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bronyinabottle · 3 years ago

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MY LITTLE PONY: A NEW GENERATION (G5 Movie) THOUGHTS

It’s finally here. The beginning of Generation 5. Though before I get into the movie in some detail I’m going to reiterate one more time what G5 means for my content and a non-spoilery summary of the movie.

Again, I will say that the movie nor will the G5 series coming later have much of an effect at all on any of my blogs. The revelation in Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear that life itself is also magic means that a world that implied to have no magic for years would mean the extinction of all life (Perhaps resulting in the wasteland we saw in the Season 5 finale). There may be something I’ll probably do at some point on a certain different blog. But even then, that may likely be a one-time thing and probably come around the time the series is starting to air.

That said, just because I’m continuing with mainly G4 content doesn’t mean I disapprove of G5. In fact, my non-spoilers thoughts on the movie is I think it is a good start for this new generation. There are questions I have that I’m not sure will be answered (Though many of those questions are the same ones I had in my Trailer/Preliminary thoughts) quickly enough. But the movie is structured well enough, in fact it’s probably a better movie as a whole compared to any of the movies G4 had (The 2017 movie, Rainbow Roadtrip, and all 4 Equestria Girls movies). As the 2017 movie was fun, but it jumped around a lot, sometimes scenes transitioning too fast. And while Rainbow Roadtrip may have been this on purpose, the entirely slice-of-life story taking up a long length… made it something of a less interesting plot to follow. It feels like some of that special could of been cut to at least a two-parter length and keep the same beats they hit. And while i have a soft spot for the 3rd and 4th Equestria Girls movies, I’ll always say a full-length pony adventure feels better suited for what I want to see out of MLP then spin-off movies with high school movie cliches and weird pony/human world shenanigans.

So movie-wise I’m not a G4 purist. It’ll take some time to see how Gen 5 compares to Friendship is Magic when we get to the series. As I feel it’d take a lot for it to surpass G4 in my mind. But I’m going to try to be as fair as possible and judge on it’s own merits. The implied connection to G4 by referring to G4 being ancient Equestria is going to naturally get the staff and hasbro pressured by fans to tell us what happened in-between the generations. Because that’s the trap they put the writers in when they made it so they want to try to say it’s in the same universe. That’s the double-edged sword Hasbro chose to have, trying to appease the G4 fanbase and keep at least some of them around. But at the cost of questions both nitpicky (Such as character design being inconsistent) or actual honest questions that need to be known (Why did magic disappear, and what happened to the Alicorns) for some of us to truly see this as the same Equestria.

After the break, I’ll have more spoilery thoughts

Even for a brief moment, it was nice seeing the Mane 6 and 2D animation. The former because of course those are the ponies many of us that saw all of G4 loved. And the latter, because while the animation wasn’t bad in this movie. I’m one of those who’d prefer to have 2D animation in an animated film. As in most cases aside from Pixar, it’s just a strong preference of mine. If this had the animation of the 2017 MLP movie but otherwise everything else was generally the same here, I feel that would of have been great.

I wish they didn’t have to have Sunny’s dad die off-screen, as he seems like he could of been a compelling character. And not to mention if perhaps he has any connection the “ancient” days in any fashion. But *sigh* I get it, it’s an old trope where part of the character’s offscreen growth is not having their parent(/s) around.

On a side note there’s quite a few times during the beginning of the movie that somewhat foreshadow what happens to Sunny later. 3 times where she had a fake horn and wings on her. Once in the flashback, then 2 separate times when she’s doing her protest where she has her own costumed wings and horn. As well as the helmet and mechanical wings.

Also, there’s no way around it. Some of the discussions this movie are going to get quite political. (Namely one part of Sunny’s song that could be seen as having a double meaning of a jab at Trumpsts regarding “Building your wall”) From the very premise in the early times, we know that the inspiration for the story was last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Which honestly, I do support the message they’re going for. Having an anti-racism message to tell kids from the very beginning and making a focus on it is important when in G4 it only got briefly touched upon in Bridle Gossip and the Heath’s Warming Eve play. Although it certainly rose up to some form of prominence with Season 8 and onward. Still, while you can argue if G4 executed the anti-racism message well. it does come with something of a problem that the series finale left Equestria in the least divided it’s ever been.

And personally, I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time to say “Well, it’s a realistic take. Racism has existed for years in our world. Same should go for the ponies” and while yes, racism is still rampant in today’s world. That said, that ignores that if we went from The Last Problem to the start of G5. There’s a huge difference between our world and Equestria. There is no ancient civilization that we look at like “Yeah, those were the golden days of world peace” when normally the “Golden age” was reserved for the high classes of Ancient Greece or Rome. It was most decidedly not perfect, with slavery rampant and wars for the sake of expanding an empire. While if you look at The Last Problem’s Equestria, you not only have peace between the three main types of ponies. But you literally have non-pony citizens in Equestria. You can see a dragon handing off a flower to a pony which can imply cross-species romantic relations. With the Friendship school still going strong, and was the reason that the world was saved in The Ending of the End. While perhaps it may be too glowing to say that future is perfect for everyone even in-universe. It’s certainly a hell of a lot better outlook then comparing to how we view even the so called Golden age of ancient civilizations. The Last Problem’s Equestria implies it looks to ally with every country outside of Equestria, not conquer them.

So it should still be a valid question on just how this world collapses to the point it gets to where G5 is at the start. I at least assume that it’s not the fault at all of any of the Mane 6 nor Twilight. Or at least I hope it isn’t, as I’d rather the MLP fanbase not have to deal with a The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker situation. (Where after the joyful end of the original trilogy, things go wrong as Luke almost murders the son of one of his best friends and his sister despite trying to hard and succeeding at redeeming his father who at that point in the canon was a galaxy-wide known ruthless mass-murderer.) I assume we’re at a point where everyone of the Mane 6 sans maybe Twilight are presumed dead. And even in Twilight’s case, there’s a chance that G5 decides to say that G4 overestimated the whole Alicorn immortality thing. Though I wouldn’t put it past Hasbro to have some event where the Mane 5 of G5 meet the Mane 6 in some special event whether that’s a a Season finale or a sequel movie/special. Where either the Mane 6 return in a limbo situation similar to the Pillars at the end of Season 7 or Time travel gets involved. They may even string us along on answering just what in the heck happened until they involve a meet-up with the Mane 6 in that way. Though I hope they don’t, I’d really like the beginning of the series (Or I guess this supposed special coming up in Spring supposedly?) starts to answer some questions. G5 should get a chance to stand on it’s own, but I hope the writers are actually well aware there will be so many questions people have and address them in the show. A cynical part of me feels like they’re likely to string us along until at least the Season 1 finale.

Onto the characters for a bit. I think Izzy Moonbow was absolutely the most stand-out character in the whole movie. She was energetic, funny, and aside from “The pegasi are bad news” she along with Zipp and Sunny were the most averse to the way the world was. She was already the most popular due to the tennis ball memes. But now it feels like she legit stands on her own and most certainly deserves to be the most popular character of G5 thus far. Behind her in a bit of a surprise to me was Zipp, who I thought would be mainly a Rainbow Dash-expy. Though she really helps out Izzy and Sunny in Zephyr Heights. Despite having Twilight be my favorite pony from the very beginning of G4 all the way to the end, I didn’t feel as strongly about Sunny for some reason. So she’s in the middle of the pack, she could grow on me later. I just don’t know if I click with her as much as I did with Twilight. As for the last two, while I don’t hate either of them. Either one could be the lowest of the 5 for one reason or another. Pipp (Although I will say she's probably my favorite character design out of the 5) feels like she doesn’t do a whole lot in the movie and it takes until she’s forced to be an outlaw because the other choice was to get imprisoned like her mother was. So she may come off as quite pretentious, though it’s arguable Rarity was the same way early in G4. But she definitely grew later. Could be the same case for Pipp. And as for Hitch, he has shining moments in the film. But what might hurt him is the fact he was such a bad friend to Sunny up until the campfire scene. “I’m the last real friend you have. You really want to lose me too?” is not a healthy friendship. Hitch may have been Sunny’s friend the longest, but it definitely feels like Izzy connected immediately. I don’t know if this show will get into shipping any of the main characters between each other mid-show, but if they do. I hope it’s between Izzy and Sunny currently, cause Hitch and Sunny just gives bad vibes even with Hitch getting better later.

None of the songs I felt were particularly too special. Though I think the closest was Sprout’s “Danger, Danger” song that has similarities to Smells Like Teen Spirit in some parts of the song since I tend towards more rock/metal-esque music.

I touched upon it earlier, but there’s perhaps a stand-out reason for why the G5 movie outdid the 2017 MLP Movie. They have the typical “Our heroic group splits after a sad moment before coming together again for the climatic good end” in Sunny seeing that that the two crystals don’t instantly bring magic back, and when Twilight left the group after an argument that happened with Twilight trying to take a pearl. They perform the same purpose in the movie. But the crystals not working, crushing Sunny’s hope for a little while works better into the story. Where as Twilight’s part frustratingly brought the sea pony scene to an end too quickly and/or doesn’t feel right of Twilight to have done that. It felt forced in the 2017 movie, but works out in the G5 movie. Especially since a part of it is that it’s not the crystals themselves capable of bringing magic back. But it’s the journey going after the crystals that brings the ponies themselves their magic back.

Just a small note on dictator Sprout, he tries to cause a war. Though admittedly the film seems to treat him as a joke the entire time despite his seriously evil ambitions. With the only repercussions is he gets a wishy-washy answer on if he was a good sheriff from his mom. I don’t quite know how I feel about that yet, but I wonder what they’ll have in mind for Sprout given his actions. He and his mom are the only ones that feel like a true antagonist. Though they seem to be ok with things fast when the magic comes back.

But anyway on to the ending, we see that Sunny becomes an Alicorn. Which I guess with no other real Alicorns around, I guess it makes sense to alicornify her since she’s the real leader behind what united the leaders of each type of pony again. Though there is of course this weird thing where her horn and wings don’t seem like as much a part of her body compared to very obvious connected wings on Twilight when she got hers. Sunny keeps her horn and wings to the end of the movie, and has colored streaks in her hair. Though I do wonder if that;s truly permanent. If it is permanent, I suppose at least they got to have a headstart and have it established at the end of the introductory movie rather then have it shock people at the end of a shortened 3rd season. I still feel like Twilight had well earned her alicornhood considering that besides what she did in the series. She has a whole childhood and time as a teenager learning under Celestia. Which had to mean something, and I’m not sure Celestia just leaving her to live the rest of her days with her friends in ponyville was that. Sunny has no doubt been trying countless time to try to spread friendship throughout her life even after the tragedy of her father’s passing. So there’s no doubt she’s been through a lot, and may indeed be worthy of being an Alicorn at this point. Though in terms of screentime before Alicornhood it's definitely a lot less then Twilight had. And it is at least nice to see that it is possible for non-unicorns to become one. (The only case of that we sort of got was a children's book that may or may not be canon that implied Cadence was a pegasus before she ascended)

Though you have to wonder if the visual differences such as Sunny’s alicorn horn and wings, the cutie mark only on one side (Yes I know that’s how it was normally in the MLP generations before G4. But a distinct visual difference between shows is still noticeable even if the context of G4’s cutie marks on both sides of the flank was about it being easier on the puppets for Flash), and how animals can have wings or weird round shapes such as those bunnies when G4 has normal looking animals. There’s enough striking visual differences for any nitpicky G4 to say “This isn’t the same Equestria”. And if someone tries to say maybe some sort of evolution happened. That’s still trying to put a little too much real world logic on this fantasy world. And evolution tends to take millions of years to have such dramatic changes. Not 1000 years or so, there should still be normal looking animals at this point and time. And these small details are probably going to be the things most ignored but nonetheless can build a case that this isn’t the same Equestria. Even if they touch on the important questions like how magic disappeared and what happened to the Mane 6, there will be details they make different that will add to the case that this is it’s own universe if it doesn’t quite matchup with what was remembered about G4. There will be fans who will be that nitpicky to call G5 out of continuity for small details like that. That is again the trap they put themselves in when they decided to try to say it’s the same Equestria.

All-in-all though, I think that’s at least a good enough chunk about my thoughts on the movie to end off here. If there’s something I missed or something from the movie you’d like me to give a particular opinion about or elaborate on something feel free to ask me here. G5 is indeed off to a good start, just I will be along the many hoping some questions get answered sooner then later. And I’m not sure I’m confident in getting anywhere until a Season finale or a 2nd movie. And it’ll be a year before the series starts proper (Though again I guess there’s a 44 minute special coming in Spring to try to hold us over). But I could definitely see G5 finding it's own following, now there's just the inevitable clashes between some of the more vocal fans of each generation bickering at eachother. But hoping there will be enough that take the movie's lessons on divisiveness to heart and be able to enjoy both even if there may be preferences.

#mlp #my little pony #g5 #mlp g5 #netflix #my little pony the next generation #my little pony movie #generation 5

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natrogersfics · 4 years ago

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After All - Chapter 3/5

Cover art by @faith2nyc Read on AO3

The hustle and bustle of the aquarium is magnified in the underwater tunnel as locals and tourists alike take in the scenery. But as Steve watches Isabel stare at the glass panels above them with fascination thick on her face and an exclamation of wow! slipping from her lips every now and then, he notes that the ruckus is not nearly enough to drown out his daughter’s infectious excitement. She’d been intrigued the second they walked into the first exhibit and saw a school of colorful fish swim by, all but demanding to be let out of her stroller, and ever since, getting her to walk in stride with him and Natasha instead of an entire full step ahead has been a lost cause.

As Isabel stops by one of the windows to admire an idling turtle, he steals a glance at Natasha to see a smile on her face as she watches Isabel wave at her newfound friend. To say that he was surprised when she offered him a beer last night would be an understatement. While they’ve certainly warmed up to each other in the last few days, Isabel's always been there to serve as a buffer between them, making sure that their conversations never progress longer than the time it takes for her to knock something over or cry for attention. Which is why, when Natasha had been so candid and open about her recent struggles at work with him last night, he was downright stunned. Still, the way they had smoothly transitioned into talking about life and their newfound perspective on it was reminiscent of the times they’d meet up after work to shoot the breeze at Dalton’s. Regardless of what he was going through then, he always left their self-designated booth those nights feeling better, and last night was no different. It’s something he has dearly missed.

It was that camaraderie that made him act on the impulse of asking her to tag along today. And though he’d all but goaded her into saying yes, he was still a bit nervous on his way to her flat this morning. It had been ages since the three of them had gone out together, and most of those instances had been to Christine’s office for Isabel’s checkups. But thus far, he’s glad that their rapport picked up right where it left last night, slipping effortlessly into conversation, catching each other up on mundane things like what their friends back at The Daily are up to and how Natasha’s yet to find a Thai restaurant that compares to their favorite one in the East Village. Further, while he’s certainly had fun discovering new aspects of Isabel’s personality these last few days, he has to admit that it’s nice having someone who shares his amusement to her reactions.

“Did you know that she loved fish this much?” he asks, keeping his eyes on Isabel as she begins to move once again.

“I had an inkling,” Natasha says, pushing the empty stroller. “You know those illustrations of sea creatures you made for her? I had them bound into a book before we moved so they wouldn’t get destroyed, and added it to the rotation when she started showing interest in picture books.” She nods towards Isabel, whose head keeps moving from side to side as she decides which exhibit to focus on next. She chuckles. “But I didn’t think she’d be beside herself like this.”

The corners of his mouth twitch into a smile. “She likes those?”

“They’re her favorite,” Natasha says, nodding in confirmation when he turns to look at her, surprised. “Of course, I try to mix it up every now and then, so her knowledge isn’t just limited to sea animals” – she pauses as they both laugh – “but given a choice? She’d pick that book in a heartbeat, every single time.”

“When we were at the Gardens the other day, the first urn she picked out on the fountain was the dolphin,” he says, slipping his hands into his pockets and no longer trying to contain his smile.

“Well, I did have the dolphin placed on the cover,” she says.

He looks at her, raising an eyebrow at the smile she seems to be biting back. “Because… dolphins are your favorite?”

“Not particularly,” she says. “But I do distinctly remember catching you doodling it during a section meeting.” She smirks at the sheepish expression that makes it onto his face. “Consider it a pre-emptive strike for when there’s a question about who she got her short attention span from.”

“She’s barely two,” he says emphatically, “of course her attention span is short!” When Natasha only shrugs, he scoffs in disbelief. “And excuse me, you’re the one who pretends to take notes on your iPad when really you’re playing Scrabble with Darcy.”

She gasps at his retort, but it’s quickly replaced by a chuckle. “Only when Sitwell’s talking!”

“That’s still an indictment of your attention span,” he counters, causing her to raise an eyebrow in challenge. “I’m just saying-”

“Dada!”

Isabel’s distressed voice interrupts him, but before he and Natasha can search for her, Isabel already has her arms around his leg and her face in the material of his jeans. “Izzie?” he says, scooping her into his arms just as Natasha comes around to them. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you hurt?” Natasha asks, checking Isabel’s arms and legs.

Isabel shakes her head, pointing towards the window to the right. “Shark!”

He and Natasha look over, and sure enough, a large tiger shark looms by the panel, its teeth bared. “Oh, fig,” he says, making sure to keep his amusement out of his tone even as he and Natasha trade yet another fascinated look. “You don’t have to be afraid. We’re inside, it can’t get to you.”

“No,” Isabel says, “home!”

The way Isabel’s arms tighten around his neck causes him to freeze, and he tries to rack his brain for a solution to calm her down. But then Natasha reaches over, patting Isabel’s hair gently. “But fig,” she chimes in, “we haven’t seen the penguins like in Happy Feet, yet.”

Isabel lifts her head from his shoulder, looking to him and then to Natasha. “Pen-gins?”

“Yeah!” Natasha says with a level of excitement he’s only ever heard her use when speaking to their daughter. “How ‘bout it, huh? Can you let Daddy put you down so we can go visit the penguins?”

Isabel smiles, nodding her head. “Okay.”

“Nice save,” he tells Natasha as he takes the stroller from her and she takes Isabel’s hand, leading them towards the hall labeled Polar Adventure.

“You pick up a thing or two after a while,” Natasha says, winking. “You’ll see.”

While he’s gone to see the penguins at Central Park before, he has to admit that the Penguin Point experience really is something special. From the simulated North Pole ambiance, complete with manufactured ice shelves and snowflakes, to the plexiglass bubble that allows visitors to come practically nose-to-beak with the Gentoos, it’s no wonder that Isabel’s been propelled over the moon. Her freight over the shark long forgotten as she and Natasha sit on the ledge of the enclosure to see the penguins wobble by. To the side, their guide dutifully informs them about the speed at which these flightless birds can swim, though he can’t say he’s paying much attention. Ever since he had seen the way Natasha had expertly diverted Isabel’s worries, he can’t seem to peel his eyes away from them, observing their interactions carefully and smiling at the unquestionable love and affection between them.

There’s never been a doubt in his mind about what a great mother Natasha is. He’s seen it firsthand, witnessed how easily she had tackled motherhood from the moment Isabel was born like it was something she was always meant to do. In many ways, he knows that she’s attuned to their daughter in a manner only she can be, instead it’s not something he feels a shred of envy over. He couldn’t be happier or more thankful that she happens to be the mother of his child, and from where he stands, that sentiment is only fortified when he sees Natasha point at the penguins jumping into the water, and Isabel, who’s sitting in her lap, claps her hands in elation.

The sight brings a warmth to his chest, and as he begins to make his way over to them, Natasha looks up, grinning softly, and he smiles back without so much as a second thought as she alerts Isabel of his presence. Isabel turns towards him, her eyes alight. “Having fun?” he asks, bending down.

“Pen-gins, Dada!” Isabel all but shrieks, pointing to the enclosure behind them.

“I’ve never seen her this excited,” Natasha whispers over Isabel’s head as she continues to babble on. “I think she might actually pass out.”

“Good thing I thought to bring the stroller,” he deadpans, chuckling at the way her eyes narrow at him. “Izzie, can we take a picture for grandma?”

Isabel nods, and as he reaches for his phone, Natasha begins to move. “Mama, no!” Isabel says, latching onto Natasha’s arm before she can stand.

“Daddy’s going to take your picture, babe,” Natasha explains.

“You don’t have to move,” he says. “Let’s get a couple shots of the both of you.”

“Are you sure?” she asks, her tone skeptical as she tilts her head to the side. “It’s for your mom...”

“I’m sure she won’t mind,” he says, taking a step back to widen the angle when Natasha goes to sit back with Isabel, pulling her into her lap once more. “Okay, in three, two, one… say cheese!”

“Cheese!” Natasha and Isabel say in unison, the both of them beaming from ear to ear, and he mirrors their expressions as he snaps a few shots of them.

“Why don’t I take some of you two?” Natasha suggests, and with a nod, he switches places with her, handing her his phone as he goes. “Look at momma, Iz! Good girl, now smile!” She moves to the left to shift the angle, and he and Isabel pivot accordingly to get the penguins behind them into the frame. “Okay, now funny face! Perfect!” She giggles from behind the screen. “Sarah’s going to love these.”

He chuckles, accepting his phone back from her to see a picture of Isabel with her tongue out and him cross-eyed. “They’ll be on her fridge in no time.”

“Excuse me?” They look up at the question to see their guide standing before them, a genial smile on his face. “Would you like me to take a photo of the three of you?”

His head whips from their guide to Natasha. “If that’s okay with you?”

“That would be great, actually,” Natasha says, stealing a glance at the nametag on the left side of the man’s vest. “Thank you, Heimdall.” She turns back to him and Isabel, smiling as he moves to make space for her on the ledge. “Let’s make sure she’s looking at the camera. I don’t want to hear it from Nick and Melinda.”

“Nor do I want to hear it from my ma,” he volleys back as she sits down, laughing as she shakes her head.

“Okay,” Heimdall says, holding up the camera before gesturing to them with his free hand. “Move a little closer, yeah?” He and Natasha do as they’re told, scooting closer to one another until their legs are touching, and he shifts Isabel to sit on both of them. “Brilliant! Now everybody lean in… and say penguin!”

“Penguin!” he and Natasha say at the same time Isabel yells cheese, sending them both into a fit of laughter.

When Heimdall gives them a thumbs up, Natasha turns to Isabel, shaking her head fondly. “Such a little rebel.”

“And whom does she take after?” Heimdall asks, only to chuckle when he and Natasha point fingers at one another. “In any case, you lot make a beautiful family.”

He smiles politely as Heimdall passes his phone back. “Thank you.”

“Think she has enough penguin things?” Natasha asks hours later as they sit at a café across the aquarium.

He chuckles over the lip of his coffee mug, setting it down on the table as he looks to the highchair where Isabel is working on her penguin activity book with a penguin scarf around her neck. “Oh, I don’t know,” he says, “maybe ask me again later when she puts on her penguin pajamas.”

“Hey, consider yourself lucky that I was able to negotiate the pajamas in exchange for the stuffed, jumbo penguin,” she says. “We’d probably have to get it its own Oyster card just to get it home.”

“Gift shops or death traps for the wallets of desperate parents?” he muses. “You decide.”

She smirks in agreement. “So…” she trails, propping an elbow on the table to rest her chin on a closed fist. “Christmas Eve. What’re you up to?”

“Not much, really,” he admits. “The hotel I’m staying at said they have something going on in the lounge for a bit, but I’m probably just going to turn in since I promised everyone that I’d wrap their gifts for” – he nods silently towards Isabel – “you know who in time for Christmas morning at yours.”

“They do know she’s coming home with you, right?” she asks. “They could’ve just given it to her there.”

“Believe me, if they listened to me at all, I wouldn’t be so worried about getting sauce on one of the few shirts I have for this trip,” he says, eliciting a laugh from her.

“Point taken,” she says. “But I ask because when I realized Izzie and I weren’t going to make it back for Christmas, I decided to invite some people over to my place for Christmas Eve.” She shrugs. “If you don’t have anything set in stone, you’re welcome to join us.”

“Natasha,” he says, averting his gaze to his hands. “Thank you, that’s very kind of you, but I don’t want to intrude on you and your friends.”

“Hard to be an intruder when you’re being invited,” she counters, sighing when he remains silent. “Steve.” He looks up at her at that, catching her disarming smile. “Look, I know in the past we’ve made a mess of things-”

“Natasha,” he repeats, shaking his head. “Consider that water over the dam.”

“Okay, yeah,” she says. “But now that we’ve put that out there, maybe we can look forward? I mean, I wish I could say that this is the only time a monkey wrench is going to get thrown into our perfectly planned schedules, but I sincerely doubt it. We’re going to be in each other’s lives, Steve. Might as well get used to it.” She eyes Isabel before looking back at him. “Besides, I think she’d really like having her Dad there.”

He scoffs. “When nine out of ten times her answer is no, I’d say the odds aren’t great.”

“Only one way to find out,” she says, tapping Isabel’s arm. “Izzie, you want Daddy to come to Christmas Eve, right?”

Isabel moves her arm out of Natasha’s reach as she continues to color over a penguin with a purple crayon. “M’busy!”

He and Natasha scoff, and she turns to him with a sheepish expression. “Technically that isn’t a no.”

He rolls his eyes at that before letting out a sigh when Natasha raises a brow in challenge. Immediately, his mind conjures a million different reasons to refuse. Spending a day together is one thing, and while he had been the first one to color outside the lines of their custody agreement by asking to spend Christmas with them in the first place, something about this invitation feels different. Meeting the new people in Natasha’s life, when these relationships have no bearing on how well the two of them function as co-parents, seems like a weightier, riskier choice. But then his mother’s words come to mind: like it or not, you and Natasha are forever bonded by the beautiful baby girl you two brought into this world. That makes you family, and families spend Christmas together.

When it comes down to it, with their family being as unorthodox as it is, it was always going to be more complicated to navigate than the average unit. But if Natasha, one of the most pragmatic people he knows and who he trusts to make difficult decisions, is willing to extend an olive branch, who is he to turn it down.

“Okay,” he says, smiling at the way Natasha’s eyes light up when she gets her way. “But then you’re coming cookie decorating with us in Soho tomorrow.”

“Do we get to take the cookies home?” she asks, to which he nods. “Fine, but since you’re keeping me from laundry, we’re dropping by Selfridges after this.”

He smirks. “Deal.”

Christmas carols play softly in the background in Hela’s Cookie Boutique, but Natasha’s only half listening, too distracted by watching Steve and Isabel decorate sugar cookies with the exact same focused expression on their faces. Isabel turns to Steve, bringing a finger up to his face and giggling when he licks the red icing off, and as she catches the exchange, she smiles. Seeing Steve and Isabel interact up close now that their daughter is more engaging has been an experience she didn’t think she’d find so endearing. Of course, she knew Isabel adored him and that the feeling was absolutely and unabashedly mutual, but to see that affection unfold before her very eyes has made her heart unexpectedly expand in her chest.

Perhaps adding to her giddiness is the fact that this sight is also quite comical. With the class geared toward families, miniature workstations had been set up for the children, and as soon as Isabel had seen them, talking her into sitting elsewhere became downright impossible. Despite the smaller than usual seats, though, she notes that she fits just fine. The same could not be said, however, for Steve right next to her. She lets her gaze fall to him, taking her bottom lip between her teeth to keep from smiling. Hunched in his seat, Steve sticks out like a sore thumb, his broad frame looking even more immense as they’re surrounded by other children. Though she had offered to move stations, he’d refused – too willingly beholden to Isabel’s whims to care about his own comfort.

“I should be mad at you for unleashing our daughter in what is essentially a sugar factory,” she says, prompting Steve to turn to her as she snaps a picture of Isabel. “But I have to admit, she does look darn cute in a baker’s hat!”

He chuckles. “Doesn’t the little shoulder shimmy she does along to the music just kill you?”

“So much so I almost forget how hard it’s going to be to give her a bath later,” she says a little too sweetly, eyeing the sticky mess caked onto their daughter’s arms as Isabel puts more icing than her cookie could possibly hold and finding herself infinitely thankful for the aprons they were provided with.

“Tell you what,” he says. “I’ll give her a bath tonight if you promise that my mother will never see those pictures.”

“Not that I would ever let Sarah know that her son is a traitor who took her granddaughter to another bakery for cookie decorating,” she says, putting her phone away. “But since you offered, feel free to take over bath duty anytime you want.”

He narrows his eyes at her, shaking his head when she does not even bother to hide her smile. “That’s fine,” he says, nodding towards the cookie she’s working on. “When she starts to yell at me, I’ll just show her a picture of your lumpy cookie to distract her.”

“We’re not all aiming to make art out of cookies, Michelangelo,” she teases, making him roll his eyes when she points to his immaculately decorated Santa cookie. “Plus, it’s a lot harder to smooth out this icing than it looks!”

“That’s why you never go for the snowflake. There’s not enough surface area,” he says, reaching over for a fresh cookie, this time shaped like a stocking, before scooping out some blue icing with his spatula. “Here, look. All you have to do is lay the icing down and glide the spatula back and forth like so. It’s all in the wrist.”

“Like this?” she asks, trying to mimic his actions, only to glare at him when he fails miserably at holding back his chuckle when the icing still does not lay smoothly on her cookie. “Excuse me for not being raised in a bakery like some people, okay?”

“I’m sorry,” he says through a wide smile. “Grab a new cookie and some icing and I’ll show you.” She does as instructed, barely hiding her surprise when he crouches down behind her seat, his arms all but wrapping around her as he puts a hand over the one she has clutching the spatula. “Just lay the icing” – he begins to guide her hand, first adding some pressure to flatten the blob of icing before gently moving their hands down the cookie – “and glide.” By the time the spatula reaches the edge of the Christmas tree, there’s not a single peak on the icing, and he turns to her, smirking. “Now was that so hard?”

“Guess not,” she says, craning her neck to look at him. “Thanks.”

He grins. “No problem.”

With their proximity, she feels his words just as much as she hears them, but the thought is fleeting, fading as quickly as it had come when she finds herself caught in his smile and the way his eyes look impossibly brighter in this moment. How long they stay staring at each other, she does not know – seconds, maybe a minute. It’s when they hear a squeal from across the table that he looks away, and when she follows his line of sight, her eyes widen when she sees that Isabel’s gotten hold of a piping bag.

“Izzie, no!” Steve says as they both rush out of their seats.

In spite of Steve’s warning, Isabel squeezes down, and she watches in horror as icing bursts out of the bag and onto Isabel’s face. She cringes as Isabel turns to look at her, icing flowing from her chin and down to her neck. “Uh oh.”

With a shake of her head, she laughs. “Uh oh is right, Little Miss.” She steps forward to reach for the baby bag, sighing in relief when she sees it already in Steve’s grip as he hands her a bunch of wet wipes. “Thank you,” she says, before looking at Isabel. “Say, thank you, Daddy.”

“Thank you, Dada?” Isabel says, smiling through the mess on her face as they all burst into laughter.

“Okay, new plan,” Steve says after they work in tandem to get as much icing off Isabel as they can without soap and water. He points to the tray of bare cookies before turning to her. “You lay down the base icing, I will smooth it out, and Miss Sticky over there can be on sprinkles duty.”

She laughs. “You do know she’s just going to throw too many sprinkles on it, right?”

“Ah, but that’s the beauty of giving her already iced cookies,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows. “There’s only so many sprinkles that can stick before the rest just falls off.”

When his expression turns smug, she can only roll her eyes.

The sun’s only begun to sink low into the horizon, casting a halo of warm light across the city, when a chilly breeze blows by, prompting Steve to adjust his scarf to rest more snuggly around his neck. While stopping at a park seems like a ridiculous idea in late December, the decision was strategic. As the saying goes, hell hath no fury like a toddler hyped on sugar, and he and Natasha weren’t about to tempt fate by not providing Isabel with an opportunity to expend all the energy provided by an afternoon spent consuming ludicrous amounts of icing. While Isabel explores the surroundings on the patch of grass before them, he and Natasha sit on the nearby bench, a pile of rocks and weeds that their daughter has discovered and given to them for safe keeping only growing by the minute between them. He looks at Natasha, who’s busy admiring the scenery, to see the box of their leftover cookies resting on her lap, and instantly, the sight brings a smile to his face. Growing up in his mother’s bakery, the smell of butter and sugar in the air always had a way of evoking good feelings in him – a clear sign that wonderful things, usually in the form of a sweet treat, were to come. Today, though, as the three of them laughed and decorated cookies, he finds that those good feelings are akin to glee. The sound of Isabel’s laughter ringing melodiously in the air catches their attention, and when they turn, they can only chuckle when they see her begin to follow a hapless duck a few feet away. He shakes his head. “Why do I feel like we should be helping that duck?” “Because you know what your daughter is like when she’s only running on sugar and no afternoon nap,” Natasha says matter-of-factly, shooting him a knowing look. “Also, that duck’s never gonna see her again anyway. We, on the other hand, have to take her home and deal with the inevitable crash from her sugar high.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Believe me, the duck can take one for the team right now.” “She was a bit of a menace the other night when I let her have a cupcake after dinner,” he says, nodding in concession. “But, hell, if she isn’t so easy to love.” “Confusing, isn’t it?” she asks, to which he hums in agreement. “One minute, you want to pull your hair out because she’s acting like you’re torturing her when really you’re just trying to put her shoes on-” “But then the next she’s hugging you and telling you she loves you?” he finishes with a smirk. “Exactly!” she says, throwing her head back in laughter. “But like you said, she’s just the sweetest thing ever. Really intuitive, too. You’d think at her age, she wouldn’t understand when you’re having a bad day, but then just when you’re feeling really down, you get a random hug from her…” She sighs, looking off to where Isabel is. “And suddenly everything doesn’t seem so bad.” He follows Natasha’s line of sight, smiling when he sees that Isabel’s turned her attention to some flowers, before turning back to her. “We made a pretty good kid, didn’t we?” Her green eyes are brimming with pride as she looks at him. “Yeah,” she says, “we did.” He does not respond with words. Instead, he just holds her gaze as they share a smile, because truly, what else is there to say. If there’s anything these last few days have proven, it’s that when it comes down to it, Isabel is a reminder that despite everything that’s gone on between them in the last few years, all the hurt that they’ve unintentionally caused one another and the distance they’ve placed between them – physically or otherwise – they’ve always made a great team. And though the thought comes unbidden in his mind, he finds himself wondering how different things could have been if he had worked up the courage to tell her how he felt back then. But more importantly, for the first time in so long, he allows himself to question whether or not he was wrong to hold back. Before he can give the thought any more consideration, though, Isabel makes their way to them, climbing into Natasha’s lap. “Hey, you,” Natasha says, looking away from him to wrap her arms around Isabel and kiss the top of her head. “Tired?” Isabel shakes her head, resting her cheek against Natasha’s chest. “No.” “If you say so,” Natasha says, chuckling under her breath. “Do you want to grab dinner?” he asks. “I saw a Thai restaurant across the street. We could see if their Pad Thai compares to the one in the Village.” “I would love to, but despite what this one says, she’s probably going to pass out soon,” Natasha says, and as if to prove her point, Isabel’s eyelids begin to flutter. “But how about you just come over to mine?” she then adds, her smile almost shy. “I don’t have Pad Thai, but I can whip us up some pasta.” “You cook now?” he says, his brows all but shooting into his hairline. The glare she sends his way is sharp, but it lasts only a second as she begins to laugh. “I’m not sure I appreciate the disbelief on your face.” “No, I believe you…” he trails, grinning when she raises a brow at him. “I just remember having to put out a bacon-related fire in your apartment once upon a time.” “You accidentally leave the burner on while you go to answer the door one time and some people never let you forget it,” she says, rolling her eyes before she joins him in snickering. When their laughter tapers, she tilts her head to the side. “So, what do you say?” “I say to see is to believe,” he says, dissolving into laughter once more when she picks up one of the stones in the pile between them and chucks it at him. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding! I’d be honored to taste your cooking… and not have to put it out afterwards.” She scoffs, but he can only really beam at the expression of mock hurt she makes. “You know what, Rogers.” With Isabel slumbering peacefully in her car seat, their cab ride back to Natasha’s flat is steeped in comfortable silence. London after dark is breathtaking, but even as the stunning view passes him by, he finds that he can only focus on how felicitous this – the three of them coming back from a day well spent – all feels. He steals a glance at Natasha on the other side, her face lit only by the streetlights, but even so, the little smile on her lips as she looks out her window brings a smile to his own. As if sensing his stare, she turns, her smile only widening when she catches him looking, and he can’t help but wonder if today has felt as good for her as it has for him. His lips part to ask the question, but before he can, the cab rattles as the driver runs over a bump. Like a reflex, he reaches out to make sure Isabel stays in place, his hand colliding with Natasha’s as she, too, does the same. They both nod at the cabbie’s subsequent apology, and the rest of the way, he does not bother to utter a word about how their hands remain atop of one another’s, nor does he ask questions when their fingers somehow wind up intertwined – but, and perhaps more saliently, neither does she.

When they arrive back at Natasha’s flat, he lifts Isabel to him, paying the driver as Natasha collects the car seat and Isabel’s bag and they walk up the stairs to her front door. It’s only when they’ve made their way inside her foyer and she’s taking her keys out of the lock that he realizes her lights were already on when they entered. “Were you expecting someone?” he asks, turning to her. “Not that I remember,” she says, mirroring his concerned expression as she takes in her already lit foyer. As if on cue, they hear the sound of her cupboard being pushed shut, and hurriedly, she begins to make her way towards the sound. “Natasha, wait!” he says, his voice thick with worry as he follows her with lengthened strides. “There might be a-” “What are you doing here?” he hears Natasha ask as she enters her kitchen. Confused, he follows her, stopping by the doorway when he sees her arms around a man, his hair dark as night and his frame towering over hers. “I haven’t seen you in days!” “Had to pull another double shift,” the man says, his voice smooth as silk. “Luckily, my colleague was nice enough to relieve me a couple hours early, so I stopped by the supermarket and did some food shopping.” “You’re a lifesaver,” Natasha says, and he catches himself looking towards her kitchen island where an array of fruits and vegetables are sitting along with a six-pack of Stella and a bottle of Beluga – her favorite vodka. “Oh, Loki, this is Steve.” At the sound of his name, he looks up just as Natasha and the man – Loki, he reminds himself – turns to him. Loki smiles, moving around the island to extend a hand to him. “Pleasure to meet you, Steve.” “Likewise,” he says, shifting Isabel to free his other hand before shaking Loki’s. “I’m sorry, I-” His words are cut off when Isabel stirs, letting out a little whine. “Shh, it’s okay, sweetheart. We’re back home.” Isabel lifts her head off his shoulder, her forehead wrinkling as she grimaces, and quickly, he rubs her back soothingly. She turns in his arms, and when her eyes land on Loki, it’s almost on instinct that he holds her closer to him. “It’s okay, fig. It’s just momma’s-” “Yo-ki?” Isabel says, her eyes lighting up with recognition. Before he knows it, she’s squirming in his arms, signaling to be let down. He obliges, staring dumbfoundedly as Loki bends down and Isabel runs into his open arms. “Yo-ki!” “Hello, love,” Loki says, laughing and picking Isabel up as he stands. “I missed you! Did you have a marvelous time today?” “Indeed she did,” Natasha says, and his head whips towards her to see her walk towards Isabel and Loki to tap Isabel’s nose. “I was actually about to make some-” “Actually, Natasha,” he interrupts, his eyes going from Loki, to Isabel, and then to her. And though he does not remember reaching for it, he holds up his phone. “Something just came up with the gallery. I’m going to have to pass on dinner.” “Oh, okay…” she says, blinking in surprise. “Something major?” “No, um… just a misunderstanding,” he says before shaking his head. “You have that thing tomorrow at three, right? I’ll be back before then to pick up Izzie.” “Right, yeah…” she looks at Isabel, lifting her out of Loki’s arms to place her down. “Say bye to Daddy, Iz.” As Isabel walks towards him, he bends down to give her a hug. “Bye, fig. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” “Dada, no!” Isabel says, stepping away from him. “Stay.” “But it’s almost your bedtime, sweetheart,” he says, rubbing his hands up and down her arms consolingly. “Daddy will be back tomorrow, okay? I promise.” Isabel’s bottom lip begins to quiver, but before the waterworks can begin, Natasha bends down next to them. “Izzie, baby, why don’t you show Loki the cookies you decorated, huh?” “My goodness, you decorated some cookies?” he hears Loki say, and he’s relieved when Isabel turns towards Loki, a smile forming on her face as she nods. The second Isabel begins to walk towards Loki, he gets up, turning away from the kitchen and making his way towards the front door. It’s only when he has one hand already on the knob that he hears Natasha call out to him, and he turns back to see her standing a few feet away, her eyes wide as she stares at him. “Steve…” she says, her eyebrows furrowing. “Is everything okay?” “Yeah,” he says, lifting a shoulder in a shrug. “You have nothing to worry about.” He nods curtly. “I’ll be back for Izzie tomorrow.”

He does not wait for her reply as he twists the knob and walks out, shutting the door behind him before all but running down the stairs. His footfalls are heavy on the concrete, but he does not dare look back as he makes his way down the block, ferociously trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut and the ache slowly but surely burning through his chest.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

#Romanogers #After All #A Little Favor #Steve Rogers #Natasha Romanoff #AU #fanfic #natrogers #natrogersfics

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malecsecretsanta · 3 years ago

Text

Merry Christmas, ladswithflags!

For @ladswithflags. Heyyy! Merry Christmas! Writing this was so fun, fluffy!malec supremacy! ( A little note: imagine Season1!Magnus ). Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I had in writing this. *****

Lemon Slices and Silk Masks.

One more line.

Two more strikes.

Two more verses were written.

One more page was torn and thrown.

Writing always came naturally to Magnus. The words slipped fluently and rhymed in the way he wanted them.

After all, he was Magnus Freakin’ Bane. The lead singer and backup drummer for the band, Zoom Around the Sound.

6 hours later~

Magnus had thrown a birthday party for his cat, Chairman Meow. It was a masquerade. Nothing formal except for a mandatory mask.

He was wearing a purple tux jacket and trousers with a yellow silk button-up with only a few buttons closed. A few long necklaces hung around his neck and several thin silver rings around his fingers and knuckles. He had an arrow ear cuff on and a few studs on the other ear.

But the show stopper was his mask. Because. It wasn't a mask at all.

Magnus had asked his make-up artist, Clary Fray, to paint an elaborate and very intricate design onto his face.

He was quite proud of the work. It had a midnight blue base with a silver and gold iridescent design. The colour seemed to shift as the light hit his face from different angles.

It spanned across his nose, curling sharply upwards and covering his forehead.

His usually spiked hair, was fluffy today. And gelled, it fell partly across his left eyebrow. The tips were highlighted in purple.

He sat on a barstool. Drinking limoncello. He usually enjoyed the crowd. To feel lost in a world of loud head-bangers and occasional hook-ups. But today he felt out of place.

When he went to the dance floor he felt as if he were watching himself across the room, alone. Out of focus.

So, he returned. He sat near the stool and tried to feel light with a glass full of lemon sugar and vodka.

"Ugh, Izzy I'm going to leave in exactly 3 more minutes. I don't care if this Magnus person knows we're here or not. Not as if he'd care to notice two college students who apparently got " invited" to his party. A masquerade party." A certain black jean-black shirt and leather-jacketed fellow with a silk black mask said to a sparkly black-haired girl, Izzy. She just patted him on the shoulder and walked towards the dance floor.

"So, this Magnus person would care to notice if you'd tell him your name?", Magnus said.

Leather Jacket turned around and OH HOLY SMOKES! He had blue eyes. Blue eyes and Black hair were Magnus's favourite combination. Magnus felt himself smile. Even though it crinkled his paint-on mask.

His celestial blue eyes were lined with black smokey eyeliner. Could he get any hotter?

"Oh, um. I am so freakin’ sorry. No offence to you or your party, which is great by the way. I just don’t like crowds and loud music." Oh god, that voice. Magnus could die right there.

"Magnus," he said as he smiled and extended his hand towards Blue Eyes.

“Alec.” Alec shook his hands and stared at his drink.

"Is it good? I'm not much of a drinker."

"Yeah, it is actually. It's one of my favourites. Can I get you one?"

"Sure,"

Magnus ordered one for Alec and turned back to the boy in the silk mask.

"So, Alec, what do you do except not like crowds and loud music?"

" I am a senior college student with a major in Psychology and Mass Communication. "

" Oh, fancy! I'm just in a band,"

" You say that as if it's not what you thought it would be like?"

"Well, sometimes it feels too overwhelming. The sounds, the fame, the media," said Magnus. And he continued," Sometimes it’s suffocating. Like tonight. I was so excited about this. I planned it for weeks. But now it feels like this place is filled with people I don’t know or people who don’t care about me. Talking to you has been the highlight of my evening, "

"Oh,"

"Was she your girlfriend?"

"Who? Isabelle? No. Nah, she’s my sister,"

Perfect.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Magnus raised an eyebrow.

"Nope."

"Boyfriend...?" He asked with a tiny smirk.

"Yeah, nope. No one."

Even better. Magnus broke out into a grin.

Magnus stood up from his chair and extended his hands, "I am not vibing here and you don’t like crowds. What do you say, we leave?"

"But it's your party,"

"No one's going to notice as you said."

And Alec smiled. "Okay," he said and nodded. They took their woollen coats from the coat rack, Magnus wore a pair of gloves and Alec wrapped a baby blue scarf around his neck. He clasped hands with Magnus and they walked out of the club, away from the buzzing sound of churning people and loud music.

And that was when Magnus noticed the tattoo on the other boy’s neck. “What’s that tattoo?”

“Oh. One night I got drunk and accidentally ended up at a tattoo parlour. My sister, Izzy, convinced me to get this. It’s called a Deflect Rune. In some script it stands for deflecting negative vibes and aura and stuff.”

It made Alec look incredibly sexier, Magnus had no clue how that was even possible. Blue Eyes had reached maximum sexiness and yet he was getting hotter by the minute. “It looks cool,”

People always just assumed Magnus had a tattoo, or rather tattoos, considering his band and the stereotypes his job offered, but he had none. He wasn’t opposed to the idea but he had never found something meaningful enough.

It was a little chilly outside; the New Year was almost here.

They laid down under the clear sky, on the dew-covered grass.

“That’s the Orion,” Alec said, pointing towards a constellation.

“No, it’s not.”

Alec laughed, “Yeah, I don’t know shit about stars.”

“Me neither, but that one kinda looks like a grumpy cat-face.”

“Sure it does,”

“What look!” Magnus took Alec’s hand and pointed it in a certain direction. Alec squinted.

“You know what, it actually kinda does. And that one is a butterfly. Look, there,” Alec said, a smile on his face.

Magnus burst out laughing, Alec joined. The silence that followed was calming.

“This feels so amazing.” He turned his head around to look at Alec.

Alexander looked him straight in the eye.

“People these days are just so pretentious. Partying, drinking the night away. Maintaining a media presence completely different from what they are in real life.” Magnus looked up at the sky again, a sad little smile on his face. “This sounds just like me.”

“No. If you were pretentious, you wouldn’t be here with me. You would want to stay at the party even if you hated it there. You think you are just like those two-faced people because that’s how you’ve been shaped to portray yourself since you were a teen. How old were you when you first started this career?”

“12,”

“See, exactly my point. It might have felt fun when you were younger but people change as they grow old. Times change. It’s fine if you don’t like this anymore and it’s fine if you love this job every day even more. What matters, is that you should enjoy what you are doing.”

“I am enjoying myself here. Thank you, Alexander, for coming here with me.”

Then Alec quickly stood up and brushed the grass off. “Wanna go to 24/7 ice-cream shop? It’s just around the block,” said Alec.

They stopped at a medicine store and Magnus got a pack of make-up wipes and when to the restroom to take off his paint-on mask. When he returned, Alec had also taken off his mask. Magnus was bombarded with the other boy’s beauty.

Some people were hot, some were cute, some were beautiful. Alexander was perfection.

They reached the shop and got a Salted Caramel for Alec and a Belgian Chocolate for Magnus and walked out. They stood near a lamp post and ate in silence; the road was almost empty.

“You’ve got a little bit on your cheek,” Alec said, tapping his own cheek lightly. They had completed the sugary delight.

Magnus tried to rub it off but couldn’t, “Help me?”

Alec leaned forward. He brushed his lips across Magnus’s cheek and licked the ice cream on his lips. Magnus turned around and captured Alec’s lips between his own.

The bells chimed, “Merry Christmas, Alexander.”

“Merry Christmas,” Alec brushed his lips again with Magnus’s, ever-so-slightly, and leaned his forehead against Magnus’s. “Is this a one-time thing, Magnus?” Alec asked, and added in a whisper, “Please say no,”

Magnus looked him in the eye, “No,”

Alec smiled, he looked like an angel. “My apartment is near here, would you like to come over for a nightcap? It’s getting chilly,”

Magnus nodded and wrapped a hand around Alec’s shoulder, Alec leaned into him, and held him close as they walked towards Alec’s house.

They both had a flushed face when they reached the flat, it had started to snow. The apartment was small, basic. It had a living room, a bedroom down the hall and a kitchen and a bathroom on either side of the hallway.

Then they sat on the couch, kissing, warming themselves up.

Alec made two cups of hot chocolate for them. They sat on either end of the couch, their legs intertwined. A warm blanket was spread over their legs.

They drank the cocoa and talked about anything to everything. Talking to Alexander felt so easy, just how he wanted his entire life to feel easy. Talking to Alexander brought Magnus newfound happiness he never knew existed. Talking to Alexander was Magnus’s new favourite activity.

Later Alec and Magnus had a debate of “No I’ll sleep on the couch,” “No you are technically a guest here” “No” “No”. Ultimately Magnus had won and Alec had made him a makeshift bed on the sofa.

Alec receded into his bedroom and peeked from the doorway, “Good night, Magnus,” he said with sleepy eyes and a sleepy smile.

“G’Night, Alexander,” replied Magnus.

***

Alec shifted slightly and dropped a kiss onto Magnus’s head and snuggled him closer. He knew his boyfriend wasn’t yet awake, so he left the bed as quietly as possible.

He wore a pair of black sweats and padded to the coffee machine and turned it on. He poured milk for the Chairman and went off to brush his teeth.

He watched the cat drink from his bowl and took out ingredients to make pancakes. He mixed them into a bowl and set it aside. In the last 4 years if he had learnt anything it was: Magnus loved fluffy pancakes. The fluffier the better.

The Chairman rubbed against his calf, so he picked him up. “Good morning,” he whispered to their cat and scratched his head.

“Good morning,” said the voice he loved the most.

“Good morning,” he smiled. “Did I wake you up?”

“No such thing,” Magnus said and walked towards him and ran his fingers through the Chairman’s fur.

Alec leaned forward and kissed him. It would seem that the years would have changed the way it felt to kiss Magnus but every time it was an explosion of fireworks through his entire body. Magnus pulled away and bopped his nose with his own.

“Let’s drink in the balcony,” Magnus announced as he took both the coffee filled cups from the machine. Music poured through the loft from Magnus’s morning playlist. It had a few hundred songs, repetition was not an issue to worry about.

Magnus had started liking his job again after he met Alec. He had fired his old manager and Alec had found him a new one, Jace Herondale. He was a classmate of Alec at NYU and he seemed to understand Magnus, his style and his tastes. He was perfect for the job.

They drank while enjoying the view of early morning New York City from Brooklyn. Later, when Magnus went to take a shower, Alec quickly made the pancakes, stacked them and drizzled them with caramel syrup.

He arranged a tray with the plate of pancakes, a small candle and something he had made.

It was a shot glass wrapped with a mini black silk mask. The mask was painted on the left side with a silver and gold design, the one he had loved so much. He had contacted Clary, one of his good friends and Magnus’s make-up artist, to help him get the design right.

A dried lemon slice was stuck over the knot of the mask, behind the glass. The glass was filled with pebbles and on it sat a ring.

It was a ring made of intertwined silver and gold wires. It looked gorgeous. He hoped Magnus would think the same.

Magnus came out of their bedroom, dressed in a pair of high waisted maroon trousers and a V-necked khadi white button-up. His wet hair made the fabric on his shoulder translucent; Alec blushed a little.

Magnus sat on a stool and propped his elbows onto the island counter. Alec lit the candle and turned around with the tray in his hands.

“Surprise,” he whispered as he placed the tray on the counter.

Magnus’s head snapped up in realisation. Alec had come around the counter and knelt in front of him. He took his hands in his own.

“Words about love don’t come to me easily, you know that better than anyone.” Alec licked his dry lips and continued. “The love I have for you is a love that knows no bounds. I have loved you since the moment you first showed me the Grumpy Cat and I want to stick around for all the goofy things you have to show me. For the things, we will share in the future. You have made me the happiest I’ve ever been, my life has changed completely and I cannot imagine a moment with you. A future without you.”

Magnus’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears.

“I want to scream out how much I love you and how much you mean to me and my little heart to the entire world. I want every single person I come across to know that my heart belongs to you, and yours to mine. Marry me and make my dream come true?”

“Yes,” Magnus said, “YES YES YES YES”. He pulled Alec up and hugged him. He twirled them around and dropped kisses on his face. That was when he realised, he had been crying too.

Magnus dropped him and Alec took the ring out.

“Wait,” Magnus said and ran off to the guest bedroom.

He came back with a small black velvet box and pulled the ring out.

“I got this last weekend and planned on proposing tonight. You beat me!” Magnus chuckled.

It was a simple ring with white gold and gold bands parallelly placed.

Alec slid the ring onto Magnus’s left finger and extended his own hand. Magnus slid the ring on.

“Well, hello there, fiancé!”, Alec exclaimed, once he sat down on the stool.

“Hello you, fiancé.” Magnus had the biggest smile. “And look at this!”, he pointed at the shot-glass Alec had modified as he sat back down on a stool. “It’s gorgeous, darling.”

“Aku cinta kamu, sayang,” said Alec.

I love you, my dear,

Magnus’s head turned sharply at that and he smiled his brilliant smile, “Now, aren’t you filled with surprises today?”

Magnus leaned his forehead against Alec’s, his eyes were sparkling more than the glitter he loved so much. “Aku cinta kamu, Alexander,” he said and kissed Alec.

(a little amateur aesthetic board for the story)

#ladswithflags #malecsanta21 #*fic21 #*gifts21

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khaleesiofalicante · 4 years ago

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Ok this is a stupid question because you probably have but have you seen the classic fairy tales reimagined for TSC because its fr the coolest and cutest and I just wanted to hear your thoughts hehe

Jocelyn x Luke as Lil Red Riding Hood - It’s so fitting. Jocelyn’s red hair and Luke being a wolf??? Nicely done.

Diana x Gwyn as Beauty and the Beast - This is stunning because both Diana and Gwyn considered them to be the beast in the relationship thinking they did not deserve true love but they are actual both beauties and bebes!!!!!

Rafael as Momotaro - I like the parallels - both of them being adopted and both fighting demons. ALSO RAFE WITH A KATANA IS *chef’s kiss*

Anna as Puss in Boots - MY FAVOURITE SUAVE, SMOOTHER TALKING HEROES!!!!

Kierarktina as Wild Swans - This is one of my favourite stories!! It fits them so perfectly. Cristina in a way rescues both of them (and they all rescue each other) ALSO CRISTINA AS A PRINCESS!!!!

Malec as Snow White - I love this. In the story of course, the princess dies after eating the apple (I relate) but in here Magnus saves Alec (like he did in CoB) ALSO DID YOU NOTICE CHAIRMAN FJHSDHGKS

Sizzy as Frog Prince - A perfect choice because Isabelle initially thinks Simon is not right for her and Simon thinks she is out of his league but they both eventually make each other better (Simon becomes braver and Izzy becomes kinder) I am love them, your honour

Max as Sorcerer’s Apprentice - THE PURE CHAOS THIS CHILD IS CAUSING IN THIS PICTURE GIVES ME LIFE!!!!!!!!!

Haline as Rapunzel - Aline following Helen to save her from the cold and lonely Wrangle Island?? PERFECTION <3

Jessa as Little Mermaid - Jem as prince Eric killed me, bro. The whole thing about how Tessa saved him (not just in 1878) but also how she kept him alive during those centuries...I am emotion.

Kitty as Sherlock Holmes - NOW THAT I AM READING QOAAD I AM SCREAMING ABOUT THIS PARALLEL THIS IS ALL I EVER WANTED OMG (there is a deerstalker hat in the background someone please put it on Ty djhfgjahdfgdjf)

Clace as East of the Sun and West of the Moon - Just clace never giving up on each other and going to hell for each other and always saving each other. It’s perfect for them.

Dru and Jaime as The Lion and the Mouse - This is sooo interesting because obvi Jaime and Dru’s story isn’t over and I AM DONE WITH PEOPLE UNDERESTIMATING DRU SO YAS GIRL YOU SAVE THE DAY!!!

Livvy and Ty as Hansel and Gretel - THEY ARE NOT SEPARATED NOT EVEN IN A STORY BOOK. I AM EMOTION BYE

Will and Jem as Brothers Grimm - I really like the idea of Jem and Will writing a collection of stories because they are the best dads <3

Wessa as Cinderella - This is my favourite princess story so I emo over this!!!!!! I love the ball scene for them. It’s beautiful and perfect.

Jemma as Sleeping Beauty - BRO THE ROLE REVERSAL HAS ME ON THE FLOOR I STAN

Maia and Bat as The White Cat - My favourite unproblematic couple looks fantastic :)))))

I hope I didn’t miss anyone!!! I love these illustrations - I mean, the design and drawing is just PERFECTION but also the creativity behind it is just fantastic. I do not own the book and now I gotta find a copy OMG!!!

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monysmediareview · 4 years ago

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Shadowhunters (Freeform show) Review

Review #2!!

In case you missed it, I wrote a review on the Mortal Instruments book series books 1-3 (they’re the only ones I read because a chapter into book 4 and I was over it). I had mixed feelings on it, as I do with most things - including the Shadowhunters TV show, which is what this review is about!

Casting

Let’s talk about the casting in this show. First of all, I think the cast matched the physical descriptions of each character in the books and I very much enjoyed that. I do like when shows take liberties with casting, especially for the sake of things like diversity but there’s something very satisfying about seeing the characters exactly as they were written.

I don’t think all of the acting was fantastic, but it’s FreeForm so I really didn’t expect much. It did get a lot better as the series went on and I think the actors really found their footing with these characters. It’s one of the reasons that I love series so much more than movies for things like this because there’s growth and the chance to really explore characters as they exist. These characters really took on a life of their own in a way, but we’ll get into that as I go through the rest of my points here.

One thing I will say is, while this show did much better than others in terms of diversity it is not lost on me that the BIPOC characters in this show (and in the book series as well) were all “other” characters. As is often the case, people of color in fantasy media are usually portrayed as animals such as werewolves, or other “undesirable” characters. This is an incredibly complex part of casting, creating, and writing, and I will not get into it here, but I didn’t want to not mention it.

Gay Pride & True Love

If you read my review of the Mortal Instruments series then you already know that I love love love Alec and Magnus, but that love grew exponentially when I watched the show. Magnus was an interesting character in the books but Harry Shum Jr. really brought the character to life and that show especially in the scenes with Alec. The show also gives Alec a ton more depth than in the books and I love that they didn’t keep him hung up on Jace (a straight man) for most of the story. He fell for Magnus and he fell for him hard. Magnus is the one that broke through Alec’s shell and encouraged him to be himself. By cutting away all the petty teenager shit that was in the books we were able to see this real, complex, but honest and deep love story that rivaled the main love interests immensely. I would watch this show over and over just to watch these two again.

Representation and diversity are two huge factors when I think about whether or not I liked a piece of media. These kinds of things are what makes media so relatable, real, and ultimately enjoyable in a lot of ways. This show didn’t make the characters gay-ness a main factor of their relationship; they just showed a relationship as they would with a straight couple. They didn’t ignore their gay-ness either, though, and acknowledged the difficulties within that. By making this normal, they took huge strides in showing these kinds of relationships on TV and I adore that. And I just cannot get enough of this pairing in general - there are so many contrasts and compliments in their relationship and it’s what I honestly consider to be a perfect OTP relationship in any kind of romantic plot.

10/10 would watch the show just for Alec and Magnus.

I like Clary better in the show than in the books

Clary is by far, not one of my favorite characters in the fantasy genre. I find her to be selfish, martyr-like, and just kind of annoying but I really felt like the show was able to redeem the decent characteristics that she has and shed off most of the aggravating ones.

As a whole, I am not a fan of how stupid the books make Clary out to be. Clary falls into the category of characters I don’t like because there is ultimately nothing very special about them yet they end up with a guy who is completely out of their league in every way who is head over heels in love with them. It infuriates me so much and Clary is not an exception to this rule. Her character is still this way in the show but it is much less evident because she seems to be more of an active participant in her own life and I don’t have to sit through her endless internal monologues about how attractive or strong or whatever Jace is. Thoughts that she still has while she thinks they’re siblings. At least in the show, these characters seem to draw a strong boundary here when they think they’re related rather than making out in a field like they did in the books.

Clary also has a much stronger sense of self in the show and often reflects on what her life was and what it has become, how she’s grown. And I think that’s a huge part of it - that she has grown when in the books she was just constantly such a dumbstruck teenager who only thought of herself. I absolutely love the difference in her character here so I’ll give the show a star for that.

Her relationships with other characters is also so much stronger. I believe this is in part because we don’t know her every inner thought about them and we also aren’t distracted by her distraction that is Jace. Her relationship with Izzy is so much better and stronger. I’ll always give good reviews to strong female relationships! Even her friendship and relationship with Simon is more in depth in the show. Their book friendship is very baseline; they constantly say they’re best friends but that’s not really reflected in the way they act around each other. In the show they have anecdotes about the past we never see in the books, they talk in a comfortable way and even show their relationship with each other’s families a lot more. This plays into her being an active participant in her own life as well.

The Lightwood Family Drama

This might be something that happens later on in the books (however I don’t think so because of some spoilers I’ve received on my main account) but I really liked the Lightwood family subplot. I would imagine they have some marital problems after Max’s death in the books but considering they don’t kill him in the show, divorcing them earlier and giving Maryse a second chance was a fantastic choice. I kind of wish they had kept Max’s death because to me, it was the driving force between Izzy and Simon, but overall I don’t mind the way they did it. It just felt like a missed opportunity for drama and angst.

Back to the point at hand - families are complicated and the only “normal” or rather, nuclear family we see in this series is the Lightwoods. Clary was raised by a single parent, as was Simon, and no one else really has parents that we’re introduced to to be able to judge their family life. By making their family story a complicated one, rather than the “ideal”, it becomes not only more dramatic, which is fun and interesting, but real. And it may seem counterintuitive to make things seem real in a fantasy genre show/book series but that, in my opinion, is what makes it easier to believe the fake stuff. I can focus more on the magic and the demons and the end of the world as we know it if it’s grounded in something that’s familiar to me. The Lightwoods feel like a very real family with complicated relationships between kids and parents, adopted children/siblings, and marital issues that affect everyone differently, which invites us as an audience to relate to them and doesn’t make the Shadow world so different from ours.

A scene I loved specifically is when Izzy brings the doctor she’s seeing to the Hunter’s Moon and they’re all messing with each other, eating, drinking, laughing, talking. They really felt like a family there, like adult siblings which can be a really difficult feeling to capture but I think it was done very well. I didn’t want to go through this review without mentioning that part since it was something very special for me.

Design Choices

Changing topic just a little bit, I wanted to talk about the design of the show. First thing I noticed was that the runes were not at all how I pictured them. Now, that may be a fault of the writer because they weren’t very well described so it all landed on imagination which is different for everyone. The show design gave me kind of Henna tattoo vibes, whereas the books gave me full black ink vibes.

The clothing was also something very strange to me. Izzy was always described as wearing long silvery skirts. I very much imagined her as wearing borderline rave outfits in most of these scenes but she mostly just wore crop tops and low cut shirts. I also noticed that as the series went on she dressed in a bit more of a conservative way compared to the first half of season 1 when I recall her wearing literally just a sports bra as a shirt in a few scenes. It was apparent to me in the books that the way Shadowhunters dressed was something that separated them from humans, made them stand out, and the show lacked that. I think this also took away the idea that Shadowhunters are a whole race of people with a history and culture separate from being human (they are, in essence mixed raced, but this comes with a lot of implications and is not a complete statement or comparison in any way). My point with this is mostly that I wish there had been more of a separation visually between Shadowhunters and humans beyond their runes.

I also pictured the Institute to have a very non-human, Catholic type of design and instead just got pseudo-futuristic feel. I didn’t hate it, it just feels overdone in these kinds of shows and movies. For example, the Divergent series or Maze Runner or even Tomorrowland all have this type of vibe and I was hoping for more of a DmC: Devil May Cry approach.

Jace Wayland is a beautiful character

I had mixed feelings about Jace in the books; he felt stale and like every other straight, white, male, romantic lead. In the show, however, I think Dominic Sherwood did him a great deal of justice and gave him the depth that actually made him a desirable person that I could understand someone being in love with. He’s charming, and a little cocky but we also get to see a deeper side of him than we do in the books. We see his emotions, especially his unconditional love for Clary (whether I agree with that or not).

The Owl plotline was a waste of time in my opinion, but the scene when Izzy and Alec go to save him from inside his mind and we see him break down is absolutely beautiful. Jace is introduced to us from the start as hard, strong, calloused and here we see him vulnerable and scared with two of the people he trusts most in the world. I will accept the Owl plotline if only to keep this scene because I think it is absolutely essential to his character arc.

I also found that scene to be indicative of his relationship with Izzy. In the books it’s often alluded to that he and Izzy had been together in one way or another but that’s not the case for the show (thank the angel) and here you can really see them as siblings more than in any ther scene, I think. But this takes me to his relationship with Alec as well.

Parabatai

I don’t remember Parabatai being mentioned much in the books but it is a huge deal and talked about quite a bit. I this this is super cool, personally and it’s not something I can really think of too much in fantasy outside of sires or singers or the like in many vampire novels but that has a whole “owner” vibe that doesn’t exist with Parabatai. I am super intrigued by this idea and I loved how much they played with it being a strength and an essential part of their existence.

The relationship between Alec and Jace is obviously stronger than just brothers, but it also isn’t quite love in the romantic sense. It’s something else and it makes them vulnerable to each other. They feel everything the other person feels, sometimes literally, and while that can weaken them they use it as a strength. It’s really beautiful how honest and open these men are with each other. I feel like the Parabatai bond breaks down a lot of the toxic masculinity traits these characters might have otherwise and I will always be in favor of tearing down those walls. A+ characterization if you ask me.

I thought Izzy deserved better in the books - the show gave it to her

In the show Izzy is way more badass than in the books, which I wasn’t sure was possible. They made her so much smarter, gave her important roles at the institute like head of weapons and she even did autopsies? In the last episodes we even see her as Head of the Institute. Beauty, brains, and brawn simply can’t be beat.

Her love life was even more interesting! She wasn’t boiled down to just a slut who slept with everyone regardless of species: she was a lover who fell quickly and saw the best in people despite what people might tell her about “their kind”. She’s strong and very sure of herself; she doesn’t need a man in her life but she wants love and I think that’s a really amazing trait they gave her that deepens the character.

They made her an activist, too in a way. She’s found really standing up for her beliefs in the show and challenging the way things are. In the books Izzy is pretty stuck in the way Shadowhunters do things but in the show she speaks up when something isn’t right. Her connections to downworlders does a lot of really great things for the Shadow world as a whole. They certainly could have beefed this up a little bit, but it wasn’t a huge part of the show in general so I’ll allow the pass on it.

Her Yin-Fen addiction was so interesting! Again, I don’t know if this is something that happened in later books in the series but this is just another layer to Isabelle that I really loved. No one is perfect, even her, and it built her relationship with Rafael (another plot I was a huge fan of) which was incredibly complex.

All in all, I would die for Izzy. Please give me shows and books about her and more characters like her.

This series was steamy as hell

I can’t write a review on this series without mentioning all of the steamy scenes with so many of the characters. I mean, of course, I expected as much with Jace and he got a lot but so did everyone else. We got saucy scenes with Alec, Magnus, Simon, Izzy, Maia, everyone. (Not all at the same time, thankfully). But they were all very well directed and acted and I enjoyed them quite a bit. What can I say? Sex sells.

In conclusion, I liked this series a lot. I really was not expecting to. I was warned that it was bad, and to start off it was but I found myself unexpectedly enjoying a lot of it. There’s still work to be done and it is by no means perfect but it was entertaining and had some really good moments. I also give so much credit to the actors and creative team for doing so much with material that didn’t give them much depth in the first place.

Would recommend for something to enjoy but maybe not think too hard about.

xoxo

Mony

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straighttxhell · 3 years ago

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Kkk, so, I don’t wanna fill your inbox all at once so Imma explain the thought process a bit, (Imma just do spoilers here cause you said you don’t like watching them) first, ikwydls, it’s basically a story about 4 high schoolers, they were out partying, the driver was drunk, they hit someone, thought they killed him, and dumped him in a nearby body of water, the next year around the same time of the incident they start getting threatening notes and weird stuff happens to them, cannon Courtney would 100% fulfil the rol of the killer here because the logic is very flawed but she’s still cool (and let’s be honest, vengeful). Then we have Jigsaw, I said Izzy because she’s definitely smart enough to actuallly make all the traps though now I’m not so sure about the moral code part of things. Prom is basically a movie where we see these three kids in their senior prom (week? I think?), and basically, when they were kids they bullied and killed a girl, promised they wouldn’t tell anyone, but now someone knows and is trying to kill them. It’s the girls brother who actually saw how they killed his sister and I fully believe Duncan would hold that grudge and wait until he was strong enough to take revenge. The original version of scream 3 had the killers be fans of the movie (in universe the tragedies of the first one are turned into a horror franchise) that try to replicate the movie, I think if you make Zoey a horror movie fan and a bit more unhinged she’d totally mange to convince part of the roti cast to do this shot with her. Then we have scape room which is basically, scape room, but deadly, there are complicated puzzles, if you can’t solve them in time you die, and people that are related by something get put there, there’s different reasons to be a designer but Noah has just the perfect mix of smarts and “fuck others, I put myself first” to make a killer room

Honestly I don't really care about the roti cast cause I never watched that season,,, so I'm sorry that I don't have any thoughts on that hehe

But I love everything else, I mean sure, I haven't watched any of those movies, I watched like the first 30 minutes of scream before falling asleep bc it was 4 am.

I love all your analysis like you really get their personalities and yes I can totally see them doing that, especially the Duncan one, he would definitely hold that grudge.

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ayzrules · 4 years ago

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10 Signs That You’re in an Ayz Novel/Project/Writing Collab/Rp/~Thing~

tagged by @homesteadchronicles <3! tysm for tagging me - i love these things!!!

1. SILK & STEEL MOTIFS - [ mai, rowena, camila (ish), all of proper young killing machines! ] ever since i was 14-15 and obsessing over book!sansa / book!margaery, and only enhanced by my gail carriger phase. maybe it has to do with the fact that i’m too lazy to ever get into a physical fight myself? LMAO but i love writing snakey political girls who don’t really do ~fighty~ stuff but absolutely are plotting something and will manipulate/backstab their way to getting it. and ofc they hide all of that behind perfect manners & designer gowns & high heels ;D. normally about working with the system & bending it to their advantage for w/e reason (revenge is pretty common lol), not necessarily destroying the system & making something new/better. which segues into:

2. ICE QUEEN TROPES - [ izzy, mari, yinmei ] i first started writing these girls as a direct foil to #1; i would say characters in both of these categories are just as ruthless as each other, but #2 are more obvious/overt about it and v v v blunt. instead of working with & manipulating the system, these girls tend to be the type to just break it apart with a sledgehammer, hahahha. sub-category/spinoff being the too-old/tired-for-your-shit-so-pls-fuck-off kind of vibe ;DDD

3. THE VERY MEAN VERY TERRIBLE GIRL W QUESTIONABLE MORALS IS A MAIN POV AND ALSO MY FAVORITE AND NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE - [ tess + camila, kyvana, tselvya aka the murder princess trio of lay them to rest ] ummmmm no excuse except i might be not 100% straight lmfaoooooooo. i just can’t resist ruthless amoral girls in flouncy ruffles & floral frocks ok next (!)

4. TREE-HUGGING SHIT / POETRY IN NATURE - [ verdínqa, dulcifera, of daisies & ddt, a bit of run devil run ] i’m an envi sci nerd & study something similar w my degree program so no surprise :D ever since high school i’ve been into subverting the light = life & darkness = death trope, just after learning about shit like eutrophication & hypoxic waters etc where growth/a surplus actually leads to death, and sort of the belief that death in nature isn’t inherently bad for the entire system (ecocentric holism & alla’ that). and also a point that’s been driven home countless times by lectures, talks, books, webinars, what have you - the earth as just a planet will be fine even w all the anthropogenic shit going on, it’s humans who will be fucked. so that makes its way into my work a ton!

5. REINCARNATED QUEEN BEES - [ jenny, chae ] idk there’s just something so iconic about that aesthetic. zombie girls in chanel & luisa beccaria ya feel. the absolute vanity/arrogance/haughtiness of your typical hs movie rich bitch TM meets oh shit im not really alive and also eating brains is gross (i once googled human brain nutrition facts. quora saved a girl but also my search history is wack lmfao)..... yea! :kermitdab:

6. DITZY PINK SIDEKICK WHO IS ACTUALLY PRETTY BOOKSMART - [ steph, lea, lyra ] to (sort of) go with above, i like writing the bubbly girly girls who can throw front tucks and scorpions and double arabians like nobody’s business but also aren’t your stereotypical ‘dumb cheerleader’ trope; they’re just thought of as ditzy because of how nice/sweet/outgoing they are. also 3/4 times they drive crusty mom vans. yes this is me projecting my own driving experience no i will not change

7. SARCASTIC IDIOT MEME QUEENS - [ chrissy, inferna/vicky, angie ] always obsessed with memes, usually obsessed with food/sbux, kpop, or both. these girls are fun to write bc it’s like, 2 brain cells and they’re all devoted to simping for girl groups or copping free food deals (yes i make them all blackpink fans yes i am basic no i do not accept criticism) which is just #same. usually tend to be pretty scathing & hotheaded, also with a bit of a too-tired-for-this-pls-fuck-off energy ;D and that’s highkey my entire internal dialogue so like..... :kermitdab:

8. GLITTER + GORE / MURDER PRINCESSES - [ robot unicorn attack & its spinoff ‘rua: guts & glory’, proper young killing machines, lay them to rest, this new hyper-girly pokemon yugioh-esque collab w loml <333 ] traditionally “”””””””girly/feminine”””””””” aesthetics meets murder/other very dangerous activities you should not try at home!

9. FACETIOUS REFERENCES TO RL - [ gem quest, robot unicorn attack, lay them to rest, other things im prob forgetting ] basically i’m super facetious and also a clown and i like to poke fun at stupid things in my own life hahahah. gem quest is very modern meme culture meets high fantasy fairyland (& it was a collab with fanfan! so literally just my aes meets hers ;DDDDD) in the way i wrote it (references to twilight, phineas & ferb, kpop, other memes in the fairytale setting basically); robot unicorn attack is allllll about that petty celeb drama (just with a glitzy cyberpunk backdrop & also unicorns) LMAOOO & it does have tons of similarities to the kpop industry! & lay them to rest - aka murder princess aesthetic heaven - has me pulling out shit like ‘picstagram’ and ‘versacci’ (versace + gucci lol i’m so lame). one of the murder-y girls is a social media influencer/beauty guru. yeah!!

& last but not least-

10. MORE AESTHETIC THAN PLOT - [ insert everything i’ve ever written ] look i can NEVER come up with coherent plot lines WHATSOEVER but at least my pinterest is popping & my prose is all overly detailed descriptions of dresses & flowers LOL

tagging: @bebemoon @vampirkaninchen @morningstar1399 @now-on-elissastillstands @atimefordragons @tudorgirl @lend-your-lungs-to-me @bulletgirl @unholieds @artless-whimsy @interluxetumbra @clarienanaberry << sorry i cant splel ur writeblr @n-eusex + anyone who sees this & wants to do it!!! <3 <3 <3

#my stuff #my writing #TYSM FOR THE TAG THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN

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kingdomblade · 4 years ago

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Digimon Kizuna thoughts

All spoilers will be under the cut!

Fresh off of Tri when Kizuna was announced, I wrote up some hopes I had for this movie. Without looking back at that list, I'm pretty sure this movie managed to not hit any of the things I wanted off of that list - but I'm still walking away completely satisfied. The characters, the story, the setting all feel like completely natural progression from how I remember them, it manages to tell a compelling story in a fairly short movie, the animation and designs are drop dead gorgeous. It's clearly a labor or love and I'm thankful for everyone who worked on it. In some ways it leaves me wanting more - I'd love one more entry with the 02 group as a focus, and I think there would be a lot of value in an entry that focuses more on Digimon intigrated with the human world rather than yet another story about kids discovering Digimon. But if this is the last time we see these twelve in this form, what a way to go.

This is absolutely stream of consciousness writing while I’m on my second watch through of the day (In lieu of livetweeting - I’ll spare my followers that much lol). Is it rambling? Absolutely. It may or may not be of interest, but I thought it would be something fun to do regardless. If you decide to read, I hope you enjoy!

----

Tom Fahn’s Agumon is noticeably a bit lower pitched even compared to Tri, weather he can’t take his voice up as much or if it’s a different portrayal I’m not sure but it still fits him really well - Tentomon’s voice feel slightly different too. Funny enough Gabumon is somehow lighter and more childish than his original portrayal, but it also fits him well.

Both Tri and Kizuna have such a weird process to their casting - They got back actors that as far as I can tell haven’t done much if anything since their days on Digimon, they’ve gotten back actors for side characters with bit parts. They’ve hired new actors that seem to take the original voice into account and take their own spin on them, and then they hire actors with absolutely no regard for how the original sounded to the point that it just plain conflicts with the established character. It’s all over the place and it’s weird.

Johnny Yong Bosch's portrayal seems slightly different from Tri, maybe he's playing him slightly older, maybe it's the slightly different personality, maybe I'm imagining it. Something about it reminds me of Doug Erholtz's portrayal, which is an added bonus when JYB was already one of the best of the recasts. Minutes in and I'm completely sold on Nicholas Roye's Matt as well, it sounds like a natural progression from his Adventure voice.

In a vacuum Griffin Burns is a decent Davis, but he's one of the recasts that immersion breaking because not only does he sound nothing like Brian Donovan, but his take on Davis is higher pitch than Donovan's so it's impossible to hear him as older. The fact that Donovan was supposed to reprise his role is just salt on the wound. With the insane amount of delays that this dub got, they surely could have brought him back onboard... It's a shame that 2 our of 3 roles I've heard of Burns have been a replacement of another actor, hope he can get more roles where he can shine more. On the other hand, Bryce Papenbrook as Cody is brilliant casting coming from his 02 voice for what little we get to hear of him.

Yolei didn't sound to great in her video message, but by the time we see her in person her VA has gotten into the role and captures her really well. Hawkmon sounds fine enough, but I'm way more upset than I should be about Armadillomon's voice considering he doesn't have many lines. A recast was mandatory here, and 'medium-deep southern accent' should honestly be pretty easy to replicate but what we got was horrific. What casting director knew enough about the characters to know that Hawkmon had a British accent but not enough to know what an armadillo sounds like??

Mimi is just straight up Sakura now! I actually thought Kate Higgens would have made a great Yolei, kinda funny to see her here as Mimi now.

Not only did Agumon's "Polly want a cracker?" line slay me, but there's something about Tom Fahn's portrayal that really hits me, even though he's not even my favorite Digimon. It hasn't even been a long time since I've heard it - Tri wasn't that long ago, and I just rewatched Adventure/02 within the past few weeks, but hearing him made me a bit emotional, ha. Same thing happened with his first appearance in Tri, and that was after having seen it in Japanese and knowing what was going to happen!

The opening battle is like a complete screw-you to Tai's arc in Tri with Greymon smashing into buildings and Tai completely unfazed. I'm here for it, lol.

The remastered Digivolution sequences are nice but in true nostalgia fashion I kinda prefer the originals, haha.

Izzy's computer is counting down a 'time rimit'.

Agumon says something to the effect of “Aren’t I always hungry?“ and I don't feel like it’s a reference/jab at Tri, but it got a chuckle out of me anyway.

Tai's classmate is blatantly voiced by JYB too, ha.

Matt gives his location as 'inside the restaurant' when calling an ambulance which seems... not helpful. Love that Tai's reaction to a girl collapsing is a confused "Is she drunk?"

An article on Tai's phone is written in perfect English and he gets message from the name Izzy specifically so I'd assume this is a change for the US release. Subtitles would have been perfectly fine but it's a nice effort to keep immersion.

"The ol' Izz-master" I’m so, so glad they got Jeff Nimoy to write this script, bless Toei.

Only 4 of the Digidestined participating in the battle against the Digidestined is kinda disappointing until I realized that it was a throwback to Our War Game - TK and Izzy get to participate more this time around! As per usual Tentomon (Kabuterimon) manages to sneak in a hilarious line here.

'Lime Magazine' just doesn't have the same ring to it...

TAI'S MAGAZINES...

Tai calling Agumon 'little buddy' is the second scene to hit me right in the feels.

Matt is the only one to reach out to the 02 kids during the movie, I wonder if he felt guilty about what went down in Tri and kept in touch with them a bit more since.

Seeing Kari and TK tied up in a dark room like that is actually one of the more shocking scenes in the movie. That could have ended very differently if this was a different movie...

Meiko shows up for literally one scene with Meicoomon which has... interesting implications. This movie retroactively makes her more tragic as well, as even if she didn't sacrifice Meicoomon there's a chance their partnership would have dissolved anyway - almost a complete lose-lose, there was no way for them to be happy together.

Himekawa is also retroactively more tragic as it's possible she would have been able to see Tapirmon again here - one shows up in the crowd shot!

Honestly this is the movie Himekawa deserved - she was a really interesting character that got wasted and underused in Tri, and while Menoa parallels her in a lot of ways her stoicism just isn't as interesting and Hime's decent into madness was.

L'il Joe has black hair now?

I'm pretty sure Menoa doesn't say "Oh shit" but honestly I'm gonna pretend she does.

I mentioned on Twitter how Leomon doesn't die in this one because he never showed up, but there's one fighting an Eosmon in what I think is Osaka and he doesn't die, and GOOD ON HIM, HE BROKE THE CYCLE!

Omnimon having limbs sliced off got an audible gasp from me.

Matt ACTUALLY got to curse in this movie, character development!!

"Just one thing: Meow" I had to pause the movie, I lost it

Story wise, theme wise, character wise I get it, but mad Sora got screwed over in this movie. Would have been nice if 'To Sora' was included inside of the movie at least.

I still don't like Agu and Gabu's new evolutions, but they did feel really earned and a natural extension of the plot. What better way to spark an evolution than such a huge sacrifice? Izzy's perfectly timed 'prodigious' was the icing on the cake, coming at such a fitting emotional moment and possibly being the last time we'll hear it from Izzy.

When the Eosmon start disappearing all over the world there's a shot of an exhausted lone Numemon who had clearly held off the Eosmon with all the poop that is strewn about. THAT is the next story I want to see.

Unfortunately this movie is in the Tri School of Only Using Champion Level. It's actually pretty inexcusable that we we don't see WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon one more time, but even the other characters should have gone up to Ultimate if not Mega for one final sendoff. I wish we could have seen them truely fight as a team once more, even just for fanservice.

My strongest complaint with the movie itself is that it just kinda... ends. The ending is super emotional, but it just skips ahead afterwards and says 'things are going to be ok!' and ends. I would have liked to see the rest of the kids once more, seeing how they handle the fallout or how they might support Tai and Matt - or maybe a little about what Tai and Matt have taken away from this whole things. Just felt like we needed an extra couple of minutes.

Will we see these particular versions of these characters again? From what I can tell this movie did well in Japan and it’s trending pretty well on Amazon, so who knows. I hope if we do, it’s because the writers come up with an idea they really believe in and not just for the sake of a sequel. But if not, I’m definately greatful for what we have.

#Digimon #Digimon Adventure #Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna

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faejilly · 4 years ago

Text

ashes of angels 3/6

Izzy isn’t terribly fond of people trying to kill her brother, either.

for @shadowhunterbingo square: proposal [AO3]

In slightly less time than she'd been expecting, (during which nothing at all had happened), Jace shows back up at the party, stepping to her side with yet another (full and untasted) drink between his fingers.

"Someone's got to realize that plan A failed by now," Izzy says. "We should take everything in the cabinet with us."

Jace pats the side of his jacket. "Magnus gave me something to help with that."

"Are there gloves, too?"

"Of course," Jace rolls his eyes at her. "You do not need to re-terrify me into proper forensic procedure, it stuck the first time."

Jace had already had pretty much every possible proper procedure terrified into him when he'd first come to them; it had been so delightful when he'd first started to throw them off, to realize he didn't have to be "perfect" in order to be family, that she didn't think any of them realized when the two of them first started going too far.

It's nice, now that they had a better balance, to know that he blames her for the few that stuck. "Glad to hear it," she offers him a patently false grin, and they go to collect their evidence and head back to the loft.

She wonders at what this is costing Magnus; four or five portals in and out of Alicante, plus whatever he'd done to help Alec, and whatever else he'd done to their poisoner when they'd kidnapped him. She knows he's powerful, but there has to be an end limit somewhere.

Not that he won't push past it for Alec's sake, but Alec wouldn't thank them if he wakes up to find his husband collapsed from magical exhaustion.

"Magnus doing all right?" Izzy asks as she unlocks the rune she'd set earlier, and slips her stele back out of sight.

Jace shakes out a silk bag full of separate pockets. It looks like it's designed to keep the magical signatures of whatever is put in it separate. He lifts his attention from the bag and just looks at her rather than answering.

She supposes she deserves that.

"I meant magically," she clarifies as she pulls her gloves on, letting the bottoms snap just a little against her wrists. It's such a satisfying little sound; makes her feel more in control of things.

Jace shrugs, his shoulders move but it's not enough to shift the angle of his hands. He keeps the bag open and steady between them. "Catarina was making him tea when we left? I think they've got it under control."

Izzy nods and starts unloading the cabinet: Vial of what is presumably the pixie dust solution. Two pairs of gloves, each of which she puts in a separate pocket, in case they'd been used by separate people, rather than being extras. A torn up envelope with some pencil marks on the corner that look a little too precise to just be scribbles. She considers the bus key; they didn't want anyone to notice it's gone, of course, but if they need their victim to be somewhere else later?

Not being able to find it will probably be better than it being in the wrong place, and the bag is clearly shielded. She puts the fake key into its own little pocket and reaches back into the cabinet one last time...

She can feel the edges of something, irregular and almost sharp. She grips it carefully and lifts it out into the light.

It startles a soft grunt of surprise out of Jace. "Is that a portal shard?"

"I think so," Izzy finds herself whispering, and tosses it into the bag.

Jace wraps it even more quickly than he'd unwrapped it originally; she thinks they're both getting impatient. It goes impressively flat once he's done, and he can even somehow slide it back into the inside pocket of his jacket without it ruining the line of it at all.

"That is a very elegant trick," she says.

Jace rolls his eyes at her. "You can drool over Magnus' toys later."

"Don't worry, I will."

Time to go.

Back to Magnus, back to the loft, back to the door of Alec's bedroom to check that he's still sleeping quietly... with Madzie dozing next to him now, and Izzy smiles at the sight.

Back to tea from Catarina for everyone.

Izzy sips hers gratefully, and they all take a moment to breathe.

"I have a question." Catarina speaks up first. "And feel free to tell me it's none of my business, but how far are you three planning on going?"

Magnus smiles at her, tilting his beautiful porcelain mug towards her in the clear echo of a toast. "You know my business is your business, any time you're willing to put up with it."

Catarina clicks her tongue, and Izzy smiles into her own mug.

"You could turn over what you have?" Catarina started.

"No." Izzy interrupts. She's placed the pattern on the envelope while she's been sitting here, letting all the evidence settle in her head. Helen had shown it to her once, a form of morse code that the Heavenly Fire project had used to send notices to only one place. "He works for the Inquisitor's Office, he's precisely the person we'd be turning it all over to."

Magnus goes much too stiff, and she knows that Alicante being wiped off the map is still one of the ways this night could end.

She's okay with that.

But she knows Alec wouldn't be.

"How sure are you?" Magnus asks.

Izzy shrugs. "90%. Even if he's not in the Inquisitor's Office, he's corresponded with them, he has connections there."

"Or he learned it from someone who did, same as you," Jace points out. But she can tell that he's just poking at holes to see how she'll fill them, not because he disagrees with her conclusions.

"They drugged a Head of an Institute at a formal Clave function and had reason to believe that, even if the results played out in public, that they could get away with it." Izzy leans too far forward in her chair, her voice a hiss as the rage in her gut tries to boil over. She swallows, puts her mug down on the coffee table, and makes herself sit back. Pretends she's calm.

Pixie dust would have made her brother lose all self-control, could have cost him the most important parts of his identity, and if Magnus hadn't been there? Survival might have almost been worse than death, and pixie dust isn't merciful there, either, the brain practically melting away as the blood boils off. "The higher levels of the Clave are still compromised, despite all their losses."

"We're going as far as we can, and we'll clean up whatever needs cleaning afterwards." Jace answers Catarina's original question. "How's Alec doing?"

Izzy kicks the side of his leg, but luckily Catarina just shakes her head, a hint of a smile on her face.

"I wasn't suggesting you stop, Nephilim. I just wanted to make sure you could keep up with him." She points at Magnus, who takes another sip of his tea and somehow manages to look entirely too innocent to have ever had an untoward thought. "Your brother is fine, I have several spells set to monitor him. He probably won't wake up for another ten to twelve hours though."

"That gives us time to wrap them all up in a nice present for him, then." Izzy shifts her focus back to Magnus. "You have a plan?"

"You're not going to like it." Magnus blinks at her, slow and steady, and she catches a hint of gold, then red, between his lashes. "Or Jace isn't. You'll have to let me know."

Jace waves a hand at him to keep going.

"We're going to send him in." Magnus tilts his head, clearly indicating the man in the guest room.

"The vegetable?" Jace asks. He looks unimpressed.

"Well." Magnus' face scrunches up, as if he doesn't even want to be hear whatever he's planning to say next. "One of you. In his body."

The silence after that is very heavy.

"What." Catarina breaks it first.

"Well, after the whole..." Magnus trails off, waved a hand in a vague circle in the air. "Azazel, thing."

Jace winces.

"I figured out how he did it, and how it could be done by a warlock instead?"

"What?" Catarina repeats, louder and higher pitched than the last time.

"I don't like being surprised," Magnus replies, his voice surprisingly steady, and Izzy decides that really is all the explanation needed, considering.

"But you ripped out his memories," Jace said. "How are we supposed to be him if he's brain-dead."

"If he's magically brain-dead," Catarina pauses, glances at Magnus just long enough to get a nod in confirmation, "then his physical brain is fine. You'll be able to walk around as him."

"And he'll then be a vegetable in one of our bodies?" Izzy asks.

Magnus' face scrunches up again as he nods.

Ew.

"Don't forget, whichever one of you Magnus switches will be walking around in a body with a full-strength Circle rune, and all the limits that places on you." Catarina frowns into her mug. "And Magnus is the only one who knows how to get you back."

Izzy suppresses a shudder. It's a risk... but it's for Alec. "I studied the limits of the Circle rune, and the slightly modified one the Clave used, after Hodge..." she stops. After Hodge covers a lot of things. "I think I can work around them."

Jace looks even less happy about that than he had about bringing "the vegetable" into it in the first place, but he doesn't argue. They both know Jace is a better fighter, both by inclination and via his ability to activate his runes as needed; he'll be more help as back-up in his own body, if things go wrong.

"We have his memories." Magnus says.

Isabelle nods, lets out a breath. "Let's figure out where we need to go."

#hmdiscord #shadowhunters #isabelle lightwood #jace lightwood #magnus bane #catarina loss #my sh fic #jilly writes #ashes of angels #shadowhunter bingo

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