#i love the fact that comments about The Wig are a thing in this series

[silverfoxstole]

“All right, keep yer wig on.” - Lucie casting aspersions on the Doctor’s hair again in Island of the Fendahl.

[eagle-eyes-sideblog]

Four's a Crowd

Summary

Mostly follows the story of SAMAU. However, this time, it's not just you that gains the attention of the Employers. Your roommates do so as well. (This piece is basically just a description of your roommates; there's not any SAMAU in this. Sorry!)

One other thing to note: Although I use 2nd person in this, the Player has sort of grown into their own character over time. Oops?

Being a streamer often kept you up late. It took a huge portion of your time, and your schedule basically revolved around your streams.

Often you were unable to do your share of the housework, so it fell on your roommates.

You were lucky, then, to have roommates who were not just okay with, but happy about your work.

In fact, they even joined in sometimes. If the game allowed, they would play with you from their own computers; otherwise, they often sat on your bed and provided commentary from off-screen.

Your community had come up with silly nicknames and backstories for all of you based on the little information that you'd revealed.

All of this had begun as a series of running jokes. Your "brand" was something like a phoenix; your screen name was Firehawk, after all, and you really did adore fire. Thus, your fans liked to draw you with the traits of a firebird.

You'd even seen some very interesting, well-written fanfiction about yourself. Even if it was a bit odd to read about your own streamer persona kissing your favorite characters or, god forbid, your roommates.

Of your friends, the first to appear, surprisingly, had been Tick—named for the antique pocketwatch he'd showed off on his first appearance. He was very busy and didn't show up often; he also had a very handsome voice, according to chat.

He wasn't much of a participant, either, preferring to sit and comment about your performance. Considering his love for math, he tended to approach things from that angle, sometimes discovering mechanics that you hadn't even noticed. Because of these traits, he was often portrayed as a mysterious and brooding timekeeper, with many secrets to hide.

(In reality, Markus was the only one of your roommates to have a traditional office job. He worked as an accountant, running the numbers for a construction company. He didn't really like the kinds of games you played; he said they were too stressful for him. You said that the way he played Stardew Valley was plenty stressful, but to him, there was a huge difference. He was also the calmest of all of you, although he was quite socially awkward, another reason why he didn't appear very much.)

Then came Rosebud, which came from the rose hair clip she wore 24/7. He was another fan favorite; sometimes you wondered if they liked him more than you. She was very charismatic, unhinged in just the right way to become adored by the masses.

He happened to be the most frequent guest on your streams, since his schedule matched so well with yours. She seemed to enjoy interacting with chat, often riling them up, much to your chagrin. Your fans seemed to think that she was a flower demon of some kind, which she delighted in.

(Honestly, you couldn't blame them for adoring him. Akemi's cheerful chaos really was infectious. Chat thought Tick was the most mysterious, but they had no idea just how strange Akemi was. She often simply... vanished into the night. Because of this, he was even more nocturnal than you—you didn't think she'd seen the sunlight in at least three years. You were also fairly certain he ran a Twitter account dedicated to you, which you decided to take as a compliment.)

Finally, there was Chroma, who had gained the nickname because of her brightly-colored, ever-changing style. Especially her colorful wigs. She'd taken to wearing outfits themed around whatever game you were playing, so she was usually the first to learn of your plans for the week.

She mostly appeared at either the very end or the very beginning of the stream. She was incredible at video games, and sometimes you even recruited her to help you out when you got stuck. She also adored insects, so she'd always try to sit in when you played insect-themed games. Chat was, naturally, head-over-heels in love with her.

(As a line cook, Josie had become excellent at dealing with pressure, even growing to enjoy it. Her attitude, both in work and in personal life, was efficient to a tee. In the past you'd associated that with insufferable perfectionists... but she was so passionate and caring that it balanced it out. She was an optimist who saw the best in people. No, not just saw—considering the stuff you knew she'd been through, she fought tooth and nail to believe that there was good in the world.)

[tarot-junkie]

Things. A summary.

Watched Willy wonka with my son. First time for him. Realized grandpa Joe and the rest of the old schmoes are the biggest bums ever. EVER. baby Charlie gives him TOBACCO money. And that man can’t even get out of bed. WHO IS GONNA GO BUY THE TOBACCO, Joe?

Also who sleeps in a bed for 20 years with the same smelly people. Gross.

Why do all of the couples have male/female name equivalents. Was this in the book? Joe. Josephine. Henry. Henrietta.

Veruca salt was perfectly cast. Classic bitch. Love to see it. Give her all the awards. EGOT, level unlocked.

Gene wilder is GOAT and delivers every line perfectly.

And yet…here I was, thinking about that odd-looking chef-man person with 2 first names and a color for his name. (You know who) that looks exactly like gene. But I’m still not into said 3 namer.

I don’t like timothee. (I don’t like most people 😂😂). MEH. Don’t know how I feel about the new wonka.

@oh-my-damn came across your vile and terrifying veneers thing and cannot unsee. Also RE: wigs and teeth comment. Dying.

I need more recipes to try out. Eventually.

Had so many meetings I felt like being a vegetable after work. Just. 😵‍💫

Unfollowed a very old friend on social media bc I’m tired. TIRED of people defending unborn, non fully formed fetuses without consideration for the fact that government should not, in fact, try to govern women’s bodies. But please Emily, tell everyone how people should DELIVER them, instead. Regardless of the circumstances. GO TEBOW SOMEWHERE ELSE 😤🤬

Thinking of reading the bridgerton series. Opinions? Queen Charlotte was fantastic, btw.

Hoping to get over the hump of the initial new job responsibility scaries. Whew.

Not done Xmas shopping.

Weird bloggers are interesting to creep on.

I’ve blocked tags on CE, Sydney Sweeney. Glen Powell. Margot Robbie, Taylor and Travis. (But also I still sometimes check under the tag 😂😂) bc they all easily annoy me HAHA

Lastly, Colin Farrell is a gem. That is all

[onebizarrekai]

undeniable proof that shuichi and kokichi were gay in v3

prepare yourself for the most big brain thing that has ever bigged your brain

chapter 1

shuichi saihara spends this chapter following kaede around because they were just trapped in a godforsaken killing game and everything seems to suck. when faced with a situation such as this, the natural inclination is to either find someone to latch onto or to distrust and stick to oneself. shuichi does the former because he is a twiggy little man who would probably die in a fight before anyone even attacked him.

what is kokichi doing in this chapter? sticking to himself? stalking someone? that is the real question. nobody knows what he is doing because he is not the protagonist and not the obligatory party companion. however, since v3 follows a theme of fiction, it is totally logical to believe that some system must be in place, but kokichi is not bound by such a system because kokichi represents anarchy.

he does not stick with another for all to see, nor does he remain alone. alas, he searches for a secret companion and has not found one yet. who shall he find? shall he find any? the truth is, he gravitates towards shuichi. it’s supposed to be in secret, but there is a way in the game to see what really happened.

if you speak to tsumugi right before everyone is asked to gather at the cafeteria a second time, she mentions sonic the hedgehog. kokichi runs by, saying “got to go fast”. this means that kokichi has either played sonic the hedgehog or is at least well-versed in sonic memes. if you get this dialogue, and only if you get it, later, kokichi makes another sonic reference, saying “faker? I think you’re the fake hedgehog around here!” while he confuses everyone, the dialogue makes the odd choice of stopping on shuichi, even though the dialogue box only includes “…” and nothing else.

chapter 2

if you have unlocked tsumugi’s sonic dialogue and go to the monomono machine, you now have a 5% chance of getting sonic merchandise. if you give this merchandise to kokichi, you get some interesting dialogue. he says “wow, shuichi! how did you know that I grew up playing sonic and that it’s my absolute favorite video game series of all time?” this immediately maxes out all 5 of his friendship fragments, and you can get all 5 of his hangouts without giving him any more presents. you’re probably wondering why this is important, but you will see.

as kaede is now dead, shuichi finds himself horribly alone. while kaito is there and starts calling him his sidekick, the force of protagonist syndrome has caused shuichi to gain the courage to hang out with anyone, including kokichi of course. I don’t need to talk about kokichi’s hangouts. they literally end with “I stole your heart, so now I’m satisfied!” and it doesn’t get gayer than that.

or does it?

if you investigate the bathroom part of ryoma’s lab during this chapter and click on a very specific spot in order to enter one of the stalls, you can click on the toilet 5 times and shuichi will lie down on the floor. while it’s to investigate the underside of the toilet, and there is nothing to be found, the words “kokichi was here” are written on the ceiling above the stall. if you’ve already hung out with kokichi at least once in this chapter, shuichi will sigh and wonder what kokichi is doing right now.

if you’ve given kokichi the sonic merchandise, and you reach kokichi’s final free time event in this chapter, he will actually question shuichi after he finishes bandaging kokichi’s finger up, briefly commenting on how shuichi managed to get close to him so quickly and asking him “what his trick is”. he says “you must like me a whole lot, shuichi. I hope you don’t bail on me after this.” word for word, literally just hear me out.

“kokichi places his warm hand on mine, and I feel like he’s prying much deeper than he usually does.”

“I didn’t think that was possible…”

chapter 3

little did you know, giving kokichi the sonic merchandise unlocked a bonus hangout. yes, you heard me right. a WHOLE bonus hangout. you can hang out with him again whenever you want in this chapter. kokichi only says “good to see you.” you can select yes or no.

the screen will fade to black.

you have used up a free time.

if you have reached this hidden part of kokichi’s relationship sequence, random dialogue that isn’t in the normal game starts getting sprinkled in, as well as certain easter eggs. when angie starts her whole shtick, since you’ve already hung out with kokichi 5 times, there are a few things he has to say straight up, like how he’s going to teach shuichi about cults so shuichi doesn’t accidentally join the student council.

chapter 4

now that you’ve finally reached chapter 4 and activated the secret kokichi pathway, you get a hidden scene, much like the others that are triggered by having specific items in your inventory. in the middle of the night, kokichi breaks into shuichi’s room and shakes him awake, telling him that someone stole his almond milk.

shuichi tells kokichi to shut up and rolls over.

fun fact, if you get the hangout with miu where she checks whether shuichi is a virgin, she does, in fact, say “ha, I can’t believe this!” and if you zoom in the window behind her, you can barely make out kokichi’s face. peering in. watching you. if you click on him at any point during this hangout, you will hear a voice clip of kokichi’s laugh and shuichi will internally respond to miu’s dialogue differently. he will think “miu is the last person I need to know about this…”

in this sonic dialogue route, shuichi responds slightly differently to kokichi revealing that he is the mastermind. although his dialogue is mostly the same, he counts approximately 22 extra crying sprites, implied to be caused by additional heartbreak.

chapter 5-6

these chapters play out mostly the same way until the very end, the only exception being when you’re investigating kokichi’s lab. if you click on kokichi’s throne 13 times, one of the bookshelves will slide out of the way to reveal a hidden bathroom. there is an envelope taped to the wall that says “for my beloved detective, who habitually smacks things over and over.” it says “if you’re reading this, I’m probably dead. or am I? wouldn’t you like to know? nishishi.” shuichi comments about the fact that kokichi literally wrote that stupid laugh out, only to start crying again.

make sure that you have kind lie equipped as one of your skills before you start the final trial.

if you’ve done everything exactly according to plan up to this point, the ending is different.

tsumugi decides to show kokichi’s audition tape instead of kaede’s. he says “I’d love to be a part of danganronpa! I can finally be a bad guy without being scared!” but then kokichi looks directly at the camera. he says “naw, just messing with you. guess who?”

the screen cracks.

kokichi has suddenly entered the scene of the trial. tsumugi looks horrified. her wig falls off. everyone is at a loss for words. suddenly the screens and lights around them start to black out until everyone is left in almost complete darkness.

shuichi finally asks kokichi how he’s alive. he’s like, “you DIED” and kokichi is like “or did I? it’s the grand finale, shuichi! I owe you the truth this one time, because you’re my favorite.” everyone listens intently. “you see, by observing your irrational actions, almost like that of a main character… I was able to conclude that we exist in a fictional world that plays by certain rules. but we all been knew, didn’t we? not quite! someone forgot to test for exploits.” himiko just goes like “what the fuck you smokin?” and kokichi just laughs. “my self awareness has given me more power than you can possibly imagine! let’s just say I learned where the hit boxes are broken and installed a few cheat codes in the meantime!”

“no… that’s impossible! this isn’t supposed to be part of the ending at all!” tsumugi doesn’t like that one bit. she just kinda breaks down crying. shuichi isn’t paying attention to her though. he had accepted oblivion only to be greeted with kokichi being alive. as annoying as kokichi is, they are hopelessly in love. maki is a little disturbed.

after passionately reuniting with shuichi, kokichi says the thing. “this world is mine now, tsumugi! you got nothin on this! it’s time to say goodbye to this trash dump and create a new reality!” tsumugi just kinda goes like “noooo!!!”

everything goes black. shuichi has a vision about entering creative mode. kokichi has opped him. they take hands. “let’s create someplace way more fun.” maki and himiko and keebo look at each other because they’re floating in the background and watching this happen even though it’s supposed to be an internal vision. the screen goes white.

shuichi graces us with some internal protagonist dialogue about how he doesn’t really understand what’s happening anymore or what’s waiting for them outside of this world, but he thinks that things might turn out ok.

after unlocking this ending, you unlock a super secret video that you can view from the main menu. it’s a fully animated video of kokichi and dice dancing to world is mine. this is what they spent all their budget on

[clonecumber]

This just in, transferring from Dreamwidth to Tumblr is way more annoying than the other way around. This post can also be found here, where anon commenting is (or should be) allowed.

I want to talk about Mereel's introduction, because I think it's one of my absolute favorites in the whole series. It's like the Jaws theme in written form.

So Kal goes off to meet up with a gang about selling some explosives, whatever, whatever. The gang gets smart and Kal's stuck having to go to a secondary location to complete the deal, which alarms everyone because they weren't prepared for Kal to essentially have to fall off the map, but honestly, it's a mild tension pretty in-keeping with the beat of the rest of the novel.

But then

Jusik and Fi are attempting to (without authorization because that's their Thing now lol) tail Kal so they don't lose track of him entirely, when suddenly Jusik goes on alert: 

“There’s somebody following him,” Jusik said. “Yeah. You, me, Vau …” “No, not us.”

Alarming.

So Jusik says he doesn't get any sense of malice, and that, “...Whoever it is, they’re focused on Kal.”, which makes him certain it's not the strike team. But he also describes the sensation in a way that's a little creepy, like the awareness that someone you don't know is standing directly over your shoulder, staring at you.

Mixed messages, is what I'm saying. Not the first time he'll do this.

Now, my second time reading this, I didn't remember how Mereel was introduced but I knew the character, so I have a note following the above quote that's nothing but "mereel???" HOWEVER. The first time through, the reader won't really know who Mereel is, right? Ordo's talked about him a few times, we know he's around, and that he was one of the non-Ordo kids in the prologue who had a slightly bigger role than the others, but he isn't really a character yet. There's no real reason to suspect it's a friendly, and the fact the best Jusik's instincts say about the guy is "probably not malicious" and "focused on Kal" doesn't help dial down the tension at all, and as Fi notes later, malice doesn't mean shit about actual intent to do harm. It's really fun.

They reunite with Kal and there's no sign of the mystery tail, but Fi's still nervous. Jusik insists again that he doesn't sense ill intent, but just take a look at his actual actions:

“Nobody with ill intent,” Jusik said. He slid his hand to the opening of his jacket, suddenly edgy. Fi took his cue and swung off the speeder to stand in front of Skirata. “And they’re very, very close.”

Clearly he's feeling wigged about something, and Jedi instincts are nothing to shake a stick at. Jusik's description of how he felt before I'm sort of taking as a subconscious interpretation of this, describing the feeling in a way that sounds uncomfortable and nervewracking because to him it is uncomfortable and nervewracking. Because it sure reads like Jusik's instincts do, in fact, seem to be telling him there's a threat without necessarily telling him there's danger and that it might confusing the shit out of him.

And I love it.

“Very close.” Jusik looked past Skirata. A young man with short white-blond hair was striding toward them through the sparse crowd, arms held a little away from his sides, a large bag over one shoulder.

 DUNNNNNNNNNNN!

Notes: MEREEL!!!!!

And then they have a heartfelt reunion, yadda yadda yadda, and I suppose if this were a movie it would be the point the audience is meant to startle and then relax, maybe laugh at themselves. The giant, scary shadow looming around the corner of an alley actually being a mouse, the rattling slam of trash cans that's only the cat, etc. etc. But okay, look. The tension, all right. It's like the Jaws theme that climaxes upon the front door of a suburban house opening on a friendly, cheerful woman who later turns out to be a Stepford Wife. That little bit of creepiness doesn't quite go away.

It's such a great introduction. And it's especially great because that cheerful, heartfelt reunion sort of pulls attention away from the fact that Mereel up until that point, whatever was going on in his head, was enough to make the empath nervous. Not that I'm saying Mereel had any intent to do harm to his allies at all, I'm just saying that whatever emotion, whatever intensity Mereel was riding on the op didn't really go away even as he was approaching them, it's just that Mereel dropped a smile over it and turned on the teariness and just...in an instant shoved it out of sight so thoroughly that no one really thinks of it again. 

Which is a bit scary, that degree of skill, when you consider that these guys didn't even know Mereel was there until he, presumably, let them. Jusik and Fi were tailing Skirata? Mereel was tailing all of them and they didn't even know. A Jedi. How long has he been doing that? How many of their watches, how many of their tasks up until this point, was Mereel just...hanging around in the background, out of the reader's perception because he was out of the POV character's perception? Just there? Of course, Ordo's been in contact with him, he knows he's around, but nobody else does. It doesn't come up either, but Mereel's been on Coruscant for awhile at this point, nearly as long as they all have, and he just...avoids that ever coming up. He avoids a hell of a lot of things ever coming up.

Makes me think of the discrepancy in how Kal thinks Mereel's the most well-adjusted while Ordo (I think it's him, anyway) at one point plainly states like it's just a fact that Mereel took everything about Kamino the hardest. How Mereel manages to actually scare Kal for the first time in True Colors, but by the next book Kal's right back to thinking Mereel's just dandy? I feel like a lot of that's lampshaded in his intro. Mereel's got depths, and if he doesn't want you to see them, you just won't. I just really love this introduction on the whole. It's so very, very Mereel, and I think it says a ton about how his character operates in just a few barely-there scenes, how much of what Mereel does is off-page, and where he's like...this horror movie monster looming up in the background which then gets tucked away behind a cheery smile like a sleight of hand trick as soon as you turn to look, hiding so many of the implications of his actions and sudden appearance in a performance*, and it's one of my favorite parts of the book.

*I say performance with the understanding that Mereel absolutely is happy to see his dad again, but with the belief that Mereel's capable of using his own perfectly genuine emotions to his own advantage because Mereel is...very ruthless, actually. The sentiment isn't the performance, the way he chooses to express that sentiment is. Mereel's fun.

[greentrickster]

Two topics. I found Texts & Turnabouts and read it one go and I'm like either mushy or laughing. Thank you for the recommendation! As for the second topic, I saw your comment about Steel Samurai headcanons. If I may ask, would you share some of them? I love stories in stories.

You’re super welcome, and yes, my reactions exactly, it’s such a good read!

As for my Steel Samurai stuff, I remain in awe over how excited people are to hear about it, but am also happy to share! Here’s what I have on-hand at the moment (I need to go through Saturation again and add a few things to it >_>U):

Steel Samurai: ran for seven seasons, Power’s trial happened during what was meant to be the filming of the 8th (2008-2016) (This bit is very much non-canon, it only has the one season in-universe if I’ve got my facts straight, but I wanted to have the space a longer-running series would give me to play with!)

Pink Princess sequel series (2016-17)

Season 3 of the show     mixed things up a bit by moving the location around every few episodes as     the Steel Samurai and Pink Princess pursed the Evil Magistrate across Neo     Olde Japan. This was the season that revealed that other cities beyond Neo     Olde Tokyo have their own defenders, including the Silver Swordsman,     protector of Neo Olde Osaka (only around for a few episodes, he’s a fan     favorite and returned as a reoccurring background character in season 7). 

In season 6 the series began to explore some of the more mystical/spiritual elements of the Neo Olde world, a topic previously touched on only lightly in the show and mostly explored in supplementary material, including source books and novelizations/graphic novelizations

 There are multiple ‘Samurai paths’ within the series, similar to how there are different styles of kung fu, these ones based upon the Asian elements of Earth, Wood, Fire, Water, and Metal.

 The Steel Samurai follows the Metal path, naturally 

The Pink Princess follows the Wood path, which is slightly more mystical (and also has flashier special effects)

While the Steel Samurai and Pink Princess both have non-powered forms, due to Will Powers’s reluctance to show his face on camera, the Steel Samurai’s face has never been revealed in any format - it is always cast in shadow or off-frame or somehow obscured

There are so many fan theories around this - most people are unaware of Will’s stance on the issue

Due to preferring not to show his face, it’s actually almost impossible to get an autograph off of Will Powers simply because he doesn’t really go to conventions or signing     sessions and stuff - you basically have to luck out and run into him in person and be carrying something he can sign

 The Pink Princess’s non-powered form is actually bald. This was not part of her original character design, but, a few weeks before they were set to begin filming, a friend of the actress playing Pink Princess began chemo, and the actress shaved her head out of solidarity and support, didn’t even warn anyone, just feckin’ risked her job and shaved it. She figured she’d either get fired or have to wear a wig.

In a shocking twist, instead of doing either, the director just decided to roll with it, they reworked her costume design a bit, and it’s become one of the Pink Princess’s signature characterizations that she is bald by choice.

There are ninjas in the Steel Samurai world, they mostly don’t get along with the samurai 

Samurai in this series will work with mystics, priestesses, and the like, but tend to be a bit suspicious of mystical arts outside those included in the Samurai paths

While the original show is live-action, there have been both a cartoon and an anime remake, each putting a slightly different spin on various events and characters

 In a wild twist, they came out the same year. The fans went insane.

 And that’s the baseline set of headcanons I run with when doing Steel Samurai stuff!

Thanks for the ask!

[heathneycanon]

reasons why phobia factor fucking slaps

ok this lowkey just turned into me rambling abt phobia factor while i rewatched it. putting it under a read more bc it’s super long lmao

like, the entire first five minutes are the campers being friendly to each other?? and vulnerable, to a degree??? you know i love that shit

courtney and trent?? talk to each other?? like. okay they’re never in the same frame together unfortunately, but they do have like, two whole back and forth conversations.

also in that campfire scene at the beginning, cody and trent are sitting next to each other and there are some. good screencaps

“exSQUEEZE me?!” like cody. ur such a dork omfg

duncan vulnerability hours

lindsay asks what a standee is and trent explains it and doesn’t mock her/isn’t annoyed with her at all, in contrast to a lot of the other campers interacting with lindsay. i love them as friends SO much u all have no idea

harold’s little scene with the ninjas. i love him sm. why does he have nunchucks with him when he goes to the bathroom??

leshawna is afraid of spiders and she runs away screaming from. chef wearing a spider suit??? like i don’t love spiders but if a man i knew wearing a spider costume was calmly walking toward me i wouldn’t react the same way as i would to a real spider. anyway i think this is hilarious.

season one heather vulnerability hours.....

i mean, i really wish they’d actually shown her talking abt her fear at the campfire, rather than just having it told by gwen in the confessional, but i get why they did that. regardless that one scene right before the sumo wrestler charges at her where she’s literally shaking.... i want to give her a hug

side note i hope the sumo wrestler is okay he hit his head quite a few times

ok so. trent accidentally leaving gwen buried underground because he’s getting chased by a mime isn’t like. a sweet gwent moment. but it is one of their interactions that i remember most vividly from tdi lmfao

what is a cute gwent moment is trent like. kneeling next to her while chris is burying her. and the face he makes at chris when he jokes abt not digging her up..... i love them sm

also gwen sounds so fucking dramatic when they close the box she’s in like. “goodbye cruel world” gwen ur being buried for 5 minutes ur not dying sdfjlafskj i love her

duncan hyping dj up before he picks up the snake is so cute?? like he’s clapping for him and he’s got what i call “adorable duncan face” which is where his eyes are full circles and he’s smiling. i can remember him making this face at courtney, dj, and alejandro throughout the series and it’s just. ugh loving soft duncan hours

“ah! it blinked” “it means she likes you” sadie where are u getting this information

okay so i googled if this was true and the result i got was “snakes can’t blink” so first of all i have no clue where sadie pulled that fact from and i have even less of an idea of where chris got that fucking. blinking snake from. is that even a snake??

when dj picks up the snake and they all hype him up?????? i love the killer bass so much it’s unreal

more cute gwent moments... gwen and trent talking on the walkie talkies.. they’re so cute

when the mime pops up behind trent and he does that little scream.... it’s loving trent hours u guys

trent is so bothered by a mime literally just. being a mime. me too trent. me too.

duncan and the celine dion music store standee.... everything abt that scene

"DUDE SHE’S MADE OF CARDBOARD” tyler i love you

courtney genuinely saying that it’s okay if he can’t do it (when she was being harsh to dj about the snake earlier..... duncney is so good in tdi u guys)

and then theY HOLD HANDS GUYSSSS IM SOFT FOR THEM

and THAT is what gives duncan the encouragement he needs to go for it?? they’re so good.

his “okay, okay” right before going for it... duncan’s voice acting is so good in this episode omfg

THE MUSIC THAT PLAYS WHEN HE HUGS THE STANDEE AND THEN EVERYONE CHEERING ITS SUCH A GOOD SCENE

THE DUNCNEY HUG

“duncan, you’re awesome!” and the look of shock on his face at both the fact that he did it and that courtney’s hugging him...... have i mentioned i love duncney yet?? bc i do

i can’t believe i used to dislike duncney omfg

then when courtney realizes that she’s hugging him and steps back jafksdfjlsa she’s so cute

and then the rest of the bass come over and hype duncan up more like. i love how supportive they all are in this episode!!

trent is so excited when he finally gets the mime to leave him alone fakjldjfl like he didn’t have to ROAST the dude. but he did.

chris somehow owns a remote control hail cloud?

lindsay getting excited about the “baby cloud” and calling it over?? she’s so cute omfg

trent fucking. hates geoff. gwent has geoffphobia in tdi ig

when they dig up gwen and she throws the walkie talkie at his head but he doesn’t stop smiling..... your honor i love them

owen and izzy getting out of the plane and kissing the ground together..... adorable.

cody with a fucking. watermelon on his head and covered in trash scares bridgette out of the woods. that will never not be funny to me

THAT ONE FUCKING SCENE. WHERE SADIE AND LINDSAY HYPE EACH OTHER UP. THAT MAY BE ONE OF MY FAVORITE SCENES IN THE ENTIRE SERIES. I LOVE THEM SM

the only bad thing abt this ep- tyler should have gotten the fucking point. he completed the challenge. i love courtney, but realistically, she should have gone home this ep and tyler should have stayed.

bridgette hyping tyler up...... im soft they should be friends

“quit being such a girl” courtney im sorry but the only reason you’re still in the game rn is because ezekiel made sexist comments in episode one. what are u saying lmfao

tyler and heather’s reactions to their fears rly make me think. bc like. most of the other campers have a more outward, loud reaction, maybe scream and run away. a couple are just a little wigged out. gwen gets a little snippy and is clearly super freaked out as well. but tyler and heather just. completely shut down. like, curled up in a ball, nonverbal, and shaking. makes u think.

why did cody need a calculator to figure out that the score was 7/3....... cody is canon lgbt+ bc he can’t do basic math without a calculator confirmed

also regardless of how little sense that made. at least that screencap gave us commie cody

when gwen starts trying to psych courtney out and heather like. gasps and looks shocked..... i like to think that heather feels a little bad for courtney here. heathney real.

duncan and bridgette hyping courtney up..... i love the killer bass so much omfg

courtney looks so sad when she walks away from the jelly.......

and then in the confessional right after?? she’s like. crying a little bit :( and she’s beating herself up abt it like..... :( courtney no

LITERALLY she’s like “how could i be so weak” “i deserve to go home” “you’re pathetic” (to herself) and then tells herself to show some confidence and then. she just starts crying again. and then slaps herself?? GOD I FUCKING LOVE COURTNEY SHE’S SO HARD ON HERSELF

owen just. hangin out in the tub of jelly. i love u, u wild dude. fuckin sit in that green jelly. loving owen hours

the little look that courtney and tyler give each other when they’re the last two without marshmallows..... half solidarity half “i don’t want to be the one going home”. i love them sm :(

i KNOW i said this earlier but. tyler should NOT have gone home this episode!!!!!! only bad thing abt this ep

all the fuckin chicken puns are a little bit funny tho

“he won’t be flying high tonight” bridgette chickens can’t fly

when courtney goes “okay, that’s enough” like. tyler’s not even there at this point but she’s defending him. maybe it’s because she still feels she should have gone home instead? maybe it’s because of that little bit of solidarity she felt for him when they were the final two without a marshmallow? maybe i’m reading too much into this? but idk. i think it’s sweet

okay no i have another complaint. what the fuck was the whole boat ride for tyler?? like when sadie gets eliminated the surprise she gets is that katie is on the boat. when tyler is on the boat, CRYING, after literally none of his teammates came to see him off, after he LITERALLY COMPLETED THE CHALLENGE BUT DIDN’T GET CREDIT FOR IT. the fucking. CHICKENS POP OUT?????? tyler deserved better

also some of the challenges were a lot easier, or at the very least, harder to fail than others this ep. i love it but come on. lindsay and sadie vs like. gwen vs owen and izzy vs dj. there were very different time limits, actual fright level, ability to back out once they were doing the challenge.... not a fair challenge

also uhm. if we’re being technical tyler and heather had the exact same reaction to their fears, so why did heather get a point and tyler didn’t? if the chicken had run at him, would he have won? smh

i do love this episode so much but. i had a couple complaints

okay finally lindsay’s little confessional to tyler where she blows him a kiss.... they’re so adorable lyler rights!!

[pluviophile-bookworm]

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Rewatch pt. 4

I really need a pick-me-up after 2x11, and I feel like 1x7 might be what I'm looking for, so here I am again with another HSMTMTS rewatch. I'm genuinely so excited for both of these episodes, so without further ado, let's jump right into

1x6: She stands for... lies, pressure and very inappropriate suggestions (coming here after 2x11 might have been a mistake, actually)

I honestly don't get why Nini's reaction to seeing Ricky in full Troy costume was so big — he actually looked pretty ok to me. Sure, the wig is a bit too much, but so what, it's cute.

Ahhh my boy Reddy is so adorable in that talking head... 'click!' Gosh, I love seeing him so cheerful! Guess he's embracing his role as part of the crew. As he should.

'I'm home'. Yes, Sebby, and you look so good, too! Gosh, I love this scene so much. I can't believe I'd forgotten about it.

Gina looks beautiful, though — I mean, she looks beautiful in anything, but I really like the Taylor look on her.

Ok, I fully understand everyone's frustration about this picture — it's genuinely so hard to get a good picture of someone jumping up in the air, and I can only imagine what it would be like with six people. A bunch of my classmates tried to do something like that ages ago and, needless to say, it didn't go very well. No good pictures were taken that day.

Ah, Portwell: the early days. Ok, but wanting something and feeling like you have to get it is far from the same thing, EJ. Honestly, these two in their early days as accomplices... this is not the first time they've been like 'X is the same thing as Y' when it's obviously not. I mean, of course, that time they became accomplices because 'we want the same thing' — which, at that point, they didn't.

Ok, but they were in such unison with that 'Not now!'... couple goals! You know, even before either of them had considered the possibility of them being a couple for real.

That's a lot of pressure that Miss Jenn is putting on dear Carlito over there. I mean, he's one of the youngest at the drama club and he has to essentially do her job for her, all while she's not even sure if she'll be able to return to her job. I just... keep reminding myself that these kids are closer in age to my little brother than they are to me (except for EJ, who is precisely in the middle), and then the pressure they're under takes on completely new proportions in my mind. None of them should have to deal with all of this. And no amount of 'trust the process' is making it better.

'Should I just live vicariously through someone else?' Oh Reddy, you should just live for yourself. I mean, the truth is I don't practice what I preach most of the time, but I really do mean this. Just go out there and live your best life. You're not Ricky's therapy dog or anything (that being said, Ricky's getting a therapy dog when?).

What part of 'a forest of boys' does Nini not get? It's simple enough. Just help Carlos do his job, how about that? I mean, he shouldn't have to do everything himself anyway.

See? He cracked. That's what happens when you put all this responsibility on a teen's shoulders and be like 'deal with it'. He was just trying his best, you guys. He did not deserve all the clapback.

Ricky's forced optimism about Miss Jenn and the show is too much even for me. Sure, I know everything turns out mostly alright at the end, but this just sounds like Ricky's on the verge of a breakdown. You know, every time someone's been too unrealistically positive on this show, it has ended in a breakdown. And that's the last thing I want.

I do agree about the simple acoustic version of the song, though. Sometimes simple is the best option.

Major props to Carlos for going up to Mr. Mazzara like that. If someone had bullied me, and especially if that someone was a teacher, I'd never have dared to call them 'Benjamin Mazarra!' to their face. Even when he's on the verge of despair, this boy is still the boldest. And we love him for that.

Is this where the 'Carlos Surname' joke started, though? I had forgotten. It was funny while it lasted.

Ricky doesn't know it yet, but he's seriously playing with Gina's feelings there. And I don't blame him because, again, he doesn't know yet, but I still feel bad for her.

'Despite the 4.3 GPA, I'm actually an idiot.' — EJ is high intelligence, low wisdom, confirmed. Not that this is news, but I really don't remember much about this season, so I'm pointing this out now.

Now forgive me if I'm not feeling for Miss Jenn after 2x11... she did some really unforgivable things there. Still, as much as I want to say a real qualified teacher would not do any of that, my personal experience suggests otherwise, quite unfortunately. Miss Jenn might not be very emotionally mature, but not having legal teaching credentials is not her biggest issue, really. It is precisely her lack of emotional maturity.

OMG, Big Red accidentally invited the entire drama club over! And that, I guess, is half of how Redlyn established themselves as the hosts of every out-of-school drama club gathering. Thanksgiving is, of course, the other half. Gosh, those two were the parents of the drama club even before they were a couple. Guess they're soulmates in that way, too.

Ok, so I didn't comment on this after 2x8 when Big Red did it to Ricky, but now that I finally notice that Seb did it to Carlos, too (I took my time, thanks), I need to talk about the knee touch thing. See, this is exactly the amount of touch I used to be comfortable with (since I'm very touch-averse) — both on the giving and on the receiving end — and it can mean so much when you feel bad. It's a subtle 'hey, I'm here, it's going to be fine', a sort of hug-without-the-hugging... I feel like this is a gesture we don't see enough of in media and it can feel just as intimate as, say, holding hands or cuddling. I don't want to talk about kissing because I don't know anything about it. But I just love how we've got the knee touch depicted by both a romantic pairing and a platonic pairing in the show. Ok, rant over. But I just really wanted to talk about this because, well, I saw myself in it.

'Her past is a little bit sketchy'... I see, Ash has already started writing Truth, Justice and Songs in Our Key, even if she doesn't know it quite yet.

Miss Jenn finding out Mike is Ricky's dad is just as awkward as it should be. Whatever they had going on should have ended right then and there.

'... people in the dramatic arts are insane' — 'Thank you.' — Umm, Miss Jenn, you are not really helping your case there. Quite frankly, you're lucky you've got the allegiance of the entire drama club. I don't think they'd have your back as much after 2x11, though.

Ok, but... Big Red wearing a longcoat just to take it off for the dramatic flair of it all? An icon if I've ever seen one. Also, mad props to Larry for apparently learning this number in record time after Dara got injured.

Oh, and... mad props to all the kids in-universe for writing, rehearsing, and learning this entire number in one night.

So both Seb and Natalie have solo lines in the song... and Seb was promoted to main in s2. So does this mean Natalie will get the same treatment in s3? I mean, that will probably mean they'll try to stick her in some sort of romantic plot, and I really don't need that, but I really, really want her to be a main character.

Also, let's not forget we had our first Redlyn moment in this number... seeing them dance together makes my heart jump with joy!

I won't lie, though, the entire dance number and everything was just a little bit uncomfortable to watch after 2x11... these kids do so much for Miss Jenn, and what does she do? Put insane amounts of pressure on some of them, shuts others down at every attempt to put in a word, favours yet others despite their abysmal performance at the audition, and then has the audacity to tell that same person to jump off of something high, with all the implications attached? Not that I'm naming any names, of course. Ok, this has taken a sudden and uncalled for turn for the dark, so I guess I'll just move right along to the next episode now.

1x7: A world where 'That was terrible!' and 'I'm so happy!' can both be true at the same time

My girl Ash is doing the recap! And she's a pun queen, too. 'Miss Jenn was in hot water, Carlos was a hot mess...' — not pleasant, but so true. But wbk. Ashlyn is the best.

And... Ricky and Nini's on and off chemistry is back on. Good for them, because after season 2, I really needed to see a good rehearsal. But I'm thinking EJ's joy at the end-of-school bell had little to do with Thanksgiving...

That look Reddy gave Ashlyn as she was walking out... might be me digging for breadcrumbs, but I think I just saw the exact moment my boy fell, and he fell hard. Ok, I realise now after I've said this that 'fall' probably isn't the best choice of words, but you know what I mean. Fell for Ashlyn. Not like... oh, never mind.

'So meek, so mild, sword!' I can't really explain it, but I love this line. And I feel like it describes Ash so perfectly: like, she might be meek and mild, but if you cross her, she's armed. Gosh, I love her!

Not the Caswell parents leaving their children alone over two holiday breaks! No wonder these two are the way they are. But they're about to get a beautiful Thanksgiving celebration. [Fun personal fact: the year I was born, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving day. That doesn't mean much in Bulgaria, but my dad works with a lot of Americans so my parents knew about it and I've known this and that about this holiday I've never celebrated since I was very young. I have no idea why I'm telling you this, but Thanksgiving has always reminded me of my birthday for this reason, so... ok, moving on.]

So I know she kind of suggested it, but... why does Carlos think it's his place to invite people over to Ashlyn's? I mean, this was part 2 of Redlyn establishing themselves as the hosts for any out-of-school gathering, but... oh well, it led to a beautiful party with everyone, so... I'll allow it.

I really liked Nini's talk with her grandma. It was really nice, and a very fitting way to remind everyone what Thanksgiving is originally about. I feel like people often forget that when it comes to... literally every major commercialised holiday.

Wow, EJ really is that person where once the tap is open, it can't stop spilling. And I kind of like that look on him. It's a transitional stage between EJ 1.0 and EJ 2.0, and I appreciate it for what it is.

Ahhhh it's Redlyn's first proper 1-on-1 conversation! I mean, it got kind of really awkward really quickly because of — surprise, surprise — Nini and Ricky (and EJ), but those two are so adorable! No more breadcrumbs — we're about to get an entire five-course meal here! Which goes really well with the Thanksgiving setting, now that I think of it.

Gosh, they've never really talked and my boy whips out the 'the only thing I'd ever throw at your face is a brighter spotlight' line right off the bat? Boy is whipped! But like, he is the master of grand gestures where Ashlyn is concerned. Still, in this first moment they shared, he really was like, go big or go home, and home isn't really an option here. But I should have known, it's in his name after all. Gosh, I love both of those two so much! Especially when they're together.

Ok, so... this is a really bad way to meet your mother's new boyfriend. Poor Ricky. As if ringing his mum wasn't hard enough already.

See, when I rewatch season 1, I get where the Rina stans are coming from, but then again, remember when I used to say I wanted Gina and EJ to just be friends? Yeah, that's changed too. Not that I ever shipped Rina romantically — I rarely ever ship a pairing unless they're explicitly stated to have something going on, just because I can't see that sort of stuff very clearly — but I really, really want them (Ricky and Gina, I mean) to be really good friends. Once they get past the awkwardness of their sort of history, I mean.

I miss the good old days when Nini was a nice person... I mean, we kind of (really) had a glimpse of that in 2x11 (I'm guessing she was making up for Miss Jenn's very inappropriate slip-up), but I miss the days before she was this big internet-famous songwriter and actually had to be convinced by Ashlyn that she should write songs for herself... wait, now that I think of it... Ashlyn might have helped create a monster there. Oh well. Still love her so much!

You know, I love the Choosical, but it's all a bit sad, if you stop to think about it for a sec. Just picture little single-digit-aged Carlito making this whole thing up in an attempt to participate in his favourite thing... only to not have anyone to play with for the next ten years. Great, I just made myself cry. The thing is, I relate to that story a bit too much. I remember in preschool, when the rest of the children would play together, I'd sit in a corner by myself and read the only book that was there... over and over, day after day. I don't even remember a single thing about that little book right now, but back then I clung to it like it was everything. And I couldn't very much share the experience with any of my peers, seeing as I was the only kid there who could actually read (my grandma used to be a preschool teacher and she taught me to read when I was 4). So yeah. I went off on a rather personal tangent there. Thing is, I know how little Carlos felt and I'm so happy that he finally gets to share this thing he made with a loving and supportive group of friends. Everything has its time and place, I guess.

'Look, I'm not following Big Red just because he paid me a compliment' — of course not, dear, you know your own worth and we love that for you — but see, when he said that thing that you're referring to as a compliment, he did not lie! You really are the brightest star and deserve the brightest spotlight. See, the thing I love most about Redlyn's compliments to each other is that they're so sincere and state nothing but the absolute truth. Those two just see each other for what they are, and love each other as they are. And I think that is beautiful.

It's so funny to me every time someone gets something wrong and Carlos just walks past them out of nowhere and corrects them without missing a beat. I kind of relate to that side of him, too. Except it's usually about grammar and language in my case, not HSM trivia.

If I were Nini in this scene, and was suddenly put face to face with Emily on the spot like that, I would not have been able to handle it. So props to Nini for handling it.

Yeah, sorry to break it to you, Emily dear, but whatever you're doing is not a Cockney accent. I don't claim to be an accent expert, but I know first-hand what Cockney sounds like and... that's just not it. Even Dick Van Dyke was closer to a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins, and that's saying something. (See, I feel bad criticising any aspect of Emily because her actress is no longer with us, but... I have no idea who let them get away with passing this off as Cockney).

Is this the beginning of Jennzara there? I am loving this.

Of course Carlos was obsessed with Glee as a kid... but wasn't he a bit too young for it when it aired? I know I was, and I'm older than those kids. I mean, I waited until I was emotionally mature enough to watch Glee, and that wasn't until 3 years ago, when I was 18 going on 19. Ok, I'm thinking too much into this. Moving on.

Ahhhhh, Redlyn! Just... all of their moments. But screaming the lyrics of What I've Been Looking For on top of their lungs while looking right at each other... was so beautiful to watch. Give me more of that!

EJ: 'That was terrible.' Seb: 'I'm so happy!' — Moods, both of them. Those two are real-life emojis, aren't they? And we love them for that.

'... without laughing... or killing each other.' — I feel like that last specification was needed given that it's Ricky and EJ we're talking about, and especially what happened last time they had to do a one-on-one exercise during rehearsal. The ensuing scene, however, is the most hilarious thing!

Root beer, huh? Is that the HSMTMTS code for 'awkward' now? I mean, Nini and Gina had a nice talk there, all things considered. I really want the two of them to put the Ricky thing past them and be friends... but we'll see.

Gina is trying to make the sleepover thing look like 'it's not a big deal' despite how big of a deal it obviously is to her... to which I say, good for you, girl, but I wouldn't know. The only sleepovers I've ever had have been with my little cousin who is 9 years younger than me and also insists on sleeping with a very bright nightlight on, which means I can't sleep at all. So yeah, I wouldn't know. But I'm happy that Gina is feeling included.

So this is the exact moment when it becomes clear that Big Red is not telling us the complete truth when it comes to his HSM knowledge... '14 and 10'? Even I didn't know that. I knew 14, but... for someone who allegedly 'hates musicals', my boy has very detailed knowledge of one certain musical movie... I love how it got him a certain girl's attention, though. Not that she wasn't already paying attention to him, if you catch my drift.

Ok, but this hits even harder now than it did the first time — just when Gina has finally managed to make friends, to feel included in their group, her mum has to move her away again. This is straight-up tragic. I'll say it now, and I'll probably say it again when it comes up in the rewatch — Ashlyn is an absolute queen for taking Gina in for the next semester.

'That's sort of what you always do, huh? Take care of everyone else' — yeah, Ash, and you do the same. You two just need someone to do for you what you do for other people. See, guys, this is what I mean. This is why they're soulmates. Because in a world that has more or less forced both of them to put others first, they put each other first. They each get to be the most important person to each other after they've been stepping back for others all the time. And if that isn't beautiful, I don't know what is. I know I'm repeating myself over and over saying this, but... they own my heart and soul and I'm not for sale.

Ok, but Ashlyn's little run after Big Red left was so cute! Girl is... I don't know why I keep using that word, but... falling.

Unpopular opinion: Out of the Old is the best Nini solo to come out of this series to date. Maybe I feel that way just because I relate to it most, but hey, that is a valid reason to like something.

Oof, EJ's losing followers. Oh well, if they're unfollowing him for being too honest, they didn't like the real him to begin with. So good riddance to them.

Yikes... Jennzara fell asleep with flammable stuff left unattended... we all know how that ended, but just the fact that they felt comfortable enough to fall asleep in each other's presence... speaks volumes. So I guess... well, I don't know what exactly I'm saying regarding the fire they caused, but I loved this big little moment they had.

So this is it. That was 1x6 and 7 and, well, they were beautiful, but there are some parts I can't look at in the same way anymore after 2x11. Guess that's the risk of a rewatch. The Redlyn scenes, though — still the best part of both of these episodes. That and a couple of other things for which I don't need to pretend like I haven't seen season 2.

[verai-marcel]

This Is Perfection (RDR2 Fanfic, Javier x F!Reader, Biker AU, 18+)

This is part of the series Ride Through My Heart. Read the other parts here.

Summary: You are an intern at a photography studio, and lately you've been crushing on the male model that works with your boss. Javier is sex on legs and your eyes are drawn to him every time he's near. On top of his looks, he's also kind and funny, which made you doubly fall for him. Little did you know, he's had his eye on you too, for he knows your secret identity: a semi-popular cosplayer on the convention circuit. 

Author’s Notes: Trying another Javier x F!Reader fic because he deserves love too. The title of this fic is yet another obscure lyric from a popular song, so try and guess! Also I’m not in the photography or modelling industry, so most of that stuff is just conjecture and internet research.

Tags: fluff, romance, gentle to passionate to rough sex, mild dirty talk, neck grabbing (but no choking), some use of a different language

AO3 Link is here, sweetheart.

Word Count: 4457

--------------------

“See you next week, Javier.”

“Later Charles,” Javier threw over his shoulder as he left Charles’ cat café. He finished his latte, jaywalking across the two lane road to get to his bike. Bright red, his Ducati Streetfighter was his prized possession, his baby, his joy. When he wasn’t working, he loved to take his motorcycle to the nearby lake and ride around the backroads, enjoying the scenery.

But lately, he had no excuse to go out. He felt he had overbooked himself this month, running from one photo shoot to another. He had to sleep, had to eat properly and work out so that he looked his best, and that cut out practically all of his free time. Feeling the stress steadily creep up his spine and into his brain, his only breaks were his weekly meetings with his friends, which he could count as business since he was their marketing manager. Self-appointed, of course.

He only left Sunday for himself, which he had been using for personal and wardrobe maintenance. Javier was nothing if not meticulous about his look. He had to be, when it was the product he was selling. But lately, even his Sundays were being booked with side jobs. 

He chucked the empty latte cup into the trash and got onto his bike. It was Sunday morning and he had once again broken his rule and picked up an extra gig at the beach by the lake. He almost hadn't taken the job, except that there was a lady working today that he absolutely wanted to see. 

***

You were sitting inside a minivan with the sliding door open, cords coming out of your laptop and hooked up to a power strip, connected to an orange extension cord that was coming out of the visitor’s center. Your boss was testing shots by the new mural that had been painted on the retaining wall next to the beach. You had helped her set up most of the lighting gear already, so at this point, the two of you were just waiting for the model to arrive. While you had wanted to spend the weekend touching up your costumes for the convention next week, you also needed the extra money. It had nothing to do with that fact that the model for today was none other than the delightful (and very sexy) Javier Escuella.

Ever since you had started working with this modeling & photography company, you had done a lot of random work that wasn’t really related to your college degree. However, you learned a lot about the profession and discovered that the thing you really loved more than photography itself was the photo-editing.

While you were editing some of your personal photos, you heard the sound of a motorcycle pulling up. Looking over at the source of the sound, you watched as Javier pulled his helmet off his head and shook his hair out. As he took off his bandana and biker jacket, you made a mental note to remember this moment forever, his biceps revealed, his sleeveless shirt wrapped around his torso like a lover.

Then he looked at you and grinned. He had caught you staring. Again.

How many times in the past three months since he started to work with your company had he caught you staring? And how many times had he just grinned at you, knowing he had caught you? 

Too many. Didn't he think you were a creep? And yet he still smiled. 

“Hey you,” Javier said smoothly as he walked over to you, the slight sway to his hips taunting you. He was a natural-born model, his movement graceful as a cat and his charisma amplified by his seductive smile. Taking a seat next to you, the space between you two barely a hair’s breadth apart, he leaned over to look at your screen. “What are you working on?”

You quickly tried to shut the laptop, but just as quickly he stayed your hand. His hand was bigger than yours, encompassing and warm. His fingers, wrapped around yours, gently moved the laptop screen back up, and you couldn’t stop him, so enraptured by his touch.

Apprehensively you watched him as he looked at your latest shots of you in your almost completed costume. You swallowed. Maybe he wouldn’t recognize you? After all, you had your glasses on, a big beanie over your hair, and an oversized sweater. Your photo had so much more makeup on and a wig, perhaps he wouldn’t—

“Oh, I know this Insta account.”

You paled.

“I’m a big fan.”

"I'm editing for a friend–" 

"Don't lie," he said softly. "I can tell it's you. I've known since I started working with you."

You squeaked. 

He turned his blazingly glorious smile onto you, and you felt like the sun was shining straight into your eyes. While you were reeling from his admission, he continued to talk to you.  

"You're going to that big convention next weekend, right?" 

You nodded. 

"Can I come?"

Shrugging as you tried to play it cool despite the slight tremor in your voice, you replied, "I'm not sure if tickets are still available, but I wouldn't stop you."

He leaned in a little closer. "What if I told you I already had a ticket?"

You gulped. "Re-really?" 

Nodding, he stood up, giving you room to breathe. "I may not look like it, but I enjoy comics too."

Noticing that your boss was starting to head over, you quickly said, "please don't tell my boss about this. I don't want her to think I'm slacking or anything."

Javier smiled and winked at you. "Of course. Your secret is safe with me." He leaned down to look at you in the eyes, and you were mesmerized for a moment from the intensity. "Just promise me I get a photo shoot with you at the con."

You nodded, your head moving so fast that your glasses dipped down your nose. 

He laughed as he casually reached down and moved your glasses back up, his fingers brushing against your temples.

"Then it's a date," he said as he walked away to greet your boss. 

Grabbing your laptop and pulling it off the charger, you followed as they went to the shooting location, your heart pounding a million miles a second. 

***

After the photo shoot, Javier traded his phone number with the lovely lady who had been the subject of his heated dreams as of late. He hadn't wanted to scare her; she always seemed so jumpy when he approached. But he always noticed the way she stared at him before he caught her eyes. The look she gave him was pure woman, and he craved more. 

It wasn't just the looks that brought her to his attention. He started following her Instagram account a year ago when he was looking at last year's masquerade winners. Her smile, her energy, and her creativity drew him in. He had found himself liking all of her posts in a day, scrolling endlessly through her archive. 

So when she had shown up at one of his photo shoots three months ago, he had been delighted. But she seemed shy and even denied that she had an Instagram account when he had asked her. He was even more surprised to find that she wasn't a model, but the photographer's intern. 

At that time, he had let it go. She was clearly hiding it, clearly didn't want to draw attention to herself. But every time he got to work with her, he felt frustrated that she hid herself so carefully behind her wide rimmed glasses and oversized hoodies. Her cosplay photos were amazing, her smile brilliant, her makeup impeccable, her costumes were bold and full of color combinations that seduced his vision. 

At the same time, having her hidden away made him feel a bit better about her safety. What kind of wolves would go after her if they knew how gorgeous she was under her baggy clothes? 

As he slowly got to know her, his affection for her had only grown. With each job, he talked with her more and more, and she had opened up to him. While they hadn't traded phone numbers until now, he could say with a certain level of confidence that they were on good terms. Almost friends, really. 

He couldn't wait for next week. He had gotten his Comic-Con ticket months ago and had been preparing on his own. Javier grinned under his helmet. 

She was going to be so surprised to see him. 

***

"Thanks for working today. I'll see you tomorrow."

"No problem, see ya later!" 

Your boss waved as she went to her car and drove off. The two of you had dropped the company van back at the office, so now you had the rest of the day to yourself. 

Getting into your car, you started it up, put your favorite music on… 

And you promptly screamed in both excitement and anxiousness. You had a date with Javier. You. Had a date. With Javier. 

You drove home, got to your apartment, and started working feverishly on the rest of your costume. 

Next weekend had to be perfect. 

***

You finished your make up and looked at yourself in the mirror. You had arrived at the convention center early and started getting ready in the bathroom as other cosplayers had begun to trickle in. For everything else in your life, you were unsure of yourself, constantly second guessing your choices and worrying if you were, in fact, wrong about everything.

But in this space, you felt strong. Confident. Because, despite the occasional hater in your comments, the majority of your feedback was positive. Besides, you were someone else when you put on your outfit. You were Star.Bright.909, a cosplayer with over a thousand followers. Not as many compared to the big name cosplayers, but you were proud of yourself for getting this far.

So when you came out of the restroom looking your best, the few gasps you heard were worth it. As you walked outside towards the photography area that had been set aside for cosplayers, you already had five people asking to take photos of you.

You smiled and posed and thanked everyone who wanted to take a photo. You were gracious and patient, even though you were trying to meet up with some photographers you had spoken with online. When you reached the small plaza, you met up with them and worked for the rest of the morning, posing as the photographers asked and networking with other cosplayers in the area. 

Just as you were about to head off towards the lobby to check out the dealer's hall, a man walking through the crowd caught your attention. Dressed up in a skin tight lycra Spiderman outfit, you could tell immediately that his muscles were real. The way he moved was smooth, graceful, and awfully familiar, despite not seeing his face. 

Wait. 

It couldn't. 

As he came closer to you, he bowed in a gentlemanly fashion and held out his hand. 

"Hola, mi Estrella."

You squeaked. "Javier?" 

"Just your friendly neighborhood Spiderman," he said, a teasing lilt to his voice. "Perhaps we could take a photo together?" 

"Of course," you said, suddenly shy. A professional model wanted to take a photo with you. Granted, you knew Javier, but he was still a pro, while you were an amateur. 

"Do you mind if I put my arm around you?" he asked politely. 

"That’s fine," you said, your face warming. 

He nodded and wrapped an arm around you, pulling you close for the photo. You grinned, channeling your happiness into your smile. Holding up the phone for a selfie, Javier took a few shots before taking a look at them to check their quality.

He still hadn't let go of you. 

"Whoops, sorry," he said, finally letting go. 

"It's okay," you quickly said. "I… I didn't mind."

He looked at you, but his mask prevented you from seeing his expression. 

"Are you free now?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm free for the rest of the day." You had worked yesterday and some of today, but you always left the last half-day of any convention for shopping or panels. 

Javier held out his hand and you gladly took it, letting him walk you back to the entrance of the convention center. 

As the two of you walked past one of the hotels that lined the plaza, you saw the laces of one of your boots hit the ground. 

"Hold on," you said as you stepped off the main path to tie it back. 

Then you felt the splash of liquid come down on your head, the smell of alcohol pungent and seeping into your wig.

For a moment you were shocked. Then the overwhelming sense of frustration hit you and all you could do was stay still and will yourself not to cry. Not in front of Javier. 

Warm hands touched your wet shoulders. 

"Sweetie. Come on, let's get you changed. Can I escort you to your hotel room?"

You looked up at him, at his compassionate eyes, and you shook your head. “I drove here this morning.” You had driven here from your apartment, an hour away.

“Oh. I see.” He took your hand and began to lead you down the road, away from the convention center. 

"Where are we going?" 

"My hotel room, if that’s alright. Or would you rather go back to the convention hall?"

“You got a room?” you said in surprise. 

He shrugged. “I have other business in the city tomorrow morning, figured it’d be easier to spend the night.”

“Oh, okay,” you said, unsure of what else to say. 

“So… are you okay coming with me? I won’t do anything, I promise.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” You put your hand on his arm. “I trust you, Javier.”

He nodded and continued to walk with you. He was taking you to his bedroom. No ulterior motives, he just wanted to help you get clean.

But part of you really wished he had some ulterior motives.

***

“I’ll get you some extra clothes from my backpack,” Javier called out to you as he left you to clean up in the bathroom on your own.

You stared in the mirror; your make up was ruined, your wig would need an extreme clean up when you got home, and your costume was stained and reeked of alcohol. As you took off everything and tried to rinse out what you could in the sink, you counted yourself lucky that this had happened at the end of the convention rather than the beginning. At least you had all of your shots and you could maybe sell a few prints to make some of your cash back.

You showered and dried your hair as quickly as you could, not wanting to take up more of Javier’s time. He had left a shirt and shorts in front of the bathroom door for you, and you opened the door a crack to pull them inside, throwing them on. They were a bit loose on you, but that was a welcome relief, compared to the skin tight costume you had on earlier.

“Alright, I’m good,” you said as you exited the bathroom. Javier was lying on the bed, his legs still on the floor. His costume was unzipped to expose his torso, his arms up in the air as he was typing on his phone. Turning his head to you, he gave you a lazy grin before patting the bed next to him. 

“Have a seat, I’m just finishing this post for Insta.”

You sat next to him and took in his body from up close. His abs were perfect; you wanted to run your hands down them to see how they’d feel under your fingers. He was lean, tanned, muscles, everything you lusted after.

“What do you think?”

You quickly looked up at him, as if he hadn’t just caught you staring at his body. He was holding out his phone, a picture of the two of you with your costumes. The caption said, Found my favorite cosplayer today! She graciously took a selfie with me, isn’t she wonderful?

You felt warm from his kind words. “You’re too nice to me,” you mumbled.

Javier laughed softly and sat up. “I like being nice to you.” He posted the photo and put his phone down. Turning towards you, he reached up and stroked your face with the back of his knuckles. “I just… like you.”

You swallowed. The fact that he was saying that now, with you wearing baggy clothes, your make-up gone, just being your unglamorous self, meant so much that you started to tear up.

“Did I say the wrong thing?”

“No,” you said between tears. “I like you too.”

He started to lean in for a kiss before he stopped. “May I?”

“You can do whatever you want to me,” you said without thinking.

A moment passed, his deep brown eyes searching yours. “Anything?” he finally said.

You nodded. Time to own up to your words, to your feelings that you had been denying for so long. “Yes.”

“Well, I’d rather do whatever we want with each other,” he said, smiling gently.

You leaned in and kissed him, surprising him and surprising yourself. Your hands rested on his chest and you gave in, exploring his toned body, his skin underneath your fingers, feeling warm and inviting to your touch. He pulled you into his arms and kissed you back, a passionate inhalation of your very spirit, as if he wanted to merge his soul with yours.

Soon he pressed you down against the mattress and kissed you for a few moments more before he pulled away. “Wait here for a few, I’m going to shower so I don’t smell like sweat and spandex. You deserve better than that.”

You laughed as he kissed your cheek and went to shower. 

Laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, you managed to find your brain again. You, and he, were about to…

Your brain left again and you just grew warm between your legs. You wanted him so much.

In a daze, you didn't notice the sound of the shower turning off. You didn't notice the door open and close. You only noticed when he came back to the bed, wearing just a towel around his waist, smiling down at you. The tendrils of his black hair clung to his cheeks, still damp from the shower, as drops of water slid down his neck to his chest, drawing a line you desperately wanted to trace with your tongue. As your eyes moved lower, you noticed his towel wasn’t exactly hiding his desire for you.

"I've wanted you for so long, querida," he said, his voice like fingertips gliding down your spine as he stepped to the foot of the bed. Taking off your shirt and throwing it aside, he grabbed your breasts and kissed them, laving each nipple with his tongue before pinching and teasing you with his dexterous fingers until you were a writhing mess. You could feel your panties being soaked by your desire, and you shifted your legs, wanting to remove them.

Your movement attracted his attention, and he looked down at you. Reaching down to pull at the waistband of your (his) shorts, he pulled them off, revealing your beige panties.

“Aw, I thought you would have gone commando,” he teased as he tugged your underwear down your legs, his fingers caressing you along the way.

“They weren’t soaked with alcohol,” you mumbled.

“They’re soaked now,” he said with a cocky grin, tossing them aside. Then he placed a hand at each of your knees and spread your legs open, revealing your most intimate body parts to him. Licking his lips, he knelt down and pulled your hips to the edge of the bed. 

The moment Javier’s tongue brushed against your core, you nearly came. He was hungry, so hungry, and ate you out like a man starved. With one hand he held you down, his fingers splayed out on your stomach and occasionally digging into your soft flesh while he slipped one finger inside of you, stretching you out slowly.

“Let me hear what I’m doing to you, baby,” he said before diving back in.

“Y-you’re, making me, feel really, good,” you managed to say between sharp intakes of breath.

“Bien, bien,” he praised, petting your belly. “Come on my tongue, querida, I want to taste your happiness.”

With that command, he slipped another finger inside of you and sucked hard on your center, his eyes on you as he drove your body into a heated frenzy, barely able to hold you down as you keened. Your hips undulated out of your control as the spiral unraveled and you let go, euphoria zipping up and down your body. You cried out wordlessly as you peaked and then fell, landing in a fluffy cloud of afterglow.

“Oh my god, Javier,” you breathed. “That was amazing.”

“Who said we were done?”

You lifted your head up just in time to see his teasing grin as he stood up.

And he dropped his towel.

Your lust went through the roof; you were so ready for round two.

His hands on your knees, he pushed them up to your shoulders.

“Hold your legs open for me.”

You willingly obeyed.

Javier cupped your cheek and leaned down to kiss you, the taste of your release still lingering on his lips. You felt him nudge you open, his length sliding inside of you as the two of you shared a moan, swallowed up by each other’s kiss.

He continued to kiss you as he slowly pressed forward until his hips were flush with yours.

“You feel like heaven,” he said as he leaned back so that he was standing over you, his cock deep inside of you, your hips barely on the edge of the bed. He gripped your waist, his hands warm in contrast to the cool hotel air. Slowly sliding out of you until only the tip of him remained, the only warning you got was the feel of his fingers digging into you before he slammed back into you.

“Oh my god!” you yelped.

“Too much?” he asked, looking a little worried.

“Keep going, please,” you begged. “I want it hard!”

“Oh yes,” he moaned before going all out, letting loose all of his lust for you as he fucked you in a frenzy. He fell upon you, crushing you into the mattress as he wrapped a hand around your neck. “Like this, baby?”

“Yes!” you breathed out, your voice cracking. “More, more!”

Javier’s eyes lit up as he pulled out of you and picked you up effortlessly, tossing you into the center of the bed and rolling you onto your stomach before climbing up onto the bed. You felt his length sliding along the curve of your ass before he lifted your hips up slightly and mounted you from behind, moaning softly.

“You’re perfecto,” he whispered into your ear when he covered you with his body and began to fuck you from behind, his hand wrapping around your neck again. You could feel the brush of his hair along your skin as he rutted into you, his deep sounds of pleasure echoing in your ears.

His long fingers found their way to your clit. One stroke and you flinched, still sensitive from your last climax. He didn’t show you any mercy; the hand around your neck tightened, his legs trapped yours in place, and his fingers found your core once again, stroking you oh so perfectly. The pressure from his touch was just right, the feel of his breath against your ear as he slipped into another language to tell you how much he coveted you.

Javier’s head pressed against your temple. “Give me everything, baby. I want you so much.”

His words, his touch, his absolute possession of your body made your release so much stronger this time around. You cried out his name as pure pleasure rocketed through your bloodstream, a high better than any drug. His hips kept pumping as you spasmed beneath him, wringing out every last gasp and moan from you until you were shaking with the aftershocks.

“Let me make a mess of you,” he growled.

“Yes, please,” you said mindlessly, willing to do whatever he asked. 

He pulled out of you and rolled you onto your back. Straddling your waist, he took your hand and wrapped it around his cock. You stroked him rapidly, watching his eyes burn with ecstasy, his breathing grow heavier as he reached his peak. Reaching for his balls with his other hand, you fondled him gently, looking up at him with a smile.

That flipped a switch, as he reached for your neck again, his other hand wrapping around yours to apply more pressure to his cock as he came, spilling himself all over your breasts. He moaned your name as he finished, looking at you in complete awe.

“Fuck,” he breathed, letting go of your neck and hand as he fell to one side and rolled to face you. “I haven’t come like that in forever.”

Looking at his satisfied face, you couldn’t help but wonder if this was just a one time deal or if this was the start of something, you weren’t sure what.

You must have looked concerned, because he frowned, his brow wrinkled with concern. “What’s on your mind?”

“Um, I… never mind,” you quickly said, deciding not to voice your thoughts.

He leaned in, placed both his hands on your cheeks, and squished your face a little. “Please tell me.”

With his gaze so intensely close to you, you spoke without filtering. “Is this a one time deal? Or can we be… something more?”

He stopped squishing your cheeks, but he kept his hands on your face. Kissing your forehead, then your nose, then your lips, he smiled at you. “I want something more. Do you?”

You nodded enthusiastically.

“So let’s try."

You couldn't help the grin that broke out on your face. 

"That's the smile I fell for," he said, smiling back. As he tried to pull you close, you pushed on his chest. 

"I'm sticky."

Javier just laughed. "Let's take a shower then." He cupped your cheek and kissed you again, his lips lingering on yours before he pulled back to gaze into your eyes. The way he looked at you pulled at your heart, while his next words made you happier than you had ever been. 

"You're the brightest star in my life."

-------------------

End Notes: A bit on the nose, but the lyric is from Hips Don’t Lie by Shakira. Hope you enjoyed this story! One more left in this series. I’m going to wrap it up with the last Arthur x F!Reader!

Also happy birthday to @eddescuella!!! I waited so I could post on your special day! 💖💖💖

[torinofushi]

So typically I don't write down my opinions to things because I wish to keep my analytical thoughts to myself....however I feel compelled to comment on Yashahime.

Now I grew up with Inuyasha and it was a cornerstone of anime, like it was to many people, growing up. Though to be fair it had some issues of its own....the amount of filler episodes and flashbacks were a bit on the heavy side, but it also had characters that we wanted to know more of. To this day Inuyasha himself has always had a special place in my heart because of how complex he is emotionally.

Now as an adult and a writer...we had Yashahime. Where when I saw the first title card I wanted to know who the children's parents were. I honestly thought at first Towa and Moroha were InuKag daughters and Setsuna may have been a Miroku/Sango or hell even Kohaku daughter........ thaaaaat wasn't the case.

To where will get to the elephant in a room here in a moment but some thoughts on the girls themselves.

Towa: She does in her earnest seem to be a sweet character, however muddled a bit where at first she is this rough and tough "human" that can't stick to schools and then suddenly mellows out when she finds her sister? She didn't even super respond to the fact she's half demon....like I would have thought she'd be more shocked since in her new home there are no demons. She just seems a little too focused on her sister....to the point her own character writing seems diminished to me, but she has potential! First episode where she is talking about keeping the future secret was a cool angle......then idea gets scrapped with her handing out candy and whipping out her smart phone??

Setsuna: I am a bit more intrigued by her because she does have some mystery, but more importantly she has her own character and personality compared to her sister. She actually has had some development which feels minimal at 15 episodes in for the series right now. She seems to have traits of her father where I can hardly see any of that with her sister, but she genuinely grows and adapts to caring about Moroha and Towa.

Moroha: I will admit I've stayed this long watching it solely because of this child. She has both her parents traits, I love it when she talks like her father once did. She's something entirely new, I don't think we ever had a quarter demon in the original series. However I HATE how they use her like an exposition bomb. I HATE they don't show all of her emotions! Hell she doesn't even show sadness in not knowing her parents after meeting her uncle or realizing that her two new friends are actually her cousins?! She's focused on the bounties which we still don't know why completely, but we do know why she was separated from her parents now. I wish they'd make her the focus more than the twins because yes the twins are older, let's face it Moroha is keeping the fans in. I think she has great potential and her and Setsuna are by far the most interesting to me...

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM.......SESSRIN

Okay so folks won't lie when I was a wee weeb with the original series I thought that when Rin was grown up (18-20 because in the US thats the fictitious maturity cutoff) she would fall for Sesshomaru as Izayoi did for InuTaisho/Toga. That was when I was younger and thought honestly more likely than that Rin would become an ally to Sesshomaru or perhaps the one to soften his heart and he found a DIFFERENT lady love that was human because of Rin's past kindness. That didn't happen.

Everyone on the internet is commenting and doing math in regards to Rin being the twins mother to which as an almost 30 year old woman I got some thoughts here.

1) With the math, previously the internet said she would be 11 with Inuyasha Final act....however because of people frantically editing I don't know if this is at the beginning or END of Inuyasha where there was a 3 year time skip. So I will give her a range of possibly being 11-13 at the end. Now fast forward to Yashahime episode 15 and she's having twins...Sango's son Hisui is who we are using as a yard stick to the passage of time. I thought he looked young maybe 2-3 however according to his wiki he's 4 years older to the Yashahime girls. So with wiki number it would make Rin 15-18 when she had the twins........

2) People this is a lose lose situation writing wise because if they show her childlike infatuation with Sesshomaru never stopped before she had these girls then that's grooming/groomed behavior or even victim blaming.  If they show Sesshomaru showing interest with her in that sense as she got older that's pedophilia. Yes, I know this was back in Japanese feudal era where it was common to marry at 16-25, yes I know that my culture has its own perspective on predatory behavior and these are two individuals that aren't American or even human, and yes I know that this development hasn't even been fully explained in the series but gods the writing has been atrocious so far and I doubt this will save them.

3) the original series has Kagome age 15 have to deal with propositions and proposals and such where she, as a catalyst for the audience with views closer to our own than a feudal Japanese citizen, was appalled and typically played for laughs. Here in Yashahime they actually DID THAT. Which I don't blame people for being wigged out and disgusted...like what the.... the show itself had a tendency to overexplain EVERYTHING but can't explain the dynamics or progression of what the hell happened here? Because from our/audience perspective it's basically written as "Well she's having kids now." Even Sango, Kagome, and Kaede aren't reacting to anything with this.....not when they had news she was giving birth, not when Sesshomaru shows up, or hell TAKING the girls?!?! The hell is going on???

In short to this rant, Yashahime I think your writing has you in a chokehold. You keep going from explain things only for the audience to know to explain things only for the girls would know which is confusing what your goal/pacing is. Either trust your audience or go full hold our hands, make up your mind. You go into retcons and writing new backstory to important items for the sake of the plot....its a mess.

Old characters used for publicity rather than letting the new characters capture the audience. Honestly if you rearranged your episodes it would have seem more authentic though again good luck with that elephant in the room, its going to turn many fans away.

I don't know guys. I'm not too hopeful they can save themselves at this point. Thanks for reading.

[tarthserjaime]

Btw for anyone not in spn fandom who notices random fandom-throws-a-wedding posts or tweets today, and wonders a) wtf and b) why it's not about dean & cas (again), here's what's happening and why:

it's st patrick's day in the us, and fandom chose it as the appropriate wedding day for sam winchester & his irish-american gf eileen leahy

"saileen" = sam's canon love interest in the final season of the show, following 2-3 seasons of cute lowkey buildup (& sam's first real love interest since season 4 -- with a demon, ruby, whose actress j*red p*dalecki married irl -- and his only true love interest since iirc season 1)

eileen is a deaf character played by a deaf actress, and the representation of a deaf hunter in the world of the show and a deaf love interest to one of the two leads of a network show were both important to fandom and to the actress herself (shoshannah stern)

they had a sweet non problematic relationship, that involved (like dean & cas) supernatural death, resurrection, and sam dealing with her death (via thanos snapping) in the same episode dean lost cas = parallels!

she's presumably restored to life in the conclusion of the season finale, the penultimate episode, although (like cas) we never see her again

like cas, she's inexplicably erased from the final episode (series finale), which makes no sense after the buildup and sam's reaction to her death (twice) ... again, like dean/cas

which is weird, right? because it was a cute, "harmless" (vs. taboo dean/cas), healthy, established het relationship -- so why would they erase it and its significance to sam?

good question

(psst it's because having eileen reappear or even be mentioned in the finale would have made the absence of castiel and dean's totally uncharacteristic silence around cas EVEN LOUDER because the two pairings were used as narrative/cinematic parallels)

also did I mention the character eileen is disabled? so, extra enraging erasure, bonus ableism to go with the homophobia

not only did sam "forget" the woman he loved in the series finale but bonus! after dean died they showed sam living a bizarre white picket fence life not with eileen or someone just hinted at being eileen (if only, due to covid restrictions, via photos or sign language), sam married Blurry Wife(tm) -- a nameless, faceless woman whose sole purpose seemed to be giving sam a child. A child named dean (we know from the big DEAN conveniently sewn onto his little toddler overalls) on whom all of sam's finale montage is focused, other than one terrible scene with bad wig dean's car, because the main message of the finale was that the only people who mattered to the winchester brothers were each other

again, note parallel to dean/cas

bros only = bronly

apparently the only correct interpretation of a fifteen year show that stopped being about the bros only around season 3-4, and had a key theme if not THE theme in the later seasons (at least ten of them iirc) that "family don't end in blood" -- reflecting the found family dynamic so central to the world within and without the show, hence the whole spn family thing so lauded by the cast & crew & network to manipulate foster ties with its fanbase

a theme totally absent from and negated by the finale even with dean's dying ten minute monologue words

yet a hashtag cynically employed by the cast & crew & network to celebrate the same finale and to actively recruit the #spnfamily to watch j*red p*dalecki's new show on the same network

j*red p*dalecki, who in post spn promo interviews for his new show claimed:

a) that his character's (sam) chronically suicidal brother's (dean) early death in the series finale was a "success" because it enabled sam to go live a blurry apple pie life while dean -- who believed and had been indoctrinated by his father since the age of four to believe that his only value in life was to protect and care for his little brother -- while dean drove aimlessly around heaven for an excretable twenty-minute montage that took up seemingly half of the terrible terrible finale

and that b) dean's death was a "success" because of Blurry Wife(tm) since, per j*red, dean "would have never wanted sam to end up with ruby or eileen" -- which is first of all a lie because dean explicitly tells sam in the final season that he approves of saileen and likes the idea of sam settling down with "someone in the (hunter) life" who understands him, and second of all offensive because he equated a sweet non problematic deaf character with a literal demon who manipulated sam for three years, got him hooked on demon blood (don't ask), and tricked him into releasing lucifer from hell (& who remember was played by j*red p*dalecki's irl wife)

and finally, per j*red p*dalecki, that c) sam was never going to end up with eileen, the aforementioned badass deaf hunter established love interest and that he (j*red) was happy about that

Anyway.

Those are some of the reasons why you might see stuff about a saileen wedding on tumblr and twitter today, march 17th.

✨🍀☘️💚☘️🍀✨

(plus they're just adorable, and deserved better, eileen especially but sam too who is thankfully not actually j*red p*dalecki but in fact would probably have something to say to j*red p*dalecki about his post-series comments.)

(plus hopefully it will show shoshannah stern, eileen's actress, that fandom is ALSO mad about what happened to her in that wretched finale)

(plus it might irk j*red p*dalecki that fandom has reclaimed sam & given him the wedding he deserves with the wife he actually loved in the show up to the series finale when like dean he suddenly developed emotional amnesia)

✨🍀☘️💚☘️🍀✨

[gdchans]

So I Finally Watched BRIDGERTON

And it was...okay. 

Like. The first five episodes were delightful and I would have rated the show a solid 4 out of 5 stars. 

But then Episode 6 happened.

Tl;dr: if you are still on the fence about watching this show, I would say go for it -- I for one definitely would watch S2, should the series be picked up again. There were just a few things that happened towards the later half, and...yeah.

(warning: spoilers abound. tw: rape mention)

1) We get it. Y’all are horny

I’m aware I’m probably in the vast minority here, but I felt that once Daphne and Simon got together, the smut was just...too much. Yes, I get that sex sells and yes, I understand these two are a young married couple and are therefore absolute horndogs, but good grief I do not need to see you two forking all over your damn estate get on with the damn plot, will you?

2) Episode 6. 

My biggest gripe had to be in episode 6 when Daphne forces Simon to ejaculate inside her. 

To me, that felt like straight up rape and I did not fuck with that scene at all. Dude told her to wait. The fact that she continued? RAPE. 

And the worst part is, it isn’t even being brought up? Like, I haven’t seen people commenting about it? If the situation had been reversed, I feel like more people would’ve called this out?

(or maybe it has been brought up and I’m just screaming into the void for no reason here)

I dunno. It just tainted their whole relationship for me. 

3) Casual Diversity: Can’t We Pull A Cinderella?

                             (the 1997 superior version, obvs)

But on a less vile note, my final issue isn’t so much as a complaint, but more of a taste preference.

I’ll be honest: one of the main things that appealed to me about this show was the diversity. I loved that we got Black nobles right alongside the typical white you see in these shows. And, for a while, I thought the creators of the show weren’t trying to bring any politics into it. It was just a fact.

Yes, we have a Black Queen who occasionally dons a purple wig, and yes nobles will waltz to a string quartet’s cover of Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next. 

It wasn’t a Thing. It just...was. And I really, really liked that. 

But then Lady Danbury, while explaining the importance of love to Simon, tells us viewers that, no, this isn’t a magical world where one’s skin color doesn’t matter. 

And that just made me a tiny bit sad.

That all being said, I am hoping for a S2, if only to see what happens to all the other side characters/relationships. 

[writerwrites]

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Reader, Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: Protégé to Bruce Banner, Rosemarie finds herself working closely with and befriending the Avengers. Friendship, lust, heartbreak, and so much more find her along this heartbreaking journey into new adulthood. Rosemarie discovers her self-worth and that home is where the heart is… she’ll just have to figure out what her heart is saying first.

Word Count: 2.5k

Warnings: Smut 18+, language, angst, fluff, language, ye ole slow burn, and eventually death, pregnancy, love triangle… or love adjacent to a triangle? It’s complicated.

playlist . masterlist

A/N: This WIP is intentionally made to ruin all of our lives with feels. You were warned. It’s just my writing style, but I use a name for the reader, in this case Rosemarie, so adjust your imaginations as you read, fam. Also, I do what I want, so don’t come at me for MCU canon timelines. The most notable YOLO in this series is that Bucky/Winter Soldier is an Avenger pre-Blip, Banner isn’t in space, and though there’s tension between the Tony and Cap ‘sides’ of the Sokovia Accords they’re all trying to work together. Avenging is not a main point to this story, but that’s the clarification I will give you. I hope you enjoy my first posted fic, leave a comment, review, message, etc.

Introduction: October 2016

--- BANNER SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES (BST); MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY ---

“Anything? Anything at all? Bueller?” Rosemarie looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, trying to spot some sort of subtle difference in her appearance. Though she had been searching for a job in her field for months, the ‘spooky’ elevator music chirping through the bathroom was an indication that she was just shy of that November 1st tuition payment start up. Her May graduation felt like a distant memory and all the years of hard work and applications to various schools, and even scholarships for being gifted and a minority hardly made a dent in the mountain of debt that came with attaining a doctoral degree. So, the prodigy looked, hoping for even a crinkle in the corner of your twenty-two year old eyes or a crease in her forehead. A little guilty knot formed in her stomach, as she thought no one ever wanted to ‘grow up’ faster than she did.

Rosemarie had been an intern for Stark Industries during her undergrad and worked a part-time research position for Stark while she looked for the right fit. It had been the CEO and his wife, Pepper, who had tipped you off about Dr. Banner’s small new company, Banner Science Technologies. No amount of ass kissing or overtime seemed to get the young woman a chat with Tony Stark, who was providing significant financial support to his friend and her boss’ endeavor, and she had all but given up until three weeks ago. That fateful email felt more like an unexpected termination. The fear of going ‘upstairs’ for that meeting amused Tony, he’d told her so much when he cackled that he had watched her self-talking on the journey up.

Now at BST, Rosemarie was leading a medical research team that rivaled Elon Musk and every major university in neuroscience. But there she was, leaning into the mirror on Day One, wishing she felt like she knew what she was doing, like she didn’t look like a dork in your square black rimmed glasses, or that she would look older than she was because she wanted to be taken seriously. The young doctor hadn’t realized that her accomplishments had already done that for her because almost no one ever blew through a public education, let alone Yale, like she had. The emotions tied to repeated social rejection; however, began to bubble in her chest like poison before her badge glimmered on her hip and snapped her out of the trance.

Oddly, in that interview for BST, Banner didn’t ask the doctor about her research. He asked Rosemarie about her mental health, how she balanced work and life, and what her definition of world peace was. It had somehow never occurred to her that both Banner and Stark shared the unnatural gift of intellect since they were young too and that, at least to some degree, could relate to her experiences. There was a steady and natural intimidation that came with working for an Avenger like Bruce, but seeing the rest of them in passing at the lab in Stark Industry’s famous tower made the young woman slowly catch glimpses of their humanity, taking off the rose colored glasses placed on every stranger’s face by the media’s interpretation of them. Nevertheless, Rosemarie was a nobody, a lab rat, scientist, doctor, dork, and perpetually invisible to everyone at work. In fact, she had been her whole life, special but not special enough to warrant connecting with on a personal level. She told herself you’ll learn to appreciate the anonymity, but after being an academic shining star in college and spending a half a year looking for a job in the field, any semblance of confidence left in her small frame had certainly faltered.

Before Rosemarie could hit the ‘wallow in self pity’ button on her emotional circuit board, the bathroom door opened. Quickly straightening up and without looking at who came, she turned on the water to wash her hands and only upon reaching for the air dryer did she realize that the woman was the curvy redhead Avenger known for her skills in espionage, linguistics, weaponry, and combat; Black Widow. Rosemarie blinked, making a mental note to not call her that if she managed to speak at all. She looked at the young doctor curiously, her eyebrows slowly drawing together in confusion. “Are you really going to the party dressed up as Bruce? We try not to do ‘the Avengers’ at this thing every year.”

Whether it was from Agent Romanoff’s use of air quotes or the fact that she was speaking to a person that saw themselves as invisible, Rosemarie’s mouth bobbed open and closed, head tilting to the side like a confused puppy. “Party? Bruce?” Please, Rosemarie, save yourself from chronic rambling, she mentally monologued, only showing she was in her head through the pursing of her lips and a fleeting nod of acknowledgement; both of which hadn’t gone unnoticed by the spy.

“Bruce really forgot to invite his top dog? Typical. I swear I told him three times this week alone.” She walked around toward Rosemarie with speed and grace. Her gaze was analytical of the body in front of her, despite the majority of it being tucked underneath a pristine new lab coat, as she kept talking, “The annual Halloween costume party is tonight and you and the other two department leads…” she waved her hand when she realized she’d forgotten their names. “Anyways, it’s a party Tony throws every year and it’s always been Stark Industries, Rand Corp., and some other companies in Stark’s pocket that get all the big faces together for a few drinks, laughs, and a good time. Banner Sci. Tech. has Tony at the table and Bruce in bright lights. You’ve got to be there,” Just as a protest was about to pass the girl’s lips a finger went to them, “No excuses, Rosemarie. Consider it a part of the ‘other duties as assigned’ clause on your employment agreement.” She wiggled her fingers dramatically, but there the lab rat stood, utterly dumbfounded. A new question was on her mind: What could she possibly add to a conversation with a bunch of brilliant wealthy CEOs and superheroes? “Soooo, naturally, the people that are the glue of this place should come and rub shoulders. You know, show ‘em why you’re so fantastic. Get to know the people your tech will likely be used by, little like that.”

“But, I’m… me?” The words were quiet, disjointed, and felt like you had more confidence giving your first valedictorian speech to a crowd of Seniors that had bullied you for walking with them at the age of twelve.

“Exactly, Dr. Smarypants. You’re you, which is why we’re going to mine and getting you some costume that doesn’t make you the laughing stock of introductions. How old are you, anyway?” Natasha opened the bathroom door and the doctor walked out feeling like she was about to get the Princess Diaries treatment with some sort of Nightmare on Elm Street plot twist.

“I turned twenty-two last February.” The answer was offered up in the tone of an apology but she disregarded the awkward timbre and stuck to the facts, making Rosemarie’s shoulders relax just a little.

“Well thank God for that,” The Avenger’s laugh echoed through the hall. “I was half worried you wouldn’t be able to drink and then you’d be both bored and silent at the party.”

With a finger up she skipped over to the main lab’s window where Bruce was squinting at four screens and banging on a tablet. When he finally looked over at the redhead, everyone in the vicinity noticed his expression quickly melting, something Rosemarie had certainly never seen. Natasha pointed to her watch, to Rosemarie, and gestured little walking legs with her fingers. Dr. Banner acknowledged her with what looked like a mouthed ‘I love you’ but before Rosemarie could even smile at the site he offered her an apologetic nod, unnerving her once more. In the blink of an eye, Natasha was dragging her out of the office, arm in arm, and out of midtown Manhattan.

--- BRUCE AND NATASHA’S LIMESTONE; UPPER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN, NY ---

Despite asking a few times over what she had in store, Nat, as she asked to be called, gave her little to go on. Sitting on a bench at the foot of her boss’ California King bed, she watched Natasha rummaging through the walk-in closet. “Clint’s daughter dragged me to Disney a few months back. She insisted we go ‘Disneybounding’ and I have more wigs than I’ll ever need.” She was processing her choices and more than once Rosemarie picked up something that flew out of the walk-in closet at her head. A shimmering ruby red dress landed to the left and her mouth fell open in horror at the plunging neckline and thigh extra-high slit. Nat came out with a few things on her arm and laughed at the look of pure exasperation, “Don’t worry, babe, that’s mine… and this,” She plopped the garments into her victim’s arms, “Is your get up. There’s a bathroom down the hall, the only door on the left. I’ll be over in a bit to help with your makeup.”

Rosemarie wasn’t sure if she should take offense to the fact that it wasn’t a question, but remained too intimidated to say anything. Once in the bathroom with her back to the mirror she took off her white lab coat and untucked the seafoam green tie-neck satin blouse and skinny black slacks. As she folded the discarded clothes, she sighed at how proud of the outfit she’d been just this morning and how it now felt like a bland choice by the time she saw half of the spy’s closet. Like the pang of emotions set off a bomb, Rosemarie was self-talking about how nice Nat was being to her and to see this as a professional opportunity rather than a terrifying obligation. The mental chatter was enough to get her into the outfit which, surprisingly, required no sucking in, tucking, or wiggling to get on. It wasn’t until she turned to the mirror that Rosemarie registered what ‘Disney bounding’ was, immediately placing the character the ensemble was meant to resemble.

The high-waisted yellow shorts with their two panels of brassy buttons hugged Rosemarie's hips and made her see the curves of a defined hourglass frame for the first time in clothing other than yoga pants. The off the shoulder royal blue crop top had enough draping and a built-in bra to make her comfortable about wearing this around other professionals, just the tiniest hint of the tan skin of her upper stomach when she raised her hands or posed, neither of which she planned to do tonight. The red bow against black hair was the perfect final touch to make it obvious the outfit was a modern Snow White. Before Rosemarie could overanalyze going to a work event in the getup, there was a rhythmic knock on the door and, even though she thought she’d locked it, Nat was walking in, items in hand. At first she whistled, taking Rosemarie’s hand in hers and spinning her around. Nat smiled when she saw the heat rise up the bashful doctor’s neck and color flooded her cheeks. “I have one last thing.”

Until Nat pulled black heels from behind her back Rosemarie hadn’t even noticed Natasha had changed, but when she did her mouth went dry. “You look…” With a knowing smirk, she put her hands on Rosemarie’s hips and spun her back toward the mirror, her chest pressed to the doctor’s back as she studied her features, the pouted lips and high cheekbones, the long eyelashes underneath the ridiculously hipster glasses. Rosemarie felt naked in front of her, no one having ever really looked at her that way before and her body naturally reacted with a shiver that caused her hips to roll back into her host. As Rosemarie was about to apologize, Nat simply smiled and shook her head no, getting to work on their makeup with both expertise and speed.

Rosemarie thought she had gotten away with the embarrassing and obvious moment of unrequited attraction when the Avenger popped the lipstick into a wristlet purse that looked like an apple. Then she leaned in like a panther pouncing on her prey and, somehow, the doctor didn’t cower back. Nat was intrigued by that, a little curve found its way to the corner of her crimson lips, two shades darker and glossed compared to Rosemarie’s, “Let’s have a good time tonight, Snow. Something tells me it’s going to get very interesting.” She bit her lip, noticing that Rosemarie was holding your breath and assumed that it was a combination of her looking great and being the girlfriend of the girl’s boss, she wasn’t wrong. Nat still dipped down between her legs and slipped the heels onto the young woman’s feet, letting her fingertips tickle her ankle before they were holding hands and heading to the party.

--- STARK INDUSTRIES: THE TOWER; MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY ---

The closer they got to Tony Stark’s ‘Tower’ the more Rosemarie wanted the stroke of midnight to hit so she could get out of dodge. Nat worried, even if she hid it well. She’d playfully asked her a few casual questions about her time at Yale, what the parties were like, and what the doctor liked to do for fun. She quickly and accurately surmised that the twenty two year old had been in love once and upon some bad sex and the dropping of the ‘L’ word, she’d been dropped like a fly. The pity never reached Natasha’s face, but it was there. It reminded her of more than one person that would be at the Tower tonight, and as she cooed compliments to the anxious new girl in town, she hoped that offering the invitation was the right thing. Rosemarie nodded and blushed, hoping accepting was the right choice too, though she didn’t hide it well at all.

As Natasha entertained that young woman with pleasant little stories about how harmless everyone was, she couldn’t help but think that, with the tension of the Sokovia Accords, you might not be up for the mental olympics the attendees would undoubtedly be going through. As the elevator doors closed behind them, Rosemarie didn’t notice how worried Nat was and instead tried to calm herself down in the bustling room. Her matte dusty rose lips pressed into a closed mouth smile as she tried to remember little details about the people in front of her, people that she had only heard about on television or seen through a lab window. “Here we go,” Nat spoke with surprising pep and with a sigh, Rosemarie followed. She was glad Natasha let her walk down the stairs behind her as the crowd funneled in both in front and behind them. You can do this. You’re smart, a good person, you can do this. This is totally normal. Just smile and nod, fake it to the bar, fake it ‘til you make it. The doctor’s gaze brushed across the room after Natasha moved away toward Bruce. Immediately Rosemarie froze, a few heads that had turned to greet Nat now turned toward her. Well, shit.

CHAPTER 1

Taglist: @caplanbuckybarnes​

[ashleyspinelliburnbook]

S1E4: First Name Ashley/To Finster With Love

Had a brief internal crisis about whether to just end this blog after “First Name Ashley,” since, you know. Fortunately, I’ve decided to keep going, because this is one of my favorite episodes of the series.

First Name Ashley

This episode was so important to me as a tomboy who hated “girly” things in a big way. Formal dresses? Absolutely not. Pink anything? Throw it out. Wearing my hair down? Never. My name ending in a feminine suffix? Disappointing!

It got to the point where I had so embraced my anti-femininity that others began to embrace it too, except they used it to hurt me. In middle school, my friend told me that claiming my participation on “Gender Bender Day” didn’t count, because I “always dress like a guy.” That same friend took me shopping for “girl clothes” a year later, and when I wore them and was inevitably made fun of for leaving my (and everyone else’s) comfort zone, she said nothing. I once spent two hours straightening my hair in high school and posted a photo on MySpace, and the very first comment was from a girl who said my hair “looked like a wig.” I deleted the photo and didn’t straighten my hair again for five or six years. Anytime I tried to leave the box I’d put myself in, someone tried to force me back into it. Controlling my own narrative felt out of the question.

Now, I was seven years old when this episode came out, still figuring out my relationship with femininity and masculinity. But even through those moments in middle school and high school, I thought about Spinelli.

The thing about Spinelli is that she doesn’t hate being an Ashley — her great-aunt Ashley was the first woman to win the Iditarod, after all. She just hates what being an Ashley means at this school. Here, being an Ashley is a sign of status, and it means being initiated into the Ashleys (per the playground constitution section on cliques), a group of girly-girls who gossip and watch My Fuzzy Unicorn and play with dolls.

And that’s the part she hates. The Ashleys (and the school at large, thanks to Randall the snitch spilling her secret) have ripped Spinelli out of her comfort zone, not to mention taken her pride in her name, and put her into the impossibly limited sphere of being an Ashley.

That’s why it’s such a smart move that instead of having Spinelli change her name, the gang decides to rescue her from the Ashleys’ clutches by changing their names to Ashley, too. Hustler Kid hooks them up with fake library cards, school IDs, and social security cards with “Ashley” written on them, and Ashley S. proudly invites them to join. As soon as the OG Ashleys are overwhelmed by the presence of so many Ashleys, TJ offers them a deal: let Spinelli go, and they’ll all go.

There’s so much power in Spinelli getting to keep her name and do with it what she wants! She’s now living in full defiance of the expectations of the playground, and it’s now because of her name — not in spite of it.

In this way, TJ wraps it all up so succinctly: “There’s a lot of Ashleys out there, but there’s only one Spinelli.”

Takeaway: *annoying kid in class voice* Less a takeaway, more a comment. Gus says “it’s just a name” when Spinelli is lamenting her secret getting out. The kid with the most drama surrounding his name so far (episode 1: gets his name taken from him; episode 3: is jinxed until someone says his name and is given a new nickname in the process) has the least to say about this? Come on, writers.

To Finster With Love

A nice contrast to the kissing episode. This time, it’s adults!

So as usual, the gang is goofing off at recess — today, TJ and Mikey are racing down the hill in garbage cans. Unfortunately, their fun is interrupted when Miss Finster (tipped off by Randall, naturally) stops TJ’s garbage can in its tracks. She’s just about ready to take him to the principal’s office, when all of a sudden...

New character alert! It’s Hank, the janitor, who arrives with the immortal words, “Trash receptacles are made for trash, not for little boys to ride in.” And Miss Finster has the BIGGEST crush on him.

Unsurprisingly, Mikey is the only one who notices that love is in the air. The rest of the gang recognizes that she “turns nice” whenever he’s around, but can’t quite figure out why. Gus offers the explanation that it’s just professional courtesy, but no, it’s love, Mikey says — “like Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver!” (Hi, this episode came out the year Arnold fathered a child with his and Maria’s housekeeper, though that didn’t become common knowledge until almost 15 years later.)

Anyway, once this particular nugget is out in the open, TJ decides to take full advantage of the situation. He tests the waters by insulting Miss Finster repeatedly, but she’s too immobilized with love to realize. “Too bad he’s not around all the time,” Spinelli says of Hank, which gives TJ another idea: what if Hank was around all the time?

Mikey protests, saying they’re messing with people’s feelings, and worse, messing with fate, but TJ isn’t having it. The gang goes to the library and comes out with a couple of boxes of romantic music. “They’re called records, or albums, depending on your generational affiliation,” Gretchen explains when Spinelli asks what's in the boxes.

The gang lures Miss Finster and Hank to the cafeteria as what seems to be an impossibly long recess continues, and they play the music (“Do you hear music?” “Whenever I look at you.” — an iconic exchange).

Things are going so well between them, in fact, that the school is, well, falling apart without Miss Finster there to rein things in. TJ tries his garbage can racing again, but some older kids steal the hill they’re on, taunting, “What are you gonna do, cry to Finster?” The gang goes to see King Bob, but a kindergartener tells them a “big coup” has left them in charge of the playground.

It’s a somber scene as the gang breaks Miss Finster from her lovestruck stupor and shows her the chaos outside. After letting out a primal scream, she and Hank realize they must break up — their calling is the school, not each other, and they were letting their responsibilities get away from them.

In a beautiful “welcome back to reality,” TJ throws another insult Miss Finster’s way, and the gang rejoices as she reacts appropriately.

Takeaway: Roses are red / Violets are blue / “Do you hear music?” / “Whenever I look at you.”

[smallhatlogan]

Why Nonbinary Borderlands Fans are Mad About Zer0′s Pronouns, In a Timeline

2012

Zer0 was introduced in Borderlands 2 as a character meant to be absurdly mysterious in almost every way.  Zer0 is apparently not their real name, they seem not to be human (but it’s unclear if they’re an alien, robot, or something else entirely), no one knows where they came from, etc. Still, in Borderlands 2, they defaulted to he/him, and was assumed male.  It’s worth noting that Borderlands 2 also featured Bloodwing, Mordecai’s pet alien bird. In the original Borderlands Bloodwing was referred to as he/him, but switched between games to she/her. This is explained outside the game by Burch, who says that Bloodwing’s species changes gender halfway through life.

2013

Gearbox released the Diamond Plate Loot Chest. In it was the “Pandoran Gazette” an in-universe newspaper. It included an “Ask Doctor Tannis” advice column, the last question being:

Dear Doctor Tannis,

I have heard you are acquainted with the vault hunter known as "Zer0". I have been meaning to ask - that's not really his true name, is it? Hell, maybe Zer0 isn't even a "he". Do you have any details on this mysterious figure?

- Curious in Old Haven

Dear Curious,

I am indeed acquainted with the towering stack of leather and poorly-written poetry that so many refer to as "Zer0". As you have correctly noted, "Zer0" is not the Vault Hunter's true name. Zer0's actual name and gender are (CONTINUED ON PAGE 9)

Page 9 was not included. To my knowledge, this was where it was first seeded that Zer0 may not be male. 

November 2, 2014

 In a panel titled “Playing as a female character panel - Does it Matter” during PAX Australia, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford discussed Zer0’s gender:

“The other things that’s interesting to me is sometimes when there’s characters that don’t have a gender or have an ambiguous gender I’ll choose them...In Borderlands 2 we left Zer0’s identity very ambiguous. What gender is he?” *crowd laughs* “We need better pronouns, don’t we? Don’t we need better pronouns?” (Timestamp) 

“What’s the gender of Zer0?….That says more about me than it does say about Zer0, the fact that I use the pronoun he when I describe Zer0. In fact, um, we purposely have left Zer0’s gender ambiguous. There’s a lot of folks at Gearbox that like to think that maybe Zer0’s of a particular species that doesn’t have gender- That is more androgynous.”  (Timestamp) 

(Timeline continues under cut)

November 25th, 2014

The first episode of Tales From the Borderlands was released. Anthony Burch answered this question on his Ask.fm: 

To my memory, tumblr blew up with excited nonbinary fans. Prior to seeing screenshots of this, I really didn’t have interest in Borderlands. The idea of a cool nonbinary character who used they/them pronouns, admist a virtual desert of representation, made me play through the entire series as fast as I could so I could catch up in time to see these pronouns in action. For a long time afterwards I’ve seen other nonbinary people expressing the same sudden interest in the series after learning this about Zer0. Because, yeah, it was a pretty big deal. 

2015: 

Zer0 appeared again in episode 5 of Tales, released almost a year later after the first. Their voice had changed to one that sounds more ambiguous in terms of gender, but Zer0 was still being referred to as “he/him”. Anthony Burch was one of the writers on this episode. Afterward, he answered this on his ask.fm:

Since he claimed it was honestly a mistake, nonbinary fans held out hope. There were posts going around tumblr clarifying that yes, Zer0 was still nonbinary, and still was meant to use they/them pronouns. It was just a mistake made by a thoughtless cisgender man. Of course, then some presumably-cisgender fan goes to Burch, and validates him, because clearly a character can’t just up and CHANGE pronouns! It’s not like anyone ever does that in real life! 

It’s not a fair point. It’s a dumb point from someone who has no stakes in this.  (Another thing worth noting is it has only been other characters who referred to Zer0 as he/him. Zer0 has never made a point of standing up for their own pronouns.) After this Burch just kind of gives up on the whole idea. 

This statement about characters being “progressive enough not to misgender someone” is weird, because the characters, even the sympathetic ones, in Borderlands have often blatantly failed to be progressive. The original Borderlands has the worst of it, it’s your basic 2009 edgelord shit. There’s blatant misogyny, not to mention the extremely homophobic joke surrounding Mr. Shank (and within that the transphobic joke about his girlfriend being a man in a wig). Burch only started writing for the game in Borderlands 2, however. It’s a huge step up, but there’s still a lot of bigotry. Captain Scarlett makes a “no fatties” joke. Mr Torgue fat-shames Ellie. Mr Torgue uses the R-slur. Multiple characters slut-shame Moxxi. Incest jokes surrounding Scooter, who also is implied to be a huge creep towards women.  Heck, there’s the entirety of Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt DLC is a racist, colonialist mess. Its antagonist is implied to be gay, one of two gay male characters introduced thus far, and he’s a pathetic, creepy stalker.  This is the game series where there are two common enemy types whose names are straight up ableist.  So citing characters as being “too progressive” rings hollow with this context.  Besides, trans people are often misgendered, even by people who’d otherwise be considered progressive.  Burch left Gearbox the same year, so he’s not entirely to blame for what anything afterwards. He just set a pretty bad precedent.

2019:

Gearbox did seem to take the “make a new nonbinary character” thing to heart.  They give us Fl4k, again a nonhuman character, who uses they/them pronouns. And okay, I love Fl4k, but like most nonbinary people I’m tired of all nonbinary characters being robots, aliens, or otherwise non-human in appearance (a trope that yes, Zer0 falls into as well). Still, Fl4k is cute and having a nonbinary playable character who uses they/them pronouns is cool! I definitely plan to play as them. Many nonbinary fans were suspicious though, it seemed likely that Fl4k might be meant to appease us and they could keep on using he/him for Zer0. We were proven right when they released the gameplay preview on May 1st. We hear Zer0 called “he”. None of us are surprised, but it still hurts, we felt like we’d been baited with Zer0.  Besides, why can only one character at a time be nonbinary? Why can a bird change pronouns but not a person? Why was a writer allowed to go out and promise this if it wasn’t going to be followed through on (yes, he didn’t use the word “promise” but telling a marginalized group something like that isn’t something you can just “forget” without people feeling betrayed)?

And that’s where we’re at, as of me writing this. I feel like there are some comments I’m bound to get on this, so I’ll answer them here: Why are you making such a big deal about this?

Me typing a few paragraphs isn’t making a big deal. But I feel misled and baited. After a few years of no clarification after Burch promising us they/them Zer0, a lot of people hung on to hope. A lot of people became big fans of Zer0 because they’re a fun, badass, nonbinary character. Their design is really, really rad! And heck, they were (at least for a time) the most popular playable character in Borderlands 2. Telling everyone, in-game, “actually Zer0 was never really a he, they’ve been a ‘they’ this whole time” would have been HUGE. Like how Blizzard made Overwatch’s poster girl, Tracer, canonically a lesbian, and then revealed their badass gruff guy (who fills the roll of your basic FPS protagonist), Soldier 76, to be a gay man. They/them are still not widely accepted pronouns. For us who use them, it’s difficult to convince people not to default to something gendered. Especially when we fail to appear completely androgynous. I’ve been told Zer0 can’t possibly be nonbinary because they have a deep voice and “masculine” body shape. But real nonbinary people come in all shapes and sizes with all kinds of voices! 

What about Fl4k?

As I said, I’m very happy about Fl4k. They fall into some problematic tropes even more than Zer0 (as Fl4k is verified beyond a doubt to be a robot, and has an “acceptable” androgynous shape to them). I don’t know their voice yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if it also fell into the category of “acceptably androgynous”. Fl4k is new and already “they/them”. Zer0 is an established character who already has a lot of fans among a bunch of different groups of people. There’s definite value in demonstrating a character can switch pronouns, since pretty much every nonbinary person who uses they/them haven’t used those pronouns their entire life. Besides, there can and should be more than one nonbinary character.  Fl4k being nonbinary but not Zer0 kind of feels like Gearbox expects us to shut up and be happy with what we’re given.

What about nonbinary people who use he/him pronouns? Can’t Zer0 be that?

Those people are real and valid.  However, we’re talking about real people versus a fictional character. I admit I’d feel better if it was stated, in-game, “Yeah, Zer0 is nonbinary and uses he/him”. But even then, it’s REALLY EASY for cisgender people to ignore that information and write Zer0 off as male (And knowing gearbox, they’d put it somewhere easily missed. I’ve surprised so many straight people who’d played through Borderlands 2 with the fact that Sir Hammerlock is gay, simply because it was only verified in a side quest). And you know, we were promised they/them, so like, not doing that kind of sucks. Also I think it’s really important to normalize they/them.

So what are we supposed to do about this? What do you expect to change, anyways?

Honestly? I don’t expect Gearbox to fix this so late. In all likelihood, that’s way too much dialogue to re-record. But I still think it’s worth making our voices heard. We shouldn’t silently put up with this kind of thing. Other people will pull the same shit, being either unsympathetic or unaware of the harm they do. And heck, it’s unlikely, but maybe Gearbox will at least acknowledge their wrongdoing.

Also, it’s maybe worthwhile to ignore canon, and keep referring to Zer0 as “they/them”, or if this whole thing is news to you, it’s not too late to start. It would mean a lot to nonbinary fans, and make a point about how Zer0 is regarded.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

Going Down the List #4: ‘Les Huguenots’, Montpellier, 1990

As any of you who have been following me for a long time know, this is one of my favorite operas and I am on a quest to find and watch every available filmed production of this opera. As such, this is my eighth production of Huguenots, and I think the best one I've seen. Here goes:

First things first, any review of a production of this opera has to include some commentary about cuts. I’m happy to say that there are very few of them, the most notable of which is the entire Act III ballet, which still isn’t a huge loss. There are minor cuts elsewhere, such as a section of the Raoul/Marguerite duet that I frequently forget exists (the section, not the whole duet), a small cut in the Act I window scene, a couple tiny cuts in ‘O beau pays de la Touraine’, and some of the Act III finale. Urbain’s Act II aria was omitted as well, but since it was an insert aria in the first place, I don’t see it as that huge of a loss even though I do love it and prefer when it is included.

Also, a warning: the video quality is not great. It’s not horrible, but it’s definitely not ideal. It’s still decent, though, especially for what I’m assuming is an upload of a video ripped from a 1990s TV broadcast of an official in-house recording. There are no subtitles either, which really stinks.

With that out of the way, the production: I’d overall describe it as ‘traditional minimalist with really wonderful direction’.

The sets are where the ‘minimalist’ part comes from: there are only really two sets, one of which is almost entirely white and the other of which is almost entirely black. The sets are slightly modified for each scene, but the first set is essentially ‘huge staircase (most of the time also featuring a couple long tables and a ridiculous number of chairs)’ and the second is essentially a huge open space with black walls, a lot of graffiti that is mostly illegible, and some cut-out door openings. Although personally, I’d prefer a little more detail and variety, I do overall like the sets and I think they work well.

The costumes are beautiful period fashion; the problem with them, however, is that apparently the costume designer thought it would be a good idea to dress large groups of people exactly the same. This is especially a problem with the various Catholic noblemen, to the point where it took me a few minutes to figure out who was playing Nevers because all the Catholic noblemen in Act I wore the exact same outfit. (Perhaps this would have been less of a problem if the video quality were better.) Still, they are gorgeous costumes.

If I had to describe the direction in five words, they’d be, “nuanced, vivacious, and emotionally intense”. I especially love how much the chorus actually moves! That may sound silly, but it’s nice to have an actual street riot in Act III or a frenzied, whipped-up mass of Catholic nobles declaring anathema on the Huguenots in Act IV instead of having the chorus just stand there and sing prettily. The chorus also does an excellent job of reacting in general: they laugh at Nevers’ witty comments, they enthusiastically respond to the calls for a massacre, they recoil in horror when Raoul details the scenes of death and destruction. And the way the ending was staged─ you just had to rip out my heart, didn’t you? That’s all I’ll say about that.

There are some togetherness issues between the onstage forces and the pit; however, these are relatively minor. The orchestra (and its soloists) are very good; the chorus is amazing. Whether it’s a particularly fortuitous sound balance or just a really present chorus, they are always a force to be reckoned with on a scale I don’t think I’ve even heard on any other recording. And as I mentioned earlier, they’re not just great singers, but also great actors. Same goes for the various small roles, with a special shoutout to the six supporting Catholic nobles, who all sound good, look good, and work together very well.

Now for the seven leads:

Danielle Borst was a very adorable Urbain who happened to be dressed like she was from The Addams Family or something (including what appeared to be a very unfortunate black bobbed wig). Regardless, she was all cheer and enthusiasm in the classic trouser-role mold (along with the obligatory flirting with everyone) with a really, really fantastic voice, and she lit up the stage whenever she was on it, whether she was standing on a table or chugging a bottle of wine (during ‘O beau pays’) or spying on the ladies-in-waiting from under a sheet. Her ‘Nobles seigneurs, salut’ in particular was one of the best I’ve ever heard, and I think it’s really a shame she didn’t get a shot at ‘Non, vous n’avais jamais, je gage’.

Marc Barrard was a fantastic Nevers. His voice is really nice and lyrical and beautiful, although owing to the fact that the role is a) relatively short and b) doesn’t have any big solos or even small ensembles, he didn’t get much of a chance to show it off. As a result, as with all baritones playing this role, whether his performance succeeded or not depended on his dramatic skill. He delivered. Depending on what was happening, he was extremely flamboyant, official, gentle, and/or morally outraged— and he managed to do that without overacting, which I appreciate.

Jean-Pierre Courtis absolutely nailed it as the Comte de Saint-Bris. His voice is not particularly subtle, but then again, the character isn’t either. What his voice is is commanding and surprisingly beautiful. Seriously. It’s gorgeous. As he should, he absolutely dominated the Conspiracy Scene and came across as very cold, no-nonsense, but still intensely devoted to his country, his faith, and his own ideas about how they should be─ in short, absolutely fanatical. And I said earlier I wouldn’t give away any details about the staging of the ending, but I will here: after discovering his dying daughter, he did something I haven’t seen any other Saint-Bris do that just wrenched my heart: he walked (or to be more precise, backed) offstage. It was pretty ambiguous, but I think it’s the only portrayal I’ve seen that suggested he didn’t really regret anything he did.

Anyway, they were both awesome.

Ghyslaine Raphanel definitely did right by Marguerite de Valois. Her voice is very light and may take some getting used to (it did for me), but overall it’s a beautiful sound that I think works well for this part. In particular, she has some serious coloratura chops, which she took every opportunity to display (including by far the longest ‘O beau pays’ cadenza I have ever heard). She’s also very good at playing the young, charismatic, beautiful royal who wants peace and love but is completely detached from reality, to the point where she still can’t believe what’s happening even when Raoul tells her about the massacre in Act V, scene 1 (the scene ends with her climbing the staircase, turning around, and looking at all the Huguenot noblewomen as if to say ‘…I have no clue what the hell just happened’).

I really loved John Macurdy’s performance as Marcel. His basic voice isn’t my favorite by any means, but I can absolutely say it’s a good voice, with particularly strong low notes. And he’s a great actor! I especially loved his ‘Piff, paff’, for this exact reason: you can hear the hatred Marcel has for Catholicism and women in the way he sings every word. And he has amazing stage presence: even just a little thing, like a gesture at Raoul or the way he put an arm around Valentine and walked her back into the church in Act III, said so much. In other words, he may not be my favorite bass, but he’s a good singer and a virtually perfect dramatic match for the part.

Nelly Miricioiu was a wonderful Valentine de Saint-Bris. Personally, I love her voice although there are some things about it I could see people not liking. Nevertheless, it’s a gorgeous voice that fits the role well, and she’s amazing at everything she does, especially in her two big duets and the final scene. She’s also a very, very good actress who does one of the best acting jobs I’ve seen in this role, and that is no shabby feat, especially in the eyes of yours truly (who once wrote several pages about her character development and posted it on this very blog, although almost no one read it lol). That development I talked about, from very anxious, fragile, and shy to boldly defiant? She absolutely got it.

Gregory Kunde was absolutely phenomenal as Raoul de Nangis. His voice is pretty much perfection in this role, which is especially an achievement considering how many ways the part is demanding─ he has lyric moments and huge dramatic ones alike, and let’s not forget all the insanely high notes! But he nailed it, especially the two arias, which are both very hard in very different ways. Also, his acting was on point: I got all the little bits of his personality─ the romantic dreaminess, the idealism, the moral outrage, the impulsiveness, the stubbornness, all of it. There are so many good little details, from his frequent hesitations at drinking to the fact that even though there’s a massacre going on and he’s trying to rescue the Huguenot nobles, he still takes a few seconds at the end of his Act V aria to bow to Marguerite (and be like, ‘uh, sorry for ruining your big party’) before rushing out. Bravo!

Overall Verdict: Definite recommend; this would be a great first production for anyone wanting to watch this opera, albeit with two caveats: one, there are no subtitles (but I’d be more than happy to send anyone the French-English libretto I have on Google Drive), and two, this production may ruin you for others that are…not of the same quality. 😉

Up next: Due to ongoing difficulties with the Internet at my house, I am going to have to suspend this series until further notice, but as soon as I can, I’ll be doing the 2019 Il trovatore from Beijing!