#like the series are pretty much crack to an extent

[hi-iamaj]

Just got to read the first tintin book (the adventures of tintin - in the land of soviets) and I'm convinced that this is just one big crack story and that tintin is a little shit

Like look at this smug bastard

He really said 'try me bitch'

[junnieverse]

— DRUNK BOYFRIEND ENHYPEN ! 💭

➙ drunk boyfriend enhypen thoughts

pairing: enhypen x gn!reader

genre: crack, fluff

request: " i just want to say that the enhypen drunk series (?) is so cute. can i request that you do one of where the members don’t recognize their partner bc they’re drunk and tells them to back off LAMSOSKD i’ve seem sm tiktoks on this "

warnings: for obvious reasons ni-ki was not included, mentions of alcohol/drinking, lowercase intended, not proofread

a/n: had a brainrot moment so I hope nothing sounds too repetitive or 'boring' but I also hope it makes you all laugh, thanks anon!

🖇️ — 양정원 ; JUNGWON !

"Jungwon calm down baby, it's just me!" you try to reason with him as he hid behind jay

"Stop saying we're dating! I don't know who you are, Jay tell them to get away!" he defends himself as jay awkwardly laughs being trapped in the middle

what was once a night out with the guys soon turned into jungwon trying to kick you out of your own house because he claimed you were a crazy fan that broke in claiming to be his partner

your boyfriend didn't enjoy drinking to begin with but his members convinced him to have a few celebratory drinks and he had one too many he could handle

"I know taekwondo! I-I won't fight you but I will if necessary. What did you do to my partner?" he said glaring at you lifting up his tiny fists as his cheeks and ears became more rosy tinted

jungwon was usually pretty calm, but seeing as he could barely recognise you and he thought you were kidnapped or hurt he got quite riled up and defensive

looking over to jay you shake your head in disappointment knowing you would have to deal with your boyfriend who didn't even want to be near you

"Look what you guys did, you broke him."

🖇️ — 이희승 ; HEESEUNG !

"This is insane... I didn't know (y/n) had an identical twin, the resemblance is uncanny." heeseung says poking your cheek

asian flushed and completely wasted, dealing with a dazed heeseung who didn't recognise you was not part of your plans at 2 am on a sunday

"That's because I am (y/n), I don't have a twin baby." you correct him swatting his hand away from your face

suddenly becomes more giggly and nothing he says makes sense anymore

"I have the best partner actually. I haven't seen them today though, but it was great meeting you, the family genes must be super strong. Woah, you even have the same mole on your nose like they do, that's crazy!" your boyfriend says clapping as he covered his mouth in shock

"Lee Heeseung, we've been together for 3 years and you know I only have an older brother. I don't have a twin." you remark once again trying not to shake him so he gets back to his senses

no matter how many times you try to tell him you're dating him, he still believes you're just his partner's identical twin

wakes up the next morning asking where you were the entire night and how he met your 'twin' he hadn't known about

🖇️ — 박종성 ; JAY !

jay knew how to handle his liquor quite well but it seemed he had something stronger he couldn't handle

when he was drunk he was either extremely loud or just quiet and stoic, no in between

unfortunately tonight he was on the more reserved and quiet side of his drunkenness

what you weren't expecting was for your boyfriend to be drunk to the extent of not recognising you

"Here's some water to help you sober up honey." you say giving him a bottle of water to which he shook his head pushing it away

"If this is your way of flirting, I'm not interested. You can leave." he says coldly not even glancing at you

to say you were shocked was a complete understatement, you were flabbergasted, appalled

"Jay what, you're literally dating me." you say not believing how incredibly drunk he was

"I think I know what my partner looks like thank you very much, and how do you even know my name-" he asks glaring at you as a small hiccup escapes from his lips

at some point, you couldn't even get through to your stubborn boyfriend and his friends had to help him sober up before he finally started to recognise who you were

🖇️ — 심재윤 ; JAKE !

jake drinking was one thing, he could handle himself

jake drinking with friends and really letting loose was another thing

everything would be going well up until the blackout stage

finding your boyfriend passed out at the table you had reserved you shake him awake and he looks at you confused

"Let's go home baby, you're extremely drunk now." you tell him running a hand gently through his hair

"I'm sorry but who are you?" jake asks trying to keep his eyes open as his speech came out slurred and soft

"I'm your partner Jake." you laugh at the confusion

his eyes suddenly widen as he steps away from you seemingly to have his sleep kicked out of his body

"No way! I have a girlfriend already, her name is Layla!" he says with a slight stutter which usually happened when he blatantly lied

"Jake, sweetie... Layla is your dog."

🖇️ — 박성훈 ; SUNGHOON !

this was your first time witnessing sunghoon being this drunk

I'm taking wasted to the point that your own boyfriend couldn't even recognise you and it was breaking your heart

"Sunghoon, it's me love, stop trying to run away." you say chasing after him across the playground as he hid in one of the tubes

"Leave me alone! I don't know you! My mom said not to talk to strangers." he said glaring at you as you laughed softly at his childish manners

heeseung mentioned he was drunk but never did you expect him to have been on this level

"I'm your partner Hoonie, did you really forget me." you pout trying to crawl over to him in the tube

"Well whoever you are, you're nice and all but my partner probably thinks I'm missing so I need to go find them." he pats your head leaving through the slide as you sigh to go after him once again

he did eventually come back to his senses but he didn't remember half of what happened

"Where have you been?? This one weirdo kept following me around claiming it was you." he whispers the last part looking around afraid he was still being followed by the 'stranger'

how this tall man managed to squeeze into those tiny play area tubes remains a mystery

🖇️ — 김선우 ; SUNOO !

"You remind me alot of my partner. Not only do you look alot like them but you're sweet and funny too." sunoo tells you as he hiccuped

"That's because I am your partner angel." you say to him with a soft smile

here you were with an arm around a drunk sunoo taking him home after a night out with friends at a bar

although it seemed your boyfriend had a little too much because he couldn't recognise you

he simply thought you were a kind stranger who was helping him that oddly knew his name, knew where he lived and looked extremely alike to his lover

nothing out if the ordinary, plus he was too drunk to analyse and question how weird everything seemed

"No you aren't, my partner always has our matching ring on." he says with a pout showing you the ring on his pinky finger

lifting your hand you show him the ring and his eyes immediately widen

"You stole it from them!" he accuses you as he gasped in shock

[dreamtuna]

Be a Good Girl For Me, Won’t You?

Attack on Titan - Levi x Reader || smut, fem!Reader, daddy, petnames, spanking, orgasm denial

Word Count: 725

This is the second piece in my Daddy series - a series of short pieces inspired by the Karatetsu/Karatez black suit official art. "Daddy" || Spanking || more to come...

The sound crackled in the room, reverberating in your ears as the pain blossomed across your skin, pink fingers of pleasure left in its wake. You winced, fingers tightening on his pant leg. He had pulled you over his knee so easily, promising you a lesson to learn as he gently lowered you down. “You really think that’s acceptable?” Levi growled, rubbing your rosy ass cheek.

The leather of his glove was soft and while it was certainly soothing against your tingling skin, it also held him at a distance from you. You longed for the feeling of his skin against your own, gripping you and giving you that closeness.

You frowned. “I was gonna do it, I swear. I just got caught up in stuff and-” Crack! His hand came down across your ass cheek again, making you yelp in surprise. He massaged your soft skin roughly. It made you groan. “I’m sorry, Daddy,” you whimpered, lowering your head. “That’s better, my pretty girl,” Levi whispered. “Don’t think you’re getting out of this that easily though.”

You couldn’t help but groan and wiggle on his lap but he just continued to massage you, hand gripping your soft cheeks possessively. A growing desire blazed in your core with each strike. It would be a lie to say you didn’t enjoy this to some extent, although you much preferred not upsetting him enough to warrant such actions. But you also knew he loved hooking his fingers into your waistband, pulling both layers down and exposing your bare skin for him. You knew he loved admiring the way the pink spread across your skin.

You felt him twitch near your body where you lay over his lap. He was getting more excited every time his hand fell on you. His voice was growing more hoarse and when you looked up at him it was no surprise to see the dark fire burning in his eyes.

“Good girl, you’re taking it so well,” he told you as his hand came down again and your back arched for him.

His gloved fingers drifted down, dipping between your legs and grazing against your wet slit. Without even trying he effortlessly slipped inside you. The way you moaned so shamelessly for him had him groaning in response.

“You’re so fucking wet for me,” he hissed.

You lay there across his knee as he fingered you, not even bothering to remove his gloves now he’d already slipped inside. It hadn’t been his intention, but something about the barrier between him and your slick warmth was driving him crazy.

Levi leaned down closer to you. “Did you learn your lesson?”

“Yes, Daddy!” you whined. “I’m sorry, I’ll do better next time!”

“Feels like you enjoyed your punishment.”

“N-No…” You groaned loudly. Your voice was weak as you continued. “It just feels too good.”

“Tch.”

Levi worked your pussy more harshly, relishing in the way you writhed and moaned for him. Warmth flooded your core, spreading rapidly throughout your body. Every nerve ending seemed to tingle. It didn’t take long before you were panting for him, thighs clenching in anticipation.

He smirked and pulled his fingers out.

You squealed, hastily begging him to let you cum, the words spilling out of your mouth. But he just looked down at you, enjoying the desperation on your face. He shook his head.

“This is your punishment for enjoying your punishment,” he said with a chuckle.

His hand came down on your ass one more time before he roughly pulled you up and pushed you off his knee. You stumbled several steps forward before looking back at him. He sat back, crossing his legs. He held his wet gloved hand to his face, biting one of the drenched fingers and pulling the glove off slowly, maintaining eye contact with you the whole time.

“Go on, back to whatever distracted you so much,” he said, dismissing you, lips curling into the slightest hint of a smile.

You huffed, turning away from him. You were halfway out the room when you heard his voice again.

“And don’t you dare think about finishing the job yourself,” he warned you, knowing damn well you had been intending to throw yourself on the bed to finish getting off as soon as you got back to the bedroom. “Be a good girl for me, won’t you?”

[sethsclearwater]

reader comforting paul which he’s not used to because normally he feels like he has to be super masculine and not show emotions but she teaches him how to be vulnerable- maybe ending up with him falling asleep with his face in the crook of her neck while he softly sleeps

you'd known paul was getting more and more stressed recently with the increase in patrol shifts, keeping you safe, and dealing with his own family problems that you were pretty sure you didn't know the full extent of because of his refusal to discuss any of it with you.

you understood the patrol shifts making his stressed out and were doing your best to make sure he knew you were perfectly fine but couldn't seem to get him to talk about whatever his family problems were with you. all you really knew was that he and his dad had gotten into some kind of fight (which, to be quite frank, happened more often than it probably should) but this time it appeared to be over his mom which was new.

you'd never met her seeing as she wasn't really involved in paul's life aside from giving birth to him and paul never seemed interested in talking about her that much. so whatever came up recently was new for you, paul, and his dad and was really stressing him out.

he had just gotten home from patrol and headed straight into the shower while you went and sat down in bed, putting on a movie you both liked before you started working at braiding your freshly washed hair so it wouldn't look crazy in the morning.

paul definitely took his time in the shower and came out about a half an hour later wearing his favorite pair of sweatpants and no shirt per usual.

you offered him a soft smile when you saw him, "i missed you," you murmured as he laid down in the bed next to you, "a lot," you added with a small giggle, reaching your hand down to gently thread your fingers through his wet hair.

although he didn't respond, he did crack a bit of a smile that had you feeling a bit less worried about him, "you don't have patrol tomorrow, right?" you asked as you soothingly scratched at his scalp, smiling to yourself when he adjusted himself so he could lay his head in your lap, seeming to like your touch.

he hummed, "no patrol tomorrow," he assured, voice quiet as he reached his hand over to intertwine his fingers with your free hand, "you're not going anywhere tomorrow, right?" he asked softly, peeking up at you only to see you smiling down at him and shaking your head.

"not going anywhere," you cooed, leaning down to press a gentle kiss to his temple, "i think we should stay here for the day," you suggested, squeezing his hand, "you need some rest," you added softly and he seemed to think about your proposal for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh and nodding.

"you're right," he mumbled as he rested his cheek back down on your thigh, eliciting a series of giggles from you.

"i usually am," you teased, smiling when paul let out a breathy laugh at your comment, his shoulders dropping as he noticeably began to relax a bit in your lap, "do you wanna order something for dinner? i'm starving," you added, not actually that hungry but you knew he most definitely was considering how ridiculously high his metabolism was.

he nodded, humming a bit as you took your fingers out of his hair for a moment to grab your phone so you could figure out what to order. he looked over his shoulder with a frown on his face and you giggled again, already knowing he was not happy that you stopped scratching his scalp.

"let me do it," he said, taking your phone from you so he could place the order and you could get back to gently running your fingers through his hair.

the two of you remained pretty quiet for the next few minutes while paul placed an order at a restaurant both of you liked, just listening to the movie quietly play in the background.

you noticed him yawn as he set your phone to the side, "you can go to sleep, i'll wake you up once it's here," you reassured, offering his hand a soft squeeze.

paul paused again, not used to being the one cared for, "you sure?" he asked after a moment, peeking over his shoulder again to look at you and scan your features for any signs of annoyance with him.

all he saw was you smiling at him before you leaned down to press a quick kiss to his lips, "positive," you reassured, "i'll be right here," you added and he nodded, seeming content with your answer as he rested his head against your thigh again.

it didn't take long for him to drift off, your touch and the movie quietly playing in the background combined with the fatigue already plaguing him making it easy for him to fall asleep in your lap and finally get some much needed rest.

[drewstcrkey]

Stuck In My Ways : Rafe Cameron .

Summary: y/n is accepted by both kooks and pogues and after ditching your brother, john b for a kook party you realize you might just lean towards one side of the island than the other. Pairing: Rafe Cameron x Routledge!Reader Warnings: Handsy Rafe Word Count: semi long lol Author Note: so pretty much my intention is to turn this into a series. i already have part two halfway written. if you guys like this so far let me know because the ideas i have for this series are wild!! also i did not proof reach this so i'm sorry for any typos.

you tiptoed the line between two worlds. a happy medium most couldn't even fathom. you were both pogue and kook. moving to figure eight to live with your estranged aunt when your father disappeared. it was a easy decision on her part, given you were already enrolled in kook academy long before your father's disappearance. john b was quick to urge you to take the opportunity and you made the promise to help him out as much as you could. he was your brother after all. despite your life taking a 180 turn, you still managed to maintain your friendship with the pogues. to an extent. you didn't see them as much, your kook friends surprisingly needy once they'd decided you were officially one of them.

"did kelce tell you, y/n?" blonde, known as sav, questions as she finds a space on the beach towel. wet hair sprinkling droplets on your dry skin with a flip of her hair.

"party tonight? yeah," you nod, readying yourself to break the news you didn't intend on showing up.

"oh goodie, me and chloe are going to get ready at my place so just get there at like 7 and we'll pregame while we get ready," bright smile as the girl pulled her phone from her beach bag.

"oh my god yeah, i already got the truly's from my brother so we're good," chloe's giddy voice chimed in as she leaned over into the conversation.

"yeah... i'm not going," you sighed, rubbing your hand on the back of your neck awkwardly. both girls faces dropping as if their miniature puppies had been run over or something.

"funny," chloe laughed, "this is going to be the party of the year, what do you have better to do?"

a roll of your eyes as you looked up at the clear sky, "my brother-" before you could so much get the rest of your sentence out sav interrupted. "oh come on, what does he have another scavenger hunt he's trying to drag you on? you don't even like stuff like that," she groaned, pout prominent on her face. a laugh coming from you, she wasn't wrong. if you had to admit, kook life suited you much more than getting dirty out on the cut.

"i'm taking the silence as your coming," chloe's giddy demeanor returning, with a short clap of her hands. you decided to stop putting up a fight, knowing you were fighting a losing battle anyways. kelce's parties were always fun anyways, although there was no way you'd be able to tell john b you were ditching him and the pogues for a party at kelce's. there was no world would that could go over well.

your brother was always protective of you, even though you were a year older than him and he'd placed one big rule on the circumstances of you going kook. steer clear of the golden trio : topper, kelce, and rafe. for the most part you did. by no means would you consider the three guys close friends of your but you were friendly with them. it came in handy when it came to parties, the three over them known for throwing some of the best ones on this side of the island.

---------- later that night . ----------

your greeted by cheering from your best friends as you exit your white jeep. both girls stood at the front porch. sav holding out a truly, already cracked open for you. "we thought we were going to have to go make a detour to save you from the cut," sav laughed, as you took the truly. shaking your head, laugh syncing with hers before you brought the can to your lips.

once the three of you made your way up to sav's room you set your bag down by the door, conversation on how the night was going to go already in full swing. "do you think tonight kelce will finally make a move?" sav bounces on her bed for a moment. she's had a crush on kelce for as long as you'd known her and only recently had he started to show some interest. you hoped for her sake tonight was her night.

"oh for sure," you give an assured nod.

"he was all over you the other day at the country club," chloe added.

"speaking of all over someone at the country club," sav smirked, as both girls turned their attention your way. you looked at them both confused.

"what?" you asked, not fully sure what the two of them were getting at.

"oh my god, y/n/n, don't play stupid. rafe is so into you," chloe tilted her head to the side, her words coming out like this was some sort of common knowledge. sav's nod only reaffirms that. you this wasn't true though. rafe cameron was not into you and even if he was ... he was off limits. john b would kill you, himself.

"he is not," you groan, "he was just being nice," remember how he'd brought you over a drink from the bar while you were all by the course. the way his hand pressed on your lower back sent chills up your spine that you would never admit to.

"name one time rafe has ever been nice to anyone he didn't want to get into bed?" sav laughed, making you stop before responding. she had a point, but still, you refuse to even let your mind harp on the idea for to long. you'd heard your brother's stories of the eldest cameron and although you didn't necessarily believe all of them, they were enough for you to put your faith in heeding your brother's warning.

"lets just get ready," turning to your bag, any way to get off this topic. both girls shrug, giggling to each other for a second before you all fall into getting ready.

doja cat playing on full blast, girly giggles just nearly tuning the sound of the music out. you'd made your way through nearly all the truly cans between the three of you, a good buzz going. it was a good thing sav lived so close to kelce's house. the walk wouldn't be too long, both ways. seeing as you were planning to stay at her place for the night. her parents out on the mainland for the week.

"okay! kelce just texted me asking if we're on the way," sav squealed. you and chloe join in on the excitement as you all grab the last three cans and set on your way over to the party. it was only an hour in and you had a great buzz going, so good you and topper had beat out three other pairs at beer pong. something you were only good at with the right amount of alcohol in your system.

"one second," you called out, feeling your phone going off.

"oh c'mon, y/n, we're just heating up," topper whined, arm wrapping around your shoulder before you raise your phone up. showing an incoming call from your brother, he sighs and lets you go on your way. legs carrying you up the stairs and into a guest bedroom so that you could answer john b with some peace and quiet.

"where are you? your locations off?" was the first thing he said when you tapped the green button. a sigh coming from you.

"calm down, fbi, i'm with sav and chloe like i said ... the guy sav likes pulled a real dick move," you lie, plopping down on the bed in the middle of the room. you hated lying to john b, but he just wouldn't understand if you told him you chose to go to a kook party over hanging out with him and the rest of the pogues at the chateau.

"i'm just making sure you're safe," you could tell in his voice he'd missed you. you missed him to. a loud thud coming from somewhere in the house, followed by cheering. pulling your phone from your face for a second , mouthing 'fuck' to yourself, hoping he hadn't heard anything.

"what was that?" he asked. of course, he'd heard it. the sound probably echoed throughout the entire neighborhood.

"uh, nothing, just the tv," you tried to explain away, "i'll call you tomorrow, okay? i got to go, love you," before he could even get his own i love you out you were already hitting the red button on your phone screen. fear that the partygoers downstairs would find another way to try and get you caught in your lie. dropping your phone onto the bed for a second, relieved sigh falling as you shoulders slouched for a moment.

"i didn't take you for a liar," a familiar voice announces itself. startled you look up, to find smug grin right above you.

"rafe," you stutter out. when did he get here? and why was he just lurking around listening to your phone call.

"y/n," he let out a dry laugh before finding a space beside you on the bed.

"what are you doing in here?" you ask, as if he can't throw the same question your way.

"well, this is my room for the night," brows raises as he licks over his lips. your own brows knit together, was he really planning on getting that drunk that he couldn't even make it back to tanneyhill? you notice the half empty bottle of whiskey he's offering to you and you've already received your answer to your own question.

"uh, sure," you give him a smile, taking the bottle and taking a swig of it. liquor burning every inch of your throat. you'd always been more of a hard seltzer kind of girl. as you regain your composure you can feel blue eyes studying you and your cheeks heat up under his gaze.

"good shit, right?" he says before you give the bottle back. all you do is give him a nod before you stand up, kneading out your pink sundress that you now were hyperaware of how it hugged every curve of your body.

"yeah, thanks for that," a nervous laugh tumbles from you. normally you weren't so awkward around him but you were in a bedroom, just you, rafe, and a bottle of whiskey. you may have been buzzed but even you knew that wasn't a good look. before you can much headway toward the door you feel a hand tug at your arm, just strong enough to pull you back toward rafe but gentle enough not to hurt. your eyes widen as you look down at him and you notice the small pout on his lips.

"yes rafe," you try and laugh off the random action, free hand flipping through your hair.

"where do you think you're going?" his strong hands find their way to your hips and that's when you realize you're positioned right in between his legs. your heart nearly jumping out of your chest. "looking like that," his teeth raking over his bottom lip as he takes a moment to look you over.

"i-" you don't even know how to respond, not sure if your brain was fuzzy from the alcohol or from the shock of rafe cameron giving you a compliment. he had to be trashed, right? hum coming from the guy in front of you, your mind focused on the way he thumbed at your hips through your dress.

"i should really get back to the girls," you gulped, trying to get out of his grasp but his hold was firm.

"don't go, y/n." smirk playing on his lips as he stands, now towering over you. "we never get any time alone."

you face drops at his words and for a moment you can't help but to think back to what chloe and sav had said earlier in the night. were they right? did rafe actually have a thing for you? shaking your head slightly. it didn't matter. whether he was or not, your loyalty had to stand with john b, if not on anything than on this matter. rafe's hand moves up to your jaw, lifting up head up to look up at him. blue eyes searching your for a green light from you.

"my brother, he hates you," you choke out, skin tingling under his touch. your words don't have the effect you thought they would they and he leans his head back for a second, laugh taking over the silence in the air.

"yeah, i'm not his biggest fan either," he shrugs, gaze falling back onto you. hand on your hip pulls you closer to him, his body now pressed up on yours and for second you question whether you'll crumble under his touch. you had eyes like everyone else, to say he wasn't attractive would be a flat out lie. even if you didn't love that you thought so. "from what i saw earlier you don't let his opinion dictate your decisions anyways," his comment leaves you biting at your cheeks. eyes falling to the floor.

"i'm just not this girl," you finally pull yourself out of his grasp, once again straightening out your dress. heavy sigh falling from you, one you hadn't even realized you'd been holding in that entire time. eyes flutter as you look back at rafe. a disappointed look on his face.

"what kind of girl do you think i think you are?" he asked, sitting back down onto the bed. hands push into the bed as he leans back, eyes still very much so glued onto your figure. it makes you self conscious, even though no one's gaze has ever made you feel like that before.

"i don't know," you shrug, shifting in the spot you were standing in. "the type that would fuck you in a guest bedroom at a party," your brow raising at him and all he responds with is a laugh that almost makes you question if you made up everything that had just happened in the last few minutes.

"i wasn't going to fuck you," he his licks lips again, "i mean, i'd love to, but that wasn't the plan," he shrugs, your heart feels like it's about to fall out of your chest again at his words. a knowing look etched onto his features. you are too stunned by the whole interaction to even try to piece together another sentence.

"i won't make any moves," he holds up his hands before patting the space you once occupied on the bed. you look over at the door then back at rafe. "unless you think you'd have more fun out there," he leans over to grab the whsikey bottle set on the floor. bringing the bottle to pink lips as he looks you over, awaiting your decision. the look on his face lets you know he thinks he knows your choice before you even make it. rolling your eyes and settle back onto the bed, crossing your legs so that your facing him, hands quickly pulling at your dress to cover yourself as best as possible. admittedly, rafe had always intrigued you and he was right the two of you never had much time alone. only ever having interactions when you were with your respective friends.

"why aren't you trying to get back down there?" you ask, eyes searching his face for an answer before he gives you one, but he was always so hard to read. if you were going to spend your time with him, you'd mine as well shed the awkwardness you felt from being in a bedroom alone with him and just be yourself.

"the only reason i'm here is right in front of me," he smiled and weirdly he sounded genuine. you didn't understand.

"shut up," you laugh, slapping at his arm. "seriously?"

"i'm not joking," he laughed, arm reaching over towards you. free hand thumbs at your bottom lip. silently telling you to open up so he can pour some of the whiskey in your mouth for you. you follow his lead, tapping at his arm to tell him when to stop. "she can drink, huh?" he teases, giving you a playful nudge as you swallow the big pour he'd just given you. you just look at him for a second, you'd be lying if you said you knew where any of this was coming from. maybe you were just too drunk to accurately piece together what was actually happening.

"okay, so now that you got what you wanted from this party..." you start and you can feel the whiskey now taking it's toll on your brain. body heating up, although you can't decipher whether thats due to the alcohol or rafe training his gaze on you.

"i wouldn't say i got what i wanted," he picks up where your words left off. your bottom lip pokes out, now extremely confused. "not yet atleast," he shrugged, he leans over again placing the bottle back down on the floor but he doesn't go back to regaining the distance between the two of you. a comfortable distance might you add. his hand finds it's way back onto your hip as he pulls you down further onto the bed. laying you down onto the bed, his body hovering over you. you can feel your breath hitch under him, you're freaking out.

"rafe," you mumble as he runs his thumb over you lip.

"shh," he hums, taking in your how beautiful you look under him. "i want you, y/n." his voice gentle, a tone you'd never heard from him before now. it made your stomach rumble with butterflies. "but i won't do anything you don't want me to," his words sound like a promise and your heart tells you that you can trust him. his eyes search yours and before you can even catch yourself your hand snakes over the back of his neck. your lips pressing against his, he returns the kiss. the two of you moving in sync as his tongue darts in and out of your mouth. you're kissing rafe cameron and as quickly as the thought enters your mind it goes away when you feel his hands moving up and down your body.

the kiss growing deeper, both of you becoming more hungry for one another and it hits you in this moment...

you wanted him too.

[onesidedradiostatic]

Personally I think they're both huffing a bit of copium about one another (Vox and Alastor) but Alastor is better at hiding it/maintaing his cool. We know that at least Valentino feels confident enough to goad Vox into taking the bait, that Alastor "almost" beat him last time. It's an interesting attitude compared to Vox's. Even Velvette doesn't seem all that concerned with Alastor, both her and Valentino are confident in the Vees current status and it's only Vox's personal insecurities that prevent him from sharing that mindset.

Vox's medium IS the victor in the grand scheme of things, he (along with the other Vees) ARE more relevant than Alastor/radio. And Vox is also capable of upgrading/improving himself over time in a way Alastor (from what we've seen) is not. It's so interesting seeing Vox unable to fully realize his strength/power - he can say it all he wants, but I don't think he really believes it. We the audience, however, know that visual media is king... case in point we are watching this series as a show on screens. Vox's hypnotism and electric powers are also pretty OP, he's got a good deck of cards (even though we haven't seen the full extent of how he can really leverage these yet).

And let's not forget Alasor BOOKED IT across town to get back at Vox during Stayed Gone. I think Alasor is (and should be) somewhat nervous (maybe "cautiously aware" is a better term) about the influence Vox and the Vees have regarding the future of media. He doesn't crack easily, as we've seen, but he cares enough to engage with Vox which he doesn't bother doing with outright "lessers".

In this way the dynamic is more even (in my opinion) than many give it credit for, which I personally prefer, but to each their own... for me, if it's not more equally matched, I struggle to see how the Vees will be worthwhile antagonists in the next season and that would be such a shame for characters that have so much potential. I just love the Vees!

(prev ask)

ehh I mean I do feel that they are on more equal level than some of the fandom may make them out to be but I still don't feel like they're exactly on the same level. like every time I see takes about mutual stuff between them I still can't fully agree cause to me, it's still on some level imbalanced. I do think they are of roughly equal power yes, but I think alastor being able to keep his cool is in fact a point towards him having the upperhand. it's the fact that vox is literally incapable of keeping his cool when it comes to alastor that spells more of his weakness when it comes to him I think. but yeah I mean how the vees, or rather vox will be a proper antagonist when he's so easily defeated by alastor is what I've been asking for a while LMAO.

and the thing is, we've seen instances like alastor being somewhat scared when zestial pops up, his mask slipping when starting stupid beef with lucifer (his eye is literally twitching the moment lucifer steps into the hotel LMAO), and of course with his fight with adam. we don't see any of that when it comes to the vees/vox, alastor waves them off as "nobody important" when niffty asks, easily tramples vox in stayed gone (and yes, he did immediately go back to his radio tower to bite back, but I don't think that's necessarily out of fear, could've easily just been he saw he was being insulted on live tv and HAD to bite back because he's a petty bitch), and gloated to him about having to "try harder than that" after failing to spy on him.

in my view, he doesn't see the vees or vox as a serious threat. HOWEVER, I do think that could easily be a point against alastor. his cockiness and not taking them seriously could very well come bite him in the back (JUUUUST like with adam!)

but when it comes to his current season 1 dynamic with vox, I do think he has the upperhand because of their different attitudes. if vox was able to keep his cool like alastor he wouldn't have caused a city-wide blackout over stayed gone LMAO. they're definitely more leveled power-wise though I think, the difference comes in their attitudes. if vox won the idgaf war a bit more they'd be more leveled, but he has chosen to obsess over him 24/7 so here we are.

[mashleverse]

#38 [MASH RADIO] - Web Radio feat. Kobayashi Chiaki & Eguchi Takuya

Mash Radio is back! Just like before, messy summary is under read more below.

Unlike the usual one where the guest was supposed to be the one reading the opening, now it's Kobayashi who read the opening segment, while Eguchi immediately cracked open a cold one!

Kobayashi talked about how Mashle as a series is now becoming so widely beloved and popular, that the detective-themed event back then was also a huge success!

Kobayashi: "After the events of S1 and S2, what do you think about Dot so far?" ; Eguchi: *with flat tone* "He made me use a lot of loud voices."

Eguchi also said that he'd never played a role that made him use such a head-numbingly loud voice to the same extent as he did for Dot, where he had to speak in such ways in both anime and even drama CDs.

They're talking about the main characters' seiyuus, a lot of times about Kawashima (Finn's VA), and sometimes about Ishikawa (Lance's VA)! The Mashle casts seem very close!

As both of them are reading the letters from listeners, everyone is pretty happy to welcome Mashle Web Radio back!

After reading the listener's letters, they recall what happened during the detective-themed event a few months ago, and suddenly... Eguchi: Kaji-san... is dressing in such a weird outfit. Kobayashi: *confused* Are we... are we supposed to talk about this publicly?

What Eguchi meant is that during the event, when Umehara (Abel's VA) asked the audience to form a pose, Eguchi seemed to notice how strange Kaji (Rayne's VA) outfit at that time was, so much it was stuck in his memories and he wondered why he had such memories. Kobayashi recalled too that a while ago he met Kaji for a work in a different series, and there he wore a strange outfit as well, described by Kobayashi as "a stylish guy who goes all out when he puts himself on the line (?)". Eguchi said: "As expected of fellow seiyuus from Showa generation!"

There are no minigame sessions, only reading letters and a lot of fun talk between Kobayashi and Eguchi!

Kobayashi went to watch the Mashle Stage 2.5! He said it was amazing! He praised the actors and actresses' huge respect for the original work and the anime, especially how the actors' and actresses' voices are very close to the anime's seiyuus, including stage Dot's explosive performance! Eguchi: I'm worried about his throat! (because Dot screams a lot)

And that's it for this episode's Mashle web radio!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting: Holghras Results

Now for what everyone -- or at least a certain percentage -- has been waiting for: the results for the Holghras! Anyone who found that sentence confusing can catch up by checking this page: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting .

This time around, they should all fit into one post, as the response was a little smaller. I see how it is: everyone wants to draw Spooky Corpse-Eater With Magic, but nobody wants to draw Horny Bird With Problems.

I kid, of course. The Wutugald had some pretty clear visual elements that people could hook onto, but the Holghras entry is mostly about its behavior and doesn't give much information on what it looks like beyond "it's a bird". So it's pretty clear why people might have a harder time drawing artistic inspiration from that one. (And I really and truly appreciate those of you who took a crack at it anyway.) The level of physical description is going to vary a lot entry to entry, I'm afraid -- to some extent I think it's about whether it's an animal the reader is expected to be familiar with, but there are definitely a few detailed visual descriptions of animals most medieval Europeans would have seen because the author wants to do some symbolism. So it's a toss-up. Anyway, here's the link to the description people are working from:

And the results, again roughly in order of appearance. If yours isn't here, let me know -- I saw one post that said something about Tumblr eating their original attempt, presumably out of Bird Homophobia. I'm happy to reblog any that I missed due to Tumblr's functionality.

@bruncikara (link to post here) gives us our first interpretation. I really enjoy the medieval bestiary style, including the use of the Generic Medieval Plant that always reminds me of mutant asparagus. I think the border is designed to evoke the thorns in which the Holghras nests, which I also appreciate. The bird's pose, flat on its back with its neck curved up, is great, and it's shown performing its signature Hide With Dirt move. I think at least some of the inspiration comes from quails here, judging by the head... feather... thing... [Wikipedia break] ... okay, apparently it's just called a "plume", which I should have guessed. This is the first example of the common (and correct!) assumption that the Holghras is a member of the order Galliformes.

@jamiethekeener (link to post here) gives us this one, also posing with its signature dirt clods. I'm reminded of a cardinal, personally. The artist provides a brief comment on their design, noting that they are not a bird expert. I think this is a pretty cute juvenile bird, and the way it holds the dirt comes off as kind of playful.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has produced another very naturalistic drawing, which (in my non-expert opinion) manages to look very much like a real bird without specifically looking like any bird in particular. They apparently do know birds, because they specifically name-drop Galliformes in their description of their design decisions. I like the decision to also include one of the bird's Signature Behaviors, i.e., the mother carrying her chicks.

@pomrania (link to post here) has given their Holghras a selection of striking features, which they explain in their post. There's a lot in that post, actually, and I really enjoyed reading the whole journey of this particular drawing. You should go read it too -- the post linked above also provides a draft version, a link to a series of progress sketches, and a link to an explanation of their design choices that includes rumination on how to make a bird look "slutty". Go check it out, we'll be here when you get back.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) describes her design choices briefly, indicating that her goal was to pick Bird Attributes that could look unsettling in combination and suggest that the bird depicted has a "terrible sex life". Mission accomplished, I think -- that bird does not look trustworthy. Also now we know that thing on its head is just called a plume, so good for us. I really like the effect the -- watercolor? I think? I don't know art -- provides, and that seagull-esque spot on its beak really is a great touch.

@rautavaara (link to post here) has done another beautifully stylized drawing with a very pleasant color scheme. They provide a brief explanation of their design decisions in the linked post. I'm particularly struck by the fact that this version of the Holghras apparently carries its young in the same way that the folkloric version of the stork carries babies: in some kind of cloth wrapping held in the beak. I also like that the chick's feet are sticking out.

@mobileleprechaun (link to post here) apparently had some trouble posting this, but I'm glad they got it through, because it's delightful. I like the little bird on the right with its feet sticking straight up, and the other one under its mother's wing/arm. When I first saw this, I was briefly puzzled why the drawing contrasted male and female birds, because they looked quite similar -- then I noticed the tailfeathers -- then I looked more closely at the male's tailfeathers and cracked up a little bit. The linked post provides a brief explanation of the design decisions, including why the wings look so much like arms. It also has a couple tags that I find funny.

@karthara (link to post here) provides this excellent image as well as a brief explanation of their design choices. I love the over-the-top tailfeathers on the extremely-sexy purple male Holghrases, and the babies dangling from under the female's wing, and the fact that the clod of dirt being held up by the juvenile is at least as big as the bird holding it. Also, those ridiculous tailfeathers are apparently inspired by the Onagadori rooster, which means we're back with the Galliformes.

@embervoices (link to post here) did this adorable drawing of the juvenile Holghras. I particularly like that she's taken a different route than having it just hold up the dirt: this one apparently has a little hidey-hole like a trapdoor spider. This is just very cute all around, I like it.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) provides this excellent and action-packed depiction, along with a wonderfully detailed explanation of their design decisions. (I love reading those.) From their post, it's clear that they also know more about birds than I do, and also name-check the Galliformes as the most likely category. Apparently the bird-people of Tumblr have this critter's number. Also, that is a masterful depiction of a bird running off with an egg, I have to say.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has done another medieval-styled rendition, which I really enjoy. This is also, I believe, the first appearance of a human in any of these drawings. (Well. Live human, at least.) I enjoy the depiction of the female bird doing her fake limp to lead the human away from her nest while the males engage in their weird drama up in the right. They provide an explanation of their design choices and inspiration in the linked post.

@scarlettbookworm (link to post here) has given us a drawing that showcases several of the odd behaviors described in the entry. The linked post also provides a description of their design process and an explanation of their decisions. I think this is another very cute picture of a bird holding up dirt, and I enjoy the one at the top shouting "HOLGHRAS!" The egg-stealer over in the bottom right is very good also.

@moustawott (link to post here) has drawn this very vulture-like Holghras in what I have to say is a very well-done bushy area. I had to look twice to realize the background was actually cleverly-arranged splashes and blobs of color that strongly suggest that we're in a bush. Very good art, love the style, and that fuzzy baby Holghras is cute as hell. The linked post provides an explanation of the design decisions.

@strixcattus (link to post here) gives us this rendition of the Holghras, which they describe as being inspired by a prairie chicken and a potoo. Prairie chickens are, of course... Galliformes. Another tally mark in that column. I'm particularly delighted by the giant mouth on the chick in the bottom right. As they did last time, the artist has provided a detailed modern-naturalist interpretation of the animal, which is of course in the linked post. I recommend checking that out; maybe it's just because I'm the kind of huge nerd that I am, but I think these are great.

@treesurface (link to post here) gives us a Holghras that they describe as a cross between a bird of prey and a bird of paradise, which I think is a pretty good idea that fits both the aggressive behavior and the mating behavior described in the entry. I enjoy the fact that multiple artists have decided this bird Likes Big Tailfeathers (and it does lie, but about different things).

@ashfly (link to post here) gives us this picture of a juvenile Holghras holding up its clump of dirt. They also indicate that they have an idea of what it is, which I really hope they'll share now that it's posted and the bird's out of the bag, because I was 100% certain nobody would guess this one. The fuzzy bird is cute, of course, and the rainbow legs are really striking. (Pride legs, perhaps?) I also like that it's clearly looking over at the "camera" to see if we're buying it.

And finally, the official medieval depiction:

... hm. Yeah, some absolute bastard apparently cut out a bunch of the miniatures in this manuscript at one point. Luckily, we have the Ashmole Bestiary over at the Bodleian Library, which is extremely similar, so we can get an idea of the image that was here:

And also, this entry in the Aberdeen Bestiary comes with two images. Here's the other one:

I'm going to assume the choice of coloration was up to the individual artist and the missing Aberdeen illustration was also brown, because the Ashmole version of the egg-stealer also has the more colorful pattern:

Anyway, in case you haven't recognized it from these helpful and very accurate images, this is the partridge. Now you know what's going on in those pear trees.

I don't actually have anything else to add about that. I was frankly a little surprised there was even an entry for "partridge".

[iamnmbr3]

Since you’re on the character asks and your thoughts are enjoyable to read maybe pick one of the non-Harry try-wizard tournament champions? I like them pretty evenly so your thoughts on any of them would be cool to hear, so pick your favourite/whoever you have most to say about/roll a dice to decide at your discretion?

What a lovely ask! You're so kind. I'm going to go with Fleur Delacour.

How I feel about this character

The way she showed her devotion to Bill at the end of book 6? Absolutely iconic. Best written intentionally romantic moment in the whole series. Hands down. No contest. The way she handled that dragon? Immaculate. The judges were just mean and veelaphobic and also JKR is super weird about her female characters.

Also kudos to her for being the only character when Harry got picked as a Champion in book 4 to be like 'no this is ridiculous he's too young.' Yeah she was a little harsh about it maybe. But wow. One of the only responsible adults in the whole series. Child me was like 'omg she's so mean' but now I'm like 'you go girl.' She should've been there to roast all of Dumbledore's questionable decisions. Can you imagine. Dumbledore: Don't worry. I have a plan. Fleur: Eez eet child endangerment again?

I genuinely enjoy her as a character and also find the way her identity as a part human who is fetishized to some extent and viewed as Other but not demonized in the way werewolves or half giants or half trolls are in her world to be fascinating fodder for a lot of interesting character work.

Also, I always have a soft spot for characters who I feel the narrative is actively telling me to dislike. I prefer stories that let the reader come to their own conclusions. As soon as I feel the story is too forcefully and artificially shoving down my throat "you must like this character" or "you must dislike this other character,” especially when it's not justified by what we actually see in the text, then I kind of want to do the opposite. So if you think my girl Fleur did something rude no she didn't or if she did that was her emotional support rude comment and she deserved to go off.

For real though. She put up with so much hate from Molly and the whole Weasley family for literally no reason. She deserved to be a little snarky. Ginny is so mean to her for literally no reason and the narrative wants us to laugh along and cheer on this immature, unkind highschool meangirl behavior as though it's some epic #girlboss moment when it's just mean. And Fleur's parents meanwhile are absolutely lovely (probably because Fleur covered for her in-laws and didn't tell her parents how she had been treated lest her full Veela grandmother show up and start throwing fireballs at them all).

You go Fleur. You never did anything wrong in your life. Ever.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I love her with Bill. I think Bill and Fleur are by far the best handled canon romance in the series. (Well, best handled intentionally canon romance - we all know JKR wrote a 7 book drarry epic but that was an accident lolol). They are so sweet together and so devoted to each other - despite any obstacles (including unsupportive family members). And they really compliment each other so well and just yeah. It's so sweet.

On a semi-crack level I do also like the idea of Fleur/Luna though because they both can be very blunt and directly state difficult truths in a way that can make others uncomfortable or seem rude. They do this in very different ways and also have very different outlooks but I think it makes them interestingly complimentary. And they'd both be confident and self assured enough to handle each other and not take offense. I feel like Fleur and Luna flirting would be so hilariously direct and entertaining. (Though it'd probably have to be postwar as. I think Fleur would be likely to scoff at Crumple-Horned Snorkacks).

I can also totally picture a Bill/Fleur/Luna poly relationship. I feel like it'd end up being improbably chill and functional somehow despite the big personalities. The three would probably be off living their best lives and eating metaphorical popcorn while all the other characters spent years having epic relationship drama.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I want to see her and Charlie hanging out so badly. After seeing her take on that dragon Charlie was probably pulling all kinds of shenanigans to get her together with one of his siblings because he doesn't want to get married but also oh merlin he needs this woman to be part of his family. Give me the Charlie and Fleur epic friendship and dragon taming duo.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don't think Bill was attracted to her because he likes "glamour." I think he saw her as the brave, loving, and intelligent person that she is.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wish other characters had apologized to her and stopped mocking her and treating her horribly.

[lady-harrowhark]

Hello! I saw you mention that Pyrrha remembers pre-resurrection, and I totally missed that!! Do you have any theories as to why?

I have a few thoughts!

Just for context - because I didn't catch that on my first read either until I started going back through! - there are a few instances that seem to suggest Pyrrha remembers at least some of her life pre-Resurrection. Off the top of my head, I know there's one point where she refers to G1deon as G--, just like John does. Nona also says that Pyrrha calls her "Hairy Maclary", which is referring to a series of children's books by a New Zealand author. Here's a link to a picture and some info about Hairy Maclary... I can definitely understand why Pyrrha would call Nona that lol. This one's super interesting to me in that it's such a fantastic example of the way Tamsyn uses memes and references so skillfully! In the previous books, most of the references are fairly organic in that they're things that could conceivably be, you know, just things the characters say; the readers catch it (if they also know the reference! otherwise they're fairly unobtrusive) but the characters themselves aren't intentionally making a reference. This would be the things like "You can't just ask someone why they want to be a Lyctor" and "a hunger that only thumbs could satisfy," etc. The exception, though, is John. The "none Houses with left grief" particularly is SO fun from an exposition perspective (but if I start on that one I'll never stop), and then of course we have Commander Wake Me Up Inside. The implication here being that John remembers these specific things and is intentionally making those references within the context of the story. Pulling that same expository trick with Pyrrha sets them up as both remembering... at least to some degree. The hints that we get from Pyrrha are such that it's pretty unclear to what extent she remembers, leaving a lot of room for juicy speculation :)

I initially touched on it over on this post where I rambled about names, memory, and the Eightfold Word, but I'm copying over the Pyrrha-specific paragraph so that you don't have to dig for it:

When assisting with Harrow’s lobotomy, Ianthe tells her, “If you push your brain too hard, any surgery could simply heal over.” And in NtN, Pyrrha tells Palamedes, “You should be draining and replacing her fucking brain fluid... When Gideon and I designed that trial, I used to crack his skull and sieve it myself, just as a control variable... The only other people I put through that damn trial were Mercy and Cris, because only Cris didn’t mind being trepanned on the regular.” I don’t know exactly where the threshold is for pushing one’s brain too hard, but I suspect frequently draining and replacing one’s brain fluid is in that ballpark. Which is to say, it’s very possible that Mercy and Pyrrha (and potentially others) could have healed over from anything John had done to their brains.

Also, I don't know why this didn't occur to me as I was writing up that other post, but when Pyrrha's telling Palamedes about how dangerous their uhhhhh living arrangements are, and how they're risking brain damage... Pyrrha and G1deon were operating under somewhat similar circumstances for thousands of years. Cumulatively, it's possible that G1deon's brain was racking up damage that eventually eroded away whatever John had done. Another thought is that maybe the fact that G1deon died and Pyrrha didn't is at play here.

It could very well be less dramatic than that, though. We don't know much about how Lyctorhood impacts the brain, although to be completely fair, we also can't say for certain how a typical human brain would function after ten thousand years of runtime either. Our brains are constantly wiring new neural pathways and rewiring and revising old ones. After thousands of years, might we be reaching a Ship of Theseus situation with regard to the neural circuitry impacting pre-Res memories? Which is a fancy way of saying, "Maybe it wore off."

It could be all of the above, too. Assuming that Lyctor brains retain plasticity like we see in typical human brains (and I'm not letting myself think too hard on implications either way, because in sci-fi/fantasy make-believe land, neuroscience can be whatever you want it to be), we'd probably see that effect happening with the other Lyctors at roughly the same rate, but at least as far as we can tell (and that wording is intentional because I'm not taking anything off the table with this series), the others don't seem to remember. So that might be contributing, but not sufficient on its own. BUT perhaps ten thousand years of rewiring PLUS ten thousand years of cohabitation PLUS however long of being "trepanned on the regular" PLUS G1deon dying might override John's meddling.

We've still got so many open questions here regardless of what the specific mechanisms are. Like, I'd love to know when Pyrrha started to remember exactly. And did G1deon remember anything, then? It seems like he was Straight Up Not Having a Good Time so if he did remember, he might not have been relying on those memories much. Whatever's going on, I'm sure it's just as bonkers as the rest of the series!

[tyrantisterror]

Can you give some advice on how to write scary/dark fantasy media for a younger audience, like Gravity Falls, Coraline, The Owl House and Trollhunters (to some extent) etc? How to balance scary and silly elements so it doesn't get too frightening but still keep an eerie atmosphere, and make the story feel like a folktale/have folk-tale-like elements.

I haven't written anything with children/young adults specifically in mind, so I don't know whether I can really be considered an expert in this subject, but I'll try my best.

So, the examples you listed all work in part because they don't talk down to their audience. They accept the idea that children/adolescents/young adults are still, you know, people, people who understand that there are things to be afraid of in this world and that it's not all sunshine lollipops and rainbows. Kids, even little kids, know the world can be violent and dangerous, even if they don't fully understand how harsh those dangers can be. 3 year olds will draw pictures of lions with red scribbles around their mouths to show they've been eating meat from their prey - kids know the world is dark.

The purpose of horror media is to allow us to explore the things that make us afraid in a safe, fictional context - to get the experience of confronting what lurks in the shadows without actually risking getting eaten by it. And it serves that function for kids as much as adults - kids LOVE a good scary story.

So good scary kids' media isn't really different in overall content than good scary adult media. The stakes have to be real, the characters have to react with real fear, et cetera. The difference is really just in how severe you make it.

Like, Gravity Falls had zombies, child-eating monsters, etc., but it didn't have, like, scenes of zombies tearing people open ala Day of the Dead, or cracking open skulls to eat the brains like in Return of the Living Dead. The Owl House has some pretty intense body horror, especially with Emperor Belos, but it's abstracted enough not to be too visceral, too real, too traumatizing for children. It's all about pulling your punch just enough to keep from actually showing children something they're not prepared for, but not so much that they don't flinch in response to it anymore.

Artists complain, mostly rightfully, about how corporations force censorship on them, especially when they're working in kids' media, but it's noticeable that often that censorship creates something exquisitely creative. Batman the Animated Series was barred from showing the Joker kill people, so instead he hits them with a nonlethal gas that leaves them with a horrible rictus grin - a nightmarish and unique image that still scared the piss out of many a kid, while never crossing that line into the inappropriately grotesque.

So I guess the rule of thumb is to write your story like you would any other scary story, but whenever you hit upon the normal scary payoff, think of how you could do something technically less gruesome yet more creatively awful. How can you take a normal horror scenario and replace "death" with, well, something like the Joker gas?

[scatterbrainedart]

Izzy Hands’ inability to get a single fucking win in any given situation has captivated me. He’s so SAD. Brother literally cannot catch a break for the life (or death) of him. I wanna be silly about him, but he’s such a sad goddamn character that I just can’t. It just feels wrong. Like, who am I to kick at someone who is already down? And who pretty much has been down since ep 2 at BEST? Sigh.

I adore inner conflict in a character, I eat that shit UP. Outer conflict is nice too, but ohhh. Love me a good worst-enemy-is-oneself trope. Realistically, that’s more so Ed than Izzy, but still. I think it’s the contrast that does it, too.

Izzy is so terribly loyal it hurts. He just has so much bottled up for the entirety of the first season, so many things that he’s repressed that all feeds into his bitterness. That, within itself, is really interesting in a character. Let’s start with his feelings of Ed. He starts of the series smug, confident. He looks up to Ed, as pretty much everyone do. He’s the one person he doesn’t mind being “inferior” to. He’s built up this image of Blackbeard in his mind (which is precisely what Ed struggled with the most part. The way his reputation has outgrown him in a multitude of ways) which he puts on such a high pedestal. Working together with the mighty Blackbeard is an honour. He adores him, and he’s very much pleased with the role he’s serving beside him.

Then in comes Stede, who is everything Blackbeard and Izzy is not. Or at least so it seems, until his whole fucking world has been turned upside down and everything he treasured has been snatched right out of his grasp. Then, to make matters worse, when Stede finally is out of the picture and things should be able to go back the way they were, they don’t. For a while, he could at least hold onto the idea that there was hope, that time would work its magic and things would revert back to normalcy. But it only gets worse, and worse, until it’s undeniably so much worse than it was at the former worst moment.

And the barriers start to melt away. Izzy isn’t dumb, he’s always quite aware of the situation he finds himself in. Even he, the former worst enabler of Blackbeards pirate shenanigans, knows when it’s time to stop. And so he takes on a somewhat more caring role, because he cares. He cares more about Ed than most, and he knows him better than most. Even when he’s unpredictable, and when Izzy himself thinks of him as a stranger. He still knows him better than most of the crew, to the extent in which Ed has allowed it. There is a lot of Ed that Izzy doesn’t know, but I’d imagine he knows the way he functions off by heart. The way his brain works, the way he plans, his mannerisms, stuff like that. Stuff you learn by paying close attention to someone as you spend every day together for years. And stuff you need to learn to survive in an abusive relationship, or in a relationship with someone unstable, in order to keep the water’s calm.

Izzy cares. It comes naturally to him, at least it probably did once. And now, after all that has happened all of him that has been broken down, it shines through again. It seeps out of the cracks of his crushed self, where every part of him is on display in a way he can’t or doesn’t bother to control anymore.

Despite everything, he shows mercy to Ed.

Despite everything, he teaches Stede how to survive (when it wouldn’t have been unexpected of him to want him dead at this point, again).

Despite everything, he lies about the ruined portrait to protect Stede’s perception of Ed.

Despite everything, he tries to move on and move forth.

Despite everything, he helps. He tries to make amends about things that were or weren’t his fault.

And despite everything, despite how much he pushes it away and tries to act like he doesn’t, he wants nothing as much as he wants something gentle. Something kind. He has gotten so much harm done to him by people he trusts, people he trusted and people he doesn’t trust at all. Every touch he’s ever received, to our eyes, has been one with the means of harm.

In season one I enjoyed seeing his homophobic homosexual messiness unfold, and his misery was all good fun. This season? I just wanna lay him to be cozy in a bed somewhere and give him some soup and a kiss on the forehead and tell him it’s gonna be okay. What the hell man.

[joelsmorality]

AN ACHE REMEMBERED

Pairing: Joel Miller x Reader  Summary: You end up facing the outcome of Joel's actions and the confrontation about that doesn't go over well. warnings: Very heavy on the angst, very light on the fluff. Mentions of injury, painkillers, cheating (not by either Joel or reader), alcohol, arguments, breaking up. Series: A continuation of this, but can be read as a stand-alone but you might miss some references back. Note: I’m not sure if I’ll add more to this as a series of one-shots or something, but it’s fine as a stand-alone as it is for the most part. This is just 99% angst, I’m sorry.  Tag list (to be added just leave me a comment!): @faceache111

A part of you couldn’t help but feel relieved about the late evening bareness of the QZ’s streets. 

The last couple of hours were a blur, the haze of the pain medication you had been given allowing some time to pass by in the blur. Yet, it was only able to do so much–they weren’t going to waste any of the more effective stuff on you when they had bigger issues to deal with. At least, that’s the usual response you got when you’d protest a cut in rations, medication, or anything else that you needed. At the moment, however, you really just wanted to get back to the apartment and hope nothing else would happen that night to make things worse. 

Yet, that was unlikely and you knew it. Not with the way you were hunched over somewhat, arm wrapped around your middle, and you really didn’t have to look at yourself to know that the bruises on your face were bad. Once Joel got his eyes on that, you knew how he’d react. 

Joel was the reason this happened, too. 

Your attackers had made that pretty clear, as much as you had never seen these people before. You had stopped wanting to be privy to whatever he was doing, not after you had witnessed just what lengths he’d go to ‘survive.’ With Tess joining the team, your absence wasn’t exactly felt in that regard. Yet, people knew that you were with Joel–had been since before the outbreak, though you didn’t know if there was much left of that relationship now. The complications of your relationship with Joel didn’t matter to those who wanted to send a message, anyway. 

When you had been cornered in the QZ and received those hits to the face, you had initially thought it was the typical danger that lingered about the place. You had fought back, landing a couple hits of your own, yet once you had been knocked to the ground and felt the crack in your ribs from where they kicked you, that fight left pretty quickly. Thankfully, that seemed to be the extent of it, though the way one of them grabbed the front of your jacket and yanked you up still sat crystal clear in your mind. 

“Tell Joel that if he fucks with our stuff again, it’ll be worse than a few punches and broken ribs.”

You painfully made your way up the stairs in the apartment building–all the late night jobs and sleepless nights made the journey difficult, but the state you were in made it feel like it dragged on forever. Once you reached the floor you were looking for, there was a bad ache in your ribs again as you breathed hard. Tears pricked at the edges of your eyes, but you willed them back as you continued down the hall. From pain or frustration, you didn’t know, but the last thing you wanted was to break down. The way things were currently, you weren’t sure if you’d stop if you started to cry. 

Really, you just hoped that Joel wouldn’t be back until later. 

Considering the empty apartment that greeted you, it seemed that the universe would grant you that at the very least. 

You shut the door behind yourself before making your way toward the sink, searching around for a rag to wet. It wouldn’t help the same way ice would, but that was something you didn’t really have access to. Washing your face somewhat, you at least cleaned some of the dried blood from around your nose and mouth before you found yourself hobbling over to the bed. You collapsed onto the mattress with a pained groan, your ribs protesting but your body thankful to rest. You breathed slowly, letting some of the pain subside into the background as the medication still took some of the edge off. 

It wasn’t long until you found your eyelids struggling to stay open. 

*****

The world started to come back to you slowly–how hot you felt under the blankets and the splitting headache were the first things to push you into wakefulness. With a groan, you tossed some of the comforter off as you tried to open your eyes. The sunlight made you groan, your head pounding in return as you cursed quietly under your breath. Slowly, your eyes adjusted and you were able to take in the room around you. It was familiar, but you didn’t remember how you got there. 

Judging from the sunlight and the silence of the house, you figured you had slept until later in the day. This wasn’t your first stay over at Joel’s home–it was starting to become a fairly regular thing–but you usually remembered asking and sleeping in his bed. 

However, the headache, dry mouth, and your last memory of the previous night taking place at a bar told you most of what you needed to know. 

“Shit…” you whispered, rubbing at your eyes as you tried to will yourself to get up. Your limbs removed to listen, however, and you couldn’t really find the energy at the moment. 

Though, it didn’t seem like things were going to play out with you staying in bed. You heard someone approach the closed door, giving it a knock before opening. 

“C’mon,” Joel prompted as he stepped into the room, “It’s almost noon. You’ll feel better once you’re up and got somethin’ to eat.”

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” you asked, allowing him to help you to a stand. You reached out to brace a hand against his dresser, shutting your eyes for a moment as your head protested the shift in movement. 

“Took the day off. Tommy’s got it, anyway,” he replied, “Judgin’ from how you turned up last night, I figured you might need the help.”

“I don’t even remember showing up here,” you said around a sigh, “I’m so sorry, Joel.” 

“You were lucky Sarah was already asleep by the time you showed up. I couldn’t even keep up with what you were talkin’ about. It doesn’t matter now, I guess.” 

“I’m still sorry.” 

Joel made a small dismissive gesture, extending his arm to help steady you a little as you let him lead you downstairs. He didn’t sound too pleased, and you couldn’t blame him, but him staying home with you was a surprisingly sweet gesture. It still made you feel bad, but you appreciated it. You approached the kitchen yourself once you were downstairs, grateful that nausea hadn’t hit you too hard. 

You sat yourself down at one of the chairs at the kitchen table, pressing a hand over your eyes as Joel set about making you some coffee. 

“The few times I’ve drank with you, you certainly didn’t get like you were last night,” he commented, making you drop your hand from your face to look at his back. 

“I don’t, usually,” you replied, “Not unless–I’m just sorry, it won’t happen again. I’m mortified.” 

“Outside from fallin’ up the steps outside and passin’ out as soon as you hit the bed, there’s not much you did to feel embarrassed about,” Joel said, finally turning around with two mugs before passing one off to you. “It’s black, but it’ll help. So don’t complain.” 

“I think that’s a myth,” you muttered, but took a sip of the coffee anyway. 

“Guess we’ll find out,” he returned while sitting down in the chair across from you. 

Despite the reassurance, you were still embarrassed. You didn’t want to give the impression that you were some problem drinker, but you knew you fell back on alcohol when it felt like your head was getting too crowded. You had noticed that the days were dragging along, you struggled to maintain an enthusiastic face and most days you just got home from work and slept. The offer to drink was just too tempting in the state you were in. 

“There’s a lot going on in my head,” you admitted around a small sigh, “I get kind of…trapped in there, and it just…I don’t know. I used to drown it with alcohol, and I thought I managed to kick that habit but…well, last night is proving otherwise, I guess.” 

“I knew something was wrong, just…didn’t know how to bring it up,” Joel said after a small pause. 

“I don’t know either,” you replied with a small huff, “I’ve just…haven’t been in a relationship for a long time.”

“I haven’t, either. Not since Sarah’s mother.” Joel glanced down at his cup, looking into the contents like it’d help him with the conversation. That quiet pause and momentary disconnect was something you found yourself relating too. It happened a lot when you’d mention your last relationship. 

Really, it was the lingering wounds from that relationship that was the source for a lot of your doubt. You could feel that debate sitting in you about mentioning anything, and yet you wanted to shy away and put that wall up. You had too much to drink and it won’t happen again. Yet…considering how close you were getting to Joel, you knew he deserved more than a wall. 

“I, um…” you started, wrapping your hands around your mug but didn’t move it any as you fought with yourself about what to say. “I had a fiance a long while ago. I…found out about the cheating a couple months from the wedding, and just…I never could really bring myself to get back into this whole…dating thing. I know that it wasn’t my fault, yet it just…it left me with these doubts. That I do something that drives people away. That I’m never good enough and I should just wait until…you leave or…” 

“I had no idea,” Joel replied after a pause, shaking his head lightly. “I had never thought…well, I’d thought you would shoot me down when I asked for that dinner. I thought you were out of my league.” 

“Come on,” you said around a disbelieving huff, “‘Hot Dad’ Joel Miller thinks I’m out of his league. You’re kidding.” 

“Please don’t tell me people call me that…” he muttered, taking a sip from his coffee before speaking again. “And I’m not.” 

“I don’t want to throw any neighbors under the bus,” you replied, getting up from your seat, “I need some water with this or I’m going to get sick.” 

While you appreciated the lighter banter, that tightness still sat in your chest from talking about your past. You didn’t know how to really get into it, but it was an explanation for the previous night you supposed. Though, you heard Joel rise from his chair as you filled a glass with some water, drinking that slowly until you felt him touch your arm. You placed the glass down before you turned back toward him. 

“Hope you know I’d never do that to you,” he said, which had a small smile crossing your face as you reached up to place your hand on his shoulder. 

“I do. It’s an irrational doubt,” you said with a nod. 

“I’d…be the one losin’, anyway. You’re intelligent, beautiful, great with Sarah. I’m not goin’ anywhere.” 

You tried to come up with something to say with that, yet the relief that settled in you at his words and the warm feeling in your chest seemed to leave you struggling to find the words. Instead, you cupped his cheeks and pressed a kiss to his mouth. 

*****

“Hey.” 

You felt a light tap against the side of your face, a hand cupping your other cheek as you groaned. The grogginess of sleep didn’t have you reacting right away, but the pain that settled into your face had you prying your eyes open. It took you a moment before you recognized the person in front of you, the hardness to his expression as you felt him turn your head somewhat. Joel looked about as angry as you expected, though the concern put an odd feeling in your gut. 

“What happened?” he demanded, you pushing his hands away as you sat up with a wince at your ribs. “Who did this?”

“It doesn’t matter,” you replied, moving to stand up from the couch as you dug out one of the painkillers in your pocket. “It won’t fix anything.” 

“What do you mean?”

You shook your head lightly, moving around him to hobble into the kitchen to find a usable cup so you could take the pill before the pain got too overwhelming. Though, you wished Joel had waited until you had done that before you had to deal with this. You took the medication as he followed you into the kitchen, grabbing your arm but you shook off his hold as you moved to sit down at the kitchen table with a heavy exhale. 

“I got jumped in an alleyway,” you stated, “They didn’t want anything on me, just wanted to send a message to you. Said they’d do worse next time if you mess with them again, but the fact is that I can’t tell you who did it because I’ve never seen them before. So, it doesn’t fucking matter.” 

“Just tell me something about them,” Joel replied, pulling a chair out to sit down beside you, “I can narrow it down from there. I’m not lettin’ them run around when they could come back.” 

“Joel, it won’t change anything,” you stated, “I could tell you whatever you want, but it won’t stop you from pissing these types of people off. So, it’ll happen again.”

“I wasn’t the one who gave you a black eye,” Joel retorted, “How’s this my fault?”

“Because they beat me up to get back at you, Joel. You can go kill these fuckers all you want, but it won’t change anything because it’ll be the same with the next group of people you rob or rip off. So, yeah, I do blame you.” 

“The things I do, I do to survive,” he stated, staring hard into your eyes, “You’ve never wanted to realize what it takes to survive in this world. The world’s changed, and we have to adapt. So, tell me wh–”

“You’re so full of shit, Joel!” you exclaimed, slamming a hand down on the table. “There are other ways to survive. I’ve seen it! You just don’t want to deal with everything the last several years has put you through!”

“Don’t start with that,” he stated, “You need to grow up and accept–”

“Oh, fuck you!” you shouted, standing from the table. “I need to grow up? Learn how to survive? Tell me, where is the survival in cornering people who are just trying to get by and taking their stuff? The people you’ve killed who you provoked? You refuse to find another way because you’re angry and you won’t deal with why.” 

“Yes, I’m angry!” Joel exclaimed, “You haven’t lost what I’ve lost. You don’t know what it’s like–” 

“I haven’t lost?” you asked, “I haven’t been angry?”

“No, not in the same way.” 

Despite the pain in your ribs and your injuries, you lashed out with a quick shout. You shoved Joel back by the shoulders with enough force to surprise the both of you, it seemed. Taking a few steps back, you pressed a hand to your side as you stared at him. 

“You want to know what I’ve lost?” you snapped, “I’ve lost my family. My friends. I know you seem to think I’m not worthy of mourning her, but I lost Sarah too! I lived with you for over a year before this shit happened. All of us were close. You want to know what else I lost? You. I have to deal with this stranger standing in your place, but I don’t know who you are anymore. I’m seeing that you don’t know me, either.”

“Listen–”

“No,” you interrupted, shaking your head, “No. Y’know what? It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t. You won’t have to worry about me and those people. I’m not staying.” 

“What are you talkin’ about?” Joel asked, watching as you moved back toward the bed to sit down on it. 

“As soon as I’m healed up enough, I’m leaving,” you replied, shaking your head as you pushed through the agony you felt in your chest about what was happening. “I…I tried to understand, Joel. You won’t give me the same. You’re not the man I fell in love with, and I denied that for a long while but that is the reality I’ve come to accept. I can’t stay with you.” 

“...Where would you even go?” he asked, making you look up at him. There was a small change in him, the rage that you saw in his eyes was still there, but he looked almost…surprised. “I want to protect you. You…you and Tommy are the only family I have left. You take off, I can’t…”

“Joel, I can take care of myself. I’ve…I’ve been collecting ration cards where I can, I have been preparing for this. I don’t need you to protect me.” 

You watched as Joel pressed a hand over his eyes, his free hand on his hip as he turned away from you. It had always been kind of hard to tell with Joel, he tended to keep his cards close to his chest, but you knew this was tearing him up too. You knew you were pushing back a part of you that just wanted to beg him to change, for things to go back to how they were before all of this, yet you knew that wasn’t possible. If Joel wanted to change, he would’ve. When you saw how easily he killed, it changed something in you. You couldn’t see him as the same man from what you remembered, and you had to stop pretending like you’d be able to find him in there and pull him out. 

“You’re the only family I have left, too,” you continued, “I love you, Joel. That’s why I’ve stayed for so long, but I can’t…”

“Well, you got the ration cards, so it seems like you’ve made your mind up,” he stated, still not turning to look at you.

“Joel…” 

“If you’re goin’, then go,” he stated, finally turning to walk toward the door, “I’ll stay with Tommy until you’re gone.” 

“Joel–” 

He shook his head, yanking the door open before walking out and leaving with a slam. You flinched at the sound, shutting your eyes tightly as you released a hard breath. You hadn’t really thought about how telling him that would go, and you regretted the shove and the shouting, but the words were truthful. You knew you had to do this. You didn’t want to know how things would be for you if you stayed. 

Yet, you couldn’t help the tightness in your throat, finally releasing the sob you had been holding back the whole time.

[justworthlessreblogs]

scattered thoughts on kirapika 2

part 2 of my great kirapika rant. this one is shorter but i'm still putting it under a read more

the series tries to argue that rio's sole motivation for going evil was jealously but i disagree (to an extent) because that is a 12 or 13 year old alone in an unfamiliar city without any support system (i mean. it's just straight up canon that he and ciel started to drift apart during this time, he doesn't really seem to have had as much of a bond with jean-pierre as ciel does, he probably didn't interact with anyone else, and i think it's pretty telling that at some point he started exclusively working on his stuff in their attic instead of jean-pierre's workshop). jealously was absolutely a factor, yes, but he was also incredibly isolated and emotionally vulnerable (something we know noir specifically preys on). mentioned this to my beta once and he said that noir sounds like a textbook cult leader

in the end, rio and ciel just feel very... incomplete, as characters. like they get setup for arcs that never happen, but the show insists that they did.

ciel: i've said this before, but to me ciel is the sort of character who needs a broken pedestal. because when we meet her, she's already got everything. she's perfect in every way. and then you start seeing the cracks, tiny little flaws that sneak through. because ciel *is* flawed. she's selfish, she's shortsighted, she's got a tendency to only think about herself. she can't comprehend why ichika's "simple" sweets have so much kirakiraru even though they're not as fancy as her sweets. and i love it. i was so hyped for seeing how her intro was going to turn out while watching her introductory arc, because they had so much to work with.

the problem with ciel as a character is that she needs a moment of reckoning, but she never gets it. she comes very, very close in 23, but it's immediately undercut by the fact that she isn't the one who gets herself out of her slump (it's rio and ichika who do) and she gets rewarded despite doing nothing to really earn the reward. ciel just wallows around, then rio makes the waffles and makes her feel better, but it's ciel who gets to become a cure? it's just... disappointing. things just fall into her lap, and others do the work for her, but she gets to reap the reward. when watching 23 for the first time i thought that it really felt like set up for *rio's* debut as a cure, and i still stand by that. it's the apex of his redemption arc, the episode where he gets his big emotional realization and resolves to become a better person. and while as previously mentioned they try to give ciel something like that, it falls flat because she never does any of the emotional work.

and then after 23 ciel is just... there. it feels like the writers don't really know what to do with her character arc since its primary focus is her relationship with her brother, but they just put him in a coma for 16 episodes. and so ciel just kinda Exists. none of her episodes during this stretch are all that interesting except for 26 and that's because she's got really good chemistry with bibury - but they don't even really take advantage of that, either, because bibury disappears from the plot again until 32 and remains in the background after that! the implication in 26 that ciel has developed a bit of a savior complex based on her interactions with bibury is really interesting too, but once again they don't really do anything with it after that. ciel offers bibury a home and that's about it.

"but justie, you said that ciel gets to define herself as a character! why are you complaining about how aimless she is?" and yeah that's fair, i did. but when i say that ciel gets define herself i mean that more in accomplishments. because ciel has a *lot* of accomplishments, to the point where it gets a little ridiculous. she's perfect at literally everything except sometimes she mixes up her idioms in japanese, and that's a character trait that shows up so little that i usually forget it even exists. and they don't do anything with this perfection, either, unlike yukari. ciel's perfect because she just is.

anyways. ciel kinda floats along for a while, and then 41 happens, and they try to tell me that ciel's grown and changed and become a really great person, except i don't buy it because she's still saying thoughtless stuff at the literal emotional climax. and it frustrates me, because i can see her potential character arc - but the writers refuse to commit to it. at the end of the show, ciel is the same exact person she was at the start, except now she's got fancy precure powers too.

rio: rio gets an incomplete arc more in the sense that he literally isn't around to complete it. i'll die on the hill that the coma was the worst thing the show could've done. because all of rio's development that he'd been getting vanishes after 23, and while 41 tries to develop him more it falls flat for me because in my opinion it's too little, too late. they waste his last chance for development on a generic "redeemed villain feels bad about what they did" plot, and they don't even have fun with it! as i've already mentioned in the other post after the coma rio just becomes kind of a shell of himself. a lot of interesting things set up during the first half of the series vanish because we only get to have one episode with him and they waste it on "oh i feel bad about my crimes" and they don't even do it well because just like ciel in 23 rio doesn't get to sort out his own shit. he's the one being framed, he's the one being targeted, he's the one who wanted to run away - but it's ciel who confronts elisio, because ciel is the precure and the precure has to be the one to confront the villain, and rio just stands there uselessly in the background even though his arc is supposed to be about how he's not useless and can measure up to his sister. the underlying message of the arc we do get is just. depressing. rio struggles, and struggles, and tries so fucking hard, but no matter what he does he's still second best to ciel. and for a show like precure, "you'll never be good enough so you should just give up and accept your place in the background" is really, really bleak. he needs a confidence arc the way ciel needs a broken pedestal arc, and he never gets it, and his really interesting dynamics with characters - ichika and yukari specifically - vanish into the wind, because the writers decided the coma was a better option instead of exploring them. in my opinion, 41 should have been episode 24, or 25, or somewhere in that range. because it feels like the behavior of both ciel and rio would fit a lot better there. patching up their relationship is the beginning, not the ending. there's still a lot of development to be done. you can't just tell me that everything's fine now.

i think cure parfait could've worked, but the way it happens in canon just is Not It

this one is tangentially related but i'm putting it in here anyways: i also think cure pekorin could've worked if we'd actually gotten some setup for it. like yeah 38 was an episode that happened and she gets focus in 7 as well but i feel like pekorin as a character just mostly exists in the background. and then suddenly bam she's a precure despite never really showing any drive to be one or do that sort of thing. even removing all my biases i still think that for the sake of the narrative alone rio would've been a much better fit because he already had that motivation and it would've been a nice cap on his redemption arc imo, but if pekorin was given actual setup and foreshadowing aside from getting a human form in 38 i think it would've gone a lot better

[infriga]

AAAAAHHHHHHHH THE LIVE ACTION WAS SO GOOD AAAAAAAHHH

Luffy was so perfect, they all were, but as my favourite character he had a lot to live up to and he was AMAZING

My favourite aspects/moments:

- Luffy was so tactile and physically affectionate. I'm glad they weren't afraid of having him be touchy feely with his crew and friends. Plopping his head down on top of Nami's head when she's cracking the safe, literally draping himself overtop of Zoro and hugging him when he wakes up after the Mihawk fight, clinging to Usopp when their ship gets attacked by Garp as they leave Syrup village, hugging Coby when they say goodbye the second time, even just the small moments like when he puts his hands on Kaya's shoulders while giving her his speech about his dream and the Merry during the dinner, he is so affectionate with everyone and loves his friends so much I'm gonna cry.

- him walking on the table in Kaya's house during the dinner while giving his speech then handing his glass to Kuro gkdgkdhj that scene was so funny and was such a Luffy thing to do, and everyone's reactions plus Kuro's apoplectic rage in response had me dying

- Luffy's anxiety when he's worried about Zoro after the fight with Mihawk, like all his fidgeting and not wanting to eat and talking erratically, it really reminded me of his anxiety when Nami gets sick after Little Garden, as well as when he refuses to eat for a while after Marineford. It's just a nice touch because the one thing that can get him to lose his appetite is the thought of losing someone close to him, and one of the few things that can make him openly anxious is when he's not sure if one of his friends will be okay and there's nothing he can do to help. His anxiety in that scene is portrayed so well.

- Sanji trying to get him to eat and suggesting a bunch of different foods he can make because he's trying to help Luffy feel better was also so cute and such a Sanji thing to do 🥺🥺🥺

- Sanji and Zeff's dynamic was done soooooo well, the actors had so much chemistry and the dialogue was so good between them. Also I love how much of a spitfire baby Sanji was, and his and Zeff's first meeting was actually amazing with Sanji being like "I'D RATHER DIE THAN LET YOU SEASON MY FOOD" fhkxgjzgkxgj

- so much swearing, I loved it lol. In Japanese they swear a lot but a lot of subtitles don't really translate the extent of it, and the official manga translation definitely tones it down, as does the dub, at least compared to the original Japanese. Sanji even said "shitty restaurant"! He said the line!!

- idk if this an unpopular opinion or not, but I actually like the changes they made to the Syrup Village arc. That arc in the manga/anime is probably the narmiest, and as fond as I am of earlier arcs, that one would probably not translate well to the style and pacing the live action had going for it. They adjusted quite a few of the fights to fit a live action series as opposed to a serialized shounen. But One Piece has never really been about the fights, so as long as the essence is there I'm fine with it. And tbh, turning Kuro into a slasher villain stalking Kaya through the house actually worked surprisingly well. It made for a fun deviation from what fans would be used to, and played around with the genre without sacrificing the essential plot elements or character dynamics. Also using Kaya's house instead of a random beach actually made for a nice setting and environment that I think felt more fitting to the One Piece vibe, ngl.

- I like what they did with Koby's story. Having his character development lead up to him standing up to Garp rather than Alvida actually worked pretty well, and felt really natural as his story progressed in Parallel with Luffy's. And having his story involve him confronting his ideal of what a marine should be vs the reality of what marines are fit the story really well. I love the scene where he and Luffy tell each other to become a good marine and a good pirate.

- I was shocked that they revealed Garp's relationship with Luffy so soon, but honestly, it works better than I expected. I think they actually did a really good job integrating him into the earlier arcs, and it provided a good glimpse into some of the world building that will come into play later, like the relationship between the warlords and the marines/government, while also providing a more significant marine threat early on. I am a bit sad we don't get Luffy's canon reaction where as soon as he even hears his grandpa being mentioned he gets like ptsd flashbacks lmao. But I'll admit, the "talk" Nami gets Zoro to have with him after everyone finds out is hilarious. Zoro not giving a shit about who Luffy's grandpa is and being like "ughhhhhhh fine I'll talk to him" when Nami pressures him into it, then giving the barest minimum effort and Luffy is just like being Luffy and fiddling with his hat and answering the questions so non-chalantly, then Zoro is like "good talk" and bails, they were really on that shared idiot wavelength lmfaoooooo.

- Zoro's bickering with Sanji was great. I particularly like how prickly he gets about Sanji acting so familiar towards Nami and Luffy despite only just joining, because Zoro would totally be peeved by that, like excuse u simp waiter those were my friends first and I called dibs lmao

- Zoro's goofy moments like trying to sit down with the swords and when Luffy was manhandling him after his injury lmfao, I'm glad they didn't have him be serious all the time and let him be an idiot occasionally. He was so hardheaded and proud and cocky and sassy in all the right ways. Also loved when Nami was trying on clothes and Zoro is like "I'm gonna wear black so you can't wear black" like a diva LMAO

- uh, they did NOT have to go so fucking hard with Buggy, but they did and I am grateful for it. His actor is so fucking funny, and his lines are so good, they fit Buggy so well. And Luffy constantly getting his name wrong made me laugh every single time lmfao. Also when he gets mad at Luffy thinking he said "nose" and squishes his face, and Luffy's like "well now that you mention it wtf IS up with your nose?" LMAO did I mention yet how much I loved Luffy?

- having Buggy trap Luffy in a glass box filling with water worked so well for the circus aesthetic because it's really similar to those acts where people escape from a box filling with water. It also made sense for Buggy to use that against Luffy with the sea water. Also the effects for his fruit powers looked so good and creepy.

- they didn't shy away from gore! The manga is actually super violent, even relatively early on, but I got so used to the reduced version in the anime I actually was surprised at how graphic some parts were. They straight up had Zoro slice a guy in half and did not shy away from showing his sliced meaty bits. Also Zoro casually bringing Mr. 7's torso to the marines with the hair sticking out was badass ngl.

- the main cast were all sooooo good, I can't even pick one out as being better than any of the others, they were just all perfect. They really felt like the characters. Obviously Luffy stands out to me as my favourite character, but I loved them all so much. Sanji, Nami, Zoro, Usopp, they all were portrayed so well too. Absolutely perfect casting. Whoever was in charge of casting is the absolute GOAT

- Zoro and Nami bickering like siblings the whole time was great, especially how they were only unified in their exasperation over Luffy's antics lmfao.

- "Think he has brain damage?" "I think that every day" EGHSKSCHLACHSK

- the villains were all the perfect amount of hammy, hats off to their actors they all looked like they were having so much fun and they did so well as each character. And Arlong's actor managed to include Arlong's SHA HA HA HA laugh and actually make it sound pretty natural so fucking kudos dude that's awesome.

- when Sanji fishes Luffy out of the water at Baratie and they tell him Nami is gone, he looks so sad and pathetic just laying there wet on the dock I wanted to hug him so bad 🥺 he was already anxious about Zoro and then they lost Nami too and he was so worried about his friends.

- Sanji's simping was so funny. The scene were he's like "NAMI!" with his arms open as she comes out of the collapsing building in Arlong's Park and she runs right past him to hug Zoro and Usopp instead WGHOVSHOD it was so in character. dude is mega down bad fr and they portrayed it in such a funny way.

- I was kinda shocked at how well the outfits and costumes translated to live action. Like the show was extremely faithful when it came to character designs and outfits but it managed to make them feel very natural to the setting. It was honestly so cool. Like when Gin stumbled into the kitchen and you can instantly recognize him from his outfit, but it looks so natural like they made the outfits feel like something real people would wear. And the Strawhats had some absolute fucking DRIP yo, implementing a bunch of their colour spread outfits in the different episodes was fucking inspired, and they looked so goddamn good. Oda is a fucking fashion savant I swear like the clothes he designed look so damn good in real life.

- Luffy still had his asexual vibes in full force which I'm so happy about. Like when Nami is getting dressed for their dinner with Kaya, and asks how it looks while posing, and Luffy is like "... you look like Nami", that was SUCH a Luffy line lmao.

- when Usopp and Zoro were teasing Nami about Sanji's flirting (Zoro's rapid fire "madam"s lmfao) and everybody was joking around together while Luffy watches them with the most fond look on his face it was so cute ugh my heart

- Having Zeff help to treat Zoro using fish skin grafting was a really cool addition and a great way to show his expertise as a former pirate.

- omg when Luffy gets all defensive of Sanji after only knowing him for like a day (because he's Luffy), and he tells Zeff about Sanji feeding Gin thinking he'll be all mad but instead Zeff looks proud and says "what a good kid" OMG MY HEART that was so cute 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 Zeff's dad vibes we're off the fucking charts. And they kept the "li'l eggplant" nickname, Zeff was so good goddamn like he was honestly one of my favourite parts. How the fuck they managed to make his mustache work so well and look so natural I will never know but god damn I was so impressed.

- holy fucking shit, the Baratie looked so fucking good. It was like seeing the manga/anime come to life. I wanted to fucking go there so bad. The little mouth balcony thing, the floors, the roof mural which didn't get any attention but was just casually made to be incredibly detailed and beautiful?!?! The colours and the bg characters, holy shit the set was just fucking amazing.

- The ships looked so good. Luffy choosing Merry 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I also liked how Usopp was introduced, it fit his character and the adjusted pacing pretty well imo

-I didn't know how to feel about Shanks in the preview images, but in motion he actually works really well. And Yasopp and Lucky Roo were so good. I love how they had Shanks mime cocking a gun and shooting it to signal to his crew to start going ham on the bandits so it looks for a moment like he shoots someone with his finger gun. Also Yasopp's trick shots were awesome, as well as Lucky Roo literally beating people with a chunk of meat lmfao.

- Mihawk was serving absolutely cunt. He was there to slay and slay he did. No notes, A+ performance.

- Zoro and Nami's actors really nailed their big emotional scenes. They captured the expressions and delivery perfectly, especially Nami screaming Arlong's name and stabbing her tattoo, she managed to match the intensity that the original voice actor had in the anime surprisingly well.

- Helmeppo's actor was so funny. His dickish goofy way of laughing worked so well for his character lmao, and having Zoro give him his signature haircut was 🤌🤌🤌 idk WHY they had him naked when he was playing with Wado Ichimonji but it was so funny.

- the scene where he convinces Koby to slack off and have a drink with him, Koby takes several shots, then blurts out that Garp is Luffy's grandfather was great lmfao.

-Zeff's interactions with Garp were great too. I love their talk about there being a new generation coming into its own now and it's getting to be the time where they should step back and let the new kids have their turn. It was a scene I could absolutely see happening in the manga.

- I like how at first Garp seems more reserved and serious than he is in canon, but as more time passes the more it's revealed how unhinged he is and how he absolutely is related to Luffy. Like when he screams after Luffy takes out their main sail, only to start laughing and act proud. Or when he gets pissed off at Mihawk refusing to capture Luffy and just has a tantrum in his office throwing shit around. Or when Zeff convinces him to stay for a meal by mentioning meat and he's like 👀👀👀. Koby saying he should have realised Garp and Luffy were related because of how much they both like meat had me laughing out loud.

- I like how Bogard got a slightly bigger role. He always had a really cool aesthetic, like an old time gangster with a samurai sword is actually really cool, so it was nice to see him a bit more than we get to in the manga/anime.

- They did a great job showing off how terrifyingly strong Garp is. When he's going after Luffy and just demolishing him as well as the environment. His hits felt like they hit hard. Also when he grabbed a canon ball and threw it at the Merry I was like YES!!! I was really hoping they'd show that if they were going to involve him in the live action series earlier than in canon.

- the show really managed to capture that fun swashbuckling vibe that comes with pirates. Also the ships and sets looked so good. And I like how they made reasonable changes to ship designs without going too far or making them too "realistic", they kept the fun aspects of the ship designs. Like Garp's ship looked damn good! Alvida's ship was still pink and covered in hearts!

I could gush for hours about everything I liked. There were like a few tiny nitpicks, some of the child actors weren't the greatest (Usopp and Kuina's being the worst ones), Usopp didn't get as many important scenes in Syrup village (though he did get a nice scene where he refuses to leave Kaya even after she slaps him and accuses him of lying about Klahador/Kuro, and they also kind of made up for not having more big scenes for him by giving Nami some extra development with Kaya in a way that fit with both their characters and storys. It was cute!), they left Hachi out of Arlong's Park which could impact his story later on (if they ever get that far 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞), which kinda sucks because I've always loved his redemption story. But aside from that honestly, I have very few criticisms. This felt like it was made by people who love One Piece and wanted to share it with both fans who have always wanted to see the world and characters they love in real life, as well a new audience that might otherwise have never gotten to see it. What few changes they made were ones that made sense for condensing the story, adjusting for the change in genre and medium, and they all still fit the world and didn't actually sacrifice the important aspects of canon. And they captured the heart and essence of the story, world, and characters so well it almost feels like a dream.

Like, we all got so used to live action adaptations falling short of that, of missing what makes the originals work. But the One Piece live action feels like it gets it, like above everything else the strawhats are a family, and Luffy is the embodyment of joy, and freedom, and the pursuit of dreams, and letting yourself just believe for once in something bigger than yourself even when you're a very small fish in a very big pond. The attention to detail, all the little references and foreshadowing and stuff in the backgrounds. The casting was mind bogglingly good, even minor characters like Sham and Buchi were so good and had so much character and life to them. Even with the characters they mostly had to leave out due to pacing and time constraints, just their designs alone were given so much attention. Like the Mayor of Orange town, or Patty, or Gin, who were only briefly shown in reduced roles, but were still so instantly recognisable. And the wacky designs of the manga were adapted to live action so well I was flabbergasted at how well they worked and how good they looked even though they barely toned down any of their weirdness or goofiness.

I was initially worried about the main characters saying or doing things that felt out of character, especially my boy Luffy, but there was never a moment where I felt like they weren't their characters. Sure, they weren't exact 1 to 1 copies since a lot of the Japanese dialogue would sound stilted in English without an adjustment, even the typical translated versions are more attuned to the sensibilities of people who are used to reading or hearing translated dialogue, so there were obvious adjustments that had to be made to the way some characters talked and the lines they said, but they made it work and feel right for this version of the story, and the characters still felt like themselves in all the ways that mattered.

Iñaki as Luffy was amazing, I am so happy with his performance. He really embodied the charm and cheer and charisma of Luffy perfectly. I got to fall in love with Luffy's character all over again with him and that is such a gift to get to experience that more than once 😭😭😭😭

God. I'm so emotional. I wanted this to be good so badly. I wanted this, of all series to escape the live action anime curse, because I knew if any could, it would be One Piece. And it was even better than I'd hoped. Was it perfect? Probably not, but I don't care. There wasn't a single moment where I wasn't enjoying myself and having fun, and that was all I wanted was to have fun while watching. It captured that feeling of the east blue arc, the nostalgia, so well.

If I gush any more this post will be way too fucking long. There are obviously more things I could talk about and comment on but I have to stop at some point or else I'll be writing this post forever lmao.

I will be reblogging stuff about the live action obviously, so reminder that my spoiler tag is gonna be "OPLA spoilers"

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (March 19-25, 2023)

This week gave us a much better picture of Gamera Rebirth, thanks to its panel at Anime Japan: we got a synopsis, character descriptions, another opponent unveiled (Jiger!), some toys, and a trailer. I'm loving the redesigns for the kaiju, and am pretty intrigued by the extent to which the U.S. is battling them, but the animation for the humans doesn't look any better than the Polygon Godzilla trilogy. I guess I can bear it for Gamera's sake.

Actor Jiro Dan (middle) died on Wednesday at the age of 74. His claim to fame was playing Ultraman Jack's host, Hideki Go, in Return of Ultraman and many Ultraman series and films since; he was also G-Guard Commander Besuke Jinguji in Godzilla Island. May he rest in peace.

Just when I was starting to worry that IDW's second run of Godzilla comics was going to abruptly end in May, here's another five-issue miniseries. Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons chronicles a secret voyage of Sir Francis Drake in which he and his crew encountered the King of the Monsters and (naturally) other Toho creatures. Believe it or not, this is Drake's second meeting with Godzilla: the first was in Dark Horse's Godzilla, King of the Monsters #10. Can't say I'm a huge fan of Godzilla in pre-Atomic Age settings though. Frank Tieri is writing and Inaki Miranda is illustrating; first issue's in June.

Godzilla: Tokyo SOS was the first Godzilla movie I saw in theaters (at the Pickwick, no less), so catching the Fathom Events showing on Wednesday was a nostalgic treat. Less nostalgic, but quite welcome: new subtitles! Well, new to us. @kyodaikino theorized that they're actually older than the dubtitles we've been forcibly acquainted with. None of the frame rate issues I heard Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla suffered from either. No idea why this was playing on a random weekday in March, but they should keep it up.

Every so often, The Asylum makes a giant monster movie that's a decent way to waste 90 minutes. Ape vs. Monster, their Godzilla vs. Kong mockbuster, was one such production, but I'm sorry to report that Ape vs. Mecha Ape (their... King Kong Escapes mockbuster?) is not. Indeed, it seems bent on entertaining the viewer as little as possible. Avoid at all costs.

Here's the trailer for Shinpei Hayashiya's next kaiju flick, War of the Ninja Monsters: Jaron vs. Goura. The bar is in hell after his last one, so qualities like "there are suits for both of the monsters" and "the frame isn't wallpapered with cheap CG effects" are notable.

Godzilla Battle Line introduced a new mode, and it's a pretty enjoyable one. Like free battles, challenge battles equalize the levels of all Battle Pieces in the match; you also have to follow certain restrictions when building your team, forcing strategies to shift significantly. The more you win, the faster your egg cracks open and yields rewards. I've only dropped one match so far, which is no surprise; as a trans Pokémon player, I have a lot of experience with egg-hatching.