#maybe willy really played with his sword ?

[randomnameless]

didn't alois threaten shez in Hopes to follow him to garreg mach?

?

Are you talking about this line ?

So you see why we must ensure you are well-compensated. Also, there may be some papers for you to sign...perhaps in blood.

Blood oaths used to be a thing - it's basically a super binding contract, like a very solemn oath.

Aka Alois is basically asking Barney here to sign some non-disclosure agreement, and Barney interprets this - and the reward they will receive - as a bribe to, say, not reveal to the world how Flamey'n'Uncle staged an assassination attempt on the heirs of Leicester and Faerghus - I mean, how the CoS is so incompetent that it put in danger the lives of the future heirs of Fodlan's countries.

In the JP text the words used are this 誓約書 which roughly means a written oath/covenant?

Tl;Dr : It's not similar to Tellius's Blood pacts even if blood is mentionned in the localisation, it's a real life (old) concept!

I don't consider this as a threat, even if Larva - and we know who is Larva - always suggests it is, or how basically the CoS is forcing Barney's hand.

[hikarry]

I'm not really on the team that swears to Jesus and beyond that Crowley lost his memories after the Fall. Yes, of course, he forgot some stuff because, ya know, he has been alive for more than 6000 years and if I don't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday, Satan knows he won't remember every single second of his life, but he remembers the important things

"Ah, but what about him not remembering fighting alongside FurFur or building the thingy with Saraqael?"

Love, I give you two options:

Those are either some of the stuff he didn't consider important enough to remember OR he is just straight up fucking with them. He does remember, but why reveal it if playing dumb sometimes is good in the long run? Might be useful

Alas, I don't know, but I will die on the hill that he does remember

Which means he most probably remembers meeting Aziraphale. Not because Aziraphale was "important" at the time per se, or because it was love at first sight (because it wasnt, not for him. Bro was so focused on the nebula he didnt even introduce himself when Aziraphale did. He threw him a "Right. Nice to meet ya. Anyway, nebula time!"), but because he was there when Crowley created the nebula and, as he said, he had been waiting for that moment since "well, always". It's an important moment for him, so he remembers. Aziraphale just so happened to be present

I don't know if that was the only interaction they had in Heaven or not (and that's not the point I'm trying to get to so I will ignore that problem for a later post, maybe), but when the now Demon Crawley was sent up to the Garden, he did remember Aziraphale. That's why he approached him

Cmon, Crowley isn't stupid. Of course he wouldn't approach an angel on the wall just willy nilly and make conversation. He didn't know Aziraphale had given away the flaming sword yet. Just approaching an angel from behind and morph into a demon next to him out of nowhere could be a death sentence. Or at least an A Line for a good smitting

Yet, he did it. He had at least 3 other angels to choose from but he approached the angel that he remembered from back in the beginning that was kind enough to help him with the engine of the nebula. Hell! I even bet this was not the first time they saw each other in the Garden!

Bet they've seen and observed each other from afar a few times while they interacted with the humans (yes, cause I believe Crawley, before tempting Eve, tried to gain her trust. It's easier to listen to a friend than a random snake) or just around the Garden really.

That's why Aziraphale didn't get surprised when Crawley showed up at the wall, because he knew the demon snake had been around the Garden for a while. He probably even recognized him as the former Star Maker and hoped he was still a little bit of his old self so he allowed himself to engage in conversation

Anyhow, another clue? This:

He remembers how Heaven works. He remembers he was a high ranking angel. Satan, he remembers the bloody passwords!

Do you know what else he remembers?

Cause they didn't throw that line in there for nothing. No, gents. Cmon. Nothing is random in Good Omens

He knows who he was. He remembers being the Star Maker that hung the stars in the sky

He remembers why he fell, for goodness sake

And the fact that he remembers everything makes all of it so much more tragic, doesn't it? He remembers his life before the Fall, his supposed friends that dragged him into the pit with them, what Her love felt like, the "mistakes" he made that led to his Fall

And it must have hurt. It must have hurt so much when he found himself in a pit of boiling sulfur with his wings completely burned and without Her love because he remembered it all. He must have been so bloody confused for so long

He might have regretted it. All the questions and the company he kept that made him Fall. But he doesn't anymore.

He knows he doesn't need Heaven, he doesn't need Hell. They are toxic. All he needs is his pacific fragile existence on Earth with Aziraphale and yet...well, that's something else he won't forget now, is it?

*clears throat*

I rest my case

[bimb0fy]

— 02; bonfire

pairings; luke castellan x hephaestus!reader

warnings; smoking, SMUT, slight bondage, slight degrading, public sex, loss of virginity, raw sex (wrap your willy silly!!), rough sex, dom!luke, corruption kink if you squint, maybe, idfk atp, wrote this b4 my English speaking exam so it's shit.

summary; the weekly bonfire, a tradition for councillors like yourself, like luke, but this one, this one had a certain twist to it.

wordcount; 1.4k

masterlist!! | navigation!!

-> You walked down to the bonfire. You're brother Alex made you dress up for Luke. He could sniff something happening and usually, Alex was always correct about that.

You raised the low rise pants, the star imprints were different. Yet he wasn't overboard with the outfit, allowing you to wear white shirt instead of a tank like he originally planned.

You smiled as you found your way to the councillors bonfire, each week, you'd throw one and get wasted and high.

You plopped down beside the Apollo Councillor, smiling at her as you talked.

"Hey mender, wanna get outta here?" Luke said as he raised his hand for you to take, which you gladly accepted.

You walked to the lake, hand in hand as you walked down the path. "Wanna play a game? Like 20 questions?" Luke asked you as you gave him a confused glance.

"Why?" You asked the boy who shrugged.

"I don't know anything about you." Luke answered. You smiled and nodded as he smiled back. "Let's see, uh, what's you're favorite color?"

"Basic much." You joked as he laughed. You sat down on the dock, taking off your slippers as you dipped your legs into the water, Luke sat crossing his legs beside you as you looked at the stars. "Green."

"Green?" Luke asked as you nodded. He smiled before turning back to the sky. "Mine is red."

"Okay uh, have you ever left camp?" You asked the boy who shook his head. "Wait really?"

"I don't have a place to go back to." Luke looked at the planks, tracing the outlines as you looked away, placing a hand on his in an attempt of comfort.

"I go to my aunts sometimes, my mom she uh, she died from an illness." You muttered as Luke looked at you. You gave him a sad smile as he pulled out a cigarette box from his cargos. "Really Castellan?"

"Shut up, don't act like you don't smoke." Luke laughed as he placed the cigarette in his mouth, taking out his lighter but groaning when it doesn't light.

"Here. Let me." You said as you removed your legs from the water, shivering from the cold as you leaned in.

You snaped your fingers, a little flame exiting from your hand as you lit up the cigarette for him.

Your face close to his. His gaze steady onto your eyes. You felt butterflies in your stomach as his breath hitched.

Once the cigarette lit up, you moved back to your original position. Luke exhaled the smoke, handing you the cigarette as you placed it into your mouth.

"Shit that's a nice one." You exhaled before handing it back, only for him to shake his head, taking out another one.

He took out his lighter, lighting up the cigarette before looking out to the stars, but your thoughts were confusing you.

He didn't correct you with his sword, his lighter is clearly working. It was almost as if he knew you'd light the cigarette for him, why was he acting this way.

"Hey Luke?" You called out as the boy turned to face you, a smile on his face as he inhaled the smoke, taking out the cigarette before answering.

"Yeah mender." He smiled as you crossed your legs, facing him as he did the same. "Whats up?"

"You're lighters working." You pointed out as Luke held onto it. He glanced at it, then back at you, clearly still confused.

"And what's the issue mender?" He asked before putting the cigarette back into his mouth, you put out yours, causing him to do the same as he stared at you, waiting for you to continue.

"You didn't correct me when I was making your sword, and you knew I'd light up your cigarette if your lighter randomly stopped working, didn't you?" You asked him as Luke bit the inside of his cheek.

Luke didn't even know how to respond. He knew what you were thinking. He leaned in, taking a second to watch your reaction.

You leaned in, intchung closer as you placed you hand onto his cheek. You're noses touching as his hands snakes around your waist.

Without warning, he pushed you onto the dock, knees on both sides of your thigh as he kissed you.

You let out a groan as he grabbed your arms, clutching onto your wrists as his lips hatched to your neck.

"Luke!" You breathed out as his hands found their way under your shirt.

"Mhm." He mumbled into your neck, kissing and biting the area. You let out a groan as you pushed him off, he had a hurt expression on his face as you sat up. "Sorry."

"No no it's just. I've never been with anyone, ever." You confessed as Luke raises his eyebrows at you, seemingly shocked by your confession.

"Really? Huh I gotta say I wasn't expecting that." Luke muttered as he stared at you, smiling, yet it wasn't a smile. It was a lustful grin at most.

You'd be lying if you didn't like Luke, everyone did.

Yet, he liked you. He chose you.

"Do you wanna?" Luke asked you, a grin plastered onto his face. You were nervous obviously, and all you could think about was someone finding you out here with him.

Luke would be lying if he said that didn't turn him on. He needed you, from the moment he saw you in your pony tail, working on a random Apollo kid's arrows and god, you were breathtaking.

"Okay." You whispered as he smirked. He gave you a grin, a grin that you interpreted as a 'I'm not gonna go soft on you' grin.

He pushed you onto your stomach, rasing up your hips as he smirked. His hand traced against the burn scars along your back, raising up your shirt as he kissed your back.

He slowly slid your pants down, you underwear falling along as he groaned at the sight.

You were pure, he could tell.

"God, mender you ready?" He asked you as he palmed through his cargos. You nodded your head, he kissed your back before unbuttoning his pants.

He pulled out his cock, precum spilling onto his fist as he gave himself a few jerks before lining up with you.

One swift movement, that was all it took for his to enter.

You let out moans and mewls at the unfamiliar feeling. You could hear Luke's groans as you clenched around him.

His hips started thrusting into you, not giving you time to adjust to his side as you let out moans, the sounds of his balls hitting your ass and completely obliterating you was too loud for you're liking.

But Luke was making you feel too good.

"Luke. Oh. Oh Luke right there." You moaned as you're eyes rolled to the back of your head. Tongue out as you couldn't think anymore, simply panting at the way he was completely destroying your insides.

"Oh god you're so tight, just my personal little cocksleeve huh." He whispered as he pounded into you. You moaned as he slapped your pussy, pulling put and flipping you over.

Your arousal dripped everywhere as he changed positions, entering you once more as he watched your tits bounce at his pace.

"Fuck you're perfect babe, made for me." Luke muttered as he drilled your sobbing cunt, fully disappearing in you.

Without a second thought, your back arched as you came. He groaned as he helped you through your high, pulling put and finishing onto your stomach as you let out loud moans.

He plopped down beside you, grinning as he looked at you. "Not bad for a virgin mender."

"Shut up Castellan." You laughed as you sat up with a strained moan. Biting your lip to forget your aching cunt as you slowly put your pants back on.

"Want me to kiss it better?" Luke joked as you widened your eyes at him. "No worries. I'll do it next time."

You smiled at his sentence. Next time. He wanted to see you again.

"It's getting late, cmon, I'll walk you to your cabin." He stood up, raising his hand for you to take it, which you gladly did as he wrapped his arm around you. "So tell me, what's your dream date huh."

"So now you're gonna take me out to dinner huh? What happened to doing that first."

[bogkeep]

last year i wrote my opinions on all the movies i watched on my Very Long Flights to australia, since long flights are a great opportunity to watch some movies i probably wouldn't have bothered to seek out otherwise. here's the stuff i watched this time around

the first 13 episodes of rurouni kenshin: okay so back when i watched demon slayer for the first time i asked around like "does anyone know any other Good Sword Animes. i'm in a big mood for Sword Anime" and a friend told me that they were going to tell me about THE sword anime, but with a BIG caveat. and the caveat was such that i went "ah yeah maybe i won't look into that one". i've since heard more about this series and been very curious about the story, because it sounds like My Shit. i figured in-flight entertainment is probably one of the more ethical ways to watch it, and i have confirmed that it is indeed My Shit. extremely skilled swordsman torn between his bloody past and a new life? he can win any fight, but at the cost of his soul? yeah. yeah. will say that the subtitles left in a lot of japanese terms and words that i think i would've greatly benefited to know the meaning of - like i figured it out from context eventually, but yeah. so Now I Know. at least my curiosity is sated.

the new wonka movie - it was Fine! i appreciated the sincere efforts of whimsy and trying to stick to a roald dahl-esque tone, though in hindsight it's ENTIRELY too magical and sugary sweet (hah). could definitely have done without the fatphobia - something that is very present in the source material, so i shouldn't have been surprised that it features in the prequel, too... it just made me go "nooo noooOooooo don't do that uuughhh noooooooooooooooooooo" a lot. honestly, as far as vibes go, this movie reminded me the most of the first f*ntastical beasts movie (you know, the one that came out in 2016, when we were still young and innocent) - like, decently charming, very cgi.

the old willy wonka movie - i had never seen this one before, and it provided me a lot of context for the New movie :') now THIS really hits the Unhinged Dangerous vibes the new movie lacked. easily the best played willy wonka. a grand old time. i <3 practical effects.

3/4ths of the barbie movie rewatch - is the barbie movie still fun to watch, even after a year of Essays and Takes? i think so. i was in a practical effects mood and had less than two hours left of my flight. like, it's The Barbie Movie. it will never be That Deep because it cannot escape its corporate mainstreamness, but i love the actual play-pretend whimsy and exorbitant amount of pink paint and funky outfits.

killers of the flower moon - i'd considered watching this on my previous flight, i had heard of the movie and put it on my to-watch list, but the THREE HOURS AND TWENTY SIX MINUTES runtime scared me off. not because i didn't have time (my flights were 12 hours and 7,5 hours respectively), but because i knew it was gonna be Heavy and Depressing and you gotta have the right mood for three hours of That. both of my flights had the exact same entertainment catalogues i gave it a try first thing on flight #2, knowing i don't have to finish it if i don't want. it was very good but oh boy heavy and depressing was correct! really good buildup of dread and despair as the web of murder closes in like water circling the sink. very good period piece, and everything i've read about it after indicates that martin scorsese worked very closely with the osage people to create this movie.

the lego movie rewatch - this is one of my favourite movies that i've seen many times but haven't in a while, and after the Three Hours And Twenty Six Minutes of indigenous people getting poisoned and murdered i REALLY needed something light-hearted. i was also severely sleep deprived at this point. all this to say that i was almost overwhelmed by how fun this movie is and kept tearing up at almost every scene. it's just such a good time!!!! my critique of this movie has always been that it has two tropes that annoy me - the "highly competent girl is reduced to an assistant for the clueless 'chosen one' dude" and "person who has changed their name goes back to use their ~*real name*~ because it's more valid than whatever they picked" - that only annoy me because of how prevalent they used to be at the time when this movie came out. in isolation, the story works really well and i still like it so so much. everything is awesome!!!!!!

anyway those are my movie thoughts

[garbagefarm]

Mutucule Farm (#11)

2023-03-03, session #11 of Mutucule Farm!

cast:

me (@mothmute, special friend: Pierre, ugh)

Belle (@snacco, special friend: Evelyn)

Cam (@amanitaspore, special friend: Elliott)

Erin (@salamand3rin, special friend: Caroline)

Highlights include, but are not limited to:

Pre-session, Belle threatens to keep running counts of deep sighs and times I stop to take notes

I realized that my naming scheme for the chickens was flawed, so I was prepared to sell ‘em and start over fresh until somebody pointed out I could rename them

Previously: Catbird, Bluejay, Heron, and Grackle

Now: Oviraptor, Gallimimus, Baryonyx, and Iguanodon

when we get dinosaurs, we can use the old naming scheme for them

I now have two lists of notes for stardew, “bird names” and “dino names”, and they’d probably confuse some people

Cam is scared of his teeth. Everybody is scared of Cam’s teeth......

Wizard wants void essence. We have plenty, but I go to the mines to collect some fresh. I get stuck at 3, even though I murdered them for their void essence fair and square!

(squares: the most impartial shape)

diagnosed with a terminal case of the tired sleepy

I get level 3 farming! this is a mystery to me, as I haven’t been picking crops. I think this is from petting my birds? (after looking at the wiki, this is likely correct)

Willy supplies us with Copper Pans. I immediately put it on my head, and everybody makes fun of me because they think it looks terrible. They are correct.

Fella’s got the scoop!! (see gallery)

gotta find a flattering angle, maybe use a filter...

Belle wants to fry an egg for The Spirits, and takes more than I’d agreed to >:(

I delve into the mines and get SLAIN BY A SLIME due to Dungeon Floors

It took all my bombs!!!

due to unrelated internet connectivity problems, we restart the day, phew!

Junimos fixing the bus!

Hangin’ out with the boys, the power of ritualistic dance

talkin’ about the wizard bundle. the wundle.

I visit the desert, and couldn’t resist the skull

Erin gets peer-pressured into accepting a cactus seed for her garden pot

Struggling to remember what we were doing, like if the guy from Memento (2000) was playing Stardew Valley

I delve into the mines and get SLAIN BY A SLIME due to Dungeon Floors! Again!!

It took all my bombs!!! Again!!!!

soooo we’re gonna restart this day too, right? haha jk... unless? 😳

(We do not)

Night market is here!!

I pick up a red cabbage for the bundle

I snipe all three original Lupini paintings!

(Erin accuses one of them of being derivative...)

Everybody going to the mermaid show!!

Cam does not want coffee this late at night

Linus memorializing his old friend, the glittering boulder. He’s happy for it moving on.

Linus caught me digging through the trash, and ... Linus is impressed! He even asked if I found anything good!

Erin didn’t make it to bed......

Belle was a Dinosaur Kid (and supplied the bird names, thanks Belle!)

“a lot of them don’t exist anymore, but we had iguanodons”

I thought iguanodons were extinct....

Train!! aaand it’s a passenger train, no loot

Erin wishes we could pull a train heist

Erin gifts me a bunch of cherry bombs to replace some of the bombs I lost in the mines and I am left speechless by this touching gift

Cam already gave me a sword, Belle has catching up to do

My first large egg!

“your first legg!” no, not really

Genie shoes?

putting aside the implications of Stardew Valley’s world containing not just mythological genies but ones real enough to have shoes,

do genies ... wear shoes??

I mean I guess not, that’s how I found ‘em

Winter star “special friend” announcements!!

(list up in the cast)

... goddammit, I got this guy again?? ugh fine this time I’ll get him something he likes. fried calamari, ready to go.

RIP Belle, dead in the mines

Somebody’s been doing something in the greenhouse, but nobody remembers what. Erin’s taking care of it, guess we’ll find out eventually

Surprise, building another barn!! Hog barn!! (someday)

“I’m looking for a hog time, not a long time, if you know what I mean”

“You have a secret note! you should eat it!”

speculating on cask-aged mayonnaise

I realize I’ve been slacking on the romance!!

google dot com “where is penny”

she’s at the playground with the kids

Jas confesses to feeding cows crawdads. They loved it??

Belle announces she has Pompkin. everybody piles in.

next day, the spirits are very displeased. maybe they’re prudes??

We’ve got an ongoing special order to get hardwood for Robin, and then she mails us a request for even more hardwood (that doesn’t count towards the special order)

Belle accuses Erin of illegally parking her horse!

“are you a cop??” “no!” “that sounds like a cop-out”

forgot to mention, I’ve been growing winter seeds to try and keep leveling my foraging.

I ask Belle and Erin to keep watering my horrible winter seeds while I upgrade my watering can

We all take a trip to the desert for a photo-op (see gallery)

I found a golden r’lic! We should start a religion!

I discover a fascinating trick with my terrible hat, which promptly cracks everybody up. (see gallery)

Erin supplies us with greenhouse-fresh strawberries :’)

telling everybody, “I would kill for [my chickens], nevermind that I was gonna sell ‘em.”

End-of-session non-canon day

Erin sells Baphomet!! no!!!

TO-DO:

upgrade barns until pigs arrive

winter star gifts!

pick up my watering can!

backpack upgrades for everybody, whoops

more tool upgrades??

romance???

fruit trees???

(link to photo gallery post, since this was getting pretty long)

[just-miru]

hey sillies, i am back on my pirate William bullshit-

[tw for kinda dark topics (? - nothing too explicit, only the implication of some pretty violent acts i guess) also possible typos here and there]

ok so-

i still can't really decide on this - does he lose both of his pinkies? or does he lose all his left hand fingers except for the pinike? i am leaning more towards the first one, but the second one is pretty interesting too and i just- *screams in indecisive*

i was also thinking about what people would know him as, ya know? i have some ideas (all related to his pinikes of course, hehe-), but once again, i simply can't choose-

---

no pinkie Willy (or Willy no pinkie) - if we go with the first option from above.

this one sounds so very silly. it's just so silly. and that's kinda the point. like-

imagine u hear a story about a fearsome pirate, the scourge of the seas even (hehe, alestorm lyrics-) only to then find out he's known as no pinkie Willy- imagine other pirates and stuff trembling in fear just at the mention of his name-

kinda stupid but i still find it funny-

---

William pinkie hand (or pinkie hand William) - if we go with the second option from above.

i was thinking of going with Willy instead of William here as well, but it's still kinda meh for some reason, regardless of which one i use.

so yeah, idk. nothing much about this one so far.

---

(the) pinkie cutter - this can go for either option.

[here might be some contradictions and stuff because i have so many ideas and thoughts and i can't focus on one alone-]

this one basically tells us from the very start what he does to his enemies and those who dare stay in his way - he cuts their pinikes off.

but he does this more like a warning, u know?

"for now it's just your finger. next time it's gonna be your head." or something like that.

i was also thinking why would he do that? why would he give someone a (more or less said) second chance when he could easily kill them on the spot?

well... what if they could be more useful alive than dead? fear and manipulation are two other weapons this bastard would totally abuse in these scenarios. like-

yeah, maybe this guy tried to kill him just a few minutes ago, but what if William can gain more by keeping them alive? what if he, by playing his cards right, can use them for his own selfishly silly bastard man reasons?

and if they are deemed to be useless or even a traitor of sorts, it's off with their head in an instant.

oh! or... what if instated of a warning, him cutting their pinikes off is some kind of sign of shame? this may be a bit more ooc i guess, but like-

besides killing out of necessity and stuff, what if William also kills when he finds his opponent worthy enough to die by his sword?

and when he finds his opponent unworthy, he marks them by cutting their pinkies so everyone who ever encounters them knows.

*god complex intensifies*

idk, these ideas are kinda messy, but they're only a base (?) of the main idea so far. just woke up not even an hour ago, and my mind is still being bombarded with violent pirate bastard thoughts and i just need to write them down ok-

anyway, moving on-

...

ok, i think this name's pretty cool.

wait, no- one second thought. what about... (the) pinkie slayer-

remnant also popped into my head a few times and now i wanna find a way to add it in this mess of a scenario-

i would call this an au, but so far i've been thinking only about the bastard, so idk-

i mean- there are a mett a ton of undertale aus focusing on sans alone, so maybe- maybe this is some sorta au as well, who knows.

[aquietwritingcorner]

Flufftober 2021, Day 1: Winning a Teddy for the Other Word Count: 1606 Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl Rating: K/G Characters: Olivier Mira Armstrong, Captain Buccaneer Warning: Summary: Olivier and Buccaneer don’t take kindly to soldiers who bully civilians, even when they’re not on duty. Notes: Take this as you will. It could be romantic. It could be friendship. Even I’m not sure. That part is up to interpretation! AO3 || ff.net

_________________________

Winning a Teddy for the Other

“Festivals are the best!”

Olivier glanced over at her captain with a raised eyebrow and amused quirk of her lips as they walked along the festival lane, not in their military uniforms, but rather in civilian clothes. A meeting in North City that required both of their expertise had brought them down from Fort Briggs. Buccaneer, knowing that it would be the same time as the Winter Festival, had insisted on taking some civilian clothing to go out and enjoy it. Olivier had been to this festival a couple of times in her tenure at Briggs, and so had decided to join him. He had packed a warm sweater, trousers and a thick coat for the winter festival, and she had carried along a long woolen skirt, warm top and thick coat and fashionable hat for it. She had looked forward to going, pulling her hair back in a braid to enjoy the festival.

She just hadn’t realized that Buccaneer would be like a kid in a candy shop.

“You certainly seem to be making the best of it,” she said, amused at him.

He grinned down at her. “We don’t get things like this at Briggs very often! Besides, look at all the different people! Kids and families,” he glanced at a group of giggling girls that walked by them, enjoying themselves, “the pretty girls all dressed up.” He looked back at her. “You can’t tell me that you’re not enjoying yourself at least a bit, General.”

“No, no you’re right. I am enjoying myself. The food here is much better for one,” she said, reaching into the bag of warm sugared nuts she had bought. She had already sampled the food of several different booths, enjoying the verity of flavors. There wasn’t much verity of food at Briggs, and sometimes she missed that, especially having grown up with so much of it at her fingertips.

Buccaneer grinned again and looked around. “Hey, look—its one of those booths where you can win a prize if you shoot the most targets.”

Olivier glanced in the direction he was indicating. “It is,” she said. Her eyes narrowed, though, as she saw who was at the stall. “Aren’t those Colonel Dentis’s men?”

Buccaneer stopped and looked at the men. “Yeah,” he said, his voice serious. “Yeah, I think it is.”

They both watched for a moment as the men in question harassed the others who lost to them. Even though the words couldn’t be heard, it was clear to see that they were taunting the other players when they lost, even the children. It was equally clear that the booth owner would have preferred that they leave. They stayed, though, seemingly enjoying what they were doing. Olivier didn’t like it. Soldiers should be helping the civilian population, not making children upset.

“I don’t like that,” Buccaneer said.

She watched as a young boy, clearly upset, went back to his father. The father talked to the boy for a moment, then went over to the soldiers. He was clearly angry himself, but controlled, and Olivier could respect that. They watched as he crossed over to the soldiers, trying to talk to them. It was clear to see from the posturing that things weren’t going to go well, as the soldiers started to square off against the father.

Olivier’s hand tightened on the sword she still wore. She wasn’t going to stand for this! Before Olivier could go over there herself, though, Buccaneer moved, making his way over. Curious as to what he was going to do, she followed, staying close enough to hear, but far enough away not to draw attention to herself.

“—cause your son can’t beat us. It’s a game. If he can’t handle loosing then he shouldn’t play!” one of the soldiers said.

“He’s ten. You ridiculed him. And you’ve been here all night. Give someone else a chance.” The dad replied, keeping is voice even.

“Yeah? Tell you what—you beat one of us, and we’ll move on. But I bet you can’t do that—we’re part of the sniper corps.” The soldier was smug, looking down on the father.

“I’ll take you on,” Buccaneer interrupted the argument, and all of the men looked up at him.

“What?” one of the soldiers said.

Buccaneer was already reaching for a gun and settling on a stool. “I said I’d take you on. But when I beat you, you have to move on.”

The soldiers bristled at that, and Olivier couldn’t help the quirk that reached her lips. He had baited them with the “when” not “if” and they had responded.

The others glanced at each other. “Fine,” one of them said. “But there’s no way you’ll beat us.”

Buccaneer shot them an unsettling grin. “Let’s find out.”

Olivier could see that it worked, the men shifting a bit, but they made their way to the stools and picked up their own guns.  Olivier leaned on a pole, watching, eating her sugared nuts. She wasn’t worried. She was confident how this would end.

Few people knew it, but Cromward Buccaneer was as good a shot as an average sniper, if not a bit better. His bulk though, didn’t lend itself to sniping very well, and so his typical position was more of a physical one. But Olivier knew well that he kept his skills sharp. She smirked and watched the show.

The game started. The men all started shooting. Targets came by and shots rang out. Targets went down, one after another, some almost as fast as they went up. It was clear from the frustrated look on the faces of Colonel Dentis’s men that most of the shots weren’t coming from them. Within a few minutes, all of the targets were down, and the game was over.

“Ah, guns down,” the owner of the booth said, just a little nervously. “The most targets were taken down by the new gentleman. He is the winner.”

“No way!” of the others said, throwing down his gun. “I call foul!” He pointed at the booth owner. “You’re lying!”

“It was fair and square,” Buccaneer said, slowly standing up. “I bet you.” He grinned. “All of you.”

The leader of the pack puffed up, posturing. “There’s no way you could beat us. No one can. We’re the best here.”

Olivier stepped forward then. “He can if he’s a Briggsman,” she said, her voice harsh.

“What—” one of them started, and then took note of the sword on her side, and the look she was giving him. He paled. “General Armstrong—” he dropped into a salute. “Sir!”

The other two with him followed suit, but she didn’t return the salute, forcing them to keep it up. “Briggsmen are required to meet the highest of standards. We can’t afford to consider back up. Everyone of my men is an excellent shot. Only the most elite are better than them. And you clearly aren’t the most elite.”

She walked up to them, handing her bag of nuts to Buccaneer, who took it without complaint.

“Attention, men!” They dropped their salutes to stand at attention. “You’re Colonel Dentis’s men, are you not?” she demanded.

“Yes, sir!” the leader said.

“And part of the sniper corps?”

“Yes, sir!”

“And you spend your time harassing children at a carnival game?” she growled out. “You call my Briggsmen monkeys and insult them, but you have manners no better than a common thug!”

It wasn’t really a question and the men knew it.

“Rank and name, soldiers!”

“Major Willis Madlyn!”

“First Lieutenant Evan Jeremies!”

“Captain Wes Oistvue!”

“Know this—your commanding officer will know of your disgraceful behavior here. Now get out!”

The men saluted and then practically scrambled over themselves to leave. Olivier snorted. “They have no scruples.” She glanced at Buccaneer. “If you had lost, you’d have walked back to the fort.”

He grinned. “Then it’s a good thing I didn’t lose.”

“Excuse me, sir?”

The booth owner interrupted them. He was approaching them, a teddy bear in his hands. “Thank you. And here. It’s your prize for winning.” He handed the bear over to Buccaneer with a grateful smile. “Even if you don’t want it, maybe your girl or someone.”

Buccaneer looked at it, and then over at the father and the kid, who had been watching. He turned towards them, kneeling down and offering it out to the kid. “Hey—why don’t you take it? I don’t have a reason to keep it.”

The boy, though, shook his head, grinning widely. “No thanks, Mister! I wanna win one myself, like you did! That was so cool!”

Buccaneer blinked at the boy, then smiled. “Yeah? I bet you can!”

The boy enthusiastically agreed, and the father nodded his thanks. The exchange over, Olivier and Buccaneer turned to walk away and enjoy the rest of the festival. Olivier took her sugared nuts back as the two walked.

“What are you going to do with that?” she asked him after a moment, nodding at the bear.

Buccaneer looked at it, and then thrust it into her arms. “You keep it,” he said.

She took the bear, startled. “Me?”

“Yeah,” Buccaneer said. “The man did say to give it to a girl. Besides, you already have a bunch of bears at your command. What’s one more?”

Olivier rolled her eyes at him but tucked the bear under her arm as they enjoyed the rest of the festival.

But if he ever saw that bear sitting on a shelf in her quarters at Briggs, well, he never said anything about it. And neither did she.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Re Hitsugaya and Kira's shikai powers, it's pretty unlikely Hitsugaya knew, I think. I'm no lore expert but I do love to over analyze things! Rangiku points out before their fight that Kira doesn't tell people what he can do. He specifically mentions that Renji and Momo know, so it's theoretically possible Momo could have told Hitsugaya, but she doesn’t have much reason to. It seems likely that people who fight together often, like officers in a squad, would know each other's shikais (unless they're hiding them...Yumichika...), but since Kira and Hitsugaya haven't ever been in that position, my guess is he didn't know. We see Kira (and most of the Soul Reapers really) show off and explain his shikai in detail a few times, but I assume that's because we as the audience are just seeing them fight a lot and having it explained for our benefit. With a couple exceptions (some of the zanpakutos seem to be famous?), my guess is people who aren't close and/or in the same squad actually seeing each other fight probably don't know each other's abilities super well.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts because I love to think about small details like that!

Yes, I totally agree!!! I come back to these scene all the time because I just think LOL what a way to find out. Hitsugaya's in the middle of stopping a fight and arresting some people and suddenly his sword is twice as heavy as he was expecting it to be and it's just like, gdi Kira u motherfucker. But gotta play it cool on account of, you know, arresting people. XDDD RIP wrist.

I think it's so fascinating how radically different things become in SS pre- and post-ryoka invasion/Aizen defection. It just all happens so fast! Suddenly people are carrying their zanpakutou around all over the place and releasing shikai and even bankai willy nilly.

Colorful Bleach suggests that knowing the Captains' and VCs' shikai/bankai is now on the Academy entrance exam, but given that this information does not seem incredibly widespread within the current officers it kinda makes it seem like that's a... new, post-Aizen addition. XD Afterwards I feel like it was like, Man, maybe we should do some icebreakers or something and get to know each other?? Because I agree--prior to the start of Bleach, I don't get the impression the divisions saw all that much of each other all that often, unless people made specific individual effort to do so.

Part of me is like LOL someone help them--how hard is it to keep track of the like, handful of people who have shikai to begin with (or even just Captains/VCs--it's not like there's that many of them). Especially given that a lot of this stuff is super flashy and distinctive. But the serious part of me is like, no yeah that tracks. Flashy or not, anything related to your zanpakutou seems fairly personal; it's probably not social convention to discuss it outside of particular situations or audiences, or in the context of assessment (e.g. Captains/VCs exams). My workplace has fewer employees than the Gotei 13 has and I definitely could not tell you what the heck most of these people do all day, much less the specifics of their individual research. Even within my specific department (approximate in size to, say, the number of Captains) I still couldn't tell you. XD So I imagine it's like that. Everyone knew (or thought they knew) Aizen's because he did so much teaching/demo-ing, but that whole arc really showed SS's ass in terms of how poorly their atomized leadership was able to rise to the occasion. People are probably fairly aware of Senbonzakura, because if they know Sode no Shirayuki well enough to grant her an epithet, I assume Kuchiki trivia is just part of SS's social fabric. Knowing Ryuujin Jakka is probably like knowing the names of the U.S. Presidents' dogs. On the other hand, like, when Kira is surprised by Hitsugaya's shikai when he's fighting Ichimaru, I imagine that'd be like me thinking of one of my co-workers, "Ah, see I knew you were a physicist but uhhhhh would not have guessed you work on the... physical structure of bacteriophages??? whut"

I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ABOUT THESE THINGS and have demonstrated in this reply my inability to coherently organize them, but anyway YESSSS I am always here for all of this. Thank you so much for sharing your take! I LOVE IT. <3333

[randomnameless]

Random Rhea HC : Nap time.

Back when she was a wee litle thing, she used to nap, like her siblings, in both human or lizard form, on Zanado's warm benches when there was some sun or anywhere, even if she prefered, as always, to sit next Sothis who would always find a way to hum her lullaby and have her sleep on her lap.

When it was cloudy and Sothis wasn't available, Cichol had to put her to "sleep" for naps, and while she always refused to, listening to his stories always did the trick (helped by Cichol tucking her to bed first), to the point where putting Cethleann to sleep was very easy for him, because he had to deal with Rhea for years previously (something he often teases her about when she pretends she's alright and doesn't need to sleep when she's Archbishop Rhea).

As Seiros the Warrior, Rhea has trouble sleeping, because even if she is Seiros the Warrior, whenever she falls asleep, she becomes the Rhea who couldn't do a thing in Zanado again, and her nightmares/memories are so frightening that she refuses to sleep.

Whenever she feels like she has too - else she will collapse - at first, when she still cannot trust humans, she escapes to the most secluded place she can find (a mountain, the top of a tree, a forest, some secluded place where no human can find her, or a cave) to rest but her nightmares mean she cannot really rest/sleep.

When she trusts them a little more (but still not that much!) she allows herself to rest for a few hours, but always alone, in a closed space, and with her weapons at hand. When she "rests" like this, she is a very light sleeper and, coupled to her nightmares, it means she cannot get effective sleep.

Willy does his thing, and while she still has some nightmares she finally manages to get some sleep, even if Willy is annoying because while he may be as warm, or even warmer, as the warm rocks from her childhood, he snores and his heartbeat is loud.

Besides, they rarely sleep when they're together because he has to polish his sword or whatnot.

When Cichol'n'co join her quest, she finally feels "safe" enough to sleep in Enbarr's palace without Willy. It's thus a common occurence during the sunny days, to see Saint Seiros sitting on a bench, or against a column, or even in the gardens, "meditating" for the most devouts. Her nightmares are still there, but knowing some of the others survived "lessens" them.

Lycaon and his friends of course pretend to "meditate with Saint Seiros" whenever they want to escape their tutors, they bring their toys and play next to her, until they fall asleep. Rhea was always puzzled to see those children sleeping next to her when she woke up, but was so amused and touched, because it reminded her of her younger days with Sothis, that she never told them to, uh, stop "missing" their lessons.

(To Cichol's great disarray, why are they always running away from his important "philosophy and life lessons" classes? To which his wife would often reply that to a bunch of 5 years old his classes are way too boring.)

Post War of Heroes, once the monastery is built, Rhea isn't "afraid" anymore to sleep because of humans, but her nightmares came back in full force, "updated" with the WoH and her "new" losses, her brothers, Cichol's wife, Lycaon, Willy, etc etc.

Jeralt once spot her asleep at her desk, he tried to wake her up gently by pushing her shoulder, but she broke his jaw as a "reflex" startled.

Sitri worries about her sleep schedule, so she arranges some time in her planning when she would be free to nap, especially when there's sun outside! However, she later discovers that Rhea's sleeping issues are caused by "nightmares" and while she never prays, she introduces her "not mom" to chamomille, maybe it can help her relax, if not sleep?

Cichol returns and while he knows she has nightmares (even since her Seiros the Warrior days) she refuses to talk about them. Ultimately Seteth, with his years of experience, pulls out the same tricks he used in his youth, giving her his reports at night, while she's tucked in bed, and making sure she drank her chamomille.

It's an old method, but it works.

Hanneman once surprised him with a book about nightmares, and asked him if he needed help, which of course attracted Manuela who gave the advice to "drink so much that you pass out and don't remember what happened when you fell asleep".

Cyril refuses to "nap" next to Rhea, or put his head on her lap despite her insistence, because that's way too embarassing and damn, he's not a kid anymore! Catherine doesn't mind at all though, and takes his turn, which annoys him even more, but for some weird reason, Lady Rhea doesn't seem to mind.

AG!Wise, Shamir catches her, Seteth and Flayn (and even that new merc who joined?) sleep in the Camulus Cathedral, when there'd be a ray of sun peering through the windows.

"They are all in deep religious meditation", says a random monk. Shamir knows better though, they're having a nap.

[ranmanjuu]

not a request but can you imagine oda forces trying to play smash against the anti-oda or they all play minecraft together

i’ll expose myself here. i have never ever played smash (although minecraft steve being announced is super pog) so i can’t tell ya that part bud. but i can with the blok game. (disclaimer that this request was made after i closed it yet my heart said No, you actually Want to do this so here i am. most probably will be short).

‎

welcome folks, to SengokuSMP.

oda forces:

—nobunaga:

would be the one that steals your iron and shit. commits thefts willy nilly, and no one is exempt from this. if he needs it, he’ll get it with or without your consent.

would kill an iron golem for the few iron it gives

before he got his own base (cause i think he’d just spend most of his time mining and getting materials to protect himself) he’s probably just barge in the nearest bed and sleep in it, regardless of the owner.

his base would probably be built by hideyoshi or sumthn.

he prefers playing pvp more than just survival. since mc placed a kind of restriction for the end (and therefore blocking them from completing the game), he goes onto servers and practice his battles even in a block game.

1.9 axe-shield pvp. he’s tactical in knowing when to strike and block and to back down, and is immaculate with his crits.

—hideyoshi:

probably spends the first few days around nobunaga to protect him. he always fights off the mobs near him even if nobunaga can handle himself.

always reminds people to sleep every night, so that the phantoms don’t come. even though a lot of the players prefer to just stay up.

built a base for nobunaga near his mine cause he needs A Place and not just mooch furnaces and beds from other people.

spawned iron golems for “protection” but nobunaga keeps killing them cause it just gets in the way

would be the one to make mines 4 blocks high so you don’t Bump your head thing, probably like 3 block width and even staircases. would also be the one to make a safety railing across any bridges he finds.

if an ally, he’d greet new players and give them some extra stuff so that they have Something to start off with

i feel like he’d be a pve player idk why

—mitsuhide:

no one knows where he is most of the time. nor his base.

unless you see his nametag (which, most of the time, he’ll see yours first) it’s kinda hard to find him when he’s off and alone.

mf is the black market of the server. whatever potions, potion ingredients, or shit like that, he has. he probably owns like several wither skulls enough to summon a wither.

he would sneak around when mc is mining and just like. scare the shit out of them. the cave noises don’t help.

(the newest screenshot hasn’t been released yet but,) y’all know the warden? the new mob? cause it’s reliant on sounds, if anyone is ever in its proximity he’d throw like snowballs at them so that it goes after them. little shit.

bow skills?? perfect. even in a game his accuracy is spot on. you know those obstacles people make with like slime blocks and maybe mlg 360s? mf can do that

he probably knows enough redstone to make traps, too.

somehow knows what everyone has/doesn’t have.

—masamune:

prank ass bitch.

he probably has like a Source of tnts in his base or something. if anyone is moving out of their old base, he’ll either blow it up or burn it, whether they wanted to or not.

fuck it. he’ll do it even if you’re not moving.

probably doesn’t often sleep and would rather fight off the phantoms than anything.

he probably wants to defeat the dragon quick, cause it’s supposed to be the game’s ultimate goal. but because of the previous restrictions you put, he just goes off and fights other players (cough kenshin, nobunaga)

and when he does kill you, expect like half of your items to not be returned.

also one of the casual thieves in the server. he just doesn’t care that it Belongs to someone and just yoinks

also a pvp player, although i find him leaning more to 1.8 style. he will jitter click you out of existence.

has dogs because idk he gives off that vibe also they Attack.

—ieyasu:

does not log on much lol. he got on once and then Never Again. it’s only when you ask him that he begrudgingly does get in in his own contrarian way.

definitely goes wayy far out for more isolation cause he doesn’t want to get caught up with whatever shit masamune has.

the only major thing he did besides mining and everything was that he got a cat. and almost no one knows about it, other than you because:

“ieyasu has made the advancement [Best Friends Forever]!”

“mc: :OOOOO!!!!”

yeah, you never told anyone.

the longest time that he logged in at first was probably when he found out that cats sleep in beds and just. sat there as the night goes by in his bunker just watching and hearing it purr. he’s a bit irritated when the others tell him to sleep, but then see that the cat went and slept on him that secretly made his heart soft.

and then you insisted on going to his base which took a considerable amount of time, and even with his denying, you decide to decorate and expand his base! you also got to name the cat, but you never knew since you just said like “i’d name it [...]!” and later ieyasu found a name tag and actually did name it that.

—mitsunari:

he doesn’t run a lot i don’t feel. primarily because he was wonky with the controls from the start.

i feel like he’d have the brain to be a redstone engineer. he spends more time like, making those cool machines than anything (probably those that’d help out everyone like an automated farm, etc.)

thing is he forgot that he could die, so most of the time he’s just starve to death without even noticing it.

much like in real life, he always forgets to sleep. and that’s why phantoms are his number 2 in his cause of deaths.

doesn’t have an actual base. hideyoshi built a small one for him, but mitsunari kind of never uses it and just logs off on the spot. at this point it just became a part of the main buildings for everyone or something.

he doesn’t do an awful a lot of collecting and often asks others for some. and when he is given it, he goes “thank you ^^ <3″ and does like the happy-shift thing. it’s honestly too cute for it to be just pixels.

probably knows a lot about minecraft stuff too, it’s just that he never uses any of it.

—ranmaru:

he was so excited the first time you told him that he was invited to the smp of sengoku warlords! would probably frequent the most.

i think he’d just vibe really. not exactly going extremely into pve or pvp or redstone or building, he plays it at a very slow place and more like an animal crossing player would.

like, he builds a small farm and stuff. it isn’t as efficient as mitsunari’s, but it is what it is. also has an animal pen with loads of one animal category and he tends to let people use it with the exclusion of some (coughs masamune) as long as they breed them again or something.

and while he doesn’t go for the big projects, he is kind of a builder? he has the Aesthetic sense while building his house and stuff yk. would maybe lean into the cute, cottagecore stuff.

favorite food in game is probably cake! it takes more effort than most other foods and it just looks cute so he likes making them.

totally has shaders on.

is scared shitless of cave noises at times. you could play 11 near him and he’d just straight up panic and log off.

‎

uesugi-takeda forces:

—shingen:

i find him to be maybe one of those builders that stick to large projects and stuff idk why

he does other things too, mainly pvp (he likes to just head over to nobunaga’s base and kill him sometimes. not that the man doesn’t accept the challenge). would probably also be more into 1.9 pvp because he’s a very calculative person in fighting. yes even in block game.

but the first thing he built once he’s set from collecting materials, was a “restaurant”. for what, you ask? why of course he takes you on a minecraft date. that was the top of his list the moment you even told him about the smp

once the others found out (which was not that long) he just started bragging. kenshin burnt down the building later on.

but he always escorts mc or some shit while spewing out his Lines in chat, sometimes doing the bow in game thing. in response, there are several barfs in chat, and a list of people coming to kill him.

mf likes to combat log on kenshin when he’s on a Killing Spree for the shits and giggles.

—kenshin:

first time you told him about it, he was very happy to learn something about mc’s modern times, even if it’s a children’s game. unfortunately, he didn’t know what an ‘smp’ meant.

so when he logged on and saw that there were Other people, his smile turned into a deadly frown as he just began punching them to death. he only stopped when they ran off and you intervened.

he tried having you stick around longer when you were giving him a tutorial of how to play the game.

at first he only collected material to get stronger. and by that only sword because he sees no need in getting armor (he doesn’t die in battle irl, he can’t die in a simple game). but WRONG cause he got killed by shingen who, even though he had a stone axe, had iron armor while kenshin got nothing but an iron sword.

he doesn’t make a base (why do so many here don’t make bases istg). in fact, he doesn’t log on much.

at first, he only goes on if mc is on. it’s only when he sees that mc appreciates some of the work the others have put into things (like shingen’s builds, mitsunari’s redstone, etc.) is when kenshin tries to Do Things Too and kinda fail.

this man kinda has no aesthetic sense in the block game. but you give him a for effort.

1.8 pvper. he can definitely do 1.9, but more the former mostly cause his deadly anger makes him jitter click like crazy. often challenges others (consented or not) which mostly includes masamune and nobunaga, and he often surprise attacks shingen and sasuke.

—yukimura:

honestly a normal player in survival.

he makes a decent house, has some pretty strong gear, and just helps around his allies a lot (mostly {try to} drag kenshin away from trouble, scold shingen for being too close to mc {though it’s a him problem ngl} and just being a messy caretaker).

i feel like he’d enjoy tekkit tbh. sasuke would probably introduce it to him and he’d just generally enjoy it.

but this is about the smp

he got lucky the first drowned he killed dropped a trident and it’s been his favorite weapon.

probably tried at one point to build kenshin a small base but he wouldn’t listen so like. shrugs.

he’s a bit iffy with playing alongside the enemies in the same server, but they are kind of divided into two. and mc did say it was just for fun and games and they didn’t want to see actual wars be dragged into this, so he just lets it go and has fun.

he looks forward to beating the enderdragon a lot, when the end is available.

—sasuke:

oh Boy he’s having a field day. his adored sengoku warlords? playing minecraft, his childhood game??? absolute pog.

even though it was you who proposed the idea, the one who set up the server in the first place was sasuke, since he has more knowledge on that stuff.

since he got his bearings quicker than the rest from experience, and he was earlier to log on due to testing and stuff, he mostly helps you with building like the main hub, like the center place for everyone and generally things that involve helping the overall smp.

can mlg water bucket, through a lot of trial and error. he uses it mostly to make dramatic entrances where he drops from a hill and just not take damage.

^ speaking of Dramatic Entrances, he probably has a chest full of ender pearls for those specifically.

although he helps a lot with guiding everyone, at times, he pulls out the ol’ “sleep in the nether :)” suggestion just to troll

ngl he’d stick to his ninja thing and successfully make a redstone-wired door and has his banger secret base in it

—yoshimoto:

the s in smp doesn’t exist to him.

he’s just a collector, really. one of his first priority isn’t even materials like stone, the moment he finds any kind of flowers he’ll pick it up. it’s only when yukimura and sasuke actually Give him shit does he start living a not broke life.

probably dies a lot to mobs and stuff

but like legit, this man spent a long time collecting all 13 discs and almost every flower (yes, even the biome only ones) because he wants to take it all in. nevermind the fact that he can just listen to the discs online and all.

he’s immaculate in his aesthetics. even with just wood he makes his base look really cool ngl. 

some parts of it are plastered with every painting there is in minecraft, or just item frames, or flowers in their pots. every decoration you can think of, lamps, campfires, even armor stands, he has them.

you gotta give him credit, it’s a lot of effort.

he often afks just to listen to the music even though, again, he could just listen to it online.

got into a bit of a spiel with ranmaru, since he unknowingly dyed a lot of his sheep (he did categorize it with color though). and so they made an agreement to just have every color sheep, and put them in different pens. so they just shared it now

he saw the cave updates and went silently bonkers because how pretty some look (like the lush caves? hello??)

he has like. 14+ texture packs and 4 different shaders ready at his settings.

[jaepies]

𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙤𝙢 - attack on titan

*contains spoilers of s4 

reader!imagine

word count : 1,456

┍━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━┑

you descended towards the mayhem of marley. flames were roaring, having no mercy on anyone as they licked anything they were able to get their hands on. if this was something of a movie, you would have stood there astonished at the scene playing out in front of you. truly it was a place where war had rampaged. eren’s titan stood in the middle of it like he was the puppeteer and the minuscule humans below him were his pawns, only able to move at his tyrant will.

no, he wasn't a tyrant.

he was eren, right?

eren wouldn’t want to inflict such pain onto others like this. the titan who savagely had just eaten willy tybur minutes before was merely a ghost of the boy who you had grown up with. this monster lacked the passion and empathy that used to reside inside humanity’s hope.

buildings were crashing down as you desperately manoeuvred yourself around the unfamiliar surroundings. even the air which you breathed in felt so different from across the ocean. it had been 4 years since the discovery of a world outside the island yet just being in marley gave you the same feeling of disbelief that you had experienced all those years ago.

except you couldn’t help but be entangled by the ropes of guilt.

all this destruction, all this anguish

each scream which rang out in the night sky,

was all caused by you and your comrades. with each thunder spear that you unleashed came with a haunting flashback to when bertholdt the colossal titan and the armoured titan reminded your people of the fear and destruction that laid beyond the walls.

chills crawled up your spine just thinking about it. the havoc that ensued that day was the exact same as the disarray underneath your feet. dead bodies crushed by the weight of fallen debris, you shut your eyes visualising the despair that will befall the corpses’ families. never able to get closure nor will they ever get the chance to say goodbye.

children were under those collapsed walls. their lives cinched from them before they could really begin. you felt as though you were an outsider looking into something you were not a part of. there was a sensation of detachment from reality as the ongoing battle scene became blurry around you. the realisation that you were the trigger for all of this was an agonizing punch to the stomach.

a sudden hand on your back forced you back into consciousness. it was connie - his face wearing a pronounced look of worry however the steel touch of his fingers held a separate message of its own.

‘follow the plan and make it out alive,’

solemnly, you trailed after the bald man onto one of the last standing roofs in the district, leaving all sins committed behind. still, there was a bitterness that laced the atmosphere; stifling your comrades' ability to talk

or maybe no one had the correct words to say.

there was so much that could be done, you had the advantage of power here. you were superior ones for once. these people ‘started it’ first as childish as that sounds. so why did you all feel so awful? standing on the rooftop gave you such height yet it felt as though you were falling into a pit of disgust and shame.

somehow, it was better when humanity’s only enemy at the time was the titans. there was an element of simplicity in knowing who the ‘bad guys and good guys’ were. the saying of ‘curiosity killed the cat’ seemed fitting and whilst you all were not dead yet, you couldn’t help but think everyone had gone too far. the greed of information led to the erasure of the line of distinction.

out of nowhere, more characters joined the narrative, more lives were put on the line which meant there was more to lose. the fiery passion which once encapsulated the faces of your friends was blown out by the coldness of knowledge. historia became another cog in this greater machine with no regards to her wishes, no one even stopped to entertain armin’s idea of communication.

this wasn’t the scout’s plan in the first place. if only time ran more slowly rather than propelling forward, lurching at the next tragedy about to occur. it was frustrating how no one could formulate an alternative to whatever you were doing, there had to be another, more constructive way to solve this issue. you were taught growing up that violence was and will never be the issue.

only a fool would draw a sword in the face of danger and a person with at least a morsel of integrity will bare all their vulnerability and use that as their weapon of choice.

the discomfort of the blades caught up to you. your hands drenched in a clammy sensation as weariness crept its way into your head. these weapons were your lifeline - a medium to plough your way through to the temporary camp of safety. each arduous day in the training corps was spent soaring through forests with the odm gear - you should be used to the feeling by now.

another building came crumbling down as eren boundlessly shattered the body of the town. confined by nothing and no one. was this was the freedom that he was always seeking? or was he just a lost boy hopelessly grasping at a mirage?

you couldn’t help but convince yourself that there had to be a conclusion for all this. every story has an ending whether it be a dismal one where the main character dies or a path where the protagonist encounters a happier alternative. a finale is a finale all the same. the flow of pages eventually come to an end as you move onto the next enticing book.

the ever-evolving idea of freedom made it ever so difficult to anticipate the finish line. just when everyone thinks they can see it on the horizon, more hurdles are placed in front of them, forcing all the runners to continue despite having been pushed past exhaustion a few laps ago.

you and your friends share the same desire of wanting to see how this all ends. the wish for all of this to be over someday is what keep you all going. constantly being fed that if you do your part in the narrative then all the pieces will fall into place. this is what drives you to seize the nearest machine of war and put two men into a long-lasting sleep.

guilt came trickling back - both of its arms threatening to envelope itself around your delicate neck, poised and ready to pull you down a pit that kept spiralling. but you kept meticulously moving forward.

all the clocks had been destroyed in the chaos nonetheless the incessant ticking taxed away in your mind. each tick hurried you further away from your morals. each tick painted your hands a deeper shade of crimson. each tick made more fall victim to the squabbles of humanity.

an explosion was released in the distance and the disruption of the ocean could be felt under your numb feet. the ships upturned against their will before even being given a chance to breathe. the sheer force of armin overwhelming liberio more than it already had been.

he strolled through the port so carelessly as if he was walking through the meadow during the springtime. sardonically, his steps drowned out the yelps of agony coming from the sailors swimming for the last time. you were grateful. your mind had reached the limits of its allotted space that held screams which would keep you tossing and turning at night.

the bristly feeling of a ladder came tumbling down onto you. peering into the ink of the sky, the recent discovery of the aeroplane came gliding in. the bite of its draft nipped at your skin as you began to ascend. the material of the rope rubbed your hands raw from gripping tightly.

fighting against the unwavering twisting and turning, the sight of the entrance gifts your body with a slight feeling of relief. you had survived another round of trying to live.

the embers of fire continued to rage on, proceeding to devour the remains of what you had left. you mused at how picturesque the landscape looked. it had to be a crime that such an abomination could be so alluring. the distance concealed any evidence of the bodies so all that could be seen was the fallen architecture. it reminded everyone of what they had accomplished as you flew away from marley and one step closer to freedom.

there had to be another way.

┕━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━┙

[peacensafety]

This is everything about WandaVision up to Episode 5, with most of it concentrating on Episode 5. I have seen Episode 6 at this point, but I will respect the one week spoilers rule that is part of Nerd Culture.

:read more:

First of all, some basics about this series. This is an homage to different American sitcoms. Why American sitcoms when the main character is Sokovian? No one knows.

In the comic books, Wanda Maximoff is a mutant, not a science experiment like in the MCU. She and Pietro are the twin children of a Mutant named Magneto and a human named Magda (who is sometimes a Romini, and originally from Transia). Magneto is referred to as an Omega level mutant. Wanda is born with mutations, able to control Hex Powers, which is whatever the comic book writer needed to move the plot along. Sometimes her original powers have to do with probability, but like, 30 years ago, they started calling it chaos magic, and then she had extra reception to magical powers, and basically, it’s all very vague and ill-defined. She’s like the only one immune to Phoenix powers, and that’s a huge deal. She is not considered an Omega Level Mutant because she does not have completely mastery over her powers, not because she isn’t powerful enough. In the comic book series House of M, she is powerful enough to rewrite the entire universe, that was retconned in The Children’s Crusade, but then her powers are called Mutant Magic in A vs X and she’s got cosmic chaos magic. She’s supposed to serve The High Evolutionary at this point, which has made her more powerful. In the MCU, she was genetically altered by the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones. So when Wanda, AKA The Scarlet Witch, is in a story you can expect it to be about ridiculous amounts of power.

The assumption that you can make pretty quickly in the series is that Wanda Maximoff is in charge of this alternate reality, and quite possibly created it. Knowing what we know about Wanda, we assume it’s because she broke after the death of Vision and couldn’t deal with that death after the death of her parents (because of the Sokovian civil war) and Pietro, her twin brother, who was killed by Ultron. It’s stated pretty early on that Wanda could have defeated Thanos by herself (this is most likely true, one time in the comic books she decided to remove every mutant power in the known universe and she did for a couple of years. Is she more powerful than Jean Gray? Sit down with some nerds and listen to them argue, because that call will never be settled in a peaceful manner). Wanda has brought back Vision (who was killed by Thanos before he made his wish on the Stones, making him dead dead instead of mostly dead like half of the population of the universe) and in the MCU, this makes almost sense as her powers were given to her by the Mind Stone which brought Vision to life in the first place, with some interference from Tony Stark (Iron Man). In the first couple of episodes, they bring in Billy and Tommy (Speed and Wiccan) and the twins make themselves grow up pretty quickly.

Other characters that come in and play a part are Monica Rambeau (from the Marvel Comic Book Universe and the movie Captain Marvel, who is also the future Captain Marvel), Darcy Lewis (MCU character last seen hanging out with Thor), and Jimmy Woo (another MCU character, an FBI agent in charge of Scott Lang’s house arrest from Ant-Man and the Wasp).

Let’s also talk about some background about where Disney plans to go in the next 5 years. First of all, they have already acquired rights to do an X-Men series. If you have DisneyPlus (which you do unless you’re pirating this series), you know that the X-Men movies have mostly been added to the Marvel Channel rather quietly and unobtrusively. Also, there are rumors that all three movie Spidermen have signed on to the next Spider-Man movie (Toby McGuire, James Garfield, and Tom Holland). Also also, Disney has made a statement that Deadpool will be in the universe pretty soon. So we know that the endgame for Disney is a combination of all of the Marvel Comic book universe.

Things that I have noticed that are fun about this series: all of the commercials are nerd shout outs. The commercials all have something to do with time, with two being blatantly about clocks or innovation. The commercials for the most part have the same two actors in it (are they SWORD agents?). The first is a Stark toaster, which is weird, but okay, and it is the first time we see color (red, maybe an Iron Man shout out?) used in the series. The second is the Strucker watch, a blatant time reference, and Strucker if you recall from the movies is that dude who was experimenting on Wanda and Pietro when they were in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In the comic books he’s Wolfgang von Strucker, or Baron Strucker, a former Nazi officer and agent of Hydra, and he never ages, and he shows up to try and do a genocide in the books all the time. The third commercial is about taking a break? HydraSoak bath powder. We all get the willies anytime Hydra is mentioned, so relaxing with Hydra is something we don’t want to do. This is also the first time that I think maybe this isn’t all Wanda? Also, this isn’t time appropriate (and this might be an influence from my real world job, and not some intentional message from Marvel) but mixed-race kids on a commercial in the 70s? That would have never happened. Are things starting to unravel, because this would have been super weird at that time and Marvel has been strict about time appropriateness so far, even so far as including gender roles. The last commercial is Lagos, the paper towel commercial. Paper towels are about cleaning up, right? Because these folks in the commercial spill everything. Also, we see the first incident of gender roles not being respected in WandaVision, because we see a dude wipe up his own spill. Anyway, Lagos is that Nigerian city where Wanda killed a bunch of people, including the King of Wakanda, on accident in Captain America: Civil War.

So in episode 2, SWORD is teased with the little logo on the beekeeper’s outfit at the end of the episode when he comes out of the sewer. The group outside Westview is verified to be SWORD in episode 4. Let’s talk about them a bit. These dudes in the comic books were all about space and going into space and doing space things, but then Thanos does a snappy thing. After the snappy thing (and this series is set 5 years after the Snap) they start doing nanotech and AI. In the comics Maria Rambeau is in charge, and after she dies, dude named Tyler Hayward takes over. Watch Tyler Hayward. I personally do not think he is actually Tyler Hayward, and if someone is acting and looking like someone else, we know which villain has probably just inserted himself into the show (if you’ve been watching the interviews, Tom Hiddleston shows up as a call-in fan of the show and demands to know why he didn’t have a series because he’s been dead a couple of times and Vision is stealing his Schtick). I don’t know that for sure, it could be sloppy writing? Maybe they ran out of character archetypes?

At the end of episode 5, this is when the next five years of the MCU comes into play. Wanda is missing her twin, probably because of her sons, and the doorbell rings. Standing there is Pietro Maximoff. Now the crazy part of this is that he is the wrong Pietro Maximoff (the better one, not the one that has been in the MCU movies, the X-Man Quicksilver). He’s standing there and does the weird Uncle Jesse thing from Full House, (which, if you’re paying attention to the real world, Wanda Maximoff is played by the younger sister of the Olsen twins who played Michelle on Full House in the 80s), but Wanda recognizes that he is the wrong Pietro. Darcy, who is watching the broadcast from outside the Hex, states that Wanda has recast Pietro. But has she? This woman is incredibly powerful, why would she bring back the wrong Pietro? What if she is not in charge? Wanda is really freaked out by this, and that is when I realized I needed to write everything down.

Here are my lingering questions: We have all seen Into The Spiderverse a dozen or so times. Is this how Disney is going to handle the Multi-Verse? Is Pietro the wrong Pietro because of Miles Morales and his rag-tag group of Spidermen? Does this mean that Nicholas Cage is going to be in the MCU? Is Wanda as in charge as we think she is? Can we expect to see Magneto (Wanda’s and Pietro’s dad in the comics) show up to either support his children in the Hex or fight on the side of SWORD? Maybe Professor X will come and get Wanda, Pietro, Timmy, and Billy? Will we finally see if Jean Gray is more powerful than Scarlet Witch (she’s not). Is Hayward a problem of inconsistent writing or is he Loki? Is a multi-verse a way to address Chadwick Bosemen’s death for a proper replacement of Black Panther? Hurry up and watch Episode 6 so we can talk about this stuff!

[army-of-mai-lovers]

hello arthur!! tbh people are being terrible in your inbox and the last ask killed my brain cells so this is your free bingo card to talk about anything you like. also sometimes googling sharks with human teeth (exactly what it sounds like) helps!! much love <3

oh my gosh I’m OBSESSED with these photos they’re so cute!!!! and thank you for the bingo card Effie I appreciate it so much. I’m gonna rant about Deadly Class (a show I definitely don’t like and thus don’t run a fan blog for....smh) bc it’s on my mind and it looks like it’s just going to go quietly into that good night instead of being made fun of and dissected and I think that should change bc goodness gracious that show does not deserve a dignified death. also I’m gonna put this rant under a readmore bc this is gonna be long and it has nothing to do w atla. warnings for discussions of racism, callous mentions of murder and death, swearing, discussion of Nazis, discussion of gore, abuse ment

Okay so for those not in the know (which is probably everyone considering the show was on Syfy and it’s being canceled due to low viewership) Deadly Class is a teen murder drama set in the late ‘80s starring Lana Condor, which makes it sound like it was engineered in a lab to appeal to me. Literally my friend and I were in the middle of watching Schitt’s Creek, which I adore, and she was like “well I heard about this show called Deadly Class” and described it and I was like fuck Schitt’s Creek we’re watching this. It had a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, which usually makes me nervous, but I was literally like “I don’t care because I know I’m going to love it.” 

And well. I did not love it. 

I truly do not understand how one fucks up “teenagers (mostly) of color go to murder boarding school in the late ‘80s” that bad (I mean the Russo brothers are involved and they fuck up everything they touch so perhaps it was just that). I haven’t read the comic the show is based on but it does appear that a *lot* of the issues of the show stem from the comic, which is...disappointing. Basically, our MC, Marcus, starts off the show homeless after his group home burned down (and it’s heavily implied that he was the one to do it) and gets hunted down by these elite teenage murderers who invite them to their murder school. 

Already, numerous problems are starting to show themselves. First of all, Marcus is Latino, which, yes, it’s very cool that the MC is Latino, except he is literally the white-passingest man I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’ve seen my dad. I didn’t realize that he was Latino until they showed his extremely stupid backstory in a shitty animated sequence and whoever was voicing his dad did this really, really thick Nicaraguan accent and I was like wait a damn minute. So then, I looked it up, and the guy playing Marcus is named Benjamin Wadsworth, which immediately made me think that they had pulled a Noah Centineo and made me think this fully white actor was half Latino (and yes, Latinos can be white, but I think Marcus is supposed to be a nonwhite Latino, and I thought Benjamin Wadsworth was both white and non-Latino). But you know, as an light skinned ethnically ambiguous mixed kid myself, I thought I owed it to him to dig a little deeper, and turns out our pal Ben is mixed (also, he’s like six months older than me and married, which is a trip). And like, okay, I guess I’m glad they didn’t get a white non-Latino man to play a Latino character, but they literally got the whitest looking Latino they could think of to play him. He originally auditioned for Billy. Billy’s the token white. And the producers were like “wait you have Latino ancestry?” (how they found that out I don’t fucking know) and let him go for Marcus. And like. Okay. The character in the comics is light-skinned but he does not look white, and Benjamin is not a good enough actor for them to just pass on the actors who surely auditioned for that role and were more visibly Latino but like. Okay, I guess. 

Second of all, this show is mega racist and it starts to reveal itself when you look at how the murder kids are styled in literally their first appearance. What struck me the most was the fact that the Latina (whose name is fucking Maria, for heaven’s sake) was wearing a sexy red dress and Day of the Dead makeup, which, I’m sorry, huh? That just so happens to be the Mexican girl’s murder outfit? I’ve tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and speculate that maybe she wears it to like, subvert people’s expectations, but at this point idk how this is subverting anyone’s expectations nor why she’d be so invested in that. Also, she’s supposed to be a teenager. It’s fucked up to sexualize any of your child characters but it really hits different when it’s your Latina character (and yeah, I know the actress playing Maria isn’t a teenager, but still, it’s the principle of the thing). And then of course, the Black guy, Willie (no he’s not related to Billy they were just like yeah two guys with rhyming names in our main cast sounds legit) is a gangbanger dude who talks the way that white people think Black people talk. I keep waiting for this guy to have one line that’s not complete garbage, but I’m five episodes deep and so far nada, which sucks so bad because there’s like, kernels of an interesting character buried in this horrible racist trope. Also, they had him sleep with a N*zi. I hate it here. Lana Condor (her character’s name is Saya) gets off fairly okay, at least in this first shot (they don’t have her wearing a kimono to go murder people, thank fuck), but the way she behaves is super weird, like kinda flirty towards Marcus, kinda badass but not enough to actually do anything, etc. Billy’s white so they couldn’t make him a racist caricature or anything but I have no idea why he’s here. See, instead of talking about the real politics of the real world, Deadly Class makes up fake prejudice that honestly makes the lok bender/nonbender bullshit look sensible. Maria, Willie, and Saya are Legacies, which means that their families are established murderers (fun fact: the N*zi girl is also a Legacy, because her father murdered hundreds of civil rights activists. And the characters of color align themselves with her. I don’t understand.) Billy, and later Marcus when he decides to go to murder school, are Rats, meaning they have no affiliation with established murder groups. So, in this show, the people of color have privilege over the (mostly white) Rats. Make it make sense. Further, this means that Maria, Saya, and Willie should have absolutely no reason to hang out with Billy, and yet they do because the Russo brothers have heard that the kids these days like the found family trope, so they put five unlikely friends in a room together and insinuated that they could all be besties. I swear, this show is the La Croix of found family tho, in that there is absolutely no flavor whatsoever. None of the characters develop into a found family. Saya is bound to care for Marcus for reasons, Maria is using him, Willie is also using him, and Billy is only his friend because they’re both Rats. Saya and Maria are already friends (and honestly their friendship is the most compelling thing in the whole show). There are no other connections between the characters. But they’re totes a found family!!!!/s

Also, they don’t let Saya be mean. Every character says “oh Saya’s such a bitch” but do we ever see Saya being a bitch??? No! Saya is literally just a nice girl who is kinda quiet sometimes and murders people and has a tragic backstory. There’s an argument to be made for Maria being more bitchy than her tbh. And like, fine, if you want Saya to be nice, she can be nice, but stop telling me she’s mean then!!! If you’re gonna tell me that I’m gonna get to see mean Lana Condor in a leather jacket in this show then deliver bitch. 

There’s truly so much more I could talk about (Chico??? What the fuck is Chico’s arc???? What in the actual hell were they thinking when they were writing anything to do with Chico????? my DUDES WHAT IN THE SAM HELL. also making Billy straight was so fucking stupid he’s literally gay come on now, also Master Lin is so fucking useless what is he even doing here) but instead I’m going to outline the version of Deadly Class my friend and I have been talking about while we watch the inferior real Deadly Class. 

lots of things are the same actually because there are some elements of the show that have potential. Marcus is still homeless at the beginning, everybody still thinks he burned down the group home but he didn’t, Willie is still a pacifist, he and Marcus are still partners for their first murder school assignment, Saya’s mean (but like actually), Billy still has green hair and is the token white of the group (although a Billy of color.....thinking), and they all hate Reagan

in an ideal world Willie and Maria would have different names (Willie bc his name rhymes with Billy’s and that’s fucking stupid, also Willie is just a terrible name in general, Maria partially because it sounds way too similar to Marcus and I don’t understand why the guy who wrote this couldn’t make his characters have different sounding names, and partially because no Latina character of mine is going to be named fucking Maria), but for the purposes of this outline I’ll keep their names the same for clarity.

Marcus doesn’t initially have his rep. He’s on the streets when he sees a girl his age (Saya) come out of this elevator in the back of a restaurant brandishing a sword, and decides to go into the elevator, sees the stash of weapons, and decides to steal one so he can fend for himself better. 

also keeping the detail of Rory murdering a bunch of homeless kids, but now Marcus knows that Rory is actively hunting him down. 

in the process of robbing the school’s weapons collection, Marcus figures out that it’s a murder school

Master Lin catches Marcus robbing the school, they fight, Master Lin overpowers Marcus and ties him up. He says the weapons are for students only, and Marcus says he’s applying. Lin asks what his qualifications are, and Marcus says “you know that group home that burned down three months ago? all the kids that died? I started the fire.” 

(also no shade to Benjamin Wadsworth but in this version he is not playing Marcus. Marcus is not white-passing)

Master Lin initially doesn’t believe him, but Marcus presses on and eventually convinces Master Lin that this is really what happened, and so Lin welcomes him to murder school. 

Marcus’s first class is Poisons, and his lab partner is Billy, who takes a shine to him and shows him around school. There’s no Legacy/Rat nonsense, but you do have normal high school drama adapted slightly for murder school. Maria is the prettiest and most popular girl in school, Saya is the mean girl/valedictorian, Willie is the jock, and Billy’s the punky weirdo. 

Marcus is, of course, the new kid with a reputation to live up to. 

Things kind of fall apart when Willie and Marcus are paired up for an assignment: to seek revenge on somebody. 

also Willie’s backstory is extremely different. his dad was a Black Panther, and he was murdered by the FBI when Willie was a kid. distraught, his mom moved to Texas, where she started working a corporate job and rose really high in the ranks. To maintain her status in the company, she had to do some really horrible things, including working with the FBI to take down other civil rights activists. Willie found out about this and was absolutely horrified. his mother insisted she was doing this so that he could have a better life, but he refused to listen to her, and ran away, and ended up at murder school. 

Willie got into murder school because Lin knows who his mom is, and assumes that Willie is just as cutthroat as she is. he gains a reputation as well. 

also, Willie’s extremely wealthy, and this shows in the way he dresses (preppy jock vibes)

you don’t find out about this backstory for a minute tho bc unlike Albert Kim and the Russo Brothers, I can wait until the right opportunity presents itself for a backstory drop. 

ok anyway back to what I was saying earlier

they have to seek revenge on somebody. Marcus asks Willie if there’s anybody he wants revenge on, and Willie very sincerely says no. Marcus scoffs at him and says he’s clearly had a very easy life, to which Willie replies, “Well, who do you want revenge on?” 

Marcus immediately says, “Rory.” 

So they track Rory down, and since Marcus hasn’t actually killed anybody, he hands the weapons over to Willie. Willie frowns and says that he has nothing against this dude he’s never met before, so Marcus should be the one to hurt him. Marcus says that this is a group project and Willie’s got to pull his weight, and they get into an argument

the argument gets loud, and Rory hears them fighting and starts chasing them. 

in the midst of the chase, both of them divulge their secrets to one another. Willie laughs hysterically and says that they deserve each other bc they both lied to get where they are, and now they’re going to die because of it

Rory backs them into a corner, and Marcus uses one of the swords he tried to steal earlier to shank Rory

They throw the body in a dumpster, and after this, they’re friends, and Marcus decides he’ll fit right in at murder school. 

ok so that was only one episode but things to look forward to in the version of Deadly Class that only exists in me and my friend’s heads: Marcus dealing with the emotional and moral fallout of his first murder, Willie trying to figure out what it means to be a pacifist in a world so hellbent on doing violence towards him, Saya being mean to everyone except Maria, Maria convincing Saya to relax and have fun, the gang bonding in a Breakfast Club style situation adapted for murder school and making a joke about how this is like the Breakfast Club because it’s the 80s and the movie just came out, Saya and Maria falling in lesbians, Marcus and Saya being depressing edgelord besties, Billy being gay and fighting his abusive father, Marcus and Billy being uncool weirdo bffs, Willie and Maria rolling their eyes at Marcus and Saya’s cynicism, Billy coming out to Marcus and talking about his experiences being gay, which makes Marcus think “hang on, why do I relate to that?”, Willie seeing Marcus make a sarcastic comment about kissing a guy and having a crisis, Marcus and Willie falling in love, the gang taking a road trip to Vegas to murder Billy’s dad and giving Billy a gnc thrift store makeover on the way, and eventually the gang murdering the shit out of Ronald Reagan. 

[rvb-is-gay]

ok so now that the final episode of rvb0 is out for everyone, lets get into some discussion about it! please note that post isnt a topic of debate but rather just my personal thoughts about everything, so dont go arguing in the replies

(fair warning ahead of time for any fans, this is mostly criticism and negative feelings about it, so keep scrolling if you dont wanna read it)

When RVB0 was first announced, I remember everyone was first upset that the Reds and Blues weren't in it, including me. But now that I've watched the whole thing, I can say with confidence that my only issue with RVB0 isn't the lack of the Reds and Blues, but rather everything. the dialogue, some of the animation, the characters, the delivery, the pacing, the ridiculous amount of clichés, etc. I don't dislike RVB0 just because there's no Reds and Blues. I dislike it because I just found the entirety of it bad.

When I first started watching it, I went in with an open mind that maybe this season could actually be really good. I’d also be lying if I said that there wasn't a single scene that I liked. There were actually a few, but they still didn't make up for just the overall badness of the season. But please note that I don't blame the voice actors for any of this or even just Torrian Crawford for the season coming out a giant mess. Many people worked for this season and always had the opportunity to improve or change things but didn't. But anyways, let’s get into some of the criticisms I have for this season.

1. Smaller and more opinion oriented criticisms

This isn’t really criticism or anything important, but rather just a few things I found a bit weird to me personally.

First, the term “ragtag team of misfits” was used to describe Shatter Squad (and was even actually said out loud by One in the last episode, which sounded just so cliché and dumb in my opinion). I don't think this describes them at all?? Everyone has, at the very least, decent relationships with each other (save for One and East who were competitive with each other (which I also fucking hate in RVB that all the girl characters are always competitive with each other)), but that still doesn't really fit the term ragtag) and they all fight very well. I think ragtag fits the Reds and Blues more than it does Shatter Squad; they're bad at fighting, they argue and fight all the time, they're idiots, and that's why we love them. If they had just stuck with “a team of misfits”, that would've made more sense, but again, this is more of a personal opinion than genuine criticism.

Second, I don’t really like the aesthetics this season had. Everything felt a bit too neon and bright and then some stuff just felt like it came straight out of World of Warcraft or something. It didn’t really feel like RVB.

Third, my feelings about Carolina constantly calling Wash David can be summed up by what Michael said in the first episode of Halo 4 LASO: “Now we’re just gonna throw his name around all willy nilly. It used to be a secret.” When someone is called by their real name in RVB or just any story in general where everyone goes by code names, it’s usually a big deal and indicates something serious. Carolina wore out Wash’s name the first time she said it and it just got more and more irritating from then on out and lost its value.

Fourth, who was the blue and purple soldier in the first teaser we got? Was that One? Did they decide to change her armour colour? I don’t know, I just randomly remembered that and thought it was weird but I guess it must’ve just been a colour change.

Now, onto the more serious criticism.

2. Animation and dialogue

The second thing I wanna talk about is the animation. Don't get me wrong, the fighting animation is probably the best compared to everything else and it was pretty good to watch, but the talking and idle animations and gestures were..... kinda yikes. I know that it could be chalked up to “well we’re not used to seeing animated gestures since all of RVB usually has everyone just holding their gun and using the regular Halo models” but there were still some pretty bad parts.

Take the scene from Encounter at 3:26 as an example (I uploaded the scene to YT to put here, but obviously it was blocked for copyright):

This scene is probably one of the worst when it comes to not only the animations, but the dialogue, pacing, and delivery. When I first saw this, I honestly laughed. Here's a list of my problems with this scene and what made it so laughable:

The overexaggerated hand gestures. I get that because everyone's in armour and a helmet, it can be hard to show expression, but this feels like a bit much. Especially when One says “what? You’re pulling us off the mission? You cant do that!” I think that one scene in season 15 when Grif stays behind on Iris while everyone leaves and it slowly zooms in on Simmons’ visor somehow does a lot better at expressing feelings than this.

East immediately making the connection between Axel and Zero feels weird. I don't know if its just me who feels this way, but I think it should've been a little bit longer before she immediately is just like “you know Zero don't you”

Axel saying “I... I do... I did”  also sounds weird and like he was trying a bit too hard to sound dramatic. I don't really know how to describe it its just such a weird delivery of the line.

The way they all immediately start yelling at each other.

One saying “Axe, I trusted you” right after saying “tell us the truth”. Girl, you gave him no opportunity to explain and just immediately jumped to not trusting him anymore. Speaking of which, I don't think this was ever really mentioned again and had no meaning or importance to it.

The echoing of “I trusted you” also feels cliché to me, but this is more of a minor thing.

I think this one comment on one of the episodes on the RT site that says the dialogue “seemed acted rather than natural. It didn't really sound like how people normally talk, more how actors talk in plays” is how I feel about all of the dialogue in RVB0.

3. The villains

Zero and Diesel both felt like they didn't really have any motivation at all for being villains. Phase is probably the best when it comes to this. She was essentially abused by her father as a child and forced to undergo being experimented on. This is an actual good and understandable motivation.

Diesel we know basically nothing about, and then on the other hand, all Zero wants is power. But for what? Why? I can understand that power is a pretty common thing for people to want, but it still kind of felt like there wasn't really anything there.

Some previous good villains in RVB include:

Temple: Temple witnessed his best friend be brutally murdered right in front of him by 2 soldiers who didn't give a shit and just left him to die, especially right after he told him he was having a baby. Of course it’s understandable that he has a hatred of Freelancers after this. Any normal person would.

Felix: Felix was probably the best villain of all of RVB, to be honest (right beside the Director). He was just somehow so likeable and had so much personality, despite being an asshole. His ultimate motivation was money and being rich, which is another thing I can understand; the more money you have, the more you can essentially do whatever you want and live in luxury. I mean, even so many people in real life do horrible things just for money. I don't even have to give examples for this. Felix in general is also just a psychopath.

The Director: The whole reason the Director did what he did was because he lost the person he loved most in the world: his wife. He was willing to do literally anything to bring her back, leading to all of his actions in the Project Freelancer saga. You can find many examples of movie/TV/book/etc characters/villains seeking vengeance as a result of loss of a loved one and grief. Despite being a horrible person, the Director actually managed to be a villain you could even sympathize with, making him even better.

Sharkface: Although a bit of a more minor villain, similar to Temple, Sharkface is a villain because he wants revenge on the people that killed his team, the people he considered to be the only family he’s ever had.

4. Tucker & the swords

The fourth thing I wanna talk about is the whole thing with Tucker and the swords. I always found it kinda weird how both Tuckers sword and now Locus’ sword in the chorus trilogy were the same, but then in RVB0, Zero’s sword looks and acts completely different, but that might just be a little nitpick of mine.

As for Tucker, it was so good to see him. Although I don’t know if it was just me, but he seemed a little OOC. What I didn't like about seeing Tucker again was that he did literally nothing the entire episode. He was useless. He said “I can fight” at one point but then all he does during the battle is get held at knife point, run away, and then get stabbed and have his sword taken. Tucker isn't an amazing fighter, but he’s definitely a lot more capable than just this. We’ve seen him in action many times and I just feel like he could've done a bit more. It almost feels like he was purposefully nerfed and tossed aside just to advance the plot.

Another thing that I and probably a lot of people are upset about is the fact that Tucker might not even own his sword anymore?? When East stabbed him, he apparently died and the sword was rebound to Phase, but it wasn't very clear that this was the case. Although the beginning of the next episode starts with hospital beeps and a flatline, I don't think it was still really clear enough that Tucker actually died long enough for Phase to reclaim the sword because I saw a handful of people confused in the comments and, like me, even thought it was just bad writing at first and that the writers completely forgot about the rules of the sword established over several prior seasons.

When in the hospital, Wash tells Tucker that he almost died. Although I actually liked this scene because it was nice to see wash and tucker bantering again, I think it could've been made better and made the plot clearer if instead of saying he almost died, Wash said something along the lines of “Tucker, you died. Your heart stopped, but they were able to bring you back thanks to their advanced medical tech” and then in response Tucker freaks out because that means his sword will now work for Phase and now they know how urgent the situation is.

I really really hate that Phase just has Tucker’s sword now and nothing is even said about it. If Tucker was to give his sword away to someone, I think many people would prefer that it was at least someone close to him, like Junior for example, but instead it goes to a random girl he hardly knows.

5. Pacing

The fifth thing I wanna talk about is the pacing. This season was definitely a lot shorter than normal and I think that’s one of the things that really prevented it from being good. The entire story just feels rushed and while I understand that it can be really difficult to build a good story and characters in such a short time, I think there’s still ways you can do it without it feeling like there’s so much missing. I think the long intros and outros are also responsible for less time and maybe they should’ve considered cutting them to give more actual episode time. Here’s a few things that were poorly done as a result of bad pacing:

The final battle against Zero: The whole battle just somehow felt like a typical video game boss battle that ends super quickly to me. Shatter Squad didn’t even defeat Zero, he just up and got disintegrated or whatever from Black Lotus.

Shatter Squad giving up on their mission: After receiving the silly deep voice filtered message from Zero, everyone on Shatter Squad just immediately gives up on finding him.

One’s speech: One’s speech wasn’t awful or anything and I didn’t really have any problems with the speech itself, but rather just how quickly the team went from “we can’t do it.. it’s over..” to “you’re right! I’m in! Let’s go get them!” Compare this to Doc and Sarge’s speech to the Reds and Blues after Church and Carolina leave in season 10 episode 20. It just felt a lot more genuine (this is probably because the Reds and Blues had a lot more time to be developed, though) and was only given after some time passed rather than 2 seconds later. The scene and context also transitioned well into it and at first, nobody was on board with what Doc was saying, which is more realistic in my opinion. People’s minds won’t just instantly change, they’re still gonna think about it and maybe have a few doubts at first.

Phase and West: During their fight, West talked a lot about how he regrets giving Phase away to Starlight, that he won’t hurt her, and is even willing to die for her. Their scene together ends with Phase punching him in the head and then leaving to join the others and nothing else about them is mentioned. We don’t know if Phase forgave him or not, we don’t know how West feels, etc.

Tucker’s sword: Phase still has Tucker’s sword and like the scenario with West, nothing about it is mentioned. We don’t know what she’s going to do with it, if she’s going to keep it, if Tucker’s gonna do anything about it, etc.

6. Clichés

Clichés aren’t inherently bad and can be really impactful and good if done right. But when it comes to RVB0, it’s jampacked with clichés that aren’t good. Here are a few examples:

Everyone gives up until a speech is given: All of the points for this are the same as above, but I wanted to include this scene as a cliché as well.

Every female character is competitive with each other: RVB falls into this a lot, like I mentioned earlier. It happens again with East and One, although luckily they seem to resolve it, but not until literally the end of the season.

West’s fit about East: All of the lines and delivery in this scene were just atrocious and cheesy. I think West’s dialogue just could’ve been a bit more original, but instead we’re given this boring predictable “I won’t lay a hand on her. I promised her. I promised her mother. I promised she’d be safe” spiel that has no emotion to it in his voice.

The whole “I got this, you go ahead” thing: This isn’t like a super cliché thing, but I found it pretty interesting how it happens twice in the same episode.

I think this is pretty much all I can think of at the moment. If I think of anything else, I’ll add onto this. Overall, I think RVB0 would’ve done a lot better as just an RVB spinoff so that it could have more episodes and seasons dedicated to developing characters and a good plot. I’m really disappointed with this season and I hope whatever comes next is better than what RVB0 was. I hope the team that worked on it can learn a few things that come from the good and valid constructive criticism given to them. And if I had to pick, I think I’d say Raymond was my favourite out of all the new characters. He just felt the most relatable and realistic to me.

[popculturebuffet]

Mickey Mouse Birthday Shortstravaganza!

It’s Mickey and Minnie’s Birthday! It was 92 Years Ago Today everyone’s faviorite mouse came in on a tide of whistling, romance and animal abuse and swept into America’s hearts and wallets. Okay I am a day late on this, I had a busy day, but hey a belated celebratoin’s still good right? Right? Eh i’m doing it anyway.   Anyway since then he’s been one of animations most iconic characters, and while out of the classic power trio I vastly prefer donald and goofy, they still woudln’t be around without Disney’s big cheese and having not seen a ton of Mickey’s shorts, I felt I owed it to the big eared one to take a look at a bunch of his shorts for his birthday and see how I liked em. If your curious about my previous Donald Duck marathon, it’s CLICK THIS LINK.  Unlike last time all of these shorts are on Disney+ as more of Mickey’s library is on there and one or two of these were added recently, as Disney tends to add a few a month. I do wish there were more on there.. but unlike with say the handful of shows they haven’t put on there, i’m a bit more forgiving here. For one thing, YouTube has all the shorts available from various uploaders and DIsney hasn’t touched them despite Plus’ launch. Given like most companies Disney usually has their bots a cirlcing for their content, this has to be delebrate on there part and it’s a good gesture from the company. So while not in crisp HD like the Plus copies, or as easily avaliable, you can find any short that’s happened. So the shorts not all being up at once isn’t an issue like most of the shows that are absent on Plus. 

They also heavily need to cherry pick their library as some shorts simply haven’t aged well or have offensive stuff. With the exception of “The Beach Picnic”, which has a racist caricature of native americans via ants.. yes really, most of the shorts are fine to show kids, and have aged pretty well. And as my last marathon showed some shorts.. just haven’t. While not you know racist, seriously why is the Beach Picnic on there?, “Donald’s Penguin”, while utterly adorable at first, ends with Donald trying to murder a baby penguin with a shot gun. No amount of content warnings is going to get past one of their beloved icons pointing a shotgun at a baby. While Disney’s self conciousness can be silly, the splash edit and not putting the Darkwing Duck episode “Hot Spells” on plus for instance, this is one time when I can agree with them: if someone is curious about a paticuarlly offensive short or a propoganda one, youtube exists. But given Plus is trying to be all ages and dosen’t have censoring they have to be careful what they put on there, and I can respect that. I don’t think anyone’s crying a river over the fact that the goofy short where his reflection keeps saying “Hey Fat”, over and over while he struggles with his weight isn’t on Disney Plus and thankfully never will be. But seriously get rid of the “Beach Picnic”. It’s not a good short and you already have one batch of native american stereotypes with “Peter Pan”, I don’t think racist ants are the hill you want to die on disney.

So yeah, this time all of these are from Disney Plus, and since I watched them all at once, their in Watch order rather than chronological like last time. So with all that out of the way...

After the cut

1. Steamboat Willie (1928): It’s All Fun and Games Until Mickey Strangles an Innocent Duck Starting from the obvious source, Steamboat Willie was the start of Mickey’s career. And it’s.. okay. The animation is fantastic and the first half is pretty good: Theirs a pretty good gag with one of the cows. But the finale, with Mickey abusing various animals just isn’t that funny A LITTLE rattling of an animal for comedy is fine.. but the things Mickey does here are just sociopathic> And yes I know it was the 1920′s, but even in that lawless, racist, sexist time, they knew better than to strangle a duck, or, in the moment that puts it over the top, remove suckling pigs fromt heir mom and then play a pig’s teats like an insturment to make it squeal musically.. I assure you I did not make this up. That actually happens.  The pacing is also fairly slow at points, with some gags dragged out, though that can be chalked up to having no way to edit the damn thing, so that part I can forgive more.  What makes up for it, like I said, are some good jokes, and some gorgeous animation. Decades later and while clearly made a long time ago, it still looks vibrant and really pops even in black and white. It shows just how talented Disney was and how far the company could go with this medium.  One last thing to note is Mickey’s Early personality. While he’d retain trickster aspects at times, here he bounces between the loveable jolly mouse we’d come to know for the rest of his career who sometimes has a wild streak.. and a total asshole who strangles a duck. It’s just intresting to see such a diffrent side of him,  most of which would end up going to Donald over time. Overall the short is decent, not the best of Disney’s catalogue but worth a watch for the historical significance despite it’s shortcomings, pun unintended. 

2. Thru the Mirror (1936): That Was a Weird One This was easily my favorite of the bunch and as of now, my favorite Mickey Mouse Theatrical Short. Part of it is that it’s entirely bonkers; The film STARTS with Mickey , sound asleep, some how astral projecting as his soul, his spirit or whatever lead shis body and having been reading Alice Thorugh the Looking Glass, goes into a mirror world. But instead of encountring evil goatee mickey, he encounters a bunch of living objects and a bunch of fun set pieces for jokes ensue. He dances with playing cards, fights an army of them, has a sword fight with the king after dancing with the queen which.. no Mickey, bad mickey, your in a relationship and so is she. Bad Mouse bad. It is entirely fucking insane, even including a living nut cracker which.. words can’t.. look

They.. they had to know how this looked right? did the director have a ball busting fetish? I mean okay if he did, nothing wrong with that, but maybe don’t put it in your children’s cartoon.  That being said it does eat the shells which I find creative. And that’s what really makes this one pop. The creativity. Not a single minute is boring, every minute has something intresting going on, but without throwing too muchi n your face. It’s just a wonderful short and one that like Mr. Duck Steps out, i’ll be rewatching a LOTTTT. 

3. Mickey’s Rival (1936): Mortimer: The Original Bro From the same year we have disappointment. Having grown up with the disney classic House of Mouse, I was a huge fan of Mortimer. So when I first saw this, I was happy to see where he came from.. then justifably blocked it out of my mind till this review. While I love mortimer, I love Mickey having a sleazy rival and one diffrent than Pete who has different goals and tactics than the big guy. But his debut just has him as an obnoxious snickering bro.. which to be fair is who he is, but without the venre of charm his later version would have.  Mortimer just spends the short being a pranking douche, and blatantly hitting on Minnie in front of Mickey while their on a date. Which even in an open relationship is a no no, so he has no leg to stand on.. metaphorically. He also walks weird in this one because, and this is true, he’s carying 9 volt batteries in his pants. Yes really. That’s the level of Douche we’re dealing with. Someone so up their own ass they carry batteries int heir pocket instead of money or a mask or children’s trading cards like a normal person or a me.  What makes it frustrating is Minnie just swoons over the guy. And not like “Awww he’s so funny”, I mean romantically then has the gaul to say “your just jealous” when Mickey is understandably fuming over the jackass who swooped in, pranked him, is hitting on his girlfriend in front of him by teasing a bull, and in general is just the worst. Yes.. yes he is. Justifably. Jealousy is an ugly emotion but there’s a line between some dude bro like Mortimer getting mad your friends with someone you could be in a relationship with, boy, girl, neither, both, whatever your into, and Mickey getting mad his girlfriend is chuckling all over her ex who agian, crashed their date and treated him like garbage and is very transparently hitting on her in the middle of it.  It’s also just not a very funny short, outside of the bit pictured and tha’ts more for the sheer aburdity of Mortimer elctifying his pant for a really dumb gag about stealing people’s pants button. He’s very lucky we didn’t see Mickey’s Epic Mickey is what i’m saying. But given he’s a frat bro, the 1930′s version granted but a bro nonetheless,  he’d probably find that hilarious until he noticed the sheer size and scope.  Overall a forgetable, frustrating short. The one bright spot is mickey and mortimer’s cars which have faces and stuff and look neat.. otherwise it was just a waste of my time and the only good thing it did was bringing Mortimer into our lives. And that ain’t nothing. 

4. Mickey Down Under (1948): ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

This is a quick one.. because this one was a vacum. I mean I can at least say for Mickey’s Rival it’s interesting.. i’ts not good but it’s interesting. this is just.. Mickey farts around with a boomerang with his dog and then pisses off an ostrich. There’s not really a lot of consequence or intrest is what i’m saying. I can’t even find a good opening to make a letterkenny joke. No one got close to fucking an ostrich here. It’s telling by the fact theirs no gif’s of this one that no one cares and it baffles me this is one of the ones Disney chose to gussy up for D+ release. But still no donald messing around with a robot? 

5. The Band Concert (1935): That’s More Like It.  Okay scooting back a year we have the band concert. This is my third time watching this one and it’s a delight. Like the last one I don’t have a ton to say.. but it’s more because this one is just so good rather than because it wasted my time. It’s got a fun concept and the breakout performance from my boy donald duck as he constantly fucks with the band’s performance by either getting in their faces or hilariously pulling Flute’s out of thin heir. I miss that gimmick for donald, his love of pulling objects out of the either via magic and shenanigans. They should bring it back. Also his shenanigans remind me of opus and that’s never a bad thing. 

Also Horace takes off his shirt. For the Ladies. A Classic for good reason. 

6. On Ice (1935): Donald is a Bastard Man Another great one from the same year. This time around we have what i’ve come to call a Mickey and the Gang Messaround. This is back when Donald and Goofy were supporting characters, so generally each of the big three do something, usually coming together for the climax.  In this case Mickey tries to help Minnie with her skating, with him adorably following her around with a pillow before showing off for her, just really sweet stuff. Goofy’s bit is hilariously dumb, as fitting my boy, as he feeds fish tobaco to get them to spit into a spitoon, and tries to club them, with predictable results. While not the most enivrionmentally friendly just the sheer oddness, the fact it sort of works minus him actually clubbing them, and one of hte fish smacking him in the face all make it work.  The only bit that reallyd osen’t is Donald and pluto... it was present a bit before but here illustrates why I really dread Pluto based shorts. While I don’t hate the dog, he’s a dog I love dogs, most of the gags in his old shorts, and even up to mouseworks are him either being blamed for shit that’s not his fault, a pet peve of mine, or being tourtured in some way...

But dosen’t work at all now. He puts the poor dog on skates and then laughs at him and even sings a song mocking the poor dog, before justifably nearly ending up going over a watterfall, then ending up clubbed in the head. Good. I love donald but good god is he unsympathetic here.. and for some reason they teamed the two up again for more shorts! Why. It’s why I don’t get why Pluto was the star of his own shorts: if this is all they had.. why do it? Was the 30′s, 40′s and 50′s equilvent of a micheal bay audience really that into dog abuse?  So yeah otherwise a good short but that segment drags it down. not Donald’s best work. 

7. Clock Cleaners(1937): This is a Great One Not much to say on this one. It’s pretty good, has some fun set pieces, and some great jokes from all three characters. Mickey deals with a seagull, donald effs with a main spring and Goofy fights some statues. All good clean fun. My lack of brevity is more because I don’t have any jokes rather than this genuinely being bad. It’s pretty good. 

8.. Mickey and the Seal(1948): More Pluto Torture Porn! 

This one’s more of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is really cute, as a young seal ends up going home with mickey after he visits the zoo to feed them fish. On the other hand.. it’s mostly Pluto chasing after the seal, Mickey being kind of a dick to pluto and not getting he clearly saw SOMETHING in his house, and then teasing him at the end despite him having been right. That being said the ending, with the seal brining back all it’s buddies to mickey’s house, is fricking amazing. ALso the seals in this unvierse who aren’t antrho can speak. That.. that raises a lot of questions I don’t think disney can answer. 

9. Ye Olden Days (1933): Jaunty Dueling Music Now this.. this was a fun one. Mickey and Minnie head to Medivil times, proving that the current shorts tendency to jaunt to various settings isn’t a new thing, and it’ sjust a much of a fun change up here as it was there. Mickey, a wondering minstral, ends up trying to rescue Minnie after her father throws her in a dungeon for not wanting to marry Prince Dippy Dog, who hopes she can learn to love him. I can’t tell if he’s genuine or a dick here. But it’s fun, especially the part where, after Minnie declares she loves mickey which.. it’s been a few hours slow down, they decide on a duel and thus sing some ragtime, 1930′s getting ready for duel music that’s just catchy. if X Of Swords ever gets a movie, I want to use this song. Just.. really good stuff. A fun short with some great gag,s a great concept, and my boy goofy as the villian. What’s not to like? Alright one more. 

10. MIckey’s BIrthday Party (1942): Big Chicken Breasts We end on another all together now, Mickey and the Gang Messaround that was a great note to end on. I did watch another short, Pluto’s Birthday party.. but it was both more of a Pluto short and more Pluto torture nonsense, so yeah, skipping that one, as I ended up one short of my 12 goal because I can’t count, apparently. So Mickey gets 10, but this one’s a good note to go out on. 

Minnie throws a suprise party for mickey which almost turns into a live sex celebration as Mickey clearly is a wee bit horny going in. But it turns into a fun dance party, with Donald throwing out razzes like a good buddy, Goofy making a cake, and some fun gags with a piano they all bought him. It’s a really good short. That’s the problem with Mickey Shorts and doing all D+ ones: There just isn’t the weirdly offensive stuff to talk about there is. He’s not a bad character, but there’s a reason in every short that features all three, Donald and Goofy easily outshine him. Mickey’s not a bad character, but when not in trickster mode, there just isn’t a lot for him to do. It’s why the comics reinvented him, much like they did for donald, into a plucky detective/reporter who reguarly sovles crimes. He’s not bad, and as seen with Ye Olden Days and Thru the Miror, his blank slateness cna be put to good effect and house of mouse gave him more of a personality, but here he’s just the bland good guy to Donald’s loveable scmap and goofy’s loveable dumbass. It’s an issue comedy has to this day: having a lead whose just.. not as intresting as the rest of the ensemble.  There is weirdness to note, as Donald dances with Clara Cluck> That’s not the weird part, he and daisy took a while to be etched in stone. The weird parts are 1. Donald wearing a sombrero and smoking a cigar, and 2. Clara’s MASSIVE boobs.. yes really. Clara Cuck has giant breasts. Like actual boobs that sway around while she dances with donald. it’s.. bizzare. Not terrible, who doesn’t like big chicken boobs but just.. really really weird to see ina  Disney cartoon.But yeah it’s jus ta fun note to end on. 

And that was MIckey’s Birthday special. I enjoyed it even if I had less to say than I thought. If you liked this review, you can comission your own for five bucks, just hit up my pms or my discord , avaliable on request. You can check out my ohter disney reviews in the disney tab on my blog and until next time, ther’es always another rainbow. 

[nicknellie]

I’m just trying to reply to this through out the day so it’s all times lol (and then of course when I was going to send this it’s sadly didnt)

Thanks for linking the post, I think you brought up quite a few good points!!!

Honestly I thought you meant that both Julie and Flynn had matching jumpers however this works so much better. (Also yes Luke and Reggie would get this just because they can)

Just in case you don’t know what among us is when I go on my tangent here is the basics but basically there are 10 players in total and either 1, 2 or three are imposter (I’m choosing two here) whoever isn’t imposter just tries to complete tasks and figure out who the imposter is without dying

Box stuff

1. Yes, honestly the only time Luke’s room is clean is due to Alex because he is the mom friend. (And or Reggie because it could be that when Reggie is stressed he cleans but that also works for Alex)

Also that’s what I was thinking, Emily and Mitch just gave up. Definitely when he passed they just couldn’t change anything in his room because it was the one comfort that they had. That even though Luke isn’t here anymore, his room that he lived in was still there and sometimes they could pretend that he’s still there

3. They always bring him recipes to try out because Alex has magic with cooking and even if he has no clue what is going on it usually always taste good. (May not look good but it does taste good) Also love the detail of Reggie just forgetting about the recipes, he just has so much that he forgets some.

Board games and Jam stuff

1. Yes, they all have that one game that they can’t do. Monopoly is banned just because they are way too competitive and Alex has thrown drumsticks at Luke before.

I love the detail of the boys just guessing wrong just to annoy Bobby, they totally would too. In Cluedo, Reggie always thinks that it’s Alex, every single time.

(Among us tangent, really wish I can blame this on chaotic energy but no.

So Alex is pink, because

Luke is the colour white

Reggie is lime

Julie is red

Willie is cyan

And Flynn is purple

Alex and Willie are on the same team immediately (they just follow each other and keep each other safe) and Alex is a good imposter however Luke will only call him out for no reason at all when he is an imposter one time that they play together.

To give more reasoning they probably play together two times in total with 10 games each I don’t know, but the second time around Luke is salty and somehow knows when Alex is imposter even when he doesn’t seem suspicious at all.

Julie and Willie are the best imposter duo, alongside Alex and Luke. Reggie is not a good imposter and the first to die in the game is usually Julie (or Luke).

Wait yes, Alex can’t do life.

Oh Julie gets so mad at him however secretly she’s amused (Alex and Reggie are just having the time of their lives because they can tease both Luke and Julie also Flynn will definitely tease Julie as well)

Alex being the bank dealer is everything, and Reggie just forcing Luke to pay him is everything. (Not sure if this is a game rule but I’ve played a few times were you can give someone a building that has the cost/whatever you owe, so maybe they do that)

Honestly monopoly was banned before hand with Bobby but one day Julie brought it up and they just couldn’t tell her (Luke flipped a table... a table)

Also randomly Flynn and Willie are there just for chaos reasoning.

2. Yes lol

Number stuff

2. Alex and Willie just chilling and then Reggie ruining everything is perfect. (Also Willie is crying laughing during this whole thing, even more so when the hoodie rips and Alex just looks hurt and shocked at the same time towards Reggie)

So I watched the first episode, and I was mistaken. Maybe Arther changes as the show goes on but this is not how I thought the story went 😂

I was like, they changed the story but it still had to have the idea of Merlin helping Arther out with getting the sword out of the stone and in the shows there is a witch. I can’t tell if it’s because they are adding details to the story or if I just don’t know it. But yes just like with Merlin calling Arthur an idiot, my lord is total Alex energy. Definitely could see him doing that is real life at some point. Yes, Luke does still die from the hotdog

5. Same here!! Also the ones that you’ve mentioned I think I have read as well, have to love that for us (also the fact that everyone agree not to ship Alex with Julie and just have them be supportive wingpeople)

6. I love that for us. Also I love the sign idea, (Bobby somehow makes a sign to tell Willie that Alex is okay) it mostly comes because Alex is so distracted by Willie and the hair flip to notice that Willie is asking if he is alright or not. Wait I was still thinking about waterparks, moving to what you were actually talking about. I’m just keeping that in because

But yes, Bobby gets a sign from the boys and everything is better. (The sign is, don’t steal the songs, big no). Also I love how you say that they still go back to Julie but they make a quick pit stop

8. Yes, also their strengths complimented each other’s so without them there Bobby feels lost. So many props towards Reggie, I have no clue what is happening with that game at all times.

10. Aww happy Reggie with technology (also the fact that he doesn’t have to develop photos anymore makes him want to cry happy tears) ‘you don’t understand Julie, green photos. I’m not joking green photos, you don’t know my pain’

I know exactly what you are talking about, can’t remember the name at all though.

Reggie is just upset, but Alex and Bobby are rolling they find it that funny. Also Luke says something along the lines of, ‘it looked fine, I don’t see you blaming Alex and Bobby. This is not fair 🥺’

Wait yes, they always get recipes from bakeries. Also if a food is expensive/they don’t have enough for it but they want to try it sometime they (Reggie) will try to get a recipe just for Alex to make it.

Aw, Alex giving Bobby his own little box so that he always has something to eat.

11. And little did they know that Reggie actually met the Queen

13. Same here lol, but I’m not very good at sketching. However you should definitely do them if you want to! I’m in full support.

14. Yes exactly

16. Precisely, if it was anyone else Alex could say no however sue to the fact that it’s Luke and Reggie, he can’t

17. Oh my goodness you made my idea better. (Honestly I can’t type so I have no clue how I worded it) however I had meant that Reggie asks Caleb for baby pictures of Willie but your idea works so much better. (Also Willie isn’t really that creeped by the fact that Reggie has his baby pictures just accepts it)

Wait, I love that you said Caleb doesn’t question it. As if people ask Caleb for baby pictures all the time, or at least it’s normal (maybe normal Reggie behavior 🤷‍♀️)

But a Caleb scrapbook I love that idea. Also yes, Reggie just has baby pictures of everyone. Some random stranger that he saw once, yes, his great aunts ex husbands son’s daughter yes (oh my goodness what is that sentence). But basically everyone, even the queen

Yes, just them as babies in hot dog suits. Reggie also has a hat on for I don’t know why reasons. (Imagine if there’s a baby Willie with some kind of hot dog themed thing though)

19. Yes, Luke also smashes snow on peoples heads as well. And Alex is usually the one who stuffs it down the persons back (it is what Willie does as well, and they always have an alliance)

20. Exactly, Owen is such a great actor (also mentioning Booboo Stewart for same reasons)

And Owen does play Alex so perfectly, like Kenny could not have chosen a better actor for Alex even if he tried.

Honestly if the boys had hated Willie I would cry, A because no Willie and Alex and B that’s exactly what they are like and although it’s everything if no point A then sad. I mean, Caleb played Willie just as much as he played the boys. (I just want Caleb to be the good guy because but he does stuff like this whyyy)

Luke isn’t happy that Julie is mad at him however he’s happy that he was able to connect with Flynn

Anything that gets us Unsaid Emily is worth it in my books

21. Honestly I have no clue it’s just been something that I’ve been thinking about. Honestly both of those theories works so well and I feel like it will be so hilarious if Alex freaks over breaking in entering however he’s legitimately done something worse. Also yes, Emily and Mitch talking to Alex to make sure they are both alright is adorable

That would be hilarious, just send this to him one day 😂 😂

24. Yes, also just it either means Flynn and Carrie moments or Flynn singing which are both needed.

Yes only for one song, she can only manage one band and she doesn’t want to be a part of it (in that way). Yes it is a sad song with just them.

25. Imagine Alex and Carrie having a conversation and their banter just being everything

Yes and Luke is like the cool uncle who you go too when you want someone casual but I’m not going to call you out just yet to your father kind of person

26. Wait, yes that’s how all arguments used to get settled in the 90s and if Luke was in the wrong then he would usually write music (I’m basic apparently I can’t think of something else)

Same, especially if we get another hair flip from Willie.

28. This works perfectly! That’s exactly what happened and then ‘now or never’ came to be

32. I didn’t even think of the shop assistant giving him stickers I was just thinking of some random fan discovering Alex at 3 AM however I love that so much more.

Yes, he definitely would take extreme care of it and keep it in its pristine condition

35. Legitimately Ray just has so many kids, imagine if he tried to adopt Reggie, Luke, and Alex though that would be funny. And emotional at the same time

For the purpose of them looking amazing we are just going to disregard the fact that they can’t be seen on photo (maybe it’s a special camera that Willie has from the club i don’t know) (hmm or maybe if a ghost takes the picture then other ghosts can be seen?)

Yes I love that as well, the orb does look good for some reason lol

37. Who doesn’t live for heart eyes Alex (& Willie in my opinion). Yes, and these are not casual rules that you can break there’s legitimately a list and everything. Also Reggie isn’t allowed to wash it after shrinking it and changing the colour one time

39. Yes the dream father daughter team. They are so close (also just want to mention Ray in general not only with Julie but with Carlos as well, because you can tell that’s he trying so hard and is doing so well)

The categories are so funny also I love how we just have this so organized now

I’m sorry this took me so long to answer! I kept telling myself I would then getting sidetracked and now I’ve decided one o’clock in the morning is the best time to start writing this. Bare with me, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a lot of mistakes here 😂😭

BOX STUFF

1. Wait I didn’t think about that but I love it so much! Whenever the guys hang out at Luke’s before he runs away, Alex will walk into his room, tut at him or mutter something under his breath, and tidy while still managing to have a conversation with the guys - occasionally he’ll interrupt his own sentence to tell Luke off for the state of his room, like, “Oh yeah, I heard about that, it was — Luke, I swear if you don’t start picking up your dirty socks I’m going to shove them down your throat while you sleep — really cool actually, did you hear about...”. Also he has been known to just drag the vacuum cleaner in because he knows where Emily keeps it and he’ll hoover over the guys’ conversation.

And I can totally see Reggie stress cleaning? Bc usually he’s stressed or upset because of his parents fighting, right? So it must seem to him that everything is very disorderly and out of place, so to make himself feel better he spends hours putting things in the right place so everything is nice and tidy. It’s just an added bonus that the place gets cleaner. Also if the studio was messy the day before and suddenly clean when the band arrives in the morning then they know Reggie had a tough night.

Oh god that hurts. That hurts so freaking much. Just particularly the “pretending he is still there” part - I’m now imagining Emily or Mitch going up to Luke’s room alone, slowly sitting down on the bed or at the desk because they don’t even want to disturb the dust that has settled there. And they’ll look around the room and they’ll remember their son and all the things he used to do - write music, play games, hang out with his friends (who they remember and miss as well), and yes, argue with his parents. And they talk to him, sometimes in the way Ray and Julie do to Rose, as if Luke can hear them and is listening, but sometimes it’s as if he’s stood right in front of them. Tears in her eyes, Emily will whisper “How did your band rehearsal go?” because although it’s too late to start caring and to be okay with it, it comforts her to pretend it means something. She’ll imagine Luke’s reply, hear his voice tell her they made a killer new song, and she’ll smile as she replies, “That’s lovely. Well done, Luke. I’m so proud of you.”

3. Omg hang on I love that, like Alex being amazing at cooking but also completely clueless. He mutters to himself, “What the fuck does ‘fold in the flour’ mean?” then take a wild guess and somehow it tastes great. But like you said, it doesn’t exactly look very appetising.

BOARD GAMES AND JAM

1. Abwjskdlw Alex throwing drumsticks at Luke like a javelin or a dart or something, and Luke is frantically trying to dodge them but Alex has a seemingly endless supply of drumsticks, he just keeps pulling them out of nowhere and they’ve been there for half an hour of non-stop drumstick throwing and avoiding before he finally runs out.

YES and Reggie is totally serious about it too. Alex sneezes and Reggie is immediately like “that’s a tell!!! You sneezed last round too!!! I’m onto you, Mercer, I know it was you.” And Alex almost readies his drumsticks to throw at Reggie as well.

AMONG US

Oh this. This is glorious. I love this entire thing omg.

The detail of Luke saying Alex was imposter when he wasn’t sus just because he was annoyed is brilliant and would 100% happen. Also Julie-and-Willie and Alex-and-Luke being the best imposter duos is everything. Willie won’t kill Alex no matter what, but Julie is ruthless and Luke is usually first on her list.

Also I want to add what accessories they like because that’s fun! Although I haven’t played in months and can’t remember all of them, but this is what immediately springs to mind.

Luke - toilet paper hat

Julie - flower pot hat

Willie - top hat

Alex - the adorable little leaf thing

Reggie - pumpkin head hat thing

Flynn - no accessory, but she does have a tiny version of her character trailing behind her, you know the ones I mean right? She has a tiny child Among Us player with her at all times idk

Oh god, Monopoly is so much more hectic when Willie and Flynn join in. Willie somehow manages to collect so much money that he may as well just be the banker (definitely nothing to do with Alex being biased and “accidentally” slipping him a little extra cash). Flynn gets the best cards (that’s a thing in monopoly right? There’s a stack of cards in the middle you can choose from? Idk) and they basically win her the game. Luke gets angry, that’s when he flips the table again and Julie locks monopoly away forever

Same with Uno. Reggie doesn’t speak to Luke for a week after the first and only time they play Uno.

NUMBERS

2. I love that, like Willie trying to be a supportive boyfriend as Alex watches his hoodie get torn to pieces but just not being able to contain his laughter, practically lying in Alex’s lap because he’s laughing so much. It only gets worse as Alex cradles his ripped hoodie in his hands like it’s a dead animal or something. Like Willie is trying to be nice but the whole situation is freaking ridiculous and it doesn’t work.

Ahahaha I’m so glad you watched it! It does change a bit as the story goes on, I’m sure you’ll like it (I’d always be willing to hear your thoughts on it if you keep watching as well, if you want!!)

And like right??? Alex has complete and utter Merlin energy like “No, there must be another Arthur because this one’s an idiot” may as well be Alex saying “No, there must be another Sunset Curve because these ones are idiots”

6. Lmfao Alex just totally stops functioning after the hair flip and Bobby has to step in, love that. He very calmly takes over the situation, or has a sign, or just like freaking slaps the back of Alex’s head to bring him back to reality.

Right??? They just very quickly say “hey Bobby it’s us don’t steal our music” and then appear in the garage. Kinda tempted to write it now actually

8. Okay, seeing as it’s half one, I don’t want to go off on a whole tangent about “their strengths compliment each other” but I will definitely do this when I’m more awake because it’s a goddamn goldmine

10. Yesss 🥺🥺 like at first he would be a little sad that he didn’t get the experience of getting them developed but then when he remembered how annoying it was he’d be so happy. And omg can you imagine he reaction to how instant it is?? And how high definition?? My boy would stay there staring at these photos for hours on end, wide-eyed, mouth open, awestruck

Oh I love that! Reggie claims it’s so that Alex can enjoy himself and cook something new, which it partly is, but mainly it’s because Reggie just wants more food

11. I now wanna say that Reggie has met a ton of celebrities but nobody believes him because it’s Reggie (and he literally said how adults never believed him as a kid). He’s met the queen, the band Queen, Billy Joel (just because I watched a Billy Joel concert tonight - side note, Luke absolutely adores Billy Joel and listens to him constantly), whoever the president was when the guys were alive, and plenty more

17. Omg lmfao that makes sense 😂😂😂 but yeah like now I love the idea of him having Caleb’s baby photos too, I’m not going back on it. Caleb just has them ready to hand over the next time they all see each other (idk if I already mentioned that?) and he does a big evil speech but hands Reggie the photos halfway through, still talking, and Reggie just smiles and tucks them away into his pocket

“Or at least normal Reggie behaviour” I love how that implies that even though they’ve only really met twice Caleb already knows exactly what Reggie’s like and not only accepts it but is willing to encourage it, showing that he probably thinks it quite sweet (because let’s face it, we all think Reggie is sweet, and Caleb may be evil but he’s not stupid)

Reggie having the queen’s baby photos omg I’m dead 😂😂 that time they met he asked her and like Caleb she didn’t question it, just handed over these probably priceless photos and they end up in some ghost’s scrapbook

Omg yes all of them in hotdog suits plus baby Willie with hotdog socks! Or eating a hotdog! Or with a hotdog stuffed toy! The possibilities are endless

19. YES definitely. Also, Willie and Alex’s alliance only lasts until one of them has the perfect opportunity to shove snow down the other’s back just to watch them squirm, then it’s every ghost for himself

20. You are SO right, Owen and Booboo are literally amazing, we really won with this whole cast.

And thank you so much for saying Caleb played Willie as much as he did the guys!!!! I’ve seen so much stuff recently about Willie hate and like no?? You’re right, Willie was as much a victim as the others. Also I am so in love with the idea of Good Caleb! I just want him to adopt Alex, that’s literally it. Maybe instead of Caleb being defeated by the end of the show, he has seen the error of his ways and has turned nice, now only using evil against people who upset Alex and Willie, pretty please, Kenny make this happen???

Wait yeah that’s a really good point. Again, it’s a looooong tangent and it’s ten to two so I won’t write it now, but Luke and Flynn being friends (and competing over who loves Julie more) is something I desperately need

21. Yes lmao like Alex when he was alive would sometimes graffiti with the boys or set fire to stuff for fun (because they’re teenage boys and that’s what teenage boys do right? Idk that’s what the ones I know do) but as a ghost when he’s invisible he’s just very unsure about going into a closed museum

24. Yesss I need this so muchhh you’re so right

25. Alex and Carrie friendship is god tier.

Small tangent but y’know what else is great? Carrie and Nick being best friends instead of dating. They would get on so well without the pressure of a relationship (once Carrie becomes a little nicer and Nick stops being possessed)

Exactly that’s totally what Luke is

26. Another Willie hair flip PLEASE I would die. Just, Alex short-circuiting around Willie is the best thing ever. And it’s got me wondering what other little things Willie does that basically break Alex: stretching when he’s wearing a crop top so Alex can see his stomach and the smallest bit of his chest; okay but swimmer Willie?? Willie was on his school’s swim team and still swims sometimes and for whatever reason Alex’s loses it; twirling his hair around his finger (bonus points: twirling Alex’s hair around his finger while they’re cuddling)

32. I just love the idea of literally anyone giving them stickers. Reggie’s just out and about in a forest in the middle of nowhere one day (even he doesn’t really know what he’s doing there) and somehow someone finds him and hands him their fanart

35. Omg I didn’t think about how emotional it would be but then you had to go and say this and now all I can think about is each of the boys getting the family they deserve after so long and being loved and cared for unconditionally even though they’re dead and Ray would call them his angels (because he kinda did in ep 7) and oh god it’s too much I love it

Ooooh yes I like that, it’s a good way around the issue 😂 ghost takes photo, ghost can be seen. Perfect

37. Pffffft lmao YES. Reggie just wasn’t really certain on how the washing machine worked because it was at Luke’s house not his and they had a different model and he forgot not to mix colours and it all went badly wrong. Also Luke is banned from wearing them without supervision because once he accidentally set fire to one and now it’s elbow has a burnt patch on it

39. Now you’ve mentioned that I want Ray and Trevor to be friends again! They were probably buddies until Julie and Carrie fell out, I’d love to see them reconnect

Personally my favourite thing of this whole experience is how “Alex and jigsaws” turned into “Reggie has the queen’s baby photos”