#only saw 2 eps so far and it's both hard and great

[cacophonylily]

This made me so happy.

[hisui555]

Hazbin Hotel thoughts : Foils 3

(Foils 1 here)

(Foils 2 here)

(Foils 4 here)

Masterpost here.

Might as well crank out that one while I'm at it. Two words (and a half) : Alastor VS Vox.

(...Alright, not everybody at once, someone might get caught in the stampede.)

Yep, let's talk about two of the statistically main favorites (well, they're mine too in a way. In a "would like to see them trip up and crumble" way), who have a lot in common despite how much they despise each other. First of all, let's round up what we know : they have a Radio VS Video shtick that everyone and their dog knows about, inside and outside the show, are both Overlords, might have been closer in the past whatever that relationship was based on the torn photo of Alastor in Vox' possession (seen in Ep 8), Alastor died in the 1930s while Vox died in the 1950s, so the former has been around 20 years in Hell when the latter popped up there and highly probably met him there, Vox wanted him on his team at one point but Alastor turned him down as flat as his face, Vox infamously got butthurt (and it's implied he had/still has a crush on Alastor - at the very least a very strong interest to be noticed by him - if going by the Hazbin Wiki's cited sources, the archived "Hazbin Hotel Fashion Stream for the Comics") and metaphorically speaking declared war on him, while Alastor very much doesn't have the same obsession and outside of feeling aggravated by Vox' presence when Vox decides to crave attention, can't care less about him.

Hilariously enough, though, they have quite the lot of parallels, even hitting idependently the same idea - religious outfit, multi-shot of themselves around a target to get a point across, mocking doodles for a broadcast, ominous about-to-lose-it "What did you say" in a heavily filtered voice, clawing up a surface under out-of-control emotions, hundred-watts smile to keep up appearances (and as a tool like Alastor himself points out), the clothing style (though Vivienne liking bowties and suits does have a hand in it), the go-to guy where problems arise (Alastor being the powerful one dealing with physical threats the Hotel faces, Vox being the local babysitter to make things fall in line), the showmanship, the pride, the issues with control, the attention-craving tendencies and hatred of being ignored... you certainly saw the posts on Tumblr, I'm not the first one pointing this out, by far (deuxaeonn has a very good one here). But looking closely, it looks like either they have naturally a lot in common, or that someone (not naming names but giving you a hard sideglance, Vox) has caught habits or is emulating the other sub/consciously. Given that one had a 20 years heads-up in Hell on the other, well, can't be that far-fetched (even if nothing is confirmed at this point by now, at the time of writing).

The main difference is how they go at it : Alastor is steadier and truer to himself than Vox, who privileges quantity over quality. While both have issues with control and presenting an unflappable front (which they are very much not), Alastor manages to keep it better together, whereas Vox dissolves into what can be only called a tantrum when things don't go his way ("FffuhuHuck !") and his ego takes a blow. Vox also has to try harder or more actively to get attention to him (Stayed Gone's beginning, where he We Don't Talk About Bruno-ed himself by speaking about Alastor to say that it's useless to speak about Alastor. "Stop giving him the time of day !" - great job, buddy) while Alastor just has to pop up and in three quick sentences dresses him down in front of everyone. While Vox floods people with too much and meaningless information - be it visual or audible, hopping from scene to scene, Alastor plays with mystery and withholding information so that everyone goes crazy guessing ("I'm sure you've all been wondering") - which works well on the fans outside the show, but inside ? Not so much : Carmilla just shrugs him off, Zestial is mildly curious at best, the other Overlord don't even ask, Lucifer doesn't even know who he is, which drives him up the wall. The only one actually caring (despite insisting on the contrary) about what he does and why he's back ? Ironically, that's the one Alastor doesn't want to acknowledge !

(Oh, Vox, you wish Alastor would look at you the same way he looks at Lucifer... boy this is peak comedy gold.)

Alastor only needs his voice and aura of enigma wrapped into a mystery, while Vox has his face everywhere. Alastor chooses each moment to make them more impactful and plays his cards close to his chest, while Vox wants to be on all fronts and keep the cards coming to drown the opponent with them. Alastor only has to speak to intimidate, Vox relies on his bullshit-talking skills and hypnosis, though they both have confidence and charisma : Alastor's is more about danger and unpredictability, someone to be wary of, Vox' is about false friendliness and advertising, someone to trust. Alastor joins the Hotel for his own personal amusement and is very upfront about his sadistic motives, Vox plays friendly and hides his own behind false niceness and pretend service. With both of them, you need to read the fine print : literally with Vox ("Trust us ! With what ? None of your business" - seen on one of his posters in Ep 2 if you're looking for it) and metaphorically with Alastor - he'll honor his word, and his word alone.

Both also don't drop the façade when in private, though it doesn't take much for Vox to be pushed over the edge (a certain name will do it just fine), while Alastor keeps on the smile even in the middle of a breakdown (though if it's out of habit, or because he maybe literally can't is up in the air for now). They both want control and to be in control, and fancy themselves to be quite powerful. Their arrogance also doesn't help : Alastor goes against Adam without any angelic weaponry, and guess who loses the fight ? For Vox, Stayed Gone is basically him wanting to throw a stone and realizing too late it was in fact a boomerang. That he caught with his face. This guy should write a book : How To Shoot Yourself In The Foot 101. Funnily enough, they also seem to have issues with boredom and frustration : Alastor needs to be entertained, and Vox' life isn't sometimes as glamourous as he paints it out to be - that with having to deal with coworkers that put the "dick" in predictable and the "ass" in pass.

Alastor however is much more competent (if equally petty) at keeping it together than Vox, never losing that gentlemanly attitude (or almost). He rebounds more easily, and while both are manipulative, Alastor pushes the right buttons (not unlike Velvette, even if she's doing it very agressively) he knows will give him the best response, playing into insecurities and weaknesses (Cheap Booze (TM) for Husk, catering to Charlie's need of approval by playing the 'dad figure'), while Vox guides people to the conclusion he wants them to make by letting them think they did the process on their own (seen with Valentino) and prodding for the right answers. It's also interesting to see that, while he responds if provoked, up to know Alastor never really starts a song on his own : even Inside Of Every Demon Is A Lost Cause is a reprise riding on Charlie's Inside Of Every Demon Is A Rainbow that he composes on the fly. Stayed Gone has him responding to Vox, Hell's Greatest Dad is him hijacking Lucifer's show to steal his thunder, Ready For This has him as a part of the group, and only the Finale verse has him alone and clashing with the rest of the song, only popping back up from "And we'll do it with a smile !" line onwards.

It underscores nicely Alastor's ability to insert himself in the life of others and riding the coattails of what's currently going on to his needs, going along with the flow until his goals are met, from the shadows that make up his powers. Vox on the other side presents himself as a necessity taking over everyone's lives, in center-stage and spotlight, dominating all fields from TV shows to cereals and ice cream, for crying out loud, just like he did technology. His powers are lightning-based (outside of technology-themed), which makes a funny contrast with Alastor's shadows. Also, just to nail it home, one has an almost-complete red palette (with black accents) while the other's is blue (with bits of red). And of course, they're both the Old (Alastor, who dislikes anything made after his death in the 1930s) and the New (Vox, who keeps up with technology's evolution, always chases after new trends and replaced body parts like his head to fit better) - hence Vox also appearing more shallow but also more adaptative than Alastor, who's more upfront about his intentions but also a bit behind the times and could be left in the dust if he weren't so powerful, but in a way, like radio, is less regarded but still useful and relevant. As many people pointed out, radio waves are the basis for TV, after all.

Their ascentions to power are also different despite similarities : they both became each one of the well-known hot acts in Hell, though with Alastor it came completely out of left field to the shock of everyone, as he's rumored to be one of the most powerful Sinner souls in Hell on his own (presumably) and nobody knows how, while Vox is the powerful CEO of a domain that has monopoly on entertainment in the Pride Ring, and most-likely climbed the ladder in relatively "normal" ways compared to the sheer mystery surrounding Alastor : Vox made the right connections, used his knowledge, forged the right contracts and alliances at the right times and like other companies associated himself with the right people for it to work (the Vees). Vox managed to fight Alastor and live to tell the tale (getting "almost beaten"), and while Alastor can easily upstage him, this means that he's still worthy of the title of Overlord and probably no slouch in an actual fight. Probably. Or at least has a style of fighting that makes him annoying and/or dangerous to face. However, what Alastor can face on his own and mainly alone, Vox has to do while relying on others.

But seriously, if these two are revealed to have been sort-of buddies in the past, I wouldn't be surprised.

(Also, just adding : the idea of Vox getting dissed romantically by someone who thought they just dissed him in a business-way, because they're completely blind to the potential romantic implications, and Vox thinking this was on purpose, is just gut-busting hilarious. I don't know which way it'll go in the show, but if it happens that way, I WILL crack my whole ribcage in hysterics.)

Welp, see ya next time by brain goes "ding !" again.

Again, Masterpost here.

PS : Thank you deuxaeonn for allowing the link to your post !

[jemmo]

i am so done with crying this week. first i hear the sunspot, and now these penultimate eps of his man. i already cried last week and this week i cried even more. seriously, this is not fair.

i don’t exactly wanna give a person by person run down for these eps seen as there wasn’t a lot of drama, it was more about healing a lot of different relationships and coming to terms with the show being over which is always hard. but looking back, i have really enjoyed this season. and i think what makes his man as a show special is that, from the 3 seasons we’ve had so far, all of them have felt different, and i feel like the staff are really good at working off what is happening naturally between these people to craft and guide the show. it makes it so that the people on the show really do make it, whatever develops is what we see and it gives such a good insight into just what it’s like to be human and develop relationships of all kinds. season 1 had its first season awkwardness and season 2 had its big romance but also felt a lot more romantic, but this season felt fun, in both its drama and it’s lighter moments, i was always enjoying watching, and im not mad just bc i don’t have another great junseongho love story. yes it’s premise is a dating show, but it’s more throw 8 men into a house for a week and see what happens, and this season i felt like touched more on like… the intensity of the whole thing, and how it effects people and how people dealt with it, like for so many of them we saw them at their lowest most overwhelmed point but we also saw them come out from it and be happy again, and it was the people around them that helped them. no matter what was going on, there was always a sense of ‘we’re in this shitstorm together so it’s alright, i can be by your side’. take this last ep, we saw so many people cry, and what touched me the most is that whenever someone was upset, they were never left alone. they always had someone to comfort them in whatever way they could, be it reassurance or jokes or just company. it almost felt like the end of a high school movie where everyone who’s been mean to each other through the whole thing says sorry and and joke and move past everything and have fun which i love. just as much as finding a romantic partner, this show has come to be about building friendships within the gay community, where you can talk to someone that has that experience or is just similar to you in that way so you have that comfort and space to be yourself. these people are so vulnerable on this show bc it’s the shows nature to expose parts of people that make them the most vulnerable, like only on this dating show do you get fully grown men crying like babies, and while it’s difficult, it’s also like a fast-track to make strong bonds with the people around you, like shared trauma but nicer. idk, i don’t know where im going with this rant, it’s just both the hwi and jaeseung and hwi and seungjin moments really touched me and i needed to stop crying so i started typing. i just love how human this show is and i love friendship and i love love. goodnight.

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (06/10/24)

I think this is the most yapping I've done in one of these posts by far good lord, tho it's cause so much shit started this week.. Like I watched 7 out of those 8 new shows back to back yesterday weh (I blame this on there not being subs for the thursday shows on time) But anyway, a new season is always a fun time, I wish the shows were a bit more spread out through the week but I'll live

Green - New series/New to me Blue - Finale/Completed

Anime

Acro Trip Ep1-2

Well those certainly were 2 first eps huh. I decided to watch this cause people described it as "gushing but sfw" and I thought the pv wasn't bad but gotta say I was p disappointed. I didn't even know the premiere was gonna be 2 episodes and was even more surprised about that fact when I found out this was the studio's first show. After watching them, I get it. The animation was the bare minimum it could be, there was a tiny crumb of sakuga in ep 1 but even that wasn't very impressive. They have good expressions tho I'll give them that. And Mikku and Nobu as the mains is a fun duo. But yeah it's very hard for me to describe what was wrong with it, it was just weird. They didn't get to her joining the baddies, which is the whole premise of the show, in the first ep, like?? The audio also felt off cause there was a buncha scenes that just didn't have any BGM and it felt really weird and it's not like they were even scene that should not have it. But anyway, that's enough rambling. I'll keep watching, at least ep3 to see if the main girls actually transforms and stuff and we'll see from there

Mecha-Ude Ep1

Hey that was actually really good? Like I decided to watch this on a whim cause I thought it looked cool and didn't look into at all or saw any pvs or anything and was pleasantly surprised. Considering the intro and it's humour, if you told me it had Trigger staff working on it I'd belive you (they even have Sawano doing the ost lol). Of course, it didn't look as flashy and polished as that but it was still impressive. Was checking it on a "we'll see if I continue it" basis but this ep was good enough that I'll stick with it for sure.

Blue Box Ep1

That was a good first episode. There was nothing too impressive but it's a sports romcom so it doesn't really need that at the end of the day. They did a great job with the art for the more important panels, the voices were great and the ost was fitting and not too intrusive. I completely forgot that it was already confirmed 2 cour so it'll be fun having this around for a while. Hopefully they can keep up the same quality the whole time. Both the OP/ED show the promise bracelet they get eventually so it'll get quite far into the manga Also, I went to watch this and saw that it was a double ep premiere and was like "Oh shit I didn't know that" but only found subs for ep 1 and was very confused and then learned that only netflix JP had 2 eps and the rest of the world only got the one???? So weird. Also they called this a "netflix show" like usual despite having no hand in it's production, I hate them so much it's insane

Dandadan Ep1

When they originally showed footage in PVs I said I wasn't really a big fan of the art for the anime but that the animation looked great, and after watching the first ep my opinion is still the same. The animation really is impressive tho, especially in the climax, even the little character moments they had with Okarun and Momo bickering at the start were great. Not sure if it was the mixing being off or a conscious decision but the music was hard to hear at times so it didn't really stick with me, tho it did fit the vibes. Also the scene with the aliens molesting Momo made me SUPER uncomfortable when I started the manga to the point I wasn't even sure I was gonna continue (tho I did push through obviously) so I was worried about how it'd be in the anime but I found that it wasn't nearly as bad so that's good I guess. The anime is only gonna have 12 episodes but it had 2 specific charas in the OP/ED so we'll get far enough to get some cool arcs

The Idolmaster Shiny Colours S2 Ep1

Well there's not much to say here really. S1 aired earlier this year and it's still CG and the same quality so it's just more of the same. Tho, of course, with the addition of the new girls which is fun. Also I gotta admit they went off with the song MV in this ep, was way better than anything in S1. Will be looking forward to seeing Madoka soon 🙏

Magilumiere Co. Ltd. Ep1

It's JC Staff so I went in not expecting much from this adaptation but it was pretty serviceable which I'm glad for. I was very curious to see how they'd handle the transformations cause they usually get 2 or 3 whole pages dedicated to them in the manga. Thankfully they did it justice with a whole very good 1 minute sequence, tho they added some fanservice at the start but whatever (video linked below) Other than that there's not much to say. Both OP and ED were alright and the music on the show itself wasn't impressive but it was good. The voice cast is great. Also the ep ended exactly where I figured it would (the pic below) which is for sure the most fitting end point, tho I almost thought they weren't gonna do it since it happened after the ED. Anyway, we don't know how many eps it is yet but I assume it'll only be 1 cour. We won't get that far in the story but at least we'll see Akane eventually so I'm happy

You are Ms. Servant Ep1

Another show that I decided to watch on a whim cause I saw it on my schedule site and like "Maid POG" and the synopsis didn't sound bad. I had no expectations cause I'd never heard of it but it turned out great, tho that might also be my bias for kuudere maids speaking. It was very cute and wholesome tho so I'm def watching it til the end

Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow Arc Ep1

Well, there's not much to say here to be honest. It was the start of a new season but it felt like just any other episode epesically considering how the ep started right into the aftermath of the previous finale. I wonder if they did that on purpose so it feels more seamless for people binging it in the future? It also feels even more like just another ep since this came out so shortly after the last season instead of years later like we were used to. It's the same quality as usual so can't complain at all. Also wanted to add that this is getting into territory that I haven't read yet now, this is right about where I stopped keeping up with the manga cause I was reading it physically and caught up with the english releases at the time. My plan was to catch up with it soon, it's on it's final arc as well, but haven't gotten around to it and then they announced the follow up season was gonna be so soon... My plan was, and still, to catch up to it after I started Lumiere so I'll be doing that sooner rather than later, hopefully

Mission: Yozakura Family Ep27 (Finale)

That was a solid adaptation. I was on the fence between a 6 and 7 but ended up giving it a 7 since I gave Mashle a 6 and I consider this better. Yeah Mashle had the 1 sakuga scene in the finale (for s1) and this had none, but the overall quality was better through the whole show and they at least had the balls to change the chapter order to make things flow better instead of doing it 1 to 1. It really is a shame that even the flashier and cooler scenes didn't get anything special, the best looking one was the train fight, but oh well. At the end of the day it was still a very solid adaptation, well worth watching, for those that refuse to read manga for whatever reason. They already announced S2 too so that's cool, will be looking forward to it whenever it does come out

Wonderful Precure! Ep36

It's crazy to see the main guy confess directly like this, let alone having 3 whole episodes dedicated to it, but the stakes in wonpre are so low that they have plenty of time to do this. Ofc they copped out of them actually becoming a couple BUT next episode they're going on a date so we'll see. Would be kinda funny if this was one of the few series where it actually happens but I doubt it. Still this is more than enough to solidify them as a couple in a lot of people's mind, not like people weren't already doing it for ages already lol

Manga

Hima-Ten! Ch13

This series is so frustrating to read cause unlike other romcoms we already know who he's gonna end up with. It was in the damn synopsis before the series even came out. It's just a waste of time to be setting up the other girl (and even the other they introduced a couple chaps ago) just for them to lose to the main girl anyway. Of course they could pull a twist and go against what they said originally but I highly doubt that considering the difference in screen time between the heroines

[anakinsafterlife]

So in addition to re-watching Forever Knight, I'm also watching Highlander: The Series again. They're basically companion shows because they were on TV at about the same time and address many of the same themes, in addition to both being urban fantasies. Their fandoms were also populated by many of the same people.

I was hugely into Highlander for years and wrote fanfic and was in the fandom and was basically crazy for it, mostly because of Methos, the oldest immortal, but I was also watching it in a time pre-You Tube, pre-torrents, pre-everything. We all taped our favourite eps from tv, but most of us didn't tape the complete shows because that just wasn't feasible in terms of time, space, etc. But obviously at least a few people did, because the shows are online now even though they were never released on DVD (edit: FK was released much later, but as far as I know HL was not).

Anyway, one of the peculiar things about watching Highlander in the late nineties was that, although the show had just finished its original run, for some kind of licensing reason that was never entirely clear to me at the time, season one was never played in Canada. It might have originally been, but every replay of the show started with season 2, and I came in right around the time the show was wrapping up or just slightly after, so I never actually saw season one. This was frustrating to me, but since my favourite characters all come in after season 2 starts I didn't get too worked up about it or go to great lengths to view it. But it was a kind of itch that was was never scratched.

Fast-forward to 2022 and I found HL online, the complete series, including season one. I'm actually enjoying it a lot. MacLeod is a lot less of a pain in the ass, quite a bit more relaxed and less sanctimonious, not to mention not quite so 1 BILLION XP INVINCIBLE. Tessa is actually a lovely character. And Richie is very funny in his younger incarnation, with a lot of his rough edges still there.

The show itself still has some rough edges too, as the writers worked out exactly what the mythos was going to be. For example, the Gathering appears to be happening at the beginning of the show, and MacLeod is convinced that no immortal has long left to live, but that convinction appears to have faded even by season two, since it isn't mentioned again, to my recollection.

But my biggest surprise has been Darius, because Darius is a lot like Methos. He's a priest and Methos isn't, but Methos is a researcher hiding in a secret organization, which is quite similar. Darius, like Methos, is a very old man with a young face, not to mention a former warlord who converts to peace (via Light Quickening, which is very interesting, and I do wonder if that's why Duncan is quicker to forgive Darius his past than he was Methos, because Darius is in some ways an entirely different person, while Methos changed the hard way. That actually makes it more commendable, but the blame still belongs to him as well, and you know Duncan...).

Additionally, Darius is a mentor who can predict Duncan's failings before they happen (although less openly cynical than Methos, he clearly understands the way of the world) exactly as happens on multiple occasions with Methos. Both are people that Duncan looks up to and respects intensely. The only thing missing in the Duncan-Darius relationship is the more casual element of friendship (Methos works very hard to dispel Mac's initial awe, which really backfires later), and that homoerotic tension that was always present between MacLeod and Methos, but other than that... I get the feeling that the show was missing a mentor for Duncan and Methos fit the bill. But while he was clearly conceived as a Darius-remix, Methos is a lot more fun, and seemingly far more of a chameleon than Darius was, in terms of how much he changed over the centuries, as well as a kind of fluid gender identity that was never clearly stated but which was easy to perceive. And because of the nature of his own paradigm shift, which was not a supernatural event, you can still see many elements of darkness in Methos that are seemingly absent in Darius.

[vyvesvi]

saw all the ep 3 performances but not the actual ep lol.

voting list (week 3)

all of these girls are criminally low compared to how they performed imo.

first round commentary (copied from my twitter 🫶🏿)

1. team: hard

my winner(s): like 6/7 but emma jaoying & P.AMP stood out, it's a shame geumhee was hidden for her high note

this team is great but who decided the concept/outfits 😭

2. team: 7 rings

my winner(s): WANG KE (and vita)

the other girlies didn't stand a chance against wang ke this was legit brutal 😭 i do wonder if they were all comfortable with the concept though, this doesn't seem like something liliana wouldve chosen?

also rei is my girl but this performance doesn't play to her strengths at all im devastated 😭

3. team: one more last time

my winner(s): DUNA, rose

duna's experience really shone through, plus she fits this concept super well. very glad she got center. rose also did super well, i only wish she had the second main part 😭 praying this saves her

devi also did great, but i don't think this'll be enough unfortunately:/

4. team: i like you

my winner(s): zoi, TEGAN, tk

i had to think about this team bc once again, so insanely hard to pretend this is live. zoi was just good onstage, tegan has that voice, and tk surprised me. they clearly want preemy gone tho i hate it hereee

5. team: kick back

my winner(s): QIAO YIYU

honestly i love love love this team composition but i don't think the stage really showed their strongest points...i think a different wayv song would've made all the difference tbh

6. team: booty bomb

my winner(s): yeham, coco, MAO XIUTING

tbh there are some people here with lots of screentime who i don't understand the hype for, although both of them did better than their auditions. anyways yeham!!! she barely got screentime apart from her lines but i loved her voice with this concept tbh, it added a much needed freshness? brightness? to the performance. i need to see a full stage ver with no cuts though

7. team: love destiny 2

my winner(s): PANGJANG (everyone did well though)

pangjang just has the voice, what is there to say really. i feel soooooo bad for ninnint, she did well but this was really not the song for her. fly high girlie 😔✊️

8. team: play with me

my winner(s): YEAN, elyn, caith

seoyeon has greater ability than a lot of the contestants but her energy really isn't there to the point where i can't help but wonder if it's on purpose...?

9. team: i'll do it how you like it

my winner(s): ?

the chaba krista rjing vocal meal in the beginning was so sick omg

the rest of the performance didn't really click even though no one was bad at all. need maliya to be saved though like that's a Face

picking a winner is tough for this team because you have some singers who can't dance/perform & some dancers who don't sing as well. in truth pream, rjing, xueyao, and maybe maliya are the most balanced, but xueyao in particular didn't really stand out. pream stood out because of her center time, but this is far from her best (her presence is usually a lot stronger). maybe id go with rjing? but id need to see a full stage with no cuts

10. team: pieces of love

my winner(s): KITTIE

you have to suspend your disbelief a bit with these shows but i couldn't even pretend this was live & it's so distracting 😭 yuan ke & jessica are my next picks but i need them to focus more on facial expressions

my top 9?

honestly i've had a really hard time coming up with a group, if only because i genuinely like 47ish of the contestants (others i dont like or simply don't know). also, i do think it'd be nice for most of the group to be thai. i scrolled through the contestants and just picked the first 9 that i saw who made me go "yeah, you" lmfao and this is what i ended up with:

yean feels virtually indispensable at this point. she can dance, she's a great pop vocalist, and she can fit any concept. the show is also very on her side.

wang ke's performance in 7 rings convinced me of her star power (honestly she's been hit or miss to me until this point). wang ke didn't need to be the best singer or dancer to stand out on stage, it's her energy that really sets her apart and that's a hard skill to learn.

tegan...she's just a surprisingly strong contestant. i wasn't really a fan of how she acted during the theme song arc (all 7.5 minutes of it, lol) but i do understand that she was trying to lighten the mood. from the theme song to round one she showed that she really could hold her own on stage if she put her mind to it. other factors: star quality, demographic appeal, growth idolism, unique tone/strong vocals

rose is my underrated pick. she has a great voice and i think she can be styled to fit a number of concepts. she hasn't gotten much screentime, but i really hope she makes round 2, just to force the show to show more of her strengths. in some ways she's a little bit filler here, but i think she's necessary for the group to gel

ruan, our summer dream center...idk i just like her a lot. she suits different concepts and is super super hardworking & serious about this, while also being really kind. i want to see her learning/speaking more thai and english hopefully!

qiao yiyu is a talent & demographic pick (and one of my overall main picks at this point) she's another member who i see as indispensable. she's a main dancer who can fit multiple styles (but she's also for the girlies). in this pic she kinda looks like yuqi? lmfao

p.amp, my other totally biased pick 🥲 she's so gorgeous onstage and has so much presence i don't understand why the masses aren't seeing her 😭. she's a filler visual here but hot take, we don't need a wannabe gangsta rapper who can't dance self proclaimed quote unquote "real rapper" in the lineup when so many gg raps are pre-written and last for max 4 lines. p.amp can do it while dancing, being charming, and looking hot. i rest my case

geumhee is my pick of the csr members, although duna's rank is the best & seoyeon is the one getting a storyline. geumhee would be slightly filler here, but her singing ability would make her a lead vocal, and he experience and preexisting intl audience would make her indispensable. tbh she's the first member i personally noticed in csr, but i think that csr could live for a couple years without her and then benefit from her return.

mingming is good, although im generally on the fence about her. she has great lead vocal potential and is very likable. i kind of think the mindy members will be fine if none of them make it, but i do feel her voice is a little wasted there.

nationalities: 4 thailand, 2 china, 1 usa, 1 japan, 1 south korea

other contestants to consider:

pailiu! i really like her (and she's currently rank 2) but im not seeing a group that she fits into in the top ranks. maybe if maliya, jessica, xueyao, yuanke, p.amp, jaoying, etc were a bit higher. it's too soon to tell though i suppose

elyn's (#1) fanbase is really showing out for her considering the relatively minimal screentime she's had. her vocals aren't as strong as rose's, but she could potentially replace her in the lineup and add more (in terms of fan loyalty & demographic appeal).

emma not making my off the top of my head top 9 was really unexpected! i make the top 9 and then went wait where's emma? i think i would replace mingming with her, although honestly? emma's a star and should probably try to go to a company with some power, like perhaps yuehua china. for a survival show group, it's good that she stands out as an individual but in terms of cohesion...eh. she couldn't be filler, but she also probably couldn't be the star with the rest of this lineup. it's tough

absolutely LOVE krista's voice, but the reason i stopped voting for her is that she is kind of an absolutely miserable dancer. the great part is that she's super young, and can train to work on her dancing & her stage presence + facial expressions. krista (and others) make me wish that chuang was like produce japan, where the funding company (there lapone, here ryce) takes on trainees from the show for future permanent or temporary groups. krista would be a great candidate for that.

kitty, natty, & jaoying i noticed for the first time this round. i don't have much to say but they would be very solid filler members (not a drag, btw). im looking forward to seeing more of them!

yuan ke & wan yan jiayi are growing kind of indispensable if they want to have a foothold in china it seems. my personal pick would be yuan ke, but i think jiayi is moreso on the rise.

TBH i have 21 more contestant photos saved but let me just move onto another potential top 9

all i did was replace rose & mingming with elyn & emma, which brings the nationality count to: 2 thailand, 3 china, 1 japan, 1 usa, 1 malaysia, 1 south korea. see but now i'd say they need at least one more thai member! now sort of i want to put jaoying in over elyn lol. oh well 🤷🏿‍♀️

[callme6olet]

What makes Arcane great: S1E2

Scroll on down for my Ep 1 post. As with that one, this is more a commentary than a blow-by-blow, a zoom-in on the specific things that, in my opinion, make Arcane awesome--beyond the obvious facts of a brilliant story, brilliant characters, and jaw-dropping animation.

Standouts from Episode 2, "Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved:" the development and escalation of the story, and the mirror progress between Piltover and Zaun.

Jayce's intro

Arcane doesn't waste details. We are first introduced to Jayce on the other side of the door we saw in Ep 1, trying to get in while his study is burglarized. Caitlyin is with him. This conservation of detail allows the writers to effortlessly weave together these two disparate storylines and make a powerful statement about empathy. We are seeing firsthand what Vi willfully ignores: the fear and loss that her actions caused. There is a sense of unity in the storytelling, both in terms of chronology and in terms of theme. We are willing to follow this digression into Jayce's life because we can trust right from the start that his story will tie into Vi and Powder's.

In this short sequence, the show establishes Jayce and Cait as characters; it establishes their connection to each other; it shows that there are consequences to Vi and Co's theft; and it sets up the complicated dynamic between Piltover and Zaun. Jayce remains largely faceless through this scene, his head either out of shot or out of focus until the crystal blows hard enough to blast us into a flashback. This is, I think, largely to cement the importance of the flashback, to trick us into seeing Jayce's formative childhood moment as his true introduction. While he is in a position of power--physical, mental, and social--we are instead made to focus on his weakness, his trauma. We see him knocked down, and then we see him and his mother freezing to death in some far-off place. It's small stuff, but I genuinely believe that Jayce would not be a relatable character if he were introduced differently. If our first impression were of someone who is tall, handsome, muscular, intelligent, and wealthy, it would be difficult to summon compassion for him. Instead, we get to see the vulnerable side of his personality, and we are shown his motivation for the research he's carrying out. He and his mother were both on the verge of death, and he was powerless to stop it. Controlling the arcane means undoing that powerlessness, that moment of childhood trauma.

Then we see magic, and we get this frame--which, c'mon. Not only beautiful, but such an incredible way of communicating both the physical mechanic of what's happening and the raw power involved in harnessing the arcane.

Heimerdinger's intro

This is an ode to the show's worldbuilding, a spot where it benefits from being an adaptation--from having a decade's worth of content to draw from. Because, seriously? Heimerdinger? This little fluffball? He should make us laugh out loud, throw our hands up, and turn off the show. His design is shockingly out of place in the steampunk/grimdark tone we've seen so far, and yet it's handled with a perfect mixture of matter-of-factness and humor. It's difficult to match the way Tolkien, for example, can simply introduce different folk into a world: to say, "There are Hobbits," and have us buy into it. Most often, because we're not experts in language and folklore, this sort of thing comes across like a twelve-year-old showing you their notebook scribblings of dragons and elvish runes. Here, the show steers into an almost sci-fi style of worldbuilding, dropping in different species without regard for their connection to our world's preconceptions and folklore, but with a deep tie to the secondary world's history and lore.

Also, the way the camera does a little shake and pan down? Brilliant. Because--again--there's no damn camera. It feels like a documentary, though, where the cameraman was surprised, had to readjust. It's a simple trick to make the story feel real, feel recorded.

In his dialogue with Jayce, Heimderdinger sets himself up as both wise and flawed. He is the ideal of conservation, preservation, and peace.

The arcade

We get to see that Powder really is competent--just, she's poor, doesn't have a gun. She's great with technology, which, because of where she was born, is not much of a strong point. Plus, we get to see this face.

Which, come on. I love her. She's my favorite. Not because of the emotion she's feeling, but because of the intensity with which it is being conveyed. Hard to even sum it up in a still frame. I've never seen a show where the animation alone makes me like the characters more purely because it's so damn human.

Then we get a chase scene with some cool blacklights, some incredible kinetic camerawork, and some teamwork with Ekko. Escalates the stakes, reinforces the ticking clock the kids are facing.

Mel's intro

Mel is immediately likeable--and intimidating. She's shown to be bold, intelligent, and powerful. Unlike Jayce, we see Mel in a position of power. Arcane is, at its core, a commentary on privilege and power; I would argue that Mel's introduction is in conversation with this commentary. Because our society is fucked up, we see undeserved suffering in the mere fact of who she is: a Black woman. We are proud and excited to see her in power. Compare this to Jayce, who our lizard brain associates with wealth and privilege. The contrast in these introductions, in my view, encourages empathy for both characters. It's not Jayce's fault that he has certain social advantages, nor is privilege by itself a bad thing, and it certainly doesn't make him any less human. On the other hand, Mel is immediately implied to be shrewd, proud, strong, and competent by virtue of where she stands in society--the power she has attained, despite the systemic challenges that we assume she has faced (regardless of our relative lack of information about racism in this secondary world).

We hear Mel before we see her, hear her talking over a still of a golden star in her window. An icon of progress, of prosperity. She says, "Steady is stagnant." She is the yang to Heimerdinger's yin: a force for change. An active force. We have seen the conflict between Piltover and the Lanes; now, we are seeing conflict within Piltover, with Mel at its head. When we finally see her face, she is saying, "And yet I remain the poorest Madarda." She has pride in what she's done, but she is always looking forward. There is an implication of pain, of struggle, and a very common intra-family conflict. High standards.

The Last Drop

We see Vander holding court in The Last Drop. Like Heimerdinger, he is a force of peace, preservation, and passivity. Unlike Heimerdinger, everyone around him is not. Yin, within yang. A moment later, this will be mirrored when Piltover holds court at the trial: Heimderdinger for preservation, Jayce for progress.

The scene ends with Ekko telling Vi about Vander's deal with Grayson, and Vi asking, "What deal?" Not revolutionary, but it's a cool bit of cinematic grammar. If the scene were to continue, she would've said, "With the enforcers?" or "He--what? How do you know?" But by ending on this question, the writers communicate the fact that Vi and Co are about to learn everything about this deal without having to show the conversation (and that the focus is on the facts, not the feeling of betrayal).

Also, we get to see Vi's suspicious face.

Which, come on. I love her. She's my favorite.

Caitlyn and Jayce in the rain

Again, the show kills it here. Shows Jayce's descent into depression succinctly and in a very human way. He is outcast by the family that supported him because of this one mistake, and now, everything he's staked his life on is gone. Moreover, as Caitlyn and Jayce both admit, he is not capable of joining the Toloss hamer business. He has too much to offer the world, will never be content with manual labor.

Throughout the scene, Jayce's face is framed by the metal bars of the Kirammans' gate. He is more imprisoned here, now, than he was in jail. He is labeled a misfit; and Caitlyn, she's "a misfit, too, I suppose." It's great development for both characters: the feeling of being outcast within an environment of privilege. The pain of feeling a certain way, even though you know you shouldn't.

In my opinion, this is--for both of them--the pain of being queer. Cait is pretty clearly lesbian or bi; with Jayce, there's more uncertainty, but I think the inference to the best explanation is that he's a closeted bisexual man. Which--more on that in a bit.

Powder almost falls

Marcus, following a tip from Silco, searches The Last Drop. Powder holds on for dear life, almost falls, barely manages to hold it. I can't not bring this up: the tension, so expertly communicated, when her hands start to slip. The fact that none of it is hard to believe, that it doesn't feel as though it's set up for dramatic effect. The fact that she doesn't fall--that, once again, she proves herself competent, even though we're constantly being told she's not (as is she). And then, Vi uses this as a catalyst to confront Vander. That is what makes this more than cheap jump-scare, false drama bullshit. Powder doesn't fall, doesn't advance the conflict that way. But she does force Vi to see how real, how personal, this conflict is getting. Each time the enforcers show up, the tension is escalating. They are getting closer and closer to catching the kids. This enhances the sense of urgency and reinforces the need for action.

Jayce on the ledge

His world is falling apart and no one understands him. Except this other outcast of a man: Viktor, at the right place, at the right time. Who promises progress.

This is a moment, to me, of queer crisis. Not just because of the chemistry between Jayce and Viktor, but because of what's really eating at Jayce: "I've seen with my own eyes what magic can do. The lives it could save. You have no idea how beautiful it is."

He has seen a beauty in the world that nobody else believes is there. He has the most indubitable evidence for it: his own experience. And yet, even his own mother doesn't believe it to be really real. To her, it is a closed question, a mystery happily left unsolved. He has been gaslit his entire life over this obsession, has never once had anyone truly buy into what he's saying, what he knows to be true. That is, until now. Until Viktor. Who tells him: "If you're going to change the world, don't ask for permission." Meaning: trust yourself. It's a beautiful line that highlights the need for recklessness in innovation, the need for people who are unwilling to listen to the word no.

Vi's decision

Check this out.

Her eyes are blue. Faint blue, greyish blue, but still blue. One of the few times in the entire show when they take on this color, rather than the usual grey. For Vi, grey eyes are trauma. Blue eyes are a connection with her inner self. (A similar but more obvious theme pops up with Jinx/Powder and her purple eyes.) She understands: she has to do something, can't risk the people she loves. The important lesson to learn from Vi, I think, is that, while her selflessness becomes a weakness--codependence--it is, at its core, a positive trait. Right now, she's not sacrificing herself for her friends. She's protecting them. She is saying a last goodbye, then turning herself in.

And what a goodbye. As at the end of Ep 1, Powder spends the whole scene bathed in light and looking anywhere but at it. Vi is in the shadows, but she is facing the light. Facing her light: Powder. The person she loves most in the world.

More importantly: "What makes you different makes you strong," she tells Powder.

Which. That one can speak for itself.

The Ending

A back-and-forth with Vander and Powder, a heartaching montage over upbeat music. It's great. I have nothing more to add.

This episode--indeed, the rest of the season--is a story of opposites. Topside, Jayce is captured, persecuted, let off, and saved by Viktor's kindness. In the undercity, Vi and Powder are pursued, escape, and face the reality of an escalating conflict, one that will not let them go with a slap on the wrist. Vi must turn herself in to save her friends. The struggles are similar, the outcomes vastly different. The bungled robbery of Jayce's study is turning into a pivotal moment for both crews. Topside, disaster becomes the linchpin for opportunity and success. In Zaun, the crew's greatest triumph turns into a failure that will doom them all. Privilege is a good thing; everyone ought to have it. When it is lacking, we face choices like Vi's.

[myloveforhergoeson]

That's All She Wrote - Chapter 6

Chapter 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5

Find me on wattpad and ao3

Show: Big Time Rush

Pairing: James Diamond x Original Female Character

Chapter 6: Writing Wrongs ~ 12k

One thing Roxy’s father hadn’t told her before he taught her how to play the guitar was just how painful the strings could feel on the pads of her fingers, especially after many hours of play. Though she had been building up the calluses on her fingers for nearly a decade, she was beginning to feel the sharp sting after her long session in the recording booth in order to properly track both the lead and rhythm guitar layers to the band’s new single “Famous”. 

The new song, a rock-influenced track focusing on the dream of overnight fame and fortune, wasn’t that far off from what had happened to her and her band. Even if they weren’t quite famous and not quite fortunate yet, “Famous” was nearly radio ready - the band just had to finish recording their vocals. 

Recording days were always stressful, for both the band, their assistant, and their bosses. Gustavo was incredibly nitpicky about the order of the process: write the song, record the background music, solo recording, and then finally, group recording. The process was grueling but the high risk-high reward mindset was always in the forefront of their producers' thoughts. 

Since arriving in the morning, Roxy had played “Famous” on the guitar at least 50 different times. Though her last recording of the track on her electric guitar was her boss’ favorite, he took the previous recordings to use as background layers and eventually got the boys in the booth individually to record their parts. 

Now, well into the evening, the four boys stood in the recording booth together finishing their last take of the song. 

Group recordings were Roxy’s favorite part - the boy’s voices melded so well together and after their solo recordings they were familiar enough with the song to only do three or four takes to put the finishing touches on the track. From there, she and Gustavo would get to piece everything together to get their final product EP ready. 

As the track came to a close, Roxy cut off the recording from the soundboard and used the little computer beside Kelly to name and label the file to be placed in the “Famous” folder. 

Once she was done, Kendall’s voice filled her headphones as he spoke to the three in the soundroom. “It sounded great, right?”

The girl saw Kelly throw a thumbs up and moved to copy her action before their boss audibly sighed. “No… Green Day sounds great. You guys didn’t make me want to vomit.”

“Oh, Gustavo!”

“Come on!”

A chorus of protest came from the band as they ripped their headphones off, not caring if the producer heard their comments or not, before Gustavo hit the ‘mute’ button to the mic in the booth. Even through the soundproofed walls, Roxy could practically hear them cursing their boss out.

If that bothered him, the man didn’t show it. He was too preoccupied with pointing to his headphones and acting like the sound had been mysteriously cut. 

Guys are so weird.

It only took a few seconds for Kelly to step in, smacking Gustavo’s back to startle him and grab his attention. “Why can’t you tell them they sound good? Or thank the teens for all of their hard work?”

Roxy agreed, nodding her head, “With each recording session they keep getting better and better. It would mean a lot to them coming from you.”

“Showing thanks is a sign of weakness. And besides, you don’t hear them thanking me.”

Once the boys had figured out their communication had been cut, they made their way into the soundroom to join up with the other three. 

“Gustavo!” Kendall called from the doorway, waltzing out to stand in front of the large man. “We just wanted to thank you.”

All at once the boys began to express their thanks to the producer, holding their hands out for fist bumps and high fives. Even Roxy joined in, thanking Gustavo for teaching her so much about the writing and recording process and thanking Kelly for allowing her to learn more about the inner workings of the music industry. 

When the producer fell silent, his talent scout gave him a nudge to the shoulder. 

“I just wanted to say, you guys are… done for the day.”

Kelly and Roxy looked at each other, sharing an eye roll at their boss’ lack of proper response. 

Ignoring the disappointed looks on the band’s faces, he continued, “Kelly and I are off to North Carolina.”

“Ooh!” Carlos sounded incredibly excited, “Can you bring us back a tar heel?” 

“Ooh!” Their boss mocked, “I’m thinking about bringing back a hot new band that I can replace you with when you inevitably fail me.” 

His comment sent a jolt down the assistant’s spine. Replace us?

Though Gustavo had attempted to walk away as if what he said was no big deal, the band rushed after him into the hallway to figure out exactly what he meant. Just before he reached the door to his office, James was able to grab his attention. 

“You’re not gonna replace us, not after you see my new headshots: One hot young doctor, one hot greasy mechanic!” 

Pulled seemingly from out of nowhere, James held up the two images on either side of his face, giving the man a little bit of smolder. 

“Ooh! I’ll put these with the others.” Gustavo mocked again, snatching the images out of his hands. With not even a glance towards them, he threw the pages behind his back - ignoring a yelp from James - and turned to his assistant to start a new conversation. “Kelly, who’d you get to house-sit my mansion?”

“You said that you would take care of that!” The woman bit, pointing an accusatory finger towards Gustavo. 

“There is no way I would have ever said-”

Beep!

A voicemail played from the speakers of her phone, “Kelly, I’ll find someone to help house-sit my mansion.”

With a smile, she turned to face the teens, “I record everything now!”

This conversation felt personal, and one the assistant definitely wasn’t interested in hearing, so she tugged on Carlos’ arm and motioned down the hall. Gustavo had told them they were done for the day, so why stick around and listen to him groan? 

Unfortunately for her, the boys were moving their heads back and forth towards the adults as they bickered with each other - watching as if it were the most captivating soap opera of all time.

“You can play your blame game later! Meanwhile, who’s gonna dust my 100-inch plasma, feed my exotic pets, and make sure my 1 million dollar media room stays set at 68 degrees?” 

This time, it was Carlos’ turn to tug on her arm as the band slowly inched forward at the mansion’s description. 

A day off and a sleep over at a multimillion dollar mansion… Not a bad plan. 

“We could!” Roxy nearly yelled, trying to contain the smile threatening to form on her face. “Mansion-sit that is. It’s not like we’re doing anything else while you’re gone.” 

“You want me to let you and the monkeys mansion-sit?” 

More like the Monkees, the assistant thought as Logan spoke out in confusion. 

“I thought we were dawgs?” 

“You’re monkey dawgs! And the answer is no.”

Before the band could protest farther, Kelly smiled menacingly towards her boss before gathering some of his jacket in her fist, “Can I see you in your office, please?”

While the pair conferred, the teens looked among themselves excitedly. If anyone was on their side, it was Kelly, and she was awfully good at convincing Gustavo to be a little more lenient towards his employees. 

“I don’t think I can even imagine what his place could possibly look like.” Logan thought aloud, inching closer to the closed office door to hear what the pair were speaking about. 

Oddly enough, Roxy had a very clear picture in mind thanks to the wonders of reality television. “He was on an episode of MTV Cribs a couple years ago… The media room alone is enough to kill for.” 

“Aw, man!” James pouted, moving to lean on the door in order to evesdrop on the adults’ conversation before whispering, “I wish we could be on Cribs.”

“Well, keep doing what he asks and some day you might be.” She offered, taking place in the space beside him as the rest of the band members joined them in listening into Kelly and Gustavo’s confrence - more like what was left of it. 

Kelly had said something the teens were unable to make out before pulling the solid wood door open and sending the band and their assistant tumbling in a pile down to the floor. 

Clearly, they had been listening in and their bosses knew this to be fact, but as the five picked themselves off the floor they did their best to be nonchalant about it. 

“Studio!” was all Gustavo had to say in response, pushing past the teens until he reached his destination. 

As per usual, the band found themselves in a military style line up while Gustavo yelled out at them. 

“There are five mansion-sitting rules at Casa Gustavo…”

Everyone was far too excited to really internalize his comments, giving each other excited nudges and eyebrow wiggles down the line. 

“...One, stay out of my media room…” 

Maybe that’s a rule for the guys… I don’t have a track record of destruction. 

“...Two, do not open my living room fridge…”

We’ll get dinner on the way.

“... Three, keep your butts off my 40,000 dollar Federico Benini couch…”

What’s the point of a couch you can’t sit on?

“... Four, do not touch my Peruvian hairless cat, Monty…”

Ew. Don’t need to tell me twice.

Logan said something about how much he loved cats before Gustavo let out an intimidating grunt, in which the boy went on a full 180 to talk about how much he hated the animal. 

“...And five, if anything - Anything! - is broken in my mansion, you are all fired! Are we clear?”

The five didn’t even need to think twice, before they began to celebrate, “Yes!” 

***

“No!”

The band and their assistant had stopped by 2-J to run the mansion-sitting plan by Mrs. Knight and grab dinner before they headed out. Kendall and his mother were arguing with each other in the kitchen while the other four, and Katie, sat around the dining table and munched on some dino-nuggets and fries. By this point, they had been back and forth a few times and Roxy was really gunning for Kendall to win this one. 

Mrs. Knight had been entrusted by the other parents to watch over their kids, but since Roxy’s father hadn’t even met her by the time they moved to Los Angeles she didn’t really have a parental figure to tell her what she could or couldn’t do. She held nothing but respect for the woman who had helped her out on countless occasions and was kind enough to feed her multiple times a week so if Mrs. Knight said no, she wouldn’t be going, but she was really uninterested in finding someone else in her contacts list to mansion sit. 

“Mom, just one night!” Her son fought back. 

“You’re too young.” 

“I’m not too young, I’m 16. We’re all 16!”

From the table, Logan chimed in, moving to face the squared off duo, “Together, we’re 80. That’s older than you!”

The woman didn’t even have a response besides placing her hand on the boy's head and turning it back down towards his plate. 

“Mom,” Kendall tried again, “It’s time you stopped treating me like a child. And, it’s also time you stop feeding me dinosaur-shaped chicken!”

For the record, the writer found the dino-nuggets quite charming, even when the blond reached down to her plate and plucked one up for emphasis. 

“You love your dinosaur chicken,” Mrs. Knight chuckled, seemingly unaware of the real reason for Kendall’s outburst. 

“Yeah, when I was eight!” 

Turning around again, Logan added, “We are men now, Mrs. Knight.”

His comment pulled a laugh from his assistant, who nearly choked on her bite of food. “Then why are James and Carlos forming a french fry volcano and sacrificing their nuggets to it?”

Their creation was quite impressive, a pile of fries formed into a cone shape with ketchup atop it for lava, but it was quickly destroyed as Kendall threw the nugget he had been holding at their plate. 

Almost like the meteor that took them out.

“Mom,” Kendall tried for a final time, reaching his hands out to place tenderly on the woman’s shoulders. “It’s time.”

For a moment, she turned the thought over before looking at the other teens sitting at the table. Her son was right, and it was evidenced by the fact everyone was nodding in agreement. 16 was a bit old to still be going everywhere new with your kid.

“I want hourly updates.” 

A healthy compromise that all five mansion-sitters agreed to. 

***

Casa Gustavo was far larger in person than it had appeared on the small television the girl had seen it on back in Minnesota. Just looking on from the outside, Roxy wasn’t sure she could explore it all in one night. 

The two story mansion - more like a palace - appeared to loom over the five as they took their overnight bags from Mrs. Knight's car. Its dusty brown, Spanish style of architecture and beautiful landscaping out front didn’t seem like their boss’ style but from his strict rules regarding the inside, it was safe to assume this place was not as it seemed. 

Can’t judge a book by its cover.

Glancing over to her friends, the assistant noticed they had come prepared with sleeping bags - something she hadn’t even thought of. Her overnight bag consisted of a change of clothes, pajamas, and her travel toiletries. In her defense, the only thing Gustavo said to keep off of was his stupid-expensive couch so hopefully she wouldn’t mind if she took one of the many unoccupied rooms in his home for the night. 

There was also a large blue and white duffle bag on the concrete that someone had managed to pull out from the trunk, but what it contained Roxy didn’t know. Maybe the band were hoping for a spacious backyard they could play field hockey on.

From the front seat of the car, Mrs. Knight rolled down the window, worried look in her eyes. “Okay, I set my phone number in all your speed dials. Just dial ‘M’ for ‘Mommy’.”

“Mom…” Kendall cringed, carefully biting his tongue to not say anything to make her change her mind about letting them stay in the mansion overnight. 

“And I brought your jammies for you!” 

“Mom!”

The other four teens let out near silent chuckles as their friend accepted the clothing from his mother. It was very sweet Mrs. Knight cared about them so much, but everyone was enjoying Kendall’s embarrassment just a bit too much. 

With a sigh, the woman set her hands down on the window sill, “Okay, have fun… And Katie, you’re not staying, get out of the duffle bag!”

The bag zipped open revealing the youngest Knight, pouting. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite old enough for sleepovers with her friends quite yet. In attempted solidarity, everyone whispered their apologies as she climbed back into the mini-van. 

With a wave, the Knights were off, and the teens burst through the iron gate and front door into the foyer of Casa Gustavo. 

First thing, they were greeted with soft classical music coming from invisible speakers as they walked past golden drapes that marked the end of the hallway to the door. In contrast to the brown exterior, the walls inside were painted a dull white to match the tan tiled floor and chocolate colored crown molding. A spiral staircase leading upstairs was protected by black iron railings that popped nicely against the predominantly white theming, yet blended in against the beautiful art hanging on the walls. Windows covered nearly every inch of the side facing the backyard, giving view to an expansive, green garden.

Roxanne had never been anywhere so nice in her life.  

Clearly, neither had the boys, as shown by their jaw-dropping espressions at just the first room. 

In the center, a white abstract sculpture stood as if it was watching the front door and guarding the home from any intruders. 

“A helmet rack!” Carlos gleefully called, taking his accessory off his head and making his way towards the ceramic piece.

No one registered what he had been talking about until he rushed over and popped the helmet on top of the statue’s head. In a flash, the other four circled it, arms out to catch it if it fell, and a chorus of “no, no, no!” as Logan gently took the helmet off to hand back to his friend.

“Look,” Kendall gently affirmed,“We promised that we would do this in a responsible manner.”

“Responsible manner… in a manor!” Roxy smiled, pointing both fingers to the ceiling.

Logan was the only one who laughed as the front man continued, “Now, we have 80 years of experience between us and… Who am I kidding? I’ll race you to the media room!”

Locking eyes, the five teens sprinted down the hallway to their right, a nice red carpet cushioning their footsteps. In both directions, there were a handful of doors that could lead to all different places, and the band lost time opening and closing doors once they figured out it was not their desired location.

Their assistant, however, had the privilege of having a basic understanding of their boss’ home, and raced to the end of the hall where a large pair of red barn doors greeted her. Once she slid them open, she had a dance of silent victory when she noticed the 100 inch plasma TV in front of a smattering of soft, comfortable looking beanbag chairs. 

Not wasting any time, Roxy quickly found the remote on the coffee table and plopped down into a beanbag chair before pressing the ‘on’ button. Typing in the channel code for MTV, she was more than overjoyed to find out Jersey Shore was airing.   

By the time the band had found the room it was far too late.

“Dibs!” She called, waving the remote around in the air as the four found spots to sit in around the room, dejected.

Thank God they take dibs seriously. 

Trying to ignore the band’s loud sighs and obvious eye rolls, Roxy was more than happy to watch the full Jersey drama unfold on the hi-definition screen and incredible surround sound. It was almost like she was there in the vacation home caught up in the everpresent drama of the famous housemates. 

In this episode, a fight at one of the bars they frequented on the shore broke out - just her chance to get the guys interested enough. Excitedly, she pointed to the TV as Pauly D and The Situation threw the first punches, “Look, look! Action! Violence!”

Instead of the usual twinkle in their eyes that could often be found during a fight happening when they would watch hockey games, her friends looked more confused than anything.

“Uh, why are they fighting again?” Logan questioned, cocking his head to the side. 

The answer, to Roxy, seemed obvious, but was clearly lost on the boys. “The two guys they keep showing over and over, the DJ and the one with the crazy tan, were trying to juggle a couple girls at once.” 

“Woah,” That seemed to catch Carlos’ attention. “You can do that?”

Not wasting a second, she and Kendall both breathed out, “No!” 

“Technically-” 

Buzz buzz

Incoming call: Dad

Never had she been more thankful her phone had cut James off. Whatever he had to say next might lead her to the levels of violence the patrons of the Jersey Shore bar were displaying. 

Wasting no time, the girl hopped off her beanbag chair and darted into the hallway before picking up, “Hello?”

“Hey, kiddo! Haven’t heard from ya in a while, just thought I should check in.”

It was nice to hear his sweet, Southern voice, though she much preferred her own Upper Midwest accent she had picked up living in Minnesota all her life. 

As much as she didn’t like to think about it, he was correct; she hadn’t really had the free time to call in the week since they’d moved to Los Angeles. Besides her initial “hey, we made it!” call from the airport, and a few texts about big things like school and work every now and then, calling home had simply slipped her mind. Hopefully, that didn’t bother him too much. 

A small, guilty chuckle left her lips, “You wouldn’t believe what Gustavo’s got us doing - in fact today is our first real day off and we’re mansion sitting for him.”

“Sounds excitin’… Who’s ‘we’?”

“Oh, Kendall, Carlos, James, Logan, and I.” She said without second thought. The five of them being together had just become so natural to her she didn’t even think of what that might sound like to the father of a teenage girl. 

There was a brief pause in the conversation and Roxy swore she heard a pop! emanate from somewhere in the mansion. 

“And Miss Jennifer was cool with that?” He sighed. 

It sounded as though he, like Kendall’s mom, needed a bit of convincing. 

“Yeah! She’s just down the road if we need her. Besides, we’ve got like 80 years of experience between the five of us-”

“Roxanne.” 

She hated when he used her full name like that. All clear and commanding, as if he were actually there in the room with her.

“Just be careful, ‘kay?”

Casting her eyes down to her shoes, she nodded to herself. “You’ve got it, Dad… Do you want me to ask you before I hang out with the guys alone next time?”

“No… no…” His words didn’t match the hesitation in his voice. “I trust you, honey bun. It just hasn’t been all that easy not having you around so I’m still adjusting, I guess. ‘Sides, I remember what it’s like to be a teenager - can’t blame me for being worried about ya.”

“I miss you, too. Honestly it’s been really weird waking up and not finding one of your notes on my kitchen table.”

When he laughed, she could practically see the image of his smile swirling in her mind. “D’ya know how quiet this house has been without you in it? That dusty old radio in the kitchen is finally getting some use now that you’ve taken all your tapes.”

“Oh! That reminds me! I’ve written two songs for the band now, I can’t wait for the EP to be complete so I can send you a copy.”

“I’m not sure I want to listen to four of my daughter’s boy-friends singin’ pop-y love-y songs she wrote.”

“Da-ad!” Roxy gasped, stretching out the word in jest. “Only one of them is a love song… What else is there for a boy band to sing about?” 

On the other side of the line, the writer could hear some sort of incoherent mumbling. 

After a few seconds, her father spoke again, “Sorry, kiddo, looks like my break’s been cut short. Back to the grindstone for your dear old Dad since not all of us can take the red-eye to L.A. and get all rich and famous.”

“Rich and famous? I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”

“You better! I don’t want to wait a week for another call.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow morning, I won’t forget. Love you!’

“Love ya.”

With a click the line went dead. 

A whole week and a half had gone by and she had completely forgotten to call her father. 

Of all the things a sixteen-year-old should be doing with their time, living alone in Los Angeles, California, two thousand miles away from home, was pretty low on the list. He had been incredibly understanding and flexible with the entire situation because he more than anyone wanted her dreams to come true, and this was how she repaid him. 

Some daughter I am.

As she walked back into the room, nose buried in her phone calendar, she set little repeating reminders throughout her week so she’d never forget to call again. Only when she felt something whizz by her and smack onto the TV frame, she realized the boys had gotten a hold of the TV remote. 

Standing in the middle of the room was James, 9 iron in hand from a set of golf clubs in the corner of the room, teeing up a golf ball aimed once more for the television. Watching from the beanbag chairs, mouths and hands full of popcorn, were Carlos, Logan, and Kendall who appeared to be making quite the mess as their assistant spied a smattering of yellow kernels trailing from the kitchen.

“Why the hell are you hitting golf balls at Gustavo’s TV? Are you out of your mind?” She found herself shouting, scaring the boy in front of the screen.

This time, it was his turn to act as though the answer to her question was obvious, “Chill! They’re just foam… It’s part of a video game. Wanna take a shot?”

  “Pass.” She deadpanned, not sure if she fully believed what he was telling her, before moving to the back of the room to join the other three. “I’m going to be too busy yelling at your audience to pick up after themselves.”

“We’ll do it later!” Carlos assured her, a few kernels falling out of his cupped hands as he reached up and out of Kendall’s emptying popcorn bowl. “James needs to finish his turn right now.”

Taking a few more seconds to once again line up his shot, James bent his knees and looked from the screen to the ball a couple times. “Now, watch the birdie-”

“Miss it!” The other band members shouted, taking their popcorn and tossing it his way to try and mess up his aim.

Smoothly, James managed to bring the iron behind his head and swing it down towards the ball. Connecting with a crack! it almost certainly sounded like a real golf ball, but when it hit the TV it simply bounced off, but not before sending his virtual ball flying in the same direction. 

  Once it sailed into the hole, he let out a cheer of celebration before stepping back and handing the club off to Carlos. 

Sliding onto the window sill where the helmet-wearer had previously been sitting, Roxy stole the seat before her long-haired friend even had the chance. 

“This is totally awesome!” The boy at the tee reflected. “The five of us kicking back in a mansion-”

His thoughts derailed as he took his shot. 

“Where we’ve broken rule number one by entering the media room,” Logan reminded everyone, souring the mood. 

That one’s kind of on me.

Anxiously, the boy continued, “But it stops here, right?”

“Right!” The rest of the teens agreed.

By then, it was Kendall’s turn, and the salty, delicious smell of popcorn was making the assistant’s stomach rumble. Maybe the size of the house would be a good indicator of the size of her boss’ pantry - a fact she would be happy to investigate. 

Stepping out of the room again, she made her way towards the kitchen, before noticing something odd in the living room leading there. On the right hand side, a large, silver refrigerator stood with an equally large, silver chain wrapped around the handles. In the middle of the two doors sat a padlock, increasing her curiosity about what it continued. 

Is this the living room fridge Gustavo mentioned?

As if her band could read her thoughts, they suddenly appeared behind her, no doubt harboring similar ideas about wanting to crack it open.

“Rule number two,” Roxy recited, tone more mocking than anything. “Do not open the living room fridge.”

Holding a hand to his chin, Kendall raised an eyebrow. “Sure… But why do you think Gustavo locks it in the first place?”

“I bet he keeps his heart in there.” James concluded.

“Or his victims.” Added Logan.

Beside his friend, Carlos’ eyes lit up, “Or food!’

There was a moment's hesitation before the blond spoke again, confirming most of the group's thoughts, “Well, only one way to find out.”

The thought of whatever Kendall was insinuating was enough to make Logan tense up in fear. 

“Woah, woah, woah, are you crazy? You just heard Roxy mention mansion-sitting rule number two!”

“Sure…” The girl sucked in a breath. “But of the five, this one doesn’t seem like the most career-ending. Besides, we’ve already been in the media room and everything is fine.”

That was hard logic to beat, so when Carlos swept his arms out in front of his friends and slowly made his way towards the appliance, no one moved to stop him. 

“Step aside, friends! My uncle was a locksmith, you just place your hands between the cylinder and the central housing,” With each word, he lined his hands up with the lock as if he were prepared to crack it - before completely abandoning this idea and grabbing a sledgehammer Gustavo had laying beside it. “And then hit it with the sledgehammer!”

And just like that, the chain tangled up in the handles fell to the floor with a clink.

Gently, he reached forward and grabbed a hold of the doors. He pulled them open slowly, like he was opening some sort of gift, and a soft yellow glow emanated from inside, shining on the teens as they watched. By now, the doors were able to swing open on their own and Carlos stepped back to join his friends.

Inside, were rows upon rows of chocolate pudding cups, bathed in the refrigerator light as if they were blessed by heaven itself, neatly arranged to fill the entire surface area inside. And, for convenience, a mug with five golden spoons sat nestled in one of the shelves on the right door. 

In a blur, the boys rushed the appliance, knocking down the perfect arrangement to grab as many of the cups as they could carry, nearly destroying the inside of the fridge in the process. Cups were squished, crushed, and dropped before they were finally opened, as the boys settled down onto the living room furniture to enjoy their treats. 

No big deal, the assistant told herself as she stared into the open doors and realized how many pudding cups their boss would surely know were missing. We can just head to the store before he gets home and replace what we eat.

 Since Gustavo wouldn’t be back until the following evening, there was no use in denying herself a bit of fun too. 

Beside the pudding-fridge, there was a small cart with a popcorn machine almost halfway full of delicious smelling kernels. That, mixed with the sweet smell of chocolate radiating off the boys behind her, was more than enough to make her stomach continue to growl. So, she took a small bowl next to the popcorn machine and added a few scoops, before turning back to the pudding fridge to take a pudding cup and spoon. Dumping the chocolate into the bowl, she used the spoon to mix everything up before squeezing her way onto the couch between James and Kendall. 

Already, the boys had accumulated a mountain of trash in the form of empty pudding cups piling onto the coffee table. 

Did they even taste it?

“And to think, Gustavo didn’t trust us!” Kendall sighed, finishing what must've been his fourth cup. Glancing down to the bowl his assistant was holding, he asked her a question as she took a scoop of her popcorn chocolate creation to her lips. “What’ve you got?” 

“Pop-choc… Or Pudd-corn, maybe?”

He didn’t even ask if he could try any before digging his own spoon into her bowl and taking a bit, a splash of pudding falling onto Roxy’s leg. 

Thankfully she had been wearing shorts; if he ruined a pair of her pants she’d probably go ballistic on him. Without thinking, she used her index finger to scrape the pudding off and fling it towards her friend, horribly undershooting. Now, instead of a chocolate covered leg, they had a chocolate covered couch cushion. 

Couch… Couch!

Roxy’s stomach dropped; the band confirmed her fears as they jumped up from their seated positions and gathered around, examining the stain. 

Turning to them, eyes wide, she pleaded, “Please don’t tell me this is-”

“Gustavo’s $40,000 couch!” Carlos finished for her, though it was hard to take him seriously with chocolate stains covering his face. 

Like they were poisoned, the band and their assistant emptied their hands of pudding cups and bowls - finished and unfinished - out of fear they’d cause another accident. 

Nearly on the verge of tears, Logan pointed towards the stain, “Get your butts off his couch was rule number three!”

“Don’t make me feel any worse, Logan, I know what the stupid rule is! Why did any of you sit there if you knew that was the couch Gustavo mentioned anyway?!”

It wasn’t fair to try and shift the blame off of herself, but the knot forming in her stomach needed to be eased.

“Gustavo’s gonna kill us and we’re only 80 years old!” A nervous James responded, tone of voice making it sound as if he were the one who caused the stain. 

Taking in his words, the band paused for a moment before turning to face their assistant, still sitting next to the mess she had made. She was too afraid to move in case that would disturb the glob any more.  “How hard can it be to remove a stain from a white couch? We’re more than capable of figuring that out.”

“Logan. Brain. Now!” The front man called, panic strewn into those three little words even though he was trying to appear calm and collected in the face of their situation.

Though he was slightly thrown off by the spotlight suddenly on him, the studious boy began running a number of scenarios through his head. “Right, okay, um… Gustavo has a cat, right? And cat litter’s main ingredient is bentonite, which as we all know, is a natural absorbent.”

“Carlos, get the cat litter… James, open the door to air out the smell…And Roxy, stay perfectly still…” Delegated Kendall, handing out the jobs that would most benefit his friends. No one was in the mood to argue, and quickly went their separate ways in order to find the solution to their ever growing problems. 

A few minutes later, a slight breeze kicked through the room, giving a slight jostle to the girl’s hair as Logan took the kitty litter from Carlos and gently poured it onto the pudding stain. Setting the bag on the table with their other mess, he offered a hand to Roxy to help her up now that the stain was contained. 

She distanced herself as far as possible from the piece of furniture, ending up beside Kendall as they observed the litter sit there.

With a sigh, Logan turned to his friends, happy the crisis had been avoided, “Now we just relax and wait.”

Mrow!

Sound scaring Roxanne half to death, she dug her fingers into Kendall’s arm as Gustavo’s cat, Monty, made his first appearance of the night, hopping up onto the couch and sniffing the pile of litter poured on seconds ago. The band shared her sentiment, tensing at the sight of the strange, bald creature she likened to a plucked, raw chicken. 

“Woah!” Cried Logan, taking a few steps back and pointing to the animal. “What is that thing?”

Wincing a bit at his assistant’s grip strength, Kendall breathed out, “It must be his cat!”

“That’s a cat?” Carlos asked in disbelief. 

Nodding her head, the assistant confirmed, “Rich people have the weirdest tastes.”

“J-just get him off before he-”

Like he somehow understood what James was about to say, the cat lifted up one of his back legs and relieved himself over the mound. 

No more room for patience, the blond stomped his foot in anger, “Get him off the couch!”

At the command, James shoved Carlos towards the cat as their assistant tried to stop him. “No, no, no, no, no! Gustavo said not to touch him!”

Her pleading was drowned out by Monty screaming as soon as he was grabbed. Then, growing even louder as the boy ripped him off the couch and threw him out the open door, attempting to claw at his attacker the entire time. 

“There goes rule number four!” At this point, Logan wasn’t even trying to hide his displeasure with their situation. What had started as harmless rule breaking had now expanded into life-ending-at-the-hands-of-their-boss territory. Throwing his hands in the air, he sat down on one of the tables decorating the room to avoid sitting on any more couches, accidentally catching the top corner of a remote and triggering some kind of mechanism in the process.

As everyone stood around the couch, watching the disgusting stains meld together, a disco ball dropped from the ceiling and a thumping club music track replaced the classical tune that had been playing only a moment ago. Blue, pink, and purple lights added to the mix, casting a bunch of sparkles from the mirrored glass all over the room.

It would’ve been fun, had Roxy not been focusing all her energy into not having a full blown panic attack in the midst of everything happening around her. The media room and the living room fridge would be easy to clean and restock; Gustavo could be none the wiser about their rule breaking. But now, the stain on the couch and the missing cat were just two more nails in their coffins. 

Desperately trying to turn the music off and put the lights and decorations away, Logan found the remote he had crushed and began pushing every single button on it. None of them seemed to be working, and his pushing began to get so aggressive a poof of smoke blew out the back - suggesting the remote was toast.

“Rule number five!” Screamed James, trying his best to be louder than the music rattling their brains. “If we break anything, we’re fired!”

Anything… Maybe everything…

It was getting hard to hear even her own thoughts over the pounding, pulsating club tune, and even harder to whatever her friends had to say. 

At one point, Kendall shouted something, but she was only able to make out a few words here and there, “...Calm down… got to… the stain…couch… the cat… disco ball… do this together!”

How the boys were able to understand their friend was astonishing to their assistant, but as she noticed them all place their hands in the middle of a team-style huddle, she was able to surmise they had come up with some kind of plan. Looking over towards her, they impatiently waited for her hand as well. 

Here goes nothing.

***

Five minutes later, their combined efforts to help the end crisis they had found themselves in had done absolutely nothing - except make the situation infinitely worse.

It all happened in such a blur, no one really knew who was to blame for what, but at present the teens were focused on putting out a fire that had started in one of the trash cans in the living room. Throughout the house, the fire alarm was blaring, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and focus on the most pressing issue. 

Thankfully, when Roxy had run into the kitchen, heart pounding as loud as her footsteps, and thrown all the cabinets open to find a fire extinguisher there was a brand new tank under the sink. Why she had been the only one to check there, she didn’t know, but when she returned with the device she noticed that the boys had strewn just about anything they could get their hands on across the foyer before learning their search attempts were futile. 

Pulling the pin, then squeezing down on the device’s lever, she was able to release the extinguishing agent and douse the fire with a whoosh. 

It was then Kendall appeared behind her, eyes wide as he examined the damage the fire had done to both the can and the white, now black, wall behind it. Before he was able to say anything, Logan sprinted in from the backyard looking equally as terrified.

“I can’t find the cat! At All!”

Just as quickly as he had entered the room, he was gone in another flash to try and survey a new area. 

As he ran off, Roxy noticed James standing in the middle of the foyer, two pieces of the shattered white statue Gustavo had for decoration in his hands while even more tiny pieces were covering the tile floor. He looked at the pieces quizzically, “I think I broke the statue.”

Unknowingly, her grip tightened, still on the lever of the fire extinguisher, and some of the white chemical substance flew out of the nozzle. “You think?”

Before she could say anything else, Kendall cut her off, “Well, the good news is, this can’t get any worse, right?”

Right after he finished, the three heard Carlos let out a blood-curdling scream from down the hall. Glancing to Kendall, Roxy shot him a Really? glare, as she saw Carlos appear out of the corner of her eye. Carrying his precious helmet in one hand, he stopped in the middle of the corridor to turn to his friends, then whatever spooked him down the hall, then back to his friends. 

“The alligator’s loose! The alligator’s loose!”

 More than anything they had done today, those words were more than enough to drain the color from the girl’s face. Dropping the fire extinguisher, she felt herself freeze as Carlos came barreling down the hall, Logan now joining him, while the unseen creature let out a roar from somewhere in the building. 

“Wait! Is there a-” Logan was just as freaked out as she was, yelling at his friends over the sound of the fire alarm. “Why is there an alli-”

Unable to finish his sentence, the other four watched as their friend tensed up. None of them were able to register what was happening to him until his muscles relaxed and a bit of light left his eyes, before he completely passed out onto the floor. 

“Get him! Get him!” Someone yelled, but the girl was too busy trying to keep herself afloat as she watched her friend fall helpless on the ground. With every passing second it was getting more and more difficult to breathe, feeling her chest tighten as she truly began to realize the extent of the problem they were facing. At this point, getting eaten by the alligator might be a kindness compared to whatever Gustavo was going to do to them when he came back from his trip.

By now, Carlos and Kendall had managed to haul Logan up and were carrying him over their shoulders, while James grabbed Roxy’s hand and pulled her up the giant spiral staircase behind them. Both she and the passed out boy were beginning to look a bit worse for wear as they took shelter on the second floor. 

Finally able to take a breath and assess the damage, the four crowded themselves on the top step next to their unconscious friend in hopes that the alligator wasn’t able to figure out how to climb. Their bags, however, were still at the base of the hallway and the girl hoped that nothing in her bag smelled enticing enough for the creature to venture anywhere near her things. 

Enticing smell…

“If…” She tried, barely able to push out the one word from how bad she was shaking. “If Gustavo has any meat in the kitchen we might be able to lure the alligator into one of the rooms and lock it in there. Then we can work on damage control.”

With a nod, Kendall turned to Carlos before pointing in the direction of the kitchen. The two took off, wordlessly, leaving the other pair to look after Logan for a bit. 

Roxy reached for her phone, thinking that after they cornered the creature they could call animal control to come and get it, and realized her hand was still firmly clasped into James’. 

Embarrassed, she let go, but not before stealing a look at the small amount of pink creeping up his ears. 

As she looked up the number for animal control, the boy beside her shifted a little bit.

“Hey, uh, we never really talked about what… What happened the other day.”

The comment made the girl freeze as she pretended to examine her phone screen in detail; the only thing he could have been referring to was their semi-date. 

“What about it?” She replied, not even glancing his way. “It’s every girl’s dream to have their date strapped into a gurney and carted off.”

Her joke elicited a bit of a chuckle from James, thankfully, which gave her a bit more time to formulate her thoughts into feelings. There was really no way to tell someone the only reason you went out with them was to kill time and anger your boss. That, and to save a new friend from four different guys harassing her nonstop. 

For Jo, She told herself. Definitely for Jo.

“That wasn’t the only thing that happened.”

“Oh, yeah…” Roxy sighed, holding her finger to her chin in fake thought. “You also got me yelled at. Then you asked another girl out right in front of me.”

Scoffing, the boy shook his head, long hair sweeping over his eyes, “Be serious, Roxy. You know that I-”

“-GATOR!” 

Logan, who had most likely scared himself awake, bolted upright next to James, hand clutching his chest so hard his knuckles turned white. The creature, still on his mind, hadn’t moved from its place down the hallway where Carlos had first discovered it. 

Since it was where Carlos had left it, he and Kendall were able to return to the base of the staircase with a hunk of raw meat, a broom, some string, and a ladder. They were quickly able to fashion the meat to the end of the string, creating a makeshift form of bait and placed the ladder towards the entrance of the hallway where the creature had last been spotted. Conveniently, their setup was right in front of one of the bathroom doors where they would be able to trap the creature inside. 

Once Kendall and Carlos climbed up the ladder to safety, they cast their line, and the other three moved to the base of the stairs to join them. 

“How did an alligator get in here?” Kendall questioned, trying to keep his cool as the giant, scaly creature began to inch closer to the fishing line. 

Scratching his helmet sheepishly, Carlos sighed. “I opened the back door to let the smoke out, and it crawled in from Gustavo’s moat!” 

“His moat?” James and Logan chorused, causing the girl to curse her bad memory. She should’ve paid more attention to Cribs.

Slowly but surely, the terrifying reptile waddled around the corner, closer and closer to his prize at Kendall’s gentle coaxing as the rest of his friends held their breath in anticipation. 

A little more… A little more…

The creature bellowed, snapping its jaws open and shut before any of them could even blink, taking the steak between its teeth. According to plan, it noticed the open doorway behind it and thought it to be a means of quick escape, so it turned into the bathroom to eat its meal. 

Once it was fully inside the doorway, Roxy gently shoved James and Logan towards the trap, “Close the door!”

Was it cruel to send her friend who had literally passed out simply at the thought of seeing the alligator down the stairs towards it? Yes. But once the animal was trapped inside the room as the door slammed shut, Logan had seemingly forgotten all about his fear as the boys erupted into celebration. 

They’re so good at that, their assistant mused, watching as the four of them danced around the living room. Celebrating before the actual problem is solved. 

Eventually, the four collapsed onto the bottom step of the stairs, directly on the step in front of the writer. There were a few moments of silence between the five as they looked out over the foyer of the mansion, surveying the damage they had inadvertently caused. Bits of shattered marble statue littered the floor, strewn around pillows and couch cushions that had been upturned, discarded pudding cups upturned and soaking into the carpet… It was a miracle Roxy herself hadn’t passed out at the thought of her career coming to an end. 

“Now, we just need to find Gustavo’s freaky bald cat so he doesn’t kill us,” Kendall reminded his friends. 

“If only that were the least of our worries…” Sighed the writer, racking her brain to try and find the most time and cost effective way to get their boss’ mansion back to normal. 

“Call the FBI!” James cried, seemingly out of nowhere, turning towards Logan for idea approval. He seemed very sure of himself until the other boy scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. 

“The FBI? For a missing cat? They only work with serious crimes.”

At this statement, the long-haired boy's eyes widened as his friends exchanged confused looks. Staring off into the distance as if he were trying to trigger a flashback scene from a bad 80s movie, he sucked a bit of air between his teeth, “Oh, that explains a lot… I know one of you used all my ‘Cuda massive hold!”

Roxy’s “That cannot be that important right now!” nearly outshadowed Kendall’s “Can we please just focus?!”

The frontman’s statement was enough to capture everyone’s attention as his words slightly echoed through the room due to Gustavo’s incredibly high ceilings. “Now, there’s only three possible places the cat could be hiding. One, he’s roaming the neighborhood. Two, he’s hiding up a tree-”

A loud alligator burp emanated from behind the closed door to the teen’s right. 

“...And that would be three.”

***

Thirty minutes and twelve some-odd phone calls by Carlos later, the five were now in possession of an orange tabby cat. 

Though it was nearing the middle of the night, the helmet-wearer had assured his friends he would get the cat situation under control while the rest of them began to clean up the house to the best of their ability. Though none of them had really made a dent, so when Carlos slipped out the front door and returned moments later carrying the creature, that had fully captured their attention. 

“Carlos… you seriously cannot do what I think you’re about to do.” Roxy said, jaw nearly dropping to the floor when she noticed James beside him holding an electric razor he had found in one of the bathrooms. 

The four boys stood in front of the coffee table where the cat had been placed, watching it curiously as he sat and scratched at himself with one of his paws. 

Logan nodded in agreement, “I second that. It’ll just make more of a mess anyway.”

“Oh?” James questioned, tone dripping with sarcasm. “Would you rather tell Gustavo we lost his and, you know, have him replace us and destroy my dreams?”

Like before, once his tone of voice grew louder with the last few words of his question, James’ voice echoed off the walls of the mansion. 

His words, however, had no effect on Logan, who simply ignored him as he looked toward Carlos.

“Where did you get the cat?”

“I’ve got a guy.”

The answer was vague and non-descript, yet left no room for argument among the five. 

“Alright,” Agreed Kendall, raising his left hand to grab the razor from James. “Hold him down steady.”

Carlos was able to reach out and grab the cat’s body, gently guiding him down on his side. 

“Oh, I can’t look.” Logan cringed, and not look he did, as he covered his eyes with one hand. 

As Roxy looked onward at her friends, every part of her brain was telling her this was just another bad idea that would only spell more trouble, but it wasn’t often that her friends' harebrained schemes didn’t end up working out. Besides this being borderline animal abuse, at least it might save her chances of staying in Hollywood for longer. 

Turning her back as well, she didn’t say anything as she took the nail of her thumb between her teeth. We’re all headed straight for hell.

“Would you two chill?” She heard Kendall ask, a remark that shouldn’t have come so easy from him. “How hard can it be to shave a cat?”

With the push of a button, the clippers turned on, buzz emanating from the small machine. This, of course, was enough to thoroughly spook the cat, causing him to wiggle out of Carlos’ grasp. Bolting away from the four as fast as possible, the assistant felt him rush through her legs and watched as an orange blur made its way around the room. 

Not thinking, she took off after him, doing her best to make sure any knocked over items didn’t end up smashing all over the floor. Somehow he had found his way onto the full mantle above the fireplace, darting this way and that to keep up his fast pace. After catching a vase full of flowers, a glass picture frame, and some sort of abstract sculpture, her hands were regrettably full, and she watched in dismay as the cat accidentally knocked about five more things to the ground.

He seemed to enjoy circling around the room, almost like he was doing his best to purposely destroy the most fragile items before he made his way back onto the table Carlos had previously placed him on. From there, he had a perfect view of the boys that had attacked him, and he took his chances to return the favor. 

Bouncing from Carlos, then to James, then to Logan, then to Kendall, the cat was sure to tear clothing and skin as a friendly reminder that he could not be contained. It happened fast, too fast for any of them to register what was truly happening to them as they cried out in pain.

Once it had her friends stunned, Roxy watched in horror as the cat turned to face her before letting out a scream and dropping the items she was holding. Beside her, she grabbed a cushion from one of Gustavo’s lounge chairs and was able to use it as a shield, knocking the cat to the ground as it leapt up to pounce on her. 

The mix of sounds; ceramic smashing, curtins tearing, boys groaning, and pillows being ripped to shreds rang through the halls leaving the five without any hope left. 

It’s official. Roxy gently guided her dazed friends over to the white couch they had destroyed earlier while the cat was distracted with destroying a pillow she had thrown at it. We’re so dead.

Now, the five of them sat together, watching the cat continue to decimate everything in sight. 

First the chair, then the silk drapes, then the canvas of a painting, until finally he seemed to have worn himself out. As if nothing had happened, the cat stopped what he was doing and lazily stretched out, moving to the middle of the foyer to lay down and roll around on the cold tile. 

For a while, no one said anything as they let the initial shock of the incident sink in. 

The first to move was Roxy, who made her way over to the foyer as well and sat down next to the animal. Slowly, she lowered herself to the cleanest stretch of floor she could find and sat cross-legged next to him, gently reaching her hand out to stroke the cat’s belly. Though he jumped a bit at first contact, he rolled onto its side and allowed her to continue. 

Soft fur running along the palm of her hand was doing enough to keep her from having a full blown meltdown for the time being. 

After a while, Carlos got up and walked over to the popcorn machine near the fridge. He took a large bowl and many full scoops of the snack out of the machine before walking over to his assistant and sitting down as well. A few more minutes passed after this, but eventually Kendall and James moved to join the other two in the middle of the room, while Logan made his way over towards a laptop Gustavo had laying on one of the side tables. 

“We are horrible mansion-sitters,” Breathed Kendall, playing with the end of one of his frayed sleeves. 

Beep beep

A text tone sounded out from his phone, which he was able to dig out of his pocket to review the message. 

“Oh, good news.” He deadpanned, a sardonic smile beginning to form on his face. “Gustavo and Kelly are coming back early.” 

Feeling utterly crushed and defeated, the assistant couldn’t think of anything to do as she let her head fall to the side, onto Kendall’s shoulder as Carlos let out a scared yelp.

Across the room, Logan called, “I can fix this!”, rushing over to his friends with the laptop in hand. 

“Yes!” Cried James, fist pumping the air as he watched his friend set the laptop down to show off the screen. “I knew the smart out would come through. What do you got?” 

Pointing to the text on the screen, their friend continued, “There’s a 4:00 am flight to Bolivia. We get there, change our names, raise alpacas.”

“The company credit card is in my wallet,” Roxy said, raising a finger to point over towards her bag. “I think I’ll change my name to… Quinn… something…”

Waving her and Logan off, Kendall sighed, looking towards his phone again. 

“I have a better idea.”

Lighting up, Carlos spoke with a bit of enthusiasm, “You’re gonna call a cleaning service!”

Why didn’t I think of that? Roxy asked herself before saying, “Or a late night furniture store.”

“A statue repairman!” Added James.

“And,” Logan included, “One of those places that gets the cats out of the alligators.”

 He didn’t even need to think before pressing “M” on his speed dial, “All of the above.”

***

Before any of them realized it, Mrs. Knight and Katie were bursting down the door, cleaning supplies and multiple packs of pudding in hand, to greet the teens and assess the damage. 

After the initial call, the five were able to let their guard down a bit and relax. Roxy had poked around in one of the bathrooms and had found a first aid kit, passing out alcohol wipes and bandages to her friends to dress their many, many wounds. In the process, she had also managed to find some cleaning supplies under the bathroom sink, so covered in dust she doubted they had seen the light since the ‘90s. 

It must be so nice to be rich and have other people clean your house for you.

Kendall jumped up from the floor, racing to his mother immediately to give her the full rundown of the damage. 

“Hey, Mom, here’s the sitch-”

Mrs. Knight held her hand up, “Zip it. I’m gonna need three liters of club soda, a sewing kit, a bucket of vinegar, bleach, and get on the phone and find a place that delivers super-turbo bonding glue and semi-gloss white paint.”

Nodding, the teens seemed to be in agreement with her words, before Carlos held out his hands in confusion. “What about Gustavo’s cat?”

From the bucket in her hands, Mrs. Knight pulled out a box full of Pretty Kitty treats as she marched into the living room. Shaking the box a few times for good measure, she attracted the orange tabby as he rubbed against her legs, and poured a small pile onto the floor. 

Mrow!

From the hallway to their right, Monty emerged, eager to share the treats with his new kitty friend. 

Never before had seeing a cat relieved the writer so much, and the band shared her sentiment, letting out a chorus of cheers as Monty and the tabby curled up together. 

“That’s a cat?” Katie questioned, furrowing her brows as she looked onto the bald creature. 

The two devoured more treats, in a strangely mesmerizing fashion, causing Mrs. Knight to clap her hands and pull their attention back to her. “What are you all staring at? We’re gonna be here all night! Go, go, go, go!”

Nobody needed to be told twice; everyone scrambled to pick up different jobs around the house and gather the supplies the woman had requested. 

Finding some trash bags in the kitchen while she had been looking for club soda, Roxy eagerly handed them off to Kendall who took off down the hallway. Whatever large bits of trash he found were grabbed and placed into the bag, with Carlos trailing behind with a handheld broom and dust pan. 

Club soda, a sewing kit, and vinegar had been easy enough to find and bring to Mrs. Knight, but now the assistant was faced with the task of finding a place still open selling super glue and paint. She found herself sitting on the base of the stairs, tearing through her notebook trying to find where she had left the number for the overnight construction crew that had built the basketball court in Studio B a bit ago. 

Her fingers shook, pressing the numbered buttons on her cell as she watched James begin to vacuum the carpet in the living room. Bringing it to her ear, she spied Logan on the other side of the room, doing his best to sew the large, golden drapes together with the small sewing kit she had located. 

Despite the hour, the man on the phone had been very kind to her, and within minutes of placing the call, she was holding the glue and a gallon of paint, while passing off nearly all the cash in her wallet to the delivery man as a massive “thank you” tip. 

As the time ticked on and on, the pudding in the fridge had been restored to its original number; the drapes, pillows, and furniture had been sewn up and stain treated; every surface in sight wiped, swept, and tidied; statue nearly puzzled back together; and the decorative pieces scattered throughout the house had all been put back in their proper places.

It was the sound of early birds chirping through the windows that alerted the seven that morning had finally come, meaning their cleaning spree was about to be interrupted by a particular music producer and his assistant. 

Roxy was in the media room, sweeping up the popcorn that her friends had trailed in from the kitchen when she heard a little knock on the open door. Wiping her brow with the back of her hand as she looked up, she found James standing in the doorway. 

“Need any help?”

A simple enough question, but as the girl glanced around the room she couldn’t help but feel like something was out of place. 

“Did you put that golf game from earlier away?”

He nodded, taking a few steps into the room towards her.

Sunlight flooded through the windows behind the writer, illuminating his figure as he grew closer, before he veered to the right and picked a few bits of trash she had missed off of the couch and onto the floor in front of her broom. 

When he leaned down to place his things on the ground, his cheek hit her eye level where she noticed he had missed a spot near his ear when he had been cleaning the scrapes the cat had left. A bit of dried blood caked three claw marks, nothing deep enough to leave a scar, but definitely visible enough to worry him about his appearance if he had seen it. Maybe he had been too frazzled to notice it the first time around.

Without thinking, Roxy stepped back to set down her broom and grab a clean paper towel off the roll she had been using to wipe down the tables. James watched her, curiously, but didn’t move to stop her as she carefully reached up to take his chin between her thumb and forefinger. Easily enough, at the slight pressure she placed on him to turn his head to the side, he did, and she used the towel to clean the small wound. 

Between his completely claw-shredded clothing and disheveled hair, this felt like the least she could do to help ease his situation; the five of them had had enough panic in the last 12 hours  to last them a lifetime. 

Once she pulled the towel away, the relief on his face was evident as his features relaxed once he turned to face her again. A smile hinted on his lips, he brought a few fingers to the site of the wound before pulling them away to find nothing unsavory staining the pads. 

Why did I cut him off earlier? She asked herself, silent as he looked down at her. Dark circles were forming under his eyes, evidence of the harrowing night they had been through together. Surly it wouldn’t be that bad if-

“Thanks, Roxy.”

Remembering the situation at hand, she quickly glanced down to her feet as she felt her stomach twist. “No problem.”

“Really,” He said, voice dropping a little as he leaned a bit closer to her. “All this, and you’re standing there worried about me?”

“I don’t know if… worried is the right word.”

Eyebrows raising slightly as if he were surprised, the smile from earlier grew a bit wider. 

Now it was her turn to watch in silence as he raised a hand to cup her cheek, eyes fluttering behind long, brown lashes, to examine her face. There was no way he didn’t notice the red absolutely forming in her cheeks.

“What’s the right word then? Concerned? Uneasy?” He asked her, head tilting a bit to the side and revealing a little twinkle in his eye. “Nervous?” 

He’s enjoying this… Bastard.

Roxy found herself smiling too, glancing up a bit to meet his unwavering gaze, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

When he opened his mouth to respond, someone from down the hallway called out both of their names. 

As quickly as the moment had come, it had come to an end. Like a flash, James was out of the room, leaving his assistant standing there - dumbstruck as to what she had just done. The twist in her gut remained, even as she pulled together her supplies and made her way back to the living room where everyone else had gathered. 

By the edge of the living room and foyer, Mrs. Knight was pacing the room back and forth, scrutinizing every little thing to make sure it was in more than perfect condition.

“Looking good everyone!” Her shoes clicked on the tile flooring as she neared the front door. The statue in the middle of the room was completely put together, now it just needed to be set before the boys could let it go. “And that glue will be dry in ten, nine…”

Mrs. Knight began to count down ominously, reminding the assistant that their boss would likely arrive home any second. While the boys held the statue in place, she grabbed her overnight bag and ducked into the nearest alligator-free bathroom to change into her pajamas to make it appear as though she had a good night's sleep. 

“Bigfoot’s on the campground!” Logan yelled, finally getting a chance to use the secret code phrase he had come up with prior to the cleaning session. It let everyone know Gustavo was on the mansion premises, giving everyone the extra push they needed to finish whatever they were doing.

Though he said it a few more times, and Roxy heard the panicked screams of her friends as they waited for Mrs. Knight to reach one, by the time she made it out of the bathroom and back into the foyer the boys had also changed; Mrs. Knight and Katie were nowhere to be seen. 

Any other day Roxy would have made fun of the band for their kiddie pajamas and matching nightcaps, but today she squeezed onto the couch beside Logan and curled into his side while closing her eyes, feigning sleep. 

Everyone heard the distinct jingle of keys, sliding into the lock of the front door and turning, listening as the door swung open and the two adults stepped onto the tile. The footsteps were rushed, like Gustavo was running around to make sure everything was in place, but no one dared open their eyes to figure out just what he was doing.  

Once the steps stopped and the five could feel the overwhelming presence of their boss a few feet away, they slowly allowed their eyes to flutter open as if they were just waking up. Stretching and groaning, the teens did their very best to act calm and refreshed, even as their hearts threatened to pound out of their chests at the thought of Gustavo finding something wrong. 

“Oh, look who’s here…” Kendall pushed out through fake yawns. 

A few tired musings and James followed with, “It’s Gustavo and Kelly.”

Sitting up and disturbing Roxy’s comfortable position, Logan held his hands out to the pair in appeasement, “We slept here ‘cause we didn’t want to touch anything.”

“I’ll make sure to wash these pillow cases for you.” The girl added, referring to the throw pillows the five ended up lounging on. 

“Yeah,” Carlos nodded along with her statement. “We’re not just pretending-” Roxy cut him off with a pained laugh as Logan and James smacked him in the stomach, “Because that would be silly! We don’t joke about mansion-sitting.”

“Silence!” Gustavo called, voice echoing far more off the walls than anyone had managed to the previous night. “Monty?”

Mrow!

From wherever he and the orange tabby had ended up hiding, Monty emerged around the corner of the hallway and lovingly jumped into Gustavo’s arms. If the man saw the claw marks riddling the boys’ faces, he didn’t say anything as he nuzzled the cat into his chest. 

While Gustavo was preoccupied with his pet, Kendall used this to get the teens one foot out the door. Bundling up his overnight supplies, the other four followed suit as he stood and called out, “We’d love to stay and chat, but we gotta get out of here.”

“Thank you so much!” Both Roxy and Logan thanked the adults as they filed behind Kendall, who was making a beeline for the door. 

Carlos and James followed behind, making sure to proclaim how much fun they had staying overnight as they passed by Gustavo and Kelly. 

Just as Kendall reached his hand out to turn the door knob, Gustavo yelled at them to stop.

“There’s something I need to say…”

Mouth going dry, Roxy swallowed nervously, eyes scanning the room around her to make sure nothing had been forgotten. There isn’t anything for him to find… or is there?

Kendall also looked around nervously, presumably for the same reasons she had before clearing his throat and turning back to the door, “Well, you can say something tomorrow, so…”

Other four mumbling in agreement, they once more made their way to the door before Kelly called to stop them again. “Guys! This is important, okay?”

Turning back around, the teens trudged back to the middle of the foyer. They had definitely been caught, and there was no use in running away now. 

“We’ve been working together for almost two weeks now,” Gustavo started. “And, I just wanted to say, although we’ve had our ups and downs, the truth is, I luh… I luh…”

Using her shoulder, Kelly gave her boss a little nudge. 

“I like you.”

They didn’t bring another band back with them.

Just as he finished his emotional speech, a distinct cracking sound came from the middle of the marble statue and everyone watched in horror as it shattered into a million pieces all over the carpet below it. 

“And we like you too!” Kendall assured the producer, before adding, “Run!” onto the end of his statement. 

Following her friends, Roxy grabbed her bag and bolted out of the mansion before Gustavo could grab them and wring their necks. 

They were nearly halfway down the driveway and into the street before Roxy remembered they had locked an unwanted guest in one of the bathrooms by the foyer. 

“Oh, my God, we forgot to tell him about the-”

Gustavo finished her sentence for her, screaming loud enough to be heard from miles away.

“ALLIGATOR!”

--

Hi! This chapter was not beta read, so if there are any errors please kindly let me know

In other news, I have a few things to share:

- Happy summer! Now that I have some more free time, I'm going to do my best to update once a week instead of once every two weeks :)

- You can find myloveforhergoeson on ao3 and wattpad

- Though it's a bit far off, I was thinking of publishing a one-shot chapter between "seasons". If anyone has any suggestions for situations they'd like to see Roxy and the band in please leave a comment here or in my tumblr ask box. This can also maybe function like a q&a as well - if you have any questions about the characters/their profiles/anything please let me know!

-As always, thanks for reading!!

[gakkubi]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, this feels like a bit of a loaded ask;;

So I'm currently working on a big ol fic and the ame trio (and original akatsuki) are a part of it. It has 3 original characters (2 being parents and one being a young child) that join Akatsuki. I was wondering if you had any tips for writing the ame trio as sort of older siblings to this kid? Also any general tips on writing the trio would be nice too if you have the time... I really love your work regarding the three. 💖

Hello!! Wow, this is such a lovely and fun ask! It's not a loaded question at all. I'm glad that you feel like asking my opinion on this, our own works are such personal things! I'm also super excited to know more people who are working on creative content (art & writing) with the Ame Oprhans. <3

I'll try to give an answer as detailed and helpful as possible! Leaving it below the cut because it will also be long, as I can't manage to be cohesive lmao.

I hope it's not a problem, but I'll rearrange a bit the order of your questions: first, general pointers about the Ame Orphans (+ Hanzo and Amegakure), and then how it'd relate to them being older siblings to your OCs.

The original Akatsuki timeline: I think the context of what was happening in the Land of Rain during the time of the original Akatsuki is a bit messy/vague, which makes it hard to understand, that's why I'm including it in the answer.

Bear with me for a little while, I know it feels like I'll be going on a tangent but I believe to better understand the characters, it's important we understand their environment just as much.

--- First off, I think it's good to clear up that the Akatsuki was not opposed to Hanzo (or his government). This is a misconception I see rather frequently, and it contradicts directly a lot of Yahiko's own actions - why would he want to ally with Hanzo if the Akatsuki was opposed to him? It's important to keep in mind that the trap that got Yahiko killed only happened because Hanzo "wanted to use the Akatsuki's influence to assist with peace negotiations between the three countries (waging the Third War)". (Ch.446). That is why Hanzo betrayed them... you can't betray your enemies.

I believe the misconception comes from, well, the fact that Hanzo killed Yahiko, and the fact that Kyusuke saw the Ame Orphans wearing hitai-ates with the Rain symbol, assumed they worked with Hanzo and stated that in a very... snarky manner. (Ep. 346).

Was Hanzo popular? Was he hated? Both? I don't think we have canon information enough to state either. What we know is that Yahiko (and, in extent, the Akatsuki) had a goal of working with him, or at least not against him - after all, the Akatsuki was all about estabilishing peace, not more conflict.

"Just like Hanzo, we hope that one day we'll be able to bring peace to the shinobi world..." Yahiko on Ep.346, English dub.

--- What was the Akatsuki's goal besides, well, world peace?

As far as we know, Rain didn't have a central government (like Fire and the other Great Nations had the Kage and Daimyo) -- Rain is not ever even called a "Country", probably because of that. When you a weak/non-existant/unstable government in a nation, it opens space for the rise of criminal factions. You don't have to search too much to get reference for that; crime-dominated cities are good examples, even if in smaller scales, for what happens when governments lose control to factions (mafia, gangs). When these factions wage war against each other, citizens suffer. In Rain, you also have the factor of Rain being occupied and used as battlefield for the Third War. We can assume the Akatsuki was trying to peacefully work against both of these situations.

Achieving "world peace" is a very broad goal -- you can try to do that through many different ways, as Nagato (post Yahiko's death) and Madara show us. We can tell through the story that Yahiko's Akatsuki, on a daily basis, tried to pave the way to world peace through local action: being the "guardians" of small villages (ep.346) and protecting it from local criminal gangs, as well as more 'international' actions such as helping (interfering?) with the conflics between the Great Nations (ep.347).

In this regard, we can also safely assume the Akatsuki grew to be known/powerful enough to have influence, or at least enough to pose as a threat to Hanzo; they were not just a small little group ninja among other similar groups of ninja. I think it's quite safe to assume that a lot of people heard about the Akatsuki (and the three main leaders), given that they caught the attenttion of Danzo, who is not even a Rain citizen...

2. The Ame Orphans.

I have a series of analysis of the Ame Trio as inviduals if you want to read, so I'll try to keep a simpler answer here, and more directed at your question.

I think writing them as older siblings to your character would depend a lot, of course, in what is the relationship of your character with them. Are they a member of the Akatsuki?¹ If so, what is their role in the Akatsuki? Are they trying to figure out where they fit, or do they start more or less knowing what is it that they will do?²

¹ Side note: You did mention one of the characters being a kid - if your child character ends up joining the Akatsuki... I wonder how the process of bringing a child into an organization that deals with war will work in the first place? We know the Shinobi World doesn't oppose children dealing with violence -- but how do the Ame Orphans, who are rebels against the system, feel about it? I'm very curious. I can totally see the Akatsuki having a "younger members" section, but I also feel like there would be some resistance to that idea. I wonder if this will cause some conflict until they decide what to do about your OC? Will they all be on the same page? Will of some of them be too idealistic ("we can't do what everyone else does and involve children with violence") and others be too realistic ("this is the world we live now, and we need to play the game to change the rules")? ² Side note: Especially for the adult characters, I think their "roles" will influence a lot with which of the ame orphans they'll interact most. Yahiko is the leader, of course, which means that he will probably interact with everyone more or less equally, and for that same reason will probably be in too much constant hurry to be present all the time. I think Nagato and Konan are the ones you can have a lot more freedom in this regard!

--- I don't think making the Trio behave as "older siblings" would be, in any way, OOC - in fact, it's entirely in their character to do that very naturally and instantly.

Yahiko is the most obvious one in this regard, having cared for Konan and Nagato with a (quite extreme) overprotection, and then serving as the leader of the Akatsuki and caring for everyone else. We saw how Nagato behaved as the Akatsuki's leader as well; he was distant in many ways (for obvious reasons), but he disliked name-calling between the members and chose members with similar interests to work "better" together (I mean, Kishimoto did, but you can extend that to him). We saw how he behaved with Naruto during the Edo Tensei, warm and proud and also worried about hurting him with his own powers. And Konan was the one Jiraiya called "happy and caring", and despite the coldness we usually associate with her (after Yahiko's death) she really was; she gifted Jiraiya with flowers, made origami to play with Chibi, and then gifted Naruto with flowers right after all the Pain Arc ordeal. She has a will of doing good to others that is very natural to her.

--- I find that, in order to highlight a character's virtues, we have to first identify and understand a character's flaws -- and in the Ame Orphan's case, how these flaws strain the relationship between them and how this can affect the relationship between your characters and them.

We know that Yahiko was so convinced that Nagato was the one to "save" their country and so adamant on the idea of having him as the Akatsuki's leader, he didn't really care for Nagato's (and Konan's) own opinions about it. (Ch 509/510). Of course his fiery will is a reason why Yahiko is admired, but couldn't his tunnel vision on his ideals also make him excessively busy and even hard to work with? We have a pretty clear implication that YahiKona didn't 100% happen because he was so stubborn on pushing Konan to be with Nagato despite neither of them wanting it. I'm not sure if YahiKona is a thing in your story, but if canon Yahiko was too focused on his goals to allow himself to be in a relationship with the person he loved, and even disregard their beloved's own desires, one can only wonder what it means for his other relationships...

Konan, like him, is someone who is also loyal and duty-oriented. Pretty much everything she does in Naruto is because she's extremely focused on her goals. She stays with Nagato after Yahiko's death, despite not fully agreeing with him or his methods (as implied in canon and stated in Akatsuki Hiden), because she's loyal to him (her family). Her whole reason to fight Obito is because he's a direct threat to her ideals and goals and family (as Nagato believed in Naruto). If Yahiko is insufferably loyal to his ideals, then Konan isn't all that much better, maybe just less obviously so. In Akatsuki Hiden, she misses a pretty obvious implication Nagato makes about them (YahiKona) because she can't think of anything besides the Akatsuki. Again, even if YahiKona isn't a thing in your story, one can only wonder how such extreme focus (and little thought for anything else) affects her relationships.

Nagato is, of course, also loyal and duty-focused, but he has a factor neither of the previous have, which is the Rinnegan. Jiraiya states that he mastered all jutsu natures (fire, water, etc) by age 10 - in the flashbacks, we only see him using "normal" ninjutsu. Nagato does not use the Rinnegan willingly until after Yahiko's death. He can't, and he doesn't want to; we know he is scared of the powers he can't control. Think about it; Nagato is a person who is scared of himself. He's scared of what he can do, because he can't control his powers once they unleash. How confortable can he be, interacting with others, if he has such a relationship with himself? We know he is nervous, insecure, hesitant despite being so powerful - maybe that's why he relies so much on Konan, and especially Yahiko. How confortable would he be with protecting others, if he can't safely use his own powers to their full extent?

3) Now, back to your character - how the "older sibling" relationship could estabilish.

Please note that this will be heavily influenced by how I would write such a thing, based on their personalities. It will be wonderful if you agree, but feel free to disregard if any of these don't sit right with you at all~!

I think Yahiko is the easiest one to know; we has a pretty strong tendency to protect the "weaklings". Konan and Nagato are way more powerful than him, we know, but only physically. From the start, they relied on him for everything, and kept on relying on a lot as the years went by. I think it would be extremely natural for Yahiko to take someone under his wing if they seem too lost or too much in need of guidance.

I believe Konan, on the other hand, would have her attention caught by someone who doesn't obviously need so much support. We know Yahiko is loud and expensive, and we know how quiet and composed Konan is compared to him - so I think someone who puts on a strong façade, but shows cracks of maybe needing help, needing to talk, needing care, would be the one to catch her eye more than others. It would be a more delicate relationship, one that Yahiko (being so blunt and on hurry all the time) could easily miss. And maybe you're thinking: "that also sounds like Nagato" - yes, I think Nagato and Konan gravitate towards similar things in general.

But Nagato has the Rinnegan, which adds a complexity factor that Konan, despite all of their similarities, doesn't have. We associate Nagato's behavior with insecurity and shyness, but we don't associate Konan with either of those, despite her also being a quiet and reserved character - Konan has full control of her powers, whereas Nagato doesn't. I think Nagato would face an internal conflict when meeting new people and estabilshing relationships: a tendency to be kind and helpful vs. a tendency to isolate because of the general sense of fear he constantly lives in. Your OC being a child would only amplify that: the desire of protecting someone who is fragile, especially considering how much the trauma of being orphaned impacted him (he knows "pain"), vs. the expanded fear of hurting that person who is so much more fragile than most (a child, not an adult). Maybe that extra nervousness could call the attention of the other rain orphans...?

-- So, I know I talked a lot, and I hope this will be helpful (or at least interesting) for you. It was surely a lot of fun thinking about all of this to answer your question, and I'm curious how your imagination will build this story~!

I hope you're having fun writing it, and I'll be super eager to read it once you publish it. :) Good luck! I'm sending a lot of creative vibes for you. 🌸

[deke-rivers-1957]

Elvis Ask Game

This is a part of the original thread by @aconflagrationofmyown. I made it separate to make it easier to read since I'm deciding to answer a lot of these lol. Thank you @lindszeppelin and @ash-omalley for tagging me.

•When and what was your first exposure to Elvis Presley?

I don't remember when I first watched this film, but my first exposure to Elvis was watching Lilo and Stitch.

I was only 2 or so when the movie came out so I think I saw it later on when I was like 5 or 6 years old so like maybe 2005/2006.

•And what was your first impression?

I didn't understand who Elvis was other than oh he's the guy Lilo likes so much because of her parents. I didn't think much of him until I was older.

•Lace shirts or jumpsuits?

Lace shirts since I like that era of Elvis better. The jumpsuits are very hit or miss with me and the idea of how much he suffered in that era keeps me from truly enjoying that era.

•You can steal one of Elvis/Austin’s outfits, what’s it going to be?

I love this so much because it just summarizes what Elvis represented during the 1950s. He has a combination of masculine and feminine features. This is stylized as men's clothing but the floral patter on the shirt feminizes it.

•C’mon, we know you’ve been watching/reading old interviews and random footage of the man, so what’s your favorite random Elvis quote?

From Elvis' concert in Elvis That's the Way It Is: "So those you who've never seen me before will realize tonight that I'm totally insane and I have been for a number of years". It just describes literally everything he did and how self aware he was.

•What’s an aspect of Elvis’ character you wish more people appreciated?

Elvis loved kids and treated them with respect. He also loved black people and also treated them with respect. In a time which segregation was legal, Elvis consistently showed that he was color blind, yet understood how he was treated differently because he was white. People who claim he stole from black people understood nothing about Elvis. So many black artists and celebrities praise this man for showing them respect and outright stating that he loved Fats Dominoes and Arthur Crudup's music. James Brown and Muhammed Ali were the definition of black pride and were great friends with Elvis, going as far to go his funeral and visit his grave. This needs to be talked about more and at least the movie attempted to do that.

•You meet Col. Tom Parker for the first time, forewarned with the knowledge of what a scumbag he is, what do you do?: A. nothing, you’re a coward who doesn’t care about abused golden-hearted men B. you give the Colonel a stern telling off C. you encourage Elvis to leave him and break the contract E. you slap a legal document against that fat suit and declare “Mrs. Claus is bringing you a lawsuit” F. you waste no time with formalities, it’s a letter opener to the juggler for that piece of trash

Assuming there's no witnesses or consequences for me, choice F. The amount of anger in just being near him would make verbal options impossible. I would feel satisfied in doing that.

•You can choose only one song or piece of media to convince someone to become an Elvis fan, what is it going to be?

This record shows both sides of Elvis' songs. He was the precursor to all rock artists and also did a lot of ballads.

•Where are you hanging out with EP, his bedroom with the teddy bears, Club Handy, his private jet or Graceland?

•What is the peak Elvis era? warning, this says an awful lot about you…

Very hard question but...

I know this was very short lived but I love how Elvis exists in this film. Toby is one of his best characters and I honestly think this was Elvis at his healthiest. He wasn't taking diet pills until after this era because he was told he was overweight. That's just not true since in Kid Galahad he had defined muscles and in this film, he's carrying people around like it's nothing. He just looks so strong here that I can believe his fight scenes. Toby can legitimately win a real fight and Elvis actually looks the part because of his karate and boxing training.

•Pick your poison in the fan-fiction realm: angst, fluff, smut, fluffy smut, angsty fluff, angsty smut?…or is reading about Elvis Presley an acknowledged health hazard?

I can handle angst, fluff, and fluffy smut. I feel uncomfortable with smut because a lot of it is just Elvis being so dominant that it reminds me of why I don't like a lot of his characters. I just can't handle guys that are that rough with other women even when it's consensual. I need it to be soft or Elvis be in a more submissive role.

•What are your odds for besting this man at karate?

I feel like Elvis might let me win one match since given the sheer experience and size advantage he would have. I'm only 5' 3" and am not athletic in anyway. Elvis would probably be worried about hurting me so we just would only do that one match and not do it again.

•If you could meet Elvis and have enough composure to tell him something, what would it be?

Don't let your sense of self worth be determined by other people's happiness. You have done more than enough for people that your mama and Jesse would be proud of you. They would want you to take the time to love yourself. Your fans would want that too because we all love you, Elvis.

•If you could spare him one tragedy what would it be?

Letting Jesse live. If you read the Inner Elvis, you would know how much trauma he experienced just by not having his twin. It's part of why he was so close to Gladys. He didn't have anything else to fill in that hole that losing Jesse created. He obviously had no memories of Jesse but subconsciously he was aware that he needed Jesse in his life. Not having him made Elvis so vulnerable to the outside world including the Colonel. If he had his older brother, he might have actually had the chance to live longer.

•If you’ve got a favorite gif or photo insert it here and bless us all

Sorry for the sadness. Here's a picture of Elvis with his dear puppy, Sweet Pea.

A reminder that despite media showing Elvis as a dominant man that could have his way with women, he was also a little boy that would just melt around dogs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm now tagging @skinnypantsmcgee and @cheesy-cryptid for this game. I really like the art you two make.

[theshy1sout]

Six Eared Shadow

Do you remember the analysis about Mei and Red Son? That was me, and I'm doing this again, but now about Macaque and Sun Wukong

Because what the heck why do they hate each other so much

Ok, so this... This is such a messy chaotic really chaotic mix of a few headcanons and theories I made up and it SOMEHOW turned into a fanfic that I wrote so long that other people made many similar things in meanwhile and now this sounds not original at all, but I wrote it not to keep it in my deep hidden shelf so here we go

(It's based on what I know from the lmk series. I've started to read JTTW, but I'm still not so far to get to know anything about Macaque, but I won't change anything about this theory from now on)

Let's gather some basic information for the start.

-> Macaque is made with a shadow or even he is a shadow (kinda shadow demon, the demon of shadow). I mean, shadow is not only his power, he literally is made with shadow matter. We know that because he can not only manipulate shadows but also go through walls and turn yourself into a shadow.

-> I'm not sure if someone made him or he just "poof" out of nowhere just like Sun Wukong, but according to the story he told about how close he and Monkey King used to be, there's no doubt they had some master/student relationship which later turned into almost equal partnership. What is said, Macaque followed Sun Wukong for a long time, learning a lot from him, 'being his shadow'. They grew in power together, fought together, and (as it is said) Macaque started casting as Sun Wukong shadow, which (surprisingly) looks like he did willingly. Just look at the picture - the shadow is big and bright, it’s powerful and smiling, proud of his strength. He doesn’t look like someone forced to be Sun Wukong’s shadow. It shows how much Macaque admired Monkey King, that he wasn't just a friend for him, he was his idol.

-> We all know Macaque is a shadow demon, he can easily change his appearance, he does not have to look like an evil clone of Monkey King, especially if he hates him now or something, SO even if he used to look up at Sun as his ex-student or ex-partner, and now we know he is NOT, he would prefer to not look so similar any more.

He can choose any other look, but he doesn't. Why? Well, maybe he actually cannot. Maybe this isn't an appearance he has specifically chosen, maybe this is his 'basic' comfy form and any other form would just take too much energy to keep up. And looking at the really tiny probability of two very similar monkeys just "poofing" out of nowhere, I dare to say, Macaque wasn't born (I mean like Sun Wukong or any other demon), but he was specifically created. And here is a question: on someone's purpose or not? Maybe the power of great Monkey King was so strong so the part of it just jumped from him and formed into another similar creature, but let me say it's just weird and I prefer the theory of Sun Wukong being so bored and lonely after his master's (Tripitaka) death, and he created a brother for himself from his own shadow. Just to have someone, anyone.

So Wukong created Macaque and then what? He trained him, he taught him everything he knew, maybe even he shared his powers with him. Some great great bonding time. But as Macaque said, something drew them apart. It is visible that Macaque blamed Monkey King for this, for 'forgetting him'. Before speculation of what happened then between them, let's focus on what Macaque showed us what he wants now.

We have two episodes, both show different sides of him. In season 1, Macaque's main goal is to steal Monkey King's power from Mk, and then to very specifically revenge. He visibly does not want to defeat Sun Wukong, he wants to hurt him as much as possible. Look: when Monkey King showed up, Macaque totally forgot about Mk. And then, when he's so close to defeat him, instead of that he turned to Mk and tried to kill the teenager. Mk is just a tool to hurt Sun Wukong.

And we can't forget how Macaque constantly pointed out all the weak sides of Sun, he's basically just saying on and on "you're weak, you're weak, you're so weak, I'm so strong, I'm strong, you are so weak". Which really fits the feeling of being forgotten because he was weaker and Monkey King was stronger, better, glorious and famous. Macaque really feels like that, he really tried to make Sun Wukong feel his pain by dominating him.

On the other hand, we see that Sun constantly striked off him. He said almost nothing to him, just "Aren't you bored of keep being in my shadow? It's time to give back what you've stolen" and that was fricking all. For Monkey King, Macaque is a just shadow, always behind him, something you turn around and leave behind to not see it and to forget, like an unwanted past. An unnecessary problem, that irritatingly keeps returning to him. He does not want to interact to not make even a slight more bond between them, he wants to delete him from his life forever, and omg WHY. At this end of the ep, Sun Wukong did not even mention Macaque. He really doesn't care at all (or extremely tries to not care). His HATE is almost touchable, ouch.

In season 2, Sun Wukong LEFT US ALL ALONE. Macaque showed up again, he played with Mk a bit, and... Left? That's the thing, you see, he doesn't need to hurt or kill Mk. All we see is Macaque talking about his past and then letting Mk experience something the 'hero' in the story should have felt. The guilt. When Mk interpreted his story differently, seeing himself as the warrior, Macaque corrected him. Cause he doesn't care about Mk at all. He heard how Mk told him about what hurt him, and here is a funny point, because if Macaque needs to be understood, listening to Mk and talking with him (such a simple act of empathy, they both needed it then, guh) should have been enough. Mk really felt the 'warrior' character in the story, so he understood what Macaque felt. But surprisingly, that was not what the demon carved.

Macaque chose to make Mk feel like Monkey King at the moment something drew the demons apart. He wanted to force Mk to be sorry, to apologize, to regret his mistakes, cause he failed with forcing Monkey King to feel that. But! Maybe he is not as purely innocent and poorly forlorn. We see the flashback for a half of second before Mk hit him with Staff:

We see Sun Wukong attacking Macaque who's in his demon (true) form.

Let's repeat this: Macaque felt as if a friend left him in the past. He said a friend did this to have all the "hero's glory" for themselves. We know Sun Wukong could do such a thing, especially before he met Tripitaka, but 1. In my theory Macaque is created after Tripitaka's death and 2. If (as my theory said) Sun created Macaque to not feel so lonely, he would never leave him for such a thing. So Macaque hides something for sure, something he did, something so terrible that made Sun Wukong attack him and not want to know him anymore. How horrendous thing Macaque did that made Sun Wukong choose to be alone again and to forget his dear brother he created by himself?

Back to the great bonding time, repeating speculation of "oh maybe they even share the powers" and comparing it to Macaque wanting to steal Mk's power, my theory here is saying:

Sun Wukong taught Macaque the technique of the same powers as he knew, but Macaque overused it (probably wanting to see how powerful he is, probably showing off and killing so many harmless people) doing terrible terrible things. So Monkey King took all of the powers from him and left him alone, powerless, with the last painful words: "Dont you dare to show in front of my eyes ever again". Of course Macaque was hurt, of course he didn't see why he's the bad guy, because he did not care about people at all. And of course Sun Wukong was hurt too.

Maybe he came back to the village Macaque had destroyed and following a quiet crying he found a little baby with a heart so clear and he put into him all Macaque's powers, making them sleep until the time will be right... But back to the series!

Yes exactly. Why did he destroy the lantern and leave? Why did he suddenly lose interest in teasing Mk and stop forcing him to feel guilty?

First thing, he saw Mk is ready to fight for his friends seriously. He still cared so much about them, not like Monkey King about Macaque. That was hard to swallow, that was hard to watch for the demon. That was't the thing he wanted to see. And second, the flashback. Maybe the sudden realization that he actually did something bad. Cause Sun Wukong didn’t just leave him, he cast him out. It was hard to admit that he actually deserved this (or maybe much more), it’s much easier to blame others, not yourself. So Macaque felt “that’s enough” and left. Mk brought him to this uncomfortable point of admitting the truth. Which he didn’t want to. Maybe in the following eps, he will see it, but now Macaque just isn’t ready yet. But the last talk with Mk gives me a little hope. He stopped treating him like a tool or toy, he was actually talking with him like with a person, he even warned him about Lady Bone Demon.

Maybe (maybe) one day he'll see that humans aren't just useless creatures he can carelessly kill, maybe Mk will make him care and realize what he's done, but that's just speculation in speculation, he could die before he reaches that point, maybe he is already dead....

And that's it. That is all I wrote on ao3, but in the fanfic I put much more details and I build those characters up much more than here. This is only rough rough short-saying, I'm really sorry if you read it all

Oh and here is a link if you liked this above i'd love if you read the fanfic thank you

[multimetaverse]

thoughts on the doafp season 2 trailer?

It looks like S2 will be great. I was impressed by how little evidence of covid restrictions there were; that will definitely help the series age well. I thought it was likely that Sam would move in and I’m excited to see how that plays out. The mother-daughter growing apart angst is going to be brutal to watch but there's a lot the writers can do with it. Interesting that they’re focusing so much on Melissa’s redemption right off the bat and that they’re also introducing a school play story line. I’m withholding judgement on the use of Gina Rodriguez as Elena’s conscience but it does make sense to increase her role since she’s by far the most famous cast member.

I was very pleasantly surprised that the trailer focused so much on Bobby’s story line. The biggest shock was that they included a brief shot of Bobby and CJ smiling at each other in the high school hallway. I’ve thought that CJ is a likely choice to be Bobby’s real love interest ever since it became clear last fall that Donovin Miller had joined the cast. He’s the right age, non-white, and only shows up in 2x06 which is very late but makes sense if CJ and his role in Bobby’s story line is subject to Disney restrictions that straight characters don’t have to worry about. It’s interesting that CJ is featured in the part of the trailer where Elena talks about being there for others and lifting them up, it strongly suggests that CJ will be a positive influence on Bobby. A lot of the Bobby clips look pretty angsty and with CJ only first appearing in 2x06 I’ve speculated that there could be a shift in Bobby’s story line then or an old one wraps up and CJ helps launch a new one. 

That scene of Bobby walking at night with Liam is almost certainly Bobby coming out to Liam in 2x10, a scene which Brandon has been hyping up for a while. Nathan was also on set that night but perhaps he leaves earlier or joins later. There’s also the possibility that Bobby comes out to Danny earlier but it’s hard to tell which ep that could be since Danny is in every ep except 2x09 this season. Of course, it could also be a misdirect and Bobby decides he’s not ready to tell him yet. I’m shocked that Danny somehow found out that Bobby had a crush, on what he thinks was a girl, back in 7th grade. I can’t wait to see how that comes up, did Bobby let something slip or were they talking about Monyca? Also I think that Bobby on the blue couch is him talking to Cami about struggling to come out which I’m sure will be well done. I’d love to see Cami coming out to her own parents but I really don’t know if Disney will allow that when it looks like the writers already have quite a bit packed in to Bobby’s coming out arc. 

We’ll also go a long way to finding out whether Brandon has been hyping Cartero because he has been explicitly told that Liam is meant to be bisexual regardless of whether Disney ever allows it or whether he’s been projecting his own bisexuality onto Liam without any basis in reality. That being said, I don’t think we’ll actually get canon Cobby or Cartero this season and any canon relationship for Bobby would only come in the 3rd season if they’re lucky enough to get one. Back in the fall Ilana liked a tweet that said writers should normalize interracial relationships that don’t involve a white person and I think she’s applying that to Bobby’s story line and that we can rule out his love interest being white. It’s a bold move for a Disney show since even most of their straight interracial relationships involve one white person. Not to mention Disney has a poor track record of how they treat their black male characters, something Doafp seems determined to improve on. 

There’s also the unfortunate fact that there will be limits on what Disney allows but I’m confident that the show will make history with Bobby coming out to his family and friends by season’s end. There will be a price to pay for all this lgbtq rep and I think the show being released all at once which will likely doom any hopes of S3 is part of that. Disney did something similar with The Owl House which is the only Disney show to surpass Doafp’s level of lgbtq rep, the show was cancelled and the 3rd season will consist of only three 44 minutes eps (if you haven’t watched The Owl House yet you should, it’s a hoot). 

The trailer seems to confirm what was evident from the cast’s social media posts while filming, that Ziggy only has a very small role and is largely absent. Presumably he goes to another high school but it’s gonna be hard to reintegrate him back into the show if they get a S3 and he’s the only one who wasn’t around for Bobby’s coming out arc. We saw Tony Espinoza’s character on stage with Elena during the student rep speeches so he’s connected to that story in some fashion. Brogan Hall’s character Tripp is absent from the trailer but we know he’s in 5 eps, most in the first 6 eps of the season and he seems to be Elena’s main opponent in the student rep race. Also not much of Jessica and nothing of Joey. 

I’m curious to see how all these story lines fit into only 10 eps especially when so many of the recurring characters are in so many of the eps: Liam and Sasha are both in all 10 eps, Danny in 9, even Melissa is in 7 eps this season. Some story lines and characters will probably fall through the cracks. We know Ilana directed 2x09 so we’ll see if that’s a special ep. Fwiw Charlie on twitter said that his favourite eps were 2x03, 2x05, 2x07, and 2x09, presumably some of those eps focus on Bobby coming out to Cami and his family at least. 

I really hope that we get a miracle and Doafp gets a 3rd season but with the news that the Doogie Howser reboot is getting the standard weekly release starting in September it makes it more and more likely that Disney is airing all the eps at once just to burn them off. On the plus side the trailer on the official Disney twitter account has over 811 000 views as of me writing this so perhaps a proper advertising campaign could draw a larger audience if Disney is willing to put the effort in. 

[scripturiends]

law school episode 9 musings

warning: very very long post ahead. i have a lot of thoughts.

hey folks — how we feeling about episode 9?

given that there are so many plotlines in the show, i’m afraid i won’t be able to extend my analysis of the episode as far as i would like, but there are three characters who stood out to me the most last night that i’d like to talk about for now:

kang dan

there’s a lot that we got to uncover about her thanks to professor yang’s trial. if i’m piecing it all together right, the basic summary of what led to her disappearance goes like this:

she was a volunteer for assemblyman ko’s campaign, but upon discovering that he was spreading fake news about his opposition, dan reported him to the authorities (i’m guessing not just the police but also the media) and became a whistleblower. assemblyman ko tried to buy her off with money, but she refused, so he attacked her where she’s most vulnerable instead — by using her family.

i’m not completely sure about this (please feel free to correct me!) but it’s either byeol is (1) the twins’ half-sister, or (2) their stepsister? it’s so hard to tell, especially since korean terms can get lost in translation in the process (i watch on netflix, if that helps). but anyway, sol and dan’s mom married someone who was abusing her, and in exchange for dan’s silence (and her fleeing), the husband signs a contract that he would stop hurting his wife.

so that’s the backbone of dan’s story. however, this still doesn’t answer a lot of things, like where seo byungju or lee manho fits into the equation, the whereabouts of their mom’s ex-husband, or why dan was sent into boston in the first place.

i usually don’t like theorizing, but i do have one: there is an ivy league school located just outside of boston — harvard. (it’s technically in cambridge but you know, i’m taking liberties here.) professor yang said in passing one episode that he thought he saw dan when he went to the school for a seminar or a talk or something. could it be that assemblyman ko offered her an education at a top school in exchange for her silence? it could explain why she gave it up all so easily. what if she took that topnotch education as a chance to prepare, so that when she came back, she had much stronger leverage to take assemblyman ko down, given the knowledge and network of connections she’ll have earned in that school?

the theory’s plausible but i might be overestimating assemblyman ko’s kindness — unless he’s insanely desperate, he might not give a damn about dan’s education. it actually benefits him more if she stayed uninformed, but still. let me know what you think about it.

yoo seungjae

in this episode, we learned a little bit more about how yoo seungjae was able to hack into the professors’ laptops, and they also confirmed some of our previous speculations about him: that his wife yujeong was an ob gyn, and so was he, and that they were trying for a baby. unfortunately, i find it all to be a bit lacking in substance. i was hoping we could get down to the nitty-gritty of why he did what he did.

i say this for one important reason: i don’t know about you guys, but i would never make such a stupid mistake in undergrad, let alone in law school. seungjae has gone to med school, so we know that he knows the repercussions of his actions. why would he go to such lengths? sure, he found an opening, he was tempted, and he took it. but he didn’t just do it once, he did it multiple times, and those offenses add up (hacking, stealing exam papers, and cheating). surely he must know that something like this can ruin careers even before they even start, and not only would he get kicked out of the school, he would also get blacklisted from the industry once he implicates himself. so we understand why he’s so hesitant to testify (especially now that his wife is pregnant).

but why did he do that in the first place? we could say he’s insecure about his skills, but he’s survived med school. how much harder could law school be for him? i just don’t think that the payoff is worth the risk. what must be so important for yoo seungjae to do all of this for? what does he get in return if he successfully pulls it off and gets straight As during his entire time in law school? who is he doing for?

i hope it runs deeper than just wanting a ‘good future’ for him and his wife and their baby or something — because he could just as easily do that as a doctor. there must be another reason he went into law.

still, though, and this is just a personal opinion, even if i did find out his entire backstory, there’s no way i could ever defend him. we see in the show how his guilt builds up (from observing how kang sol A studies so well, to his conversation with jeon yeseul in the hospital), but at this point there is no more excusing what he did. not that i ever condoned it in the first place.

we’re still in the dark about a lot of things regarding yoo seungjae. hopefully by the next episode, we get something. but until then, he is still a shady, shady man to me.

kang sol B

her screen time in this episode was short, but i still wanted to highlight her because she is pretty much a ticking time bomb.

she’s in a tight spot right now because even if she testifies about having seen the sugar packet, the prosecutor will just twist the argument by saying she colluded with a murderer just to cover up her plagiarism.

and now, seo jiho needs her help, probably for something related to his case with prosecutor jin. in exchange, she puts pressure on him to ‘confirm’ that she didn’t plagiarize in middle school, since they were schoolmates and rivals.

there may be more to this plagiarism issue than meets the eye. who knows, we might find out later on that she actually didn’t plagiarize? but given what i know now, i have no reason to believe that she didn’t. i don’t blame her specifically for that, seeing as she has to pay for the consequences for something that her awful mom forced her to do. but now that the mess has been made, i want to see how she cleans it up.

kang sol B is a very elusive character to me. the scary thing about her is that she’s on no one’s side but her own. and that’s why i think she’s a ticking time bomb.

~

bonus: han joonhwi

so that’s all i have for the serious stuff. as a bonus, i’d like to talk about han joonhwi and his four (4) children jeon yeseul, seo jiho, kang byeol, and min bokgi.

one of my friends brought up how it’s so funny how he’s somehow just at the right place at the right time all the time. this happened when he ran into kang sol A when she was looking for yeseul (i still think they were on the phone with each other beforehand but this is just my shipper self talking — truthfully, if the focus was shifted towards that phone call without divulging who it was, i have a feeling it might be more important later on), and when seo jiho confronted prosecutor jin. adding his elevator conversation with kang sol B, i think it just solidified what we already know: han joonhwi is a very compassionate person. but he doesn’t sacrifice his own personality just to appease them — he recognizes that these individuals have agency, and he’s just giving them the little push they need to make them realize what they need to do.

i also felt the need to bring up kang byeol. the show does such a good job of ensuring that all the solhwi scenes that we get, no matter how indulgent and “fanservice-y” they might seem, actually have a deeper purpose. again, i could go on and on about what each solhwi scene has actually contributed to the development of the plot, which is exactly why i love them so much! because all of their scenes are so meaningful. but anyway, it’s nice to see han joonhwi care so much for his, ehem, future sister-in-law.

and for min bokgi — this scene was so short, but i absolutely loved it so much (i tend to pay attention to the throwaway scenes): min bokgi is going off about how yoo seungjae is acting weird, and he says to joonhwi, “hyung, you should call him.” and joonhwi responds with, “sure. eat your food.” it’s such a fatherly thing to do and it’s such a great contrast to bokgi’s dynamic with sol A, with whom he’s so loud and vibrant, moods that both match their personalities, but with joonhwi, who is more subdued, he’s like a little kid in need of rescue from an older brother, or even a dad. ah, i love it so much. min bokgi is such an underrated character. i wish he had more screen time. (if he doesn’t get a central ep, well, you guys know where i’m going with this, right? it means i’ll give it to him myself.)

~

so that’s it for now! i’m sorry i went on rambling again, but if there’s anything noteworthy in this post that you think is worth discussing, please do tell! if there’s anything that you found thought-provoking in the episode that i didn’t get to touch up on, let me know as well!

i personally don’t make any theories about the overarching plot myself, seeing as by the time the new episode comes out, we get fed information that renders the theory useless. still, that doesn’t mean we should stop coming up with our own ideas. sometimes, the theories are more interesting than the canon itself.

[secondhand-trash]

“I love you.” “It’ll pass.”

Season 2 ep 6, Fleabag

(more lines I like from things I like as prompts for people I like)

A/N: I reserved this one for Dabi when I was making the list but fuck Dabi It’s Getou time😌✨this scene impacted me so hard when I was watching the show and I knew right then that I had to write something off of it one day

Pairing: Getou Suguru x reader

Description: He left without saying goodbye.

Warning: major manga spoilers (set after the hs flashback arc and connecting to the prequel)

Word count: 3007

Playlist:

Cigarette Daydreams//Cage The Elephant

You Say I’m in Love//Banes World

The Killing Moon//Echo & the Bunnymen

-

It wasn’t until the report came out that you realised Getou was never coming back.

All 112 villagers of the prev. ** village deceased.

The letters printed on the white paper was staring right at your face, but somehow it still felt like it was miles away, like everything you read fell through your ears as an echo.

Residues at the scene could determine that it was Getou Suguru’s curse manipulation.

No one said anything when they saw you staring blankly at the still screen of your phone. The last few messages were still there, sitting there and waiting to be read.

You weren’t sure if you were hoping or detesting a response. He probably never would, like he probably wasn’t your boyfriend anymore.

“Do you know when you are getting back?”

Getou Suguru escaped.

“This is taking longer than your usual missions, is everything alright?”

According to item 9 of the Jujutsu Regulations, he is to be classified as a curse user-

“Suguru?”

-and is to be executed.

The other two saw him again after that, which they had the mercy of not telling you explicitly, but anyone could tell from the heaviness lingering in the air. 

Shoko smoked more than usual.

Gojo got quiet, and sometimes you would catch him fidgeting with the candy paper in his hand underneath his table.

Getou’s table was still there, an empty space starkly standing in the middle of the already sparsely occupied room. You had assumed that they would remove all traces of him immediately, but you could understand why they didn’t when you realised that your gaze still paused at where he once sat whenever it wandered.

The same way crimes scenes were always kept as it was, only the supposed corpse was still out there somewhere.

It was a silence bonding, the unbreakable chain of experiencing the same loss at the same time, but somehow your remaining friends were already there when you pushed open the door to the rooftop where no one usually went to.

That was the first day when he was gone. You had felt an impulse to go somewhere where you were not trapped inside, where you could feel the air entering your lungs as you inhale and it seemed like you were not the only one with that thought.

Gojo was already there, with his back bent forward as he leaned on the rail. He had one foot on the iron bar of the railing, casting a glance to your side when you silently joined him in looking down.

There was no one visible in your sight, but still you looked, and looked. The quiet footsteps getting closer let you know that the third (and last) classmate was here, a soft sigh ringing before there was a click and the smell of smoke made you furrow your eyebrows together.

You remembered that he used to smoke rather often, but somehow always put the cigarette off when you neared. He stopped smoking around you entirely after you got together, because you would push him away if you smelt the tell-tale scent of tobacco on him. But if you caught him at the corner with one between his fingers, he would always pull you close with his eyes curling into two thin strands, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as his other hand fumbled for the mints he kept in his jacket pocket.

You wanted to be mad at him, but the chill tickling your tongue when his breath fanned against your lips always had you weak.

“If he had come back for you,” Gojo’s voice was void of emotions, without the usual certainty or cockiness that always dripped from his words, “would you have followed?”

You shrugged.

“I don’t know,” you shook your head slightly, your eyes not once shifting away from the empty courts below.

The reality was that it still took you some time to process that fact that he killed a whole village of people, even longer when you eventually remembered that he did the same to his own parents. It didn’t feel real, like a bad dream that you could wake up from if you beat the thought into your head enough, like you could just close your eyes and see him walking up to you with his usual smile, asking you if you really fell for it.

But the feeling of being left behind, of conflict at the sentiments in your heart that you couldn’t brush away, of doubting if everything you once had was ever truly yours, of anger at how you were supposed to be the closest to him but knew nothing, of not being told anything, of not receiving a proper goodbye, of him running away without even telling you straight up that he was leaving you behind, were all very, very real.

There was a dull ache budding at the back of your throat over the fact that your last image of him was still the way he looked at you with so much tenderness made you sick to the stomach, and twisted even more at the knowing that to you, that was his one biggest crime. 

Perhaps that was what love was. You could look past the fucked up morals or even the murder, but there was no ignoring that you were left behind, and that meant that there was where it all ended.

You chuckled at the conclusion you had drawn, earning you a questioning stare from the boy who raised the question.

Hell, then he might just be the love of your life.

“I don’t know,” you repeated, bitterness lingering on your tongue when you smiled.

Sick, just sick.

They were both looking at you, but you didn’t turn to see what expression they were wearing as you dropped your head. The metal pressing against your forehead growing warm under the heat of your skin as you muttered, this time to yourself and no one else.

“I really don’t.”

-

Time sped up from there. 

Life went on. Eat, sleep, going out on missions before collapsing on your bed when you came back alone and tired, repeat. Gojo and Shoko stayed after graduation season hit, you didn’t. You spent so many years there already, you clicked your tongue as you said, it is time to move on.

You were not really talking about High school, both of them knew it but neither said a thing. The empty table remained as it was until a new batch of students poured into the classroom that was once yours, before they left and another group filled in. 

Occasionally you met young sorcerers on the field who wore the same button that once adorned your collar, and wondered if it was them who sat at that table now.

You did not think about Getou Suguru for years.

Yet, you were not surprised to find the exact same man that once plagued your thoughts late at night standing in the middle of your living room uninvited, without a single hint just as when he left.

“It has been long.”

You had a gut feeling that he got taller since you last saw him, even though you were probably standing too far away from him to truly measure. The edges and corners of his face were more prominant, his hair running down his back in a way that used to happen only when he was at his most relaxed. 

“You should try to let it grow,” you mumbled as you ran your hand through one lock of his hair, letting the black silk fell from your hand onto his chest, “it would look good on you.”

He chuckled, and the vibration seeped into your skin from the way he laid on your lap. The weight lifted from your legs when he sat up, his face right in front of yours as he grinned.

“When my hair reaches my waist, will you marry me?”

You laughed, and the smile on him only grew.

“Where did you get that from?” you hid your smile behind the back of your hand.

“It’s from a poem,” he replied with a tilt of his head, “Never heard of it?”

“No,” you still sounded breathy from the laughter, “but did people teach you not to make promises so easily?”

The one long piece of his bangs had fallen onto his face, covering his eyes just slightly. He huffed as he pushed it away from his view, placing his head on your shoulder.

“Who told you it was easy?”

Ah, your jaw clenched at the waterfall of black that stopped just above his waist, so he did grow it out in the end.

You did not move from your position at the door, standing with your back straight and your keys still gripping tightly in your hand. “What are you doing here?” 

You were just about to head back from a mission when you got the call. “He showed up at Kousen just then,” Gojo did not bother with formalities, or give you any context as to who “he” was but still you froze, knowing exactly what he was talking about right away, “he might go see you.”

(You were sure that he wouldn’t, but it seemed like you truly didn’t know him well at all.)

He chuckled, a soft sound that made your nails dig into the middle of your palm, “Am I not allowed to check up on you because I want to?”

He sounded familiar, exactly the way you remembered him to sound like. The corners of his lips were lifted up in a calculated angle, smiling at ease but not from heart. You suppressed the heat that was near pouring out your throat, swallowing the discomfort back into the pit of your core.

Was it true that this wasn’t how he smiled, or did you only notice the way his eyes were lifeless now?

You replied with a smile of your own, not willing to lose your footing, “Oh please.”

You never bothered to check on me before.

He was not bothered by the dryness in your voice, and if he was then he did a great job at not appearing so.

“When I left,” he asked, “were you mad at me?”

“No,” But I spent nights crying over you. “is that supposed to come out as a mock?”

“No.”

You searched for a hint of wavering in his eyes, any sign that he was experiencing even a bit of the turmoil that was boiling and burning in your chest as you tried to keep your voice still.

You wondered what you had hoped to find.

“What do you want?” you said, and forced yourself to look right into his eyes. You imagined that you could see your own reflection staring back at you if you were any closer to him and the hint of soreness shooting right up to your nasal until it the sting that left almost resembled longing.

If you were to fight, you probably couldn’t win him no matter how hard you try.

“If I say I miss you, would you believe me?” 

 There was a ring in your ear as you shut your eyes tight, forcing the corner of your lips to hold back from twitching.

God damn it.

“Does it matter?” I wish I don’t.

“Perhaps.” 

He was looking at you, and you could taste the blood at the tip of your tongue. You wished there wasn’t some part of you that was near breaking down inside of you, or that you didn’t feel such an urge to let the tears run free.

But you wouldn’t, your pride wouldn’t allow it.

His arms crossed loosely in front of his chest, the fabric of his cassock bunching up around his elbows. You had pondered why the cloak seemed so out of place, and then you remembered that he wasn’t even religious in the slightest.

It was all for show.

“Leave.” 

There was a hint of relief when you heard your own voice landing back on your ear and there wasn’t the shakiness you had so dreaded to hear. You knew you had lost the moment you even cared, but still, on the front you refused to show there sometimes, during the many years after he left, you would still see his face when you couldn’t sleep and all you could do was stare at the ceiling. You hoped the iciness in your expression was enough to cover up the fact that you had no erased all traces of what you once had with him completely, and there was still a photograph or two that you hid away so that no one would know you still hadn’t let go of him, a traitor.

He glanced down at your command, before nodding slightly to himself. Getou Suguru turned around until he was facing your window and his shadow slanted on the opposing wall from the cold hue of the moon.

The pale light blurred his figure, like smoke, like the mint tingling your senses.

“You ruined my life.” 

I love you.

He paused briefly, before turning to look at you once again. You were taken back when you see the look in his eyes, and the downward tug at his mouth.

With the moon and the cassock and the unexplainable depth in his eyes, he did look the part of feeling sorrow for the world and pity for the masses.

Oh, how ironic.

Getou parted his lips slightly, and you could see the shudder but heard no sound, until they pursed, before he finally spoke again.

I love you too.

“It’ll pass.”

You did not realise that you were staring out the window, not moving a step until you saw the dots of snow slowly landing on the glass. Your steps stumbled as you walked towards where he jumped out, your hand touching the chilled glass while the world outside was a scene of white.

He probably came and left on the back of some curse he had, not leaving even a trace.

You stared and stared, and wondered what it would feel like to be buried under the snow that was starting to pile up.

-

Gojo asked you if you want to see him for one last time.

You refused.

Your bones were cracking with each twist of your joints as you finally got back to your own space after the whole fiasco that went down had you drained. 

Of all the days he had to plan an uprising, it had to be Christmas Eve. A heavy sigh slipped from your lips when the door locked behind you, the lights flicking on to show the red number on the calendar hanging on the wall.

It was quiet, the handle of the clock ticking was all you could hear. It matched the pounding in your ear, drumming and drumming as you stared upwards at the ceiling, sucking in a deep breath as the cold air filled your lungs.

So he really was gone now.

“He said he couldn’t manage to laugh happily from the bottom of his heart in this world,” Gojo called you again a moment later after the initial one, and you had to swallow the want to tell him that there was no need to tell you what he said when the other end fell into silence when you didn’t response.

Only there was. You knew there was.

At the back of your head, you had a faint memory of where you had put the old things that you couldn’t find somewhere to store when you moved out of your dorm room. It was hidden under the piles and piles of clothes and blankets that you never used, much like how you had not touched that box since you first put it there. 

You sucked in a deep breath when your fingertip touched the rough corner of the cardboard, reaching in deeper to pull it out. It was covered in dust and slightly crooked from all the things you had stacked on it, but still exactly the same as how it looked when you sealed everything inside with the cover and shoved it in your closet.

There was still an innocent sense of glee when you opened it and saw all the things that reminded you of your youth. 

The student handbook, and your student card that was stuck in there like a bookmark. The gold button in which some of the gold pain had already come off from years of wear and tear. Your graduation picture, which showed the three of you sitting side by side properly in all its rarity.

The familiar ache in your throat returned when you got to the bottom, where you found the sole reason why you dug this out. You smiled, your hand gingerly picking the thin film laying flatly there without a single crease on it.

He was looking at you, who had your face on his shoulder with an arm thrown around your frame. Your hand was on his neck, pulling him down towards you as you laughed and he laughed back at you. You did not remember who took it, or when it happened, but the rush of warmth in your chest as you held the picture in your hand must be the proof that you were happy. 

You should have thrown this away the moment you knew he was not coming back, but you didn’t have the heart to.

How could you when he looked so happy too?

Your thumb traced over the smooth surface of the film, over where his lips were nearly touching your hair, over his eyes that were fixed on you.

Couldn’t manage to laugh happily from the bottom of his heart... huh?

You laughed, at him, at yourself, before the droplet of tear finally fell.

Like there was smoke in your eyes.

Like the chill on your arm was not from the snow outside but from the taste of peppermint on your tongue.

[storydays]

Legend of Korra X Male Reader

Hey guys! I’m loving all the likes you’re giving. I want to hear more of your questions and comments. Also I would really appreciate it if you would tag me and give me credit when you reblog my work. Thanks

(All credit for Legend of Korra goes to Nickelodeon and it’s creators ❤️)

Season 1, ep 5, p2

Kazan and Meelo yawned sleepily, full from dinner. "That was really good, (Y/N)." Pema complimented, rubbing her belly happily. "Glad you liked it Auntie." You then turned to your Aunt Rene who was sulking in the corner with a smug grin. "So, Auntie, thoughts?" you teased, making her start. "Listen little boy! Don't you dare give me attitude just because you're a better cook than me!" Everyone laughed at the banter between you two. "It's late, and the children are sleepy, why don't you guys sleep here for the night? Nagisa can sleep with Jinora and Ikki, and Kazan can bunk with Meelo." Pema suggested. 

"Yay! Sleepover!" cheered Ikki and Nagisa much to Jinora's annoyance. "Here, I'll help but the boys to sleep, Uncle."He smiled appreciatively at you, grabbing Meelo while you carried Kazan. "You did good tonight, nephew." Tenzin said, leading the way to the boys' room. "You heard from the radio?" you tilted your head, adjusting your grip on the young firebender. "No, I saw from the corner. You really are your parent's son."

You stared at his back in shock before smiling. "Heh, thanks Uncle."

*That night*

You inhaled the fresh air as you and Nevermore walked to the arena to get ready. But stop seeing Mako and Korra each facing different ways, and leaned against a pole, out of their sight line. "What kind of game are you playing?" asked the Firebender. "Um, pro-bending? We have a quarter final match." Korra stated like it was the most obvious thing. "No, I mean with Bolin. You got him all in a tizzy, and I know you're only using him to get back at me." Mako accused. 'Ooh bad move, Mako.'

"I am not. We're just having fun. What do you care, anyway?" Korra defended. "I'm looking out for my little brother. I don't want to see his heart get broken." 'That is such bull.' you laughed silently. Korra knew it was too, "Wait a second. You're not worried about him; you're jealous," Korra was smirking and you were too. "You do have feelings for me." Mako didn't miss a beat. "What? Jealous? Don't be ridiculous." 

"Admit it, you like me." Korra didn't realize she was playing with fire, quite literally. "No, I'm with Asami." "Yeah, but when you're with her, you're thinking about me, aren't you?" The Avatar sounded so smug right now, and you were silently rooting for her. "Get over yourself." Mako snapped. "I'm just being honest!" "You're crazy!" Mako denied. "You're a liar!" cried Korra.

That was when you decided to step in. You splashed the two with water you kept in your pocket, and sent your teammates a raised eye brow. "If you two hot heads are done, we do have a match to go to." You then walked away, your pony tail swinging behind you. You stopped the two from entering the room and to keep Bolin from getting him involved. 

"Listen you two, don't bring this energy around Bolin. And while you are out on that ring, keep your personal feelings out of it. We've come too far for you two to mess it up. Am I clear?" The younger teens looked at each other and sighed, when Nevermore snapped her jaws for good measure. "Yes, sir." "Good, I'll be here when the match is over." You walked in and over to the railing, waiting for the match to start. 

*15 minutes later*

"Eight teams have been eliminated, and eight advance into the quarter finals, which get underway tonight. The rookies are about to take on the former and longest running champs--the Boar-Q-Pines. Youth clashes with experience in a battle for the ages or rather of the ages. Korra dodges and--ooh slams right into her teammate! Down goes Mako, and Bolin and Korra." You face palm and growled as the second announcer said, "Round One goes to the Boar-Q-Pines." 

Your (e/c) eyes narrow, noting Mako was saying something to Korra in a very aggressive way. Poor Bolin looked so confused. The waterbender part of you wanted to switch out with Korra, but the airbender part of you, reminded your that this was how Korra and Mako were going to make up. Nevermore nuzzled your cheek making you chuckle and rub her head. "Thanks, girl."

"The Ferrets looking to mount some offense here in round 2. Bolin lets fly a flurry of attacks. He's a one man bending battalion." "Yes! Way to go, Bolin!" You cheered for the Earthbender. "The Ferrets having a tough time finding their rhythm tonight. But thanks to Bolin, they narrowly notch round two." 

Round 3 started and at this point the crowd noticed their was something wrong as well. "Not sure, what's eatin' them, but this is not the same team that took out the Rabbaroos." You winced in sympathy as the Avatar took Earth disk to the stomach. "Round 3 is a tie. We go to a tie breaker to decide the match." A referee tossed a blue and red coin into the air, and caught it, covering it up. 

He moved his hand to reveal the red side. "The Fire Ferrets win the coin toss. Which element do you choose?" Immediately the three tried to decide who would go to fight, until Bolin stepped up with the older Earthbender. "Looks like the Earthbenders will collide in the tie breaker face off. Bolin goes in for the grapple, Chang reverses." You grit your teeth as Bolin was flung into the air but cheered when he fired from mid air. 

"Bolin strikes from mid air, knocking Chang to the edge of the circle, and another strike from Bolin, knocking Chang into the drink!" "The Future Industries Fire Ferrets win their quarter final match!" You, Mako, and Korra sighed in relief as the announce continued talking. "Ooh, close one folks, youth trumps experience tonight." 

You met the trio at the edge and grinned at Bolin. "Good job, Bo! You were awesome out there!" You watched as Korra and Mako went their separate ways. You sighed, and walked over to Mako and whispered in his ear, "You better get your act right, Mako. You maybe my best friend, but I won't hesitate to kick your ass." He looked at you with wide eyes, knowing you were dead serious. "Hey, (Y/N), come with me! I need your help!" Bolin dragged you out the room, making you laugh. 

*Time skip*

You and Bolin walked up to where Korra could be hiding and you stopped seeing Korra and Mako kissing. 'Are they kidding me?!' "Wait, Bo, don't--" 

You were too late, as he stopped seeing the scene in front of you. You hid half your face in your hand, Nevermore trying to hide her head in your hair. It was silent until Bolin started crying and ran away. "Wait, Bolin, this isn't what you think!" He turned to Korra with a glare on his face. "Great! Look what you did." "You're blaming me?" demanded Korra. 

"You kissed me!" "You kissed me back!" Both gasped being splashed with freezing cold water, and turned to you. Nevermore's teeth were drawn back into a snarl, and you had a dangerous look on your face. "It doesn't matter. You are both at fault! Now what matters is how the hell you are going to fix it." You and Nevermore growled as Mako groaned and ran after his brother. You turned to the city view and didn't even look at the Water Tribe girl.

"Korra, I know you've been isolated all your life, and you probably thought you would get your happily ever after with Mako. But there's so many fish in the sea for you to explore with. Don't settle for the small fry." "Well played, Korra." she said, hugging herself. "Live and learn, Korra." you sighed, "Live and learn."

*The next morning.*

You followed Mako into the restaurant.  "Morning, Narook. Is my brother here?" The man behind the counter gestured behind you guys, and Mako waved in thanks. "Thanks." He walked over to Bolin and shook his shoulder. "Come on, wake up. I'm taking you home, bro." That cause Bolin to sniff and look up sadly. 

"Don't call me that. You're not my brother!" He drunkenly slapped Mako's hands away from him. "You're a brother-betrayer." He sobbed into his arms. "The only ones I can trust: are Pabu and (Y/N)! They love me!" "You're a mess, and we've got the biggest of our lives tonight. Let's go." Mako tried grabbing Bolin who screamed at him. "No! I'm not going anywhere with you traitor!" You sighed, pushing Mako and grinning at Bolin. 

"Come on, Bo. I need my favorite Earthbender to fight with me tonight!" He finally got up with his arm slung over your shoulder. "Only you Bolin, can drunk off Water Tribe Noodles." You laugh gently. "I told you dating a teammate was a bad idea." Mako sighed. "You're a bad idea!" You laugh at their antics, even if you were pissed at Mako. 

*That night* 

You finished braiding your hair so it hung down your back, and out of your face, as Korra walked into the room. She looked at Bolin slouching on a bench,and noticed you over at the mirror. You were lost in thought, but it was clear something was bothering you. You suddenly snapped out of it and stood up, putting your helmet on. "Let's go guys. And leave your personal feelings here." 

"You can't find a team more evenly matched. In age, size, and strength than the Fire Ferrets and the Buzzard Wasps. Believe me, I looked." he joked. "This should be a pulse-pounding semi-final, folks." The bell rang and the Buzzards fought first. "The Buzzard-Wasps open with a flawlessly executed combo. 2 of the Ferrets take an early visit to Zone 2, and Mako's knocked all the way back into Zone 3! The Ferrets have been struggling to stay alive since the opening bell. It seems Bolin and Mako are out of sync tonight. (Y/N) taking the brunt of the impact from the front lines." 

The crowd groaned with Bolin as he was hit in the gut, hard. "Ooh, that has got to sting." You heard retching and groaned, knowing it was Bolin. "And Bolin looses his noodles, literally." All the players seem to have froze with that disgusting scene. "Which reminds me, this match is brought to you by our sponsor, Flamey-O-Instant Noodles. 'Noodlest- Noodles in the United Republic.' " Soon Bolin was knocked back into Zone 3 with Mako, leaving you to get defend from Zone 1. 

You were suddenly knocked into Zone 3 by an Earth disk, while avoiding a flame burst. "The Buzzard Wasps fly deeper into Ferret Territory. And Mako plunges into the pool. Can the Fire Ferrets hold on?" You and Bolin looked at each other and continued to fight with all you got. "The Ferrets are backed to the edge now, and are saved by the bell! They had better pull themselves together, folks, for round two. Otherwise they can kiss their finals goodbye. "

"Round 2!"  You used water in a arch to knock two of the Buzzards back into Zone 2. "Oh, what a strong start from (Y/N)!" Mako groaned being knocked into Zone 2, and sent fire towards them, hitting Bolin in the process. He cried out, and turned onto his back to glare at Mako. "Hey, watch it!" He gasped being knocked into the water, from his distraction. "The Wasps take advantage of Mako's unforced error, and move forward." 

You and Mako spun your elements together and knocked the opposing  Water and Earth benders out and into the drink giving the round to you guys. Round 3 came and you looked between the boys. "Look, we've been working for a long time for this. Get your heads in the game guys. Please." You begged slightly; they knew what this tournament meant to you. "Let's get this over with." Mako sighed.

When the match started, Mako was already in the drink, and Bolin's shoulder was messed up,and then he was in the drink. "The Ferret's dream of making it to the finals rests on Councilman (Y/N)'s shoulders." You smirked to yourself, used your waterbending to get the team into a line of three, and knocked them down like dominoes. "It's the big kaboosh! What a knockout!" 

The crowd went wild and you could hear Mako and Bolin cheering for you.  "It didn't seem possible folks, but the Fire Ferrets are headed to the finals." You laughed, waving to the crowd, before walking away. You took your helmet off and groaned when Korra gave you a big hug. "Korra! Korra! I need my....lungs...to breathe." "Oh! Sorry!" she sheepishly let you go. "Sometimes, I forget about my own strength." You sent her a lopsided smile, "It's okay, Korra." Bolin and Mako walked up to you. 

"That was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen." "Thanks for not giving up on us; we never would've made this far without your level head. We owe you big time." You rolled your eyes, walking past them, taking your helmet off. The three looked at each other, uncertain. "(Y/N)--" "Look, I know things are confusing between the three of you, but this team means everything to me, and the last thing I need is for some petty love triangle is to mess it up." 

Your sudden attitude caught the other's off guard; you were usually so carefree and cool. You got ready to leave the room when your ex walked in, making a scene. "Ooh, ooh, you boys smell something in here?" Tahno pinched his nose before smirking. "Oh, wait I know what that is. Yeah, it's the scent of losers." "I hope we see you in the finals. Then we'll see who the real losers really are." Korra said back. 

"Yeah, I'm peeing my pants over here." Tahno said confidently before turning to you, with a very faint blush on his cheeks. "I'll win this match for you, (Y/N). Maybe we can go out to that Water Tribe restaurant you like so much." You turned to him with a bored look and said, "Gag me. We are not together anymore, Tahno, I just can't trust you." You brushed your bangs into your face and left without another word. 

You ran into Asami in the hallway. "Oh, hey Asami." she hugged you and took a step back, noting your mood. "Great job! What a comeback! I--Hey...what's the matter?" she asked, green eyes shining earnestly. "Nothing, why don't you go see you boyfriend." You began to walk away when she grabbed your arm. 

"Hey, you don't need to be strong around me, (Y/N), you've been there for me when I needed it. You can talk to me--" "No! I can't talk to anyone and especially not you because on of my main problems is I'm in love with you, and I just think you're wrong for Mako because he and Korra kissed and they belong together and I--" Asami cut you off by hugging you tightly, your arms tight around her waist. "(Y/N), I-I didn't know you felt that way." You took her hand in yours and kissed the top of it, locking eyes with her. 

"Asami..." you left it at that and walked away, leaving her to her thoughts. 

You ran to where you hid Neo, and hugged him with all your might, begging your tears not to fall, and while the polar bear dog didn't know what caused your pain, he simply nudged you with as much warmth as possible.  You took such good care of him, it hurt him to see you so upset.

You sniffed, and looked into Neo's blue eyes with a watery smile. 

"Let's go home, boy."

[sour-n-salty-citrus]

Do you have any hopes for the season finale? I saw in another ask, you described the dynamic between rick and morty this season as "very weak, distant, and downright frankly boring" and I completely agree with you! I hope that, because this is most we'll see rick and morty interacting this season, it'll have at least a few moments of what makes their dynamic so interesting to watch.

(Ok i started airing my grievances with this season, which ended up being... long, so skip this paragraph (starting at / / /) to get to my thoughts on the finale)

Oh gosh I remember that ask (I think-). And yeah, maybe I'm being a bit overly critical. I'll probably look back on this season with retrospect, and a kinder, fonder view. Ik androgynousblackbox (think thats right) made a great point about it being the season FOR rickorty shippers. And sure, I agree on some bits, like Rick acting all pissy and partying the way you would if your ex got with someone new in the planetina ep. Overall though, i think my problem lies in that I was enjoying more individual moments than episodes themselves, especially the middle three. For example- Amortycan Grickfitti. Like, I really liked the idea of the Ship getting on a crazy adventure with Summer and Morty (and Chutback). I like the idea of a Beth-Jerry-Rick adventure. But put together, it's just kinda... meh? You know? I liked the first half of the Thanksgiving special... but it kinda dragged on after that. I get that they want to give other characters (particularly female ones) more attention, which is completely understandable and i encourage it(!) but I can't help but find it underwhelming. Like, Summer in the voltron ep was like- girl how are you STILL vying for Rick's attention! He's the worst! Haven't we done this already? (I will say though I ADORE how far Beth has come, props to her for continuing to seeing through her dad's BS. I was worried the character would relapse into a more typical s1/s2 Beth, and I'm glad she didn't). Some of these plots, funnily enough, seem more fitting of the comics (they actually had a voltron parody already). Fun and entertaining for two or three-something issues, not so much a 22 minute episode. i think most of my complaints come from the dynamic between our titular characters- ok, I know I'm very biased (I mean you can see it), but I came to the show primarily for their relationship. It doesn't even feel drama-fueled, just that they kinda... can't be arsed. I'm torn because on the one hand, they're unhealthily codependent and this separation is probably a good thing, but on the other... it doesn't feel natural? I'm not sure if that's the right word- it's like, season 4 had them practically joint at the hip, but all that's suddenly flung out the window. It just kinda feels like this "i got better things to do" vibe from both of them and its strange. The only time they both got a solo adventure (I'm classifying "solo" as an adventure where they spent a significantly large portion of time together, without the other family members) was in the sperm ep and Thanksgiving ep. And, well, in the Thanksgiving ep Morty felt like a side character in his own show, and the sperm ep... um. Yeah. I don't think it's AS bad as people were saying, but I was cringing the whole time (the second hand embarrassment for Morty was so strong I had to turn off the episode multiple times and return to it. It's just like- godammit MORTY). And I think there's good reason those two seemed to be the most disliked episodes overall. They're the ones RaM spend the most time together and it's... meh. Meh? Meh. I don't mean to say the season overall is bad (it has loads of good points, and its amazing for Smith family as a whole) just that if we're talking specifically about the dynamic between these two? Yeah, I wouldn't recommend a single episode from this season so far to use as an example of their relationship.

/ / /

There's one thing this season has been pretty good at, though. And it's showing us what happens when Rick is alone.

And that brings me to the finale.

"Who is Rick without Morty?"

Well... we already know the answer to that. Pathetic. Sad. Lonely.

This season has been phenomenal in humbling Rick. (And trust me I'm happy for it- every time someone beats the crap outta this shitty old man I'm like YES!!! IT'S WHAT HE DESERVES!). Ep 1 had his "nemesis" clearly besting him, ep 2 had Beth making constant digs (love her) and overall pointing out his extreme callousness and cruelty towards even himself(ves). Ep 3- when Morty shows interest in a girl and ditches him (like seriously it's not like he's moving out, chill) he immediately goes on a bender and develops a deep attachment to the first person he can (wearing yellow, funnily enough). Ep 4, he devotes himself to becoming an "honest man" for his new child, only for it to instantly be taken away from him. Ep 5 highlights how RICK is the asshole for making fun of and taking advantage of someone well-meaning and honest, if "simple", and how literally not cool that is. Ep 6 has his crazy rivalry with the president, and they both get smacked down a couple pegs for that. Ep 7 shows what happens when he allows himself to get carried away, and that he can end up driving everyone else away in the process (lucky they still wanted to save his ass when he needed them). And episode 8? Hooooo boy. Episode. 8. We see a direct parallel in Birdperson with Morty, and the whole "Rick and [insert] 100 years!" Rick has few people he cares about, arguably only one or two that he truly devotes himself to, but when he does, boy does he go HARD. We see younger Rick, optimistic, energetic, friendly and hopeful. And we see all of that crushed in minutes. Rick is desperate for a companion, someone to see the stars with. He needs someone there, someone he can trust and rely on to stay. Someone like Morty. So without Morty, who is Rick?

No one.

And the thing is, Morty doesn't need Rick anymore. Not like Rick needs him. In season 1, Morty was this bright-eyed kid who was new to the cosmos and the multiverse, who needed his grandpa there with him as they explored all these places together. But that's not him anymore. That's not them.

The promo has Morty using the portal gun to go somewhere w/o Rick's permission (i like to think it's boob world lol). It doesn't matter to me as much where he's going, as much as he's doing it alone. He doesn't just not need Rick there, he doesn't want him.

(Also correct me if im wrong but I've missed that sweet portal gun so much. I think the last ep was like- the first time this season we saw it).

Morty's response to Rick? "Replace me!". And wow. Wow. WOW. Morty doesn't give a FUCK! I think Rick thinks that because he's so smart, that he can offer so much, that Morty will come crawling back, and I don't think he will.

Hopes for the finale! Hmm. I mean, I definitely hope "evil" Morty makes a reappearance, haha. I think we all do tbh ;). I want to see some Morty development too, this season has been very Rick-centric (not that there's anything wrong with that!) so I wanna see what's in store for Our Boy. I really hope we get to see the Citadel again, and see the state it's in, but I doubt it. We know something super big is in store, it's just a question of what? Other hopes I have is some Summer + Beth action (please let them team up Im BEGGING) and Jerry too ahaha. I'd love if some other side characters made an appearance as well. Oh- I'm definitely expecting a dramatic cliffhanger at the end of the first half leading to the second half, with the kind of angsty music that leads into the credits (pls that shit is so good (OH WAIT imagine if it was like, for the damaged coda, but like- the chopin version or smth so it could be more subtle maybe bruhhhh)). Ok haha, maybe that's asking too much, the writers made it clear in the story train ep that they weren't gonna do that big dramatic showdown (... unless 👀). Oh, I'd also love some Premium Angst too, like someone getting kidnapped/nearly dying (like ACTUALLY nearly dying). These stakes better be so damn high I could spear a man on them! OH, also I remember androgynousblackbox (is that right? I hope it is) mentioned something along the lines that they could be driving Rick and Morty apart this season in order to have them come back together stronger than ever in an explosive finale, which, I'm strongly hoping for myself.

Thanks if you made it this far! If you have any thoughts on or hopes of your own for the finale please feel free to share! :D