#i’ve only ever seen the movie but i keep seeing mixed opinions

[prettyboysnuffilm]

I think i should probably warn you that english is not my first language so i apologize for any grammar mistakes, sometimes i can’t find the right words and have to improve but hopefully it’s not that bad. i agree with what you said about scream 6. my hopes for scream 7 are not very high, unless they’ll bring stu or jill back or add some insane plot twist. we’ll see. it really depends but as of right now, I prefer “older” movies (lets say 80-2010’s) . they seems more authentic. i hate to say it but i think the scream franchise should’ve been stopped after the triology or at least after the fourth one. making too many movies of the same franchise means a bigger chance of messing them up (thinking about final destination, saw, or for example one of my favourite movies “the butterly effect”. the second and third one are so so bad.) my best friend is a huge cinema enthusiast but i don’t always agree with her opinions. for example she refuses to watch any movie made after 2015 (huge mistake if you ask me) and she loves those shitty cheap modern slasher movies you described. i’ve always been more interested in music (you wouldn’t believe how long my scream influenced playlists are) than cinematography but i recently rediscovered my love for films through scream. before, i’ve always been more of a tv show person. i heard there’s a scream netflix show but from what I’ve seen, i’m not too interested in watching it. i totally get what you said about gender envy, billy kind of gives me that feeling (it’s gotta be those curtain bangs and dark eyes) but also matthew lillard in senseless… has me going insane. like do i want you or want to be you? has to be both… not to fetishise them but they’ve given me the “the lesbian urge to be a gay man” except i’m unlabelled. stu is someone i’m both in love with and can identify with. he has a special place in my heart. billy’s way of dealing with things is so me except i won’t go as far as murdering my friends. billy is probably my winter aka seasonal depression personality. stu is me on good days. funny as hell but still a psycho lol. i feel like i’m the perfect mix of both billy and stu, if they were able to have biological children, i would be the outcome. i’ve started reading debaser like a week ago and i’ve just finished it and god- what a hell of a rollercoaster ride. i think i love it more than the movie itself, it’s given me such a better insight in their personalities and it describes them perfectly. i haven’t started wave of mutilation yet.. now i’m scared of reading it. don’t tell me they die. well anyways, thank you for your insight, it’s nice to chat about similar interests, unfortunately none of my friends get hyperfixations so they would just call me insane if i started talking about something too much. id you ever wanna talk about scream, stuilly, movies, books, music or whatever.. it’d be an honor.

P.S. i’m debating if i should keep sending anons of come off anon.. and don’t feel forced to answer, i’m just getting my thoughts out and it’s weirdly comfortable sending these

- t~

hey no worries, turns out that english isn't my first language either u don't have to apologize for grammar mistakes or typos, rlly. I couldn't tell that english wasn't your first language tbh. i'm not that hyped about scream 7 either, the upcoming existence of that movie feels pointless and it's like, they're bringing back old tropes all the time. i'm not in the "i want Stu back" team, i love doomed gay ships and i like the concept of them dying together. (have you read the "og" Scream script? Billy and Stu were supposed to die next to each other and i think that's the most romantic thing ever, haha) I also love old movies! 70's-80's-90's horror movies are some of the best, imo. I also stand with the idea of Scream being just a trilogy and about franchises that end up aging badly. I've only seen the first Final Destination movie and the first three Saw movies but i agree with you, sometimes less is better than a bunch of sequels. (I haven't seen the butterfly effect but i'm going to add that one to my watchlist! I always appreciate movie recs) When it comes to horror franchises Hellraiser and Nightmare on Elm Street are the ones that i enjoy their movies past the third one tho! I agree with you about your friend, there's many great movies (not only in the horror genre) made after 2015, so your friend is missing some pretty good stuff. For example, 2024 it's been a great year for horror with the releasing of longlegs and the substance, which i really enjoyed. It's never too late to discover a passion for cinema so i'm happy for you! I'm not interested in the scream netflix show either, i'm definitely not watching it at all haha. I'm a music person too, and i'm also very dedicated to my Scream playlists, they're like... my babies and i have them on loop 24/7. OH. OH. yeah. Matthew Lillard in senseless... cheff kiss. Big gender envy. Stu doesn't give me gender envy BUT- Matthew Lillard in Animal Room, SLC Punk, Senseless, Serial Mom and Hackers give me the biggest gender envy, it's simply unreal omfg. And yeah hahaha, you're basically like the Stuilly lovechild, i totally get that. The characterization in Debaser is top tier, it's so well written, the accuracy to the 90's is on point, all the movie and music references... it's like a must read if you're into stuilly imo. You should DEFINITELY read Wave of Mutilation, i've been following the updates and waiting patiently for them and anytime there's a new update i feel like i'm walking on clouds for many many days. I'm gonna be honest with you, Wave of Mutilation is not a bed of roses, it's angsty but it's so good and there's a lot of chapters yet to come. It's definitely worth it, i love Wave of Mutilation because i'm 100% a masochist and i love angst and drama. I'm not gonna say anything else because i don't wanna spoil you the plot. But yeah. Read it. You won't regret it. 👀

And don't worry, it's also so nice to chat and ramble, i'm having a great time replying to your asks, really :) and i love to talk about stuilly and music and movies. If you don't feel comfortable sending asks off anon you can always DM me here or you can ask me for my discord instead so it's not /that/ public.

[vyeoh]

this is your chance: wax poetic about an Empires or DSMP character of your choice to a fan who is new to both. Explain why I should love them. I need guidance in this new and meme-populated land.

okok this is a lot of pressure haha. Spoilers for EmpiresSMP and DreamSMP below, obviously. I wrote a lot so prepare yourself, anon

I watch a lot of empires POVs but the ones I most anticipate every week are Scott and Sausage.

c!Scott (I'll call him Smajor for the sake of simplicity) starts off the series chilling, not really getting involved with the rest of the server, and staying aggressively neutral. After all, he's an elf. He has lived far longer than most of the other rulers already, and will most likely outlive them for many years. So, the best thing is to stick to his mountains and not get invested in the dealings of mortal affairs, maybe sometimes causing problems on purpose and dipping because what's life without a little spice right.

But then, this demon comes to the server, Xornoth. He's going around causing havoc and wants to send the world into an eternal winter, but he doesn't bother the kingdom of Rivendell much so Smajor stays tentatively cautious but ultimately unbothered. But then, the puzzle pieces start falling together. The first thing that the audience noticed was was Xornoth sounded like Smajor, but we mostly thought that this was just due to cc!Scott voicing both of them and there was nothing more to it. However, then, the people the demon starts possessing start chanting in elvish. The demon hates mortals, and the elves are conveniently one of the two confirmed not fully mortal races in Empires.

This culminates when Smajor stumbles across a cave that contains the backstory of the patron god of Rivendell, Aeor. Basically, there's two opposing forces, Aeor and Exor, and both have a champion. In a previous life, those champions were two brothers, where Aeor eventually prevailed and banished Exor. In this life though, the champions are - you guessed it - Smajor, and the demon Xornoth.

So now Smajor is like. Well fuck. It's my literal god-given destiny to be responsible for defeating this demon who is technically my brother, and if I fail the server gets plunged into an eternal winter. And I have no fucking clue what is happening because I've just been here on this mountain actively trying to stay out of the issues outside my kingdom. We watch him panic and teeter on the verge of spiraling for an entire episode, and when the followers of Xornoth go to the End to kill the dragon, releasing Xornoth's full powers, he fails to stop him. Smajor is a character who was used to being the smart one, the prepared one, the one who has the least deaths on the server. But he's also a character who runs away from his problems and ignores them. Before and during the dragon fight, we hear the desperation in his voice, as he's thrown into a situation he is wholly unprepared for, and it's bigger than him going to the Cod Empire to kill their king, or assisting in other people's plans to kill the codfather. He can't run from this. cc!Scott plays this scene so well as well, as I've said before, one of the best parts of Scott's acting is how he's never super dramatic, but he's so effective in the little things like inflection to make you feel, viscerally, the panic and dread.

So after the dragon fight, Smajor realizes, I can't do this on my own. I've tried and failed. So he gets allies. We watch him, someone who has so strongly been an isolationist, learn the benefits of allies and watch him learn to trust others and watch him learn how to get that trust in return.

My favorite thing about Smajor's characterization is that he's an incompetent protagonist, but not in the way of the "plucky young adventurer". He's capable skill-wise, and fairly jaded and very pessimistic. However, his issue is that up until recently, he did not care about the rest of the server at all, and by the time he learned to, it was way too late.

Also, in 3rd Life, cc!Scott and cc!Jimmy were canonically married and they reference it sometimes in Empires. Like, Scott goes over to the Cod Empire every so often both in and out of character to kill and/or flirt with Jimmy, the ruler of the Cod Empire, which may develop as a secondary plot into the future who knows. So ty Scott for giving the gays what they want o7

Now onto Sausage: his is a story of Icarus, his hubris and ambition being his downfall. He's one of the two followers of Xornoth, who promised him endless power in exchange for his servitude. He started the series being eccentric, but not outright unhinged, but slowly gets more and more extreme as the series progresses, as he gets brought more and more to Xornoth's side.

One of the best parts of Sausage's character, in my opinion, is how his gradual corruption affects the people around him. Initially, he got into a conflict with the Cod Empire and was allied with two other people in the Witherrose alliance. They were allies, but also close friends. The fandom liked to joke that the three had sibling energy, and I'm pretty sure the ccs played to that even more lol.

It was painful to watch the other two members, Gem and fWhip, watch Sausage get corrupted right in front of them, and see them desperately clinging on to this old idea of Sausage in their head because if they faced the truth, it would mean that their friend was gone. Eventually, they do finally cut him out of the alliance, leading him to fully commit to the side of the demon. Sausage felt very clearly betrayed by this, and declared the remaining two Witherrose alliance members to be enemies.

He gets more and more possessed, and we even see the other Empires, his enemies even, slowly realize that something is very wrong with the ruler of Mythland. He starts doing more and more evil things, like killing people more, making sacrifices to the demon, and eventually helping to kill the dragon to free Xornoth. So things are good for Sausage, for a bit. He won, and is more powerful than ever. Then he finds out: he's going to die. Xornoth's possession is slowly killing his soul, and eventually, his body going to be fully taken over and he himself is going to be trapped in the spirit realm. So how do you react to this? Over the next few episodes, we watch Sausage struggle between "the demon is literally killing me" and "the demon has given me so much, and I love it", all while Xornoth takes over more and more of him. We hear him exclaim that "don't worry!! I'm still about 15% there!" while trying to downplay every time Xornoth completely takes over his body. We watch him willingly oppose anyone who is trying to end the thing that is killing him.

My favorite thing about Sausage is that he is undoubtedly evil and proud of it, but he's also undoubtedly human. If you like to watch evil characters go absolutely feral, he's the guy for you. He makes the deal with Xornoth in the beginning, knowing and fully embracing the evilness of the demon, but at the same time he knows what he's doing is detrimental to both himself and everyone around him, but he's gotten in way too deep at this point, and to be fair the demon has held up its end fo the bargain, right?

Also, I would be damned if I don't talk about cc!Sausage's editing. Every one of his videos is like a movie. The way he does camera angles and uses music is so skillful- every lore scene feels like something out of a high fantasy action saga (think: LotR). Every big lore event I always wait in anticipation for Sausage's ep because his editing truly takes lore to another level.

I'm just generally very excited to see where this series goes. Empires is such a good mix of talented builders and good lore. Part of the reason why the series is so immersive for me, beyond any other lore smp, is that they have the settings to back it up. There is a certain charm to the DreamSMP's objectively terrible builds (with a few exceptions) but in Empires, the settings help sell the plot so much.

Another part of why I love EmpiresSMP is how much the ccs are involved with the fan community. I'm sure you've seen the memes about Scott being on tumblr, and Sausage regularly goes through the EmpiresSMP fanart tag on Twitter and likes art, even ones not related to Mythland. Most of the ccs, in fact, have brought up tumblr content on stream at some point or another. Like, several ccs have said that they read tumblr lore theories and hcs and stuff and sometimes take inspiration from them. Fun fact: Rivendell's church was inspired by my pinned drawing; confirmed by Scott Smajor himself. It's just such a good cycle of ccs and fans being excited about each other.

As for DreamSMP, I'm gonna be honest here, the only person I really am invested in in Technoblade. I started watching when he joined the server, and he's the only person whose lore I keep up to date with.

Techno's fun to watch because he's like the Deadpool of DreamSMP. Virtually unkillable, very skilled and scary, but consistently cracks jokes and breaks the 4th wall during plot. His POV is just fun. Like, he does wild plans and gives speeches and some of the stuff that happens to him should be called deus ex machine if it wasn't for the fact that Technoblade is the one who's doing it, and all the stuff is grounded in the fact that cc!Techno is just that good at the game.

However, the fact that he rarely takes anything seriously makes the few times Techno is 100% serious so much more impactful. His whole character has a basis in being perceived as inhuman and being treated as such, and therefore in return trying to hide his humanity. So, when he shows that humanity, whether that's fear, anger, or genuine love for his friends, it really makes you go "oh shit."

Techno's often said not to have character development, but I'd argue that while he remains steadfast in his moral code, he develops leaps and bounds as a person. Like, at the beginning, he's brought onto the server to help Wilbur and Tommy overthrow a government; them knowing he's 1) an anarchist and 2) very very powerful. His character was more of a plot device at that point and was treated as such in the canon. Wilbur and Tommy straight-up lie to him about their plans to establish another government after they overthrow the current one, while he was led on to believe that they were abolishing all governments in the area. But he isn't a plot device. He's a person, as much as he only shows the terrifying, blood god side of himself.

After the establishment of New Lmanburg (the new government its a long story), his friend Phil joins. And for the first time, we see him be fully human with someone and we see someone treat him like a human. Like, we saw glimpses before, with Wilbur and Tommy in Pogtopia, but Phil is the first person we noticeably see he trusts 100%. Then Doomsday happens, and Techno essentially retires to the tundra. During this time, we see Techno learn to be more human, first with Ranboo, then Niki when he establishes the Syndicate. In fact, the two of them, along with Phil, canonically throw him a birthday party, which is a far cry from his treatment in Pogtopia.

Techno's development is one of a god learning to be human, and I just think he <3

[shihalyfie]

Hi :) If it's not too much trouble, could you please share your take on why they'd continue the Adventure brand after tri. was such a flop? (and a tangent: what does "dark history" even mean?). We got Kizuna, the reboot, and a 02 movie. Logically, it doesn't really make sense they'd keep investing in it.

This is a thorny topic, and I'd like to reiterate that although I've ended up making more posts related to this series and the discourse surrounding it recently (probably because it's even more on the mind now that another movie is on the horizon and a lot of people are apprehensive for various reasons), I do not want this blog to be making a brand out of being critical of this series. I’m writing this here and in public because I figured that there is a certain degree I need to clarify what I mean about audience reception/climate and how it might impact current or future works, and I’m admittedly also more than a little upset that I occasionally see Western fanbase criticisms of the series getting dismissed by people claiming that the only people mad about it are dramamongering or ignorant Westerners (which could not be further from the truth). However, this is mainly to address this and to answer your question, and is not intended to try and change anyone's existing opinion or impression of the series as much as it's me trying to explain (from my own personal reading of the situation) what practically went down with critical reception in real life; no more, no less.

The short summary of the matter is:

The series was a moderate financial success (albeit with some caveats; see the long version for details) and definitely outstripped a lot of prior attempts to revive the franchise;

However, the overall Japanese fanbase-side critical backlash from tri. was extremely and viciously negative to the point where even acknowledging the series too much could easily result in controversy;

Kizuna’s production and the PR surrounding it very obviously have this in mind with a lot of apparent “damage control” elements.

The long version is below.

Note that while I try to be diligent about citing my sources so people understand that I’m not just making things up wholesale, I’m deliberately refraining from linking certain things here this time, both because some of the things mentioned have some pretty crude things written there -- it’s not something I feel comfortable directing people to regardless of what language it’s in -- and because I don’t want to recklessly link things on social media and cause anyone to go after or harass the people involved. For the links that have been provided, please still be warned that some of them don’t really link to particularly pleasant things.

I am not writing the following information to suggest that anyone should agree or disagree with the sentiments being described. I know people tend to take "a lot of people like/hate this" as a signal of implication "it is correct to like/hate this" when it's not (and I especially dislike the idea of implying that Japanese fanbase opinions are the only correct ones). There's a reason I focus on "critical reception being this way" (because it influences marketing decisions and future direction) rather than how much this should impact one's personal feelings; this is coming from myself as someone who is shamelessly proud of liking many things that had bad critical reception, were financial failures, or are disliked by many. As I point out near the end, the situation also does seem to be changing for the better in more recent years as well.

Also, to be clear, I'm a single person who's observing everything best I can from my end, I have no affiliations with staff nor do I claim to, and as much as I'm capable of reading Japanese and thus reading a lot of people's impressions, I'm ultimately still another “outsider” looking in. These are my impressions from my observation of fan communal spaces, following artists and reading comments on social media and art posting websites, and results from social media searches. In the end, I know as much as anyone else about what happened, so this is just my two cents based on all of my personal observations.

A fanbase is a fanbase regardless of what part of the world you're from. There are people who love it and are shameless about saying so. There are people who have mixed feelings or at least aren't on extreme ends of the spectrum (as always, the loudest ones are always the most visible, but it's not always easy to claim they're the predominant percentage of the fanbase). That happens everywhere, and I still find that on every end I've seen. However, if I'm talking about my impressions and everything I’ve encountered, I will say that the overall Japanese reaction to tri. comes off as significantly more violently negative on average than the Western one, which is unusual because often it's the other way around. (I personally feel less so because the opinions are that fundamentally different and more so because we're honestly kind of loud and in-your-face people; otherwise, humans are mostly the same everywhere, and more often than not people feel roughly the same about everything if they’re given the same information to work with.)

This is not something I can say lightly, and thus would not say if I didn’t really get this impression, but...we're talking "casually looking up movie reviews for Kizuna have an overwhelming amount of people casually citing any acknowledgment of tri. elements as a negative element", or the fact that even communal wikis for "general" fandoms like Pixiv and Aniwota don't tend to hold back in being vicious about it (as of this writing, Pixiv's wiki refuses to consider it in the same timeline as Adventure, accusing it of being "a series that claims to be a sequel set three years after 02 but is in fact something different"). Again, there are people who openly enjoy it and actively advocate for it (and Pixiv even warns people to not lord over others about it condescendingly because of the fact that such people do exist), and this is also more of a reflection of “the hardcore fanbase on the Internet” and not necessarily the mainstream (after all, there are quite a few other Digimon works where the critical reception varies very heavily between the two). Nevertheless, the take-home is that the reputation is overall negative among the Internet fanbase to the point that this is the kind of sentiment you run into without trying all that hard.

I think, generally speaking, if we're just talking about why a lot of people resent the series, the reasons aren't that different from those on the Western side. However, that issue of "dark history" (黒歴史): there's a certain degree of demand from the more violently negative side of the fanbase that's, in a sense, asking official to treat it as a disgrace and never acknowledge it ever again, hence why Kizuna doing so much as borrowing things from it rather than rejecting it outright is still sometimes treated like it’s committing a sin. So it's somewhat close in spirit to a retcon movement, which is unusual because no other Digimon series gets this (not even 02; that was definitely a thing on the Western end, but while I'm sure there are people who hate it that much on their end too, I've never really seen it gain enough momentum for anyone to take it seriously). If anyone ever tells you that Japanese fanbases are nice to everything, either they don't know Japanese, are being willfully ignorant, or are lying to you, because there is such thing as drama in those areas, and in my experience, I've seen things get really nasty when things are sufficiently pushed over the edge, and if a fanbase wants to have drama, it will have drama. This happens to be one of those times.

(If you think this is extreme, please know that I also think so too, so I hope you really understand that me describing this sentiment does not mean I am personally endorsing it. Also, let me reiterate that the loudest section of the fanbase is not necessarily the predominant one; after all, as someone who’s been watching reactions to 02 over the years, I myself can attest that its hatedom has historically made it sound more despised than it actually is in practice.)

My impression is that the primary core sentiment behind why the series so much as existing and being validated is considered such an offense (rather than, say, just saying "wow, that writing was bad" and moving on) is heavily tied to the release circumstances the series came out in during 2015-2018, and the idea that "this series disrespected Adventure, and also disrespected the fanbase.” (I mean, really, regardless of what part of the world you’re from, sequels and adaptations tend to be held to a higher bar of expectation than standalone works, because they’re expected to do them justice.) A list of complaints I’ve come across a lot while reading through the above:

The Japanese fanbase is pretty good at recordkeeping when it comes to Adventure universe lore, partially because they got a lot of extra materials that weren’t localized, but also partially because adherence to it seems to generally be more Serious Business to them than it is elsewhere. For instance, “according to Adventure episode 45, ‘the one who wishes for stability’ (Homeostasis) only started choosing children in 1995, and therefore there can be no Chosen Children before 1995” is taken with such gravity that this, not anything to do with evolutions or timeline issues, is the main reason Hurricane Touchdown’s canonicity was disputed in that arena (because Wallace implies that he met his partners before 1995). It’s a huge reason the question of Kizuna also potentially not complying to lore came to the forefront, because tri. so flagrantly contradicts it so much that this issue became very high on the evaluation checklist. In practice, Kizuna actually goes against Adventure/02 very little, so the reason tri. in particular comes under fire for this is that it does it so blatantly there were theories as early as Part 1 that this series must take place in a parallel universe or something, and as soon as it became clear it didn’t, the resulting sentiment was “wow, you seriously thought nobody would notice?” (thus “disrespecting the audience”).

A lot of the characterization incongruity is extremely obvious when you’re following only the Japanese version, partially because it didn’t have certain localization-induced characterization changes (you are significantly less likely to notice a disparity with Mimi if you’re working off the American English dub where they actually did make her likely to step on others’ toes and be condescending, whereas in Japanese the disparity is jarring and hard to miss) and partially due to some things lost in translation (Mimi improperly using rough language on elders is much easier to spot as incongruity if you’re familiar with the language). Because it’s so difficult to miss, and honestly feels like a lot of strange writing decisions you’d make only if you really had no concept of what on earth happened in the original series, it only contributes to the idea that they were handling Adventure carelessly and disrespectfully without paying attention to what the series was even about (that, or worse, they didn’t care).

02 is generally well-liked there! It’s controversial no matter where you go, but as I said earlier, there was no way a retcon movement would have ever been taken seriously, and the predominant sentiment is that, even if you’re not a huge fan of it, its place in canon (even the epilogue) should be respected. So not only flagrantly going against 02-introduced lore but also doing that to a certain quartet is seen as malicious, and you don’t have as much of the converse discourse celebrating murdering the 02 quartet (yeah, that’s a thing that happened here) or accusing people with complaints of “just being salty because they like 02″ as nearly as much of a factor; I did see it happen, or at least dismissals akin to “well it’s Adventure targeted anyway,” but they were much less frequent. The issue with the 02 quartet is usually the first major one brought up, and there’s a lot of complaints even among those who don’t care for 02 as much that the way they went about it was inhumane and hypocritical, especially when killing Imperialdramon is fine but killing Meicoomon is a sin. Also, again, “you seriously think nobody will see a problem with how this doesn’t make sense?”

I think even those who are fans of the series generally agree with this, but part of the reason the actual real-life time this series went on is an important factor is that the PR campaign for this series was godawful. Nine months of clicking on an egg on a website pretending like audience participation meant something when in actuality it was blatantly obvious it was just a smokescreen to reveal info whenever they were ready? This resulted in a chain effect where even more innocuous/defensible things were viewed in a suspicious or negative light (for instance, "the scam of selling the fake Kaiser's goggles knowing Ken fans would buy it only to reveal that it's not him anyway"), and a bunch of progressively out-of-touch-with-the-fanbase statements and poor choices led to more sentiment “yeah, you’re just insulting the fanbase at this point,” and a general erosion of trust in official overall.

On top of that, the choice of release format to have it spread out as six movies over three years seems to have exacerbated the backlash to get much worse than it would have been otherwise, especially since one of the major grievances with the series is that how it basically strung people along, building up more and more unanswered questions before it became apparent it was never going to answer them anyway. So when you’re getting that frustrated feeling over three whole years, it feels like three years of prolonged torture, and it becomes much harder to forgive for the fallout than if you’d just marathoned the entire thing at once.

For those who are really into the Digimon (i.e. species) lore and null canon, while I’m not particularly well-versed in that side of the fanbase, it seems tri. fell afoul of them too for having inaccurately portrayed (at one point, mislabeled) special attacks and poorly done battle choreography, along with the treatment of Digimon in general (infantilized Digimon characterization, general lack of Digimon characters in general, very flippant treatment of the Digital World in Parts 3-5). If you say you’re going to “reboot” the Digital World and not address the entire can of worms that comes with basically damaging an entire civilization of Digimon, as you can imagine, a lot of people who actually really care about that are going to be pissed, and the emerging sentiment is “you’re billing this as a Digimon work, but you don’t even care about the monsters that make up this franchise.”

The director does not have a very positive reputation among those who know his work (beyond just Digimon), and in general there was a lot of suspicion around the fact they decided to get a guy whose career has primarily been built on harem and fanservice anime to direct a sequel to a children’s series. Add to that a ton of increasingly unnerving statements about how he intended to make the series “mature” in comparison to its predecessor (basically, an implication that Adventure and 02 were happy happy joy series where nothing bad ever happened) and descriptions of Adventure that implied a very, very poor grasp of anything that happened in it: inaccurate descriptions of their characters, poor awareness of 02′s place in the narrative, outright saying in Febri that he saw the Digimon as like perpetual kindergartners even after evolving, and generally such a flippant attitude that it drove home the idea that the director of an Adventure sequel had no respect for Adventure, made this series just to maliciously dunk on it for supposedly being immature, and has such a poor grasp of what it even was that it’s possible he may not have seen it in the first place (or if he did, clearly skimmed it to the extent he understood it poorly to pretty disturbing levels). As of this writing, Aniwota Wiki directly cites him as a major reason for the backlash.

In general, consensus seems to be that the most positively received aspect of the series (story-wise) was Part 3 (mostly its ending, but some are more amenable to the Takeru and Patamon drama), and the worst vitriol goes towards Parts 2 (for the blatantly contradictory portrayal of Mimi and Jou and the hypocritical killing of Imperialdramon) and 4 (basically the “point of no return” where even more optimistic people started getting really turned off). This is also what I suspect is behind the numbers on the infamous DigiPoll (although the percentage difference is admittedly low enough to fall within margin of error). However, there was suspicion about the series even from Part 1, with one prominent fanartist openly stating that it felt more like meeting a ton of new people than it did reuniting with anyone they knew.

So with all of that on the table: how did this affect official? The thing is that when I say “violently negative”, I mean that also entailed spamming official with said violently negative social media comments. While this is speculation, I am fairly certain that official must have realized how bad this was getting as early as between Parts 4 and 5, because that’s where a lot of really suspicious things started happening behind the scenes; while I imagine the anime series itself was now too far in to really do anything about it, one of the most visible producers suddenly vanished from the producer lineup and was replaced by Kinoshita Yousuke, who ended up being the only member of tri. staff shared with Kizuna (and, in general, the fact that not a single member of staff otherwise was retained kind of says a lot). Once the series ended in 2018 and the franchise slowly moved into Kizuna-related things, you might notice that tri.-branded merch production almost entirely screeched to a halt and official has been very touchy about acknowledging it too deeply; it’s not that they don’t, but it’s kind of an awfully low amount for what you’d think would be warranted for a series that’s supposed to be a full entry in the big-name Adventure brand.

The reason is, simply, that if they do acknowledge it too much, people will get pissed at them. That’s presumably why the tri. stage play (made during that interim period between Parts 4 and 5 and even branded with the title itself) and Kizuna are really hesitant to be too aggressive about tri. references; it’s not necessarily that official wants to blot it out of history like the most extreme opinions would like them to, but even being too enthusiastic about affirming it will also get them backlash, especially if the things they affirm are contradictory to Adventure or 02. And considering even the small references they did put in still got them criticism for “affirming” tri. too much, you can easily see that the backlash would have been much harder if they’d attempted more than that; staying as close as possible to Adventure and 02 and trying to deal with tri. elements only when they’re comparatively inoffensive was pretty much the “safe” thing to do in this scenario (especially since fully denying tri. would most certainly upset the people who did like the series, and if you have to ask me, I personally think this would have been a pretty crude thing to have done right after the series had just finished). Even interviews taken after the fact often involve quickly disclaiming involvement with the series, or, if they have to bring up something about it, discussing the less controversial aspects like the art (while the character designs were still controversial, it’s at least at the point where some fanartists will still be willing to make use of them even if they dislike the series, albeit often with prominent disclaimers) or the more well-received parts of Part 3; Kizuna was very conspicuously marketed as a standalone movie, even if it shared the point of “the Adventure kids, but older” that tri. had.

(Incidentally, the tri. stage play has generally been met with a good reputation and was received well even among people who were upset with the anime, so it was well-understood that they had no relation. In fact, said stage play is probably even better received than Kizuna, although that’s not too surprising given the controversial territory Kizuna goes into, making the stage play feel very play-it-safe in comparison.)

So, if we’re going to talk about Kizuna in particular: tri. was, to some degree, a moderate financial success, in the sense that it made quite a bit of money and did a lot to raise awareness of the Digimon brand still continuing...however, if you actually look at the sales figures for tri., they go down every movie; part of it was probably because of the progressively higher “hurdle” to get into a series midway, but consider that Gundam Unicorn (a movie series which tri.’s format was often compared to) had its sales go up per movie thanks to word of mouth and hype. So while tri. does seem to have gotten enough money to help sustain the franchise at first, the trade-off was an extremely livid fanbase that had shattered faith in the brand and in official, and so while continuing the Adventure brand might still be profitable, there was no way they were going to get away with continuing to do this lest everything eventually crash and burn.

Hence, if you look at the way Kizuna was produced and advertised, you can see a lot of it is blatantly geared at addressing a lot of the woes aimed at tri.: instead of the staff that had virtually no affiliation with Toei, the main members of staff announced were either from the original series (Seki and Yamatoya) or openly childhood fans, the 02 quartet was made into a huge advertising point as a dramatic DigiFes reveal (and character profies that tie into the 02 epilogue careers prominently part of the advertising from day one), and they even seemed to acknowledge the burnout on the original Adventure group by advertising it so heavily as “the last adventure of Taichi and his friends”, so you can see that there’s a huge sentiment of “damage control” with it. How successful that was...is debatable, since opinions have been all over the board; quite a few people were naturally so livid at what happened with tri. that Kizuna was just opening more of the wound, but there were also people who liked it much better and were willing to acknowledge it (with varying levels of enthusiasm, some simply saying “it was thankfully okay,” and some outright loving it), and there was a general sentiment even among those who disliked both that they at least understood what Kizuna was going for and that it didn’t feel as inherently disrespectful. (Of course, there are people who loved tri. and hated Kizuna, and there are people who loved both, too.)

Moreover, Kizuna actually has a slightly different target audience from tri.; there’s a pretty big difference between an OVA and a theatrical movie, and, quite simply, Kizuna was made under the assumption that a lot of people watching it may not have even seen tri. in the first place. An average of 11% of the country watched Adventure and 02, but the number of people who watched tri. is much smaller, in part due to the fact that its “theater” screenings were only very limited screenings compared to Kizuna being shown in theaters in Japan and worldwide, and in part due to the fact that watching six parts over three years is a pretty huge commitment for someone who may barely remember Digimon as anything beyond a show they watched as a kid, and may be liable to just fall off partway through because they simply just forgot. (Which also probably wasn’t helped by the infamously negative reputation, something that definitely wouldn’t encourage someone already on the fence.) And that’s yet another reason Kizuna couldn’t make too many concrete tri. references; being a theatrical movie, it needs to have as wide appeal as possible, and couldn’t risk locking out an audience that had a very high likelihood of not having seen it, much less to the end -- it may have somewhat been informed by tri.’s moderate financial success and precedent, but it ultimately was made for the original Adventure and 02 audience more than anything else.

I would say that, generally, while Kizuna is “controversial” for sure, reception towards the movie seems to be more positive than negative, it won over a large chunk of people who were burned out by tri., and it clearly seems to have been received well enough that it’s still being cashed in on a year after its release. The sheer existence of the upcoming 02-based movie is also probably a sign of Kizuna’s financial and critical success; Kinoshita confirmed at DigiFes 2020 that nothing was in production at the time, and stated shortly after the movie’s announcement that work on it had just started. So the decision to make it seems to have been made after eyeing Kizuna’s reception, and, moreover, the movie was initially advertised from the get-go with Kizuna’s director and writer (Taguchi and Yamatoya), meaning those two have curried enough goodwill from the fanbase that this can be used to promote the movie. (If not, you would think that having and advertising Seki would be the bigger priority.) While this is my own sentiment, I am personally doubtful official would have even considered 02 something remotely profitable enough on its own to cash in on if it weren’t for this entire sequence of events of 02′s snubbing in tri. revealing how much of a fanbase it had (especially with the sheer degree of “suspicious overcompensation” Kizuna had with its copious use of the 02 quartet and it tagging a remix of the first 02 ED on the Hanareteitemo single, followed by the drama CD and character songs), followed by Kizuna having success in advertising with them so heavily. Given all of the events between 2015 and now, it’s a bit ironic to see that 02 has now become basically the last resort to be able to continue anything in the original Adventure universe without getting too many people upset at them about it.

The bright side coming out of all of this is that, while it’s still a bit early to tell, now that we’re three years out from tri. finishing up and with Kizuna in the game, it seems there’s a possibility for things improving around tri.’s reception as well. Since a lot of the worst heated points of backlash against it have a very “you had to have been there” element (related to the PR, release schedule, and staff comments), those coming in “late” don’t have as much reason to be as pissed at it; I’ve seen at least one case of a fanartist getting back into the franchise because of Kizuna hype, watching tri. to catch up, casually criticizing it on Twitter, and moving on with their life, presumably because marathoning the whole thing being generally aware of what’ll happen in it and knowing Kizuna is coming after anyway gives you a lot less reason to be angry to the point of holding an outright grudge. Basically, even if you don’t like it, it’s much easier to actually go “yeah, didn’t like that,” not worry too much about it, and move on. Likewise, I personally get the impression that official has been starting to get a little more confident about digging up elements related to it. Unfortunately, a fairly recent tweet promoting the series getting put on streaming services still got quite a few angry comments implying that they should be deleting the scourge from the Internet instead, so there’s still a long way to go, but hopefully the following years will see things improve further...

In regards to the reboot, I -- and I think a lot of people will agree with me -- have a bit of a hard time reading what exact audience it’s trying to appeal to; we have a few hints from official that they want parents to watch it with their children, and that it may have been a necessary ploy in order to secure their original timeslot. So basically, the Adventure branding gets parents who grew up with the original series to be interested in it and to show it to their kids, and convinces Fuji TV that it might be profitable. But as most people have figured by now, the series has a completely different philosophy and writing style -- I mean, the interview itself functionally admits it’s here to be more action-oriented and to have its own identity -- and the target audience is more the kids than anything else. As for the Internet fanbase of veterans, most people have been critical of its character writing and pacing, but other than a few stragglers who are still really pissed, it hasn��t attracted all that much vitriol, probably because in the end it’s an alternate universe, it doesn’t have any obligation to adhere to anything from the original even if it uses the branding, and it’s clearly still doing its job of being a kids’ show for kids who never saw the original series nor 02, so an attempt to call it “disrespectful” to the original doesn’t have much to stand on. A good number of people who are bored of it decided it wasn’t interesting to them and dropped it without incident, while other people are generally just enjoying it for being fun, and the huge amount of Digimon franchise fanservice with underrepresented Digimon and high fidelity to null canon lore is really pleasing the side of the fanbase that’s into that (I mean, Digimon World Golemon is really deep in), so at the very least, there’s not a lot to be super-upset about.

[crushing-on-nico-di-angelo]

This is kind of a random question but...

Do you know why people hate Rick Riordan?

I just have no information, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff lately talking about how he’s problematic.

hi!! yes, I've seen things about this as well. I can list the reasons I've seen. I don't agree with all the points made, but its just what I've seen and I think it may answer your question. I also recommend going through the tag #rr crit, as it will give you a lot more and detailed information regarding him (beware: there are quite a few buzzwords. I recommend taking the facts and forming your own conclusions). I also think it's important to note that many people don't hate him, but they acknowledge that since he's a cishet white man there's things he didn't handle well and he needs to listen to critisicm.

Completely mishandled Piper's native American heritage. From the feather in her hair, to her dad being from a reservation that doesn't exist in Oklahoma, to having kaleidoscope eyes (some say that it suggests brown eyes aren't beautiful enough for aphrodite, more on this in the next bullet), to being a kleptomaniac, her character is, ignorantly or purposefully, chock full of stereotypes. having a cornucopia being her weapon. when Rick was told that this isn't good he became defensive and didn't listen to any critisicm

not giving female characters chances to be young, or not have a boyfriend or be unconventionally attractive. if they do get to not have a boyfriend, they're thrown into the Hunters of Artemis. their eyes are anything but brown (I do disagree with the eye thing but it's important to note), suggesting that having brown eyes should be considered less than. Sadie got a 1000 year old boyfriend when she was 14. 13 year old Hazel had a 16 year old boyfriend-- that could be a seventh grader and a junior or a freshman and sophomore depending on how you look at it (and I LOVE frazel, don't get me wrong. the age gap is just,,). in fact, the only female non-hunter without a significant other I can name is Meg, and she's 12.

Sadie Kane and the fanart he boosts of her. he frequently shows her looking completely white, despite saying she "stood out in class for being mixed." It honestly wouldn't surprise me if a white girl were cast to play her in the Netflix movies.

treatment of characters with invisible disabilities. this can range from the coment of "You anemic loser" targeted at Octavian (as someone with an iron deficiency, I don't see anything wrong with it, but cmon. kids can see that, rick. you can't control anemia) to Clovis' chronic fatigue being treated as a joke. invisible disabilities are hard and just as painful as physical ones. it doesn't help if you treat them like that.

too much misogyny to list all of it, but we can start with young girls being expected to be, and acting, more mature than they are; the strong female characters portraying the "I'm not like other girls" trope; the entire way Hera was treated.

The way Nico's outing was handled (this is one I especially disagree with, and this post said it best, thanks ghost). A violent outing by the God of love taking place before Nico was ready, according to some, was not what younger gay people needed to see. he should have had a loving environment and, at the very least, it should have been from his own point of view and not Jason's.

anti-acne and fat phobia: Apollo having a deep hatred towards his acne and Frank's glow up including severe weight loss (not being a cuddly teddybear anymore, getting taller) isn't the best thing for kids who have acne or are fat to see.

Samirah al-Abbas: "reversing the stereotype (Rick's words)" of an arranged marriage by having her be in love with a distant cousin is... not reversing the stereotype at all actually. it just falls into it. Having her take off her hijab around floor 19 because they feel like family is also not great, because, to my understanding as a non-hijabi and non-muslim, that is not how being hijabi works. similar to the piper situation, when Rick was told that this isn't good he became defensive and didn't listen to any critisicm

ANTISEMITISM, ANTISEMETISM, ANTISEMITISM. this is one of the ones I agree with the most. Having Hades' children be Nazis, having a plot point revolve around one of the most traumatic events in world history, ignoring the fact of generational trauma and ignoring the fact that It Didn't Matter That It Took Place In World War Three, it could have not had any correlation to the death of over six million Jewish people. it legitimizes evilsurrounding Hades and death, and -- well, this one makes me so mad, I can't explain all of it so here is a post explaining more in depth

Slavery issues: similar to the holocaust, Rick Riordan made one of the most terrible issues in American History into a fight between demigods. this lowers the legitimacy of the issue, makes it seem fictional, makes Camp Jupiter seem terrible and awful, except it doesn't. because camp Jupiter isn't terrible. but the confederacy was. if children, especially white children, learn about the confederacy through camp Jupiter, it makes it seem way less bad than it was.

again, I don't agree with all of this, it's just reasoning as to why. in my eyes, Rick Riordan is a man who has grown in his telling of his stories. he started with a canonical all white, all straight, all cis cast. he has now a series featuring a latino genderfluid queer person. This Post said it better than I ever could.

I know that it's impact over intent in so many situations. and this isn't to say I disagree with all, or even most of his critisim. I just think that he has good intent, and I hate him for absolutely none of it.

I am gay, I am Latino, and I am trans. that is all I can speak on, and I think his rep for that was great. I hope this answered your question, dear anon. again, I encourage you to do your own research and form your own opinions. I only touched on a few issues that Rick has had and there's a lot more to be talked about. I would say to keep in mind his intent and his growth. thank you for the ask, thank you for directing it to me that made me feel happy lol. ily I hope you have a good day

if anyone else has anything to add, by all means please do!!

[asmolemmeeatyouout]

The boys with Autistic! MC! part two ! SFW

(Bc I’m self indulgent and like 5 ppl wanted it so yesyesyes)

(Had my first proper spoonie day in a while today so imma finish this after what 4 months? Whoopsie. Sorry if any of the points overlap I’ve not re read my last post, please shoot me an ask if you want anything clarified/expanded on !)

Lucifer:

Has to stop his brothers from constantly bothering you when you’re overwhelmed (they’re just worried)

You very quickly learn his office is the safest place to be when overwhelmed due to the dim lighting and the brother deterring curse on his doorway

He has a record player and SO much classical music for when you need background noise

This leads to impromptu slow dancing when you insist he needs a break and there’s music playing

If you have your own records, the *smoother ones will end up mixed in with his

*smoother as in less staccato /distracting because he is most likely working

Very much enjoys spending time in silence with you, he finds it comfortng to just exist with someone without having anything needed of him

Especially if you’re both doing your own thing, like you just being in the room with him (playing a game or reading or smthn) while he does his paperwork is so soothing to him

Mammon:

Have you seen his horns? They’re so smooth and shinyyy, a+++ stimming material

He loves head pats so he’ll willingly put his head in your lap when you watch movies

he’s very proud of his demon form but also kind of shy so it’ll take some coaxing to get him to let you touch his horns but when he sees how content it makes you? It’s his new favourite hobby letting you play with his hair and horns during movies

(That said they’re very sensitive (like him) so be gentle)

He WILL adopt your love language and mannerisms:

if you bump people he will start knocking into you constantly, (wrists, hips, shoulders, head, any and all on random repeat)

if you like to collect and give things to people he will a. Hoard them in a little shrine (that he Denys. having) and b. Start looking for things he can give you back

If you rub textures you like you’ll find him stroking your arms/face/jumper right back (sometimes with his face, but only ever in private because he feels vulnerable using such a soft form of affection)

Levithian:

You cannot tell me this man isn’t autistic

Communication is SO! EASY!

Then even If you don’t understand you can just ask. You can just ask and he’ll tell you. None of this ‘figure it out yourself’ nt bullshit

Our baby has anxiety anyway so he’s probably ‘over’ explained it before you can say anything

(Over explained in the sense of nt, personally I love it when ppl get really detailed)

In that case he gets embarrassed about how much he’s talking so it’s your turn to reassure him that he’s not boring you

The solace you get in realising you like all of his autistic traits soothes your own insecurities

That being said your anxiety (if you have it) is matchy matchy so don’t expect him to talk to the cashier for you

He’s very chill with you being non verbal because either he’s absorbed in his own game/anime/show or it means there’s more room for him to talk about his interests

That being said if your special interests/ hyperfixations don’t line up on any given day? The bickering over who’s turn it is to infodump gets intense (this is the one source of all your arguments)

All the other brothers are kind of terrified/jealous of your relationship, especially when they see you talking about a shared special interest because you talk rapid fire and very in-depth. to them it’s almost like you’re talking in code or another language because they know all the individual words but what the everloving fuck are you on about

Asmodeus:

Has specific outfits he wears when he wants you to hug him (which is always). They’re made out of the softest material, or any clothing of his you’ve expressed a texture interest in.

Finds it so amusing when you come rushing over to rub your face against his chest bc mmmmm softsoftsoft

Likes to text you in the morning to see how you’re feeling (and how sensory sensitive you are because god forbid his outfit with chains and jangles stops him from seeing you)

Understands better than Anyone that affection and love can be shown in a whole barrage of ways not just physically

Figures out how you show affection faster than any of the other brothers

Immediately starts reciprocating it (partly bc he’s selfishly trying to make you love him most)

Satan:

Will learn about your special interests so he can engage you on the topic

Is the ONLY person in the house you can talk about any special interest with, no matter how niche because he loves learning (although he does prefer the *academic* side of them rather than pop culture but he will listen to both)

*academic* as in something involving learning about something or crafting or *how* to do something, not just like, maths

You’re pretty much the only person who can keep up with him in terms of knowledge and enthusiasm (even if it’s only for very specific things) and thus you become the person he talks to about his interests

Originally kind of annoyed by how absentminded you are (because you forget several dates) but once you get settled into a routine he starts to find it cute how habitual you are, and then realises it could work to his advantage.

He then schedules a date into your weekly routine (or biweekly depending on your energy levels) so you start to get upset if it’s missed bc it’s part of your routine. (Satan is ridiculously smart and is very much willing to manipulate your routine to his (and yours) advantage, he is a demon after all)

Beelzebub:

Gives the best squishes. He’s just so big he can literally envelope you (in other news he is terrified of hurting you so he’s very nervous at first, he’s used to huggin ppl very gently bc he is a muscle mountain)

Maybe don’t use chew stims around him (unless he’s eating) because seeing you use them will either make him hungry, or he’ll ask to see it and oops it’s been swallowed hope you didn’t want that back (he’s very apologetic he really didn’t mean to but it was in his mouth and chewed before he could think)

Literally the kindest man in the universe, if you have issues with shame or *guilt* (especially if it creeps outta nowhere or it relates to not being able to do something) he will a. Reassure you and give you cuddles until you feel okay (or one on one bonding time if you’re too touch sensitive) then b. Go help with whatever task was too much so you don’t have to worry

Belphagor:

Have I mentioned the stuffies? This boy definitely has a stash of soft toys that all have names and personalities. This originally stemmed from the fact he was locked alone in an attic for a year, he needed some form of company or he was gonna go crazy, and sleeping alone is meh in his opinion. But then he became attached and after you showed him yours? And you weren’t ashamed of your teddy bears or how much you loved them he confided in you about his. (And you had a tea party)

Problems sleeping ? (Me too bud it’s 3.44 am lol) nonononno baby boy has got you, just snuggle up to him and you’ll be snoozing in no time (I HC that being around belphagor just makes you a little sleepy and the longer you’re there the stronger the urge to sleep gets)

You’re at rad (or out in public and can’t leave) and get overstimmed? Belphie has got you! He keeps sunglasses on him so he can secretly sleep when he’s not supposed to. Also (imo) he’s the king of hoodies, both his main outfits have a hood (and you can’t convince me he doesn’t wear one of them over his uniform as soon as lucifer dips), my boy will slip his hoodie on you and wrap you in a hug to get you away from the noise/sights

(I am now too tired to write anymore, hope yall enjoyed!)

[vemuabhi]

Disney Romance - Brave’s Blue - 200 followers special

@holykillercake swan!!! Sorry for the wait! Thankyou for requesting! You know how much I love Killer, This story took a while for me to get inspiration and actually write it, but here I am with this! Please don’t keep high expectations, I may not reach them.

Pairing : Killer X Princess! Reader

Word Count : 3.6K

Warnings : Nothing but Fluff, a long ass fic written by me!

A/N : Yes Its the Movie Brave! I hope you like it! Its lengthy but please give it a chance! Its the story of our favorite Pasta Boy!

“Princess Y/N, its an honor to meet you. I’m Jason, prince of Goustvania, I’ve heard so much about you and your Kingdom”, Jason said as he looked at you. You both were in your garden which had beautiful plants and flowers.

“Prince Jason, don’t get me wrong but, as this is a formal meeting for suitors, and I would like to keep it that way”, the way you said it, made Jason to gulp. He was not a potential suitor and he knows that. By pulling some strings he made it to the list. There are many princes who wanted to marry you.

You were not only beautiful but were also the princess of the wealthiest Kingdoms. Not even a single death due to starvation was recorded in your country. As marriages are a part of a treaty, if a person could marry you, you’d definitely share your riches to help.

“So, I’ve heard that, your country is really big and has the absolute weaponry with a very powerful army”, she looked at the prince who was scared to even speak to her. But he didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

Putting on his brave smile, he said, “My country is beautiful and definitely has the most powerful machinery”, proudly he ended, only for you to nod in return by taking the silver cup in front of you. It contained the finest tea, which was brewed from the leaves of Assam.

“Prince Jason, but my resources say that your country is in the verge of war with another 5 countries. And in your last war, even though you’ve won, you’ve lost many soldiers. Is it true that you’ve been requiting many soldiers to compensate the loss”, you took another sip of the tea as he gulped.

“I also heard that you’ve already been engaged to princess Lucy from the snow kingdom. I didn’t hear anything about breaking your marriage”, Jason had chills sent up and down his spine because of the questions you were asking. Not even his friends knew about the information of him getting engaged to princess Lucy.

“I suppose that even she doesn’t know that you are here. The partner that I’m choosing needs to be loyal. I’m sorry but you are no longer a suitor. I’ll make arrangements for you to leave this place within a day”, you bluntly said getting up.

“Oh no, Please listen to me. I’ll break the engagement as soon as possible. Just give me anoth-”

“Please don’t make me repeat myself. Ive already made up my mind”, you replied sternly and walked out of the garden without giving him another glance.

You felt your mood was ruined after meeting him. ‘How can people be so disloyal towards their partner?’, you thought as you entered your chambers. It had blue curtains, blue carpets, a big blue bed. Simply said, it was a pastel blue aesthetic with also a touch of white to it. You had twenty minutes time before you had your next job to check the travel and trade matters of the country. You removed your closet before you plopped on the bed and closed your eyes.

Blue always calmed you down. That’s the reason why you wanted your room to be with blue stuff. Blue reminded you of the sky. The peacefulness was what you required in your hectic life as a princess, who is taking care of the country. As the King was feeling sick, you took the job on yourself and took care of the country yourself from the past two years. You knew the kings, princes wanted to marry you because of your country. Everyone was selfish and had the same motive. You were sick of this. You mostly tried not to meet princes and tried to dismiss the proposals. You wanted a person, who could love you and be loyal to you. To love the country as you loved. Would respect your opinions as a queen.

Little did you know, Prince Jason wasn’t happy with your decision. As he went to the house of the witch of your Kingdom. He sat before her and asked her, “I need a potion. A potion which can make a person to change, to go feral, like an animal”, rubbing his hands nervously he looked at the witch.

She asked no questions, just stretched her hand forward. He placed a bag of silver coins in her hand. The old witch went to her cupboard and took out a very small bottle with olive green liquid.

“Mix it in her food and it’ll do its job”, she mumbled and Jason started to return to your castle.

But little did he know, every single potion had a reversing effect. This potion was asked with a person with full intent to destruction, anger, greed. A potion was available to reverse the spell.

“My lady, my lady”, you heard a voice calling you so you opened your eyes and looked at the person before you. It was your butler Heat. You woke up with a groan and asked him, “How long have I been sleeping?”

“It’s been 30 minutes my lady, you are getting late to check the Travel and trades of the country”, he said sternly. You grunted as you sat on the bed.

“My lady, that’s not how a princess should behave and Oh lord!”, he exclaimed looking at the corset on the floor and walked towards the door, “Please dress appropriately”, he closed the door behind him.

“Damn corset”, you cursed as you picked it up. Heat was your head butler and also very skilled fighter. He talked less and worked more, a reason why you chose him as your assistant. He gave wise suggestions and always respected you.

You wore your corset with the help of a maid and went to your office to work again.

Being a prince, Jason easily slipped with the maids into the Kitchen, and saw the tray of food, which was supposed to be given to you, just before Heat could enter the place, Jason added the portion into the tea cup.

Like every day, as you were doing the paper work and Heat placed the tray of food in front of you. You took the cup of tea and savoured the fragrance. Before sipping it, you asked Heat, “Why were you late by 10 minutes?! You know how much I am addicted to tea”, your glossy eyes conveyed how you felt.

“Prince Jason was talking to maids in the Kitchen, so there were a lot of maids slacking off and not doing their respective works”, he replied.

“Is that so, then get him out of the castle as soon as possible”, you ordered and he bowed.

“By the way, don’t even think of skipping the work. Last time I had to do your work because you sneaked out”

“Tsk, how rude!”, you said to yourself as he left. You drank your tea with so much happiness and continued to work. Suddenly, you felt pain in your chest. You placed your hands on your back in an attempt to remove the corset. But even after removing the corset, your pain still didn’t subside. You fell to your knees and panted for air as you closed your eyes. Then suddenly your pain stopped. You opened your eyes and your gaze landed on your hands. Your eyes opened wide.

‘What the hell?!’, You looked at your torso and you noticed that you were not… normal.. You took the fine silver plate with your claws and saw your reflection in it. You couldn’t believe your eyes. You turned into a bear now. ‘But why? How?’, your thoughts were stopped with a knock on the door. Indicating Heat will enter now.

You didn’t know what to do, so you opened the window and jumped down it. If Heat was to see you, he wouldn’t even spare a second glance and Kill you as you looked like a bear and search for you. You slowly climbed down and escaped into the forest by not being seen by any soldier. You ran in the forest quickly trying to process everything. ‘Why? How?’, your questions weren’t stopping in your head.

You stumbled because of a rock in your way and rolled down into the deeper part of the forest. There you tackled some people in your way. You couldn’t stop rolling till you got hit by a tree in front of you. Clenching the side of your head with your claws, you slowly got up. You stood on two of your legs and cursed, “Oh Davy Jones! What have I ever done?”.

“What the hell?!”, you looked to your side and saw that you crushed 4 people and you saw a guy with a mask, standing a few meters away from you.

“Tsk, I hope I didn’t kill them”, you said and again the Mask dude flinched. You both stared at each other for a while before he spoke, “How the hell can you talk?”

Your brain took a few moments to process and then you gasped. “I can talk!!! I didn’t think I could talk! Hey Mask man, can you help me”, you asked and walked towards him only for him to swiftly take his weapons out.

You took a step back and said, “No! Don’t harm me! You don’t know who I am!”, you said as your back hit the tree. You maintained eye contact with the mask and hid behind the tree.

The man was very confused at your actions. He was actually about to fight some people but you crushed them to death. So he owed you one. He asked, “You shouldn’t harm me”.

“I won’t! And you also, please… don’t hurt me”, after hearing your request, he hid his weapons and walked towards you as you also did the same.

“How can you talk?”, he asked again.

“Oh! I am actually not a bear. I am a human, but I don’t know why I became like this. Please help me. I wanna turn back”, you requested.

‘The only reason why I am decided to help is because this bear crushed these jerks. But what it is asking doesn’t make any sense. Its way too much work’, he thought and said, “Too much of trouble. Do it yourself”, with that he started to walk away.

“No! Wait!! Please help me. If I go to any other human, they’ll freak out and I’ll be Killed. I am a human for real. Don’t leave me. If you were turned into a bear, you’d want to be turned back. Please help me, I never begged anyone in my life like this. Please understand”, you said as you walked beside the masked man. ‘Tsk… this stupid bear is kinda right’, he thought and stopped in his tracks.

He huffed, “let’s sit and talk”, he said as he sat on a big root of a tree and you sat opposite to him.

“Tell me clearly. How did you turn into a bear? Did you drink any potion or anger any witch by doing or saying anything rude?”, he asked you and you shook your head no.

“I didn’t even go to any witch and didn’t take any potion”, you replied looking down. “I never thought I’d turn into a bear. I’ve always taken care of the people around me”.

The man before you sighed and said, “Don’t be disappointed just yet. How much time has it been? Since you turned into a Bear”. You looked at him and replied, “Its been 3 hours, if Im correct. I’ve been wandering in the forest from more than an hour, and it took me a while to escape from my house”.

He hummed as he nodded and again asked you, “You said that you didn’t anger any witch but did you anger anyone in particular?”, he asked. You thought for a while and Jason’s image popped into your head.

“I… I rejected a proposal to get married and… the person was really mad at that”, you admitted.

“Did you eat anything, that person gave you?”, he questioned

“But after I rejected, I didn’t even meet that person again. I only got on with my daily tasks”.

“It doesn’t have to be given. Must’ve slipped something in your food”, the masked dude said and got up. He continued, “Let’s go, you must be hungry, Wandering the Jungle all by yourself”

You looked at him with a bit suspicion. ‘What if he kills me and sells my skin or make me a coat for himself’, negative thoughts started to run in your mind and he noticed how you were hesitating.

“Look, I have enough food thanks to the Princess. I don’t have any reason to kill you”, as he said it making your heart skip a beat.

“Okay…”, you mumbled and walked behind him to a small hut, which was inside the forest. Hiding from all the other villages. Apparently, he was a poor armorer, weapons specialist and also a former bandit. So, he didn’t want to be mingled with the villagers. He maintained few connections with some people who wanted customised weapons. Entering into his hut, you were mesmerised by the wide range of weaponry.

“Woah! You seem very talented, why don’t you work for the Princess? I’m sure she would love all your creations”, you said as the man washed vegetables and fruits for dinner.

“No way. It’s the palace. I’m sure there are so many people working for Princess anyway. Also… I’m a former bandit”, he confessed. ‘Why would a princess want a person like me in her castle working for her? I’d scare her’, he thought.

“Tsk… your talent is going waste. You would be really helpful to the army, they have been in need for weaponry and there might be a conflict with another country soon”, you replied as you took the apple and gobbled it in one bite. You were really hungry and were thankful for the food.

“Why are you speaking like you know all the things about the Kingdom?”, those words made you to choke.

“Rumours”, you lied as you drank the water from the jug leaving your claw marks on it.

“I’m sure the Princess will manage those problems in a blink of an eye”, he replied.

“Why are you so sure?”, you enquired only for him to sigh and lean back on the wall.

“Because she made the country enrich and developed the poor villages. Now people atleast can eat twice a day due to her. I became a bandit only because I had no food. But since I get food, I left that. But still some people are angry at me because of my deeds of the past”,”.

“Oh!! We have a fanboy here”, you teased him only him to trying to deny it. Even his neck was turning red because of your teasing.

“Did you see her?”, he replied by shaking his head no.

The next day you he wasn’t in the hut when you woke up. You started to search for him. Then you found him coming back.

“Welcome back! Where did you go?”, you enquired him as you looked at his mask. He noticed that you were walking on your fours this time. But the way you came towards him and greeted him, made his heart warm. He had never experienced such treatment.

“I met a customer to give his order to him. I also asked him about any witches he knew in the area”, he said and your eyes lit up with hope.

“I also met the witch and asked her about this condition, she said its cure able”, he ended and you cheered with happiness and rolled on the grass.

“YAY!!! Will she help? What should be done?”, you rolled again only for him to slip out a chuckle and stop it quickly. He himself was shocked at how you could make his sealed lips to talk more and also to let out a chuckle.

“She asked me to create something for her and in return she’ll give me the potion if she likes what I make for her”, he confessed. Guilt started to form in your heart. About how he had to work for her, to save you.

“I now need to think what she would like”, he said with relief in his voice and walked towards the hut.

After a lot of designs and dissatisfactions, you both started to eat. He cut his vegetables separately to eat them through his mask while you just ate them… well like a bear. Then you got an idea. Even if she was a witch, she was a girl after all.

“What if… you give her a blade, which can be hidden in her skirt?”, you managed to speak. You both noticed that your voice was getting hoarser than it was.

“I need to work quickly. I can’t fail you now. I guess the time is running out”, he sighed and added, “You are walking on your fours too”.

With in an hour the design was ready and the mask man started to create the new weapon for the witch. You went out and played with the butterflies as he made it.

After another hour with the beautiful blade, he stepped out of the place and waved you bye. You managed and said, “Thank… you”.

Now his time was slipping out and he had to be quick. He handed the weapon to the witch and she analysed it for a while and nodded her head as an approval with a satisfied smile. The masked man sighed in relief and took the blue potion which was in a small container. He quickly headed towards the hut in the forest. He had to save you as soon as possible.

By the time he reached home, he noticed that the hut was almost destroyed from the inside with many claw marks and the weapons were thrown everywhere. You were still in the house, emerging from the darkness. It was already evening and the sun was setting. He saw how your eyes seemed nothing like before. They were just like a wild animal. Before he could even think, you punched his face so hard that he flew and hit the wall. His mask broke into pieces because of the force.

Not giving up, he jumped on you and held your face tightly as he wrapped his legs on your waist. Your claws on his body hurt so much. Blood was dripping but he stayed like that. Trying to calm you down and call you.

“LISTEN TO ME! I KNOW YOU ARE STILL IN THERE! I GOT YOU POTION”, he screamed on the top of his lungs, as you tried to throw him away. But at last, you looked into his eyes. He had light blue eyes. Blue, was your colour. Looking into his eyes, you calmed down and stopped struggling. He took out the small container and opened the lid. He slid it into your mouth and patted your head. Soothing you down.

Slowly you could feel the change. The pain was inevitable. But you kept looking at those blue eyes of the man in front of you. That kept you sane and you closed your eyes and fell down on your knees. You opened your eyes, panting for air. You noticed that your hands were back to normal as well as your torso. Suddenly you felt a blanket over your shoulders. You looked up and saw the man with cheeks redder than any tomato you’ve ever seen. Your senses slowly got to you and that was when you noticed that you were… not dressed.

Pulling the covers even closer to you, he stepped away and walked towards the other room. He swiftly came back and handed clothes to you and without looking back he walked towards the main door and closed it.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were… a lady?” he asked.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were really handsome?”, you replied making him blush even more as you wore his clothes.

He wore a mask and agreed to walk you home. You apologised for messing his apartment. After you reaching your castle, he was absolutely stunned just as the guards at the entrance. He tried to leave but, you didn’t let him go. “Work for me, its an order”, you announced and walked with him still his hand in yours.

Heat was absolutely pissed at your behaviour and was surprised to look at the man beside you. “Who is this?”, Heat asked and you replied, “He is going to be our new armorer, I hired him and I want no objections from you”

“No objections huh? You leave the palace, dump your paper works on me, come back with a masked dude and demand no objections? Tell me what’s his name and where you met him?”, Heat inquired making you gulp. You turned towards him and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Killer”, he chuckled.

“Killer, I met Killer in the forest”, you said proudly to Heat as he shook his head and mumbled, “Unacceptable”. As for Jason, he thought he was scammed and never came across you ever again.

One Year Later

As you handled your paper work Killer stayed in your room to keep an eye on you. His work was exceptional and helped the soldiers to get good results in their weapon wielding. You glanced at Killer and said, “Killer why don’t we get married?”, almost giving the poor man a heart attack.

You knew he was turning into a tomato under his mask. “Killer, we have been dating since a year. Lets get married”, you said as you stood up from your place.

“Yes! Yes Lets get married”, he replied as he fiddled with his hands, head facing down. You placed a hand on his mask and removed it. Pulling him down you captured his lips with yours in a Kiss and smirked at your success. Now you were really marrying a person, who was kind, who was selfless, respected you, was loyal and also loved you to death.

XOXOXOXO

Like/Vote, Reblog/Share and comment your feelings!

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[mirkwoodshewolf]

Domestic life; Ben Hardy x reader

*Author’s note*

Here is a cute little drabble request I got from my Wattpad account, I had hoped to have also posted this yesterday but oh well (I mean the fic doesn’t really revolve around Valentine’s day but it’s still fluffy enough to be counted as such). So enjoy this sweet little drabble. 

Warnings: Fluffy till your teeth rot. Lockdowns due to COVID (BUT THAT’S IT. Just the word and mention of just lockdowns in general).

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@simonedk

@queensdivas

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@queen-paladin

@wormzteef

@geek-and-proud​

@queendeakyy​

__________________________________________________________

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, even though I didn’t want to.  My arms raised over my head as I let out a tired groan and stretched myself out and let out a soft yawn.  I then looked over to my left and saw the man of life sleeping right beside me.  His golden locks looked like a halo under the rare chance we had a sunny day in London.

His tattoos exposed from his nightshirt, my favorite of course being his lion nose and mouth tattoo.  Those soft cute snores that came off his lips (even though he tries to deny it), and his chest slowly rising and falling with each breath he took. I raised my hand up and couldn’t help but lightly stroke the shape of his tattoo, very faintly tracing the curve of the nose, sliding my finger down the straight line before swaying across the bottom curve of the mouth.

“You know we could get you a matching set.” Ben’s sleepy baritone voice spoke up.  I looked up at him and said.

“If we did it’d have to be washable. You know how I am around needles.” He chuckled softly and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in closer.  “Did you sleep good?”

“I slept great. You?”

“Like a rockfish.” He placed a kiss to my forehead and we just looked into each other’s eyes.  “So what shall it be today?”

“Well you know WandaVision premieres today so wanna check it out?”

“I still can’t believe you made me binge the entire MCU movies during our lockdown.”

“And you loved it admit it. Hell Benny boy you were in the Marvel Universe. Granted it was solely owned by Sony before Disney bought the rights but it’s still the Marvel fandom.”

“So after that, then what shall we do?”

“Well we really can’t go anywhere so……wanna just have a lazy day in? No work out day, order take out for our three meals and maybe—fool around?” I teased with a wink.

“You are a cheeky mix.” He then captured my lips with his.

“Yes but—you did asked me to marry you. Which I’m surprised by the way.”

“What do you mean?” he asked as he began to kiss down my neck.

“Don’t act stupid Ben. I know about that affair with Joe and your little side hustle with Gwil. I swear it’s like I married 3 men instead of 1.”

“You knew what you were getting yourself into when you agreed to marry me.” He said as he hovered over me.

“Yes I know.” He chuckled as he pecked my lips. Then again, and again and again. I giggled and playfully pushed him off of me and said. “Alright you human golden retriever.”

“You know that if I were going to be a dog, I’d be a beagle like Frankie.”

“Nah you’re a golden retriever. Silly, goofy, and loving all the way.” I bopped his nose before getting up and headed downstairs to let Frankie out into the backyard to go pee.

As soon as she saw me, she got out from her bed and I greeted her with a ruffle and scratch on her head.

“Hey there baby girl, ready for breakfast?” her head cocked to the side as her tail began wagging softly. “Come on let’s have breakfast.” She got out of her bed and trailed me to the kitchen.  I reached in and grabbed her dog food and dumbed a good amount into her dog bowl and she immediately started scarfing it down.

I began preparing breakfast and as I cracked the last egg, I felt Ben’s arms wrap around me and felt a kiss at my temple.

“You make the best omelets ever.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” I teased him.

“Who says I’m trying to flatter you? I’m stating pure fact.” I smiled at him.

“Well how about you give me a hand here instead of just standing there looking pretty.” He chuckled softly and saluted to me.

“Just tell me what to do Captain.” I then told him what to give me next and I proceeded to finish making the omelets.

Once they were done, Ben and I went over to the living room and I started up Disney+ to play the first 2 episodes of WandaVision.

“Okay so remind me again, is this before or after Endgame?” asked Ben.

“I wanna say this is after Endgame. Again I’ve been a little confused as to the timeline or what exactly is the time period here. All I know is that it’s like a sitcom now. And I can see that they’ve definitely gotten the exact cinematography down. You see how it’s a full screen and them using a single camera.”

“God I love it when you talk cinematography like that.”

“Sorry if I come across as annoying while we watch this.”

“No, no, no, no, no it’s fine. Really. It means you’ve got a good eye for camera angels. Remember when Dexter allowed you to film us when we were doing the We will rock you scene?”

“It was only for 10 minutes while he went to talk with the costuming department and to get him his 10th cup of coffee.”

“Still, he was amazed at the fact you helped with blocking and what you had already filmed. So much so we had it in the film.” I softly smiled and we continued to watch the episode, then watched the second one.

As the day went on, Ben and I kept watching various films as well as taking Frankie out for her walks.  The sun was just starting to set and Ben said.

“Alright one last movie of the day, I feel like if I keep eating more popcorn I won’t be able to fit into these sweats anymore.”

“I wouldn’t mind that. Whether you have a 6 pack or a bit of a pooh bear tummy, I’d love you either way.” He blushed at my compliment and scrunched himself into a ball as I poked his tummy.

“Alright so what shall our last movie be tonight?”

“Well, how about we do Gwil’s movie Top End Wedding?” Ben pondered before saying.

“Okay. Any reason why?”

“Well I—he and I may have talked about that shortly after it came out and I might have told him I’d already seen it when actually I didn’t.” I wearily said.

“Oh I see so you-you lied to my best mate about a movie he was in and wanted your opinion on.”

“Oh coming from you Mr. Oh yes I’ve drummed since I was 12!” I sassed back at him.  He shushed me and covered my mouth with his hand.  I pushed his hand away from my mouth and said. “So can we watch it? I’ve been busy and you know it.”

“Yeah I know love, you know I was just teasing.” He wrapped his arm over my shoulder and switched over to Hulu now and we found Gwil’s movie.  I’ll admit it took me by surprise (I mean based off the trailers I’ve seen it pretty much told the whole story) but the humor and message it sent out really spoke volumes that no other romcom has ever done before.

Plus the aerial shots were just amazing.  The way the cameras would pan over the river or the ridges, you can’t fake that breathtaking view with CGI.  After the movie was over, I let out a soft yawn.

“You tired?” questioned Ben.  I nodded, barely able to keep my eyes open any longer. “Alright, come on then you. Let’s get you into bed.” I moaned softly and held my arms out.

“Carry me.” I heard him chuckle but I felt him lift me up in his arms bridal style and he carried me all the way to our bedroom.

He set me down on the bed and cuddled up close to me before putting the duvet over us.  I automatically placed my head over his chest and placed my arm over his stomach while his arms came around me.

“I had fun today.” I said as I nuzzled into his chest.

“Me too. It’s nice to just kick back and relax for the day. Thank you babe.”

“Anything for my handsome boy.” He kissed the top of my head and soon the two of us cuddled closer (even though I don’t know how much closer we could be at this point) to one another till finally we fell fast asleep.

[ginnyweatherby]

Let's talk process The Prom because the tag is v negative rn and I have some random thoughts

I loved it. Like genuinely. I love the musical and was a little nervous since stage-to-screen adaptions can be a hit or miss, but I liked it a lot.

I've seen a lot of complaints on here comparing the two, but I honestly thought it was a very faithful adaption. Yeah, there were some changes, but that's to be expected. This wasn't a pro shot, this was an adaptation.

Emma: I liked her, especially for a debut role! I thought her voice was really nice, although I'm so used to Caitlin's higher pitch that some of the notes threw me, but nothing major.

I found it odd that she smiled through Just Breathe, but I chocked it up to her daydreaming about having it better than she currently did. Idk, it seemed like a weird acting choice but whatever. I liked her... except for that weird mechanic jumpsuit thing she was wearing. Wtf was that?

Alyssa: I'd have liked to see more of her, but I honestly feel that way about the musical too. She's a very important role, and yet I never quite feel connected to her, at least until her song Alyssa Greene. I found her voice to be a little mature for a high schooler, but no real complaints there.

Barry: Oof, the elephant in the room. Okay, I have mixed feeling about James Corden in general. Loved him in Into the Woods, hated him in Cats, but I like him as a person in general like on his talk show. I was nervous about him in this role because I wasn't sure how he would pull off the campy gay vibe that Barry requires. For the most part, I think he did well. There were some parts I thought were a little cringy (I'm not a gay man so I shouldn't speak on whether it crossed the line into offensive), but I didn't hate him like I feared I would since Barry is my favorite character.

They made him younger for some reason? Is that just because James Corden is younger than the original role is for? He says prom was only 21 years ago, instead of 29. No big deal, just an odd change.

Dee Dee: This was a pleasant surprise! As much as I like Meryl Streep, I was nervous about her in this role, although I do think she was a little too old for it, namely The Lady's Improving. That's a huge number and while I knew she could sing, I wasn't sure her belting chops could handle it, but I thought she sounded great! It's Not About Me was great as well.

Trent: I needed more of him, but again, I've felt that way about the musical too. I'm devastated they halved The Acceptance Song, but I get it. It's not that necessary to keep the plot moving, I would just have liked to hear it, because any excuse for more Andy Randy is always a plus for me.

Love Thy Neighbor was the part I've been most looking forward to since day one and it did not disappoint! I will definitely be jamming to this one a lot in the near future. Loved it.

Angie: Angie isn't a character I normally cared for, and Zazz was one of my least favorite songs so I didn't have many thoughts going into this, but I think I liked her better in the movie tbh? She was more fun I think, and I liked that Zazz became more of a spectacle. It's normally one of the first songs I'll skip on the cast recording, but I thoroughly enjoyed it here.

Tom: Didn't expect him to have so much screentime! They seemed to play up his and Dee Dee's relationship more in this, which is... fine I guess? I didn't really care either way, but I think he did a great job and I didn't find We Look to You as boring as I usually do lmao. He and Dee Dee were cute, especially on their Apples & Bees date.

Mrs. Greene: I mean, what can I say? She pissed me off, which was her entire purpose. Her dress at the end was ugly af tho.

Some of the changes they made were... Choices, but nothing that really stood out to me as terrible.

The addition of seeing Emma's grandma was fun, especially her bonding with Barry. I just thought it was cute - as was his relationship with Emma, obviously.

The addition of Barry's mom however was um, odd. I'm fuzzy on the details in the musical, but I don't know if we ever learn whether Barry actually calls her or not? He mentions it in Barry is Going to Prom, but I think it's left up to interpretation, which I like. Seemed weird, but I guess it was a sweet moment?

Unfortunately, this meant we didn't get the "you're going to lose her" moment I kept waiting for. Slight complaint there.

Dee Dee calling Barry's mom though... her heart was in the right place, but that may not have been the best choice. He was clearly upset, and rightfully so - his parents wanted to send him to conversion therapy ffs. That's traumatizing. It should have been his choice to reconnect, not something forced upon him.

They seemed to give the adults (mostly Barry and Dee Dee) more backstory, which was probably unnecessary, but I didn't mind it. Unpopular opinion, but they're my favorite parts of the show anyway.

However the addition of more backstory certainly added an extra element of angst. Ouch. Some moments hurted.

Barry and Dee Dee's relationship is really sweet and I'd like to explore it more sometime.

I liked that the songs weren't really changed much (a few words here and there, but nothing too noticable), other than The Acceptance Song and You Happened, but I liked Emma's Tonight Belongs to You reprise a lot, so I'll deal with it.

Unruly Heart gets me every time man... actually this movie in general made me tear up like three separate times ugh ugh.

All in all, I found it to be a very true adaption and have no real complaints at this time. I'm sure I will revisit this movie soon and maybe I'll take a deeper dive in a rewatch, but for the most part, I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable and I think if anyone is looking for a fun musical to watch, you should check it out, as well as the Broadway version.

This is a special story that shouldn't be missed.

[lovemesomesurveys]

Do you have a specialty dish that you're really good at making? I used to make a pretty good bowl of ramen, ha.  What video games did you play when you were growing up? Mario Bros, Spyro, Sonic, and Crash Bandicoot.  Are you good at making big decisions alone or do you tend to seek approval from others? I usually talk about it with my mom and see what she thinks and then spend a lot of time thinking about it. Depending on what it’s about, I also look up info about it or read opinions from others online.  Does your town or city have good public transport, or is it easier to drive? Most people drive, but we have buses as well.  What was the last cocktail you drank? I don’t remember. I haven’t drank in like a decade. 

Are you good at keeping running counts and tallies in your head? It’s better to write it down.  Does your country have its own edition of Big Brother? Yeah.  How often do you take a nap during the day? I take naps most days.  What social media platforms do you use? Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat... does YouTube and Pinterest count? Are there any foods you hate the smell of but like the taste, or vice versa? Hardboiled eggs can be smelly, but I like them.  Do you have a dishwasher? Yep. Who do you live with? My parents, brother, and doggo.  Are you listening to anything right now? I’m watching a YouTube video.  What is one of your favourite sitcoms? Roseanne.  Do you make to-do lists? Yeah. And other types of lists as well. I’m definitely a list gal.  If you could magically become fluent in any language, what would it be? Spanish. I can only speak it a little.  Have you ever tried vegan ice cream? Yeah. I don’t like the ones made with sunflower oil or coconut.  What pet names do you use for your friends/loved ones? lol my family and I call each other “boob” and “boobala.” What pet names do you like to be called? I like more unique and fun ones than the typical “babe” “honey”, etc.  What was the best concert you've ever seen? The Green Day concert was pretty awesome. Honestly, I think concerts are just fun in general, I’ve always had a good time at the ones I’ve been to. It’s just has a special feeling.  Do you have any hobbies? I like to spend time online, read, color, watch TV, watch YouTube videos, do word searches, and make bracelets.  What is your favourite pasta shape? Penne and thin spaghetti noodles.  Have you ever developed your own film? No. When was the last time you stayed in a hotel/motel and where was that? Back in March. We stayed in a beachy, touristy town. What breed was the last dog you saw? My doggo is a German Shepherd/Lab mix.  Do you watch the Super Bowl? Nope.  What's your favourite Disney movie? Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, A Goofy Movie, and Toy Story.  What's the most stressful job you've ever had? I’ve never had a job. What was the last text message you received? My Nana always sends me the daily devotional from the book she has.  Should you be asleep right now? If so, go to bed! No, it’s only 2:42PM. I am tired, though. 

[flowers-for-flamingos]

As I Promised: Dragons: the nine realms review

Episode 1: First Flight Part 1

Let me get over the big hills here before diving into the actual show.

1. The animation is kinda so so, I’ll admit but so has every single Dragons show based on this franchise ever. You guys remember Riders and Defenders right? Bushy eyebrow Hiccup still haunts my dreams sometimes.

Now some of you might be thinking about Trollhunters and the absolutely gorgeous animation for that show and movie, but this isn’t Trollhunters. It hasn’t taken almost a decade to create. I will assume that as the show progresses so does the animation (and you get used to it as you watch) and this will probably be the only time I bring it up (as an future animation artist it hurts me but can’t really do anything for it)

2. I have watched all the episodes already, so this isn’t an episode by episode blind react to the introduction of these knew characters, but I will do my best to tell you what I first thought of them and my opinion on them as we continue to get more info about them. I will tell you right now I like all of them, even if my first impression of them started out a bit rocky. There will be spoilers for the whole season in these reviews, so if you want to watch it for yourself before coming back go ahead.

So without further ado let’s begin...

So the very first thing we see in this whole show is what appears to be Hiccup’s sketch book. There’s the nightfury emblem on the cover and other sketches of each of the dragons. I’m hoping that someone has Hiccups sketches and notes as well as the Book or Dragons somewhere and hopefully the new gang get a chance to use it for guidance.

Okay, I kind of like the character design for Tom, he looks like what a descendent of Hiccup and Astrid would look like and his mom looks like Heather and Ruffnut mixed together. I’ve seen a lot of people complain that Tom is boring and bland as a main character and in some instances, yeah I can see it. But I don’t think he’s overall bland. He’s a kid that loves adventure and exploring, but also understands that, unfortunately, discovery and exploration have price tags. There are people who don’t care about what you find or how important it is pulling the strings up top. He has leadership in his veins and it’s apparent from very early on how loyal and protective of his group he is. My only complaint when is comes to blandness is his name...Tom? Why the most generic name in all of History?

From what little of a first interaction we get with Tom and his mom they seem to have a really sweet relationship (reminds me of Jim and Barbra) I’m really liking the whole single mom and loving son who don’t care about and don’t need the deadbeat father.

So, the design of the whole “Project Icarus” really put a bad taste in my mouth and, honestly, still kind of does. The building that Tom and Olivia are flying toward screams “we’re going to make a plastic look alike and sell it” Not a fan, but the fissure looks cool and I saw a little sparky sparky (Thunder) as they were flying over.

Edna Mode? I didn’t know you would show up?

In all seriousness I kind of dislike Director Wong. Her design is really good and I genuinely like it, but I dislike her character. The way she treats Tom as if he can’t keep his fingers off of important things (he can’t but that’s besides the point) and her daughter, Jun, as if her hobbies and interests are stupid and have no value. I feel like she has the potential to be a sort of obstacle for this new gang in later seasons.

I love her! It’s like Astrid’s and Claire Nunez’s personality were scrambled together. And, yes, it is kind of obvious that her and Tom are going to be the new Hicstrid, but I mean how can you not ship them immediately?

Go ahead and hate me but I have a soft spot for the recurring trope of “every time I want to spend time with you/tell you something important you get called away”

He’s adorable! It’s Snotlout but if his father genuinely loved him and encouraged him (but that’s an entirely different topic)

I didn’t really have a huge opinion of Alex in the first episode, but I instantly liked her character design. However, charging cables would not work as hair ties and don’t ask me why it took me 4 episodes to figure out that’s what they were.

I think it’s cute that already we have Tom sticking up for his future team. “She said here.” He could tell Alex was uncomfortable and decided to fix that problem without a second thought.

No, Tom, D’Angelo is right do not touch the dangerous cotton ball.

I don’t understand how adults still don’t understand that showing kids things and letting them explore it with supervision helps them not...I don’t know, sneak off and explore it alone?

Hiccup would too. The only difference, however, would be Astrid would 100% be telling Hiccup to go for it, or joining him. Couples who wreak havoc together stay together.

Sparky sparky flying by.

No cause when I first watched it I genuinely thought she died.

There is no possible way stick boy could hold a full grown woman up for that long. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

So you’re mad that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but if he wasn’t there Linda would of died? Please, I hate when they do that!

The Hiccup Lean (tm)

Okay, I know this is supposed to be Hiccup’s old helmet but I can’t get over the fact that those horns on either side are NOT the same horns. They’re way too long.

The dialogue is cringe sometimes and I’m sorry to all my astrology people but so is Jun’s constant reference to that.

But they’re sooo cute it makes up for it

Okay, sheering the sheep is hilarious and the fact that it hates Tom, even though Jun crashed it , for the rest of the show is so funny to me.

“Something life changing” and then the notes of the HTTYD score really gave me chills.

That drone should be full of wool. There is no way it could still fly.

I will admit the score for this show is pretty cool, especially when Tom is climbing down the fissure.

Also on that note, there is no way that 15-year-old boy has enough strength to use a tiny pick and climb all the way down there. I get that it’s fictional and all that, but there are just some things that your brain just says “absolutely not” and this is one of them for me. Like, your telling me mans can climb back up only using a tiny pick axe and his finger nails?

I thought Tom was going to have to make a tail like how Hiccup did with Toothless and that was about to be my final straw and I was going to put the show to bed, but thankfully it wasn’t and I continued.

He looks like the Geico gecko. I’m sorry, but this first episode made Thunder look TERRIBLE. His movement is so glitchy I don’t know how to explain it. But the rest of the season is better with his movements so I don’t know. And I genuinely still don’t know how I feel about him. Sometimes he’s cute and other times I find him ugly. I can’t make up my mind.

Upon the first watch I thought this episode was absolute trash, but while I was rewatching it for screen caps I did realize that I had to come in with a more open mind. Still, though, not a great opening episode. 4/10 in my opinion, but I would love to hear everyone’s take on it, so please comment what you thought of episode 1.

[gallivantingheart]

the proposal pt.1

who?: jeonghan x (f)reader

word count: 1495

genre/s: fluff and a bit of fun

warnings: none!

synopsis: jeonghan has never been confused on how you feel about marriage - now it’s just a matter of how to do it.

a/n: just a fun diddy bc i love this sleepy man - no, not based off that movie with sandra bullock

note: bold italics = korean

You confuse him endlessly. More so than the likes of his cryptic self or round-about Jihoon. How you say action is your favourite genre but he catches you watching the same romance movie at least once every few weeks, singing and crying at the same parts. How your wardrobe is full of dark hoodies and you wear the same ripped jeans, but your nails are always sparkly and your draws have pastel blouses. You'll say you don't need romantic gestures, but almost always squeal when he drops flowers by your office. Or the fact you say you're bad at them but always pull the best tear-jerkers on him. Like the time you brought him dinner to the practice room - vase of flowers and all - at midnight while keeping him company, even though he knew you had a client presentation the next day. The comeback prep was gruelling, so yeah, he got a bit misty-eyed.

At least one thing he's not confused with is your opinion of marriage. Despite this comfort, even though you've been together for almost four years, you've never once brought up marriage, even casually. You cried though, when Mingyu and Chaewon got engaged at their anniversary party last year. Babbled wetly into his shoulder about how sweet love was, meant to be and the like - for the record, you were completely sober. Sobbed even longer as one of Chaewon's bridesmaids that Jeonghan had to collect you from the altar after they left the venue. And he's seen you look at apartments to share, linger on pinterest on a Saturday afternoon.

He wants it just as bad as you, but no idea how to broach it. You’ve talked about how you want a rescue cat when you move in together as well as the style of decor. Even said in passing at a park how you hope that your kids have his smile because it’s, “the most beautiful thing I get to see every day.” Jeonghan doesn’t want to overwhelm you with a grand public proposal, but he doesn’t know how to wow you like you do for him all the time. Jeonghan’s gotta be honest - he wants the whole shebang. Smiles, tears, blubbering; the lot.

He also realises that he wants it recorded for your mum when he calls her for her blessing. You moved a whole hemisphere away a year before the two of you met, to pursue a job in the entertainment industry. Something interesting and left of field found you in Korea working in concepts and marketing. So phone and video calls are a regular for the two of you. He’s also tried really hard over the years to improve his English, to bridge the gap with your family. Jeonghan thinks your mother is amazing, kind and funny - the kind of level head he expected to bring such a wonderful person like you into the world.

He’s English is nowhere near good enough for what he wants to say, so he asks for a familiar face to help out. Joshua is on the video call too, made in Shua’s clean dorm. Your mother looks a little surprised to not see you there. You both have the same texture of hair, but not much else.

“Jeonghan! How are you!” She waves.

He smiles at her enthusiasm. “Good thank you. How are you?”

“I’m really good, sweetheart. Bit of a weird time to call - everything okay? Where’s y/n?”

He sees her search the screen for her daughter, even so much as leaning side to side to try and see outside the frame. Some of her speech is still lost on him, so he looks to Joshua in question. He leans over to his ear.

“She’s wondering if everything is okay for you to be calling at this time.”

Jeonghan raises his brows and nods in understanding. Her expression changes as well, the lines around her eyes softening with the fading concern.

“It is okay. Y/N is at work. I...I have a question to ask you. Just us. It’s very important.” He twists his ring anxiously in his lap.

“Of course, what is it?”

Joshua can see the tension rising in Jeonghan’s shoulders, how quiet and hesitant he gets at the elder woman’s agreement. The way he looks at the woman, staring persistently. The American born member leans over with a smile.

“Hi y/n’s mum. It’s a bit of a speech, so I’ll be helping Jeonghan translate, okay?” He looks to his friend, nodding gently. “Jeonghan? Tell her.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a person like y/n... She’s kind and exciting and interesting and she makes me really happy. I hope I do the same for her. I can’t imagine my life now if she weren’t in it. I don’t want to lose all that. I would like your blessing in asking her to marry me.” Jeonghan says as clear as he can, without too much of his nerves or feelings getting in the way - usually an easy feat for him.

Joshua translates along the way and he picks up words here and there - happy and your name, of course. But he’s not watching his fellow member speak for once, instead analysing his potential mother-in-law’s reaction. He starts to jiggle his knee off the bed as he sees your mother’s expression roll from from a quirked brow to a warm smile, then watching her eyes go glassy and her chin wobble through said smile. Her hands go over her mouth once Joshua finishes and out of shot, his hand lies flat over Jeonghan’s on his sheets in a sign of comfort.

“I...I...yes. I would love to have you as part of the family officially. Of course you have my blessing.” Your mother pulls her hands away to murmur.

She fumbles to the side for tissues and Jeonghan looks to Joshua in shock. He heard a yes, but… Joshua is meanwhile beaming in return, laughing at his member’s expense.

“She would love to have you as part of the family. You have her blessing.”

Jeonghan grins, his chest so full and tense he feels like he might burst. Instead, he laughs, grasping shua’s shoulders to shake them

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

She shakes her head. “Of course I would say yes. You don’t know how much she talks about you when you aren’t there - how much she raved about you when the two of you first met. It was like the stories she used to make up as a little girl, come to life. I wish I was there to see her face when you ask.”

Jisoo translates and he laughs even more, elated being an understatement.

It took a little searching and contemplating on what kind of ring to get you. Nothing too big, because you used your hands for everything. Not gold, because you didn’t like the way it looked against your skin. He settles on loopholing the gold for white gold, something silver but reflective and a singular round diamond - only two carats or else you’d throw a fit at the mystery price. He gets a thin chain as well of the same material, knowing you were more likely to wear it round your neck than on your finger for fear of losing it. Seungkwan of all people was the one to help with the final decision, insisting on its chic simplicity and pretty glow.

Jeonghan decides on a little party to pop the question. Or as little as you can get with thirteen members and their partners as well as your friends and their plus ones. Under a guise of missing your friends and a celebration of your success with a client, he even whines that he’ll organise the food and drink. Everyone invited is in on it, of course, which heightens the stakes.

The box sits hot in his pocket or bag all week. All the members know about the little surprise coming up dance between trading their resident trickster or offering a helping hand. Seungkwan has pulled up as quite the miracle worker, his entertainment ties conjuring up a caterer on such short notice and Mingyu slipping the business card of the decorator of his engagement party - it’s a little worn from being worried in Seungcheol’s initial finding but that just adds to the charm. Like a group heirloom to be passed around.

Despite the client win, you’re still snowed under with new paperwork and contracts, so you’re none the wiser to the nerves brewing in your boyfriend which proves to be the perfect mix come the weekend.

He lets you sleep in even later than the two of you usually do, and encourages you to take up that nail salon voucher you’ve been humming and harring about - you deserve a treat, he whines. And when you shut the door gently, Jeonghan breathes a sigh of relief and an inhale of stress - now the fun really begins.

[wenellyb]

hello, a different anon here. I read your answer about Sarahbucky and I have to admit that it would hurt and be a bit disappointed if they became canon, but even if that happens, I will respect that decision and continue shipping sambucky. Although I feel bad to feel like this, I feel i'm a bad and immature person

This is a good point because I’m trying to think if I would be disappointed if SamBucky didn’t officially end up together in Cap 4, or season 2 or whatever. Because, of course, I want them to end up together, and on the other hand I’m very happy with what we already have. What I mean is that I have been shipping them since Civil War and we went from 2 lines in a movie to a 6-hour movie with a Happy End, it sounds greedy to ask for more hahaha. I was already happy when we had only 2 interactions, and even happier when we got 2 more interactions in Endgame, so you can imagine the level of happiness I’m at right now!!! We already have a perfect ship😂!

But don’t worry I don’t think it would be immature to be disappointed as long as you’re civil with SarahBucky shippers!

Here comes my unpopular opinion, keep in mind that it’s only my opinion:

I have mixed feelings about SarahBucky.

On the one hand, the ship itself is cute. I know they haven’t had a lot of scenes together but I can see the potential. And I think that if he’s dating Sarah, we will see another side of Bucky, a happier one. The smile he had when he said “Hi Sarah, was the happiest we’ve EVER seen him. So it could really be something good, it’s just that it’s not developped yet. 

On the one hand, I personnally don’t ship them because I have moved past interracial relationships between Black women and White men in TV, a long time ago, because it’s just not worth it. It’s something that I wanted to see in terms of representation, but I really don’t anymore because I don’t trust how it’s handled, by the fandom, and even by the show and the writers. 

And I have already started to see some disturbing stuff in the fandom, (not from SamBucky shippers, but for instance some other marvel ships I will not name).

What’s bugging me is that some people are acting as if Sarah should consider herself lucky to even get a chance with Bucky? Some of the things I’ve read... I had to do a double take. I mean it’s always subtle but you can tell that they would be saying it if Sarah was a White woman (or even if she was light-skinned I think).

I’ve even seen people saying that Sarah and Sam are both hitting on Bucky. ???What? Sarah has never hit on Bucky a day in her life. Bucky is the one doing all the flirting, he saw her and all he could do was say her name repeatedly.

I really don’t mind the idea of Sarah and Bucky but don’t make it look like Sarah is the lucky one when Bucky is the one who hit the lottery by getting Sarah to even pay attention to him.

And no shade to Bucky, I love him, but she’s way out of her league. Yes, Bucky is good-looking, but that’s all he has going for him for now. He still had a lot of work to do on himself, and has nothing to offer to Sarah (for now).  I’m not saying that Bucky is not good enough for her on anything, but please stop pretending that Bucky isn’t the lucky one. He’s lucky Sarah is even paying attention to him.

Even some accounts (just a few on Twitter, not all) promoting Sarah x Bucky use some wording that make me feel uneasy. I know it’s great to show an interracial relationship with a dark-skinned woman on TV. But we have to pay attention not to make it sound like dating a White man is the ultimate prize for a Black woman.

I don’t want this to be taken the wrong way because I didn’t use the right words, but I think we have to be careful in how we say some things and how it could be interpreted and also pay attention to some of the stuff we have internalized.

When the love interest is a Black woman, some people in the fandom act like she is the luckiest in the world to have a White man even look at her. Or the fandom acts like it’s not realistic for the guy to be attracted to her. And this becomes dangerous, when the writers of the show start implying the same. 

Of course, I’m not saying that this is what’s happening here, and I think the SamBucky shippers are really open about the Sarah x Bucky ship, and I’ve never seen any negative stuff coming from us expect stuff like “ tag your ships properly” which is nothing.

But some Steve stans, for instance, have said that the reason why Bucky smiled at Sarah was because it reminded Bucky of Steve’s mother. Ugh, the mental gymnastics people go through to avoid acknoyledging that a White man would find a dark-skinned Black women attractive will never cease to amaze me. Really disgusting.

TL:DR: What I mean is Sarah x Bucky is cute, and this problematic behavior isn’t coming from the whole part of the fandom, just a small part. But if the show makes Bucky and Sarah a couple, they have to do it the right way and show Bucky is the lucky one. And they have to value her character and do it perfectly. If the writers are able to do that I’ll be fine otherwise, it’s going to be a nightmare. 

We all know that a Black character coming between a ship with two White characters (yes I’m talking about the ship that shall not be named) will end badly for said character, if the character is not written perfectly. We already know the fandom is bad, so the writers have to make Sarah’s character bulletproof.

I’m a Sambucky shipper through and through but if SarahBucky ever becomes canon I will defend them with all my heart and destroy anyone who even thinks about looking Sarah the wrong way.

[samnyangie]

Personal reviews on RSL filmography

Rsl, iI thought it’d be a good idea to record my thought on each films rsl was in, it was something I always wanted to do...

Rsl in total, was starred in (excluding tv series etc) 27-ish films, to be honest, considering his years as an actor(approximately more than 30 years) he wasn’t starred in that many. We all know why lol

Just saying I’m not a film expert, therefore the list is very subjective.

The reviews with trigger warning (r*pe, g*re etc): Tape, Killer: Journal of Murder, A glimpse of hell. Tho in the writing I’ve censored them with * since I don’t feel comfortable saying them here

There isn’t particular spoilers except for dps, tape, and ground control

The favourites (literally my life time films)

Dead Poets Society

I assume many would agree, and as many would have, it was my first ever rsl film, like I was on the plane and it was one of the films they offered, and I was like, oh I think i heard of this, so I watched and instantly loved it. The message is very relevant to this day, the cinematography is very beautiful and somehow nostalgic. I was horrified with Neil’s death. Tbh now I’ve seen too many memes and all kind of things from the fandom (which I’m grateful for!) I thought the heartfelt I once had would deluded a bit, however when I watched it again last April with my family at the cinema and it still moved me very deeply.

The age of Innocence

Okay, unpopular opinion here, I love this so much. It’s my all time favourite rsl film. It even outruns dps tiny winy bit haha. Aside from how he had tiny winy screen time, appearing at the end but the fact that he played quite an important role and him being gorgeous in it just<33 I couldn’t help but smiling! It just the whole film was so much of my cup of tea? The melodrama and the hypocrisy hidden by elegance among the upper social classes in 19th century is just what I needed. The more I watch it, the more I understand the characters and their emotions, it’s one of those films you should keep visit to discover the things you weren’t aware of before. I watched it again this morning and i couldn’t stop thinking about it. However, I know some people find it boring and I understand why, my sister is one of them lol(except for a bit where rsl was in) but i think it’s more complex than what it appears to be at a first glance haha. In conclusion, it became one of my comfort film to watch time to time. 

The ones I like<33

Swing kids

At first viewing, I didn’t expected much because it had underwhelming reviews but when I actually saw it, I thought it was quite decent and more and more I watched it, I felt like it was underrated. Yes, I think some directing choices were bit old fashioned and cheesy especially the ending, I’m not saying it was a perfect masterpiece but it deserves more recognition than it has now. Also in spite that there’re some parts being too simplified, it touched on something other films about ww2 normally don’t. It was interesting to see the German perspective on it than Jewish or the allies perspective like many of them does, but of course the latter perspectives matter, it could be argued that they more valid than the former, which partly was where sk criticised for, however, the portrayal of the varied reactions of the German people (in this one particular the teenagers) has its value in their on way. Anyway along side with it, the music and the dance scenes were great, without exaggeration, though Swing kids isn’t my fav, peter’s solo dance scene is my favourite scene in any movies I’ve ever watched. I mean that scene had both visuals and meaning as it demonstrated Peter’s determination as well as resentment with a hitch of unsureness. Rsl acting in that scene was just phenomenal, it’s not about showing off the dancing skills but he portrayed every mixed emotions peter has from his expression and the moves, I just can’t talk about this enough especially this scene was the reason I started fallen for him. lol

Much ado about nothing

Much ado is something I never seen anything like so it was a refreshing exprience. I barely watched Shakespeare on screen kind of thing. Though I felt there were some bits too cheesy for me but they are also the charms in the same time, and the cinematography was pretty also Claudio aka rsl, it was like an official announcement of declaring my worship on this man. Especially it was after SWING KIDSSSS so I couldn’t help it now everyone knows how I fallen for him but no one can blame meeeeee Anyway, it’s a really good film to watch when you want be relaxed with cup of tea maybe hehe

In the gloaming

I heard about it before I watched it, that it’s a heart wrenching, tearful piece, though I didn’t managed to cry, it’s just.... painful and in a way heartfelt. I liked that story telling was calm and collected rather than forcing you to join the sob party, just showing the characters to carry on. And thanks to the great acting from the cast, the characters could be emphasised and understood, personally the older sister was the most relatable character for me, well, eldest complex lol. In short I liked it but it’s not something I would watch it often.

Last days of Disco

As a person who looks at aesthetic in films, I simply enjoyed this for that tbh. I don’t know, I just liked the feeling. But I don’t think it’d be everyone’s cup of tea. I love the day time clothes the girls wore in the film. Tbh I love the music too, I think I love all the films of rsl with music in it. Speaking about rsl, oh rsl, he’s.... His character might be bit unlikable but he was just.... This is why I can’t unlove his characters even the debatable ones<33

They were decent! (I would recommend it)

Married to it

This is the first and last ever attempt of rsl of romcomssss The film itself is cliche to be frank it’s like love actually but it’s about marriage life + it’s not christmas but I like heartfelt cliche stories like this, if anyone also loves this type of story, it’s really worth watching, it’s one of my comfort films, also, rsl is so pretty I mean he always is but to see him being a office man with a baby face made me go awww my baby grew up heheh I wish he did another romcom like this or more preferably, melodramatic romance, I’d have made a shrine of it and worship it every morning lol

The boys next door

I kind of smiled while watching it throughout, if you want something that is heartfelt and touch on some serious topic about social workers and the people with mental disorder, Rsl plays a character who has (I think it was) Schizophrenia and troubled relationship with his father(Deja vu I know) but general atmosphere tend to be quite humourous. I don’t get me wrong, though it’s light hearted, it doesn’t mean they treat the topic in the same way. There’s a scene where the protagonist imagining the one of the characters with the disorder talking eloquently and honourably at the court on the rights and the dignity of the people with mental disorders deserve to/should have and they’re just the same people as the people without mental disorders. It was a powerful scene.

My two loves

Rsl’s first ever screen debut film! Hehe it’s about a woman who is discovering her sexual identity and the conflicts within I personally thought it was fairly sensible depiction but I can’t say for sure whether it was accurate or else, since I don’t think it’s my place to say it:) But if you’re interested, it’s on YouTube, you can just search for it or go to this post I made. Fun fact: since it was his debut film, it credits him as he’s real name, Robert L. Leonard, I just find it amusing haha

Tape

It’s another type of film I don’t encounter that often, I enjoyed it, especially with Neil and Todd’s reunion lol. Rsl mentioned how he enjoyed it because it felt like doing a play, my first impression was that the structure is like a play, though the camera work made me quite dizzy haha. But the dialogues, the acting, I think it was quite spot on. Especially the human contradictions and hypocrisy side of it. The most people assume the baddie in the film is Jon the character rsl played and has a distaste for him. I mean how can anyone love a character who is accused of r*pe but to be honest, Vincent for me seemed just as problematic, both of them are hypocrites for sure in their own different ways but in the end we can’t be sure what’s really the truth or not. It’s about the vagueness, and phychology and the uncertainty from the audience on who to believe(well, myself included, most would trust on Amy’s claims since she’s the victim in the accusation, but by her denying the claims, making everything way unclear,) so I don’t know. I don’t really have an opinion haha tho I don’t believe nothing happened because Amy denied so, even Umma Thurman who played her, said that her interpretation was that Amy lied. I felt it’s endless rabbit hole this film. Sorry I couldn’t worded it better.

My best friend is a Vampire

It’s cringey and weird but there’re odd charm to it. Vampire rsl’s so cute as well.... and I think it’s the only film, he acted kind of flirty ? So for that itself I’d like to appreciate itttt And it’s so 80s/90s, like it has general odd nostalgia like all films from that age has. I saw a Korean blog about rsl films and this was mentioned, that- they said- it’s a bible of rsl’s adorableness and I think that sum up the film perfectly.

Mr&Mrs Bridge

Before this was in ‘I mean it was fine” category, but I watched it again and now I want to retract my statement lol Still isn’t my fav but I noticed how delicately depicted each characters are, Mr and Mrs Bridge in particular. This film is alternatively about the changes in the young generation regarding liberty, feminism, free expression especially on sex. It’s in the perspective of the bridges, the mother and father who is old fashioned and conservative (as it was normal in their previous generation) and the children who are the young generation, and the misunderstanding and conflicts between them. After all it all happened not only because of the difference but also the lack of communication, which rsl emphasised in his interviews. I found it interesting that they made it seems like the Bridges truly existed with the video footage and (with the ending) describing what happened to each family member in text with photos. When I watched it at first I was really confused if it was based on a real life. I think what they wanted to suggest was that the Bridges every typical American family at the time. It was something everyone was going through. I said previously I didn’t get why Rsl’s character (the youngest in the Bridges) treated his mother so coldly. Honestly I do get why, but I guess I felt so bad so the mother haha

I mean it was fine

The safe passage

It was okay but to be honest it didn’t stood out to me. It was okay. The story, the characters weren’t that interesting. I wish they extended it longer to go depth with their family relationship or something.

A painted house

I find it likeable, it has a chill, old folk story vibe, but same as previous one. it didn’t really stand out except for shirtless rsl, do close ups you cowards

Bluffing it

I was really fond of the premise of this film and I think it has great intention. It was specifically made to promote the awareness of illiteracy and how to get support. However, I don’t get the reason of Jack the protagonist’s illiteracy. Unless, it was common occurrence in America at the time, I feel like it’d have been more convincing if he was in poor family hood, so there was no time to learn at school due to working at young age...? I mean, just finding it hard to believe he passed the high school just like that, I mean the teachers or anyone should have noticed it, maybe I’m missing something here but it seemed unlikely to me.

Ground control

Again, I liked the message, as it depicted how frightening and difficult job the ground controller is, by one mistake could take away the lives of hundreds, especially as someone who goes on planes a lot... But it was quite cliche throughout, I just couldn’t get engaged to it. But I do admit at the end when the protagonist runs off to the landing zone see the pilot who he had just saved, they acknowledged each other and have eye contacts was truly wholesome. Rsl as cocky, bad boy was such a icing on the cake, I loved it so much. Chewing gum in every scene lol I hope he plays these sort of characters more often. I saw someone criticising him saying he has narrow spectrum of just playing nice boy roles like Neil but I really wanted to debunk the narrative and this could be one of the examples! 

Chelsea walls

I knew that this has split reviews but nonetheless I think worth to watch it, 1. Ethan and rsl re union, 2. Ethan is the directer of the film and rsl sing in it. But I have to say, it’s one of those hard to follow art indie film so I couldn’t finish it on one go. I feel like I have to devour it over and over again. Maybe later on I grow fond of it more lol But his character, I loved him so much. He’s just has everyone don’t touch me, I’m a cocky artist vibe, there’s a scene where his annoying friend annoying him and he looks up and says: ‘Fck off’. Absolute golddddd not to mention he sings and plays guitar so beautifully<333

Well... it’s not my cup of tea

The Manhattan project

I don’t think the film it self was that bad, it’s about high school boy who find out the existence of some nuclear energy research lab and stole the energy to make his own nuclear bomb. I just don’t get the thinking process of the protagonist. It really frustrated me. He seemed apathetic and unlikable I disliked him throughout and that’s why I didn’t really enjoyed it. I mean it has humour and ridiculous storyline might be humorous to some. But more importantly there was such little screen time for rsl!! LIKE WHY? WHY PEOPLE?? HE LOOKS LIKE A FRESH HUMAN MOCHI!!! It makes me soooo mad to think about it

Killer: Journal of Murder

Well, first of all, it had a lot of graphic things than I imagined, brutally murd*red bodies, execution, and r*pe scene, gosh I was strucken by it when I saw that, I had to skipped that scene. It’s based on a real event and a real criminal called Carl Panzram, so if you’re aware of it, it might be more intriguiging to see. But personally for me... meh, I don’t think directing was good as it failed to portray it enough for me to comprehend fully.

A Glimpse of Hell

This is also based on a true event of a tragic accident in the us battleship in Iowa in 1989. They shows tragedy lin a blunt, brutal way by showing horribly damaged bodies of the soldiers torn into pieces, all the horrid things directly so be warned about that. I was quite alarmed because i didn’t expect to see it haha there’s no much to say. The film quality was so so for me. I feel their approach wasn’t appropriate, they were clearly trying to make it dramatic which is fine but in a melodramatic emotional way. It didn’t work because first, there aren’t enough portrayal of the characters for me to get attached, secondly it added the unnecessary exaggeration it prevented me from being emotionally involved or even to think about it. In my opinion, I think it’d have been better if they made it more restrained, dry, focus on the accuracy. For example like 1987 or Zodiac, I mean both of them has dramatic elements since they’re not a documentary but they were not overdone, in a contrary added emphasis to their message/conclusion. I know it’s easier said than done but it was something I consistently felt during it.

Sir.... I’m sorry but-

Standoff

Haha... it’s very peculiar... the directing is off and it just weird. I knew it was bad already but I watched it because rsl as a cop with gunssssssss just... so rare and just.... something else. There’s no way of me missing that seriously. Tbh him doing an action stunt isn’t what I imagine when it comes to him and there’s really any actions scenes anyway but it really was something. Like the character he played here really became my soft spot Hehehehe he was pretty and plus, tbh it’s kind of film I’d make fun of while watching so everything was (alomst) forgivable. There is a recent thing I think about, since this is about a cult, I kind of hope he’d at some day play a role like Eli Sunday from There will be blood: a manipulative, deceitful and maddened priest with twisted faith. Though Paul Dano did a grand job, the idea was in my head the whole time. Well, it’s a shame he wasn’t any of those here lol

Driven

From what I seen, the majority of people seem to unanimously hate this film, and after watching it I became one of those ppl. At least Standoff could be make fun of and rsl held gunssss but this...... I want to say so many things... I feel like they should have chose either fancy, fast paced, thrilling racing film or detailed depiction of emotions/relationships with the racers and people involved in it, I know both can be done, but I think that was outside of their ability, but since they tried to do that at once, it became a mess that doesn’t go either way. And the characters, any of them, including rsl’s are narrow or impossible to understand. I mean rsl did great himself, it was not about acting, the problem lies on the script and editing in my opinion. Also there were so many unnecessary characters made me question of their existence. Luckily rsl’s character isn’t one of them, however because of them, he had to squeeze in and unable to elaborate, which is a shame as he was an interesting character and someone rsl rarely plays; a arrogant and opportunist agent/brother of the protagonist, who would do anything for success... ha.... whyyyyy

This is it. If I watch other stuff I might add to it in the future. Overall, I know I’m biased but I do like His filmography, I do have appreciations in every one of them in different way to the good ones to bad. He may have disagree, but I love his acting on screen, well, I barely seen him on stage (crying)

Edit: as some of you could see, I’ve edited this over and over again haha elaborating on thing or the contrary. I can say with a glimpse of hell I practically managed to watch every rsl films out there lol except for the i inside and the short film he did called a dog race in Alaska. But with the former I’m not interested and already know the storyline, and the latter is just impossible to find, trust me I did my best;; 

So to sum up: I HAVE MASTERED THE RSL FILMOGRAPHY!

[i-did]

HELLO 👋 I WAS SENT HERE BY PALMETT-HOES. What are your thoughts on the foxes + tattoos?? Originally it was Neil + tattoos but if you have thoughts of the other foxes too I'd love to hear them if you want to share 🥺

Okay, so I actually might try to become a tattoo artist and love tattoo culture. I also have already about 30 tattoos, some the size of my whole hand and some the size of a quarter, a lot of mixed and matched stuff. I also always try to think of the foxes in their timeline, so 2006-2007 era, and when I think said foxes would get tattoos in their life and why. 

NEIL

First off: I personally HC Neil has keloid scarring and a lot of scarring so tattooing is hard on his skin. I have a friend who has more scars than I've ever seen on anyone else IRL before and we both love tattoos but even with him trying to prep the artist, unless they were a scar micropigmentation expert, they usually underestimated how hard it was going to be to tattoo on his skin. It's uneven and dense and doesn’t hold ink well. His non-scarred skin faired a lot better but his skin was something artists just weren't prepared for. I might get some micropigmentation on some skin grafts I got to even out the coloring and make it look more “natural” but I’m waiting to see if the pigment will settle and heal more first. 

I personally don't see Neil ever getting a tattoo, and this bums a lot of people out lmao. I think his scars are too thick and too raised and it's too cosmetic and aesthetic centric for it to be something on his radar. On his skin that isn't touched by scars I think he would want to leave as be mostly out of neutrality. I don't see Neil as the type of sentimental tattooer, I see him thinking “well if it matters to me I remember it” sort of and him wanting to keep the really deep stuff personal just for himself and even another person putting it on him is someone else there. I think if he were ever to get a tattoo, he would be like… idk it would be the kind that says “yes I got shot, stop asking” over a bullet hole scar or like that one guy whos missing his leg and above it there's a tattoo that says “one foot in the grave” that's the only type of tattoo I can see Neil doing and even still I'm not convinced he would do it. 

ANDREW

I don't ever see Andrew covering up his scars with tattoos either. I think he likes how the armbands can come on and off and be fully covered to not at all. He's not ashamed of them but he's private, and I think the tattoos could seem like he's trying to hide them when he's not-it's just nobody's business. I think if he were to get anything it would be American-traditional, it ages well, its classic, and doesn't really go out of style. Before the…. Let's say 80s, there weren't the different tattoo “styles” like there are today. It was just… tattoos in America. There was Japanese-style tattooing and then American-style tattooing, and since tattooing started curating its underground culture in the ’50s in America… those circles did not blend. They do now, but they sure as hell didn't then. So I could see Andrew with American-traditional because it's classic and I could see it appealing to him, but I could also see Russian prison tattoo style black-work something that appeals to him too. Get him some gulag tats. However if he had those, and since I currently HC him as white and with a buzzed or grown-out messy buzzed head, he would deadass look like a fuckin skinhead so... yeah lmao. Overall I don't see Andrew getting tattoos really, but if he would, American-traditional seems fitting. 

KEVIN

Okay, so Kevin out here looking like a MF SoundCloud rapper with his single face tat and nothing else going on. I know it might be OOC but since his mom is Irish and I HC his dad as Maori (even tho in the canon Wymack likely has 90s new age tribalism, which is a complicated issue but instead I choose culturally significant tattoos over the tattoo trend that was largely popularized by a movie lmao anyways-).

So I think Kevin is the only one who dives into tattoo culture and bonds over it with his dad. If he just has the chess piece, it still feels like a branding, like a mark so distinct against the rest of him, but one full sleeve of Celtic knots and symbols and the other arm full of Maori's distinct tattoos of swirls and symbols could be a cool way for him to reclaim his own skin and have it not be something he did just to cover something up, but make tattooing something connecting him to his cultures and family. 

NICKY

Nicky is the guy who got like, fierce, or pride, or something like that tattooed if he got a tattoo. I see Nicky getting a pride tattoo of some kind maybe and it being calligraphy or like if Nicky/Erik is a bear then he gets a bear paw. I could also see him getting his and Erik’s wedding date tattooed somewhere. I also don't see him as the type who didn't know how much research and shit goes into finding the artist for you, and kinda assumes you can go to just anyone and just walk in and then was like “wait what” when he couldn’t (or couldn't if he wanted to get exactly what he had in mind) so he probably got/gets tattooed by some non-homophobic apprentice, maybe even that apprentices first tattoo, and also since Nicky is Mexican and darker-skinned I doubt he thinks to put on sunscreen and the sun makes his ink lines bleed and so it doesn't age the best (it be like that). 

ALLISON

Got a trendy tramp stamp to like, really stick it to her parents. Right on her lower back I bet it's the classic 2000s swirls and a butterfly and some of those stars, idk what they're called. If she was a young 20-year-old now tho she totally would have gotten a fine line tattoo, like not a tight three, a real 1 needle tattoo. They were seen as really nice back then and “so Cali” and like I could see /maybe/ her getting it done before she's 30 but they were not that common yet and like micro-realism is so new we still kinda don't know how it's going to age at all since tattoos before it have been designed they way they have for aging. Again if she got a micro-realism/single needle tattoo tho it would be something kinda basic like a butterfly or like a lion. I swear I've seen the same google image lion tattooed on a lotta people and like IDC it's your skin. But yeah, she gets the classic 2000s swirl butterfly and stars tattoo above her crack one night, maybe after a really bad phone call with her parents and she got drunk and pissed off. Maybe someone said she couldn't take the pain. (which btw, tattoos don’t hurt as much as they make them out to be in shows and shit, they can hurt tho)

DAN

I HC Dan as very dark-skinned, she's 75% black and 25% Sioux and grew up in a very very white area when outside her home on the res. Tattoo culture is still really sexist and really colorist, and at this point in history I think if she ever did want a tattoo, she maybe asked vaguely about it and they flat out said “I don't know how to tattoo on black skin” or “it doesn't go with my art” which… are shithole excuses and I think she thought, “well fuck u too” and never thought about it much since then. 

RENEE

I HC as Renee as darker-skinned than Dan, and like the only places she could possibly get tattooed are maybe her palms, the bottoms of her feet, or her inner mouth probably. Some people genuinely are so dark that tattooing is hard, because it's based on the concept of black ink on a lighter surface, which is why scarification catches on in cultures where the skin is too dark to pigment with ink effectively. However, the idea of fuckin, 15-year-old Renee who is still Natalie with “PU$$Y” tattooed in her mouth kinda sends me. I think lil kid Renee thought she was gangster, and tbh she was, and I could see her getting some “fuck you/in your face” tattoo, especially if she was a lesbian in such a homophobic world, getting that tattooed is even better. We also know she got her back tatted in the EC with angel wings that look almost closer to dragon wings, so I imagine they show up as almost raised dark lines like scars from the untrained tattoo artist going way too deep, making it a cross between a tattoo and scarification, even if accidental. (also white ink really wasn't a thing yet and even now is still kinda hard to tell how it will heal, so that's why I don't think she gets any white ink tats)

MATT

He's a rich boy from NYC, he could really get like… whatever he wants. Once he's famous he can afford it that's for sure, but even before then he could with his allowance similar to Allison (even if on a completely different level). However, I doubt he gets anything lol. He's not particularly religious in my HC and doesn't have the same sense of being lost like I feel Kevin does with his own parents (I mean Kevin was raised like an orphan, kinda so it makes sense). I need to develop Matt’s background further on what it means to him personally to be a Filipino-American. I have several ideas about how his parents met in the Philippines and then came here but I would need to flesh out locations and then local cultures and then his parents said opinions on tattoos and then how matt would react to said opinions. I could see him possibly getting something for dan or his kids tattooed on. Which really makes me want to have him get his first kid's name tattooed really big or intricate somewhere like on his chest over his heart and then his kid comes out as trans and he's like “...fuck” lmao and gets it removed maybe and then redone or something. I see him viewing tattoos are personal and symbolic, and if he would get something it would probably be family-oriented, possibly Dan's portrait or like his baby's footprint which I've seen before. 

AARON & SETH

Stick and pokes were not nearly as common then as they are now, and I feel like people kinda have to remember how taboo tattooing was then and still is now in a lot of cultures. My family is Not happy lmaoo. But it is what it is. Stick and Pokes were not a thing bored white middle-class teens did like I see them doing now. It was seen as super sketchy and I know someone who was 16 getting tattooed in a garage by someone who was both drunk and just out of prison for the first time, and that was seen as sketchy as stick and pokes at the time. I could imagine either Seth or Aaron having a failed and fucked up stick and poke tattoo, and out of the two of them, Seth seems like the drunk tat guy. Maybe once he got drunk and mad as fuck after Allison and him broke up and she said he didn't seem serious enough so he got her name drunkenly tattooed on his arm or something and then she was even more pissed because it was spelled wrong “YOU FORGOT THE SECOND L OMFG SETH.” (I can also imagine his future girlfriends don't love it lmao). I also love the idea of Seth just having Marvin the Martian or the Tasmanian Devil tattooed on his ass.

Anyways sorry for the lack of pictures but I didn't want to do that... so I didn't. I didn't go into niche tattoo culture and history like I was expecting myself to but this also got fuckin long. Might not be what you were hoping for at all but it is my current opinion on the foxes and tattoos. (This is also surprisingly free of my own personal aesthetic opinions on tattoos and that I'm kinda proud of ngl, since my preference is none of these, but also I grew up in a very different tattoo time than them)

[straight-into-the-animus]

Truth or Dare (French Fryes)

I’m writing the backlogged stuff but I had a dream about this scenario and had to get it out.

Read it on Ao3!

“Let’s play truth or dare.”

“Are we seven?” Arno asked even as Ezio tugged him over to sit in a circle. Coming to a party when he wanted to sleep for twelve hours after finals already wasn’t on his plans, but Ezio had insisted, and well… 

Some people had weak constitutions to Italian friends.

“Seven year olds can’t dare each other to do illegal shit.” Kassandra gleefully declared, and excitement shot through almost everyone at the manner of what they could all get into despite the protests of Altair and Bayek.

“Alright, nothing too illegal. But if you do it… Don’t film and post it.”

This was generally accepted and the game commenced.

It went by quickly, everyone content with trying to outdo the other. 

“Alexios has to switch pants with Evie.”

“Malik has to make out with a wall!”

“He already does, his name is Altair-”

Those who chose truth were generally heckled until they chose dare, but at the risk of sharing secrets -- no one wanted to, anyway -- dares were chosen almost always.

“Okay, okay, Jacob,” Ezio eventually called out once people had sufficiently calmed down after seeing Altair drink a mustard-based smoothie, “truth or dare?”

“You know me.” Jacob kicked back, leaning against the foot of the couch. “Dare.”

“I dare you to kiss the hottest person in the room.”

“There should be an exception against the coupled up, right?” Bayek asked, and Aya quickly hushed him with her interest to see how it would all play out.

Arno sipped his drink, watching eagerly. There was an unnecessary flutter in his heart as he watched Jacob consider, scratching the beginnings of his beard.

“Alexios-”

Oh.

“D’you mind moving so I can get to Arno?”

Oh.

Arno swore it was a miracle he didn’t die from choking on the vodka-cran mix as Jacob scooted past the ‘disgruntled’ Greek until he was a breath away from the Frenchman.

“Did you need me to move as well?” Arno asked, glancing from hazel eyes to lips that curled into the smallest, shiest smirk he’d ever seen.

“Not unless you really want to. I’ve made my choice, though.”

Arno refused -- refused -- to show he was melting in and out, and placed his cup next to him definitely before looking Jacob in the eye.

“Then do it.��

The first press of lips against his was softer than he thought it would be, but he wasn’t complaining at all. His hand went up to tangle in the back of Jacob’s hair as the other planted behind his back for leverage against Jacob’s gradually deepening push. He took the demands happily as they started to come, even as their friends began to talk about how it wasn’t Seven Minutes in Heaven and other people had to go.

“Think we can leave them be for a while?” Jacob pulled back just a bit, cheeks and neck showing their flush, and Arno smiled as he took it in.

“They’ll go on without us.” Arno took Jacob’s hand and they hurried off to find somewhere more secluded.

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

The first date ended up being one of the cheesiest and most classic; dinner and a movie. It had been Jacob’s idea, and he sounded so uncharacteristically nervous and unsure about it on the phone that Arno couldn’t help but grow fonder and accept it.

“Are you still nervous?” Arno asked, and Jacob looked up from across the booth at him.

“I’m not nervous.”

“You tore up your straw paper.” Arno pointedly looked at the flimsy white shreds scattering across the table like snow, and Jacob half-heartedly brushed them away.

“You’re gonna laugh.”

“Try me.” Arno said, fixing his gaze on the other, and Jacob averted meeting his eyes before changing his mind about it.

“I almost cancelled the date.”

“You didn’t want…?”

“It’s not you, I promise. I mean, not that I didn’t want to be on a date with you.” Jacob was quick to clear up. “I just… Didn’t think you wanted to come to a place like this.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Arno gestured around the restaurant slightly. It was a small family affair, had probably been around since after the second world war.

“It’s supposed to mean that a place like this is fine for me. I love coming here. But you’re used to… More.”

“I just wanted to go out with you, Jacob.” Arno reached over and held his hand. “I would’ve been happy with just a walk in the park for the night.”

“That’s a bit of a lie.”

“Maybe. But only cause it’s cold out there.”

Jacob laughed a bit and Arno smiled to hear it. They broke apart as the food and drinks came around for them, but even the emergence of that didn’t seem to completely quell whatever Jacob was feeling; Arno was sure he was even waiting to hear some sort of complaint about the pasta Arno had ordered, as if there was a way to mess it up. Eventually Arno came up with an idea.

“Hey. Truth or dare.”

“Huh?”

“Truth or dare.” Arno waited as Jacob furrowed his brow but answered all the same.

“Dare.”

“I dare you to have a good time and forget about anything except that I’m happy to be with you.”

Jacob’s confusion only grew until he understood, and he smiled; a slow, genuine thing spreading across his face.

“As you say, monsieur.”

And Jacob kept to that dare, never wanting to be shown up ever.

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

It wasn’t their first time, but it had to have been their best. Arno rested his head against Jacob’s shoulder as he came, a choked up sound spilling out from one of them. It went quiet save for their heavy breathing, and Arno hated to break it. Jacob had already come and made a mess of Arno’s front as a result, sticking to him even as Arno pulled out.

“If you’re getting a flannel, mind getting me some water?” Jacob sighed as Arno got off the bed, and Arno shook his head bemusedly.

“Swear I’ve spoiled you rotten.” He called out as he left, but did come back with a cup of water.

“How can I be rotten when I make things so sweet?” Jacob grinned as Arno quickly wiped them both off and discarded the flannel.

“You can carry yourself to the bathroom when you need to piss halfway through the night.” Arno noted before getting under the covers, Jacob quickly placing the cup away before grabbing him and pulling him close to act as the big spoon. A standard position despite the new environment.

“Think we’ve christened the new flat enough?” Jacob asked, kissing behind Arno’s ear, and he hummed in response.

“Perhaps. Wouldn’t be opposed to another round after a break.” 

“Sometimes you know exactly what to say.” Jacob smiled, and Arno felt it and returned it, even if he couldn’t see. “Hey… Truth or dare?”

“This again?” Both of them had made it a regular game to play with each other, something to pull out when they wanted. Sometimes it just happened when they couldn’t stand the silence, other times if they wanted to just cause a little trouble. Their friends still thought it was stupid to keep it up after two years, but everytime they tried to voice an opinion both men would just remind them that it had been what brought them together, thank you very much, and it would remain in their lives until it couldn’t anymore.

And they had decided to carry in the tradition even after Arno got his promotion and they decided to take the leap and move in together.

“Truth.”

“You happy?”

“More than anything.” Arno turned in Jacob’s arms and took him in, a hand closing the small distance between them to stroke his skin. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Do you love me?”

Jacob’s smile could be seen from space as he replied.

“More than anything.”

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

Arno came back only when it became dark enough that the lampposts were nearly unable to light up anything on the sidewalk. He was still tense as he stepped up the stairs with feet that barely wanted to make a sound. Half of him foolishly hoped that Jacob had been so pissed that he’d gone to bed and Arno could simply take the extra blankets from their little closet and spend the night on the couch, but he still saw the glow of yellow light spilling out from the crack under their flat door and heard the television still going. So Jacob was still up.

Arno braced himself, taking a deep breath as he pulled out his key and let himself in. The yellow light cast an uneasy shadow around everything in the flat, Jacob included. He was stretched out on the couch, face impassive as he took in something on the news.

“Took you long enough.” He greeted Arno as the man closed the door firmly behind him.

“If you’re staying on the couch, I’m taking the bed.”

“Oh, there’s the sensible shit coming out.” Jacob said, glancing over at him. “Seems about right.”

“Jacob-”

“Obviously I don’t have it in me, thank fucking God Arno Dorian does-”

“Jacob-”

“How could we ever bloody survive without it?”

“It wasn’t what I meant!” Arno snapped, defense kicking in as it did just a few hours earlier.

“Oh, so saying I would be better off with ‘an ounce of sense’ isn’t what you meant?”

“Am I wrong?”

“Fucking unbelievable.”

“Now you know how I feel with you!” Arno finally unstuck his feet, brain muddled as he kicked off his shoes and stormed off to their bedroom. The bed wasn’t made and it only served to faintly set off the bells in Arno’s mind to get pissed again, but mostly he was trying to mask his hurt that he was going to bed alone.

It was stupid, so stupid, and Arno only wanted to go back in time and hit himself to stop himself from bringing it up. 

The door opened after a time Arno couldn’t figure out, but he heard Jacob softly enter and stop a few feet from the bed.

“You asleep?”

“Not at all.” Arno whispered, and after a few seconds of delay Jacob got into the bed as well, slow but deliberate as he came up behind Arno and wrapped an arm around his waist loosely.

“You still upset?”

“Yes. But… I’m sorry I took it out on you. I just saw the mess and got… Pissed.”

Jacob sighed. “I’m sorry I let it get bad. I got back from work and just wanted to sit for a bit.”

“So did I.”

“Your work is what’s fucking killing you. You’ve never done that before.”

“Jacob-” He tensed, but the other man continued, running his fingers through Arno’s hair. It was getting tangled, a result of stressed pulling and forgetting to take care of himself.

“Just answer me this. If you don’t like it -- and I know you don’t, cause I’ve heard you complaining to Elise when you think I’m not listening -- then why are you staying there?”

Arno thought a long time about what he wanted to say.

“What I’m making, you don’t… It’s what you don’t have to worry about. You don’t have to go out and get another job, or get more hours. It gives you something nice if I-”

“You’re telling me you’re working fucking forty-eight hours a week, with extra work at home that you like to do ‘for fun’ off the books, so that you think I’ll stay?”

There was silence, and Jacob tightened his grip around Arno’s waist to pull him back.

“You’re a fucking idiot. I’d rather you be home before dinner and be happy with me than out there and making yourself miserable.”

The tension started to leave Arno’s shoulders as he leaned back into his boyfriend.

“Jacob-”

“We don’t have to talk too much about it yet. Just… please. I mean it.”

Arno went silent again, feeling his mouth begin to twitch and eyes sting with tears. He swallowed and nodded a bit. His hand went down and rested over Jacob’s, intertwining their fingers.

“Jacob.”

“Hmm?”

“Truth or dare.”

It had been a while, and he almost thought Jacob wouldn’t answer, but he did anyway.

“Truth.”

“You still love me?”

Jacob nuzzled Arno’s neck before speaking.

“Never think I’ll stop.”

Arno felt if he tried to laugh in relief it’d turn into a sob, so he just kept quiet and tightened his grip on Jacob.

Things weren’t solved immediately. But for now… They were good. And they were in bed together, just together. That was enough for the night.

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

“You should’ve seen the other guy. He started it.”

“As you say.” Arno shook his head with a smile, fingers intertwined with Jacob’s as they walked together. It had been a few months since their talk, and for the first time in close to a year, Arno felt lighter, like he wasn’t dreading waking up tomorrow.

There had been a long discussion about what they were doing, their feelings about everything, and it boiled down to being able to find a better balance than they originally had. Arno agreed to take fewer hours or at least find a way to condense his workload, and Jacob would work to help out more at his job and around their place. It had taken some time, but they were better now, Arno thought. And there were times now, like with Jacob talking animatedly about how he had narrowly avoided the fistfight that had led to them skipping out the bar and coming to the park instead, that he liked to think Jacob thought so as well.

“It’s getting warmer.” Arno spoke genially as they continued to walk, after Jacob had stopped his tale of glory, and Jacob made a noise of vague agreement.

“‘Bout time. Way too cold even for winter.”

“You like winter.”

“I like some parts of winter. Like the holidays and all that. But even I get to a point where it overstays its welcome. Besides, you got all the flowers out blooming.” Jacob pointed over where some newly planted tulips were beginning to sprout.

Arno felt his heart speed up for an unknown reason. Whether it was in the way Jacob admired a few flowers, or in how his hand tightened around Arno’s as he began to talk about all his plans for summer -- their plans for summer --, or the way the box in his coat pocket began to feel ever heavier than usual, that it left Arno’s mouth before he could stop.

“Truth or dare.”

“Seriously? Here?”

“It’s a real question.”

“Y’know what? I haven’t done dare in a while. Let’s go with that.”

Arno stopped them both and took a breath, hand slowly sliding into his coat and pulling the velvet box out. A million thoughts ran through his head as he shakily kneeled down, but looking up into Jacob’s wide eyes silenced them all until he spoke again.

“Marry me.”

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

The wedding ended up a lovely summer affair. Elise was only a bit upset that she couldn’t be Arno’s best woman in the way Evie was for Jacob, though Ezio ended up being pretty good about it and had people both laughing and sniffing by the end of his speech.

And all because of some stupid game, Ezio had been sure to mention at some point, and Arno and Jacob just shared some sort of smile at it.

And now here they were.

Arno woke up on top of Jacob, sprawled out in the huge hotel bed. The other was beginning to wake up as well, and they both smiled as their eyes met.

“Good morning, Mr. Dorian-Frye.”

“Good morning indeed.” Jacob rolled them over and Arno’s small yelp of protest at the action was silenced as Jacob began to kiss him in earnest, still smiling into it. They pulled apart eventually and Arno laughed.

“Not even letting me brush my teeth.”

“That doesn’t exactly matter right now.” Jacob tried to mouth lower at Arno’s neck, and Arno let him for a while before squirming.

“Call for the food first. Then you can continue making a mess of me.” Jacob pouted, and Arno smirked. “It’s not that bad. We do have all week, you know. Can’t spend all of it in a hotel room.”

“Just watch me.” Jacob challenged, but let Arno up anyway to stretch and get out of the bed and pull on loose sweat pants to cover himself up. Jacob had less grace and got out to simply pull on some boxers before calling it a day and going over to the Frenchman. He hugged him from behind, and Arno blushed, a smile still present on his face that threatened to stay there forever.

“Hey, Arno.”

“I’ll take waffles with fruit and cream, thanks.”

Jacob laughed, letting it take over before he calmed down enough to speak again.

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“You ever been happier?”

“Never.”

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I hope you enjoy! If you do I have a Masterpost here and more ideas for writings and prompts here, so feel free to request!  If you’d like to support me, I have a ko-fi here! Safety and peace!