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avatarmerida · 2 years ago

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Silly Love Songs

A dorky little Huntlow fic based on @soldrawss Band AU which I absolutely love with my whole heart.

———

Hunter didn’t mind driving Willow to band practice, not at all. She always had a playlist ready made of songs she thought he’d like (he always did) and on the way back when they’d stop for food, she’d hold his drink because she knew how serious he was about having both hands on the wheel at all times. She knew he was a good and serious driver, otherwise her dads would never allow her to ride with someone who hadn’t been driving longer. Hunter also knew that, which is why he always drove five miles under the speed limit which was why it was so important they left on time.

There were... other reasons he didn’t mind driving Willow, but everyday she acted as though it was the biggest favor in the world. She would tell him that he didn’t have to and she really didn’t mind walking, but he always insisted. It was on his way (it wasn’t) and he loved driving people (he didn’t) so of course he didn’t mind spending extra time with her!

Despite Willow’s usual punctuality, she was always running behind when Hunter came to pick her up. After school, she immediately ran to the greenhouse to tend to the plants she had helped grow and if someone didn’t interfere, she could easily spend the whole night there. Hunter didn’t mind waiting for her, but she knew how he liked to be on time so she always tried to pick up the pace. She was the only person he would wait for and he was the only person she would rush for.

Hunter leaned in the doorway of the greenhouse watching Willow bounce from plant to plant, dousing them with water speaking with each one like she was a friendly waitress taking a coffee order. She spoke to the plants quiet enough where Hunter couldn’t quite make out what she was saying but close enough that it made him a little jealous.

He heard her start to gently hum and it relaxed him, he listened closer trying to pick up on the melody and see if he knew it. He started humming along, catching onto fairly quickly and closed his eyes to focus on her song.

“Did you know plants respond to music?” Willow asked, noticing him and breaking his trance. “It helps them grow.”

“Really?” Hunter said, standing up as straight as he could, feeling as though he had been caught spying even though she was expecting him. “H-how interesting.”

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “Plants respond to sound waves and the vibrations cause plant cells to move, which leads to more nutrients which helps them grow.”

“Ah, so it’s more sound than music,” said Hunter, genuinely interested but trying not to seem too interested for some reason.

“I suppose, technically,” said Willow with a chuckle, pulling some dead leaves off a collection of irises. “But I like to think every plant has its own unique music taste. I try to sing or play something different each time I come, give them some variety.”

“Oh, like an experiment,” commented Hunter, able to better understand things on an academic level. “So what are the results so far?”

“Well, we’ve got some big fans of classical music over here,” she gestured to the section she was currently watering. “The chrysanthemums really like showtunes, the lilies like kpop, and so far no one has responded to jazz.”

“It’s an acquired taste,” noted Hunter with a shrug. “Do you think they’d like our band?”

“With you on vocals? Of course.” Willow smiled, patting down some soil, not noticing the small twisted smile her words put on his face.

“Maybe we should play a show here,” he said as casually as he could managed, hoping it didn’t sound stupid. “We could uh really grow our fan base.” He ended his point with finger guns. Why did he do finger guns? He had never done finger guns before. “Get it? Cause flowers... grow?”

Willow laughed, a genuine laugh despite the joke being totally awful. “I would love that,” she said with a sigh. “But, we probably couldn’t fit Luz’s drum set in here. We could do an acoustic show, though. I’ve actually always wanted to do one of those; I think it’d be really nice.”

“It would,” Hunter agreed, his mind easily envisioning it. Though, in his vision it wasn’t the whole band playing. “But most of our usual stuff might not work for this kind of setting, we’d have to find a whole new set. I bet you could think of some you’ve got good taste in music.”

“They’ve heard all my stuff already,” she laughed. “We’d need something totally new for the plants’ show.”

“Well, you know more about music than I do,” he said. “I’m sure they’d like anything you picked. What’s something they haven’t heard?”

“You should try writing a song,” suggested Willow, beginning to water another section. “I bet you’d be good at it.”

“Me?” Hunter asked.

“No, the fern,” she laughed. “Yes, you. Luz told me how you always correct her English homework so I know you’re good with words.”

“M-me? Not really,” he blushed, rubbing the back of his neck trying not to seem flustered. “I’m better with the technical more than the creative stuff. I wouldn’t even know what to write about.”

“Well, I bet whatever you wrote would be great,” she said. “A few months ago you said you didn’t sing and now look at you. You’re full of surprises Hunter Wittebane.”

“Oh, well I don’t know about that,” he placed his hand on the table and leaned against the edge trying to seem aloof. “I’m pretty predictable actually, I- woah!”

He didn’t realize he had placed his hand in a puddle of water and when he placed his weight on his arm, it sent him flying forward. Reacting instantly, Willow dropped her watering can and lunged forward to catch him. She placed one hand on his bicep and the other on his chest to stop him from falling. She moved so quickly her glasses nearly fell off her face and rested on the edge of her nose. Hunter held his breath and chuckled nervously, trying not to focus on Willow’s touch and the fact that her face was so close to his. He certainly couldn’t think about if she could feel how sweaty his arm was, and if she did he hoped she would blame it on the humidity of the greenhouse.

Hunter didn’t know what to say or if he was supposed to say something so instead he raised his free hand and pushed her glasses back to their proper spot in her face. He always liked how the gold frames complimented her green eyes and made them even brighter. And here among so much green and vibrancy she shone even brighter.

“Did you predict that?” She laughed, returning him to his proper footing.

“Um I uh,” he pretended to cough, trying to save face. “Guess it’s a good thing we’re in a band and not a dance troop huh? I probably wouldn’t be the front man then would I?”

Willow laughed again. Hunter had never considered himself funny, but somehow he made her laugh quite a lot. It wasn’t a pity laugh or a laugh of mockery and while he still didn’t fully understand how he did it, he loved making her laugh. It was like a miniature symphony.

“I bet you’re actually a pretty good dancer,” said Willow, walking over to the closet to put away her gardening gloves and watering can. “But I don’t know how the plants react to dancing yet, so maybe we’ll test that out outside the greenhouse.” She gave him a playful wink.

Test it out? Like dance together? How had the conversation gotten here?

“Oh, what, so I'm supposed to write a song and choreograph?” He sputtered trying to keep his cool, well, to seem cool. He didn’t have any cool to keep when he was around Willow. “You’re killing me, Park.”

“Well, actually,” began Willow as she slipped on her jacket so they could leave. “I did write something awhile back.”

“Really?”

“It’s not much,” she said, reaching over to her bag to pull out a green folder covered in bright neon doodles of flowers. “It’s just music, actually. It doesn’t have any lyrics yet but I like playing it on my guitar. It’s just the little song I like to hum when I’m gardening so I thought I would write it down and see if words came later.”

She handed him the paper, the notes carefully scripted in her bold yet carefully handwriting. The top of the paper held the title in deep ink.

“‘The Language of Flowers,’” Hunter read aloud. It was perfect, very her.

“Yeah, it’s kind of cheesy,” she said with a small blush. “But maybe you could help me figure out some lyrics? It’s in a key that would sound good with your voice and I’d love to play it with you.”

“Have you shown the others this? Maybe they have some ideas.”

“No, you’re the first person I’ve ever shown,” admitted Willow. “I was too embarrassed to share it when I first wrote it, so I guess I’ve just been waiting.”

Waiting... for me? He dared to let himself think. What pressure, what an honor.

“I’ll see if I can think of anything,” he said, glancing back down at the sheet music, holding it careful like it could disintegrate at any moment . “Thanks for sharing this with me.”

———

He knew there was no real pressure from Willow to find lyrics, but he treated it as a high priority task. He had only gained the confidence to sing in front of people a few months ago and his sight reading was a new skill but it didn’t take long to commit her melody to memory. He’d carry it with him in his mind everywhere and the words came slowly, not necessarily in order. When a verse did come, he’d jot it down on whatever paper he had available: notebooks, napkins, math homework so he wouldn’t forget.

He stayed up all night, the words rushing out of him.

“Hey, uh Willow,” he said the next day after practice. “It’s not much but I came up with some lyrics for your song and I -.

“Really?” She beamed, as she carefully placed her guitar in its case. “That’s awesome! Can I hear it?”

“Hear it? Uh...” Hunter looked up to where Amity Luz and Gus were all talking and laughing about something. He knew that the main purpose of writing a song was to play it eventually but he had barely performed it for himself. He was almost too scared to share it with Willow, let alone the rest of the band who he knew if they heard he wrote a song for Willow he’d never hear the end of it.

“Um, I don’t think this is the right setting for it,” he said. “I pictured it more...”

“Say no more, I know just the place”

———

“Are we even allowed to be here so late after school?” Asked Hunter as he followed Willow to the greenhouse doors in the night. Band practice had run late and so it was already darker than normal. He hoped it wasn’t too close to her curfew, he didn’t want her dads associating him with breaking rules (even though he was sure they were aware Willow didn’t need encouragement to break rules).

“You’re forgetting I’m the president of the gardening club so I have a key for emergencies,” said Willow, jingling the keys that held a large cactus keychain to signify their importance.

“Does this count as an emergency?”

“It does to me,” she said, fidgeting with the door handle before letting them in. “I wanna hear your song!”

She ran ahead and started setting up her guitar. The stars shone through the clear glass ceiling, and luckily the moon was full tonight to give them enough light to see. The moonlight hit her hair that made it look like another night sky was cascading over her shoulder, twisting in her braid. Focus! He needed to focus! This happened before at practice, he’d look at her and start thinking and then overthinking and then he’d be totally distracted. During practice, he could find something else to blame it on: a passing car, a weird sound from the amp, or even his shoelace being untied. But now it was just the two of them and it would be harder to explain himself if he spaced out.

“Hunter?” Said Willow, and Hunter could tell by her tone this wasn’t the first time she had called him. Damn it, it was happening already!

“Uh, yeah?”

“Come sit by me,” she said, patting an overturned milk crate that they used to bring in new plants beside her. She sat on one of her own, gently strumming her guitar to make sure it was tuned. She was perched comfortably on the crate, positioning her guitar in a way that told him she had done this before. His long legs didn’t know if they should stick out or bend so he alternated between the two as he listened to her strum.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” she said at last, he could tell she waited a bit to speak so he wouldn’t feel pressured. He realized then that he had forgotten the nice copy of the song he had transferred to a notebook in the car. He didn’t want to get up and lose his nerve, so he dug through his pockets for the scarp papers that composed his rough draft. She snuck a glance at him in the moonlight, and smiled as he brought them closer to his face to see better and put them in order. But she was in no rush. “If it’s too dark and can’t see what you wrote, I can try-.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said, crumbling the paper. Besides lyrics there were other things mindlessly scribbled and doodled on the pages he wasn’t ready for her to see. He wouldn’t know how to explain why he liked writing her name in different fonts when he was bored in class, how to say he just liked having a reminder of her nearby without it sounding off putting or creepy.

“It’s not much,” he started, smoothing the collection of scribbles and chicken scratch. “And I didn’t have a lot of time, but I dunno if it makes sense and it’s probably not that good...”

“Hunter, I’m sure it’s great!” insisted Willow, hugging her guitar excited to start. “Everything you sing sounds great!”

“Yeah, well maybe not everything,” he blushed, grateful it was probably too dark for her to see. He smoothed out the pages and organized them as she started strumming the chords again and gave him a nod to start whenever he felt comfortable. His nerves took a back seat when he saw her get lost in playing, she closed her eyes and slowly swayed her head, the music light and calming. Soon he felt the confidence to share his lyrics, his voice shaken at first but as he went on it gained its usual raspy smoothness:

“The gardenias told me you used to be shy, the chrysanthemums know but won’t tell me why

Your kingdoms your garden, you rule roses and daisies there’s weeds and there’s thorns but no that doesn’t phase me

And the flowers told me to tell you, your laughters their favorite song

They can’t wait to bloom if it means that soon they’ll hear it all day long

The sunflowers follow you, that’s no surprise cuz the sun can’t compare to the light in your eyes

Shades of emerald and springtime, and envious vines, they’re wide and they’re wild but mostly they’re kind

The bees and the clovers-.” He stopped, because she had stopped. He looked up to see why she had stopped playing and saw her eyes were locked on him, and they were shimmering. Hunter always thought they were shimmering, but he had never seen them look like this, at least not at him. “What’s wrong? Do you not like it?”

“No! No, it’s not that at all,” she stammered, adjusting her grip on her guitar. “It’s just.. it’s really good.”

“Thanks it’s uh, just something I thought of,” he muttered. “I thought, if we play it in a garden it should be about flowers and stuff. So...”

“Yeah, flowers! It’s about flowers!” chuckled Willow, but couldn’t help but notice it wasn’t her usual laugh. “Do you... think you’ll bring it to the rest of the band? See if they wanna play it?”

“Hm, I dunno,” he said, folding the papers absentmindedly. “It’s kind of not our usual sound, and I kind of like the way it sounds with just the two of us. I mean, if you think that’s weird-.”

“No, I like it with just the two of us too,” she said.

“Yeah, especially since the band normally doesn’t do slow tempo love songs so-.”

“Love song?” she repeated breathlessly.

“Is that okay?” Hunter nearly tore the sheets in half. “I mean it’s your music and if you didn’t want it to be a love song I can change-.”

“It can be a love song!” She said quicker and louder than she intended to. “I-I want it to be a love song.”

“Oh. Yeah, okay! Great, good,” Hunter tried to remember to breathe. “It just seemed like the natural way to go, since it’s about you- FOR YOU! It’s for you! For you about your garden. I mean I didn’t write it for you, I wrote it with you! About how much you love your garden!”

A moment of silence passed between them, one of them mortified the other ridiculously giddy. Neither knew what to do next.

“I... really wanna hear the rest of it,” said Willow at last, tapping on the side of her guitar.

“Yeah! Of course!” Hunter stuttered, flipping through the papers again, his eyes darting between her and the pages . “It’s not totally finished yet though, I didn’t know how to end it... wait, hold on. Don’t move.”

She looked back to him and saw him lean over to her, her heart couldn’t decide to beat faster or stop altogether. She sat still as he slowly reached out his hand and brought it to her cheek. She looked right at him and engulfed him in her wide and curious eyes but his remained focused on her, biting on his lip in concentration. She held her breath, anticipating what she hoped was about to happen was about to happen. In a swift motion, he rubbed his thumb against her face and then turned away.

“Sorry, you had some dirt on your face,” he explained with a nervous chuckle. “Guess that just shows how much your garden likes you back, huh?”

“Yeah,” she said, her eyes still locked on him feeling like the moonlight was his personal spotlight. “I guess.”

She touched the spot his hand had just been and felt how hot it was, she knew in the daylight her face would be mistaken for one of the tomatoes.

“Ya know, Hunter... if you did write that song about me... I wouldn’t be mad...”

“Oh uh you... you wouldn’t?”

“No, I’d actually be kinda the opposite,” she said bashfully, smoothing her skirt.

“Oh.” He cleared his throat and tried not to sound as flustered as he was, hoping she wasn’t bored or regretting coming here with him, but she just smiled and played with her braid. He hid his face from her view and he continued to force the words out. He wished he could just write them down instead. “Good then, I guess... because maybe it was a little bit, you know inspired by...”

Hunter was so focused on not ruining the moment, he didn’t notice Willow slowly leaning towards him.

“You,” he finally managed to finish turning back to face her, and was confused by her sudden closeness. “Oh, uh sorry, do I have dirt on my face too?” He asked, thinking that was the only reason she could be so close to him, brushing the sides of his face.

“No.” Willow said softly, as she continued to move closer. Her eyes darted down to his mouth for a moment before looking back up at him brightly as if they were sending him a message about her destination. She slowly closed her eyes and stopped moving. The space between them was so scarce now, but she was allowing Hunter to decide if it would be filled or not. He gulped, waiting for her to pull away or change her mind because he was pretty confident that what he hoped was happening was happening. He held his breath and followed her lead by closing his eyes. He titled his head to the side, close enough to feel her breathe on his face. He clung onto the sides on the milk crate, certain he was going to float away as he held his breath and prepared to-

“Ahhh!” Willow exclaimed, surprised. The trance was broken and Hunter suddenly found himself doused in water. It was raining? But weren’t they technically inside?

“It’s the sprinklers!” Exclaimed Willow with a laugh. “I forgot they’re on a timer!”

“Oh no, your guitar!” Hunter exclaimed, realizing the case was also in his car. He unzipped his jacket and attempted to cover it so it wouldn’t get damaged by the water. In doing so, the papers containing his lyrics fell out of his pockets and onto the wet ground.

“Oh, no your song!” Willow gasped, watching as the water instantly disintegrated the thin papers.

“Leave it! It’s fine!” Said Hunter, ushering her out as quick as he could, trying his best to shelter her from the falling water as well knowing it harder for her to see when her glasses were wet. “I can always write a new one!”

They reached the door and just before they could walk out, Willow turned back and swiftly rose to her tiptoes to catch Hunter’s lips with hers. She wrapped her arm around the back of his neck, her other arm holding her guitar outside the door so it wouldn’t linger in the makeshift rain with her. His eyes closed instantly as he leaned into the kiss, nearly falling forward off his feet as she almost didn’t stop moving out the door when she pulled him down to her. He could feel her smiling and when she did break the kiss, she exhaled with a heavy and content sigh. Her smile only got wider when she saw the dazed and delightfully confused look on his face.

“That oughta make a pretty good lyric, huh?” She whispered before booping his nose and running out of the greenhouse, leaving him behind to be soaked, her laughed beckoning him to follow her. He was frozen, but at the same time burning hot, playing the moment over and over his head questioning if it was real or not. He searched the inner thesaurus of his mind for the perfect words to describe it as if he had all the time in the world and didn’t have to drive her home and explain to her dads why she was late for her curfew and soaking wet when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

But it would be more than an lyric, it was a whole album.

#huntlow #winter toh #toh #the owl house #Willow park #hunter wittebane #huntlow fanfiction #au #owl house au

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the-only-ace · 4 years ago

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Can you do a TaeminxReader where both the reader and Taemin are on The Knowing brothers and Heechul continuously flirts with the reader.

hello there~ i honestly don’t know if you still remember requesting this but here you go! i am so sorry for answering after such a long loooong hiatus. also, i am not really familiar with all the segments for the knowing brothers so i apologize in advance if some of them do not make sense. hope you still enjoy it nevertheless!

taemin scenario: just add jealousy

pairing: taemin x reader

word count: 2.3k

summary: taemin and reader have been liking each other for quite a while now and promoting as a duo together makes their relationship even more complicated. maybe a sprinkle of jealousy would finally ignite the sparks between them.

warnings: none

send in your requests here!

taemin plopped down on a seat and loosened the black necktie he was wearing for the knowing brothers recording. he reached over the table to grab a new bottle of water and contently chugged down its contents. the shoot just wrapped up and the cold drink was refreshing especially after participating in a lot of the activities today. he already spent more than a decade doing variety shows but this one made him extra tired. maybe it comes with age? who was he kidding, twenty-seven is not yet considered as old. he can perform and dance for hours and gladly do it again the next day. comparing to that, a tv show guesting should be a piece of cake but why does he feel more than relief to wrap it up earlier than expected.

with a long heavy sigh, taemin tilted his head backward and close his eyes. he knows exactly the reason why he feels exhausted and also annoyed. it was because of his certain senior called kim heechul.

a frown quickly formed across his forehead as the events a while ago replayed on his mind.

exhibit a:

“with your great chemistry on stage, fans keep on speculating if something is going on between you two. is there something we should know?” heechul asked as the cast talks about your debut single.

honestly, you were not that surprised with the question since it was quite a buzz across social media already. the other members of your girl group practically shoved their phones to your face whenever they saw comments regarding your performance. of course, their loud teasing comes next as if they were a package deal of some sort–which you don’t remember purchasing at all.

“no, we’re both just good friends.” you answered confidently with a chuckle. “i think my chemistry with taemin only comes from how much effort and passion we have put in our every performance. seeing such reactions from our audience makes both of us happy since it means that we did something great up there on stage.”

taemin was nodding silently beside you like a cute little puppy dog as he listened to your answer. he was quite proud of how well you handled the question on your own.

“so does that mean you’re still single?” the super junior member continued to ask.

“um… yeah, pretty much.” you laughed as you nod.

“then i can ask you out?” well, that one caught you off guard.

“hey, isn’t that a bit inappropriate?” taemin can’t help but interrupt your conversation.

“why is that?” the older guy snapped back and sounded a bit offended.

“because…” okay, taemin did not really think this through but thanks to his variety show experience, he was able to blurt out an entertaining response. “aren’t you a bit too old for her? wouldn’t that put you to… i don’t know, jail?” the comment earned laughs and more insults from the other members.

“look here, mister! she’s of legal age so what do you mean jail?” heechul stood up from his seat and started to point his index finger towards his junior. "also, don’t you guys think it’s up to y/n to decide?“ he directed his look to you and raised an eyebrow. “so, what do think?” he tried to pull off a flirty look.

“well, they do say age doesn’t matter in love.” you shrugged as you went with the flow.

taemin knew that you’re also good on variety shows especially on how open you are to any situations that were thrown in your way. you always have the best responses and reactions. that is why people from the industry love to invite you over to shoot an episode with them. however, he kind of hoped that you have let go of the idea of flirting back.

exhibit b:

heechul pulled out the empty chair beside him and patted it, indicating for you to sit beside him. you removed the black backpack you were wearing and placed it on top of the desk as you gladly sat down next to him.

“so where should i take you for our first date?” his sudden proposal caused you to scoff and let out an amused laugh.

“well… i do love eating expensive steak in a fancy restaurant where i can wear a beautiful dress that you bought while thinking of me.” you teased with a sweet smile.

“isn’t that too much for a high school student?” he mumbled to himself before reaching out to brush the stray hair on your forehead. “okay, oppa will do it for you.”

you placed both of your hands underneath your cheeks and looked at him cutely. “thank you, oppa!”

“oppa? more like samchon if you ask me.” taemin looked back from his seat in front of you two.

“alright, what the hell is your problem today? did i do something wrong?” heechul replied incredulously with his eyes wide.

“he’s just probably jealous. he wants some steak too.” you playfully stuck your tongue out before pushing taemin’s head so he would look in front once again.

exhibit c:

all of you are now playing the whisper challenge and it was yours and heechul’s turn. he was the one guessing and you were the one mouthing out the words. both of you are going at it for a while now and it makes you a bit frustrated on the inside. you can feel the sore throat creeping in as you blatantly repeated the same phrase over and over. he’s great at a lot of games but this one is definitely 100-percent not his forte.

“ah… ah ah, i know it now!” he finally said confidently with his right first up in the air. “i love you…”

his answer made you cover your face and burst out into fits of laughter before waving your hands in front of you indicating that he guessed the phrase wrong.

“i love you!” he repeated with more conviction.

“no, that’s not the word!” you shook your head while giggling.

“yeah, i know that’s not the word. i just want to say it to you.” he nodded before giving you finger hearts which you immediately reciprocate.

both of you are playfully flirting for most of the recording but this one got to be the cheesiness lines you heard today.

taemin was pulled out from his train of thoughts when he heard you snickering loudly from across the room and his head hastily snapped in your direction. there you were, wearing a high school uniform that matches his and he was not going to lie, he was stunned when he saw you wearing it the first time this morning. you look bright and youthful with the red checkered bow around your neck. your high-waisted skirt emphasizes your curves. your pair of black thigh-high socks were the perfect length to make your legs look longer. your hair was pulled up on a half ponytail which he doesn’t usually see on you so it was a sight for him to remember. there was a soft blush on your cheeks and across the bridge of your nose. the gloss on your lips was also mesmerizing as it catches the light every time you speak. that didn’t help at all given the fact that he often caught himself staring at your lips too much lately.

seeing you made him think that if you both met as high school students, he would have undeniably confessed to you in an empty classroom after class. he chuckled at the thought. he was not quite sure if you would have liked him back in high school since he was not confident in himself back then.

his daydreaming was cut short when he realized who you were talking to. it was none other than the kim heechul. he can’t help but observe as the two of you conversed animatedly with each other. he knew that heechul was a funny guy but he’s not that hilarous for you to laugh that hard. while listening to whatever story he has been conjuring, you were pulling your hair up in a quick messy bun since the studio was quite hot with all the lights around.

what happened next almost made taemin fell down from his seat. a scowl immediately appeared on his face as he watched heechul casually wiping the sweat on your nape with his handkerchief. not that taemin was counting but that was the 9th time he flirted with you today and not to mention that it was already after the show.

he bitterly watched as you both bid your goodbyes and now you were walking towards him. he cleared his throat and took another gulp from his water bottle.

“what’s with the long face?” you asked in fluent english as you sat down on the desk in front of him.

“what?” he looked up with a confused face.

“i thought you were taking english classes?” you mocked him–this time in korean. you nonchalantly reach out for his drink and took a sip.

you and taemin knew each other for quite a while now, almost 4 years to be exact. you were on friendly terms with him even before debuting as a duo but after spending these past few months preparing together, you have gotten much closer with him. too close that it became complicated for both of you. it was quite obvious that you two were acting more than friends but no one clearly expressed their feelings yet. the tension between you and him when you were alone became heavier and heavier as the days went by. you always have this urge to bring up the situation you two are in but everytime you were about to speak out, taemin would suddenly open up a conversation about a whole different topic.

“so what were you and heechul-hyung talking about a while ago?” yep, lee taemin always has awful timing.

“he just wanted to make sure that he didn’t make me feel uncomfortable during the recording a while ago.” you shrugged.

“oh, how sweet of him.” taemin scoffed and straighten up from his seat. “he even has to wipe your sweat for you.” he muttured under his breath.

“what was that?” you already heard what he said but it was too faint and you just wanted to make sure.

“nothing.” of course he would deny it. what did you expect?

“so… are you like jealous of heechul or something?” you were only joking, well half-joking. you used this opportunity to slowly open up the topic and to finally know where do you stand in his life.

he held your gaze for a few seconds before crossing his arms across his chest. you were not fully prepared for his serious stare and for what he said next. “and what if i am?”

“huh?” your dumbfounded voice was a couple of notes higher than usual.

“i said,” he leaned forward and looked up to you under his lashes. “what if i am jealous?”

you sat there frozen. you helplessly stared back at his eyes and looked for any signs that he was just fooling around. except it was clear as day, he meant what he said. you always have waited for this. you imagined all the possible scenarios. you even prepared what you would say once this was brought up but why were you speechless now? why do you feel all clammy and nervous? why can’t you calm down your frantic heartbeats?

you took a deep breath and forced yourself to bring back the confidence you once had. “then why don’t you ask me out already so you don’t have to feel threatened with every guy out there.”

“you know what?” he stood up and suddenly he was now towering over you. his scent wrapped all around you and it made you overheat even more. “i might just do that.”

“then i might just say yes.” you crossed your arms and hoped that it can disguise your slight shaking. whether it was from excitement or not, you do not know anymore. everything was happening so fast that you were not sure if you were comprehending them properly. you felt light-headed as you waited in silence.

“so we’re doing this?” his low voice broke the stillness.

“yes!” you responded a little too enthusiastically for your liking. you’re a mess right now, you ain’t denying that.

taemin chuckled softly before discreetly slipping his fingers under yours.

oh, god. you felt a shock and then a shiver from his touch. it was not like it was your first time to have skin-to-skin contact but this one was quite different. you can feel the tension slowly rising along with the heat on your cheeks. you can feel the frustrations that were build up every time you wanted to touch him in a not-so-friendly manner. you were willing to bet your life that he was currently feeling the same as you when you witnessed his eyes dilate and darken.

“look, as much as i want to make out with you right now. we can’t.” he took a step back and put his hands in the pockets of his black slacks.

you felt both relief and disappointment when he widened the distance between you two. you can now catch a breather at last.

“i mean we can’t… here.” he suggestively added before turning away. “i’ll be waiting in my dressing room.”

there goes your breath again.

it took you a minute to recover after hearing his inviting words. you looked around while you fan your warm face with your hands as if it helped with cooling yourself off. you closed your eyes and relaxed yourself for who knows how many times already. you then hopped down the desk and made your way to the place you can’t wait to go to.

if this was what jealousy does to taemin, you absolutely cannot wait to see more of it.

#shinee #taemin #lee taemin #taemin x reader #shinee requests #shinee scenarios #shinee world #shinee request #shinee scenario #taemin scenarios #taemin requests #taemin scenario #taemin request #jealous taemin #lee taemin x reader #shinee x reader

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zeldareyesblog · 4 years ago

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Bayonetta 2: The Controversial Witch Trials

**This was a responsive essay that I had written back in February 24, 2020 and revised on March 1st, 2020 for “Introduction to Composition” college class. Yes, I got an A+ on this.**

Bayonetta 2: The Controversial Witch Trials

In Giuseppe Nelva’s article, “Bayonetta 2’s “Over-Sexualization” Complaint: A Perfect Example of What’s Wrong with Modern Reviews”, I found the reviews of the game to be unfair because Bayonetta 2 was judged based on the amount of provocative imagery it contained rather than Platinum Games’ improvement from the first Bayonetta’s gameplay, mechanics, and creative execution. Nelva’s concerns were the same as mine because we believed that no videogame should be judged by the amount of controversial content it has. Instead, video games should be judged if the video game’s creators have exceeded beyond expectations to entertain the players.

Video game reviewers are needed to help companies like Platinum Games improve their work ethic, so that the next video game they make from that specific series would not feature the same issues again. However, we have big video game reviewers like Polygon, who has judged this video game based on its “blatant over-sexualization” rather than Bayonetta 2 game’s execution as quoted from article, “I won’t guess why the blatant over-sexualization is still there, often more intensely than before. But it causes an otherwise great game to require a much bigger mental compromise to enjoy.” Even though a 7.5 out 10 would not be considered an awful rating for Bayonetta 2, it deserved more than that and it also deserved a more objective review rather than a subjective review despite the obvious adult content mentioned by Polygon’s throughout most of the review. While Bayonetta 2 did include sexual themes and references throughout the franchise and characters as much as strong language and violence is concerned, should it be used to solely judge the merits of a videogame? What if the creators of Bayonetta 2 intentionally put the controversial content there to show how our virtuous boundaries could be broken under harsh circumstances, but can still become a strong, wise, and beautiful person against all odds?

To be honest though, I did understand that when my mother and I bought this video game from GameStop just last year during the holiday semester break as my New Year’s Eve present when I was 19 years old, she and I were both already aware of the content. Such as female characters being portrayed in a sexualized manner with extremely exaggerated proportions displayed in tight-fitting suits while in combat. There were also female characters being stripped of those suits for a brief amount of time to summon “infernal demons” as an aid in combat for huger enemies until their wicked weaves covered their private parts, and the innuendos spoken while the female characters interact with male characters in advance. However, the reason my mother approved of me playing that game, regardless of the adult content, was because she took her time to educate me about such content prior to succeeding my first semester in college. Because of our mother-daughter conversations, it was still pointless to judge the game based on its own provocative content and more on how it has executed itself as an entertainment medium as a result. Unlike most parents that I met who let my friends play M-rated video games before they completed their secondary education and reached the appropriate age, my mother never let me play any M-rated game until I completed my secondary education and when I reached the appropriate age of 17 years old or older according to the Entertainment Ratings Software Board (ESRB) guidelines because she believed that proper education and parental guidance would develop a real sense of maturity and high tolerance on all adult content that I would be exposed to in the future and she was right about that.

Furthermore, when I compared my now adult self to the friends that played a variety of M-rated videogames while they were underaged and still in middle school a very long time ago, I remembered that they were complete hyperactive chatterboxes to the point of aggravation, became more aggressive in their gaming habits and personalities, and even learned new curse words that I have never even heard before. When it came to sexually suggestive content in mature-rated video games, my old middle school friends did not seem to process that kind of content in a composed and civilized manner which resulted in them having some misogynistic and judgmental views of women, especially fictional video game women like Bayonetta who had self-confidence on and off the battlefield and remained fearless in her sexuality and beauty. Although, I did not blame M-rated video games alone because I knew that it was obviously the parents who enabled their underaged children to play those mature-rated video games since they were impatient and did not take the time to teach their kids about what kind of content they could be getting themselves into if they bought the game no matter how entertaining it was, and why they should not expose themselves to it until they are at the appropriate age anyways.

Moving on, Nelva has mentioned in his article that “What should be reflected, first and foremost, in a review’s content and in its score is the game’s quality, and while several aspects of “quality” are subjective, there are also many that aren’t. Production values are an example: graphics, animation, audio, textures, effects; Those are objective aspects of a game’s value that should not be overlooked.” As somebody that has owned and played this video game series, in my perspective I think that Bayonetta 2 has exceeded expectations from the Bayonetta 1 when it came to smooth gameplay mechanics – being able to reduce the amount of constant button pressing to fully complete charging attacks. Not only that, but Platinum Games has provided extra abilities for players such as giving Bayonetta the ability to glide on higher platforms with her Madama Butterfly Wings after jumping upwards and a variety of random “hack and slash” combo attacks on all bosses and mini bosses that will leave the players in suspense on what Bayonetta would do next, and included online gameplay levels and offline quests that challenge the players’ skills after completion of the story mode. The graphics and textures of Bayonetta 2 were beautifully executed to even reach cinematic levels of gaming throughout cutscenes and gameplay with the camera angles strategically displayed on the entire environment, and used closeups appropriately on the characters to present details on their unusual cosmetic makeup, clothing designs, and accessories as the characters communicated with each other. As for audio, the music soundtrack provided a mysterious, foreboding, yet epic emotions that could keep all players on edge and interested in the story mode. Furthermore, the dialogue between the characters was uniquely portrayed and ranged from what strong, young women and men would realistically say or react if they had encountered any enemies based on their three-dimensional personalities. If videogame players were tight on budget to own a headset, they could still experience the same amount of interactive and immersive fantasy-adventure gaming that Bayonetta 2 has provided as an entertainment product that would keep the players entertained for many years to come.

That objective review I made would convince so many young adult audiences to play Bayonetta 2. Eventually, it would have gained plenty of new fans to move this game up the ranks from being stuck in the “under rated” games category to gain widespread popularity. Never had I put in my own opinion on Bayonetta 2’s provocative content, because I know that judging a game based on what kind of adult material it had was not my job as a reviewer and I already assumed that my audience knows better what kind of material they would get themselves into before buying the game to begin with.

What amazed me now was how the world wanted to showcase diversity and promote less censorship in the entertainment industry. Although, once we get what we asked for there are a lot of negative people out there on the internet that make so-called entertainment reviews to talk about how the characters in a television show, movie, or videogame do not fit their own beliefs. According to Nelva, “It saddens me that between the many calls for diversity we’ve seen lately, some actually fly in the face of diversity itself by implying that games that celebrate sexuality and beauty like Bayonetta 2 should not exist or are not worth playing and enjoying.” This quote was a reminder to me that I should not judge any video game based on the number of suggestive themes it contains, but if it exceeded my expectations on quality video game entertainment.

Overall, I believed that Bayonetta 2 was a compelling video game that unfortunately received a bad reputation since huge video game reviewers like Polygon judged this video game based on the amount of provocative content it contained rather than the actual gameplay and creative execution itself. The creators behind Bayonetta 2 were considered artists because they told a narrative story and designed characters beyond our own imagination and made money from our fascination in this fantasy, action, and adventure game. Besides that, the purpose of video games was to provide another form of quality entertainment that all young adult audiences could enjoy at their own leisure time and Bayonetta 2 would have been one of those videogames if we had better reviewers that judged it based on gameplay and performance, instead of content.

Works Cited

Nelva, Giuseppe. “Bayonetta 2's ‘Over-Sexualization’ Complaint: A Perfect Example of What's Wrong with Modern Reviews.” DualShockers, DualShockers, 17 Oct. 2014, www.dualshockers.com/bayonetta-2s-over-sexualization-complaint-a-perfect-example-of-whats-wrong-with-modern-reviews/.

#bayonetta #bayonetta2 #nintendo #sega #platinum games #video games #videogame #college #composition #essay #college essay

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ninjakasuga · 3 years ago

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Sonally Celebration Week, Year 3, Day Three!

Day three is here, and as usual, I tend to go for my flair with thematic tones over the literal idea of the prompt. Everyone else enjoying what @gojira007 and their blog @boundforfreedomsonsal brings will find this to their pleasure.

Sonally Celebration Week, Year Three: Day Three

Foreward: This episode takes place mere months after Mystery. I know last year sometimes I hoped about the time-line a bit, while with at least episode one-through-three I’m keeping it rather linear in the story-telling. Last time we saw Sonic and Sally as babysitters to Sonic’s younger siblings; now their own time has parents twas’ nigh.

Day three: Crossroads

“Sonic Maurice Hedgehog, I love you, I love you with all my heart and soul, but-nrghh!” Grimacing, Sally Acorn-Hedgehog panted heavily as another contraction wracked her body. Her grip on the hand of her husband tightened. “But I swear, I SWEAR if you do this to me again, I-will-EAT-YOUR-SHINS!!”

Making a soft, but audible sound of physical distress, Sonic swore he felt the bones in his hand crunch. Yet he did not dare wretch it free, not that he felt he could if he wanted too. Sally’s grip was intense, and furthermore, any attempt to save his own skin would be met with death. As sweat trickled down his brow, making the mask attached to his face, and the scrubs he wore a bit uncomfortable. Yet his own discomfort was his least priority at the moment. “Y-you got it Sal, j-just hang in there a bit more…”

Sally’s eyebrow raised incredulously. “Hang in th-nrgh, t-there?! Oh my dear husband, you just did-urghhh! N-not tell me to hang in there? Just what the f**k do you think I’m doing?! I’ve been ‘hanging in there’ since my water broke and the contractions kicked in, and those two little darlings ‘you’ put in my belly can’t decide if they want to come out now, or kick Mommy’s bladder some more!”

“H-hey I’m just trying to help!’ He pleaded as she clutched his hand tighter than before. “I know this isn’t easy on you Sal, but it’s not like I can whip out a Power Ring or Chaos Emerald and make it better. If I could-ghhh, take your place I would!” Sonic knew this was in no-way easy, but in the span of a few hours he’d seen Sally run the gauntlet of her emotional range. Mostly all centered at being upset with him. Now he understood what his Dad meant by ‘Nothing will prepare either of you for this; but remember, Sally’s going to be put through a wringer, so be patient, and be understanding’. “Sal, please you need to calm down some, it’s not good for you, or the babies right Doc?”

The ‘Doc’ in question lifted her head from her position between the Queen’s legs. After almost twenty-plus years of service, Doctor Quack had retired from medicine but remained a consultant for the Acorn Kingdom Ministry of Medicine. So the new Royal Doctor, one Jolene Fredrick, and one of Quack’s protoge’s was tending to the birth of Sally and Sonic’s children. The spotted-Hyena doctor managed a bemused smile behind her surgical mask. “Your husband is quite right, your majesty, I know it hurts, but the more you let the pain stress you out, the more it will complicate things.” She spoke evenly, softly, and kindly but with a firm authority a doctor should carry. “I know giving birth to twins is not easy, especially for a first-time pregnancy, but despite the pain, it looks like the babies are finally about ready to come out.”

A part of Sally wanted to scream and kindly (or not so kindly) tell Jolene to jump out the window, or anyone else asking her to ‘bear with it more’. After all the hours she already had dealt with the discomfort, and false alarms, up until the pains really started to kick in over the last hour and a half. Yet Sally held back that urge, both from her brain managing to get through the pain and reminding her, Jolene was trying to help. Plus as a Mother herself, she’d had first-hand experience with what she was going through. The other reason she pushed her anger down was the soft touch of Sonic’s hand that wasn’t currently in the vice grip she was placing on the other. A quick glance into those emerald-pools, seeing concern and love, did much to soften her.

A small whimper left Sally as she eased her grip and held Sonic’s hand to her face. “I’m sorry, it just huuuurts.” She whined softly, feeling utterly pathetic she was reduced to such a state. Her composure was thrown out the window, cursing freely, and just, the sheer roller coaster of hormones and emotions over the last several hours had taken a toll. “I want my babies, but-rugh, I want them out, nooooow!”

“I know Sal, I know.” Sonic murmured, wincing at the defeated, pained sounds coming from the love of his life. Bringing her hand to his face, he did his best to kiss the top of her hand through his surgical mask. “I’m with you, however long this takes you got me at your side.”

A small, strangled laugh left Sally as she managed a warm smile as she gazed at her husband. “How’d I get so lucky? Some people take forever to find their soulmate and I met mine at two years old.” Letting out a dreamy sigh, Sally pulled his hand to her and planted a kiss there, with both her hands (gently) cocooning both of her hands over his. Just as quick as the quiet moment came, it was taken away as Sally let out another sharp gasp. “Oooooooff!! I felt that one!”

Eyeing some equipment next to her, Jolene made a ‘hmm’ and then turned to look over at the couple. “Good news, it looks like the babies are finally making up their minds, one is starting to make way. Take deep breaths, your majesty, just like you practiced, we’re almost at the end goal.” She smiled through her mask, her own mild fatigue visible in her eyes. Yet like her predecessor there was a fire to see things through. “You can do this your Maj-.” “J-just Sally please!” Insisted the mother-to-be as she gripped the edge of her bed rails with one of her hands, as the other still clutched onto Sonic. “T-this is too personal to keep using formal titles. Nrgh, j-just for now, please, no titles.”

A part of the doctor felt awkward at putting the habit of being so informal, but if it would help. “Alright Sally, we’re in the final stretch, deep breathes. We’ll see the crowning any moment now.”

Nodding, Sally looked to Sonic, wincing and breathing deeply as she was taught. “I love you.” “Back at’cha Sal, you got this.” Sonic fought back a wince from his extremely sore hand. Focusing more on giving Sally his support. “Back at’cha, now let’s welcome our kids and you get some rest.”

Some Time Later:

Exhausted deeply in body and soul, Sally could feel all this in the back of her mind; yet her focus was on anything but the fatigue. A warm, happy, glowing feeling replaced the fatigue as she stared at the two swaddled bundles in her arms. “They’re beautiful…” She cried, happily as she stared at the mewling infants. Who seemed to instinctively lean against her body through their swaddling. It had been worth it, the long labor, the pain, all-worth-it. The girl of the twin-set was a chipmunk-ish hybrid like Sally but clearly sported her Father’s blue hues in her fur. The boy, clearly of the hedgehog variety had the more soft browns of his Mother. Time would tell if Sally’s red hair, or the blonde or brown hair from Sonic’s side of the family would pop up.

As she glanced over at Sonic, she was nearly bowled over by the sheer awe in his eyes and face (his surgical mask was off). His eyes were misty, making her wonder if she was looking at a mirror of her own expression. “You just love in love don’t you?”

“Totally.” Sonic nodded, a strangled laugh leaving him as she leaned in, getting eyefuls of the two joys the two had both patiently and impatiently waited for all this time. It had been a long road to parenthood, both held off having kids right away due to many reasons after the war. The rebuilding efforts, just enjoying themselves free of fighting, and other small, miscellaneous reasons. Last year they finally felt ready and well, started working on getting Sally pregnant, which didn’t take long with how they were.

Sonic wondered if this surge of pride and absolute happiness was something both his parents felt when either his siblings and he had been born? The sheer high of it almost-no, no it absolutely did dwarf the high of running free in the wind. Gently he reached a hand down, running a finger along one child’s cheek, then the other. “Hey you two, glad to finally meet’cha. I’m Daddy, this is Mommy, and we’re going to love and look after you until the end of time.”

Nodding her head eagerly in agreement, Sally sniffed back more tears of joy. “Forever and ever, all ours.” She giggled, kissing the soft, furry cheeks of her newborns. “Welcome to the world Kathleen and Jaleel-Craig.

“I still think Justin-McCooiagel sounded pretty good.” Quipped Sonic with a smug, joking smirk.

“I will not let our son be mercilessly teased because his Father wanted to give him a ‘cool nickname like ‘Just Cool’ or whatever string of odd nicknames.” She firmly stated, giving Sonic a dull stare. “Seriously, one of your names was Radical. Just Radical.”

“Hey it’s a good gender-neutral name, and we knew we were having twins.” His wide grin, showcased he enjoyed pulling her chain. He mostly had been joking about the aforementioned names, well mostly. The ones they settled on were perfect. Kathleen Nicole Acorn-Hedgehog was named after Sally’s Grandmother that she sadly never got to know, and her middle name was in honor of a certain BFF of the Queen’s. Jaleel-Craig Acorn-Hedgehog, or J.C. for short, got his name from Sonic learning Jaleel had been one of ‘his’ potential birth names. Seems his Father knew a Jaleel from school who had been his best friend until he died in the war, and had considered giving him his name in remembrance, only to decide Bernie’s idea of Sonic seemed fitting. Both Sonic and Sally thought it would be a nice name, and as for the Craig addition, Sonic just liked the name, and felt a two-word name would be great for one of the kids. His desire won out after he won three out of five rock-paper-scissors matches with Sally for the final say-so.

“Sure it is…” Rolling her eyes Sally reached over and ran her hand, playfully over Sonic’s face. “You’re just lucky you are adorable.”

“Ha! Adorable wished it were me.” Murred Sonic as he nuzzled against her hand. “Although my wife and lovely children are top-tier competition.”

Snorting, Sally then yawned loudly. “Oh my, I-I *yawn*, damn it, I don’t wanna sleep…”

The door to the suite opened and Doctor Jolene stuck her head in. Having overhard the yawn, she gave the couple a knowing smile. “You should get your rest while you can. The kiddos will be tuckered out themselves, and the nurses will watch them overnight. Trust me you will want as much sleep as you can before they want to feed.” Given it was between two and three o’clock, the Royal Family didn’t have any visitors waiting on them until much later in the day to worry about.

As another yawn tore from her throat, Sally nodded in acceptance. She then poked at her own chest, semi-covered by her hospital gown. “Finally these udders will get some use. The swelling of the milk is getting annoying.”

A dirty joke formed in Sonic’s head, but he wisely (this time) fought off voicing it. A low, tired, yawn left him as well. “Snooze n’ Zzz’s sound about right Doc. Plus there’s that saying, we should get as much as we can?”

“As one parent to another, ooooh yes!” Laughed Jolene as she walked over to give the Mother and children a once over as a nurse came over with a rolling cart with two portable baby-carrier cribs for the infants to sleep in. “That should be your priority as much as looking after J.C. and Kathleen now, making sure you’re rested so you can look after them.” She then gives her Queen a playful-if-stern look. “Which means our dear Queen needs to knock off the all-nighter paper-work and project binges.”

Unable to not but wince at the accusation, Sally sighed in defeat. She knew her bad habit was one not to be ignored at this juncture in life. “I’ve already delegated my tasks to Nicole and the Council, and all necessary parties…”

“After taking weeks to painstakingly do so…” Her husband quipped with a mirroring playful-but-stern with a dash of accusatory as Doctor Jolene.

Sally sent Sonic a glare, but fatigue and looking upon the faces of her children made the frown go away. “I know what my priorities are… I know that I'm going to need to get back to running the kingdom but I’m not going to ever put these two what I meant through. I will find the balance.”

Rubbing her shoulder, Sonic leaned in, planting a kiss to her cheek. “N’ you got me to help, we’re doing this as a team forever, and always.”

“Always.” She agreed, craning her head to kiss him back. Another yawn left her as the nurse gently took the snoozing children. Her gaze followed them as they were carefully put in the sleeping cribs. “See you soon my loves’.” She murmured, eyes beginning to feel heavier as she watched them be wheeled out. “Love you Sonic…” She murmured feeling him tuck her in as her eyes closed.

“Love you too Sal, I’ll be right here.” He murmured, waiting until he was sure she was dozed off. Leaning back from her bed, he popped his back and shook his hands. One was extremely sore but thankfully not damaged. “I’m gonna get some water, and then I’m gonna crash myself Doc.”

“I have a rollaway being brought in for you.” She nodded, giving one last check over of Sally’s vitals, and pleased with what she saw, intended to conclude her rounds and get some shuteye herself. “Sleep well Prince-er Sonic.” She corrected as the Prince-Regent gave her a tired but mild glare. “Sorry, force of habit.” “S’okay Doc… Just titles n’ crap ain’t me, but I married a Princess who’s now Queen so… eh if you gotta for decorum n’ crude sure. Like this… Sonic is fine.” He grinned, giving a two finger salute before padding out of the suite. Water was his priority, his throat was dry, and then, bed. Sweet, sweet bedtime. If the way twins seemed to behave in the family held up, Sally and he would need to be on their toes sooner than later.

A new crossroad of life at been reached, and they were committed to what the future may hold for them and their family.

#boundforfreedom #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sally Acorn #Archie-Sonic #Birth #OC's #childbirth

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some-dr-writings · 4 years ago

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Kiibo x Reader One-shot: Could I see red twine too?

How was one able to see this red string? Did it look like any other red string or was it special? Did it feel different? Was there a scientific explanation behind it, or not? Was it chemicals in the brain, or… something else.

Was it something only a human could experience…

True, not every human could see this red string tied around their pinky, but many did, and those who didn’t were still very human with emotions so… wouldn’t he be able to see it too? Kiibo though not human, was built to be the next closest thing and he had emotions too! He was also a real person so…

If he could see the string, wouldn’t that be proof he was a person? A person deserving of some respect, someone who could be treated as human!

But he could not. True, he could just be aromantic, but… it hurt. Sure people had fallen in love and married those who were not attached to the other end of their string, they were able to be happy, but… if Kiibo had a soulmate, surely they would see him as human, right?

He just… Kiibo didn’t want to feel so isolated, so alone, so, if he had a red string tied to his pinky, even if he never met the person on the other end, it’d bring him some comfort, knowing there was SOMEONE other than Dr. Idabashi who would treat him like he was any other person.

“Huh?” After adjusting his glasses, making sure he had read the address correctly the middle aged man smiled as he strode over to the kitchen table. “Kiibo, there’s a letter for you.” “A letter for me!?” “I believe so. I don’t think any other person named Kiibo lives here, or did you secretly build yourself a twin sibling unbeknownst to me?” As he walked past the table, the man placed the letter on it, continuing into the kitchen. No matter how many times he saw it, a pang of pain and guilt shot right through Kiibo seeing that prosthetic leg. It had been years, and he could walk on it like he was never injured, but Kiibo could never not feel unsettled knowing some other ‘Kiibo’, ‘himself’ had caused such irreparable damage.

When he managed to tear his gaze from the man Kiibo looked to the letter, flabbergasted at what was written on it. “Hope’s Peak Academy…” Hope’s Peak, that prestigious academy, recognized him? But what talent could he have!? Surely this meant the school recognized him as human, right? Why else would they invite him!? W-was this his proof!? Proof at last of his personhood? If such a place recognized him, surely-

“… oh.” “Hmm? Something wrong Kiibo?” “Ah! Nothing! Nothing, I’m just… shocked.” A clanking sound rang out as the man dropped his spoon, clamping his hands over his mouth, desperate to hold in his laughter, which still came seeping out as a chuckle. “S-shocking you say.” Instantly Kiibo’s entire face flushed a bright red, realizing the pun he had accidently made. “I’m going to my room!”

After closing the door behind himself, he flipped on a fan on his desk, sitting before it, hoping it’d help him cool off faster. Then, soon enough he looked back to the letter. “Ultimate Robot.” He was planning on going to Dr. Idabashi’s school of robotics, it’s not like any other school was going to accept him… Well, except for Hope’s Peak, that is. So, no matter where he went, he’d just be ‘the robot’. So, what difference did it make!? It wasn’t going to matter where he went, did it?

“Kiibo? Are you alright in there? It’s been three days.” “Yeah! I am!” The man stood by the door, a deep concern welling up within him. “Care to talk?” “No.” “… Well, if you ever do want to, I’ll be in my office this evening.” “Okay.” For a moment he continued to stand by the door, finding it hard to bring himself to move. He wanted to say more, but what, he was unsure.

“Um, Dr. Idabashi?” “Kiibo!” The man practically pounced on Kiibo, engulfing him into a hug. “Dr.- Ida- DAD! You’re crushing me!” “Accept the hug, you scared me holding yourself up in your room for a whole week!” After holding on for a moment longer, the Doctor let go, taking a step back. “So, what is it you want to see me about?” He smiled, his voice so kind and warm. “Well… I’d like to go to Hope’s Peak! Please don’t be disappointed!” “Oh Kiibo.” He placed a hand on Kiibo’s head, lightly stroking his hair. “What could there possibly be to be disappointed in?” “Well… Don’t you want me to go to your school? I mean, your own creation not wanting to go to your school, wouldn’t it look bad or hurt you?” “… Maybe, but this is about what you want, not me.” “But-” “No, buts. Those are for sitting. Now, do you want to go to Hope Peak, or not?” Kiibo clutched the letter. In both places he’d simply be seen as a robot, there would be no way to go around it, but, just maybe, in a school not centered around robotics he could be seen as human as well. And Idabashi seemed alright with it, so… this was alright, he wasn’t hurting his father again, right? “Y-yes. I want to go to Hope’s Peak.” “I’ll get started on the paperwork then.”

This was it, no turning back now. Kiibo was at Hope’s Peak. It was certainly an experience. He met some great people like Shuichi, Miu, and Gonta, and he also met some not so great people like Kokichi, and Soda. However, there was one person that always stood out to him, you. You didn’t attend Hope’s Peak, not even as a reserve course student, but at a different High School nearby. You first met one another after school. “Excuse me, but are you a cosplayer?” “Oh, uh, no. I am K1-B0, a robot.” “What!? No way! You look too human, and what would a robot be doing at a clothing store anyway? I don’t think they need clothes?” “That’s robophobic!” “Huh? Robo…phobic?” You were baffled seeing the guy point at you. It was… an interesting first introduction. However, you both often ran into one another in the same shopping outlet so through chatting you were able to get a better introduction. “Hope’s Peak, huh. I have no idea how you can stand going there, it sounds so stressful!” “It is exciting. Almost everyone has rather loud personalities and being so skilled in such a variety of things only adds to that.” “I could never keep up in a place like that!” “I don’t know about that. You get used to it.” In his hectic school life Kiibo rather enjoyed the peace and calm he always found around you. That was what made you special. Whenever he saw you, no matter how bad his day had been, no matter how many times Kokichi had called Kiibo an unfeeling robot, or Soda tried to dismantle him, you were able to brighten his day. Soon he found himself going to that shopping district every day hoping to meet you again.

There was something else that also made you stand out.

“Hey, Kiibo. This little boutique a few streets over just opened, want to come check it out with me?” “Sure! Let’s be on our way!” As you took his hand Kiibo felt... something. It was like a shock, or a spark, the feeling was there for the briefest of moments, but it was definitely there. He soon forgot it though, getting preoccupied was chastising you for deciding to run on the slick wet ground so closely to the street!

In his time away from home Kiibo often texted Idabashi, about his day, if he noticed and glitches or malfunctions. “So, did you meet with Y/N today?” “Yes, but I have other friends besides them.” “Really? You never talk about anyone else though.” “I do too! Just scroll up!” Then Idabashi sent multiple screen shots of Kiibo writing entire paragraphs about you. He blushed, embarrassed that his father would do this. This didn’t mean anything, Kiibo was just good at giving thorough reports, and given he spent much of his time with you, of course his experiences with you would be lengthy. “So… when are you going to ask them out?” “DAD!” “So did I make you blush?” “DAD STOP!” Though he meant too, he forgot to report that spark he felt.

The next day he was going to be with his classmates but... “Are you sure you want to spend your birthday like this though? I’m sure your classmates have a surprise party, or something planned for you.” “I’m sure, being with you on my birthday is the best gift I could receive.” Admittedly, he felt magnetized to you, and he already knew why. “Aw. Thank you. Since we’re here, I might as well give you your gift.” You picked up the paper bag you had placed beside the bench the pair of you sat on and picked something out. “Ta-da!” You tossed it over Kiibo’s head, then tightened it around his neck. “The red scarf at the boutique!” “I saw you eyeing it and thought it’d make for the perfect gift, since you didn’t buy it for yourself for some reason.” “Ah, thank you Y/N!” How were you able to do this he wondered. Somehow, every time you met, you talked, even when he simply looked over the texts you had sent to one another, his affection for you only grew exponentially and there seemed to be no signs of it stopping… Even that spark, himself momentarily unable to function, so many emotions flooded him, he simply couldn’t keep up… He couldn’t imagine spending his birthday any other way than being with his crush. Being with you was enough for him, but then you just had to go and get him this scarf. For a moment he worried you were going to make him malfunction again.

“So, what do you want to do?” “Oh, uh… I don’t know.” “Come on, there must be something. Like… Hmm… We could take a walk around the park or-” “That sounds good.” “Alright then.” You quickly stood up, taking Kiibo’s hand, dragging him onto his feet with you. But then you yelped, pulling your hand back. “I’m sorry! Uh, static electricity.” “Okay.” You reached out for Kiibo’s hand but this time he ripped his hand away. “Maybe you shouldn’t do that. Just in case there’s more.” That was just static electricity, right? “You are okay though?” “Static is fine Kiibo. It’s surprising but doesn’t hurt too much. I appreciate the concern though.” Did… did he hurt you? He looked to your hand and arm. You seemed fine, he couldn’t see any signs of muscle spasms nor were there burn marks where you had touched him. You didn’t say anything last time he felt that spark, so maybe that was just static and nothing more… even if he felt that spark again. Besides Dr. Idabashi modified him so he couldn’t hurt anyone again, he couldn’t. You even said you were fine but… Kiibo stuffed his hands into his coat pockets.

Kiibo watched as the leaves danced about in the air, carried along by the wind. He rather liked those warm reds, oranges, and yellows. Autumn was probably his favorite season now that he thought about. Not too hot, not to cold, not rainy, sure there was wind, but it just added to the beauty of the season and could do minimal damage to him unless it was very powerful. He adored the crunching sound of leaves beneath one’s feet, and that chattering that came along with it…

Chattering?

Looking for the source his gaze landed on you, who was hugging yourself, rubbing your upper arms with your hands. You shivered and closed your eyes as another gust flew past. “Y/N, here.” “Oh no, Kii-” “I insist!” He draped his coat over your shoulders, making sure to not accidentally touch you in the process. “I’m fine really.” “No, you can get sick, I can’t. You need this more than I do.” “But you can’t enjoy your own coat. I know how much you enjoy fashion; this feels wrong.” You probably weren’t thinking when you said that, not taking the implication of those words into consideration. He didn’t need the coat, you did, so that reasoning didn’t matter… Even if it caused a soft warmth to ignite under his breast plate. “I can enjoy it plenty seeing you wear it. It’s becoming on you and matches nicely with your turtleneck. “O-oh… thank you.” A light pink dusted your cheeks, likely an effect of the cold. “Let’s go to that café and get you warmed up.” He pointed to a little café at the across the street from the park before leading the way. “But you can’t eat, won’t you be bored?” “Your health is my top priority right now.” “But what do you want?” “I want you to enjoy yourself. That’s all” “… But it’s YOUR birthday, not mine. Come on.” Oh… that’s why you said that, because it was his birthday. Now it made sense. Birthdays are always treated as special, even for inanimate objects, though that’s mostly for buildings, but… it made sense now.

“Well… I know there will be a fireworks display at the lakeside tonight. What do you think?” You simply stood there, straight faced, not saying a thing. “… Y/N?” “I’m not giving you my input. If that’s what you want, if that’ll make you happy, do it. I’m just here to tag along for the ride that is the amazing Kiibo’s life!” “Amazing Kiibo?” “Yes! You, my friend, my companion, my partner in crime, are amazing! What? Can’t take a compliment?” “Hah! Finally someone has noticed!” He smirked, placing his hands on his hips. “Yes, the most dazzling, most kind, most selfless man in the world, Kiibo Idabashi!” You chuckled seeing the confused expression on Kiibo. “Something wrong? No one’s called you by your full name before?” “No, Y/N, Idabashi is not my last name, I don’t have one.” “Really dude!? Dr. Idabashi is SO your dad, don’t deny it.” “He’s my creator, of course he’s like a father figure to me.” You face palmed before searching through the coat pockets, taking out Kiibo’s phone once you found it. “What are you doing!?” “Hacking!” “Guessing my password is not hacking and GIVE ME MY PHONE BACK!” Kiibo tried reaching for his phone, but you held the phone out of reach with one hand, while the other easily pushed Kiibo back. “Well… fine.” You then passed him his phone back. “But only because you’re my favorite person in the world.” “… Your absolute favorite, out of all the billions and billions of people on this planet?” “Yep!” You simply smile with your eyes closed, just making your entire expression all the cuter. Wait… “favorite person…”

…

A deep blush covered Kiibo’s entire face as those words sunk in, that fact that YOU of all people said that sunk in, sinking so deeply into him, this memory was one he would be able to recall with perfect clarity without even a speck of dust out of place. He smiled. It was the kind of smile that seamed to radiate, being infectious, the kind of smile where without even seeing it, you could feel the soft and kind joyous jubilation it reflected.

Then it was evening? “Kiibo! Oh, thank FUDGE you’re alright.” “I told you he’d be.” “DAD!? What are you doing here!?” The good doctor chuckled seeing Kiibo’s baffled reaction. “Kiibo! Did you really think I’d miss out on your birthday!? I better up my father game, this is pathetic!” You sighed with relief before smirking, Kiibo already realizing you had more than enough evidence to make your case. “Dr-” “Don’t you mean Dad~?” “… Dad, why are you actually here, it’s evening now?” Dr. Idabashi crossed his arms, and playfully huffed clearly trying to play it off as out of annoyance. “I AM here for our birthday, and… You froze, compounding a lot of data, making sure that precious memory was kept in a safe place and was recorded at the highest settings. Y/N here got worried and used your phone to text me you needed help. I told them you’d be functioning in no time, but they didn’t seem to believe me till you awoke just now.” Before Kiibo could say anything, you held up your hands, as if trying to show you were innocent, clean of any crime. “I didn’t look through anything. Just texted your dad and nothing else, I swear.” You passed Kiibo his phone back. “Thank you, both of you, and I’m sorry for worrying you.” Idabashi lightly chuckled, placing a hand on Kiibo’s head, ruffling Kiibo’s hair, despite said hair refusing to budge. “It’s alright, now I know there’s a few tweaks I should make, but that’ll be for another day. Go and have fun now.” “We’re not going to run a check?” “We’ll catch up at Hope’s Peak, for now, I’m bestowing Y/N with the honor of being my assistant and checking that your mobile functions are still working.” He smiled walking away…

though he couldn’t resist taking one last look. You took Kiibo’s hand, and the pair of you chatted about something before running for who knows where. It did Idabashi’s heart good to see his son had found such a companion. Kiibo didn’t have many friends before Hope Peak. Hopefully, this was the start of a new chapter in Kiibo’s life. Then again, this is the path Kiibo chose, of course it was going to lead to something great.

“Come on! We have to hurry, or we’ll miss them!” “I know and I am!” “Well hurry faster!” A giddy laughter erupted from you as you raced against the setting sun. It was practically gone already, but you had to make it. “We can make it!” “We can see the fireworks from anywhere around here!” “Yeah, but we need the best spot!” Slipping down the hill, racing down the path, weaving through the slightly forested birch wood, you came to a stop beside the giant lake. You fell to your knees, completely out of breath. “Y/N!” You gave Kiibo a thumbs up, showing you were alright while still letting you catch your breath. Then your heard it. That crackling boom as the world around you was half dark, half momentarily bursting with bright colors before it faded. Kiibo kneeled beside you, just wanting to be sure you were alright and didn’t pull a muscle. When you turned to look to the sky Kiibo saw the array of rainbows that exploded, captivating the sky reflected in your eyes. This was certainly the best way to enjoy fireworks he decided. You smiled so dreamily, Kiibo could just get lost in this moment forever.

Then you placed you hand on his cheeks. Immediately they ignited just as brightly as the fireworks above. “Beautiful” was all you said under your breath, closing the distance between the two of you before there was none at all.

As you backed up Kiibo could see your cheeks were much like his own in that moment. “W-w-w-w-wwhaaaaaaaaaaaa…” While Kiibo was left reeling you seemed to realize something. “I AM SO SORRY!” S-sorry? Sorry for what!?” “I DIDN’T ASK FOR PERMISSION! DID I MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE, I’M SO SORRY I KIND OF JUST GOT CARRIED AWAY IN THE MOMENT AND I- I’M, I AM SO SORRY!” “No! Nononononnononononono! It’s okay! Don’t worry!” The both of you buried your faces into your hands, unable to bare looking at one another out of sheer embarrassment. After a few moments of composing yourself you spoke up. “Uh… H-happy birthday? I got you a second present?” Why did you have to say that!? Kiibo could not handle all this. “u-uh, so the kiss was a present?” “No, I just wanted to give myself an excuse! Damn it Kiibo! Why do you have to be so smooth, and handsome, and a dork and adorable! Ugh! Well, cat’s out of the bag. I, have a crush on you too.” “YOU LOOKED THROUGH MY TEXTS WITH DAD!? YOU SAID YOU DIDN’T!” “I didn’t.” Kiibo froze, realizing what he just admitted. “H-how did you know then?” “Kiibo, you wear your heart on your sleeve. It was pretty obvious.” “I- really?” You simply nodded, watching as Kiibo crumpled over, wondering just exactly how obvious his feelings were. “Wait Kiibo, don’t panic! I don’t want you to freeze or whatever again!”

After a few minuets of the both of you panicking you finally calmed. You sighed, so glad to see Kiibo slightly better. “Uh, sorry I kinda did that out of nowhere.” “Don’t be! I, I-I liked… it. And… we like each other.” “Yeah.” You nervously chuckled, still feeling guilty about not asking for consent to kiss Kiibo first. Kiibo tugged at his scarf with a hand, looking down to it, the sky light up, allowing him to take in that bright red. “Y/N… I’ve never had a red string around my pinky, for as long as I could remember, but! I… I can’t imagine a better person to be with than you!” He held up an end of the now untied scarf to you. “Maybe, because I’m not human, my red string is different, more physical, tangible, and because of that I get to choose my soulmate! So, would you…” He couldn’t even finish his sentence, that blush spreading across his cheeks again seeing you wrap the scarf end around your neck. “Don’t mind me, go on.” “… Thank you.” “No, thank you. I like this idea, of choosing my soulmate.”

Epilogue:

It was late into the night when the fireworks display ended and even later when Kiibo had returned to Hope’s Peak, having walked you home, and slowly walking to school, texting you constant updates that he was alright and not freezing again. Upon entering his dorm room Kiibo immediately leaped onto his bed, rolling around giddily giggling. “So when’s the weddi-” “AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” Kiibo chucked the pillows and blankets at the voice before he could even stop himself. “Gee, what a great way to greet your dad.” “I’m so sorry! Are you alright!? Did I hurt you!?” With an exaggerated sigh Idabashi got up and dumped the quilt and sheets in a heap back on the bed. “I’m fine, but we still have that checkup, remember?” Getting no response he looked to confusion at Kiibo, who was lightly blushing and softly smiling holding one of his hands close to his chest, looking at his pinky.

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simply-zhouye · 4 years ago

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Entering the rivers and lakes for the first time, brutal heart丨Interview with Zhou Ye

Zhou Ye’s first full length interview with Sohu’s 骨朵星番 Gu Duo Xing Fan is out! She talks about her character Gu Xiang in-depth, working with her costars Gong Jun plus how she’s handling netizens feedback about her acting. [Rough translation] Spoilers ahead for her character’s history & future ~

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/fQphUwOd9ATrIV8QXXv6DQ #山河令 #wordofhonor

"Savage Sniper Little Witch", Zhou Ye replaced with this as her Weibo signature when "Shanhe Ling" was broadcasted.

This is Gu Xiang’s character in the play. She and "Please call me Philanthropist Wen" Wen Kexing, "Chief Editor 裸辞事业 " Zhou Zishu, and "Optimism Researcher" Cao Weining and other actors collectively entertained and opened a happy atmosphere. Overflowing the screen.

However, the little witch Gu Xiang is a somewhat tragic character. Her destiny and feelings affect the hearts of the audience, so that when netizens find clues from the screenwriter that Gu Xiang and Cao Weining may be happy ending for the CP pair, celebrating in advance, it can be seen how attractive this girl in purple clothes and holding a long whip is, and she likes it to the point that "the audience has already begun to feel unhappy before saying goodbye."

This is not unexpected. Quite a few actors in the world leave some mark in the audience’s brains and hearts when they “pass”, deep or shallow. Those spiritual marks are often called “impressions”, and Zhou Ye’s especially, the scratches she left on people are deeper.

This may be due to the characteristics of her character, clear loves and hates, or complex and multi-faceted, or from her pure and awe-inspiring face under the lens, which is unforgettable, but it is certain that people have seen it in Zhou Ye. Something, what is that thing?

When we don’t know how to explain the “goodness” of an actor, we often add the word talent to it, but Zhou Ye doesn’t think she belongs to this type of actor. She said, “I think I’m a little bit of an acquired taste.”

01 First entry into the arena

This is Zhou Ye's first time filming a costume drama.

Some people say that there are "walls" between ancient costume dramas and modern dramas, and the moment Zhou Ye decided to take over the role in "Shanhe Ling" was the beginning of Zhou Ye's breaking of the wall.

"When I read the script, I thought it was a very good story. It told a series of stories from the rivers and lakes at the time, including the fact that I actually liked the role of Gu Xiang. She was eccentric, dare to love and hate, and had her own shining point."

Zhou Ye's love for "Shanhe Ling" is beyond words. A few hours before the show went live, she wrote a small essay on Weibo to interpret the Gu Xiang in her eyes. In an interview with Gu Duo, Zhou Ye missed that unforgettable environment. "It’s actually very happy to be on the shooting scene. Gong Jun sings in the dressing room every day , and everyone often chats together."

More under cut. Spoilers ahead.

However, playing Gu Xiang is not without pressure. For the first time in ancient costumes, Zhou Ye didn't know what kind of state the costumes should be, and she didn't know if she could play this role well.

"She has a miserable life experience. She had no parents since she was a child, and was later taken in by Wen Kexing. Although A-Xiang is from Guigu (Ghost Valley), she is not bad in the full sense. She has some things from Guigu, but she is very naive. For example, she has rescued two people, the first time was to rescue two girls from the hands of the jealous ghost, the second time was to save the singing girl when she met Cao Weining in a tavern.

When Gu Xiang saved people for the first time, Wen Kexing mentioned that the dog she raised when she was a child was stewed and eaten, and she cried for three full months, as a reminder: If saving people is irresponsible to the end, It's better to give it a pass.

"Gu Xiang agreed, because she is particularly eager to have companions and sisters. The multi-faceted character of Gu Xiang is very attractive to me."

In the play, Gu Xiang followed Wen Kexing from Guigu to the "world". She felt that the people she met after leaving Guigu were stupid, but she also said that "Wen Kexing next to Zhou Zishu feels is like a person." However, the "different paths between people and ghosts" laid the tragic tone for the master and servant to walk through the world, just like the implied meaning of the names of Wen Kexing and Gu Xiang, "the hometown of mourning for the guest."

In Zhou Ye's eyes, Gu Xiang and Wen Kexing have a feeling of being dependent on each other.

"Wen Kexing is like her brother and her father, because Gu Xiang was saved by Wen Kexing since childhood, so her broken mouth and her violent temper were actually learned from Wen Kexing. The guest line said, "Gu Xiang is the only living thing around him."

When Zhou Ye talked about the relationship between Gu Xiang and Wen Kexing, she seemed to have re-entered the role, and everything was vividly visible.

02 "The people I play are not very like me"

"Have you seen the eyes of wild animals?" When the policeman played by Yin Fang uttered this line to Wei Lai, a bullying girl played by Zhou Ye, in "Better Days", Wei Lai's eyes were pure and chilling.

That was the first time Zhou Ye entered the public eye. With her outstanding performance in this film, Zhou Ye was nominated for the 33rd Chinese Film Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actress, and also received a lot of support from netizens. "Sister Wei in society, there are not many people who are ruthless", "This damn bad woman is so sweet" , there is no lack of pampering in the words.

Actors who have portrayed villains often have an annoyance, that is, if they act well, the audience will hate the actor if they are too deep into the play, and it will be difficult to transform in a short time. But for the newcomer Zhou Ye, the audience is uncharacteristically "double standard". They are afraid of Wei Lai, but like Zhou Ye.

As a newcomer actor who has just entered the industry, Zhou Ye admitted that when facing the camera, she was actually a bit "fearful". Whether it was when the director shouted at the beginning or when working with seniors, she would be a little nervous, but she couldn't take this fear away. Show it.

"Because Wei Lai herself is an aura and relatively calm person, so of course the Wei Lai you look like will not show your fearful side in front of your eyes."

"Then are you a calm person?"

"I am more in line with the stubbornness of the Taurus. I am more stubborn. Calmness still depends on the situation. I am not particularly calm." Zhou Ye paused for a while and continued, "It seems that my role is not very close to myself. Wei Lai is very close to me unlike Gu Xiang. She is a little girl who has lived in a particularly bad environment since she was a child. Lin Huajun of "Our Southwest Associated University" is a schoolmaster, but she is a talented girl from Peking University, and Tang Susu in "Ah Cradle" in fact, is not too different from Gu Xiang’s character."

The reporter tried to get Zhou Ye to summarize herself in four words. She only thought of two words- "stubborn and delicious", and then she added herself in the eyes of the staff, "They said I was hardworking and well-behaved." It's too early for a girl who is new to campus to analyze herself. It is far from the time to analyze and summarize. Everything has just begun.

Last week, she just graduated from the Beijing Film Academy. She spent six yuan to get the graduation certificate photo and happily shared the joy of "saving money" with netizens.

"At that time, it was a rather unexpected result to be admitted to the film school. Later, when I was in school, I found acting was more and more interesting, and then I embarked on this road. I didn't really have a long experience as an actor. I started an internship when I was almost a senior. I took the stage slowly, and didn't make many films."

03 The life she loves and understands

Regarding "professionalism", Zhou Ye expressed that he is a person who "takes one step at a time and sees another step."

Although she is not the main protagonist in the broadcast of "Youth in the Young / Better Days" and "Shanhe Ling / Word of Honor", she feels that "the protagonist and the supporting role are no different, they are all a role, and each role will have its own shining point. With her own story, I will definitely play a supporting role in the future. If I have to have any small goals, it is to play every role well.” Zhou Ye seriously emphasized the matter of “playing every role well”.

"Then what do you think is the standard for acting well?"

"Then it depends on the reactions of the seniors who filmed with me, the feedback from the director, and the feedback from the audience."

When "Shanhe Ling" first aired, some viewers responded that they were not comfortable with the "not cold" Zhou Ye played by Gu Xiang, but now they love this role more and more.

"I pay attention to the audience's evaluation and criticism. I think their feedback is reasonable and I will accept it with a humility. As for Wei Lai and Gu Xiang, in fact, each character must be different. I will try a variety of roles and let everyone see a different me ."

This year Zhou Ye is only 23 years old. When answering the question, the tone was a bit childish, but the words spoken were surprisingly peaceful, with a natural sense of transparency.

She said, "I don't mind the comparison. I think everyone has their own choice. I can't interfere with other people's ideas, so I don't mind what they say. Everyone has the right to express their preferences."

As for the audience who likes her, Zhou Ye said: “Thank you very much to them for liking me so much. I want to make a good film and reward them with more good film and television works. I can’t let them down. In fact, some of the films I’ve filmed have not been broadcast yet. I especially want to see how I am in a different state in different scenes."

During the epidemic, Zhou was not very anxious. She read books at home, played with slimes, and chatted with her mother.

"Because all the work at that time was pushed back, it was actually quite good, and I could rest at home for a period of time." Zhou Ye entered busy work after the rest.

"The pace of work is actually good now, because you have to adapt if you don't adapt. You are a worker, of course you have to adapt to your job ."

The wish of "Playing Workers" Zhou Ye this year is to take a driver's license, and like all southerners, Chongqing Girls, Zhou Ye also has an obsession-"skiing".

“I didn’t go skiing when I was in college in Beijing. Now I graduated, and I’m filming in other places every day, skiing is even more impossible. In my impression, I haven’t skied before, but my mother told me that when I was very young, I didn’t go skiing. I went to the Fairy Mountain in Chongqing once and glided there once, but I don’t remember."

"If you were say a few words to your future self, what do you want to say?"

"Filming every day, staying up all night every day, you have to protect your body, and then protect your hair."

However, Zhou Ye told Gu Duo that he has not yet begun to pay attention to health preservation.

"Because young and capricious."

#zhou ye #word of honor #gu xiang #cdrama #wei lai #sohu interview #周也 #better days #shan he ling

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thekillerssluts · 4 years ago

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Will Butler explains how his Harvard degree developed into his second solo album

“Yeah, it’s terrifying,” Will Butler says, pondering how it feels to be releasing music away from the umbrella of Arcade Fire.

“It’s the classic thing about all writers,” he continues. “The creative process makes them wanna puke the whole time they’re writing something, then they read something back and it makes them feel worse, then a year later they read it and think ‘yeah, it’s okay’. It’s a glorious experience, but it really makes your stomach hurt.”

On the one hand Will Butler is well accustomed to this writing process, being a multi-instrumentalist in the Canadian indie-rock band fronted by brother Win - Arcade Fire. But on his own terms, it’s an entirely new process. Butler’s second solo album Generations arrives five years after his debut Policy, a collection that rattled with a ramshackle charm and what he describes now as a ‘consciously very unproduced’ sound. Arcade Fire wound down from their Everything Now tour in September 2018, leaving Butler with the last two years of playtime. Most musicians, particularly those accustomed to big album cycles, set aside their downtime for family or other musical projects. Somehow Butler’s managed to do both while also completing a masters degree in Public Policy at Harvard.

“I went to school for a variety of reasons but there was an artistic side to it too,” he says. “I have always tried to let music and lyrics emerge from the world that I’m in; you fertilise the soil and see what grows. It was a way to better understand where we are, how we got here and what's going on. You know, ‘where am I from? What's going to happen?’” Both of these questions explored in his degree are used as fuel for Generations.

It’s easy to imagine an album by somebody who’s just pursued a Public Policy MSt to form in reams of political commentary, probably set to an acoustic guitar. However, Butler instead engages character portraits soundtracked by a broad range of thrilling sonics. Opener “Outta Here” is shrouded by a monstrous bass that lurks beneath the depths of the instrumentation before bursting out midway through. “Got enough things on my plate without you talking about my salvation,” he screams.

While the cage-rattling “Bethlehem” is mania underpinned by a thrashing guitar and bubbling synths that help lift the track to boiling point.While there’s no current world leaders namechecked or any on-the-nose political commentary across the LP, the angst of its contents is instantly tangible, backed by the intellect of somebody who’s spent the past few years studying the ins and outs of government processes. A perfect combination, you could say.

This fuel was partly discovered through Butler reconnecting with the music that defined his teenage years: namely Bjork, The Clash and Eurythmics. While these influences certainly slip into frame across Generations, they were paired with something of an unlikely muse: “I got into this habit of listening to every single song on the Spotify Top 50 every six weeks,” Butler explains. “So many of them are horrible, terrifying and just awful but there’s something inspiring about how god damn avant garde the shittiest pop music is now. Just completely divorced from any sense of reality - it’s just layers upon layers upon layers - it’s amazing. It’s like Marcel Duchamp making a pop hit every single song.”

We turn from current music to current events. Navigating Covid-19 with his wife and three kids in their home of Brooklyn, a majority of 2020 has been caught up in family time for Butler. “The summer’s been easier because everybody’s outside, whereas in spring it was like ‘it’s family time because we have to lock our doors as there's a plague outside.’” While being surrounded by the trappings of lockdown since his second solo album Generations was completed in March, the album itself wriggles with the spirit of live instrumentation, which at this point seems like some sort of relic from a bygone era."I think eventually rediscovering this album back in the live setting would be amazing - we’re a really great live band, it’s a shame to not be in front of people."

The source of this energy can be traced back to the way the songs came together; they were forged and finessed at a series of shows in the early stages of the project. “It just raises the stakes. You can tell how good or how dumb a lyric is when you sing it in front of a hundred people,” he reflects. “It’s like ‘are you embarrassed because what you’re saying is true?’ or ‘is it just embarrassing?’ It’s a good refiner for that stuff. I think eventually rediscovering this album back in the live setting would be amazing - we’re a really great live band, it’s a shame to not be in front of people.”

Like his day job in Arcade Fire, Butler’s solo live group is something of a family affair - both his wife and sister-in-law feature in the band, alongside Broadway's West Side Story star, and the student of the legendary Fela Kuti drummer, Tony Allen. Together this eclectic mix of musicians conjures an infectious spirit through the raw combination of thundering synths and pedal-to-the-metal instrumentation; an apt concoction indeed for lyrics that are attempting to unhatch the bamboozling questions that surround our current times.

The timing for Butler’s decision to study Public Policy couldn’t have been more perfect, with his course starting in the Fall of 2016. “I was at Harvard for the election which was a really bizarre time to be in a government school, but it was great to be in a space for unpacking questions like ‘my god, how did we get here?!’” he reflects, with a note of mockery in the bright voice.

“I had a course taught by a professor named Leah Wright Rigueur. The class was essentially on race in America but with an eye towards policy. The class explored what was going to happen in terms of race under the next president. The second to last week was about Hilary Clinton and the last week was about Donald Trump. We read riot reports - Ferguson in 2015, Baltimore in 2016, the Detroit uprisings in the ‘60s and Chicago in 1919 - it's certainly helping me understand the last 5 years, you know. Just to be in that context was very lucky.”

As we’ve seen with statues being toppled, privileges being checked and lyrics of national anthems being interrogated in recent months, history is a complex, labyrinthine subject to navigate requiring both ruthless self-scrutiny and a commitment to the long-haul in order to correct things. The concept of Generations shoots from the same hip employing character portraits to engage in the broader picture.

The writing, at times, is beamed from a place of disconnect (“had enough of bad news / had enough of your generation”), from a place of conscious disengagement (“I’m not talking because I don’t feel like lying / if you stay silent you can walk on in silence”) and from a place of honest self-assessment (“I was born rich / three quarters protestant / connections at Harvard and a wonderful work ethic”).

“I’m rooted in history to a fault,” he says. “My great grandfather was the last son of a Mormon pioneer who’d gone West after being kicked out of America by mob violence. He wanted to be a musician which was crazy - he got 6 months in a conservatory in Chicago before his first child was born. He always felt like he could have been a genius, he could of been writing operas but he was teaching music in like tiny western towns and he had all these kids and he made them be a family band and they were driving around the American west before there were roads in the deserts - literally just driving through the desert! He would go to these small towns and get arrested for trying to skip bills and just live this wild existence.”

Butler’s grandma, meanwhile, was just a child at this point. She went on to become a jazz singer with her sisters and married the guitar player Alvino Rey. “The fact that me and my brother are musicians is no coincidence,” he smiles. “It’s not like I decided to be a musician, it’s down to decisions that were made at the end of the 19th century that have very clearly impacted where I am today. The musical side of it is very beautiful, it is super uncomplicated and a total joy to have a tradition of music in our family...but also in the American context - which is the only context I know - it's also these very thorny inheritances from the 19th century and beyond that influence why my life is like it is.

“For me it’s like, ‘I made my money because my grandpa was a small business owner’ or ‘my grandpa was a boat builder and got a pretty good contract in WW2 and was able to send his kids to college’. Both of which are so unpoetic and unromantic but it is an important thing to talk about, that's a personal political thing to talk about; there's horrifying and beautiful aspects there.”

The lament of “I’m gonna die in a hospital surrounded by strangers who keep saying they’re my kids” on “Not Gonna Die” could well be croaked by somebody on the tail end of a life lived on the American Dream. At times, Butler plays the characters off against each other, like on “Surrender,” which chronicles two flawed characters going back and forth played by Butler’s lead vocals and his female backing singers that undermine his memory; “I remember we were walking” is cut up with the shrug of “I dunno” and “maybe so”. “I found having the backing voices there gave me something to play with,” he explains. “Either something threatening to the main character or something affirming to the main character, just providing another point of view.”

Elsewhere, “I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know” explores the feeling of being unsuitably equipped to unravel the complexities that surrounds us day-to-day. “The basic emotion of that song is very much ‘I don’t know what I can do’ which is an emotion we all have,” he ponders. “There’s also the notion that follows that, like ‘maybe don’t even tell me what to do because it’s going to be too overwhelming to even do anything’.”

Some of these portraits materialised in the aftershows Butler began hosting while on Arcade Fire’s Everything Now tour which found him instigating conversations and talks by local councilman, politicians and activists on local issues. “On some of the good nights of the aftershow town halls, you’d feel that switch away from despair and into action,” he says smiling. “The step between despair and action is possible, that sentiment isn’t spelled out lyrically on the record but it’s definitely there spiritually.”

“I learned anew what a treasure it is to have people in a room. Getting humans in a room can be absurd. And we were having from 5,000 to 15,000 people in a room every night, most of them local. I’m very comfortable with art for art’s sake; I think art is super important and it’s great people can like music that's not political. It was sort of like ‘well we’re here and I know a lot of you are thinking about the world and you’re thinking about what a shit show everything is. You want to know what we can do and I also want to know what we can do!’ So I put on these after shows.”"The dream lineup would be to have a local activist and a local politician talking about a local issue because that’s the easiest way to make concrete change."

Butler would find a suitable location near the Arcade Fire gig through venue owners who were often connected to the local music and comedy scenes to host these events. “The dream lineup would be to have a local activist and a local politician talking about a local issue because that’s the easiest way to make concrete change. Arguably, the most important way is through the city council and state government. The New York state government is in Albany, New York. The shit that happens in Albany is all super important so I wanted to highlight that and equip people with some concrete levers to pull.

“In Tampa we had people who were organizing against felon disenfranchisement, like if you’ve been convicted of a felon you couldn’t vote in Florida, and something absurd like 22% of black men in Florida couldn’t vote and there were people organising to change that - this was in 2018 - and you could just see people being like ‘holy shit, I didn't even know this was happening!’

“These were not topics I’m an expert in - it’s like these are things that are happening. The thought was trying to engage, I’m sad to not be doing something similar this Fall, I mean what a time it would have been to go around America.”

Understandably the looming 2020 election is on Butler’s radar. “It doesn't feel good,” he sighs. “I’ve never had any ability to predict, like 2 weeks from now the world could be completely different from what it is today. There was always a one-in-a-billion chance of the apocalypse and now it's like a one-in-a-million chance which is a thousand times more likely but also unlikely. It’s going to be a real slog in the next couple of years on a policy side, like getting to a place where people don’t die for stupid reasons, I’m not even talking about the coronavirus necessarily just like policy in general. Who knows, it could be great but it seems like it's going to be a slog.”

There’s a moment on the closing track “Fine”, a stream-of-consciousness, Randy Newman-style saloon waltz, where Butler hits the nail on the head. “George [Washington], he turned to camera 3, he looked right at me and said...I know that freedom falters when it’s built with human hands”. It’s one of the many lyrical gems that surface throughout the record but one that chimes with an undeniable truth. It’s the same eloquence that breaks through as he touches on the broad ranging subjects in our conversation, always with a bright cadence despite the gloom that hangs over some of the topics.

The live show is without a doubt Arcade Fire’s bread and butter. While Butler questions how realistic the notion of getting people in packed rooms in the near future is, he reveals the group are making movements on LP6. “Arcade Fire is constantly thinking about things and demoing, it's hard to work across the internet but at some point we’ll get together. It probably won’t be much longer than our usual album cycle,” he says.

You only have to pick out one random Arcade Fire performance on YouTube to see Butler’s innate passion bursting out, whether it’s early performances that found him and Richard Reed Parry adorning motorbike helmets annihilating each other with drumsticks to the 1-2-3 beat of “Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)” or the roaring “woah-ohs” that ascend in the anthem of “Wake Up” every night on tour. It’s an energy that burns bright throughout our conversation and across Generations.

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/arcade-fires-will-butler-new-solo-record-generations

#Arcade Fire #generations #will butler #interview #hq

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jaybug-jabbers · 4 years ago

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Review: Pokemon Fusion Generation

If you are a fan of pokemon, it’s very likely you’ve visited the Pokemon Fusion Generator. This website became terribly popular because it can automatically ‘fuse’ any two pokemon that you select. The results are not always the most sophisticated fusions, but they are always wildly entertaining and occasionally come up with some truly cool-looking new creatures. There have been many artists inspired by these mash-ups, and people have drawn some truly gorgeous pokemon fusions. There is something almost endlessly entertaining about seeing these surprising variations on familiar faces.

Imagine my intrigue when I stumbled over a fan-made pokemon game titled “Pokemon Fusion Generation.” The screenshots I saw confirmed my suspicions. This was exactly what it said on the tin– a game filled with pokefusions that you could catch, collect, and battle with. I decided I had to download it and try it out.

But does “Pokemon Fusion Generation” live up to the hype? Was it just a gimmick that quickly grew dull, or was it a satisfying game? Read on to find out!

(Note: spoiler warnings for the plot of this game, but I try to be as spoiler-light as possible.)

This game is titled “Pokemon Fusion Generation” because it was intended as a fan-made sequel, a ‘generation’ that could be slotted in between gens 3 and 4. Made with RPG Game Maker and material from Pokemon’s Gen 3 as its base, the story takes place in the region of Kanto. In a lot of ways, the game feels like you are playing Pokemon Firered/Leafgreen, but there is a significant twist to the usual adventure we’ve all known since childhood.

The story begins with the protagonist, who is the current Champion of the Hoenn region. You have travelled to Kanto with the idea of trying out the gym challenge of that region, since you have already conqoured Hoenn’s challenges. Things begin rather typically, besides the fact you’re Hoenn’s Champion– you begin at Oak’s lab, meet with your rival (Brendan), grab a typical Kanto starter, pick up a new Pokedex and prepare for your new trip.

However, things quickly begin to change when we run into Bill just a little further up the path. There is a crowd and everyone is excited about one of Bill’s new inventions. He unveals it before the crowd, and announces the creation of pokemon fusions. The audience’s reaction varies. Some people are awed; some are incredibly excited and want some fusions of their own. However, one elder comments that the pokemon fusion is horrifying and an affront to nature. This causes Bill to hestitate and reconsider what it is that he’s created. He retreats to his house in Cerulean to think.

Once you pass through Viridian Forest and Pewter City and track Bill down again, it seems he’s had a change of heart. He decides it’s wrong to fuse pokemon, and he’s going to stop making and handing them out to people. Before he dismantles his machines, however, he decides to fuse one last pokemon to give to you. He offers to fuse your Kanto starter with an Eevee.

There’s someone sneaky afoot, however. A woman in disguise lures you and Bill out of Bill’s house, and that’s when their evil plan is hatched!

Bill’s entire house, fusion machines and all, is yanked from its foundations and carried off by a school of Zubats. It’s revealed that Team Magma and Team Aqua are behind these shenanigans, for reasons we have yet to learn. With the power of pokemon fusion creation in the hands of a nefarious team, we’re not simply going to be taking the Kanto gym challenge; we’ll be trying to track these hooligans down, too, and get to the bottom of things. As you travel throughout Kanto, you find that pokemon fusions have become quite the new craze, and you’re forced to contend with these strange new creatures.

That is the general set-up for this game. But is this a solid fan game worth playing?

The Fusions

Arguably, the heart and core of this game are the pokemon fusions, so it makes sense to judge those while trying to decide if this is a quality fan game.

The world of Kanto is not filled to the brim with fusions. You will not be encountering a new fusion every time you step into the tall grass or battle a trainer. Instead, these rare little prizes are only in the hands of a select few. The rest of Kanto’s population is quite normal. At first, I found this slightly disappointing, as I was expecting an overload of these freaks. However, I came to find that the rate at which you encountered fusion pokes was a nice balance. You didn’t run into them constantly, but you did see them– especially when encountering gym trainers, gym leaders, and team Aqua/Magma foes. It was always a nice surprise to see what new pokemon would pop up, and leaving the fusions to only special moments made the experience feel more exciting. Fusion pokemon were a fashionable trend, and anyone lucky enough to have one of the rare creatures was envied.

Among those lucky enough to own a fusion pokemon were the gym leaders. Each gym leader had added a new poke-fusion to their usual lineup, and one of the rewards for defeating the gym was that the gym leader would give their prized poke-fusion to you. In this way, you ended up slowly building an entire collection of the poke-fusions.

Now, you could not usally find these creatures in the wild. If you wanted to use a pokemon fusion on your team, generally your only choice was to make use of the prizes from your gym victories. Naturally, this leads to a very limited selection of pokemon to choose from. I can understand why some people would find this disappointing. If you happen to dislike the fusions you’re gifted, there’s not much you can do about it. It also severely injures the replayability of this game.

That said, I still enjoyed collecting my team of fusion pokemon. I won’t claim every single one was a fusion that I would have chosen, if I had a choice in the matter. But having that choice removed, I still found ways to appreciate the pokemon that I had. There is a certain satisfaction in figuring out how to use what you’ve been handed, a sort of Nuzlocke quality. Of course, I could have captured and used regular pokemon on my team, if I so desired, but I had decided from the start to use only fusion-pokes, as it was more interesting to me.

Also, I should mention your choices open up a little later into the game. In Fushia City, there are a handful of pokemon fusions who escape from Fushia’s Zoo, and scatter across the land. You can eventually track down and capture these special pokemon in the wild. Thus, you can eventually choose from a slightly wider selection.

What about the fusions themselves, though? Were they any good?

In terms of the sprites and the aesthetics of the pokemon, not all of them were particularly sophisticated merges. Sometimes it was little more than pasting the head and perhaps the tail of one pokemon onto another, with awkward results. If you are familiar with the Pokemon Fusion website, you’re probably rather acustomed to this sort of thing. That said, not all fusions were that way. In fact, the spriting for this game was very well done. Things usually looked clean and well-proportioned, and while some fusions were a little simplistic or awkward, most of them were thoughtfully created and were more complex mixtures. The choices of fusion were extremely off-the-wall, combinations that you would normally never dream of.

It seemed that the goal of these fusions, for the most part, was to make as wacky and silly a combination as possible. The stranger and wilder, the better. Many of them made me laugh and shake my head and wonder why anyone would choose to make that combination. However, occasionally I would run into a fusion that was a truly awesome-looking combination.

Take Girafiloom, for instance. This was a particularly lovely combination that I would love to own myself. Again, it’s kind of a shame we could not choose from a wider pool of fusion-pokes for our own use. However, it still was nice to see what everyone else had. The game has a very wide variety of fusions to encounter when entering into pokemon battles, and you keep encountering new ones at a very good clip. You’re never going to get bored meeting new ones, and the game kept me very amused and entertained with these creative combinations.

The pokemon’s movepools and typings were also fused, of course. In fact, a large part of the entertainment value of battling fusion pokemon was trying to decipher what sort of combination you were looking at, and thus what sort of moves and typing you could expect. It wasn’t always immediately apparant, especially when there were multiple ways to potentially fuse types. Sometimes, the choices this game made on typing confounded me. Why was my Suntank, a Sunflora/Miltank fusion, pure Grass instead of Grass/Normal? I’m not sure. But at any rate, these mixes made for an interesting battle, especially when the battle was a more dramatic one, such as the Elite Four.

The Plot

Now, if this game was nothing more than what I’ve described so far, it would already be a game worth playing. It has a very solid gimmick: collect and battle with pokemon fusions. If I just spent the whole time wandering Kanto and playing the same exact plot as FireRed/LeafGreen, but with fusion pokemon, it would have been enough to convince me to keep playing. It’s pretty charming.

However. This game has something else going for it besides the fusion pokemon. It has actual plot. Well written plot, at that. The story and all of the dialogue feel perfectly in-place in the Pokemon universe, which is something I deeply appreciate. The plot unfolds gradually with Team Aqua/Magma, with a pacing that also feels very much in-line with the official Pokemon games. It feeds you information a little bit at a time at just the right speed, keeping you interested in the story. As you travel and conquer gyms, you learn more about the fusion fad that’s sweeping Kanto and about the mysterious plans of your foes.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, but it includes teaming up with Janine to investigate some stolen zoo pokemon, a charming sidequest in Lavander Town’s catacombs that’s right up my alley, a mystery in Cinnabar Island that involves strange weather, and a very entertaining adventure on-board the Magnet Train. Perhaps my favorite part is the story of Ellie, a Team Magma member who becomes involved in the adventure in a unique way.

The truth is that Pokemon Fusion Generation’s plot is beautifully and thoughtfully done, and it changes this from a decent fan game to an excellent one. While this game does not feature a new region or new locations to explore or new music, the combination of the always-entertaining pokemon fusions with a top-notch story makes the game well worth playing.

The final conclusion of the plot with Team Aqua/Magma was a fun surprise, and I enjoyed it, even if it did leave a few lingering questions about Aqua/Magma’s motivations in my mind. Anyone who’s played Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire is sure to enjoy the ending.

The Team

Herawoodo (Brick Break/Strength/Megahorn/Rock Slide) - Rock/Bug

The first fusion I received, from Brock. While I was very sad to lose STAB on all the fighting moves that this pokemon could learn, adding a Rock typing to Heracross was a rather welcome addition, neutralizing his weaknesses to some common types. Rumble’s Rock Slide really packed a punch and he did a lot of work on this team.

Chareon (Dragon Claw/Flamethrower/Quick Attack/Earthquake) - Fire/Flying

The creation of this pokemon was unique. I had already been using my Charmander, the starter I received from Oak, for a fair bit of time. It was only when I reached Cerulean City and spoke with Bill that he then offered to fuse my Charmeleon with one of his Eevees. Around mid-game, Charlie was having difficulty pulling his weight on the team, limping by with the weak Ember and not much else. But then sometimes happened– he evolved, something I was not sure was possible until it happened. I was thrilled and gladly welcomed the stats boost. In the late-game, Charlie was an incredibly powerful ally, mowing down fellow fire-types and using Quick Attack to pick off almost-dead pokemon surprisingly often.

Wurmlord (Bug Bite/Waterfall/Ice Beam/Surf) - Water/Bug

This pokemon was gifted to me from Misty (who noted the pokemon fusion kind of creeped her out, anyway). Blobby was definitely the weakest link of my team; there’s no need to beat around the bush about it. With poor defenses and poor speed, the Wurmlord crumpled to just about anything before she could even get a shot off. Perhaps it’s not so surprising, considering its Wurmple half. Even her healthy HP stat was of little to help save her. That said, even poor Blobby had her moments of glory. When fighting Lance, she survived a Wing Attack and got an Ice Beam off on a dragon, so who knows? Perhaps she was vital to our victory after all.

Suntank (Body Slam/Petal Dance/Milk Drink/Giga Drain) - Grass

This … abomination was given to me by Erika, who told me I needed to love and cherish it. While its appearance horrifies me, I have to admit the Suntank was extremely hardy, powerful, and useful. In more than one of my important battles, it was Suntank that let me scrape by into a win. The bulky pokemon had redundant health recovery and thus was hard for my foes to kill, and its magnificent Petal Dance was truly a force to be reckoned with. The Thick Fat was especially nice and made Suntank even bulkier, even when faced with super-effective moves.

Chantabuzz (Ice Beam/Softboiled/Light Screen/Thunderbolt) - Electric

Lt. Surge was able to part with this fusion and gave it to me, although I was a bit skeptical of it at first. An electric Chansey? I gradually adjusted to using Orb, and it filled an important slot on my team in terms of coverage. That said, I think I never quite got the hand of using Orb. I don’t normally use Chansey, so the fact that all of its defenses are in its special was something I continuosly forgot. That’s probably why poor Orb fainted an awful lot, despite its massive HP– I kept tossing it in the way of physical attacks. Despite that issue, Orb did a lot of work on my team.

Skarbok (Steel Wing/Fly/Poison Jab/Toxic) - Poison/Steel

Skarbok is one of the more absurd-looking pokemon fusions. Koga will hand you this creature when you defeat him in Fuchsia City. Its typing is unique, and no current real pokemon possesses it. The Steel/Poison pokemon is resistant or immune to a wide range of attacks, and its healthy defenses keep it quite safe. As such, Corkscrew was very often a vital defensive wall on my team, shrugging off Outrages, avoiding poison, eating up ice beams, and many others. His Achilles’ Heel was Ground, something he was four times weak to, but if I was careful I could avoid throwing him into the range of an Earthquake. In terms of attack, Corkscrew never had a move with really high BP and STAB, so he couldn’t always hit hard enough. However, his Toxic + stalling with Fly was a handy tactic, and he could often outstall the competition.

Conclusion

This game is a hidden gem. While it may lack replayability, it’s so very worth that first playthrough. I deeply enjoyed the entire playthrough, from start to finish. If you’re willing to re-visit the region of Kanto and are looking for a quirky, highly entertaining jaunt into the world of pokemon fusions, definitely give this a try.

#pokemon #pokemon fan games #pokemon fusion generation #pokemon fusions #long post #pokemon reviews #mycontent

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aimlesscolumbine · 4 years ago

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whats your stance on columbine? to be more specific, how does the case affect you? as im sure youve been into it for a while, how was your outlook and how it affects you changed over time? have you became sort of desensitized to it? do you not normally get emotionally moved by the victims or the massacre but have your moments? and lastly, how do you think someone could get involved in terms of helping create awareness and remove stigma around school shootings, and things like that?

Once I finished my response to this, I realized it was pretty long (0.9k words!), so the rest will be below the cut.

My short answer for my stance on Columbine is that it was preventable had E&D gotten the help they needed for their evident mental health issues and their internalized ostracization from their peers.

However, the longer answer is much more intricate and complex, and we could work to our wit's end to figure out what could have happened and what should have been done. It's probably the reason why people still look into this case and many others. The hypotheticals are endless; ultimately, we will never have an explanation.

My initial stance was that of anyone beginning their research into Columbine: one was a psychopath, one was depressed. Call it the Cullen approach (footnote, I've read that awful book, hours I'll never have back). However, I could tell Dylan was not some saint Cullen and others paint him out to be. Anyone with common sense can tell he too had violent fantasies. His disposition was different than Eric, but he also took up a gun and enjoyed killing innocent kids, didn't he?

I don't blame people for deviating more towards Dylan: we have more insight into his life, he expressed a variety of emotions that appeal to the angsty crowd that most of us enter the Columbine scene are part of, and he comes across as more "human" to people. However, I was much more interested in Eric. Reading through the lines of his angry, tryhard rants - he was pathetic. He wanted to build this tough-guy persona, make everyone afraid of him. He was nothing more than a coward with a gun. One of the most interesting things about Columbine to me is how he caused so much pain and destruction as Reb and felt empowered by this persona he made, but in his last moments when he wandering around aimlessly, he realized he was nothing more than Eric. His weaknesses defeated him at the end.

Yup, I've gotten pretty desensitized to it. I think I've always had a pretty good tolerance for violence and evil stuff like this. My very first TCC experience was reading about 9/11 when I was only 9. I still do, it's a reoccurring hobby since information is abundant, you can never see the end of it. Researching 9/11 from an early age is partly the reason why I'm pretty interested in history and politics to this day, even if it has nothing to do with my future line of work (STEM), haha.

At times, when I think about the victims, I do feel down. Life is a very strange concept and takes forever to understand, sometimes you never do at all. Yet, life can be taken away in a second, no remorse, no second chances. I've had a personal experience with losing someone too soon and without explanation. However, I don't internalize heavy feelings unless they're my own experiences and trauma, so I can't say I'm very emotionally attached to these victims. People die all the time, from natural causes, murder, genocide, starvation, incurable diseases, and so on. Neither you and I can do anything about it, so I brush it off for my own sake.

I hope the families of the victims can cherish the happy moments they had with their loved ones. Life is nothing more but a collection of fleeting moments, I hope each of the victims experienced all they could have in their short-lived lives.

The number one thing schools should do right now is train teachers with more mental health awareness and de-escalation skills. I understand the job of a teacher is already very difficult as is, but being able to pinpoint even the slightest hints something is off could potentially save so many lives. When the parents aren't bothered/don't have the time or knowledge to help their children, the next trusted adults should be able to help.

Also, one thing I've always thought about is the implementation of mandatory mental health classes at school. Why do we not learn important information like signs of mental distress, previously mentioned de-escalation skills, and disability awareness? Even in the era of the internet, most people don't care enough to seek out information like this by themselves, so there should be a mandate where we all receive some level of knowledge. That's what school is for in the first place: creating a baseline of general knowledge. The current programs for these issues are tacky, grossly incompetent, and exclusionary. If it were up to me, I would remodel the entire education system from the bottom up.

My last thought is: be kind. A simple gesture of kindness can do wonders for others. At the lowest points in my mental health journey, I wish someone was there to just pat me on the back for surviving another day. Once I started to cope better, I did my best to be there for others. You don't have to be a selfless hero. A simple "hi," or listening to someone when they're passionate about something, remembering someone's favorite drink at a place, simple actions can leave lasting impressions in someone's mind. Many of these misguided perpetrators may have been stopped if they realized they could have been better and achieved more than what they thought they did.

Thank you for the ask!

#tcc #columbine #eric harris #dylan klebold #anon #ask #ac-speaks #long post

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ryqoshay · 4 years ago

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Tri-Arame: Ne, Wanna Bite?

Primary Pairing Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Words: ~1.8k Rating: G Time Frame: During their 2nd year in high school Story Arc: Stand Alone

Author’s Note: One of my favorite tropes is, and will likely remain, the sharing of food among couples. I’ve included it a handful of times in HL and am pretty sure I’ve done so over in HtHaN as well. If not, I guess I’ll just have to add a scene like that to the queue... though I suppose even if I have, it’s still as good an excuse as any to write more NicoMaki.

In any case, both SIFAS and the Niji anime depict Ayumu and Yuu casually trading bites as if they do so every day, and they probably do, but what might an observer think?

Also, I’ve seen Koppe Pan translated as either bread or buns, so I’ve used at least the latter as an occasional alternate noun for the food, but the actual name is just too fun to say that I couldn’t leave it out entirely.

“Ne, Setsuna-chan!” Yuu called, approaching her friend with Ayumu in tow, holding hands, as per usual. Ever the classic childhood couple. Practice had ended for the day and everyone was slowly filtering out of the clubroom. “Ayumu and I are heading to the mall to do some shopping, wanna come with us?”

“Very much so.” Setsuna confirmed with nod and a smile. “I was actually going there myself because the latest issue has been released for one of my favorite doujinshi series.”

Yuu grinned. “I know, that’s the main reason we wanted to invite you. I’m getting a copy as well.”

“You are?” Setsuna blinked. “You know I would be happy to lend you my copies whenever you desire.”

“Yeah, but after you lent me the first book, I was so hooked, I wanted to add it to my collection as well. Also, if I have my own copy, I don’t have to wait for you to finish reading yours so I can borrow it. We can read it at the same time!”

“Also, it’s easier for me to borrow them.” Ayumu chimed in.

“You are reading it as well, Ayumu-san?” Setsuna felt her heart start to pound with excitement; not just one, but two friends with whom she could talk about the story.

Ayumu smiled somewhat sheepishly. “You and Yuu-chan looked so excited talking about it last time that I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It’s been forever since I last read manga, but I’m glad I did; it’s really good.”

“I know, right?” Setsuna felt like she could jump with joy.

“I’m not quite caught up with you two, though.” Ayumu admitted.

“Oh, what chapter have you reached?”

“42.”

Setsuna nodded. “Very well. No spoilers beyond that point. But what did you two think about the battle with Jhank?”

The three girls chatted away their journey to the mall, dissecting each character development, romantic interest and plot twist. There was a bit of a line at the store, but none of them minded as it gave them that much more time to talk. Setsuna found it was incredibly freeing to be able to talk openly about her interests with others who were similarly interested.

Setsuna had several enjoyable conversations with Kasumi about idols once they were able to reconcile the fact that they viewed them very differently, but that was about where their shared interests ended. Kanata had trouble staying awake and Emma, though a kind listener, had a hard time contributing when she wasn’t nearly as invested. She had established that Rina watched anime but hadn’t had as much opportunity to talk with the reclusive girl. Ai had expressed interest, though Setsuna suspected it was mainly a means to get closer to Rina. And Karin, though not necessarily disinterested, wasn’t particularly interested either, the same seemed to apply to Shizuku as well.

But Yuu and Ayumu, particularly the former, actively participated in the conversation. They were engaged with the topic and happy to let Setsuna gush about anything and everything. Even when she realized she had been the primary one talking for several minutes and would pause to apologize, one of them would dismiss it and encourage her to continue. It was a wonderful experience, to say the least.

“Ne, are either of you two hungry?” Ayumu asked as the trio left the bookstore.

“I could eat.” Yuu replied. “Shall we get our usual?”

“Sounds good. Do you want to join us, Setsuna-chan?”

“Yes, please, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not.”

“By the way, what is your usual?”

“Koppe Pan!” Yuu said with a smile.

Ah, that made sense. Setsuna remembered regularly seeing the couple eating a variety of the packaged sandwiches in the club room as snacks. And Kasumi had recently taken to providing the two with the results of her experiments as she honed her skills. Kopee Pan really was their usual.

Setsuna watched the other two as they discussed the menu; what they had tried already and what possible specials they looked forward to in the future. However, having never been to this food stand before herself, Setsuna ended up getting the first thing that looked like something she might like.

It must be nice, Setsuna thought to herself a few minutes later, to be so familiar with someone. What does a couple care about sharing indirect kisses in public? She sat in awe as Ayumu even commemorated the occasion by snapping a shot of herself taking a bite of Yuu’s bun. The often-embarrassed redhead didn’t even so much as blush when the twin-tailed girl wiped a bit of filling from her cheek before putting it in her own mouth. Cute. And a bit enviable.

“Ne, Setsuna-chan.” A sandwich entered her field of vision. “Wanna bite?”

“Thank you.” Setsuna responded, accepting the offer.

“Good, isn’t it?” Yuu grinned.

“Indeed.” Setsuna agreed after swallowing. She blinked upon seeing an expectant expression on the other girl’s face. “Oh, here.” She held out her own bun.

“You can also try some of mine if you like, Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu offered.

“Very well.”

Ayumu giggled. “Geez, you’re just like Yuu-chan.” She reached over to clear something from Setsuna’s cheek and ate it.

“Aww… I was just about to do that.” Yuu pouted.

“Oops, sorry.” Ayumu smiled and stuck out her tongue, looking nowhere near apologetic.

Huh, so Ayumu-san really can tease Yuu-san in return sometimes. Interesting.

The next thing Setsuna knew, Ayumu had slid closer to her and was holding her phone ready. Mimicking Yuu’s actions from a minute ago, Setsuna held up her bun while the other girl leaned down before snapping a shot, then taking a bite.

“Remember to send me those pics.” Yuu said.

“Of course.” Ayumu nodded.

“So, which one was best?” Yuu turned her attention to Setsuna. “Ayumu’s or mine?”

“That is a good question…” Setsuna pondered. “They were both good, however, Yuu-san yours was more like a dessert meant for after a meal while Ayumu-san’s was more like an appetizer to tide one over between meals. Thus, as we have not eaten dinner yet, Ayumu’s was more appropriate.”

Yuu blinked. “But which did you like more?”

“I thought I just explained?”

“She preferred mine, Yuu-chan.” Ayumu clarified. “And that earns her another bite.” She smiled as she held her sandwich out again, earning another pout from Yuu.

“Thank you.” Setsuna accepted again before smiling as Ayumu gave in and allowed Yuu another bite as well. “Although, to be perfectly honest, my own was my favorite of the three.” She admitted. “I thought it might be good because it looked just like the one Akane ordered in Episode 7 of…”

Yuu giggled.

“Eh?”

“That way of choosing what to order is very fitting of you, Setsuna-chan. I love it.”

“O-oh…”

“And sorry for interrupting, what anime was that from?”

And just like that, conversation returned to one of Setsuna’s greatest passions. Ayumu and Yuu expressed interest in the series and Yuu ended up suggesting that they watch it together that night. Unfortunately, as a test was coming up and hanging out at the mall all afternoon had already cut into her studying time, Setsuna had to decline. Thankfully, she was able to agree to a raincheck over the weekend. With that decision made, the three girls parted ways to head home for the evening.

Setsuna glanced at the clock. Her parents should be in bed by now and she should no longer have to worry about them walking in on her unexpectedly. With mounting anticipation, she scurried over to her school bag and retrieved the doujin she had purchased earlier that day.

Given her level of excitement, Yuu had likely already read the chapter as soon as she had arrived home. As such, Setsuna fully expected to be able to discuss things tomorrow with her, being careful of avoiding spoilers for Ayumu, of course.

As she lay down on her bed, memories of the day came back to her. It really had been a lot more fun going as a group instead of sneaking out on her own.

A smile came to Setsuna’s lips as the dark-winged angel’s antics in the story resulted in the light-winged angel becoming flustered and blushing adorably. The two made a cute couple even if they denied being one. They were so familiar with one another, using exclusive nicknames, bathing together, sharing a bed, sharing food…

Sharing food… Indirect kisses…

Wait…

If the doujin had been in color, Setsuna’s cheeks would have matched those of the light-wing angel’s from a few frames back. Back at the mall, she had shared indirect kisses with both Yuu and Ayumu without even realizing it. They had both behaved so naturally with her, just as they did among themselves, that she hadn’t even noticed until now.

Did they behave like that with everyone?

Setsuna scoured her memories of her time with them in the clubroom.

There was one time that Kasumi told them to stop flirting while using her Koppe Pan to do so. This had earned an amused laugh from Yuu and one of Ayumu’s signature blushes, though Setsuna wasn’t sure anyone at the table bought their denial.

But that was about it. As far as Setsuna could tell, the couple kept such things between themselves. Yuu was openly affectionate with just about everyone, but certain things seemed to be reserved for Ayumu. And now Setsuna… maybe?

Setsuna shook her head. She had to be missing something. There was no way… was there?

Yuu had said she loved her. Several times, in fact. But she had dropped the line about as casually as she did with others. There couldn’t possibly be any deeper meaning than that of a close friend or of a fan expressing their adoration for an idol, right? Certainly, that had to be the explanation.

And what of Ayumu? Setsuna had little doubt of the redhead’s feelings toward her childhood friend, which were a major contributor to why she believed the two were a couple. But did Yuu not reciprocate? Was that why Ayumu sometimes behaved the way she did? No, she was pretty sure the two were dating.

So how did any of that explain what happened? What did it mean? Did it even mean anything in the first place? For the life of her, Setsuna couldn’t figure out the situation.

But… if nothing else, Setsuna had to admit that she had liked it. A lot. That feeling of familiarity truly was enviable, especially now that she’d tasted it herself. Literally. Even if she hadn’t recognized it at the time. And she wanted more…

But was that alright? Certainly, such a trope need not apply strictly to romantic genres, right? One could be that familiar with someone while remaining platonic, right? The last thing Setsuna wanted to do was to drive a wedge between two who were so close. But it was at least alright to want to be closer to them, right?

She wanted to see them again. To hang out with them again. To discuss anime with them again. To eat Koppe Pan with them again.

Tomorrow. She would see them again tomorrow. And Yuu would want to talk about the doujin…

With that thought in mind, Setsuna returned her focus to the book in her hands.

Author's Note Continued in Followup Post

#YuuAyuSetsu #Takasaki Yuu #Yuki Setsuna #Uehara Ayumu #Tri-Arame #Love Live Nijigasaki #fanfic

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unproduciblesmackdown · 5 years ago

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hmm here’s me talking about su sort of lmao like i said i’m not here to be particularly scentamentle?? just say funney stories....and some opinions.....it’s really been a hot minute and i haven’t been making Long text posts about things so i can throw one out there even if it’s got no thesis statement

also like i said i just so happened to like, actually watch the first ep on actual tv when it actually premiered....all i super remember knowing about it beforehand was like “oh rebecca sugar getting her own series right on” and i was gonna check it out on that alone and then also i remember before it debuted there was an article about it in the wapo in the sort of “local”-ish section b/c it was like. hey this is based in uh yknow the dmv....delmarva area.....this whole Region.....and i (from nova and in nova at that time, and flipping thru the print wapo every day) was like haha. neat. also god damn it was 2013, hell of a year. i can tell you little about it b/c it was so crappy i just like did not bother much with things like “distinct memories” lmfao. great to have like, a weekly thing towards the end of that hot mess (november??? or smthing??) back when....god........it aired weekly.........anyways yeah i was pleasantly surprised from the start i don’t Get when people are like “can’t watch this in order :/ the first few eps don’t sell it well” like okay speak for yourself god dman....more on that later i’m sure lmfao. hot takes

my brother started watching it too just cuz he’s game for shit that way and i was keeping up with it. like i remember i thought cheeseburger backpack was extra fun and i think i showed him a rerun and i remember he thought it was funny lol the Raft Gag......and when i was watching tiger millionaire i kept For Real Laughing and he came over like what is going on.....and i think he was signed on from there........again pretty fun for it to be this weekly thing. also maybe i’m not here to be Sentamental but i was also like “oh no that Spoke to my feelings unexpected :(” during tiger millionaire when amethyst was all “you can’t let anyone make you feel like garbage” and “i only feel how i wanna feel” like guess who was in the early stages of “my self esteem is so crappy it’s starting to circle around into [trying to increase self esteem]”.........like i said hell of a time. though then that’d be 2014 by then i think?? still a hell of a time

started to get “i think i will draw the same character one million times” about it at some point in 2014 too lmfao......every instance of [me drawing the same shit one million times], which is the only way i ever draw anything, then like, benefits whatever i draw later cuz like. sure get some practice out of it. and even though like, it wasn’t quite as huge an Internet Thing as it was gonna get once i started to draw shit, it was already like, classic-me Kinda Niche to be like “hey gang who is going ham about the bored dumbass teens”....not so niche that there weren’t other people going “yeah i am” at any given time tho. and then we put our hands in the middle and go Yeah!! and jump up hsm style. it was also a great time for something Fun and (easier than marble hornets lol) to draw b/c. it simply was a good time for it.....struggling to draw shit back then even more than is like, usual. oh and also i forget but i had sort of Withdrawn from the mh fanbase b/c it got this whole influx of randos after fjsfdking the Video Game we all know the one and i was like. i am gonna.....sidle over here. nobody Likes to be in a fandom actually lmfao. and i mean even while su was getting to be A Whole Thing i was like. bro i am over here in the Donuts section and it is a little quieter and i use the tag sometimes but i’m all set, thanks. still the least Niche niche i’ve been in probably lmfao....see: the fact that probably still way most of my followers are here from su times even tho idk who’s even active still

also had a high time making some great Long Text Posts. i kind of always fail 2 grasp that even as much as my drawings that stuff leads to me actually getting to interact with people, b/c like, those text posts have me actually saying Words in them, which helps lmfao..........i think it’s like, these posts are probably Not That Fun for most people, but then for the people who Are like “oh sweet this is something that i actually want,” that’s obviously a helpful way to find a kindred spirit lmao.....like hey cool you already know i can’t shut up and am opinionated and obviously a lil much? fantastic let’s do this. plus idk it’s fun to Not Shut Up Actually. like, not the biggest deal. ppl can just Scroll Past. or not

speaking of “getting practice Not Shutting Up and Drawing Shit”.......hilarious when in late 2018 i find myself like. oh so you’re telling me this excellent character who is a self-sabotaging struggling-to-know-how-to-cope-with-shit-and-connect-with-others insecure af Teen is not appreciated / ignored / deemed Awful (and then ignored) by the majority of the fanbase?????? hahaha you don’t say....but No Problem. let me just talk about how this person has Complexity actually and is a lot more sympathetic than not and i hate all of you omg like do we have to do all of this ourselves lmfao........guess so, Fine

what am i talking about funny stories who is this funny to lmfao. okay no but okayyy what an experience when the island adventure preview came out and for like the next 4 days i did not experience depression lmao........i Jumped on the opportunity b/c it was like, early fall i wanna say??? i think sept?? 2014 and i was kinda mulling over going to gmx (which was this convention the Marble Hornets gang kept getting invited to & i’d been 2 twice b4 but missed the previous yr coz it was 2013 and i was way not thriving) and yeah jumped on the “depression / (as much) anxiety who???” superpower to Ask if it was cool if i went to a friend’s wedding in georgia for a weekend. there was no friend’s wedding in georgia. and then i went to gmx AND. ironically (not really im sure. idk what irony means and idc) gmx weekend ended up being the same weekend island adventure actually aired and when i left that morning (gmx being in nashville) my lil bro (getting up for school) was like GO GO and i actually made it in time to catch it in the hotel room but. they didn’t have the channel despite it being listed on the channel guide. i about flipped lmfao but i did see it later that weekend and flipped again. gmx was an a-okay time as well lmao that was the last time i made it

they may have never sold a licensed Lars S1 Green/Purple Snake Tee but look when i have this green racerback with a neat snake print & this necklace of purple quartz crystals and also when i was at gmx i bought this necklace with one (non purple, non actual crystals but plastic shaped like it / glossed) pendant In The Spirit Of It All and it gets compliments. anyways the point is. indirectly representing

speaking of crystals = lars i’d just like to reiterate that i’m always right. like sure i was like “look i don’t know how lars could have Crystal Magic in him but something is up with the fact he’s = pink magic flowers with crystals inside them Means Something.” i think it’s reasonable to Not have predicted he dies and gets revived w/ crystal magic that’s in him now. but that’s still a Win for realizing somethings up....tfw as early as like s2 times i’d be like “well the donuts gotta get involved in the center of adventure at Some point and also i Know it is important that steven is just lars’s rly annoying little brother and y/n do you think lars would die to protect him i think he would...” like. i didn’t wanna be That right :/

tfw me and my brother were watching rose’s scabbard while my mom was napping it out in the armchair and like silently Sharing A Look at the whole “she was beautiful” thing like. lol harold

i still don’t know how much of a Thing(tm) magfest is but as far as i can figure it it’s No Comic Con (like, thank god :| ) but still kind of a thing. anyways i learned of it cuz i saw there was gonna be a couple su panel thingies & i looked it up & we were less than an hour away and so it was like midnight but i ask my brother like hey wanna swing by this thing on this one friday. and he was like Sure. so i made it happen and he was 17 so we had to drag our dad to the bank to Notarize a form that he was allowed to be there accompanied by me. it was a big place and it also took us a while to find Registration or whatever and when we tried getting sandwiches later it cost like $7 each go figure. anyways but we were just there for the one Event & there was a room like filled with arcade games and a bunch of other consoles (also Retro though. like old computers n stuff) and they had Galaga, thank fucking god. we 2 playered that shit and wandered around and also 2 playered a game called toobin, which was funny. real gamers know.

when we were in the (pretty long) Line to get into the Panel, i actually like. spotted a then-mutual who i (was pretty sure i) recognized from her occasional selfie lol and who i guess had travelled all the way from the west coast for the weekend. when we were actually Seated she happened to be a couple rows back and both of us on the end of the aisle and i asked my brother if he could read her nametag (to verify lol) and i bopped over to have the cringe and fail exchange of “hey do you have a Tumblr” and then i was like “haha i’m milo i’m ummmwine” and she got up to hug me and then i had to scamper back to my seat cuz shit was starting lol

like my life was not changed by this event but we had fun and. the Hilarious story is that it was also partially a Q&A and i had a Q and my brother encouraged me by again whispering “go go” as soon as the first syllable was spoken implying Line up For Questions.....i was in like, the last idk, haaalf dozen or so ppl who made it to the mic? and look i knew i was gonna be asking a niche question that like 3 other people of the hundreds in the room would care about but So What. deal with it gang, let’s have some Variety. but i was still nervous. and when i’m nervous, i a) Have A Script and b) get even chattier. and right after the person Right In Front Of Me got their answer, i guess it was noticed that it was getting down to the wire so they were like “haha okay lightning round :)” and i was like NO.......GOD..........lmfao like too late im sorry i Can’t make it lightning round. i was muy anxious.....just that, again, hundreds of people there, i have the floor, nobody’s gonna Like my quastion......and they didn’t know the answer (which i figured was v possible lol) so i was like oh no sklfjd hope this entire room doesn’t hate me. i mean of course i didn’t care if they did too much but, Nerves....also im valid, but were the like half dozen people who asked prior to me about shit that would CLEARLY be too spoilery to answer valid????? no lmfao. cmon. that’s what’s Really cringe

well here we ffw a bit b/c Mid To Late 2015 is certainly a time for me and it doesn’t really make for an interesting story so just to tldr it lmao like, got some beautiful moral support from someone as i was makin a Lifestyle Change lol and continued to get beautiful moral support from that same person and i continue to benefit from it....You know who you are!!!! tyvvm....and it occurred to me that the reason i am where i physically am is via someone i met thru su-posting.......which is true of the You Know who you are person too, which is why i brought it up lmao

uhh god not as many Stories after that lol.....def got to engage in “i’m ___ i’m gonna [draw the same character i always draw] so i won’t be so ___” during interesting times lol. love that for me

tbh the uh. Wanted arc was truly one of the best Serial Arcs, just dramatic & solid af and also it’s lars time and for a second i go “god well at least maybe now ppl will acknowledge lars is a gr8 character” and then a second later i go “Oh No they’ll only say he’s a good character *Now*” and that’s exactly what happened lmfao but well we still got as much lars fanart as we ever got outside that couple weeks aftermath... l o l . . . i had to wait One Zillion Years for my little brother to catch up to this b/c. he was watching via hulu i think where like, a full season would come out a good while after the finale. seriously i think it took him almost 2 years. im like dammit lmfao this is What Matters dfslk....fond memories when hulu was free / no login req’d / shit would be available like the day after airing

uhhhHHH crazy how this show muscled through the weird scheduling change where it was like “no weekly eps Only Erratic Hiatuses”......ppl were so foolishly Into the first “5 eps in a row” release and i was like “no i don’t like this” and then a year later i was like “you see. You See.” rip

i think we can even ffw to sutm at that point lol....im like im in this for lars okay lmfao kinda Shrugggg @ things by this point lol like finale shminale. where’s he at. and i really wasn’t paying a world of attention to like, prior-to-release lore n announcements so i was just plunged into this chaos of like sorry???? excuse me?? of all the people in the world sarah stiles?????? lfsdj like noooo don’t show me these tweets lmfao......truly it’s fine i’m being Hilarious but it’s also very real that like, when i see things like “showtime(tm)” or “SHO” or “billions content” i’m just doused with Dread b/c i hate this series lmao i swear to christ. but it’s really Fine lmfao like. i was kinda “eh :/” to “yea this is alright” about the rest of it but spinel was The Highlight lmfao and having $50 to go ham on her animation was great but really the voice acting Made It.....like the entire takeaways was uh the other friends sequence and fuckin uhh this part. fuck it up ms. stiles........hit it out of the park..........cain was the first funny bitch and spinel was the second. that thought just came to me and i will not elaborate. call that a revelation. oh and also it was a relief cuz i was like “i s2g if this Antagonist is like, aquamarine-style annoying af....i will die” but No. spinel is annoying af in another way which is her rights and i don’t want to die about it lmfao. she’s good.......i don’t even resent the “how come whenever some rando shows up ready to literally kill everyone for no good reason, all of you are ready to be like ‘wow an icon’ and we can’t have 10% of that energy for the teen who’s kinda bitchy b/c he’s annoyed by life and crap???” thing b/c i mean, she had her whole Arc all at once and also is good enough for it i think. the nadir was when the one rando shows up for like One episode like “i Don’t want to kill everyone :3 syke >:)” and for some reason people were like “omg iconic. call them on their ‘don’t kill everyone’ bullshit” like lol i hate you guys

well i like lars’s [last outfit we see him in] and i feel like it only backs up the bi agenda. another epic gamer moment had been when it became a Popular Hc that lars is trans b/c he is lmao. and everyone was all “why is everyone sayign this why would you want him to be trans he sucks” like get good grandma!!!!!!!! it’s too late. well that’s the end of my post. me in 2014 being like “wow way to have something to keep up with b/c now i have to outlive it to get all the dnads content i guess” and here i am. but it’s almost April 2020 so. haha

hmm what’s a less ominous ending. oh shit another thing that was funny is i was like So about these Skull Plugs featured in this semi-official drawing of lars once and then horror club came out (fun b/c i like horror) and had the skull plugs for Real & they were glow in the dark. that was a big day for me even seeing the promos lmfao. except then i guess it was foreshadowing, so again i end this with Death. don’t we all

wait no lsfdjs What tf was matthew moy talking about “i like your hair.” dude dropping an i-guess cut line on us lmfao. alright alright im done

#not as long as i thought it'd be!!! i don't have many engaging stories to say lol and like i said. not here to get. sedimental #that unfortunate Lightning Round incident lmfao......rip my ass. it was fine i was just like. [screams inside]#god.......what a uhh six and a half years six and a half years are. s/o to. Lars #oh i never ''more on this later'''d that one point. what a tragedy right lmao. i was just like. ppl Can simply watch the eps in order tho...#a concept i was not into lmfao. ess em aitch. i was never here for Lore okay

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