#no one has done this for the CR fandom and it made me sad

[rycrofts-bowler-hat]

Carnival Row text posts (1/??)

[bts-trans]

210312 BigHit's Tweet

[네이버 포스트] 아미들의 떡밥은 계속 되어야 한다… DDUK BAP GOES ON!✨ (@ https://m.post.naver.com/viewer/postView.nhn?volumeNo=30931881&memberNo=51325039)

#BTS #방탄소년���

[Naver Post] The teasers for ARMY must continue... DDUK BAP* GOES ON!✨

(*T/N: ‘dduk bap’ literally means ‘rice bait’ but it is used in fandom culture to denote anything that gets officially released, from MV teasers to photos.)

Naver Post Translation

Keep reading for a plain text version of the blog post! For a picture edit version, please check out our twitter post! [TODO LINK]

[Title] [BTS] Life Goes On 무대 되돌아보기 시간!

[Title] [BTS] Time to Look Back at the Performance of Life Goes On!

아-하!

Hi-A!

(T/N: Stands for ‘Hi ARMY’, which is how Bangbell always starts these posts.)

아미 여러분들! 잘 지내셨나요? (갑자기?) 왜인지.. 오랜만인 것 같고.. 그런 느낌.. 벌써 3월이 다가왔네요… (아련)

ARMYs! How are you? (So suddenly?) Somehow.. It feels.. like it’s been a while.. March is already here... (sentimental)

아미분들이 요즘.. 그런 말 많이 하더라구요. ‘지금이 페스타야…? 떡밥 무슨 일이야..?’ ‘비타민 챙겨 먹자…’

ARMYs.. tend to say this a lot these days. ‘It’s FESTA now...? What’s up with the teasers*..?’ ‘Let’s just take our vitamins...’

(T/N: *떡밥/dduk-bap literally means ‘rice bait’ but it is used in fandom culture to denote anything that gets officially released, from MV teasers to photos like the ones included in this post.)

아직.. 그러면.. 안 돼요...(씨익)

You can’t.. say that.. yet...(smirk)

아미 여러분들의 힘을 충전 (?) 해주고자 방림이가 예쁜 사진들을 모아서! 가지고 왔습니다

In order to re-energize (?) ARMYs I have come here with pretty pictures!

아미 : 떡밥 그만 줘... 아니 줘.. 아니야 주지 마.. 아니야 더 줘….

ARMY: Stop giving us updates... Wait, give us.. No, don’t give us.. NO, give us more....

방림이가 들고 온 오늘의 포스트 내용은! Life Goes On 무대 되돌아보기 시간!

I have heard your pleas and bring you today’s post! Time to Look Back at the Performance of Life Goes On!

DDuk bap Goes on.. 떡밥은 계속되어야 한다 (?) 

The Tease Goes on.. The tease must Go On (?)

(정적)

(Silence)

빠르게 사진 보러 가볼까요!?

Shall we just go to see the pictures!?

시작부터 방림이는.. 더 이상 글을 쓰지 못할 것 같습니다... RM의 MBTI.. SWEET 인걸로 밝혀졌습니다.

I just started and.. it looks like I won’t be able to write any more... RM’s MBTI.. turned out to be SWEET.

Source : 2020 MMA

분위기 어떡해 기럭지 어떡해 김남준 어떡해

The ambience Oh my gosh So tall Oh my gosh Kim Namjoon Oh my gosh

-이상 어떡해로 삼행시 지어 보았습니다-

-I tried to make an acrostic poem with Oh my gosh there-

Like an echo in the forest~ 그냥 RM이 있는 곳이 자연이고 숲

Like an echo in the forest~ The only places that have RM are the nature and forests

성큼 다가온 그의 절교선언.. 그냥 두 손 꼬옥.. 잡아주면 돼….

He’s about to end our friendship.. Just hold me.. in your arms....

(T/N: The gesture Jin is doing with his fingers can be used to mean that you want to sever your bond with someone. This is symbolised when that “someone” has to separate the fingers and, thus, sever the bond.)

이런 선배랑 캠핑 한번 가보고 싶은데… 어떻게 안 될까요? ㄴ 방림.. 현실에는 이런 선배 한 명도 없는데 괜찮으시겠어요?

I want to go camping with this sunbae... how can I? ㄴ  I.. don’t know anyone similar to this sunbae in real life, would it be okay?

이런 말 하는 거. 제법 부끄럽지만. 딱. 한 번만. 말 할 테니까. 잘. 들으세요.

Saying this kind of thing. Is so embarrassing but. Just. Once. I’ll say it. Listen. Carefully.

왕크니까 왕귀엽다

He’s so cute because He’s so big

석지니 귀엽다 웅

Seokjinie is cute Yup

방림이가 제일 많이 본 슈가의 기타 치는 모습! 그저 손만 얹고 있어도 작품이다..

The image I’ve seen the most is Suga playing the guitar! Though he is just placing his hands on it, it’s a work of art..

왜인지 모를 새침한 표정이 point.

His prim expression is on point.

슈왜노잘? 보컬에 욕심 내주시는 민슈가씨 아주 오예입니다 슈가 보컬 곡 기다리는 아미 구함 (1/7777777777777777)

SuWhySiWell? Min Suga-ssi being ambitious when it comes to his vocals is a big YES Looking for ARMY who are awaiting songs in which Suga sings (1/7777777777777777)

(T/N: “슈왜노잘?/SuWhySiWell?” is the abbreviation of the sentence “Why does Suga sing so well?”)

내가 눈사람이라니 -ㅅ-

I can’t believe they made me snowman -ㅅ-

겨울을 좋아하는 홉과 아주 잘 어울리는 보송보송한 눈과.. 호비... 됐다 됐어. 다 봤어. - 아미들 해산 -

Hope likes winter and is in harmony with the gentle snow and.. Hobi... Done, it’s over. I’ve seen it all. - ARMYs’ dissolution -

Source : 2020 MMA

- 아미들 다시 집합 - 어? 잘생겼다. 실제로 보니까.. 훨씬 더 멋있는 것 같아요.

- ARMYs assemble once again - Eh? He’s handsome. I think he’s way more handsome.. when you see him in real life.

제이홉 함부로 귀엽기 금지. 제이홉 숨겨.

J-Hope, it’s forbidden to be so carelessly cute. Hide J-Hope.

(두근) 지민씨 그렇게 쳐다보면 제가 떨ㄹ

(Badum) Jimin-ssi, if you look at me like that I’ll get flustered

뭐야…? 완두콩 같은 귀여운 가디건도 이렇게 소화를 잘해? 약국들 또 다 우네.. 지민 때��에 소화제 인기가 없어가지고...

What’s this...? How can you tolerate that cardigan as cute as beans so well? All the pharmacies are crying.. Because of Jimin the popularity of digestive medicine is in decline...

아 ㅋ 진짜ㅋ 오늘 방림이 낯간지러운 말 많이 쓴다ㅋ

Ah ha for real ha Today I’ve written a lot of embarrassing stuff ha

ㅋ 아 ㅋ

ha ah ha

요정 같다.

He is like a fairy.

어라라 인형인가? 뭐지? 한 번만 터치해 봐도 괜찮으시겠어요?

Ohoho Is he a doll? What? Would it be okay if I tried to touch him?

뭐야… (웅성웅성) 얼굴 무슨 일이야……? 방림이, 소신 발언 한 개 하겠읍니다. 더팩트 뷔 완전 곰돌이 아닙니까?

Whaaa... (wondering) What’s up with his face......? Me, Bangbell, will make a confident statement. Isn’t it a fact that V is totally Winnie the Pooh?

다음 생에는 아무래도 미생물로 태어나야겠어… 눈빛이 어떻게 이렇게 달콤하냐구요…

I guess I should be reincarnated as a microorganism in my next life... How can his gaze be this sweet...

당신…. 국민적… 어쩌구 그거…? 우리 정국…. 좋은 거 다 해....

Are you.... maybe that... national...? Our Jungkook.... Do whatever you want....

한창 궁금한 게 많을 나이 난..ㅋ 정국이 궁금한데 ㅋ (아미 : 오늘 방림이 완전 주책바가지다)

He is at that age when one is curious about a lot of things I am.. heh curious about Jungkook though heh (ARMY: Bangbell is being very silly today)

Source : 2020 MMA

허리가 어디 있는 거예요 정국…? 스크롤 내리다가 하룻밤 꼬박 걸렸어

Where did your hips go Jungkook…? I was scrolling down and it took me a whole night to find them

방림이가 오늘은 조용히 하드털이만 하려고 했으나 습관성 주접이 나와버리고 말았지 뭐예요… 이제 아미들을 위한 선물을 또 털어볼 시간입니다!

I planned on showing the photos quietly today but well, I ended up giving in to my habit of being silly… Now it’s time to drop some more presents for ARMYs!

Source : 2020 MMA

Source : 2020 MMA

Source : 2020 MMA

Source : 2020 MMA

Source : 2020 MMA

Source : 2020 MMA

~ 아미들 숨 쉬는 타임~

~ Time for ARMYs to take a breath~

뽀너스! 아미들이 너무나! 좋아했던 MTV Unplugged ! 반응이 뜨거워서 방림이가 예쁜 사진 살짝쿵 가져와 보았어요!

Bonus! ARMYs liked it so much! The performance on MTV Unplugged ! It was so well received that I tried to bring you some pretty pictures!

빠지면 섭섭한 단체사진까지! #7방탄완전소중

If there isn’t one you’ll be sad, so here’s a group shot! #The7BangtanAreSoPrecious

길다 길어.. 아미 여러분들의 데이터 괜찮으신가요? 방림이가 좀 무리했을까요..? (조심) 아미들에게 모든 걸 다 주고 싶은 방림이의 마음이 조금이라도 닿았길 바라며! 방림이는 또 다른 콘텐츠로 아미 여러분들을 찾아오도록 하겠습니다!

Long, so long.. ARMYs, do you still have mobile data? Did I overdo it..? (being careful) I hope I was able to convey my desire to give ARMYs everything I can! I’ll make sure to come back to you ARMYs with other content!

아-뿅! (찡긋)

A-Poof!* (Wink)

(T/N: *Short for “Bye ARMY! Poof!”, which is how Bangbell always ends these posts.)

[Note]

본 포스트는 빅히트 엔터테인먼트에서 직접 운영하는 포스트입니다.

This Naver Post account is personally run by Big Hit Entertainment.

[End note]

Blogpost Trans cr; Rinne | Tweet Trans cr; Yein & Rinne | Spot Check; Faith Typeset cr; Laura @ bts-trans © TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS

[cranesofibycus]

I'm not sure what ur cr otp is but do That one! I'm curious!

Right. Widojest. 

when I started shipping it if I did: 

"I run over and give Caleb a kiss on the cheek!”  I watched Caleb go quiet for a good twenty seconds... a little head shake, lots of swallowing and blinking and trying to shake himself out of that feeling. Twenty seconds. And then I went back and watched it again. Another twenty seconds. And with every second that ticked by I was dragged deeper and deeper into the pining purgatory of the Widojest hell.

my thoughts:

I mean... there are just too many. I adore this ship with my whole heart. I love how it has developed. I love how their relationship has impacted both Caleb and Jester. I love how they can be soft and quiet with each other. How they easily open up to each other while still being so concerned about what the other person might think of them. This kind of ship can only really happen in a ttRPG, where every moment gives the characters a chance to show their feelings in the smallest, most subtle way. There is a Widojest moments document that is pages and pages and pages long, because Caleb and Jester keep saying loud and clear - with every of their gestures towards each other - I care deeply for you! Where else can we watch love be expressed in these small, hidden ways over hours and hours of two people’s lives? Yes, there are big moments and smaller ones, but for me their love lives in the little smiles and stolen glances. It lives in Jester making Caleb laugh and Caleb offering to watch her dog. It lives somewhere between a healing spell and a comprehend language spell. Somewhere between divine and arcane, blue and red, fire and ice.

What makes me happy about them: 

They are friends! They have fun together, and they have shared moments of grief and of triumph, of sadness and joy. I love it when their personalities clash a little. When Jester’s spontaneity crashes into Caleb’s love for organization.   

What makes me sad about them:

*gestures vaguely at fandom* 

The ship has been under a constant bombardment of hate from various sides since long before Liam’s confirmation on Talks. This has driven a few lovely wj shippers offline and has caused some other wj shippers to fight back at the same annoying volume, neither of which has made shipping widojest more enjoyable. Most of my widojest thoughts are now my own, offline, and will stay my own. I’m breaking that promise to myself a little with this post ;)  

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

As with all fic featuring Caleb: non-native speakers using German is mostly yikes. 

things I look for in fanfic:

Veth being an integral part of how they get together or their lives as a couple. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

As always: I completely trust Liam and Laura with the decisions they make on behalf of their characters. 

My happily ever after for them: 

Gosh, this is hard. Because I’m not sure there can be one. My happily ever after would be a Jester who finds her place in the world and finds the confidence in her own voice and her own desires. Ans it would be a Caleb who can make his peace with his trauma and his past and who believes himself to be worthy of love. Be that Jester or anyone else. (Also, a Nicodranas cliff-side wedding with Veth as Jester’s maid of honor, Beau as Caleb’s best man and Frumpkin as ring bearer)  

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Jester starts out as the little spoon most nights, but they often wake up with her as the big spoon. 

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

If both of you can turn into giant eagles... why would you not always do that to do some fun flying around?

[impishnature]

Hell Hath No Fury

Number two! Look at me! I can do this! <3 Imptober Prompts so far 

AO3 Fandom: Good Omens Rating: T+ Prompt: Kidnapped Summary: Warlock is in trouble. And Nanny will not stand for it. 

.

"How? How could they have let this happen?"

The pacing had been going on for a while now. Small heels clicked on marble flooring, over and over. Snap snap snap. If the very ground beneath her feet had burst into flames with her fury neither of them would have been surprised, each drag of her heels a spark of wrath that only added to the burning embers raging through her entire mildly shaking form. 

As it was, the floor seemed hard pressed to refuse the gouging lines she was trying to physically force into them with every sharp step.

"Crowley-"

"Don't Crowley me, Francis." Ashtoreth snarled, spinning toward her companion, a whirlwind of emotion and fluttering skirts. "You're as angry as I am."

"Quite." 

She blinked at the blatant admission, fury momentarily forgotten in a puff of cold shock. She took a second to look him over, note the ice that sat within his gaze, the stone sharp gravel in the rumble from his throat and the tight tremor in his fist. His was a cold anger, the storm that froze all beneath his stare, but he was doing his best to reign it in. 

After all, it wouldn't do for the gardener to rant and rave, it wasn't his place.

And he was so good at playing his part. 

A Nanny, however, was allowed to be beside herself. She'd probably even be permitted to be a little bit hysterical whilst the parents were not looking... but as it was she wanted to be neither of those things.

She wanted heads to roll. And she refused to stand idly by, waiting for others to make it happen.

"But we cannot move, Cr-Ashtoreth." Francis's eyes turned softer, his gaze concerned as he patted the seat beside him. "We're already under suspicion, everyone in the house is. Until the young master is found we must sit and wait-"

"We already know where he is!" Her voice was punctuated by the crack of her umbrella against the ground, enough force to make the marble groan and dent beneath her iron will. The drone of voices in the nearby room hushed and Francis couldn't help but make quick shushing hand gestures, glancing between her and the doorway. "There's already a ransom." Ashtoreth's face took on a twisted dark smile, disbelieving and repulsed in equal measures, even as she lowered her tone to placate him. "One day." She held a finger up accusingly. "Just one day we let them look after their own kid without our intervention and this happens." 

"That's not entirely fair." The words were asinine at best, and at least said with such hollow sincerity that she had no issue with ripping them apart.

"Oh? Is that why you're so stoic all of a sudden? You don't blame them, you blame us?"

Ashtoreth didn't really know what she was aiming for, only that she was in pain and she wanted him to be in just as much pain as she was.

One defeated look from Francis though was enough to make her wish she hadn't, even if she couldn't back down entirely. 

It was a look that said he was aching just as much as her.

That he blamed himself more than anyone else in the world.

And she felt it too, that awful twisting, gnawing guilt but also the vicious harsh reality of the situation that it wasn't fair.

Parents were meant to love their children, protect them no matter the costs.

But at least one of the parents they were employed by seemed hellbent on forgetting his family existed even when they were right in front of him until it was too late.

It shouldn't have been this easy, this simple- they'd never had any issues when they'd looked after him.

"You do, don't you?" She took a step back, resting slowly on her umbrella as she gave him an appraising look. "One day off. That's all we've taken in years. We both needed to report in with our respective management. They should have been able to look after him for. One. Day." 

"They don't know they're dealing with the antichrist."

His eyes said it all. We lost him. We misplaced the antichrist. 

No one else. 

Us.

But that wasn't fair.

And it did not help the matter at hand.

"This has nothing to do with that and you know it. This is bog-standard human idiocy and cruelty. No Angels or Demons needed for that." Ashtoreth's expression soured, a bitter taste at the back of her throat as she continued, disbelief and disgust colouring her voice. "Kidnapping a child to get at the father." The next words came out in a much harsher mutter, more hiss than words and more bite than bark. "A father who doesn't deserve him."

"Crowley." There was far more warning there than there ought to be as far as she was concerned.

Luckily, she never was very good at listening to warnings.

"It's true- and you know not to call me that, Angel." Ashtoreth cursed at the raised eyebrow she got in return, that look that called her a hypocrite without actually saying anything at all. "This isn't helping." She knew her voice was becoming desperate, pleading in a way that would normally fill her with shame, but there was no space inside her narrow frame to hold any more emotion than she was already dealing with. "We know where he is, what's stopping us from just-"

"We can't." Francis stood up, gripping her shoulders tightly but gently, a soft shake to try and drag her back into the reality they faced together. "You know we can't get involved. If we get involved, management on both sides will find out. How will we explain all of this? What will happen then?" His eyes tried to catch hers, moving this way and that but she refused to give him the satisfaction. He gave up with a sigh. "They'll decide we're not up to the task, that's what will happen. And then they'll get others to look after him." He tried to pull her closer, but she refused to budge. "You know that can't happen, deep down under all this anger. We can't let that happen and it will if we-"

She pulled out of his grasp, cutting him off as she pushed his hand aside. "I can't. I can't just- not again. Not this time. I've sat and watched too many things happen before and I refuse to do it again." Her eyes gleamed, locking with his in determination and even though she could feel them welling up she refused to cry in front of him, even in anger. "I don't care if this is part of some ineffable plan- some- some divine intervention or pure fucking coincidence- I will not stand by and let him get hurt. Not now. Not ever."

Francis stared at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape in shock. Of course he was startled by her venom, this was a job, after all; that's all it should be for either of them. 

But it was also so much more.

They'd lived through so much and seen so much and she'd be damned if she carried on letting God hold all the cards.

"Of course not." The words were soft, understanding flowing through them in a way it hadn't before. Then came a small nod of approval- acceptance, perhaps even a little bit of pride- and it was all she needed to take a few more steps back, breaking what was left of the hold that kept her at bay. "Of course you can't." 

She turned her gaze away from him, unable to stand the sad smile glimmering in his vision, the eyes that saw through her, saw what she tried to hide, knew her more than she'd ever allowed anyone to be. 

But he'd been there too. Seen the ark, the wars, the suffering- the innocents who didn't deserve their fates. 

But not this little boy. 

Not this time.

This time she could make a difference.

"If one hair is- If they have hurt that child in any way there will be nothing left but ashhh when I am done with them." Her forked tongue was making an appearance and she swallowed down the urge to change, to tear the world apart in search of her boy.

Francis nodded, eyes already darting about as he tried to come up with a plan of action. "I'll do what I can to keep the peace here. No one will even know you're gone. Just be careful- and quick. Hopefully, it won't take too many miracles for us to pull this off and if we're careful no one will be any the wiser." He frowned thoughtfully, fingers tapping nervously. "At least us being separated should help with that."

"Oh, don't worry." Ashtoreth grinned, a vicious wide snarl that showed too many teeth and stretched too far across her cheeks. "I'm not planning on using that much influence on them."

Francis raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to change at least?"

"No, I think I look perfect for this particular mission."

~~~

Miles away, in a small unremarkable building, surrounded by police, with each window manned by an unscrupulous kidnapper, the ringleader would come to find that a rather large oversight had been made.

If anyone were able to ask him what exactly had happened that day, he would have to say that despite their fortifications, the back door had been found mysteriously and rather irresponsibly unlocked.

The creak of the floorboards and the clack of small heels would be the only warning any of those in the building had to what would befall them in the next few moments. Before a striking red headed lady in a long black dress walked into the main room with little fanfare as if she hadn't just wandered calmly and obliviously into a hostage situation.

"Who the fuck are you? And what are you doing here?"

"Oh, where are my manners." The lady smiled, though it was the kind of smile more suited for a predator staring at prey than a seemingly unarmed lady surrounded by guns. 

"I'm here for my Godchild." 

~~~

Francis hovered fretfully, only a few hours since her departure. He had heard the news- a team of special operatives had managed to surround the building and break in, pushing forward until the kidnappers gave up their hostage. It all seemed too good to be true, and if he was honest, rather reckless to put the hostage at risk in such a manner.

But then again, he knew a manipulation of reality when he saw one, and at least it was only a small demonic miracle to get the police to believe they had been the ones to save the boy instead of what had actually happened.

He assumed that the assailants would also assume that they had been brought in by the police, though the brutality they no doubt had faced at Ashtoreth's hands might be a lot harder to explain away. Perhaps they had fought back... no doubt she would tell him exactly what had taken place when they had a chance. 

For now, however, he just waited with bated breath as a familiar head of red hair came into view, a small boy wrapped up safe and sound in her arms as she slowly walked down the garden path to the back door of the house.

He quickly did his part. He'd kept the family and police calm, kept them out of Ashtoreth's way while she worked until he'd had the signal that she was on her way back. And now he cleaned up. As far as any of those in the house knew, Warlock had been brought home a while ago, they'd had their tearful reunion with him and now he was being quietly settled by his diligent Nanny, to make sure that he wasn't too traumatised by the entire event.

Perhaps it was a bit malicious to not actually let them have their tearful reunion... but he couldn't say that the denial wasn't a little bit deserved too.

A little bit of divine punishment, if you will. 

He opened the door for her, quickly beckoning her in before closing it just as abruptly, locking out the world from their small bubble if only for a moment. "How is he? Is he alright?"

"He's sleeping." The anger seemed to have abated now, a much softer, warmer simmer to her entire appearance as she cradled him against her shoulder, her words cooing and placating. "It's been a long day but he seemed to think it was all one big adventure." She gave him a sidelong look. "So if my management does for some reason ask, that's what I'll tell them. I took him on an excursion and showed him what he was capable of."

Francis blanched. "He didn't actually see-"

"Of course not." She rolled her eyes at him. "No ones going to hurt him, let alone me." She continued to rock him, humming softly. "He's too young to see... all that." Her smile turned sharp again, grim satisfaction gleaming in her eyes.

Francis shivered. No doubt she had left her mark and the kidnappers would renounce their ways if they knew what was good for them. "G-good. Well, everything is sorted here. You needn't worry about anyone taking him off your hands for a bit." 

Ashtoreth blinked at him blankly for a moment, before glancing down at the boy in her arms. It seemed to dawn on her then that if the parents had tried to take him from her, she might have fought them tooth and claw. She sniffed, standing straighter in a haughty attempt at dignity. "I don't know what you're talking about, gardener. But, I think I should get Master Warlock up to bed. It's been such a long day, we shouldn't disturb his sleep."

Francis smiled, a knowing look that made her scowl deeper as she stalked past him. "Of course. You always know what's best, Ashtoreth."

"Of course I do. I'm his Nanny."

~~~

The next day was a whirlwind of an affair.

The media hounded the door, trying every underhanded method to be the first to get an interview. Security was tightened, meetings were held, and droves of people, relatives, friends, work partners, appeared out of the woodwork to check up on the family- or at least be seen doing so.

That was the crux of it all, Francis couldn't help but think, as the pair sat by and watched the humans do their little dances, the little rituals repeating over and over again. Anything to make sure they were seen, make sure they were heard, each one of them there for reasons that the two of them found distasteful and unremarkable as they instead kept their eyes on what was important- the small boy running around as if nothing had even happened the day before.

Or at least, mostly acting like nothing had happened.

You see, the young boy had a rather interesting story to tell to every new person he was introduced to. 

Each time his parents called him over, only to parade him in front of people to prove that he was alright, they would be treated all over again to the show. They would stand with amused, affectionate smiles that didn't quite reach their eyes as he would grin and wave his arms around, proudly remarking that his Nanny had come to get him from the bad people. 

The adults would laugh, the kind of endearing laughter that adults did when a child was being ridiculous and they had more important things to be discussing and off Warlock would run, back to his games until the next time he was called on to be their pride and joy. 

But his story never changed, no matter how many times he told it.

Nanny had come to bring him home.

She'd always promised him that nothing bad could happen to him, and she'd made good on that promise.

Francis gave Ashtoreth a sidelong glance as they sat on a picnic blanket, propped up against the garden wall as Warlock ran between them and his parents. Ashtoreth kept her eyes on Warlock, acknowledging his glance with only the tilt of her head. It was an unspoken agreement now, that Warlock was always in sight of one of them, neither of them prepared to let anyone else do their job from now on.

"I thought you said he didn't see anything?"

Ashtoreth finally pulled her eyes away from the boy, if only for a moment, to look at him over the top of her glasses, eyes sparkling with mock innocence and mischief. "I said nothing of the sort." 

"You did. You said-"

"I said I didn't let him see any of the violence. That's all." She turned away from him, laughing and shaking her head along with the other adults that looked their way as Warlock yet again retold his tale, an endearing gleam to her eyes that only Francis could see behind her glasses. "Kids say all kinds of impossible things after a traumatic experience, didn't you know?"

Francis smiled, shaking his head as he sat back against the wall. "That they do. That they do."

[venus-says]

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Episodes 01-15

Press START button.

Ex-Aid is one of those seasons that when you look at it sounds like something that shouldn't work. I mean, putting doctors and video-games together? Is this what, a Dr. Mario live-action, an adaptation of Surgeon Simulator, or an actual Kamen Rider season?

This odd combination of factors always made very skeptical about this season, there's also the huge anime eyes in the helmet that never sat well with me too, but this concept combo always seemed pretty wild to work. But then I watched Gaim, which also had an odd combination of themes, and I saw that those odd concepts mixed together can be doable and be something fun so I started to look forward to the season. But even with the excitement, a small fear started to linger because as I started seeing more and more of Kamen Rider and seeing more of the community I always saw Ex-Aid popping up as one season that everyone thinks it's top-notch and well... the last time I saw a highly acclaimed season in the fandom I hated it so the chances of that happening here again were there.

And you know, I think my fears became reality and I feel like I'm having another Drive experience here. Maybe not at the same level as Drive, I feel like Ex-Aid got me less angry and annoyed, but this season really didn't click with me. I see that it can grow on me because after episode 11 I started enjoying it more, but the general feeling for these 15 episodes and this movie was... meh? Like, I don't like most of the characters, I have a serious problem with the comedy, and there's something in the dialogue of this show that really tickles me off. I also don't like how CGI heavy this show is, and most of the CGI looks horrible.

One thing that really pushed me off at the beginning was the structure that wasn't very interesting, we had 4 episodes to introduce the riders, 4 episodes to give a power-up to each of them, and 2 to introduce a shared power-up and defeat the first general of the villains, and I felt like I came out of these without that much story, it felt like they were just going through a checklist of toys they had to sell and not actually telling a story. It's only from episode 11 onward that it starts to feel like this show has some sort of plot.

I also don't like how this starts similar to a Rider War thing, with all riders competing to see who cleans 10 games first and gets the most Gashats, but they make all characters out of the main one be completely hateful so we have no choice other than root for him. And like, it's okay to give us jerk characters, but you gotta give us something about them so that we can hang on, you don't need to make them redeemable or anything but you gotta have enough for us to love hating on a character otherwise it's just annoying.

Going back to my weird dialogue point, probably one of the things that I dislike the most is how there are times where they don't seem like real people talking? Like, the image I have when seeing the dialogue is that a bunch of old men in a writers' room sit down thinking "what will sound very trendy to hit off with the kid gamers", "what's a young people language we can put here" and they think they're being very smart and clever, but just sounds odd as hell, especially with the gaming aspect and the catchphrases (that at this point in this franchise I'm already tired of them because most of them aren't even charming anymore).

Another thing that doesn't sit well with me is just how special they make these characters be when there's no necessity for it. Like, being an actual doctor is already special enough, you don't need to have your main rider be extremely good at games to justify the gaming motif, you don't need the secondary rider to be a famous prodigious surgeon to install a rivalry. I mean look at Kiriya, as far as I can't remember he doesn't have any special trait and yet he manages to be interesting and stand out on his own. Heck, you don't need to have Emu be patient 0 of the gaming disease when you already have him being really good at video-games and when you're starting to add another element to him with a possible second personality, it's too much for a single character RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING. It's not like we're seeing those characters evolving into becoming special, they're already special and we just have to buy it. Of course, there are still routes that they can go with that will make the show more interesting, like for example they can do something with Taiga and Emu and their game addiction/obsession and that can be really great, but all this special feeling since the beginning really bugs me.

I think since I'm already here let me talk about the characters. Emu is a precious kid, there are times in which he kinda gets under my skin, but I overall like him. I especially love that he works as a pediatrician, in the beginning, especially considering this is a kids' show, I like to have this idea of doctors being heroes in the mind of children because they really are (despite the health care system in a lot of countries make it looks like they're villains). Other than him being extra special there are two things the show does with him that I don't like, the first one is that after the first arc is done they make him leave pediatrics to start doing surgeries and while I understand that as an intern that's the normal course and he probably has to go through different areas before choosing a specialty, but I feel like that was done just to hone more the rivalry with Hiiro and I don't really care for that, I hope he's back at pediatrics later on because I feel like it's what makes more sense for him and for the target audience of this show. The other thing I don't like is his personality change when he "starts a game" because it never felt like there was much of a change in any of the cases, they just make a gust of wind and he shows a grim for a few seconds, but nothing changes. And seeing that this is a plot point they want to explore it annoys me that they never made that play out before, it's bringing something up when it's convenient and saying that they had a basis for that but the basis is a single small thing that was never brought up to attention before.

Moving to Hiiro, I Hate Him and that's all I have to say. And I hate him even more because the show put him in a relationship where he was very cold and dismissive of his significant other and still they want to make us sympathize with him, they frame it as "the girl left because she didn't want to bother your studies" instead of "she left you because you were a jerk". But of course, they can't make that because then they wouldn't be able to make the stoic character they want so much, they would have to make someone who's trying to become a better person after he lost someone important that he didn't give the proper attention to, and that's much harder and they don't want that. UGH, I hate this man so much.

Taiga. Taiga is... interesting, I like the concept of someone who worked at CR before but lost himself to addiction, that's a great plot point. It's sad they don't do much with him and we end up with another obsessive jerk. Still, don't hate him as much because I can see the potential for them doing something very cool with him, but as of now, he's in the pile of hate.

Kiriya was probably my favorite character of this cast, it was really fun seeing him go from a mysterious man lurking around to someone who looks very deceptive, and all the journey of him investigating the truth as the episodes where going, and seeing his credibility be questioned but he never gave up despite that, it was all very great. Do I think it was a cheap move to kill him before he could tell the truth about Emu? Yes, I do. Because this is something we see everywhere, it's not a new trick. But I still felt his death, and if they don't come up with a way to revive him somehow I'll give this show props because it was a bold move to kill off a character during the Christmas special.

About Genm, and all the villains for that matter, I don't have much to say. I don't get them, I'm not curious to understand them, thus I don't care for them. It's interesting that the powers of the riders end up coming from the main villain? A bit? But then again, if you have all of these powers and you're handing them to people who oppose you, it seems like it's very counter-intuitive. At least they have the excuse that he's gathering data from them, but if he never recovers those gashats, is he really getting the data he wants? I don't know, everything about him and the villains seems very odd. But for what's worth, he almost killed himself to gather data for a zombie game and that was pretty wild so I guess that counts? About Graphite and Parad, I don't have anything to say, don't really care for them.

This leaves us with the side characters. Asuna/Poppy, I wanna like her but sadly I don't. If she is the "token girl" of the season, I'm at least glad she's not a romantic interest and that she fills in as a support role, but still, don't know why she can't just be a regular nurse that goes a little crazy sometimes. Though I guess if they had gone this route with her she would probably become Kiriko 2.0 and that's also bad so... There's the Director of the hospital, and I just hate him, I hate that they make someone who's supposed to be the leader of the hospital sooooo stupid. And he's stupid at all times, he doesn't even get the treatment Jun had in which he was there for comedy but he also had his moments where he was serious and those moments were pretty good. This dude is just here to make his eyes pop and drool over his son and I hate that. Mr. Minister should've chosen someone better suited for this job. And last, there's Nico who just seems like another jerk I don't like, but I'm holding on talking about her because I think I've only seen her for 2 or 3 episodes and she appeared very little so I can't say much about her.

I intended to talk about the Dr. Pac-Man movie, but they actually integrated that plot in the show in a much more flashed out way this time around so I feel like it would be redundant to talk about it since the bigger points I would have to make were already touched on. But let me say, what a mess of a movie. Like, there was no reason for Wizard and Gaim to be there, like how did Gaim even get there in the first place? This movie would be much better with only Drive, Ghost, and Ex-Aid, because they actually had a decent plot going around there that connected very nicely. But it's still a cross-over movie and they make a lot of things I hate about these cross-overs, the awful rider forms are there, there was an awful huge CGI battle scene that looked ugly as hell (though props to them for making this fight happen mid-way and not at the end), there was that scene were the riders started to speed-run through their old forms that were also pretty awful because I could barely understand what was going on in the scenes, all the mess that every rider cross-over movie has. But the thing that annoyed me the most this time around wasn't even that, was Ghost being Ghost again and putting another countdown to doom into Takeru and bringing Akari in this hell with him, and having ANOTHER fake-out death for him at the end. GOSH, THIS ANNOYS ME SO MUCH, LET THIS DUDE LIVE, STOOOOOOP.

And before wrap-up let's talk about what everyone loves, the designs.

This is probably the group with my least favorite designs EVER in this franchise, I'm sorry. I get, they're taking inspiration of different game genres, and the different forms are like they're leveling up, and in concept, I like that but in actual looks, only a very few of them get to pull it off. To begin with, I don't even know what those belts are supposed to be, they look way too busy and I can't define what that shape is.

The Level 1 forms are a mistake. I know, it's Mario before he eats a mushroom, it's still ugly as hell, and I hate that when they grow to their Level 2 forms the head of Level 1 goes to their back like a backpack. In terms of Level 2, I wasn't a fan of Ex-Aid's eyes at first but the design grew on me a lot, I love the colors and how vibrant it is, I also like Genm's because it's just a color variation and it looks good so... Kinda wish his hammer arm stayed as a hammer all the time though, makes Brave having a sword less special. And speaking of him, despite hating his character, as an RPG fan, I do love his design. Snipe, on the other hand, is an abomination. That thing on his right eye that is supposed to hair? What the fuck Kamen Rider, you can do better. Well... at least he's not just a bike, I guess. Thinking about it now, I should've known that Kiriya would end-up dying when his level 2 form was just a bike, that was a major red flag. At least he looks cool.

Sadly Level 3 starts to make everything look ugly again because the power-ups are attachments and they usually go only in the upper body making everyone look like an ice cream cone. I don't think there's a single Level 3 design I like, all of them look awful. I think Shakariki Sports and Jet Combat offend me the most, but all of these can be thrown in the trash. Together with the shared Level 5 power-up, gosh talk about an awful form, it's so bulky, and that dragon head looks so ridiculous, I think the only Level 5 that works is Brave's because in the end it just looks like he's branding his sword, but everyone else looks awful, in special the Full Dragon form.

The Level 10 forms are fun because I love Genm's zombie version, black and white is an easy combination but it works so well, and this dude looks so freaking cool, also NO BACKPACK HEAD! Also, he has a much better belt than the others, this should be the design for all the riders, it's not very big, it's easily recognizable as a portable console, it just looks good you know? But then we have Ex-Aid's Level 10 and he's chibi ex-aid again and he looks awful, thankfully this form is just a set for us to get Level 20 Left and Right that is a concept I love and definitely my favorite suits out of the ones for this season so far. Would I like it better if there wasn't the shoulder piece with Lv.10's head? Definitely, but I still love these forms. I personally love the right side more because after all we already have a light blue rider on the team, but I also think the bright orange with blue accents looks more appealing and stands out more than the blue with orange accents. The last form present in these 15 episodes is Para-DX's Puzzle and Fighting game forms, and I hate the puzzle form, it's really ugly, the fighting game form works way much better, but the back of the helmet being Puzzle's head brings it down a little.

And that's it for this post. Not gonna lie, considering how much I didn't enjoy this show at the beginning, I'm very surprised by how long this post is. I think it's a sign I'm invested so I'm hoping we'll have only good things from here on now. If you have anything to add, please share your thoughts in the comments down below. Stay healthy, stay safe, never stop resisting, thank you so much for reading me rant for so long, and until the next time. See ya in the next game.

[vrainsrewatch]

episode 11 thoughts

me: i shouldn’t have too much to say about this episode, since it’ll be mostly dueling! me, 25 screenshots later: 

(see what i did there. i’m funny i promise)

a lot of the early episodes i’ve seen twice, or at least use regularly in amvs so i’m somewhat familiar with what happens in them. that is not the case for this particular episode, so even though i sort of remember the beats of it, i’d forgotten a lot of the juicy stuff.

like this.

i’ve seen people bring this scene up before, but it’s really interesting. AI don’t need to sleep, but does the existence of free will inside of them give them the option? sleep is something animals do because they have to. humans sleep way, way longer on average than most other predators, and while there’s certain animals that sleep upwards of 15 hours, those are mostly prey animals -- or at least, animals who don’t really hunt. sloths, koalas, etc.

people do, however, sleep sometimes when they don’t technically have to. people take naps when they’ve had a stressful day, or are staying up late for an event, or even to get through a class that bores them. does that make it an activity?? that one can choose to do?? it’s kind of a weird thought lol.

anyways though,

i don’t talk about emma too much, but she’s a pretty cool gal. she’s obviously incredibly intelligent, she’s an expert hacker, but i love her ability to put things together quickly. she’s an information broker and a bounty hunter, so it makes sense she’s good at putting clues together to form a conclusion fast. i just like that they bothered to have her think this one out so we get to see that, since she doesn’t get much screen time past this season.

i also had forgotten how often dr. kogami shows up in these episodes. for some reason, i only remembered him being here or there throughout the first season, up until rev vs pm round 3.

there’s people in the fandom who like to demonize revolver, mostly because of the tower i think, but honestly, he’s a respectful opponent. he really did not have to explain anything to playmaker -- at the moment, all revolver knows is he’s some dude going around kicking his lackeys asses in duels, and has an ignis attached to his duel disk. he doesn’t know he was a LI victim. he doesn’t have any reason to suspect that, as of right now, but he still goes out of his way to clear things up for yusaku. 

it’s an important aspect of his character that i think people who dislike him tend to forget, and like, you do you -- like and dislike whatever characters you want, i mean -- but you shouldn’t erase parts of them just because you’re not a fan.

anyways though,

it’s really interesting to me how revolver talks about free will. he’s more spiritual then i would’ve guessed, as we find out from his duel vs. soulburner in 115-116, but it shows here, too. 

the ignis have free will, but he thinks of them as below humans; creatures that will only cause harm. if they have free will, they have the choice to be good or bad, and yet he is so dead set in his thinking. he has all the pieces right there, but he just won’t put them together. and with his changes towards ai specifically and what he says to soulburner about flame in their duel, you have to wonder if it’s a willful ignorance.

however that follows up with:

which like, again shows how spiritual revolver actually is in some ways, which is interesting considering how rooted in science he is a lot of the time, but also,

the way he phrases this makes me deeply sad for him. i’ve talked a lot about revolver’s thoughts on his father already, so i won’t talk about it too much here when i’ve got so much else to cover, but really. he deserved an actual father, not an asshole who wrongfully put himself on a pedestal to be admired and worshiped.

i feel like the fandom is so used to the concept since it was introduced so early to us in the series, but seriously, this is kind of a crazy thing. despite how advanced den city is technologically, clearly this has still never been done before outside of the hanoi project. that is a lot to take in and process.

seriously. i don’t blame yusaku and everyone else for being so skeptical. it doesn’t sound possible to us, even though in the real world, it’s been something we’ve talked about since we started developing AI, basically. 

it brings so many moral questions to the table, too, because if something has free will, if something is able to think and live like us, would it be wrong to continue to make it do things that might be against its will? would it be wrong to delete the program, if it’s capable of forming connections with others?

moving on to something less serious, though:

everyone’s favorite meme scene LOL. seriously, this is so stupid and nerdy, i hate it and love it so much at the same time.

originally i wasn’t too fond of revolver’s first avatar, but it’s really grown on me tbh. not really relevant, but things like this actually made it grow on me lol.

next up though we get a flashback of yusaku’s backstory. at the current moment, we really have no context for these scenes, but they’re still shocking to look at in their own right:

and of course, we have little ryoken’s words of encouragement. 

not only do we find out why yusaku does the three things mantra, we also now have the clues that revolver was the one who told this to him, way back when, since we see him use the same tic in an earlier episode.

i’ll try to keep my thoughts on this brief, since i have a lot to say about this, so bear with me.

firstly, the last line. not only is it one of my favorite quotes in the whole series, as it’s simple, powerful, and holds meaning in my own life, but it reflects back on what i was saying about revolver having all the pieces but purposefully not putting them together about the ignis.

it’s a concept that’s hard to grasp at their young ages, and yet ryoken puts it eloquently and yusaku takes it to heart, turning those words into fuel to keep him going. 

three things to live, three things to go home, three things to defeat the enemy. 

these are not normal words of encouragement, and it’s very clearly intentional. this is something a child can cling to, which is exactly what yusaku does. he clings to it so much, even ten years later these are still the words he hears when he needs to get through something. even ten years later, he thinks of three things for everything he does.

ryoken wanted that child -- the one that he lured back to his father, the one that kept losing and kept screaming in pain -- to have a reason to fight back.

and boy, does yusaku fight back.

anyways though.

a lot of people, myself included, love the irony of this. the person he hates, the person he wants to save, the person he’s dueling right now, they are all the same. he is right in front of him, but he doesn’t know it. ah, it hurts so good lol.

a lot of people don’t consider ryoken to be captured, but i do. just not in the sense that yusaku is thinking of.

this is where everyone gets the confusion of firewall being his ace, and i mean like, i get it. but it’s the same way as like, salamangreat pyro phoenix or violet chimera are soulburner’s secondary aces, becaus heatleo is his true ace.

at least, imo. maybe i would’ve been wrong had firewall not been so overpowered it had to be axed from both the OCG and the TCG lmao. 

okay, but why? why just you, seemingly? i touched on the fact that it’s possible jin and spectre also have link sense, i think, but takeru doesn’t. miyu seemingly doesn’t -- or does she, with her ability to sense aqua on her chest during her coma? so really, it’s just takeru, then. why is he the odd one out, here? and was this a byproduct of the LI or were the children chosen on purpose because of this ability? was it something that just had to be awoken inside of them? 

g o d 

have you seen it before? were you even there when revolver took down cyberse????

anyways.

this is so cute. i love them. his little smile. but also, it’s interesting to note that he does this not believing ai has free will. i saw a few people complaining that yusaku’s attachment to roboppi (like the flashback of him petting her head like a dog or smth) was out of character, but it’s clearly not.

he clearly gets invested in the AI around him, probably because he knows he doesn’t have to worry about them hurting him or anything. it’s... sad :(

honestly, i wonder if revolver would’ve won this duel had he not been using his father’s strategy with fire prison. they’re very evenly matched in skill, so i wouldn’t really have been surprised.

this screenshot was just taken because CR called them varrets instead of rokkets but still changed the monster names to rokkets and when i first saw this episode i was like ??? ultra confused lmao.

i’m so glad the subtitles get more consistent as the series goes on. though i harp on CR a lot, i really am grateful they have the whole series and were able to simulcast it throughout it’s airing. 

anyways, that’s all for right now! i started watching this episode like, an hour and a half ago almost LOL so i’ve gotta get some stuff done before watching another. see y’all

[kimabutch]

You're compiling CR songs? I don't know if they were maybe already suggested but "Champion" by Barns Courtney is my #1 Vax song, and Florence's "No light, no light" is my #2 Caleb song (after #1 Arsonist's Lullaby, obviously). Liam's characters really stike a chord with me and my taste in music, apparently!

Champion is so good for Vax, down to its name! It’s got that very self-sacrificing feel that defines Vax, to an extent:

“Every time I'm knocked down/ It's the struggle that reminds me/ So heaven don't fail me now/ Put the wings upon my feet”

The line “I can live forever, I'll rise again” made me super sad, though :( I think that’s how he thought before the RQ debacle, though... not sure he was really aware he could die.

No Light No Light is one of my all-time favourite songs (which I also got introduced to via fandom actually!) and I’d never considered it for Caleb... but many of the lyrics work super well! Particularly the bridge:

“Would you leave me/ If I told you what I've done?/ And would you leave me/ If I told you what I've become?”

(And of course, the fact that Caleb has “bright blue eyes” helps.)

Come yell at me about the songs that remind you of Critical Role! I’m making a giant playlist! (Song masterpost | CR music tag)

[ofbutterfliesandlions]

This is nothing bad, just some pcp musings, especially relating to some stuff that happened years and years ago, and wondering about that.... It got long though, so I put it under a cut.

I started FMA 03 on Mother’s Day. I thought it was a bit of hilarious irony, given that, I, too, did not have a mother to celebrate with, albeit with a drastically different relationship (though, upon reflection, same type of death, possibly? Death by illness, at any rate). I finished the second half of the series today.

And while I’ve become completely absorbed into the world and the series, my mind now keeps wandering back to the time when the two Elric brothers appeared in the realms, the share mental space. I mean, they’re still there, no one really dies or of significance hasn’t died since we started that merger.

And now, my mind keeps wandering back to them. I had only fringe, cultural osmosis knowledge of FMA, because some friends back then were into it. I know of characters from both 03 and Brotherhood, and while I never really saw much screenshots from the manga show up, I still knew several of the traumatizing events up through about the end of the series. I had seen Conqueror of Shambala, though I never had the context for the series, and was told it’s kinda AUish. [For the record, I’m debating staying up to “re”watch it on CR, now that I have series context for it, also because on a fandom level I’m mad about the ending of 03].

I keep getting sidetracked, mostly cuz I don’t have too many people who are aware of the mind space stuff, that I can share this with, who have experience with the realms visitable through the gateway of my mind. Sorry. I just need a place to write this down, to muse, since talking to the previous person with whom I shared this space is a bit of a.... chore. 

But anyways. My mind keeps wandering to them. I can’t recall if Alphonse had his body or was he always viewed in my mind’s eye as being his armor, because that’s what I knew him as more? Ed wound up with more drama unrelated to anything alchemic, because that’s not the sort of things my friend likes to focus on when they visit, or otherwise impress, upon the lifestyles there. Relationship drama is more their thing; adventures and motives mine. But that’s a whole nother subset of thoughts and queries to be made....

And, ironically enough, when she told me that the Elric brothers kind of wound up popping up in our shared mental space, the task of voicing/channeling them fell to me. Me, who had very little awareness of their forms’ contexts. I think I did alright, for someone with only fandom knowledge of them two, but still.... I guess it’s a bit ironic. Ironic for me, especially since the whole genre trope of “alchemy” never really was much of an interest for me. But the more that I look at it, the more it feels relevant to witchcraft, as a stepping stone for a practice.

And I feel like I could learn to build/start a personal array for magic with FMA’s. By looking at and dissecting theirs. Because I’m in a Clow Magic discord group, mostly because I look at it as a diviner than a magician, but I know that I can learn from others who use it for more magical purposes, and that they could probably use the insights that a diviner has for the cards. Which kind of ties back into an “equivalent exchange” thing, hilariously enough. Though the end of 03′s series kind of poops all over the idea of “equivalent exchange”/tries to discredit it. Like, everyone’s sharing their circles for their magic journeys, and they’re ascribing personal associations to it, but also sort of still rely on ascribing to it the way that Clow and Sakura (and others, especially in the latest series) have their circles. But those sort of circles... never felt drawn to, for me. They’re neat, but they just never felt for me. 

But the alchemic circles used in FMA? Those have always felt a bit more relevant. Even before I got into magic/astral/headspace stuff. I wonder where I could find a subsect of witchblr/pop culture pagans that utilize the teachings/ideologies/dissect the arrays/symbols used in FMA? I know a friend of mine did in the past, especially at the time of Brotherhood coming out, but that was more for his own personal interest in symbolisms than any magic or pagan purpose...... 

....I’m also trying to recall how many people wound up being able to learn/use alchemy without circles, ie the method that Ed and Izumi use, of clapping their hands? Because, series context says, that’s not a nice way to have learned that skill |D I’m pretty sure my guide wound up in that, but while I’m sure he never performed the whole human transmutation thing when it happened, he is a seer and probably could have seen it another way, like I do with them.... Which is still sort of sad in and of itself, but... Huh. I guess that explains more about why he just. sort of up and takes care of them when they arrive..... Helps set them up and explain things to them about the world. Looks out for them, etc. Though a lot of people seem to do that in canon, too, so I guess those boys just have that way about them, of people wanting to look after them, especially after what’s happened to them.

Ah well. I don’t have to figure out my own personal array just yet. I don’t have to do anything just yet. But... I should have spoken with my cards when I felt that stirring. Maybe they could have told/shown me something about this much sooner. Maybe that’s what they felt relevant to. I don’t know. I never found out. I got tired and went to bed that night, because I felt that inkling out so late. But I still think they could help teach me, show me, give me understanding on this subject.... 

also I saw an artist making fma cards on twitter and i sure hope they make a full deck bc i love their style for it >>; I’m sure there’s been several fma decks done by now but i wanna hit up them all ;;;;;;>> I’m a sucker for pcp/fandom decks.

[midnightblue243]

While it is unfair for Mob Psycho 100 not winning the “award”, it is also unfair for Yuri!!! on ICE to get this much hate and salt.

Why? Because it’s neither the show’s nor the fandom’s fault this controversy happens. It’s all Crunchyroll’s fault this happened

A really long post but won’t cut it since this needs to be read.

The voting system is problematic. There’s no word “unfair” in this kind of voting system, and spamming isn’t prohibited.

Last year I had almost no time to watch anime at all. Pretty much YOI was the only anime that I truly watched because I’ve been hooked since last March, so I know I may not be the right person to talked about this since I haven’t actually watched the others. And i’m sure there’s a lot of people who’s the same as me.

When I first saw a voting page and realized that it was available to vote countless time, I was like “Really, are you seriously allowing people to spam the vote?”

Crunchyroll is a big site. One of the biggest anime community site. Of course that when they make an “awards”, it looks like a huge deal to a lot of people. (When it is just an internet poll, not an Oscar or Golden Globe.)

There’s a lot of informal voting webpage like “Anime Trending” on Facebook in which they also use this kind of voting system and the results sometimes oppose to a lot of viewvers (some weeks Victuuri was not the first in couple ranking) and people then being salty over it, but that’s that, cuz everyone knows it’s just an internet poll.

Back to Crunchyroll. The award is divided in categories, making it look even more look like an Oscar or Golden Globe. This is where the controversy start.

Crunchyroll’s voting system is not suitable to categories award.

As many people said, it’s an all-in-all popularity vote. Seeing the most popular anime of 2016 wins every single categories it was nominated can be a bit disheartening but not surprising. And really, when any of the film got nominated in an award, that means the show have an potential to win already.

Let me give you one example of the affect of the voting system. This year’s Tokyo anime awards will be judged from a top 100 anime airing between 1 Dec year before to Nov 30 of the previous year that people voted using twitter and they were allowed to re-vote every 2 hours.

(This picture was taken roughly 1 moth before the death line.)

Now what happened was that while nobody make a fuss of YoI being the first place, the second place, Cute High Earth Defense Club, got some salt from the western anime fans like “The poll is biased” or “It’s not deserved” because thee other famous show like Re:Zero was at 30-something and Kimi no Nawa, an insanely famouse Shinkai Makoto’s works, was at 80.....what may happened here was that 1) spamming happened 2) some don’t know about the vote. However, this poll wasn’t a final. I think the top 100 wil have to be judged by the judges to decided the winner of TAAF.

THAT IS HOW THE BIG AWARD SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE! Using professional judges to find the winner.

And you know that this kind of “unfairness” happened all the time.

An common example can be founded in game shows, especially Got Talent. For me, in my country, the runner-up was more “deserving” than the winner many times.

The first season was a girl singer who was already rich and had a great yet common voice, while the runner-up was a handicapped who played guitar with one hand. The latest season’s winner was an acrobatic twins while the runner-up was a guy who inhumanly bended and twisted himself like he has a bones of rubber (X) who actually participated for the second time after the lost of the previous season to some whining brats team. You knew who has a real talent but sometimes the most deserved sometimes lose when there’s a vote.

And here’s some talk about Yuri on ICE’s popularity that needs to be respected.

I know that Yuri on ICE won some of the award by popularity,and I do feel a bit glum by that. However,Yuri on ICE’s popularity is not something common. No one really thought it would success. A lot of big studios rejected it because the skating scenes were a huge job and may not worth the effort, only MAPPA the risk-taker took the project and made it blossomed to the point that it rode on the top of almost every ranking in anime world.

However, some people said that it’s overhyped. TBH I really don’t understand this term much cuz if somethings get insanely popular (like Undertales) then that’s mean the thing is loved by a lot of people and there’s nothing such as “was loved too much” unless it came from a POV of the person who doesn’t like the things and try to forced their opinion to others face.

Okay back to YoI. Especially after the award, there is a lot of “ YoI is just a baiting anime that makes fujoshis go crazy.” or “YoI is just a show solely for a queer fan” (The latter is quite homophobic but there really is this comment.) Now with the amazing analyzation of @thatshamelessyaoishipper​ about YOI is not a bait (x) a discrimination and possibly misogyny within the fandom (x) pretty much sums up of what’s going on in regards to the LGBTQA+ and yaoi fangirls side of popularity. (you know that the real gayness of this show also made some people dropped this series?)

However, Yuri on ICE manages to appeal a lot of non-anime fans by many assets of them. Breathtaking OST (seriously i cried when I first heared of the full yuri on ICE song like I had been waiting for 8 moths for that.), Animation (will talk about that later), figure skating (the figure skating fans would at least intrigued by that) that lots of world class skaters watched it and even debut in the show.

Having a wide variety of the viewers is a big confirmation of the show. For example, Kimi no Nawa managed to appeal a lot of people who isn’t an animation fan by it’s stunning visuals (typical Shinkai) and a unique story, making it the top box office in many countries. Same goes with YoI but Kimi no Nawa is easier to access to the non-anime fan than Yoi, being a 2-hour movie and a 12-episode anime.

An another thing why the fandom are so agressive in voting is becuase we want MORE of it. While most of other anime either based on some other media which some of them already confirm season 2, YoI still haven’t officially announced S2 yet. The fandom try to support the show in any way possible, even if it’s just a meaningless internet poll.

Yuri on ICE isn’t not deserved, but isn’t Ready to deserved.

I will never say YoI isn’t deserved best animation, but I wil say that YoI is not ready to deserved or isn’t deserved YET. This post  shows an inaccurate accussion by a salty people and a brilliant explanation of how animation works and how YoI’s animation is not the best it could be. Like I’ve said, MAPPA took YoI, the show that big studios refuse to take a challenge. MAPPA is not a powerhouse studio was given a low budget due to a lack of hype. If they have more time and budget, everything will be better,really. So go buy Bluray/DVD.

Back to voting. What Crunchyroll should have done?

1. 1-vote-per account

Sign in an CR account or create a new one. An account can only use one vote per category. Just sign in is free. I’ve seen many survey site using this.

2. Using the same methods as TAAF.

Okay this one will be more tricky but I think it’s possible. Make a nomination poll in each category and use judges to find the winner. Now this wil be almost the same as Oscar and Golden Globes or other formal awards.

If you wanna make it look professional, then use a professional system.

To sums up everything.

Crunchyroll should have use a better voting system if they gonna try to make this “award” look important and is not  just a meaningless internet poll (which it will always be).

Yuri on ICE’s popularity shouldn’t be degraded as “some fujoshi shit” (cuz if that’s true then BL must be a top genre already) and shouldn’t be disrespected.

As one of a fan of YoI who have been watching it sine the first pv in March 2016 and worried that the show may not succeed knowing it’s rough pre-production, to see it finally got a recognition it deserved but then got hated more than necessary because of some poorly functioned internet poll by a streaming website is sad for me.

There’s nothing wrong of voting what you like. Spamming vote isn’t wrong if there’s no rules about it. Even if the results doesn’t turn out “fair” in everyone’s eyes, please remember that it is just an internet poll that won’t give any solid benefit to the anime (in this case it gives YoI a backlash.)

Well I guess even this can’t calm some salty people, but just so you know being salty wouldn’t change anything.

[velcroboyfriends]

2016 Year in Fic

I really enjoyed doing this write-up last year, and damn, a lot has changed! So I thought I’d do this again and take stock of my writing this past year.

I was ridiculously prolific last year, but due to a variety of factors I really didn’t keep up that volume this year. As someone who doesn’t often feel the spark to write, what kept me going this year were fic exchanges and prompt memes. I feel fortunate to have communities like AO3 and DW to keep me writing even when I’m drained and anxious and feel incapable of it. 

So here are the results:

Fic List

1. Miles High - 1853 words. It’s quite telling about my early-2016 experience that I didn’t write a single word of fic between January and April. Disaster had struck in my work life, but I made the decision to sign up for Smut Swap 2016 anyway, and I was glad for it. This was my first Poe/Finn/Rey fic; we’ll see if I have another in me when Episode VIII rolls around. I just really wanted to write the three of them fucking in a spaceship, okay?

2. Slash: Romance Without Boundaries - 2516 words. I have only the AO3 volunteer community to thank/blame for this pile of trash. They play a game called Slash, in which competitors are challenged to write cracky pairings in weird situations. This led to me writing such pairings as Batman/Grantaire, James Bond/Remus Lupin and Will Graham & Tigger, as well as a very bizarre song parody about Aaron Burr’s encounters with a Drumpf-shaped sex doll. idk you guys. I’m sorry.

3. Bluebeard’s Wives - 1661 painstaking words. I wrote this for Not Prime Time 2016, and I’m really glad the exchange forced me to, because otherwise I would never have written the work I’m most proud of. I wanted to write something dark and twisted and beautiful, and to capture Hannibal’s inner monologue with all its vivid imagery, and somehow I halfway managed it. This was the first fic that ever earned me a place in a fandom spotlight post, and I’m very proud of that. It was my first Hannibal work and will probably be my last, but I enjoyed it.

4. On Not Being Alone - 4103 words. It took me til August this year to write something born purely of the desire to write, not a deadline. I’d been binge-watching Critical Role all summer, and after I reached the scene that precedes this fic in canon, I found myself in a whirlwind of writing. I wrote this near-obsessively over the course of 24-ish hours, and it was incredibly exciting to want to write again. It’s just a PWP, but it was so refreshing.

5. In the Middle of Summer - 2344 words. This was the only Richlee fic I wrote all year, and I’m sad to say it’ll probably be my last. There’s a chance I might pick up interest in participating in the fandom again - and I still get stupid hearteyes over the both of them - but the spark has just waned. I wrote this for a challenge for Richard’s birthday, and without that event I probably wouldn’t have written it. However, I did have fun with one last hurrah.

6. Between the Two of Us - 4584 words. Aand this is where I embraced my trash-goblin self and started writing Critical Role RPF. Even while I was gorging on CR all spring and summer, it never occurred to me that people would write RPF about the cast until I stumbled upon the awesome Five Minute Break. At first I was like ‘ew no’ but then I read it and was hooked. My giant crush on Liam melded with my new-found fascination with sub!Matt and a new fandom obsession was born. This was also my first seriously kinky fic!

7. Girls’ Night - 3218 words. This was partially written because of the criticalkink kink meme, but also because I felt bad leaving Marisha out of the fun in my Liam/Matt fic. It was my first time writing any sort of femslash, and I loved it.

8. I’ll Pencil You In - 3107 words. I entirely wrote this because of criticalkink and the little Liam/anyone reverse-prompt I set up in there. Normally I would never have thought to write Liam/Sam, but I ended up enjoying it a lot, primarily because of how the power dynamic shifted their characters. It was also my first time writing kink negotiation, which was really fun.

9. Break Time - 996 words. Again, this was written for criticalkink. The prompt got into my head and wouldn’t go away. I tend to struggle with writing kissing, so this was a fun little challenge to write a fic that simply consisted of the build-up and the kiss.

10. Like the Bright Morning Stars - 3855 words. This was written for Yuletide. I was scared of this fic for the longest time, because smut is (obviously) my favored terrain and my recipient specifically said they did not want any sexual content. So for once I had to focus on plot and emotions and world-building, and that is HARD, Y’ALL. It’s very easy to churn out some sex; not so much to craft love. But it really paid off, because I loved this and it seems like a lot of other people did as well!

11. Into My Arms - 1843 words. Another prompt-fill from criticalkink. I had a lot of fun writing something simple and sweet and in a position/circumstance I had never written before. I also enjoy a good text convo in fic, so that was fun as an opener.

Total Word Count: (so far) 30,080 words. 

Overall Thoughts: Word-count-wise, I wrote less than half of what I wrote last year, but just as many individual works, which is pretty good. And it’s far, far better than 0, which had been my usual word-count for the past five years before last year. If last year was an exercise in writing for fun, this year was an exercise in pushing myself to write even when I was tired or sad or anxious, and I learned that I’m capable of a lot more than I thought.

Personal Best Story: 100% Bluebeard’s Wives. The vignette style, the imagery, the spare narration, the nuance - I’m proud of every word. If I ever write something better than this, that will be an enormous victory.

Personal Favorite Story: I really like I’ll Pencil You In. It was the first CR RPF story where I really felt like I knew what I was doing, and I really like that even in a scene of bondage and domination, there’s palpable softness, intimacy and sweetness between two friends.

Most Underappreciated Story: I was expecting a lot more traffic on Miles High, because I was writing a really popular pairing in a very popular fandom - but I suppose that when there are a lot of works going up in a fandom at once, it can be even harder to get recognition than it is when you’re writing for a very small fandom. And I don’t think my heart was really in it, which probably showed in the writing.

Most Popular Story: By hits alone, it’s On Not Being Alone, which makes sense, as it’s a simple PWP about a popular pairing in a small-but-growing fandom. By kudos, it’s Like the Bright Morning Stars, which is nice, given that I really didn’t think it was that good until it got such a fervent response. It also wins for kudos-per-hit, with ~19% of viewers giving kudos.

Story with the Sexiest Moment: Girls’ Night, man. Every inch of that is ridiculously sexy to me. The face-sitting, the manhandling, the dualingus... yes. Last year in my response to this question I mentioned that I felt my sex writing was getting a bit stale, and in the latter half of this year I feel I rose to the challenge and really mixed things up.

Most “Holy Crap That’s Wrong Even for Me” Moment: Basically all of Bluebeard’s Wives. There’s gore, there’s murder, there’s twisted relationship dynamics... yeahh. I also felt very wrong writing CR RPF, and continue to feel a bit weird about it - but I love it too much to give it up.

Story That Shifted My Perceptions of a Character: I felt like I really got to know Hannibal through writing Bluebeard’s Wives. I began to understand his way of thinking. I also really changed my perceptions of Sam through I’ll Pencil You In, by exploring him in a completely unfamiliar situation and entering subspace for the first time.

Most Fun to Write: Writing those crackfics for the Slash games was really fun, but also nerve-wracking. It’s hard to say if anything I wrote was purely fun with no worry involved, but I probably enjoyed myself the most writing my two Liam/Sam works, because they’re so good for one another and Sam is just a ball of joy.

Hardest Story to Write: Bluebeard’s Wives was a slog through hell as far as the writing process went. When I was done I was happy, but up until that point I had no clue what I was doing and nothing felt good enough. I considered every single word to within an inch of its life. But it all paid off, I think.

Favorite OC: The only OC I wrote this year was the nameless girl from Bluebeard’s Wives. I liked her, though - she was defiant until the end. She didn’t buy into Hannibal’s shit.

Biggest Surprise: Every moment of my Slash game fics was a surprise. Buffy almost getting the Half-Blood Prince’s book, Batman rescuing Grantaire, Hannibal eating Voldy, “The World Was Wide Enough” being rewritten about a Drumpf sex doll, AVPM!Ron seducing Voldemort with Red Vines, Will Graham shooting Tigger, James Bond kissing Remus, Jack Sparrow rescuing Enjolras... it’s all fucking weird and surprising, and that’s the beauty of the game.

Most Unintentionally Personal Story: I really can’t say any of my works this year ended up very personal. Perhaps what’s personal is how many of my kinks and trash-goblin shipping tendencies I revealed.

Favorite Lines/Scenes:

The morning-after scene in Between the Two of Us feels very true to Matt and Liam’s dynamic, and very tender.

I loved writing kink negotiation in I’ll Pencil You In.

From my Slash fics: “There were many reasons why Buffy always avoided the Hogwarts library. One was that studying was, like, so 1996, and that any sixth-year worth her salt (liberally sprinkled in a circle to ward off whatever) did not bother with books. The other was that creepy librarian who kept telling her it was her destiny to save the world from vampires or whatever. That was super species-ist, for one thing - didn't Professor Giles know that anti-vampire bias was waaay 15th-century? Buffy had hoped the world had come further than that. It was sad enough when that werewolf professor had to quit without her adding to the whole problem. As if.”

From Bluebeard’s Wives: “He cooks a wonderful meal for the three of them. He offers to give up his portion. He washes their hair in the bath. He washes their feet. He sketches Abigail into a copy of Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes, Bedelia by her side, holding the figure of Holofernes - Hannibal himself, in this copy, although he has never been a self-portraitist - as Abigail slices at his neck. Blood sprays forth in a fountain. Will hangs it upon the wall unsmiling. He brings home a scrappy little spinone, the lovely thing's ears drooping with long fur. Will says the city is no place for a dog. And none of it is enough.“

All of Girls’ Night. Just all of it.

Lines/Scenes I’d Like to Change:

Basically all of Like the Bright Morning Stars. But it seemed to work for readers, so what do I know?

I’d like to let Finn shine more in Miles High; ditto for Laura in Girls’ Night.

The pacing in Break Time could have been a little more leisurely; same for Into My Arms.

Top Five Scenes I Wish Could Be Illustrated:

Vox Machina taking the stage in Like the Bright Morning Stars

Hannibal’s copy of Judith Slaying Holofernes in Bluebeard’s Wives

Basically all of Girls’ Night

James Bond kissing Remus and then being decked by Sirius

The kiss from Break Time

2017 Writing Ambitions:

I just want to keep writing, be it fic or RP or the possibility of non-fannish fiction. I’m not going to set an ideal wordcount, because I’ll end up disappointed, but I just want to write more than 0 words. And I want to write at least one thing I’m truly proud of.

Fic ideas for this year:

Sequel to Like the Bright Morning Stars - titled Like the Rolling Waters and in the works for SFBB 2017!

The last two reverse-prompts from criticalkink: Liam/Matt playful jokeyness and Liam/Laura/Travis threesome (!!!!)

MOAR POLYMACHINA

And whatever the hell I think of next!

[beautifulkai94]

[TRANS] ‘Star Born in the Year of the Rooster’ EXO’s Kai “Lately, my passion is firing up like a fighting rooster. The year of the rooster, because it’s my year.”

The past 2016 was a year of regrets in various ways for Kai who is the first pick for the 'dancer’ of the nation’s top idol group EXO. The team was successful as usual, but (Kai) personally couldn’t commit to (EXO’s) activites only due to injuring his ankle twice and devoting himself to rehabilitation treatment for 4 months. That could be the reason why 'born in the year of the chicken’ Kai’s determination to face 2017 is unusually different. In a recent meeting (with Kai), he was very much anticipating the year of the rooster like a cockfighting rooster raising its cockscomb.

- EXO’s activity in 2016 was amazing.

“Personally, it was a year that made me feel a lot of regret. I liked that the members’ individual activites increased, giving them more opportunities to show each of their own charms and talents, but because of that, our whole group activities decreased a little. It means our chances to directly meet our fans were small. Our (number of) fansigns also decreased compared to the year before. Apart from whether our song becomes a hit or not, doing a lot of activites, having time to communicate with fans, and standing on stages as a whole group more often is my personal wish.

2016 might have felt different for each member. There were members that did acting or unit activities, and there were members who spent that time practicing to develop/hone their skills. Each of the members were able to look back at themselves from their own positions, and I think it was a year that allowed us to think about what we each did well and what more we must do.”

EXO, including Kai, achieved successful results more than any other team with their enormously strong fandom as the base/background. Their 3rd full album released last June set a new record making EXO a triple million seller (third time selling more than a million copies of an album) following their 2st and 2nd full albums, and they also swept music charts and received loved with their collaboration track 'Dancing King’ with Yoo Jae Suk. Apart from their group (activities), their unit and solo activites were also lively, with member Lay’s Chinese solo album 'Lose Control’ and Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin’s unit 'ChenBaekXi (CBX)’ gaining attention. D.O also played the main role in the movie 'Hyung (My Annoying Brother)’. EXO also released the winter special album 'For Life’ last December and it was a show of their hard work. However, it was also a year that left regret for Kai personally. It’s because he has to devote himself to 4 months of rehabilitation training for 4 months due to his two-time ankle injury, and because he had to show fans (the image of) himself sitting in a wheelchair.

- What kind of year was 2016 to Kai

“Personally, it was a year that left regrets. I also showed the fans me moving (to a schedule) in a wheelchair because I hurt my ankle badly. I also couldn’t properly dance, which I like (to do) so much, because I has to do rehabilitation training. I also received much stress because I was worried that I would get hurt again. That could be why I felt my recovered self firing up in the end of 2016. I’m doing self-practice for at least 8 hours (at a time) and firing myself up like a cockfighting rooster. I’m anticipating this year. Year of the rooster, because it’s my year.”

- If you could pick the moment you liked most following EXO’s debut

“I don’t think I can pick just one. Firstly, I remember the date of our debut showcase, March 31, 2012. There wasn’t a reason for me to show my performances to other people before this, and truthfully it was my first onstage experience. The audiences’ cheers, the trembling I felt. I don’t think I’ll be able to simply forget it. I was really nervous before getting up onstage, but when I got onstage I started smiling/laughing in the moment that we were waiting for the music to come on. I was so excited that I couldn’t dance a dance that I was satisfied with.

I also remember May 2012, the Dream Concert we went to right after our debut. It was at the Seoul World Cup Stadium and we sang Super Junior sunbaes’ 'Sorry Sorry’ at that time. All the members were very nervous because it was such a huge stage. Before we went onstage, all the members gathered, yelling loudly, shaking off each other’s nerves, and gave each other strength. So I think in that moment, our members were all happy and full of fighting spirit before we got onstage. When we talk amongst ourselves, we often remember that moment. Receiving a daesang at music awards are also always emotional/moving.”

- What is a moment that was most regretful or difficult until now

“It was really hard when I injured my ankle for the second time last year. I rested for 4~5 months. It wasn’t easy to escape depression and sadness. It hasn’t been that long since I fought those feelings. I’m normally a person that practices diligently, is happy to dance, and enjoys standing on a stage more than anyone, but because I injured my leg, I couldn’t dance or do the things I wanted to do. I fell into a slump.

My body recovered, but it’s not 100% yet. Until just a while ago, I had the burden/worrying feeling of injuring my leg again. Also the burden of whether I can do well. I guess at some point stress piled up because I was hurt for a long time. I need to dance happily even when I’m practicing, but I realized the fact that I wasn’t practicing and was resting often even after my recovery. At some point I started to wonder what I was doing. I also couldn’t be satisfied monitoring my performances. Should I say it was like the fireworks in me are becoming smaller?

At around September~October of last year I made a resolution, that I couldn’t be like this. Now, on days when we don’t have schedules, my day consists of practicing only. 5 hour dance practice, 2~3 hour acting class, 3 hour singing class, and when I’m done with all that it’s 2 a.m. I’m really anticipating this year. I still personally feel like I’ve sort of lost my touch onstage. I’m anticipating my sharpened self (a Kai who is back to normal 100% strength, if not better).”

trans cr: @ctribeat

----- source article: https://t.co/wRWXb3I6mu