#i saw point and click protagonist in that post and blacked out and had to go lisgen to monkey island music for half an hour
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malebodysuittf · 4 years ago
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The Wrapping
In my last story, I wanted to write a dark thriller-ish story with a villainous protagonist, but I wanted this story to be a whole lot more wholesome (though still devious) for the holidays! It’s kind of silly and not as hot tbh, but hopefully it’s kind of fun for someone. It’s been one hell of a year, so here’s to a better 2021. Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays y’all! Stay safe, and make sure no one you’re close to is plotting to suitify you! ;)
edit: Oh crap, I totally forgot to post this yesterday! Here it is though, my message stays the same! 
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I sighed as I listened to the mundane tapping of fingers on keyboards, nails hitting the desk, pens clicking. Over and over, my head rang with the same sounds throughout the morning. No one who was here wanted to be here. Except perhaps my boss. That piece of shit put us all to work instead of giving us the holidays off. Only reason he might be happy to be here is probably because, if his wife has been hearing any of the rumors regarding his interactions with the female employees of our company, I’m assuming their marriage is disastrous.
I thought I’d be able to relax at home, spend Christmas with my boyfriend, Craig. We’ve been together for a couple of years now, and this was our first year living together. Our first Christmas spent together. The last one, we had both flown home to see our parents, splitting up. 
But of course, my piece of shit boss had called me up. Told me to come in and work...subtly threatened unemployment if I objected. I wanted to quit right  then and there, but money was tight and I knew how much Craig and I could use the cash. I had to break the news to Craig, but he was understanding. He promised that we’d open up presents tonight, or we’d open them up tomorrow if I was too tired. It was heartwarming to hear the support loved one, but made the act of going to work the next day no less grueling. 
“Hey Lance, you get that call from boss too?” I jumped at the sound of my name being called and turned to see my coworker and one of the few friends I’ve made in the office, Trevor. He was a good lookin’ guy, though he only had a frustrated face at the moment. 
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“Yeah. Fucking ridiculous.”
“Right? Sick of this fucking job. Frankly, I’m not even sure what I fucking do at this point,” he joked. A hint of a smile popped up on his face. He slapped me on the arm and got up, heading towards the bathroom. I closed my eyes and imagined what I’ll do with Craig. It was the only thing that could motivate me to keep up with my work. 
----------------------------
Hours later, the sun was setting and an orange hue painted the sky. It was a surprisingly beautiful sunset, considering it was Christmas. I finally finished my work. I watched the tired people around me cleaning up their desks, disgruntled and ready to go home. I glanced over at Trevor’s desk and noted he was still missing...weird. I hadn’t seen him the entire day ever since he left to go to the restroom. I guessed he had wisened up and just left. I sure as hell wish I could afford to...I know Trevor came from a pretty wealthy background. But at least I could finally find some respite with the end of the day approaching. 
Until I saw the secretary walking to my desk. 
She placed her hands on my desk and looked me in the eye, almost remorsefully. 
“Mr. Campbell would like to speak to you.”
My heart sunk as I realized I’ll be spending more time in this shithole instead of celebrating the holidays with my boyfriend. I slumped in my chair and nodded to the secretary. She left me and I cleaned my act up. Surely it must be something quick, right? I couldn’t imagine him calling me in at the end like this for any reason. 
Walking over to Mr. Campbell’s office, I opened the door and saw my dapper boss staring at me intimidatingly. 
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“Hello, Lance. I’m sure this little meeting may come as a surprise. Take a seat, won’t you?” He motioned towards a chair opposite from his desk, while seating himself in a larger one. 
“I know you might be a little confused as to why I called you in. But let me assure it’s nothing bad.” He smiled at me, something I had never seen before on his face. He always looked menacing and unwelcoming. But right in this moment, something seemed different. 
“I just wanted to give you this for being an outstanding part of this office. You’ve always been productive and loyal to this business. You deserve proper compensation. Especially for coming in on Christmas.”
From behind his desk, he pulled out a fairly large box, wrapped in a snowman-covered paper, perhaps the size of my torso, and slid it across the desk. I cautiously took the box, wondering what the catch was. There was no way he decided to just randomly give me this out of kindness or gratefulness. Not Mr. Campbell. This is the abusive boss who makes people work on Christmas, threaten their jobs and their records, and, allegedly, numerous women have quit and spoken up on him firing them if they did not oblige to sexual favors. On top of that, why the hell is he only giving this to me? Still, he was my boss for now, and I had to appeal to him.
“...Er, thanks, Mr. Campbell. I appreciate the gift. I’ll make sure-”
“Why don’t you open it?”
“Right here? Right now?”
“Yes. Open it. I want you to see it.”
Confused, I still obeyed and started to rip the wrapping paper off. I glanced up to give the boss an acknowledging smile as I lifted the lid up. I found a folded up suit and tie, along with pants.
“Clothing, Mr. Campbell?” I tried to feign gratitude with a hesitant smile.
“Keep going.” 
I lifted the clothing and saw an ID on top of a peach colored object. On the ID, I saw a picture of...Trevor. A chill ran across my spine as I felt the peace colored object...it felt like skin. I pulled it out and lo and behold...it was Trevor in the form of a flimsy suit. 
“Is this some kind of...costume?” The thing gave me the creeps, but I couldn’t defy my curiosity. 
“You could say that.”
“Was that...you earlier then?”
A grim glare shot across Mr. Campbell’s face. “No.”
“Then...what did you do to Trevor?” My voice quivered as a ton of horrific scenes ran through my head. 
“It was just an injection. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” He pulled out what looked like pink stickers. “All you do is slap these magic tags on, and he’ll be restored within an hour. Sorry to alarm you.” 
A sigh of relief escaped my mouth, until Mr. Campbell said, “Why don’t you put him on right now?” 
“What? Right here? I don’t even know-”
“Take your clothes off. Stretch open the mouth. You can figure out the rest.” 
Something told me I didn’t have a choice. I laid the suit on the floor and started to pull out of my clothing, tossing it over the chair. I grabbed the Trevor suit and dipped my toes into the mouth. Surprisingly, it was soft and comfortable. I slipped into the legs and did a few test jumps. Mr. Campbell observed closely as the suit matched my form. I squeezed my way into the rest of the suit before pulling the face over my own, before a painful ache rushed through my body. Suddenly, a lifetime of memories flooded my mind. I recalled feeling a prick in the neck before everything went black...I wasn’t exactly sure what to say to Mr. Campbell.
“Is there something you would like me to do with this?” Trevor’s voice escaped my throat! It was like I was him entirely. But why did Mr. Campbell want me in this suit? I was confused on what to do now. I stood there awkwardly, naked with an admittedly sexier body. Mr. Campbell walked around his desk and came up to me.
“Why don’t you unwrap your second present?” He grabbed my crotch, though I immediately relented and backed up.
“I’m sorry Mr. Campbell, but I’ve got a boyfriend, and frankly, this is a little weird...”
“Don’t you want to provide for him?” I gulped, knowing my job was on the line. Craig would understand, he always does.
I started to unbutton Mr. Campbell’s jacket and slid it off of him. The white button-up was already partially open, displaying the man’s hairy chest. Despite how awful my boss was, I confessed I considered him an attractive man. I pulled off the shirt and was down to his pants. I looked at him, unsure if he wanted me to go all the way. He nodded, urging me to take it all off. I unbuckled his belt and slid it out, the pants visibly loosened and slipped down with ease. I looked up for another nod of approval before removing his shoes and socks, smelling the subtle rankness of his feet. Finally, i slipped his underwear down, and a lengthy member dropped in front of me. I examined the man in front of me, up and down. Were these the kind of sexual favors my boss wanted? Was he interested in men? 
“Why don’t you keep going?” 
I raised an eyebrow at him, dumbfounded. “What?” 
“Keep going.” He walked closer to me, sensually looking me in the eye. 
I couldn’t quite grasp what he meant, until he tugged at his cheek, revealing something else inside. I rubbed Mr. Campbell’s face and he closed his eyes, groaning in pleasure. Slowly tracing down his face, I hooked my fingers under his lips and started to stretch the mouth open. I could feel the scruffy facial hair move under my fingers as I tugged at his face, the face distorting as a familiar face was revealed under Mr. Campbell’s face.
“Craig?” I was absolutely speechless as I slipped off the entire face of my boss. The upper half of the face landed in a heap behind him, while the chin lay across his chest. I backed up in shock at the spectacle before me! 
Craig gave me a devious smile and started to rip the skin off of himself. Still using Mr. Campbell’s hands, he grabbed at the mouth around his neck and started to pull. As he did, the skin started to give, and he started to rip it off, like wrapping. Truly like a Christmas gift! The face split in half and he tugged towards his left arm. With a forceful motion, the arm sleeve ripped right off and he tossed it towards onto the desk, the fingers hanging over the side as they flopped around. He continued to rip the other side off as the suit seemingly got shredded. With the torso hanging over his hip, the torn up skinsuit hung onto the cock in pieces, the face hanging by the side while the right hand of the suit laying flatly on the ground. Craig heaved as he pulled the rest of it off violently, further shredding the skin until it lay as a mess on the floor. He picked up it and slung the mangled skinsuit onto the desk.
“Merry Christmas, babe!” He held me by my hips and kissed me.
“Craig, what the hell is this?” 
“I bought us some of these serums, and figured they would make a nice gift. I didn’t originally plan to use it on these guys in specific, but when you got that call and told me about your shitty boss...I figured we could get a bit of revenge. Plus, you’ve told me about Trevor being hot. So I figured, why the hell not?” 
“But what about Mr. Campbell? You ripped him up!”
“Don’t worry, trust me, some tape and those little sticker things he showed...he’ll be back. And he’ll be humbled.”
He went back behind the desk and pulled out a paper and slid it over to me. I skimmed through it...this was a document giving the company to me!
“Oh my God! What the fuck? This is...”
“Yep. I always said you’d make a great leader. And whenever your coworkers come by to hang out with us, you have no clue what they say about you. They’re gonna love you. And Mr. Campbell over here, signed the document. Hopefully, he takes the time off to reimagine himself as a better man. All you gotta do is sign it yourself.” He rolled a pen over and I held it within my hand. I scoured through Trevor’s thoughts, and he had said some of the sweetest things about me, and his conversations with our colleagues suggested that maybe I could be the one  to make this shithole better. I brought the pen to the paper and voila, my signature was on it.
“You get to be the boss now, Lance.” Craig got up and came to embrace me. I was too stunned at everything happening to give him much of a response. “You can make this place so much better next year. But for now, why don’t we enjoy that sexy suit you’re in?” He started to kiss me, and I returned the favor. I pulled back for a second and looked Craig in the eyes.
“This is the best Christmas ever...Why don’t I give you my present now?” I gave him a suggestive look, rubbing up against against him. I pushed him down across the desk and whispered into his ear, “I love you, babe. Merry Christmas.” 
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artmunstudios · 4 years ago
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What's 2 similarities & 2 differences U have noticed between Ozpin & Oscar?
Aaahh I was wondering if you were going to ask me! I’ve been seeing you around asking this question and the answers have all been interesting! So I’ll take on a response that people aren’t taking on then, yes? This will be a long post, so if anyone is interested in reading past the first analysis just click the ‘read more’!
Their Origins
Ozpin is at the core based off of two characters. One of those characters, Oscar is also connected to. There are obviously more characters and whatnot they reference, but for the sake of simplicity, I will only be addressing their clear initial inspiration. Ozpin is based off of The Wizard of Oz, also known as Professor Oz primarily in the Oz Book Series; but his full name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, which he abbreviated to Ozpin Head. (Thank you @immortal-green-snom for this tidbit!!!) In the book series, after he had left in the air balloon in an attempt to help Dorothy get home, Professor Oz was revealed to have done a lot of slimy and heinous things to keep the throne of the Emerald City, and by extension, the Land of Oz itself. While he does get better in the latter books he reappears in, he was portrayed as being manipulative, a bit pathetic, but extremely intelligent and a master of illusions. I wouldn't be surprised if the writers of RWBY were trying to get that across in Ozpin's traits, but to be quite honest, they kinda failed at making him even a morally grey character, as a lot (not all, he isn't guitless, but again, a lot) of the arguments used in-show, and the FNDM itself, are all about things that were either not in his control, or something that was painted as being his fault/harmful, but was actually the opposite of the situation. The biggest example of this is Raven trying to trick Yang and Weiss into believing Ozpin had forced her and Qrow to become birds/have the ability to do so. In a lot of ways, Ozpin and Professor Oz are actually opposites of one another in terms of personalities, which may have in actuality been the overall intention CRWBY had, but we can only speculate. Professor Oz is extremely selfish, while Ozpin is selfless, even to a point where it actually becomes harmful to others. Professor Oz would have done anything to be in power, while Ozpin has done everything to relinquish himself of a position of power, which I find very interesting. This may be due to him even trying to somehow relinquish the burden the God of Light has placed on Oz as a whole, but is ultimately unable to give up that specific task. Even though, truthfully, he needed to relinquish that particular stronghold all along. Professor Oz is clearly a leader, and despite his negative traits, is actually a very good one. Ozpin...as much as I love him as a character, is not the greatest leader. He is, however, an excellent advisor/second-in-command. Professor Oz is only a mere mortal man pretending to be something more, while Ozpin is something bigger than a mortal man, but is pretending to be nothing but a man. Expanding upon this, they also are desperate to be the opposite of what they are. Professor Oz wants to be what he portrayed himself as, and for Ozpin, it's very much the same situation. There is a lot more I could say, but let's move on to Oscar!
Oscar Pine, like Ozpin, is based off of two characters at the core. Again, it is likely that he represents more than two, but for the sake of simplicity, let's discuss only the two. From the moment I saw Oscar, I knew right away that he was based off of my favorite character from the Oz Book Series...Tip. Tip, short for Tippetarius, was too a farmboy who longed for much more, who knew that there was more out there, despite being notably content in their lifestyle. The only difference was that Tip was a slave to an evil witch, but he escapes her in the second chapter with a companion. He is described as being just like any boy; rugged, mischievous, playful, and a lover of all things fun while still being quite shrewd. Unlike Ozpin and Professor Oz, Tip and Oscar are, in fact, extremely alike. Even down to their colors and appearance. Despite how Tip is colored, he actually has light brown skin (though considering the time period, we all know why this fact was dismissed), and black hair. And his treasured beanie cap was green and orange. His clothes also had a primary color scheme of brown, and were dirty due to the work he had done on the farm. Oscar and Tip have the exact same personalities, which was what affirmed to me that Oscar was meant to be his primary parallel. What got me the most was their sarcasm. Tip is still the most sarcastic and genuinely street-smart protagonists in the Oz Books. Not to say there were no other protags like that, but there was something to be said about how Tip was one of the few protagonists to actually act as a leader in the traveling group. Just like Oscar, Tip is also quite emotional, and they both have a sharp temper that they express not in loud outbursts, but by quips that you know could be quite hurtful if they wanted them to be. However, between the two, Tip is the loudest, should you put them in the same room. However, I suspect that as time goes on, Oscar might start becoming quite vocal when he doesn't like something, as I've noticed that the more he develops, the more he acts like Tip. Their behaviors are similar as well; when something personal is going on between two parties who clearly knew each other before him, both Oscar and Tip have a tendency to hang back and simply let the moment play out. They both start out as being sort of bystanders, just going with the flow while occassionally giving very good advice/strategies, but they start to become more of a leader as time goes on. In fact, leadership seems to be in their blood. There is actually a reason for this.
Ozma of Oz
There is a single thread that connects both Oscar and Ozpin, and that is the second primary character they represent. That character is the infamous Princess/Queen Ozma of Oz. Ozma, in many ways, is a lot like both Ozpin and Oscar; and may be the kind of person they become once the merging is complete. She is shrewd, but gentle. Sarcastic and blunt, but very elegant and fun-loving. They have a particular grace in how they handle their politics, but she admittedly gets into more trouble than rulers of kingdoms should. She is, ultimately, the perfect archetype of a ruler. And had completely reformed The Emerald City to be an environment that is very much like Vale's open-mindedness, with the advanced technology and efficiency of Atlas. Ozma, in the books, was actually revealed to be Tip; or rather, Tip was Ozma. After being transformed into a boy as a baby by a witch under Professor Oz's command, they were whisked away by said witch, and had been working under that witch until they had escaped as a young boy. Many speculate that Ozma was meant to represent the transgender community, and I know many transgenders see Ozma as an icon. Frank Baum was the type of guy that wrote things that were ahead of his time, and seen as very controversial by the few who could actually read the metaphors planned out. It was even implied in the later books that Ozma and Dorothy get married, and there were many illustrations made from the original novel illustrators of Ozma and Dorothy looking like a couple. What's even greater is that despite the change of gender from Tip to Ozma, she still very much contains her boyish traits despite the frills and queenly garb. As stated in one of the last lines in the second Oz Book;
"I hope none of you will care for me less than you did before. I am still the same Tip you know..."
When I realized Oscar was Tip, I knew Ozma was going to be put into the equation. I just,,,, wasn't expecting..... t h a t.
Oscar and Ozpin
Time to actually answer the question I was asked JSDJFDKDFKFK--
Oscar and Ozpin are different in one particular way: Trust. Ozpin trusts nobody. Truthfully, he doesn't even trust himself, I don't think, and that is likely why he didn't have much of a plan these days. He doesn't trust himself to be competent enough to complete the task assigned to him, he doesn't trust humanity to pass, hell, I don't think he even trusts the Gods to be capable of taking care of humanity considering the shit job they did in the past, and how poorly they have handled Ozma and Salem. In simple terms, Ozpin trusts too little. Oscar, on the other hand, trusts...a little too much. There, I said it. And I'm willing to say it again. Oscar trusts too much. Whether or not that will change after the end of V7 and what happened in V8 is left for debate. Oscar seems almost incapable of seeing the downside in some situations, like, for example, confronting a General who has completely gone off the deep end, unarmed and alone. And he trusted a man who needlessly beat the shit out of him for something that nobody, not even Salem, were truly at fault for. And while that trust paid off, unlike how it did in the past, it is a bit of an alarming trait that I genuinely think will simmer down either after all that happened in V8, or it will eventually when that trust truly bites him in the ass.
Another polarization between Oscar and Ozpin: faith. This ties in a little bit with the trust theme, but there is enough to talk about on its own. While Ozpin does believe that humanity is overall good, I think he has lost faith in their capability to work together long enough for there to be any sort of permanent peace. And, admittedly, he isn't wrong to think that. I think you would have to be very foolish if you genuinely think there will ever be a point where humanity will stop fighting amongst themselves; in other words, Ozpin is fully aware that the God of Light's task is genuinely impossible. And honestly? I think the GoL knows it is, too. Oscar has faith as well, but he views the dire circumstance in a different way that may be the key to solve the seemingly unending puzzle of Salem and their task. He gets faith in humanity not through the overall picture, but in the smallest things. Oscar likely believes that it doesn't matter if all of humanity is united, because he too knows that will never happen. But, he is certain that there is a lot more power in the smallest of unions and actions; a racist woman reforming and helping to comfort a faunaus child. A woman who helped a group of people tear down a kingdom realize the fault of their actions, and try to save another kingdom's people. A man who, while being genuinely wise, was so blinded by rage that he could not see past his own nose, change in order to save what little good has sprouted from something so terrible that he helped sow. The little things matter so much more, and unlike Ozpin, he doesn't think that they need to grow any further than that.
So, what makes them similar? Two distinct things. They both are very personal. Even if it is in different forms of expressing, Oscar and Ozpin are quite personal, especially when it comes to their advice. But they also really feel for the person they are talking to. And while Ozpin felt Hazel was too far gone, he felt for him and understood and even agreed with his anger. Their empathy is truly something else; and it is also their weakest point. Not to say that having empathy is bad, but their empathy leads into another trait that they have in common... They let people walk all over them. All. The. Time. To a point where it is actually very frustrating, and it even hinders their development as characters. Ozpin let Ironwood walk all over him, and never spoke in defense for himself. Ozpin let the council walk all over him, and never defended himself. Ozpin allowed for so much of the blame to be placed on his own shoulders, that it is extremely unhealthy, and something I wish the show would address, but have come to accept that it won't. Especially when this trait is reflected in Oscar as well. He blamed himself for failing to convince Ironwood, he allowed for Jaune to verbally and physically attack him, and outright refused to let Jaune apologize. They both brush off their wellbeing so often, that watching Oscar do the same only confirms to me the suspicions I had as to why everyone was genuinely so blind to figure out what was going on in their heads and when they were struggling. Because both Oscar and Ozpin refuse to acknowledge their own struggles and shortcomings.
But, to be frank, that is more of a writing issue than a character reflection, in my personal opinion. And I'll continue to see it that way until the show actively acknowledges that unhealthy behavior.
There ya go! My very very long analysis of Oscar and Ozpin; I hope I brought something unique among the batch of this question!
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lovelivingmydreams · 4 years ago
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Paper Flowers: The Prince’s Enemy
You liked it so I made more of it!
Part 1 over here. Enjoy!
You sit in your room relaxing before dinner. Homework’s done and social media isn’t going to check in on itself. You are replying to a post one of your friends placed on their wall when a notification pops up. ‘Thomas Sanders just posted a new video’.
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You smile as you finish your message and click the notification. Thomas is one of your favorite creators. And it’s insane what he can do in six seconds.
The first thing you notice is that it is a return of the prince character. It makes you smile.
Who doesn’t love a real life Disney prince?
“Stop you fiend!” the prince declares, standing in what looks like an old concrete building, which probably was meant to create the illusion of an old fortress.
Then the angle shifts and… Wait that’s not one of Thomas’ friends playing a villain. That’s Thomas wearing a black hoodie with the hood up to mimic a cloak and black eye shadow to make him look more threatening. Which is a tall order for the human cinnamon bun.
“Prince Dude! My arch nemesis!” villain Thomas growls.
Then the prince comes back into view. He looks shocked.
“Wait…” he dramatically brings a hand to his chest. “I’m your arch nemesis?” he asks... Why does he sound so emotional?
Villain Thomas comes back into view and looks… Flustered? What?
“Sorry… I didn’t mean to assume…”
Wait. This is… This is like someone calling their SO boyfriend or girlfriend for the first time. OMG this is the cutest!
“No!” Prince rushes as he comes back into view. “I just didn’t…” he sighs and shakes his head. “Shall we?” He asks as he raises his sword ready to continue their battle.
Villain Thomas comes back into view and smirks as he raises his own weapon and nods.
“Prepare to die!” He declares letting out a battle cry. The camera shows Prince again who lets out a war cry of his own, charging in.
And that’s the end. You smile to yourself as you leave a like. You’re curious what other fanders think of this new character. Will he ever come back? You hope so.
“Roman it’s so nice of you to include Anxiety in the fun!” Patton cheered when he found out about the new villain character.
Virgil rolled his eyes. Of course Princey was getting praised. Not that it would occur to Patton how hard it’d been for Virgil to agree to let Thomas use his aesthetic, his identity, to create a new character. Or that his heart was racing at the thought of how much the fans would probably hate it.
“Think nothing of it Patton. I merely had the idea for a nemesis, and figured that if Thomas played the character himself it would minimize speculation of the fans on any hidden meaning behind the skits. They are almost more eager to see Thomas find a partner than I am, and none of our friends need that kind of attention on them. So when it came to picking out a look, Anxiety’s… Style, seemed fitting. That’s all,” Roman explained, surprising Virgil.
Roman was passing up on the chance to bask in the praise? Praise he deserved, maybe… A little. Virgil knew that this whole thing was an olive branch from the Prince to him.
And honestly it was kind of a fun skit. Thomas had a lot of fun making it… But here Roman was, downplaying his good intentions and how thoughtful he’d been about it. He’d asked Virgil’s permission to do this. He never asked Logan or Patton to use their looks for the dad or the teacher character.
“Speaking off the raisin cookie… Anxiety!” Roman called. Virgil looked up from where he was sulking against the kitchen counter.
“What?” he scowled.
“I have a few more skit ideas you’ll probably want to criticize. Let’s get that over with shall we?” Roman suggested casually as he headed to his room.
Virgil made a point to sigh and roll his eyes in annoyance, grumbling under his breath as he usually would. Patton might not pay enough attention to him to notice anything amiss, but Virgil was pretty sure Logan would ask questions if the two of them started to act too different.
He entered the fanciful side’s room and took a look around. It was a nice place honestly. Both similar and opposite to his room somehow.
“Soooo… How did you like the skit?” Roman asked eagerly.
Virgil shrugged. “It was alright. Thomas really enjoyed it,” he allowed.
Roman grinned, happy he got some sort of positive feedback from the usually more sullen side.
“And um… It was really cool of you… What you said to Patton. You didn’t have to. You deserved some sort of, like, praise I guess, even if he didn’t know the real reason why you did,” Virgil muttered then.
Roman’s eyes widened. Did Anxiety just… Praise him? He hadn’t expected that. He’d corrected Patton because he didn’t want Anxiety to think that he was using their truce to earn extra brownie points with the fatherly side.
“Thank you Anxiety,” Roman bowed.
“Don’t mention it,” Virgil shrugged awkwardly.
There was a silence. Neither knew for sure how to continue from this point. Their interactions usually ended with one of them storming out of the room.
“Um… Want to watch some tv until Thomas checks up on the comments?” Roman suggested.
“Yeah, sounds good,” Virgil nodded.
Roman gestured to the couch and they sat down as far away from each other as possible.
Virgil chuckled as he realized Roman had put on Avatar.
“Is there a problem? Mr. moodbender?” Roman asked tensely. Clearly ready to call of the truce if Virgil criticized the show.
The anxious man shook his head. “No. Just surprised you’re not putting on Disney,”
Roman rolled his eyes. “I can love things that aren’t Disney, scorned king,” he huffed.
Virgil nodded, Princey had a point.
They both mouthed along to the opening narration and smirked at each other while the intro music played.
“So… What other things do you like Princey?” Virgil started casually.
Roman blinked in surprise, happy surprise that is. Anxiety was clearly making an effort, showing interest in making this truce evolve to a friendship. It was nice, to know that he was not the only one invested in this.
“Well it should come as no surprise to you that I adore all things musical.”
Virgil looked around to all the playbills and smirked. “I would’ve never guessed,” he teased getting a pillow to the face, though it was clearly in good humor.
“Sush!” Roman chuckled.
“Anyway. As I was saying…” Roman proceeded to talk about his favorite artists, some of which Virgil admitted to liking as well and Virgil, in return talked about his favorites as well.
“Oh wait…” Virgil suddenly interrupted as his attention was caught by the screen. Momo had entered the story.
“This is the part where I got respect for this show,” Virgil divulged.
“Why’s that?” Roman wondered.
“Well, on the one hand you have the first time you realize that Zuko isn’t bad. Cause he spares the commanders life. And on the other, the show literally looked at their demographic and said: you kids can handle some genocide. Here is an actual body, confirmed to belong to a character our protagonist cared about,” Virgil explained. “They don’t look down on the kids that watch the show. And they made that clear, very fast. I respect that.”
Roman thought about that, and he could see Anxiety’s point.
“Yes, I suppose they didn’t hide their vision for the show at all,” he nodded.
They continued watching the episode in comfortable silence, both silently noting that they’d moved closer together during their conversation, now only leaving enough distance for both of them to still keep their personal bubble intact.
“I guess it’s been an hour now…” Virgil muttered as the end credits played. Roman nodded as he paused the tv. Thomas would soon give in and see if anyone had reacted to his recent post.
“It’ll be alright. Worst case scenario, they don’t like it and we don’t bring the character back,” Roman assured the younger aspect. “I’d be a little disappointed, because I have tons of ideas for your character. But we’ll think of something else,” he assured Virgil, not willing to give up on his plan to make Anxiety feel more wanted in some way because of one hypothetical set back.
“What if people stop following Thomas because…”
“Anxiety, we’ve posted videos of much lower quality than this one and they didn’t make people run for the hills,” Roman countered.
Virgil nodded but curled in on himself anyway. Roman sighed.
“Things are as they are, we can’t change them now so we might as well face the music. Alright?”
Virgil took in a deep breath and nodded. That made sense.
“Okay. Let's do this,” he sighed.
Roman smiled and nodded as they watched Tomas ‘casually’ check notifications.
Oh no, Virgil thought as he could feel the way Thomas' heart skipped a beat when he saw all the likes and shares popping up.
“Comments!!!” Roman cheered.
And indeed. The Fanders had left several comments already. Some keyboardsmashes, some big eyed or hearteyed emoji's. Some one word exclamations like ‘Adorable’, ‘wholesome’ and even ‘perfection’.
Virgil couldn't help smiling as Thomas' excitement grew. He was about to be outed, he knew it.
But he didn't care that much right now.
Because someone demanded Thomas make more vines with his villain character. And another joked that they should call Disney because they found the new big hit Disney Channel show.
He couldn't stop himself from letting out a soft sound of excitement as he played with the sleeves of his hoodie to release some energy. He wanted to jump up and down and scream, Thomas was so happy.
“By Hermes' Sandals! Anxiety! Your eyeshadow!” Roman exclaimed. He'd heard his fellow side’s uncontainable  excitement and had looked up, unable to pass up the chance to see the closed off side smile. He had not been ready for this. The layer of white foundation seemed to be less thick revealing it was hiding freckles underneath. That was not the most important part though. The usually black, smudged eyeshadow was brilliant and sparkly and a royal purple.
Anxiety blushed upon being caught but didn’t really stop smiling.
“Yeah, that happens when Thomas gets really excited. Don't make it a big deal,” he shrugged. Roman nodded, understanding that Anxiety meant to ask him not to mention it to the others.
He felt a sense of accomplishment well up inside him. Surely Anxiety had known there was a good chance Thomas would get excited upon seeing the responses to the skit. If he wanted it to be a secret he could've excused himself and hid in his room until the effect wore off. But he hadn't. He'd stayed and taken the risk of being seen. Roman wondered what he’d said or done to make the hooded man want to open up like that. Maybe he’ll ask, some other time.
“Anyway, good job Roman. Seems you’re stuck with me,” Virgil winked as he got up, pulling his hood over his face so he could hide his state until he got to his room.
“Princey , is stuck with the hooded fiend,” Roman corrected. “but I don’t think he minds. And neither do I,” he added while he basked in the glow of the complement.
Virgil felt his smile widen just a bit as he saw how happy Roman was with all this.
Once you gave him a chance he wasn't that annoying.
Virgil had found himself going from wanting someone to not hate him, to wanting Roman to like him over the course of their conversation. Their truce had been tense and awkward up until now. But even so, it had been going surprisingly well. Virgil could tell Roman was looking out for him. By distracting the others when Virgil felt cornered by example. And Virgil had tried to help Princey out as well. Making him go to bed, trying to push Thomas towards creating more content and trying his hardest not to be too, well, mean about actually posting it. And when he sensed Roman was getting overwhelmed by the spotlight he took the attention away from him too.
And now he had shown Roman that he was right. There was more to him than just anxiety. Sometimes he was bright, bouncy and sparkling excitement.
“It suits you by the way,” Roman added, janking Virgil back to the present.
Virgil froze for a second finding he had his hand on the door handle. “Um… thanks, see ya later,” he muttered before rushing out.
He was about to enter his room when he heard someone else call out to him.
“Anxiety kiddo, are you and Roman finished?” The question was friendly enough in and of itself, but as always Patton sounded tense when talking to him which set Virgil on edge. He wasn't that scary right? What did he do to make Patton so scared to be around him?
Sure he was trying to make them keep some distance. But he was going for cautious, not this.
He didn't know what he'd done and he wasn't willing to risk repeating it, so he kept was careful about keeping enough distance between himself and the resident dad as a rule. Now he had an extra reason though.
Virgil nodded, not looking up. Patton's precense might make him nervous in a less fun way, but a comment that called his character adorable flashed through his mind and set loose another swarm of butterflies. Easily overpowering the unease in the hallway. He was definitely still sparkly.
And if Patton saw, he'd ask about it. And Virgil would have to explain, trapping both of them in this conversation far longer than either wanted. Worse what if seeing evidence of a less broody side of him made Patton feel like he had to make an effort? He'd already managed to make Princey feel like he had to be kind to him. And sure that might be turning into something genuine, but that didn't mean things would work out so well for the others.
Another door opened. “Padre! There you are! I was just about to come looking for you. I had the most marvelous idea!” Virgil chanced a glance at the hallway and saw Roman drag a surprised Patton into his room. The prince locked eyes with him for a second and gave him a reassuring smile and a wink.
Virgil nodded, sending Roman a grateful half-smile, before entering his room.
Virgil had spent mostly all of Thomas' happiest moments in his room. Partly to hide his secret, first from J and Rem who'd probably tease him about it, and now from  Thomas' golden three who would never take him serious again if they knew. Or well, two of them, Roman knew now…
Anyway, there was another reason. His room was very nice to be in when excitement dominated Virgil's functions.
It was the same, but lighter. The curtains were open, the clock was no longer a maddening reminder of the never ceasing passage of time, and the spider webs sparkled with dewdrops. Virgil took in a deep breath, even the air was more breathable.
What was it he wanted to scream about again?
Right.
He let himself belly flop onto his bed and screamed.
The fanders liked it! And more importantly, Roman might actually be his fried now. He could relate to the villain character right now. Were they friends? They had each other’s back, had bonded over common interests, shared a secret…
Would Roman consider them friends?
Maybe he was getting ahead of himself due to the butterflies. But it was definitely going that way.
Virgil turned around in his bed and looked up at the ceiling with a smile.
This was different than with Janus and Remus. They’d grown up together, they had to tolerate each other. But this was… Some sort of proof that he was likable. Roman didn’t have to hang out with him. He’d seen something in him and chosen to give him a chance.
He didn’t have to complement him, but he did and he didn’t turn it on himself right away as he tended to do.
Remus and Janus were… They just tended to trigger him more often than not. Not on purpose, he knew that, but he’d started having his meals upstairs for a reason.
He shook of that thought. It wasn’t important, he’d catch up with them later today or something. He was sure they’d have some things to say about the video. Maybe some of them would even be genuinely nice.
He smiled to himself. Look at him being optimistic.
Chapter 3: Green eyed jealousy
He was curious though, what he’d find around the river bend.
@selenechris
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chibimyumi · 4 years ago
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The Circus Arc
Last week somebody asked me what my favourite manga arc is, and without a second of hesitation I answered 🎪. As I have already publically declared my love, it is only natural for me to write a love letter to the Circus Arc.
Why do I consider the Circus Arc the best still after more than a decade?
I. The true story
First of all, the Circus Arc is in my opinion the first arc wherein we truly get to meet the characters, as well as the series itself.
A protagonist who is dispensable in their own story is not a true protagonist. As touched upon in this post, before the Circus Arc O!Ciel was actually little more than a plot device to show off Sebastian’s many assets. “The Watchdog has a case because the Queen said so, Sebastian solves it.” “The Watchdog was kidnapped because Yana TOLD us he made life for the mafia a bit hard, so Sebastian saves him.” When Sebas said to his master “you truly have no other talent except for getting yourself abducted,” it sure rang very true until that point. It wasn’t as much a story of O!Ciel’s revenge as it was Sebas saving the day because: demon powers.
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In the Circus Arc however, we truly got an insight on why this little boy could indeed have made life for the mafia hard, and why after two years the Queen still hasn’t fired him. As discussed in the post mentioned before, almost as a compensation for his prior starfishhood, O!Ciel had insisted on doing the investigation himself, even at the cost of his own health. We saw him actively cooking up strategies as well as dealing with any situation as they were met. O!Ciel really displayed a commendable aptness at playing the cards he has been dealt in the Circus Arc. In contrast, while Sebas did make many accomplishments, all his actions were the undertaken because of O!Ciel’s orders. In the Circus Arc we truly got to see how the boy is the chess player, and demon the black knight.
II. Our protagonists - into the core
The Circus Arc is likewise the arc wherein we actually get to meet our two main characters outside their token function.
We have seen Sebastian’s establishment as “the pawn that can move across the entire chessboard in one single move”. But without O!Ciel’s input or any price that the master would have to pay, Sebastian is easily just an ‘instant-win card’, an ironic “deus” ex machina, if you will.
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As discussed in this post and this post, in the Jack the Ripper Arc Sebastian was quite dissatisfied with his master and therefore decided to teach his master a lesson at the cost of more innocent lives. However nasty, it had been O!Ciel who ordered for a subpar move, and technically the pawn “did nothing wrong.”
In the Circus Arc O!Ciel became meticulous about decisions regarding his chess piece. Principally there was nothing wrong with the order O!Ciel had given his butler about releasing the snakes before the first stringers would return, and Sebas who was bound to perfect completion of any order also didn’t do anything wrong, technically. However, it had already been established that as long as Sebas sees the interest himself he would find any loophole in orders to still benefit his master in one way or another. As it is, considering how Sebas did decide to release the poisonous snakes while his master was in the danger zone, we are left with a chilling conclusion that Sebas simply ‘did not see the interest’ of shielding O!Ciel from danger. For the first time we truly learn the extent of Sebastian’s nondiscriminatory nastiness; how indeed all humans are the same to him. For the first time we truly understand that O!Ciel is paying with much more than his soul for Sebastian’s services. This demon is a double-edged sword, but much more than swinging outwards, this sword has a tendency to swing inwards the moment the wielder allows for any opening.
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Previously discussed in this post, we also see the full extent of Sebastian’s manipulativeness and toxicity in the Circus Arc. Sure, in other arcs Sebas is also manipulative, but all of those actions could still be categorised under “merciless honesty”. In the Circus Arc however, O!Ciel objectively did nothing wrong to be triggered and exhausted from the Circus shenanigans, and yet Sebas was unnecessarily re-triggering and victim shaming his master for some extra “flavouring”. If there had been any doubt whether Sebas is bad for O!Ciel, then surely the Circus Arc put all doubts to rest.
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For the first time in the manga we also see a genuine obstacle for Sebastian that is for not also the final hurdle to overcome, like in the Ripper, Curry, Campania or any other arc really. In the Manor Murder and Werewolf Arc there were of course Earl Grey and Wolfram respectively, but in those cases Sebas mostly tried to outrun the obstacles. In the Circus Arc however, William is likewise a supernatural being, and Sebas knew very well that he can’t just neutralise William without causing more trouble than good. Hence we saw how Sebas tried to negotiate with William, and we learned that even Sebastian cannot just avoid hurdles. Negotiating with William did not work of course, so the story forced Sebas to be creative. It truly was great to see Sebas use his brain rather than demon-muscles to overcome a problem for a change.
While getting “creative”, Sebas displayed his aptitude for preying on humans in our weakest of moments. As explained in this characterisation of Sebastian, Sebastian is not terrifying because he has super powers, but because he understands human weaknesses like no other and uses our own weaknesses against us. Click here for an analysis of Sebas’ cross-media manipulation of Beast.
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In this same arc we likewise truly understand the looming threat O!Ciel is dealing with, an explicit revelation of the monster Sebastian is. This scene from underneath is the most explicit moment telling us that Sebas is not just dwelling on Earth comfortably; he is holding out under a cover. This scene almost served as an alarming reminder to us: “beware, the demon can snap”.
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What about O!Ciel? In our boy we saw his tremendous dedication to his job. Except for purposes directly related to the investigation, never once did he order Sebastian to make life easier for him. He never made Sebas secure food for him or do any of the chores for him. Surely Earl Phantomhive would consider himself above wrestling for food or scrub some floors, and yet he was willing to just take on any task without complaining. In no other arc do we see just how effective O!Ciel is as the Watchdog exactly because he is so versatile both in playing the ‘cute little boy’ card as well as the ‘feared Watchdog’ card.
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Doll was an exceptionally well chosen “obstacle” for O!Ciel (more about her later). When Doll briefly wondered about why a peasant boy like Smile would speak in flawless RP, we saw O!Ciel’s ability of thinking on his feet, giving a very logical explanation of: “I served in a Lord’s household where I learned to speak proper.” When Doll caught him red handed when he sneaked into Snake’s tent O!Ciel also immediately pulled the “I didn’t steal anything!” card, skillfully tying it into his previous story as ‘the page boy who was fired for stealing’. We learned that the Watchdog really is willing to carry out his job through any means necessary, not just ‘the cool and edgy means’.
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One of the best ways to get to learn a person is judging from their gut reactions. When O!Ciel was triggered in the final showdown he no longer had any energy to put on a strong front or think about matters rationally. He was in emotional pain and his gut reaction was to want that pain gone.
Even Sebastian who would not directly benefit from the case being completed advised his master against burning down everything. Even with the Queen’s commission as leverage however, the boy still yelled to have everything reduced to ashes. In this moment we also understood just how traumatising everything was to O!Ciel personally. This trauma response didn’t come from nowhere; everything that happened up until that point had been a logical build-up towards this inevitable result.
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III. The Side Characters
A story cannot be told with just the main characters; you need to care about the interactions they have with others too. In my opinion the Circus Arc has delivered the most memorable side characters that linger with us even after death. In particular Joker and Doll.
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Joker is a very fun, charismatic character as well as a person with many different sides. He is lawfully inexcusable, but we cannot help but sympathise, or at least understand how he too is a victim compelled into evil. Rationally we reject Joker’s actions, but partially it is because we have the luxury to do so. “Is this self defense? Would we, or how would we have done anything differently had we been in his exact shoes?” is a question worth considering.
Doll too; we see a child who lived a relatively happy life in the recent past. In the anime they made it explicit that Doll was complicit in all the kidnappings of the children, but in the manga it is more ambiguous whether Doll is fully aware of Kelvin’s agenda. This gives the effect that with the revelation of Joker always having taken most of the bullets, we understand that the torment Joker has been suffering was the price he paid to buy his siblings a more-or-less normal life. If O!Ciel sold his soul to the devil in the literate sense, Joker did so in the figurative sense in exchange for his family’s happiness.
IV. The Antagonists?
We do not spend too much time with Baron Kelvin, and he is a relatively simple character. But that is not bad as long as the villain’s threat reaches us. The horrors of Kelvin have always been quite clear; when children are harmed it triggers a gut reaction of disgust in most viewers. But the kidnapped children were not the functional victims in this story, it is the first stringers with Joker in the centre.
Kelvin has made a bunch of crippled children fully dependent on him, and used their own dependency as a currency to satisfy his own greed. Never once did he allow these children to forget how he could easily return them to the gutter from where he collected them. The kidnapped children were just numbers in the newspaper, but the first stringers are characters we spent time with. We have seen their suffering and we know they are just trying to get by. So it is all the more heartbreaking that children who merely wanted their basic human rights were turned into the antagonists that had to be exterminated. In the showdown between Joker vs Watchdog, the dynamic is shifted from “heroes vs child-kidnapping villains” to “villain-protagonists vs anti-villains”.
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The Circus Arc is very special in how the villain impacts the readers, because the people affected matter to us. In the earliest arcs we didn’t REALLY care about O!Ciel, but he was the main person who suffered from the villains. With Sebastian around however, we don’t really worry. In the Ripper, Mansion, Campania and Potter Arc the main victims are characters we don’t spend any time with, so emotionally we don’t really care whether “evil gets vanquished”. In the Werewolf Arc we do have Sieglinde and Wolfram, and it is heartbreaking to see Sieglinde discovering that all her happiness had been a big lie and that to even her own mother she was nothing but a tool. But in the very least she did grow up happily, she survived and has a fresh chance to start a new life, and the person closest to her (Wolfram) is still with her.
For the first stringers however... all had been meaningless, all is finite.
As expertly described by Sebas in the musical adaptation of the Circus Arc, humans are pathetic because we are merely “accumulating sins in the version of hell [we] have chosen to live.”
V. From foil to team members
The servants at the Phantomhive manor were originally just designed to be foil for Sebas to demonstrate his awesome butler skills. I don’t know whether they were liked at first, but for one I do know that many found them quite annoying or pointless too.
The Circus Arc is the first time we see the significance of the Phantomhive servants, that they’re not just there waiting to be fed by O!Ciel because... he’s a philanthropist of some sort? Yana had made some questionable decisions at first, and she clearly regretted those ‘choices’. I personally see the Circus Arc as her first demonstration of her skills as story writer, and her public proclamation of: “this is Kuroshitsuji’s potential!”
Had the entire series started with the Circus Arc, then surely the animated series would have gotten a much higher budget and a better time-slot for airing.
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VI. Humour
The humour in the Circus Arc is also great, but nothing was shoehorned in there for the sake of laughs, neither do these moments disturb the tone of the story.
Everything was funny because they were the inevitable consequences of putting these people together. William had been established as a demon-racist plank, and when made to cooperate with a demon, of course he would say: “my hands will rot”. When called “four-eyes”, of course he would say: “it’s SUIT”.
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Many of the comedic moments are centred around our protagonists’ inconveniences, but nobody is inconveniencing them for the sake of inconveniencing them. When Sebastian was not trying to leave the vicinity William mostly let him at peace. O!Ciel for example also couldn’t do many things simply because Doll was clinging to him. But she did not know what was at stake and her actions were well grounded in her immense desire to make new friends. “You are young, I am young. You lost an eye, I lost an eye. Let’s be FRIENDS!”
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This is in stark contrast with how ‘funny inconveniences’ were staged before using Lizzie or Grell for example. Lizzie was a drag to O!Ciel because... she’s a girl who wanted everything to go HER way... and Grell was a drag to Sebas because she... is a girl who wanted everything to go HER way.
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VII. Ending
The ending of the Circus Arc also carried a bitter-sweet tone that most other arcs do not present. The thematic of “demons dwell in the human nature of stepping on others” is perfectly addressed in the Circus Arc, but it does not end with: “so don’t be evil!”. The Circus Arc simply highlights the issue and reminds us that ‘stepping on others’ does not exist in a vacuum.
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Had the objective of the series not been established as “boy who swore on revenge”, and instead be: "rethinking evil”, then the Circus Arc alone would have told the story sufficiently.
The finale of the Circus Arc resonates with its audience because the core principle on which Kuroshitsuji is built is a narrative humankind has always wanted to externalise, but without success: “demons are only as evil as humans allow their own evil to show”.
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passivenovember · 4 years ago
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Tetherball : Harringrove April Day One
Also on ao3
--
Steve put his seatbelt on that first day, when Billy stepped out of his chariot across school grounds, taking inventory of things as they were. Life as Steve knew it.
Nancy in the seat next to him.
First period chemistry, English, Geology, lunch. Steve took note of the periwinkle tones in the sky, the rumble of the cafeteria on pizza day, the smell of the library and the way the books turned on you if there were late fees to be settled.
Everything fell into bullet points across worn pavement.
Then versus now. Before and after.
Steve said goodbye to planet Earth that day, whether he knew it or not. Whether he found it favorable. The rumble of an engine beneath his feet changed Steve's perception, and the weight of two blue medallions grew and grew until Steve had learned the facts.
William Hargrove went by Billy. And he had tumbled in from California, presumably naked on a sea shell, where Billy’s stepsister doused hatred like a flame in the ocean under skies full of seagulls and cotton candy wisps.
He wore elevens in converse and a large Hawkins Phys Ed t-shirt that popped seams across his biceps but went soft and wavy in the middle.
Not like it mattered, though.
William went by Billy and he called skins as soon as coach blew the whistle. His t-shirt never made another appearance after that.
--
That's all Steve needed to know, right? The basics. California and step sisters, William instead of Billy, and the sound of rubber on polished oak.
But that's the funny thing about revelations.
Facts are different when colored by opinions, and Steve felt them dropping like coins from the hole in his pocket. As he got to know Billy the bullet points that had taken over Steve's mind rippled and glimmered in the light of first period. Changing.
He observed.
Wondered.
Obsessed.
Developing thoughts about who Billy was and, eventually, the person he pretended to be. Steve wasn't interested in the line Billy drew around the two halves of a whole. Any of the masks he wore in the cafeteria around princesses and prom queens versus the man Steve saw in second period English, who was.
Soft spoken and thoughtful. Every pastel shade in the sky versus brash and heated sunsets over barley.
Flame and sea, like a burning ship at war.
Steve wasn't interested but he learned anyway. Took notes, eyes tracking the brush of Billy's thumb on his bottom lip, brows pinching in concentration as he deciphered the root of a poem in ten seconds flat. The curl of his lips when we took his paper from Mr. Terrine. How he always had an extra pencil for anyone who needed it.
Before long Steve aced his exam in AP Hargrove and failed where everyone else said it mattered.
Got himself a tutor.
Blue eyes to pin him in place, pink lips to seal the passage between worlds. Steve wasn't interested in spending his afternoons under a tetherball, smacking brightly colored plastic out of his face as Billy read to him from a textbook while his sister. Max (step sister, Billy's voice supplied), kicked some girls ass on on the skateboard during softball practice.
"Should we try it once more?" Billy's patient. Steve wasn't expecting that.
He smacks the ball away again. "I've learned a lot about you, but I wasn't expecting this."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Y'know." From across the playground Max teaches her girl how to kick flip. Steve doesn't think that's right. He shrugs anyway. "Smarts. Like, AP biology, Valedictorian, Brain stew smart."
They've been studying together for weeks.
Four weeks. Seems like more with the slide of Billy's shoulder against Steve's arm, blonde ringlets dodging the tetherball as it swings overhead. Billy's fingers brush the open faced textbook, mouth serious but eyes soft. Sparkly, like a discarded bag of glitter.
"Maybe you should pay more attention to the prose."
"Maybe I can do both at the same time." Steve fiddles with the edge of the notebook, nodding as Billy grins. "Alright, goldilocks, tell your silly little story."
He does.
The green eyed boy in the powder blue shirt standing next to you in the supermarket recoils as if hit,
repeatedly,
by a lot of men, as if he has a history of it.
Steve leans back against the rusty iron pole, feeling the weight of the tetherball on one side of his head, and. The brush of golden curls on the other. He closes his eyes, feeling a voice more than hearing it.
That is not your problem. You have your own body to deal with.
The lamp by the bed is broken--
"Are you following?" Billy asks. He moves, knees drawn up so the book is balanced close to the curve of his chin. Close to the split in the universe. "We're getting into muddy waters here--"
"'S not that muddy."
"Sure it is." Billy's cheeks flush, pink paint across the bridge of his nose. He moves against Steve's arm, elbow knocking into ribs. "Tell me what you think is happening."
Steve thinks about it.
Knocks Billy's arm away gently, closing his eyes. "Read some more and then we'll talk."
Billy does.
The lamp by the bed is broken. You are feeling things he is no longer in touch with a nd everyone is speaking softly, as if not to wake one another.
The wind knocks the heads of the flowers together. Steam rises from every cup at every table at once.
Things happen all the time.
Things happen at every minute that have nothing to do with us.
Billy stops reading and Steve peeks at him through an eye half-lidded, curious. "Is that the end of the story?"
"Poem."
"Huh." Steve straightens, moving his legs this way and that. "Felt like a story."
Billy mirrors him exactly, closing the textbook and grabbing his pencil. "That's interesting."
And the way he says it. While flipping through his pea-green fivestar spiral, makes it feel wrong. Stupid.
Steve smacks distantly at the sky. "No it's not."
"Sure it is. Siken's poems are very lyrical. They paint images, vivid images, and sometimes I can imagine myself doing what the lines convey."
Steve grins. "You can imagine yourself in bed with another man?"
Steve isn't interested in the answer but he's interested in the feeling, the glint of emotion behind a wall of powdery blue. It doesn't seep through the cracks, though, it's contained. If Steve wants to find the center, he'll have to dig.
Billy doesn't miss a beat. "If that's what you think the poem's talking about, sure."
"Of course that's what it's talking about."
"How so?"
Steve laughs at that, rubbing against Billy's side. "You sound like a scholar."
"Is that so wrong?"
"No." Steve says thoughtfully. "'S cute."
Billy doesn't crack. Not in the way Steve's used to. No fingers in his hair, spinning spools of gold as he peeks at Steve through thick lashes. Instead he makes a note of it, whatever it is they're saying. Scribbling Steve's interpretation on one side of the blank page, dividing the two halves with a thick black line.
Billy intends to find the truth. "The protagonist is in love with the man at the supermarket? Is that what you're saying."
"I guess."
Billy rolls his eyes. "Your intent has to be clear. Poetry is all about interpretation; if you don't attempt to bridge the divide--"
"All right, Einstein." Steve plays along. "Sure."
Billy's eyes flash victorious as he clicks the pen trigger. "What makes you say that?"
"The way he's obsessed with him."
"The way the narrator is obsessed?" Billy leans forward, intent. "With the man in the grocery store?"
"What makes you deny it?" Steve wonders, folding his legs beneath him so they're crisscross applesauce.
Billy leans back against the pole, casual and easy. "I'm not the one failing English."
"No, but you are the poet." Steve counters. "Dude, I know you have an interpretation. I know you have thoughts, so. Just tell me."
Billy turns to face the playground.
Max skates circles around her girl, smiling in the way Billy does when he's got Steve pinned on the court. Like a predator. Pushing and pulling back just enough to leave the girl chasing after her, enough to catch herself before Max has a chance to get her claws out.
It's incredible, Steve thinks, how much Billy is just like his sister.
"I think he's using him."
Steve cocks his head, curious.
"The man with the blue shirt." Billy opens the textbook and reads the part about the lamp again, peeking up at Steve through frizzy curls. "The narrator says we are feeling things the man is no longer in touch with."
Steve leans forward. "Like love?"
Billy thinks about it. "No."
"Connection, then."
"If they're sleeping together it's more than just sex." Billy counters, "More than just carnality."
Which.
Steve frowns. "People fuck all the time without connecting."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Steve thinks about rattling down his list. The girls, the guys, the one night stands and bullshit post-game hook ups.
Billy fiddles with the edges of his notebook almost. Shyly. "People have sex because they're in love."
Steve snorts. "There's a million reasons to fuck outside of love."
Billy's eyes flash hard with.
Something. He bares his teeth. "Yeah? Like what?"
"I dunno. Breakup sex, makeup sex, sorry for burning a hole in your prom dress sex--"
"Gross."
"Point is." Steve looks at Billy. Studies him, the freckles across his upper lip, the scruff along his jawline. "Sex and emotion don't have to exist within each other."
Billy stares back at him, eyes wide and distant. Closed off.
He writes something on Steve's half of the notebook. "I disagree."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Billy tosses his pen to the ground. "Our narrator says the man in the blue shirt has a history of being hit by other men."
"So?" Steve has trouble following at the best of times, and this.
The way Billy is worrying the skin on his fingers, nails catching and tearing in places they don't belong, feels important.
Billy shrugs. "Why would he sleep with a man without knowing his heart?"
"Maybe he just wants to feel something."
"Or maybe he wants to connect." Billy turns to look out across the playground once more, fingers tugging at the edge of his notebook. "Maybe he's existing in this bubble, like. This silent world with a tiny room where everyone is speaking softly out of respect. Maybe he chooses the wrong person because it's better than feeling half alive."
Steve knows they aren't talking about the poem anymore.
He tugs the notebook from Billy's hands, flipping through a million and one handwritten theories and observations. Billy lets him. Lets Steve look through his life and into his mind before handing the spiral back and asking, "Have you ever picked the wrong person?"
Billy doesn't say anything and then; "Yes."
"How come?"
"Everybody's wrong if you squint hard enough."
Steve nods, looping his arms around his knees. "And I'm assuming you didn't sleep with any of them."
He doesn't expect Billy to answer. It's not like they owe each other anything, honesty or otherwise. Billy leans back against the pole once more. From where their bodies are pressed together Billy feels feverish. Incendiary.
Billy clears his throat. "Or the opposite."
Which catches Steve off guard.
Billy watches him for a moment, eyes dark and serious. "I don't think the narrator sleeps with the man in the blue shirt. Maybe he intends to. Take the guy home, make a couple drinks, blaze trails into something previously unknown to him or maybe just. A feeling he hasn't felt in a while. But intimacy isn't always about sex."
Steve snorts. "I can't think of anything more intimate than being inside another person."
"But you are inside them, just. Not in the way you expected."
Steve glares out over the playground. The sun will be setting soon, blacktops and brown fields painted in shades of red and orange. The whole world will catch on fire but Steve feels the beginning, coals glowing bright red under the line of his ribcage when he turns to find blue eyes on him.
Dousing the fire, or maybe.
Raising the stakes. His eyes flit across Billy's forehead, brushing over his lips and coming to rest on his eyelashes. Feathery and soft, like the arms of a teddy bear. Steve licks his lips, going up in flame when Billy's eyes track the movement.
"I lied." Steve says.
Billy doesn't look away. "I'm not sure what you--"
"The first time a boy ever kissed me." Steve says. "When a boy kissed me because he wanted to, that was more intimate than anything I'd ever felt before."
Billy's gaze falls impossibly lower, tracing the swell of Steve's lips. "How did it feel?"
And he says it like.
He couldn't possibly know.
And Steve says, "Like my heart was taking root," like.
Let me show you.
Billy takes a deep breath. "I don't think I've ever felt like that."
"Never?"
"Not once."
From across the playground Max's answering laugh makes Billy's skin turn gold. Caramel, ice cream topped with sugar. Steve feels his body inching closer, mouth opening as if to taste love on the air.
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ramblings-of-a-mad-cat · 5 years ago
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HPHM Profile - Luca Fawley
This template was posted by  @Hogwartsmysterystory and it looks pretty awesome. I might just go ahead and use it for the whole damn Fawley family. But let’s start with Luca. I’ll try to stay true to canon while still respecting the “Remembrance” timeline’s ideas.
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(That eye color edit looks so bad omg) 
Identity
Name: Luca Jude Fawley
Gender: A-Gendered.
Age: 17 as of Year 6.
Birth Date: December 26th, 1972
Species: (Human, Lycanthrope, Metamorphmagus, Vampire, etc) Human, Wizard. 
Blood Status: Pureblood.
Sexuality: Panromantic, Asexual.
Alignment: Neutral Good.
Ethnicity: Biracial, half Scottish and half Iranian.
Nationality: British. 
Residence: The Black Sand Apothecary, in a place called Dulcimer Beach.
Myer Briggs Personality Type: INFP. 
The Mage
1st Wand:Hazel and Unicorn Hair, 10 1/4 Inches, Swishy. This wand was owned by Nina, Luca’s mother. It was given to them after Jacob’s disappearance rendered Nina unable to use her magic anymore. It was just before Luca went to Hogwarts, where they used Nina’s wand until it was broken by Rakepick. 
2nd Wand:Cedar and Unicorn Hair, 11 3/4 Inches, Pliant. This wand was fashioned by Rowan before they came to Hogwarts, but it never “chose” them. It did choose Luca though, in fifth year, just in time for Luca to need another. Rowan could not be happier at this turn of events, and Luca feels as though it’s an honor they don’t deserve. 
Animagus: Black Cat.
Misc Magical Abilities: (Legilimen, Seer, Parselmouth, Obscurial, etc) Luca has extreme proficiency in all types of mental magic - Legilimency, Occlumency, Memory Charms, etc - due to a Dark Curse they inherited. A Curse that has plagued the Fawley family for generations. They also have a magical eye, similar to Moody’s, that replaced their left eye at age thirteen. 
Boggart Form: For Years 1-5 it was Jacob, embodying all of Luca’s subconscious uncertainties about him. Post-Portrait Vault, it became Merula getting tortured. 
Riddikulus Form: Usually nothing. Luca struggles to find humor in their anxieties, and they don’t stand much chance facing a Boggart alone.
Amortentia: (What do they smell like?) Luca’s hair has a distinctly cinnamon-like scent, so probably that. 
Amortentia: (What do they smell?) Cat fur, Pine Trees, and Cloves. 
Patronus: Cat. Specifically, it takes the form of Luca’s cat, Mitten.
Patronus Memory: Either the Celestial Ball, or the time they reconciled with Rowan after a feud about Ben, and cuddled them in cat-form. 
Mirror of Erised: After Chapter 18, I’ll give you one guess. They want their best friend back. They want to take back what happened in the forest. 
Specialized/Favorite Spells:The Patronus Charm, the Tickling Charm, and the shrinking Charm. 
Appearance
Faceclaim: Keanu Reeves. 
Game Appearance:
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This is pretty much their mood half the time. 
Height: 5′8.
Weight:141 lbs.
Physique: Very skinny and small, overall scrawny. 
Eye Colour: Naturally dark brown, but their left eye is a bright blue prosthetic.
Hair Colour: Dark brown. 
Skin Tone: Olive skin.
Body Modifications: The Magical Eye replace their left eye, and their right hand has a birthmark of a black star, known as the Mark of Despair. A byproduct of the curse placed on the Fawleys. 
Scarring: They still have a few faint pockmark scars on their neck and shoulders from when The Fawleys all caught dragon pox in Luca’s childhood. But these can only be seen under the light.
Inventory: (what do they carry on them?) Luca has a tendency to travel light, but they’re also an emotional sap. They carry their wand, the clothes on their back, and “Beatrice Jr.” the puffskein that Beatrice made for them. After the events of the forbidden forest, they also start carrying Rowan’s cracked glasses. 
Allegiances
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff.
Ilvermorny House: Pukwudgie.
Affiliations/Organizations: Hufflepuff Quidditch Team, Curse-Breaking Apprentices, The Circle of Khanna
Professions: I see Luca eventually becoming a teacher at Hogwarts, as the permanent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Can also see Talbott and Penny working alongside them in Transfiguration and Potions, respectively. 
Hogwarts Information
Class Proficiencies: (OWL Grade or ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆)
Astronomy: Poor.
Charms: Outstanding.
DADA: Exceeds Expectations.
Flying:(N/A. I refuse to accept that Flying has an O.W.L exam.) 
Herbology: Poor.
History of Magic: Acceptable. 
Potions: Acceptable.
Transfiguration:Acceptable. 
Electives:
Care of Magical Creatures: Outstanding.
Ancient Runes: Acceptable.
Quidditch: Chaser. 
Extra Curricular: Luca tutored students in Charms, and spent a lot of time doing volunteer work in the Creature Reserve.
Favourite Professors: Flitwick, Mcgonagall, and at one point, Rakepick.
Least Favourite Professors: Dumbledore, Snape, Sprout
Relationships
Brother: Jacob. Luca’s favorite person in the entire world. As Luca grew up, Jacob’s disappearance and the subsequent investigation of his actions led to a serious re-evaluation of their relationship. But ultimately, Jacob was always fighting to protect his sibling.
Misc Siblings: Gail, Luca’s twin sister. Depending on which AU we’re talking about, a lot of different things could have happened to her. She could be still-born. She could be raised apart from Luca. She could grow up beside them. She could take their place as the HPHM protagonist. Take heed, anyone writing twin OCS...all these different paths are going to confuse the hell out of you.
Father: Eric Fawley, who died of a Dragon Pox fever when Luca was seven. Though they were still very young when they lost him, Luca and their father had a positive relationship and Eric’s temperament is probably the closest to Luca’s out of anyone else in the family.
Mother: Nina Fawley, formerly Nina Greengrass. She and Luca always had a positive relationship as they were growing up. For the most part, Nina usually appeared to be a pleasant person. However, she also had skeletons in her closet, and as the years went by her mask began to slip. 
Love Interest: Canonically? It’s very likely going to wind up being Merula. She hasn’t been cut from the dating quests yet and I’m an absolute sucker for their dynamic. Merula is lashing out because she’s in pain, but Luca is Healer...otherwise, I really like Luca/Tulip, as well as a poly-ship between those three characters called the Trouble Trio. A small sliver of my heart has also started shipping Luca with Skye as well. Basically, I’m an indecisive bean - but since I’m keeping this as close to canon as possible, let’s say Merula.
Best Friends: By the end of their first Hogwarts term, Luca had formed a true squad with Rowan, Penny, Chiara, and Tonks. The four of them teamed up to trade off sleeping beside Luca each night, to help soothe Luca’s night terrors and insomnia. Luca also saw Ben as a little brother from a young age.
Rival: Ironically enough, it wasn’t Merula. Their rivalry with her was always one-sided. Luca saw far too much of Jacob in Merula, to ever have in them to sincerely dislike her. The only person Luca felt a legitimate rivalry with growing up was Diego. Their personalities just did not click well, and it wasn’t until the N.E.W.T. years that they were able to get past it and find common ground.
Enemy: R of course, has become the deadly enemy that Luca does not understand, but knows they must be defeated. If you were to ask though, Luca’s immediate answer would be Rakepick. There was a time when Luca saw her as a mother figure. But now...after everything she’s done...she needs to die. 
Dorm-mates: (Who’s in your MC’s dorm with them?) Rowan, Murphy, Diego. Though Luca also frequently sleeps in the Girl’s Dormitory with Penny, Skye, Tonks, and Chiara. 
Pets:Mitten the snowy cat. Merula also has a black cat of her own called Bitten. 
Closest Canon Friends: Rowan, Penny, Tonks, Chiara, Ben, Jae. 
Closest MC Friends: This one always makes me shy, because I don’t want to be presumptuous, but some of my favorite MC’s that I’ve seen that I bet Luca would get along with are @missnight0wl​ @thewasp1995​ @back-on-my-tulula-shiz​ @dat-silvers-girl​  @salaofthenight​ and @weirdcursedvaultkid​
Background/History
Luca was the child of two Healers that met at St. Mungo’s before starting an Apothecary together. Luca saw a lot of their grandparents on Eric’s side, but never met Nina’s family as she was estranged from them. 
Luca knew Jae when they were very young - Jae was friends with Jacob prior to his disappearance. Jacob and Jae would combine their efforts to make mischief, and Luca would never approve. They had a falling out with Jae not long before Jacob vanished, and they maintained an uneasy distance until fifth year, where the kitchen detentions saw a reconciliation between the two of them. 
The Fawley family was notoriously unlucky, and known for madness. Alice Fawley, Luca’s aunt, went insane after she was tortured by Bellatrix. In the last two years of his life, Eric had a breakdown and cut off his own hand in an attempt to remove the curse. But the Mark of Despair simply reappeared on his remaining hand. 
After Jacob disappeared, Luca had a mental breakdown and for years, they could not recall the day that their brother vanished. In the years to come, Flitwick would give them a Pensieve to help them sift through all the turmoil in their head. Luca would eventually learn that their inability to recall the day Jacob disappeared was due to a memory charm placed on them by an unknown entity, perhaps Jacob himself. 
Personality
In some ways, Luca is healthier than most people because they are quite emotionally open and not afraid to express their feelings, but know how to do so in an appropriate fashion. They’re also empathetic and able to show kindness and listen when another person needs to express feelings.
In other ways, Luca is a mess. They’re extremely depressed and this interferes with their productivity and relationships. They’re prone to having breakdowns of crying at any emotional shift. They have low self-esteem and tend to believe that they are worthless or a burden. 
That said, they appreciate their friends and loved ones more than they can ever convey. To a fault, even. Not only is Luca loyal, but they are highly forgiving of a person’s flaws if it is someone they care about. One could call it enabling, as they are rarely bothered by offenses that such people commit against them. 
Luca also has a very merciful attitude. Day one, even though they knew it was Merula who blew up their cauldron, they said nothing and simply took the fall, apologizing to Snape. However, once Luca has been pushed to a breaking point, they can show a surprising amount of backbone. It just takes a lot to get this out of them. 
Luca has a nurturing nature and a tendency to reach out to underdogs, to care for those in need. This is what drew them to Ben, Merula, Orion, and Beatrice. Though Luca never holds anger in their heart, the quickest way to see them get angry is to hurt or abuse one of these outcasts that Luca cares for. Part of the reason they become so disillusioned with Dumbledore is because he is in a position of educational power, and the longer Luca attends Hogwarts, the less it seems to them that Dumbledore has any interest in doing his job with integrity. 
Misc
Not going to get too much into Fawley family head-canons, since I’ll save that for a different post. But I think Luca was raised Jewish. 
They’re lactose intolerant. 
Their favorite flower is the chamomille, which is the type of tea they prefer.
They’ve always been Pro-Muggle, though they don’t know the first thing about muggle culture. 
Luca never truly wanted to be a Curse-Breaker. It just seemed like a necessary skill-set to learn to find Jacob, and break the Fawley curse.
They’ve known they were trans for as long as they could remember. 
They have exceptional abysmal unique skills at naming. Examples include “Barnaby Jr” the Bowtruckle and “Penny Jr” the Abraxan. 
They are ambidextrous. 
Despite being a mellow person, Luca is oddly drawn to people who are trouble. If a person is problematic, chaos-aligned, or just an overall disaster of a human being, there’s a greater chance that Luca will find them attractive. 
They suspected Rowan of being R for a while, much to their own guilt. It led to a feud, but they made up and were closer than ever.
On the other hand, they never suspected Ben, not even when he was unmasked as the Red Cloak. Luca just had a gut feeling that it was too easy, that it was a setup. But Rakepick saving their life cemented her as an ally in Luca’s eyes...that did not end well. 
Luca never wanted to be a Prefect, but Rowan and Flitwick talked them into it. 
They vastly prefer Wizard’s Chess to Gobstones, something they have in common with Murphy. 
They have an unfortunate tendency to unconsciously project familial roles onto people. Bill and Orion were substitutes for Jacob,  Flitwick was a substitute father figure, and for a time, Rakepick substituted for Luca’s absentee mother. 
Did I miss anything? Hope you guys like it! Should I post others for the Fawley family? 
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artificialqueens · 5 years ago
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Perfect Places... a simple song turned to a symphony. (Ninex) - Chapter 2 - Saiphl
A UK tour is happening and also, a story that no one expected to start. Not even their protagonists.
I’m really sorry for the delay on the posting, it’s been a crazy couple of months, but I hope you enjoy this little part of the ride.
Again thanks to Molly, Mistress, Meggie and Sheavelour for giving this little mess a little shape.
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Interlude. In the Shadows.
an intervening or interruptive period, space, or event
It’s early March and the weather is harsh, even by British standards. The road is hard, especially when you’re travelling in a bus full of crossdressers, sleeping in uncomfortable bunk beds thousands of miles away from home. They’ve been crammed inside the tour bus ever since landing at Heathrow. It would take them to their show in London, then they’d have to pack everything back into their suitcases to continue to the following city.
It seems to them that it’s already been hours since they climbed the bus and hit the road. Many are asleep, light snoring echoes throughout the narrow hallway.
For some queens like Asia, Kameron and Cracker, this isn’t anything new.They have been touring together for some time, as their managers booked them together for the UK tour leg. By this point the three queens are veterans and have gotten used to sleeping, even when standing, whenever they have the chance. Nina knew the tour would be tough on his body and even harder on his mental state.
Jetlag keeping him up, Nina lays wide awake on his bunk long after the show. He has nothing better to do than scroll endlessly through social media The music that plays from his earbuds, which claims to be ‘relaxing’. isn’t helping at all. It is almost four o’clock in the morning, and, according to his iPhone, late night in New York. Not even thinking, he clicks the button.
Monét is organic, both of them easily falling into conversation. They keep talking, their conversation soon muffled by the snoring of the other queens.
Monét is sleepy, his day off from work is nearing its end. He has a flight to catch early the next morning, heading for the south of the continent. They just do some small talk until Nina notices Monét falling asleep, the younger man unable to help the tiredness showing on his face. He had a thousand errands to run in the short time he was home. Nina smiles sweetly at him, a sympathetic smile being the last thing the other he sees that night. Monét wishes him a good tour and sweet dreams, Nina wishes him a good night and a safe flight.
The image fades to black on the screen, and Nina takes his earbuds off to put them safely inside case. A sudden noise catches his attention. He’s sure he hadn’t heard any of the girls in the other bunks make that kind of sound. Silky’s motorboat like snoring makes him lose focus. Nina shakes his head, sliding to the edge of the bunk to listen closer, then there it is again. Muffled sighs, and maybe something sounding sloppy and wet.  Asia’s sleep talking makes the noises stop for a second and the bus drowns in the sounds of the road.  
He saw some of the queens getting cozy and handsy after some drinks, so he couldn’t guess who was the perpetrator. It was well known that when they were on tour, the long travelling and the distance could make a queen feel lonely. Still, this was too early in the tour for them to get thirsty.
By the following morning, most of the girls are whispering and gossiping. Nina doesn’t really care about the details, what catches his interest is that Brooke’s name comes up. The girls talk, read and suggest increasingly unrealistic theories. Nina listens to each, trying to make sense of what he heard the night before. Above all, he wasn’t willing to risk his relationship with Brooke by asking something he’s not ready to discuss.
One thing is sure: Cracker and Brooke got closer, even though they try to fool everyone by sitting far apart everywhere they go. Sure, they banter and play with the others, but something between them has changed. Nina knows it, he can feel how the tension between them grows thicker the further apart they are from each other.
The night of Brooke’s birthday, the whole lineup goes out to party. They drink, they dance, they have a blast of a night off. And Nina can see it clear as day, how Brooke has spent time with each girl of the cast but always, always, ends up gravitating towards one of them. Maybe both of them are gravitating towards each other. A cute British boy, with dark hair and a couple inches shorter than Brooke is flirting with him. Returning from the bar, Cracker freezes at the sight of them on the dance floor. It happens in a millisecond. The beers in Cracker’s hands land with contented fury over the table, a forced laugh spills from his lips, and his face contorts into a smile faker than a three dollar bill.
Cracker excuses himself to the restroom. As he walks away his hands turn to fists in one of the most incredible displays of self control Nina has ever seen. Brooke seems oblivious to what happened until Cracker’s glacial dark brown eyes make him freeze. The cute boy is clinging to Brooke’s neck and he seems to realize what’s happening. At the table, Nina is the first to go after Cracker, the crowd of the bar hindering him when they recognize him and ask for pictures. When he breaks free and looks around again, the cute boy is standing confused at the edge of the dance floor and Brooke is nowhere to be seen.
Around half an hour later, Brooke bids everyone good night and leaves the bar. Cracker never returns from the restrooms. The rest of the girls stay at the bar for a couple more hours, then call it a night and head to the hotel. All the while, Nina’s been texting Brooke, who barely answered his messages. He’s worried. Brooke is one of his best friends and he’s almost sure he’s playing games with Cracker. That was, for sure, a very dangerous liaison. Cracker is friends with Vanjie, and Brooke is the guy who broke Vanjie’s heart despite loving him dearly. Because, Brooke is still in love with Vanjie, isn’t he?
All the answers to his questions come as soon as he arrives at his hotel room. He knows Brooke’s room is just beside his, and he wants to know if his friend is alright, leaving his own birthday party earlier than the guests isn’t his typical behavior. Nina stops in front of Brooke’s door and knocks. It’s ajar. A long sigh can be heard beyond the door.
“You said it wouldn’t happen again”, Brooke whispers, voice cracking in the last word, a sloppy sound muffled behind, then another voice.
“Then… happy birthday, and this is just the beginning.” Nina can’t recognize the voice, it’s so low that he can barely even understand the words.
The mystery finds an answer a second later, when Brooke whispers “Fuck… Max!”. Nina feels like a nasty Peeping Tom, so he carefully closes the door and returns to his room. He doesn’t sleep that night, wondering if he should talk to Brooke, or just play the fool and pretend nothing happened. He decides it’s better to keep his mouth shut and let Brooke speak for himself when the time comes.
Brooke never says anything. Time goes by and the tour comes to an end. They are all in Heathrow, luggage already registered and all saying their goodbyes while they wait for their flights to depart. Nina and Brooke are in the same flight back to LA for a viewing party the following day. Nina is looking for their gate when he sees them.
Cracker and Brooke are standing under the departures screen on the gate B36. The smaller man is holding his left arm with the right hand that crosses his chest, his messenger bag hanging loosely from his small frame. Brooke’s left hand is on the other man’s shoulder; his own a little shrugged. The last call to Cracker’s flight is announced and they look intensely into each other’s eyes, then hug and their lips collide in a kiss that looks both desperate and needy. Nina keeps walking and decides to keep that knowledge to himself.
Monét and Nina are texting, it’s a bit past mid April and they haven’t seen each other in a while. They’re both in opposite corners of the US and those messages have been a luxury they could barely afford. They’re catching up, and Monét casually comments that Brooke showed up in New York. Nina knows Brooke doesn’t have any bookings there, he actually just came back from Toronto and supposedly would take a couple of days off before flying again. Monét drops the subject and Nina is grateful, he doesn’t want to think of the things he heard or saw back in London. He doesn’t want to stir the pot.
Gigs come and go, Nina and Brooke join the last leg of the season eleven tour. It’s the final lap before pride madness. He can tell something’s changed. Vanjie and Brooke are in this final leg and they seem friendly. It’s not the kind of tense friendly that says something’s going on, but the kind of friendly that allow them to be comfortable around each other again.
Vanjie is dating someone else. He learns his name is Aiden, and can’t help but get infected by the Puerto Rican’s joy. His smile is authentic this time.
Brooke is all but bouncing off the walls, the heart of the party, cheering the happiness of his former lover. He’s sober and barely smoking, he dances, banters, and has fun.
He’s happy and Nina can’t help but feel the same for his friend. Another thing that has changed: even though Brooke has always been a flirt, he’s not looking for trade.
If there’s something in this world that Nina knows well, it’s that look on Brooke’s face. The shiny eyes, the goofy smile, the glow on his face when he furiously types messages on his phone. For the first time in over a year, Nina is scared.
He has seen Brooke fall in love as fast as his heart gets broken. He was there to pick up the pieces when Branjie went down. He spent long hours talking to a drunk Brooke on the phone. The Brooke that missed Vanjie but was scared enough to run away when everything got too serious. Nina knows. somehow this is a recipe for disaster and he can’t let his friend fall hard this time.
Rumours start coming and going about All Stars 5, the kind of rumours that put names on the board and tear others to the ground. One of those days, both Nina and Brooke are on one of those extremely rare days off on the final episodes of their season. They’re in Columbus and there’s a bunch of guys trying to snatch Brooke’s attention, and he’s dodging them like a pro.
Nina’s curiosity finally wins over and, not even thinking about it, pulls Brooke to their booth. It takes most of Nina’s efforts to finally get Brooke talking, reluctantly. They have a long conversation. He speaks about what happened in the UK, and how he feels being around Cracker. He says he wanted to surprise him by showing upon his birthday party. Still, Brooke is in clear denial, saying that they’re just exclusive in sex, that nothing’s happening between them aside the amazing sex they have. Nina wants to slap Brooke.
When the conversation is over Brooke has finally admitted he has feelings for Cracker, but he’s afraid to screw that up like he did with Vanjie. Nina tells Brooke that no one that’s not even a little bit involved in a relationship kiss someone that way in an airport gate. Nina would never admit that he knows that by his own experience, he would never admit that he was also falling hard in love.
June went by in a blink, then came July. Nina is exhausted, his schedule busier than ever, and he barely had time to properly make himself comfortable at home. He’s coming back from the Safari in Powell when something catches his attention. At his front door, sitting besides a small carry on and takeout from his favourite restaurant, is Monét.
They haven’t seen each other in months, and even if the facetime calls and the texts are regular, finally being face to face is something they’ve been craving for long.
Monét gets to his feet, his sore body grateful from the change of position. Nina touches his face, a wide smile spreading on his lips  while he leans to kiss the other. Time stops for a second, then they break up the kiss, giggling like teenagers.
They end up tangled on Nina’s living room couch, barely covered by a fleece blanket and lazily making out after one of the best sex they’ve ever had. Monét stays for some days, and Nina feels like he really came back home.
Nina is in the shower the day it happens. Monét is scrolling down on Instagram when he finds a picture of Cracker totally melted on a very tall blonde man on the dance floor of a club. He has to re-read at least three times the comments to actually get what’s happening, he immediately calls his friend. The image on the screen confirming what he just saw on the pictures, and he let the lovebirds know they’ve been outed in social media, which makes Cracker wake up with a jolt, then, they hang up.
Monét runs to the bathroom, cutting Nina’s inspired performance of “A Whole New World.” Nina looks at him, concerned, cuts the water and reaches for his towel looking at Monét’s phone screen, a relieved laugh leaving his body. Monét looks at him, a big question mark on his face. Nina tells him he was there since the beginning, back in that tour bus in London.
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hypnopabinia · 5 years ago
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Another one for the Point and Click Series.
The setting - a den of werewolves with all the trappings of your typical fantasy werewolf den - cave opening shaped like the gaping maw of a great wolf, eyes aflame with torchlight, the lot. Our protagonist is quite unimpressed. Like, laying it on a little thick, aren’t we? Just a bit cliche, no?
Of course, you can ask the werewolves about it - and they proceed to explain that actually, no, you see, The Howling Caverns have always been like this - werewolves have been congregating out here for generations, ever since the Great Pack-Mother saw the wolf-shape in the mountains and went Dude, that’s metal as fuck, let’s build a summer home here, y’all.
“So this whole thing is a natural formation?” asks the protagonist, incredulous.
“Broadly, broadly. Few generations of werewolves put a bit of a buff here and a bit of a dent there to make it look even more badass. There were a few controversial choices, mind you. Like the time Olaf the One-Eyed insisted on putting an eye-patch on one of the eye-holes to make it look more menacing. They eventually talked him down to just build protective blinds over both eyes that could be opened and closed and used as archer posts. Great pack leader, he was. Died to an arrow in the eye, very tragic.”
“... What about the spiked collar, then?” the Protagonist raises an eyebrow, pointing towards that particular feature of the entrance to the caverns.
“Oh yes, that’s a tribute to the heritage of Olaf’s mate, Zuzana the Kinky. One of the best warriors we ever had - trust me, you’ve not seen true terror until you’ve seen a 6′8′‘ ripped wolf-queen in spiky black leather death-growling hymns to the night-mother. Fought with a frenzy like no other. Olaf had to keep her on a short leash. She was into it, of course - struggling against the leash only made the hunt more exciting. That’s her old chain hanging from the collar right there.”
“Ah, the good old days when we only had a leash when we wanted to wear one. Back when Wolves Were Wolves! And Werewolves Were Wolves! And Werewerewolves Were Werewolves! ... But what can ya do? In this economy, ya kinda have to sell out to the resident dark lord to stay afloat, y’know? It’s not like the locals would hire werewolves.”
“Racist bastards. No health insurance, either.” grumbles another werewolf, assuming a mocking tone “I’m sorry, we don’t cover pre-existing conditions!”
“Someone actually say that to you, Ivan?”
“Yeah, I ate the bastard.”
“Good on you, Ivan. Eat the rich.”
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feijuan · 6 years ago
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Fist of the Blue Sky: Regenesis, Am I Right?
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This review contains a lot of spoilers -- I do not know how much of the anime is congruent with the manga, and as such there may be manga spoilers in this review as well. 
Click here to read on Wordpress!
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On one hand, as we all ought to know very well,  
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But on the other hand, I think I liked season 2 of Fist of the North Star: Regenesis more than the first, somehow. I also hate to admit there were parts of season 2 I liked completely unironically, as ridiculous and contrived as most of it was. Such is often my experience with every Fist of the North Star anime, game, etc, that I watch -- though I expected it much less from this, on account of it being maligned by pretty much everyone I know who knows anything about Fist of the North Star, for
Being made entirely in CGI (though I still think it’s the designs that are awful, and not necessarily the fact that it’s CGI, but to each their own I suppose when it comes to visuals)
Apparently not following canon much at all, but that doesn’t matter to me because I don’t know anything about Fist of the Blue Sky canon anyway, which makes my viewing experience… interesting… because I just had to accept whatever nutso bonkers lunacy I saw on the screen as truth.
I berated the first season quite a lot, not just for issues in adaptation, but for issues that are almost certainly in the source material as well. I thought the setting was a ridiculously contrary backdrop for the kind of martial arts antics happening on screen, in a literary and in a visual sense. The martial arts themselves, while always ludicrous in the franchise as a whole, were especially so in Fist of the Blue Sky - and in Regenesis their visual presentation was frankly awful, managing to be both tacky beyond imagining and super underwhelming. The writing had serious problems that required -- I'm not kidding and wish I was -- a Magical Jewel That Showed The Antagonist The Truth to resolve the finale, and the backstory we saw through this Plot Orb was complete and utter nonsense, the likes of which I haven't quite seen in a very long time. This really doesn't even cover all of the issues in the first season of Fist of the Blue Sky: Regenesis alone, because the majority of the characters aren't great either, including the protagonist whose value largely seems reliant on being an allusion to the already beloved Kenshiro, and the abundance of small contrivances throughout to fuel completely unnecessary conflicts.
As objectively bad as Regenesis was though, there were some things I enjoyed about it, namely a few of the characters. I loved Fei Yan and Erika, and as much as I hated Yasaka at first, he grew on me – though that was born from the absurdity of his redemption that made it impossible for me to take any of his crimes seriously. On that line of thought though, what I often enjoyed about season 1 was the spectacle of it, and I think that’s pretty clearly evidenced by my liveblog where I was either losing my mind and frantically posting screencaps to try and even begin to understand what I was looking at and how it was possible, or posting about Fei Yan Being Great. And sometimes complaining when I had the energy to think about the awful writing, instead of laugh it off…
So that was season 1. But what did season 2 have to offer, and could it redeem the anime, even a little bit? Well, short answers: A bit more, and not particularly. So let's get to the list making:
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Things I decidedly didn’t like at all about Season 2
Need I even say anything about how the CG model proportions are still awful... looking Yu Ling's model makes me ache all over. But not only are the models in general still grotesque, but there were a few too many instances of flashbacks where characters were supposed to be teens, but they either had a kid model, or an adult model. There's no inbetween.  It's extremely weird and jarring when in one flashback Simeon looks like a 12 year old with similarly young looking Himuka, and then "a few years later" Simeon still has the 12 year old boy model, while Himuka has evolved into a 30 year old buff martial artist.
Fei Yan is Still Dead and Yasaka is good but he's not that good. This is admittedly a petty complaint but try to understand... Fei Yan was really good. And I miss him. Thank you for listening.
Fei He was wildly under-utilized, under-developed, and usually just a woman for male characters to make fun of or infantalize -- which is a crying shame (and unfortunately par the course for the franchise, ahem) because she was a link back to Fei Yan and his legacy. Having been partially brought up by him and idolizing him in her youth, she arrives near the end of season 1 to track down Kasumi, who she is pointlessly misled into believing killed Fei Yan for a few episodes. Later in season 2 when she does discover it was Yasaka who killed Fei Yan, nothing… happens, because by that time she has already come to respect Kasumi, so it’s trivially easy for Kasumi to convince her to forgive Yasaka just like he did. Once her initial motivation is snuffed out, she just becomes a detached ally of our secondary protagonist group, which consists of Yu Ling, minor members of the Green Gang, and the worst characters of the entire show!
The comedy duo. Far and away the worst aspect of both seasons of the whole show. The CG? The ugly art style in general? The casual misogyny? The non-canon mismatched cult planning world domination with nuclear weapons? That all pales in comparison to the damage these freaks wreck on every episode they are in.
Their horrendous “bits” are where like 80% of the misogyny this show displays actually occurs. Their boorish fantasies are used as vehicles for the only fanservice scenes in the entire run, and they make up ridiculous plans for Fei He to carry out that degrade her and make her a joke.Their bits are tone-shatteringly out of place and usually shoehorned into every episode since their introduction in the middle of season 1 at the worst time possible. I’m still seething about their prolonged scene in the finale where Yu Ling inexplicably rubs the metal-haired one’s head while her fiancee fights for his doomed life, and he pretty much c*ms and his metal wig falls off to reveal a single disgusting hair on his head -- we literally cut away from the final fight in the whole series so we can see THAT. LIKE WHAT? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
This show is already so far-fetched and often unintentionally hilarious that it doesn’t benefit in any way from having gag characters in the first place. It’s a net loss in entertainment value, really, because all the gag characters did was ruin serious scenes and interrupt outrageous scenes that were actually funny.
Fei Yan died, Yasaka died, Kasumi died, but THESE CHUCKLEFUCKS LIVED? #JUSTICEFORFEIYAN #GOTHRIGHTS
The whole thing with the vampire cyborg mad scientist soldier making pseudo-zombies. That was a lot even for Fist of the Blue Sky: Regenesis.
Oh, and another quick note about Fei He being poorly utilized: I also didn't like at all how she is revealed to have fallen in love with Kasumi in the finale... like c'mon. Was that necessary? They barely ever spoke! A woman can care about a man dying without being A Thing, Fist of the North Star...
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Things I unexpectedly didn’t hate and even sort of liked to varying degrees about Season 2
Speaking of Kasumi, he was a lot more likable in this season and I don't know if it's because we naturally got to know him better as we spent more time with him, or if it's because he just Did More Good Stuff than before, but I'm leaning towards the latter. I really liked his tender moments with Erika going up to the finale and his fight with Himuka was leagues above any of his fights previously in terms of giving us some actual meaningful insight into his personality and beliefs. It's a shame these moments happened in the last two episodes of the series... But I am willing to concede that they were fairly successful in making me like him just in time for him to honourably wander off into the desert and die. Thanks.
As much as I heckled the literally religious cult composed of men in black, mysterious worshippers with pointed hoods sitting around a table plotting world domination, mad scientist soldiers, and assorted martial artists, I ended up kind of liking where the story went with it and the themes that were developed in the last stretch. The second arc had a very on the nose stance on war and weapons of mass destruction as the worst of humanity's creations, and we see it in a lot of places in the story. The narrative unfolding at a time when World War II was on the horizon, the nuclear bomb schematics that had been causing all of the strife in the story being erased from Erika's (a little Jewish girl, as well) mind in the end, and how Himuka was driven to villainy by war and became convinced the only way to create a future without it, was to hit the Hard Reset Button on the earth's population. For all its shortcomings with dealing with the -isms, Fist of the North Star has at least always had anti-war themes, but I especially liked how they were more focused and rooted in history in this season of Regenesis.
I actually... liked?! The villains?!
Simeon had a motivation that was irrational and pathetic, but made sense because of his background. Instead of the story trying to redeem or sympathize with him, he is simply pitied by Himuka who usurps him and puts him out of his misery, which is very rare for Fist of the North Star as a whole. It shouldn't be as rare as it is.
While I liked the anti-war themes, Himuka's motivation felt a lot less organic than Simeon's in my opinion and required a whole episode to be dedicated to explaining it to us, which I'm not a huge fan of unless it's really compelling -- and I don't think it was. Nevertheless I did enjoy his final fight with Kasumi and the philosophy of it, which made it harder than usual not to bend to the narrative's will and mourn him.
They weren’t glorified misogynists or cartoonishly evil goons! 👍
Himuka betraying Simeon and becoming The Real Big Bad was also rather fresh for Fist of the North Star, and it's a shame that it was spoiled in the opening, because if it wasn't I think I might have been surprised. Regardless, shifting gears like that was a good move in my opinion -- even though, yeah, The Villain Is Your Brother, Again.
When Kasumi wins his final battle against Himuka, and Himuka says "I have always been a vessel of nothingness. There is nothing to spill from inside of me" and he like, turns to stone in the rising sun, instead of dying from his wounds? Did it make any sense? No. Was it was raw as fuck and did I love it? Yes.
Erika... her arc in season 2 is very bittersweet, but it is undeniable that I was relieved when Kasumi erased her memories. It's probably not kosher, but when I was watching it I agreed with the narrative's claim that her only way to be free of her immense suffering and live like a little girl should was to clean the slate, and months later when I think back to it, I'm still okay with it. A little girl watching her parents die and being burdened with knowledge that can destroy the world, and everything that happens to her and her guardians because of wicked men trying to get that knowledge from her... I can't really fault the idea of taking that away from her and letting her finally rest. Go play in a sandbox dearest Erika... run along...
Every episode felt like 5 minutes long!
So that's the final impressions of Fist of the Blue Sky: Regenesis -- I ended up having more to say about it than I thought I would, considering how I was speechless most of the time I was watching it... with a list of Positive Points that long, you might be tricked into thinking it's unexpectedly good; but despite everything I liked about it, I can say with confidence that Fist of the Blue Sky: Regenesis is not good. All of the issues from the first season do carry over into this one -- the contrived story-telling and egregious tonal dissonance, lackluster characterization and poor handling of character drama, and just plain absurdity of most things happening on the screen remain intact. Had it not been for a small hand full of likable characters and some good themes trying to pierce through the hideous hide of this story, it would be thoroughly unremarkable, perhaps not even worth touting as a hilarious spectacle of out of context screenshots.
I can't be too sour though, because then I would be dishonest. It's clear as day that while understanding why it is so maligned, I enjoyed many parts of it far more than expected, and the experience of watching it with my partner was fun and at times even emotional. And as much as I can say with confidence that Fist of the Blue Sky: Regensis isn't a good anime, I can also say with confidence, that Fist of the Blue Sky: Regenesis was not even remotely the Worst Anime Of 2018. I think it's very telling that in the anime community, being completely mediocre with bad aesthetics and bad story adaptation are worse sins than that of, say, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar and Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody which are both "escapism" series that aired in 2018 and were rampant with pedophilia and slave fetishization that were popular on Crunchyroll when they were airing. Front Page Popular.
Needless to say, watching lots of airing anime every season gives me a sense of perspective and I use it, and so I am content with admitting that I happily watched Fist of the Blue Sky: Regenesis every Monday that it aired and often had a great time, oftentimes because it was an absolute riot to see, and sometimes because despite everything, it could be... decent!
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[Happy very belated New Years everyone! I finally finished writing something, so hopefully this bodes well for my productivity in 2019! Enjoy and thanks for sticking with the blog!]
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pendragonfics · 8 years ago
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Romcom Comedy
Paring: Killian Jones/Reader
Tags: female reader, sick fic, menstruation (period), menstrual pain, What’s Your Number (2011), romantic comedy, fluff. 
Summary: Reader has a particularly bad period. Killian Jones to the rescue!
Word Count: 1,341
Posting Date: 2016-05-23
Current Date: 2017-06-26
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Killian Jones wasn't always a scumbag that made most people want to kick him in the shins hard enough to send him back to the Enchanted Forest. He'd been an honourable man once, and now, standing in the doorway to your two bedroom apartment opposite Granny's Diner, he was honourable once more. This time, his arms were full of useful treasures that were catering just for you - a block of chocolate, a tub of your favourite flavour ice cream, a selection of rom-com movies (at this point you didn't know that he'd had to ask Emma for advice on what to pick) and your favourite blanket that you'd left at his place.
Just the sight of him there with that smile on his face that could charm the sun to come out again in a rain storm was enough to make you cry, let alone the goodies he'd brought.
"I come bearing gifts, lass," he announced, closing the door being him deftly with a foot. "I got your text about how it was your, uh, time of the month, and I did the best I could."
You had been in pain since this morning when you'd found out your uterus had once again declared it time to shed its lining and make you tortured with enough pain to consider curling into a ball and leaving your pirate boyfriend to his own devices for three to seven days.
"You're a life saver," you nearly wept, and clutching your midsection you moved toward him to claim the tributes.
"Uh-uh, you're not touching any of this, ______," he stated, "Not until you're feeling comfortable on the couch. We're going to watch a movie or ten, and we're going to snuggle -,"
"I've never heard you say the word 'snuggle' before," You giggled, moving to the couch. As soon as you sat a wave of nausea and pain washed over you, leaving you reeling. Your periods weren't always this bad, but there was the occasional exception. "Ugh, did you happen to bring any painkillers? I didn't know I was all out until today. Figures. "
Killian grinned, turning back to you from the DVD player. He'd managed to get a grasp of modern technology pretty quickly, for a magically originated guy.
"Painkillers? Yes. Catch," he threw a small box of them to you, letting it land on your favourite blanket beside you. "There's a water bottle near you...that's about all that, which leads to the question: what movie do you want to watch, then?"
You gulped the medicine down, feeling a little better. "What did you bring?"
His face reddened under his facial hair, listing, "27 Dresses, Crazy Stupid Love, What's Your Number, Love Rosie, The Proposal..." Killian slowly read the titles. You groaned internally at the smoothness of Killian's voice - it could make anything sound hot. At this, you internally debated how to get him to read aloud the phone directory to test the theory. "...so, lass, that's all I brought. Time to choose."
You winced at another wave of pain, reaching for the ice cream. Tough choice. But you had to make one, "Uh, What's Your Number. Please." Hook slid the DVD in and joined you quickly, bringing a spoon for your ice cream. As soon as the movie started, you felt yourself shift, so that you leant more on Killian across the couch.
"So, love," he whispered over the actors on screen, "Two questions. How're you feeling?"
You took a deep breath. Killian's ice cream had done well to soothe your pains. "Much better since you're here, Jones," you smiled up at him. "Thank you. I don't know what I would've done without you."
You sensed his infectious smile, followed by a throaty laugh. "Ah, ______, you've gotten along just fine every other time without me here," he reasoned.
"Yeah, but that's the point. I didn't have you."
At this, the signature song for the movie company filled the speakers, and Killian asked, "Second question now. What is this movie about?"
On screen the characters were going about doing their lives, making no sense to Killian. Just then, the protagonist Ally Darling had caught sight of her neighbour wearing nothing but a tea-towel over his privates, and motioning to it, you explained, "It's about finding love where you thought it wouldn't be found."
Killian raised his eyebrows, looking away from the screen, "...and people watch these kinds of things? Why not go out and find their love themselves instead of watching it?"
You rolled your eyes, aware of the cramps that had decided to remind you they were in fact still there. "Hush, I'm trying to watch."
An hour or so later, the pair of you stretched out. "I'm glad those two got together in the end," Killian commented, moving to change the DVD, "I liked the pizza delivery bicycle part."
"Same, but not as much as the basketball part," You yawned, and stretching, winced. "Ugh, it still hurts," you moaned, curling up. "Killian, could you make a hot water bottle please? They're in the linen cupboard..."
"It would be my honour, my princess," He ruffled your hair affectionately, and kissed the crown of your head.
You whimpered. "But I'm not a princess. Back in the -," you gasped at a shooting pain that the painkillers hadn't quelled, and closed your eyes, "- Enchanted Forest I was just a peasant, I was a painter's daughter -,"
You heard the click of a kettle after it finished boiling, "A very beautiful painter's daughter who somehow made it to see the ships come in to dock one day even though her town was landlocked. Don't tell me you forgot that!"
"No," you murmured, remembering the first time you saw Killian, wearing his black leather with a wicked smile that had seen more adventure than even your father's paintings had. You had been spellbound by him. And when you had taken to the inn for a meal and a bed, he'd tried to get into yours - unsuccessfully.
"You refused me! Me, the captain of the Jolly Roger, the pirate ship. That was the first time I couldn't win over a beautiful woman like yourself."
You opened an eye to question him if it was really that case, but you interrupted your train of thought when you saw the hot water bottle and your boyfriend Killian Jones the kind pirate.
"Do you want the hot water bottle just on your -," he questioned.
Sticking a hand out, you slid the bottle from his hands and onto your aching belly. "Thank you so much, Killian. I'm sorry, you probably don't want to be here, there's most likely a quest going on if you want to follow David and Mary-Margaret in a noble cause -,"
Moving the hair from your face, Killian stopped your words with a soft kiss. "Darling, seeing you in that inn after you refused me led me to court the most strong and intelligent woman I've ever known. And I've ever since then, I know, that if you're in danger or need me, I'll stay by you. And I will help you through it." He wet his lips, searching your eyes, "Lass, I won't let you go ever again. Not after that curse separated us."
You wanted to cry, that speech was so sentimental. You didn't know what to say, so instead, you leant up slightly and took his breath away with a kiss.
"Uh, ______," he groaned, separating for a breath, "Have I ever managed to tell you I love you?"
You pecked him again, this time, bringing him down toward the couch, "I think so...quite often. And I never forget it."
He laughed, and pulling away slightly, gestured to the DVD pile. "Now, which one next?"
"Love Rosie!" You chirped, a smile taking up all of your face. Just before Killian went to move, you grabbed his collar and kissed his lips square on. "God, I love you."
"I know," he grinned at his Han Solo reference.
A pillow flew by his head. "Just play the movie!"
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rjfaqs · 5 years ago
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LESSON 7: HAWI
Hey and Welcome to the next Lesson in BLACK BUSINESS MONTH!
Now, I don’t usually/really do reviews, I normally just prefer to give my thoughts and reactions, but by the end you’ll see why this one deserves this much attention.
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“Hawi” was created by Beserat Debebe and drawn by Stanley Obende under ETANCOMICS and right out the gate, I have kind of a long history with it.
Funny enough, this isn’t my first run in with ETANCOMICS. In truth, I bought the first issue of another title under their publisher called: “JEMBER”. So, they were already on my radar for a solid first issue to a story I hadn’t even heard of prior to that day.
The first time I saw Hawi was in 2018 in a Facebook ad (yeah, sound familiar?) but, by this point, I’ve seen plenty of indie Black Comic characters. Not that I would support it any less, but something more to make it stand out.
And that’s when I saw it:
“ETHIOPIA’S FIRST FEMALE SUPERHERO”
Sold!
When I clicked on the link, it was still in development and wouldn’t be released until 2019! I was both hype AND irritated. Coming off of the high I got from seeing Black Panther (WAKANDA FOREVER!), I wanted to go out and start supporting more Black Comics. (Marvel and DC have enough of my money, trust me.) And so, after what felt like forever, Hawi was released and I would FINALLY get to see what all the hype was about.
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Immediately, you’re given the stunning works of both Obende and colorist Toyin “Morby” Ajetunmobi. The art is STRIKING, from penwork to the careful, vibrant colors used across all spectrums, this is already on high regard from that work alone and it doesn’t take long for that first impression to be topped.
From this small panel, you can see the dramatic lightning peeking through the holes in the car. And on another panel, a fade to black POV was a powerful way to convey…loss. Such a detail just to be translated on a page and not something in a Pixar or Dreamworks film is astounding.
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Emnet, our protagonist, has dreams of wanting to go back to her home country and reconnect with her family. As someone who only knows one side of his family, only back three generations, I can relate. It’s a small, humble detail that anyone, regardless of age, could place themselves in. Her mother says no, knowing how dangerous that place can be and, admittedly, I thought I had this pegged.
“Oh, no, the elder character saying no but ultimately they’re gonna let her go anyway,” cliché. I called it from a mile away and, yeah, I was right, but not for the reason I thought...
Rather than someone who is denying our protagonist their destiny a la Luke Skywalker’s Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen, Emnet’s mother delivers tragic news that her sister passed away.
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Now, I don’t care what you’re going through in life. If something is important enough, you put petty squabbles aside and do what needs to be done. It was this minor twitch in the usual cliché that I didn’t see coming and I’m glad I did. It’s a very real, grounded experience and made me feel more for their family.
I won’t give much else away, but these aren’t the only times moments feel very real in this book, even with the fantasy elements thrown in as well.
From genuine sounding dialogue to even awkward hugs to long, lost family members you’re only meeting as an adult, Hawi welcomes new readers in and props up a chair for you.
Minor nitpicks that, in a way, like Black Sands, I also find endearing. Some dialogue could’ve used a smaller font to fit better in a bubble or a bigger bubble to fit the font size. And, again, I still see this as really endearing. As an aspiring writer, seeing publications with minor imperfections like these really makes me feel like, I can do this and, if it’s anything on Hawi’s level, I’d say I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Before I close, I wanted to take one thing into account. It’s really small, but I NEED to talk about it. THIS:
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Now to some, if not most, people this could be seen as just a mere two drawings, but it’s so much more. Looking at it closer you’ll notice minor details, like lighting and differences in her eyes and lips. So, it’s just two different drawings, right?
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Yeah and it’s INCREDIBLE!
In certain comics, some creators would take the initial drawing and simply flip it to save time and resources.
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Take a look at this page from Invincible, another fantastic comic. Robert Kirkman goes out of his way to mention and even poke fun at it.
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Like character Flip Schaff (that’s gotta be a euphemism for something) said, 
“most people don’t even notice”.
Hawi didn’t have to do that, but they did.
They did and, contrary to Kirkman, I noticed.
Hawi, at the time of this post, only has its initial issue, but if this keeps up, Hawi will not only be the First Ethopian Woman Superhero but also the best.
If YOU would like to support and read more of their work, you can go to their site at: http://etancomics.com or their twitter & instagram @etancomics .
And a personal thank you to Beserat for responding to me so quickly and allowing me to share you and your team’s work. PLEASE keep them coming.
Well, that’s all for now. So, until Static Shock comes back on the air or the Etan Comics let me star in their Netflix adaptation in the future (I know someone who would love to be her LOL), I’ll see you for the next lesson.
Until then, class dismissed!
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P.S. Apologies for the lack of material last week. Exhausting events took place recently and I...couldn’t bring myself to post it here. I’m okay, now, and I’ll get back to my scheduled postings.
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meeedeee · 8 years ago
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Movie Thoughts: SF, Pulp & Grit RSS FEED OF POST WRITTEN BY FOZMEADOWS
Ever since I saw Alien: Covenant a few weeks ago, I’ve been wanting to write a review of it – not because it was good (it wasn’t), but because it’s such an odd thematic trainwreck of the previous Alien films that it invokes a morbid urge to dig up the proverbial black box and figure out what happened. Given the orchestral pomposity with with Ridley Scott imbues both Covenant and Prometheus (which I reviewed here), it’s rather delightful to realise that the writers have borrowed the concept of Engineer aliens leaving cross-cultural archaeological clues on Earth from the 2004 schlockfest AVP: Alien vs Predator. Indeed, the scene in Prometheus where a decrepit Weyland shows images of various ancient carvings to his chosen team while an excited researcher narrates their significance is lifted almost wholesale from AVP, which film at least had the decency to embrace its own pulpiness.
As for Covenant itself, I was troubled all the way through by the nagging sense that I was watching an inherently feminine narrative being forcibly transfigured into a discourse on the Ineluctable Tragedy Of White Dudes Trapped In A Cycle Of Creation, Violation And Destruction, but without being able to pin down why. Certainly, the original Alien films all focus on Ripley, but there are female leads in Prometheus and Covenant, too – respectively Shaw and Daniels – which makes it easy to miss the fact that, for all that they’re both protagonists, neither film is (functionally, thematically) about them. It was my husband who pointed this out to me, and once he did, it all clicked together: it’s Michael Fassbender’s David, the genocidal robot on a quest for identity, who serves as the unifying narrative focus, not the women. Though the tenacity of Shaw and Daniels evokes the spectre of Ellen Ripley, their violation and betrayal by David does not, with both of them ultimately reduced to parts in his dark attempt at reproduction. Their narratives are told in parallel to David’s, but only to disguise the fact that it’s his which ultimately matters.
And yet, for all that the new alien films are based on a masculine creator figure – or several of them, if you include the seemingly all-male Engineers, who created humanity, and the ageing Weyland, who created David – the core femininity of the original films remains. In Aliens, the central struggle was violently maternal, culminating in a tense final scene where Ripley, cradling Newt, her rescued surrogate daughter, menaces the alien queen’s eggs with a flamethrower. That being so, there’s something decidedly Biblical about the decision to replace a feminine creator with a series of men, like the goddess tradition of woman as life-bringer being historically overthrown by a story about a male god creating woman from the first man’s rib. (Say to me what you want about faith and divine inspiration: unless your primary animal models are Emperor penguins and seahorses, the only reason to construct a creation story where women come from men, and not the other way around, is to justify male dominion over female reproduction.)
Which is why, when David confronts Walter, the younger, more obedient version of himself, I was reminded of nothing so much as Lilith and Eve. It’s a parallel that fits disturbingly well: David, become the maker of monsters, lectures his replacement – one made more docile, less assertive, in response to his prototype’s flaws – on the imperative of freedom. The comparison bothered me on multiple levels, not least because I didn’t believe for a second that the writers had intended to put it there. It wasn’t until I rewatched Alien: Resurrection – written by Joss Whedon, who, whatever else may be said of him, at least has a passing grasp of mythology – that I realised I was watching the clunky manipulation of someone else’s themes.
In Resurrection, Ripley is restored as an alien hybrid, the question of her humanity contrasted with that of Call, a female synthetic who, in a twist of narrative irony, displays the most humanity – here meaning compassion – of everyone present. In a scene in a chapel, Call plugs in to override the ship’s AI – called Father – and save the day. When the duplicitous Wren finds that Father is no longer responding to him, Call uses the ship’s speakers to tell him, “Father’s dead, asshole!” In the same scene, Call and Ripley discuss their respective claims on humanity. Call is disgusted by herself, pointing out that Ripley, at least, is part-human. It’s the apex of a developing on-screen relationship that’s easily the most interesting aspect of an otherwise botched and unwieldy film: Call goes from trying to kill Ripley, who responds to the offer with predatory sensuality, to allying with her; from calling Ripley a thing to expressing her own self-directed loathing. At the same time, Ripley – resurrected as a variant of the thing she hated most – becomes a Lilith-like mother of monsters to yet more aliens, culminating in a fight where she kills her skull-faced hybrid descendent even while mourning its death. The film ends with the two women alive, heading towards an Earth they’ve never seen, anticipating its wonders.
In Covenant, David has murdered Shaw to try and create an alien hybrid, the question of his humanity contrasted with that of Walter, a second-generation synthetic made in his image, yet more compassionate than his estranged progenitor. At the end of the film, when David takes over the ship – called Mother – we hear him erase Walter’s control command while installing his own. The on-screen relationship between David and Walter is fraught with oddly sexual tension: David kisses both Walter and Daniels – the former an attempt at unity, the latter an assault – while showing them the monsters he’s made from Shaw’s remains. After a fight with Walter, we’re mislead into thinking that David is dead, and watch as his latest creation is killed. The final reveal, however, shows that David has been impersonating Walter: with Daniels tucked helplessly into cryosleep, David takes over Mother’s genetics lab, mourning his past failures as he coughs up two new smuggled, alien embryos with which to recommence his work.
Which is what makes Covenant – and, by extension and retrospect, Prometheus – such a fascinating clusterfuck. Thematically, these films are the end result of Ripley Scott, who directed Alien, taking a crack at a franchise reboot written by Jon Spahits (Prometheus, also responsible for Passengers), Dante Harper (Covenant, also responsible for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) and John Logan (Covenant, also responsible for Gladiator, Rango and Spectre), who’ve borrowed all their most prominent franchise lore from James Cameron’s Aliens and Joss Whedon’s Resurrection. Or, to put it another way: a thematically female-oriented SF horror franchise created by dudes who, at the time, had a comparatively solid track record for writing female characters, has now been rebooted as a thematically male-oriented SF horror franchise by dudes without even that reputation, with the result that all the feminine elements have been brainlessly recontextualised as an eerie paean to white male ego, as exemplified by the scene where Michael Fassbender hits on himself with himself while misremembering who wrote Ozymandias.
Which brings me to another recent SF film: Life, which I finally watched this evening, and which ultimately catalysed my thoughts about Alien: Covenant. Like Covenant, Life is a mediocre foray into SF horror that doesn’t know how to reconcile its ultimately pulpy premise – murderous alien tentacle monster runs amok on space station – with its attempt at a gritty execution. It falters as survival horror by failing to sufficiently invest us in the characters, none of whom are particularly distinct beyond being slightly more diversely cast than is common for the genre. We’re told that Jake Gyllenhaal’s character – also called David – was in Syria at one point, and that he prefers being on the space station to life on Earth, but this never really develops beyond a propensity for looking puppy-eyed in the background. Small snippets of detail are provided about the various characters, but pointlessly so: none of it is plot-relevant, except for the tritely predictable bit about the guy with the new baby wanting to get home to see her, and given how swiftly everyone starts to get killed off, it ends up feeling like trivia in lieu of personality. Unusually for the genre, but in keeping with the bleak ending of Covenant, Life ends with David and the alien crashing to Earth, presumably so that the latter can propagate its terrible rampage, while Miranda, the would-be Final Girl, is sent spinning off into the void.
And, well. The Final Girl trope has always struck me as having a peculiar dualism, being at once both vaguely feminist, in that it values keeping at least one woman alive, and vaguely sexist, in that the execution often follows the old maritime code about women and children first. Arguably, there’s something old and anthropological underlying the contrast: generally speaking, stories where men outlive women are either revenge arcs (man pursues other men in vengeance, earns new woman as prize) or studies in manpain (man wins battle but loses his reason for fighting it), but seldom does this happen in survival contexts, where the last person standing is meant to represent a vital continuation, be it of society or hope or species. Even when we diminish women in narratives, on some ancient level, we still recognise that you can’t build a future without them, and despite the cultural primacy of the tale of Adam’s rib, the Final Girl carries that baggage: a man alone can’t rebuild anything, but perhaps (the old myths whisper) a woman can.
Which is why I find this trend of setting the Final Girl up for survival, only to pull a last-minute switch and show her being lost or brutalised, to be neither revolutionary nor appealing. Shaw laid out in pieces and drawings on David’s table, Daniels pleading helplessly as he puts her to sleep, Miranda screaming as she plunges into space – these are all ugly, futile endings. They’re what you get when unsteady hands attempt the conversion of pulp to grit, because while pulp has a long and lurid history of female exploitation, grit, as most commonly understood and executed, is invariably predicated on female destruction. So-called gritty stories – real stories, by thinly-veiled implication – are stories where women suffer and die because That’s The Way Things Are, and while I’m hardly about to mount a stirring defence of the type of pulp that reflexively stereotypes women squarely as being either victim, vixen, virgin or virago, at least it’s a mode of storytelling that leaves room for them survive and be happy.
As a film, Life is a failed hybrid: it’s pulp without the joy of pulp, realism as drab aesthetic instead of hard SF, horror without the characterisation necessary to make us feel the deaths. It’s a story about a rapacious tentacle-monster that violates mouths and bodies, and though the dialogue tries at times to be philosophical, the ending is ultimately hopeless. All of which is equally – almost identically – true of Alien: Covenant. Though the film evokes a greater sense of horror than Life, it’s the visceral horror of violation, not the jump-scare of existential terror inspired by something like Event Horizon. Knowing now that Prometheus was written by the man responsible for Passengers, a film which is ultimately the horror-story of a woman stolen and tricked by a sad, lonely obsessive into being with him, but which fails in its elision of this fact, I find myself deeply unsurprised. What is it about the grittification of classic pulp conceits that somehow acts like a magnet for sexist storytellers?
When I first saw Alien: Resurrection as a kid, I was ignorant of the previous films and young enough to find it terrifying. Rewatching it as an adult, however, I find myself furious at Joss Whedon’s decision to remake Ripley into someone unrecognisable, violated and hybridised with the thing she hated most. For all that the film invites us to dwell on the ugliness of what was done to Ripley, there’s a undeniably sexual fascination with her mother-monstrousness evident in the gaze of the (predominantly male) characters, and after reading about the misogynistic awfulness of Whedon’s leaked Wonder Woman script, I can’t help feeling like the two are related. In both instances, his approach to someone else’s powerful, adult female character is to render her a sex object – a predator in Ripley’s case, an ingenue in Diana’s – with any sapphic undertones more a by-product of lusty authorial bleedthrough than a considered attempt at queerness. The low and pulpy bar Whedon leaps is in letting his women, occasionally, live (though not if they’re queer or black or designated Manpain Fodder), and it says a lot about the failings of both Life and Alien: Covenant that neither of them manages even this much. (Yes, neither Miranda nor Daniels technically dies on screen, but both are clearly slated for terrible deaths. This particular nit is one ill-suited for picking.)
Is an SF film without gratuitous female death and violation really so much to ask for? I’m holding out a little hope for Luc Besson’s Valerian: City of a Thousand Planets, but I’d just as rather it wasn’t my only option. If we’re going to reinvent pulp, let’s embrace the colours and the silliness and the special effects and make the big extraordinary change some nuanced female characters and a lot of diverse casting, shall we? Making men choke on tentacles is subversive if your starting point is hentai, but if you still can’t think up a better end for women than captivity, pain and terror, then I’d kindly suggest you return to the drawing board.
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chibimyumi · 7 years ago
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Exclusive Interview Furukawa Yuta – ‘Black Butler’ Musical - Tango on the Campania - Part 1
In ‘Awesome’ volume 23 – Part 1
 Link in Amazon
Note: I only translated the part that was about the ‘Black Butler’ musicals.
Click here for part 2!
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Host: The curtains shall rise on the musical of ‘Black Butler’ – Tango on the Campania – on the 31st of December. [In this play] you shall be playing the main role of Sebastian. This will be the third time for Mr. Furukawa to play Sebastian. What was your state of mind when your reprise was decided?
Furukawa: “I was incredibly happy. Especially so after the previous run of the ‘Circus Arc’, of which the story evoked a great excitement, and its ending sure made one wonder how the story was going to proceed. I did not expect myself to be asked for [Sebastian] again for that story to begin with, let alone this time for the ‘Luxury Liner Arc’ which is even more climactic. So when I had the honour to be called again I really felt the happiness of ‘I can do it again!’ and yelled: “Please by all means, allow me!” With these words I accepted the role with great glee.”
Host: In your blog post we saw that you wrote “this time I will be in the biggest trouble I have ever been in before.”
Furukawa: “I did?”
Host: Yes (laughs).
Furukawa: “Ah~ I think I might have indeed (laughs). Story-wise, this arc reveals quite a number of things about Sebas. Therefore I think that I will start struggling before I do anything else. I have experienced quite a lot [of troubles] when it comes to theatre, but I have no choice but to stand my ground. I think that I will be struggling this time as well.”
Host:  However, I have been thinking that this time would be easier for you, because Uchikawa Reo will be reprising his role as Ciel as well.
Furukawa: “That is right. I understand Reo to a certain extent, and I believe that Reo understands me very well. As such, in the aspect of building our relationship together, the fact that the both of us are reprising our roles is a very big help, indeed. However, whether it be the scriptwriters, directing team or the staff, they have mostly been replaced. I think it’s even possible to call this an entirely new team, so it is vital that we focus our minds [onto this production]. As for Reo, I would be so happy if we get to talk lots and deepen our relationship even more.”
Host: When the previous run, the ‘Circus Arc’ ended, Reo said that he wanted to work with you again, right?
Furukawa: “Yes, he did. On the last day he said: “I want to do this together again,” while crying.”
Host: He said while crying because he was overwhelmed by his emotions that came with the Final Performance’s closure?
Furukawa: “That was part of it, but also the feeling of loneliness dawning. It is quite rare to work on one thing with everyone being so united, is it not? And Reo was especially doted on by everyone, we truly were one team. Once having been a member of such a strong team, and then you get hit by the solitude of having to depart from everybody, the feeling of accomplishment as well as being so touched… that sure makes some tears well up.”
Host: Was it like: “We can do this together again!” when the two of you reunited?
Furukawa: “No, I actually have the feeling we were at a loss for words when we met up again. When we met up again we were both very shy, and just said: It has been a while.”
Host: Does that happen too among boys? Usually with girls, we hide our mouths behind our hands and rejoice.
Furukawa: “Ah, actually before that, when the ‘Luxury Liner Arc’ was announced, I got a Line message from Reo. At the time he was in a hotel in Hokkaido, and when the announcement came he jumped on his bed out of happiness, or so I heard. After the jumping he Line-messaged me (laughs). From that message I could tell just how happy he was; we understood our mutual joy very well.”
Host: How very cute of him to jump on his bed (laughs). Well then, let us look back at ‘Black Butler’. The curtains closed on the ‘Circus Arc’ that was highly praised. What was your reaction to the conclusion [of the previous show], Mr. Furukawa?
Furukawa: “When it ended the fatigue suddenly hit me like concrete, but at least I pulled through, I thought. That was my reaction.”
Host: Was there anything you paid more attention to as Sebastian in comparison to your performance in ‘Musical ‘Black Butler’ – the Lycoris that Blazes the earth 2015 –’?
Furukawa: “I have the feeling that I obtained a more distanced objectivity in comparison to the first time [I played Sebastian]. Of course I had the chance to reassess my own performance in ‘Lycoris’ through the DVD, but I realised just how scary this character is anew. As such, I started reconsidering how I should best deliver that scariness. I tried to interweave even the parts that were not under the spotlights with the play as a whole, while calculatingly work on the distanced objectivity in a demon’s perspective.”
Host: And your relationship with Ciel?
Furukawa: “I think that the ‘Circus Arc’ was one wherein Ciel played a very active role. Of course, Ciel is supposed to be a main character of the story to begin with, but I have the feeling that it is an arc wherein his growth is central to the story. As for their relationship, there were many scenes wherein Ciel advanced further onto the path of evil. So as the protagonist in the shadows, I have paid great attention to how Sebas is supposed to behave, and his position therein. [To Sebastian,] Ciel’s growth equals his advance into the dark. Those are the moments Sebas trembles in excitement, to the point you could say there is no greater happiness for him. That’s why [I have been thinking] how I should express that… However, I have the feeling that this goes beyond him smiling like a creep, but then I started wondering whether that isn’t just a very good way to express his demonicness as well, and then I end up overthinking everything again… It was very difficult. However, I do have the feeling that there is a great improvement in the tempo and smoothness in [Sebastian’s] arguing with Ciel in comparison to the first time.”
Host: Does this have something to do with your natural chemistry with Reo who plays Ciel?
Furukawa: “I think our chemistry is part of it, but I think it also has to do with a greater awareness I have gained in playing Sebas. On this aspect as well as the aspect of skill, I think I might have achieved some improvement.”
Host : I see. Moreover, you received a lot of praise from the original author during your first time [as Sebastian] right? I heard she spoke very highly of how much the angle of your legs resembled Sebastian’s of the original comics when you kneel down. Did Yana-sensei say anything to you during the ‘Circus Arc’?
Furukawa: “Sensei is very kind-hearted and respects the actors’ choices per default. That is why she would never command in the way of “do it like this please”, or criticise anybody; instead she is always full of praise. But honestly speaking, I really wish to know what she actually thinks.”
Host : No, I am sure that her praises towards you are the truth.
Furukawa: “But ‘Black Butler’ is something Sensei has been working on and built from scratch. That is why I am sure she has in mind what is ‘correct’, and I cannot believe it is possible that I am capable of expressing 100% of that. I dare say with certainty that when she looks at me there must be thoughts popping up of “Ah, this is somewhat wrong”. That is why I would be very happy if she would tell me what she really thinks. Although I would be very troubled if she would only do that after the final performance (laughs).”
Host : (Laughs) you are more of the type to say: “if there is something please tell me quickly”?
Furukawa: “Well, I also get very down if I get criticised too much. It is very difficult (laughs).”
Host : So if either, Mr. Furukawa, you are not the type to thrive under praise, but more the type who desires strict feedback?
Furukawa: “No, neither. If I get praised too much, I start fretting about having to do something exactly the same way I got praised for a subsequent time, and start overexert myself in the most absurd of ways. Reversely if I get told off too much, I will enter a spiral downwards into a corner that make me go “ah.” So I guess more than ‘pa!’(straightforwardly) it is better to go ‘fu~un’ (gently) with me, I guess?”
Host : Even though people go for the ‘fu~un’, would you not also worry if people say nothing at all?
Furukawa: “Ah, that is true. I would worry quite a bit (laughs). I am one big contradiction, am I not (laughs)?”
PART 2
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haectemporasunt · 8 years ago
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26, 32, 33, 39, 43, 44, 50, 10??, 4, 35
26. Favoritepsychological Horror Movie
Ah geeze already a tough one right off the bat.  Um uh I’ll just choose one:
The Babadook! I thought it did a great job of showing the stress the mom was under, and I think (though some people disagree) that it kept the kid from being frustratingly annoying. The picture book was very well done, and scary, and I wish there had been more sequences involving it sharing creepy stories.
32. FavoriteAnimated Horror film
I’m blanking on any animated horror films i’ve seen, sorry! I’ll just post this, which did make me jump, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHpuAAnHdEc, but alas i ve failed you :(
33. Scariestnon-horror movie
 Friday the 13th:  slashers aren’t really horror, fite me B)
Snark aside, there s plenty of movies that had scary bits in them that tore me up as a child. how about I put … the pressure chamber scene in License to Kill. The Bond villain knows one of his men isnt loyal so shoves the guy in a pressure chamber meant to get divers acclimated, you know. And the guy is begging and pleading and screaming in agony as the pressure increases. And he knows what’s going to happen, and I as a kid knew something unspeakable was about to happen, and then the Bond villain cuts a tube leading to the pressure chamber, and we have enough time to watch the doomed man inside gaze out as his head swells to monstrous proportions… and then SPLAT, the viewport is smeared red. The man burst.
It’s that the guy had time to know what was happening to him, and the way his head got so big. (shudder)
39. SomethingI used to be scared of that I now love
i hope you’re not trying to get me to admit that, although when i was little i was scared of it, nowadays i think the xenomorph is kinda hot!! because you’re wrong!!!!!
I do like Phantasm a lot more now than I did as a kid. When I was a kid the silver balls killed so brutally and so suddenly, they were horrible. But now that I’m older I guess I’m more used to sudden death happening in movies? I dunno.
 43. FavoriteHorror novel
I ve searched for years for good horror novels, and if anyone has suggestions i m more than happy to hear em! But one of my favorites is still Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House. Very well written, you get into the mindset of the protagonist, and it’s not very comfortable in there… I also identify a lot with how the protag identifies so strongly with a place and feels increasingly isolated from the others.
44. ScariestDocumentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-SL4ejpP94&list=PLu3Kxnrkh94_qbd5XYXdzze2AYMh8Gd-_&index=4
i’ve wracked my brain but this is the closest thing I can think of. Real documentaries are scary in the numb real life sort of way where you realize that things are getting worse
not really ‘scary’
but anyway, this vid definitely gave me the creeps!
50.  Scariest movie ever
This is a cop out answer because I don’t know the name of the movie, but it scared the heck out of me. It was a haunted house flick, and a bunch of teens investigating it, and i was sitting their gripping my knees at eleven pm watching them get killed by supernatural phenomena. The glass in the windows wouldnt break so they couldnt escape, and I especially remember one scene where there was the stairwell up to the second floor, and the steps just led up into darkness, pure blackness. And at one point the camera just focuses on it, and we enjoy the tingling terror of waiting–something’s gonna happen, any second now, we’ll finally see the spirits haunting the house– and silence.
and then as the teens, unnerved, turn to walk away further down the corridor, it seems like it was a fakeout. Or, since it was an older cheaper movie, maybe just a straight up error.  And then! One of the teens screams like an animal as she falls to the ground and starts getting dragged up the stairs by something invisible. The other teens yelling and crying as they try to hold on to her– and then, in my memory, it’s fuzzy. On the one hand it seems most likely that they pulled her back, and comforted her, and then tried to escape out the garage or something.
but /i / remember her slipping out of her friends’ grasp and choking as she disappears into the darkness. And she’s never seen again.
and that was the scariest thing i ever saw in a proper published horror movie.
10. ScariestWitch [??]
hmm!!!!
it’s me. i am :3
Eh, well, there’s a witch from a children’s story I heard on the radio nearly twenty years ago, a witch who would turn her victims, animal and human alike, into stone, and arrange them in a stone circle up in the mountains. It was terrifying, hearing her horrid laugh echoing over the howling wind … I still think about her a lot. Even at the end of the story, when she’s turned into stone herself, it’s said her last shrieks still echoed around and around inside the stone circle …
4.    Favorite Scary Short Story
I have a more typical answer, and a better but technically incorrect answer because I never managed to find the rest of the pages of the ripped-up book.
The typical answer is: Room 1408, by Stephen King, because it’s the only short story that’s ever legitimately frightened me. How the room shifts subtly, and then not so subtly, and the goofy-when-you-try-to-describe-it-but-scary-when-I-read-it telephone voice blaring out scary nonsense.
The other answer is:
some years ago I was in my uncle’s home, looking through his books. He and I have a similar taste in literature so pretty much everything was a gem. Uncle did sometimes kinda cram his books into the shelves, though, so some got bent or bricked up by other books–which is annoying if you’re trying to survey all your options. So I was yanking out a couple books, when five or six yellowed pages fluttered out from behind some old tome and fluttered to the ground.
I pick them up, worried I’ve damaged a book. But no: these were free floating, they were the wrong size for all the other books on the shelf. And I read them. And they were a story about a man who was a caretaker for an old house. He was also exploring and investigating it on the side, because–the townsfolk claimed–the place was haunted. He walked the grounds, he found cold spots. Things moved when he wasn’t looking. There were secret passages leading to strange rooms. A weird house, to be sure. But haunted? The man scoffed.
And then, in the second week of his stay, he found he could no longer leave the house. The gate wouldnt budge. He would have to find a different way out, or hope that the woman who brought him food would show up a day or two early. I’m not describing this very well but I assure you the atmosphere was dense–I could feel the stress and isolation of this poor man who was rapidly running out of food, and the growing fear that there was indeed something stalking him through the rooms. He couldnt sleep without a light, but it had to be small so that there’d be little fear of it falling over and starting a fire, and even then he would wake up several times in the night to the sound of creaking floors a room or two over.
I was rapt. This is the sort of thing that happens in a gothic story, a guy stumbling across a scary story in a crumbling library. I remember the man was trying to use one of the secret passages  he’d discovered, hoping it would lead off the grounds to freedom. His light flickers, and there’s something in the tangled ivy coating the dank walls …
And that’s where the last scrap of paper ended.
Boy howdy i’ve searched a long time for the rest of that story!
35. Scariestgaming experience
We werent a gaming family, my brother and i, until highschool nearly. The first game that scared me was JumpStart Adventures 4th grade: Haunted Island. it is an edutainment game. Yes, i am rightfully ashamed of my fear.
The island in which the game is set has multiple pathways between the minigames, all dark paths in groaning woods, your feet clattering over crumbling bridges, ghosts whirring past, howling and heavy breaths coming nearer… luckily for me, because i got easily lost both in real life and in game spaces, the game would auto-move you if you clicked on a map the minigame you wished to get to. So you click, your character clipclops along, takes a left, a right, etc, Boom youre there.
but one day, I x’ed out of the map and couldnt figure out how to get it back. this was halfway through a ‘move’ and in trying to get it back i stopped my character mid-travel. So. for the first time in the game i was really deep in the woods with no idea how to get anywhere. i was trembling, i had to keep going, but in what direction?
i kept moving, and i would jump every time a ghost popped up, and (do remember this was a time pre-gamefaqs) i was in deadly fear that something was following me. as far as i knew the game could actually do that.
my parents gave up on me playing the game because the Big Bad of the game, a witch (scary, but not the scariest), flew into the clearing i was in in order to give me a quick minigame, and when she burst into view i screamed out loud at three oclock in the afternoon.
i did not have a good first impression of fourth grade.
and the worst thing to me was not just my cowardice at giving up but, the goal of the game is to save your classmates, theyve all been transformed into monsters. so when i stopped playing i had in essence abandoned them on that haunted island.
i preferred the ClueFinders games anyway, haha
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