#no films announced yet but anyway hyped

[dare-g]

Got my pass for the big film fest in October!!

A bit disappointed that it's going to be reduced this year cause they're renovating so it's going to be about 22 films when usually it's more like 32 but the renovations will be a good thing and they did reduce the price to make up for it

Also instead of being in multiple screens it's all going to be in the biggest one only which means no overlapping times so Ill be able to see every film instead of having to pick screenings over others which will be nice

Also two guest already announced Tantoo Cardinal and Graham Greene!

Anyway I'm just really excited it's always the big event I look forward to each year

[iloveschiaparelli]

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: My Love Letter Part 1

Okay okay okay SO Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes longpost time just my whole opinion/analysis/love letter for the whole film beginning with my Wes Ball backstory so skip to the Ruin screencap if you want to skim past all that.

I haven't talked about it on tumblr yet but I'm actually like a huge fat fan of the Maze Runner cinematic series directed by Wes Ball. Really I'm just a fan of Wes Ball. It not only singlehandedly got me through my first year of high school but also became the reason I ended up entering the film industry. I've watched all 3 movies at least 4-5 times each. Probably like 20-30 for Scorch Trials at this point because it's my favorite. I can quote probably at least half of it from memory. I've watched all of the BTS content that was on the DVDs + the bloopers on youtube like i was obsessed ok.

2019 was like the second worst year of my life so imagine my distress in january 2019 when I found out about Wes Ball's next movie, Mouse Guard, got Super Hyped Up for the multimillion dollar mice-with-swords movie (I eventually read some of the comics btw it's insanely good) And then within the same week found out Disney pulled the plug on the project after acquiring 20th Century Fox. TWO weeks before production was scheduled to begin. I was livid. I'm still bitter about it. Wes Ball then released the demo reel for the film to the public which iirc also had temp music.

So anyway yeah that was awful but then! I think it was later in 2020 that it was announced that Wes Ball was going to be directing the 4th POTA movie. This kicked off me seeing the original 1968 film and then the trilogy and wow did doing so increase my excitement. In my opinion Rupert Wyatt/Matt Reeves' directing styles and Wes Ball's were/are very compatible. I also took the time to get caught up on as much of Wes Ball's old projects as I could get my hands on at the time, including his animated short Ruin (screencap below). Which is fantastic BTW and apparently was purchased by Fox for a feature film that was never made (???) I swear, filmmakers have their past works splattered all over the internet like body parts after a landmine explosion: Good luck finding everything.

Now, Finally Finally FINALLY!!!!!!!! Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out. I meant to see it on the premier night but my boyfriend broke up with me 2 days before so I forgot. I saw it tonight instead! So now with the backstory out of the way I can finally talk about the actual movie.

First of all, the beginning of the film absolutely WOWed me!!!! It honestly feels like a callback to Ruin, the way that the buildings are overgrown and the post-apocalyptic setting is super evident and feels so delightfully reclaimed by nature. It's also really neat to see how far VFX has come since Ruin was released if you compare the opening shots of the movie with the wide shots in Ruin. Wes Ball himself is also a VFX artist, so it's really neat to see how that affects his work especially since Planet of the Apes is by nature a very vfx-heavy franchise. This movie absoutely popped off in that area but we'll get to that.

Secondly, I forgot how much I missed Ball's directing! Oh my goodness, the performances he gets out of the actors are always so authentic. I still have yet to see a performance by Dylan O'Brien that was as raw and believable as in the Maze Runner movies, and I'm like halfway through Teen Wolf already. In the action scenes especially, I love how characters in Ball's movies, you can really feel their pain. Since pain and physical discomfort aren't communicated directly through film, we often forget just how hard it is to get back up again after getting kicked down, but with Wes Ball you never forget. Ugh, when Noa was getting beat up on top of the bunker at the end of the movie, I caught myself catching my own breath when he coughed up blood. Like, yeowch!

Additionally, everything this man makes is just, like, a masterpiece? On a technical level at least. That's really the mark of a good director, whose job is not only to evoke a performance from the actors, but also to tie together the whole crew. And KOTPOTA really showed off how well the team worked together. Just the establishing shots alone in a lot of these scenes! Oh. My. Word. You can clearly see the fruits of labor of not only the concept artists, but also the VFX artists and production designers, and how they worked with the DP and actors to get the shot. Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:

There are more that I'm thinking of, but unfortunately without a digital release available yet there's a limit to the screencaps that I'm able to obtain. The shot where Noa is walking up the escalator following Raka and you see the plane in the background indicating that Raka lives in an airport is one of them. There's also one or two establishing shots in nature that just show off the setting. The opening shots, of course. And then the shot where it pans up and you see Eagle Village for the first time. There's also an aerial of Proximus Caesar's camp, but I'm unable to find that one as well. The main one I want to look at is the telescope.

Just, like, Hello???? It looks like an art piece. This screencap is a little closer in than I'd like, but in the full frame you can see the absolute mastery of composition that it is, you can totally imagine it as a painting. Which in my experiences usually means there's a painting behind it somewhere in the process, lol. Let's go concept artists!!! But then you see how the colors are just, perfectly balanced, the plant growth is realistic and accentuating the set, and so on and so forth. It was just absolutely breathtaking to see for the first time. I'm pretty sure I audibly gasped. I did a lot of stimming during this movie just to stay quiet and not start babbling about the film pipeline to my father in theater auditorium.

Even more magic happens when Noa steps onto the set, and starts messing with the telescope. Suddenly it's real, it's tangible, it's touchable. Transforming what was likely a matte painting at one point into a set that the actors can interact with, and then into a shot where almost everything is overlaid with VFX, and having it look so real like that is truly magic.

The ship also had me dumbstruck, but slightly less so because we saw a similar setting in The Maze Runner: The Death Cure in 2018. Although it was slightly different for sure. What had me going even more in this movie was how much the characters interacted with the ship, moving in and around it, and trading glances with one another from on the ground and up inside. In TMR:DTC, you really only see the decrepit ships in the background, and one is referenced as a plot point but the characters never actually physically interact with any of them. So it's much easier for our brains to categorize the ships as gimmicks to help us believe the scene.

It's when props like these are woven into the scene as tangible objects that our brains start to shut up about the CGI and really start to believe what's happening onscreen! and KOTPOTA did an amazing job at this. Please bear in mind like, I literally have zero specialization in VFX, it's not my field and although I draw, I've never done concept art for film. I honestly believe that I'm simply in an appropriate level of awe for what this film accomplished.

The other thing that amazed me was how stylized the setting was. The greenery was so green, the ocean felt like a painting, the ship was red, the telescope shot is very, very blue. Several of the shapes used in the ape's costume design are simplified. And yet, despite the stylization, it never feels cartoony or polygonal, it still feels completely grounded in reality, and I could really believe I'd see it in real life. I think this owes partly to the fact that we rarely inspect any of these simplified items at a close distance, aside from Raka's necklace which appears to be made of either bone or whittled wood. It also owes to absolute geniuses in color grading that kept the stylized colors realistic enough for our brains to believe. Overall I'd take the visual style of the film to be Impressionist. I love impressionism.

My main interest in filmmaking is writing/directing. However, most of my experience lies in costume design (Student films rarely need costume "design" so its usually coordination) and production design. As a result I spent a good deal of my time watching KOTPOTA zeroed in on the production design.

I love post-apocalyptic science-fiction/fantasy worlds like this partly precisely because of how much you can learn from the production design alone. When Mae enters Trevathan's room for the first time I swear I was eating it up. Every single prop in this movie was carefully thought out by the PD, which is why his room absolutely stood out from the rest of the setting that we had seen up to that point. It was distinctly "human-centric" as opposed to the rest of the movie. I remember seeing it in the theater earlier today, laying eyes first on the bed by the door, thinking that it must be something they set up for Mae, but then wondering why or how the apes would know or want to set up a human-style bed for Mae when we're so many generations removed from human-dominated society.

Next it was on many miscellaneous table objects, thinking to myself "That looks like how a human would treat a space. Apes are generally too big to decorate at that scale." and then my eyes roved on to the furniture, seeing a human-sized table, human-sized chair, human-sized junk everywhere! Slowly, by observing the room, I gained a stronger and stronger sense of "there is another human here," which upon observing the rows and rows of books became "a smart human like Mae, who unlike her can read" (Remember at this point we still believed that Mae and her mother were the only smart humans that Mae had known growing up, and that she had been pursuing the opportunity to meet other smart humans and join them).

It was only upon the instant of realizing that this was a smart human that Trevathan spoke and appeared on the stairs. It was absolutely perfect timing. THIS, guys, is exceptional production design. It was honestly my absolute favorite piece of production design in the entire film, especially because of how much it contrasted what we've become used to seeing in the series as humans have diminished in population and apes and nature have taken over the space instead.

That exact sense of change or "otherness", that noticeability of contrast upon seeing what is honestly a pretty "normal" human space if you look at it in the context of our existing society, is only present because of how well PD treats the rest of the movie. In order to make a completely normal space feel strange, you have to change literally every other space to something alien but consistent with itself. And KOTPOTA does just that. The job was begun in the original trilogy, with the decline of humanity depicted across decades, nature taking over the gas station and the dam and even the city. But this movie had the biggest challenge because of simply how many years had passed before the story even began. Society as we know it today is completely and totally obliviated in KOTPOTA's setting. In every set that the characters interacted with in any way, PD had to fabricate a space where humans had been but the virus, decades of decay and post-apocalyptic living, and ape encroachment had transformed it.

This also brings me into the subject of the rich culture we see emerging in the world of the apes through this movie. The original trilogy, especially the first and second film, was all about the ape's identity. In the first film Caesar wonders whether he is human or ape, and whether apes are pets or equals to humans. He eventually comes to the realization that humans are never going to look out for apes the way that apes will and decides to become that person. In the second film, Caesar and the other characters involved have to figure out what being an ape means. Does it mean strength is power? That humans are always an enemy to defeated? Or a similar species to live alongside? It's about establishing what the ape race's relationship is to the human race. The third film I didn't get to rewatch before seeing KOTPOTA, but iirc it was about whether humans and apes could ever coexist, which is a theme we see continued in this movie, albeit in a slightly different way. Either that or more likely it was about whether apes will repeat the same mistakes as humans.

Anyway, I digress. In the script we already see a rich culture emerging in hints, right from the start of the movie. It's in the hunt for the eagle eggs at the beginning with mentions of some kind of coming-of-age ceremony, followed by Noa reminding Anaya and Soona that they must "leave one egg always. It is the law." Already in the first five minutes we've established that this particular ape civilization not only has cultural traditions surrounding youth and coming-of-age, but also rituals and laws surrounding their relationship with and the conservation of nature. And through dialogue we extrapolate that these apes have bonded animals (eagles). It honestly felt like a crossover between Native American Indian hunting practices and How To Train Your Dragon, which is wild I know. (Also can we talk about how the eagles in this movie actually made eagle sounds???? And not falcon sounds! Finally we're breaking the bad habit of making up animal noises to sound cooler when the original already sounded super cool by itself.)

So in just a few minutes guys!! We already have so much. Then the trio heads back to the village and has their first encounter with the Echoes (Ekos? If anyone could get spelling on that for me that would be fantastic) but are too afraid (or law-bound) to get too close to or cross through the tunnel "into the valley below". So through these we establish that there is a taboo around not just humans but also around leaving the village. The clan has taken an isolationist approach wherein they not only forbid their young clan members from leaving but also withhold information about the outsiders from them until they've come of age. Guys the cultural system arising here is absolutely wild. Like sorry not sorry but I eat this stuff up. (Screenwriters-- this is prime example material of "show don't tell")

There's also all of the ape social communication rules that we've already gotten used to, mainly a variation of the palm-up/palm-down gesture as a means of showing respect (submission) and asking for permission/approval.

In this movie however the hands are mostly closed and the palms are down for the sub as well as the ape they're seeking approval from, as opposed to the trilogy in which the submitting ape always had their palm up. At first I chalked this up to cultural differences among clans since we learned that this clan is not the clan descended from Caesar's apes in the trilogy, but then Caesar's descendants were doing it this way too? So I don't really know what to make of it but I'm going to decide that it's just global cultural evolution (at least, as global as the real-world evolution of Old English into modern English).

Through the production design of the beginning sequence in Eagle Village, we see that the eagles catch fish and then the vast quantities of fish and the smokehouse indicate that fish caught by the eagles are the main source of food for the Eagle Clan. We also see feathers as a motif throughout, worn especially by the parents and the elders as a sign of social status (we know it's social status bc Sylva rips it off of one of the elders as an intimidation tactic and everyone audibly gasps, indicating it worked). That last bit is honestly more costume design, they popped off too but one thing at a time or I'm going to become incomprehensible. I will repeat myself. It is inevitable.

Then throughout the film we learn that not only do they adhere strictly to the "law", but that that law is set by the elders alone. We also learn that they primarily relate to their eagles by singing to them which!!! is just!!!! so!!! metal!!! I love it. The way it plays into the end scene with Proximus just AGHRGHJHRHGR GROWL BARK BARK FERAL NOISES>

ahem

Also we see them building nests at home for their eagles and they've figured out falconry tools for the aerie and everything on their own like??

Then in contrast we see what's left of Caesar's clan, it's descendants. Proximus Caesar, we learn later from Trevathan, has gone completely fangirl over the ancient roman empire and decided to emulate it because "he likes it" and it makes him "feel good" (yeah he's probably the most textbook tyrant I've ever seen in media), choosing to morph Caesar's teachings into his own new worldview rather than adhering to them properly.

So the culture of Caesar's clan is very heavily roman-influenced, often copying practices outright such as the insitution of slavery, a lot of the fashion choices and even the way that banners are put up around the camp and the way that Proximus dines at a low-set table filled with an overabundance of food. And he has a throne and crown, and there are roman numerals inscribed on both his and Sylva's necklaces. But we still see influences of Caesar's original society, most noticeably the persistence of the window symbol and the architecture of the dam. The architecture wouldn't be significant at all, instead being noted as a stylistic choice for the whole series, if it weren't for the fact that it's different from Eagle Clan's architecture.

If Eagle Village resembles those spaghetti bridges that engineers build for class, with thatched roofs, then the dam at Caesar Clan's camp is much more brutalist by comparison. Eagle Clan was very spindly and focused on height and lightness of building materials: many of the logs were thinner and longer, more spaced out, and sometimes rounded at the ends. By contrast, Caesar Clan's dam is built with stumpier logs, closer together, and spiked at the top. The dam is also shored up with soil and other materials. Which yeah, is typical of beaver dams but is also typical of the structures in the original Caesar's village in the trilogy.

Unfortunately, there's only one image currently available of Eagle Village and it's after it was burned down. But you can still see how it differs from Caesar's village, instead of being chaotic it's more organized, allowing for a more lightweight structure.

This (below) is the closest I could get to having a picture of the dam's architecture, but you can still tell how it's more similar to OG Caesar's architecture than it is to Eagle Clan's, even though it's using a completely different building material (scrap metal instead of hewn trees).

Eagle Clan's architecture is also a further effect of how their society revolves around making a life bond with eagles, which are flying creatures. So of course they would be inclined to taller structures, especially ones that are more lightweight and have structural patterns, imitating the way that birds are built (see above).

I'll continue in part 2 as a reblog because it's 1 am and I'm running out of steam but YALL I need you to understand: It's been 6 years since the last time I had a Wes Ball film to overanalyze and rave about. I have SO MUCH to say about this film.

[destinyc1020]

Are we really in limbo over spidey 4 or are some of you letting these so called scoopers get in your heads

You can tell there's a limbo because there's no formal announcement for the film, and Tom himself seems like even he's unsure of the direction the film will go and if he will even be attached to it.

Believe me, if they had a resolution, they would have long-since announced it by now. They would want that good news OUT there and drum up hype for the upcoming film.

All of these rumors are coming up for a reason. Where there's smoke, there's usually fire. And since it's been 4 years since they started filming the last movie, and they haven't listed anything definite for the future SM4 film, you can tell that Sony and Marvel have not come up with a firm decision yet. You all saw last year how long it took for the studios to budge on just giving their writers and actors livable wages. 🥴

Anyway, I don't usually pay too much attention to "scoopers" on the internet (especially Twitter) anyway, but yea, as a fan I'd like to see a resolution eventually. I don't think there's anything wrong with that? 🤷🏾‍♀️

[neverendingcomplaints]

WAKANDA FOREVER!!!

Spoilers ahead

I wasn’t super hype to see this but I’m so glad I did. Add Ryan Coogler to the list of Black Men I Am Unworthy Of Who I Want Anyway lol. There’s seemingly humble yet brilliant black men out there and here I am stuck wading through wimps and fuckbois of all flavors. It’s just still not fair. Sigh. Anyway...

YES:  Namor x Shuri. Problematique age gap? Check! Enemies-to-lovers? Check! Complex, interesting and engaging? Check! Good thing I checked out of fandom a long time ago. 

 The Grief. Ryan Coogler’s care for Chadwick Boseman was all throughout this film. At first, I thought this would be gimmicky and weird but I don’t know why I doubted his vision. He’s such an ace filmmaker and he better get his due one day at the Oscars. Assuming the Oscars doesn’t fade into obscurity. 

Shuri as Black Panther. Again, I wasn’t sure how they were gonna pull this off but by the time we get here in the film, I was so pumped for it! The way they passed the mantle was beautiful and (antivax weirdness aside) Letitia Wright played it pitch perfect. Love the grapple between logic/science and feeling/heart.

THE ACTING. THIS CAST. THE VISUALS. Just

Namor. How is Tenoch 41? How did they manage to create another incredible minority world origin story? How hot was that scene where he blasted M’baku like he was child’s play?! The power of Namor alone...yum. A literal whole ass GOD (K’uk’ulkan)! Delicious.And he had the right idea, just not a fully thought out plan. Blatant war is too old school. But moving on...

The DIVERSITY. So many languages. So many locales. So many black and brown people on the screen. Incredible! 

THE END SCENE. Again, incredible. WAKANDA FOREVER!!!!!

NO: 

Disney. F.D. had a great video on the first Black Panther and this is yet another reminder that this is a Corporate, Capitalist, Colonizer production wrapped in Cultural Cloth lol. Damn that Big Brother Disney! The Mouse is so evil but sooooooo soooooooo good. 

The US. So, we’re just gonna pretend they had nothing to do with this? OK...Also imagine a real life Martin Freeman. Yup, completely unrealistic. He’d have been killed, not just imprisoned. 

Shuri’s Change of Heart. I wasn’t feeling her change of heart at the last minute and wish we’d gotten it, or better hints at her being conflicted, earlier. It really seemed like she was down with killing Namor until the narrative needed her to not kill him. Felt a little underserved. They did it very well with T’Challa. 

The “Gay” Scene. This should probably just be under Disney but the way Disney just throws in these tiny unconnected bones of scraps for BS inclusivity points is really tired. When I saw Michaela Coel come in, I thought she might be a good potential girlfriend for Shuri’s character only to see her kiss up on that one Dora Milaje for a hot second. They could’ve set her up to be Shuri’s girl. They could’ve made her Okoye’s new thang. It’s not enough in 2022 for them to keep doing this kind of thing, announcing it like it’s some huge deal and then it’s...beyond nothing. 

But yup, absolutely boss! It’s already doing big things. Tenoch is gonna have people giving him the clam hands just like everyone did “Wakanda Forever” to Chadwick lol. Can’t wait to see it again and pay my dues to Big Brother Disney so they can keep milking old Disney properties, Star Wars and Marvel for all they’re worth (beyond what they’re worth at this point)! HAIL TO ONE OF OUR MANY CORPORATE OVERLORDS! 

[aviculor]

There's not really that much I could say about X that isn't just rehashing what other people have already said. Essay under the cut with spoilers.

Everything about it is simply top-notch. I love the themes of old age coming for us all, and the desire for intimacy not fading even when your physical attractiveness and sexual desirability have faded. Sex is seen as exciting and titillating when it's seen with the younger characters but gross and disturbing when it's seen with the older characters, and you're made to ask yourself why that dichotomy is the way that it is considering it's part of the job for the former but a tender expression of love for the latter.

The characters are all sympathetic and have their own personalities and motivations and flaws, rather than just being your typical one-dimensional slasher fodder. Mia Goth in particular gives a phenomenal performance as both Maxine and Pearl, which ties into the themes I mentioned because it's as if they are the same person aside from age. The visuals and cinematography pay homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on top of being superb in their own right. There's foreshadowing of how each character dies. All the kills are memorable with great effects, and it really catches you off guard the way the first kill happens so abruptly during an emotional scene. There were even bits of humor that landed well, especially the final line. It's really got everything going for it. I actually really fucking loved this film. It's worth the hype and I highly recommend it. Just don't...don't watch it with or near your family.

Honestly, RJ's reaction to Lorraine's newfound desire to be in the porno was hard to watch. But the fact that they failed to communicate with one another about it and he couldn't even be honest about why it bothered him, which results in it happening anyway as he films it like a cuckold and then he sobs pathetically in the shower...I mean, you know, it's humanizing. It's character depth. Ti West really did manage to create an elevated slasher. And it's incredible.

James A. Janisse was under the impression Howard had a heart attack because of the strain of lifting Lorraine's body after having sex, but Howard was clearly startled by her twitching and gurgling since she wasn't quite dead yet.

Watching Jenna Ortega have a sexual awakening when in the near future I'll be seeing her as an aged-up Wednesday Addams is honestly a little...conflicting. Although she's the only main actress to not be nude in this. In fact, she's the least nude of all the main cast.

I've heard of Ti West before, but I wasn't familiar with any of his work before X. He directed Cabin Fever 2, which I haven't seen and even now I don't particularly plan to. Maybe I'll think about checking out some of his other films. But he wrote, directed, produced, and edited X which is really impressive. This is his movie. His franchise, I should say, since Pearl just came out and a third film MaXXXine has been announced. I'm waiting for Pearl to get a digital release to watch it since it's not at my local theater.

[ear-worthy]

A Reminder: Here Are The First Annual Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Award Winners!

 Just in case you missed it, here is the announcement of the first annual Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards (EWIP) from early July. I know that I have to work on a snappier award title!. The Ear Lobes? The Earies? I'll work on it for next year.

Anyway, check out these well-deserving award winners and listen to their podcasts. They are the best of the best.

There are a lot of podcasts. Understatement of the year, right? In podcasting's brief history, the industry has also found itself awash in awards. The Ambies, iHeart Podcast Awards, People's Choice Podcast Awards, The Webbys, The Signal Awards, British Podcast Awards, and others. These awards do not yet attract the media attention like the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and Tonys (EGOT).

In the future, there could be a podcast award ceremony broadcast on a major TV network (Sorry, TLC) with distinguished achievement award names like the James Cridland Legacy Award, the Bryan Barletta Career Achievement Award, or the Arielle Nissenblatt Podcast Stewardship Award.

Yet, with few exceptions, these awards either don't recognize independent podcasts or have them do battle against their well-financed, network-supported brethren.

Even the film industry has an award platform for indie filmmakers. The Independent Spirit Awards, originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards, and later as the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are awards presented annually in Santa Monica, California, to independent filmmakers.

In fact, the music industry has an award for indie music. The Hollywood Independent Music Awards (HIMA) is the premier global platform for independent music. Emerging and established artists, songwriters, composers, and audio recording professionals around the world are recognized for outstanding contributions and content creation.

Based on the continued neglect of indie podcasters and their legacy of excellence, Ear Worthy is announcing its first annual Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards, or EWIPA.

The Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards are sponsored by lenny.fm. It works like this: Listeners contribute US$4 a month, which is split between the top 4 podcasts they chose.If a podcast in their top 4 doesn’t publish an episode that month, the preferences reorder to 4 that have.The podcast can choose how best to reward listeners supporting them via lenny.fm, if they choose to.

While not exclusively for independent podcasts, lenny.fm offers a monetization option that was not previously available for independent podcasters.

Courtney Carthy of lenny.fm says: "We want to get podcasters to be rewarded for their work by people who value it, and help drive an overall increase in listeners supporting podcasters."

Many bootstrapped indie podcasts have paper-thin budgets and are led by overworked and underappreciated podcasters.

What will award winners receive? I know that question is uppermost in the minds of the award winners and the jealous network-financed podcasts that are intentionally excluded from these awards.

First, recognition from Ear Worthy via Blogger, Substack, Medium, and Tumblr -- and social media -- in an article announcing the award winners.

Second, each award winner will receive a .png image of the EWIPA with their name emblazoned on it.

Third, each winner will have an article about their podcast in Ear Worthy about their indie podcast. These articles will run from now until Labor Day.

Fourth, a press release with the award winners podcasts and names will be issued on July 9th.

Fifth, the winners will receive all the media hype and attention commensurate with winning such a prestigious award. If Good Morning America calls requesting a live interview, please accept.

Sixth, this award is in recognition of their outstanding achievements and commitment to excellence. Indie podcasters wear more hats than any network-supported podcaster. They are creator, writer, producer, sound engineer, I.T. troubleshooter, researcher, host, distribution pro, marketing guru, public relations professional, and, most important of all, financial backer for the podcast. This award is that voice in the wilderness that calls to them: "Keep going. You're on the right track."

Here are the first Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards. Each winner will have a link to their podcast, and I encourage anyone reading or listening to check out these excellent podcasts and support these indie podcasters.

Best Indie Podcast of the Year

The Life Shift -- "Candid conversations with people about the pivotal moments that changed their lives forever. The Life Shift podcast highlights life-altering moments and humanizes the struggles and triumphs through them all." Indie podcaster / Host -- Matt Gilhooly.

Best Interview Podcast

Preconceived -- "Preconceived exists to question the current state of affairs. Why are we groomed to accept norms as they are? Are we all destined to go to school, find a stable job, get married, have kids, then enjoy our retirement and older age? Do we hold certain beliefs because we value them, or because someone else told us to?" Indie podcaster / Host -- Zale Mednick

Best Life Lessons Podcast

Multispective -- "We believe each person has a unique story to tell. Experiences, both good and bad, shape our everyday lives. Many of us go through similar things, yet our stories are never the same." Indie podcaster / Host --Jennica Sadhwani

Best Health Podcast

Salad With A Side Of Fries -- "What to eat and when to cheat! Let's decipher between all the “diets” out there. You know what to do, but it isn't working. Talking wellness and weight loss for real life, because most of us are going to drink, eat out, skip the grocery store and who wants a life without fries or dessert?" Indie podcaster / host Jenn Trepeck

Best Workplace Podcast

Surfing Corporate -- "Our goal is to help you not only navigate the corporate waters, but to surf the hell out of them, and all without throwing fellow employees to the sharks or promising your firstborn to Satan. It CAN be done."

Indie podcaster / co-hosts Aileen Merciel & Glenda Pacanins

Best Young Adult Podcast

Seraphina Speaks -- "This award-winning family-friendly show inspires tweens and early teens to examine social norms and ordinary, everyday things. Everything from happiness, being a tween, chores, school, Race, toys, & more." Indie podcaster Danusia Malina-Derben / Host Seraphina Malina-Derben

Best Business Advice Podcast

Bippity Boppity Business -- "No one makes magic in business like Disney! On this podcast, we are focused on teaching business leaders and entrepreneurs Disney storytelling magic. You will learn how to infuse wonder into your brand. You will uncover the secrets to immerse your customers and convert them from passive follower to super-fan consumers." Indie podcaster / host -- Rita Richa

Best Podcasting Success Podcast

Leverage Your Podcast -- "This show is for podcast hosts and guests, bringing insider secrets from podcast industry experts and entrepreneurs who have created a successful lifestyle business through podcasting." Indie podcaster / host -- Lyndsay Phillips

Best Movie Podcast

Verbal Diorama-- "Movies are tough to make, and Verbal Diorama is here to celebrate the coming together of teams of extraordinary cast and crew, bringing us movies that inspire us, delight us, make us laugh, make us cry and frighten us." Indie podcaster / host -- Em

Best Film History Podcast

Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever-- "This podcast looks back at more than a century of films, beginning in 1902 and working towards the future. Each episode focuses on a film, director or theme and brings in experts to discuss its history, politics and influences. Each episode focuses on a film, director or theme and brings in experts to discuss the history, politics, and influences." Indie podcaster / host -- Ayesha Khan

Best Music Podcast

Watching The Covers Flow -- "This podcast dives deep into covers of, and by, the most covered songwriter in rock and roll, Bob Dylan. The show explores covers across era and genre, from a hip-hop "Subterranean Homesick Blues" to a bluegrass "Ring Them Bells" to Dylan's frequent detours from writing his own songs to singing other people's." Indie podcaster / host -- Ray Padgett

Best LGBTQIA+ Podcast

Because The Boss Belongs To Us-- "If someone asked you to name a queer icon, who would you say? Cher? Britney? Whitney? Mariah? What about…Bruce Springsteen? Two queer nerds try to get Bruce Springsteen recognized as the queer icon they know that he is." Indie podcaster / co-hosts Jesse Lawson & Holly Casio.

Best Politics Podcast Ken Rudin's Political Junkie -- "Each week, veteran political analyst Ken Rudin explores policy debates, campaign strategies and the newsmakers making it happen in Washington and in state capitols across the country. Politicians, journalists and experts join Ken to share smart analysis and rich historical context behind the issues shaping our national dialogue today." Indie podcaster / host Ken Rudin

Best History Podcast

Music History Monday -- "Exploring history through music history with Professor Robert Greenberg one Monday at a time. Every Monday Robert Greenberg explores some timely, perhaps intriguing and even, if we are lucky, salacious chunk of musical information relevant to that date, or to … whatever." Indie podcaster / host Professor Robert Greenberg.

Best True-Crime Podcast The Murder Sheet -- "We take a journalistic approach to covering true crime. We have broken national news on major cases, like the Delphi murders and the Burger Chef murders. We also cover plenty of other subjects, including high-profile murders, cold cases, legal topics within the criminal justice system, restaurant slayings, historical crimes, and wide-ranging interviews with authors and experts." Indie podcaster / co-hosts Aine Cain & Kevin Greenlee

Best Society / Education Podcast Impostrix -- "Impostrix Podcast affirms the lived experiences of (smart, talented AF, and often over-qualified) people of color by challenging imposter syndrome narratives and validate people navigating racial toxicity in their career. Here, you will learn ways to overcome and leverage imposter syndrome, you will be better able to identify when and why your work culture is working against you." Indie podcaster / host Whitney Knox Lee

Best Short-Form Podcast Arielle & Ned's Daily Tips… -- "Arielle Nissenblatt and Ned Donovan on their daily adventures to bring small, possibly insignificant tips and advice into the world. No tip is too small, all are helpful to someone (we hope), it just might not be you that day." Indie podcasters / co-hosts Arielle Nissenblatt & Ned Donovan

Best Celebrity Accountability Podcast (Tie) Trashy Divorces -- A Good Podcast About Bad Relationships. Every Wednesday and Sunday, Alicia and Stacie take you on a comedic ride through stories of marital misconduct and love gone wrong, blending biography, pop culture, history, and politics. Indie podcasters / co-hosts Alicia & Stacie

What A Creep-- "Hosts Margo and Sonia chat about Creeps. We talk about Creeps of the past and the present: It's the who's who of who's the worst.

Indie podcasters / co-hosts Margo Donohue & Sonia Mansfield

Best Audio Fiction Podcast Hobo Code -- "Hop a freight train with two hobos, a little girl, and her best friend who lives in a coffee can. Hobo Code is an epic journey spanning from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression, all the way to the Great Recession of 2008." Writers: Shane Portman & Paul Pakler Producers: Ruth Gamble & Shane Portman

Best Entrepreneurial Podcast

Nerdpreneur -- "At Nerdpreneur we have fun conversations with people turning their weird passion into a successful business! We interview entrepreneurs from around the world to discover the hacks, tools, and mindsets that turn nerd passion into full-time income."

Indie podcasters /co-hosts Frank Bailey & Chris Saunders

Best Food / Restaurant Podcast "Fine" Dining-- "The hilarious search for the most mediocre chain restaurant in America. Host Michael Ornelas hits popular spots like IHOP, Texas Roadhouse, & Chili's to find the perfectly average 5-out-of-10 "fine" dining experience."

Indie podcaster / host Michael Ornelas

Best TV Podcast

Double Take-- "There’s nothing worse than endlessly scrolling through all of your streaming service apps, right? Join Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen as they give their thoughts on new streaming shows in the form of episode-by-episode reactions, reviews of new shows, and more."

Indie podcaster / co-hosts Jess Spoll & Jenni Cullen

Best Career Podcast

Who Made You The Boss? -- "is a podcast for recovering workaholics. Listen as Lindsey Epperly, CEO of Jetset World Travel, interviews leaders from executives to creatives, entrepreneurs to innovators, teach how they tackle imposter syndrome, turn obstacles into opportunities, and prove that we can pursue careers we love without sacrificing our whole selves." Indie podcaster / host -- Lindsey Epperly

Best Arts & Culture Podcast

The Art Career -- "candid, straightforward conversations with leaders in visual arts, writing, music, theater and film. The show dives deep into topics like self development, career trajectories, mental health, and social justice. Expand your journey through the arts and feel empowered about what you do." Indie podcaster / host Emily McElwreath

Best Business Processes Podcast

Streamlined Solopreneur -- "Each week, host Joe Casabona talks about how you can build a better business through smarter systems and automated processes. He does this by bringing on expert guests, and sharing his own experience from years as a busy solopreneur parent — so that being a solopreneur feels…less solo." Indie podcaster / host -- Joe Casabona

Best Podcast Tips Podcast One Minute Podcast Tips-- If you're looking to be a better podcaster, but you don't have time to listen to hours and hours of advice, One Minute Podcast Tips is the show for you. I'll let you know what hardware and software you should use, and how they'll help you and your show no matter where you are in your podcasting journey. Indie podcaster / host -- Danny Brown

Best Americana Podcast

Vanishing Postcards -- "invites listeners to ride shotgun on a road trip exploring the traditions, hidden dives, and offbeat attractions that can be found by exiting the interstate.It is a touching, humorous, and enriching experience that is part travelogue, oral history, and valentine to American culture." Indie podcaster / host -- Evan Stern

Best Pet Podcast

Six Degrees Of Cats-- "the world’s #1 (and only) cat-themed culture, history and science podcast to join cat worshipper Amanda B. as she investigates these and other hard hitting questions with a diversity of guest experts from across the globe."

Indie podcaster / host -- Amanda B. / Captain Kitty

Congratulations to all the winners. These indie podcasters went on the noblest of journeys -- the search for excellence.

If you are a passionate podcast listener, support your favorite independent podcasts with a donation or membership, or check out lenny.fm.

[petalsmooth]

Oh, I agree it did. The thing that is on the show for disappointing their fanbase. Fans shouldn't have to pretend they liked something to boost numbers for the show.

After all, it was the buzz from the fans that brought Part 1 such hype and numbers. Because their enthusiasm was genuine. The show fumbled those last episodes and derailed all that positive buzz all on its own.

Maybe if they are going to film episodes so far in advance and hold them for a year after that they should at least do better at having outside parties review so if something receives extreme negative reactions it can be fixed while still filming.

And really some of what was reviewed negatively should have been foreseen from the start. They KNEW fans were sensitive to Colin being an afterthought, yet still wrote him that way and used Luke little. Still included little of Polin together those last eps. And why is Luke T's screentime greater than Luke N's in his own season in second part? And why do we have the actors saying that more rom com elements were inserted after Nicola and Jess saw his play AFTER the season was filmed? Isn't it Jess' job to understand the actor's strengths? It just feels like the show didn't realize what they had in Luke and sidelined him because had no confidence could carry the show and relied heavily on Nicola/WD drama and more Luke T gratuitous sex as a fail safe and it fell really flat once they saw the audience response to Luke/Polin in that carriage.

I still feel they are discounting him as an actor or the audience disappointment at having so little regard for HIM as a character, only an adornment to Pen. If they truly got how disappointed fan's are wouldn't advertise them in season 4 as a malewife with Pen getting additional solo lw story.

And secondary to that, as a showrunner how do you think advertising the season as a rom com and getting the general audience all excited is fair to do when you KNOW you wrote the second half anything but? How do you even BELIEVE having all that drama and anger in last 2 episodes was a good idea? The announcement from the engagement was already weighed down by having the decision to change the book where he KNEW she was W.D before got together. You had her lie to him instead. Then you color their wedding and marriage with distance, hurt and anger. And you think this was a good direction to take a friends to lovers/rom com book?

At very least could have balanced the drama and angst but didn't even do that. It was a flat out drag to watch those two episodes. ANd of course you finally give them over an hour for the episodes while previous episodes were cut in time over previous season, but you give more time to the episodes that depressed people the most. Just bad plotting, bad editing, bad story telling all around

Last part I don't feel is the show's fault of Polin's fans. If you, a general viewer, are turned off a show by some nutcases who can't distinguish between real life and fictional life than you probably weren't interested in the show anyway. I DO think some of the general audience did tune in heavily because of their obvious chemistry in interviews but that didn't go away just because has a gf. I do think those nutcases steered conversation away by Polin by focusing on that which yeah probably did hurt but not Luke's fault or ours to the shows. And IF the material on the show had been stronger the Polin fan excitement would have trumped that distraction.

[twinhood-2dot0]

the entire history of the dceu, i guess

I wanted to write about the entire history of Batman or The Flash but uh, their histories might take a whole book to write. Then I thought of Batgirl, but uh, as much as I love her, I’m only really familiar with her later Oracle days and her Batgirl days from 2011-2018, whereas in the case of the other two mentioned I’ve read pretty much every consequential issue (am I flexing? maybe). I am gonna try to read every single comic she’s in though :P. Huh, it’s only 61 TPBs. The list is not complete, but if we factor in all those that I’ve already read and those yet to read, I think they level out. There are probably much more complete lists, but I can’t find any as easily scrapable ones.

Man Of Steel (2013)

Budget: $225–258 million

Box Office: $668 million

IMDb: 7.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 56% Audience:75%

(Note: None of these are actual metrics for how good the movies are, you’ll see why I’m including those.)

In 2008, after WB’s disappointment with the box office of the sixth instalment in the Superman series, they decided to reboot the film series. 

The writer for The Dark Knight trilogy, David S. Goyer, expressed his idea for a Superman movie to Christopher Nolan, and impressed, Nolan pitched the idea to the studio, and were both hired to write and produce the movie respectively. A few directors were considered, notably Ben Affleck (Batman, in the future) and Matt Reeves (directed The Batman, in the future), but ultimately Zack Snyder was chosen in 2010. There was an idea to set the movie in the TDK trilogy universe, but it was decided against (thank god for that, please, the movies are perfect as is). Anyways, the movie was a box office success, even while critical responses were not so much. Okay, well, it’s Superman, so it’s not very unexpected. I, for one, am not a huge fan of the movie. As much as I looooove darker stories, come on, it’s Superman, the paragon of hope! It’s not a terrible movie, but as a Superman movie, yeah, no. Anyways, seeing the success of the movie, they went along with their idea for a connected universe.

I’ll write a summary for the plot below every movie’s sections, skip if you don’t want to be spoiled. You know what, just read it through. There’s nothing much very consequential since the axing of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and like every superhero is gonna be recast and rebooted, so it doesn’t matter.

Plot: Basically a Superman origin story. If you don’t remember, you can go back to my shallow dive into the Justice League :) The villain is Zod, who wants to terraform (Kryptoform?) Earth and make it habitable for Kryptonians. And Superman also has uhhh the genetic code to fabricate baby Kryptonians placed in him? Which Zod wants to use to repopulate.

Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)

Budget: $250–300 million

Box Office: $873.6 million

IMDb: 6.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 29% A: 63% (Yikes)

In 2013, it was announced that Zack Snyder is going to be returning for a Man Of Steel sequel, and later confirmed by Snyder that Batman and Superman (and Wonder Woman) were going to meet for the first time on the big screen and that it was going to be inspired by Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns comic, which depicts an older, more brutal Batman.

You can see that clearly in the suit.

The movie opened to a whopping $422.5 million and then experienced an 81.2% decline in its second weekend. The movie seems to have been carried by the hype for Batman and Superman, like wow.

The Rotten Tomatoes website's critical consensus reads: "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice smothers a potentially powerful story – and some of America's most iconic superheroes – in a grim whirlwind of effects-driven action." I, too, disliked the movie. I am quite a new DC fan, but even for me, it felt like it butchered the characters of Batman and Superman, although Superman to a lesser extent. Batman kills??? And why exactly does he want to kill Superman??? Also, that plot point would have been made more impactful if Batman didn’t kill freaking goons???

Wow uh, that’s quite a few Golden Raspberries. Yikes, even Catwoman won 4.

Plot: Superman’s fight with Zod created a lot of collateral damage and also destroyed the Wayne Enterprises building, so Batman resents Superman. Lex Luthor manipulates them into hating each other, and he ransoms Superman’s mom to get him to kill Batman. Superman tries to talk to Batman and Batman attacks??? (he got kryptonite). Batman comes to his senses just before he deals the killing blow. Superman confronts Luthor, and Luthor unleashes Doomsday, a monster designed to kill Superman using Kryptonian DNA. Wonder Woman appears. Superman and Doomsday kill each other. Everyone big sad. The End. 

Suicide Squad (2016)

Budget: $175 million

Box Office: $747 million

IMDb: 5.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 26% A: 58%

The film was announced in 2009 and David Ayer signed on to direct in 2014. Ah, where do I begin? The movie was set to have a sombre tone, but with the failure of BvS and the success of Deadpool, the studio worked on a second, lighter cut than Ayer’s and then tried to reach a place of “consensus” between the two. The reshoots cost around $22 million, more than the typical $6-$10 million, and changed the entire third act, and changed Joker and Harley’s relationship to be less abusive??? Thankfully, Birds Of Prey later remedied that, but the emancipation of Harley Quinn would have been much better had it been preserved in Suicide Squad.

The movie was a box office success, but the movie is regarded as possibly the worst DC film made, which is not an easy feat, as much as I hate to admit it. 

I have no comments on this movie. Because I have no memory of when I watched this movie, except for Harley Quinn and how badly the movie treated her. Huh. I don’t remember anything except for Harley Quinn. Wow. That is quite a feat considering how much I love the Suicide Squad from the comics and individual characters like Captain Boomerang, Katana, and Killer Croc. Oh yeah, and Amanda Waller. She’s an awesome character in every version, and Viola Davis does a great job. 

Plot: Superman dies, so Amanda Waller creates Task Force X, a team made up of supervillains forced to do Waller's bidding because of a bomb injected in their neck that she can detonate at any time. An archaeologist becomes possessed by a witch named Enchantress. Turns the city into monsters, summons brother to destroy mankind, the Suicide Squad beat Enchantress, yada yada, I’ll fall asleep if I’m forced to read this, just read it here

Wonder Woman (2017)

Budget: $120–150 million

Box office: $822.8 million

IMDb: 7.4/10 (wow I thought it would be higher than that)

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 93% A: 83% (You can see why I thought that)

DC’s first gem. Heralded as DCEU’s best film, the film was a hit among critics and the audience.

Plans for a Wonder Woman film date back to 1996. After going through a lot of directors and actresses, Patty Jenkins took up the role of director in 2015 and Gal Gadot was casted by Zack Snyder to appear in BvS in 2013. This movie is also an origin story, set in the 1910s in World War I. 

Also, listen to this

I loved this so much. I got into DC in 2018, so this movie was my first exposure to Wonder Woman, and oh boy was it a good one. The acting was awesome, the action scenes were perfect, humour and romance weren’t overbearing and bettered the film.

Plot: Princess Diana is a resident of Themyscira, an island of immortal women and only women. The island is usually shrouded from the outside world, but one day, an American pilot named Steve Trevor crashlands into the island and is followed by German forces who were pursuing him. The Themyscirans fight them off but incur heavy losses. Steve is interrogated using the Lasso Of Truth/Hestia and reveals that there is a war going on in the “land of man”, as the Themyscirans call it, and Diana convinces Hippolyta (oh whoops, I forgot to mention, Themyscirans are Amazons, at least, a sect of them. It’s the same Hippolyta from Greek myth, but modified to fit the story. She’s Diana’s mom. Antiope is also there, but she’s killed off.) to let her go and stop the war, believing that Ares is behind it. And she arms herself with the lasso, a “god-killer” sword, and the armour, and leaves for London. She fights Ares. Steve sacrifices himself, and Wonder Woman beats Ares, WWI is over.

Justice League (2017) and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

Budget: $275 + $25 (reshoots) million

Box Office: $657.9 million

IMDb: 6.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 39% A: 67%

The biggest disappointment in comic book movie history. After the release of Man Of Steel, Goyer was hired again to write a sequel (BvS) and a Justice League movie. In 2014, it was announced that Zack Snyder would be directing the movie. The production went along and filming wrapped up in Oct 2016. However, in the wake of Snyder’s daughter’s death, he had to step down. They then hired Joss Whedon, the director of Avengers and Avengers: Age Of Ultron, seeing the success of those movies. Under his direction, it went through two months of reshoots costing $25 million. The reshoots coincided with the filming of Mission Impossible: Fallout so Henry Cavill was contractually obligated to keep a moustache for it, so uh… His moustache had to be digitally removed which led to uh…

Justice League - Opening Superman Scene - Mustache Movieclip

Anyways, there were a lot of changes made. There are multiple sources estimating how much was changed. The producer said in an interview that the film was shot originally by eighty to eighty-five percent. I’m too dumb to understand what that means, maybe you’ll be able to. Snyder said around a fourth from what he had been told (he didn’t watch the movie), and the cinematographer said 10%. Whedon’s rewrites were also around 80 pages, so it was mostly his work. The movie was mandated by execs to be under 2 hours, which is the dumbest freaking decision, considering the only superheroes in the movie we’ve met so far are Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. 

Controversy and Changes

It was later reported that Snyder’s rough cut was deemed unwatchable by studio execs.

Ray Fisher, the actor for Cyborg, and Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman, came out with claims against Joss Whedon, with Fisher saying “Joss Wheadon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable.” and Gadot claiming that Whedon threatened her career if she refused to do something.

There’s a controversial scene in AvengersAoU where in the chaos of Ultron’s attack, Bruce Banner (Hulk) falls on Black Widow’s chest. It’s a horrible sexist thing to have in your movie already, but even more egregious is that he does the exact same thing in Justice League with The Flash falling on Wonder Woman’s chest. Gadot refused to do this scene and it had to be filmed with a double. Seriously dude? You didn’t reconsider after the actor said no?

Chris Terrio considered the Whedon cut an act of vandalism and unsuccessfully tried to get his name removed from the movie.

The Whedon cut was significantly lighter in tone and featured much less violence as the studio was not happy with the results of the previous darker movies, and you know, it is directed by the director of Avengers.

Tom “Junkie XL” Holkenberg completely scored the movie, but halfway into post-production, was replaced by Danny Elfman, composer of Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992).

The movie was exactly 2 hours, removing 90 minutes of Snyder footage, but still adhering to the basic outline

Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder (his wife and producer) advised him never to watch the film as it would break his heart. I see what she means, it broke my heart as a huge DC fan, imagine being the creator of a work that you poured blood, sweat and tears into and someone else comes in and completely butchers it.

The underperformance led to the studio deciding to ditch Snyder’s vision for a universe of interconnected films to focus on solo movies.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Budget: $70 million to finish the movie

Box Office: Direct-to-video

IMDb: 8.0/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 71% A: 93%

#ReleaseTheSnyderCut

After the release of the “Josstice League”, fans created a petition to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut that gained more than 180,000 signatures. Various members of the cast showed support for the movement. 

Ahead of San Diego Comic Con 2019, a crowdfunding campaign was started, with half to be spent on advertising and the other half going to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. They purchased ad space on billboards, two in Times Square and a flying banner ad that passed over WB Studios. The fans raised over $500,000 for the ASFP in donations by Feb 2021.

In March 2019, Snyder confirmed that his original cut existed, but that it was up to the studio to release it. The following month, he posted a photo of boxes with tapes labelled “Z.S.J.L. Director’s Cut” captioned “Is it real? Does it exist? Of course it does.”

The studio approached Snyder proposing to release the cut unfinished as he had left it, but he refused, insisting on finishing it if it was to be released. In Feb 2020, WB decided to move forward. In May 2020, Snyder announced that his cut titled “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” would be released on HBO Max in 2021.

Differences

At least 10 comic characters were cut, including but not limited to, Iris West, The Flash’s wife, Ryan Choi, the not-yet Atom, and Darkseid, the big bad of the Justice League, basically DC’s Thanos (technically, Darkseid came before, but not in live-action media, so :P) and Martian Manhunter, a main member of the Justice League.

A lot of the backstory for the new characters like Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg. Cyborg was supposed to be the “heart” of the story, but he had barely any character in the Whedon cut. The Flash is relegated to just comic relief and has pretty much no role in the climax when he had a huge role. Aquaman’s backstory was also cut, but it’s less egregious because of the existence of the solo movie. Even Batman was affected. He is more indecisive, oafish, and obsessive, while in Snyder’s cut, he’s more optimistic and inspired by Superman’s sacrifice. His dynamic with Wonder Woman was also similarly butchered, and she was very sexually objectified.

This was cut. Do I need to elaborate? Well, there is symbolism, but eh I’m lazy. Also, this is a reference to “The Death Of Superman.” storyline.

Just look at this. He went from a menacing alien monster to man in armour. His character was similarly butchered. I’ll expand on the plot section.

Dumb freaking jokes and quips. Marvel style. Except it doesn’t work at all in this movie. In the MCU the audience is used to that tone. Shoe-horning in jokes in a movie that was meant to be dark doesn’t work at all, especially when they make no sense and are just plain unfunny. 

Zack Snyder’s Justice League has 4 hours of runtime. Snyder was given free rein, and he made full use of that. It has a lot of his signature slow-mo scenes, and there are a lot more details too because of that.

Story Differences

The outline of the plot is basically the same, but every character is very fleshed out. We see how Victor Stone turned into the Cyborg, his relationship with his parents, how his powers work, etc, and the same treatment is given to Flash and Aquaman. Cyborg did very little in the theatrical cut, but he’s a decent character in the Snyder cut. 

The theatrical version of Steppenwolf was probably the worst villain in comic book movies, but Snyder’s version fleshed him out and has much more of a motivation. In the theatrical cut he wants to destroy Earth for seemingly no reason, and there’s no mention of the Anti-Life equation, which is like Darkseid’s signature weapon. Steppenwolf is on Earth to gain Darkseid’s favour again after betraying him in the past, and he finds out that the Anti-Life Equation is in the Earth’s core. 

Oh yeah, the climax. I’ll talk about it when I explain the plot because it’s the biggest change.

Plot: 

Blue text is only in Snyder cut, red is only in Josstice League, and white text is in both movies.

Thousands of years ago, Darkseid Steppenwolf came to Earth to destroy it in search of the Anti-Life equation and to build his parademon army. But the Atlanteans, Amazons, and humanity came together to defeat them, and his three Mother Boxes were confiscated, and each tribe stored them away safely. In the present day, sensing Superman, Earth’s protector’s death, the Mother Boxes call out to Steppenwolf, and he arrives in Themyscira, defeats the Amazons, and steals their Mother Box, and Diana is alerted, and she finds out about the war against Darkseid. She and Bruce team up to gather other metahumans to fight an incoming threat that Lex Luthor warned Bruce about in the previous movie and one that the Parademon's presence made obvious. Bruce first goes to Aquaman, but he refuses. Then Diana goes to Cyborg, who also refuses, but he returns home to find his place ransacked and dad missing, and Bruce successfully recruits Barry because… he needed friends. Honestly, mood. 

Then, the Atlantean outpost is attacked and Mera and Aquaman fail to protect the Mother Box. Then the team received intel from Jim Gordon, while Cyborg joins them, and they discover Steppenwolf’s hideout under the Gotham Harbor, where he’s interrogating S.T.A.R Labs employees, one of them being Silas Stone, Victor’s dad. They fight Steppenwolf, and in the process, the facility is flooded, when Aquaman arrives and buys them time to escape. The team retrieves the Mother Box Silas used to rebuild Victor’s body after he met with a car accident, and the team realizes they could bring Superman back with it. They exhume Superman’s body and revive him in the Kryptonian ship that he arrived on Earth in. An amnesiac Superman then attacks the team and comes to his senses when Lois Lane arrives at the scene. Steppenwolf arrives at S.T.A.R Labs and tries to take the Mother Box when Silas sacrifices himself to superheat the Mother Box. This allows the team to locate the Mother Box using its heat signature. The team travels to an abandoned Russian city, a renamed Pripyat. I swear, this will be relevant. Aquaman and Wonder Woman fight off Steppenwolf, while Cyborg is separating the Mother Boxes (oops, I forgot, if the Mother Boxes conjoin and create a Unity, the Earth is razed and everyone is turned into parademons.), and Batman and The Flash fights off parademons and later rescues a family of people trying to escape whatever Steppenwolf is doing to the place. Okay, so 1. This is an abandoned town hit with a nuclear meltdown. 2. This messes with continuity. The Flash (2023) and ZSJL establish that he cannot relocate people. In the former, it is explicitly stated, and in the latter, it’s shown to us, when he just helps people along to escape in the Gotham Harbor fight, and he saves Iris with small taps. 3. The Flash barely has a role. I’m not saving people is not a vital thing to do, but like, look at what everyone else is doing! Also, they cut such a badass scene to make… whatever the heck we got. Meanwhile, Barry is circling the area to build up a charge to separate the Mother Boxes. Steppenwolf then overpowers the two of them, stabs Victor and rips him away from the Mother Boxes and then Superman arrives with the cheesiest line.

Steppenwolf: They’re too weak to see the truth.

Superman: Well… I believe in truth. But I’m also a fan of Justice.

And proceeds to curb-stomp Steppenwolf. Yes, I know it’s a reference to “Truth, Justice and The American Way” but eugh, could have been done so much better. Especially when you see what they cut to make that scene.

Superman then leaves to… relocate… a freaking building full of civilians. It’s like the movie forgot that it was supposed to be abandoned. Also, do I need to explain what’s wrong with this?

swings at Victor, when Superman lands in front of him, and says “Not impressed.”, and proceeds to curbstomp Steppenwolf.

Just look at this and tell me which one is badass.

Victor keeps getting interrupted by Steppenwolf, so Barry is unable to charge it, but by the time Superman arrives and Victor gets back in position, Barry gets shot, and the Mother Boxes form Unity, and the Earth is destroyed… until this happens. I don’t want to describe this scene, it’s that good.

Whoo, goosebumps. This here is the scene that Whedon cut out to make him save a random family. Instead of the Earth, and quite possibly multiple planets. And provided a payoff to the scene where he turns back time just a little bit earlier in the movie. And set up The Flash movie. And it felt so good to have him finally play a role after being comic relief for the whole movie.

After the fight, a few things happen. 1. Bruce has a Knightmare (get it? Cuz The Dark Knight is having a nightmare? Yeah… not subtle at all.) where Superman has established an authoritarian role and Batman is teamed up with Joker and most everyone else is dead. 2. Martian Manhunter reveals himself to Bruce and offers to help when the time comes. 3. Lex Luthor tells Deathstroke Batman’s identity to help him kill him.

Ooooookkkkkkaaaaayyyyy that was long. Still alive? Good. We are only halfway done.

Aquaman (2018)

Budget: $160–200 million

Box Office: $1.148 billion (Wow.)

IMDb: 6.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C:65% A: 72%

Huh did not expect that. DC’s highest grossing movie is Aquaman. Aquaman, the butt of every Justice League joke. Aquaman performed better than Batman v. Superman, a movie with two of the most iconic superheroes ever, and Justice League, the team of the most iconic superheroes. Okay, well, the movies themselves were not very good, but like, Aquaman. Sorry, I just can’t get over that fact. I personally love like (let’s not go that far. Despite being King of Atlantis and my love for the ocean, he’s still not very likeable in the comics. The movies are good though, they do his abrasiveness quite well.) Aquaman (No, it’s not just because of Jason Momoa’s abs, shuddup), but he never struck me as a very popular character.

This movie is a sort of origin story..? This movie takes place after Justice League, where he was man with trident who talked to fish, while in this movie he comes into his role as King of Atlantis. 

I loved the movie. Obviously. I loved Jason Momoa’s acting, I love his characterization, his character arc, I love how well the underwater CGI is done, I loved Atlantis, the adaptation of Black Manta, Orm is good enough. Especially after reading the comics. 

Plot: Origin story. Not very many additions, but it includes Black Manta’s origins, a son of a pirate that Aquaman refused to save, and now he made his life’s mission hunting him down. Never really liked him, kind of a boring villain writing, just look at Reverse Flash to see how well it can be accomplished.

Shazam! (2019)

Budget: $90–100 million

Box Office: $367.7 million

IMDb: 7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 90% A: 82% (Wow, critics score higher than audience.)

From the supposedly “dark” franchise, we get a comedy film. Okay, well, the main character is a teenage kid, would be dumb to make it dark. Okay, I take that back, Damian Wayne stories are about a pre-teen kid, and do they get dark sometimes. Anyways, it’s a pretty funny movie, not very deep, but enjoyable and a reprieve. I just realized I missed Shazam! in my Justice League shallow dive :P. Well, this will be good enough ig. Also, did you know Shazam! was called Captain Marvel? Well, he still is, sometimes, but they can’t market him as Captain Marvel. It is a little off-topic, but let me take you back to the 1940s. In the 1940s, Captain Marvel was the most popular superhero around, outselling even Superman. This led to DC getting salty, and they decided to sue Fawcett Comics, then owner of the character, for infringing their copyright for Superman. In 1941 DC tried unsuccessfully to stop Fawcett from publishing them and from Republic Films from releasing a serial based on the character. Fawcett won, due to a technicality, but found that he was indeed an illegal copy. Then in 1951, DC appealed the decision, and due to the drop in comic sales, Fawcett decided it was not worth fighting and paid DC for damages and dissolved its comics in the coming years, and in 1967 Marvel trademarked the name in 1972 and that was an issue when DC licensed the rights to all Fawcett characters, and that led to them retitling it to Shazam!. Anyways, sorry for lengthening this already gigantic post.

I liked the movie. It does its job as a comedy superhero film pretty well, and it’s a good adaptation of him. Yeah, nothing much to say here.

Plot: Billy Batson is a kid in the foster system, who keeps running away from foster homes in search of his mother, and he eventually lands in the house of Víctor and Rosa Vásquez with five other children, Mary Bromfield, Pedro Peña, Eugene Choi, Darla Dudley, and superhero enthusiast Freddy Freeman. He gets selected by a wizard to be his new champion, giving him the ability to turn into an adult man who has the Wisdom of Solomon, the Strength of Hercules, the Stamina of Atlas, the Lightning of Zeus, the Courage of Achilles, and the Speed of Mercury (I do not know why the first is Christian, the next five Greek and the last Roman. Although, I guess Shazah doesn’t have the same ring to it.)

In a flashback at the beginning of the movie, we see Thaddeus Sivana also tested by the wizard but is rejected because of his greed, and he lives the rest of his life consumed by anger due to that.

Sivana deduces his identity, and he takes his foster sibling hostage in exchange for the power, but he shares his powers with them and they team up to beat Sivana.

Birds Of Prey And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

Budget: $82-100 million

Box Office: $205.3 million

IMDb: 6.1/10

RT: C: 79% A: 78%

The film adaptation of my personal favourite DC teams. I mean, an all-girls (most of the time) team with Batgirl and Black Canary (most of the time)?

Margot Robbie, the actress for Harley Quinn, pitched the idea for a Harley Quinn spin-off in 2015, before the release of Suicide Squad, as "an R-rated girl gang film including Harley because I was like, 'Harley needs friends.'” She spent 3 years working on it and WB decided to make and it hired Cathy Yan, which makes this one of the few superhero films directed by a woman of colour. Batgirl was excluded from the movie for her standalone film. Huh, I thought it was because she was a problematic character to adapt. In 2018 it was announced that the lineup would include Huntress, Black Canary, and Renee Montoya. I refuse to call her Cassandra Cain. With so many things that the movie did right, Cassandra Cain is not it. She has 0 characteristics of the comic book character and I’m not even being hyperbolic. Seriously, I dare you to find one similarity. I’ll just be calling her uhhh Pickpocket. Yeah, that’s good enough.

I watched the movie again today, and oh my god, it. is. AWESOME! Harley Quinn is awesome, obviously. Huntress, oh my god, she’s my new celeb crush.

She’s soooo badass. She has this arc like, she just got into the role, and is trying so hard to be badass, practising in the mirror, saying stuff like “Do you know who I am?”, and “They call me… The Huntress.” It’s also a running gag that whenever she says “They call me…” the other party replies “The Crossbow Killer” and “Helena Bertinelli!”. But she’s so badass when she’s not trying, true to the comics version.

Renee is also cool, a little older tho, but that’s fine.

Oh, Black Canary was soooo good too. A pretty good adaptation, though not truly comic-accurate. 

Cassandra Cain. Just read my Batfamily shallow dive, and read her character here. You’ll see why I refuse to call her Cassandra Cain.

Plot: Years ago, all of the Bertinelli family is gunned down for their fortune, but Helena survives and is taken in and trained as an assassin, and is trying to kill all the people responsible for the massacre of her family (The plot is pretty uhh back-and-forthey, and it keeps switching between flashbacks and the present, so I’m going to try to do this chronologically).

Dinah Lance breaks Roman Sionis’s (Black Mask, played by… Ewan McGregor… Obi-Wan Kenobi. I’m sorry when he commits all these evil deeds I can’t see anyone but Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not his fault, I’m just really bad at not relating it to actors’ past roles.) driver’s legs and is hired by him to be his new driver.

GCPD detective Renee Montoya is investigating the “Crossbow Killer” murders and tries to recruit Dinah as an informant, but she refuses.

Four years after the events of Suicide Squad, Joker and Harley break up, and because no one believed that they were actually broken up, Harley drives a truck into ACE Chemicals, “publicly announcing her relationship status”. 

Sionis sends Victor Zsasz and Dinah to retrieve a diamond embedded with the account numbers to the Bertinelli Fortune, but Pickpocket steals it, but she’s caught by the police, so she swallows it.

Harley is kidnapped by Sionis’s men, and she offers to steal the diamond back, and after she’s sent to retrieve it, a bounty is placed on Pickpocket. Harley breaks into the GCPD and rescues Cassandra. They hide out at Harley’s apartment, which is bombed by Sionis’s men. Harley calls Sionis to exchange Pickpocket for his protection, Dinah notifies Montoya, Zsasz tells Sionis about her betrayal, and Sionis dons his eponymous “Black Mask” and decides to go after them at Amusement Mile.

At the park, Montoya confronts Harley, but they fight and Montoya is defenestrated. Zsasz arrives and shoots Harley with a tranq, and holds Dinah at gunpoint when he arrives, but he’s shot by Helena. Montoya returns and tells Helena that Sionis orchestrated the massacre when Sionis arrives with an army of henchmen. They fight, but Pickpocket is caught, and Harley and Huntress try to save her. Pickpocket reveals that she had a grenade in hand, and blows Sionis up, in the only scene that I could think of that gave this movie an R rating, aside from the f words. Montoya quits the GCPD, and Helena, Dinah and Montoya create the crimefighting team of Birds Of Prey.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Budget: $200 million

Box Office: $169.6 million

IMDb: 5.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 58% A: 73%

Plot: Diana gets a wishing stone, wishes for Steve Trevor back, and he comes back… in another man’s body??? And they have sex while he is in another man’s body??? Yeah, I don’t know how no one saw any issue with that. A woman jealous of Diana’s beauty and popularity wishes to be like her, and turns into a Cheetah, a businessman named Maxwell Lord gets the stone, saves his company, makes everyone in the world wish for anything and chaos unfolds and Diana renounces her wish and Steve is gone, Wonder Woman and Cheetah fight, Max and Diana fight, everyone renounces their wish, the end.

(Yeah, I’m in a rush, and this movie is too terrible for me to put any effort into it. Sorry.)

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Budget: $185 million

Box Office: $168.7 million

IMDb: 7.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 90% A: 82%

Yeah, confusing name, I know, but it’s more of a relaunch than a direct sequel.

This is the movie I said where the box office will be relevant. For such a critically acclaimed movie, it grossed only $168 million, the lowest of any DCEU film. 

In 2018, James Gunn, director of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 1-3, and several other… let’s just say interesting films, and now co-CEO of DC Films. I didn’t really know much about him, until recently, except that he directed an awesome DC movie, and he’s possibly the best person to take DC forward according to other people.

How James Gunn Deradicalizes the Manosphere | A RETROSPECTIVE

Watch this to see why I love him so much now. Oh wait oops um… His movies have some pretty… disturbing imagery, so uh only watch it if you’re up for that…. Which you probably definitely aren’t.

DC first asked him to make a Superman movie, which he said he didn’t know if he wanted to make, so they told him he could adapt any DC property he wanted to, and he chose Suicide Squad.

He also insisted on an R-rating, which I love it for. The movie would not be the same without the gratuitous violence. Yeahhh, I did a full 180 from cringing at amputations to loving gratuitous violence. Wow. Who knew I’d be here? I mean okay, it’s obviously where I’d have been, after reading Attack On Titan and Chainsaw Man and DC Black Label stuff. 

He took inspiration from John Ostrander’s 1980s Suicide Squad run, drawn to it because of its loser B-grade supervillains.

The first character he chose was King Shark, who was supposed to be in the first movie but was replaced by Killer Croc, and the others added were Peacemaker, Polka-Dot Man, and a gender-swapped Ratcatcher.

He chose Starro The Conqueror as the villain, who struck him as absurd but terrifying, reflecting what he wanted to do with the film. 

I don’t really care much for actors, but there’s one actor I’ve loved for a long time. David Dastmalchian, Polka-Dot Man. Why do I love this guy you haven’t ever heard about? Well, look at his roles.

The Dark Knight (2008) - Thomas Schiff, one of Joker’s deranged henchmen.

Ant-Man (2015), Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018), What If..? Episode 5 (2021), Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania - Kurt, (in the first three ) one of Ant-Man’s friends, and in the latter movie, a being named… Veb?

Gotham (2017) - Dwight Pollard, one of Joker’s followers.

The Flash (2017, 2021) - Abra Kabadra, a Flash villain who’s a technomagician.

Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One and Two (2021) - Julian Day (Calendar Man), Oswald Cobblepot (Penguin) 

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Yep, he played 8 different roles in superhero movies and 6 in various DC media. If I were an actress, I would want a resume just like that.

David Dastmalchian suffered from bullying due to his vitiligo in his childhood and developed depression and addiction, and comics gave him much-needed escapism and became somewhat of a comic devotee.

He first auditioned for a member of the Joker crew in the famous heist scene from The Dark Knight, but he didn’t get the part and was devastated. Four months later, however, he received a call that he was cast as Thomas Schiff. A small role, but one he credits with changing his life.

That’s why he was perfect for the role of Polka-Dot Man. Gunn wrote the character with Dastmalchian in mind.

Gunn messaged him saying that he wanted him in his film, and he was wrought with anticipation for what role he was going to play. 

“I am very familiar with so much of the DC canon, and I know the DC villains so well, and he’s like, ‘I want you to be Abner Krill, Polka-Dot Man,'” Dastmalchian recalled. “I was so embarrassed. And I’m like, ‘James, I’m so sorry. I don’t know anything about him.’ He’s like, ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry. I want you to read the script and let me know how you feel.'”

“I was jumping up and down. I was crying. I was yelling,” Dastmalchian said. “I was so moved by what I read, and I was so moved by the thought that he would imagine me getting to bring to life a character that was beautifully created. James told me that when he was writing the character, he just saw me in his place.”

Polka-Dot Man’s abusive mother infected him with an alien virus, to turn him into a superhero, but it left him covered in polka dots and pustules, leading to ridicule and bullying. You can see how he could connect with a character like that.

“I connected with Abner from his first line,” he says. Dastmalchian sees Polka-Dot Man as an avatar for triumph against one’s insecurities.

“I love that Abner came to a point where he not only embraces his strangeness, he turns it into a superpower,” Dastmalchian says. “That’s what we all can do. We have things about ourselves that make us insecure, that make us ashamed. We keep things locked up, and they end up eating us from the inside.”

“We can do the work, get therapy or connect with people that help expel those viruses,” he explains. “We can love ourselves and figure we are meant to be the way we are. We’re fucking superheroes.”

Also, Peacemaker is John Cena.

It’s such a great movie, I was shocked to learn that it was the lowest-grossing DC movie. I guess an R-rating, a pandemic, a terrible prequel and a simultaneous streaming release will do that.

It’s a hilarious, gory, self-aware, ridiculous movie and an awesome adaptation of lesser-known DC supervillains that have been given a new lease on life. And also, Harley Quinn is great, obviously.

Plot: Amanda Waller assembles two Task Force X teams, who are sent to the island nation of Corto Maltese, unaware of each other. The movie goes into quite a bit of effort building character, to unceremoniously annihilate them, but Colonel Rick Flag and Harley Quinn survive. Their massacre provided a distraction for the other team to arrive safely. The team is commanded to find Flag and Harley Quinn, and massacre a soldier base, only to find out it belonged to a rebel group. Harley is captured by the dictator who is in love with Harley. Harley, after her experience with Joker, kills him and in a ridiculously over-the-top, awesome action sequence escapes to find… the others executing a “really good plan” to rescue her. She joins them and finds out that the Project Starfish, whose files they were there to destroy, was funded by the US Government, and the team splits, with one side dedicated to their mission, and the other who wanted to expose the secret. Peacemaker, on the former side, kills Flag but is killed by Bloodsport before he could kill Ratcatcher. Then Starro escapes and starts controlling the cities’ population. Waller orders them to leave, deeming the mission complete, but they revolt, and when Waller was about to detonate the bombs, she is knocked out by a member of the team, and directs them to defeat Starro. In a post-credits scene, the revolters are punished by assigning them to a new mission with Peacemaker, who is revealed to be alive.

Peacemaker (2021)

IMDb: 8.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes: C: 94% A: 89%

A spin-off series set after the events of The Suicide Squad directed by James Gunn.

It follows Peacemaker and Waller’s subordinates punished for insubordination by having to work with Peacemaker. I won’t go into the plot in detail, because it’s an 8 episode series with long ass episodes. The basic premise is, there’s an alien invasion of Butterflies, who take over people's bodies and give them super strength and such, and are trying to take over Earth, and the team has to destroy their food source. It has the same gory and humorous tone, and there’s a subplot of him coming to terms with his abusive Neo-Nazi dad’s terrible acts, oh oh, there’s a great lesbian character too. 

Black Adam (2021)

Budget: $190-260 million

Box Office: $393.3 million

IMDb: 6.3/10

RT: C: 38% A: 88% (wow that is some disparity)

Dwayne Johnson was set to play the character in Shazam!, but he urged to give him his own movie. This movie was supposedly supposed to be “the movie that saved DC”. Honestly, feels like a movie just to have Dwayne Johnson attached to the franchise. It just ended up feeling like a cookie-cutter superhero (ahem, antihero) film.

Plot: Kahndaq was once ruled by a dictator, and a young boy received the powers of Shazam and killed the dictator. Present-day Kahndaq is oppressed by a gang, and Adrianna Tomaz is trying to locate the Crown of Sabbac, she finds it, but her colleagues are killed and she reads the incantation and Teth-Adam arrives and kills them all. Amanda Waller calls the Justice Society, consisting of Atom Smasher, Cyclone, Doctor Fate and Hawkman, to apprehend him. 

Sidenote, I am so happy that Hawkman finally got a film adaptation. He is such an interesting character in the comics. They stop his killing spree and tell Adrianna that he is not a savior, but an imprisoned killer. Her son Amon hid the crown but they took him hostage. They give him the crown but he betrays her, and Adam gets mad and kills the leader and wounds Amon. Adam reveals to Hawkman that his son was the one who was given the powers but he gave his powers to him to save him and died. He surrenders because he felt unworthy and is imprisoned deep underwater by the JSA.

Ishmael comes back as Sabbac and tries to destroy the city. The JSA fail to stop him when Adam comes back and saves all of them.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods (2023)

Plot: After the events of Shazam!, Hespera and Kalypso steal the wizard’s broken staff and force him to fix it. Freddy falls in love with a girl named Anne. Anne is apparently Anthea, and her sisters appear and take Freddy’s powers and he is imprisoned with the Wizard. The Shazam family fight them, but Hespera steals a Golden Apple, a seed for the Tree Of Life. Meanwhile, Anthea helps Freddy and the wizard escape. Hespera and Anthea want to revive their realm with it while Kalypso wants to destroy Earth with it. Kalypso steals the apple and plants it on Earth. Hespera is mortally wounded and Anthea loses her powers, and Shazam gets Hespera’s help to beat Kalypso and in the ensuing fight, Shazam dies and Wonder Woman brings him back to life. Also, for some reason, Wonder Woman appears in this movie and The Flash. I have no idea why. Maybe Gal Gadot had too much time on her hands.

The Flash (2023)

The chronological movie that reboots the DCEU and jumpstarts the DC Universe.

This movie, whoo. Attempts for a Flash movie date back to the 1980s, but let’s not start the story there.

DC had plans for a Flash movie when they created the DCEU, and in 2016, the movie was set to release in 2018. 

I became a DC fan in 2018, after reading The Death Of Superman and watching the Zack Snyder movies, and later, a ton of Flash comics, so I have been following the release of this movie well before production began. The movie had been in development hell for a very long time, with so many directors being hired then leaving, until 2019, when Andy Muschietti and Christina Hodson signed on and Ezra Miller, the actor for The Flash finished filming TERF movie, and the movie was scheduled to release July 1st 2022 (I was very sceptical when that news came out, and turns out, I was right to be). The movie was set to adapt the Flashpoint storyline, where Barry goes back in time to prevent his mom’s death, resulting in an alternate timeline where Thomas Wayne is Batman while Bruce Wayne was gunned down, and the Atlanteans and Amazons are in a war that could destroy the Earth, Superman is imprisoned in a government facility, and Barry has no powers, and when Barry corrects the timeline, things have changed, and sets up the New 52, so this can transition into the rebooted DCU slate that James Gunn announced. The movie was again shifted to June 3, 2023, due to the pandemic. Michael Keaton was also hired to reprise his role from the 1989 and 1992 Batman movies, along with Ben Affleck.

Hehe, that’s hilarious

I thought chemistry tests meant like idk CSI stuff and Zoom as in Professor Zoom, Reverse-Flash, or, Zoom, the second Reverse-Flash. I still don’t know what chemistry tests mean, testing the chemistry between actors? I don't know why anyone needed to know that information.

Throughout 2022, a controversy much worse than the development hell it went through hit the movie.

Safe to say, Ezra Miller is a terrible person, but replacing them in the role was pretty much impossible, and the movie couldn’t be cancelled because it was so far ahead in production and had a massive budget. The movie did release, but marketing had to be limited due to this.

Plot: Barry Allen’s dad, Henry Allen is set to appeal for his wrongful imprisonment. He visits his childhood home, and overcome with emotions, he accidentally travels back in time a few hours. He tells Batman about it, and he tells Barry that changing things could have unintended consequences. But he ignores it, and prevents his mother’s death, and on the way back to the present, he is knocked out of the Speed Force by another speedster, arrives in 2013, where his mom is alive and his dad is not imprisoned. He encounters his past self, and realizes that he is currently in the day that Barry got his powers, so he rushes his past self to Central City PD so his past self gets his powers too. But, they both get struck by lightning and 2013-Barry gains powers while Barry loses his. Barry trains 2013-Barry to use his powers when they see a transmission by General Zod on a TV screen, and Barry tries to assemble the Justice League, only to find that Aquaman was never born, Wonder Woman can’t be located, Clark Kent doesn’t seem to exist, and Victor Stone is not Cyborg yet. They then travel to Wayne Manor, where they find an old Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) who retired from crime fighting because Gotham is now a safe place (yeah, right), and he explains to Barry that changing events also affect the past. They use the Batcomputer to locate the Kryptonian pod, which is revealed to have landed in Siberia. They go to the Siberian facility but find an emaciated girl instead, who they rescue, and who is revealed to be Kryptonian and she kills the Siberian soldiers. Then she refuses to help them as she thinks humanity is cruel. She then leaves to find Zod. Barry asks Bruce to help him regain his powers, and he tries twice but fails, but Kara returns, saying that Kryptonians are people of hope, not war, and flies Barry into a thundercloud, which succeeds in giving him his powers. They all go to fight Zod, and he reveals that Kara has the Codex, not Kal-El, and fights and kills her to retrieve the Codex, and Bruce sacrifices himself to unsuccessfully destroy a Kryptonian ship. The two Barrys travel back in time to save them but fail, and they try again but fail again, and Barry realizes that they can’t be saved while 2013-Barry keeps trying again and again, failing each time. The speedster who knocked him out of the Speed Force is revealed to be a future 2013-Barry, who kept trying for years and fights Barry, and 2013-Barry sacrifices himself to wipe the future version out of existence, and Barry goes back to prevent himself from preventing his mom’s death, but apparently, he learned absolutely nothing because he placed the can of tomatoes that his dad picked up on the day of his mother’s death on the top shelf, so the camera could capture his dad’s face, acquitting him. He calls Bruce Wayne to let him know of the good news, and he informs him that he is arriving at the courthouse. And he steps out of the car and we see… George Clooney, from the infamous 1997 Batman and Robin.

Okay, so that was a monstrous post :P. Idk why I did this it was probably hella boring. See ya!

[puccafangirl]

Happy 10th anniversary to Ice Age 4: Continental Drift! So sorry this took me so long. I overslept way too much and was only able to draw this near the end of the day. Not to mention the fact that I'm a slow artist. Anyway, now to go into detail about my history with this film as well!

Y'all, the hype I felt for this film was so real. After I watched Ice Age 3 and fell in love with the franchise, I eagerly awaited a fourth Ice Age film for a long time. When the first official poster was released, I did so much squealing and felt so much excitement that I called my Mom late at night just to express my excitement over it.

And when the first teaser came out featuring the tradition of showing a scene with Scrat at the beginning of the film, I couldn't stop watching it! I even gushed about it to my teacher Jenn Cancino for a while because I just had to talk to someone about it!

But one other really fond memory I have is when Blue Sky announced the release date of the next trailer of the movie and how when I got to that day, I spent the whole time at school just anxiously and excitedly waiting to get home just so I could watch it. And then I watched it and my excitement grew!

After that, I pretty much spent a huge portion of my teenage/high school years obsessively looking for any news or new clips I haven't seen yet that I could find. Even when that "We are Family" song came out, I instantly downloaded it to my iPod and listened to it at school pretty much all the time. Same with the "Chasing the Sun" song. C:

It was just on my mind every single day and I just could never stop thinking about it until I saw it! And once July 13th finally came and I got to see it, I was legit sweating from excitement that's how hyped I was. My leg was also bouncing practically the whole time I watched it.

And the thing is, I know that a lot of people dislike Ice Age 4 and usually say that that's when the franchise went downhill. But me personally? I loved it. Not just because of the nostalgia I associate with it, but because I think it did a really great job at portraying the relationship between the herd and how far they've come as a family since the past films. And of course Scrat's scenes were super fun to watch. Need I remind everyone how hard I stimmed when I saw Scratte's cameo as a siren for the first time? eue

I think this movie was what also introduced me to the talented Nick Bruno. Cause he was a supervising animator on the film and he did a spectacular job on that. That's when we started talking a few times and when I of course expressed my love for how the film came out thanks to him and the rest of the talented folks at Blue Sky. ^^ I think I got a little closer with some other people at Blue Sky too so there's something to always be thankful for!

So yeah, while Ice Age 3 is still my favorite and the one that gave me the most fond memories, Ice Age 4 gave me a lot of fond memories too. It was one of the most exciting events of my life and I'll never forget all the positive experiences it gave me. <3

But anyway, on to the picture. I know that Gupta looks terrible and it's definitely one of the many signs that I've drawn Scrat and Scratte WAY more than the other characters, but I still tried my best. I hope this is still a decent enough tribute to the film. Thanks for making such a wonderful film as always Blue Sky! It'll always hold a special place in my heart along with the rest of the franchise! ♥

[solalunar-eclipse]

Sonic Boom -  S3E7

Episode title: Slow Growing

Word count: about 4300 words

AN: We’re finally coming up to this fic’s first major plot point! (I’ve been waiting for this for quite some time...)

First | Previous | Next

...

It was a beautiful sunny day, with only a single cloud drifting across the otherwise pure blue sky. Tails typed away busily on his Miles Electric next to Amy, who was reclining in a deck chair on the beach. The crash of waves and the sound of seagulls would have been more than enough to leave them both perfectly at peace…

…had it not been for Sticks hyping up Knuckles a few feet away while he worked on lifting weights.

“Twenty-eight! Twenty-nine! Thirty!” the badger cried. Immediately, Knuckles dropped his homemade barbell into the sand, strolling over and brushing his hands off.

“How do you like that?” he said proudly, stretching out his arms. “That’s a new weight record!”

“I would like it better if I wasn’t trying to relax.” Amy shot back acidly.

Tails smiled weakly. “Congratulations?”

Sticks huffed, rolling her eyes. “Relaxation. Who can relax when aliens could abduct us all at any moment?!” She sprang into a defensive position. “We should all be training! Right now!”

The echidna beamed somewhat obliviously, delighted to be receiving attention for his work. Unfortunately for him, though, his moment in the spotlight was promptly stolen when Sonic returned from his run—and immediately tripped over his own feet and faceplanted into the sand.

“Sonic?!” Amy cried, rushing over to help him up. “Are you okay?”

“Ugh…thanks, Ames.” he muttered, shaking sand out of his quills. “Just think I might need new shoes soon, these ones are wearing out.”

“New shoes?” Tails called. “I have a few spares in my workshop, but I’ll need to retake your measurements just to make sure they fit right.”

“Why do you need new shoes?” Sticks asked, getting down on her hands and knees to squint at his sneakers. “They don’t have tracking chips in them, do they?!”

Sonic smiled awkwardly. “Nah, I just run so fast I wear down any shoes I use after a while. Tails makes me special ones that don’t break as fast, but nobody’s figured out the secret to invincible shoes yet.”

“If they do, they’re probably an evil mastermind.” Sticks whispered dramatically.

[Generic creepy music plays as the camera zooms in on her face.]

Behind her back, Tails tried very hard to look innocent all of a sudden.

“But anyway, what’re you guys gonna do now?” the hero asked, flopping down on a chair with a casual air that was just a little too practiced.

“Amy and I are going to try decoding some old Ancient writing I found recently!” Tails exclaimed, his tails swishing back and forth.

Knuckles waved his hand in the air, bouncing excitedly. “Ooh! Ooh! Me next!”

“Go ahead, Knux.” Sonic said good-naturedly.

“Sticks and I are going to go treasure hunting in the caves today!” the echidna announced proudly. 

The hero pouted. “So I guess you’ll all be busy then, huh?”

“Sorry…” Tails said, embarrassed. “We didn’t even realize!”

The others cringed guiltily. “I mean, you can hang out with us if you want!” Amy suggested.

“Or you can come searching for treasure with us!” Sticks offered.

“Nah, it’s all good.” Sonic said, waving a hand. “Actually, I was thinking I might hang around Shadow’s cave a little, see what happens.”

“Are you sure?” the pink hedgehog asked. “I don’t know if that would work…it might just irritate him.”

“I won’t push it too far, don’t worry, Ames!” Sonic said confidently. “After all, when have I ever made him that mad?”

The faces of the other four spoke volumes.

…

[The same intro sequence plays as usual…with one minor change—all of Sonic’s scenes are now him interacting with Shadow in some form or another.

No villain reveal occurs this time. The camera instead shows a video of the town square, with Shadow sitting on top of a building. The film has an amateur-ish quality to it, as the camera shakily zooms in on Shadow. Suddenly, he seems to notice the attention, teleporting directly in front of the cameraperson before smacking his palm into the lens. The camera shakes for a moment, and then the feed cuts to static.]

[The sequence then continues, before ending with the title of this week’s episode.]

…

Tails bounced around in his workshop like an overcaffeinated ping-pong ball, setting everything up for Amy. The center of his messy workstation held three different tablet-shaped items hooked up to various wires in his workshop. All three had some sort of strange, neon blue text in an unrecognizable language filling up their screens. 

“I’m just about finished downloading all the information on these!” he exclaimed, gesturing in the general direction of the complex wiring.

Amy walked over to the desk that held the whole setup and began to pore over the language. “I can’t translate every single word of these, but some of them look like logs of complicated events. Thankfully, I brought my dictionary, so hopefully we should be able to get at least a bit of a picture about what these are saying.”

“We can’t actually get a picture, they’re just words.” Tails called from the other side of the room.

“You know what I meant!” Amy cried, folding her arms indignantly. 

The fox giggled. “Yeah, I do.”

“But anyway,” he continued, “is there anything else I can do to help? I’ve already made double backups of the text in case something happens, and I wanted to give one to you. You know, in case some sort of catastrophic explosion happens here.”

“Knowing you, that’ll happen three times before the week is out.” Amy remarked, smirking as she took the spare USB drive from Tails.

“Hey!” he huffed. “I’ll have you know that the explosions I make only cause problems for other people, not for me.”

The pink hedgehog laughed. “Let’s just hope one of those people is never me.”

Tails raised a brow ridge. “Help me translate these, and I might just throw in a ‘free protection from explosions’ coupon as well.”

“Alright then!” Amy said, a bit of laughter in her voice. She planted her hands on her hips. “Guess I’d better get to it!”

…

Meanwhile, deep within the caves on Mt. Tall (because yet again, the inhabitants of Seaside Island and Hedgehog Village in particular proved themselves to be terrible at naming locations), Sticks and Knuckles scavenged for mechanical items…or anything else even remotely shiny, honestly. 

The echidna’s arms were already half full with various trinkets and treasures, so all he could do was walk and watch as Sticks skittered on ahead, peering into various cracks and crevices. “Ooh, here’s another one!” they cried, pulling a tangle of copper wire from where it had gotten wedged behind a rock. “This should help with my monitoring-government-monitoring device!”

“Aww, it’s not heavy enough to add much weight.” Knuckles said sadly. “I wanted to see if my training made me stronger!”

Sticks smiled conspiratorially. “Don’t worry—we can definitely make some weights out of the best rocks we find after we’re done!”

Knuckles’s expression brightened considerably. “Awesome!”

Suddenly, though, Sticks’s eyes widened as they caught sight of something just behind Knuckles. “Wait…what’s that?”

“Uh…another cave?” he asked, frowning in the direction Sticks was pointing.

“No, not the opening!” they cried, rushing up to the entrance to another cavern, which had initially been hidden by an outcropping of rock. “These carvings around it…they look old. They might even be Ancient carvings!”

“Isn’t that what you just said?” Knuckles asked. “I at least know that old and ancient are the same thing.”

Sticks sighed, shaking their head. “I mean big-A Ancient, not small-a ancient.” they explained. “Like the group of people, not a description.”

“Oh…” Knuckles said, frowning. “Oh! I get it now!”

The badger did a small fist-pump, grinning. “Alright! Now let’s go inside and see what’s there!”

They took one step forward, then two—and then promptly vanished with a shriek.

…

Sonic stretched and yawned overdramatically, wandering back and forth outside of Shadow’s cave. “Hmmm, it’s really boring out here. If only there was someone nearby who I could hang out with…” he called.

A dark shape appeared just at the edge of the sunlight that spilled into the cave. “You’re being ridiculously loud. What do you even want.”

“Didn’t you hear? I wanna not be bored anymore.” Sonic shot back.

“I meant,” Shadow continued, stepping forward reluctantly into the light, “what do you want from me?”

The hero’s smile broadened, and he began to shift eagerly in place, stretching out his legs. “Well, since you asked so nicely…a race.”

Shadow frowned for a moment, processing his suggestion. “And what’s in it for me?”

“Isn’t the chance you might win enough?” Sonic asked hopefully.

Slowly, a smirk began to spread across the striped hedgehog’s face. “You’re on.”

They lined up directly in front of the cave. Sonic crouched down into a sprinter’s start position while Shadow fired up his skates. “Alright, so we’ll do a lap around the island, and whoever wins gets bragging rights for the next…week, okay?”

“Deal. And no cutting across the middle.” Shadow said.

“Aw, come on, Shads, why’d you even think I’d do something like that?” Sonic asked.

“I just don’t want you to think you can start cheating once you fall behind.” Shadow said. “Three…”

“Two…” the hero muttered.

“One…”

“GO!”

Sonic tore off instantly at top speed, while Shadow took just a second or two longer to ramp his movement up to his usual pace. “Hey Shadow!” Sonic called smugly. “Guess now you’re the one who’s only as fast as a panther, huh?”

The striped hedgehog growled, a mixture of irritation and embarrassment twisting inside him as he shot ahead. After a minute or two of furious skating, he managed to pull even with Sonic despite the other’s early lead.

And then, as was to be expected when two supersonic hedgehogs were competing with one another, they both began to show off. Sonic rushed up a tree and hopped from branch to branch to avoid the obstacles on the ground, while Shadow leapt over roots and shoved aside boulders as if they were nothing. 

Once or twice, the hero showed off a breakdancing move or an extra complicated flip, and Shadow spent an entire mile and a half skating entirely backwards. Before long, they had both lost any sense of trepidation or embarrassment, and were (though the latter would never admit it) simply just having fun.

Eventually, though, after a few beats of silence, Shadow suddenly noticed that the lack of taunting had stretched on too long and looked to his left.

Sonic wasn’t there.

When he looked around, in fact, the hero wasn’t anywhere to be seen at all. Shadow skidded to a stop and hesitated for a few moments, before blasting back the way he had come. 

He retraced his steps through the forest, searching for any sign of Sonic, but he found none. Eventually, he ended up back at the exact point on the trail where he had last seen the other, and began to carefully follow the blue hedgehog’s tracks. 

After a few minutes of light skating, he began to hear something off in the distance. It didn’t sound like wildlife, nor anything else natural.

It almost seemed like…yelling?

“….me! He….”

Shadow raced towards the sound, and after a moment he began to realize what it was. Sonic was in danger and (presumably) unable to rescue himself, and so was shouting as loudly as possible for help.

If it was dangerous enough to make him drop his ego and cry out, then Shadow had to be prepared for whatever might have hurt Sonic. As he drew closer and closer to the sounds, he summoned some Chaos energy into his hand…

…

“Any progress so far?” Tails asked, returning from his trip into the house for some drinks.

“Yes, actually!” Amy said happily, sitting upright and stretching briefly after being in one position for so long. “Did you find any tea?” 

“No, sorry.” the fox said sheepishly. “We only really have soda, hot chocolate, and decaf coffee, so I got you the decaf.”

“Soda and coffee? In the same house as Sonic?” she asked, raising a brow at him.

“I know, I know…it used to be regular coffee, for when I wanted to spend a late night working in here. When Sonic moved back, I caught him trying to break into my caffeine stash, so…I threw out the coffee really fast before anything else could happen.”

“Well, that’s sensible, at least.” Amy said, taking a sip of her drink. “So what do you have there?”

“Hot chocolate for me.” Tails shrugged. “I like it better, it just doesn’t have the same kick. But anyway,” he continued hurriedly, seeing Amy eyeing him with her ‘lifestyle makeover’ look, “what did you find?”

Thankfully, the pink hedgehog turned back to her screens at that and began to scroll through the text, looking for something in particular. “This first one is a log of various flora and fauna at the time—a lot of the names are difficult to translate, but the level of detail here is amazing! It also has an entry on Granifer giganticus, which is really helpful.” she began, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“And this next one is…a log detailing the days up until Lyric’s defection. Apparently, the Ancients weren’t prepared for war at all, so the news that he was acting suspiciously just led to some sort of ‘council inquiry’.”

Tails rolled his eyes. “A government that actually tries to help its constituents? You really expect me to believe that?”

“I know it sounds really weird, but it was real!” Amy said.

“And this final one…it’s a log of the robots that they left behind after the war, when their civilization was devastated.” she finished sadly.

Tails leaned a little closer—and then froze. “Wait…what are Mighton and Bolts doing there?”

Right in the middle of the page of Ancient text, a picture of the two robots stood out clear as day. Amy’s eyes widened. “I’d only skimmed over that part, let me see…” she breathed.

Suddenly, she sat upright so quickly she almost knocked the chair over. Wavering in place, she cried, “Tails! This says that Mighton and Bolts—and all the rest of Roboken—are Ancient creations!”

The fox’s eyes widened. “Of course! Their civilization is so advanced, it makes perfect sense!”

“Which means,” Amy continued, now looking almost curiously at Tails, “that you built a robot that could successfully control Ancient technology.”

Tails’s eyes widened excitedly. “I did, didn’t I? I wonder if I could engineer something to access other systems the Ancients built?”

Amy jumped to her feet. “We could learn all kinds of things about their knowledge and their culture!”

The two began to laugh maniacally for a minute, complete with crashing thunder and blinding lightning outside. (Evidently, Tails wasn’t as afraid of storms when they were used solely for dramatic effect.)

Then, Tails scrambled to his workstation to start building, while Amy sat back down and began to scroll through the information with an entirely new level of energy…although it might’ve been the coffee, too.

…

The echidna rushed to the edge of the pit as hai friend’s scream faded into nothing, staring down into the darkness. “Sticks? Sticks?!?”

“I’m okay!” she called, her voice echoing up through the cavern. 

“Oh, good.” Knuckles sighed, relieved. “Can you get back up here?”

“I don’t know…” Sticks muttered, taking a look around. “It’s pretty dark down here.”

“You should’ve worn some special sports tape like mine!” Knuckles called from above, pointing at his glowing red accessories.

The badger rolled her eyes. “I don’t need sports tape to see in the dark.” She smeared some glowing bioluminescent algae (directly from hammer space, of course) on her bo staff, holding it out as it cast a green glow on the ground in front of her. “Not when I have nature to help me, anyway.”

As she continued forward, the staff began to illuminate what appeared to be a…computer terminal?

Sticks lifted her weapon higher, and her eyes widened. 

“Knuckles?” she said, her voice echoing strangely off the walls. “I found some tech, but I think it’s too big for anyone to carry…”

“Ooh! What is it?” he asked excitedly.

“It looks like a giant computer.” Sticks called, frowning at it. “But…it’s broken. Probably doesn’t even have anything worth salvaging by now.”

“Aw…” Knuckles muttered, disappointed. 

Suddenly, the badger noticed something else lying nearby. “Hey, wait! There’s some vines down here!” she exclaimed, hurrying over to them. “I can use these to get out of here!”

Knuckles frowned. “But if you’re down there, how are you supposed to get it up here?”

Sticks began tying one end of the vines to her bo staff, before moving back to the center of the room and holding the staff up like a javelin. “Just like this.” she said, staring up at the hole in the ceiling with determination.

“Yeah!” Knuckles called out. “Throw it as hard as you can!”

She took a couple of steps back, before running forward and throwing her staff as far as she possibly could. It arced up, higher and higher…

…and then Knuckles remembered that he still had his arms full of Sticks’s treasures….

…even as the staff began to fall just short of its target.

Dropping the items, the echidna scrambled forward, throwing himself flat so that he dangled halfway over the edge—and managed to catch the improvised projectile just in time. Carefully, he shimmied his way back onto solid ground, before adjusting his hold on the rope so that the bo staff wouldn’t break.

Immediately, Sticks began to free climb directly up the rope. “Nice catch!” she called.

“Thanks!” Knuckles shouted back.

After a minute or so of climbing, Sticks clawed her way over the edge with a hand from her friend, and lay flat on the floor for a moment just to catch her breath. “Ugh…wow, that sure was something.”

“Well, duh—it was an adventure!” Knuckles said. 

Sticks hauled herself to her feet, smiling even as she began to pick up the scattered wiring and shiny objects. “You’re right! And a good one too.” She smeared some more of the algae on the walls as a warning to future travelers, complete with an arrow pointing at the pit. 

Meanwhile, Knuckles began gathering up some rocks, never deterred from improving his workout regime. He tested each one’s weight briefly before deciding whether to keep or toss it, and eventually ended up with four or five that seemed worth saving.

“Thanks for coming out here with me.” Sticks said, bumping Knuckles’s arm with her own.

“Anytime!” he replied cheerfully. “Just…maybe don’t almost die next time? That was pretty scary.”

“But we made it out alive!” the badger cried excitedly. “I bet nobody else is going to have a story half as cool as ours!”

Knuckles grinned. “There’s no way that could happen.”

…

[Meanwhile…]

Shadow burst into the clearing, fully prepared for a fight—only to see Sonic trapped nearly waist-deep in a patch of mud. The hero was desperately clawing at the grass nearby, but couldn’t seem to find any purchase on the ground at all.

The striped hedgehog walked forward with a sigh and grasped Sonic’s forearm, hauling him upwards. Suddenly, though, Sonic flailed and pulled away as Shadow began to drag him out. “No, wait!”

Shadow frowned. “What?”

“My shoes!” Sonic cried. “They’re stuck—if you keep pulling I’ll lose them!”

“They’ll be ruined this way anyhow, but fine.” he muttered, before warping them both a safe distance away. 

The hero looked down at his shoes and legs, wincing. “Ugh! I didn’t even know that much mud could stick to a guy…gross. At least I was going to get some new shoes soon anyway.”

“Well, now that you owe me a favor, I’m going to go.” Shadow said, turning to walk off. “Don’t run into a mud patch next time—I want to beat you based on actual skill, not because you had to forfeit.”

“Hey!” Sonic cried. “I didn’t forfeit!”

Shadow rolled his eyes. “Are you trying to tell me you can race like that?”

Sonic kicked the toe of one of his shoes against the ground, embarrassed. “No…”

“Exactly. Now leave.” he growled, stalking off. 

The hero grabbed Shadow’s upper arm suddenly. “Wait!”

“Don’t touch me.” Shadow barked, tearing Sonic’s gloved hand off himself.

“Sorry, sorry!” Sonic said, holding his hands up defensively. “It’s just…I don’t think I can run like this at all.”

“What do you mean? Just take off your shoes if they’ve been damaged that badly. You might have to take a slower pace than usual, but that could actually be good for you, you know.” the striped hedgehog shot back.

Sonic shook his head, a blush rising on his face. “I can’t. I’ll…I’ll injure myself if I do.”

Shadow tilted his head to one side slightly, confused. “What?”

The hero winced, rocking back and forth on his feet for a moment—and then he kicked off his shoes entirely. Shadow stiffened, averting his eyes.

“Chill out, I’ve got socks on.” Sonic said teasingly, a smirk on his face. “Besides, all that wearing them’s going to do is make me cold and wet.” He shuddered involuntarily.

Shadow huffed irritably, still refusing to look down. “Shut up.”

“But anyway,” the hero continued, “the thing is…Ihaveflatfeet.” He rushed out the last part of his sentence, his face reddening again as his ears drooped.

“You have…flat feet?”

“Embarrassing for a guy whose thing is running fast, right?” Sonic cut in, laughing awkwardly. “Hah, but anyway, yeah, I have that, didn’t know what it meant for a while so when I was a kid I had bad sneakers and bad running form and all that good stuff so I basically ruined my ankles and now I have to wear special shoes and be extra careful and—”

“Sonic.” Shadow cut in. “Does this mean that you really can’t run back to your house?”

“Y…yes.” he admitted, practically shrinking into himself. “And, uh, I wondered if you could warp me there?”

Shadow frowned. “Unfortunately, I can’t warp long distances. I would have to skate back.”

“Nah, that’d be, uh, weird, haha.” Sonic said quickly, looking anywhere but at Shadow’s face.

The striped hedgehog blinked. “Why—oh.” he said, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly. “Yes, I see.”

After an awkward pause, almost out of nowhere, Shadow grasped Sonic’s wrist with one hand and his back quills with another, before essentially throwing the hero over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Well then. That length of travel may be out of the question, but I will instead take you to the beach, from where you may call someone else to bring you home.” he said, his voice tight and brusque.

“I would say I’m grateful, but also this feels really unheroic.” Sonic muttered.

Shadow glared at nothing. “Don’t be grateful.” he grumbled, and then blasted off. 

Within seconds, they had arrived at the beach. Shadow dumped Sonic on the sand unceremoniously and zipped off again, before returning with his now ruined shoes. “Here. Dispose of them properly—they cannot be classified as anything less than a biohazard now.” he said sharply, still averting his gaze.

An awkward silence fell over the beach, broken only by Sonic’s brief call to Tails to come pick him up. As they waited, the hero moved down the beach slightly so that the ocean waves began to wash away the mud on his legs—though he flinched every time the water so much as brushed his fur.

(Shadow pretended not to notice.)

After a while, Shadow cleared his throat. “I do not consider your…need for specialized shoes to be worth embarrassment.” For emphasis, he lifted up his leg, displaying one of his own skates. “I can certainly run quickly on my own, but these do help to optimize my speed. It is only natural that you would require something similar.”

Sonic tilted his head and looked up at him, raising a brow. “That’s awfully decent of you to say.”

Shadow rolled his eyes. “I merely consider you to be…almost (but not quite) equal to myself. That is all.”

“Awww, does that mean you like me?” Sonic asked, smirking. He knew he was pushing it, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.

“That is highly questionable.” the striped hedgehog shot back, but his mouth was threatening to curl upwards as well. “Do I respect your abilities? Sometimes. Do I find your presence amusing? Rarely. But liking you…”

Before Shadow could finish that sentence, his ears perked up as the whir of a plane motor became audible. Within seconds, he had vanished into the forest, with only a mild depression left in the sand to show that he had ever been there. The hero got up and waved happily at Tails, glancing back at the place where he and his rival had been sitting only once before letting Amy help him onto the plane.

As the three heroes took off, Shadow watched from his perch on the branch of a tree, uncertainty making him tense. He had wanted to laugh at the very notion of liking any of the pathetic inhabitants of this island, let alone his greatest rival. 

But when he leapt down from the tree and began to skate off back to his cave, even when he arrived there and spent much of the rest of the day brooding…

…he still couldn’t bring himself to say that he disliked him, either.

Shadow closed his eyes, leaning back against the cavern wall with a sigh. He thought back over everything that had happened so far, from the storm to the carnival and now to this, as well as everything in between. Only now, as he looked back, could he see the slippery slope that he had taken from hatred to grudging acceptance, and then to…

When had he become so soft?

[roll credits]

[showtoonzfan]

Disney Pixar’s new movie “Turning Red” is honestly getting waaayyy too much hate, especially for a movie that isn’t even out yet. Let’s talk about it for a bit shall we? “Turning red” is a movie about a 13 year old girl named Mei Lee. She’s a girl who speaks her mind and doesn’t waste any time in the world, as well as having a group of girlfriends who stick by her side. Over time, she learns that her family carries a certain tradition, and she turns into a red panda whenever she feels a strong emotion, a metaphor for adolescence and puberty.

https://youtu.be/XdKzUbAiswE

Now I’ll admit, when I first saw the trailer, I wasn’t really jazzed at all. In fact, I was instantly lost during the the first opening SECONDS, I mean....come on, WHEN’S the last time you heard a kid say “Boots n’ Kets?” As the trailer continued, I only rolled my eyes further, because the movie so far was looking like it was REALLY going to be cringe, as well as me being afraid that the kid characters were going to sound like they were clearly written by adults rather than SOUNDING like how actual kids talked today. Like.....yeah, it seemed to me like the main character herself as well as her friends were going to be “QuIRky uWu”, but let’s get to the actual plot. I didn’t hear about this movie by a one click of the trailer, I knew it was a thing when it was announced just around after Soul came out. When I heard about it, I actually really liked the concept, and I still do! A movie about a girl going through puberty and her turning into some kind of animal (a red panda in this case) isn’t bad! There are many things to like about this, like the design of the Red Panda looks adorable, I love how her friends immediately accept her instead of this sort of being a “reveal” story, Mei Lee as a character seems like she’ll be a lot of fun, so yeah, this doesn’t look bad entirely. Not only that, but I’d like to point out that as a female myself, there isn’t a lot of media today about GIRLS going through puberty, (wether it be adult or for kids) but mainly it’s been just boys. I will say that while this movie hasn’t really made me believe that it’s going to be something phenomenal and emotionally moving, (as well as a good depiction on female puberty), hear this.

I’M STILL GOING TO GIVE IT A CHANCE.

Like damn, this is towards all the people who are already shitting on it. At least WATCH the movie when it comes out and THEN gather your thoughts. The fact that people took one look at this trailer and instantly said it’s going to suck, look, I don’t mind if you genuinely feel that way, but please give the movie a chance like I am, because you’re not being fair. Now I will say this. I’m not really jazzed or hype for this movie, I’m kinda “eh” about it, I honestly feel like this will be one of those movies like The Good Dinosaur or.......sigh........Onward, where it just came and went and then nobody talked about it. I have a huge feeling that this movie won’t lead up to my expectations, but I’m going to watch it anyway, as Pixar has shown me they can make damn good films, like Inside Out which was fucking PHENOMENAL, or Coco which was AMAZING. That’s kinda all I wanted to say, again, I’m not really jazzed or obsessed with this so I didn’t want to write too much, but when it comes out, I’ll give it a look!

So what are your thoughts on Turning Red? Do you think it looks good? Bad? What are your thoughts on the characters and concepts? Let me know if you want, and I’ll see you soon! 👋💕

[charliesfantom]

Okay...I don’t want to make assumptions and get my and your hopes up for nothing...

But here me out!

Both of them “felt the need” to clarify that their posts are from the 1st season...

Why? There’s only one season...they’re not currently filming, because nothing has been announced yet, so why did they feel they should clarify?

2 possible scenarios:

They are fucking playing with us! Because they know how much we want another season...and they like keeping us on our toes (🤡)

Or they know something that we don’t (obviously, they’re part of the main cast).

About no.2 -> What if they were picked up for another season before the show came out? Like Disney+ did with High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

Or they did shortly after and they’re waiting for the show to get as hyped as possible?

Because if you think about it, the more we wait for Netflix to announce it, the more we share it with friends, family, people we know or we’re asking people on YouTube to react to it...all this brings more attention to the show, obviously! I’m not saying that we wouldn’t be doing the same if we knew about a season 2. We would! But now, that we’re fighting to get that 2nd season, we’re doing it harder and louder, which results to promoting the show!

Anyway, I don’t know if this makes sense...

Maybe I’m just a dumbass who is trying to cope with the fact that she doesn’t know the fate of her comfort show...

[nanasarea]

Park Jisung as your idol bf

Genre: fluff

Pairing: jisung x idol!reader

Requested

Word count:1757 (dear lord, the longest in the idol bf series damn...) 

a/n: this is more of a jisung as your bf in general, not so much the idol aspect sorry. Also yes, i ended up writing about jisung having a baby, sue me, I’m in jisung hours now! also do i even need to say it’s not proofread at this point?

Haechan /  Yuta / Mark / Jeno / Jaemin / Chenle / Renjun / Jaehyun

you were in the same dance class when you were younger

so you were friends way before either of your debuts

like when you knew each other when he was an smrookie

and of course, both of you being talented dancers

you were both training under companies at a rather young age

and it isn’t easy being a trainee regardless of your age

but because you were both still in school

and so young

you knew you should stick together

let’s say you had chemistry homework

but you also had vocal lessons

i’m not saying he would help you

because he wouldn’t

but he would be there to motivate you 

and study his own school work 

so you weren’t alone

it’s safe to say you were each other’s motivation when it came to school

he would also insist on his mom picking you up from school and driving you to the company when your mom couldn’t

same would go reversed

not that either of your moms minded

they found it adorable

and they shipped you both anyway so

that means him and his family coming over for dinner 

and you and yours going to theirs for dinner

and your moms would document all of your childhood memories

they would bond over it

since you didn’t have time to make any friends in school, 

you both valued your friendship a lot

he ended up debuting before you

and you teased him a lot

until he “taught” you how to ride a hoverboard

and you ended up falling in the first 4 seconds

then he would tease you

and you’d now understand how hard his dances really were

you met most of his members when they were smrookies

but you didn’t know renjun and chenle that well

so whenever you could, 

you would hang out with each other

and become very close

which is why they were all so supportive when you ran into their dorms and yelled that you were debuting 

you end up having a little celebration

when you actually did debut, 

they were so hyped

especially jisung

he streamed your mv so many times

he knew every detail of every scene in the mv

which was adorable

the fans knew you were childhood friends so they absolutely loved your interactions

which meant your company/companies being like 

WE COULD MAKE MONEY FROM THAT

so they make sure you have a collab stage 

like really early in your debut

and it was kinda awkward

but because you knew each other beforehand

you felt completely fine

at this point, your moms were betting on when you’d start dating

to which you would both just blush and tell them to stop

you end up going on so many variety shows together

mainly dance specials

and everyone finds you too adorable

like everyone ships it

but they’re kinda lowkey about it because they don’t want to make you uncomfortable 

not the case of his members tho

or yours

you can’t tell me jaemin’s hiatus wasn’t just him laying in bed, resting and planning your wedding

you can’t

taeyong ends up asking him why he hasn’t asked you out yet

he just blushes

it wasn’t until you were both a bit older

and you were at an award ceremony

where everyone was complimenting you

like your dress, makeup, hair, etc

that he realized he liked you

seeing you like that and realizing he needs to stop looking at you as his little childhood friend

and start looking at you as an adult

or somewhat of an adult

he can never look at you as an adult

because he would always have the image of you

with 6 empty chocolate milks around you

and a gummy worm hanging from your mouth

as you tried your best to color the coloring book correctly

but hey, you were always going to have the imagine of him

hanging from monkey bars

after he finished his 5th scoop of ice cream 

and laughing because he overheard someone say a fart joke

ANYWAY

he starts seeing you as an adult

kinda

and he gets slightly jealous when everyone compliments you

so after that, he goes to taeyong and jaehyun

and asks for dating advice

jaehyun just yells 

“wooooo! you should know my usual boba order by now, right, lee?”

These fuckers bet on how long it would take for jisung to realize his feelings 

and jaehyun would regrets only asking for a free boba when he won

but he’s way too happy about winning to care

it ends with half of 127 and half of dreamies giving advice, 

the other halves teasing

and wayv cooing on the phone as they were in china at the time

it takes him like 5 months till he confesses

he’s a nervous baby let him be

and when he does get the courage, 

he takes you to an amusement park

you don’t go on any of the rides

because he’s scared

but you do play the games and eat food

you even watch the fireworks

which is when he finally holds your hand for the first time

you did a lot of skinship before

like when you were friends

but it wasn’t like this 

it was cute

he was so nervous

your palms were both sweaty from nervousness

but neither of you cared

you were just happy to enjoy the moment

 that got cheesy

he even walked you to your dorm 

like to right in front of your door

which is when he hesitantly gave you a kiss on the cheek 

but you wanted a real kiss so you gave him a proper kiss

and he ended up almost tripping on his way to the elevator

where he smiled to himself

and tried to calm himself down

so the members wouldn’t see him like this

but they did

they teased him

and just yelled with him

“our baby had his first kiss!” -jaemin

“life is going way too fast! weren’t you like 3 years old yesterday?!”- jeno

“how come he’s 2 years younger and already getting more action than me?!” -renjun

the others find out 

and tease him

mostly they just congratulate him tho

“wooo! our baby is becoming a man!” -taeyong

“doyoung, hold me, i’m emotional!” -johnny 

“when’s the wedding?” -taeil

“wedding? i always cry at weddings...” -jungwoo

“no weddings! yet!” -kun

“yeah! he’s not getting married before me!” -jaehyun

they might have gone a bit overboard

but can you blame them 

it’s their baby we’re talking abt

they still see him as the little toddler from when he was on mickey mouse club

also you end up not telling your parents right away

and they keep match making

so you end up being like

“Mom, we’re already dating, you can stop”

cue both of your moms get excited

like they’re already talking about being the best grandmas

and having the cutest grandchildren

even tho you’ve only been together for 2 months

something tells me he’d be the type to want to have matching everything

phone cases

(probably anna and kristoff ones)

then profile pictures

jewelry

clothing

anything and everything

he’d find it so cute

speaking of matching profile pics

the fans would realize what was going on 

when you would match your pfps

so your company/companies were like

yes, they’re dating, no one is surprised...anyway 127 comeback 

your dating announcement is like super chill

mainly because everyone was waiting for it 

also i feel like he’d always be playing with your hair 

and fixing it

like all the time

a single hair out of place?

we can’t have that!

his hands are in your hair already

would text you for advice while filming chenji’s this and that

and would always make something for you too

“chenle’s turned out more aesthetic but mine is made with love, so mine is better my default.” 

also it wouldn’t matter if you’re older than him, the same age, younger than him

doesn’t matter

would want to hear you call him oppa

but immediately get shy after

also he’s an aquarius

so if you end up getting really random texts during the day

like during your schedules

don’t be surprised

like he’s already maknae on top

so he will rebel to like some of the things you say

“jisung! we need to get back to filming in 3 minutes!”

“but weeee!” -jisung going down the slide for the 5th time 

cries when you joke about leaving him there

speaking of crying, 

we all know he’s emotional

and cries easily

so he just runs to you whenever he wants to cry

and just placed his head on your shoulder

to hide his facial expression

but it’s okay

you’ve already seen everything from the random snaps you get every day

he might not know how to comfort you at first

but he will learn

and he’s pretty mature for his age 

so he would take comforting you very seriously

he’s a really good listener 

so he would love to just hear you vent to him

it would kinda boost his ego a bit too

like he’s the one who you’re venting to

yknow what i mean?

but also he protects you very well

you get scared of a spider 

he goes all manly mode 

and gets rid of it for you

doesn’t like to admit it, 

but he thinks about you a lot

and your future

like once you two grow out of your idol lives 

and into a more adult life

where you get married

and have kids

kids who tease their uncles (aka nct members)

because THE maknae on top was their teacher after all

speaking of weddings

his older brother got married

and obviously you were his date

and everyone kept looking at you two

asking when it was your turn

your mom said “hopefully soon”

“mom, we don’t have time, we have busy schedules”

“but one day...”

time jump to when the news breaks about your engagement 

and everyone is crying

they watched you both grow up and now you’re getting married??

what???

the announcement was everywhere

also you don’t announce anything about a child

one day, you just both post a picture of your daughter

with a caption like

“she’s so cute, i knew my genes were good.”

or something like that

and everyone goes wild

nation’s babies having a baby?

legend says chenle’s screaming caused 2 earthquakes that day

to sum it up: nation’s babies turned nation’s it couple because jisung is the best boyfriend you could ever have asked for 

.....i might have gone way more invested than i thought i was going to. Do i regret it tho? hell no. Am i emotional now because I pictured adult Jisung with a baby? hell yes.

tag list: @soleilchannie​

[kookiebunnii]

d4u || golden closet film

jan. 2019. we’re going to korea today. i’ve never been, but jungkook is definitely excited about it. i think he plans to make a video out of it too, maybe for his youtube subscribers or something. i hope when he looks back on this trip, he can be happy. maybe through the lens of that camera, he’ll find something worth smiling for.

pairing: bestfriend!jungkook x reader

genre: slice of life 

word count: 3.5k 

warnings: n/a

Whenever you traveled abroad, the painful stiffness in your neck always filled you with regret and determination to invest in a neck pillow in preparation for the next flight. However, you’d always be too mystified and distracted at the new sights to be seen once you’ve landed to remember how much suffering you endured in arriving there. Asking Jungkook to remind you hasn’t worked either, since the boy could barely remember to bring his essentials on a typical day. When he happened to have his wallet, phone, and surprisingly-- his keys, you’d make sure to tease him with a, “Aren’t you a big boy now?” He would scrunch his nose at you in annoyance every time. He loathed it. You loved it.

You shifted restlessly in your seat, trying to find a comfortable nook or cranny so you could finally enjoy some much-needed rest. A 12-hour flight time paired with this seat in particular could be used as a torture method. You had offered Jungkook the window seat, since you knew he’d want to get some aerial shorts during the flight for his new film. Unluckily, that meant you were stuck between the long-legged boy and an elderly lady that you would feel embarrassed for intruding on if you took up too much space. As a result, you’ve spent the last 30 minutes startling awake every two minutes because your head kept tilting forward uncontrollably.

“I know I tease you for having a big head, but I didn’t know the issue was this serious.”

Despite the deafening nature of flying at high altitudes, you were close enough to Jungkook to hear his little snide remark. You gave him a nasty glare before leaning back in your chair and closing your eyes again. You could handle a few hours of pain in return for the exciting vacation the two of you planned for winter break. As you stretched your limbs, you imagined how luxurious you would feel later when visiting all the stylish cafés in Seoul, chowing down on Busan delicacies, and admiring Jeju’s beauty in person.

It’ll be worth it.

You’re not sure if you’re dreaming when you feel the armrest serving as a divide between seats being raised. Afterwards, a soft pressure tilts your head to the left and the thin blanket you’ve haphazardly tossed on for the night adjusts itself snugly against your shoulders. When you open your eyes slightly, you realize that Jungkook has let you lean on his shoulder as you sleep. You’re feeling too sleepy and dazed to open your mouth to say thank you, so you settle for adjusting your head to find the most comfortable spot on his shoulder instead. Unsurprisingly, you pass out shortly after.

When you wake up, you find Jungkook filming the slow descent of the plane through the tiny window. Through the soft and wispy clouds, you notice how the city breaks through in specks of sunlight. The moment is captured through the steady lens of your film director and you watch as he continues the shot for a few seconds longer before cutting the video. He gives you a brief smile as he turns off his precious camera and begins stowing it back into his backpack.

“How’d you sleep?” he asks, absentmindedly scrolling through the map projecting through the small screen attached to the seat in front of him.

“A lot better than expected,” you watch as he zooms in on your destination, studying the names of cities that pop up as he scrolls, “Keep up the gym workouts and we can rent out your arm as a pillow.”

He chuckles in response to your suggestion. Before you could elaborate more on the profit margins you expected from such an endeavor, the captain’s voice fills the intercom. He announces that everyone should expect a landing in thirty minutes. The idea of finally escaping such a small space filled you with a rare sort of apprehension, your leg bouncing up and down unconsciously with delight.

The wonder bubbling in your chest rises and overflows as you watch the landscape pass you by. Finally settled in a taxi heading to the hotel nestled in the hustle and bustle of Seoul, you observe the tall apartment buildings popping up, reaching towards the sky. You couldn’t help but gaze out at the expanse of dark water as you crossed a bridge into the inner parts of the city. It was your first time in this country, but Jungkook had done a great job of hyping up the destination in your mind.

Your hotel room is just as tidy and neat as you like, a platter of chocolates lying on the desk and a large window exposing the beautiful view of streets and skyscrapers below. There were no odd abstract paintings that American hotels tended to adorn their walls with, so you were grateful already. The two of you were already eager to head out again, as you both waited for Jungkook’s camera to fully charge. As he spends some time viewing the shots he already recorded, you decide to take a shower. You need to relax the tense muscles accumulated from that long flight and change into something nice for the afternoon. The hot water feels like a much-needed embrace as you take your sweet time admiring the small bottles of citrus-scented shampoo and body wash provided by your accommodation.

As you step out with a whirl of steam like an evil villain out of a movie, you’re surprised to find a majority of the chocolates have disappeared from the platter and the culprit laying out his shirts on the bed nearest to the window. Jungkook looks between the four outfits laid out with serious thought, as if he had been invited to a fashion runway and needed to impress some modeling agencies. You quickly snatch up some chocolates as you head over to look at the clothing pieces yourself. Mouth full of creamy sweets, you pick up his oversized TOPMAN shirt and a pair of sweats. Pointing to the bathroom, you swallow thickly and command, “Shower so we can head out. I want some hotteok.”

He laughs, picking up the garments you chose and responding cheekily, “Out of all the foods I’ve talked about, it’s hotteok you’re excited for.”

Crossing your arms in defense, you give him a stern look as he marches into the bathroom himself. You focus on drying your hair, picking out your own outfit, and preparing a good argument for why hotteok sounded like the superior Korean food item. Trying to pick something impressive but not over-the-top was an added struggle after Jungkook had asked to film shots of you during the trip. At first you were against it, knowing you weren’t exactly an Instagram model and slightly camera-shy as well. However, he had promised you that he’d be focusing more on capturing the country scenery itself than trying to film you specifically. You gave him a punch in the abdomen when he added that you weren’t that much of a sight anyways, but you could tell that he already had a vision for his new film project. Especially since you had yet to really see or understand the work he embarked on in connection with his major, you felt that this was a good opportunity to help him out however you could. You had no clue regarding the types of filming techniques Jungkook loved to pour over in his spare time, studying the videos of filmmakers he admired on repeat while you receded to the Netflix shows you personally found far more engaging. You knew he would guide you through what he wanted, given that he was thorough and patient when it came to whatever he produced for the public. If you could assist in achieving his dreams, even if you might feel awkward doing it, it would be worth it.

You saw the way he used to zone out when the two of you passed by a merry couple on the way to your favorite ice cream parlor. You also quietly took note of him deleting folders of pictures of Yuna that were saved in his desktop when you peeked into his room a few weeks ago. It had been almost a year since he cried as you tried to hold his broken heart steady during the breakup. You remembered how he would seize up when he saw her in public, eyes wide in fright as his fight or flight response kicked into overdrive.

Your thoughts cause your grip to falter over the turtleneck sweater in your hands, remembering the forced smile you would plaster on as you pulled him away to a different café instead, remembering to never visit Serendipity Coffee on weekends ever again. The hurt he endured in spring left an emblazoned impression on you, as you spent summer worrying over his emotional condition. You knew he traveled during the past summer to keep his mind off things, and every time the two of you managed to meet up between his trips and your working shifts you would try your best to gauge his wellbeing. However, you knew that you hadn’t won any brownie points with him after coming home with a swollen cheek and a bleeding scratch under your eye the week after Jungkook had found out Yuna was cheating. Word had already gotten to him before you could make up an excuse for your injuries, and you had never seen him that angry before. He made you promise that you would never meet with Yuna again, especially not if you were going to pour a drink on her head and get into a subsequent cat fight. With your stubborn attitude, the air was tense around the two of you for a good few weeks before he acquiesced and apologized for his passionate reaction. It only took you calling Yuna a drowned rat for him to finally laugh and forgive you for the altercation. He admitted that he appreciated you attempting to defend him, but still forbade you from getting in harm’s way for him. You agreed to his terms, knowing that you’d taught Yuna a lesson she wouldn’t forget for a while anyways.

Remembering this increased your persistence in making this trip a memorable restart to 2019. You had wished for Jungkook to experience nothing but happiness and success in this new year, and although you hadn’t been the most good-willed, obedient individual in history, you hoped that the big man upstairs heard your prayer. Your best friend deserved it.

At dinner, you realize another reason you’re glad Jungkook is your best friend. The two of you could casually stuff your faces like starving teenagers when it came to good food. Unable to relate to girls that only ordered petite salads on dates, you piled up the slices of pork belly in your lettuce wrap. Allowing the ssam to finally enter your waiting mouth, you chew happily as you dance in your seat with chopsticks in hand. Charcoal fire made all the difference, and you had no idea how you were ever going to go back to using a gas stove in the States. You had no idea why Jungkook’s family would move out of Korea when he was a kid—it now seemed like a terrible choice to you.

The amount of orders you and Jungkook clear out at the AYCE BBQ place almost has the waitress crying in relief when you finally ask for the bill. Satisfied and warm, the cold winter air feels less harsh when you finally head outside. Thankful for the puffy down coat Jungkook recommended you purchase for the trip; you watch as soft powder begins to rain down from the sky. Painted against the dark expanse of the night, you try your best to catch some of the flakes on your tongue. Smacking your lips together as if enjoying a delicious treat, you flinch when you catch the sudden lens of Jungkook’s camera trained on your curious expression.

“Snow won’t taste like anything, silly.”

Used to directing your responses to his quips at your best friend’s brown eyes, you opt for glaring into his camera lens instead, knowing he could see your unamused expression. He laughs at this but doesn’t stop filming. Even though you feel a bit unsure of yourself, you do a few spins for your director before throwing up a peace sign with a wide grin. You wanted him to look back on this trip, this video, and remember it with nothing but happiness. He complains that you look super dorky, but you pay him no heed. You could tell he was saying that just to mess with you, given the amount of time he’s repeated that clip in the past few minutes just to “check the details”. Feeling a wave of confidence, you’re glad that your instincts turned into something he could use for his work.

You wanted to see the Han River, so the two of you paced the streets quickly towards that destination. Jungkook was practically your personal tour guide, so you dedicated most of your attention towards admiring as much of Seoul as you could. Thankful for him, you follow along contently until you could see the reflection of lights on water not far ahead.

As soon as you pull your hood down you can feel the cool breeze of the river against your cheeks. It was invigorating in a way, and you could feel yourself fall in love with this place. You feel yourself smiling, the motion likely a side effect of how much you were enjoying yourself. Despite it being the first evening here, this was your first real trip with Guk and the excitement of discovering new things alongside him was exhilarating.

“What are you thinking about?” Jungkook asks, as you’ve realized he’s recorded your little moment of self-reflection.

Brushing tendrils of hair out of your face, you simply give him, and by extension his camera, another smile as your answer. It wouldn’t fit you to be soft on the first day of an outing. Besides, if he knew how much you enjoyed his presence, he wouldn’t let you hear the end of it. Jungkook breaks off silently to film various shots, capturing a vision that perhaps only he could see. You watch him with amusement for a brief moment, before staring back out into the river again. The red and orange lights reflected on the water’s smooth surface were eye-catching, in a way that felt radiating yet peaceful. The sight helped you focus simply on breathing in the fresh winter air, coming to terms that you really were in South Korea for the first time. Adventure awaits.

“Hey Y/N, can you help me with something?”

Jungkook breaks you out of your reverie, bounding over to you in excitement before explaining a camera technique he wanted you to try. After you understood his choppy explanation, he tried his best to demonstrate what exactly you had to do.

“Okay so I’ll move the side of the lens and cover it at the same time?” you bite your lip in nervousness, hoping you didn’t sound like a dunce.

“Here,” he grabs your hand out of your pocket, earning a pout from you at the sudden loss of warmth.

Setting your fingers on the side of his lens, he held your fingers steady as he guided your hand gently over the lens while simultaneously moving the viewpoint of the camera to the left.

“Ah, so you want this to be a transition of sorts? Okay,” you happily comply, spending the rest of the evening helping him get this vlogging-type effect before demanding a reward for your efforts in the form of a freshly-made hotteok.

The next day, you’re able to finally see Gyeongbokgung Palace like you wanted. Even though it was a huge tourist attraction, you always had an interest in history and found the pictures of the architecture on Google simply amazing. Jungkook seems to feel indifferent about the expedition, claiming that there would be a lot of people—a possibility that it could grow quite crowded.

That did nothing to deter your enthusiasm, as you discover that dressing up in the traditional hanbok even meant that the entry would be free! Giddy with happiness, you even convince Jungkook to find himself something. He seems beyond embarrassed when he emerges in a royal blue hanbok from the rental place. You simply whistle in appreciation, your response only making him even more shy as he hurriedly nudged you out of the store.

His overly conscious body language quickly shifted as he began filming again, finding comfort in his hobby. He followed you as you entered the large doors of the palace grounds, catching the way you gasped upon seeing the people wearing beautiful colors and bright red accents painting the pillars around you. Every step you took on the rocky dirt felt important, as you wondered how people hundreds of years must have stepped over the same area.

A beautiful outdoor area with lush green grass and sleepy willows sat beyond the initial entrance to the historical monument, and you couldn’t help smiling at how grand and elegant everything seemed. Other tourists stroll past you, in high spirits as well from what you could tell. It was better than anything you could’ve dreamt up when you were sitting thousands of miles away on your laptop, researching “things to do in Korea”.

Spinning around to catch Jungkook off guard, you take the camera from his hands before saying, “Alright Director Jeon, it’s your turn.”

He sputters in confusion as you give him a friendly nudge forward, training the lens on him instead. Through the viewfinder, you could see the way he suddenly froze up as if he were a deer caught in headlights. You walk up to give him a jab in the belly that breaks him out of his stupor.

“Just be natural. It’s beautiful here, see if anything interests you,” you suggest, lowering the camera briefly to give him a reassuring smile.

“My subscribers would probably rather not see me,” he responded, timidly covering his ears as he talks. You caught this habit of his early in your friendship, easily understanding that he was being overly nervous again.

Giving him a deadpanned expression, you state, “I’ve watched one G.C.F. before you know. The comment section was filled with your fangirls thirsting for a face reveal. What better way than to have them see their oppa in his handsome hanbok?”

His hands leave his ears as you see a small smirk returning to his face, “Did you just call me handsome?”

“I called your hanbok handsome, bunny boy. Now look pretty for the camera.”

His banter with you seemed to relax his nerves greatly, as he quickly settles back into his confident self. Before you begin recording, he replicates the transition you had conducted the previous night. You realize that he would connect the two separate shots this way, so you served as the first subject that would transform into the second subject, Jungkook.

This guy never ceases to amaze you.

The rest of the tour was as stunning as the beginning, as you try your best not to trip over your beautifully embroidered skirt. The golden thread weaved into a multitude of chrysanthemums along the hem, a detail you deeply loved. The camera now stowed away into Jungkook’s bag, you head into the small gift shop located a few steps away from a beautiful moat on the palace grounds.

Admiring the stickers, keychains, and other little knick-knacks strewn about the store, you did your best to stick to the monetary limit you had set for yourself. Everything was so wonderfully crafted that it was difficult to stay under 15,000 won. You settle for a series of postcards with watercolor paintings of various areas of the palace on the front. They were only a few dollars in USD anyways, as you plan to decorate your room with them.

The end of exploring Gyeongbokgung left a sad yet fulfilling impression on your heart. As you hand the pieces of your hanbok to one of the girls working at the front desk of the rental store, you couldn’t help but run your fingers across the stitching again and sigh.

“If it means anything, you looked…nice in that,” Jungkook thinks about his words for a bit as the two of you trudge up the stairs to exit the shop.

With a single eyebrow raised, you turn to face him as if you couldn’t believe what you were hearing. The longer you stare, the redder his cheeks become. This phenomenon only made you stare harder, much to his chagrin.

“Stop doing that. I’m only saying this because you looked like a sad puppy over that dress.”

Grinning mischievously, you respond with a playful tone, “I think Koo just complimented me! Wow, what a time to be alive. Truly I must have been a beautiful sight if his highness graces me with such kind words—hey where are you going?”

Even as you curse him for making you sprint to keep up him, you can’t help but laugh.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

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[crowdedimagines]

Falling - Harry Styles

*obviously inspired by Falling, which i am OBSESSED with! *italics are from the past, a lot of this story will be from the past. *also, see if you catch some mini easter eggs to other songs from fine line (this wasn’t intentional, but for the timeline to work he never dated camille)

There’s no point in stopping the tears as they slowly stream down my face. As soon as I saw the tracklist to Harry’s new album I had a feeling this one would bring on the waterworks. Now that the album is officially released, I can hear what he’s been working on the past few months.

Falling.

A simple word with so much meaning behind it. It’s hard to fight off the memories of our relationship.

“-and this is the lovely, Y/n.” A friend introduces me to a small group of her friends at the party. She managed to drag me away from a conversation I was having to ‘meet some friends’. I smile and wave to all of the new faces, they go around and give me their names in return.

“Harry.” The last one speaks up, he raises his glass in a wave.

Our eyes pull together like magnets. I’m thankful for the darker lighting that is hiding the blush that creeps over my cheeks.

We all quickly dive into a conversation, everyone present being easy enough to talk to. They’re all lovely and fun people.

“I’m gonna go get another drink.” I announce as I get up from my spot.

“I’ll come with, mine seems to be empty too.” Harry grins and follows me back to the bar.

We both order our drinks and wait for them to be made. It takes a while, seeing how busy it is with all of the people here, but neither Harry or I mind. We immediately jump into a new conversation ranging from music, acting, and travel.

“You’ve never been to the UK?” Harry asks, utterly shocked.

“No.” I shake my head, laughing at his appalled reaction.

“How is that even possible? You’ve never had to film over there or anything?”

“I’ve been to Italy and France, but never your neck of the woods I suppose.” I let out a laugh.

He takes a sip of his drink, neither of us have made an effort to move back to the group since receiving them. I can see my friend giving two thumbs up over Harry’s shoulder. I’m sure this was some plan of hers to try and get us to hit it off.

“Well, you tell me when you’re free and we’ll go.” He smiles, “I’ll be your tour guide.”

God, I would love to take him up on that offer.

“Aren’t you going to be awfully busy with your first solo tour?”

“Ahh, you keep up with me then?” He smirks, I’m sure he’s enjoying that little ego boost.

“Pretty hard not to.” I roll my eyes, as if the pop star was so under the radar. “I can hardly leave my apartment in New York without coming across a billboard with your face plastered on it.”

“Well I’m sorry about that, love.”

“Don’t be, it’s a nice face to look at.”

It’s my turn now to smirk and notice Harry slightly thrown off.

“Tour doesn’t start for a month, pick a date before that and we’ll go.”

“You’re putting an awful lot of faith into someone you just met a half an hour ago.”

“I have faith in you, Y/n.”

“And why should I have faith in you?” I tease, “For all I know you could be a very creepy man.”

“Hey!” He laughs, “Haven’t you ever heard of treating people with kindness?”

The first time Harry and I ever met. That first night even, I knew that he was going to mean so much. I was proven correct a few weeks later when we actually did go to London together.

“Home sweet home.”

Harry opens the door wide enough so both of us and our luggage can fit. He’s invited me to stay at his flat, claiming it’s nicer than any hotel anyway. It’s also an obvious excuse for us to spend more time together just the two of us.

“It’s awfully gloomy here, strike one for London.” I joke.

“Hey! It’s late, you can’t judge it yet! Plus we just got off of a ten hour flight, you’re not in the right headspace.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I roll my eyes.

Harry and I have managed to grow so close in the short amount of time we’ve known each other. We met up several more times to somewhat plan the trip, Harry helped me pack claiming he would know what I would need better than I would.

We both laughed until we were crying, trying on the various clothes from my closet. Many random gems, things I’m almost positive Harry wants to steal.

We still haven’t defined what we are. Friends is the easiest way of putting it, but it doesn’t feel quite right. We flirt constantly and were touchy with each other, but we’ve never acted on anything.

“Alright, let’s find you a room.”

Harry takes my suitcase with him as he leads me into the rest of his house. We go up to the second floor and he opens the door to a large room. It’s decorated in simple white with hints of yellow.

“Cute.” I grin looking around the room.

“Y’like it?” He almost seems nervous. Giddy like an unsure child.

“It’s perfect, thank you.”

For the first time there’s an awkward pause. Just a few seconds of what to do, it’s really late and by the sounds of it we have plans for an early morning.

“Well, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, H.”

Harry leaves me to my room and goes to his own, which is conveniently across the hall.  

He wasn’t lying, the next day we are up bright and early. Too early, I might add.

“Y/n.” He taunts my name on the other side of the door.

“Too early.” I grumble, my face still half smashed into a pillow. I don’t even flinch hearing the door open.

“C’mon, Y/n. If you get up now we can go out for breakfast and go to the farmers market.” I feel the bed dip as he settles on the bed.

“Why can’t I sleep in and we just eat here?” I finally turn to face where’s he’s sitting on the edge of the bed, he has an amused look on his face.

“Because I’ve been in Los Angeles for the past two months. There’s quite literally no food here.”

I let out a groan and drop my head back down.

“I’m amazed with how cute you still look while so angry and having just woken up.”

“You’re such a kiss ass.” I grumble.

“Only for you.” He lightly smacks my ass before walking back out. “Let’s go, Y/Ln.”

I get up and look out the large window to see that it’s raining, but it looks like the sun is trying to come out. I settle on a comfortable outfit, tucking my hair back into a low bun. I wash my face and throw on a pair of sunnies.

“Ready?”

I nod and we take off. We walk to a diner that Harry loves going too, he claims that he gets cravings for it when he’s back in the states. I have to say, after eating there, I understand his hype.

Once were no longer hungry, we take off for the farmer’s market.

It’s cute to say the least. We pick up some organic veggies to cook with for dinner and we find some cheese and fresh bread.

“H, look!” I cross over from the tent we had been in to the one across the street.

“They’re beautiful!” I trail my fingers across all of the different bundles of flowers.

“I almost lost you.” Harry says after catching up.

“Look at how pretty they are!” I pick up a bundle of sunflowers.

“How much?” Harry asks before handing over more than enough for them.

“Gotcha!” Harry smiles looking down at his phone. I’m sure he’s taken yet another candid picture.

“For someone who doesn’t post on social media, you take an awful lot of pictures.” I bump his shoulder as we continue walking.

“Yeah, still like to have the memories.”

Harry and I spent two more days in London exploring more of the city before we decided to take a road trip to Holmes Chapel to see where Harry grew up. It was a long drive, but it was worth it to see Harry light up.

“That’s the bakery I used to work in.” He points out the car window.

“Don’t you want to stop?” I ask, watching him drive right by it.

“No, it’s kind of become a fan beacon now.” Harry explains.

We continue to drive through the town as he points out more spots from when he grew up. Or we sit in a comfortable silence just looking out at the scenery. I don’t notice we’ve arrived somewhere until Harry puts the car in park.

“Where are we?” I ask, looking at the house in front of us. It’s grown dark out, but the house looks warm and inviting.

“My mum’s house.” He quickly gets out of the car before I can ask a question.

“Harry!” I roll my eyes, following him to the door.

“What?” He grins looking over his shoulder. He knocks and it doesn’t take long for an answer to follow.

“Harry!” She pulls him in for a hug, the woman I can only assume is his mother.

They talk softly to each other and I feel as if I’m invading a very private moment.

“You’ve brought someone home?” She shouts with an excited voice. Without a pause, she pulls me in for an equally tight hug. She knocks the air out of my lungs, but I let out a laugh.

“In all these years, Harry’s never brought a girl home!”

“Mum!” Harry groans, a pink color taking over.

“Come in come in! I’m just finishing up supper.”

She disappears further into the house, once Harry and I step in, I can feel the warmth of the home and smell whatever she’s cooking.

“You brought me home to meet your mom!” I tease, turning to smack Harry lightly on the chest.

“No, she would just be upset if I was here and didn’t see here before leaving for a world tour.”

Bullshit.

“Harry, you’ve never brought a girl home before.” I smirk.

“Alright alright, I really like you. As if it wasn’t obvious enough before.” Harry admits, he successfully knocks the smile clear off my face.

“Are you going to say anything?” He asks, suddenly twisting the right on his fingers around out of nerves.

“I like you too.” I smile, “Duh.”

“Thank god.” He sighs, pulling me in for a hug.

“Alright, supper is- oh! You’re having a moment, I’ll go.” Anne rushes back to the kitchen. It would take a blind man to miss the smile and happy dance at seeing us like this.  

“She’s a sweetheart.” I pull back so I can look up

“Yeah, we’re a pretty charming family.”

“I can see that.”

After that it was bliss, Harry and I finally got together. Just in time for him to leave on tour. But we made it work, thankfully. Either I would fly out to whatever city he was in, or when he had extended breaks he would come see me on set. Any time we weren’t performing, we were facetiming. Or when the time differences didn’t work, we would leave each other long voicemails, just longing to hear the other’s voice.

By the time he finished his tour, and I finished my movie, we finally got to date like a normal couple and see each other regularly.

“Coming, coming!” I yell, rushing to my door to see who’s in a huge rush that causes them to knock repeatedly.

“I said-” Before I get a chance to yell when I swing the door open my jaw drops at the sight.  

“Hi, love.” He grins, a bundle of sunflowers in his hands.

“What are you doing here?” I peck his lips with mine and pull him in for a long hug, “You had things to finish up! I wasn’t supposed to get you home for another week!”

“I’m sorry, love, but I lied. I always knew I could sneak away.”

“That’s kind of evil.” I laugh pulling away, but still holding onto him.

“Which is why I have these.” He hands my the flowers.

“Thank you.” I grin, he follows me into my kitchen and watches as I put them in water.

“So, how does it feel to be all finished?” I ask.

“Good, it was really rewarding, but really exhausting. I’ve just been waiting to come home to you to be perfectly honest.”

“Well, here I am.” I smile, I take a seat on his lap. It’s good to have him here.

Beachwood Cafe. The coffee here doesn’t taste as good when it’s not filled with our laughter and deep conversations. It seems bitter without the games.This was our spot in Los Angeles. Early in our relationship we had stumbled upon the place and it became ours. The baristas growing accustomed to our orders and our stardom.

“You’re absolutely mad if you think that’s a word.” Harry says, his voice getting louder and gaining the attention of people around us. As if we weren’t already doing that. The cafe is always busy, but today it seemed like there were lots of people here.

“Have you ever played Scrabble? Of course this is a word!” I argue. Part of why we like the cafe is the bookshelf filled with board games. Every time we come Harry and I pick a new one we’ve never played together before. Today we settled on Scrabble even though it led to us bickering.

“I don’t like playing with a cheater.” He can’t even get away with it without smiling, but we continue the teasing fight for the fun of it. Banter is always entertaining.

“A cheater?” My voice raising as well, “Look it up!”

We both breakout in laughter over how stupid it is to be arguing about.

Still blissfully aware in our honeymoon phase which lasted way longer than any other relationship either of us have been in. If only I had known then how much worse the arguing would get.

“Harry, what’s happened to you?” I ask, tears freely falling to the floor. The tears being caused more by anger than hurt at this point.

“What do you mean?” His words slurred.

“You’re drunk again, of course.” I roll my eyes, leaving him on the bathroom floor to deal with himself.

“You’ve made a fool of me Harry!” I shout, letting my temper get the best of me, “Do you know how embarrassing you were tonight? Tonight was a big deal for me, I’ve never been the lead actress. You now what this premiere meant to me.”

“Love, I-” Harry follows me out of the bathroom into our bedroom. My attitude and hurt seems to have sobered him up a bit, though he is still far from dry.

“You got hammered before the movie could even start!” I huff, “You were loud and obnoxiously shouting about nonsense! Not to mention the fact that you flirted with nearly every person at the bar.”

“Y/n, it’s fine we-”

“No, it’s far from fine. I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, since when have you felt most comfortable with a drink in your hand? Or a stranger on your arm? This isn’t new for you anymore, you’ve been acting like this for months.”

The silence coming from him proves I’m right.

“If it’s been months, why haven’t you said anything before now. We’ve been dating for nearly two years now, we live together. I would think you’re comfortable enough to tell me you think I’m a drunk.” Harry sasses back.

“I’ve tried! You just get rude or you don’t even remember it in the morning.” I push my hair back out of my face, “The only difference it, tonight was my breaking point.”

I walk to my closet and grab a bag and start shoving essentials in it.

“No, Y/n, wait.” Harry follows me, he takes the bag from my hand and starts pulling things back out.

“Harry stop!” My voice rising louder than it ever has in this house, “Enough. I’m done. We are finished.”

Harry suddenly drops the bag and stumbles back out of the closet. I manage to repack the bad come out to see Harry sitting on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at his shoes.

“I’ll send someone to get the rest of my stuff. You can buy out my half of the lease.”

After that night, I never looked back.

The song ends and I turn off my phone and set it down. I wipe away any remnants at eyes, the tears long dried. Before I can spend any more time thinking about him or the way things used to be, I get dressed for the day. Harry was right about one thing.

I’ll never need him again.

[angelic-holland]

Familiar // th x fem!reader

Summary: you’re a famous youtuber invited to interview the Far From Home cast, what nobody outside you and people close to you know, you’re already dating one of them.

Word Count: 6k

Warnings: smut, fluff

A/N: this request was really fun to write! Some is written in Tom’s pov, some parts are flashbacks and some italics are youtube comments. Bold words are texts

“Hey what’s up folks! Today is the day of packing and moving! That’s right! I’m moving flats! And in my new place, drum roll please,” you say, hand not holding the camera hitting your thigh to imitate a drum roll, “I’ll have an actual filming room! No more filming at my bed or desk, I’ve got a real office where I’ll get to put in bookshelves and the works!”

You are sitting with your legs crossed on your bed, letting your subscribers in on a little life update of yours. 

Of course you wouldn’t tell them who you were moving in with, you and Tom were planning on going public soon, but you both wanted to wait until the hype from Far From Home died down, with a little less than a month from its release, you had some time before you revealed to your 8 million subscribers that your boyfriend was the one and only Tom Holland. 

“So yeah, I might not be as active while I’m moving this week but be on the look out for a video about everything right about Avengers Endgame tomorrow with a special announcement! Alright, I’ll see you all later!” You blow a kiss to the camera, ending the video.

You get to work uploading the quick video to your YouTube channel before packing away the rest of your clothes. Your books and comics all were packed away and waiting for Harrison who was bringing by his car to help you pack. Tom would be in London tomorrow but Harrison was around to help the start of your move since your lease ended tomorrow. Your bed was being sold tomorrow morning, the rest of your furniture already sold, everything you needed was at Tom and Harrison’s flat, Tom’s bed now your own, which sent an excited shiver down your spine. Tom wanted to buy you new bookshelves and a desk for your filming space, which you graciously accepted, excited to see what he was going to pick out while you were putting away your clothes.

The last of your clothes were packed away by later that day and you were sitting on your bed eating pizza while scrolling through your Instagram.

Tom had posted something on his Instagram story and you excitedly opened it, he was sitting on a plane, head lightly resting against the window while he spoke.

“Hey guys, I’m on my way to London right about now, very excited to see all my friends and family again, got some interviews but I’ll also be hanging out with friends, doing a little redecorating, so I probably won’t be online that much, but thank you for all your support and I can’t wait for you all to see Far From Home July 2nd in theatres!”

You smile at the sound of his voice before your phone rings, making you sit up and throw your pizza box out, answering the phone as you unlock your front door. 

“Hey, my cars parked out front, I’ll be up to your flat in a second okay?” Harrison says.

“Sounds good, I’ll start dragging boxes towards the elevator.”

You and Harrison figured out how to stop the elevator, it was late at night and most people were already home. You were able to stack a good portion of your books and comics into the first trip down, dragging them out to his car and piling them into the trunk and backseat.

“Next trip should just about get everything then,” you sigh as you sit in the front seat as Harrison drives away.

“Are you gonna miss this place?”

“Nah,” you shake your head, “just excited about the new place. Thanks for letting me move in.”

“I’m almost never there anyways, might as well put the rest of the flat to good use when I’m gone.”

“Thanks,” you sigh and the trip to Tom and Harrison’s flat, now yours as well, was quiet as you listened to music. 

He pulls into the parking lot of their building and slips on the hood of his sweatshirt, “don’t want anyone spotting us,” he laughs, “imagine Tom getting off the plane to rumors that famous YouTuber y/n y/l/n and Harrison Osterfield are dating?”

“He’d lose his god damn mind,” you laugh as you start hauling the boxes up the stairs.

“That’s the last thing he needs right now. Besides, it’ll look weird when you two are spotted in public after Tom’s movie is done in theatres.”

“True,” you giggle as you place your boxes in the empty office area, neither of the boys used it so it was the perfect space for everything you had for filming.

“Ready for the next trip?”

You nod and the two of you make your way back to your flat and you say goodbye to your home from the past four years, you started your YouTube channel here, you celebrated your million subscriber milestone here, you kissed Tom at your front door for the first time, you had sex for the first time on the bed you were selling, you sighed contently remembering all the good memories from this flat, excited to make new ones at your new home. 

As you settled into Tom’s bed later that night, correction, Tom and your bed, you send a quick text to him, so he would see it when he landed tomorrow morning.

All moved in, can’t wait to greet you at our flat tomorrow, love ya x

You plug your phone in, body curling up around his pillow, soft and it smelled just like him. You let the waves of sleep overcome you as you dreamed about reuniting with Tom.

You woke up a little confused, a strong pair of arms around your waist, head resting on your shoulder, “wh-, Tom,” you mumble as his lips trail along your skin.

“Missed you pretty girl,” he sighs, fingers running up and down your skin below your tank top.

“Missed you more,” you grin as he maneuvers the two of you so you’re straddling his hips.

“Show me,” he smiles sleepily and you nod, head meeting his as his fingers make quick work of pulling your panties to the side, swiping through your slick folds as you moaned into his mouth, his tongue mapping out your mouth. It’s been awhile, too long, since he’s been here, with you and you missed every single part of him.

Including this, his thumb rubbing your clit as your chests met, your hard nipples aching to be touched. Trying to be close in every way imaginable before he was whisked away again.

One of your hands trail down to his hard cock trapped beneath his sweatpants, your hands bump into each other as you both work on helping get the other off. In the beginning it would’ve awkward, you would’ve moved your hand and blushed because you felt like you were clunky. Now it was easy, each time the knuckles of his hand grazed your own you shivered into his mouth, grinning as your hand slipped into his sweatpants and grasped his hard cock, Tom grunting against you.

He had three fingers inside you, thumb rubbing your clit as you jerked him off, hand moving a little faster when you approached your high.

“Fuck, Tom, make me come,” you whine against his lips.

“Always,” He says, kissing you deeply as you come, catching your broken moans while he slips his fingers out of you, helping you sit up and rub his cock against your entrance.

“Fuck, missed this,” he groans as you seat yourself fully on his cock, “missed you.”

His strong hands hold your hip, thumb drawing circles on the skin between your tank top and panties, sending more shivers down your spine and goosebumps along your arms.

“Are you cold?” He laughs as you nod, your hips moving faster, positioning yourself so his cock is hitting your g-spot with each stroke.

“Fuck,” you grunt, legs shaking with exertion as his cock twitches inside of you.

“Missed your lips,” he mumbles against them before kissing along your jaw.

“Missed your neck,” he says before biting down softly and soothing the spot with his tongue, careful to make sure it doesn’t leave a mark.

“Missed these,” he mumbles as he pinches your nipples above your tank top sending yet another shiver down your spine. 

“Missed you the most though,” he kisses you as you come, sending him into a blissful orgasm, his cock twitching as he empties into you.

“Love you,” you whisper as you lay on his chest, both of you catching your breathes.

He starts to laugh, deep in the gut laugh that shakes both of you.

“What’s so funny?” You ask, you can’t help but laugh with him.

“We’re both still wearing clothes,” he helps the two of you sit up, his cock slipping out of you before helping you stand.

“Shower?”

“Yes, lemme get the all clear, make sure Harrison’s in his room.”

You nod and he kisses you quick before slipping out of his room, your room.

“Nope, nope, I absolutely do not want to hear the both of you having shower sex.”

“Harrison come on, we’re just going to shower mate,” Tom says and you peep your head out of the door.

“It’s true, the first and only time we ever attempted shower sex, I dislocated my shoulder and was in a sling for three weeks.”

“Thought you fell down the stairs?”

“Cover story, can’t really tell my subscribers that I slipped and fell while on my boyfriend’s dick and we both collapsed on the floor of the shower.”

“That’s a fun party story though,” Harrison laughed and you waited until he closed his door before meeting Tom in the hallway, his arms wrapping around your waist as he pulled you into him, kissing you as he walked backwards into the bathroom.

***

“Do we really need to wait until August to tell everyone?” Tom sighs as the water from the shower falls above you.

“Well, it would be a little weird if people saw the interview after we told everyone about us? They’d say I got it because I’m dating you, and I mean, I’m sure even when we eventually tell people we’re together, they say the same thing, but I’d like people to be kind for now.”

“Why’d they be anything but kind?”

“I dunno, I guess I’m afraid they’ll be mean, I get stupid hate and stuff now, but nowhere near the level I might get, you know when people find out about us.”

“I’m sure you’ll have some angry fans, mad they can’t be dating you,” Tom teases as his hands massage your shoulders, yours washing the shampoo out of your hair.

“I just, I love you and I know things will be different and I’d like things to stay the same, at least for a little while.”

“We can navigate it together, promise blackbird.”

The rest of the day you spend unpacking your clothes while Tom goes shopping. You tried to insist that you could get the bookshelves and desk, that he must’ve been exhausted from the flight and should relax.

“I’d want nothing more than to pick out those for your workspace, promise,” he smiled before kissing you like he’s never kissed you before and then kissing you for longer before you shoved him out the door.

You’re listening to music as you put away clothes, cleaning up Tom’s messy room while you do, organizing his clothes on one side of the closet as well as the dresser.

He gets home a few hours later, Harrison helping him bring the boxes up.

“Hey blackbird, I know your other bookshelves were small but they didn’t fit much of anything so I sort of got bigger ones, they’ll take a little longer to put together but I don’t mind.”

“Okay bubs, wanna get some takeaway and get started?”

“Thai?” He says, placing the last box in your office space. 

“Excellent, I’ll give them a call,” you pull out your phone as Tom opens up the first box, your desk, a sleek dark brown. He pulls out the pieces and instructions as you sink to the ground next to him. 

You give the takeout place you and Tom’s order before resting your chin on Tom’s shoulder as he attempts to read the directions.

“These look confusing.”

“We can figure them out,” you say, hands running down his arms as he squints at the directions, turning them over in his hands.

“Okay, I think this is the right side up.”

“The fact that it’s only pictures so be illegal,” you sigh as Tom’s hands put the directions down and reach for the big flat desk part, turning it upside down and grabbing the first set of screws.

“I should get a screwdriver,” he says, you sit back as he stands up and you unwrap the legs of the desk.

Tom comes back and you turn your phone on, letting music play softly as you both sit and get to work, Tom adding screws to the top of the desk while you get the legs ready.

Tom’s humming and singing to the Beatles playlist you’ve got on and you can’t help but smile at how pretty his voice is.

“You know, if you ever get bored of this whole acting thing, singing might not be a bad career choice.”

He laughs, head tilted back as he pushes the first leg into the desk as you stand up.

The first few chords of a familiar song played in the background. 

“C’mere blackbird, it’s our song,” he says, resting the top of the desk on the ground and holding out his hand.

You place yours on top of his and let him spin you around, coming back to rest your arms around his neck, his fitting perfectly around your waist as you swayed around the room, full of boxes with your favorite books and comics.

“Blackbird singing in the dead of night,” Tom sings softly, forehead pressed against your own as you both reminisce on how the two of you met.

Tom was walking Tessa in the park, it was fairly empty so he let her off the leash, tossing the tennis ball around.

He noticed a girl in a T-shirt and jean skirt reading a book under a large oak tree. Tessa must’ve noticed her too because when he threw the tennis ball, Tessa picked it up with her mouth and sprinted over to the tree, tossing it in the lap of the girl who set her book down, head tossed back in a laugh as Tessa’s front legs stood on her lap, the girl’s hands petting Tessa as Tom ran over.

“Tess, what’re you doing?”

“She’s adorable,” the girl giggles while Tessa licks her face.

And you’re adorable, Tom thinks, head tilting to look at her T-shirt, some sketch of a bird on it. 

“Sorry about that,” Tom says, crouching down to attach Tessa’s leash again.

“No problem at all, I adore dogs,” she smiles and she’s absolutely stunning, the afternoon sunlight illuminating the freckles speckled across her cheeks.

“Well, uh, again, sorry,” Tom says, stumbling backwards over his own feet as he pulls Tessa away.

“No worries,” she smiles as Tom leaves, eyes watching as Tom walks away, laughing to herself quietly before picking up her book.

The next day Tom was grabbing coffee at a cafe with Harrison when he spotted the same hairstyle and freckles standing off to the side by a table covered with books, a laptop, and several notebooks.

He took a deep breath, hyping himself up as he thought of what to say to catch her attention in the busy cafe. 

“Hey! Blackbird!” 

What the fuck Tom?

That was the bird on her shirt from yesterday right?

A few people turned their heads to him, including her.

He sighed as she had a brief moment of recognition in her eyes.

“boy from the park,” she smiles as he crosses towards her.

“Didn’t think I’d see you again. Well since you’re here, maybe I could grab you some coffee? As an apology for Tess jumping on you?”

“I actually-,”

“Y/N!” One of the baristas called out and she tilted her head towards the drink on the counter.

“Already got one,” she picks up the drink, setting it on her table, “but maybe you could get the next one for me?”

“Huh?”

Oh, oh she understood what he was saying and was inviting him to ask her out. 

Smooth Tom, real smooth.

“You know? A coffee date?” She asked, cheeks red as she sat down.

“Oh! Yeah, yes, I’d love that,” he nods.

He stands there, hands shoved in his pockets, rocking back and forth on his feet for a few seconds, looking like an idiot while she stared at him expectedly.

“Oh, uh, do you want to give me your phone number or something?” He asks, pulling his phone out and opening it, setting up the ‘new contact’ page.

He sets the phone on top of one of her notebooks and she picks it up, quickly typing into it before handing it back.

“It was a mockingbird actually,” she says as he starts to back away, wanting to let her get whatever work she needed to do done.

“What?”

“My shirt, from yesterday, a mockingbird.”

“Oh, oh, I’m not exactly a bird connoisseur,” Tom laughs.

“It’s okay, I like blackbirds more anyways,” she giggles and Tom’s entranced.

“Well uh, just text me, lemme know the next time you’re free?”

He nods quickly, “Yeah, uh, see you again soon hopefully,” he trips over his feet as he walks back to Harrison.

“Okay Mr. smooth,” Harrison chuckles. Tom looks down at the new contact added into his phone.

‘Blackbird’

The song ends and Tom kisses your forehead before you both settle back and finish putting together the desk.

After a few cartons of Thai, an album or two of Beatles, and a few mishaps, the two bookshelves stood tall against the opposite wall to the desk.

“I’m so fucking tired,” Tom sighs and you look back at him, both of you shoving the cardboard into a single box to go out to the trash later.

“Babe, told you you should’ve rested, one of the only days you get off before you’re back doing press.”

“I’d want nothing than to spend today here with you. Speaking of press, you excited to interview your favorite MCU cast member tomorrow?”

“Jacob? Hell yeah, I’m pumped,” you joke as Tom scoffs in fake annoyance.

“But seriously, are your followers freaking out?”

“Oh fuck you’re right, forgot that my video announcement was queued for today. Lemme check,” you say excitedly, Tom following you out of the office to your bedroom. Every single time you thought of it being your bedroom, your heart fluttered in excitement.

You sit down on the bed with your laptop, patting the space next to you, where Tom proceeds to collapse on his back, fingers tapping along your leg as you open your laptop and check your video, released four hours ago.

A plethora of comments chimed in, mostly asking if you were excited to meet the cast, one comment made you laugh, so hard you hunched over and there were tears in your eyes.

she’s hot but she better stay the fuck away from Tom, he’s the internets boyfriend and the internets boyfriend only

Tom sat up and read the comment, chuckling as he kissed your shoulder, “whaddya think they’ll say when they find out that I’m not only the internet’s boyfriend but also yours?”

“Probably a lot of heart attacks, they can get over themselves though,” you sigh, scrolling past it to more excited and positive comments.

***

The next day, Tom had to leave early for a long day of interviews, yours right after lunch. You took an Uber to the building the interviews were held in. The night before Tom and you talked about being careful during the interview, making sure to act like you’ve just met, like you haven’t been dating for a year and a half. 

You’re thrown into hair and makeup by the press managers, you were wearing your jean skirt, the same skirt you wore the very first time you met Tom and Spiderman T-shirt, very on brand for your YouTube channel about books and comics.

You were given several index cards with questions, told to introduce yourself to the cast, shake their hands, sit down and get started asking questions. 

You weren’t nervous as you walked into the interview room, lights bright and shining on the three seats with Tom, Jacob, and Zendaya.

You’ve met both Jacob and Zendaya before when they were here to film Far From Home. They all smiled when they saw that it was you coming in for the interview. 

You walked over and shook their hands, Jacob first who gave you a cheeky smile, giving the obligatory, “what’s your name?” 

“Y/N,” you say as you move onto Tom next and fuck who allowed him to wear what he was wearing, striped shirt, patterned pants that made his thighs look so good you just wanted to throw everyone else out of the room and-

“Nice to meet you,” Tom interrupts your dirty thoughts as he sticks his hand out.

You shake it, “you too,” you manage to get out, cheeks reddening a little.

He laughed at your slightly flustered state and you couldn’t help but lightly roll your eyes at your boyfriend. 

You move onto Zendaya, she shakes your hand, a glint of humor in her eyes from watching you and Tom trying to interact like you didn’t know each other. 

You settle back into the chair directly opposite of Tom and cross your legs, looking down at the index cards. You’re about to start with the first question, all insanely generic and you wish you could have written your own questions when Tom cuts you off.

“Nice shirt, Spiderman your favorite superhero darling?” 

You watched as he bit his tongue and was internally kicking himself, which made you giggle slightly, “sure, he’s pretty okay.”

“Just okay?”

“Maybe this movie will make me fall in love with him,” you say and Tom fights the urge to taunt you back.

He bites his lip and nods, eyes roaming your body before you bring it back to the questions. 

“What was your favorite filming location?” You ask and look back up at the three people in front of you expectedly.

“I really loved Venice, the location was just gorgeous, would love to go back there someday,” Jacob responds.

“Can’t lie, I really loved going to each and every location but I think my favorite had to be London, you know? Not just cause we’re doing interviews here, but because it’s such a great location,” Zendaya adds.

“I’m gonna agree, I think London was my favorite filming location. One because it’s my home and I got to see so many of my friends and family there,” Tom answers smiling with a glimmer of reminisce of the times. You’d sneak onto the filming location to bring him a coffee or food that wasn’t from the set, he’d kiss you quickly whenever the coast was clear, both of your hearts racing and terrified that someone would see you. Nobody ever did, but the thought alone back then scared you. 

It did now as well, gauging from the reactions to your video, some people just would not be happy, but there wasn’t much you could do about it.

“London’s pretty nice, yeah,” you look at the next question and almost roll your eyes, so boring.

But you couldn’t go off script because Sony and Marvel invited you and they wanted the press and the fans that came with putting the video up on your channel. So they got to make the questions, got the free extra publicity from your channel, and you got a nice fat paycheck.

Everyone won.

“Who is your favorite superhero from the Marvel Cinematic Universe?”

You know all of them are going to say Iron Man so you weren’t surprised when Jacob said it and Zendaya and Tom nodded and murmured along in agreement.

“And who might your favorite superhero in the MCU be bl-,” Tom started but his eyes widened and you cut him off, blackbird, he was going to slip up and expose the two of you.

“Thought we already went through this Tom, it’s Spiderman,” you grin as he settles back into his seat, a wave of calm rushing over the both of you at your save. 

“Right, of course, who doesn’t love me,” he nods into a smirk as he sits back in his chair.

“Said I liked Spiderman, nothing about you pretty boy,” it easily slipped out of your mouth, teasing and flirting was second nature around Tom. 

Both of you get lost into each other’s eyes for a moment before you snap back into the reality, did you just blow everything up?

You pick up with the questions again, acting like nothing happened, “so, Far From Home picks up where Endgame left off, will we get to see the reactions of your characters at the aftermath of the snap and everyone coming back?”

“Spoilers!” Jacob jokes, all of you laughing.

“I mean yeah, we get to see firsthand what happens when you lose Earth’s best defender,” Zendaya responds.

“Yeah I think one of the coolest things in this movie is getting to see how everyone adjusts to losing Tony Stark, losing Iron Man, as well as seeing it from the perspective of high schoolers,” Tom finishes.

“Great, well that’s all the questions I have for you all, thank you so much for having me,” you say, smiling widely before turning to the camera angled behind them to address your subscribers when you eventually edit the video, “and go see Spiderman: Far From Home! In theatres July 2nd! Hope to see you there!”

“Cut, nice job, thank you y/n. Tom, Zendaya, Jacob, you’ve got five before the next interview. Tom immediately pulls his phone out as he gives you a look before you’re ushered away from the actors and into the dressing room where your phone and purse were sitting.

You grab your phone and smirk at the text from Tom.

Tom: don’t think we were too subtle

You: we’re idiots

You sigh as you slip out the door, grabbing another Uber to Tom’s place, your place you keep reminding yourself.

***

Tom slouches in his seat while texting her, 

Blackbird: it’ll put my editing skills to the test but i think i can manage it

Tom: we could just make that video as a way of sharing our love with the world

Tom: that was cheesy as fuck

Blackbird: i like my idea better

Tom: the q&a video one?

Blackbird: ya, what better way of putting the question i get every time i do a q&a to rest than to say ‘yep i’ve got a boyfriend’ and you just sitting down next to me

Tom: also cheesy

Tom: but I like it better

He’s interrupted by Jacob elbowing him, “almost blew it a few times huh?”

“I think we did our best.”

“I know, you only gave her heart eyes like a thousand times,” Zendaya pipes up and Tom rolls his eyes.

“Did not,” Tom argues, “what even are heart eyes?”

“You know,” Jacob says, eyes softening, mouth turning into a soft smile, “heart eyes.”

“Heart eyes,” Zendaya elbows Tom and gives her best heart eyes.

“Ugh you’re both insufferable sometimes,” Tom groans before the door opens and the next interviewer enters. 

*** You get home and lay on your bed, opening your laptop, you heard the ping! of the email and you see a secure email from Sony.

That was fast.

You open up the email with a video attachment.

Miss Y/L/N,

Attached is your interview with the cast from Far From Home. Please upload the video to your Youtube channel by the end of the day tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Sony Executives

You opened up the video and watched the footage, already cut to show your face when you were talking and Tom, Jacob and Zendaya when they were talking. It was a short clip, about five minutes, you were going to add an introduction of yourself at the beginning, as well as an outro.

You had set up your camera stand in the office yesterday and made your way over to film, standing in front of your desk with the camera in front of you.

“Hey everyone! As promised, I was lucky enough to interview the cast of Far From Home today! Here’s a few minutes of the fun time I had earlier!” You film your ending at the same time.

“So that was the interview! Drop a comment below on your favorite part of the interview! And, you might notice the space I’m filming in is a little different, that’s because I’m all moved in! Sort of,” you say, grabbing the camera from the stand and showing the video the room, your desk and bookshelves sat neatly in their respective places, you managed to unpack some of your stuff, the rest in boxes on the floor.

“So, if you would like to see a room tour of the filming space when I’m finished, let me know! Alright folks, keep reading and see you next time!”

You stop recording and bring the camera back to your room, sitting on the bed and uploading the video to your laptop. You open your editing software and begin to cut and edit the video into your interview. Your thumbnail comes next, one of Tom, Jacob and Zendaya looking as normal as possible, it was hard to choose an image from the video, most of the time Tom was just staring at you like he knew you, knew every piece of you. Which wasn’t really his fault, because he did know you. You added “Y/N meets FFH Cast!” in blue letters with a red outline onto the photo and went through the process of uploading the video.

You plugged your laptop in and let it upload, moving back to the office to start unloading more of your books.

“I’m home!” Tom’s voice echoes throughout the apartment and you perk up, jumping up from your seat on the ground and running down the hallway. 

“You know, I think that video is gonna send some people into a tailspin,” you laugh as he picks you off the ground and twirls you around.

“You called me pretty boy,” Tom laughs and you can’t help but sigh into his neck as he sets you down.

“I was just teasing,” you wiggle your eyebrows as he looks down at you.

“Teasing, teasing, you teased me alright, almost called you blackbird.”

“That would’ve done us in, Sony would’ve been thoroughly confused.” 

“Did you get the video uploaded?”

“It was loading a few hours ago, so I’m sure it’s uploaded now.” 

“Wanna go see the comments?” “You hate reading comments,” you point out as his arm wraps around your waist and you walk back to your room.

“I know but I also know you love reading them. And I can’t help but be curious, just this once.”

You nod as you get your laptop and situate yourself against the pillows, Tom’s head resting on your shoulder as you open the video and pause it, scrolling down to the comment section.

Oh my GOD they way she called him pretty boy to his face, embarrassing

“But Tom, you are my pretty boy,” you laugh as he kisses your neck.

“They’re just mad that I’m not their pretty boy.”

He called her darling, lit rally goals

Plz tell me they exchanged phone numbers

Zendaya giving her daggers like back off my mans lmfaoooo

“I think she gave you a look when you called me pretty boy, like ‘did she seriously just almost blow their cover like that’, Jacob and her got a good laugh out of it.”

Pleasee the balls on her to be flirting with him the entire time

Tom seriously dropped all the heart eyes for y/n and honestly same

Its called professionalism, you should look it up, it definitely doesn’t include flirting with the person you’re interviewing

“I can’t help flirting with you Tom, you’re just so cute,” you sigh as you shut your laptop, “that’s enough of the internet for today.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” he laughs as you set your laptop on the bedside table and Tom straddles your hips, “besides, I can definitely think of things I’d rather be doing, especially ones that don’t include anyone else,” his head ducks down to kiss up your neck, gently nibbling at your jaw as you both scoot down the bed so your back is flat.

His hand slips up your Spiderman T-shirt, groping your breast as you sigh, hands slipping into his hair to give it a light tug as he hastily unbuttons your skirt and unzips it, cold fingers running along the edge of your panties as you hear the front door slam.

“Tom! Y/N!” You hear Harrison shout as Tom groans into your neck.

“Get lost! We’re having grown up time!” Tom shouts, his voice vibrating against you.

“No, like you should seriously see something,” Harrison shouts and Tom grumbles as he sits up off of you and you fix your hair and zip up your skirt.

He rushes into the room, not even sighing or being annoyed at the two of you trying to get it on. He shoves his phone in Tom’s face and he pales, scrolling through what looks like a thread of tweets.

“What? What is it?” You ask, looking over his shoulder.

He finishes the phone and hands it to you, “think they’ve caught us.”

“Wh-,” your face also pales as your eyes widen reading through the tweets. 

It starts off innocent enough, two pictures, one of Tom, one of you, with the caption, ‘Tom Holland and Y/N Y/L/N’.

The next tweet is a picture of Tom at a Home Improvement store, grabbing your desk and bookshelf, it’s a close up of the boxes of stuff next to a picture of your office from your video, bookshelves and desk, titled ‘familiar?’

The next is a picture of you sprawled out on your bed during a livestream, Tom’s twitter sweatshirt on. Nobody could see the @tomholland1996 on the side, you were only showing your face, but a slip of it showed when you sat up, just the @to but it was enough for them to place it next to a picture of Tom at the airport wearing it, with the caption, ‘familiar?’

The next tweet in the thread was also titled ‘familiar?’ With a picture of you in one of your videos with the mockingbird T-shirt next to a photo of Tom at the pharmacy early one morning in the same shirt. It was actually your fault he went to the pharmacy, you got sick while he was spending the night, you were both naked after a long night of fun, so he threw on whatever shirt was closest and ran out, not thinking anything of it.

The next tweet was a video of you during a livestream, sitting on your bed, just talking when there’s a noise behind you, a slam of the door and a “hey blackbir-,” before the video cuts off. The caption reads, ‘voice familiar?’. 

The next was sort of silly, it was just a lot of screencaps from your video of you and Tom looking at each other with love in your eyes. The next was a video cut of your video, ‘ffh interview but just each time Tom and y/n flirt with each other’.

“Cats out of the bag?” Tom laughs as he hands Harrison back his phone.

“Honestly, if neither of us say anything, 10 bucks it’ll blow over in like a week,” you say, dropping back down to the bed as Harrison leans against the door.

Tom nods in agreement, “get lost Harrison, we’ve got some time to make up for.” 

Harrison rolls his eyes but slams your door shut as Tom jumps back on top of you, “sorry bout that, guess we really are bad at the art of subtlety.”

“Oh pretty boy, ain’t nothing subtle about us.” 

***

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