#now I realize why I vibe with the crows I feed

[giggly-squiggily]

Hey Squiggly!!! I’m back with another headcanon.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—Giyu is Great at Holding in his laugh. You either have to get a death spot or be tickling him for hours if you want him to crack. EXCEPT. He CANNOT hold in his laugh with feathers. Like. This man is extremely feather ticklish, and it drives him MAD. Surprisingly, Obanai is the one who found out. (Mitsuri was definitely not forcing them to hang out whatsoever, Obanai 100% invited Giyu to his estate of his own accord….) ANYWAY. Giyu and Obanai were both feeding their respective pets (Giyu’s crow and Obanai’s snake, I can’t remember how to spell the names) and Giyu dropped some fruit right into his uniform. And his crow dove in to get it. Obanai let it slip and now everyone TORTURES Giyu.

Anyway, Giyu being feather ticklish to me is so funny. Tough man taken out by soft feather, it heals my soul. Feel free to use the scene I was talking about, or a different scene, up to you!!! Also feel free to decline of course. Take your time and have fun with your event :)

(Sorry I rambled a Bit….)

(Headcanons to Dabbles: OFFICIALLY CLOSED)

And with that- we've reached the last of the Dabbles! Thank you everyone who participated and who read along! I'll be updating the masterlist soon!

OH THIS IS BEYOND ADORABLE!!! Giyu being feather sensitive and Obanai just watching him getting wrecked and not helping is such a vibe jarekarjearkjae I wanna make more "Hashira getting GIyu" things down the road; this was just so fun! I've gotcha covered, friend! :D

Obanai didn’t want this to happen, but given what came out of it, he couldn’t complain.

Invite him over, she insisted. Try to get to know him better before you cast him aside. Tomioka-san just might surprise you!

Mitsuri’s request  was what brought them here today- sitting outside Obanai’s home and…existing. The Serpent Hashira had no idea what they were to discuss, and Giyu wasn’t helping with his awkward silences.

He was just now starting to realize why he hung out with Mitsuri and Sanemi. Both of them could keep a silence at bay.

Heeeeeeh…

“Calm. You’re gonna get some.” Giyu’s voice stirred him from his thoughts, turning his attention to the Water Hashira and his crow. He was holding a handful of pecans- offering them one by one as his crow hopped and squawked, demanding more. “You’re getting older- I don’t want you to get si-EE!”

What happened next was fast and surprising. Obanai watched the crow leap upwards and into Giyu’s face, making him lean back. His handful of nuts went flying- in his face, his lap, and even some on Obanai. The serpent Hashira took what landed on him for a snack.

“Kanzaburou! Behave yourself. Ugh, this is a disaster..” Giyu sighed as he looked down at himself, tugging at his collar when he felt a few nuts stuck there. “I’m gonna be finding pecans on me for days.”

“Hehe. Nut case.” Obanai snickered at his own dumb joke. To his surprise, Giyu was laughing too. “Wow, didn’t know you had a sense of humor.”

When Giyu started laughing harder, Obanai raised a brow. “Come on, it wasn’t that funny.”

“Thahhat’s not ihihiht-aheahhahaha, Kahahahnzahhahaburohohohu dohohoohn’t!” Giyu was grabbing at his shirt, specifically at the lump wiggling its way down. “Gehehhehet ohohohohut! Yohohoohu tihihihickle!”

“Kaw! Kaaaw!” The bird squawked in glee, it’s feathery butt sticking out from the top of Giyu’s collar, furthering his tickly torture. “We mustn't waste a single ounce of food! Kaaaaw!”

“Gihihihive me a shehehehecond- Aheahahhahah Iihiihgurhoohohho heheheheelp!”

“Huh?” The other man had been watching without realizing it.

“HEhehelp me ghehehheht him ohohohout! Aheahhahhaa! Pleahahhahse!” Giyu cried, cheeks warm and eyes scrunched and misty. It was such a rare sight- seeing the stoic man laugh. Obanai almost didn’t help just to make it last.

Only then Giyu was wincing some as his crow crawled down further, its talons and beat sharp. Obanai tsked before reaching over, working at the buttons with rapid speed.

“Ahehahhaha-hehahahha- thehehhehre!” The second there was an opening big enough, Giyu reached up and gently pried his crow free, holding him carefully in his shaking hands. “Now stahahap thahhat.”

“Kaaw! Kaaaaw!” The bird chirped, flying out of Giyu’s hands and off to who knew where. 

The water Hashira groaned softly as he flopped on his back, arms over his face to hide his flustered expression. “Eheh..heh..th-that was a bit embahahharasing..” When he didn’t hear Obanai reply, he dared a peek- flushing more at the other’s amused stare. “Erm..could we keep this between us?”

“You already know the answer to that.” Giyu groaned and hid in his arms once more while Obanai snickered; delighted by this new piece of information.

He couldn’t wait to tell the others.

[carrieneuman]

Writing Battle Practice Part 2

I reviewed the rules and realized there's a 1,000 word limit on the stories. I was nervous about it, so I went back to the random story generator and got:

Main Character: Your character is young, friendly, and affectionate.

Setting: The story begins in a remote cottage.

Situation: Someone thought dead is discovered alive.

Theme: forgiveness

We don't really have cottages where I live, so I changed that to a cabin. And I didn't want to just do a drama again, so I went with more of a mystery/thriller vibe.

TW: Blood

Bellamy hummed to herself as she copied all the weather equipment’s readings in her spreadsheet. Her coffee steamed next to her, and the big window was full of green trees edged with gold in the morning light. A photo of her dad and brothers smiled at her from the window sill.

She wouldn’t see them at all this summer. The cabin was well out of town, which explained its appeal to the meteorology department. It was harder to explain its appeal to Bellamy. Shouldn’t a grad student want to be with people?

But here she was with nothing feeling more right than a hike under the fir trees. Clean air in her nose. Birdsong in her ears.

A lot of song, actually. Loud and discordant. 

Something had upset them.

She checked the area before chiding herself. If a predator were nearby, the birds would have gone silent or fled. Whatever it was must be some way off.

She hoped it was a dead animal that had flustered the birds. She took a deep breath. That was most likely. Besides, there weren’t any other people out here. Just trees not old enough for logging.

The creek was clear. Nothing loomed in the meadow. But she noted the forest sounds were dimming ahead. She must be getting close.

Cicadas droned loudly, but nothing else stirred. The stink of blood wafted to her, and she poked the pine litter ahead with a long stick. No telling what might be lurking, waiting its turn to feed.

A pool of blood blackened the tan needles. She couldn’t see feathers or fur. No sign of what had been injured here. No vultures or crows nearby, just the scream of cicadas.

Bellamy poked around in a widening circle, but there was no other blood anywhere. That implied a human who had bandaged their wound. Even if something had carried an animal away, it would leave a trail.

Then half covered under a twisted trunk, she spotted something orange. She lifted it carefully with her stick. At first, she couldn’t place the odd strips of nylon. Then she realized it was a harness.

She breathed heavily and bent double to get the air in. It was probably a logging harness, she told herself. No reason to be a parachute harness out under the trees. No one could have landed here.

She could see her father’s face scrunched with worry. Her brothers cried as their eggs cooled on their plates. “Come sit down, baby,” she could hear him say. His voice was raw. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

Bellamy gulped down breath and pushed the memory away. How long had it been since she thought about that? And why now? This harness must have belonged to someone providing for their family. Someone who went home to them at the end of the day. Someone who didn’t selfishly kill themself in a ridiculous stunt gone wrong.

The flash of anger surprised her. She thought that had cooled years ago.

Her adrenaline junkie mother had nothing to do with the injured hiker. Bellamy owed them her help. Either the first aid kit in the cabin or her cell phone were needed now.

She followed the churned ground, old needles pushed aside to scrape dark earth. She stooped next to a large rock and pocketed an empty tube of super glue. She was glad the hiker had patched themself up – just like Mom taught her, her thoughts intruded – but that was no excuse to litter. 

She came down a rise and spotted a rough lean-to thrown together by a boulder. “Hello?” she called. “I can help you with that wound.”

A muffled curse drifted out of the lean-to followed by long legs in threadbare denim. The plaid shirt wasn’t much better, but it had been patched in the worst spots. A woman emerged, long gray hair tied back and light eyes surrounded by deep lines.

Cold raced through her limbs. 

“Mom?”

The woman couldn’t be her mother. She couldn’t. 

“Bellamy?” the woman asked in a voice that sounded like the one she remembered. “What are you doing here?”

“No.” She shook but refused to cry. “No. My mom died in Nicaragua. Base jumping.”

“I’m so sorry, honey. I never wanted you to know.”

The fire roared through her like it had the morning Dad first told her. “You didn’t die in some stupid stunt, you left on purpose, and you thought it would be ok if I just didn’t know?”

“Yes. I had to leave, and I had to protect my family.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Do I look like I'm kidding?”

Her mother was thinner than she remembered. Deep lines were etched in her face. Bellamy had the impression she felt little mirth.

“Fine. What happened?”

“My old employer turned out to be a kind of dangerous you’re better off not knowing about. If we’d run, they’d have hunted us. If I’d left, they’d have gone after you instead. Faking my death was my only option, Bellamy.”

She wasn’t sure what to do with the claim. “If I decide I believe that, what’s next?”

“Then you go back where you came from and forget you ever saw me. Because if you don’t, I can only imagine what they’ll do to you.”

Her mom looked ready to weep. Despite herself, Bellamy ached for her.

“This isn’t protecting me, Mom.” Her voice was almost a whisper. “This is hurting me.”

Mom limped over and wrapped her arms around her. “I know. But hurt heals. Death doesn’t.”

It felt unreal, but her mom was serious. Whatever the truth was, Mom believed what she said.

Bellamy sniffled and pushed the tears back until later. “I’ve got an hour before I have to head back. Can we talk that long?”

“I’d love that.”

However unfair it would be to leave, at least she would get to say good-bye.

[arcanadreams]

That time you and your demon boyfriend went viral

hi yes hello obey me fandom!! my name is Gabbi and i have never played a single second of the actual game but i have read enough fanon content for the past year to have this idea swimming around in my head and now i am finally letting this accursed thing out of my brain and putting it in yours

also i’m only doing the brothers because any more than that and i’d have an aneurysm probably. oh and shoutout to @obeythebutler and @beels-burger-babe for inspiring me with their works to feel brave enough to write for this fandom

Lucifer:

You and Lucifer go viral on Asmo’s Devilgram story!

You’re in the kitchen helping Asmo with dinner duty and singing along to one of your playlists of human realm music that you like to show him.

Asmo starts filming your cute little dance while you stir the pot on the stove because you are just adorable!

About ten seconds into him filming, Lucifer appears in the doorway with quite the stern look on his face. You know, the one that comes right before a “MAMMOOOOOON” and strikes fear into the heart of all those with functioning eardrums. That one.

He opens his mouth, presumably to tell y’all to shut the fuck up, but then there’s a lull in the music and the eldest can hear your voice ever so slightly above the song’s vocalist and he freezes.

Man stops in his tracks like someone just smacked him in the face with a midair volleyball.

Asmo can be heard stifling a laugh behind his phone.

Lucifer’s face gets so soft and he almost, almost, loosens his metal-rod-through-the-ass posture before you notice him and give a little wave and ask if you and Asmo were being too loud like the considerate darling you are.

Lucifer clears and his throat and says something like, “No, you aren’t. I was just coming to check on how dinner is coming along,” and leaves, after which Asmo immediately presses the post button.

Screenshots of Lucifer’s heart eyes for you go absolutely viral because every demon on Devilgram goes absolutely feral for seeing the eldest demon brother lose his dignified composure. It becomes a meme template. “Get you someone who looks at you like Lucifer looks at MC” and “me at the delivery demon when he shows up with my spicy bat wings” posts become commonplace. (Asmo thinks the memes are totally worth getting strung up with Mammon for laughing at them.)

Mammon:

Much like Lucifer, you and Mammon end up going viral off Asmo’s Devilgram. (Noticing a pattern here?) 

He pulls a silly prank on your asses and honestly I don’t know how you fell for it. But hey, they say “idiots in love” for a reason, so...

You and Asmo are sitting in the common room of the House of Lamentation just chillin. Well, he’s chillin, you’re on the floor studying for an upcoming exam.

The video starts in the middle of a conversation you and the avatar of lust were having.

“No, Asmo,” you say. “Mammon and I don’t use pet names for each other.” Now that’s just a darn lie, and every demon and crow within ten miles of Mammon and you together knows it.

“Really? I find that very hard to believe, MC.~” 

You sigh in response to Asmo’s teasing. “Okay, he has a lot for me but I’m just not much of a pet name person, y’know?” The rest of the exchange goes like this:

“Oh, I totally get it.” *pause* “Hey MC, what do human world bees make again?”

“Honey.”

Cue a sheepish Mammon sticking his head in the doorway at the bluntness of your tone when you answered Asmo.

“Yeah, babe?” he looks like a puppy left on the side of a highway oh my god hUG HIM-

Asmo turns the camera back to his smug ass face and in the background you can be heard tripping on the damn carpet trying to get up and hug your mans. (”MAMMON GET OVER HERE SO I CAN HUG YOU” “W-WHAT? I THOUGHT YA WERE MAD AT ME?!?!?!?!”)

Leviathan:

Streamer Levi? Streamer Levi.

You guys go viral the first time you make an appearance on one of Levi’s weekly (insert cool Devildom streaming service name here) streams. 

It’s completely unintentional. You had been asking him for weeks to play with him on there, but he’s the avatar of envy after all. He doesn’t like sharing his partner, even if it’s with random strangers who have no real access to you.

However, he has his stream on a Thursday instead of a Friday one week, and you come into his room carrying dinner because 1) You didn’t realize he was streaming and 2) No matter what he was doing, the boy needed to eat. It wasn’t unusual for you to bring him dinner, so you had no idea why he was blushing and stammering even more than usual this time in particular. Boy was speaking in beached whale trying to tell you what was wrong.

Then you notice his screen. Oh! “Hi chat!” You wave, setting Levi’s food down on his desk in front of his keyboard. “M-MC!” He full-on whines, slamming a hand over his mouth afterwards when he remembers his viewers could hear that.

Honestly, they’d meme the fuck out of him if it weren’t for the fact that they are FINALLY SEEING HIS HENRY!!! THE MYSTERIOUS MC!!!

Chat is bombarding you with questions while you make Levi eat dinner. And by make him eat dinner, I mean literally feeding this man forkfuls/spoonfuls while he games because you love how flustered he gets when you do that. 

Does it impact his score? Absolutely. Does he care? Not really when you’re pampering him like that.

You start answering chat’s questions about you while he’s chewing so he can’t tell you to stop LMAO-

You’re a natural on stream. The VOD becomes the most popular on Levi’s account in a matter of hours and soon cute highlights compilations of you and him on that stream start making the rounds on Devildom Twitter.

Satan:

There was buildup to Satan going viral, similar to Levi in a way. 

Satan does have a Devilgram, but it’s basically a white woman’s Instagram with added book reviews for variety. Unless you’re a reader his account is pretty boring: candles, books, fireplaces, and cats.

However, after you two started reading together fairly often he began posting pictures of your legs draped over his while you sat together. They’d always be captioned with vague ass pretentious literary criticism. 

This goes on for months, and he gains a lot of (horny) followers after the leg pics start up. He doesn’t really get why but you both joke that it’s because you have some damn nice legs and I mean neither of you are complaining about the new following.

You two go viral when he finally shows your face, entirely by accident.

The post is a video, which is already strange for him and grabs attention. In it, you’re scoffing and reading an excerpt of a book, mocking its understanding of female anatomy.

“I’m quoting here, Satan: ‘her breasts bouncing around like giant pacmen.’ I’M SORRY?? THAT ISN’T HOW BOOBS WORK SIR. WHY ARE MEN ALLOWED TO WRITE?” 

(fun fact that is a very real quote from a very real book I really read last month pls save me)

Originally the camera is focused on your body, with your head out of frame to protect your privacy, but your righteous anger made Satan laugh. Like, a real laugh. The one that makes you and everyone in earshot wonder if he truly was never an angel cause he sure as hell laughs like one but anyway-

When he threw his head back, his DDD angled up just a tad without him noticing, and your face was in view for like .2 seconds. Screenshots of it are making the rounds on Devilgram almost immediately: FINALLY THE LEGS’ OWNER HAS BEEN FOUND.

Satan apologizes profusely but you honestly find it funny and you two opt to just start taking selfies while reading with both of your faces in them from now on. 

Asmodeus:

I’m gonna be real with you: you and Asmo go viral all the time. Pretty much everything Asmo posts can be considered viral because of his social media following and his status as one of the seven avatars of sin.

However, there are some fairly cute highlights to be pointed out among the times you were both featured in a post that blew up.

Your favorite is probably that time Asmo livestreamed on of you guys’ ‘Nail Nites,’ as you call them.

You’re both on the floor, doing your nails and kicking your feet back and forth while talking to chat. A lot of the questions are about your relationship, and there’s a lot of flirting back and forth between the two of you.

A particular clip of the stream does blow the fuck up on Devilgram, though, when someone screen records it and posts it with a bunch of heart emojis edited over it.

“’What colors do you think best describe each other?’ Ooo, that’s a good one, chat!” Asmo claps his hands together excitedly, making sure to be  careful of his nails.

Pretty much everyone expected you to say pink, but you surprised both your boyfriend and your viewers when, after a pensive few moments, you replied with “Hmm...probably yellow or orange.”

“Can I ask why, darling?” Asmo tilts his head in confusion. I mean, yeah, those colors look good on him, but he doesn’t wear them often so he’s wondering about your thought process. 

“Well, in the human world those colors often represent happiness, optimism, and positivity. You’re always the cheerful presence I need in my life when things get hard, so you have the vibe of those colors.”

Asmo proceeds to burst into tears and hug you, messing up both of your nails and prolonging the stream since you both have to start over. But neither of you particularly care. 

Fun fact: Asmo has the clip that demon made of that portion of the stream saved on his DDD and watches it whenever he feels sad.

Beelzebub:

Beel and you probably go the most viral out of everybody. Like this moment is an entire phenomenon across the Devildom internet. 

It’s a video, or well, multiple videos, taken at the end of a Fangol game that Beel’s team had just won. Everyone is cheering and going crazy, yourself included, and you just really wanted to congratulate your boyfriend.

So, like the rational person you are, you elect to climb up onto the railing of the bleachers and wave to get his attention. 

You were absolutely fine up there, and sat all comfortably motioning Beel over to you. He notices, of course, and jogs over, standing right beneath you and looking up. (Back where you were sitting, Mammon is screeching like a hyena in heat and Belphie, who is laying down, has one eye open to glare at him. The youngest knows Beel would never let you hurt yourself; you’re fine.)

A bunch of assorted demons at the game has started filming while you were sat atop the railing since you were rather noticeable. Therefore, there’s a shit ton of different angles of the adorable events that follow:

You slide off the railing, landing right in Beel’s waiting arms bridal style. You’ve got this brilliant smile on your face as you pull his helmet off. None of the DDDs filming can hear it over the crowd noise, but Beel asks you why you just went through all that trouble and you tell him it’s because you wanted to tell him how proud you are.

Soft boy’s chest puffs up and he smiles this big cheesy smile at you reach up to run a hand through his hair. You feel him practically purr at the contact, and with a laugh you pull him in and plant a big ole smooch on him.

The crowd, at least those of them that can see, scream. Everyone is running high on adrenaline and happy emotions; something that cute causes a ruckus!! When you pull away Beel proceeds to put you on his shoulders and you celebrate with him and the rest of his team.

The videos of you two being adorable go completely viral and there are some threads dedicated to stockpiling every single angle taken of the event. Beel is completely oblivious to the attention but you have a lot of them saved on your DDD.

Belphegor:

If you think Belphegor has any sort of social media presence whatsoever then you are sorely mistaken. (Well okay he actually does run some anonymous troll accounts to meme on Lucifer’s posts but that’s neither here nor there-)

Therefore, naturally, you two go viral off of Asmo’s Devilgram. 

Okay so someone in the obey me tag the other say headcanoned that Belphie will go out of his way to nap in ridiculous places and my brain really took that and RAN WITH IT.

So what happens is that Belphie will fall asleep in the fucking weirdest places. I’m talking on top of the fridge, underneath the dinner table, on top of bookshelves...you name it, he has slept there, no matter the effort it takes to get there in the first place. 

And, ever since you two started dating, you would join him. Sometimes it involved putting yourself at risk of great bodily harm, but the little smile he gave when you he saw you fucking scaling the countertop to reach him made it worth it.

So anyway, since Beel adores the both of you to no end, he takes pictures whenever he sees you two napping together, whether or not it is in a crazy place. He sends these to the family group chat because he thinks they’re adorable.

Over a span of weeks to months, Asmo has built up a stock of images of you and Belphie cuddles up in seemingly impossible places. Once he has about ten or so, he posts a compilation of them to his Devilgram with some cheesy ass caption like “The things we do for love <3″.

They become a meme SO QUICKLY. Like UNBELIEVABLY quickly. 

The picture of you and Belphie sleeping on top of a bookshelf, in particular, is a big hit. Memes abound.

“If my girl doesn’t climb up a bookshelf to cuddle my ass, she don’t love me.” “Get yourself a partner who scales bookshelves just to be with your ass.” Etc etc...Belphie doesn’t give a shit but you laugh at a lot of them so he sees that as a good outcome.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 19: Yugi and the Only Neck Accessory He Didn’t Really Want to Wear

Been busy! Hopefully stuff will open up soon as I’m taking a hiatus on a different quarantine project and will be finishing painting the entire roof of my car this week? One can hope. Sanding the rust off the whole top of a car takes a long time it turns out?

Also, fun Yugioh fact, I recently painted a book cover for an author who is older so she’s never seen the show, and she looked at my tumblr, saw my Duke Devlin fanart and was like “That’s him. That’s my main character. OMG. You captured him perfectly!” and I was like “Ma’am that is Duke Devlin, hence the single dice earring on his lobes there, but we can work with this.” and now a spiritual Duke Devlin is on the cover of a Wuxia-style fantasy trilogy on the Vella. Had to give him a top knot and delete the eyeliner for Wuxia reasons but uh, that’s just Duke.

So long story short, fanart can get you work, don’t even worry about posting that stuff online because most people don’t even know it’s fanart anyway and older ladies freakin love it.

Back in Yugioh, the team was doing their best to navigate a map through the woods and they do about as well as they normally do.

And inside Tristan lifted up the floorboards and was like “I found the only way out, this is it, this is the only way.”

And they ended up in something that has a color scheme I would actually associate with a jungle. Finally. We have finally left California (in order to go to another Hell.)

Youknow, when we went to California, we visited Hell, and when we went to India, we also took a stop at the nearest death destination. There’s just so much death on this show and sometimes I forget because there’s been a ghost in our party for so freakin long it’s been normalized.

(read more death imagery under the cut)

Joey freaks out at a flock of crows and reveals in this episode something I never realized about him before.

Like I’m not always the perfect observer as I’m sure you’ve noticed, but I love that this is canon for probably only this episode, but I will never forget it for the entirety of this series.

You go on hating birds, Joey.

Bro was like “Maybe it’s a deep cut about Mai Valentine because she’s a harpy lady” but eh...pretty sure we spent like an entire season of Joey telling us that Mai was a good experience? Would be incredibly funny if immediately after all of S4, Joey was like “You know what? Screw Mai, guys.”

So my thoughts...it’s probably just a literal bird experience. Like I had a friend who hated deer because once she went to a petting zoo, got some pellets to feed the deer, but her finger was sticking up, so when the deer came over to nibble on some pellets her finger went up it’s nose by accident. She was so disgusted by this event that was entirely her fault, that she brought up how much she hated deer basically whenever we saw one.

So like...maybe Joey fed a bird wrong at a petting zoo. I can see him getting bit by a parrot because he was too Joey Wheeler.

But now that we’re in a graveyard neighborhood, Pharaoh decides to hop out because there’s a lot of ghosts here and he needs to practice socializing with his peers.

So that’s just a Yugioh monster doing the ostrich dance, right? Like this is a meme from like 2010 but on Yugioh in 2003(4?)

Good to see the Ostrich dance here in the land before Vine.

So they pull out their Pokemon to do some antics, Tea looked like she was about to do something useful, and Yami does a yump across time and space to get her as far away from playing (not)cards as quickly as possible and y’all...sure was a position these animators animated.

Holy crap.

And I was going off about that scene last season where they woke up in the same bed like...

...have these two been together this entire time? Like together together?

They’re like...way more comfortable than you’d figure they’d be considering Yugi nearly passes out every time he gets a hug. But Yami just like....How long has this been going on? As long as Joey’s fear of birds?

Like obviously this show would never cover what the hell Yugi may be thinking about this overreaching move here, because we’re gonna gloss right over that, and just run away up a flight of stairs. No one mentions this ever again. Which is mind blowing for an anime to do. I think in most anime I watch, the kids would be like “ahh ahhhh I bumped into a booooob!” like it does for I want to say every other episode of My Hero Academia. But in Yugioh, they saw that low hanging fruit and they were like “we expect a higher level of maturity out of our audience. Now here’s a fleet of ostrich dancing tree monsters with faces for crotches.”

They decided to sprint up this flight of stairs, and it enough of a slope to deter the monsters who are only unbalanced weird legs.

I want us to take a moment and admire this background painting. I can’t unsee the rocks that are all the same size, just piled on top of eachother. Did Alexander the Great just plop rocks here--or was the mountain made up of tons of similarly shaped boulders?

Like there’s a lot of nice bg’s in this arc, don’t get me wrong, but this one...I’m just trying to wrap my head around the logic of it.

At the top, they meet a pantheon, that is immediately blocked by this wall, because if this arc had a tagline, it’s “Yugi gets inconvenienced every 4 seconds.”

Bro was like “Clearly they would have pushed it over if Tea wasn’t slacking off” and like...she is actually. Look at her. Only used one hand? Slacker.

Joey was disappointed he couldn’t push over a massive wall, and the team decided not to analyze how much Joey Wheeler thinks of his own strength and instead fixate on these statues.

Usually in anthro characters they kinda look birdlike but act human. But what about an anthro that’s just a bird? Like human torso, but can turn his head 180 degrees? Yugioh made me ask this question.

And then Joey was like “wait, there may be a solution that isn’t just to use brute strength!”

Youknow it is a bummer that Kaiba couldn’t witness Joey own a dragon while he himself only has a robot jet dragon. Although, the jet is probably faster, stronger and overall...better than this baby dragon. It would have been great for Kaiba to witness Joey under-utilize this dragon and forget he has it for like huge swatches of the episode.

And then Grandpa pulled some body horror out of nowhere.

Wow.

I mean that is really gross.

I guess Grandpa can’t use Blue eyes, because Kaiba ripped it up, Grandpa can’t use Exodia because Weevil tossed it off a boat, and grandpa can’t use the card that’s just a building because...it’s a building.

So instead Grandpa has a bunch of meat and bones that look like something out of Doom. It’s probably from a more obscure Konami property, but I forget which.

I’ve seen Tristan hold back Joey in this hold, first time it’s been Tea.

So much shipping in this episode, it’s wild.

It’s also wild how low my standards are for what could possibly be shipping when it comes to Yugioh because of how freakin tepid all of these characters are, which as I’ve brought up before, I really don’t mind.

So Yugi decides that because Grandpa was folding his arms like one monster and it made a gem light up or something, to just do the video game thing and use the giant ass statues as clues.

Why was this arc not a video game? Like parts of it really feel like it was meant to be.

So Yugi falls down a hole, where the walls cave in like it’s that dumpster in Star Wars but like...it barely phases him.

Also...Yugi might be able to see in the dark. It’s never been brought up but like...the more I think about it...has Yugi ever struggled to see without the lights on?

After Joey disappoints everyone, he confronts death.

And Pharaoh and Yugi decide to solve the puzzle of “how do I get out of this trap dungeon room” which, honestly, is probably what they’re doing every time they hang out in the brain pyramid.

So they summon their mascot monster, and surprisingly the show decided its ability to fly cannot help them out here.

Kuriboh manages to become enough of a doormat to push Yami up to the stone and they end up in a set of weird cuts that ended in this?

Like seriously it was like flashes of light and then they were just...up here like this.

Hey like...

Alexander the Great, my man...

Were you planning to put that stone in the middle of a exhaust vent hoping someone would touch it? Because there’s no way anyone would rationally have done that. You would need to fly to do it. This is the world’s worst DM.

Like Yugioh pulls a lot of fantasy nonsense but this arc is a lot more like a “it’s a kid’s show, just go with it.” arc than most of them. It’s not a bad vibe, necessarily, it’s just not the vibe I’m used to.

So once I witnessed maybe the most boring conversation I’ve ever witnessed about corn (this was on a twitch stream, by the way, a guy was playing an interesting game, and then a guest came on and started talking about corn and plants for 2 hours) and they would not shut up about how all taxonomy is wrong because there are no such thing as trees and how all animals are labelled incorrectly, and then they started comparing it to like all sorts of mushrooms and phytoplankton as you would if you clearly got a little bit high before dumping your corn knowledge on a twitch stream.

Anyway, after that bizarre experience I suffered so I could learn how to play an obscure video game, I think I can safely say, that while I know everyone here thinks a bird can’t be a dog. If you’re a high biologist: a bird is absolutely a dog. Apparently you can just do that if you’re the most boring biologist alive and no one will argue with you because to do that would involve talking to you. We’ll just say a bird is a dog and no one can fight me or I will talk about the corn book that this guest on this twitch chat was thinking about renting from the library about the different types of corn mutations inherent in freakin Indiana. Therefore, Joey’s fear of birds and dogs is same.

So they use Dark Magician to save them from the statues, and Yugi busts into the pantheon again because they got to open this casket before a time limit that I kind of forgot about, tbh.

And inside the casket, is...this thing!

(enjoy this line on the bottom of the image I don’t feel like fixing it)

And you may say to yourself...it looks like it’s just floating in mid-air, that’s silly, and so I want to introduce you to the next panel where you can see that it is...quite literally...just floating in the air like a video game.

and it just slurps itself onto Yugi before he can be like “nonono.”

Wasn’t there some horror movie where you were stuck in some sort of body brace that slowly tortures you (was that Saw?) This has that vibes. Like man that looks uncomfortable to wear over a jacket and two belts and a collar that is another belt.

That and I...I gotta appreciate that Yugi popped his collar while wearing body armor and chunky necklace. What 00′s fashion appreciation right there.

Bit like...this isn’t breathable, right? Like Yugi’s gonna finally take this thing off and his jacket will just be completely soaked in sweat?

Anyway, that’s it for this post, next week we’ll see if Yugi can walk through a doorway in that thing.

Also, I can’t bring up the ostrich dance without sharing the vines of my generation

[maribabyart]

Do you have any Demon Martha headcanons? How do you think her reunion with Mrs. Mayberry (The teacher who paid for her assassination) in hell would go?

 OK YES I HAVE HEADCANONS FOR THIS HERE WE GO --

MARTHA HEADCANONS <3

So, I’m gonna start with her before she died so I can fully get into why every part of her is the way she is as a demon.

Martha is light skinned Latina woman with family coming from Venezuela. Her mother has a much darker skin tone than her, but her father is far more light-skinned, where she gets her complexion from. While she was raised in America, her parents were immigrants. She was born at home, and she didn’t get a birth certificate until she was four, the year before she started schooling.

She has three older brothers. They were very rambunctious with Martha as a child, pulling pranks on her/with her, taking her hunting, etc.

She was raised out on a farm in the middle of a forested area in Kentucky. They raised cattle, sheep, chickens, and horses. Martha’s main job on the farm was to groom/ride horses and feed chickens.

She learned her sharp-shooter skills in a more intense version of something like 4H unique to her area. She was fantastic with a bow and arrow, and even better with her firearms.

Cannibalism was normalized in Martha’s life from a young age. She knew that it must be kept secret from the outside world, and that it wasn’t accepted. However, it wasn’t something she found to be horrid.

Her family -- and their close friends -- came from a long lineage of Satanic cultists that practiced cannibalism to purge any bit of, “soul” remaining in the corpses of their sacrifices. Due to this, Martha had evolved to be able to be immune to the ill side effects of cannibalism, along with the ability to not feel repulsed by the idea of eating human meat.

Her favorite part of the body growing up was the brain, and it still is to this day. She loves the frontal lobe slathered in spices and hot sauce.

She began her cultish killings at age fourteen, when she officially joined the cult of her family’s descent -- Compañerismo de la Fruta Prohibida (Fellowship of the Forbidden Fruit, a refrence to their following of Lucifer)

Martha didn’t love Raphael Peterson, or, “Ralphie”. She was married of to him at age sixteen, when she became a, “Woman” in the cult’s eyes. They were both meant to appear as an ideal couple so that people wouldn’t suspect them, as their parents before them have.

Ralph and Martha always saw each other as friends with benefits.

They moved to Dayton, Tennessee to start their family when they turned eighteen.

In Nashville, Martha started singing to music her husband played in Taverns. Think Dolly Parton style music. She sounded a lot like that.

Their first child was born when Martha was eighteen: Their daughter, Jolene Peterson. Two years later, they had their son, Beau Peterson.

Martha was always really involved with her kids’ school activities, and she was always volunteering to work events, and her kids were in every activity they could be.

She used her physical attractiveness to seduce and kill men.

While sex favorable, Martha is on the aspec -- greysexual (sexual pleasure is irrelevant to her, and she only engages in it to appease her partner generally. She only finds sexual attraction in people while in the act.) Because of this fact, Martha only has affairs for the sake of gaining trust to bring the men home so they can be killed and eaten.

When Martha was shot, the community villainized Mrs. Mayberry because the town darling, Martha Jane Nunez Robles-Peterson, would NEVER cheat, right? The situation was misread: Martha was just talking to Jarold Mayberry that night about t-ball-related things, right? He WAS the the little league captain for her 6-year-old-son’s league, wasn’t he?

Martha was gifted millions by the community, and people were insanely supportive of her. They wanted the sweet Martha they, “knew” to get better soon. They loved her so -- such a darling woman!

Her music became more well known, and soon, Martha was all over TV. Her big musical break came from when she auditioned for American Idol and made it. Her sob-story propelled her, and she eventually won.

Martha was a hero to everyone around her -- surviving a traumatic event that was uncalled for, while also being so damn chipper and kind.

Hell, did you guys see the background in one of those scenes?! Martha was canonly proclaimed a SAINT! People loved her that much.

She used the public trust to lure in more victims and never be suspected.

Martha was 28 when she died. Ralphie was 28 as well. Jolene was 10, and Beau was 8.

Ralphie managed to survive the explosion, albeit he was completely paralyzed, and the two children went to heaven. Ralphie repented during his last month alive, and confessed to his crimes. He was sent to heaven as well.

Martha and the children were declared to have died in a bear attack, as Compañerismo de la Fruta Prohibida covered up their true demise with ease.

People were heart broken -- Martha’s music was used in sad collages on Youtube, Tik Toks had Martha’s face in them for memorials.

No one ever realized her crimes.

Now! As a demon....

In hell, Martha picked up the alias Hero -- it’s what she was in life, right? I’ll be calling her Hero from now on.

Hero is both different and similar to how she was when she was alive. She’s still the got her kind-hearted, southern mama vibe going for her: She tends to be able to fit into any demonic crowd well, either by attractiveness or by sheer, overwhelming allure -- she’s a very magnetic personality.

As far as powers go, Hero’s are mostly related to firearms. She’s acquired these powers through deal making and soul dealing, as most demons do. Her charming aura very quickly lure people into thinking she’s naive or really just being honest with them.

Her nails can peel back to allow her to shoot from, “finger guns”. Each finger is a different gun, besides her middle and index fingers. They are both shotguns. Together, they make a double barrel shotgun.

When in full demonic form, Hero’s bandages become sentient. They peel away from her wound, revealing a minigun like weapon in the hole in her head. This can rapid fire while the bandages can grab onto things or hoist Hero up. She can make this last for five minutes -- ten at the longest -- before she gives out to sheer exhaustion and needs to eat demon meat to replenish herself.

Within her first week in hell, she was known to be powerful. Not quite an overlord, but powerful enough to hang around overlords. 

She hit overlord status three months later, during the terf war seen in Hazbin Hotel’s pilot: She took several areas of land, and was seen to have several lesser demons flocking to be on her good side.

Hero used her land to build up a bar and grill that serves strictly demon meat and blood, where demons can play music and dance. It’s like a fucked up country dinner. It’s an insanely popular addition to Cannibal Colony, where she lives.

The place is called La Cocina de la Calle Kuru (The Kuru Street Kitchen)

Hero REALLY wants to get her hands on exterminator tools, but she’s not really a fan of black market deals -- it’s too “trashy” for her.

Hero knows Alastor pretty well, as he’s came in for meat and to watch the music. They’ve had pretty decent conversations while she was on break, seeing as they were both influential  southern, cannibalistic serial killers. It’s a running gag between them where they jokingly talk about who was more iconic -- “I bet I took out more belles in a lifetime than you could in your entire afterlife!” “Well hon, at least I could eat the brains without gettin’ Kuru!”

She talks to Rosie a lot about business, and has met Niffty and Mimzy before. (Al hooked a bitch up with some friends lmao)

She REALLY likes Mimzy. She reminds her of Ralphie, and they became super fast friends. 

Vox and Hero have a confusing sort of friendship, as neither really wants to be seen with the other -- In his case, because she’s much lower on the overlord spectrum than him, and in her case, because she’s no stranger to Alastor and Vox’s hatred for one another. However, she often finds herself consoling Vox on sleepless nights after closing up the bar, trying to convince him that Valentino is NOT worth his time. Beyond that and him occasionally paying her back in tech at random hours of the morning, they don’t talk often.

Hero LOVES dancing! Like, a lot.

She’s seen Charlie’s ad for the Happy Hotel. Her and Mimzy watched it, and they both thought it was the stupidest damn thing they’d ever seen. However, Hero said she was happy Charlie got up there, because she was just, “Cute as a button, that lil’ sweatpea was!”

Hero’s best friends are Mimzy and an unnamed demon who specializes in black market, extermination tool selling (the one seen in in Addict -- Cherri Bomb’s former lover).

These two people, and these two people alone, can call her “Martha”

Hero cooks whenever she’s stressed. She also adores sewing and binging soap operas and reality shows on Voxflix.

Hero’s Instagram would be, “HeroicMelodies” in reference to her music career and name.

Hero gets hit on A LOT, and she despises it. She doesn’t need to seduce people anymore to get away with murder, and she doesn’t want to. She dresses the way she does because she LIKES that clothing. People can fuck off.

The reason Hero is white and pink is to show how innocent she looks. Her pitch-black eyes show her dark soul.

Hero sings in Spanish to herself when cleaning up.

Sometimes, Hero and Rosie spend holidays going around with ground demon meat to throw to the hell crows and other critters. They find it peaceful.

Hero, shockingly, holds no hatred for I.M.P., and commonly jokes about how the I.M.P.’s, “Did her a favor” by sending her somewhere she can actually be her. She has no idea who called for the hit, though. 

Hero finds Blitzo’s Instagram posts being poorly spelled to be, “Damn near precious”.

She thinks he’s a teenager, and probably would think it less adorable if she knew he was a grown man with a grown kid.

Hero doesn’t care about Mrs. Mayberry at all. Like, at all. She honestly assumes the woman is in heaven. She knew Mayberry wasn’t bad -- she probably wouldn’t care if she was in hell, though. Oh well. Sucks to suck, bitch.

Husk frequents La Cocina de la Calle Kuru to drink and engage in the gambling scene. Hero finds him trashy, but can’t say she hates him. She finds him funny as hell, and enjoys the business. Just not someone she’d personally hang out with.

[bts-babyjoonie]

Potion Witch- Namkook AU CH1

Pairing: Namjoon X Jungkook

Tags:  M for mature, Witch Jungkook x Witch Namjoon, fluff, clumsy Namjoon, eventual smut

Word count: 1,676

Summary: Namjoon is a potion making witch. He's also very clumsy and prone to making mistakes. Probably not the best thing when your job is to handle delicate substances. Every two weeks Namjoon goes into town with a wagon full of his potions. He delivers them to his buddy and closest business partner Jungkook. Lately, Jungkook has been having trouble falling asleep so he turns to Namjoon to make him a sleep remedy. Of course, Namjoon agrees and makes it for him, but he accidentally mixes up the potions and gives Jungkook the wrong one. The next thing he knew, Jungkook was a bunny.

 He’s done it now hasn't he….

Namjoon was a clumsy witch. Which was not something to aw at considering the fact he was a potion maker. It was a very delicate process and a long-limbed creature such as himself would need to be extra cautious.

Namjoon made his potions in his own cabin home located in an isolated part of the dark forest. The human villages were terrified of what horrible things lay imbibed deep, but as a witch, Namjoon did not mind. When his potions were ready he would stack them up on a wagon and make a trip to town where his good witch friend Jungkook lived. None of the humans there knew Jungkook was a witch of course. He owned a hidden magic shop in the middle of the large town. It was hidden from all non-magic users.

Aside from being close friends, Namjoon and Jungkook were also great business partners. The reason for his weekly trip to town was to bring Jungkook the potions he ordered. Jungkook would tell him what he needed and Namjoon would go home and conjure up a batch. All for a price of course.

One calm morning, a day before Namjoons bi-weekly trip to town, a crow landed on his bedroom window. The loud caw startled him awake and he frantically turned his head towards the sound. It was the ebony bird perched on the window sill with a letter between its beak. Namjoon sighed in relief. It was just a messenger crow. Jungkook had most likely sent it to him. Perhaps he needed another potion added to tomorrow's delivery. He got out of his cozy bed and scuttled over to his window. Namjoon tried his best to gently open it, but the house was so old that it got stuck not even halfway. He tugged on it a bit harder and the window rolled up so quickly that it crashed into the top startling the poor crow.

“O-oh I’m so sorry little birdie, forgive me”, Namjoon apologized. The crow seemed annoyed but it did not mind him. The dark bird let the letter fall into the large palms of Namjoon's hands and flew away. Namjoon sighed, he didn't get to feed the crow the seeds he had been storing from the times he went foraging. He opened up the letter that was sealed with a red wax stamp and on it was a message from Jungkook.

Dear Joon,

I apologize for getting this to you so late but I have a request to make.

I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately and I was wondering if you

could brew me a sleep potion. It would be much obliged and I’ll make sure

To pay you a good sum as always.

Sincerely, Jungkook.

Namjoon did not mind at all. Jungkook was the first person to make him feel welcome in the area and besides, he thought the younger witch was cute.

Since he didn't have anything else to do for the day he got started on Jungkook's request. He added dry lavender, chamomile flowers, oats, and a couple of other ingredients into the boiling pot. Before long it was done; so he bottled it and placed it beside tomorrow's delivery. He wasn’t paying much attention when he set the bottle down to another one of a similar hue. The next morning Namjoon rounded up all the bottles and carefully put them in crates. He loaded the crates onto his wagon and walked over to his horse to feed him an apple before leaving. The trip to town was about 30 minutes and it wasn't long before Namjoon had arrived at the magic shop. Jungkook heard the sound of the wagon wheels approaching so he left the shop to go and help Namjoon out.

“Morning Joon, you got what I asked for?”, Jungkook asked. “Yes I sure do, let me take these crates inside and I'll hand it to you then”. Namjoon swung his leg over the horse's body and hopped down onto the cobblestone road. Jungkook grabbed one of the wooden crates in the back and Namjoon grabbed the other. The door to the shop was closed but with just a wave of Jungkook's index finger, it slowly crept open. Inside the store were walls and walls filled with interesting Knick knacks, magical books, and of course potions of many colors. Green ivy grew in the cracks and crevices of the stone wall and spread over some of the shelves. Small objects like teacups and paper cranes floated in the air and led up the stairs to the area where the more powerful and dangerous items were stored.

Namjoon always stared in awe every time he entered the store. The vibe of it all was something else. “You can set those on that table, I’ll organize them soon”, Jungkook suddenly spoke, interrupting the silence. Namjoon almost dropped the crates. He was always a bit jittery when it came to Jungkook.

He set the crates on the wooden table. Usually, it would carry items for sale but today it was empty. Namjoon set the crate of potions onto the table next to where Jungkooks placed his. Jungkook yawned loudly and it reminded Namjoon of the bottle he needed to give him. He went over to the crate and grabbed the potion with the dark blue hue.

“Here Jungkook, I have the remedy to your sleeping problems”, Namjoon said while handing the bottle over to him. He smiled upon receiving it and Namjoon’s heart swelled at the sight.

“Oh, by the way, you should probably take this with some tea. I made it pretty potent so you could have some leftover for other times. All you have to do is add four drops into a cup of tea and tonight you will have a restful slumber”, Namjoon explained.

“Then… would you like to have a cup of tea with me Namjoon?”.

Namjoon nodded with a shy smile, his dimples showing on his cheeks.

“Alright follow me into the back, we can have our tea in my kitchen”.

Namjoon followed Jungkook behind the register and into a room hidden by a curtain of vines.

Inside was a daint little kitchen. The cabinets were a sage green color and the floor was a dark cedar wood just like in the shop.

“Please, take a seat at the table. I’ll go make the tea. Would you like mint or black?”, Jungkook asked. “Mint would be nice”, Namjoon said softly. Jungkook smiled and went over to the ceramic jar where he kept his mint tea. Namjoon looked to the corner of the room where the round table was. There were only two chairs but it was perfect. Namjoon took a seat and a couple of minutes later Jungkook came over with the tea. He placed the blue and white teacup in front of Namjoon and put some biscuits in the middle of the table.

“I have your payment in my room I’ll go and get it real quick”, said Jungkook already turning his body to head into the other room.

“Wait!”, said Namjoon. “You don’t have to pay me. It’s not like you’ll be selling it to others so you can think of it as a favor”, he grinned. Jungkook stared at namjoons crescent moon eyes and softly smiled.

“Are you sure Joon? I really don’t mind paying you for this”.

“Yes I’m sure, just take it as a gift”.

Jungkook sat down at the table with Namjoon and pulled out the sleeping potion. He unscrewed the top and held it over his teacup letting exactly four drops fall in. Jungkook looked at Namjoon for reassurance and he urged him on. He brought the teacup up towards his face and placed his soft rosy lips onto the edge of the cup. He took a few sips and placed the cup back down.

“Wow, N-namjoon it’s a little *ahem* s-spicy isn’t it?”. Jungkook coughed from the discomfort he felt in his throat.

“S-spicy? It shouldn’t be spicy”, Namjoon said concern laced in his voice.

Blue smoke started emitting from Jungkook’s body and the boys grew more and more worried by the second.

“Um, Joon what the hell is going on right now?! What did you put in this?”, Jungkook gasped. It was getting harder to breathe. It felt as if his body was beginning to fold into itself.

“I p-put in all the ingredients a sleep potion needed! I don’t know w-why it’s reacting this way!”

“Well think!”, Jungkook yelped.

Namjoon put his brain to work for a moment trying to remember if he had added another ingredient that could’ve caused this reaction when all of a sudden realization dawned upon him. That’s not a sleep potion that a transfiguration potion! His careless self gave Jungkook the wrong potion!

“O-okay don’t freak out Jungkook I know what’s happening right now”, Namjoon reassured the younger boy.

“Don’t freak out?!  IM FREAKING OUT NAMJOON”.

The smoke was getting thicker and it seemed like Jungkook was getting smaller. Namjoon knew what was happening. This was a transfiguration potion Jungkook had asked for that turns the user into their spirit animal. The problem is Namjoon made the potion extra strong, as per request. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get his friend out of this dilemma. God he should really stop going off of the colors of potions to identify them. Sometimes he had too much faith in himself.

The smoke stopped rising and as it dissipated Jungkook was nowhere to be seen.

“Umm, Jungkook? Where’d you go?”, Namjoon called.

“I’m on the stupid chair”, said a small high pitched voice.

Namjoon stepped away from his seat and looked under the table only to see a small bunny huddled where Jungkook had previously been sitting. He was completely covered in black fur and his eyes had that familiar dark shine.

Jungkook had turned into a bunny.

“I’ve done it now”, whispered Namjoon.

a/n: First fic on Tumblr woohoo! Not sure how many chapters there will be but we’ll see I guess :D.

[inkabelledesigns]

Fun with the BATIM Sims (Mermaid Edition!)

So you’re about to get a huge influx of nutcracker content from me, since it’s that time of year and how can I not celebrate. So before I drag you into nutcracker hell and Christmas vibes, let’s take a minute to relax, unwind, and indulge in the chaos that is putting my BATIM cast into the Sims 4.

Surprise! If you’re not familiar with my work here in the Bendyverse, I have two public AUs (and a few private ones). The first is Searching the Depths, a very sequel-oriented plot where Joey is onto phase two now that he has his former employees trapped in the studio. The second is Kraken’s Labyrinth, where the studio crew is now a colorful cast of merfolk (save for Susie and a few other humans), and Henry is hiding on the surface from the King of Atlantis. I just started playing with my Depths cast last night (Bella, Eliza, Bendy as a cat, Joey, and Belphene), but I then made Henry’s immediate family for Kraken (Eliza, himself, Linda, and their husky, Boris). So that’s who we’re mostly gonna focus on today.

It’s no secret that I’ve struggled with designing my cast for a while, but dear gosh has Henry given me a run for my money. I think this design is the first time I’ve had my own that feels right (because let’s be real, @doberart​‘s Henry lives in my head rent free as what I imagine in canon, he’s just too perfect). But then I realized something cursed/blessed when I gave him glasses.

Not only does he have cheesy dad vibes, but he also has Milo Thatch vibes, the main protagonist from my favorite non-musical Disney movie, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. God dammit, I channeled the nerd from 1914, no wonder I find him charming! X’’D

Eliza also got glasses. I never imagined her with them before, but since I made her as a mermaid rather than a spellcaster this time, I had to forgo the unnatural orange eyes, and this was what made her face look right. It’s kind of a thing across my AUs that Henry and his daughter have the same supernatural looking orange eyes, they’re like amber almost.

Linda on the other hand, oh man, I really had no idea what to do for her. Definitely some wrinkles and glasses, I think it gives her a studious scientist look, which makes sense since she’s a marine biologist in this world (aka, not a mermaid like her husband). The hair was also key. I wanted short and wavy, but not necessarily the classic curls the 40s/50s are known for.

And Boris. Oh my gosh, Boris. I think I captured his essence pretty well. He’s got the traits of lazy, glutton, and loyal, and I think that sums it up decently. He’s a good boy though, lots of affection to be given.

But now for the fun stuff: getting to live out our wildest fantasies for these characters! Exhibit A: 

Henry finally gets to sleep. Truly the most important fantasy from BATIM. 

And they all get to enjoy each other’s company. Henry hasn’t lost his art, Linda’s happy everyone is together, and Eliza is as curious as ever.

She takes after both of her parents. Very smart, but also very creative.

Just seeing Henry in a lifestyle that lets him spend time with his family is really wholesome, and I appreciate the fact that I can enjoy this now. It makes a part of my heart feel very nice. 

And then a vampire showed up. Because it’s the sims. X’’’D He didn’t hurt anyone, but I may need to hang some garlic up.

Also, this right here is because of Linda, and it makes me so gosh darn happy. 

Just bless Henry man. Bless him. But he’s not the only one with a tail that I made. I’ll show you the other one in another post very soon.~

I didn’t take as many screenshots for Depths, since I’m still making their house, but Belphene and Bendy seem to be getting along well. There’s no demons in Sims, so I made her a vampire, and holy heck, I can absolutely see why @startistdoodles​ did that for Hyde. Holy freaking crow, they’re fun to play with! I haven’t figured out how to feed her other than drinking from another sim, so I may have been a butt and had her feed off of Joey. ^^’’’’ He then went to bed while she ran off to troll the internet. Giuseppe kind of deserves it for being a butt, and it’s not unlike her slowly sipping on his soul like a juice box in canon, but still, I feel very guilty that I’m enjoying it. XD Besides that, Bella is doing a lot of readings and Joey likes to play darts. Since I haven’t finished their house, I’m considering making parts of the downstairs look like Joey’s canon apartment, while having upstairs be whatever, but I’m still working that out. What do you think? 

I also should mention that I foolishly (or maybe not so) made these two households on the same save file, so there’s a possibility that they could run into each other, say if I, sent them on vacation, so that’s something to consider. I could also be a dork and send them to survive in Star Wars, the possibilities really are endless here. I like being able to share and talk about this stuff, so thank you guys for indulging me. I hope I can do this every now and again, it’s kinda fun.

[mst3kproject]

815: Agent for HARM

I fear I am among the minority who really don’t find the host segments in this episode funny.  They’re kind of tedious and frustrating, really – though I do smile at Crow being a character witness – and when the time came to re-watch the episode in preparation for this review, I actually skipped them and got straight to the movie. It’s pretty drab, too.

Dr. Jan Stefanik defects from… somewhere or other, and moves to California to do… some kind of research.  When his assistant Henry suddenly dissolves into a mess of green goo, spy organization HARM decides Stefanik needs a full investigation and sends Agent Adam Chance, a guy who dresses like Mr. Rogers and still manages to sleep with every woman he meets. Stefanik explains to Chance that his country has new and terrible tool of destruction: an alien Spore that reproduces by feeding on human flesh.  That’s right, they’ve weaponized the space mummy fungus from Being from Another Planet!  The movies are coming together into a single, mud-clear, incoherent whole, again!

Y’know, Secret Agent Super Dragon and Danger!! Death Ray weren’t very good, but they could legitimately claim to globe-trotting adventures.  Super Dragon took us to Amsterdam, and Death Ray at least mentioned Rome and Barcelona.  In Agent for HARM we see one beach and a motel in Mexico.  The whole movie seems to be in pastels, which aren’t really urgent colours, and something about the pacing is off.  No matter what the movie tries to tell us, it just never feels like we’re in any sort of a hurry.

It’s not without legitimate entertainment value.  The music’s not bad – it isn’t totally forgettable, but also not as obnoxiously memorable as the theme from Danger!! Death Ray.  The Spore itself is a scary idea and the makeup that represents it is actually pretty good.  I especially like the impression you get that there’s a dark, hollow cavity underneath the foaming fungus, as if the victim’s face is about to collapse.  The improbably complete eyeball in Dr. Stefanik’s sample is entertainingly gross, and I like the glimpse of his lab animals that hint at what his work actually entails.

I’m sure the thing everybody remembers best about Agent for HARM, though, is Dr. Stefanik’s niece Ava. She’s cute and blonde and spends most of the movie running around in tiny little bikinis, and she works for the bad guys because of course she fucking does.  This plot point is so obvious to anybody who’s ever seen a movie in their lives that I’m not sure why the writers bothered establishing it.  The beautiful woman in a spy movie is always working for the bad guys.

I really would have liked to see way more of the relationship between Stefanik and Ava.  Actually seeing them interact at any length might have helped to dispense with the creepy vibe we get from their age gap, her habit of wandering around in nothing but a tiny swimsuit, and Stefanik’s wistful commentary on how close they’ve become.  It’s easy to see why Mike and the bots made some jokes about incest.  Some character development here might also have suggested why Stefanik trusts her, when he surely must have suspected her of spying when she first showed up.  The interactions we see make her look so damn suspicious that if she’d turned out to be genuine, Dr. Stefanik’s actual niece who really does want to help him, it would have been a shocking twist!

What would not have been a shocking twist would be if she turned out to be a robot.  Barbara Bouchet wears so much makeup she looks like she’s made of plastic (or maybe that’s just her face – she looked exactly the same as Moneypenny in Casino Royale and Maria in Black Belly of the Tarantula… man, I’ve seen a lot of terrible movies) and for some reason her hair looks fake.  She moves kind of robotically, too, and the first time I watched the movie I was thinking about the comparison well before Chance declares ‘she’s a machine’.  He may have been more right than he knew.

What’s somewhat mysterious is when, exactly, Chance figured out Ava was a spy.  His drunken boss asks him, but doesn’t receive a straight answer, and when you watch the movie a second time you can’t help but try to figure it out.  Was it when she blatantly tried to distract him by inviting him to go swimming with her, and he said you’re not fooling anyone, Angel?  But if so, why does he later save her when the guy who looks like Prince threatens her, if he already knew it was a ruse?  Is it so she wouldn’t know that he knew?  Was it when he realized the gun she’d given him wasn’t loaded?

I actually lean towards the latter incident as the moment of revelation, because it’s the one he references when he has her arrested. That also explains why he doesn’t give his boss a straight answer – he’s ashamed it took him that long.

The love story in this movie isn’t between Chance and Ava – or Chance and Karate Girl, or Chance and Beehive Secretary – anyway.  It’s the bromance between Chance and Dr. Stefanik.

The two of them start off deeply suspicious of each other. Chance has been sent to keep an eye on Stefanik and he’s quite worried that the scientist may be some kind of spy himself.  Chance threatens him with both death and deportation.  Stefanik, meanwhile, is a man whose main flaw is that he trusts too easily, and he has learned the hard lesson that people who deal in the fate of nations do not make good friends.  He fears the Americans may try to use Spore as a weapon just as his own people did.  The one person he trusts is Ava, and only because she’s family – and boy, did that backfire on him – and even she is not allowed full access to his work on an antidote.

By the end of the movie, Chance and Stefanik come to trust each other totally, and are good friends to such a degree that their separation, reunion, and the reveal of Stefanik’s death plays out like a romantic tragedy.  The captured Stefanik stares at the horizon, waiting for Chance to come for him.  When they reunite, Chance wants to touch Stefanik despite knowing that the stuff in the bags, with which Stefanik is now covered, is deadly.  When told Stefanik is dead, Chance denies it over and over until the proof is staring him in the face.  If one or other of them were a woman, nobody would question that any of this is meant to be romantic, and they’re certainly closer in age than either of these gray-haired men is to twenty-two-year-old Ava.

This is two episodes in a row where I’ve talked about the homosexual undertones.  Do I just have my tumblr goggles on, or are the movies actually that gay?

A certain number of things about this film become a little clearer when you know that it, like Stranded in Space, was intended as a pilot for a TV series.  That’s why there’s not much for locations – they had to keep the budget down so as not to scare the investors.  That’s why they bring up the cancelled date with the Beehive Secretary – perhaps she was supposed to be a regular love interest.  It explains why not just the villains but the good guy of this particular story – Stefanik – must be dead at the end, because the main character can’t form long-lasting attachments that might carry into future episodes when the actors are guest stars who might not be able to come back. Maybe that’s also why Stefanik’s antidote to the fungus also didn’t work, because they were going to use Spore itself as an ongoing plot point.

Spore is an interesting and scary choice of weapon, probably the most interesting thing in the movie, and it’s possibly a metaphor for how communism was perceived in the 50’s and 60’s – as a disease that consumed societies from the inside.  We saw an example of this in It Conquered the World, when Beulah implanted mind control devices in its victims, infecting them with its poisonous view of progress.  The people in Stranded in Space thought Stryker was the one with the thought disease, here to infect their planet.  Now here in Agent for HARM, we have Spore, which enters the human body and turns it into something unthinking and alien, just as Beulah did.  Also like Beulah’s victims, who had to be killed because they could not be cured, once it has started there is no way to stop it.

Ava the ‘machine’ and the compassionless bad guy Malko also fit into this way of thinking.  Their politics have transformed them into things as unthinking and alien as the fungus. When Chance writes the words Jan Stefanik, Human Being on the toe tag, he is emphasizing that Stefanik had succumbed to a disease of the body but not to this disease of the mind.  Yet Chance’s boss reminds him, and Chance agrees, that they, too, are machines – Chance has, after all, coldly murdered several of Malko’s henchmen.  In order to fight these unfeeling enemies, he has had to cultivate a lack of feeling in himself.  Perhaps he emphasizes Stefanik’s humanity partly because he doesn’t feel quite human anymore.

Agent for HARM is okay, but it’s not great.  There’s some interesting ideas in it, under-used, and a number of those glamorous secret agent tropes, over-used.  It certainly doesn’t come near toppling Danger!! Death Ray as MST3K’s best secret agent movie – it’s just too forgettable.

[dontcheckthis-blog]

Blood by Blood [4] EXO AU!

Vampire!AU

Summary: Huáng Jié (黃 杰) is a human turned vampire by a Pureblood. After that incident, she is presumed dead since three days. When she wakes up, she is sucked into a new yet darker world to which she never wanted a part in.

Warnings: Blood, gore, mature content, dark subjects, if you are disturbed by such then do not read this.

(Note: This is my first EXO fanfic and my writing is not good but i aim to improve it as much as i can and i hope you like it. You can send me feedbacks or ideas if you’d like, don’t be afraid to do so. I only own my OC and the story, not EXO. (obviously, mate))

Part 3 - Part 5

__________

Pureblood. The first of many.

The first of all vampires. Purebloods. The most powerful. The most dangerous of all in the vampire world. The strongest. You can’t escape from them. Even if you tried, you will be killed and drained dry.

People say that there are only few Purebloods existing today. It is not known so much about them. As they are never really seen or tracked. You can’t find them, unless they find you. When you are, you’re too late. You won’t live to see the next day. Especially on the Red Moon.

————

Jie hears his voice in her head. The first of many.

“What exactly….is….a Pureblood?” She asks, a bit concerned and anxious. Jongdae chuckles a bit, leaning his head against his hand. “Curious now, are we?” He smiles and he closes his eyes for quite a long time before opening them again.

“Hmm…where do we start? The Purebloods have been around for quite a long time, you see.” He begins.

“For centuries, they’ve been here. Living among us and such. We can’t obviously tell who is a Pureblood or a vampire because they look like us. Like you. Like everyone else out there.” Jongdae explains as he turns to his maker, Minseok. Signalling him to continue.

“They are the first vampires to have ever lived and the most powerful. You can’t kill us. You can’t even if you tried. We’re difficult to catch. We are the only ones who can turn people into one of us.” Minseok leans back to his chair.

“The man that was with you in that room and the one who transformed you, Zhang Yixing. He’s a Pureblood.” Her eyes widened slightly, gulping. “And as Jongdae mentioned before, I am one as well.”

“When you’re bitten by a Pureblood, you get their traits. The thirst. The impossibility of getting killed. Their powers. Their hightened senses and so many more. But you also become their feeder. They can’t feed from anything or anyone else. Only from the one they turned.” Minseok looks to Jongdae as he explains this category.

“My case with Jongdae, because I turned him, he is my feeder. I feed from him.” Then he looks back to Jie. “And in your case, you are the feeder of Yixing.” And with that, Jie’s breathing is increased. She never wanted it. This life. The life of being a vampire. A monster.

“You’re not the first one who never wanted this, second one actually.” Jongdae cuts in, tapping his fingers on the table.

“What do you mean?” She questions, even more nervous than before. “Well, we have a bitten human, just like you. Youngest of all of us. Oh Sehun. He’s the first one. All the others, including me wanted to be turned. But he was turned by accident, was supposed to be a food source. Just like you.” He explains.

So, she is the second one. Who was forced into this lifestyle. Of a monster. But the others. They wanted to be a part of this. They wanted to be in this. They wanted to be turned into one of them. And there could be a million reasons as to why they wanted to be in it.

Jie stands away from the table. Her breathing, she tries to calm herself. She looks at both of them. She wanted out of this. And she needed to get out. But the wolves.

“You can’t leave even if you tried.” Minseok says, reading her mind. “The wolves will get to you and rip you apart. You won’t die, though but you will suffer unbearable pain. Trust me, it’s not worth it.” Jongdae adds in as he plays with the empty, stained glass.

Jie didn’t care. The wolves. They said she was bitten by a Pureblood, right? And that she would their senses, right? So, she could be able to surpass and break them. She should be able to. She isn’t like before. She is different now. She is dead. And reborn as a monster. To which she never expected.

“Huh, i really…don’t…I don’t give a shit…I never wanted this..I never expected this….and I want…out of this.” She mutters as she begins to run once again.

You can’t leave, you’re already marked

She didn’t listen and she didn’t turn back. Fuck all of it. She runs for her life and when she comes across two big doors, she stops in her tracks. Was this the way out? Or to another dark room? Could it be a trap? But none the less, she opens it. Taking the risk and pulling the handles as hard as she can.

It was a quiet opening and she is lucky for that. She opens it to be able to fit through and she could feel the fresh air hitting her. The red moon. Shining ever so bright in the night. Few birds flying through the trees. The faint sounds of the crows flying.

She expected a large gate filled with thorns to be covering the whole place but there wasn’t. Maybe that was just in the stories, or movies. It was an open place. You could easily just get out of there. Or so, she thought.

She did not sprint this time. Instead, she walked. Yes, she knows that she should be running but even if she did, she knew that it would be pointless. Even so, she wanted to leave. But trying to rush it, everything would happen fast. And she wouldn’t be able to understand why.

To be honest, the place is pristine. Yet dark vibe around it. She starts to jog and following the pathway. She tries to avoid making loud noises with her steps, being careful.

Until a sweet smell hits her. She knew all too well. Blood. It could be a trap. And she didn’t want to lured by that. But as she runs a bit further, the smell becomes clearer and clearer. It was right where she was going. She stops and takes one step back.

Since the beginning, taking risks was always her thing. She knew the consequences of what could happen, the possibilities and the outcome of it. But she always went against it. She knew that it wasn’t wise to do so but, to her, it’s always been ‘if it’s possible to do it, then feel free to do so but anything that comes out of it, it will be in your hands’. She always stuck with it.

They said that I won’t die, let’s test that then. If it does happen, so be it.

She begins to sprint then. She isn’t intending to follow the smell but it seems it was just in the same way and it could be her end or the beginning of her suffering. The wolves. It was in her mind. But she still took it.

The forest was dark. You couldn’t see through so well but thankfully, because she is a human turned vampire now, the night vision has set in. And it made it even easier for her. Dodging a few branches here and there, the twigs on the ground snapping from her every step and the dried leaves cracking.

The Red Moon still clear in the night. Yet, it was more than shining. She runs deeper and deeper into the woods, not even caring about the wolves anymore. But one careless step made her fall to the hole.

As she lands to the ground, she didn’t stand up quickly. The fatigue overcoming her. But she knew. She needed get up now. So, she pushed herself up. Lifting herself off the ground only to be met by a man.

He was stained with fresh blood. And he was feeding. His eyes were glowing. The crimson liquid trickling down from his mouth to his chin and the fangs potruding from his canine teeth. Vampire like her. She stays still as she scans him. She had a feeling. A threat. Worse, he was feeding.

She wasn’t afraid, though she knew she should be. Maybe because there wasn’t anything to be afraid anymore. Pointless, now huh? She waits for the man to make a move but he didn’t. Instead she hears him.

Why are you here?

Jie does not answer directly, struggling to stand up as she looks at him in the eyes. Well, of course she was trying to escape but it seems that it won’t be easy. Of course, it wasn’t easy from the very beginning and she knew that.

The man scoffs as he reads her mind. He used to think the same thing as her, but it really was true. You can’t leave and you never will be able to when you were marked. Especially by a Pureblood.

You can’t leave. Not if you were marked.

Jie clenches her fists as soon as she heard him say that, making a ‘tch’ sound from her mouth. “Really? Have you ever tried to? Or are you one of the pure ones?” She questions.

He gives her a smirk. “Huh, funny you should say that. Trust me, I’ve tried lots of times. Even ended up getting ripped by the wolves.” He says, wiping his chin clean with the back of his hand only ending up in smearing the blood all over.

She realizes. Is this the one? The one like her? Were you….turned…accidentally?

Yeah. I’m guessing the same thing with you?

Yes. Meant to be a food source, killed. But came back again.

Huh. Nice to know that there’s someone like me now, joining the family

Jie sighs as she begins to almost lose hope to leave this secretive place. Maybe it was really true. “So, you have tried to escape, it’s really impossible, huh?” She questions him as she sits on the ground, leaning onto to a tree.

He looks at her. “I’ve tried a million times, but never succeeded on any of it.”

__________

[drink-n-watch]

  It might actually finally truly be summer here. I get paid by the adverb! But it really is a rather nice weekend. Sunny and bright but not too hot. The type of weekend that makes you want to just be lazy and not do a ton of paperwork. I have a lot of paperwork to do… I have been putting it off. But I absolutely must get this review out first. Right? Right! How are you doing Crow? Everything good for you?

  I am doing mostly fine. It’s getting very summerly here (we’re splitting the adverb bounty, right?). Did you know it takes a week and a half to get the replacement valve that feeds refrigerant into my air conditioner? I just learned that myself. It arrives Thursday. The joys of homeownership…

We are now at episode 8 and going into the final arc. Unless My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Is planning on getting another season, we should be starting off the denouement right about now. Any thoughts before we get started?

I’m really curious to see what you thought about this one. I had fewer notes, but it’s taking a lot longer to process. And poor, poor Mary! I’m glad Maria was… Well, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves…

Because the school year is nearing the end, Catarina is studying for her exams but she soon decides to take a little break and change things up, by doing some gardening. I was always fairly good at studying and absolutely horrific at gardening. I’m just a notorious plant mass murderer. It was a very upside down notion for me to have Catarina actually choose shovels over books. Like my brain had to adjust.

I grew up on a farm, so I had to make sure fields of plants lived or we had no income. It wasn’t easy, I can tell you! Fortunately, I just had to plow, disc, and cultivate. More experienced folks applied the nitrogen and other dangerous chemicals. Then the plants would not have been the only ones in danger!

In the garden, she runs into Alan and spying on them s from the school windows, Mary gets the wrong idea gets very worried and decides to go interrupt them. 

She’s my favorite. I think that’s why I felt so sorry for her even through the after credits scene!

At this point we get the OP. I’m not sure if I’ve ever gotten a chance to mention it but I really like the opening song, for what it is. It’s quite bouncy and puts me in a good mood whenever I hear it. I think it really suits the series quite well. The visuals are fine but not that interesting all things considered, but when you pair them with the music, everything seems to come together so well. It’s sort of a nothing special really but solide and fun OP. 

It’s a very uplifting song. Apparently, the artist is named angela, and Crunchyroll did a writeup on her. Very interesting video, by the way!

Fortunately for Mary, Catarina was in fact just going in, and the two meet up right away and go to the student council room to study for a bit. I quite like the squiggly writing they use. It looks a bit like drunken sanskrit. Sirius is there and they exchange a few words. Do you like his voice actor?

You know, I didn’t really give his VA any thought until this episode — and I thought that he’d done a particularly good job. Toshiki Masuda managed to sound friendly and helpful while giving off an ominous vibe! 

At this point, the two girls (Mary and Catarina that is) decide to switch over to the library and start heading that way. I just wrote a post on anime libraries so this was very topical for me. On their way the first run into Geordo who decides to invite himself much to the chagrin of Mary. She really is not very good at hiding her emotions and her disappointment at losing her alone time showed on her face perfectly. Geordo teased a bit about it but was generally a very good sport about someone with romantic aspirations trying to spend alone time with his fiance. He’s impressively not jealous which you would think would be a big part of his archetype. 

I wonder how this library compared to the ones in your post? About Gerald, though, he’s really surprised me. He has every right (socially speaking) to be upset that everyone’s horning in on his fiancée, but he’s generally been very patient! 

Next, the tree of them ran into Keith who immediately decided to join in as well.  From there, a series of quick vignettes showed all the main characters in turn decided to tag along, namely Maria, Sophia, Alan and finally Nicol. I really loved how Nicol was basically just a still shot of him without any dialog and the next scene was him walking with the group. That made me giggle. The entire little montage was fun.

The group finally makes it to the library which is surprisingly cozy, or maybe this was an offshoot or something. The room they were in only had one table and it was just big enough for the 8 of them. 

Yes, it looked comfortable. But I thought it was awfully suspicious that neither Mary nor Catarina (okay, Mary…) had heard of the library when Sirius mentioned it. I wonder if he knew what was going to happen… 

I think it’s at this point that I realized that I would probably like this show more if I was binge watching it. It’s great as is but I do think it loses a bit of its momentum having to wait a week between episodes and the repetitive nature of the narrative stands out more. It’s so light and airy I would probably have blown through an entire season in a day or two and have been left in a good mood for the rest of the week. What do you think Crow?

You know that I look for moments to celebrate, and I love the characters so much that I’ve been trying to ignore it. But, in all honesty, you’re right. As you said, it’s nothing against the show! Catarina’s Baka side is part of its charm. But it might flow more smoothly viewed all at once.

It seems that being part of a group does help Catarina focus on the books, but only for a short while. As she starts to get fidgety the Maries (that’s what I have decided to call the duo of Mary and Maria – it’s sort of a misspelling of both their names so no one can get mad. That makes just perfect sense) Where was I? I got lost in my own parenthesis. Oh yeah, seeing Catarina getting distracted! The Maries figure it’s a good time for a bit of a break. Maria decides to get them some sweets she made while Mary makes the tea. Both of them would make good maids.

No argument here!

Catarina jumps on the occasion to do something else and peruses the shelves next to the table when she spots a specific book that seems to glow for a minute. When Catarina she opens the book out of curiosity it glows a LOT more and we find out her voice stress has an impressive set of lungs on her. I was watching the show with my windows wide open and I’m sure my neighbours got a little worried there.

At this point, everyone in the library disappears, apparently having been sucked into the book, leaving behind the Maries. Maybe this will be their chance to save the day and redeem themselves after doing nothing but almost killing Alan last week!

This was the Bakarina moment for the episode, I think. I mean, if a book went all glowy for you, would you open it right in your own face? Especially if I couldn’t read the title (which I doubt Catarina could read).

Mary garbs the book and starts looking through it. Fortunately, it doesn’t also suck the two of them in for some reason, and they can sort of see what’s happening in the book’s universe through the pictures. Or maybe those are illusions? In any case they cannot seem to directly interact by touching the pictures. I’m not sure why they didn’t try writing something in the book. This whole idea is a little meta, Catarina getting sucked into the universe of a storybook from the universe of an otome she got sucked into….

I love Re:CREATORS. This is almost normal for me! Seriously, though, it is delightfully Inception-like! Or maybe I should say Paprika-like… 

For some reason, Catarina is the only one who seems to realize something is amiss. Maybe because she comes from a different world to start off with? The Maries get to briefly watch a scene that seems to be taking place right after Geordo and Catarina’s wedding as the two of them start their first evening as husband and wife. Understandably, Geordo is eager to romance his one true love now that they are legal and after a 15 year courtship (I’m not actually sure how old they are but they seemed older than they are now and they have been engaged for a long time already…) but since for Catarina she was in the library a few minutes ago, it’s a bit of a shock. Nevertheless she doesn’t seem that opposed to it. I was looking through my screencaps of the scene and it ends on her smiling face. A visual I missed when reading the subtitles I guess because  though she was a bit more hesitant than that expression seemed to indicate.

The scene gets to be a bit much for Mary and she slams the book shut not wishing to see her beloved Catarina with someone else in a romantic way. The Maries talk over what they have just seen and decide to open the book again not knowing what to do.

Honestly, I felt bad for Mary in this episode. It had to be very difficult to her to have to watch others acting on their romantic desires for Catarina! 

I got a similar vibe from Catarina and Geraldo. She seemed more surprised than anything. Maybe from his perspective, his imagination had experienced the wedding ceremony. But she was still fresh from the library, so the scene was a complete surprise to her.

The next time Catarina is at her desk in her room, trying to study, with Keith standing over her shoulder. Except Keith looks a little weird. Like he got lip injections or something. Then he sort of flirts with her and tries to feed her a cookie. Which he immediately succeeds in because Catarina has never said no to a cookie, but before she gets to taste it, the book slams shut agan and Mary is  exasperated. We learn that the book feeds on desires and we are actually seeing the characters deepest desires realized.

I laughed at Catarina’s reaction to Keith: “he’s giving off an oddly sexy vibe…”

I have to say, I can see it for Geordo. He is very much in love with his fiance and has worked hard for years to be the proper companion for her. I can see him really looking forward to their wedding night. I also figure he would be the type of guy who sees himself as debonnaire and smooth. But Keith’s scene was a bit baffling to me. 

Sure Keith likes Catarin a lot, that’s no secret. And I completely believe that his deepest desire would involve her. But I can’t see him wanting to be a sleazy playboy type. Wouldn’t he have been horrified if not slightly repulsed by that version of him? It seems much more like what we are told game Keith is like rather than what the Keith we have come to know would fantasize about. This felt like they lost sight of the character a bit.

Unless the book is acting more on the characters based on their normal game routes? Nah, that’d be too subtle. I always saw Keith are more earnest and straight forward. I could see him helping her study, and getting closer and closer to her. But doing the who “open wide” thing? I’m with you on this one.

I don’t remember if this is where Alan comes in. His sequence is extremely short. We just see him playing piano next to a standing Catarina before Mary slams the book back shut, obviously not wanting to even think about it. I believe we are meant to understand that Mary also cares about Alan. It bothers her way more when he is with Catarina than when anyone else is and it’s not like Catarina shows him any favour.  Think it may have hurt her feelings just a bit that she wasn’t any part at all of Alan’s desires.

Her eyes were completely blank. It’s like that was the last straw for her. I loved how Maria kept trying to comfort Mary. They worked well together in this episode!

The next scene was Sophia’s, and it was rather sweet. I like little dreams. Sophia and Catarina were in a library again but not the same library. This was Sophia’s private library and Catarina was really impressed by the wealth of romance novels available. She even mentioned wanting to live there which stirred up something in Sophia. The latter reacted by pinning Catarina to the wall with her arms on either side, all aggressive boy in a shoujo type. It was pretty funny to watch, especially as Sophia is markedly shorter. I’m not sure if they were going for actually romantic feelings here or a very strong friendship but either way, it was cute. Cute enough for Mary to slam the book shut again.

That library was probably too small to qualify for your list, wasn’t it? I agree that Sophia was just darling in this scene. She loves her time with Catarina, and the idea of the two of them living together with a stocked library seems to be a dream of hers. 

Finally, we get Nicol’s fantasy sequence that was my favourite of the bunch. First, it really looked like an old school Sailor Moon episode with Serena fantasizing about Tuxedo Mask. In case that sentence didn’t make it sufficiently clear somehow, it looked amazing! Second, it was hilariously ridiculous. It seems even in his own desires, Nicol is pursued everywhere by a veritable army of swooning fangirls. I like this openly conceited Nicol. Second, he has the imagination to pretty much forgo realism. Unlike the others, his sequence wasn’t something that could happen and it made it all the better!

Leaping off the balcony into a gondola; sweeping Catarina into the air to bound from building to building, then telling her he’d love for her to be in his arms forever with the moon as a backdrop — yeah, he’s the most imaginative! 

Mary is starting to get really worried about Catarina and how hungry she must be by now. Staring longingly at the sweets, she mentioned that Catarina hasn’t eaten in a while. At this point, the Maries suddenly remember that the magical book that feeds on people’s desires will let them go if their desires are fulfilled somehow. Unfortunately since they don’t really know what to do about it they decided to just open the book again and check on Catarina’s own desire next.

I really loved their teamwork this episode. Maria also showed that has a shrewd, inquisitive mind. Very cool!

I have to admit, the Maries seemed to believe that sweets were Catarina’s deepest desire (a reasonable guess), but I was sure that she would put them all to shame and they would see a scene with absolutely everyone, themselves included and realize that Catarina’s deepest desire is for everyone to be together and happy. 

Catarina’s sequence opens with her walking alone through a grim looking forest and complaining about being hungry when she suddenly chances upon a life sized gingerbread house just like in the Hansel and Gretel fable.  Of course, she goes right for it and starts devouring the walls. Soon the house turns into a tornado of candy which a rapidly fattening Catarina more or less vacuums up. The scene goes out of control quickly and the Maries try to shut the book again but something is going wrong as it distorts and bubbles. Suddenly everyone explodes out of the book.

We are told that because the book candy wasn’t real, Catarina couldn’t get full no matter how much she ate, so her desire just kept getting bigger and bigger until the book couldn’t handle it anymore. I’m not sure what they did with the book next but everyone was happy and they had tea and snacks. Too bad the Maries didn’t get a chance to do anything in the end. 

I think I’d be at least a bit curious about the book — and why it decided to get my attention! It was interesting that they said it was one of the 7 mysteries of the school. Put me in mind of Yamada and the 7 Witches. 

I’m not sure if I’m understanding this right, but if Mary had just let anyone’s scene play out, they would all have been freed from the book right away. Like it’s not really a trap. You get sucked in, it plays out your deepest desire and when it’s fulfilled, it lets you out. That sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. I wish I had a bunch of those books lying around. Last week, Crow and I discussed potential My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Merchandise. I’m saying a fully functional desire book will make them all millionaires. I hope someone is working on that! Oh man, I would spend every second I could in anime worlds… probably watching anime…

My luck, no one would open the book, and I’d be trapped! Bit of a downside, there… But with the appropriate safety equipment, it could be a complete blast. There’re several worlds I wouldn’t mind visiting! As several I’d very much want to avoid…

Does anyone need to open the book?

Finally, the after credits scene showed a broken hearted Mary watching what she believes is her long time fiance betraying her with her best friend and not so secret unrequited love. It stops a bit abruptly so maybe it’s a lead in for the next episode?

I wondered for a moment if it was part of the book fantasy! But it doesn’t look like it. I thought Catarina might be more interested in Nicol! But that moment in the tree seemed so comfortable!

Crow, how did you enjoy episode 8 of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!? Are you looking forward to next week?

Yes, I did. Your earlier comments about some of the situations being repetitive was spot on, but I like the character so much that I’m really looking forward to the next episode. I really don’t want this comfortable, supportive group to change, though I know it has to! It’s just so rare to see a group like that being good to one another!

         My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! ep 8 – Simple Pleasures It might actually finally truly be summer here. I get paid by the adverb! But it really is a rather nice weekend.

[hecticquarter-blog]

Roberto Reyes

Introduction

                 Roberto Reyes is a venue manager at a creative youth center in Downtown Albuquerque named Warehouse 508. 508 caters to youth 6-20 and provides classes for various art forms and hobbies, is a working indoor skatepark, has a screen-printing facility, a music studio for recording, and a stage for performances. Roberto Reyes has been a student, instructor, and now manager of 508. Reyes has a background in photography, mural arts, screen-printing, and digital design. As an active member of the community, Reyes works with youth at 508 to help build their art-form and performance skills. This interview discusses his personal experiences with working at a venue, as well as his perspectives on some of the issues happening in the community and country.

Interview

What is your name? - Roberto Reyes

What is your job description? - Venue manager. I’m in charge of the facilities at Warehouse 508, booking shows, making sure classes are ready for instruction, and making sure all youth at 508 are safe and sound.

What is your favorite part of your job? - Working with youth and seeing them accomplish their dreams and learning new skills or hanging out here. I love seeing them.

When you were younger what was your dream job? - I wanted to be a doctor when I was really little (like Kindergarten).

What changed your mind? - Seeing new possibilities and discovering other ways to help people. At one point I wanted to be a comedian and then another time until now I just wanted to be a full time artist.

What kind of art do you do? - I paint murals and do graphic design, photography, screen-printing. (Pictured with a mural Reyes worked on)

How does your background play a role in your job today? - It comes from very alternative field of employment and I think when youth want to pursue an art career, you know, i.e being music or photography any of those you need have a really good idea and to be very versatile at your art work so that you know you can make a living off of it because you know you won’t be a Rockstar or superstar at it but you can still run sound, still do lighting, still be a tour manager. Opening the door for different possibilities and opening the door when it comes to art and music.

What classes offered at Warehouse 508 are your favorite? - Let’s see, I really enjoy mural arts of course, that’s what I started doing here, I was a student and then I became an instructor, I have a really important place in my heart for that class because it’s very open and a lot of youth kind of can learn a lot from it from critical thinking to learning how to use a spray can to learning the history of art and mural painting, even hip-hop history as well.

What do you like to see most in stage performances? - I like to see the appreciation of your crowd and I like when the artist speaks to their crowd a little bit and feeds off the vibe of the crowd

What’s the difference that you see in the youth that come out of Warehouse 508 and are successful with their art-form compared to those who are not? -  Some of them are extremely driven and what I found here is that they’re really true to themselves. They don’t falter to what their message is and they whole heartedly believe in it. I think that’s the important message of Albuquerque and New Mexico because we are so isolated. They’re not trying to be the next rapper the next big rapper, they have the space to be who they are, their own musician, they don’t have a preset notion of what is good and what is bad. It’s harder to be an actual musician and to “blow up” from a place like Albuquerque.

What do you see brings in the most people to shows? – From what I’ve seen, building an audience that can follow you, of course there is social media but the best bet is live interaction and shows. People don’t realize here that the best is diversity, rap and rock groups coming together makes cross pollinating. Have a edm dj with a singer song writer and maybe an emcee or whatever but I think it the best to have cross pollination of crows because everyone here likes everything and if they do I don’t see them being not open to other genres of music.

What hip hop artists are your favorites?- As far as top five rappers I think Rappers- The Roots are number one, so black thought is number one spot. Then it’ll be probably like Nas, Kendrick Lamar, Calle13 they’re a perutorican rap group, and Lauren Hill and I think she should’ve been higher haha.

Which of the four pillars of hip-hop is your favorite? - Um I would say graph-writing, it’s called writing in the hip-hop community. Graffiti is something used to remind of us vandalism. Like how breakdancing is the mainstream term but we like to call it B-boying within the hip-hop community. Rappers is the mainstream names but it’s actually emceeing.

What do you see that holds kids back the most? - A variety of things, but the most is just self-doubt and not willing to make mistakes or screw up and honestly I would rather screw up in a painting than I would in real life so screw up as much as you want, then fix it.

Advice you would tell your fifteen-year-old self? - It’s funny because I did tell myself that, What I told myself is that I shouldn't play stuff football, I shouldn’t play varsity ball and I should focus on what I love and not something I don't have any love in, which wasn’t football, it wasn’t fun anymore and painting was way funnier and I saw the potential of it taking me way father than football could, which was true.

What do you think people can do as citizens to help the community in the state that it’s in right now? - I think it has a lot to do with people’s perspectives and seeing other peoples’ point of view even if it’s an opposing one; they’re being heard and looking back at how they were brought up so you can know where those kinds of thinking or thoughts stem from so you can better analyze them why they think that way. It kind humanizes a person, those thoughts they come from a specific place so you can then deconstruct their argument and help change their mind.

A lot of people coming out of high school complain about “adulting” how do you cope/ what grounds you? - First worlding as it’s called, haha. I think it’s the arts in general like could be music, visual arts, could be simply riding my bike that is most important and growing up finding out your outlets and finding a way for you to find a way to deal with really stressful situations that isn’t harmful to you because you know a lot of people turn to alcohol or drugs or self-inflicting wounds and stuff like that and youth need a way to deal with that because once you figure those things out as an adult, I’m not saying it’ll be easy but it’ll easier with positive coping mechanisms.

As an artist do you go through dry spells and how do they make you feel? - I’m actually in one right now. Honestly, I haven’t drawn anything or done anything creative for maybe the past year so because my main focus last year was to buy a home which happened in October of last year and now it’s still put me in a rut and I’m still trying to get out of it. What I need to focus on is my health so I can have energy and want to do things I want to do. Also creating a space where I can create and not just fall asleep- separating that space for creative work.

What would you tell youth that are stuck between pursuing a more conventional living and being an artist? - I think that it’s hard. That was my choice when I was younger, like become an architect and make money or do what I love as an artist and be happy and not live really well kind of scavenge, but it just depends on your position. It would be nice to say yeah go be an artist but it’s not that easy you got to get by, you might need a part time job or a full-time job to get a roof over your head but never lose your interest in the arts because that’s what makes you happy. Remember why you do it, not because you get paid for it.

At what point should a young person feel comfortable abandoning college for the sake of having enough time for other things like art or work? - Honestly- school is always going to be there, it’s not like it’s gonna go anywhere. The classes you took are still going to follow you, so you can always go back to it. Of course, the difficulty would be then paying for school, that’s always going to be there. For my personal case, it was my parents divorcing so I had to quit school completely and get a job and fend for myself or else I’d be couch surfing for a couple years while I finished school which I didn’t want to happen. I also had to make sure my mom had to a place to stay. Make the best decision with the information you have at the time. As an artist, you will benefit more than to not go to school to actually experience things rather than just reading from a book. I think when it comes to art, that’s always the situation like I’m not going to go get a Bachelor’s degree in studio arts because I’d rather just go do it than be taught from a school. And maybe it’s not bad, go to school for studio arts for a little bit, but then you learn what you needed from it and use it, actually implement it. And you always have to make that space for yourself to make art so it’s better to keep that in mind. Like my sister was a really good artist and unfortunately had a kid at a young age and that forced her to go to school and become a nurse and which now she has accomplished that as a nurse, has a great position, but you know but no longer has that in her life as drawing goes and I think she could be better off if she still had that in her life as far as her mental health and being sane I guess haha.

How do you suggest people have tolerance in the hate-filled world we live in today? - Tolerance is only to a certain extent, like I don’t want to be absolutist either because I think once someone’s ideals become actions that actually hurt people, that’s when you have to react. It’s easier to be tolerant to ideas than actually actions because they’re just inside their head. It’s not until it becomes actions when that tolerance crap goes out the window. And it’s hard, you want to be peaceful and you want to be understanding but it’s only to a certain extent.

Do you think people have the right to get violent in protesting? - Well I think when it comes to the destruction of property it depends on what the message is because whatever they’re combatting like white supremacy, has caused way more damage to actual human beings than to property. So, when people protested when Trump came here, it’s like yeah but the hatred that he was spewing at his rallies is much more hurtful than a broken window. A few burnt trashcans and a few broken windows compared to a candidate for president that’s calling for the abolishment of Mexicans and no Muslims in the country? That’s just to me insane so yeah it just depends on what the message is. Like when it comes to punching a nazi, like their deliberate existence is the eradication or genocide of an entire people so it’s like how could you be okay with that?

[lostinastory]

This tag is created by Debbie from Debbie’s Library and I’ve taken my time to get to it, but it’s here! I barely do tags anymore like you might have noticed, but I couldn’t pass on this one. I love books and I love music so this is a perfect match! Thank you Debbie, for creating this tag and tagging me!

The Rules

Tag the creator of this tag and the one who tagged you

Pick 5 songs (or more) that you just have to listen whenever they are played

Pick the books/characters you think fit that song the best, and explain why you pick this book/character for this song

Tag some friends!

The Books!

The music!

Horns by Bryce Fox

In her heart, there’s a hole There’s a black mark on her soul In her hands is my heart And she won’t let go till it’s scarred Try to breathe, but I can’t ‘Cause the air she feeds me is damned Got a touch like a thorn ‘Cause the girl, she’s hiding horns

This song reminds me so much of Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa from Six of Crows. Kaz and Inej have a complex relationship if you can say so, they are both very morally grey characters and Kaz has a thing for Inej but doesn’t want to admit it. Also the vibe of the song fits perfectly. I can create an entire post talking about music that fits with this book (but I won’t). I recently created a Six of Crows themed playlist and I love listening to it, so if you want to as well, the link is here.

Link to the song.

Steady As She Goes by The Raconteurs

Find yourself a girl and settle down Live a simple life in a quiet town […] Well here we go again You’ve found yourself a friend that knows you well But no matter what you do You’ll always feel as though you tripped and fell

I might talk about this book a little bit too often but this song reminds me a lot of The Serpent King, and especially of Travis. The Serpent King is about three friends in their final year in high school. Travis is a simple guy and he just wants to live in his little hometown, with the girl he likes, but life takes him in another direction.

Link to the song.

All I Want by Kodaline

All I want is nothing more To hear you knocking at my door ‘Cause if I could see your face once more I could die a happy man I’m sure

When you said your last goodbye I died a little bit inside I lay in tears in bed all night Alone without you by my side

I could quote this entire song because it’s so perfect. This song reminds me so much of Clay and Hannah from Thirteen Reasons Why. Hannah commits suicide and Clay the boy who loved her now has to live with the regrets and pain of her loss and this song captures that perfectly. (but if you loved me, why’d you leave me?)

Link to the song. Link 2 (if you haven’t seen these videos yet that’s right there are two, you should it’s so wonderful, they have made me cry many times over. KODALINE GIVE ME A PART 3!! I NEED IT.)

Demons by Imagine Dragons

Don’t want to let you down But I am hell bound Though this is all for you Don’t want to hide the truth […] Don’t get too close It’s dark inside It’s where my demons hide

This song reminds me of Will from The Infernal Devices, he is a very mysterious character because of his tragic background story that leads him to hide his true self. I think this song really reflects the darkness inside of him and the secrets he’s keeping. (also it’s about demons 😛 )

Link to the song.

Greek Tragedy by The Wombats

I love this feeling But I hate this part I wanted this to work so much I drew up our plans on a chart Cars are flipping, I’m in hot pursuit My character’s strong but my head is loose

She hits like ecstasy Comes up and bangs the sense out of me

I only just finished The Sun Is Also A Star (like last night 1 am) but I realize this song fits perfectly with it. In The Sun Is Also A Star, Daniel and Natasha meet in New York, and Daniel falls head over heels for her, but it’s Natasha’s last day there, because she is an illegal immigrant and has to leave the country. I think this song perfectly describes the complex, quick and dramatic nature of their relationship (also the song mentions karaoke bars 😀 ).

Link to the song. (warning: the video is a bit very psycho)

I tag…

Because I barely do tags anymore, I’ll tag some people, but everybody is free to do it 🙂

I tag… Mahriya, Anushka,  Julianna, Sydney, Bex, Kelly, Jackie, All The Jazz (no pressure, I just thought you might like it, so if you don’t want to, don’t 🙂 )

Also, if you liked this post, I once did a similar one, which you can check out here.

What do you think of my choices? Do you like this music? If yes, any recommendations?

The Your Favourite Music Tag: Books & Music -> a perfect combi This tag is created by Debbie from Debbie's Library and I've taken my time to get to it, but it's here!