#needed to post this again but with subtitles because hot

[jasonsbruce]

[queerofcups]

an August rec list

August Rec List

Why yes it is nearly the end of September and I’m just now posting my August Rec List. I’ve been busy!

Hockey RPF

come stitch me up

E | 10k | addandsubtract

Sometimes he wakes up sucking on his fingers, rutting his hips into the bed. He’ll be right on the edge of coming, the wet head of his dick trapped between his hips and the sheets, but he can’t, he can’t, not without – not without something pushed up inside, something stretching him open.

Hey man, I barely know who these players are. Is this kind of a horror story? Yes! Is it also very hot smut! Yuuuup. This is what I mean when I’m begging people not to try to explain away the dub in dubcon. Someone should be calling a doctor, an exorcist, a therapist etc. But instead, because this is fanfic, they whip their dicks out! It's great!

Interview with The Vampire

monstrous servant

Armand/Louis

E | 5k | inthebelltower

The old itch never goes away. It never feels less good to scratch.

inhuman taste

Armand/Louis

E | 1k | inthebelltower

Louis can’t help it; he wants to eat him up.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Louis as a dom as I’m writing my own WIP and this fic and the next were really instrumental in shaping my own ideas of how Louis is with Armand. I really think this and the next fic act as a great picture of the two sides of their relationship.

not a ruse, not heat

Armand/Louis

M | 872 | inthebelltower

Louis drinks from Armand’s neck. Somewhere in the compound a clock is ticking.

Let me tell you diary (islands)

Claudia/Madeline, Louis/Lestat 

T | 4k | anonymous

Basically, Claudeleine don't return to Paris, don't fall for the trap, and just travel to wherever the X leads them... until…

In Sickness and In Health

Louis/Lestat

M | 3k | anonymous

“Sure, okay,” Louis huffs softly, “one coffee, why not.”

They’re engaged again by November. Claudia calls Louis the moment she finds out and scolds him for fifteen minutes straight. Hear me out, Louis barely gets the words out before she hangs up on him. Five times he tries to call her back.

Of mercy, with choice 

Louis/Lestat

E | 6k | shavir_light

“I always thought that your victims were truly fortunate, to be gifted with such an exhilarating death,” Lestat says, tangled in the messy sheets. “What bliss it must have been, to be killed by one so beautiful.”

Louis and Lestat play at a fantasy. It gets a bit out of hand.

The Things We DId and Didn’t Do

M | 3k | @marbleflan (they are on tumblr, but I can't tag them)

“You are thinking of him, maybe.”

Louis looks up. It’s like Lestat is speaking in another language and Louis is reading the subtitles on a delay, or something. He can make out the words but not the meaning, for a moment.

“What?” Then it clicks.

“Armand. You are touching me. In bed,” Lestat says, casual. Maybe too casual. “But you are thinking of him.”

Louis doesn’t say anything. There’s not really anything he can say. It’s true, in a way. Not that he’s literally thinking about Armand. Not consciously. But he’s assuming Armand: Armand’s desires, Armand’s preferences, Armand’s reactions. He’s holding Lestat, he’s thinking of Lestat, he’s hard for Lestat. But he’s treating him like Armand.

Wow I sure am reccing a lot of fic about Louis and BDSM, huh? Wonder what thats about. Anyway, I think this and the fics by shavir_light work as lovely little complements to each other. More thinking about how domming wasn’t just a thing for Armand, but was something that Louis participated in, enjoys and carries with him. I also enjoy thinking about how Louis and Lestat might fall back together once Louis is back in New Orleans, but they might not settle together quite as easily. Eighty years is a long time to be apart and of course people are going to pick up quirks and require adjustments. 

the body, not in stasis

Daniel/Louis

E | 1k | shavir_light

“The need to cares for your body is, in part, what tethers you to it. It’s a reminder, Daniel—that you are flesh and blood. That you are a human being,” Louis insists, in his usual verbose fashion, and Daniel can’t help but laugh as he turns to leave.

“Well, you’re welcome to come watch, if it’s so magical to you,” he says.

I think this is such a short, sweet meditation on bodies. It does the exact kind of thing I love fanfic to do, take a single point an original work makes — vampires’ bodily functions fundamentally change when they’re turned — and just has a think and does a little smut about it. I love it.

Want and Swallow and Keep

Louis/Lestat

E | 10k | shavir_light

Love, sex, possession. To Lestat, they’re all the same thing.

So this could be perfect; Louis could decide what they do, control Lestat’s actions. He could make Lestat work for it, earn Louis’ trust again by way of obedience. Louis could restrain him from doing something—something bad.

So interesting to be in such disagreement about what a fic is and how we’re supposed to take it. I think this fic is a great example of the ways Lestat and Louis treat each other poorly, and get off on it! shavir_light makes it clear that they see one party clearly in the wrong and one not. I just think it's so fun that we’re able to have such different perspectives on the same work. 

Harry Potter

New Gods

Harry/Sirius 

E | 4k | @thecouchsofa

It rocks Sirius to his core every time he thinks about it, because they aren’t the same – Harry and James.

Sure, Harry pushes his glasses up with the knuckle of his pointer finger. James used to do the same thing when he had dirt or sugar or random potion essence on his hands. Other people do that too. Sirius has never seen it, but they do.

I like a fic where people are having relationships that are complicated, or they “shouldn’t” be having them for whatever reason. I like the ambiguity of this fic and how Sirius is trying to insist, to us and to himself, that the ambiguity doesn’t matter when it certainly does.

Wield Me

Harry/Draco, Pre-Harry/Draco/Teddy

E | 10k | @tackytigerfic

Draco Malfoy, blacksmith, is renowned through the magical world for his skill and exquisite creations. He could quite easily spend the rest of his days making pretty trinkets for the fae court, and being handsomely rewarded for the privilege. But why take the easy route when instead he could get involved in a dangerous mission with Unspeakable Harry Potter (who also happens to be Draco's... well, he's something, isn't he?)

A little story about learning to strike while the iron is hot.

Home Truths

E | 67k | @fantalfart, @skeptiquewrites

In the off-season Harry decided to fix up Grimmauld Place and found that Draco Malfoy was the only person who could help him. A demanding career and unrelenting press scrutiny were enough to deal with before Harry added a house with a mind of its own, family history, and a tense, flirty, complicated relationship with his childhood nemesis to the mix.

On professional Quidditch, magical houses, hard choices, Life Debts, and inconvenient truths.

Honestly, this fic, to me, is more of a lovely character study than a romance. There’s a good bit of fic that Draco barely appears in but we get to learn more about Harry’s job (y’all know i’m a sucker for any fic where Harry’s not an auror) and the whole world feels very lived in. 

Wonderful Anything

E | 24k |  harDEEhar / @dryrsheet

They were birds of a feather, he and Draco: the pathetic bastards in love and apart.

I can hardly believe this fic is only 24k. I read the next fic immediately after this one because they both manage to offer worlds that feel so full, just from what we learn while watching people fall in love. I also love an unconventional relationship timeline, stories where people build their own lives and families they way they want and second/third/fourth tries until something finally clicks. There are just so many lovely details in this story, it really was one of the standouts of the month. 

Grounds for Divorce

E | 122k | @tepre

Malfoy finds a coin. Harry finds a letter.

A story about histories, a story about families. A story about a lemon tree somewhere in Upper Egypt.

Oh God, I stayed up way too late reading this fic. Sometimes, I’ll just random think about this fic. I’ve reread it so many times. The writing is just gorgeous. The emotional character work is…is shocking in how wonderful and layered it is. It feels both so real and heightened at the same time. The whole story is cooking on high but once Harry and Draco get to the conference in Egypt? Baby, it's on flambé. I don’t know if this story is considered a classic in the Harry Potter fandom but it's quadruple platinum in my household. 

[curio-queries]

Run BTS: 058 | BTS Chef part 2

Original Air Date: 08 JAN 2019 Episode Length: 33:17 Total Parts: 2 YouTube English Subtitles: No Title Song: Idol

Synopsis: Continuation of the previous part. The guys are now cooking their assigned dishes.

Production: This episode honestly feels too chaotic for me. The coverage is cramped and there are a lot of shots where the audience isn't really directed where to focus their eyes even with the audio cues. This is an easy one for the casual watcher to get lost in purely due to the production and not because of a complex concept.

Endearment: The guys themselves seem a bit affected by the chaos. They either don't get great screentime because they're focusing on the task at hand or it's hammed up (I'm looking at you RM and Hobi!)

Winner: RM, YG, JH

Loser: JM, V

Best Cheater: I'm so tempted to list RM and Hobi for getting EVERYONE to help them with their only assingment, but I think I'll actually choose Jimin and V for the salt in Suga's drink. Our wonderful little slytherin.

Member Moments:

RM: RM and Hobi starting off hot with thinking a salad spinner is a blender. bless their hearts

JN: Jin, thank goodness you were babysitting the 94z and stopped them from using the other team's pasta as garlic!

YG: Again, my favorite aspect of Yoongi's personality: his quiet confidence. he just does what he needs to and isn't bothered by the chaos around him.

JH: Hobi literally getting Jin to help them strip the basil leaves 🤣😂😆

JM: Jimin is absolutely demonstrating his competence this episode as well.

V: Ah, V waiting most of the episode for the water to boil.

JK: JK, ever the helpful maknae

Bonus Content: Great moments, explains quite a bit of what we only got hints of in the episode.

CQ Rank: 3

(CQ Eval Date: 26 MAR 2024)

Check out this post for my Masterlist of all episodes and descriptions of how I'm evaluating these.

Previous Episode: 057

Next Episode: 059

[genericswordsmaiden]

I watched The World's End. I'm crying. It was a beautiful thing, truly. When Gary's motives finally unraveled I just started sobbing - empathy do really be like that sometimes.

The casting choices were brilliant: Rosamunde Pike slayed, Pierce Brosnan also joined the battle, and recurring actors were again very much appreciated, together with recurring gags. About the characters, I think I can say that I love every single one of them. Pete's past made me feel a bit sick - I was a victim of bullying too, even though I was lucky that it never got that much physical. Andy and Gary got my heart in a chokehold, they're beyond shipping to me.

Also I need to know if there are any fanfictions set after the finale! It was totally epic, and I was so fucking happy that I started crying even more! I thought back to Simon's own struggles with alcohol and I thought to myself "this is the best ending he could write for a story like this one 'cause it somewhat reflects him."

From a writing standpoint, it really is the best one because it combines the best parts of the other two movies.

Also, fun fact: it's the one with the best italian dub (opinion of a certified italian who only watched the first ten minutes in ita and then switched to english because I needed the full british experience) but on the trilogy blu-ray it says that both italian audio and subtitles are unavailable (meanwhile the other two movies have them) lmao

I don't understand why it's so underrated, honestly. I think if I had to rate the trilogy, this could very easily be interchangeable with Hot Fuzz on the top tier. Shaun is very good too, but I felt some kind of disconnect while watching it, for some reason I didn't get close to the characters as I did with the other movies.

So... yeah. This was, is, and always will be the Cornetto Trilogy. Now I can finally reblog one hundred posts about it without the risk of getting spoiled.

Also, did you notice a pattern for the last names of the main characters? Page, Chamberlain, Knightley, Prince, King? And the names of the pubs being actually relevant to the plot??? It's details like these that enhance everything. The (Nick) Frosting on the cake (I'm so sorry I had to lol). Anyway istg when Wright and Pegg started collaborating the planets aligned or something, because stuff this good is so incredibly rare!

[laxmiree]

[CN] MLQC Lucien’s Crazy date translation

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT!! ⚠️

This post contains a detailed spoiler for a date that has not been released in EN yet! Feel free to notify me if there are any mistakes in the translation~

Translation under the cut!

(T/N: Very recommended to follow along the date because hnghh, I have never heard him this happy and alive before 😭. Sadly, I don't have this card, so I can't subtitle it myself. But you can check the date recording here in this link.)

The sea breeze passed through the moonlight, bringing the warmth of winter to the south.

I was leaning in Lucien's arms, watching the gripping movie plot on the projector with great interest.

Keeping the same position will inevitably make my back ache, but I don't want to leave his arms.

Just as I adjusted my posture for the third time without making any noise, a soft pillow was placed under my waist.

MC: ...?

Raising my head in a daze, I met Lucien's smiling eyes.

MC: How can you still catch my little move?

Lucien: If it hadn't been for the fact that you made me feel a little tickled, maybe it won't be so quickly discovered.

I laughed and rubbed against the crook of his arm before looking back at the screen.

A few days ago, Lucien was invited to a New Year's Eve party hosted by his research colleagues. The party isn't formal. It's mainly for relaxation and communication.

So at his suggestion, I was happy to accompany him. We arrived early and rented a small manor to start our vacation time.

During the day, we walked around with the camera, and at night we nestled on the sofa, drinking wine and watching movies.

No work and no worries, just a happy and relaxed us.

??: Mary, I've figured out that even if my life were to stop tomorrow, I would still be on the end of the road

Mary: Then I'll go crazy with you and accompany you until the end.

The main character, who has been sentenced with the "death penalty" is dressed in a hospital gown. But his pale face is radiant as he and Mary dragged the IV and ran toward the hospital gates.

The sunset dragged their long shadows, and they took a long way away with each step. It was only when the gorgeous images jumped out of the black end credits that I realized the film was over.

After exhaling a deep breath, I noticed elderly people with gray hair appearing on the left side of the credits one by one.

??: Love is the most important thing in the world.

??: Life is always crazy. You want it? Just get it!

I was deeply touched by their sincere advice to young people, and I felt as if there was a hot fire burning in my heart.

Perhaps in the long road, I also need to have this impulse to run for the heart's desire more often.

MC: Lucien...

While thinking, I sat up and looked earnestly into those long, narrow eyes.

Lucien: What to do? I seem to have guessed MC is about to stir up troubles.

(T/N: 蠢蠢欲动 is an idiom meaning to begin to stir (idiom) / to get restless / to become threatening)

He raised his chin and narrowed his eyes. His magnetic voice fell on my ears.

Lucien: (whisper) You seem to want to do something you've never done before.

Lucien: Just like the protagonist of this movie, he leaves some out-of-the-ordinary, crazy traces in this world.

MC: ...

He said it almost perfectly and even poetically summed it up for me. I pouted and lightly jabbed him on the arm.

MC: No fun. I just ignited three minutes of enthusiasm, and then 80% of it was doused by a clever man!

He intentionally frowned in distress, took me into his arms, and nuzzled against the tip of my nose.

Lucien: (in that grieving tone) So what should I do? I don't know if I have a chance to atone for it...

Lucien: Let's get your three-minute enthusiasm going again.

His eyes rested between my lips almost imperceptibly. Without waiting for me to react, a soft sensation gently sealed my breath.

He slowly teased and nibbled on my lips as if trying to increase the heat little by little.

Lucien: (whisper very, VERY hoarsely) MC, tell me... what were you trying to do just now?

I subconsciously intended to speak but caught an inch of his smile in my dazed vision.

....He was leading me by nose again.

I drew back to my senses and pulled my neck away, escaping from the air that was getting thinner.

Lucien: Looks like my atonement wasn't enough.

Lucien smiled, and another kiss fell on the corner of my eye. His fingertips restlessly touched and lingered on my waist, making me tremble lightly.

And he had no intention of letting me go. His other hand was covering my eyes as if to block all possibility of me ever coming to my senses.

The string called reason shook and swayed as the kiss slowly moved downward, and I buried my face in his coat.

MC: Lucien, be serious.

MC: If this continues even further, I really won't be able to think anymore!

His chest trembled gently under my cheeks as if it was enduring something unbearable.

Lucien: [chuckle] In fact, you don't need to spend time thinking about it.

I pulled my head out of his embrace. I watched in a daze as he took a sip from a glass of wine on the table and casually swayed my fingers with his other hand.

Lucien: Crazy thoughts are inherently irrational.

Lucien: So when these thoughts come up, it's better to follow your heart than to think about it more deeply.

(thinking of his sp date-)

Looking at his serious look, I raised my cheeks and looked up and down.

MC: It always feels strange to hear such words from Professor Lucien's mouth, who usually speaks sensibly.

Lucien: Is that so?

Lucien: Reason and madness may sound like opposites, but sometimes they can exist at the same time.

MC: But isn't it usually when you lose your mind that you get called "crazy"?

Seeing that I objected, Lucien smiled and raised his hand to rub my nose.

Lucien: MC, we tend to think that reason is about what we shouldn't or should do.

Lucien: But in many cases, "unreasonable" is not the same as "wrong".

Lucien: It's just not predictable.

I couldn't help but think of the movie I just saw, where the main character's life changed in amazing ways when he did things he would never have done before.

My heart felt moved, so I sat up and kissed the person in front of me.

MC: Hey, is it like this?

Lucien was stunned by my sudden movement and slightly bent his eyes.

Lucien: This seems to be only a start.

Lucien: After all, this happens to me every day, doesn't it?

MC: It seems this kind of "crazy" to do whatever I want is not enough to satisfy our Professor Lucien.

I said as I intentionally rested my eyes between his lips. My hands slid down to his chest little by little and slowly pressed close to his body.

Lucien seems to have guessed my mind and letting me go close, but the palm of his hand is covering my waist like declaring the initiative.

Seeing that he would pull me close to his arms, I quickly used my hands to resist against his chest.

MC: I admit defeat. I really can't "fight" you and win!

He raised the corners of his lips in triumph, leaned over, and picked up the glass to hand it to me.

Lucien: Anything else you want to do tonight?

Lucien: For example, finishing the landscape you painted yesterday or taking the scones out of the fridge for a midnight snack?

I pondered and took a sip of wine. The choking warmth slid into my stomach.

MC: ...I haven't thought about it. Why don't we do what you said, think of something, and then do it?

MC: Anyway, it's a holiday, so relax your tense nerves and don't worry about anything.

Lucien: Okay. Then I won't worry about it. The painting can be done at another time.

Lucien: If you don't feel like eating a late-night snack, you can also wait until tomorrow to eat the scones that have missed their optimal taste.

MC: Pfft...

What he said made me burst into laughter. I got up, took my wine, and slowly looked around the room.

When I glanced over the spiral staircase, my eyes lit up, and I happily pointed to the slanted moonlight on the steps.

MC: Lucien, look. I can't believe that just by watching a movie, the clouds have dispersed and the stars have come out.

I looked up at the transparent dome and gazed at the stunning view of the galaxy.

MC: Is it just me, or is the air quality really good these few days. Why does it seem like the stars are getting brighter each day?

As I joked around, Lucien also sat down beside me, holding a wine glass.

Lucien: Then I guess we'll be seeing even more dazzling stars over the next few days.

I laughed and pretended to look at him in a serious way.

MC: Lucien, you can't use the fact that you are a professor to speak nonsense.

Lucien: Can't I make a joke?

I reached out and poked his cheek.

MC: You can, but your face is so deceiving that I can easily take anything you say seriously.

Seeing that Lucien was amused by me and laughed, I nuzzled against his shoulder in a good mood.

MC: Say, if we just sit here and watch the stars all night until sunrise…

MC: Would that be a crazy thing to do?

Lucien: Hmmm... I don't think it's necessary to measure the scale of craziness.

Lucien: As long as that is something you want to do, whether you sit here all night or sit for five minutes and then return to bed….

Lucien: It's all good.

Everything is tranquil and time seems to slow down, making my senses increasingly clear.

I can hear the wind blowing through the curtain at the window and the sound of Lucien's hair rustling in my ears.

I couldn't resist closing my eyes to listen to more subtleties that I hadn't noticed before.

Whoosh-

Suddenly there was a soft crashing sound from afar. It was like the sound of an hourglass ticking away in the night.

MC: Lucien, did you hear that?

I opened my eyes, and my hand pointed out the window to the sound. Lucien slightly held his breath as if he was carefully distinguishing.

Lucien: The place we live is not far from the beach. I think it should be the waves.

MC: …The waves?

The rustling sounds kept coming to my ears, and perhaps because of the influence of alcohol or because of the "grand words" just now –

A thought struck my mind, and I stood up.

MC: Lucien.

Lucien: MC, would you like to see the sea right now?

Looking at each other tacitly, a small warmth flowed through my heart, but when I couldn't refrain from nodding my head-

I saw the clock behind Lucien, pointing to one in the morning.

MC: ...

MC: I'm tempted, but it's almost one o'clock now.

MC: We still have to attend the party tomorrow. It won't be good if it affects your condition…

Lucien: It doesn't matter if I sleep less, but it might make MC a little sleepy.

Lucien: So…You can totally reject me.

Lucien smiled lightly, the moonlight cast a hazy color on him, and his collarbone was also faintly visible under the open skirt.

His usual soft and smooth hair was also a little messy because he was lying on the couch with me all night, giving him a little "unkempt" sense of laziness.*

(T/N: 不修边幅 is an idiom meaning not care about one's appearance/ slovenly in dress and manner)

Even though he said that, there was a dark tidal current that swept me deeply into those dark eyes.

It made me sink into them.

I winked and beamed with a big smile.

MC: No, let's go to see the sea.

MC: I don't care if I will be a bit sleepy tomorrow. I want to see the sea with you now.

The interest in Lucien's eyes grew even stronger, his hand absent-mindedly resting on the back of his neck while the other hand holding the wine glass clinked lightly with mine.

It sounded clear and beautiful.

Lucien: Then, we seem to hit it off.

(T/N: 一拍即合 is an idiom lit. to be together from the first beat (idiom) /to hit it off/to click together / to chime in easily)

At night, it turns out that nothing can be seen on the sea except the ivory moonlight falling on the tide.

At the far end of the horizon, a long, thin line of lights from thousands of homes spreads horizontally, so far away that it seems like another untouchable world.

MC: Lucien, there are only two of us here.

MC: It seems that the idea of going to the beach at one o'clock in the morning is really unreasonable~

Lucien: But by occasionally doing the opposite, the sea belongs to us for a brief time.

Lucien: Even though the sea is not blue at all, there are no seagulls to be seen, and you might even step on a small crab moving in the night.

Seeing Lucien joking around, I'm happily took off my shoes and quickly run to the waves to feel the tide soaking through my ankles.

MC: I can't see the sea, but I'm in the sea right now.

MC: I can still feel the sand slipping past my ankles along with the tide and then quietly slipping away from the soles of my feet.

Lucien: The Great Producer seems to be extraordinarily attentive today.

Lucien: I don't know if it's because of the wine or the movie...

MC: Of course, it's because of you.

I was quick to take over his words, winking playfully. Seeing me like this, Lucien burst out laughing.

Lucien: (laughs) What to do? I feel a bit helpless with this slightly drunk lady.

Hearing his little teasing, I purposely flicked my foot and brought the seawater onto the edge of his shoe.

MC: Then Professor Lucien, don't let me stay alone in the sea~ why don't you take off your shoes too? It's comfortable here,

He didn't answer, and just when I thought he would smile and politely decline, Lucien bent down to take off his shoes and walked beside me.

Lucien: Indeed, It's very comfortable, just a little cooler than I thought.

Although taking off the shoes is not a big deal, I feel that his natural response is a bit unexpected

MC: Lucien, how many drinks did you have tonight?

Lucien: Do you think I'm drunk?

His long, narrow eyes were clear under the moonlight, and they clearly captured me in them. I smiled, shook my head, and continued using my foot to send the cold water over his ankles.

MC: It doesn't matter if you are drunk or not. There is no one else here anyway.

MC: So, it's okay for you to be a little more "let loose".

Lucien: Can teacher MC teach me some examples?

My eyes seemed to linger on him. Then I leaned down to cup a small amount of water and splashed it on him.

MC: Just like this?

He nodded thoughtfully, took two steps forward, and when I thought he was going to counterattack, I was about to turn and run-

Before Lucien tenderly shackled me in his arms.

Lucien: (whisper) Teacher, can I draw another example from what you just taught me?

MC: O-of course.

He gazed deeply at me. His fingertips brushed my eyebrows, my eyes… And finally, he held my face and kissed it.

The waves hit the rocks again, but this time, we were in the middle of the waves, surrounded by dense foam and entwined by the sweet taste of wine between our lips and teeth.

I was immersed in this sweet taste. Lucien only pulled away from me a while later. The cold sea breeze lingered at the tip of my nose and tickled me a little….

MC: Ah-choo-!

I quickly covered my mouth, and a chill ran through my body.

MC: … Although it is in the south, the sea is still a bit cold at night.

Lucien: This seems to be an oversight on my part.

He turned and bent down, grabbed my thighs with both hands, and put me directly on his back.

A moment of weightlessness made me cling tightly to his neck.

MC: Eh? Are we going back? But I'm just a little cold and not tired.

Lucien: This lady seems to have misunderstood me.

He said as he walked forward, moving away from the direction of the manor.

Lucien: Since we came to the beach late at night, we should have some fun before returning.

Lucien: It's just that if you stay in the sea all the time, it's easy to catch a cold.

Lucien: So, by carrying you on my back in the sea, we should be able to achieve almost the same effect.

Our shadows are close and seamless under the moonlight.

I contentedly put my face on Lucien's back and talked to him about one thing after another.

The faint sound of laughter rolled away with the waves until I saw the smoke coming from the distance, and I couldn't help but exclaim in a small voice.

MC: Lucien, it's a roadside stall! It looks like a stall for some kind of warm and hot soup.

Lucien: Want to go over and take a look?

MC: Um!

As we got closer, I faintly saw the stall owner turn off the small lights and put the ingredients into the box one by one…

MC: Shoot, looks like it's about to close!

Before I finished speaking, Lucien tightened his arms, and I felt a gentle jolt. I was stunned when I realized he was running with me on his back!

MC: Lucien...?

Lucien: (panting while shouting happily) MC, I'm curious, so without any hesitation...

Lucien: (still continuing shouting happily) I ain't gonna let you miss it.

(T/N: I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR HIM TO SOUND THIS HAPPY AND ALIVE-)

A relaxed laugh passed through my ears. Although I can't see his expression at this moment, I can imagine that calm but warm face.

I couldn't help but laugh and approached his ear-

MC: Professor Lucien, we seem to be a bit "crazy" now.

When I woke up the next day, Lucien was already fully dressed, sitting on the sofa and quietly reading a book.

His white shirt was clean, and his smooth hair was well-groomed.

I can't see that this is the same man from last night, who was so energetic that he chased the stall owner with me on his back so I could successfully drink hot soup, and only went to sleep at dawn…

I secretly laughed, then sat up and stretched.

MC: Lucien, what time is it? Why didn't you wake me when you got up?

Lucien: You were so tired from last night, so I wanted to let you rest a little longer.

Lucien: Plus, there's still plenty of time, so you can take it slow.

MC: So… Since it's early, can I ask for a good morning hug?

I grinned at him and opened my arms. Lucien put down his book, sat on the edge of the bed, and softly pecked me on the lips.

MC: Even Professor Lucien can misinterpret a question. I clearly ask for a hug.

Lucien: Then, just think of it as an additional question that I answered.

I stayed in his arms for a while before going to the closet. I took out a purple dress and a set of a white casual suit with trousers.

MC: Which one do you think I should wear today?

His eyes wandered between the two sets of clothes for quite a while.

Lucien: The party is relatively long, so it is reasonable that wearing a comfortable dress would be better.

Lucien: However, a certain lady was so excited about the party that she went back and forth to pick out her clothes several times while packing.

After a moment of pause, his eyes finally fell on the purple dress.

Lucien: So just wear it, and if you get tired by then, we'll come back early.

MC: Hehe, Professor Lucien understands my mind the most~

Lucien smiled and walked to the mirror. His fingertips lightly crossed the table's edge and took out a pair of butterfly earrings from the jewelry box.

Lucien: I also have a suggestion about the jewelry.

Lucien: You used to say it didn't have the right opportunity to shine, but I think today is that opportunity.

I took the earrings with a smile and hugged him around the neck.

MC: Then I would like to ask Professor Lucien to continue to help me with advice. Is that okay?

MC: I'll need you to help me choose the perfume I'm going to use when I go out. I'll go change first!

Without giving him a chance to react, I kissed him on the cheek and walked into the bathroom with my clothes and jewelry.

After changing clothes, I saw Lucien sitting lazily by the window, shaking the balm in his hand.

MC: Have you picked it out so quickly?

Lucien: To be precise, as soon as I smelled this scent, I knew it was the only way to go today.

MC: Oh? It looks like you're pretty confident in your choice~ Let me see which one you've chosen.

I picked up the balm to smell it, and my eyes widened

It has the scent of waves. The elegant fragrance carries a little bit of salty moisture, letting the memories of last night sweep into my mind.

The dark sea, the rolling waves, the moonlight sways in front of my eyes as he runs…

When I thought about it, I couldn't resist leaning into him, pressing closer to the scent in front of me.

(Cue 5th birthday bgm 🥺)

MC: You just said that you picked it right away. Can I take it that you enjoyed our experience at the beach last night?

Lucien: Mmm, I don't deny it.

Lucien: Although the scenery was pitch black last night, I can seem to remember it for a long time.

Looking at the balm in my hand, I suddenly thought of something and smiled.

MC: I've heard that scent can strengthen people's memories…

MC: So just remember with me a little longer.

As I said that, I leaned back a little. I slowly unbuttoned his shirt, one by one, with one hand.

I stopped when the sunlight cast a white light in front of his collarbone and rubbed my fingers on the balm.

As we looked at each other, my index finger slowly climbed up and down and slid down his chest with a little more force.

Lucien's palm covered my lower back as if in response to me. His fingertips were caressing. The lace tulle skirt made a rustling sound, just like the waves last night.

I couldn't help but press myself against his neck and breathe the scent of the ocean.

MC: Lucien...

Lucien: Hmm?

MC: In fact, looking back now, what we did last night didn't seem crazy.

MC: It's just strolling along the dark beach and then running after the stall that is about to close.

MC: But for some reason, I just enjoyed last night.

Lucien: Is this kind of "crazy" enough for you?

I stared deeply into his eyes without hesitation.

MC: Of course it's enough. Because you are the one who went to the beach with me, you are the one who held me, and you are the one who ran forward with me on your back.

I paused and pressed my forehead against his.

MC: For me, "crazy" is not about doing something out of the ordinary.

MC: My heart will still beat faster when I do ordinary things with you.

MC: Even when our hair is all gray, it'll still do the same.

MC: Isn't that just the craziest thing ever?

Lucien tightened his arms and pressed himself against me, without leaving any gaps.

Lucien: It really doesn't get any crazier than that.

Lucien: Your very existence has caused me to lose control from time to time.

I reached out to nudge the tip of his nose and smiled playfully.

MC: Then you must continue to be unreserved with me so that I can "occupy" you a little more.

He was stunned, and pretended to let out a sigh of chagrin.

Lucien: [sigh] Am I not unreserved enough in front of you? I can't believe that you have this "illusion".

MC: Because like you, I'm also very greedy.

MC: Although I also like the usual you, I want to see more of Professor Lucien from last night.

MC: And you will satisfy me, won't you?

Lucien answered softly. His quiet eyes seemed to set off layers of sea waves.

Suddenly, I thought of something else, curiously lying on top of him, twirling my fingertips around his hair.

MC: Speaking of which, what would you say is the craziest thing you've ever done before our hair turned gray?

Lucien bent his smiling eyes, lightly pursed his lips, and said nothing.

He just moved even closer to me while carrying the scent of the waves and lowered his head to kiss me.

-And once again, my heart bloomed like a flowering sea wave.

[T/N: 'Loving you is the craziest thing I've ever done in our lifetime' :”]

[magnorious]

Young Royals Perfectly Understands Frustrating Teenagers

*Spoiler Alert for the whole series*

This Netflix-produced Swedish teen drama just wrapped up its third and final season. It follows the second-in-line to the Swedish throne, Wilhelm “Willie” navigating a fancy boarding school rife with toxic social hierarchies and a crippling addiction to dangerous traditions, while also discovering his sexuality. Suddenly, his older brother dies and he’s now the crown prince, when no one ever expected him to have this responsibility, including himself. His jerk of a cousin records him and his new secret boyfriend being intimate and so ensues three seasons of drama surrounding the chaos of this poor kid being outed to the whole world, and the damage of publicity on his relationships.

*I watched this with subtitles and cannot comment on the quality of any dub.

This show is incredibly frustrating, because its characters are frustrating—because they’re incredibly believably teenagers who stake their entire futures on a high school fling. Willie and his love interest, Simon, are in a constant struggle over Willie’s great expectations as the new crown prince and Simon, of a lower social class, having a great many demands over how he thinks he should be able to live his life.

The characters have a ton of depth and that goes well beyond the two leads. The villain of the show, August, the evil cousin, is a hot mess who can’t do anything right. One that absolutely expects to peak in high school and sail through adulthood on his family’s legacy. He’s also Willie’s spare if he abdicates the throne, a rather unique twist on the prince trope I haven’t seen very often. Willie doesn’t want to be king, but he hates the idea of August on the throne even more, and, if only to spite his cousin, strays way outside of his comfort zone and ignores his own wants and desires to make sure he becomes king.

Other side characters include the dudebro boys of their school, also all dickish aristocrats, the ladies’ side of the school, and Simon’s sister's relationship with these socialites and her awesome best friend, Felice.

—

*spoiler alert again*

These two characters, Willie and Simon, are terrible for each other. Simon is too young and immature to understand and appreciate the demands of being royalty in a modern setting. He gets upset at Willie for all manner of things—that Simon has to watch what he posts on social media, who he talks to, who he takes pictures with, what statements he makes, and his unrealistic expectations of any politician. Every time he gets upset, I understand that he’s 17, but I’m also scowling at my TV thinking, “What exactly did you expect, dating royalty?”

Willie, on the other hand, bends over backwards for this guy and desperately needs to actually attend his therapy sessions instead of angsting over his doomed-to-fail romance. They’re entertaining, but they are so, so stressful to watch, whether it’s their many arguments or whenever they start making out in a public place where they can be caught.

They break up, get back together, break up, get back together. In the 11th hour of season 3, Simon officially breaks it off and I actually cheered. I figured the finale would end with the sick queen’s funeral and Willie reluctantly accepting his birthright.

That did not happen. Instead, Willie and August have a rushed “all’s forgiven” conversation, he abdicates, and runs after Simon to be free of a responsibility he never wanted. On the one hand, yes, he never wanted to be king, that much was clear from the moment he found out he was the new crown prince, but on the other hand—Willie wasn’t the character who needed to change for this relationship to work.

Simon was.

Simon, who argued with him constantly over the conservative nature of the monarchy, for all the stances Willie wasn’t allowed to take because of his rank. Simon could have ended this season either breaking up with him for good, or committing to the responsibility of loving royalty, and the two could have looked to a future of slew of progressive changes once Willie had the authority to enact change as king.

August won’t enact shit. August who, upon telling his friends that he’s the new second-in-line, realizes acutely how miserable he’s about to be for the long rest of his life. I half expected this guy to not survive to the end of the season with how self-destructive he is.

It feels like they had a different direction planned for the finale and someone somewhere cut it down. That, or Netflix's "3 season" rule made no exceptions and they had to rush to the finish line.

—

Overall, they’re frustrating, but they’re also incredibly well-written teenagers. The constant pop/club music over actual score got annoying but it’s an exposure to artists I never listen to. The acting is fantastic across the board, as well, along with the editing and cinematography. The actual plot, up to the finale, was engaging and well thought out, with these two heirs duking it out in a cold war with the entire school caught in the middle.

Maybe I just don’t understand Swedish teenagers. I certainly can’t speak to if this at all reflects the reality of Swedish culture and living under a monarchy. It’s a shame that, in my opinion, it didn’t quite stick the landing with the messages it wanted to send, but the show’s a solid, if stressful watch, and a short one at that.

[rabbityshen]

not sure who this post is for.

i think i just needed a way to get out some of my brainworms about genazo and some of the observations i've made about it as a movie and fandom phenomenon that's big in japan but basically not at all here. it was originally gonna be a pitch post on my Main, Professional writing blog but it came out kind of too.....silly for that. which is why the grammar and capitalization are generally proper and the tone is more formal (and has images). i wrote most of it back in august/september but have edited it so it's relatively current to right now.

it's mostly a bunch of rambling and info tidbits about genazo. cant imagine who would be interested in it, except genazo fans, but then it's also written as if to be read by ppl who don't know what genazo is. again, very confusing post. my bad. if u wanna read it go ahead, but lol (lol).

but if ur like "what's genazo?" well then this the post for you. maybe.

edit: added some more fun images for myself 😊 and some (spoilery) CWs for the movie at the very end

They say honesty is a virtue so I might as well start off by saying that my curiosity about this movie was not sparked by the anniversary productions being made for Shigeru Mizuki’s 100th birthday or through keeping tabs on the latest anime films coming out, but because I saw fanart and I thought the main character, Mizuki, looked hot.

After some sleuthing, I tracked down the source material and was surprised that it was from a movie, Kitaro Tanjo: GeGeGe no Nazo (which I'll shorten to GeNazo), part of the GeGeGe no Kitaro franchise.

If you don’t know of GeGeGe no Kitaro or Shigeru Mizuki, I’ll pause here to give a little bit of background info. Shigeru Mizuki was a mangaka born in 1922, who made manga at the same time alongside other influential artists like Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy) and Shotaro Ishinomori (Kamen Rider). Mizuki would ultimately become famous for GeGeGe no Kitaro (which I'll shorten to Kitaro from here on out), a manga series following a yokai boy named Kitaro and his adventures. Kitaro is on par with Asto Boy in terms of being a national icon. He’s credited with popularizing yokai stories for the modern masses, his imagery becoming what people would most associate with the classic folklore. Besides the 2023 movie, there was an anime adaptation that aired 2018 - 2020, which was also a 50th anniversary production based off of the first anime adaptation that first aired in 1968.

I had some passing, bare minimum familiarity with Kitaro, as much as anyone who’s liked anime and manga for decades would have, and I had never seen a character from it who looked like Mizuki. Clearly, the movie wasn't a straightforward adaptation, even if it was taking one of the manga chapter titles as its own (“The Birth of Kitaro,” which shows the origins of the eponymous character). Not only that, but the promotional material was fairly bloody and dour, obviously aimed at a more mature audience than the usual child demographic the franchise was geared towards, as with the 2018 Kitaro anime. The character design for Kitaro on the movie poster was very similar though, so I figured they likely shared the same continuity.

(i don't have enough relevant images to adequately disperse throughout this post so im just adding random screenshots of mizuki for enrichment and personal indulgence 🙂)

Since the anime series had been officially licensed and subtitled by Crunchyroll, I assumed the same had been done for the movie but that was not the case. It had been released in Japanese theaters back in November 2023 but as of April 2024 at the time, there was (and still is) nowhere official and legal to watch it with localized English subtitles. I had little interest in Kitaro otherwise so I shrugged and decided I would let my shallow interest taper off. It did not.

Instead it plagued me for months (my friends can testify to this). I can't exactly articulate why; The heart wants what the heart wants I suppose. So I finally caved in and found…other means of watching it. I'm not sure if I expected that to sate the brainworms already festering in my head, but basically the opposite of that happened. Now having context for what I was already seeking out on Twitter, new depths of investment were opened up. And that's when I discovered this movie was quite popular.

Now granted, this is still in relative terms. This was the year that other animated hit films such as The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Boy and the Heron came out. Even other anime franchise films such as Case Closed: Black Iron Submarine and Spy x Family Code: White were much bigger domestic and international hits from around the same time. However, while GeNazo never reached the status of being the #1 movie in Japan for the week, it was one of the top five grossing movies for four consecutive weeks (and in the top ten for a consecutive 11 weeks), making over two billion yen (~$17 million). It was also selected to be shown at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in the Countrechamp category. A new version of the film called the “True Version” (真生��), which contains redone cuts and rerecorded dialogue (but no changes to the narrative), as well as bumps up the rating from PG-12 to R15, was released a few weeks ago.

And when you zoom in closer from a fandom subculture perspective, its popularity is undeniable. The doujinshi made for the GeNazo fandom and sold through the retailer Comic Toranoana is not only numerous, but has dominated the female-targeted section rankings for months (both “All Ages” and “Adults Only”), alongside doujinshi for much more internationally popular series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Slam Dunk. (Another way to compare this, Kitaro has a total of 2500+ listed and Delicious in Dungeon has a little over 40 items listed.) In the 2023 poll for yumejoshi (similar to the concept of “self-shipping” fandom) to pick their favorite characters for the year, the two main characters made it to the top twenty (Gegero at #15 and Mizuki at #9), even though the movie was released quite late into the year. Then in Animage’s annual Anime Grand Prix, GeNazo was voted as the top favorite anime for 2023, with Mizuki and Gegero also voted as the top favorite characters. At COMIC CITY SPARK 19, a popular Tokyo doujinshi event held last week, GeNazo is the third most popular fandom represented (above other fandoms including Haikyu!! and Honkai: Star Rail). Several months ago, a film concert event was held and it must've done more than well enough if they're holding the event again for two days in November.

So obviously, I was very much not the only one infested with brainworms! But in comparison, no one over in English-speaking anime fandom circles knows anything. On Archive of Our Own, there’s a tag for “GeGeGe no Kitaro (Anime)”* that only has under 50 works in English when accounted for the movie’s release. (In comparison, there are over 2,500 works in the tag for “ダンジョン飯 | Dungeon Meshi | Delicious in Dungeon” in English when accounted for the anime’s release. For possibly a more equivalent comparison, there are a little under 200 works in the tag for “Bang Brave Bang Braven (Anime)” a show that did receive an official English translation and was ranked second in the Anime Grand Prix.) Every time I peek into Japanese fandom, I feel like I’m stepping into a parallel universe. The gap is striking.

Anime has never been more accessible to foreigners, specifically Americans. Piracy still reigns supreme in terms of frugal personal finances, but it's less convenient and full of pitfalls, requiring some sophistication in navigating platforms and torrents. As a thirty year old with a full-time job, the low-risk convenience on its own is worth the money of subscription. It’s also easy to think in the age of streaming and simulcast—with plenty of titles getting licensed but then instantly buried under the oversaturation of Content and lackluster efforts at marketing—that we have legal access to everything, or at least everything notable. But similar to this year's cult hit Girls Band Cry (until the official English language translation available through Hoopla and, soon on November 6th, Crunchyroll as well), GeNazo fell through the license cracks. 

I shouldn't be too surprised though. While Kitaro is an iconic series with a deep cultural legacy in Japan, its popularity in the USA is much milder. In my experience, people who do know about Kitaro tend to regard it as a piece of classic manga history rather than engaging art or storytelling in its own right. As an older, episodic children’s series fundamentally focused on traditional Japanese folklore, its potential appeal to international audiences is less universal and it's less likely to be taken seriously by manga fans invested in more serialized storytelling. So it is a shame that this movie isn't licensed and officially localized. Tomohiro Harafuchi, the director of Mizuki Productions, said in an interview at the Annecy Festival that he hoped that screening GeNazo there would “inspire the international audience to discover these universes” since Kitaro is less well known outside of Japan. Especially since it stands out as fairly unique work among the other Kitaro movies, series, and other related media.

At this point, you might be wondering what GeNazo is actually about and what my pitch is for watching it besides Hot Anime Guy.

The version that's short and to the point: A nice horror mystery with some decent fujobait and anti-nationalist themes.

The version with a premise like you're reading the back of a DVD case: Mizuki, a salaryman working for a blood bank during Japan’s postwar era, is tasked with visiting a remote village. He hopes to curry favor with a powerful family whose patriarch has just died, causing a power struggle, as well as find out the secret of the miracle drug that they manufacture. Along the way, he meets a mysterious man searching for his missing wife. Violent, strange deaths begin occurring however, and Mizuki soon finds himself wrapped up in a disturbing conspiracy he never anticipated. Find out the twisted origins of one of Japan’s most beloved characters…

My actual, extremely condensed opinion: A fun 3/5 stars movie that I'm kind of ambivalent about.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” you may be wondering, “You wrote all of this about a movie you rated 3/5 on Letterboxd?” The answer is “yes” and I wish I had a better one.

That'll be for another post though, since I can't discuss it without really getting into spoilers.

Note [possible spoilers]: Content warnings for GeNazo include gore, war trauma flashbacks, non-graphic and referenced incestuous CSA, alcoholism, child death.

[be-side-my-self]

First watch of Season 4 of Only Murders In The Building (E4)

Rewatch of ONLY Murders In The Building to prepare for season 4:

<Part I> // <Part II> // <Part III> // <Part IIII> // <Part V> // <Part VI> // <Part VII> // <Part VIII>

<S4 E1> // <S4 E2> // <S4 E3>

This is no rewatch but my new posts can also easily be blocked because I'll continue to use #OMITBRewatch as a tag. I'll also tag #OMITBS4. While quoting, I use M, O, C for the main characters.

S4 E4

Again we start with a whistling sound

And the intro is like a horror movie

Who was the speaker? Is that a british accent?

I'm one of those lucky people that only have to get up at 07:30 on a workday.

Also Oliver is amazing, "Give me 10 minutes" and he instantly starts to snore. Well, old people need their sleep.

Did Mabel walk over in her sleeping clothes? Around the Arconia? Along the street? How is the West Tower connected???

So... cowboys, whistling, Portugal...

Oliver is spiraling.

O: "No, that is a one-way ticket to Cuck City, population: Putnam!"

Cuncussions is probably a bar.

It's a stuntman bar.

Oh! Trivia nights on thursdays! :D

O: "Susie, brightness down!" I am glad they didn't go "Siri, brightness down!" and everyone who watched it on their ipad would suddenly have a darker screen XD

Holy shit that bed is crazy and Howard is crazy too. I wonder what he is running away from? What is going on with Jonathan?

Aw, Howard :(

M: "Have you ever been to Hell's Kitchen?" C: "Yeah I have been eaten at Olivers." I love Mabels expression.

A fake IG account... with a complete backstory.

Who gave Oliver such a big ipad anyway? That is like 2k.

Mabel is dying a thousand deaths

... those stuntpeople are great.

Oh and it's an irish accent. Thank you subtitles!

Glen: "Or I was, till you fecker rubbed him out. " O: "Who feckers? Us feckers?" Glen: "All yas feckin' fecker took him from me!

Cheers! I'll drink to that.

That doll of a man?

Glen went crazy. ...

the CoBro poster in the background!

Glen is batshit but I like him.

... PLEASE HOWARD! That is obviously fake! There is no information on that flyer! What the fuck?? Don't get yourself in danger, Howard! Fame is not worth your life!

.... It was a real flyer. ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!

Josh Gad is playing Howard. Okay, I can see it.

Did the Brother sister just adopt Howard as a project?

Apparently they did.

Charles is getting cracked.

And a lot of guilt is within him.

... Hopefully we finally get some answers from the Westies.

Okay... it's about rent... let me go back to season one: “No one wants a murder podcast about real estate!”

Also the daughter having the hots for Rudy makes sense.

... what is this? Right kind of weirdo, wrong kind of weirdo... that is weird. Maybe even suspicious... not that they killed Sazz but they are still suspicious.

So, how many drinks does Charles has to lie on the pool table?

... omg they brake bottles on his head XDDD

Oh shit that was a real bottle and not sugar glass.

It's a real bar fight.

Glen: "Just like Sazz would have wanted."

Aw, a trampolin park :)

"The Sazz Pataki Impact Academy In Paradise, NJ -> 12 beautiful acres of jumping -> 36 1-2-person trampolines -> 12 family/group trampolines -> Food & games - fun for all ages! (owned & operated by a pro stunt person)

Bev is crazy... and that is probably not a real gun.

[damnslippyplanet]

Slippy Watches: Only Friends, Episode 1

Okay SO. A friend is feeling poorly and not able to fully do subtitles right now, and I was like, I am not local to you, I cannot bring you casseroles and pet your hair, but I can and will write you a recap of Only Friends Episode 1, because sometimes that’s friendship.  SO.  Only Friends!  I love mess.  Here we go. It's been years since I did a Slippy Watches, so let's see how this goes.

Most of our key players as outlined by a voiceover in the beginning assigning them each roles at a drunk night out are:

Mew, the designated table-holder who keeps other people from taking over the table while his friends are all off dancing and hooking up.  

Cheum, The Girl, also the designated dancer who just wants to get ONE more dance in before they call it a night.  Cheum needs more backstory.  Let’s hope she’s queer.  Girlfriend rights for Cheum!

Sand, the singer/guitarist for the bar band.  Sand is played by First and so I love him with all my heart and nothing he does could ever be a crime.

Ray, who I don’t think we actually learn until later is called that but I don’t care, who is The Drunkard in our montage.  Because he is played by Khaotung he is unfairly beautiful even with his head in a toilet.  It’s rude.

Top, because sometimes Thai BL just shrugs and gives people the names they deserve, who we don’t learn much about at this point except that he’s a hot guy who knows his way around a cheesy-smooth pickup line

Boston, The Hunter, who is at the time of our story cuddled up in a narrow hallway trying to talk his way into a threesome.

Yo, the owner of the YOLO bar where these folks apparently spend much of their time.  Yo wants everyone to have fun, get drunk, and get laid.  We love Yo, i think.

In a tidy little montage of Mew attempting to haul his assorted drunk and horny friends out of the bar we learn several things:

They are at a singles(-ish) event where various wristband colors indicate what you’re looking for and who can try to hit on you, long live hanky code in spirit if not practice

Ray is a pretty but also fighty drunk, Sand is trying to do his damn job and would just like to take a piss in peace and is not above threatening to pee on Sand’s head if he won’t get it out of the damn way, and Mew is fairly well-practiced at dragging Ray out of stupid drunk-fights he’s picked.  I assume by the time I have posted this for you, friend, there will be at least five piss-kink fics on AO3 about Sand/Ray.  Long live fandom. <3 <3 <3

Mew does not know what to do with a cute boy he has accidentally stumbled into, but Top knows exactly what to do with him so that’s fine, except for how Ray is giving Mew the disgruntled-crush eyes of I Can’t Believe You’re Letting This Guy Flirt With You Right In Front Of My Drunk Salad.  Ray drags Mew away.  Again: I love mess.

Boston would absolutely have talked himself into that threesome if Cheum hadn’t come to drag him away, RIP, Boston’s dick.  Also his phone, which gets its screen cracked when Cheum causes him to drop it.

*******

And then we are at school, where apparently Cheum, Boston, Ray, and Mew are all in business class and doing some sort of final graduation project involving creating a business plan for a hostel.  Ray’s rich dad has just sort of given them a spare house he has lying around to use for their project, which seems exceedingly normal.

Their teacher: “This is awfully ambitious given that you are four messy queer college students and also Ray might literally be asleep on his feet right now, are you sure you don’t want to rethink this?  You could literally just write me the expected report about an imaginary business plan, you don’t have to *actually start and run a hostel*.”

Students: “Nah, it will be fine, what could go wrong?”

Me, who has seen narrative foreshadowing before: *cackles*

If they’re gonna build an actual business, though, they need a designer to help them renovate their free building.  Luckily, Boston knows a guy.  Stick a pin in that, it will be relevant.

*******

But first: Boston needs to get his phone fixed.  So he slides into a phone repair place being staffed by Mark Pakin. I know his name is Nick but he’s just Mark Pakin in my heart.  There’s a bunch of flirting about who’s the nong-est of the two of them, and how oh no, Mark Pakin can’t fix the phone right on the spot, so Boston’s gonna have to leave it and come back to make fuck-eyes at Mark Pakin another day.

It’s important to know that Mark Pakin’s shirt says SVSS on the collar, and I’m sure that’s a designer, but if I want to believe that Mark Pakin is a Bingqiu shipper, you can’t stop me.  

*******

So now we are back at the bar for trivia night and I have some real questions about the nature of the trivia, like, is “what was the first hotel in Thailand” a normal thing to know?  IDK, maybe.  The important things to note here are that Mew isn’t drinking so Ray cheerfully drinks all the shots Mew wins for getting questions right, which will no doubt end well.  And that Top shows up like a heat-seeking missile to see if his pickup line impressed Mew the other day, answers the hotel trivia question, and slides on into the booth to help them rock trivia night.  Ray: Not happy.  Still drinking. 

HEY GUESS WHAT, Top is the designer Boston knows who can help them all with their unnecessarily complicated hostel project.  Love that for Top, Mew, and me.  I’m not sure if it’s an academic integrity issue but that seems like too complicated a question for bar trivia night.

Ray does not love it. Ray gets pissy and Mew tries to cut him off and get him a ride home, but Ray fucks off crankily.  I think all his friends lose a point here for letting him leave that drunk, but maybe they think he’s just going to stick his head in the toilet again and will be back. Unclear.

Meanwhile, Top and Boston head over to the bar for a little confab about whether Top should try to fuck Mew, while Cheum and Mew stay at the table for a parallel confab about whether Mew should try to fuck Top.  The answer is yes, everyone should try to fuck everyone.  Boston isn’t so sure the fucking thing is going to work out - he’s pretty sure Mew would like to go home early, drink milk, read a book, and put on some easy listening music.  Which sounds like a banger of an evening to me, and also to Top, who is bored of easy bar hook-ups and thinks it might actually be fun to fuck to easy listening for a change.  He could learn to like milk!  But Boston is being weird about this, for reasons we will find out later.  I love mess.

*******

So while Top goes off to see if Mew wants to re-enact the “Johnny teaches Baby to dance sexy after she carries a watermelon” scene on the dance floor, Boston stands around waving an I Am Down To Fuck A Rando sign.  (Figuratively.  Sort of.)  With his sign he catches my boy Drake Laedeke, who I don’t think even gets a name here, he just showed up for a cameo as One Night Stand Guy who sidles up to Boston wearing the worst shirt in the world and still manages to pick him up.  Hi, Drake!  

Meanwhile: Sand is out in the parking lot in a great leather jacket, getting ready to take off on his motorcycle, but whoops, he has parked next to Ray’s fancy car, which currently has Ray sort of half in it.  Ray has managed to get himself even more trashed and *absolutely* should not drive anywhere.  And he has also managed to run down his phone battery, so Sand’s disgruntled attempts to get the drunk dipshit to call his friends for help don’t go well either.

Ray: I mean, YOU could drive me home, hot bar singer guy

Sand:  Or you could take a nap in your back seat and drive home later, worst person in the world who I am definitely not going to end up in love with during the course of this show

Ray: OR I could pout at you until you drive me home, also I am going to give you my street name but not my house number before I pass out, this will in no way be a problem.

Sand: *folds like a cheap card table, hauls Ray to the passenger seat and buckles him in because Thai BL never met a seat buckle it couldn’t eroticize, grumbles about how much he’s going to charge Ray for being his personal taxi service, and drives away in his car, leaving his poor motorcycle behind.  

*******

Oh my god, that was all the FIRST SEGMENT.  On the plus side the remaining three combined are the length of this one, so we’re halfway through.  No one has actually fucked yet!  We’re gonna make up for it, though, hang in there.

*******

Now we are in Mew’s apartment, which Top has talked his way into with a line about needing a glass of water for a headache.  They manage two minutes of bland chitchat about the decor and the water before Top is like, okay, I recognize that you’re the virgin cinnamon roll but just to check in, you DO realize the water thing was a line, right? Also can I take your glasses off?

Mew does realize it was a line and he is down for some making out which turns into some “stripping down to our boxers in the kitchen, clambering onto the countertop together, and letting Top grope him and lick his chest extensively.”  Good for them.  Good for them! 

But I do not think Mew’s first penetrative sexual experience should happen on his countertop, and fortunately for me he agrees, calling a halt to the proceedings and offering Top some ice cream instead because he doesn't actually feel like he knows the guy well enough yet to fuck him.  But he’s very pink and fetching without his glasses as he makes the ice cream offer. 

I have decided to accept Mew into my heart and I would have had to yell at Top if he decided to be a jerk about it, but fortunately Top is kind of into the novelty of someone who actually wants to get to know him before jumping straight to the kitchen hookup.  So this honestly goes much better than it could have, good for both of them for navigating an awkward moment gracefully.

*******

AND NOW, everyone spirals out into the inevitable outcomes of their evenings:

Sand has given up on finding Ray’s house and taken him back to Sand’s, where Ray promptly resumes sticking his head down a toilet and puking.  I hate puke scenes so I’m forwarding here but it’s important to know that Sand does pat Ray’s back while he empties his entire soul out through his mouth.  And then they collapse onto the floor together and Ray puts his head on Sand’s shoulder and Sand stares off into space for a while like, this is my life, these are my choices, why is the most beautiful awful man in the world in my bathroom right now.

Boston and Drake are back at Drake’s, where they strip out of their terrible shirts, vault into bed, and Boston proceeds to fold Drake in half and rail the lights out of him.  Bless.  Thank you for your service, Drake.

This is hilariously intercut with Mark Pakin, who has taken Boston’s phone home with him so that he can jerk off to Boston’s saucy selfies.  Aw, buddy.  I mean, don’t do that, but also the montage is funny enough that I’m going to overlook all of my opinions about why you should clear anything sensitive off your phone BEFORE leaving it with the phone store rando

Mew and Top have put their shirts back on but not their pants, and are handfeeding each other ice cream in the kitchen while Mew explains very reasonably that he knows himself well and knows that if he has sex with Top he’s gonna get obsessed with him.  Study his instagram, listen to sad music and wallow if they can’t be boyfriends, etc.  And that seems like no fun, so isn’t it better to just eat ice cream?  Top is incredibly charmed. *I* am incredibly charmed.  They agree to have a sleepover and just cuddle, and proceed to do just that.  

*********

Ray wakes up the next day hungover on Sand’s couch.  He has somehow ended up in a shirt reading POOR BOY in huge letters and I am, once again, cackling.  Thai BL shirts are my favorite thing.  How pissy was Sand when he picked that out.  How much did he have to bully Ray into wearing it. Someone write me the missing scene immediately.

So Ray spends a few minutes taking stock of his surroundings in a way that strongly suggests that “waking up blacked out in an unfamiliar place and doing a quick scan of where his stuff is and whether he’s in any danger is not an unfamiliar experience for him” and, oh. Oof.

Sand wanders out into the living area still pulling his shirt on, and Ray starts to get his bearings and to slip into more jokey “oh, it’s YOU.  YOU didn’t have to get me drunk if you wanted to fuck me, ha ha ha, so, uh, DID we fuck, and was it, uh, consensual, or did you like roofie me?” mode.  Awkward. Very awkward.  And Sand isn’t finding the joke funny, so Ray shifts gears into “Where the hell is my stuff anyway, did you rob me?” mode.

It all ends badly with Ray shoved out the door with his stuff in his arms.  Which, fine, but he’s gonna have to return the Poor Boy shirt eventually.  Anyway we all know I love an enemies-to-lovers arc so please keep sniping at each other for another episode or two, boys.

*******

Meanwhile, Mew and Top have just…deciding to keep having a cute date on into the next day, I guess?  They’ve gone to the bookstore, where Mew is explaining how much better it is to read about love than to be IN love with all the mess that entails.  Top is like, counterpoint, books are great but there are some things books can’t give you, like emotional intimacy and also blowjobs.  Point to Top, there.

But he doesn’t get to press his point because that’s when Ray calls from his car (still wearing the Poor Boy shirt) to complain about his bad night.  And then Ray gets pissy when he finds out Mew is STILL with Top the next DAY, and hangs up, and then his seat belt gets stuck.  Because you can’t eroticize a seatbelt by yourself.  Poor Ray, everything is the worst.

*******

Boston goes back to get his phone from Mark Pakin, who apparently did fix it at some point in between jerking off to it.   Mark has also a) given Boston the People I’m Horny About discount, and b) left his own saucy pictures on Boston’s phone.  Again: the infosec is terrible, but I love the moxie.

Boston: WHOOPS my phone somehow broke again right now while I was looking at this hot picture of you, I need you to fix it immediately.

Mark: Store’s closed for business right now, i gotta go bang Boston behind the display of screen protectors.  I will turn off the lights but I will NOT lock the door.  

And then they jerk each other off about it.  Sorry, pal, I really wanted to make some kind of phone sex pun here but I just can’t think of one tonight.

*******

And now: a school project montage.  Top has come to class to bring Mew notebooks for some reason?  He’s a fully grown adult who is not in school with them, correct?  Let’s not think about it too hard.  Maybe they brought him for show and tell.  Anyway, a week passes in montage while they work on redecorating Ray’s dad’s building into a hostel.  Both Ray and Boston are really annoyed about all the MewTop flirting going on.  

Do we think Ray and Boston are going to have a little proxy-fuck about it at some point?  I think that would be nice because, again, I love mess.

And then the week is over and it’s time to go to the bar again, where Cheum is heartily on Team MewTop and thinks they should fuck before covid or radioactive cesium kills everyone.  Oddly nihilistic, Cheum, but you’re not wrong.  Ray thinks maybe Top’s a secret asshole.  Mew is like, hey, I’m a grownup, I haven’t slept with him yet but I might if I feel right about it, and I can make my own decisions, everyone please care less about my dick.

Honestly, Mew is way too well adjusted and sensible for this friend group.  Is he going to melt down spectacularly at some point?

*******

In a scene that is a gift for me personally, Ray goes outside to find Sand apologizes for accusing him of being a thief and possibly maybe just a little bit rapey, thanks him for saving his life, and bums a light for a cigarette off him while standing around in just the *most* submissive and breedable posture about it?

Sorry, youths who were young enough to have missed the years when smoking was sexy, but *I* still remember the intense frisson of having your cigarette lit for you, and so for me personally this is actually the sexiest thing that happens in this episode.  I feel like I need a cigarette about it but I do not smoke anymore so I’m just gonna gnaw on my fist for a while. Fuck.  It’s so good.  I’m going to make this scene my entire personality now, sorry.

*******

Apparently the show is still happening even though all I care about now is Ray and Sand, so:

Boston and Top head off to the bathroom to piss in adjoining urinals while Boston eyes Top’s dick intensely and is like, man, are you SURE you actually want to bother with Mew?  I’m RIGHT here and super willing to fuck again - which is how we learn they’ve fucked in the past - and I’m a much surer thing.

But Top wants to *date* Mew, which is the most horrifying thing he could have said to Boston.  Apparently they’ve talked about this before and Top has a “one and done” rule for Boston, which Boston is not pleased about. Boston, buddy, the dick cannot have been so good that you need to do this somewhat embarrassing level of throwing yourself at the guy at the urinals.  

Anyway the gist is: Boston’s kinda trying to undermine the MewTop thing, but Top has decided he wants to be Mew’s boyfriend.

So just to hammer the point home, Top immediately goes out to the bar stage and takes over the microphone from Sand and makes a big public thing out of asking Mew to go steady.  AUGH, public relationship announcements are my kryptonite, I hate them, make it go AWAY.

But Mew’s into it, and Yo is delighted with the drama in her bar, and Cheum is living her MewTop shipper dreams, and Ray and Boston are making sour faces, and Sand just wants his microphone back.

Somewhere, Mark Pakin is presumably jerking it about whatever he unethically downloaded off Boston’s phone.  I hope he gets to meet the rest of the gang at some point.

[eyessocurious38]

Spider-Man ATSV Thoughts (spoilers)

Okay soooo

I watched Across the Spider Verse a second time (because it’s a beautiful artistic masterpiece and I am Miguel trash honestly. )

There were so many things I wanted to analyze and look at for a theory I’m planning to post but damn every scene has sooooo much detail and we’re too fast, my brain couldn’t process fast enough lol.

At least from what I can recollect and some thoughts I had:

1. I’m definitely looking forward to analyzing that entire Gwen opening when I have the power to use the pause button. There is so MANY scenes that are layered with details (a lot of foreshadowing scenes that will take place in the film and some characters like Spot, Hobie, our queen Gwen, and Mr. O’Hater appear too.). The one that caught my eye was the Miguel (of course) part which that was interesting if it was intentional. It showed what looked like him watching Uncle Aaron’s death and that itself seems to foreshadow?? His apathy towards the Spider-Man canon deaths of Uncle Bens. And since the dude has those computers that can basically spy on every universe (or past events that have occurred and not live or current ones) it makes sense. But like how do they do that? I hope they explain more how they were able to do all this tech and stuff) I’m gonna watch it one more time with another friend next week I hope to get more details again. Otherwise imma wait until then.

2. I did noticed the different spider folks in the spider society scenes so that was cools. Didn’t have to strain my eyes too much.

3. I could hear things that I didn’t hear before when I first watched the movie. Lol. But maybe I just need subtitles.

4. Honestly idk where this came from, but now I’m kinda seeing how reckless it is for the spider parents, Jessica and Peter B, to still be doing spiderman stuff with no children safety in mind (pregnant or bringing their kid along, plot armoire I guess but stilll). Weird this feeling is coming up after the second viewing, I guess I’m just anxious if something will happen to either character(s) in the next film. They have a lot to lose and for them to risk their kids like that is kinda irresponsible imo.

5. Babygirl Miguel please your hot and brooding but stop bullying miles. They both have good points, Miguel I get he’s tryna see the bigger picture of things and is tryna redeem himself from the Shit show he caused for his variants dimension, but he’s still very traumatized and is acting like a victim of circumstance and hot tempered jerk like bro that’s a kid ur tryna fight which I hope in the next film they can go more into details, get this man a therapy appointment, maybe prove that his canon model isn’t always accurate, and reconcile. Miles I get he can save his father now that he knows and being Spider-Man means you should try to help and not accept things the way they are. This is very layered honestly it can also apply for lots of themes they express too in this film (generational trauma comes to mind). But I’m worried since they do keep showing the whole “you can’t save everyone as Spider-Man” thing and Miles wants everything, he thinks he can do it. (In the beginning of the film they show this with Miles trying to have a normal life and being Spider-Man, tho he struggles to keep a balance to it. And he’s only a couple years in, he’s still too young but I understand where his heart is at). So maybe miles isn’t gonna be entirely in the right either. But hopefully this will be expanded on more in the next film. Maybe both characters will have a slight change in their current views and see why the other is also valid.

6. Spot’s voice is so cute? Or just funny and light hearted? Almost makes me feel bad for the guy. and I could see more stuff in his flashbacks that I couldn’t recognize on the first watching because I couldn’t process what I saw. But cools. I have a bigger theory about him and his powers and how it could effect the canon model. But my brain is hella tired rn to go into it. Basically if his powers could somehow change the canon model or make divergences that won’t cause calamity’s or could cause more. But another day for that.

7. U know I wonder if Earth 42’s Rio Morales noticed that our Miles wasn’t her son right away? Like did she think her kid was going a lil crazy that night or what? Anyways another thought came to mind was Miguel’s previous situation, like if his variant family knew that he wasn’t theirs based off how he acted or habits.

8. I’m curious what they’re gonna do for part 2. How’s Earth 42 Miles and Aaron gonna act with our miles? I have a feeling they could just make him the next film’s other villain, but maybe he could have a change of heart and be Spider-Man even without the traditional powers. I guess that’s gonna depend on how he reacts, if he finds out that he was supposed to be Spider-Man but our miles took that from him (unintentionally). But he acted so careless when miles was saying our dad but to him it wasn’t HIS dad. So he might still be bad guy, ughhhhhhh I don’t wanna waittttt. I need answersss

Anyways aside from that, new movie is visually stunning, full of great layered moments, music is nice, Indian Spider-Man is my fave character and Miguel only for selfish reasons Gwen’s world is honestly the best looking, Gwen is Trans 🏳️‍⚧️, and more. Really I can’t wait for the next film!

Now onto those theory drafts.

[hasmephydoneanythingwrong]

I need to do better justice to that Pretender Meph post. Man, it has been one hot second. Presenting,

Bruce's Big Pretender Meph Essay

Just a fair warning that this essay will be less serious than the last one, I wanted to get sillay with it.

Content warning for repetition and themes of identity under the cut.

So, let’s start with the obvious question: what is a Pretender?

According to the Type-Moon wiki, every Class has, so to speak, a subtitle. Caster is “Magus and Heroic Spirit of Spells and Sorcery,” Rider is “Mounted Knight and Heroic Spirit of the Mount,” Moon Cancer is “the Irregular Who Threatens the World of the Moon,” yada yada yada yada yada. Well, according to Nasu, the Pretender “subtitle” is “One Who Wears a Role.”

Pretender-class Heroic Spirits are people who gained fame under a false alias. Vigilantes like Zorro do not count. To be a Pretender, you can’t let people know that you’re not who they think you are.

Enter the scrimblo. The scroingle. The scrunkly mippy. Have you ever wondered why someone who introduces themself as The Devil™, Ya Know, From Da Theater (/ref) isn’t up there with the game’s Divine Spirits in terms of strength?

Because we’re not looking at the devil.

Who would’ve thunk?? Certainly no one at launch! Do we know anything about Meph underneath that hot, hot demon persona? No!

According to Holmes, Pretenders “deceiv[e] and mislead… others to do great deeds.” I have said it before with my Christmas Meph idea, but Mephistopheles’ major character concept is that of someone who props themself up as the ultimate evil for humanity to overcome!

In addition, Holmes describes Pretenders as “[those] who deceives even the soul until more power and greater achievements than the real thing remain.” Given that Heroic Spirits are essentially familiars born of souls long since passed, what else could you call the effects of Innocent Monster? Check out that screenshot again. “Past and existence twisted,” huh? Why🙃does that 🙃sound🙃so🙃familiar??🙃🙃🙃

“But Bruce, there’s no indication that was intentional in-universe!” I will admit, that’s a good point! However! [I place a brochure in front of you.]

If you would kindly flip to the “Speech Examples” section, there is one part in particular that simply cannot be ignored!

“Make the name of Mephistopheles my True Name!”

(Thank you to u/Kinalvin for translating!)

This line keeps me up at night. It’s the phrasing, the implication that Mephisto is bothered by the whole thing. In addition! Consider this line from the “Historical/Character Image” section:

“I… was born to be a Servant.”

A regular homunculus wouldn’t be noteworthy or ancient enough to be a Heroic Spirit, but the devil?? What better match could there be?

And just for fun, someone pointed this out before (unfortunately, I can’t find the post), but

Horns. ¯\_😉_/¯

And they are verrrrry similarly shaped.

[senso1954]

is die konsequenz (the gay german movie) good? i saw you posting screens and i have it in my watchlist cause one of the guys in it is unbelievably hot but i can’t really find it anywhere :(

it's like not lifechanging or anything but i thought it was definitely worth watching for like political german tv movie reasons and because jürgen prochnow is unbelievably hot... i'm pretty sure i downloaded it from fichier via movieparadise.org, you need a free account for both which is maybe annoying if you never want to use them again but i think it's a useful website. i can explain more if you need, but it's not complicated. it also seems to be on youtube with english subtitles in terrible quality seperated into 8 parts? maybe that is enough for your purposes

[rainbowsky]

Hi RBS,

Hope you are enjoying the nice long weekend.

I wanted to ask about the time the host of happy camp weijia made a shocked face when GG was showing the thumbs up sign .

Do we know what triggered that reaction? I have seen a lot of videos which say that DD made the same sign and then GG reciprocated. I don’t really believe a simple gesture like that would result in that shocked face. Could you please share your opinion.

Thanks .

Hi Choko! I am enjoying the weekend, thanks! Hope you are as well! 😊

Fake, fan fiction, CPN.

The only person who knows for sure why Li Weijia made that face is Li Weijia. All the video clips and posts that BXG make about it are just CPN/speculation. I have my own opinion on it, which I'll outline here. Of course, it's just my opinion. Everyone is free to come up with their own interpretation.

@chokolateaddictz is referring to the interview segment with GG, after his performance at Hunan TV's 'Double Eleven' event November 10, 2019 (Double Eleven is a big singles day/shopping day in China). Subtitled clip here.

A lot of BXG believe that Li Weijia made that face in reaction to GG's thumb's up gesture, and to DD returning that gesture from his seat in the audience. Fancam footage of DD laughing and doing a thumbs up in the audience is often cut into the video footage at a key point to make it appear like he did that in response to GG.

Here are some reasons I am skeptical of the popular BXG interpretation of this:

This candy is never shown as just a straight play-through of the event. It's always heavily edited and with a lot of added commentary. I'm always going to find that degree of editing and commentary very sus, but especially when a lot of things are framed to have happened in such a short time.

The shocked face happens simultaneous to - and might even begin before - GG's thumbs up, so it's hard for me to take it as a reaction to GG's gesture (or DD's supposed reaction to GG's gesture).

I doubt he would be shocked by GG and DD's interactions by that point (more on this below).

🚧 Caution: 🤡🚙 crossing! 🚧

I don't think GG and DD were closeted at Hunan at that time, so I doubt their behavior would have surprised any of the hosts - not even Li Weijia.

This Double Eleven event happened months after GG and DD appeared together on DDU. My CPN is that around that time, or maybe shortly after, DD and GG likely came out to Hunan staff about their relationship, or at least their relationship was outed to the staff around that time. It just makes sense to me, because at that point DD's role on DDU transformed from 'single, available guy' to 'married little brother we like to tease'.

I talked about that in the past (I wish I could find that post, sadly Tumblr is an abyss where old posts go, never to be seen again - EDIT found it), but I think it's highly unlikely that such a dramatic shift would occur in how DD is framed on the show - considering that a large portion of it is likely scripted - without the production team being aware of (and buying into) that shift.

They're the ones who plan the episodes, write the bits, etc. so, I think it's unlikely that it would have only been the DDU brothers who DD was out to. Considering how many segments where DD would be framed as the hot single guy, where they'd try to pair him off with women, etc. DDU aired in the past, if the production team is not able to plan segments like that anymore, they'd need to know.

Or, at the very least, the modification of the production team's behavior would have had to come from somewhere, and to me it only follows that they knew about GG and DD.

As a high profile, well-connected figure at Hunan at the time, it seems to me likely that if some shift came about then, Li Weijia would have likely heard about it. I think the idea that he didn't know about GG and DD by then strains credibility.

The famous GGDD Happy Camp episode happened months before this event, but after the airing of GG and DD together on DDU. If GG and DD were that obvious during the Happy Camp episode, I can only imagine how they were behind the scenes. How could anything GG and DD do shock this man? 😅

And he obviously would have been backstage with them at this Double Elevens event, interacting with the DDU brothers, GG and DD, and would have seen them together then too.

But that is just my CPN, I have no proof of any of it.

What do I think he was reacting to, then?

Well, it looks to me like he was probably hamming it up with the audience about the idea that GG might have a significant other. He is a very energetic showman who knows how to work an audience. Given the nature of the event, he could have just been trying to get fans worked up about the idea that GG might not be single (completely without any intended reference to DD).

If you watch the fancam footage, when DLS asks the question, Li Weijia immediately responds with an exaggerated scandalized look, before GG even does his hand gesture. It's totally his shtick to do this kind of thing. Playing it up, jokingly acting like he's hearing some hint of salacious gossip. That is how I interpret it.

Of course, like I said earlier, only Li Wiejia knows for sure what he was doing and why, and of course there are other possibilities. He could have been reacting to one of the many BJYX light banners that were there, or he could have been reacting to something else we have no information on. It's impossible to say. But this is my take on it.

Having said that, could it be true - as some turtles claim - that DD made a thumbs up gesture in response to GG's gesture, from where he was seated in the host area?

Possibly, but I've never seen any video footage that can confirm it. I've never seen fancam footage that captures both GG and DD in the same frame at the same time, to confirm the timing of and relationship between GG's gesture and DD's. And since I've seen a lot of misleadingly edited videos before I think it would be foolish for me to just take this heavily edited candy at face value.

My conclusion is that it is very likely that Li Weijia was just hamming it up with that shocked face, but that doesn't mean that DD didn't also do that thumbs up gesture to GG. Both could be true. I just haven't seen footage that would conclusively convince me of the latter part of the story.

This is just my CPN. Other people can (and do) see it differently.

[peakywitch]

BITCH, I AM ALIVE AND BACK but i'm mentally unwell lol

Hello everyone, remember me? The michael slut, i mean, THE michael slut? yes, i am alive. well, no, i just JUST finished peaky (literally, 5 minutes ago) and i've been writting down my thoughts from various scenes. I will start to post again, and EVERYTHING that contains a spoiler will be in the TW! so, without further ado, here is my hot take on scenes and what they made me feel, think, understand and love. Some, are just thots, and some thoughts are Oxford-Harvard-Yale entrance exam worthy. Yes, i believe i am that good sometimes.

Please, ignore the spanish subtitles!

ps: i'm mentally unwell because of the show, i'm doing just fine

anyway, TW: SEASON 6 SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Honestly, this first scene… I love it. We all know I am a sucker for Michael, and I love him very very much. The whole dead nature and the whole gothic style the show has embraced is something unexpected, yet it makes so much sense they went this way and the show developed like this. I remember Tommy using blue shirts, Grace’s pinks, and some colour here and there.

This scene, with Tom Hardy, is ep2: “the last act for my opera”, the jazz hands, the hip thing he did… Alfie has lost the plot. No thoughts, only a small cat with cute eyes in his mind. He looks as if his cancer was getting better, we remember he had that awful pink thing, but I don’t know if it’s because what they did to save him because of the shot he got from Tommy. I love how much and yet so less we know about the characters, that, I believe, is the whole Tommy effect: you know who he is, how he looks like, but you NEVER know what’s happening with him, to him, because of him. Anyway, back to Alfie: I’m extremely happy he’s back on track, trying to tear down some north American empire. Also reminds me of "listen here, sweetie".

Okay, this scene with Jack Nelson. The shot is absolutely majestic. It tastes exquisite, like actually tastes. It also makes me feel unsettled. At first, I thought it was Tommy but turned out to be Jack. I don’t have much to say, but I’ll try to explain the only thing it makes me feel: have you seen that bride’s corpse movie? Where the little dude has a knife on his stomach and when he drinks the beer, it leaves through his stomach because he has a hole? This shot reminds me EXACTLY of that. Am I insane? Probably. But it leaves me satisfied yet depressed like OH RIGHT. On to the next thing about this shot, this church reminded me a lot of the church where Tommy and Grace got married.

“I just read pornography and politics.” She feels like a pick me type of girl, almost fake. Like, she’s trying to be this male fantasy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m liking this character, bold and disrespectful, yet classy and snake-y type of girl, she’s well written, and she looks like she hides things, I’m loving it. Her and Tommy have a past, I am CERTAIN (I’m writing this while I have to finish ep 5 and 6, so we’ll see if I was right). Everything she does feels calculated and I thrive for that, she also makes me think she’s Tommy Shelby but as a woman, the Egyptian jar and all… she’s a smart girlie, and we stan forever a smart girlie.

Okay, WE GOT THE WALK. I like how Arthur is looking down, makes me think as if he was ashamed to be like he was in the old times, but then I’m like “maybe he’s ashamed of what everyone knows about him?” addiction is something that people feel a lot of shame about… But what if this is a small pep talk he’s giving himself? Btw, the tallest one is Daryl aka Isaiah and OH MY LORD !! WHAT !! give this guy more screen time because I fell quick, hard, and forever, good lord. Also, talking about Isaiah, I love how they didn’t make him just a “party animal” and they gave him a proper job, a girlie… This is what we needed for him.

I WILL NEVER SHUT UP ABOUT THIS FUCKING SCENE LIKE WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKK.

Okay: we ALL knew ruby was going to die, it was clear as day. But, this scene and the lightning. The use of lights is a thing of never-ending possibilities. And they KNOW this (we know that) and use it to the maximum extent -we also know this, but it HAS to be admired. In this particular second, Lizzie says something along the lines of “and now they put her with the dead people”, and she’s illuminated with the light of a car. Light à illumination à knowledge. I think that was the phrase that made her have this epiphany, hence the light hitting her (replace the word light with fact, and there you go.) It wasn’t the first time she said it, though. She said “she left, 5:17.” Various times, and explained to tommy how it was, and then she said “and now they put her where dead people are. They put her with the dead.” And lightened her, completely, and then she falls on the ground and starts to cry. And I have never seen such a beautiful yet painful allegory.

Okay, let’s talk about THIS MASTERPIECE.

First, let’s talk about Arthur’s psychosis: “I thought they would be full of blood”. Even though, they are not, they are. Every single brick in that house, was afforded with blood. And everything is stained with blood, Tommy even acknowledged it in that scene where he’s shaking hands and goes “My hands have blood” “Oh, mine too”. So, that blood in the barrel, could not only be his deteriorated mental state, but also his guilt. Maybe, the barrel he was drinking from was already open, and he didn’t want to open another one because opening another barrel would be opening up his bottled trauma, and he would end up hanging himself, or drowning in the wine. (now, change wine for guilt.)

I wholeheartedly believe Arthur will OD in this final season. (HE DIDNT OH MY GOD)

Now, the conversation they had in this scene: Tommy telling him how he knew Arthur wanted Tommy to win, because Arthur has been battling addiction for EVER, the memory he talks about, they were 9 and 12. Arthur allowed Tommy to win, because… maybe he was afraid? Shame and regret are two things VERY present in Arthur, and I think they will end up killing him. Even though he has a strong will power, I don’t believe it to be strong enough. End of ep 4, where he is getting WAY too high… I think by the end of ep 5, he will be dead in an alley.

In the end, when everything is shit, when everything is broken, when everything is a mess and everyone is ready to quit... they still have eachother. Alfie saying "if you want to talk about your feelings go to someone that cares" BULLSHIT ALFIE BULLSHIIIIITTTTT they work SO well together. I love this duo.

It was a funeral. A funeral for the old tommy. The tommy that gave up on everything, the tommy that was, but not during season 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. I'm talking about the master shift that there was in his character in season 6: a cleaner, yet even darker and more toxic Tommy. And, someone else buried him -be it Mosley, the doctor, etc.- and this other person did what he couldn't bring himself to. And this time, he came back from the dead. And, just like he said in s4 "we were dead once, the rest doesn't matter" or something like that, in john's funeral... this time, it DOES matter. And this upcoming movie is going to fuck us into our next life.

[puppypeter]

✨ All fics are complete! ✨

He Loves Me Cause I’m Cute, He Thinks I’m Pretty Funny | 2588 words 📱

He watches it back one more time after it posts, checking for typos in his subtitles and captions, and has to laugh again.

Steve fucking Rogers? His brain thought he could pull Captain America, literal superhero and America’s favorite sweetheart?

“Hello I’m a 35 year old amputee living in New York and I think that I could get Steve Rogers.”

OR

the one where bucky posts a tiktok and steve is utterly smitten.

Summer Slipped Us Underneath Her Tongue | 10712 words 🧳

Bucky is a tour guide who enjoys sharing the rich history and culture of each city they pass through with a bunch of early-20's college students who just want to know the cheapest place to get drunk.

Except for Steve, who asks Bucky for a personal tour around his hometown.

The rest is, as they say, history.

You Make My Heart Skip A Beet | 3853 words 🧑🏼‍🍳

“I made soda bread.” Steve lets out the 6’2” supersoldier equivalent of a squeak. “Oh, I love soda bread,” he says eagerly, rolling forward on the balls of his feet like he does when he gets excited. “My mom used to make it all the time when I was growing up.” The tips of Barnes’s ears turn red, and he mutters something that sounds suspiciously like, “I know.”

Ollie Meets Bagel | 5517 words 🥯

He was a skater boy, Steve said let's get bagels, boy.

Steve wants to start doing this twenty-first century thing properly. He gets help in the form of skateboarding, skateboarders, bagels, and Sam Wilson.

Taxi | 5113 words 🚕

Bucky Barnes was, he hoped, a good taxi driver.

He's so good, he actually tries to return lost property that ends up left in his car and... well. It has some unexpected consequences involving a National Icon.

Enough said.

Leg Day | 12157 words 🏋️‍♂️

“So talk to him,” Sam says.

“I can’t,” Bucky groans. “I can’t, Sam, I. He just.” He fluffs his hair up and stares at Sam, distraught. “I want him to bench press me.”

“Okay, so it’s serious,” Sam interprets. “Got it."

(Or: The one where Sam is Bucky's long-suffering roommate, Bucky is a hot mess of a millennial, and Hot Steve spends far too much time on the Lat Pull-Down machine.)

Love In Aisle Four | 2127 words 🛍️

When Bucky needs to swing by the supermarket after a long, hard day of work, the last thing he expects is to meet a cute grocery clerk named Steve…

Coming Up Easy | 45515 words ✍🏻

“Listen, I was just thinking,” Steve says, his face open, eyebrows raised in a tentatively hopeful expression. “Why don’t you come stay at my place for a while? I’ve got an office that I barely use, and a change of scenery might do you good, right? Help you beat that writer’s block?” With a crooked smile, he adds, “I promise I’m not a serial killer.”

While Bucky would normally crack a joke about how that’s exactly what a serial killer would say, right now, all he can do is blink at Steve in surprise, heart tripping over itself in his chest. Steve wants him to come and stay at his place. In Massachusetts. Just the two of them.

"Oh," Bucky croaks. "I- Wow."

“I mean, no pressure,” Steve says hastily. “Totally fine if you don’t wanna. I just thought I’d offer, in case it might help, y’know?”

“Yeah.” Bucky ignores the little voice in his head that sounds an awful lot Nat and Becca, telling him he’s setting himself up for heartbreak. “I mean, if you’re sure, that would be amazing.”

Anywhere The Wind Blows | 8845 words 👨‍🚒🎖️

After a catastrophic fire that shakes him to his core, Steve Rogers quits his job as a Brooklyn firefighter and relocates to a cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness, wanting quiet and solitude and to maybe never have to speak to another human being ever again. He gets his wish, more or less, until a recently injured Bucky Barnes is discharged from the Army and rents the cabin next door.

The Safer Course | 7918 words | Part 1 of Won’t You Be My Neighbor 🏡

When Steve moves to the suburbs in 2033, he intends to retire from superhero life.

He does not intend to fall in love with his pain-in-the-ass neighbor.

Every Year I Have You | 7064 words | Part 2 of Won’t You Be My Neighbor 🏡

Steve set the bar pretty high, as birthday presents go.

Bucky is determined to outdo him when July 4th comes around.

Beneath The Mistletoe | 21203 words 🎄

Bucky had a bet with his sister that if he didn’t have a boyfriend to bring home for Christmas by the time he was 25, he had to give her $200 and go blonde for a year. But now he's 25, it’s nearing December, and not only is Bucky as single as ever, but he’s also running low on cash. He doesn’t exactly want to bleach his hair, either.

At least Steve is willing to upgrade their relationship from best friends to fake boyfriends.

The Settler | 52203 words 🍞

“What do you want to do?”

Steve pauses and looks at them.

What he wants is to stay with them. He doesn't have any family left, they all died before he even joined the war and became... this. Captain America turned whatever he is now. But Natasha and Sam have become his family over the years. Not just because they're on the run together, fugitives and vigilantes, but way before that too.

He doesn't want to leave that.

But he knows that, realistically, he can't stay with them and they can't stay with him.

So he looks at them with a smile and lies. “I don't know.”

OR; In which Steve retires and finally finds a place to call home.

You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory | 1148 words 🐈

"Alright, Bucky," Steve slows his steps, watches his neighbour stop at the bottom of the next flight of stairs. There's a canvas bag in his hand that Steve didn't notice earlier, cream coloured with the figure of a sleeping, black cat painted on it. "Have a good day."

He thinks Bucky's cheeks pink up a bit right then and there, but Steve can't tell. He's too distracted by his pounding, foolish heart, by the way Bucky smiles bashfully, and ducks his head. The way he seems like he wants to stay.

To Believe In Tomorrow | 3959 words 👨🏻‍🌾

Bucky's mornings at the community garden get a little more interesting when the new guy shows up.

Maybe This Christmas | 24873 words | Part 1 of Maybe ❄️

Bucky’s not going home for Christmas. But it’s fine. He’s spending Christmas alone in his apartment, but it’s cool. He’s not feeling up to seeing his family after his accident anyway, plus he has to work. He’s totally fine with it. But then he runs into Steve, literally, and suddenly his Christmas isn’t looking so empty after all.

-----

Hurrying was a bad idea. Bucky’s foot hits a patch of ice and slides out from under him in what would have been a comical cartoon banana-peel-like trip, if it wasn’t happening to him, and he braces himself to hit the ground. This is going to hurt.

“Fuck,” Bucky screeches, but as he lands on his back, it’s not the cold hard concrete he expected, but a solid mass beneath him. Oh god, Bucky thinks as he realises he smacked into the person behind him and took them down with him.

Maybe This Year (Will Be Better Than Last) | 133868 words | Part 2 of Maybe ❄️

Last year, Bucky Barnes met Steve Rogers. Well actually, he slipped and fell on him. What followed was the best Christmas either of them had ever had. But what happens when Christmas is over and life returns to normal? What happens after the Christmas miracle?

-----

Bucky should have known. He did know. When things seem too good to be true, they usually are. And Steve is the best thing that has happened to him in a long time, possibly ever, so of course it couldn’t last.

Maybe This Time (I Hope I Get The Chance To Say Goodbye) | 34561 words | Part 3 of Maybe ❄️

Steve and Bucky Barnes are happily married. They've made it through some hard times and come out stronger and happier, together. Then Steve gets called on to come out of retirement for the most important mission of his life and everything changes. Everything.

-----

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas…” Steve starts singing along softly, and Bucky chuckles, before leaning his head onto Steve’s shoulder, always happy when he’s in Steve’s arms.

“From now on, our troubles will be miles away…” Bucky joins in.

Dancing round their living room, just as in love as ever, their troubles seem light-years away, if not non-existent.

Sadly, they’re closer than they think.

The Unexpected Gift | 9504 words | Part 1 of When Winter Comes 🐕

Steve Rogers is fine.

After ending a long-term relationship with Sam Wilson, Steve moves back to New York. He's tired and lonely but depressed? No. At least, that's what he thinks.

From the window of his apartment, he watches a dark-haired man and his service dog sitting in the park, wondering what his story is.

The Winter Storm | 2218 words | Part 2 of When Winter Comes 🐕

"If I could give you one thing in life, I would give you the ability you see yourself through my eyes, only then would you realize how special you are to me."

After Bucky and Steve confessed their feelings for each other, life has its own twisted way to challenge the most profound love.

One January Night | 4213 words | Part 3 of When Winter Comes 🐕

Before going back to work, Steve Rogers still has things to learn: 1- Depression is a bitch and the battle against it isn't an easy one. 2- Dating a person with disabilities comes with its share of challenges.

Bucky Barnes Has His Shit Together (And Other Lies He Tells Himself) | 14159 words 🔒

You’d think a guy who owns one of the most successful bakeries in Brooklyn, has a million-dollar smile and that antiquated good ol’ boy charm, blond hair and blue eyes and biceps for days, would know what’s what.

But don’t let that fool you: Steve Rogers is a mess.

Obvious | 917 words ☕

"Oh, I have a prompt! So, it makes me laugh how painfully obvious Steve and Bucky's feelings are to everyone when they're in that pining, slowburn, does-he-doesn't-he phase. But imagine Steve and Bucky working in a coffee shop together and constantly bickering, nudging and playfully flirting with each other. And all the employees and patrons are so invested in their relationship and just want them to kiss already but no one realizes that Steve and Bucky have been married since they got out of HS."

[fandomshatelgbtqpeople]

It’s often hard to find posts that are pro-kink and pro-ace, so I decided to make one.

I was going to start this off with a list of statements that “can and should coexist” but for much the same reason that this post is going to be an essay unto itself, it is too complicated a subject to condense into such a nice pithy format. Recently I have reblogged some posts in favor of the presence of kink at pride. I have not changed on this regard but unfortunately this issue is also used by exclusionists to direct attacks at a-spec people. As such it is often hard to find posts that are pro-kink and pro-ace, so I decided to make one.

The queer community is a massive and diverse group and with that diversity comes conflict. There is no one size fits all solution. What helps one part of the community will not necessarily benefit another. Gay bars are a great place to meet people. They are also loud, crowded, and serve alcohol which makes them difficult for people with sensory over stimulation or substance abuse issues. So people who want these spaces are often accused of being prudes and people who want to include kink at pride are often accused of being deviants. And oddly I can think of a historical figure who has had both of these accusations leveled at him. Cue historical flashback for a Very Special Episode.

Richard Berkowitz was in his own words an S&M Hustler. He was a sex worker and professional Dom. He is Jewish, lives in New York, has a degree in Journalism from Rutgers and called his mom in New Jersey everyday. He is also one of the co-inventors of Safe Sex.

In the early 80s he was diagnosed with GRID. Gay Related Immunodeficiency which would later be called AIDS. He was a patient of Dr Joseph Sonnabend along with another man Michael Callen. Sonnabend was himself a gay man and an immunologist. Sonnabend hypothesized that GRID was spread through sex and was caused by “immune overload.” This was a hypothesis that was not popular in the gay community at large because many felt it validated the homophobic abuse that was constantly flung at the community. Sonnabend was not giften with words and was terrible as a science educator so Berkowitz and Callen teamed up to help him get the word out.

While the 60’s was known for the Free Love movement for straight people the seventies saw the repeal of many anti sodomy laws and it was the decade of free love for gay people. Many saw promiscuity as a part of that liberation. It should also be noted that at the time I am talking about no one knew yet what caused GRID, so the hypothesis that it was caused by promiscuity was viewed as tantamount to blasphemy. I should also note that Dr. Sonnabend was not claiming to be above promiscuity. He himself frequented gay bathhouses where many gay men would meet to have sex. Berkowitz and Callen met through Sonnabend and together worked to help Sonnabend to spread the word. Their first attempt was an article in the New York Native a local gay newspaper titled “We Know Who We Are.” The Native editorial staff insisted on a subtitle, “Two Gay Men Declare War on Promiscuity.”

Berkowitz and Callen were immediately reviled by the gay community of New York. They were accused of being prudes and self hating gay men. But they kept following Dr. Sonnabend and helping him communicate his findings and theories to the populace even if no one would listen to them. The next year was hard of them and journalism work wasn’t paying the bills for Berkowitz. He eventually returned to work as a Dom. However this time he worked with clients who wanted to be Dominated but not penetrated. As time went on he found ways of doing his job that minimized risk for both him and his clients. This led him and Callen to write a pamphlet on sexual health called “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach” In it they explained the basics of Safe Sex that are now taught in Health Classrooms in the US. One of my favorite tips they gave was to love your partner even if it is just for one night. If you love them you won’t want to risk hurting them and you will be more careful.

The fate of different gay venues would continue to be a hot button issue in the community even to this day. There were arguments made about closing gay bars, sex clubs, and bathhouses in the name of public health. And there were arguments made to keep them open because many feared if they closed down they would never open again.  

So what am I getting at here? Well really I just wanted to highlight how the needs of the community can conflict with themselves. And how that conflict has always been part of the community. We need a diversity of spaces in order to embrace the diversity of our community. We need non sexual spaces. We need them for our a-spec siblings and so that I can go on a nice date with a guy and talk in peace and safety without having my ears blown out by a subwoofer. We need loud party spaces. We need places we can dance and grind and flirt with strangers. We need sexual spaces where people who are interested in kink can explore that interest with like minded people.

And finally we need to acknowledge that kink is an integral part of our community. Our community was built by sex workers and we need them. First and foremost they are a part of our community and they are valuable in their own right. But further, for many reasons that are too numerous to name many members of our community will experience their first time with a professional. Many queer people will for numerous reason be sex workers. Their involvement in our movement can help make us resistant to those who would sanitize Pride. It can make our events advertiser unfriendly and help keep corporate greed from monetizing our identities. We have to remember that although our community is becoming more respected, that respectability is not the goal. Liberation is the goal.

The First Pride was Riot.