#i love the first one as the season 1 cover but the 2nd one makes go

[milkbreadtoast]

giggling... these are so cute..

[aakaneeee]

I've had my drabble, now it's time for actual theories and parallels since I haven't done that in a while and it's long overdue

first of all, I love to see Alien Stage art slowly but surely falling into the obvious eerie side.

I have a lot to say about all of these, but I specifically want to focus on Luka for this.

When I first saw the branding, I wondered why it was there. I was confused, because I expected it to be on the heart (which was also proven to be false in the 2nd anniversary pop up store).

then, I looked closer: left hip.

there are actually a lot of stuff to associate with his branding (except it looking slutty IM SORRY YALL I CANT HELP MYSELF)

The left hip is also the place where horses are branded. Specifically, pedigree horses. Again, not only does it show possession, but also him being superior to others.

For men, that specific area is one of the most painful. (insert tattoo pain chart)

it might seem like it's on yellow since it's just a little lower than the belly button, but 1. The belly button on this chart is really high and 2. It could just be perspective, and it'd make a lot of sense for him to be branded in the most painful way possible. doesn't that sound heperu to you?

3. he isn't under anesthesia. even mizi, who had a "least pain" area, seemed to be under anesthesia. but no, he wasn't. this leads me to my next point:

4. We know Heperu thinks the only way to make a good pet is fear. So, what if he specifically chose that area, so Luka could actively see, and even have to hold his shirt up himself? He wants him to fear, and he wants him to know who he belongs to. It seems he really doesn't have limits in showing that.

Okay, those are the stuff I've noticed about this, but now I have a parallel.

This might be a little bit of a reach so take it with a grain of salt!!

Ivan's branding is on his wrist: a secure, hidden place, where others wouldn't be able to see it, as if he actually had more freedom than other humans, being seen more as a business partner than like a pet.

Youd think Luka is the same, afterall, his branding is on his hip, and we didn't see anyone wearing crop tops and low rise pants yet.

No, but all of his outfits have an open back and a cut in the front.

Considering the pacing of his songs, and the turns he made in Round 5, we could possibly imagine that the material would move away, and it would show his branding, atleast a little bit. Like a silent reminder, both for Luka and for the audience, that he is not his own person, but someone who is owned. It feels like Heperu is so prideful that he wants to take merit for Luka's voice, as if taking advantage of an actual condition he has was what brought him up in the charts, and that Luka's work is equal to nothing, because he did everything. That's what Heperu thinks, and that's what he wants the audience to think, as well.

Another perfect example of this is the photo next to the branding.

Taking Sua's photo, we can see the signatures or scribbles are darker, and even though crazier, they still make her the center of it, while still maintaining some color.

For Luka, the backround is blank. Just grey. He doesn't have the teal that Sua had, or even a light yellow to show light. More importantly, the signatures are all over him. Showing that he is a prized possession, a trophy, that doesn't actually have anything of his own, that is completely under his owner and his fans, despite him supposedly having more 'freedom' than other pets because he already won a season. (This freedom being an obvious lie.)

Sua is looking left. Luka is directly facing the camera, but you can barely even tell, his eyes are covered by his hair.

Again, another small reach, but we know he doesn't really enjoy bright lights. (sweet dream as proof)

I was wondering if this could be even more proof of him having even more conditions than what they've let on.

Specifically, Leukocoria.

Leukocoria represents your pupil shining white or grayish-yellow instead of red, and it signals grave damage inside the eye.

(Photo from Google, don't sue me)

It looks very close to Luka's pupils, right?

there are also these two official arts in which he's wearing glasses.

they seem to be quite thin, so whatever the reason for him wearing them is not that bad.

so i was wondering: could it be a case of cataract?

HEAR ME OUT HEAR ME OUT

his eyes are a very pale color, and pale irises can be a sign of cataract.

people with cases of cataract that aren't too bad, even though surgery is recommended, can see better if they wear glasses.

and leukocoria can be caused by cataract.

maybe that's the reason he's hiding his eyes from the light here with his hair? his eyes are sensible to light?

i know this is really long but i hope you all don't mind too much, luka is my favourite (if you couldn't tell) and this new information awakened my medical knowledge :)

sorry if some stuff don't make sense, as always, english is not my first language, I hope it's atleast a bit coherent!

(tagging some people because I think you'd like to see this.... @shakingparadigm @sotogalmo @paradisedisconcert @m1zisua @junebluues @bluemoonscape @4listr @nottoonedin @pwippy SORRY IF ANY OF YALL DIDNT WANT TO BE TAGGED)

[babydollmarauders]

MEDIA MANAGEMENT — JACK HUGHES (23-24 SZN PART 15)

au masterlist

notes: pretty short but i just wanted to get this out so that i can move on and be ready for the next game tomorrow!

y/ndevils00

liked by dawson1417, nicohischier, and 286,402 others

y/ndevils00 a solemn hello to you all! welcome back to my postgame recap!

as some of you may have noticed, i took a bit of a break and did not cover the game against the Blues, hawks, or avalanche! as you’re all probably well aware, my beautiful, clumsy ass boyfriend lost an edge during the first of the Blues game which resulted in a shoulder injury. after some serious persuasion from both me and coach woof, who i���m pretty sure just wanted me off the trip in general… how rude, the Devils management graciously allowed me to return back to Jersey with my dumbass (affectionate) to be his in-home nurse!

i did keep up with my real job through watching the games on tv— did you guys know that Nico and Jack scream at the tv a lot during games? no? well now you do! — but i took a minor break from your regularly scheduled recaps in order to focus on my ailing boyfie.

so for the next few weeks, i will be doing any road game recaps from the comfort of my own (Jack and Luke’s) home! with one exception for a game of which i will not be disclosing at this point in time!

tonight your not so mighty Devils lost 2-4 to the D.C. dwellers— so that wasn’t fun to witness!

i spent most of my time this game in the press box with my aforementioned dumbass, my slut, and my new uncle Miller that we acquired during this past summer solstice. (see: slide 4)

this game, we got a goal from Meier Meier pants on fire, and of course, my very own bestie number 1, DAWSON MERCER!!! which makes his 2nd of the season after he got his very first of the season in my missed recap game against the hawks!

i’m so so SO proud of you tonight puppy!! you did so well!! you’re gonna do great things, sweetie!!

dear idiot number 2, you played well tonight and i guess i’m proud of you…. ya know, despite the penalty and the massive L we took… continue shining, supernova!

tagged john.marino97, dougieham, jackhughes, nicohischier, colinmiller1029, lhughes_06, tmeier96

Load more comments

john.marino97 2 photos… everyone else got 1 penalty photo and you choose TWO of me?

y/ndevils00 excuse me, do i need to take back my last paragraph? because i will if you’re gonna be an ungrateful rat

john.marino97 no, i’m sorry, thank you and i love you

y/ndevils00 that’s what i thought

user28 WE NEED JACK AND NICO BACK 😭

jackhughes can i request another nurse? maybe one that doesn’t call me a dumbass?

y/ndevils00 no <3

y/ndevils00 i call you MY dumbass, and you know it’s all love, my dumbass!

jackhughes so i’m stuck with you, huh?

y/ndevils00 forever and ever and ever and ever 🥰

jackhughes oh fun!

y/ndevils00 i know!

john.marino97 @/y/ndevils00 he was being sarcastic

y/ndevils00 @/john.marino97 oh, thank you personal sarcasm detector

y/ndevils00 YOU LOVE ME, STOP ACTING TOUGH ON THE INTERNET

colinmiller1029 i know i’m still new to this but, uncle?

dawson1417 any guy over 30 is her uncle, it’s the rules. you can’t question it and you can’t deny it, you just roll with it!

colinmiller1029 @/dawson1417 oh, okay. got it.

colinmiller1029 proud to be an uncle!! you’re pretty fun press box company, niece!

y/ndevils00 oh i love you

y/ndevils00 @/ehaula STEP UP YOUR UNCLE GAME OR HE’S GONNA BE FAVORITE

ehaula keep threatening it, i’m secure in my position and i know you love me

y/ndevils00 @/ehaula i hate you

ehaula sure. so i’ll see you tomorrow for family dinner, right?

y/ndevils00 @/ehaula yeah 🫤 can we watch Monsters Inc after dinner?

ehaula if you’re good and you eat all your food!

y/ndevils00 @/ehaula YES! 💃

jackhughes my girlfriend is a child

user10 how fast did you have to run from the press box to get these pictures?

y/ndevils00 oh so fast

dawson1417 THANK YOU BESTIE NUMBER 3!!! AND THANK YOU FOR MY HEAD PATS

y/ndevils00 you earned those head pats! i hope you enjoyed them!!

dawson1417 i did!!!

john.marino97 @/jackhughes your girlfriend is a child and my best friend is an actual golden retriever

jackhughes @/john.marino97 this is the life we chose

nicohischier stop eating my press box popcorn

y/ndevils00 but i was hungry :(

nicohischier your boyfriend was there? make him get you some!

y/ndevils00 he did! i ate it all!

nicohischier so you decide to eat mine?

y/ndevils00 yeah, now you get it!

nicohischier you are so…

y/ndevils00 beautiful? fun? hilarious?

nicohischier annoying

y/ndevils00 oh :(

nicohischier but i love you?

y/ndevils00 I LOVE YOU TOO WHORE!

tmeier96 no goal picture but a penalty picture?

y/ndevils00 i only have so many spaces, Timothy

tmeier96 ah yes, and the penalty was more important

y/ndevils00 well, yeah. you guys lost, it’s not like that goal mattered much

tmeier96 it goes towards my stats?

y/ndevils00 okay? and your penalty goes towards your PIMs

lhughes_06 you’re not winning this one dude, just save yourself the trouble and give up now

y/ndevils00 @/lhughes_06 see, Lukey gets it!

user63 wait, why won’t she tell us what road game she’s going to?

user95 WHAT ROAD GAME?! PLEASE, I WANNA MEET YOU

[dayslynthesix]

i was thinking about it while i was listening to a podcast and ill give it a go, hope you enjoy this one because i love the idea, reader (whos gonna have a name because i cant write for y/n anymore and i dont know why is a redbull engineer who happens to have a podcast

Getaway Car | Charles Leclerc x podcaster!reader

When Anna Zedra accepted the job as junior engineering at RedBull racing, she never thought that a job on the navy blue team would also give her a boyfriend. A boyfriend who used to drive for the infamous red team. A boyfriend who wanted so bad to be world champion but who could never won on that team. Everything started in 2022, middle of the season, pole and no win. And again. And again. And it started to get exhausting. Until Austria. Charles won on Redbull ring, and he thought it would be different. But it wasn't. As the season went on, Christian and the entire team were keeping an eye on his performance. RedBull offered a 2 years contract, they would pay him out of Ferrari, he didn't signed. But Charles had kept that contract in his drawer for the most part of the 2023 season, until COTA, and after that disastrous race, he called Christian, and that called lead to a meeting and a meeting lead to the Brazilian GP, who leads to the cover of all the sports magazine "Charles Leclerc signs with RedBull Racing for the 2024 season."

When Anna Zedra accepted the job as junior engineering at RedBull racing, her podcast was already a success into the motorsport. The All About Racing was an informative podcast who almost every month received a new guest. The 2022 season was marked by almost everyone making an appearance on the podcast. Max, Daniel, Christian, even Lewis Hamilton agreed to be on one of the episodes - and it was one of the most streamed episodes of the platform.

When Charles and Anna started to see each other, during the 2023 Italian GP, he was yet under Ferrari contract, but every once in a while he made a comment here and there about wanting to be on the podcast. Once the 2024 season started, and Anna was designed as his race engineer, and he was announced as the second driver of the team, they made a deal, they would record the episode after the first race and it would be released after his first win of the team. Charles wasn't expecting to win so soon, but he claimed his firts victory at the Saudi Arabia GP, he won the race with 15s to second place. So the podcast was aired during the middle of the night, because a deal is a deal.

Podcast transcription:

Anna: Hello everyone and welcome back to All About Racing, just for a little announcement, this podcast was recorded on the march 2nd, right after the Bahrein Grand Prix and as you know, our guest for today episode is no one else but Charles Leclerc. Welcome, Charles, thank you so much for being here today. I know how it went, but tell us, how it went qualy and the race?

Charles: Hello Anna. Thank you for having me and lets pretending you had a choice on that *laughs* Qualy went very well for the team, first qualy with RedBull and we had a 1-2 for the team, Max did an amazing lap on q3, but I'm very happy with the results, the car feels amazing and I'm very proud of my lap as well. The race was very good as well, the car is incredible reliable and it felt amazing to be on that podium. Aiming the highest spot nex week

Anna: Im very happy to listen that the car feels nice, I spend a lot of time working on that project. Adrian Newey learned everything he knows from me. Jokes a part, I know your dream was to win with Ferrari, for your dad, for Jules, for your young self, so how does it feels to move to RedBull after 5 years with Ferrari?

Charles: I mean... it was a tough call. I always wanted to drive for Ferrari, win on the red car, put a flag in Maranello, and in some level I did those things, I won with them, I was very happy in Monza in 2019, and I had some very incredible moments with the team and the tifosi and all related. My dad would be so happy for me to drive for them, I wanted to keep Jules legacy alive and so far being compared to him is still the most amazing thing I could ever experience. But it came a moment that I knew that I couldn't do more than what I was already doing, the car was very difficult to drive and it didn't suited my driving style and a lot of bad stuf kept happening and slowly it was killing me, it was killing my faith in myself and I wasn't believing in me, or the driver I am. It hurt a lot the moment I decided to leave, not to wear red in Monza or not to recieve the tifosi love... I thought it was over, if I wasn't a Ferrari driver I thought I would be no one. And then Christian and I we talked and I signed that contract and I drove the RB20 and everything clicked, Christian let me do something that I don't think is pretty common, but earlier this year I went on a private practice with the last 2 RBR cars, and I remember, like, feeling the car and suddenly the driver I am was awaken again, and I felt my confidence again and it just made sense. After the announcement I was so afraid of what the tifosi would say to me and I was so surprised of the amount of love I kept receiving. Yeah, I am no longer a Ferrari driver, I was for 5 years and I loved being part of the red team, but it came a point of a driver career that we need to make the choices which are better for our inner driver, not just ourselves. And I am immensely happy with RedBull, with the car and the team and everything.

Anna: Wow, that was very deep, you and I we alredy had this same conversation but is still very warming to listen to all of that again and to know that you are happy with the team, we are also very happy with you wearing navy blue. You said you're very happy and all, but walk us through your relationship with Max and how beeing teammates is working so far. We are insanely happy that there was no inchidents on the race.

Charles: *laughs* Oh my God, you'll never gonna let go, are you? Max and I we became pretty close om track during late season of 2019 and of track in 2022, we spent a lot of time playing padel and tennis and alson on the sim. We drive pretty much the same way, so it is very easy for the team to build a car that suits us both. During the race today we spend solid 25 laps fighting for position, he is way more used with the car than I am, so he won that one, but I am coming for him next race, there was no incidents and I'm pretty positive we will keep this way. We work fine on track, and Christian made us swear that whatever happens on track, stay on track.

Anna: Well done. No more inchidents, I see. There's people making comments on twitter and instagram about teams orders and first and second driver... what do you have to say about it?

Charles: No team orders, Max and I are free to fight as long as there's no risk of compromising each others position or the team, if theresa risk whomever is faster will get priority and the slowest will defend. Choosing a first and second driver is very good for car development, but considering that our driving style is very close there's no need to chose in which direction the car will go, whatever suits Max will most likely suit me as well. Obviously, as the season will developing, if theresa risk or a driver coming very close in points, the one who has more point will get priority as well, which is fair. And Max and I we are definitely not allowed to pull a Baku 2018 or a Spain 2016.

Anna: As a engineer and e RedBull employee I was already very familiar with that. You seems to be very close to a few drivers, how do you think being this close to others drivers helped to improve your driving skills?

Charles: I didn't have the amount of teammates Lewis had, for example, but I was teammate with Seb for 2 seasons and it was such a great experience to learn from him, to be close, to see how he thinks and how he matches with the car and all of that helped me a lot on how I would connect myself with the car as well, I've learned to be patient, to trust my institution and principally understand how the car is working and how to merge with a car who does not suit me 100%. When I signed with RedBull I called my mom, obviously and Seb was the second person I've called and I remembered exactly what he told me all the years we raced together, to not to waste my talent. I'm very close to Lewis as well, we went surfing last year and we have a lot in common, as drivers and as human beings. Not ironically, Jenson Button was around during last year and we've spent some time together as well, I was trying to learn how to be more smooth and he told me not to do that, because the way I drive today is the way I've learned how to drive and that's what gives me speed.

Anna: Lately we all have been talking about woman in formula one, it is another of our conversations so i already know all your thoughts but the audience doesn't, so please, elucidate us with your thoughts.

Charles: I don't think it should have this separation between man and woman in motorsport, it is not like they can't tolerate the conditions of a track you know? I think with F1 academy we are miles closer to have a woman in F1 than we were a few years ago but we are also miles away from it. One, I don't think there's a lot of teams who would "take the risk" and two I think for the comments I've read online that it isn't fair for any woman to have to deal with that, you know? Not performing well is a shot in the ego and all this comments put together is harmful. I watch volleyball, it is a strange habit that I've developed with Jenson because his wife is a volleyball player and those girls are playing two and a half hours match, they're running all the court, they're jumping and throwing themselves on the floor and like the gym time? Insane. Tennis as well, there's a few matches that are hours long and they are playing high level tennis and tennis is a very aggressive sport... so like I don't think the "woman doesn't have the physical to formula one" because it is not true. F1 is still a very exclusive sport, especially if you bring sponsors and teams are not comfortable of letting money go, there's 20 of us, soon to be 22 or 24 if Porsche and Audi make it and there's nothing on regulation that prohibits woman in F1, it would be very nice if one of those new teams go for a woman line up. RedBull last year had a reserve driver who performed amazingly, it was like she could see physically the track, the lines and kerbs. I'm all for woman in motorsport, Max and I we went to a girls karting track in Germany during the winter break and they are very talented.

Anna: Race weekend after race weekend I saw people on twitter talking about how they think you are not a F1 champion material, how you should be more vocal about what you want... everything someone who never been inside a F1 car could tell about it. How do you keep you mentality strong? We all know that you can perform under pressure. You won in Monza with 2 Mercedes pressuring you, you won in Austria with a throttle issue. You won your F2 championship after your dad passed away, you kept going for Jules... that's all very different of the kinda of pressure every other driver suffered during their careers.

Charles: I mean, I don't have to prove myself anymore. I impressed who I had to impress, I won a F3 and F2 championship. I'm here. I'm driving a F1 car every sunday. I've won in Formula One, so there's no one else that I have to impress anymore. I'm not calling the team out on the radio during a race, I don't think that's how you fix things, and I think it is the kind of thing that you talk privately with your team behind garage doors. I'm the one who's driving, the team is the one who have tha data, the difference between the car in front of me and the car behind me, the window we have to pit, the tyres we can use and the omes that makes the car performs better. The team needs to have their best interests to maximize the points on that weekend. It is not my job to do more than drive. But one thing is for sure, I'm the one who's driving, who's feeling the car, and once I tell the team that pitting for hards is a bad choice and that we need to pit for medium, because I am feeling the car, and they don't listen to me, that's out of my hands. I'll take full responsibility for my own mistakes. Imola in 2022? It was on me. France 2022? It was my fault. I'll take that, I accept that and I'll learn with those mistakes and I will do better the next time. Just because I don't scream on the radio and expose the team to the media it does means that I will not call them out privately. And people talk about it because they are not the one who is inside that cockpit.

Anna: You've been doing your job brilliantly. Everyone who truly understands F1 knows that, you wouldn't be driving for Ferrari in your second year if you weren't a good driver. Or for RedBull, and God knows the amount of years we were waiting for this to happen.

Charles: It is happening now. And about my dad and Jules... I was doing my job, I mourned my father after that race, I've cried and I've missed him ever since, I kept going for him and for the legacy Jules was building in F1. I had to prove myself to them, and to my mom. People can say whatever they want to, and if they think they know more about strategy and power units and stuff they can apply to work in F1. I like the pressure. I think it makes me a better driver. Winning when there's no one challenging you it not my type of victory. I like being challenged, that's why I liked being Seb's teammate. He was 4 times champion of the world, he knew he was good, I knew it too, but he never backed down to a challenge.

Anna: I miss Seb. I think deep down we all miss him more than we let him see. Do you think that because of the challenges you and Max will perform better?

Charles: Max is coming for a season and a half without competition. He was winning with 15 seconds to the second place, and every time we fought wheel to wheel tha past season we talked after and it was such a thrill. Our driving style being so close makes it very possible for us to fight the way we like, so yeah, I think the pressure to perform well and the challenge to win Max will make me a better driver.

Anna: Do you have any funny story to tell us about?

Charles: I have one about you and Max. Fun fact, untill December last year Anna didn't knew how to drive. Max tried to teach her and I think that for the first time in his life he failed miserable. I remember trying to teach you how to drive and failing as well. But there's one day that is very clear in my mind. We just got back from Interlagos 2022 and we went to a small city in Sao Paulo so I could teach you and the car kept dying, so you stormed out of the car and called Seb crying, and you were crying so hard that I almost started to cry as well. We went back to Monaco, a few weeks latter Seb pulled out in front ou your house, Jenson Button as his co-pilot and they take the matters in their own hands and for a week you went out for like 5 hours and once that week was over you were a better driver than I am.

Anna: Well, asking you to teach me how to drive was a amateur mistake, you don't know how to park parallel. But yeah, Seb and JB they were excellent teachers. Thank you Seb. Thank you JB.

Charles: How did you have a drivers license if you didn't know how to drive?

Anna: Having a drivers license doesn't imply that I know how to drive, just that I've learned what to do to pass my drivers test. How do you drive a F1 car and doesn't know how to drive a manual?

Charles: I'm re learning, ok? You are the one with the eccentric taste for manual cars.

Anna: Obviously, it took me ages to learn how to reduce a gear, why would I drive an automatic if the automatic doesn't have to switch gears?

Charles: You have a point. And yet you are doing great on the automatics.

Anna: Let's move to my least favorite subject ever, personal life, people are wondering, is Charles Leclerc on the market?

Charles: *laughs* No, he is not. I'm very much out of the market, and very much in love with a beautiful and strong and smart woman and even though she's not the jealous type I not looking anywhere else.

Anna: Walk us through on how you two meet?

Charles: Yeah, it is very funny actually, we meet after Austria, 2022 but we only started to hangout after Monza last year, she's very into motorsport and formula one and a very private person, so please, let's respect that.

Anna: People on twitter are thinking that she is a ghost because we never saw her on race weekends, I'm inclined to agree with them, Charlie.

Charles: That's mean. And you have seen her on the paddock, a lot actually.

Anna: Some day, I'll be living in a big old city and all you ever gonna be is mean. God, I love Taylor Swift. But yeah, I saw her once ir twice, very nice girl, and pretty, very pretty as well.

Charles: Stop talking about yourself on third person, baby, is very weird.

Anna: Yeah, Charles, go ahead and tell the whole world our most deep secrets.

Charles: Anna... Lando and Pierre already told half of the grid and half of the grid is just pretending they don't know. We are not that subtle.

Anna: Well, okay, cat is out of the jail everyone, Charles is not single anymore, and it's not gonna be for a while. But let's go for the important topic: Taylor Swift.

Charles: Just that? Taylor Swift? What do you want me to say? *laughs*

Anna: Tell the people your favorite album and tracks. I already know them but that's my privilege.

Charles: Reputation, obviously. I like Our Song and Karma. You drive listening to them so I kinda like them too, and Champagne Problems... wow, that one hit hard and also Lover, because I am in love and ok, I like everything.

Anna: Okay, moving forward. Answer with the first thing on your mind. Favorite ice cream flavor?

Charles: Vanilla. Don't you ever think about cracking the joke I know you're thinking.

Anna: Ok. I wont. Favorite track?

Charles: Monaco. But I love Baku as well.

Anna: Interlagos?

Charles: Senna. I love Interlagos because it brings me closer to him as I could never.

Anna: Favorite movie?

Charles: The one with weddings and funerals.

Anna: Would you go out with me after we finish this one?

Charles: That depends, will you go out with me after we finish this one?

Anna: So guys that's it. Hope you have enjoyed this episode as much as we did while recording it. I think this one will be out way sooner than we expect. See you in a couple of weeks to go through the first 4 races of the season. Thank you, Charlie.

Charles: Thank you. See you guys.

*cut*

Anna: Stop tickling me or I'll call Max and asks him to blow all your medium tyres.

Charles: You could never.

Anna: Yes, I would.

Charles: Let's go, baby, I'll take you to dinner and after we can go karting with the boys.

Anna: Max is texting me so I can tell you to answer him.

Charles: Oh difficult life, my teammate likes me more than I think he would.

Anna: Don't tease him, he's lonely, he needs a girlfriend, how about we introduce him to Gia?

Charles: *hysterically laughing* Gia would crash him like a bug. Let's do it.

allaboutracing

liked by f1, maxverstappen, charles_leclerc, redbullracing, pierregasly and 324.177 others

allaboutracing and we are back!! welcome to season 3 of all about racing podcast, this season we're about to have a few special guest, we're gonna talk about all formula one related, analyze the cars, the races and the track - while i conciliate the races and the tracks on my full time job, i hope you enjoy this season as much as i did.

redbullracing full time race engineer and podcaster, well done mini.

maxverstappen1 im still waiting for my invitation

sebastianvettel well done, kid!

f1 adm is already on play with the firts episode

leclercsainz i love how she just went on and did a full podcast just for us to understand more about racing

jbuttonwdc i would love to see jenson button on the podcast

roscoeloveslewis remember when last season she said that she wanted to bring the champs for the podcast?

charles_leclerc im hoping to be on the couch as well

february 1st 2024

allaboutracing

liked by jensonbutton, sebastianvettel, lewishamilton, f1, charles_leclerc and 344.754 others

allaboutracing we are officially back. the first guests of season 3 are no more than the 2009 world champion jenson button and the 4 time champion of the world sebastian vettel. it was amazing to speak with booth of them, about racing, retirement, life and the changes that are happening in formula one. jb episode will be available on march, the 7th and seb will be available on march, 21th. hope you enjoy it.

lewishamilton great guy and than there's jenson.

sebastianvettel thank you for having me!

jensonbutton same time next week?

f1 that what we asked for

jbuttonwdc KA8SJSUQUWHAUAUHQGU IM NOT OKAY

beesebs i miss sebastian vettel more than i miss my parents and i moved away in 2017

alonsoxswift everybody moved on and i stayed here

sv5ismydad i cannot believe that she convinced seb to be on the podcast, anna youre my personal hero

february 16th 2024

picsbyanna

liked by charles_leclerc, maxverstappen1, redbullracind and 175.234 others

annazadra break is over, time to go back in track. insanely anxious to this season and very excited about the car that me, myself and i helped to build

maxverstappen1 lets hope you didnt put a shitty box with 3 weels after the little prank i pulled you

charles_leclerc lets go vroom vroom

redbullracing christian is calling you about something like "prank war"

danielricciardo i left redbull and now suddenly they have funny engineers again

comments on this post have been restricted

february 28th 2024

allaboutracing

liked by charles_leclerc, pierregasly, scuderiaferrari, maxverstappen1 and 544.766 others

allaboutracing I've listening to you guys and i brought the monegasque favorite driver to the podcast. on the next episode we will talk about charles moving to redbull, what he expects of the team and the car, how he thinks his partnership will works with max, about racing on a general but we also want to know what you want on the podcast, so send you questions, se ya next week.

maxverstappen1 how can charles be on the podcast and im not?

allaboutracing max, you are so dramatic, you and the entire team have been on the podcast so far in season one

maxverstappen1 i want to go again

danielricciardo thing you can say during sex as well

maxverstappen1 this girl is taken, stop that

charles_leclerc it was a pleasure to talk to you, you were a wonderful host.

f1 next week? please, don't do this to us 🥲

march 3th 2024

redbullracing

liked by charles_leclerc, maxverstappen1, allaboutracing, picsbyanna, lewishamilton and 877.265 others

redbullracing charles grabbed his first win with the team at the jeddah grand prix, well done charlie, we're insanely proud of you! ps: the all about racing: inside of charles leclerc mentality is out earlier to celebrate his victory, go listen to it.

picsbyanna wow, is he single?

march 10th 2024

[mfjenks]

ok, i'm game now Some theories and predictions after episode 4: -it is too often implied that the murderer is a woman, so i'm pretty sure that the murderer is a man. My top of suspects at the moment is something like: 1. Cliff, with his mother aware of his crime and covering him (i'm not sure whether it's a great addition to the whole parend-child storyline or a bit hackneyed as it has some parallels with Teddy&Theo story). May had an affair with Ben, may commit it to impress his mother and create something his own *Donna killing Ben in order to protect her son is also more than possible, it ruins the idea of "the say it's a woman so it's a man", but quite fits 2. Dickie - (crime of passion because of Ben eating cookies) any reason??? 3. Jonathan. Well, he was his understudy, sounds like a motive. OR maybe he tried to kill him for the first time, but he wasn't his killer after all 4. Tobert. Well, I think that they won't do the main hero's love interest the killer again, but if they do, he is kinda creepy and it's more likely to be him than Joy (who has already became a prime suspect) or Loretta Howard is cute in his own strange way, i don't believe it's Howard -The person who poisoned him and the person who was the reason he fell into the elevator shaft are two different people???? -I 1000% agree with the theory that Ben was speaking to cookies -In the first season it was Mabel's childhood friend who was killed and the story from their past, in the 2nd season Charles' father was on the painting, so the mystery is somehow connected to Oliver's past as he's already portrayed as the leading part in this season (but maybe his previous theatrical failures and his worries about the show is already such point, still there will be more flashbacks) -Poor Oliver will have a heart attack at the most inappropriate moment, probably in front of Mabel and Charles, making them, Will and all of us experience our own heart attack. Probably as a cliffhanger. I think in the episode 7 or 8. He lives, of course, but I'm ready to cry my eyes out -And creates the idea of final banger of the show (or thinks about killer's identity. or both) during clinical death. In the episode with his narration and some flashbacks. Creates another chaotic masterpiece and continues his work on the show almost immediately. Maybe agrees (with the face full of sorrow and whining) to quit dips if Will asks but never gives up on show and investigation. Then constantly boasts about his "death" like one of his acquaintances and says Ben beaten him. It's the most Oliver Putnam thing ever -I HATE the theory of Charles murdering Ben being in the white room and I'm sure it won't be true BUT this theory may be mentioned in the show. Like they'll finally find out it's not true, but suspect it at some point, Charles is not sure if he actually hasn't kill Ben, and maybe it will in some way be the thing that triggers Oliver's heart attack???? -I actually like the theory of Loretta being Dickie's mother, especially after the look he gave her at Look for the light. She's not a murderer, but the prime suspect for one or two episodes -Joy is also obviously pretty innocent, but Charles and her break up -Final episode will be more like season 2 than season 1: the true murder will be revealed only in the last ep. during another scene with Poirot-like false accusations. According to the trailer, with detective Williams there in the theatre, but maybe this takes place a bit earlier and the true killer revealed in another scene -Murderer reveal party is paralleled to and shown together with the episodes from the musical -This Mabel's wedding scene is either season 4 flashforward or staging used to reveal the murderer. I'd like to see the Theo as at least fake husband, but i think it will be Tobert. MAYBE the wedding will be aimed to expose Tobert himself, but I still believe he's too obvious to be the killer -Oliver and Loretta break up, but on a happy note grateful to each other, and Loretta finally goes to "take Hollywood by storm" after the show

(and Oliver and Charles end up together) -Mabel finishes podcast and then takes Cinda's job offer and moves out, still mantaining cute relationship with her old boys well it was a lot….

[fandomwe1rd0]

In defense of Morty

I mean...I did one of these for the drunk, abusive, old man...it's only fair if I do one for the sweet, good-natured grandson whom he traumatized.

Now, like the Rick one, I will not be defending Morty's actions despite the title. While I think Morty is A LOT more easy to defend than Rick, I will not be defending him, I seek to understand why he did what he did, and not to defend it. Cool? Cool.

Sooo let's choose 3 especially bad things he did. One of them is ask Rick to make a love potion for Jessica...that was...oof...yeahhh that was bad. 2nd is killing innocent people in purge planet that was...something. And last but not least, killing people while using the death crystal. This will be an interesting one folks!

Okkk let's start off with him asking Rick to make a love potion for Jessica, sweetie, I love you but this wasn't cool. Rick wasn't too far off when he called it a "roofie-juice serum" you're making someone do something they normally wouldn't do so you can uh...do...activities with them. Not cool sweetheart. But, this was done to show Morty's naivete. In season 1, he was all in all a pretty innocent and naive boy, I mean, he was TRAUMATIZED the first time he shot someone in season 1, now he's cool with shooting anyone. Season 1 was about breaking down that innocence, asking for a love potion is a pretty childish idea, since when you're a kid, you don't think too hard about consent or any of that, and think that if you give them a love potion, that's the equalivilent to consent, obviously now we know that's not true, but when you're a kid, it doesn't really sink in and, like it or not Morty is, wait for it, a kid. He also DEFINETILY does NOT have a healthy view on what love is, due to his parents being to only adults in his life besides Rick, and Rick has cynical views on love, and his parents argue all the time. He doesn't know what love is, and that would probably be the healthiest thing to "love" in his books. Is it healthy? No. But since he doesn't know what healthy love is, he would consider that healthy. He also acknowledges that he was partially to blame, while Rick takes none of the blame. Why are people so much harsher to Morty about this than they were to Rick? Rick is the adult. The smartest man in the universe. He should've been smart enough to refuse it, but he didn't. He never accepted his part of the blame, but Morty did. What Morty did wasn't right, but he doesn't know what healthy love is, which is a part of why he's obssessed with Jessica.

Okkk next up Purge Planet! Oh boy what an episode. So quick brief on what he did in this episode, he went to a planet that was purging. Morty at first was hesitant to participate in it, wanting to just go home and not watching the purge, at first he was pretty clearly on the side of good, but eventually gets into it and goes out of his way to kill people who were purging, but even some innocent people that were just trying to hide. He was clearly not in the right headspace, he was letting all the repressed rage he's been bottling up for who-knows-how-long. Now while death and destruction don't really matter in this universe, so it isn't that bad in the context of the show, I already started writing this soooo it's too late to turn back. Besides there's not that many outwardly bad things this kid did soooooooooo. Alright back on track, now, obviously not defending murder (unless it's the murder of mr. Jellybean or Planetina fuck them bitches) but let's take a look at the person who he spends most of his time with. You guys know who it is. Rick! Now Rick is a pretty violent person, he usually kills in self defense, but there was a handful of times where he didn't. Most famously Mr. Jellybean, we can all agree that he deserved it though. Now Morty hangs around Rick all the time, and Rick forces him to shoot people, the very first time was in the pilot, where he told Morty to cover for him and when Morty said no, Rick lied about the people chasing them being robots. There were mutiple times where he has been forced to shoot people. And Morty clearly holds a lot of resentment towards Rick, I mean it's clear as day, he even threatened to kill Rick in this very same episode, Rick forcing Morty to be violent, along with the repressed rage he has, is a lot on the little guy. So when he finally has a chance to let out that repressed rage, no matter how unethetical, he's going to do it. Is it right? Ha. No. But we are not here to defend him, we are here to understand his actions better. And it's worth mentioning that he felt horrible afterwards, Rick very rarely feels guilt for his actions, yet people give him a lot of flak, Morty feels guilt and is a literal child. He deserves more slack than people give him, his actions here were not right, but combinding the repressed rage, stress, and violence, this makes perfect sense.

Last up! The crystal episode, now the episode starts with Morty leaving Rick for dead. He attempted to shoot Rick in season 3, so this isn't all too surprising, besides, Rick does treat Morty pretty horribly on a day to day basis, so it makes sense that Morty would be done with it by now, I would've been done with Rick after season 1. Besides, that's not the real issue here, the real issue is how many innocent people he killed in the process. So another quick brief on this episode, Morty finds a crystal that tells you how you're gonna die. Despite Rick saying the crystals aren't useful, Morty uses one of them nonetheless, he sees that if he does things in a speific way, he will be able to die with Jessica, so he does exactly what he needs to do so he can die with Jessica. This is more proof on his obssession with Jessica, but we already covered it, so I will not elaborate on it. So, he kills people so he can die with her. I will do a quick kill count, he kills appromiately (This is an extermely rough estimate)

2 bullies. (One bully wasn't killed but was stuck to the wall)

Servely injured 2 policemen (They were still alive but permentently disfigured)

17 miltary people (Damn)

And that's about it. I'm fandomwe1rd0, and this has been the kill count, (heh, dead meat reference)

Ok so he kills a lot of people here, like a lot. But also, Morty just isnt happy in his life. Really Jessica is what makes him happiest, which might also be an explaination for his obssession with her, but that's a topic for another post, maybe, if people are interested. Now he sees a way he can be with her, and he'll do anything to chase that happiness, it's not right, it's not healthy, but he wants to be happy so bad that he'll do anything. He also takes responibility for his actions, which is something Rick doesn't do, so cut Morty some slack, ok?

Now all of the things I've mentioned are very, very bad. But I like seeing how we can understand these characters and see the reasons why they do what they do, they always have a reason for it, and that's a testamate to how great the show is and how human the characters are. Morty has done a lot of bad, but there are reasons behind them that show us the poor broken scared kid that Morty really is.

[nxntsy2]

Weekly journal 2nd week: My Unforgettable Trip to Korea: 2022 School Holiday

During the 2022 school holiday, I had the incredible opportunity to visit South Korea for the first time! As a fan of K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean culture, I was beyond excited to experience everything firsthand.

Day 1: Arrival in Seoul

We arrived in Seoul to a chilly winter breeze, which was a refreshing change from Malaysia’s warmth. Our first stop was Myeongdong, where we indulged in street food like tteokbokki and hotteok, and explored the trendy shops for skincare products.

Day 2: Gyeongbokgung Palace

The following day, we visited Gyeongbokgung Palace, dressed in traditional hanboks. It felt like stepping back in time as we explored the palace’s stunning architecture and watched the colorful changing of the guard ceremony.

Day 3: Nami Island, Petite France, and Kim & Kimchi School

Nami Island, covered in snow, was a magical winter wonderland. I recognized it from K-dramas, and being there felt surreal. We later visited Petite France, a charming French-inspired village, where we enjoyed an afternoon stroll and hot chocolate.

In the evening, we attended a Kimchi-making class at Kim & Kimchi School. It was one of the highlights of the trip! We learned the traditional methods of making kimchi, from mixing the ingredients to seasoning the cabbage. Not only did I gain a new appreciation for this iconic dish, but I also got to take home my own batch of homemade kimchi.

Day 4: Lotte World Adventure and N Seoul Tower

On our last full day, we visited Lotte World Adventure, one of the largest indoor theme parks in the world! The rides were thrilling, and the atmosphere was full of excitement. We tried roller coasters, walked through the fantasy castle, and even went ice skating. It was such a fun-filled day that added a playful twist to our Korean adventure.

Later, we headed to N Seoul Tower, where we took in the panoramic view of the city from above. The love locks and vibrant streets of Hongdae, filled with performers and cafes, were the perfect way to end our trip.

Final Thoughts

Leaving Korea was bittersweet, but the memories I made during this trip learning how to make kimchi at Kim & Kimchi School, experiencing the magic of Nami Island, and enjoying Lotte World Adventure were unforgettable. I hope to return one day and explore even more of this beautiful country.

[shprka]

Guys I'm a Nanahito stan, sorry, they are just too sexy and interesting, so I tried writing an actors au but this is all I have, a fake interview with actors Nanami and Mahito, for your enjoyment:

Hi everyone!

We have two special guests in the studio today. We managed to catch them both in between their busy schedules, on a world tour to promote the 2nd season of Jujutsu Kaisen which managed to be a massive success worldwide, gaining over 4 million views for the Season 2 Episode 1 Premiere. They play enemies on screen and, if we're being honest, the off-screen chemistry is off the charts too (with a little less fighting and murder, of course).

Interviewer: Welcome, Nanami Kento-san and Mahito-san!

Nanami: Good morning, thank you for having us.

Mahito: Yes, thanks for having us! Take care of us today, please!

While their characters are at each other's throats any time in the same room, it couldn't be more opposite in real life. Nanami-san and Mahito-san are both nothing but kind and polite and friendly to each other and the crew.

They are also absolutely beautiful in real life! We asked Mahito-san about their skincare secret and they smiled evily and said "Blood of the innocents" before bursting out in a giggle. And even got a chuckle from the usually stoic Nanami-san.

I: So, let's start with something fun! What were your first impressions of each other?

M: A gentleman! Nanami-san is very much the dapper gentleman the internet thinks he is.

Nanami-san covers his mouth, is he... blushing?

N: I don't know about that, I have many flaws.

M: Like your messy bedhead? That's not even a flaw, that's cute!

N: Mahito-san... You're a menace.

They seem to be so lost in the banter, they forget we are here, watching every move.

I: Is that your first impression of Mahito-san? A menace.

N: Hmm, yes, let's go with that.

I: Okay, let's go with the most important question - are Gojo-san's eyes really that blue in real life? Or is it Photoshop? Contacts?

N: Oh, well, we didn't get to work a lot with him this season. I hope he's doing well.

M: Speaking of photoshop! Nanami-san's abs are one hundred precent real. He was even doing push-ups in between filming fight scenes to keep the six pack defined. That's dedication.

N: (sighs) We both trained very hard for this season. Mahito-san spend months trained by professional gymnasts and ballet trainers, and I attended the gym every spare minute I got. I was told off by my personal trainer so many times because Mahito-san kept sneaking me sweet treats, indulging my sweet tooth.

M (laughs): Sorry not sorry. You can't deprive yourself of the good things in life.

N: That's what you keep telling me.

I: You both looked amazing this season. You even already answered my question! The fights scenes were definitely the highlight of the season. And both of you did the majority of your own stunts too! How else did you prepare for your roles? How did your characters change since last season?

N: My character Keijirou has a very strong sense of who he is and doesn't let his emotion overtake him, which continues in this season as well. The fight scenes were the most challenging, trying to embody his personality and not let myself go all superhero berserk trying to defeat the enemies.

M: Nanami-san is so professional, it all looks so easy for him.

N: I assure you, it's not. I'm quite different from Keijirou. I let my emotions take control all the time. But in a way, I am also a romantic. I'd love to hide away on a beach with my future spouse.

I: It's hard to believe!

M: It's true. Nanami-san seems so poised and elegant but he is just a giant goofball on set. He always laughs at Gojo's pranks, and it's easy to make him laugh during the scene and break character.

N: That's just you, Mahito-san.

M: Look at him blushing and getting shy. I'm glad Nanami-san doesn't mind to show his true feelings in interviews, he's so much more fun to tease.

N: Mahito-san...

M: Sorry! (Giggles) But to answer your question, hmm, hmm... Hoshi is a very complicated character. He's a demon born of human hatred. On the page, it's hard to imagine what he's really like. In Season 1 I played him in a bit of a different way. I wanted to play a complex villain and a bit of a psycho so I went all out, haha. But season 2 gave me so much more perspective into his character. In the end, I tried finding parts of him I can relate to, and maybe others can. I don't really see him as a villain or a demon. I tried playing him a bit like Gojo-san with his character. Like a god sent to Earth, having to live amongst humans. He doesn't really know human customs but he's learning. Learning through a lens of his own creation and the people that unfortunately became his teachers aren't...the best.

N: Mahito-san is truly one of a kind actor, to portray such a complex character who bears all that is ugly in the world with a smile of innocence and a lightness of a child. I find myself quite mesmerised by their preformance sometimes.

M: Nanami-san is too kind. He always helps me rehearse my lines, and watched my performances in between his own so I can ask him for feedback. Actually, on season 1 Nanami-san helped me understand my character so much before we started filming.

N: Hmm? I didn't know that. What did I say?

M: You said: "Hoshi is a reflection of Keijirou". That changed my whole view about Hoshi and our characters. Hoshi is a reflection of whoever he's up against. But with Keijirou in season 2, he's not against him. He's the closest to his true self in that moment.

N: I didn't know you felt like that. That's an interesting way to look at it.

I: I agree! Speaking of, your two characters have this beef going on on screen, and a lot of fans seem to carry it online too. I'm sure you know Keijirou is widly beloved by fans and his death devasted the internet. Hoshi, on the other hand, seems to be hated even more than Kenjaku.

Though subtle, we pick up a shift in Mahito's demeanor. They seem to hunch a bit and their eyes wander down as they continue playing with their fingers, decorated in various rings.

N: We love to have such dedicated fans but from season 1, we know things can be taken too far. I think the dislike for the character should never transfer onto the actor or any real people. Besides, in my opinion, the reaction fans have to Hoshi only speaks to Mahito-san's immense talent as an actor. And be not fooled by that evil grin, Mahito-san is a an absolutely lovely, kind and witty menace I have ever had a pleasure of working with.

All that is said with the trademark Nanami-san's deep voice and soft tone. Mahito-san looks emotional.

We decide to take a little break, where we see Mahito-san and Nanami-san talking in hushed voices, their microphones off.

We wholeheartedly agree with Nanami-san's sentiment. If we, as fans, want creators and actors to interact with us, we need to be concious of what we do to real people and be kinder to each other.

After the break, we decide to cheer the mood up a bit:

I: One thing no one expected in the fandom sphere is for a new couple to emerge, that fans are very passionate about. Are you aware of it?

M: Is this about shipping? Because I keep seeing tik toks...

N: Ah, yes, I am aware. It'a fascinating, isn't it. How passionate fans are, making art and videos and full on novels of their favourite characters.

I: Any comments on how Hoshi and Keijirou, or more known online as Hoshikei, can work together?

M: Well, they're both dead for one, haha.

N: They live in a sea side town in Malaysia, spending their time fishing, idyllig and talking philosophy.

M: Oh, yes, and Hoshi becomes human and learns some manners.

N: But not too much.

I: Is that your pitch for season 3?

Both laugh.

N: It's for the spin-off.

M: Hoshikei: Kuantan edition. Exclusively on Netflix.

I: I can't wait to see it. Now, let us do some rapid questions you have to answer in 2 seconds. Ready?

M: Ready! Go!

I: Who Gojo-san pranks the most on set?

N and M: Getou.

I: Your favourite Kyoto student?

N: Todo.

M: Mechamaru and Miwa.

I: Who's your favourite to work with?

N: Mahito-san.

M: Nanami-san.

They look at each other surprised but pleased.

I: Did you steal anything from set?

N and M: Yes.

I: What was it?

N: Socks.

M: Too many things.

N: Really? I always think I'm gonna get told off.

M: Welllll... I probably shouldn't mention it too much. But I even have one of Todo's pendants and one of your many many pairs of glasses. And your tie.

N: You have my tie?

M: It's weird now that I said it out loud. Is that weird? I can give them back.

N: No, it just surprised me. You don't even wear ties.

M: Well... I might start to, who knows.

N: Hmm.

Now after the interview, we think it was a subtle tease at a photoshoot that came out this morning, of Mahito-san in full glam makeup, mini skirt, devil horns and one of Nanami-san's, or rather his character's, ties. Mahito-san really knows how to rile up the internet and look good while doing it. We'd wish we could see Nanami-san's reaction to it. But this interview proved they are good friends and are always bantering and there for each other.

I: That's all the time we have today. Thank you so much for speaking to us!

N: Thank you as well.

M: Thanks! And don't forget to tune in to watch me kick Nanami-san's ass in season 2!!

[magpiefngrl]

mid-year book freak out tag

Let's talk about books! Thanks for tagging me @bloody-wonder ❤️😘

1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2023?

I've read 48 books till now but nothing leaps to mind as The Best. Like a novel that knocked me out, you know? If I had to choose one, I'd say Seven Summer Nights, a romance by Harper Fox, because I adored the first half and because it's the only book so far that gave me a book hangover.

2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2023?

The 2nd novel of Alexis Hall's trilogy, How To Blow It With A Billionaire, was delightful. Judging by the title I'd braced myself for angst, but instead 90-95% of the book was Arden and Caspian falling in love and getting closer (until the last chapter and the inevitable heartbreak). It is one of the most skillful, heartwarming and sexy relationship progressions I've read.

3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To?

This has been on my sights since 2021 but still haven't got around to it: She Who Became The Sun.

4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2023?

There's nothing that I'm truly impatient about. The first that comes to mind is KJ Charles's A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel.

Also, A Power Unbound by Freya Marske. I can't say I was blown away by the first two novels, but I have a feeling the ship in this one is my kind of ship.

I'm curious for a lot of books, but not eagerly anticipating them.

5. Biggest Disappointment?

Oh boy. I left a long review on GR about it and I still cry bitter tears about how let down I was by Alexis Hall's third installment of his Billionaire series. Like I said above, I really enjoyed the second book. It ended in heartbreak but I assumed we'd see the pairing work their way through their issues together and end up HEA. What I did NOT expect was that they'd be apart for most of the novel, only getting together at 90%. I don't want to be (even more) spoilery so I'll say nothing more. Just that this book had the promise of being truly spectacular and it turned out all over the place, and it hurts.

6. Biggest Surprise?

The Lodestar of Ys by Amy Rae Durreson, a short novel I got because a GR pal left an enthusiastic review and said that it was available for free. I don't know the author and mostly read it for research and was not prepared to enjoy it as much as I did. The writing is solid, the worldbuilding fascinating, the rivalry between the ship is realistic and convincing as is their growing attraction to each other. Good smut, which isn't normally the case with pub romance. Becomes a tad too cute for my tastes towards the end, but still a great read. And free!

7. Favourite New Author?

No one stands out. I guess Amy Rae Durreson (see above) is a new to me author that made me go and check out her other books, so let's go with her.

Oh I'm also really enjoying The Scottish Boy by Alex de Campi so her too.

8. Newest Favourite Character?

Bucky Iain from The Scottish Boy, I guess?

9. Newest Fictional Crush?

No one. How weak has my reading year been??

💕Best Ship💕

Richard and Alec from Swordspoint. I refuse to read the sequels where they (I think?) break up. NOPE.

10. Book That Made You Cry?

I cry pretty easily and I'm sure I cried at a novel this year (if not more) but for the life of me I can't remember which.

11. Book That Made You Happy?

I had the most fun during my reread of Scum Villain's Self-Saving System. Gods, what I wouldn't give for more authors having so much fun with their stories.

12. Favourite Book Adaptation You Saw This Year?

I watched the final season of BBC's The Dark Materials early this year. It makes me happy to have such a great adaptation of one of my fave series of all times.

13. Favourite Review You’ve Written This Year?

I haven't written a lot of reviews this year. In the past there were times when I'd write long essays; now I'm all for short and sweet. Can't be arsed for more tbh. Unless I disliked the book and I need to rant.

14. Most Beautiful Cover?

I mostly read ebooks and I rarely notice covers. I did, however, notice the stunning cover of A Taste of Gold and Iron, which turned out to be a book I hated, so I'm even more distrustful of covers now.

15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year?

I have a bunch of unfinished series to complete (see 2023 reading goals), so that's my first goal. My second target is reading some of the dozens of unread books I own (both on the shelves and my ereader). I do need to finish Checkmate, this is getting ridiculous, but I keep getting distracted by romance.

++++++

Overall, it hasn't been a spectacular year. I've read a LOT--esp in June I couldn't stop reading--but I've reread a few series to complete them, which ranged from meh (The Nikolai trilogy and Darker Shades of Magic) to flawed-but-interesting (The Dreamer trilogy) to seriously uneven (the Billionaire series). Early in the year I finished JS&MN and Spinning Silver which were great, but they feel a long time away and nothing amazing has come since. Idk. Some of my reads were unusual and made an impression, but can't say I enjoyed them fully. The most satisfying books these past few months have been a few romance novels. Fingers crossed for a more exciting second half of 2023.

++++++

follow me on goodreads!

2022 mid year book tag

++++++

tagging: @lettersbyelise @tackytigerfic @julcheninred @lqtraintracks @shealwaysreads @the-starryknight @wolfpants @violetclarity

[lunarsniperwifle]

I havent posted in a while so here's a lil life recap!

I started HRT in august!! Woohoo!! Its been going really well, Im so happy.

I had a lil vacay with my parents after my Tia's wedding in October, read cover to cover a book (Legends & Lattes, very fun very cute, and gay) and its the first book Ive fully read in a few years and cover to cover in about 24 hours in many years. It really sparked a lot of joy and got me back into the reading mood. Plus the story hit like all my boxes (fantasy, coffeeshop au style, sapphic, retired adventurer, past coming to haunt and help).

Next thing I read was She Loves to Cook She Loves to Eat. SO. GOOD. i adore them, i cant wait for more (i think i saw the author is on break atm which of course is fine take care of yourself!!). Im loving where its going, that theyre older women, that theyre falling/have fallen for eachother but dont know how to bring it up and are hesitant BUT working towards taking the next step together. I cant wait for them to communicate, and kiss.

I also got into Im In Love With The Villainess and omg. I adore it so much. I watched when it had like 4 eps out, watched em all. And then immediately bought all the light novels, manga, and claires POV LN that were out. And then proceeded to read all core/main LNs in less than a week. Then Claires then the manga. I adore it, I fell in love with this story so fast and stayed up nightly reading almost one LN a day for a week. I think the 2nd one is my fave, and it makes me so excited for the anime and for the manga to get translated and released. I am dying for the 2nd one from Claires POV as well (im sure i could maybe find it online same with the manga since thats up to the looks like Lily/Yu arc now in japan) but i kinda wanna wait for the print to come out so i can physically have and read it like the others. Rae and Claire's story means so much to me, and especially Inori-san's writing in general and being serious about certain topics and actually diving into them. I hopw with all my heart it continues to be animated, i have a feeling we'll wind with the scales of love arc for season 1 and tease vacation arc for start of 2 (and probably go through to the end of LN 2 for season 2 mayhap?) It deserves to have the entire story told through animation honestly.

I also got the bloom into you manga (got the 1st one to read and see if id like it and shocker i do so i have the rest of the manga, LNs, and manga anthology on the way and might get the bluray of the anime eventually to watch). Ive really liked the 1st volume so far, it has me excited to find out how the story and relationship develops! Also wow! It was very fast at getting into the love feelings i was kinda surprised (pleasantly)

And then when im done with that have the Whisper Me a Love Song in my sights for the next yuri story to dive into and adore.

Its been a wonderful time. Im real happy :3

[peonierose]

Unexpected

Chapter 3

Nightbound AU vs. Hänsel & Gretel

Book: Nightbound

Type: Series / Chapter 3

Characters involved: Hänsel van Andresen (M!OC), Gretel van Andresen (F!OC), Grey (M!OC)

Words: 3,000+

Rating: Mature, NSFW

Summary: Hänsel and Gretel are now in New Orleans. Looking for clues. They’ll encounter someone new. Friend or Foe?

A/N: A huge thank you to @annieruok94 for brainstorming and reading through 💚 @jerzwriter Thank you so much with the smut scene (I’m super nervous though 🙈) 💗

2nd A/N: Thank you to anyone who reads my stories and gives my characters a chance. It truly means the 🌎 to me. Also please let me know if you’d like to be tagged for future stories 💚

Playlist for Chapter 3

In case you missed the first two chapters, you can catch up on them here Chapter 1 & Chapter 2

Grey

I wasn’t sure if the purple sleep powder would work on her. I catch her before she can fall to the ground and carry her in my arms. I teleport us to Vi’s shop. Not many Fae can teleport.

Though it seems as if I’m the exception to the rule.

Viandra or Vi for short is my best friend along with Vine. Vi owns her own spice and herb shop called “Blue Moon“.

She found this old apothecary that was ready for demolition, but she saved it and opened up her herb and spice shop instead.

Opening it for all supernaturals who needed help with illnesses and couldn’t go to a normal doctor.

Vi is amazing. She can make all kinds of potions and antidotes. She’s also using the shop as a cover to remain hidden from certain Fae.

She can also make love potions, but Vi always says those aren’t for the faint of heart. Ironic really since the heart region is the aim of the potion.

We met a long time ago at one of the grand balls of the season.

It’s a gathering of Fae royalty from all the Courts. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Since all three of us hail from different Fae courts, no one could’ve foreseen we’d become such close friends. Yet here we are. Proving everyone wrong.

When I was banished from the winter court, Vi and Vine left with me.

Making all three of us outcasts. I couldn’t be more grateful for having such wonderful friends by my side.

I’m breathing hard as I’m entering Vi’s shop. Using my magic to create a glamour to mask my appearance and then teleporting us into Vi‘s shop? It’s straining to say the least. I can feel myself becoming tired from using so much magic.

Vi stops what she’s doing and stares daggers at me. Her hair glowed like a bright orange sunset. The top half was a bright burning red, her light orange tips falling to the half of her back in cascading waves. Her dark eyes outlined with coal, are glowing like embers in the ashes.

“Who is that? And why have you brought her here?“ She asks, pointing with her chin towards Gretel. Her full lips turned down in a suspicious frown.

“Help me and I’ll explain,“ I say.

Vi walks towards me and together we place Gretel on the plush red chair and tie her hands behind her back.

Gretel moans softly but stays out. I let out a breath of pure relief. The magic must’ve worked better than I thought it would. It was made by Vi after all. She might be a giant pain in the ass, but she knows her way around potions and mixtures.

Vi takes a closer look at Gretel. When she recognizes Gretel she steps back and whirls around to pin me down with a gaze.

“Are you out of your damn mind? Bringing her here? Do you know who that is? She’s going to expose all of us,“ her dark eyes blazing like an inner fire. Considering that’s her power it’s not that far off.

“Relax. She doesn’t know anything,“ I say not worried in the slightest.

Vi laughs but it’s hollow.

“Yet. How long will it take her to realize who we are? Who you are? She’s a freaking Grimm. Making her one of them. She’s not going to just lie low and be told what to do. Neither is her brother. You should know better than that Grey,“ she shakes her head at me.

The Brothers Grimm aren’t just two guys who went around collecting stories to write down. Oh no. They’re far worse than that. They’re supernatural hunters. Collecting stories? That was their way of knowing more about supernaturals. With time they’ve become more and more dangerous. They have a database for almost all supernaturals. Their strengths and weaknesses were collected and passed on to the next generations of Grimm.

I shudder just thinking about it.

The stories of them are all true.

Though there is one Grimm who isn’t cruel and that Grimm's daughter is currently sitting on the chair we tied her to. Hänsel and Gretel are direct descendants of the original brothers Grimm. Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm.

And from the looks of it, neither Hänsel nor Gretel has any idea about their heritage.

I turn my gaze towards Vi again and take a step closer to Vi until we’re face to face and our noses are almost touching.

“Then you should know that I’m not some stupid faeling that doesn’t know how to survive. We both survived far worse in the Fae courts. Or do I need to remind you of that?“ My voice is cold as ice.

She’s not batting an eye. But after a few seconds, she shakes her head in response.

I incline my head.

“Good. Let’s see what she knows. Afterward we’ll make her forget she ever saw us,“ I say.

Vi looks concerned. Which is rare so I’m on high alert.

“She doesn’t strike me as the type of person who’s going to forget for very long,“ she says.

When I give her another look she holds up her hands. Her dark magenta-painted nails caught in the soft, dim light, and sparks emanate from her fingertips.

“Don’t bite my head off. I’m just saying. She‘s a descendant of the Brothers Grimm. They aren’t easily fooled. You know that Grey. Better than anyone,“ her voice got soft.

I close my eyes. Not wanting to think of the people responsible for the death of my whole family. Almost my whole family I amend. One member of my family is still alive, though I try not to dwell too much on that.

When I re-open my eyes I’m in control of my raging emotions again.

Vi grabbed my shoulder to lend me some strength. I cover my hand with hers.

Letting my guard down. Showing feelings and emotions of the softer side is something that’s very rare with Vi. Vi is like the sister I never had. So I cherish these moments even more.

When I look at Gretel all I see is my family screaming for help.

Her family eradicated my own. She’s no different I try to remind myself when I look at her soft face, her rosy cheeks, and her long blonde braid reaching almost the middle of her back.

I’m trying to decide on how to proceed when Vine enters the shop.

His dark blue hair is cascading down his back. Put in some complicated braid.

“Hello, party people…Oh my god. Grey, who did you bring that for?“ He says upon entering.

He stops in his tracks and sees Gretel tied back behind a chair. Vine takes a closer look and steps back when he recognizes her.

“Really? Gretel? I didn’t think you’d be that stupid,“ he leans against the counter.

I turn towards him and put my hands on my hips. What is it with these two tonight?

“Mind your place,“ I say coldly.

He shakes his head at me.

“Dude you know I’m right,“ he says and hops onto the counter.

As Gretel’s moans are getting louder, everyone stops doing what they’re doing. Looks as if the sleeping powder is wearing off quicker than we thought.

She’s fully awake now and on high alert. Her eyes darted left and right.

She seems to want to reach for her right boot where her dagger was, realizing her hands are tied behind her back. She grits her teeth. Her hazel eyes take on a more green hue. Glowing like the eyes of a cat.

“Are you looking for this?“ I ask her.

Too bad I found it earlier when I searched for her. I hold it up into the light. Admiring the craftsmanship.

The small blade has a dark emerald hilt, with the initials KVA inscribed into it. Making my whole body go taut. Though I school my features I wouldn’t want Gretel to know that those initials are well known to me.

The blade itself is made out of a dark, smooth black material. One that seems to absorb any light nearby.

One I’ve never encountered before and that says a lot. I’ve been alive and wandering this earth for over a thousand years now. You could say I’ve been around for a while.

She keeps staring at me as I’m carrying the blade.

“That doesn’t belong to you,“ she clarifies as if it wasn’t evident enough.

I ignore her and ask her in turn.

“Where did you get this?“ I look at her and she sighs in return.

She gulps down and sighs.

“It was my mothers,“ she says while trying to get the rope off of her hands. All it seems to be doing is digging deeper into her flesh.

I put it on the counter. It’s not as if she can fight her way out of here but I don’t want to take any chances.

She takes a look around and when she notices we’re not alone she sits up straighter in her chair.

I know I won’t get anything out of her if Vi and Vine are here too.

Without looking back I say quietly.

“Leave us,“ my voice low.

With their sensitive hearing, they hear well enough, without me having to raise my voice.

Vi and Vine start to protest.

“Now!“ I say louder this time. My tone booking no argument.

Vi knows not to test me and so she walks into the other part of the shop and drags Vine with her.

Before they’re completely out of sight Gretel stares at Vine and mutters “Nice rose and vine tattoos,“ she admires it for a couple of seconds longer as if she’s staring at an oil painting. Vine’s eyes widen a fraction.

I whip my head towards her. How does she see through our carefully constructed glamour? Even Grimms usually don’t notice our tattoos.

Because they‘re only visible to Fae eyes. I take a closer look at her and breathe out slowly.

Maybe Vi was right. It’s going to be hard to make her forget she ever saw us.

Gretel

The rope is burning into my flesh.

I look up and see a beautiful guy. With long dark hair and forest-green eyes. I instantly turn my guard up. Making my voice sound emotionless.

A guy like him? He’s dangerous for various reasons. Especially for my heart. He could make me want and feel things I haven’t in a while.

I try to distract myself by taking a look around to avoid having to look at him. I guess I’m meeting The Shadow earlier than I thought I would. I mean who else could it be?

The place looks bigger on the inside than you’d think, not that I even know where we are. Keeping my breath even, as I’m trying not to break out into a full-on panic.

I clear my throat and see all sorts of herbs and plants adorning the place. Making you feel as if you’re inside a greenhouse. Only smaller.

Strange liquids and items are sitting in jars on the shelves. Making me curious as to what those are, but at the same time not want to know.

“Who are you? And what do you want?“ I ask, not looking at The Shadow.

“So demanding,“ he says, his voice smooth as silk.

I snicker in disgust and look back at him.

”If this is you trying to turn on the charm? Try again.“ I say as if we’re having a nice little chat. Not me being tied to a chair like a hostage.

He smirks even more at the fact that I’m uncomfortable and trying to hide it.

“As to your question. I brought you here for a reason Gretel,“ he replies.

A shiver runs down my spine at the tone of his voice. I shake it off. My blonde ponytail swung back and forth.

“How do you know my name?“ I ask.

He smiles down at me.

“I know a lot of things about you and your brother,“ he says ominously.

“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all. I know that you’re Fae. Your glamour won’t work on me. Find a better victim. Cause I ain’t playing one,“ I say.

He seems a bit taken aback that I discovered so soon what he is and that he’s trying to use Fae glamour on me to coax information out of me.

I hate people who play games with me. Either say what you’ve got to say or don’t say anything at all. That’s what my mom taught me.

“Again who are you?“ I ask him again.

He ponders over that for a second before he bows elegantly and smiles through his eyelashes.

“You can call me Grey,“ he says winking at me.

I roll my eyes at his attitude.

“Alright. We’ll pretend that’s your real name,“ I reply.

Grey nods his head at me.

“Fair enough,“ he says.

I let out a frustrated growl.

“I want you to stop looking into the case you’re investigating. You don’t need to concern yourself with this. It will be taken care of. You have my word,“ he promises.

These are his next words.

I laugh bitterly at his promise. I learned early on not to trust a pretty face. Two words, the witch. That’s all I’m going to say.

“I know next to nothing about this case. That’s why I was seeking you out,“ I say.

“We will handle it,“ he tries to reassure me.

“I don’t trust you or your word. Fae never do anything out of the goodness of their hearts. You want something. As for stopping to look for these people? You’ve got another thing coming hot stuff,“ I say with more confidence than I feel right now. Totally trying to bluff my way out of here.

He laughs and it sounds like the proverbial forbidden fruit. Something you know you shouldn’t want. But are drawn to.

My heart beats faster and he turns his face to me as if he could sense it. With his heightened hearing he probably can.

Grey is crouched down in his leather pants and gives me a look. As if trying to decipher what to make of me.

I can’t show what I feel. Even though I’m scared shitless I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

He grins.

“So you think I’m good-looking?“ he asks.

“I didn’t say that. So wipe that smirk off your face,“ I say.

He smiles and for a second his face seems blurry again. Showing me white silvery hair instead of inky black and crystal clear blue eyes instead of moss green.

I smile to myself and he gets a confused look on his face.

There’s a secret as to how Hänsel and I can unmask all these supernaturals and see behind the mask so to speak. We’ve been able to ever since we were born.

So this is going to be fun.

I lean back in my chair as much as my tied hands let me.

“Interesting that you’re masking your appearance. Are we a little vain?“ I ask mockingly.

His smile disappears and a careful look enters his eyes.

He steps closer and grips my chin to look into my eyes. He moves his fingers to reveal any sort of magic. But he won’t find any. When he realizes that I’m not under a spell and that there’s no magic involved he steps back.

Grey studies me more carefully, the scent of lush green grass wafting toward me.

“You just became more fascinating,“ he mutters almost as if to himself.

“Glad I could be of service. Although you look like a stone sculpture. I’d rather have fun with my vibrator than with you. So if there’s nothing else can you untie me?“ I ask him

Grey’s eyes glitter in delight.

“Your vibrator must be bad if you’re this frustrated,“ he says in a sultry tone.

I laugh in surprise.

He chuckles in turn.

“You know it’s funny. How mortals think they know everything about pleasure and how to achieve it,“ he says.

I raise my eyebrows.

“And you’re the expert?“ I ask, teasing him.

He shrugs.

“I’ve never heard any complaints.“

“People were probably too scared to tell you if they weren’t satisfied,“ I say.

He smiles though his green eyes have gone cold. Oops. Look like I hit a sore spot.

I gulp.

Suddenly the scenery changes and I’m in a different room. Lying in a big canopy bed. Dark silver-grey sheets surrounded me. Grey is lying next to me.

His long silver blond hair falls to the side, surrounding him like a curtain and he has that smirk on his face. He traces a finger across my bare skin before I feel a sticky drip on my skin.

I look in his direction and my eyes opened wide when I saw him dip his hands into a bowl filled with honey. Next, the stickiness is on me as he spreads his honeyed hands onto my stomach and leans down to lick it away. His warm tongue feels like fire as it licks and sucks at my sin. Making me moan.

I push my hand into his hair and pull him towards me to kiss him. He tastes like lilac honey. Sweet and decadent. Making me want more. We break apart only for the image to fade away…

I get back to the here and now. My heart is racing in my chest and my chest is heaving like I just ran 10 miles. I’m left unsatisfied and wanting more.

He walks up behind me and leans down to whisper into my ear.

“What’s got your heart beating so fast, little rosebud?“ He asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

I swallow and try to wipe away those images. As horny as they made me I can’t give in.

“You know there’s a saying in Fae. If you find someone attractive you can project your wants and needs into the person's head,“ he says, his voice sending shock waves down my spine.

“Then stop doing it,“ I demand.

He laughs before he leans even closer to me as if to place a kiss on my neck and I lean closer to him seeking his touch, but then he lifts his head and denies me that contact.

Grey chuckles darkly making gooseflesh cover my whole body. And anger flashes through my body because he made me want more and then he took a step back.

“I wasn’t projecting anything. You were the one who put those images into both of our heads. I find myself wanting to know how it’ll end. How about you?“ He asks curiously.

I gulp and try to escape those pictures. I want to know too, but I feel as if he’s playing a dangerous game with me.

“Stop playing mind games with me. Please. Make it stop,“ I say trying to make him stop projecting.

It takes me back to the gingerbread house when the witch held us, hostage. Mind games were her favorite pastime.

She liked poking into our heads and putting images there.

I hang my head and try to escape anywhere. Just not to be used like that again. He must’ve realized that something is off. He steps closer and this time I can breathe again. Like I woke up from a dream.

A single tear slipped out and our eyes connected. I don’t make any effort to wipe it away. Letting him see my vulnerability and pain for a second.

Grey seems to debate what to do. He breathes out and flicks his fingers. At that, the rope that was binding my hands together slips off landing like a small heap on the wooden floor.

I rub my wrists from the burn of the rope.

My breath goes faster, indicating a panic attack is near. I try to regulate my breathing. When I trust my voice again I say.

“I don’t like mind games. If you want to know something ask me. Just don’t play mind games with me. Please.“

He takes another chair that I haven’t noticed was there before. It almost seemed as if it materialized out of thin air. Maybe he conjured it with magic.

Grey’s eyes take on a softer tone.

“I wasn’t playing any games. If I had to take a guess then I’d say the witch liked to do that.“

I whip my head in his direction and stay still as an ice sculpture. Not moving an inch.

“How do you know so much about us?“ I ask him. Genuinely curious, about how he seems to know almost everything about me and my brother.

He stretches his long legs in front of him. My gaze falls to his leather-clad legs. Leather looks damn good on him.

“I’ve been following you and your brother’s stories for years. It’s always fascinated me how two regular humans can survive all this, without any special powers.“

I laugh at that.

“We’re special snowflakes, didn't you know? It’s not creepy at all how you’ve been following us. Regarding the case. Why don’t we work together? We could solve it faster if we do,“ I say to him.

If we work together, I can keep an eye on him. But I don’t tell him that.

It’s his turn to roll his eyes at me.

“I don’t trust you,“ he says with finality.

I furrow my eyebrows together.

“Are you scared you’d work well within a team?“ I ask him.

Grey laughs but it sounds hollow.

”I work alone.“ He says his tone is colder than an ice wind blasting through the tundra.

I look at him with some understanding. Something in me just wants to help him heal. I don’t know what has hardened his heart so much, but I can’t deny the need to help him.

My brother often said I have a soft heart and that soft heart of mine will get me into trouble one day.

But I can never deny someone who needs my help.

“I know how hard it must be to let go of the past and to let someone new in. But I really think we’d work well together,“ I try to convince him.

Grey eyes me with a steady gaze. Blue gaze meeting hazel eyes.

“We’ll see,“ he says.

I look around for a piece of paper in my jeans project and find a gum wrapper. I also slip my dagger into my right boot where it belongs.

I see a pen on the counter. Quickly I write down my number and put it in his hand.

As soon as our hands touch I feel like an electrical zing jolted through my whole body. As if I put my finger into the power outlet.

We both take our hands back. I can see that it didn’t leave him unbothered.

I clear my throat and rub my hand against my leather coat. To feel the soft leather on my skin. I turn to Grey again.

“In case you’ve made up your mind and want to work together, here's my number. But be quick, because these people are running out of time,“ I say.

“I will need some time to think about it,“ he says and looks down at the purple digits scrawled on the wrapper.

I nod and leave the shop. Finding myself in a small street outside of the French Quarter.

I smile as I leave a speechless, open-mouthed Grey behind.

Feeling kind of satisfied that I could stun The Shadow.

This was not really what I was expecting. But life rarely is.

Always expect the unexpected.

Bonus:

[ralexsol]

I have decided to keep Tumblr updated as I re-watch... The Adventures of Puss in Boots! A glorious return to a show that cemented itself as the most controversial love in my history of loved media. Do I even love it? I'm pretty sure I skipped an entire season and a half in the middle because none of the episodes looked interesting! The show's last-second ending is permanently marked in my mind as the worst ending ever written! So we shall see. I'll be tagging these posts with "#rrays taopib thoughts" from here on out, so my followers can block it in advance lol.

As of right now, I've gotten through the first 3 episodes. I'll go over them:

S1E1 - Great start, I think one of the most memorable running gags of the whole show for me was always Raúl from the Thieves Market. There have got to be countless fics I've written that have a Raúl in it SPECIFICALLY reffing him.

Also, nobody recognizing the name Puss in Boots really cements this happening in his 1st/early 2nd life. He's not yet the legend, but he's getting there.

After the Thieves Market, the rest of this episode is why every time I've tried rewatching it in the past, I never made it last episode 1. It's just... not very good. Toby is THE most annoying character ever created. The animation really, really takes some time adjusting (it is. Bad.). The jokes aren't really funny.

There were a few good things, though. Dulcinea roasting Puss to kingdom come, Puss realizing he just fucking Doomed The Town ("...souvenir?"), and the fight scene is okay.

S1E2 - Dude the Sphinx is awesome, I LOVE her. An absolute queen. Also, it made me soft when Puss told Dulcinea about how his mama used to make those crunchy almond candies for him and the other orphans, how he now wants to make them for the kids here. And Dulcinea is like "bro you SUCK at baking wtf are you talkin bout" and yet he literally makes them and they're AMAZING?? I'm emotional everyone.

I also forgot that the fucking jail is in the bar... Another incredible running bit of the show.

The quality of humor also immediately rose in this episode from the first one. Good to see! Puss sucks at riddles and also cannot catch a fucking break <3

S1E3 - This episode would've been a lot better if Toby wasn't the main focus, but if it weren't for that, it'd be the best one so far! Puss is acting his usual, arrogant, "I work alone" self. He also gets Fucking Drunk at one point, so it's great.

"She has lots of rules, like we're not allowed to ask why she's crying!" paraphrasing but HOLY FUCK that made me doubletake. Humor is on the next level, let's hope it stays that way. Same point, Puss putting up missing posters in the same spot and me thinking, "man do the animators just not want to do a wide shot or smth?" but no, wide shot shows that he has to put them in the same section of wall now because Every Other Surface is Covered With Them.

Anyways, that's it for now! Might watch some more tomorrow while I finish my pib:tlw traditional piece :)

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (06/08/23)

"huh why is zom ep4 here wasn't that last week's?" yeah but it got delayed to monday. "oh ok. what about ep5 of it then?" it got delayed for a week, unfortunately they seem to be having production issues 😔 also FINALLY after months of waiting they added gokurakugai on M+ so got to read that

green - new series/new to me

Anime

Pokemon Horizons Ep16

the conclusion of this mini arc and the final member of the starter owner trio AND dot's first battle. it was a nice episode, looked better than the average one, tho not as much as I expected it would from what mega said but my fault for getting my hopes too high. dot finally told riko she's gurumin too (since riko is a damn fool) so it's good that's out of the way now too. ALSO they revealed some more villains, including 2 girls and both their designs and voices are great so looking forward to when it's their turn to hound the protags

Atelier Ryza Ep6

yooooooooo she said the thing anyway it's crazy for me to think that we're already halfway through the season, time's fucked up this episode marked the building of the hideout and the first little act of the story so we should be getting some more adventuring and such for the rest of this, dunno if they'll cover the whole game but we'll see, doubt they'd do a S2 but could be wrong

Zom 100 Ep4

well on ep 1 I said I the show looked great but I was worried about the studio being able to keep it up since they're new, and then ep 4 got delayed a day and now ep 5 got delayed to next week so that's... worrying, hopefully doesn't become a constant thing. tho despite the delay ep 4 still looked as good, but we'll see how it is for ep 5. as for the ep itself it was nice, nothing really impressive other than the explosion near the start, I'm just waiting for the foreign girl to show up up and them all to get together and start traveling. also also, saw some spoilers for the newest chap of the manga and it's very HUH, hope that the next chap shows it didn't really happen, or something happened after the cut cause otherwise it'd be very weird and make it hard to keep motivated to keep watching

Manga

Gokurakugai Ch1 - 10

I've been waiting for this got get added to M+ since damn march 1st!!! it got picked up for viz so I was like "oh should be on m+ soon enough" but apparently not smh. coulda've read it on viz but that'd require some work arounds and I was lazy + thinking it wouldn't take that long.

but ANYWAY this series. yet another exorcist series in the ever growing sea of them, tho that's not the reason why I decided to start reading it. it's cause the designs slap and the art's extremely good, but what pushed me over the edge was this incredible qt. anyway it's good tho, wasn't expecting much but was plesantly surprised. started off just being a monster of the week thing introducing the charas and world but it just ended the first lil arc and it was good. seems like next up will be a training arc (?), tho waiting til next month for the next chap is gonna be rough.

Blooming Love Ch10

I said p early on that for a romance series this was moving p fast but I didn't expect them to be at this stage already. since there's not really other plot points to follow and whatnot idk what they could do next, so maybe it could end soon, but we'll see

Kill Blue Ch16

what the hell???? is it getting axed?? it's very weird for this to be happening out of nowhere like this when a big part of the plot was to find a way to revert his age again. guess we'll have to wait for the next chap to really have an idea but no jump next week so gonna be a hard wait

Spy x Family Ch86

it was quite the long arc (2nd longest after the ship?) but now it's over. it was good overall, had been a while since some twilight action, a lot of neat stuff happened but it doesn't feel like it moved the main plot forward, we'll see how the aftermath for it goes tho

Tenmaku Cinema Ch17

tenmaku has been good, as usual, just a shame that it's on the way to getting axed, they're already almost done with filming so just like 3-5 more chaps should be enough to finish? it's a shame readers didn't like it more, I think it's really good (helped a lot by it being a veteran duo) but oh well, I'll enjoy it while it lasts

Blue Box Ch112

very good chap, not only has it been a while since hina was around but she came back "recovered" from being rejected only to find out about them dating and going back to hurting all over again, this needed to happen sooner or later but I'm glad it was sooner. totally expecting her to date kyo tho but it's prob gonna be a bit til that (tho I could also see ayame dating him since the author has been teasing that for a bit)

My Hero Academia Ch396

you know a chap was good when you get to the end thinking it was too short and wanting more, had been looking forward to this fight, wondering how the hell he was even gonna do it but this is really cool. hype for the rest of it, also predicting that he's gonna take AFO down with him cause there's no way he'll live past this lol

Akane-banashi Ch73

I can't believe how right my prediction from months ago was... I jinxed my poor akane (tho I said hikaru would get 96 and akane 93 but close enough). great chap tho, the last few pages hit really hard too. hang in there akane I believe in you

[maranull]

Μodern Greek rant so here I am cause boy do I have a bone to pick with this fucking culture, country and people. This will probably out of order and with poor formatting to really give you the Greek experience™ (also because I get angry and don't want to reformat all this fucking bullshit).

Note, this is obviously a generalization, and I'm just talking about my own, PERSONAL view of this shithole. And I'm well aware people elsewhere have it worse. But I'm here, so I'll bitch about this country here.

So. Let's start with the obsession over our history.

Is it a very rich history and was it the base for what has now evolved to the concept of the Western World? Yes. Was ancient Greece also filled with rampant pedophilia, slavery, sexism and corruption? Abso-fucking-lutely. Did modern-Greeks fought tooth to nail against the Nazis and made them bleed in ways no one expected from our tiny, shitty little nation? Yes. Did also half the country sold their own families over to the Nazis for a loaf of bread during the occupation (both the Nazi one and the Ottoman before it)? Or even for not even that? Also yes.

Most will call Greece, and specifically Athens, the birthplace of democracy. BUT! It was a democracy for those that were considered citizens, aka male Athenians. Women where "encouraged" to never leave the houses/mansions. And slaves were, well, slaves. Anyway, the democracy Athens boasted about is no more, unless you can call democracy a few families running over and over for head of state and a police force that feels more and more Americanized by the year (I do not need to say that this is a bad thing, right?).

Speaking of bastards, cops seem to be one of the most well equipped forces in the public sector, along with the army (we'll get to those fuckers later). Here are some posts (1) (2) (3) that I made during fire season (I was foaming from the mouth when I made those, hence the language and caps). Take note how in the 1st one, it's a motherfucking cop that is pissing on the fire (also remember his division, ΔΙ.ΑΣ, it will be relevant later). On the 2nd one you can see where the money is actually going during fire season. And I linked the 3rd one to see the hellscape that was the 2021 fires. Btw, this year, we got about 5000 or so (I can't recall the exact number) priests being hired in the public sector, comparative to only around 500 hired in the special forces of the firefighters. Also during the first quarantines, a ton of firefighters were laid down, allegedly for refusing to wear masks. Which would make sense, only by 2021 the whole force was and is understaffed and then we got one of the worse Attica fires to date (2021). "But Mara, they had a reason to fire them!" Yeah, I agree. What I don't agree with is that they never fucking hired or trained replacements, while they kept hiring more and more and more and more cops.

There are constant, and I mean all day —can't tell about the night, I don't live near— anti-riot units in the center of Athens.

A cop shot and killed a teen in 2008. And for all the shit I give Greeks, they are insanely protective of their kids and close friends so the 2008 riots (Wikipedia article here) lit the city on fire. The killer was convicted in 2010 and he walked fucking FREE in 2019. I can promise you that if the riots didn't happen, he would still be "serving" as a cop.

In terms of LGBTQ treatment from the police, here's the Wikipedia article for Zak's murder. And another post of mine doing a partial translation of an interview from a Greek trans woman. That should tell you everything about the LGBTQ-cops relationship.

Oh btw, remember that ΔΙ.ΑΣ unit? About a month ago they were accused of raping a woman inside their fucking department in Omonoia (<- Athens' center). And they generally have a reputation of violence almost equal to the riot unit. I always get the urge to spit when seeing them.

So, now that we've covered politics and cops, let's go to those who enable them, the people.

Biggest characteristic, their passion about their history (minus the bad, of course). So passionate in fact, that the modern Greek seems to forget that modern Greece is younger that the freaking US. Greece got it's independence from the Turks/Ottomans at 1821. We were under the Byzantines before them, which while they were culturally Greek, the rule was a remnant of the Roman Empire, which we were also under before the change (mainly in name) to the Byzantine Empire.

What I'm getting at is that the modern Greek is mainly proud about achievements that happened literally thousands of years ago. And even if you count the Byzantine Empire as Greek (it's too complicated for my non-historian ass to actually explain), the Ottomans tried their absolute best to "cleanse" and integrate Greeks into Turkish customs. And you know, they almost did manage that. A ton of what you'll hear are traditional Greek dishes and sweets have their bases in Ottoman cuisine. "Greek coffee" is literally the coffee Ottomans brought during the occupation. MY POINT! IS! That modern Greeks are so far evolved/disconnected from our ancestors that using them as their whole personality is insane, stupid and gives of "superior race" vibes.

And so. with being a proud Greek, comes the racism. At work, I might be able to sneak in a black or middle eastern person on the side of the posters/ads. If I put an Asian, the phone will ring the moment they see it and I will be commanded to remove them from the image.

Like, even if being a casually racist fuck wasn't bad, Greeks are one of the biggest migrant peoples in the fucking west. How in the shit have you returned from England, Romania, Italy, France and most of Europe and USA and still be a racist bastard?

Racism and being way to proud of ancestry aside, let's go to religion!

Greece is heavily Orthodox. Most will attempt to say that religion is not tied to the state and that the Orthodox Church is just one of many. Yeah, fuck no, it isn't. Religion and education are bunched in the same ministry (Hellenic Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs) and I don't think I need to say how not "not tied to the state" that is, right? Anyhow, the Church did give shelter to the rebels during the 1821 rebellion (against the Ottomans) and now they still rub it in the face of the public during speeches. Like, "Remember, you own us your freedom, now hire us with taxpayers' money and also except us from taxes, thanks xoxo." and then driving off in their BMWs.

The Church having such a hold on the country is also one of the reasons why it's such a slog to have any sort of progress. The people listen to the Church first, the government second.

Sexism, racism, homophobia, patriarchy, toxic masculinity and anti-scientific rhetorics thrive here because that's what the Church preaches. And has preached for as long as it has had power.

I was the first generation that was able to be excused from "religious studies" (aka Orthodox brainwashing) and I was the only kid that its parents asked to be removed. Not in my year, but in the whole school (primary education is 6 years here). As 6-12 year olds we were dragged to attend service every fucking week. Literal country-wide brainwashing.

The day I'm writing this part is 17/11, the day when the 1967-1974 Junta assaulted Polytechnic and we are expecting a march. So, speaking of marches, riots and people trying to have a say in their country, let me point you at the 2015 Greek bailout referendum.

A country wide vote to for the people to decide if we should accept the bailout conditions concerning the debt crisis. I was barely 19, depressed and understood very little about politics, but what was clear is that this was (supposed) to be a decision taken by the people, not the politicians. I voted No (weather I was right to do so or not is irrelevant), along with 61.31% of the voting population.

Take a wild guess what the government did. That's right, agreed with the bailout conditions. What? You thought they'd listen to a clear, legal vote from the people? Nope. At least they resigned after, only the agreement had already been sealed.

~

And you know, I do love this country. I love that you can find ruins in almost every corner. I love the little villages in the mountains. I love that white, sun bleached rock that's characteristic of our islands. I love the myths. I love how I can just walk to the source of the river Styx, how I can climb to the top of the actual Mount Olympus, see and walk on top of Zeus throne (and have done so a couple times <- this is a public flex and i deserve it). I love how the air feels in the mountains and the soil that has been cultivated for thousands of years. I love the rivers and their thin, small canyons. I love the wild, fierce wind of the islands.

~

I genuinely love this land, and I hate the country.

[tuiyla]

So I found someone who counted how much screentime each Glee character had during season 1A and season 4, please take a look: cometsweepandleonidsfly(.)tumblr(.)com/tagged/screen%20time

cometsweepandleonidsfly(.)tumblr(.)com/post/58969910312/screentime-on-glee-in-season-4 (make sure to change showthemwhat to cometsweepandleonidsfly in the episodes' links if you want to see the stats per episode)

Do you have any thoughts on these numbers?

✨Stats time!✨

Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention Anon, and thank you to @cometsweepandleonidsfly. Please read the OG posts for more info on their methodology, limitations and all that. Of course I have thoughts, all of which I will cover but first I'll do what tuiyla does best and take this dataset and turn it into something visual. Or at least try.

So to start us off, main characters' screentime in the OG 13 episodes:

I was surprised to see Will come in with over 40% of screentime and decidedly more than Finn or Rachel. Rachel "only" being third is a surprise in and of itself but the favouring of the three "pillars" is clear. The drop between Rachel and Quinn is not insignificant and it reminds me of how big the difference between singing stats often was. Quinn coming in ahead of Kurt and Puck is somewhat surprising, as is Emma and Sue being so low. But compared to a lot of the ND kids, they had significant roles in their scenes. All in all this deffo confirms my view that there was way too much Will early on and the show was too heavy on its three mains.

Season 4 is looking more evenly distributed even if there's quite the drop between Blaine and Marley. Blaine's lead might seem crazy, but he's in just over 29% of the season compared to Will's well over 40% for the first 13. We have more characters but only three more than what I counted for the previous chart so not too bad distribution wise. What's surprising is the newbies, at least the triangle being so high up and Tina and Artie lagging so far behind Sam. Rachel being in the middle is shocking, of course, but keep in mind she fully missed a few episodes and when she was in a scene chances are it focused solely on her. Kurt being after Kitty is more surprising to me, as is Santana being so far behind. Granted, she missed a lot of episodes but my heart weeps anyway. She's still far ahead of Sue and Emma and I'm once again astonished by the mark Jane Lynch and Jayma Mays leave. I wish we had the numbers for Quinn, Mercedes, Puck and Mike here but oh well.

I love that we have a Lima vs NYC stat because it really puts things into perspective:

Wow. Where's the "too much NYC crowd" now, huh. Of course, this explains why even Rachel is relatively low on the list and how the newbies had so much screentime.

What's interesting is the difference in distribution, i.e. season 4's being imo so much better. In many ways it had to be but still. I tried visualizing it via two pie charts of the percentages but they're not that obvious and so I cba to colour them properly.

Instead, I took those percentages and compared the season 1 characters with the season 4 ones. So the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and etc. characters compared would look like this:

That was a nonsensical sentence but what I mean is, red zone is OG 13 and green season 4. The closer the line is to 50% the more the two seasons are alike in how much they feature characters, and the line generally being over 50% in season 1's favour tells us that the main chs there had more screentime. Again this is partly because season 4 had a bigger cast overall; it featured characters not accounted for within the data. But I'd also argue it distributed the more or less same screentime more equally so that's why Blaine's lead isn't the same as Will's in the OG 13. By the way, ignore the names on the line google sheets just didn't let me delete the redundant labels.

Something hopefully a bit more demonstrative: I divided the OG 13 by, well, 13 and multiplied by 22 to "get a full season" from those stats (notably these are not the full season 1 numbers) and compared those minutes with the season 4 ones. This shows you the difference even better even if we only compare the top 5 characters of each season:

Again ignore the labels, they're the season 1 top 5. Will's screentime projected to 22 episodes is waaaay more than what Blaine got in season 4 and this gap really only starts to balance out once the season 1 drop happens with Quinn and Kurt. Even then, comparatively, they were better featured than their season 4 counterparts, Sam and Ryder. To be fair, I'd much rather watch Quinn and Kurt than Sam and Ryder.

And finally, what I love the most: singing stats and bubble charts! The most I could possibly bring to this conversation is adding singing into the mix and see how that compares to the characters' screentime.

See this reddit post for some background on my singing stats database. What you need to know for this is that I have a system for different types of songs not just the number of songs the given character was featured in, so I give point totals and hope it's a more accurate reflection of how much people sang. And how does that compare to their screentime? Well.

Note that this first chart is a character's OG13 screentime compared to their overall season 1 singing.

Rachel sang the most, unsurprisingly, so her and Finn singing that much more than Will while appearing less created this interesting contrast. All three are waaay ahead in screentime as this perhaps demonstrates better than previous charts, and we see that compared to her screentime Mercedes sang quite a bit. But the difference between our 1%-ers and the proletariat is clear and we see how little Kuinn's screentime mattered, in a sense. Sue and Emma are basically nonexistent on both fronts when compared to others, so much so that even Santana with her back 9 songs almost catches up to the crowd. Make of the rest of this what you will.

Since I realized while writing this that I should have probably looked at how much they sang in the OG 13, here's that chart:

Now this looks quite different and is perhaps the better chart to analyze. Finn is further behind Rachel and her lead in singing is undisputable, whereas Mercedes stays between Finn and Will with singing. Sue didn't get a song in the OG 13 and, sadly, neither did Santana so they're missing entirely. Emma is barely there with her one solo but still ahead of Kurt, who had the screentime but evidently not the songs. His sole entry is the Defying Gravity duet. Quinn had comparatively more in the first 13 and that elevates her above Puck and Tina but I still wouldn't exactly say it's proportionate to her screentime. It's quite all over the place, particularly when compared to season 4:

So season 4 follows more of a trend and what would be expected. Meening, no huuuuge outliers and less of an upper 1% feel, though Blaine is clearly "winning" in terms of both singing and screentime. Marley is second in both regards and we see a more or less clear pattern of singing and screentime collating. Tartie sing somewhat little compared to their screentime but most of it checks out as realistic. How the mighty have fallen with Will being last in terms of singing. But then, of course, we have Pezberry, the only two who I'd say are not following the established trend. Both sing more relative to their screentime than most characters, with Rachel almost being up there with Marley and yet being in the middle with her screentime. This isn't a huge shock or anything. But then we have Santana, who's well behind Will in terms of screentime and yet sings as much as Kurt and is in the same ballpark as the likes of Unique and Tina. This means Santana's time on screen in season 4 was well spent, with the likes of Girl on Fire, Nutbush, Cold Hearted and, of course, Mine. A stark difference to season 1.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

A bit baffled by the decision to include chs like Kent and Brad in the OG 13 post but not the alumni in season 4, but hey I'm not the one doing the research. I ignored non-mains for my OG 13 visualizations.

I would LOVE to see this done for the whole series but obviously it's not like it could ever be truly representative and it would take soooo much effort. I'm grateful for this glimpse at screentime distributions.

I know not all of this was super clear and detailed so please feel free to let me know if I should clarify anything. Like I told another Anon, you will be seeing more stats from me because I do love this sort of stuff and this was really fun to explore. Again much thanks that this dataset exists and I hope I could offer something new and interesting with it.

[kakusu-shipping]

Augh I hate making references for Anime self inserts but I!! Love Sasaki and Miyano very much!!!

My S/Is an American transfer student who lives in the dorms and is in class 1-A. He's on the Baseball Team, the Student Council and the only other member in the Animal Appreciation Club. In his spare time he likes to draw Shojo and BL manga.

He spends most of his first and second year in love with his upper classman, Hanzawa, even bravely (sort of) confessing to him at the tail end of his freshman year. Even though he's turned down he remains close to Hanzawa, being tutored by him and being an inside to 2nd year gossip.

Eventually, through Emile, Hanzawa learns the term Aromantic. To see if that is truely how he identifies, he agrees to date Emile as sort of a test, which was Emile's idea (he was very worried about playing with his Kouhai's feelings, but eventually agreed). They go on three dates dancing around their busy schedules before Hanzawa is sure, and they break up mutually.

Just before the Cultural Festival Emile, still caught up on his feelings for Hanzawa, causes the Baseball Team to loose their last game of the season. To move on, from both the loss and heartbreak, Emile shaves his head and commits fully to enjoying the rest of his BL School Life.

In their third year, while helping Miyano plan Sasaki's birthday date, Emile learns that Tashiro is still single, and casually asks him out, to the shock of everyone, excluding Tashiro who happily agrees. For years Emile had been casually affectionate with Tashiro, so it just seemed reasonable they'd eventually date

I have a lot of scenarios and comic for this one running in my head but I can't draw anime very well and something about drawing Hanzawa makes me super anxious, so I probably won't post a whole lot more.. Until I read Hirano and Kagiura of course.

btw my S/Is origonal hairstyle is based on this guy on the cover of Chapter 4 Love and Passion, I have no idea if he's a character that's important later or if he even has a name but like. That's a very Me-core designed guy other than the fact he's massive.