#i also want to note that the clown on the cake was more similar to one of those cute clown dolls n had No Relation Whatsoever to gam | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

rubyinasnuggie · 4 years ago

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Random Headcanons No One Asked For:

-Both Ruby and Weiss are left handed

--Yang was 100% prepared to tease them about it when Blake very pointedly uses her left hand to write something

--Blake is ambidextrous

--which makes Yang the only right-handed one on the team

--until the fall of beacon oops

-Ren is fully color blind

--once baby Nora figured that out, she made it her mission to explain to him what colors are based on other sensations (sue me I love this trope)

--she describes pink as the quiet comfort they share in each other's presence

--Ren finally sees color for the first time when his semblance upgrades, and he can finally see the pink petals with Nora

-Blake likes to climb on things and find random nooks and crannies to read

--it turns into a game of reverse hide-and-seek when someone needs her: depending on how urgent it is the entire squad will drop everything and look for her

-team STRQ won the Vytal tournament their first year, specifically Summer was the champion

--Yang was more upset about the disqualification than she'd ever admit, because she secretly imagined Summer was out there somewhere watching the tournament, proud of her babies

-Tai pulled himself out of his depression by gardening: having a routine helped him, so he encouraged baby Ruby and Yang to get similar gentle hobbies

-Ruby raises chickens at home

--she very lovingly feeds them corn and calls them her ladies

--Yang affectionately calls them creatures and cluckers and other such rude things to get a rise out of Ruby

-Ruby deeply wants a cow

--this is her one and only retirement dream

--although honestly she can never imagine herself living past her 20s

-Yang struggled with picking a hobby, she gets bored easily and hates the expected

--its only post-Beacon that she understands the benefits of a routine

--thats why she ends up with a ton of chores, just some structure to help her through the day

-Ruby will drink any type of milk, but Strawberry milk is her favorite

-Sun is allergic to bananas but he doesn't know

--he thinks bananas are supposed to be spicy

-Weiss loves sour apple

-Pyrrha loves chocolate almonds

-Yang thinks fish are creepy, she just generally doesn't love the ocean

--she thinks Neptune is a little clown though

-Oscar gets dressed by putting on his left sock, left boot, then his right sock and right boot

--RNJR made it their mission to interrupt him during this just to see him walk around with one boot on

-Ruby likes to bake, it's one of the few solid memories she has of her mom

--one night Weiss was feeling homesick and Ruby taught her how to make mug cakes

--"its probably not that good compared to your cake butler, but it's pretty simple, and I like them!"

--Weiss secretly makes them at least once a week, even back home in Atlas

-Weiss has taken flight lessons, at one point Ironwood really pushed for her to become a pilot in the military

-Blake has a field journal of the different types of Grimm she's encountered

--team RWBY & JNPR have spent several nights sitting in a circle talking and adding to the journal

--while traveling across Anima, Ruby sketched and took notes on all the Grimm she saw, just in case she ever found Blake again

-Weiss collects rocks

--no, not crystals. actual rocks

--shes rarely spent time in the real outside, but whenever she has, she picks up little rocks and puts them in her pocket before anyone can see

-Jaune never actually stopped writing left and right on the bottom of his shoes actually

-Weiss had never been allowed to paint her nails as a kid, she'd always get weekly French manicures instead

--by the second semester at Beacon, Ruby, Weiss, Nora, and Ren would have weekly manicure nights where they'd paint each other's nails

--there were several times they'd rope the rest of the teams into it, especially during the Vytal tournament where they'd write team names on their nails

--during the singles round they'd write Yang on one hand and Pyrha on the other

--"we couldn't make it fit without cutting one of the R's!"

-Pyrrha and Weiss became each other's default plus one's for fancy events, to the point people began to speculate that the two were dating

--Jaune was somehow jealous of them both and it was very confusing to him since he had poor self awareness

-Yang cuts Ruby's hair, but after she lost her arm she lost the fine motor skills to do a good job, so Blake started to do it

-Blake is always there to help Yang with her phantom pains and residual limb pain

--she helps massage Yang's arm while leaning close and purring

--Yang cried the first time Blake did this because she's not used to being taken care of

-Nora never gets sick and is the designated nurse when a bug goes around the teams

--the electricity incident was the first time Nora has ever been bed-ridden

-Weiss took ballet as a child

-Jaune is actually pretty good at the guitar

-Pyrrha is not musically inclined at all its a miracle she managed to do the iconic JNPR shine dance

--jk but actually she's a decent dancer when she has the steps choreographed for her but she has no natural rhythm

-in the last few months before Pyrrha's death, she and Jaune would waltz on top of the roof together

--there were several almost kisses

--maybe a few successful kisses who knows

-there are occasions (obv extremely rare) when Ren actually takes the bulk of the energy from Nora

--this leads to thrilling game nights where Ren makes multiple 40pt remnant-equiv-of-scrabble plays while Nora naps

-Oscar is the only person who can beat Ren in scrabble, although it's very closely matched

-Oscar is amazing at chess and will play it against himself like a little square

-Yang and Ruby are experts at the tabletop war game they play in the library

--9 times out of 10, the winner is one of them

-Oscar is the only one who also knew about Compost King, which was very exciting for Jaune

--Compost King is a common game night activity while they were in Haven because its so hard to say no to Oscar

-Yang is a straight-A student and has always been

-Blake never had any formal education and she finds a lot of the classes incredibly dull or ineffective at teaching the material

--she's always the one convincing Yang to skip a class and lie in the sun-warmed grass with her

--she still gets Bs easily

-Oscar is a very fast reader and will devour any book he's given

--his aunt would frequently bring home books from town just to keep him entertained

-Ruby has suffered from migraines and nightmares her entire life, post-Beacon they only got worse

-Weiss shops at local dust stores whenever she can, even though she could get shipments for free

--however she does have Ron Swanson's "I know more than you" energy when she's shopping

-Blake and Ren will sometimes take naps together

--not cuddling, just occupying the same general space

--wake them up at your own risk

-if Ruby isn't engaged with something, she can start to scatter and dissolve into rose petals

--its a very slow process and someone has always snapped her out of it before she's fully vanished, but Yang is worried about what would happen if no one caught her in time

-Ren is afraid of horses

-Blake hates being cold

-Yang naturally radiates heat cause semblance duh

-Weiss glued the tiniest gravity crystals to the underside of Ruby's bed to ensure it never falls

-JNPR likes to push their beds all together so they can sleep in one big pile

-Nora can only sleep if she's holding someone's hand

Hope u guys enjoyed! These are in no particular order, sorry that I kinda jumped around a lot 😅

Feel free to reblog and add your own ideas and headcanons! ❤

#rwby #jnpr #oscar pine #ruby rose #jaune arc #weiss schnee #nora valkyrie #blake belladonna #pyrrha nikos #yang xiao long #lie ren #rwby headcanons #rwby headcanon #rwby thoughts #bumbleby #renora #rwby redesign #long post #im sorry

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hypnoshatesme · 4 years ago

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Birthday Surprise

[[kudos to @korrolrezni because if they hadn’t suggested the surprise part I would’ve skipped today’s prompt :)]]

“I have something for you.”

Gerry could feel the excitement undulating from it even before it spoke. He'd been somewhat confused by its absence that morning. Michael tended to never pass off being there to add extra confusion to Gerry’s mornings on his days off work. But this morning he had woken a regular amount of disoriented at the bright sun seeping in through the window.

Michael seemed to be making up for its lack of presence by being extra present now, making Gerry feel like his whole kitchen was shifting towards it, trying to be caught in that giddy excitement oozing off its fizzing form. It had been a while Gerry had seen it this agitated. Not that he would remember the last time.

“Oh?” was all Gerry managed, hands on his counter, in part to steady himself as the dizziness hit, in part to make sure it was still there, still solid.

Gerry knew it was nodding vigorously without looking at it. He also knew the door was behind him without turning back. There was some distant corner in his mind that thought he was not dressed to go out, but it was too far away for him to not simply follow Michael’s lead as it pulled him through the door.

Gerry, before taking anything in with any of his senses, was instantly alarmed when they stepped out of the door again. It was that same vague presence he had been raised and groomed to pick up on, a sort of dread that lingered around things connected to any of the Fears. Except it was strong , and when the haze of confusion settled a little, it was easy to tell what it was. He barely even heard the collective ‘happy birthday’ that followed his entry, adrenaline already rushing through him as his eyes skittered from a worm-riddled woman next to what could generally be called a table with a cake on it, to the plastic mannequin-like puppet in clown costume and makeup, that just looked wrong in a very similar way Michael did, but worse, because Gerry was used to Michael, but this collage of a vaguely human shape made his skin crawl and had it not been for his general distaste for the Desolation he would have nearly welcomes the other woman close to it, flaming fingers coming dangerously close to the clown. She looked like she wouldn’t stop there.

There were a couple more...figures about but Gerry was already backing off, stressed by the fact that he couldn’t keep his eyes on all of them at once, that he was clearly outnumbered. His blood was too loud in his ear to hear anything of what was being said, and he didn’t want to hear, it was never a good idea to listen to such creatures. The door was still there and Gerry pulled it close with more force than necessary once he was through. Being inside the hallways just made him start questioning what he had just seen, made him wonder how it could be, how it probably wasn’t and Gerry’s heart was racing when he threw the door open again, hoping for...confirmation?

He was in the archive, the break room, to be more specific. Jon, Tim, Martin and Sasha were there, too, for some reason, looking somewhat surprised when they saw Gerry. Then they started singing and Gerry was really starting to consider if he was just losing his mind. Jon looked incredibly uncomfortable as he mumbled along to ‘happy birthday’ and everybody else seemed to be singing off-key differently, and Gerry just stared.

Gerry hadn’t necessarily forgotten the date. It wasn’t something he made a big deal of. He wouldn’t know how . It had never been a thing growing up and changing that had never even occurred to him. He had never really had anyone he could even consider celebrating with and even when that had started to change, it just didn’t seem like a relevant detail to linger on. In many ways, this seemed even more unreal than what he had just left behind. Gerry had no idea what he was supposed to do .

Michael was standing next to him when the singing ceased and Gerry couldn’t remember when it had appeared, and neither did he know if he should say or do anything in the silence that followed the singing and clapping.

“Thank you?” he said, because it seemed like the right thing to say and he was starting to feel his face heat up at the strange situation.

“Can we finally cut the cake?” Tim said, putting an end to the awkward moment as everybody seemed to set into motion, cutting the cake Gerry hadn’t noticed on the counter and distributing it on plates among them.

Gerry approached to get the plate Sasha was holding out to him and she hugged him, with a ‘happy birthday’.

She gave him a warm smile. “Are you okay? You look a bit...shocked.”

“Uh, I...I’m just not...used to this?” He frowned, wishing to change the topic to something that was more in his comfort zone, and also made him blush less. “How...did you even know?”

Sasha nodded towards Michael, who seemed to be bothering Jon already. The familiarity of the sight made Gerry relax a little, a small smile making its way onto his face.

Sasha smiled. “It told us a couple weeks ago.”

“Why did you never mention it?” Tim asked, hand coming to rest on Gerry’s shoulder with a grin. “Happy birthday, by the way.”

Gerry looked at him and shrugged. “I didn’t really consider it relevant?”

“Having us miss out on an excuse to extend the break? How cruel.” He laughed and despite her rolling her eyes, Sasha was chuckling, too. Gerry had to grin.

They ate the cake and chatted, Martin eventually coming to congratulate Gerry, too, and chat about Gerry’s day, though seeing as Gerry had spent most of it doing nothing the conversation topic shifted to Martin’s day, that had been mostly work.

“I’m surprised, to be honest. When I heard you’d taken the day off I thought it was for something birthday related,” Martin noted after it became clear that Gerry had barely left his bed today, just as his rumpled clothes suggested.

Gerry shrugged, “I didn’t really look at the date, I just had to use of some of my free days, really.”

Martin chuckled and shook his head. “It did make preparing this all easier.”

“Glad I could be so convenient for you.” He laughed, and Martin smiled.

Eventually, Gerry leaned against the counter next to Jon, who had retreated from socialising a little bit ago. He didn’t look like he wasn’t enjoying himself, though, body language more relaxed than Gerry was generally used to seeing it. He gave Jon the glass he had picked up for him and watched as he drank.

“How long are you letting this break go on?” Gerry asked with a small grin.

Jon shrugged. “Happy birthday.”

“Thanks.”

Michael was staring, rather intently, at the counter where most others had ended up leaning against and standing in front of, talking and laughing. Well, Tim was talking, Martin and Gerry occasionally adding something to whatever he was going about. Even Jon occasionally chuckled at what was being said.

“Are you upset?” Sasha asked, coming to a stop next to Michael.

She had only left the room for a short moment, but it had been enough for the conversation to shift to where Jon had been leaning. Michael seemed to have abandoned all attempts at engaging, which seemed a little unlike it.

“I’m not.” It didn’t look at her, but its voice seemed unusually warm. “He looks happy.”

She followed its gaze to find Gerry nearly doubled over in laughter, fully comfortable by now, eyes full of mirth as he tried to take a sip from his drink after calming down, only to give up as another fit of giggles caught him as Martin mumbled something under his breath. He did look happy.

“I know what’ll make him even happier.” Sasha grinned as Michael perked up with interest, eyes settling on her after some difficulty of dragging them away from Gerry.

She took it by the wrist and pulled it towards the rest. Gerry’s eyes lit up as he saw them approach and Martin was already holding out a glass to Sasha with a smile. Michael settled next to Gerry soundlessly, for its standards, not wanting to interrupt the good mood.

“There you are,” Gerry mumbled, wrapping one around its waist and looking up at it with a smile. “Did you try the cake?”

It nodded and leaned against him a little, with a smile. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you.” He rested his head against its arm, listening to Sasha’s corrections of Tim’s story from before with a happy smile and the occasional laugh.

Michael chuckled next to him, slowly becoming a lot more present as the conversation caught its interest.

Gerry felt surprisingly exhausted considering he had done very little all day. Michael felt particularly comfortable underneath him tonight, and the nonsensical patterns it had been drawing on his back since he had laid down on it was doing little to keep Gerry from sleep creeping up on him. He gave a content sigh as it ran its fingers through his hair for a moment before following his spine.

“Did you have a nice day?” it mumbled, voice pleasantly muffled with one of Gerry’s ears pressed against its chest.

He smiled. “I did. Thank you so much.”

“You didn’t like my party.”

It sounded suspiciously neutral. Gerry shifted his head, holding back a yawn, and looked up at its face.

“I still appreciate the effort.” He rubbed at his eye, trying to wake up a little. “I...it was nice. Sasha told me you were the one who told them about my birthday?

Michael shrugged. "I just asked for advice. I only had a passing idea of what...people tend to do on those days."

Gerry smiled at the image of Michael going around asking what it should do to make it a nice birthday for Gerry.

"Did Tim suggest the clown?" he asked, drawing circles on Michael’s chest.

It frowned. "Yes."

Gerry chuckled, and buried his nose in its chest. “In a way, both parties were yours, then.”

There was a moment of silence, Michael’s hand pausing on Gerry’s lower back.

“I...guess that’s an appropriate distortion of the truth…” it finally said, sounding satisfied. Gerry shivered pleasantly as he felt its fingertips run up his side.

“Mhm.” He sighed, closing his eyes. “No, but seriously. Thank you for thinking of me.”

Gerry was too tired to bother with wondering how he was feeling Michael’s lips on his head without it moving from its position. “Always.”

#gerrymichael #michaelgerry #fantober2020 #ft all of the s1 crew and some others #fluff

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smile-files · 4 years ago

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melon’s comprehensive kinlist!

including name of character, source, image, short personality description, mbti, and then why i kin them! take your time to read, or don’t. i get it if you don’t want to scroll through an entire page just to psychoanalyze me lmao, have a good time

1. wirt (over the garden wall)

an angsty, socially awkward dweebus who nerds out over interior design and plays the clarinet. fears death. infp.

my first kin! for a month after rewatching otgw i desperately wanted to be him. to be like him. anything!! it eventually wore away but i still feel that urge sometimes - the urge to write r/im14andthisisdeep poetry and to distance one’s self from their siblings... and heck - his tape for sara is indeed just as awkward as he is but let me assure you that his poetry and clarinet are actually pretty cool. 9/10 i need to see him more. give me more otgw comics. ok thanks.

2. snufkin (moomins)

a philosophical vagabond of vague age. acts stoic all the time but can and will leave every social situation whether or not it’s humanly possible. infp.

after watching some 90s moomin (and later on moominvalley) i realized how much i liked him and how much i was like him; i soon daydreamed of myself, as snufkin, venting to someone. it made me very happy. i vibe with his general demeanor and ideals (minus his gripes about rules, i follow those by the book) and i love psychoanalyzing him. so fun. so fun.

3. arnold perlstein (the magic school bus)

overly-anxious jewish kid and certified expert on rocks and panicking. owns a pair of fire-proof pyjamas in a lovely shade of green. isfj.

you all saw this one coming. my early childhood lives in my mind rent free and such i can’t help but revisit arn and his character. i’ve always loved him (even in, and quite possibly especially in, the reboot) and i’ve always loved psychoanalyzing every single little thing he does (remember that one time he said he was traumatized? me too). i soon realized a lot of it was me projecting! so sue me. actually, sue miss frizzle. either one of them. i mean, if arnold really didn’t like the field trips he could’ve just filed a restraining order! ...just saying.

4. fluttershy (my little pony)

anxious pastel butterfly baby child. probably loves animals more than she loves herself. cries upon impact. isfj.

the pony i’d mentally point to and think “me”. i had like 10 fluttershy-related things growing up, like plushies or funko pops or that sdcc guardians of harmony thing. while not shy in the same manner, it was nice having a character i could relate to about so much! i cosplayed as her equestria girls form for my first comic con as well, so that’s pretty cool. in addition, me being a little lepidopterist means i was bound to love her. it was destiny~

5. lammy lamb (um jammer lammy)

socially anxious and generally anxious rock star who thinks literally everything is a guitar. has an emotional support girlfriend. infp.

man!! she embodies the feeling when you have to go to the eye doctor by yourself to get your glasses fixed or when you have to call someone over the phone... that sheer tension. the panic. the feeling of ‘i want to throw my entire being into the trash can’. but lammy has a bunch of friends to support her, so she’s cool. died by slipping on a banana peel! same, sister. and man would i like to shred on my ukulele now...

6. loser (bfb)

humble (screw bfb 21), supportive, well-loved cube dude who’s voice is like that of an angel. has an entire fanclub in his honor. enfj.

okay, no, i was never a cool kid or ‘popular’, really, but in school i was never bullied for whatever reason and was generally well-liked; i hung out with a squad of weirdos and yet the cool kids would often talk to me? and try to engage me?? despite my very apparent self-deprecation and awkwardness??? either way i feel like it’s such a blessing to me, that i have so many friends! i often feel like i don’t deserve it, but hey. it’s nice! and heck, back when i was on scratch i had a little fanclub myself :0

7. fan (inanimate insanity)

nerdy, friendly aspie boyo who subliminally vents via blogging. longs for stability in his life; was best friends with an egg. entp.

ever since i noted his aspergers-like behavior i became super attached to him - whether or not it was intentional, i found it nice having a character i can relate those feelings with. he’s really sweet and dorky and i love how he gets along with test tube, paintbrush, and lightbulb! it makes me really happy to see him whenever i do. it made me really sad when he was eliminated. what the heck. yeah i dunno i don’t kin him super strongly but i love him to bits.

8. spinel (steven universe the movie)

emotionally unstable clown girl who stood in a garden for thousands of years. patience of a saint. edge like an 11-year-old me. esfp.

uhh um uh totally wasn’t completely disturbed by how much i related to spinel after watching steven universe the movie... totally wasn’t reminded about how and why i hated middle school... totally didn’t rethink my life that day... that’s it. this is all i’m saying.

9. molly blyndeff (epithet erased)

innocent child who has a terrible father and a wonderful demeanor. teddy bear who needs a hug and a criminal as her new dad. infp.

epithet erased is adorable okay?? i knew molly was infp in the first few minutes... more precisely, i knew she was me. man!! i don’t relate directly to her angst but i still feel it. i can replicate her voice so accurately it’s scary. also, i coined a new thing - ‘molly cake’! you have a chocolate cake, preferably with chocolate chips inside. use chocolate frosting and add little pastel star sprinkles! on top! my mom would make this cake for us anyway but then i realized it was literally just molly in cake form. and it’s just as sweet!

10. tommy coolatta (hlvrai)

a 30-something-year-old child who rocks a propeller hat. chose his last name off of a dunkin donuts menu despite the fact that he has a father. infp.

everyone loves tommy. he’s so sweet? and funny and loveable?? often times when i say something funny but bizarre, i just remember that tommy has said ‘soda helps you see faster’ and it makes me happy. if i’m going to be a weirdo i want to be the wholesome weirdo who loves soda and has a .png for a dog! also i legally have to kin tommy. i took a test for it (and i’m not complaining! i find it quite flattering).

11. twyla (monster high)

the daughter of the boogeyman; would very much like to boogey out of here, if you know what i mean. avoids people like the plague. infj.

seeing her role in the show and in the movies, i really love twyla? first of all, her voice is my new favorite thing. it’s like... gravelly? and soft? she’s the type of person who would very much like to disappear when in a crowd; thankfully, she literally can. i am drawn to any sarcastic, self-deprecating introvert who takes care of their bonkers extrovert friend (in this case howleen), as i often act as such myself. also the phrase ‘boogey sand’ will never leave my mind now :)

12. lapis lazuli (steven universe)

water gem who wants you to leave. cynical as all heck, sensitive as all hell. is there such thing as a gem therapist? just asking. infp.

in a similar way to twyla, i vibe with lapis’ sarcasm and wit as well as her emotional side. it can be kind of addicting, isolating one’s self. anywho, me and my sister used to do this routine of yelling up to each other this certain dialogue between lapis and peridot when peri was leaving for something (in which lapis replied to everything she said with dry ‘yeah’s); i would always do lapis’ part. i do reply a lot with ‘okay’ or ‘yeah’ or ‘cool’ to things people tell me, as i never really know what to say.

13. brad meltzer (xavier riddle and the secret museum)

shy jewish butterfly kid who absolutely hates time travel. attracted to people who know how to socialize like a normal human being. infp(?).

okay okay so... combine everything from arnold and everything from fluttershy and that’s basically what brad is to me. a jewish socially anxious nerd who loves butterflies and drawing. badabing badaboom, there i am. that’s it.

and boom! all of the kins i can think of, of course not including comfort characters like will byers from stranger things or isabelle from animal crossing. if you have any kins to suggest to me, i would love it! thank you for taking your time to read this, friend! have a fantastic day :)

#melonposting #extreme melonposting #kin #kins #kinlist #i will not tag every character here for the love of god #13. 13 is the number of the kins #good night folks :pensive:

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harleenfleck · 4 years ago

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Don’t forget me (Part. 4 and finale)

Arthur Fleck/Joker x Reader fic

Summary: After your reunion with Arthur, you feel the luckiest and happiest person on earth, you will believe that things cannot be better and you are just waiting for the day when Joker comes for you and takes you with him. However, things don't go as you both planned.

Warnings: Angst, description of violence, language, little bit of fluff

NSFW Warnings (FINALLY): Smut, unprotected sex

Words: 6.6k

Part one here <3, Part two here <3, Part three here <3

A/N: Well folks, this is the finale part of this fanfic that was born from my heart 🥺I hope you liked these series 💖 well, I wanna say some things, I looked for a lot of references about how to do sex scenes (On Tumblr with that naughty blogs it was pretty easy HAHAHA), and recently around here I saw an image of a long-haired boy carrying a girl, and just you could see the boy's back, we all went crazy with that image because the boy looked too much like our Arthur, so that image inspired me a lot to do a scene like this 🤭 I’m inspired a LOT of songs too, Inspired in “Haunted” & “Gingerbread man” by Melanie Martinez and “Sad Girl” & “Love” by Lana del Rey (Lana it’s my eternal muse ) also if you remember the previous part, Arthur mentions a lot about a necklace that he wants to give to the reader, so this is the necklace (And of course, I’m gonna buy it) and well, I hope that Tumblr no longer caused me more problems like the previous part. Well, to finish this A/N I’m sorry if I make some grammatical, spelling or writing mistakes, English is not my native language. Enjoy this final part! :3 I hope you like it and thank you for read me! <3

...

Your life had become happier those last days. There was a splendid shine in your eyes, people could see the happiness as you walked the streets of Gotham, and when you were alone in your apartment, you put some music and danced all over the room, imagine your partner of dance on your side, dancing with you.

Of course, you were so happy, because the boy you love had come back to you, and he'll do it again. It was only a matter of time before you got back in his arms, and you kissed those lips again, whether were covered in clown-paint or not.

In your work, you ate a little sweet cupcake, thinking impatiently about his return. Once again, another delivery man arrived with another bouquet of lilies. Your heart melted like frosting when you saw those flowers reach you. You took the bouquet with great affection, but your eyes noticed a small note. You took it between your fingers and read it.

"Do you think it's too early to say we'll be together soon? I don't know, but I can't wait. Wait for me soon. J"

“J?” Celeste was behind you reading the card too “Who’s J? It’s your secret admirer, Y/N?”

“Maybe” You said it with a smile. Celeste get enthusiastic again.

“Oh! Think in all boys you know who name starts with J! Jonathan, John, maybe Jack”

You giggled with Celeste's words, you don’t know any boy who his name starts with J, just only one. You wondered what her face would look like if you told her what your secret admirer's real name was. Maybe you'd give the poor woman a heart attack. “The true is you look so happy Y/N, I’m really wondering who’s gonna be that boy, have he dared to come out of anonymity?” Your chance to scare her appeared, but you had a lot of appreciation for your boss, you decided to give her a pious little lie "No, not yet, but I'm waiting for him to do it”

“Well, almost it’s a word, J… Well, back to work” Celeste entered again to the kitchen while you stay in the corner again. Before you notice him, Peter was in front of you, seeing you, his gaze was making you uncomfortable. It would be amazing if Arthur arrived at that moment and made his original plan. Suddenly, you began to daydreaming, with him coming to you, with another bouquet of flowers and the necklace that he was so enthusiastic to give you. You'll run to him to kiss him passionately, in the middle of all the sweets and desserts around.

“Ok, my little princess, you catch me”

“Huh?” Peter interrupted your daydreaming; you didn't understand what he meant “What you said?”

“You catch me Y/N, I can’t stay hide anymore. I am your secret admirer”

“What?!” Your face must look so confused you when you heard the words of Peter, but what the fuck was that idiot saying? You can’t help thought it. That was a very bad joke, and it was a joke, where the fun is?

“I’m the guy who send you all that flowers”

“Oh… I see… Peter, why you say that bullshit?” Peter stunned; it was the first time you said rudeness to him “My secret admirer… He's definitely not you, I know he's someone else. And I’ve told you many times I’m not interested in you. Please don't do that again."

“Oh, c’mon Y/N, you really know who is he? And why he doesn’t appear? What are he waiting for? He’s afraid? If I were him, I wouldn’t hide of you, I wouldn’t be a coward like that idiot, you know what Y/N? Why you don’t forget him and come with me tonight? For a drink, what you say? I know a nice place where… “

You can’t believe what Peter said it to you. His words made you angry, how he dared to offend the man you love? How he dared even compare himself to him? He would definitely never be like Arthur, not even like Joker. Totally mad, beating the corner with your fist, made his mouth shut up. Peter looked at you little afraid, like some else replaced you, some else were in your place.

“Watch your mouth Peter, be careful with your worlds, with you talking to me”

“Y-Y/N? Princess?” He asked full of fear.

“First, stop call me princess, I’m not your princess. Second, you think you know me; you think you know what I want, but you don't know nothing about me. Nothing. And by the way, he’s not a coward, my fucking god, you haven’t seen my man to say those shit about him. If only you saw it in person, I’m pretty sure he would terrify you”

“W-W-W-What the fuck Y/N?” More feared and confused, Peter was petrified with your words.

“I told it, and please, stop bothering me, or I’ll call my boyfriend to teach you to respect what’s not yours”

“O-O-Ok, ok, I don’t know he was already your b-boyfriend. I’m sorry Y/N, I’ll not bother you again… I’ll with Celeste I-if you need s-something”

And before you knew it, Peter ran out of your sight into the kitchen, almost running, you really intimidated him, but you were sick of him and his absurd flirtations. Your heart belonged only to one person in the world, and graciously, you hoping Peter suspect too who your "Boyfriend" was. You smiled, referring to Arthur as your boyfriend, he already was, wasn't it?

A customer walked into the store, with that smile provoked by Arthur, you raised your gaze to the customer. But the look of that client gave you a bad feeling. He looked like someone dangerous. The smile disappeared. That man was observing around the store, looking for something, you thought he was going to rob at any moment, but what he could steal besides money, cakes and cookies?

The guy set his gaze on your lilies, then his gaze turned to where you stayed. You tried to give him a kind smile and a welcome like all the customers, but this time you felt very bad. “Hello, can I help you?” you asked to him. The guy doesn’t say nothing, only seeing you with an intimidating stare. You thought in any moment he was going to pull out a gun and point it at your head. He looked you for almost a minute. Definitive he was a bad guy. Getting nervous, you only waiting the moment when he leaves the shop.

Looking at you once more, finally he leaves the place, and your back to breathe again.

“Y/N! Y/N! Are you okay?!” Celeste and Peter run to you “We looked that guy, we thought he was assaulting the place, are you okay darling?” Celeste took you for the shoulders and hugged you.

“I’m fine, thank you Celeste, I thought the same" You trembled a little, you were really scared of what had happened. You didn't want to live something similar again in your life. You even came to think if Joker could take care of the guys like that, only if they bothered you again.

“I hope that jerk won’t back again” Peter took a look out the street, but the strange guy was already gone “That guy is one of the savages who keep rotten this poor city. If he will back, I’m gonna punch his face”

“No Peter! Probably that guy had a gun, don’t you dare do something like that!” Celeste reproached to Peter. You stopped listening to them, you could only feel helpless. Could you tell Arthur what happened that day?

…

You came out of your work with mixed emotions. You wanted to have the same joy you felt in the morning, but so many things were going on in your mind at high speed. First, Peter's immaturity for not accepting the fact you were not in love with him, and then that stranger who had perhaps studied the cake shop to assault it in the next few days. Celeste, worried about you and what might happen, decided to close the bakery for a few days, hoping that, if they were planning an assault, the bakery would no longer be an option for them.

You were walking worried, watching your back, the bouquet of lilies held it tightly in your hand, you were making yourself the idea that you had to pull those flowers in case something went wrong. Before you knew it, you got to that dark street you hated having to cross to get home. Looked everywhere and cursed that the street lighting was failing, you took your bouquet and walked faster. You didn't know if it was your instinct or your paranoia, but if was the second thing, it was right. You turned back, and you realized two guys started following you. You increased the speed of your steps, the problem? They did too.

“She is, it’s the girl of the bakery, the girl with the flowers”

Your ears sensed the conversation of the guys and realized he was the same bad guy who'd gone into the bakery. No, they weren't studying the store to rob it, they were looking for you, you became their target. With pain in your heart, you dropped the bouquet of lilies and started running for your life. The men started running too, they weren't going to let go the prey so easy that night.

It didn't matter if some car could get over you or if you ended up on the other side of the city, you didn't want to be a crime victim, and to know what they wanted to do with you, all you knew was that they will do bad things and that if they caught you, maybe you'd end up in a dumpster. You ran down a lot of blocks, looking for help, but nothing that could save you, to your bad luck, the streets were empty, and the few people there were had no interest in saving the life of a girl in danger.

They caught you and took you by the arms. You yelled "Fire!" like you were once taught at school when you were in danger, but your screams were quieted when one of they hit your face. "Shut the fuck up!" he put a huge knife in your face as they dragged you into an alley. You were paralyzed for a few seconds, but you couldn't let them get away with it. You struggled again and managed to free yourself, not without first kicking one of them in the balls. Freeing you, ran again and this time you lost them. But you knew that kind of men wouldn't rest until hurt you.

You decided to cross an avenue, no matter if that was a risky thing, you just wanted to get out of there safe. The moment you ran on the asphalt, you were illuminated by the lights of a car, it what was missing, being hit by a car. You fell backwards and fortunately the car stopped before hit you. Started with the horn as you got up and ran again. “Hey! Hey!” You heard a yell of the car but you ignored it, you turned back and looked at the person inside the car getting out and it looked like it was coming for you too. Are you fucking kidding me?!, You thought when you still running for your life. In your desperation, you tried to hide in an alley, but it was a dead end.

“Wait! Hey wait!” That person finally caught you and you screamed full of terror “Y/N calm down! It’s me!” And you felt ridiculous for not recognizing that voice before. You looked into his face and all of a sudden, you felt protected. Joker was here “What happened Y/N?! Are you okay?!” You hugged him, you didn't want to be unprotected, to be helpless, you embraced him so tightly, as if he decided to leave you alone at any time, even you knew he wasn't going to do it. You cried heartbrokenly on his shoulder, while he gently stroked your hair and comforted you “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay Y/N, you’re with me, nothing gonna hurt you anymore” His voice calms your fears, feeling in home.

“Arthur…” in sobs, you said his name.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here Y/N, I’m here…”

You kept crying, but slowly the feeling was calming down. You looked his face, making sure it was him. Yes, it was him, it was Arthur, it was right there next to you. "Arthur, how... How you know it?"

"That's not important, tell me what happened, please" Passed a finger down your cheek, cleaning your wet and salty face.

“T-those were some men who wanted to hurt me. O-One of them went to the bakery today and I thought he was going to rob the place, but he was looking at me. A c-couple of streets before, I-I had been caught for they, but I can-“

“What? They hurt you Y/N?! They touch you?!”

“W-well, a little… In my face, and they threatened me with a knife… I, I..." As soon as you remembered that, you wanted to cry again. Joker took your face and noticed the blow under the eye. He hugged you back much harder, feeling guilty for not protected you before.

“Hey! I can hear the bitch in the alley!” you heard the voice of those men who wanted to hurt you in the distance, Joker only hugged you more tightly, and you noticed that his body became rigid. You heard those men's footsteps go into the alley and how they stopped instantly. They realized were already dead men, as found the girl who they wanted to injury and damaged in the arms of the Clown Prince of Crime.

“…Fuck…”

Joker looked at them frighteningly as he kept hugging you.

“Baby, listen me, I don’t want you get hurt in this, go back, protect yourself and don’t look”

“Okay…” You said in a brittle low voice, and before you do what Joker asked you to do, he took your face and planted a kiss on your forehead, all while still seeing those bad guys. While you hidden of the scene, Joker started his show.

"Good night gentlemen, it seems to me that we had seen before, you know, in previous businesses, and it seems to be that this will be a second meeting not so friendly … May I ask you two something?" The guys didn't answer, they just lowered their heads "What you planning do to my wife?"

You were trying not to listen to the conversation because any moment could become dangerous, but you couldn't help hear those words that came out of Joker's mouth, the way he referred to you, and those feelings in your stomach.

“Y-Your wife?! You have a wife?!”

“Yeah, that beautiful girl it’s mine, and you, fucking bastards, you trie-“

“We don’t know she was yours! We never see her by your side before! We wouldn’t have done anything to her if we’d know she was your wife!”

Bad decision of them of interrupting Joker, very bad idea.

"Do you think I'm an idiot to risk my lovely girl to an environment like my job? I would never put her in danger, just because of this" He took the gun out of his pockets, the guys tried to defend themselves, but they knew it was useless "For fuckers like you who think they have the right to bother her, to hit her and to try to hurt her!”

“Sorry J! We really don’t had idea-“

“No, you don’t have idea, you were really don’t had idea, bastards, and you don’t have idea of the consequences of messing with what belongs to me!”

The gunshots were heard all over the alley until his gun was unloaded. Of course, you screamed scared, you hated having to go through situations like that. A few steps you heard until Joker came to you, kneeling quickly “Y/N, are you alright?” You looked at him and you didn't say anything. You just hugged him one more time. "Let's get out of here, but first" Joker cover your eyes with his hand "I don't want you to see my mess." Very carefully, he took you out of the alley until there was no danger. You walked to where his black car was, opened the co-pilot's door for you, and as he got in his car, you were trying to think about everything that had happened. Joker got in the car.

“A-Arthur?”

“Yes Y/N?”

And then, you pounced on him, kissing him hard. He didn't expect you, but he received you anyway, surrounding you with his arms, making you come closer to him. You and he showed in that kiss how much both missed each other

“Thank you, Arthur… Thank you for save me”

“It was the least I could do for you, my love. Let’s go home Y/N”

Sitting in your place again, he turned on the car and started driving, you looked back, and you noticed there was a bouquet of lilies in the back seats. "Again our plans were ruined?" You asked him smiling. Arthur laughed a little with the personal joke between you two.

"No... That bouquet I found on the street. I saw and I realized that was one of those send you" You saw the bouquet again and I told you that some flowers were stained with mud "I knew something bad was happening, and I drove around like crazy, looking you until I found you".

"Oh... I'm so glad you found me again... Hey Arthur…”

“Yes Y/N?”

“I… I know you tell me I don’t hear about, you know, what happened with that two guys, but…”

“I’m sorry if I scared you”

“No, I’m fine Arthur I just… Why you said I’m your wife?” You asked full of curiosity and in a good way, Arthur laughed at your question.

"I must have really scared them or the threat wouldn't have worked. Besides, it's possible in my future plans I want you to be. Of course, if you want it"

You raised your eyebrows when Arthur said that "Wait, is this a marriage proposal or something?"

“Not exactly that, I just plan for the future "

“Well, keep planning” Arthur gave you a gaze full of love and confidentiality, you just smiled at his cute face. “Arthur? Where we go?”

“I told you darling, we go home”

.…

Got to the place where Arthur used to hide, or, rather, where he now lived. It was in a building that apparently looked abandoned, yet he was being watched by his men. Some wore clown masks, others similar makeup to what Joker wore. “So… This is your home”

“Yeah”

“Wow… It’s elegant”

Joker laughed with your words "Just a little" go into the place, got out of the car, and he grabbed you by back with his arm. Some clowns looked you in the distance, being surprised, never imagined seeing their boss accompanied by a woman. Both come into the building and you looked carefully. Was an elegant place, very decorated, Joker had a good taste and knew how to hide all that from Gotham's gaze. He offered you to sit down, and that's what you did. At the end of the day, you were finally by his side. But that couldn't leave you calm. A lot of things happened that day, you didn't realize the magnitude of the problem you could get into. You barely realized you could have died.

You noticed that he walked away from you, you didn't know why. Your mind was still rambling "So… Now they call you Joker”

“Yeah” Joker said as he took off his red blazer and left it on the back on a mint-colored sofa, similar to his shirt. You only saw him walk back and forth as you were still sitting in one of the dining room chairs drinking a glass of water, you needed it.

"Should I also call you that?"

“If you prefer, you can call me that, you can call me Joker, but I like more when your voice says my other name"

“Arthur?”

A little smile under the clown makeup was created “Yeah… You're the only one who can call me that way” Joker went to one of the rooms. You kept thinking again while you were done drinking. Suddenly, Joker came back with a little red box and a couple of white lilies to you"Take it, this is for you”

“For me?” You smiled at him as you took the box and the flowers, you smelled the scent of flowers, as sweet as he “What it’s?

“Open it”

Animated, you opened the little box to discover inside a white necklace with a small drop of pearl hanging from it. “Arthur… This is…?” You couldn't help smile, it was the necklace Arthur so much wanted to give you, and for which he almost got into trouble.

“Yes, finally I got it for you Y/N”

“Oh Artie, it’s so beautiful, thank you” you started laughing next to him. You missed that too, you missed sharing a laugh with him. However, seconds later, you stopped doing so, Joker noticed that.

“Y/N?”

“I’m sorry, I just… Was too much today, you know? I had a bother day in the job, and well, those idiots… I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to be sad, I should be happy” you didn't want to cry at that moment right in front of him.

“You only had a long day Y/N, take your time baby, okay?” Joker passed a hand in your hair and cheeks, you got carried away by the feeling of his touch “I’ll back. I’ll take a shower”. Those words took you by surprise and your cheeks get in red color, but you tried to hide in front of him, was that an invitation? You didn't say anything, just said yes with your head. Joker gave your cheek a slight squeeze with his fingers and went to the bathroom.

The truth is, it wasn't just everything that day had happened, it was all you've been through since Arthur and you split up for over a year. It was so strange to see Arthur there, in person, just for you. Before he wouldn't let you sleep, because you only thought of Arthur before bed, and when he let you sleep, he'd sneak into your dreams. That ghost that throwing you finally became real in front of you, and it wasn't a menace. For some strange reason, all the feelings you wanted to give Arthur were hidden in your heart and you didn't want to show them, and you don’t have an idea why your mind and heart were making that move to you.

You must have gone around that in your head because you were a little startled when the bathroom door opened, you saw Arthur again, but no more as Joker, just Arthur. Shirtless, only with his red pants, his wet hair, and some blows to his torso and one on his face. Of course, your mind focused on those blows and you were going to ask what had happened to him, maybe it was the result of his criminal life, but of course, you didn't go unnoticed seeing him shirtless. Those thoughts came back to you.

“Arthur…” You got up from your seat and go to him “What is that blow Arthur?” and without any permission, you put your hand on the blow to his chest, causing Arthur to tremble with your unexpected touch.

“That’s nothing Y/N, don’t worry”

“Oh really? And this?” with your other hand, you put it in the blow of his face “Arthur, don’t lie to me again, please”

Arthur looked at the ground, remembered the first time when he had lied to you because he didn't want to worry you, but Arthur knew that if he hid the truth from you, you were going to worry more about him "It was a work thing, it's nothing, I had problems with some guys, it got out of hand, but don't worry, that's already solved" Arthur took your hand off his face and put a kiss in your knuckles. Again, you and Arthur were so close together at the time, could both feel your breaths, you could feel Arthur's heart under your hand as fast as it was beating. Yes, you two had shared a kiss before, but that had been a kiss of thanks. You wanted to kiss him differently this time. Arthur however appeared to doubt yet of that moment. He took your two hands and kissed again "You should take a bath Y/N, you worked today, you ran a lot, too many emotions in your body, you should relax".

You nodded at him, it seemed that he too was hesitating a lot whether to take the next step with you. The truth is when Arthur saw your face, he felt guilty, that blow you had in your face was still visible, and he was ashamed he hadn't found you before you were wounded. "There are some clothes I got for you, they're in the bathroom too. We can go for your things in your apartment another day"

“Yes, I’m okay with that you said, darling. Thank you, Arthur”

You got up with the tips of your feet and kissed him on his cheek. You went into the bathroom, not without looking at Arthur one more time, which had his hand on his cheek, and blushed. Gradually, as the water-filled the bathtub, you took off your clothes, looking in the big mirror, soaked in sweat, was a very long night for you. Inside of the bathtub, a lot of things cross your mind, about you, your relationship with Arthur, and what you really want of him. Of course, you want to be with Arthur, they had to plan everything they would do together because you were sure they could never separate again.

But that night, just that night, you wanted to feel Arthur, and go back to what you two left on in that old bed.

You came out of the bathtub, dry yourself, went to the clothes he got for you and just put on white lace panties, opened the red box and put that special necklace, wrapped your body in a white towel you found, looked you in the mirror one last time and left the bathroom. Arthur was sitting, writing in his journal, and smoking a cigarette. For a moment you had a charming memory of that old Arthur who was shy, that everyone rejected, what they considered a freak, when you were his best and only friend, when you were Carnival and Night Mime. You smiled caringly at the memory. Slowly you would go to him, expect him to notice your presence, soon he felt it, and turned his gaze to you, and was speechless when he looked you were only in that white towel.

“Y/N…”

“Arthur…”

“W-what are you--"

You didn't let him continue, because, at that moment, you approached him, and slowly passed a leg over his knees, sitting on his lap. You took his face, slowly caressing his lips and finally, kiss him again, in a very burning kiss. Arthur took you by the waist, feeling you. "You know something, Arthur? All these months I hadn't stopped thinking about what we almost did in that bed, you remember?" You stop to kiss him, looked him with love, but with desire too.

"... There's no day I won't forget that, not even by mistake" He touched your shoulders, passing his fingers in your collarbone, playing with the drop of your white necklace.

“… You want to continue?”

Arthur saw you with a look you had never seen in him, a deep and dark gaze, full of lust “What you think?”

You both smiled and kissed again. Arthur was carrying you down your waist while you were holding on to him. The kiss started slowly, but soon; the desire reappeared and began to consume both as the cigarette remained in the ashtray of the table. You passed your hands behind his back, feeling his skin burning, while you stopped to kiss his lips and started to kiss his chest, Arthur He felt some tickles in the start, but it didn't take long for the feeling was pleasurable for him. You kissed his chest and went to his neck, kissing it too. Arthur, starting to go into ecstasy, stopped you gently, and kiss your lips again.

“I love you Y/N” He whispered between kisses “I love you too much, and you don’t know how I want you, how I need you”

“I love you too, Arthur, and I need you too, I need your love Art… Please, love me” With the red color in your cheeks, you separated a little from him, and with nervous but with flirtation too, you took the material of the towel, and without thinking much, you removed it, revealing your body to Arthur. Him, dumbfounded and amazed, look every centimeter of your skin, he always imagined that intimate and warm moment with you, but he never believed would happen, not even when he became Joker, but you were there, loving him the same way he wanted to love you. He looked at your body, your chest, your breasts, your abdomen, and those lace panties, hiding the most intimate part of you. Hypnotized, he wanted to kiss all you, started kissing your neck, and you couldn't help moaning, more when he came down to your breasts and began to kiss them, “Arthur… Arthur…” you were moaning his name and caressed his hair when his lips and tongue delighted with your taste. and unconsciously, you started to move on him. Without you expecting it, Arthur began to be a little rougher, sucking the skin of one of your breasts, you almost yelled, but he wanted to leave a mark on you, something that every time you looked in the mirror and saw that mark you would remember him with a smile.

“Y/N, you’re so fucking beautiful…” He kept kissing your chest “Your face, your body, you… You look like an angel… My own angel…”

He went back up to your neck, and of course, left little marks on you. He looked at you and saw how you were losing, with your eyes closed. So, he decided to kiss you by surprise. In the middle of the kiss, you felted a slight bulge in your entrance, you decided to provoke him more. You moved over him again, but this time you did it consciously, massaging his member with your pussy, knowing that turned him on. Arthur tried to suppress a moan, but he failing, put his head on your shoulder, trying to be quiet, breathing hard. You moved slowly and quickly at the same time when Arthur threw his head back, you could see his expression and smiled. And then he made that move on you. He took your jaw, forcing you to look at him, you smiled naughtily, but you didn't expect him to put a hand into your underwear. “Oh fuck!” you yelled, hugging his shoulders. His touch was gentle, rubbing his fingers in your pussy, taking you to heaven, feeling on the edge of your sanity. Arthur decided to put his fingers in you, and you started screaming louder, moving the toes of your feet on the floor. He took his hand away from you and brought his fingers to his tongue, that image excited you more than you imagined. “You taste so sweet Y/N, wanna try?” put his fingers in your mouth, and you tasted them. Desperate, Arthur began to take the elastic of your panties, wanting to remove them from you. But you took his hands away from there and put on your butt.

“Hold on to me” He whispered on your ear “You are driving me crazy”

“More?” You laughed a little and he smiled. You did what he asked you, you hugged him by his shoulders and your legs surrounded his torso. Taking you under your thighs, Arthur rose from the chair, carrying you, while you kissed him in the air. All the ecstasy of the moment made him very strong, perhaps he was stronger since his dark part of him came to light. Slowly left you on a couch, making you sit. He knelt down and you knew what his intentions were the moment he did. He went back to your panties and this time, he got them off you. Arthur caressed your crotch while you felt his fingers touched your skin, and gradually he made you opened your legs for him. He looked at you completely in love and lust, and without warning, he went straight to your entrance, kissing it. “Arthur!” you yelled his name once more. He used his tongue inside you, tasting you sweet as he pressed his thumbs tightly to your thighs, one more way to mark you, something that said you were his. You squirm on the couch while feeling his tongue and his breath, he wanted to take you to the same madness that he was in. In your delirium, you heard a strange noise, opened your eyes and tilted your head, to find that Arthur had his hand inside his unbuttoned pants, moving it frantically, an image that turned on more than you were.

Arthur left one last kiss there and was leaving kisses on your body until he reached your mouth, you took his jaw, while he continued caressing your entrance with his fingers. He wanted to prepare you, he wanted you don’t feel pain. He lowered his pants and his boxers, and you observed his member, it was hard, big and hot, being you amazed and a little scared, but having Arthur like this made you love him so badly, and before he could do something with you, you took it and you started to masturbate him so softly. Again, there was that delirious and frail face on Arthur, he never imagined that one day you would touch him that way, feel your fingers around him, your gentle touch on his member, and then, you started kissing his neck. It was his turn to moan, the girl who loves giving him pleasure, the feeling was better than he had thought, “Y/N… Y/N” you saw his chest grow rapidly, his face imploring you, biting his own lips. He wasn't going to hold it anymore. He softly took your hand from him and pulled it away, kissing it first, and slowly began to settle into the space between your legs.

“Arthur…”

“Y/N…”

Your faces were flushed, he caressed your cheek, as he slowly got closer to you. “Please Y/N, if you feel pain you have to tell me” You nodded with your head, your voice had been lost in all the sighs that you dedicated to him. Took his erection with his hand, starting to direct it to your entrance “Oh Y/N, you have no idea how I'm gonna adore you” And without waiting, he entered you. He did it softly, while you felted him inside you, moaned very loud. Arthur started to move inside of you, you felt a little pain, but that pain was disappearing, being replaced by pleasure, Arthur looked at your reddened face, how many nights had he dreamed of that, and at the same time, he observed how his member went in and out of your pussy, covering with your love. In delirious, you were tilting, falling backward on the couch. He went behind you, laying on top of you, and continued to adore you in his own way. You stroked his hair with one hand, and with the other hand you took his back, burying your fingers in his skin. He couldn't stop kissing you, he was almost glued to your lips, being addicted to your taste. He couldn't describe the sensation of feeling your soft and warm walls around him. You couldn't describe what it was like to feel Arthur inside you. You definitely love him. Arthur looked into your eyes, those green eyes had you haunted, and every time you saw his eyes you fell in love with him again. You were breathless, moaning his name. You just felt every thrust of him, how his pelvis fit so well on you, how he was so desperate to show you all his love.

“Y/N, you’re mine?” He asked in the middle of everything, forcing yourself to open your eyes and try to answer, which seemed impossible.

“Y-yes!”

“You... You will always be mine?” He said while he kept penetrating you and left kisses in your mouth, cheeks and neck.

“I-I’m yours Arthur! Only yours!” you almost cried of all the pleasant sensations that he put you through. You heard his moans, how he too suspires your name. He went back to your neck, leaving marks there too, and decided to left a few bites. You hugged him so tightly, wanted him to be closer to you, even though at that moment both were one. You were burning inside. Arthur took one of your hands and laced his fingers with yours, your and his screams were heard throughout the room, your heart was going to explode with love. The little drop on your necklace moved to the rhythm of Arthur hitting on you

“A-Arthur, Arthur! I-I’m…!” you couldn't help moan so loud his name, and when he felt your orgasm around him and your body shaking under him, he lost his mind.

“Oh Y/N! Oh!” And in a big yell, you felted his warm cum, feeling every drop fall inside you. He stayed for minutes inside you until his erection went down, and when he came out, you felt how his cum was coming out of you.

He dropped his forehead until it lightly hit with yours, breathing deeply and harder, falling in pieces. You wrapped your arms around him, pulling him closer to you, felt his heartbeat. Arthur separates from you just a moment, just only to appreciate the beautiful woman who loves, lying down from him. He closed to you to kiss your forehead, kiss your cheek and kiss your lips once more. "I love you Y / N ... I love you ..."

“Art… I love you too…” You said in a fragile voice, which worried Arthur.

“Y/N? Are you okay darling?” He asked to you because get little worried, you breath deeply too and stay with your eyes closed.

“Yes Art… I just…” You giggled and he smiles. He really loves you more when you smile.

“What happened baby?” He took a pair of wet tufts of your hair. You, opened your eyes and tried to explain yourself, but you had a little difficulty doing it, until you finally could.

“I just… I can’t feel my legs” both started to laugh. Arthur again took you for your cheeks and kiss you. He got up and knowing that your legs couldn't react, he carried you back into his arms, taking you to the bedroom and laying down on the bed, immediately he lay down next to you and hugging you. Until that moment the bites and the marks that it had left began to burn a little, but that pain did not matter to you. That night you were finally going to sleep in Arthur's arms, it didn't matter if he was now Joker, if he was a dangerous person, you waited for that moment for a long time and it was the only thing that mattered to you.

End.

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florianricquart · 4 years ago

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Just a theory about Hussie’s next project

Recently, Andrew Hussie, creator of Problem Sleuth and Homestuck, released a Trailer for his next project, that fans dubbed “Four of Diamonds” or “Four Diamonds”. This is going to be a theory about it. I will mention that that theory started as a comment on Makin’s Analysis Post, and while this post is going to be basically the same thing as I’ve said in the Reddit post.

Here is the image that Makin made. Something important to note : This theory started because of the “might not be same character” mention, AKA this theory focuses only on that scenario.

The Bad Guy. Despite appearing only once in the trailer, I’ve had quite a few thoughts. I noticed that he has 8 Diamonds on his face : 4 Reds, and 4 Whites.

(Picture done for proof, expertly done in Paint) The fact that he has 8 Diamonds led me to call him Octo Diamonds. Not the most important stuff, I know. More importantly, there’s a group/cult that seems dedicated to him. Why do I say that ? Here’s my answer :

The first logo is on the Gunslinger’s belt. The second is on Purple’s shirt. Another thought I had, although it has no proof, is that, power-wise, Octo might be like Doc Scratch : Omniscient and really powerful. He wouldn’t be a host like Doc Scratch, however (otherwise, it’d make him too similar) Something else : The trailer talks about the “realm of dreams”. One thought I had is that Octo resides there, and due to the nature of this realm, develops the ability to communicate with another realm’s residents, which could explain the existence of the Cult of Octo : Octo communicated with its founder, the founder, believing Octo was a God (I’m not saying he’s not a God, though), created the Cult of Octo, dedicated to him.

We know three (potential) members of this Cult : The ones labeled Gunslinger and Purple (for obvious reasons), and the one that recieves the Sword, that I’ll call Sword Guy. The reason I have to believe Sword Guy is from the Cult is the Sword he recieves, a Diamond Sword (no, not that kind of Diamond Sword)

The Gunslinger & The Sword Guy I’m going to talk about them in the same section, as my theory makes them pretty similar. I think they are important members of the Cult, probably being assigned important missions. I also think that Octo contact them, to give them Important Missions. And the scenes we see of them in the trailer are them, after they recieved another Important Mission from Octo. And this is where my thoughts concerning both ends. I’m going to talk about them individually now. Let’s start with the Gunslinger. Here is my thought about him : Why does he juggle his guns ? Two possible reasons. The first is he is trying to intimidate someone with his sick skills, which I believe is linked to the Mission (the fact that he juggle, not his sick skills). The other ? The Mission makes him nervous, and juggling his guns relieve his stress. Now the Sword Guy. He recieved the Sword because of the Mission he now has. (Not much thoughts individually, that’s why I talked about them together).

The Protagonists Yup, I’m grouping them too. Like the previous section, I don’t have a whole lot of thoughts about them. Let’s start with Purple. As I’ve said earlier, I believe she is a member of the Cult of Octo. However, she isn’t important in the Cult. She’s probably just a standard believer. (Not a whole lot, right ? It gets worse) Blue : Friend (or more, right shippers ;) ?) of Purple. Cloun : The weird one of the group. Green : The John Egbert of the group. Now, let’s look at something that’s not a character... The Mission Obviously, since I’ve talked about an Important Mission, I ought to have an idea of what it is. Yup, I have. As I mentionned before, I believe Octo is in the realm of dreams. What this means is that the other characters we know are from another realm. Due to this, I have two ideas, and they both revolve around Octo being tired of ONLY communicating : - Octo is trying to bring more people (AKA our protagonists) in the realm of dream, where he could interact more with them (or something more sinister, like controling them for his amusement) - Octo is trying to leave the realm of dreams, and tasks the Gunslinger and the Sword Guy with “helping” the protagonists, which will lead them to create a portal to the realm of dreams, finally letting free Octo. Another idea I had while writing this post is pretty cliche : Octo just wants to corrupt the protagonists, or make them his puppets. You know, cause that’s the only way a Bad Guy (TM) can have fun.

Random Stuff Here is stuff that’s not important to the plot. “What is it ?”, you ask. “Headcannon names”, I reply. Octo Diamonds was already mentionned, so here are the others : Gunslinger : Brett, named after Brett Favre, nicknamed “Gunslinger”. Sword Guy : Jack. Not from Jack Noir, but Samurai Jack. Purple : Maria, from marialite, a purple gemstone. Blue : Celeste, a word related to the sky. Green : Forest, a name I consider to be rather normal. Cloun : Lucille, a feminine name found on Wikipedia’s list of clowns (almost went with Molly, found on a website with “clown names”) Another thing : As I’ve said, I think Green/Forest is going to be our John Egbert stand-in. What I mean by that is, when looking at the Beta Kids, from Homestuck, John is the most normal one of them (Rose is fighting her mom with passive-aggressivity and is kinda obsessed with psycho-analysis. Dave “trains” with his Bro, training that looks a lot like abuse, as well as live with a puppet haunted by a group of souls that will turn into the Bad Guy. Jade lives in an island, alone with her dog, dog that has the ability to travel through time and space whenever he so desires. Meanwhile, John is surrounded by harlequins because his Dad thinks he likes harlequins, and his Dad also bakes cake. Too much cake.)

#Four of Diamonds #Four Diamonds #Andrew Hussie #Theory #Hypothesis #Speculation #Mention of Homestuck #wow i wrote a lot #probably going to edit this later #if i have other ideas

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peterstanslizzie · 5 years ago

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Re-watching Lizzie Mcguire: Episode 1.24 (Night of the Day of the Dead)

Skipping ahead to the Halloween special

- Matt and Lanny are devising a plan to collect the best candies and treats around town on Halloween Day. Lizzie interjects and suggests Matt should dress up as a troll. So, Lizzie likes to stir the pot too; I thought Matt was the only one.

- Matt asks his parents if he could borrow a wheelbarrow that he could use to collect candy but they tell him he’s not going Trick-o-treating this year. Instead, they want him to go to Lizzie’s school’s ‘Halloween Fright Night”.

- Lizzie freaks out because she doesn’t want her little brother to ruin her night. What happened to all the progress made in their relationship before this, like in episode 1.15 (Sibling Bonds)? I guess that was just a one time thing.

Planning Fright Night

- Kate, who is in-charge of planning ‘Halloween Fright Night’ is holding a meeting with her fellow classmates, including Lizzie, Miranda and Larry on what each person is going to be doing. Larry wants to do his ‘Darth Vader’ impression but Kate isn’t impressed.

I wish I was able to look this friendly when putting people down lol

- They move on to decorations and Miranda brings up her idea of displaying skeletons from ‘Dia de los Muertos’, which is a holiday celebrated in Mexico to remember friends and family members whom have died. This ‘Day of the Dead’ celebration begins around Halloween Day and ends a couple of days later.

- Kate rejects her suggestion because she finds it to be lame. Lizzie backs Miranda up by saying it’s cool to bring in stuff from other countries/cultures. Everyone else in the meeting seem to agree with her as well. Kate has no other choice but to give in to the miniature skeletons.

- Miranda also adds in a little warning to Kate to make sure she treats the skeletons well or else she will end up like that kid who made fun of spirits and was found in a coffin full of skeletons. I didn’t think it was necessary for Miranda to add that story in but go off sis.

Kate is definitely spooked out from that story Miranda just told.

- Lizzie wants to sign up to be ‘Vampire Mistress’ in the Dungeon of Terror. She’s been sick of wearing her mom’s old marching band uniform every year before this. Kate hesitantly co-signs with Lizzie on this but on the condition Lizzie cleans out the utility room where the dungeon will be located.

No wonder she’s over wearing that costume. That wind instrument (Is that a tuba or a French horn?) looks like it weighs a ton.

Kate is Not So Great

- After the meeting, Lizzie and Gordo head inside the utility room to clean it out. Lizzie thinks Gordo came in with her to lead a helping hand but he didn’t agree to such thing. She insists he should help her but he calls her out for always doing whatever Kate asks her to do. Ugh, here with go with Gordo and his anti-popularity speech again.

- Strategically, Lizzie tells him that her cousin, Heather (I assume she’s attractive) is coming to town in the summer and she will be able to get him to go on a date with her. Who is Heather? Have we ever seen her on screen before? Anyways, I didn’t know Gordo was this girl-crazy because he suddenly wants to help Lizzie now.

- We then get a montage of the two ‘cleaning’ the room and Lizzie goes over to Kate to inform her she’s finished.

Now that’s a very condescending thing to do to someone

- Oh and despite doing what Kate told her to do, Kate changes her mind and tells Lizzie that she’s going to be the Vampire Mistress instead and Lizzie will now dress up as ‘Floppy the Clown’ and give out balloons. I would have popped Kate in the forehead at this point.

- Back at the Mcguire home, Matt is doing some prep to make his own Halloween costume for the party. He wants to go as himself, but inside out like his organs and bones are exposed. If I was Jo, I wouldn’t give Matt anything from the fridge to be used as his prop/costume; She just gave him an entire bowl of perfectly delicious-looking sausages!!!

OMG, is this Sam and Jo’s first on-screen mouth-to-mouth kiss? They are honestly #couplegoals

Meet Miranda’s Parents

- The students of Hillridge Junior High are busy prepping for the upcoming party and we finally get to meet Miranda’s parents for the first time!

I love how Miranda isn’t afraid to call Kate out on her BS in front of her parents. I bet she tells them plenty of stories about Kate at home.

- Kate goes into her fake, ‘nice girl’ mode and greets them with her over-the-top innocent voice. Even when Miranda’s parents are talking to her about ‘Dia de Muertos’, she tries really hard to look interested. Side-note: this celebration sounds pretty much similar to how the Chinese pay tribute to their ancestors. We also leave out food in front of their tombstone or at least a prayer altar.

- As soon as her parents dropped off the miniature skeletons and left, Kate demanded that Miranda take them away from the refreshments table. She even tossed them over to Miranda as if they were made of crap. Kate’s definitely being a little racist here.

Miranda warns Kate again that messing with her ancestors will bring bad luck upon her.

- Well, it seems like Miranda’s ancestors are going to play a trick on Kate after all:

The supernatural have arrived

Time For Fright Night!

- We shift things over to the actual party and Lizzie, who is now dressed up as a clown is handing out lame un-twisted balloon animals to everyone. When it’s Matt’s turn to get a balloon, homegirl who has been mean to Matt all episode even popped his balloon right after she gave it to him. She should tone down the attitude with her brother, I’m just saying.

That football player looks a lot older than an average middle schooler or even a high-schooler I’m just saying

- Side-note: When Lizzie said to her friends, “Can’t you guys believe Kate?!”, Gordo takes a glance at Kate and he seems to be taken aback by her beauty. He really is girl-crazy!

- Matt is seen eating the tamale that was left as an offering to Miranda’s ancestors and this shocks Miranda. She should kinda have left a note telling people to not eat the tamale by explaining that it’s for her cultural celebration. And then it hit me; Miranda explaining to Matt about how him eating that tamale has angered her ancestors and they will be coming to wreck havoc on their world is all just an elaborate scheme to get back at Kate.

- Plus, we all know how bad of an actress Miranda is ;)

I gotta say; Kate’s hair and make-up looks on-point.

- Anyways, it seems like their scheme is working because Kate is believing that all the weird things happening around her is real from Matt’s lemonade changing colours to the miniature skeletons disappearing all of a sudden. On top of that, Lizzie and Miranda are definitely putting on a show in front of Kate when they are acting worried and questioning everything that has happened.

- They even talked about Matt disappearing all of a sudden like it’s nothing. Lol, if Matt were really missing, Lizzie would freak out! But I guess Kate wasn’t wise enough to catch onto that. Gordo, on the other hand is playing the role of the level-headed guy who believes there’s a logical explanation to everything.

Actually, this brief scene with Animated Lizzie already revealed to us that this is all just a plan. She literally said, “The truth is, if Matt did get spirited away to the realm of the dead, who’s going to be in trouble with mom and dad? Me.”

Jo and Sam’s Night In

- Since the kids are out of the house for the night, Sam and Jo are ready to spend some ‘quality time’ together after giving out candy to the neighbourhood kids. Suddenly, the doorbell rings and Sam opens the door to a kid who was just at their house getting candy like 10-15 minutes ago.

- He demands for more candy from them but Jo gives him their chicken pot pie, which is better! But not if you are vegetarian like that kid. That little brat even threw the pie back into Sam’s face.

I would’ve wrecked that kid if it were up to me lol.

Kate Gets Her Well-Deserved Karma But Was It Too Much?

- Things get worse (or even more fake, in my case) as they discover that Gordo is now ‘trapped’ inside a toy. Kate and Miranda argue about one bringing the skeletons to the party and the other dissing them, to the point where that toy Gordo’s trapped in falls to the ground and breaks. At this point, you’d have to be dumb to believe that Gordo was actually in that toy.

Lizzie as a scary clown ready to bring Kate down. Hey, that rhymes.

- Lizzie bursts into the room, now all zombie-like and proceeds to walk towards Kate and call her name at the same time. Kate and Miranda is now running away from zombie-clown Lizzie and they both hide in the utility closet. Kate wants all of this to go away and so, Miranda recommends her to do a few things to get the spirits to forgive her.

- First, she asks Kate to shower in dirt and blood but because they don’t have those at the moment, she tells her to improvise by heading over to the cafeteria to cover herself with chocolate cake and punch. We then get this iconic moment:

Lizzie and co. really likes getting Kate wet or dirty huh?

- Without thinking, Kate’s just doing everything Miranda asks her to do and was even going to apologize to Lizzie. But finally, she finally realises what’s actually going on. Even Miranda’s parents were in on the prank.

At this point, that’s just public humiliation. I feel so bad for Kate. Lizzie and Miranda really made an overkill this time around. I mean, what Kate did was bad but I don’t think this is the way to go about it. They are lucky she didn’t go Carrie on them.

- The episode ends with Sam and Jo about to play their own prank on the vegetarian kid but when the doorbell rings again, it is Miranda’s parents whom were on the other side of the door and unfortunately, they are sprayed with a water hose and tossed with oats.

Jo says, “We thought you were trick-or-treaters!” and Mrs. Sanchez replies, “I see, we give them candy at our house”. That dialog is hilarious!

Overall Thoughts

- The highlights of this episode to me were two things; The costumes and the prank on Kate. Lizzie and Kate looked great in their costumes and the Skeleton bride and groom looked awesome as well. And it’s really smart for them to incorporate ‘Dia de los Meurtos’ into this episode, which lended a lot of background and meaning to this Halloween story. I just watched Coco last month and I was proud of myself for knowing how much this celebration means to Mexicans.

- The message of this episode is also pretty strong, which is to respect other people’s cultures and traditions. Kate was pretty ignorant and closed-minded in this episode. And although I don’t agree with the public humiliation she’s experienced, I do hope that Kate or those cut from the same cloth as her would learn to think twice before being disrespectful.

- Jo and Sam’s storyline was short and sweet. I actually love seeing those two all lovey-dovey with one another. Overall, I really enjoyed this episode; It’s certainly re-watchable and a great 20 minutes to spend watching on Halloween.

#lizzie mcguire #hilary duff #disney #disney channel #disney plus #dia de los muertos #day of the dead #halloween 2019 #ashlie brillault #adam lamberg #lalaine #jake thomas #robert carradine #hallie todd #happy halloween #episode recap #episode review #cultural traditions #family show

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homespork-review · 5 years ago

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Homespork Act 2: The Racism of the Conductor’s Baton (Part 1)

Years in the future, but not many…

TIER: Now what in the heck is this I wonder?

BRIGHT: ...the reader wonders what’s going on now, as we jump to a sun-bleached desert with a Wayward Vagabond wandering across it.

CHEL: Here, we introduce another count:

WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 1

Should the baffling developments to which this count is applied be explained satisfactorily later, we’ll take the points off, but we use the counts in the present to express how one feels on seeing them for the first time. Even if it does get explained later, I feel like this is oddly placed, especially since it doesn’t get explored in any detail here. Mileage may vary, though.

FAILURE ARTIST: I think when I first encountered this upd8 I didn’t click on the link.

BRIGHT: Thankfully - and unexpectedly - this state of affairs only lasts a page, and then we return to something associated with the storyline so far: Rose Lalonde has started a game walkthrough of SBurb. After spending quite a few words to say that she will be brief, she explains that installing the game is bringing about the end of the world.

Then she takes a couple more paragraphs to express her condolences and reassure everyone that it was all inevitable anyway.

CHEL: Not a case of HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING, as I considered briefly - writing the FAQ is about the only thing she can do in the circumstances. Warning people not to play the game won’t help now, since enough people have already started that the resulting meteors are going to destroy the Earth anyway. All anyone can do now is set up their own session and hope to escape through it, and all Rose can do to help is advise them in the hopes some succeed. Sucks for all the people in the world who don’t have a computer, though, but the apocalypse isn’t exactly supposed to be fair.

FAILURE ARTIST: Amidst her purple prose she uses the r-slur. It’s one thing reading John or TG say it, it’s another thing with her.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 5

BRIGHT: Over on the next page, John has survived! As has his house, and his father, although there are eyes peering out from under the bed...and through the kitchen door...oh, yeah, and the house is now perched atop a rocky crag in a dark sky.

FAILURE ARTIST: That’s a good atmospheric animation. The next animation doesn’t have the [S] for sound but it’s longer than a couple seconds. I probably accidentally clicked next when I first saw it.

Next, we get a new voice: some mysterious insistent prompter who calls John “BOY”. We’ll find out later who this person is.

CHEL: I’d say this doesn’t earn a WHAT IS HAPPENING point because we’re used to John obeying prompts. It’s curious that the style has changed, but not completely confusing.

FAILURE ARTIST: Next comes the first walkaround game! The reader moves John via the mouse, arrow keys, or the WASD keys. When you click on certain objects, a little yellow box comes up with messages clearly from the mysterious prompter. If you click that box, John’s opinions come in a green-lined box. You can walk around the whole house and backyard - except for John’s father’s room.

Since this is an interactive game, you can go in whatever order you want, but for the sake of summarizing, let’s go by the order in the printed edition.

John surveys the balcony. The prompter wants you to “do something with” what it calls the “ghost clown” and John explains that ghost clown is the kernelsprite and the Sburb server player is supposed to be the one to prototype it. Meanwhile, the kernelsprite spouts wingding.

John goes down the hallway. Dad’s room is locked so John goes to the bathroom. He notes that Rose did a “piss-poor” job of fixing the bathroom. He wonders if he could just pee over the cliff. Thankfully, this never happens.

John goes into his bedroom. It’s a mess. The door has been ripped off the hinge and there’s black goo everywhere. John is annoyed at the mess but begrudgingly admits Rose saved his life. John (or the reader) takes the time to look at the posters.

The prompter doesn’t like Little Monsters anymore than TG but John wishes he could hang out with Fred Savage. John’s wish to hang out with candy-corn-horn monsters could be considered foreshadowing and Hussie jokes about it being that but Hussie probably didn’t have trolls in mind at that point. Clicking the Con Air poster elicits the question “IS THAT JOHN CUSACK?” from the prompter. When we find out who the prompter is, it will make little sense they would recognize John Cusack, but the actor is a universal constant. Clicking the Ghostbusters 2 poster, we find out TG calls the film “nasty manbro bukkake theater” and poor innocent John doesn’t know what that means. It’s rather disturbing that TG does know. (CALL CPA PLEASE?)

CHEL: Not sure. At that age with access to the internet I picked up a bunch of obscene words without actually seeing the material they applied to. Then again, this is TG, and considering his later-seen home life it’s quite possible he didn’t just get curious on Urban Dictionary, so…

CALL CPA PLEASE: 1

FAILURE ARTIST: He examines the totem lathe, which the prompter calls a “sewing machine”, and wonders if other punch cards will make other shapes.

If you click on the computer, you see Rose is trying to get in touch with John. He ignores her for now.

John leaves the bedroom and makes his way down the stairs. Both he and the prompter hate all the harlequin art, but John does like the crude bust sitting on the floor.

The Cruxtruder is still in the middle of the room with its lid open. When you click on the lid, the prompter commands John to reseal the opening and John says “Pandora’s tube” has been opened, which is awfully literary for him. When you click on the Cruxtruder itself, the prompter demands John push it and exit the house. John says he can’t without grist and comes close to dropping the comic’s name.

When you click on the urn, the prompter commands John to topple it. John refuses, saying he’d never do that… at least intentionally. If you click on the portrait above the urn of Nanna, John wishes for her wisdom.

The prompter calls the doors to the kitchen “like you see in a cowboy saloon”, a turn-of-phrase that will be weird when we find out who the prompter is.

So John goes into the kitchen. There’s lots of black goo around and an orphaned bowl of cake batter, but no Dad. The black goo is apparently oil. John wishes for his father back. If you click on Colonel Sassacre’s book, John declares that both it and WISE GUY are his “favoritest book”. The prompter wants John to eat some of the Betty Crocker cake mix but John calls Betty Crocker a “wench”. This is the start of John’s feud with Betty Crocker. On the fridge is a primitive drawing of Slimer that John drew at the tender age of almost thirteen. This won’t be the only picture on a fridge we see. There’s board games in the kitchen cabinet, a callback to Death’s games in Problem Sleuth and also a weird place to put board games. If you click on the kitchen phone, you find out the prompter does know what a telephone is, but this phone doesn’t work.

Through the door is a laundry room, but both John and the prompter agree there’s no time for that. Note that the prompter knows what washer and dryer machines are.

Next, John goes into the backyard. The prompter wants John to fiddle with the live wires and John wisely refuses. John checks what the prompter calls a “wall-mounted gadget” (electric meter) and discovers the house is still powered. How come the prompter is familiar with so many electrical devices but doesn’t know about live wires and electric meters? In his commentary, Hussie does note that this is strange.

CHEL: To be fair, “magic” is a legitimate power source in this world.

FAILURE ARTIST: From the tree hangs a pair of trick handcuffs over the void and the prompter wants John to claim them. The prompter seems to be out to get John killed.

John goes back into the house (via what the prompter calls the “luncheon parlor”) and goes to the piano room. If you click on the huge mural, John says Cirque du Soleil filed a restraining order on Dad. I think Hussie once said it was because Dad tried to shave a performer. The prompter wants John to “consume nut” (again with the death!)...

CHEL: “Consume nut”? *immature snickering*

FAILURE ARTIST: ...but John says there’s probably no hospitals in this dark realm. If you click on the piano, the sheet music for Showtime pops up and that songs plays instead of the constant wind noise. Maybe you should visit this room first. There’s a safe in this room but John doesn’t know the combination.

Though Dad seems obsessed with clowns, we’ll later find out something that turns that on its head. However, Hussie does have his own interest in clowns, having once created a comic about a hapless circus clown named Whistles.

According to the book commentary, the entire walkaround game took less than twenty-four hours to draw, write, and program. Still looks good. That wind noise does get awfully annoying.

CHEL: The walkaround game is also the original source of “Trickster Mode”, an Easter egg in the Flash in which Hussie’s face floats on the screen and John looks like this:

Speculation ran rampant in fanfic and art for years, usually involving the “Tricksters” being the Superpowered Evil Sides of the kids. This isn’t quite how it turned out when Trickster Mode appeared again (much to my disappointment, I admit, I liked those), but that’s for much, much later in the comic.

John and Rose chat again. John can’t find his dad. Rose explains that John and his house have been transported to a mysterious somewhere which saved him from the meteor impact that destroyed his neighbourhood. Her research has turned up many similar collisions across the world, getting bigger with time, and the two conclude that the objective of the game must be to stop the meteors and save the world. There’s a rather cute bit of dialogue where Rose wishes John happy birthday and mentions her gift to him is in progress, and she helps him retrieve his father’s PDA from the precipice for portable internet.

FAILURE ARTIST: In Andrew Hussie’s annotation, he says this conversation made fans see the two as a “shippable commodity” (Hussie’s exact phrase) but compares them to shipping Colonel Sassacre/Pogo Ride.

CHEL: I’m pretty sure he was being facetious there, especially given that equally weird ships are actually canon, but the worse parts of the fandom latched onto it and John/Rose shippers get a lot of shit, mostly from people who ship Rose with girls. People who ship John with boys seem a lot more mellow about it. That’s Tumblr for you.

FAILURE ARTIST: On Dad’s PDA, you can see a chatroom called SERIOUS BUSINESS where a FedoraFreak is updating everyone on his rescue of his wardrobe from a house fire. FedoraFreak’s story doesn’t end here. While he doesn’t ever appear on screen his conversation can be seen on the PDA a few times later and at the end a character exposits important backstory to him before he passes away. Andrew Hussie brought up FedoraFreak a lot on his defunct Formspring with facts that like many of his answers on that site might be just taking the piss.

CHEL: John is now starting to notice the mysterious commands in his head, and attempts to refuse to follow them further; the cut back to the Wayward Vagabond immediately afterwards shows that he’s the one giving the commands by way of a strange-looking console. The console has four screens, three dark, one showing John. Now he’s starting to seem a lot less random, though we still don’t know much about him. If it was up to me I might have used this as his introduction instead of the first page with him that we got. He’s wrapped in rags but we can see enough of him to know that he doesn’t look human - his fingers are sharply pointed, his eyes are tiny and beady, he has no hair, and his flesh is stark black. Admittedly he doesn’t look a lot less like a real human than the stylised sprites of the human characters do, but you see what I mean, he doesn’t fit the appearance they have.

FAILURE ARTIST: I like this reveal of Wayward Vagabond, though I think again my first read I didn’t click the link. I don’t know why it’s a link and not a panel.

CHEL: Rose’s FAQ further explains what was demonstrated earlier, warning users not to activate the Cruxtruder until they’re ready to start the countdown. Once it is activated, it produces “cruxite dowels”, cylinders of mysterious material, which can be used in conjunction with the “Totem Lathe”, the “Alchemiter”, and special punchcards to produce objects from nothing, which will prove useful, though honestly I don’t know why they need to put the punchcard through the Totem Lathe and then the totem in the Alchemiter. I feel a step could be eliminated there in the design of these machines.

Unfortunately the FAQ also contains this line, and I don’t mean it’s unfortunate because Rose making typos is OOC:

Removing the lid signals the moment your life becomes a great whirling batshit pandemonium, somewhat resembling the chaos of an especially ethnic wedding. Somewhere, a soused uncle deliberately shatters china on the floor. Muddy livestock is decorated, and then lost track of. The question “Who’s mule is this?” at times can be heard over the din. CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 6 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 3

FAILURE ARTIST: Oh wow. Guess there’s a lot hidden in these easy-to-skip parts.

CHEL: Rose herself is still in the observatory, watching the storm outside and the flaming collisions of meteors in the distance. Her laptop battery is running low, the house’s electricity is out, and the fire is getting closer, but there’s a backup generator behind the backyard mausoleum. While she has time, she tries to help John by prototyping the sprite for a second time, but it dodges the various items she tries to put in it, until Nanna’s ashes are knocked over a second time, directly onto it.

FAILURE ARTIST: I think it is said later that the prototyping is drawn to dead things. While the Betty Crocker box would be very interesting considering the mythology that later develops around that marketing icon, obviously the sprite would chose Nanna’s ashes.

CHEL: The Colonel Sassacre book has some importance in the lore, too. We’ll see that when more backstory is revealed.

The sprite disappears, but as John searches for an escape route from the house to retrieve the second CD-ROM, we see it again, slightly changed…

TG messages John and still seems pretty calm about John’s reports of weird happenings, coming out with a pretty entertaining rap about the situation. I still always giggle at “afflecks saclifice, i mean -crifice, would have to sufflice. aw fluck it”.

TG: ill have to make a rap about TG: i dont know TG: morgan freeman or something TG: being the president TG: itll be called TG: "obama made it so that no one gives a shit about black presidents in movies anymore" WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 4

FAILURE ARTIST: Fanon makes TG a great rapper but he really sucks and the only time he doesn’t (and in fact is the best in paradox space) we don’t actually get to read it.

CHEL: Probably that’s because the fans saying he’s great can’t rap any better. I know his rapping is a lot better than any I could do - for one thing he’s able to come up with one at all that quickly. I mean, yes, he does use words like “derangerous” in it, but I listen to a band who tried to rhyme “plane” with “California”.

FAILURE ARTIST: Good point. I can’t rap either.

CHEL: Is this a Problematykks point? I don’t think black people are the butt of the joke exactly, but…

Anyway. John stands on the balcony and Rose lifts the car from its precarious position on a spike of ground over the abyss, with the intention that John can break the window to retrieve the second part of the game, but just as he almost reaches it, her connection is lost, and the car plummets out of view below the clouds beneath the house.

FAILURE ARTIST: “The loss of any Dodge Dart is a terrible thing.”

CHEL: While checking his PDA, John is messaged by GG again! She’s surprised when he knows the explosion near her house was a meteor. Fortunately she’s unharmed, and mildly surprised but encouraging when John explains. Since he can’t reach Rose, John decides he has to get TG involved; TG is still rap-typing, and John’s reaction of “aaaaaarrrgh!” is pretty appropriate. John tells TG he has to use the game to save Rose, but TG’s lost his copy, and his brother apparently won’t be happy about TG borrowing his.

Rose gathers up her stuff to head out to the backup generator. Attempting to use her Grimoire for Summoning the Zoologically Dubious in her strife specibus results in this creepiness, so instead she uses her knitting needles. Some pages are spent consulting the Grimoire anyway, introducing the reader to the NOBLE CIRCLE OF HORRORTERRORS and some diagrams of what appear to be windows.

FAILURE ARTIST: Problem Sleuth had weird teleporting window shenanigans so this is a callback to that.

Rose goes outside briefly and thinks of a T.S. Eliot quote (“April is the cruellest month..”) that she attributes to Charles Barkley. Misattributed quotes are a running gag in this comic but for all we know in this verse maybe Charles Barkley did say that.

CHEL: She re-enters the house and prepares to risk confrontation with her mother…

And suddenly we jump to TG.

FAILURE ARTIST: Insufferable Prick Dave, unlike John and Rose, doesn’t simply shake his head disapprovingly at the joke name but takes out his sword and slices the box. He has a strong sense of self. Strider was probably a Lord of the Rings reference but Andrew Hussie didn’t come up with the names. He only chose them.

Like I said earlier, Dave Strider is sort of an author avatar for Andrew Hussie. Dave and Andrew have a similar sense of humor, similar bodies of work, and perhaps similar neuroses.

Dave’s introduction lists a few interests that never really come up again. He is said to like BANDS NO ONE’S HEARD OF BUT [HIM] but we never hear of these bands either. Andrew Hussie in the printed book bemoans that he never got around to talking about that interest. He collects WEIRD DEAD THINGS IN JARS but besides creating one abomination this collection never amounts to anything. He even lampshades his forgotten interests much later.

CHEL: The other kids at least get something made of their interests; John’s bad movies come up a lot and are the starting topic of a later important conversation, and Rose and GG’s interests are relevant to their game powers. Dave’s, well… The swords are his favoured weapon, but swordplay is much more of his brother’s interest than his, which is thematically appropriate, but leaves Dave’s own interests rather out of the spotlight.

Dave has a very cramped-looking room with furniture made of boards and cinderblocks and a bed which appears to merely be two mattresses stacked together. When the prompts bring up the game, he has the game in his possession and claims to have no intention of playing it, showing this is a flashback.

FAILURE ARTIST: Dave looks in his closet and finds the box his 13th birthday present from John came in plus a jar full of a yellow substance. John had given him shades worn by Ben Stiller in a movie and while the movie isn’t named it is the 2004 remake of Starsky & Hutch featuring the comedic duo Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. That movie appears in Problem Sleuth and much much later Stiller and Wilson become part of Homestuck’s mythology.

Meanwhile, the jar full of a yellow substance is not what you think.

CHEL: He browses the internet for a while, showing his satirical reviews of GameBro magazine, and introducing one of the comic’s favourite running gags, Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff.

SBaHJ is something of a legend even outside the Stuckosphere. Hussie originally drew it as a parody of bad two-gamers-on-a-couch webcomics, intentionally using terrible art, terrible dialogue, confusing layouts, and non-sequitur “jokes”. It proved popular, so he turned it into an entire comic strip, getting steadily worse with each entry. It… well, go check it out, words can’t really do it justice. Be warned that there is some graphic and disturbing content including incest, scat, gore, and bestiality, albeit all drawn so poorly it’s kind of hard to tell what one is looking at.

FAILURE ARTIST: Not just a general parody, it was in response to this guy on the Penny Arcade forum who wanted to learn just enough art to make a two-gamers-on-a-couch webcomic and refused to listen to people who told him he’d have to learn the basics.

CHEL: In-universe, the comic is drawn by Dave, who has “legions of devoted fans, most of whom are totally convinced of your creative persona's sincerity. Which is just how you like it.” Dave’s devotion to the concept of “irony” is a major part of his character; he hides behind “irony” as his reason for doing almost everything, up to and including liking his birthday present.

We then see a few pages from the fictional webcomic John also liked, depicting the Midnight Crew. While this could be interesting and relevant (you’ll see why soon), it would be more so at a point when we weren’t waiting for one of the main characters to be rescued from a meteor strike and/or massive fire.

GET ON WITH IT!: 4

FAILURE ARTIST: That is a lot of panels just to spend watching a character read a webcomic, even considering the importance of the webcomic.

CHEL: And while we’re at it, I’m assigning another point for posting Dave’s first conversation with John again. The reader might need a reminder of what was said, yes, but the magic of the internet means it would be possible to provide a link back to that page rather than making archive bingers read the same thing twice.

GET ON WITH IT!: 5

The new conversation he has with Rose is entertaining and establishes their relationship of mutual friendly snark very well, though.

TG: if you ever find yourself in the position where your life depends on me playing that piece of shit game, then ill play

Unwise words, Dave.

We briefly cut back to John, who finds another mysterious trail of oil in his house, and whiplash back to Dave. This might be an issue of the webcomic format again; in a webcomic, it’s reasonable to occasionally remind the readers that yes, this character’s still there and still doing things. In a book or in an archive binge, it’s a little jarring, but if the former applies that’s not really the writer’s fault.

Back at Dave’s, there’s a Flash DJ game on Dave’s fancy mixing equipment (much nicer than anything else in the room, as we’ll discuss further later), on which Dave accidentally spills his bottle of what despite John’s comments is definitely apple juice. He emerges from his room to fetch a towel, and now we see some clearer hints of the weirdness of his home. In the short trip to the bathroom we see two marionettes, created out of photo collages in jarring contrast to Dave’s sprite self, one overlooking the hallway and one hanging in the shower. Dave, meanwhile, cleans up the juice and hangs the soaked CD-ROM envelopes up at his window to dry. Despite his remembering to turn off the electric fan so they don’t get blown out, the game discs naturally end up going out the window anyway in somewhat more unusual fashion; specifically, a crow flies in and randomly steals them. Dave’s attempts to stop the bird result in sylladex shenanigans, causing his katana to fly out, impale the bird, and send it and the game discs crashing through the window.

#homespork #homestuck #homestuck meta #homestuck reread #homestuck review #let's read homestuck #literary critique #sporking

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cutiecrates · 5 years ago

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Cutie Reviews: DokiDoki July 19

(I just realized I accidentally forgot to change the previous months month in the title. Again <_< hope nobody was too confused about that.)

It says I was only gone for about a week but it feels like it’s been at least two since I last wrote anything. It was not intentional at all- it just seemed like things kept getting in the way. But I’m out of my rut and my health is doing fine, so I really wanted to get back on track. Especially since I was almost caught up!

Before I begin this review however, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a present my friend got me for my birthday:

My pictures don’t do them justice o3o the gold one is ACTUALLY golden, and the brown one has flecks of gold on it, and the split one is cotton candy!

These are macarons from the brand ma-ka-rohn, there was 14 of them in total. They have a constantly changing menu, and you can buy as many as you want according to my friend. They make regular flavors like vanilla and birthday cake, to unique ones like galaxy and various cereals! They’re also gluten free, and for order over $69.00 you get free shipping! They have a variety of holiday sets, a macaron club, various offers, and each individual macaron costs $1.99. A very fair price if you ask me.

The packaging on these was extremely heavy duty (layers of giant bubble wrap, plastic wrapping, plastic containers), so I’m not entirely sure why the rose one was smashed, but it was still in one piece and edible.

I’m not sponsored or affiliated with them, but you can bet I’d recommend these if you ever wanted to try macarons or like me, really like them but want to upgrade that flavor profile and try more varieties ;P I might start adding these to the review selection on the blog~

Alright, we’ll be returning to the actual reason we’re here now. I was just so excited and in love with these that I just had to share them with you guys.

This months theme: Kawaii Cove

“Splash into July’s Crate with this month’s theme Kawaii Cove. Your crate is sure to help you enjoy summer from exploring the deep blue with your new adorable marine plushie to cooling off with Sumikko Gurashi ice cubes in a refreshing drink. Dive in!“

Suteki Crate & Photo Prize

To go with our blue, watery theme, we have a lot of cute summery items from Sanrio; including plushies and pillows to practical things like bags and a bento set. The Suteki Crate pretty much sets the mood for this box and I feel like it was a perfect match.

Meanwhile, the photo prize for this month is a Jinbei San Kokujira Plush.

Marshmal Park Marine Plush

Everybody knows a buddy makes relaxing or vacations even more fun, and for summer we have the perfect companion! You’ve seen these guys on the blog several times, but each time they just get cuter and cuter. This collection is perfect for this box!

Marshmal Park, for anyone new or unfamiliar, are a series of marshmallow or mochi-like stuffed animals that can be stretched and squished on. They are very soft and smooshy, and are great for hugging and cuddling. This marine set includes a seal, shark, clown fish, angular fish, or the whale shark, which is the one I received.

I really like it ♥ he’s very cute with his pastel polka-dot pattern and face, and the detailing on him is very smooth and perfect, not a single strand or stitch out of place. He’s also very filled and huggable, I hate getting things like these and being letdown by their low-stuffing (such as the dog from the June box), but thankfully that rarely ever happens and that was a different brand I believe. This one has never disappointed!

Sumikko Gurashi Pouch

(sorry for the blur o_o)

Our next item is a pouch, which can come in handy in many situations and look cute doing it. For this months box we could either get a penguin, or polar bear dressed up as a penguin (I love polar bear so I’m very happy I got this one), both featuring a super-soft plush-like surface that makes them feel really soft~

Besides the sewn on details on the front, the back also features a sewn Sumikko Gurashi logo. What I thought was really fun was that the zipper (which is pastel pink!) is at a 90 degree angle!

I love stroking the material of this pouch x3 it’s so soft~ It’s also very cute and it doesn’t feel tight, so I feel like I could get away with carrying a decent amount of items in here- the only thing you need to watch out for is that it doesn’t get wet due to the material its made out of.

He goes perfect with my whale shark ♥

Hello Kitty Marine Notepad

The adorable marine theme continues with a miniature notepad featuring Hello Kitty and various sea animals :D There was a few various designs, each with paper vaguely similar to it. I’m not sure how many varieties there are because the booklet features a dolphin design, while the one I got has seals and otter; they’re so sweet looking~

Now, to go with this we also get a

Tuxedo Sam Scented Marker

This cute, double-sided marker features Tuxedo Sam and two amazing scents; not only adding a pop of color to a picture or notes, but a yummy scent too~

Don’t let the caps fool you though, because these are highlighter bright. This marker also demonstrates the scent gimmick, which I thought was a really cute touch; the yellow side is Vanilla while the blue is soda. If you combine the colors, they make cream soda. This marker is worth/costs 3 Sanrio Points (as usual I have no idea, I just kind of assume thats what it means. It might even be part of a lottery for all I know).

I love this marker :3 now only is it very functional being duo-sided, but the scent is wonderful and for being 3/4 months old, it’s still working fine. The vanilla scent is extremely strong and long lasting, while the soda is lighter (and keep in mind I applied the vanilla first, and did this “swatch” when I took the pics) and seems to fade over time. Combined, the scent is pretty light (which might be my fault because I didn’t want contamination) but I did notice a difference.

I didn’t have much to say about the notepad because... you know, it’s a basic notepad I get in several boxes, other than saying the marker obviously bleeds through the pages, there isn’t much to say about it. I do like it though, it’s very cute.

Sumikko Gurashi Ice Cubes

and now we’re on to our final item, this cute set of Sumikko Gurashi ice cubes ♥ Since I was little we’ve had sets of these, my very first was a set of sea animals (ironic huh?), I was heartbroken when we realized they were old and had to be thrown away (but I kept one of the whales, they were my favorite). Not too long after we replaced them by a fruit set.

So as you can see, we get 3 of the Sumikko Gurashi, including my 2 favorites Neko and Polar Bear, along with Lizard; who I don’t have particular feelings for but seem to get a lot of in these boxes.This set was made for me.

I prefer these to real ice cubes, I love them way more and your drink doesn’t get watered down (but as a pro tip, if you’re serving drink to a party or friends, freeze the liquid and turn that into ice cubes :D so if you need them the watering down doesn’t occur!). You still need to freeze them but it’s well worth it, and they look so adorable bobbing around in the drink!

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 4 out of 5. Like last time, I will agree that these items weren’t necessarily new to me or very unique- but they were fun, and very cute! The quality is there and they’re practical, I didn’t feel disgruntled or bored with this box like I did the previous ones. I admit that the items are on the smaller side this time around, but sometimes its necessary. I’m not sure they were worth what we paid, but we did have a lot of singular item variety, which I think is always fun and makes the box more special.

Theme: 4.5 out of 5. For our 2nd out of 3 summer boxes (technically 1 out of 2 though because June didn’t do a summer theme), I really like this. The Suteki Crate and items match the water theme exactly and I loved how all the colors were very similar, which helped provide further blending. You could bring all of these items with you on a trip or just use them casually. My only minor complaint is that they wouldn’t be durable in water, with the exception of the ice cubes. This box could have been a good opportunity to include items that could handle water or had water-esque details in design or gimmick, to play up the theme more.

Total Rank: 9 out of 10 Cuties. I liked this box, it was really cute and fun for the time of the year. I know there are ways they could have made it better, but I don’t take for granted what we got either. I know everything will be well-loved by me and I’ll be using the products.

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

1. Marine Plush - He’s so sweet looking, and I love the pastel polka-dot coloring, because I love dots, and pastels! I've been keeping him with me as of late and he makes me feel better.

2. Scented Marker - It’s very cute looking, even if I have a bunch of highlighters by now. I like its functionality and the scent is a bonus I’ll gladly welcome.

3. Sumikko Gurashi Ice Cubes - They’re so cute and fun to look at x3 It doesn’t hurt that it included my favorites.

4. Sumikko Gurashi Pouch - These are another item I see way too frequently, but I can’t get over how adorable it is~ I feel like with each one I get, I’m putting away the old one. I definitely want to use this one!

5. Hello Kitty Notepad - I felt really bad about this because we know I love Hello Kitty, and I thought the notepad was very cute. But I get so many that I can only use so many >3< I really wish they would take a break on these...

#cutie reviews #dokidokicrate #tuxedo sam #hello kitty #sumikko gurashi #macarons

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zuka-themed-username · 6 years ago

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z-t-r: Phantom 2018

Phinally! (sorry - but I spiced it up with some stage photos this time, creds to eternalyjun/searching the tags)

I had the absolute supreme pleasure of seeing Snow Troupe’s Phantom twice during my trip to Japan in November. I had arrived with a ticket for an opening day s-seki seat in Takarazuka, but during my travels a wonderful fan club was able to provide me a b-seki seat the following morning, and holy smokes am I glad I saw it twice. I don’t know why I thought I could handle an s-seki seat - the sheer force that is Nozomi Fuuto is completely overwhelming that close up - but it was nice to not have to use my opera glasses!

For all that Thunderbolt Fantasy/Killer Rouge was my favorite show I’ve seen live, Phantom was the best I’ve seen in Japan. In terms of technical execution and emotional power this show takes the cake. While I was a bit surprised they would have Phantom near Elisabeth as they can be seen as tonally similar from a distance, I see now why they were not concerned.

Quick spoiler-free plot summary: Christine Daaé (Maaya Kiho) is an aspiring opera singer out on the streets of Paris selling her new hit single ‘Melodie de Paris’ when she is discovered by Philippe (cast A - Ayanagi Shou) who tells her to go to the Paris Opera House to meet the general manager Gérard (Ayakaze Sakina). When she arrives she finds that he has been ousted by Alain (Asami Jun), though circumstances allow for her to stay and meet the new prima donna/Alain’s wife Carlotta (Maisaki Rin). Carlotta allows her to stay, where the Phantom (Nozomi Fuuto) hears her beautiful voice. He hides part of his face behind a mask (and has a Black Angel-esque cohort) because of Tragic Reasons but still becomes her singing teacher, and she eventually gets the starring role in the upcoming production of “The Fairy Queen”. Due to Shady Circumstances something happens to her voice and The Phantom is Not Pleased. All hell breaks loose, and yes, a chandelier falls in a really neat way. There’s a whole lot of drama, and then a startlingly peppy finale as with all two-act zuka shows.

As with my other reviews this will be a total scattershot of notes and impressions. Spoilers will be indicated with a “[s]”. However as this is a show that’s been performed many times, feel free to ask me more detailed questions if they’re not answered here! And yes, you’ll want to buy the DVD/Blu-Ray. If not I might finally figure out streaming and show it.

[s] Right off the bat: in comparison to the 2004 version, Daimon (Nozomi) does not kill the gentleman (Joseph - thanks @daimongumi!) in the beginning. He instead does the tasteful tumble. The moment the set rolls out you see that there is not space for him to stumble down a set of stairs and be stabbed. The Phantom is instead shocked and horrified.

- The start of the show has an elaborate video projection during the overture (including the show curtain shown above). It does a nice job of establishing the extensive catacomb system under the Paris Opera House. I do wonder though if it was used to shorten what I call the “visual overture”, where the Top Star does a dance or some sort of interpretive performance to music at the top of a show as otherwise the plot does not require them on stage for quite some time. While Daimon is a triple threat I’d definitely put dance at #3 - and frankly I’m all for shortening the extensive moody Phantom & co. dances if it allowed her to conserve lung power for the real focus - her kick ass voice! A bit more on this later.

The Phantom pushes away the haters (I’m all three musumeyaku)

- There were amazing / borderline excessive projections whenever the Phantom was onstage, and I guarantee they will not show up well on the recording. I can only hope they do not wash out costuming and lighting. I feel like they were supposed to be tendrils of darkness, though as they were projected light it looked instead a bit like vines. When Daimon was wearing the sage green lounge wear later it was especially noticeable. Again the image doesn’t do it justice (but can we appreciate this shocking apple green color?)

Another set of Incredibly Insightful and Deep Notes directly from my intermission scribbles:

- “Carlotta is hilarious”

- “Maaya Kiho is perfect”

- “Nozomi Fuuto is perfect”

- “tiny organ”

- “hella candles”

and lastly,

- “shady swag Willy Wonka”

which works better with a crossing the silver bridge gif but for now:

Anyway back to more fleshed out thoughts:

- To the clown and the jester in the far back of the stage during Melodie de Paris: thank you.

- More specifically, there are about five “rows” of Parisians on stage during Maaya Kiho’s introduction, and there was one performer in the far back right dressed like a jester. They started out juggling. Kind of. There was another civilian with them pretending to be entertained. They juggled for about five tosses, then headed offstage. “Ok,” I thought, “let’s see what else is happening.” I looked to the far left and there was a terrifying old-school clown clowning around. I was impressed with the costume and the commitment but quickly looked back to the right. The jester had returned. With a pillow. And was spinning it like a basketball. Just like a regular couch pillow with tassels. Spinning it on her finger until it started to wobble, then she’d reset and try again. It was riveting.

I have so many questions. Did jesters do this? Are you supposed to be juggling the whole scene? Why did you exit the stage and not just bring the pillow with you at the start? Did this change every night? Whose pillow is this? Are they ok with you spinning it like that? Where did this come from?? How -

(By then the scene was ending, and thank goodness I knew the plot otherwise I would have been completely lost. Also thank goodness for seeing the show twice, as Maaya’s voice is a golden treasure and if I had been too distracted to listen to it I would have been quite upset with myself.)

- Asami Jun as the new, slightly skeevy general manager of the Opera House is a joy. I had so much fun watching her be so into Carlotta, shooing people away or making a path for her wherever she went. He showers her with compliments and is utterly distraught when he misspeaks. I can’t imagine what Ayanagi’s interpretation would be like, as she was so fantastically sincere as Philippe, but I’m glad they will have a chance to stretch themselves as actors, since there’s really only one solo song between the two roles if I am remembering correctly.

- There were two musumeyaku Phantom followers and it was nice way to break up the choreography. While I am still not 100% convinced that the followers as a whole are incorporated effectively (I would like to see more interaction between the Phantom and his followers outside of setting them up to make mischief), they executed some interesting choreo well.

- One thing that really struck me throughout this production is how well Takarazuka as a whole is able to create worlds on their stage, through the simplicity / complexity of having a ton of background people onstage telling silent side stories. Sometimes sheer volume works, as with large city scenes (here Paris, also Guys & Dolls’ New York City), but also in any number of smaller cafe or club scenes. While painstaking measures are taken to ensure it does not interfere with the Top Star or Top Musumeyaku, it is still motion on stage that can draw the eye away (*ahem* jester). I would like to highlight my second favorite set of background characters, the prop guys in “Home”, as an example of how tricky this balance is. Plot Happens and Christine finds herself with some laundry and some music backstage in the opera house and begins the setup for her big solo turned duet, “Home”. Maaya is near the front of the stage, to the right in a light spotlight. Behind her are 4-5 sets of 2-3 people representing different segments of the opera company. There are dancers, some folks around a piano (I think), costume folks, and two guys on the far left checking props - our Spear Guys. They are all doing some light tasks amongst themselves. When Maaya begins singing, they all stop, except for the Spear Guys who are still joking around. As the song continues, they freeze and another group begins moving. This repeats until each group has had a silent solo, moving about behind Maaya until the huge Phantom set piece rises from the stage. The first time I saw the show I was seated on the far right - prime Maaya placement (thank you!!), but also lined up to have the Spear Guys right behind her. The second time up in b-seki it was not nearly as distracting as I could see the 15-20 feet between them and Maaya, but they still didn’t stop at the start like the other groups. I don’t think for a second they missed their cue two days in a row, but I do find it interesting that the direction does not have the entire stage freeze for Maaya’s intro. I wonder if that would be more distracting - to have 10-15 people suddenly stop moving and then have small groups begin moving, so they instead try to smooth out the transition with our Spear Guys. Or perhaps they wanted to highlight that she’s not a big deal yet as a laundry girl, despite this being a big song, so they don’t emphasis it as much with total stage isolation.

I don’t know why this specific thing stuck with me, perhaps I just wasn’t used to “Home” being staged instead of just an audio recording. But I won’t let this more intensive thought on direction make me forget to mention that: I sincerely hope no one gave Daimon any direction after opening night in regards to her facial expressions whenever the Phantom hears Christine’s voice. Idk if new tumblr will allow the gifs, if y’all pick up what I’m putting down.

- A quick side note: the sets and costumes feel refreshed and much more intricate. I’m somewhat surprised they were able to load the huge set pieces just four days after Castle of the White Heron. Huge shout out to the Takarazuka Theater Stage Crew/Staff.

- This goes without saying but Daimon and Maaya’s voices were flawless. I have a note that “Nozomi actually out-sung the ensemble”, which, duh? Her voice + microphones? I wish I could remember what I was going for there.

- There’s a song contest in act one, and frankly I think they should make the song the ensemble has to sing the actual contest. Boy does that song not translate well. It’s incredibly fast and while Snow Troupe does their best it’s legitimately impossible to follow. I need to see rehearsal footage to see ensemble folks just be like, “whelp this is fastest I can go, how are you doing?” and the shrugs in response. And then Daimon being like, “well I had a to practice a bunch but when I did it over a decade ago-” *nails it*

[s] When Christine faints from, idk, finally having a chance to follow her dreams and then promptly being poisoned, and the Phantom ‘sweeps her off her feet’ to his underground dungeon palace (with way too many candles - I assume candle maintenance is what the followers do most of the time), it was more of a ‘1 - 2 - hngh” on the Phantom’s part. I heard that it was very quickly taken out and I can attest that it didn’t need to happen if Daimon was going to hurt herself. Also I like that it gives Christine the tiniest bit more agency if she has to stumble through the mirror with him instead of being completely unconscious.

[s] Speaking of which, Maaya’s approach to Christine. This is another tricky thing that I could write a short essay about. In this version of Phantom, (compared to Andrew Lloyd Weber’s The Phantom of the Opera where Raul, a Philippe-type, is immediately there to try and help with the creepy Phantom situation) Christine is much more isolated, and greater attempts are made to humanize the Phantom. We get the sad details of his birth, upbringing, and current situation, including the weird twist that Christine looks just like his mother. Another essay could be (and no doubt has) been written on that topic, however what I would like to focus on is that Christine is aware of all of this information. She’s aware of how he ended up with a “horrendously” disfigured face and why he is deeply ashamed to the point of violence if discovered. So when she uses her beautiful, angelic voice to convince him to take off his mask, sees his face, then runs off screaming, it’s truly heartbreaking. There are a million ways to play this scene and the character up to this point, but the unfortunate reality is that Christine has to run out of the grotto/garden in order to make it back up to the opera house (somehow, which brings up more questions) for the plot to proceed and for last 40-50 minutes to happen. Therefore the actress is a bit stuck. With that eventuality in mind, I think Maaya makes Christine as ‘modern/realistic’ as possible, in that she screams without too much fear, and her face is a bit.. flat? I don’t mean that in a negative way. I wouldn’t be surprised if she received a few notes along the lines of, “be sure to be really scared by his face” but wanted to treat Christine as a woman that could understand - or simply wanted to have the chance to understand - the man under the mask/scars, so her reaction both times almost looked like, “ok I’m screaming and running because the plot requires it but I’m here for you-” *and gone*. This is reinforced by the much stronger reaction she has when she realized she made a mistake and struggles to go back behind the mirror to him, and her polite but not very enthused duet with Philippe (side note: the Phantom walking up with flowers after that scene - a punch to my stomach). I don’t even think it’s out of true romantic love, but out of a desire to truly understand. For all that they come from different backgrounds, they do have the same goal of making beautiful music, and with this much less murderous interpretation of the Phantom I could root for them. This is in stark contrast to the 2004 version, where I was much more ok with the Phantom’s demise in the end.

[s] That all being said, Maaya’s voice in the song that convinces the Phantom to remove his mask is f*ing beautiful. I am legitimately tearing up just hearing the echoes of it in my memory. When the Phantom is alone and breaks down crying after tearing down the world around him (quite literally), he is perfectly centered on the stage and just so small. It’s an amazing bit of staging that tore out my heart. The use of religious-style themes as well is just crushing.

[s] Speaking of which, I can’t forget to mention the incredibly long but intense story of the Phantom’s upbringing with this gorgeous stained glass in the background:

[s] The suggestion of questionable morality by tilting it is clear and fantastic, the dancing and anguish throughout is just flawless. For all that it does not make me sympathetic for the weirdly young dad (yes yes struggs of being nibante and not senka), I could still get behind the raw emotion of it all, which is rare for me. The “Ave Mariiiiiiia” is now ringing clearly in my head as well and I’ll just say good luck buying the soundtrack because I already ordered every copy.

[~s] Not quite a spoiler but at one point the Phantom is in a boat with Christine and is wearing a standard suit with tails. Intermission hits and when we come back to to our seats the plot has not progressed and yet they went and Top Star’ed the suit to make it the intricate blue one shown in most of the promos. I chuckled a bit.

- This happens much earlier in the show but Carlotta’s song introducing the frenzied world of opera is so fun and amazing - I remembered it just now as if my brain was trying to lighten the mood for me. You could tell they really reveled in the lighthearted scenes and nailed all of the comedic shenanigans.

- Come to think of it there’s a lot of tossed paper, envelopes, letters, music, etc. that is wild yet contained, though there is a letter dropped from the ceiling that juuuust barely made it on stage on the second day. It fell in the slot between the lights and the orchestra pit and I hope there’s a day where a musician has to hand it to them XD.

- Despite the age of the show it felt quite fresh, and the staging did not feel nearly as stiff as say, Elisabeth. That being said, all of the Phantom’s emotional struggles had the same setup of powerful song into a moody dance (except the big rehearsal scene, which is still all dance, though modified). This makes sense given the previous set of Phantoms (Wao Youka, Haruno Sumire, and Ranju Tomu), but I think for Daimon flipping the song and dance would have been beneficial. It would have been a bit hassle in terms of structure and orchestration, for sure, but continuing to shorten the Phantom-centric dance segments in exchange for a smoother and higher emotional peak, along with extended glorious singing by Daimon (also because the Phantom is a composer, not a choreographer) would have been neat.

[s for a bit] And here I was about to go into the auxiliary musings without detailing Daimon’s approach to the character! It was, in short, exactly how Daimon would approach the role. A total cop-out description, but I still think the most apt, despite me being unsure of how she would approach it before I saw it. Daimon has a way of blending vulnerability and ferocity that is quite unique to her and on full display here. The Phantom as a character is emotionally stunted and traumatized. He has the full strength and rage of an adult that has been wronged, the anguish of an artistic teen trying to find his voice, and the naivety of a boy that has only been loved by a woman that was scorned by everyone else. It is quite messed up when you lay it all out, and yet it does not allow for violent acts such as physical/emotional possession of another person and straight-up murder. As I mentioned before, when I saw the much more intentional murder in the 2004 version I was engaged and impressed by the gutsy-ness of it. “A Top Star is a villain, wow!” The emotional appeal in the second half of the show for me fell flat, until the very end when Hanafusa Mari is cradling Wao because of the sheer power of their Golden Combi. Hence I always saw the role as one or the other. A Phantom that is a villain with selfish desires (2004) or a misunderstood artist that gets swept up in emotion and acts out (2006). Here I can see both existing simultaneously. When Daimon is sad and aching, she is sad. Make no mistake, she was crying, many people in the audience were sniffing - two people on the second day had like racking sobs they were trying to control. No doubt a result of having seen it live, it is difficult for me to look at the character as a whole and cast one final opinion - I’m thinking of core scenes and moments where the emotion - sadness or rage - is just so strong. That’s something I think, whether or not you’ll like it when you see it, you can’t deny. Daimon’s expressive face is conveying every emotion quite strongly. When she goes to kill Carlotta, (RIP, you suck for sabotaging Christine but damn do I love your attitude) the intention is quite clear. Carlotta messed with Christine, so she’s gotta go. It’s terrifying, the calm appearance and slow, methodical style at first. The only thing that makes it mellow out for me is the absurdity of the red outfit and mask. It’s clear he raided the costume department and/or worked on the outfit for sometime despite being so incensed the moment he discovers who is at fault. Regardless of that flash of comedy, the cold intent is classic evil scary Daimon that I wanted to see.

What then I like about this is that we have three different situations with three different outcomes instead of just “too much emotion = murder”.

In 2004 we have:

someone saw the facial scarring -> murder

Phantom is not a fan of the new way the opera is being run -> murder

someone messed with Christine -> murder

In 2018 we have:

someone saw the facial scarring -> an accident/fall out of fright (This sets up better how “genuinely scary” his face is when Christine sees it. As an aside, his body still shows up in the glass case later on so I guess someone had to go find his body? I figure the followers had to draw straws, but that the Phantom would capitalize on it regardless is problematic.)

Phantom’s not a fan of the new way the opera is being run -> someone passes out from fright or overexertion during the Phantom panic?

someone messed with Christine -> oh shit, murder

This makes the murder all the more shocking, to the point of nearly being out of place, but the murderous intention comes not out of habit but because of love/infatuation with finding the voice of an angel/their mom. Which is a sentence I never thought I would type but here we are.

While it’s not as shocking on the meta level and can definitely be seen as making the character more tame, it also makes the incredibly long appeal to his tragic background less out of left field and a bit more of a situation to struggle with as an audience member. This does not excuse the dramatic trope of being shot and then having a solid 1-2 more hours of emotional appeals on the silver bridge, running about the opera house with the most incompetent guards, and entire song reprises before then being shot again, Andre on the Bridge-style. It’s a bit too long, and I wouldn’t mind switching the getting grazed on the side scene with the Phantom/dad reunion scene, if only so we could have a moment where not only does Gerard see his son get shot but is also seen by guards having talked to him, so there is more tension in the final moments. Not to re-write the script, but throwing in a bit of smugness from the guards to be like, “Nah, he won’t shoot his kid,” - then, “Father!”, then - *bang* adds perhaps a deeper shock to the bystanders? Or perhaps it’s 1 AM and I need to finish pontificating on something I saw just long enough ago to forget more interesting details.

Regardless, that aaallllll being said, Daimon’s Phantom is one that seeks to cover every base as strongly as possible. He is the saddest, the most anguished, the most angry, the most vulnerable and the most capable of cold and calculated revenge. Thus it could read as a bit overwrought or youthful, but I think it works with this greater shift in narrative that the Phantom lacks the emotional training one would get from having been raised in a more... conventional mask-free non-catacombs environment.

[end of s]

- On the finale: y’all, I was so exhausted. This show is so much. I’m never prepared for a mini revue after a two act show and this was no exception. It was fast. I want the script-lettered “phantom” sign in my house. The songs were upbeat and it was jarring. This scene happened:

and there’s a hip move (?) that was real sassy. My face was stiff from trying not to cry and still an eyebrow twitched in surprise. When the gif hits tumblr it’s gonna blow up. Get ready for Music Revolution is all I can say. It’s already better than Super Voyager.

A few auxiliary notes:

- People were cryyyying. A lot of sniffles. Two people actively sobbing on day two.

[s] On opening day during one of the final scenes Christine plays, if I remember correctly, a few notes of the “oh you are music” line on the piano and “revives” the Phantom for a final moment. Except kinda? It went up correctly but on the way down she didn’t hit the right note and ended up with a nice jazz remix. You better believe she had it right the next day but I loved the *note, note, wrong note. tasteful pause. a note that sounds like a venturing guess. a pause. another note aaaaand the scene continued* I love knowing that she’s actually playing those notes.

- I’m not surprised if they didn’t release the opening day curtain call speeches - Rika Masumi could not remember Gaston Leroux’s name (original author of The Phantom of the Opera - and fair, this show is so far from the book I’m surprised it has to be mentioned at all) and Daimon was trying to explain the cast split but got caught up in “ums” (which sounds like “eh”), which led to a funny bit where she was like, “you know, cast... eh... eh... ah, A!” (’A’ also sounding more like “eh”). Then there were two more curtain calls at which point Daimon was literally like, “buy the CD, buy some sandwiches and drinks... go home please” and then was like, “ok let’s do a phantom mask sign-off, everyone put your hand up like this” *hand up like the phantom mask* “ok with me, ‘Phantom...’” *audience repeats* Then Daimon pulled her hand away and said “maerou!” which literally is just like, “Phantom... is over!” I’m sure there’s a more elegant way to phrase it but people chuckled and starting packing up so I followed suit. I really wanted Maaya to speak but alas that’s not how things roll. If anyone has any insight on how she said she was going to approach the role (beyond, “I’m going to support otokoyaku”) please let me know!

I’m no doubt missing a whole bunch, probably will edit in the morning, and might add some comments if I remember, but otherwise this sums up my trip! So glad to finally have it all out there and finished. Can’t wait to hear people’s impressions of the Tokyo run!

#takarazuka #snow troupe #phantom #yukigumi #nozomi fuuto #daimon #maaya kiho #murder #i was dead #but in the good way not like *spoiler*#:o

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