#props to her being absolutely iconic

[laney-rockin]

Watching Mirror, Mirror for the first time is an experience that is so fucking hilarious and awesome.

Like the costumes for the mirror universe are so cool to look at and the fact that the og landing party is just in Kirk's quarters going "I wonder how alternate us is doing" and it cuts to Shatner screaming bloody murder as he's being dragged by red shirts.

Mirror!Kirk's threats are also so fucking funny because Spock is just so unbothered with this man that isn't his Jim. Like he knows this ain't his husband and therefore he does not give a fuck.

Shoutout to Kirk's look of horror when he realized that Spock would have to deal with evil versions of the landing party without him. Truly iconic homosexual behaviour.

[thexsilentxwordsmith]

Just a little something something for you guys...as a treat😈

When Simon's away for a while on deployment, it can get lonely. He's knows by the way your texting, when he gets the chance and can text, that you are missing him like crazy. You tell him how you can hardly wait till he returns, how your body is just aching for him something fierce.

And fuck his aching for yours too.

If he could hop on a plane, he would in an instant just to get back to you. Unfortunately, that's not something available to him at the moment.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing for him to do.

Simon knows his baby needs something to take the edge off, something to tide over that insatiable appetite for him until he can come home and fuck her proper the first chance he can get. You never asked for it, but he knew you wouldn't mind.

Ding

Your phone goes off. It's late, but youre no stranger to staying up well past dark; sometimes that was the only way you'd get a minute to talk to Simon when he was away across the world.

You check your phone. It's a text... a picture...

At first glance at the small icon on the lock screen, the image is kind of dark so you have to click on it to bring it up and when you do you nearly faint.

The caption reads: “Gotta be stealthy so they don't fuckin' catch me, but this one's for you sweetheart."

Simon is clearly propped up in his cot, his legs splayed open, shirt off. All that you can see is his thick torso with it's small speckling of light colored hair across his abs. The belt and zipper of his pants are completely undone and the waistband flung open. In one of his meaty hands he has a hold of his cock, already swollen with a little glistening at the top caught in the low light - most definitely a product from thinking of you.

You have to swallow to keep the spit from dribbling down out of the corner your mouth. Instantly you feel the heat rise in your cheeks, burning through your face as the blood pools there. It feels like you are going to pass out.

He's done it, he's taken your breath away in an instant.

Not even recovered from that glorious image your phone dings again, this time downloading something for a few seconds. Your heart pounds in your chest, your breath caught in your lungs, as you wait to see what he's done now.

Ding

It's downloaded. This time it's a video...about a minute long. Your shaky, excited finger instantly clicks play.

"Mmmm..." his breath groan hits your ears as the vision of him stroking his length plays across the screen. His voice in hushed, clearly trying to be as quiet as he can while still making sure you can hear his words. "Fuck darlin', I wish you were here... rather have that sweet little pussy 'round me than my hand."

You've stopped breathing, literally; you could hear a pin drop in the room. The video of his abdominal muscles contracting and releasing as he continues to stroke his cock is all you can focus on now. Looks like he's in the middle of things.

He groans again, his breathing getting faster. "Fuck, I miss ya luv. It's been hell not having ya near for this fuckin' long. Nearly rippin' a hole in my goddamn pants from being so fuckin hard. I swear... gonna absolutely wreck ya when I get back. Don't even bother wearing any panties cause they're gonna get shredded off ya. Nothin', and I mean fuckin' nothin' is gonna keep me from buryin' all this in ya the fuckin' second we're alone. I wanna make you cum so fuckin bad baby."

The video fades out amongst the sound of another low, gravely moan and your sanity is gone. Dear God you were a lucky one tonight. You have to take several minutes just to relearn how to function properly again so you can text him back.

Before you can do that your phone goes off once more.

Ding

One final message pops up on screen: "Think of me later when you cum, sweetheart..."

Oh, you would, you would. And maybe just to be nice...you'd send him something back too.

Part 2:

[naturesapphic]

Idk if u saw the interview of the hot chicken wings with billies but Can u write a fic with Billie and un doing this interview!! And like billie letting yn win bc she loves seeing yn happy! (I don’t know if u should do it with little yn or « big » yn so u decide!!!!)

Hot Ones: Versus

Billie eilish x fem!reader

Warnings: cussing, fluff, Billie being a little simp for her girl

Word count: 1,967

“You spin it baby. You’ve been wanting to.” Billie said with a teasing smile on her face. I leaned over to spin the hot sauce bottle and it lands on Billie. “You go first bils!” You said excitedly as Billie smiles at your cuteness. “Yep it’s my turn. Go ahead and hit me with it mamas.” Billie said confidently. “As a songwriter there’s a constant need to document your innermost thoughts and feelings. Read your last notes app entry out loud.” I ask and Billie smiles as she pulls her phone out of her baggy pants. “Ruh roh.” She sings out in a funny voice you love so much.

Billie starts to go through her phone and lets out her loud laugh that always makes you giggle. “Y’all it’s a quote from my dad.” Billie says and keeps laughing. “I was talking to my friend nat the other day and nat said you literally have the most beautiful eyes I’ve seen except for maybe your dad.” Billie explains and you agree with her. “Your mom has really beautiful eyes too.” You said and Billie agrees with you. “100%. Most beautiful eyes ever for two parents. Anyway I was telling my dad this and he goes your mom said I have bird eyes.” She said while sticking her pointed finger up making you laugh. “Then he said and that I look like a baby Dinosaur.” Billie giggles out and you kept laughing, almost losing your breath.

You looked over to see Maggie laughing and agreeing with Billie. Billie looked over and saw her mom agreeing and Billie points to her “she’s like yep. She’s like yeah.” Billie says as she looks back over to you. “Okay my turn!” Your girlfriend says excitedly as she picks up one of the cards and starts reading. “Can you guess one of the pet peeve’s Billie has of you.” She said out loud and you looked at her shocked. “I didn’t know you had pet peeves over me!” You said gasping dramatically as Billie looks around nervously. “Uhhh not really but there’s this one this you do that I absolutely hate and it’s because finneas does this too.” She explains and you immediately knew what she was talking about. “Me and finneas will put our feet up on stuff a lot.” You said and Billie nods as she giggles.

“A lot of the time finneas is barefoot while you usually have your socks on. Sometimes y’all will wear your gross shoes and have y’all’s feet up still.” Billie explained and went ahead and moved some of the food away so she could prop her feet up to show everyone how y’all do it. “And my face is like right there.” She laughs out and puts her feet down. It was now round two and it was your turn now to ask her another question. “In addition to being a Grammy award winning singer, you’re also a style icon. Rate these classic billie eilish fits on a scale of 1 to 10.” You read out and Billie groans as you gather the pictures together. “Jeez…” she mutters to herself.

“We’re gonna give that like a three.” She said about the camo outfit. “I had the idea, the idea was there. I had grey sweatpants on, I had a camouflage vest. It really doesn’t look good on though.” Billie explained and you gave her a pout. “I thought it looked amazing on you bils!” You said and Billie felt her cheeks heat up at your compliment. “This is cute!” You say as you pull up the next picture that was of Billie wearing a sailor moon outfit. “That was cute. I give it like a 7/8. All things anime is like the coolest shit ever. I feel like anytime I have a shirt that has any sort of anime character on it, it’s the coolest shirt I own.” Billie explains and you nod your head in agreement. You put up the next picture and the both of you ooh at it.

“This was a person whose shit did not stink.” Billie said while you gave her a confused look. “Well she thought her shit did not stink.” She corrected as you smiled at her. “I remember walking around this specific event being just like I am absolutely the sickest person in the world.” She said as she told the story of the photo. This time billie went over and picked up the next one which was her “assassin’s creed” outfit she wore. “Oh look it’s the assassin’s creed look!” You said while giggling. “It’s kind of hard. I feel like that’s an eight. This is so embarrassing.” She said as she looks around the room.

“Now it’s my turn to ask you. What’s the worst celebrity you’ve ever met?” Billie asked and you sat there quietly for a while, trying to think of an answer because you didn’t want to eat the hot wing. “I’m trying not to punch down.” You said not really thinking and Billie laughed. “Try not to punch down did you say?” She said confused. “Yeah I could punch way down.” You said giggling and the two of you laughed. You whined a bit as you couldn’t come up with an answer so you take a bite of your chicken wing. “Whew…that’s hot…but it’s really yummy. It’s probably because I’m hungry as fuck.” You said while wincing slightly. “Same.” Billie agreed as you picked up a card to ask her a question. “Couple test. I’m going to write down my answer and you have to guess my response. Guess wrong and eat a death wing.” You said dramatically.

“What is my favorite song of yours baby?” You ask and she makes a thinking face as she starts to write down her answer but then stops and then goes back to writing again. “Do you have it?” You asked and she nodded as she picks up her board and shows you her answer. “Nope that’s not it baby. But that one is one of my favs but it’s y/f/b/s (your favorite Billie song).” You replied and Billie lets out an ohhhhh. “That’s a great answer babygirl.” She says and you feel your cheeks become redder and it wasn’t because of the chicken. “I wanna eat a wing” Billie said in her baby voice she does and you coo at her. “Well you did get the answer wrong sooooo…take a biteee babyyy.” You said smiling as she gets excited to eat it.

She takes a decent bite and makes a mmm noise. “This is fire.” She says and you laugh loudly as she enjoys it. One of the people behind the camera asked if the spice was kicking in yet for her. “I think so. It’s getting a little hard to think.” Billie states and does a little smile and burps which makes you chuckle at her behavior. “You’ve never been shy about giving credit to your early musical influences. Now that your heroes have become your peers. Rank these artists from most to least talented.” You ask and gave her a shocked expression to which she matched that expression with you.

“Ooh….who?” She asked you and you grimaced at what you were about to say. “Tyler the creator, Lana del ray, childish Gambino, and Justin Bieber.” You said and Billie groaned. “Oh my God….most to least talented?” She asked and you nodded. “I don’t know if I can do it.” She said and laughed nervously. “Well baby eat a death wing im afraid.” You said and she grabbed her vegan wing. “It’s the lips that are the problem. The mouth and tongue is fine.” She said as she goes in and takes a bite on the top. You decided to eat one since you were starving and you regretted it. “Fuck! That’s so fucking hot…” you breathed out as you felt like you were gonna pass out. “You okay mamas? You can have milk or water if you want. It’s what it’s there for.” She said softly as she looks at you with worry.

“Yeah no I’m fine baby it’s okay. Let’s keep going.” You reassured her and she nodded. She picks up a card and it read a wild card and as soon as she said it a airhorn was blasted which made the two of you jump. Billie looked terrified and you started cackling at her face. “What the fuck dude!” You exclaimed and Billie shook her head in disbelief jokingly as she tries to read the card but was having trouble getting the words out. “It’s tradition around here to put a little extra on the last wing. You and your opponent can add an extra dab to your final wings now.” Billie read aloud and you groaned. Billie tied her hair back and took off her jacket while you took yours off and put your hair up as well. “What’s the question or challenge we have to do?” You ask as you just wanted to get this over with.

“Don’t smile at me. Challenge your partner to a compliment battle. First person to smile must eat a death wing.” She read and the both of you dreaded what was to come. “Baby this is so sad…” she said breathlessly. “Ummm…you have the most beautiful eyes mama…” she said and you kept your face neutral. “You are the most talented person I know.” You say to her and you saw her lips twitch up for a second but it never turned into a smile. “You are an incredible driver even though you drive fast as fuck.” You said and she holds in her giggles. “You are hot as fuck.” She said and you put your hand over your lips so you wouldn’t smile. “You always look good in the most bizarre clothing.” You said but you let out a laugh as did Billie.

“Well we both laughed so here we go but are you okay though princess?” Billie asked you as the two of you picked up a wing. “It can’t get any worse.” You replied and Billie shook her head laughing. “Oh but it totally can mama.” She warned and you took a deep breath. “I love ya.” Billie said and you said it back. The two of you ate pretty big bites and the two of your were dying by the end. It was clear that Billie had won since she didn’t drink anything but in her eyes you had won. She grabs the trophy and hands it to you while you looked at her in disbelief. “You deserve it mamas and plus I love you a whole bunch.” She said and you coo at her.

She leans over and tries to take a bite out of the fake wing and makes a disgusted face. “Oh my gosh…you didn’t even make that a little bit edible” she said as she pushes the trophy closer to you. “Baby what the fuck.” You laugh out and stand up as Billie stands up with you. You end the video with the two of you saying goodbye and that was that. Even though Billie could have gotten the trophy, there’s not one thing she wouldn’t give/do for her girl.

A/n: this took me so long to do so please like, comment, reblog everything lol thank you to the anon who requested this. I hope they enjoyed it and I hope the rest of y’all did too. Remember to stay hydrated and to rest! I love y’all!

[deconstructthesoup]

Personal Ranking of the Fantasy High Moms, From Worst to Best:

Arianwen Abernant: -19999/10. She's not as bad as Angwyn, since she's convinced herself she's a good mother, but her "I just want the best for you" shtick isn't any better, and the fact that she's ignorant about how horrible she is doesn't make up for years of neglect. And she also attempted to rope her daughters into raising a being of pure nightmares because she lost her status, so.

Donna Applebees: 0/10. Conservative, racist, judgmental, only loves her kids conditionally... you get the gist. Also, she's absolutely a Karen.

Hallariel Seacaster: 3/10. Yes, I know, she's a MILF, she's got such an iconic vibe, she's a badass with a sword, but none of that excuses years of being emotionally absent from your son's life. She's not a bad person, but she unfortunately doesn't know how to be a mom. Sorry, Hallariel. I wish I could rank you higher.

The Last Phoenix: 5/10. Bird. She's a bird. We don't know enough about her except for the fact that she is the last phoenix, she started out as a "haha Arthur Aguefort is a crazy motherfucker" gag, and she gave us the incredible gift that is Ayda. I cannot rank her fairly, but given that she is Ayda's mom, she goes on the list.

Roz Last-Name-Unknown: 6/10. Same deal with Gorbag---we don't know enough about her for me to properly rank her, but we do know that she was a teen mom, and she's made the choice to reconnect with her son and be in his life. Props for that.

Sandralynn Faeth: 7.5/10. I am ranking her realistically, but let it be known that I love her so much. She is such a beautiful example of a flawed person who consistently tries to be better, and even though she does relapse into old behaviors, she's still growing---and outside of the serial cheating (that is a response to trauma, by the way) and occasional lapses in social skills, she's a pretty damn good mom, all things considered.

Cathilda Ceili: 8/10. She's the parent that Fabian needed, even if he didn't always realize it. She's sweet, she's caring, and if anybody hurts her boy, she will fucking rock your shit. (Also, the reveal of Cathilda being an incredibly fearsome and ruthless pirate outside of Solace was one of my favorites.)

Wilma Thistlespring: 9/10. She's a caring and supportive mom who writes songs, is sex-positive, and loves her son! Again, she does need to recognize when she's embarrassing Gorgug, and she needs to recognize that he's gotta learn how to be angry, but still! We all love her!

Lydia Barkrock: 9.6/10. While she doesn't quite get the full score due to the fact that her son was briefly an ass, it clearly was not her fault, and from what we've seen of her, she is a fantastic mom. She's a badass disabled powerhouse who cooks incredible spreads and cares about her son and his friends a lot. I love her a lot. She's amazing.

Sklonda Gukgak: 10/10. She took that spot in her very first scene, where she poured water in her cereal so Riz could have milk in his, and she's been holding it up ever since. Despite the fact that she's constantly swamped with work, Sklonda is literally one of the best moms you could ever ask for. She deserves the world and it's a constant injustice that she's not getting it.

Bonus: Garthy O'Brien, while having transcended gender and therefore not being able to fit into either of the "mom/dad" rankings, is an 11/10 parent---not just to Ayda, but to everyone younger than them who they've essentially adopted. Words cannot express my adoration for this person.

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Anna Magnani (Rome Open City, Mamma Roma, The Rose Tattoo)—don't take my word for it, here are some of the things she was called during her career: "la lupa (the wolf) of Italian cinema," "passionate, fearless, and exciting," "the volcanic earth mother of all Italian cinema," "one of the most impressive actresses since Garbo," "Whenever Magnani laughs or cries (which is often), it's as if you've never seen anyone laugh or cry before: has laughter ever been so burstingly joyful or tears so shatteringly sad?" and maybe best of all, from Tennessee Williams, who wrote multiple roles specifically for her: "She is simply a rare being who seems to have about her a little lightning-shot cloud all her own...In a crowded room, she can sit perfectly motionless and silent and still you feel the atmospheric tension of her presence, its quiver and hum in the air like a live wire exposed, and a mood of Anna's is like the presence of royalty."

Rosemary Clooney (White Christmas)—Rosemary!!! Her singing voice is incredible, she looks stunning in everything she wears, she has this quiet gravitas on screen that I haven’t seen anywhere else!! She deserves to be known as a lot more than George Clooney’s Aunt (if anything, I think of him as Rosemary Clooney’s nephew who also went into the business). Also when she got older she had this amazing sexy raspy voice (which sadly was due to smoking a lot but doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s very very sexy)

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Anna Magnani:

An icon of post-war neorealist italian cinema - an unbelievably good actress. Also, the first non-english speaking actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress (in 1956)!

realness!! amid the typical hollywood pristine glamour anna magnani stuck out as sexy in a really real, grounded way. so much so that even shallow 40s hollywood allowed her to come over from italy to be in some high profile movies. an icon

She smoked, she drank, she didn't give a f-. Her acting was described as explosive, with a lot of emotions and drama and they called her a she-wolf. Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote The Rose Tattoo (1955) specifically for her to star in, a role for which she received an Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Italian – and first non-English speaking woman – to win an Oscar.

Rosemary:

Rosemary Clooney made very few movies, and built her career mostly as a singer--however, anyone who has ever seen her in White Christmas understands that this was Hollywood's loss, because she exudes glamour and charm and does a wonderful job acting it as well. She's gorgeous, she has a beautiful voice, she has one of those faces that the screen just loves, and she is, frankly, hot as hell.

An absolutely amazing singer and so stunning. Her performance in that black dress in White Christmas just takes my breath away every time. She's also George Clooney's aunt.

She was a very cool woman, who had a very hard life. She had severe mental health struggles throughout her life and left the stage for quite a while, but fought hard to make her career comeback later in life with a little timely help from good friend and frequent collaborator Bing Crosby. She also duetted with Marlene Dietrich early in her career

Okay so obviously she's more a singer than an actress, but she was still one of the best musical actresses of the era! They just didn't know what to do with her. She really wasn't a dancer at all, so you'll see most of the numbers in White Christmas she's got a convenient prop to sweep around. However, this ~weakness brought about a love story for the ages! Dante Di Paulo (you may know him as the mustachioed townie rival to the Pontipees in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) was hired to teach her to dance and they fell in love over rehearsals. Separated by filming schedules, Rosemary ended up marrying José Ferrer and breaking Dante's heart, but 20 years and two divorces from José later they met in traffic. Not about to miss her second chance, she honked her horn and yelled her phone number at him (talk about carpe diem). He moved in a couple of months later but they finally made it official in 1997 because "our grandchildren want us to get married". They were utterly devoted to each other and he was very much a Wife Guy.

when she. when she. 'love you didnt do right by me' from white christmas-

She was very funny and very civic-minded, she campaigned with RFK during his presidential run. She had a very close bond with her nephew (that George Clooney yes), he even had her songs on the playlist when he proposed to his wife! She didn't enjoy singing this song from White Christmas, as it wasn't quite in her range, but she's incredibly powerful and undoubtedly very hot in this scene (fun fact, oscar winner George Chakiris is one of her dancers here, before his big break!) -

[nemisuki]

A Simple Click

Gamer AU | Finding an outlet to cure her boredom was desperately needed, so much so that she downloads a game full of magic and chibi characters. But what happens when she stumbles across a certain blonde spamming her to join his guild? She takes the offer of course! Gaining a new way to level up, make friends and perhaps even love. 

᧔o᧓ || katsuki bakugo x f!reader, no manga spoilers, no nsfw, online meeting, bakusquad involved, 6.6k word count

The thought of playing multiplayer games has never crossed her mind. Y/N knew such gaming communities were toxic especially for females. So she strayed away from them and played solo for the most part. But recently as she was mindlessly scrolling through instagram, a gameplay caught her attention. 

The main reason was the unique way the characters looked. They were all chibi and absolutely adorable to her with different accessories and customizable features. The more she looked into this game, the more tempted she was to play. It was multiplayer but she couldn't imagine any toxic people playing this whatsoever. I mean, a chibi game? Yeah right. 

Y/N needed to find a cure to her boredom and her current free-play games weren't cutting it. Now on winter recess from highschool, she had three weeks living in the confines of her room with nothing to look forward to. It felt as if everyone she knew would be going out on travels, besides her. Her family was never one to do family vacations, usually spending the holidays at home. She was beyond bored. 

With not much convincing needed and an empty mind to distract, she went to her laptop and clicked on the app store. Installing the game and settling down at her desk located at the corner of her room. Despite watching a brief gameplay earlier, she wasn't used to these games or its mechanics. This would all be new to her. 

The app ‘Wispy Guilds’ soon popped up on the computer's home screen with a ding! 

Y/N clicks on the icon and loads up the game, not aware of the future chaos she brought into her life. Perhaps it was fate that brought her and a certain blonde together. And it all started with a simple click. 

The program opens and Y/N is welcomed into the opening screen of the app. Faced with a pretty scenery of what looks to be a mythical oasis, different shades of greens and blue filling her screen. It looks to be a forest with a castle-like building in the middle of the area. Little chibi characters walk in and out of the place, majority dressed as wizards and others as knights. While others occasionally wear funny costumes or props. 

Y/N clicks on the bubble letters displayed in the bottom of the screen ‘Create Account’. She types in all her necessary information but pauses when she sees the username section. 

“Aw man you have to pay to get a custom username! This sucks..” she sighs with a hint of disappointment. Her eyes lock on the small dice icon and she mumbles a plea beneath her breath as she hovers the cursor over it. 

“Please nothing too bad” she says as she clicks the icon to generate a random username. Her eyes darted to look at the result…. ‘StarHae’. 

“Oh you've gotta be kidding me! But it could be worse I guess” she whines with a small pout on her face. With that now out of the way, she clicks continue and goes to the next page. The character customization page pops up and Y/N gets right on it. 

Unfortunately there's not much options since she's only level one but she tries picking the cutest options. With no access to the higher level equipment, she decides to put on a starter black cape accompanied with a common level sword. Due to the lack of unlocked accessories, she settles with that and then clicks ‘Finish & Join’. 

Her screen turns into a small loading scene that resembles a portal, almost like she's being transported into another world. Then a few seconds later she is in the game. Her small chibi character spawns in what seems to be in the center of a town. Other chibi players roaming around and visiting merchants or chatting with other people. 

Y/N clicks on the W key on her keyboard to move forward to explore. Her avatar shifts left and right as it explores the town square. This place seems to be the lobby where everyone is able to spawn in and purchase items or trade. She looks around at the other players and notices they're all higher levels from her, as to be expected of course. An occasional low level player here and there is seen roaming around as she walks around the shops, but few are seen.

A bright yellow arrow appears on top of her screen seemingly leading her to this npc character under ‘Quests’. She follows it, her small avatar running towards the yellow area that's lit up to grab her attention. A small tab appears in the middle of the screen once she steps close enough to the character. The npc is an older man with white hair and a beard, a small beginner cape on his avatar. Y/N clicks on the tab and a tutorial quest appears on her screen. 

“Lets see….. Kill five wolves in the hunting grounds” she mumbles out loud to herself. She doesn't have a choice to exit the tab, so this must be required. She accepts her first mission and a few seconds later, another yellow arrow appears to lead her to the different area. Her avatar runs to the yellow circle near the grand fountain in the middle of the town square. And soon a loading screen appears on her screen for a brief moment as her character gets teleported toward the hunting grounds, a forest more specifically. 

A health bar appears and a small tutorial plays to show her the mechanics of the game. She clicks to take out her sword and runs along the path of the forest. The game was surprisingly good quality, she was so engrossed in the beauty of the forest that she was caught off guard on the ambush. A gray wolf suddenly appears running towards her and the game pauses. Text boxes and pointers pop up to teach Y/N some attacks she can use against her first opponent. 

After a moment of reading, she follows the instructions and moves around to find a good angle, then charging at the wolf. It attempts to claw at her but she clicks the ‘block’ button as instructed and avoids taking damage. Then clicking ‘strike’ as the tutorial orders and continuing her attacks. 

Soon the wolf's health bar reaches zero and its injured body disappears with a poof! 

Y/N smiles and continues following the tutorial as follows, slowly learning and understanding how to attack these beasts. Eventually she strikes the last wolf in the area and confetti appears on her screen. She completed her first mission and she even leveled up! 

“Hm, this game isn't so bad! Maybe I should do a few more quests to level up” she says as she teleports herself back to the lobby and walks back to the quests section. Her eyes land on a castle button on the right side of her screen that's locked. Her cursor hovers over it and it states ‘Guild’. She's never heard of that term, but it unlocks at level 15 so she’ll see eventually. 

(੭˃ᴗ˂)੭ time skip a few hours⋆｡𖦹 °✩

“This game is addicting” she mumbles to herself as she stares at her new level above her avatar's head. 

Level 15!

She should be heading to bed right now… yeah she should call it a night. 

Just as she's about to click log out, she sees the server chat icon wiggle at each new message. Usually it does once in a while when some players request to trade but not this frequently. It's moving like crazy like it wants her to open it. The universe won so out of curiosity, she clicks to open it and sees some players spamming the chat.

Author's note : I added the cuss words in between brackets so you all understand what Bakugo is originally typing. It's simply to help you know what the censored words are.  Ex : [curse words]  Anyways back to the story  ໒꒰ྀི ´๑  ̫๑`  ꒱ྀིა 

-Public Chat- 

Bakugo : someone join my guild.

Bakugo : cmon you extras I need one player.

Bakugo : oi you ##### [fucks]

Kirishima : bakugoooo don't be so rude and curse or you'll get banned again!

Bakugo : tch shush it, we just need one more extra to join so we can do the guild wars.

Kirishima : cmon man no one's gonna join if you ask like that! 

Bakugo : i shouldn't need 6 players max in my guild to do the war anyways

Bakugo : this is #### [shit]

Kirishima : hey bakubro come back! Don't be so mean!

-End of Public Chat- 

Y/N watches as the character with blonde hair and red eyes goes around to every high level person trying to force them to join his guild. He seems to be max level 100 and has the knight kit equipped, already giving her the impression that he is someone who prefers combat over healing or protecting. His chibi character runs around typing censored profanities to everyone who ignores or denies his request, it was a funny contrast.

A friend of his, a character with both red hair and eyes, follows him around apologizing to everyone for his friend's rudeness. He seems to be the nicer one of the two and clearly trying to calm the situation down. She could tell he equipped the animal shifter kit due to the red scales on his avatar, and like his friend he is a high level but of 95. Her curious mind wonders what animal he could turn into. Animal shifters are a rare kit and can transform into one animal with a lucky roll of the dice for it to be randomized. 

She doesn't have much more time to think as the blonde avatar starts moving over in the direction she is, near the quest station. His red haired friend trailing behind him like a puppy. Quickly she hides in the crowd of other players at the quests station, not wanting to be the blonde's next target. 

-Public Chat- 

Bakugo : one of you extras better join my guild

Kirishima : pretty please? We just need one member! 

Bakugo : all of these ####### [fuckers] are low level

Kirishima : Bakugo!

Kirishima : They are all new! Be nice! 

Bakugo : tch none can even join a clan anyways 

Bakugo : they are too low level

Kirishima : lets try a different server then?

Bakugo : tch we've been at this for a hour 

Bakugo : Oi someones high enough there

Bakugo : hey level 15 

Bakugo : join my guild. 

Kirishima : which one? 

Bakugo : that girl with the cape

Bakugo : hey you.

-End of Chat- 

Y/N reads the chat and whines under her breath, “I'm the highest level out of this small group of newbies… just my luck”. She tries to ignore them and moves her character to the side and walks to the fountain. Only to be followed by the chibi characters of the blonde and the red hair. 

“Damn they won't leave me alone…. But I don't even know what a guild is. I only just unlocked that feature” she mutters with a sigh as she runs around the map. The two characters follow her wherever she runs to. She could just leave but she IS curious about this whole guilds thing. So after much pestering by these two, specifically the blonde, she reluctantly types in chat. 

StarHae : no thank you..

Bakugo : so you do speak 

Bakugo : join my guild noob. 

Kirishima : Bakugo cmon! 

Kirishima : hi can i call u star :3

Y/N couldn't help but giggle at the dynamic between the two, finding it humorous that they're so different. They seem to be in the same guild, a symbol of an explosion above both of their heads confirms her thought. She reads the message from the red haired person and smiles, typing a response. 

StarHae : sure! hello kirishima :3

Kirishima : Just call me kiri! 

Bakugo : so you gonna join my guild or what 

StarHae : what is a guild? 

Bakugo : ugh just join and find out.

Kirishima : a guild is a team basically! 

Kirishima : we go on missions together and earn more prizes 

Kirishima : its better than playing solo and you level up faster!

Bakugo : just join my guild.

StarHae : um…

Kirishima : bakugo is the guild master and i'm his vice captain! 

Kirishima : please join us!

Kirishima : we need one more player so we can do the clan war 

StarHae : um…. whats a clan war? 

Bakugo : you have got to be kidding me.

Kirishima : ah basically all the guilds compete in challenges 

Kirishima : its sometimes quests but we fight with other guilds in matches sometimes

Kirishima : whoever wins gets 10k gold and rare items!!! 

Bakugo : tch this is taking forever 

Kirishima : bakugooo cmon have patience

Kirishima : if we get first then the guild gets popular and more people will join! 

Bakugo : tch we WILL win stupid. 

Kirishima : so will you join us star? 

Kirishima : you'll level up super quick with us! 

As Kirishima explains this all to her, Y/N thinks about this offer. It's not bad at all, and there seems to be advantages to being in a clan. Her level is so low compared to theirs, is it okay for her to just join them so easily? 

StarHae : are you sure you guys want me? 

StarHae : my level is only 15…

Bakugo : tch we know idiot just join or else

Kirishima : our clan has only 5 members 

Kirishima : and you need 6 minimum to participate! 

Kirishima : your level doesn't matter 

Kirishima : dont worry we will protect you!

Bakugo : speak for yourself shitty hair 

Bakugo : just click accept.

Kirishima : pretty please? 

Kirishima : we need a sixth member by today or registration closes!

Kirishima : star dont worry

Kirishima : we can teach you as we play :3 

Bakugo : -_-

After that explanation, a small tab opens on her screen, an invitation to join the guild ‘The Bakusquad’. Y/N looks as Kirishima runs around her avatar in circles trying to convince her, while Bakugo is busy spamming her mailbox with many invitations. She sighs in defeat, this was supposed to be just a calm game for her to play once a while but….. Click! 

Accepted Invitation : The Bakusquad

Y/N watches as the explosion guild emblem appears on her head, the three of them now having matching symbols. Kirishima's chibi avatar now jumping up and down in front of her, clearly happy. The guild button suddenly starts blinking in gold obviously wanting her to click on it. She does and sees she now has the option to teleport into the guilds HQ and have access to the guild chat room and quests. 

Bakugo : tch finally

Bakugo : ill sign us up for the guild war now

Kirishima : thank you star!

Kirishima : you totally saved us!!!!

Adam : can you guys leave now?!

Adam : your spamming the chat!!!! 

Elis : Yeah shush it!!!

Bakugo : HAHH 

Bakugo : FIGHT ME YOU EXTRAS

Kirishima : ah sorry guys ;( 

Y/N couldn't help but burst out laughing at the random messages and the way Kirishima's avatar was bowing in apologies to the random players. While Bakugo was spouting more profanities to the people who were typing in chat. At least this was entertaining, yet what has she gotten herself into….

✦ ⎯⎯ㅤִㅤ୭ ୨♡୧ ৎㅤִ  ⎯⎯ ✦

It's been around 2 weeks since Y/N has joined the guild and to her surprise she is having a blast. Unlike solo quests she can level up much quicker now, to prove it she’s currently level 40! Now she has the option to equip a kit which is very useful for the upcoming event, it unlocks new attacks and weapons available to use. 

“Hm… I think I want to be a mage. I'm not very good at close combat and no one in our guild is one yet. So I'll choose this! Plus I can help give my guild mates some boosts and protection spells!” she says happily with a smile as she makes her selection. She clicks on the mage option and squeals with excitement as she receives her new gear. An enchanted cloak with an adorable dress and boots. She even got a wizard hat and a wooden staff for her spells! 

Y/N didn't waste her money on outfits before, wanting to save it for the future. So this new look was certainly needed! Especially for this week.

It's gonna be the first time since the guild wars started that they'll be fighting another clan. Up til now they've just been completing clan quests like raiding dungeons. Soon it's gonna be her first fight against other players so she's more nervous than she expected. She doesn't want to let her new team down. 

Since she joined she has met all the other members of the guild. Kaminari, Sero and Mina! All of them are nice and often talk in the guild chat whenever they're online. Apparently they go to the same school and forced Bakugo to play with them. Hence why Bakugo is never online whenever clan stuff happens, only joining if 6 players are needed for a specific task. Then leaving right after whenever it finishes. He never turned on his mic either. He's a  complete mystery to her. 

The game offered voice chat for clan members so Y/N and the others often talk on there instead. At first she was hesitant, inserting herself into a new group that already knows each other. Yet she found herself enjoying her time in the presence of these people. She never thought this game would lead to new friends yet here they are. 

Soon the day of the first guild vs guild match came. 

Y/N starts up her computer and logs into the game, feeling a bit uneasy about the outcome of this match. If they lose then they won't be able to qualify for the next round. Thankfully she practiced with the rest of the guild beforehand to strengthen their teamwork skills. However not once has Bakugo joined them on their practice matches. She can only hope this won't cause a problem later on. 

She sees the other members already at HQ and chatting happily through the proximity voice chat they have activated. No nervousness at all detected in their tone. 

 “Ah Star you're here!” Kirishima says as his avatar runs over to her excitedly.

“Heyoooo, we're just waiting for Blasty to join in” Kaminari adds on with his usual hyper tone as he chases Sero around the table who shouts out a quick “Hey Star!” 

“There's my fellow gal! Was worried you wouldn't show up, girl! Thank you for not leaving me with these dummies” Mina says happily as she walks over to the group. 

“Sorry sorry but i'm here now” Y/N says softly with a smile to everyone as her eyes scan the guild room. And a few seconds later, Bakugos avatar teleports inside the room with fresh new battle gear. It looks both enchanted and incredibly rare. 

“Wow man! So this is what you've been doing while you were alone huh?” Sero says as everyone starts crowding around Bakugo to admire his armor. Bakugo says nothing back in voice chat as usual and simply types.

Bakugo : get away from me you damn extras

Bakugo : be ready

Bakugo : we start in 1 minute

Bakugo : don't die.

Everyone scrambles to equip their best armor and gear, it's complete chaos as everyone asks for extra supplies and potions. Y/N already was prepared beforehand so she calmly stands to the side and waits. She watches as Bakugos avatar approaches her and stands there almost observingly. Ah he hasn't joined in a while so he must've just now seen the new kit she equipped for the first time. 

Bakugo : You're a mage? 

Y/N reads the chat box and nervously types back, now seemingly too shy to speak through her mic. She hasn't spoken much to Bakugo in general but she wants to earn his approval. He's the guild master after all. But she can't help but to feel a bit intimidated by him.

StarHae : Yes I can offer support and do long distance attacks :3 

She watches as his avatar stares at her for a while, silently analyzing her new look and skills she presumes. It takes a while, so long that she wonders if he's gone AFK right in front of her after the message. Until she sees a short chat bubble appear in the corner. 

Bakugo : Good. 

A bright smile forms on her face at his message. Sure, it was short and blunt. But from Bakugo? She'll take this as a massive compliment. She watches as he quickly leaves her side to start the battle. From his message alone, she feels motivated to do her best. Hopefully they will. 

It was now time for the guild battle to start. Once Bakugo made sure everyone was prepared, all 6 of them got teleported in front of their castle HQ. The building seemingly teleported onto the battlefield in the middle of a forest. 

“Let's do this!” “Yeah, let's go!” “Just follow bakubro!” “On it!’ 

The group of 6 slowly walk through the woods, cautious of any potential traps or ambushes from the other guild. It's 3 rounds in total without a chance to respawn til a new round starts. 1 life each round. The other guild must be doing the same thing, sneaking around the forest trying to find us. 

“A forest huh” a deeper voice echoed through her headphones, so rough yet smooth that it made her jump a little. Huh? 

“Finally using voice chat huh Bakubro?” Kirishima responds eagerly as he chuckles at the end. You can basically hear the smile on his face from just his voice. 

“Tch shut it shitty hair. Can't type while we're fucking fighting against another guild” Bakugo responds with a small scoff. The others snicker through the mic making Bakugo grunt in response.

“Oi Star, get over here to the front” he says in a somewhat commanding tone. 

His voice…. It's the first time she's ever heard it. She didn't expect that at all. Its deep but nice to hear-

“Oi! Mage! You have ears don't you?” he huffs out seeming to already be annoyed. Ah so he DOES talk in the same way he types. Guess that answers the question she's had for weeks. 

“O-Oh! Yes yes! Sorry i'm going” she says quickly as her head shakes to stop her daydreaming. Her cheeks feel warm to the touch from embarrassment and she's forever thankful this game doesn't have a webcam feature. Or she might really die from shame. 

Her small character quickly runs to get behind Bakugo who's currently leading the group. His avatar looks back at her for a moment then forward again. Clearing leaves and making a path for the group. 

“So that's how you sound like huh” he mumbles almost incoherently through the mic. It makes her heart skip a beat oddly. God what's wrong with her. Getting flustered over a voice when she doesn't even know what he looks like. And what does he mean by that? 

“Oh yeah! You're rarely online so you've never properly had a conversation with Star huh?” Kaminari says as he skips along following the group. 

Bakugo simply grunts in acknowledgement, “Hey Mage. I don't know what training you've done with these extras but just stay out of my way okay? And get ready to use buff enhancement spells on me” he orders out to her.  

Sero sighs at his friend's snappy remark, “Don't mind him Star, he's always like that. Just do your best, we got your back”.  

“Mhm… I know… I'll try-” she says but quickly gets cut off when shots are fired towards the group from the other side of the forest. 

The rounds have begun. 

It didn't take a genius to predict the Bakusquad would easily take the first round. When Y/N watched Bakugo run into the open battlefield attacking with no mercy, she knew he was a force to be reckoned with. She was in a trance as he sent out orders to the rest of them, giving them better positioning to win this. He was amazing, too good. 

So much as when the second round approached, the other guild changed tactics and decided to focus solely on Bakugo. Sending all their attacks at him at once, to which Bakugo must've predicted as he yelled out to Y/N, “Defence spell!” 

“On it!” she says as the spell charges up and envelopes Bakugos character in a green force shield. Healing some minor damage taken as well, a nice bonus she learned a few days ago while training. 

With that everyone except Y/N runs out to take the enemies down at closer ranger. A full fledged group attack and an array of magic blending in the air, metal clashing against each other as well. She tries her best to heal her guildmates while hiding behind the rock, occasionally sending out spells to slow the other guilds movements down. 

Unfortunately she wasn't quick enough to cast a protective spell on Kirishima and Kaminari. Both of them disappearing with a poof as they were cut down by the enemies. Though they didn't die in vain as they took 2 down with them. Mina and Sero successfully took out their foes, winning their individual battles. 

2 PLAYERS REMAINING

Quickly her eyes roamed across the battlefield, the other enemy was currently fighting against Bakugo in a heated clash of swords. Sero and Mina were both low on HP but nonetheless started running towards him to help him out. The Bakusquad had the advantage of 2 extra players, this could be a clean sweep. However her confidence was short-lived as Y/N spotted someone in the air hovering above them. A wizard casting a spell as a large fireball started to form in the sky. This was no low level wizard, bad news. 

“Guys look out!” she says as she emerges from her spot and starts running towards them. Y/N is low on energy and she has no more berries to replenish her magic. Thinking about her options she makes a beeline to Bakugo, “Sorry you two just trust me on this!!!” 

She quickly clicks on her limited spell options, there's enough energy to cast one final spell. This might be a risky move but it's the best one in her opinion. Sero and Mina are both extremely low on HP while Bakugo has more. She quickly approaches Bakugo who got  knocked back by the other player. 

“Bakugo!” Y/N calls out as she runs behind him and holds onto his avatar with one arm while the other rests on his back.

“Oi! What are you doing?! I told you to not get in my way!” Bakugo yells out as the enemy he was fighting starts charging at the two. Y/N ignores him as she quickly puts a protective bubble around Bakugo, the attacker falling back as his sword hits the barrier. She focuses hard and gives any last bit of her energy to him knowing what's coming next, he'll need it. 

“You got this Bakugo! I believe in you!”

Before he could respond, the wizard from earlier shoots the fireball down onto the ground, with a large blast. As predicted Sero and Mina were eliminated by that large blast due to their previous low health. Y/N knew she didn't have enough magic left to protect more than one person, so she decided to put her trust in Bakugo. He was their guildmaster after all, and she knows that the others would have agreed with this decision instead. Her avatar in one swoop, dissolves into thin air from that explosion. 

The green shield she casted on him earlier dissolves immediately but leaves Bakugo unharmed from the attack. Without a second thought he rushed his previous opponent and cut him down. Easily making this a 1v1 with the wizard floating in the sky. 

He curses under his breath as he looks up at the wizard and then back at the spot where Y/N sacrificed herself. He ponders for a moment just frozen on the battlefield as the other guy starts zooming down on his broom.

“Now I'm pissed off” he mumbles to himself as he glares up at the last remaining enemy. 

It was an intense battle but he knew he needed to win. Bakugo doesn't take anything else but a perfect victory, and he refuses having to go to round 3. With this new motivation, he sends attack after attack towards the foe. Taking advantage of the energy Y/N gave to him before she was eliminated. Somehow, he managed to break the wizards broom with his moves, leaving the enemy completely defenseless. After losing his main way to escape, it was a solid victory for the blonde. 

Was anyone really shocked? 

After the victory was granted, the guild was teleported back into HQ. Everyone celebrated and cheered through their mics. But it seems like another person had a different thing in mind. Almost immediately, Bakugo walked straight to her once they respawned at base, not saying a single word to anyone else. 

“Don't pull that self sacrificing crap ever again ya got that?” he spats out as he approaches and stands in front of her. Kirishima quickly tries to deescalate the situation, “Hey man relax! Because of her we won-” 

“We would have won either way shitty hair so shut it” he huffs out pushing Kirishima's avatar out of the way. His avatar grabs her hand and pulls her to the side, away from everyone else. The others watch nervously and attempt to approach but Bakugos avatar turns back around causing them to stay. It was funny to see his chibi character look so scary, he might be the only person in the world that can do that. He looks back at her and sighs seemingly calmer than before. 

“Oi if you pull a stunt like that again i'll kill you myself. I don't enjoy watching my teammates die because of me ya hear me? I dont give a damn if it's just a game” he huffs out as he drops her arm. 

“Got it… sorry” she says shyly through the mic as she tries processing his words. A moment of silence passes between them until he speaks.

“....what's your name anyways?” he says with a softer tone almost as if he's aware of her nervousness. 

“Huh? It’s Star-” 

“Tch. No you idiot. I mean your real name.” 

“Oh…..” she can already feel her face grow hotter the more he speaks to her. Seriously, what's up with this? I guess she should tell him, she hasn't told the others yet either. She doesn't understand why she feels a bit self conscious now but she knows it's because of him, “...Y/N. It's Y/N.” 

“Y/N” he repeats back to her. Her name sounds oddly better whenever he says it. She likes it. She wants him to say it again. 

“Log onto the game at the same time tomorrow” he says as he takes off his expensive armor. 

“Huh? Why? Is there some sort of mission? 

“Because I said so. And don't tell the other extras. So you're gonna join or what?”

“Wait, why can't I tell anyone?” she says confused as she tilts her head. 

“Cause me and you are gonna train alone! You need to practice, don't need you to pull another stunt like you did today. So we're training tomorrow before the next battle” he groans at her slowness. 

“Just… me and you?” Y/N responds a little happier than normal, the idea makes her feel… special to just receive training from him. 

“Hah? Yeah didn't you just hear me! Now don't go blabbering to the other extras, it's a secret.” 

“Okay! I promise I'll join!” she quickly says with a smile. 

“Good. Now i'm logging off, wasted too much time today” he huffs and clicks some buttons about to disconnect. 

“Ah bye-” but before she could finish her sentence his character disappeared. 

Bakugo has disconnected. 

“That jerk! He totally left without saying bye!” Mina says as Y/N walks back over to the group. 

“Hey Star! What were you and Blasty talking about? We couldn't hear from all the way over here” Kaminari chimes in with a hint of curiosity. 

Y/N remembers her conversation with Bakugo and keeps her lips sealed, she was looking forward to tomorrow after all, “Um nothing! He was just telling me to not get in his way haha..” 

“Sheesh! Seriously, that guy is a hot head to the bone. Don't mind him Star, he was just embarrassed being saved by you of all people. Since you're new and all” Sero says while he snickers with Kirishima. 

“Well that should be it for today you guys! It's getting late, so we should log off. Good work today!” Kirishima says happily as they all say goodnight and eventually logging off. 

Y/N clicks the button on her computer, shutting it off as she stretches. She sighs and leans back in her chair. Smiling to herself about tonight. Maybe tomorrow she'll finally get to impress a certain blonde in the game.

(੭˃ᴗ˂)੭ time skip⋆｡𖦹 °✩

“That's 10 losses for you and none for me. You're worse at close combat then I thought” Bakugo huffs out as they have a break from training. Eating some berries to gain some of their energy back. Bakugo surprisingly has been using his mic lately which is something she's certainly not complaining about. They have been secretly training together for about a whole week now. Practicing together for hours each day. Yet she hasn't won to him once yet.

Way to go on impressing him y/n…. 

“I can't do it! I'm a mage, close attacks aren't my specialities” she says with a sigh at her failed attempts from earlier. 

“I've seen plenty of mages be good at close attacks. You just gotta try harder idiot” he says as he stands back up ready for another round of training. 

“I don’t know…” Y/N says not wanting to get up and add another inevitable loss to her name. She was embarrassed at him seeing her struggle so much, she just wants to crawl in a hole and never come out. 

“Y/N” he says through the mic in a rough yet soft tone. 

 ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ

Her heart quickens at the sound once again. It's been like this ever since that day he first said her name.

“Y-Yeah Bakugo?” 

“Stand up and fight. No one in my guild is weak, ya got that? Tch cmon dumbass” Bakugo scoffs out as he walks over and picks her character up like a sack of potatoes. He leads them both towards the training grounds again, “If you lose then you try again. If you win you keep training. There's always room for improvement, so get that into your skull. No one is perfect.” 

“Even you Bakugo?” she says with a smile at his kind words hidden under his blunt way of speaking. Over time she's gotten used to him by now and knows he means no harm.

“Eh i'm almost there though” he huffs as he speaks in a serious yet cocky tone.

Something about the way he said that compared to his earlier words was amusing to her. He was cocky of course, yet he knew that even he had limits. She couldn't help but to burst out in laughter through her mic. Her stomach felt heavy from the laughs escaping her mouth

“Hahhhhhh?! What's so funny?! You picking a fight?!” 

“Sorry sorry! It's just that you're cute” she says in between giggles while putting a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. She didn't even realize what she said at the time, that her inner thoughts slipped out for a split moment. 

Silence was on his end of the mic while she was busy laughing. She calms down eventually when his character completely froze mid walk.

“Hm? Bakugo?”

“What did you…. Erm, actually I'm logging off for today!”

“Huh?! Why?” 

“Because I'm tired, you idiot! Now log off and get some rest!” 

A split of a second later his avatar disappeared, her character falling on the ground, no longer being held up by him. She blinks a few times at her screen confused then logs off as a result. Guess Bakugo got tired of training I suppose. 

After that incident, she noticed that Bakugo hadn't logged into the game for a whole week. Y/N asked around yet the Bakusquad didn't know why either. Apparently he was just busy and didn't have the time to join. She felt a bit disappointed whenever she joined and he wasn't around. Her eyes always scanned the room in hopes of seeing him. 

Until one day she logged in and there he was alone, fixing and adjusting his gear. Quickly she waddles her avatar over, “Bakugo there you are!” she says with a bright smile clearly happy. She sees the way he pauses then turns to look at her, just staring at her for a moment before…

Bakugo : Yeah im here. 

Huh? Why is he not talking… 

“Why… are you not talking with your mic?” she decides to ask hesitantly, the smile slowly dropping from her face. 

Bakugo : Cause

Bakugo : Don't wanna. 

Y/N nervously fidgets with her fingers as she reads the chat. He always used his mic now whenever they were alone. Did she perhaps do something wrong? So he's back to how he used to be? She doesn't like that…. 

“U-Um…..” she speaks before she can think. Her eyes shut as she says her next words, forever thankful no one is around. 

“....I wanna hear your voice… please” 

Silence. 

After no response she says it again in case he didn't hear her. 

“I missed your voice” 

It's quiet for a moment and she's too scared to open her eyes and see in case he responded in chat. That came out weird didn't it? God she's embarrassed. Maybe she should just log out-

“You're an odd one ya know that?” 

His voice echoes through her ears causing her eyes to snap open. Her whole body felt incredibly hot to the touch. He actually turned on his mic for her? He sounds…. less hostile than normal too. Softer. 

“I'm not the nicest guy. Why would you want me to talk in the first place” he scoffs out loud but she can hear the hesitance in his words. Like he wants her to answer him. 

“Because… I like the sound of your voice and talking to you makes me happy!” she says a bit too eager to please him. She mentally facepalms at her cheesy words. 

“Y-You….” he stumbles over his words like he's caught off guard at her boldness. He huffs and continues, “C'mon your level is still too low! Have you not been training while I was gone?! We have to train more!” 

His avatar starts walking to the training grounds with purpose expecting her to follow. 

“Oh okay!” she says as the smile returns to her face, excited to spend more time with him. As they exit HQ and walk together towards the forest, he speaks once more almost as soft as a whisper. 

“....I like it too” 

“Hm? Like what?” 

“Your voice.” 

He speeds up his walking pace so he's far ahead of her, leaving her behind in a complete daze. Was he embarrassed? 

Her hands rise up from the keyboard and cover her warm face as she processes what just happened. But her smile only grew wider. If she only knew how red faced the blonde was behind his monitor. Maybe joining this guild wasn't so bad after all.

[coldgoldlazarus]

That plane post reminded me of a funny thought I had earlier. Raven Beak has a powersuit and arm cannon a lot like Samus's, and even shares a few abilities, but also utilizes a bunch that she has never historically had.

We also know from the manga that the powersuit she has for most of Zero Mission is a newer model custom-designed by the Chozo and Mother Brain. (before the latter's betrayal, anyway.) This one was unable to recognize and fully make use of certain upgrades, but presumably with the trade-off being a slimmer build (lacking the giant 'clunky' (iconic) shoulders and keeping a flatter chestplate, even with the Varia suit equipped) and access to newer upgrade designs that older suits might in turn have trouble interfacing with, such as Raven Beak's fancier abilities. Even the Chozo were not immune to the onward march of backwards compatibility limitations, it seems.

But then she passes the mural test and gets the fully-powered suit, an older design able to use the extra ancient upgrades the prior one could not, and despite design shifts across most of the games, I think it's safe to assume that that's the same base suit she's operating with from there onward. We know it has a certain level of regenerative capability, thus why it still looks pretty untouched after all the punishment it takes, but even then it still gets halfway-disassembled in Fusion, stripping away all the outer armor completely, and taking however long between then and Dread to recover a bit of its original form, while still being distinctly less armored than it used to be, a lot of the same organic bits from Fusion still exposed to open air.

So with all this in mind, there's a certain hilarity in the end of Dread. Raven Beak's sitting here in his hyperadvanced, up-to-date and top-of-the-line powersuit, the equivalent of an F-22 Raptor, thinking he's hot shit. And then Samus rocks up in her old suit, the equivalent of not just a dinky WWII prop plane, but a dinky WWII prop plane that's missing half the fuselage like it was left unattended too long in Detroit, and flies absolute circles around him. Sure, he nearly saves it towards the end of the fight until RAGE, but the fact that it is as much of a proper fight as it is becomes kinda funny (and also very badass on her part) from this perspective.

[ophernelia]

this community has an issue with the whole copying thing. cute, okay. we're beyond that point. i feel like a lot of those issues can be mitigated by simply giving people their flowers. yeah, we all use the same cc and stuff. it's public. but who introduced you to it? who put you on? who made you wanna step up your content? i'll go first! (there's so many people so i'll do a few and will absolutely do more if y'all want.)

i love madi. y'all already know. miss farfallasims has completely funded my entire cc folder. i have downloaded every single cc rec. adore her. adore her gameplay. lovely lovely lovely.

the people's princess, ashley, has made me step up the quality of my game ad my content. aashwarr is the it girl for high quality eveything. i don't know how she does it. it's magic. that hd, clean, clear, and crisp look is mwah chef's kiss. again, adore her. adore her content.

jake, my love, absolute visionary. made me wanna step up my content. especially with lykaia. simstwink is a true and genuine creative. i'm obsessed. the world building. the immersion!!

cid, the architect of my dreams! the builds!! omg. made me wanna put more effort into my builds and practice building more. cowboycid is my favorite cowboy and my favorite sim's architect.

also the architect and interior decorator of my dreams is miss jayel. bbygyal123 is my build icon. her aesthetic is to die for, i kid you not. made me wanna try harder with decorating, though i still suck at it lol.

now yall know it's not possible for me to even make this list and not mention twin. indie is literally one of my favorite people on this site lmao. crsentfairy eats downnnn with the sims. she literally made the love of my life (lloyd, duh. yall know that's my man.) i've been trying with cas, but all my sims suffer from same face syndrome.

as far as machinima making, i say this every time, but trapgoddessshawty is the main i gave making lykaia a shot. higher learning has had a chokehold on me since it came out. the storytelling, the world building. i try to be as meticulous with lykaia as i can because of tgs. machinima royalty.

the same can also be said for hart! i was in love with simlivncolor. it was hart that introduced me to tgs lol. this series had me so captivated. and i am so happy that hart is still working on it but fully made in blender and it's called gemini. she shows her progress in making it over on twitch. i try to catch her stream whenever i can. i would wait eons for this show. it was that good!

anyway, i don't think there's anything wrong with learning from your peers or being motivated by them. i do think we could all do a better job at giving each other their props. it's well deserved. this community has so many amazing creatives.

[poisonousquinzel]

what’re your thoughts on how Amy Chu writes Ivy?

I think Poison Ivy: A Cycle Of Life And Death is definitely one of the better Ivy comics out there, I really love it when she's able to actually put her smarts to use and well, making your own plant babies is certainly that skdjsksk

and it has this iconic moment<3

"I can't stand abusers."

cheers I'll drink to that bby!

And I appreciate that it's not one that ends up focusing on a dude (or Batman) and kinda side lining her for the sake of propping up a man / making her obsessed with a man and that's the story, ya know?

I think also Ivy's struggle with her kids and trying to protect them is understandable and I enjoy that Amy Chu allowed that to be a flaw throughout, it's not Ivy's strong suit and that's okay. She's been hurt a lot and being so fearful and protective over them, refusing to let them leave, is what she really thought they needed. I think also there's just the fact that while Ivy absolutely understands her daughters in terms of their connections with the green and whatnot, she was a human at some point. She grew up at a normal pace, she ages at a human rate. She matured at the rate most humans do, over a Long period of years. She has had time during her adult life after she got her powers to practice and get really good at controlling them.

So I get why it's hard for her to feel like the girls have had enough life experience and practice because really, for her, they Are 25 weeks old. They might age differently and stuff, but these are her babies and she only delivered them 25 weeks ago.

Really my only dislike about the writing in it is Harley tbh. I really don't like the way she's characterized in the first chapter. I do love a good Dr. Quinzel moment, but the second they're at the bar it just goes down hill with their conversation. Only part about that that I liked is obvi will always root for them beating tf outta creeps who won't stop harassing women. But she leaves at the end of that chapter and only has a phone appearance briefly at the end, so it's thankfully not So egregious that I just can't with the rest of the comic lol

[humbledragon669]

S1E4 – Saturday Morning Funtime Write Up P4 - Saturday (The last day of the World) from "You bad angels!

It’s no good, I’ve had to resort to making my own banners. I don’t think we see another one for a little while. And it just looks so much more inviting to start a post with a nice pretty picture, don’t you think? Cool, let’s see if we can’t finish up this episode.

This scene in the woods provides an interesting subtextual commentary about people being capable of becoming very rational and emotionally intelligent when faced with dangerous situations, whilst the instigators of those same dangerous situations being capable of regression to more childlike behaviours and attitudes. And we finish the scene with the first undeniable display of something that’s not of this world about Adam as he levitates off the ground, clearly terrifying Pepper:

Some questions about the upcoming scene:

Anathema’s research boards. I’m sure there’s a good reason that she has to have two walls full of scribbling, but why does she need two maps that are exactly the same?

Anathema knew when Newt was going to show up, almost to the minute. Why didn’t she know the same details about the timing for the arrival of the tornado? And even if she didn’t know the timing, I’m fairly sure they would have been able to hear the wind outside the house before opening the door.

Why, when they go back into the house, do they go straight from the front door to Anathema’s bedroom? I know she has knowledge of the events to come from Agnes, but the entry back into the house doesn’t seem particularly well thought through. It just seems like strange behaviour to do that when they could just as easily have gone into the kitchen from the front door.

Why has someone written “sherbet lemons” on the prophecy about the upcoming coupling of Anathema and Newt (which apparently is “opaque, even for Agnes”)? I know they were used as a linking device with the missing nuclear reactor, but this prophecy has nothing to do with that.

Why has the pin in Shadwell’s map been shoved exactly in the map icon for Jasmine Cottage?

I know Shadwell pushed it in to mark Tadfield, but how did he manage to single out the exact building where Newt would end up? Newt hadn’t meet Anathema before he left London, so there’s no way either of them could have know that’s where he was destined for. Side note: how beautiful is that zoom-out shot to get from underneath Anathema’s bed, out through the roof, transitioning into the map in Shadwell’s apartment? What an incredibly stunning and beautiful way to get the audience from one location to another without feeling disjointed.

What insult exactly is Shadwell trying to throw at Madame Tracy? The line in the Script Book backs up what’s on film, and reads “murrain plashed berrizene”. Apparently “murrain” is an epidemic in sheep and/or cattle, and to “plash” is to cause a splashing effect. The word “berrizene” appears to be made up. Even without knowing what the last of these three words is supposed to mean, the idea that Madame Tracy has been spattered with a bovine disease is pretty repugnant to say the least. I’d wager that she has no idea what any of those words mean, because even the most smitten (smited? smote?) of kittens couldn’t interpret that as a compliment, though it’s also possible she’s well aware that she’s the only person he throws offences that heinous at, revealing his true feelings for her.

Why is the bed spinning? If the shot through the springs is anything to go by, it would appear that it’s not just the bed but also the rug that it stands on, complete with Anathema and Pulsifer on it. And it’s not exactly spinning slowly. It’s a wonder they didn’t get physically sick from dizziness.

Absolute kudos to the prop guys here by the way: the map we see in Shadwell’s apartment is an OS map of Hambleden – the village used as the stand-in for Tadfield. The map appears to be an exact replica of the map for the area, but with an additional building inserted for Jasmine cottage.

I have to say I feel a little sorry for Adam in this next woods scene. He’s just a child, who has grown up with no knowledge of the power he wields or its consequences, and deep down he just wants to please the people in this life that he loves. He’s offering the rest of The Them what he thinks should make them happy – the opportunity to never have to do anything they don’t want to do. His fury is triggered by the frustration that his gestures aren’t being received in the way that they were intended. It must be very confusing for a young boy to be faced with all of that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not endorsing the removal of somebody’s mouth as a way to combat this tumult of emotions, just saying I feel that he’s as much a victim in this storyline as anyone.

Note for future reference: Aziraphale’s angel rank is disclosed to us in the book shop as being at the principality level. There is also a whole paragraph about his official title in the book. There are quite a lot of things to be said about his title and how it fits with the rest of the Heavenly organisational structure, so I’m going to look at it in a future post just about that. So, for now all I’ll say is Aziraphale = principality. Noted.

Another note for future reference: Aziraphale doesn’t recognise the voice or face (or indeed purpose) of the Metatron. This is something that comes up much later in season 2, and on a much wider and more obvious way, so I’m going to address that elephant in the room when I get to that point (and hey, it’ll help delay the inevitable write up of the Final 15, which I am already dreading, despite it being more than an entire season away from where I am now).

I also find it interesting that Aziraphale has to ask if he’s speaking to God. We know that he refers to God as a female entity, yet the voice that speaks sounds definitively male. You’d also think that Aziraphale would know the voice of God when he hears it. Ultimately, he’s clearly pretty uncomfortable that he’s not getting to speak to the only being that he thinks is able to fix the situation, but he realises he has little choice in the matter.

I absolutely love the strength of Aziraphale’s characterisation in this conversation with the Metatron. The fact that, whilst staring Armageddon in the face, the first concern he raises has to do with little scrap he had with some other angels, and despite the fact that he knows his time is short, his sense of righteousness in seeing those bullies are dealt with in an appropriate way still trumps his need to save the world. Well done, Angel, way to show how non-selfish you are. He makes up for it with his dogged determination that this has all just been a big mistake, his surety that this has all been caused by the loss of the Antichrist child and that Heaven can’t possibly really want the war that they are careening solidly towards. He’s so sure in fact that he completely misses the sarcasm in The Metatron’s “praise”.

It’s actually quite heartbreaking when the realisation that Heaven fully intends to have this war, regardless of any external circumstances, finally filters into Aziraphale’s brain. We can see from his reaction that he was genuinely convinced that Armageddon could just be called off if he could get the message through to the right being, the one his moral code dictates is the best being.

Watching the hope slide off of Aziraphale’s face really does feel pretty devastating. Perhaps not quite as devastating as the look of grief we see from him as he looks around his book shop.

What I find interesting about this part of the conversation is that the Metatron offers Aziraphale the opportunity to join their armies. There’s no compulsion, no threatening – there’s even a compromise that the gateway will be left open for him to use when he’s ready. Granted there is an assumption that Aziraphale will do nothing else but take his place amongst the Heavenly hoards, but the offer itself is of a very different tone to that we saw from the archangels on the street outside.

And here’s where all the pieces finally do all come together – we now have all of the timeline to be able to put them together. We’re back at step 6 of the timeline:

It’s almost a relief at this point to see that the first thing Aziraphale does after he’s left alone in the book shop is pick up the phone to call Crowley. It’s immediate too – no hesitations, doubts or second thoughts. And we get an extra line of dialogue from that telephone conversation that we didn’t hear before as a reward for finally solving the riddle of the timeline:

Remember what I said about him not knowing he was talking to an answerphone? Well in that case, it’s quite sweet hearing this line really – he’s settled right back into the comfortable patois of their usual conversations. No hurt, angry, or uncomfortable feelings about both of the break-ups they’ve been through in the 24 hours previous, just an absolute certainty that they can pick things up where they left off and work together as a team again. Because isn’t that what they’ve been doing for millennia? Regardless of whether you think they’re actually in a romantic relationship or not at this point, or how long that might have been going on if you do, you can’t deny that their working relationship has been in place since “the beginning”, even if it was only formalised less than a thousand years before.

 I need to take a moment to appreciate the soundtrack to this scene in the bookshop. It first caught my ear because I felt like there was an something about it that reminded me of the Witches of Eastwick soundtrack, with its heavy emphasis on the violin part (which might be a duet, rather than a solo instrument with double stopping), which in and of itself would be a lovely little reference to have, now that our Witchfinder Sargeant is about to perform an “exorcism”. There are some cute little parallels in that idea – after all, Daryl van Horne being dismissed by women who had previously welcomed him into their lives using the very thing that frightens them about him isn’t so dissimilar to what’s about to happen. I got a bit distracted from this idea when I listened to the piece of music in isolation on the soundtrack. After “End Titles”, I think it immediately took second place for my favourite piece on this soundtrack. The treatment of the melody from the main theme in the violin is inspired and it builds, not exactly from quiet beginnings, but from a place of tension that grows and grows as it becomes more epic when the choir comes in, and that tension is really polished off when the guitar re-enforces the driving bass line towards the end of the piece. The use of a harpsichord to provide the answering phrases to the violin(s) provides a connection to a lot of the other orchestration settings we’ve already heard throughout the season, and the arrangement makes use of percussion and some techniques with string instruments to really set the scene (I think the odd “whiny” noise might be glissando strings played with the wooden part of the bow, rather than the horse hair). Honestly, outstanding work (in my opinion anyway).

Right, a quick note to move me away from that music, because I feel like I could talk about it all day. I find it interesting that Shadwell refers to Aziraphale as “foul fiend” here. It’s the same phrase Aziraphale used to refer to Crowley way back in episode 1 when they entered the book shop. We’re coming back around to the idea from Anathema that the meaning of words and the judgements that are made with them being entirely dependent on one’s own preconceptions and contextual setting. Aziraphale is too surprised by Shadwell’s appearance to notice that particular slur, but he’s very quick to point out that he doesn’t have anything to do with getting women to do anything for him.

I love this little scene between Aziraphale and Shadwell, I feel like there are so many things to appreciate about it, not least the angel’s initial response to being told he’s about to be exorcised:

Yes, fine, but please, keep away from the circle.

There’s Shadwell’s incredibly ironic choice of book, in a building full of tomes, to serve as an exorcism tool (I mean really, a Witchfinder using a book written by the last true witch in England to exorcise a demon from somebody, it’s too ridiculous). There’s Aziraphale processing that somebody has accused him of being a demon and realising how ridiculous that really is. There’s the use of one the angel’s most hated words, by him himself, to try and get his message across. There’s Shadwell telling Aziraphale to go to whence he came from (which he’s about to do, albeit rather unwillingly). There’s the little noise of a firework exploding as Aziraphale is discorporated. There’s the confirmation that there is a compass in the middle of the shop, with the portal to Heaven lying at its centre. There’s Shadwell’s pitiful and confused “Hello?” to an empty space after he’s just witnessed the only being that was inhabiting it burst in white sparks. And there’s the music. Did I mention the music? Oh, and there’s this, which I feel needs no explanation or subtitling:

Largely though I just spend most of this exchange wondering why Aziraphale doesn’t just give Shadwell a hearty shove backwards – that really would have avoided a whole lot of trouble.

As a final side note for this episode, it’s nice to see that the first thing to catch fire is the programme for the musical that we know Aziraphale has little regard for, even if it’s his boss’s favourite.

And there we have it. High drama to lead us into the penultimate episode of the season. As always, questions, comments, discussion, always welcome! See you next time 😊

[heartfulselkie]

you know what i’m here for 😭😩 ⛲️🚗

[Ask Game]

Oh, yes! Your favourite scene 😌💖

The fountain’s base was nowhere near deep enough for the water to be of any real threat. But there was enough water for it to come as a shock. So much so that Adrien’s response was delayed. For a beat he lay in the water, before slowly sitting up to figure out what had just happened.  His clothes were soaked and his dripping hair clung around his face. When he turned to where the other kids had been, he saw that all of them were running clear of the area. Evidently none of them wanted to be caught up in the situation and potentially blamed for what had happened. It was understandable, as the next thing Adrien knew he was being hauled out of the water by his arm. “What are you doing?” Gabriel hissed as he harshly pulled Adrien from the shallow water. Adrien stumbled onto his feet. His sodden clothes started to drip onto the gravel beneath him. “I-I was…” he stammered out, but it was all he could manage. Nathalie quickly appeared behind Gabriel, looking markedly concerned. “Is he okay?” For a moment Gabriel said nothing. He only stared down at Adrien, his eyes fierce and a disdainful curl on his lips. Then he started to drag Adrien along by the arm. “He’s fine,” Gabriel clipped. “Give us a moment, Nathalie.” With his arm locked into his father’s iron grip, Adrien had no choice but to follow. He was pulled to the edge of the park and through a gate that led to a side road. “An embarrassment,” Gabriel muttered under his breath as he dragged Adrien along the footpath. “After all that, you just had to embarrass me.” “I-I’m sorry,” Adrien whimpered. “It was an accident.” Gabriel came to an abrupt stop then. With a rough movement, he let go of Adrien’s arm and turned away to where a car was parked. Adrien recognised the black sedan easily as the one they’d arrived in. His heart sank at the thought that he was now being taken home, but there was also a small relief. His soaked clothing felt absolutely freezing on him now. It left him shivering uncontrollably despite the afternoon’s warm sun. Adrien stood where his father had left him on the pavement. He watched, trembling on the spot as Gabriel unlocked the car. But instead of going for the back seat as expected, he walked to the rear of the vehicle and opened the trunk. Gabriel’s glare then turned on Adrien. “Get in,” he commanded. Adrien could only look at his father in alarm. “B-But that’s-!” “Get,” Gabriel spat as he grabbed Adrien and dragged him towards the car, “in.”

Citrus and Lavender, Ch. 35

I really had no idea how iconic this scene would become (for you and @wackus-bonkus-maximus anyway 😂)

This scene takes place as a sort of flashback-dream sequence. It follows Adrien and Gabriel's relationship reaching a critically dire point for Adrien, so in his unconscious state a lot of old memories are resurfacing.

Gabriel was a bad parent and awful person long before the events of this fic. It's unfortunately something Adrien has grown up with and therefore had to adapt to. Adrien assumes the blame - even for things that were not in any way his fault! - because that's a behaviour his parents encouraged in him. Gabriel is just more upfront and physical about it in his actions.

These scenes are also starting to layer more hints at how brittle and detached their father-son relationship is. It's incredibly one-sided. Adrien loves and looks up to his father - even if he finds the man terrifying - because Adrien loves his parents. Meanwhile Gabriel sees Adrien as a prop or tool at best, while at worst he views his son as a nuisance and a parasite.

It's a little canon divergent, since we do know that Gabriel does at least care about Adrien to certain extent in the show. He just cares about Emilie more.

In this fic, that difference is even wider. In C&L, Emilie is Gabriel's whole world and reason of being. He doesn't want to share her with anyone, even "their child".

Sadly, its because of this that there is nothing Adrien can do to really build a somewhat normal relationship with his father. Any 'misbehaviour' that Adrien does, accidental or not, is something that Gabriel will always view as a personal attack. Really, since he could never stop Emilie from doting on Adrien according to her whims, Gabriel doesn't stop himself from punishing Adrien on a whim either. And since Gabriel doesn't want to share a space with the other person vying for Emilie's affection, he tends to favour punishments that force Adrien out of sight.

[mythoughtsxxblog]

Since the Drama Queens Podcast failed to discuss how iconic Naley was in the season 6 finale, I'll do it myself...

All props to Bethany Joy Lenz and James Lafferty for creating the most iconic moment of One Tree Hill. The "You're in the NBA?"I'm in the NBA" scene gets me every time. Absolutely beautiful. Nathan tearing up, and Haley being overcome with so much emotion and love for her husband, who had finally achieved his dream. Perfection. They both played it so well, and I love watching Nathan's journey. He has quite literally the best story arc of the entire show. It's actually ridiculous how much DQ has failed to acknowledge Nathan's journey and Naley being couple goals the entirety of season 6. And here's to them carrying the rest of the series on their back.

[nicejewishcharactershowdown]

Nice Jewish Character Showdown 2023 - Round Two Eliminations

Another round has passed, one I'd liken to a bloodbath, and we're down to 8 competitors in the race for the NJCS 2023 title. Before the quarterfinal votes go live, let's check in with those disqualified contestants and discuss what makes them such Nice Jewish Characters.

Match One Elimination: Cristina Yang, Grey's Anatomy Probably the most well-known Asian Jew in television, Cristina Yang is canonically Jewish, thanks to her step-father who raised her in it (her mother converted). Grey's has a weird relationship with Judaism, like a lot of medical dramas, but it definitely gets points for the rare and definitely appreciated look at how diverse the Jewish population is.

Match Two Elimination: Tevye, Fiddler on the Roof It's the quintessential Jewish musical, it's one of the main reasons we've seen a shtetl-core resurgence, it's Fiddler! It was definitely the match-up of the dads this time around, and as much as I love this man, his success rate in reference to loving and supporting his daughters is, well... not a perfect score. Thank you Sholem Aleichem for the original stories, thank you Chaim Topol for your iconic portrayal in the movie, alongside Zero Mostel, Leonard Nimoy (yes, Nimoy played Tevye for a bit!), Alfred Molina, Harvey Fierstein, Danny Burstein, and many, many more. Nothing truly hits like being a Jew in the diaspora and watching Fiddler. Still bummed I haven't had a chance to see Yiddler, the Yiddish remount. (Oh, and Fiddler tends to be free on Youtube, so if you haven't seen it before -- or want to revisit Anatevka, treat yourself!)

Match Three Elimination: Rebecca Bunch, Crazy Ex Girlfriend *hits top of a car* this baby can fit so many song titles from CEXG in it When looking for representation, it can often feel like no one else is singing your song. Sure, there are the characters whose Judaism is restricted to reminding you that we've suffered, or who become props for some Christmas Special. But then we get a gem in the rough, a girl in love, a Jewish American Princess who moves across the country to follow a former summer camp crush. Crazy Ex Girlfriend was a rarity, and the four season run blessed us with a lot of quality television, and something even rarer -- a multidimensional Jewish lead. If you haven't had a chance to meet Rebecca, the entire show is available to stream on Netflix. And yes, when I realized how much she was losing this round, this song was on loop in my brain. Apologies to Rachel Bloom and the rest of the CEXG team, I seriously thought you'd sweep this thing. What a twisted fate.

Match Four Elimination: Lily Moscovitz, The Princess Diaries Oh, Lily, I think the internet misunderstands you more often than not these days. But to ignore your Jewishness is an absolute faux pas, whether you're looking at the movies or the much more blatantly Jewish representation you get in the books. Seriously though, I can think of at least a handful of Jewish girls I grew up with who remind me of the headstrong public access host. Side note -- to all the girlies who grew up hating their curly hair because of the nightmare of a makeover Mia got, I'm right there with you, and we'll get through this together. Honestly, I think there's something to be said about Jew-coding's relationship with makeover scenes, but we don't have the time for that right now.

Match Five Elimination: Francine Frensky, Arthur I've mentioned before how I grew up on public access television, so is it any surprise when I say that Francine was (probably) the first time I saw myself on television? Even if it didn't come up a lot outside of holiday episodes (at least in the seasons that aired when I watched), Francine's Judaism felt recognizable. Plus, if you told her she was just token representation, she'd probably sock you in the face. Oh, and something I found while researching -- THE GOLEM IS A PLOT POINT IN A HALLOWEEN EPISODE?! Seriously, props to PBS.

Match Six Elimination: Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller's Day Off Finding good representation in any 80's movie is going to be an uphill battle, considering well. The 80's-ness of it all. So when looking for a good Jewish character, it's much easier to default back to the transitive property of Jewish media (art made by Jews being Jewish by way of their perspective being translated into the text). Since Matthew Broderick, Ferris himself, is Jewish, who's to say the most beloved delinquent of his era isn't too? Plus, he's a stock standard rebel against restrictive institutions. Listen, I have the original Footloose on my coded Jewish representation Letterboxd list, I have no room to judge. *Points to Ferris* That's a NJB right there.

Match Seven Elimination: Truman Burbank, The Truman Show Speaking of my coded Jewish representation Letterboxd list, this movie SCREAMS Judaism to me. Come on -- it's so critical of Christianity that it almost falls backwards into Judaism. Free will in spite of a higher power? Disagreeing with authority so much that you flee your home, your world, your reality? Helps that his hometown is so heavily designed after post-war 50's suburbia, which has its own relationship with being Jewish. So is Truman Jewish? I think he can be -- watch the movie and make the call for yourself. It's a classic for a reason, and I won't rob you of the experience.

Match Eight Elimination: Wall-E, Wall-E Wall-E, my robot blorbo, the most Guy of any Pixar protagonist -- what makes him Jewish? He loves Barbra Streisand, collects tcotchkes, and is relentlessly working to make the world better, even if he's the only one still doing it (tikkun olam has NEVER seen a cuter mascot).

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 30: The First Toss

The problem with Mat chapters is going to be that almost all the fan art is very much about how his endgame wardrobe and not at all about his book 3 stuff. I try not to have spoilers for the end of the series in the part before the "Keep Reading", so I am forced to use increasingly dubious images. That's your spoiler warning.

This chapter has the dice icon because it's a Mat chapter and because boy howdy is he going to gamble. Or at least play dice. It might not be gambling when you can't lose.

She put her hands on his head and sent cold chills through him. It was the One Power, he decided, not simply being touched by an Aes Sedai.

Well he's probably right but also it's probably that the Aes Sedai have shitty, emergency weaves at this point whereas in the AoL if they didn't just pull out a tricorder ter'angreal they probably still could do it without you feeling a thing.

As she turned from him, her eyes fell on the quarterstaff he had brought from the practice yard, propped in the corner of the room. “You do not need to protect yourself from us, Mat. You are as safe here as you could be anywhere. Almost certainly safer.”

Anaiya is a pretty good judge of Mat's character (as Mat himself acknowledges obliquely in the narration) for not thinking that the quarterstaff is a mere trophy of beating the shit out of the princes.

If you can’t hide what you are going to do, do it so everybody thinks you are a fool. Then they stand around waiting to see you fall on your face.

And Mat wonders why everyone thinks he's a fool.

With as light a heart as he could remember having in years, or so it seemed, he began to hum “We’re Over the Border Again,” heading toward the harbor where vessels would be sailing down to Tear and all the villages along the Erinin between. He would not be going so far as that, of course.

Wrong!

He had always won more than he lost, as far as he could remember, and there had been times with Hurin, and in Shienar, when six or eight tosses in a row won for him. Tonight, every toss won. Every toss.

Mat didn't need to absolutely dominate the field in previous games of chance, so he was just naturally lucky as some people probably are. Now though, fate's on a schedule so every lucky break that comes Mat's way is about getting him to Tear.

Somewhere during the night, the dark sailor—Raab, he had said his name was—staggered away, exhausted but with a full purse; he had decided to put his wagers on Mat.

Raab never shows up again, but I assume he's got a bright future ahead of him thanks to the winnings. Mat's ta'veren nature pulls people about in his own fashion.

Mat was scarcely aware of moving before he had the bulky man by the collar, hauling him to his feet, slamming him back against the wall. “Don’t you say that!” he snarled. “Don’t you ever say that!”

Mat's supposed to be free of the dagger, but since this is quite a strange outburst at an expression I'm pretty sure we've seen him acknowledge before, I think there's still some after effects.

He remembered playing at dice back home with a sharp-eyed, skinny man who worked for a merchant come down from Baerlon to buy tabac. He remembered the strapping his father had given him, too, on learning Mat owed the man a silver mark and four pence.

I'm not entirely sure how much money is worth in this series but I suspect that this is a value that Mr. Cauthon *can* pay readily enough but will really feel all year.

Maybe it was something the Aes Sedai did. Something they did Healing me. By accident, maybe. That could be it. Better that the other. Those bloody Aes Sedai must have done it to me.

I don't think Mat really believes this for a second, considering how against Healing he's going to be for the rest of the series.

“Way past time. Or one of them will come pick me up with her fingers and stick me in her pouch.”

I expect that all the Aes Sedai except the most bookish or pillowish are long asleep at this point Mat.

In an instant he ducked into the shadowy corner where one building stuck out further than the next.

Mat observes he's lucky to avoid these thieves, but it's several lucky breaks when you think about it: the friendly architecture here, the guy who scared him earlier getting him on his guard, the "strange things" moving around at night (what might those be?)

Three more times he climbed, each time gaining one story. The slightly sloping, tiled roofs ran some distance at that level, and there was a breeze at that height, prickling the hair on the back of his neck with its chill and almost making him think he was being followed.

The wind is *trying* to warn Mat, but he doesn't listen. This is probably why he gets the dice in head later.

Mat grabbed at the hand as the knife darted toward his throat. He barely caught the fellow’s wrist with his fingers, and then the quarterstaff between them tangled itself in his legs, tripping him to fall back against the railing, to fall half over it pulling the other man on top of him.

Note how what seems to be bad luck is exactly the thing that sets Mat up for the lucky kill.

He expected the other man to be dead—not many could survive a thirty-foot fall to cobblestones with another’s weight on top of him—but what he had not expected was to see the fellow’s dagger driven to the hilt into his own heart. Such an ordinary-looking man to have tried to kill him. Mat did not think he would even have noticed him in a crowded room.

Lanfear must have been super extra pissed that he tried to talk to her, huh?

He realized he was standing over a dead man with a dagger in his chest, just waiting for someone to come along and run shouting for city guards with the Flame of Tar Valon on their chests.

Again we see a ta'veren pushed into a position where he has to act the way the Pattern wants him to because literally every other avenue is closed off. Mat needs a safe haven so he has to stop at the conveniently nearby inn.

Next time: Thom Merillin returns in yet another coincidental encounter!

[beevean]

Really enjoy reading your analyses of Netflixvania. Makes me feel like I'm not crazy for disliking the series, since it seems most people really like it. I'm not a huge Castlevania fan (I wasn't even aware of any Castlevania manga until I read your posts), but the fight with Dracula at the end of season 2 just felt really off to me. Like every single character came out of it ten times worse than when they started. So I'm curious, what do you think of how Dracula was defeated?

I'm glad you liked it! <3 And I completely understand. The show gets praised to high heavens from everyone, and while I can dismiss the occasional "god i want to smother myself in alucard's tiddies" post, the long articles gushing about the stellar animation and carefully woven characters leave me more at loss... And like I said, it's not even a matter of being a fan of the games, the writing itself is seriously flawed.

Anyway, the Dracula sequence has me conflicted.

Pros:

Dracula is appropriately shown to be an absolute beast in combat. Three against one can barely scratch the guy. And Godbrand says in an earlier episode that Dracula hasn't been feeding regularly, meaning he's also in a weakened state. It is, in theory, viscerally satisfying to see.

The animation finally reaches the standards that the general praise attributes to it. That is to say, it's really fucking cool. I appreciated the focus given to his giant Hellfire attack, since it's his most iconic one (although I don't think it should be touched with anything, but eh)

The "my boy" sequence is the most heartwrenching scene in the show, both because it's simply well written, because I like the poetry that a monster like Dracula can only be put down by his own human emotions, and because Graham McTavish's back must have hurt so bad, carrying the show like that. Seriously, he's leagues above every other voice actor.

Cons:

Dracula being an absolute beast only makes me angrier in retrospect because the rest of S2 painted him as a Depressed Old Man™ slumping in his chair and being too Tired to properly supervise the war he started. "Carmilla has made her move" no shit you absolute dumbass, you and your lackey Isaac allowed her to do so! You were aware that she was dangerous and you didn't care!! Where were you all this time!!!

(and don't give me "well drac doesn't lift his own ass until the very last possible moment in the games either, it's lore accurate". that is a sign of arrogance and power. like drac doesn't need to lift a finger to stop intruders in their tracks, his legions of hell can do all the work. only if you actually, physically reach him, then he starts to fight. In the show he was so apathetic, that I almost lowkey agree with Carmilla's frustrations... and that's the point. It was artificial conflict for the sake of propping this OC.)

Dracula no-selling every attack paints the heroes as weak. Especially Trevor, who after making such a scene of the Morning Star in a previous episode can only piss him off with it.

Trevor punching Dracula, and him recognizing him as a Belmont because of that. The sheer lack of respect towards Trevor as a character and the source material cannot be contained :^)

(and this is minor, but I don't like how Sypha is the one getting scarred by the encounter. Alucard also got scarred by his father way back at the beginning, as he loves to flaunt. Meaning, Trevor is the only one who wasn't impacted by him, which boggles my mind - the scars that game Trevor has on his face and chest aren't there for show! They mark him as the Legendary Belmont who first survived against the Dark Lord! Why do y'all hate this guy so much?)

Alucard steals the entire glory. In a vacuum, it makes sense because they have the closest, most interesting relationship. Lore wise, this should have been Trevor's moment and once again he gets deprived of it. The Belmonts just don't have a legacy in the show.

Overall, For Love is a very well written emotional payoff to a huge waste of time. I don't care that Alucard is setting to kill his father because we barely know how he feels about that. I don't care that Trevor is finally about to fulfill his own legacy because the show kept spitting on it. Sypha is just there to be OP I guess. Their entire "arc" in S2 was them getting cooped up in the Belmont Hold, and Alucard and Sypha having fun being the biggest dicks to Trevor. They didn't even train! The most they did was to conveniently find that the castle uses an engine to move.

dracula doesn't even turn into anything :< where's my giant goat/bat monster form :<

... so I have more negatives than positives lmao. I agree with your general assertion that everyone looks worse than they should. However, there are genuine aspects to praise. I guess the scene is beautiful if you're a fan of Dracula and Alucard, and really disappointing if you're a fan of Trevor :P

[pandaimitator]

Oh I found my Hazel at last!

Tallulah Bankhead, Hollywood/Broadway/West End wild woman!

An axpick of her insane life:

She was put in Catholic boarding schools for being completely unmanagable, and expelled for seducing nuns at 15 years old.

She then ran off and joined the theater at Broadway and her father warned her to stay away from alcohol and men, but he never warned her "to stay away from cocaine and women"

She called herself ambisextruous

She caught such a bad case of the clap that she needed an emergency hysterectomy, and leaving the hospital after weeks of recovery she quipped "don't think this has taught me a lesson"

She frequently got naked just for funzies, and at Hollywood parties she would drape herself in grapes and greet the guests, or do cartwheels wearing no underwear

So was super engagerad in the civil rights movement, kept mixed company and fought for equal rights for everyone

When staff complained to Hitchcock about her not wearing underwear on set he retorted "I'm not sure whether this is a issue for costume, makeup, hair dressing or prop."

Upon running into Douglas Fairbanks and Joan Crawford on their honeymoon she said that she'd already had an affair with him, and that Joan was next.

She couldn't remember anyone's name so she just called everyone darling.

And finally, words to live by: "Nobody can be exactly me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it." And "if I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."

Now: a little side by side comparison with Errol Flynn, contemporary male Hollywood superstar:

-Both were deemed unhinged and put in boarding school and subsequently expelled, she for seducing nuns, he for stealing

-Both absconded, she to join the theater, he to join colonial forces and become a self-confessed slave trading murderer.

-Both worked the stage in England

-Both had insane charisma and attracted absolutely everyone (can't imagine they didn't sleep with each other)

-Both were severely ravaged by stds.

-She would use wit, humour and occasional surprise nudity to seduce anyone and everyone; he would blame women for assaulting him when commiting adultry, and rape unconscious teenagers

-She was put at the very top of Hay's (of Hay's code infamy) blacklisting doombook, and was held back from important roles (such as Scarlet O'Hara which she would have been perfect for), where he had a hoard of Hollywood lawyers twisting the words of the teenagers he had assaulted making him come out a viral sex god after each trial.

-Both drank, slept, and drugged themselves to an early grave.

-Both wrote scandalous tell-all autobiographies, but she has the guts to publish hers before she died.

All in all the difference would be toxic masculinity: where the woman was held back for her unhinged charm and wit, and the man was celebrated despite his never ending tendency to cause severe harm. She was an icon; he was an asshat.

Phew, this was a ride.