#i need to rewatch it to get my full thoughts on it but dear lord im so happy with how it turned out

[itsafternoonpast5]

HOLY SHIT? got around to watching the new episode and it’s one of the best in the series. im absolutely shocked it’s so good

[princessasmosprincess]

Charmed, I'm Sure

Chapter 11

Summary: No human has ever avoided Asmodeus's charm. Except for you.

Pairing: Asmodeus x GN Reader/MC

Genre: Drama, angst

Warnings: Suggestive content, vomit.

***

“You want to be charmed by Asmo?”

You nodded tentatively, bracing yourself for Levi to react the same way Mammon and Satan had.

Since Lucifer had an assignment from Lord Diavolo that night, you and the brothers forewent family time in favor of your own activities. Levi invited you to spend the evening rewatching TSL with him, something he’d been desperate to do since the infamous TSL quiz and forming a pact with you. He wanted to give you the full superfan experience, promising he’d point out any interesting facts as the two of you watched. Naturally, Beel tagged along for the snacks.

“Oh…” said Levi, he could feel the sting of jealousy already welling up inside him. “Can I ask why?”

You took a breath, ready to plead your case.

“Asmo’s been bullying MC,” Beel said between bites of cookie, “We think he will warm up to MC if he gets a chance to use his charm on them.”

You nodded, pleasantly surprised that Beel had summarized your task so efficiently. There was no need to talk about making pacts or earning Lucifer’s respect or Belphie. You gave Beel a warm smile which he returned.

“It is weird that his charm doesn't work on you,” Levi said. He still wouldn't look your way. “I don’t know how a worthless otaku like me could help, though.”

“Stop that!” You said.

Levi and Beel’s eyes both snapped to you.

“I don't like it when you talk about yourself like that, Levi. You’re not worthless, you’re my friend.”

A light blush rose on Levi’s face. “O-oh.”

“The Lord of Shadow always came through for Henry, and vice versa.” You said, “I’m not asking for you to solve my problem for me, I just need your assistance.”

You watched him hopefully, Levi was thinking this through intently. The room would have been silent if not for the bubbles from Henry 2.0’s tank, the TSL dvd menu, and Beel’s chewing.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.” He said finally.

“Yay!” You threw your arms around Levi to his sputtering protests.

***

It was very late when you emerged from Levi’s room bleary-eyed and wrapped in a Ruri-Chan throw. Beel was right behind you, still munching on popcorn. You knew you were going to pass out as soon as your head hit the pillow.

You heard giggling at the end of the hall as one of the bedroom doors opened. Two figures were exiting, neither of them were wearing much of anything. A third figure lingered at the door, clad in a purple satin robe. Asmodeus.

“Take the back stairs and escape through the garden.” Asmo said to the demon and the witch, his favorite combination.

“But Azzy can’t we stay the night? I’ll be quiet as a mouse, I promise. Isn’t that right, Sallos?” The witch whined, not making a good show of how quiet she could be.

“I know you can, my dear, but Lucifer has been watching me like a hawk these past few weeks.” Asmo caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. She leaned into him, closing her eyes, “I don't know what I’d do if he discovered either of you in my room. You know what happened to Leah.”

“Yes I know, I–” she caught sight of you. “Oh! Is this RAD’s new human exchange student?” It seemed news of you had gone beyond the RAD student body. It was to be expected, you thought, living humans other than witches and sorcerers didn’t usually get a chance to spend time in the Devildom.

A strange expression crossed Asmo’s face, he quickly schooled it to a look of indifference. “Yes this is our little pet human, MC.”

“Aren’t you just the most adorable?” She looked you up and down.

You gave a polite smile despite Asmo's barb. The two, minus Asmo, had already moved on to appraising Beel who was completely oblivious.

“We should invite him to play next time,” You thought you heard her whisper.

The clock chimed the hour, it was very late indeed.

“Come on, Marielle, we should get going.” Said the demon named Sallos.

“Goodnight, my lovelies,” Asmo waved them away, guiding them to the back staircase. “And goodnight Beel, MC.” He called over his shoulder. Once again his expression was unreadable.

Asmo shut his bedroom door behind him a little too hard. He leaned against it, crossing his arms over his chest. You and Beel were leaving Levi’s room together so late at night. You in your cute little hoodie and your cute little sleep shorts. What were the three of you doing in there? His mind wandered to something dirty.

But Levi wouldn't do something like that. It had been too long, the poor guy was probably out of practice after years holing himself up in his room. Asmo made a note to give his older brother some tips and a little encouragement. Maybe push a succubus in his direction and see what happens.

No, you and Beel were probably watching some dumb anime with Levi. Nothing more. That… actually made him feel better for some reason. Why?

Asmo decided to file all of that away for later. It was time for a quick shower and some much-needed beauty rest.

***

The next morning, as you were on your way to the dining room, you heard someone say your name.

“Hey, MC,” it was Levi poking his head out the kitchen door. “Come here for a second.”

“Ok…”

Levi was in charge of breakfast that morning, although most of it had been purchased from a cafe or gifted by Barbatos since most of the kitchen was still out of order.

The wall between your room and the kitchen had been repaired which meant you could finally sleep in your own bed, but the kitchen was still very much under renovation. Plastic sheets hung from the ceiling in front of the oven, which had been a major part of the carnage, and half the cabinets along the walls were missing, and there was an empty space where the fridge used to be. The huge crack in the countertop had been repaired in the Japanese Kintsugi style as suggested by Satan, who had been reading about the beautiful repair method. The gold vein running through the stone was to serve as a reminder for Beelzebub of what he had done.

“I was racking my brain all last night,” he said. “N-not that I was thinking about you or anything, I just w-anted to find some way to help since you’re my Pl-player Two.”

“Thanks for the support, Player One,” you smiled. “What did you come up with?”

“This,” Levi produced a small crystal vial from his jacket pocket. The vial held a bright pink liquid that sparkled in the light.

“What is it?” You asked.

Levi looked almost giddy as he began to explain, “It's a replica love potion from I Accidentally Used A Love Potion On My Class President But It’s Ok Because Now She Can Help Prevent My Family’s Failing Ramen Shop From Closing With Her Business Acumen.”

“It's a replica from an anime?” You wanted to let him down gently. Levi looked so happy to help, but you weren't sure how a vanity item was going to help you. Surely it was just colored water and glitter.

“In the Devildom, our replicas usually work like the real thing.” He said.

You stared at him, not sure why you were surprised by this, so many things about the Devildom were over the top compared to the Human World, “So that replica tommy gun from Mafia Demon 666 that you had just lying on your desk works?”

“Yeah!” He said excitedly.

“And you let me toss it around last night while we were watching TSL, like it was just a toy?” You had wondered why the gun had been so heavy but you'd figured it was just a good-quality replica.

“It wasn't loaded,” said Levi, “At least I don't think it was… A-anyway this,” he brandished the vial again, “Should help you. It’s a mild love potion.”

“Ok…” You eyed the potion skeptically. “How does it work?”

Levi pulled the tea tray closer to the two of you, on it were seven mismatched tea cups and saucers, the few survivors of Beel’s rampage. He selected a chipped, lavender teacup with gold accents, dripping three drops of the potion into it. “You mix the potion with your tea. It takes about thirty minutes to kick in but after that, once you make full eye contact with Asmo, you’ll fall in love instantly.”

That did sound promising. Provided it worked as expected.

“How do I know this potion won’t accidentally make me fall for someone else, like Mammon?”

“Ew, I won’t allow that,” Levi gave an involuntary shiver. “Thankfully there’s a little trick to the love potion. You have to spell your name and the name of your target in the air over the cup before drinking it. That’s actually how Shota messes up the spell in the anime. He was supposed to write his crush’s name but he mixes up the characters and writes “Misaki”, which is the name of the–”

You cut him off, knowing he’d begin describing the first episode to you shot-for-shot if you let him keep going, “So I just have to spell my name and then Asmo’s name over the cup for this to work?”

“Yeah, and once the thirty minutes is up you’ll fall for him at first sight,” Levi repeated. “Actually, the potion works on both you and your target so Asmo will feel drawn to you as well, but he probably won't notice. He feels that way about pretty much everyone.”

You leaned on the counter, giving it a lot of thought. This was the first real lead you’d had. It couldn't hurt to try it out, what was the worst that could happen?

“Ok I’ll try it.”

“Great!” Levi seemed so happy that you'd agreed to his plan. “The potion’s magic should be small enough that Lucifer won’t notice it, just be careful.”

“Right.” You hadn’t thought about that. But considering your overarching plan, especially at such an early stage of execution, it was probably best Lucifer didn’t know.

“If he ever found out I gave the human exchange student a love potion, he’d kill me.”

***

You helped Levi set the table for breakfast, making sure the lavender teacup was placed at your normal spot at the end of the table. Once everyone arrived at the dining room, breakfast began.

You poured the tea into your cup, watching the hot pink potion swirl and dissolve in the amber liquid.

You looked up, making eye contact with Levi who urged you on with a nod. There hadn't been time to tell the others of your plan. Right now it was just between you and Levi. You figured they’d know you’d done something if you suddenly became a “Love Zombie” as Beel had said before. Levi could fill them in on the details later.

Here goes nothing.

You began by spelling your name in the air over the cup as if you were painting on an invisible canvas, the tea sparkled just slightly as you finished the last letter. Next was Asmo’s.

A-S-M-O-D-E-U–

“MC, what are you doing?” Lucifer asked.

“I was just… I was–” Your eyes darted back to Levi.

You forgot the S! He mouthed, swirling his spoon in the air in an “S” shape.

Lucifer caught the movement, “It’s both of you, isn’t it?” He looked between you and Levi, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“We were– we were practicing Human World sign language,” you blurted.

Levi caught on quickly, “Y-yeah, it's for a new VR dating sim I got.”

“One of the romanceable characters is deaf and you can raise your intimacy bar if you use sign language.” You said, pasting on your most innocent smile.

“Ah ha…” said Lucifer.

Satan joined the conversation, intrigued. “That’s an interesting game mechanic. Which sign language are you learning?”

You said, “French!”

At the same time Levi shouted “Japanese!”

By now the whole table was staring at the two of you.

“The character is half French and half Japanese.” You spoke slowly, piecing your little lie together.

“Yeah, so each of us are learning a different type of sign language so it will hopefully cross over when we play…” Levi shrugged at the end of his sentence.

Lucifer and Satan gave nearly identical nods, totally buying the deception.

“Hm,” said Satan. “Well I’ve got books on both of those sign languages so let me know if you’d like to borrow one.”

You beamed at him, “How kind of you, Satan. I just might take you up on that.”

You quickly wrote the letter S over your cup as the table resumed normal conversation.

The tea gave off a faint pink glow, you supposed that meant the spell was finished. All you had to do now was drink it.

You downed the entire cup in one go, which was not the best idea considering it was hot tea. The warm liquid nearly burned your throat going down, you could feel it in your chest. The tea didn't taste any different but the texture was almost fizzy. You poured yourself a second cup, this time adding a dollop of Devilbee honey.

Your gaze wandered over to Asmo. He was talking passionately about a new skin treatment Goetia was offering, Lucifer was listening politely.

You wondered what falling for Asmo would feel like. You weren't sure you’d ever been in love before. And since you’d be under the influence of a love potion would it be that different? Would he be able to tell? All of this ran through your mind for the rest of breakfast up until you slipped on your shoes to walk out the door.

“MC, darling, you’re bookbag strap is slipping,” Asmo slid the strap back up your shoulder, his touch lingering much longer than necessary. Hot and cold as always.

Your time was up.

“Thank you,” You breathed. You found yourself gazing up into his golden eyes. Your stomach did a flip-flop. And then another.

A small smile gracing his perfectly shaped lips, “Anytime, my dear.”

And then you felt your stomach lurch.

Your eyes widened, a shaky breath escaped your lips.

“I, uh, I forgot something in my room!” You managed to say, taking off before anyone could say anything. Asmo stood there, staring at where you had been.

Levi turned on his heel toward the door, “W-well we should get going. Don't want to miss the first class of the day.” He made to lead the others to RAD, even giving a salute as he marched on ahead.

Lucifer pinched the bridge of his nose. Between you running off and Levi’s uncharacteristic enthusiasm for school, he didn't know where to begin. “Mammon, make sure MC doesn't miss first period.”

“On it,” said Mammon, he ran after you.

Your bedroom door was cracked open so he let himself in. You were nowhere to be seen.

“MC?”

He was answered by the most awful retching sound coming from your private bathroom.

His eyes widened “MC, are you alright?”

“I’m– I’m ok,” You panted. More retching followed.

“That don’t sound like ok,” He pressed his forehead to the door. “Anything I can do?”

“Not at the moment,” Your stomach churned again, causing you to moan in pain. “This is so embarrassing, can you please go away?”

“No can do, human, I’m in charge a’ you, remember?” He reached into his backpack. “I got a bottle a’ water out here with your name on it once you’re done spillin’ your guts.”

Mammon waited at the bathroom door as you threw up everything you’d eaten for breakfast. A good fifteen minutes passed before your stomach was totally empty.

“Say, is this that mornin’ sickness humans get sometimes?” He asked. “Satan was tellin’ me about it.”

You gave a weak laugh, slumping against the toilet. “There are multiple reasons why that wouldn't be possible, Mammon.”

“Are ya sure, ‘cause–”

“It’s not morning sickness.” You stared into the toilet bowl which was filled with hot pink glittering vomit.

***

Cross-posted on AO3

[zennialemo]

I posted 2,065 times in 2022

That's 976 more posts than 2021!

45 posts created (2%)

2,020 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@killerandhealerqueen

@w00dchips

@evil-moonlight

@scallioncreamcheesebagel

@desultory-suggestions

I tagged 868 of my posts in 2022

#lmao - 41 posts

#beyond evil - 36 posts

#queer - 16 posts

#under the skin - 15 posts

#kpop - 14 posts

#aromantic - 12 posts

#asexual - 12 posts

#bts - 12 posts

#bad buddy - 10 posts

#spotify - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 114 characters

#but this is interesting to me because ive been seeing lots of heavy black and white discourse on concrit lately...

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I opened up a soulmate AU that I started in April for Under the Skin. It was in the same folder as the one I recently posted. Its been two days of reading it and rereading it and wishing it had an end. And now I want to finish it. But it's like insanely large in terms of plot. It's a Soulmate AU with political corruption and murder and secrets. Shits not fluffy... well not for the most part. And im overwhelmed by the scale of it. It needs dedication and time and maybe even an overhaul...

But I love it 🥲. So let's see if I can finish it. If not, whatever (she says, not feeling 'whatever' about it at all). Maybe I can break it up into a series if it's really too much...

10 notes - Posted December 4, 2022

#4

My whole therapized life has been a back and forth of "do they don't they" over whether or not I have BPD or bipolar II.

And I have always been like "nah I don't get manic". Mind you I wasn't thinking hypomanic, I was thinking my aunt when she goes off her meds and thinks she can fly and that people are following her. So I was like "never, never" about mania. But I wasn't considering the times when I write 10,000 words in 24 hours with no sleep and then hyperfixate on plot for the next 5 days, or when I do 1 million tasks in 4 days on 4 hours of sleep and almost no food. I thought those were just good times. That's not to mention the spending. Dear lord the spending. But I never felt... like I could fly. I just felt like I was hot shit. So. I always was like yeah not me *shrug*.

All this said, I definitely *do* fit the criteria of "high functioning" or "quiet" BPD, too. My mood in one day is the picture of instability. I have no sense of self. I fear abandonment, etc. I don't look stereotypical BPD because I internalize everything. I rarely snap or take my feelings out on people, when I split I take it out on myself. Etc. So. "Quiet" BPD fits.

But so does Bipolar II with rapid cycling. I just dropped so bad for 2 weeks I ended up in the ER and then swung up so high I spent more than I should have on clothes and gifts and cards for others, slept very little, and packed an insane amount for my upcoming move despite my disability screaming at me with pain and exhaustion to slow down. I am now starting a mood stabilizer and my mental health team is thinking maybe a dual diagnosis of BPD and Bipolar II. I laughed because all these years of back and forth from my healthcare providers for the current team to look at one another and say "how about both?"

How about both, indeed.

The (constant, but now extra pressing) problem is I have ME, or more colloquially CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), and hypomanic energy and lack of sleep for 4.5 days = super awful hellish PEM. Think of PEM like crashing into a ditch where you can barely leave bed, maybe like me you're in pain and light sensitive and it feels like you've got Mono all over again... anyway. Its really awful. Terrible. Im so drained I can barely talk. Thank the moon and stars I don't have therapy today.

But yall, I'm suffering. PEM so bad my legs are trembling. Time to lay in bed for the next three days and try to rest up... 🥲

11 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

#3

Rewatching Bad Buddy with my sister, who's seeing it for the first time. I'm in my feels y'all. This show was everything. Wholesome and full of feelings and real communication in the face of adversity. My queer heart is full 🥺.

15 notes - Posted September 10, 2022

#2

16 notes - Posted March 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I just watched the first episode of Koisenu Futari, and I’m crying. I’m asexual, and I think I might be somewhere on the aromantic scale too and I had no idea until I watched this and things just.. clicked. I went through and am still living through an extremely painful and difficult breakup where “everything was right” on paper, but I just couldn’t meet him where he was at. And the sentence always ended there but the truth of the matter is, I just couldn’t meet him where he was at...romantically. I never could. It killed me. Kills me. There are other things too, other things about me I’ve been noticing recently and this revelation is like breathing air for the first time in months - maybe there’s nothing wrong with me.  This show made me feel so seen. Seen in ways I didn’t even know I needed to be. And even if it hadn’t made me realize I’m probably arospec, I think it still would have touched me just as much as an ace person, but also just on a humanity level it’s beautiful. I call myself a writer but right now the words kind of escape me. I just feel so validated and seen, and it hurts and it’s wonderful all at the same time. 

17 notes - Posted February 19, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[chibimyumi]

🍵Japanese Reactions☕ Kuromyu 2021

Dear everyone, I received overwhelmingly many questions about Japanese audience reactions, so here you go!

Methodology:

For this post I logged out from Twitter to avoid any bias because of my own user algorithm, and just simply searched the term “kuromyu” (生執事) , and selected “latest tweets”. As you can see, all posts have the word 生執事 in bold, meaning that was my search term.  There are a LOT of reactions, I can’t possibly discuss them all. What I did was just search at any random point of time, and take every other comment. I censored the usernames of the commenter to protect some (ceremonial) level of privacy.

I watched the Kuromyu costume rehearsal and cried, this is not it，，I think it might be better to go to Osaka [performance] without expecting too much I shouldn’t expect the Kuromyu of until last time

Honestly no matter how often I watch [the musical] this time’s Kuromyu is fantastic... as someone who knows the energy of the original comics, I really enjoyed it...

In Kuromyu Violet and Chesslock were the real thing

Like Violet’s way of walking being so slothful it was like the real thing, and the rapping of Chesslock in the cricket scene was cool

The reception of this time’s Kuromyu is entirely polarised, and indeed [this production] has a very different taste than the ones until now so I also understand the people who criticise it, but I think that’s fine.

Click “keep reading” for (a LOT) more reactions. Don’t lie to yourself and not click it, I know you all want the tea. Here’s the tea (ÒvÓ)ノ☕

There’s so much thought going on now I have seen the PV of Kuromyu. Eh? Because he [probably Konishi (Ciel)] has roots in Tennis [Probably prince of Tennis] once he holds the cricket it just looks like he’s swinging a tennis racket.

Bocchan is just too big, I’m not sure about that.

I only watched until half way ー

Calling it the Prince of Cricket is too befitting😂 Such singing and dancing, the youthfulness is exploding. They sure have stamina. #Kuromyu

Ah ーSomehow a lot of memories just popped up tears really are welling up... even though my deep-seated grudge has now passed, my obsession for Kuromyu surfaced, and it felt like it got beaten to a pulp by its big brother...

My heart is recovering through the Kuromyu DVD but the big brother is still the big brother... sob...sob (the dirty wailing of an otaku)

TLN: Big brother here means something’s superiour or better.

It became this production that made me think: Never mind the actors but is it the problem of the makers? Erm. I think it’s a waste. Is it because it’s the footage of the first day performance?

I don’t have the feeling that it’s not that, but that it somehow became cheaper? Is a really strong thought I got from this performance. With this line-up [of cast/staff] it should have been able to create the high quality of Kuromyu, but the impression is that it was a mess.

I finished watching kuromyu. Erm... somehow... it was a theatre production that strongly reminded me of the first Lycoris (the cheapness of the set), felt like they tried to create the feeling of🎾but failed, and tried to do something trendy (🎤) but then the production lost the sense of unity.

Well Mr. Tate’s [Tateishi] Sebas was good, and Undertaker’s acting was good (make up...)

I’ve watched the stream of Kuromyu countless times and gotten used to the songs, and even though I miss the old Kuromyu, maybe it’s not so bad that somebody who can’t let go is rewatching something countless times. If next time they will do the Cult Arc or the Witch Arc I’d be pursuing it. Honestly I want them to stage Lycoris again ←

Kuromyu was this place where I got stimulated by Yuta’s TOHO quality, Ms. AKANE [Madam Red] and Ms. Son [Akisono, Frances]’s Takarazuka quality. The synergy of everything, the original manga’s story, actors, music, directing all were so perfectly done in the past three productions they sure have become a tremendous bar. Once again Yuta, thank you for playing Sebas for us for three times 🥺✨

Kuromyu really was too fun, I’m in trouble

Honestly ------------- Kuromyu was so fun !!!!!!!!! Yasue-kun, you also go watch soon!! Ah, you going tomorrow???

It might be quite unsatisfying for people who only watch Kuromyus that are like Imperial Theatre grand musicals, but I think it’s good that it’s a bit like the Kuromyus of the beginning of before when they adapted the manga arcs

I watched Kuromyu and had fun 😊

I cried, I laughed, it was amazing anyway!

It was the first time watching a musical for me but I think I’ve been sucked into it...

Shall I buy the DVD, I’m indecisive 🌀🤔💭

Now I’ve seen the PV of Kuromyu I don’t think it’s worth going at all... Even in the PV the vibe of 2.5D was ridiculously strong...

My friend went to watch Kuromyu and gave me the review: “I’ve seen all sorts of 2.5, why did they do this for Black Butler. It’s trivial.” I’ve only seen the PV so I won’t say anything, and I really get what I’m refraining from saying. But Mr. Kuma once tweeted the descriptions of Black Butler, I guess it’s fine that the Boarding School Arc feels like this 🤔

Click here for the translation of this tweet. The description of the Weston Arc is as such:

(To the people who will be going to see it I’m sorry)

They did say that the staff along [with the cast] would entirely be renewed, but I feel like they’re actively trying to shake off the fans of Kuromyu until now   I’m a bit sad but I guess I won’t be watching [Kuromyus] anymore... I feel like      But I am buying the stream    I’ll think about it after I’ve bought it...

Anyway about Kuromyu, my mom said she wanted to watch it too so I watched it again with her yesterday, and she sure had a lot to say 😶 My father pulled this weird face of “what is this even” and I had to see him off halfway 😑 I thought about buying the stream of the final performance, but I guess I don’t need a second viewing. I don’t feel like watching the archive either. I really liked the Kuromyu of until now, my shock is too big.

At the beginning [of the musical] we looked back on Lycoris, Circus and Luxury Liner... kinda like some sort of recap, but I thought “huh?”... now I just want to watch that. I used to like Kuromyu, I really have trouble accepting it this time it’s painful.

But honestly when talking about Kuromyu it’s the Sebas with the superb voice who sung about the dynamic with the little lord full of emotion and built the world view, and for better or for worse the world view of Kuroshitsuji is maintained through Sebaciel, the songs, the directing of Sebaciel, but what happened there. Whether you should watch it or not. The past 3 productions were masterpieces、、、

But Sebas is not Mr. Furukawa, Ciel is not Reo-kun and even Mr. Izumi’s [role] of Undertaker was unfortunately changed, this is the new Kuromyu huh...

I watched the stream of the first performance.

I liked the songs so I checked, and I knew it.

This time has a lot of laughing factors, and I thought it was good it had a fresh cast.

I didn’t expect the cricket scene to be taken that far. I thought it was Tenimyu.

Kuromyu, this time be it the story, script, directing or casting, I thought: “it’s more enjoyable to take up this [musical] while temporarily erasing the memories of until now ～🎶”, and I watched the theatre piece without looking back to the past productions, and that was the right decision   To the people who came to love Kuromyu of until now, it’s safer to watch it while temporarily erasing the memories.

Did Kuromyu turn into Tenimyu half way?! I thought,

and the Elite Musical → 2.5D Musical transformation I also felt

Konishibocchan being cutesy was cute, and the P4′s desperate faces resonated all went by in a flash

Above was the report from the theatre ☺️

I went to Kuromyu

I went into it knowing it’d surely be something different from the past productions so it indeed turned out to be so

There were parts that made me go “erm the script....” and also this part that made me go “was it really necessary to make Undertaker descend into that dream in Act 1 just because you wanted to give him stage time??”

I went into 2 shocks gradually

Sebas doesn’t sing He only sings properly at the very beginning of the beginning Even though he’s Sebas There’s no ending solo Even though he’s Sebas

You’re the ♪ah~a~a~ number-one main character though!! That’s why this one!!! Is the N・E・W production--!!!!

I am in shock

I   A M  I  N   S  H  O  C  K  ANGER!!!

I watched the Kuromyu stream!

It was TOTALLY 2.5D~❕❕😁It was also a school setting and the Tenimyu vibes were strong (laughs)

It’s a bit of a shame that Ciel isn’t played by a child actor anymore, but because he has more stage time than Sebas has this time I caccept it.

Sebas and Ciel’s visuals are also good ~ ☺️ 

It’d be even cooler if they increased the fight scenes with Sebas though.

@ivvy_toshiki [Tateishi Toshiki (Sebastian)’s Twitter account]

Thanks for the hard work in the performance.

Today I saw the “first viewing of Kuromyu” of my dreams 🥀😆 Regardless of what I could say Sebastian’s beauty is from beginning to end spellbinding ☺️  My eyes were very happy. moreover, the songs and the killing were also AMAZING 😍 my eyes were nailed to Sebastian. I want to watch it again 💕☺️  I wish that the performances will go without a hitch until the final performance ❕

I was so happy to see the recap of the past productions

I really liked the Circus Arc (original comics), and even though it was comedy it really dived into the darkness! That was the story I also didn’t expect to see the Luxury Liner Arc So Undertaker, for real... for

Up to the last time there weren’t that many songs in total, but there were songs like I shall become your pawn and sword and the contract that made me go BATHUMP--- I have to rewatch this number!!! It’s a shame that this time there were no songs like that.

#Kuromyu

Calling it the Prince of Cricket is too accurate 😂 They sang and danced so much, the youthfulness was bouncing off it. What stamina they have. #Kuromyu

What’s different from the last time is the strong 2.5D vibe...... Until now the ages [of the characters] were fairly faithful [to canon] and in a good way there was no 2.5D-ness and I could just enjoy it as a proper theatre piece This time both the casting including the music had a strong 2.5D vibe for better or for worse #Kuromyu

Very personally! Matsushita’s Sebas was “heavy as the evil of evil and beautiful”, and Furukawa’s Sebas was  “evil, strong and unapproachable and beautiful and gorgeous”, and Tateishi’s was “light hearted and beautiful and a florid kind of evil”!! (My vocabulary is failing me) All Sebastians have a different aura about them it’s fantastic!!! #Kuromyu

The new Sebas is good

Overall

It’s this arc so that it’d get a chit-chat idol? vibe was within the expectation The cricket of the second half had a bad vibe and I was sick of it It might have been different had I watched it live I don’t like the Boarding School and Green Witch arc that much to begin with I am looking forward to the appearance of the real Ciel That's it for now

I don’t know why I’m mentally dead but it must be that, I watched the Kuromyu stream and I am thoroughly dead, mentally dead, but as I managed to say this I’ve reached a level that I recovered a bit??? I am too tired but I don’t feel like sleeping, but if I doze a bit then I realise my fatigue and feel like sleeping unnecessarily

This time’s kuromyu... erm I guess I’ll quit 🤔

I’ll be rant-puking for a bit

I’ve seen a lot of Tenimyu and A-stage [Mankai A3] but it’s not like I wanted to see that in Kuromyu... What I wanted to see was Kuromyu...

I watched the video of the Kuromyu PV? but it’s impossible. Watching the PV [I thought] children should be played by children... and as I watched their interaction it’s not the character building I had in mind... and there’s no wound on the vice principal’s forehead. I planned to watch the stream of the final performance, but I’m hesitant about spending more money to watch that... If I can’t accept Ciel and Sebastian I can’t watch this, that’s just me...

Now I’ve read the reviews of Kuromyu all are saying it went back to 2.5D, and I think that it’s not worth going after all. It’s probably because the Kuromyus until now far surpassed the quality of 2.5D... I guess it’s fine if one were to go for the cast, but I really loved the Kuromyu of until now.

[grilledcheeseandguavajelly]

EPISODE EIGHT THOUGHTS (spoilers ahead):

Everyone she loves is dying why are they doing this to her why are they doing this to me

That cut scene with her and Gwen by the sea and Mildred in that OUTFIT better NEVER happen. I LOVE that outfit but she better NEVER put it on I swear to all the gods

I love how Gwen just full on went protective girlfriend mode on her in the middle of a restaurant like FUCK SOCIAL NORMS MY WOMAN NEEDS ME

God how many times is Finn Wittrock going to hypothetically die

“What kind of goat?” WOW STAKE ME RIGHT THROUGH THE HEART WHY DON’T YOU

Just to jump back to that sex scene at the very beginning because lord I haven’t stopped thinking about it. The delicacy. The intimacy. It’s so slow and soft and you can practically FEEL IT. And then dear lord in heaven Mildred leaning in the doorway of the bathroom and the “hiya toots” and then DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HER ALL SPRAWLED OUT IN GWEN’S LAP KNEELING AT HER FEET AND GWEN TALKING ABOUT HER BRILLIANT MIND AND MILDRED’S LITTLE BLUSHY SHAKING OF HER HEAD I CANT HANDLE THESE TWO DONT LOOK AT ME DONT TOUCH ME DONT BREATHE NEAR ME

Oh god I knew all of this with Charlotte was too good to be true fuck

HUCK—

Oh god why is Betsy so funny I love her so much I really did not expect this to happen wow

Oh GEEZ Betsy is going through it fuck

OH GOD OH GEEZ OH FUCK OH NO

Andddd that’s where I got so caught up in everything that I lost all rational thought and thought “I’ll just go back and write my thoughts after the fact” and yeah. So.

The episode ended and I fainted. You all think I’m joking but I actually legitimately fainted when the credits started rolling. And I’m still not really comprehending everything or that it’s over or really any of my emotions, so I’ll stop my thoughts here and when I inevitably rewatch it tomorrow I’ll write a proper run through.

Please just know that this was... absolutely addicting and decadent and terrifying in the most thrilling way. And I enjoyed every single piece of it in ways that I cannot even begin to describe

[lordxgrinnyxboy]

rewatching tgm, wifi being useless edition 2/?

every time i hear puppet!Dea say “when a story is raw and real��� i see Mr. Gordon Ramsey memes, they just scroll across my vision and there’s nothing i can do to stop it u-u

ngl im kinda in love with Mojo Puppeteer

the foot shimmy during this scene, like right as Ursus gets up off the floor Gwyn/Mr. Maskell does this little ankle squirm. u-u

foreaaaaaaaaaarmmmmssssss

love how mr maskell doesn't emote w/his face while puppeteering but ms. brisson's just facially so into this performance and honestly so's ms. onitiri

also love all the different bits of ribbon and such puppet!Dea’s hair is made of. several different textures in there

kay but the way he makes the prince puppet kinda bounce in place as he sings “only those three words could ever free me from the curse” it just makes it look like the prince is kindof adorably excited about this

im just now realizing that one part of the puppet is supposed to be the prince’s mouth and not his chin or something.

Dea’s soft “oh” when their hands touch

foreaaaaaarmsssss

Gwynlit always looks so shook as they step back from each other after the aging up sequence like he’s full dear-in-headlights (i know it’s ‘deer’ in headlights but he is Dear to Me so)

and really so is Dea for a second there

oh god her look of alarm  changes to a smile the second Gwyn starts singing. i need a minute.

i love these two so much

the harmony will never not end my life why is it so powerful

idk what they put in this song but every single time my aroace self is like “shfjshfsj play this at my wedding” and then i have to be like “wait.”

Dea’s adorable and i hope she knows how adorable she is

im cry they’re so cute they’re so cute i love these two

Quake is on it about letting ppl know entertainment’s cancelled due to the king dying Quake is ready Quake loves her job so much

oh so  the barrels are just there for Dirry-Moir and Osric to have somewhere to sit while Ursus tells the story okay

wait how quick did dude just throw on his Clarence costume and climb in the coffin that was. super duper fast

he’s literally offscreen for 24 seconds and managed to

holy cats how does he do it

wait also mojo tho. mojo had to put on his priest costume

wait also Osric and Dirry-Moir had to put on their Lord attire

and they say movies are supposed to be magic

just continuing to absolutely love every character played by ms. obianyo

love how they just. have trombones. 10/10

i mean i guess the costume changes aren’t super complicated like throw on a robe and a wig but STILL within 24 seconds? i think it’s impressive

oh hey jojo-as-a-random-lord is also here

ohhhhh is that why Jojo’s costume is Like That then? to make it easier to switch characters real fast? but no actually???

the hats on the lords tho. we’ve got Fish Lord, Bunny Lord,,, maybe some kind of Bird or Chicken Lord...

so it’s a Pig’s Foot that killed Clarence and the name of the holy relic translates to like, “pig’s flower” ...thematic....dots.......

oop there’s Only a Clown

ngl i kinda love Archbishop Kupsak. a weird dude.

would love to know why Angelica thought she needed to ‘make a law’ regarding traitors being brought to justice. just curious about her thought-process. heck she could probably have her own musical.

WAIT MS OBIANYO PLAYS THE TROMBONE. SICK.

wait hey, hey. hey. petition for ms. obianyo to play a FATE.

oh god it’s my least favorite scene

skip? no...but? no u-u

jojo apologize to the trash clown

scene too stressful

genuinely have no thoughts, head completely empty

CART SCENE CART SCENE CART SCENE

is that a bowl and spoon on th-

separate post separate post gentlefolks of the jury i

jaw twitch

okay but Dea gets this Look when Gwyn asks Ursus “who did this to me” she looks a little Surprised

does not react however to “who carved me into this freak”

the hand flex as Gwyn walks away from Ursus after Ursus Won’t Let Him Talk

oh Osric you absolute delight

beauty and the beast ii destroys me every time gwyn’s just steadily wilting but trying to hold on but he can’t and Dea’s so supportive

would love to know what Ursus’ take on all this would’ve been if he hadn’t been involved. like would he still be hell-bent on not letting Gwyn remember or would he have been more chill about letting Gwyn make that decision for himself

like on the one hand i can see why Ursus would think that maybe Gwyn would be better off not remembering, but also making him forget clearly didn’t actually help him suffer any less, it just gave him a different kind of suffering. He’s wrung-out tormented and Ursus can’t/won’t help him because of the potential repercussions of Gwyn learning the truth. which do include some Worst Timeline options for how that could go but. also include a few Gwyn’s Able To Move On And Live Well, With Or Without Ursus options so.

idk i just feel like after a certain point of seeing how Gwyn’s basically falling apart over all this Ursus really should’ve considered having that difficult Discussion bc that boy was Not getting better on Ursus’ Plan A

also the whole dismissively invalidating ur kid’s struggle is not a good look Ursus

i love him and absolutely believe he is definitely Trying His Best but he’s #Problematic_Dad for sure

that bit where Ursus notices Josiana as if for the first time and does that little bow to her oh my goodness XD

also him just trying so hard to keep it together in the lead-up to Born Broken. debating whether Ursus sticking his head through the curtain is the funniest part of this show. probably not but it’s real close

Dea’s so pretty and i love her outfit u-u

and her blue makeup

and her lovely lovely eyes like wow she’s Perfect

this girl is in her element and im fully convinced that in the version of events where Gwyn and Dea stay on as Lord and Lady Dea does some addressing of parliament or whatever, has speaking engagements, she’s all kinds of involved.

there’s tears in Ursus’ eyes during this bit and i don’t agree w/him but i do feel bad for him. he does want to do right by these kids but he’s just...it’s not working out for him because he can’t have it both ways.

i mean genuinely tho Ursus is so desperate to forget/bury/escape/move on from the past but in adopting Gwyn and trying to be a family and a fresh start for him...that shut down any chance of that actually happening.

no but fr Ursus’ face when Dea says “it doesn’t keep us safe, Father, it turns us against you” which is like. probably the exact thing he’s afraid of happening if they ever learn the truth.

*strums lyre* it’s a sad tale, it’s a tragedy!

Musical Ursus is fully a good dude who did one Stupid Thing and spent the rest of his life trying to control the damage only to make it Worse and then he died and i’m so! 😭

at the end of the second 30minutes but im keep going

Dea and Gwyn are holding hands so intently im feeling feelings about

harmonyyyyyyyy

ngl though i wonder if given Ursus’ “dear god, you pick your moments” and “who did what to you” if maybe this is something that’s just been festering and hasn’t been verbally brought up until the show’s events

“What do you want?! BLOOD?!” i mean u did script him as saying he wants to kill a man

“I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know” i mean technically that’s true bc technically Gwyn does know, he just doesn’t remember, which is pretty much the same as not knowing but ayyyyyyyyyy

would love to know what Ursus thought was coming when Gwyn said “I can only tell them what I know I am” like

wait no but “I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know” being followed by “I can only tell them what I know I am” idk how to say but oh heck oh heck oh heck heck oh no.

but yeah Ursus’ little glances at Gwyn and then the Turn as Gwyn starts to sing. i just wonder what Ursus is thinking just then

ohhhhhhhhh wait a minute now. stars stripped from the sky. the play on the lyrics from within Ursus’ show. the conversation they just had. is Freak Show (partially?) a vaguepost at Ursus 👀

no but the Wiggle before that next to last “watch me smile” tho

needs the backbend 🍹

hello Puppet Helmet Thing. i’ve developed a fondness for you, you unexplained and kind of weird yet near-infinitely interpretable element of the show.

and cutting here for length uwu

[phoenixrisesoncemore]

I was tagged by @wangxianbunnydoodles (oh my, this is long and you might regret it; also I don’t follow instructions well 😉). I tend not to be very good at these things (sorry to anyone else who has tagged me in these kinds of things before—this is a rare event happening mostly because I wanna talk about Tolkien books and ships) but here goes:

Top 3 Ships

I don’t actively ship characters that often. I’m not sure why that is. I do enjoy reading fic with pairings either canon or not, but I don’t often go “all in” on ships in most narratives I consume. There are notable exceptions (more than three but these are the three most recent—I have no idea how to identify my top ships):

WangXian (CQL). This is surely obvious from the current state of my blog, right? I blame The Untamed and its impossibly tender, only-subtextual-by-a-hair’s-breadth romance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show express ultimate devotion, deep affection, true appreciation, complete understanding (eventually), and the sheer *necessity of the other* between two people quite like this one has. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen two characters and desperately wanted them together and happy as much as I have these two, so bravo to the cast and crew for generating such second-hand devotion in me.

Silvergifting (Tolkien). This is all @thearrogantemu’s fault. I’d read some Silvergifting before I read These Gifts That You Have Given Me, mostly out of curiosity (some good stuff, too!), but I had never read any Tolkien fic that convinced me it was *true* (on many, many levels, though the ship level is the one pertinent to this post). In any canon-like universe this ship hurts, but in the Gifts universe it hurts the most; it hurts like Hell. It hurts in the way only razor-sharp, sorry-the-universe-works-this-way, oh-are-those-my-entrails-on-the-floor-I-didn’t-even-feel-the-knife tragedy can hurt. And it’s so convincing that it’s just...a fact now. Tolkien just forgot to tell us. So now I ship Silvergifting, but most deeply, specifically THAT Silvergifting. (Meanwhile, 14 year old me continues to look at *significantly* older me like I’m insane.)

ZeLink (Legend of Zelda). Deep down I’m still 12 years old and no amount of fine lines and wrinkles is going to change that. When is Breath of the Wild 2 coming out?

Last Song

I listen to soundtracks and bombastic and dramatic orchestral pieces much more often than I listen to what people mean when they say “songs,” and a significant chunk of the “songs” I listen to are from musicals/operas.

Earlier today it was Hanz Zimmer’s soundtrack to Dark Phoenix (don’t start me up on the continuing disappointment that Phoenix adaptations continue to be to me—you don’t want to hear it; even I don’t want to hear it).

Before that it was Barbra Streisand’s The Broadway Album. (I prefer her outer space cover of “Somewhere” to the actual thing. Fight me.)

Before that it was Carmina Burana (One of my favorite things ever was when we went to a live performance of Carmina Burana and a boy who couldn’t have been more than 7 years old sat in the aisle in front of us and head-banged enthusiastically through “O Fortuna.” It was so metal. You go, kid. You get it.).

Before that it was a splattering of Billy Joel hits with emphasis on “2000 Years”, “River of Dreams”, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, “The Stranger”, and “Only the Good Die Young” (thanks to that outstanding WangXian interpretation!).

Of course the soundtracks to The Untamed/CQL have been on repeat for weeks around here, particularly every single iteration of “WuJi” and the flute-heavy instrumental pieces (man, those are good!).

Not long ago I had Sarah Brightman’s covers of “Figlio Perduto” from La Luna and “Glosoli” and “One Day Like This” from Dreamchaser burning through my iPhone battery (yes, I like popera).

Enya, and especially Shepherd Moons and The Track Which Shall Not Be Named has been on repeat a lot.

Last Movie

I don’t sit down to watch movies that often any more. It just takes too much stillness and undivided attention and more resistance to multi-tasking than I have. The actual last movie that I watched (in a “have it on on another screen while I work” kind of way) was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which, of course, I’ve seen umpteen times and which followed a similar rewatch of the Back to the Future trilogy. The last movie I watched completely without distraction was Book Smart; I don’t watch comedies very often, but I really enjoyed it in an “OMG, I can totally relate to this” kind of way (except for the class president thing—that would have required that I interact with other people my own age and also not be homeschooled). Before that I think it was the Tolkien biopic. Man, I still haven’t written anything about that.

Currently Reading (in order of when I started them)

Oh dear.

The Familiar: part 1, Mark Z Danielewski. *sigh* For as much as I think Danielewski is brilliant and House of Leaves is one of my favorite books ever, I’ve just not been able to get into much of his other work. It’s universally a time and energy investment to penetrate and puzzle through, and I just don’t have as much of that as I used to. House of Leaves makes that investment worth it from early on and is absolutely a page-turner once you settle in, but other than The Fifty Year Sword I’ve just not been able to get into the rest of his work. The Familiar: part 1 is supposed to be the first in a 26 part series which is currently halted at part 4, I think. Without a guarantee of all parts ever being published, I don’t think I’m ready to invest more time into part 1 and may end up abandoning it, unfortunately.

History of The Hobbit, Douglas Anderson. Anderson did what Christopher didn’t and gave The Hobbit the HoMe treatment (if a bit less literal and opaque in format). It’s fascinating (I mean, there’s the Beren and Luthien name drop you were not expecting right there in the first draft), but reading essentially the same passages with only small changes over and over can be a slog, so reading it has been an ongoing project for over a year now.

Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien’s World, Verlyn Fleiger. This is Fleiger’s look at Tolkien’s Middle-earth in light of his association with Owen Barfield. Particularly, she is examining Tolkien’s work in conjunction with Barfield’s Poetic Diction and his thoughts on language and meaning. I have not read Poetic Diction, but I probably will now since it apparently addresses language formation as related to the origin of human consciousness which is SO up my alley.

New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton. My late sister-in-law had a masters in theology from Notre Dame and became a huge Merton fan. Meanwhile, my best friend actually spent a weekend retreat at The Abbey of Gethsemani. Between hearing about him from the two of them, I developed an interest in Merton. I happened to read “Moral Theology of the Devil” a couple of years ago. It was one of the most illuminating theological things I have read and deeply inspired my own Tolkien fic-writing (let’s just say the progress there is otherwise slow). This book is a collection of pieces which happens to contain that piece, and I’ve been skipping around through it for a while now.

The Lord of the Rings reread (Tolkien, obviously). I hate this, but I am so deep in so many critical Tolkien books that I’ve not had the chance to really sit down and relax into my reread for months and months and will likely just end up starting over. Plus I want to read it concurrently with the next entry in this list and the next entry is taking longer to get through because of its format. That entry being:

The Lord of the the Rings: A Reader’s Companion, Hammond and Scull. This is a treasure trove of data and insights for those really wanting to dig critically-historically into The Lord of the Rings on a chapter-by-chapter, passage-by-passage basis. The only issue with it is that jumping back and forth between the two (as you have to: this is a reference book) tends to kill the mood of The Lord of the Rings when read as it’s meant to be read: for enjoyment!

The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture, Gyorgy Doczi. This has been an ongoing read here and there since Christmas, especially as I work on two personal projects.

The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Lesslie Newbigin. To be honest I don’t think I am going to finish this one. I like a few of the things he says, things I think are truthful and which need to be confronted in American Christian culture in particular, but it’s just too much Calvin for my taste, too many assumptions I do not share being the heretic that I am, and I spend too much time anger-notating about theology to read it with grace.

In Full Measure I Return to You, thearrogantemu. This is a reread of the (relatively) happy AU fic for my most favoritest Tolkien fic (Gifts), but I’ve put my reread on hold while I finish one of the two projects, after which I am diving in and screw the rest of this list for the time being.

Food Craving

Sushi. My kingdom for some good sushi. I’ve only had sushi once since we got back from NY and while it was the best sushi I have had locally IT WAS NOT OMAKASE AT SUSHI NOZ. It also didn’t require a personal loan to pay for, but *shrug* I’m spoiled now and will forever crave what I can no longer have.

People I’d Like To Get To Know Better

I hate tagging people in these things because I’m awkward and shy and do them so rarely myself that it feels hypocritical for me to ask it of others. That being said: if you’re a follower of my blog and you want to do this, please do! And please tag me! I’d love to get to know more about you 😊.

[nodesiretogrowup]

alright, round 2

Quack Pack!:

Damn, they just throw you into the sitcom. I love it. All the overacting and over the top poses/reactions are great

Dewey’s entrance is great

Is the bear the one from the last episode?

“I’ve shenaned-once, I’ll shenan-again” BEAUTIFUL

And then he just one-legged hops up the stairs backwards

I liked the Della and Louie are both wearing green. It’s a cute thing to tie them together

ON THE MOOOOOOOOON

Louie totally did this scheme with Dewey in Della’s place at some point

The fact that Scrooge stops to entertain the idea is great

 “We’ve got about...30 mins” I love when shows make allusions to the actual runtime

Beakley and Webby had the BEST ENTRANCE! They must have seen the Lady Gaga halftime show

That dangerous agent stuff is probably gonna come back. Next week is the spy episode so...

“I’m not a spy” I wonder how that worked in the plot of the fake show. Did Beakley do spy stuff? It just doesn’t make sense for a sitcom

From the get-go Huey could tell things were off

WHY DID DONALD HAVE TO MAKE SUCH A SEXY FACE AT THE CAMERA?! I DON’T WANT TO HAVE A CRUSH ON DONALD! CURSE THE DT CREW FOR MAKING DONALD HOT! AND THE SEXY VOICE!

I wish they had just used the Quack Pack intro for the theme this episode

I want Launchpad’s band to somehow exist. I liked the girl’s design a lot

INTRODUCING DELLA!

“QUACK PACK WAS TAPED IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE.” Oh 90s sitcoms

When you rewatch the episode you can see they foreshadowed the twist. Donald looks directly into the camera an awful lot for someone that doesn’t know there even is a camera

Knox Quackington? Even for a show full of punny names, that is a ridiculous name

His outfit looks more “ace reporter” than “eccentric photographer”

“He’s a spy” Do you think Gene was trying to pretend to be a spy for the wacky misunderstanding of the episode in-universe or he just didn’t know how photographers act?

“YOU’RE SO SMALL! But so STRONG!” Webby has probably killed a man

The screen wipes are GREAT, though that feels more like an anime thing than sitcom. Sitcom scene wipes usually were establishing shots of the house they live in or the city. I’ve watched far too much tv

Louie’s lie speil was great and solid logic

“Time is money, kids, and I’d rather spend time because it’s not money” Inspirational

Donald sure cares a lot about the lighting. How would he know the office had the best lighting, hmmmmm

Something about that hand movement makes me think 90s but I’m not sure why

Dewey doing the dance that the triplets do in Mr. Duck Steps Out is cute

The blank pages made me think about how people can’t read in their dreams

“On the moon we had this old saying-always check your pockets” To be fair, that is good advice

Poor Huey just CAN’T catch a break! First he hallucinates a talking guidebook (THAT BURNS TO DEATH AND COMES BACK AS A GHOST) now reality is SHATTERING BEFORE HIM. Yeah...this season’s gonna do a number on this kid. Hopefully he gets a break next week

“Since when are YOU a hairstylist?” “SINCE THE INTERNET” Now THAT is a quarantine MOOD right there 

So we learn later that SHABOOEY is Gene’s catchphrase, is Dewey saying it because he’s being controlled by Gene in that moment? 

Donald looks into the camera again

SOMEONE HELP THIS CHILD! HIS WORLD IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL

THE FUCKING PEP COMMERCIAL! GOD IT WAS SO 90S AND BEAUTIFUL!! I NEED THE SONG TO BE RELEASED! 

Maybe because it was a soda ad in a Disney Afternoon-based show, but the commercial made me think of Coo-Coo Cola from Rescue Rangers

Ducktales-the ONLY Disney show with an in-universe “and you’re watching Disney Channel”

I love Huey dearly but....it’s really fun watching him MCFRICKIN LOSE IT

Dewey can’t throw...because he’s a theatre kid

Donald looks at the camera again

Louie’s wipe DEFINITELY looks like something out of an anime. Is Louie secretly a weeb? I mean he is in a different show

Gene doing his best not to break character. A true thespian through and through

“Yo” *all the ladies cheer*

All of the sudden BAM Launchpad has a band. Is he the Uncle Jesse?

I love that we don’t get to hear them play

“Trapped in a mystical prison that’s constantly laughing at us” I call that my brain :’)

“WHO ARE THOSE LITTLE GUYS?”

“I figured if anyone would crack, it’d be Dewey” Huey seems WAY more likely to snap imho

“But that was from soul-crushing loneliness” Della, you wanna talk about that? With a professional perhaps?

“We need some wacky hijinks!”

“HOW DID I GET HERE? WHY AM I DANCING?” Huey gets SO MANY great lines this episode

And once again we have Donald looking directly into the camera

“Cute girl stuff” Della probably went around with a meat tenderizer as a kid, so it’s normal

Goofy seemed to be aware of the cheering. HMMMMMMM

AAAAAAAAAAAAND.....GOOF TROOP POSE

I’ve been calling DT17 Goofy Chibi Goofy because of how short he is compared to how he normally looks. They probably made him shorter so he and Donald fit in a single frame easier. I know a lot of the boarders/animators for the show have a hard time doing scenes with Launchpad and the kids because of how MASSIVE he is compared to the kids

Goofy knew something was different about Donald. HMMMMMMM

The way Don delivers the line “You CAN help” has a weird inflection, at least to me

I want Goofy thinking to become a meme and people put random sounds over it like those are Goofy’s thoughts

That face-slap was loud

AND DONALD LOOKS INTO THE CAMERA LIKE HE’S ON THE OFFICE

Where was Dewey that whole time? He kind of just...disappears for a bit

Oh Launchpad, you MAJESTIC himbo. And Gene smiles, too cute

“Getting the lid off that peanut butter jar was an adventure” In that household it probably could have

Donald using Louie and Della’s names when he could have just said you broke your mom’s vase or something like that

You look pretty nervous there, Donny-boy

“I don’t mean the last episode” Good, because you kinda lost your mind in the last episode

Wow, flashbacking is TRIPPY

“EVERYONE, TILT YOUR HEAD TO THE LEFT THEN SCRATCH YOUR CHIN” So that’s how you do it

“We should really get back to the plot, I mean problem”

Why don’t you want to flashback, DONALD?

lol Goofy does it too even though he wasn’t present for that event

Gene’s just blankly staring in the background

“REMINISCE HARDER” What you tell yourself as you take a test and are trying to remember what you studied

Yay, the journal is brought up!

“How many lamps did this jerk have?” Excellent question

Webby looks INSANE and Huey FULLY SUPPORTS HER

DONALD HAS PTSD AND NEEDS HELP

I feel like Gene took some MAJOR liberties with Donald’s wish. When I think normal family problems I don’t think of sitcoms. In fact that is the FURTHEST THING from what I think of as normal. Then again Gene is played by Urkel, so that might be his normal

Speaking of, does Gene know that they are all ALREADY in a tv show? How far does this rabbit hole go?

“EVERYONE STOP CATCHPHRASING!” “Is ‘I’m not a spy’ seriously my catchphrase?” You deserve better, Beakley

Of COURSE Dewey’s cool with it...because he’s a theatre kid

DEAR LORD, SOMEONE HELP THIS MAN!

Gene just trying to sneak out. I don’t think he wanted to deal with all that family drama

“HOW MANY MORE SECRETS DOES THIS AGENT HAVE?!” Oh Launchpad. Next week you’ll learn all about secrets and agents and secret agents

Gene feels like what would happen if all of Genie’s pop culture references were limited to the 90s. I LOVE IT

“AGES! The long ago year of 1990!” Well I feel old (born in 91). His eyes after he says it are just AMAZING

Gene being so knowledgeable about what makes great tv is hilarious. Clearly he should have directed the Darkwing movie lol

Seriously though, this really gives us a good look at Donald’s psyche. The guy just wants his family to be safe. But it’s even deeper than that. He wants to be normal, which includes him having a voice that’s easier for people to understand. He’s got a lot of baggage and trauma that needs to be dealt with, mainly how he views himself. Like, fuck

The HURT you see in Della’s eyes when Donald talks about why he likes it there BROKE ME

Huey’s line about adventuring being who they are got me teary eyed

Goofy just shrugs as he walks out

Of course Launchpad was gonna get the multiple dates plot. We’re ALL thirsty for some Launchpad

“Probably at least 3 seasons, plus spinoffs, and I assume they’ll reboot the show eventually.” Lines like this make me think Gene is very aware he is in a tv show

WHY THE FUCK WERE THE AUDIENCE HUMANS?! IS GENE AWARE THAT HUMANS EXIST AND ARE WATCHING THE VERY SHOW HE’S ON?! WHAT IS REAL ANYMORE?!

 “HORRIBLE, FLESH-FACED MONSTERS!” Not gonna argue with that

Dewey is SUCH a drama queen

I don’t like how Scrooge called Gene genie. He told you his name, there’s no need to be rude

POGS

Ok the study date girl kinda reminds me of Laura from Family Matters, but that might just be because Urkel is there lol

How old is Launchpad supposed to BE in the sitcom? I don’t think a 30-something is going on many study dates

“You all seem real nice, I feel bad about the mix-up” LAUNCHPAD YOU BEAUTIFUL HIMBO

OH GOD THE LAURA DUCK IN THE BACKGROUND. JESUS

Beakley and Della telling the dates to find themselves and to be independent SLAYED ME. I was NOT expecting that!

“AH, MY PET SNAKE!” “Louie why would you have this?” “THIS IS A POORLY CONCEIVED STORYLINE!” “Eh, everyone’s a critic.” Louie’s right though, DEWEY would be the one with an exotic pet. Or any pet

Tiny Johnny and Randy

WHY ARE THE HUMAN KIDS’ PROPORTIONS SO MUCH WORSE THAN THE ADULTS?! THEY HAVE GIANT FUCKING HEADS!

 PUT SOME PEP IN YOUR STEP

The ENTIRE SCENE of Goofy and Donald together was SO HEARTWARMING and something we could NEVER GET before this series!  Having Donald and Goofy talk about being parents is WONDERFUL! It’s something we’ve never seen before with these characters. Donald just wants to be normal and Goofy giving a beautiful speech about how there really is no normal so enjoy the candid moments in life. I LEGIT CRIED

OF COURSE Goofy would have the wallet overflowing with pictures, he is THAT DAD. Seeing Max was great. I thought we might see PJ but I SQUEE’D when they showed the picture of Max and Roxanne! I hope they show up for real later on

We get a hint at the OTHER twist here with Goofy actively encouraging Donald to put things back to normal while everyone else that aren’t the Duck family are trying to keep them there

Also, Goofy’s ears have bones

DON’T MESS WITH DONALD’S FAMILY. It will NOT end well for you

Goofy just starts snapping pics, like the true photographer he is

SAX TIME

“LET’S GET QUACKING” It’s no “I AM THE STORM” but still good

AVENGERS CAMERA SPIN

“A lamp in a lamp?” I can’t tell if that is BRILLIANT or lazy. Or BRILLIANTLY LAZY

“YA HA HA HOOOOWIIIIIEEEEE” It wouldn’t be a proper Goofy cameo without the yell

The scorpions got bored and left

 “The sound of no one laughing never sounded SO GOOD”

“BEST EPISODE EVER!” Definitely in my top 5

“Gawrsh, that’s sweet.” *does a cute wave* “Wait, Goofy was really here this whole time?”

Ok, but where was Goofy before then? Did Gene poof him away from something important? I WANT ANSWERS!

I bet they had this bit so people wouldn’t freakout like they did with Darkwing

I love Launchpad just being confused and waving at Goofy. He’s never met the dude before so it’s understandable. But I NEED they to have a proper interaction. THING OF THE PROPERTY DAMAGE!

“Magic’s got NOTHIN’ on a big name guest star” YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN A SHOW!

Lowkey want that Goofy lava lamp

The little Maxes flying over Goofy’s head...ADORABLE

PLEASE TELL ME THEY GOT GOOFY HOME SAFE

Donald using his last wish on the picture made me tear up. He could have had ANYTHING. He could have wished for a normal voice. But he used it for a family memory

Donald and Beakley both looked into the camera for the picture. WHILE FIGHTING DEMON HUMANS.

I can’t lie, THIS was the episode I was most excited for even before we got the premiere date. I was excited for the 90s cheesiness. Then we found out Goofy was gonna be in it and I got even more excited. Goofy is one of my faves, especially Dad Goofy. I was expecting it to be balls-to-the-wall insanity nonstop but they got me in the feels too. I want more of this Goofy and Donald. The two of them being single parents who lost someone close to them. Like I said earlier, this episode is in my top 5 for sure.

[adoranymph]

I’m not a fan of horror.

I’ve acquired a taste for things that contain horror elements, like Stranger Things, which contains moments of comedic heart and compelling character drama in addition to the horror, more so than say something with similarly disturbing horror moments like Alien or Aliens, and Shawn of the Dead, which is a romantic comedy spin on the traditional zombie apocalypse movie. And I’m more than certainly looking forward to checking out Lovecraft Country when it comes out. I’ve even gotten over my squeamishness concerning the face-melting in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the villain aging rapidly and ghoulishly into dust and then exploding in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. 

Actually, one of my favorite movies to watch with my father was the original Predator, probably because it was as much a movie about an alien trophy hunter hunting humans for sport as it was a macho action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. And unlike Alien and Aliens, didn’t involve that oh-so-disturbing means of procreation we all have come to know and love about xenomorphs. Which means that no, much as I’m chill with the Predator, I still have little desire to watch its crossover with the xenomorph menace, Alien vs. Predator, all the way through. Admittedly, I have, in the past, watched clipped reviews of the Alien movies, including AVP and even AVP Requiem, which I think if I had watched in full would have made me sick. Because my curiosity just gets the better of me from time-to-time, and I know that about myself only too well.

And as much I love Michael Biehn in a James Cameron movie, and was touched by the concept of the found-family storyline in Aliens, I just don’t think I can stomach those chestbursters (ha ha).

I can’t even watch John Hurt reprise his role as “Kane” in a parody of his iconic horror scene in Spaceballs, and, like Shaun of the Dead, that’s a comedy! Even more so than Shaun of the Dead! Well, I do watch the part after when the CB sings, “Hello My Baby,” but by that point the parody of the worst part of that scene is over and done with, and there’s nothing but the joy of a dancing baby alien with Michigan J. Frog’s singing voice coming out of it while John Hurt “Kane” laments, “Oh no! Not again!”

And however compelling The Exorcist is in terms of character…yeah no, not touching that.

It is weird though given how far I’ve come in tolerating horror gore, but that’s just not a line I���m willing to cross yet as of writing this.

But back on track.

Sprinkling this in to counter-balance the PTSD I get from the mere thought of xenomorphs.

A few weeks ago, I got a taste for a different kind of horror, and honestly the kind I’ll take over gore in a heartbeat, even if both equally can get stuck in my head to an ugly degree. And that was rewatching M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. Probably because I got it in my head to watch Ari Aster’s Midsommar, and I still needed something else to fill out my creep-factor quota. I thought about backpedaling and watching his film before that, Hereditary, but I already know that that one ends far more bleakly (compared to Midsommar, depending on how you look at it, mind), and I needed something that was creepy and tragic, but had an ending that positively affirmed itself.

Then I remembered that The Sixth Sense sort of did that, and it had been a while since I had seen it, but I remembered it from as far back as childhood, me with my parents, adamantly not understanding how they could be fans of things like Alien and Aliens. More than that, I remember actually being able to enjoy Sixth Sense somewhat, even then. Appreciate it for its horror elements and moments of tragedy, rather than shrink away from it.

So I that’s what I did. And for all that Shyamalan has done (botching the first attempt at a live-action adaptation of Avatar: the Last Airbender chief among them), this one still gets me in the feels. Helps, I suppose, that I faced certain deaths and griefs at a far tenderer age than I was “meant to”, but even so, what Shyamalan does best, he does best here. And probably in Unbreakable and even Split too, but I haven’t seen those, and apparently after all that, Glass got panned so…yeah.

Still, if nothing else, it was fun to remember that Toni Collette was in this, and now that I’ve grown and seen her in things like Little Miss Sunshine, and clips of–that’s right, Hereditary–not be surprised, but no less pleased for her performance. Not only is she in a Shyamalan film that works its earmarks to its advantage, but she sells her character as a single mom at the end of her rope, with both a son, Cole, going through a difficult time that they can’t talk about, considering the kid knows what she’d think if he told her he sees dead people, and haunted by the death of her mother with whom she clearly had a difficult relationship. Not saying that this still couldn’t have worked, but given what The Happening did to Mark Wahlberg, color me double-rainbow impressed.

Bruce Willis too. Plus he had the advantage of working with Shyamalan on Unbreakable. So he probably knew how to play things in either situation. That and it’s honestly not a badly written character, all things considered, any more than Toni Collette’s character was. Or, even if it was, again, he sold it with his performance. He has a handle on subtle gravitas as much as he does going toe-to-toe with Alan Rickman (rest in peace) playing a terrorist.

Picked this one for the nostalgic fondness of, “Rent it on video. DVD’s also an option!”

Then you have Haley Joel Osment as Cole. And again, given he’s supposed to be this awkward kid with the added burden that he can see ghosts when no one else can and they scare him and even if he tells someone no one will believe him, any stiffness that comes with the Shyamalan style makes sense here. Death makes everything…stiff. Moreover, he sells it too. I get a lump in my throat just thinking of that moment when, after he’s at least told Bruce Willis’s character, as his therapist, about his secret, he tearfully demands, “How can you help me if you don’t believe me?”

Then there’s the revelation itself of the probably reason the ghosts come to him in the first place. Even if they’re not appearing to him with any conscious desire, some subconsciousness of their incorporeality compels them.

They need help.

In death, they’re lost, but maybe, as Cole’s still alive, there are loose ends he can tie off that they can’t. Not that he should, or even can–like I’m not sure what good he can do for that deceased housewife who clearly committed suicide to escape her abusive husband–but when he’s visited by the girl who’s mother poisoned her to death in a little fit of Munchausen-By-Proxy Syndrome, and he goes to her wake, finds the tapes that prove her mother’s guilt, gives them to her father, and the father confronts the mother about it, that got me more even than it did when I was younger and still trying to wrap my head around the concept of mothers poisoning their daughters.

That’s when things start to turn around for Cole. It’s still scary, but he takes that leap of faith, if you will, and one of the last times you see him with a dead person he’s conversing with them rather normally. Going over lines with them where he gets to play Arthur in a reenactment of the legend of the sword being pulling from the stone. You don’t even realize they’re another ghost until his teacher asks him who he was talking to and the ghost turns her head and you see the burn on the other side that obviously came from the fire that killed her. There’s just something so pure and honest in that, the idea of not only facing your fears, but doing so for the sake of lost souls who otherwise have no other hope because they’re dead.

After that is the one-two punch feels conclusion.

One being Cole not only confessing to his mother at last that he sees dead people, and her clearly starting to freak out about it, until he tells her that, “Grandma says, ‘hi’.” And communicates to her something that her mother never got to tell her herself. Of course, after thoughts of, “Oh dear lord, my son is insane,”, when the proof that Cole has indeed been talking to her mother’s spirit, that goes out the window in favor of,

“Do I make her proud?”

and she just cries and she and her son hug it out. And again, Toni Collette sells it.

Then you have the revelation of Bruce Willis’s character: he was dead the whole time! His wife wasn’t just distancing herself from him and then maybe cheating on him, he was dead and she was a widow who was simply trying to find love again. A moment of horror, and then tragedy, and then bittersweet letting-go all in the last few frames of the film. There’s the two in the one-two punch.

Not to mention my first experience of a “Shyamalan twist”. One that was set up well. Scenes constructed to lead you into thinking that of course he’s alive, details you glaze over, and then you realize, “Oh sh**.”

Which was probably part of the problem with some of his later works, where the twist became synonymous with his style, so sometimes it felt like they were put in there in future movies of his without any real rhyme or reason other than that the public were expecting them and thus somehow obligatory to the script.

Just as I haven’t seen Unbreakable, or Split, and certainly not Glass, I haven’t seen The Visit, either, though from what I understand, it almost sounds like Shyamalan went back to the same headspace he had here in The Sixth Sense, using the awkwardness that seems to come out in his work to an advantage in the found footage format. And the twist was apparently actually hilarious. Which is nice. Good for him.

Not everything someone makes is going to be a hit, even if they’re getting paid for it. But when things are a hit, sometimes, they hit so well that it can make up for all the misses. Or almost make up for them.

Honestly, Sixth Sense is, ultimately, the only Shyamalan film I’ve seen in full. But I enjoyed it no less this time, in fact, enjoyed it more now that I have a better understanding of death and grief and loss.

Guess that’s kind of a weird thing to say, but it’s that same kind of “enjoy” that comes from feeling like someone understands something about something you understand, and maybe even feel a little bit less alone for it. Not only did I experience a lot of grief as a preteen, but before that, I was the weird one that most everyone else at school generally avoided if not viciously teased, with the exception of a few fair-weather friends. All these elements and story beats used to creepy effect in Sixth Sense, along with that sense that some horror doesn’t so much horrify me as actually make my own life seem brighter rather than darker, made for a viewing experience that I place value in as I write this. (Especially given right now we are all apparently living a Stephen King novel right now.)

  So even if I still can’t handle body horror to the degree of stuff like Alien or Aliens, or David Cronenberg’s The Fly (much as I would love to see Jeff Goldblum in all his 80s hair awkward nerd glory as he romances Geena Davis), there is some horror I can handle. And figuring out why is yet one more thing that I place value in.

Keeping this link up to their donation page!

Sixth Sense Post I'm not a fan of horror. I've acquired a taste for things that contain horror elements…

[misha-moose-dean-burger-lover]

Movie Night (ft. Cas's t-shirt)

THANK YOU for the ask, Dear Anon! I'm very flattered that you enjoyed the last one, and hope this meets your expectations! I WISH I could tag you in this, but you're on anon so.. Anyways, I went for Tuesday movie night idea, and clubbed it with a 'cute t-shirt prompt' I received and it got long AF but please leave a comment if you read and like!

*

"Ahh," Dean let out a perfect sound of exhaustion meeting the plush comfort of his couch. "It's finally Tuesday."

Sam snorted from the side, because his relationship with tuesdays had been kind of a love-hate. Not that Dean ever took him seriously - he doesn't blame his brother, really, because he wouldn't believe Dean either if he told him 'a piano crushed you to death' or any of those other ridiculous ways in which he'd died.

"If you like movie nights that much," Jack added, from the side - he was settled in one of the big chairs, looking more like a kid than he usually did. "Why don't we watch movies on other nights, too?"

Sam leaped to answer, ever ready to squeeze in a lesson for the nephilim. Good values needed to be a part of the upbringing. Children need to be taught by example. "There's an analogy we can use for this, Jack. Say, uh, Dean loves his birthday very much." Dean frowned at his brother. "Because of the pie, and the gifts, and all the beer." Dean shrugged. "So, he wishes on his birthday candles that everyday be his birthday!" Sam paused, and Dean wondered why he spoke as if he was talking to a kid, and not the strongest 2-year-old ever. "But, what happens then, is that he keeps growing a year older on each birthday - that is, everyday!"

Jack looked alarmed. "That's - bad."

"Yeah, because then I'd grow to be 60 in like a month and die." Dean added, in a deadpan.

"It won't take you thirty years to get to sixty." Sam reminded him.

"Shut up, Sam." Dean scowled and turned back to Jack. "Listen, kid, this isn't about all the good movies in the world getting finished too soon, if we watch 'em everyday. It's more about the attitude."

Jack nodded.

"Like, uh," Dean swallowed. "Like our dad always taught me and Sammy, hunters need to live a disciplined life. Can't just start watching a movie whenever, because that'll make your head feel like you're giving it permission to do crap, just like that, without a routine. That's never good for a hunter - even less so, he'd say, for the sons of an ex-Marine. Messes your head up, and takes away your ability to fixate on your decisions." Dean paused. "It's not like I've not watched movies on a Saturday because I wanted to, but the old man made sense - it's just, a routine is better to stick to."

"That sounds like a horrible amount of behavioral psychology to associate to an activity as trivial as watching a movie." Came a new voice, as Cas stood in the doorframe, his head just slightly tilted as his eyes looked straight at Dean.

Dean's exhale was caught in his lungs, and he blinked, staring at Cas with a chest full of air, and still feeling like he'd sink instead of buoyant. Cas was no longer in the trenchcoat and pants - he wore grey pyjamas which fit snug over his thighs, and a t-shirt which had to be new, because holy fucking shit.

He'd have noticed the angel walking around their bunker, wearing a black AC/DC shirt like that - simple, to someone else, perhaps - yet the way it fit over his biceps, widened his shoulders a bit more, and gave an elevated look to his chest because of the smooth descent to a toned abdomen - rendered Dean incapable of looking away. Complete with his hair sticking up at odd angles, hints of a stubble and inspecting eyes focussed on Dean, he looked like the stuff of Dean's (guilty, oh so guilty) dreams.

"H-hey, Cas." Dean cleared his throat, shifting on the larger couch to make space for him. He waved his hand dismissively to disregard all that he'd just said. "Forget about that, it was crap - come sit down." He suggested, breathlessly.

"Look who finally joined us," Sam addressed, in a normal voice and not even bothering to look up again - making Dean wonder why he didn't get all caught up in Cas's t-shirt, like Dean just had. He was unfairly attractive - but not just to Dean, right?

"I'm sorry," Cas replied, as he sat down next to Dean. Not a single part of them touched, since they were on opposite edges of a large couch Dean originally got for Sam and him - but there was still a tingling under Dean's skin, which had to be Cas's fault. "I couldn't find any socks." He turned to Dean, suddenly smiled, and tugged his pyjama up a little to show him the socks he wore. A pair of fucking novelty socks, they were - but Dean found himself grinning mindlessly, as Cas crossed his legs under him, and the visual was taken away from him.

"Of course, you couldn't." Sam inputted. "Dean hasn't been doing the laundry lately."

"Why am I the only one supposed to do it?" Dean threw back, and Sam didn't say anything to it.

"Nevermind." Cas declared. "I found socks, unwashed though they may be. Let us start." He referred to the movie.

Jack had fell silent for a moment, and he spoke up again. "Yeah! What are we watching today?"

At the same time that Sam opened his mouth - probably to drag Dean on how they better not watch something they'd just watched - Dean spoke up. "We're watching The Fellowship of The Ring, today."

"We just watched that on literally the third Tuesday of March -" Sam complained.

"Listen." Dean threw back. "Don't shove your crazy awesome memory with movies and dates, in my face - 'cause my brain forgot the movie already."

"Forgot? You probably can quote it line by line, Dean." Sam frowned. "But I guess you're not satisfied until you flawlessly recite it in your sleep, like Lost Boys."

Dean flashed his best shit-eating grin, and if that's what he was gonna do, he wasn't gonna agree with Sam. "Well, it's what we're watching, Sammy. Deal with it."

Sam narrowed his eyes. "What about Jack? Or Cas? Why don't you ask them if they want to watch Lord of the Rings again?"

"I do." Jack announced, brightly. "I like Frodo and Samwise Gamgee." Sam rolled his eyes. "But, I could also watch something else. I trust Sam's recommendations, after Harry Potter." He added, faithfully.

"Careful, buddy, Sammy's raising your son to be a nerd." Dean muttered to Cas, and he nodded, as if it was a line that needed to be answered with a nod.

Sam grinned like it was victory handed to him on a platter. "He said he could watch something else, Dean."

"What about Cas?" Dean turned to him, rotating in his seat. "Whadd'ya wanna watch, buddy?"

Cas pursed his lips, as if in deep thought. The deciding element. The one who'd tip the scales in the favor of one of the Winchesters.

"It's not Sophie's Choice," Sam grumbled sourly, as if he already knew what Cas would choose.

"Let him think!" Dean shushed his brother.

"I have reached a decision." Cas informed everyone, looking solemnly at the TV, instead of their faces. "We shall watch The Fellowship Of The Ring, tonight." He turned to Sam. "And if there's no hunts and we're at the bunker tomorrow too, Sam's choice shall prevail - that is, if Dean agrees to go against John's sayings and watch a movie on a Wednesday."

"That's fair." Jack grinned.

Dean beamed at Cas, with his little smile and his goddamn t-shirt, which was gonna drive Dean crazy in due time, he was sure. "See, Sam?" He ignored the comment on his father, because it was rare stilted humor, and in a perfect deadpan.

Sam muttered something under his breath which sounded a little bit like 'profound bond' for some reason, and rolled his eyes in defeated agreement, as Dean began to look for the movie.

"Whatever," Sam substituted, not looking up from his phone as the opening credits began to play. "The three of you can rewatch the entire LOTR series if you want, I'll just leave you to it." He shrugged.

"Hey!" Dean was annoyed. This was family movie night. Sam was supposed to be a part of it too. "Lord of the Rings is right up your alley, nerd. Why're you bitch-facing so hard tonight?"

"Well," Sam chewed on his lip. "It's very long, and I wanted to get to bed for an early night."

Dean narrowed his eyes, and hit pause on the remote just as the elves began to narrate. "Why?"

"No reason." Sam stalled. There was an almost familiar edge to his voice and -

Suddenly, it all made sense to Dean. The dots connected in his head, and Sam's reluctance to watch a three hours long movie was suddenly reasoned.

"Why, Sam?" Cas repeated, intrigued. "Are you alright? Do you not feel well?"

"He feels fine. I know," Dean cut in. "He's got a date." Sam's eyes widened before he vigorously shook his head in denial. "Some virtual crap, I bet, because you don't like to get laid, and an actual date may've involved that - but whatever is your idea of a fun time, hey, I'm not judging."

"It's not a date!" He declared.

"Then it's something like it." Dean shrugged, getting surer, with Sam's panicked expression. He knew his brother well enough to read through this cover. "Tell me Sammy, is this a video call with some chick you met online on those awful sites?"

"Dude, no." Sam balked. "I'm on no such awful site to meet chicks."

"Sure, you're not." Dean narrowed his eyes. "Then, who? Because clearly I'm right about the rest of it."

"It's," Sam looked like he didn't wanna continue, would like nothing better than to not finish the sentence. But with Cas joining in on the stare, he let out a subdued, "Uh, Rowena."

There was a stillness in the room. Dean and Cas slowly exchanged a look, and Sam flushed. "Who?"

"We know her, Dean!" Jack corrected, promptly.

"Not like Sam does," Dean shot at his brother, who looked flustered as crap, and it was all Dean had ever wanted from this conversation.

"Dean!" Sam looked grossed out, while it should've been them. He was the one dating a three hundred years old witch. "We're gonna discuss -"

"- if you're about to tell me you'll discuss a case, I swear to call you on your bullshit by calling Rowena right away." Dean challenged, definitely.

"I -" Sam pursed his lips. "I don't need to have this conversation with you, jerk."

"What about the rest of us?" Cas asked, and there was a smirk playing on his lips, which made him all the more attractive.

"None of you." Sam declared, standing up, looking offended. "You are literally infants! Don't breathe a word of this to anyone, Dean, or I'll - whatever, just watch your frigging movie, I'm out of here."

"If you're gonna do stuff, use headphones!" Dean waited until Sam was far enough to not hit Dean for it and yelled after him, as the latter marched out of the room, embarrassed. It was his duty as the older brother to make that happen, so no issues there. He turned back to Cas, grinning at him - and Jack, of course.

"The rest of us are here without the intention of leaving halfway to call a chick, right?" Dean asked, though it was a pretty stupid question for Jack - and if the answer were yes for Cas, he'd have a major-ass freak out right there.

"Right." Cas confirmed, for some reason; his voice rich and gravelly, and Dean's attention was once again taken by Cas's t-shirt - now that his kid brother was sufficiently out of the picture. True, Jack was still there, but that's a different issue. Dean had to hold a reputation in front of Sam, that he could control his senses in the presence of Cas, and that he could rein it in, and that he could do a lot of things which he was very far from, in reality.

"Me too." Jack announced, brightly, and Dean rolled his eyes.

"Jack, you're two." Cas informed him, and Dean had to stifle a snort at the very notion. Nevertheless, he toned down the weird, made himself comfortable in the couch - maybe shifting a little towards the middle, and let out a small, content sigh, for the second time this evening.

He hit play.

*

“Why do we keep making the same mistake?” Dean groaned, his head falling back on the sofa. Once again, like every tuesday ever - they’d forgotten to get food before they sat to watch the movie. Now, around half an hour in, it was all Dean could think about. But getting up seemed like an awful chore.

Cas nodded his head in agreement, grave and earnest. “It’s because we don’t learn our lesson.”

“Dean, do you want to learn said lesson tonight, by not eating?” Jack asked.

“No.” Dean glared at him. “I may be around Mr. No-Food, and Little-to-no-food, but it isn’t wearing off on me.” They’d not paused the movie to have this discussion, so he kept his eyes on the screen as he spoke. “As a human, I have a few simple needs. Such as beer and something like popcorn to chew as I watch a classic with my - I mean, with you guys.”

“Okay." Cas shuffled in his seat, beginning to stand up. Dean frowned instantly, and pulled him down, gripping his wrist. Cas easily succumbed, and was back on the couch with a surprised little bounce - looking at Dean, confused. "What? I'll get you the beer and popcorn, so that you don't have to get up. I can obviously see you don't want to."

Aww, Dean's brain melted.

"Nope." He said, out loud, popping the 'p'. "You don't need to do that. I'll go."

"I volunteer, Dean. It's not about need," Cas protested. "And you enjoy this movie more than I do."

"Sure, but I've watched it a helluva lot more too." Dean raised his eyebrows, and Cas smiled a little, one of those smiles that he reserved for Dean, and made his insides flutter.

"We could just pause it." Jack suggested, not looking away from the TV yet, for the entirety of the conversation.

"No, you keep watching, there's no need," Dean excused, standing up himself, smiling in spite of himself. Cas looked at him, and not at the screen.

"Dean," And that wonderful voice of his swept over Dean's brain and made the puddle vaporize or some shit.

"Yeah, Cas?"

"I could keep telling you what's happening, while you're in the kitchen." Cas proposed, breaking into a wider smile, all crinkly and toothy.

"Aww, Cas," Dean couldn't stop himself in time, staring blindly at Cas's face and short-circuiting in his head. And instantly cleared his throat, and added in a more composed tone. "Okay, you do that. Thanks, I guess."

Dean wondered, as he walked into the kitchen and went looking for the bacon he'd made earlier, what was up with him tonight. He was usually able to hold his tongue in front of Cas - he was usually able to look away from him, even though it took some persuasion. But there was something today, that had taken away his brain-to-mouth-and-eyes filter.

Must be the new shirt.

Dean knocked, obnoxiously loud, at Sam's door before barging in with a plate of bacon and a beer. He saw Sam fast asleep, on his front, and did not know where to go with that, so he left the table at his bedside in case he was going to wake up and resume his midnight call or something.

Then he took the rest of the food and two beers and went back to the movie room.

All through his venture, Cas had kept yelling updates through the door. "Merry and Pippin just hugged Frodo!", "And now, Frodo just met Bilbo again!", "Arwen is speaking with Frodo now!" This had made Dean grin so hard, that he almost dropped the dishes. Damn, Cas was awesome.

As Dean handed him a beer, and put the plate of bacon between them on the couch, Cas whispered to him. "And Arwen just kissed Aragorn, son of Arathorn."

And Dean stared at Cas, his blue, blue eyes and his eyebrows pinched together in concentration, and his crinkled nose - and his goddamn voice, and his way of speaking, and how he just said the words 'Aragorn, son of Arathorn' like an entire fucking dork, and how adorable it was that he'd been doing a live-commentary for Dean, and just - he was almost overpowered by a desire to kiss the perfect little smile tugging at his lips, and palm the stubble-covered cheeks, and maybe, if Jack weren't here, pull that gorgeous fucking t-shirt over his head, because it was distracting.

Dean was instantly taken aback by his own stream of thoughts. He was clearly going crazy.

He could bet it was the fault of the shirt.

*

Okay, but at this moment, Dean needs the remote.

And it's not just because the remote is on the other side, next to Cas, and Dean's brain instantly launches into a scene in his head, when Dean asks for the remote and Cas is too comfortable (he's already holding onto a large cushion like it's a blanket) to move, and he tells Dean to take it himself - and then Dean will have to lean over Cas to get it, and there'll be a moment where he's almost on top of him, and they'll happen to look at each other, and Cas's eyes will flit down to Dean's lips as Dean adjusts himself to reach the remote, on Cas's lap, and maybe Cas says something like -

That's enough.

Dean doesn't need the remote so that something like that plays out in reality. He only needs the remote to lower the volume, because Jack is asleep and he'll wake up otherwise in the war scene and noise that'll follow.

But this way or that, he can see the said scene happening.

Maybe there's a part of him which wants it to happen exactly how it happened in his head.

Maybe it will.

So, with more energy than the sentence needed, he says, "Cas! I need the remote!"

And Cas turns his head to look at Dean, an incomprehensible expression.

But instead of saying a variation of, 'take it yourself' like he was really, really supposed to -

He picks up the remote with his left hand and hands it to Dean simply.

Dean stares at it for a moment, everything forgotten, especially the reason why he needed the remote in the first place. And then he kicks himself for being a goddamn teenage girl about this, and plays off the disappointment with a 'thank you' in the manliest voice he can conjure, and he's pretty sure it makes up for the kind-of-but-not-really pornography he'd been dreaming up. Sam's irritating voice nags in his head, you're confusing reality with porn again.

Of course, Dean is too lost thinking and staring at Cas sideways when he's sure Cas can't see him - to remember to lower the volume, and Jack wakes up with a jolt at the Uruk-Hai screeching at Gimli the dwarf.

*

Jack's going off to his room. The movie isn't finished yet, but he's been dosing off throughout and Dean can't tolerate the insult to the Classic, so he tells him to just go off to sleep. It's been a long day.

"Will you both watch it whole?" Jack asks groggily, before leaving and Dean looks enquiringly at Cas. He only has to turn his head a little, because Cas is much closer to him now. They've both gravitated towards the middle.

"Of course." Cas answers. "Unless Dean needs to sleep." Dean shakes his head confidently, and Jack nods.

"Okay, goodnight dads." He mutters, at least it sounds like it, and Dean would've lost it if Cas's slight weight leaning on his arm weren't grounding him to his current location instead of somewhere panicky in his head.

"Goodnight, Jack." Dean lets out, and he's aware it doesn't sound as constipated as he thought it would, and he's proud of it.

"Dean." Cas speaks up, a moment later. "I think we should turn off the lights."

"What?" Dean blinks, mildly.

"I know neither of us will want to get up later." Cas justifies. "So we might as well do it now."

"Can't you," Dean grumbles. "Can't you use your mojo to push the switch, or..?"

Cas sighs. Then blinks, and the entire room goes dark. Cas's eyes open, and they're gleaming like blue halos of light in the suddenly dark room - and Dean can still make out his face, in the light of it. It's all hard lines and small smiles, from the little he sees. "I need to remember I can do these things, don't I?" He mumbles.

"Yeah, our human incapabilities are wearing off on ya." Dean tells him and they start looking at the screen again.

"You're not incapable if you have to stand up to turn off the lights." Cas replies, and Dean just hums in response.

A little later, Cas speaks again, and he sounds happier almost. "Dean."

"Uh-huh?" Dean looks away from Gandalf on the screen, to look at the angel.

"Did you notice Jack kept falling asleep?"

Dean pauses. "Oh." He smiles too, it coming over him all of a sudden. "Yeah."

"That means," Cas's tone is bright, and Dean can hear his smile. "He's enough human to fall asleep in the middle of a movie, again."

"Human incapabilities strike again," Dean teases, and Cas chuckles audibly and it's a really, really good moment. Although yeah, it's a bit too domestic for Dean to be perfectly at calm - Cas and he are sitting in the dark, watching a movie they've watched so many times before, discussing the progress of the nephilim they've been raising (with Sam, of course) and Dean has his hand around Cas's seat - in what he now feels guilty on realizing is the oldest trick in every guy's playbook. They're both more in the middle of the couch than not, and the beers have been drained to the last drop. One of them doesn't sleep, the other won't - and then there's Cas's perfect t-shirt, which shall drive Dean to madness each time he sees it, and beyond.

*

Slowly, the arm which is on the couch, falls on Cas's shoulder - and it's a rather rapid course from there to it being slung around Cas, with Cas tucked under it and leaning into Dean so that it's comfortable.

It's not that Cas's head is on Dean's chest, or not even that his fingers are playing with the fabric of Cas's shirt - its just that they're so close to doing that, and somehow Dean can't pull back this time.

Like, he suddenly realizes, he's been doing forever.

It's again, a good thing that he pretty much knows LOTR scene by scene, and in spite of almost completely being distracted by everything Cas, he answers all trivial questions Cas mumbles at him in that deep, deep baritone - and there's a heat pooling in Dean's insides, and he can't quite place if its the spot behind his ribs, or further south.

Both sounds most appropriate.

*

Dean is not proud of this, but he fell asleep.

It's not that he didn't finish the movie, because he did - he remembers the last scene (or it could be from a previous watching that he recalls it) but it's just that he fell asleep right there. Next to Cas.

No, not even next to him. Pretty much wrapped around him. And somehow that's - not so wild, after all. It kinda feels awesome. Its not even morning yet, so he has more hours.

He wakes up with his hair tickling his breath and coughs mildly when he realizes that he'd buried his nose in Cas's hair - and his lips on his head, apparently. He straightens, but is sure to not make much movement - because Cas doesn't sleep like they do, he rather drifts off to a sorta-catatonic state but stays very much awake and alert. He doesn't want to wake Cas up, because the angel looks so comfortable, nestled on Dean's chest - that it somehow invokes a feeling of pride in him.

And love.

And that's that. The not-freaking-out segment of this story abruptly comes to an end, and Dean clenches his fist to stop himself from beginning to tremble.

He ends up with a fistful of that goddamn shirt which Dean blames for everything in that night, and Cas stirring awake, and straightening. The weight rested on Dean's abdomen is lost, and it feels weird and colder.

"It's seven minutes to four. Ante Meridiem." Cas announces, in a voice which is roughened by lack of use.

"You should go back to sleep." Dean begs, because Cas doesn't need to see Dean get anxious about the whole pile of feelings he's beginning to feel crushed under.

"Dean." Cas says, in that voice, and straightens some more. He's at Dean's height again, and their noses are inches apart, and Cas looks worried about him. "Dean?" He repeats, and he's concerned, and he's perfect, and his voice is something else, and the way he looks at him is something else like Dean is worthy of all his attention somehow - and the emotions are brimming and he doesn't know what to do with them until he -

He jerks himself ahead, and grabs Cas's shirt for good measures, pressing his lips against Cas's.

It's a moment of bravery, it's a moment of impulse, and it's a moment of utter stupidity because Cas doesn't react -

Until he does, and he kisses back, and he's excited and into it and Dean's taken aback by his vigor and in awe of his own hands which are grappling at Cas's t-shirt for friction as he moans into Cas's mouth.

"I blame the t-shirt," He whines, when they pull away, to look at each other better. And he does.

Of course, he's not an idiot (except for the many times that he is). But what he definitely isn't, is dense enough to not realize that this had been over ten years in the making.

These urges were familiar, and suppressed each time - the sudden feelings were overpowering, except he'd learn to deal with them tactfully, by crushing them with every means possible.

But what had changed today and he'd actually acted on it instead of swallowing it, had to be the tee. It fit like magic, and it perfectly showcased his lean, muscled chest - and gave a peak of his collarbones, and if he stretched, his obliques - and it was as black as his hair in the dark, and ah, it had to be the shirt.

Because otherwise, he didn't know what it could be, that had made tonight - today - this.

Cas still had his hand on Dean's bicep. "This one?" He looks down at himself. "I got it from your closet months ago."

"What -"

"And, you blame it?" He repeats.

"No," Dean shakes his head, anxiously, truthfully as he captures his lips in a kiss again. Slotting in place against each other, and as loving as they were passionate - he had had no idea that kissing Cas would be this amazing. "I love it. I'm gonna need you to keep wearing it. On Thanksgiving, I'm gonna be thankful for it."

Cas laughs against Dean's lips, and says something which is lost in the bliss of the moment.

Nevermind. He has all the moments after this, to listen to him. But he only has this one, at the end of a Tuesday movie night, to enjoy their first kiss (he's pretty sure all the short, little kisses just make up one major kiss). So he does.

*

Edit: Thank you for reading! Would like to tag @iamcharliebradburylevelperfect @awkward-penguin-in-a-trenchcoat @all-or-nothing-baby @styggtroll @notyoursweetbaboo @moderatelypanickedbisexual @but-for-the-gods-three-days and @emmii4 ! If you don't wanna be tagged, I'll remove you from the list, just ask! Have an awesome day!

[onepunchmiss]

OPM S2e11 Live Blog

“The Varieties of Pride”

I left work an hour early just to watch the episode sooner and of COURSE I GOT STUCK IN TRAFFIC FOR AN HOUR because the universe BE LIKE THAT. But guys holy shit this is the second to last episode of the season. So much shit is about to go down. I’m eerily calm and concerning myself soooo uh without further ado I’mma WATCH

As always I’m watching from the perspective of someone up to date on the manga and web comic!

Ok so we’re picking up exactly where we left off, but I mean how could we not, really? And Garou still looks beautiful and I still cri evr tim KEK Glasses looks SO out of place like his fists arent even raised when everyone else is pointing a weapon ar Garou like dude?? Every time Garou laughs I gain a year of life btw, also god damn he’s really drawn SO WELL here, pls pls pls treat Genos with the same respect my bby boy pls 

“Where are the S class heroes” oh dear be careful what you wish for…………………. asdfghjkl “any kid who heard you would be so let down” IDK GAROU ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT. ARE YOU. ohohohOH OH OH THE STAIRCASE!!! THE CRUEL STAIRCASE!! AH ok opening theme who it gon b this week 

ASDFGHJKL  A CHIBI GAROU IN THE OPENING IM IN LOVE 

Oh no these flashbacks are going to be heartbreaking, but at the same time I cant not see a bunch of Geryuganshoops asdfghjkl ohhh oh no Garou no Garou is literally me I was that child this is personal and it hurts stopppp I just wanted Wile E Coyote to catch road runner once JUST ONCE I was SO that kid  im- also what the hell kind of show is ‘Justice man’ why does the monster sound so sympathetic like, IM JUST TRYING TO STOP OCEAN POLLUTION TOO yall fuck just Justice Fire Kick me to the face too i guess 

AAAAAAAAA IM SCREAMING GO MY BOY KICK ASS THIS IS LIKE THE EXACT MOMENT WHERE GAROU OFFICIALLY EARNED MY COMPLETE RESPECT IN THE FIRST PLACE THEY THINK THEY GOT HIM AND HES JUST LIKE WELL ACTUALLY FUCK YOU IMMA POWER UP BITCH AND I AM LIVING SEEING IT IN MOTION MY BOY asdfghjkl”like im not allowed to have one? talk about discrimination” son I love you THIS IS AMAZING THIS WHOLE THING IS AMAZING 

BEHOLD the exact moment u shit ur metal pants, fool

IM JUST SCREAMING THIS WHOLE TIME I DONT HAVE WORDS THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ANIMATION IVE SEEN ALL SEASON JC STAFF DOESNT SUCK THEY JUST POURED 100% OF THEIR TIME INTO THIS FIGHT 

WHOAH calm the fuck down there smiley face man?? I’m SO GLAD they made him look crazy a bit cause I honestly didn’t even notice him just nonchalantly suggest to kill him the first read through, holy shit fuck ????? 

THIS IS JUST SO GOOD IM SCREAMING HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I WANT TO SCREENSHOT EVERY SINGLE FRAME ITS ALL SO GOOD 

WHAT IS THIS

WHAT IS THIS

A GLASSES FLASHBACK 

I THOUGHT IT WAS AN OMAKE OR???

WHAT IS THIS 

WHAT

OH MY GOD HIS VOICE?? IM,,, BABY NO AND SAITAMA??????????? WHAT THE FUCK AM I WITNESSING RIGHT NOW  

AND THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT LIMITS ST O P 

SADFHGJKLKJMHNGBFVCXCVBRGHNTYMJ<KUMJYNTBRVECWRVTBYUMIKMYNTBRVECVBTNYUMIYNTBRVECVRBTNYUM

I CANT BELIEVE THEY PUT THAT IN THERE WHAT THE SHIT FUCK 

OH GOD

I THINK IM GONNA LITERALLY CRY THIS SCENE GETS ME EVERY TIME I READ IT LIKE I JUST REREAD IT THIS MORNING BUT-----

oh no its happening. im crying ok oh dear lord 

I just…. love him so much … holy shit… ah the laugh, +1 more year life, and again oh no im becomming immortal ahhhh

ASDFGHJKL FUCK “YOU GOT ISSUES BROTHER” GODDAMNIT U READ MY MIND GAROU PLS

Oh my god. The voice sound effect here. just everything about this. Oh my god. I’m so shook holy shit shit ----- ‘Oh your still alive’ WELL ILL TELL U WHAT I AM LIVING RN SO YEAH oh no and Garous little slightly heartbroken hand gesture as Tareo screams and runs and then he just starts limping away gasping for water and then 

ASDFGHUJIKL GENOS 

WAIT CAN SOMEONE GIVE GAROU WATER FIRST THO 

I DONT KNOW IF IM EXCITED OR HEARTBROKEN RIGHT NOW HELP the MUSIC is so INTENSE and GENOS LOOKS SO COOL IM SO FULL OF EMOTIONS AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM IS CONFLICTING OH NO 

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT THIS ANIMATION HOLY SHIT OH MY GOD OH MY GOD EVEN THE STILLS OF THE SMEAR FRAMES LOOK FUKKIN AMAZING GOD DAMNIT

wow ok saitama and king right ok gonna pause and give my heartrate a second to come down holy shit. I’m gonna watch and rewatch this episode 2000000 times I know it oh my god. phew. ok. ok. moving on 

Saitama just keeling over and SCREAMING is me 24/7 HOLY- omg I’m dying thank you opm for being a glorious mix of BADASS and PEAK COMEDY ASDFGHJKL WHAT IS THAT FACE SAITAMA this is so good. How long have they been there playing games anyway?? Aww King being concerned for Genos’s safety thats so sweet?? Also Saitama worrying very subtly I love them so much I cri 

AH THERE GOES MY HEART RATE AGAIN OK asdfghjkl THE watchdog Man movements!!! LOOK!! SO !! COOL!! Ouch ok I love seeing Garou smile but not while pinned to a tree like that no nope I dont like it not one bit oh no 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

THERE IT IS THERE IT IS THERE IT IS THERE IT IS OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ohhey its flowey undertale 

ASDFGHJKL OK Genos looks so cool I just IM so GLAD im just so happy I cant Also IM LOVING ANIME GAROU WITH THE RED its just SO GOOD  phew phew asdfghjk just EVERY SINGLE SHOT OF GAROU IS SO PERFECT EVERY. SINGLE. ONE 

BANG ASDFGHJKL BANG OH MY GOD I WAS SO CAUGHT UP I FORGOT wtf this music is so funky i love it??? Holy crap??? 

This looks soo good I am alive I am living is this the thrill of life ?? ? Oh my god. This music is killing me this is so intense, I don’t want it to end here. Bang is also drawn SO BEAUTIFULLY here everyone in the whole episode is WAIT

WAIT

I DO NOT REMEMBER THIS FLASH BACK 

THIS IS NEW 

OH NO 

ASDFGHJKL GODDAMNIT SOURFACE 

One, Murata, JC, why did you do that. that was cruel. It hurts. i wasn't prepared. I mean im never prepared but like ESPECIALLY not for that just tear my heart out just tear it out i dont even need it please just JUST 

oh no, you cant end the episode like that 

please come back 

wh-what about my favorite dopey bird man

please 

wha

what am I looking at what is this end card “The wiping of the disciple’s butt” is that really how thats translated?? What a fukkin roller coaster 

So this was by far my favorite episode of the season to date. I know a lot of people were worried about the animation quality and just overall quality JC staff has been putting out thus far, but I think it’s clear why the rest of the season has been average majority of the time. They spent. All the time. And budget. on. This. Episode. Every Character looked beautiful. The animation was fluid, not too blurry, not too flashy, well paced, and with high quality art. I just. Oh my god. I’m in denial right now that the season only has One episode left. Just 24 minutes more. Until WHO KNOWS when. Whos gonna cry with me next week? pls im gonna need like 100 shoulders my weak heart. ahh shitttttt

Side Note: DID YALL HEAR ABOUT THE OPM GAME COMING OUT??? I swear I JUST had a conversation with @joyandeggs last week about how they could make a game and what it should/could/would entail, AND LO, I HAVE BEEN BLESSED 

June 2019 is a BLESSED month for me regarding OPM the past few weeks have been an OVERLOAD

[awfullybigwardrobe44]

Little Prince Caspian (movie) things

Here is my stream of consciousness from rewatching Prince Caspian. IDK if anyone will take the time to read through this lol but here it issss

-Queen Prunarismia, upon delivering and being handed her newborn baby, immediately checks with eagerness (and anxiety?) to see if it’s a boy.

-Susan sits by herself at school. She prefers to be left alone.

-the look of fear on Lucy’s face, and disappointment in Susan ‘s, when Peter is fighting.

-Peter’s desperate look at them when he sees them and realizes they must be disappointed.

-“Act your age” -Security guard to Peter

-it’s weird for me because Ed and Lu changed so much between movies. Ed’s voice obviously got deeper, but Lucy’s did too. She seems SO much older.

-Lucy falling in the water on the beach was probably Georgie falling in real life let’s be honest

-the Cair ruins are SO PRETTY.

-Pevensies running barefoot through the castle ruins

-OK BUT MIRAZ’S BABY IS REALLY CUTE

-I loooooove the Spanish accents.

-“Abducted....... by NARNIANS.”

-the Telmarines calling Narnians “fairy tales” ohhhhhh the irony

-Ok but? Peter does this thing with his head when he’s looking at his statue in the treasure room? He almost shakes his head? As if to say “I can’t believe that was me” or “why am I not like that now”???

-Ed turning away to laugh when Peter includes “The Magnificent”

-Ed’s smile when Peter tells the DLF that Ed will fight him

-the little embroideries on Caspian’s night shirt :)

-parallel between Badger believing Caspian is going to save them and Beaver believing the Pevensies were going to save them

-Pevensies in the history textbooks

-Abcient professor, having studied the Pevensies his whole life, suddenly has an arrow from QUEEN SUSAN in his OFFICE??? (Miraz stabs it in his book)

-his smile. The look in his eyes. The HOPE. The TRIUMPH. The SMIRK.

-that shot. The one looking up into the sky from the water. With the sun and the boat. And the music.

-I love how Lucy and Susan’s hair get frizzy when they’re on the water in the boat. Like? Same. Yet they still look like angels

-Lucy just wants to talk to the friendly Bear!!!

-Peter brandishing his sword and hugging Lucy with the other arm

-the way the Narnian theme turns minor as it shows the steep cliff drop off

-Lucy’s smile when she sees Aslan.

-Lucy trying not to cry after seeing Aslan and Edmund looking all compassionate

-the little lights in the trees during the council meeting in the woods with Caspian

-I REALLY LOVE CASPIAN’S ACCENT WHY DIDNT THEY KEEP IT

-How did no one see the Pevensies hidden behind the log? Susan’s red arrows stick out like a sore thumb

-Parallel between trebuchets at Beruna and the leftover ones at Cair that Ed notices

-The gorge is so prettyyyyyy

-Susan and Lucy’s late night girl-talk about Aslan. I love it. Susan deferring to Lucy as the expert on Aslan...

-The way Lucy’s little head whips around when she hear’s Aslan’s growl

-I have always loved the parallel between Lucy’s expression in LWW when she sees the Dryad and when she sees one in PC- same expression of wonder

-The way the whole dream scene happens in semi-slow motion- exactly like a dream

-”Dear one.”

-”Certainly Lu. Whatever you like.” -direct book quote

-One of the fauns looks like Martin Freeman and it’s throwing me off

-Why did they feel they needed to make Peter angry and prideful... the looks he and Caspian exchange... why can’t my smols just play nice

-Caspian and Peter walking ahead and talking strategy

-Lucy walking with Reep

-BABY CENTAUR alskd;jf;klsjdkl cute

-in that famous scene where the Pevensies walk forward and Caspian stays behind during the centaur salute- Peter and Susan step forward first, then Edmund and Lucy

-UMMMMM?????? I think Susan is crying when they see the Stone Table in the How????????? Feels?????

-When they see the Stone Table I love that it’s Susan and Lucy in the center, staring at it just as they did so many years ago when Aslan rose again...

-Caspian’s look of dejection when he realizes that Peter is High King and he has to call the shots (I still hate that he and Peter’s relationship is like that but good acting on Ben’s part)

-When Peter asks Glenstorm for help, Glenstorm shares a look with Caspian.

-Edmund getting dropped at the castle first... because he has a torch!

-Parallel between Pevensies flying in by gryffin and WWII bombers...

-the muted trumpet/bugle theme for Reep and his mice!

-Susan taking Caspian’s side against Peter when Caspian wants to go find his professor <3

-when the guard accidentally turns the torch on and it shines in his face. Same, dude. Same.

-Edmund canonically calls Peter “Pete.”

-Oh. my. goodness. “Exactly WHO are you doing this for, Peter?” when in the first movie, it was “For Narnia, and for Aslan.” Really shows the error he’s made. He really has given up hope on Aslan. (Again, not saying that I like this change to his character AT ALL but this was a cool way to show it if they HAD to go in that direction...)

-THEN he says “For Narnia.” (but not for Aslan...)

-The Minotaur holding up the gate :’(

-The smile in Edmund’s eyes before he falls backward onto the gryffin

-Peter crying as he see’s what he’s done with the Narnians getting trapped and Susan crying too I can’t

-Lucy. Sitting on the stone table, all alone. While the others are fighting. Holding her healing cordial, wishing she could be there helping. And the significance of her being “near” Aslan when she’s lonely and sad waiting for the others to get back.

-When the Telmarine lords are pledging their troops to Miraz as he’s getting crowned one of them says “Etinsmoor” which sounds a lot like the castle from Hamlet I think??? lol.

-Miraz’s sick cape flip as he walks up to the throne

-parallel between the Stone Table music from LWW and the summoning of the witch music in PC

-ok the Hag is seriously creepy

-The witch’s ice and the witch herself appear in the big archway where Aslan appeared in LWW. Nice parallel. Like she’s coming between them and Aslan...

-You can see Caspian’s breath when the ice appears

-Lucy using her dagger and being ruthless 

-The witch telling Peter he “can’t do this alone” YEAH BUD YOU CAN’T WHICH IS WHY YOU NEED ASLAN NOT HER???

-Edmund breaking the ice. Yeaaaaaah buddy character development

-The shot of the Aslan statue in the background

-Susan’s look of disappointment at Peter and Caspian

-After all this time I think Caspian is still wearing his nightshirt....

-Is... Is Peter looking up at the Aslan statue with tears in his eyes?

-Parallel between Lucy’s “Susan! you’d better come quickly!” and Edmund’s “Pete... you’d better come quickly.”

-UMM Miraz is riding a WHITE HORSE and the horse’s HELMET HAS A UNICORN HORN UMM IS HE TRYING TO BE PETER

-I’m sorry but Edmund walking towards the Telmarine camp carrying a plant as a peace offering

-Susan is NOT impressed with Caspian’s behavior. Giving him the cold shoulder. 

-Susan. Facing the Telmarines. Alone. The director said they had horsemen ride at Anna full-force and she never flinched. 

-Susan’s little smile as she swings up onto the horse with Caspian.... (I’m not a hardcore Suspian shipper but awww)

-Edmund resetting Peter’s arm

-Caspian. with tears in his eyes as he chooses not to kill. 

-Miraz dies with Susan’s arrow stuck in him- like the arrow he took to the Professor’s office earlier- “superstitions”

-This time during battle it’s the Telmarines dropping rocks and not the Narnians like in LWW

-I can’t ever watch Susan pull an arrow out of her quiver without thinking of that blooper lol

-Edmund with a crossbow yeeeeaaahhh

-Peter says “Lucy” and Susan reads his lips from that far off and shakes her head

-and THEN when the trees come in, Peter’s cry is FINALLY “For Aslan!”

-Lucy pulls out her dagger and then makes this EXPRESSION like COME AT ME Y’ALL 

-Aslan and Lucy just look at each other

-the symbolism between the Telmarines trying to control the Narnians or deny their existence and their building the bridge across the river- and then Aslan unleashes the RIVER DUDE and Narnia fights back

-Meeting Aslan, Susan looks afraid to meet his eyes

-The little bit of a growl/sternness in Aslan’s voice when he’s talking to Reep who is being a touch prideful

-When Reep is giving all the reasons he needs a tail, Lucy looks to Aslan and smiles and Aslan looks to Lucy and smiles. All these looks really show that thing the book says that “Lucy understands some of his moods” or something- she knows him best

-”Where is this dear little friend you’ve told me so much about”- Did Lucy tell Aslan about him on the way to Beruna? 

-Lucy still has waves in her hair in the parade scene and I’ve always wondered why but maybe it’s still from her braids from the beginning of her movie?

-Fireworks at the castle again- for a very different reason

-The look between Aslan and Susan. 

-I think you can hear Aslan say “world” to Susan and Peter- like “your world”?

-Susan’s shy little smile as she looks back to her family after KISSING CASPIAN

-maybe i’m just imagining it but I’ve always thought that Aslan was mouthing “bye” to Lucy at the very end when she looks back to him

-I LOVE that they show the transition from Narnia to the platform from Lucy’s perspective. 

[edgeofthedales]

darrowbyeightfive in response to this post and reblogs (James trying to read a book in Calf Love....).

Yes, that’s one thing I like about the series as well, the feeling that they are not just doing the bare minimum necessary to get by but have all sorts of little details that you can discover on a rewatch.

When I first started watching it, I thought that the camerawork was very old-fashioned, utilitarian and washed-out looking. Certainly if you compare it to series made with modern recording and editing techniques, it looks very bland and unsophisticated at first sight. Unfortunately one of the worst parts in this respect is the title sequence, which to modern eyes goes on far too long and doesn’t do the beauty of the scenery justice with its low-contrast, washed-out images, and this is rather a shame. (Compare the modern title sequence for a similarly rural-themed show, Countryfile, with its beautiful, vivid colours.) I know the theme music tends to be popular with many fans, but I became tired of it quite quickly and find the volume far too loud compared to the average volume of dialogue. That certainly feels very dated.

However, I gradually started noticing little details in how shots were composed (I’ve written about how they dealt with the Hardy/Davison height difference issue before so I won’t repeat that) and the care with which the sets must have been put together - it never once feels as if you’re in a studio set rather than in a real living room or surgery. There are little tricks, particularly with the animals, which are quite often represented by ‘noises off’ and make use of the human imagination. The pacing in All Creatures is also pretty high compared to other productions of its time which can seem pretty glacial. I recently watched Love for Lydia, one of Peter Davison’s earliest series, and they took 13 hour-long episodes to tell a story that was about 250 pages long. They acted out everything in detail rather than just implying it, and there were so many long lingering close-ups. All Creatures may have been ahead of time in that respect.

I’ve never had any formal training in acting but I imagine that moving in and out of character must be a bit of an all-or-nothing thing, rather like swapping between one language and another, and that the actors remain in character while they are on the set rather than just saying their lines as the character, so maybe they imagine the sorts of ‘business’ that their characters would do. One of the main things they do must be to try to develop a clear conception of the character and how they would react to any given situation.

Re moving in and out of character, I’ve seen some quite funny Doctor Who bloopers where Peter Davison sometimes seems to apologise as himself and sometimes as the Doctor when he messes up. I also read in some interview with him that he had a strong tendency to ‘become’ the character that he was playing and he once did a speech at some local festival in Yorkshire in character as Tristan rather than as his much shyer self. (His mum was also there and she was confused as to why he was going on about the beer tent so much when he didn’t actually like beer!)

I think part of what makes it look old-fashioned was that it was filmed on video-tape as opposed to real film. It shows when you compared the interior sets versus the location shooting which had to use film....with that look becoming the standard as technology improved and computers came into the game. I know I’ve noticed that same difference when I watch Classic Who episodes, especially the ones that haven’t been remastered by things like VidFIREd by the restoration team. If I’m not mistaken, video also had limitations as far as camera movement went which also added to this feel (and which is why it was limited to studio filming). 

That said, I agree with you that the directors and cameramen did their best to keep up a lively, natural pace with the action from the actors and to not make the sets feel too studio bound. I always thought the surgery in particular really felt less like a set and more like a real room with plenty of detail and “lived in” qualities to it. 

Oh dear, I had watched the first episode of Love For Lydia and have to agree about it being rather glacial in its pace. Although, honestly, I think part of that might have been the material used and the decisions of the production team to draw it out like that. Classic Who from this time period doesn’t tend to drag like that. I’ve also watched some of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries from the mid-seventies which featured Ian Carmichael and they also did not seem to move at such a slow crawl. Maybe people just enjoyed wallowing in an emotive atmosphere back then? Who knows....

But I do agree 100% that there are a lot of moments where the camera focuses in on expressions with these older series. I wonder if it was a case of wanting to take full advantage of a subtler style of acting that wasn’t possible with stage acting at that time.

I haven’t had any instruction about acting either, but I’d imagine that it would be easier to just stay in character during a shoot, purely from a technical standpoint. Speaking from my own experiences as a writer, I find that, once I get into the needed mindset for whatever I’m writing, it’s difficult for me to get back to work if I am forced to pull myself away earlier than I’d planned. 

Considering how comprehensive people like Davison and Hardy played Tristan and Siegfried...in such a way that it even affected the cadence of their speech and the gestures they used...it doesn’t surprise me that it wouldn’t just be “turned off” the moment they finished their most current line. 

Although, that speech that you mentioned with Davison doing it as Tristan was probably very amusing to watch. XD 

On a side note, it’s probably a good thing that you will never see my fic writing process because I tend to use the soundtracks from whatever TV show I’m writing for as background music while I write. So yes, the theme song is often playing away while I write my latest chapters. XD

[omgimsarahtoo]

WIP list

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or as little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on.

This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, fanwork, or original work!

I was tagged by @meldanya44​ and @whopooh​ and though my first thought was to run screaming from what feels like an immense list of Things I Want to Write, I figured what the heck. It can’t be that bad, right?

Most of what’s on my list is fanfic, and all of the fanfic is Miss Fisher fanfic. There’s a slim possibility that there are other fandoms I might write for, but no stories have presented themselves to my writer’s brain just yet. Never say never, though, right?

I mean really, though - just look at these two idiots. How dare they?

Up to Chance - this is my chapter-per-month fic intended to be one long story stitched together from the Year of Quotes challenges. I am working on chapter 2, and dear lord, I hope it gets easier as the year goes on!

Coded Expressions II (codename: Electric Boogaloo) - this is a sequel to Coded Expressions that I’ve been trying to get written since at least last autumn. It... needs work. Maybe now that I’ve told you all about it, it’ll help me finish it? 

The beginnings of a short, Phryne and Aunt P fighting for Jane’s rights story that I started in a fit of rage at the beginning of my kids’ school year. I just have to figure out where it’s going before I share it with all of you. I’m sure there’s a point to be made. I just have to find it...

A continuation of my modern AU - I started a chapter 2, and realized that dammit, there’s more story there than I wanted! I was hoping for a smutfest, and though there will be smut (oh, there will be smut), there’s also worldbuilding and storylines and ohhhh, it’s gonna take longer than I thought.

I have multiple drafts of a kidfic story that I keep stopping and starting that has Phryne taking in a... well, that’d be telling. It’s been on my list for years, and I just have to figure out what makes it different from @firesign23​‘s wonderful Fear Not the Bugle (which, if you haven’t read, you should, even if you don’t love kidfic) before I can actually write it.

A collection of drabbles based on quotes, one for each of the 10 main characters. I have 7 done, and I keep noping out of the last three. But I like what I have. I just need to find better quotes for the last few, I think. 

There are innumerable wild-hair fics that get prompted from rewatches or in random conversations, and of course I’ll drop everything to get those posted. Why wouldn’t I? DON’T JUDGE ME.

And then there’s PFF - the first Friday of every month is Phrack Fucking Friday, which is pretty much my favorite holiday of them all. I haven’t had a story for all of them, but there’ve been quite a few, and I’m not here to apologize!

I’m pretty sure that’s all of the fic I’ve got in flight. I’m also working on original stories, from full-length romance novels to shortform erotica, none of which is truly ready for prime time yet, but I’ll keep working!

So tell me what you’re working on @rositalg, @flashofthefuse, @ollyjayonline, @kidnthehall, @floating-in-the-blue, @hello-beaniebeanie and anyone else who wants to play!

[laughingpinecone]

1413w, Tammy, Candie, Tammy/Candie, Tammy/Cynthia. Yuletide fic for @turndownyourlights!

Special Agent Tammy Preston took out her phone. A warm, late afternoon lingered in the outskirts of Las Vegas, and the café’s tables had just been touched by the growing shadow of the statue that towered over the plaza. She took it all in - the heavy air, the light blue of the sky giving way to the first hues of sunset. And she forced herself to look down at her phone again. Poetry wouldn't help, at least not right off the bat.

     Dear    …, she typed, holding her breath, and erased the word just as quickly.

     Lieutenant Knox    , she tried again. No cigar. Too formal. Was there a style guide for texts, in the year of our Lord 2017? The temptation to pull up the browser and look up some strict, established rules to follow was strong, but Tammy knew herself and knew that she would spend three hours reading it from top to bottom only to eventually lose heart altogether. She uncrossed one leg, crossed the other one, curled a lock of hair around her fingers and prayed that the twice-disappeared Mr Jones would call it in for the day and get outta the Lucky Seven building real soon, if only to put her out of her misery. She needed to see him with her own eyes, this man who was and yet was not Agent Cooper, whose wedding ring had been found in a dead man's stomach: Special Agent Tammy Preston did not leave a case half tangled up in who knows what nonsense.

 And yet that was not what was breeding butterflies in her own stomach.

 The phone was too daunting. The situation called for the drafting of an action plan.

 The two pages Tammy filled in five portentous minutes looked like the world's tidiest conspiracy wall, size mignon to fit inside her beloved damask journal. At the center of it all was Major Briggs, tied with Jones’ wedding ring. Connected to it, all they had found out about the circumstances of his death. Then a row of questions starring Mr Douglas Jones: if he was Dale Cooper, and Dale Cooper had disappeared before her very eyes, what foul play had brought him back to this life and not at Gordon's side? Could this be a shape-shifting alien taking Cooper-as-Jones’ place? Could she at least play it off as a joke? The USAF digs UFOs, right? Tammy could swear there were some similarities between this story and the pile of bizarre celluloid trash commonly known as The Hidden (1986) - she wondered if rewatching that movie while sober would emphasize them or reveal a blander plot than the one her wine had concocted...

 A flash of bright pink blindsided her.

 “What wonderful      luck    !” cooed a familiar voice. Tammy had only heard it in passing, months earlier in Twin Peaks’ Sheriff station, a curious chat, perfunctory interviews, but the Mitchums’ aides weren't the kind of girls you'd forget. And with her feather proudly bobbing to the right of her perm, and a more angular face compared to the softer features of her colleagues, this had to be none other than finger food boss herself, Candie. True to form, she was carrying a plate of sandwiches, which she put down next to Tammy's coffee. “It's the beautiful lady from the Federal Bureau of Investigations!”

 Tammy blinked at that fluttery pink mass of enthusiasm. Why yes, thank you, that's how she strove to be remembered, especially by beautiful ladies from other walks of life. She straightened up her shoulders and flipped her hair behind her back with faux nonchalance.

 When the woman bent down to get a look at her notes, asking with her trademark slo-mo intensity whether she was writing a      letter    , as if no action in the history of humankind had ever been more awe-inspiring than that of putting pen to paper, Tammy snapped her journal close and stuffed it in her bag.

 “I am requesting backup.”

 “Is there… danger?”

 “Not… the situation is not dangerous.” Curt and professional, Preston, she could still hear in her mentor's voice. Speaking of whom, the only real danger was for Albert to know about this, any of this, it was the kind of mess that would break his heart all over again and there was really no need for that. Going back to tailing Cooper's shadow was heavy enough for her too, some emotional backup would have been nice, but she was a grown girl who could handle herself. It was just that…

 They stared at each other for a full row of seconds. It didn't matter how many; the part of Tammy that had trained herself to acknowledge appropriate behavior screamed awkward, but it got drowned in an instant. She'd been granted a time to admire and to be admired, as simple and full of beauty as the curves of Candie's curls.

 “...you want to see this backup, then,” came Candie's eventual, thoughtful reply.

 It may have taken the pink lady a while, but lag or no lag, she'd seen right through her and Tammy could only nod, a little bashful. Her job didn't leave her many chances to meet people she might wanna ask out for a drink, and even if it did, it would take a small-scale miracle to make a stronger first impression than Lt. Cynthia Knox, strong and tall and quick to smile. They had shared precisely one drink at the Mayfair hotel's bar in Buckhorn before Knox

 hopped on her flight back to the Pentagon, a drink and a promise to call each other if they ever happened to pass through Philly or Washington respectively.

 “And it is hard to call? Your backup?”

 Another bashful nod. After the year Tammy spent dragging her feet against all impulses to go native in the      other     Washington with its trees and cherry pies, anxiety told her that she would've needed a very good reason to just pop in the Lieutenant's notifications all of a sudden. And surely, this was it: an unbelievable new lead on the loose ends of the Briggs case was her occasion served on a silver platter. If only she could muster up the words.

 “It is very hard.”

 “How can it be? In this beautiful world…” A smile crept on Candie's face, distant, lost beyond her thoughts, but as warm as the sunset that was painting them both in hues of gold. “Can you believe it? We can press a button and tell everything, to everyone, in the whole world. In this life, how is it possible to want something and keep it all inside? Doesn't it make you too sad to breathe? ...would you like a kiss?”

 “I beg your pardon?”

 “A kiss, from me to you. As encouragement! And…”

 Tammy sat up and waited for her to catch up with her own sentence. Would she like a kiss? The plain black coffee she'd been drinking couldn't have possibly gone to her head, not even a little bit, so her flushed cheeks were all Candie's doing. Were some things that simple? Her porcelain doll looks, all silk and laces and big shiny pendants, had caught Tammy's eyes from the get-go. But if talking to a colleague was hard work already, approaching the strange woman under the uniform had felt like the stuff of legends. And yet.

 “...I'm taking my own advice,” Candie concludes. Would you like a kiss?”

 Tammy nodded, transfixed.

 Candie knelt down, laid two fingers on Tammy's lips and locked eyes with her, and once again Tammy could let her whole world be Candie, her rich perfume and the sharp line of her nose, the sparkle of curiosity in her eyes and, this time, the languid touch of her mouth, soft, covered in strawberry balm. She stayed there, lips against lips as the sun went down - time didn't matter with this girl.

 Eventually, and it was still too soon, Candie bounced back up and slowly focused on the tray she'd left on the café's table as if seeing it for the first time. “I've gotta go! Mister Mullins must be starving!”

 Tammy bit her lip. It still tasted like strawberries.

 “Thank you, Candie,” she said. What a beautiful world indeed. “Let me… know if you ever need encouragement yourself?”

 “Sure thing!”

 And off she went, leaving Tammy alone with her cold coffee, her phone and a big dumb smile that just wouldn't go away.

 Were some things that simple?

     Cynthia, I know it's been a while...  

[romcomathon2016]

Maid in Manhattan (USA, 2002)

Predictions: Kat could not make a prediction, as she remembered the basic plot of this movie from suffering through its trailer in 2002. Alex predicted that J-Lo was a maid who fell in love with her employer, Ralph Fiennes, presumably in Manhattan. Both Kat and Alex predicted that this movie would be bad, because it starred J-Lo.

Plot: Kat knew that the actual premise of this movie was rather better than the one Alex predicted. However, the execution of Alex's really bad prediction might still have been less painful than this actual film. DEAR LORD.

J-Lo plays a down-to-earth maid living in the Bronx and working at a fancy Manhattan hotel. She has a son, Tyler Posey, who is ten and very interested in Richard Nixon, among other things. Also a deadbeat ex, but he's not relevant to the story. She has a mom, also very down-to-earth, and some down-to-earth blue-collar pals. Meanwhile, American Ralph Fiennes is a Kennedyesque Republican New York City assemblyman, who is inexplicably interested in causes pertaining to the environment and poor people???? Where's THIS Republican????

One day, fancy lady Natasha Richardson checks into the hotel, and, long story short, one of J-Lo's blue-collar pals encourages her to try on Natasha Richardson's clothes. Simultaneously -- giant coincidence -- American Ralph Fiennes and his dog run into Tyler Posey in the elevator. Tyler Posey charms American Ralph Fiennes and brings him upstairs to Natasha Richardson's suite, where American Ralph Fiennes sees J-Lo in Natasha Richardson's clothes and mistakes her for a hotel guest instead of, you know, a maid.

Even more inexplicably than American Ralph Fiennes's "Republican" politics, J-Lo somehow finds herself forced to impersonate Natasha Richardson and go on, essentially, an impromptu date with American Ralph Fiennes and Tyler Posey, and then is like, OH MY GOSH GOLLY GEE, how did I get myself into this situation?! Really, J-Lo? We feel like you brought this upon yourself with a series of uncharacteristically bizarre choices, considering the beginning of the movie presented you as a reasonable, practical single mom. It just seems like, when he stumbled upon you, there were so many other, more reasonable courses of action. :|

Obviously, many shenanigans ensue, and J-Lo eventually gets busted. But not before going to a ball at the Met and sleeping with American Ralph Fiennes. They have such a connection, you guys. She is not like other girls. She couldn't help it. It wasn't her fault. She totally went there intending to break things off with him, but then he kissed her before she could say anything, and her mouth was paralyzed for the rest of the evening. Once a person kisses you, you just can't possibly go through with your previously planned reasonable statement.

Many sad montages ensue in oddly close succession. J-Lo, obviously fired from that first hotel (whaaaat? why?) by Digger Stiles -- best known for being Lorelai Gilmore’s worst and worst-named boyfriend -- goes to work in another hotel. One day, American Ralph Fiennes gives a speech there, Tyler Posey speaks up asking him to forgive his mom, and a romantic reunion ensues. J-Lo goes on to get promoted to manager, her dream of which was an earlier subplot we neglected to mention, and they all live happily ever after, perhaps chatting about Richard Nixon.

Best Scene: Good heavens, this movie was bad. Natasha Richardson, however, was a delight. Not her character so much, mind, but her performance. At one point, she weeps upon the concierge, and it is HILARIOUS. Also, in contrast to the rest of the movie, the scenes between J-Lo and Tyler Posey were least abhorrent (of the scenes J-Lo was in).

Worst Scene: It's a tie, dear readers! How could we possibly choose between the scene where J-Lo blows up at her well-meaning friend for submitting her for a job that she claimed to want and the scene where Amy Sedaris, friend of Natasha Richardson, says a ton of racist shit for no reason?? What a horse race.

Best Line: "You can Google it at school." -- J-Lo, in response to Tyler Posey's asking why Simon & Garfunkel broke up. This line was good because it allowed us to briefly talk over the movie, speculating about exactly when Google became ubiquitous, and trying to remember what search engines we were using before that. Also, it was very early in the movie, so we were still feeling hopeful that the movie wasn't going to be that bad. Oh, how wrong we were.

Worst Line: IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE. At first we were jotting down Worst Line candidates, but, as the movie progressed, the list grew prohibitively long (and quickly!). Several lines in one scene would be solid contenders for Worst Line, thanks in part to J-Lo's truly abysmal acting! Lines we'd previously thought were terrible started to rise to the top of the pile! For example, at one point, J-Lo's deadbeat ex said on the phone, "I'm in Miami with Mugsy!" This was early on, so we were both curious about who Mugsy was (a friend? a girlfriend? a mafioso associate?!), and also thought it might be a Worst Line contender. Now, looking back, it's really a Best Line contender. We, too, wish we were in Miami with Mugsy.

Highlights of the Watching Experience: WHO IS MUGSY????????

How Many POC in the Film: So many POC, you guys! You know why?? BECAUSE J-LO IS A SERVANT. SHE AND ALL HER SERVANT PALS ARE PEOPLE OF COLOR, OBVIOUSLY. (Well, okay. There were some white servants. BUT NOT MANY.) Looks like Hollywood totally can find actors of color, when they need a whole hotel full of servants!!!!!!!!

Alternate Scenes: Perhaps… Um… You know what, guys? There's no improving this movie.

Was the Poster Better or Worse than the Film: Better. The poster is some sort of bizarre fever-dream, erotic-fantasy, "Somewhere Ballet" situation...but it is still better than this movie.

Score: 2 out of 10 professional-misconduct smooches. We know J-Lo is the protagonist of this film, but like…come on. Really?? While you're angling for a promotion????

Ranking: 87, out of the 94 movies we’ve seen so far. Apparently, we would rather rewatch Aloha than suffer through this movie again. ALOHA.