#of course the day I randomly decide to rewatch it is the day I find out a new movie is coming out

[eddyneedssleep]

So was no one going to tell me there's a new Batman Ninja movie coming out next year or was I just meant to find that out accidentally

[ninja-confession-go]

So I'm from Croatia and unsurprisingly I first watched ninjago in the croatian dub. Now for the most part it was was actually pretty decent as far as croatian dubbing goes, but still it had it's moments.

One of them being a rather goofy nonsensical translation that was trying to be funny, but it was so unfunny that it went around and I found it funny again because how dumb it was.

The episode with that translation was the second episode of Possession. The scene in question was when they were in that desert going to Stiix and when they stopped to rest at that mini train station. They hear one of Morros buddies laughing and Cole asks if they heard that, as many of you already know in the original Jay then says 'But we are in the middle of nowhere!' Croatian Jay instead says 'Ali u Čačincima smo!' (But we are in Čačinci!). Čačinci (Chachincee) are a little village in the region I'm from, the first time I heard it on TV little me wasn't even sure if I even heard that right. I was like 'wait what Čačinci? That place I pass trough every time I go to my swimming lessons, whaaaaat?' I rewatched older seasons with the dub not that long ago and yep I did hear that right. Except this time I just found that stupidly funny, like why the hell did that person or people who translated that episode decide to randomly slander a random village in Slavonija (the region I'm from). What is it because hehe haha we needed a random small place to make fun of, guess Čačinci of all places will be our victim. Mind you that place is actually fairly big for Croatian village standards and it's nicely kept so it feels like a mini town when you go trough it. Also that pretty much means that this place is canon in the croatian version of ninjago which I just find stupidly funny. Like you got all these fictional asian based locations and then just a random irl croatian village.

But wait there's more to this! Mom and I actually drove trough that place few times recently and we will probably keep going trough it. And of course every time we passed it I just kept giggling like an idiot and my mom was like, oh here we go again. Also I've nicknamed Jay 'Čačinci hater' because of this.

Ok sorry for me writing an essay about random nonsense have a great day/night goodbye!

.

[blitzwhore]

Hello, asking random people in the fandom just out of curiosity, What made you start watching Helluva Boss? What sparked your interest to keep watching? Nowadays, what still makes you stay? Hope you have a nice day! :)

These are great questions and I will very gladly answer them!

I'll preface this by saying I'm one of those people who doesn't watch(or play, or read) new stuff often. Yes, I spend a lot of my time watching media. But it's always the same media, over and over. Knowing what's gonna happen brings me comfort, so re-watching is miles easier for me than watching new stuff is. So when my friends recommend something new, it goes straight into the "I probably won't watch it for the next 20 years" box that exists in my brain against my will.

The friends who've known me a long time know this, of course, which is why they've found strategies to overcome this obstacle. And on one particular afternoon in... November-ish of 2021? I was hanging out at a friend's house, just chilling, when her girlfriend randomly grabbed the remote control, and played episode 1 of Helluva Boss on TV. Just like that, no warning, and without any of us knowing wtf it was, just that it was "related to hazbin hotel" (my gf was apparently familiar with the pilot and Addict, meanwhile literally all I knew about hazbin was it featured in a lot of unhinged tumblr DNI lists lol).

And so we watched the first episode. Then the second. And then everyone else was asking for the third and I was like "STOP. PAUSE. NO MORE EPISODES" and they were like "??? Do you hate it?? What's wrong?" but I absolutely did not hate it. On the contrary. I was enjoying it so much that I promptly decided this show needed to be binged at home from under the darkness of my blankets at 3am. Not with my friends, where the sensory input (lights, voices, etc) would prevent me from fully enjoying this wild experience I had just been thrust into.

So that's what I did. That night. And then nightly and weekly for months afterwards. I rewatched everything from the pilot to Ozzie's on loop until I could quote every single line of the show by heart, and then kept rewatching. I squeezed every single drop of gut-wrenching anguish out of the song House of Asmodeus until I couldn't feel anything anymore. This was my life now. (Luckily, my girlfriend matched my freak and we could scream about it together). And when The Circus aired months later and the two of us got the notification randomly while hanging out alone, and we watched it together, our screams were so intense that they cemented the brainrot forever.

As season 2 aired, I tried to scream about it to the friend who had originally introduced us to this show. But lo and behold... she'd already moved on and was like "eh" 🤣😭

Funniest part is this isn't the first time this has happened. This friend will show me (and others) random media she finds, it will literally change the course of our lives forever, and 3 months later she doesn't even remember it and has moved on to something else while we are left behind in a screaming and burning pile of fangirl trash 😭🤣 (I love her and hope she never changes because it's hilarious every time sjfjakshd).

So that's how I started watching it. As to what sparked my interest... The correct answer is probably Loo Loo Land, since that's the episode that made me realise I was going to be absolutely unwell about this show. It's been a long time, but I think it probably happened somewhere between You Will Be Okay and "I'll paaaaay yoooou" "pay me what?" "moooneeeyyy" "DONE!" because I remember that by the second half of the episode, I was already shaking with how badly I needed to ask them to stop playing it so I could process it properly.

Nowadays I stay for the same reason, which is they continue to alter my brain chemistry every single day and with every single episode. It's my main fixation at the moment and that's not likely to change anytime soon. I have a history of having the same media fixation for many years at a time, even when the story itself is already finished, and in the case of Helluva we still have 2 whole seasons left, so... I'm here to stay 😂

Hope you have a nice day too! ❤️

Edit: oh, and I should add, this blog wasn't created until shortly after Just Look My Way aired (late December 2023). It was at that point that I decided I needed to Scream Online about these blorbos, and make memes and write fanfic. Usually I just scream about all my fandoms on my main blog, but my main blog (and ao3 account) also have a lot of followers from my previous main fandom, and when I realised I was going to be screaming about Helluva Boss daily for the foreseeable future, I decided to spare them and make a sideblog and alt ao3 account so I could be unhinged guilt-free 😂

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

"Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs, the ones who accept you for who you are. The one's who will do anything to see you smile and love you no matter what."

Um hi there- I'm sorry about the fact that I vanished I really just kinda.. ran out of ideas/energy to make edits and didn't really think that anyone would really miss them that much. I still make wallpapers and things for close friends and for myself but for the most part I just lost my love of posting everything that I make here. I've had this edit done since last summer when I finally allowed myself to finish what I consider to be one of the greatest underrated shows of all time, Welcome To The Demon School Iruma Kun.

If you've talked to me for more then five minutes about the shows that fascinate me and the shows that I go nuts over, you'll know the one thing that holds them together. My love of found family and the messages that can be held in shows that appreciate found family are oftentimes the ones that I hold the closest to me. I don't think that there's another show out there that masters that idea quite like Iruma Kun does. There's just something so beautiful about the simpleness of the story. It's just about Iruma as he tries to make his way through the netherworld as a human. But it's also more complicated then that. It's also about trauma and healing. It's about what it truly feels like when you find your people. It took me a long time to find my people so watching Iruma find his people and bond with them forging lifelong friendships and finally feeling comfortable enough in his own terms.

So what is Welcome To The Demon School Iruma Kun you might be wondering? Welcome To the Demon School Iruma Kun follows Iruma Suzuki, a fourteen year old boy who's parents sell him to a demon. But instead of it being a horror story, it turns into the best thing that could ever happen to him. Due to the amount of abuse that his parents put him through, Iruma doesn't really have the ability to relax. That is until, he's put into an impossible situation. Iruma is instantly taken in by his new 'grandfather' as his journey through the netherworld begins. But Iruma quickly learns something, that the demon realm is much.. kinder than the world that he's used to. His world, his reality was already hellish so now that he's finally able to kickback and relax, to eat however much he wants to and to eat whatever he wants, it's a heaven to Iruma Suzuki. Through the first episode, Iruma instantly is shoved into the demon school Bablys where in the first day he's immediately shoved into the 'misfit class' after getting into a fight with his classmate Asmodeous Alice.

Iruma Kun to me is the epitome of a comfort series. It's a series that since I've finished it, I've gone back and rewatched it twice and I'm about to rewatch it for the third time. It's just so good with it's relationships, it's adorable sense of humor, the way that the animation is so adorably cartoony, the manga panels sometimes looking absolutely gorgeous and wholesome, the way that these characters slowly open their hearts to Iruma it's just so good.

These characters are so comforting to me. My favorite of course from the get go has been Asmodeous Alice or "Azz" as he tells his best friends Iruma and Clara to call him. Ever since I randomly stumbled onto this series in January of 2022 he's been a character that I've carried with me as a huge part of my daily life. He makes me laugh ridiculously hard but there's also this kindness to him once he decides to trust you. I dragged my best friend into this series due to my sheer inability to shut up about Azz. He just means a lot to me and a lot of it is through his voice actor for the dub. Billy Kametz was such a special type of voice actor able to bring light, humor, levity, and lightness into any type of situation. But he also had this emotional weight to him that was perfect for Azz. Azz cares deeply for the two most important people to him, Iruma and Clara.

JUST LOOK AT THIS SOFT SWEET BABY HE NEEDS A HUG- he's one of those characters that I've always found immense comfort in. I He just believes so much in Iruma and he wants to push his 'master' further through the story.

My other favorite characters include Clara, Sabnock, Professor Balam, Jazz, Opera, and Lied. Opera is just so comforting to me but I could say that about literally every character.

If you take anything from my ramblings, I need it to be that you definitely need to read/watch Welcome To The Demon School Iruma Kun. You need to watch this series because it is something that I just love so much. It's something that I could talk about to anyone.

[detshin]

tbh I'd still take a kid case over a normal filler case bc the normal filler cases are just SO boring. like back in the day there were even filler episodes in the anime which were more interesting than the manga cases nowadays. - - - but tbh kid cases also start to annoy by now bc of a) amouro. like wtf has a bo member/undercover agent to do w kid cases?? and b) HOW HAS NO ONE MENTIONED SONOKO'S UNCLR SO FAR? bc boyyyy I dislike him and it has become a pain in the ass to always have this old fart included in every damn kid case. like he's way too old to be that obsessed and be involved all the time. give me a break.

so overall, i prefer kid cases over the normal boring cases nowadays (since let's be honest even if it wasn't a kid case, we wouldn't have got an actual plot relevant case. we'd have just got a normal filler case again) but only if they are as good as the old kid cases again. I mean no honesty, remember all the old iconic kid cases? or even the cases that weren't really a kid case but he randomly appeared (like that amateur magician meeting or the gathering of all top detectives??) iconic.

but I guess kid cases could only become good again if the overall manga (cases) became good again - - which I don't see happening as long as gosho only does fanservice and follows what his label tells him. or perhaps it's also him just struggling coming up w anything good by now since having to come up w great cases for 26 years must be difficult, creativity wise. whatever it is, it sucks and he should rather finish it than ruining my fave manga/anime of all time.

(like they show the episodes up to 480 here on tv and I never get tired to rewatch them over and over again bc of how amazing they were. even the filler episodes!! the manga/anime nowadays can't relate... also bc of the anime's ugly style by now let's be honest)

I would prefer it if he actually decided to draw Magic Kaito cases and continue HIS story rather than having him appear in Conan him being... Not himself.

Because you have to admit. The Kid we see in Conan is not the Kaito we want to see. Kid in Conan is just this empty facade that gives us absolutely nothing. And I'm not talking about the dc plot like I was before. I'm not referring to the fact that Kid cases don't give us plot. I'm referring to how we don't even really get development for Kaito either as a character. Which makes sense! I mean, how can he develop as a character when he's not in his own manga/story/plot? It's impossible. Or it would suck if it happened. That's why I always say that I would rather put Conan in stand by for a month and get something juicy even if it's for MK, than have whatever the f it is we're getting. Because with this.. No one wins. Shinichi doesn't get anything because it's just a chapter meant for filler and fun and giggles (although the fun and giggles are not happening as much now... Because as you said, Kid cases are ALSO becoming boring, idc what anyone says. They are. They are boring. Just like the rest of fillers). Kaito doesn't get anything because his character keeps getting mixed up and confused with Kid, which is his main problem in fanon and why I find it difficult to enjoy fanon stuff with him (Kaito's personality is not Kid's peopleee), and every time his disguises, his heists, his personality get reduced to boring or repetitive things. And of course no one else gets anything either. No one.

So yeah. Imo, kid cases should go to the mk manga, let's get ittttt

[reviewting]

Word of Honor

“Wen…Wen Kexing” answered The Chief of Ghost Valley while casually fanning himself with a gigantic traditional hand fan. T-t-that is one of my favourite scene from the series. Also this one:

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, you may now walk out of here. JUST KIDDING! Please stay because I want to scream at you for not telling me about this series sooner I always say this and I always end up blaming myself. Anyway, go log into your Netflix account and start watching this amazing series or else...

Score

Storyline : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ (9/10)

Plot : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ (09/10)

Pace : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (8/10)

Acting : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (10/10)

Rewatch value : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (10/10)

Storyline

The story is about Zhou Zishu (ZZ), a leader of an assassin organisation who wants to retire from his evil job. There is one thing stopping him, though. The organisation does not allow any of their members to retire. In reality, I think the rule is good because they are so evil they don't deserve a good life (but then I changed my mind at the end so wth). If they really really want to retire, the only thing they can do is to embed nails inside their body at 7 acupuncture points to repress their martial art abilities. But of course there is going to be a catch, after the embedding of the nails, the person can only live for 3 years. Only then they can leave the castle. So, being a brave human that he is (well, he has nothing to lose really because he has no one in the world left to care for), ZZ asked for those 7 nails to be embedded in his body and then he goes on his merry way. You thought it ends after that? Yiu thought wrooong! There are complications, ZZ is going to die slowly. He will lose his 5 senses very very slowly before he eventually will succumb to death. Basically, he's going to be sick and it will get worse until he drops dead. Because of that, he decided to be a homeless and went to have an adventure to spend his remaining time.

During his adventure, ZZ meets a lot of people. some of them are nice, some of them are not. He still needs to fight people sometimes and that takes a toll to his own body. Well, because he's not supposed to use his martial art skills with the while dying. So basically, ZZ is a walking deadman. One day he meets this one guy, very randomly. This random guy introduced himself as Wen Kexing (WX). To ZZ’s surprise and annoyance, this guy follows ZZ everywhere because WX was in love with ZZ at first sight could sense that ZZ is lying to him about his identity, so WX swears that he will find out about ZZ identity himself. At some point WX finds out about the 7 nails inside ZZ body and he gets very distraught, so he set a goal for himself to try his best to safe the man his loves ZZ. So their adventure starts from there. They also adopted a couple of children find young friends along the way and help trained them to be better at martial art. Oh yeah, I almost forget to mention that the cultivation world (where ZZ and WX live) was in state of chaos, so people outside the castle were fighting each other to get a secret key. This key, many believed, could lead to an armoury that holds the answers to all the secrets and questions in the world. So, during their adventure, both ZZ and WX get themselves trapped in between the civil war. Mostly because WX have this brilliant idea that he can safe ZZ and prevent him from dying if they both can get this secret key (to open the armoury and then look for a sacred book there). Poor ZZ, he just wants to retire and lives his life as a normal human being but the universe said no. Well, WX is kind of his universe and he also said no to dying, so poor ZZ.

Characters

Wen Kexing is my most favourite character. He's super stylist, you have to see his outfits on every episode, so beautiful. He's also dramatic and clingy, so adorable. Can you believe that this man who acts like a worried puppy in front of ZZ is actually The Chief of Ghost Valley? Let me repeat, THE CHIEF! Well, what is a Ghost Valley? It is a far and remote place where evil people and all people who are considered dead to the world live. He is a menace to his employees, but he is a sweetheart to the people he cares about. So f-ing adorable.

Zhou Zishu, I don’t think he ever expected to be able to feel alive again and wanting to life again. However, after meeting WX, I think, he changes his mind. Reluctantly at first, but then he realises that he still has the ability to care about and for someone else. It's so beautiful. He also is fully aware that he was an evil person and how he need to repent himself for all of his wrongdoings. He is a man of a few words and very chill compared to his partner, WX.

Gu Xiang and Wei Ning are two other people who I love and adore so much. I love them so much it hurts me physically. I believe in love again after watching them, they support and love each other regardless of who they were supposed to be.

Cheng ling, I am actually proud of him. There are some moments that I was very disappointed by him but I understand where is is coming from and what he went through. Finding out about your teacher's secret and it has something to do with your own family is going to be hard for ALL people. Regardless, I like him, I like seeing what he turned out to be at the end.

Last but not least is Ye Bai Yi. I love this old man, I love how weird he is and I love how blunt and frontal he could get sometimes. His "I don't fucking care about all these shits because I am tired of y'all" persona is so interesting. I thought he was one of the bad guy at some point. Everything is peak comedy with him. Also, he eats snow, who does that?

Where to watch

Netflix

Viki

Prime video

For the bonus episode: Youtube, Viki

[chaosmax]

I'm properly awake now and some time has passed so I feel a bit more free to say something longer on the loss of Takahashi 先生.

I wish I was an artist who could draw him a lovely picture of all the wonderful people I've met through ygo and send it to his close friends and family so his close ones could see how much of an impact his work made on me. But instead I'll share some stories and some words in hope that it can capture some aspect of the complex enotions and situation.

A boy from my elementary school was way more into the card game part of it than I was at the time. We didn't keep contact after we went to different middle schools, but he gave me a card one day, ironically actually, a Widespread Ruin card he had hole-punched and put a piece of string through I can only assume to mimic the Kaiba brothers' necklaces. I still have this card in my box (though I got rid of the string) and whenever I see a Widespread Ruin, I think of him, and that card sitting in my collection somewhere, and how ygo made a turbulant elementary school experience full of clashes and frustration and fights with teachers into something I could find some enjoyment out of.

I remember going to the library which would have random volumes of the manga at times, never did I really get to read it in order. But every time there was one I hadn't read I'd jump on it and usually finish the volume only an hour after getting home. When I got to the age I could actually buy stuff myself many weeks of saved up allowances also went into buying manga volumes that I'd finish reading in under 2 hours as a kid.

In highschool I refell into ygo upon deciding randomly to rewatch the anime subtitled now that I knew how to access the original Japanese. I hyperfixtated on it and even dragged a friend into watching it too who knew nothing about yugioh. After a year of taking Spanish for my language requirement and hating the teacher, I decided to switch to Japanese on a whim thinking at the very least, even if I sucked at it at least I could read some ygo stuff with it, and I met one of the best teachers in the world. I took 2 years, participated in an exhange program, an experience I'll never forget and was very grateful I got the chance.

In college, there was a gaming club, and only once in a blue moon did I actually play the themed game of the week. Usually, I just found a few of my friends and dueled instead.

I've now also met many a friends online through yugioh too. People I talk to daily now and it's hard to imagine my life without them now.

The anniversary pack of alternative art cards I bought forever ago with KTs initials signed in the corner of the card art hold new meaning now.

Thank you for everything KT.

When it comes to death and loss I'm a bit of a weird one, relying on logic more than anything to process it and navigate through it. It hurts emotionally of course, but it tends to be a bit different from how most people experience it. Yet despite that logic, and despite me being atheist, a pharse comes to mind to me. My first Japanese teacher moved away after my first year and when it came time to say goodbye, she said she didn't want us to say さよなら / sayonara / goodbye, Farwell.

She told us to say またね / mata ne. ね is a way to make things a question in some cases or say "isn't it?" at the end of a statement. また / Mata is a way to say "again" and "also" when it's written alone. When put together, the meaning can become "until next time"

さ、高槁先生 またね。

So, Takahashi-sensei, until next time.

[vrisrezis]

I feel so bad asking so many things back to back dhdhsj but this is kiss and hug Anon, I loved what you came up with and thought of a new scenario, for Shigaraki and Ichimatsu (separate ofc)

Reader isn't confident enough to confess, so they decide to start saying what they feel in their native language. Ichi/Shiggy are confused, but after asking and getting simply a giggle from reader, they give up. This goes on for a couple of days untill finally they heard the same thing enough times to sorta know some words, and when they google it, they finally realize they had been getting confessed to every day for the past few days 💖

(this turned out so long dhdgshs feel free to ignore if this is too much aaa)

A SHIGARAKI ASK LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Also I’m not used to writing for my boy shiggy so sorry if the characterization of him is a bit off 😭 I need to rewatch bnha

Ichimatsu would go bright red upon finding out this information, he’s unsure what to do for awhile as well. Does he confess too? He decides to look up how to confess back in your native language, and practices it until he’s able to perfect the saying and says it to you with a big blush on his face.

Shigaraki would be so annoyed by this, but he just doesn’t have enough time to find it in him to care. When he’s able to figure out what it is finally, he’s bright red. A part of him doesn’t believe it, but deep down he knows it’s true. He’s just not sure how to go about things. One day, he grabs your hand (without pinky of course) and claims you two are now dating.. rather randomly..

[feelingofcontent]

DNP Rewatch: I Nearly Blinded Myself

Date video was published: 09/14/2016 (X)

DNP Main Channel Rewatch: 315

I love this video so much.

0:00 - Dan with un-straightened hair! He was letting it be natural much more.

0:09 - this would be a “reasons why Dan’s a fail” if he stilled used that intro at this point

0:14 - again WHY would he try to film a video on that day

0:21 - “he’s a nerd” 😂

0:30 - I love the pistachio muffin as a metaphor for his day throughout this story

0:39 - oh Dan. If only he knew how much he would regret that choice

1:00 - if I was Phil I would have been so annoyed already, lol. Also explains why the ending of that video seems a bit rushed

1:10 - “I know what I’m doing” ...debatable

1:19 - this wasn’t a short trip either...it was for the whole of Australian TATINOF

1:24 - I mean, those are the important things. He could always just buy a pair of black jeans and black t-shirt if needed, haha

1:30 - “Mr. Philip” ...I don’t think you can really blame him

1:32 - apparently Phil was gesturing so wildly during this he hurt his hand, which Dan shared the take of later

1:38 - I mean at least the packing order is logical...love the mental picture of Phil just screaming at him to hurry up

1:59 - trying to do waaaaay to many things at once. I have this issue sometimes

2:04 - I’m glad he managed not to accidentally do it again while filming this recreation lol

2:24 - the dramatic yet deadpan delivery

2:29 - “that shit’s cold” is one of those lines from DNP videos that sometimes just randomly runs through my head for some reason

2:44 - of course the concern would take over. I would be Dan though with the immediate panic but not wanting to tell

2:53 - so many toothbrushes...three there and there was an electric one in-shot earlier

3:04 - can’t forget the muffin! “I wanted my muffin” is another line from this one that I quote

3:18 - guessing Phil was too busy thinking about not getting to the airport on time to notice anything was amiss

3:32 - intense dramatic music

3:41 - the muffin was his first thought before checking on his eye...what

3:49 - Phil just wanted to chill at this point...little did he know

4:18 - I wonder why Dan decided to do voice-over for both of them rather than having Phil say his own lines...maybe because of Phil’s issues with sounding natural reading a script

4:20 - well I’m glad he finally told Phil about it to get some help dealing with the issue

4:24 - I love that Dan has a very detailed description for that particular Phil expression...and “a beautiful white cloud of blur” 😂

4:37 - Dan seems like he can delay his freak-outs but only to a certain point

4:45 - ah, there’s a reference to “reasons why Dan’s a fail”!

4:48 - “an eternal hypochondriac” still true, apparently...not just for himself but for Dan too

5:01 - Google can make it better but also so much worse

5:22 - “after five minutes of fingering myself like I was trying to find my own g-spot with a time limit” ...well that’s descriptive 😳

5:40 - oh, poor Dan. Although the crying probably helped with the eye issue

5:51 - that’s a nice service to have and probably good if you’re not sure how bad something is

6:13 - Dan thinking about the details as always, with “Doris” using his phone and Dan using Phil’s. That is quite the look with the wig, round glasses, and cardigan

6:21 - not a great start

6:35 - that seems completely irrelevant; also can’t imagine it was easy trying to have this conversation with all the airport background noise and such

7:01 - whoops...he should have waited but I can understand the panic of wanting to fix it as fast as possible

7:22 - “do they have a hospital at the airport?” ...um. although I would think there would be some sort of first aid room or something

7:49 - I would be afraid of making it worse

7:59 - I love this mental image...they’re so tall too; other people must have been thinking wtf 😂

8:16 - the ever-present possibility of running into fans...I can’t believe they were calm enough to pose for a photo

8:27 - someone did tweet the photo and Dan shared it on Twitter! It is exactly as he describes

8:42 - I think the crying probably actually helped most

8:53 - “exhausted, emotional, and looking like a complete wreck” ...at least they had a very long flight to rest during

9:17 - “a sweet smelling ray of hope” 😂

9:38 - the overdramatic muffin metaphor is so great...I always am laughing at this point

9:56 - Phil had gotten over the panic and now was just worried about the social awkwardness

10:15 - “I ate the fucking muffin...and I savored every goddamn bite” I love it so much

10:55 - “which might explain a lot to be honest” ...if he was actually drinking vodka during that filming, that really might explain it...

Definitely one of my top five favorite Dan videos. It's hilarious and his storytelling is so great and just the right amount of overdramatic-Dan.

This is also the last solo-Dan/usual dinof video for the rest of 2016. Everything else he posts is either joint content with Phil or TATINOF-movie promo.

[nugnthopkns]

it all pours out after dark

word count: 5.8k

warnings: insinuated!fem reader, cursing, mentions of alcohol (but no consumption), expressions of self doubt

recommended listening: the knife | maggie rogers

series masterpost: here

a/n: first installment of hiiapl!! very excited about what’s to come. here is some bffs/roommates to lovers with petey :))

Elias’s friendship was a welcome surprise.

You hadn’t expected much when you met the Swede – after all, you were serving at the annual Canucks charity gala and he was the rookie poised to win the Calder trophy. There were a million other things you would have rather done than spend a Saturday evening walking around in sky high stilettos and passing out flutes of champagne, but the catering company paid generously, and you needed to come up with the funds for your next tuition installment. Vancouver may be beautiful, but it’s incredibly expensive.

So you spent the night with a kilowatt smile plastered on your face, staying silent in the background and making sure no one’s glasses were ever empty. You were barely legal to handle alcohol, freshly nineteen and waiting for an opportunity to experience the city’s nightlife for yourself. There was no way you should be regulating the alcohol consumption of adults but you were doing it anyways. The tips were very generous, more than you should have probably been receiving, but you accepted them with a smile because the athletes making millions could certainly afford it.

No one paid you any attention, but you didn’t mind. The night was beginning to wear on you and the event didn’t plan on stopping for another couple of hours. You debated on what to do with your tray while you tried to work out the knots that were forming in feet from standing for so long.

“Let me hold that for you,” a gentle voice sounded from behind you.

When you turned around you were face to face with Elias Pettersson. “That won’t be necessary,” you stated, tone kind but firm. If your supervisor caught you, you would have been fired immediately.

He didn’t take no for an answer. “Please,” he urged, thick accent ringing out in the space between you. “Your feet are going to cramp. Take your shoes off for two minutes.” The English was broken, but you appreciated the sentiment. He really wanted to help.

After a little more insisting from the blonde you agreed, and he diligently stood watch to ensure you wouldn’t get in trouble. It was a relief to be out of the torturous constraint of your shoes for a few moments, and you thanked him profusely.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, a small smile on his face. Shouting erupted from some other players then, looking for him.

“You better get back before they miss you too much.” You nodded in the direction of the voices, to which he begrudgingly agreed. Elias handed you back the tray of champagne flutes before taking one for himself.

He was about to fade into the crowd when he turned to face you again. “I never caught your name,” he stated.

“It’s Y/N.”

“Elias.”

With that he disappeared into the throng of people. You never expected to hear from him again, chalking it up to a kind interaction with a stranger, but a day later he had messaged you on Instagram after searching through the countless profiles that shared your name and were located in the general Vancouver area. Conversation flowed easily between the two of you, and you became fast friends.

☼☼☼☼

That first meeting was nearly four years ago, and countless memories had been made since then. You treasure your friendship with Elias, and truthfully it’s the one you hold closest to your heart. This could be because over the years you’ve developed a small crush on the lanky blonde, but it’s a secret you’ll take to the grave. No one knows of your true feelings for Elias, and no one ever will.

“E? I’m home,” you shout into the quiet apartment, wondering if he’s home from morning skate yet.

After you completed your undergraduate degree and your lease ended, Elias insisted you move into his spare bedroom. The offer was too tempting to resist – you got to live with your best friend and continue your education in a city you adore. Moving your stuff had been a bit of a pain, but your life fit seamlessly into Elias’s. The two of you worked well as roommates, and over the past few months the space began to reflect not just Elias, but you as well. Hair ties were randomly thrown on counters and the bookshelves began to fill.

You’re setting the few groceries you picked up from the local market on the counter when he comes down the hall.

“Hi sunshine,” Elias says softly, voice riddled with sleep. He must have returned home earlier than you thought and had a quick nap.

You smile at the nickname. Elias had gifted it to you early in your friendship when you were in a terrible mood. He had meant it sarcastically at first, but it stuck. Now he hardly calls you by your name.

“How was practice?”

“Really tough,” he admits, moving behind you to place the apples in the fridge. “Coach is being hard on us because we aren’t performing well.”

You frown but hold your tongue. Your degree in sports psychology tells you that isn’t the way to improve players’ morale, but Elias doesn’t like it when you lecture him on what the Canucks staff are doing wrong. He knows things aren’t perfect within the organization and hopes desperately the situation will improve when they start winning again.

The two of you put the rest of the food away in comfortable silence and then unwind by watching numerous episodes of House. You had recently decided to give the medical drama a rewatch, and Elias’s interest was piqued by the snarky physician who always saves the day. It’s become your favourite way to relax and it seems that both of you need it today.

“How does Wilson do it?”

You’re perplexed. “Do what?”

“Put up with House,” Elias sighs. “He’s an asshole.”

Laughter tumbles from your lips. “The same way I deal with you, grumpy.”

“No,” he scoffs, tossing a pillow in your general direction. “You’re House and I’m Wilson, sunshine. Being an asshole is how you got that nickname in the first place.”

You couldn’t argue with Elias’s point – he was right. Between the two of you, you’re the one most likely to be snarky with your anger and he’s more likely to shut himself off from the rest of the world. “Fuck off,” you giggle. 

When Elias crawls on top of you and drops his weight you don’t flinch. You’ve become accustomed to his casual yet spontaneous displays of physical touch, and by now the two of you can frequently be found with your limbs tangled together. 

The rest of your afternoon passes in the blink of an eye. You fall asleep a few episodes in, and you assume Elias did as well because when you wake up his body is still pressed against yours. Once your eyes adjust to being awake, you notice it’s well into the evening. Your stomach rumbles and you decide you have to get up. 

“E,” you say softly, not wanting to completely disrupt his rest. The season is off to a rougher start than everyone hoped for, and he hasn’t been sleeping well. 

There’s no response from the boy on top of you so you try again, voice a decibel or two louder. “Elias, please let me up. I’ve gotta start dinner.”

“Mhmm,” Elias murmurs, not opening his eyes. “Or you could just stay here. You’re so warm.”

You roll your eyes. “Dude, we’ve got to eat. Come on.”

He doesn’t move. In fact, he presses more weight on you, effectively trapping you on the couch. “We can just order food in a bit,” Elias suggests. “Please just stay and nap a bit longer.”

That’s all it takes to convince you, and you let your eyes flutter shut again. In the comfort of your best friend sleep comes easy, and neither of you move far from the couch for the rest of the night. 

The next few days are incredibly busy, and you don’t see Elias much. School is heating up and you’re struggling to stay afloat. In an effort to get the team to put up a few wins, the Canucks organization is holding extra practices and development workshops in between games, so Elias is barely home. When he is he’s exhausted and spends most of his free time in his room, chatting with friends at home or playing video games. 

You do your best to not let the distance bother you, but not being able to have a conversation that lasts more than fifteen minutes before one of you is running out the door is wearing you down. You miss your best friend. 

Elias is set to go out with some of the younger guys on the team this evening, and though he invited you, you’re in a graduate student society meeting until well after they’re supposed to be leaving. He deserves the time to unwind, but a part of you is jealous he actually gets it. Both of you have been running around like chickens with your heads cut off and it seems like Elias can finally slow down. You on the other hand cannot. 

Approximately twelve million things go wrong throughout the course of the day. First, you left your lunch and wallet at home, leaving you unable to eat. Then your advisor was late to your meeting and insisted it was your fault. To top everything off, the graduate student society dismissed your proposal for more funding into public outreach programs. You really, really wanted to be at home.

The door to the apartment is unlocked upon your arrival home, which you find strange. Elias isn’t one to forget to lock it on his way out the door. Brock was terrible about remembering that sort of thing, so you assume he was the last one out. You open it with a sigh and kick off your sneakers. It has been a long day, and you’re looking forward to opening the bottle of wine you picked up with groceries last week.

It doesn’t dawn on you that Elias’s shoes are still by the door or that the living room light is on. You’re so preoccupied with getting comfortable you don’t realize you aren’t alone until you hear a voice from down the hall. 

“Rough day sunshine?”

Elias is standing at the end of the hallway, staring at you intently. It’s as if he can sense the tension rolling off your shoulders. 

“Yeah,” you sigh. “I thought you were going out with the guys?”

He just shrugs. “Didn’t really feel like it. Besides, I knew you were having an off day because you didn’t text me on your lunch break so I wanted to be here for you.”

You nearly tear up from his words. Elias is a lot of things, and kindhearted is certainly one of them. “Go have a shower,” he insists, “And I’ll start dinner.”

“Thanks E.”

A hand comes up to ruffle your hair on his way by. “Don’t mention it.”

The two of you spend the night tucked against each other, eating pasta and telling stories. You never make it to the fridge to get that bottle of wine, but you don’t mind because during your shower Elias made hot chocolate for you both. Conversation flows into the early morning, and by the time you head to bed you can’t remember why you were upset in the first place. 

☼☼☼☼

The season drags on. The Canucks still aren’t playing well, and it’s beginning to wear on Elias. He’s spending more time in his room, reviewing tape and tweaking his workout regime to achieve maximum results. You worry he’s beginning to isolate himself and that it won’t be good for his mental health. 

“Do you want to go hiking tomorrow?” you ask him at dinner. The team has a rare day off, and the coaching staff want them to decompress before leaving on a long road trip. 

Elias shrugs, not looking up at you as he continues to cut his vegetables. “Not really sunshine. I have some clips I need to watch.”

You sigh loud enough to make him feel bad, and his eyes meet yours. “E, you need a break. Let’s go to that trail you like and just relax for a while. I’ll pack a lunch and we can just go slow.”

Whether or not he’s just appeasing you or genuinely wants to go you aren’t sure, but Elias agrees. He places a hand on your shoulder in silent thanks before loading his plate into the dishwasher and retreating to his bedroom. You take it as a victory, however small, and are glad he didn’t completely shut down the idea. The rest of the night is quiet, with you finishing a book and falling asleep on the couch. 

Neither of you are quick to rise in the morning but it doesn’t matter. There’s no timeline for your upcoming adventure so long as you’re back before dark. You make it to the kitchen before Elias and take it upon yourself to make breakfast for the two of you. It’s nothing fancy, just oatmeal, but your best friend appreciates it when he finally makes an appearance. Elias looks like he slept for a maximum of three hours, and you have half a mind to tell him you’ll take a rain cheque, but you know he needs a change of pace. 

The two of you chat idly throughout the meal but it isn’t tense or awkward. Neither of you are completely awake, and both like time to reflect in the morning. It’s nearly an hour later when you meet Elias at the door. You grab your keys, much to his surprise. 

“What?” you shrug.

Elias cocks a brow in your direction. “You hate driving on the highway.”

He’s right – you have no issues navigating the traffic riddled streets of Vancouver, but as soon as you get out of the city and onto the freeway you freeze up. 

“Gotta get over my fear at some point. Come on superstar.”

There’s no complaint from Elias, and you suspect he’s secretly relieved. Driving isn’t his strong suit either but you know he does it so you don’t have to. The ride is quiet, and once you hit the city limits the car feels lighter, as though Elias left all his stress behind. Some lo-fi playlist trickles through the speakers as you get closer to your destination. It isn’t your kind of music, or Elias’s for that matter, and you’re pretty sure Brock gave him the link. The parking lot is empty when you arrive, and you back into a spot with ease. 

Usually Elias would comment on your driving quirk, teasing you because ‘no one under the age of sixty-five backs into a parking space’, but he’s quiet. You wonder if he even noticed. Nerves about the possibility of a far-away look in Elias’s eyes subside when he scrambles to get out of the car. 

“First one to the top wins,” he shouts, metres ahead of you as you double check to make sure the car is locked. You let out a full laugh but don’t try to catch up – he’s going to win anyway so you might as well enjoy yourself. 

The hike does wonder for Elias. Just being outside, in the fresh air that doesn’t hold any expectation of who he should be, is enough to lighten his mood considerably. You trail behind him the entire time, allowing yourself to marvel at his beauty from afar. The longer you live with Elias, the harder it’s becoming to mask your feelings. A couple of times he pauses to wait for you to catch up, and once at the top of the small summit he lifts you into the air in triumph.

“Alright E, put me down,” you giggle, squirming out of his grip. He obliges and places you back onto the rocky surface as though his previous act was the easiest thing in the world. 

The two of you marvel at the view from the top of the mountain for a bit longer before making the trek back down to the car. Halfway down the trail you fall behind significantly, exhausted from not only hiking up a mountain, but worrying about Elias and stressing over some school deadlines that are rapidly approaching. Elias slows his steps so you can catch up, and insists you jump up to piggy-back the rest of the way. You try to protest but he isn’t having it. Eventually you give in and doze off with your face tucked into the crook of his neck. 

You let Elias drive home, too worn out to think about the traffic you’ll inevitably hit. When you get home you allow him to tuck you into bed, and don’t tease him when presses a kiss to the crown of your head. 

The road trip both flies by and drags on. At home, you're busy with school, work, and taking care of Brock’s dogs. Coolie and Milo have become a welcome responsibility, and truthfully you love having them around. They make the absence of Elias less apparent. Each night you curl up on the couch, a dog on either side, and watch the game intently. The Canucks seem to be on the up, winning the first three games with ease. It’s like something has clicked between them and on-ice communication is no longer a problem. However, that changes quickly, and they lose the entire back half of the trip. 

You do your best to comfort Elias from afar – sending him periodic text messages of encouragement, random memes you find on instagram, and calling after every game. The streak of misfortune is getting to him, and it’s beginning to affect his play. He adds only one point the entire trip, an assist that didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things since they were blown out of the water. When you talk to him it’s easy to hear how upset he is, and you imagine he’s hearing a lot worse than what you’re telling him from the coaching staff. It makes your blood boil – how they’re treating him – but you’re helpless. Nothing you can say will undo the potential damage. 

The Canucks get back late, and you’re tucked into bed with the dogs, nearly asleep. You’ll return Brock’ pets in the morning. If you hadn’t had a disastrous meeting with your advisor you would’ve met them at the airport, seeing as it’s Friday and you often don’t go to bed until well into the morning, but your body is thoroughly exhausted. 

You don’t hear the door open and are only alerted to a new presence because the dogs perk their ears. Footsteps echo through the silent apartment, and you think you can hear Elias grumbling in Swedish. He makes no attempt to find you so you assume he thinks you’re sleeping. You should be. Up until three minutes ago you were on the verge of sleep, but now you wait with baited breath to see if you can hear any indicators to Elias’s mood. 

A door closes and seconds later the shower turns on, so you assume he’s feeling alright. Most certainly not great, but well enough to maintain his normal routine. You don’t try to move, knowing you’ll talk to him in the morning, and finally allow yourself to commit to sleep. There’s a few minutes of bliss where you’re almost unconscious, but your slumber is disrupted by a quiet knock at your door.

“Sunshine?”

Elias’s voice sounds like a different type of exhaustion that you’ve never heard, and you know right then that you won’t deny him entry to your room.

“I’m awake E,” you mumble, praying he can hear you because you spoke so softly. The door creaks open and you can just make out his facial features in the dark.

Standing tentatively in the doorway, Elias looks at you with tear-rimmed eyes. “Y/N, I think I’m going to get benched.”

☼☼☼☼

His suspicions were, unfortunately, right. The decision to bench Elias had apparently been made on the plane ride home, but he wasn’t informed until the team meeting after practice the next morning. You knew something bad had happened because when he came home there was no conversation. He slipped through the door like a ghost and disappeared into his room. You knew better than to go after him right away – Elias is the type of person who needs to process his emotions alone before sharing them with others.

You busy yourself with editing the chunk of your thesis proposal that has occupied your brain for the past few weeks. It’s getting closer to the end of your first year of graduate school, and you need to get approval for your topic soon. You hope to research the effects of locker room speech on athletes’ mental health. The focus group will be the Vancouver Whitecaps, and you’re excited to work with them. Your advisor has some personal connections and pulled a few strings to get you the gig and you’re extremely thankful.

An hour or two passes before Elias pads his way into the main living area. Wordlessly he flops onto the couch and holds his arms up in the air. You can read Elias like a book – you know he wants you to stop working and lie on top of him. The action brings him comfort, which he desperately needs in this moment, so you don’t have an issue with it. On your way over you grab a banana from the fruit bowl and offer it to him. He takes it, but sets it gently on the coffee table.

Once you’re settled, Elias wraps his arms around your body, holding you to him like he’s scared you’ll slip through his fingers otherwise. You absentmindedly trace patterns on his forearms for a while, letting the silence soothe him.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

It’s a shot in the dark, you know, but you try anyway. Elias doesn’t answer, instead asking you what you did while he was gone. You indulge him, knowing it’s the only way to take his mind off the heartache, and narrate the menial chores you did in painstaking detail. It seems to help, and eventually Elias brings his own anecdotes into the conversation, telling you something dumb Brock had whispered in his ear at practice.

Eventually Elias has to get ready to go to the rink. Though he isn’t playing he’s expected to be there, dressed sharply and watching from the press box. You help him as best you can – ironing his favourite tie and filling his lucky mug with just the right amount of coffee.

He gives you a short hug in thanks before bending down to tie his dress shoes.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come?” you ask. “I can easily get a press pass and we could sit together.”

Elias shakes his head. “You have work to get done. I’ll be fine sunshine,” he says, doing his best to convince himself along with you that everything will be alright.

You watch him open the door and gingerly blow him a kiss as he turns to wave goodbye. It’s a silly ritual the two of you started a few years ago, before you’d moved in with Elias. He insisted you spend time with him before each home game, which meant you wound up cooking dinner and making sure he drank enough water. To annoy him you started blowing him kisses as he left, and the tradition continued once his place became yours. Elias catches it with his left hand and blows one back.

Not much work gets done while Elias is gone. You’re too worried about him to focus on your proposal and end up with your eyes glued to the television as you watch the game. The Canucks desperately need a win, something you hope they can get so your best friend can be put back into the lineup. Your eyes zero on Elias every time the camera pans to him sitting in the rafters, and your heart breaks each time you see the defeated look in his eyes. It seems to have worsened since he left home.

The game does not go well for the Canucks. It’s as if the team isn’t communicating with one another on the ice, and a lot of passes don’t connect. Shots aren’t on goal either – you know Elias is fuming from within the press box. He feels responsible for the team’s deterioration even though he isn’t playing. You watch the rest of the game with furrowed brows and think of ways you could support Elias. 

After sharing a space with him for almost an entire trip around the sun, you know Elias doesn’t like ‘grand’ gestures. He’ll hate if you draw him a bath, and besides, that’s not something roommates or best friends do for each other. That’s strictly reserved for romantic partners – something you’re sure you will never be to Elias. Ordering food is out of the question because he refuses to eat after nine-thirty, and sure it’ll be past ten before he walks through the door. You settle on warming up his favourite blanket in the dryer and making the both of you a cup of tea. If he wants to take them into his room to spend time alone and decompress that will be okay with you. 

Your phone chimes from its resting place on the kitchen counter. Wondering if it’s a friend wanting an explanation to Elias’s absence from the game, you grumble on your way to the device. The notification is from Elias himself, and you open it with baited breath. You know he’s devastated and pray he’s only letting you know he’s on his way home, not sharing bad news. 

Heading out now. Probably going to get stuck in traffic, got any sad song recommendations?

The message makes your heart break, but you respond with a playlist link that features your favourite songs to cry to. A short message is tacked on to the end to let him know you’re always ready to support him. 

Hopefully this fits the mood. I’m here for you. 

Elias’s response fills you with a small bit of hope. 

I know.

You set your plan into motion, and finish pouring the boiling tea into your favourite mugs as the door opens. 

“Hey,” you say tentatively, not sure what Elias’s mood will be like now that he doesn’t have to have his guard up. “I made you a cup of tea and there’s a blanket in the dryer that should still be pretty warm.”

“Thank you,” he mumbles, but it doesn’t make his words any less sincere. You can tell Elias is drained in every sense of the word by looking at him, and you decide you aren’t going to push him to talk tonight. The communication can come a bit later. 

The blonde trudges down the hallway to the small room where you keep the laundry and reappears moments later wrapped in the plush navy blanket you had prepared for him. Elias doesn’t even bother to change, too exhausted to get out of his suit. You blow some of the steam away from his mug before picking it up and padding over to where he’s sitting on the couch. Elias takes the mug gratefully, and tries to smile at you in thanks. It comes out more like a grimace. 

It’s silent as the two of you sit side by side, staring out the large window at Vancouver’s skyline. The absence of noise isn’t as unsettling as you feared but it still puts you on edge. You can tell Elias’s emotions are beginning to boil over, and you aren’t sure what to do about it. 

“It’s my fault,” he says, voice small and fragile. 

When you turn your head to see him, you’re met with two ice blue eyes brimming with tears. Your heart breaks for what feels like the hundredth time that night. “Elias, listen to me,” you urge, grasping his hands in yours. “The game wasn’t your fault. You not being on the ice did not cause the team to lose.”

Elias scoffs and rolls his eyes. For a split-second, hurt seeps into your bones, but you dispel it because you know he’s upset and didn’t mean to be so abrasive. 

“Not the game!” he shouts, anger clearly winning the mental battle of what emotion to present. “The entire fucking season. We’ve played like shit all year and it’s my fucking fault.”

“Elias,” you say as calmly as possible, knowing it’s important for one of you to be rational. “You’ve consistently put up points all season, and you’re only going through a short dry spell. You pick up the slack where needed and try your hardest to succeed. You’re a damn good teammate and the best hockey player I know. Please don’t be so hard on yourself.”

It’s then he breaks, collapsing into your wide open arms and sobbing. You hold him close to your chest, afraid that if you let him go he’ll disappear in front of your eyes. The sounds of his ragged breathing and your gentle encouragement bounce off the walls until all you can focus on is his heart rate returning to something in the ballpark of normal. Elias cries for an unknown amount of time and you don’t even bother to calculate it. He needed to let everything go – hopefully he can now turn the page on the past couple of months. 

When he seems like he’ll respond again, you speak. “I know they put a lot of pressure on you, and I know that you’re a professional athlete, but what they’re doing to you isn’t right. E, you don’t deserve to feel like this, regardless of how you’re playing or where the team is in the standings.”

“I just don’t know what to do,” Elias hiccups. “Everything has become a lot lately, and it keeps piling up. It’s affecting my play, and I just want the team to be successful. I want to be successful.”

You wrap your arms around him tighter and card your hands through his hair. “You are successful, and don’t you dare let anyone tell you otherwise. I’m always available to talk, but if you’d like I can book you an appointment at the clinic and you can talk to someone who’s actually qualified.”

“You’re so close to being fully qualified,” he encourages, always wanting to make sure you matter too. “But that would be really nice. Thank you.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

That phrase had first confused Elias when you first directed it towards him, but he now understands it’s your way of saying ‘Of course. I’d do anything for you’. You rarely use the phrase with anyone else, and it makes him feel special inside. 

Eventually you untangle your limbs from Elias’s, getting up to refill your mugs and insisting he change into clothing that’s more comfortable. He’s gone a lot longer from the couch than you are, and you begin to worry he won’t be reappearing. The creaking of a hinge wrangles you free from your thoughts. Elias pads back into the living room, dressed in a pair of ridiculously patterned pyjamas you had bought him two Christmases ago. 

“Hey,” he practically whispers. “Can I tell you something?”

You do your best to keep the alarm you feel from appearing on your face. After the conversation you just had, his mind could be going in a million different directions. “Always,” you reply, volume matching his. 

“If it weren’t for you, I don’t know if I’d still be playing hockey.” You make a sound of protest, but Elias doesn’t let you form it into a thought. “I’m dead serious. The night we met? I was a wreck. Sure, I was in the middle of a rookie season most players dream of, but I was so miserable. I cried every night on the way home from the rink and felt completely alone. You were the first person in Vancouver that didn’t expect anything of me, that still doesn’t. I’m so fucking thankful for you. I love you.”

Tears flow freely from your eyes and you raise the sleeve of your sweater to wipe them away. Elias isn’t one for heartfelt confessions – that’s much more your style. He shows his appreciation through random acts of kindness, so you deeply treasure his words. 

“I love you too E.”

He shakes his head. “You don’t understand,” he insists. “I really love you. I don’t mean it platonically, and I never have.”

You’re sufficiently shocked. “Don’t say something you don’t mean,” you mumble, pushing off the couch to go hide in your room. 

It’s Elias’s turn to grab your hand. His grip is gentle but still firm enough to let you know he isn’t going to drop the conversation. 

“Why wouldn’t I mean it?”

“Because,” you sigh, “You’re Elias fucking Pettersson. You’re the star centre of an NHL team and there’s a million other people better suited for you than me! Sure, I might be head over heels for you but we aren’t on the same level. I’m your best friend E, and that’s okay. I can live with that. What I can’t live with is you letting emotion get the better of you and confessing something that isn’t true. You’re grateful for my support, and I think we should just leave it at that.”

He shakes his head fervently. “This isn’t a spur of the moment decision Y/N,” Elias says. “I’ve been debating telling you for months, but the season kind of derailed my plans and got in the way. I love you.”

Before you can process the gravity of his words, Elias is pressing his lips to yours in an effort to show just how sincere he is. You falter for a split-second, shocked that this isn’t a dream – your best friend, who you’ve had a crush on for years, is in love with you and you’re in the process of kissing him – but you recover quickly. Kissing Elias feels like a long awaited homecoming. It’s as though you’ve found true peace, and nothing will ever be as good as your lips connecting. You lose yourself in him quite easily, and only focus to your surroundings when he pulls away to look in your eyes.

“So,” Elias sheepishly tucks a misplaced strand of hair behind your ear. “Think I could take you out, like on an actual date?”

You beam at him, leaning forward to place a chaste kiss to his lips. “That can most certainly be arranged.”

☼☼☼☼

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[rainoverthemountains]

should I post my spop story notes?

As people who followed my spop writing may have noticed, I haven’t written anything for those stories for a long time (February for Prisoner, September 2020 for Aftermath: Building a Life for (Dummies) Clones). I’m trying to decide what to do about this. I’m not at all in the fandom at the moment, but with some effort (rewatching some of the show, reading fanfic, etc.), I could at some point become interested again. It’s also possible that something could randomly inspire me again some day and I could start writing for it again. However, I don’t have time or energy to put in the work to reignite the inspiration (full time job + PhD means free time is precious and only available for activities of Maximum Excitement). So, I can conceive of how I might someday end up returning to those stories, but I don’t know when that would be. I feel guilty about this, but I don’t have a good solution for the foreseeable future.

However, what I do have is random bits and pieces and ideas of things that I thought might happen later in the stories. These are probably more exploring ideas type things than narrative, but some people might find them interesting, assuming that people are still interested in those stories. Who knows, if people find them interesting and chat with me about them it might even inspire me to pull them together into the actual story. But, of course, if I posted them, that would be spoilery for if I ever start actually writing them again, which I know some people don’t like. But I can make no promises about writing for this fandom again, so maybe people would like to see some of where the stories were going? I have much more energy for writing about what might happen than for actually making it happen in the story. So, would anyone be interested in seeing such things?

[solar-pxwered]

A List Of Norman Reedus Movies/Shows I Have Seen And My Opinions On Them

1. The Boondock Saints

The Best. A classic. Bloody and inappropriate and if I remember my count correctly, contains 194 “fucks” or variations of it (this movie certainly illustrates the diversity of the word). Terrible Irish accents. A KICKASS soundtrack. Willem DeFoe crossdressing. Dropping toilets on people’s heads. Over the top action sequences. Cheesy dialogue. Campy as fuck. I freakin’ love it.

2. The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day

Some people didn’t like this one as much as the first one, and I admit that I wasn’t as fond of the new detective in this one as I was of Smecker...but, overall, I really enjoyed it and I drove 2 hours to see it in theaters. I love Romeo more than Rocco. The humor was on point. It was nice to see the original actors for Doc, Dolly, Duffy and Greenley. There was more terrible Irish accents, another KICKASS soundtrack, cheesy dialogue, over the top action sequences, still campy as fuck. I freaking love it.

3. The Walking Dead

Cannot even describe how much I love this show. I have ALWAYS loved zombie related shows and movies so this show was right up my alley from the very beginning all the way back in 2010. I watched it religiously every Sunday. I adore this roller coaster ride of a show and I especially adore Daryl, Carol and Jerry. This show has it all: Comedy, drama (hella lots of that), tragedy and triumph...and it never fails to pulls me in and hold my interest.

4. Mimic

Honestly, I saw this a LONG time ago and I hated it because...well, because I have a cockroach phobia, ok?! Don’t judge. Norman’s part was pretty small, not one of his lasting impressions on me.

5. Six Ways To Sunday

This is a weird one. It’s about an overly innocent 18 year (played by Norman) who gets involved in the Mob and develops an alter ego that’s violent and his complete opposite. There’s murder, prostitutes and good ol’ fashioned mother-son incest and it wasn’t a movie I suggest for the lighthearted or anyone with those sort of triggers. 

That being said, I watched the whole thing and didn’t hate it. It was just uncomfortable...as seems to be a theme with Norman Reedus movies.

6. Dark Harbor

This fucking movie...

Ok, so, I’ll be straight with you: I really enjoyed this dumbass movie. It had me guessing right up to the very end and it took me on a very strange ride along the way. 

If watching someone sexually feed a woman a poisonous mushroom, lots of dark eyed staring scenes or Norman Reedus making out with Alan Rickman is your thing, then go for it. 

7. Let the Devil Wear Black

It’s modern Hamlet. What else is there to say? If you like Hamlet, you’ll like this movie. If you like pre-car accident, baby face Reedus with the black hair, you’ll like this movie. I liked it.

8. 8MM

You know what the best thing about this movie is? Nicholas Cage. He steals the damn show no matter what movie he’s in and no one can even deny that fact. Norman’s part in this one is pretty small too but I liked this movie anyway because...well, Nick Cage. Enough said.

9. Bad Seed

I honestly can’t remember how this movie ends, all I remember was that it wasn’t at all how I expected it. I liked this movie because it’s a psychological thriller and that’s my most favorite genre of all time. The movie’s premise is a guy suspects his wife of having an affair and comes home one night and finds her murdered so he goes after her lover (Reedus) to try and kill him because he believes he was the one who killed her. It’s a cat and mouse chase sort of thing...now I need to rewatch it because I can’t, for the life of me, remember how it ends.

10. Gossip

Ok, no JOKE, this is the best movie I ever randomly discovered and I can’t believe how many people have never heard of it! It’s got some big names in it (Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, James Marsden and Kate Hudson to name a few).

It’s a psychological thriller/mystery drama in which three friends start a rumor at their school as a social experiment for their class. The rumor grows, however, and suddenly it’s out of their hands and spiraling out of control. People start getting hurt, reputations get dragged through the mud and then it escalates to the point of someone losing their life. The three main characters {Reedus, Headey and Marsden) try to figure out the truth behind the out of control rumors and discover more than they ever imagined, or ever wanted.

I HIGHLY recommend this movie. I really, REALLY do. The ending is one of the best twists I’ve seen in a LONG time.

11. The Beatnicks

This movie is so weird. It’s like...it’s just really weird. It revolves around two beat poets who find a magic box that somehow magically helps them get good at being poets but it’s like...an evil box and so they decide to only use it once and then get rid of it. Yeah, it’s a weird movie. Not my highest suggestion.

12. Blade II

Ok, if you’ve never seen the Blade Trilogy then I just don’t even know what to tell you. 

My favorite of the three movies, Blade 2 gives us the glorious Reedus character of Scud, the pot smoking, horrible-shirt-wearing, mechanical genius and Blade’s sidekick. Not only is he precious and adorable, the movie in all is enjoyable and has a fun rave-esque soundtrack. 

The one thing I hate? *SPOILER ALERT* Scud’s scummy betrayal.

13. Tough Luck

This is another one of those movies that I liked but it’s just so freaking weird. 

It’s a psychological drama where a down on his luck con artist, Archie (Reedus), tries to rip off a carnival worker and gets caught. As punishment, he’s hired to work at the carnival  to pay off the debt. He gets involved in a scheme to murder the owner’s wife, but falls in love with her in the process.

Things go to shit. He gets the short end of the stick. More plots and lies develop. It’s all twisted until the end and the answers fall into place.

I really like this movie, it’s one that I kept and still have my copy of. 

A word of warning though, never leave this movie on your movie shelf for your father to find and watch while you’re away at college, resulting in your mother calling you and asking you why you have such a nasty movie. Because the sex scene at the end is OUTRAGEOUS. I mean, it is the FUNNIEST fucking sex scene I have ever seen in my life and I can’t ever watch it without cringing and laughing. My mother, however, didn’t think it was funny at all and my father was too shocked to even form a sentence.

I highly suggest this trippy as hell movie.

14. Octane

Ok, to be fair, this movie is actually alright, although Norman’s character gets the shittiest death possible. I mean, imagine dying because some psycho vampire kisses you and bites your tongue out. That’s one shitty death.

But, overall, this is a good thriller. Johnathan Rhys Meyers plays the villain and he’s always pretty quality. The story is basically a teenager has a disagreement with her mom and gets picked up by this drugged up, blood sucking, vampire wannabe cult and indoctrinated joining them. Her mother joins up with a tow truck driver (Reedus) whose daughter was also kidnapped years ago and who has been hunting the cult down ever since. 

It was a cringe filled, yet interesting, movie and I didn’t hate it.

15. John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns

This is John Carpenter....OF COURSE I liked this one. 

I won’t say what it’s about because that would ruin the story, but it’s part of an anthology and John Carpenter loved Norman’s role so much he STILL talks about it today and suggests Norman to people in the industry.

It’s a good one if you’re into horror shorts or anthologies or the genius of the legend that is John Carpenter.

16. A Crime

I had completely forgotten about this movie until I started making this post, but now that I remember...I REALLY liked this one!!

This is a pretty sad one, but it was very good and Norman’s acting in it is absolutely wonderful. His character’s wife was murdered and the suspect was never found so his neighbor, who really likes him, creates a fake culprit so that he can finally get some closure. 

This is a good one. I suggest this one if you’re in the mood for a strange sort of romance movie that has underlying thriller tones.

17. Moscow Chill

I remember watching this one, and I remember enjoying it, but I honestly can’t remember anything about it except that it’s a Russian film in which Norman plays a computer hacker who gets hired to hack into a Russian bank and gets caught and put in prison. But I honestly can’t remember what happens in detail.

If you like foreign movies with hacking and subterfuge plots, then give it a try because I do remember enjoying it while I watched.

18. Red Canyon

This one is kinda fucked up. Imagine Daryl Dixon mixed with Breaking Bad mixed with Deliverance and you’ve pretty much got the story...

A brother and sister return to their mother’s hometown to settle things and put their horrible past behind them...but upon returning they end up reliving the nightmare all over again.

It’s a good thriller/horror watch, but there are scenes of sexual violence so if that’s not something you can handle, then don’t watch this one.

19. Hero Wanted

This. Is. A. GOOD. Movie.

Cuba Gooding Jr. is the lead and he does an AMAZING job. Gooding’s character is a garbage man who falls in love with a girl who never takes any notice of him. To get her attention, he stages a heist in which he is supposed to jump in, save the day, and win the girl...only the heist turns out to be real and he is shot and the girl is also shot in the process. He sets out for revenge and gets in way over his head.

Norman’s part in this isn’t very big...but HOLY SHIT, was it impactful. His character didn’t have a lot of screen time, in comparison to a lot of other people, but he had a solid backstory and reason for being involved and MY GOD did I cry about it. This was actually the first movie of his I watched AFTER discovering Boondock Saints and it solidified my love for his acting abilities.

A very good watch. Highly suggest.

20. Messengers 2: The Scarecrow

This one is pretty ok, actually, as far as lame horror movies go. 

The plot is simple: Blonde, beardy, corn farmer Norman gets slowly driven insane by the haunted scarecrow in his field that he thinks putting up is a good idea for some damn reason. He starts to get more and more violent and rapey as time goes on until his family is forced to take up arms against him.

It’s not bad. Second part in what I THINK is a trilogy? I’ve only ever seen the first two. If you like horror movies then this one is a good watch. As I mentioned though, there is an attempted rape scene in this one so just be aware.

21: Pandorum

It’s an alien movie. Astronauts run into a species that is stronger and hungry for tasty humans. Shepard (Norman’s character) doesn’t make it out alive. If you’re not in the mood to see Norman get LITERALLY gutted or other characters get nommed by aliens, then don’t watch.

If you ARE, then go ahead and watch, because it was pretty alright.

[im-no-jedi]

hey guys, I just finished rewatching the entirety of Bad Batch and I’m Feeling™ things, mind if I gush for a bit? SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY LOL

first of all, I honestly can’t tell you what brought about this, I just randomly decided a couple days ago that I wanted to rewatch the show. it’s only one season rn, so it only took me a couple nights to finish. I would’ve finished sooner, but I’ve also been writing a self-insert fic alongside the rewatch because why not amirite hahaha. the hyperfixation is strong with this one 😂

secondly, I went into this rewatch REALLY wanting to see things from Crosshair’s perspective. knowing how the season ends and finding out that Crosshair (potentially) had his chip removed makes so much more sense now. there was one line in particular that really got me. it was during episode 15, after Crosshair had brought Hunter to Kamino. he said something about how the rest of the Batch would come for Hunter because “they don’t leave their own behind, most of the time.” Hunter retorts by saying Crosshair was trying to kill them, so they didn’t have a choice. Crosshair’s response? “And I did?”

THIS. MOTHERFRICKER.

at first I thought Crosshair was lying about getting his chip out, but that line has (mostly) changed my mind. Crosshair’s implying that he didn’t have control over his actions, AND HE KNEW IT. there was a scene in episode 3 where we see Crosshair on the operating table again, which at first we assume is them amplifying his chip again, but this was most likely when he got his chip out. episode THREE. and just like Rex and Wrecker, Crosshair remembered the horrible things he did while under the influence.

this is why he wants to reunite with the rest of the Batch again. yes, he’s still mad at Hunter because he felt abandoned, but he was still willing to give them another chance! and I! am! sad!!! 😭😭😭

honestly, my feelings for Crosshair have kind of changed. I felt bad for him at first because like the rest of the Batch, I thought he was still under the influence of the chip. but realizing that he was consciously making every single decision from episode 3 forward out of his own will? bruh... 

don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do not hate him or anything like that. if anything, I enjoy his character even more now. lbr, Crosshair has always been the actual edgy one of the group. we saw this all the way back when the Batch was first introduced. this time, when I rewatched the last two episodes and Crosshair talked about how loyal he was to the Empire... I believed him. because you know what? that’s one of Crosshair’s character traits. this man is LOYAL. that’s why he still wanted to be with the Batch and give them another chance. that’s why he got so hurt by them abandoning him. all of them, even Crosshair himself, knew that what he was doing was out of his control... and the Batch still left him.

y’all... if we don’t get some sort of hug between Crosshair and Omega in season two, I’m gonna mcfrickin lose it. that man needs a hug somethin awful 😢

on a happier note, this rewatch also made me appreciate Omega more, as if that was even possible. I didn’t know how much I needed this pure ray of sunshine until I got her OMG. just seeing what an impact she has on other people’s lives outside of the Batch... absolute best girl that I and everyone else would die for 💙💙💙

also??? apparently Mr Filoni decided to hint at what was going to happen in the season finale during the Ryloth arc and I’m mcfrickin losing it. it’s after Hunter tells Hera that saving her parents isn’t worth the risk, and Hera walks away upset. Omega tells Hunter he shouldn’t have said that, and Hunter talks about “knowing your limitations”. you know what best girl says to him after that?

Y’ALL... I SWEAR...

lessee, was there anything else I wanted to share... I mean unless y’all wanna hear me simp, which I could most definitely do and DID do as I was doing my rewatch cause lbr that was my main reason for starting the rewatch in the first place hahaha 

for reals tho y’all, the fic I’m writing is just an excuse for me to hug Omega and smooch Hunter and just overall simp over a bunch of rowdy boys lolololol

*AHEM* ok anyway, I think that’s all for now, I’m sure I’ll have other things to say once I’ve let it sit for a few days and gotten more feelings out in said fic, which I will NOT be sharing publicly nnnnnnnnope sorry ROFL unless y’all are into that of course, I won’t judge 👀

[classic80sand90smovieloves2]

Meeting and Dating Freddy Renfield

(Sorry about the bad gif/I’m an amateur)(requested by anonymous)

(It could just be quarantine but count nightwing kinda lookin like a snack as I rewatch the episode)

- Technically you “saw” Freddy before you actually met him.

- It was late one night and you were walking home from a friends house when you spotted a figure standing at the end of the street. It made you stop in your tracks as you tried to focus, wondering if your eyes were deceiving you in the dark.

- Deciding to check it out, you started to walk towards the shadowy figure when all of a sudden the crash of a garbage can made you turn around. When you looked back the figure was gone and goosebumps ran across your skin.

- Unbeknownst to you, you’d just narrowly avoided being a teenage vampires meal. But it wouldn’t be your last encounter with the undead.

- Soon after you found yourself in the chilled air of your yard, sitting in your swing after struggling to fall asleep after waking up in the middle of the night. You were almost positive that it was just the barren darkness that was making your skin crawl but you weren’t sure. It felt like someone’s eyes on you yet after surveying the streets and your own yard you didn’t find anything.

- Imagine your surprise when a voice rang out behind you.

“I see I’ve stumbled across a creature of the night” You almost jumped out of your skin as you whipped your head around.

- The owner of the voice was... kinda cute. At least he was the same age as you, that made things a whole lot less creepy. Plus, it was nice to connect a face to the feeling of eyes on you; you were almost completely sure it was him who’d been watching you.

- You shyly greeted him, hyper aware of the fact that you were dressed in your pajamas and that your hair probably looked like a birds nest. Yet he didn’t seem to mind as he walked closer, leaning against the support of the swing as he introduced himself and asked if he scared you.

- You vaguely recognized the name before realizing why you remembered it. Him and his family had been the talk of the town after both him and his sister randomly dropped out in middle school. Hardly anyone had seen them since.

- But here he was and here you were, having a conversation... in the night... and the fog...and your yard with no one else in sight. ...It was starting to dawn on you that this was a little weird.

- And yet you stayed, well... until he started talking about all the creatures that could be crawling around in the dark. You laughed, thinking he was joking but his face was serious...well, until he cracked a grin at your falling face.

- Finally, you decided that you’d had enough conversation for the night and stood with a scoff. You began walking towards your door but stopped for a moment when he asked what you were doing, following you as you went.

“I’m a bit too old for monsters Freddy.” You told him before disappearing inside your home.

- Weirdly enough, after your first late night encounter you began a friendship with the nocturnal boy. As soon as the sun began to go down you’d find him lingering in the shade waving you over. If it was later in the night he’d throw rocks at your window until you noticed him.

- You’d been friends with Freddy for a while when he asked if he could show you something. Soon enough you found yourself under a streetlight watching as he took a nervous deep breath and grew fangs before your eyes. All you could do was stare at him, not saying a word as he awaited your response.

- Hesitantly, you placed your hands on his face, holding him still as you moved closer, wanting a better look as you processed what you were seeing. Before you knew what was happening he surged forward and placed his lips on yours, stealing a quick chaste kiss.

- You weren’t sure what to say after that, you’d just been “told” that your best friend was a vampire and that he likes you as more than a friend. What could you say after that?

“You...have a lot of explaining to do.”

- And thus began your relationship with the teenage creature of the night.

- Well your boyfriends a vampire so obviously you don’t go out very much. A lot of your dates are hanging out at his house, going to the park or walking around town.

- Bowling or arcade dates when you can afford it.

- That being said, unless you have lenient parents you’re going to have to be okay with sneaking out. Although I suppose if you dressed him up like a mummy or clung to the shadows you could go out during the day.

- Get used to knocks at your window since that’s how he invites you out. All of a sudden you’ll hear a tap at the glass and he’ll be peeking in at you, asking to be let in.

- Every now and again you’ll be too tired to hang out so you’ll have to put up with his pout when he arrives at your window. But depending on how much he wants to be with you he’ll sometimes just crawl into bed behind you.

- Thats one thing he does sort of miss: having a bed. So he doesn’t mind laying down with you from time to time, even if he doesn’t fall asleep.

- When grandpa Nightwing hears about your relationship he decides to give Freddy his century old, outdated advice. Some of it is salvageable, other things not so much....

- Kind of uncomfortable dinners with his family, they’re lovely “people” but it takes some getting used to. He’s definitely joked that you’re dinner before and made you nervous.

- He likes to scare you with different horror stories and pranks.

- Teases you with his fangs, like baring his teeth and curling his fingers like they’re claws. Usually after he makes a joke about his monster side, or after you do.

- He gets a bit shy when bringing you into his bedroom for the first time but he finds it cute when you marvel at his coffin. He offers to let you try it, “only if you’d like.”.

- Hanging out in his basement.

- Playing air hockey with him. He can get competitive but after a while so will you, the spirit is contagious.

- Wrestling with each other.

- Hes a cheeky boy so be prepared to deal with that. You might want to learn a few lines to throw back at him.

- He may or may not let you go for a ride in Count Nightwings coffin. Only during the daytime of course, he doesn’t want you coming face to face with a bloodthirsty batch of vampires.

- Because he’s aware of what lurks in the dark he’s grown very protective of you. He doesn’t like you being alone at night or doing anything remotely foolish. Like going into the woods by yourself even if it’s during the day; he isn’t the only creature that’s not fiction.

- If you’re ever faced with anything scary he makes sure to step in front of and shield you. They’ll have to go through him to get to you.

- He’s pretty cunning so he usually has no problem bailing you out of whatever trouble you’re in.

- He likes proving he’s tough, whether that be by telling you stories about himself or doing dangerous/scary things in front of you. He’d find it amusing if you got worried over him but he’d also grow a bit flustered at the attention.

- You’ll definitely have to deal with gossip since someone will inevitably see you together or you’ll have to tell someone about your relationship.

- Growing close to Cara. If we’re going by the book then you’d hang out with her during the school day.

- She’d help you get revenge and tease Freddy after he teases you. All you really have to do is ignore him to whisper with her and you’ll drive him crazy with your “secret keeping”.

- Since you’re usually together during the night you never have to worry about what other people think. You can always be your idiotic or silly selves with each other.

- Hes can get a bit jealous but not just in the romantic way. He’s jealous of regular people who can spend as much time as they’d like with you because they aren’t bound to the dark. And he’s jealous of other guys who would make much easier boyfriends or who can be around you all day and grow closer while he’s away from you.

- Making cute deals with each other.

“If I do X can I have a kiss?”

“If you do it I’ll give you two.”

“It’s a deal!”

- He’s not a big fan of surprises for obvious reasons. He much prefers you just telling him what you have in store for him.

- He has a tendency to get carried away with things which can cause you to fight from time to time. Although, your fights never last very long and he doesn’t have a problem apologizing.

- You’re like 80% of his impulse control, you have to stop him from doing risky or stupid things.

- Grandpa Nightwing has probably given Freddy an old amulet to give to you for your birthday or some other special occasion. Neither of you are sure if it has magical properties or not.

- Koala hugging him while he hangs from the ceiling/crawls on it.

- You definitely have to dress up as a vampire for Halloween at least once.

- Movie marathons.

- Handholding.

- It does take some getting used to when you go to his house. It’s a bit disorienting when you arrive at ten o’clock pm and you’re greeted with an early morning atmosphere.

- Don’t worry if you catch him staring at you, he’s trying to look at every detail of your face so that he can remember it perfectly during the long times he’s away from you.

- Cara likes to tease the two of you when you get all mushy after not seeing each other. Her favorite descriptor is “nauseating”.

- They say you should never trust a vampire but the sentiment is hard to believe when your boyfriend is such a sweetheart.

[trishyeves]

Episode 4-Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Oh boy, we are back into the Ranma Rewatch and this time it’s the fourth episode, titled “Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another”. That is definitely the kind of title I remember more from this show: incredibly long and silly. I love it in any series where the titles are like half-formed sentences. As for what I’m expecting in this episode...I honestly don’t really remember. We’re already reaching the edges of my memory, so I look forward to seeing it with fresh eyes.

Yeah, I had pretty much forgotten about most of the stuff that happened in this episode, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The episode starts with Ranma having a bad dream about Kuno professing his love and asking him out. After waking up in a cold sweat, Ranma takes a bath and shenanigans happen.

There’s some cute banter between Ranma and Akane on the way to school, then a threepeat of the fight against all the guys trying to ask her out. Kuno makes an appearance at the end again, but this time he’d taken out in one combined hit from both Ranma and Akane. He’s tended to in the nurse’s office afterwards by Nabiki, who finds out from his sleep talking that he’s fallen in love with ‘the pigtailed girl’ in addition to Akane, and feels conflicted over who he should choose.

Seeing an opportunity, Nabiki abuses the fact that apparently Ranma is a heavy sleeper to activate his curse as he sleeps, takes a bunch of sexy pics, then turns him back, all without him ever waking up. Not too long later, she gets a surprise message from Kuno, asking to meet up.

He treats her to a meal, asking her the favor of delivering a cute doll he got as a present to its recipient: the pigtailed girl. Before addressing that idea, Nabiki tempts him with the sexy pictures of his new waifu, only letting him even see them if Kuno treats her to spaghetti. I thought that might be a dub change, but it’s not, either language they still go out for Italian pasta. She sells them to him for 1000 yen a pop, then asks if he’s giving up on Akane then. He clarifies that he intends to pursue them both, so Nabiki reveals there are Akane pictures available too. In exchange for free ice cream, and the same price per picture, she sells him those too.

Only with that done does she tell him how to get his present to the pigtailed girl: Ranma is the only way. She doesn’t explain why, but Kuno doesn’t dig too deeply into it. She couriers a letter to the titular protagonist, asking for a meet up, which Ranma goes to. Once it becomes clear exactly what Kuno is asking for, Ranma rebuffs him, saying he’ll never see his precious pigtailed girl ever again.

This threat becomes somewhat toothless when someone randomly dumping water out of their window activates Ranma’s curse, and Kuno quickly embraces the object of his affections. This hug becomes a little awkward when Nabiki appears and douses Ranma with hot water, and Kuno realizes who he is ‘now’ hugging. You might think this would mean he has some understanding of what’s going on, but Kuno’s immediate thought is that Ranma knows some vile sorcery.

When Nabiki realizes how dense Kuno really is, she decides to phrase it to him as Ranma ‘owning the pigtailed girl’s body and soul’, which is not technically a lie. That said, of course Kuno interprets that as meaning that somehow Ranma has the warrior woman he loves enslaved to him in some way, so a fight breaks out.

When Ranma sees the photos Kuno has on him, it distracts him enough to take a hit to the torso, just as Akane arrives. Just as Kuno starts getting serious, the air pressure from his piercing attacks alone strong enough to crack a statue apart, Ranma counteracts and wins, though it becomes clear his injury hurts like hell, even if he’s trying to ignore it.

And that’s it, no cliffhangers this time around. Now that Kuno’s love for Ranma’s alter ego has been established, the actual meat of what that means, namely how he sees them as two separate people and chases one while attacking the other, is what this episode works to make clear. It also sets up his and Nabiki’s dynamic more, but that’ll be something I talk about more in just a little bit.

There are two kind-of bigger things I want to pull out of this episode. First one being the dream sequence at the start. Now, I am fairly sure that whole bit is meant to be there for comedy, in a very ‘gay panic’ kind of way. Which honestly...does not play super well these days. Ranma’s terror at the dream, on a surface reading, has to do with him being super grossed out that some dude is in love with him.

Of course, there are other ways to read the scene as well. I’m sure some people might instead look at it as being less a nightmare and more like Ranma running away from his own possible attraction to another guy, and while that’s definitely possible, I didn’t really get that vibe at all. That said, if you did, rock on.

What I saw as more likely was a gender-based reading. Ranma is, more than anything else, freaked out by Kuno’s love declaration because it’s someone seeing him as something he’s not, a woman. Kuno isn’t interested in Ranma, he’s interested in a woman who doesn’t exist. Ranma has a lot of complicated feelings tied up in his masculinity, which his curse doesn’t exactly help with, and Kuno’s attraction to his cursed form just makes it all worse.

Speaking of attraction, let’s talk about Kuno. The fact that everyone calls his affections for two people at the same time ‘two timing’ is a bit vexing to me. As someone who has been in polyamorous relationships before, I can attest to the fact that liking more than one person at a time is totally okay, and if everyone involved is okay with it, dating multiple people is also okay.

That is kind of the problem though. Neither Akane or Ranma like Kuno, and neither is likely to want to date him, regardless of if he’s dating someone else at the time. Their problem with Kuno isn’t his dual attraction, it’s that they just plain don’t care for the guy. (And Ranma probably doesn’t swing that way, but he could be repressing it so what the hell do I know.) Even with that in mind, I still kind of roll my eyes at how Kuno ‘liking two girls’ is treated as a perversion. That just kinda sucks.

Last thing before the character spotlight I can think of is that I really liked the fight in this episode, the action was pretty good. ... Listen, I know that’s not exactly expert analysis, but it’s what I got.

I feel like covering Nabiki now is pretty much a no brainer. Of all the side characters introduced so far, she’s easily gotten the most shading, and this episode in particular develops her further for the audience. In terms of voice acting, she’s played in English by Angel Costain and in Japanese by Minami Takayama. Angela isn’t known for much else, which is quite a shame, because she’s pretty fantastic, in my personal opinion. Minami, on the other hand, has a pretty huge resume, and along with the voice actors for Akane, Ranma’s cursed form, Kasumi, and a character we haven’t met yet, was in a pop group called DoCo.

In terms of acting, they both play her fairly similarly. A normal girl at first glance, but with quite the amount of dry wit and sarcasm lying beneath that surface. The main difference I’ve seen so far is that Angela seems to have more mirth to her performance, while Minami’s is a bit more deadpan. Both are good, though I definitely prefer the english performance so far.

But what is Nabiki actually like? Well, of the three Tendo siblings, Nabiki hides who she is more than the others. For the first few episodes, she comes across as a fairly unassuming character, most known for her occasional snark. But this episode is where we get to see her primary character trait: greed. Nabiki is quite happy to take advantage of Ranma’s curse to make money, though how far she’s willing to go for the yen hasn’t really been made clear.

It is worth noting that, while her pictures of Ranma were very sexy and revealing, her pictures of Akane were just of her working out and stuff, far less of an invasion of her sister’s privacy. Does she have better respect for family than the freeloaders who live with them? That’s to be seen.

Another big character trait we’ve gotten so far is her...friendship? Sure, let’s go with that, her friendship with Kuno. Always happy to try and pop his inflated ego with her sharp wit, they have a good comedy routine going. At the same time, she does seem to legitimately be there for him, since she was taking care of him after he got knocked out. They get shipped a lot, which I definitely see the appeal of, but part of me just kind of likes the idea that they’ve just known each other for a long time, and they just kind of have a thing going. Not that any kind of friendship they may have is coming close to stopping her from bilking him from as much money and free food as she can. Of course, Kuno is quite rich, so he can afford it.

Some people have described Nabiki as a villain, but I wouldn’t really agree with that. What she is, is someone happy to create conflict. She’s a fun addition to the cast, and I can’t think of any time in my previous watch-throughs where I got tired of her being there. (Which is not something I can say about every character in this series.)

Now it’s time to rank the episodes once again. Of the four episodes so far, I can immediately say this one is in the top half. I enjoyed Nabiki’s antics and the marital arts quite a bit, but I don’t think it’s quite as strong as the second episode. So far, that means the rankings are:

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Will next week’s episode be just as entertaining? Well, I don’t know, but from what I remember about episode 5, “Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart”, I don’t think that will be the case. See you then!

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 4-Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Oh boy, we are back into the Ranma Rewatch and this time it’s the fourth episode, titled “Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another”. That is definitely the kind of title I remember more from this show: incredibly long and silly. I love it in any series where the titles are like half-formed sentences. As for what I’m expecting in this episode...I honestly don’t really remember. We’re already reaching the edges of my memory, so I look forward to seeing it with fresh eyes

Yeah, I had pretty much forgotten about most of the stuff that happened in this episode, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The episode starts with Ranma having a bad dream about Kuno professing his love and asking him out. After waking up in a cold sweat, Ranma takes a bath and shenanigans happen.

There’s some cute banter between Ranma and Akane on the way to school, then a threepeat of the fight against all the guys trying to ask her out. Kuno makes an appearance at the end again, but this time he’d taken out in one combined hit from both Ranma and Akane. He’s tended to in the nurse’s office afterwards by Nabiki, who finds out from his sleep talking that he’s fallen in love with ‘the pigtailed girl’ in addition to Akane, and feels conflicted over who he should choose.

Seeing an opportunity, Nabiki abuses the fact that apparently Ranma is a heavy sleeper to activate his curse as he sleeps, takes a bunch of sexy pics, then turns him back, all without him ever waking up. Not too long later, she gets a surprise message from Kuno, asking to meet up.

He treats her to a meal, asking her the favor of delivering a cute doll he got as a present to its recipient: the pigtailed girl. Before addressing that idea, Nabiki tempts him with the sexy pictures of his new waifu, only letting him even see them if Kuno treats her to spaghetti. I thought that might be a dub change, but it’s not, either language they still go out for Italian pasta. She sells them to him for 1000 yen a pop, then asks if he’s giving up on Akane then. He clarifies that he intends to pursue them both, so Nabiki reveals there are Akane pictures available too. In exchange for free ice cream, and the same price per picture, she sells him those too.

Only with that done does she tell him how to get his present to the pigtailed girl: Ranma is the only way. She doesn’t explain why, but Kuno doesn’t dig too deeply into it. She couriers a letter to the titular protagonist, asking for a meet up, which Ranma goes to. Once it becomes clear exactly what Kuno is asking for, Ranma rebuffs him, saying he’ll never see his precious pigtailed girl ever again.

This threat becomes somewhat toothless when someone randomly dumping water out of their window activates Ranma’s curse, and Kuno quickly embraces the object of his affections. This hug becomes a little awkward when Nabiki appears and douses Ranma with hot water, and Kuno realizes who he is ‘now’ hugging. You might think this would mean he has some understanding of what’s going on, but Kuno’s immediate thought is that Ranma knows some vile sorcery.

When Nabiki realizes how dense Kuno really is, she decides to phrase it to him as Ranma ‘owning the pigtailed girl’s body and soul’, which is not technically a lie. That said, of course Kuno interprets that as meaning that somehow Ranma has the warrior woman he loves enslaved to him in some way, so a fight breaks out.

When Ranma sees the photos Kuno has on him, it distracts him enough to take a hit to the torso, just as Akane arrives. Just as Kuno starts getting serious, the air pressure from his piercing attacks alone strong enough to crack a statue apart, Ranma counteracts and wins, though it becomes clear his injury hurts like hell, even if he’s trying to ignore it.

And that’s it, no cliffhangers this time around. Now that Kuno’s love for Ranma’s alter ego has been established, the actual meat of what that means, namely how he sees them as two separate people and chases one while attacking the other, is what this episode works to make clear. It also sets up his and Nabiki’s dynamic more, but that’ll be something I talk about more in just a little bit.

There are two kind-of bigger things I want to pull out of this episode. First one being the dream sequence at the start. Now, I am fairly sure that whole bit is meant to be there for comedy, in a very ‘gay panic’ kind of way. Which honestly...does not play super well these days. Ranma’s terror at the dream, on a surface reading, has to do with him being super grossed out that some dude is in love with him.

Of course, there are other ways to read the scene as well. I’m sure some people might instead look at it as being less a nightmare and more like Ranma running away from his own possible attraction to another guy, and while that’s definitely possible, I didn’t really get that vibe at all. That said, if you did, rock on.

What I saw as more likely was a gender-based reading. Ranma is, more than anything else, freaked out by Kuno’s love declaration because it’s someone seeing him as something he’s not, a woman. Kuno isn’t interested in Ranma, he’s interested in a woman who doesn’t exist. Ranma has a lot of complicated feelings tied up in his masculinity, which his curse doesn’t exactly help with, and Kuno’s attraction to his cursed form just makes it all worse.

Speaking of attraction, let’s talk about Kuno. The fact that everyone calls his affections for two people at the same time ‘two timing’ is a bit vexing to me. As someone who has been in polyamorous relationships before, I can attest to the fact that liking more than one person at a time is totally okay, and if everyone involved is okay with it, dating multiple people is also okay.

That is kind of the problem though. Neither Akane or Ranma like Kuno, and neither is likely to want to date him, regardless of if he’s dating someone else at the time. Their problem with Kuno isn’t his dual attraction, it’s that they just plain don’t care for the guy. (And Ranma probably doesn’t swing that way, but he could be repressing it so what the hell do I know.) Even with that in mind, I still kind of roll my eyes at how Kuno ‘liking two girls’ is treated as a perversion. That just kinda sucks.

Last thing before the character spotlight I can think of is that I really liked the fight in this episode, the action was pretty good. ... Listen, I know that’s not exactly expert analysis, but it’s what I got.

I feel like covering Nabiki now is pretty much a no brainer. Of all the side characters introduced so far, she’s easily gotten the most shading, and this episode in particular develops her further for the audience. In terms of voice acting, she’s played in English by Angel Costain and in Japanese by Minami Takayama. Angela isn’t known for much else, which is quite a shame, because she’s pretty fantastic, in my personal opinion. Minami, on the other hand, has a pretty huge resume, and along with the voice actors for Akane, Ranma’s cursed form, Kasumi, and a character we haven’t met yet, was in a pop group called DoCo.

In terms of acting, they both play her fairly similarly. A normal girl at first glance, but with quite the amount of dry wit and sarcasm lying beneath that surface. The main difference I’ve seen so far is that Angela seems to have more mirth to her performance, while Minami’s is a bit more deadpan. Both are good, though I definitely prefer the english performance so far.

But what is Nabiki actually like? Well, of the three Tendo siblings, Nabiki hides who she is more than the others. For the first few episodes, she comes across as a fairly unassuming character, most known for her occasional snark. But this episode is where we get to see her primary character trait: greed. Nabiki is quite happy to take advantage of Ranma’s curse to make money, though how far she’s willing to go for the yen hasn’t really been made clear.

It is worth noting that, while her pictures of Ranma were very sexy and revealing, her pictures of Akane were just of her working out and stuff, far less of an invasion of her sister’s privacy. Does she have better respect for family than the freeloaders who live with them? That’s to be seen.

Another big character trait we’ve gotten so far is her...friendship? Sure, let’s go with that, her friendship with Kuno. Always happy to try and pop his inflated ego with her sharp wit, they have a good comedy routine going. At the same time, she does seem to legitimately be there for him, since she was taking care of him after he got knocked out. They get shipped a lot, which I definitely see the appeal of, but part of me just kind of likes the idea that they’ve just known each other for a long time, and they just kind of have a thing going. Not that any kind of friendship they may have is coming close to stopping her from bilking him from as much money and free food as she can. Of course, Kuno is quite rich, so he can afford it.

Some people have described Nabiki as a villain, but I wouldn’t really agree with that. What she is, is someone happy to create conflict. She’s a fun addition to the cast, and I can’t think of any time in my previous watch-throughs where I got tired of her being there. (Which is not something I can say about every character in this series.)

Now it’s time to rank the episodes once again. Of the four episodes so far, I can immediately say this one is in the top half. I enjoyed Nabiki’s antics and the marital arts quite a bit, but I don’t think it’s quite as strong as the second episode. So far, that means the rankings are:

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another Episode 1: Here’s Ranma Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Will next week’s episode be just as entertaining? Well, I don’t know, but from what I remember about episode 5, “Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart”, I don’t think that will be the case. See you then!