’s be united on what that reason is and feel that it’s worth it.

The reason can’t be, “Well that’s what happened in Endgame,” so the question becomes, “What is the point of revisiting him at this era of his life?”

Yeah. He’s only had — I don’t want to get this wrong — I think 112 minutes of screen time in total if you cut all his scenes together. And he steals the show. We have six hours to really delve into this character and talk about him and go on this completely new story with him. For me, it was making sure that [we’re] paying respect to what has come before — I know as a fan if there is a character I really loved and I found out they are making a show about him, I obviously would be so excited and so happy. I felt lucky to have the responsibility, and I took it very seriously.

Those who have worked with Kevin Feige say he’s someone who can stress test an idea and push things in new directions. What have you found working with him?

Something I always found was we would sometimes pitch something, and it would be at a good place, but he’d always be like, “OK, that’s great, but push it further.” Sometimes I’d pitch stuff and be like, “This is too weird,” and he’d say, “No, go weirder.” He wants to tell the best story and I found it really helpful having his eye across everything and the fact that he does challenge everything. Tom as well, on set. He brings this amazing energy and this great A-game that causes everyone to rise to the occasion.

How do you know when you’ve got the perfect Hiddleston take? Is he asking you for one more, are you pushing him to do one more take?

By the end, it was almost telepathic. We would kind of know. We would look at each other. “We could go again,” or, “We’ve got it.” It’s different with every actor. There are some actors who will come in firing and they just want to go for it. But they don’t want to do a million takes. There are other actors I work with who are very meticulous and they want quite a few to warm up and get into it. It’s actor-dependent. The way me and Tom are similar is we are both very perfectionist. We are both very studious. (Laughs.) We definitely connected in that sense. He’s a very generous actor. I remember one day, we had quite a few of our actors coming in as day players. It was really important for him to be there for them, to read lines offscreen. He would have to be 50 places at once, because he is the lead actor. The most amazing thing about him was his generosity. Not just to the other actors, but also to the crew, to be filming in a time like COVID.

When you make an Avengers movie, you get a big board with every character that’s available, and whether the actor’s deals will allow them to appear or if that would need to be renegotiated. Loki is smaller, but was there any equivalent for you? Was everything on the table? Was only some stuff on the table? I imagine if Chris Hemsworth has his own new Thor movie coming up, he’s not going to be on the table, necessarily.

I felt like everything was on the table if it meant it was good for story, and Marvel would be like, “We’ll work it out.” Me and the writers, we never felt restrained in that sense. Honestly, it always comes back to story.

What is your relationship with your editor as you finish this up?

We have three editors, Paul Zucker, Emma McCleave and Calum Ross. My relationship with all three of them is very different. Emma and me are very close because she was also in Atlanta away from home. I got to know her very well. I love working with the editors because it’s a fresh pair of eyes. You get so deep into something when you are filming, it’s almost like writing it again when you are in the edit. Stuff does change. Even some episodes, we’ve reordered the structure. Or we moved scenes from one episode to another episode. I’ve always loved the editing process. The best thing is someone honest who can be like, “Hey, this doesn’t quite make sense to me,” or, “This isn’t working.”

What are you going to do on premiere day? Will you be on the internet at all to see the reaction?

I’m actually working. I’m still finishing the show. My last day is the day the second episode airs. I’m going to be working that day. Sadly, I’ll probably check in on the internet a little bit, but I’ll probably go to bed when I finish because I think I’ll do a 12- or 13-hour day or something. I can’t remember. I’m really excited for people to see it and just to bring it out in the world, really.

Everyone wants to know about spoilers, but what’s something you wish you were asked about more when it comes to Loki?

Kevin Feige said, “We make movies. We want to run it like a movie.” So unlike a lot of television shows that are showrunner-led, this was run like a six-hour film. As a director, you don’t often get to do that in a television-structure show. I really enjoyed it, having a hand in story and just how collaborative it was. Also, just beyond that, directing the equivalent of a six-hour Marvel movie was incredible for me. That’s something I found interesting about it. Making something the Marvel way.

In terms of the themes, I love gray areas. The show is really about what makes someone truly good or what makes someone truly bad, and are we either of those things? Loki is in that gray area. It’s exciting to be able to tell a story like that. As a director and a writer, you don’t necessarily understand why you are making these stories. Something I keep getting drawn back into is identity. Sex Education, we spoke a lot about identity and feeling like an outsider but actually finding your people. I feel the same with Loki. It’s a show about identity and self-acceptance and for me, that’s also what drew me in.

Gray is a good way to describe Loki. Your version of Loki just tried to take over the Earth not long ago.

Exactly. This isn’t the Loki we’ve seen. How do we take a character that people love, but from a lot earlier, and send him on a different path? That for me was interesting, getting to unpack that. Alongside that, getting to set up a whole new corner of the MCU with TVA. That to me was so exciting.

What about the Teletubbies? You referenced that recently and it made quite a splash. Are you going to leave people in suspense on that?

I referenced the Teletubbies once and people were like, “What, Teletubbies? What does this mean?” Maybe I should leave people in the air with it. One thing I would say is the show for me, stylistically — I wanted it to be a love letter to sci-fi because I love sci-fi. Brazil, Metropolis, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Alien. If people love sci-fi, they will definitely see the little nods we’ve got across the show.  People will know what it was a reference for when they see the show. It was a visual reference to something in the show.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity. Loki debuts on Disney+ on June 9.

[amysteriousmessenger]

MC giving RFA+Minor trio a gift for Valentine's day please! :D

I’ve tweaked this a little bit so it’s also a returned gift!! I hope you like it!! This is my second Valentine’s day request <3

RFA + Minor Trio Valentine’s Gift Exchange Headcanons

Yoosung Kim Valentine’s Gifts

You didn’t have to think too hard to decide on what to get Yoosung for Valentine’s Day, he had been complaining that he needed a new headset for a few weeks but had already spent his student budget on new limited edition LOLOL skins. The poor boy had already been reduced to instant ramen to afford these luxuries. You didn’t know too much about which sort of headset he’d prefer, so you just got him a decently branded one that had good reviews and hoped it would work.

You also wanted to get him some extra things to go in his giftbag, so you got him a new t-shirt tand some cute strawberry heart shaped Pocky, which you definitely didn’t buy with the pure intention of playing the Pocky Game with him. Of course not.

Yoosung would have put quite a bit of effort into thinking about what to get you for Valentine’s Day, since he didn’t want to screw up and be a bad boyfriend. He even asked Zen for advice, but didn’t think the bold, extravagant declaration of love really suited him.

Yoosung decided to go for the traditional route and gift you a little charm bracelet, a small bouquet of red roses and cook a meal for you. Of course, it was his special omurice, packed with extra love because it was Valentine’s day. He’d picked out the charm bracelet online, it was a little silver one with a sparkly star charm on it.

Zen/Hyun Ryu Valentine’s Gifts 

If Zen knew anything, it was dramatic romance. He’ll pour Valentine’s clichés on you like it’s nobody’s business. Zen buys you a chunky bouquet of red roses, a big box of chocolate (he doesn’t usually eat chocolate because he doesn’t want the sugar to affect his skin, so he makes sure the box is extra big so he can cheekily pick at a few that he likes) and takes you out for an evening meal.

When you get home after the dinner, Zen will pick you up outside the door and carry you bridal style over the threshold, just because he wants you to feel like a princess in his arms.

You can also bet that Zen is going to sing for you for Valentine’s Day. He’d have spent a while picking out the song, and depending on what he thought was best, it would be 1) Your favourite song, 2) A dramatic love ballad from a musical he’d been in, or 3) a joking strip-tease song.

For your gifts, you’d have gotten Zen some new skincare products that he’d been looking at. You knew how much he loved his sheet masks so you’d brought him a fun selection to have a try of. Some of your favourite evenings with Zen were spent doing skincare on one another, so you wanted an excuse to do that more.

For his big gift, you got him a ticket for two to go for an all-exclusive spa day trip. He was flustered that you’d spent so much money on him, but you assured him it was for the both of you to spend time together and to enjoy!

Jaehee Kang Valentine’s Gifts

Valentine’s Day wasn’t a holiday that Jaehee had off from work if it was a weekday, so you were really lucky this year that it had fallen on a Sunday. She’d gotten all of her work done late on the Saturday night in order to have the day free to spend with you.

You got Jaehee a fancy new coffee maker that she had had her eye on for a while, but couldn’t justify to herself since her old one was still in fine, working condition. You’d imported some special coffee beans for her to try too. You also felt like it was important to give Jaehee some flowers too, since you knew sometimes she felt so dull and drab because of how Jumin made her dress for work, she deserved to feel pretty too.

Jaehee got you tickets to a musical show you’d been wanting to see, but had missed the tickets for. She’d seen that a pair of them had gone up for sale second hand and had quickly snatched the sale in order to get them for you. It wasn’t a show that she’d have usually seen, but she’s very excited to get to watch it with you.

Jumin Han Valentine’s Gifts 

To start, you’d have gently implied to Jumin about setting a budget for Valentine’s Day, because God knows he didn’t know the value of money sometimes and you felt bad knowing you couldn’t match whatever he was going to spend. You didn’t want Valentine’s to be about money, but about your feelings for one another.

You told the chef on Saturday night that he wasn’t needed for breakfast since you wanted to make breakfast for Jumin yourself. You made him a spread of sweet pancakes with syrup and fruit and hand dripped his coffee yourself, taking the time to decorate a little foam Elizabeth the 3rd on top of it. You’d also made him lunch to take to work, and put a little note in it saying that you and Elizabeth missed him whilst he was gone. 

Jumin had arranged for the two of you to go to an extremely overpriced restaurant for dinner, which is where you were exchanging gifts. You have Jumin a pair of cufflinks engraved with yours and his initials, which he immediately swapped the ones he was currently wearing for. 

Coincidentally, Jumin also gave you jewellery, it was a beautiful necklace with far too many diamonds in. He clipped it around your neck, agreeing to himself that his selection was correct as it looked beautiful on you. He also added that there was another gift waiting for you at home, since it would have been inappropriate to bring to the restaurant. 

He had gotten you a set of lingerie to wear for the night, obviously. 

Saeyoung Choi Valentine’s Gifts 

Seven was a hit at heart, and a car guy, so the choice was obvious: you were going to get him a giant Hot Wheels tracks with all the extra decorations. You spent far too much money on it, but knowing how happy it would make him made it entirely worth it. 

You thought he was going to cry when he unwrapped it, and he immediately set it up and spent hours making the track and remaking it, adding extra obstacles, making the car go over Saeran’s head, loop, jump through flames- everything. He was so happy with your gift that he almost forgot to give you your own gift. 

Which he then changed into- 

Seven was going to be your maid for the day, outfit and all. He explained his gift by telling you he knew how much effort it must be to look after him, so he was going to look after you for a change, and ‘look good while doing it’. 

He also got you a bunch of imported snacks that you had really been wanting to try, but couldn’t work out the proxy or shipping to be able to do it. You were swimming in snacks, you didn’t know where they were going to go.

V/Jihyun Kim Valentine’s Gifts

Always a romantic at heart, V would have put a lot of effort into your Valentine’s gifts and spent a lot of time considering it, he wouldn’t have wanted it to be a commercial gimmick but an actual symbol of his love for you. You felt the same, of course.

For V, you gifted him a new portable polaroid camera and cartridges. He had so many big expensive cameras, but a little polaroid captures fun moments and prints them instantly. They could capture moments without taking V out of it and distancing himself.

You also gave him a set of imported watercolours from Europe, since the reviews said that they were really good. He’d mentioned wanting to experiment more with watercolours, so this was the perfect time to gift him a set to practice with.

For your gifts, V would have first gifted you a weekend getaway for the two of you, knowing how stressed you had been recently. He wanted to give you a chance to relax and to just spend some time being utterly in love with one another.

Secondly, V gifted you a painting, of your hand touching a rose petal and being illuminated by the sun. He didn’t need to explain it, because he knew the painting reached your heart.

GE Saeran Choi Valentine’s Gifts 

Saeran was always getting you gifts, so he wanted to do something extra special for Valentine’s Day, but remaining in the spirit of the holiday. He was in love with love, and wanted to show it. 

You’d woken up to a room full of flowers, so many flowers. Saeran would have decorated the room silently before you had woken up since he wanted you to wake up to the beautiful sight. He’d tell you the meaning of each flower and how each one represents a different reason as to why he loves you entirely. You’d been awake about thirty seconds, this man is shameless with his affection.

Saeran would make you breakfast in bed and would cook for you for the entire day, making whatever you wanted to eat. He’d already made a bunch of baked goods in preparation whilst you were asleep.

Over dinner, you’d give him his gifts even though you were worried that they weren’t enough in comparison to what he had done. You gave him some seeds, a new pair of gardening gloves since he was continuously hurting his hands on rose thorns, a photo album of the happy memories the two of you had been making with the RFA and a little keychain that had a picture of the two of you in it to go on his housekeys. Needless to say, he cried.

Saeran had also got you another gift, a tiny gold necklace with a little heart in the middle of it. He said he chose it because he wanted you to carry his heart with you everywhere you go.

Vanderwood Valentine’s Gifts

Vanderwood absolutely forgot Valentine’s Day was a thing until the day before, when he wanted in on Seven trying on his maid outfit to make sure it still fit okay and had to immediately explain himself.

He was not someone to celebrate Valentine’s Day, since he didn’t want to get attached to anyone, but you had somehow wormed your way into his life and refused to leave. 

He’d have gotten you a new laptop, since he couldn’t bear to look at that horrific old thing you were using. He set it up with anti-tracking software and made it as safe as possible to people like him didn’t steal your information, he wouldn’t do anything romantic, but he might be a little less mean to you for that day. He wouldn’t even say ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ to you, he’d just hand you the laptop and show you how to use it.

For your gift to Vanderwood, you tried gifting him a vape pen so help him cut down on smoking so much, but he didn’t willingly accept this. He took it, and would maybe use it when he was at home and no one could see him vaping though, since you’re the one who gave it to him. 

Just to add an extra gift in, since you knew the vape pen wouldn’t go down well, you gave him a voucher for a coffee shop and an Elvish dictionary: you had insider information that Seven was about to change the intercom on the door’s language, after all.

[kholran]

For the 35 Questions for Fanfic Writers: 4, 5 10, 12, 16, 19, 27, 34

Oh wow so many! Thank you very much!

4. Are there any writers that inspire you?

Plenty! I'm constantly inspired by other writers in this (DMBJ) fandom. @xantissa and @merinnan and @alxina have such steamy scenes and excellent action plots, and gifted the fandom with not only PingXieSang but Fox!Sang. @foxofninetales has a way with words that I am constantly envious of. @wild-feather writes SO MUCH and is an excellent cheerleader. @hils79 can do slice of life one-shots like no one else. I could honestly heap praises on so so many people (do you write for this fandom? THEN I MEAN YOU), and I draw little bits of inspiration from everything I read.

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of?

I have a couple, for very different reasons. Pyre, for being the start of my very own pool noodle, and for being the first multi-chapter fic I ever actually finished. And Ordinary World, for being the longest fic I've ever written (to date) and for the world-building. I also wrote the entire thing in just over a month, which is a level of productivity that will probably never happen again.

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for?

It's a toss-up between Canon Divergence and Fusion (characters from one thing put into the world/plot of another thing).

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about.

I started a RiSang Pretty Woman AU that I'm having a lot of fun writing so far. I'm going to try and sit on it until it's mostly done, so I don't feel guilty for not updating faster. But it's in the works!

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)?

Answered here!

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between?

...Yes? LOL Ok not very specific. But I've gotten inspiration for all three of those things. Like Pyre is technically "canon-compliant" with Sha Hai apart from the obvious. The major events happening in the background don't change much from canon, save for some tweaking of the (very very wonky) timeline. While Ordinary World and a few of my WIPs are totally AU. I do tend to try and weave at least some of canon (or at least similar events) into my AUs though, so I guess most of them count as "something in-between".

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received?

Oh gosh EVERY comment I get is enough to make my entire day! I've only (so far?) gotten one comment that wasn't nice. But maybe...if I absolutely had to choose...I'd say @crowbraiin's comments on Ordinary World as it was going up during the Rarepair Exchange. Seeing how happy they were about it made ME super happy too.

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of.

I've mentioned Ordinary World a few times already, so here's a little bit of RiSang's first meeting in that fic:

Under a cut because I didn't realize how long it was in Tumblr format

“Is there no other way for you to prove your identity?” Zhang Rishan asks.

His head snaps back up, because yes! He can do that! “I know Wu Xie is still alive. He knows me. If you take me to him, he can prove it to you.”

Liu Sang doesn't get the reaction he's hoping for. Zhang Rishan goes completely, eerily still, in the way that only large predators can. “Take you to Wu Xie?” he repeats, and there's ice in his voice. “How do I know you're not a Wang assassin? Perhaps the other fox shifter is the real Liu Sang, and you're merely an impostor that followed him here. Or maybe the two of you are here together to better your chances. How can I be sure you're telling me the truth, and not just what I want to hear so that I'll let you get close enough to Wu Xie to finish him off?”

“What!? No! I'm not a Wang!” Liu Sang protests, cursing the fact that no, he doesn't have a single thing on him to prove that he's telling the truth. “I don't want to kill Wu Xie!” Well, he doesn't want to assassinate him. He's wanted to murder the man plenty, particularly for dropping him into what was supposed to be a well-paying, simple job that would look good on his resume, but what turned out to be some kind of convoluted horror story that involved him being haunted. By paint, of all goddamn things.

“Then prove it,” Zhang Rishan says again, and while his features are still hard and unforgiving, his tone says there is actually some way for Liu Sang to do that to his satisfaction.

“How? How can I do that?” he asks, and he internally cringes at how desperate he sounds. But he has the distinct impression that being unable to prove himself right here and now means he's not going to walk out of this room again. And if he dies here, he won't have any chance at all to tell Wu Xie that his plan as it stands now is going to get him, and everyone else involved, killed. “Tell me what I have to do.”

Something in Zhang Rishan's expression shifts. Just slightly, almost imperceptibly, but for just a moment, it feels more like he's being regarded with appraisal than accusation. As if the fact that Liu Sang doesn't already know what he needs to do means something. “Turn around and take off the robe,” Zhang Rishan says after a moment.

Liu Sang chokes on nothing, and gapes at him. He can't be serious. How is that going to prove anything? “Wh—what?” he stammers, tugging the robe a little more securely around himself. He wants to gain Zhang Rishan's trust but that's...

Zhang Rishan gives him A Look, and sighs. “The mark of the Wang clan is a tattoo. A phoenix on the right shoulder,” he explains. “Show me you have no tattoo, and I will take you to Wu Xie.”

Oh.

“Oh,” he echoes aloud, but any relief he might have felt is short-lived. Not because he has any kind of tattoo. He definitely doesn't. But his back isn't without its marks, and showing them to anyone, much less a complete stranger, is asking a lot. He glances over his shoulder, and realizes belatedly it's a highly suspicious thing to do when he looks back and finds the accusatory expression has returned to Zhang Rishan's face.

Reluctantly, Liu Sang turns. It's the only way. He recognizes and accepts that, but it's a part of himself he doesn't like to think about, and certainly doesn't like to make visible. Pulling his hair away from the nape of his neck, Liu Sang lets the collar of the robe gape open, and shrugs it off his shoulders, though he does not let it fall all the way. Zhang Rishan hasn't earned that show from him yet. His shoulders hunch as he feels the cool underground air brush the sensitive burn scars that cover his upper back, and hears the sharply drawn breath Zhang Rishan takes at the sight of them. It makes him bristle despite his fear. He doesn't want anyone's pity.

What he's not expecting is the sure touch of a broad hand coming to rest flat against his shoulder. He'd been so preoccupied with his own anxiety that, for the second time in less than an hour, he's caught off-guard. He hadn't even heard Zhang Rishan move. Liu Sang jumps, startled, but Zhang Rishan's other hand comes to rest on his opposite shoulder, holding him steady, and not letting him dart away.

“The tattoos are only visible when the skin is heated,” Zhang Rishan says softly, his breath wafting against the shell of Liu Sang's ear, and his voice is so close, and so suddenly gentle. There's almost an unspoken apology in it. Liu Sang shudders, and he's honestly not sure if it's a result of exposing his scars to Zhang Rishan, or because he's instinctively responding to the soothing tone in his voice. Like the purring of a cat, it somehow eases some of his tension.

Zhang Rishan's hand seems to burn against his skin. The heat of it seeps down into his bones, spreading warmth through his veins despite the residual chill of the underground air. Liu Sang shivers again when he feels Zhang Rishan lean in to breathe warm air onto his skin, presumably in an attempt to speed the process along. He's a little taken aback by the intimacy of the gesture, and his response to it. Because he's very abruptly reminded of the way Zhang Rishan's teeth had clamped onto the back of his neck and held firm, and he can't help the intrusive and completely inappropriate thought that maybe he wouldn't mind if it happened again.

But then the hand and the breath are gone, and the moment with them, and Liu Sang is left a little breathless himself at how bereft and cold he feels without them.

Which is absurd. His life is at risk if he can't make Zhang Rishan trust him. He shouldn't be having feelings about being put through a test that will determine whether he lives or dies.

[blossom-hwa]

fashion major!kevin

ANYWAY THERE WAS LIKE ONE PERSON WHO CALLED FOR A FASHION MAJOR KEVIN SPINOFF OF THE COLLEGE MODEL JUYEON AU I JUST POSTED (linked below) anyway! hope you enjoy, please reblog if you did, and check out my other dumb overly long blurbs in the stream of idiocy tag on my blog <3

pairing: kevin x gender neutral!reader

wc: 2.5k

genre: fluff, university!au

triggers: cursing

college model!juyeon

TBZ Scenarios Masterlist | TBZ Drabbles Masterlist

kevin moon is known on campus for two things: 1. his bright personality literally everyone loves him and if you don’t you’re jealous of him like sorry not sorry i don’t make the rules you know i’m right and 2. his.... unorthodox fashion sense. like eric thought his snake patterned shit was weird as hell?? but there are weirder things in kevin’s closet i swear to you. anyway this unorthodox style is what got him accepted into the fashion program at the university and even though there are a few assholes who stick their noses up at kevin’s work the vast majority of people are cool w his outfits even if they personally wouldn’t wear them and kevin is v well-liked in his major and on campus in general bc he knows everyone and is nice and polite and really a v cool person to be around when he’s not being a fucking idiot

and on campus there are fashion shows a few times every semester to show off the fashion majors’ work, and let’s just say that this university if p well know for its fashion major so some famous people sometimes come along to these events so EVERY TIME a fashion show rolls around the fashion majors get nervous as FUCK and there’s a lot of speculation on who will get noticed and whatever and everyone is secretive about what they’re working on and just. everyone goes fucking haywire and kevin is always v happy when the stress winds down after a show

(no one knows it but kevin has gotten offers from several companies to work with them after he graduates. he hasn’t told anyone except a few friends like juyeon/jacob and his family)

anyway you are also a fashion major who secretly really admires kevin’s stuff?? like you just think he’s so daring and creative and all of his work is absolutely amazing even if it’s a little weird and honestly you don’t even feel overshadowed by his talent and hard work you just feel in awe that you can be in his presence at all. you’re p sure kevin has no idea who you are bc even though you have a lot of the same classes you’re always too shy to sit or work near him bc even though he seems so nice and approachable he’s also just.... god he’s so good

BUT THEN. one of your professors announces that for the next fashion show they’ll be modeling projects that he’s assigning right now. which is weird asf bc usually you’ll all take your best clothing and like fix it or tweak it for the next show, like sometimes people will make something completely from scratch but that’s nerve-wracking and not many people do it unless they’re in a real pinch but it gets even WEIRDER bc this is not a regularly scheduled fashion event?? it’s like a smaller event apparently that they’ve organized just for this project AND THE WEIRDNESS TAKES THE CAKE when your professor says that YOU ARE GOING TO BE THE MODELS. YOU ALL ARE GOING TO PICK SOMEONE IN THE CLASS TO MAKE CLOTHES FOR AND THEY WILL MODEL YOUR OUTFIT

and this SENDS EVERYONE FREAKING THE FUCK OUT??? bc oh god you can’t rely on the models you’ve been using all semester now??? and you have to make flattering clothes for someone you might not even know v well and it’s just. holy fuck holy fuck holy FUCK

meanwhile you already know who you want to create for (/ahem kevin moon/) but you’re also chicken so like??? you’re just sitting in your seat looking over at him but not saying anything until your friend chanhee just pushes you out of your seat in kevin’s direction and is like GO ASK HIM BEFORE YOU LOSE THIS CHANCE and you’re like JESUS FUCKING CHRIST CHANHEE but kevin’s noticed your movement and he’s looking over with a smile on his face and you’re like jfc i can’t do this but chanhee shoves you again and so you kinda smile (you really hope it looks like a smile) and your voice is LITERALLY shaking when you go over and ask if it would be ok to use him as a model for this assignment and he’s like.... oh my god yes

because what YOU don’t know is that kevin has been ogling your designs all year?? like he enjoys his own style and is comfortable in it but he loves your work as in LOVES IT. he thinks your designs are absolutely flawless and original and you combine styles so effortlessly that he just wants to look into your brain when you come up with ideas bc what the fuck?? you may have different styles but kevin knows how to admire art AND YOUR DESIGNS ARE ART. 

so you’re reeling a day later bc now you have kevin moon’s number and he has yours and he’s now texting you on when you think you’ll have the first preliminary designs ready and when you can meet up so you can get each other’s measurements and all that and when you eventually meet up your hands are shaking so much that you can barely take his measurements and kevin is screeching in his mind as well bc oh my god you’re going to model his clothes YOU’RE GOING TO MODEL HIS CLOTHES

most people are again being secretive about their designs and even though someone in their class is modeling for them this time so there’s a bit less secrecy they’re still working alone so you get a shock when kevin asks if you want to coordinate your outfits. like work on designs together and maybe make something that matches a little though ofc retaining your own styles and you just shriek when you get the text and poor childhood best friend younghoon spills his coffee (you have been friends since basically birth and there are no romantic feelings whatsoever ok it’s strictly platonic like you watched younghoon vomit after eating too much bread when you were like 10 and he watched you get tangled up in a soccer net when you were 13 there are no romantic feelings stemming from any of that)

needless to say you reply yes yes ye sYES and kevin is grinning so wide on the other end that juyeon wonders if he’s gone slightly insane (which he has but we’re not gonna dwell on that) and both of you show up to the work rooms nervous as all hell (i’m not a fashion major i have no fashion sense i still think t-shirts/leggings are the way to go so idk how any of this works do not sue me) but kevin has a natural ability to defuse any tension in the room so within minutes you’re comfortable and laughing with him and wondering why you were so scared to approach him before and THEN YOU’RE REMINDED WHY when he shows you his design for you because... oh god.... it’s unbelievable. like it has a distinctly kevin feel to it but he’s clearly been paying attention to what you wear and what you design because it’s something you would like to wear and something you even think you could look good in. holy shit

and you just blurt out like kevin what the fuck this is so good did you like stalk my designs or some shit?? and you mean it as a joke ofc but kevin just goes beet red and mumbles something about how he really likes your work and how it’s so sharply elegant but also insanely creative and you’re just. open-mouthed like. dude i’m in love with your work too oh my god i’m gonna cry my fashion idol just said he likes my designs i’m gonna screaM

kevin stops you from screaming though even though he also feels like he’s gonna scream and this is the start of a very productive partnership between the two of you like most of the fashion majors are friendly despite the competition but you and kevin are on a whole other level?? and you start hanging out more and more often even when you’ve finished designing and are actually sewing (you ask him if this part can be secret bc you want to add a few things as a surprise - he ofc says yes and winks and tells you he has things he wants to add too which just makes you want to scream out of excitement)

and it’s a week before fashion show day and you and kevin are finished with putting together the designs and you’re excited as all hell and kevin is literally about to burst from his own skin and you insist that he goes first and when he pulls the outfit from the bag you’re just. in absolute awe. the colors match the design you made, it looks like it’ll fit, and even though it screams kevin moon it also has a distinct vibe from your own fashion style and you just yell KEVIN MOON YOU GENIUS as you snatch it from him and go change

(you don’t know obviously but kevin is blushing like a tomato while waiting for you to finish changing)

it fits almost perfectly, kevin marks a few places to fix and is debating whether or not to compliment you bc??? that sounds like he’s complimenting his own work and that’s egocentric as hell but then you say something like does it look fine and he just blurts out more than fine. you look great

AND YOU’RE SO FLUSTERED THAT YOU ALL BUT THROW YOUR OWN BAG AT KEVIN and are like GO CHANGE 

so he takes out the clothes and goes silent and you’re like.... oh my god does he hate it i mean we worked on the designs together and he said he liked it then but what if he changed his mind but then he looks at you and his eyes are sparkling and he’s like y/n this is perfect. literally perfect and he rushes to go get changed and when he comes out your eyes are bugging out of your head bc holy hell you pictured kevin in these clothes obviously since they were made for him but he looks so much better than you ever imagined

and then you blurt out something like holy shit you look beautiful

and kevin blushes again

anyway you both take your measurements and run out and then the day of the fashion show rolls around and both of you are freaking out backstage but the instant you two go on it’s like you both are literal gods bc you feel so confident in each other’s clothing and the crowd can feel it THEY CAN FUCKING FEEL IT and they go nuts when you two walk out!!! and even though it isn’t like a huge major fashion show, it’s just for this one project that your professors cooked up, you and kevin are both beaming like the sun when it’s over despite the fact that it wasn’t an important event bc holy shit you two had fun and everyone’s complimenting your clothing and it’s great it’s just great

finally all the chaos is over and the clothes have been put away and the makeup removed and you and kevin are now standing outside the venue in a kind of stunned silence that all of it’s over. it’s all over. and then you suddenly thrust out the clothes you made that kevin wore and tell him to keep it. it’s a present. and kevin takes it but he also forces you to take the outfit he made for you. and then there’s silence again

but if there’s anything you’ve gained over the past few weeks it’s a bit of courage. courage that let you talk to kevin, courage that let you design clothes for him, courage that let you become friends (and maybe something more) with him. you’ve also learned that kevin is a massive dork and a lovely human being and you’d really love to at least stay in contact so in that the moment you smile and say ‘if i asked you on a date, would you wear that outfit?’

poor kevin looks like he’s about to have a fucking aneurysm and you start to lose confidence but then he’s nodding like there’s no tomorrow like yes ye sYE S OH MY GOD YE S and omg you now have a boyfriend whom you like very very much and kevin has a partner whom he likes very very much

you two may not be a pda couple but you ARE that couple that matches every outfit they wear, you make jewelry and accessories for each other and also make each other clothes every so often. everyone is jealous of your combined fashion sense bc even though the outfits might look outrageous, you two both manage to pull them off and look fabulous at it, but also they can’t even be that jealous bc you two are the sweetest couple and are absolutely lovely 

both of you do wear the outfits you made for that show on your first date which is to like a musical or smth bc theatre kid kevin is something you can pry out of my cold dead hands and everyone’s staring but you two are in your own little world and it’s amazing

kevin admits at one point that he was afraid to ask you out bc he thought younghoon was your boyfriend and you just snort and tell him everything stupid younghoon’s done and by the end younghoon is done with you, kevin is about to vomit he’s laughing so hard, and you are smirking like no tomorrow

for the end of year fashion show you and kevin fix up and accessorize the outfits you two made for the show that brought you two together and there is absolutely no surprise that several different fashion companies scout both of you (and a couple modeling agencies too since you and kevin decided to model your own clothing again - younghoon whines that you’ve replaced him but you shut him up with chocolate bread)

kevin’s a sucker for romance (you CANNOT tell me this isn't true) so your first kiss is on the roof of the fashion building at sunset when kevin does the cheesy thing where he says you look more beautiful the view and you almost slap him but you’re laughing so hard and kevin’s cackling and somehow it turns into a kiss

you are a dork and kevin is even more of a dork and it just works out beautifully bc you’re so absolutely in love that it makes people fake vomit from the sides (looking at chanhee right here) but it’s also really sweet in that you two trust each other completely and would do absolutely anything for the other except murder. kevin made that v clear but really only bc blood would stain his clothing and he doesn’t need that. you agree wholeheartedly (younghoon/juyeon are looking from the sides like what the fuck is this couple do they need help and you two are like just go away and let us be the weird couple we are ok). the conversation ends in a v soft v sweet kiss and just. ik i said it with juyeon but kevin moon is also best bf ever ok you cannot convince me otherwise. 

and that’s how it goes :)

If you enjoyed, please don’t forget to reblog and leave a comment to tell me what you thought! Thank you for reading and have a lovely day <3

(1 reblog = 1 prayer for this weird-ass couple)

[qqueenofhades]

If/when they make a Joe/Nicky prequel movie, what are some of the Dos and Don’ts for them, with regards to historical accuracy. Like, what do you think they should include, and what do you think they should avoid?

Oof. This is a GREAT question, and also designed to give me a chance to ramble on in a deeply, deeply self-indulgent fashion. That is now what will proceed to happen. Consider yourself warned. So if they were miraculously to be like “well that qqueenofhades person on tumblr seems like she knows what she’s talking about, let’s hire her to consult on this production!”, here are some of the things I would tell them.

First off, a question I have in fact asked my students when teaching the crusades in class is whether you could actually show the sack of Jerusalem on screen. Like... if you’re making a film about the First Crusade, what kind of choices are you going to make? What narrative viewpoint are you going to uphold throughout the story? Are you actually going to show a slaughter of Muslim and Jewish inhabitants that some chroniclers described as causing enough blood to reach up to the knees of horses? (Whether it actually did this is beside the point; the point is that the sack went far beyond the accepted conventions of warfare and struck everybody involved in it as particularly horrific.) Because when you’re making a film about the crusades, you are also making it by nature for a modern audience that has particular understandings of Christian/Muslim conflict, religious warfare and/or tolerance, the War on Terror, the modern clash over ISIS, Trump’s Muslim ban, and so forth. The list goes on and on. So you’re never making a straight, unbiased historical adaptation, even if you’re going off the text of primary sources. You’re still constructing it and presenting it in a deliberate and curated fashion, and you can bet that whichever way you come down, your audience will pick up on that.

Let’s take the most recent example of a high-profile crusades film: Kingdom of Heaven from 2005. I’ve written a book chapter on how the narrative choices of KoH, aside from its extensive fictionalization of its subject matter to start with, make it crystal clear that it is a film made by a well-meaning Western liberal filmmaker (Ridley Scott) four years after 9/11 and two years after the invasion of Iraq, when the sympathy from 9/11 was wearing off and everyone saw America/Great Britain and the Bush/Blair coalition overreaching itself in yet another arrogant imperial adventure into the Middle East. Depending on how old you are, you may or may not remember the fact that Bush explicitly called the War on Terror a “crusade” at the start, and then was quickly forced to walk it back once it alarmed his European allies (yes, back then, as bad as America was, it still did have those) with its intellectual baggage. They KNEW exactly what images and tropes they were invoking. It is also partly why medieval crusade studies EXPLODED in popularity after 9/11. Everyone recognized that these two things had something to do with each other, or they made the connection somehow. So anyone watching KoH in 2005 wasn’t really watching a crusades film (it is set in the late 1180s and dramatizes the surrender of Jerusalem to Saladin) so much as a fictional film about the crusades made for an audience explicitly IN 2005. I have TONS to say on this subject (indeed, if you want a copy of my book chapter, DM me and I’ll be happy to send it.)

Ridley Scott basically sets it up as the Christian and Muslim secular leaders themselves aren’t evil, it’s all the religious fanatics (who are all made Templars, including Guy de Lusignan, going back to the “evil Templar” trope started by Sir Walter Scott and which we are all so very familiar with from Dan Brown and company). Orlando Bloom’s character shares a name (Balian de Ibelin) but very little else with the eponymous real-life crusader baron. One thing Scott did do very well was casting an actual and well-respected Syrian actor (Ghassan Massoud) to play Saladin and depicting him in essential fidelity to the historical figure’s reputed traits of justice, fairness, and mercy (there’s some article by a journalist who watched the film in Beirut with a Muslim audience and they LOVED the KoH Saladin). I do give him props for this, rather than making the Evil Muslim into the stock antagonist. However, Orlando Bloom’s Balian is redeemed from the religious extremist violence of the Templars (shorthand for all genuinely religious crusaders) by essentially being an atheistic/agnostic secular humanist who wants everyone to get along. As I said, this is a film about the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq made three years after 9/11 more than anything else, and you can really see that.

That said, enough about KoH, back to this presumable Joe/Nicky backstory. You would obviously run into the fact that it’s SUPER difficult to make a film about the crusades without offending SOMEBODY. The urge to paint in broad strokes and make it all about the evil Westerners invading is one route, but it would weaken the moral complexity of the story and would probably make it come off as pandering to guilty white liberal consciences. Are we gonna touch on the many decades of proto-crusading ventures in Iberia, Sicily, North Africa, and other places, and how the eleventh century, especially under Pope Gregory VII, made it even thinkable for a Christian to be a holy warrior in the first place? (It was NOT normal beforehand.) How are we going to avoid the “lololol all religion sucks and makes people do crazy things” axe to grind favoured by So Very Smart (tm) internet atheists? Yes, we have to demonstrate the ultimate horror of the crusade and the flawed premises it was based on, but we can’t do that by just showing the dirty, religiously zealot medieval people doing that because they don’t know any better and are being cynically manipulated in God’s Name. In other words (and the original TOG film did this very well) we can’t position ourselves to laugh at or mock the crusader characters or feel confident in looking down on them for being Dumb Zealots. They have to be relatable enough that we realize we could BE (and in fact already ARE) them, and THEN you slide into the horror and what compels them to do those kinds of things, and THAT’S when it hits. Because take a look at the news. This is happening around us right now.

Obviously, as I was doing in my First Crusade chapter in DVLA, a lot of this also has to spend time centering the Muslim point of view, the way they reacted to the crusade, the ways in which Yusuf as an Isma’ili Shia Muslim (Kaysani is the name of a branch of Isma’ili Shi’ites, he has a definite historical context and family lineage, and hence is almost surely, as I wrote him, a Fatimid from Egypt) is likewise not just A Stock Muslim. In this case, obviously: Get actual Muslims on the set to advise about the details. Don’t make stupid and/or obvious mistakes. Don’t necessarily make the Muslims less faithful or less virtuous than the Christians (even if this is supposed to praise them as being “less fanatic” than those bad religious Catholics). Don’t tokenize or trivialize their reaction to something as horrific as the sack of Jerusalem, and don’t just use dead brown bodies as graphic visual porn for cheap emotional points. Likewise, it goes without saying, and I don’t think they would anyway, but OH MY GOD DON’T MAKE THIS INTO GAME OF THRONES GRIMDARK!!!! OH MY GOD!!! THERE IS BEAUTY AND THERE IS LIGHT AND THERE IS POETRY AND THAT’S WHY IT HURTS SO MUCH WHEN IT’S DESTROYED! AND THE CHOICES THAT PEOPLE MAKE TO DESTROY THOSE THINGS HAVE TO BE TERRIFYINGLY PLAUSIBLE AND FAMILIAR, BECAUSE OH MY GOD!!

Next, re: Nicolo. Evidently he is a priest or a former priest or something of the sort in the graphic novel, which becomes a bit of a problem if we want him to actually FIGHT in the crusades for important and/or shallow and/or OTP purposes. (I don’t know if they address this somehow or Greg Rucka is not a medieval historian or whatever, but never mind.) It was a Major Thing that priests could not carry weapons, at least and especially bladed weapons. (In the Bayeux Tapestry, we have Odo, the bishop of Bayeux, fighting at the battle of Hastings with a truncheon because he’s a clergyman and can’t have a sword). They were super not supposed to shed blood, and a broadsword (such as the type that Nicky has and carries and is clearly very familiar with) is a knight’s weapon, not a clergyman’s. The thing about priests was that they were not supposed to get their hands dirty with physical warfare; they could (and often did) accompany crusade armies, bishops were secular overlords and important landholders, monks and hermits and other religious preachers were obviously part of a religious expedition, and yes, occasionally some priests would break the rules and fight in battle. But this was an exception FAR more than the rule. So if we’re going by accuracy, we have Nicky as a priest who doesn’t actively fight and doesn’t have a sword, we have him as a rule-breaking priest with a sword (which would have to be addressed, and the Templars, who were basically armed monks, weren’t founded until 1119 so he can’t be one of those yet if this is still 1099) or we just skip the priest part and have him as a crusader with a sword like any other soldier. If he was in fact a priest, he also wouldn’t be up to the same standard of sending into battle. Boys, especially younger sons of the nobility, often entered the church at relatively early ages (12 or 13), where it was treated as a career, and hence they stopped training in arms. So if Nicky is actually out there fighting and/or getting killed by Yusuf several times for Important Purposes, he’s... almost surely not a priest.

Iirc, they’ve already changed a few things from the graphic novel (I haven’t read it, but this is what I’ve heard) so they can also tweak things to make a new backstory or a hybrid-new backstory in film-verse. So once we’ve done all the above, we still have to decide how to handle the actual sack of Jerusalem and massacre of its inhabitants, the balance between violence comparable to the original TOG film and stopping short of being exploitative (which I think they would do well), and the aftermath of that and the founding of the new Latin Christian kingdom. It would have to, as again the original film does very well, avoid prioritizing the usual players and viewpoints in these events, and dig into presenting the experiences of the marginalized and way in which ordinary people are brought to the point of doing these things. It doesn’t (and frankly shouldn’t) preach at us that U.S. Invasions Of The Middle East Are Bad (especially since obviously none of the characters/people/places/events here are American at all). And as I said already but bears repeating: my god, don’t even THINK about making it GOT and marketing it as Gritty Dramatic Medieval History, You Know It’s Real Because They’re Dirty, Violent, and Bigoted!

Also, a couple tags I saw pop up were things like “Period-Typical Racism” and “Period-Typical Homophobia” and mmm okay obviously yes there are these elements, but what exactly is “period typical?” Does it mean “using these terms just because you figure everyone was less tolerant back then?” We know that I, with my endless pages of meta on medieval queer history, would definitely side-eye any attempts to paint these things as Worse Than Us, and the setting alone would convey a sense of the conflict without having to add on gratuitous microaggressions. I basically think the film needs to be made exactly like the original: centering the gay/queer perspectives of marginalized people and people of color, resisting the urge for crass jokes at the expense of the identity of its characters, and approaching it with an awareness of the deep complexity and personal meaning of these things to people in terms of the historical moment we’re in, while not making a film that ONLY prizes our response and our current crises. Because if we’re thinking about these historical genealogies, the least we can do (although we so often aren’t) is to be honest.

Thanks! I LOVED this question.

[vyvesvi]

updated top albums list + recommended tracks from each bc im bored lol

*tentatively* in order

unnatural - wjsn | recommended songs: all of them (especially unnatural, supermoon, and yalla) except for rewind | skips: just rewind bc ballad /// im not sure what style to call this album but they really made such a smash, its crazy that it came out so early in the year and no gg is touching it (album wise). literally the only complaints i have are the obligatory ballad (that they always do bc they can all sing lmfao), the album cover/title (dont love the cover design and i dont love when the album name is the tt name, except in certain circumstances (a full album (especially where the title isnt necessarily from the title track) like montero) or when it's a single album (the inverse of this being rsq's prequel which couldve just been called colorfull since that was the only damn song 😐)). i also was disappointed with the outfits for last dance but that's peripheral.

timeabout, - yukika | recommended songs: insomnia & secret | skips: none /// okay to keep it very real im genuinely scared that she'll never surpass soul lady. i love, and i mean LOVE timeabout, but soul lady was on another plane of existence. like she could've held that album a little bit

the other side of the moon - gwsn | recommended songs: like it hot, starry night, i cant breathe | skips: i sing, depending on my mood /// i dont have much commentary tbh,this is just a very solid mini idk. id like to see a fusion of i cant breathe/tweaks/after the bloom/burn, maybe on their next mini. i love their brighter stuff but maybe a darker concept next (halloween cb pls pls pls)

montero - lil nas x | lowkey too soon for me to pick recommended songs but i'll say montero, scoop, lost in the citadel, sun goes down, and am i dreaming for now. will update! | skips: none /// i cant say that this is this year's sawayama bc sawayama was kinda more like a collection of really strong singles? whereas i feel like these songs shine as an album. i dont even know what to say except that im soooo surprised and impressed because i didnt know that this is the type of music he made???? like he raps but theres a lot of singing? not like belting but definitely not rapping. its kinda...alt ish? in some places? if i had to use ine genre to describe the whole album id probably say alt pop? idk but whatever it is it's definitely working

hide & seek - purple kiss | recommended songs: zombie & so why (tbh all of them) | 2am and zzzz depend on my mood but theyre def not full skips /// no bad song on the album this is crazy....i might rerank since i just listened to it for the first time but as of now idk, its good im just super impressed. ponzona wasnt for me but this cb theyre really doing all the things, lovr tht for them

produced by: [myself] - onlyoneof | recommended songs: coy & night flight | question mark depends on my mood /// im still mad at them (read: 8d) sooooo...idk. i can’t really listen to their music rn. but this mini is still good

play game: holiday - weeekly | recommended songs: check it out, weekend, holiday party | i like memories of summer rain and la luna but it depends on my mood /// very cohesive mini, def their best overall imo! not much to say, but i hope jiyoon gets well soon TTTT

enchant - orbit | recommended songs: gokurakuchouka & never gonna get away but also all of them except flor lunar | skips: flor lunar is nice but boring /// i need kpoppies to get into it im tired of being here alone cmon y’all

set - woodz | recommended songs: feel like | skips: none /// i prefer his bright tracks but this mini was solid as usual. where is the full album tho seungyoun hmmm????

guess who - itzy | recommended songs: sorry not sorry, tennis (0:0), kidding me | skips: in the morning, occasionally wild wild west /// i remember being very surprised that i liked this album, especially given that i dont like mitm. not anything groundbreaking but still solid. i think the naming of tennis (0:0) was really clever

intersection: trace - bae173 | recommended songs: green light, loved you | skips: none (sometimes the intro tho) /// honestly their music is really good??? mbk just hasn’t promoted them well, i feel like they make it a little hard to stan...i really appreciate that they’re not doing the stereotypical hard bg concept thing

lilac - iu | recommended songs: coin, flu, ah puh, troll | skips: honestly id have to relisten, some of the songs a lil boring but idr them at the moment

hello future - nct dream | recommended songs: hello future, life is still going on | skips: idr tbh, probably hot sauce though //// was very surprised that i liked this album, but the outro of hello future really got me after a few listens so i had to check it out. very decent!

killa - mirae | recommended songs: killa, sweet dreams, 1 thing | skips: none really but all of the bsides are a little mid tbh /// i will be 1000% honest in saying that the three reasons this allbum made this list are 1.) killa (the tt), 2.) none of the songs are bad, 3.) lien’s vocals. something about lien....he really just sells whatever song he’s on. his belting >>>>>>>>>>>. he makes their music very enjoyable to listen to, next in that department would be junhyuk. based on their most recent cb, siyoung and khael also contribute a lot as well. shame that the rest of the cb album kinda does nothing for me idk. random but i would really like a gg to cover higher and/or killa

& - loona | recommended songs: ur, ptt | skips: a different night, dance on my own /// these r my girls but this is not their best. ur is wonderful though, and ptt is addicting somehow. wow and be honest are fine but really not their best. i like wow’s choreo tho! 

albums im excited to listen to (no particular order):

last year was weird volume 3, tkay maidza (i’ve already listened to a bunch of it but i need to sit and just listen to the whole thing)

troubled paradise, slayyter (same as above, but i didn’t even realize it came out this year, i thought it was old for some reason lol)

jo1, challenger (every song of theirs i hear i like pretty much so i need to take an organized look at them lmfao)

jo1, stranger (same as above)

only lovers left, woodz (duhhh its woodz. not out yet but im excited! i do prefer his brighter concepts and this def isn’t that. he says its not gonna be like what he’s done before but the title and concept photo that’s out rn is giving lift up)

the book of us: negentropy - chaos swallowed up in love, day6 (the title kinda bored me but we’ll see. also sungjin’s gone so.....................we’ll see.)

ancient dreams in a modern land, marina (i barely got past venus fly trap because its soooooo good. i’ve listened to a little after that but the songs i heard didn’t really compare. i have to give it a shot tho)

the chaos chapter: fight or escape, txt (i liked the blue hour mini so i need to give them a chance i suppose)

333, tinashe (i just feel like i should idk)

honorable mentions (no particular order):

blue hour, txt - discovered this year, came out last year. retroactively makes the 2020 albums list bc whew the market research that went into that thing paid off

hula hoop/ starseed ~kakusei~, loona (why tf does the album not have a name) - duhhh loona + synths = a smash. in fact like i said when it dropped i dont even wanna call them loona anymore. this is kongetsu no shoujo!!! this isn’t on my top albums list because im counting as two songs and my limit is 3. i might add it anyways lmfao. we’ll see

ugly beauty, jolin tsai - discovered this year, came out in 2018. i just really like jolin tsai idk. i had only heard that album w play and i’m not yours, both are iconic but the production quality sounds...low? like its older but ik they’re not *that* old. either way, ugly beauty does everything i wanted it to - dramatic, vocals, rapping, boa vibes...jolin tsai is a queen what can i say

also, there are of course a ton of singles that i love as well, this is albums only though lmfao. i have no idea if i could even attempt to organize the singles lol

[niseamstories]

Tl;dr: The heavily revised physical edition Dreams of the Dying, my novel set in the Enderal universe, is now available for pre-order via Amazon via my website. Special early bird prices are $32.99 for the hardcover with an illustrated appendix, $12.99 for the paperback, and $2.99 for the eBook. It’s a prequel featuring Jespar, but, for reasons outlined below, opens up a new canon. Amazon.de has yet to pick up the listing for the physical editions, but they are incredibly slow—I’m working to get that done.

Hey guys,

This is Nicolas, the writer of Enderal speaking. As some of you may know, I’ve been working on an Enderal novel, Dreams of the Dying. First released as a web version, I spent the past year completely rewriting and improving the book, adding and removing chapters, revising characters arcs, and improving plotting, worldbuilding, and style. In total, I rewrote the web edition three times from cover to cover. Well, it’s finally time: Dreams of the Dying is now available for pre-order on Amazon!

The English version of Dreams of the Dying will release on October 20. A German (and perhaps Russian) translation will follow as soon as possible.

Please note that this is a rendering and that the actual hardcover looks slightly different, with same format but a matte dust jacket and a matte, laminated case. A big shoutout to Dominik Derow for the cover artwork, Johanna Krünes for her cover design, and Joyce, for her tips, patience, and help with this product shot.

Jaaros Oonai, magnate, visionary, and master of coin, doesn’t muse about whether the glass is half empty or half full—only about ways to fill it.

Jespar Dal’Varek, drifter, mercenary, and master of avoidance, doesn’t muse at all. He’d rather just drink the damn wine.

Two lives that could not be more different intertwine when a strange contract leads Jespar to the tropical island empire of Kilay, the wealthiest nation of the Civilized World.

The mission turns out to be as bizarre as it is lucrative: Jaaros Oonai, the country’s merchant king, knows something that could stop a catastrophe, but he has fallen into an inexplicable coma. Together with an ex-priestess and a psychic, Jespar must enter Oonai’s dreams and find this secret.

What should have been a fresh start rapidly turns into a nightmare, as Jespar slides into a spiral of disturbing dreams, political intrigue, and clashing ideals, where not only the fate of Kilay but his own sanity are at stake. It’s not long before he learns that only a spider’s thread divides the sleeping and the awoken.

And that there’s no greater enemy than one’s own mind.

The hardcover edition comes with an appendix that includes additional lore, such as an illustrated bestiary, a guide to Kilayan fashion, illustrations of the (re-envisioned) seven Light-Born, a short guide to the Makehu language, and much more.

Even though Dreams could be considered a prequel, I didn’t write this as an expansion or fan service but rather as my debut, and a book that stands on its own. This edition differs vastly from the web version, and, though it is up to you to judge, I’m a million times happier with it.

If you’re on the fence and would like to wait for reviews—here’s hoping I get enough—I fully understand. However, if you would buy the novel, you’d do me a great favor if you considered pre-ordering. One of the biggest challenges as an indie author is exposure; since Amazon registers all pre-orders as Day 1 sales, a lot of Day 1 sales would give me a chance to climb in the novel’s category and boost visibility for readers outside the Enderal community. To make this worth it to you, the book will sell for a special early bird price of $32.99 for the hardcover with the illustrated appendix, $12.99 for the paperback, and $2.99 for the eBook, as opposed to $37, $16, and $5. Just follow the link to my website and click pre-order—it will take you right to your local Amazon marketplace.

Unfortunately, Amazon.de has yet to pick up the listing for the physical editions, but they are incredibly slow—I’m working to get that done.

I’m aware the hardcover is in the upper price range, but it uses the best materials, and the illustrated appendix cost a lot to produce. It’s also the only edition where I make a more solid revenue, so see it as a way to support my work, if you wish.

If you’re a patron and pledged $110 or more since October 2018, I’ll be in touch a few weeks before launch to send out your signed hardcover copy right away. Thanks again for your support, Dreams became a far pricier project than I anticipated, and your patronage helped me immensely in covering the cost.

Lastly, a word of warning before you pre-order: For the paperback edition, I took the drastic step to separate Dreams and all future Enderal novels from the game canon. There are two good reasons for this. First, the Vyn games were created over 17 years, the earliest one being Myar Aranath in 2003. Fascinating as this idea may be, it also means that the lore of the Vyn universe was created by a myriad of different authors (the latest and current one being me when I joined the team in 2011). As a result of this, the lore of Vyn has always felt a little disjointed and inconsistent; I initially took these differences as challenges to conquer, but the longer I wrote, the more I realized how much these inconsistencies bothered me and how hard they made it to write the story and the universe I envisioned. Let me assure you that this decision wasn’t easy and does not reflect a lack of appreciation for the work of the previous workers. I stayed faithful to the lore whenever possible.

The second reason is a trickier one: Jespar. This character has been in my mind for nine years now, and I love him with all my heart. Still, the more I immersed myself in the story of Dreams, the more I grew aware of how incredibly constraining it was to write a story where the end is already written; because Jespar is alive in 8234 a. St. (1234 P.L. in new canon lore), you all know he will never be in real danger. Again, there is undoubtedly an intriguing challenge to writing such a “safe” story, but—similar to the lore, I increasingly felt like I was writing with fetters on. 

So, what does this mean? Aside from the fact that anything can now happen, the consequences aren’t that drastic. Enderal is still Enderal, and Jespar is still Jespar, albeit thirteen years younger and at another point in his life. I changed and expanded details about his backstory, but his essential conflicts are still the same, only refined. Major changes include modifications to the Light-Born (their aspects, how they came to be, when and how they disappeared, and the societal consequences of that disappearance), the time frame of the different eras, and a complete rework of the magic system. Minor changes include dates, the spelling of names and locations (Kilay, not Kilé), and others details I tweaked for consistency and worldbuilding coherence.

And that’s about it. I’m aware and grateful for the love many of you have for this world, and believe me, I did my best to honor it; I just realized I cannot tell a good story with one arm tied behind my back. If it’s any solace, I can promise you that new book canon is ironclad – I’m pathologically obsessive about consistency and cohesive worldbuilding, but without a solid framework, that’s a recipe for frustration and disaster. See it as a different but nearby eventuality: details and fates may differ, but the soul of the world remains the same.

If all that didn’t scare you off, pre-order away! I also set up a Goodreads page for the book, so you can add it to your To-Be-Reads or even recommend it to your friends – this is an indie project by all means, so I’m grateful for every bit of support. Please keep in mind that the Goodreads is for the revised edition, not the web edition, so if you’re planning to leave a low rating, I’d be grateful if you waited to read the actual book in October 20. It’s a different experience.

Last but not least, a big thank you to everyone who supported me on Patreon, created fanart for Enderal, or just let me know they enjoyed this game and were looking forward to the novel. This novel was meant to be a 6-month stint but, boy, did it turn into something more. It sounds sentimental, but this last year has been rough personally, and your support and encouragement kept me going.

I hope this story will live up to your expectations.

Best,

Nicolas

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[bnha-scenarios]

☕️ Special Thanks ☕️ 

As always, thank you so much for the coffee! Your kindness are very much appreciated! ♡

Emilija | Regan | Nela Kovaříková | 1 Anon

Onwards to the progress update.

I had. So. Many. Things. That I actually wanted to complete.

… Alas, work decided to be a bitch and swamp me with things to take care of. To put it simply, there were a lot of issues that caused a lot of overtime work even on weekends, so I had to step away from coding most of the time so I won’t burn myself out.

So yeah, I didn’t manage to complete a lot of features, though I did dabble on some stuff here and there. I’m not happy with the rather small progress either. But life happens, and there are just other things that are more important sometimes. So we just have to let it go and look forward to the next month!

I’d say that this month I was quite productive in terms of organization and planning instead of the actual coding. I have at least identified what I need to write for the ‘free activity’ time of the game, which makes about 30-40% of the gameplay itself. However, actually writing the scenes and executing it is a different effort altogether, which I have only started to embark on.

Still, it’s crazy to think that the development for the full game has been actively going for around three and a half months now. Whew. Knowing that I have a tendency to hyperfocus and then get tired of something after a short time frame, I’m going to at the very least give myself a pat on the back for still keeping this project up and running until now.

More details below ↓

Added Route: Kirishima

Let me preface this first with a declaration: I won’t be adding any more love interest after this. Please please please don’t make me do it 😅 Going through all the plans and re-setting up things to figure out how to add him in was such a painful experience…

But anyway. I will be adding this boy’s route to the full game, because a lot of people seem to want to have him in the game. He does seem like a fun character to write, so I thought I’ll give him a chance.

Gameplay

Places, Schedules, and Hanging Out with the Boys

I think you would have noticed from the last two devlogs, but there are several activities you can do in-game. One of them is to visit a place of your choice at a certain time in a day.

Some places can be unlocked when you reach a certain threshold in a specific stat, and there are others which will be unlocked when you reach a specific threshold in a character’s affection meter. Nai will message you whenever you manage to unlock a new place to visit, so keep a lookout for that!

But what happens when you visit a place?

Well, each character has their own schedules -- which you should be able to figure out either by coincidence or by talking to them at school when prompted to do so. Your Quirk will allow you to see the unlocked schedule of each of the characters, so my advice would be to check it out before deciding where to go! If you manage to come to a specific place at the correct time, you will bump into them. Normally, this will trigger a set of actions you can perform: Talk, Action, and Skinship.

Talking is a safe way to increase your love interest’s affection meter, especially in the first half of the game. More topics can be unlocked under some requirements. Generally, it doesn’t matter where you are, the topics you can talk about will be the same. There are topics which might trigger different reactions depending on how high your love interest’s affection is, so have fun finding them! However, be warned that most topics can be selected only once!

Action is another safe way to further increase your love interest’s affection meter. Unlike talking, different places have a different set of actions you could select from. More actions can also be unlocked under some requirements. Responses to this doesn’t exactly change based on the character’s current affection level, and it’s not limited to one time only.

Skinship is a riskier way to boost the affection meter: simply put, it’s a high gain with a high risk. Consider the character’s current affection level when you’re selecting from this list! He might not like it if you go touchy-feely when you’re not that close yet.

On the other hand, when his affection is high enough, you’ll find that you can have a lot of fun choosing the various options here. So be smart, bide your time, and have fun ;)

And that’s not all! Interaction is a two-way street, so depending on how your love interest views the main character, he will initiate Talk, Action, or even Skinship. There’s a lot of variations in here, and I hope you’ll have fun with this mechanic! I certainly am having fun while also pulling out my hair out of frustration designing this and trying to put the mechanism to control this into code…

Progress-wise, I think at the very least the functions for controlling this specific mechanic have been 80% completed. The actual writing however, is another story. There are still hundreds that I still haven’t had the time to write yet, and most of them are not yet coded in. Those who have been coded in still don't have sprites and music, so really, I’ll just say that the writing progress for this part is less than 1% completed….

On the left is the currently WIP full game project, with what I would say around 2-4% dialogue scripted in. And on the right side is the completed demo project.

…. Can you see how much effort the whole game is going to take me now? I did say to strap in and relax, cause this is going to be a long ride. And I wasn’t kidding lol

"Nai"

Although throughout the first week, the story will flow as your environment / characters around you teaches you on how the game works, I’m aware that the game mechanics might be hard to understand for casual players who aren’t too used to playing otome games (or games in general). Which is pretty much why I’m giving you a ‘helpline’ of some sort, in the form of another character.

Why a character? Because I can and I want to. Shush 😆

If you’ve played the demo, chances are, you’ve encountered a name which you had no recollection of existing in the canon My Hero Academia universe. Well, you’re right. Like the player’s character, Nai (full name: Namae Nai / 名前 ない) doesn’t exactly exist in the canon universe, but she’s here to help you throughout the game. (She’s also there because if she wasn’t, 1-A class members becomes odd number in total and that just feels weird to me -- plus, the team exercise system in Heroics wouldn’t exactly make sense if the class has odd number of students)

For those of you who hate Original Characters with a passion (why tho), you don’t need to worry too much. She won’t be an intrusive character in the plot and will mainly not contact you unless she really has to (seriously, her full name literally means ‘no name’, so give her a break, ok?). And if, even then, you still hate her, well.... Too bad you won’t be able to enjoy the game, I guess.

For those of you who don't mind her existence: I hope you’ll take a liking to her dark sense of humor and appreciate her helping you get through the game!

Others

Fixed some bugs regarding unlocking Special Moves from certain activities and games.

Played around and customized the ‘input name’ for a little bit, so it wouldn’t awkwardly sit on the bottom of the screen. I have 0 talent in designing UI though, so the background still stays as a black screen -- but at least it looks more prominent now.

Added a little sign to indicate which route the player has entered. I think it’s pretty cute! Hopefully you’ll like it.

Assets

Those who follow me on Twitter would have seen this coming, but anyway, I’ll be using TMGS OSTs as the main character theme for the four love interests. Hush hush, okay?

Other than that, unfortunately I didn’t have time to do any assets gathering this month.

Writing

Nothing much to say here. I think I managed to script around 50% of the events in the first day, but honestly I’m not completely satisfied with it so I might go back and tweak them a bit. Still a lot of scenes to be written!

Plans for December

I'm not too sure whether there would be much progress for the next two months, since there are so many things happening and deadlines to be met at work, which is making me really unmotivated to do other side projects in my free time lately. I also feel like I haven't been taking care of my health enough ever since quarantine started, so I'm trying to get back into doing more exercises and looking for healthier food options, which also cuts into my free time and motivation I guess.

With that said, I'll still at least aim for getting some scripts coded in -- particularly for the events in day 1. Other than that, maybe hopefully some assets gathering for supporting Kirishima's newly added route, and finishing up the coding parts that I was unable to finish this month.

I'll see y'all again at the end of next month!

[n5md]

Cloudwalker

In our newly relaunched "Learn more about..." interviews, we switch up the continuity slightly and focus on just one release: Gimmik's Cloudwalker. Martin kindly agreed to answer a few questions to kick off what we'll refer to as v2 of the "Learn More About..." blog.

While Entre Les Chambres was the actual return of Gimmik to the public eye, Cloudwalker is more of a return to form. It is undeniably Gimmik; however, Cloudwalker treads some new ground for you. Can you shed some light on how the creative process changed from Entre Les Chambres / Deux Nouvelles and how those two albums might have influenced Cloudwalker?

Very well observed - they did influence Cloudwalker! Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were both produced under technically limited circumstances. On top of that, I thought that no one will ever hear this material. Luckily it was not the case, and I got the chance to become a member of the n5MD family. When you produce with the idea that the material will never get released, it gives you a lot of room and space. You are not concerned about expectations. The music can flow and evolve freely. The calm nature of those albums helped that process. It was research where I experienced myself more as a witness than a composer. For me, that is a new approach. This approach was still the same when I produced Cloudwalker. That is the reason why the tracks are so diverse. Short Wave Memories and In My Family do not have anything in common, but that is the way they evolved, without me constructing anything. The most significant difference is that Cloudwalker was produced in a proper studio environment. Plus, I took a step into eurorack, which brings a very unpredictable element. And yes, that is Mutable Elements "Rings'' what you hear on In My Family. I was working on a self-generative patch with "Marbles'' when all of a sudden, the melody appeared...

I think you sent me In My Family shortly after you finished it, and it was one of the darkest days of the early pandemic; where our local government-issued curfews and such. It was the track that I needed at that moment; it brightened my day. It's very cool that the melody was a generative experiment gone right. I seem to remember you have quite a bit of the Mutable Instruments modules. Modular, to me, seems like a bit of a wormhole of experimentation. So, how do you stay focused when experimenting with new sounds and textures to bring, say, one of your Modular Nature tracks, which you have on your Youtube channel, to life.

Working with a modular system is entirely different. My approach is always a question. What will happen if I connect this with that and modulate with this? Then you start patching, and the results are entirely different from what I expected - a lot more exciting and better! In the beginning, I thought modular was about rebuilding synth voices. So I started emulating the signal-flow path of a 101 for a start. I missed the whole point of modular... A system has a life of its own and takes you to completely different places, and sometimes I do not even understand the results. (-: But that is not important. The decision to work with modular is to avoid walking down paths I have taken too many times when composing. What keeps you focused is your ear. The trick is to learn when to stop. In the beginning, I lost a lot of great patches when the result was already at 90%. When trying to reach 100%, my tweaks destroyed that patch's beauty, and I never found a way back to 90%. That happened a lot of times in the beginning. A modular system really helps to learn when to let go… (laughing). I chose Mutable Instruments because those modules are very focused on musical and harmonic results.

So, going back to Cloudwalker, how did it feel getting back to basics as far as Gimmik goes. People may not know that Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were made for very personal listening. Care to shed a little light on those two, and more importantly, what made you want to go past those themes and bring Gimmik full circle for Cloudwalker?

Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were NOT a conscious decision. Those were a necessity! The title Entre Les Chambres means "between two rooms", the space that is between two rooms. That is nowhere! It mirrors how I felt at that moment. There were many significant changes in my life, luckily nothing concerning my family, but still major changes. In order to cope with it all, I started making ambient tracks. It was the only thing that helped me to cope and focus again. The tracks happened by themselves. Listening to them and working on those albums was a calming experience. When they were finished, I played them to Chris, and he convinced me that he liked them. That led to the decision to make those first tapes. Later I sent them to you. Your reaction was very motivating because the music got released. With that motivation and getting back into a studio environment, the Cloudwalker tracks just poured out of me very quickly - it felt terrific to go back to the studio. My family gave me the time to work in my studio, and you and Chris gave very motivating feedback! From my perspective, this makes Cloudwalker my most important album so far, and I am very thankful for this chance! Another key element is that you gave me total freedom regarding artwork, choosing tracks, and their order. Just great!

Well, I knew going in that you know what you are doing. So I shouldn't have needed to step in and manage such details. For release prep, I'm available to take care of the details that an artist doesn't have access to or the working knowledge. You and Chris ran Toytronics, and you are a graphic artist as well, so I knew that you know the drill. If something was glaring or didn't work under the n5 stylistic umbrella, it is my job to say something, but I was pretty confident that wouldn't happen. I also know that after you completed the tracks, you took a great deal of time to get them to flow perfectly and also fit on four LP sides—your care in craft shows, and it's been great to work with you.

You brought up Chris, and there is an Abfahrt Hinwl remix on Cloudwalker, so; I'm going to ask. Are we going to hear some new Abfahrt Hinwl soon?

Thank you, as I said, that means a lot to me. And I still think that it is a fortunate situation. The AH RMX of Sailing Everest on Cloudwalker was just me, to be honest. That is why I used an abbreviation - AH. It is more a hint. It has a lot of the Abfahrt Hinwil ingredients. We tried to revive the project and realized that working over a distance via the internet does not work for either of us. The key of Abfahrt Hinwil was that we worked in the same room, at the same time, with the same equipment - listening to what the other one does - giving an immediate reaction. The most important point is communication, which has to happen immediately - you need to respond straight away, not with a delay. Today we find ourselves in two different life situations. We both would like to continue. After an online experiment, we realized it would be only possible when we visit each other and then work in the same studio. That is not possible at the moment, and Covid plays a significant role in that.

Ah, I see; Abfahrt Hinwil was you and Chris basically feeding off one another; also, there are cheques and balances, which is great to have. I completely understand why it would not be feasible to do it from a distance effectively. So, I'd like to pivot to these little builds I see on your Instagram. You recently sent me a pic of a peculiar little box that looks to be a synth. Assuming this is something you built (loving the stickering, by the way). What is this, and does it appear on Cloudwalker?

(laughing) That is a drone box handmade by a guy in Russia. Six oscillators, each one with a kill switch. Three standard range oscillators and 3 Sub. A very rough-sounding machine, great for drones. The filter sounds very nasty, just great. There is a little bit in the track Cloudwalker itself but washed out by Big Sky. The downside is that there is no midi, trigger gate, or voltage control. It is more of an experiment tool. The important parts of the track Cloudwalker have Mutable Instruments: Plaits and Tides 1, using the Sheep mode. Both outputs went into Warps, modulated by Stages. The little melody was played live on the Yamaha DX Reface, going into the Big Sky. It was all recorded live onto tape to 4 tracks to a Tascam 234. Then it was mixed the classic way, patchbay, fx, analog mixer main out to digital. 75% of the album was recorded to a Sound Devices MixPre-3 II.

It sounds like your Big Sky gets some action! Strymon makes some exceptional pedals. It seems like you can almost entirely make music out of the box if you needed to, which is excellent. So one last question: When we collaborated on the Cloudwalker one sheet text, you added something about the production tools "representing technology from 1958 to 2019," and I asked if 1958 was a type-o that needed to be corrected to 1985 when it was not. When people read that, I think they will be very curious as to what technology you utilized from that far back…

Yes, it is a great pedal, I love the sound and the fact that you get nice results very quickly.

1958- (laughing) There is an on oscilloscope from Russia, which can be seen in some of the videos on HIDDEN REALITY, and 2 vintage function generators. I got those old function generators from a close friend, he is an electronic engineer and professor for physics at a university. They got rid of all their old equipment, and he asked if I wanted to have something. He could not throw those old machines away, so he rescued them to his cellar. He changed the connections for me, so I can use them with the modular environment, using my standard patch cables. I used them a lot as modulation sources, as they can modulate extremely slow (like MI tides). But I have to admit that I got them for their looks in the first place…(laughing) - Those machines look like the machinery you see in Qs research center in old James Bond movies...

Order Cloudwalker now: US / UK / EU

Learn even more about Gimmik

[19red]

under the cut, mostly the product of yesterday sprint: about 2k of 1988 filth -  inspired by: that one close up gif of Jonny’s beefy thighs & my inability to concentrate on the stuff I should actually be writing

*

“Oh my god,” Jonny coos.

It’s a nice lazy morning, both of them lounging in bed half-naked. Patrick might be still more asleep than not, so he falls for it like a fucking amateur. “What?” he asks and is consequentially cursed to suffer through five consecutive videos of NHL players doing bodyweight squats while holding their dogs before the inevitable happens.

“See,” Jonny starts.

“No way.”

“That’s why we should get a puppy.”

Patrick pinches the bridge of his nose. “Zero fucking chance, dude.”

“It’d be a great addition to our leg day workout, look,” Jonny says, shoving the phone right at Patrick’s face. Patrick wrestles it out of his grip and chucks it at the foot of the bed, then since he’s still holding Jonny by the wrists, uses his hand to enumerate. Thumb: “Dogs are all slobbery and unsanitary.”

Pointer: “They leave their fucking fur everywhere.”

Middle: “They’re like, bottomless pits of need that smell like rotten lake water.”

Ring: “They have no respect of  what’s holy so they bark your head off at six in the morning. Don’t fucking front, dude, you’d kill the thing in like two days.”

Pinky: “In conclusion: no, thank you.”

Jonny makes an affronted face. “I would not.”

Patrick rolls his eyes, lacing their fingers together. “You say that now but I can already imagine the PR nightmare.”

“Fuck you,” Jonny wields their joined hands and slaps Patrick’s chest.  

“Yeah,” Patrick says. Then, struck by sudden genius, “Yeah. You want a leg workout?”

“I want a dog.”

“No,” he bites hard on his smirk, feeling his lips growing warm with the sting, knowing they’re turning pink and swollen. “You want a leg workout. I’ll be generous.”

“What?” Jonny’s brows knit in confusion even as his spellbound gaze trails to Patrick’s mouth.  His neck already looks licked by fire. He is so fucking easy, so fucking hot. Patrick wants to climb him.

Instead, he ducks his head so he can brush his next words on Jonny’s knuckles while he leers up at him through his lashes: “You can use me.”

“What?” Jonny says again, making Patrick dizzy just by looking back, dark eyes turning three shades deeper.

“Up against the wall,” Patrick says, disentangling their fingers and baring his throat so he can hold Jonny’s palm against it, so he can watch Jonny’s focus narrow to include nothing past Patrick and his wild thrashing heart, thumping wilder with every breath. “I mean, if you can take me.”

Jonny growls, “Of course I can fucking take you,” and Patrick’s suddenly flat on his back, legs held wide by the breadth  of Jonny’s strong thighs. The hand on his throat squeezes for a second, then climbs to tug on his curls, leaving Jonny’s biting mouth in its place.

“I don’t know, dude,” Patrick arches up, inviting more, already panting.  “You sure?”

“You really want it?” Jonny asks. His rough monotone washes right over Patrick’s ear and drips in shivers across his whole body, making his toes curl, the hair on his nape stand. Through the layers of their underwear, Jonny grinds his dick into Patrick’s and says, “I’m gonna wreck you if you let me.”

“Yeah,” Patrick nods, hips bucking up, needing Jonny close and now and closer still.

“Yeah,” Jonny echos, sneaking an arm between Patrick and the mattress to grab a handful of his ass. “You’re gonna take me so deep, baby. Pass me the lube. Want you nice and sloppy.”

He sinks his teeth below the curve of Patrick’s jaw one last time before sitting back on his haunches to allow Patrick the space to contort his upper body toward the bedside table. While Patrick’s reaching for the lube, Jonny scoops him up by a thigh and uses the grip to untwists him at the waist, flipping him over to his belly. Hooks his fingers in the elastic of Patrick’s boxers and pulls them down just enough to access Patrick’s bare ass, pawing the cheeks apart to reveal his tender little hole. Patrick feels himself twitch at the whisper of cold air, the sudden exposure, the manhandling.

“Look at you,” Jonny says, circling the rim with a thumb, almost pushing in but not yet, waiting for Patrick to unfurl hungrily under his pad before denying him. “You’re still so fucking loose.”

“Jonny,” Patrick whines, writhing against the sheets, trying to spread his legs but finding them hampered by the clutch of his boxers.

Jonny holds him still, one hand pressing on the small of his back, the other biting into the meat of his ass to keep his hole on display. “Jonny,” Patrick whines again-- and Jonny spits. Patrick feels the slow dribble of saliva trickle inside and past his entrance, tease over his taint at a maddening pace. Jonny is looking, Patrick can feel that too. “Jonny, I’m going to die.”

“Okay, okay.” Jonny huffs in amusement. He bends down to bite Patrick’s cheeks hard enough to make him yelp, rubbing his stubble over the tender flesh before soothing the burn with a kiss. “That’s a bit melodramatic, though, don’t you think?” he asks, pulling away.

“No,” Patrick says, groping blindly for the lube and throwing the bottle over his shoulder, almost catching Jonny square in the face. It’s important Jonny doesn’t get sidetracked. Patrick got fucked good just a couple of hours ago, he doesn’t need a slow teasing prep. He’s ready for hard and fast and up against the wall, ready for Jonny to use him and fill him up again, for all that to happen right about now. Patrick’s dick jerks at the thought.

“Should I stop and call a doctor?” Jonny asks.  Patrick finally hears the click of the lube being uncapped.

“Dude, I’ll kill you. I’m being serious,” he threatens, just to be sure.

Jonny squirts  the lube directly onto his crack, without even bothering to warm it up. Patrick’s hole flutters – half from the cold, half from the anticipation. “Fucking obscene,” Jonny mutters, sweeping his thumb over it, catching  the slick oozing toward Patrick’s balls and swiping it back up, feeding it inside and drawing out almost immediately. Patrick clenches hard around nothing. “You’re so fucking desperate,” Jonny says, thrusting back in abruptly with two thick fingers. The stretch leaves Patrick breathless for a few seconds, a little high-pitched mewling seeping from the back of his throat.

“Yeah,” he pants, pushing his overheated face into the pillow and his hips back into the intrusion, struggling against the constraint of his boxers as he tries to force his legs apart to suck Jonny in deeper. “And what about it?”

“I fucking love it,” Jonny mumbles, too absorbed by his ministration to help out while Patrick tries to wriggle free from his underwear. When he is halfway through, Jonny twists his fingers out and fucks them back in, hard, again and again, until all Patrick can do is squirm in place and take it. “Love it so much, baby,” Jonny says, slowing down. He bows forward to nuzzle the damp curls at the base of Patrick’s skull, trailing kisses over his nape, the side of his neck, just below his ear. “Love you,” he says, rolling his fingers inside Patrick and his bare dick over the back of his thigh. He must have shucked his briefs at some point.

“Come on, I’m ready,” Patrick takes the respite to kick his boxers all the way to his ankles and finally spread his legs, push up to his knees. Jonny lets him.

“Are you?” he asks, wrapping his arms around Patrick’s chest and pulling him up until he’s sitting over Jonny’s thighs, Jonny’s hard dick nestled between his cheeks, its solid pressure almost making up for the sudden emptiness in his hole.

“Dude,” Patrick grumbles, both of Jonny’s hands wandering over his torso, one stopping to tweak his nipples, the other smoothing downward. “Dude I am, I’m ready. You have to.”

“I’m going to, I promise. Just let me look a little. You’re so fucking pretty.”

Patrick grinds his ass down on Jonny’s lap and whimpers, lust and frustration turning him non-verbal.

“Prettiest dick I’ve ever seen,” Jonny hums, thumbing over the beads of pre-come blooming from the pink head of Patrick’s dick, before closing his fingers around the throbbing shaft. “Fits so nicely in my fist. You were made just for me, weren’t you, baby?”

Jonny runs his nose along the line of Patrick’s shoulder, breath warm and ticklish over Patrick’s skin, pebbling it up, and while that’s hot and all that, Patrick is already very horny, he’s ready for the main dish.

“Just for you, whatever, yes,” he says, tossing and twisting until he straddling Jonny face to face. “Right now, just for you.”

“Okay, okay, baby. Make me nice and slick so I can fuck you.”

While Patrick fumbles for the lube, Jonny reaches around to knead his ass, teasing his rim, dipping in the tip of each index, pulling apart just slightly-- enough to be distracting, to make Patrick crazier.

“I’m going to die. For real, I am,” Patrick whines, gliding his greased palm along the impressive length of Jonny’s erection, twisting his wrist a little on every upstroke. Jonny huffs something half-way between a laugh and a groan, before capturing Patrick’s mouth in a messy kiss.

“Such good hands, baby. Feels like heaven.”

“If you try coming--” Patrick’s threat splinters in a surprised exhale as Jonny stands, Patrick gathered in his arms.

“You’re so demanding,” he says into Patrick’s collar bone, nipping lightly at it. “Seems like you haven’t been fucked in a year.”

Patrick loops his arms around Jonny’s neck and his legs around Jonny’s hips, a swooping in his stomach at being carried, at feeling the strength of Jonny’s body shift and work, at knowing him steady and solid. In two long strides, Jonny has him up against the wall. Says, “Hold on tight,” and then he’s pinning Patrick in place one armed while he lines himself up to Patrick’s hole. Patrick gasps as the blunt head of Jonny’s dick breeches him, stops barely past his rim, right where the stretch is most unbearable – almost, almost, not nearly deep enough.

Jonny is moving carefully, rearranging their position so that Patrick’s legs are hooked over his forearms, so that Patrick has no more leverage, so that all he can do is cling to Jonny’s shoulders and relinquish control, just hang on and let Jonny use his body.

“Gonna give it to you now, okay?” Jonny says. “Gonna make you feel so good.”

Patrick feels hazy with lust, he tries for a nod but he’s not sure he manages. It doesn’t matter, because Jonny understands, spears him open inch by inch, unrelenting and so impossibly big, so fucking deep, for a moment Patrick forgets how to breathe.

Once he’s seated in to the root, Jonny waits, rolling his hips slowly. “Tell me when.”

Patrick cards his fingers through Jonny’s hair to ground himself. It’s damp with sweat and it’s getting so long. He can get a nice grip. “Now,” he gulps, leaning down to flick is tongue over Jonny’s lips, “Fuck, now.”

Jonny gives a couple of shallow thrusts and Patrick thrashes about for more, impatient and ineffective. “Come on. Come on, Jonny, please.”

“I’m working on it. Just give me--” Jonny says, pumping his hips harder and harder until he settles into a rhythm that has Patrick’s back sliding higher against the wall with every thrust and his hands scramble back down to Jonny’s shoulders for purchase. It’s not a position that allows much finesse, but Jonny still manages to nail Patrick’s prostate often enough that Patrick’s dick is leaking a steady stream of pre-come over his belly as it bouncees in time with Jonny’s thrusts. Patrick is dying to touch it, but he’s afraid of letting go. Little choked off keens fall from his lips, rise in volume and desperation with each new ragged breath he sucks in.

“You’re so fucking hot,” Jonny grits out. His biceps flex as he hauls Patrick almost all the way off his dick, then lets him sink, yanked back onto it by all the weight of his body. “Don’t think I’m gonna last.”

“Make me come,” Patrick asks, voice all wrecked. Jonny’s fingers dig into the soft flesh of his thighs, gripping so tightly they’re going to leave matching crowns of moon-shaped bruises. Already Patrick can’t wait for Jonny to press down on them the next time they fuck.

“Touch yourself. Come on, Peeks, I got you.”

Patrick slides a hand between their bodies and wraps it around his dick. The stimulation is enough to tip him over the edge in a couple of strokes. His whole body shakes and clenches as pleasure turns the word around him bright and meaningless.

Jonny speaks, a curse maybe, and slams into Patrick as deep as he can one last time, coming in hot spurts inside him.

*

Later, after Jonny has carried Patrick back to the bed, run a warm towel across his spent body and finally collapsed next to him, Patrick pokes him out of his daze and says, “Still hard no for the dog but like. I think I’d consider a baby.”