#if this drawing does not find it's target audience i will cry | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

autumn-foxfire · 2 years ago

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Ah, that. The artist-writer disparity. It’s technically something that exists on both sides, which does kind of end up being partially due to skill issue, which is understandable, I sure don’t expect people to give me compliments over a scribble, but one person is nice enough to say something anyways. High-detail art gets everyone !!! Me too, and well-known writers can post or say anything and get the whole server giving them the eyes emoji. Which I think explains this whole problem in two parts.

Firstly, you’re in the wrong audience, the wrong time. I’ve found people who could want more of something yet not give it a passing glance, and then I’ve found people who’ll passionately read anything because they’re ~ actually ~ really into what you’re putting out there. And they can appreciate the process. It comes down to “wanting it exactly the way I want/write my work for me/if it matches, I like” being distracted by “the more interesting conversation in the server” there can sometimes be hierarchies in servers, where the more popular/consistent poster gets all the attention, everyone crowds around them and the quiet/smaller presence gets the pity replies.

That is by no means an actual indication of what your work is worth, as the whole point of this is basically screaming in the chat and going 👀 about content together. Whoever you can do that with, that’s your target audience. Not a “pity reply.” Ultimately, you’re working with a “niche” audience within a niche itself. People get bored easily. They want instant gratification, they might simply not be in the mood at the time. Or they just don’t really know what to say. Sometimes I’ve gotten late replies, sometimes I would repost something during a different time days or weeks later and then get responses. This goes into the second point: it’s hard to read.

Writing is a completely different medium to art. Art is formed in stacked layers, writing is a circuit board. There are so many incredible writers who hardly get reblogs when their actual blogs are insanely popular and demanding. That kind of eliminates the idea of a skill issue doesn’t it? Unless if you’re working with really bad grammar and lack of space between text, which I’ve seen your writing Foxy, you aren’t. With art, you can get that instant gratification over and over again, in one quick visual, and people like visuals, that’s the whole reason anyone writes or draws. Same goal, different pens, you’re working with colors or words. Writing takes more effort to consume. More effort to “visualize.” It’s dependent on the emotional impact you leave behind, whereas art can get by on beauty. There are people who will look at both, and drop it and move on. And people who return to stare longingly at art and re-read fics to cry over during long travel. They rarely say so. So with this common ground between them, or rather the audience, what’s the difference in reception? Layers, circuit board.

Art wips give you the full base frame, the full story contained right there on the canvas without the shading, colors, etc. Writing wips are just a single wire on a larger circuit board, you don’t know where the “electric signal” is going, what “image” is going to light-up when it’s finished. You have simple wires, and main focal points to run through. It’s glaringly obvious to me whenever I try to share wips that “I didn’t pour enough passion into this” short pieces of exposition doesn’t get anyone excited, neither does dialogue unless if it’s really interesting. Someone posts one or two sentences of their work or a detail about their fic and I find myself forcing a reply so I’m verbally somewhat engaged with them instead of just nodding to what someone tells me, because they can’t see that. That’s the effect writing wips have, all you can do is say “okay” as if just listening to someone talk, you hear, you acknowledge and process the information, you move on. It’s often not as dynamic as visual art. The folks who like writing are the ones who “see the art” in the structure of phrasing, characterization, plot. Who can meet the writer at any point on the circuit board; the beginning, the end, the middle, that AU of your main story. So I always try to write enough to “show” a bit of the story or character dynamic before sharing. Sometimes that still goes nowhere, what can you do? Some things are better appreciated in full, sometimes that also goes nowhere, not many comments. We end up circling right back up to that “target audience” issue.

Two different servers of the same fandom give differing levels of engagement. It goes down to the size, the age demographic, and personalities. Sometimes the server itself, if there’s many different topics and subcategories around, lots of diverse opinions. No fault of theirs, you’re just in the wrong environment. Ever noticed different atmospheres between the attitudes of different servers you’re in? Basically that. Some feel like “the popular kids club in a public space mushed together” while others are, “chill lounge with mature people who can be respectful and kind to each other.” It’s a roll of the dice to see if you’ll get any engagement and in what form. The same person over and over, or a small community chat session? I personally like small servers where you can just chill with people who aren’t ~ all about content ~ because they strike a balance between both, chilling with you, encouraging and creating new ideas together and talking about them, and celebrating each others work. Some are more inclined to emoji react and move on, while others will be using the capslock. It’s absolutely no fault of yours, just the usual social behavior of humans. Similar minded people end up drawn to each other, maybe the server you’re in isn’t for you, and you were attracted there more for the niche being “available” rather than the suitability of the environment/you matching their personality/conversational wavelength? If I’m wrong about all this, then I guess folks are just cheapstakes who can’t see the effort writing takes, but small-scale artists have the same complaint, so, alas. And big name artists often get petty comments too, so alas again. People will be people eh? The best thing I can say, is find a person on your wavelength whose excitable and passionate. Sometimes you have to engage with others before they engage with you.

My fic is such an extreme niche between characters who have never met, and are underrated in their own fandom. On ao3, I probably wouldn’t have gotten a single comment, just empty kudos, yet I found someone on tumblr adoring my work because I poked around, saw they were open-minded and energetically receptive to new ideas, and asked to strike a conversation about my work. I can’t guarantee you’ll have the same luck, or that it’ll be easy, but I can say that often times, it’s not the quality of your writing, your target audience just hasn’t been found, and sometimes it takes being a little more active and asking the leading questions yourself for someone to answer. Like a, “what did you think/anything I could change?” otherwise, it’s just a “gallery effect” a collection of pretty things hung up on the wall to admire and walk from one exhibit to another. Sorry, I kinda talked a lot huh? I wanted to comfort you, but T^T this feels like a principal lecturing a student, I am so sorry.

Thank you, I needed to hear this!!

I was disappointed because someone had asked me to continue the piece with my ideas and then just didn't respond to what I had to say at all. I'm trying to think positively and believe that they just didn't have the time to either read or react to what I put but I'm also okay now with them not enjoying how I continued it because ultimately I made the piece for myself and how I wanted the direction of what I wrote to go, not what people were expecting.

I do wish people in fandom would offer more support to writers as we make up the backbone of fandom spaces just as much as artists do but I also agree writing takes more energy for people to consume and conceptualization unlike art which is saddening but just the facts of life.

I like my writing and I like my ideas. I'm ultimately writing for myself and if I do get engagement than that's great but I need to remember that it's not always a sigh of poor quality. Obviously I can always improve and I want to! However I shouldn't let myself get disheartend when a small piece of what I wrote doesn't get the reception I was hoping for.

#personal #thanks for the ask!!

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not-so-mundane-after-all · 3 years ago

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WICKED GAME - by @wonderbatwayne & @not-so-mundane-after-all-97

Fandom: DC Titans

Pairings/Relationships: Dick Grayson/Kory Anders, Dick Grayson & Rachel Roth, Kory Anders & Rachel Roth, Rachel Roth & Garfield Logan, Graysonfam

Chapter: 16/16

Rating: Mature

Summary:

Everybody plays a game. Every move counts, anyone, can be a player. Some play dirty, some play nice, everybody's got eyes on the main prize.

In a world of deception, money, and power, where women are forced to dance with the devil in the name of survival, where men need to break their oaths to do the right thing, Dick Grayson is on a mission to win. A man with a plan, with a goal and a target. Trigon Azarath needs to be eliminated by any means necessary. He's been playing a very long and calculated game, and it has to stop now.

But what happens when a little ballerina with raven hair and a guarded heart, a girl who shouldn't even exist for all he knows, spins the table on him like the pirouettes she does on stage? When a woman with green eyes and a bloody past sets his world ablaze instead of being just a step on the road to victory? Will sticking to the rules be worth the outcome?

It's a wicked game to play, indeed.

Rhi:

And with that we draw final curtains on Wicked Game. I'm still in awe we created this, we brought it to life and you all supported us by devouring every crumb and screaming about every plot twist. You are truly amazing. Wicked Game isn't just mine and Mundi's... It belongs to everyone who loves these characters and these relationships as much as we do. Thank you for the incredible ride you've given us, all the love week to week. We couldn't ask for better friends and readers!

But there is one very special person I want to thank. My writing partner in crime. The person who breathes the heart of this story. The wonderful, the brilliant, the insanely talented Mundi. This story wouldn't exist without her. I wouldn't be half the writer I am without her. Thank you bestie, for making this collab such a dream, for always encouraging me to push beyond my limits and always cheering me on.

We've played a Wicked Game with you all these past 16 weeks but now the game is over! I guess we all won!

Mundi:

Well, game's over. It's honestly mind blowing this thing actually exist, I still to this day look at his fic, at all the ramblings and brainstorming and I can't believe we did this. But what's more important is that we did this for YOU. This amazing, wonderful fandom that deserves the whole world, our friends from far away who were right here with us on this special journey. Your reaction to this story, the way it was received, it exceeded our hopes and expectations by miles!!! Every laugh, every cry, all the screaming and all the therapy bills thrown at us, we'll cherish that forever. My heart is in shambles right now because the ride is ending, but I'm also so so so thankful to all of you for joining us on this roller coaster. The best friends we've ever had, the best audience we could have hoped for. THANK YOU.

And of course I have to take off the crown and bow down low to my partner in crime. Rhi, my darling, if it wasn't for you, that little scene of Dick seeing his baby girl as a ballerina in a different universe would still be stuck in the back drawer of my brain. You breathed life into it and helped me nurture it and grow it into this magnificent thing. It was an expierence of a lifetime and I will never forget it, I'll be in my 80s still remember every little detail of this adventure. You are incredible. I've learned so much from you, I've grown as a creator, as a writer and as a person because of you. To find a person who clicks with you so easily, who rides on the same frequency as you and loves the art they make and the show they make it for just as much as you do is sometimes a miracle, but it happened to me and I will never be able to fully express how much that means to me. Here's to you, to you brilliant, unbelievable talent and to this friendship that will last as long as Tumblr and ao3 are breathing and LONG AFTER THAT.

And that's a curtain call on Wicked Game. Roll the credits, check the scores. And then... Play it all over again.

@undertheknightwing @legendsofentity @mejacinta @meetmeunderthestarrynight @escapism-through-imagination @lady-stirling @grocerylines @xburningbluex @ambelle @ffiamgoku @greatthingssmallworld @garsfavouritejacket @redhairgreeneyes1 @halliwellextra @happilyshanghaied @jerriandtheirfanfics @koryvndr

#WonderMundiCollab #Wicked Game #dc titans #titans #tv: titans #dcu titans #titans hbo max #titans hbo #titans season 3 #dick grayson #rachel roth #kory anders #garfield logan #donna troy #dickkory #graysonfam #titans fanfic #titans fanfiction #titans fic

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luckgods · 4 years ago

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Why all the white guys in whump?

I got Inspired by a post asking that question, and here we are. Warning: long post ahead.

I think it’s due to a combination of factors, as things frequently are.

The preference for / prevalence of white male characters in fandom is well-known and has been examined pretty thoroughly by people already.

What’s worth noting for discussing this tendency in whump in particular is that the ‘whump fandom’ itself is not a ‘fandom’ in the traditional sense of being made of fans of one single source narrative (or source setting, like a particular comics fandom, or the Star Wars extended universe) with pre-existing characters. Although subsets of traditional fandoms certainly exist within the larger whump fandom, a lot of whump is based on original, ‘fan’-created characters.

So, given the tendency of ‘traditional’ fandoms to create stories disproportionately centered on white male characters due to the source material itself being centered on white male characters (and giving more narrative weight to them, characterizing them better, etc), if we say hypothetically that the whump fandom is split say 50/50 between ‘traditional’ fandom works and original whump works, you’d expect to see a higher number of works focused on white men than the demographics of the ‘traditional’ fandom’s source work would predict, but not as extreme of a divergence between the source material & the fanworks as the one you’d see if whump fandom were 100% based on popular media.

However, that doesn’t quite seem to be the case. Whump stories and art remain focused on overwhelmingly male and frequently white characters, which means that the tendency of the fandom to create stories disproportionately centered on white male characters cannot be ONLY explained by the source material itself being centered on white male characters (and giving more narrative weight to them, characterizing them better, etc).

And, having established the fact that whump writers & artists presumably have MORE control over the design of their characters than writers & artists in ‘traditional’ fandoms, we have to wonder why the proportions remain biased towards men, & white men in particular.

—

The race thing is pretty simple in my opinion. Mostly, it’s just another extension of the fanbase’s tendency to reflect the (predominantly US-American, on tumblr) culture it exists in, which means that, in a white-centric culture, people make artworks featuring white people.

There’s also the issue of artists being hesitant to write works that dwell heavily on violence towards people of color due to the (US-American) history of people of color being violently mistreated. I’ve actually seen a couple of posts arguing that white people SHOULDN’T write whump of nonwhite characters (particularly Black characters) because of the history of actual violence against Black bodies being used as entertainment, which means that fictional violence against Black people, written by white people, for a (presumed) white audience, still feels exploitative and demeaning.

I'm not going to get into all my thoughts on this discussion here but suffice to say that there's probably an impact on the demographics of whump works from authors of color who simply... don't want to see violence against people of color, even non-explicitly-racialized violence, and then another impact from white authors who choose not to write non-white characters either due to the reasons stated above, or simply due to their personal discomfort with how to go about writing non-white characters in a genre that is heavily focused on interpersonal violence.

Interestingly enough, there’s also a decent proportion of Japanese manga & anime being used as source material for whump, and manga-styled original works being created. The particular relationship between US-American and Japanese pop culture could take up a whole essay just by itself so I’ll just say, there’s a long history of US-Japanese cultural exchange which means that this tendency is also not all that surprising.

—

GENDER though. If someone had the time and the energy they could make a fucking CAREER out of examining gender in whump, gender dynamics in whump, and why there seems to be a fandom-wide preference for male whumpees that cannot be fully explained by the emphasis on male characters in the source text.

I have several different theories about factors which impact gender preference in whump, and anyone who has other theories (or disagrees with mine) is free to jump in and add on.

THEORY 1: AUTHOR GENDER AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.  Fandom in general is predominantly female, although these days it might be more accurate to say that fandom is predominantly composed of cis women and trans people of all genders. However, pretty much everyone who isn't a cis man has had to contend with the specter of gendered violence in their real personal life. Thus, if we posit whump (and fandom more generally) as a sort of escapist setup, it's not hard to see why whump authors & artists might willfully eschew writing female whumpees (especially in the case of inflicted whump), because (as in the discussion of people of color in whump above), even violence towards women that is explicitly non-gender-based may still hit too close to home for people whose lives have been saturated with the awareness of gender-based violence.

THEORY 2: SICK OF SEXY SUFFERING.  Something of an addendum to theory 1, it's worth noting that depictions of female suffering in popular media are extremely gendered (in that they specifically reflect real-life gender-based violence, and that said real-life violence is almost exclusively referenced in relation to female characters) and frequently sexualized as well. There's only so many times you can see female characters having their clothes Strategically Ripped while they're held captive, being sexually menaced (overtly or implicitly) to demonstrate How Evil the villain is, or just getting outright sexually assaulted for the Drama of it all before it gets exhausting, especially when the narratives typically either brush any consequences under the rug, or dwell on them in a way that feels more voyeuristic and gratuitous than realistic and meaningful. All this may result in authors who, given the chance to write their own depictions of suffering, may decide simply to remove the possibility of gendered violence by removing the female gender.

THEORY 3: AUTHOR ATTRACTION.  I'll admit that this one is more a matter of conjecture, as I haven't seen any good demographic breakdowns of attraction in general fandom or whump fandom. That said, my own experience talking to fellow whump fans does indicate that attraction to the characters (whether whumpers, or whumpees) is part of the draw of whump for some people. This one partially ties into theory 1 as well, in that people who are attracted to multiple genders may not derive the same enjoyment out of seeing a female character in a whumpy situation as they might seeing a male character in that situation, simply because of the experience of gendered violence in their lives.

THEORY 4: ACCEPTABLE TARGETS.  The female history of fandom means that there's been a lot more discussion of the impacts of depicting pain & suffering (especially female suffering) for personal amusement. Thus, in some ways, you could say that there is a mild taboo on putting female characters through suffering if you can't "justify" it as meaningful to the narrative, not just titillating, which whump fandom rarely tries or requires anyone to do. This fan-cultural 'rule' may impact whump writers' and artists' decisions in choosing the gender of their characters.

THEORY 5: AN ALTERNATIVE TO MAINSTREAM MASCULINITY.  Whump fandom may like whumping men because by and large, mainstream/pop culture doesn't let men be vulnerable, doesn't let them cry, doesn't let them have long-term health issues due to constantly getting beat up even when they really SHOULD, doesn't let them have mental health issues period. Female characters, as discussed in theory 2, get to ("get to") go through suffering and be affected by it (however poorly written those effects are), but typically, male characters' suffering is treated as a temporary problem, minimized, and sublimated into anger if at all possible. (For an example, see: every scene in a movie where something terrible happens and the male lead character screams instead of crying). So, as nature abhors a vacuum, whump fandom "over-produces" whump of men so as to fill in that gap in content.

THEORY 6: AMPLIFIED BIAS.  While it's true that whump fandom doesn't have a source text, it's also true that whump fans frequently find their way into the fandom via other 'traditional' fandoms, and continue participating in 'traditional' fandoms as part of their whump fandom activity. Bias begets bias; fandom as a whole has a massive problem with focusing on white male characters, and fans who are used to the bias towards certain types of characters in derivative works absolutely reproduce that bias in their own original whump works.

—

I honestly think that there is greater bias in the whump fandom than anyone would like to admit. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems as though whump fans avoid introspection and discussion of the issue by bringing up the points I talked about in my previous theories, particularly discomfort with depictions of female suffering for amusement.

However, I think that, as artists, we owe it to ourselves and one another to engage in at least a small amount of self-interrogation over our preferences, and see what unconscious or unacknowledged biases we possess. It's a little absurd to argue that depictions of women as whumpees are universally too distressing to even discuss when a male character in the exact same position would be fine and even gratifying to the person making that argument; while obviously, people have a right to their own boundaries, those boundaries should not be used to shut down discussion of any topics, even sensitive ones.

Furthermore, engaging in personal reflection allows artists to make more deliberate (and meaningful) art. For people whose goal is simply to have fun, that may not seem all that appealing, but having greater understanding of one's own preferences can be very helpful towards deciding what works to create, what to focus on when creating, and what works to seek out.

—

GENDER ADDENDUM: NONBINARY CHARACTERS, NONBINARY AUTHORS.  Of course, this whole discussion so far has been exclusively based on a male-female binary, which is reductive. (I will note, though, that many binary people do effectively sort all nonbinary people they know of into 'female-aligned' and 'male-aligned' categories and then proceed to treat the nonbinary people and characters they have categorized a 'female-aligned' the same way as they treat people & characters who are actually female, and ditto for 'male-aligned'. That tendency is very frustrating for me, as a nonbinary person whose gender has NOTHING to do with any part of the binary, and reveals that even 'progressive' fandom culture has quite a ways to go in its understanding of gender.)

Anyways, nonbinary characters in whump are still VERY rare and typically written by nonbinary authors. (I have no clue whether nonbinary whump fans have, as a demographic group, different gender preferences than binary fans, but I'd be interested in seeing that data.)

As noted above with female characters, it's similarly difficult to have a discussion about representation and treatment of nonbinary characters in whump fandom, and frankly in fandom in general. Frequently, people regard attempts to open discussions on difficult topics as a call for conflict. This defensive stance once again reveals the distaste for requests of meaningful self-examination that is so frequent in fandom spaces, and online more generally.

—

TL;DR: Whump is not immune to the same gender & racial biases that are prevalent in fandom and (US-American) culture. If you enjoy whump: ask yourself why you dislike the things you dislike— the answer may surprise you. If you create whump: ask yourself whose stories you tell, and what stories you refuse to tell— then ask yourself why.

#eposting #whumpinions #whump #whumpblr #whump community #essay #i wrote this so yall all have to read it lol #but seriously the next person who implies that a nonbinary person is just 'woman-lite' or 'man-lite' is going to Die By My Fucking Sword #mine

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memes-in-a-half-shell · 4 years ago

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Business AU - Working Late, Part 8

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7

There’s one scene in there I had in mind ever since I started writing that small fic and HELL YEH I’m gonna draw something about it at some point because fsdfbbsfbsdhbfgsbgdfguidfg it just looks aesthetically pleasing in my head.

ENJOY.

(also reminder that I base Donnie’s place on this video. The only part I change is the “kids” area - which is horrendous imo :’D - and I make into a lab/small training area)

There was something different in the air when Vee got to work the next day. This feeling that wanted to explode out in the open, an incessant rush in her veins that made her heart beat faster whenever she’d spot the terrapin. Their tasks for the day didn’t give them much time to talk, but everytime they’d be exchanging words or documents, there was this longing sensation that slowed down time to a honey sweet pace. Fingers brushing against the other, light touches here and there. Professionalism remained king in the work place and they intended to keep it as such.

By the end of the day, she knew she couldn’t leave without at least wishing a good and proper evening to the mutant. She walked to his office, remaining at the doorframe as she watched him place various papers into a briefcase. Vee gently knocked, signaling her presence, to which Donnie responded by looking up to her and adorning the cutest smile.

“At least this time I didn’t scare you,” started the woman.

“As I said yesterday, I had a lot on my mind. At least today my thoughts are a little clearer, so I can’t be easily scared. Come in!” he added, gesturing for Vee to step inside.

“I won’t take much of your time, I just wanted to check up on you before leaving.”

The turtle placed some final documents in the case, snapping it closed afteward.

“I was actually about to leave as well. Want me to drive you back home?”

“Do you have something planned?” asked Vee, raising a brow with a small smile.

Donnie faked pondering, lightly drumming his fingers on his desk: “Hmm, I suspect I might be spending the evening with a pretty lady, if she agrees.”

“Lucky her, I’m sure she’ll say yes,” winked the woman.

Already on the move, Donnie offered a hand for Vee to hold, the duo then walking together in order to reach the indoor garage at some levels below.

“Is it okay, though? Did you have something to do after work?” asked the terrapin.

“I was planning on having a drink back home, but if I can share one with you, that’d be even better.”

“How about you have that drink at my place? I have a couple of bottles that might interest you.”

“You know that if I am to step foot into your place, I will be incredibly jealous, right? ... I’m sure you must be living in a luxurious place or something.”

“A little castle in the sky, but it sure is missing a beautiful presence inside of it.”

Vee blushed, definitely enjoying the compliments that were left here and there.

Once in the vehicle, the duo made their way to the streets, the conversation light and simply glad the week was finally over. Vee did notice that their path led them to streets that featured tall buildings in the Tribeca district. For a moment she felt out of place, definitely not the target audience for such a high-end environment, but her curiosity kept her on edge only to be able to get a view of Donnie’s place. They were first facing a tower with a blank stone facade, extending so high up in the sky. The entrance’s interior was as elegant and refined as the exterior, the place giving out this feeling of prestige from every corners. As they stepped inside an elevator, Vee’s eyes widened a little as she saw Donnie press the button for the 78th floor. Castle in the sky, indeed.

As they arrived at the desired level, they were soon facing the entry door, the turtle smirking to the woman as he held the doorknob and waited.

“Ready?”

“Open the damn thing already so I can cry a little inside,” answered Vee amusedly.

The door fully opened, she couldn’t retain her gasp as her eyes started to devour the interior of what was rightfully a penthouse.

The very first few rooms she saw around left her speechless, the single thought of ‘this is bigger than my whole damn apartment’ flooding her mind. She knew there would be more, her curiosity would lead her to visit every rooms anyway. She did notice french doors leading to an outdoor balcony, her instinct pushing her to get out and take in the view.

Stopping by the the rails, she could feel the refreshing gusts of wind go through her hair, accentuating the euphoria of being so high over the city.

“So, what do you think so far?”

She turned around to face Donnie, the terrapin leaning against the open doors’ frame, always this smile on his face - glad to see her reaction. Vee tried to play it cool, shrugging.

“Heh, I’ve seen better,” she joked.

“Ah damn, and I wanted to impress,” tsked the terrapin in a similar tone.

Vee couldn’t retain her smile any longer, happily trotting back inside.

“You still have your chances. Show me the rest!”

The lower level was also home to a small office and a formal living room, but the next area was what retained the woman’s attention the most.

The kitchen was a thing of beauty, Vee unable to resist the urge to feel the marbled island and counters, in awe of the space.

“Damn, I WISH I had such a kitchen. I'd be cooking all the time!”

“You fancy yourself as a chef?” questionned Donnie.

“I do like to experiment from times to times,” she winked back.

She clapsed her hands together, bringing another subject on a rather similar topic:

“SO! What should we eat? I could even prepare something if you want.”

The turtle waved that offer away.

“Nonsense, you're my guest, you shouldn't be doing anything of that sort. … I uh-” He opened some cupboards, then the fridge and its freezer. “Wow, I have almost nothing! Except one frozen pizza for dire situations,” he added, waving a box out in the open with an unpleased expression.

Vee was instantly on board: “You know what? Fuck yeah. It's Friday night, we deserve that.”

“Now that's a line of thought I can get behind.”

As Donnie was starting to preheat the oven, Vee got closer, some questions raising in her mind:

“Although, I'm kinda susprised you don't have much variety, judging by the size of this place.”

“Not gonna lie, I need to go grocery shopping,” shrugged the mutant. “Also that tends to happen at certain times of the month. Mikey has us go through our stock, fresh and canned, in order to donate to food banks and soup kitchens.”

“That's amazing and kind!” Vee was pleasantly surprised.

“He does have this city at heart, and he loves to give back to the people,” continued Donnie. “We all love the idea. Since we can afford pretty much anything we want, it's only fair that we help those in needs. … Heck, this city has done a lot for us in the past and we had to rely on what others were throwing away for us to survive. Now it's time to pay back.”

“I find that to be very admirable,” commented the woman gently. “… Not a lot of people would do the same.”

“Indeed. It’s not because we’re mutants that it means we’re savages. We do have some heart under our shells,” he playfully added.

The oven ready, the food was placed to cook and the tour then continued. As Vee was heading to the staircase in order to reach the upper level, Donnie stopped her, pressing a button nearby and opening a encased door in the wall to reveal a small elevator.

“Show off!” laughed Vee

“What?! It can be helpful!” he quipped back with a smile.

The second floor offered two sections, one part leading to the bedroom, but the other leading to entertainement and other things. They first got to the media room, the place cozy for a nice and quiet evening.

But Vee’s eyes brought her to the glass doors that led to a juliet balcony, not wasting any time to open them and take another good look at the city.

She sighed dreamily, barely hearing the faint clinking of glasses and a bottle opening back inside.

“You like the view, don’t you?” started Donnie as he next got near, offering her a glass of red wine.

“It looks and feels like a dream. Didn’t know such a place could be found in this city.”

As she took it, the terrapin next sled his free hand and forearm gently around her waist, unable to resist the need to feel her closer... Vee did not mind, actually leaning back a little against him, gladly taking a sip of her drink before answering:

“You’d be surprised, there are bigger places laying around.”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t look as tasteful as yours.”

“Nonsense. It only looks good right now ‘cause you’re in here. ... Any places you’re in looks a thousand times better than before.”

Vee’s blush was more apparent as she could feel the other gently nuzzle the top of her head, slowly making his way to a temple and leaving a soft kiss there.

“You’re one heck of a charmer, did you know that?” added the woman with a smirk.

“I only aim to please, I can’t help it.”

She turned to face him, raising a brow in amusement.

“And so what now? You brought me to your place only so you could woo and please me?”

“That does sound like a good plan.”

The feel of his hand next cupping her cheek brought a shiver across the woman’s body, leaning slightly to his touch. His scales did feel foreign compared to human skin, but there was a certain softness to it as well that only made her crave for more...

“Each days I wake up and wonder if meeting you was ever a dream...,” softly said the mutant.

“I wouldn’t mind making it feel a bit more real to you.”

That brought a quiet chuck out of Donnie, but also gave him enough courage to lean in and place a sweet, slow kiss on Vee’s lips. Each instances would bring their bodies closer, the duo mindlessly making their way back inside and only breaking their kiss to leave their wine glasses on a nearby coffee table. It was that magnetism, a certain je ne sais quoi that sparked that fire in them whenever they’d get that close. Last evening’s passion was still lingering and right now it felt as if there had been no break at all since then. As Vee was starting to unbutton the mutant’s shirt, both heard a beeping sound, stopping them dead in their tracks. Their eyes fell on Donnie’s right wrist - his watch.

“Shit, the food,” said the terrapin. “I, uh, I’ll be right back,” he added, trying to gain back his senses. “I’ll get it out and let it cool for a bit on the counter.”

“Sure, go,” replied Vee with a small smile, slightly flustered as she replaced her crooked glasses and moved some strands of hair away from her face.

She took back her wine as she watched him go. A part of her was telling her to slow down, but on the other hand she couldn’t deny that the need was there - on both sides. What harm could there be? It was just about having a little bit of fun... She proceeded back to the hallway, sipping as her gaze scanned the decor. She heard hurried steps in the staircase, soon Donnie’s shape coming into view. He tried to play it cool as he noticed the woman looking at him, vaguely gesturing in the kitchen’s direction downstair.

“It’s ready whenever you want.”

Vee took another sip, then adding: “We still haven’t finished the tour yet. Let’s do that first!”

“There’s not much left, but alright.”

“‘Not much left’, says the guy who lives in a two-story penthouse WITH an elevator,” pointed Vee, amused.

The mutant chuckled, inviting the woman to follow him as he left a hand at the small of her back. The next part had been completely renovated in order to have one room be a small lab, and the other one be a private gym and training area.

“What kind of trainings do you do?” inquired Vee, looking around at the equipment.

“Mostly nin-uhm, martial arts,” Donnie quickly corrected himself.

“’Nin-uhm-martial-arts’, sounds interesting,” laughed the woman. “Any specialty?”

“Bōjutsu,“ he replied, grabbing a pole from a rack nearby.

Vee whistled in appreciation, her eyes scanning the weapon.

“I’ve heard that can pack quite a punch, surprisingly.”

“It’s good to whack some butts, not gonna lie,” added Donnie, rolling the staff in one hand. Then in one swift movement he brought the woman closer, the pole resting at her back. “It can also be helpful for some maneuvers,” he ended with a smirk.

“Such a tease,” said Vee, playfully tapping at his exposed plastron. “I wouldn’t say no to a demonstration.”

“Another day, perhaps.”

He let her free, putting the staff back to its resting place

“Aight, come on, one room left!”

“What about that lab part?” asked Vee, following the terrapin next.

“There’s nothing much to see, frankly. It’s pretty messy as well.”

“Or maybe you’re just a mad scientist and you don’t want me to see your evil inventions?”

Donnie faked a surprised gasp: “Alas, you’ve uncovered my secret!”

Both were laughing as they made their way to the last room; the master bedroom.

It was quite simple and charming, but the main feature remained the large windows that gave that same phenomenal view of the city. Vee took some time to appreciate the decor, sipping the last drops of wine from her glass.

“... I can’t imagine waking up every day with such a view,” she mused, her gaze drifting back to the windows. “You must feel on top of the world.”

“Wait, I can make it even better,” said the other as he moved to the light switch.

As soon as he turned the lights off, the room’s atmosphere changed, suddenly illuminated by a sea of stars below them.

Envelopped in darkness, yet glistening in colorful lights, Vee felt at peace - a hidden watcher over this tumultuous city. She next felt her glass gently get taken away from her hold, the mutant leaving it on a small table nearby. It didn’t take long for him to get back close to her, his arms surrounding Vee’s form as he stood behind her. The woman easily slipped into that feel good moment, closing her eyes and exposing a faint smile on her lips. He felt so strong, yet tender - the promise of a good man that would never do her wrong...

“... I’m so glad you’re here,” he murmured, his hands travelling along Vee’s arms in light touches.

Oh to hell with it. She decided to move out of Donnie’s hold, proceeding to remove her shirt. She turned around to face him, noticing his gaze studying her form and probably a bit surprised to suddenly see her in her bra. But she didn’t give a damn. That’s what she wanted.

“And I’m glad to be here,” she answered calmly.

She heard that deep churr rise again in the mutant’s chest, an expression of desire which would entice her so much in return... Vee couldn’t help bringing her hands to his exposed chest, feeling the faint vibration and appreciating the texture of his plastron. Her touch lowered, continuing her previous task of unbuttoning his shirt. The turtle helped a bit by detaching another button behind his neck and then at his lower back, allowing the clothing to be properly removed from around his shell’s attachment. Without a shirt, Vee could rightfully observe the terrapin’s muscles, her fingers lightly hovering his toned arms and appreciating every inches of what she saw. All it took was for their gazes to cross, her greens in his golds, to bring back that same need from earlier. Kiss me again and again, and never stop...

The feel of his lips was pure addiction at this point. A slow dance that lightened up all her senses. Soon enough he was sitting down on the bed, Vee inviting herself unto his lap only so she couldn’t break their kissing. To feel his three-fingered hands across her skin kept her in such an incessant need, feeling like she was drowning in-between her legs. The terrapin dared to unclasp and remove her bra, although the whole movement felt very natural. In return, the woman removed her glasses, as well as Donnie’s, taking a moment to admire his traits.

“... You have such beautiful eyes,” she cooed, next tenderly sliding his bandana away.

She couldn’t get over the feeling of his scales under her fingers, soon nuzzling his cheek and her lips trailing light kisses here and there.

“Fais-moi l’amour (make love to me),” she whispered.

Donnie answered with a stronger churr, his hands travelling lower on Vee’s body only to bring her closer into one delicious wave motion, her lower core meeting his hidden erection. The movements were repeated, getting a momentarily release for all that sudden need. It was when he started to hear quiet moans out of her that he decided ‘screw it‘ and proceeded to shift her position to have her lay on the bed, on her back. Bringing himself over her, he left some kisses on her lips before starting to trail along her features, his tone husky as he started:

“You smell nice...”

He went along her throat, his pace slow and delightful. His path led him lower and lower, from her breasts to her stomach.

“I’m sure you taste nice too,” he added.

Sitting on his knees, he brought Vee’s hips over his thighs, but he gave himself a pause, his palm caressing the front part of her jeans.

“You good? You still wanna go on with this?” asked the terrapin.

She nodded, biting her lip in delight.

“Absolutely, or else I wouldn’t be laying here, half naked. ... What about you?”

He smiled, already at the task of unbuttoning and unzipping Vee’s pants.

“I never want to stop.”

In one swift movement, he removed her panties as well, undressing her completely without issue. He took a moment to study her form softly illuminated by the lights outside. She was a work of art to his eyes and right now he felt like the luckiest man alive... He lovingly squeezed her hips and altered with languid caresses over the woman’s skin, only to next bring one of his hands closer to her core, his thumb starting in slow circles over her clit. He could feel the relief washing over Vee’s body, her waist lightly following his motion only so she could feel more. The greater her need, the more Donnie didn’t want to let go. He even got to slip one finger in her at some point, her moans an absolute delight as he took his time. After a moment, he dared get his finger out, his gaze plunged in Vee’s as he licked his digit with a low churr.

“... You do taste nice,” he commented lovingly. “Now I wonder how you’d feel around me.”

Vee was unable to speak, her heart beating so hard and throwing any reason out the window... As she saw Donnie about to unzip his pants, she got on the move and decided to take the matter in her own hands. They joined in a kiss as she got to the task, the mutant’s hands caressing her skin and sometimes getting lost in her hair, visibly as much in need as her for their imminent union. He was able to get out of his pants and underwear in a slight clumsy fashion, but he was quickly back on his knees, allowing Vee to observe him. Of a mixed pink and purple color, his penis did present some characteristics that were not human, such as a slightly flared tip. As it had been internal until now, the organ was coated in natural lubricant when out, most probably allowing for an easier penetration and accomodation to any partner. He was a bit longer than what Vee ever experienced with other partners, but right now her desire was surpassing any concerns. They didn’t need to speak, Vee bringing the mutant into another kiss, allowing herself to climb back into his lap only for their cores to meet and rub in a delicious manner. The world around them was a blur of shadows and lights, only their presence the most real and tangible aspect in the room. Their thoughts were a cloud of mixed emotions, but right now what mattered most was that they wanted this. They needed this. A demonstration of love they’ve been holding back for some time now... Donnie instinctively started to shift forward, getting Vee back on the mattress. He was careful enough to hold back some of his weight on her, having enough strength to sustain himself, even when the woman would cling to him. He felt her legs gently caress along his, finding the best position to hold close to his hips, his shell proving to be somewhat of a challenge. That slight shift in her position allowed for better friction, the turtle’s languid motions bringing delighted mewls out of Vee. At some points he could feel his tip trying to slip in, to which he thought ‘fuck it’ and decided to go all in. Vee’s gasp brought him to a pause, remaining inside of her only so she could adjust.

“You okay?” he murmured, encouraging her with some kisses here and there on her features.

She nodded, her fingers lovingly going across his scales at his neck and shoulders.

“I’ll go slow, I promise,” he added.

He’d never excuse himself if he ever were to hurt her, anyway. His churr rumbled again as he slowly moved his hips in a circular motion, Vee sticking to him like glue. Her toes were curling due to pleasure, her body soon following Donnie’s pattern only to better meet his thrusts. Some slurred “fuck” and “oh oui” would leave her at times, sometimes interrupted by kisses that translated all the desire in her. At some point Donnie shifted their position so they would lay on their sides, still facing eachother. He helped one of Vee’s leg to stay up, his palm resting behind her thigh, allowing her to feel his muscles at work.

“You feel so good,” he complimented, back into an amorous motion.

The friction created by this new proximity was bringing Vee on edge. She was unable to answer anything, her breathing making her lose her words. It was the only encouragement the mutant needed, nuzzling her as he kept going. Everything felt so natural. As if all the pieces of an intricate puzzle had finally been assembled. There was this sensation of completion between them, knowing that something in their bond would definitely shift - hopefully for the best.

“You like that, baby? I won’t stop. I wanna feel you cum around me...”

She moaned his name in return, her eyes remaining shut as she lost herself even more in the moment. Every touches and kisses heightened all sensations, bringing both of them to an edge they so very craved for. Feeling Vee’s body tensing up slightly, the terrapin knew she was close to an orgasm, lightly squeezing his hold on her and bringing her into a french kiss. His thrusts were a little more forceful, their bodies tingling in anticipation. It was when she gasped for air, her nails digging into his scales, that he knew she was high on a cloud. He could feel her walls deliciously clamp around him, the sensation bringing him to his own edge as well. His orgasm brought him to slow his pace to long and langorous pumps. Their moans intertwined, riding this wave together. Neither of them wanted to depart once the high died down, keeping close and slowly petting eachother. Vee did bring Donnie’s attention on her as she left small kisses along his jawline. His golden eyes seemed to shine in this surreal lighting, conveying many unspoken words. There was this feeling of peace he never experienced with anyone else before. An affirmation that this was where he belonged, in her arms, as well as she belonged in his. They were still connected and it felt so right...

“Well, now that really opened my appetite,” finally said Vee with a small smile.

He smiled in return, leaving a kiss on her forehead. His appetite was growing as well, and for many things too...

***

Only wearing their underwears and glasses, both were now cuddled up in blankets on the couch in the media room, the television on to a random channel as they were eating their pizza (which they had to reheat, to their amusement). As they finished their meal, Vee did not mind cuddling closer to the turtle, simply enjoying eachother’s presence. Her attention did drift from the television at some point, observing Donnie’s traits instead. She was used to seeing him with his purple bandana, but even with a bare face and only his glasses he still had a lot of charms. He had a kind face and the cutest snout, the mere sight of him a wonder when compared to humankind. The terrapin did notice her focus on him at some point, smirking.

“Yes? Can I help you, madame?”

“I have a question.”

“Outrageous,” he added playfully. “... Do tell.”

She shifted her position a bit, bringing an arm against his chest, softly petting the scales at his collarbone and base of his neck.

“Why do you and your brothers wear those bandanas? ... If it’s too personal, you don’t need to answer.”

His smile was renewed and sweet, his arm around her bringing his hand to pet her shoulder and skin in return.

“I don’t mind answering at all, although I’ll skip some details.... But long story short, it was a gift given to us by our father, years ago. It has a great significance for us and it’s still a great proof of all we had to learn and overcome in order to be who we are today.”

“Something symbolic then, that’s nice,” added Vee. “As long as it brings something positive in your life, that sure can be as nice as anything. .... Also, not gonna lie, purple looks good on you.”

“It’s my favorite and it’s the best color, that’s why! What’s your favorite color?”

Vee was amused by this simple question, but that brought her to move once more. She was now straddling the terrapin, her eyes scanning him as she answered:

“It’s green.”.

“Oh,” added the other in amusement. “So I guess I must be quite the jackpot for you?”

"You're everything I want..."

There was no ounce of hesitation as she leaned forward to give him a sweet kiss. Donnie easily gave in, his hands resting at the small of the woman’s back This time there was no shyness in-between them, only comfort and peace. Soon enough the television was nothing but background noise as they kept going for a second round that night...

((Part 9))

#it's-a-moi #business au #usual sorry for mistakes #hot damn this chapter I swear to FUCK #I wanted this to be some tasty smut - hence why it took me some time to write #I could've added another scene at the end #but I think stopping here is good enough

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neverforpickles · 2 years ago

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Hi. What’s your opinion about celebrities and fanfictions? Is it okay or is it normal to write real people fictions? Do you think those people who the fan fictions are named and inspired by should read them?

Hello, love. Thank you for your ask. I have some thoughts on this. And I hope I will be eloquent enough to put them into words.

First, I think fanfictions are amazing, they’re craft made out of love, unconditional compartmentalisation of personal time, works out of self-indulge, a personal outlet of someone that we get to read and get an insight of who they are as an individual — no matter how outrageous the themes or how just plain it is. It does not matter. I highly appreciate the efforts, the care and love writers put into the works they publish, even if for a lot of people, fanfictions is a medium that’s very unconventional due to its nature that goes against classic delivery of literature— hard bound books and other printed copies.

In terms of the celebrities, I think they’re a different box of their own. Their purpose and targeted audiences are different. Whilst for fanfictions, they’re homecooked meal made just for the sake of having something to eat, to devour and to savour the taste and scent, for celebrities it is different. They’re celebrities because they’re there to influence, to have a manipulated image, well-crafted personalities and lives which is presented to the many. That is an art on its own — unyielding, very much so. And they are celebrities because they are working for a living, they do it to survive, for a race in a spot with how fast-faced the entertainment industry is. To stay in the spotlight.

If you mix celebrities and fanfictions together, they create a different type of art. It is more sincere yet still fabricated and calculated. What really happens is that, celebrities’ already fabricated image just gets extended, but this time from the eyes of a fan instead of from someone who is paid to keep their image as it is now. With fanfictions, the fans just create an image that suits what could have happen, what if this celebrities is like this and like that, a series of what if’s which people they hire and paid to do are already doing, it is just another form of art. But the difference is, the people who maintain and keep the celebrities’ life story going is that they get paid to do so, whilst in comparison, fanfiction writers do it on their own free will, with their own time, their own ideas and for free. They do not get anything out of it aside from the community they gather together, the satisfaction of being able to fulfill and put into words ideas, improvements on their writing skills and an outlet for their emotions — for many.

Is it normal to write real people fictions? Personally, yes, it is. Because in reality, where do you draw the line between normal and what’s not normal? Where do you draw the line between real people and non-real people? If you write a story about some guy named Jack, who’s to say that that Jack is just a pigment of an imagination and not a real person? Who’s to say that Jack is just..Jack? If you’re reading an already printed book about a story whose protagonist is named Jack, would you not think or associate that with someone named Jack that you knew? Or if you’re watching an adapted film or reading a book about a particular character whose characteristics aligned with who you are, can you not put yourself in their shoes even if they’re do not have the same name as you? Do you not find yourself nodding, crying and being happy because you feel it? What a simple Jack feels on the story? Who is Jack, anyway? Is he the Jack your friend, enemey, a celebrity? Who is he and why does this story makes you feel?

Where do you draw the line that this is okay and that is not okay? How far can you draw the line? When do you draw the line and who decided to draw the line? What credibility does that person who drew the line had? Why would I believe them if they say that this is normal and that is not normal?

You see, the lines are blurred and like any other, is subjective in accordance to personal beliefs. My beliefs are that, fanfictions are just an extension of one’s mind. An extension to what’s already fabricated. Fanfictions are just another form of art, crafts and a form of literature on its own. Not many would agree to that, but it does not change the fact that at the end of the day, the quality of the works made of words, determined wether you like that piece or not. Wether it is good to your standard or written very badly, that is what matters. The themes explored, what you get from it and what it makes you feel is the most important aspect of fanfictions. It does not matter if the fictional works are named under some celebrities suchs as Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson being lovers as immortals who roamed the earth or even with an already fictional characters called Sam and Frodo being in an omegaverse. What matters is how they’re written. Names are just names used for the sake of it being place in the fandom category that’s close to the writer’s heart. That that Harry and Louis fanfiction writer could easily change their names into Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy and put it under that fandom category and the quality of the works would be still the same.

The names use in the characters in the fanfictions, does not matter. It’s just names. It’s should not stop you, as a consumer, in consuming a product and enjoying because they’re named after real people and you’re worried that it’s not normal. Because how can you be so sure that those celebrities are real anyway and not just your own form of imagination and everyone just agrees? (I am not going to go this part because my mind is tangled mess, it’s going to take forever to explain this.)

Should celebrities whose fanfiction characters are named after them, read the fanfictions? No. I recommend that they should not. The fanfictions are works made by the fans, for the fans and as a fan. Those works are not targeted to them, they’re not the choosen audiences. Those works are private, in a sense that when written, they’re not included on the demographic of people whom are encouraged to read them. There are wild imaginations that goes on fanfictions that are not meant for them to read but like I said, just purely out of self-indulgence. However, I can understand that I cannot dictate them and decide for them wether they should read fanfictions writtern with their names or not. Therefore, if they do choose to read the fanfictions, it is fully on their own accountability that the consequences of what they might read, discover and understand are theirs to carry alone. Because they’re never encouraged nor were they invited to read them in the first place. They’re aware they exists, but choosing to access them are from their on accord. The blame and feelings of contempt are theirs alone to bare because they’re not meant to access them.

Basically, what they’ll witness is their fault and not the fans, because fanfictions are not written for them, it’s for the fans.

I hope you get my point.

#fanfictions #writing #rpf fic #my thoughts

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angeloncewas · 3 years ago

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Dream has stated he didn't have a lot of social medias at a young age. His reddit account was shared with someone else at 17 - and people are forgetting that the internet - especially around the 2000s - 2010s - has always been biased towards a specific thing. It is easy for the algorithm to create echo chambers - and propaganda is often easy to find - especially in search results. Disinformation and misinformation has been a thing since the beginning of the internet. It is not that hard to stay sheltered when you only given access to a specific part of the internet.

- Plus internet culture back then was fucking rancid? especially certain areas of the internet? Call of Duty plays.

You are comparing an Floridian man from the 2000s - where internet was still new thing and very fucking mean - to a British boy who was growing up when Internet exploded and learned to be tolerate. 5 years is enough time for culture and context to change.

- no excuse to past mistakes or current mistakes of any people - but context and the culture of the internet of specific times and specific lives of people are very important to note when making criticism.

(and that is ignoring how some countries often limit how much a person can see or do on the internet!)

Yeah I heard about the phone ! And I mean, you can believe him or not believe him, but I'm not gonna dig deeper than what we've been told and considering my upbringing I buy it lmao. A homeschooled, white guy in a very red state with limited access to anyone else... not only is that a recipe for disaster, but I also can't imagine what kinds of communities he might've ended up in if he was online a lot. I know a guy personally who got sucked into a white supremacist group y'know. And we were in public school in a liberal city. They target susceptible people like that and draw them in like cults...

Sorry I'm getting off-topic. It's just so interesting that he ended up with the audience he has. Life is so incredibly random sometimes.

It does kinda tie in though - the mcyt community is such an anomaly in part because of how progressive (sometimes to a radlib fault) it is - and it's undeniable that some of the people who hate it hate it for that reason. Some people do want to be allowed to make racist jokes without backlash and the gaming community was their haven; it's a far cry from great (or arguably even good) but it's made a lot of strides in a very short amount of time and as much as I don't like people putting stock in words like that, I can't say it isn't nice to be in a fandom where the ccs explicitly support LGBT people and the like.

Anon number 2 puts it well - plenty of people didn't even realize what was wrong with what they were doing/a part of (that's how they get you and how echochambers work to begin with) - just because someone technically has/had the resources doesn't mean they're aware of how to use them. It's a slow thing in general, but people starting to look for and understand other perspectives - allowing themselves to grow - is how we all move forward.

I know this stemmed from a different topic, but I think I'll leave it at that. Despite everything, I'm hopeful for the future of the internet.

#angel answers #anon #discourse #cult mention

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itoldsunset · 4 years ago

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semi-translating/summarizing some things p’boss said on the hardest brief podcast. putting it under the cut because it ended up being wayyy longer than expected. also, my thai knowledge is that of a little kid who left her country very young so i probably missed some words/references, sorry!

(i got lazy and skipped the last part where they talked about the props and the colors (red = oh-aew, blue = teh, purple = tarn) but i feel like enough folks on here have done the color/visual analysis so we should be good):

he had this story he wanted to tell about two childhood friends and also knew he wanted to cast pp and billkin, but to make it work they had to pull from pp and billkin’s personalities to make sure that the characters they ended up creating would mesh with who pp and billkin are as performers; in writing the script, they sometimes asked pp and billkin to talk about their experiences as teenagers and adapted it to the series, so for example the storyline where teh and oh-aew meet each other again at afterschool chinese class and start out not liking each other, comes from pp and billkin’s real life when they first met and didn’t like each other

the interviewer asked p’boss to talk about how the itsay team has balanced representation in terms of gender and sexual orientation, and p’boss said it was important to have a team that understands the human experience and can draw from life experiences from multiple perspectives, which led to diversity in gender, sexual orientation, and age

when asked whether itsay is a Y series (BL), p’boss said his intention is to tell a story about the relationship between two boys, so it depends on how you define what counts as BL, LGBTQ, etc.

the interviewer and p’boss had this conversation about what characterizes something as BL, and the interviewer said after asking around it seemed like BL is about relationships between boys but more from a fantasy lens and tends to be different from gay couples in real life, and focuses on scenes between the two male leads, scenes that make you “pinch your pillow” (op: like scenes that make you squeal), but not so much on other moments outside of that; p’boss’s response (approximate translation): “i’m not sure myself, but from what i know, BL series seem to be about relationships between boys, but from the perspectives of girls, since that tends to be the target audience. so it tends to be what makes girls happy, what entertains them, that ends up being the content of BL.”

p’boss on lgbtq series: “i think it looks deeply at the real lives of people who are lgbt, it might be more realistic. it might be like, this is a real thing, but when you tell it in a series it becomes dark, but it’s real. in terms of itsay, in the beginning i didn’t know how to classify it, but when a lot of people started calling it lgbt, i thought, okay. [...] it’s just the story i wanted to tell, and i wanted to tell it with as much humanity as possible. i don’t want to limit viewers, i want as many people to see this as possible, so we can call it whatever they want as long as they watch it and it makes them happy.”

this is his first series focusing on lgbtq characters, but in hormones he wrote goi and dao’s characters (op: i didn’t know this?!)

with itsay, p’boss said it was important to him to have slower pacing to explore the intricacies of the emotions in each scene (different types of anger, different ways of sulking, different types of happy, different types of crying), making it somewhat different from my ambulance where things had to move more quickly to keep up with the speed of a tv drama

the interviewer asked “how does having two male leads change how you work?” and p’boss said there’s nothing different in the way you build chemistry between the two characters because you would just pull from their personalities, but the difference is in the conflict of the story which involves confusion and questioning about sexual orientation which a straight couple wouldn’t go through

p’boss: “when we think about how teh is the kind of person who doesn’t say what he’s thinking, or how oh-aew is the kind of person who’s upfront, anyone can play those roles--women, men, gay people, trans people can all have these roles.”

the interviewer said “itsay seems to be expanding the scope of lgbtq narratives by presenting it as easier for the characters to come out and say they love someone of the same sex. for example, especially compared to love of siam where the kiss scene between mario and pchy was considered something shocking, or in hormones, with the relationship between march and tou (phu and thee) where the characters spent a lot of time fighting with themselves about who they were attracted to. but in itsay, oh-aew was totally straightforward in saying he liked bas. do you think that’s because it’s easier and more open today?” p’boss: “i think the content changes depending on the generations, and oh-aew is really of today’s generation. it’s not that there are no longer kids who are confused about their sexual orientation or afraid to come out, even if ten or twenty years pass there will probably still be some kids who experience that. but there are people who are open and happy about how they live their lives. oh-aew is the type of lgbtq character that’s like, ‘i’m gay, and i’m proud to be who i am.’ [...] and it’s very positive that he sees himself as equal to straight people, because when we’re born, we can love anyone. if you’re a man, you can love another man and that’s a normal thing. that’s oh-aew’s attitude: i’m lgbtq, i’m gay, i’m proud, my parents accept me, and i can tell anyone confidently who i can love. i think a lot of people in this generation already see this as something normal, and we really need to make it something that’s equal. oh-aew represents that equality.”

p’boss on teh: “teh is a character who seems to come from older societal expectations where he’s a man, and he has to love women. but there are people who do still think this way. for teh, it’s hard for him to accept that he might like boys, but when he finds out oh-aew likes boys, he’s totally fine with it and sees it as normal. i feel like society needs to progress to this point, and beyond it, because it all has to be seen as normal. a lot of people when they talk about gay people they say there has to be a top and a bottom, but in reality anything can work, love can happen however. one day i could date someone who’s a trans woman, that’s possible, because it’s about feelings. or a woman who has always loved men could one day date a woman, that’s possible too. there’s a lot of freedom, and i want the characters to show that.”

they talked about how in the scene where teh pretends to hit on oh-aew in front of all their friends, the friends are shocked not that teh is attracted to guys, but they’re shocked that teh likes someone in the friend group. and that goes to show that it’s normal for someone to like someone of the same sex, whereas 20 years ago maybe the characters would have reacted in confusion or shock.

p’boss talking about what was challenging about making this series: “in terms of writing the script, we had to think about how to tell the story in a way that shows the characters’ emotions at all times. for example in episode 2, we explored the restlessness that teh feels when he’s confused about he feels jealous or possessive of his friend. when we say it like that, it’s relatable to people who know what it’s like to feel possessive of their best friend, but how to execute that on the screen is a different matter.”

why phuket? p’boss: “when i decided to tell a story about two boys, i wanted the atmosphere to be romantic. even if the story isn’t romantic, like two boys who are best friends eating together, but i wanted the visuals to be romantic that it looks like it could be a romance film. it intrigues the viewers and adds a certain sweetness to it. i wanted a good environment, so i searched in a lot of different provinces. at first i went to ayutthaya, mae hong son, chiang mai, chiang rai, songkhla. but when i talked to the team, one person wanted to go to the mountains, another wanted to go to the cape, another wanted to go to the beach. even if there’s a beach there has to be a city. we wanted everything, and phuket has it all. old town has a city feel, but there’s also the beach and mountains, so we decided to go to down to phuket while we were writing the script, to confirm whether it would actually work. i’m from hatyai, so i’m from the south, but i rarely ever went to phuket so i wasn’t sure if it would work.”

p’boss said filming the underwater kiss was difficult because there needed to be sunlight in order to capture everything in the way they wanted, but when they got to the island, there was no sun and it was about to rain. so they looked up the color of luck/success for that day and it was purple (op: i don’t have context for this so i can’t explain further lol), so they told everyone to wear a purple shirt. the day they went to film the scene, they all wore purple shirts, but when they got to the site it looked like it was about to rain, so p’yong took off his shirt and hung it on the boat, and as they were filming, every time they said “action” the sun would come out and every time they said “cut” the sun would go away, and p’boss said it was magical and that’s how it came out to be the scene we saw.

#itsay #i told sunset about you #boss naruebet #boss kuno #itsay translated

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bluerosesburnblue · 4 years ago

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Now that KHUx ending has been out for a week a or two and you've dissected it, I wanted to ask you how you would rank the various KH game endings, if you have the time?

Oh, wow, yeah. That's really an interesting question. I never think of the endings much, despite how important they are. Let's see...

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - The nostalgia's got me bad with this one, but I've gotta put it at the top. It was my first KH game and I can only think of two other video games from my childhood that had endings that impacted me as much as this one did. It's clear-cut and succinct, it capitalizes on all of the character development shown in the game while wrapping up almost every plot thread it introduced, playing as Another Side Roxas is intense... and I think it's the only KH ending that's entirely tragic, but that just makes the tone so much more clearly defined than if it had been a mix of emotions. I don't know if I ever would have gotten into the series if the ending of this game wasn't as good as it was and didn't make me desperately crave more just to see how the Sea Salt Trio's story effected everyone else

Kingdom Hearts χ - It's kind of wild that I'm ranking a browser game so high, but the KHx ending (also known as The Keyblade War questline for KHUx players) was magical when it happened. And the thing is, it wasn't unexpected but still managed to be engaging. People were freaking out trying to fight the Foretellers who introduced you to the world of the game only to try and take you out of it. And the ending with Ephemer and Skuld coming to save you at the last minute was beautifully open-ended, while wrapping up all of the storylines from earlier in the game. It went from intense, to sad, to hopeful again and it did it all with chibi sprites. And not just that, but the external community came together just to see it happen. It was really special

Kingdom Hearts II - This one's just very emotionally satisfying, finally seeing everyone get to return home again after a three-game arc. Riku and Sora have a nice character moment where they finally respect each other that draws on their earlier rivalry in a satisfying way, then Mickey, Donald, and Goofy rush over to the boys in such a sweet way, and we even see Sora finally return Kairi's good luck charm! It feels like it really ties the KH1-CoM-KH2 arc to a close, and then leaves on a high note of even more adventures to come. It's beautiful and it feels like an actual, tonally-consistent conclusion

Kingdom Hearts III - On the one hand, this one gets big bonus points for managing to deliver on an ending that saw almost every character who'd suffered from terrible fates get happy endings in a way that felt earned, and to this day I cannot believe that they actually did the beach party ending that had been joked about for a long time. On the other, though, Sora's disappearance feels like a cheap hook to continue the story when it really should have been focused on just ending the Dark Seeker Saga without setting up for the next game (you could have had Sora disappear in the Re:Mind DLC though, I would have been okay with that). The highs are high, it's just really the last few seconds that bring it down for me

Kingdom Hearts - KH1 is a classic, but its ending is pretty basic all things considered. The world is saved! Kairi gets to go home! There's more adventure to come as Sora, Donald, and Goofy set off to find their friends lost to the darkness! It's perfectly acceptable, it's set up in a way where if they never made another game you'd be satisfied with it, but it's nothing remarkable, either

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, & Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory - I'm lumping these three together because I feel the same way about all of their endings. They're fine, but they're mostly setup for future games. Sora's promise to Naminé is cute, Riku teaming up with Mickey and DiZ and choosing dawn over darkness or light is nice setup for his future arc, the Wayfinder Trio's fates are sad but make sense in future games, MoM has some neat lore teases... but all of them rely on the existence of future games to bring the emotional satisfaction of those endings so they don't feel "final," and thus not particularly satisfying on their own

Kingdom Hearts coded/Re:coded: It exists. It's entirely a plot hook. Same issue as the three above, but it has even less substance since we never see Data Sora again. The only real purpose it has is letting Mickey know things that the audience already did. It's not awful, but it's not good either

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- - It's not really a full game, but I put KHx on here so I may as well. I think overall it's fine, and nobody was really expecting much from a short side story anyway. My issues with it mostly stem from the contrived way that it tries to shove Aqua into the KH1 finale without actually changing the finale, and that what Nomura said the original draft was is much more interesting and leads better into KH3 than the actual ending (originally Aqua was supposed to break down in despair and cry about how she wants to go home, which flows better into KH3's Anti-Aqua storyline). As it is, the ending is tonally discordant with the rest of the game

Kingdom Hearts Union χ - I think we all know what I think of Union X's finale. It's going here, because while I think that most of it should be ranked around where I have CoM and BBS, the parts that I didn't were so bad that it ruined the entire experience of it for me. It's only beating out the next entry because the parts that I did like were better than anything that happened in the next finale

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance - This game ends with a tea party and Sora in goofy glasses, which is so absurd that I have to give it some bonus points... and yet it's still at the bottom. I can't get over the decision to have Yen Sid fail Sora for being actively sabotaged (while Yen Sid did nothing to help) while promoting Riku, who was not a primary target and in less danger. They both should've been forced to retake the test. This decision is so bad that I don't even care about any good that it does for Riku's arc, because it's not like Riku even uses the Master status that he gets from this anyway so why was it important for him to pass the Mark of Mastery exam? They don't even have the decency to show Sora being all that upset about it, even in private. It's just brushed off! And the way that Lea gets a Keyblade entirely offscreen is so cheap. DDD is the only KH ending that I would classify 100% as a bad ending. It's frustrating to sit through, and that frustration can't even be ignored because it has a major impact on KH3

#liz answers #mademoiseli #kingdom hearts #long post #btw the other two game endings that effected me as much as days were pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of time and drawn to life #both on the ds like days because that's really all i had as a kid

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jokertrap-ran · 3 years ago

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(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Event! SP Granny’s Tailor Shop: A Giantess can Fall in Love too! Chapter 6: A Flowery Ending (鲜花尽头) Translation [FINAL]

“In the end, Gao Ran narrowly lost to Xin Xian. However, despite not having won the championship, what she did win was the endless stream of applause from the audience.”

*Light and Night Master-list *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Join my Light & Night Discord (＾▽＾)~ ♪ *Event story tag will be #For Light and Memories

As night fell, the audience started trickling out of the venue in small groups.

❖☆———————————★❖

Having received a message from Gao Ran, I bought a can of soda and waited for her on the rooftop.

Gao Ran: Sorry to keep you waiting!

She appeared from behind me, patting my shoulder. She’d changed into sports attire, wearing only light make-up on her face.

MC: It’s finally over, just like this. It feels so unreal.

It was almost as if I could still see the mirage of the voting screen with all the tallying numbers. The audience all lit up their phone screens, turning the entire auditorium into a galaxy of twinkling starlight, cheering for Gao Ran in sync. And Gao Ran bowed deeply towards them till Xin Xian’s name appeared on the big screen and all the flowers and applause changed targets.

MC: Xin Xian… she’s probably the object of many girls’ admiration, right?

Gao Ran: I used to be the same too; chasing after the beauty that everyone else acknowledged.

Gao Ran: But he told me to throw away that pursuit of beauty. That’s when I can become much more dazzling.

Gao Ran: And that I will only glow if I am being myself.

Gao Ran’s voice was faint, but it was very clear, just like the dim yellow street lights at the end of a road, faintly illuminating the depths of the night.

MC: Don’t you find it a shame?

❖☆———————————★❖

Gao Ran shook her head, leaning against the railing as she leisurely stretched.

The night breeze gently blows against her long black hair, making it flutter in the wind as it too, disperses the gloomy clouds that had been hanging over her head for a long while now.

❖☆———————————★❖

Gao Ran: I actually feel much more relaxed like this.

Gao Ran: Back up on stage, I only had one thing in mind. And that was the "Fengshan Grand Ceremony".

Gao Ran: It was as if time itself had come to a standstill. No cameras, no competition.

Gao Ran: I heard the votes being tallied when the lights came on again, but I was completely at peace with it.

Gao Ran: I just wanted a dazzling stage and the acknowledgement of the crowd. All I want is to convey my true thoughts to everyone out there.

MC: And those things are way better than a cold, lifeless trophy, am I right?

I continued her sentence in her place as we exchanged grins.

Looking down from afar, Guangqi City was lit up with a multitude of bright lights, capable of lighting up even the dark night.

MC: When I was young, I'd always run to the rooftop and sit there for a bit whenever I lost competitions.

MC: Because it took a lot to get where I had gotten, and I neither knew what to do nor could I cry even if I wanted to.

MC: It was the same when I participated in the competition for the Warson Prize...

I went into the competition half-baked and missed winning the championship by an inch.

MC: But just when I thought that I was going to start from scratch all over again, I received an offer from Warson. Fate truly works in mysterious ways.

Gao Ran: God always does this. When he closes a door, he also opens a window for you.

MC: But what if both are closed?

Gao Ran sucked in a deep breath, looking up at the sky with twinkling bright eyes.

Gao Ran: Then you’ll just have to kick it down or smash through it! Who cares, just make a break for it no matter what you have to do! Break free!

We looked in astonishment at each other for a while after the conversation ended, laughing at how we both sounded like a pair of eighth-graders.

MC: So, how about it? Have you thought about what to do from now on?

Gao Ran: I wasn’t actually very confident in being a model before this whole competition came about.

Gao Ran: But it wasn’t till today that I finally realized that I really like this profession.

Gao Ran: I treasure every stage I step upon. Hence, I won’t stop walking onward.

Gai Ran stretched a finger out, drawing a circle in the night sky, almost as if she could capture and hold the world in it.

Gao Ran: I’ll definitely become bigger and better in the future!

MC: Allow me to witness it when that day comes.

Gao Ran: You bet!

The heavy clouds dispersed, paving the way for the bright moonlight to fall upon our shoulders, basking the world in its soft, gentle, light.

❖☆————— ⊹ A Giantess can Fall in Love too! ⊹ —————★❖

⊹ Previous Part: (Chapter 5: As Promised)

#光与夜之恋 #Light and Night #Otome #Translations #萧逸 #Osborn #齐司礼 #Sariel #陆沉 #Evan #查理苏 #Charlie #夏鸣星 #Jesse #For Light and Memories #女巨人也要谈恋爱 #A Giantess can Fall in Love too!

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mynumberfivethings · 4 years ago

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Hi! I’m new to this world, I found your account from your stories about five and ageplay. I absolutely love them, I had an idea I thought I could share. I’m assuming this is taking place where littles are known? If not, it is for this idea! One of the siblings plans a fun family event: a day at the circus. It’s all well and good, maybe they get cotton candy. But then the clowns come out. Little Five freaks. And that’s how the Hargreaves discover five is scared of clowns. I hope this makes sense!

the AU does take place in a world where littles are known! and awww that’s precious! this turned out a little longer than intended. oops.

Five has not so fond memories of clowns-memories that have to do with the Commission and a certain overly enthusiastic, overly bloodthirsty co-worker. He doesn’t like to think about the man or that creepy fucking hyper realistic clown mask he never took off. It’s all in the past, after all.

Or so he thinks, until Five is in his “little” headspace, holding Diego’s hand so he doesn’t get lost in the crowd as they line up to have their tickets taken and be seated. Klaus leans down behind him and grins, confusing the nervousness Five is feeling for jittery excitement. “I heard they use holographic animals in this show. Isn’t that cool?”

Five nods silently, his grip on Diego’s hand getting a little tighter as the line starts moving. Diego pauses to look down at Five, eyebrow raised. He assumes the kid is tired of standing still-they have been in line for a while now, he knows how much kids hate waiting, how cranky it makes them. “C’mere bud.” Diego scoops him up easily and carries him against his hip.

Five wraps his arms around Diego’s neck and leans the side of his head against his shoulder gratefully.

By the time they find their seats Five has calmed down and even nearly forgotten that their might be clowns in the show-instead, he’s looking forward to seeing the amazing holograms and the fun light show. Allison waves down a man selling cotton candy and hands him the biggest fluffiest pinkest one on the tray.

Vanya chuckles at the expression of absolutely awe on Fives face when he holds the giant ball of cotton candy in his hand. “Oh god, Allison, he’s not gonna sleep for a week straight if he eats that.” she says, as she watches Five take his first bite.

Allison shrugs, already taking out her phone to take photos of Five as he demolishes the sugary snack. Luther, ever the responsible sibling, searches the inside of his backpack for wet wipes and upon finding them, reaches across to clean Fives face, once he’s finished eating. He’s sticky with the cotton candy, hands, cheeks and even his nose. Five makes little grumbling noises as he’s wiped down but lets Luther do it without any real qualms.

Ben buys them all a bunch of light up neon wands to wave around when the show starts. Five and Klaus end up play fighting with the wands until Vanya threatens to take them away after they get a little too close to hitting someone sitting in the row below them. Klaus sticks his tongue out at Vanya and they both laugh when Five gasps and says, “Not nice!”

Ben ruffles Fives hair lovingly and nods in agreement. “That’s right, not nice Klaus.”

Klaus rolls his eyes but he’s smiling too.

Suddenly the lights all go off at once and they’re enveloped in total darkness. Five grips the closest hand next to him, his heart thundering in his chest. Is this part of the show? He can’t see a thing. Is something wrong? Is it-

Diego puts his other hand atop Fives and leans over to whisper into his ear. “It’s ok buddy, just the show starting.”

Five gulps. “Ok.”

A single yellow light pops up center stage to illuminate a man in a top hat and striped pants and it’s clear he’s here to make an introduction. Five peers up, now curious. The show is amazing-an understatement, really-the animals float seamlessly over the audience and Five even got to reach his hand out and almost touch an elephant! Everything is bright and colorful and Five awes at the trapeze artists in their glittery leotards who swing from so high up.

Everything is going swimmingly, right up until a polka dotted buggy drives right onto the stage and out come not one, not two, not three, but four clowns! They’re not scary, Five tells himself, it’s just makeup, he has to remember, just makeup and silly clothes and too big shoes, is all. There is nothing to be afraid of.

Except that all the logic big Five is trying to put into little Five’s head isn’t staying in said head. All Five can remember right that moment is Charles from the Commission. Like Five, Charles didn’t enjoy wearing those ridiculous animal mascot hats-instead, he went the elaborate route of painting on a clown face before every mission. Five knows this because it was one of the few none solo missions he’d been assigned in his short time at the Commission.

Charles was a quiet man-something Five hadn’t minded at all back then, seeing that he didn’t have much to say to strangers, either. The targets were five individuals who had very little in common, except for the fact that they would all be attending a childrens charity event on a crisp Saturday evening.

It hadn’t been Five’s idea to burn down the building, and with it, hundreds of people-including their targets-but Five hadn’t been able to stop Charles, either, and that would haunt him for quite some time.

He remembers standing outside of the building set aflame, remembers the agonized screaming coming from inside, remembers the helplessness he felt, and most of all, he remembers Charles the fucking clown stood next to him, laughing so disturbingly that the sound of it would be a reoccurring soundtrack in Fives nightmares for years to come.

So when the clowns begin to walk into the crowd Five remembers Charles and it doesn’t matter that these clowns don’t have a penchant for murder, Five can feel all that cotton candy start to make its way back up his esophagus and the panic in him rising as they come closer and closer.

His breath stutters in his chest when he blurts out, “Wanna go home.” but the music is so loud that not a single one of his siblings hear him and the clowns are coming closer and closer and closer still. Without another thought Five disappears, only a swoosh of electrifying blue any indication that he was once even there.

That, the Hargreeves notice immediately. “Five?!”

******************************************************

“Do you think he went home?” Allison asks, already calling the landline at the house.

Vanya shrugs, looking around the stands, hoping Five got an inkling for a stuffed animal or something-though that’s very out of character for him. “He rarely ever teleports when he’s in his little headspace.”

Ben nods, “Yeah, I think the only times he does is if he wakes up little from a nightmare-he blinked onto my bed and scared the living shit out of me last week. Maybe something frightened him?”

Diego huffs. “Five’s been jumpy since we got here. I thought he was just excited, ‘cause we’ve never been to one of these places, but-” he curses, “I should’ve known it was something else.”

Klaus pats him comfortingly on the shoulder, “None of us noticed something was wrong, this isn’t just on you. Don’t worry, we’ll find him.”

They search all over until Luther calls out for them to meet him in a bathroom stall, where they finally find Five, huddled over a toilet, throwing up.

“Oh honey,” Allison rubs his back gently, “I shouldn’t have given you all that cotton candy, I’m sorry.”

Five shakes his head and when he looks up his face is stained with tears. “W-wanna go home.” he begs. “Please.”

“Of course, baby,” Allison brushes the bangs away from his face and takes a tissue out of her bag to wipe at his tears. “Can you stand up?”

Five sniffles miserably. “Up?”

Luther takes that as his cue to pick up the little and tuck him securely against his chest. “Alright buddy, let’s get outta here, yeah?”

Five nods, his fingers gripping at Luthers shirt desperately.

************************************************

He’s still shaking visibly by the time they get back home.

They quickly conclude it couldn’t have just been the cotton candy making Five sick that made him react so poorly. It had to be something else.

“Hey,” Vanya scoots onto the couch next to Five and draws him into her arms so that his back is up against her chest. He goes easily, relaxing minutely at the comforting touch.

Klaus comes into the living room with Fives favorite sippy cup and offers it to him. "I put some gingerale in there to help your stomach, Fivey, so drink up, ok?"

Five nods, holding onto the cup with both hands.

"Hey, you know you can talk to us, right? Did something happen to upset you so bad?" Allison squeezes his knee gently, imploring.

Five shakes his head, his breath hitching. He drops his cup and brings the palms of his hands up to his eyes, making a face and a noise of discomfort before looking up again. The switch from his little headspace to his big headspace is almost instantaneous.

His siblings can tell immediately-any softness and vulnerability in Fives eyes is suddenly replaced with a guarded expression. He backs away from both of his sisters, embarrassed. "Sorry," he says, clearing his throat, "I'm fine."

Diego rolls his eyes. "I'm calling bullshit. Five, you cried the entire way home. Hell, you look like you wanna cry right now. No one is gonna judge you. You can open up to us." He insists.

Five bites his bottom lip anxiously and folds his arms across his chest. He knows he's not fooling anyone. "It's stupid." He mutters.

"No one is going to force you to talk about it if you're not comfortable," Allison says, pointedly looking at Diego, who sighs and shrugs. "But, Diego is right, we're not here to judge you. We just want to help."

Five gulps and looks away. "It was the clowns." He murmurs under his breath, so low they barely hear him.

"The what?" Ben asks, leaning forward.

Five groans. "It was the fucking clowns, ok?" He admits, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "I don't...like clowns."

Luther raises a brow. "Are you...? Really? You're not trying to pull our legs? You are scared of clowns?" He can't help but be incredulous. Five isn't afraid of anything. Not anything tangible, at least.

"Yes, ok?" Five snaps out. "During my stint at the Commission I had to-" he cuts himself off abruptly. He can feel his chest growing tight. "Look, I don't exactly have the most pleasant memories regarding clowns and I'd really rather not talk about it."

Five is shaking again. Trembling a little more subtly than he had been in his little headspace, but trembling nonetheless, and his siblings all take note.

Vanya reaches out slowly, giving Five well enough time to back away. She rests her hand above his shoulder. "C'mere." She nudges him softly and is surprised when Five actually lets himself be pulled into her arms without any qualms.

Five turns so that his face is hidden against Vanyas neck, he hunches over, making himself all the smaller. "Sorry I ruined our day out." He mutters.

"Nonsense!" Klaus exclaims. "We left early and skipped out on all the traffic, not to mention all of Allison's road rage."

Allison playfully smacks Klaus' arm. "I do not have road rage!"

Five huffs out what sounds like a laugh. He sits up but sticks close to his siblings this time, wiping at his face with his sleeve. "You do, though."

"See? Told you." Klaus sticks his tongue out at her.

"Hush, at least I can drive," Allison waves him away. "You have no room to criticize here."

Klaus gasps, as though offended. "Gays can't drive, everyone knows that. Way to be insensitive." He can feel Ben's eyes rolling even if he can't see him.

Vanya hums. "I mean, I can drive, so..."

"Betrayal," Klaus shakes his head. "Betrayal of the highest kind Vanya. Truly."

This devolves quickly into the Hargreeves arguing over who in fact is the best driver in the family.

Five lets himself curl up on the couch between Vanya and Diego. He listens and sometimes even interjects as the bickering ensues among his siblings, the tightness in his chest slowly loosening.

#tua #five hargreeves #hargreeves siblings #hargreeves family #ask #answered #number five #little!five #five is a little #littles exist #AU #long post

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green-writes-sanderssides · 4 years ago

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You know the loving Virgil hcs? Well I'm awake at 4 am you know what that means??

Roman stans it's YOUR TURN let's get some LOVE UP IN THIS PRINCE

Once again can be interpreted as romantic platonic queerplatonic whatever but we all know Roman’s a gay disaster so LET’S GO

Thomas

Once he finally realizes how fucking INSECURE roman is he's like

Alright. Time to get this man some self care

So. Many. Improv sessions.

They'll have the other sides as an audience and sometimes they'll give prompts

Every time by the end of it Thomas and Roman are just laughing their asses off

They'll have brainstorming sessions together and get each other super hyped up the energy is RIDICULOUS

Then Thomas will be like "Roman you're a GENIUS!"

And god Roman just. Beams. Just that one compliment got him as happy as he was when Thomas was in a Disney show

Whenever Thomas suddenly feels insecure he immediately checks in on Roman

Sometimes this leads to face masks and relaxation and other times they just collapse on the couch together and try to get through it with a nap

But no matter what, they have each other to get through it with

Patton

Patton ends up the one praising him the most he just wants his boy to be HAPPY okay

But it doesn't really take cause Roman doesn't quite believe it

He thinks that's just Patton being a Dad(TM) and pitying him and Patton's gotta be like. No. I mean all of it.

They have to have a talk and Roman does not enjoy addressing all of his insecurities so directly, but by the end of it he's openly weeping in Patton's arms

Roman has always loved Patton’s room

He goes there when he needs a reminder of everything they’ve accomplished

Patton didn’t realize why Roman was doing it before, but now every time he finds Roman in there he reminds him that the future is just as bright

They reminisce together AND talk about everything to come

They both love to cuddle but they’re also both big spoons so they fight about who gets to hold the other

Patton usually wins because Roman secretly loves to be held as well

Patton likes to make flower crowns and he makes them for Roman the most

“A flower crown for a flowering prince!”

From then on Roman makes Patton so many damn flowers it’s ridiculous

There’s blue and pink flowers all over the house because there’s no more space for them in Patton’s room

#flowerboys

Logan

Their arguments turn into Logan aggressively praising Roman

“YOUR WORK IS AMAZING YOU GODDAMN IDIOT”

Despite this Roman still tries so hard to impress him

At some point Logan slips and says Roman already impresses him plenty and Roman’s like

What.

“I said you already impress me, Roman. Your creative ideas and dedication to your work is impeccable.”

Roman.exe has stopped responding

No but seriously Roman starts crying and Logan has no idea what to do

They have an awkward but nice hug

After that Logan does his best to throw in casual compliments on any of Ro’s work

Neither of them realized how much Roman needed specifically Logan to praise him

Look I’m not TRYING to make this gay this is just CANON

Roman starts actively coming to Logan to show off his work, always beaming with pride and a little nervous energy

Logan learns to only critique him if he asks for it, and they work together to make wonderful things

Virgil

He was the first to pick up on how insecure Roman was back before he was accepted

He never did anything about it because he assumed Ro wouldn’t care about his opinion

Lol yeah no he was very wrong and he didn’t realize that until the 12 Days of Christmas fiasco

The first time Virgil compliments him it’s just like “hey that’s a cool drawing” and Ro just freezes

“...You think so?”

Virgil realizes he has a lot of work to do but Roman deSERVES IT

Hey remember in the loving Virgil hcs I said Virge is just as protective over Roman?

Yeah when he hears about what happened in POF he’s ready to kill a snake

Of course that doesn’t happen and things turn out fine but the point is Virgil. will. kill. for. Roman.

Even Remus learns to fear Virgil’s wraith when it comes to Ro

When Roman realizes this he’s like okay but why?

“I don’t know. You just... deserve it?”

Truth is Virgil knows all the dark sides (including himself) have unfairly targeted him over the years and he wants to make sure that never happens again

All Roman can do is smile, thank him, and promise Virgil that he will always protect him, too

I’m sorry y’all I’m too soft for these two

Janus

Out of everyone, Janus has the most work to do

He screwed up the moment he used Roman’s insecurities against him

When he’s accepted fully, Roman admits that he may never fully trust him, but he can at least value his input

While that would be enough for Janus, he doesn’t give up that easily

He first asks Virgil for advice and he’s like “Have you considered HAVING AN HONEST CONVERSATION WITH HIM?”

“Yeah but he won’t trust my word”

Virgil, the master of seeing through Janus’s bullshit, comes with a genius idea

So they go to Roman and teach him how to tell when Janus lies

It goes surprisingly well

Janus: “I’ve always admired you, Roman.”

Roman: “I don’t get it. He didn’t show any tells that time.”

Virgil: “That’s because he’s tELLING THE TRUTH YOU IDIOT”

Roman.exe has stopped responding pt.2

Now every time Janus lies Roman goes “That’s a lie~” in a sing-song voice

Janus would be annoyed but he can’t help finding it endearing

“You’re absolutely hideous. I find your work just appalling. I don’t love you-”

“JANUS PLEASE-”

Okay this is getting too long Janus and Roman are just too powerful rijvnrfv

Remus (do not tag as ship)

This is where I start crying

It’s Roman who reaches out to Remus. It’s the hardest thing he has ever had to do.

He apologizes for abandoning him, for not understanding him, for being a bad brother

Remus doesn’t take it seriously. He doesn’t know how to take anything seriously, but Roman is insistent

“But that’s just our dynamic! The good and evil twins!”

“It doesn’t have to be, Reem”

The nickname brings him back to their childhood, and Remus gets angry

Roman listens and takes the yelling, and by the end of it Remus is crying and collapsing into Roman’s arms

It takes work on both sides. Remus has forgotten how to treat Roman like a brother, and Roman has forgotten how to interact with Remus in general

But this is about loving Roman so let’s get back to that

Remus loves to tackle hug Roman

He calls it “glomping” just to annoy him and Ro nearly murders him every time

“THIS ISN’T THE EARLY 2000′s ANYMORE PLEASE STOP”

Half of their dynamic is trying to kill each other but in a loving way

The pranks. Oh gods poor Janus cause you know they target him

Who else are they gonna prank? Virgil is flight or fight, Logan doesn’t have fun reactions, and Patton is too sweet. Sorry Janus get PRANK’D

Remus used to be so good at comforting him and the day Roman comes to him again for that same comfort it’s so hard for Remus not to just break down crying

Roman has a nightmare and he’s like “The only nightmare in your life should be me!”

Just... brothers, man. Let them be brothers.

Roman

He’s always been prideful, but they all see the difference.

Thomas sees it in the laughter of their practice performances

Patton sees it in the way he bounces about, always ready to take on something new

Logan sees it in their work sessions, taking criticism like a champ and striving to improve

Virgil sees it in the statements of confidence he always spoke, now with something much more true in his expression

Janus and Remus see it in his smile, the one they haven’t seen since they were children

And with his new - but not new - energy, he brings everyone up

Roman’s their hero once again, but not in the same way as before: Roman saves them every time he creates,

Every time he smiles,

And every time he gets to be unapologetically himself.

#sanders sides #roman sanders #ts fic #prinxiety #logince #royality #roceit #creativitwins #are yall crying cause i am #thoman #romas #loving hcs series #someday i will make one for each side

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in-my-head-i-do-everything-right · 4 years ago

Note

Hallie - “you had it figured out since you were in school/everybody loves pretty, everybody loves cool.”

you’ve had it figured out since you were in school. everybody loves pretty, everybody loves cool

Part of the reason why Allie even sends in that self-tape for that Disney show is because Cassandra tells her not to. She’s feeling rebellious. She’s thirteen.

Only then she gets a callback. And then a skype call with a casting director. And then another call but with the creator of the show. And then she’s across the country, out in sunny LA (it’s December, and it’s snowing back in West Ham, and this shift in weather is really freaking her out).

She gets through one audition. And then two.

She gets the part.

And maybe the show won’t even last a whole season. Maybe it’ll be cancelled before it even airs. Maybe she’ll hate her castmates. Or just LA in general. And, God, she can’t sing. Does Disney know that? Do they expect a music career out of her? Maybe this is all she’ll ever be known for.

But then Cassandra tells her to go for it, and then her family packs up and moves across the country, and suddenly… suddenly this is it.

Post-Disney, the first film she does is this small budget indie thing that films on location up in Oregon.

There’s a definite learning curve.

First of all, craft services sucks. Which makes her sound like a snob, but God, she is so used to these mini chocolate croissants available at all times. Like, on the last day of shooting that Disney show, she asked what bakery they were from. One of her co-stars had laughed at her like it was some kind of joke which honestly hurt more than the show ending.

Second of all, nature. As it turns out, shooting outside and shooting on a lot is a very different experience. And shooting out in the rain, which it is always doing in Oregon—twenty-four seven—is an… experience. But a fun experience. Really fun. Makes her think that maybe she’s doesn’t need the job security that Disney provided. Like, fuck that.

And, last of all, Harry Bingham. He gets a whole bullet on this stupid list because he’s the guy who thinks he’s somehow better than her because he got an Oscar nomination or something for a film just like this one. And he was twitter’s white boy of the month, something he is way too proud of. Like, he can’t even remember his twitter password, so why the fuck does he keep bring it up?

It’s really late and dark and a little cold. They’re sharing a fuzzy blanket because they could only find one and they both wanted it and when someone on set suggests they just share it neither could come up with an actual argument as to that’s a bad idea.

“You know,” he says, sort of out of nowhere, “my sister watched your show. I think she might be in love with you.”

“Oh,” Allie says, and she’s smiling at him. Not for the first time because, sadly, because he is way too funny for his own good. It’s upsetting. It’s not fair. “So, unlike you, she has taste?”

He scoffs, but he’s smiling too, very brightly. Maybe she doesn’t need the blanket. “I never said I didn’t like your show.”

She stares over at him, not trying to mask that look of surprise taking over her face. She’s just trying to picture him actually watching the show… and it’s not easy. It was a Disney show. It was stupid and immature and Harry fuckingBingham was most definitely not its target audience. She’s trying to picture him watching those commercials, the ones where she’d draw the logo with the fake wand.

Finally, she says: “Honestly, I wasn’t a huge fan of it.”

Harry lets out this light sort of snort, more an exhale than anything else. “Why’d you do it then?”

Allie shrugs. “It was a job. It was an opportunity. It was a chance that wasn’t gonna pass up just because I didn’t think it was some revolutionary thing.” She pauses, wrapping herself up just a little tighter in the blanket. “My family moved out here after I got the job. I was fourteen, and they gave up everything just so I could do this.”

“You’re good at this, Pressman,” he tells her, softly, and it’s stupid how much those words mean to her.

“Thanks, Harry.”

When they’re called back onto set, she swears his eyes linger a second longer than they probably should. That means something to her too.

They film a kissing scene in the rain, and she swears her heart stop for a half-a-second.

The director yells cut, and Allie can’t help it, the way she’s blinking up at him, a bit like he hung the stars in the sky, or whatever other sappy bullshit you feel when you start to realize—

It just didn’t feel fake for a moment there. On Disney, everything felt fake. She’s just not used to things being this natural.

(There are two fuzzy blankets waiting for them off set. They still share.)

Shooting ends on a Tuesday, and they fly back down to LA together on a studio provided jet.

Harry spends the flight tossing popcorn at her while she tries to watch Notting Hill.

“You’re being obnoxious, Bingham,” she says, one earbud out, turning to glare over at him.

He grins. “Just trying to keep you from falling in love with Hugh Grant.”

“Not possible. I’m already in love with him.”

“He’s old now.”

“Still hotter than you.”

“Not possible.”

“Verry possible.”

He scoffs. “And living vicariously through Julia Roberts isn’t healthy.”

“Oh, you know from experience, don’t you?”

“I actually met her once, at the Oscars.”

“God, everything with you always comes back to that Oscar nomination, doesn’t it, Bingham.”

He lets out this sharp, surprised laugh. She bites back a smile.

“I’ll introduce you to her one day,” he offers, it’s softer, more genuine than cocky. They’ve never talked about any sort of future, any sort of friendship that follows them past this film. Her breath catches in her throat. Her heart stops once again.

“I think I’d like that.”

She has a tiny guest part on some broadcast television sitcom. Craft services has those chocolate croissants. She wraps herself up in a fuzzy blanket and eats three.

She asks Harry if he’d want to grab coffee sometime.

He texts back yes almost immediately.

She wraps herself up just a little tighter.

She sits on the couch in Harry’s childhood home and watches her Disney show with his little sister.

“You’re even prettier in person,” Sarah tells her, almost unabashedly, and Allie blushes a light pink.

From beside her, Harry grins. “The Bingham’s have taste,” he says, his voice almost a whisper in her ear, and that makes her blush a dark pink.

“Sarah’s my favorite Bingham,” Allie announces, and the girl smiles and laughs and leans her head on Allie’s shoulder.

This feels a lot like family, she realizes, the soft familiarity of it all.

She likes it. She likes it a lot.

The morning Oscar nominations are announced, she wakes up beside him in his bed, wearing an old shirt of his, something warm and soft.

They lay in bed and eat chocolate croissants and wait for the call. And the sun hasn’t even risen yet—it’s so fucking early—but there’s something like adrenaline keeping her awake. God, it’s so stupid to be this attached to an award, a little statue that means practically nothing, but…

Harry lays his head in her lap. She plays with his hair.

“And if I don’t get nominated?” she asks, softly, carefully.

He stares up at her. “Then you find another script to fall in love with and do it all over again.”

“And if I do get nominated?”

“Then we figure out how to sneak snacks in the Dolby Theater and you write into your acceptance speech what an amazing guy I am.”

She’s laughing as the phone rings, and he’s sitting up to answer it. And then he’s smiling, smiling so wide, and that means—

Allie’s crying and beaming, and Harry’s holding onto her like he’s trying to keep her anchored, trying to keep her from floating away, and—

It feels a whole lot like everything was worth it.

She’s happy.

send me song lyrics and a pairing and i’ll write you a drabble

#the society #drabble #hallie #yeah. i also don't really know what this is #a disney au?#actors au #idk i'm just complete shit at properly addressing prompts #also. it hit me while writing this that WE'LL NEVER KNOW HARRY'S SISTER'S NAME #and that hurts

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introvertguide · 5 years ago

Text

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001); AFI #50

The current movie for review from the AFI top 100 is the most recent of the films, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). This was the introduction of director Peter Jackson to much of the mainstream American audience despite him having a 20 year history of film making in New Zealand. The film is beautiful in so many aspects, from the special effects to the cinematography to the sets creating the world of Middle Earth. The film received 12 nominations at the Academy Awards and received 4 of them, a feat unheard of for an epic fantasy film. This is also the only “incomplete” film on the AFI list because there are no other “too be continued” stories. There are some films that are first and second parts (specifically The Godfather 1 and 2), but this is the only one that intentionally stopped with intent for the story to pick in the next film. With that being said, the sheer number of characters and the intended incomplete nature of the film makes it almost impossible to summarize without just going scene by scene. There are 100 movies on this list and I am not going to set any precedence that I will be doing that, so here is a very brief synopsis of what happens in this film without diving into too much of the lore concerning the rest of the trilogy or The Hobbit:

SPOILER WARNING!! I DON’T KNOW WHY IT IS NECESSARY ON THIS ONE, BUT I DO IT EVERY TIME AND I WANT TO BE CONSISTANT!! IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS BY NOW OR ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE STORY, THEN YOU ARE LIKELY VERY YOUNG, LIVE UNDER A ROCK, OR PURPOSEFULLY AVOIDING IT!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED SO I DON’T WANT TO GET ANY NOTES ON THIS ONE!!!

So here is the general outline, there was an evil guy named Sauron that gave out rings of power to the Elves, Dwarves, and Humans in a realm called Middle Earth. This land is a fantasy realm that has a mix of Dark Age castles mixed with monsters and human like races. It looks strangely like New Zealand through a lot of the country side. Coincidence I am sure. Anyway, Sauron tricked the different races because he kept for himself one ring to rule them all and bind the ones wearing the rings to him. This did not go over well so the humans, elves, and dwarves rose up and fought Sauron and his armies and were able to get the master ring during battle. There was a chance for them to destroy the ring but human corruption prevented this and the ring was eventually lost. It eventually ended up in the hands of a man that kept it close and allowed it to suck away his life until it was stolen by a small human-like creature named Bilbo Baggins. The ring was taken on many adventures (see The Hobbit films for this story) and it gave this little hobbit prolonged life, but it also became an addictive burden. Bilbo decided to go off and leave the ring for his nephew and this is where the story begins. I know, it’s a lot.

A wizard named Gandalf (Ian McKellen) comes to the hobbit village as Bilbo is leaving and makes sure the ring is left in the hands of the nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood). The wizard confirms the ring is the one that rules them all and reveals that Sauron is regaining power and wants the ring. For the safety of the shire, Frodo must take the ring to Rivendell, home of the Elves, to figure out what must be done. Gandalf has to take care of some business so some other hobbits - Sam (Sean Astin), Merry (Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin (Billy Boyd) - get wrangled into the journey and the group of four go off to a local human town to meet Gandalf and continue forward. This short trip proves treacherous as the 9 humans that were given rings of power had been corrupted and turned into Nazgul that are attempting to track down the little group of hobbits. Gandalf does not show up, but the group run into a ranger named Strider at the human tavern and he helps fight off the ring wraiths. With the help of his elf girlfriend, Arwen, the group are able to make it to Rivendell where they are presumably safe for the time being.

A meeting is held at Rivendell and representatives of the different races all show up to decide what must be done. The ring must be destroyed so a fellowship to transfer the ring to Mount Doom is formed. It is made up of the four hobbits, Gandalf the wizard, an elf named Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Strider the Ranger who is actually a human king named Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson), a dwarf named Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and another human named Boromir (Sean Bean). I have seen enough movies with Sean Bean as a side character to know that he is for sure going to die. It is only a matter of when.

So the group heads off toward Mount Doom and initially start by taking a path through snowy mountains but have to turn back and instead decide to go under the mountains. The dwarf is excited because he can visit his cousin who is king under the mountain. Alas, all they find is skeletons and an evil race created by Sauron called orcs. This race also seems to have other evil creatures enslaved including a cave troll. The Fellowship is chased through the bowels of the mountain until the orcs suddenly back off and the group finds something even worse, an ancient evil called a Balrog. Gandalf takes on the creature at a stone bridge and screams the now memed words “You shall not pass!” The Balrog falls into a pit but drags Gandalf down as well, reducing the number in the group by one wizard.

The group mourns the loss very briefly (and dramatically) before traveling to an elven forest where Frodo is told by a queen that he will have to take on the quest alone and that one of the fellowship will betray him. They continue on and it turns out that a wizard named Saruman that was corrupted by Sauron (confusingly close in name, I know), has created super buff orcs called Uruk-hai (pronounced “Orick Eye” all blended together) to hunt down the party. Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo but immediately makes up for it by sacrificing himself to protect the hobbits from the super orcs. Sean Bean was kind of a bad guy and was killed. What a surprise. That actor really needs to find different roles or he is going to spend his entire career being type cast.

Anyway, Frodo and Sam break away from the group to go off on their own, the other two hobbits are captured and taken by the orcs, and then Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli decide to track everybody down. To be continued.

This probably seems like quite a short synopsis for a 3 hour movie...but legitimately the movie is a visual spectacle in which not a lot happens. Most of the movie is traveling, fighting, introducing the lore of the world, and introducing characters. Not a whole lot of plot progression in this particular movie, but it sets the stage for the second film to be nothing but battle and progression (an hour long battle of Helm’s Deep which is amazing), while the last one is nothing but battles and resolution of every story line. It is an incredible trilogy and this is only the beginning and it had audiences drooling for more.

In fact, Peter Jackson films set the standard for special effects for the early 21st century. His team took home the Oscar for best visual effects in 2001 for Fellowship of the Ring, in 2002 for The Two Towers, in 2003 for The Return of the King, and in 2005 for King Kong. No film series with consecutive releases has done this except Lord of the Rings (not even with Star Wars, Marvel, and DC universe films coming out constantly). The series really is something special. Attempts had been made to tell the trilogy as an animated movie, but no drawings could do the world justice. It took advanced computer graphics, motion capture technology, an expansive New Zealand countryside, a quirky director that had envisioned this world his whole life, and a dedicated cast and crew that was fully committed to the project. It is an amazing piece of filming.

If I have any complaints, it is that there is some really corny drama. The amount of times that Elijah Wood overacts in pain or despair is more digits than I have. Especially when the group is mourning the loss of Gandalf...it is kind of embarrassing. It is that “inconsolable parent who lost a child” acting with scream crying and shouts of “Noooooo!” It is all the hobbits, too, which doesn’t help that they are the size of children and are having a despair tantrum. Luckily they keep going and that is a one minute scene, but still it is embarrassing. Also, Frodo is stabbed and presumed dead twice. I can see why there were no nominations for best actor because it was not the best acting.

It is all made up for by the incredible battles. For me, it is the chase under the mountain with the orcs and the cave troll and the balrog. That is about 30 minutes of constant fight or flight that left me short of breath. I realized I kept forgetting to breath I was so mesmerized by the constant intensity. There is also a good amount of comedy since the hobbits are generally peaceful farmers and they don’t know how to (or want to) have adventures and keep messing things up. Pippin and Merry keep touching things that they shouldn’t and it brings all kinds of trouble. I think it is one of them that knocks some armor into a well that catches the attention of the orcs under the mountain.

Two specific scenes that I found memorable in that they are burned into my brain forever were the Nazgul fight and the appearance of the cave troll. The Nazgul are absolutely terrifying in that they have no face and have only one intent: kill whatever they are hunting. A good comparison would be to Dementors in the Harry Potter universe. The Nazgul are like Dementors with swords and armor. What is worse, Frodo can use the one ring to make him invisible, but it puts a target on him for the Nazgul and they come straight for him. They idea that you can’t hide from this evil and attempting to will make you stand out more is kind of horrific. I found the Nazgul truly disturbing. The cave troll is just awesome and huge. At no point was I worried for the team on this occasion because the wizard, elf, dwarf, and humans seemed undefeatable. It was more of curiosity about how they were going to handle this challenge. The detail of filming all the actors and sets so they were affected by the troll made the huge beast and the threat it posed in an enclosed space seamless.

There was some question why this movie was on the AFI list and the other movies in the trilogy were not, especially with the third film winning 10 Oscars including best picture. It is because this was the watershed film that made the others possible. I got to see the film in the theatre and it was an experience like no other. I cannot think of a movie that had created such a complete fantasy world like LOTR and it made for a truly cinematic experience. I generally do not like movie theatres because people around me whom I have no control over can affect my experience and I am not normally willing to pay for that. However, the theatre I was in had tiered level seating that was graded enough so that nobody blocked my view and ample leg room that also prevented kicking from behind. It was a thing of beauty and I went and saw the other two films in the theatre as well. It was amazing.

So does this film deserve to be on the AFI 100? My goodness, I would think less of the AFI if it wasn’t. It changed audience expectations of what a movie could be and set the tone for the new millennium as far a big budget cinema. Would I recommend it? Please, I own it. If you come by my place and you haven’t seen it, then I will be happy to put aside 3 hours and watch it again with you. It is the easiest epic film to get through, in my opinion, and I don’t think you will be sorry to give up the time. Just a fantastic movie.

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ahtohallan-calling · 5 years ago

Text

chapter 20 of don’t read the last page is here!

masterpost

[kristanna / m / multichap / modern au with actress!anna and vetstudent!kristoff]

“I love you,” she said, laughing even though tears were still rolling down her cheeks, “you crazy, sweet, romantic goof.”

“Okay, in my defense, you’re pretty goofy, too.”

She started to laugh again, but then her face blanched so suddenly he grabbed her by the elbows, worried she was about to faint. “Oh, god, Kristoff, what are we gonna do?”

chapter 20: little pink lines

They were silent for a long moment, and then said in unison, "So do you still want to marry me?"

There was another beat of silence, and then Anna said “yes, with all my heart--” right as Kristoff said “of course I do, baby--” and then she was holding out a trembling hand and he was sliding the ring on and now both of them were crying a little bit.

“I’m sorry,” Anna managed to choke out, “if I’d known you were planning on doing this--”

“No, no, it’s fine, I wasn’t really planning it, it’s just, uh, I’ve sort of been carrying the ring around since I got it waiting for the right moment,” he said, his cheeks flushing as he stood up, only to immediately be pulled back down when Anna grabbed him by the collar so she could kiss him.

“I love you,” she said, laughing even though tears were still rolling down her cheeks, “you crazy, sweet, romantic goof.”

“Okay, in my defense, you’re pretty goofy, too.”

She started to laugh again, but then her face blanched so suddenly he grabbed her by the elbows, worried she was about to faint. “Oh, god, Kristoff, what are we gonna do?”

“Hey, hey, don’t panic, okay? You don’t know for sure, right?”

She shook her head, looking like she was going to be sick, and he quickly put his arms around her, pulling her close to his chest. “So it’s...it could be a false alarm, right?”

“I...yeah, I guess. I could just be really late from...from stress or something.”

“Yeah. So no need to panic, right?”

“Am I panicking? Well, okay, I am, but do you feel panicked? Like, panicked enough to--”

“Not panicked,” he said quickly. “Just-- surprised. And kind of afraid. And...excited?”

“...excited?”

“I mean. Um. It’s your choice, obviously, I’m not gonna make you--”

“I wanna keep it. If I am. So if that changes your mind about the marrying me thing again--”

“No! No, god, not at all. I mean, um, I know we haven’t talked about it a ton before, but I want to have kids with you someday anyway, so, uh, I guess it’s just...maybe someday is right now.”

“Really? You’re-- you’re okay with it?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“Are you okay with it?”

“I mean, the timing is...not great. But like...it’s not like I don’t have the money, you know? And after I do this Netflix thing in May I’m clear the rest of the year so far, so it’s just-- just, you know, all the press tours and keeping it a secret and actually being pregnant and...oh, god, I might pass out. Is that bad? If you pass out when you’re pregnant?”

She was turning dangerously gray around the edges. He set a sturdy arm around her waist and quickly guided her over to a bench that was off the main path. “Breathe, baby. It’s gonna be okay.”

“Sorry,” she said, her eyes wide and panicky, “just-- oh, my god. We’re gonna have to, like, tell people.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I...I guess we will.”

“Oh, god, this is gonna fuck up your clinicals and you’re gonna hate all the pictures and--”

“Anna. Please, just-- just hang on. You’re getting ahead of yourself again. We don’t even know if you’re for sure pregnant. And anyway, like-- I don’t know. If you are, then I’m serious, I’m excited about it. A little mini you running around? How could I not be happy about that?”

“But we didn’t plan for this.”

“Okay, well, I didn’t plan to run into you again and fall in love with you and everything that’s come along with it, but I still wouldn’t change any of it. And if this is happening now, then I’m sure it’ll work out, too. And...I don’t know. I mean, okay, it hasn’t even been a year, but you said at the beginning it all felt kind of inevitable, remember?

“Yeah. But I meant it in a bad way, like I jumped in headfirst to stuff because I figured it would happen anyway.”

“Okay, well, I guess that’s kind of what’s happening now, but in a good way. For sure.”

She set her hand over his where it was resting on the bench; he flipped his hand palm up so he could lace their fingers together, and she smiled. “Okay,” she said, “but what if it changes things between us? What if now that we’ve got this going on, you change your mind? Or like, what if we have a baby, and it’s really hard to take care of it, and we end up becoming like, that grumpy couple that shouts at each other in Target and argues about changing diapers?”

“That’s not gonna happen, Anna.”

“What if it does?”

“It won’t. I promise. Okay, so maybe things will change between us some, but I think it’ll be for the better. I mean, you’re maybe possibly having my baby. And you just said you’re gonna marry me. How could I ever do anything but love you more because of that?”

“You’re too good to me.”

“I’m not,” he insisted. “I just love you, that’s all. And you love me back, right?”

She nodded, and he opened his arms. She leaned into him gladly, settling her cheek against his shoulder and wrapping her own arms around his waist. “I love you more than anything, Kris,” she said softly. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You don’t have to know. I’m not going anywhere, not now and not ever.”

“Fuck, I love you. And me either, except-- oh, shit, I do have to go now, I’m supposed to be back already to finish rehearsal. And I...oh.”

Her face crumpled once more. “I can’t wear the ring. Someone will leak it, and then everyone’ll think Hans proposed to me at lunch and tweet about it.”

Ah, Kristoff thought, so this is what it’s like to be a tin can in a trash compactor.

---

After having bought three pregnancy tests as she’d requested-- “We have to be triple sure, Kris”-- and then going and watching from the audience as Anna made a cameo in one of Hans’s skits to wild applause, Kristoff was a bundle of nerves. The crowds had been insane enough that they had had to go back to the hotel separately, and he’d been pacing for half an hour waiting for her to get back.

He heard the beep and click of the door opening and spun on his heel to see her standing there, her face wiped clean of stage makeup and hair tossed up in a bun, looking oddly placid. “Hi, baby,” she said, smiling as she came over to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi, Anna, are you--”

“Me? I’m fine, really. There’s nothing to worry about, is there? I mean, people are late all the time, aren’t they? You can skip a whole month, you know. Especially when you’re stressed.”

“Okay,” he said, feeling some of the tension drain from his body as she slid her arms around his waist, “okay, so then I’ll just pack the tests and--”

“Oh, shit! You bought them?”

“Well, yeah, you asked me to so--”

“Fuck, no, let me-- oh, god, I’ve got to find out for sure.”

He could only blink in surprise as she jumped back out of his arms and ran over to fumble through the Duane Reade bags on the end of the bed. “I, uh, thought you were just calm about this. And that people were late a lot.”

“Yeah, that was bullshit. I tried meditating in the back of the car and it kinda worked, but I’d much rather just know than try to avoid thinking about it.”

“Wait, Anna,” he said, and she looked up at him, a whole tangle of emotions in her eyes.

He swallowed hard and crossed over to her. “Before we know for sure, I...I want to know how you feel right now. Like, the honest to god truth. Because I’m serious, if you don’t want to keep it, or if you’re scared or upset or...or anything, I want to know the truth.”

“Let’s...let’s sit down,” she said, suddenly quiet, and he did, sitting with his back against the headboard.

Rather than sitting beside him, she clambered up and onto his lap, cupping his jaw between her hands and running her thumbs over his cheekbones. “I will tell you,” she promised. “But now that the initial shock is over, I want to hear what you think about this first.”

“But it’s your choice, Anna. I don’t want you to feel like I’m pressuring you or anything.”

“I know. But I already know what I want. And I know you, and I know that you’re the sweetest man alive and that you’d do anything for me, including pretending to be happy for my sake.”

He winced, but he knew she was right. Her voice was gentle as she went on. “And before I say anything, I want you to tell me the truth. The whole truth, not what you think I want to hear.”

He closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath, and felt her lean down and press her forehead against his. “And I love you the same, and I’ll still marry you no matter what you say.”

He let out the breath. “I...I want to be a dad, Anna. I always have. And getting to have kids with you...I can’t even begin to explain how bad I want that. And if that’s now or somewhere way in the future, it’s gonna make me the happiest man on the whole planet. Which I still will be, by the way, even if you’re about to tell me you never want kids, because we’re gonna get married and--”

She leaned down and kissed him then, and his eyes flew open when he realized her cheeks were damp. “Baby, why are you crying? Did I say something wrong or--”

“I want to have kids with you, too,” she managed to say in between soggy kisses. “Every time I walk past the spare bedroom I think about how someday we can put a crib in there against the wall, and how we can do a little mobile above it and how we can paint it ourselves and-- and if I am pregnant, then okay, it’s sooner than I expected, but-- but we can make it work, right?”

“Of course we can,” he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her into a tight embrace. “We can work out anything together, Anna.”

“Okay. Then let’s pee on some sticks. Well, I’ll do the peeing. You’ll do the...not watching that part. And the holding my hand while we wait part.”

And so she peed on some sticks, and he held her hand after, and half an hour later six little pink lines stared back at him from the lip of the bathtub, and he was sitting on the cold tile floor, Anna on his lap with her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried in the already damp fabric of his t-shirt.

“I’m so h-happy,” she hiccuped, and he felt his heart leap in his chest. “But I’m so scared and nervous and-- wh-what’s gonna happen, Kristoff?”

He smoothed her hair back from her face so he could kiss her forehead. “Well. We’re going to figure it out, one day at a time.”

“Sam and Lena are going to have an aneurysm. Like, a joint one.”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” he said softly, although now he was realizing maybe he should worry a little more about it. “Just focus on catching your breath.”

She nodded weakly against his chest, and for several minutes he just held her, letting her work through it all on her own. He had never felt so helpless or so hopeful in his life, and now here he was, both all at once.

“What if I can’t find a dress to fit in?”

“A dress? For what?”

“My wedding dress.”

“Oh! Oh, fuck, I forgot we get to do that too!”

She laughed at that, and though there were still tears coursing down her cheeks he felt himself relax, at least a little. “You’ll be beautiful regardless,” he said, kissing her forehead again. “And anyway, we can do it soon if you want, before we even tell anyone, or later if you’d rather, and then my mom can help you alter the dress and--”

“Oh, god, I’m going to be massive, aren’t I? God, I’m sorry in advance--”

“Don’t even start to think that,” he insisted. “I can’t-- fuck. I can’t wait.”

“For me to look like a whale?”

“To like, be able to see it. Our baby. And feel it kick or whatever and know that soon we can hold it and-- fuck.”

Suddenly Anna wasn’t the only one crying. She sat up to brush her nose over his newly damp cheeks, pressing a kiss in its wake. “I could never do this without you.”

“You won’t have to. Not any of it. I’ll hold your hair back every day and bring you pickles and chocolate and-- and change diapers and fill bottles and everything, Anna, anything you-- or they-- ever need.”

She tightened her arms around him. “You’re gonna be the best dad, Kris. I know it.”

“You say that now, but when I lose all the pacifiers or mix formula wrong or--”

“You’re going to love them, though,” she insisted. “So much.”

He couldn’t help but smile. “I already do.”

#yall did your time waiting through the sad and stressful chapters so here's one that's mostly just love and fluff #i mean we're back to sad and stress soon but it will be for better reasons at least like half the time #drtlp #my fics

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