#its like when someone just had to come tell me the voice actor of a character i liked 'cheated on his wife'

[zhuoyichenpretty]

Eps 34-35

Not many photos here because anything I screenshot in these eps would literally just give me psychic damage at this point (-:

Spoilers under the cut!

Ep 34:

I'm being so brave watching this fucking opening scene again.

No actually though I've watched it several times by now and it just keeps getting worse. What can one even say about all this? Ow??? Fuck???

Probably the most gruesome onscreen death of a child character in cdrama that I've seen like I didn't know they could even go there like that. I guess maybe because it's not gory or specifically violent? Idk the rules but man. His expression.

The way they play TJR singing their song and then switch to LZY's version. Maximum pain thank you guys.

ZYC's "I'm sorry" is so damn loaded. For not being there, for failing to protect him, but also for being the reason Bai Jiu made this decision. For giving Bai Jiu someone to love and protect and die for. For unknowingly and inadvertently causing this just by loving him and being loved by him. ZYC's remorse and regret as he makes the connections and pieces together Bai Jiu's thought process is so fucking haunting. Just the most awful way for his own words of comfort to come back. And like I'd commented previously—the way love begets grief.

I'm going to kms I knew when they put yet another cloak on ZYC that he'd be giving it to someone else but NO!!! Not like this oh my god

"哥帶你回家" (Ge will take you home) I don't even have the words for how painful this is. Is this the first time ZYC refers to himself as ge? Not just acknowledging that Bai Jiu's made an older brother of him? If not, it's certainly the most salient.

Both actors' skills can hardly be questioned atp (like, that's a damn difficult expression to die with), but I just have to marvel at the way TJR's acting (his micro-expressions!!!) is at once subtle and incredibly clear. That ZYC's every emotion is clearly telegraphed—his shock, his horror, his anguish, his regret, his desperation, his exhaustion—but so naturally done.

ZYC struggling with the weight of Bai Jiu's body and dropping it, on top of paralleling the flashback, is just so terrible in its reality. ZYC must already be so incredibly drained after that final battle. To have gone through such an unspeakable loss, to carry it on his back and find himself unable to even properly do that, to protect what's left of Bai Jiu from the mundanity of physical damage.

WX's dad nooooo you're leaving her to ZYZ but ZYZ's not planning on staying either nooooo

Are we sure the magic rain couldn't have saved WX's dad tho ):

WX don't tell ZYZ your self-sacrificial plan there's no way he'd let you go through with it girl!!! You gotta pull a ZYC and be vague as fuck and make sure everyone's feet are frozen to the ground so they can't stop you

ZYZ backing away after using the spell on WX, slapping himself when he nearly can't get himself to go through with dying. Good shit. But also my god I'm so sorry WX what a fucking traumatic ten minutes will anyone give her a fucking break? Living at any cost, at the cost of her beloved dying several feet away from her, yet another manifestation of her trauma with Zhao Wan'er, and knowing it's about to happen, begging to be given a say—cruel. PSJ has been offscreen for forever just because plot convenience (which, in itself, already sucks) but if she were here she would kill ZYZ herself for putting WX through this and the rain would just be a bonus.

The Cloud Light Sword stained with blood to the point it looks unfamiliar—good shit.

ZYC's fucking voice when he asks if there's any other choice. Art, I tell you.

Fucking hell. The twist on their fate being ZYC choosing it rather than being forced into it, to absolve ZYZ of the cruelty he's had to bear responsibility for in doing this to his loved ones. Zhiji was not misapplied in this damn story—ZYC understands and he understands over and over because who else could do this for ZYZ? To find one last way to lighten his burden in such a conflicting and complicated and impossible situation. To know exactly what must be hurting ZYZ and to bear the weight instead and to make sure he knows full well that's what's happening. For ZYC to take that hurt upon himself, entirely upon himself. The way that ZYC dealing the killing blow is actually the furthest thing from a moment of hardening his own heart, that it's in fact the height of his soft-heartedness. And how much that must hurt. Pain.

Also, imo ZYC making it purely his choice at the last moment is so clearly and specifically for ZYZ. Not for anyone else's sake, and precisely against his own and WX's wishes. Upon knowing ZYZ's commitment to death in this moment, whatever else happening has been made secondary. He is giving ZYZ all that he has left to give—fulfilling ZYZ's sacrificial determination, carrying out ZYZ's will to save the people, absolving ZYZ's guilt at what it's taken to get here.

(Totally tangential but I referenced AOT in my last post so I figured I'd make further reference: if anyone's familiar with Eruri—I'm somewhat reminded of Levi's choice. Being the only one with the power to save or let their loved one die. Choosing death for them, on their behalf, perhaps a decision opaque and counterintuitive to the rest of the world but completely and utterly made out of love and an inimitable understanding of the man they love. The most painfully and unimaginably selfless act, to give them peace at the cost of their own suffering.)

"小卓，你還是這麼..." (Xiao Zhuo, you're still so...) Oh this line kills me (ha). I love that it's unfinished. That it encapsulates ZYZ's surprise, his understanding and gratitude, and ultimately this sense of marveling at the man in front of him and what he's given ZYZ even now, at the very end. It tells me ZYZ recognizes ZYC's choice for what it is: the utmost act of a soft-hearted and boundless love that sees through him completely. Zhiji indeed.

The way ZYZ has unfulfilled promises with both WX and ZYC, the way they both call him a liar—good shit.

When I didn't know there was an episode 35 (or special episode I guess) I was boutta throw hands like what do you MEAN that's it??

Ep 35:

I do love a good hair-turning-white-from-grief trope (': But man, white hair like that at 24/25........Also though PSJ and WX finally have more noticeably different styling/silhouettes yayy they look gorgeous

God, but I can't bear looking at how small their group is now.

Searching all the mountains and seas, all 28 mountains in the Wilderness. ZYC, that kind of devotion...I really feel the need to echo ZYZ here, you're really so...

ZYC looking like ZYZ from behind because of his hair......ZYC's hand shaking holding Bai Jiu's bell............................

Also I'm really glad (I say this through tears) because I saw Bai Jiu didn't have his bell in ep 33/34 and I was like ??

Ah, are you kidding me I thought the pain was more or less over what do you mean Bai Jiu wants ZYC to 勿想勿念 [wù xiǎng wù niàn] (don't think of, don't miss)?? The way 不念不响 [bù niàn bù xiǎng] is literally the title of ZYC's character song, which then plays in the bg ('''':

(I can't really tell how well the subs explain it or how it comes across in translation so apologies if this context isn't necessary but the characters in the song title say "don't read, don't ring," but the character for "ring" is a homophone for "think of" and the character for "read" can also mean "miss." Missing someone/something is "想念" [xiǎng niàn]. Bai Jiu tells ZYC not to miss him through homophonous terms—a book he can't read, a bell that can't ring—and the song title is directly referencing that.) What an elaborate way to hurt me.

Bai Jiu really pulled a ZYC though with a box full of hurt/comfort just like ZYC had left WX

Ohhh the way WX's narration turns into ZYC's?? Honestly this drama's commitment to canonizing ZYC's love for ZYZ to the same level as WX's is really gratifying. And ZYC talking about a bone-deep sadness after ZYZ died. The parallel of baby!ZYC in front of the pond. I especially love the mention of ZYZ's age in comparison to ZYC's, these glimpses of the perspective ZYC has gained with hindsight. The distance of time and reflection and yet the unmistakable fondness and love. It is in part healing to hear.

Also imo ZYC if the scene chosen for ZYZ's POV of you is accurate I'd wager he saw you not as some angry child but as the pinnacle of humanity's beautiful bleeding heart.

ZYZ said it before right? That every human emotion is important? Well ZYC really has been constantly feeling the entire range of human emotion this whole drama lmao

Why yes I do think I need a heartwrenching MV-style montage of all the tragedies of this story that ultimately offers bittersweet catharsis and closure as the OST narrates about searching for someone and finding them in the end. Just what the doctor prescribed tyvm

WX saying ZYZ's final wish was to 落葉歸根 (translated as returning home, literally translates to "fallen leaves return to their root," implies returning home after a long time) the way humans do and ZYZ's soul literally being on a leaf of paper (which kinda sorta works in CN as well since "leaf" and "page" are homophonous) that, carried by the wind, returns to ZYC?? Home??? Are you joking bc I'm sobbing.

Gonna have to use this photo again bc literally how else do I describe how I'm feeling rn?

And that's a fucking wrap. I'm so. I don't even. Wow. Maybe in another couple of business days I'll throw together a brief review of the show as a whole, but right now I'm gonna drown myself in other people's metas and gifs and fics as god intended. Thank you as always for spending the time on my silly ramblings and I hope you enjoyed the ride!

[jessiesjaded]

Honestly, the most annoying part of fandom now for me personally is just that... I really don't need to know every detail of the thing I'm a fan of- not to say I don't love learning interesting little things but this obsession with knowing absolutely everything is so draining to me, especially private things. I don't need to know the director of the movie I enjoyed cheated on his wife once 20 years ago. I don't need to know that two actors had a fling once upon a time. I don't need to read every old interview from the guy who created the game I love just because I happen to love the thing he created, if you personally feel compelled to find out every last detail of every person involved in creating something, that's great for you! But please don't expect everyone else to be like that, too.

[churipu]

𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫! 𝐠𝐨𝐣𝐨

featuring. gojo satoru x reader

warnings. cursing

note. i thought of this when i saw a"rating celebrities i have met" video on tiktok, i imagined what gojo would be like as a celebrity — hence this fic. enjoy <;33 god i want to make actor! jujutsu kaisen a series so bad.

actor! gojo who first saw you during a fan meeting, and when you asked for a weird pose to do with him, he's immediately attached — like love at first sight?

actor gojo! who slips in his phone number when he was signing his picture that you asked him to sign, hoping that you, his very own fan would actually text him. because, he genuinely wants to get to know you better.

actor! gojo who receives a text from you during the night, and the first text he receives from you was a "is this a prank? if it's not, i'm going to roll on the ground and cry. if it is, i'm sorry you had to see this text." and he decided to play with you by saying it's a joke — but stopped when you actually believed in him.

actor! gojo who finds it funny that you still don't believe that the gojo satoru is texting you, so he decided to video call you to make you believe in him (you ended the call immediately and blocked his number for a bit after, only unblocking him when you got your head straight).

actor! gojo who eventually got to know you better, slipping in the time to video call you or voice call you during breaks in his busy schedule. sending you your cravings out of the blue, or even bouquets of your favorite flowers.

actor! gojo who will use his empty schedule to come and meet you — taking you out to eat or just spend the day in your home, or his apartment. even exhausted, he still wanted everything to work out with you, so he would do anything; even if most of the time, the both of you ended up napping together.

actor! gojo who sends selfies of himself or a short video of himself during his schedule so you could know what he was doing — pointing out the most unnecessary things in the video, like how he saw a cat (then taking a picture or video of the cat to send to you), or even telling you how he finished the shoot in a short amount of time, wanting you to be proud of him.

"hi! i just did a scene, and there was this really cute kitty — look, i named him tuxedo, 'cause his fur looks like a suit. isn't he cute? what do you think if i brought him home with me, i think you'd like him!" he said, panning the camera to the said cat, caressing its fur gently.

actor! gojo who checks his phone every time after a take in his shoot to see if you had replied to him, and when he sees your notification, he gets so motivated to do his shoot. and when you don't, he's pretty upset. he turns into a big baby and asks everyone in the set what it meant if someone replies late, he is so dramatic.

actor! gojo who if asked about his ideal type during interviews, mentions and describes your personality and looks. and everyone won't know that he was talking about you, he sees people talking about how specific his words are and speculates that he was seeing someone.

actor! gojo who trended on social media after that particular interview and the account who first speculated how specific his description is, and now the whole world is saying he has a secret lover or is dating backstreet.

actor! gojo who then receives a text from you asking about if he was seeing someone because of his trending name. and he decided to ask you out for good — telling you that it was you he was describing, and he would be glad if you'd go out with him.

[ you ] : you're trending omg

[ gojo satoru ] : i know :D

[ you ] : but now that i rewatched the video, it does seem like you're describing someone, who is it? 😏

[ gojo satoru ] : idk if you're nonchalant or you're just pretending not to know :/

[ you ] : ???

[ gojo satoru ] : it's you, silly. i'm describing you to the world, so now that i've said that — can i please be your boyfriend?

actor! gojo who immediately drives his way to your house when you said yes to him being your boyfriend; he had been holding back the urge to kiss you, holding you close, so when he's yours — he just has to have you close to him.

actor! gojo who was a little upset when you said you wanted to keep the relationship a secret from the world so his fans wouldn't be mad at him. but he accepted it, as long as you're comfortable.

actor! gojo who makes it clear to people on set, including his make up artist, and even director that he now has a partner; and that he's madly in love. everyone on set listens to him talk about you every single day, gojo is so lovestruck that he can't stop talking about you, telling people on set how great you are and how deeply in love he is with you.

actor! gojo who still slips in random selfies and videos of him during work so you won't overthink, he will tell you what he's about to do and with who even if you didn't ask — he didn't want to keep his partner waiting for him, he's communicative to what he's about to do so you won't worry.

actor! gojo who brings you out on a date to a fine dining restaurant one night and it turned out to be the gravest mistake ever when he finds his name trending the very next day, all for the wrong reasons.

actor! gojo who's first worry is you when he was trending. half of his "fans" were bashing the mysterious person (you) off, saying the most mean things ever, and half of his fans were happy that gojo was on a date with you, telling him how they're really happy that he's out on a date despite his busy schedule.

actor! gojo who makes sure you're alright first, telling you how you should never listen to whatever his "fans" are saying — because they're definitely not right, and they're just jealous. he tells you that he will resolve everything, so you don't have to worry about anything.

actor! gojo who clarifies, by quote retweeting a tweet that was meant to hate on you — clarifying that he's married to you (even if he's not), and that you're his partner. he EMPHASIZES on how he's not hesitating to sue anyone who delivered hate, and he's personally keeping track on the usernames of people who had made a hate towards you (he jots them down and screenshots them).

and most of these account decided to deactivate right after his open clarification. losers.

actor! gojo who then made a proper clarification by saying that he is indeed in a relationship with you and that you're his spouse (not yet), and he told the whole world how he won't hesitate to take legal actions to whoever decided to mess with him, his personal life, or you.

actor! gojo who was happy when most of his real fans supported both him and you, and tell you both how happy they are. he giggles and kicks his feet reading the comments about how you both are definitely going to last, and how you both will be the best couple ever. he screenshots them and make an album just for these comments, showing them to you to reassure you that everything was going to be fine. you were going to be fine. you both were going to be fine.

actor! gojo who was asked about you during interviews and he gets so happy and smiley that he gets to show you off in front of the camera, telling everyone how deep in love he is, and how you treat him like the best person in the world. the video went viral and people were so envious of you.

"oh, my spouse? best. person. ever. i met them during a fan meeting, yes. they were a fan of mine — i could say it was love at first sight, i look at them and i just knew i wanted to marry them."

people then began to believe that they have a chance with their own idols, most of them making this a meme, and they use gojo as one of those tiktok standards videos.

actor! gojo who still sends you selfies and videos after a long time of dating, never breaking the routine. even when he has a schedule out of the country — he still makes time for you, engaging in video calls and voice calls despite the time zones, sends you the sweetest voice mails when he can't do a call and brings you the best souvenirs ever.

actor! gojo who casually assumes that you both are married since the first time you both got caught — he bought you a ring, and just slips it on you, telling you that you're both now married. and you casually accepted, you both had your own moment, made the official marriage certificate without anyone knowing. and the next second, he just announces to the whole set who knew about his "clarification" that he's actually, for real, honestly, married to you. and he tells them his clarification wasn't just a lie to get out of the situation.

actor! gojo who posted your face for the first time in his social media after so long, and he trended again. this time, with you. the fans were so happy, he gets so happy when his fans compliments you — and he happily retweets and reposts every single thing they say about you. he's such a proud husband.

actor! gojo who mentions your name whenever he wins an award, once again telling the whole world how he wouldn't be able to make it until now without you by his side. and how he's so thankful that you're always there even during his toughest times. he has a habit of ending his award speech with a: "y/n l/n, you're the love of my life, i love you. mwah."

a fan of his made a compilation of his ending speech for you, and posted it on twitter, which of course, went viral.

actor! gojo who constantly posts you and writes about you on his social media with the cheesiest captions ever, and people were down for it. telling you how lucky you are to have a husband like him, and gojo always replies back by saying he was the lucky one.

actor! gojo who finds out you read fanfictions about him when you miss him, he pokes fun at you for it — but finds you really cute, then you both make it a routine to read fanfictions of him.

"oh, i would totally do that. how did they even come up with these? they're really good at this," gojo laughs, laying his chin on top of your shoulder as you scrolled your phone.

actor gojo! who gets so happy when you come to visit him on set, and gets so motivated because you were there real time to see him on the act. and spends his break with you, the crew on set gets so disgusted by him and posts about how gojo acts around you on social media — and the fans are finding it hilarious, they ask the crew for more information about gojo and you.

actor! gojo who definitely brings you to red carpet awards, wanting you to be there with him. asking the paparazzi to take many pictures of you so that he could save them, and they do. taking your pictures from different angles, posting them on social media so gojo could save them.

actor! gojo who refuses acts where he has to kiss another actor/ress, he didn't mind holding hands or hugging. but when it comes to locking his lips with another person who is not you — he won't do it. even when you tell him that it was fine since it was his job, gojo still refuses, and directors would go lengths as long as gojo will act for them, cutting out the kiss scenes and settling for something less intimate.

actor! gojo who sometimes get caught by paparazzi when he's on the way to visit you or when he's buying a gift for you. telling the paparazzi they shouldn't upload the pictures until a specific date when he's planning to surprise you, and the paparazzi agrees (sometimes), but when some of them uploaded the pictures right on the same day, he gets so upset that they ruined his surprise for you.

actor! gojo who protects you from shameless paparazzis, not hesitating to tell them off in front of the camera for you. because, let's all be real, most paparazzis could be a pain in the ass, they could be awful, and they could be really persistent.

"hey, back off from them. i'll fucking hurt you if you get closer, understand?" and these paparazzi will taunt him for it, but gojo could care less about them, he only cares about your safety.

"i'll ruin your fucking camera, y'piece of shit. don't you fucking dare touch my spouse, i'm serious." he mutters out, pushing away a man who had undoubtedly came rushing over, trying to get you out of the way so he could picture gojo.

actor! gojo who makes it clear that he won't tolerate people being hurting you at all. and he won't be afraid to take a risk to hurt them back for you.

actor! gojo who will sacrifice his job for you. because on camera and behind camera, all he thinks about is you.

© CHURIPU 2024 , DO NOT COPY OR REPOST ANYWHERE

[queen-of-deans-booty]

Across Every Universe

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.1k

Warnings: fluff

Request by anon: Hey Jordan, can i request something where Dean Winchester always have a crush on the reader but never said something to her until one day Sam and Dean are transported (based on the episode French Mistake) and Dean actor Jensen and is married to the reader of the universe and she pass the whole day giving Dean hug and kisses because for everyone is Jensen. When Dean and Sam came back to their universe him and the reader start dating? Fluff 

Summary: Sam and Dean are taken back to the same place where Dean is known as Jensen Ackles and Sam as Jared Padalecki. This little trip makes Dean realize his feelings for you.

Square Filled: "god, if only you knew what you did to me" (2023) for @spnaubingo

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

x

No matter the position you’re in, you’re not comfortable. It doesn’t matter if you lie down on your side, your back, or your stomach. Not to mention the heater isn’t working in the Bunker so it’s very cold. You have three blankets over you while wearing long sleeves and pajama pants. The broken heater doesn’t help your running cold either. You’re not sure where you caught it from but you’ve been trying to stay away from the brothers to not get them sick.

That doesn’t keep Dean away, though.

He’s a complete sweetheart to you since he always brings you soup, makes sure you’re comfortable, and spends time with you even if you tell him not to go near you. You don’t know what you’d do without Dean in your life.

Speaking of, he knocks on your door and enters wearing his usual hunting attire.

“Going on a hunt?” you ask and sit up slightly.

“Yeah. I wish I could stay here and take care of you.”

“Other people need you,” you smile. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to stay in bed, watch movies, and make some soup later. Did you fix the heater, yet?”

“I have someone coming in a few days. He’s also on a hunt.”

“Right, no non-hunters here,” you chuckle.

“I’ll call you later and check up on you, okay?”

“My hero.”

You cuddle with your blankets more and Dean leaves your room with a slight blush on his cheeks. Before he closes the door, he looks back at you in thought. God, if only you knew what you did to me.

He closes your door and meets his brother in the library. As soon as they are packed and ready to go, they start the long drive to the next state over. When Dean gets onto the highway, Sam turns to Dean with a knowing smile.

“So, did you tell her how you feel?”

“Stay out of it, Sammy,” Dean rolls his eyes.

“How long have you had a thing for her? Years? When are you going to tell her how you feel?”

“I mean it, Sam. Stay out of it. I can handle it on my own.”

“Apparently not, or else she’d be yours.”

Dean punches his brother not gently in the arm and Sam laughs. Dean kept the music high so he could avoid talking about his feelings for you. They get to the town that has its residents sacrificing themselves in the name of God. If anything, it warrants some kind of visit from the Winchesters.

The town looks like a normal town with normal people just trying to live their normal lives. They have no suspicions that something is happening but they only just arrived. They get there late at night so they will have to do their work tomorrow morning. Dean takes out his phone when his brother goes into the bathroom to shower and calls you.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

“I’m doing alright but not any better.”

“Did you take your medicine?”

“Yes, I did.” He can hear the smile in your voice and that makes him smile. “And I ate my soup and drank water.”

“Don’t forget to tell her goodnight,” Sam says loudly from the bathroom.

Dean grabs a pillow and chucks it at his brother. “Go take a shower. You stink.”

“Goodnight, Dean,” you chuckle, having heard Sam.

“Night sweetheart.” He hangs up and turns to his brother with a scowl. “I hate you.”

Sam and Dean actually get more than four hours of sleep that night but when Dean wakes up, he doesn’t recognize his surroundings. The motel is gone, the shutty beds and blankets are gone, and the peeling wallpaper is gone. What replaces it is a nice trailer, a comfortable bed, a big aquarium, and other nice shit that Dean has never had.

“Sammy?” he calls out. He gets up and leaves the small trailer only to run into Sam. “What the hell is going on? Where are we?”

“I don’t know.” Sam looks around and spots a name on the side of the trailer that’s behind Dean. “Oh, no. Look.”

Dean turns and sees the name ‘Jensen Ackles’ on the side. He turns back around and sees ‘Jared Padalecki’ on the trailer opposite his.

“You’ve got to be kidding me? We’re back in actor land? What happened last time?”

“Gabriel sent us here to avoid Raphael and his minions. I have no idea how we ended up here.”

“I bet it has something to do with the fact that people were sacrificing themselves in the name of God. My guess is that angels are involved.”

“There you two are.” Sam and Dean turn to see Castiel--Misha--walking toward them. “They’re looking for you two.”

“Yeah, we’re coming.”

If Sam and Dean didn’t do a good job trying to act last time, then they certainly aren’t going to do a good job now. It’s funny in hindsight but it makes for a very long day of filming. After the twentieth time messing up, Dean is ready to get the hell out of there to figure out how to get back to his world.

He looks to the right and sees you at the snack bar. He immediately calls for a time-out and leaves the set.

“Time out?” the director frowns and looks at him. “Everyone, take ten!”

“Y/N?”

“Come here, you have to try this. Gen made it,” you grin at Dean. You take a scoopful of food and present it to him. He opens his mouth and accepts the food, pleasantly surprised by the taste. “Oh, you have something on your mouth.” You wipe his bottom lip with your thumb and lick the food off. Dean is so confused about your behavior but doesn’t have time to figure it out. Your phone rings and you check who is messaging you. “I gotta go. Gen is here.”

You lean up and kiss him quickly before walking off. Dean can’t move after that quick kiss. You did it so casually like you’ve done it a thousand times. He is forced to go back to acting but he can’t do a good job because all he’s thinking about is your lips on his.

They aren’t getting enough filming done so the director calls it for the rest of the day. Sam and Dean convene outside to make it look like they’re busy so no one else talks to them.

“She kissed me, dude.”

“What?”

“Y/N or the woman who she’s supposed to be. She kissed me like we’re together or something.”

“Look, I’m glad you’re going through the five stages of teenage excitement but can we focus here? How are we going to get out of here?”

Dean looks around and spots you entering his trailer.

“Eh, you’ll figure it out. I’ll be back.”

Dean leaves to his trailer and Sam rolls his eyes in annoyance.

“Dean!” he hisses but receives no answer.

Dean enters his counterpart’s trailer and sees you where the bed is. You’re grabbing some night clothes out of the drawers since you’re not going to be leaving the trailer for the rest of the night.

“Hey, I talked to Gen about the cabin and she got it all set up for us this weekend. I’m so excited to spend some time away from all this for two days.”

“Are we dating?” The comment makes you laugh. “What?”

“Are you okay?” He looks kind of nervous so you walk over to him and wrap your arms around his neck. “I don’t know what’s going on with you but I do know how to make you feel better.”

“How?” he whispers.

You run your hands down his chest and take his hands. You take him to the bed and toss your night clothes onto a nearby chair. You fall onto the bed while pulling him so he lands on top of you but he stops himself with his hands so he doesn’t completely crush you.

You pull him down to kiss you and that’s enough to bring Dean into the delusion that you’re Y/N and you’re his. Your lips are softer than what he thought and your body fits so perfectly against his. He slips his tongue into your mouth to get familiar with you. You tug on his hair to get some traction so he pulls away from your mouth and kisses down your neck.

Your neck has always been a sensitive spot for you and he really knows how to work you up. He licks up and down your neck before latching onto the side of it. You gasp, tilt your head back, and moan something that brings Dean back down to reality.

“Jensen.” You’re not his. You’re not you. You’re Jensen’s. You’re not supposed to be with him. He pulls away and pants above you. “What’s wrong?”

“Can we just lay here instead?”

“Yeah, of course. Let me get changed.”

You slip out from underneath him and grab the pajamas you set aside earlier. You strip down naked and Dean has a hard time not looking at you. He can’t help but think you’re a complete stranger. The pajamas you’re wearing are revealing but he feels better at looking at you with clothes on. You climb into bed with him and cuddle into his side, and he tucks a strand of your hair behind your head.

“How did I get so lucky?”

“I’m the lucky one.”

“Tell me the story of how we met.” You look at him in confusion. “I want to hear it from you.”

“Okay, I got tickets to a red carpet event that my ex-friend invited me to. We were going to see the movie My Bloody Valentine because we thought it was going to be the next big movie. The entire cast was there, including you, meeting fans and taking pictures with them. When we locked eyes, it was like something was pulling you to me.

“You came over to me, complimented me on my dress, signed my poster with your number on it which I still have, and the rest is history. I never got together with you because you were a big celebrity. You were genuine, kind, funny, charming, and very sexy. It was hard not to fall in love with you.”

Dean notices the big ring on your finger and puts the pieces together.

“We’re married?”

“Yes, we are,” you laugh. “Are you okay?”

“I’m just… really happy.”

You lean over and kiss him. The next morning, Dean leaves his trailer before you get up. He doesn’t want to wake you even though he wants to. He finds Sam outside his own trailer with a book in his hands.

“Hey,” Dean sighs.

“I might have found a way out of here, no thanks to you.”

“What if we didn’t leave?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“The love of my life is my wife here.”

“That’s not your wife, Dean. She’s Jensen’s wife. She thinks you’re him. Why would you take that away from him? You have a girl waiting for you at home, a girl with whom you’re too scared to do anything about. Don’t take her away from him because you want what they have.”

Dean knows he’s right. He can’t stay here. He’s using this world as an escape from his own.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Dean sighs. “What do you have?”

“I found this book in the prop section. This might be a TV show but it does have some useful books to make it look real. There’s a ritual we can do.”

And a ritual it is. Once they get the stuff needed and perform it, they are brought back to the town they arrived in a couple of days ago. In order to properly tackle this town, they’re going to need some angelic help. Maybe Castiel can meet them back at the Bunker and figure something out then.

The first thing Dean does when he gets home is go looking for you. You’re still stuck in bed watching your favorite movies on Disney+. You pause your movie when your bedroom door opens.

“Hey, how was the hunt?” Dean doesn’t say anything as he kicks off his shoes. He climbs into bed with you and pulls you close to him. “Dean?”

“I love you,” he blurts. “I should have told you this years ago but I can’t seem to think straight when I’m with you. You make everything better for me, and you’re a better hunter than I ever was. God, I love you so much.”

“I’d kiss you but I don’t want to get you sick,” you smile.

“I don’t care,” he whispers and kisses you.

This is where he belongs. Right next to you.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[cringefailkralie]

ridiculously long list of things i’ve noticed about thomas grant and adam wadsworth’s portrayals of albus and scorpius

sorry in advance if this is messy, i wrote this at like 4am

albus flinches away when james steps too close to him!!!

when scorpius asks albus whether he prefers albus or al, he doesn’t have to think about his answer. instead he just looks shocked that someone was actually asking that, like nobody’s ever considered his feelings before. makes me feel like he’d been waiting his entire life for someone to actually ask him that.

tom’s albus doesn’t cry during the fight with harry like i’ve seen a lot of the other actors do. he just stares blankly ahead of him and completely shuts down. i’m head over heels in love with this choice because it really hammers home how hard it is for albus to express his feelings or communicate with anyone.

albus’s reaction to the love potion really really makes me believe that ron intended it to be a mean gay joke. even if ron didn’t intend for it to come across that way, that’s definitely what albus takes it as.

scorpius is just staring vacantly at a wall before he spots albus on the train in their 4th year. not sure if this is a specific acting choice or if i’m just reading into it too much?

they hold hands for a second and stand with their faces an inch away from each other as soon as they duck into their train compartment. their body language in private is so different from their body language in public.

albus squeezes his eyes closed when they hug. he really needed that physical affection but he hates anyone but scorpius being near him.

scorpius puts his hand on albus’s chest when the train starts moving. nothing to say about that its just really gay.

my favorite delivery of “oooo a quiz… WIZZO!!!” i fucking love how he does jazz hands when he says it, especially because it’s the second time he does jazz hands in that scene. he’s so me.

albus does so many little hand gestures in this scene, he’s way more comfortable being expressive around scorpius. he almost mirrors scorpius’s stupid little mannerisms.

bonus- not scorbus related but craig is first seen wearing his beanie on the train during the this sequence (where albus and scorpius decide to run away)!! idk if they don’t do this in other productions or if i just hadn’t ever picked up on it before, but it’s a really cute detail. does anyone know if he canonically got it when he became head boy?

when amos first tells them to leave, scorpius grabs onto albus’s sleeve

not even technically them but the ron and harry actors grab onto each other sooooo much (as albus and scorpius)

in love with how long scorpius hold out his “WIIIIIIIZZZOOOO” and how albus tries to match his energy with the “DOUBLE WIZZO”

delphi steals scorp’s little phrases and his awkward way of speaking and his mannerisms to try and appeal to albus because she knows that he reeeeally likes him- and i hate hate HATEEEE how she makes him feel like a freak for being himself when all the while she’s stealing his personality. scorpius plays with the fabric of his sweater and then fidgets with his hands after she tries to make him feel left out in the forbidden forest and i can FEEL what he’s feeling through the screen.

scorpius is JEALOUS jealous of delphi and when he talks to her his voice is quiet and monotone, which is the most un-scorpius thing ever. i love it. you can feel how much he hates her. i hate her too, this delphi is despicable. (very talented actress!!)

when scorpius tears his eyes away from the beautiful sight in front of them to look at albus and say “you’re my best friend” (which is crazy enough on its own) he talks in a really sweet, low voice before returning really quickly to his normal scorp-voice, as if he was afraid to let albus think about what had just happened

albus jumps up and down with excitement when they announce the triwizard tournament. he starts and then has to stop himself from cheering for hogwarts. funny that a guy who was just saying how much he hates hogwarts would do a thing like that.

everyone around scorpius gets startled when he starts cheering for krum because his screaming is so weird lmao

at the end of the scene where albus tells scorpius they’ll be better off without each other, scorpius just slumps over on the steps and stays there for the ENTIRETY of the next scene until he eventually gets wheeled off with the stairs. it looks like he’s fiddling with something? maybe his wand? maybe just his hands?

obviously the staircase ballet is the staircase ballet, but the way they look at each other is just AAAAUUUUGHHHHHHH

at the end of the ballet scorpius steps towards albus first, but albus is the one who reaches his hand out and slinks down onto the steps

obsessed with that gay little purse scorpius carries the time turner in

delphi gets scorpius to let his guard down during their conversation and scorpius starts talking like himself in front of her again!!!

albus does the little puke-gag-joke-thing in the library to try and make scorpius feel better </3

they’re both fidgeting with their hands throughout their whole conversation :(

ALBUS’S LITTLE GIGGLE WHEN SCORPIUS AGREES TO COME WITH HIM TO FIX TIME

this isn’t specific to this production but scorpius’s shoes are one of my favorite details. in the normal world, he wears big clunky shoes to showcase his awkwardness, whereas in the dark dimension he wears running shoes!! evil scorp is athletic!!!

the second “im fighting for albus” that comes out of scorpius’s mouth is said almost entirely to himself

their little hug in the water :,)

i LOVE LOVE LOVE that scorpius tries to hug draco and he pushes him away and throws his jacket at him in such a cold manner. it makes their hug near the end feel so much more important to their relationship. as soon as we meet scorpius he immediately refers to himself as having daddy issues and we don’t see nearly enough of that in this play.

bonus p2- one of my favorite parts of this show is the in trouble again number!!! i love the background gang and all of their little scenes like this. craig being a little gossip monger is funny as shit!!!! it gives him so much personality and makes his death that much sadder :(

the delivery of “scorpius….. he matters to me…. you know that don’t you?” is INSANE. tom grant delivers all of the coming out adjacent lines so perfectly.

i love how scorpius moves his body. he waves his arms around in the air so often.

scorpius tickled albus lmao they’re so weird

when scorpius talks about hating the other world, albus throws in “apart from polly chapman fancying you” quite bitterly and scorpius almost completely cuts him off. he doesn’t acknowledge what he said in any way shape or form and albus seems to notice that he’s not interested in polly.

scorpius rubs his socks on the floor while he talks :3

the choice to have scorpius move from his bed to albus’s bed and pull albus’s blanket into his lap when he tells him that he changed himself back for him is so AAAUGHHH

AND SCORPIUS DOES THE SAME THING THAT HE DID EARLIER AGAIN!!! he gets all quiet and sweet when he’s sort of admitting his feelings to albus and then all of a sudden he stands up and goes back to his normal loud voice

“MALFOY THE UNANXIOUS IS A PRRRRRETTY GOOD LIIIIAAAR”

delphi mocking scorpius and him immediately tensing up oh he hates her ass so much

scorpius reaches out to try and intercept albus handing delphi the time turner and albus giggles at scorpius because he’s happy she’s not extremely pissed at them

scorpius holds onto the railing right up until he gets his hands bound together because he’s afraid of heights. thought it was cute that adam chose to do this even though his fear of heights isn’t mentioned anywhere in this version.

i LOVE the torture scene in this version. albus is stone faced when delphi is threatening to torture him and then he IMMEDIATELY falls to his knees begging and pleading when she turns toward scorpius.

delphi is quite literally outing albus in this scene. the silence after she says that love is his weakness and points to scorpius is SO long and SO loud omg. it’s quite literally ten whole seconds (i counted) of albus and scorpius just looking at each other. it genuinely feels like she just spilled out what he’s been keeping inside of himself for so long, it’s gutwrenching. i guess they did just watch craig die so they do in fact have bigger problems, but you can see albus’s heart stop beating and its so terrible.

i love how albus turns to scorpius when the stationmaster starts unintelligibly talking to them like “hey, you’re doing the talking rn just so you know”

i’m obsessed with how excited scorpius is to tell albus all about the history of the place they’re in. in love with his little gasps at everything he sees and his jump when he says “SQUEAK!”

albus motioning for scorpius to stop when he’s demonstrating how to scream for help lmaoooo

albus pointing with both hands at scorpius while they try to come up with a plan is so cute. albus believes in him so much.

i love how scorpius keeps hugging draco even as he’s talking

their foreheads are literally brushing against each other my god these bitches gay

albus asks “and thats who you want in your palace?” in an almost panicked way like he’s afraid scorpius doesn’t feel the same way about him.

albus holds onto scorpius’s shoulders while rose tries to reassure them that they didn’t just get walked in on lmao

3rd and final instance of scorpius trying to change the subject- asking immediately about quidditch so albus doesn’t get the chance to say anything related to what just happened

scorpius says “come on” like he’s trying to get albus to come cut a rug with him at a middle school dance

obsessed with their little gagging and puking bit and how they made it a callback to what albus does in the library

maybe my favorite hug moment from any scorbus duo. i love how albus initially reacts with shock but then melts into it and closes his eyes, only pulling away to make sure he’s not reading the situation entirely wrong (he’s not)

my favorite ending scene by far. the coming out hits SO hard. the way albus fiddles with his zipper and scrunches up his sleeve in his hand, you can tell how absolutely terrified he is of saying this to his dad. the line delivery is genuinely fantastic. the more he pauses the longer you have to take it all in- and he pauses a LOT.

okie thanks for reading!!!!!

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

On David Tennant and Aging

So, I’ve seen a lot of posts in response to Tumblr users’ habit of affectionately calling their favorite middle aged dudes “old men”, David Tennant in particular, saying things like “clearly you’ve never met an actual old person”, “omg you talk about these guys like they’re 80”, “please be normal about people aging”, etc. And on one hand, all of these statements are objectively right and true! But as someone who’s always been really fascinated by and found a lot of beauty in getting older (which I’ve explored in some of my writing on A03 because nobody else is going to do it for me), I’d like to provide a bit more nuance on how I think this label applies to David in particular.

David, obviously, in literal terms, is not “old”, at least not to me- I don’t personally consider people old until they get past 60. 52 is middle aged, simple as that. And yet, when I see David stuck with the “old man” label, it still somehow feels weirdly right, for a number of reasons.

It annoys me so much when people say David “hasn’t aged a day since Doctor Who”, because, well…

He clearly has. A lot. He’s got forehead creases, deep crows’ feet and eyebags, and I think that post-Fourteen we’re gonna see him rocking the grey temples a LOT more. He also has the voice of an older man now, his upper range is still there but the default is much more deep and rich, with a gravelly, rumbling quality that just goes straight through you. I personally think Broadchurch was when David finally started to embrace looking his age- Alec Hardy just wouldn’t have been served by Ten’s fresh-faced boyishness.

Obviously, these are the kinds of changes you’d expect any 52-year-old man to have, but something about David just makes it all seem a bit more… intense? The expressiveness of his face combined with his almost gaunt frame makes his wrinkles very prominent, and when he works his voice to its emotional extremes, his lower register can sound positively ancient, to devastating effect.

David, I think, is someone with an old soul- I don’t think he could be as good as he is at playing ancient characters like Crowley and The Doctor if he weren’t. He has lived so many lives, given so much of himself to so many characters, often incredibly tragic ones, and I think it wears on him. David also has five kids. FIVE. Do you know how exhausting it is to be one of the hardest working actors alive and be a present, loving father to even ONE child? But David somehow does it anyway! Nowadays I see him and my heart breaks because he looks so tired, so weary and fragile. But he’s all the more beautiful for it to me because I know that that is because he is kind. He’s a deeply empathetic person who feels and lives to the absolute fullest, and that story is written so clearly on his face, along with every other story he has ever been a part of.

There’s other things about David that make the label endearingly fitting- his utter hopelessness when it comes to technology, for instance. And he’s just got that warm, wise, grandpa energy too sometimes- look at that above Fourteen picture and tell me I’m wrong!

I once showed my friend who’d only seen David in Doctor Who and Harry Potter a picture of David from Around The World in 80 Days. It was a particularly emotional scene, and his face had just the most beautiful expression of compassion and sadness, every wrinkle on full display. And she said, in a less than complimentary fashion, “he looks so old!” Which, of course, offended me quite a bit at first. But to me, referring to David as old almost feels like a badge of honor, something he’s earned by living fully and selflessly, working hard and being wise and compassionate beyond his years. I think David himself is secretly more than a little insecure about the fact that he’s getting older. There’s sadness behind every jovially self-depreciating remark he’s made about his age in the past year, particularly in comparing himself to Ncuti Gatwa. I know how much David struggles with his impostor syndrome and how people perceive him, and I can clearly see in his eyes the fear of being discarded, the anxiety he feels about if he’ll still be as loved as he was back in 2007 now that he’s closer in age to King Lear than he is to Romeo. So I hope David knows it’s a privilege to watch him grow older, to watch his soul and talents deepen with the crinkles around his eyes. If I, in my silly goofy tumblr girl-ness, call David Tennant an old man, it’s because it’s a label that suits him beautifully- even if it isn’t TECHNICALLY an accurate one yet.

[callme-holly]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐝! 𝐬/𝐨

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 - i've had a few requests similar to this so here ya go !! as a performer i love this icl

DARREL CURTIS - 

Darry is incredibly supportive with your interests

If you need help rehearsing your lines, he will sit down with you once his brothers have gone to bed and read through them 

I love the idea that Darry can dance (totally not bc of dirty dancing) so if you need to go through a choreography, he’s the person to help you

He loves it when you sing sm

If he hears you, he just smiles fondly and shakes his head but he’ll never bring it up to you

He’ll try to go every single one of your shows/productions 

If he can’t make it because of work, he’ll make someone else go and will always be there to pick you up afterwards 

SODAPOP CURTIS - 

Soda would adore the fact that you’re an actor/actress

He thinks it’s so cool and he will brag about it to anyone who listens

He’ll try his hardest to help you memorise your lines, but he doesn’t have the patience to sit there and wait for you to go through an entire script

He loves it when you sing

Whether its in the kitchen, in the shower, in the car, you name it, he loves it

Y’all will do duets together in his car

Dancing together in the kitchen

Soda will go to all of your shows and will get front row tickets every time 

Plus he cheers the loudest for you !!

PONYBOY CURTIS - 

I think Pony would be super interested if you’re an actor/actress

We all know how much he loves his movies and books, and I cant see him being any different when it comes to plays

He’ll help you will your lines, and he’ll help you interpret different scenes (he just sees things differently)

When it comes to dancing however… maybe he isn’t the best person to go to

He’ll sit and watch you practise for ages and will give feedback when needed

He loves that you can sing so much and will always give you little compliments about your voice

He always tells you that he’ll be watching you at the drive-in, on the screen, one day

He might try and get involved in some of the high school productions, but only if you���re part of them

If not, he’ll always be watching you from the crowd and he’ll be super proud of you !!

JOHNNY CADE - 

Johnny is so incredibly supportive of you omg

He loves everything you do and thinks it’s so cool

When it comes to helping you learn your lines, he is super patience and will prompt you when needed

He could sit for hours and just read your script without complaint 

He adores watching you dance

Unlike Soda, he won’t join in – he’s more than happy to stay at a reasonable distant and cheer you on from afar

When it comes to your singing, he could just listen to you for ages and he encourages you to sing around him all the time

He finds it comforting in a way

He will come to your rehearsals if you want him to and he always feels so at ease watching you (anything to stop him going home ig)

At yours shows, he will always be somewhere in crowd, and will tend to drag Pony along with him

He’ll be watching you the entire time

DALLAS WINSTON - 

Dallas doesn’t see the appeal in theatre

He’s never really cared for shows and performances until he learnt about your interests

Just because you like, doesn’t mean he’s going to change his views, but he might not be quite so harsh about it

He won’t help you with your lines – if he does, you’re probably better off practising alone anyway bc he’ll purposefully try to mess you up

“It’s all part of the acting process, babe. Trust me.” (dont trust him)

He does however like to watch you dance

His eyes will be fixed on your the whole time and he thinks your so hot 

He is the type to get jealous if you have an on-stage love interest

Dally is not afraid to brag about you – everyone knows that Dallas Winston’s partner is a performer. Its common knowledge

He will tease you for your singing, but he secretly thinks its crazy good

He’d never say that to you though

Now when your shows and performances roll around, he probably wouldn’t go to every single one

He might linger in the back for a bit, but he’ll probably end up leaving during the interval and waiting outside for you 

He does support you though; he just doens’t see the appeal of “prancing around a stage”

STEVE RANDLE - 

Steve is your number 1 fan and I mean it

He’s crazy about the idea of you being a performer and will always be there to big you up and support you

He’ll try his best to help you with your lines. He might not be the greatest at it, but at least he tries

He shows you off to everyone and will chew people’s ear off about you

“That’s cool, but did you know my partner is an actor/actress” 

He never shuts up

He will always try and dance with you, but this guy has to left feet

Your choreography ends up turning into a mess of twirls and loud laughter

Uses you as he personal jukebox 

He loves it when you sing so much and will make song requests

Sometimes he joins in, but he never sounds very good bless him :(

Goes to every single one of your performances and shows

Always tries his best to get front row seats so he can cheer you on 

You will always see him grinning at you in the crowd like this boys is smiling so big when he sees you on stage

TWO-BIT MATHEWS - 

If you thought Steve was you biggest fan… You were wrong

Two thinks you’re the best and he will say that

You’re better than every other actor, singer, dancer he’s ever heard of by a mile

If you two are watching a show or movie together, he’ll lean over and whisper: “sure, they’re great… but compared to you, they’re nothin’, babe.” 

He’s actually suprisingly good when it comes to helping with your lines – he’s got that theatrical energy about him

LOVES your dancing and never hesitates to join in

Teach him the choreography please and he will practise with you

Probably got kicked out of your rehearsals for shouting praise at you LMAO 

Always compliments your singing like he loves it

Sometimes he’ll put the radio on just to hear you sing

Two-bit always cheers the loudest at your shows like you know those really obnoxious people who clap loud and whistle? Yeah. Thats him.

At the end, he’ll run over to you and spin you around, gushing about how great you were

He loves everything about you I swear

[mc-lukanette]

Ladybug massaged her temples. She'd really, honestly tried to be sympathetic to Chat Noir, knowing how much love utterly sucked and how rough it could be when one's plans didn't go well.

But in the middle of an akuma battle? Because she didn't come after telling him that she already had plans? Prioritizing his own hurt feelings when people were literally melting after being turned into ice cream?

She couldn't do it, not now. She wasn't going to lose both of their miraculouses because Chat couldn't wait a few minutes to argue with her.

As Chat turned to go fight without a plan, she reached out and snatched his baton off of him. He halted, staggering and nearly falling off the roof in the process, then glared at her.

"What are you doing?!"

"Making a backup plan, because I'm the only one who can stop the akuma and you seem to want to cool off by becoming dessert," she stated. Pointing downwards, she instructed, "Stay safe. If we can't work together, I'll find someone else to help me."

She didn't wait for a reply, making a quick escape before his shouting drew even more attention to them. She ducked into alleys to keep herself hidden from Glaciator, only getting up on rooftops when there was no other way of getting around.

Despite the confidence she'd tried to show Chat, she knew deep down that it would be difficult to find someone who would fit the bill. She needed someone who could not only be convincing, but who she could be convincing with. She'd be a liar if she said she was in any way a good actor, so having to fake a romance with someone she wouldn't be comfortable with would definitely tip off Hawk Moth.

That left out strangers and, ironically, Adrien, with a sarcastic voice in her head commenting that he wouldn't be available even if she could ask him. She reigned in the voice with a shake of her head, feeling it was petty of her when it wasn't like it was his fault.

It wasn't like he planned on not coming, or knew he wouldn't be able to go and had been up to something else. That would've deserved the criticism.

Her thoughts bounced around in her head, running through all of the people she knew. Some were blatantly off-limits, like those who were already dating someone, and she had to keep in mind that they would have to be willing to practically throw themselves in front of an akuma alongside her. That narrowed her options even further, as some she couldn't be sure would put up with the danger.

She summarized everything in her head: someone she could feel comfortable around, who was unattached, who could handle the danger, who could act as needed, and who she wouldn't feel squeamish about being romantic with. Names and faces rushed through her memories like she'd pulled a crank on a slot machine, disappearing as she mentally disqualified them.

Until finally, there was only one left and she'd hit a jackpot of red 7s; or, in this case, black and blue 7s.

Turning on a dime, Ladybug took out her yoyo so its GPS could guide her, changing course now that she had a destination.

—————

It was strange landing on the Liberty without hearing any music. She tried to shake off the feeling, just hoping no one was asleep as she looked around, wandering from the front of the houseboat and into the little greenhouse area to check the seating there.

Still spotting no one, she headed further towards the back to peek into the cabin. Even if she saw Anarka instead, Anarka might've at least known where her temporary partner went, provided she would be willing to share after knowing the reason she was looking.

Because Luka would be perfect as her partner. He was brave enough to make himself bait for Captain Hardrock, acted well enough so that Captain Hardrock truly thought that he'd seen her escape out the window, and she was comfortable around him despite the attraction she had. It was a no brainer, really.

As if her thoughts had personally summoned him, a voice called from below, "Ladybug?"

She backed away from the cabin, peering down the stairway leading into the lounge room. Her face brightened in recognition and she exclaimed, "Just the person I was looking for! Luka—ah, Couffaine!"

She added the last name in a hurry, remembering that she was in hero form and not wanting to come off as too informal.

"I heard something up on the deck and came to look. I never thought it'd be you," he said, hurrying up the stairs to stand in front of her. "Why were you looking for me?"

"There's an akuma," she explained, the earlier cheer in her voice gone to express the severity of the situation. "He's after Marinette, and she told me to come find you if I needed help."

His face remained carefully neutral, but his cheeks were faintly flushed. "Marinette said that?"

Technically, it wasn't a lie. Marinette did tell Ladybug to go find Luka, just... in her head, since they shared the same head.

"Wait. Is she alright?" Luka pressed further, taking a step closer to her.

Ladybug had to suppress a smile, as well as the bubbly feelings in her stomach at knowing he was so worried about her. "She's fine for now. I helped her hide and Glaciator doesn't know where she is. All I need now is you to help keep the akuma from attacking me."

"You need a distraction?" He frowned worriedly. "Did something happen to Chat Noir?"

She made a face, nose scrunched as all of the unpleasant memories came back. There went the mood. "He's not being a team player, let's leave it at that."

Luka didn't ask for further detail, unintentionally proving to her that he was the right choice, and nodded along. "What do I have to do?"

"That..."

She hesitated, knowing that this was the only potential roadblock to all of this. She didn't have a backup plan for her backup plan, so if Luka didn't agree then she'd be stuck. The only way to know was to ask.

Taking a deep breath, she laid it all out to him, "Glaciator's power lets him turn anyone he hits into ice cream, even someone like me. His only rule is that he won't shoot couples, which is where you come in. I need you..." She swallowed, blushing but pushing on. "I need you to be my fake boyfriend and pretend like we're in love while I think through setting up a trap for him."

It sounded like something out of a cliche and she would rather not get into the logistics of how awful it was that she had to do something like that in the first place. She'd already had to kiss Chat Noir during an akuma fight even though she didn't want to and had reluctantly accepted that it was part of the job, albeit a gross one.

At least it would be with Luka this time, though he needed to accept first. He hummed, rubbing his chin in thought as he looked away from her, seeming conflicted.

"You won't be in danger. Hawk Moth won't go after you when it's all over," she tried to assure. "I'll make sure he knows before I purify the akuma that it was just a trick."

He shook his head. "Sorry. It's not that. I'm not dating anyone, but I do have someone I like."

"Oh." She didn't expect that, wondering who it could be whilst ignoring the tight feeling in her chest. "They must be something special."

"She is." He beamed, eyes growing soft at the mere thought of her. It felt oddly familiar somehow. "But I'll do this for Marinette, since she's in danger."

There was still something not quite right in his tone, but she knew he meant it and also that they was a she (even if it had nothing to do with the akuma). She placed a hand to her chest and sighed in relief, glad that this wasn't going to be too difficult. "Thanks. Now, let's—"

"Wait," he interrupted, raising a hand to signal for her to stop. "How much are you comfortable with?"

She blinked. "What do you mean?"

He squinted in concern. "I heard about the interview on Face-to-Face. A lot of Paris wants you and Chat Noir to be together, so he might not be fooled by us holding hands or hugging each other."

Oh, that... that was sweet? She hadn't given a thought to it beyond his own boundaries, but he cared about hers despite her status as a hero. After her interview with Nadja, it was true that she'd given up on some level that Paris might see her as anything close to a real person.

"I... thank you," she said, though it was a thanks from the heart rather than the professional one prior to it, "but I'll be okay. I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

He nodded in agreement. "Me too."

"Good!" She smiled, pulling him to her side and taking out her yoyo. "We can talk about a plan on our way there!"

—————

They'd agreed to wait in an alley that Glaciator would soon come across on his pathway through Paris, since he'd be caught off guard for a few seconds when he spotted them. She would stick with the reality that her and Chat had a fight, but from there she would act like she left to find Luka to "destress," as "Luka always worried about her when she fought akuma whilst upset."

She knew it wasn't real, but it sounded nice in a way. In another universe where she didn't have to keep her identity a secret to those close to her, could things be different? Would she be able to have a boyfriend she could go to who would congratulate her on her victories? Would he fret over her and be upset that it was Chat Noir helping her instead of him? Would he hold her after particularly tough battles, and even after easy ones—

Focus.

"We should practice while we wait," she suggested, putting her air of professionalism back on, "to make sure we'll be convincing. How good is your imagination?"

"What?" The question caught him off guard.

"I want this to be enjoyable for you, and it'd help the act." She waved a hand at herself, instructing, "Just picture her, and do to me what you'd do to her if you were dating."

He gave her a once-over, mulling over the request. He rubbed the area along his shoulder where his guitar strap usually was, then closed his eyes, possibly getting into the right mindset to imagine this mystery person girl in front of him at that moment. She could also swear she heard him humming a familiar tune as he tapped a melody against his thigh.

When he opened his eyes again, the soft half-lidded look had returned. She shuddered, knowing now that the look was directed at "her," and unconsciously held her breath as he took a step towards her.

His fingertips touched her shoulder, slowly trailing down to her forearm and then her hand. He raised it to his face and, rather than the cheesy peck on the back that Chat had always given her, he flipped it around to place a slow, steady kiss against her wrist.

She let out the breath in a single exhale, blushing. Already, the atmosphere felt far different than what she was used to. She knew that Luka didn't mess around when it came to feelings, and these feelings were clearly very genuine.

"She's so creative," he whispered, kissing the back of her curled fingers as well. "My sister's told me so many stories about her. She's extraordinary."

So he was getting into the mood by gushing about his crush. She almost felt like she was intruding, having more information than he thought she did, but she let him keep going, unable to tell him that.

Then, remembering that she should be just as involved as him, she raised her free hand to his face, starting at his temple and slowly working down towards his chin. He didn't have the look of a model, even if he dyed his hair and dressed up, but he was handsome in his own way, so she took her time feeling along his cheekbones.

Luka leaned against her touch, nuzzling into her palm with a sigh. With his head turned, she could free the hand he'd been holding and touch his earlobe, feeling the black earring he was wearing with her thumb.

"We match," she teased lightly.

His smile widened. "She matches me too. She has black earrings."

Black earrings. Despite the mixed feelings that he appeared to already like someone, she couldn't help being curious. Did she know someone that Juleka knew who wore black earrings?

She was startled out of her thoughts at the faint sound of loud, squishy footsteps and a sing-song voice off in the distance. She had rightly predicted Glaciator's path and he was approaching, so he'd be there at any moment.

Luka's eyes flicked out of the alley, then back to Ladybug. Gently taking both of her forearms in his hands, he circled her so his back was facing the nearest wall. He slowly sat himself down, bringing Ladybug with him as he pressed himself against the wall. She caught on quickly, climbing onto his lap and making herself comfortable.

She was rewarded with a kiss against her lower jaw, causing her to gasp. "You...you really like this girl."

"You should know, since you met her again today," he countered, encircling her with his arms to bring her in.

Her mind grew briefly fuzzy when he kissed her cheek, but it cleared as his words registered with her. "W-wait, you mean... m—Marinette?"

He nodded, beaming shamelessly like he hadn't dropped a bomb on her. She was just glad she was sitting in his lap, her legs feeling vaguely like jelly all of a sudden.

So all the things he said, the soft eyes that had felt so familiar, and all of the affection on offer had been for her. She knew she had her own spark of affection for him, but she felt like she was always looking like a fool in front of him, thus making it all one-sided.

Yet, it was mutual, and the unspoken conflict he'd been facing earlier suddenly made sense. He'd been torn when he heard that Marinette had "told" Ladybug to find him because that meant she was okay with him potentially kissing someone else.

She giggled. If only he knew, and if only she had known it could be so simple.

"Luka," she began, putting her hands on his shoulders and pushing herself up enough to kiss his forehead, "Did you ever think that Marinette recommended you because she thought it was one-sided too?"

"Ah—mm." Whatever he was going to say stalled as she kissed his temple as well.

She continued without waiting for an answer, "Y-you know what she told me when I told her the situation? That you were the perfect boyfriend material; that you were brave, capable, and sweet when she needed it most."

The alley was dark, but she could make out the way his cheeks pinkened. She wanted to see that through Marinette's eyes one day, not Ladybug's.

"I think you should ask her out," she added.

"I..." He hesitated, his arms around her loosening. "I wouldn't want to pressure her."

She almost laughed, thinking back to how badly she would've wished for someone like him when she was still struggling to make friends, and even now. "Take it from me, I know these things..."

The footsteps were growing louder and she heard the sound of boots against rooftops. Recalling the baton at her lower back, she glanced across the street and up, seeing that Chat Noir was stealthfully keeping up with Glaciator. She had no idea what was going on in his head, whether he was skeptical if she'd make due on her word or was simply waiting for her to come back, but their eyes met.

Pretending not to have noticed him, she took Luka's chin using the hand furthest from where Chat was. Her other cradled Luka's cheek, carefully hiding the sight of his lips from anyone else behind her wrist.

"If it's you asking, and this is what you have planned for her," she began, leaning towards him, "then she'll definitely say 'yes.'"

She sealed the promise with a kiss purposefully to the side of his mouth, though to anyone watching from where she knew they would, it would look like the real deal. Luka's breath caught as his embrace tightened back up, and she knew he was strongly considering the suggestion.

He better, anyway, as she wanted to give him the real deal as Marinette.

[theygotlost]

good afternoon here's my big rant on my pet peeves for subtitles in movies and tv

This is a post that I’ve thought about making probably for years now but never got around to. I might add more later if I realize I’ve forgotten any

When it comes down to it, the purpose of subtitles is this: to reflect exactly what the audience can hear, precisely when it can be heard. If you fail to do this, your subtitles are bad and you should feel bad. Although I don’t have concrete examples for most of these off the top of my head, I promise I have experienced them all firsthand at least once.

-> Watch for spelling and typos. Obviously.

-> Syncing issues.

This should go without saying, but the captions should be synced as closely as possible with dialogue and sound effects. Subtitles that are out of sync are worse to me than no subtitles at all. They’re unbearably distracting and I have to turn them off. I’m fortunate enough that I can keep watching without them, so imagine how frustrating this is for someone who needs to keep them on no matter what.

-> Jumping the gun.

This is basically an example of out-of-sync subtitles that are slightly too fast, but it gets its own category because it ruins the viewing experience in its own unique way. In particularly dramatic scenes, actors will often draw out their lines or pause between phrases. Captions sometimes fail to reflect this by displaying the entire sentence all at once, allowing the audience to read what someone is about to say before they actually say it, which deflates all the dramatic tension of the scene.

-> Phantom captions.

This one is less self explanatory, but it’s kind of similar to syncing. Sometimes there will be significant intervals of time between lines of dialogue, especially after a scene ends and a new one begins. The interval may include music, sound effects, or complete silence, but what I’m calling a “phantom” is a caption that stays on the screen after that last line of dialogue is delivered until the next line is spoken. I don’t remember what I was watching, but there was one that was glued to the screen for SEVERAL MINUTES over what was supposed to be an atmospheric break between scenes and it drove me nuts. In my experience this happens more often with older subtitling for DVDs and some old videos and less with modern streaming. 

-> Straight up spoilers.

Sometimes, a character will speak whose true identity has not yet been revealed to the audience. If I’m not supposed to know the character’s name yet, don’t just… tell me right there in the captions whenever they say something. Descriptors like “disembodied voice”, “man”/”woman”, “mysterious figure”, etc. will suffice.

-> Lack of musical descriptors.

It usually helps to describe the genre or emotion of the music that’s playing rather than just writing [music] or 🎵. That being said, if there is a song playing that’s particularly well known in the mainstream, I think it’s useful to actually include the name of the song. This one I do have a concrete example for: in Arrested Development, Gob always blasts The Final Countdown during his acts. But the captions on my DVDs for the show always describe it as [stagy pop]. Like yeah I would say that song is some pretty stagy pop, but I think a lot of the humor comes from knowing that it’s specifically The Final Countdown by Europe because it’s such a perfectly corny selection that Gob would make.

Another musical failure is not transcribing pertinent lyrics. If the song is playing in the background, then that’s understandable and it can be kind of distracting if there’s dialog happening on top of it because the audience isn’t actually meant to be paying close attention to the song. But if the song is front and center, like for a musical number or montage, then the lyrics can be pretty important. Last year when I watched Arcane on Netflix with my family (a recent, high budget production from the biggest streaming platform ever), the show had the nerve to write [man rapping] over a musical sequence. Imagine if all subtitles ever just said [person speaking] for the entire movie.

-> Affectations.

If a character starts using a silly voice or accent, or if the sound of their voice changes in any way, describe that. If the audience can hear the difference, the subtitles should reflect that difference. And they should reflect it informatively and accurately; for example, don’t just say [mock accent], but specify [mock French accent]. 

-> Paraphrasing.

I don’t even know why this is an issue, but it’s alarming how many times the subtitles just… straight up don’t match what the characters are actually saying. It’s like the transcriber was forced to write all the captions from memory, so they kinda sorta say the same thing, but the wording is different and some sentences or phrases are missing. When I brought this up with my mom she theorized that the transcriber was working off the script for the movie because hey, that’s all the dialogue already written down, right? But it completely fails to account for revisions, improvisation, or actors delivering their lines even slightly different than how they were originally written.

And last but certainly not least, one of the biggest offenders in bad subtitling…

-> [Speaks foreign language]

If someone says something in another language, please, for the love of god, do not just write [speaks foreign language]  and call it a day. Specifying the actual language is an improvement, but this descriptor only works if the audience members are truly not meant to know what’s being said (which is sometimes the case). If a character is only saying a single word or phrase in another language, transcribe it. As in, write down the actual words that they said. If you don’t speak that language, find someone who does. You are insane for transcribing a character saying “hola” or “abuela” in an otherwise English sentence as [speaks Spanish] (real examples I saw respectively in Rango and JANE THE VIRGIN. THERE’S SO MUCH SPANISH IN THAT SHOW). 

If the audience is supposed to know what someone is saying in another language, English subtitles will usually be hardcoded. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, LET THE CAPTION SAYING [SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE] COVER THESE UP. This is actively impeding understanding, not helping it. Jesus christ

* Please keep in mind that I’m not deaf or hard of hearing and I don’t have auditory processing disorder; I almost always watch movies and tv with subtitles whenever the option is available because it helps me absorb information better. If I don’t even strictly NEED subtitles and these are issues for me, I can only imagine how much more difficult it is for those who rely on them more heavily. I invite you to add your own perspective!!

[lonesome-greenery]

You know what fuck it.

I don't know enough voice actors to have voice claims for the Aurora Comic, but I do have a pretty well-developed imagined sound to each character's voice so let's go through them.

Part 1: The Floof Squad + Vash

Kendal: I've always imagined him as very soft spoken given the fact that the first person he ever spoke with was Alinua, and he had to be very calm and quiet to be able to interact with her properly. Also, he's always got the people of Vash's voices going in the back of his mind so he keeps his voice quiet to mitigate a bit of sensory overload. His tone is always level, but he's got a bit of a higher voice that cracks at times since he's getting used to being a person and using his voice.

Vash: Confident, loud, brassy. It's deeper than Kendal's, but they both speak with the same assuredness that makes people say Kendal almost sounds just like him. He thinks fast and often times it takes a minute for his words to catch up with those thoughts, so sometimes he slurs his words together to keep up with what's going on in his mind.

Alinua: I don't really know how to explain it, but her voice is sharp to me. Her 'r's are harsh, and she makes a point of pronouncing her 't's and 'd's distinctly. She sometimes pronounces things oddly because she's had to learn on her own. Alinua's voice takes up space and she's tried so hard to make sure that she's real and not just a branch of life without a will of her own. Her voice is the kind that you can't afford to forget because she has been so afraid of forgetting herself for so long.

Falst: His voice could only ever be described as bright. He has such presence when he's speaking that you wonder if he's mimicking someone he knew once to seem bigger than he actually is. His voice isn't slinky like some cat-themed characters are apt to be. It's boyish, gruff, and has a resonance to it. He is what he is, and he isn't trying to mask anything with his voice. Probably hits best as somewhere between Joshua Ilon and Jack de Sena's voices.

Erin: He says just about everything in one to three breaths because he's afraid of being interrupted, but he'll tell you that he's just passionate about the subject. He's loud, and he speaks with such arrogance that you're sure he's looking down on you, but his air runs out at the end of a sentence and he trials off before taking a breath and finishing the rest of it. Every emotion is exaggerated, not in mocking, but trying to get people to see, hear, and understand him. It's an act. This is the voice he uses around the floof squad and almost everyone else, but sometimes his voice will become quieter, slower, softer, and it will deepen a touch because he's getting proper airflow now.

Dainix: He's got some gravel to his voice and it's definitely deeper than most of our guys here. I tend to think that his throat is often raw from the fire energy that he holds and that makes talking hard sometimes and depending on how recently he's ignited, his voice may be raspy to a certain extent. Sometimes he's whispering because it hurts to talk, other times, he's speaking at a normal level, but very rarely does he raise his voice to a shout because he associates volume with his emotional state and why shouldn't he when he knows the fire to be loudest at its most dangerous.

Tess: She's loud and sure of herself and she is doing it on purpose. Her voice has that nice bit of vocal fry on the end that mimics the hiss of energy that comes with the lightning she keeps in her heart. She doesn't stutter like Erin does sometimes, though he remembers a time when she did, and she never wants to go back to a time when she has to. Sometimes she'll forget to tone down her speech and it'll come crashing in like a rumble of thunder. Her voice is deeper than Alinua's and she makes an effort to sound tougher as well. Her tone is usually pretty playful but sometimes it gets quiet and you know that as soon as it gets there, things will get loud very soon.

[dangerousduckcloud]

Flowerbeds make up for a nice eternal rest

Read it also on AO3

You wouldn’t call yourself amazing at reading people’s faces and expressions, at times misinterpreting them, but the certainty on his voice couldn’t be faked. He was so sure of his words, so convinced, so far up in his delusion he genuinely believed it. Or he’s just the greatest actor of all time. No in between.

Chapter 1 < > Chapter 3

taglist: @kurai-hono-blog

A blur of faces pervades your mind, some smiling, some screaming, some young, some old, but none of them hold any meaning to you. All mingling together with voices overlapping each other, every single sound like a hammer against your head until they all died out, a ringing taking its place and the face’s changed into a bright white light. 

A teenager, around 16 or 17, a domino mask covering his eyes, and a flashlight dangling over your face, was kneeling next to you, the uncovered part of his face revealing his worry.

“B’s going to kill me.” The teen whispered, eyes widening when you grabbed his hand to put away the flashlight, eyes squinting to get used to the light. “Are you alright?”

“Where am I?” You groaned, turning around in your place to face the floor, hands barely lifting you up, a wave of nausea coming over you, hardly holding it down.

“You’re safe. I promise.” His hands were hovering over your shoulders. “What’s your name?”

“I…” Looking up, the sight in front of you left you speechless, googling everywhere and everything that caught your gaze, recognizing a place you knew too well, despite never being in there—The Batcave. “I…”

Misunderstanding your silence for confusion, the boy asked again. “Do you remember your name?”

“What?”

The bright blue light coming from all the electronic devices made you uneasy, along with the quiet hum of the gadgets, having to dodge once when a goddamned bat flew over your head. Focusing on the kid, you finally took in his appearance; a red, black and yellow suit with a black cape and yellow interior, a vibrant, yellow R on his chest.

Robin.

More specifically, Red Robin. Even more specifically, Tim Drake.

Or well, an incredibly good cosplay. Sure that behind the white lenses of the mask, the eyes were most likely blue.

“Mind if I call you Jane?” The boy —Tim— asked.

“I’m… I’m not…”

“It’s alright. It’s just while you remember your name.” Was this some kind of prank show? It must be, one with an extremely high budget, just taking into consideration the size of the Batcomputer, and the… Was that a dinosaur? And… Is that the giant coin!? “How are you feeling?”

“Dizzy.”

“No wonder.” He stood up, holding a hand towards you. “Jumping from another universe must take a lot on someone. Come, I’ll get you some water.”

Taking his hand, he helped you stand up, your eyes never leaving his face, confusion written all over yours.

“Jumping? Universe?” You muttered more to yourself than anything else, following him towards a small room in the cave where a couple of beds were located, as well as medical equipment next to them and what you could assume where medicine inside the cabinets.

Here, the light had turned warmer, a light-yellow glow emanating from the overhead lights. Tim —or what you would call him until he’d tell you his real name— grabbed a bottled water from a minifridge and handed it to you.

“Where am I?” Eyeing the bottle, you opened it once you made sure it didn’t look as if tampered with. “Who are you?”

“The name’s Red Robin.”

“Your real name.”

“Yeah…” Stopping mid-way while grabbing a bottled for himself, he looked at you over the door of the minifridge, dumbfounded. “I’m not telling a civilian my identity. Even if you’re from another universe. Probably.”

“I’m not—” Cutting yourself, you examined the boy in front of you. His arms were littered with small scars, as well as some on his face, and a bandaged hand had somehow evaded your notice until now.

You wouldn’t call yourself amazing at reading people’s faces and expressions, at times misinterpreting them, but the certainty on his voice couldn’t be faked. He was so sure of his words, so convinced, so far up in his delusion he genuinely believed it.

Or he’s just the greatest actor of all time. No in between.

The need in you to call off on his bullshit was strong, as you didn’t enjoy being taken for a fool, however, on the off chance this kid truly believed he was Tim Drake, you wouldn’t know what he would do once he learned you didn’t want to participate in his game, so in lieu of antagonizing him, you decided to focus on the second part of his answer, hoping that showing trust would give you an opportunity to escape whatever this was.

“What do you mean by ‘another universe’?”

Drinking the last drop on his bottle, he threw it to the other side of the room, landing neatly inside a trash can. You’re not surprised to notice how much he’s gotten into his character.

“Normally, I wouldn’t talk about this with a civilian but… Well, you’re involved, so you have a right to know.” His stance changed in one second, pushing himself from the edge of the minifridge where he was leaning, his hands went to his back, standing straight and walking from one side to the other, as if debriefing with a military superior. “Recently, we came in contact with… Foreign technology, nothing we’ve ever seen before. The Justice League captured everyone, of course, but… Well, one of them hit Batman with that thing.” Following him outside the medbay, he led you to a gun resting on a table, looking exactly like the guns on sci-fi movies, big, vibrant and with tubes going in and out the barrel. “He disappeared.”

Your heart ached for the kid, clearly needing professional attention if he’d convinced himself so bad of being a part of the ‘batfam’ that the mournful look he had was real, as if the real Batman had adopted him and now was missing.

But the bereft way he looked began stirring something on the back of your mind, considering that this might not be a simple delusion.

“So… You think he might be in… ‘My universe’?”

“Yes.” Getting back into ‘Red Robin’ mode, he began tinkering with the gun. “So, from what I’ve seen, this gun utilizes an extremely specific type of energy I haven’t been able to identify, maybe a variation of Zeta Beams? But this part here seems to be some kind of a propulsion system, creating an accelerated wormhole of sorts, linking close world lines…”

“You lost me at the beginning.”

“Sorry.” He said, sheepishly. “Anyway, about you... I need to make a call. Stay here.”

Tim went to the batcomputer, grabbing something from the desk and putting it on his ear. An earpiece, you assumed. In a hushed conversation, he most likely began explaining the situation to whoever was on the other side. Nightwing? Oracle?

Red Hood?

“Not sure… She’s a Jane Doe.” You barely heard him say. However, his words were quickly ignored when a certain display caught your attention.

Your reflection on the glass became harder to spot the closer you got to the display; several suits inside of it. A snicker making its way out your lips once you saw the Discowing suit. But your smile vanished at one specific suit that broke your heart.

Burnt and torn, the last Robin suit Jason had worn before his death.

Or well, the one he would’ve worn had he been real. Nevertheless, it saddened you the fate his character had had due to a simple poll, wondering how he would’ve evolved had the public chosen something different.

Once whatever this is ends, you’ll have to congratulate whoever built the place, no doubt a remarkably dedicated team that must’ve spent months researching even the most miniscule details of the cave.

“I wish things had ended differently.” Whipping your head backwards, you never noticed when he stopped his call, nor since when he had been standing behind you. “I wouldn’t be here today, but... He didn’t deserve it.”

Not knowing what to do, you simply put a hand on his shoulder. This is truly getting out of control. However, before you could say something, a loud sizzling filled the silent cave. A bright blue-ish light to your left caught the attention of both of you.

Where once was a simple circular metal disk, with a long metal post that resembled a giant desk light illuminating it, now there was another guy in a suit, a black and blue suit.

“Nightwing!” Tim cried out, jogging to his side.

“What—?” With uncertain steps, you walked towards them. Examining the device from where ‘Nightwing’ could’ve been hiding. Touching everywhere you could for a hidden door.

“Is this…?”

“Yeah.”

“Hello?” Nightwing greeted you, a hand extended, which you slowly shook, still puzzled by how he’d managed to make it seem as if he’d appeared out of thin air. “I’m Nightwing, you’re Jane, right?”

You were in silence for a couple of seconds, mind still processing what you’d seen. Taking the name as a nickname for now, you replied. “Yeah… Sure.”

Just as in every piece of media about him, he had a calming presence and smile that eased all worries, despite not being able to see his eyes, the white lenses more inviting than off-putting.

“I know all this can be a bit confusing, but I can assure you, we’ll get you back home.”

“How…?” You turned towards the device, hands idly wandering the cables and buttons. “What is this?”

“A Zeta-Tube.” You’d vaguely heard the name in some cartoon you saw a couple years ago, not something predominant on everything you’d read or saw. “You don’t have them in your universe?”

“I wish. Would’ve made going to college easier. Effing building was on the other side of the city.”

Nightwing —Dick— chuckled, and both vigilantes left the ‘Zeta-Tube station’ to focus on the screen displayed on the batcomputer.

There was a single file opened, a photo of Batman and the description of what Tim had told you before, nothing else of interest to you.

At some point the idea that this was a very lucid dream had become a possibility, but aren't you not supposed to be able to read in your dreams? You never checked if that was true or not, so with a subtle but sharp pinch to your arm that did not woke you up, you threw that idea out the window.

“Superman and Cyborg are also testing the other equipment they secured, but haven’t had much improvement as you, Little Bird.”

The small, proud smile on Tim warmed your heart. A small, abandoned kid that would light up at the most trivial compliment, having received none for most of, if not all, his childhood.

Alright, you need to stop looking at them as if they were the characters and not probable kidnappers trying to turn you into thinking you were also part of the comics.

“… And Red Hood’s out of planet.” At hearing that name, you continued paying attention. “He should be back in a few days…”

So far, the people dressing up as Tim and Dick were the exact copy of the comics, and if whoever dressed as Jason was the same… Well, you could stay here a couple more days playing pretend.  

[doyouevenshipbr0]

RAMBLING!

SO “power to live” ep was dubbed

as usual the voice actors were AMAZING. i am a dub girl usually (not always! sometimes they are bad lol) and i really love fairy tail’s dub.

so i know gray and juvia’s VAs will always deliver.

i will say they did change some things writing wise here that were odd to me??? not necessarily BAD but like. obviously the sentiment was still there with all of it, but as someone who is constantly studying the holy text (obsessively rereads gruvia moments over and over and over), i can tell when they change stuff! the dub has a bad habit of taking some of the romance out of the gruvia scenes/make gray come off colder and harsher than he’s supposed to HOWEVER! i think so far in 100 yq they havent really done that!!!!! yay!

but yeah there were just a couple things that i noticed. dumb examples: when gray cant attack aldoron bc juvias attached to him juvia says something like “its ok dont worry about me” and gray says “can i even do that?” but in the dub he says “no there has to be another way” and im like …….. ok i guess im just being a brat bc its basicallyyyyy the same butttttt….. . i know it cant be a word for word translation ok im being a BRAT! let me brat out! AND they took away gray saying “you cant crush this girl” which is honestly criminal. get me in that writers room.

BUT ok the part where juvia goes “im your what was it? say it again yada yada” when shes trying to get gray to say shes his power to live in the dub they had her go “tell me! it was sweet” and i must admit i loved that little change i thought it was so CUTE

i will say i feel like the dub writers try to make juvia a HAIR more fleshed out in her dialogue than the sub version. this isnt always the case but idk i think the dub version of juvia has a little more depth to her between the writing and the english voice actress’s portrayal. and for the love of god this is not me saying the japanese writing/VA for juvia is BAD i am just saying i think the english version takes a slightly different approach which i like! i dont think its BETTER but its a little different!

anyways after all this rambling, im just gonna sum it all up by saying the dub will change some things. sometimes its good. sometimes its bad. life goes on (and yet i will STILL continue to make pointless comparisons)

[spongebob-connoisseur]

So I went to Fan Expo yesterday! I wish I bought tickets for two days instead of one, i couldn't do all that I wanted. Most of my day was just waiting in line to meet voice actors.

Buuut the highlight of my day is that I met Dee Bradley Baker! I got a selfie with him and I asked what was his favorite Spongebob character to play. He said Bubble Bass's mom. He did voice impressions of them both. Its so weird to hear the voices come out of him since I'm used to hearing it on the TV. It was great though.

He LOVED my Slappy cosplay and said it was freaky. I am so so happyyyy. When I took a selfie with him, my friend said some lady also took out her phone to snap a picture of my cosplay. It may not be the most polite thing to do without asking but I really don't mind it lmao

It was my dream to go as Slappy since the first time I ever went to Fan Expo. Which isn't long ago but still. I felt like I was wearing his skin✨

I finally know how Slaps felt like in this instance wearing the Patrick costume

I spent the past week making the head out of paper mache and I'm very proud of it. It's not particularly strong because I was figuring this out while it was foing along. I spent most of my time sculpting and ensuring it LOOKED like Slappy, I didn't give much consideration towards visibility (his mouth is a seeing hole but you can just barely see. Also towards the end of the day, it began cracking around his jaw area so I couldn't wear it anymore. It's fine and easy to fix, I do kinda want to fix it up and make it stronger. Probably put a helmet on the inside and pad out the inside. I also want to give him false eyelashes lmao.

I had a lot of fun painting him though. It was like doing his makeup UwU he's also actually wearing makeup since I used an eyeshadow pallette to use as a highlighter on his skin. He's sparkly in person.

I also made his dorsal fin (I followed a basic fairy wings tutorial to make it) and my sister helped out and made the little gloves from socks. She finds this costume horrifying. I think that's the best part. I chased her around a bit as Slappy.

I also attended a panel and got an autograph from Neil Newbon who voices Astarion from Baulders Gate 3.

Mainly because my friend has been obsessed with the game lately. I didn't think I'd care much until I actually met him. Hes actually wonderful and witty and polite and professional, I could go on and on about it. My friend and I were both gushing about it. Even for the brief moment of meeting him at the table and he shakes your hand with both hands and looks you in the eye AHHHH✨✨✨😭😭

Unexpected but REALLY made my day <33

I ended up missing photo opportunity to meet Spongebob because the line was so long but this is a rare moment where I think it was worth it.

Especially since despite all of that, there are many folks who asked for pictures. Especially older folks. They were able to tell right off the bat that it was Peter Lorre related!

And the ones who were younger and closer to my age were still able to get it. I got a lot of people asking "is that Gomez Addams?" because Gomez is Peter Lorre inspired. Which was the PERFECT opportunity to infodump and tell them that Slappy and Gomez are both caricatures of Peter Lorre. I actually have a printed picture of Peter Lorre that I kept in my tote bag just for this purpose <3

When I was standing in line, one man was looking at the Slappy head for a bit and said "he has a face only a mother could love. He reminds me of a certain actor" to which I just had to say "Peter Lorre!" Hehehehehe

There was also a paramount section where they had Spongebob mini golf.

I actually met a dude while I was in line and he was also a Hardcore Spongebob fan. Its actually crazy to find someone as deranged as I am irl. It was soooo much fun just chatting with him. We ended up traded socials. I kinda wish I stuck around longer but we didn't have much time left ro really explore the con so my friend and I did a mad dash trying to get through as much as we could before the con closed.

All in all, I had fun. I'll probably reuse this costume next year. Perhaps I could find a brown tailcoat suit too so the cosplay can be 100% accurate.

Here are some miscellaneous cosplay pictures:

This one is my favorite <3

[pedropascalsx]

Dabble request: F reader with Dieter Bravo. He finally wins a major award and the reader decides to award him with smutty sex

THE AWARD.

I slightly changed it and had them enter a bet… I hope that’s okay and I hope you like it. Also you sent this in April and I missed it, i’m so sorry it took so long.

Summary: you jokingly bet that you’ll fuck your best friend dieter bravo if he wins an oscar.

Warnings: Smut. P in V. Oral. (M&F receiving). Betting. Strong language. Dieter Bravo being… Dieter Bravo.

Pairing: Dieter Bravo x F! Reader.

Word Count: 2053

A/N: I tried LOL. Thank you to @littlebirdsbookshelf for reading an unfinished version of this fic and encouraging me to finish it. I didn’t edit it and I’m too scared to read it back… so I don’t know how many mistakes are in it 😭😂 ENJOY!!

You groan as your phone wakes you up from the most comfortable sleep you’ve had in weeks, before reluctantly kicking off your covers and stepping out of bed.

The photo of Dieter Bravo's smug face flashing up on your phone screen makes you roll your eyes and curse his name before you swipe to answer. “It’s 5AM Diet, if someone isn’t dead, you’re able to be,” you growl into the phone.

“Shut up,” he says with an obnoxious chuckle, “I’m cashing in on our bet, pretty girl.”

“What?” You say before stuttering, “No. Not today, I’m not playing any of your annoying games this early.. . I’m hanging up and I'm going back to sleep, asshat.” You say, with a wide smile spreading across your face from the sound of his chuckling.

“I can hear you smiling.” He remarks and you roll your eyes again at how easily he can read you.

“What do you want, Dieter? I’m tired.”

“I already told you, I’m cashing in on our bet. March 21st 2015. You said you’d fuck me when I win an Academy Award.” Dieter recalls, his voice dripping with its usual arrogance.

“Buying a fake one from Etsy doesn’t count,” you sigh, imagining he’s just dragged himself back to his hotel from some club, “Dieter, if you haven’t already, go to bed, get so—.”

“I’m nominated,” he interrupts, ignoring the irritation in your voice, “My agent called me fifteen minutes ago. For Hunger Strike - Best Leading Actor.”

“Dieter, you better not be fucking with me.” You squeal with excitement, almost jumping up and down on the spot.

“Not yet, I’m not, pretty girl.”

“When are you home?” You ask, suddenly forgetting how tired you are.

“Eager are we?” He says, his eyebrows raising and the first real smile forming across his face in weeks despite his nomination.

“Shut up, asshat, you’ve got to fucking win the thing first… and if I recall correctly, which I do, I think I said I’d consider fucking you if you ever win one and I only said it so you’d take that damn role.”

“Mhmm. Nope. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word ‘consider’ fall from those gorgeous lips before now,” he teases. “But jokes aside… Tell me you’ll come with me, I hate those fucking things, they’re only fun if you’re swooning over how handsome I am in a suit sitting next to me.”

“Shut up, asshat.”

“Come with me, pretty girl, put those shiny statues to shame, show them how you shine brighter.” He says, unaware of just how fucking cheesy he ends up sounding.

“Only if you buy me a burger after.” You say, glad he isn’t there to see the way you’re unable to stop yourself from smiling.

“Deal.”

*

You haven’t left his side for the past few days, he had asked you quietly to stay with him while he went through the required amount of press and you had made sure that your hand was close enough for him to squeeze when he needed it.

And today was no different, the confident Dieter Bravo the whole world thinks that they know, nowhere to be seen and instead the sweet Dieter that a few people have the pleasure of knowing sits beside you, looking at the dress bag containing the tuxedo he’ll be adorning in just a few hours time.

“You okay?” You ask, quietly bumping your shoulder against his.

“Ask me again when this is all over,” he says, before taking a generous sip of his drink. “I fucking hate red carpets.”

You take his hand and squeeze it a few times, before resting your head on those broad shoulders that you love so much.

“Whatever happens tonight, I’m really fucking proud of you.” You murmur into his skin, “Always have been, you’re the best friend i’ve ever had.”

He shushes you before pressing a kiss to the top of your head, grateful that you’re with him. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

“Let’s do this.” You say, with a little scrunch of your nose.

*

“And the Academy Award goes to… Dieter Bravo.” The gorgeous actress announces and you swear you can hear his heart beating.

He stands slowly, fiddling with the front of his jacket before turning to face you, immediately smashing his lips to yours in a fleeting kiss that steals your breath before shaking the hand of his director and making his way to the stage.

His speech is short but insightful. He makes sure to make eye contact with you as he thanks you for encouraging him to take the role and then shuffles off the stage as quickly as he can.

“Will you be mad if I suggest we skip the after party?” He asks after they finish engraving his oscar, the award ceremony now over and more hands shook than he could possibly be bothered to count.

“Not at all,” you say, resting your head against his shoulder, and inspecting his shiny new award.

“Room service burgers and a shitty movie to fall asleep in front of?” He suggests, before wrapping his hand around your waist.

“Sounds like heaven.”

*

“It’s really fucking pretty,” you say, your hands wrapped around the statue.

“Yeah,” he says, from somewhere behind you. Unable to stop his eyes from scanning up and down your body, and unable to ignore the way his heart leaps everytime he looks at you. “Second prettiest thing in this room.”

“I’d call you a charmer, but I'm pretty certain you’re about to announce that you’re in first place,” you say, turning around to face him with a giggle and a signature scrunch of your nose.

“No. It’s you.” He says, “In every room. It’s you.”

“Charmer.”

You both stand in comfortable silence for a few moments, just staring at each other before you take a step towards him. “Academy award winner, Dieter Bravo.”

“The one and only,” he scoffs, with a roll of his eyes. “You look really fucking beautiful by the way.”

“Shut up, asshat.” You mumble, now standing toe to toe. Unable to stop thinking about the bet that you had made a few years earlier, one that neither of you had mentioned since the day he was nominated.

He’s been your best friend for years. You met on the set of his very first movie, while working as a makeup artist and immediately struck up a friendship. And while there has always been an obvious attraction between you both, the fear that making a move and acting on it could potentially ruin your friendship had kept those feelings at bay.

But standing here and seeing the way that he’s looking at you, you can’t hold back, so you don’t. You surge forward and capture his lips, kissing him with the same intensity he had kissed you with earlier this evening, but this time it didn’t have to be fleeting. His mouth swallows your moans and his hands start to roam your body, squeezing and grabbing anywhere they could as he kisses you back.

He carefully pulls down the zipper on the back of your dress, dragging it slowly and savouring every second of this moment, a moment he’s been dreaming of since first laying eyes on you.

“Dieter,” you murmur softly against his jaw, wanting him to increase his painfully slow pace of undressing you. “Please.”

He increases his pace, frantically pulling on the material and letting it pool at your feet, before helping you step out of it and guiding you backwards towards the bedroom. His hands still greedily grabbing at any and every part of you as he lays you down.

He wastes exactly no time, pulling your panties off in one clear sweep and diving his head in between your legs. The noises he makes are loud and desperate as he laps at your clit with a messy intensity. Alternating between licking and sucking your little bud, only satisfied when you’re screaming his name and tugging at his signature messy locks before soaking his face with your arousal.

You whimper his name as he continues to lap at your clit, before gently pushing him away as it gets too much. Giggling slightly at the sight of his soaked face.

“Are you planning on getting undressed?” You ask as he moves up your body.

“Not this round,” he growls, before capturing your lips again. His movements are sloppy as he fumbles with his belt, pulling it through the loops and throwing it across the room, before pulling his pants down enough to expose his cock. You push him back slightly, and lay down in front of him on your tummy, a moan slipping out as you take a good look at his cock. Thick, long and throbbing. The tip flushed red with a bead of pre-cum, you lean forward, push up the bottom of his shirt and pepper light kisses on the swell of his tummy, nipping a few times before taking him in your mouth.

He groans your name as you hollow your cheeks, your jaw immediately aching from the sheer width of him and slowly you start to bob your head. Gagging slightly as he rocks his hips and pushes past your tonsils. The snap of his hips meet the rhythm of your enthusiastic mouth. After a few minutes he groans impatiently at not being able to touch you, before pulling out your mouth leaning over you and slapping your ass and then spreading your cheeks and tasting you this way.

You take him in your hand, stroking and flicking your wrist in perfect strokes, moaning his name in a perfect little chant as he uses his nose to tease your clit. You cum with a yelp of his name, taking you both by surprise as he soothes you through the aftershocks with gentle coos and little flicks of his tongue against your pretty little clit.

“On your back, pretty girl,” he orders, giving himself a few rough strokes as he watches you. “You ready for me, baby?” He says with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“I'm ready,” you confirm with a giggle, yelping with excitement as he pushes into you. Praising your ‘perfect little pussy’ as he fills you to the hilt. His arms swoop beneath your knees, so he can fuck into your deeper. “Move, D,” you beg as he waits, wanting you to adjust to the size of him.

The second you give him permission, he’s rolling his hips back, watching your face intently before snapping them forward. Loving the sound of your pretty moans as he thrusts back into you. He bends over and presses his lips against your face, thrusting himself in and out of you. Finding that spot and dragging his cock against it with ease, loving how reactive and tight your pussy gets around him.

“Oh Dieter,” you whimper, almost delirious with pleasure.

“I know, fuck, I know, baby girl,” he murmurs, “Taking my fat cock so well, baby.” You love how vocal he is, the sound of both of your moans filling the room. “You know how many times I’ve dreamed of this?” He whispers into your ear. “Every fucking day, since I met you.”

“Me too,” you stutter, seconds before your pussy clamps down around him and everything goes black. White hot pleasure erupting behind your eyes and his name becoming the only word you can speak.

It's a pleasure like you’ve never experienced, you feel him everywhere and you still want more and more. He keeps his pace as steady for as long as he can but his hips begin to falter, his pace more stilted as his cock begins to throb and he pulls out.

Stroking his cock hard and fast as he pants your cunt with thick pearly ropes of his cum.

“Holy shit.” You say with a giggle, “Even better than I imagined, D.”

“Me too,” he says as he collapses on top of you, leaning his weight onto his elbows. Kissing you gently, before nuzzling his face into your neck.

“So how was your night?” You ask with a giggle. “End as good as it started.”

“A million times better.” He says quietly.

You giggle loudly, “Better than winning the most coveted award in acting?”

“Not even a competition. You would win every time.”

[smallishzine]

Just a small heads up, if you include shipping you may wanna make it clear that there are ships and what ships are there. A lot of people aren’t comfortable with shipping, especially since I’ve seen people say Joel thinks it’s a bit weird to be shipped with anyone other than Lizzie (needs to be fact checked, this is just what I’m seeing in boat boys comment sections). Maybe consider making the ship stuff a separate section or just telling people in advance (pinned post, bio, anywhere clear works) that it includes shipping so those who don’t like it can walk away.

important info about the zine plz read even if you didn’t send the ask:

thank you for the heads up! We’re about to get super rambly and vaguely off topic but we promise all your points get addressed. This is actually a great opportunity to clarify, because I realized I didn’t explain myself particularly clearly, if some one does choose to include shipping, its all going to have to be subtext (as always except for shadowbeans whose alternate ship name I still refuse to use), but that is for non-canon ships. Regardless of how people feel about it, c!Joel and c!Jimmy did in fact kiss in Real Life smp, and c!Joel and c!Sausage did in fact have a child together in esmp2, so we’re not gonna rewrite events. Basically when I say shipping in the context of this zine I mean taking relationships the c!Joel had with other people and creating moments that didn’t necessarily happen but feel plausible for the characters that are able to be interpreted as romantic as well as platonic. Also, everyone’s definition of ship art is different, so the level that I was thinking is pretty mild (and btw I’d like to interject here that this is not me dissing on shipping or ship art love shipping so much that I found a ship called the relation and I never left it, but I also know that people have all sorts of comfort levels with different things so this zine is going to be dry docked but I assure you that out there on my super secret personal blog we are very much lost at sea). Like, to give some examples of what would be okay versus not okay for the zine: kissing is pretty much off limits, honestly mostly because that’s a pretty boring zine piece, there’s nothing going on except the ship, but anything where any sort of romance is up to the interpretation, such as hugging, handholding, spending time with, these are all normal things, but also this can’t be the focus of the piece. Please no one just draw like Joel and someone hugging and call it a day. Implied shipping is allowed to feature in your piece, not be the main focus of it. That’s just not an interesting zine piece. Valid art/writing, still amazing stuff keep sharing it on the internet it’s very interesting, just not in the context of this zine. Anyway, you are correct about not everyone being comfortable with that stuff, so if any piece comes off as really shippy without violating the guidelines we’ll make sure to label it correctly, but also, I should make it clear, I’m really hoping that shipping doesn’t become the focus of this zine. It is a Joel zine, so Joel should remain the focus, and any shipping would be subtextual and not central to the zine. There are many great Joel ships out there with lovely content to consume, but that’s not really the focus of this zine. Also, that aside, if Joel doesn’t want his character (because we are talking about shipping cs here. Cc!Joel is a lovely person, but this zine is going to be in-character. Also while cc!Joel should absolutely be respected in what sort of fan content he wants people making about him, his character is, well, just that: a character. Its like saying you can’t ship two characters from an animated tv show because their irl voice actors aren’t comfortable being shipped. It’s just two different things) shipped with characters who don’t belong to his wife, he should probably stop making his c! kiss all those men. And have children with them. And send them love hearts in the mail. And call them babe. If he did it in canon it’s probably safe to say we’re good having them do it in fan content. But again shipping should be an extremely small part of the zine if it’s there at all and should be subtextual enough that even people who don’t ship can still positively engage with the zine!!! If it needs a warning, it’s probably too shippy.

also all this aside if I’m handling this wrong guys I’m sorry I’m only one person and it’s really stressful trying to please everybody I promise I’m trying my best but I just wanna get together with a bunch of other people who share this strange fascination with the bean man and make art and writing about it I don’t wanna get canceled or something I promise I’m trying my best. I’m really struggling to balance my love of creating shipping fan content and realizing that not everyone is comfortable with that and it’s really difficult and stressful I just can’t we all just draw and write what makes us happy I just want this to be a fun experience and being yelled at on the internet for drawing two characters who’s ccs aren’t in an irl relationship being something other than friends is not my definition of a good time. I’m not accusing you anon of doing anything like that the ask was very respectful but I’m worried this post will prompt less polite people to come and yell at me.

-mod Dinn

[that-ari-blogger]

Duality Of Tone (Follies at the Coven Day Parade)

Let’s talk about tone for a bit.

We’re in a kind of pre-chorus for The Owl House, we’re not in the end game yet, that kicks off with Edge of the World, but we’re gearing up for it.

We’re also not exactly at the start of the series anymore. You could argue that the start of Season Two got the ball rolling with the more dramatic storytelling that characterised some of the series’ best episodes, and while that’s true from a certain point of view, I still think that the show actually gained momentum with Knock Knock Knockin’ On Hooty’s Door and has been spending the after that consolidating what it has before the final sprint.

In this context, I mean dramatic in the sense of one of the two main overarching genres (kinda), the other being comedic. This is the context in which you will hear actors discussed as dedicating themselves to one and breaking the mould when they venture into the other. I will come back to this.

Follies At The Coven Day Parade focuses the idea of choice and the established ending implicit in the magical world genre, but it uses the opportunity to fine tune the show’s tone and mood as a whole.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD (The Owl House, Amphibia, Dead Poet Society, Good Morning Vietnam, Good Will Hunting)

Kikimore is just fun. I’ll talk about how her story factors into the themes in a minute, but I want to come back to a concept I have been discussing for a while, the idea of multiple introductions.

Because, up to this point, Kikimora has been a one note villain. She’s a henchwoman with an abusive boss. Its interesting, but there’s not really been much else to her.

Enter this episode, which introduces her family and the stress that relationship puts on her. You can imply a lot from the one side of that phone call, and it doesn’t seem like the healthiest of relationships.

I think the fact that Kikimora stands up straighter in response to her mother over the phone speaks volumes. She follows the voice of authority, in this case her mother, immediately. Its instinctive. You can imply a lot about Kikimora's family life from this phone call, but also why she follows Belos so willingly. She has had that hierarchy engrained deep in her psyche from a very young age.

As a side note, is it a phone call? Is it a walkie talkie? The wiki calls them Crow Phones, but Amity has clearly only ever heard Luz say the word “phone” so I’m just at a loss. Are they just crows? Are they a pun that I’m not aware of? I’m so confused.

Anyway, then we get the one line that sells this character for me:

“Ooh! I cannot believe we are being taken against our will. What sayeth you, fiend?”

This seems like part of Luz’s schemes, right? She seems like the kind of person who would work references to her favourite stories into her plans. But her response says otherwise.

“Uh! That's right! I, Hecate, will whisk you away to my kingdom of mirrors and snakes! (Hushed) Hey, come on. I didn't know I had to prepare lines.”

The fact that Luz’s idea of improvising is just becoming someone else is telling because it shows you that her idea of confidence isn’t in her own identity, its in idolisation and replication. But also, Kikimora out of the blue decided to dish out some purple prose, for no reason. She could have just been silent, but she decided to be poetic. She’s got a hobby, and a personal life beyond what we see.

But then she doubles down.

Hey, look at that, duality as a theme presented through the cinematography. Kikimora is intimidating and lit from below. You look up at her and that frost effect is awesome. But she's also tiny, relying on the bigger creature for her power.

When I talk about characters being introduced twice, that usually implies a mask being worn or an innate contradiction. Amity, for example, is introduced as “the bully” first, and then expanded into a character with themes of abuse and expectations, which recontextualises her into someone that can change and become better.

The purpose of this isn’t to claim everyone is the exact opposite of how they appear, because with Kikimora, what you see is what you get. Kikimora has complexity, but she is still a henchwoman with an abusive boss. That one note has been expanded into a chord, sure, but it’s not a complex one, and that’s ok.

It does allow Kikimora to engage with the theme of duality that this episode hinges on. Kikimora has to make a decision between her two worlds, and Luz latches onto that because of the events of the previous episode.

Worth noting, however, is that Luz has completely misinterpreted the conversation with her mother. The mind spell is a fantastic way of literally exploring a character’s psyche, but a flashback can work just as well. Memories aren’t as infalable as people think, especially with an unreliable narrator who focuses on specifics and misses important elements.

The original conversation went like this:

“When you come home, promise you'll stay here. I didn't mean to push you away. I swear things will be different.

“Mom, it's not you, it never was!”

“Promise me, Luz... please!”

“Okay, Mom. I promise.”

Whereas in this episode, Luz only remembers the following:

“Promise me. When you come home, you'll stay with me, and you'll never go back to that place.”

“Mom, it's not you. It never was!”

“Please!”

“Okay, Mom. I promise.”

There’s an ultimatum in Luz’s memory that wasn’t there to start with. Luz is dealing in absolutes, and all know who deals in absolutes.

In all seriousness, Luz has perceived the world as a Boolean variable, either she stays in the demon realm, or she stays in the human realm. In her mind there are only two options.

This is exacerbated by Kikimora, who does live in a world of extremes, because her boss is abusive, and her family is… less than stellar. Luz has projected onto a situation that doesn’t fit her and tried to work that out as a proxy, which doesn’t work.

Similarly, Riane has, in my eyes, misconstrued things as well. Raine’s last interaction with Eda led to them believing that Eda cannot be a part of the rebellion. They think that either Eda protects her kids and isn’t a rebel, or Eda is a rebel and loses out on her family.

But here’s the kicker: The Emperor directly threatens Luz and King with his villainy. Eda will be forced to join the rebellion later on, so Raine trying to scare her away only postpones the inevitable.

I mentioned tone, and that actually factors into the duality theme that is being presented here.

Luz is so morose in this episode, especially in contrast to the rest of the series up to this point. This is to set up the weight of episodes to come so that they aren’t jarring, but it also reflects how thematically dissonant the ultimatum is.

Take Amphibia for example. That is a series about growing up and understanding that sometimes you have to let go. Sometimes people drift apart, sometimes you move to a different place, and that’s ok. So, the finale, when the two worlds are separated, feels cathartic. It’s the culmination of the themes.

The Owl House is not Amphibia. It’s a story about human complexity, and the perils of boxing people in. It’s a story about nuance, and the breaking down of categories. It’s a story about finding a middle ground between the real and the imaginary. This ultimatum doesn’t make sense.

Case and point, the duality of dramatic and comedic storytelling it utter bollocks.

It’s a useful tool, don’t get me wrong, but its for external understanding. Its so that an actor or a writer can go “I like telling this kind of story” and an audience can point out their preferences. But in practical terms, storytelling is more of a gradient. There is no exact line that distinguishes each category. Nobody is saying “everything funnier than Toy Story 2 is a comedy”.

As evidence, I present, Robin Williams.

Dead Poet Society and Good Morning Vietnam both start out as comedies then come crashing down into dramas towards their finales.

The former focuses on the quirky hijinks of what boarding school kids get up to in a critique of British Private School education that all comes to a head with the death of a student and the utter mismanagement of the results.

The latter is about a comedy radio star who witnesses the horrors of war and gradually looses his sense of humour. The Adrian Cronauer that gets off the plane at the start of the film is a very different person to the one we see at the end.

Both of these stories have clear points at which their tones are changed up and Robbin Williams switches his performance seamlessly.

So, was Robbin Williams a comedic actor, or a dramatic one? Or was he just using tools of the trade from one or the other depending on the situation?

Alternatively, is it possible that he was drawing from the same toolbox to achieve whatever response he wanted at the time?

Good Will Hunting is both a comedy and a drama, and it doesn’t differentiate the two. Sure, there are moments that are one or the other, with the discussion of Sean’s wife waking herself up with her own farts being decidedly funny and the “your move chief” speech being serious as all hell, but the rest of the film falls somewhere in the middle. And let’s look at those two scenes in a bit more detail.

The joke about Sean’s wife is used to bring the characters together and allow them to empathise. Their friendship is built on humour.

Simultaneously, the speech is all build up to a single, final punchline. It has little moments to keep you interested, keep you entertained, and hint and the meaning, but it hinges on its final words, that’s how jokes work.

The iconic “it’s not your fault” scene works in a similar way. It’s a building of emotion slowly, gathering your attention as the characters react in different ways, until that powerful burst of emotion and breaking down.

Set up and pay off. That’s all it is.

Maybe the two genres of storytelling aren’t that different at all. Maybe the entirety of genre is a construct. Maybe the world is more nuanced than categorisation would lead you to believe.

I feel the need to cover all my bases here and say that I am heavily biased in the direction of genre being a scam. There is an argument to be made that the duality of performance does exist, and a ton of actors, including some I know personally, use it to great effect to inform their choices on stage. It is a way of understanding a story, and if it helps you, it helps you. I am just one of those people for whom it does not work.

Linking back to The Owl House, the series is gearing up to get really dark and really serious in the near future, lessening its comedic influence for a while. The ratio of jokes per episode will be a lot lower in the next few episodes.

This reflects Luz’s swing in a different direction. She has been so focused on the dream and adventure, but now that she is dealing with reality, she is grappling with her home, which she sees as more mundane. The humour is used to convey whimsicality, and the “real” world is sapping that from Luz’s life.

I’m not going to spoil the entirety of the series here, because I know some people are reading these posts as they watch the show. But rest assured, this won’t be the last time the series messes around with its tone.

Belos shows the audience his scar, possibly creating a dilemma by way of Wild Magic having a cost, it could be thought provoking, if it wasn't immediately preceded by the most overtly villainous visual I have ever seen. The show primes you to disbelieve what he is about to say, which I think is neat.

Final Thoughts

I had more to say about this episode than I was expecting. I never really found Kikimora that engaging as a character, so an episode about her was never going to be my favourite. I think she’s fun, don’t get me wrong, but she never really got me to care about what happens to her. And that’s ok. Not every character has to be a big sell. Sometimes you just need a goon who relates to the themes and is written competently. Not everything needs to be amazing.

But, you know who is amazing? Terra Snapdragon. Holy moly that character introduction is brilliant. She has Kikimora and Raine wrapped around her finger, and the amount of malice that Debra Wilson brings to the role is full on Disney villain levels of panache and I love it.

She will get her second introduction much later, but as for what we get now, she is delightfully devilish. She is also set up so clearly as a villain for Willow. The plant magic is the obvious one, but she’s also Willow’s exact opposite, she’s confident where Willow is shy, and she puts people down where Willow is the team support. If season three hadn’t been cut short, I guarantee that would have come up.

Although, I do have a little more in mind that a possible extended season three would cover. Sound off in the replies if you are interested in my hypotheticals.

Next week, I will be covering Elsewhere and Elsewhen, which has more so much to talk about that I’m not sure where to start. So, stick around if that interests you.

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