#now I bought the newest version

[seokwoosmole]

WHY DOES IKON’S LIGHTSTICK HATE ME

[vynel]

There's a stardew valley mod for satoru I WANNA PLAYYY

[starstruckmiraclekitty]

Simon hadn’t been this nervous since his baby girl was born nearly two years ago now. His palms were sweating as he glanced over at his daughter, who was waiting with excitement by the window.

“Are you okay, Si?” You asked, flashing your husband a warm smile, before wiping down the kitchen table for the fifth time that afternoon. “You seem nervous.”

“Think we both are.” Simon gave you a half smile, his eyes softening as he took in the sight of his precious family. “Just nervous for the boys to finally meet my girls.”

You walked over to him, and were about to press a reassuring kiss to his lips before the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of your guests.

Your daughter squealed with excitement, and ran to open the door, her little arms barely able to reach the handle. “Daddy! They’re here!”

The door swung open revealing the 141 boys, each of them wearing matching smiles. Your daughter beamed up at them, and each of the men noted how similar she looked to her father.

The boys filed in, and it took all of a few seconds before your daughter was chatting away, clearly very excited to be meeting her daddy’s friends.

She had Johnny and Kyle’s full attention, showing them her newest collection of toys her daddy bought her, while John made his way over to you.

“It’s wonderful to meet you, Mrs. Riley.” John smiled, politely pressing a kiss to your cheek. He extended his hands to you, revealing a bouquet of flowers. “I would’ve insisted on meeting you sooner, but your husband has done an impeccable job of keeping you and the little one a secret from us.”

Simon wore a proud smile as he watched the encounter, suddenly very much liking you being referred to as “Mrs. Riley”. “For good reason, didn’t want to put them at risk.”

“Nonsense, Simon. I’m so happy to meet all of you. It’s about time I’ve met the men who my husband trusts with his life.” You waived away your husband’s concerns, prompting John to chuckle. “I’m glad you all could make it tonight. These flowers are beautiful by the way, thank you!”

Johnny and Kyle eventually made their way over, each of them greeting you with bone crushing hugs.

“Daddy! Uncle Johnny said that he’d babysit me one day!” Your daughter exclaimed, moving to hang onto Johnnys leg tightly.

“Did he now?” Simon asked, quirking a brow as he looked in Johnnys direction. “Uncle Johnny, eh?”

“Thought it was fitting, no?” Johnny laughed, petting your daughter’s head playfully. “Gotta say, L.T, she’s a spitting image of you.”

Simon felt a flush rise to his cheeks, the sentiment causing a warmth to spread through his bones. “I’d say she’s got her mother’s looks.”

When dinner rolled around, your daughter insisted on sitting in between her uncle Johnny and Kyle, relishing in all the stories they could tell her about her daddy.

You took note of the permanent smile etched onto Simon’s lips- though he was relatively quiet you could tell that he was enjoying himself. You only wished you had done this sooner.

As he looked around the room, Simon felt his heart flutter as laughter filled the air. Any nervousness he had felt before was gone, and Simon felt undeniably happy. He had everybody he loved and cared about, finally under one roof.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: not super happy with this one- so planning on doing another version shortly☺️❤️ (ideas are welcome!!)

[m00nh1gh]

LOVE TALK

Bang Chan x French!reader x Felix

You've seen them performing on the street in Hongdae and then you met them at a club during the same night. They also noticed you.

Filming, facial, hair pulling, protected sex, choking, Felix is lowkey scary with the stranger talk...

Word count: 4k.

Your friend had decided it would be a good idea to bring you with her to Korea to celebrate Christmas with her and her family. You told her it was alright, that you were used to being alone during Christmas time or any holiday, but she kept insisting and the next thing you knew was that she had brought your plane ticket.

So there you were, dressed in your newest winter outfit, walking in one of Seoul's busiest regions for shopping and trying Korean food. Hyejin had been smiling the whole time and she never let go of your arm, dragging you to different stores to walk out with a new bag each time.

“Y/n, look!” She shook you excitedly and pointed to a crowd in the middle of the street. You looked at her in confusion and she started walking towards the group of people. “Dancers!”

“Oh,” you nodded and followed her. You both walked through the people to stand at the front. You felt bad for them since they were there before you, but Hyejin didn't care about that stuff.

There were eight dancers, all boys. You didn't recognize the song, but your friend seemed to know it since she was singing and copying the dancers’ moves but in a more subtle way.

The performance was fun to watch; their chemistry while dancing was insane and they also interacted with the crowd, just like artists would do at their concerts. And of course, they were all good-looking, especially two blonde boys that happened to make eye contact with you for a few seconds. One had curly hair and he winked at you, the other one whose hair was a little longer had tried to hide a smirk but you saw it before it disappeared.

Maybe it was because of the song choice, or it was just natural for them, but the sex appeal was strong. Hyejin and you both watched until the very end of their performance, cheering them on the whole time and exchanging glances with them all.

You noticed one of the two blondes trying to walk up to you before being dragged away by one of his friends and he gave you one last smile before grabbing his water bottle and leaving with the group. You were still staring at the two blondes before Hyejin shook your thoughts away with a playful smirk on her face. You rolled your eyes and you also left, judging it could be time to take a break from shopping.

“They were into you.

- Oh, shut up,” you placed your bags on the floor to take your coat and scarf off. You kicked your shoes off next to your particularly excited friend's before grabbing your bags again and walking to the guest room that you'd occupy for the next two weeks.

“You're lucky you know,” she came into the bedroom after you and jumped on the bed. “I don't draw that much attention on my second day here,” she emptied your shopping bags to sort your stuff out, but also to check it out.

“I don't even speak Korean, so I can't even say a word to any guy here.

- What makes you think that?” She held a sparkly, dark purple dress that you bought earlier and she nodded to herself. She laid it next to the pile of clothes she had made just before. “My family's Korean and we all speak English. Et je parle français pour toi,” Hyejin stood up and placed a hand on your shoulder. “We're going clubbing tonight. Find yourself a man that speaks your language. Your body can talk too, by the way,” and just like that, she walked out of the bedroom.

You scoffed as she closed the door behind herself and you looked at the short dress she had neatly placed on the bed. It was nearing six in the evening and you knew you were both going to take a long time to dress up and do your makeup, so you immediately played your favorite playlist and started building an outfit to go out.

“Y/n!” She came back in, now wearing a low-rise mini skirt and a tight black tank top under a leather jacket. She was holding two pairs of earrings and she showed them to you. One pair was silver stars and the other was silver hoops. “Which ones?”

“The hoops,” you answered, gesturing for her to come in and she took it as a hint to sit at the small makeup desk. You stood behind her and grabbed a hairbrush and a hair clip to put her hair in a messy ponytail that would look good with her outfit. She thanked you and urged you to sit down now so she could do your makeup.

It was definitely a dark makeup. She used some purple, a lot of glitter and black for the eyes, put false lashes on you and to finish the look, she put a rosy lip tint on your lips. You'd always praised her for her talent in makeup and tonight wasn't an exception. Your confidence skyrocketed and she left you to finish dressing up. You only had accessories to put on now and your hair to do. It was now 7:10pm and your heart skipped a beat for some reason. Maybe you were really looking forward to finding someone to have a little fun with tonight.

Your jewelry was golden for tonight in contrast to all the cold colors you were wearing, but it looked good. You curled your hair and let it down. Then, finally, you grabbed your long black coat and your purse before walking out of your room and joining Hyejin at the front door, mindlessly scrolling through her cellphone.

“Ready?

- Yeah,” you put your heels on and she let you get out before her.

Hongdae was flooded with people. You had to hold Hyejin's hand not to lose her and she was leading the way to the club she had wanted to visit. She told you it was one of the best out there and that she had visited it a few times in the last two years. Apparently, all the hot guys hung out there and you both knew why you wanted to go clubbing anyway, so you happily followed her to the club.

You could hear music blasting from outside the building and some people were waiting in line to enter. You looked at her with uncertainty and she rubbed your shoulder soothingly.

“It's always like this, but waiting's definitely worth it. Come on,” she pulled you with her in the line and surprisingly, it took less than ten minutes to enter. There, the music was so loud that it went straight to your heart and the colorful lights blinded you at first before being redirected somewhere else. You both went straight to the bar after having left your belongings at the coat check because you had to get some alcohol in your system before going on the dance floor.

One shot of vodka was good enough for now and when you turned to look at the numerous people in the room, you spotted almost immediately the two blondes from before whispering at each other and looking at you. Your cheeks burned and you turned back to Hyejin.

“The dancers from earlier are here.

- What? No way!” She squealed and shook your shoulder. “You should totally fuck them!

- Two at the same time?” Your eyes widened.

“Yeah, that could be fun. Besides, they look very close so they'd probably like to share you.

- They probably don't even speak English,” you pouted and played with the glass you'd emptied.

“Never hurts to give it a try,” she grabbed your arm to pull you up and you walked to the dance floor. She took both of your hands in hers to make you more comfortable and soon you were mirroring her movements, dancing to the songs that were playing but still not doing too much.

You looked at her confusingly when she looked behind you and smiled, but then she let go of you and walked away. It's only when you turned around to see what she was looking at and ended up face to face with the curly haired man that you realized what was happening.

You were going to apologize for almost bumping into him, but he placed his hands on your hips and smiled at you. You blushed again, but then you realized this might be your chance and you took it willingly.

“Do you speak English, pretty girl?” His accent was definitely one from Australia, you noticed, and your eyes lit up.

“Yes.

- Where are you from?

- I'm from France. I'm sorry if my accent's a bit weird.”

He laughed and pulled you closer, shaking his head.

“I don't care about that, our own accent is heavy. We can't judge.

- We?” Two additional hands were on your hips, just under the first guy's and you gasped softly before looking behind you.

“I remember you from this afternoon,” this was such a surprise. The guy that had the cutest face amongst the whole dance group had the deepest voice you'd ever heard and it made you shiver. “Funny to see you here now,” he was also Australian, no doubt about it.

It felt really intimidating to be sandwiched between two hot guys, but you also felt hot, so you pressed yourself a little further against freckles guy's chest, making the other one come closer to you two. Your ass was practically up against his crotch and his hands traveled up your body as you kept moving your hips to the music.

“Call me Chris,” curly hair said.

“I'm Y/n.

- Felix,” his voice will kill you. Especially if he keeps talking like that in your ear, making you all shy. Chris smiled at you and he leaned to your other ear.

“It's nice to meet you, Y/n.

- Ma belle,” you bit back a whine and you pressed further against Felix again. He chuckled in your ear and his hands rested just under your boobs. “We've been talking about you all day. We hoped to see you again.

- Tell us if you want us to stop right now,” Chris played with the hem of your dress and you wrapped your arms around his neck.

“Don't stop,” you were happy to finally have what you wanted. Especially since they didn't only speak Korean, so you could talk freely with them and there was no language barrier.

“I like that answer,” Chris licked his lower lip and you watched quite intensely, Felix took this opportunity to place your hair to the side and to kiss your exposed neck. You felt yourself getting wetter in your panties at the contact of his lips against your shivering skin and Chris straightened your dress back before trailing his hands a little higher on your body.

“You wanna take this to your hotel?

- I'm staying at a friend's house.

- Let's go to mine, then?” Felix suggested. His breath was also hot against your skin. You nodded and Chris grabbed your hand.

“I see you're not scared of strangers,” Felix commented as you took back your coat and purse and you stopped in your tracks, really thinking about it.

“Don't worry, we're not weirdos,” you were pulled by the waist and Chris led you out of the club, Felix following close behind the both of you. He sat at the backseat with you to keep you company while Chris drove to where Felix lived. You had been making out the whole time. One of his hands was cupping your cheek and the other was on your thigh while yours were on his shoulders. Chris couldn't help but to watch you two from time to time, even just hearing your pants and the sounds of your kisses made him horny and he almost let out a sigh of relief when he finally stopped in front of Felix's apartment.

Chris opened the door for you and you stood next to him, waiting for Felix to unlock the door for you. As Felix was doing so, your lips were on Chris’ and he was teasingly pulling your bottom lip with his teeth. Once the door was open, you went in and when Chris closed the door, you were led to the bedroom and pushed on the bed after you had thrown your coat on the floor. You sat up and looked at the two men in front of you. Their auras were so different but very intimidating in their own way, which made your face burn with timidity.

“Y/n,” Felix went closer to you and pulled a strand of your hair behind your ear. “Aren't you just so adorable? Trusting us this fast,” his thumb pressed against your lips to part them and he let out a shaky breath when he came in contact with your tongue. You were so obedient to them. He knew you'd do anything for them if they asked you.

“Don't worry beauté, we'll make sure you have a great time here,” his thumb trailed down your lip as Chris joined you two.

“Consider this your best night in Seoul,” he guided your hands under his shirt for you to feel his abs. Felix kneeled behind you on the bed and unzipped your dress slowly as Chris took his own shirt off. You instinctively spread your legs a little for him and he smirked.

“Feeling needy?” He leaned down to kiss your jaw. “Want us to touch you?” He put a light pressure against your clothed core and you whined, bucking your hips against his fingers. He pulled away and Felix helped you take your dress off, leaving you in your underwear (that you had carefully picked for this occasion). You leaned your head on Felix's shoulder since your back was resting against his chest and his fingers lightly stroked your sides, making your muscles contract.

Chris reached down for your coat and took your cellphone out, opening the camera app and looking at you again. “Can I?” You nodded and one of Felix's hands wrapped around your throat and squeezed softly, making you whine and thrust your hips up into nothing.

“Look at that,” now Chris approached you with the camera directed at you and you looked into it, your eyes half closed due to Felix squeezing your throat lightly. You could feel his other hand resting on your hip bone, knowing he was so close to touching you where you needed it the most made you wetter.

“Spread your legs a little, baby,” before you could even move, he was doing it for you. He zoomed on the small wet patch forming on the fabric of your underwear. It was hard to see, especially on camera, since you were wearing black panties, but Chris could definitely feel it under his thumb. You whimpered and rolled your hips, but Felix pushed them down on the mattress to stop you. “All wet and needy for strangers you met at the club.”

He stepped back a little to get a full view of your body as Felix slipped his hand under the fabric, feeling your wetness and spreading it all over your sex, not forgetting to brush his finger over your clit, making your hips stutter and Felix put more pressure then. Chan was looking at you through the screen of your cellphone and you could see he was smirking. Felix let go of your throat to slide his hand down to your thigh, separating them more and giving a better view to the camera.

“That's a good souvenir for when you go back, don't you think?” You nodded without a second thought as he teased your entrance. You looked down Chris’ body and that's when you saw he was palming himself through his pants and your mouth watered at the sight. You gestured for him to come closer and when he did so, you reached out to undo his pants. You moaned as Felix inserted his finger into you and you paused, Chris taking his pants and boxers off for you, leaving him fully naked in contrast to Felix, who still had all of his clothes on.

“You gonna use that pretty mouth, baby?” He grabbed your chin to make you look up at him, eyes blown with lust and you already looked fucked out only because Felix had been fingering you. You whimpered and nodded, your fingers delicately wrapping around his thick cock and he shivered. Felix decided it would be the right time to slip another finger inside you and you closed your eyes tightly, beginning to stroke the man in front of you.

Chris took one step closer before he stopped filming the video, placing your phone next to you on the bed and he placed your hair behind your shoulders. You noticed Felix was taking a handful of it and the next thing you knew was that he had pulled your head back roughly, making you moan louder and arch your back.

“Use your mouth,” Felix commanded, keeping you in place like this a few seconds before letting go of you. Chris was waiting for you with a small smile and you opened your mouth, showing him your tongue.

“Good girl,” he slapped the tip of his cock on your tongue before you wrapped your lips around him, making his head fall back and a loud, shaky sigh escaped his throat. Felix let go of you and you whined in protest, pretty much muffled by the dick you had in your mouth. You pulled away and replaced your mouth with your hand as you moved to kneel, but you were fast to suck him off again and he chuckled. “You must like pleasing people, yeah?”

You looked up at him as an answer and you heard shuffling behind you. Felix was opening one of his drawers and pulling a condom out of it. He put it on his bedside table as he hurried to take his clothes off, eager to be inside you. Chris moaned as you swirled your tongue around him in a certain way and he grabbed your hair to pull you away, enjoying how your face contorted in both pain and pleasure.

“Can I fuck your mouth? Is that okay with you?

- Yes, please,” you panted, looking at him with half lidded eyes and a small smile playing on your lips. He smiled too and then two hands were firmly on your hips.

“Not so fast,” Felix said, pulling your attention towards him and you looked behind your shoulder when Chris let go of you. “I'm gonna fuck you too. Chris, come on the bed too,” he looked at his friend.

You were now on all fours in between Chris and Felix, mouth occupied with one dick and your pussy being teased with another. Your panties had been slid off just before that change of position and just as Chris had requested, you let him thrust into your mouth to his liking. Felix had the tip of his dick in you, he didn't seem to be willing to move further for now, as if he was concentrating on something else.

That's when he pulled your hair again, making you moan. “She's gonna stay still like this. Use her like that,” Chris nodded and soon hit the back of your throat, making you gag and tears formed at the corners of your eyes. Felix finally sank all the way into you, making your eyes flutter closed and Chris pulled out to let you breathe a little before forcing himself back in your mouth.

They were thrusting at a similar pace, Felix tugging at your hair from time to time as his other hand gripped the soft flesh of your upper thigh. Chris would wipe the occasional tears falling down your eyes and praise you for your good work.

“Pretty girl, making yourself all useful like this. You know you're doing so good for us, right?” He would let out shaky breaths in between sentences because he was close and Felix fucked you harder and faster, leaning his body closer to yours until his head was next to yours. He was still holding you by your hair and he made it known by pulling again, a playful smirk on his face.

“You're making a mess,” he teased as he saw drool falling from your mouth, observing the way your eyes rolled back when he snapped his hips deep in you, making you whimper around Chris and he hummed low. “Keep going,” he kissed your cheeks before straightening up and fucking you properly again, making you grow louder as time passed and Chris’ hips started stuttering. He was also moaning, Felix was more silent but you could hear the occasional groans.

“Gonna cum on your face. Will ruin your pretty makeup even more- fuck,” he pulled out of your mouth and and you showed him your tongue, ready for him with teary eyes. He pumped his cock fast, close to your mouth and it took Felix a few hard thrusts for you to moan out his name and he was cumming. Some of his semen landed on your tongue, but also just under your nose and on your cheek. He was panting so hard as if he had run a marathon and you licked his tip before swallowing. Felix let go of your hair and you moaned, the sensation feeling relieving and you hang your head lower.

“Fuck… Plus v- Faster,” they both took notice of your French and smiled, Felix rubbed your waist softly as he fastened his pace. You were gripping the sheets under you hard and Chris picked your phone again, snapping a few pictures of your state. He also made you look up to take a picture of your ruined makeup, there was still a drop of his cum on your cheek and he wiped it away. “Beautiful.”

Felix flipped you over and Chris held your wrists above your head as his friend continued ruining you further. You were a total mess, as Chris said before, your moans sounding more like screams as Felix's eyes dug holes into your soul. His cock hit just right inside you and Chris’ hold on your wrists tightened as you tried to move them away to hold onto Felix.

“Chris, she's clenching,” he moaned and slowed down a little, you could tell he was as close as you and you rolled your hips, making him pin them down to the bed. “Don't fucking move,” he growled and you moaned again.

Chris was still holding you and he brought your hands closer to his lips, peppering them in kisses as Felix worked for both of your orgasms. Your back arched and your head fell onto Chris’ lap, looking up at him and he smiled against your wrists.

“I'm cumming,” Felix warned as he rubbed your clit rapidly, your eyes filled with tears again because you were so sensitive and you came just before him, the sensation of you clenching around him making him cum just after you. Chris watched the whole scene as he let go of your wrists and he gently massaged your shoulders as you came down from your high.

Felix gave you one last kiss on the cheek before collapsing next to you on the bed, looking up at the ceiling as he took his condom off. He tied it and gave it to Chris for him to throw it into the trashcan and the curly haired man joined you after.

“I didn't know you knew a bit of French,” you looked at Felix who laughed.

“I've learned a little when I was younger. I lost most of it, though.

- Ah,” you looked back at the ceiling too and Chris propped himself up by his elbows.

“It was kinda hot, you know? Like hearing you almost forget your English,” he said and you hid your face in embarrassment. Yeah, this would be one of your best memories in Korea.

[modawg]

random headcannons abt if the seven could infact have phones

simply what i think their phones would look like/be used for if they could have them as demigods

percy: bro would have a flip phone this is just fact i think he’d also have an iphone but he uses that more like you would an ipad he normally leaves it home unless he knows he’s going somewhere where he’s gonna wanna take pics or notes or smth

id say he and sally had matching flip phones for a while since their cheap sally prob got herself one pre gabe then scavenged her money together to get percy one before he went to his first boarding school and that’s what he’s grown up using

for one of his teen birthdays 14-16 sally got him a newer phone but he’s gotten so used to his trusty flip that he only uses the newer one for games and shit

his wall paper is probably a picture of a dinner with sally paul estelle annabeth and grover it’s very cute

annabeth: she didn’t have a phone for a long while and only ended up getting one from her dad when she started hanging out with them again he got it for her as a way to probably buy her affection he probably got it in like red or something thinking it was her fav color (maybe it was when she was like 5 but be fr) it’s prob like an iphone 8 or smth it was new at the time but old asf now

her phones decked out in camp crafts home made stickers etc etc and she changes her wall paper pretty often depending on her fav pictures she has abt 100000 .5 pics of percy it’s like her fav thing

she mostly just uses it to take pictures set reminders/timer and to look things up + keep in contact with sally and paul

she’s broken it like 6 times at this point but the hephaestus cabin keeps fixing it for her

piper: new new new girlies got the newest phone only bc her dad bought it for her she probably had a phase where she continuously shattered/broke her phone to get her dads attention and was forced to have a flip phone for a while but now that everything’s cooled down her phones the most pristine out of all the seven

her phone is fully decked out with a polaroid of her trio in the case stickers bangles the works it’s probably the best looking phone you could have and she loves it but she only started doing that post chb when she first came to camp her phone was default everything bc she kept getting it replaced

leo: leo either built his own version of a phone or somehow got one like 6 years ago and keeps adding stuff to it/changing things on it to keep it alive bc that thing is holding on for dear LIFE

the most JACKED phone out of everyone like you wouldn’t know he’s a son of hephaestus bc that bitch is wrecked it’s got a cracked screen is disgusting but works probably the smoothest out of everyone’s

he mostly uses it as an extension of his work to take pics of what he’s working on write notes and maybe use the calculator if he was a mortal the police would’ve been at his door like every other day bc of the shit he looks up

jason: he had a cj mandated pager lets be fr he didn’t get a phone until piper took him and hazel to get them ones and when he did get one it was a flip phone it’s sturdy low-key and gets the job done he also just gives me the vibe that he’s feel guilty if you spent more then 50$ on him

his phone also has some stickers including a little bangle of superman that piper made him get it also has a peice of tape on there with his name on it like you would the inside of a kids shirt incase he looses it

frank: he’s got a pretty new phone it was a gift from his gma but it’s locked up in a big fat otter case and he kinda hates using it so it’s default everything until hazel gets her own phone and he starts using it more

i feel like phones aren’t things many ppl have in camp jupiter so he kept that shit under his pillow so he didn’t draw more attention to himself

once he lets himself use it more his wallpapers probably a picture of hazel and percy making goofy faces and he probably has at least one sticker or bangle that matches hazels

hazel: hazel def has an ipod touch she probably traded in a chunk of gold for some cash and bought the cheapest thing but piper got her to at least get something with a screen

her phone case is probably just a white phone case with a bunch of pictures of horses on there and her wallpaper for like a year was just the first selfie she took with jason and piper post buying the phone

once she learns how to change her wall paper she changes it every other week to different random pics she takes

she has a really bad habit of butt dialling people

nico: bro doesn’t have a phone he just seems like the type to not give af abt that and only gets one when will forces him to but it’s forever the most default shit ever he maybe changes the wallpaper to a pic of will but that’s abt it prior to getting his own he was the kid who’d show up and immediately ask if you had games on ur phone for him to play

SPOILER: he does get jason’s flip phone when he dies and uses that for a while but he refuses to change anything about the phone and only uses it for emergencies

when he’s really sad he listens to jason’s voicemail on repeat “hello! you’ve reached jason grace im not available rn but i’ll call you back when i can thanks!..uh piper is it still recording-“

[gvenevera]

Kuroshitsuji Musical ~ 寄宿学校の秘密 (Secrets of the Boarding School) 2024 ~ VERA’S REVIEW!

Yes you read that right! I’ve had the most fateful chance to watch the very first performance of the newest Kuromyu in Hyogo last Saturday, so I figured I’ll eternalize some of my best memories here.

Before we begin: the LIVE STREAMING is available for the LAST PERFORMANCE, September 29th 2024, HERE! For only 3800 yen, you’ll get to watch it live at home, or watch it later for up to 1 week (October 6th)! Apparently you need a Japanese VPN though, if anyone knows how to navigate the site, please do share.

A few disclaimers from me:

*Anti-shippers DNI. This post barely has any shipping content at all but I don’t like people who harass others over fictional preferences. I’m a shipper, I can’t help being biased for my OTPs.

**Since photos were prohibited in the venue, I’ve included stage pictures featured in official news websites or accounts.

***This is by no means a critical review but merely a fangirl’s ramblings, and I often drew comparisons to the original stage play Kuroshitsuji Musical: Secrets of the Boarding School (2021). For reference, I suggest you watch it first! I intentionally avoided rewatching the 2021 version close to the airing date though, so my memories may not be accurate. Also my Japanese is mediocre so I apologize if there were important dialogues I didn’t catch.

Introduction

I know, sorry for the dilly-dally intro. But I’d like to first stress that ever since I started following Kuroshitsuji in my first year of university (like 9 years ago now lmao), I’ve ALWAYS dreamed to watch the stage musical live in person. When 2024’s performance was announced immediately after the last episode of the anime, I was overjoyed to see that our old cast was coming back.

And it was fate that gave me the opportunity - my scheduled work program this year was set to be in Kyoto AND during September! Needless to say, I had the Kuromyu ticket bought and reserved first, before my confirmation with the Kyoto office or my visa and plane ticket. Priorities, right?

Quick remark on the ticket process: I hit a snag right in the beginning because the ticket reservation website Eplus required a Japanese phone number to sign up. I contacted multiple people (middle school friend whose brother used to work in Japan, another who was quarter-Japanese, several dealer websites with high rate exchanges), until I settled on my roommate’s friend from high school who was currently working there. Many thanks to her and my roommate for the help!

She took care of registration for me - even so the advance sales was a LOTTERY ticket! We fortunately got the lucky draw - I saw many Japanese fans on X who were not so lucky, while others bought in bulk to sell later. Then, I used the online barcode to exchange for a paper ticket when I arrived in Japan on September 1st. That’s when I get to know my seat number - 3rd floor, 2nd row B. A very far position from the stage, but it’s alright because we’re here for the atmosphere anyway!

The performances for the first 2 days were set in Hyogo Performing Arts Center, KOBELCO grand hall. I’ve honestly never been to any kind of music performance (or even concerts) in my life, so I was blown away by the sheer size of the venue.

By 10 AM, the audience was trickling in. I was in awe of the fact that you can tell who was coming in to watch kuromyu - beautiful women dressed in black-and-white tones, many even sporting gothic lolita bows and dresses to keep up with the Victorian England theme. In fact, it felt like the whole of Ikebukuro were gathered here in this very building!

We were ushered into the hall entrance at 11 AM and let me tell you, the crowd was suffocating! In front of the theater, there was a goods section for Kuromyu merch. I’m so glad I took the time to queue up because it seems some of the merch were starting to sell out by the second day. The booth clerk looked perplex to see a non-Japanese customer here though. Here’s how the line looked like, and this was still early before most of the audiences got in:

(We’re not supposed to take any photos but I saw the warning signs too late…Here’s a view from where I was sitting on the third floor.)

I realized then as we were settling in that some ladies around me had binoculars!! Well how was I supposed to know you could bring those here, instead of trying to find those fancy opera glasses!?! Ah well, I was lucky that I’d recently had my prescription glasses updated and the seat to my left was vacant, so I could lean in to see the center better.

The Performance

While it is true that you can barely see the actors’ faces from the balcony seats, it was the grandness of the performance itself that blew me away. For the first time I could see the stage in all its entirety, all the actors dancing in synchronization, and the special effects…oh it had improved A LOT from 3 years prior!

The stage sets for Weston may look a tad “crowded” in the still photo, as compared to the original where they used white backgrounds but in reality, it blended in so prettily with the flashing stage lights. The middle section was a rotating floor and one of my memorable scenes was where Ciel and Sebastian were discussing their plans while crossing the rotating stage, to give the illusion of “strolling across the school grounds.” Sounds like a simple trick but if looked amazing from above.

On to the story itself - the execution actually barely changed from the 2021 rendition, which for me, was a relief! Now I know, some would argue a rerun should add in different elements, because who would want to see the same thing twice right? From past experiences with Kuromyu, the reruns tend to be hit or miss - different actors, different song remixes, voice changes, and so on. For this performance, I could barely tell that the cast (apart from Ciel, Sebastian and Undertaker) were all new members. Everyone got into character flawlessly!

The story of course followed the entirety of the Public School Arc. The script and choreography was almost identical to the 2021 stage musical version. If you would remember, this Kuroshitsuji arc was the first to be portrayed on stage before the anime adaptation - same as previously, they seemed to take inspiration from the manga only rather than the anime.

Some key moments from the play:

The opening sequence was again a recap of the previous arcs - Jack the Ripper (Lycoris that Blazed the Earth), Book of Circus (Noah’s Ark Circus), Book of the Atlantic (Tango on the Campania). I’ve always loved this part because you could tell they slipped in iconic themes from the past musicals.

Perfect Black: the main theme, and my favorite from this stage! I’m so happy to have heard it live! *swoons* Thank god they didn’t do anything weird to remix it. The whole cast dancing together was beautiful! However I thought 2021 did it better with the dramatic light focus on Sebastian during the chorus drop.

Ciel’s Earl of Phantomhive outfit was changed from the glittery blue suit to a blue-green checkered coat this year. (I’d have bought his Earl photoshoot set if I knew it beforehand) Yana-sensei later tweeted that she was the one to re-design it, to better match Eito. Then Eito Konishi himself replied, saying he was honored to play as Ciel Phantomhive, to which Yana-sensei praised his singing and called him “Eito-bocchan” …boy was he fanboying hard over that. He’s one of us!!

Arrival at Weston: I don’t have a comment on the P4 in particular, they were all straightforward from the manga. I think I like Redmond’s character the most here, he looked very pretty with the side-ponytail and while he was a show-off still, he wasn’t as annoying or arrogant as I somehow expected.

A notable interaction: Violet forcing Greenhill to pose for him at the swan gazebo. Greenhill’s actor really looked strained trying to keep an upside down bridge pose (Edward was supporting his back, but kept getting distracted). When he broke the pose and got up, Violet hit him over the head with his sketchbook so hard that the thump echoed through the hall.

As for the Prefect’s Fags: Edward and Cheslock were giving off some suspiciously gay rivals-to-lovers vibes over here. Which I kinda vibed with, I hope they kept the energy into the Blue Cult Arc!

One important thing: they kept the ALL the Fag lines! Which in Japanese accent also kinda sounded like them repeatedly calling each other “Fućk”. Oh how I wish the anime had kept those!

Soma Asman Kadar: now this guy deserves an ovation just for himself. Not only did he kill the role, he was also the funniest! Soma’s song was greatly improved and lengthened with catchier music and dancing - when his troupe “arrived” at Weston, he even dragged Ciel and Clayton to join in. I can’t do it justice, you have GOT to see those two English gentlemen crack the Indian dance moves! His pestering of Maurice Cole was hilarious and he kept exasperating Ciel out of his character, their chemistry was wonderful. I really didn’t expect to get hooked by Soma in this arc out of all people! Too bad Agni wasn’t here.

Maurice Cole’s miniarc - Flawless. Sometimes I wonder if he was an easy character to play just because his character trait is so extremely over-the-top lol.

The library kabedon scene and sebaciel burning Purple House scene didn’t exist. Another scene cut off from the last musical was where Clayton and the Blue House kids were congratulating Ciel on his fag duties and Sebastian took the chance to blend in with them. Sadly that was one of my favorite adlibs.

Ciel’s dream sequence: this was originally in the 2021 musical. After a talk with Macmillain made him revisit his past trauma, Ciel “dreamed” of the cultists, and Sebastian’s close call with Undertaker in BotA. I actually forgot about this part when I watched it in theater - the highlight was sebaciel reenacting the scene in BotA where they reached for each other, the enactment surprisingly gave me the impression of Ciel’s “worry” over Sebastian’s “vulnerability” here. Unlike the 2021 version though, Undertaker didn’t pull Ciel into a bridal carry or referenced the R!Ciel wake-up scene as clearly.

The second half after the break was the long-awaited Cricket Match. Like the previous version, there was no scene of Ciel jumping into Master Michaelis’ arms, but I think they just couldn’t fit that one into the sequence. The cricket songs were mostly the same as the original - with an improvement being them cutting out Red House’s random beauty pageant contest. It actually felt like the cricket match went by faster this time, which was a win in my book. I’ve heard people complain of Kuromyu 2021 being a “Prince of Cricket” musical, hence the bad reviews back then.

The laxative meat pie scene was hilarious. From Sebastian faking it as a student complete with Red House’s uniform, to the team’s diarrhea horrors. Redmond stole the show again, as he was going to help Harcourt in the middle of the field, but tragedy struck which made him deadpan: “Oh. Someone get Harcourt.” Then immediately left the stage lol. The Blue House kids lifted Harcourt out.

The Green vs Purple house battle was the same as last time. I always felt bad to see Cheslock being the only Purple kid doing his best because without any support member cast while Violet was sitting in the grass. But this time, he gave Cheslock a tree sculpture of his bust as a good-job reward! Good for them.

Lastly Green vs Blue. They incorporated the rotating stage again in the last batting when Greenhill accidentally hit Ciel. The end of the match cut straight to the Thames Boat Ride, then they did the Blue House cheering scene after. Sebastian finally got to do his signature bridal carry, awww.

Midnight tea party: the setting was even more beautiful than last time. Undertaker letting his hair fall from his hat was iconic as usual. I was impressed with Master Agares’ fight scenes because his actor looked quite older than his 2021 predecessor. I always liked how they did Derrick Arden’s death in the musical, it felt more anguished from the P4 POV while in the anime, it just felt like a gruesome horror scene.

Final musical number was Ciel-Sebastian-Undertaker chorus during their fight in the garden. Music and choreography seemed to be similar, EXCEPT they somehow changed the iconic “Your life is my priority” scene!!! 2021’s version had me hold my breath as Sebastian had his arm possessively hooked around Ciel and took off his glove with his teeth (seriously, you have to see it yourself). This time they had Sebastian and Ciel reenact the scene on the highest stage instead of front and center, and I didn’t feel as much suspense nor was there any glove-removal from what I could see. It was also a weird placement because they were so far away, and Undertaker should’ve been the one on the top as he did his goodbye pose holding the moon.

We end the story with Sebastian recapping the aftermath with Weston’s students, and finally sebaciel’s conversation back at the manor. Again, Ciel reiterates that Sebastian is the only one who could never lie nor betray his trust. Perfect Black came on as an outro, and I got chills when Sebastian ended the last verse on a raised note!

The curtain call was the experience I’d waited for. Somehow I only realized just then that the actors would do the full call during their finale performance, which was what we got to see in the recordings! That day, after the cast bowed twice, the exit announcement immediately came on but guess what? The audience, including myself, kept clapping all the way through the announcement, it went for so long that the cast actually came out to take another bow! As they returned on stage, most of us also stood up for a standing ovation - according to twitter this doesn’t seem to be a regular occurrence outside of the finale. It felt like a truly wholesome “welcome back” for the troupe and for Kuromyu, especially after the rather harsh criticisms from the previous stage (due to major cast and style changes, even I took a while to bring myself to watch it) and the long break due to the COVID years.

Overall summary

Kuroshitsuji Musical 2024 was a faithful rerun of its predecessor. They succeeded with the musical numbers, new cast, overall adaptation of the story. The settings, props and special effects were wonderfully upgraded. The original cast carried the show: Eito Konishi’s singing felt greatly improved and I thought he carried himself as more mature than his last performance as Ciel. Sebastian’s Toshiki Tateishi had a mesmerizing voice the more I listened to him, he never went out of breath even while dancing or fighting - truly vocals fit for the troupe leader. Kandai Ueda did well as his own Undertaker too, even with Undertaker’s peculiar accent.

My few complaints: I felt like the P4 cast (bar Redmond) could do to have more distinction in their tones and movements. It felt hard to distinguish who was talking at times. The performance seemed to have a faster pacing this time around, and you get less absorbed in certain conversations between the characters, so I wished they’d added in slow scenes here and there. And of course I miss the signature sebaciel moments that I’ve mentioned - granted, this manga arc had always been my least favored because of the lack of sebaciel interactions anyway! So I’d say they did the best with the source material.

While I enjoyed seeing my favorite production performed live with the music blasting through my eardrums, it was the atmosphere that truly made the experience for me. Sitting in the 4-storeys grand hall full of some 2000 Kuroshitsuji fans really pulled me back in time, especially during the standing ovation. I’m so happy to see my favorite series so loved after all these years. I’m sure Yana-sensei could feel it too.

I wish a successful performance for the cast going forward to Tokyo, and hopeful for many more musicals to come!

[mxsuperclear]

say hello to my newest girl! she’s a volks sdcute kaede (sweet dreams version) and i bought her from a lovely collector at resin rose. :) i’m still brainstorming name ideas for her so for now she’s just going by her sculpt name. i can’t get over how precious and delicate she is! 🤎

[seb-reads31]

Request - Guess what- my brainn

Cautions - Fem pronouns, using "Faith", no real descriptions of Faith cause I can't remember how GBA described her 😔

Genre - Fluff, slight angst?

Type - head canons

Comments - Remember Dream World? Wellll, I decided to go more in depth with Faithful's past life with Kerano as well. (I will be referring to Faithful as "Faith" for this since that's technically her name according to GBA, and I wanna stick with this but I can make a Y/N version if anyone wants <3) I'm also gonna make a part two for Albus and Devlin for their past in dream world, then possibly a 3rd part about something idk (probably multiple lol)

If life could be a dream~

Faith is an artist, and always has been. Her early days consisted of her doodling on everything she got her hands on.

And as she grew, so did her talents. Her parents encouraged it, as well as her brother Joshua, who ended up raising little Faith when they were growing up due to their parents being absent for work reasons.

Faith was around 17 when she got her first serious commission from a bakery who felt like the place was getting a bit plain for both the owner and the customers

And boy, it was a SUCCESS >:DD

Faith was given so many compliments when it was done, and several offers for a portrait or 3 🤭

And that had her set for a good while lol, she both bought and made paints for her craft, some canvases while trading her art, and brushes from the market

She's 21 now, and living away from her brother in a different village. Not too far away, but enough so for her to remake her name in the town

It even helped that there were a few people who had traveled to her original village because they had heard of her amazing abilities!

Either way, Faith was set in her little cottage, painting away

She was there for about a year, aged 22

She's made plenty of friends while in the village and made quite the profit!

But one rainy night, as she mulled over her newest piece, a knock came from her front door

Which was.. odd, to say the least

But because she was up, she went to go see who it was even though she was covered in paint

She carefully cracked open the door, prepared with a greeting when she was met with the outdoors, not a single person to be seen

That's what she thought at least until she heard the cries of a small child at her feet, her eyes immediately darting to a small bundle in a basket, crying loudly from the cold rain hitting it

"Goodness.. a child??" Faith thought to herself, immediately grabbing the poor babe and bringing it inside

Her instincts led her, going to the fireplace and holding the small child close to her body to warm it up

As the child felt warmer, safer, it calmed down, cooing softly at the young woman

Faith sighed, feeling relieved when she finally saw the note attached to the basket the baby was in

It read as followed:

"Her name is Kerano, she was born on XX/XX/XX (idk when Kerano was born but assume the note is saying that she's at least 1.) Please, take care of her kind stranger."

There was no signature, or names aside from the name of the child. Kerano

It was a pretty name, one matching the sweet girl with the bright and curious eyes

"Kerano.. you'll be okay, I promise."

And Faith kept that promise for the next 6 years, Kerano turning 7 and Faith turning 28

Kerano has grown up to be a very outgoing, curious, and brave child

She was always outside hunting for bugs and such, and always returning home covered in dirt and scrapes here and there

But Faith never cared, always tending to her scrapes and bathing her thoroughly before they had dinner

They were living the best life ever, and Faith never once regretted keeping Kerano. She was an absolute joy, brightening up the atmosphere whenever she spoke

But, Faith was ready for a new look, a new area to explore and to refresh her inspiration. And so, Faith and Kerano packed up and prepared to move to another village just a few days travel from this one

They had visited before for a commission, and it was a gorgeous town. Bigger than either were used too, but a lot more people there would love to buy her art, and Kerano would be able to explore the new place with other children

Along the way, Faith stopped to paint the scenery, and allowed Kerano to adventure a little, but not too far

This time Faith had the intense need to paint this stream in a small meadow, surrounded by a lightly wooded area

And Kerano was doing her normal adventuring, but this time, she was following a super pretty butterfly and travelled a bit too far

As she was chasing the bug, she failed to see the tree root in the path and tripped on it, but twisted her ankle in the process

It was painful, and she let out a scream proving it

Faith was oblivious of where Kerano had went, and how far, too invested in capturing the beauty for the first time since they left

It startled the woman, but she immediately dropped her palette and brush, looking for her child

She called her name, but could only hear faint calls that didn't lead her anywhere

A man that was in the forest happened to be near the screaming child, and immediately ran to her

He was tall, with dark shoulder length hair partially tied back, a few light scars on his face as well as a short beard

He was in a knights uniform, although it was banged up in a few places, it still shone with the kingdom's insignia

As a knight, his first assumption was bandits, which had been getting more common around these parts

And without a second of hesitation, he drew his sword and ran towards the scream prepared for anything

.. almost

What he didn't expect was a small child clutching her ankle, tears running down her face, framed with equally dark hair

She was scared, staring up at the tall man as he held his weapon still. Which he noticed, immediately putting it away with a small apology but with a wide grin

"Sorry 'bout that, didn't mean to scare you. But I promise I'm not here to hurt you, Knight's honor." He glanced down at the little girl's ankle, already thinking of what might be wrong with it

"Did you hurt your ankle kiddo?" He had several questions in mind, but didn't want to upset the girl further

But she nodded, her tears still flowing, but at a much slower pace

"Mind if I take a look?" She hesitated, probably a good thing. She was taught stranger danger then

"Right, I haven't introduced myself, how rude. I'm Knight Captain Albus York, at your service."

He exaggerated, but it got a smile out of the little girl anyways. "K-Kerano. Nice to meet you Mr."

He chuckled, not really used to being called 'Mr' but hey, she's a nice kid

"Now then, can I take a look? I can't promise it won't hurt, but I can promise that I'll help you feel better."

And as soon as Kerano let Albus touch her ankle, she let out another scream, which helped Faith finally find her

But, Faith immediately assumed that the dark haired man was the one who made her kid scream, so we went on the attack

And damn, she has a good slap

Albus was quick to introduce himself and explain the situation after Kerano caught Faith's attention

She apologized and thanked Albus for helping Kerano :D

Notes - There will be more, but for now I'm gonna leave it here (I hate this ending but it'll hopefully make sense?)

[aysanderson]

FANFIC FEMALE VERSION ANDERPERRY !

NOTICES

* English is not my first language

*My girls Anderson and Perry in the movie and my girls Celine and Renné in real life! Double dose of sapphics!

*I would like to post daily, maybe not so long

*Probably +18 content

WELCOME TO THE TORTURED POETS SOCIETY

TAKE 01 . 

And they were roommates.

-Good morning everyone, girls, I'm Tomás, your director and I'm more than happy to announce that you're our cast! Welcome to the Tortured Poets Society!

Well, here we are.

A new movie is exploding with buzz throughout the film industry.

The remake of the famous and appreciated film 

���Dead Poets Society.” now titled Tortured Poets Society. 

For some time now, the producers have been wanting to renew, perhaps bring a new audience to the work, and also the need to finally expose the ideas that were not appropriate in 1990. 

And why not tortured poet girls!

Amazing. 

And so, here they are. The new characters and soon the newest eye candy and stars of the entire film industry. 

And not only was the film the hot news of the moment, but also Renné and Celine, rising actresses and polar opposites as the names to give life to the main characters.

The buzz quickly emerged in the media.

“Ah, but isn’t it a risky bet? A character as controversial as Celine alongside Renné?”

“Renné shouldn’t have stopped making the classics and risked this woke agenda”

“I just hope Celine is polite and doesn’t hit on Reneé, no one is forced to be gay either”

And as for the film, the rumors were even bigger and more venomous.

“It’s risky but the director gave free rein”

“It’s really sad to watch a classic appeal to the agenda.”

“It’s definitely something to make money.”

… 

-And then, I fell hard in the middle of the stage. I could barely understand what was happening. It was so embarrassing, thank goodness the spotlight soon went to the other side of the stage or I wouldn't have had the strength to get up!

Laughter could easily be heard from the lunch table of tortured poets, as the cast called themselves.

It had been a week since the start of the meetings for the beginning of the team bonding period.

The actress in the spotlight, who told a hilarious story about the time she fell in the middle of the stage, was Nancy, or rather, our girl Dalton, who was struggling to tie up her frizzy hair, while her laughter took all the breath away from her. Next to her hovered the calm redhead Sara, better known by her surname Meeks, who tried to help her colleague in her arduous mission of tying up her hair, and laughing and eating and remembering the facts of the story.

In order, the other redhead, Tayla, who was calmly sipping her apple juice and smiling at Nancy, unlike her character, who was reserved, would be and would, as is well known, at some point in the film, exchange blows with Dalton.

On the other side of the table we have the tall Suzie, who will soon be seen as our intelligent and sober Pitts, but who at the moment had a frown and serious brow, focused on her mission to discover the taste of the meat she had bought in the vegan area of the restaurant. Beside her, sharing the same mission, was Jhenny, with a white sweatshirt tied around her shoulders, even though the undeniable heat of Solarium was present without regrets, she wanted to feel the essence of the passionate overstreet.

In the distance, crossing the small street that separated the restaurant from the tables they were sitting at, Celine and Renné captured the eyes of the girls at the table, laughing at their conversation and absorbed in their bubble.

Celine dressed in a black t-shirt of the band she was in and ripped shorts with simple combat boots on her feet, contrasting perfectly with the light-colored pieces that Renné was wearing, a lace dress and small white heels, giving her a delicate and calm air. 

There couldn't have been better choices for our Anderson and Perry than them. 

The yin-yang in its perfect definition. 

Screw the critics. 

.the film will be a success

[trainsinanime]

Something for the model train fans following me: It's my newest locomotive, an EMD BL2 in N scale by Life-Like. I bought it at the international model railroad show in Gangelt (international because Gangelt is right on the border between Germany and the Netherlands, and so about a third of the exhibitors were dutch).

Now, "new" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, this was bought used. Based on a website I found, this appears to be the 1991 version of the design. Detailing and so on isn't exactly at the highest end, it was a budget model even then, but I think it reproduces the overall shape nicely. You get why the BL2 was apparently called the Ugly Duckling.

Getting DCC into this machine will be tricky, as will be new headlights. The current approach has one single light-bulb that shines both through the front and rear, and is visible through the plastic shell, and that will definitely cause issues with DCC. I'll also need to change the couplers to Micro-Trains ones, and for that I'll have to see whether I have any appropriate ones around.

Still, for 50€, you can't complain. I'm really happy with it, I didn't even know anybody made a BL2.

[heartfullofleeches]

Okay I feel like all my submissions are getting chucked into the ocean by tumblr, but if you end up seeing this would you mind maybe writing some fem v hcs? Thank you in advance, Lovely Devil!

(I apologize in advance)

Fem V is still an incel V, just with a few notable differences. She's bossy, apathetic towards most things, and gets into screaming over discord when people call her out for photoshopping pictures of the two of you together. Also her name is Vivian Unlike her male counterpart, she flaunts her appearance more so than her wealth (which she does a lot of as well), and will act as if basic care or self services are some big grand gesture of her love.

"What do you mean you don't want to go on a date with me?!? I painted my fucking nails for you!"

Acts like you had scheduled plans when you want to hang out with others, and sometimes marks the date in your calendar to steal her lies. You don't remember planning to watch her unbox her newest custom figures on your friend's birthday, but now you have to juggle both acts - or just stay home all together.

Fem V is a little more open to affection/saying "I love you" as the first born on her mother side had always been female and she'd be doted on more. She was still horribly neglected by her folks, but she wants to reach out to you and more willing to do than her counterpart. V, both versions, wants nothing more than to hold you at night - but their scared of what putting down the defenses they've built would mean. It's too late for them to have a solid connection with their family, but they don't care anymore. They want to make a new one - which you.

Ruining that wholesome point - Absolutely refuses to let you leave the house without a lipstick stain on your collar, or the collar locket she bought you with her initials in bold. If she knows where you're going she'll pay someone to follow you or gain access to street cameras with her parents' people. If she sees you with someone she will call you and demand you put your phone on speaker

[Under the cut are riskier hcs. Not nsfw, but just a little gross]

Another thing she does different is she doesn't keep you in her cage. That's for punishments. Instead - fem! V hooks a leash to the collar she makes you wear and ties it to the leg of her desk or holds it in her hand as she games. Act up in any way and it's the cage. It's fairly easy to manipulate your way out as baiting your lashes and promising to be good is her biggest weakness.

"Y-you're mommy's good kitten, aren't you?~ I'm sorry for putting you in here - and pulling your leash that hard. Want me to kiss it better if you bruise?"

If she offers you a hot meal with the biggest smile on her face - don't take it. Girl mixed her saliva in some part of that and completely fine with admitting to her crimes. You should want a piece of her in you at all times. Would spitting in her energy drink make you feel better?

[absurdbootlegs]

Digi Pets

Type: Bootleg Tamagotchi/Giga Pet

Company: KidsOnly

Distributor: Toynk Toys

Availability: This bootleg has been available on a number of different e-retail sites, including eBay, Target, Walmart, and Amazon since around 2004.

Info/Summary (photo examples after the break): Digi Pets have been available in some form since at least 2004. The 2004 version had 32 pets you could choose from; they don’t appear to be from the Bunny ROM.

In 2005, the number of available pets was scaled down to 10 options and updated to sprites which may be original. These sprites persist through all the future versions, the newest of which was released in 2010.

Despite this vpet having been out of production since c. 2010, Target, Walmart, and Michael’s have sold it as recently as December 2024. Angry reviews on the Target site indicate they have not aged well (see links after the break).

The gameplay is very simple, and the sounds are very annoying. From a gameplay video of a post-2005 version:

“A very simple pet but really cute animations. You get to choose 1 out of 10 different animals; they do not evolve, and it doesn't include any games on them. I got it in a lot, but wouldn't pay more than $7-$10 for it [NB: it currently retails at ~$25].

Most would consider it fake but I consider it an odd simple pet, because it has it's own original programming and it doesn't reset by itself unlike some other unbranded pets which does...”

This appears to be a different Digi Pet toy than another one of the same name carried by Target during the 2024 holiday season. While that one was a Bunny Rom toy, this bootleg seems to be more similar to a bootleg Giga Pet.

2004 version

Number of pets: 32

Known colors:

Clear blue

Clear red

Front/Back view:

————

2005 version

Number of pets: 10 (and updated sprites)

Known colors:

Green

Yellow

Pink

Red

Front/Back view:

————

2006 version

Number of pets: 10

Known colors:

Green

Pink

Front/Back:

————

2008 version

Packaging is now green. It looks a lot like the 2010 version in terms of packaging, but the back lists its creation date as 2008.

Number of pets: 10

Known colors:

Green

Front/Back:

————

2010 version (being sold in 2024 in Target, Michaels, and Walmart)

Number of pets: 10

Michael’s, Walmart and Target are being supplied these toys through a company called Toynk Toys (who also have all four colors for sale on their own website). This outfit also sold some older versions of Digi Pets. I’m guessing Toynk Toys found some old stock that they decided to quietly push in order to get rid of it.

None of the 2010 examples have back-of-box photos available, but we know the manufacture date based on angry Target reviews, one of which read as follows:

Did not work

1 out of 5

Would not recommend

Item did not work upon arrival. Batteries were heavily corroded and the manufacture date showed 2010. We bought new batteries and replaced them, and the item still didn't work.

[source]

Known colors:

Yellow

Red

Green

Purple

Front:

[aetherspoon]

Hi total stranger here sorry to jump into your inbox but I saw you mentioned a drive that allowed you to bypass the truly awful 4K uhd settings that I've literally only just heard about?

Oooo, my first ask!

So, I'll post the short version here and the long version under a cut.

The short version is simple - I have a USB UHD (4k) BluRay drive from LG. At the time I bought it, it had firmware that could be upgraded to some unofficial firmware that can avoid that garbage. That drive isn't recommended anymore, which is why I'm not bothering to give you the model number, but if you look at this site:

It will give you the list of drives that ARE recommended for this type of thing. You can even buy some pre-flashed drives from people if you don't want to mess with that.

My drive has worked fine for me, but admittedly I've only used a few UHD discs on it (and a whole lot of normal blu-rays and DVDs).

Now, the longer version is under the cut, including one of my patented totally normal (blatant sarcasm tag here) analogies that still somehow work.

-----

I'm going to use an analogy here, because that's how I explain tech.

Let's pretend your Blu-Ray (regardless of whether it is UHD/4k or not - see my notes at the end for a fun fact) is a VIP performing at your exclusive club called Blu-Ray Drive. You'd think that, because you own the club, you can watch the VIP perform, right?

Wrong.

You see, the club has a bouncer by the name of AACS. Every VIP insists on one of their bouncers being at the club, deciding who to let in and what they get to do. The bouncer doesn't actually work for you, they work for the VIP, and no VIP will come to your club if you don't have one of their bouncers.

Also, just for more paranoia, every VIP will have its own list of who and what to allow, along with where they're allowed to stand. Each time you have a new VIP come to your club, they give their own list; if the bouncer sees the list is newer, they throw away all of the old lists and only keep the newest one. On top of that, AACS is a nationalist asshole that decided to only allow people from their own country in, because the VIPs want to charge people differently based on their nationality.

The VIPs even require some fancier clubs to have a courier continually delivering them new lists (this is where that UHD/4k Internet connection thing comes from).

All of the stuff you want is inside of that club, but the bouncer won't let you in because you're not on the list (and might not even from the right country). And you can't just sack the bouncer because then no VIP will play at your club.

You heard of another problem at a similar club (Club DVD), where their more local VIPs required them to hire a bouncer named CSS. However, CSS wasn't paid very well, was near sighted, and never bothered to update the list; all of your friends just called themselves "Maria Wang" and CSS let them in. Your VIPs know about that though, so they insist on the updating list thing and giving their bouncers eye exams. So what do you do?

Simple. You call a buddy and they kool-aid man through the back wall of your club shouting OH YEAH!, of course.

This is a completely logical analogy, I know. I should really commission an artist to draw this.

This buddy is called LibreDrive. Your VIPs still have their bouncer - anyone who doesn't know about the secret entrance still goes through the bouncer. The people who do know - including you and your friends - just go through the secret entrance instead. The VIP company is none the wiser.

-----

Now that my completely logical analogy is over, what does this actually mean tech-wise?

The way DVDs work is by using an encryption technology called CSS. However, in late 1999, someone figured out how to break the encryption, mostly because they did a really lazy job in making it to begin with. This is DeCSS. There were huge lawsuits, poetry made using source code, a whole lot of weird things. Today, we don't even need DeCSS; the encryption on DVDs are so bad that a modern computer can brute force decrypt it in seconds.

Fundamentally, both DVDs and blu-rays work the same way. There is a portion of the disc (DVD or blu-rays) that no drive is allowed to directly read. This contains the encryption information for the rest of the data on the disc. That encryption information is used by the player as to what is and isn't allowed to read the disc and what parts they ARE allowed to read. This is also where region locking comes in, where it checks what region your drive is set to and allows/denies discs to play based on that region; this is called CSS. If you are old enough to remember the bad old days of WinDVD and PowerDVD, those applications had encryption keys allowed by the DVD drive to play back the video content on the drive.

Anyone remember those cheap knock-off "region free" DVD players that used to be really common in the 2000s? They just ignored CSS entirely; the drives themselves can still read all of the data on the disc, it was just CSS telling the drive what it could or couldn't read.

Anyway, the movie studios, seeing their "beautiful creation" get ripped apart like that, wanted to make sure that it didn't happen the same way with their next technology.

Where blu-ray differs from DVDs is how it isn't using CSS at all, but something called AACS instead. It makes this list into a continually updating list; every time your drive (whether it is in a computer or a standalone player!) sees a new disc, it checks that hidden encryption information for a list of what is and isn't allowed to access the drive. If the list on the disc is of a newer version than what the drive currently has in its firmware, the disc will actually flash the firmware of your blu-ray drive with the new allow/deny list. Then it checks again - does the firmware match what the disc has? If so, it continues. If not, it refuses to play no matter what. From there, the rest of the process is basically the same, checking any player for a list of keys allowed to play it. If it sees a key not allowed (say, your ripping software), it says no and stops everything from reading it.

Unlike DVDs with CSS, these keys are actually pretty darn secure... and even if they weren't, studios would just release an updated allow/deny list and suddenly your computer can't rip discs anymore because the latest version of Frozen came out.

UHD (4k) blu-ray players take this one step further and just continually update that allow/deny list across the Internet rather than waiting for new discs to update that allow/deny list. This is why a standalone UHD blu-ray player needs WiFi, by the way. It isn't used for anything else.

So... how to avoid it? You could use a leaked key and basically hope that it isn't updated. This is how most blu-ray ripping software works, which is also why they need continual updating while movie studios play cat and mouse. And with UHD content, that's a really tiny window of time that you can do unauthorized things with the drive.

Remember our surprise tool - the drive itself still has to be able to read everything, it is just AACS stopping us. If we can somehow just get a drive to not care about AACS, we'd have access to everything we care about.

LibreDrive is a custom firmware that basically lets all of the above still happen, but any program aware of LibreDrive can just use it to access the full disc. It acts as an intermediary between the physical drive itself and software on your computer, similar to AACS itself. Like the analogy said, you're kool-aid manning a security hole into the drive's encryption. AACS is still happy because it can still update its firmware allow/deny list, you just bypass AACS entirely. Every byte of data on the blu-ray is accessible to whatever programs know about this security hole, which includes programs like MakeMKV and anything using the open source (and illegalish - see below) LibDriveIo library. Fun fact, you can just copy that library in to VLC and it'll use it.

Unfortunately, you can't just flash LibreDrive onto any drive. Basically, someone needs to be able to read the existing firmware on a drive in order to know what to modify to open up that security hole. This means you need specific drives on specific versions of firmware to flash LibreDrive.

The industry, however, caught on to this. They started requiring drive manufacturers to encrypt their firmware, so some newer revisions of drives that used to work now don't - this is the case with my drive.

And that's... the rest of the story.

Now, my notes:

You know how I said UHD/4k and regular blu-rays work the same? Yeah, it isn't just that they work the same - sometimes they're actually the exact same drive. Some regular blu-ray drives can actually read UHD discs, they're just not allowed to by AACS because "fuck you that's why". LibreDrive can work around that, too.

Illegalish? Well, circumventing copy protection isn't allowed under the US's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), outside of specific scenarios. And the US's copyright laws tend to get copied over to a lot of other countries as a result of the trade deals they make with each other, hence "illegalish". You make your own moral call, my morality says that personal use to rip your own media should have always been legal and I should be able to play a Brazilian version of the Phantom Menace if I want to.

Some additional source reading material: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18856 for "What is LibreDrive", which explains the same thing I did but without my fun analogy and using more technical terms. It also includes the full list of drive firmware that works with LibreDrive.

[gerardpilled]

My mcr shirt collection 😝

I don't mean this as a form of flexing/bragging, really I just like cataloging stuff. Also, it might give people some ideas of what to hunt for? I’ll explain where I got everything as best as I can/remember!

Frank solo shirts:

• cross anchor shirt - bought at a 2014 show.

• Friday the 13th parody “I hope I die before they save my soul” shirt - bought at a show in either 2015 or 2016

Gerard solo:

G “warm and fuzzy” - bought online in 2015 maybe? I cropped it but sadly it's a little short now.

G “Gerard Way” white shirt - I think this was apart of a package deal when you bought the CD? Bought online in 2014!!

Hesitant Alien crewneck - Bought online in 2014!! I love this one, it's so soft I wear it to sleep often.

My Chem:

“Newark, NJ” Castle shirt - Bought on depop probably around 2016. This particular one I think was sold as a 10 year anniversary version of the original design back in 2011. there’s a Roman numeral X on the back to mark 10 years.

“Ride it like you stole it” hearse shirt - bought at a hot topic outlet store in upstate New York in 2014! One of my faves

"Wanted" Killjoys shirt - Bought either on ebay or depop back in probably 2017ish!! another one I cropped. I only started to wear this more recently, but I love the design.

“Take it like a man” electric chair re-release shirt. From the 2022 online re-release.

projekt revolution shirt with your dates on the back - newest find! Bought in a record store in New Jersey just last month.

Skeleton mask shirt - found at a local flea market! I think it was originally sold during the black parade era and was actually a series of misprinted shirts.

"Gerald" Bathroom shirt - Gerard's Mystery shirt from the 2022 tour. Bought at the 2nd Toronto date!

Milky Way shirt - Mikey's Mystery shirt from the 2022 tour. Bought at the same date!

+ Bonus

Gerard's 2010 Comic Con Hawaiian shirt - Yes I'm counting this!!! Although not exactly his shirt, it's the same fabric pattern. Bought on a vintage store website back in 2016. I wear this all the time lmfao

[hope-ur-ok]

i was trying to start listening to boys like girls, how do I start (which ep/album/single) i'd love your input!!

OMG, first of all I'm so excited that I have influenced you into listening to them, they have been my favorite band since I was 6 years old and my older sister bought their first album.

Okay so I'm gonna make you a little guide if my favorite songs to listen to first but if you want to go by album this is what I'd suggest - I'd honestly start with their second Album Love Drunk, I think of their first 3 albums it's the best, it's just so good and catchy. Also it has my favorite BLG song on it, Contagious. Then I would listen to their self titled debut album, it has some of their best songs but is overall a weaker album then Love Drunk. Next I would listen to the newest album Sunday At Foxwoods, every song on it is so fucking good I am literally obsessed with it, it very well might be the best album they've ever made. I did make a version of Lost in Wonderland with out the slur (g****y), if you end wanting that. Last I would listen to Crazy World, the album not the EP cause every song on the EP is on the album, it is the worst album cause they decided to make a lot of it country for some reason but it does have some good songs like Life of the Party and The First Time.

Top songs to listen to on each album

Boys like Girls: the great escape, dance hall drug, thunder, heels over head, 5 minutes to midnight

Love Drunk: love drunk, she's got a boyfriend now, contagious, the shot heard round the world, chemicals collide

Crazy World: life of the party, the first time, stuck in the middle

Sunday At Foxwoods: Brooklyn state of mind, blood and sugar, the outside, language, hourglass

[thegalleonsnest]

I know this is kind of random, but I wanted to share a hobby I got back into. So about a month ago, I started playing the new Pokémon Pocket game as it legitimately piqued my interest as mainly as a digital card collecting game, with a side of simplified card game action. I started REALLY getting into it and was starting to scratch a deep seated itch I haven't touched in over 10 years.

Back between the 3rd-7th grade, I used to be SUPER into Pokémon, it was like the one big thing outside of video games as a kid. I started my own massive binder that I still have, and bought, traded, and collected so many cards. I never knew how to play the card game until I was a late teenager, but even then, it didn't quite hold my interest. But now, thanks to Pkmn Pocket, it's reignited my love for the actual cards, and I wanted to get serious about it.

So I started with a cheap pre-made battle deck

A good way to have a deck ready for play, and also some extra cards to mess around with/collect. Plus, it gave me look into what modern pokemon cards looked like and also learning that Fairy type pokemon have been discontinued which was really weird to learn. So I guess those are lowkey collector items?

Anyway, the itch wasn't just scratched, I was starting to get excited anytime I happen to be at a store and took a look at their stock in pokemon cards. I would buy a pack here and there, learn that the newest expansion Surging Spark that populated my Target disappeared days after buying 3 packs, and figured out which places were worth visiting, and what was cheap.

Unexpectedly, I decided to visit my local Gamestop out of curiosity. They sell literally any pop culture related, probably got cards too. And turns out, they fucking capitalized on that shit HARD

Not only are they the only place locally that's consistently stocked LIKE THIS (for now, who knows what their game plan is), but they also just sell individual cards on their store website and graded cards too! They can help send in your cards to get graded as well which is insane.

So, when Black Friday came around, I decided to invest. I decided to focus on Stellar Crown just because it was considered the next popular one outside of Surging Sparks, and bought an Elite Trainer Box and extra boosters.

I've never made a serious purchase like this pokemon outside of those tin boxes you can buy, but it was genuinely so cool and I felt excited just opening up cards and seeing what I could get, commons or super rare shit. Ended up pulling some neat cards and got bam boozled with that Briar card, thought I pulled other version that's worth a lot.

A week later, for my birthday (I turned 26 on Dec 4th, forgot to announce that here, whoops lol), my partner surprised me with a massive 36 booster pack box of Stellar Crown cards and GOD IT WAS CRAZY

Ended up pulling two pretty high valued cards with Bulbasaur and Dachsbun here, but also, all of these cards rule and I'm fully back in it. Because of the trainer box and this booster box, I actually almost got every single common card in the set, outside of the obvious super rare cards.

This has all reignited my old love for pokemon card collecting, and I wanna get involved in the community; locally as well. Trading and actual card playing whenever I get the chance. Collecting cards is a special kind of fun I don't really get to really feel in my other hobbies, and I guess that's what having multiple hobbies is like: to fill in specific kinds of fun that those things can satisfy.