#its like a whole new experience and sweet nostalgia at the same time

[juthemagicalclown]

LINK CLICK NATION GO LISTEN TO DIVE BACK IN TIME AGAIN NOW

the new meanings and interpretations and depth after the latest revelations!! certain lyrics that i always had assumed were cxs taking about lg but could as well be viceversa!!

[comixconnection]

Looking for some good, stand-alone or off-the-beaten path gift ideas?

Maybe things for folks who already have so many comics, you need to play the odds to find stuff they won't have already read? Or something for somebody who wants to branch-out and try something new, but doesn't know where to start? Or maybe just a good one-volume story you can read on the road and not be left wondering what happens next the whole way back home?

Look no further, Comix Connection is here to help!

A gorgeously illustrated one-volume post-apocalyptic tale of trust, despair, hope, cynicism, found-family...and oh yeah, giants! This one will knock your socks so far off you'll have to buy a new pair!

This is the same creative team that brought us the incredible comic DIE (as in both what you roll and what you do), which if you have yet to read would also make a great gift idea for yourself or anyone else you know with even a passing interest in fantasy and rpgs.

In the far future, the only hope left for humanity's soul in the face of a destructive military-industrial complex run amok might be a sweet astral-projecting cat and his kind-hearted owner. But can even nine lives bargain to save the lives of billions? This stand-alone story is poignant, heart-wrenching sci-fi at its best.

Anthropomorphized animals are creepy enough (bears with CLOTHES on?! Yikes!), but in Patrick Horvath's brilliant, Eisner Award-nominated series, he injects a serial killer mystery into the colorful, nostalgia-shaded world of storybook woodland creatures. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees is an utterly unique look at violence, small town life, and even how we see ourselves. It's a blood-soaked experience that is as beautiful as it is unforgettable.

Come aboard the Dodona, a generational space-arc on a multiple-centuries-long journey to colonize a new home for the descendants of the people who built it. But even in a closed-system, people change over time, and what worked for the builders might not work for folks five generations removed from lift-off. Follow this society in leaps across the generations as it evolves and changes under the pressure of life in space—a life whose whole goal is only to endure until landfall. But hearts are less easily managed than air-supplies, and this standalone tale is a love story. Or a few love stories, really. And a couple of rebellions, too.

This is the Green Lantern concept taken to its sci-fi edges, in a phenomenal stand-alone work by famed novelist N.K. Jemisin. Travel to the farthest side of the galaxy to find a society of overlapping alien species who have found "peace" by erasing their own emotions...and the emotional space-cop charged with keeping that peace, whether her hosts like it (or care to admit to "liking" anything) or not.

In the Marvel Universe of the future, freedom is a long-lost dream and Steve Rogers has all but given up on the ideals he once fought so hard for...but Captain America isn't the sort of dream that goes gently into that good night. Now the question is, will anyone come to answer the call of "Avengers, Assemble!" in this brave new world where all our heroes are dead? And can they possibly save the day, when they lost the battle so long ago?

This one-volume tale might be called Marvel's answer to DC's Dark Knight Returns, if you need to sum-it-up in a hurry. And if not, you can join the rest of us in lamenting that it isn't longer!

Take a highbrow Conan-style fantasy adventure and run it through the filter of the Girl of Steel and you have the beginning of what this book is. It's a standalone sci-fi story in fantasy garb...or maybe a fantasy story in sci-fi costume...or maybe something that's simultaneously neither and both, all centered on the heart of what makes a person, what makes a hero, and what makes a legend? And where do you draw the line of truth and lies in between?

It's the tenth anniversary edition of long-standing Comix Connection favorite I Was The Cat, a stand-alone graphic novel about a journalist interviewing a talking cat about his previous eight lives in which he tried to take over the world. Yes, a talking cat. Yes, trying to take over the world. No, this isn't a world where cats normally talk, and the journalist didn't know he was a cat when she agreed to the interview. What's hard to understand about that?

This energetic one-volume story takes the classic trope of the Chosen One, runs with it...and then runs it all backwards, subverting and poking-fun and asking the hard questions about who gets to decide what "better" and "saved" really means, all while having loads of fun in this rambunctious post-apocalypse world of dynamic and beautifully varied landscapes, societies, and expectations.

Also, there's a talking dog! How can you go wrong?

Caveat up-front: this one is not a stand-alone story, but is instead the first volume of an epic tale set in a magical school...that's actually a mad-science school...that's actually a magical school...that's actually a whole bunch of enigmas and conspiracies involving mysterious science cabals, mythical creatures, gods, and family secrets, all wrapped-up in one sprawling complex called Gunnerkrigg Court. Out-of-print for several years, it's finally back in a shiny new printing from Dark Horse, and we couldn't be happier to have it on our shelves again at last!

It's a story that starts small, and gets so big it feels like it might just swallow the whole universe in the end. Join Antimony, Kat, and their friends (including a living shadow, a demon-possessed stuffed animal, a devoted Robot, and a whole whole of other odd children) as they grow-up and grow into the true strangeness of the world they inhabit in the secretive environs of Gunnerkrigg Court.

*GC is perfect for readers who love Harry Potter, and for readers heartbroken and betrayed by Harry Potter, and for readers who always wished Harry Potter had just been a little bit...bigger.

All of these books and so many more are available at Comix Connection right now, so come in to grab your choice before it's gone—or to get other recommendations from our well-read and enthusiastic staff, who all would like nothing more than to talk your ear off about their personal favorite off-the-wall suggestions for great gift ideas for your friends and family...and maybe something good for yourself, too!

[helenavalansi]

Aftersun review

Charlotte Wells, famous female film director, writer, and producer, in 2022, released her directorial debut Aftersun. This feature film starring Paul Mescal (Normal People, All Of Strangers) and Frankie Corio is a coming-of-age masterpiece that focuses on topics like memory, fatherhood, and childhood. Although the movie presents a nostalgic feeling by showing a memory, it also deals with topics like depression, grief, and longing, all while maintaining technical perfection.

Aftersun follows the childhood memories of eleven-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) on vacation with her father in Turkey. This movie is the definition of "no plot, just vibes" which is one of the best characteristics of this movie. It has no big plot twist or tragic event, yet it manages to stay extremely entertaining throughout its 96 minutes of runtime. Wells perfectly manages to depict this story to the audience as a feeling, which perfectly describes what it is. It is as if we are inside the mind of 31-year-old Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall), looking back at her relationship with her father Calum (Paul Mescal). One of the ways the director manages to present Aftersun as a sweet childhood memory flashing into the the mind of an adult is with scenes that show literal flashes of the image of her father. This nods to the interpretation that Aftersun is about reflecting on flashes of old memories and traumas and how we fill them in to make them whole using our new experiences.

On the more technical side, the use of the analog camera was perfect for this movie. In a world of digital cameras, the use of actual film is rare, usually most used in Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino films, but for Aftersun, the use of a digital camera, in my opinion, would be tragic. This feeling comes from the fact that the entire movie is an old memory, meaning that the use of the analog camera with its kind of 'grainy' effect is perfect to depict nostalgia. It also helps with the holiday vibe of the film, it is as if we, the audience, like Sophie, are looking back at old pictures from when our parents were our entire world and nothing was better than ice cream after a day at the beach. Gregory Oke's dreamy and hazy cinematography aids in showing the audience that the entire vacation seemed to be this flow of exciting events in 31-year-old Sophie's memory of her eleven-year-old experience. The lighting, art direction, and visual effects were all done to make everything look gentle and vague like a memory itself. Charlotte Wells uses Aftersun to show how all of a sudden, memories that were buried deep within our minds can suddenly resurface causing a ton of other feelings, and also how complex a father-daughter relationship can be. It demonstrates how childhood memories may be only a highlight reel of the best moments, and how hard it is to admit that we, as children, tend to leave the most challenging details out.

Overall, Aftersun is, in my opinion, the best movie of 2022 and is an emotional yet entertaining piece of media filled with nostalgia and glee but at the same time, longing and melancholy.

[banananasarethebest]

Split the Sweet Adolescence

Whoever not even once longed for their teenage years, cast the first stone. A romanticized image of a 16-year-old me living my best life pops up in my head whenever I am blessed with yet another teenage movie. In reality, it was a life filled with highschool dramas, sleepless nights, braces, and pimple patches. 

(Not to mention the massive FOMO these on-screen American teens gave me, because where the hell do I find a wild house party, a baseball match, and a passionate love triangle overnight?)

But why bother with such irrelevant details when you can vicariously relive your supposedly prime time through a teenage rom-com. Benjamin Kasulke seems to have taken one for the team. His directorial debut Banana Split (2018) is a pursuit to bring this Peter Pan dream to life. Although there is only a tiny touch of the true teenage experience, the film manages to take us back in time the same way that whiff of apple crumble takes me to my grandma’s kitchen.

Banana Split starts off to be your average coming-of-age movie in all its cringy, cheesy, predictable ways. There is a boy, there is a girl. Nick and April fall in love. Highschool sweethearts. Oh no, senior year! Naturally, Americans can only study at a college in Boston or California (the rest of the country clearly has no universities), and so do our main characters. Far, far away from each other! Highschool sweethearts are no longer. Nick seems to move on quickly, April is still deeply in love, rotting in her despair. And there’s still the whole of last summer before college… 

That is where this dessert of a story turns out to be lava cake rather than a simple brownie. Nick’s ex-girlfriend April and his new girlfriend Clara unexpectedly form a close friendship despite their initial rivalry over the same guy. They decide to keep their pact a secret to avoid drama. As easily predicted, mayhem manages to break out despite their attempts to keep this unusual not-even-love triangle intact.

(If one’s mind dares to go to dark, dark places, that is the first time they ‘split the banana split’. Get it, cause they sleep with the same dude? Don’t blame me, I’m just materializing the teenager humor in me.)

Putting an emphasis predominantly on female friendship, rather than basking itself in the jealousy and rivalry of high schoolers, is a breath of fresh air, a leaf of mint on that overwhelmingly sweet banana split. The two connections that April makes throughout the film are initially portrayed as identical. A quirky, flashing passage of scenes she shares with Nick, and later Clara, is duplicated to illustrate the evolution of both these relationships. At the end of the day, both of them were of great significance for each member of that triangle. But somehow, in this recipe the guy turned out to be only a binding between the two teenage girls, creating a beautiful, yet unconventional, friendship.

Although tasty, don’t let that maraschino cherry overwhelm your judgment of the whole dessert. While Banana Split stands out from the usual cookie-cutter teenage rom-com, it suffers its shortcomings, too. These teenagers are nothing like the kids that we used to be at their age. One reason could be casting actors who look like they could join us on the nostalgia wagon to play pre-college teens. Another would be that the world they live in is just so incredibly unrealistic. The whole story spans over one summer. April and Clara make it in time to become best friends forever, while keeping it secret from Nick, but also spending all of their free time together or maneuvering between the boy and his other friend, who just so happens to also be friends with both of the girls. As confusing as it sounds, they make it work. In less than two months. With their families barely even knowing who they spend these long days with. 

(Because remember: out of all people, teenagers hate their own parents the most.)

Banana Split is truly a title match made in heaven. Benjamin Kasulke’s coming-of-age comedy is a highly familiar flavor, at times sickly sweet, but also soothing and consoling. Plus, it looks nothing like the picture in the menu, just like this made-to-share dessert. The banana-ity of this movie is worth mentioning, too. That’s the whole point of this post. A banana is consumed. A banana split, to be precise. And even though April and Clara do, in fact, split the sweet snack, all it does is bring them together. 

Sweet and snug

Pleasantly predictable

Letterboxd reviewers say April and Clara should be a couple

In what universe are parents that chill?

Touch some grass, go meet actual teenagers

Ripeness rating: 8/10

🍌 has a brown bruise in one spot, but overall is in perfect shape

🍌 it’s actually two smaller bananas, you can give one of them to your friend who forgot their lunch (they will absolutely adore you for that)

[thorntonkrell-blog-blog]

JR is in a slump.

The fans in the fantastic stands rarely understand the mechanics of a slump.

JR is a veteran. He's been in the game for ten years. He's been up to the plate 1086 times. He has accumulated 266 hits. His strength is his consistency. Throughout his time in the game, he is hitting a respectable .250 with occasional flashes of power. Like his average indicates, he usually gets a hit every four attempts. He rarely goes 0 fer four.

Lately he's been in a statistical slump. Zero hits in his last 17 attempts. This is a new personal record for futility.

Something has changed. JR's stance and approach to the plate is not the same as it was two weeks ago. He changed it intentionally. Usually when we make a change, results get worse until they get better. During this transitional time of decreasing returns, it becomes tempting to drop the change and return to familiar pain and dance with the gal you brung to the dance.

JR's change is only beginning as is the gigantic change about to hit the human experience. Things will be much different a year from now and we will talk about these days with nostalgia and affection. Mark my words.

True, JR hasn't been successful statistically in these first few weeks of change but statistics don't tell the whole story. JR's timing has never been better. His vision has improved. As the ball approaches the plate it appears bigger and more beautiful as it spins through the air. JR can count the seams as the ball SLOWLY makes its way to the plate. JR can pinpoint the "curve" on the pitch by noting rotation of the seams. He sees a flashing green light that says "start your swing" which he does. While midswing he determines launch angle depending upon the location and spin of the pitch. A red warning light informs JR that the pitch is out of the strike zone. Don't swing at it. Another more cooperative offering will be on the way very soon. Be patient.

When the green light flashes, visible only to JR, he begins the swing which reaches maximum velocity at the exact split second that the ball meets the bat which JR has adjusted so the cowhide collides only with the sweet spot of the wood. Then that sound...that CRACK and the ball zooms off in a direction opposite from where it was delivered.

Although JR is hitless in his last seventeen appearances, he has come to realize the difficulty of objectivity in a subjective realm. He's hitting screaming line drives that fielders snare in self-preservation. He's hit a ton of tape measure foul balls. He's been hitting to the deepest part of every field to the warning track in centerfield. Outfielders have made at least five surreal catches that turned triples into outs.

Meanwhile from an emotional point of view, JR has never felt more balanced and optimistic. He firmly believes that the oncoming changes will improve the game and encourage more people to play.

Now for appearance eighteen in the slump.

[lunartadpole]

1 ¦ 2

December, 1991.

Welcome to Hawkins

It's snowing, white puffs hit against the windscreen in a beautiful manner. And there's a certain tension in the car as it drives past the all too familiar sign. It's like a weight pressed down on his chest, and the thickness of the air makes it difficult to breathe. Eddie doesn't know for certain if Nancy can feel it too, but as the car rolls down the road, her demeanor changes; she straightens up her back and sighs heavily, like she's only just realised what a horrific idea this whole thing is. Whereas, Eddie realised that on the drive to the airport.

They didn't talk much on the plane. Or, well, they did but just not about anything they actually wanted to talk about. As Nancy went on about one of her stories and a lead she was chasing, Eddie could tell that she was just itching to know why he left, why he didn't tell anyone he was going; and Eddie couldn't really blame her, because the whole time she was talking his mind was just screaming for him to ask How's Wayne? Is he still living in Loch Nora? Is Steve? What does Steve look like now? Has his freckles faded from the lack of summer sun? Has his hair grown? Has he cut it? Does he miss Eddie? Does he hate him?

"Is it alright if we stop off at my house first?" Nancy interrupts the silence between them which had otherwise been filled with radio static. "Just so I can drop off my bags and say hello to my Mom. I'll take you to the trailer park after."

The trailer park?

He must say that out loud, because Nance shoots him a side-glance of confusion. Then realisation dawns on her. "Oh yeah, right. You wouldn't know. Uh, Wayne got a new trailer after you left. It's right next to Max's."

She's purposely leaving out details, Eddie doesn't like feeling like he's on the outside of something. But again, he doesn't press. Because he's scared of the answer. Instead, he turns his gaze back out the window, watching as the tree line morphs into town. And Christ, it's like Eddie never left, or Hawkins has just been staggered in time, constantly unchanging. Frozen like the ice on the road. They drive downtown, all the stores swarmed with people fighting to get the last turkey, or the last toy for their kids; Eddie remembers Steve coming home with a blackeye and a turkey that looked like it had been exploded and put back together, dramatically recounting his experience with a feisty old woman like he was some kind of war hero. And a ghost of a smile finds its way to his lips at the thought of Steve Harrington. Stupid, sweet, thoughtful Steve Harrington, who only bought a turkey that year because Eddie told him he and Wayne never did the whole Christmas Dinner thing.

They drive past Family Video, and if that isn't a big kicker for nostalgia. The building is lit up with those awful flickering lights, and windows are decorated with the same Santa window stickers and tinsel Eddie was forced to put up when he drew the short straw. He swore he was going to get frostbite putting up those lights, all the while Robin and Steve laughed at him with their warm coffee cups heating up their hands. "Bastards," Eddie spat, but he was smiling, teeth chattering from the cold.

He wonders if those two still work there, wonders if the break room still smells of moldy cheese from Keith's lunch. He wonders if Robin was the first person Steve called when he came home from work to an empty house, only to find Eddie's room cleaned out. He slumps down in his chair as the video store fades out of view in the side mirror.

Sensing his change in attitude, Nancy nudges his arm. "You okay?"

Eddie chews on the inside of his cheek. No, he thinks, no he is definitely not okay. This whole thing was one huge fucking mistake!

Nancy thinks for a moment, probably deciding what or what not to disclose to Eddie. What is her place to tell and what isn't. "Mike is gonna lose his shit when he sees you," she tries to joke, shaking her head fondly. "God. You know he grew out his hair? It's like, like yours now."

Eddie peaks over at her. "Really?"

She nods. "And Mom keeps calling me to complain about him blasting his 'screaming music' at all hours of the day. Apparently Wayne gave him some of your old tapes you left behind." Her expression softens. "You really made an impact on him."

Something akin to pride swells in Eddie's chest, replacing the feeling of his insides doing backflips. "No, I didn't- I'm not-"

"Don't do that. Don't undermine yourself. Those kids really looked up to you. I remember Mike coming home from school after you offered him to join your stupid club, he was so excited. You like, made him feel less alone. Or something."

And Eddie well, he doesn't know what to say to that.

"So don't worry so much. They'll be thrilled to see you."

"Yeah," Eddie huffs, "at least someone will."

They drive the rest of the way to the Wheeler House in silence. And when the car pulls into the driveway, Nancy doesn't move. Eddie looks over to her, and she seems to be in deep thought, debating whether or not to go in.

That's the thing about Nancy Wheeler, Eddie thinks. Everyone thinks she's so difficult to read, but you just gotta know what to look for; Nance chews on her nails when she's unsure, she gets this glassy look in her eyes and this twitch in her lips. Eddie saw her many times after Vecna. He doesn't think anyone else did.

"I don't have to go in," he supplies, already expecting her to ask him to stay in the car.

She snaps out of whatever haze she trapped herself in. "What?"

"It's not a problem, I get that your folks may not be too happy having a former wanted murder back in the house."

"What?" She repeats. "Oh, Eddie, no. God no. It's not you, it's just." A deep sigh escapes her. "You're not the only one avoiding home."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asks, only a little offended. Because he's not avoiding anything, thank you very much.

Nancy pops open the driver-side door, climbing out into the Hawkins Winter Weather. "It means," she says, "that things between me and my parents aren't great right now."

Vague. Leaving out details on purpose. Eddie doesn't know what to expect anymore, but he guesses she doesn't owe him any explanation. He certainly didn't give her one.

Eddie follows suit, pulling his old leather jacket close in a futile attempt to block out the nipping cold. He exhales deeply, breath turning to mist in front of his eyes in that way that makes him feel like a dragon, before going to help Nancy pull her various suitcases out of the trunk of her car. But he gets about halfway towards her when a small, porcelain figure on the snow covered grass catches his eye.

For a second he thinks it's new, because surely it has to be. But no, it's the exact same colour, there's still that chip on its large round nose, and there's obvious cracks in the structure.

Nancy catches him staring. "Oh yeah," she huffs a laugh, "Mom super glued it back together. You two never did tell me how you broke it."

Eddie looks at her with a smirk. "I have no idea what you mean."

December, 1987

"How are you not cold?"

It's the first time Eddie's ever been invited to the Wheeler's Christmas Party. And he thinks it might be the last if the look Karen Wheeler gave him when he walked in dressed, not in a Christmas jumper like the invite said, but rather his usual attire of a leather jacket. Not that he minds though, there is only so much cheery Christmas music and judgemental stares from Nancy's neighbours he can take before he needs a minute outside.

Eddie watches the smoke from his lips evaporate, mingling with the cool night air. Warm yellow light from the house bleeds out from the open door, and vanishes when it shuts again. It wasn't snowing yet, but he suspected that it would start soon.

"It's like, below freezing out here." Steve appears beside him, shivering despite his many, many layers of clothes he insisted on earing. The top layer is an awfully ugly Christmas sweater that Eddie bought him yesterday for this very occasion. It looks incredibly itchy, but Steve insisted on wearing it.

The other boy leans against the wall and holds his hand out to Eddie, to which Eddie passes him the cigarette with a smug look on his face.

"Thought you were quitting?" Eddie japs a finger at Steve's side. "Thought it was turning your hair grey?"

"Yeah well," Steve holds the cigarette up to his mouth, taking a long drag and Eddie pretend that he's not staring at the way his boyfriends cheeks hollow as he does so. "I'll quit tomorrow. You okay?"

And god Eddie loves that man.

"Honestly?" he sighs, "I kinda hate it here."

He doesn't expect Steve's shoulders to completely drop in relief. "Thank god. Listen, I love Mrs. Wheeler. I do. But this is the most boring party I've ever been to. And I was at Chuck Myers' Spring Brake party. That was boring."

Eddie laughs, shaking his head fondly. "Yeah, I could do without the middle aged women staring at me everytime I walk by them."

Steve frowns. He loops an arm around Eddie's waist and pulls him closer. "They're just old bitches. Don't pay them any mind."

They're so close Eddie can smell the spiked Eggnog on Steve's breath. And he panics when he hears laughter from inside, trys to pull away. "People might see us."

"And?" Steve smiles, the cigarette in his hand long discarded on the ground. He holds onto Eddie's hands, they're calloused yet soft in his. Again, he urges him closer and plants a chaste kiss on Eddie's cheek and that makes Eddie giggle like a school girl, so goes to give Steve a proper kiss but he doesn't get the chance when the song inside changes.

"Ah! I love this song," Steve slurs, and Eddie begins to suspect he's had a bit too much to drink. He can only imagine what Robin's like inside.

The song in question is another generic Christmas tune, one the radio can blast over and over and people keep listening to because it's catchy. Naturally, Eddie detests it, much like most holiday songs. He groans, "Of course you do."

Steve doesn't take the, frankly obvious, bait to rehash the same playful argument they have almost every time they turn on the radio. Instead, he starts to move in some sort of way that Eddie guesses could be considered dancing, and he manoeuvres Eddie's hands so that he's forced to join in.

It's an odd, arrhythmia rocking motion Eddie finds himself locked in. He thinks that Steve might have been going for a slow dance sorta thing, but Lord knows Harrington couldn't dance to save his life so he settles for whatever it is he's doing. And you can't really hear the music, since they're outside it's quiet through the walls, making it a bit awkward but Eddie doesn't care. The way Steve laughs, all carefree and thoughtless, the way he doesn't do very often, is music enough for him.

So Eddie let's himself dance, on the front doorstep of Karen Wheeler's house, and he lets himself forget that there was even a party at all; that he was here for an entirely different reason other than to dance the night away with his boyfriend - his boyfriend, Steve Harrington, that's still so surreal. He even forgets where he is.

Smash!

Momentarily, at least.

Steve and Eddie pull apart at the sound of the noise. They look at the ground, horrified to find the shattered body of a lone garden gnome broken into a dozen pieces. They stand over it, staring. Then Steve looks up at Eddie with a pale face.

"You," he says quietly, "you murdered him."

"Me?! He's closer to your foot! You stepped on him during your awful attempt at dancing!"

Steve's cheeks turn red, Eddie doesn't know if it's from embarrassment or from the cold. "Yeah, well, standing here over a dead body isn't going to magically fix it."

"What do you want to do then?" Eddie huffs.

As if on cue, they hear Mrs. Wheeler's muffled voice through the door, proudly declaring something to her guests. They stare at the door until Steve rattles around in the pocket of his jeans and pulls out his car keys.

He stares at Eddie. "Last one to the car has to tell Nancy."

Eddie is bolting before he finishes the sentence. The quiet music from the party is replaced by Steve's laughter. Music to his ears.

December, 1991

There's the smell of cookies wafting through the air when Eddie trudges through the front door after Nancy. She calls out that she's home and instantly there's footsteps rushing towards the hall. Mrs. Wheeler appears in the living room doorway. She's wearing a stained apron and her hair, now back to its natural brown, is pulled back out of her face.

"Nancy," she smiles, and pulls her daughter into a tight embrace. "Welcome home! Though I wish you called ahead, I'm a bit of a mess." She laughs and then turns to the living room, where a young, blonde haired girl sits on the couch. "Holly, come say hi to your sister."

Holly, who has grown significantly since Eddie last saw her at that Christmas party, merely waves. She doesn't even pull her attention from the cartoons she's watching. Nancy gives a curt wave back.

Mrs. Wheeler's eyes land on Eddie, quietly lingering in the doorway, and her expression hardens for a split moment.

Nancy coughs. "Mom, you remember Eddie, right? Eddie Munson."

"Of course!" she exclaims, still smiling but it's tighter, forced. Her movements become wary and Eddie is very quickly reminded why he left in the first place. Eddie feels very pinned down under her state. "It's so good to see you again."

Lies.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Nancy warily looking around. "Is, uhm, is dad here?" she asks, and that's enough to take Karen's mind of off Eddie and onto something more pressing it seems, by the way her happy expression crumbles into one of uncomfortable sorrow.

"He's working til seven." she tells her. Nancy breathes a sigh of relief. "But, maybe you could stay here this year," Mrs. Wheeler tries, "I'm sure if you brought Steve over then maybe-"

"Where's Mike?" Nancy interrupts, just when Eddie perked up at the mention of Steve's name.

"In the basement."

She turns to Eddie, giving him a sort of urgent 'go" look. Though he's reluctant - and curious, knowing she's only telling him to go just so he doesn't hear the rest of the conversation - Eddie makes his way to the basement. He gives a jerky nod to Holly on his way. She doesn't even acknowledge him. With her large, square shaped glasses, she looks a bit like her dad.

The stairs to the basement creaks under his weight. As he descends down further, Eddie can hear quiet laughter underneath the sound of slow music turned down so low, he can't quite make it out. The basement has that same BO stench that Eddie became familiar with during the many, lengthy Hellfire sessions he held down here. In some strange way, its comforting.

When he gets to the bottom of the steps, he starts to think that maybe he should have called out his arrival before hand; surely that would have saved Mike - and himself - the embarrassment of Eddie walking in on Mike and Will - Will Byers, Eddie fucking knew it - making out on the sofa.

He clears his throat, and takes a sick sort of humor in watching the two boys literally jump away from each other in panic because yup, been there kid. "Y'know, if you're going to have a gay make out session, the best place to do it probably isn't your mom's basement."

Mike all but yells in shock and horror. And Will seems to freeze like a deer in headlights, sitting stiffly with a rapidly growing red face. A second passes like this before Mike blinks, once, twice, and shoots up from the couch with furrowed eyebrows.

"Eddie?!"

Nancy wasn't lying. Standing in front of Mike now, all 5'11 of him, it was like looking in a fun house mirror. His face has thinned out, more sharp edges than last Eddie saw him; he's tall, incredibly so, and his hair, full of wild, unruly curls, has fallen down to his shoulders. He's dressed in a, clearly loved, Black Sabbath shirt that Eddie actually thinks is his, and he can't help the wide smile that splits his face in half.

But Mike is not smiling, well he was. His expression starts to cycle through a mix of happy, confused, angry. And then Eddie gets the air knocked out of his lungs when Mike barrels into him. Eddie thinks he's crying a bit.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Eddie tells them. About New York, about writing. He revels in that same old warmth that comes when the two boys laugh at his jokes, or when Will's eyes light up at the description of the New York skyline at night. Eddie and Will spent lots of time together before he left, both of them eager to have another DM to talk to, plan campaigns with. He looks at Will now, and he still sees the face of that kid that used to show up at his trailer with his tattered notebook and a head full of new ideas; it doesn't matter that his face has finally come into its own, or that he finally let his hair grow out past that ridiculous bowl cut, it's still Will Byers. They tell him about their own lives too, briefly, about school and life in general, and seem to have forgotten that Eddie caught them, what he walked in on. And that's fine with Eddie, they'll talk about it when they're ready, who is he to pry?

The three of them sat there for what realistically couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but felt like eons in the best way possible. Until raised voices upstairs cut through their conversation. Eddie recognises Nancy's voice and assumes the other is her mom.

Mike rolls his eyes and deadpans, "Oh great, we're back to this."

Curiosity gets the better of him, and despite knowing he shouldn't pry Eddie asks anyway. "They fight alot?"

"Just like, all the time," Mike groans and Will snickers at his antics. "God it's been like this for two years now, it's a miracle Nance even comes home at this point."

"Of course she'd come home," Will interjects, "Nancy's not like that."

There's something more to that sentence, something both Mike and Will understand. Yet another thing Eddie is being left out on.

"Two years?" he whistles, laughing sarcastically, "What could she have possibly done? Misspelt a word in her college application?"

Mike stares at him with wide eyes. "She hasn't told you yet? Her and Ste-"

"Eddie!"

Nancy's voice cuts through the conversation. Eddie looks to where she's standing at the top of the stairs, cheeks burning red with a fiery gaze in her eye. Beside him, Mike stands immediately, concern painting his face but Nancy just shrugs him off.

"C'mon," she says, "We're leaving."

Before Eddie can blink he's hauling Nance's suitcases back out to the car to the tune of Mrs. Wheeler begging, pleading, with Nancy to stay. Nancy doesn't listen to her, and she manages to keep her composure right until they pull out of the driveway, then tears start forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Nance?" Eddie puts a hand on her shoulder. "Nance, hey, what happened?"

She laughs, wetly. "Nothing. It's fine. My mom just- shit." Her grip on the steering wheel tightens. "I'll Uhm, I'll drop you off at your Uncle's place I just-"

"Hey, hey." Eddie rushes to comfort her. "It's alright, I'm honestly in no rush. Just, go wherever you need to go. Okay?"

Nancy takes a series of deep breaths, and her tight lock on the wheel loosens. "Okay."

The car turns right, and Eddie doesn't even need to ask where they're going; he remembers the road like the back of his hand. Loch Nora. Steve Harrington's house.

And it's different.

Not massively so. In fact, the only difference Eddie can see is the change in colour, from that ugly steel grey to a soft yellow. Had the snow been melted, he would have seen rows of flowerbeds but with the garden frozen over the only thing standing there are a couple of poorly made snowmen, one significantly smaller than the other but both finished off with hats and scarfs and, of course, carrot noses. Eddie spies the sight of that large, perfect Christmas tree he and Steve spent hours decorating so that everything was just right. The house stands out from the others, and whether that's because of the change in colour or the extravagant Christmas lights only it has, Eddie doesn't know.

And there's a moment where Eddie forgets where he is. A moment where he's not in the car with Nancy, but rather in his Van with bags upon bags of groceries beside him, and he's getting ready to navigate - completely destroy - Steve's kitchen in a futile attempt to cook dinner for the two of them. It feels like he's coming home, like he's never been away. Like it hasn't been four years, and things between him and Steve aren't completely ruined, shattered to bits by his own hand.

"I'll only be a minute." Nancy tells him, obviously picking up on something he isn't given the side eyed glare she shoots him. 'It's probably best if you stay here." But hell no, Eddie finally feels whole again and he's going to chase this feeling into tomorrow. He's out of the car before Nancy can even stop him.

Walking up to the door, Eddie's in a hazy trance. Memories upon memories flood the forefront of his mind; Him and Steve playing in the snow; Him and Steve watching horror movies; Him and Steve coming back from one of their summer drives, the sound of ABBA blasting much to Eddie's playful dismay. He gets to the door with Nancy yelling after him.

He lifts his fist to the door, but it swings open before he can knock. And that trance Eddie found himself in quickly fades as the smell of citrus and burning wood hits his face, and there's a child standing at the door.

A little girl, with curly brown hair tied back into pigtails, with a freckled tan face and wide hazel eyes that look into Eddie's soul. She's wearing a pink tutu and some kind of sports jersey, Eddie doesn't know what sport though. She blinks at him in a curious manner, tilting her head to the side, then her gaze stares past him and her face lights up in a face splitting smile.

"Nance! She screams excitedly, and sprints off in a waddle. Eddie watches as Nancy rushes up to meet her with the same smile on her face, and she picks her up in her arms and twirls her about. The little girl laughs ecstatically. Eddie's face pales at the similarities between the two girls.

"Wheeler, thank god you're home," A voice calls from the house. Eddie turns to the source and his heart swells at the sight.

Robin fucking Buckley. Standing in the doorway in all her chaotic glory. Her hair is slightly longer now and just as untamed as it used to be; she too is wearing a tutu and she looks like she's been running if her red cheeks and heavy breaths are anything to say about it.

She rubs her eyes, laughing in a pathetic huff of air. "I swear if I have to watch one more episode of Sesame Street I'm going to kill mys-"

For someone who always seemed so open, Eddie has a hard time figuring out what emotion lies in Robin's eyes when she finally looks at Eddie; is it happiness? Confusion? Sadness? He doesn't know. She stares at him, with wide unblinking eyes, and time seems to slow down for her as she takes the sight of him in. Eddie feels a little exposed watching her look him up and down, and he'd probably shift uncomfortably under her gaze, if he wasn't so fucking happy to see her.

"Hey Rob," he smirks, trying, and definitely failing, to sound sauve. "Miss me."

In response to his question, Robin gives him her fist colliding with his nose.

tag list :)

@thermofisherscientific

[ladyartemesia]

Fic recs for taehyung? I love your stuff btw I’ve read them all uwu

As a beacon of extra-ness in an already extra world, I am entirely incapable of just recommending fics like a normal blog. No. I’ve got to wax on like a bloomin connoisseur. I have compiled some (but not all) of my favorite works in several different categories and sorted them accordingly. This crazy list is so long I had to add a “keep reading”... but I simply couldn’t bear to leave any of these off the list. They are all so good!

Fics have been divided into 8 categories. Some are under the cut. 

 ▨ FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS and FRIENDS TO LOVERS ▨  ▨ ARRANGED MARRIAGE ▨ ▨ FANTASY ▨ ▨ ANGST WITH A HAPPY ENDING ▨ ▨ HYBRID and ABO (alpha/omega) ▨ ▨ MULTIPLE PARTNERS ▨ ▨ NEIGHBORS AND ROOMMATES ▨ ▨ TABOO THEMES and DARK FIC (Sex Work/Power Imbalance/Very Unsafe Sex) ▨ ▨

▨ FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS and FRIENDS TO LOVERS ▨

Insomnia by @hobiwonder

This is one of those fics I read and literally could not stop thinking about. It is wildly hot and honestly hilarious. Poor reader cannot sleep and the beautiful bro she’s tutoring offers a rather unconventional solution.

(Ego) Hoe Chronicles: KTH by @suga-kookiemonster

Listen. If you find a niche fan blog devoted entirely to Ego Tae... I’m not gonna say it’s mine. But it’s probably mine. I once told suga-kookiemonster that I would literally read a story about Ego Tae going grocery shopping on a Wednesday night and I stand by that. In this lurid romp, the reader falls into the clutches of everyone’s favorite bohemian sex lord and he rails her into another dimension.

Falling, Falling, Gone by @johobi

Pining (mutual or otherwise) is not really my thing, but I would straight up read Jo’s laundry list if she posted it. As usual I was blown away by how everything she does seems somehow better than any other version of it. This reader is really unique as well, and her relationship with the wildly popular soccer star Tae comes to a sexy and hilarious head at a sort of bachelor auction. With sharp dialogue, delightful subtext, and fantastic side characters, you really shouldn’t miss it. It’s pretty much perfect.

A Friendly Favor by @baeseoul

This is the classic “teach me some sex for another woman” trope and it is done so well. Sweet best friend Tae is looking to benefit from your experience, but his is not the only world about to be thouroughly rocked.

Officer Kim and the Criminal Crush by @ddaengyoonmin

This is one of the best twists on childhood friends to lovers I have ever seen. Tae grows up to become a cop and reader grows up to be a societal menace. I won’t spoil it, but it’s the perfect blend of nostalgia, tenderness, and smut. This fic technically doesn’t have a name so I had to give it one to link it. It’s part of an AMAZING series Zoe did that I also highly recommend.

Out of the Blue by @jimlingss

This is one of those stories that blooms throughout the narrative until you are left with this gorgeous flower at the end. I loved the journey of these two characters. It was real and it perfectly captures the experience of finding your soulmate in the person you least expect.

Sin Pijama by @brilliantlybasicb

This fic is a switch culture fic. It is wild wicked hot and this Tae is unreal. I love the way he lets the reader think she is in control just long enough. It is a wild romp with an adorable sequel and honestly you should read it.

Girls Like You by @jjiminah

I was in jjiminah’s asks IMMEDIATELY about this fic because I had FEELINGS. The reader begins wordlessly teasing and tempting Tae on their morning bus ride every day until he is literally losing his mind. Everything that follows is fire. Jjiminah has hinted she will wrote more for these two and I NEED IT.

Sighs and Sonnets by @btsaudge

This fic is beautiful. Like it’s basically art. This is a bad boy who is bad for you. But he has the soul of a poet and the stroke game of a renaissance master. Bittersweet and seductive, this fic is a full experience.

The Text by @taetaesbaebaepsae

Tae is your friend with benefits but it looks like feeling may have been caught by one or more parties. When you attempt to soothe your aching heart with another pretty boy, Tae decides to stake his claim. This was very sexy. The whole fic was sexy.

▨ ARRANGED MARRIAGE ▨

Monster by @neonlights92

Monster and all of its companion series about each of the boys is one of those fics that I reread constantly and also just think about constantly. This is one of the best mafia AUs out there and it’s characters are vivid and unforgettable. Tae’s stubborn resistance to his lovely new wife in contrast with her quiet, clever strength really brings this story to life. A word of warning. The masterlist links are a bit messed up. To read part two you must click on part three. And to read part three must click on part four. The link to part four is at the bottom of part three (or you can just search it on her site. It is definitely all there though).

Dichotomy by @kpopfanfictrash

There is a reason the incomparable Shanna is on this list three times. She is truly incomparable. This is childhood friends-to enemies-to spouses and it is wonderful. I adore this Tae. He is sharp and vulnerable and occasionally heavy handed, but truly a gem. This fic also features one of the best angry sex scenes I’ve ever run my eyeballs across.

▨ FANTASY ▨

Chism by @kpopfanfictrash

The world-building in this story is genuinely awe inspiring. You could write series upon series within this vivid universe. The god of Winter is missing and Summer’s heat burns unchecked for many years. The reader is a warrior with a unique ability tasked with guarding a very interesting prisoner. This story is so good. I mean it is really bloomin incredible. It’s hard to say what I liked best about it, because it was stellar across the board.

Obsidian by @kpopfanfictrash

In the pantheon of delicious Tae incarnations, Obsidian Taehyung is essentially unrivaled as a grey witch who moonlights as a sexy rock star. His extremely erotic clash with a white witch detective plays out as the two of them track down a sinister killer (with the help of some truly memorable side characters).

Out of this World by @ddaengyoonmin

This one is really unique. Tae is a merman scientist on the water planet of Neptune and when the reader and her misguided crew crash into his sea, he takes it upon himself to improve inter-species relations. This fic features excellent world building alongside several twists and surprises. Clever scientist Tae is downright irresistible.

▨ ANGST WITH A HAPPY ENDING ▨

Picking Flowers by @jamaisjoons

So this story is a journey - truly a beautiful one and it’s a gorgeous addition to the hanahaki genre. There is real pain and I cried real tears, but gosh it was so sexy and so worth it. I was surprised by how truly immersed I ended up in this piece. I lost track of everything else. The end is insanely satisfying, but the journey is really what makes this fic unmissable.

Until Yesterday by @jimlingss

This fic destroyed me slowly then slowly put me together again piece by piece. When I say I went through it - I WENT THROUGH IT. The story is loosely based on the movie “The Vow” and it is just fantastic. Beautiful and tender till the last word.

The Foolish Muse by @bibbykins

This is the story of someone who is deeply in love, but knows they deserve better. It is a sexy and evocative work with allusions to mythology that fit seamlessly into the narrative. I think my favorite part is Tae discovering how much the reader meant to him and what choices ultimately lead them to a really delicious conclusion.

Back to You by @ladyartemesia

The last time I did a fic rec list, it got like 700 notes. Ya girl is not makin the same mistake again. I spent hours on this list. My work is comin along for the ride. Kim Taehyung is the love of your life, until one day he disappears without a trace.

Vacancy by @ppersonna

This one is the only idol AU on the list and I normally don’t read those, but Lindy’s work is too good to miss in any setting. I am thrilled I took a look because what I found was a glimpse into a beautiful relationship that weathers and eventually overcomes the challenges of loving in the limelight. There is a LOT of emotional depth and symbolism which really elevates everything about this lovely story. The reader’s internal struggles in the face of her lover’s fame are extremely well done.

▨ HYBRID and ABO ▨ (alpha/omega)

Eye of the Tiger by @opaljm

I am beyond hype about this story which is (very) loosely inspired by Zootopia and features a cocky tiger Taehyung and a fiesty prey hybrid he needs to fake date in order to keep panther Jimin from murdering him. (Tiger Tae got a tad too frisky around Jimin’s mate and now things are dangerously awkward.) This story is already so freakin good. I cannot wait for the rest.

Silver and Blue by @taetaewonderland

What happens when you get on the wrong side of the right werewolf? Very sexy - very crazy times. Chronologically this is the first of the Silver and Blue series which follows barely civilized were-Tae through his courtship and eventually his relationship with the spunky reader. Holla to all my impreg kink homies. This is the fic for you.

Heat Run by @ladyartemesia

As I said before, the last time I did a fic rec list, it got like 700 notes. Ya girl is not makin the same mistake twice. I spent hours on this list. My work is comin along for the ride. Alpha lawyer V is a man of many secrets, but his well ordered reality spirals wildly out of control when he crosses paths with a fiery omega set on saving the world from his wicked ways.

Beautiful Stranger by @interludemoonchild

This was a wild ride from start to finish. Taehyung is a tiger hybrid shifter who escapes from the circus to be close to a veterinary student he bonded with. There is a lot of interesting twists and surprises in this one. I was definitely screaming at the end.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by @jingabitch

A very young wolf hybrid Taehyung adopts you as his pet human when you are just a kid. After Tae leaves to serve in the military he returns to an adult version of his sweet little princess and chaos ensues. Mind the tags for this one folks. It’s excellent, but there are very triggering themes throughout.

▨ MULTIPLE PARTNERS ▨

Level of Restraint by @lemonjoonah

This is not strictly a Tae fic in that he is only one of three major players in this twisted masterpiece. Lemon is the undisputed queen of the surprise twist and this one is truly brilliant. People dropped this fic in the discord calling it the best fan fiction they had ever read and I am not here to argue with them at all. Fair warning, every word - every inch of this fic is sexy and it’s delicious brand of titillation is wrapped around your psyche good and tight by the end.

Four by @luxekook

The quadruplets next door are fueling your very lurid fantasies. It turns out they have some fantasies of their own... You will need water if you read this fic. This is the original patented Kim Taehyung Horny Hive Mind 4D Experience™

▨ NEIGHBORS AND ROOMMATES ▨

The Heat Wave Series by @curly-bangtan

The original story (chapter 1) in this series is definitely famous, but I don’t know how many people have read all 9 chapters and if you haven’t, you are really missing the incredible journey of two very horny idiots stumbling recklessly towards real and amazing love. Everything is set off when the air conditioner breaks and a pair of wild roommates shed their inhibitions along with their clothes.

Flicker by @chimoona

So this fic started out with adorable neighbor dynamics and ended with erotic rope tying. Baby I was ABOUT IT. This was so bloomin hot and also like sweet and tender. Really a sexy and sentimental treasure.

Not Your Typical Flower Shop Story by @jungtaeyoongles

This story goes from “aww” to “WHAT THE-” real quick. Fast paced plot and twist after twist turn the whole flower shop au upside down and then inside out. I can’t say more because spoilers but like - WOW.

▨ TABOO THEMES and DARK FIC ▨ (Sex Work/Power Imbalance/Very Unsafe Sex)

Extracurricular by @ppersonna

One of my favorite professor-student AUs. The reader writes her gorgeous professor a borderline erotic analysis of several major works of art and he feels compelled to discuss it with her privately. Lindy really outdid herself on this one. It is scorchin. Professor Tae is actually really sweet and somehow that just makes the whole thing hotter.

Akrasia by @nitaescence

This is insanely hot. Emphasis on the insane because it’s basically a super erotic romp where you have sex with a man you don’t know (Taehyung) on a crowded public bus. I literally felt my blood pressure going up the longer I read. Whew.

The Client by @jungkookiebus

This one hit me right in the feels. Taehyung is a sweet and lonely man who has a standing Wednesday appointment with an upscale sex worker. As the story progresses, feelings become involved on both sides. When I say I am checking her page thrice daily for part three... This is so engrossing. And this Tae. I just want to hold him.

Daffodil Dreams by @sombreboy

Tread carefully ladies and gents. This story is excellent, but it is easily the darkest fic on the list and, if you choose to read it, please read the trigger warnings carefully. The reader is a psychologist called in to analyze a very dangerous criminal. As their sessions progress, however, several boundaries are crossed.

Obey by @jjkfire

Taehyung is the most feared and ruthless member of the local mafia and you are the world’s most inept escort. You needed a job, but had no real interest in sex work and you’ve managed to fly under the radar as a glorified waitress until Kim Taehyung himself walks into your agency and decides that you’re the only girl he wants. Oh my gosh I loved this story so much. It was downright amazing and there is a surprise at the end that makes everything even sweeter.

[crusherthedoctor]

Can you list anything you unironically like in the games (and cartoons and comics) that you don't like?

I won't bother mentioning music, since that goes without saying and is to be expected for a Sonic game... unless you're Chronicles.

Sonic Adventure 2 (mixed gameplay-wise, annoying story-wise) - While I prefer Sonic's SA1 levels for a number of reasons, I still think his and Shadow's gameplay in SA2 is fun on its own merit. I also don't mind the treasure hunting gameplay returning or how big the levels are this time around, since Knuckles and Rouge are still fast and not '06 levels of slow. It's mainly the gimped radar that creates the unfortunate domino effect of making them a problem.

- Introduced Rouge, one of my favourite characters for how playful she is and how she's a lot more nuanced and intelligent than you'd expect.

- Some genuinely good scenes, like Eggman's trap on the A.R.K and Sonic escaping from the G.U.N. helicopter.

- Had some good ideas going for it, like the Pyramid Base and the Biolizard as a scientific monster instead of an ancient one.

- Despite my thoughts on the backstory itself (or rather, its execution), Shadow has enough depth and subtle qualities and occasional unintended hilarity to stand out from the typical dark rival characters you see in media.

- The Last Scene's music in particular is one of my favourite cutscene tracks in the series.

Sonic Heroes (mixed gameplay-wise, loathed story-wise) - The gameplay is fun when you're not being screwed over by repetitive combat, overly long levels and/or ice physics.

- Boasts some of the most consistently Genesis-worthy environments in the 3D games, up there with SA1's and Colours'.

- The in-game dialogue that isn't the same tutorial drivel repeated ad nauseam can be interesting, funny, etc.

- Reintroduced the Chaotix, which provided me with another character I quite like in the form of Vector.

- Bringing Metal Sonic back in full force and front and center in the plot after a long absence (not counting cameos and the like) is a perfectly fine idea. Just... not like this.

Sonic Battle (decent yet repetitive gameplay, mixed story-wise) - Emerl's arc is compelling, and it earns the emotional weight of having to put him down at the end.

- While some characters are iffy (read: Amy), other characters are extremely well-handled. Shadow is probably the prime example.

- Gamma's belly dance healing animation is fucking hilarious.

- When I was young, and the game was first announced, I was really excited about being able to play as Chaos. This proved to be my downfall when it turned out he was arguably one of the worst characters in the game due to being slower than me during the writing process, but I still recall that excitement fondly.

Shadow the Hedgehog (comedy classic) - The sheer amount of legendary stupidity this game has going for it makes it practically impossible to actually hate. It helps that it's not quite as white-knighted on the same level as '06... usually. You know you're in for a unique experience when you hear a gunshot every time you click something in the menu.

- By extension, Black Doom never gained an unironic fanbase like Mephiles/Scourge/Eggman Nega did, which means I'm a lot more willing to take Doom's dumbass brand of villainy in stride. He even has a unique design... a terrible one that rips off Wizeman granted, but alas, even that is a step-up from Fridge Shadow and Bumblebee Eggman.

- Despite being... well, Shadow the Hedgehog, some of the environments would fit right in with any other Sonic game, like with Circus Park, Lava Shelter, and Digital Circuit. Even the Black Comet levels look pretty cool.

- This game understands amnesia better than IDW does.

Sonic '06 (what do you think?) - The obvious one: Shadow's character was handled pretty well, even if it came at the cost of everyone else being a dummy and being forced to interact with Mephiles.

- Like SA2, there are some good moments, like the Last Story ending sequence with Sonic and Elise.

- In the greatest form of irony ever, I like Solaris as a concept and design(s), and its backstory has potential to serve as a parallel with Chaos without being a complete ripoff. Iblis sucks, Mephiles sucks, but I'm fine with Solaris.

- Introduced legendary characters like Sonic Man, Pele the Beloved Dog, Hatsun the Pigeon, and Pacha from The Emperor's New Groove.

The Rivals duology (apathetic outside of Nega-related grumbling) - There were some cool zone ideas in both games that were sadly let down by the restrictive and limiting gameplay. I particularly like Colosseum Highway for thus far being the only full-on Roman level in the series instead of merely having a couple minor hints of Roman, and Meteor Base for the unique scenario of the space station being built into an asteroid. These level concepts and others deserve a second chance IMO. (At least Frontier Canyon got a second chance in the form of Mirage Saloon, amirite?)

- Ifrit has a better design than Iblis. Not saying it's amazing, but the Firebird motif it has going on is a lot more interesting for a fire monster than the Not-Chaos schtick they had with Iblis.

Sonic and the Secret Rings (a very frustrating gaming experience) - Erazor Djinn, A.K.A. Qui-Gon Djinn, A.K.A. Dr. N. Djinn, A.K.A. I'll Take It On The Djinn, A.K.A. Not From The Hairs On My Djinny Djinn Djinn, is one of the best villains not associated with Eggman in the series. He's a Mephiles-type character done right, and there's actual weight and reason to his actions, however sinister or petty.

- I don't have strong opinions either way on Shahra as a character, but the Sonic/Shahra friendship is sweet and well-handled.

- The ending is one of Sonic's greatest moments. The sheer contrast between how ruthlessly he deals with Erazor and how comforting he is towards Shahra speaks volumes... Still gonna make fun of the mountain of handkerchiefs though. (Before anyone lectures me, I understand the significance of it and can even appreciate it from that angle... doesn't mean I'm not allowed to poke fun at it. :P)

- Another game with some redeeming environments. I love the aesthetic of Night Palace, and Sand Oasis looks gorgeous too.

Sonic Chronicles (my personal least favourite game in the series) - Uh...

- Um...

- Er...

- I like Shade's design?

Sonic Unleashed (overrated game and story IMO) - The obvious two: the opening sequence and the Egg Dragoon fight deserve all the praise they get.

- Seeing Eggmanland come to life was an impressive moment to be sure. While part of me does feel it didn't quite measure up to what I had in mind (ironically, the Interstellar Amusement Park ended up being closer to what I had in mind), it still looks badass and works well for what it is. I also don't mind the idea of it being a one-level gauntlet... key word being idea.

- Obviously, the game looks great. Not a fan of the real world focus (real world inspiration is fine, but copy-pasting the real world and shoving loops in it is just unimaginative), but it can't be denied that the environments look good.

- This game pulled off dialogue options a lot better than Chronicles did, since they didn't rely on making Sonic OoC.

Sonic and the Black Knight (just kind of boring all around) - Despite my gripes with the story (Merlina wasn't nearly as fleshed out as her unique anti-villain status deserved, which ends up severely undermining the ambition of the plot in more ways than one, and the other characters go from being useless yes men for King Arthur to being useless yes men for Sonic), I will admit it provides interesting insight into Sonic's character.

- Like '06 and Secret Rings, the ending is very nice... well, aside from Amy being an unreasonable bitch ala Sonic X at the very end.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (apathetic) - The admittedly few new concepts sprinkled within had promise. They may not have been as fleshed out as they could have been, but level concepts like Sylvania Castle and White Park, bosses like Egg Serpentleaf and the Egg Heart, and story beats like the Death Egg mk.II being powered by Little Planet, all could have been brilliant had they been better executed.

SatAM (apathetic outside of SatAM Robotnik-related grumbling) - I'm not a fan of the environments on the whole due to them looking too bland or samey, but there are some exceptions that look pleasant or interesting, like the Void.

Sonic Underground (apathetic) - The character designs make me feel better about myself.

- Does "large quantities of unintentional meme material" count as a positive?

Sonic X (mostly apathetic outside of Eggman's handling) - Helen was a better human character and audience surrogate in her one focus episode than Chris was throughout his entire runtime.

- Actually, most of the human characters not named Chris were legitimately likable. Including everyone in Chris' own family not named Chris. Hilarious.

- Despite arguably having the most Chris in it, I actually don't mind the first season that much, partly due to slight nostalgia from seeing it on TV when it was new, but mostly because Eggman actually acted like a villain for the most part, and certain other characters weren't quite as flanderized yet. It's season 2 and onwards where things started going off the rails IMO. (Incidentally, Helen's episode was part of season 1...)

The Boom franchise (apathetic) - Along with Chronicles, the games provide yet more proof that just because someone isn't SEGA/Sonic Team, that doesn't mean they're automatically more qualified to handle the series.

- The show had some good episodes here and there, and Tails' characterization was probably the most consistently on-point out of the cast.

- Despite not exactly being favourite portrayals for either character, even I'll admit that many of Knuckles and Eggman's lines in the show on their own were genuinely funny.

Archie Sonic (pre-reboot is mostly terrible, post-reboot is mostly... bland) - Whenever I doubt myself as a writer, I think back to Ken Penders, and suddenly I'm filled with a lot more confidence.

Sonic the Comic (apathetic) - Fleetway isn't a comic I tend to recall much of aside from how much of a loathesome cunt Sonic is, but IIRC, Robotnik's portrayal is pretty good. Different, but good.

IDW Sonic (stop pissing me off, comic) - Putting their handling aside (and being too obviously "inspired" by MGS in the latter's case), Tangle and Whisper are good characters IMO.

- Same goes for Starline, before he was killed off-screen and replaced with Toothpaste Snively.

- Execution aside (noticing a pattern?), the zombot virus was a fine concept on its own and an interesting new scheme for Eggman.

- I get to remind myself that I've never drawn scat edits and posted them publicly on Twitter.

[spockandawe]

Hi.....if you don't mind me asking, what are your top 10 favorite books? And why? Sorry if you've answered this question before....

This is an interesting question, and a difficult one! Which is why I let it steep for a few days while I was in a bookbinding fugue, haha XD

I’m not sure I’ll be able to answer it, because my level of fondness is highly dependent on how recently I read a book/how many times I’ve reread it, with an optional nostalgia modifier if something made a huge impression in my youth. And when I’m picking favorites, as the number of potential [thing] expands, the more I end up dithering and fretting that I’m forgetting something HUGE as I choose. So rather than a selection of top ten, I’ll just run down through some of my favorites! I’ll split it as five cnovels (recent reads, current genre hyperfixation) and five more conventional english-language novel (realistically, probably more like series, unless a standalone book occurs to me), and I’m not going to rank the conventional novels.

SO. Regular novels first. There’s a heavy recently-read/frequently-reread element going on in here. 

The Imperial Radch trilogy, by Ann Leckie. Okay, I am a sucker for a nonhuman protagonist, which is going to pop up in at least two other entries. And I’m also a sucker for themes of what can be perceived about a person externally versus their internal world, and Breq delivers like WHOA. She has SO MUCH going on in her head, and even though we’re in there with her, she still hides lots of her emotions from us. And characters like Seivarden hit me in character development buttons that I’m a sucker for, and the whole idea of consciousness being split across multiple bodies is DELICIOUS to me. Also... love me a sentient spaceship. ‘The Ship Who X’ series by Anne McCaffrey isn’t going to make this list, but I also love it a lot. (also, a universe of ‘she’s made me realized how STARVED i was for that degree of representation in certain genres that i love a lot, but don’t often see myself in as often as i might like)

The Murderbot series, by Martha Wells. Another nonhuman, sometimes-human-passing protagonist! Another one processing MASSIVE trauma of a sort that I, the human reader, have to slow down a lot and try to comprehend from an extremely different life experience! I like that a lot, it really forces me to LINGER on the nature of what a character is feeling. And oh my god, Murderbot’s voice is one of my favorite pov voices of all time. And watching it work (or go hogwild on its own asdfdgd) is absolutely delightful. I love literally everything about this series, except what happened with Miki. Other than that? Flawless.

The Books Of The Raksura, by Martha Wells. Martha Wells is a DELIGHT, y’all. Also! Another heavily-traumatized, nonhuman protagonist! And this time, like... It’s a fantasy world with huge amounts of sentient species, and the protagonist grew up away from his people, who are basically a bunch of feral homesteaders (LOVE THAT), and is trying to figure out how to reintegrate into their societal structures as an adult. That desperate desire to belong and feeling of discomfort and not-fitting-in, and the connections he makes and the way he DOES find a way to fit... like if u crey every time. Also, as far as we’re shown, it’s a cheerfully bisexual, polyamorous society, and *grabby hands*

Discworld, by Terry Pratchett. God, what do I even say about this series. It was a PARADIGM SHIFT. It’s bitingly funny, and also just plain biting, and full of huge varieties of interesting stories, set in a fascinating world, with a series of protagonists who I love too much for words. Vimes! The witches! Moist!!! They’re all so WONDERFUL. I still haven’t read the last book in the series yet, because then it will be Over Forever, and I can’t deal. This one is heavily nostalgia-tinted, but also, I stand by it.

The Belgariad/Mallorean, by David Eddings. Okay. Also very nostalgia, and the choice I can justify the least. But these books CLICKED with me. I’m afraid to reread them, because I’ve been wallowing in queer fiction for so long I’m worried about what the compulsory heterosexuality will feel like, and I know both series are very... episodic, in a way that isn’t necessarily great literature. But I dunno! Feels good, man. It’s high fantasy with a magical system I like, segmented worldbuilding of a sort that isn’t necessarily WELL-MADE, but it’s like... comfortable and easy. And something about the style and the character voices just clicks with me. I have no idea how well these hold up in the present day, but I do love them, and I’ve been planning to reread at least The Redemption Of Althalus by the same author as a standalone before I commit to a 12-book rereading of this universe, but.... I like em XD

--

Cnovels! I think I can rank these, so let’s go for it.

Fifth favorite: The Disabled Tyrant’s Pet Palm Fish :B Look, it’s ridiculous. It’s a transmigration story where the lead enters this fictional universe in the body of a fish, where he is adopted by a prince who eventually falls in love with him, and YES IT IS TAGGED MPREG, BUT HOLD ON A MOMENT-- I don’t know! I came here to point and laugh, but I’m honestly having such a good time right now. It’s really cute! And sweet! The main character is delightful, and the love interest is that particular flavor of semi-socialized upper-class young man, where like, can he do court politics? yes. can he politely express his affections for the main character? uh....... less so. It’s a really fun read, and I felt very sincere emotions about this prince who is passionately, deeply in love with his pet fish!

Fourth favorite: Mmmmmm, Mo Dao Zu Shi, I think. I struggle here, because it is NOT an easy book to read or show to watch, but having consumed the story, I love it to PIECES. I know a big draw for me is the protagonist, specifically, and his relationships to the people around him. And the more I cared about him, the more I wound up caring about the people around him, who I’d kind of neglected before, if that makes sense? It’s a story that really rewards some good old pondering. I didn’t care that much about Lan Xichen, but then I started thinking about how Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji relate to Lan Xichen, and then oh no, I care SO MUCH about his emotions, and now I’m thinking more deeply about how Lan Xichen relates to Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue-- It does lose points in this ranking because it IS hard to get into, and I would struggle to keep everyone straight even more if I didn’t have the show visuals to lean on, but it is still story I enjoyed VERY much.

Third favorite: Erha, but I feel REALLY, REALLY BAD that I can’t fit Yuwu on this list too, and I just want to loop them together. It’s time travel fixit fic, but it’s the book! Yes????? I love this. I love the striking character growth we get to see, and the changing perception of the world as the main character relives through events he already experienced and sees things in a new light, and I adore how Mo Ran’s growing guilt goes hand in hand with his growing love. And Meatbun in general... like, my god. I haven’t read another author who’s able to yank me through emotional whiplash so hard and fast. She makes me hoot with laughter one moment and then burst into tears the next. It’s absolutely wild. I love mxtx, and I think svsss/tgcf are gentler entry points into the genre and deal with lighter themes, but meatbun is seriously an UNBELIEVABLE writer if you can deal with the darker topics she covers.

Second favorite: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System :V Look, I love it. I just love it. I love, again, characters dealing with the aftereffects of old trauma, plus I do also love seeing NEW trauma piled on top of it. I love having a main character with emotional dysregulation issues who doesn’t necessarily make good decisions, but doesn’t just leave me thinking ‘jfc what an asshole’, and I think that’s a really hard balance for an author to strike, especially without us getting direct pov. I love themes of being wanted and insecurity about being wanted, which is Luo Binghe’s major, major damage. And this is my first transmigration story I ever read, and the contrast between a main character who read the novel telling us about what’s totally going to happen versus the ground shifting under his feet is INCREDIBLY delightful to me. I’ve read other transmigration stories I enjoyed, but none that got my attention quite as much as this one.

First favorite: Tian Guan Ci Fu ;u; It’s so good. It’s so well-made! It’s so LONG, and it meanders, but also, I would scream if anyone tried to trim anything out of it. I am here a lot for the ship, honestly, but I also find the plot themes VERY interesting. I am very much here for reading about characters trying to process old trauma that’s been dredged up by new events, and also very here for the themes about how characters either pass their traumas along to the next generation, or try to shield the next generation from taking the same kind of damage (see: mdzs). And I’m also very much into tempering stories about pain with like... memories of kindness, and small acts of kindness repaid with an outpouring of devotion (see: svsss). But the craftsmanship in this book is just... DIVINE. I’m always reluctant to start rereading this one, because I have a terrible time stopping. There’s nothing about this book that I don’t like.

[blouisparadise]

Upon request, we’ve added to our friends to lovers rec list. You can find part one here and there will also be a part three (and possibly a part four!) up eventually, which will be linked here when it’s been posted. We hope you enjoy these fics! Happy reading.

1) Roses In The Rain | Mature | 5267 words

“Don’t- I know what you’re going to ask, and I… Harry, I can’t,” he said, his voice cracking. “Please. You know that I can’t.”

Louis had his six siblings and his old house with its falling-apart porch to take care of. This town was where people still approached him, 8 years after high school graduation, to tell him that they loved him as Danny in Grease. This town was where he had his pick of suitors, where he had his first kiss, where he took his first steps, where his mama lived, died, and was buried, and he couldn’t leave just to follow some man that he loved.

Harry, for now, seemed to understand that.

“Okay, baby,” Harry sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Okay.”

2) Candy In Your Mouth (I Know You Love Me) | Explicit | 6937 words

Things have shifted since last Christmas.

3) Glimpse Of The Silhouettes | Explicit | 7181 words

Harry isn't sure what the rules are for this. It's hard to believe that there are any, that's there's a handbook just waiting for him to buy: why is my best mate getting hard in my lap when I touch his arse?

4) Woke Up Feeling Knotty | Explicit | 7903 words

Beta Louis has a kink for knotting and the secret aesthetic porn blog he runs about it is more than proof.  When he accidentally finds out his alpha best friend Harry is one of his biggest fans, he knows he has to come clean after everything that has already happened between them.  Harry just might be willing to help him out anyway.

5) A Love Reaction | Explicit | 9968 words

It's never been a thing. Not until now.

6) Got It Right Such A Long Time Ago | Explicit | 9699 words

Four months into One Direction's hiatus, Louis comes to stay with Harry after a bad breakup.

7) (You're Gonna See Me In A) New Light | Mature | 13631 words

A fake relationship AU where everyone knows it's real but Louis.

8) As A Memento From Me | Explicit | 15817 words

Five lives in which Harry and Louis didn’t end up together, and one in which they did.

9) I Put A Spell On You | Explicit | 17525

A BBC/Secret Santa mashup featuring Captain Niall, our intrepid weatherman/amateur matchmaker, rather clueless sports reporter Liam, charming political analyst Zayn, and cheeky entertainment reporter Louis. Harry is the new fashion correspondent who prefers to dress like a flamingo. And pining. There’s a lot of pining.

10) Oblivious | Explicit | 19095 words

Where Louis gets a little crush on Luke and for some reason Harry starts acting weird.

11) Break Open The Sky | Explicit | 20372 words

Werewolf AU. Harry might be a werewolf, but he still wants to experience Uni like everyone else. Turns out he learns a lot.

12) Runnin’ Like You Did | Explicit | 20061 words

The college AU where Louis knows how to hold a grudge and is definitely not in love with Harry Styles.

13) UN(RE)SOLVED. | Explicit | 20873 words

The ghoul boys are back, but this time around there are some unresolved feelings involved. Harry is a skeptic, Louis is not. Watch them go on their ongoing investigation into the question: are ghosts real?

14) Hats Off To My Distant Hope | Explicit | 20990 words

Harry is in White Eskimo. Louis is in London.

15) The Way The Storms Blow | Explicit | 20649 words

Louis doesn’t have a habit of thinking about Harry’s dick.

That would be weird, seeing as they’re best mates, and they share a flat, and they’ve spent holidays at each other’s family homes. Their friendship hasn’t ever risen to a point where Louis should want to see his mate’s dick, and he’s happy to keep it that way.

Except, all that Louis can think about is exactly that. The size of it. The shape. The amount of people it’s been in.

Maybe it’s the tequila talking, or the fact that Louis’ just recently walked in to an eyeful of Harry taking turns on some slags that he’s never seen before, but. Louis’ mind can’t stop obsessing over the idea.

16) Love Like Wildfire | Explicit | 21774 words

Louis was an Omega and a Prefect. Harry was an Alpha and a little rascal. They were mates, drawn to each other since they first met in the Hogwarts Express. They worked well like that, or at least they tried, which only made their relationship way more interesting.

17) Indestructible | Explicit | 24423 words

“Hi,” Harry murmurs, and Louis hiccups out a sob.

“Hi,” he manages, still clutching onto Harry’s shoulders. Harry’s fingers drift across Louis’ cheeks, and there’s something off about Harry’s expression, but Louis can’t figure out what it is.

“I’m okay,” Harry says, and Louis is going to say something to that, even if he doesn’t know what, except Harry’s kissing him.

Louis freezes.

18) A Whole New World | Not Rated | 24967 words

Louis has moved into his new apartment to start his new job as a teacher. Things would be great. If only his arsehole neighbour didn't wake him up every morning by playing piano.

19) Another Day Gettin’ Into Trouble | Explicit | 25619 words

Harry’s drunk when the idea occurs to him. He’s also a pop star, so sometimes his drunk ideas turn into actual things instead of just ideas. The clone-a-willy kit is one of them.

In Harry’s defense, when he first thinks about it his intention is just to buy the kit and give it to Louis to make his own dildo with, because that’s what he wants anyway, right? To have a penis filling him up?

Then he realizes that it would be weird if Louis made a copy of his own dick to fuck himself with. It’d be super weird. Louis fucking himself? That’s a weird idea. Harry’s pretty sure Louis wouldn’t like that.

Clearly the only solution here is to use his own dick for the mold.

20) Brooklyn Saw Me | Explicit | 28537 words

In the cold and unforgiving city of New York, Louis doesn't have a home and Harry wants to give him one. But as their heartstrings become increasingly intertwined, and the snow continues to fall, home is getting harder and harder to find.

21) Rivers ‘Til I Reach You | Explicit | 29315 words

AU. Louis studies astronomy; Harry studies Louis. They spend their summers on the water and it shouldn't be complicated (spoiler: it is).

22) If Ignorance Be Bliss | Mature | 30429 words

Uni AU: Harry is too experienced, and Louis just wants to get to experience him.

23) Blind From This Sweet, Sweet Craving | Explicit | 31170 words

"So, I guess we'll go?" Louis asks later, when Harry has calmed down and eaten his weight in Chinese food. He plays with this chopsticks, spearing another piece of chicken and pops it in his mouth. "I mean, I wouldn't mind. We could make it an adventure."

Harry observes him, watches him seated across from him on their old living room carpet, with a container of food on his lap. He's fidgeting, avoiding meeting Harry's gaze–he probably knows that Harry's mad at him for ruining the one chance they had to get out of this situation. And he's not wrong, Harry is definitely very mad. Harry wants to strangle him and castrate him and smack him upside the head.

But he's also Harry's best friend, and despite everything, despite all the fuck-ups and the plot twists and everything just not playing out the way it should, he'd still rather be stuck in this situation with Louis than any of the other boys. He's got Harry's back, and in a weird, abstract way, he knows they'll be able to get out of this situation, together.

Harry sighs. "We're going," he says resignedly, his shoulders slumping.

Oh well. There are definitely worse ways to spend the weekend than pretending to be engaged to his best friend.

24) Welcome Back From The Friend Zone | Mature | 32354 words

The one where an idea to create a fake wedding with the sole intent to receive gifts from billionaires took a turn no one, but also everyone, saw coming.

25) The List | Mature | 32074 words

'In the weeks that follow, Harry opens his old journal more than he has in the past two years each time he remembers Venice or thinks about Louis. He always flips to the same random page in the middle of the book, marked by the picture of himself that Louis sent him a few days after they got home. There’s a message on the back that says, ‘Spontaneous looks good on you! See you soon,’ and it makes Harry’s chest warm each time he reads it. He wedges their list out from between the worn pages, and it feels silly staring down at a folded up piece of paper with a strange sense of nostalgia for experiences they’ve yet to have; for places they’ve never even been.'

26) Mark My Word (We Gon’ Be Alright) | Explicit | 35524 words

An A/B/O AU featuring an oblivious Harry as the pack leader, a pining Louis as his second-in-command, and an entourage of friends and family who are a little too good at keeping their mouths shut.

27) The Sun Will Rise With My Name On Your Lips | Explicit | 37927 words

When Eleanor breaks up with Louis he finds it hard to keep pretending that Harry isn’t what he’s wanted since the day he first met him.

28) Runner On Third | Explicit | 39643 words

Note: The sequel to this fic is not BL.

The AU where Louis and Harry were best friends growing up, but lost touch after Harry moved away. Ten years later, Harry has moved back to town, but he and Louis don't pick up where they left off.

29) My Sweetest Downfall | Mature | 42048 words

Louis is a retired guardian angel. After the death of his last charge, he became jaded. Humans die—what use is prolonging the inevitable?

He's more than happy to forget about humanity altogether until one day, when Louis is pulled from his desk job for a new assignment: protect One Direction's Harry Styles. It doesn't help that there's something about Harry that Louis can't resist, and it's making him question everything he's ever known. Humans are strictly off limits, and breaking that rule means risking everything, but Harry just might be worth it.

This is a story about forgiveness and discovery, featuring an angel who wants to be a little more human and a human who is so much more than he seems.

30) For the Sake of Propriety | Mature | 52360 words

Louis Tomlinson is the caretaker of an estate that is not truly his, and when his Uncle calls upon him to take it back, Louis knows he will soon be out on the streets with four overly zealous sisters to care for.  His only solution: wed the eldest two off and pray for the best.  When an even better solution unexpectedly presents itself in the form of the charming Mr. Styles, Louis is faced with a difficult choice.  But as with all things in the regency era, reputation very well may threaten to outweigh the fleeting matters of his heart.

31) The Bachelor | Explicit | 53953 words

The one where Harry dates six other guys and still falls in love with Louis Tomlinson.

32) We’ve Got the World in Our Hands | Explicit | 54964 words

Note: This fic has been locked and can only be read by AO3 users.

A mutants/superpowers AU. Louis and his friends attend the Cowell Institute for General Education and Mutant Training in London; when Louis meets Harry, the newest student at the Cowell Institute, he immediately recruits Harry to help play matchmaker for his friend Zayn. Harry and Louis are so caught up in meddling in Zayn's love life, though, that they don't notice that their own friendship is progressing into something more. Meanwhile, an ominous threat up north grows slowly until suddenly, no mutant - or human - is safe.

33) Waiting For The Tides To Meet | Explicit | 49873 words

Soulmate AU. Everyone is born with heterochromia — one eye is their own eye colour, while the other is the colour of their soulmate's. It's only when they meet their soulmate for the first time that their own eyes match properly. After a hazy night at a frat party, Louis wakes up to blue eyes and the shocking realization that he had met his soulmate, without any sober recollection. Seven years pass where Louis comes to terms with the fact that he'll never know who his soulmate is. Then one fated summer, a beautiful green-eyed photographer arrives at Louis' workplace, with promises of endless laughter and a familiar feeling in Louis' heart.

34) Since I’ve Found You | Mature | 74005 words

Louis woke up on the morning he was meant to volunteer at the Feed the Homeless program at St. Mary's church hoping for an opportunity to give back a little to a city that has given him everything he could ever want. Little did he know, there was one more great thing waiting there for him; a boy with radiant green eyes in a weathered jacket and a beat-up backpack slung over his shoulders.

35) Saving Symphony Hall | Mature | 124766 words

Note: This fic is a sequel to this fic.

“I think I have an idea,” Louis said. Slowly, and reluctantly, but with a growing sense of the inevitable. “God damnit, I think I have a really good idea.”

“Oh christ, that's the problem-solving face,” Babs said. “Last time we saw that face, he sold a company.”

“Wait, what?” Zayn asked.

“Right place, right time,” Louis said. “Also, fuck my life,”

“What?” Zayn repeated. Niall patted his hand.

“I usually just roll with whatever Louis is about to do,” he said. “It’s better for us all.”

“That’s the attitude,” said Louis, “I’ll tell you tomorrow. Tonight, I need to do some research. Zayn, give me your number. I’m gonna save our symphony.”

36) Falling Into You | Mature | 143517 words

In the grand scheme of adolescence and boyhood, Harry was still working himself out, so far with little luck. But four things he could say for certain: 1) he'd been at the top of his class all through primary and secondary school, 2) he was the shittiest alpha to ever walk the earth, 3) Liam Payne never let him forget it, and 4) he’d been in love with this boy, Louis Tomlinson, ever since he was fifteen years old.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: 21 Great Anime You Should Absolutely Watch In 2021

    Happy Anime Day! With every season bringing a plethora of new series, there are now countless shows and movies, both new and old, to watch. Whether it's adventure, comedy, romance, or drama you're looking for, here are 21 anime series you should add to your watchlist in 2021.

      1. My Hero Academia Season 5

When it comes to the next chapter of My Hero Academia, 2021 couldn't come fast enough. Season 4 showed audiences just how high the stakes really are and how dangerous the enemies can be. Season 5, which recently premiered in March, will not only deliver high-level action, but we'll also get more time with the great slate of heroes and villains showcased last season.

      2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train

After hearing the news of Mugen Train dominating the box office, the time has come for North American audiences to experience this highly anticipated film. Mugen Train will be available for digital release this summer and will help fill the void fans of the series have been feeling since the season ended. And we can always revisit Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba in the meantime.  

      3. The Devil Is A Part-Timer

The Devil Is A Part-Timer! offers lots of comedy with all the appeal of your traditional fantasy series, but it takes place in the modern world. Demon Lord Satan gets transported to Tokyo, and while his original goal was to take over his homeland of Ente Isla, Satan finds a better path to world domination ... climbing the ranks at the local MgRonalds! It's fun, it's wacky, and it's one of those series we never thought would get a second season, until now.

      4. Given The Movie

Talk about a bag of mixed emotions. Like the series, you'll feel proud and happy one minute, and then a pile of mush the next. Given The Movie provides a touching viewing experience following these fractured characters as they navigate their personal feelings, as well as expressing their innermost emotions through music.

        5. Hunter X Hunter

2021 marks the 10-year anniversary of Hunter X Hunter. Whether you've never seen this series or you've re-watched it hundreds of times, come celebrate this epic title's milestone!

      6. MEGALOBOX 2: NOMAD

MEGALOBOX brought all the charm of a '90s anime, but with the story of a futuristic society that takes boxing to a whole other level. Gearless Joe made a name for himself in Season 1, and although things have changed and gotten complicated, he's "not dead yet." For Joe, the fire still burns within him, and he seeks to fight once more. 

      7. Osamake: The Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose!

Finally, a series where the childhood friend captures the heart of the MC ... I hope? It is a harem after all! Osamake: The Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose! has a whole lot of comedy, a whole lot of shenanigans, and a noticeable amount of ... revenge. It looks like an epic competition is about to get underway!

        8. Chihayafuru

If you're experiencing Haikyu!! withdrawals, then Chihayafuru may be the next best sports anime for you! Now don't be fooled. Although Chihayafuru is all about Karuta, a Japanese card game, it still delivers the same level of development and high-stakes settings as other sports anime. This may be one of those series you always saw around but never watched but if there was ever a time to binge, it's now!

      9. Tokyo Revengers

With the manga receiving much praise, probably one of the most anticipated anime adaptations for 2021 is Tokyo Revengers. Motivated by tragedy, Takemichi Hanagaki finds himself in the past, climbing the ranks of the Tokyo Manji Gang in order to change destiny. He may not appear the toughest, but he's determined to get through the intense situations he finds himself in.

      10. To Your Eternity

Knowing this is a story from Yoshitoki Oima, creator of A Silent Voice, To Your Eternity, will surely be an adventure that tugs on your heartstrings. Audiences will witness an intimate journey of life and death revolving around an emotionless orb with no identity but can take the shape of those around it. There will be elements of time, drama, emotion, plus Hikaru Utada performs the theme? ... Sold! Want to know more? Check out the full manga catalog here.

      11. Shaman King

A Shaman King reboot was the best present fans of the original series could've gotten as the title just marked its 20th year since the show premiered back in 2001. Fans will be transported back to their childhood, all the while looking forward to a new story that reflects the manga. The series recently aired in April in Japan, and fans in North America can expect to watch the series sometime later this year. 

        12. Horimiya

  If you've been searching for a romance anime unlike any other, then you should watch Horimiya if you haven't already. This series takes everything you know about anime romance tropes, and delivers a series of fresh new twists, making for a warm and cozy viewing experience.

    13. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

If in between all the action and comedy you need a good slice of life series about friendship, Anohana is the series for you! The original series aired 10 years ago, but sometimes a trip down memory lane is exactly what you need. Plus a new visual and news of an upcoming project will surely get you pumped to hit play.

      14. The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2

Thinking he'd be the hero in this new fantasy world, Naofumi Iwatani ended up being hated, shunned, and stigmatized at the beginning of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 1. But as he journeyed on, he developed genuine relationships, gained valuable trust, credibility, and gratitude from others. Season 2, airing in October, is ready to continue with Naofumi's journey and progression.

        15. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S

Miss Kobayashi Dragon Maid has it all! This series draws you in with its cute appearance, but it surprises you with its mature moments and shocks you with some unexpected sizzle. Plus it has dragons, maids, and sweet raps! Be sure to check out the second season's adventures this July. 

    16. One Piece

  If you haven't already committed to the legendary behemoth One Piece, now may be a good time to start. The anime is set to hit its 1,000th episode this year, and while diving into a series that's so far along can seem intimidating, if you've been spending a lot of time binging TV lately, this series could be your next big marathon.

      17. S8 the Infinity

Take the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video games, and mix them together with vibrant, aesthetically pleasing animation and cool action scenes and you have S8 the Infinity. Sports anime has been really expanding its catalog lately, and this series is an entertaining addition to the genre.

  Image via Hulu

  18. The Wallflower

A little bit of nostalgia is nice to mix into your anime watchlist. If you're a fan of Ouran High School Host Club, then you'll love The Wallflower! It's got some handsome boys, a cute and quirky girl with a fascination for all things dark and scary, and all the ridiculous antics of a harem!

      19. Death Parade

Death Parade has stayed under the radar, but it at least deserves to be on YOUR radar. A story about the afterlife where a bar represents limbo and its bartender decides the fate of the souls in front of him whether they experience reincarnation, or disappear into the void by playing a game. This is a psychological, thought-provoking drama with some mystery, as we don't know the true nature of the people in the bar, or what led them to where they are. Those secrets will eventually be revealed as the game plays on.

    20. Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Like Hunter X Hunter, this year also marks the 10-year anniversary of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Madoka was and to this day still is a defining series that was a real game-changer for the magical girl genre, showing just how much danger magical girls face. It's a must-watch if you haven't already, so make a contract with yourself to watch or re-watch this series sometime in 2021.  

    21. How To Keep A Mummy

  How To Keep A Mummy is a heartwarming episodic series to watch when you want to have a feel-good time! Friends and classmates spend time together with their mythical creature companions: A precious, tiny mummy who anytime he holds anything will make your heart melt, a somewhat hot-headed but caring oni, a clever dragon, and a fluffy baku. After catching up on everything on your watch list, have fun with this series to round out 2021.  

What anime will you be watching in 2021? Let us know in the comments!

        Veronica Valencia is an anime-loving hot sauce enthusiast! You can follow more of her work as a content creator on Twitter and Instagram.

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By: Veronica Valencia

[baebywendy]

Favorite Albums of 2020

After Hours - The Weeknd

After hours is hands down my favorite album that came out in 2020. Nothing could top the masterpiece that this album is or can even try in my eyes. This album from start to finish tells a story about what I saw to be his downfall in love and the toxicity around him and within him. Not only did this story captures you with lyrics but visually in his music videos. The Weeknd has this touch within all his albums that tells a chapter of his life and this album is no different. With the retro trend coming in full force, The Weeknd had one of the best retro albums this year and not only that; the best album. This album showed his voice and the melancholy tone that he can produce is beautiful and pulls you in for the wild ride that is After Hours. Grammys can’t see.

Favorite tracks: Heartless and In Your Eyes

Ungodly Hour- Chloe x Halle

Ungodly Hour has one of the best vocal performance in a album that came out in 2020. Ungodly Hour touches on the topics of sex, cheating and making drunk mistakes that most young adults can relate to. The tracks of the song touches on being with someone and doing not so nice things to them with a beautiful melody that makes you not notice the bad things they’re saying. The album is the equivalent to driving to the beach to watch the sun set, it’s such a easy to listen to album that anyone could have it playing in the background. It shows two sides to a female in as relationship they can be loving but once you do them wrong they will make sure everyone knows the kind of person they are. Ungodly Hour is truly heavenly.

Favorite tracks: Wonder What She Thinks of Me and Busy Boy

Love goes - Sam Smith

Love Goes is the ending of a relationship and the confusions you feel when your alone for the first time. This album does a deep dive in relationships from cheating to someones own insecurities being in a relationship. Something that most can relate to, finding someone and wanting to be with them without complications is something that most crave for. Having the fear that one day that person that you are in love with can leave is something heartbreaking but also creates fear of being in love fully. This album shows the melancholy of relationships but unlike other songs that have a happy beat to make a playful songs in an album, the instrumentals showcases the sadness and loneliness that one feels. Love goes is something that we all experience and sometimes the best thing you can do is watch it go.

Favorite tracks: To Die For and My Oasis (feat. Burna Boy)

Good News - Megan thee stallion

Good News was indeed good news to me when I saw it dropping and the first album that isn’t so melancholy on this list. This album touches on topics that Megan went through this year such as body confidence and as well the public attacking her. The album teaches people to be the baddest bitch in the game and to gain confidence that most may not have. This album is unapologetic confident and loving yourself. Instead of using ballads of expressing self love, the album demands the confidence to flow through them and let everyone know that they’re word will not change them. It also touches on the topic of sex, showing females can be comfortable with their sexual needs and experiences. Good News is the embodiment of confidence and being comfortable in your own skin, something we all can learn from.

Favorite tracks: Body and circles

Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa

Future Nostalgia takes the nostalgia to the next level with the retro inspiration and as well as the Madonna touches through the album. It makes you feel like your in another decade but somehow it still gives you nostalgia of the past at the same time. The album is a good feeling album and makes you want to dance with your friends with the disco ball above you. This album is one of the best retro albums that came out this year and it wasn’t something I expected for the next step in Dua Lipa’s career but it was a good step. Within this album, Dua Lipa’s voice takes center stage and fits the retro tune so well that it feels like she’s found her tune. Future Nostalgia makes you feel like your in the future but with the past in your back pocket.

Favorite Tracks: Physical and Break my Heart

Rare - Selena Gomez

Rare is the self love and worth with melancholy beats but as well as a happy beat making the sadness into a playful tune. It showcases what a person needs to do in order to fully love themselves and makes it known the hardships was just another push to become happy. The album touches on self worth and no matter what the person that you want to be with needs to treat you right because anyone can say I love you but do they mean it. It was Selena’s long awaiting album after five years of her last album but its a beautiful set of songs that showcases her progress as a person. Rare is truly rare when you realize how beautiful you are inside and out.

Favorite Tracks: Rare and Look At Her Now

Confetti - Little Mix

Confetti was the celebration of finally being free from control that somehow turned into a heartbreak in a matter of seconds. The thought that this is the last album that will have four voices harmonizing hurts especially when you been there since the beginning. This album continues Little Mix’s theme of female empowerment, break ups and sisterhood. Little Mix has this talent that they are a group with four strong voices but none of them outshines each other but at the same time they allow each other shine with high notes. This group means a lot to me and without them I wouldn’t have the confidence that I have now. Little Mix created songs that even though sadness happened there will always be a celebration afterwards. Confetti is what you will see when the tears are finally gone and always remember that mental health is the most important thing and take care of it.

Favorite tracks: My Love Won’t Let You Down and Sweet Melody

All About Luv - MonstaX

All About Luv is a cute collection of love songs ( hence the title and the day it was released ) that makes you giddy and warm on the inside. The album touches on all of the spectrum of what love is physical, emotionally, and mentally. It shows the love between two people and how beautiful that love is between them but at the same time it touches on the topic of wanting to be in love. Two ends of the spectrum but somehow it doesn’t feel out of place on the album but tells the story of love. This album could’ve been in Korean and I would still feel the same about it. Having the album fully in English was something I wasn’t expecting but it didn’t bother me because the collection was just that good. All About Luv makes you feel giddy about falling in love again or thinking of being in love with someone.

Favorite tracks: She’s the one and Someone’s Someone

Breath of Love: Last Piece - Got7

Breath of Love: Last Piece was a long awaiting album where JYP didn’t touch and Got7 had full control of it and boy did it pay off. I honestly think this is Got7’s best album and the fact they had creative control say in shows how talented they are. The album itself has a refreshing listen to and it’s different then most of the songs that came out in Kpop during this period making them stand out to me. The first song Breath was the most refreshing song we could’ve gotten this year and it showcased the vocals that got7 has. Last piece was something that was different for Got7 and its something that fits them so well as well. I hope Got7 will be able to continue this and make more songs for their albums, the songs that they made were so good. This album made others who weren’t in Got7’s fandom see the vocal talent and the dances that they do are beautiful. It feels good that they got the recognition for their talents instead of being just funny. Breath of Love: Last Piece is Got7’s best album and its the start of Got7 having creative choices for their albums in the future.

Favorite tracks: I Mean It and Born Ready

Maria - Hwasa

Maria is Hwasa’s first EP and the collection of songs are showing her struggles and what she tells herself through these hardships. This EP is one of the most beautiful things I have heard in awhile, it made me cry and it made me understand Hwasa a little more through it. Maria is the first song and its actually her baptismal name making the song already very personal to her. If you listen to the song itself and not look into the lyrics and the meaning then the song sounds like a very well crafted Kpop song. However, when you read the lyrics does it change that. “Maria, Maria I’m saying this for you. It’s a shining night, don’t torture yourself. Oh Maria, I’m saying this for you. Why are you trying so hard, you’re already beautiful.” The whole song is her trying to convince herself that everything is okay and to not listen to the people that want to send hate. The song shows the darkness of being in the limelight but it shows her taking control of It towards the end of the song. The rest of the songs on the EP expressing things that Hwasa been through and it makes her fans more connected to her. Maria is a beautiful collection that shows the struggles of being in the limelight and how you can take control to make yourself happy.

Favorite tracks: Maria and LMM

Honorable mentions:

Monster - Irene and Seulgi

1 billion Viewa - Exo-SC

Dystopia: the tree of language - Dreamcatcher

Self-Portrait - Suho

EP 9 - Qveen Herby

DYE - Got7

Chilombo - Jhene Aiko

[ghastmaskzombie]

let me tell you a story. it’s a story about anime.

long ago, bro went through a period i can only describe as his First Great Summer of Anime. he spent every waking hour streaming anime from dodgy sites. everything he could find. he was probably about fourteen at the time, and discovering a whole new medium for the first time, so obviously there were some things of questionable quality in there. last month* he told about an awful show that he watched a whole season of, desperately hoping it would get better, because the opening was just that good. but there were also some of the great classics in there.

i was almost entirely unaware of this at the time. i didn’t really know what anime was yet. i only knew it from bad dubs like cardcaptors and yu-gi-oh, or western cartoons cashing in on the craze like kappa mikey and hi hi puffy amiyumi. and i didn’t really know where the line was. i just didn’t know how much bigger the medium of animation was in japan. and i was kind of off in my own little world in those days, anyway.

so when he would tell me about the stuff he was watching, my response was always to politely nod and say something like ‘that’s nice, bro.’ at least, i hope it was. it would be now. i might have been a rude bitch back then. but there is one show i remember from that time, although i didn’t for a lot of years. i think i saw a clip of it over his shoulder once. two robots were throwing galaxies at each other. it looked absurd and stupid. bro told me some things about 'spiral energy' that didn’t make any sense to me. i didn’t really care. so i didn’t really remember.

years passed. slowly, i came over to the weeb side. some of it was revisiting old nostalgia, with the proper, subbed** version this time. some of it was the overlap between my obsession with webcomics and bro’s interest in reading manga online. most of it was just cultural osmosis facilitating the inevitable.

i watched promare with my father when it hit theatres. it’s crazy how it came to that but that’s a story for another time. anyway, after seeing all those jokes about the return of someone called ‘kamina’ online, i decided to finally look into an old-ish show that i’d heard a lot about, called gurren lagann. bro heartily encouraged me to do so. it seemed important to him for some reason.

the show started with an obvious hero, obviously at a point late in the narrative, standing on the deck of a spacecraft and saying ‘if all the lights in the sky are our enemies, we’ll still keep fighting to the end.’ and then it stepped back to the beginning of the story.

drills were a recurring theme. spiral designs kept recurring in meaningful places. there was a lot of mech fighting. the heroes got another, even bigger mech, and then yet another mech, bigger still. their power grew exponentially, driven by a mysterious energy that came directly from their fighting spirit. not even halfway through the series, they came to what by all rights should have been the final battle, for the freedom of all of humanity. i wondered how much further they could go. and in that moment i remembered.

i cried, just a bit, during the (actual) final battle of gurren lagann. i won’t pretend its message was deep, or subtle, or bold. but what it said, it said beautifully. it was moving for the same reason that a sweet song in a language you don’t speak is moving. it didn’t matter what the words were. it spoke in the language of raw emotion, of determination and unyielding hope, of last stands and last chances. and in that moment, i understood.

it had already been years since i had anything but adoration for anime, but only with that show did i understand why it had all mattered so much to bro back then. for is it not written, “seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn’t believing. it’s where belief stops, because it isn’t needed anymore”? bro doesn’t let media move him like i do. but i know he felt awe and wonder, for much the same reasons i felt all the things i felt. and he was with me as i watched it, to see how it struck me, to experience it for the first time again through me, to see me make that connection to him across the years... truly, the greatest thing i could ever say of a work of fiction is that it connected me to something real.

i don’t really remember where i was going with this. i may have passed it and kept going. but i think i’m satisfied with where i ended up.

*q **i have a neutral stance on subs vs. dubs (this is not the same as having no stance). i watch dubs all the time. but trust me, there were some bad dubs back then.

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Three Minutes to Eternity: My ESC 250 (#230-221)

#230: Dschinghis Khan -- Dschinghis Khan (Germany 1979)

"Die Hufe ihrer Pferde, die peitschten im Sand Sie trugen Angst und Schrecken in jedes Land Und weder Blitz noch Donner hielt sie auf"

"The hoofs of their horses, they lashed in the sand They carried fear and horror in every country And neither flash nor thunder stopped them"

One of my favorite songs to jam to is Boney M's "Rasputin". A disco-influenced song about the life of "Russia's greatest love machine", it's energetic while telling that of a myth. I mention this because Dschinghis Khan is compared to this often, in all the ways.

Only this time, it's about the great conqueror Chinghis Khan, who took over the whole universe (and lasted for a very long time). From how he struck fear across the steppe to fathering seven children in one night, he is seen as the embodiment of masculinity.

While entertaining, sometimes I'm put off by the gimmickry. It can be argued that it wouldn't age that well today, because it can be seen as culturally appropriative or mocking Mongolian culture. But for what it's worth, it's enjoyable and still a classic today.

Personal and actual ranking: 4th/19 in Jerusalem

#229: Louisa Baïleche -- Monts et Merveilles (France 2003)

“Oh, mon amour Où es-tu, mon amour?” “Oh, my love Where are you, my love?”

A definite case of love at first listen for me—Monts et Merveilles is a calming ballad, albeit with sad lyrics about the end of a relationship. The instrumentation is quite nice; it reminds me of songs that stood out on the charts during that time. It also had the "ethnic style" percussion in the bridge, which made me think that France Televisions wanted to mix what worked in the last two years (ballads) with the ethnic sounds from the 1990s (as Louisa is half Kablye, an Algerian ethnic group)

Despite it, it got a pretty low result—though it may be because 2003 was a stronger year songwise compared to the two years that came before it. Or it maybe because of the hair getting into her face that took away from the experience...

Personal ranking: 5th/26 Actual ranking: 18th/26 in Riga

#228: Hakol Over Habibi -- Halayla (Israel 1981)

"הלילה, הלילה, יהיה זה הלילה נאמר דברים שלא אמרנו מעולם"

"Tonight, tonight, it will be the night We’ll say things we’ve never said before"

On a random note, whenever I would search up Idan Raichel's "Hakol Over", Hakol Over Habibi would be one of the first search items that pop up. I would completely ignore it until now, when they actually participated in Eurovision!

That said, Halayla is very groovy song which plays with the disco vibe of the 1970s and the highly energetic choreography that would define 1980s Israeli Eurovision entries. The instrumentation is quite awesome, with the mix of piano, strings, and I think accordion setting up the vibe. (And it switches well from minor to major and back again , which can go awry when done wrong).

The members seem to have a ball on stage, and Kikki looks beautiful in her dress, which was fitted that way because she was pregnant at the time!

Personal ranking: 5th/20 (though it jumps around often...) Actual ranking: 7th/20 in Dublin

#227: Wind -- Laß die Sonne in dein Herz (Germany 1987)

"Manchmal bist du traurig und weißt nicht warum Tausend kleine Kleinigkeiten machen dich ganz stumm Du hast fast vergessen wie das ist, ein Mensch zu sein Doch du bist nicht allein"

"Sometimes you feel sad and you don’t know why Thousands of little reasons are making you dumb You nearly forgot what it’s like to be a human being But you are not alone"

Wind has the interesting distinction of participating three times and coming in second twice out of those three. The first one, "Fur Alle" was seen as such as a big contender that there were bets made against it winning. And then it didn't.

Laß die Sonne in dein Herz didn't come that close to winning in 1987, but I can argue it's the better song of the the three.

It catches you right away with the reggae influences, which creates a relaxed vibe throughout the song. It builds up well with every key change--it does get repetitive at times (especially with the choruses), but never boring. And while it shares a similar theme to Fur Alle, it doesn't come off as either derivative or charitys-single like.

(That said, I did grow to like Fur Alle eventually, but this one was more instantaneous.)

Personal ranking: 7th/22 Actual ranking: 2nd/22 in Brussels

#226: Charlotte Perrelli -- Hero (Sweden 2008)

“This is a story of love and compassion Only heroes can tell.”

The better Charlotte song, in my opinion. The song she won with, “Take Me to Your Heaven” is a complete vintage track, almost influenced by ABBA-nostalgia going on at the time. “Hero” , while still on the same schlager vein, modernizes the production a little bit, to the point I imagine it would be a good pop song of that era.

Alongside that, Hero has some compelling lyrics, one which could summarize the hero's journey in general. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody were to write a Eurovision jukebox musical, they would use this in some format.

That may be the case on why l like it better, but it could also be because it should’ve done better in the contest. The fact the jury wildcard saved Charlotte is a reason why they're around, but the fact there was a wildcard which kicked out the actual tenth placer (North Macedonia's Let Me Love You) could be totally flawed too.

Personal ranking: 6th/43 Actual ranking: =18th/25 (with France) in Belgrade

#225: Carlos Paião -- Playback (Portugal 1981)

“Podes não saber cantar nem sequer assobiar, Com certeza que não vais desafinar, Em play-back, em play-back, em play-back,”

“Maybe you don't know how to sing or even how to whistle But you won't sing out of tune for sure, In playback, in playback, in playback”

This is so modern and infectious it’s unbelievable. From the introduction to Carlos’ biting lyrics to the choreography, it makes one wonder why it got neglected in the voting. 1981 was a strong year, sure, but this song is definitely one of the best of that field.

Playback, as the title suggests, is about the pervasiveness of lip-synching in the music industry. One day, nobody will have to learn how to sing because the playback will save them. They can all focus on the performance without taking note of the song.

It's eerily relevant to Eurovision today, considering we don't use live music anymore and backing vocals can be mimed. I have mixed feelings about the latter, because one side argues it allows different genres of music to appear, but the other argues it reduces artistic credibility. I prefer having live vocals; if a delegation wants to use them on the track (e.g. looping), it should be on a case-by-case basis.

Maybe that's why it somehow made the ESC250 the last two years...

Personal ranking: 4th/20 Actual ranking: =18th/20 (with Turkey) in Dublin

#224: Emma -- La mia città (Italy 2014)

“E dimmi se c’è davvero una meta O dovrò correre per la felicità”

“And tell me if there really is a destination Or I have to run for happiness”

The black sheep of Italy’s post-comeback output, and coincidentally the only song completely chosen internally. That being said, La mia citta is still a good song, and for me it’s better than some of the fan-favorites out there.

Admittedly, I prefer the punchy verses to the chorus, with the latter reminding me of something out of P!nk's discography, but I revel on Emma’s energy and her letter to the city of Rome. We have struggles about the place we are from, but still try to sing its praises when we can!

The staging was a bit tacky at times, but I did like the aesthetics of it—particularly her laurel wreath. Her costume had a good concept also, but is also overdone it in terms of the bejeweled top.

(As for the Sanremo winner that year, Contravento, it feels like a bit of a grower. The clarinet intro really takes one in, but there has to be a whimsical, sweet staging to accompany the hopeful song. Had they done so, a left-side finish would've waited for them)

Personal ranking: 6th/37 Actual ranking: 21st/26 in Copenhagen

#223: Brigitta -- Open Your Heart (Iceland 2003)

“Everything you share with me Turns a little darkness into light And that is how we’re meant to be Truth will keep the light shining brighter”

Also known as, the woman who originally came from Husavik! The difference is that Birgitta was the lead singer of the group Irafar. Open Your Heart reminds me of songs that end up on DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) soundtracks—it can actually work in the end, but also in the beginning to introduce the characters and/or their circumstances. The random running order really helped it with being first, haha! Beyond that, it's an optimistic song, helped with the guitar influences which ground it in the era. Plus, the production and lyrics add to this feel, encouraging even the shiest to open up their feelings. Also, I like the flowery aesthetic that Birgitta has, from one in her hair to the larger one (which I think is real?) on her microphone. Personal ranking: 4th/26 Actual ranking: 8th/26 in Riga

#222: Tomas Ledlin -- Just nu! (Sweden 1980)

“Han vill dra iväg, kanske ner till Paris Och hitta äventyret på något vis Inte sitta här på stans konditori Och låta tankarna, bara fladdra förbi” “He wants to go away, perhaps down to Paris And find adventure somehow And not just sitting here at the local café Just letting the thoughts flutter by” The 1980s saw the genre New Wave come to vogue, and Just Nu was a valiant attempt on the genre, especially considering the direction Eurovision would go later. From the opening notes, I got the punkish notes from the instrumentation, and the lyrics definitely add to the feeling of being free from societal expectations, crying out "right now"! (which is funny, because I learned Romanian at one point and nu means no in the language. So I keep thinking it's "just no!" against conformity) Tomas also shows quite the attitude on stage--he just struts into the stage with a boyish charm and kickstarts the song. With his looks and usage of the microphone stand, he portrays this rebellious character well, though the orchestration could’ve been improved with the strings and flute. Personal ranking: 2nd/19 Actual ranking: 10th/19 in Den Haag

#221: Lea Sirk -- Hvala, ne! (Slovenia 2018)

“Moje ime je Lea in/Za vas imam nov lik!” “My name is Lea/ And I have a new character for you!”

I love the opening lines for this song—it immediately sets the tone and has a strong statement alongside it. She's Lea, and she won't let anything down on She asserts that she can’t be sold out, and has a great attitude to accompany the trap beat, which reminds me of a K-pop song for some reason. The staging fits the song to a T--though it didn't need any changes from the NF, haha. As for the fake break, I don't have any strong opinions on it, but it definitely kept up interest for the song. A nicer touch was the Portuguese line in the end. Either way, it was a surprise qualifier in its semi that year, and it was one surprise that I greatly welcomed. Hvala da!

Personal ranking: 8th/43 Actual ranking: 22nd/26 GF in Lisbon

[bluebrine]

it’s still... odd to me that other people had such different experiences growing up with this series than i did. i had such a personal relationship with it... seeing others talk about the sequels, what they liked and disliked for the series- and it’s like, really? we had very different childhoods (...story of my life, ha).

in my elementary school, our library only had one of the books- Dealing With Dragons (the one with this delightfully cheesy cover by Tim Hildebrandt lol).

(also, please note, there is no indication here that this is the first book of a series. just..... keep that in mind.)

haha, what if 🤭 ..... i was beautiful princess, and you were a dangerously charming dragon 😜 ..... and we were both girls? 😳💦 

good god, little me LIVED for this book. i checked it out & reread it over and over again- the librarian must have got sick of me at some point but i didn’t care lol. i stayed up too late reading it with a flashlight under the covers, i read it during class beneath the desk (i was not... particularly stealthy. they kinda just let me think i was getting away with it lmao).

i know every young kid likes books with fantasy and magic to make their boring lives less lame, but the way i buried myself in this one was... 100% pure escapism. (pour one out for all the weird kids who had no friends outside of books, am i right ladies?) 

the story has a theme of just..... running away from it all, cause everyone else apparently knows so much more about what’s Right for you- what interests are Right for you, what clothes are Right for you, what boys are Right for you, everything! everything was chosen for you, no dystopian YA lit required! 

(CAN YOU POSSIBLY GUESS WHERE THIS IS GOING?)

i didn’t know what the concept of a lesbian was or why no one else thought it was weird that you couldn’t have interests that were Not Like Other People (the Right People), but that’s what this book meant to me. the entire core of the story was showing kids that you could pick your own hobbies, your own home, your own family & friends and it wasn’t up to the Right People to decide that for you.

fuck ‘em!!! run off to the mountains! live in exciting domestic bliss with a giant, well-read, protective dragon lady who can breathe fire and loves to eat your cherries jubilee every night (ABSOLUTELY NO METAPHORS HERE NO SIR)! back home your family is freaking out (but kinda relieved)- cause this is crazy, dragons are dangerous and ruin the women they steal away (where have i heard this before?), but also your family doesn’t... really miss you. they don’t actually want you back- as you were, anyway. once the prince sweeps you off your feet and away from the dragon’s evil clutches and properly marries you, oh sure, then you’re welcome back with open arms! (but that will never happen.)

fuck ‘em!!!!! make cool friends with other misfits and live a life full of adventure with the family you found along the way! there’s witches who live in eccentric homes with 50 cats, there’s neighborly old dragon grandpas who love chocolate pudding, there’s other girls who don’t think you’re weird and like to hang out and read magic books in the library too! you can make friends and be happy! it IS possible!

and that meant so much to me as a kid. i never fit in (i wonder why), i never seemed to like the Right stuff (I WONDER WHY), and for the things i did care about, i went about it wrong- according to the Right People, who didn’t much care about what i thought at all.

...anyway Dealing With Dragons is an allegory about the power of lesbian escapism & independence and i love it very much. i still love it, over a decade later. it’s a fun, captivating, whimsical little tale that means more than childhood nostalgia to me. i spent hours daydreaming about the story in elementary school, content with the characters and setting in a way that just... settled something in me. 

but then i read the other books.

because there were... OTHER BOOKS!? WHAT??? (again, i never knew it wasn’t a stand-alone story lol).

when i got to middle school and had a whole new library to consume, i naturally looked for my fav type of books- those with cool fantasy ladies with swords and dragons on the front (that’s a genre, right?). and, lo and behold, there were more parts to my favorite story!!! lads, i lost my goddamn mind. there were THREE MORE? WHAT??? utter batshittery. how had they kept this from me? i had to read them immediately. 

what would the stories be about? i saw Cimorene on the covers, sword-wielding and pants-wearing (’fuck yes’, said little me). what adventures would she get up to with Kazul, now that she was king of dragons? what would life in their new home be like? the new libraries and treasuries and kitchens would be massive- what secrets would they discover? what was living in dragon society like, now that they sat at the top together? what new recipes would Cimorene cook with her friend??? (that one was very important to me lol).

i checked out all of ‘em at once, and channeled deep into the obsessive focus that only a truly lonely middle school girl can attain. I was SO EXCITED for this. 

-- and got my heart ground to dust under Patricia C. Wrede’s heel.

...because, see, i hadn’t known there was an Enchanted Forest Chronicles. i hadn’t thought about what that actually meant. it, as inevitably as the tides, meant the incoming of the one thing that made me truly hate reading sometimes- romance. cause these books weren’t about Cimorene and her friends or Kazul at all. they were about a sudden love interest and the child Cimorene had with him cause of course that’s what fucking happened. what else was i expecting? what else could stories possibly be about? i read through all of the books, feeling a little more like somebody shot my dog with each chapter, and could only feel sick when she got married & pregnant at the end. i was 11 years old and i knew something was wrong but not why.

(aaand looking back now, was that baby’s first taste of queerbaiting? does it count if you do it to yourself?? ah, youth. i don’t let myself get my hopes up anymore.)

for a very long time, i hated the idea of love (...quite the oxymoron, that one). cause it always, always meant that the people i cared about changed in ways that i didn’t understand at all. what, some boy you’ve never met before shows up, and suddenly your important quest and friends and family are... an after thought? why? don’t you care about them? don’t you love them too? why does this always happen? why is there always a boy and love and babies and nothing else? (why, why, why indeed? and yes, i was one of those kids who got fucking mean when their friends started only looking at boys, how’d you know?)

anyways. i hated it. i couldn’t possibly have articulated why back then, but it always made me so mad, despite the fact that the words on the page were telling me that this was the best thing that could ever happen in life. that just made it worse, cause why am i getting so upset over this? it’s a good thing, objectively- they’re in love. they’re happy. why is it making me feel so fucking angry instead?

this series doesn’t really... deserve any of the repressed vitriol it made me feel, though. Cimorene’s love interest that appeared in book two, Mendanbar, is actually a pretty cool guy! he has an innate, natural connection to his magic forest kingdom. he’s sick of fairy-tale tropes, he has a sweet anti-wizard sword, he’s very kind and brave- and i fucking hated his guts (...lmao, sorry dude).

there’s nothing actually wrong with this series’s romances. the couples care about each other and support each other well. i’m glad for all the kids who got to see some happy romances, i truly am. but god, that wasn’t for me, and it probably wasn’t for the other lonely kids who picked up a book about running away from what the Right People wanted for them either. 

for a series about rejecting what society tells you is the Right thing to want, the characters just... end up wanting that exact same thing anyway. oh, the thought of marrying a man and spending your life with him, baring him heirs until you die, sounds unappealing? so distressing, in fact, you’d literally rather get eaten by dragons? WELL DON’T WORRY, this one particular guy is actually good! of course you’ll fall in love with him! you’ll want to be pregnant forever with his horrible frogspawn! you’ll be happy! 

...what do you mean this is what you were running away from?

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i spent... an inordinate amount of time as a child reading Dealing With Dragons. while i cannot possibly blame the author for my individual experience with their work, which WAS written as a series (the finale was written first, actually! way back in 1985), the fact remains that my interactions with them were... soured. 

in a way that was out of the author’s hands, really, but i just don’t know how to think about this series without that bittersweet hurt in my chest. i cried like, twice, writing this stupid, rambling essay thing, and i don’t actually know how to look past that. i suppose the tried-and-true method of just... rereading the first book and pretending everything’s fine always works lol.

i own a few different versions of these books. there’s a full set i was gifted later in middle school -the nice glossy ones, with Peter De Seve’s lovely cover art! -which i have never once reread. they’re in immaculate shape, really.

i also own an absolutely, completely beat-to-shit paperback copy of the same version i must have read a hundred times as a kid. its cover is creased and peeling, there’s a bunch of weird stains and rips and dogears, and i adore it. i picked it up this year at a used book place, and every time i look at it i can see some small, desperate kid who doesn’t even know they’re lonely but still curls up around that book again and again. 

[nellied-reviews]

Succulent Rat-Killing Tar Re-listen

Hey! So, I’m new here, but I’ve recently been re-listening to the podcast Wolf 359, and I'm obsessed again, so I kinda wanted, in true Self-Indulgent fashion, to record my thoughts about it, see what stands out now I know how the series plays out. I don’t know if anyone will actually want to read this, but I enjoyed writing it, at least!

If any of you don’t know Wolf 359, but are still, for whatever reason, reading this, a) you should go listen! It’s a sci-fi podcast with some awesome characters, and a really great balance of creepiness, wackiness and actual plot. But also, b) I will be posting spoilers here, sorry. It’s been a while, so I think they’re pretty much fair game now? But just so you’re not caught out: here be spoilers.

With that cleared up, then:

Succulent Rat-Killing Tar

In which we meet the disaster that is Douglas Eiffel, Hilbert blows things up, and the Hephaestus receive a strange transmission from deep space.

In some ways, re-listening to this episode was an odd experience, because the characters don’t quite feel solid yet. It’s the same in a few early episodes - tonally, they’re just really different to a lot of what comes later - and I don't think that’s bad, per se, especially since there are things, on a re-listen, that connect this to later episodes. But this episode is particularly weird, I think, even for the early episodes. 

Gabriel Urbina actually talked about this in the writing notes he posted to his Tumblr, how he conceived of Wolf 359 as a one-man show, and  what we get here is basically the Doug Eiffel! Show, with what are essentially cameo appearances from the others. As a consequence of this, Minkowski, Hera and Hilbert don’t get much characterisation, and even things like their voices seem ... odd? Hera, especially, feels more like Space Siri than the snarky AI we know and love, while Minkowski... eh, I don’t know why I don't like her here, but I remember not liking her when I first listened to it either. I think she sounds kind of flat, like she's not quite a real person?

 It’s probably good, then, that Eiffel comes onto the scene fully formed and really freakin' funny. Zach Valenti is a funny man, and he kills it here, from the very first lines. I particularly love how much information he gets into his opening monologue. He takes what looks, superficially, like a lazily-written infodump - because seriously, who would start their log like that on day 448? Does Eiffel open every single log like this?! - and just runs with it. It's such a ludicrous thing to do, and the whole reason I buy that yes, Eiffel totally does just sit there every single night talking to himself, is Zach Valenti’s performance. It's so good, guys, seriously!

On a side-note, I am also endlessly amused at the way in which Eiffel’s utterly bonkers decision to narrate his boring chores like an exposition-heavy radio show gives the Dear Listeners ammo later on. Like, if Eiffel were not such a fundamentally ridiculous character, they would not have his voice to contact the crew. So much of the plot just hinges on Eiffel being a dumbass, and I can respect that.

Besides the fact that he’s this weird, lovable dumbass, we do also get some nice character moments for Eiffel. For one, it’s buried under a lot of funny stuff, but we get our first hints at him having an addictive personality - his love of cigarettes certainly hits differently when you know about his past with alcohol.

There are also, sticking to things I picked up the first time round, hints that Eiffel is perhaps more competent than he lets on? Certainly, he kicks into a different gear when the transmissions come through - the goofing around stops straight away, and he genuinely seems keen to make contact. I like that, I think.

That said, he blows his moment of competence by ignoring the signal and getting coffee. For such a pop culture-savvy guy, he sure falls hard into the "I’m sure it was nothing" trap here. Ugh, Eiffel. Come on. You’re better than this.

I’m not complaining, though, because it does give us time to listen to Alan Rodi's beautiful music. Words cannot convey how much I love it. I don’t know if it's just nostalgia from last time I listened to Wolf 359, but hearing the music again here nearly made me cry, genuinely. I especially love the acoustic piano. I think it'd be easy to go with a technological, electronic sound for a podcast set in space, so the choice to use a more traditional, old-fashioned instrument like a piano is a pleasant surprise, grounding the show in something older and more Earth-bound, and providing the same kind of connection to Earth history and culture that the old music does at the end. You've got electronic bleeping going on, sure, which adds a layer of space-y weirdness to it all. But it's still, underneath the noises, something lovely and comforting and nice. So congrats, Alan Rodi. You made a 30 second coffee break into something really beautiful.

Then we're back and Minkowski has Eiffel reading Pryce and Carter - another mainstay of the show being introduced right there - and then Hilbert's lab is on fire. This whole section is solidly funny, and I especially love the tone of the Pryce and Carter entries. From the muzak in the background, to the disturbing, sort-of-aphoristic style of the entries, which kind of feel like something from Welcome to Night Vale, to the fact that this book seems to have no structure and is just one giant, non-user-friendly list, everything about this is hilarious to me. I also noticed the reference to the idea that somebody might be in space for disciplinary reasons. Which totally won’t be relevant later. Nope. Definitely not.

Hilbert, although his voice is much less growly than I’m used to, feels closer to his later self, character-wise, than the others. He’s maybe a bit too dotty, but then again, literally everything he does during this season is a front anyway, so I'm willing to give that one a pass. Stuff blowing up is always fun, either way, and it also introduces another idea that will stick around: the idea that everything on the Hephaestus is either broken or is about to break. Mentions of a power outage last week, in particular, suggest that this ship is already... less than shipshape.

And the we get the episode's climax, the arrival of the alien message which turns out to be... an old transmission of The Entertainer, by Scott Joplin?

And look, I think this was what sold me on Wolf 359. Sure, it took a while to find it's feet. But this moment was what convinced me that hey, I'll hang around a bit longer. Because it’s such a smart choice. 

Already, by having an audio drama series whose main character is a communications officer, and whose plot centres round him using radios and making audio logs, you have the ingredients for an intensely self-reflective, metatextually interesting show. It makes us think about radio and broadcasting and how sounds are transmitted through space. 

But by using a real recording of The Entertainer, something from the very earliest age of radio, with its gramophone-y crackle, you’re widening the scope, linking us all the way back to the birth of recorded sound. And Eiffel's joy at it all, his glee at finding a connection back to Earth, is a reminder of the power recorded sound can have. Eiffel, listening to Scott Joplin, is transported somewhere new and intriguing. Meanwhile we, listening to some podcast about stars and toothpaste and spacefaring dumbasses, are also transported away from our lives and our world. It’s a lovely idea.

Of course, I could be reading too much into this. It could just be that the piece is out of copyright, and hits the right balance of strange vs. familiar.

Either way, it makes for an ending that’s beautiful, wholesome and surprisingly sweet. I’m charmed, particularly, by how earnest Eiffel seems when he’s talking about how the music makes him feel. After spending a whole episode goofing around, it’s a refreshing change of pace, and it made me smile the first time I listened to it. This time round, it feels a bit more bittersweet, I think. We know that Eiffel won't be going home for a good, long time, after all.

In any case, it's a solid end to an episode that, while it has its issues, still mostly holds up. A surprising amount of plot-relevant stuff is established. Eiffel, at least, is properly introduced. And I get weirdly emotional about radio shows. Nice job, Wolf 359.

 Miscellaneous thoughts:

Eiffel not understanding Hilbert when Zach Valenti voices them both is peak comedy and you can fight me on this

 Eiffel joking about everyone on the ship have “series trust issues”. You ain’t seen nothing yet, hun.

The noises they made for Eiffel slurping coffee are so gross and childish I love them

Ooh, when he’s mocking Minkowski, Eiffel pronounces her name right!

Eiffel calling Hera “sweetheart” ^-^

Hilbert passing the explosion off as a hairdryer omg