#i got a fuckin awesome drawing tablet

[oberorka]

save ,e jf

[purplefinatic]

i really want to do an animation but no time or skill ;;;;;;;;;;

[mysticmeadowscamp]

I noticed that a lot of them were either visual artists or theater kids, and I flight, hey, Roman’s Creativity, right?

Today was the same as any other, just the three of them chilling in the dorm together at way too late an hour, but this time Roman was almost buzzing with excitement. “I have an idea, for like a show or whatever.” He blurted out.

Dee grinned. “Oh yeah? Shoot.” Roman smiled back. “Okay, so it might sound a little weird, but hear me out. It’s this guy, and he has problems, so different aspects of his personality come to life to help him sort things out.” He looked a little nervous, but still excited. “What do ya think?”

Remus started drawing at his tablet really fast. “Sounds great, bro. What’re the guys like?” Roman blushed a little. “Uhh, I kinda… based them off of our friend group? But like, in reverse, if that makes any sense. Patton is a cheerful dad guy, Virgil is still an emo gremlin except with no sense of style, Logan is a teacher-type dude who acts like a robot, Dee is suave and sophisticated…”

“Hey!” Dee objected, jokingly. Roman went on. “Remus and me are still twins, but I’m like a Disney prince and he’s a stinky garbage man.” Remus laughed. “Nice.” Dee peered over Remus’s shoulder. “Oh dude, you gave me a snake face, that’s fuckin awesome.”

Roman shuffled over. “Wait, lemme see!” Remus had drawn what Roman had described, but with some artistic liberties. “Oh my god, your mustache,” Roman wheezed.

The three of them sat there for a while, laughing at the character designs, until Dee spoke up. “Y’know, there’s something to this. Let’s call the Gremlin Gang.”

“Hey, guys, we all love you, but why the fuck did you make us come to Waffle House at 2 am?!” Virgil asked. “Yeah, I’m tired,” Logan whined. “You’re always tired,” Virgil countered. “Yeah, that’s fair.” Logan rested his head on Virgil’s shoulder. “You guys are adorable together. It’s gross.” Patton joked.

Roman explained the idea to the gremlins, and they seemed to like it, with a few complaints. “Deceit’s way too refined to go by Dee. How bout Janus?” Logan asked. Dee sighed. “Sure, it’s not like I’m using it.”

They talked for a while about possible storylines and characterization, until Roman brought up the obvious point. “The guy still needs a name.” They all thought for a second. “Thomas?” Virgil suggested. “Wasn’t that the name of that monster thing you used to dream about?” Dee asked. Virgil rolled their eyes. “Yeah, but that was forever ago.”

“What about a last name?” Remus asked. Patton chimed in, “Sanderson?” Logan laughed. “Like the fucking Hocus Pocus witches? No way, Pajamas.” Roman grinned. “Sanders. Thomas Sanders.” They all sat back and admired their idea for a second, before Logan spoke up. “Alright, I actually am tired, and I have class tomorrow, so we should pack this up for now.”

So they all went back to their own dorm rooms, and didn’t talk about the idea for a while. Until about a week later, when Virgil and Logan called a meeting at their dorm. “Okay so I had a project where I had to animate a short thing to music, and I got Logan to make the song, so whattya guys think?”

Virgil played them the scene, and they saw… their characters, in an opening theme song sequence, to a sort of jaunty tune with a bunch of whistling. It showed their faces with names under them, and then they combined together to make the guy they made up, who was labeled Thomas. Then a zoom out to a title card, which read Sanders Sides.

“Sanders Sides?” Patton asked. “Yeah, ‘cause his name is Thomas Sanders, and they’re all sides of his personality, so…” Roman looked ecstatic. “So, we’re really gonna make this?” They all looked confused.

“Ohh, I thought we already agreed on that. I kinda started writing up a draft for the pilot,” Patton said, sheepishly. “Yeah,” Logan chimed in. “I started writing themes for all the sides” Remus sighed. “Yeah, I made ref sheets.” Everyone turned to look at Dee. “Hey, I don’t look at me. I thought we were waiting.” Roman looked away.

Logan put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Hey, Ro, we didn’t mean to do this without you, we just lived your idea and wanted to help it come true. We’re sorry we upset you.” Roman was quiet for a bit. “You guys…You didn’t upset me! I can’t believe you would all put so much time into my dumb project is all. It’s really sweet.” They all hugged each other.

“I do want to know what you think about this song I wrote for the thing…” He shook his head and smiled. “This song I wrote for Sanders Sides.”

It took about a month of nonstop working, but they finally got a pilot done. A short, eleven minute one, but it was fully animated, which took forever. It had a great underscore by Logan, and Roman and Dee wrote a great song, but everyone expected that from the theater kids.

The real surprise was Patton, who was great at writing. They all chipped in for jokes, and Dee did most of the philosophical end parts, but Patton wrote a majority of the dialogue, and it was fantastic. They all made a YouTube channel, called it Thomas Sanders, and the premise was that it was a sort of animated vlogging channel run by Thomas.

They hit upload, and let it be for a while, and then a couple hours later, Roman got a call from Logan. “Dude, Sanders Sides is #1 on the trending page!” Roman almost fell out of his chair. He went on YouTube to check it out, and sure enough, the video had blown up. “Thomas Sanders” had gained thousands of subscribers, and the comments were so positive.

“This is genius, why hasn’t anyone done this before?”

“Asifyfdtsryysrkh, the animation is so good!”

“Okay, but who else ships Logan and Virgil?”

You have no idea, Roman thought to himself. He got a text from Virgil, and this time he actually fell out of his chair. Ow. The text was a screenshot of the tumblr trending page, where Sanders Sides was also #1, and it was full of fanart, incorrect quotes, and headcanons. The screenshot was followed up by a text that just said “holy shit.”

The next day, Virgil was approached by three people from animation class. “We saw Sanders Sides, and thought, “No way, we know that guy! Do you need any extra animators?” Virgil was a little nervous, but responded. “Well, it was just me and my friend doing the art, but…” They looked shocked. “You mean two people did all that? Wow, you must be tired. You need more animators if you want to make more without being burnt out.”

So that was how the show got a higher production value, and they got their next episode out much faster. The team started calling themselves Campfire Productions. The series got bigger and bigger plot wise, and the fans, who had started calling themselves Fanders, after the channel name, were dying to meet the creators. So they set up a Q&A livestream.

They introduced themselves, and Roman explained how the series got started. The first question came in: “Dee, how’d you get your face like that?” Dee laughed, and said “it’s a mystery.” Then the next question: “Virgil, who’s the most fun to draw?” Virgil thought about it, then answered. “I’d have to say Remus, I really like drawing horror stuff, and Remus just has that eldritch vibe.”

“Remus, how do you feel about people shipping characters based off of your friends?” Remus sighed. “I mean, it’s the internet, right? It’s still a little weird to me, but as long as nobody’s shipping me with my brother, I guess it’s fine.”

“Logan, are you and Virgil dating?” The two of them held hands, and Logan stared into the camera. “Take a guess,” he said flatly. The next question was for Patton. “You’re credited as the main writer, what’s your process?” Patton fidgeted a bit.

“Well, the sides are kinda like a family, and my family life was… not great growing up, so I tried writing a group of flawed people that are still there for each other. It’s pretty therapeutic, actually.”

“Roman, how do you feel seeing how popular your show has become?” He smiled, and chuckled. “It’s pretty fantastic, actually.”

The next day, Sanders Sides was trending again, but this time, they were also talking about the campfire gang. There were fanfics of them meeting the sides somehow, people talking about how hot they all were, which everyone found hilarious. Overall, they were happy with their success, and the ad revenue allowed them to make even better animation and songs. They had moved onto season 3 by this point, and it was one of those parts of pop culture that everybody just knew about. When you talked about successful internet creators, or independent animators, or LGBTQ representation, you brought up Campfire Productions. They were successful, doing what they loved, and best of all, they were happy.

Oh my FUCKING GOD

THIS IS SO COOL??? AND WHOLESOME???? AND SO WELL PUT????? GDJDHDJHDJD

I am in ABSOLUTE love with this fic holy crap thank you SO much

Everything is so damn cute and theyre so happy im gonna CRY

Campfire Productions is a cool ass name tho like YES pls thank u GOD i was smiling like an idiot the whole time

FUVK i loved this so much im sorry dgndvdkdhd

[thewalkingdead-imagines]

Negan Imagine ~ “Mother’s Day Surprise”

A little belated imagine for Mother’s Day, anyway hope you enjoy it!

The sun was already shining softly through the windows as the lack of your husband’s arms around you began to wake you up, combined with the soft kicking of your unborn daughter that let you eventually completely escape the sleep’s grasp. Quietly yawning you opened your eyes, your sleepy and still a little muddled glance searching for Negan before you heard his voice on the hallway and began to slowly remember what kind of day was today. “There we go”, you heard Negan quietly and still drowsily say before you heard your son’s yawn being followed by his dad’s familiar throaty chuckle ,”You look like a fucking rockstar with that damn bedhead.” “Alright, now we really gotta get downstairs”, you heard his voice again, trying to keep quiet before you heard quick but small footsteps rushing down the stairs,“Hey Buddy, be fucking careful-” “Now if I had your energy in the fucking mornings...”, Negan’s deep voice followed the steps with a chuckling huff before his heavy steps made their way down the stairs.  “Daddy?”, you heard your son’s voice ask, now sounding quieter than before as they headed further away. “Yeah, Bud?”, Negan voice asked, a small yawn interrupting him before you heard a door shut. You could hear them rummaging in the kitchen as a smile formed on your face while you heard their laughs and voices mixing, before they got more silent again as Negan must have remembered that his plan still implied to not wake you up and keep you in the land of slumber. Quietly yawning you sunk a little deeper into the pillows, trying to keep yourself comfortable as you pulled the sheets a little more over your body. For a bit, your eyes closed again, letting you dwell somewhere between being awake and dozing softly away. The air filled with the delicious scent of baking pancakes and brewing coffee before you heard the door opening again, just like Negan’s deep voice. “Holy hell, now how did you get that batter off? That shit was fucking everywhere”, you heard him ask with a soft chuckle. “Balu licked it up”, your son’s voice said just as his words let you directly picture how your dog took gladly care of the mess of batter and half baked pancakes your son must have created. “Oh my...”, Negan chuckled, the throatiness and deepness of his laugh rumbling through his chest as you could hear him trying to stifle it to not let it form into the booming and loud laugh you knew too well as well. “Okay, then we’ll get the rest off now, ya coming with me, Bud?”, you heard him ask just before the mix of his heavy and your son’s small footsteps mixed as the  wooden floorboards squeaked quietly beneath them. Feeling how a bigger smile grew on your lips you cuddled yourself a little more into the sheets, your eyes laying on the leant door before you felt the soft kicking of your baby daughter again. Smiling you let your hand slide down to your stomach while you were more than glad that she was turning her kicks into a morning routine instead of a nightly workout. Slowly you let your fingers begin to draw small circles over the soft fabric of your loose nightdress just as she kicked again. If Negan was next to you in bed now, he’d be looking widely smiling at your baby bump, letting his large hand rest on your skin to feel the next kick just to excitedly grin and softly chuckle as soon as he could feel it. He was still acting with the very same excitement about every kick he could feel  as he have had in your first pregnancy, with the only exception that he was now also motivating your son to be just as excited about the kicks of his little sister. The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs dragged you out of your thoughts just before you heard them coming a little closer to the bedroom. “Alright Buddy, we gotta be quiet. We want it to be a fuckin’ surprise for Mommy, right?”, you heard Negan quietly say, just as you had to keep a chuckle in to keep them in the illusion that you were still sleeping and hadn’t woken up before they had even started to turn their surprise plans into reality.  “Perfect, got your presents ready, big guy?”, you heard your husband ask next while the tasty scent of the pancakes he must carry with him was beginning to fill the air more and more up. “Will Mommy like it?”, you heard your son mumble just before you heard Negan’s voice sounding through to you once again. “Of course she will, you made it. She’ll fucking love it” They shifted a little more over the floorboards until you heard Negan’s chuckle rumbling through his chest. “Ah wait, shit Buddy you still got some fucking pancake batter in your hair”, he mumbled, chuckling quietly once again as you heard their voices right before the door. You closed your eyes, pretending to be still asleep while trying your very best to keep the small grin and smile off your lips as you quietly leaned a little deeper into the soft pillows. “Alright, here you go”, you heard Negan say just before you could hear the door beginning to slowly open ,“ Now lets get inside, Bud.” Softly you heard your son taping over the floor, followed by his dad’s heavy footsteps, before you could hear him climbing up the bed. Slowly, he began to shift over to you as you still tried to do your very best to look as asleep as you could until you felt your sons small hand placing on your arm. “Mommy, wake up”, you heard him quietly say as he stroke over your arm just before you opened your eyes and saw into his widely smiling face and the familiar hazel eyes. “Hey, Boo”, you said softly, your eyes wandering to his arms that were carrying his presents for you, struggling to keep all of them in his small embrace as your glance trailed over them. A self-drawn picture, a light pink rose of which Negan must’ve cut the thorns off earlier and a light blue package that was carrying your favorite body butter inside which the both of them must have secretly bought. “Happy Mother’s Day”, he said smiling, finally releasing his presents right next to you. “Aw thank you”, you said with a happy smile as you sat yourself a little up and  opened your arms for him as he chuckled softly, “Come here.” Feeling him falling dashingly into your embrace as he hugged you, you wrapped your arms around his small body and finally saw Negan coming towards you, carrying a tablet with the pancakes and some hot steaming coffee. He had a mix of a big smile and a smirk planted across his face, his tongue slid  slowly over his lower lip before he placed the tablet right next to you on the nightstand and leaned down to let his lips meet yours. Gently, his lips caressed yours as his beard stubble tickled you, his hand slightly cupping the side of your face before he let go. “Happy Mother’s Day, Sweetheart. You’re the fucking best”, he mumbled against your lips with another smile before backing slightly away as he sat himself next to you on the edge of the bed. “This is awesome, thank you both”, you said brightly smiling, feeling how your son moved slowly out of your embrace before he could sit himself up. Slowly, he leaned himself down until he could lay his head on your bump just like Negan had shown him and told him that his baby sister was for sure gonna feel when he was hugging your belly. Smiling you let your glance wander back to Negan as he looked smirking at you, his dark hair still a little tousled from the night just before he leaned in to you again and gave you another soft peck. “Got some other fucking present for tonight too”, you heard him mumble quietly but audibly grinning and with that wolfish tone of his into your ear before you left out a chuckle and shoved his chest playfully just to hear his throaty chuckle rumbling up his throat. “She kicked, Mommy!”, your son suddenly enthusiastically called out just as you could feel your daughter moving again. “Yeah, she’s excited too”, you chuckled, stroking softly over your son’s back as he looked abuzz at your belly just before you could hear Negan’s chuckle once again, followed by his deep voice. “Alright so you’re gonna try our kickass pancakes now, Baby?”

(the gif isn’t mine/ I found it on google so credit to the original owner) tagging: @lovesjdm @jeffreydeanneganstrash @negans-network​ @sweetwittlebosco 
 @myrabbitholetoneverland @amysuemc@ashzombie13 @warriorqueen1991​ @collette04 @trashimaginezblog@dragongirl420
 @dasani-saraai@timeladyrikaofgallifrey @dinodiegos @missmotherhen @kinkygamertrash @beahippie23​ @xabeautifultragedyx​ @negansmagic@starwarsandstufff@bdohe21 @lovesjdm @vanilla-negan @to-pick-ourselves-up-7 @roselover159@mamarhee @mini-me-ow@bellawindixon@dlb1999@the-writingdead@thelittlewolf45@collette04@adixon13@nijiru@twentyonewalkers @originalwinchestervamp@readytourie@jtklover123​ @i-am-lady-anarchy@marauderspads@humble-thumb@hp-hogwartsexpress @mydeliciousdandelion @unholyjs @dancing-in-embers@doggosarefun @xojeffreydeanmorgan @hela-rious48 @thelittlewolf45 @smolsstuff (In case you want to be tagged or untagged for specific things or everything I write, just let me know)

[musicalravencreates]

You just reblogged that AU thingie and I got hit by inspiration. What if Dan is a tattoo artist and Arin gets tats sometimes and hes visibly in pain but he always talks about the tats hes getting and they are so important to him and Dan can only listen to him and maybe falls in love a little bit when Arin starts talking about random things like what he does for a living or something funny that happened to him that day.

Flowers For Mega Man (part one)

So here’s the beginning of this beast. Thank you for the amazing prompt, and I do hope I’m able to finish this au as I have lots of plans for future chapters/parts.

AO3

It was one of those days. Everything was out to annoy Dan. Not enough to make him angry, but just enough to throw him off. His toaster broke in the middle of making breakfast, forcing him to have cereal instead. His lip ring had gotten stick in his shirt collar, forcing him to wrestle with it as he tried to get his shoes on at the same time. And the uber he’d ordered had been ten minutes late, which made him ten minutes late. To top it all off, all his fucking hair ties had just up and gone missing, leaving him to deal with a stray curl falling into his face every few seconds.

At least his client this morning had been a bit of a reprieve. Simple, small design and absorbed in her own thoughts to boot. Probably for the best, considering Dan didn’t feel much for chit chat at the moment.

After his hair blinded him for the third fucking time since starting the outline, however, Dan was done ignoring the issue. He excused himself temporarily, making up some bullshit about needing a drink of water before he stalked his way to the front of the shop.

Dan practically threw open the curtain separating the shop, catching the attention of both Ross and the customer he had been speaking with. He didn’t bother to give the customer a second glance, his focus zeroing in on Ross.

“Okay, cough them up, O'Donivan,” Dan growled, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ve got a client to take care of, and I need my damn hair ties.”

A grin slowly took over Ross’ face and he leaned against the counter. “What makes you think I had anything to do with their disappearance?”

“I’m not in the mood, man,” Dan said, giving him an exasperated look. “Just fuckin tell me. I gotta finish up with Janet so we can both get paid.”

Ross sighed, loud and dramatically as if it were killing him to be nice. Dan rolled his eyes and waited, blowing another stray curl out of his face. “Fine. Baby.” Ross reached under the desk and started rummaging around. He probably knew exactly where they were, but he just had to draw things out to tick Dan off even more. Dan leaned back against the door frame, ready to settle in. He wasn’t backing down no matter how long that asshole-

“Dude, your hair is awesome,” He heard a voice say, and his eyes slid past Ross to the customer he’d ignored. The guy was staring at his hair with a sort of amazement, and Dan wanted to roll his eyes again. People were always weird about his hair, asking him if he was mixed race, asking how he washed it, or whatever else they felt like. But the guy actually surprised him when he added, “The pink looks really good on you.”

Dan blinked, a bit taken aback. The pink was faded, but obviously, still there. If he had done it right, it would have been purple and it would have actually looked okay. As of now, it was most certainly a mess of weirdly faded streaks mixed in with bits of bleached hair that absolutely did notlook good. And yet the guy was still staring, and Dan had no clue what to even say.

“There it is!” Ross exclaimed and Dan jumped, eyes flickering back to a very proud looking Ross holding up a palm-sized magnetic container. Dan shook his head, trying to ignore the weird staring dude as he walked over. He snatched the container from him, giving him another annoyed look. Ross just grinned at him, not even bothering with an apology. Typical.

He slid the container open to check that it held what Ross said it did. Every single one of his hair ties was crammed into the tight space, so much so that he could barely open it. He pulled one out and snapped it around his wrist. He then slid it back shut, tucked it in his pocket and immediately turned back for the door.

“Wait, dude, that’s mine!” Ross called back. Dan just flipped him off over his shoulder as he walked back behind the curtain. Sure, he’d give it back later, but no way was he just dumping his hair ties somewhere.

He pulled his hair back into a quick ponytail and secured the tie as he made his way back to his client. She was thankfully very polite about the whole thing, not even mentioning the argument she probably overheard every word of as he sat down and got back to work. However, as they resettled into the previous silence, Dan found his head buzzing with the new clients’ weird words.

It wasn’t like he knew the guy, so figuring out if he had been sincere or if he’d been fucking with him was a pointless endeavor. And yet Dan wanted to know. If he came back, Dan wanted to have some sort of upper hand on the guy. But as the minutes ticked on, he found himself stumped. Clearly, he needed to let this go.

So he switched to planning out how to next get back at Ross. Something to do with his inkwells would piss him off. Or his tablet. He got really ticked off when people messed with his tablet.

And so the next forty minutes went, Dan ruthlessly planning his assault on Ross’ things as he finished the client’s tattoo. The strange man from before was quickly forgotten.

—

“Ross, what the fuck is this?”

Ross barely even glanced at the sheet as he walked past. “The new client’s design,” He said simply, scooping up some honey roasted almonds from the snack table.

“Isn’t the new client a guy?” Dan asked, giving Ross a pointed look. Ross just shrugged.

“And your point is?”

“It says, ‘Fight Like a Girl.’” Dan pointed to the lettering and shook the sheet. “The fuck, Ross?”

“It’s what he asked for,” Ross said, stuffing more almonds in his mouth. “Don’t get on me for following orders.”

“Bullshit,” Dan tossed the sheet back on Ross’ desk and crossed his arms. “Can’t you save your pranks for me or Barry? Leave the clients of it.”

Ross frowned, swallowing. “Dude, I never pull that shit with the clients. You should know that by now.” He pointed at the computer at the front desk. “Go on. Check. It’s all on records.”

Dan narrowed his eyes but Ross only jabbed more firmly at the computer. Rolling his eyes, Dan marched over to the computer and waved the screen saver away. He pulled up the client database, not having to search far to find the new guy. In a smaller parlor such as theirs, they usually fed off regulars and the occasional one-off drunk. A new client ordering a big piece stood out pretty fucking clearly.

The only new name in the system was one 'Arin Hanson.’ Dan scrolled down, scanning the information until his eyes caught on the order’s description. 'Full upper arm. Sailor Moon wand with the words 'Fight Like A Girl’ in swirly lettering. Maybe some flowers or sparkles surrounding it.’

He glanced back at Ross, who was busy licking his fingers off. Dan’s frown deepened. “You tinkered with the database too? Really?”

Ross stared at him a second, fingers frozen, before dropping his hand. “You- dude, that’s what he ordered! Fucking call him or something! I don’t know!” He snatched up the bowl off almonds and ducked into the back room, and Dan sighed. Great, now Ross was gonna be annoyed with him the rest of the day.

He turned back to the computer, eyes skimming the words again. Ross could have easily tampered with the system to make himself appear innocent. He’d done it before when he’d tried to convince him and Barry that Mike Hock was a real client. Not that they’d been fooled, but he’d proven himself willing to fuck with their system for shits and giggles.

On the other hand, Ross was being truthful. He’d never directly or deliberately fucked with a client before. The most he’d done was scare people entering during Halloween by wearing a werewolf mask. And even Dan had participated. But going so far as to design a tattoo as a prank? That was a bit far.

Dan’s fingers drummed on the metal as he tried to decide what to do. He could call the guy. Say he was confirming his appointment. It was still a few weeks away so he’d probably buy it. And doing so would give Dan more piece of mind than just speculating.

He scrolled back up, eyes locking on Arin’s phone number. He could just do it. Call him, ask, and be done with it. No harm done, right?

With a heavy sigh, Dan grabbed the landline from the corner of the desk and input the number on the screen. As it rang, Dan continued tapping his fingers, eyes scanning over the rest of his information. His attention caught on his address, which was less than a block away. He snorted. Talk about convenience over quality.

Dan heard the ringing end abruptly and a few seconds went by before he heard a quiet, “Hello?”

“Mr.Hanson?” Dan asked, leaning against the desk as he switched his voice to 'business mode.’

“Yeah, that’s me,” The voice said.

“This is Dan Avidan from Accept My Tat. I’m calling to confirm your appointment.” Dan snatched up a pen from the side of the keyboard and began twirling it between his fingers. Might as well act more like a fuckin secretary while he’s at it. “You scheduled an 8:30 am appointment for the 27th, correct?”

“Yup,” He paused for several seconds. “That it?”

“Just one more thing, Mr.Hanson.” Dan grabbed the mouse and scrolled back down. He described the tattoo listed in the description as he tapped the pen against the desk. “Is that correct, as well.”

“Yeah, that’s uh, what I told the guy anyway. Except for the swirly lettering, but that sounds pretty cool. He’s gonna add that in, right?”

Dan blinked, pulling the phone away from his ear to stare at the receiver. His eyes flickered to the computer, then back to the curtain Ross had disappeared behind. Well, fuck, he had been telling the truth. He couldn’t believe it.

After a few seconds of just staring at the phone, Dan slowly put the receiver back to his ear.

“Uh yeah, he’s actually finished the piece already. It’s very swirly.” Dan shook his head. Who the fuck even was this guy?

“Oh, awesome! I can’t wait to see it.” Arin’s voice suddenly picked up, excited. “I’ve been wanting to get this done for a while, and I’m so glad I can finally afford it.”

“If… If you don’t mind me asking,” Dan said, unable to stop himself. “Why exactly did you want to get this tattoo?”

When Arin went silent, however, Dan felt like smacking himself with the pen. Idiot. It was probably super personal, like a sister that died or something, and he just couldn’t keep his curiosity in check. Fuck, he was usually better about this sort of thing. Why was he so damn curious now?

“I just…” Arin started, pausing again, and Dan opened his mouth to apologize for prying and tell him he really didn’t have to answer, but Arin spoke again before he could. “I always preferred feminine superheroes and kick-ass characters as a kid. Still do really. And I hold my feminine side pretty close to my heart. So, I dunno, I just wanted something to reflect that, you know?” Arin paused again. “Uh, you still there?”

Dan shook his head, focusing his thoughts back from trying to figure out how the hell this guy even existed. “Oh, yeah, I’m here. That’s…” He took a breath. “That’s really something.” Not at all what he had expected, but damn if he wasn’t intrigued. “We’ll see you on the 27th, alright?”

“Yep,” Arin said. “See you guys then. Tell Ross thanks for doing this. I’m super fuckin pumped.”

Dan quirked a smile and glanced at the curtain again. “I’ll let him know.”

As he hung up, the thought of meeting this strange man went through his mind and Dan quickly found himself wondering what this guy looked like. He was willing to bet he was ridiculously burly and had a shaved head. Or a beanpole with a bad undercut. He glanced down at the phone, then back at the curtain.

“Hey, Barry! Wanna make a bet with me?”

[pharaohsparklefists]

Darkside of Dimensions Review

Since I’ve seen it twice now and gotten a few asks, I figured I’d share my thoughts on the new Yu-Gi-Oh! movie with ye.

Spoiler-free summary: I really enjoyed this movie, especially Kaiba’s and Yugi’s characterisation, but the duels dragged. The antagonist was an interesting person but an uninteresting duelist so the big duels against him were repetitive and lacking flair. The animation was mostly gorgeous but did suffer from “eh that character is in the background in this shot, it’s fine if they’re just a misshapen blob” syndrome. The plot made as much sense as YGO ever does: it’s supposed to be in manga canon but there are still inconsistencies and the plot could have used more structure. It’s definitely only welcoming to people who already like YGO, I can’t imagine getting much out of it if you’re not a YGO fan! But if you are, it’s excellent fun!

Now for details!

So the plot, if you haven’t seen it but are interested, is as follows: Kaiba is so upset that the Pharaoh / Atem / Other Yugi is gone that he’s trying everything to bring him back, including creating a near-flawless holographic replica to duel, excavating the pit the Millennium Items fell into to find the Puzzle, and, for some reason, building a space station that is reached by SPACE ELEVATOR which is literally the most ridiculous thing he’s ever done and this is Seto fuckin Kaiba we’re talking about here. However, a group of magical teleporting children have been granted the power to reshape the world into a peaceful Utopia, via a magic cube. This power will be lost if the Pharaoh should happen to be resurrected by any grief-stricken, obsessive teenage billionaires, so they’re keeping a close watch. Meanwhile, their leader, Diva, wants to take revenge on Ryou Bakura because he blames Ryou for the death of their mentor, who turns out to have been Shaadi, of all people. Calling himself Aigami, he inserts himself into Domino High, but has to take time away from his plot to confront Kaiba, who has found the Millennium Puzzle, in pieces. Diva/Aigami fails to prevent him from taking the Puzzle, but does manage to steal back two pieces, one of which he entrusts to his younger sister who immediately gives it to Yugi. Kaiba challenges both Diva and Yugi to a DUEL MONSTERS DUEL SHOWCASE TOURNAMENT, ostensibly to launch his BRAND NEW DUEL DISK SYSTEM but actually to get the pieces of the Puzzle back so he can resurrect the Pharaoh. Yugi tries to explain that the Pharaoh has moved on but Kaiba point-blank refuses to listen. Meanwhile, Diva has evaporated Ryou with his magic cube. Yugi duels Diva and wins, rescuing Ryou from ... wherever it was that he went, and banishing Diva to some kind of sand dimension. Then Kaiba and Yugi duel, but at the last moment, their duel is interrupted and they have to team up to take down ... Diva again, but like, now he’s a lizard and possibly Yami Bakura is possessing him?? Kaiba sacrifices himself for Yugi to have a chance to continue the duel, but Yugi is at the point of passing out, when Atem launches himself back into reality to help Yugi draw and play his last card, winning the duel. Atem and Yugi silently say goodbye one more time, then Atem leaves. Yugi et al graduate from high school, while a delighted Kaiba takes Diva’s magic cube and uses it to visit Atem in whatever dimension Atem exists in now, thereby proving wrong everyone who tried to tell Kaiba to maybe have some chill.

The more I think about the plot, the less sense it makes. It suffers from a typical Late Addition To A Series problem, in that, the if this shit is so important, why didn’t it ever come up during the series? If Shaadi was so invested in his cult of adorable children, why didn’t he ever visit them as a ghost or mention them to the Pharaoh? If the Pharaoh’s existence is so tied to this all-powerful world-altering magic, why didn’t he know about it? If Ishizu and Marik held the secrets of the ancient tablet, why didn’t they mention that shortly after the fated duel between Atem and Yugi, some earnest orphans would be teleporting around to literally destroy everything and remake the world into a Utopia? The Shaadi part especially doesn’t seem to make sense. Especially because the Eye is already missing. 

But anyway. The real story is Kaiba’s obsessive need to duel the Pharaoh one more time, and I really enjoyed how his character was handled. I was worried that this angry, upset Kaiba would have walked back his character growth, but he hasn’t. He’s newly angry and upset, and he’s being a dick, but it’s definitely a post-Battle-City Kaiba on screen, one who’s learned from his relationship with Atem. Despite how raw and angry he is, he listens to Yugi, treats Yugi with respect, and is not only willing to cooperate against a dangerous foe, he’s actually the one who suggests it! 

He’s pretty obviously experiencing grief and not really knowing how to deal with it, since he never explicitly named what Atem was to him; he can only admit that Atem was a rival, so he’s channelled all his energy into the idea that if he could just duel him one more time, he could feel better. But his language is all over the place. He’s obviously angry at Atem for leaving: having repeatedly said that Atem was his worthy rival, he now spits at the hologram!Atem that he was never worthy. Sure Kaiba, he’s so unworthy of you that you spend every waking minute and an unimaginable amount of money trying to see him again. He tells himself he bears painful scars of defeat, but then says that if he could duel him one more time, the pain could be made easier to bear. Surely if the pain is just from losing, then winning would erase the pain? But if the pain is from losing someone you care about, then getting to say goodbye wouldn’t erase the pain, it would just make it easier to bear. When he speaks to Yugi, he identifies them as feeling the same way: he tries to get Yugi to admit “you want to see him too”. As the movie goes on, it becomes more and more obvious that this is about more than a duel, this is about Kaiba feeling loss and grief and needing closure. His feelings and Yugi’s feelings are compared repeatedly. Yugi said goodbye and got closure, he misses Atem “all the time”, but he’s able to move on, he talks about his hopes for the future with his friends. Kaiba didn’t, and isn’t, he has abandoned all his trademark talk of the future and replaced it with grandstanding about how he, Seto Kaiba, can do ANYTHING, because that’s what he needs to believe. He needs to believe he can do the impossible because he needs to do it to see Atem again.

Aside from the fact that he risks everything at the end of the movie to transcend dimensions and the veil of death itself to go and see Atem, he also willingly lays down his life in the final duel, and when Yugi asks why, he says “For him. The Pharaoh.” I mean T______T holy gay subtext, Batman

Also apparently he spent a long time recreating Atem’s “perfectly coiffed hair”, which, let me tell you, Atem’s hair is many things, but you definitely have to be madly in love with him to describe it in flattering terms.

But you know, the thing that made me really hopeful for Kaiba was that, near the end, after Atem had said goodbye to Yugi and left after his brief visit, Kaiba came up and I expected him to freak out: he spent the WHOLE MOVIE trying to see Atem and here Atem had visited but not stuck around to say hi to Kaiba or give him the duel he so vociferously claims he needs, and I thought Kaiba would be furious ... but instead, after a whole movie of snapping and bragging and firing people and being ruthlessly sarcastic, he was finally cheerful. He was smiling. He said “I told you so” but really happily. He wished Yugi and his friends well! The confirmation that Atem was out there somewhere, waiting for Kaiba to find him, was all Kaiba needed to cheer up.

And when Kaiba did show up in Atem’s throne room, Atem’s smile was so warm and sweet! I wonder how much he knew of what was going on - enough to know he needed to show up, obviously. He’s obviously very fond of Kaiba, I’d love to see more of how he felt about leaving without getting to say goodbye. Judging by how pleased he was that Kaiba showed up, he must have been sad. But probably coped better with it. Still, it’s hard to rag on Kaiba’s outrageously unhealthy coping mechanisms when he actually fucking did the thing and somehow wrestled a happy ending for himself from the universe out of sheer stubbornness.

Incidentally, I think the dimension-hopping pod and suit and all was all just for show. It seems the cube works based on willpower - I think Kaiba just needed the tech in place to make himself feel better about using magic. Like, now there’s a spaceship involved it’s clearly Science and not magic. But actually it would have worked just as well if he’d just willed it.

Really, my only major problem with this movie is that the duels against Diva were AWFUL. Especially because Kaiba seems to have given up on everything except dragons in his deck. hologram!Yami vs Kaiba was good fun, and so was Yugi vs Kaiba, but Kaiba vs Diva was hell.

Kaiba: SAY HELLO TO MY BLUE EYES MAXIMUM AWESOME DRAGON

Diva: I SUMMON VJAM, AND THEN ANOTHER VJAM, AND THEN THEY COMBINE INTO GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY KING GLORBINFLORBIN AND THEN UN-COMBINE (that’s a word) BACK INTO THREE VJAMS

Kaiba: yeah well, I SUMMON  BLUER EYES EVEN MORE DRAGON, PLUS TWO B-LIST DRAGONS

Diva: MY VJAMS COMBINE INTO EYELORD CUBEMEISTER THE FOURTH THEN ATTACK 27 TIMES THEN I SUMMON ANOTHER VJAM AND THEN ANOTHER VJAM AND THEN THEY ALL ATTACK AND THEN I PLAY THREE MORE CARDS AND END WITH THREE VJAMS ON THE FIELD LIKE ALWAYS NO I’M NOT CHEATING

Kaiba: COME FORTH BLUEST EYES YETANOTHER DRAGON!!!1!

me: kill me

But aside from that and the travesty of a wasted opportunity to combine two hot anime men (srsly who looks at Diva and Yami Bakura and decides that a mixture of them should be a lizard in a cheap wig?), it was an extremely enjoyable movie. I can’t wait to get a DVD so I can recap it! I’m not sure if I want to recap as soon as I get it, or wait til I reach a natural break-point... I guess I’ll see where I am when the DVD is released!