#it has been a while idk how i feel about this set but meh | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

inflammatoryfandomblog · 1 year ago

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okay. so voltron’s second season (”seasons” 3-6) were. well.

i have to say that i sort of vastly preferred the first production block. i definitely think the show was more in its element with the episodic “defeat zarcon” stuff than with... to be honest, i have no idea what’s happening.

i mean it started off pretty good. could have gone in a lot of directions. i was interested in the idea of lotor, whose ideology seemed to be a very good contrast to zarcon’s but still seemed to be a good villain. a darker side to the alteans, the fact that the lions can bond to multiple paladins, etc etc etc.

like idk, i know there are people that would take issue with it but it would have been kinda cool if various characters could bond to the different lions sometimes, and the relationship with each one could reveal something about the character. like maybe it would have been a contrast to zarcon, who was hyperfixated on the black lion and thought that because it was the leader, it was the Important One or whatever.

anyways this is called “inflammatoryfandomblog” and it’s time for the griping.

-> the plot is about quintessence, which... the galra empire depends on for some reason, even though it was really the druids we’ve seen use it before, and they were destroying whole planets for the stuff and using it to power zarcon’s little ego “i’m going to get the lions trip.” it’s kind of unclear what else uses it. and i think that’s like my main issue with this season/production block? aside from the S1-like episodes, it feels very muddled and hard to really get into.

i just. am trying to make sense of lotor’s plan. or haggar’s plan. or what they each wanted. or what even what quintessence does. quintessence seems to be like, a... theme-thing... for being too entrenched in the past and what you’ve lost, and so being poisoned by it is losing sight of the present by trying to recreate it. at least that’s what makes the most sense. it’s not, uh, subtle--but it’s not used well enough to relieve it of the Magical Bullshit feeling.

(this is something she-ra has over voltron; whatever plot magic BS happens is generally woven in better, thematically, with adora and glimmer and catra--but this just might be because there’s a lot less characters and she-ra very early on drops the pretense of being political in any way; it’s the type of series that’s very transparent with that--it says “yeah lmao our world doesn’t matter this is basically a basic family story with princess/scifantasy icing”, while voltron is very different in this regard, and so this approach does it no favors, because how it developed its world was a very good selling point for me in the first production block)

like “oh we just offer them more quintessence and they’ll listen to me” seems like a really bad justification for......... anything......... and idk if they even needed that plotline, i feel like lotor wanting to create an “inclusive/fair empire” is a pretty interesting oxymoron without the weird altean magic stuff. that haggar also unlocked. somehow. i wasn’t very invested in it i suppose; it failed to sort of convince me at any point of being true to the setting, which was a real strength of the first season.

-> i remember being miffed at the lack of shiro/lotor interactions (i mean, the lack of interactions sort of gave it away that this shiro was not worth investing into, especially since it was so telegraphed that druidlady was controlling him, but i was annoyed at the time) because i dunno, real!shiro and lotor could have built up an understanding re: being forced by zarcon to do bad stuff. generally the shiro clone plot is very meh, i feel it would have been better if a) the “real” shiro was actually taken to be some sort of trojan or he’s dead and the clone has to reckon with what it means and be an actual character or b) shiro’s spirit guided them and he was a mentor figure the entire way through, only getting back into a body at some point or another.

generally the entire clone plotline was just kind of worse than most possible alternatives to it, including having both shiros be alive and kicking. as it is now shiro is basically the same as the one from the first production block and can’t have changed.

-> for a second, since most of my predictions panned out in some way, that shiro *was* actually going to be zarcon all along. that would have been wild. similarly a very funny alternate universe is one where the gang splits the comet, gives half of it to the evil alteans and half of it to the galra and simply lets them fight.

-> i liked that the characters went off and had lives/missions outside of voltron (or at least, pidge/keith) and had a few episodes dedicated to those. those, aside from the early “season 3″ episodes and the fun one-shot ones were very enjoyable breaks from the mostly incoherent main plot. i had fun watching them instead of being like “hmm. so this is a Thing now” in the Main Story

i really feel that ultra-dramatic storytelling is not these writers’ strong suit. which, fair, i mean, i’m not a writer, but i don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they’re a lot better with episodes with some implications as opposed to long, serialized, dramatic structures as a group. i think it might just be a matter of experience; most cartoons until the 2010s were very episodic, and longer stories just have more production/meddling complications which are non-trivial, whereas with episodes, if something doesn’t work... you can just dump it. but episode-episodes also don’t play well with streaming. just kind of an unfortunate media-landscape conundrum there.

(note that japanese animation for example, while it’s very serialized, most of the time has the benefit of having source material already laid out for it. really the equivalent of something like that are like, comic book shows i guess.)

-> animation is really stellar and action is very good. studio mir is great. they always stick the landing.

-> i guess i like that they tried to do something with the idea of “the evil emperor is dead/gone, now what?” which is kind of a difficult plot to write honestly, especially when the main cast are transformer-power-rangers, it’s not obvious how to make them relevant enough to have the focus on them. (and in classic fashion, i don’t really like making suggestions.)

-> lance is going to get with allura nooooooo. i was really invested in the idea that he defects because of a hot girl. instead he just gets jealous of lotor. the sad thing is i really think they could have been at least good friends (lance/allura). the scene where allura replicates trying to flirt with the blue lion is really funny, and lance bringing out everyone’s goofballness would have been a good variant on his general archetype. instead lance is mostly Annoying and gets a few disconnected Scenes. i can’t even really think of a good lance episode this season.

-> pidge baby though. she’s obviously flawed (esp with the prisoner exchange stuff like wth lady) and like. the main plot is dead to me at this point. but i really liked her side episodes. same with keith etc etc.

-> predictions for next season (if i get around to watching it):

-> 1. sendak (zendak?) invades earth. “YOU EARTHLINGS DEFEATED ME LIKE A CHUMP... LOOK WHO’S THE CHUMP NOW???” -> 2. allura and coran start a cow extermination policy -> 3. everyone gets sent to a mental institution and they have to break out -> 4. haggar does some quintessence bullshit and tries to revive lotor or whatever. zombie lotor is horribly mangled and rips a hole through reality again! -> 5. shiro binge-watches all the series he’s missed in the time he’s been dead. he likes kdramas or wuxia. not anime though. -> 6. ?????? lance becomes embroiled in cuban politics. just randomly. (he’s the one who likes anime.)

#vld #reactions #me.txt #begone thought #maybe #i feel like it's really not THAT bad.#i don't really understand the fans' hate for it. to me i sort of got more or less what i expected.#i mean there are worse series out there that promise more upfront #i didn't particularly expect this show to be very Deep and the plot is blockbuster movie basically. maybe b-movie.#i like the action. i like the ideas. the main plot kinda bad though #which is like. honestly. most action shows.

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princesstarfire1234 · 4 days ago

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Are you still into RMA?? If so, which season do you like the best and which season do you think is the most lackluster? For me, I genuinely love Season 1. It got me a few giggles and it has one of the most tragic yet sympathetic villains that I adore. Season 2 for me is sort of... Meh, the first part is decent but I don't like the second part. Especially with the designs, Paru/Taru and Rose are one of my least favorite designs (Paru just looks messy while Rose just looks too plain) But it also brought one of the most strongest designs in the series, and that's Lefnardo!

Hello, ooohh haven't gotten an RMA ask in a while! It's more of a dormant interest these days

I absolutely ADORE S1 as well!! I think it's by far the strongest season. The plot feels well planned and fleshed out and the filler episodes mostly stay for the first half. The more you watch it, the more it actually feels like something is up and the characters are slowly finding out about it. Like, I can guarantee you that once you basically pass the Red Eyed Beast episode, you're basically set and its getting REAL.

Season 2 Part 1 for the most part was... alright to me. It's definitely no season 1 though. Same goes for Part 2 but it felt... infinitely worse? Not the most horrible way the show could've ended up but it just felt very... lackluster from what I've seen. Granted, I haven't gotten to watch the enter part of the season in English unfortunately (there's an existing English dub out there now on YouTube and it's been saved to sources like gdrive but I just haven't gotten the time lmao).

The story is one thing, season 2 could just never be season 1. It lacked the GRIT, idk how to explain it... Like it felt too light? RMA is not by any means a crazy dark show lmao but S1 had this vibe of 'oh! Funny animals playing games whose relationships with each other develop overtime and it's all cool and awesome blah blah blah!' while also being a little fucked up? As soon as the DV7 show up, things get really fuckin real and the latter part of that season remains my fave. S2 had Akong being a little crazy but I felt they never used him to his full potential, y'know? Not to mention the awkward cut off between S1 Part 1 and 2. I still never understood as to why they had two completely different stories conjoined in one season... It made part 1 feel rushed and part 2 just coming outta nowhere.

Small gripe as well, I didn't like how episode 25 of season 2 made us think we were gonna see the DV7 having prominent roles in part 2 (like how I've seen fans yearn for for years lmao) and then they only stay to get beaten up and only Rema gets to do anything substantial lmao. I think the could've acted as guys reintroducing and getting the running men more caught up with whats happening in Tree City. Maybe they've fought the Leo's Valiants multiple times than we thought and they train the RunningMen?? Idk man give my guys atleast SOMETHING lol, they were one of the most interesting aspects of S1 but the show seems adamant on never touching up on them again.

Another thing S1 had over S2, I felt like a lot of the voice acting and dialogue (especially for the English dubs) were... worse in season 2?? Idk what happened, if they got a different voice director or smthn but everyone retains their voice actors afaik, yet they all sound flatter? I'm not sure if this is just me being crazy or if anyone's noticed it too lol.

What I will give to S2 though is the character designs, I get you didn't like Paru or Rose but I thought they fit in pretty well with the rest of the Leo's Valiants (I do think Paru's head is a little too big for her body though and it messes up her proportions a lot lmfao). And the entire style and vibe of Old City (Pullulu place/dimension/whatever it is) is WONDERFUL. I fuck so hard with the vibe of that place, so colorful and fun, but the city sectors are littered with booby traps and are incredibly deadly like THATS COOL!! Also the Guardians (or whatever they were called, Ensemble & Hurricane, Vivache, and the red guy soz I forgot bro's name) were neat and silly! I liked em and the gimmick of giving powers to the team's watches!

- - -

Anyways this is getting a bit long so I'll cut it off here but hopefully this summed up MOST of my thoughts lmao. Might be a bit disorganized and missing a few things I just can't be bothered to think abt rn but ehhhh

I haven't watched Revengers yet (I do have the English dub saved on gdrive tho) but I'm sure I'll get to it one daaayyyyy ahshs

Thank you for the question anon!!

#most of my followers are probably here for transformers these days so i bet theyre gonna be mighty confused (if they even see this) lmfao #but yeah 2017 korean animated show i was obsessed with when i was younger and before all the robots took over the brain ahshsahha #i recommend the first season if anyones lookin for some fun #who knows maybe youll like it lolz #but not missing a whole lot if ya dont #but ye im glad to be able to talk about this show again #not the pinnacle of media to me anymore but still fun and smthn i like coming back to every once in a while!!#running man animation #rma #runningman animatio #rambles #star's asks

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bboisawesome · 1 year ago

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I just finished the 10 episodes of Dragon’s Rising on Netflix, so I wanna talk about it.

Just to let y’all know, I enjoyed it. ^^ I’m gonna put a read more thing if y’all haven’t seen it yet and don’t want spoilers.

OKAY! So, I finally finished Crystalized and got into Dragon’s Rising. My quick review of Crystalized was…meh. It was okay, not the worst season, but not my fave. Also, I hate Harumi so anytime she is on screen I am filled with rage. But enough about that, I’m talking about Dragon’s Rising.

First, I want to address the whole, “I don’t know how that happened but it did thing.” Such as Arin teaching himself Spinjitzu, and there being two fire elementals. (Or she has heat? I guess? Idk) Usually if that happened in a show, and they were like, “I don’t know how it happened it just did.”, I would totally count it as lazy writing, and I still kind of do. But I feel it works a bit better in this instance, because we are in a completely new world in a way.

If they were to try that in the regular world of Ninjago, I would completely write it off as lazy and stupid writing. They’d have to find someway to make it work or else it would just be contradicting to past lore, and I know Ninjago hasn’t been the best at keeping lore consistent and stuff, but having two elemental masters wield the same element that aren’t related would be a pretty big lore piece to mess up.

I feel that can be more excused with the whole merge. It’s obvious the merge has changed how the realms work. Some rules seem to be non-existent now, ((such as the cloud kingdom)) and new rules have been created. It’s not just Ninjago anymore, it’s a new world and some of the things we know about Ninjago don’t exist anymore. That’s why I feel this works a lot better. Even if it’s still not totally explained, we still get something, and that is that the merge has changed things, we just don’t know everything it’s changed.

So with that out of the way, I want to talk about the new characters, world building, and all that good stuff.

I’m gonna start with characters. And a good place to start is our new main characters.

Arin, Sora and Lloyd. They seem to be the main three. We have Kai and Nya, and later Zane. But these three as main characters provide a nice dynamic, and I believe an interesting angle to introduce this new world to us.

First, I want to start with Lloyd. Lloyd is a familiar character, a sort of anchor for Ninjago fans that helps ease them into this changed setting. ((The other ninja can also attribute to this effect.)) We all know Lloyd, we know his story, we know who he is, what he does, etc. He is someone we know a lot about, who is also learning about this new world that the merge has created, and dealing with the parts of Ninjago that don’t exist anymore. But there’s a nice familiarity to it that I think let’s people know that some of the old Ninjago is still there. It’s just moving on into a different stage of life, in a way. Lloyd kind of does the same, as he becomes a teacher, or a master. He’s moving on to the role Wu once possessed. Ninjago has dabbled about Lloyd becoming the new Sensei in the past, but I always thought it’d be weird if he became the new Sensei to people that already know Spinjitzu, and have trained for years longer than him. Sure, Lloyd did assume the role of team leader, but he never really went up to the same role as Master Wu. Now he’s finally going through that step of his journey with Arin and Sora, and we get to see him figure it out along the way. We get to see him use what Sensei Wu taught him to teach the next generation of ninja, and help pass the mantle over. ((Also, love watching Lloyd be a little cringe fail while figuring out how to do that, love that for him. ^^))

Next, there’s Sora. I think she adds a nice contrast to Lloyd, as she is completely new. She’s not from Ninjago, she’s from Imperium. She’s spent years growing up with the events of the merge, and she’s taken that time to explore this new world as well. Then her new tech powers pulls her into the world of Ninjago, as well as her friend Arin. She’s a wonderful way to help introduce this new world that we know nothing about, and helps bring insight to the main antagonists as well. I am also loving how close she is to Arin, in a world where they became abandoned or alone, they found each other! If there’s one thing Ninjago provides well, it’s found family, so I’m glad to see that carry into Dragon’s Rising. ^^

Finally, there’s Arin. I believe Arin is a nice middle ground. Unlike Lloyd, Arin is a new face. He grew up around the crossroads, just like Sora, and helps introduce parts of this world we aren’t familiar with. But, unlike Sora, he does come from Ninjago, something familiar to us and to Lloyd. He knows a lot about the ninja, stuff that happened to Ninjago, and many other things. He’s a very nice mix between old and new, and I think that’s a perfect representation for the new world of Dragon’s Rising. Also, I think it’s adorable how much of a fan boy he is, and for being self taught he isn’t half bad. I think I agree with Lloyd when I say that with more training and guidance he will be very good at being a ninja.

I also think the world building is very cool! We get some of the old Ninjago stuff, the monastery, Cloud Kingdom, stuff like that. But we also get new places, and we get the interesting concept of how the different cultures and lifestyles of the realms would interact when smushed together. The crossroads is a nice representation of that, specifically the carnival! Having an event for all of the different realms to come together and celebrate parts of their worlds was amazing. Not to mention, it’s also an opportunity to mourn what was lost during the merge. The merge may have invented a new world that provides opportunities for some, like Sora, but it was also a huge event that tore people’s lives apart, like Arin. Everyone finding a way to come together and celebrate what they once had, while also celebrating the new things they have is a wonderful bit of world building for the crossroads. You get a good sense that this is a place where the different realms really do come together, not just physically, but spiritually, in a sense. They come together as a community, some as a family.

You also get the nice contrast of Imperium, a place so bent on keeping things how they are supposed to be. They’re stiff, brainwashed, and overall just plain dystopian. Even it’s own citizens are afraid to step even a bit out of line, and it could be for the simplest of things, such as not wearing shoulder pads on a Tuesday. It’s very stark contrast to the colorful and wild world of the crossroads. Everything looks nice and orderly in Imperium, but no one is free. Not to mention the whole harming living dragons for energy thing. And the leader just seems very narcissistic. It’s all about what she wants, she doesn’t care what’s actually best for the city or for her people.

Then you have some of the other places, such as the part of the realm of Madness, and the Cloud Kingdom. We get to see how these different areas that are more separate have been dealing with the merge. Overall, it’s nice to see all of this setting being expanded upon.

So, yeah, I enjoyed Dragon’s Rising. I’m excited for more. I might talk about Nya, Kai and Zane soon, but personally I don’t think I have much to say, so I’ll leave it out for now.

I also would talk about Ras, since he seems to be building up to something more interesting, but I wanna see where that goes first.

Also, Riyu is adorable.

Aaand, I think that’s everything? Everything I can remember or properly type out without being confusing anyway.

#dragon’s rising rant #dragon’s rising analysis #dragon’s rising #ninjago: dragons rising #ninjago lloyd #sora dragons rising #arin dragons rising #ninjago kai #ninjago nya #ninjago zane #riyu dragons rising #ras dragons rising #words about stuff #a really long unnecessary essay

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pastafossa · 2 years ago

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idk if this has been asked/answered before but do you go to school at the moment, pasta? if so, how do you balance writing & updating :,)

I do not, I've fortunately graduated and thus have more time! I did write fic while I was in college, admittedly, but to keep the balance with all the papers I needed to write, I was generally restricted to shorter fics. I think on my previous ao3 account, the longest story I wrote by wordcount was 30k, longest by chapter was 10 but just drabbles. Which is hilarious when you consider that the next time I tried a longer fic, I just jumped in and now it's 850k words.

But yeah, honestly, I'm sure there are some people who'd be able to write something this long, this regularly while in school buuuut... I'm not sure I'd have been one, cause I don't know if I'd have had the time. Even now that I'm done with school, I have to be very disciplined about writing - setting aside time to write/research, sometimes delaying other things I might want to do, writing even my brain is like 'meh don't feel like it'. Which is fine! Because I actively enjoy the process, even when it's difficult. I love the victorious feeling of getting a chapter done even when it's been a fight. And I want this to hoooopefully be my job one day, so I'm happy to get in the practice. But I won't lie that it's time-consuming and in some ways like an additional job if you want to get that many words written, edited, and then posted every week. I'm constantly writing or editing in grocery store lines, late at night, during breakfast or lunch, whenever and wherever I can, and it takes up a good chunk of my free time each week. You really have to love what you do, and when you do set aside a chunk of time to write, you need to force yourself to write. That gets easier as you go, fortunately, as you convince your brain 'uh yeah idgaf if you feel like it, you're vomiting words onto the page whether you like it or not'. I've beaten my brain with the You Will Fucking Write stick enough times that it knows to go when I say go, I don't care if it's rough or messy or clumsy, just get something out and fix it in editing, but that was a hard lesson to learn in the beginning. But learn that and you will save so much time.

I hope these little bits and pieces could help even if I'm out of school now!

#ask response #writing tips #there's a reason people generally don't uuuuh update the way i do #it is *incredibly* time consuming and there's a lot of stuff I delay cause i want to write #which is a no go in college obviously cause you can't really delay the deadline on a paper #i know people who DID write fic like machines in college and their secret seemed to be incredibly skillful organization and scheduling #combined with the aforementioned 'hit brain with stick during writing block' until your brain learns to just GO #but i'm also aware some people just literally *do not have the time* so the mileage on my advice will vary and only works #if you have those blocks of time to schedule for writing at all #but if you DO then yeah the Force Brain Go trick is vital

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jeanmoreaux · 2 years ago

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MICHELLE PLEASE LMK UR THOTS ON THE SHOW WHEN U FINISH (IM ON EP 7 ATM)

LYS I PROMISE I'LL ANNOY YOU IN THE DMS GDHSDSDJKJKSD i finished episode 3 earlier today and my ambivalent feelings are still very much a thing. here are some of my thought i had while watching the first three episodes to give you a taste of some (hastily scribbled down) thoughts i had so far.

MALINA KISS 🥺🥹😭

i'd die for inej 🥰 she can do no wrong in my eyes

the editing of the fight scenes is.......weird??? i hate the slow mo stuff. like pls just don't.

the editing between scenes is a little disjointed but PARTICULARLY the editing when returning from one storyline to an ongoing one is often a little jarring. the feeling of the continuity is a little wonky imo.

having people go "CRIMINALS!" not once but TWICE when dealing with kaz and jesper 🥴 very much made me cringe in context. who thought that was good dialogue??? why have these people say that as if they have no idea who they're dealing with????? it's just bad, i'm so sorry.

the dialogue in general is a little stiff and inorganic at times.... the chemistry between characters truly is doing some heavy lifting, saving some scenes. the cast is doing A LOT (all of them, especially the crows—though i have to admit the scenes with the darkling and crew are a little 'meh' at times).

talking about cast, freddy is very enjoyable to watch. i am also beyond ready for kaz to enter his deranged bastard era 🫶 patrick's nikolai is really working for me too so far. i think he strikes the right balance. archie's performances have been great as well! that scene between alina and mal after nikolai proposes marriage in ep3???? SO GOOD OMGGGG <33333

not sure how i feel about a lot of soc plot points playing out already. i honestly don't want stuff from that storyline happening NOW. i thought this season was gonna be more buildup, but like even in these first couple of episodes they already went strong with the wesper & kanej stuff for example so idk i can see them going there this season already (not with kanej, but maybe with wesper) even though internally i beg them to NOT. it would be enough to create some tension imo. having these characters prematurely stuck in these soc/ck dynamics will inevitable change the ice court storyline and everything beyond that.

the scene with the crows on the roof watching the crow club go up in flames???? love it. peak cinema.

also i really can't tell what route they'll go with wylan (ultimately). but if they’re gonna go the uwu innocent little baby boy with no badassery behind it i’m gonna throw fists. he has a moral compass he mostly adheres to and is generally a kind guy, sure, but he's also a little cunning shit at times and i hope they'll lean in to that over time.

always love seeing the darkling doing horribly. love that we get to see him being his fucked up guy. i hope people can stop romanticising him now that they saw him cut off his mother's finger. if not i hope they'll get well soon <3

there is something bugging me about the pacing but i can't yet put my finger on what exactly isn't working for me. maybe because after 3 episodes it still feels like we're in the "set up" stage of the story. REALLY hoping ep4 will pick up a little.

#i'm gonna go watch ep4 now #excited and a little scared—especially what they'll do with the crows bc i don't like the direction i think they're taking them.......#anywaaaaay prepare for me to annoy you some more later on <3 #lys tag #answer #mish watches sab

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spider-xan · 1 year ago

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I liked Spider-Gwen at first, but then actually read the comics and they weren't. That Good. She is a good character in ITSV/ATSV, but idk I still feel indifferent about her. And she's been, once again, relegated to just The Love Interest by the majority of fans. Regular Gwen is Peter's love interest and Spider-Gwen is Miles' love interest. Nothing else. It wouldn't bug me if people weren't so obsessive about her, most fans are like "Gwen HAS to be there she HAS to we NEED Gwen!!!!" and it's very annoying. It especially annoyed me that people were drooling about the fact that Insomniac might (or might not) include her and make her Miles' age, so they can be together. Completely disregarding the fact that Hailey exists.

I like her design and all, but she's very meh to me, speaking as a woman myself. Beside the things I've mentioned, my biggest gripe with her that she feels like a completely different character and not a variation of Gwen Stacy. With alternate versions of Peter, while they feel slightly different, they still have the character's essence. The only thing she shares with the OG Gwen is the blonde hair and name, she might as well could've been an OC.

Yeah, this actually is p much how I feel about Spider-Gwen as well tbh! I actually do remember when she debuted and it was coming off hot from the massive spike in mainstream popularity she got after the first TASM film came out in 2012, and I think a major selling point was that her comics would explore what if Gwen lived and got spider superpowers - so I was surprised when I read the comic and aside from having blonde hair, a strong personality, and a cop father, she was basically a new character, rather than if 616!Gwen had a different life; I know a big Spider-Man fan on here wrote a really good meta post examining why Spider-Gwen fell flat for her that I don't have the link for on hand right now, but I remember it discussed the odd choice of taking away Gwen's science skills from 616 when that was a trait that set her apart back in the 1960s and would have been interesting to explore if she had spider powers.

But yeah, like, I would consider myself on the flexible side with adaptations instead of being a strict textual purist, but I agree that you do have to keep a core spirit to a character or else they may as well be a new character with a superficial resemblance, and that's what Spider-Gwen felt like to me - if she had been branded as Spider-Liz Allen or just a new Spider-Woman, I wouldn't have thought of her as actually being a Gwen with someone else's name.

And yeah, you're right that Gwen in general often gets reduced to a love interest who doesn't exist independently of Peter or Miles. (My controversial TASM opinion is that she's not really written as an independent character so much as the perfect girlfriend for nerds.) In Miles' case, it also happens in reverse where the non-Black fandom struggles to think of him as a character separate from Gwen, in stark contrast to how Peter is not treated that way by fandom unless they're hardcore shippers who only ship - and then yeah, you get misogynoir like people screaming, 'Where is Miles' girlfriend??', re: Insomniac Spider-Man 2 while posting a picture of Spider-Gwen and erasing Hailey.

Anyway, yeah, I agree she does not and should not be in everything, and it honestly bugs me when people try to point at Miles by comparison and act like she's on par with his importance when she's not - Miles was groundbreaking and still important to this day on a meta level bc he was an Afro-Latino Spider-Man who became THE Spider-Man in his universe and took Peter's place originally amidst a lot of racist backlash to that change in the (Ultimate comics) status quo, whereas Gwen is far from the first white woman Spider-Woman, nevermind the only one, like, no, she is not the Miles Morales of (white) women.

#asks #xan's spidey meta

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butcharyastark · 2 years ago

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Speaking of jcs, can I have a rating of the musicals/ different versions?

HOWDY, IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED.

keep in mind ive only watched a handful of recordings or productions compared to other ppl but i do have Opinions on the ones ive watched. [cracks knuckles] so:

1. biased maybe because i just watched it but the 50th anniversary arena tour (circa early 2023, there have been other castings last year ik but this year's one is the one i love). i had the chance to go see it bc it was in my state this month and its the latest one i've watched but it instantly blew away all the other versions i've seen. just... the great singing of 1996 london cast and great acting of 1973 movie and creative staging like the 2018 live in concert.... it had everything and there was not a single ball dropped or a single bad or even meh actor or song or artistic decision. i am usually not one to rec ppl to go buy a ticket to an event but seeing it was the best intro to musical theater or live performances i could have ever had and AHHHHHH. sm details of this will stay in my mind forever re: jcs i can't pick one thing to deacribe bc it's Everything and i'd be here for two hours if i tried. it has my FAVORITE ending of any jcs production and idk if any other production will compare to the high intensity emotions and poetics and symbolism combined with amazing singing like this one.

2. have to go with 1996 london cast recording. i havent seen it and idk if there are even any bootleg recordings of it, but the album is The jcs album i relisten to. fucking A+++. again, maybe i'm biased bc this was my first full jcs album (as opposed to random songs), but idk if anything else but the 1973 movie studio recording album can compare purely musically to me. i love how you can HEAR the acting in the emotional singing while also not sacrificing the singing itself (looking at you 2000 movie judas), and idk i feel like it so clearly tells the story in the tone even without being able to see it, and that's fantastic. every other jcs production in terms of singing and audible acting gets compared to this one, for me. this is the one i hear in my head when i remember or mentally sing the lyrics.

3. 1973 movie. carl anderson. first official filmed jcs production. 70's outfits. meta narrative. do i need to say anything else? this was my second jcs version i consumed when i Got Into It and man im glad it was. when i first watched it, it seemed kinda just alright (probably bc im not a huge fan of movies from the 70's or 80's), but the further time goes on the more i realize this is kinda just The jcs. the classic jcs. i said 1996 london cast recording is what i compare everything else to musically, but i feel like this version is the one that every other version has to live up to. simple question: is your jcs production better than carl anderson painfully crying out "he won't listen to me!" on a mountain in the desert in a fringe outfit as jesus steps out of a tour bus, yes or no? and most of the time the answer is no.

i'm not a huge fan of older movies but the acting and music in this is top tier, the costuming is fun most of the time, the sets are neat, and the underlying metanarrative about an acting group performing jcs inuniverse for a film or smth is rlly interesting. it's the only other jcs album i have saved in my music folder besides the 1996 london cast recording. 9/10

also as a judas fan this is also the judas i compare every other judas to bc... goddamn carl anderson covers every base. desperation and anger and righteousness and tenderness and pain and bitterness and longing.... he has the range. and honestly it's got my favorite version of Superstar so far. i don't think anyone else has topped carl anderson's version yet.

4. swedish arena tour (idr the year). amazing casting, AMAZING acting, fucking incredible costumes, great singing. the only reason it's this far down this list is bc i prefer other character interpretations, but like, the appeal of bisexual vampy switch jesus who flirts with most of the apostles inbetween his main love interests of biker milf mary magdalene and legolas-in-a-mesh-shirt judas... simply cannot be understated. pretty much every artistic decision is 7 or higher out of 10. it's a very consistently good production, and a very gay one. i like the swedish translated lyrics also.

5. 2000 movie. i think everyone knows by now how bad this one is but it's so campy and jcs is inherently ridiculous as both the appeal and the concept that it loops back around to being good. it's not my fave version but it was my third jcs version and it was honestlly rlly fun to watch. what it lacks in singing, it makes up for in acting. i think Heaven On Their Minds, Everything's Alright, This Jesus Must Die, The Last Supper, and Superstar are the numbers that shine here. i think this movie is actually my favorite versions of everything's alright and this jesus must die. i really like the symbolism they try to use in this one. ik i said i genuinely think the acting makes up for the singing, but this might be higher if judas actually SANG. or if pilate was less sympathetic bc i actually hate this pilate djdjfj this version gets points for being much less antisemitic than other jcs productions with the priests, and then immediately loses them by being noticibly more racist than others in the temple. also my favorite peter is in this one. his acting in the last supper is like 25% of my enjoyment of this version.

6. 2018 live concert. full disclosure, i haven't finished this one yet, but i love it so far. i love the outfits and the staging and the energy and casting. this singing is not my favorite and i'm genuinely not sure if john legend knows how to act or if they just cast him bc he's john legend (i'll find out in the second half ig bc i also didn't like the acting of the 50th anniversary tour jesus in the first half and THEN--) but judas does a good enough version of heaven on their minds which is my main criteria for judging a jcs production in personal likes and i do Love the meta themes of casting a real superstar singer as jesus christ given the themes of the musical. i like the dynamics between judas and mary in this one. i think judas is in the closet in this one which is very sad but his outfits absolutely make up for it. it is a spectacle and a half and i'm enjoying it so far. it might get bumped up to #5 depending on how the second half goes.

7. original concept album. i know it's very weird putting the origin of the whole thing at the bottom, but that's not because it's bad, it's just not smth i'm in love with as a whole. i do need to relisten to it--actually i will do that today--but it was really good the first time i heard it, i'm just not a fan of the sound of early rock and prefer the way various versions adapt the music in progressively more modern times. objectively talented singing tho and heaven on their minds goes OFF. i may have more takes after relistening, but that's it rn.

8. i've listened to a bunch of other tidbits of assorted performances, mostly judas solos, bc as i said, i judge a jcs production by its heaven on their minds performance and i went scouring through classic and modern versions of that at one point. this is not part of the proper ranking bc i haven't listened to them in full, but i wanted to mention them here at the end. if anyone wants a list of my fave recs of that to look into:

original mexican cast (1975)

original japanese cast (1976)

mexican revival cast (1984)

original russian cast (1992)

original czech cast (1994)

jesus christ surferstar (2003)

all female jcs recording (2022)

most of these albums can be found just uploaded on youtube or even spotify which is very cool, please check them out, i had fun skipping thru them.

and uhhhh there's all the versions i've watched in full, or mostly watched, and a few of the ones i've done neither! ik this is very long (longer than i intended) but i hope this is what u were looking for and was entertaining or helpful!!

#salute emoji #my post #jcs #ask #thank u for sending this ask i got to gush abt jcs productions #rlly hope this is at all what u were asking for fjfnfn

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msookyspooky · 2 years ago

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I'm sorry for asking but do you know maybe when you will post next chapter???? 😂😂 I'm so fucking exited for the next chapter!!!!! crawling thr walls, giggling, kicking my feet up

I'm such a fan of billy, stu and yn dynamic!! And I think the reason I'm most exited about it's because next chapter will kind of circulate around it??? Hdjeoeoe billy finally realized how much they care for us because of the almost death situation and stu I think will be a lot more careful around us because he got quite scared too! I know they will be kind of angry bc of our fight after Sidneys dad death but still!!

Also I'm literally so crazy about fights and characters being disappointed in others, so I'm banging the walls of my cage of excitement to see the characters find out we've been helping Billy n stu!!! Like. I want so much to the car photo get out!!!!! I really wanna see (read lmao) the look in Gales face when she finds put shes right!(I mean not really but after something like in her head anything we say is going to be a lie). I can see Dewey being the forgive but not forget type of guy even in this, but he will be so sad!!! I mean he see us as his little sister after Tatums dead, and he will be fucking devastated. And don't even get me started on Meeks! Hes going to blow up like a fuckibg bomb! Hes not going to be sad, hes going to be angry and betrayed as fuck, maybe with time hell listen to our side of the story but till then jdjeiiekendo. In this situation I hope b&s will at least be like "well fuck" for us, and if a situation of every surviver/killer of the woodsboro massacre are put in a room together happens, if they defend us oh godd lmaooo everything will go fucking downhill!!! Fucking love it!

😂😂 sorry for the question and the rant after it! Love your fic! I've been reading it since like the 15th chapter of the first book got out💗💗

Hopefully this weekend! I'm like 7k words in I just gotta add a little more and refine it (Might have to make a pt 2 or another chapter idk bc I was hoping this one would be the final for TT 😬)

No, I ttly understand!!! I have a whole plot in my head and it's urging me to keep going nm how meh I ever feel about this fic bc Randy finding out or Dewey or whoever else I have in mind will be THEE MOST angst ridden heart breaking thing that I'll read over and over after I write it 🥲 Randy and Dewey would be absolutely devastated 💔 And I'm still curious even with my own writing exactly how I'm tying them all 3 together 10 years later while making it beileveable

Thank you sm for the support I adore reviews like this 😭💘 especially since TT has been by far the worst for me to write! Not only did the first chapter happen right when my grandma died this last year that I was extremely close to but this year kind of sucked ass for me and having to write for my least favorite Scream movie with the heaviest plot in the whole series as far as these 3 together trying to solve their problems has been A DRAG. Srsly I never thought this would take me almost an entire year to write when I dished out Set up and Sequels within a few months. BUT I'm really excited for 4, Jill is one of my fav Ghostfaces and seeing their dynamic and playing out what I have in store for Randy and Yn and Dewey etc.

#Sequels was my fav to write bc even tho I liked doing Set Up most of it was just following the movie and I wasn't as confident in writing #thamk you again btw this was so sweet to read 🥰💞

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newx-menfan · 2 years ago

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Bishop War College #3 Review

*Spoilers!*

The issue starts with Bishop being brought to this universe’s version of the quiet council.

We find out Tempo in this universe isn’t a mutant but a human geneticist at Tucker Labs (and that Emma is aghast at her 616 self😱😂)…

Back at Orchis we see Feng…who just looks like a Star Wars General reject from Marvel’s SW line (meh.)

They talk about how terrible an idea it was to hire Fernis (it was a TERRIBLE idea) but that they need them to find “the Pit” on Krakoa.

Apparently brightswill can seep into the ground and permanently effect Krakoa (idk- It kind of reminded me of the mothervine BS from years ago… so I more kind of stopped paying attention honestly…)

Andrea is having a SUPER BAD week…but manages to separate her brother from Amass and Cam.

The info pages continue to be completely useless….

The Rockslide “pretender” protects Surge and the others (UGH! I miss FUN Santo😒)…

Meanwhile, while Bishop is searching for Tempo, AU Destiny warns Bishop something bad will happen in his universe(no shit Irene…!)

(Soooo- How does the recent “X-Force” fit in with “War College” and “X-Men 21”…? Is it BEFORE or AFTER AU land, that Bishop suggested bringing back Scar W? Am I just giving editorial AND writers TOO much credit that anyone has any f****** clue when what book takes place??? I probably am…)

Bishop questions who he would essentially be without strife and war… (apparently pretty boring if AU Bishop is any indication 😂🤣)

Bishop starts screaming at AU Tempo (Writers are REALLY doubling down to make Bishop the “crazy conspiracy theorist” lately…huh?), when suddenly a mutant liberations group bombs the lab.

Review:

Truthfully- I was hoping they would go “the original five/ Civil Rights story”…instead of this. I think it would have been cooler taking essentially the original allegory of writers unable to essentially talk about racism in comic books- to now more or less playing it straight.

This book is a fun race bending of the X-Men…with nothing to really SAY about it….there’s no point to it other than a “Wouldn’t it be cool if all the X-men were black”- truthfully I just kept thinking…I would rather be reading “Static” right now…

Much like the last issue- I started reading it… then set it down to do laundry/get coffee/ect… and just didn’t really feel motivated to go back…

It’s books like these that kind of make me wonder how the HELL Marvel CAN’T justify doing a Gen X REAL reunion book or an Academy X book…?

There’s a million OTHER things I would have liked to see- like even an ALL Black X-Men team up of Bishop, Storm, Prodigy, Tempo, Gentle, Bling! and Synch…than this kind of empty AU?

I actually think Wrongslide’s appearance really highlights a chronic problem with X-Books; none of characters really have ANY personality anymore.

Seriously Rockslide went from a cool fun character to…a literal soulless blob?

Like it’s funny to me that a book meant to HIGHLIGHT diversity…has characters that pretty much feel completely devoid of any personality…I mean other THAN kind of Bishop…who really HAS quality characterization in this book??

Armor and Surge are two vastly DIFFERENT characters…and yet in this book there is little difference between them. They feel like token characters meant to essentially pad the book instead of real people.

Even Bishop- what can you SAY about Bishop as a character other than he has PTSD? What quality moments have we really gotten FOR Lucas?

It’s the SAME with virtually ALL the current X-books. Storm turning on Xavier and the others doesn’t FEEL like a win because it DOESN’T FEEL like Storm AT ALL (also it makes ZERO sense considering YEARS and years of canon!)

Laura’s personality is basically growling at things and panels of her eating with her claws anymore.

The Scott/Jean drama just feels really STUPID and makes EVERYONE look horrible….

“Rogue and Gambit” just feel like someone plagiarized a generic sitcom from the 90’s….

Honestly- this is why, anymore, I am more excited about Nocenti/Claremont revisits- because modern X-books just feel lost of any real personality that continually MADE them popular. There’s no point reading these books for the characters…because they all feel TOTALLY interchangeable and kind of boring.

Predictions:

Knowing X-Men…we’re gonna find out AU land isn’t as great as it seems.

It’s like contractual that all AU X-Men futures have to be miserable in SOME way (except for OWL verse!)

#bishop war college #review #spoilers #x men #new x men #new xmen #Marvel #academy x #new x men academy x

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lostshitpirate · 7 months ago

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Legend of Korra S1 thoughts

So I literally just finished s1 of lok and wanted to like jot down my thoughts lol. This is just my current thoughts on s1 and idk how to feel about the entire series

Long post sorry

Spoilers for season 1

So I like it so far. I think it’s pretty interesting. Not the best season but I like it so far. I wish I went into it blind bcuz it might have been a little better but whatever.

The biggest critique I have of this season is the pacing or moreso how face paced it is. I feel like in alta we had episodes to get to know the characters and their relationships and the world while also building towards the plot. I know this series has less episodes per season than alta which is probably why the pacing feels off honestly.

I feel like I don’t really know much about republic city or any of the characters really. Like the characters have personality but I don’t really know their relationship with each other or any of their motivations or drives really. Things about them kinda get throw at you.

Like it doesn’t feel like any of them know each other since we don’t get a lot of time to see them interacting together outside of small moments. They don’t really feel like a team.

Also the romance is somehow worse than alta. Like the romance in alta was kinda meh not terrible but not for me, but here it feels sorta contrived. Like no one really has chemistry at all. A lot of the romance scenes between them feel sorta forced. Like it didn’t happen naturally. Also Mako is a little bit of a whore lol. Like he kinda sucks lol.

My conspiracy is that the writers knew ppl wanted zutara so they gave ppl korra x mako to make up for it. But that’s just a theory, a game theory.

I do like korra tho. I like how she is the opposite of aang and is trying to find out about the world and how to be the avatar. I like how she over compensates trying to be the avatar. I like that she does things with force and needs to learn to strategize.

I kinda wish her air bending had a better build up bcuz it sorta just happens. And a lot of her insecurities are just kinda sprung on you too. Also I kinda wish her losing her bending had more room to sit with you. I think it would give it more weight.

I also liked amon as an antagonist. I do think the equalists were interesting especially since exploring what it’s like to be a non bender in a more advanced bending world and how that disadvantages you is interesting. I do wish it had more room to build. Like I wish we could see how the equalist movement built over time. How non benders are disadvantaged. What it is actually like to be a non bender in their worlds society rather than hear ppl just talk about it. I think seeing korra actually see what it’s like would flesh her out more too.

Non benders in avatar are really cool. The way they developed their own fighting styles to go toe to toe to benders is really cool especially in a more technologically advanced setting.

The amon and counselor tarlock twist was alright. It kinda came out of nowhere. I kinda wish amon was just a non bender bcuz that would have been way more interesting and make him more intimidating. I also thought tarlock and amon were working together to systematically take power which would have been interesting to see but that wasn’t the case.

The ending scene with amon and tarlock was cool but kinda idk. Unsatisfying sorta? Like I don’t feel like we got enough time to really get a feel for their relationship. We kinda just hear about it then just see them interact in that final scene. I also feel like we don’t really get a real sense of amon’s goals too. Like just vaguely hear that it’s connected to Yakone. I think it would have been more interesting if he genuinely was an equalist.

I just wish we had an episodes to flesh out republic city and this new unfamiliar place. I wish we had episodes just focusing on the characters and their relationship with one another. Just an episode to breath and feel like we’re learning rather than having stuff be brought up. Just some episodes to breath and feel and learn about everything.

Overall, had a good time. Needs work. Would give it 6/10

#legend of korra #lok #just some thoughts #idk #lok season 1 #lok s1 spoilers #spoilers #lok spoilers #just tagging spoilers just to be safe

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the-everlasting-downpour · 2 years ago

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Misc. posts from the old blog.

Feb. 21st.

(responding to one of my messages) Only the last one is normal. Others are… meh.

care to suggest?

Let make Square a “soldier of free will” Like, he goes to serve on positivity and romance And then just gets curbstomped by the sheer reality.

Cudda could be more influential. So that he would lead others. But then sucked on hard one And dissapointed everyone. (He also can be finished by the news about others’ failures.)

And Blixter… “Hostage of the circumstances” sounds plain. We need a predestination for that kind of suffering.

square’s literally been forced to play with the devil. he understands that by his experience. he has no free will and is sent to do as required from him, otherwise it will end poorly.

cudda from the beginnings is a brain behind the operation. even before the events became apparent, he made some staggering progress.

and blixter ended up in this mess while coming out from a rich family. behind him is his bodyguard. he is a hostage of circumstances, as he acknowledges, that the bodyguard isn’t always able to save him.

…Yeah. Right. Gotcha. A bias toward ordinariness.

that’s canon. what can i do? i myself have destined to make a continuation while remaining maximally canon. in this set i can’t go any other way. and even if i could, i wouldn’t, as i know the canon. c'est la vie.

Feb. 24th.

idk how, but it got harder to write not, like, harder to write things down, but harder to create some good scenery for example, chapter 3 i made it? i did is it good? it is but it’s like some art house films with a 2 mil. budget - it could’ve been done better i’ll spend some more time creating chapters 4 & 5. maybe 2-3 weeks or so i’ll also look if i can make progress on other shit or not

A, So you are, like, tired of the project But not, like, entirely

yeah like, i have motivation

And then you’ll burn out

nah, i don’t bind to anything that much it’s like sex - you always need a condom

Mar. 5th.

i’ll not lie to you, but i feel bad about Alex and Reekis more than M.

I feel bad for how Reekis turned out and also Alex too, you were right, this chapter was suffering

fyi, Alex actually loved M., secretly. she hoped, that the relationship between M. and Penti will not stay for long and she could snitch him out of anybodys’ grasp. and M. liked her, too. and Reekis… do you think he wanted this? he was 19 in the day when he was arrested. he was naive and easy to manipulate. and so he was used to burn the church. i lied, that everybody got arrested. everybody ran, and Reekis got the blame. but even when he knew he will suffer himself, he couldn’t stop his pride.

I did sense something between Alex and M but rn my focus is on Reekis because he was like, one of my favorites and to see him in this state was sad (with the context of young and naive) He got on the bad lane of things, poor dude.

and also Eugene. not only he was the soul of the company - he was the one who gave both Reekis and M. an opportunity to make their plan work. my friend, with which i talk a lot about this project, said, that i should’ve removed him entirely, as he was nonimportant to the story. at some degree he was right. hence, Eugene got a simple death of being a victim of a mall shooting.

The moment I read Eugene died I was like “how is M. Gonna recover from this” He didn’t

if the gaps between deaths would’ve been more, and if he himself didn’t get beaten from those mysterious people, he could’ve recover. even for a man of reason and intelligence this totality can be fatal. and that has happened.

It was the snowball rolling down the snow covered hill effect

an avalanche, so to speak.

Mar. 5th.

how do you think, does the concept “the more simple the description - the sadder the reader” work with death of an character?

I don’t think so You can make an intense situation first, Only for it to end in nothingness. A simple description of death makes it dry, boring and somewhat usual

ok, i have Eugene’s death. i want to make it simple against the background of John’s death, for which i wrote the final scene of his funeral in chapter six and the opening scene in chapter seven, where M. deals with what the deceased John handed him in a beautiful box. and i decided, by design, to make Eugene a victim of mass-shooting in the shopping mall. the intensity is already there - M. is already suffering after John’s death. and there’s another portion of it added via Eugene’s death.

So, Eugene leaves the land after John, if i understand it correctly?

yea. a lot of time has passed after John’s death and after his funeral

Uh-huh… And you want to make the second death less significant But it has to hit M. hard

no. it adds additional dread to the feelings after John’s passing.

like, John was with him in the army, and his father tells M. about John’s problems and that M. was his only friend.

see: John (significant) Eugene (additional) Reekis (additional (Reekis does not die, but goes to jail because he burned down the church) M.’s group (significant) The attempt on M.’s life (very significant)

In fact, we can do without Eugene He doesn’t mean much at all

too late - i wrote the scene down.

Then why remove him at all?

it’s an additional scene.

and otherwise the collage would be unfinished.

Getting those symbols, eh?

this is one of the reasons. even if on the surface Eugene means little, it does not mean that he is not needed at all.

For me It doesn’t make sense M. is already in a tilt because of John So why does he have to be in a tilt because of Eugene? He’s practically a nobody

#The World of TED

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troubatrain · 4 years ago

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set it up - a. beauvillier

a/n: i started this idk 9000 years ago with three different hockey boys but i’ve never written for tito and this could be 6k words of absolute garbage but i think you guys will like it?? it was inspired when i watching the Netflix movie Set It Up, which I absolutely love because who doesn’t love a romcom. I wanna thank @nazdaddy for giving it a quick read like halfway through to hype me up you’re a real one!!

You felt sick.

Your feet hurt, your head was pounding and you were absolutely soaked. It started in the morning, waking up late for and having to sacrifice your morning coffee so your boss wouldn’t kill you. Then there was the workday from hell, skipping lunch to work on a project because your boss’s son had a brain the size of a raisin. By the time five rolled around, a storm had sweeped into New York, soaking the city streets on a day when you didn’t have an umbrella on hand. The subway packed, and by the time you’d gotten back to your apartment you were absolutely exhausted. You were looking forward to a night in, a glass of wine and ordering take out.

Then you were met with the sight of a pink scrunchie, sparkling against your door and stopping you dead in your tracks.

Rose was your best friend, and that was the sole reason why you haven’t murdered her yet. You’d lived with Rose since you were freshman in college, randomly paired up as roommates and you got lucky she turned out to be your friend. In all of those years, she’d been with the same guy who she met approximately four hours after you moved into your dorm. Cam was great, until one day he just wasn’t. Rose still didn’t know what happened, but after grieving the longest relationship she’d ever been in for months, she was finally ready to start dating again. Turns out, dating again, was going to ruin your life.

You furrow your eyebrows, rubbing your hand over your eyes and trying to remember if she mentioned having anyone over. You open your phone, remembering how you turned on do not disturb sometime after she sent you her tenth meme of the day while you were working your ass off.

Having Kyle over for dinner - among other things, can you stay out for a bit?

You lean your head back, letting out a small scream in frustration. You hear a laugh behind you, and you turn around to be met by your neighbor. Anthony Beauvillier was an okay neighbor. He was quiet, usually giving you some sort of heads up that he’d been having a party which was rare. You knew he was gone most of the time because of hockey, but you never cared to ask any questions further than that. One thing you did notice about your neighbor, was just how handsome he looked in a suit on the rare occasion you caught him in the elevator.

“You okay?” Anthony asks, turning his head to the side, “Are you locked out?”

“No,” You sigh, debating whether or not you really needed to drop this on him, “Rose has a friend over, and I missed her text to tell me to stay out.”

“But you’re soaked,” Anthony points out, pointing to the water that was dripping off of you, “Come by me.”

“Oh you don’t have to do that, I’ll just-” You start to decline his invite, but his eyes were kind while they were staring at you, an amused smile on his face.

“C’mon Y/N, I’ll get you some dry clothes,” Anthony smiles, opening up his apartment door and insisting you came in, “And I’m not going to cook all of this for myself.”

Anthony holds up the grocery bags in his hand, soft eyes and a smile to match staring back at you. You nod, taking the invitation inside because it beat sloshing around in your heels, “Thanks Anthony.”

“You can call me Beau if you want,” Anthony shrugs, pointing down the hallway of the apartment that was identical to yours, “My rooms down there take whatever you want.”

Anthony moves around his kitchen, his mind wandering about why he felt compelled to invite her neighbor inside. Really he felt bad, you looked like you were having an awful day and getting sexiled from your own apartment probably would have been enough to break you. Anthony was tired too, his body was sore from a rough practice earlier that day. Not to mention the team was on a five game losing streak and while Anthony knew he could be doing more himself, he knew Mat wasn’t playing up to usual standards either.

Mat was a mess, and it was starting to drive Anthony absolutely crazy. He thought he was in love, a random girl he followed on Instagram who he took out a few times. Mat thought it was something, turns out she thought it was something casual. Now, his usual cocky and charismatic best friend was just a sad shell of himself. Selfishly, Anthony wanted him to get over it because if he did then they’d probably win a few more games and Trotz wouldn’t have them skate until someone threw up.

Then it hit him, the second you walked back into the kitchen with his clothes hanging off your frame while you pulled your hair back an idea came to Anthony’s head. If you wanted peace and quiet, he could give it to you, “Does Rose do this a lot?”

“Lately,” You sigh, sitting at the barstool next to the island, “Her boyfriend broke up with and after she cried for a few months she decided to be single and that’s ruining my life.”

“What if I could help?” Anthony asks, raising his eyebrows at you.

“You don’t need to let me into your place because Rose is-” You go to tell him no - whatever idea he had couldn’t be a fix all solution for your current problem.

“My teammate Mat, he’s single, and honestly sad, but he does have his own place where Rose can spend all her time…” Anthony suggests, dragging out his last words to give you a minute to think.

“What if they don’t even like each other?” You ask, stating what you thought should be the obvious.

“We’ll just set them up on a few dates, I’ll give Mat advice that you give me and it’ll all work out,” Anthony argues back, “We’re in complete control here.”

“But then it’s not real,” You remind him, that if you told Mat exactly how to date Rose it wouldn’t be Mat dating Rose at all.

“Does it matter?” Anthony asks, “You get a quiet apartment and my team gets a few wins, “What's the harm?”

“The harm is our friend's feelings,” You say, your hands in the air while you continued to talk. You were stopped by a ding on your phone, a text from Rose giving you a fair warning that her friend was staying over. You roll your eyes, “You know what - fine.”

“Really? You’re in?”

“Don’t make me regret this.”

***

You didn’t know why Anthony had you meeting him at the coffee shop just a few blocks away from your building, but judging by the all black outfit he was sporting, something told you that it was because he was taking this set up thing too seriously.

“Are we spies now?” You ask, slipping into the chair and crossing your arms, “Because if we are you aren’t doing a very good job.”

“I’m not doing a good job? You’re wearing yellow,” Anthony says, “You could not be any more obvious.”

“Whatever, when’s Mat going to get here?” You ask, grabbing the coffee Anthony had waiting for you.

The plan was simple, Anthony knew that Mat knew who Rose was to some capacity, because Mat had told his friend on more than one occasion about how hot his neighbors were. So, you were both going to force them to actually speak to each other. Anthony suggested just telling them that you were setting them up on a date, but you insisted that if this was going to work they would have to think this happened without the will of the two of you. So you both invited them to the same place, and after you both conveniently miss your plans they would have to run into eachother.

“He should be here soon, I tipped the barista $40 to mix up their coffees and let us watch from their kitchen,” Anthony explains, holding up to his end of the plan, “Which by the way, was way more than I think they would have taken.”

“Oh I’m sure you’ll be okay,” You roll your eyes, reminding him that you were living with Rose to keep your rent down while Anthony could live alone comfortably, “Shit, I see them.”

You both got up, sneaking into the back where the barista who was working just shook her head at the two of you. You peek out, watching the scene unfold in front of you. Anthony wraps his arm around your chest, pulling you back into him, “I swear if you get caught.”

You try to push the thought about how good Anthony smelled, or how nice his arm felt around you while you tried to focus on Rose who just grabbed Mat’s coffee by accident. Mat tells her it’s his, a joke about how familiar she looked following shortly after. Their conversation was brief, and for a minute you thought maybe it wasn’t going to work. Then you saw Mat slip his phone out of his pocket, holding it out for Rose to take.

“Oh my god, it’s working,” You exclaim, Anthony’s hand flying over your mouth immediately. He mumbled something in French, and there was no way you were going to be able to make it out. Anthony’s phone dings, and he pulls it out to show a text from Mat sent promptly after Rose was out of the cafe.

I think I just asked your neighbor out.

Anthony was beaming, pulling his hand off your mouth while you both watched Mat leave the shop, “This date needs to be perfect.”

“It will be as long as you listen to me,” You say, turning around to cross your arms at him, “Because if this is going to work-”

“You almost blew our cover, I’m in charge here,” Anthony scoffs, “You’re like the worst sidekick in the world.”

“You’re the sidekick here.”

“No it’s you, you’re Robin and I’m Batman.”

***

“Here?”

“No.”

“How about this one?”

“God, no she hates seafood.”

You’d been trying to figure out where you were going to set up Mat and Rose’s first date for hours. Every restaurant Anthony mentioned just wasn’t enough, and Mat was dying for some help from his friend. Anthony was frustrated, mostly with you for not just choosing something and calling it a day.

“This is why you’re single, by the way, because these places are just meh,” You argue, pulling his laptop from his hands, “Where’s the romance?”

“I’ll have you know I’m very romantic,” Anthony scoffs, not having any of your shit, “Ask any girl I’ve ever dated.”

“Seems like they’re all gone, wonder why,” You hum, scrolling through the Google search.

“Fine, how about this? He takes her to a show because you said she loves musicals,” Anthony suggests, pulling the laptop from your hands, “After Mat sets up a dinner by his place because he’s got a sick rooftop and if all goes to plan Rose will be there all night.”

You whip your head around to look at the man next to you, a grin on his face because he very well may have nailed it when it came to a first date. It was simple, yet fancy enough to keep Rose interested, “That just might work.”

You kept your mouth closed about why keeping Rose out all night was going to work for you. You had a date with someone you matched with on Hinge who seemed nice enough and the opportunity to take him home at the end of the night didn’t seem like a bad move. You didn’t want to let that information slip to Anthony, and you didn’t know why. You didn’t like him, and you were pretty positive he was only putting up with you because you were both trying to set Mat and Rose up.

“It’s a date then?” Anthony asks, pulling out his phone to give Mat all the details about the date he should be taking his neighbor on. Anthony made it clear to Mat he’d know, despite the fact that before the other night Anthony hadn’t had so much as a conversation with Rose or yourself. However, he had you and you knew Rose better than anyone.

***

You sat across from your date, twirling the glass of wine in your hand while he talked about his family. Ben was nice, and honestly you were enjoying his company. The restaurant was almost perfect, because knowing it made your rejection list for Mat and Rose’s first date location wasn’t something you could shake. Ben had to be oblivious to it, a delighted smile on his face from across you. Your phone rang on the table, and Anthony’s number popped up for the third time that evening. You knew Rose and Mat were well into their date at this point, and you had the night planned so perfectly nothing could possibly go wrong.

“You can take that if you need to,” Ben suggests, a gentle tone to his voice. You nod, feeling a little bad for stepping away from your conversation to answer the call.

“I’m on a date,” You grit out the second you were out of Ben’s earshot, “Someone better be dead Beau.”

“We’re about to be,” Anthony huffs out, “The chef Mat hired canceled and I have all of these ingredients and I know how to cook three things and they aren’t steak.”

“Beau,” You whisper harshly, “Figure. It. Out.”

“Absolutely not, if this tanks you’re coming down with me,” Anthony begs, “Please come to Mat’s and help me.”

So you did. You loved Rose too much to let this blow up in your face because of Anthony’s inability to cook a meal. Ben was understanding, accepting the excuse that you weren’t feeling well and even offering to pay for your cab back home. You declined, because you didn’t have the heart to tell him you had to bail out Anthony.

By the time you finally got to Mat’s, you could hear a string of curses on the other side of the door and the smell of something burning. You walked in and a pan was practically on fire while Anthony turned around frantically.

“Oh my god, move,” You demand, grabbing the pan and turning down the stove, “You really can’t cook anything?”

Anthony was dumbfounded, standing in Mat’s kitchen letting his eyes wander down your bare legs. You looked good and if you weren’t about to chew him out Anthony might have said something. But you were standing in front of him, arms crossed while you waited for him to say something. When he didn’t you sighed, pushing him out of the way and getting to work.

“Make yourself useful and set the damn table,” You demand, pointing a spatula in his direction. This dinner had to be perfect if this was going to work. You relished in the silence, getting to work on the dinner that you were left to save.

“So how was your date?” You hear Anthony’s voice float back into the apartment, and you turn around to give him a dirty look, “Or did I ruin that?”

“You didn’t totally ruin it, Ben was nice,” You shrug, not really wanting to get into it. The thing was, Ben was nice and that seemed to be a rare thing to find. Sure, you could have done without the boring work talk, but it was better than some of the other dates you’d been on lately.

“Hm, just nice?” Anthony stifles a a laugh, closing his mouth immediately when your eyes narrowed at him, “Sorry. I’ll leave probably boring but nice Ben alone.”

“I used to think you were nice, you know?” You snark back, plating the dinner just as Mat slipped in to grab the food.

“Dude you’re a lifesaver,” Mat immediately thanks Anthony and you had to roll your eyes at the sigh, “Wait aren’t you-”

“Rose’s roommate, uh yeah, she cooks all the time so I called her,” Anthony rushes to explain, the idea that Mat would recognize you going right over his head in a panic.

“Well, thanks you guys really saved my ass,” Mat says, grabbing two plates and heading up to the roof where you knew Rose was probably checking her teeth in nervous panic.

It took forever to clean up the kitchen, Anthony’s sad initial attempt to cook was disastrous. You probably didn’t help, and by the time you were done cooking you had used every pan in Mat’s apartment. You could hear Rose’s voice in the hall and you both looked at each other in a panic. Anthony grabbed your hand, pulling you into the nearest closet to the kitchen.

“Quiet,” Anthony whispers, your mind far too distracted by your head pressed against his chest to care about just how small this closet was. You were trying to steady your own breathing, the closet was small and when Anthony took up most of the space you could feel a bit of anxiety creeping in. You wrap your arms around his waist, your fingers digging into his sides to grab a hold of quite literally anything. Anthony can feel it, how nervous you were so he took a chance and carded his fingers through your hair in an attempt to calm you down just a little bit, “Just wait until they’re in his room and I’ll take us home I promise.”

You nodded against his chest, closing your eyes and just letting Anthony provide you with any comfort he was willing to give. He was a bit snarky and definitely a little too bossy but he was the best you were going to get for the moment. You hear a door click and with Rose’s giggle on the other side you knew you were in the clear.

“So you really went through all of this just for a few wins?” You break the silence in Anthony’s car, looking out the window while he drove you both home.

“I mean, yeah, when Mat plays his best so do the rest of us,” Anthony shrugs, “Don’t tell me I could be playing better, I’ve heard it enough.”

“I wasn’t going to,” You defend, your voice small, “Do you think we could get them away for a night next weekend?”

“Hot date? Boring Ben doesn’t seem like he’d sleep over until the third date,” Anthony jokes, tapping you on the thigh.

“Sort of, I have my boss’s birthday party and I just want him to hate me less,” You admit, plus the office gossip always seemed to revolve around the fact that you never brought a date anywhere.

“I think you’re impossible to hate, trust me I’ve been trying.”

“You’re an ass.”

“Do you want my help or not?”

***

Everything was going wrong, like very wrong. The bigger plan was actually going the way it was supposed to, Rose and Mat were off to an Airbnb in the Hamptons for a night that Anthony just happened to mention to Mat during practice the day after you cooked them that dinner. That, however, was the only thing going well for you. You were dressed up, the black dress you were wearing looked absolutely killer on you. Your leg was poking out of the slit that was appropriate for a work event and the date you were supposed to be on, but your date was nowhere to be seen. Turns out Boring Ben wasn’t boring at all, or he was just a total douche and you never realized. Regardless, you were dateless yet again, and you had to admit it was a bit of an ego killer too. You thought about not going, but after telling a few of your coworkers that not only were you going, you were bringing a date.

You take a deep breath, bracing yourself for the passive aggressive comments from the newlyweds who seemed to litter your office. You had ten wedding invitations last summer from your coworkers alone, and now you had to show up dateless for what felt like the millionth time in your life.

“Woah,” You hear Anthony’s voice as soon as the elevator opened, a low whistle escaping from his lips until he realized you were without your date, “Where’s that Ben dude?”

“He didn’t show if you really need to know,” You complain and Anthony could feel his heart break just a little.

Anthony sighs, taking a look at his watch and then back at you. You looked hurt, despite the smile plastered on your face that he could see right through. He was going to have a night in, maybe even invite over the girl he’d been hooking up with but in his heart he knew what the right thing to do was, “Give me five minutes to change?”

“No Beau you really don’t have to come, I got stood up, it's on me,” You rush out, stopping Anthony dead in his tracks.

“It’s not your fault that dude was an asshole,” Anthony scoffs, “And you look too good to not have a date.”

Anthony didn’t say another word, unlocking the door to his place and coming back out less than five minutes later in a freshly pressed suit, “No tie okay?”

“No tie is fine,” You squeaked out, watching Anthony fix the cuffs of his shirt. Everyone thinks a man putting on a suit is hot right? It wasn’t just that he looked damn good in it, “You can still back out.”

Anthony didn’t back out, in fact, he was a better date than you thought he could be. He was being a good sport, especially when you came to the realization your boss was a huge Islanders fan. He had Anthony by his side all night, no doubt pestering him about the season. You felt awful, and while Anthony had a smile on his face you couldn’t help but feel guilty for putting him in the situation in the first place.

“I met that boyfriend of yours,” Your coworker Stella says, nudging you with her elbow, “He seems like a keeper.”

“Oh he’s-” You went to deny any indication that Anthony was your boyfriend but you knew Stella better than that, and just like she did at everyone Monday morning team meeting, she was interrupting you before you had a chance to finish your sentence.

“And don’t even tell me it’s not serious he couldn’t stop talking about you,” Stella grabs your arm, and you raise your eyebrows and look at Anthony. He catches your eye, sending you a wink while he goes back to listening to whatever your boss was rambling about, “See? So cute.”

The night was going smoothly, and by the time dinner rolled around you were done for the night. One too many glasses of wine had your head resting on Anthony’s shoulder while your boss's wife made a toast. His hand was resting on the exposed skin on your thigh and if you weren’t convinced you were overthinking it - you may have thought Anthony was putting in a little more effort.

“I’m sorry my boss was chewing your ear off,” You whisper, catching Anthony’s attention, “I don’t want you to think I brought you because you’re you and he likes your team.”

“I don’t think that,” Anthony assures you, his lips just inches away from kissing on the forehead, “And he doesn’t hate you, he told me liked you.”

“He likes you, seems like everyone does,” You muse, after having gotten compliments all night about what a joy your boyfriend was you were sure Anthony was a better date than he was an actual companion.

“Better date than Ben?” Anthony asks, and you nod with a grin on your face.

Anthony wasn’t sure what he was doing or why. In the short time since he invited you into his place he only learned how annoying you can be, but he’d be a liar if he didn’t think it was cute. It was cute that you thought Mat and Rose could actually fall in love. It was cute that you never kept quiet when you were both sneaking around because something got you excited. And it was downright adorable to watch you laugh at your boss’s wife who was teasing her husband in her speech. He liked you, and he never thought about it until he saw the heartbroken look on your face when you told him your date stood you up.

“Ready to go home?” Anthony whispers, your eyes were getting heavier from the wine, and he wasn’t sure how much longer you would hold up until you fell asleep on his shoulder. Not that Anthony would have minded at all, he might even have preferred it.

By the time you’d gotten back to your apartment building, you made it clear why you limited yourself on wine at events. Anthony kept refilling your glass before you had a chance to stop him, and now he was practically chasing you down the hall because you insisted on running away for no reason at all.

“For a professional athlete you’re pretty slow,” You poke Anthony in the chest, who was currently fishing through your purse for your set of keys. He finally finds them turning them into the lock and opening the door, “Beauuuu.”

“Yes?” Anthony asks, grabbing your waist while you tripped over your heels.

“Do you think Mat really likes Rose?” You ask, the question wasn’t really for Anthony at all. It was coming from a guilty feeling that had been stewing inside of you for a few days. Rose seemed smitten, and a part of you knew a lot of those dates were just planned by you.

“He does, it’ll all work out,” Anthony assures you, because the frown on your face told him that if he didn’t he was about to have a crying Y/N on his hands and he didn’t want to be the one to make you cry.

“Promise?” You ask, finally slipping off your heels and leaning against the doorframe. You wanted him to stay, use the age old it’s late excuse for a few more hours where he was close to you. His apartment was across the hall, and asking him to stay would be silly. You watched him head out the door, turning around to give you one more look and answer your question.

“Yeah I promise.”

***

This entire thing had gotten out of hand, and Rose and Mat’s relationship was becoming a chore. You had stopped them from killing each other twice in the past week, texting Anthony almost exact directions on how Mat was going to fix whatever stupid he said. Mat didn’t know, or maybe he did and he didn’t care to say anything about how with your help his relationship with Rose would be over before it started. Now, you were hiking across the city for flowers so Mat could apologize to Rose for forgetting her mother’s name as if she didn’t talk about her family constantly. You finally got them to Mat’s wiping a bead of sweat off your forehead when a text came that rocked your world.

I think I love Mat, he literally had these delivered after I got mad at him.

Attached was a picture of the flowers, and a guilty feeling churned in your stomach while you made your way back to your place. You stopped in the hallway, looking at Anthony’s door biting your lip and thinking about what the consequences of this all really was - and it was eating at you.

You were fucked, completely and utterly fucked. It seemed wrong, like everything in your best friend’s love life was a lie you created because it was. So you panicked, and snuck away to Anthony’s without a second thought. You knocked twice, a sleepy hockey player appearing on the other side.

“Rose is in love with Mat,” You state, pushing Anthony into his own place and walking past him.

“Isn’t that what we wanted?” Anthony asks, watching you pace through his apartment.

“It’s not real, everything Mat knows about Rose is because you told him,” You explain, stopping in the middle of the room, “We planned their dates, we did everything, and when they realize they might not as much in common as they think Rose is going to be heartbroken and-”

“So, you got what you wanted? She’s always over there,” Anthony counters back, not mentioning the hot streak his teammate was on.

“You don’t see anything with this?” You ask, furrowing your eyebrows at the man you thought you knew in front of you, “That your friend is going to be with someone when their relationship is built on a lie.”

“You act like he’s going to marry her,” Anthony groans, not even realizing until after the words left his mouth about how awful that sounded. Your jaw had dropped, your eyes wide while you look at Anthony, “Wait Y/N-”

“I’m telling them the truth,” You say, a stoic robotic tone to your voice. You thought about telling Rose just minutes before you left your place, but you stopped yourself before you ratted out your friend. Now, it seemed like it didn’t matter. Anthony was going to be a selfish asshole regardless of what you did and you weren’t going to let that sham of a relationship continue, “I shouldn’t have listened to your stupid idea to begin with.”

***

You walked out of Anthony’s life after that, and in the week that’s passed since, he was miserable. He didn’t know what you told Rose, but he definitely heard the arguing you were having with her from across the hall. He knew he should have stepped in, but the way you looked at him when you left was the only reason he didn’t. You looked at him with such disdain, like the mere indication that he didn’t care about his own friend’s feelings were the most awful thing he could have done.

Maybe it was, either way the guilt was eating Anthony alive. He called, but you never picked up. He texted you, using some dumb excuse about needing to grab a package outside his door while he on a road trip but an answer never came. Hell, he even tried to email you. The only thing left to do was walk across the hall and knock on your door, if you were even still there.

“Dude you’re doing it again,” Mat says, tossing a chip at his teammate and catching Anthony’s attention, “Just go over there and apologize.”

“Did you apologize to Rose?” Anthony huffs, annoyed with Mat’s attempt at giving him any advice.

“I didn’t have to because this was your fault,” Mat explains, reminding Anthony of exactly what happened after you left his place. You told Rose everything, and after what Anthony heard as a nasty fight - Rose and Mat spilt up once they realize they actually had nothing in common, “And fuck you dude because I still apologized to Rose after that.”

“Fine, I’ll go over,” Anthony budges, stomping out of his own place and across the hall to yours. He knocked twice, hearing some shuffling on the other end. The door finally clicked open, and when Anthony was met with Rose’s face, his shoulders slumped.

“She’s not here,” Rose leans against the doorway, her arms crossed at Anthony, “We’re, uh, taking some time away from each other.”

“This wasn’t Y/N’s fault it was mine,” Anthony rushes to explain, the reality of ruining someone's friendship settling in.

“I know it was,” Rose assures him, because she’d forgiven you just three days after you told her the truth. That wasn’t enough for you to come home, because your own guilt was eating you alive, “She feels too bad, and she doesn’t want to see you.”

That was it, Rose’s words were enough to have reality really settle in. Anthony Beauvillier was a massive asshole, and the reason you weren’t back in your own apartment. He did that. He was going to have to live with that guilt. And he didn’t know how to fix it.

***

It had been a month.

You didn’t know why you knew exactly how many days it’s been since you stomped out of Anthony’s apartment and into your own to tell the truth. But, you did know that exactly thirty days prior that’s just what you did. You told Rose everything, from the stupid plan to your own stupid feelings that seemed to

cloud your judgement. She was upset, and she had every right to be. You knew that she could have kicked you out of the apartment and told you to fuck off, and she did. Three days later, a much calmer Rose was on the phone telling you everything was fine and you could come back home.

You didn’t want to, because you knew Anthony was across the hall living his life just the way he had been before you stepped into it. He was going to go out on dates with girls that weren’t you, and go off on road trips for games he needed to play. He could set Mat up with someone else if he really wanted to, but none of those things would ever involve you again. You packed your stuff, and moved into a new place after couch surfing by a few of your friend’s places.

“You’re depressed,” Rose kicks your leg from the other side of your new couch, a movie night to celebrate your new place was in full effect, “I told you I’m not mad about the Mat thing.”

“I know,” You sigh, staring at the glass of fruity pink wine Rose had brought over, “I just-”

“You miss him,” Rose muses, a knowing look on her face, “It was never about Mat and I, it was always using us as an excuse to see each other.”

“It was about you guys at first,” You defend, staring at the blonde across from you who was looking at you intensely.

“He came and looked for you, after a week,” Rose says, holding onto the tidbit of information she’d been saving for almost a month, “I think he wanted to apologize.”

“Well he didn’t so it doesn’t matter anymore,” You snap back, Rose melting back into the couch to avoid being the next stop on your rage tour. You didn’t want to care about Anthony or his stupid biceps again, but you never stopped thinking about him.

***

Anthony wasn’t doing much better, in fact, he was doing a whole lot worse. He felt like shit, he was playing like shit, and he seemed just like Mat was when he came up with that stupid plan. He tried to throw himself into hockey, push his body where it had never gone before because then he wouldn’t have to think about you. He wouldn’t have to think about how much of a romantic you were or how you helped with even if he didn’t deserve. Most importantly, he wouldn’t have to think about how heartbroken you looked when he told you he didn’t want to come clean because it didn’t matter.

Anthony was doing the same thing he’d been doing all month, stalking your social media profiles in an attempt to see if you were doing okay. He knew you moved, and if he wasn’t on the West Coast maybe he would have stopped you. A text from Mat came in, one that had him rolling his eyes.

My rooftop in twenty it’s an emergency.

***

What Anthony didn’t know was that the same text was sent from Rose’s phone to yours just a few minutes prior. You rushed over Mat’s, absolutely terrified about what you could have been walking into. Except, when you got up to the roof there was nothing. No Mat. No Rose. Just yourself and-

“Fuck,” Anthony whispers, opening the rooftop door to reveal you on the otherside. It was just you, standing there just as confused as he was by the cryptic text from his teammate, “Uh Mat texted me to come?”

A grin threatens to break out on your face, just as the gears were starting to shift in Anthony’s. You were being set up, of course not as well as you would have planned, but it was a set up nonetheless.

“You know what they’re doing right?” You ask, breaking the silence. Anthony just nods, running a hand over his face without saying a word, “I’m going to go-”

“No,” Anthony rushes out, grabbing your arm and intertwining his fingers with yours, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry? You made me cry for weeks and almost blew up my longest friendship and all you have to say is sorry?” You questioned him, waiting for Anthony to come up with something better than that.

“What do you want me to say? That I didn’t want to stop doing this because I didn’t want to stop hanging out with you?” Anthony exclaims, “Because that’s the truth. I was being a selfish asshole, and I know that I don’t deserve your forgiveness but I feel awful for what I did to you. I was so scared to come and apologize because you have every right to tell me to go fuck myself and never speak to me again. The problem is, I want to talk to you. I want to listen to you talk about why you were a hopeless romantic, and take you home after you drank too much at a work thing. I-”

Anthony couldn’t finish his rant, because you pressed your lips against his before he had the chance. His hands were on your face, pulling you as closely as he could because he needed this kiss to show you that he wanted you. You finally pulled away, breathless while Anthony’s hands snuck down to your waist. His forehead was against yours, your noses bumping together while he whispered his next words.

“We’re not telling Mat this worked.”

“Oh definitely not, no more set ups?”

“Unless it’s me setting up our first date, consider it a promise.”

#anthony beauvillier #anthony beauvillier imagine #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #my writing

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im-in-vin-ci-ble · 3 years ago

Note

Heyy could I possibly request f!OC x Mark, in which the OC is Red Rush’s daughter who also inherited his powers. Set before the events of episode one maybe at a Guardian’s work party or smth. Mark and OC are hitting it off in a ‘Idk what’s going on my dad just works here’ solidarity during the party; while her doting and protective father Josef is keeping an eye on them, unsure about how he feels about his favorite sidekick growing up on him. Maybe Olga and Debbie try to be matchmakers too lol

A/N: okay well this is CUTE AF, I love this sm thank u for requesting <3 also josef and olga are married here, no one dies (yet) and everyone is happy!!!

Pairing: Mark Grayson x Fem!OC

Rating: T

Warnings: mild swearing

The annual Guardians of the Globe Founder's Day party was never really Zasha's scene. It mainly consisted of the Guardians and the Global Defense Agency's families, and more often than not, she was the only one in her age group. Her true purpose there was to really just pay her respects to the people — including her father, who people knew as Red Rush — who protected the planet.

This year's Founder's Day event was different, however, as Omni-Man finally accepted the party invitations he'd been ignoring for years. Although there were jokes that he had accidentally RSVP'd to the party, or that his wife had accepted the invite behind his back, everyone seemed happy, and still pleasantly surprised, when he and his family walked in.

Sitting down with a non-alcoholic beverage in her hand, she watched as everyone shook hands with the powerful Nolan Grayson and his loving family. Zasha's mom, Olga, walked over to say hello and immediately dragged the three to where Zasha and Josef were. The two male superheroes first exchanged pleasantries, followed by Olga forcing her daughter to get up so she can properly be introduced to the teenage boy standing across from her.

"Zasha, hi," Debbie said with a wide smile as she gave you a warm hug. "This is my son, Mark. I don't think you two have properly met yet."

He extended his arm, "Oh, hi, uh, I'm Mark," he replied with a sheepish smile.

"Hi, I'm Z," she said as Olga gave her a soft push to move her forward. The young girl's eyes threw daggers at her mom before politely shaking his hand, "Nice to meet you."

"Are you all hungry? They've got a lot of food," Olga told the Graysons, leading them and Josef, who squinted his eyes at Zasha and Mark, over to the buffet table.

Zasha and Mark looked at each other awkwardly and exchanged nervous smiles. He began to rock back and forth on his feet, shoving his hands into his pockets as he attempted to think of what to say.

"So uh, how's... superhero training?" he asked.

"Uh, good," Zasha answered, nodding her head. "We managed to take down Titan yesterday so that was pretty cool."

"Oh yeah? That's great," Mark exclaimed. "How about, um..." he scratched the back of his head, "Is the, i-is the drink... good?"

She looked down at her cup and clicked her tongue, "You know for a party that's sponsored by the government, you'd think they'd have better catering."

He chuckled, "If I knew this was going to be a boring party with adults and toddlers and no good food, I would have at least brought a snack and some comic books."

Zasha sat back down and looked up at him with a smile, "Well you better take a seat, buddy, because the next few hours are going to make you wish you were being hurled at buildings instead."

She gently patted the seat next to her and Mark accepted the offer. "Do you go to these things a lot?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," Zasha replied. "You are so damn lucky your dad never wants to come to a Guardians event."

Mark laughed, "You know what, I used to be really jealous of all the families who got together during these events but right now, I'd do anything to just go home." He looked around and sighed, "I don't even know most of these people."

"Me too, and I've seen their faces at least thrice a year ever since I could remember," she agreed. "Actually, I think this is the first solid conversation I've had with someone at these things."

"Really?" he asked in shock.

"Really," she answered, taking a sip of the bland orange juice that now mostly tastes like water. "Most of the guys who are my age that have attended aren't really cute, nor are they interesting, so meh."

Mark's head snapped up at that remark and he felt the warmth rush up to his cheeks. "The other guys aren’t... cute and not... interesting?"

"Hell no," Zasha laughed. "Have you ever tried connecting with a person who has no special abilities but know you're a superhero? It feels like talking to a wall."

He crossed his brows, "What do you mean?"

She sighed and leaned forward, "They usually ask me what being a superhero is like, but when I tell them that I managed to take down a man with rock for skin, it's like I'm a freak."

"You're not a freak, Zasha," he replied. "And any guy who feels that way about a girl who's trying to save others sounds like a shitty person."

"And they're not even cute!" she added.

"And they're not even cute," he repeated after her with a laugh.

Zasha sighed again and sat back up. She looked over at him and briefly examined his face, "Well it's a good thing you are."

Josef turned around and watched as the 17-year-old boy chatted up his daughter, as well as literally take his seat at the table.

He held on to Olga's arm and leaned in, "I don't like what I'm seeing over there."

Olga turned to look then laughed at her overbearing husband. "They're just talking, Josef," she said. "It's not Zasha's fault she can enjoy a pleasant conversation and you can't."

"Mm..." Josef groaned, "I don't like it."

"Don't like what?" Debbie asked from behind.

Olga walked over to her and excitingly yet subtly pointed at Zasha and Mark, who were now facing each other now laughing. "Josef's worried that Zasha won't have time to be his daughter anymore if she ever started dating boys," she explained to Debbie. "You know he scares off every single boy Zasha introduces to us? I'm worried she'll never have a boyfriend!"

"She doesn't need a boyfriend, Olga," Josef chimed in grumpily, crossing his arms as he watched the two like a hawk. "No one will be good enough for Zasha anyway. She can literally outrun all the boys she dates."

"So are you saying that my Mark isn't good enough for Zasha?" Debbie asked with half a smile, momentarily shutting Josef up before he nervously tried to form a sentence. "I'm just teasing, Josef," she followed, winking at him and almost warning him not to underestimate her son.

Olga chuckled, "It's good for them to bond. They're both teenagers and superheroes, if they ever date at least they won't have to worry about keeping secrets."

"Whoa, wait," Josef exclaimed. "They just met, who said anything about dating?"

His wife rolled her eyes at his remark. "We should, what's the term... hook them up," Olga said. "Debbie, ask Mark what's going on and I'll ask Zasha."

Debbie agreed to the plan and walked over to Mark and Zasha while Josef huffed in annoyance but stayed in his position; there was no way in hell he was going to keep his eyes off of them.

Debbie offered Mark some food from her plate but he kindly declined. "Good choice," she said. "For a party paid for by the government, you'd think they'd have better food."

Mark laughed and nodded in agreement, "That's what Z said!"

"Oh really?" Debbie replied with a playful smirk.

Mark and Zasha looked at each other as if they were sharing an inside joke before Olga called her daughter over.

"Sorry, mama is calling me," she told the Graysons as she excused herself.

"So..." Debbie trailed off, raising her eyebrow at her son whose cheeks were rosy red.

"Mom, please don't make it weird," Mark begged.

"You and Zasha seem to be hitting it off."

"I begged you not to make it weird," he groaned, covering his face.

"I was just asking!" Debbie said with a giggle. "Why are you being so offensive?"

"I'm not, mom, I'm just... ugh," he groaned again. "Please don't say anything to Josef and Olga. Don't make it weird."

"I won't, I won't," Debbie reassured him. "Are you gonna ask her out though?"

"Mom!"

"Okay, okay, I'm leaving," she said with a hearty laugh, nodding at Zasha who was walking back to her seat.

"Sorry about that, my mom was being strange," Zasha said. "Everything okay?" she asked Mark, who now looked like he'd been slapped over and over again.

"Yeah, yeah! Great! Everything's great!"

She smiled at him but Mark leaned over and kept his head down. Another moment of awkward silence fell upon the two; Zasha looked around while tapping her toes and Mark's sight was glued to the floor. From the corner of his eye, he could see his mom and Olga delicately signalling at him to make his move. He covered the sides of his face and continuously mouthed "No," but the two were unrelenting. He took a deep breath and finally sat back up, and looked over at Zasha who was still pretending to casually look around.

"Hey, uh, Z?"

She quickly looked over at him with wide eyes, "Yes?"

Mark looked behind her head and watched as Olga and Debbie were giggling and whispering to each other, like a bunch of high school girls who just saw their best friend talking to their crush.

"Uh, I'm hungry."

The smile on Zasha's face was quickly replaced with a look of confusion. "Okay... and?"

"Oh! Um," he cleared his throat, "do you... like burgers?"

Zasha giggled and nodded, "I do like burgers."

Controlling his urge to fist pump, Mark cheekily bit his lower lip and moved a little closer, "You wanna head out and grab a bite?"

"Uh..." she turned around and watched as Olga and Debbie quickly nodded their heads, her mom giving her a sign of approval to leave the party. "Sure, I'm starving."

Josef looked on as the two of them stood up and began to make their way to the exit. Sighing in defeat and sadness, he called them over to the place where he's been stationed at since the Graysons arrived.

"Papa, we're just gonna get something to eat," she informed him nervously, knowing his scare tactics when it came to the guys she introduced him to.

Josef's eyes softened as the sight of his little girl, who he knew and finally accepted was growing up. She was making her way into the world and as much as he wanted to always protect her, he knew that she was just as smart and as capable to start doing it herself.

He took his daughter's hand and held it tight, "Okay, call me if you need a ride home."

"I will," Zasha said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Love you, papa."

"I love you too," he replied with a smile that was immediately erased when he focused his attention to Mark. "Bring her home by 11:30, and no sneaking into her room by the window," he ordered the teenage boy sternly.

Caught by surprise by the sudden formality, Mark straightened his back and nodded. "Uh yes, y-yes sir, Red Rush, sir."

"Papa!" she exclaimed. "No more scare tactics."

"I'm sorry," he chuckled, "that was the last one, I promise."

#damn my daddy issues came out here #HARD #mark grayson x reader #invincible x reader #invincible fanfic

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